#Satellite-carrying rocket ‘lost’ after New Zealand launch

“#Satellite-carrying rocket ‘lost’ after New Zealand launch” A commercial rocket carrying seven satellites was “lost” after take-off Sunday from a New Zealand launch pad, the owner Rocket Lab said. “We lost the flight late into the mission,” Peter Beck, Rocket Lab’s founder and chief executive, tweeted. “I am incredibly sorry that we failed to deliver…

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#Experts find early ocher mine in Mexican underwater caves

“#Experts find early ocher mine in Mexican underwater caves” This Dec. 12, 2019 photo released by CINDAQ.ORG, or “Centro Investigador del Sistema Acuífero de Quintana Roo,” shows a diver in the “La Mina Roja” passage of the Sagitario underwater cave system near Playa del Carmen in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. The discovery of remains of human-set…

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#’Fang’tastic: Biologists report snake-like dental glands in amphibians

“#’Fang’tastic: Biologists report snake-like dental glands in amphibians” A close-up view of the mouth of a ringed caecilian, Siphonops annulatus, reveals snake-like dental glands. Researchers from Brazil’s Butantan Institute and Utah State University say the glands could indicate an early evolutionary design of oral venom organs. Credit: Butantan Institute Utah State University biologist Edmund ‘Butch’…

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#Toward super-fast motion of vortices in superconductors

“#Toward super-fast motion of vortices in superconductors” Abrikosov lattice at moderate vortex velocities (left); ultra-fast moving Abrikosov-Josephson “vortex rivers” (right). Credit: Oleksandr Dobrovolskiy, University of Vienna An international team of scientists from Austria, Germany, and Ukraine has found a new superconducting system in which magnetic flux quanta can move at velocities of 10 to 15…

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#Histone H3-H4 tetramer found to be a copper reductase enzyme

“#Histone H3-H4 tetramer found to be a copper reductase enzyme” Recombinant X. laevis histone H3-H4 tetramer interacts with cupric ions. (A) Left: X. laevis (Xl) nucleosome core particle structure [Protein Data Bank (PDB) 1KX5] (38). The box delineates the H3-H3′ interface. Right: Interface residues H3H113 and H3C110 are shown. (B) Alignment of the C-terminal region…

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#The sixth sense of animals: An early warning system for earthquakes?

“#The sixth sense of animals: An early warning system for earthquakes?” Professor Martin Wikelski attaches accelerometers to the collars of farm animals. Credit: Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior Even today, nobody can reliably predict when and where an earthquake will occur. However, eyewitnesses have repeatedly reported that animals behave unusually before an earthquake. In…

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#Wiring a new path to scalable quantum computing

“#Wiring a new path to scalable quantum computing” This schematic image of integrated superconducting qubits and their packaging,shows the qubits as green dots with rings, which are laid out on top of a silicon chip (in red). A number of holes through the chip electrically connect the top and bottom surfaces. The blue wires on…

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