Abbie Mattos

A Massive Lithium Deposit Of 20-40 MMT, Found Along The Nevada-Oregon Border In The McDermitt Caldera, Is Potentially One Of The World’s Largest. This Find Could Greatly Impact The EV Industry, Affecting Lithium Prices, Supply, & Geopolitics. As EV Demand Outpaces Lithium Supply, Increased Production & Processing Capabilities Are Essential.

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Harvard University Inaugurated Claudine Gay As Its First Black And Second Female President. Gay, The 30th President In Harvard’s History, Is A 1998 Distinguished Harvard Alum And Accomplished Political Scholar. Gay’s Tenure Follows Her Role As Dean Of The Faculty Of Arts And Sciences And Founding Chair Of The Inequality In America Initiative.

A Recent Study Suggests Earth’s Core May Be Enveloped By An Ancient Ocean Floor Hosting Mountains, 5x Taller Than Mt. Everest. This Find Comes From The Most Detailed Geological Map Of The Southern Hemisphere, Showing A Vast Ultra-Low Velocity Zone, Likely Containing Subducted Oceanic Materials, Influencing Heat Flow & Geological Activities.

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NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Spacecraft Released A Capsule 63,000 Miles From Earth. The Capsule, Containing The First Asteroid Sample Collected In Space By NASA, Landed In Utah, On 9/24/2023, After A 4-hr Journey. OSIRIS-REx Will Now Divert To The Asteroid Apophis, With The Same Mission To Better Understand Similar Asteroids From The Early Solar System.

Geneticists, For The First Time, Have Extracted RNA From An Extinct Animal—A 130-Yr-Old Tasmanian Tiger. This Achievement Offers Insights Into The Genetic Functioning Of Thylacine, Which Vanished 2k Years Ago, Except In Australia, Where It Went Extinct Primarily Due To Hunting. This Research Could Aid Thylacine De-Extinction Efforts.

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A 127 Myr-Old Fossil Of A Side-Necked Turtle (SNT), Said To Be UK’s First SNT, Was Discovered On The Isle Of Wight. SNT Is Known For Retracting Its Neck Sideways When Threatened. The Fossil, Dubbed ‘Burby,’ Missing Only The Skull, Was Radiometrically Dated & Analyzed Via Micro CT Scan. The Findings Were Donated To The Dinosaur Isle Museum.

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A Live Invasive Yellow-Legged Hornet (YLH) Was Spotted For The First Time In The US, Near Savannah, GA. YLHs, Native To SE Asia & Cousin To Murder Hornet, Pose Major Threats To Honeybees & Agric, As They Are More Predatory Than Native Hornets, Jeopardizing Honey Prod. & Pollination, Valued At $15 B. Efforts Are Underway To Eradicate Them.

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A Spotless Female Reticulated Giraffe Was Born At Brights Zoo, Tennessee, On July 31, 2023—A Rarity Seen Only Once Before In A 1970s Japanese Birth. The Public Is Helping To Name The Calf From 4 Swahili Name Options. Reticulated Giraffes’ Population, In The Wild, Has Declined From 36,000 To 16,000 In 35 Years, Raising Conservation Concerns.

India Made History, With Its Chandrayaan-3 Spacecraft, As The First Country To Successfully Land On The Moon‘s Unexplored South Pole. This Achievement, Under Modest Budgets, Also Marks The 4th Lunar Landing After Russia, The U.S., And China. The South Pole’s Significance Lies In Recent Water Ice Discoveries, Potentially Fueling Future Space Exploration.

Researchers Have Discovered, In Peru’s Ica Valley, Fossils Of Perucetus Colossus, A Prehistoric Whale Said To Be The Heaviest Animal To Have Ever Lived On Earth—Possibly Weighing 2-3x The Blue Whale. The Colossal Nature Of The Creature, Which Swam The Seas About 39 Mya, Suggests That It Navigated Shallow Waters Using An Undulating Swimming Technique.

Singapore Executed Its First Woman In 18 Years For Drug Trafficking, Since Yen May Woen In 2004. Saridewi Binte Djamani, 45, Was Hanged For Possessing 30.72 Grams Of Heroin. But Anti-Death Penalty Advocates Argue That Such Law/Punishment Is Inhumane And Doesn’t Deter Drug Use Or Availability, As A Study In The Philippines Has Found.

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Earth’s Oceans Are Becoming Greener, Especially Near The Equator, Likely Due To Human-Induced Climate Change. Scientists Studied 20+ Yrs Of Nasa Data, Revealing Changes In Plankton Popu. These Shifts Signal Broader Ecosystem Changes. The Jan 2024 Satellite Mission, Pace, Will Further Investigate Ocean Colors & Ecological Implications.

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A Record-Breaking 111 Python Eggs, From A Burmese Python Nest, Was Removed In The Florida Everglades. The Previous Record Was 96 Eggs Found In 2022 In Big Cypress. The Large Reproductive Capacity Of The Species–Can Lay 50 To 100 Eggs At A Time, Has Contributed To Their Success As Invasive Creatures, With Over 16,000 Being Removed From Florida Since 2000.

Scientists Found 50 Tiny Microscopic Sphere Fragments Of A Mysterious Meteor, From Outside Our Solar System, Which Crashed Into The Pacific Ocean, Near Papua New Guinea, In 2014. Further Testing Is Required To Determine If These Spheres, Made Of A Unique Metallic Substance, Are Natural Or Of Technological Origin, Which Could Signify Alien Life.

The 4th Of July, 2023, Was Earth’s Hottest Day In Up To 125,000 Years. The Global Avg Temp Reached 17.18 Oc, Surpassing The Record Set The Previous Day. This Extreme Temp Is Attributed To El Niño, Exacerbating The Effects Of Global Warming. The Trend Of Broken Temp Records Is Likely To Continue Due To El Niño’s Quickening Of Global Warming.

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A Recent Study Suggests That Excessive Groundwater (GW) Extraction Is Causing The Earth’s Rotational Axis To Drift East, At A Rate Of ~14.3 cm/ Yr, Contributing To Sea Level Rise. Computer Models And Data Indicate GW As The 2nd Most Notable Driver In Long-Term Axis Variations, After Mantle Flow. GW Is Crucial For, E.G., Drinking & Farming.

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Regulators, For The First Time, Approved The Sale Of Lab-Grown Meat (LGM) In The US, With Upside Foods And Good Meat Authorized To Sell Chicken Made From Animal Cells. LGM Will Be Served In Some Restaurants Initially. Supermarket Availability May Take Time. LGM Aims To Reduce Harm To Animals And The Envir. But Public LGM Skepticism Remains

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Researchers Have Discovered That Chitin, From Crustacean Shells, Can Power Batteries When Combined With Zinc. The Shellfish Batteries Can Decompose In Soil After 5 Months, Leaving Recyclable Zinc. They’re 99.7% Efficient After 400 Hrs Of Usage And Can Be Produced Cheaply, Offering A Clean Sustainable Alternative To Lithium-Ion Batteries.

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The Recently Discovered World’s Oldest-Known Burial Site, Within The Cradle Of Humankind, Dating Back To At Least 200,000 BC, Contains The Remains Of Homo Naledi, A Small-Brained Human Relative. The Findings, Yet To Be Peer-Reviewed, Challenge The Belief That Complex Behaviors Like Burial Were Exclusive To Species With Larger Brains.

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Scientists Made A Breakthrough In Their 60-Year Quest To Explore Earth’s Depths. They Recovered Pieces Of Rocky Mantle From Atlantis Massif In The North Atlantic. Although They Didn’t Reach The Mantle, They Obtained The Deepest Mantle Rock Ever Collected, Providing Valuable Data For, E.g., Understanding Earth’s Composition, & Life’s Origin

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