Source: phys.orgLife on our planet appeared early in Earth's history. Surprisingly early, since in its early youth our planet didn't have much of the chemical ingredients necessary for life to evolve. Since prebiotic chemicals such as sugars and amino acids are known to appear in asteroids and comets, one idea is that Earth was seeded with the building blocks of life by early cometary and asteroid impacts. While this likely played a role, a new study published in Nature Astronomy shows that cosmic dust also seeded young Earth, and it may have made all the difference.

Bitumix launches the newest stage of its scholarship programmesEducationBitumix Private Limited, the leading company in the production and sale of bitumen and related products in Sri Lanka, has expanded fulfilling its corporate social responsibility by implementing the latest stage of the Bitumix Sisu Senehasa scholarship programme that provide financial assistance to students from low-income families. Under this programme, financial assistance is provided to selected students from the Anuradhapura District who are excelled in their education. The scholarship programme, a concept of Bitumix Managing Director Ashoka Siriwardena, was first launched in 2014 by providing financial assistance to six students. In addition to the Sisu Senehasa scholarship programme, Bitumix provides school books and other school items to the children of their staff members. Bitumix aims to further expand Sisu Senehasa and their scholarship programmes to brighten the future of children.

A 15-acre land and building in Malwana, widely believed to be of former Minister Basil Rajapaksa and later disclaimed is to be made use for a proposed development project of the state, Justice Minister Wijedasa Rajapakshe said.

But new alternatives, such as plant-based mock meat or lab-grown meat, could closely match the real thing in taste and texture. In our research, we estimated that fully replacing animal-sourced products would release more than 60% of the world's agricultural land. But we could also use that land to produce energy while removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, through a process known as bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (Beccs). And they point out that competition for agricultural land with food crops could threaten food security. And we then deducted the carbon that would have been stored by regrowing plants if we left the released agricultural land alone and did nothing.

Schematic explanation of how seismic events impact forest resilience. Schematic explanation of how seismic events impact forest resilience. Forest resilience changes in the 30 years post-earthquake for seven regions globally (western North America, northwestern North America, the Tibetan Plateau, the Mediterranean region, the Mongolian Plateau, southwestern South America and New Zealand). For North America, the Tibetan Plateau and South America, recovery occurred within a few years and lasted for >20 years in western North America. More information: Shan Gao et al, Shifts of forest resilience after seismic disturbances in tectonically active regions, Nature Geoscience (2024).

The incident happened around 3:40 p.m., according to a news release from Idaho State Police. The vehicle crossed over the center line and crashed head-on into a Nissan south of Swan Lake (north of Preston). Several agencies responded to the crash, including Idaho State Police, Bannock County Sheriff’s Office, Bannock County Search and Rescue, Downey Ambulance, Franklin County Ambulance, Franklin County Sheriff’s Office, Preston Police Department and Franklin County Fire Department. Officials noted that people at the crash scene helped the victims before law enforcement and emergency medical personnel arrived and expressed gratitude for their efforts. This incident remains under investigation by the Idaho State Police.

Photo Illustration by Erin O’Flynn/The Daily Beast/WJBFA South Carolina man was convicted of a hate crime for the 2019 murder of a transgender woman in the conclusion to the first federal hate crime trial based on gender identity. Daqua Lameek Ritter was found guilty of fatally shooting Dime Doe, whom he had been in a secret relationship with. Prosecutors alleged that Ritter shot Doe three times to prevent others from discovering that he was having an affair with a trans woman. Ritter’s friends gave conflicting testimony about specific actions he took after the murder, such as disposing of incriminating evidence like clothes and a handgun. But they agreed that his behavior turned erratic and on edge as rumors swirled that he had murdered Doe.

Published at 10:00 am, February 24, 2024 | Updated at 10:22 am, February 24, 2024PAYETTE COUNTY — A Payette woman is dead after a train hit her on Friday night. According to a new release from Idaho State Police, the incident happened on Friday around 6:30 p.m. The woman, 29, was reportedly walking on the railroad tracks when a train heading north hit her. Traffic in the intersection was blocked for about three hours, allowing emergency responders to investigate and clear the scene, officials said. This incident remains under investigation by the Idaho State Police.

Source: phys.orgA new analysis by the STAR collaboration at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), a particle collider at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory, provides the first direct evidence of the imprint left by what may be the universe's most powerful magnetic fields on "deconfined" nuclear matter. The evidence comes from measuring the way differently charged particles separate when emerging from collisions of atomic nuclei at this DOE Office of Science user facility.

Ukraine's military on Friday destroyed a Russian A-50 surveillance aircraft, Air Force Commander Mykola Oleshchuk said, the second time in a little more than a month that Ukraine has reported downing the sophisticated plane. Interfax Ukraine news agency quoted military sources as saying the A-50 was downed over Russian territory, between the cities of Rostov-on-Don and Krasnodar. Ukraine's military in January said its air force destroyed a Russian Beriev A-50 surveillance plane and an Ilyushin Il-22 airborne command post in the Sea of Azov. Kyrylo Budanov, head of Ukraine's military intelligence directorate, told the Financial Times a month ago that Russia had eight A-50s at that time. (Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Source: phys.orgAstronomers have been on the hunt for a new kind of exoplanet in recent years—one especially suited for habitability. They're called Hycean worlds, and they're characterized by vast liquid water oceans and thick hydrogen-rich atmospheres. The name was coined in 2021 by Cambridge astronomer Nikku Madhusudhan, whose team got a close-up look at one possible Hycean world, K2-18b, using the James Webb Space Telescope in 2023.

Legal action to stop unapproved awarding of national honors: President’s SecyNewsThe President’s Secretary, Saman Ekanayake, has initiated legal action preventing the improper use and bestowing of honorary titles and national honors. The President’s Office is carefully monitoring cases in which individuals and non-governmental organizations are giving fictitious awards, diplomas, and titles to notable Sri Lankans in place of the significant national honors that the President has bestowed upon them, the President's Media Division said. The President’s Secretary highlights the need to immediately put an end to the misuse of national award titles by unauthorized entities. Such actions have the potential to cause significant injustice and disrespect to the genuinely esteemed Sri Lankan recipients of these honors, he noted. After the President signs off, a group of scholars chosen by the President's Secretary meets to evaluate and choose the recipients.

ST. ANTHONY — A status conference is scheduled for Thursday morning in the Chad Daybell murder case. It will be held at the Fremont County Courthouse and is set to begin at 9:30 a.m. This will be one of the final hearings before Daybell’s trial in Ada County on April 1. The Salem father, who married Lori Vallow two weeks after his wife Tammy Daybell died, is charged with conspiracy to commit murder and first-degree murder in relation to the deaths of Tammy and two of Lori’s kids – 7-year-old Joshua “JJ” Vallow and 16-year-old Tylee Ryan. EastIdahoNews.com will live stream the status conference in the video player above.

Source: phys.orgScientists at the University of Southampton have discovered that bacteria can pair up their defense systems to create a formidable force, greater than the sum of its parts, to fight off attacks from phage viruses. Understanding how bacteria react to this type of virus is a big step in combating antimicrobial resistance.

Source: phys.orgA research team at the RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science (CSRS) has succeeded in developing a self-healing material that is also capable of emitting a high amount of fluorescence when absorbing light. The research, published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, could lead the way to the creation of new materials such as organic solar cells that are more durable than current types.