After a star explodes, the resulting supernova remnant collapses in on itself and could begin the cycle again, creating generations of stars enriched with heavy elements

Why Skid Mark Why? Part 2

When Question Mark unlocked the door, he thought that he would see his wallet straight away. But Skid Mark (Question's brother) decided to put the wallet in a safe. The combination is three 2-digit numbers which can be expressed like this:

xx-xx-xx

You are given the following clues to work out the combination:

The total of the three numbers is 39.
The second number is half of the third number.
The first number is the third number minus 1.

Can you find Question's wallet in time? It's all up to you.


Check Braingle.com for the answer.

Sam Howell tells New Scientist why NASA is so keen to visit Jupiter’s fourth-largest moon, Europa, and how the mission could help us figure out the likelihood of life elsewhere in the cosmos

The books, TV, games and more that New Scientist staff have enjoyed this week

After 25 years in orbit, the Chandra X-ray Observatory is under threat. We need to protect this monument to human ingenuity, argues Chanda Prescod-Weinstein

After their initial training phase, AI algorithms can’t update and learn from new data, meaning tech companies have to keep training new models from scratch

Past observations have indicated that the icy moon of Jupiter has a vast subsurface ocean. Launching in October, NASA’s Europa Clipper will go there in search of evidence that it could support life

Immunological imprinting to the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein by memory B cells is redirected toward Omicron sublineages after repeated BA.5 exposures.

Intestinal helminth infection blunts T cell responses induced by SARS-CoV-2 vaccines in mice.

CNP-based agonist agent improves the perfusion of solid tumor tissues to reactivate immune response and increase efficacy of anticancer therapies.

Microglia-specific IL-10 gene delivery protects from neurodegeneration in Parkinson’s disease mice by reshaping immune response and microglial state.

Lung resection results in eosinophil activation that damages the remaining pulmonary tissue in an iNOS-dependent manner.

A radio signal detected in 1977, sometimes claimed as evidence for aliens, may have been caused by a laser-like beam of microwave radiation

AI tools could help eliminate human bias in forensic investigations, say UCL scientists, who are using eye-tracking technology to study decision-making in skeletal analysis and crime scene examinations

Back in Forth 13

Based on the clue in parentheses, find a four-letter word that can be inserted backwards into the blank to complete a longer word.

Example: di____ve (a defeat)
Answer: dissolve ("A defeat" gives you LOSS, which is placed backwards in the blank: di_SSOL_ve.)

1. s____ing (earth)
2. si____lk (felt reverent)
3. cam____e (chauffeur driven car)
4. s____way (bass; extreme)


Check Braingle.com for the answer.

Computer code dating back to the 1960s is still vital to banks, airlines and governments, but programmers familiar with the language are in short supply. Now AI models are being trained to fill the skills gap

Lightning strikes near Earth give rise to electromagnetic waves called “whistlers” that can carry energy high enough above our planet to pose a risk to satellites and astronauts

Mars rocks that were blasted off the surface of the Red Planet millions of years ago have been traced back to craters where they originated, which could transform our understanding of Mars’s volcanism and evolution

Space exploration has long been a staple of sci-fi films and TV, yet most play fast and loose with the laws of physics, and scientific fact often couldn't be further from the truth

Planets that orbit close to their parent stars are blasted with radiation and contorted by gravity – and the exoplanet TOI-6255b might be the most extreme example yet