Li Na

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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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.

Elizabeth Francis, Aged 114, Is America’s Oldest Resident And 5th Oldest Person On Earth. Francis, A Houstonian, Took The Title After 116-Year-Old Californian Edie Ceccarelli Passed Away. Francis Has 3 Grandchildren, 4 Great-Grandchildren, And 2 Great-Great-Grandchildren. She Lives With Her Daughter Dorothy Williams, 94, And Granddaughter.

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A 14-Foot (4.3 Meters) Odysseus Lander, Built By Intuitive Machines And Sponsored By NASA For $118 Million, Successfully Touched Down Near The South Pole Of The Moon, Marking The First U.S. Landing In Over 50 Years Since NASA’s Famed Apollo Moonwalkers. This Achievement Also Made Intuitive Machines The First Private Company To Achieve A Lunar Landing.

Scientists Innovated Aerogel Glass Bricks With The Highest Insulation For Bricks, Plus Light Transmission. The Product Excels In Thermal Insulation Without Added Thickness, Reducing Lighting/HVAC Energy. This Is A Breakthrough In Building Materials, Even In Space. Eco-Friendly Brick Alternatives Include Ferrock And Sugarcrete Bricks.

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Turkey’s First Astronaut, Alper Gezeravci, Launched With A Swede And An Italian On A $55 Million Per Person Spacex Trip/Mission To The International Space Station. Organized By Axiom Space, Nasa, And Spacex, The Crew, Including A Retired Nasa Astronaut, Will Spend Two Weeks Conducting Experiments And Promoting Education Before Returning Home.

Germany Marks Its First Permanent Troop Deployment Since WWII After Germany And Lithuania Agreed On A Historic Deployment Of 4,800 German Troops To Lithuanian Cities Of Kaunas And Vilnius By 2027. The Plan, Motivated By Regional Security, Aims To Bolster NATO Defense, With Lithuania Committing Infrastructure And Funding.

The World’s Biggest Iceberg, A23a, Stuck For 37 Years In The Weddell Sea, Is Now Moving From Antarctica. A23a Is More Than Twice The Size Of Greater London, 400m Thick, And Set Adrift Due To Natural Conditions. Its Journey May Disrupt Animal Habitats In South Georgia But Contributes Nutrients Upon Melting, Which Is Vital For Ocean Life.

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Nepal Saw Its First Same-Sex Marriage Between Maya Gurung, 35, And Surendra Pandey, 27, In The Lumjung District On Nov. 29, 2023. Following Nepal’s Supreme Court Order Allowing The Registration Of Such Marriage 5 Months Prior, This Marks A Significant Stride, With Taiwan Being The Sole Other Asian Region To Legalize Same-Sex Marriage.

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Surgeons At NYU, In May 2023, Performed The World’s First Full Eye Transplant On Aaron James, 46, Post-Face Transplant Due To A High-Voltage Accident. Early Signs Show Success, But Vision’s Return Remains Unsure. The 21Hr Surgery, A Leap In Optic Nerve Healing, Offers Hope For Treating Blindness, Fueling Prospects For Breakthroughs.

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Researchers Have Produced The Largest Human Brain Cell Map, Encompassing Over 3,000 Cell Types, Through Single-Cell RNA Sequencing Of 3 Million Brain Cells. This Groundbreaking Map Reveals Regional Variations And Gene Regulation Mechanisms, Aiding The Study Of Brain Disorders And Genetics And Providing Deep Insights Into Brain Complexity.

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NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Spacecraft Released A Capsule 63,000 Miles From Earth. The Capsule, Containing The First Asteroid Sample Collected In Space By NASA, Landed In Utah, On 9/24/2023, After A 4-hr Journey. OSIRIS-REx Will Now Divert To The Asteroid Apophis, With The Same Mission To Better Understand Similar Asteroids From The Early Solar System.

India Made History, With Its Chandrayaan-3 Spacecraft, As The First Country To Successfully Land On The Moon‘s Unexplored South Pole. This Achievement, Under Modest Budgets, Also Marks The 4th Lunar Landing After Russia, The U.S., And China. The South Pole’s Significance Lies In Recent Water Ice Discoveries, Potentially Fueling Future Space Exploration.

Singapore Executed Its First Woman In 18 Years For Drug Trafficking, Since Yen May Woen In 2004. Saridewi Binte Djamani, 45, Was Hanged For Possessing 30.72 Grams Of Heroin. But Anti-Death Penalty Advocates Argue That Such Law/Punishment Is Inhumane And Doesn’t Deter Drug Use Or Availability, As A Study In The Philippines Has Found.

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US FDA Has Approved The First OTC Birth Control Pill, Opill, From Perrigo; With The Aim To Increase Access To Contraception & Reduce Unintended Pregnancies, Which Accounts For 50% Of All US Pregnancies. The Pill, Available In Early 2024, Needs Consistent, Same Time, Daily Use. Side Effects Include Irregular Bleeding, Headaches & Nausea.

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The 4th Of July, 2023, Was Earth’s Hottest Day In Up To 125,000 Years. The Global Avg Temp Reached 17.18 Oc, Surpassing The Record Set The Previous Day. This Extreme Temp Is Attributed To El Niño, Exacerbating The Effects Of Global Warming. The Trend Of Broken Temp Records Is Likely To Continue Due To El Niño’s Quickening Of Global Warming.

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The World’s Largest Cruise Ship (WLCS), Royal Caribbean’s (RC) “Icon Of The Seas,” Has Conducted Its First Sea Trials. It Spans 365 M And Weighs ~250,800 Tones; Can Hold 5,610 Passengers And 2,350 Crews. The Ship, Which Boasts The World’s Largest Waterpark At Sea, Will Begin Its Caribbean Sail In Jan. 2024. The Previous WLCS Is RC’s “Wonder Of The Seas.”

Scientists Made A Breakthrough In Their 60-Year Quest To Explore Earth’s Depths. They Recovered Pieces Of Rocky Mantle From Atlantis Massif In The North Atlantic. Although They Didn’t Reach The Mantle, They Obtained The Deepest Mantle Rock Ever Collected, Providing Valuable Data For, E.g., Understanding Earth’s Composition, & Life’s Origin

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