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Places with highest daily reported cases per capita Seven-day average of daily new reported cases per 100,000 residents

Note: move your cursor over the photo at the link to see the line diagram of the constellation displayed. Explanation: The night sky is filled with stories. Cultures throughout history have projected some of their most enduring legends onto the stars above. Generations of people see these stellar constellations, hear the associated stories, and pass them down. Featured here is the perhaps unfamiliar constellation of the Old Man, long recognized by the Tupi peoples native to regions of South America now known as Brazil. The Old Man, in more modern vernacular, may be composed of the Hyades star cluster as...

Researchers used the ALMA telescope array in Chile to discover the quasar A quasar is a type of supermassive black hole that is releasing a lot of energy This object was discovered when the universe was just 670 million years old The discovery can help researchers better understand how these objects form Its age and size brings into doubt theories they were formed from collapsed star clusters, with researchers suggesting they instead feast on cold hydrogen gas =========================================================== The most distant supermassive black hole known to science has been detected by astronomers - and it is more than 13 billion...

This new research contract will see planetary scientists work together to explore the game-changing potential of nuclear power as a more plentiful source of energy, capable of making possible deeper space exploration in the decades to come. Nuclear propulsion, which would involve channelling the immense energy released in splitting the atom to accelerate propellants, like hydrogen, at huge speeds, has the potential to revolutionise space travel. By some estimates, this kind of engine could be twice as efficient as the chemical engines that power our rockets today. Spacecraft powered by this kind of engine could, conceivably, make it to Mars...

A Florida doctor who died just weeks after receiving the COVID-19 vaccine has been identified by his wife on Facebook. The doctor, Gregory Michael, 56, was an Obstetrician at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach, his wife, Heidi Neckelmann, posted. The Florida Department of Health is investigating the death. In her post, Neckelmann said her husband, “the love” of her life, died on Jan. 3 “due to a strong reaction to the COVID vaccine.” She said he was healthy, loved by the community, and had delivered hundreds of babies while working “tirelessly” through the pandemic. On Dec. 18, Dr....

Places with highest daily reported cases per capita Seven-day average of daily new reported cases per 100,000 residents

The weather can greatly affect daily experiences, for instance, increasing or decreasing the yearning to spend time outdoors or making commutes to the workplace more or less enjoyable. While several past studies have investigated the effects that the weather can have on people's overall mood and energy levels, the extent to which it can influence their experiences in professional environments is still poorly understood. With this in mind, researchers at Leuphana University Lüneburg have recently carried out a study investigating the effects of daily morning weather on how people feel while they are at work. Their paper, published in the...

TWO cups of oolong tea a day can help you lose fat while you sleep, research suggests. Scientists found the tea boosts your metabolism while you kip — which keeps your body burning off calories. Like all tea, oolong contains caffeine which has been shown to boost fat breakdown by about 20 per cent. But experts discovered caffeine-only drinks stop working when you drift off — while the special tea continues to encourage your metabolism to keep going during sleep. Prof Tokuyama, of Tsukuba University, Japan, who did the study, said: “The stimulatory effects of oolong tea on fat breakdown...

The image today is a video (at the link) showing Moon phases all year and the locations of the Apollo moon landings. The posted image is from the Apollo 11 landing. Explanation: What will the Moon phase be on your birthday this year? It is hard to predict because the Moon's appearance changes nightly. As the Moon orbits the Earth, the half illuminated by the Sun first becomes increasingly visible, then decreasingly visible. The featured video animates images taken by NASA's Moon-orbiting Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter to show all 12 lunations that appear this year, 2021. A single lunation describes one...

Seeing our world through the eyes of a migratory bird would be a rather spooky experience. Something about their visual system allows them to 'see' our planet's magnetic field, a clever trick of quantum physics, and biochemistry that helps them navigate vast distances. Now, for the first time ever, scientists from the University of Tokyo have directly observed a key reaction hypothesised to be behind birds', and many other creatures', talents for sensing the direction of the planet's poles. Importantly, this is evidence of quantum physics directly affecting a biochemical reaction in a cell – something we've long hypothesised but...

Based on what we know about gravitational waves, the Universe should be full of them. Every colliding pair of black holes or neutron stars, every core-collapse supernova - even the Big Bang itself - should have sent ripples ringing across spacetime. After all this time, these waves would be weak and hard to find, but they're all predicted to make up a resonant 'hum' that permeates our Universe, referred to as the gravitational wave background. And we may have just caught the first hint of it. You can think of the gravitational wave background as something like the ringing left...

In the setting of COVID-19, almost every country in the world closed its borders, locked down its citizens, and forced businesses to close. Today, most governments still restrict travel, economic activity, and social gatherings.The justification for these unprecedented measures has been a growing number of COVID-19 cases. This has unleashed an epidemic of COVID testing - with PCR and rapid antigen tests as the means of identifying positive COVID cases. Our very own Dr. John Hunt examines the science behind COVID testing, whether the testing paradigms are effective, and the rationality behind government response to the virus.What COVID tests mean...

Places with highest daily reported cases per capita Seven-day average of daily new reported cases per 100,000 residents

They have divided fashionistas and feminists for generations, but scientists now claim to have proof that high heels are sexy. Researchers recruited 52 female university students aged 18 to 24 and shot videos of them walking in flat shoes and in their own high heels, varying in height from 8cm to 10cm. Editing software was used to erase their feet so that only the women’s body movements could be assessed – and all had been instructed to wear similar dark, tight-fitting T-shirts, with jeans or leggings and have their hair tied back to ensure uniformity.

Places with highest daily reported cases per capita Seven-day average of daily new reported cases per 100,000 residents

DNA usually forms the classic double helix shape of two strands wound around each other. While DNA can form some more exotic shapes in test tubes, few are seen in real living cells. However, four-stranded DNA, known as G-quadruplex, has recently been seen forming naturally in human cells. Now, in new research published today in Nature Communications, a team led by Imperial College London scientists have created new probes that can see how G-quadruplexes are interacting with other molecules inside living cells. G-quadruplexes are found in higher concentrations in cancer cells, so are thought to play a role in the...

Explanation: Like Earth's moon, Saturn's largest moon Titan is locked in synchronous rotation. This mosaic of images recorded by the Cassini spacecraft in May of 2012 shows its anti-Saturn side, the side always facing away from the ringed gas giant. The only moon in the solar system with a dense atmosphere, Titan is the only solar system world besides Earth known to have standing bodies of liquid on its surface and an earthlike cycle of liquid rain and evaporation. Its high altitude layer of atmospheric haze is evident in the Cassini view of the 5,000 kilometer diameter moon over Saturn's...

Places with highest daily reported cases per capitaSeven-day average of daily new reported cases per 100,000 residents

Explanation: Barred spiral galaxy NGC 1365 is truly a majestic island universe some 200,000 light-years across. Located a mere 60 million light-years away toward the chemical constellation Fornax, NGC 1365 is a dominant member of the well-studied Fornax Cluster of galaxies. This impressively sharp color image shows the intense, reddish star forming regions near the ends of central bar and along the spiral arms, with details of the obscuring dust lanes cutting across the galaxy's bright core. At the core lies a supermassive black hole. Astronomers think NGC 1365's prominent bar plays a crucial role in the galaxy's evolution, drawing...

Humans have them, so do other animals and plants. Now research reveals that bacteria too have internal clocks that align with the 24-hour cycle of life on Earth. The research answers a long-standing biological question and could have implications for the timing of drug delivery, biotechnology, and how we develop timely solutions for crop protection. Biological clocks or circadian rhythms are exquisite internal timing mechanisms that are widespread across nature enabling living organisms to cope with the major changes that occur from day to night, even across seasons. Existing inside cells, these molecular rhythms use external cues such as daylight...