The first space hurricane ever was spotted in August 2014, consisting of “an eddy of plasma, a type of superhot, charged gas found throughout the solar system,” reports Business Insider. “And instead of rain, this storm brought showers of electrons.” From the report: In August 2014, satellites observed a swirling mass with a quiet center more than 125 miles above the…
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Cosmic ray originated in cataclysmic event
Astronomers found a high energy neutrino – a cosmic ray – that apparently originated during a “tidal disruption event,” that is, when a supermassive black hole shredded a distant star. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/origin-cosmic-ray-when-black-hole-shreds-star…
Teachers may play a central role in spreading COVID-19 in schools, CDC says
The findings highlight “the importance of preventing infections among educators in particular,” the authors said. Source: https://www.livescience.com/teachers-covid-19-spread-schools-cdc.html
Elon Musk Co-Authors COVID-19 Paper Accepted For Publication In ‘Nature’
Slashdot reader Rei writes: On 15 February, 2021, the paper Discrete SARS-CoV-2 antibody titers track with functional humoral stability was accepted for publication by the prestigious journal Nature — interesting not only for being a large-cohort study on COVID-19 reinfection, but for the presence of one of its coauthors: one Elon Reeve Musk. According to reporting, Musk — concerned in April…
Upheaval and extinctions linked to magnetic reversal 42,000 years ago
42,000 years ago, a breakdown in Earth’s magnetic field led to environmental catastrophes and mass extinctions. Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/magnetic-field-reversal-42000-years-ago-neanderthal-extinction…
Research Linking Violent Entertainment To Aggression Retracted After Scrutiny
Science magazine: As Samuel West combed through a paper that found a link between watching cartoon violence and aggression in children, he noticed something odd about the study participants. There were more than 3000 — an unusually large number — and they were all 10 years old. “It was just too perfect,” says West, a Ph.D. student in social psychology at…
How To Fall 35,000 Feet and Survive
Massachusetts-based amateur historian Jim Hamilton, who developed the Free Fall Research Page — an online database of nearly every imaginable human plummet, documents one case of a sky diver who, upon total parachute failure, was saved by bouncing off high-tension wires. Contrary to popular belief, water is an awful choice. Like concrete, liquid doesn’t compress. Hitting the ocean is essentially the…
Best Story Wins
Morgan Housel, on the art and power of storytelling: C. R. Hallpike is a respected anthropologist who once wrote a review of a young author’s recent book on the history of humans. It states: “It would be fair to say that whenever his facts are broadly correct they are not new, and whenever he tries to strike out on his own…
Microsoft’s Big Win in Quantum Computing Was an ‘Error’ After All
In a 2018 paper, researchers said they found evidence of an elusive theorized particle. A closer look now suggests otherwise. From a report: In March 2018, Dutch physicist and Microsoft employee Leo Kouwenhoven published headline-grabbing new evidence that he had observed an elusive particle called a Majorana fermion. Microsoft hoped to harness Majorana particles to build a quantum computer, which promises…
Mars atmosphere shedding charged particles onto Phobos?
New research suggests that particles escaping from Mars’ atmosphere have been accumulating on the surface of the planet’s largest moon Phobos for billions of years. They could provide important new details about the history of both worlds. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/mars-atmosphere-history-phobos-soil…