New images reveal stunning views from mission to ‘touch' the sun
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New York Times
an hour ago
- New York Times
How an M&M Sparked the Search for the Next Perfect Peanut
The Peanut M&M was in trouble. It was the early 2000s, and complaints about rancid nuts were piling up at Mars headquarters in McLean, Va., so fast they had outpaced the combined consumer complaints about Snickers, Twix and even the company's extensive dog food line. So the world's largest confectionary company went hunting for a new peanut to solve the problem. Plant breeders had discovered a genetic mutation that produced peanuts with plenty of monounsaturated fat, like the kind found in olive oil. That meant they were healthier and less likely to turn rancid. It was a start, but Mars — a company that refers to the peanut as its 'hero ingredient' — needed more. They wanted a peanut that was perfectly symmetrical with sweet, roasted notes. It had to stay crunchy inside a ball of chocolate, and have a skin that kept it from splitting and was a touch bitter to balance the sweetness. It had to grow so well in the Southern peanut belt that farmers would be willing to switch out their tried and true seeds for something new. Peanut researchers at the University of Georgia got to work and created the Georgia-09B, a runner peanut that did everything the candy maker wanted. By 2017, Mars was using nothing but high-oleic peanuts in its M&Ms, most of them Georgia-09Bs. 'Since then, customer complaints have reduced by over 90 percent,' said Peggy Tsatsos, who leads research for the Mars nut science team. Now, with $3.5 million from Mars, scientists at the university's Wild Peanut Lab are trying to help Mars out of another jam. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
New York Times
an hour ago
- New York Times
Hints of Life on Exoplanet Recede Even Further
In April, a team of scientists based at the University of Cambridge claimed that a planet orbiting a distant star bore a possible signature of life. The announcement kicked up a fierce debate among astronomers, with many skeptics arguing that the evidence was too ambiguous. Now a NASA-led team has made a new set of observations of the planet known as K2-18b, which lies 124 light-years from Earth. They have provided a clearer picture of the planet — confirming the presence of water, perhaps even as a liquid ocean. But the new observations have failed to confirm evidence for life. In the original study, the Cambridge team claimed that K2-18b appeared to have a gas in its atmosphere that on Earth is produced only by living things. The NASA study did not find strong evidence for that gas. What's more, the NASA team argues that even if the gas was on K2-18b, it might have formed through mere chemistry. What once seemed like a promising clue of life — a biosignature — might be a mirage. 'A key takeaway is that biosignatures are going to be hard, no matter what kind of planet we are talking about,' said Jacob Bean, an astronomer at Cornell University, who was not involved in the study. The NASA team, working with the leader of the Cambridge group, posted its new results online last week. The scientists have submitted the study to a scientific journal for publication. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Engineering student in Florida builds wooden e-bike
This is the incredible moment engineering student Reed Curry demonstrates an e-bike he built out of wood and electronics on July 14. Curry studies at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida and built the bike out of necessity. The good Samaritans who captured this video set up a GoFundMe page on Curry's behalf so he can buy a truck for personal transportation. The GoFundMe has almost reached its $8,000 goal.
