Why Is America Getting a New $100 Billion Nuclear Weapon?

“America is building a new weapon of mass destruction, a nuclear missile the length of a bowling lane,” writes the contributing editor for the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (in an article shared by Slashdot reader DanDrollette): It will be able to travel some 6,000 miles, carrying a warhead more than 20 times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on…

See Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky

Find out how to spot Sirius, the brightest star as seen from Earth. Learn the mythology behind this dazzling light and how it earned the nickname of the Dog Star. Source: https://earthsky.org/brightest-stars/sirius-the-brightest-star…

When will Betelgeuse explode?

The red supergiant star will explode in a supernova, close enough to shine brightly during the day but far enough away that Earth won’t be in danger. Source: https://earthsky.org/brightest-stars/betelgeuse-will-explode-someday…

Scientists Use Satellite Imagery To Count Elephants

Scientists from a trio of universities have combined satellite imagery with deep learning to detect elephants from space. The goal is to help protect these endangered species from poachers or habitat destruction. Their study was published in the journal Ecology and Conservation. Interesting Engineering reports: The team’s method proved comparable to human detection accuracy and could help solve a number of…

Tech CEO Apologizes After His Arrest Over Capitol Hill Protests

“Turning digital data into profit,” is the slogan of Cognesia, a data analytics company whose client list includes Visa, Rolls-Royce, and Toys ‘R’ Us. Now Variety reports:
Brad Rukstales, the chief executive of a Chicago-area company that provides data-marketing solutions, said he was arrested Wednesday after he entered the U.S. Capitol alongside a mob of pro-Trump rioters seeking to overturn the 2020…

Google Suspends Parler From App Store; Apple Gives 24-Hour Warning

New submitter yuvcifjt writes: As of Friday 6pm EST (11pm GMT), The Verge reported that Apple and Google are under pressure and receiving complaints to deplatform Parler — the social media platform favored by the right-wing and extremists — from their app stores. BuzzFeed has since broken news that Apple has served notice to Parler’s executives to implement a full moderation…

New Train Hall Opens at Penn Station, Echoing Building’s Former Glory

The Moynihan Train Hall, with glass skylights and 92-foot-high ceilings, will open Jan. 1 as an area for Amtrak and Long Island Railroad riders. The New York Times: For more than half a century, New Yorkers have trudged through the crammed platforms, dark hallways and oppressively low ceilings of Pennsylvania Station, the busiest and perhaps most miserable train hub in North…

Dark storm on Neptune changes direction, escapes deadly fate

Astronomers used the Hubble Space Telescope to observe unusual weather on the planet Neptune, not observed until now. They saw a large, dark storm on Neptune unexpectedly changing direction, thereby saving itself from looming destruction and possibly producing a smaller companion storm. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/large-dark-storm-change-direction-neptune…

New Milky Way family tree reveals a chaotic history

Scientists in Germany have created a new family tree of our Milky Way galaxy, showing how it has grown over billions of years from chaotic mergers with smaller galaxies. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/milky-way-family-tree-progenitor-galaxy-collisions-kraken…

New Research Shows What We Can Accomplish by Manipulating Biology

Long-time Slashdot reader sixoh1 shares “an interesting spin on biotechnology tools that we’ve been seeing explode lately like Crisper-CAS and mRNA.” Ars Technica writes: This is in no way a route to a practical therapy, but it does provide a fantastic window into what we can accomplish by manipulating biology. The whole effort described in the new paper is focused on…