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The brick looks like concrete but avoids typical issues like water absorption and cracking.


Newly-introduced Lego-like bricks may make the construction process easier than ever.

A Canada-based sustainable startup, PLAEX Building Systems Inc., has created recycled plastic bricks. Named “Plaex-crete,” these blocks are lightweight, durable, and eco-friendly.

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NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has discovered another intriguing formation on the planet’s barren surface.

As spotted by Universe Today, the spacecraft captured this image of a satisfyingly circular pit — and what its dark, yawning entrance leads to remains a question high on the minds of Mars scientists.

The image, “acquired to determine if any underlying void … and associated faults” were in the region, was taken with the High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera, a powerful lens capable of detailing the Martian surface in both visible and near-infrared light.

Editor’s note: This article is part of a collection of expert commentaries. You can read the rest of the series here.

It is true that the next pandemic is a matter of “when,” not “if.” The statistical certainty of a future pandemic has led to increasing research into potential pandemic pathogens so that we may create lifesaving countermeasures. Such research, unfortunately, also carries a risk of bringing about exactly what it seeks to prevent. Human error or even deliberate action is as likely to be the cause of the next pandemic as natural origin. Such concerns have intensified after the COVID-19 pandemic, which a significant percentage of the US population, at least, believes began with a research accident, one of the two main pandemic origin theories, with the other being the jump of a virus from animals to people. The question then for governments and the research community is how to build confidence in the valuable work that scientists do through appropriate regulation.

While research with favorable risk-benefit profiles must be facilitated, high-risk research of either limited benefits or benefits for only a limited few must be seen through a different regulatory lens.

To use the Instagram Chandra experience, search for the “NASAChandraXray” account. Select the effects options (the tab that looks like three four-pointed stars) and select the one you want. Then, you can either save the effect to your camera and apply it to your stories, or you can select the “Try it” button for instant access.

Related: Peer inside remnants of an 800-year-old supernova and see a ‘zombie’ star

“We are excited to bring data from the universe down to Earth in this way,” Kimberly Arcand, Chandra X-ray Center visualization and emerging technology scientist, said in a statement. “Enabling people to access cosmic data on their phones and through AR brings Chandra’s amazing discoveries literally right to your fingertips.”