Solar Energy Device For Disaster-Impacted Areas

Researchers in Hong Kong were reported to have made some breakthrough in developing a new solar device that could revolutionize how clean emergency power is supplied to areas recovering from disasters, PV Magazine reported. It's a powerful tool that could be used to address energy inequity.

In a recent study, the Chinese research group developed a balloon-integrated photovoltaic system (BIPVS) designed to provide clean, reliable energy in challenging environments.

Tingsheng Zhang, a scientist involved in the study, explained it further to PV magazine. He said the BIPVS is intended for low-altitude use, where traditional solar setups often face limitations like shading and difficulty in assembly.

By integrating photovoltaic technology into a helium-filled balloon, this system is designed to provide emergency power for post-disaster recovery efforts, making renewable energy more accessible and reliable.

Unlike conventional solar panels, the BIPVS can be easily assembled and disassembled, making it ideal for regions with extreme winters or frequent snow and ice, according to Zhang. The system features highly efficient thin-film cadmium telluride solar cells, and transparent materials for enhanced light harvesting. The solar cells are also placed beneath the balloon to protect them from dust, snow, and hail.

This innovation stems from a concept initially proposed by Professor Jinyue Yan of Hong Kong Polytechnic University, who envisioned fusing solar technology with kites, Zhang said. After evaluating environmental constraints, the team pivoted to the balloon-based system, which it believes offers greater versatility and reliability.

The researchers tested the BIPVS's performance across five locations, including Sweden, Canada, the U.S., China, and Hong Kong. Simulations revealed the system could generate substantial energy even during high-solar-radiation months, and the economic gains are huge.

In Hong Kong, for instance, the average monthly power generation reached 3.379 gigawatt-hours during effective working months, or 708.334 GWh of cumulative power over its lifecycle, the study found. The accumulated energy is projected to reach $107.369 million in profits — a nearly 300% return on investment, according to PV magazine.

This breakthrough underscores the potential for green tech innovation to boost the accessibility of renewable energy. Unlike conventional solar installations, the portability and durability of the BIPVS make it uniquely suited for use in disaster-stricken areas or regions without reliable infrastructure. The system contributes to diversifying clean energy sources and reducing pollution from burning fossil fuels, improving human health.

The balloon isn't the only invention supplying solar in creative ways. Researchers at the University of Córdoba in Spain integrated solar collectors into hedgerow olive plantations so energy generation and crop production don't need to compete for resources. Arevon Energy opened a solar battery storage plant in California to provide a reliable supply of energy during unpredictable weather.

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Spectacular Moon Events In 2025

For those who are looking for an occultation of Mars to conjunctions with Venus and Jupiter, the moon will be involved in a bevy of spectacular events in 2025, and it will appear at its biggest and brightest since 2019.

This early, prepare your schedule and get those skywatching gear to make the most of the lunar events in 2025. Make sure that you check various dedicated moon-observing guides to help you get more familiar with our lunar companion.

Here are some dates for this year's moon-gazing diary:

1. The moon, Venus and Saturn: 3 January 2025 (after sunset)
2. Saturn occulted by the moon: 4 January 2025 (after sunset)
3. A crescent moon close to dazzling Venus: 1 February 2025 (after sunset)
4. Mars occulted by a full moon: 13-14 January 2025 (after sunset)
5. A crescent moon and a crescent Venus: 2 March 2025 (after sunset)
6. A "blood moon": 13-14 March 2025 (night)
7. > A stunning "sunrise eclipse": 29 March 2025 (sunrise through midday)
8. A low-hanging Strawberry Moon: 10 June 2025 (after sunset)
9. A crescent moon, Venus and the Pleiades: 22 June 2025 (before sunrise)
10. A crescent moon, Venus and Jupiter: 22 July 2025 (before sunrise)
11. A crescent moon close to Venus, Jupiter and Mercury: 19-21 August 2025 (before sunrise)
12. A second total lunar eclipse: 7 September 2025 (night)
13. A crescent moon close to Venus and Regulus: 19 September 2025 (before sunrise)
14. A second partial solar eclipse: 21 September 2025
15. The closest supermoon since 2019: 5 November 2025 (after sunset)

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Scientists Working Hard To Convert Heat Source Into Energy

Several scientists at Rice University are currently working to turn waste heat from industrial processes into electricity.

They've developed a cutting-edge device that turns heat into electricity with an impressive 60 percent efficiency, a breakthrough that could redefine how we store and use renewable energy. According to Interesting Engineering, this innovation marks a significant leap toward a cleaner and more sustainable energy landscape.

Study co-author Ciril Samuel Prasad described the device, explaining that it "maximizes energy conversion," making it one of the most efficient clean energy solutions developed to date.

The researchers combined tiny silicon structures with a base made of tungsten (a very strong and heat-resistant metal) to create a thermal emitter. When heated, it emits light, which is then converted into electricity by solar-like photovoltaic panels.

These silicon "nanocylinders" are designed to interact, or "talk," to each other, releasing the most efficient light. This process minimizes energy loss and majorly boosts energy performance.

Why is this such a big deal? Batteries, while essential to powering everything from smartphones to energy grids, come with some baggage. Mining for battery materials has a serious impact on ecosystems, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, and trashed batteries leave behind toxic waste. Plus, their short lifespans mean constant replacements, which means more environmental harm.

"We essentially showed how to achieve the best possible performance for the emitter given realistic, practical design constraints," Prasad said.

This new thermal emitter addresses these issues by offering a more efficient alternative. Using low-cost, durable materials, it can stabilize renewable energy grids by storing surplus energy during periods of low demand and releasing it during peak usage.

For example, the device could make renewable energy grids more reliable by holding extra power from solar panels or wind turbines during the day and delivering it when it's needed in the evening, when energy use spikes as people return home.

The International Renewable Energy Agency says breakthroughs like this, along with others such as solar panels that work at night or China's flywheel energy storage project, are key to cutting back on dirty energy use and creating stronger and more reliable power systems.

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Kilauea Volcano Erupted Again

One of the most active volcanoes in the world erupted again last 23 December, with lava fountains stretching more than 200 feet and a plume of toxic gas soaring above Hawaii, officials said.

Kilauea’s eruption began around 2:00 A.M. and "may go for a while," said Ken Hon, head scientist with the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory.

There were no immediate threats to infrastructure, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

Hon said "vog" — a potentially harmful mix of water vapor, carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide — was expected in elevated levels in areas south and west of the volcano in the coming days. The volcanic smog is expected to be severe, and he encouraged residents to stay indoors.

Lava fountains as high as 262 feet were seen at 4:30 A.M., the agency said, and "lava bombs" and other molten material were being ejected from the crater’s floor. As of 5:30 A.M., the agency estimated that 400 acres of the caldera floor was covered in lava.

The volcano, in Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park on the Big Island, has been erupting since 1983. Its most recent eruptions were in June and September, Hon said.

Dozens of homes were destroyed after an eruption in 2018 that forced thousands to flee.

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NASA Is Preparing For A Deeper Solar Probe

NASA's Parker Solar Probe is just days away from flying into the Sun — or through its outer layers in a daring bid to glean the secrets of our star's megahot winds, Ars Technica reports.

Ever since it launched in 2018, the diminutive spacecraft, which weighs less than a ton, has been performing flybys of our star at record-breaking speeds.

But on Christmas eve, the orbiter will make its closest approach yet, coming within 3.8 million miles of the solar surface. At that toasty proximity, the Parker will be plunging straight into the Sun's upper atmosphere — and with any luck, it'll make it out in one piece to send back valuable data about what's going on down there.

"Quite simply, we want to find the birthplace of the solar wind," NASA chief of Science Nicky Fox told Ars.

This outermost region that the Parker will be entering is known as the corona, which swirls with charged particles of plasma amidst the Sun's powerful magnetic fields. During solar eclipses, the corona is visible as an aureole of light emanating around the blacked-out star.

Despite its huge size and quite literally being the center of our existence, many facets of the Sun remain shrouded in mystery — that shroud, in this metaphor, being the corona.

Paradoxically, the corona is hundreds of times hotter than the surface of the Sun, reaching temperatures up to 3.6 million degrees Fahrenheit, compared to a comparatively mild 10,000 degrees down below. Scientists still don't agree on why this is the case; shouldn't the region closer to the core be hotter?

The corona is also thought to be the originator of solar wind, a constant flow of charged particles that suffuse the solar system, protecting it against more powerful emissions from deep space. (Its existence was predicted nearly 70 years by the NASA probe's namesake, American astrophysicist Eugune Parker.)

Close observations of the Sun have long vindicated Parker's theory, but the mechanisms behind solar winds remain unclear. Along with their extreme temperatures, the winds also travel at ludicrous speeds of around one million miles per hour, giving it its immense reach.

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Creation Of "Mirror Of Life" Organisms Could Be Catastrophic

Scientists considered the creation of "mirror life" as one of the greatest breakthroughs, but some researchers who began the effort are now calling for it to stop.

So far, no mirror-life microorganisms exist. But 38 scientists warned in a paper published in the journal Science on December 12 that if someone created one and it escaped the lab, it could cause a catastrophic multispecies pandemic.

"We're basically giving instructions of how to make a perfect bioweapon," Kate Adamala, a coauthor of the paper and a chemist who leads a synthetic biology lab at the University of Minnesota, told Business Insider.

As the risks became clear, Adamala ended her lab's efforts to build a mirror cell. Her multiyear grant for that research expired and she decided not to apply for renewal, she said.

Now she and the 37 other researchers are urging other scientists to do the same.

"Although we were initially skeptical that mirror bacteria could pose major risks, we have become deeply concerned," they wrote in the paper.

Mirror biology takes a fundamental rule of life on Earth, called chirality, and flips it.

Chirality is the simple fact that molecules — like sugars and amino acids — point in one of two directions. They are either right-handed or left-handed.

For some reason, though, life uses only one chiral form of each molecule. DNA, for example, uses only right-handed sugars for its backbone. That's why it twists to the right.

In mirror biology, scientists aim to create living cells where all the chirality is flipped. Where natural life uses a right-handed peptide to build proteins, mirror life would use the same peptide in its left-handed form.

Adamala's research focused on making mirror peptides, which can help create longer-lasting pharmaceuticals.

The long-term goal of that research was a full mirror cell. Mirror cells could help prevent contamination in bioreactors that use bacteria for green chemical manufacturing because, in theory, they wouldn't interact with natural microorganisms.

"You could have this perfect bioreactor that can just sit there and you can stick your finger into it and you're not going to contaminate it," Adamala said. "That's also precisely the problem."

A mirror bacteria could bypass the natural checks and balances of life, like competing with other bacteria or battling our immune systems.

Adamala said "the death sentence" for her mirror-cell research came when she spoke to immunologists. They explained that for humans, other animals, and plants, immune-system activation depends on chirality.

Immune cells recognize pathogens' proteins, but they wouldn't detect the inverse versions of those proteins that mirror cells would use.

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Midcontinent Rift Could Hold Abundant Hydrogen Energy

Experts from University of Nebraska surmised that a continent-shaking event from more than a billion years ago may still be reverberating with impact today in the form of cleaner hydrogen fuel.

The research, detailed in a Cornhuskers press release, examines the possibility that the 1,200-mile Midcontinent Rift could hold thousands of years' worth of energy up to 5,000 feet underground.

"It could be deep enough to be stored, but shallow enough that we can access it," Professor Karrie Weber, a project investigator, said in the release. "The geology is in our favor."

The rift stretches from Lake Superior through parts of six states, going as far south as Kansas. It was formed when the North American continent nearly split. A large swath of volcanic rock remains. The scientists are examining whether water interacting with the rock is creating natural hydrogen, a fuel source with "near-zero" heat-trapping fumes, all per Nebraska and the U.S. Department of Energy.

It's fascinating chemistry that happens when certain rocks contact water, creating a reaction that leaves hydrogen as a byproduct, as described by AAPG Explorer.

Hydrogen is eyed by the government as a potential replacement for dirty energy sources. There's even a DOE-backed project in Texas designed to vet the production and use of the fuel, which is already powering vehicles.

While cleaner on some fronts, hydrogen production often includes a process involving dirty energy. Planet-friendlier electrolysis can utilize renewable electricity to split hydrogen from water and oxygen, all per government information on the fuel. If made naturally underground, the production concerns evaporate.

Though, the fuel has other critics, including the Sierra Club. A fact sheet from the environmental watchdog highlighted that hydrogen releases nitrogen oxide when combusted, a known lung-troubling gas.

For comparison, the DOE said the nitrogen oxide fumes are similar to natural gas when it's burnt to power a turbine. The experts added that using hydrogen in a fuel cell results in no pollution.

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NASA Unveiled The Mars Chopper

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has just shown off early renderings of an enormous Mars Chopper concept, a proposed follow-up to the space agency's groundbreaking Ingenuity Mars Helicopter.

The six-rotor monstrosity could turn out to be "the size of an SUV," according to NASA, allowing it to carry science payloads up to 11 pounds across distances of up to 1.9 miles per Mars day.

A sleek animation shared by NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab last week shows the massive three-legged drone gliding over a rugged, mountainous landscape.

In other words, the Chopper could pick up right where Ingenuity left off. Its much smaller ancestor sent its final transmission back to Earth in April, bookending an astounding proof-of-concept mission.

The four-pound rotorcraft, which became the first-ever human-made object to take flight on a different planet in 2021, completed 72 flights in just under three years, which was an astonishing achievement, given that it was designed to fly only five times over 30 Mars days.

Whether NASA's Chopper will get even close to that kind of success remains unclear, but now that Ingenuity has blazed its path, it's still entirely possible.

According to NASA, the concept "remains in early conceptual and design stages." Its main task would be to assist scientists in studying even larger swathes of the Martian terrain, at relatively high speeds.

In particular, the Chopper could go where rovers can't, allowing scientists to get an unprecedented glimpse of inaccessible areas of the Red Planet.

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New Theory Suggests Columbus Did Not Bring Syphilis To Europe

It has been widely known and proven that European explorers unwittingly brought with them chickenpox, measles, mumps, and smallpox to the new world, decimating some populations and wholly destroying others.

Understandably, it was also believed that that Christopher Columbus brought syphilis to the old world in 1492. However, new ancient DNA contradicts that theory.

According to the Journal of Medicine and Life, syphilis was a very common sickness in Europe, Asia and Northern Africa, with countries blaming each other for starting the spread. Three hypotheses emerged within the past century about the origins of syphilis:

• The pre-Columbian hypothesis: Syphilis was already widespread globally before Columbus’ journey.
• The unitarian hypothesis: Syphilis and related diseases were widespread, but its prevalence depended on the climate and cultural development of an area.
• The Columbus hypothesis: Christopher Columbus and his fleet brought syphilis back to Europe from the new world. This last theory is what has been shared the most and continues to be brought up in our time as a likely reason for the syphilis outbreak in Europe in the 1400s.

A newly published study in the peer-reviewed journal Nature describes findings from 2,000-year-old human remains discovered in Brazil. Researchers used DNA from the remains to reconstruct four known ancient genomes that can cause syphilis.

In doing so, scientists were able to reconstruct the oldest known genome of syphilis from indigenous remains that dated before Columbus’ arrival. It adds evidence that some form of syphilis was already in the new world before Columbus’ arrival, but it doesn’t quite rule out the possibility that Columbus’ fleet brought it back to Europe.

Verena Schuenemann, a professor of paleogenetics from the University of Basel and one of the scientists that helped lead the study, had this to say to CNN: "The new findings do not mean the venereal syphilis that caused the 15th century epidemic came to Europe from the Americas at the time of Columbus."

Schuenemann’s team conducted another study similar to the new study back in 2020 that involved reconstructing the syphilis genomes from human remains found across Northern Europe. They found that there was already a form of the bacteria, T. pallidum (the bacteria that can cause syphilis), widespread across Europe before or around Columbus’ time.

These new results will help scientists as they continue to study the origins of syphilis, with Schuenemann’s team now having evidence that the bacteria that can cause syphilis and other related diseases was already widespread across both continents before Columbus’ time, per Business Insider.

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Antimatter Propulsion Could Give Space Travel A Big Boost

Scientists are now considering the possibilities of using antimatter propulsion to achieve interstellar travel. This came after conventional struggled with low efficiency. Also, using electric propulsion and solar sails offer high efficiency, but generate minimal thrust.

It is in this regard that scientists are looking toward a theoretical solution that harnesses the immense energy of antimatter.

"Antimatter propulsion is a groundbreaking technology with potential to transform space exploration, enabling travel to distant locations once deemed impossible," asserted a new study by researchers from the United Arab Emirates University.

"Spacecrafts can traverse the Solar System to reach nearby stars in a span of days to weeks (within a human lifetime) due to this enormous energy potential."

Antimatter consists of antiparticles. These antiparticles have the same mass as ordinary particles but possess opposite charges and quantum spins. When an antiparticle encounters its corresponding particle, they annihilate each other, releasing their combined mass as energy. This is the most energetic reaction known in physics.

However, the diverse range of potential matter-antimatter reactions presents a significant challenge. Now, the new study has supported the selection of two specific types of annihilation reactions that are particularly well-suited for space missions.

The first involves the interaction of antiprotons with nucleons, which encompass both protons and neutrons. Antiprotons are the antimatter counterparts of protons, and when an antiproton encounters a proton or neutron, they mutually annihilate. This reaction is characterized by its stability and substantial energy release.

The second suitable reaction involves the interaction of positrons with electrons. Positrons are the antimatter equivalents of electrons. Similar to antiproton-nucleon annihilation, positron-electron annihilation is also stable and yields a significant amount of energy.

The selection of these specific reactions is important because many antimatter particles are naturally unstable. But for long-duration space missions, the chosen antimatter must be capable of being stored safely for extended periods. Antiprotons and positrons exhibit the necessary stability.

The excitement surrounding antimatter propulsion stems from its energy density. When matter and antimatter come into contact, they annihilate each other, transforming their entire mass into energy. This process releases an energy density of 9 x 10¹⁶ J/kg.

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1940 Mers-el-Kebir Attack: British Treachery Or Preemptive Strike?

The attack on the port of Mers-el-Kebir on 3 July 1940, has gone down as either a courageous decision that saved Britain — or a treacherous and needless backstab of an ally.

During that chaotic summer, the situation looked grim. The German blitzkrieg had just conquered France and Western Europe, while the cream of the British Army had barely been evacuated — minus their equipment — from Dunkirk. If the Germans could launch an amphibious assault across the English Channel, the British Army was in no condition to repel them.

However, Operation Sealion — the Nazi German plan to invade Britain — had its own problems. The Kriegsmarine — the German Navy — was a fraction of the size of the Royal Navy, and thus too small to escort vulnerable troop transports. But Britain's Prime Minister Winston Churchill had to contemplate a situation he had never expected: a combined German-French battlefleet.

Technically, France had only agreed to an armistice — a permanent cease-fire — with Germany rather than surrender. France would be divided between German-occupied northern zone, and a nominally independent rump state of Vichy comprising southern France and the colonies of the French Empire. Vichy France would be allowed a meager army, and the French Navy would be confined to its home ports.

The British didn't trust French promises that its ships would be scuttled if the Germans tried to seize them. Why had France signed a separate peace with Germany after earlier pledging not to? Why didn't the French government choose to go into exile, and continue the war from its North African colonies as the British urged?

London was well aware that the right-wing Vichy government — under Field Marshal Philippe Pétain, hero of the First World War — had more affection for the Third Reich than it did for Britain. With Germany master of Europe, Pétain sneered that Britain would soon "have its neck wrung like a chicken."

After Vichy rebuffed pleas to send the fleet to British ports, Churchill and his ministers decided the risk was too great. In late June 1940, the Royal Navy received orders for Operation Catapult. A task force — including the aircraft carrier Ark Royal and three battleships and battlecruisers — would be dispatched to the French naval base at Mers-el-Kebir, near the Algerian port of Oran. A powerful French squadron of four battleships and six destroyers were docked there, including the new battleships Dunkerque and Strasbourg.

The French were to be given six hours to respond to an ultimatum: sail their ships to British ports and fight the Germans, sail them to French Caribbean ports and sit out the war, demilitarize their ships at Mers-el-Kebir, or scuttle their vessels. When the local French commander tried to delay while summoning reinforcements, the British opened fire.

The ensuing battle was not the Royal Navy's most glorious. Caught in every admiral's nightmare — unprepared ships anchored in port — the French were simply smothered by British gunfire. The battleship Bretagne and two destroyers were sunk, two other battleships damaged, and 1,297 French sailors perished. The British suffered two dead.

Most ships at Mers-el-Kebir were damaged rather than sunk, and the French fleet quickly relocated its scattered vessels to the heavily defended French port at Toulon (where they were scuttled in November 1942 when German troops occupied Vichy). Though Vichy didn't declare war on Britain — and only retaliated with a few minor attacks on British bases — it confirmed old French prejudices about British treachery and "perfidious Albion."

Britain's attack on Mers-el-Kebir was political as much as military. In the summer of 1940, many people — including some in the United States — believed that the British would be conquered or compelled to make peace with a victorious Germany. Churchill argued that Britain had to show its resolve to keep on fighting, not least if it hoped to persuade America to send tanks, ships and war materials via a Lend-Lease deal. Attacking a former ally may have been a demonstration of British resolve.

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Bermuda Triangle Mystery Is Just A "Mere Fact Of Probabilities"?

There are more than 50 ships and 20 planes that have disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle in the last century. Each one has a story without an ending, leading to a litany of conspiracy theories about the disappearances in the area, marked roughly by Florida, Bermuda, and the Greater Antilles.

However, Australian scientist Karl Kruszelnicki, along with the United States’ own National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA), don’t believe in the idea that there are supernatural powers involved. Both have been saying for years that there’s really no Bermuda Triangle mystery. In fact, the loss and disappearance of ships and planes is a mere fact of probabilities.

"There is no evidence that mysterious disappearances occur with any greater frequency in the Bermuda Triangle than in any other large, well-traveled area of the ocean," NOAA wrote in 2010.

And since 2017, Kruszelnicki has been saying the same thing. He told The Independent that the sheer volume of traffic—in a tricky area to navigate, no less—shows "the number [of ships and planes] that go missing in the Bermuda Triangle is the same as anywhere in the world on a percentage basis."

He says that both Lloyd’s of London and the U.S. Coast Guard support that idea. In fact, as The Independent notes, Lloyd’s of London has had this same theory since the 1970s.

NOAA says environmental considerations can explain away most of the Bermuda Triangle disappearances, highlighting the Gulf Stream’s tendency towards violent changes in weather, the number of islands in the Caribbean Sea offering a complicated navigation adventure, and evidence that suggests the Bermuda Triangle may cause a magnetic compass to point to true north instead of magnetic north, causing for confusion in wayfinding.

"The U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard contend that there are no supernatural explanations for disasters at sea," NOAA says. "Their experience suggests that the combined forces of nature and human fallibility outdo even the most incredulous science fiction."

Kruszelnicki has routinely garnered public attention for espousing these very thoughts on the Bermuda Triangle, first in 2017 and then again in 2022 before resurfacing once more in 2023. Throughout it all, he’s stuck to the same idea: the numbers don’t lie.

Even with some high-profile disappearances—such as Flight 19, a group of five U.S. Navy TBM Avenger torpedo bombers lost in 1945—pushing the theory into popular culture, Kruszelnicki points out that every instance contains a degree of poor weather or likely human error (or both, as in the case of Flight 19) as the true culprit.

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Are The Tasadays Genuine Or Hoax?

In the 1970's, the world were introduced to the Tasadays, a primitive group believed to be living for years in a cave, tracing their roots to the pre-historic era and untouched by civilization.

It was wealthy businessman and amateur anthropologist Manuel Elizalde Jr. who gave the miniscule group of Paleolithic humans a glimpse of civilization in June 1971, earning enormous attention that drew headlines, anthropologists, linguists and even Hollywood stars.

The story piqued the curiosity of experts, until it turned out to be too good to be true.

A hunter laying traps in the wild allegedly discovered the presence of the Tasadays and reported it to Elizalde, who quickly jumped into a helicopter to see for himself what could be one of humanity's greatest treasures.

Elizalde, known for being a playboy and drunkard, was in command after President Ferdinand Marcos appointed him as presidential assistant on national minorities.

He was welcomed by the Tasadays as a hero, a god, a savior, and was regarded by the group as "Momo Dakel Diwata Tasadayor" or the "Great Bringer of Good Fortune to the Tasaday."

Elizalde claimed that the leaves-wearing Tasadays were isolated, uncorrupted and existed in the rainforests and caves, without knowledge of the developed world.

The group lived peacefully and had no knowledge of agriculture and hunting for food, running naked in their diminutive community. They were believed to be the last remnants of the Stone Age.

The story of the Tasadays caught the attention of the whole world. Many flew to the Philippines to study the ethnic group, immersing themselves to fully understand the tribe's way of life.

The discovery was even carried as a cover story by the National Geographic. The respected magazine dedicated 32 pages of coverage on the tribe, and featured a full-size image of a Tasaday kid hanging on a vine, identified as Lobo, on the cover.

Veteran Associated Press photographer John Nance also wrote his firsthand experience in a book entitled "The Gentle Tasaday."

Soon, the then serene community was disturbed by inquisitive foreigners, which led to the closing of its doors to the public.

Controlling the access, Elizalde decided to restrict the public around the same time Marcos declared martial law to protect the Tasadays and their home. A presidential decree was enacted in 1976 protecting the 26 members of the tribe and the 46,299-acre land from the dangers of exploitation due to rampant logging and mining as well as experts studying them.

While Filipinos celebrated their independence through People Power in 1986, Oswald Iten, a Swiss journalist, saw the opportunity to check the life of the Tasadays and confirm their authenticity. To his surprise, the once-celebrated Stone Age community was found away from the caves, living in nipa huts and wearing casual clothes, and were into farming.

"They lived in houses, they didn't live in caves and they told me they were in fact not a separate tribe called Tasaday. They told me it was the idea of Elizalde to make them pose as cavemen and Stone Age people in order to become famous," Iten said in "The Lost Tribe."

ABC News made a follow-up story called "The Tribe That Never Was" and quoted another Tasaday about conspiring with Elizalde.

"The Tasaday told us that in exchange for posing naked and playing the Stone Age caveman routine they said they were promised food, clothing and much to our astonishment, they were promised of their own helicopter," the producer of the story, Judith Moses, said in the same documentary.

The debates went for years until Congress, through the Committee on National Cultural Communities, declared the Tasadays to be genuine. The fame faded and the attention was gone for the simple Tasadays.

Decades later, Lobo, the kid holding on to a vine, revealed that their discovery, Elizalde's intrusion and the worldwide attention made their simple lives complicated.

Regardless of their origins, the Tasadays were clearly used by powerful people for their own selfish interests.

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Are There CO2 Rivers In Mars?

For several years now, scientists believed that the liquid responsible for shaping Mars' surface must have been water. They are now in the process of rethinking on that belief.

Evidence like massive outflow channels, ancient river valleys, deltas and lakebeds have suggested Mars had a watery past, as these formations resemble those shaped by water on Earth. These widespread features would seem to narrow the possibilities to liquid water — but there are cracks in this theory.

Another possibility is liquid carbon dioxide. Under the dense atmosphere of early Mars, carbon dioxide could have liquefied and plausibly flowed across the Red Planet, carving its surface in ways similar to water. In a new study, a team of researchers argue that our extensive understanding of water-based systems on Earth, combined with limited knowledge of liquid carbon dioxide systems, may have led us to prematurely dismiss a scenario that could have fundamentally shaped Mars as we know it today.

"It's difficult to say how likely it is that this speculation about early Mars is actually true," said Michael Hecht, principal investigator of the MOXIE instrument aboard the NASA Mars Rover Perseverance, in an interview with MIT News. "What we can say, and we are saying, is that the likelihood is high enough that the possibility should not be ignored."

They reference earlier experiments from carbon sequestration research that investigated how carbon dioxide interacts with minerals in the presence of brine and supercritical or liquid carbon dioxide —a phase of carbon dioxide that occurs at specific temperatures and pressures in which it exhibits the properties of both a gas and a liquid.

These studies demonstrated widespread carbonation processes, where carbon dioxide is incorporated into minerals as carbonates, under conditions relevant to early Mars. "Geologic sequestration on Earth has revealed a surprising degree of chemical reactivity between [carbon dioxide] fluid and minerals if the fluid is water-saturated, as it would probably have been on Mars," the researchers write in a new study. "The resulting alteration products — carbonates, phyllosilicates and possibly sulfates — are consistent with minerals found on Mars today."

Current mineralogy and surface features could have formed from stable liquid carbon dioxide melting beneath carbon dioxide glaciers, or even subsurface reservoirs.

However, the researchers emphasize moving away from the idea of a single warm, wet environment, instead highlighting a range of brief, unstable, and subsurface processes.

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Scientists Developed A Light-Manipulating Tech

This could be big when it comes to designing new solar panels. Based on the press release, a team of scientists claimed that they've flipped the script when it comes to how silicon interacts with light.

The UC Irvine-led team's innovative tech facilitates ultrathin silicon solar cells that could power thermoelectric clothing or onboard vehicle and device charging.

The journal ACS Nano published the study, which was conducted in collaboration with scientists from Kazan Federal University in Russia and Tel Aviv University.

The key for the team was not to change the silicon material itself, but instead focus on conditioning the light to change pure silicon from an indirect to a direct bandgap semiconductor.

As an indirect bandgap semiconductor, silicon's "optical properties are inherently weak," commented Dmitry Fishman, the study's lead author. The team used a method to enhance the momentum of photons.

"Photons carry energy but almost no momentum, but if we change this narrative explained in textbooks and somehow give photons momentum, we can excite electrons without needing additional particles," study co-author Eric Potma said.

The result of the added momentum was majorly enhanced light absorption and a huge increase in device performance. Potma divulged the method "increases light absorption by a factor of 10,000, completely transforming light-matter interaction."

Potma says that innovation is much-needed for solar energy to become a viable clean energy source and slow the warming of the planet that is coming with increasingly dire consequences.

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Sun's "Battle Zone" and "Solar Maximus", What Are They?

Scientists have reported that we have officially entered solar maximum. But they also warned that the sun's activity won't actually peak until after this explosive phase is over and we enter the solar "battle zone."

This relatively understudied phase of the solar cycle, where giant coronal holes emerge on the sun, could be disastrous for Earth-orbiting satellites, which have exponentially multiplied since the last solar cycle, experts warn.

Solar maximum is defined as the period of the sun's roughly 11-year solar cycle, or sunspot cycle, when the number of visible dark patches on the sun is at its highest. During this time, powerful solar flares explode from the solar surface and hurl clouds of charged particles at Earth, triggering intense geomagnetic storms that paint vibrant auroras across the night sky.

Halfway through this period, the sun's magnetic field completely flips, leading to an eventual reduction in sunspots and solar activity until we reach "solar minimum" and the next solar cycle begins.

Solar activity has been ramping up over the last few years, hinting that solar maximum could arrive sooner and be more active than scientists initially expected. Last month, space weather experts confirmed this was the case when they announced that solar maximum is already well underway, and could last for around a year or more.

But on 15 November, Lynker Space, a new space weather prediction and solution company that formed earlier this year, released a blog post explaining that a newly realized phase of the solar cycle, known as the battle zone, will likely begin in the next year or two, as solar maximum ends.

Scott McIntosh, a solar physicist and Vice President of Lynker Space, told Live Science that geomagnetic activity in the upper atmosphere could increase by up to 50 percent during the battle zone, which could last well into 2028. "The potential for large, dangerous geomagnetic storms in the next few years is very real," he said.

In addition to the 11-year sunspot cycle that most people are familiar with, the sun also has a longer 22-year "Hale cycle," which is the time it takes for our home star's magnetic field to flip and then flip back again.

During this longer cycle, large bands of magnetism, known as Hale cycle bands, emerge at the sun's poles and slowly migrate toward the sun's equator, independent from the sun's wider magnetic field. A new band emerges in both of the sun's hemispheres during each solar maximum and lasts until the end of the next sunspot cycle, when the bands reach the sun's equator and disappear in what researchers call a "solar terminator" event. This means that during the first half of a sunspot cycle (from solar minimum to solar maximum) there is only one Hale cycle band in each of the sun's hemispheres. But during the second half of a cycle (after solar maximum), there are two bands in each hemisphere.

The overlap of these giant bands is what governs the sunspot cycle, McIntosh explained. When there is only one band in each hemisphere, there is a magnetic imbalance across the sun with weaker magnetic fields near the equator, allowing the number of black spots to increase around our home star's waist, he said.

But when a second band is established, it "reduces the imbalance" and makes it harder for sunspots to form, McIntosh added. "Eventually, over a few years, as the bands march towards the equator the imbalance progressively decreases until the sun can't make any sunspots."

Hale cycle bands have historically been overlooked by most space weather forecasters who rely more on sunspot numbers to predict solar activity. However, some scientists are starting to realize that the magnetic bands are more important than we thought. For example, studying the solar terminator event that preceded the current solar cycle allowed McIntosh and others to correctly predict the arrival of solar maximum when other experts did not.

The battle zone is a new term introduced by Lynker Space to describe the period when two Hale cycle bands are "vying for dominance" in each of the sun's hemispheres, McIntosh said.

"We are using this term to describe the fact that geomagnetic activity is enhanced after sunspot maximum," he added.

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Americans Are Not Really That Tech Savvy

Even if it was the Americans who have given birth to the Internet, it does not mean that they are also good at using technology to solve problems.

A new report finds U.S. workers rank dead last among 18 industrial countries when it comes to "problem solving in technology-rich environments," or using digital technology to evaluate information and perform practical tasks. The consequences of that emerging competitive disadvantage is energizing the volatile undercurrent of this year’s presidential race, some observers say.

If the problem-solving deficit is bad, the reasons for it may be worse, said Stephen Provasnik, the U.S. technical adviser for the International Assessment for Adult Competency: flagging literacy and numeracy skills, which are the fundamental tools needed to score well on the survey.

"When you look at this data it suggests the trends we’ve discerned over the last 20 years are continuing and if anything they are gaining momentum," said Joseph Fuller, a Harvard Business School professor who studies competitiveness.

The results build off a global survey conducted in 2012 by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. To better compare the skills of younger and older adults and the unemployed, researchers did additional surveys in 2014. The countries that scored the highest on the problem-solving with technology criteria were Japan, Finland, Sweden and Norway. Poland scored second to last, just above the U.S.

One stark revelation is that about four-fifths of unemployed Americans cannot figure out a rudimentary problem in which they have to spot an error when data is transferred from a two-column spreadsheet to a bar graph. And Americans are far less adept at dealing with numbers than the average of their global peers.

"This is the only country in the world where it’s OK to say 'I'm not good at math,'" said Mr. Provasnik. "That’s just not acceptable in a place like Japan."

When the original study by the OECD was published in 2013, then-Secretary of Education Arne Duncan didn’t pull his punches. "These findings should concern us all," he said. "They show our education system hasn't done enough to help Americans compete—or position our country to lead—in a global economy that demands increasingly higher skills."

Americans with the most cerebral jobs—those that demanded high levels of literacy, numeracy and problem-solving skills—fared the best against the rest of the world in the earlier tests. The potential problem lies in the growing complexity of traditional middle-class jobs in fields like manufacturing and health care. Workers unable to grow in those jobs will lose their positions or face stagnant wages.

The new report does nothing to dispel that gloom. Data on 16- to 34-year-olds, for instance, found even workers with college degrees and graduate or professional degrees don’t stack up favorably against their international peers with similar education levels. Fewer of these most-educated Americans perform at the highest levels on tests of numeracy and problem solving with technology.

"Just because you're a digital native, doesn’t mean you're tech savvy," said Linda Rosen, chief executive of Change the Equation, a privately funded nonprofit that advocates for technological literacy in schools.Marc Tuck, president and CEO of the National Center for Education and the Economy, a not-for-profit educational research organization, says the U.S.’s weak standing in labor skills shown in the report offer a blueprint to understanding the current political climate.

"American workers, once the best educated in the world, are now among the least well-educated, in the industrialized world," Mr. Tuck said in a statement. "That has economic consequences and those economic consequences are now turning into political consequences" as voters head to the polls this presidential election year.

In the 1970s, the U.S. had the most educated workforce in the world. Since 2000, the skills and knowledge of U.S. high-school graduates have stagnated while those of other countries have increased rapidly. That failure to adapt means global employers can get cheaper, better educated labor in many other countries.

"The only way we can compete and live well in this country is if people in other parts of the world want what we have to sell them and we can only get there if we have a population that is very well educated and well trained," Mr. Tucker said. "If people with the same skills are willing to work harder and charge less, that’s where the jobs are going to go."

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U.S. Navy Installed Hypersonic Weapon On Stealth Destroyer

If it is broken, fix it and make it more effective. This is what inspired the U.S. Navy when they transformed a costly flub into a potent weapon with the first shipborne hypersonic weapon. They retrofitted the weapon aboard the first of its three stealthy destroyers.

The USS Zumwalt is at a Mississippi shipyard where workers have installed missile tubes that replace twin turrets from a gun system that was never activated because it was too expensive. Once the system is complete, the Zumwalt will provide a platform for conducting fast, precision strikes from greater distances, adding to the usefulness of the warship.

"It was a costly blunder. But the Navy could take victory from the jaws of defeat here, and get some utility out of them by making them into a hypersonic platform," said Bryan Clark, a defense analyst at the Hudson Institute.

The U.S. has had several types of hypersonic weapons in development for the past two decades, but recent tests by both Russia and China have added pressure to the U.S. military to hasten their production.

Hypersonic weapons travel beyond Mach 5, five times the speed of sound, with added maneuverability making them harder to shoot down.

Last year, The Washington Post reported that among the documents leaked by former Massachusetts Air National Guard member Jack Teixeira was a defense department briefing that confirmed China had recently tested an intermediate-range hypersonic weapon called the DF-27. While the Pentagon had previously acknowledged the weapon's development, it had not recognized its testing.

One of the U.S. programs in development and planned for the Zumwalt is the "Conventional Prompt Strike." It would launch like a ballistic missile and then release a hypersonic glide vehicle that would travel at speeds seven to eight times faster than the speed of sound before hitting the target.

The weapon system is being developed jointly by the Navy and Army. Each of the Zumwalt-class destroyers would be equipped with four missile tubes, each with three of the missiles for a total of 12 hypersonic weapons per ship.

In choosing the Zumwalt, the Navy is attempting to add to the usefulness of a US$ 7.5 billion warship that is considered by critics to be an expensive mistake despite serving as a test platform for multiple innovations.

The Zumwalt was envisioned as providing land-attack capability with an Advanced Gun System with rocket-assisted projectiles to open the way for Marines to charge ashore. But the system featuring 155 mm guns hidden in stealthy turrets was canceled because each of the rocket-assisted projectiles cost between US$ 800,000 and US$ 1 million.

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Uranus' Moon Miranda Got Some 'Weird' Internal Dynamics

For decades, astronomers are fascinated by the pale blue-green enigma in space, the planet Uranus. Its extreme distance, some 1.6 billion miles (2.6 billion km) from Earth is just part of its attraction.

While it is comparatively easy to gaze upon neighboring celestial bodies like the Moon and the planets Mars and Venus, Uranus is difficult to see without the most powerful telescopes, such as the James Webb Space Telescope. As technology has advanced, it has unlocked more secrets of the strange, tilted planet (it orbits on its side compared to other planets in the solar system), from the fact that it may rain diamonds to discovering previously-unknown moons.

Now a trio of recent studies has added another cloud of questions about the planet when it was revealed that one of its moons, Miranda, likely has a stirring ocean beneath its surface, meaning it could harbor extraterrestrial life, and that the planet’s own internal dynamics are more bizarre than we ever imagined.

In a study published in The Planetary Science Journal, University of North Dakota astronomer Caleb Strong explained that their research revealed Miranda likely has a subsurface ocean, which Strong described as "weird."

"It was not expected based on previous estimates of its size, which means there are likely many surprises awaiting us in the Uranus system," Strong told Salon.

He added that it is premature to assume the presence of oceans means there is life on the planet, telling Salon that "we really don't know enough about Miranda or the Uranus system to say. While interesting, the question of life is beyond the scope of our paper."

Astrobiologists believe that extraterrestrial life, if it exists, would require a planet or planetary moon with water and carbon in order to form organic molecules, which is why there is interest in Miranda.

The Miranda paper relied on images taken from the Voyager 2 probe, the one and only spacecraft to visit Uranus, to reach these conclusions. The Voyager 2 probe was also used by a recent study from the journal Nature Astronomy which used those images to learn about the magnetosphere of Uranus.

A magnetosphere is the region around a planet where its magnetic field is dominant, protecting the planet from the Sun’s destructive particles. According to Jamie Jasinski, a space plasma physicist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, past space voyages have provided mysterious readings about the exact nature of the Uranus magnetosphere. Their new research transforms everything.

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High-Speed Underwater Rail Project Sets Eye On Record

The UAE is not stopping in their pursuit of hi-tech development as they start working on an underwater rail project that could revolutionize travel as we know it.

The Brighter Side of News reported on the Gulf nation's ambitious plans to build a 1,200-mile bullet train route from Fujairah to Mumbai that will operate at speeds of around 370-620 miles per hour below the ocean's surface.

The route will make that trip faster than air travel and could be a bucket-list item for travelers and tourists to marvel at the beauty of the ocean. To that end, the train will feature panoramic windows offering stunning views of marine life.

Sara Ahmed, a Dubai-based travel blogger, told The Brighter Side of News that the train could be a "major draw" for the UAE and that "it's about relishing the wonders of the marine world."

Plans for the underwater train first surfaced in 2018. If completed, it would completely rewrite the record books for the longest underwater train route used by bullet trains. Right now, the Seikan Tunnel holds the title with a route that spans 33 miles, per The Brighter Side of News.

As far as the longest bullet trains in the world, Beijing's route to Kunming tops the heap with a nearly 1,650-mile journey that takes from 10 to 15 hours.

The 35-mile Channel Tunnel that connects England and France first showed that underwater construction was possible. Of course, the scale of this project at 50 times larger and operating at 10 times faster speeds is in a different stratosphere entirely, as Interesting Engineering noted.

The UAE's bold underwater train can perhaps be compared to Saudi Arabia's US$ 500 billion (and rising) NEOM project that aims to build a city of the future in the desert with sustainable rewilding. NEOM has drawn the scorn of critics who have pointed to the high casualties of workers on the project, cost overages, practicality concerns, and leadership struggles.

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Evidence Found On The Murdered Two Princes In The Tower

The discovery of a will is considered as the "smoking gun" evidence in the unsolved murder case of the Princes in the Tower, historians believe.

This case is about uncrowned Edward V and his younger brother Prince Richard, who both disappeared in 1483 from the Tower of London without a trace. Despite attempts to solve the crime, it was believed that the princes were murdered on the orders of their uncle, Richard III.

The discovery of the will shows that the prime suspect in the murders left a piece of Edward V’s jewellery to his sister-in-law.

The chain – likely to have been a chain of office, a golden symbol of status and his prized possession – was part of Lady Margaret Capell’s estate. She is related to Sir James Tyrell, who was a trusted knight of Richard III and believed by many to be responsible for the murder under his orders.

Professor Tim Thornton, a fellow of the Royal Historical Society and deputy vice-chancellor of the University of Huddersfield, uncovered the find in Lady Margaret’s previously overlooked will.

In the 1522 document, she left her son his "faders Cheyne which was young king Edwarde Vth" (his father’s chain which was young King Edward V's).

Tracy Borman, the historian who oversees the Tower of London as co-curator of Historic Royal Palaces, said the "extremely exciting" find gave credibility to the theory the boys were murdered on the orders of their uncle.

"This chain provides a vital link to the young Edward V, and the fact that it was in the possession of someone closely linked with one of the prime suspects in their presumed murder could be hugely significant," she said.

She called it the "smoking gun" in the case.

The discovery backs up Prof. Thornton’s previous written work on Sir Thomas More, a former lord chancellor, who blamed Richard III for the princes' deaths.

The research is being published in the journal History and will be revealed in Channel 5 documentary "The Princes in the Tower: A Damning Discovery."

"Historians don’t work on the basis of beyond reasonable doubt," Prof. Thornton added.

"We have to work on the evidence that survives. We work on the balance of probabilities and increasingly that balance of probabilities is tilting towards the suggestion that Richard is responsible for the boys' deaths and the account given by More is more likely than not to be true."

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The First Solid-Wood Spacecraft Was Just Launched

This should be an interesting news for space enthusiasts. Earlier in October this year, the world's first wooden satellite built by Japanese scientists was launched into space from NASA's Kennedy Space Center. This is expected to set an exciting precedent for future space travel.

The satellite, called LignoSat, was created by Kyoto University and Japanese construction company Sumitomo Forestry in a preliminary trial of using wood for lunar and Mars expeditions.

Launched atop a SpaceX rocket at the space center to the International Space Station, it will remain in orbit for six months about 250 miles above Earth to show that it can withstand the extreme conditions of outer space, per Reuters.

LignoSat is named after the Latin word for wood, lignum, and is small enough to fit in the palm of your hand. Yet, it has a mighty purpose: to prove that this sustainable material can hold up in space as we take steps to explore living beyond planet Earth.

"With timber, a material we can produce by ourselves, we will be able to build houses, live and work in space forever," Takao Doi, a Japanese astronaut, engineer, and veteran of two NASA Space Shuttle missions, told Reuters.

It turns out timber is incredibly resilient, able to withstand the extreme temperature fluctuations in space, which can range from -148 degrees to 212 degrees Fahrenheit depending on whether darkness or sunlight is present, as Reuters explained.

The aim is to construct timber dwellings and plant trees over the course of 50 years on Mars and the moon if LignoSat's mission proves successful. Kyoto University professor Koji Murata is confident in the humble yet durable satellite because planes in the early 20th century were made of wood, as he told Reuters.

Murata explained that since no water or oxygen exists in space, wood is more resilient in the cosmos than on Earth. In addition, the material is more environmentally friendly than typical materials used to make satellites, such as aluminum, titanium, and carbon fiber.

Instead of reentering the atmosphere and releasing harmful metal particles into space, wooden satellites are simply incinerated, leaving no pollution or toxic materials behind.

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This Shipwreck Could Be From Vasco da Gama’s Final Voyage

Archaeologists believed that they may have found the São Jorge, the famed sunken ship from Vasco da Gama’s final voyage, off the coast of Kenya. This was supported by an investigation on the remains of a shipwreck, first spotted on a coral reef between 2013 and 2016.

Now, researchers have published a new paper in the Journal of Maritime Archaeology detailing their analysis of artifacts recovered by the local community and timbers from the ship's hull and frame that they excavated themselves.

Despite the challenges posed by the shipwreck's condition and location, evidence suggests this Portuguese vessel sank over 500 years ago.

Earlier this year, nautical archaeologist Filipe Castro announced the discovery of a galleon from Vasco da Gama's third armada in shallow waters off the coast of Malindi, Kenya.

While the vessel's identity remains unconfirmed, it is potentially one of eight known Portuguese shipwrecks from that period found in the area. An international team of archaeologists from the University of Coimbra, the National Museum of Kenya, and the Bergen Maritime Museum have narrowed the possibilities down to the São Jorge or the Nossa Senhora da Graça.

"The provisional dates of the artifacts," such as elephant tusks and copper ingots, "point to a shipwreck on the outward journey to India and a shipwreck date in the first quarter of the sixteenth century."

Castro told Live Science that if the wreckage does belong to the São Jorge, "it may be one of the earliest European shipwrecks in the Indian Ocean."

Furthermore, the "treasure," though wrecked, would have "significant historical and symbolic value as a physical testimony to the presence of Vasco da Gama’s third armada in Kenyan waters."

"It’s not every day that you get to be part of something timeless, standing at the edge of history and peering into the depths of our shared past," wrote Faith Milgo, who attended the media launch for the ship in Kenya. "Laden with ivory, copper, and cinnabar, it represented the bustling commerce of a bygone era."

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