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Video shows officers fall as a second-story deck collapses while they try to make an arrest

Some U.S. Marshals task force officers were treated for broken bones after the steep fall

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Soft vibrations reveal warning signs before granular crystals yield

Sand, powders, and other collections of visible-sized grains are found throughout daily life, from food and pharmaceuticals to soils and industrial materials. When grains of similar size are arranged regularly, they can form a strong crystal-like solid. Yet what happens inside such an ordered structure immediately before it begins to break has remained unclear.

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Connecting the power of the stars to geometry

In the world of fusion energy, scientists and engineers study the fourth state of matter known as plasma in an effort to design and build a new type of power plant. Relying on the heat produced by two small atoms smashing together, a network of such facilities would help create a novel source of stable electricity and help ensure America’s energy independence. And while scientists in this endeavor are devoting their attention to complex machinery and temperatures hotter than the surface of the sun, they are also trying to determine the best designs for such a power plant by focusing on geometry.

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Dashcam: PIT of 130 mph fleeing suspect causes bystander vehicle rollover

An Arkansas trooper performed a PIT maneuver on a suspect fleeing at 130 mph, causing the suspect vehicle to crash into a bystander vehicle and severely injure its two occupants

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‘Dumbest sh** I ever did in my life’: Video shows fleeing driver flip car during Okla. pursuit

The driver, who had three outstanding warrants, was arrested after he fled Oklahoma City Police and almost immediately crashed and flipped his car

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San Diego County votes to end immigration cops’ use of gun ranges, but sheriff says CBP can stay

While county supervisors voted to end licenses allowing DHS officers to train at its gun ranges, Sheriff Kelly Martinez stated she would allow CBP officers to stay, citing economic impact concerns

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Fastest known Milky Way star offers new test of supermassive black hole’s spin

Astronomers have discovered the fastest known star in our galaxy, the Milky Way, orbiting the black hole at its center. The star, named S301, was detected with the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope Interferometer (ESO’s VLTI) and reaches speeds of 25,000 km/s (15,500 miles per second) as it travels around the four-million-solar-mass black hole. It comes closer to it than any other star observed before, so close that it feels the effects of the black hole’s rotation.

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VR supports research into spaceflight-related mental health

As humanity gets closer to the possibility of long-term interplanetary travel, psychologists have started raising concerns about astronauts’ mental health. Researchers at Texas A&M University conducted research on sailors in an isolated environment to address these concerns using virtual reality technology and by introducing other senses to the experience, such as smell and touch.

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Turning a quantum battery’s environmental sensitivity into an advantage

Quantum batteries, devices that store energy by exploiting quantum mechanical phenomena, could, in principle, be charged faster and more efficiently than classical ones. Despite their potential, connecting these batteries to chargers is known to create quantum correlations that can trap some energy inside the combined battery-charger system. This can reduce useful work, or the energy available to complete a task that can be extracted from the battery alone.

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Search in strange quark sector reveals new particle possibilities

Despite science’s best efforts to classify the vast menagerie of subatomic particles discovered over the past few decades, some exotic varieties defy explanation. Now, nuclear physicists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility have found evidence of two unexpected structures that could help better sort the zoo of exotic particles.

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An echo of Einstein: An unexpected link between whale calls and special relativity

Standing on the sandy, windswept shores of Provincetown, Massachusetts, people may find themselves squinting at the horizon, waiting for a whale to make its grand entrance with a spectacular breach.

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Quantum simulators gain quantitative error bars in 51-ion test

In the coming years, increasingly larger and more powerful quantum systems are expected to tackle problems that are difficult or impossible to solve using conventional computers. However, the more powerful quantum simulations become, the more difficult it is to independently verify their results. Where classical simulation is still feasible, results can be cross-checked directly; beyond that regime, other methods are needed.

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Neutron capture experiment sheds light on ancient stardust

Niobium-94, an isotope of niobium with 41 protons and 53 neutrons, is a critical crossroads in the complex nuclear processes that forge heavy elements under the intense pressures and temperatures of dying stars. In an article published in Physical Review Letters, the n_TOF Collaboration reports the first-ever measurement of the probability of niobium-94 taking one of the paths at this crossroads—that is, undergoing neutron capture.

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Astronomers catch hot birth of galaxy cluster more than 11 billion light-years away

Astronomers have detected an enormous cloud of gas tens of millions of degrees hot surrounding one of the most extreme structures known in the early universe. The study offers one of the clearest views yet of a galaxy cluster in the making. Using more than 600,000 seconds of observations with NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, the team found diffuse, extended X-ray emission around a quasar embedded in a dense concentration of galaxies more than 11 billion light-years away. The paper describing the results was published in Astronomy & Astrophysics on July 24.

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China recovers rocket stage on land for first time, after earlier recovery at sea

China has successfully recaptured the first stage of a rocket on land for the first time, state media reported Wednesday, as the country seeks to advance its space program.

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