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Time crystals could be used to build accurate quantum clocks
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Gravitational wave signal proves Einstein was right about relativity
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Newborn marsupials seen crawling to mother's pouch for the first time
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Is this carved rock an ancient Roman board game?
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Old EV batteries could meet most of China's energy storage needs
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CAR T-cell therapy may slow neurodegenerative conditions like ALS
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Backwards heat shows laws of thermodynamics may need a quantum update
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Royal Navy returns to wind power with trial of robotic sailboats
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The surprising origins of Britain's Bronze Age immigrants revealed
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Ancient Peruvian civilisation grew mighty by harvesting guano
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Weird inside-out planet system may have formed one world at a time
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These 5 diets could add years to your life even if you have bad genes
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Intermittent fasting probably doesn’t help with weight loss
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Accidental discovery hints at mystery structures within our brain
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Huge hot blobs inside Earth may have made its magnetic field wonky
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Psychedelic reduces depression symptoms after just one dose
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Humans are the only primates with a chin – now we finally know why
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NASA blasts heat shield to prepare for atmospheric re-entry
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![Janette Kerr PPRWA Hon. RSA, Twenty Solargraphs from the Solargraphic Project 2020-24 Formless 2024-25 (exposure time 18 months) Solargraph on paper Kerr collaborated with communities in Iceland, Greenland, Shetland and Somerset, to record the slow passage of time in different landscapes. The solargraphic process is a form of long-exposure photography. Kerr captures the arc of the Sun, as it moves across the sky from dawn to dusk, on photographic paper sealed in DIY pinhole cameras made from drinks cans. Her approach combines science and art, chemistry and the digital processing of the final image. Slow Time. The Sun rises and falls each day, its gradual trek discreetly recorded by small tin cans whose uninterrupted gaze captures every photon of sunlight travelling across the sky. Solargraphy (from the Latin solar, of the sun, and graphia, writing) is a form of long-exposure photography that captures the Sun moving across the sky. It combines science and art, chemistry and [today] digital elements. Being able to capture an extended period of time in a single frame, far beyond the capacity of the human eye, is incredible enough, but even more amazing is how simple it is. A low-tech process, solargraphy typically uses pinhole cameras made from used drinks cans. Sheets of black-and-white photographic paper can be sealed inside the cans, and then the cameras are fixed outdoors, facing south [in the Northern Hemisphere]. We usually think of photography as an instant process, images captured digitally in a fraction of a second. Solargraphs by Kerr have been recorded over a period of 1?18 months, mapping landscape in slow time. Light waves are captured as they travel through the air, passing through a pinhole in the side of the can and slowly etching an image on photographic paper curved around the inside. The resulting images are shaped by landscape and the Sun?s daily elevation. Actions of the environment ? rain and other elemental detritus, or the can?s unexpected movement ? also leave traces on the final pictures, yet moving objects leave no trace. Solargraphy is a ?printing-out? process: this is where an image forms on photographic paper solely through the action of light, without using chemicals to develop the image. Light provides the energy required for silver halides (salts) in the photographic paper to change to a visible state. When silver halides are exposed to light, free metallic silver atoms are ?liberated?, forming a latent image. Over a prolonged exposure of several months the silver halide particles clump together, increasing in size. The photographic paper slowly becomes coloured, transitioning from yellow to sepia and then pink, even slate grey. (In traditional photography, the latent image would be chemically developed in a darkroom.) For contemporary solargraphy, the image captured on the paper can be scanned and manipulated, using a photo-editing program on a laptop, to form a digital record. A solargraphic project was initiated by Kerr during various residencies, and in collaboration with communities in Iceland, Greenland, Shetland and Somerset. The final images that she produces show the Sun?s progress as an accumulation of arcing and streaking lines, leaving ghostly exposures of landscape seen in slow time, out of phase with human activity. w3w: ///reporters.survived.formless (Coleford, Somerset) 2024?5 Solargraph on paper (exposure time: 18 months) 21 x 30cm COURTESY OF THE ARTIST](https://images.newscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/13121542/SEI_284359025.jpg)
