The Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of Amiens (French: Basilique Cathédrale Notre-Dame d'Amiens), or simply Amiens Cathedral, is a Roman Catholic church. The cathedral is the seat of the Bishop of Amiens. It is situated on a slight ridge overlooking the River Somme in Amiens, the administrative capital of the Picardy region of France, some 120 kilometres (75 miles) north of Paris. The cathedral was built almost entirely between 1220 and c. 1270, a remarkably short period of time for a Gothic cathedral, giving it an unusual unity of style. Amiens is a classic example of the High Gothic style of Gothic architecture. It also has some features of the later Rayonnant style in the enlarged high windows of the choir, added in the mid-1250s.Its builders were trying to maximize the internal dimensions in order to reach for the heavens and bring in more light. As a result, Amiens Cathedral is the largest in France, 200,000 cubic metres (260,000 cu yd), large enough to contain two cathedrals the size of Notre Dame of Paris.The cathedral has been listed as a UNESCO World...

A central massive object (CMO) is a high mass object or cluster of objects at the centre of a large star system, such as a galaxy or globular cluster. In the case of the former, the CMO may be a supermassive black hole, a nuclear star cluster, or even both together.The most massive galaxies are thought to always contain a supermassive black hole (SBH); these galaxies do not contain nuclear star clusters, and the CMO is identified with the SBH. Fainter galaxies usually contain a nuclear star cluster (NSC). In most of these galaxies, it is not known whether a supermassive black hole is present, and the CMO is identified with the NSC. A few galaxies, for instance the Milky Way and NGC 4395, are known to contain both a SBH and a NSC.Although this is suggestive that all galaxies have CMOs, and that a common mechanism of galaxy formation causes both, ESA MIRI scientist Torsten Böker observes that some galaxies appear to have neither SBHs nor NSCs.The mass associated with CMOs is roughly 0.1–0.3% times the total mass of the galactic bulge. See also Core collapse (cluster) Galactic Center...

Blending inheritance is an obsolete theory in biology from the 19th century. The theory is that the progeny inherits any characteristic as the average of the parents' values of that characteristic. As an example of this, a crossing of a red flower variety with a white variety of the same species would yield pink-flowered offspring. Charles Darwin's theory of inheritance by pangenesis, with contributions to egg or sperm from every part of the body, implied blending inheritance. His reliance on this mechanism led Fleeming Jenkin to attack Darwin's theory of natural selection on the grounds that blending inheritance would average out any novel beneficial characteristic before selection had time to act. Blending inheritance was discarded with the general acceptance of particulate inheritance during the development of modern genetics, after c. 1900. History Darwin's pangenesis Charles...

The Apple Vision Pro is an upcoming mixed reality headset made by Apple Inc. It was announced on June 5, 2023, at the 2023 Worldwide Developers Conference and will be available for purchase in early 2024. The headset is the first model in the company's Apple Vision product line, the company's first new consumer product line since the Apple Watch in 2015. Apple has described the product as a "spatial computer," where digital media is integrated with the real world and physical inputs, such as gestures, can be used to interact with the system. The Vision Pro can be used with a power adapter or a separate battery pack. History Development In May 2015, Apple acquired the German augmented reality (AR) company Metaio. The company intended to use Metaio's technology in its electric car project, codenamed "Project Titan". That year, Apple hired Mike Rockwell from Dolby Laboratories. Rockwell formed a team that included Metaio co-founder Peter Meier and Apple Watch manager Fletcher Rothkopf. The team, called the Technology Development Group, developed an AR demo...