Science

GERMI scientists created the thinnest, lightest, and biodegradable paper-based supercapacitor. Supercapacitors are electrochemical charge storage devices with quick charging/discharging cycles, high power density, and extended lifespans. This supercapacitor made from seaweed (marine macroalgae) charges a gadget in 10 seconds. Researchers say the gadget has great tensile strength, performance, and affordability. The product can be employed in electronics, memory backup systems, airbags, heavy machineries, and electric automobiles. Priyank Bhutiya and Syed Zaheer Hasan converted seaweed cellulose nanofibers into graphene oxide and zinc oxide. Anodic paper supercapacitors were made by hydrothermally growing nanowires on seaweed cellulose nanofibers. This supercapacitor can...

The flyby adjusted its route towards Mercury's orbit in 2025. The spacecraft approached the planet's night side within 236 kilometers. The flyover went well, and the ground received close approach camera photos. Monitoring Camera 3 took many pictures of Mercury's rocky surface during the flyby. These 1024 x 1024 black-and-white photos showed intriguing geological characteristics. "Manley" is a 218 km-wide impact crater named for Jamaican artist Edna Manley (1900-1987). Scientists are interested in this crater's black debris, which may be Mercury's early carbon-rich crust. Mercury's volcanic past is seen on the crater bottom. BepiColombo conducted its third gravity assist flyby at Mercury. The flyby photos also showed Mercury's interesting Beagle Rupes geological thru...

Arts at CERN announced today that Dutch artist Joan Heemskerk is the first recipient of the Collide Copenhagen residency award, following a March international open call organized in collaboration with Copenhagen Contemporary. Collide is the flagship initiative of Arts at CERN, which invites artists of all creative disciplines from around the globe to submit proposals for a research-led residency based on interactions with the scientific community at CERN. The eleventh iteration of Collide and the inaugural event of Collide Copenhagen drew 592 project proposals from 90 countries. Joan Heemskerk's initiative, Alice & Bob after Clay +=-> Hello, world!, seeks to develop a new universal language, referencing Tim Berners-Lee's proposition at CERN that all scientists should be able to...

NASA's asteroid tracker predicts an asteroid roughly twice the Titanic's size will pass Earth on Saturday, June 24. The Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) named the 2002-discovered asteroid 467336 (2002 LT38). One of two asteroids passing on June 24, it follows numerous more that will pass the Earth in the coming days. Is the 2023 asteroid big? NASA estimates asteroid 467336 (2002 LT38) has a 450-meter diameter. Consider the Titanic, a more relevant and contemporary statistic that's so down to Earth it's virtually underwater. The most notorious ship in history. An unsinkable passenger ship hit an iceberg in the Atlantic Ocean, killing 1,500 people and earning James Cameron billions at the box office. The 269-mete...

Mercury-bound BepiColombo showed us our Sun's nearest planet. On Monday, June 19, the spacecraft took spectacular photographs of Mercury during its third close approach. After the closest approach, ESA published the first set of these new photographs. The black-and-white photographs show the planet's extensively cratered surface and other geological and volcanic characteristics in detail. “Mercury’s heavily cratered surface records a 4.6 billion year history of asteroid and comet bombardment, which together with unique tectonic and volcanic curiosities will help scientists unlock the secrets of the planet’s place in Solar System evolution,” said BepiColombo MCAM imaging team member Jack Wright in an ESA release. Images of what? The probe's third gravity-assist flyby cam...

Scientists found an ingredient that might support life on a distant moon. Ice crystals from Saturn's moon Enceladus' subterranean ocean have high levels of phosphorous, an element found in all biological things. Researchers believe Saturn's moon might support life. The Cassini spacecraft, which examined Saturn and its moons from 2004 to 2017, made the finding. Before this finding, the same researchers found minerals and complex chemical molecules, including amino acids, in Enceladus' ice grains. Phosphorus, the least prevalent of six chemical elements essential to life—carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, and sulphur—was lacking until today. “It’s the first time this essential element has been discovered in an ocean beyond Earth,” said the study's main author, Frank Postb...

Aerospike Graph, a real-time database, adds multi-model support. Aerospike began offering a NoSQL database for advertising in 2009. Aerospike is now a real-time database platform for adtech, financial services, and consumer data platforms. The firm began supplying a multi-model database in 2022, supporting the JSON document model, which has grown popular due to the success of document database provider MongoDB. Aerospike Graph, a graph data model, is now available. Graph databases help users comprehend links between data elements and information. Neo4J and Amazon Neptune are graph databases. Oracle's graph database. Graph databases are useful for numerous uses, including fraud detection, which Aerospike clients are increasingly using and needing a solution for. Aerospike...

JMU researchers have shown why SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus spread so efficiently must be rethought. Why the COVID-19 epidemic spread so quickly is unknown. As previously thought, the virus does not spread swiftly by attaching with numerous surface proteins simultaneously to several receptors of the cell to be infected or to a single receptor leading to the docking of more receptors. Simone Backes, Gerti Beliu, and Prof. Markus Sauer have shown that a single virus attaches to a single receptor, enabling very effective infection. SARS-CoV-2's 20–40 spike proteins interact to ACE2 receptors. Antibodies inhibit these receptors, preventing infection. "This suggests that the binding of the virus to the ACE2 receptor is the decisive step in infection," Sauer says. Monitoring ACE2 recept...

China and Hong Kong equities declined on Tuesday, brought down by property and technology shares after the country cut benchmark lending rates less than anticipated and Antony Blinken's visit to Beijing signaled little improvement in Sino-American relations. The Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.5%, while the CSI300 Index of large-cap stocks fell 0.2%. The Hang Seng fell 1.5% on its worst trading day in nearly three weeks. China lowered its key lending benchmarks on Tuesday to bolster a sluggish economic recovery, but the reduction was less than the market anticipated. ** Both the one-year and five-year loan prime rates (LPRs) were reduced by 10 basis points, although many expected a larger reduction to the five-year rate on which mortgage rates are based. Rate reduction, Blink...

The meteorologists are unable to comprehend the perplexing variations in June's temperature pattern. According to a study, temperatures in 29 districts of central UP and Bundelkhand have risen so much over the past three years that mercury readings that are typically taken at noon are now being recorded in the early morning hours of June. "Because nighttime temperatures are relatively high in a number of eastern UP districts, people begin to feel the intensity of the heat at 9 a.m., which they would normally experience in the afternoon," said Mohd Danish, in-charge of the Met Lucknow office. Meteorologists from the CS Azad University of Agriculture and Technology stated that this change, combined with high temperatures and high levels of humidity, was disrupting the life cycle of...