The existence of a new layer of the Earth has been found by scientists. There were formerly only four layers: the crust, mantle, liquid, and solid inner core. Yet two seismologists at the Australian National University have discovered that the Earth’s inner core contains a unique layer. And it’s a solid, metallic ball that is 400 miles thick. According to the study, the ball has a unique crystal structure that causes earthquake shock waves to propagate through the layer more quickly than through the surrounding core.

Surprising Findings

By examining individual earthquakes and keeping an eye on “seismic waves reverberating over the entire planet,” Thanh-Son Phm and Hrvoje Tkali discovered the solid metal core. Over 200 earthquakes with a magnitude of 6 or higher that occurred in the past ten years were studied by the researchers. They were able to notice details that they had previously missed. They made another discovery in addition to confirming the existence of the solid metal core, also known as the “innermost inner core” or IMIC. It had a diameter of 400 kilometers.

Something Brewing

The experts think that the metal core may hold the key to understanding how life developed on Earth. The metal inner core may be a “fossilized record” of a large tectonic event, with the core solidifying soon after, they suggested. “Studying Earth’s center is not just a topic of academic curiosity, but something that sheds light on the very evolution of life on our planet’s surface” the researchers said in The Conversation.

Seismic waves from the Earth have already been seen to move most quickly in a spin-parallel direction. The researchers determined that this is puzzlingly not the case for this recently discovered innermost inner core, indicating that these waves travel quicker at a different angle. The scientists hypothesize that this metallic ball may have been created by a “major global event,” such as a significant tectonic shift that occurred hundreds of millions of years ago. It’s an important piece of the puzzle and a fascinating window into the early history of our planet, especially in light of the possibility that it was what made life on Earth possible.

In this vast, lovely world of ours, there are many diverse species, yet we know nothing at all about the majority of them. Some of us even pour in a lot of time and effort to know more and explore what else has come before us, and find out more knowledge about everything in our world.  With that, a business that is developing technologies that one day might make the dodo bird and woolly mammoth extinct is soliciting money to implement their ambitions.

Knowing More

According to scientists, there are presently roughly 8.7 million different species of plants and animals, but we have only been able to identify about 1.2 million of them, the majority of which are insects. If not for the fact that some species have gone extinct and were considered to be lost forever, the number would be a tiny bit higher. There are many reasons why a species goes extinct, but the claim that “humans kill them all” is one of the more frequent ones.

What Happened Along the Way

The dodo bird was exterminated due to human overhunting, habitat loss, and a lack of ability to compete with the arrival of new creatures to the island of Mauritius. They didn’t even survive 200 years of interaction with people before going extinct because they had no natural predators before we arrived and brought things like rats and pigs with us. Although the specific cause of its extinction is unclear, it is believed that climate change played a significant role because it disrupted their food source and caused a decline in their population before they were eliminated by human hunters. Mammoths grazed on grass, but after the ice age ended, forests and wetlands dramatically reduced the amount of grass the animals could eat, then thus dwindling their chances of survival as well.

The dodo bird and the woolly mammoth are still being sought after, though, and technology company Colossal Biosciences is attracting funding for their initiatives. In order to bring back extinct species, scientists have amassed $225 million in funding over the years. Currently, they are researching how to modify existing creatures’ DNA in an effort to cause them to conceive extinct species. They have a notion of how you might bring back creatures that had gone extinct, but things are still in the very early phases, so don’t expect the dodo or the woolly mammoth to be stomping around the Earth in the near future.

As the administration declined to oppose a crucial verdict against Apple Watches, the devices may soon be prohibited from entering the US.

But it’s successful

A line of smartwatches called Apple Watch is manufactured by Apple Inc. It connects with iOS and other Apple services and devices and includes cellular telephony, fitness monitoring, and health-related features.

After being introduced in April 2015, the Apple Watch swiftly established itself as the best-selling wearable technology. 4.2 million units were sold during the second quarter of fiscal year 2015, and it is anticipated that more than 101 million people would own an Apple Watch by the end of 2020.

Legal matters

The Apple Watch has undergone numerous significant revisions and integrated a number of new functions since it was first introduced in 2015.

At the very least, it has avoided becoming obsolete like gadgets like Google Glass, but one of the functions that the Apple Watch has acquired over time is now giving it some issues.

The ECG technology found in more recent variants of the smartwatch allows it to track your heartbeat for a variety of fitness and health needs.

This is where the issues began, as the California-based business AliveCor introduced the KardiaBand in 2017, an add-on for the Apple Watch that used this heart-monitoring technology.

When the Series 4 Apple Watch was produced with its own built-in electrocardiogram technology a year later, the KardiaBand was declared unnecessary and became unneeded.

AliveCor later charged Apple with violating a patent and filed a case with the US International Trade Commission in 2021. (ITC).

The ITC decided in December that the EKG feature on Apple Watches did, in fact, violate AliveCor’s patents.

According to the ITC, it should be illegal to import these watches into the US, hence there wouldn’t be any new Apple Watches available in the country since they are created abroad.

Because of a separate disagreement between Apple and AliveCor before the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), which determined that AliveCor’s patents were invalid, the ban has not yet been lifted.

According to the USPTO, the gadget should never have been patented in the first place because it could have been created by someone with “ordinary proficiency” in ECG technology.

One side claims that the Apple Watch violates a patent and should be prohibited, however the prohibition they would typically enact is on hold since the opposing side contends that the patent is invalid.

Apple will be very disappointed if it had hoped that the US government would save them from a potential mess by vetoing the trade commission’s ruling.

The government won’t object to the decision, according to a representative for AliveCor, but any prospective ban on Apple Watches is still being delayed because of a patent dispute between Apple and AliveCor.

Both Apple and AliveCor have stated that they will be appealing against the rulings that they disagree with. While this process is continuing, any potential ban will be put on hold and would only take effect if AliveCor’s appeal is successful and Apple’s is unsuccessful.