New policies in the National Letter of Intent Program will eliminate athletes having to sit out a full season of competition for not complying with NLI rules under some circumstances

Dramatic explosions on the surface of one of Saturn's moons have been observed, and it could change the way scientists approach the search for life in the universe. Saturn's ice-covered moon Enceladus has been the subject of attention from astronomers for decades after plumes of water vapor were observed erupting from its surface 20 years ago by the Cassini spacecraft. Now, the biggest plume yet has been spotted by the James Webb Space Telescope and it measures a massive 10,000 kilometers in length. Incredibly, the plume emitting from the geyser on the surface measures 20 times the size of the moon itself, and it indicates that there’s more to Enceladus than previously thought. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Planetary scientist Geronimo Villanueva of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center said: "When I was looking at the data, at first, I was thinking I had to be wrong, it was just so shocking to map a plume more than 20 times the diameter of the moon. "The plume extends far beyond what we could have imagined." Instead of solid ice, the size of the plume shows us that there’s a liquid ocean under the surface. It’s kept warm enough to avoid freezing due to the movement that results from the gravitational pull of Saturn. As ever, the existence of liquid water suggests that there’s the possibility of life existing there, and it's encouraging news for authors of the study accepted in Nature Astronomy. "The orbit of Enceladus around Saturn is relatively quick, just 33 hours. As it whips around Saturn, the moon and its jets are basically spitting off water, leaving a halo, almost like a donut, in its wake," Villanueva said. "In the Webb observations, not only was the plume huge, but there was just water absolutely everywhere." It remains one of the most interesting bodies being studied in the solar system, as geochemist Christopher Glein of the Southwest Research Institute. “Enceladus is one of the most dynamic objects in the Solar System and is a prime target in humanity's search for life beyond Earth," geochemist Christopher Glein of the Southwest Research Institute said. "In the years since NASA's Cassini spacecraft first looked at Enceladus, we never cease to be amazed by what we find is happening on this extraordinary moon." Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

It sounds like something straight out of a Christopher Nolan film, but scientists have suggested that there could actually be an 'anti-universe' where time runs backwards. And if you’re anything like us, your brain is probably starting to hurt already. It comes from experts studying symmetries, and the new research is all to do with the fundamentals of symmetry in nature – the most significant of which are charge, parity and time. Bear with us… According to LiveScience, a new paper recently accepted for publication in the journal Annals of Physics suggests that there is a combined symmetry to the entire universe. Sign up to our new free Indy100 weekly newsletter As the research attests, the early universe was so uniform that time looks symmetric going backwards and forwards. The paper argues that the way we understand the world and wider universe around us, moving forwards in time, must also be expanded to include a mirrored version which runs backwards in time. It could also provide a deeper understanding of dark matter, too. The theory suggests that it is an invisible particle which only interacts via gravity and provides a pairing to the electron-neutrino, muon-neutrino and tau-neutrino. The research suggests that the conditions in a mirrored universe where time runs backwards would be full of these paired neutrinos, which would account for dark matter. Of course, we’d never be able to experience time running backwards even if it did definitely exist, but it’s a pretty cool theory none-the-less. It comes after Elon Musk made headlines in the world of science and space travel, after giving his estimation for when humans will land on Mars for the first time. The first moon landing famously took place in 1969, but space enthusiasts have been debating when they think the first Mars landing will be – now, the SpaceX CEO thinks we’ll be up there by 2029. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

By Greg Bensinger and Diane Bartz SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) -The chief executive of "Call of Duty" maker Activision Blizzard, Bobby

The transition to electric vehicles could save more than 100,000 lives in the US by 2050, according to a new study. Switching from fossil uel-burning to zero-emission vehicles would also result in 3 million fewer asthma attacks, the American Lung Association reported on Wednesday, provided that no more gas cars are on the road by 2035. Combined with cleaner electricity generation through renewable sources like solar and wind, this could generate over $1.2 trillion in public health benefits over the next quarter of a century. The report calculates what health impacts the emissions reduction would have on people living near busy roads or near electricity generation with unacceptable doses of toxic air pollution. “These benefits would take the form of avoiding up to 110,000 premature deaths, along with nearly 3 million asthma attacks and over 13 million workdays lost due to cleaner air,” the report stated. “Policies and investments must prioritise low-income communities and communities of colour that bear a disproportionate pollution burden. State and local jurisdictions should act to implement policies as soon as possible.” The report also notes that such a swift transition would avoid “even more dire consequences of climate change” on a global scale. Many countries have already made commitments to ban the sale of fossil fuel vehicles over the coming years in order to meet climate targets, while several major automotive companies have announced that they will stop manufacturing them. The US and China, which represent the two biggest car markets, have targets of 100 per cent zero-emission vehicle sales by 2040, similar to the UK and Europe. Despite these targets, only 4.6 per cent of cars sold in the US in 2021 were electric, according to figures from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. In the UK, a recent surge in electric car sales saw them surpass sales of new diesel cars for the first time last year. Read More Electric car drives for 100 hours non-stop on futuristic road Reinventing the seatbelt for the self-driving era

New York state unanimously rejected requests from offshore wind developers including Equinor ASA and Orsted A/S for higher

Investors fretting that Nvidia Corp.’s massive stock buyback allocation would leave it short of funds for vital research

Pinterest Inc. reported second-quarter revenue that exceeded analysts’ estimates, signaling that the company’s efforts in expanding its business

Virtual reality could help footballers improve their heading without the repetitive head impacts from a ball, a new study indicates. Players involved in a study at Manchester Metropolitan University’s Institute of Sport and its Department of Sport and Exercise Sciences demonstrated greater performance in ‘real world’ heading after training with a VR headset compared to a control group who did no training. The VR group also reported greater self-confidence and efficacy in their heading compared to the control group, the study found. Our findings show that virtual reality (VR) based training can be used to improve real-world heading performance. Dr Ben Marshall, Manchester Metropolitan University Institute of Sport The study, titled: ‘A preliminary investigation into the efficacy of training soccer heading in immersive virtual reality’, has been published in the journal Virtual Reality on Tuesday. It provides some insights into how players may be able to improve heading technique amid restrictions on training. Football Association guidelines advise against any heading training in under-12s, while a trial is ongoing in the current season and next season to eliminate deliberate heading completely from matches up to and including that age group. At ages 12 and 13, heading should be limited to a single session of no more than five headers, and no more than 10 headers per session for children aged 14 to 17, according to FA guidance. Even in adult football at all levels, players are advised to perform only 10 ‘higher force headers’ per training week, such as headers from crosses, corners, free-kicks and returning of goal kicks. The exposure to heading has been limited because of concerns over the sub-concussive impact of repetitive heading on a player’s longer-term wellbeing. The 2019 FIELD Study found professional footballers were three and a half times more likely to die of neurodegenerative disease than age-matched members of the general population. “With increasing restrictions of heading exposure to professional and youth soccer, it is evident that alternative methods for training heading confidence and technique will be required while it remains an integral part of the game,” the VR paper concluded. “The work presented here provides some initial evidence suggesting that immersive VR may have a place in any new approach to training this important skill.” A group of 36 adult recreational-level players, made up of 30 men and six women, participated in the study in total. The 36 were split into two groups of 18, with 16 men and two women in the control group who did not use the VR headsets between ‘real world’ heading sessions, and 14 men and four women in the VR group. The VR group used the Oculus Quest 2 head-mounted display, with the Rezzil Player 22 application used to provide the VR football heading training. Dr Ben Marshall, Lecturer in Sport and Exercise Psychology at the Manchester Metropolitan University Institute of Sport, said: “Our findings show that virtual reality (VR) based training can be used to improve real-world heading performance and that this method is more effective than not training the skill at all. “This is important as current training guidelines recommend limiting the number of physical headers performed in training for all age groups due to the associated long-term risks to player health. “Our findings suggest the inclusion of VR-based training could play an important role in developing football heading skills whilst reducing the number of real-world headers and sub-concussive head impacts that players need to be exposed to – which is really positive.”

You could be forgiven for thinking humans are helpless against extreme heat. All over the world, record high

A runway model has hit back at the “weirdos” responding to her after a clip of her catwalk goes viral. Marissa DuBois, an American model who goes by the name Riss, has been making waves after a clip of her walking the runway in Fashion Week went viral on Twitter. The video was posted on Twitter by the pop culture account Daily Loud and has been viewed almost 60 million times in just two days. As she walked the runway, DuBois was wearing a green bikini paired with a matching sheer cover-up. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Her curvy figure caught people’s attention and many left comments on who she reminds them of. One person wrote that she was a “blend of Beyonce and Shakira”, to which DuBois responded, “The honor”. Others discussed her body in horrible ways, suggesting that she is overweight is setting a bad example. Some speculated as to whether the model has had plastic surgery to achieve her look, but DuBois quickly shut them down. She tweeted: “For the weirdos that somehow think my body's fake... this was my senior sign in HS (high school).” Alongside the tweet was a picture of her from high school. It showed DuBois holding a big sign with her nickname and a drawing of her large bottom, referencing the name “Big Booty Judy”. “She got receipts,” one Twitter user responded. Another said: “You don’t owe anyone any explanation. You are beautiful.” Someone else commented: “Who ever saying her body fake is straight haters fr.” As well as being a model, DuBois has gained a large social media following documenting her life across multiple platforms. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

Following the resounding success of its Legion line of gaming laptops, Lenovo recently introduced an