All posts tagged: giant

Scientists discover ‘D-Rex,’ a giant fungus with a 65-million-year evolutionary history

Scientists discover ‘D-Rex,’ a giant fungus with a 65-million-year evolutionary history

Published by Jenni Sidey

A newly described fungus from Yunnan produces upright structures measuring up to 50 centimeters in total height. DNA and microscopic evidence support a new species, genus and family within the fungal order Xylariales. Its estimated lineage age overlaps the dinosaur extinction, but a connection between that event and its evolution remains hypothetical. Pale, fingerlike structures rising from tree roots in southwestern China have revealed an unexpected giant among fungi. Named Dianjunus rex, the newly described species produces fleshy reproductive structures reaching 50 centimeters in total height. The largest reported specimen weighed 2.2 kilograms, roughly 4.9 pounds. Its size was only the beginning of the surprise. Genetic comparisons and microscopic examinations placed the fungus on a distinct evolutionary branch, supporting a new genus and family. The findings appeared in Frontiers in Fungal Biology. The team included scientists from the Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and collaborating institutions. Corresponding author Indunil C. Senanayake works at the institute’s Germplasm Bank of Wild Species. He described the discovery as a rare opportunity to investigate the evolution …

Houthis threaten escalation after strike on Saudi oil giant Aramco

Houthis threaten escalation after strike on Saudi oil giant Aramco

Published by Sam Flores

Yemen’s Houthis vowed on Wednesday to press on with attacks on airports and oil facilities in Saudi Arabia, a day after a strike that sources said caused extensive damage to the headquarters of oil giant Saudi Aramco.   The Houthis said the threatened locations were legitimate targets and described their attacks as retaliation for Saudi strikes on Yemen – threatening to escalate a conflict reignited by the US-Iran confrontation in the Gulf.   Saudi Arabia has faced widening Houthi strikes over the past week, including an attack on King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh on Saturday that killed 13 people.   Read moreSaudi Arabia threatens ‘decisive’ response after Riyadh airport strike kills at least 12 Tuesday night’s attack on Saudi Aramco’s base in the eastern city of Dhahran caused a fire that spread across several floors, three people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters. The Saudi energy ministry had said the strike caused a limited fire.   Operations at Aramco were continuing normally, with employees working from home, according to two of the sources. Aramco did not immediately reply to a Reuters request for comment. Yahya Saree, a Houthi military spokesman, said the Iran-backed group had conducted “a high-quality military operation targeting Aramco in Dhahran”, …

Houthis say targeted Saudi oil giant Aramco, vow more attacks

Houthis say targeted Saudi oil giant Aramco, vow more attacks

Published by Sam Flores

Yemen’s Houthis said Wednesday they had targeted facilities belonging to Saudi Aramco, after Saudi officials reported a strike on a building in an area housing the energy giant’s operations centre. Powerful explosions meanwhile rattled the Saudi capital, as the coalition fighting the Houthis said it had intercepted a missile fired by the Iran-backed group towards Riyadh. Source link

Chip tool giant ASML nudges up outlook as AI-driven demand outruns supply

Chip tool giant ASML nudges up outlook as AI-driven demand outruns supply

Published by Sam Flores

Oct 14 : ASML said on Wednesday that AI-driven demand for its chip-printing tools is so strong that it will not be able to fully meet customer demand in 2027 or 2028 and that it is looking at ways to expand capacity as it raised its full-year sales outlook. The world’s biggest supplier of chipmaking equipment said customers were already discussing orders after 2027, with some expressing interest in placing orders in 2029 and 2030. The Dutch group forecast sales for the fourth quarter of 2026 of €14.2 billion to €15.2 billion ($15.9 billion to $17.0 billion), above analyst expectations, with a gross margin of around 57 per cent. That boosted its full-year sales forecast slightly to €44 billion to €45 billion. Analysts polled by LSEG had expected fourth-quarter sales of €14.19 billion at ASML, Europe’s largest company by market capitalisation. “A lot of our discussions with our customers now are shifting in fact beyond 2027,” CEO Christophe Fouquet said in a statement. ASML’s customers include TSMC, which manufactures chips for Nvidia, Samsung, SK Hynix, …

The Apple HomeView Is Like a Giant Apple Watch for the Home

The Apple HomeView Is Like a Giant Apple Watch for the Home

Published by skeptic

It’s a big year for Apple firsts. The company launched the first MacBook Neo, unveiled its first folding iPhone in September, and installed a new CEO for the first time in 15 years. Now comes the Apple HomeView, Apple’s first smart display. Rivals like Google and Amazon have made countless screen-enabled smart speakers since voice assistants invaded the home a decade ago. But Apple stuck with a smaller smart home ecosystem centered on its HomePod speakers, even removing the iPad as a hub device a few years ago, which forced users to buy an Apple TV or HomePod to get started. Maybe that’s why it hasn’t found much success in the home. Announced Tuesday at an event in New York City, the 7-inch smart display arrives alongside several other new smart home devices as part of Apple’s bid to revitalize its lagging ecosystem. The HomeView costs $299 and comes in two versions—a speaker base and a wall-mounted display—both priced the same. Preorders are live, with sales kicking off on November 13. A Big Apple Watch …

Brazil’s Lula accuses social media giant Meta of election interference amid tight run-off campaign

Brazil’s Lula accuses social media giant Meta of election interference amid tight run-off campaign

Published by Sam Flores

The campaign of Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva accused tech giant Meta of election interference on Saturday after his social media content was allegedly blocked on the company’s platforms. The leftist leader is seeking a fourth non-consecutive term in the October 25 run-off, where he will face Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, the son of far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro. Read moreBrazil’s Lula gears up for ‘last dance’ with run for fourth presidential term In a statement, Lula’s campaign reported instances where platforms owned by Meta – the parent company of Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram – allegedly restricted the distribution of his content. The campaign claimed that in recent days, Meta “prevented President Lula’s profile from promoting Instagram feed posts”, while a post from his official account “experienced an interruption in view counts, which affected its reach”. It also said that prior to last Sunday’s first round of voting – in which Flavio Bolsonaro finished first – the profiles of Lula and other leftist leaders “suddenly disappeared from Instagram’s search function”. Brazil ‘has moved to the …

Giant tortoises now outnumber people in the Seychelles

Giant tortoises now outnumber people in the Seychelles

Published by Jenni Sidey

As Joanthan the Aldabra giant tortoise (Aldabrachelys gigantea) approaches his 195th birthday this December, there is some good news for his fellow tortoises. The previously endangered species is thriving and stable in the Seychelles, according to a study published this week in the journal Ecology and Evolution. Aldabra giant tortoises are one of the world’s largest land tortoises. They weigh up to 550 pounds and live 150 years. These gentle giants are native to Aldabra Island, one of the Seychelles northeast of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. They are also found in the Galápagos, but the population on Aldabra here is much smaller. As the largest animal on  Aldabra, they play an ecological role that is similar to elephants. Tortoises are the main consumers of vegetation and will change the habitat while searching for food. They will knock over small trees and shrubs all to get those nutritious leaves. Any seeds not digested will pass through the tortoise’s digestive tract and become food for many other animals. To check on the population at Aldabra, a …

JWST uncovers a surprisingly cold atmosphere on the giant planet HATS-6 b

JWST uncovers a surprisingly cold atmosphere on the giant planet HATS-6 b

Published by Jenni Sidey

A giant planet orbiting one of the galaxy’s smaller stars is becoming even more difficult to explain. HATS-6 b is roughly Jupiter-sized but only about one-third of Jupiter’s mass. It races around a cool M-dwarf every 3.3 days, despite theories suggesting such small stars should struggle to assemble enormous gas planets in the first place. Now, James Webb Space Telescope observations have revealed another surprise. The planet’s atmosphere contains water, methane and rarely detected ammonia, while its apparent atmospheric temperature is substantially lower than expected from its close orbit. The University of Maryland-led study, published in The Astronomical Journal, is part of the Giant Exoplanets around M-dwarf Stars, or GEMS, JWST survey. The program is examining seven unusual giant planets to determine whether they formed and evolved differently from giants orbiting Sun-like stars. Panels (a) and (b) show the JWST NIRSpec PRISM white light curves produced using Eureka1 after binning to a cadence of 20 s. (CREDIT: Giannina Guzmán Caloca et al, The Astronomical Journal 2026) JWST reads molecules in filtered starlight HATS-6 b sits …

Giant, feathered dinosaur with massive claws and tons of teeth found in China

Giant, feathered dinosaur with massive claws and tons of teeth found in China

Published by Jenni Sidey

Most dinosaurs are pretty weird-looking. But you know a dinosaur must be extra weird looking when paleontologists call it “anatomically bizarre.” That’s the story behind Therizinosauria, a rare group of theropod dinosaurs—flesh-eating species, like Tyrannosaurus rex, along with a few herbivores. And even though therizinosaurs had massive claws, possibly the longest claws ever clocking in at over three feet long(!), these feathered dinos were actually primarily plant eaters.   Within the Therizinosauria clade, there are a handful of specific kinds of therizinosaurs, and they’re all pretty unusal. But, in a new study published recently in The Journal of Systematic Paleontology, paleontologists may have just found the weirdest and biggest therizinosaurus ever. Feast your eyes on Kayrasaurus changliensis. No dinosaur had bigger claws than therizinosaurs All therizinosaurs had the same basic look to them. They had long necks, little heads, walked on two legs, and had massive claws on relatively tiny arms. They were covered in feathers and had a bit of pot belly: something kind of like a cross between an ostrich and grizzly bear, but …

NASA’s Juno reveals how Jupiter’s giant magnetic shield absorbs the solar wind

NASA’s Juno reveals how Jupiter’s giant magnetic shield absorbs the solar wind

Published by Jenni Sidey

NASA’s Juno spacecraft captured the most detailed plasma-wave measurements yet at Jupiter’s bow shock, revealing stronger nonlinear behavior than typically seen at Earth. Researchers detected ion-acoustic waves with multiple harmonics and intense electron cyclotron drift instability, giving Jupiter more ways to transfer solar-wind energy into particle heating. Juno also recorded magnetic structures repeating about every 8.3 seconds, evidence that Jupiter’s shock may repeatedly break down and reform under the intense incoming solar wind. An invisible shock wave surrounding Jupiter is giving physicists a rare look at how nature handles enormous flows of energy without ordinary particle collisions. NASA’s Juno spacecraft recorded unusually detailed electrical and magnetic activity while crossing Jupiter’s bow shock in December 2024. The observations revealed a surprisingly rich collection of plasma waves, including multiple harmonics that could help heat a wider range of particles than comparable processes near Earth. The findings come from a University of Iowa-led international team and were published in Nature Communications under the title “Plasma wave observations from Juno spacecraft at the Jovian bow shock.” Researchers also found …