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Yahoo
2 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Hold the syrup: Weirdly perfect 'pancakes' on Venus may prove the planet is buckling
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Scientists may have finally cracked the recipe behind Venus' giant pancakes. Venus is famous for its "pancake domes" — steep-sided volcanoes that rise from the planet's surface like circular welts. A study now suggests that these unusual dome-shaped structures are at least partly sculpted by the planet's upper crust, which seems more flexible in certain regions. Volcanoes are common across Venus, with more than 1,600 large volcanoes or volcanic features discovered so far. One of the more intriguing types are the so-called pancake domes, disk-shaped structures that stretch over tens of miles but are only half a mile in height, like a flattened version of Hawaii's Mauna Loa. Exactly how these volcanoes form — and what they're made of — is still a mystery. One idea is that they develop from super-sticky, slow-flowing lava that moves under the force of its own weight (the technical term for this phenomenon is a viscous gravity current). Eventually, the lava stops moving and solidifies, forming the pancake domes. But does the domes' formation depend only on the type of lava? Probably not, Madison Borrelli, a postdoctoral researcher at the Georgia Institute of Technology and first author of the new study, told Live Science by email. One factor that many previous studies hadn't considered was the bendiness', or the flexure, of Venus' upper crust. It turns out that Venus' surface — and Earth's — behaves, in certain areas, like an orange's skin: under a sufficiently heavy load, the surfaces dimple. If such dimpling accompanied the pancake domes' formation, it would leave certain tell-tale signs, like a bulge surrounding the dome, where the crust buckled upwards. Indeed, a 2021 study found such flexural signatures surrounding one-fifth of a sample of Venusian pancake domes. Related: Venus may be geologically 'alive' after all, reanalysis of 30-year-old NASA data reveals To determine how a bendy crust could affect the formation of a pancake dome, Borrelli and her colleagues at universities in France and the U.S. focused on the only dome for which they had high resolution data: the Narina Tholus, an 88.5-mile-wide (55 kilometers) dome located on the circumference of the Aramaiti Corona, one of the many giant oval structures that pockmark Venus' surface. The new study, published May 10 in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, used topographical data collected by NASA's radar-wielding Magellan mission in the 1990s, the researchers created a virtual model of the Narina Tholus dome. They then simulated viscous gravity currents of lavas of different densities atop both a flexible upper crust and a rigid lithosphere, and compared the results to the virtual dome. The study's results showed that domes created on a bendy crust looked far more like the virtual pancake dome than those that formed on the rigid lithosphere. In particular, the flexible crust's domes had flat tops and very steep sides, characteristic of the pancake domes. This stems from the fact that the bulge around the dome prevents the lava from flowing further, causing it to accumulate, the researchers said. The bendy lithosphere's domes also had flexural signatures similar to that of Narina Tholus. However, the dimpling of the lithosphere couldn't alone explain the domes' features — the lava's density mattered too. Although low-density lavas produced domes with the right sort of shape, they created smaller crustal bulges than those found near the real-life pancake dome. Only lavas denser than 0.0867 lbs per cubic inch (2,400 kg/m3) — or over twice the density of room temperature water — produced both the correct dome shapes and flexural signatures. These high-density lavas were more than a trillion times as viscous as ketchup at room temperature and settled down to form the domes over hundreds of thousands of Earth-years. Nonetheless, the study's main drawback is that it used data from just the Narina Tholus dome. Borrelli hopes that upcoming missions to Venus — like NASA's VERITAS program — will provide higher resolution topography of the planet's surface, allowing the researchers to test their model with more data. RELATED STORIES —Heavy dusting of 'pineapple powder' paints Hawaii's volcanoes white after near-record snowfall — Earth from space —Venus may be geologically 'alive' after all, reanalysis of 30-year-old NASA data reveals —See Venus at its 'greatest brilliancy' this week — or wait until Sept. 2026 The new data could also help determine the exact type of lava that forms the pancake domes, a question the researchers were unable to answer. While most Venusian volcanoes appear to spew Mauna Loa-like basaltic lava, the researchers couldn't rule out rhyolitic and andesitic lavas, similar to those that spout from Mount St. Helens. Borelli said that finding diverse lava types on Venus would be interesting. "This can tell us about the planet's tectonic history, magmatic processes, and even the potential past presence of water."
USA Today
2 days ago
- Science
- USA Today
Rare earth minerals are mostly sourced from China. Can we get them here?
Rare earth minerals are mostly sourced from China. Can we get them here? | The Excerpt On a special episode (first released on May 28, 2025) of The Excerpt podcast: We need rare earth minerals for use in items we rely on for modern life. New tech holds possibilities for mining at home for them. Scott McWhorter, a distinguished fellow in the Strategic Energy Institute at Georgia Institute of Technology, joins The Excerpt to dive into the details. Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text. Podcasts: True crime, in-depth interviews and more USA TODAY podcasts right here Dana Taylor: Hello and welcome to The Excerpt. I'm Dana Taylor. Today is Wednesday, May 28th, 2025. And this is a special episode of The Excerpt. Most electronic devices you use, your phone, laptop, earbuds to name a few, require certain materials called rare earth minerals to function. These minerals also power a wide range of other things critical to our lives like cars, aircraft engines, medical equipment. The US imports most of its supply of rare earth elements from China, which given the current climate of global trade, has led experts to wonder, any way we get more of these minerals here at home? We're diving into the question today with Scott McWhorter, a distinguished fellow in the Strategic Energy Institute at Georgia Institute of Technology. Thanks for joining me on The Excerpt, Scott. Scott McWhorter: Thank you, Dana. Glad to be here. Dana Taylor: Can we start by explaining to those of us who aren't familiar, what are rare earth minerals and why are they so important in modern life? Scott McWhorter: Rare earth minerals are just a group of minerals that are naturally found, but they have certain properties, typically magnetic properties or strength to performance properties, that really enhance what we do in certain products. That's really the importance of these minerals that we find every day. Rare earth minerals are mostly sourced from China. Can we get them in the US? We need rare earth minerals for use in items we rely on for modern life. New tech holds possibilities for mining at home for them. Dana Taylor: They're called rare earth minerals. Are they in fact rare? Scott McWhorter: That's a misnomer. They're found just about in most soils that we have. They're not found in places that we can go dig up and extract and so that's why they're typically rare. Dana Taylor: Scott, where in the country have we started mining rare earth minerals? And generally, can you tell us more about the process being utilized? Scott McWhorter: Yeah. So in the US for rare earths in particular, there's two places. There's Mountain Pass in California and that's the main source of rare earths in the US. Now, the rare earths that are extracted there are light rare earths, but all of those are taken out, they're extracted. Some are pre-processed there in California and then they're shipped to Asia for further processing in other countries. Because we typically don't have that middle processing, the acid leaching and means of extracting and purifying those rare earth metals in this country because of some of the environmental regulations due to the old processing techniques. The other place that we find rare earth or we're mining rare earths today is in Georgia and in my backyard. So where we find a lot of sand mining that occurs and they're looking for zinc and titanium and things of that nature. But they have rare earths that are byproducts of that process and those aren't processed here in the US. Dana Taylor: Are there approaches that minimize financial and environmental costs or harm? How is that being explored? Scott McWhorter: There are several companies that have come up with ways to use what I would call more elegant processing that we don't typically associate with mining. And we should think of mining as elegant separations. It's a very complex problem with several metals that are very much alike chemically, so they're hard or difficult to separate. So what we've learned over time is that we can use technologies that really were developed that came out of things like genomics or proteomics. When we think of those technologies, we think, wow, that's really elegant, clean separations. But we can use proteins actually to bind to those metals very specifically and separate those out based on precipitation or other methodologies. And then we've learned how to really control the precipitation of these minerals in aqueous solutions. So we don't have to use acid or strong acids to really drive the dissolution of these metals from these crystals any longer. So there are technologies, they're in the research phase, some are in the piloting stage, but we should see those come online in the next one to two years. Dana Taylor: What are some of the biggest barriers to expanding these efforts across the country? Scott McWhorter: The largest barrier is funding, attracting funding to this industry when you don't have stable markets. The pricing markets are typically controlled by China. China has invested in that middle processing for the last 40, 50 years and that's where it's mostly done in China. And so it is government-backed, they can control and they can manipulate the pricing to really control that market. So I think from a policy standpoint, we can stabilize that market, create a stable base price for these minerals so that the investment community understands what they're investing into and the profit that they could potentially make, and that it will not go below that point. That will really spawn tremendous investment in that market domain when we can control those prices or we have some barrier or floor on those prices. Dana Taylor: As we mentioned, China supplies a lot of what's mined globally, with the US importing 70% of its annual needs. With trade talks between our two nations uncertain and global supply side issues always at risk, is this perhaps an opportunity to invest in domestic mining and processing? Scott McWhorter: I truly believe it is. The US is really set in the technology domain to have a renaissance in mining. And when I say a renaissance, it is that middle processing that we need. As I mentioned, all the resources that are out there from in my backyard, in Georgia, there's kaolin mining. We mine millions of tons of kaolin and there's tons and tons of kaolin mine tailings that are on the ground. So we're set to process that, we can get that going at the drop of a hat, permits are already there, we don't need to re-permit these. The technologies need to be scaled and tested, we need government investment, we need private investment. But those are the ways we stabilize our economy because we are a mineral-based economy now, we have shifted to that from solely a fossil-based economy. So we're really going to have to think differently and invest in mining. Dana Taylor: Scott, I understand there are vast stores of these minerals under the ocean floor. What's the potential for us there? Scott McWhorter: It's rich in minerals. The infrastructure required and the access is going to take a lot of investment. And the permitting and regulatory aspects of that are going to be difficult. I would say there's going to be lots of disturbances. So I would say that's a long-term solution, but it could be a viable option. Dana Taylor: I'm going to circle back to this. What's on the horizon in terms of new technology for finding, mining or processing these materials? Scott McWhorter: We can use AI and machine learning to really expedite that process and pinpoint where we need to go. So it lowers the burden on drilling and getting into certain areas. That could be where in the past we might've harmed more of the environment, now we can pinpoint and go in and mine in certain areas. In terms of understanding where we are in drilling, there are sensors and AI and machine learning that go into that as well as you're drilling that tell you, are you drilling in the right location? Are you moving throughout there? So data, AI, machine learning will lower that cost and speed up the process for those aspects. Dana Taylor: What's next for you and your team? What are you most excited about? Scott McWhorter: We've pulled together a large group in Georgia and there's a lot of excitement from the mining community to the end-use community because we have to have all parties to create that supply chain. So we're very interested in demonstrating how we in Georgia could create this model for the US of how to use those waste resources to stabilize the innovation market. So how we can supply these materials, these minerals for magnets, for EVs to support all of those different energy markets today that are going to be required for the next generation of markets that we see from data centers and such that are coming online. So we're going to need all of these different materials to do that. But first it starts with a supply chain, identifying the feedstock components, the mining and all the distribution and processing in between. But then connected, you've got to have those end-use agreements. Who's going to buy those materials? And who's going to use those materials? So you really have to do that to create that market demand. And that's what we're really interested in is creating that middle processing and demonstrating those technologies, but then creating that whole end-to-end supply chain. Dana Taylor: Thank you, Scott. It was good to have you on The Excerpt. Scott McWhorter: Thank you, Dana. Dana Taylor: Thanks to our senior producer Shannon Rae Green and Kaely Monahan for their production assistance. Our executive producer is Laura Beatty. Let us know what you think of this episode by sending a note to podcasts@ Thanks for listening. I'm Dana Taylor. Taylor Wilson will be back tomorrow morning with another episode of The Excerpt.
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Yahoo
Georgia Tech student dies after being shot in the head at luxury apartment complex
A Georgia college student is dead after being shot in the head inside an off-campus apartment complex in what police are calling a "targeted attack." The Fulton County Medical Examiner has identified the victim as 23-year-old Georgia Institute of Technology student Akash Banarjee, FOX 5 reported. The incident occurred over the weekend at The Connector Apartments, a luxury off-campus complex catering to college students. The Connector did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment. Uc Berkeley Stabbing Puts Campus On Edge With Manhunt For 3 Suspects In a news conference on Wednesday, Atlanta police released a video of the alleged person of interest while revealing the attacker likely knew the victim. Read On The Fox News App "We're at a point where we believe this was a targeted act," Homicide Commander Andrew Smith said. "We also have information that he was there previously, looking for the victim in this case." Authorities believe the suspect arrived at the apartment complex alone and waited for the victim. A verbal altercation ensued before the attacker pulled out a gun and shot the victim in the head. University Of Georgia Student 'Critically Injured' In New Orleans Attack Ahead Of Sugar Bowl Game A resident in the building reported hearing a loud noise before calling 911 to report an individual lying on the floor in the apartment building's hallway. "There is someone in front of my door who is lying on the floor and we heard a loud noise," the caller can be heard telling the dispatcher. "I don't know if he's dead, but I don't want to open the door. I don't want to get in trouble. I don't know what happened." Surveillance footage shows the person of interest walking down a hallway before briefly pausing. Suspect Arrested In Deadly Tuskegee University Homecoming Shooting "It's not a hiccup in the video," Smith said. "It is him pausing. I don't know if he heard something or what." Immediately following the shooting, police say the person of interest ducked into a nearby stairwell before leaving the apartment complex. Authorities are still combing through digital evidence to determine the relationship between the shooter and victim, with Smith telling reporters the deceased did have a criminal history. The victim was transported to a local hospital and later died from his injuries on Tuesday. "We are deeply saddened by the passing of one of our students," a spokesperson for Georgia Tech said in a statement to Fox News Digital. "This loss is felt across our community, and our hearts go out to the student's family, friends, and loved ones." The Fulton County Medical Examiner did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment. Authorities have not released a name of the person of interest and are asking for the public's help in identifying the individual, who they say is "not a danger to the public."Original article source: Georgia Tech student dies after being shot in the head at luxury apartment complex
The Herald Scotland
22-05-2025
- Science
- The Herald Scotland
The best way to make a huge splash in the pool (it's very hard to do)
Now, scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology have worked out the mechanics of exactly what these divers are doing to create their massive splashes - and it's a far cry from the simplicity of a belly buster. "It's very difficult to master, it can be quite dangerous, and it requires millisecond control," said Pankaj Rohilla, a postdoctoral researcher and co-author on the paper "Mastering the Manu--how humans create large splashes," published on May 19. The Georgia Tech team of fluid dynamics and biomechanics experts spent months working on the problem. Learning the mechanics involved analyzing more than 75 videos of people doing manu jumps, then taking lab members to Georgia Tech's pool to do more than 50 trial jumps, all filmed in high definition to capture exactly what their bodies were doing at each millisecond. Finally, researcher and co-author Daehyun Choi built a "Manubot," a hand-sized robot that could mimic a diver's body movements during a manu jump to test what exact angle was best to create the biggest possible movement of water. Making the biggest splash possible What Maori jumpers have perfected turns out to involve specific movements all done within as little as 0.14 seconds of each other -- and the exact opposite of the techniques taught to traditional divers, as seen every four years during the Olympics. "It's all about making a V-shape with your body during water entry and then a specific set of underwater body dynamics," said Rohilla. Specifically, the best manu jumpers form a perfect 45-degree V with their bodies in the air. Then, as soon as they touch the water's surface, the diver rolls back and kicks to straighten their body out. This expands the air cavity created when their body enters the water. The height of the splash corresponds to the size of that cavity. The time of cavity collapse is known as the "pinch-off time." Gravitational forces push the water back in the vertical direction, generating an upward jet of water. "It's basically about how much energy you're trapping underwater," said Rohilla. Technically, the initial splash created by the diver's body entering the water is called the crown splash, while the second, caused by the collapsing air cavity, is called a Worthington jet. It requires extreme body control and split-second timing. The V-shape of the body has to be a 45-degree angle to create the fastest and highest Worthington jet, while ensuring the diver's safety. The roll back and kick motion must occur within 0.14 to 0.15 seconds of entering the water when the diver is jumping from 3 meters, said Rohilla. That's about 10 feet high. The higher the jump, the shorter the time the diver has to perform the roll back and kick. "It looks easy but it's actually very challenging," he said. Manu diving can hurt The researchers caution that the manu maneuver is not only difficult but can be risky and painful. "The higher you jump, the less reaction time you have. So it can be quite dangerous," said Rohilla. Especially if you miss the landing shape of 45 degrees, the water can slap the diver's back with a lot of force. "That hurt a few of our teammates. It was very painful," Rohilla said. "You could even hurt your spine, so it can be a risky sport." Manu diving has been banned in some pools in New Zealand, including one area where a child was injured. A Maori cultural sport The sport back at least several decades and has become an important cultural tradition in New Zealand. The name most likely comes from the Maori word "manu" which means bird, though some suggest it's a shortened form of Mangere, a suburb of Auckland where the sport is popular. It's gone from something people did for fun to showing off their prowess as a competitive sport. In 2024, the first Manu World Championships were held in New Zealand's capital, Wellington. Other competitions appeared to have been held dating back to at least 2011. In Wellington this year, more than $23,000 in prize money is on the line. Jump heights range from three feet above the water for children to as high as 16 feet for adults. Divers can compete in the traditional manu style of the V-Bomb, but new styles have also been introduced, including The Gorilla, the Cannonball, and The Coffin. The competition uses high-tech cameras to calculate the splash height of each diver to ensure fair scoring. 'Thousands and thousands of hours of practice' The fun of manu diving is making a huge splash, something people love given the quantity of splashes observed wherever children play in pools. It's also the exact opposite of the clean, minimal splash demanded in competitive diving, where scoring depends, in part, on producing the smallest possible splash as the diver plunges into the water. "We call it 'ripping,'" said Phil Tonne, a dive coach at the University of California, Davis. "The least amount of splash correlates to the highest scores." Making no splash is as hard as making a big splash. "You want to be as streamlined as you can possibly get," Tonne said. "It takes thousands and thousands of hours of practice."
Time of India
21-05-2025
- Automotive
- Time of India
What is Roman Reigns' net worth in 2025? Current salary and more explored
Image via WWE Roman Reigns is one of the most celebrated and prominent figures in the world of professional wrestling. He is one of the marquee players and is often slotted as the brightest star of WWE. The WWE Superstar has been reigning hearts of fans and admirers since September 9, 2010, when he stepped into the threshold of the Stamford-based promotion in the Survivor Series. Roman Reigns is originally known as Leati Joseph Anoa'i. He has been destined to carry forward the legacy of his wrestling family as he was born and brought up in the family of wrestling legends. Like his cousins Rikishi, Yokuzona, and Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson, he is also regarded as one of the most successful wrestlers. The wrestler was recently seen in action at WrestleMania PLE and Royal Rumble 2025. Let us take a look at the legend's current status in 2025, his personal life, and more. Roman Reigns' net worth in 2025 According to recent reports, Roman Reigns' net worth as of January 2025 is estimated to be $14 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth . Previously, his net worth in 2024 was $20 million. He lives in a $2.43 million mansion in Tampa, Florida. Roman Reigns possesses various costly and luxurious vehicles. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Trending in in 2025: Local network access control [Click Here] Esseps Learn More Undo He has a Range Rover, Mercedes-Benz V-Class, Mercedes-Benz GLS Class, and Cadillac Escalade. The most costly vehicle among the four is the Range Rover, which costs about $140,000. Roman Reigns' salary in 2025 According to reports, Roman Reigns earns $5 million annually from WWE, alongside earnings from movies, endorsements, and merchandise sales. Reigns has a high-paid sponsored partnership with brands like Nike, C4 Energy, WWE 2K25 , and Shady Rays. Apart from philanthropy, he is also engaged in acting projects like Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw. Who is Roman Reigns' wife? Roman Reigns married Galina Joelle Becker in 2014, his long-time girlfriend, after meeting her as students at the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2007. According to Roman Reigns, he saw his wife for the first time while playing basketball at their college. Galina Becker and Reigns have now been married for over a decade and share five children. The pair welcomed their first child in 2007, a daughter named Joelle Anoa'i, and they were then blessed with twins, both in 2016 and 2020. As for Galina, not much is known, except for the fact that she holds a management degree from Georgia Institute of Technology. However, she is a former athlete and a fitness model, who was associated with the Georgia Yellow Jackets, a football team of the Georgia Institute of Technology, the institute where the OTC's wife completed her education. Roman Reigns' journey battling cancer Having received two leukaemia diagnoses, Roman Reigns has battled the illness all of his life. According to the National Cancer Institute, he was initially diagnosed with chronic myelogenous leukaemia (CML) at the age of 22, a condition in which the bone marrow produces an excessive number of white blood cells. Owing to his medical history, he is engaged in philanthropy and donates to charitable organizations like the Make-A-Wish Foundation and the Leukaemia and Lymphoma Society. Also Read : CM Punk's ex-girlfriend credits the WWE champion for transforming the professional wrestling scenario | WWE News - Times of India Roman Reigns recently completed 25 years in WWE, making a huge contribution to the wrestling entertainment industry. He was last seen in action at the episode of WWE Raw immediately following WrestleMania 41 in April 2025, where he was attacked and laid out by Seth Rollins and Bron Breakker. Get IPL 2025 match schedules , squads , points table , and live scores for CSK , MI , RCB , KKR , SRH , LSG , DC , GT , PBKS , and RR . Check the latest IPL Orange Cap and Purple Cap standings.
