For the first time, astronomers have obtained an image of the very young gas giant exoplanet Beta Pictoris c, 63 light-years away. Its sibling, Beta Pictoris b, was discovered and photographed in 2008. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/direct-imaging-of-exoplanet-beta-pictoris-c…
Tag: sensitivity
What’s the birthstone for October?
If you were born in October, your birth month has 2 birthstones: opal and tourmaline. Source: https://earthsky.org/human-world/october-birthstone-opal-tourmaline…
Physicists Argue That Black Holes From the Big Bang Could Be the Dark Matter
Long-time Slashdot reader fahrbot-bot quotes Quanta magazine:
It was an old idea of Stephen Hawking’s: Unseen “primordial” black holes might be the hidden dark matter. It fell out of favor for decades, but a new series of studies has shown how the theory can work… Their very blackness makes it hard to estimate how many black holes inhabit the cosmos and how…
Physicists develop a method to improve gravitational wave detector sensitivity
Gravitational wave detectors have opened a new window to the universe by measuring the ripples in spacetime produced by colliding black holes and neutron stars, but they are ultimately limited by quantum fluctuations induced by light reflecting off of mirrors. LSU Ph.D. physics alumnus Jonathan Cripe and his team of LSU researchers have conducted a new experiment with scientists from Caltech…
Search for ETs among 10 million stars comes up empty
Astronomers used a radio telescope in Australia to search for artificial radio signals among 10 million stars. The search came up empty. But, they say, that’s not bad news for those hoping to find intelligent extraterrestrials. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/search-for-extraterrestrial-intelligence-10-million-stars…
China Would Rather See TikTok US Close Than a Forced Sale
Beijing opposes a forced sale of TikTok’s U.S. operations by its Chinese owner ByteDance, and would prefer to see the short video app shut down in the United States, Reuters reported Friday, citing three people with direct knowledge of the matter. From a report: ByteDance has been in talks to sell TikTok’s U.S. business to potential buyers including Microsoft and Oracle…
Quantum light squeezes the noise out of microscopy signals
Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory used quantum optics to advance state-of-the-art microscopy and illuminate a path to detecting material properties with greater sensitivity than is possible with traditional tools. …
Former Mentor Says Mark Zuckerberg Intoxicated by Power, Calls Disinformation ‘A National Security Issue’
MSNBC’s Ali Velshi interviewed Mark Zuckerberg mentor (and early investor) Roger McNamee for a special report on “the disinformation epidemic.” McNamee — also the author of Zucked: Waking Up to the Facebook Catastrophe — says Zuckerberg is too focused on “imposing his vision” to acknowledge the website’s threat to national security, adding “It’s about power.” Ali Velshi: The fact that rumor,…
Your Browsing History Can Uniquely Identify You
An anonymous reader writes:
Researchers from Mozilla report in a study that web browsing histories (the lists of user visited websites) are uniquely identifying users (PDF). In their study that was the case for 99% of users. Treating web browsing histories like fingerprints, the researchers analysed how the users can be reidentified just based on the coarsened list of user-visited websites. In…
DOJ Finally Starts Process of Investigating Nursing Home Deaths From COVID-19
onyxruby writes: The DOJ has finally launched the precursor to an investigation into the mass deaths of senior citizens in nursing homes and long term care facilities. Roughly half of all COVID-19 deaths in the United Stated have occurred in nursing homes. The governors of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Michigan are being requested to provide information to the DOJ….