Scientists have taken a huge step forward in perfecting the method to synthesize lonsdaleite.
Category: futurism
NASA has significantly lowered the risk of near-Earth asteroid 2024 YR4 as an impact threat to Earth for the foreseeable future. When first discovered, asteroid 2024 YR4 had a very small, but notable chance of impacting our planet in 2032. As observations of the asteroid continued to be submitted to the Minor Planet Center, experts at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s (JPL’s) Center for Near-Earth Object Studies were able to calculate more precise models of the asteroid’s trajectory and now have found there is no significant potential for this asteroid to impact our planet for the next century. The latest observations have further reduced the uncertainty of its future trajectory, and the range of possible locations the asteroid could be on Dec. 22, 2032, has moved farther away from the Earth.
There still remains a very small chance for asteroid 2024 YR4 to impact the Moon on Dec. 22, 2032. That probability is currently 1.7%.
NASA will continue to observe asteroid 2024 YR4 with observatories funded by its Planetary Defense Coordination Office, and NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope will observe the asteroid in March to further gain insights about its size for scientific purposes.
Experiments coupling light and sound reveal the surprising effect that measuring nothing can cool the vibrations of an object.
We use measurements to understand the world around us. With our eyes and ears, we constantly infer the state of our surroundings through the sights and sounds that reach us, allowing us to navigate our daily lives. While these “measurements” often focus on observing the presence of something, the absence of something also provides valuable information.
Researchers spanning Imperial College London, the University of Oxford, the University of Waterloo, the University of Leeds, and the University of Copenhagen have used the absence of scattered light to cool the motion of a tiny glass bead below room temperature.
Dr. Ashley Martin: “Our study reveals high nitrogen isotope values in 2.75-billion-year-old shallow water stromatolites, and lower nitrogen values in deeper marine sediments.”
What can volcanism on the early Earth teach us about the formation of life on our planet? This is what a recent study published in Nature Communications hopes to address as an international team of researchers investigated how volcanic activity billions of years ago could have influenced the Earth’s nitrogen cycle, thus influencing the development of marine life. This study has the potential to help researchers better understand the processes responsible for the development of life on early Earth, specifically in Earth’s oceans.
For the study, the researchers analyzed 2.5-billion-year-old samples of stromatolites, which are fossilized rock formations created by microorganisms, in southern Zimbabwe. The goal of the study was to ascertain a connection between nitrogen isotope patterns and an event known as the Great Oxidation Event that occurred approximately 2.5 billion years ago and is often hailed as a major turning point in the development of life on the Earth. During that time, most of the Earth’s land mass was underwater with volcanic activity occurring in the oceans. Therefore, the researchers found an interesting connection between volcanic activity and nitrogen levels that occurred simultaneously.
What do rope winding and giant pasta shapes have to do with particle physics? The answer is a new superconducting magnet prototype under development at CERN, lovingly named Fusillo because of its shape.
Originally, CERN physicists became interested in developing this technology for use in compact particle accelerators, for example in a new storage ring for the CERN-based experiment ISOLDE. However, development of this technology could also have a big impact in the medical field. For example, one of the possible future applications of magnets like Fusillo is in hadron therapy to treat cancer.
Hadron therapy is a type of radiotherapy that uses beams of protons or light ions to irradiate cancer tissue. Compared to X-rays, which use beams of light, beams of ions release less energy along their path and more energy in one specific spot.
Summary and analysis of the short story The Last Question by Isaac Asimov. You can read the story here: https://users.ece.cmu.edu/~gamvrosi/thelastq.htmlComic…
Cyber Warfare, Explained.
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From influencing elections to disrupting nuclear facilities, the threat of cyber warfare is both ever-present and mostly ignored. Israel, America, and Russia are just a few of the countries in the ever growing cyber arms race.
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Hey everybody it’s prime time animation week on Youtube! To celebrate I’ll be uploading the opening themes from a prime time animated television show each d…