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Cadmium nuclei take on multiple shapes at low excitation energies, a discovery that overturns a long-accepted tenet of nuclear structure.

Atomic nuclei take on excited states when they vibrate, rotate, or when their constituent nucleons exchange one nuclear shell for another. In nuclei with nearly filled nuclear shells, it has long been thought that low-energy excitations were due exclusively to different patterns of vibration around a spherical shape: only in rare, high-energy excitations were these nuclei expected to assume more exotic shapes. Now, Paul Garrett, of the University of Guelph in Canada, and colleagues have found that the lowest-energy excited states of cadmium-110 and cadmium-112—once considered textbook examples of spherical vibration—are instead due to the rotation of various nonspherical shapes. The result is also the best evidence to date that a stable nucleus like cadmium can assume multiple shapes—all previously studied nuclei with coexisting shapes have been radioactive.

NASA’s InSight lander has picked up on some interesting rumblings on Mars, and the space agency shared them Tuesday in a blog post.

The spacecraft is equipped with an incredibly sensitive seismometer called the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS), which is designed to listen for marsquakes. By examining how seismic waves move through the planet’s interior, scientists hope to learn more about Mars’ deep inner structure.

InSight placed the seismometer on Mars’ surface in December, but it took until April for the instrument to detect the first likely marsquake. More than 100 events have been detected, and around 21 of them are “strongly considered to be quakes,” NASA says.

SpaceX’s facility at Cape Canaveral just received a crucial new delivery: a Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon capsule that it will be using for an upcoming in-flight abort test. This test, which will demonstrate the spacecraft and launch system’s ability to abort the launch mid-flight in case of any emergencies, is an important and necessary step before SpaceX can fly Crew Dragon with any actual people on board.

This test will replicate a “worst-case scenario” of sorts, by staging a crew capsule separation at the point of “Max Q,” which is the part of the launch where the rocket is exposed to the most severe atmospheric forces prior to making it to space. At this point during the abort test, the Crew Dragon will show that it can detach from the Falcon 9 rocket and propel itself away to a safe distance in order to protect the astronauts on board.

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The Eurosymposium on Healthy Ageing (EHA) meeting for 3 days in Brussels proclaims the possibility and the imperative of a moonshot project to overcome all age-related diseases within 25 years by tackling aging as their root cause.
The world has already faced the variety of challenges caused by an ageing population and the so called “Silver tsunami”, but Following major discoveries in science and biomedicine in recent years we are now on the edge of a paradigm shift from treatment to prevention and an improvement in healthy longevity. The defeat of aging lies within our collective grasp. It’s time to seize this remarkable opportunity!

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