New ‘whirling’ state of matter discovered in an element of the periodic table

The strongest permanent magnets today contain a mix of the elements neodymium and iron. However, neodymium on its own does not behave like any known magnet, confounding researchers for more than a half-century. Physicists at Radboud University and Uppsala University have shown that neodymium behaves like a self-induced spin glass, meaning that it is composed of a rippled sea of many…

Curiosity rover finds evidence for ancient ice-covered lake on Mars

Scientists studying data from the Curiosity rover have found evidence for an ancient ice-covered lake in Gale Crater on Mars. The findings support the theory of alternating warmer and colder climates on early Mars. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/mars-curiosity-rover-ice-covered-lake-gale-crater…

Looking Glass Starts Shipping Its 8K Holographic Display

Looking Glass is now shipping its 8K holographic display, which utilizes 33.2 million pixels and 45-element light field to provide a 3D effect. TechCrunch reports: The target markets here are medical imaging, mapping, automotive, architecture and engineering. A press release tied to the announcement features a handful of folks in these categories who are excited at what such a technology could…

Is Mars still volcanically active? New study says maybe

Scientists studying the ancient Martian Tissint meteorite say they’ve found new evidence that Mars was volcanically active a few hundred million years ago … and may still be today. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/is-mars-still-volcanically-active-tissint-meteorite…

The Pirate Bay Blocked By MalwareBytes But Normal Service Will Be Resumed

The Pirate Bay returned to the clear web this week after a month-long hiatus. However, the structure of the infamous torrent index presented an access problem to users of the popular anti-malware software MalwareBytes, which persistently blocked an essential element of the platform due to the presence of “a few” cryptocurrency miners on a secondary domain. TorrentFreak reports: The problem lay…

Intel Launches NUC 9 Extreme Ghost Canyon Small Form Factor PC Platform

MojoKid writes: Intel unveiled its NUC 9 Ghost Canyon platform back at CES earlier this year, but the company has just announced general availability and lifted the embargo on full product reviews. An array of NUC 9 systems are launching today, with the top-end Intel NUC9i9QNX featuring a Core i9-9980HK Comet Lake-H 8-core CPU. The NUC 9 is built around Intel’s…

Top 5 Mercury mysteries that BepiColombo will solve

BepiColombo – a joint mission of Europe and Japan – successfully passed Earth last night and is now headed toward the innermost part of the solar system. Here are some questions about our sun’s innermost planet, Mercury, the spacecraft is expected to answer. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/top-5-mercury-mysteries-that-bepicolombo-will-solve…

‘Netflix Party’: a New Chrome Extension Adds Chat Panes to Movies

GameSpot calls it “like an AOL chat room” combined with Netflix. The Guardian reports:
You log in, share a viewing link with friends, choose one person to be in charge of picking what you watch and, as your chosen show plays out in the bulk of the screen, a chatroom pops up on the right-hand side. You can discuss the show with…

A Chinese perspective on spring

In Chinese thought, spring is associated with the direction east, the sunrise direction as Earth spins us toward the beginning of each new day. Source: https://earthsky.org/human-world/a-chinese-perspective-on-the-spring-equinox…

What’s cool about Curiosity’s discovery of organic molecules on Mars

The Curiosity rover has found organic molecules called thiophenes, which, on Earth, are associated with biological systems. Are they evidence for once-living microbes on Mars? Source: https://earthsky.org/space/thiophenes-organic-molecules-curiosity-rover-mars-life…