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10

SpaceX set for seventh test of Starship megarocket

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Elon Musk's SpaceX is gearing up for the seventh orbital flight test of Starship, the colossal prototype rocket the company hopes will help humans colonize Mars.

Private US, Japanese lunar landers launch on single rocket

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One rocket, two missions: lunar landers built by US and Japanese companies launched their "rideshare" to the moon on Wednesday, showcasing the private sector's growing role in space exploration.

Not all Hot Jupiters orbit solo, observations suggest

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Hot Jupiters are giant planets initially known to orbit alone close to their star. During their migration towards their star, these planets were thought to accrete or eject any other planets present. However, this paradigm has been…

Tuesday, Jan 14

23

Image: Earth in far-ultraviolet

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On April 21, 1972, NASA astronaut John W. Young, commander of the Apollo 16 mission, took a far-ultraviolet photo of Earth with an ultraviolet camera. Young's original black-and-white picture was printed on Agfacontour professional film…

US, Japanese lunar landers set to launch on single rocket

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One rocket, two missions: Lunar landers built by US and Japanese companies are poised to "rideshare" to the moon, showcasing the private sector's growing role in space exploration.

Beach guardians: How hidden microbes protect coastal waters in a changing climate

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A hidden world teeming with life lies below beach sands. New Stanford-led research sheds light on how microbial communities in coastal groundwater respond to infiltrating seawater.

Simulated universe previews panoramas from NASA's Roman Telescope

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Astronomers have released a set of more than a million simulated images showcasing the cosmos as NASA's upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will see it. This preview will help scientists explore Roman's myriad science goals.

21

Mission to moon carries tiny red Swedish home to space

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A Swedish artist is about to have the dream of a lifetime fulfilled: A little red model house he created will be launched into space this week and, if all goes according to plan, put on the surface of the moon.

19

Do aliens exist? We studied what scientists really think

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News stories about the likely existence of extraterrestrial life, and our chances of detecting it, tend to be positive. We are often told that we might discover it any time now. Finding life beyond Earth is "only a matter of time", we were…

First-ever detection of a mid-infrared flare in Sagittarius A*, the Milky Way's supermassive massive black hole

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Using the MIRI instrument onboard the James Webb Space Telescope, an international team of scientists made the first-ever detection of a mid-IR flare from Sagittarius A*, the supermassive massive black hole at the heart of the Milky Way.…

18

Smart farming: AI predicts potato growth potential

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A cutting-edge AI tool can now predict how well seed potatoes will grow into healthy potato plants. Developed by biologists from Utrecht University in collaboration with the Delft University of Technology and plant breeders, the tool uses…

17

Team develops plan for 3D-printed microscope, including lens, that costs less than $60

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A team of physicists and engineers at the University of Strathclyde, in Scotland, working with a colleague from the University of Glasgow, has developed the means for 3D printing a microscope, including the lens, for under $60. In their…

Novel pathway shows how blue light damages cellular proteins by bypassing antioxidant defense systems

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A research team from the Department of Chemistry at UNIST has announced that they have identified a novel pathway through which blue light can damage cellular proteins. Blue light, which emanates from sunlight, LED-based display devices,…

16

Paleolithic ingenuity: 13,000-year-old 3D map discovered in France

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Researchers have discovered what may be the world's oldest three-dimensional map, located within a quartzitic sandstone megaclast in the Paris Basin. The research is published in the Oxford Journal of Archaeology.

Gravitational waves could give us insights into fast radio bursts

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Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are mysterious pulses of energy that can last from a fraction of a millisecond to about three seconds. Most of them come from outside the galaxy, although one has been detected coming from a source inside the Milky…

The Dark Side of the ocean: New giant sea bug species named after Darth Vader

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Giant isopods of the genus Bathynomus, which can reach more than 30 cm in length, are known as bọ biển or "sea bugs" in Vietnam. For the first time, one such species was described from Vietnamese waters and named Bathynomus vaderi. The…

15

NASA and Italian Space Agency test future lunar navigation technology

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As the Artemis campaign leads humanity to the moon and eventually Mars, NASA is refining its state-of-the-art navigation and positioning technologies to guide a new era of lunar exploration.

Astronomers discover a new dense sub-Saturn exoplanet

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An international team of astronomers has reported the detection of a new exoplanet orbiting a bright late F-type star. The newfound alien world, designated TOI-6038 A b, is about six times larger and nearly 80 times more massive than Earth…

14

SpaceX sends up 5th Space Coast launch of the year

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SpaceX knocked out another launch on Monday sending up the fifth Space Coast mission of the year.

12

Blue Origin scrubs key test launch again, eyes Thursday

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Blue Origin, the space company founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos, called off the inaugural launch of its huge new rocket again on Monday evening after facing weather issues.

Scientists develop self-assembling molecules with potential applications in targeted drug delivery

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Scientists have taken a major step forward in tackling one of the greatest abiding challenges in chemistry, by learning how to program the self-assembly of molecules in such a way that the end result is predictable and desirable.

Monday, Jan 13

00

Researchers develop novel reverse osmosis membrane to reduce biofouling

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A research team led by Prof. Wan Yinhua from the Institute of Process Engineering (IPE) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has developed a dual-functional reverse osmosis (RO) membrane with enhanced antibacterial and antiadhesion…

23

AI-fabricated 'junk science' floods Google scholar, researchers warn

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AI-generated research is a threat, both in terms of society's knowledge and public trust in science. This was the conclusion made by the researchers from the Swedish School of Library and Information Science, University of Borås, Sweden,…

Could AI replace politicians? A philosopher maps out three possible futures

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From business and public administration to daily life, artificial intelligence is reshaping the world—and politics may be next.

22

Webb watches carbon-rich dust shells form and expand in star system

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Astronomers have long tried to track down how elements like carbon, which is essential for life, become widely distributed across the universe. Now, NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has examined one ongoing source of carbon-rich dust in…

Car use habits foster negative views on carbon taxes—even among environmentalists

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The habit of driving influences even environmentally conscious individuals to view carbon taxation more negatively. This is suggested by a new study published in Ambio, the first of its kind to investigate how habitual behaviors affect…

Deep mining of teaching assessment data to measure quality of online education

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Online education is now ubiquitous and in recent years has fundamentally changed the way many people learn. Various platforms have opened up access to knowledge for millions of people. However, there remains an ongoing challenge: how to…

Increased AI use linked to eroding critical thinking skills

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A study by Michael Gerlich at SBS Swiss Business School has found that increased reliance on artificial intelligence (AI) tools is linked to diminished critical thinking abilities. It points to cognitive offloading as a primary driver of…

21

The dynamics that polarize us on social media are about to get worse

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Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has announced big changes in how the company addresses misinformation across Facebook, Instagram and Threads. Instead of relying on independent third-party factcheckers, Meta will now emulate Elon Musk…

20

Astronomers catch unprecedented features at brink of active black hole

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International teams of astronomers monitoring a supermassive black hole in the heart of a distant galaxy have detected features never seen before using data from NASA missions and other facilities. The features include the launch of a…