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Rahmat Triyono, the head of the tsunami and earthquake division at the BMKG, said the quake had been felt strongly in Bengkulu city, Kepahiang and Central Bengkulu.

“Based on our modelling, the earthquake does not have the potential to cause a tsunami,” he said in a statement.

There were no reports of casualties or damage at the time of writing. (kmt)

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2019 is off to a great start.


A Danish startup called Organic Basics claims its underwear will remain fresh through weeks of wear, eliminating the need for frequent washing.

And this could be a boon for the environment — if it’s actually true.

When your sweat meets your clothing, it creates an ideal environment for bacteria. It’s this bacteria that actually produces a foul-smelling odor.

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How math helps us solve the universe’s deepest mysteries

One of the great insights of science is that the universe has an underlying order. The supreme goal of physicists is to understand this order through laws that describe the behavior of the most basic particles and the forces between them. For centuries, we have searched for these laws by studying the results of experiments.

Since the 1970s, however, experiments at the world’s most powerful atom-smashers have offered few new clues. So some of the world’s leading physicists have looked to a different source of insight: modern mathematics. These physicists are sometimes accused of doing ‘fairy-tale physics’, unrelated to the real world. But in The Universe Speaks in Numbers, award-winning science writer and biographer Farmelo argues that the physics they are doing is based squarely on the well-established principles of quantum theory and relativity, and part of a tradition dating back to Isaac Newton.

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A strong earthquake of 6.9 magnitude struck off the southern Philippine island of Mindanao on Saturday and small tsunami waves were possible along its coast as well as in parts of Indonesia and Palau, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said.

There were no reports of casualties or damage, from the earthquake, which the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) said struck 193 km (120 miles) east of the Philippine city of General Santos, at a depth of 60 km (37 miles).

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center initially said “hazardous tsunami waves” were possible within 300 km (186 miles) of the epicenter along the coasts of Indonesia and the Philippines.

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This could be precursor to Earth’s poles swapping places.


Above our heads, something is not right. Earth’s magnetic field is in a state of dramatic weakening – and according to mind-boggling research from earlier this year, this phenomenal disruption is part of a pattern lasting for over 1,000 years.

Earth’s magnetic field doesn’t just give us our north and south poles; it’s also what protects us from solar winds and cosmic radiation – but this invisible force field is rapidly weakening, to the point scientists think it could actually flip, with our magnetic poles reversing.

As crazy as that sounds, this actually does happen over vast stretches of time. The last time it occurred was about 780,000 years ago, although it got close again around 40,000 years back.

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