Science, Space, & Robotics - Page 383

A meteorite that fell from space and landed on Earth has given scientists and researchers evidence to suggest that the building blocks of life are capable of being found outside of Earth.

The meteorite is called Acfer 086 and landed in Algeria around 30 years ago. Since then, scientists have performed studies on the meteorite and now have recently discovered some vital information. Researchers found the protein hemolithin inside the meteorite, and if you don't know what hemolithin is, its a small protein that's composed of the amino acid glycine, iron, lithium, and oxygen.

Scientists aren't surprised at finding these elements, but what they are surprised at is finding these elements in this specific configuration - marking the first time a configuration of this caliber has been found on Earth. While the composition of the molecule contains elements we are familiar with, the proteins ratio of hydrogen to isotope deuterium didn't match anything scientists have found on Earth.

Twitter is "strongly encouraging" that employees work from home if it is possible in their particular job, in order to "lower the probability of the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus for us - and the world around us".

The company is also putting in restrictions on particular employees based in Hong Kong, Japan, and South Korea which are all required to work from home under local government restriction laws. Twitter said it is shifting away from having physical meetings to remoting into a meeting instead, in the virtual world safe from coronavirus.

With so many Twitter employees pushed into working from home, the company is using this time to deep clean and sanitize all spaces in their buildings. Twitter explains: "For those employees who prefer or need to come into the offices, they will remain open for business. Our Real Estate & Workplace team is increasing deep cleaning and sanitizing in all spaces, as well as more visual reminders for personal hygiene best practices and pre-packaged, pre-composed, and pre-plated food options".

The world of physics was turned on its head once quantum mechanics was discovered, and since that point, in time, the topic has been a big topic of debate in the scientific world.

One of the leading physicists who are pursuing an understanding of quantum mechanics is theoretical physicist Sean Carroll. In Carroll's new book, 'Something Deeply Hidden: Quantum Worlds And The Emergence Of Spacetime' he pushes forth the Many World's Theory, or parallel universe understanding quantum mechanics. Now, this is where things get tricky to understand, and rather than attempting to recite such a complex topic, I'd advise you to watch the above video.

Carroll is taking his theory to Australian audiences in "Our Preposterous Universe" tour, and has also recently spoken to News.com.au about his theory. According to News.com.au, Carroll's base theory on observing an electron in the quantum state is that the electron is actually in all of its possible positions at once, but just different parallel universes. Here's what is stated by the publication, "Out of the known mechanics of quantum states must emerge multiple, parallel worlds."

NASA has opened its doors to accept applications from the public to become astronauts. The requirements or qualifications are as high as you might expect.

NASA will be accepting applications until the 31st of March at 11:59 PM Eastern. While you might not think that's enough time, that's what you shouldn't be worrying about, the qualifications are the mind boggler. For you to apply to become an astronaut, you must be a US citizen with either a master's degree in a STEM field (science, technology, engineering, mathematics), a medical doctorate, or a record of completing a test pilot school program with a bachelors degree in STEM.

That's not all, though. Applicants will also need real-world experience of at "least two years of related, progressively responsible professional experience", or "1,000 hours of pilot-in-command time in jet aircraft". On top of that, astronaut candidates will be required to pass NASA's long-duration spaceflight physical. There will also be an online assessment that will last for about two hours. If you are interested in reading more about becoming an astronaut, head on over to the official NASA website to learn more.

Searching for planets in the vastness of space is time-consuming work for astronomers, but sometimes all you need on your side if a bit of beginner's luck.

University of British Columbia student Michelle Kunimoto had a little bit of that beginner's luck and has now officially found 17 new planets. Kunimoto has published a new paper in The Astronomical Journal detailing her discoveries, one of which is extremely promising as the planet is approximately Earth-sized and is located in the Goldilocks Zone of its neighboring star.

The planet is now called KIC-7340288 b it's about 50% larger than Earth, and its located in the Goldilocks zone of its star, meaning that it's at the right temperature to possibly have liquid water on its surface. Kunimoto said in a statement, "This planet is about a thousand light-years away, so we're not getting there anytime soon! But this is a really exciting find, since there have only been 15 small, confirmed planets in the Habitable Zone found in Kepler data so far."

The effects of coronavirus are having larger and larger impacts on business, with tech giants Amazon and Google now pushing new restrictions on employee travel over coronavirus, or COVID-19.

Amazon has requested that its 798,000 employees stop all non-essential travel immediately, which includes both domestic and international travel. This move from Amazon comes after the company restricted travel to China in February with its employees, but now the restrictions apply globally, and domestically.

Moving over to everything giant Google, which has increased its employee travel restrictions to include Japan and South Korea -- a list that already banned travel to China, Iran, and two Italian regions: Lombardy and Veneto. A Google spokesperson said: "We can confirm that one employee from our Zurich office has been diagnosed with the coronavirus. They were in the Zurich office for a limited time, before they had any symptoms. We have taken -- and will continue to take - all necessary precautionary measures, following the advice of public health officials, as we prioritize everyone's health and safety".

With coronavirus or COVID-19 spreading throughout the world, 'stay-at-home' companies like Netflix are benefiting the most according to industry analysts.

BMO Capital Market analyst Dan Salmon wrote in a research note on Friday that Netflix "is an obvious beneficiary if consumers stay home due to coronavirus (COVID-19 virus) concerns, and this has been reflected in considerable stock price outperformance this week". Netflix shares were up 0.8% this week, after the worst sell-off on Wall Street in close to 9 years.

It's not just Netflix that is an "obvious beneficiary" of the coronavirus keeping people safer at home, but more internet-connected customers and services are benefiting. These include Facebook, Amazon, and others -- but throw in Microsoft, Sony, and every game developer and streaming service out there -- hell, including NVIDIA's just-launched GeForce NOW service into the mix.

Akira fans will remember the iconic and trend setting 1988 Japanese animated movie predicting that Tokyo would win the right to have the 2020 Olympics hosted in their country... but it gets freakier.

In a scene from the movie, there is a sign that encourages citizens to throw their support behind the 2020 Olympics to make it a success. But underneath the sign in the movie Akira, someone sprayed "Just cancel it!" underneath -- with the sign above noting "147 Days Until The Games".

Well, the Friday just gone (yesterday) was 147 days until the opening ceremony of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics -- which kicks off in July 24, 2020. Right now, 'Just Cancel It!' is trending on Japanese Twitter, putting Akira back into the spotlight with the recent news that the coronavirus outbreak might force the Tokyo 2020 Olympics to be canceled.

Astronomers have just detected the biggest explosion in the Universe ever recorded. The only explosion that comes close to this explosion is the Big Bang.

In a distant galaxy, about 390 million light-years away from Earth called the Ophiuchus galaxy cluster, astronomers detected what is now recorded as the biggest explosion in the Universe since the original Big Bang. This explosion came from a supermassive black hole and released five times more energy than the last biggest explosion ever recorded. According to Professor Melanie Johnston-Hollitt, from the Curtin University node of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research, "We've seen outbursts in the centres of galaxies before but this one is really, really massive."

Astronomers also don't know why the explosion was so big, Johnston-Hollitt states, "And we don't know why it's so big. But it happened very slowly-like an explosion in slow motion that took place over hundreds of millions of years." Researchers estimated how large the explosion was and found that it happened to tear a hole in the galaxy cluster that's so large that fifteen Milky Way's can be placed in a row there.

China has had a lunar lander stationed on the dark side of the Moon since 2019, and since it's been there, it has relayed back some interesting information. Now, the lander has relayed back some new information about the Moon's surface.

In a new paper published in Science Advances, China's lander called Yutu 2 has performed some new experiments on the Moon's surface using the rover's ground-penetrating radar tools. Yutu 2 used its radar to examine the Moon's surface and found that the top layer, which mostly consists of pale, dusty soil, sprinkled in with some rock that stretches down beneath the surface for about 39 feet.

After that layer is the second layer, which consists of much larger grains of soil and much more larger stones and rocks, this layer continues down beneath the Moon for about 40 feet. The final layer of the Moon stretches another 50 feet below the second layer and consists of even larger stones, but surprisingly has a mixture of both large and fine grains of soil. Unfortunately, the instrument that was used to measure these layers reached its maximum capabilities at this layer, so we don't know what's beneath it.