Vida en Marte? (Atacama)

https://newatlas.com/baterial-bloom-atacama-mars/53578/

Citando:
"If the prospects of life on Mars were a pendulum, it's just swung back toward "favorable." An international team of researchers led by Washington State University planetary scientist Dirk Schulze-Makuch has found that the most Mars-like, apparently lifeless spot on the face of the Earth isn't so lifeless after all. Areas of the hyperarid Atacama Desert once thought lacking even microbes is showing blooms of specialized bacteria after rainfall, providing hope that similar dormant colonies may exist on the Red Planet.

The Atacama Desert is about as close to Mars as you can get on Earth. The Chilean desert has areas that are so inhospitable to life that not even bacteria can survive under normal circumstances. The nitrates falling from the sky that bacteria would normally gobble up remain uneaten and rainfall is measured in millimeters per decade. Though the 10 million-year-old desert is surprisingly cool with a Mediterranean climate, there isn't enough water to sustain life. Worse, the cooler temperatures means there's less energy available for growth and reproduction."

Estrutura da Via Láctea mais complexa?

(do que se pensava):
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/are-stars-surrounding-milky-way-alien-space-invaders-were-they-booted-out-galaxy-1664011

Citando:
""The oscillations can be compared to sound waves in a musical instrument," the lead author of the new research, Maria Bergemann of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (MPIA), said. "We call this 'ringing' in the Milky Way galaxy 'galactoseismology,' which has been predicted theoretically decades ago. We now have the clearest evidence for these oscillations in our galaxy's disk obtained so far!"

The scientists studied 14 stars in two different halo structures, located on opposite ends of the Milky Way disk. The two structures, called the Triangulum-Andromeda (Tri-And) and the A13 stellar overdensities, are about 14,000 light-years above and below the galactic plane. The researchers were able to present the chemical abundance patterns of these halo stars for the first time, using the W M Keck Observatory in Hawaii."

Limitações ao Foie Gras e outras crueldades

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/14/foie-gras-and-badger-culling-would-be-banned-under-labour-proposals

Citando:
"Foie gras and badger culling would be banned under new animal welfare measures proposed by the Labour party, in a move described by activists as “the beginning of the end of cruel factory farming”.

The practice of force-feeding geese and ducks in order to fatten up their livers is widely considered cruel and inhumane, leading Labour to advocate an end to imports of the delicacy in a new policy document released on Wednesday.

Labour is also proposing further curbs on hunting with dogs, mandatory CCTV in abattoirs, and a ban on the export of live animals for slaughter, under a new animal welfare bill."

Unilever e a publicidade

http://www.alphr.com/business/1008468/unilever-threatens-withdraw-facebook-twitter

Citando:
"Unilever, which owns brands including Marmite, PG Tips, Pot Noodle, Dove and Persil, generates revenues upwards of $40bn. In its most recent accounts report, it recorded a marketing spend of €7.7 billion (£6.83 billion).

“As one of the largest advertisers in the world, we cannot have an environment where our consumers don’t trust what they see online, Weed will say in his speech.

“We will prioritise investing only in responsible platforms that are committed to creating a positive impact in society.”

The threat comes after Mark Zuckerberg made a new year’s resolution to fix Facebook’s problems."

NASA filma terra (SDO)

http://metro.co.uk/2018/02/14/nasa-spaceship-films-incredible-view-earth-passing-front-sun-7312055/

Citando:
"The Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) orbits our planet and is on a mission to record how our star affects life down on the surface of Earth.

On Sunday February 11, the satellite’s ‘eclipse season’ begun.

This is a three-week period that comes twice a year, during which Earth blocks SDO’s view of the Sun for a short period of time."

O cabelo de Trump

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/feb/07/donald-trump-hair-wind

ISS, passeios e lixo astronáutico

https%3A%2F%2Fphys.org%2Fnews%2F2018-02-recording-setting-spacewalk-antenna-wrong.html#pt0-400308

Citando:
"After removing the old, obsolete electronics box from the antenna—an original part, launched in 2000—Misurkin shoved it away from the space station. The bundle tumbled harmlessly away, 250 miles above the North Atlantic.

The 60-pound box—measuring just a couple of feet, or less than a meter—was hurled in a direction that will not intersect with the space station, according to NASA officials.

While the Russians routinely toss old equipment and used towels overboard during spacewalks, NASA prefers to secure no-longer-needed items or, if possible, bring them inside. Except for SpaceX's cargo ships, empty supply capsules are filled with trash and set loose to burn up in the atmosphere. The discarded electronics box will re-enter and burn up, too; Mission Control said it did not know when that will occur."