Chris Luscombe

The Closest Transiting, Temperate, And Potentially Habitable Earth-Size Exoplanet, Gliese 12b, Have Been Discovered. It’s 40 LY Away In Pisces, Orbits A Red Dwarf In 12.8 Days, And Has A Surface Temperature Of 107°f. Found By NASA’s TESS, Its Atmosphere Will Be Analyzed By The James Webb Telescope, But Human Visitation Is Impractical.

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Scientists In China, For The First Time In The World, Cured A 59-Year-Old Man’s Type 2 Diabetes Using His Stem Cells, Making Him Insulin-Independent. This Is The First Successful Stem Cell-Derived Islet Transplantation. The Patient, Diabetic For 25 Years And Insulin-Dependent After A 2017 Kidney Transplant, Received The Treatment In 2021.

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Nvidia’s New Blackwell B200 GPU Is The World’s Most Powerful Chip For AI. The B200, Which Offers 20 Petaflops, When Combined With The GB200 (Featuring Two B200 GPUs And A Grace CPU), Boosts AI Computing Efficiency And Performance. Nvidia Claims The B200 Cuts Costs And Energy Use By Up To 25x Over The H100 And May Cost $30,000 To $40,000.

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Climeworks Launched “Mammoth,” The World’s Largest Direct Air Capture (DAC) Plant In Iceland, Which Is 10x Bigger Than Orca. It Aims To Remove 36,000 Tons Of CO2 Annually, Using Geothermal Energy To Capture And Store Carbon Underground. While Promising, DAC Tech Faces High Costs, Scalability Issues, And Fossil Fuel Distraction Concerns.

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Fossilized Bones Found In Somerset, England, In 2020, Identified As Part Of A Giant Ichthyosaur From 202 Myrs Ago, And Linked To An 8-Year Prior Find Of A 3 Ft Long Bone, Led To The Identification Of A New Species Of Ichthyosaur, Ichthyotitan Severnensis, Said To Be The Largest Marine Reptile Ever Found. The New Species Was ~82 Ft Long.

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Astronomers Observed, For The First Time, The ‘Glory Effect’ (GE) On An Exoplanet, WASP-76b, Similar To Earth’s & Venus‘s. It Features Concentric, Colorful Rings Of Light Caused By Light Reflecting Off Clouds Made Of A Uniform Substance. Extreme Conditions—Scorching Dayside, Nightside Iron Rain—Permit GE, Offering Insights Into Alien Atm.

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A Wild Animal, An Orangutan In Indonesia, Was Observed For The First Time Applying A Potent Medicinal Plant Directly To A Wound And Then Covering It With The Chewed Plant, Like A Bandage In A Likely Form Of Self-Medication. Other Primates Have Also Been Known To Use Plants For Healing, Which Raises Questions About The Evolution Of Medicine.

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Mercedes Became The First To Sell Autonomous Cars In The US, In CA & NV, Allowing Drivers To Do Other Activities While Car Drives At Low Speeds On Approved Freeways. Their “Level 3” Tech, Drive Pilot, Surpasses Tesla’s Level 2 Tech But Trails Waymo Or GM’s Cruise Near-Total Autonomy Level 4 Tech. Mercedes Aims For Level 4 By 2030.

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Scientists Discovered A Huge Water Reservoir, 3x Earth’s Oceans, 700 Km Deep Within The Mantle In The Rock Ringwoodite. This Find Challenges Theories On Earth’s Water Origin, Suggesting Possibly Internal Rather Than From Comets. Seismic Data Reveals This Underground Ocean, Potentially Reshaping Our Understanding Of The Planet’s Water Cycle.

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In 2024, Brood XIX (13-Year–Largest Periodical Cicada Brood) And Brood XIII (17-Year) Cicadas Will Co-Emerge Across 17 US States, In A Rare Event Seen Every 221 Years. The Adult Cicada Will Mate, Lay Eggs, Then Die, While The Nymphs Will Burrow Into The Ground For The Next Cycle. There Are 3,000 To 5,000 Species Of Cicadas Around The World.

A Researcher, In Queensland, Australia, Has Discovered A Potentially World’s Hairiest Beetle, Excastra Albopilosa, In Dec., 2021. With Long Fluffy White Hairs, It’s Believed To Mimic Fungus-Infected Insects, A Possible Deterrent To Predators. This cm-Long Longhorn Beetle Is Said To Be Of A New Genus, And Only One Specimen Has Been Found.

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A New Tiny 38 cm Tall Species Of The World’s Smallest Deer, Pudella Carlae, Found In Peru‘s Central Andes, Marks The First Cervid Species Discovery In South America In 60+ Years. P. Carlae, A Jack Russell Terrier-Size Deer, Is A Separate Species From The Northern Pudu, & Inhabits Diverse Habitats: The Andean Grasslands To The Cloud Forest.

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Chinese Scientists Created One Of The Stretchiest Materials Known To Science By Linking Polymer Coils With Carbon Atoms. The Elastic Hydrogel (HG) Stretches Up To 15x Its Size Before Reverting To Its Original Shape, Unlike Traditional HGs. The HG, Tested With Robot Grippers, Proved Gentle On Fragile Items, Hinting At Wide Commercial Use.

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The Carrington Event (CE) Of 1859, The Largest Solar Storm (SS) On Record, Was Stronger Than Believed. Historical Magnetograms Show It Reached >500 NT/Minute. SSs, Like CE, Have Occurred Throughout History, But Accurate Data To Measure Their Sizes Spans < 200 Yrs, Highlighting Our Vulnerability To Such Events And The Need For Preparation.

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In Peru‘s Amazon, A 16-Myr-Old Fossil Of Pebanista Yacuruna (PY), The Largest Freshwater Dolphin (FWD), Was Found. ~3.5m Long, It’s ~25% Larger Than Modern FWD. PY Is Said To Be Related To The Modern South Asia FWD. PY Extinction May Be Linked To Ancient Amazon Lake Drainage. This Find Highlights FWD Evolution And Ecosystem Vulnerability.

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Saudi Arabia, With Rumy Alqahtani, Will Make History By Entering The Miss Universe Pageant (MUP) For The First Time. Alqahtani, A 27-Year-Old Seasoned Pageant Contender & Influencer, Has Competed Globally In, E.G., Miss And Mrs Global Asian. The 2023 MUP Was Historic As A Nicaraguan Contestant, Sheynnis Palacios, Won The Pageant For The First Time.

Miassite, RH17S15, Is The World’s First Unconventional Superconductor (USC) Found In Nature And Also Synthesized In Labs, Which Does Not Conform To The Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer Theory (BCS), Joining A Group That Only Includes Lab-Conceived USC. This Discovery Holds Promise For Economically Advancing Industrial Superconductor Technologies.

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Harvard Researchers Have Developed A Breakthrough Eco-Friendly Solid-State Lithium Metal Battery That Is Rechargeable In 10 Mins And Can Be Recharged Over 6,000 Times, More Than Any Pouch-Shaped Battery. The Battery Could Significantly Enhance Electric Vehicle Range. Harvard Would Lease The Battery To Adden Energy To Commercialize It.

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A Farm In Australia Breaks World Record, Certified By Guinness World Records, For Growing The Largest Blueberry Which Is ~4cm-Wide And Weighs 20.4g. The Fruit Breed, An Eterna Breed, Developed By Costa Group, Yields Consistently Large Fruits That Maintain Flavor And Firmness. The Farmers May Preserve The Giant Berry Via A Resin Cast.

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France Made History As The First World Country To Guarantee Abortion Rights In Its Constitution. France Parliament’s Approval, Timed With International Women’s Day, Underscores Abortion As A Fundamental Freedom. Yet, President Macron‘s Bid For EU-Wide Consensus Faces Hurdles Due To Differing Abortion Laws Within Member States, E.G., In Poland And Malta.