Want to find life on Mars? Look deep underground

A new study from researchers at Rutgers University suggests that the best place to look for evidence of life on Mars is deep underground, where geothermal heat melted subsurface ice. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/mars-life-search-subsurface-ice-melted-by-geothermal-heat…

Spotify Resets Passwords After a Security Bug Exposed Users’ Private Account Information

Jerry Rivers shares a report from TechCrunch, adding: “…and it took the music service seven months to notice.” From the report: In a data breach notification filed with the California attorney general’s office, the music streaming giant said the data exposed “may have included email address, your preferred display name, password, gender, and date of birth only to certain business partners…

Coca-Cola, Pepsi and Nestle Named Top Plastic Polluters For Third Year In a Row

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and Nestlé have been accused of “zero progress” on reducing plastic waste, after being named the world’s top plastic polluters for the third year in a row. Coca-Cola was ranked the world’s No 1 plastic polluter by Break Free From Plastic in its annual audit, after its beverage bottles were…

Plastic bottles dumped in rivers can travel thousands of kilometres

Tracking the movements of plastic bottles released along the Ganges river shows they can travel as far as 3000 kilometres in less than 100 days. Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2261333-plastic-bottles-dumped-in-rivers-can-travel-thousands-of-kilometres/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…

Curiosity rover spots signs of ancient megafloods on Mars

We already know that Gale Crater on Mars used to hold a lake or series of lakes a few billion years ago. Now, NASA’s Curiosity rover has found evidence for ancient giant floods that washed through the region as well. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/megafloods-gale-crater-mars-life-curiosity-rover…

Scientists Produce Rare Diamonds In Minutes At Room Temperature

Iwastheone writes: While traditional diamonds are formed over billions of years deep in the Earth where extreme pressures and temperatures provide just the right conditions to crystalize carbon, scientists are working on more expedient ways of forging the precious stones. An international team of researchers has succeeded in whittling this process down to mere minutes, demonstrating a new technique where they…

Rivers of air in the sky are melting huge patches of Antarctic sea ice

Rivers of warm air transported across the atmosphere have been found to play a major role in the appearance of vast areas of open water in Antarctic sea ice Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2259556-rivers-of-air-in-the-sky-are-melting-huge-patches-of-antarctic-sea-ice/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…

GPS and Water Don’t Mix. So Scientists Have Found a New Way To Navigate Under the Sea

An anonymous reader quotes a report from ZDNet: [E]ven today’s most sophisticated GPS systems are still unable to map a huge chunk of the Earth: that which is located under oceans, seas, or rivers. The technology, in effect, doesn’t mix well with water, which breaks down the radio waves GPS relies on to function. MIT scientists have been looking at ways…

Top 4 most promising worlds for alien life in the solar system

Where are the other most promising locations for extraterrestrial life in our solar system? Source: https://earthsky.org/space/et-alien-life-most-likely-worlds-solar-system…

Searching for habitable exoplanets? Look for phosphorus

Scientists develop a new way to search for potentially habitable exoplanets by measuring the amount of phosphorus in their stars. Such planets should also have abundant phosphorus – necessary for life on Earth – increasing the chances for life. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/phosphorus-in-stars-and-biomarker-habitable-exoplanets…