Month: February 2024

Ice shell thickness reveals water temperature on ocean worlds

Cornell University astrobiologists have devised a novel way to determine ocean temperatures of distant worlds based on the thickness of their ice shells, effectively conducting oceanography from space. Available data showing ice thickness variation already allows a prediction for the

Astronomers measure heaviest black hole pair ever found

Nearly every massive galaxy hosts a supermassive black hole at its center. When two galaxies merge, their black holes can form a binary pair, meaning they are in a bound orbit with one another. It’s hypothesized that these binaries are

Shining a light on the effects of habituation and neural adaptation on the evolution of animal signals

A new paper published in The Quarterly Review of Biology examines the possible effects of two properties of receiver playing fields documented in studies of animal psychology — habituation and neural adaptation — on the efficacy of mate choice signals.

First semiconductor fabrication plant can help plug in to global value chain

This plant is proposed to be developed as a pure-play foundry that rolls out semiconductor wafers for a number of industries, including high-performance computing, display drivers and microcontrollers (MCU). The land has already been identified and construction is set to

Power when the sun doesn’t shine

In 2016, at the huge Houston energy conference CERAWeek, MIT materials scientist Yet-Ming Chiang found himself talking to a Tesla executive about a thorny problem: how to store the output of solar panels and wind turbines for long durations.   

Samsung Semiconductor India Research opens 2nd facility in Bengaluru | Indiablooms

Bengaluru: Samsung Semiconductor India Research (SSIR) Thursday announced the opening of its new R&D facility in Karnataka’s capital Bengaluru. “The expansion marks a significant milestone in SSIR’s commitment to driving cutting-edge semiconductor research and development in India while addressing the

Parents, wealth, race drive girls’ chances to play sports

The likelihood that a girl will participate in high school sports in the United States is driven not so much by individual choice, new research suggests. Instead, decisions made by parents, the wealth of one’s family and community, and racial

Building bionic jellyfish for ocean exploration

Jellyfish can’t do much besides swim, sting, eat, and breed. They don’t even have brains. Yet, these simple creatures can easily journey to the depths of the oceans in a way that humans, despite all our sophistication, cannot. But what

Could fiber optic cable help scientists probe the deep layers of the moon?

An increasing number of seismologists are using fiber optic cables to detect seismic waves on Earth — but how would this technology fare on the Moon, and what would it tell us about the deep layers of our nearest neighbor

Astronomers reveal a new link between water and planet formation

Researchers have found water vapour in the disc around a young star exactly where planets may be forming. Water is a key ingredient for life on Earth, and is also thought to play a significant role in planet formation. Yet,