“This study significantly changes the view of Venus from a mostly inactive planet to one whose interior is still churning and can feed many active volcanoes,” one scientist said. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/venus-3d-model-evidence-active-volcanoes…
Tag: University of Maryland
Washington Post: Asymptomatic ‘Superspreaders’ May Be Propelling the Pandemic
Saturday the Washington Post (in an article republished in Stars and Stripes) took a closer look at what’s known as “superspreading events”:
Many scientists say such infection bursts — probably sparked by a single, highly infectious individual who may show no signs of illness and unwittingly share an enclosed space with many others — are driving the pandemic. They worry these cases,…
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…
Could Brain Diseases Like Alzheimer’s Be Treated With Flashing Lights?
Writing for Quanta magazine, an adjunct professor of neuroscience at the University of Maryland described an intriguing study led by MIT neuroscientist Li-Huei Tsai: Incredible as it may sound, the researchers improved the brains of animals with Alzheimer’s simply by using LED lights that flashed 40 times a second. Even sound played at this charmed frequency, 40 hertz, had a similar…
Will Cellphone Tracing Bring a Tolerance of Surveillance?
An anonymous reader quotes the Washington Post:
In a matter of months, tens of millions of people in dozens of countries have been placed under surveillance. Governments, private companies and researchers observe the health, habits and movements of citizens, often without their consent. It is a massive effort, aimed at enforcing quarantine rules or tracing the spread of the coronavirus, that has…
Breakup of comet ATLAS
The Hubble Space Telescope has provided astronomers with the sharpest view yet of the breakup of comet C/2019 Y4 (ATLAS). Source: https://earthsky.org/space/breakup-comet-atlas-c2019-y4-hubble-image-april2020…
Producing solar power at night
Scientists have developed a new prototype of nighttime solar cells that can produce electricity at night through a radiative cooling mechanism. Source: https://earthsky.org/human-world/solar-power-photovoltaic-production-at-night…
Predicting a Post-Pandemic Future: Remote Working and Distance Learning?
This week Politico published predictions from 34 “big thinkers” about what the future will be like after the coronavirus pandemic. (An associate professor of government and politics at the University of Maryland argues that “The Reagan era is over. The widely accepted idea that government is inherently bad won’t persist after coronavirus.”) Others predict a future with voting from mobile devices…
Scientists Invent a Lithium-Ion Battery That Works Even When It’s On Fire
A team of scientists led by Yi Cui, a materials scientist at Stanford, have created a new “fireproof” solid-state electrolyte for use in lithium-ion batteries. IEEE Spectrum reports: They used a flame-retardant material called decabromodiphenyl ethane, or DBDPE for short. To make their new solid-state electrolyte, the team first created a thin film by combining DBDPE with polyimide, a mechanical enforcer….
Journey to the center of Mars: A new compositional model for the red planet
While InSight’s seismometer has been patiently waiting for the next big marsquake to illuminate its interior and define its crust-mantle-core structure, two scientists, Takashi Yoshizaki (Tohoku University) and Bill McDonough (Tohoku University and University of Maryland, College Park), have built a new compositional model for Mars. They used rocks from Mars and measurements from orbiting satellites to predict the depth to…