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Astronomers Detect Water Vapor in The Atmosphere of a ‘Super Neptune’ Exoplanet

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New Year’s Day comes around once every 47.5 hours on the roughly Neptune-sized exoplanet TOI 674b, which makes it something of a rare creature.  In spite of years of hunting, surprisingly few middle-sized gas giants have ever been seen with orbits shorter than a few days in length, creating what astronomers refer to as a … Read more

Swab Your Throat First? Rapid Tests May Need Saliva to Detect Omicron, Early Data Find

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Rapid COVID-19 tests that use nose swabs alone might not pick up Omicron in the early days of infection, a new study suggests – but experts don’t agree on whether you should also swab your throat.   A small study from a group of US researchers, published Tuesday, found that rapid tests with nasal swabs didn’t detect Omicron … Read more

FYI, Rapid Antigen Tests May Give More False Negatives With Omciron

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Rapid Covid home tests are more likely to give a false negative with the heavily-mutated Omicron variant compared to earlier strains, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said Tuesday.   The news comes as the country is facing a massive surge in cases that experts say is being under-captured as a result of a … Read more

Astronomers Detect Up to 170 Rogue Planets Hurtling Aimlessly Through Space

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Interstellar space is a graveyard of lost souls. Adrift far from any star, these planets float in the darkness like ghost ships in the night. Catching sight of one requires patience, and a good eye. But a new approach based on tens of thousands of images collected by the European Southern Observatory’s facilities has resulted … Read more

Lateral flow tests: Do LFTs detect the omicron coronavirus variant?

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By Clare Wilson Positive and negative rapid lateral flow tests Anna Mente/Shutterstock With the omicron variant of the coronavirus on the rise, regular testing has become even more important, particularly as people decide whether to socialise during the Christmas period. Here’s everything you need to know about testing. What is the difference between a lateral … Read more

Astronomers Detect Secret Water Reserves in The Largest Canyon in The Solar System

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A vast system of canyons that dramatically scars the face of Mars could be harboring reserves of hidden water. An unusually high quantity of hydrogen has been detected in the heart of the 4,000 kilometers (2,485 miles) of canyons known as Valles Marineris, nicknamed the Grand Canyon of Mars. We know this thanks to new … Read more

Smartphone app can detect hidden camera lenses from reflections

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Time-of-flight sensors built into some smartphones can be used to detect the telltale reflections from hidden camera lenses Technology 3 December 2021 By Matthew Sparkes A smartphone with a triple camera system SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg via Getty Images Surveillance cameras can keep us safe or invade our privacy, and improvements in miniaturisation mean they can now … Read more