
Rafi Letzter
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Famous 'immaculate conception' painting is unrecognizable after art restoration failureA botched restoration of a Bartolomé Esteban Murillo painting in Spain has frustrated art conservators and recalled memories of an earlier, similar mistake involving a painting of Jesus.
By Rafi Letzter Published
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Why some physicists really think there's a 'mirror universe' hiding in space-timeWhat happens when you turn space-time upside-down?
By Rafi Letzter Published
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Astronomers solve whirling mystery around nearby black holeHow fast is this nearby black hole spinning? A new measurement offers clues that could solve the old mystery.
By Rafi Letzter Published
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BREAKING: Physicists announce first direct evidence for 'axions'An experiment buried underground in Italy has turned up a mysterious result, and a never-before-seen "axion" particle seems like the most likely explanation.
By Rafi Letzter Published
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Einstein's core idea about gravity just passed an extreme, whirling test in deep spaceOnce again, physicists have confirmed one of Albert Einstein's core ideas about gravity and relativity — this time with the help of a neutron star flashing across space.
By Rafi Letzter Published
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What's causing a spooky hum to fill parts of San Francisco?Aerodynamic slats newly installed on the Golden Gate Bridge produce a loud hum on windy days, as San Fransiscans learned this past weekend.
By Rafi Letzter Published
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Great white sharks are bottom-feeders, at least when they're littleGreat white sharks are fierce hunters. But as juveniles, their diets involve way more bottom-feeding than hunting large prey.
By Rafi Letzter Published
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Russia declares emergency after 22,000 tons of oil spill in the Arctic CircleTwenty-two thousand tons (20,000 metric tons) of oil products leaked from a Russian industrial power plant into an Arctic river on May 29. It could take decades for the region to recover.
By Rafi Letzter Published
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Mars once had rings and a much bigger moon, new evidence suggestsSome scientists suspect Martian moons sometimes break up into rings. A new piece of evidence from the surviving moon Deimos' orbit supports that theory.
By Rafi Letzter Published
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Why would a little storm in the distance shut down historic SpaceX launch?Why should a little storm in the distance shut down a Falcon 9 launch? History, the tricky timing of matching orbits, and complex meteorology.
By Rafi Letzter Published
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The coronavirus didn't really start at that Wuhan 'wet market'It looks like early reports that COVID-19 first infected humans at a particular live animal market in Wuhan were wrong.
By Rafi Letzter Published
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Ancient 'ring of fire' galaxy found glaring at Earth across space and timeEleven billion years ago, a hot, active, eyeball of a galaxy glared across space. It formed in a violent collision, and could help explain the Milky Way's spiral.
By Rafi Letzter Published
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An astronomer calculated that Earth's intelligent life is probably 'rare.' Here's what that means.A new paper used an advanced "Bayesian" model to show that the emergence of intelligent life on Earth was probably a lucky break.
By Rafi Letzter Published
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Strange ice formations may have tricked physicists into seeing mysterious particles that weren't thereWhat if one of the strangest, most unsettling findings in particle physics turned out to be an illusion? A new study suggest a simple physical explanation for a mysterious event.
By Rafi Letzter Published
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Hurricanes really are getting stronger, just like climate models predictedThe authors of a new paper studied 4,000 tropical cyclones spanning 39 years, and showed that major hurricanes are coming more frequently as Earth cooks.
By Rafi Letzter Published
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Why a microwave-beam experiment will launch aboard the Air Force’s secretive X-37B space planeThere's a microwave power experiment heading to space Saturday (May 16) aboard the Air Force's secretive X-37B spaceplane. Researchers hope it could lead to a new global power source.
By Rafi Letzter Published
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Here's how to tell a 'murder hornet' from other nasty waspsA new paper gathers images of invasive Vespa hornet species worldwide, and offers clues to help identify them.
By Rafi Letzter Published
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Massive piece of Chinese space junk slams uncontrolled into Earth's atmosphereThe 19.6 ton (17,800 kilogram) body of a Chinese rocket slammed into the planet's atmosphere today (May 11). It was the biggest such incident since 1991.
By Rafi Letzter Published
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These lava tubes could be the safest place for explorers to live on MarsThe Martian surface is a radiation hot zone. But ancient lava tubes might offer explorers safety from the cosmic bombardment
By Rafi Letzter Published
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Here's how a wavy jet stream is screwing up weather all over the US this weekendA polar vortex event will bring record lows and May snow to the east this weekend, even as the west coast bakes. Here's why.
By Rafi Letzter Published
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Gigantic new 3D map traces every neuron in a tiny mouse brainA years-long Allen Institute for Brain Science project to map the entire mouse brain is complete, and you can explore it now.
By Rafi Letzter Published
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Renowned string theorist proposes new way to hunt our solar system's mysterious 'Planet 9'A new paper by physicist Edward Witten proposes hunting Planet 9 using a fleet of laser-launched probes like Breakthrough Starshots'.
By Rafi Letzter Published
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Scientists discover evidence of ancient, nitrogen-rich Martian groundwater hiding in AntarcticaMartian meteorites found in Antarctica in the 1980s just gave up the ghosts of ancient water, rich in organic nitrogen, that existed on Mars.
By Rafi Letzter Published
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Robert May, grandfather of chaos, dies at 84Robert May, an Australian physicist, mathematician and ecologist at 84. His foundational work showed why complex systems fall apart.
By Rafi Letzter Published
