Zhang Wei

The Closest Transiting, Temperate, And Potentially Habitable Earth-Size Exoplanet, Gliese 12b, Has 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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French Bakers In Paris Broke A Guinness World Record On 5/5/24, Baking A 140.53-Meters-Long Baguette, Surpassing Italy‘s 132.62 M Record Set 5 Years Ago. The Record-Breaking Bread, Baked During An Event Organized For The French Confederation Of Bakers And Pastry Chef, Was Shared With The Public, And The Rest Will Be Given To The Homeless.

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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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