Uncategorized
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Astronomy
Enormous X-ray bubbles balloon from the center of the Milky Way
Images from the the eROSITA telescope reveal X-ray–emitting blobs surrounding gamma-ray bubbles.
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Health & Medicine
As 2020 comes to an end, here’s what we still don’t know about COVID-19
After making fast progress understanding COVID-19, researchers are still in search of answers.
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Archaeology
Ancient people may have survived desert droughts by melting ice in lava tubes
Bands of charcoal from fires lit long ago, found in an ice core from a New Mexico cave, correspond to five periods of drought over 800 years.
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Health & Medicine
Here’s what you need to know about the COVID-19 vaccines
There are still important unknowns about how Pfizer’s vaccine and others will work once they get injected in people around the world.
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Space
Hayabusa2’s asteroid dirt may hold clues to the early solar system
“We collected the treasure box,” a Japanese space scientist announced after a capsule holding samples from asteroid Ryugu safely landed on Earth.
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Animals
Giant pandas may roll in horse poop to feel warm
By coating themselves in fresh horse manure, wild giant pandas may be seeking a chemical in the poop that inhibits a cold-sensing protein.
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Earth
An enormous supervolcano may be hiding under Alaskan islands
A geologic game of connect the dots reveals hints that Mount Cleveland, the Aleutians’ most active volcano, may sit on a giant undersea crater.
By Beth Geiger -
Space
Here are 10 of Arecibo’s coolest achievements
The now-defunct Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico made myriad discoveries over its 57-year run, including of pulsar planets and ice on Mercury.
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Space
Why losing Arecibo is a big deal for astronomy
The radio telescope at the Arecibo Observatory has collapsed, robbing scientists of a special tool for studying everything from asteroids to galaxies.
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Planetary Science
50 years ago, scientists caught their first glimpse of amino acids from outer space
In 1970, scientists detected amino acids in a meteorite. Fifty years later, a variety of chemical ingredients for life have been found in other space rocks.
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Archaeology
Two stones fuel debate over when America’s first settlers arrived
Stones possibly used to break mastodon bones 130,000 years ago in what is now California get fresh scrutiny.
By Bruce Bower -
Quantum Physics
The new light-based quantum computer Jiuzhang has achieved quantum supremacy
A second type of quantum computer has now performed a calculation impossible for a traditional computer.