Jul 30th, 2021 - A new batch of research shows that clay, not water, may be the source of bright spots under Mars’ South Pole. Water is the key ingredient for life on Earth, which is why scientists hoping to find aliens on other worlds are particularly interested in its presence. A team of researchers made a huge splash on this front in 2018 by suggesting that radar observations of bright patches under the southern polar cap of Mars were hidden lakes that could potentially provide a habitat for modern Martian microbes, according to . But a trio of new studies throws cold water on these hypothetical ... [Read More]

Jul 30th, 2021 - James Meador, an independent researcher at the California Institute of Technology, has found evidence that suggests the Apollo 11 ascent stage may still be orbiting the moon. He has written a paper outlining his research and findings and has posted it on the arXiv preprint server. In 1969, NASA astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin made history when they landed a craft successfully on the moon . After more than 21 hours on the surface, the astronauts blasted off the surface in a part of the Eagle lander called the ascent stage. They soon thereafter rendezvoused with Michael Collins in ... [Read More]

Jul 30th, 2021 - People with compromised immune systems and the unvaccinated make up a high percentage of patients who end up in the hospital. Since early July, the average number of coronavirus cases in New York City has quadrupled, from about 250 to more than 1,000 per day, as the more contagious variant Delta has spread. Hospitalizations are also rising, though not as quickly, thanks to vaccinations and improved treatments. Still, hospitalizations are up 90 percent since July 4, and more than 300 people are now hospitalized in New York City with Covid-19. They are, for the most part, unvaccinated, or ... [Read More]

Jul 30th, 2021 - Electrical engineers from the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering have developed a more efficient way of converting light from one wavelength to another, opening the door for improvements in the performance of imaging, sensing, and communication systems. Mona Jarrahi, professor of electrical and computer engineering at UCLA Samueli, led the Nature Communications -published research. Finding an efficient way to convert wavelengths of light is crucial to the improvement of many imaging and sensing technologies. For example, converting incoming light into terahertz wavelengths enables imaging ... [Read More]

Jul 30th, 2021 - Combines integration and performance in one compact, low-power device supported by Microchip’s widely deployed IEEE 1588 Precision Time Protocol (PTP) and synchronization algorithm software modules CHANDLER, Ariz.-(BUSINESS WIRE)-5G technology requires time sources to be synchronized throughout a packet-switched network ten times more accurately than 4G requirements. Microchip Technology Inc. (Nasdaq: MCHP) now makes it possible to achieve 5G performance with the first single-chip, highly integrated, low-power, multi-channel integrated circuit (IC) coupled with the company’s widely ... [Read More]

Jul 30th, 2021 - In late December 2019, a novel coronavirus was first reported in Wuhan, China, which showed high infectivity and caused pneumonia-like symptoms. Scientists later identified this RNA virus as the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus. Owing to rapid mutations, the continual emergence of several SARS-CoV-2 variants have been reported, among which some are regarded to be variants of concern (VOC), e.g., Alpha, Beta, and Delta. Other variants are known as variants of interests (VOI), e.g., Eta, Kappa, Lambda, and Iota. As a result, researchers keep an eye on the ... [Read More]

Jul 30th, 2021 - Paleontologists have uncovered an enormous fossil graveyard of squiggly, alien-like Jurassic sea creatures beneath a limestone quarry in the UK's Cotswolds region. The fossil find includes perhaps tens of thousands of marine invertebrates called echinoderms - meaning "hedgehog skin" in Greek, and including the ancient ancestors of modern starfish, sea cucumbers , sea urchins and frilly-limbed sea lilies - immaculately preserved at all stages of their life cycles, the researchers said in a statement . But right when things were booming, the thriving seabed community met a cataclysmic end; a ... [Read More]

Jul 30th, 2021 - Mutations that make a virus more transmissible are only part of the equation If researchers were predicting which coronavirus variant would take over the world, the Delta variant would not have been their first guess. But since its first appearance in India in December 2020, the highly contagious variant has become the predominant strain of the virus, accounting for more than 90 percent of new COVID cases in the U.S. Delta’s emergence has caused a number of countries to reinstate travel and mask restrictions that had been loosened as vaccination rates rose. Although the vaccines appear ... [Read More]