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For years, big tech companies like Apple and Tesla have assured the customers of their glossy stores and showrooms that all their goods are ethically sourced and sold. But a new series of images taken from inside mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where 90 percent of the world's cobalt is mined and used to make the batteries that power our tech-led lives, raise uncomfortable questions.

State police are investigating after a homemade explosive was found at a gas transmission facility.

Explanation: Where did all the stars go? What used to be considered a hole in the sky is now known to astronomers as a dark molecular cloud. Here, a high concentration of dust and molecular gas absorb practically all the visible light emitted from background stars. The eerily dark surroundings help make the interiors of molecular clouds some of the coldest and most isolated places in the universe. One of the most notable of these dark absorption nebulae is a cloud toward the constellation Ophiuchus known as Barnard 68, pictured here. That no stars are visible in the center indicates...

NASA completed a round of testing last year with the "rotating detonation rocket engine," which generates thrust using fuel-saving supersonic combustion, agency officials wrote(opens in new tab) in an update on Wednesday (Jan. 25). Those tests were very early-stage, but agency officials say that future iterations of the technology could be used on moon or Mars missions, for robotic probes or crewed landers. Expanding humanity's footprint across the solar system will require a fundamental rethink of how we approach long-distance travel, with both fuel and time, exploration advocates say. Getting to Mars with current propulsion technology takes six to nine...

Explanation: Comet-like plumes are blowing over the volcanic peaks of Mount Etna in this wintry mountain-and-skyscape from planet Earth. The stacked and blended combination of individual exposures recorded during the cold night of January 23, also capture naked-eye Comet ZTF just above Etna's snowy slopes. Of course the effect of increasing sunlight on the comet's nucleus and the solar wind are responsible for the comet's greenish coma and broad dusty tail. This weekend Comet ZTF is dashing across northern skies between north star Polaris and the Big Dipper. From a dark site you can only just spot it as a...

A number of decapitated skeletons have been uncovered by archaeologists at a Roman burial site.The discovery, which included evidence of Roman and Iron Age settlements, was made at Wintringham near St Neots, Cambridgeshire.Dating from 2,500 years ago, the site will feature in the latest series of BBC Two's Digging for Britain...The work comes ahead of a development of about 2,800 homes in the village.Archaeologists uncovered an Iron Age settlement composed of 40 roundhouses and a network of trackways and enclosures related to farming activities.The Oxford Archaeology team also discovered Roman coins, brooches, a large lead lid or platter, and numerous...

The impending demise of Kepler-1658b as it orbits its aging star offers an opportunity for scientists to gain insight into the fate of other planets and their evolving solar systems....provides a new understanding of the gradual process of planetary orbital decay by offering the first glimpse of a solar system in its final stages.. the ultimate destiny for many planets, including Earth in about 5 billion years... the exoplanet Kepler-1568b has less than 3 million years left before it meets its demise...The first author is Shreyas Vissapragada, a 51 Pegasi b Fellow at Harvard University and the Smithsonian Institution...The ill-fated...

Multiple companies in Texas are facing a lawsuit for employing a janitor accused of urinating into employee water bottles and thereby infecting more than a dozen victims with sexually transmitted diseases. The lawsuit, stemming from the October arrest of janitor Lucio Catarino Diaz, was filed on behalf of 13 women who say the janitor urinated in their water bottles on the job in an East Houston office building which resulted in positive tests for the herpes simplex 1 virus, KRIV-TV reported. In a press release, Houston law firm Abraham, Watkins, Nichols, Agosto, Aziz & Stogner alleges that the companies employing...

Mississippi residents are consistently told that renewable energy sources, like solar panels, are now the lowest-cost ways to generate electricity, but these claims are based on creative accounting gimmicks that only examine a small portion of the expenses incurred to integrate solar onto the grid while excluding many others.When these hidden expenses are accounted for, it becomes obvious that solar is much more expensive than Mississippi’s existing coal, natural gas, and nuclear power plants and that adding more solar will increase electricity prices for the families and businesses that rely upon it. One of the most common ways of estimating...

Northern mountains could get up to 30 inches of snow in some areas Friday through Saturday.. Coloradans are in for some serious winter weather this weekend and early next week. Some areas of the northern mountains could get up to 30 inches of snow by Saturday, and Denver and the plains could see wind chills of -20 degrees Sunday through Tuesday. Starting Friday afternoon, snow will intensify over the Park Range, including Rabbit Ears Pass, and portions of the northern Front Range mountains like Medicine Bow and Rocky Mountain National Park. Snowfall rates could be as high as three inches...

Explanation: The current darling of the northern night, Comet C/2022 E3 ZTF is captured in this telescopic image from a dark sky location at June Lake, California. Of course Comet ZTF has been growing brighter in recent days, headed for its closest approach to Earth on February 1. But this view was recorded on January 23, very close to the time planet Earth crossed the orbital plane of long-period Comet ZTF. The comet's broad, whitish dust tail is still curved and fanned out away from the Sun as Comet ZTF sweeps along its orbit. Due to perspective near the orbital...

The most comprehensive plans need a sprinkle of luck, even in space. VIDEO AT LINK In October 2022, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST or Webb) watched as Chariklo, a tiny ringed asteroid, eclipsed a star. This event, called an occultation, marked a first for Webb. At the month's end, Webb turned toward Chariklo again and notched another victory: For the first time, astronomers analyzing the telescope's data spotted clear signs of water ice, the presence of which was only hinted at until now. These observations will guide astronomers to better understand the nature and behavior of tiny bodies in...

An orbiting star begins to eclipse its partner, a rapidly rotating, superdense stellar remnant called a pulsar. Image courtesy of Aurore Simonnet/Sonoma State University/NASA *************************************************************************** Jan. 26 (UPI) -- NASA made a first-of-its-kind discovery with its Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, spotting the first gamma-ray eclipses from a special type of star system. The agency shared the news with Nature Astronomy on Thursday after scientists researched a decade of observations from the telescope that can detect the most astonishing celestial events from gamma bursts to black holes. Gamma-ray eclipses were observed from a special binary star system that is orbited by...

In findings published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), Saint Louis University researchers and colleagues report that elephants play a key role in creating forests that store more atmospheric carbon and maintaining the biodiversity of forests in Africa. If the already critically endangered elephants become extinct, the rainforest of central and west Africa, the second largest rainforest on earth, would lose between six and nine percent of its ability to capture atmospheric carbon, amplifying planetary warming. **SNIP** Within the forest, some trees have light wood (low carbon density trees) while others make heavy wood (high carbon density...

The UK is following Denmark in restricting who is eligible for COVID booster shots, sparking a lot of conversation among vaccine skeptics for pretty obvious reasons.I didn’t plan for today to be heavily weighted toward writing about COVID vaccines, but it sure worked out that way. This will be my third piece on the matter in a single day. Trust me, this is not an obsession of mine. It just worked out that way.First the news:Healthy adults under the age of 50 who are yet to receive a booster jab have just two-and-a-half weeks to take up the offer before...

If you’ve knocked back a few and feel a warm flush creep up your face and ears, you’re not alone. While often thought of as annoying rather than dangerous, alcohol flush may be a sign of something more serious brewing beneath the surface, a new study suggests. Roughly 8% of the global population experiences the drunken sensation, mostly in East and Southeast Asian demographics, which has been previously dubbed “Asian glow.” But it’s more than just a nuisance on a night out — the flush is caused by an inherited, genetic hiccup. Those with the gene variant ALDH2*2 are deficient...

Northrop Grumman is pitching a way to free up space and weight on existing ships for additions like lasers and microwave weapons. The company provides the prime power equipment for the SPY-6 radar and the SEWIP Block 3 electronic warfare system, both of which will be built into the Flight III destroyers and backfit onto Flight IIA destroyers. Rather than build two separate prime power systems, each controlling one weapon system, Northrop Grumman has created a Multifunction Prime Power System... Northrop has estimated it would cut the cost of the power system by 20% on both the existing Flight IIA...

Secretary of State for Justice Dominic Raab said that the changes will "ensure a sensitive and common-sense approach to meeting the needs of women in custody." .... The UK government has announced a reform of its transgender prison policy that will mean trans-identified males who have male genitalia or have been convicted of sexual offenses will no longer be held in women’s prisons. The policy will allow for exemptions, to be assessed on a case-by-case basis, but the Ministry of Justice stresses that “only the most truly exceptional cases will be considered.” ... The announcement comes in the midst of...

A truck-sized asteroid will pass near Earth on Thursday (Jan 26) in one of the closest approaches to our planet ever recorded, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) said, emphasising that it poses no danger. Asteroid 2023 BU, which was recently discovered by an amateur astronomer, will zoom by the southern tip of South America at around 4.27pm PST (8.27am, Friday, Singapore time) on Thursday (Jan 26), according to NASA. It will pass just 3,600km from Earth's surface, much closer than many geostationary satellites orbiting the planet.

A recent study listed Hawaii as the top state in America for the longest average life expectancy. Those living in Hawaii can expect to live to an average of 80.7 years. The Aloha state was the only state to crack the 80-year milestone. The national average life expectancy for men in the U.S. is 73.5 years old, while the average for women is 79.3 years age. Washington State (#2), Minnesota (#3) California (#4-tie), and Massachusetts (#4-tie) rounded out the list, with averages around 79 years old. Life expectancies declined nationwide due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the study.