Science (General/Chat)
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Explanation: Northern lights don't usually reach this far south. Magnetic chaos in the Sun's huge Active Region 3664, however, produced a surface explosion that sent a burst of electrons, protons, and more massive, charged nuclei into the Solar System. A few days later, that coronal mass ejection (CME) impacted the Earth and triggered auroras that are being reported unusually far from our planet's north and south poles. The free sky show might not be over -- the sunspot rich AR3664 has ejected even more CMEs that might also impact the Earth tonight or tomorrow. That active region is now near...
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Predictions that the U.S. and the world would run out of fossil fuels go back decades, and these predictions have so far turned out to be wrong. A new report shows the U.S. has 227 of oil, 130 years of gas, and 485 years of coal. or years, activists argued for an energy transition away from fossil fuels because, they said, we were hitting “peak oil,” the point at which we can no longer produce oil because there’s little left in the ground or it’s too expensive to recover. In 2023, the U.S. produced nearly 13 million barrels per day,...
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Explanation: Right now, one of the largest sunspot groups in recent history is crossing the Sun. Active Region 3664 is not only big -- it's violent, throwing off clouds of particles into the Solar System. Some of these CMEs are already impacting the Earth, and others might follow. At the extreme, these solar storms could cause some Earth-orbiting satellites to malfunction, the Earth's atmosphere to slightly distort, and electrical power grids to surge. When impacting Earth's upper atmosphere, these particles can produce beautiful auroras, with some auroras already being reported unusually far south. Pictured here, AR3664 and its dark sunspots...
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Quick synopsis of this 5min. video: Liquid fuel is far more efficient than batteries. It's not even close.
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Explanation: Relax and watch two black holes merge. Inspired by the first direct detection of gravitational waves in 2015, this simulation plays in slow motion but would take about one third of a second if run in real time. Set on a cosmic stage, the black holes are posed in front of stars, gas, and dust. Their extreme gravity lenses the light from behind them into Einstein rings as they spiral closer and finally merge into one. The otherwise invisible gravitational waves generated as the massive objects rapidly coalesce cause the visible image to ripple and slosh both inside and...
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Harnessing these molecules can significantly impact agriculture, pharmaceuticals, and electronics. Chemists at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities College of Science and Engineering have successfully synthesized a highly reactive chemical compound that has eluded sicentists for over 120 years. This breakthrough may pave the way for the development of innovative drug treatments, safer agricultural products, and enhanced electronics. For decades, researchers have been investigating molecules called N-heteroarenes, which are ring-shaped chemical compounds that contain one or more nitrogen atoms. Bio-active molecules having a N-heteroarene core are widely used for numerous medicinal applications, lifesaving pharmaceuticals, pesticides and herbicides, and even electronics....
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Carbon capture and underground storage (CCUS) tops the list of silly schemes “to reduce man-made global warming.” The idea is to capture exhaust gases from power stations or cement plants, separate the CO2 from the other gases, compress it, pump it to the chosen burial site, and force it underground into permeable rock formations. Then hope it never escapes. An Australian mining company who should know better is hoping to appease green critics by proposing to bury the gas of life, CO2, deep in the sedimentary rocks of Australia’s Great Artesian Basin. The people running this company have chosen the...
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Two Korean research institutes are designing a space solar power satellite project with the aim of providing approximately 1000 TWh of electricity to the Earth per year. The 95 gigawatts of nuclear in the US generates 800 terawatt hours per year. Spaced based solar at 120 gigawatts would generate 1000 terawatt hours. This is an improved proposed Korean Space Solar Power Satellite (K-SSPS) project. It is a conceptual design of the satellite, its end-of-life disposal method, and a first pilot system and experiment. The proposed system would use 4,000 sub-solar arrays measuring 10 meters × 270 meters and comprising thin...
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An uncommonly powerful solar storm may occur in outer space Friday, officials have warned - the first in nearly 20 years if it comes to fruition. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) issued the Severe (G4) Geomagnetic Storm Watch late Thursday - which itself was the first such alert aired since January 2005, when the earth was hit with the highest dose of radiation it had seen in a half-century. This time around, the 'unusual event' could disrupt electronic devices like GPS and parts of power grids, the American agency said - while citing how it may also drape...
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Watch live coverage as SpaceX launches a Falcon 9 rocket with 20 second-generation Starlink internet satellites. Liftoff from pad 4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base is scheduled for 9:30 p.m. PDT on Thursday, May 9 (12:30 a.m. EDT / 0430 UTC). The first-stage booster, making its fourth flight, will land on the drone ship 'Of Course I Still Love You' about eight and a half minutes into the flight. The Starlink 8-2 mission includes 13 satellites capable of providing direct to cellphone services. Our live coverage with commentary from Will Robinson-Smith will begin about 30 minutes before launch.
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Forty-two was the mystical number that explained “life, the universe, and everything” in Douglas Adams’ comic novel, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Today, another mystical number, the so-called social cost of carbon (SSC), is providing the excuse for the Environmental Protection Agency and green-energy-enamored state regulators to enact crippling energy policies.The SCC is the thumb on the scale that can justify virtually any policy aimed at eliminating fossil fuels. When the EPA first proposed its rule to reduce mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants, the agency’s cost-benefit analysis determined the benefits would be minuscule. Any putative benefits, it turns...
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Explanation: Bright elliptical galaxy Messier 87 (M87) is home to the supermassive black hole captured in 2017 by planet Earth's Event Horizon Telescope in the first ever image of a black hole. Giant of the Virgo galaxy cluster about 55 million light-years away, M87 is rendered in blue hues in this infrared image from the Spitzer Space telescope. Though M87 appears mostly featureless and cloud-like, the Spitzer image does record details of relativistic jets blasting from the galaxy's central region. Shown in the inset at top right, the jets themselves span thousands of light-years. The brighter jet seen on the...
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A rendering of the excitatory neurons in a section of the sample. (Google Research & Lichtman Lab/Harvard University. Renderings by D. Berger/Harvard University) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A nanoscale project represents a giant leap forward in understanding the human brain. With more than 1.4 petabytes of electron microscopy imaging data, a team of scientists has reconstructed a teeny-tiny cubic segment of the human brain. It's just a millimeter on each side – but 57,000 cells, 150 million synapses, and 230 millimeters of ultrafine veins are all packed into that microscopic space. The work of almost a decade, it's the largest and most detailed...
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Pfizer has agreed to settle more than 10,000 lawsuits which alleged that the company failed to warn patients about possible cancer risks caused by the anti-heartburn medication Zantac.The lawsuits were filed in state courts across the country, but the agreements don’t completely resolve Pfizer’s exposure to the claims linking Zantac and cancer, according to Bloomberg News.Terms of the settlements were not disclosed.The Post has sought comment from Pfizer.Zantac was brought to market in 1983 by Glaxo Holdings, a company that is now part of the GlaxoSmithKline company.By 1988, it was the world’s best selling drug as patients reported benefits for...
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This isn't paranoia. Hard evidence shows the White House and media targeted my right to speak - and support my family. If not for all of you, they would have succeeded. Yeah, I'm still angry. In 2021, they tried to destroy me for telling the truth This isn't paranoia. Hard evidence shows the White House and media targeted my right to speak - and support my family. If not for all of you, they would have succeeded. Yeah, I'm still angry. ALEX BERENSON MAY 06, 2024 I haven’t forgotten. Or forgiven. Last week, a Congressional committee released a massive report...
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Credential theft is a significant factor in breaches, resulting in 38% of all incidents. Phishing is another route into the enterprise, being associated with 15% of all breaches. The most frequently used entry point for phishing is Web applications, followed by email.The report, which analyses 20,358 security incidents and 10,626 confirmed breaches offered by third-party contributors including the US Secret Service and dozens of other organizations and companies; publicly-known data breaches; and security events mitigated by its own Verizon Threat Research Advisory Center (VTRAC), emphasised the critical role the human element plays in introducing risk into the equation.
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Mount Ontake in Japan rises 3,067 meters above sea level — a windswept giant standing head and shoulders above densely forested hills. This ancient volcano is a popular trekking site. A trail traverses its ash- and boulder-strewn ridges. There are several huts and a shrine. On September 27, 2014, hikers took advantage of a blue sky and gentle wind. At 11:52 a.m., over a hundred of them stood on the summit, eating snacks and taking photos. Disaster struck with little warning. The windows and doors of a nearby hut rattled, vibrated by a low-frequency shock wave inaudible to humans. People...
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Explanation: What would it look like to circle a black hole? If the black hole was surrounded by a swirling disk of glowing and accreting gas, then the great gravity of the black hole would deflect light emitted by the disk to make it look very unusual. The featured animated video gives a visualization. The video starts with you, the observer, looking toward the black hole from just above the plane of the accretion disk. Surrounding the central black hole is a thin circular image of the orbiting disk that marks the position of the photon sphere -- inside of...
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Converting America’s medium- and heavy-duty trucks to electric vehicles (EV) in accordance with goals from the Biden administration would add massive costs to commercial trucking, according to a new analysis released Wednesday. The cost to switch over to light-duty EVs like a transit van would equate to a 5% increase in costs per year while switching over medium- and heavy-duty trucks would add up to 114% in costs per year to already struggling businesses, according to a report from transportation and logistics company Ryder Systems. The Biden administration, in an effort to facilitate a transition to EVs, finalized new emission...
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Safety concerns around electric vehicles continue to mount with Australian fire and rescue services in New South Wales stating they might have to make a “tactical disengagement” of a trapped car accident victim if the battery is likely to explode. Australian journalist Jo Nova covered the story, which was first mentioned in the EV blog The Driven, and commented: “They say the first responders need more training as if this can be solved with a certificate, but the dark truth is they’re talking about training the firemen and the truck drivers to recognise when they have to abandon the rescue.”...
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