Traces

by KeAi Communications Co., Ltd. (a) Distribution of earthquakes with MV no less than 3.0, from the JMA catalogue, with the rectangular highlighting the study region in this editorial around the Noto Peninsula. Time period is from January 1, 1995 to the occurrence of the MW 7.5/MV7.6 earthquake on January 1, 2024. Red dots are the aftershocks above MV 3.0 from January 1, 2024, to January 15, 2024, approximately indicating…

The study area in the Baltic Sea. Location and relative ages of submerged archaeological sites are taken from http://www.splashcos.org. (A) Overview map of the Western Baltic Sea. Bathymetric data were taken from the Global Multi-Resolution Topography (GMRT) synthesis (3). (B) Detailed structure of the Bay of Mecklenburg including the location of the Blinkerwall. Bathymetric data from The Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency Bundesamt für…

On December 5th, 2020, Japan's Hayabusa2 mission successfully returned samples it had collected from the Near-Earth Asteroid (NEA) 162173 Ryugu home.Since asteroids are basically leftover material from the formation of the Solar System, analysis of these samples will provide insight into what conditions were like back then.In particular, scientists are interested in determining how organic molecules were delivered throughout the Solar System shortly after its formation (ca. 4.6 billion years ago), possibly offering clues…

Simulated "mobility highways" of farmer-herder interactions overlaid with the geolocated archaeological sites dated between ca. 3600 and 2200 before present. Credit: Xinzhou Chen The 1 million-square-mile Tibetan Plateau—often called the "roof of the world"—is the highest landmass in the world, averaging 14,000 feet in altitude. Despite the extreme environment, humans have been permanent inhabitants there since prehistoric…

What are they, where are they, and are they right for you?Photo by Hongwei FAN on UnsplashInput and output (I/O) operations refer to the transfer of data between a computer’s main memory and various peripherals. Storage peripherals such as HDDs and SSDs have particular performance characteristics in terms of latency, throughput, and rate which can influence the performance of the computer system they power. Extrapolating, the performance and design of distributed and cloud based Data Storage depends on that of the medium.…

Observed temperature trends during the winters (Dec–Feb) of 1995/96–2021/22. Credit: Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) If the world is warming, why are our winters getting colder? Indeed, East Asia and North America have experienced frequent extreme weather events since the 2000s that defy average climate change projections. Many experts have blamed Arctic warming and a weakening jet stream due to declining…

Power, documentarian Yance Ford’s clinical inquiry into US policing, isn’t trafficking in new information. The 86-minute project billed as an “essay-film”, which premiered at Sundance and will stream on Netflix later this year, has clear eyes on the past, synthesizing the work of several academics with a robust archival record to examine the origins, structure and impact of police power in the United States.That doesn’t mean it’s unnecessary; the film makes cogent, sweeping sense of the record for perhaps the most…

I once restored a 1950s timepiece for a customer who waxed lyrical about the intricacies of my work – all the while refusing to pay.They baulked when I presented them with the bill we'd previously agreed on. Then they garbled on about the philosophical nature of time, still resisting payment.It was during that wistful, skyward narrative that I saw the timepiece slip from their hand and hit the marble floor. The mineral glass shattered, sending the hands spiralling.Sunlight streamed in from the winter setting Sun – its…

December 1, 20232min readAncient fish followed prey into the crushing pressures of the deep oceanBy Riley BlackA modern-day floor-dwelling fish (Synodus intermedius). Credit: Wild Horizons/Universal Images Group via Getty ImagesThe strange life-forms lurking in Earth's deepest seas may seem primordial, as if they are as old as the oceans themselves. But the truth is that these fish and other animals took hundreds of millions of years to adapt to the pressure, cold and darkness of the depths, and a recent study helps…

TU Wien researchers have revolutionized the understanding of catalyst promoters by directly observing the role of lanthanum atoms in enhancing rhodium nanoparticle catalysts. Their study reveals how these promoters control crucial areas of the catalyst, significantly impacting the chemical reaction process. Above is an image depicting water molecules and the nanoparticle. Credit: TU WienResearchers at TU Wien have made a significant breakthrough by observing the function of promoters in catalytic reactions in real-time…