Could Drinking Coffee Lower Your Risk of Heart Failure?

The New York Times reports: A large analysis looked at hundreds of factors that may influence the risk of heart failure and found one dietary factor in particular that was associated with a lower risk: drinking coffee… The analysis included extensive, decades-long data from three large health studies with 21,361 participants, and used a method called machine learning that uses computers…

Has the polar vortex arrived? What is it?

The polar vortex is an enormous, 3-dimensional ring of winds that surrounds the North and South poles during each hemisphere’s winter. The polar vortex influences the jet stream, which can bring cold winter weather to the U.S. and Europe. Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/what-is-the-polar-vortex…

Coursera partners with Howard University, expands social justice content, and collaborates with Facebook to offer scholarships to Black learners

By Betty Vandenbosch, Chief Content Officer at Coursera At Coursera, we believe that learning is the source of human progress — that it has the power to transform our world. In 2020, we strengthened our commitment to address systemic racism through learning. We focused on creating social justice and anti-racism content and elevating Black voices […]
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Exchange bias set in a spin-glass phase could arise in a disordered antiferromagnet

A team of researchers from the University of California, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the Nuclear Research Center—Negev and the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory has developed a way to isolate antiferromagnet (AFM) heterostructures in the absence of a ferromagnet (FM) to study the coupling that occurs between AFM order parameters and spin-glass parameters. In their paper published in the journal Nature…

Hostile space weather might not be all bad for exoplanet life

A new study from Northwestern University shows that solar flares – space weather – might not always be as dangerous for life on exoplanets as typically thought. In fact, it might even help astronomers discover alien life on distant worlds. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/hostile-space-weather-might-not-be-all-bad-for-exoplanet-life…

Researchers get a look at the sun’s dusty environment

Researchers from the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at the University of Colorado Boulder are diving into the dusty environment that surrounds the sun—a search that could help to reveal how planets like Earth come into being. Source: https://phys.org/news/2020-12-sun-dusty-environment.html…

To reduce chances of spreading coronavirus, keep indoor air clean

Being indoors with other people is a recipe for spreading the coronavirus. But removing airborne particles through proper ventilation and air filtration can reduce some of that risk. Source: https://earthsky.org/human-world/keeping-indoor-air-clean-reduce-spread-coronavirus…

Tree rings may hold clues to impacts of distant supernovas on Earth

Massive explosions of energy happening thousands of light-years from Earth may have left traces in our planet’s biology and geology, according to new research by University of Colorado Boulder geoscientist Robert Brakenridge. Source: https://phys.org/news/2020-11-tree-clues-impacts-distant-supernovas.html…

Tiny moon shadows may harbor hidden stores of ice

Hidden pockets of water could be much more common on the surface of the moon than scientists once suspected, according to new research led by the University of Colorado Boulder. In some cases, these tiny patches of ice might exist in permanent shadows no bigger than a penny. Source: https://phys.org/news/2020-10-tiny-moon-shadows-harbor-hidden.html…

NASA’s Probe Sampled Too Much From Asteroid Bennu and Now It’s Leaking

Iwastheone shares some space news from OPB: A NASA spacecraft sent out to collect a sample of rock and dust from an asteroid has nabbed so much that it’s created an unexpected problem. Rocks are jammed in the device in a way that’s keeping a Mylar flap open, creating a gap that’s letting some of the collected pebbles and dust drift…