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Technology

Rhode Island’s online benefits system shuts down after cyberattack

Rhode Island took its RIBridges system for applying for public assistance programs like Medicaid offline Friday following a cyberattack that may have exposed the personal data of hundreds of thousands of people, reports CBS affiliate WPRI 12. With its RIBridges system offline, Rhode Islanders won’t be able to log into RIBridges’ web portal or app, […]

Science

Genetic evidence points to distinct Viking settlers of the Faroe Islands and Iceland

The landscape on the Faroe Islands today. Credit: Eyðfinn Magnussen Geneticists have studied the distribution of Y-chromosome haplogroups on the Faroe Islands, known to have been colonized by Vikings around the year 900 CE, and compared these to distributions of haplogroups in today’s Scandinavia. They showed with novel analysis methods that the haplotype distribution in […]

Science

Earth from space: Giant ‘phantom lake’ dotted with stripy gold islands shimmers in Australian outback

QUICK FACTS Where is it? Lake Mackay, Australia [-22.40211170, 128.99460842] What’s in the photo? Dozens of stripy golden islands in shallow water Which satellite took the photo? NASA Terra When was it taken? Sept. 19, 2010 This satellite snap shows dozens of stripy, golden islands shimmering in the shallow waters of a giant temporary lake […]

Science

Coral reef fish running out of time to recover at Great Barrier Reef islands, research warns

A diver surveying Magnetic Island in Queensland. Credit: Maya Srinivasan A study has found concerning new evidence of long-term declines in coral reef fish around highly visited inshore islands of the Great Barrier Reef. Scientists surveyed reefs at 100 sites around the Palm Islands, Magnetic Island, Whitsunday Islands, and Keppel Islands over a 14 year […]

Science

Eddies supply upwelled nutrients to boost productivity around Hawaiian Islands, research finds

Credit: Troy Squillaci from Pexels Beyond colorful coral reefs and diverse nearshore ecosystems, the Pacific Ocean waters surrounding the Hawaiian Islands have comparatively little marine life and low biological productivity. New research published by University of Hawai’i (UH) at Mānoa oceanographers showed that eddies on the leeward side of the Hawaiian Islands can supply nutrients, […]