SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY
This is the first time that scientists have observed biological magnetoreception in live, unaltered cells in real-time
Birds and other animals are known to navigate their way using the Earth’s magnetic field (geomagnetic field). The so-called sixth sense for these animals is actually a process called magnetoreception. However, the exact functioning of the phenomenon was somewhat of a mystery until now. The leading theory explaining the process involves chemical reactions taking place at a cellular level through what’s called the radical pair mechanism.
Just like magnets can attract and repel electrons, the geomagnetic field influences animal behavior by inciting chemical reactions at the cellular level. When some molecules are excited by light, an electron can jump from one molecule to another and create two molecules with single electrons, known as a radical pair. …
MESSAGING PRIVACY
The biggest messaging app in the World is receiving a strong backlash over its recently announced privacy update
Last week, the most popular messaging platform in the World, WhatsApp, announced that it would be introducing new terms, beginning February 8, obliging users to share personal data with parent company Facebook — including phone number and location. The timing of the privacy update couldn’t have come at a worse time from the social media giant, which is already facing antitrust lawsuits filed by the US Federal Trade Commission and 40 U.S states.
With over 2 billion users around the World, WhatsApp pretty much controls the messaging platform arena, although other apps have begun to gain traction recently. The messaging app is now scrambling to do damage control as millions of users started dumping the platform for rivals like Signal and Telegram. …
ELASTIC DIAMONDS
They can then be used for next-gen devices in microelectronics, photonics, & quantum information technologies
Although the precious metal is known for its high monetary value, diamond is also the hardest material found in nature. In other words, it does not have elastic properties at all… well almost — considering the stretchiest materials can reach tensile elastic strains of a few hundred percent, bulk diamond tops out at less than 0.4%.
A team of researchers led by the City University of Hong Kong (CityU) in collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT) has now demonstrated for the first time that the nanoscale diamonds can be stretched to limits not possible before. …
UNUSUAL STAR
Researchers believe the strange celestial object might be a result of a weak supernova explosion between two white dwarfs
This recent discovery just highlights the fact that space is full of surprises and we will probably never be able to say that we know everything that’s out there. Stars are constantly undergoing the process of creation and destruction in the universe. The journey begins from the star-forming nurseries called the Nebulae to their ultimate destruction via supernovae to become a white dwarf, neutron star, or even a black hole.
A new discovery has now thrown another curveball at us with regards to this process. Astronomers from the University of Potsdam have now discovered a strange celestial object while studying the system called IRAS 00500+6713 — which first caught the attention of researchers, back in 2019. …
QUANTUM TELEPORTATION RECORD
Scientists were able to set a new record of creating sustained, high-fidelity quantum teleportation
Although practical quantum computers might still be some way off in the future, researchers have been hard at work to make that possible — by solving one problem at a time. Back in 2019, I wrote about how quantum computers offer a clear edge in efficiency over the traditional transistor-based computer systems, and how this could eventually lead to a super-secure quantum internet in the future. And with the mounting Cybersecurity issues in recent years, it is extremely important that we do.
What makes this futuristic tech so intriguing is its ability to process information using Qubits, existing simultaneously in both states 0 and 1, unlike the traditional computer chips. This gives rise to the phenomenon of entanglement — a process where two fundamental particles are joined together in such a way that nothing else can share their information. But there is a major hurdle in developing practical quantum networks since they require very expensive exotic materials like superconducting metals. …
NUCLEAR FUSION
Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research (KSTAR) succeeds in maintaining high-temperature plasma for 20 seconds
Almost one year ago, I wrote about how China was endeavoring to make 2020 the year when it achieves nuclear fusion via its artificial sun — called the HL-2M Tokamak. The production of stable nuclear fusion energy has been a pipe dream for scientists. This complex process takes place naturally on our sun, which produces limitless amounts of sustainable energy. However, the process of joining two lighter atomic nuclei to form a heavier nucleus releases massive amounts of energy and the process is unstable and difficult to control.
Earlier in 2019 summer, Physicists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison created a “Mini Sun” to better understand the processes going on on our star. While projects like the HL-2M Tokamak project are trying to generate nuclear fusion energy by heating deuterium-tritium (two types of hydrogen) to insanely hot temperatures like 100 million degrees, others like HB-11 energy intend to create an unlimited source of clean, safe & reliable energy by using fuels that are abundant in nature, without producing radioactive waste. …
WEEKLY BUSINESS ROUNDUP
The state of Financial markets & Economies, Weekly Charts, Business Trends & Statistics
Despite a disappointing December jobs report out of the U.S, the equities still managed to eke out a weekly gain. This accompanied by the highest rate of daily COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. so far, was not enough to dissuade the investors from buying stocks. Having said that, more money is moving into cash and bonds than stocks lately. None of these risks, however, have managed to stop the major equity markets from pushing to all-time highs.
Talking about cash, it has been a while since the Greenback posted two daily green candles. The reserve currency has been under relentless pressure from the bears lately, which seems to be taking a break right now. The dollar index is still far from recovery mode. The move-up looks constructive as the index seems to be finding some support near levels last seen almost three years ago. More stimulus from the U.S …
ALIEN COMMUNICATION?
The phenomenon under investigation is intriguing radio wave emission coming from the nearest star to the sun
Sky gazers have forever have been intrigued by the possibility of alien life. Over the years, they have wondered if we are the only intelligent life out there. The quest for communicating with a possible alien civilization started off with Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence (SETI) in 1959. But it wasn’t till 1977 that the first sounds of presumed alien communication were heard by astronomer Jerry Ehman of Ohio State University.
The infamous “Wow signal” was a 72-second burst of radio waves. It became an unofficial proof for many as the existence of alien life. The scientific community has been active ever since looking for solid proof to prove this hypothesis. It wasn’t until 2007 that the detection of Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) of random nature got the curiosity of astronomers going again. …
$1 TRILLION CRYPTO MARKET CAP
Crypto market cap has crossed the $1 trillion-mark as BTC price continues to skyrocket amid an extreme buying frenzy
There’s no letup in the mammoth crypto rally led by Bitcoin, as the premier digital currency charts a newer all-time high (ATH) by taking out another psychological barrier of $40k. Hard to imagine that the BTC price was hovering around $10k, only about a couple of months ago. However, the bigger news was another landmark that the crypto market hit yesterday — achieving a collective market cap of $1 trillion.
At the time of writing, it stood at $1.059 trillion. Bitcoin has not been the only cryptocurrency on a roll lately — Alt. coins have also started to show some strength as an investment in BTC has gotten too expensive for many. The leader of Alt. coins, Ethereum has come alive with the onset of the new year. …
CRYPTO MALWARE
Hackers have been running this malware operation since the beginning of 2020, with the end goal of stealing victims’ funds
We are still reeling from the massive hack that was discovered last month in which the Russian hackers managed to hack into multiple U.S government agencies in what could perhaps be the largest hack of government systems ever. The scary part was that the hack went unnoticed for months. Cybersecurity has emerged as one of the major pain points for the tech ecosystem and the problem seems to be getting bigger by the day.
Cybersecurity firm Intezer Labs is now pointing to another year-long operation by hackers, which tricks crypto users into installing fake Apps infested with malware. The eventual goal is to steal their crypto funds. As reported by ZDNet, the campaign was discovered in Dec. …
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