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Black HolesBlack holes are locations where spacetime is bent so severely that nothing can escape. They form when massive stars can no longer support themselves with the energy released in nuclear reactions. The resulting runaway collapse compresses the star's core into a region of enormous gravitational pull while ejecting most surrounding material in a massive supernova. This explosion produces elements that comprise up to 73% of the human body's mass. The existence of black holes was predicted in 1916 by Albert Einstein's theory of gravity—general relativity—which described the universe as having an underlying fabric that curves in the presence of mass and energy. With enough of either, the warping can become so extreme that anything traveling within a certain distance of the region, including light, becomes trapped. This boundary of no return is the event horizon. With no light able to leave this region via emission or reflection, everything within it appears black. Scientists estimate that there are 40 quintillion black holes in the universe, which are categorized into three types—supermassive, intermediate, and star-sized—based on their mass. Although not directly observable, their presence can be inferred based on their gravitational influence on nearby objects. Black holes serve as natural laboratories for testing various models in theoretical physics and are theorized to play a significant role in galactic formation and evolution.Explore Black Holes

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Pollution from lead battery recycling has led to widespread contaminationMany small-scale operations worldwide remain unregulated, bypassing environmental regulations and causing increasing health threats, primarily to children. A 2020 report by UNICEF found that one-third of the world's children are being poisoned by lead from recycled batteries, among other sources. Yale e360 Watch how metals are extracted from rechargeable devices during recyclingRecyclable batteries found in cars, phones, power tools, and other electronics contain lithium, cobalt, nickel, and other precious metals, whose reuse generates 70% fewer emissions than during their initial mining. Upon shredding these devices, a filter press squeezes the pieces through a proprietary fluid, which separates them for future reuse. JerryRigEverything Explore options for recycling batteriesImproper battery disposal can lead to fires and the leaching of harmful chemicals and toxic materials into local soil and water systems. Although many batteries contain metals that can be recycled with less energy than it takes to produce them, variability in regulations across municipalities and states can complicate efforts. (Some readers may experience a paywall.) The New York Times Fiberglass and epoxy resin on blades complicate the recycling of wind turbinesBetween 85 and 95% of a turbine's materials—except for the blades—can be recycled. Blades have been left in landfills when not repurposed into playgrounds and sheds, but new processes may allow them to be made into pellets for injection plastics and concrete. BBC News Here's how the seven types of plastics fare in the recycling processTo help you make better-informed decisions about the products that you buy, here's a simple explanation of the seven different types of plastic, how they differ, and their impact on the environment. Plastics For Change What the people on the front lines think about America's recycling crisisAmerica produces more waste per capita than any other country in the world. And recycling, which was once considered the solution to that problem, isn’t really working anymore. YouTube Where the US’s plastic recycling is discardedThe US ships over a million tons of plastic waste overseas each year. A short video explainer from USA Today shows a breakdown of what really happens to America's recyclables. YouTube How chemical recycling could create 'infinite' plasticThe way we normally recycle plastics is a downward spiral of waste and degraded materials, but there is another option—turning plastic back into the oil it was made from. BBC A step-by-step guide to the plastic recycling processEverything you wanted to know about how plastic is recycled, the companies that collect and recycle plastic, where you can recycle, and much more. British Plastics Federation The recycling failures that the plastic industry is hidingIf the plastics industry is following the tobacco industry’s playbook, it may never admit to the failure of plastics recycling. The Atlantic Local governments manage the disposal of hundreds of millions of tons of waste each yearIn 2018, Americans produced 292.4 million tons of municipal solid waste—about 5 pounds per person each day. The responsibility for collecting, recycling, composting, and disposing of that waste primarily lies with state and local governments. EPA Old credit cards can be made into guitar picks, phone stands and moreExperts recommend always cutting through the chip and the card number when disposing of expired credit cards, as the magnetic strip, the chip, and the card number all contain information that thieves might be interested in. The Motley Fool Laylat al-Qadr: the single Islamic night 'holier than a thousand months'Toward the end of Ramadan, Laylat al-Qadr is observed, recalling Muhammad's "night of power" when the Quran was first revealed, according to Islamic tradition. The Quran describes it as better than a thousand months of worship. Its exact date differs between Sunni and Shia adherents, falling on the 27th night of the month for Sunnis and the 23rd for Shias. Religion Media Centre Some experts equate prediction markets to the new crack cocaine of gambling addictionAn addiction psychiatrist at UCLA says betting apps are far more potent than traditional gambling, citing a 19-year-old patient who lost $180,000 and hadn't left campus in a year, cycling through sports bets, crypto, meme stocks, and prediction markets on his phone. This interview explores the extreme edge of the nascent industry. Nautilus How to safely dispose of every kind of battery As lithium-ion batteries have proliferated in phones, e-bikes, power tools, and dozens of other devices, improper disposal has become a leading cause of fires in recycling facilities and garbage trucks. Battery Safety Now partnered with the US Forest Service's Woodsy Owl campaign to provide guidance on how to recycle batteries by type, including locator tools for drop-off sites. Battery Safety Now Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is a DeadheadFor the uninitiated, that means Powell is an avid fan of the band The Grateful Dead. Powell is also a musician, cyclist, and dog park kerfuffle survivor. USA TODAY The gray area that makes PEDs seem like leveling up to hardcore athletesDoping in sports is broadly condemned as unsafe and unfair. Significant controversies in major sports, including baseball and cycling, have been prompted by the widespread use of performance-enhancing drugs, which are described as clear-cut dangers and abuses of the rules. But to many competitors, the line between a PED and the next smart technique to adopt is unclear. This podcast episode explores that gray reality. Freakonomics The word 'Peloton' comes from the word for the main group of riders in a cycling raceThe word itself is French for "ball," but became the inspiration for the word "platoon" in the 17th century to describe a group of soldiers. Now, it's a common cycling term and the main focal point in cycling races. Merriam-Webster The average American likely doesn’t notice how many ads they’re targets of per dayThe average American is targeted with roughly 5,000 ads each day—but the conscious mind likely isn’t capable of recalling the majority of those. Even still, many consumers have reported ad fatigue due to the near-constant onslaught of ads. Rolling Stone Exoplanet atmospheric gas patterns may indirectly provide evidence for lifeWhen searching for life beyond the solar system, scientists first determine the range of distances from a star that liquid water—believed to be essential for life—can be found. Within this habitable zone, the presence of specific molecules in an exoplanet's atmosphere—detectable through spectral analysis—can indicate the presence of living things known to produce those compounds. The Conversation As of January 2026, 500 new articles are added to the English Wikipedia dailyThe largest Wikipedia language edition features over 7 million articles, followed by the Cebuano edition (over 6 million) and the German edition (over 3 million). The longest article is the "2025 in women's road cycling" page, and the most edited is the list of personnel from World Wrestling Entertainment. Wikipedia Super recognizers may use specific facial features to commit faces to memoryResearchers believe that recognizing individuals seen only in passing, even decades later, is an ability of genetic origin and specific to facial recognition, rather than a result of better overall memory or perception. Applying eye tracking data from super recognizers to AI has led to improvements in facial recognition software. Science Weekly Stainless steel and cast-iron pans should be used over nonstick cookwareChemicals used in the manufacturing of Teflon coatings have been linked with certain types of cancer, infertility, and other adverse health outcomes. Vintage plastic utensils should also be avoided due to the leeching of contaminants in early formulations of plastic. Chemistry For Your Life After swallowing 23 pieces of plastic, seabirds experience a 90% death rateResearchers found that this threshold is also met when marine mammals ingest 29 pieces and when sea turtles consume approximately 405 pieces. Almost half of the sea turtles, a third of the seabirds, and one in ten of the marine mammals studied had eaten plastic. BBC News Explore five of the largest particle accelerators on EarthUnlike traditional linear accelerators, the CBETA energy recovery linac reduces waste by capturing and recycling residual energy from the acceleration of electrons. The SuperKEKB collides electrons and positrons—the antimatter version of electrons—to search for abnormal physics beyond the standard model. Discovery Water vapor is used to manage heat in high-end smartphonesWhile smartphones have traditionally been cooled using a highly conductive plate that dissipates heat from the chip, vapor chambers offer a higher heat-removal capacity. This technology has been utilized in laptops for decades to absorb heat by cycling a fluid between liquid and gaseous phases. IEEE Spectrum Watch how dozens of everyday human tasks are performed in spaceThis playlist features clips of astronauts aboard the International Space Station explaining how they cook, eat, sleep, and conduct research in microgravity. Other activities to pass the time, including watering plants and playing soccer, are also shown. VideoFromSpace Cooling each square foot of a room requires at least 20 BTUs of capacityBritish thermal units describe the cooling capacity of air conditioners, though noise levels, directional airflow, and filtration also affect their effectiveness. Insufficient BTUs are unlikely to cool a large enough room faster than the environment warms the air. WIRED The cycling of carbon via tectonic activity may have facilitated life on EarthPlates sinking into Earth’s mantle pull carbon from the surface, helping stabilize the atmosphere and climate by removing greenhouse gases from volcanic eruptions. At the same time, magma is a significant contributor of heavy metals and other crucial minerals for life to the surface. Live Science Symmetric patterns of magnetic stripes seen on either side of mid-ocean ridgesThe symmetry provides evidence of seafloor spreading, where new oceanic crust is created at mid-ocean ridges, which pushes older ocean crust away on either side. Matching the pattern to magnetized material in rocks on Earth’s surface provided a timeline of ocean floor recycling. Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History Financial hardships forced functionality into every piece of Marie Curie's wardrobeCurie's upbringing in a family that lost its fortune when participating in failed uprisings for Polish independence instilled frugality in her. Much of the clothing she purchased, including for special occasions like her wedding, was repurposed for lab use. The Voice of Fashion See what it was like to live in the United States during World War IIIn America, life was transformed by total war: sixteen million service members left civilian life, while massive industrial production demanded labor. Women, minorities, and teens filled factories, fueling boomtown growth and breaking social barriers. Simultaneously, rationing, recycling drives, Victory Gardens, ration stamps, blackout drills, and war bond campaigns permeated daily routines. US National Parks Service Most biodegradable plastics don’t break down in everyday conditionsDespite their eco-friendly name, biodegradable plastics often require industrial composting, which most areas lack, to decompose the uncommon compounds found in them. This means they may linger in landfills or contaminate conventional plastics in recycling bins. The New York Times Plastic's history began with an inventor seeking a $10,000 prize offerIn 1869, the first synthetic polymer—celluloid—was created as a substitute for ivory in billiard balls. It became the historical catalyst for the eventual manufacturing of plastics everywhere as an alternative to the depletion of other natural resources, including tortoiseshell and horns. Science History Institute Plastivores are plastic-eating microbes that may provide a solution to plastic wasteIdeonella sakaiensis, a bacterium found in recycling plant sludge in 2016, was the first organism seen to possess enzymes that could break down PET, a type of plastic. Researchers continue to search and try to bioengineer microbes that can digest other plastic types. TED-Ed False memories can form during recall when new information is incorporatedOften formed due to suggestion and misinformation, false memories can lead to serious consequences, such as wrongful convictions. The time between an event and recalling it affects one's susceptibility to false memories. Verywell Mind Memory is a complex narrative constructed from real and imagined experiencesMemories start with perception and are processed in the hippocampus. Different types of memories use different brain regions, and episodic memory, which is involved in recalling one's life events, is more susceptible to decay than semantic memory, which is involved in general information. Psychology Today Earth's inner structure is a dynamic system of layers in constant, slow motionFrom the crust to the core, each of Earth's layers—some solid, some liquid—plays a role in generating its magnetic field, moving tectonic plates, and cycling matter. These details are determined through modeling since humans have only drilled 12 kilometers underground. BBC Lithium-ion batteries are the standard for rechargeable devicesThe costly setup of new mining operations and challenges with recycling amid growing demand have led researchers to search for alternatives, including sodium-ion, solid-state, and lithium-sulphur batteries, despite challenges with scalability. BBC A financial analysis of space trash cleanup strategies identified long-term benefitsDespite significant initial costs, a NASA report found that removing small debris would provide savings from preventing mission-ending damage, which would offset expenses within a decade. Financial benefits would also come from using less fuel for maneuvers to avoid collisions with debris. Federation of American Scientists Learn how humans can protect coral reefsWhen diving and snorkeling in environments containing reefs, avoid touching reefs, anchoring on them, or using sunscreen with active ingredients harmful to marine life. Properly recycling and disposing of trash in bins helps reduce microplastics and chemicals that can run off into wastewater and into the oceans. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency As of 2022, only about 5% of lithium-ion batteries are recycled globallyTraditional recycling methods have been inadequate for lithium batteries, prompting manufacturers to explore more sustainable battery designs, alongside robotic disassembly and ultrasonic techniques to improve recycling rates. Studies have shown that mining for new lithium requires significantly more water and energy than recycling and results in declining vegetation near mines. BBC

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