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There's a storm brewing in your teacup that we can hardly comprehend. Water molecules are whirling around, reaching out to one another, grabbing hold and letting go in unusual ways that defy straightforward analysis. While scientists understand that hydrogen bonding plays a significant part in water's many strange and fascinating forms, the specifics of how it works have remained a mystery. An multinational team of researchers developed a novel method for visualising the locations of particles in liquid water, capturing their blur with femtosecond precision to illustrate how hydrogen and oxygen jiggle among water molecules. Their findings may not help us make a better cup of tea, but they go a long way toward fleshing out quantum modelling of hydrogen bonding, perhaps improving theories explaining why water, which is so important to life as we know it, has such remarkable qualities. "This has definitely opened up a new window to investigate water," says Xijie Wang, a

  We can all agree that exercise is beneficial to your health, but how hard and how frequently should you push yourself to achieve the best results? According to a major study on the relationship between habitual physical activity and fitness levels, "moderate-vigorous physical activity" is the most effective strategy to improve fitness. The findings, which were derived from cardiopulmonary exercise tests (CPETs) and data from fitness-tracking wearables worn by 2,070 individuals, stayed true even after accounting for characteristics such as age, sex, obesity, and cardiovascular risk, according to the researchers. In terms of improving fitness, each minute of additional moderate-to-vigorous exercise was comparable to around 3 minutes of walking and 14 minutes less sedentary time on average. Furthermore, spending more time exercising and raising daily step counts appear to be able to counteract the unfavourable effects of sedentary behaviour on fitness. "We hope that our s

  India’s digital loan market is becoming a battleground for companies from Facebook Inc. to Xiaomi Corp. Companies ranging from Facebook Inc. to Xiaomi Corp. are vying for a piece of India's digital lending market, which is expected to be worth $1 trillion by 2020. This month, Facebook said that India would be the first country to implement its small business lending programme, which will provide loans to companies that advertise on its platform through a partner. The loans will be available in amounts ranging from 500,000 rupees ($6,720) to 5 million rupees, with interest rates ranging from 17 percent to 20 percent with no collateral required. The social media giant's entry into India coincides with Xiaomi's plans to offer loans, credit cards, and insurance products in partnership with some of the country's biggest banks and startup digital lenders, according to the Press Trust of India, citing local head Manu Jain. Xiaomi is a Chinese manufacturer of everything from

On Dec. 6, 1998, the STS-88 space shuttle crew captured the Russian-built Zarya module, which launched on Nov. 20 of that year, and mated it with the Unity node.   (Image credit: NASA) It's unclear whether the cracks are allowing air to escape the orbiting laboratory. According to a fresh report, small cracks have been discovered in the Zarya module of the International Space Station. "Superficial fractures have been identified in several spots on the Zarya module," Vladimir Solovyov, head engineer of Moscow-based Energia, Russia's main contractor for human spaceflight, told Russia's state-owned RIA news agency, Reuters reported today (Aug. 30). "This is awful news, and it means that the cracks will widen over time." According to Reuters, Solovyov did not disclose whether the cracks detected by Russian cosmonauts have caused any air to seep from Zarya (Russian for "Dawn"). Zarya, commonly known as the FCB (short for "Functional Cargo Block

When the rotating air of an updraft (shown in purple) collides with the revolving air of a downdraft (shown in aqua) that has turned upward, a tornado can emerge. Tornadoes can only arise when a thunderstorm has a specific wind pattern. When the air rising in thunderstorms is impacted by winds flowing in opposite directions, it might begin to spin. It rises and is pushed to one side by the wind. It rises a little higher before being jolted again by wind blowing in the opposite direction. The ascending air begins to spin due to winds travelling at various speeds and directions at various heights. Supercells, the most powerful type of thunderstorm, have air that spins as it climbs, although not all spinning air produces tornadoes. There must also be spinning air near the ground for a tornado to occur. This occurs when the storm's air sinks to the ground and spreads out in gusts across the countryside. Warmer air rises when the wind blows. As they blow across the land, gusts of cooler

BUT THEY WILL HAVE TO OVERCOME A FEW HURDLES FIRST. NASA Rather than later, sooner is preferable. Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX, has hinted that Starship will be ready to land astronauts on the Moon before the estimated launch date of 2024. Musk was responding to a tweet from a Tesla CEO on Saturday asking if the super heavy-lift launch vehicle will be ready to transport astronauts to the lunar surface by 2024, to which he replied, "Probably sooner." Is he correct? Of course, this may just be more of the typical Elon bravado we've all grown to despise and adore — especially given SpaceX's track record of missing mission and launch dates. There's also the reality that Artemis will be a particularly difficult mission, requiring anywhere from eight to sixteen launches to prepare for a single voyage to the Moon. A lunar landing in 2024, according to NASA's own inspector general, is "not viable" due to delays in spacesuit development. However, there ar

WE HAVE NO IDEA HOW MANY BATTERIES ARE REALLY RECYCLED. Batteries Can Be Recycled Tesla claims in its 2020 Impact Report that it can now recycle up to 92 percent of the raw materials used in its battery cells, a method that the company's facilities have already started to apply. The procedure could have a significant impact on the environmental cost of producing electric vehicle battery packs. Not only is the process energy-intensive, but Tesla's current battery lineup also requires cobalt, a rare element linked to controversial mining practises in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia, and elsewhere. Long-term planning Tesla, for example, did not provide any particular numbers on how many battery packs it recycled last year. Tesla battery packs recycled 1,300 tonnes of nickel, 400 tonnes of copper, and 80 tonnes of cobalt in 2020, according to the company's calculations. According to the study, “a Tesla battery pack is meant to outlast the vehicle itself.” “As a result,

Our world is made of elements and combinations of elements called compounds. An element is a pure substance made of atoms that are all of the same type. At present, 116 elements are known, and only about 90 of these occur naturally. Rights: Pslawinski, Creative Commons 2.5 Neon sign Neon – element number 10 on the periodic table – is an inert gas discovered by Sir William Ramsay in 1898. It is used in making neon advertising signs. Elements and the ‘Big Bang’ theory During the formation of the universe some 14 billion years ago in the so-called ‘Big Bang’, only the lightest elements were formed – hydrogen and helium along with trace amounts of lithium and beryllium. As the cloud of cosmic dust and gases from the Big Bang cooled, stars formed, and these then grouped together to form galaxies. The other 86 elements found in nature were created in nuclear reactions in these stars and in huge stellar explosions known as supernovae. Universal element formation Elements are formed deep wit