Chemists from the National University of Singapore (NUS) have developed a sustainable method to electrosynthesize 1,3-butadiene, a feedstock used for synthetic rubber production, from acetylene.

Distant, ancient galaxies are giving scientists more hints that a mysterious force called dark energy may not be what they thought.

RESEARCH carried out by the University of Cambridge has revealed that Irish people are among the best at detecting people using fake accents. People from Dublin and Belfast, as well as from Glasgow and the north-east of England, are better at detecting someone imitating their accent than people from London, Essex and Bristol, reports the university. The study argues that greater social cohesion in Belfast, Dublin, Glasgow and the north-east may have resulted in a more prominent fear of cultural dilution by outsiders, thereby encouraging the development of improved accent recognition and mimicry detection. "Cultural, political, or even violent conflict are likely to encourage people to strengthen their accents as they try to maintain social cohesion through cultural homogeneity," said author Dr Jonathan R. Goodman from Cambridge's Leverhulme Centre for Human Evolutionary Studies. "Even relatively mild tension, for example the intrusion of tourists in the summer, could have this effect." Accents for social identity…