The age of the female combat officer is coming

Air Force General Lori Robinson became the country’s first female combatant commander, and Admiral Michelle Howard became the first female four-star admiral. 

From Space to Sound

Elements of the image, like brightness and position, are assigned pitches and volumes. Each translation below begins on the left side of the image and moves to the right. No sound can travel in space, but sonifications provide a new way of experiencing and conceptualizing data. Sonifications allow the audience, including blind and visually impaired communities, to “listen” to astronomical images and explore their data.

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is around 500 million light-years away in the constellation Cassiopeia.  It's an active galactic nucleus (AGN), meaning it's a galaxy theoretically hosting a great big supermassive black hole in the middle. In this case the black hole – which is around a billion times the mass of the Sun - is hidden behind dust and gas in the 'cockpit' of the TIE Fighter.

Do countries with female leaders truly fare better with Covid-19?

The analysis, which is now out as a working paper and has been submitted for consideration to a journal, found that the infection rate and death rate of Covid-19 were both lower in countries run by women compared to those in male-led countries. In an effort to isolate the specific effect of having a female leader, they compared female-led countries to male-led countries that are similar in population, geography, gender equality, health expenditures, and number of tourists. No matter how they sliced the data, female-led countries fared better.

What the End of the Universe Will Really Be Like

The explosion of Earth due to shredded spacetime certainly makes for a cinematically exciting scene. But if we are fated for a Big Rip, it is not likely to happen for about 200 billion years. That’s a lot sooner than the standard Heat Death scenario, but it is well beyond the lifespan of our solar system, Earth, and (probably) humanity.

The universe has an odd sense of humor

While a crown-encrusted virus has run roughshod over the world, another entirely different corona about 100 million light years from Earth has mysteriously disappeared.

Mysterious Thermonuclear Blast Sends Strange Star Hurtling Across The Galaxy

Dox - is whizzing along at 250 kilometres per second (155 miles per second), against the direction of the galaxy's rotation.

Sagittarius A*

Supermassive black holes lurk at the center of galaxies, with sizes that reach up to 10 billion times the mass of the Sun. For example, the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way, Sagittarius A*, is 4 million times the mass of the Sun.

Sedna’s origin posed somewhat of a mystery

even at its closest approach to the Sun, Sedna remains more than twice as far away from the Sun as Neptune. As a result, Sedna’s origin posed somewhat of a mystery. A body that never experienced direct interactions with Neptune could not have been placed on its orbit by Neptune alone.

Something is killing galaxies

About 10,000 light years away, in the constellation Centaurus, is a planetary nebula called NGC 5307

Some exoplanets may have greater variety of life than exists on Earth

The first exoplanet was discovered in 1992, and currently more than 4000 exoplanets have been confirmed so far. The nearest know exoplanet is Proxima Centauri b, which is 4.25 light years away. Currently much of the search for life on exoplanets focuses on those in the habitable zone, which is the range of distances from a star where a planet's temperature allows liquid water oceans, critical for life on Earth.

How China is set to dominate the next Industrial Revolution

Operating in niche markets with limited transparency and often in politically unstable countries, Chinese firms have locked up supplies of these minerals and metals with a combination of state-directed investment and state-backed capital, making long-term strategic plays, sometimes at a loss. 

"Église catholique: ça suffit!"

En matière de droits, il n’y a pas de complémentarité, pas de différence, il n’y a que l’égalité, une égalité originelle : « Dieu créa l’humain à son image, homme et femme, il les créa.»

“Depravity toward one is a sure sign of willingness to do much more harm”

whenever people feel stripped of freedom and opportunity, they instinctively challenge their government in order to reclaim control over their lives. “And if a government doesn’t value human life,” she said, “then they will do something to their people that the whole world will have to pay attention to.”

[The secret of Saudi is that they rely almost entirely on our governments -- to sell them weapons, buy their oil, and give them legitimacy. But the brutal murder of Jamal Khashoggi -- and the tragic death of Amal, a starving 7-year-old Yemeni girl whose picture appeared in the New York Times -- have those same governments wavering in their devoted support.]

New evidence for cyclic universe

Unexpected hot spots in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) could have been produced by black holes evaporating before the Big Bang. 

Mining the Sky

Space is relatively untouched. It has not yet been exploited and pillaged—and when it is, I would hope that everybody could benefit from it. If space becomes entirely privatized, however, I worry that the profits will simply flow to the private sector—and thanks to countries like Luxembourg, those profits won’t be taxed.

Gender and Climate Change

The Climate Change Gender Action Plansare nationally recognized strategies with a unique methodology for training and building the capacity of women and women’s organizations on the linkages between gender and climate change. 

"Nobody can do it for me"

"Everyone has to make their decisions, but I think we can safely say millions of others are here to offer support and hope. Nobody can do it for me, but I don’t have to do it alone."

Deluge of electronic waste turning Thailand into 'world's rubbish dump'

“Places like America and Europe need to realise they are going to have to start recycling their own electronic waste and stop sweeping the negative effects from north to south,”