This 'hot Jupiter', now named Qatar-1b, adds to the growing list of alien planets orbiting distant stars, or exoplanets. Its discovery demonstrates the power of science to cross political boundaries and increase ties between nations.

The post International team discovers alien planet that’s Jupiter-sized appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

The Smithsonian’s National Zoo has a new addition: Rocky, a male whooping crane (Grus americana). This is the first time the Zoo has exhibited this species in 88 years.

The post Whooping crane will help teach visitors and scientists alike appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

This is the first report of this invasive species in this area, and may indicate a recent range expansion of the snakehead population.

The post Smithsonian team finds northern snakehead fish in Maryland’s Rhode River appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Now, for the first time scientists at the Smithsonian’s Museum Conservation Institute have developed a fast and reliable method to date silk.

The post New technique for dating silk developed by Smithsonian conservation team appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Researchers who will study the microbial communities living on the skins of frogs that are surviving the fungal scourge of chytridiomycosis, deadly to the frogs.

The post Research team to explore how microbial diversity defends against disease appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Observations by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have come up with a new class of planet, a waterworld enshrouded by a thick, steamy atmosphere. It’s smaller than Uranus but larger than Earth.

The post Waterworld enshrouded by a thick, steamy atmosphere is new class of planet appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

A new study by astrophysicists at the University of Utah and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Mass., has found a new explanation for the growth of supermassive black holes: they repeatedly capture and swallow single stars from pairs of stars that get too close.

The post Steady diet of binary star partners makes black holes grow “supermassive” appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

The snakes are not only eating the area’s birds, but also the birds’ eggs straight from the nest.

The post Invasive pythons in Florida now stealing bird eggs straight from the nest appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

A team of researchers has for the first time mapped the above ground carbon density of an entire country in high fidelity. They integrated field […]

The post Research team creates first carbon map of an entire country: Panama appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

The genomes of modern birds tell a story of how they emerged and evolved after the mass extinction that wiped out dinosaurs 66 million years […]

The post International team maps ‘big bang’ of bird evolution appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Forensic anthropologists from the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History discover African remains at a Colonial burial site in Maryland. Follow them as they study the remains, reconstruct the face and body, and share what they learn about the African experience in the Chesapeake in the 1600s.

The post Smithsonian team examines African remains from a colonial burial site in Maryland appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

School's nearly back in session, but the seven young lions at the Smithsonian's National Zoo have been working hard through the summer months!

The post Lion cub summer school: Instead of learning their ABCs, the National Zoo’s lion cubs are learning behaviors that will help animal care staff evaluate their health. appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Members of the Human Origins Program team at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History describe why they love their job.

The post Human Origins Program team members at the National Museum of Natural History on why they love their job appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

The National Air and Space Museum’s 2014 Trophy Award Winner for Current Achievement goes to the Dawn Flight Team. The Dawn team has successfully performed […]

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Click here to read more about the work of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory. The Smithsonian has been celebrating innovation in American culture for more than […]

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Earth Day is coming up, and this year, the Smithsonian has a different take on it. It has invited more than 150 scientists, thought leaders, […]

The post Earth Optimism Summit to showcase steady, positive gains in conservation appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

The covers to the last issues of the current runs of "Avengers" and "New Avengers," leading into "Secret Wars."; Credit: Marvel

Marvel Comics held a press conference this week announcing details about "Secret Wars," a company-wide comic book crossover that they promise will change everything.

Promises of change in comics often don't amount to much, but here's why this one just might, with Marvel teasing that it will produce a whole new world for its characters.

"We see this as putting an endcap to decades of stories and starting a new era," said Marvel Editor-in-Chief Axel Alonso. "And when you see the scope of the event, you see what we're doing, what we're willing to do, this is a place where we're going to be bringing new pieces onto the board and taking old pieces off. You guys will be yelling and screaming, you'll be loving, hating, and in equal measure."

Reboot history

Rival DC Comics has always been quick to have stories designed to streamline their history, with the "Crisis on Infinite Earths" being the most famous one — a story that destroyed the DC Comics universe of the time, birthing a new timeline that gave us the versions of DC's heroes we know today. Several minor and major reboots followed, with the biggest since then being 2011's New 52 (and a tease of another one with this April's "Convergence").

Meanwhile, Marvel still refers back to stories from their early days, beginning with the first issue of "Marvel Comics" in 1939, and more so since the launch of "Fantastic Four" and the interlinked Marvel Universe in the 1960s, led by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.

Marvel previously launched a line of comics meant to offer a fresh vision of the Marvel characters called Ultimate Comics, but now the worlds of those characters and the traditional Marvel universe are getting combined thanks to "Secret Wars."

"The Ultimate Universe, the Marvel Universe, they're going to smash together," said Alonso. "This is the Marvel Universe moving forward."

"We've never done anything like this, ever," said Marvel senior vice president and executive editor Tom Brevoort. "And what we're going to do to top it, I don't know. Hopefully that will be somebody else's problem."

The stories leading to "Secret Wars," and what is Battleworld?

The story that's been built up so far has to do with different universes colliding into each other — and in the first issue of "Secret Wars," the Marvel and Ultimate Earths collide, with the heroes of those worlds unable to stop it. What's left behind is what Marvel is calling "Battleworld," a patchwork planet with different parts of it inhabited by the characters from different famous Marvel crossovers of the past (you can see some of those past titles in the slideshow above).

Marvel released this video to help you visualize what exactly Battleworld is:

Battleworld video

See a map of Battleworld here, showing the different worlds made up of old storylines to be explored in "Secret Wars" (and click to enlarge):

Brevoort described Battleworld as "The little melting pot in which the new Marvel Universe will be created" after the Marvel and Ultimate versions of Earth are destroyed. He said that Battleworld is what Marvel is going to be "during, through and after" the beginning of "Secret Wars."

"Once you hit 'Secret Wars' 1, there is no Marvel Universe. There is no Ultimate Universe. All there is is Battleworld, and a whole lot of empty void," Brevoort said.

"Every single piece of this world is a building block for the Marvel Universe moving forward," Alonso said. "None of these stories are Elseworlds, or What Ifs, or alternative reality stories. They aren't set in the past or the future. They're not set in an alternate reality. They're set in the reality of the Marvel Universe."

It's also a story that uses an old name — the original "Secret Wars" involved an alien taking heroes from Earth and forcing them into battle for the fate of the universe. It remains unclear if the villain from that crossover will play a role here.

Why is Marvel rebooting?

Observers were quick to speculate on some of the behind-the-scenes reasons for the change. Combining the Ultimate Universe with the traditional Marvel Universe would let them incorporate the half-black, half-Latino Spider-Man from the Ultimate line that grabbed headlines a few years ago. It would let them do something different with characters like the X-Men and the Fantastic Four, who have been a flashpoint for controversy due to Fox retaining rights in perpetuity to any films based on those characters.

It also opens the door to a longtime comic book trope: Bringing back to life the dead.

"If we were to want to resurrect Gwen Stacy, this would be the place to do it, wouldn't it?" Alonso said.

What do creators and fans think about "Secret Wars"?

Speaking of the death of Gwen Stacy, the writer who pulled the trigger on killing her, Gerry Conway, tells Newsarama that he's on board.

"I think like with any idea, the execution will matter more than the idea itself. The idea of a reset is, by itself, not a bad idea," Conway said.

One who's less on board with it: longtime Spider-Man artist John Romita.

"My guess is new fans will be okay with it, and old fans will grumble," Romita told Newsarama. "I’m not a businessman, but I do know that comic companies, for almost 100 years now, do whatever they can for shock value. They grab attention. Personally, I hate all the goofy things they do. When I was there, I used to fight stuff like this. But you can’t stop them."

Current Marvel writers have been sworn to secrecy about what happens once "Secret Wars" is done:

Dan Slott tweet

The lack of certainty about what this all means has led fans to wildly speculate, as well as poke fun at what might happen:

Fan tweet 1

Fan tweet 2

It's a story that's been years in the making.

"Every single time we've done an event, we've always had to be mindful of 'Secret Wars,' and we've had to make decisions based on the fact that we knew that 'Secret Wars' was headed our way," Alonso said.

Brevoort said that Hickman proposed a version of "Secret Wars" years ago, but that vision has since become significantly larger.

"It sounds like typical Stan lee hyperbole — and there's nothing wrong with typical Stan Lee hyperbole — but it is difficult to imagine something that would be larger in scope, in scale, than what we are doing with 'Secret Wars,'" Brevoort said.

That father of the modern Marvel comics world, Stan Lee, tells Newsarama that the reboot is "probably good."

"Anything they do that’s unexpected and different usually captures the attention of the fans," Lee said. "It sounds intriguing to me."

Lee also tells Newsarama that if he were to do it all again, he'd do it basically the same, describing what he did as "the right way to go, and maybe sometimes, even the perfect way to go."

"I liked making the Fantastic Four superheroes without a secret identity. I liked the tragedy of Spider-Man’s origin, the ‘with great power, there must also come great responsibility.’ I thought it was the right way of doing things at the time. And I still like what I’ve done," Lee said. "I can’t think, off the top of my head, of anything I’d really want to change."

What does "Secret Wars" mean for fans?

More details are promised in the weeks to come, with a free preview issue being released on Free Comic Book Day, May 2. While fans wait, they may want to heed the wait-and-see approach advocated by Conway and famed "Thor" artist Walt Simonson.

"Maybe this is coming back out of my old geology days, but I try not to have instant reactions to things and say, ‘Oh my God! That’s terrible!’" Simonson told Newsarama. "My basic reaction is usually ‘let’s see the evidence in the field.’ Let’s come back in a year and see what we’ve got. That will tell the story.”

And for those who say that Marvel is ruining their childhood by messing with the history of their favorite characters, Conway tells Newsarama:

"I would say to them, no, your childhood is still your childhood. There’s a point to be made, and it’s a universal one: We have to see that there’s a difference between what people do today, and what they did yesterday. Yesterday still exists, those stories still exist. Now someone else is getting a chance at a new childhood. And that’s nice."

Watch the full "Secret Wars" live press conference below:

Secret Wars press conference video

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

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UTLA says it is at an impasse with the Los Angeles Unified School District over a new contract for its 31,000 teachers. ; Credit: File photo by Letsdance Tonightaway/Flickr Creative Commons

The United Teachers Los Angeles declared an impasse Wednesday in its talks with the Los Angeles Unified School District.

The action opens the way for a mediator to be brought in to help bring about a settlement.

Contract talks have been ongoing since July, UTLA said on its website.

"There is still a significant gap between the two sides on compensation," the union stated. UTLA is seeking an 8.5 percent, one-year increase; LAUSD has offered a 5 percent increase. 

The union said the district is "refusing to bargain in good faith on student learning conditions, and threatening educator layoffs as a scare tactic."

LAUSD Superintendent Ramon Cortines said in a statement that the district agrees the talks are at an impasse.

"I've been disappointed and frustrated by the lack of progress toward an agreement," he said. "It's my hope that the appointment of a mediator will lead to an expeditious settlement that ultimately supports our students and the District at large."

UTLA represents 31,000 members, including teachers and health and human service professionals.

The differences between the two sides amount to more than $800 million, the district said in its statement. Cortines has maintained that the district is facing a deficit. The union insists the district has money.

Other issues dividing the two sides include class room size and teacher evaluations.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

LAUSD Superintendent Ramon Cortines commented Thursday on teacher contract talks that have been ongoing since July.; Credit: Benjamin Brayfield/KPCC

A budget deficit is preventing the Los Angeles Unified School District from offering teachers more than a 5 percent raise, Superintendent Ramon Cortines said Friday.

"I want some resolution," Cortines told reporters, but he said the district is now projecting a shortfall of $160 million heading into the next school year.

United Teachers Los Angeles, the union representing 31,000 teachers, declared an impasse Thursday in the contract negotiations. The two sides have been bargaining since July.

The teachers haven't had a pay increase in eight years, and their salaries are below that of neighboring districts. 

"You are not going to recruit and retain the quality teachers you need," UTLA President Alex Caputo-Pearl told KPCC's AirTalk this week. The union is seeking an 8.5 percent raise as well as smaller class sizes, more counselors and nurses, and revised teacher evaluations.

Cortines said the district's pay raise offer of 5 percent, retroactive to July 2014, would help make salaries more competitive. But he said the projected deficit is why LAUSD can't afford more.

Projections for the deficit have changed over the months. Last October, it was $365 million; in January, $88 million; and this month, $160 million. 

Teachers union representatives said California schools are receiving more money this year than any time since the recession. Gov. Jerry Brown's Local Control Funding process, which gives local districts more resources for education, is projected to garner the district $240 million more next school year. 

Cortines said he hopes to reach an agreement and he cautioned against any walkout.

"You talk about a budget deficit? It will exacerbate the budget deficit, because parents have other options," Cortines said. "They can go to other schools, private, parochial schools, they can go to charter schools, etc."

Cortines said a mediator is being called into the talks to help resolve the impasse.

The superintendent also repeated his doubts that the district can currently afford to put a computer in the hands of every district student. The program, a key initiative of his predecessor, John Deasy, used bond funds to pay for iPads and other devices.

Cortines said a statement elaborating on his remarks to reporters that "as we are reviewing our lessons learned, there must be a balanced approach to spending bond dollars to buy technology when there are so many brick and mortar and other critical facility needs that must be met."

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

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The National Academies have bestowed the title of Education Fellow in the Life Sciences to 42 educators around the country who successfully completed a summer institute aimed at fostering innovative approaches to teaching undergraduate biology.

As researchers’ and teachers’ understanding of how best to learn and teach science evolves and curricula are redesigned, many teachers are left without the experience needed to enhance the science and engineering courses they teach, says a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

A new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine recommends substantial changes to U.S. graduate education in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) in order to meet the evolving needs of students, the scientific enterprise, and the nation.

The winners of the sixth annual D.C. Public Health Case Challenge were announced at this year’s National Academy of Medicine (NAM) Annual Meeting.

The winners of the seventh annual D.C. Public Health Case Challenge were announced at this year’s National Academy of Medicine (NAM) Annual Meeting. The challenge aims to promote interdisciplinary, problem-based learning around a public health issue of importance to the Washington, D.C., community.

A new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine finds K-12 teachers face new expectations and more demands from policymakers, parents, students, and schools, including addressing changes in curriculum standards, the emergence of more explicit teaching goals, and shifts in what it means to support all students in their development.

Engineering is emerging as an important topic in K-12 education in the U.S., and is being incorporated into education standards, instructional materials, and assessments.

NASA should collaborate with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), industry, academia to research the full effects that increased unpiloted air vehicle traffic would have on society, including ramifications to sound, privacy, environmental matters, and cybersecurity, says a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

From N-95 masks that are protecting health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic to food packaging found in every aisle of the grocery store, plastics play an essential role in our lives.

Brad Bird accepts the Best Animated Feature Award for Incredibles 2 during The National Board of Review Annual Awards Gala at Cipriani 42nd Street on January 8, 2019 in New York City. ; Credit: Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images for National Board

Brad Bird has made a name for himself as the director of new age, animated classics, like “The Iron Giant” and “The Incredibles”. Now he’s teaming up with Turner Classic Movies to share his picks for classic movie watching that will keep you busy and entertained while you’re stuck at home.

Bird has curated a list of his favorite films which will air on this season’s “The Essentials” with TCM Primetime host Ben Mankiewicz. Every Saturday from May up to January of next year, TCM will air one of twenty movies chosen by Bird. His list includes big-name classics that any movie buff will recognize, like “Casablanca” and “Dr. Strangelove”. But Bird throws in a few surprises, one being that there are no animated films on his list. Another surprising thing viewers will notice is that about a third of the films included are musicals, like “Singin’ In The Rain” and “Guys And Dolls”. With TCM’s seemingly infinite library of movie classics to choose from, Bird says narrowing it down to only twenty favorites was a challenge. According to Bird, his list comprises movies that are not only entertaining but “transcend time” and “speak in a language that is still in many ways current”.

“The Essentials” was filmed in early December, but Bird’s list is coming out during a time when movie-going is looking very different these days. The virus has put the entire film industry on pause, with studios halting production and theaters closing their doors indefinitely. In lieu of new movie releases and regular theater-going, many are taking the opportunity to revisit the classics and Bird’s list provides a starting guide for which ones should be on your watch-list.

Today on FilmWeek, Brad Bird joins us to talk about his favorite movies, what projects he has lined up, and his thoughts on how the film industry is adjusting to and getting through the pandemic.

TCM’s “The Essentials” will air on Saturdays at 8 p.m. beginning May 2. For the full list and schedule of films, click here.

Guest:

Brad Bird, animator, director and screenwriter whose directing credits include Pixar’s “Ratatouille” and “The Incredibles” films and Disney’s “The Iron Giant”; he tweets at @BradBirdA113

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

With the supply/demand balance moving in favor of miners, the outlook for uranium stocks is the brightest it has been in years, according to McAlinden Research Partners.

Microsoft plugs a security hole that could have enabled attackers to weaponize a GIF in order to hijack Teams accounts and steal data

The post Microsoft Teams flaw could let attackers hijack accounts appeared first on WeLiveSecurity

With the supply/demand balance moving in favor of miners, the outlook for uranium stocks is the brightest it has been in years, according to McAlinden Research Partners.

A team of researchers from Florida State University, Johns Hopkins University and the National Institutes of Health has found existing drug compounds that can both stop Zika from replicating in the body and from damaging the crucial fetal brain cells that lead to birth defects in newborns.

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More people are eating gluten-free, although the prevalence of celiac disease appears to have remained stable in recent years, according to an article published online by JAMA Internal Medicine.

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From casual acoustic melodies at the coffee shop to throbbing electronic beats at teen clothing outlets, music is used to mold customer experience and behavior. But what impact does it have on employees?

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Canon India’s sales-force application (iCAN) now has mobility features that enable the sales team to attend to sales leads and generate price approval requests on the mobile which are passed onto the managers through a push notification feature.

Soil stabilisation and the process of strengthening the physical properties of soil is fundamental to the construction process of infrastructure such as roads, runways and earth dams. Many chemical additives currently used in soil stabilisation are associated with adverse environmental effects and this study examines the use of biopolymers, such as xanthan gum and guar gum, as more sustainable alternatives. The researchers have run a series of laboratory experiments to evaluate the viability of these two types of biopolymers for use as additives for collapsible soil stabilisation, and found that both could be used in place of conventional additives to improve soil strength, permeability and collapse potential.

The report titled "COVID-19: A wake up call for telecom service providers" is based on a survey conducted by QS I Guage, which rates colleges and universities in India with complete operational control held by London-based QS.

As many universities are moving quickly to distance learning, it is vital for educators to think carefully about how to adapt their approach to still deliver key learning outcomes for students in an online setting. Today’s guest blogger, Ramnarayan Krishnamurthy, is at the forefront supporting universities as they transition to distance learning. In his role as a Customer Success Engineer, he partners with educators to support them in achieving their goals for teaching and learning.... read more >>

Combining steam with heat-producing chemicals could control pathogenic viruses in soil, finds new research. The study examined how effective different forms of heat sterilisation of soil were at inactivating three plant viruses. While steam alone was enough to eradicate two of the viruses, the highly resilient tobacco mosaic virus required the addition of exothermic chemicals to reduce it by 97%.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) enter the environment in large quantities via the combustion of fossil fuels and organic matter. They are a cause for concern given their known toxicity, potential to cause cancer and ability to move large distances in the atmosphere — meaning that they are found in remote or protected areas, such as the Arctic, even if not emitted there. This study explores how PAH levels in the Arctic atmosphere have changed over the past 20 years at three sites in Canada, Norway and Finland. The results show that, despite a global decrease in PAH emissions in the same timeframe, the air concentrations in the Arctic are not significantly declining — possibly partly as a result of local warming causing more volatile PAHs to move from the surface to the air.

Myke is jet-lagged, but Grey wants to know all about XOXO. Grey is intrigued about the iPad Pro, and Myke wants to talk about iOS 9. Grey shares a theory about the 16GB iPhone, Myke listens.

Myke explains beard oil, Grey mourns the loss of his iMac, and they both discuss the moral minefield of ad blocking.