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Suborbital space tourism finally arrives | FCC prepares to run public C-band auction | The big four in the U.S. launch industry — United Launch Alliance, SpaceX, Blue Origin and Northrop Grumman — hope to be one of two providers that will receive five-year contracts later this year to launch national security payloads starting in 2022. | China’s launch rate stays high | The International Space Station is the largest ever crewed object in space.

Vibrating atoms make robust qubits, physicists find

MIT physicists have discovered a new quantum bit, or “qubit,” in the form of vibrating pairs of atoms known as fermions. They found that when pairs of fermions are chilled and trapped in an optical lattice, the particles can exist simultaneously in two states — a weird quantum phenomenon known as superposition. In this case, the atoms held a superposition of two vibrational states, in which the pair wobbled against each other while also swinging in sync, at the……

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Lynde House Museum in Whitby, Ontario

Originally owned by Jabez Lynde, this home served as an inn between the towns of York and Kingston during the War of 1812. It’s now the oldest home in Durham region. Members of the British Army during the war and later members of the Royal Family once stayed at the house. Moved from its original location (at 960 Dundas Street West) to Cullen Gardens, then moved again to its current location by the Town of Whitby, it now serves……

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Cynthia Breazeal named dean for digital learning...

In a letter to the MIT community today, Vice President for Open Learning Sanjay Sarma announced the appointment of Professor Cynthia Breazeal as dean for digital learning, effective Feb. 1. As dean, she will supervise numerous business units and research initiatives centered on developing and deploying digital technologies for learning. These include MIT xPRO, Bootcamps, Horizon, the Center for Advanced Virtuality, MIT Integrated Learning Initiative, RAISE, and other strategic initiatives. Breazeal has served as senior associate dean for open……

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Dhigurashu Thun'di (Long Beach) in Dhigurah, Maldives

Indian flying foxes—one of the largest bat species in the world—flit from one breadfruit tree to the next, their wings silent above the rhythm of the surf. Here on the island of Dhigurah, a narrow slice of sand and coral in the Maldives’ Alifu Dhaalu Atoll, about two hours by public speedboat from the capital of Malé, the ocean is always nearby. At its widest point, Dhigurah is only 300 meters across, though most of it is much narrower…….

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Podcast: Gorgeous Grotesques with the Places Team

Listen and subscribe on Stitcher, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and all major podcast apps. In this episode of The Atlas Obscura Podcast, Jonathan Carey and Michelle Cassidy of the Atlas Places Team find beauty and fascination at the sites of warped and bizarre statues in Nuremberg, Germany and Urgnano, Italy. Our podcast is an audio guide to the world’s wondrous, awe-inspiring, strange places. In under 15 minutes, we’ll take you to an incredible site, and along the way you’ll meet……

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Five MIT faculty elected 2021 AAAS Fellows

Five MIT faculty members have been elected as fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). The 2021 class of AAAS Fellows includes 564 scientists, engineers, and innovators spanning 24 scientific disciplines who are being recognized for their scientifically and socially distinguished achievements.  Mircea Dincă is the W. M. Keck Professor of Energy in the Department of Chemistry. His group’s research focuses on addressing challenges related to the storage and consumption of energy, and global environmental concerns…….

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Building technological tools for nuclear disarmament

Mentorship has played a central role in the twists and turns of Associate Professor Areg Danagoulian’s life. As a boy, it led him first to mathematics, where a passionate teacher and mentorship from his parents instilled in him a love for the subject. He then followed in the footsteps of his physicist parents and became a physicist himself. During his career, mentorship has helped Danagoulian follow his research interests, from basic to applied nuclear physics and then to industry…….

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Crosby, Letang part of Pens’ 4-goal third...

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Sidney Crosby and Kris Letang led a four-goal, third-period barrage to give the Pittsburgh Penguins a 6-3 win over the Arizona Coyotes on Tuesday night. Pittsburgh trailed early in the third before its offensive show, when Letang scored twice and Crosby netted his 11th for the Penguins, who won their sixth straight game. Pittsburgh has 17 wins in its last 19 games. Bryan Rust and Brock McGinn both scored their 10th goals of the season and…

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Auburn holds off Missouri in first game...

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — K.D. Johnson scored 17 points, including five straight within the final 90 seconds, and No. 1 Auburn survived a scare from Missouri, winning 55-54 on Tuesday night in the program’s first-ever game as the nation’s top-ranked team. Johnson converted a three-point play with 1:29 remaining to put Auburn ahead 53-51, then added a layup with 45 seconds left for a four-point advantage, and the Tigers (19-1, 8-0 Southeastern Conference) held on from there. Walker Kessler…

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These Ants in Panama Are Masters of...

While many people in Panama were at home, passing time during the pandemic, five kids were out shooting a clay ball at trees with a slingshot. They wanted to give themselves a challenge, so they were targeting slender cecropia trees in particular. One of the kids was aiming for its broad, flat leaves, but hit the stem instead, leaving a clean, gaping hole, from one side to the other. William Wcislo, an entomologist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute……

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The Forgotten Women Who Ruled the Medieval...

Damascus wasn’t in good shape in 1132. Assassins had just killed the king. The new king, Isma’il, was paranoid, greedy, and prone to violence—even brutally executing his own half-brother. Then, in a move that violates kingship’s most basic tenets, Isma’il planned to give Damascus away to the enemy. Enter Khatun Zumurrud, Isma’il’s mother. She was not about to let that happen. In 1135, she had her own son assassinated and his body dragged through the streets. Zumurrud wasn’t the……

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Museu Egipci de Barcelona (Egyptian Museum of...

In the city center of Barcelona hidden in plain view amidst a street of restless shops and restaurants stands a museum that is filled with the wonders of Ancient Egypt. The museum has its roots in the private collecting of Ancient Egyptian art by the wealthy Catalan businessman and hotelier Jordi Clos Llombart who has a passion for archeology. The collection was first exhibited in the Hotel Claris in Barcelona and soon proved so popular with the guests that it……

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Henry Chadwick's Grave in Brooklyn, New York

Though General Abner Doubleday is generally credited with inventing the game of baseball, the truth is that he was only a cadet at West Point and nowhere near Cooperstown in 1839, when and where it was supposedly created. Instead, if there is a single man who deserves any credit for its creation it would be English sportswriter Henry Chadwick. Chadwick didn’t invent baseball either; even he would publicly cite baseball’s descent from an English game called rounders, which utilized……

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DC students plan walkout for safer learning...

D.C. public school students plan to walk out from classrooms Tuesday calling for improved health protocols and a more flexible virtual learning policy amid a COVID-19 surge. In the week since it formed, Students for Safe Learning — which describes itself as a group of District students acting to safeguard their own health — has used Twitter and Instagram to muster support for a walkout from classes at 12:45 p.m. Tuesday. More D.C. News “We aren’t just kids talking…

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