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Submission + - Scientists Find Hormone that Allows Seeds to Germinate in Low Water Conditions (eurekalert.org)

Submitted by StellarThoughts
StellarThoughts writes: Seeds produce a hormone termed ABA which is used in arid or dry conditions that cause a seed to close its pores and retain water for later in the hopes of better conditions. Yet scientists have found a way to block the pathway for this hormone, encouraging seeds to germinate despite the less than ideal conditions. The discovery stems from a study trying to do the opposite; coaxing plants and seeds to hold on to water to prevent wilting from drought stress.

The benefits of ABA in agriculture is clear, but its implementation is still vague. Farmers can use the chemical to spur growth in difficult terrain, or use it to germinate the seeds and "bank" any water for later use when the plants energy demands have increased. This could be the beginning of a solution in an ever warming and changing global climate.

Submission + - SPAM: Senate Preparing $10 Billion Bailout Fund For Jeff Bezos Space Firm

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Now that Jeff Bezos’s space flight company Blue Origin has lost a multibillion contract to Elon Musk’s SpaceX, Congress is prepping the ground for Bezos to win a contract anyway, ordering NASA to make not one but two awards. The order would come through the Endless Frontier Act, a bill to beef up resources for science and technology research that’s being debated on the Senate floor this week. An amendment was added to that legislation by Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., to hand over $10 billion to NASA — money that most likely would go to Blue Origin, a company that’s headquartered in Cantwell’s home state.

Cantwell’s amendment is no sure bet though: Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., introduced a last-minute amendment Monday to eliminate the $10 billion. “It does not make a lot of sense to me that we would provide billions of dollars to a company owned by the wealthiest guy in America,” Sanders told The Intercept Tuesday. Cantwell’s measure wouldn’t rescind the grant to SpaceX but would create an additional contract that Bezos’s company would be in line to win. A third company, Dynetics, had also bid for the moonshot, but the author of the new amendment offers a strong suggestion of which company it’s likely to benefit. The measure has been attached to the Endless Frontier Act as part of a manager’s amendment and authorizes $10.032 billion through the year 2026 for the moon program. Authorization alone does not fund the program, and Congress would still need to appropriate the money, or the executive would need to find other appropriated funds.
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Submission + - Unexpected Gaseous Nickel Spewing From Second Known Interstellar Object (space.com)

Submitted by StellarThoughts
StellarThoughts writes: Scientists analyzed the second ever known interstellar object, a comet known as 2I/Borisov, and found some very unlikely results. Molecules of nickel and iron were being vaporized and drifting from the surface. Typically, nickel and iron vaporize when comets streak near the sun or aim directly for it, reaching temperatures exceeding 800 degrees Fahrenheit. And instead, this comet was a toasty -135 degrees.

Comparing data with 20 other comets of varying chemical composition within the solar system, they spewed nickel and iron much like 2I/Borisov. Scientists have a few theories, including, "One possibility is that harsh ultraviolet light from the sun might break apart nickel-containing molecules in the comets" Scientists believe these traces were missed for so long because of the supposed unlikelihood of gaseous metals at such a low temperature.

Submission + - Newly Leaked US Navy Video Shows UFO Sinking Into The Water (cnn.com)

Submitted by alaskana98
alaskana98 writes: In a newly leaked video, ship based US Navy personnel appear to be tracking an orb-shaped UFO as it tracks closely above the water, eventually appearing to dip beneath water's surface. Last month, a still from this video was teased along with another video showing a triangular UFO transit the sky along with photos of three strange objects at high altitudes captured within minutes of each other by Navy pilots in 2019.

These photos and videos all come on the eve of a highly anticipated unclassified report due to be released sometime in June for the intelligence and armed services committees in Congress. Referring to this report, former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe states: "There are instances where we don’t have good explanations for some of the things that we’ve seen".

Not everyone is convinced that these objects are being piloted by grey aliens. In an exhaustive report by the site "The War Zone", a plausible theory is laid out that purports that these objects are nothing more than cleverly disguised blimps or drones launched by US adversaries, using nothing more than the social stigma of taking UFOS/UAPS seriously as a means to dissuade any serious attempts by the US Military to treat these as conventional domestic threats.

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It's a naive, domestic operating system without any breeding, but I think you'll be amused by its presumption.

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