News of the week selected by Impactscool – October 12th
12 October 2020 | Written by La redazione
Among the most energetic events in our universe, supernovae are spectacular and very bright bursts of stars that have completed their life cycle. The Hubble Space Telescope once again gives us wonderful images of a supernova. The series of shots allowed NASA scientists to create a timelapse of the sudden increase in brightness and its sudden decline. Called SN2018gv, the supernova occurred in the galaxy NGC 2525, about 70 million light years from us.
The People’s Bank of China (PBC) in collaboration with the Central Bank of Digital Money (CBDC) have launched the Digital Yuan, the new digital currency of the Chinese state, the first cryptocurrency supported by a government. This is a very important first and it is already beginning to intrigue investors who see the Digital Yuan as a safe investment.
Scientists have managed to extract DNA from an insect trapped in amber
Miners find mosquitoes embedded in fossilized amber and, after a bit of genetic engineering, researchers are able to extract dinosaur DNA and create a park that is definitely over the top. Unlike the film, however, in reality extracting DNA from an insect trapped in amber is still a very complicated task. Research published in PLOS ONE has shown how it is possible, albeit with great effort, to be able to recover DNA from some insects trapped in amber, but wait before you put on your palaeontologist hat, the insects in question remained in the amber only a few years. It is not yet known how much DNA is recoverable from a sample stored in amber, but since the decomposition occurs quickly, before the amber can solidify, it is unlikely that genetic material can resist for the millions of years it takes to preserve dinosaur DNA.
Bari fully mapped in 3D with augmented reality
According to the Bari startup Augmented.city Bari is the first city in the world to be completely digitized, a 1 to 1 copy available in a smartphone app which, using the “Open Spatial Computing Reference Platform” technology, allows users to visit the city by obtaining additional information on over 4500 objects such as monuments, buildings, businesses and more. The app is called AC Tourist and, by determining the position and direction of the user’s gaze to the centimetre, it allows access to the flood of information simply by pointing the smartphone at the point of interest.
