Asteroid dust in Chicxulub crater seals deal on dino extinction

Scientists examined rock cores taken from the Chicxulub crater in Mexico, site of the asteroid impact that triggered dinosaur extinction, and found iridium, a telltale sign of asteroids. Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/asteroid-dust-iridium-chicxulub-crater-dinosaur-extinction…

What’s the coldest Earth has ever been?

Our planet’s history includes episodes of cold so extreme that glaciers reached sea level in equatorial regions. Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/whats-coldest-earth-has-ever-been…

A record deadly week for US avalanches in early February

2021 has brought a deadly avalanche season. “We’re only halfway through the season and we’re 3/4 of the way to the number of fatalities we’d see in a typical year. The dangerous, record-breaking year keeps avalanche forecasters up at night,” one expert said. Source: https://earthsky.org/human-world/avalanches-2021-united-states-how-to-survive…

Happy birthday to Isaac Newton

Isaac Newton, born on January 4, 1643, discovered the laws of motion and other principles that laid the foundation of physics and astronomy. Source: https://earthsky.org/human-world/this-date-in-science-isaac-newtons-birthday…

Disney Will Test the Limits of ‘Franchise Fatigue’ in 2021 and 2022

An anonymous reader shares a report: In November 2019, just a few days after Disney+ launched, Netflix (NFLX) content chief (now co-CEO) Ted Sarandos, speaking at a Paley Center for Media event, said that Disney (DIS) is “bound by” its content universes, a reference mostly to Marvel and Star Wars. He continued: “I do think the risk of being bound in…

Darth Vader Actor From Original ‘Star Wars’ Trilogy Dies at Age 85

Reuters reports: David Prowse, the English actor who played Darth Vader in the original Star Wars films, has died aged 85, his management company said on Sunday… The champion weightlifter-turned-actor starred as the body, but not the voice, of one of cinema’s best-known villains. Director George Lucas opted to dub another voice onto Prowse’s portrayal of the towering, masked antagonist Darth…

Celebrate Intel’s 4004 Microprocessor Turning 49 Today

Tim McNerney is the project leader at 4004.com, a site commemorating Intel’s original 4004 microprocessor. He’s also long-time Slashdot reader mcpublic, and shares news of a new open source adapter — plus a great moment chip history: Even though Intel debuted its groundbreaking 4004 on November 15th, 1971, 49 years ago today, in the pages of Electronics News, there is something…

Star Wars: Squadrons shows the Force is still with us

The new Star Wars game puts you inside the cockpits of the iconic X-wing and TIE fighter spacecraft. It’s fun, but Star Wars: Squadrons is a good game rather than a great one, says Jacob Aron Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24833060-900-star-wars-squadrons-shows-the-force-is-still-with-us/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…

Test of wave function collapse suggests gravity is not the answer

A team of researchers from Germany, Italy and Hungary has tested a theory that suggests gravity is the force behind quantum collapse and has found no evidence to support it. In their paper published in the journal Nature Physics, the researchers describe underground experiments they conducted to test the impact of gravity on wave functions and what their work showed them….

A New Artificial Material Effectively Cannot Be Cut

Researchers from the University of Stirling, UK, have embedded ceramic spheres in aluminum foam to create a material that couldn’t be cut with angle grinders, power drills or water jet cutters. “They dubbed it Proteus after the shape-shifting Greek god, for the way the material metamorphosed in different ways to defend against attacks,” reports New Scientists. From the report: “It’s pretty…