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The sudden sinking of a superyacht - which had British tech tycoon Mike Lynch onboard - has sparked warnings from experts about ‘violent' weather and the potential of waterspouts.
Reports suggest Monday’s tragedy off Sicily may have occurred after the £30 million vessel, the Bayesian, was struck by a waterspout - which is a type of tornado that forms over the sea or ocean.
Professor Liz Bentley, Chief Executive at the Royal Meteorological Society, tells Tech & Science Daily what we know so far about the conditions in the area at the time of the incident.
Experts have been warning tourists in and around the area where the superyacht sank, that more extreme weather could be on the horizon too.
The search for the six people still missing from the Bayesian is now in its third day.
The Evening Standard’s gaming writer, Vicky Jessop, reveals all the big announcements from Gamescom 2024 as the world’s largest in-person gaming convention gets underway in Germany.
Last night, ahead of the official start of the convention, Gamescom Opening Night Live 2024 gave us a whole host of announcements and teasers for fans.
There was also an exciting tease for Call of Duty fans counting down the days to the release of Black Ops 6.
And the rest
Drone blood deliveries could be a possibility thanks to new study, nature and sports campaigners will take to streets over water pollution, and why humpback whales are more intelligent than previously thought.
You can listen to the episode in the player above, find us on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Here’s a fully automated transcript of today’s episode:
Hi, I'm Rochelle Travers, and this is The Standard’s Tech and Science Daily podcast.
Coming up, Gamescom 2024 officially gets underway.
Now, let's get into it.
If you're new here, make sure to hit follow.
The sudden sinking of a super yacht, which had British tech tycoon Mike Lynch on board, has sparked warnings from experts about violent weather.
Reports suggest Monday's tragedy off Sicily may have occurred after the 30 million-pound vessel, the Bayesian, was struck by a waterspout, which is a type of tornado that forms over the sea or ocean.
So, it's been very unsettled, lots of convective storms, so big thunderstorms developing during the day and overnight across this region, and there have been some reports in those storms of potential waterspouts as well.
That's Professor Liz Bentley, Chief Executive at the Royal Meteorological Society.
She's been telling Tech and Science Daily what we know so far about the conditions in the area at the time of the incident.
There have been reports of a potential waterspout.
Now, remember this happened overnight.
It was dark, there was quite poor visibility anywhere because of the convective storm and the heavy rain that was happening at the time anyway.
But it has all the signals of potentially being a very disruptive waterspout that developed over the sea and obviously came in towards the marina area to cause the damage that it did.
Professor Bentley says in order to get a waterspout or tornado, there are three important ingredients.
The first is warm, moist air.
So, at this time of year, particularly in the Mediterranean, we have lots of warmth, we have lots of heat around, we have moisture obviously from the Mediterranean Sea itself.
So, the first ingredient is there.
The second is you need an unstable atmosphere and to get an unstable atmosphere, you need a lot of warmth at the lower level, so ground level, and then cooler conditions aloft.
And that's very much the situation that we've got in the Mediterranean at the moment, which is why we're getting these big convective storms developing.
But the third and probably the most important ingredient is wind shear.
So, you need a difference in wind speed to kind of get that circulation going, that whip up in the vortex developing.
Experts have been warning tourists in and around the area where the super yacht sank that more extreme weather could be on the horizon too.
There have been reports of lots of other convective storms across the Mediterranean.
That's not uncommon for this time of year.
There have also been reports of other waterspouts forming.
I have seen some pictures on social media in recent days of other waterspouts closer to Greece, for example, that have formed.
So, we're likely to see more of that over the coming days.
The search for the six people still missing from the Bayesian is now in its third day.
Now, Gamescom 2024 is officially underway.
The annual event held in Cologne, Germany is running this year from the 21st to the 25th of August.
Gamescom is a gaming convention.
Now that E3, which was previously the biggest gaming convention in the world, has sadly gone, it is the biggest.
I think this year it's about 320,000 people are expected to go.
That's Vicky Jessop, gaming writer for The Evening Standard.
It's attended by people from all over the gaming space, developers, fans, investors, including studios, of course.
Although, interestingly, this year, neither Sony nor Nintendo are taking part, which basically gives Xbox Carp Blanche to show off their raft of upcoming games.
Interestingly, Vicky says that our rumours that Nintendo didn't attend because they're preparing for the release of the Switch 2, and are reluctant to share any additional information.
Last night, ahead of the official start of the convention, Gamescom opening NightLive 2024 gave us a whole host of announcements and teases for fans.
So, we got our first look at Borderlands 4, we got a fancy remaster for Goat Simulator, which kind of took the gaming world by storm in 2014.
We got a new look at the upcoming Sniper Elite Resistance game.
Excitingly for fans, there's also been a release date reveal for the Indiana Jones game that's coming up December 9th.
And there was some excitement for all you Call of Duty fans counting down the days to the release of Black Ops 6.
Xbox gave us a teaser.
We had a look at the gameplay for their mission Most Wanted, which basically involves the player breaking into a political fundraiser to get access to a secret CIA Black Ops site.
You know, I have to say, I'm optimistic.
You know, a lot of the news that's been coming out about Black Ops 6 looks good.
And this looks like, you know, pure Call of Duty.
There are explosions, motorbike chases, machine guns.
There's also plenty more news expected to come out from the event.
We'll keep you posted here on Tech and Science Daily.
Let's go to the ads.
Coming up, why humpback whales are more intelligent than previously thought.
To stay up to date with all the latest tech and science news, just hit follow during the break.
Welcome back.
A new study suggests that drones can be safely used to deliver urgent blood stocks between hospitals.
Researchers from NHS Blood and Transplant sent identical stocks via road and through the skies to assess whether there would be any impact.
Overall, 10 blood packs were sent on 10 journeys, 5 by land and 5 through the air.
Each pack was then analysed and it was found that there was no significant differences in the biochemical or haematological profiles of the blood that was flown or driven.
A similar trial for blood platelets is being planned.
Nature and sports campaigners are to take to the streets of London over water pollution.
Brighton Pier, Nessie, and it's dying, drop by drop.
Clip there courtesy of March for Clean Water.
As you heard there, actor Stephen Fry has narrated a film ahead of the march to get Britain's water off life support.
Environmental activists will join a wide range of groups, including River action, Greenpeace, The Wildlife Trust, British Rowing and British Canoeing, all the protest on the 26th of October.
The UK has been facing a growing water quality crisis due to several factors, such as aging water infrastructure, a lack of investment from water firms, a growing population, agriculture runoff, and industrial pollution.
And finally,
Looks like humpback whales are much more intelligent than we've been giving them credit for, as they've joined an elite list of animals known to make and use tools following the results of a new study.
Researchers found that the marine mammal creates a bubble net to capture up to seven times more prey in a single dive.
Bubble net feeding is a cooperative hunting strategy that occurs within a group of whales and is a complex, highly synchronized set of behaviours that involves communication and cooperation.
Researchers have known that these creatures create these bubble nets to hunt, but now they've found that they also manipulate these unique nets in a variety of ways to maximize their food intake.
The study is published in the journal Royal Society Open Science.
You're up to date.
Come back at 4 p.m. for The Standard podcast for all the latest news and analysis.
Tech and Science Daily will be back tomorrow at 1 p.m.
See you then.
