#A cosmic baby is discovered, and it’s brilliant

“#A cosmic baby is discovered, and it’s brilliant” This illustration shows magnetic field lines protruding from a highly magnetic neutron star, or a dense nugget left over after a star goes supernova and explodes. Known as magnetars, these objects generate bright bursts of light that might be powered by their strong magnetic fields. Credit: ESA…

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#Benefits of convalescent plasma for COVID-19 are still unclear

“#Benefits of convalescent plasma for COVID-19 are still unclear” This scanning electron microscope image shows SARS-CoV-2 (yellow)—also known as 2019-nCoV, the virus that causes COVID-19—isolated from a patient, emerging from the surface of cells (blue/pink) cultured in the lab. Credit: NIAID-RML With vaccines and therapeutic drugs for COVID-19 still under development, doctors are wondering whether…

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#4,000th comet discovered by solar observatory

“#4,000th comet discovered by solar observatory” The 4,000th comet discovered by ESA (European Space Agency) and NASA’s SOHO observatory is seen here in an image from the spacecraft alongside SOHO’s 3,999th comet discovery. The two comets are relatively close at approximately 1 million miles apart, suggesting that they could have been connected together as recently…

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#Why the Mediterranean is a climate change hotspot

“#Why the Mediterranean is a climate change hotspot” Global climate models agree that the Mediterranean area will be significantly drier, potentially seeing 40 percent less precipitation during the winter rainy season in the already parched regions of the Middle East and North Africa. Credit: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Although global climate models vary in many…

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#New ‘fingerprints’ added to chemical identification database

“#New ‘fingerprints’ added to chemical identification database” NIST research chemist Kelly Telu injects a sample into a mass spectrometer, a laboratory instrument that scientists use to identify unknown chemical compounds. Credit: M. Delorme/NIST The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has updated its database of chemical fingerprints, called mass spectra, that are used to…

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#Physicists develop a new theory for Bose-Einstein condensates

“#Physicists develop a new theory for Bose-Einstein condensates” Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain Bose-Einstein condensates are often described as the fifth state of matter: At extremely low temperatures, gas atoms behave like a single particle. The exact properties of these systems are notoriously difficult to study. In the journal Physical Review Letters, physicists from Martin Luther…

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