How a scientific mistake derailed Mars exploration for 50 years. What if Viking actually did discover life on Mars? See blog with our link to eLetter in Science at.
(https://bigthink.com/hard-science/how-a-scientific-mistake-f…ploration/)
All blogs and their links also on my website searchforlifeintheuniverse.com
In 1976, NASA’s Viking landers searched for life on Mars. The Viking team announced Mars was lifeless — but the data was ambiguous.
Researcher Cunjiang Yu and his research team, including several of his former students, have announced a significant milestone in materials and electronics engineering: the creation of what they call “rubbery CMOS,” which provides the same functionality as conventional CMOS (complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor) circuits, but is made from entirely different materials.
The research is published in the journal Science Advances.
The great benefit of rubbery CMOS is that it provides the circuit functionality of conventional CMOS while also being stretchable and deformable.
A newly discovered, remarkably well-preserved impact crater is shedding fresh light on how extraterrestrial bodies collide with Earth.
In the journal Matter and Radiation at Extremes, researchers from Shanghai and Guangzhou, China, report the discovery of the Jinlin crater: an impact structure nestled on a hillside and preserved within a thick granite weathering crust.
Located in Zhaoqing, Guangdong Province, China, it is one of only about 200 identified craters worldwide and is very young in geological years. Based on measurements of nearby soil erosion, it likely formed during the early-to-mid Holocene—our current geological epoch, which began at the end of the last ice age about 11,700 years ago.
Dr Andrea Weisse, from the University of Edinburgh’s Schools of Biological Sciences and Informatics, who led the research, highlighted the urgency of the situation.
“Bacteria are clever little things. They have been learning how to dodge our antibiotics, and they are getting better at it all the time,” she said.
“If we don’t find new drugs – or new tricks to outsmart them – we are in trouble. What we are trying to do here is really understand how their defence systems work. Once we see the mechanism clearly, we can figure out smarter ways to beat them and treat infections more effectively.”
Engineers have achieved a major milestone in the global effort to design energy storage systems that combine high speed with strong power output, opening new possibilities for electric vehicles, grid stabilization, and consumer electronics.
In a paper recently published in Nature Communications, the research team introduced a new type of carbon-based material that enables supercapacitors to store as much energy as traditional lead-acid batteries while delivering power at a much faster rate than conventional battery systems.