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Category: space – Page 538

Prager Metis sets up first CPA firm in metaverse

Prager Metis has become the first CPA firm to open up a metaverse headquarters. The firm, which in real life is based in New York, is setting up shop in Decentraland, a 3D virtual world, as part of a joint venture with Banquet LLC, a metaverse studio.

The firm purchased the piece of virtual real estate on Dec. 28, a three-story digital structure. On the first floor is an open floor plan that doubles as a gallery space for nonfungible tokens from Prager Metis clients along with a large entertainment area. The second floor will provide more of a working space with meeting rooms and conference capabilities. The third floor will serve as a rooftop space where Prager Metis intends to host events and even live entertainment.

The metaverse has been attracting attention ever since Facebook’s parent company announced a name change last October to Meta to highlight its interest in developing technology for virtual reality and augmented reality. More businesses have followed suit in setting up shop in the metaverse. Prager Metis isn’t the first firm to dip its toes in the waters: PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Hong Kong firm announced last month that it had bought virtual land on another metaverse platform, the Sandbox, but Prager Metis is going further by setting up an actual headquarters in Decentraland. It plans to focus on advisory services for clients and potentially for other accounting firms as well. The firm already has clients who have entered the rapidly growing market for nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, which use blockchain technology to create collectibles and artwork that people bid on to buy and trade.

Research Shows Gravitational Action of Sun and Moon Influences Behavior of Plants and Animals

Research conducted at the University of Campinas in Brazil was driven by observations of fluctuations in autoluminescence caused by seed germination in cycles regulated by gravitational tides.

The rhythms of activity in all biological organisms, both plants and animals, are closely linked to the gravitational tides created by the orbital mechanics of the Sun-Earth-Moon system. This truth has been somewhat neglected by scientific research but is foregrounded in a study by Cristiano de Mello Gallep at the University of Campinas (UNICAMP) in the state of São Paulo, Brazil, and Daniel Robert at the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom. An article on the study is published in the Journal of Experimental Botany.

“All matter on Earth, both live and inert, experiences the effects of the gravitational forces of the Sun and Moon expressed in the form of tides. The periodic oscillations exhibit two daily cycles and are modulated monthly and annually by the motions of these two celestial bodies. All organisms on the planet have evolved in this context. What we sought to show in the article is that gravitational tides are a perceptible and potent force that has always shaped the rhythmic activities of these organisms,” Gallep told Agência FAPESP.

Scientists Say the Universe Itself May Be “Pixelated”

Here’s a brain teaser for you: scientists are suggesting spacetime may be made out of individual “spacetime pixels,” instead of being smooth and continuous like it seems.

Rana Adhikari, a professor of physics at Caltech, suggested in a new press blurb that these pixels would be “so small that if you were to enlarge things so that it becomes the size of a grain of sand, then atoms would be as large as galaxies.”

Adhikari’s goal is to reconcile the conventional laws of physics, as determined by general relativity, with the more mysterious world of quantum physics.

Is Space Pixelated? The Quest for Quantum Gravity

Sand dunes seen from afar seem smooth and unwrinkled, like silk sheets spread across the desert. But a closer inspection reveals much more. As you approach the dunes, you may notice ripples in the sand. Touch the surface and you would find individual grains. The same is true for digital images: zoom far enough into an apparently perfect portrait and you will discover the distinct pixels that make the picture.

China Detected Water From the Moon’s Surface for the First Time

Adding to its space program’s growing list of achievements.

China’s space program (CNSA) is the first to detect water signals directly from the Moon’s surface thanks to its Chang’e-5 lunar probe, a report from CGTN reveals.

The new breakthrough provides yet another important milestone for the CNSA, which is ambitiously closing the gap between itself and the world’s two historic space superpowers, the U.S. and Russia.

The first in-situ lunar water detection For years, thanks to a number of orbital observations and sample measurements, it has been known that water exists on the Moon. In fact, last year a California-based startup called Masten Space Systems announced it is developing a robotic rover that can mine ice on the Moon to provide future lunar habitats with water and oxygen.

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This tiny home on wheels uses colourful windows to create a fun space for a young family

Planedennig is a tiny home on wheels built for a mother and her young son to balance playtime with relaxation.

Considering the number of tiny homes to come out of recent years, distinguishing one tiny home from another can be hard. After all, there’s only so much space to work with, many tiny home builders prioritize efficiency and function over unique design. Then, there are always the unicorns that have it all.

The James Webb Space Telescope finishes unfolding its primary mirror, concluding major deployments

The James Webb Telescope (JWST) has finished unfolding its primary mirror, ending a series of major deployments that took place over the span of two weeks. All of those deployments needed to go perfectly in order for the massive space telescope, which was decades in the making, to function.

The JWST has two primary mirror panels on either side that it will use to collect infrared light from the distant Universe. Each of them consists of three gold-plated hexagonal mirrors. Today, the rightmost wing was successfully unfurled, just one day after the leftmost wing was deployed. Now that both sides have been locked into place, this completes the array of 18 mirrors that makes up the 21-foot-wide JWST.

Congratulations, @NASAWebb! You are fully deployed!

Incredible moment a PRIVATE JET roars through ‘Star Wars Canyon’

Incredible footage has emerged of a private jet roaring through a narrow pass in California’s so-called Star Wars Canyon.

Aviation photographer Christopher McGreevy captured the breathtaking flight of a Dassault Falcon 8X private jet thundering through the canyon that crosses Riverside and San Diego County in Death Valley National Park.

It is unclear who was flying the jet through the valley, which is made from walls of red, grey and pink rock which look similar to the fictional Star Wars planet Tatooine — Luke Skywalker’s home planet.