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Content provided by “Sci-News”, 03 April 2019.

Accessed on 03 April 2019, 1715 UTC.

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STRONOMY

AI Finds Elusive Super-Earths in K2 Data

An artist’s impression of the super-Earth K2-265b. Image credit: Sci-News.com.A team of researchers from Google Brain, the University of Texas at Austin, MIT, the University of California, Berkeley, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, NASA, and NOAO has used artificial intelligence (AI) to find two more exoplanets in data from NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope’s extended mission, K2. An artist’s impression of the super-Earth K2-265b. Image credit: Sci-News.com. The…

SPACE EXPLORATION

Methane on Mars: New Discovery or Just Lot of Hot Air?

Mosaic of the Valles Marineris hemisphere of Mars projected into point perspective, a view similar to that which one would see from a spacecraft. The distance is 1,550 miles (2,500 km) from the surface of the planet. The mosaic is composed of 102 Viking Orbiter images of Mars. The center of the scene shows the entire Valles Marineris canyon system, over 1,240 miles (2,000 km) long and up to 5 miles (8 km) deep, extending form Noctis Labyrinthus, the arcuate system of graben to the west, to the chaotic terrain to the east. Many huge ancient river channels begin from the chaotic terrain from north-central canyons and run north. The three Tharsis volcanoes (dark red spots), each about 15.5 miles (25 km) high, are visible to the west. South of Valles Marineris is very ancient terrain covered by many impact craters. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.The discovery of life on Mars would get pretty much everyone excited. But the scientists hunting for it would probably be happy no matter what the outcome of their search — whether life turned out to extinct, dormant or extant. They’d even consider finding no evidence of life whatsoever to be an important discovery. But, as the saying goes, absence of evidence is not evidence of absence,…

ARCHAEOLOGY

Archaeologists May Have Found Long-Lost Monastery of Princess Aebbe

Coldingham Priory. Image credit: DigVentures / Aerial Cam.A team of professional and amateur archaeologists believe they may have discovered the monastery of Aebbe (615-683 CE), a powerful Anglo-Saxon woman who helped shape British history. Coldingham Priory. Image credit: DigVentures / Aerial Cam. Born a pagan princess, Aebbe (Æbbe of Coldingham) was the daughter of King Ethelfrith of Bernicia and Acha of Deira. Bernicia and Deira were Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in…

PALEONTOLOGY

66-Million-Year-Old Fossil Site Preserves Animals Killed within Minutes of Chicxulub Impact

The Chicxulub impact 66 million years ago generated a tsunami-like wave in an inland sea that killed and buried fish, mammals, insects and a Triceratops, the first victims of a cataclysm that led to Earth’s last mass extinction. Image credit: Robert DePalma.At a site dubbed Tanis in North Dakota’s Hell Creek Formation, paleontologists have unearthed an assemblage of exquisitely-preserved fossilized organisms — fish stacked one atop another and mixed in with burned tree trunks, conifer branches, mammals, mosasaur bones, insects, the partial carcass of a Triceratops, marine microorganisms called dinoflagellates and snail-like marine cephalopods…

BIOLOGY

Researchers Find Coin-Sized Frogs in Madagascar

Mini mum in Manombo Special Reserve, lateral view on a thumbnail. Image credit: Scherz et al, doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0213314.An international team led by Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München scientist Mark Scherz has described a new genus and five new species of tiny frogs from the island of Madagascar. Mini mum in Manombo Special Reserve, lateral view on a thumbnail. Image credit: Scherz et al, doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0213314. “The five new species belong to Microhylidae (‘narrow-mouthed’ frogs), a highly…

PHYSICS

Physicists Create ‘Featherweight’ Oxygen

Webb et al discovered oxygen-11 using the High Resolution Array at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory. Image credit: Michigan State University.A team of nuclear physicists from the Washington University, St. Louis, Michigan State University, Western Michigan University and the University of Connecticut has created and characterized ‘featherweight’ oxygen — the lightest-ever version of the familiar oxygen, with only three neutrons to its eight protons. The results appear in the journal Physical Review Letters. Webb et al discovered…

MEDICINE

Phyjama: Smart Pajama with Self-Powered Sensors Could Help Improve Sleep Patterns

Ordinary-looking pajamas are transformed into ‘smart’ ones with five strategically placed sensors that measure heartbeat, respiration and posture. Image credit: Trisha L. Andrew.A team of researchers led by University of Massachusettes Amherst’s Dr. Trisha Andrew has developed ‘smart’ pajamas embedded with self-powered sensors that provide unobtrusive and continuous monitoring of heartbeat, breathing and sleep posture. Ordinary-looking pajamas are transformed into ‘smart’ ones with five strategically placed sensors that measure heartbeat, respiration and posture….

GENETICS

Scientists Sequence Genomes of English Walnut and Its Wild Relative

Members of the genus Juglans are wind-pollinated trees in the family Juglandaceae.A research team led by scientists from the University of California, Davis, has used a unique approach to sequence the genomes of the English walnut (Juglans regia) and its wild North American relative, the little walnut (Juglans microcarpa), by tapping into the capabilities of two state-of-the-art technologies: long-read DNA sequencing and optical genome mapping. Members of the genus Juglans are…

GEOLOGY

Geologists Offer New Theory about Earth’s Thermal Evolution

After studying thousands of rocks samples dating at least 2.5 billion years old, Kamber & Tomlinson determined the Earth’s upper mantle was much cooler than previously thought. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.A new theory on the thermal evolution of Earth explains why the planet’s upper mantle was cool enough to produce diamonds in the Archean Eon between 4 billion and 2.5 billion years ago, rather than turning into lumps of common graphite. After studying thousands of rocks samples dating at least 2.5 billion years old, Kamber & Tomlinson determined the Earth’s upper mantle was much cooler than…

OTHER SCIENCES

Phyjama: Smart Pajama with Self-Powered Sensors Could Help Improve Sleep Patterns

Ordinary-looking pajamas are transformed into ‘smart’ ones with five strategically placed sensors that measure heartbeat, respiration and posture. Image credit: Trisha L. Andrew.A team of researchers led by University of Massachusettes Amherst’s Dr. Trisha Andrew has developed ‘smart’ pajamas embedded with self-powered sensors that provide unobtrusive and continuous monitoring of heartbeat, breathing and sleep posture. Ordinary-looking pajamas are transformed into ‘smart’ ones with five strategically placed sensors that measure heartbeat, respiration and posture….

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For the latest trends in science, technology, medicine, health, environment, cyber security, and artificial intelligence (AI), please check this blog daily.  Thanks for joining us today.
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Until next time,
Russ Roberts
https://hawaiidigest.science.blog (backup/alternate website).

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