New research finds that microplastics are emitted into the atmosphere. Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/microplastic-rain-western-us…
Tag: system
Ocean in Jupiter’s moon Europa ‘could be habitable’
A new model from NASA scientists supports the theory that the interior ocean in Jupiter’s moon Europa would be able to sustain life. In addition they have calculated that this water, believed to be an ocean under the surface ice shell, could have been formed by breakdown of water-containing minerals due to either tidal forces or radioactive decay. This work, which…
Beneath the surface of our galaxy’s water worlds
Out beyond our solar system, visible only as the smallest dot in space with even the most powerful telescopes, other worlds exist. Many of these worlds, astronomers have discovered, may be much larger than Earth and completely covered in water—basically ocean planets with no protruding land masses. What kind of life could develop on such a world? Could a habitat like…
Emergency Preparedness: How Much Food & Water Per Person
Dr. Michael Beach is an assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing, who teaches and practices disaster preparation and response. He’s a member of disaster medical assistance teams and has helped respond to Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Sandy, and the 2010 earthquake in Haiti—and most recently, those on cruise ships during the COVID-19 […]
The post Emergency Preparedness: How Much…
Mars Is About To Have Its ‘Wright Brothers Moment’
As part of NASA’s next mission to Mars, leaving Earth this summer, the space agency will attempt to do something that has never been done before: fly a helicopter through the rarefied atmosphere of Mars. The New York Times reports: If it works, the small helicopter, named Ingenuity, will open a new way for future robotic explorers to get a bird’s-eye…
Teaching Physics To Neural Networks Removes ‘Chaos Blindness’
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Phys.Org: Researchers from North Carolina State University have discovered that teaching physics to neural networks enables those networks to better adapt to chaos within their environment. Neural networks are an advanced type of AI loosely based on the way that our brains work. Our natural neurons exchange electrical impulses according to the strengths of…
What Comes After Zoom?
Analyst Benedict Evans writes: There will be video in everything, just as there is voice in everything, and there will be a great deal of proliferation into industry verticals on one hand and into unbundling pieces of the tech stack on the other. On one hand video in healthcare, education or insurance is about the workflow, the data model and the…
NASA’s first planetary defense mission target gets a new name
Nearly two decades ago, a near-Earth asteroid was discovered to have a moon and the binary system was given the name “Didymos”—Greek for “twin,” a loose description of the larger main body and the smaller orbiting moon, which became unofficially known as Didymos B. Source: https://phys.org/news/2020-06-nasa-planetary-defense-mission.html…
China launches final Beidou satellite to complete GPS-like navigation system
It completes a navigation satellite constellation decades in the making. Source: https://www.livescience.com/china-launches-final-beidou-navigation-satellite.html
Hummingbirds see colors we can only imagine
“Our experiments enabled us to get a sneak peek into what the world looks like to a hummingbird,” one scientist said. Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/wild-hummingbirds-see-colors-humans-can-only-imagine…