What’s next for Biden’s research agenda after science adviser’s fall from grace? | Science

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An axiom of politics is that the higher you rise, the harder you can fall. This week, Eric Lander, the first White House science adviser to be elevated to the president’s Cabinet, learned that firsthand. Lander, a prominent geneticist who has a close relationship with President Joe Biden, resigned from his position less than 1 … Read more

A Beijing think tank offered a frank review of China’s technological weaknesses. Then the report disappeared | Science

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A prominent Peking University think tank posted a surprisingly frank assessment of China’s technological strengths and weaknesses on 30 January—and took it down less than 1 week later. The report, titled China-US Strategic Competition in Technology: Analysis and Prospects in Mandarin, warns China has more to lose than the United States if technological cooperation between … Read more

European fusion reactor sets record for sustained energy | Science

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In experiments culminating the 40-year run of the Joint European Torus (JET), the world’s largest fusion reactor, researchers announced today they have smashed the record for producing controlled fusion energy. On 21 December 2021, the U.K.-based JET heated a gas of hydrogen isotopes to 150 million degrees Celsius and held it steady for 5 seconds while … Read more

Fusion Power Experiment in The UK Smashes Its Old Record in Major Step Forward

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Late last century, the Joint European Torus (JET) near Oxford, UK, churned out 22 megajoules of energy in what was, at the time, a record in fusion power. Now, experimental upgrades have brought the facility into line with the technology anticipated for a major international project, resulting in the production of nearly three times that … Read more

Cyberattack Misinformation Could Be Plan for Ukraine Invasion

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Last week U.S. officials claimed the Russian government was planning to publish a video of a staged “attack” by Ukrainian forces. The officials said their announcement was an attempt to preemptively halt a misinformation campaign that could serve as a pretext for Russian forces to invade. Such propaganda campaigns have been used in wars throughout … Read more

UAE’s Hope spacecraft marks 1 year in orbit around Mars

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It’s been a full year since the United Arab Emirates made history when its first-ever interplanetary mission slipped into orbit around Mars. The Emirates Mars Mission, also called Hope, launched in July 2020, arrived at the Red Planet seven months later and successfully entered orbit around Mars on Feb. 9, 2021. After a few months … Read more

Jupiter’s auroras arise from a magnetic ‘tug-of-war’ with volcanic eruptions on its moon Io

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Jupiter’s auroras are caused by a cosmic game of “tug-of-war,” fueled by volcanoes on the planet’s innermost moon, Io, new research suggests.  NASA’s Juno spacecraft and Hubble Space Telescope have revealed new evidence suggesting Jupiter’s rapid rotation and the release of sulfur and oxygen from volcanoes on Io — the most volcanically active world in … Read more

SpaceX is stacking its giant Starship ahead of Elon Musk’s big update this week

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SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk will have a nice visual aid to point to during his highly anticipated Starship presentation on Thursday (Feb. 10). That talk is an update about Starship, the giant vehicle that SpaceX is developing to take people and cargo to the moon, Mars and beyond. Starship consists of two fully … Read more

Physicists Have Observed a Strange New Kind of Transition in Electronic Crystals

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As basic science teaches us, changes in temperature can result in phase transitions in materials – like when water solidifies as ice in the freezing cold. However, in some cases the temperature that triggers the change is different depending on whether the material is cooling down or warming up. This is known as a hysteresis … Read more