Small drones powered by solar energy could fly indefinitely

Posted on July 18, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

CoulombFly, a prototype of a small solar-powered drone

Wei Shen, Jingze Peng, and Mingjin Qi

Weighing just 4 grams, the drone is the smallest solar-powered aircraft ever to fly, thanks to special electrostatic motors that generate extremely high voltages and tiny solar panels. Though the hummingbird-sized prototype only lasted an hour, developers say the approach could lead to insect-sized drones that can remain airborne indefinitely.

Small drones are an attractive solution to a variety of problems in communications, espionage and search and rescue, but they suffer from short battery life, while solar-powered drones struggle to generate enough power to be self-sustaining.

When solar-powered drones are made smaller, the solar panels become smaller and the amount of available energy decreases. Minjin Chee Researchers from China's Beihang University say the efficiency of electric motors also declines as more energy is lost as heat.

To avoid this decay cycle, Qi and his colleagues developed a simple circuit that boosts the voltage generated by solar panels to between 6,000 and 9,000 volts. They powered the 10-centimeter rotors using an electrostatic propulsion system, rather than using electromagnetic motors like those used in electric cars, quadcopters, and a variety of robots.

The motor works by alternately attracting and repelling charged parts arranged in a ring, generating torque to spin a single rotor blade like a helicopter. The lightweight parts are made from ultra-thin carbon fiber covered with very delicate aluminum foil. The high voltage requirement is actually an advantage, as the current is reduced, resulting in very little heat loss.

“T“The motor generates very little heat because the operating current is very low for the same power output. The motor's high efficiency and low power consumption allow the vehicle to be powered by very small solar panels,” Qi said. “For the first time, we have successfully flown a micro air vehicle using natural light; previously, this was only achievable with very large ultralight aircraft.”

The machine, which the researchers call the “CoulombFly,” weighs just 4.21 grams and could fly for an hour before it failed. Qi says these weaknesses can be eliminated by design, and future versions could fly essentially indefinitely, using solar panels during the day and powering themselves from radio signals like 4G or Wi-Fi at night.

CoulombFly has a payload capacity of 1.59 grams, allowing it to carry small sensors, computers, and cameras, but with improved designs, the researchers believe this can be increased to 4 grams, and the fixed-wing version could carry up to 30 grams. An even smaller version of CoulombFly, with rotors less than 1 centimeter in diameter, is also in development.

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Source: www.newscientist.com

Heparin, a blood-clotting drug, may help prevent snakebite victims from limb amputations

Posted on July 18, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

The black-necked spitting cobra lives mainly in sub-Saharan Africa.

Luca Boldrini (CC BY-SA)

A commonly used blood-thinning drug could prevent hundreds of thousands of people bitten by cobras from having to have limbs amputated.

138,000 people die from snakebites each yearIt occurs mainly in sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and Southeast Asia, and a further 400,000 people suffer complications including the death of body tissue and subsequent amputations.

Focusing on complications from cobra bites, Thien Du Researchers at the University of Sydney in Australia and their team found that the venom targets a molecule called heparan sulfate that coats the surface of cells at the site of the bite, and a natural substance called heparin produced by certain immune cells.

The researchers then exposed human skin and blood cells to the venom of two African cobra species: the red cobra (Naja Parida And the Black-necked Spitting Cobra (Naja NigricolisAdding heparin, a commonly administered blood-thinning drug, prevented the toxin from killing the cells.

Similar experiments in mice also reduced the risk of tissue death, in which heparin “was able to almost completely block localized damage at the bite site,” the researchers said. Greg Neely The same is true at the University of Sydney.

Scientists believe that while the treatment may be effective against bites from many different types of cobras, it probably won't work on other species, unless their venom uses a similar chemical pathway to destroy cells.

Unlike existing antitoxins, heparin is stable at room temperature, which could make it easier to access when quick treatment is needed, which could be done via an auto-injector such as an EpiPen, Du said.

Another advantage of heparin is that existing antitoxins cannot prevent necrosis, Du said. Jeff Isbister Researchers from the University of Newcastle in Australia say that's probably because medicine isn't always available immediately after a snakebite.

“The paper didn't compare it to antitoxin, because it's likely that antitoxin would be just as effective,” he says. The mice were given heparin immediately, which may have helped, Isbister says. “But would it have an effect an hour, four hours or more later? [the] Does it take 24 hours to get from a remote part of Tanzania to a person who has been bitten by a cobra?

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Source: www.newscientist.com

Using light to control robotic jellyfish made from magnetic fluid

Posted on July 18, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

A jellyfish-shaped robot made from magnetic fluid can be controlled with light through an underwater obstacle course, and swarms of these soft robots could be useful for delivering chemicals throughout liquid mixtures or moving fluids through a lab-on-a-chip.

Ferrofluid droplets are made of magnetic nanoparticles suspended in oil, and can move across a flat surface and change shape when guided in different directions by a magnet. When these droplets are immersed in water and exposed to light, Sun Meng Meng, a researcher from the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Germany, and his colleagues have succeeded in creating an object that defies gravity.

When ferrofluid absorbs light (and it’s particularly good at that, because it’s black), it heats up, causing tiny bubbles inside it to expand. This makes the droplets below the surface lighter and more buoyant, allowing them to float upwards, Sun says.

He and his colleagues built a soft robot with droplets of magnetic fluid encased in a jellyfish-shaped hydrogel shell, and then tested it. The researchers devised an obstacle course at the bottom of a tank of water that included a variety of platforms of different heights. They guided the robot through the course and had it navigate over the platforms.

In one experiment, they lined up three robotic jellyfish on the bottom of a tank and heated them with a laser, causing them to move upward one after the other. Sunlight focused by a magnifying glass had a similar effect, causing the jellyfish to float vertically.

Hamid Marvi, the Arizona State University researcher, says controlling an entire swarm of droplets simultaneously could one day be useful for delivering medicines or performing other functions in the human body. By encasing them in hydrogel, he says, light could be used to guide the ferrofluid droplets and move the hydrogel itself, enabling complex movements.

But Mulvey says many details need to be worked out before the ferrofluid can be used for medical purposes, such as whether it’s safe to ingest it. Sun and his colleagues hope to answer some of those open questions. For example, they hope to find a way to use optical fibers that can be inserted into the body to guide the robot, rather than lasers or sunlight.

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Source: www.newscientist.com

Anti-inflammatory medication increases mice’s lifespan by 20%

Posted on July 17, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Inflammatory molecules (green) are found in liver tissue from aged mice.

Anissa A. Wijaya et al. 2024

Blocking an inflammatory molecule known as interleukin-11 (IL-11) extends the lifespan of mice, suggesting that drugs that block IL-11 may have anti-ageing effects in humans.

As we age, damage accumulates in our cells, triggering our immune system to release inflammatory molecules such as IL-11. While low levels of inflammation can protect us from disease and injury, excessive inflammation damages cells and is thought to accelerate aging.

“It's like pouring gasoline on a fire.” Stuart Cook Research from Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore suggests that reducing inflammation could help slow the decline in health that comes with aging.

To test this idea, Cook and his colleagues injected 37 mice with a drug that uses antibodies to block IL-11. The mice received injections every three weeks from the age of 75 weeks (equivalent to about 55 years in humans) until they died. Another group of 38 mice received a different antibody therapy that did not target IL-11.

The researchers found that blocking IL-11 extended the lifespan of both male and female mice by more than 20 percent, and in further experiments, animals that received anti-IL-11 therapy were less likely to develop cancer: fewer than 16 percent of treated rodents had tumors, compared with more than 60 percent of controls.

The therapy also reduced cholesterol levels, frailty and body weight, and improved muscle strength and metabolism in the treated animals. Together, these findings suggest that blocking IL-11 may ameliorate age-related decline in health and extend lifespan in mice.

But until clinical trials are conducted, Cook says it won't be clear whether the same is true in humans. Although several trials are underway testing anti-IL-11 therapies in people with certain inflammatory diseases, such as pulmonary fibrosis, none are investigating their potential anti-aging effects, he said.

It's also important to remember that some inflammation is normal as we age. Shilpa Ravella Speaking at Columbia University in New York, she says the difficulty lies in knowing who might benefit from this type of anti-inflammatory therapy.

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Source: www.newscientist.com

Hydrogel Extends Drug Shelf Life Beyond Refrigeration

Posted on July 17, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

When mixed with hydrogel, protein-based drugs can remain effective for longer at higher temperatures.

Shutterstock/Renko Alex

Many medicines need to be kept refrigerated or they become ineffective, but a new way of packaging protein-based drugs into a stiff gel could potentially extend their shelf life at room temperature.

If medicines are not stored properly, they can break down and become unsafe to use. For example, exposure to high temperatures can break down the chemical bonds that keep the medicine’s molecules in place, impairing their function. Shaking some medicines can cause the molecules to clump together, making them less effective. Matthew Gibson Researchers at the University of Manchester in the UK have been working to solve these challenges for almost 15 years.

He and his colleagues have developed a method to make working with protein-based drugs simpler and more practical. He said the new advances are Dave Adams Hydrogel-making researchers at the University of Glasgow in Scotland have found a way to mix proteins with gel ingredients to create hard, white structures that can be packed into a syringe. In this form, the proteins, which normally must be refrigerated at minus 20 degrees Celsius (minus 4 degrees Fahrenheit), can withstand temperatures of up to 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit) and remain functional under those conditions for up to four weeks.

Hydrogels get their stiffness from small molecules bound together in large chains that break when force is applied. In a syringe, pushing down on the plunger breaks the molecular bonds, turning the gel-protein mixture into a liquid. The hydrogel remains too large to fit through the needle, so only the drug comes out.

The team tested the method with several compounds, including bovine insulin and beta-galactosidase, an enzyme commonly used in genetic biology, and mailed themselves boxes filled with tubs of hydrogel packed with the proteins, finding that the proteins could withstand the temperature and jolts that come with going through the postal system.

There are laboratory methods that can keep proteins stable for longer, but this approach may be better suited to leaving the lab and going into the clinic, he said. Alex Brogan The King’s College London researcher says the method would be most useful in countries and regions where refrigeration is scarce and prohibitively expensive. If the new method works for protein-based vaccines, it could make disease prevention more equitable, he says.

Gibson says he and his team are confident they can produce the hydrogel on an industrial scale, but want to study its longevity and safety further. Using it in a vaccine is on their wish list, but in the short term the method could also be used to store, transport and administer the diabetes and obesity drug semaglutide.

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Source: www.newscientist.com

The Importance of Thermal Storage in the Expansion of Renewable Energy

Posted on July 17, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Artur Widak/NurPhoto/Shutterstock

It's now well established that to mitigate the worst effects of climate change, we need to get to net zero carbon emissions as quickly as possible, which means getting more of our energy from renewable sources and finding ways to store energy for long periods of time to overcome the intermittency of wind and solar.

Giant battery farms and green hydrogen (using surplus renewable energy to split water) are often touted as the most promising storage solutions, and clever new ways to store excess electricity are emerging all the time (see “Giant CO2-filled domes could store surplus renewable power”), but the potential to store renewable energy as heat is often overlooked.

When we think of renewable energy, we tend to think of electricity. But heat is also a valuable commodity in its own right. About half of the world's total energy demand is for heat, whether it's to heat our homes or to power industrial production of food, medicines and materials. What's more, stored heat can be used to generate electricity when the sun stops shining and the wind dies down.

The good news is that, as we outlined in our feature “How Incredibly Simple Technologies Can Accelerate the Race to Net Zero”, a range of thermal storage technologies are emerging. Collectively known as thermal energy storage (TES), many of these innovations are incredibly simple, from baked bricks to molten salt. Crucially, they're affordable: early estimates suggest that these technologies could be as little as one-fifth the cost per kilowatt-hour of energy storage using green hydrogen. In a recent report, the International Renewable Energy Agency said TES offers “unique advantages”.

The problem is that awareness of TES is relatively low, and investment even less. Private backers are starting to pour big dollars into pilot projects in the US and Europe. But for TES to live up to its promise as a relatively easy way to make a big impact on the problem of renewable intermittency, governments will need to step up. And if the price is as reasonable as it appears, there's no reason not to.

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Source: www.newscientist.com

Scientists find a young exoplanet with a hot Jupiter in a highly eccentric retrograde orbit

Posted on July 17, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Astronomers have discovered an exoplanet that’s five times the mass of Jupiter and follows a very unusual orbit around its star.

Artist’s impression of TIC 241249530b. Image courtesy of NOIRLab / NSF / AURA / J. da Silva, Spaceengine.

TIC 241249530b was first detected in January 2020 by NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS).

To confirm that the object is a planet, astronomers used two instruments on NSF Kitt Peak National Observatory’s WIYN 3.5-meter telescope, a program of NOIRLab.

They first harnessed the NN-EXPLORE Exoplanet and Stellar Speckle Imager (NESSI) with a technique that “freezes” atmospheric glitter, eliminating extraneous light sources that could confuse the signal source.

The team then used the NEID spectrometer to carefully observe how the host star’s spectrum, or the wavelengths of light it emits, changes as a result of the exoplanet orbiting TIC 241249530b, and measure the radial velocity of TIC 241249530b.

“NESSI provided much sharper images of the star than was possible with any other method, while NEID precisely measured the star’s spectrum and detected changes in response to the exoplanet orbiting it,” said Dr. Arvind Gupta, a postdoctoral researcher at NOIRLab.

“The unique flexibility of NEID’s observing schedule framework allows the team to quickly adjust their observing plans in response to new data.”

Analysis of the spectrum confirmed that TIC 241249530b has a mass about five times that of Jupiter.

The spectrum also revealed that the exoplanet orbits along a highly eccentric, or elongated, orbit.

The eccentricity of a planet’s orbit is measured on a scale from 0 to 1, with 0 representing a perfectly circular orbit and 1 representing an elliptical orbit.

The exoplanet’s orbital eccentricity is 0.94, higher than any exoplanet discovered so far by the transit method.

By comparison, Pluto orbits the Sun in an elliptical orbit with an eccentricity of 0.25. Earth’s eccentricity is 0.02.

If the planet were part of the solar system, its orbit would stretch from its closest point, ten times closer to the Sun than Mercury, to its farthest point, about the same distance as Earth.

This extreme orbit would cause the planet’s temperatures to vary from mild to hot enough to melt titanium.

In addition to the unusual nature of the exoplanet’s orbit, the team also discovered that it orbits in a retrograde direction, meaning it moves in the opposite direction to the rotation of its host star.

This is a phenomenon astronomers have not seen in most other exoplanets or in our own solar system, and it helps the research team interpret the history of exoplanet formation.

The exoplanet’s unique orbital properties also hint at its future trajectory.

Because its initial orbit is highly eccentric and it is so close to the star, the planet’s orbit is expected to become “circular” because the planet’s tidal forces will sap energy from the orbit, causing it to gradually shrink and become circular.

Discovering this exoplanet before this migration occurs is valuable because it will give us important insight into how hot Jupiters form, stabilize, and evolve over time.

“While we can’t hit the rewind button and watch the planetary migration process in real time, this exoplanet serves as a kind of snapshot of the migration process,” Dr Gupta said.

“Planets like this are extremely rare and hard to find, so we hope they will help shed light on how hot Jupiters form.”

“We’re particularly interested in what we can learn about the dynamics of the planet’s atmosphere after it gets so close to its star,” said Professor Jason Wright of Pennsylvania State University.

“With telescopes like the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope having the sensitivity to study atmospheric changes on newly discovered exoplanets undergoing rapid heating, there is still much more for research teams to learn about exoplanets.”

TIC 241249530b is the second exoplanet discovered so far that represents the pre-transitional stage of a hot Jupiter.

Together, these two examples provide observational support for the idea that high-mass gas giants evolve into hot Jupiters as they move from highly eccentric orbits to tighter, more circular orbits.

“Astronomers have been searching for exoplanets for over 20 years that could be precursors to hot Jupiters or intermediate products in the migration process, so I was very surprised and excited to find one – it’s exactly what I was hoping to find,” Dr Gupta said.

Team paper Published in today’s journal Nature.

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Arvind Gupta others2024. Hot Jupiter ancestor on a highly eccentric retrograde orbit. Naturein press; doi: 10.1038/s41586-024-07688-3

This article is a version of a press release provided by NOIRLab.

Source: www.sci.news

Astronomers Analyze Gas Flow in Uncommonly Bright Infrared Galaxy

Posted on July 17, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Ultraluminous infrared galaxies are the rarest and most extreme star-forming systems and are found only in the distant universe.

Radiative distribution of stars, cold gas, and ionized gas in the unusual HyLIRG Einstein ring PJ0116-24. Image courtesy of Liu others., doi:10.1038/s41550-024-02296-7.

“Ultraluminous Infrared Galaxies (HyLIRGs) are incredibly luminous galaxies illuminated by extremely rapid star formation within their interiors,” said Dr Daizhong Liu from the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics and his colleagues.

“Previous studies had suggested that such extreme galaxies must have arisen through galactic mergers.”

“The collisions of these galaxies are thought to create regions of dense gas that trigger rapid star formation.”

“However, isolated galaxies could also become HyLIRGs through internal processes alone if star-forming gas flows rapidly toward the galaxy's center.”

In the new study, the astronomers focused on a gravitationally lensed HyLIRG galaxy known as PJ0116-24.

“PJ0116-24 is so distant that it took its light about 10 billion years to reach Earth,” the researchers said.

“By chance, the foreground galaxy acts as a gravitational lens, bending and magnifying the light from the background galaxy, PJ0116-24, and directing it towards the Einstein ring.”

“This precise configuration of space allows us to magnify very distant objects and see them with a level of detail that is very difficult to achieve any other way.

The researchers used ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT) and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) to study the motion of gas within PJ0116-24.

“ALMA tracks the cold gas which appears blue here, while the VLT with its new High Resolution Imaging Spectrograph (ERIS) tracks the warm gas which appears red,” the researchers say.

“Thanks to these detailed observations, we now know that the gas in this extreme galaxy rotates in an organized manner, rather than the chaotic state expected after a galaxy collision. A stunning result!”

“This convincingly shows that a merger is not necessarily required for a galaxy to become a HyLIRG.”

Team paper Published in the journal Natural Astronomy.

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D. Liu othersA detailed study of a rare, ultra-luminous rotating disk in a 10 billion year old Einstein ring. Nat AstronPublished online July 15, 2024; doi: 10.1038/s41550-024-02296-7

Source: www.sci.news

Cassini uncovers the properties of Titan’s hydrocarbon sea

Posted on July 17, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Saturn’s moon Titan was explored by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft between 2004 and 2017. Although Cassini revealed much about this Earth-like world, its radar observations provided limited information about Titan’s liquid hydrocarbon oceans: Kraken, Ligeia, and Punga Mare. New paper In the journal Nature CommunicationsCornell University researcher Valerio Poggiali and his colleagues reported the results of their analysis of data from the Cassini radar experiment on Titan’s polar oceans.

Artistic depiction of Kraken Mare, a giant ocean of liquid methane on Titan. Image courtesy of NASA John Glenn Research Center.

“The Cassini spacecraft explored Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, between 2004 and 2017, revealing an Earth-like world with a strange yet very familiar diversity of surface morphologies formed by a methane-based hydrological system operating in a dense nitrogen atmosphere,” said Dr Poggiali and his co-authors.

“Winds in the lower atmosphere move the sediments, forming the vast sand dunes that encircle Titan’s equator.”

“At mid-latitudes, flat, relatively featureless plains form the transition between the eolianite-dominated equator and the lacustrine-dominated poles.”

“In the polar regions, large oceans and small lakes of liquid hydrocarbons dominate the landscape.”

“The channels created by precipitation drain into the ocean, forming estuaries and sometimes deltas and other familiar coastal deposits.”

“Cassini has revealed much about Titan, but this discovery raises even more questions.”

For the study, scientists used data from four bistatic radar observations collected by Cassini during four flybys in 2014 (May 17, June 18, and October 24) and 2016 (November 14).

For each, surface reflections were observed when the probe was closest to Titan (approach) and when it was moving away (exit).

The authors analyzed data from outflow observations of Titan’s three large polar oceans: Kraken Mare, Ligeia Mare, and Punga Mare.

“In a bistatic radar experiment, a spacecraft directs a radio beam towards a target, in this case Titan, where the beam is reflected towards a receiving antenna on Earth,” the researchers explained.

“This surface reflection is polarized, which means it provides information gathered from two independent perspectives, as opposed to the perspective provided by monostatic radar data, where the reflected signal is sent back to the spacecraft.”

“The main difference is that the bistatic information is a more complete data set and is sensitive to both the composition of the reflective surface and its roughness.”

The team found that the composition of the ocean’s surface layers of hydrocarbons varies depending on latitude and location (for example, near rivers or estuaries).

Specifically, the southernmost parts of Kraken Mare exhibit the highest dielectric constant, a measure of a material’s ability to reflect radio signals.

For example, water on Earth is highly reflective and has a dielectric constant of about 80, while Titan’s ethane and methane oceans have a dielectric constant of about 1.7.

The researchers also determined that ocean conditions in all three areas were fairly calm during the flyby, with surface waves measuring less than 3.3 mm.

Slightly higher levels of roughness, up to 5.2 mm, were found in coastal areas, near estuaries and straits, which could be an indication of tidal currents.

“There are also indications that the rivers that feed the oceans are pure methane until they flow into the open ocean liquid, which is rich in ethane,” Dr Poggiali said.

“It’s the same as when freshwater rivers flow into the saltwater of the ocean on Earth and mix together.”

“This fits well with weather models of Titan, which predict that the ‘rain’ falling from Titan’s skies is almost pure methane, with traces of ethane and other hydrocarbons,” said Professor Philip Nicholson of Cornell University.

“Further studies of the data Cassini has collected during its 13-year exploration of Titan are already underway.”

“There’s still a mountain of data waiting to be fully analyzed in a way that will lead to further discoveries. This is just the first step.”

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V. Poggiali others2024. Surface characteristics of Titan’s ocean as revealed by the Cassini bistatic radar experiment. Nat Community 15, 5454; doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-49837-2

This article is a version of a press release provided by Cornell University.

Source: www.sci.news

Melting Ice Causing Earth’s Rotation to Slow and Axis to Shift, Research Finds

Posted on July 17, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

A recent study reveals that climate change is fundamentally reshaping the Earth, impacting its core. The melting of polar ice caps and glaciers due to global warming is causing a redistribution of water towards the equator, resulting in a shift in the Earth’s rotation and leading to increased daylight hours. This phenomenon is supported by new evidence suggesting that changes in the Earth’s ice could potentially affect its axis. These alterations create feedback loops within the Earth’s molten core, as highlighted in studies published in Nature Geoscience and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

According to Benedict Soja, an assistant professor at ETH Zurich in Switzerland, human activities are significantly influencing the Earth’s rotation. Changes in the planet’s shape and mass distribution, influenced historically by forces like the moon’s gravitational pull and rebounding of crust after ice age glaciers disappeared, are now being accelerated by rapid ice melting caused by climate change. Soja warns that continued carbon emissions could make ice loss a more significant factor in Earth’s rotation than the moon.

In addition to external factors like gravity and ice loss, fluid movements in the Earth’s core also play a role in affecting the planet’s rotation. These movements can speed up or slow down the Earth’s rotation and are currently compensating for the slowdown caused by climate change. The new study suggests that climate change is leading to small variations in polar motion due to changes in mass distribution, estimated to be about one meter per decade.

An iceberg in Antarctica on February 8th.
Şebnem Coşkun / Anadolu via Getty Images File

These changes in rotation are expected to have implications for space missions, navigation, and timekeeping. Understanding how Earth’s rotation and axis are affected by climate change will be crucial for accurate space exploration and maintaining global time standards. The research emphasizes the interconnectedness of surface processes with the Earth’s core, shedding light on the complex relationship between human activities and the planet’s inner workings.

Source: www.nbcnews.com

2024 Perseid Meteor Shower: A Guide to Witnessing the Spectacular Annual Event

Posted on July 17, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

2023 Perseid meteor shower observed in Chinese grasslands

Cynthia Lee/Alamy

The Perseid meteor shower is one of the best opportunities to see hundreds of shooting stars, and this year it will peak around August 12 and 13. The shower is expected to last from mid-July until the end of August, but the most meteors will be visible during the dawn hours near the peak.

What is the Perseid meteor shower?

Meteor showers occur when the Earth passes dust and debris drifting behind a comet. These tiny particles of debris slam into the atmosphere at incredible speeds, and friction with the atmospheric particles causes the dust to heat up and burn up, leaving only a flash of light in the air. This moving flash is called a shooting star or meteor.

The Perseid meteor shower is caused by the comet Swift-Tuttle, which orbits the Sun every 133 years. Once a year, Earth passes through its debris trail, lighting up the sky with meteors.

When should you view the Perseid meteors?

The best days to view the Perseid meteor shower are within a few days of its peak – outside of that period you may see some, but they won’t be as impressive.

Meteors can be seen at any time of the night, but a bright moon can make them harder to spot. This year, a half moon will be visible at the peak, so the best time to look for meteors is midnight after the moon has set. This is true for observers around the world, but the best views of the Perseid meteor shower will be in the Northern Hemisphere due to the orientation of the Earth relative to the comet’s debris trail.

How many meteors can we see this year?

Typically, the Perseids emit between 50 and 100 meteors per hour during the peak of the meteor shower. They can also produce fireballs, which are bright meteors that are created when a large chunk of a comet impacts Earth’s atmosphere. The number of meteors visible from a particular location depends on the level of light pollution, so getting away from city lights is essential if you want to see as many meteors as possible.

How do you observe the Perseid meteor shower?

The best way to observe the meteor shower is to be in as dark a place as possible with as much sky as possible visible. The Perseid meteors appear to streak towards the constellation Perseus, but they will appear all over the sky. It may take up to 30 minutes for your eyes to adjust to the darkness. Don’t be discouraged if you can’t see anything at first. To allow your eyes to adjust, look at the sky as much as possible without looking at street lights, cell phones or even the moon. When you see a tiny point of light streaking across the sky for a few seconds or less, that’s the Perseid meteor shower.

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Source: www.newscientist.com

Biologists find ancient giant virus inserted into genome of a single-celled parasite

Posted on July 17, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Amoebidium appalachenseViruses in protists closely related to animals weave remnants of ancient giant viruses into their genetic code, according to a new study led by Queen Mary, University of London. The discovery sheds light on how complex organisms acquire parts of their genes and highlights the dynamic interplay between viruses and their hosts.

Amoebidium appalachense A unique model for understanding the hybrid origin of eukaryotic DNA. Image courtesy of Alex de Mendoza.

In this study, Dr. Alex de Mendoza Soler and his colleagues Amoebidium appalachense A unicellular parasite first isolated from the epidermis of a freshwater arthropod.

They found a surprising amount of genetic material from giant viruses, some of the largest known to science.

The sequences of these viruses are highly methylated, a chemical tag that often silences genes.

“It's like a hidden Trojan horse. Amoebidium appalachense It’s the DNA of,” says Dr. de Mendoza Soler.

“These viral insertions are potentially harmful, but Amoebidium appalachense It seems like we are suppressing them by chemically silencing them.”

The researchers then investigated how widespread this phenomenon may be.

They are some Amoebidium appalachense Examination of the isolates revealed wide variation in viral content.

This suggests that the processes of viral integration and silencing are continuous and dynamic.

“These findings call into question our understanding of viruses and the relationship between them and their hosts,” said Dr de Mendoza Soler.

“Traditionally, viruses are thought of as invaders, but this study suggests a more complex story.”

“Viral insertions may have played a role in the evolution of complex organisms by contributing new genes.”

“And this can be done by chemically controlling the invader's DNA.”

moreover, Amoebidium appalachense It shows intriguing parallels to how our own genomes interact with viruses.

It's similar to Amoebidium appalachense Humans and other mammals carry remnants of ancient viruses called endogenous retroviruses built into their DNA.

These remnants were previously thought to be inactive junk DNA, but now it appears some may be beneficial.

but, Amoebidium appalachense Endogenous retroviruses are much smaller, while the human genome is significantly larger.

Future studies can explore these similarities and differences to understand the intricate interactions between viruses and complex life forms.

Team Investigation result Published in today's journal Scientific advances.

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Luke A. Saleh others 2024. DNA methylation enables recurrent internalization of giant viruses in animal relatives. Scientific advances 10(28); Source: 10.1126/sciadv.ado6406

This article has been edited from an original release from Queen Mary, University of London.

Source: www.sci.news

Titan, Saturn’s moon, boasts both freshwater rivers and saltwater oceans

Posted on July 16, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Titan’s north polar region, imaged using Cassini’s radar signature, shows blue hydrocarbon oceans.

NASA / JPL-Caltech / Italian Space Agency / USGS

The most detailed look yet at Saturn’s moon Titan’s strange lakes has revealed a diverse marine landscape similar to Earth’s, with a mix of freshwater rivers and saltwater oceans.

Unlike Earth’s watery oceans, Titan’s lakes are composed of methane and ethane, which are liquid at the planet’s average surface temperature, about −179 °C (−290 °F).

Radar measurements from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, which orbited Saturn from 2004 to 2017, suggested differences in the lakes’ properties, including their composition and surface waves, but the signals didn’t contain enough information to distinguish between them.

now, Valerio Poggiali Poggiali and his colleagues at Cornell University in New York used a different radar technique to map the composition and surface of Titan’s oceans, revealing that the amount of ethane increases as you move south across the planet from the north pole. “The further north you go, the cleaner and purer the oceans become. They’re dominated by methane,” Poggiali says.

Previous radar measurements were made using signals sent and received at the same location on the Cassini spacecraft, which meant the reflected radio waves were polarized in one direction, or twisted.

The new study analyzed signals from Cassini’s radar that were reflected off the lake’s surface and picked up by NASA’s Deep Space Network, a radio antenna on Earth. The shallow angle of the reflected signal meant it contained two different polarized waves, giving Poggiali and his colleagues more information about the lake’s properties.

They found that many of the rivers and estuaries that feed the lake have rough surfaces caused by wind-driven waves, which could be a sign of active tides and currents feeding into the lake, Poggiali said. “Surface activity is very important if we want to plan future missions like a Titan submarine, but also to better understand Titan’s environment in terms of wind and atmospheric properties.”

Poggiali and his colleagues also found that the methane content was higher before the river flowed into the lake, which could help trace the methane and ethane cycle on Titan, Poggiali says. Ingo Muller-Wodarg “On Earth, when rivers flow into large, salty oceans, we find that the water becomes less saline near where the river flows in,” say researchers from Imperial College London. “Something similar is happening here, but it’s not the salinity that’s the problem, it’s the relative proportions of methane and ethane.”

topic:

Source: www.newscientist.com

Physicists at CERN study the characteristics of enigmatic particles

Posted on July 16, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Physicists have been intrigued by χc1(3872), also known as X(3872), since its discovery two decades ago. They have been exploring whether it is a conventional charmonium state composed of two quarks or an exotic particle made up of four quarks. The LHCb collaboration at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC) set out to find the answer.

Artist's impression of a tetraquark, made up of two charm quarks and an up and down antiquark. Image courtesy of CERN.

In the quark model of particle physics, there are heavy particles (composed of three quarks), mesons (consisting of quark-antiquark pairs), and exotic particles (comprising an unusual number of quarks).

To determine the composition of χc1(3872), physicists must measure properties like mass and quantum numbers.

According to theory, χc1(3872) could be a standard charmonium state made of a charm quark and an anticharm quark, or it could be an exotic particle consisting of four quarks.

These exotic particles could be tightly bound tetraquarks, molecular states, cc-gluon hybrid states, vector glueballs, or a combination of various possibilities.

Recent measurements by LHCb physicists revealed that its quantum number is 1++, and in 2020 they obtained precise data on the particle’s width (lifetime) and mass.

They also examined low-energy scattering parameters.

Their findings indicated that the mass of χc1(3872) is slightly less than the combined masses of the D0 and D*0 mesons.

These results have sparked debate within the theoretical community, with some proposing that χc1(3872) is a molecular state made up of spatially separated D0 and D*0 mesons.

However, this hypothesis faces challenges, as physicists anticipate molecular matter to be suppressed in hadron-hadron collisions, yet significant amounts of χc1(3872) are produced.

Other theorists suggest that the particle contains “compact” components, indicating a smaller size and potentially consisting of tightly bound charmonium or tetraquarks.

One method to uncover the composition of χc1(3872) is to calculate the branching ratio, which involves the probabilities of decay into different lighter particles.

By comparing the decay into a photon of the excited charmonium state, physicists can gain insights into the nature of the particle.

A key theoretical indicator is a non-zero ratio, suggesting the presence of compact components and countering a purely molecular model.

Using data from LHC Run 1 and Run 2, LHCb scientists found significant ratios beyond six standard deviations, ruling out a pure D0D*0 molecular hypothesis for χc1(3872).

Instead, the results support various predictions based on alternative hypotheses for the structure of χc1(3872, such as a mix of conventional (compact) charmonium, tetraquarks, light quarks, or molecules with a substantial compact core element.

Thus, the findings provide compelling evidence in favor of a χc1(3872) structure including a compact component.

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R. Aiji others (LHCb Collaboration). 2024. Probing the properties of the χc1(3872) state using radiative decay. arXiv: 2406.17006

This article is based on the original release from CERN.

Source: www.sci.news

Webb verifies persistent temperature contrast on WASP-39b between morning and evening

Posted on July 16, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Astronomers used the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope to obtain and analyze morning and evening transmission spectra of the hot Saturn exoplanet WASP-39b, which orbits a star about 700 light-years away in the constellation Virgo. The spectrum is best explained by a model in which the evening boundary is 177 K hotter than the morning boundary.

This diagram shows what WASP-39b might look like, based on our current understanding of planets. Image credit: NASA/ESA/CSA/Webb/J. Olmsted, STScI.

WASP-39b is a hot gas giant that orbits the G7 type star WASP-39 every 4.1 days.

First discovered in 2011, this alien world has roughly the same mass as Saturn, but is 50% larger.

The planet's extreme expansion is due in part to its high temperature (about 900 degrees Celsius or 1,652 degrees Fahrenheit).

“WASP-39b has become a kind of benchmark planet for the Webb mission's exoplanet atmospheric studies,” said Dr. Nestor Espinoza, an astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute.

“The planet has a bulging, puffy atmosphere, so the signal coming from the starlight passing through the planet's atmosphere is quite strong.”

Webb spectra of WASP-39b's atmosphere released so far have revealed the presence of carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, water vapor, and sodium, and show the entire day/night boundary, without any detailed attempt to distinguish one from the other.

Now, the new analysis constructs two different spectra from the terminator region, essentially splitting the day/night boundary into two semicircles: one from the evening and one from the morning.

According to Webb's data, evenings will be much hotter, reaching a scorching 800 degrees Celsius (1,450 degrees Fahrenheit), before easing into a cooler 600 degrees Celsius (1,150 degrees Fahrenheit) in the morning.

“It's really amazing that we were able to resolve this small difference, and this is thanks to Webb's sensitivity to near-infrared wavelengths and its extremely stable photometric sensor,” said Dr. Espinoza.

“Any movement of the instrument or the observatory while collecting data would severely limit our ability to make this detection. This has to be exceptionally precise, and Webb is just that precise.”

“We don't have a planet like this in our solar system, but most of the planets we observe orbiting distant stars have shorter orbits and are closer to us, like WASP-39b,” said Dr James Kirk, astronomer at Imperial College London.

“Now we can test theories about these planets and, for the first time, directly measure the morning and evening sides of an exoplanet across a wide range of wavelengths.”

This transmission spectrum, taken with Webb's NIRSpec (Near-Infrared Spectrometer) PRISM in Bright Object Time Series mode, shows the amount of different wavelengths (colors) of near-infrared stellar light blocked by WASP-39b's atmosphere. The spectrum shows clear evidence of water and carbon dioxide on the exoplanet, as well as morning and evening temperature variations. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / Webb / R. Crawford, STScI.

Extensive modeling of the resulting data will also allow researchers to investigate the structure of WASP-39b's atmosphere, its cloud cover, and why it's hotter in the evenings.

While the team plans to next investigate how cloud cover affects temperature, and vice versa, the astronomers confirmed that the main cause of WASP-39b's temperature difference is the circulation of gas around the planet.

For highly irradiated exoplanets that orbit relatively close to their stars, like WASP-39b, researchers typically expect gas to shift as the planet rotates around the star: a strong equatorial jet stream should move hotter gas on the dayside from the evening to the nightside.

Because the temperature difference is so large, the pressure difference is also large, resulting in faster wind speeds.

Using the General Circulation Model, a 3-D model similar to those used to predict weather patterns on Earth, the astronomers found that on WASP-39b, prevailing winds tend to move from the nightside across the morning boundary, around the dayside, across the evening boundary, and then back around the nightside.

As a result, the morning side of the boundary is cooler than the evening side.

In other words, the morning side is hit by winds of air cooled by the night side, and in the evening it is hit by winds of air heated by the day side.

The study suggests that wind speeds on WASP-39b could reach thousands of kilometers per hour.

“This analysis is particularly interesting because it provides previously unavailable 3D information about the planet,” Dr Espinoza said.

“The fact that it's hotter on the evening edge means that it's a bit bulging, which means that in theory there's a little swell at the boundary approaching the night side of the planet.”

of study Published in this week's journal Nature.

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N. Espinosa othersThe uneven boundary surface of exoplanet WASP-39b. NaturePublished online July 15, 2024; doi: 10.1038/s41586-024-07768-4

This article is based on press releases from NASA and Imperial College London.

Source: www.sci.news

The frequency of bowel movements reflects one’s health status

Posted on July 16, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

We all have to deal with the uncomfortable topic of bowel movements, and the frequency at which we have them can vary greatly from person to person. Recent research suggests that the frequency of our bowel movements may have implications for our long-term health, revealing that there is an ideal amount of poop for a healthy individual.

A study conducted by scientists from the US Systems Biology Institute categorized individuals based on the frequency of their bowel movements:

Constipation (one or two bowel movements per week)
Low to normal (3-6 bowel movements per week)
High normal (1–3 bowel movements per day)
Diarrhea

Research indicates that the “Goldilocks Zone” for bowel movement frequency is having one to two bowel movements per day, which falls within the high normal range. This frequency is associated with the thriving of fiber-fermenting gut bacteria, suggesting that individuals in this zone may have similar gut microbiomes.

To achieve this ideal frequency, individuals are encouraged to adopt a high-fiber diet, ensure proper hydration, and engage in regular exercise. These habits are common among individuals in the Goldilocks Zone for bowel frequency.

The study, published in Cell Report Medicine, examined 1,400 healthy adults and explored the relationship between bowel movement frequency, age, sex, genetics, and gut microbiota. Results revealed that age, sex, and body mass index (BMI) significantly influence bowel movement frequency, with younger individuals, females, and those with lower BMI having more frequent bowel movements.

Irregular bowel movements can lead to issues as stool stagnates in the intestines, causing gut microbes to ferment proteins, potentially releasing harmful toxins into the bloodstream. This can contribute to organ damage and increase the risk of chronic diseases. Individuals with constipation were found to have higher levels of harmful by-products of protein fermentation, while those with diarrhea exhibited patterns indicative of liver damage.

Further research is being conducted to understand the connection between bowel movement frequency and mental health conditions like depression and anxiety. Dr. Sean Gibbons, the corresponding author of the study, emphasizes the importance of maintaining optimal bowel frequency for overall health and wellness.

Understanding the impact of bowel movements on various bodily systems can help identify early signs of organ damage and inform strategies to improve health and prevent chronic diseases in both healthy and at-risk populations. To learn more about this fascinating topic, visit Dr. Sean Gibbons’ profile.

Source: www.sciencefocus.com

An Ambitious New Space Mission on a Collision Course with an Approaching Asteroid

Posted on July 16, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

To prevent a fate similar to the dinosaurs, The European Space Agency (ESA) has initiated work on a groundbreaking planetary defense mission known as the Rapid Apophis Mission for Space Security (RAMSES).

RAMSES is designed to rendezvous with 99942 Apophis, an asteroid the size of a cruise ship, and accompany it as it approaches Earth in April 2029.

Apophis, with a diameter of about 375 meters, will pass within 32,000 kilometers of Earth’s surface on April 13, 2029. This rare event will be visible to the naked eye in parts of Europe, Africa, and Asia, attracting global attention. An asteroid of this size only comes this close once every 5,000 to 10,000 years.

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Astronomers believe that Apophis is unlikely to collide with Earth in the next 100 years, but the 2029 flyby will provide scientists with a unique opportunity to observe a close encounter.

The ESA’s Ramses spacecraft is set to reach Apophis two months before the closest approach, allowing monitoring of any physical changes to the asteroid caused by Earth’s gravity.

Ramses is scheduled to launch in April 2028 and arrive at Apophis by February 2029. The mission aims to observe and study how Earth’s gravity affects Apophis, potential landslides, and any new material beneath the asteroid’s surface.

Patrick MichelGerry McClellan, CNRS Director of Research at the Observatory of the Côte d’Azur, emphasized the significance of the mission, stating: “There is much we still don’t know about asteroids, but now, nature is bringing one to us to conduct the experiment itself. All we need to do is watch as Apophis is stretched and compressed by powerful tidal forces.”

Ramses will utilize a variety of scientific instruments to comprehensively study Apophis, analyzing its shape, surface, orbit, rotation, and more.

The collected data will be closely examined by scientists to understand the asteroid’s composition, structure, and how to deflect potentially hazardous asteroids in the future.

Experts predict that Earth’s tidal forces could alter the asteroid’s rotation, potentially causing earthquakes and landslides. They hope that Ramses’ flyby will offer detailed observations of how Apophis is affected by the close encounter.

Additionally, NASA is redirecting its OSIRIS-REx spacecraft (now renamed OSIRIS-APEX) towards Apophis, set to arrive about a month after the 2029 flyby.

OSIRIS-REx was the first US mission to collect samples from an asteroid, returning material from Bennu to Earth in September 2023. After successfully delivering the sample, the spacecraft was renamed OSIRIS-APEX for its new mission to explore Apophis.

“Ramses will demonstrate humanity’s capability to deploy a reconnaissance mission to rendezvous with an approaching asteroid in just a few years,” said Richard Moisle, head of ESA’s Planetary Defence Division.

A decision on the full implementation of Ramses will be made at ESA’s Ministerial Council meeting in November 2025. If approved, Ramses will not only enhance knowledge of asteroid deflection but also provide valuable scientific insights into the solar system’s formation and evolution.

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Source: www.sciencefocus.com

A dinosaur from the Pseudopterygota group that inhabited the Panthalassa Ocean’s coast

Posted on July 16, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

US paleontologists have described a new genus and species of extinct crocodile relative based on a partially articulated skeleton found in the Middle Triassic Fossil Hill Formation of the Fabre Formation in Nevada, a pelagic region of the eastern Panthalasan Ocean rich in ammonites and giant ichthyosaurs.

Bengwigiwishingasucus Elemical Minis Pansarasan Sea coast. Image courtesy of Jorge Gonzalez.

Newly identified species Pseudobranchial reptiles It lived during the Middle Triassic period, between 247.2 million and 237 million years ago.

Named Bengwigiwishingasucus Elemical MinisThe animal probably reached a length of around 1.5-1.8 metres (5-6 feet).

It probably stayed fairly close to shore. Its limbs are well developed and well preserved, with no signs of aquatic life such as fins or changes in bone density.

“This intriguing new species provides evidence that pseudobranchs occupied coastal habitats worldwide during the Middle Triassic,” said Dr. Nate Smith, Gretchen Augustine Director and Curator of the Dinosaur Institute at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.

“The area containing the Fabre Formation, which captured fossil life from the Triassic Eastern Panthalassa Ocean, is known for the fossils of marine creatures such as ammonites, as well as marine reptiles such as giant ichthyosaurs. Cymbospondylus youngholm — Newly written Bengwigiwishingasucus Elemical Minis It was a bit of a shock.”

“Our first reaction was, ‘What is this?'” said Dr Nicole Klein, a paleontologist at the University of Bonn.

“We expected to find something like a marine reptile. We couldn’t understand how a land animal could be so far out in the ocean amongst ichthyosaurs and ammonites.”

“It wasn’t until I actually saw the almost perfectly prepared specimen that I was convinced it was indeed a land animal.”

Although pseudopterygian archosaurs have been unearthed from coastal fossil beds in the Tethys Ocean, this is the first to be found in the Panthalassa Ocean and along the coasts of the Western Hemisphere, revealing that close relatives of these crocodiles were present in coastal environments worldwide during the Middle Triassic.

Interestingly, these coastal species do not all belong to the same evolutionary group, suggesting that Pseudobranchia (and Archosaurs more broadly) were uniquely adapted to life along the coast.

“Essentially, it seems like a very different group of archosaurs came together in the Middle Triassic and decided to dip their toes in the water,” Dr Smith said.

“What’s interesting is that many of these ‘independent experiments’ don’t seem to have led to a wider spread of semi-aquatic groups.”

Archosaurs appeared in the Triassic Period and split into two groups, with two representative species surviving: birds, which were descendants of dinosaurs, and pseudo-crocodile archosaurs such as crocodiles (alligators, crocodiles, and gharials). Bengwigiwishingasucus Elemical Minis.

Today’s crocodiles are similar enough to mistake them for other reptiles, but ancient species of crocodiles differed greatly in size and lifestyle.

Evolutionary relationships Bengwigiwishingasucus Elemical Minis and its relatives suggest that pseudobranchs gained great diversity very rapidly after the end-Permian mass extinction, but the extent of this remains to be elucidated in the fossil record.

“The recent and growing number of discoveries of Middle Triassic pseudobranchs suggests that there was underappreciated morphological and ecological diversity and experimentation taking place early in the group’s history,” Dr Smith said.

“Much of the public interest in the Triassic has been focused on the origin of the dinosaurs, but it was the pseudobranchs at the beginning of the Mesozoic that were actually doing interesting things.”

Discovery Bengwigiwishingasucus Elemical Minis It has been reported paper In the journal Biology Letters.

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Nathan D. Smith others2024. A new pseudobranch discovered in Nevada’s Fabre Formation indicates that archosaurs inhabited coastal regions around the world during the Middle Triassic. violet 20(7); Source: http://www.doi.gov/doi/2020240136 Source: 10.1098/rsbl.2024.0136

This article is based on a press release from the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.

Source: www.sci.news

New Images of Arp 142 Captured by Webb Show Stunning Detail

Posted on July 16, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have captured new infrared images of two interacting galaxies. Alp 142.

This Webb image shows two interacting galaxies known as Arp 142. On the left is NGC 2937, nicknamed “The Egg” because of its appearance, and on the right is NGC 2936, nicknamed “The Penguin” because of its appearance. Image courtesy of NASA/ESA/CSA/Webb/STScI.

The interacting pair, Arp 142, is located about 326 million light-years away in the southern constellation Hydra.

This system is ARP Catalog of Peculiar Galaxies It was observed by astronomer Halton C. Earp in the 1960s.

It contains the star-forming spiral galaxy NGC 2936 and its elliptical companion galaxy NGC 2937 at the lower left, which bears a striking resemblance to a penguin guarding its eggs.

The “penguin” part of the pair, NGC 2936, was probably once a relatively ordinary-looking spiral galaxy – flat like a pancake, with smoothly symmetrical spiral arms.

Because of the abundance of newly formed, hot stars, its shape is twisted and distorted by the gravitational forces of nearby stars.

The twin “egg,” NGC 2937, is a collection of much older stars and, in contrast, is largely featureless.

The absence of glowing red dust features indicates that it long ago lost its reservoir of gas and dust from which new stars could form.

“The two asteroids first came close to each other between 25 million and 75 million years ago, triggering 'fireworks' – the formation of new stars – in the constellation of Penguin,” astronomer Webb said in a statement.

“In the most extreme cases, galaxy mergers could result in the formation of thousands of new stars every year for millions of years.”

“In the case of penguins, studies have found that they form around 100-200 stars per year. By comparison, in our own Milky Way galaxy (which is not interacting with a galaxy of a similar size), around six to seven new stars form per year.”

“This gravitational rocking also changed the penguins' appearance,” they noted.

“The spiral arms uncoiled, pulling gas and dust in different directions like confetti.”

“When galaxies interact, it's rare for individual stars to collide (the universe is huge), but the intermingling of galaxies disrupts the orbits of stars.”

“Currently, the centre of the Penguin's galaxy looks like an eye inside its head, and the galaxy has a prominent star trail in the shape of a beak, spine and fanned-out tail. A faint but noticeable dust ribbon stretches from the beak to the tail.”

“Although the Penguin Galaxy appears much larger than the Egg Galaxy, the two galaxies have roughly the same mass,” the astronomers said.

“This is one of the reasons why the tiny looking egg hasn't merged with the penguin yet.”

“Because the elliptical egg is filled with old stars and contains very little gas or dust, it doesn't emit its own 'streams' or tidal tails, and instead maintains its compact elliptical shape.”

“If you look closely, the Egg has four noticeable diffraction spikes – it's glowing because of a high concentration of stars from the galaxy.”

“Now, find the bright, edge-on galaxy in the upper right. It may look like it's crashing the party, but it’s not close by.”

Cataloging No. 1237172It lies nearly 100 million light-years from Earth. It is relatively young and not covered by dust, making it virtually invisible in Webb's mid-infrared images.”

Source: www.sci.news

Southern Europe saw the arrival of early humans approximately 1.3 million years ago.

Posted on July 16, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

a New Researchpublished in the journal Geoscience Reviewhelps resolve one of the longest-running debates in paleoanthropology: when did early humans arrive in Europe?

Ancient humans. Image courtesy of Ninara / CC BY 2.0.

“chronology Homo “Migration out of Africa has expanded substantially over the past 40 years,” said paleoanthropologist Luis Hibbert of the University of Barcelona and his colleagues.

“In 1982, Homo The Asian volcano has been paleomagnetically dated to 900,000 years ago in Java and 700,000 years ago in Italy, Europe.

“Forty years later, the early Homo Outside of Africa, the South Caucasus dates back 1.8 million years, China 1.7-2.1 million years ago, and Java 1.5-1.3 million years ago.

“In Europe, several sites are found to have layers of paleomagnetic polarity reversal several metres deep, indicating that they are more than 770,000 years old.”

In the study, the authors used magnetostratigraphic dating, a method that uses the state of the Earth's magnetic field at the time the sediments were deposited, to date five paleontological localities in the Orce region of Spain.

“The technique is a relative dating method based on the study of the planet's magnetic pole reversals due to the dynamics of the Earth's interior,” they explained.

“These changes have no particular periodicity, but they are recorded in minerals and it is possible to establish periods from various magnetic events.”

“What's unique about these sites is that they are layered and sit within a very long sedimentary layer, over 80 metres long,” Dr Zibert said.

“Typically these sites are found in caves or within very short geological sequences, so it's not possible to develop long paleomagnetic sequences where you can find the different magnetic reversals.”

Global distribution of humans before 1 million years ago (orange) with major dated sites showing potential dispersal routes. The diagram shows Oldowan sites over 2 million years ago in Africa and over 1 million years ago in Eurasia (black dots). White dots indicate the earliest Acheulean sites in Africa (over 1.5 million years ago) and Eurasia (1 million to 800,000 years ago). The oldest Oldowan and Acheulean tools have been found in East Africa, over 2.5 million years ago and over 1.7 million years ago, respectively. In Asia, the oldest Oldowan and Acheulean tools have been found in the Caucasus (7) at 1.8 million years ago and in the Levantine Corridor (9) at 1.2 million years ago, respectively. In Europe, the oldest Oldowan and associated humans have been found in Spain (1, 2) and are debated to be between 1.6 and 900,000 years ago. Images/Photos Courtesy of: Gibert others., doi: 10.1016/j.earscirev.2024.104855.

The oldest remains at the Orce site, which have no evidence of human activity, date to 1.6 million and 1.35 million years ago, according to the study.

The top three sites containing evidence of early humans are dated 1.32 million years ago (Venta Misena), 1.28 million years ago (Barranco Leon 5), and 1.23 million years ago (Fuente Nueva 3).

These chronologies suggest that the Strait of Gibraltar acted as a filter bridge for African species such as hominins. Theropithecus Oswaldand the early Pleistocene hippopotamus.

“This new dating adds to other evidence and supports European colonization through the Strait of Gibraltar rather than the alternative route back to the Mediterranean via Asia,” the scientists said.

“We also support the hypothesis that they arrived from Gibraltar, as no older evidence has been found elsewhere along the alternative route.”

“Our results show a dating gap between the earliest occupation of Asia, 1.8 million years ago, and the earliest occupation of Europe, 1.3 million years ago. This means that African humans arrived in southwestern Europe more than 500,000 years after they first left Africa around 2 million years ago.”

“These differences in human expansion can be explained by the fact that Europe is isolated from Asia and Africa by difficult-to-surmount biogeographical barriers both to the east (the Bosphorus, the Dardanelles and the Sea of Marmara) and to the west (the Strait of Gibraltar),” Dr. Zibert said.

“When humans arrived in Europe, they had the technology necessary to cross the maritime barrier, just as happened a million years ago on the Indonesian island of Flores.”

“In this sense, the Gibraltar route currently requires crossing a sea channel of up to 14 kilometres, although in the past this distance could have been shorter at certain times due to the tectonically active nature of the region and sea-level changes favourable for migration.”

“We found that African animals were migrating through Gibraltar both 6.2 million years ago and 5.5 million years ago, when the Strait of Gibraltar was very narrow.”

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Lewis Guibert othersMagnetic strata dating of Europe's oldest human remains. Geoscience ReviewPublished online July 2, 2024; doi: 10.1016/j.earscirev.2024.104855

Source: www.sci.news

Researchers find previously unknown species of prehistoric crocodile

Posted on July 16, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

New species of early crocodile named Asiatosuchus oenotoriensis was discovered by a team of paleontologists from Spain’s National University of Distance Learning and the University of Salamanca.

Skull Asiatosuchus oenotoriensis Type specimen from the Middle Eocene site of Casaseca de Campean, Spain. Image credit: Narváez others., doi: 10.1002/ar.25422.

The newly identified crocodile lived on Earth during the Middle Eocene Epoch, between 48 and 41 million years ago.

Prehistoric animals Asiatosuchus An extinct genus of crocodilian crocodiles that lived in Europe and Asia during the Paleogene (66 to 23 million years ago).

“During the Palaeogene, a variety of crocodilians with common snouts (i.e. non-elongated snouts) inhabited Europe. The Middle Eocene is particularly notable for its relative abundance and diversity, but also includes fossils from the Late Paleocene and possibly the Early Oligocene and Late Neogene,” said lead author Dr Ivan Narváez and his colleagues.

“Many of the Eocene crocodile fossils are from the Asiatosuchus-like complex.”

“Genus Asiatosuchus was Established The species was defined in 1940 by paleontologist Charles Mook. Asiatosuchus grangeli It is based on an incomplete lower jaw and several skull fragments from the Middle Eocene of the Irdin Mankha Formation in Mongolia.”

“After the definition Asiatosuchus grangeli Several other eupteran forms, generally represented as isolated or rare fossils, have been described from the Paleocene to Oligocene of Europe, Asia and North America and have recently been Asiatosuchus It’s a complex like that.”

Two fossils Asiatosuchus oenotoriensis A similarly sized specimen was discovered at the La Laguna archaeological site in Spain in the 1980s.

The specimen includes a nearly complete skull and a nearly complete left lower jaw.

“The La Laguna fossil site is located in the Tierra del Vino region of the province of Zamora, Spain, approximately 20 kilometres south of the city of Zamora and approximately one kilometre north of the village of Casaseca de Campean,” the paleontologists said.

“The area forms part of the western part of the Duero Basin (Ciudad Rodrigo Basin).”

“The Duero Basin is the largest continental Cenozoic basin on the Iberian Peninsula.”

According to the authors: Asiatosuchus oenotoriensis Increase knowledge of diversity and distribution of Asiatosuchus Crocodile-like complex.

“Asiatosuchus oenotoriensis “This adds valuable information to our knowledge of the systematics of the relatively diverse crocodile fauna of the Duero Basin in Spain,” the researchers said.

Team paper Published in Anatomy record.

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Ivan Narvaez others A new crocodilian superfamily from the Middle Eocene of Zamora (Duero Basin, Spain). Anatomy record Published online March 5, 2024; doi: 10.1002/ar.25422

Source: www.sci.news

There are caves on the moon that scientists believe could be used as shelters

Posted on July 16, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Caves on the moon have been identified by scientists not too far from where Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed 55 years ago. They speculate that there could be hundreds more caves that could be suitable for future astronauts to inhabit.

A team of researchers led by Italians reported on Monday that they have evidence of a large cavern accessible through the deepest hole on the moon’s surface. This cavern is situated in Mare Tranquility, just 250 miles (400 kilometers) from the Apollo 11 landing site.

The hole, like over 200 others found in that area, was created by the collapse of a lava tube.

The researchers examined radar measurements from NASA’s lunar rover and compared their findings to lava tubes on Earth. Their findings were published in the journal Nature Astronomy.

Scientists state that the radar data has only uncovered the initial section of the underground chamber, which they estimate to be at least 130 feet (40 meters) wide and potentially even longer.

Leonardo Carrell and Lorenzo Bruzzone from the University of Trento expressed their excitement in an email saying, “The lunar caves have remained a mystery for more than 50 years, so it’s exciting to finally be able to prove their existence.”

Most of the holes on the moon seem to be situated in the ancient lava plains, and there might also be caves at the moon’s south pole, where NASA intends to send astronauts in 10 years. A crater in perpetual shadow there is believed to contain frozen water that could be used for drinking or as rocket fuel.

NASA’s Apollo program successfully landed 12 astronauts on the moon, starting with Armstrong and Aldrin on July 20, 1969.

These findings suggest that the Moon could have numerous caves and lava tubes, providing natural shelter for astronauts and shielding them from cosmic rays, solar radiation, and micrometeorite impacts. Constructing habitats from scratch would be more time-consuming and challenging, even if cave walls need reinforcement to prevent collapse.

The rocks and other materials in these caves, unaffected by the harsh surface conditions for hundreds of millions of years, could also help scientists gain a better understanding of how the Moon evolved, especially in terms of its volcanic activity.

Source: www.nbcnews.com

Seeing Shooting Stars: A Step-by-Step Guide

Posted on July 16, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

summary

The annual Perseid meteor shower has begun, reaching its peak on the night of August 12th.
It's typically one of the most dramatic meteor showers of the year, producing a high rate of shooting stars per hour.
The Perseid meteor shower occurs when dust particles and debris from a comet known as 109P/Swift-Tuttle burn up in Earth's atmosphere.

One of the best meteor showers of the year is underway, giving you a chance to see shooting stars in the summer night sky.

The annual Perseid meteor shower began on Sunday and will run through late August. This year's meteor shower will peak on the night of August 12 and into the early morning of August 13.

The Perseid meteor shower is one of the most dramatic phenomena due to the high number of bright meteors that appear per hour. At the peak of the meteor shower, up to 100 meteors per hour can be seen from a dark location (weather permitting).

This is a popular event as meteor showers occur in the summer in the Northern Hemisphere, allowing people to enjoy stargazing in warm weather.

Meteors are often called “shooting stars,” but the celestial phenomenon occurs when tiny pieces of debris from outer space burn up in Earth's atmosphere.

The Perseid meteor shower occurs when Earth passes through a cloud of dust particles and debris from a comet known as 109P/Swift-Tuttle, which was discovered in 1862. The streaks of light are produced when pieces of debris impact the atmosphere and vaporize, leaving bright trails as they disintegrate.

The Perseid meteor shower gets its name from the fact that shooting stars appear to stream down from a certain point in the constellation Perseus. According to NASA:The constellation will rise in the northeast, but if conditions are right, meteors should be visible across the entire sky.

In the Northern Hemisphere, the best time to observe the Perseid meteor shower is from around midnight after the moon has set until dawn.

For the best viewing, observers should choose a dark, unobstructed location away from city lights and other light pollution.

Source: www.nbcnews.com

Physicist working on project to construct a telescope larger than Earth

Posted on July 15, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

We live in the age of black hole photography. In 2019, the first photograph of a black hole was published. Naturally, it was difficult to capture. In fact, it required a telescope almost as large as the Earth. But for researchers like Alex Lupsaski of Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, that wasn't enough. Lupsaski and his colleagues aim to capture a more detailed image, but to achieve that, they will need an even larger telescope.

The 2019 groundbreaking photo was taken by a network of radio observatories dotted around Earth, collectively known as the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT). Eight observatories worked together to produce an image as sharp as a single dish larger than anything we could actually build. Lupsaski is part of a team planning the launch of the Black Hole Explorer (BHEX) telescope, which will extend this network 20,000 kilometers from Earth into space, effectively creating a receiver larger than Earth. This, he says, will give researchers the precision they need to measure a mysterious part of a black hole called the photon ring. In this case, the photon ring is produced by the supermassive black hole M87* in a nearby galaxy that appeared in the first photo.

LupsaskaAs deputy project scientist for the BHEX mission, he's a theorist specializing in the physics of extreme environments like the heart of a black hole. He tells us why this is our best hope of beating Albert Einstein's theory of gravity, and why an ambitious space mission is the key to finally unlocking that theory.

Source: www.newscientist.com

Possible Discovery of Lunar Cave Entrance Deep Hole on the Moon

Posted on July 15, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Proposed underground geometry of the Mare Tranquillitatis on the Moon

Wagner and Robinson

A network of caves may be hidden just beneath the Moon's surface, and researchers may have finally discovered an access point. These caves have long been predicted, but until now it has been difficult to prove their existence or find a way to directly explore them with future missions.

The Moon's surface is dotted with holes, or so-called skylights, which are openings in the ceilings of caves that are thought to have been formed by the collapse of ancient lava tubes – tunnels formed when lava flows beneath the solid crust. Leonardo Carrell Researchers from the University of Trento in Italy have discovered that the deepest part of these formations, the “The Pit of the Sea of TranquilityThese images were taken by NASA's Lunar Rover in 2010.

By comparing their simulations with lava tubes on Earth, the researchers found that the Mare Tranquillitatis hole appears to open into a large cavern buried at least 400 feet (130 meters) underground. The cave appears to be about 150 feet (45 meters) wide and at least 100 feet (30 meters) long, but could be much larger.

Caves like these could offer a unique window into the evolution of the Moon, says Carell. “Analyzing rocks from lunar caves, which have not been altered by the harsh lunar environment, could provide important insights into key scientific questions, such as the timeline and duration of volcanic activity on the Moon and the actual composition of the Moon's mantle,” Carell says.

The same stone ceiling that protects the cave rocks from the intense radiation experienced on the surface could also provide valuable shielding for future human explorers on the Moon. “Unlike the surface of the Moon, where temperatures change dramatically between day and night, [the caves] “It has a stable internal temperature, and it's also a natural shield against radiation and impacts,” Carrell says.

The idea of using natural caves like these as lunar base camps has long been popular, and future astronauts may one day call the Sea of Tranquility home.

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Moon/
Space Exploration

Source: www.newscientist.com

Brain activity can be used by AI to determine a child’s gender

Posted on July 15, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Activity within brain networks appears to differ between boys and girls

People Images/Getty Images

Artificial intelligence can now distinguish the brain patterns of 9- to 10-year-old boys and girls according to their sex and even gender, but not everyone is convinced of the accuracy of the results.

The prevalence of pain, headaches, heart disease, and other illnesses Varies by genderHowever, little is known about neurological variation in this regard or among sexes, particularly among children.

You can learn more and Elvisha Damara Researchers at the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research in New York analyzed thousands of sets of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data from more than 4,700 children, roughly equal in gender, all aged 9 to 10, who were participating in the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development Project.

Sex was defined based on “anatomical, physiological, genetic and hormonal structures at birth,” while gender was determined based on “an individual's attitudinal, emotional and behavioral characteristics.”

Parents weren't asked directly about their thoughts about their child's gender, but were assessed with a series of questions, such as how often their child imitates male or female characters on TV or in movies, whether they wanted to be a girl or a boy, whether they said they disliked their genitals, etc. All these questions were weighted equally and combined into a score.

A separate score was created from questions that asked the children themselves, such as whether they felt like a boy or a girl.

The researchers did not disclose the different genders the children identified as, or how many of the children had a gender that was different from their own gender. “We thought of gender as a continuum, not a binary,” Damala said. “We did not limit our analysis to gender categories, so we cannot comment on how many children had a gender that was different from their own gender.”

The researchers first looked at the relationship between brain networks and sex, and then looked at the relationship between these networks and sex for each assigned sex. They found that sex and gender differences were associated with distinct patterns of functional connectivity, a measure of communication between distant brain regions.

Gender was associated with connectivity between the visual cortex, which controls movement, and the limbic system, a group of deep brain structures involved in regulating emotion, behavior, motivation, and memory. These networks were “important in distinguishing participants based on their gender,” Damala said.

Gender-related networks were widespread throughout the cerebral cortex (the outer layer of the brain that is also associated with memory, movement, sensation and problem solving), both when using gender scores constructed from responses to parental questions and when using separate scores constructed by asking questions of the children themselves.

“In assigned females, sex mapped to networks involved in attention, emotion processing, motor control, and higher-order thinking,” Damala says. “In assigned males, the same relationships existed, but there were additional networks involved in higher-order thinking and visual processing. Although there was some overlap between sex- and gender-related brain networks, they were very distinct from each other.”

Once the researchers trained an AI model on some of the MRI data, it was able to identify a child's gender based on brain connectivity patterns in other datasets. It could also predict gender, but this was much less accurate and was based solely on the gender reported by parents, not the child themselves.

A better understanding of how brain activity patterns differ by sex could help scientists learn more about conditions that affect boys and girls at different rates, such as ADHD, Damala said.

The findings could also have implications for how human brain research is conducted, she says: “This shows that sex and gender need to be considered separately in biomedical research. This applies to how data is collected, how it is analyzed, and how results are interpreted and communicated,” Damala says.

but Ragini Verma The University of Pennsylvania researcher says the study tells us little about the neurological basis of gender. Because of the study's large sample size, the team was likely only able to find signals of different brain activity patterns between the sexes, but “any variability in gender predictions is based on low precision,” she says.

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Source: www.newscientist.com

Hubble Space Telescope Captures Close-Up of NGC 5238

Posted on July 15, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Astronomers have released a beautiful photo of the dwarf irregular galaxy NGC 5238 taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.

This Hubble Space Telescope image shows the dwarf irregular galaxy NGC 5238, 14.5 million light-years away in the constellation Canes Venatici. The color image is composed of observations in the near-infrared and visible portions of the spectrum by the Hubble Space Telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS). Two filters were used to sample different wavelengths. The colors are achieved by assigning a different hue to each monochromatic image associated with an individual filter. Image courtesy of NASA / ESA / Hubble / F. Annibali.

NGC 5238 It is located in the constellation Canes Venatici, about 14.5 million light years from Earth.

Also known as Mrk 1479 or UGC 8565, the galaxy resembles an outsized star cluster rather than a galaxy due to its unremarkable, blob-like appearance.

“NGC 5238 is theorized to have had a close encounter with another galaxy recently, within the last billion years,” Hubble astronomers said in a statement.

“The evidence for this is the tidal distortion of NGC 5238's shape, caused by the two galaxies interacting and tugging on each other.”

“Since there are no nearby galaxies that could have caused this disruption, it is hypothesized that the culprit is a small satellite galaxy that has been swallowed by NGC 5238.”

“By studying the stars of NGC 5238 closely, we may be able to find traces of an earlier galaxy. The Hubble Space Telescope gives astronomers the perfect tool for this purpose.”

“Two telltale signs are groups of stars with properties that seem out of place compared to most other stars in the galaxy, indicating that they originally formed in another galaxy; or stars that appear to have formed suddenly, almost simultaneously, occurring during the merger of galaxies.”

“Despite their small size and inconspicuous appearance, dwarf galaxies like NGC 5238 are not uncommon in advancing our understanding of galaxy formation and evolution,” the astronomers said.

“One of the leading theories about the evolution of galaxies is that they formed hierarchically, 'bottom-up'. Star clusters and small galaxies first formed from gas and dark matter, which then gradually gathered together through gravity into clusters and superclusters, explaining the shape of the largest structures in the Universe today.”

“The merger of a dwarf irregular galaxy like NGC 5238 with an even smaller companion galaxy is exactly the type of event that could have initiated the process of galaxy formation in the early universe.”

“This means that this tiny galaxy could help test some of the most fundamental predictions in astrophysics.”

Source: www.sci.news

What caused the haziness on Saturn’s moon Titan?

Posted on July 15, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Ever wondered if any moons in the solar system have a dense atmosphere like Earth? Currently, scientists believe that Saturn’s moon Titan is the only one with such an atmosphere. Despite being 2.5 times smaller than Earth, Titan has an atmospheric pressure 1.5 times greater than Earth’s. Studies of Titan’s atmosphere from outside the solar system have shown that it consists of around 94% nitrogen, 6% methane, 0.1% hydrogen, and small amounts of complex organic molecules. The Huygens mission data provides more insight into this.

Initially, scientists thought that Titan’s haze formed through the breakdown and recombination of nitrogen and methane by sunlight. However, this explanation couldn’t account for the presence of complex organic molecules which require high temperatures to form. Recent research suggests that these molecules may have originated during a meteorite impact event in Titan’s atmosphere, particularly due to the proximity of Titan to Saturn’s E ring which disperses organic material from moons like Enceladus.

To test this new theory, researchers at Princeton University created a model to predict the formation of molecules during meteorite impacts in Titan’s atmosphere. By combining data from observations of Saturn’s rings and Titan’s atmospheric chemistry from the Huygens probe, they estimated the types of organic molecules that could result from these impacts. They found that only meteorites larger than 0.02 grams could trigger such events in Titan’s atmosphere, with material mostly originating from atolls surrounding the solar system.

The team also identified a hot zone known as the “Cylindrical shock wave” around the falling meteorite, reaching temperatures of 10,000 K. This wave could facilitate the synthesis of complex organic molecules at lower temperatures in the region surrounding the impact. Meteorites falling from Enceladus are suggested to contribute significantly to Titan’s organic-rich haze layer, particularly at altitudes where shock waves are most efficient in synthesizing organic molecules.

The researchers proposed that observations from future missions, such as Dragonfly, could further validate their models by studying the frequency of medium-sized meteorite impacts on Titan. These observations could provide more insights into the formation of Titan’s unique atmosphere and iconic haze layer.

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Source: sciworthy.com

Viruses with a significant impact on the microbiome and overall health

Posted on July 15, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Rats in John Cryan's lab were withdrawn and anxious, behaving in ways that mirrored those who had been bullied at work and suspected they might encounter the bully again.

Believe it or not, the good news is that they fed some of these rodents a slurry of microbes extracted from their own feces. This may sound unpleasant, but it had a surprisingly positive effect on their behavior. “That was surprising,” says Cryan, a neurobiologist at University College Cork in Ireland. “We found that the behavioral changes that were induced by stress were normalized, and they started to behave like normal animals.”

Even more surprising, the mental changes weren't brought about by changes to gut bacteria, but by modifying another key aspect of the microbiome whose importance is only now being recognized: viruses.

After all, our bodies are full of these viruses – trillions of stowaways that do no harm to our health, but instead play a key role in nurturing a beneficial microbiome and making us healthier. Recent studies have found that the influence of this “virome” can be found throughout the body, from the blood to the brain. The hope is that tweaking it might lead to new ways of treating a variety of ailments, from inflammatory bowel disease and obesity to anxiety.

Microbiome Diversity

Over the past decade, there has been growing interest in the microbiome (all the tiny organisms that live on and in our bodies), but that interest has focused primarily on bacteria. Until recently, it was assumed that…

Source: www.newscientist.com

Las Vegas sizzles in the heat

Posted on July 15, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Las Vegas experienced its highest temperature on record on July 7, reaching 120 degrees Fahrenheit. The city surpassed a 2005 record of four consecutive days with temperatures above 115 degrees Fahrenheit on Wednesday, and then broke that record on Thursday, with Friday likely to follow suit. Extreme heat has been widespread across the Western U.S. this week, with around 42 million people under extreme heat warnings on Friday in the region, including the Rockies and southeast Texas. In at least six states, it is estimated that thirty-eight people have died from heatstroke.

“I’ve been a resident of southern Nevada in Las Vegas for 18 years, and this year has been exceptionally hot,” said Chrishell Hadsell, social services manager for Clark County, Nevada, encompassing Las Vegas, Boulder City, Henderson, and neighboring areas.

Hadsell is in charge of over 40 cooling centers currently in operation in Clark County, offering air-conditioned shelters in places like libraries, churches, and recreation centers for people to seek refuge during the hottest times of the day.

Record-breaking temperatures in Las Vegas are impacting people’s daily routines.

Henderson Fire Department Deputy Chief Scott Vivier mentioned that he and his wife now have to run errands and shop for groceries early in the morning to avoid the heat, as by 9:30 a.m., even being in the car can be intolerable.

“We’ve adapted to being active in the mornings and late evenings,” Vivier stated.

The extreme heat has led to multiple temporary closures at the Neon Museum near downtown Las Vegas this week.

“Due to the prolonged Extreme Heat Warning for the Las Vegas Valley, the Neon Museum will delay its opening until 8:30 p.m.,” officials announced on the museum’s website on Friday. The museum showcases some of Las Vegas’ most iconic and historic neon signs in its outdoor “curiosity yard.”

Despite the evening hours, visitors may still find it uncomfortable, as overnight temperatures this week have been in the 90s.

Similar extreme heat conditions prompted Henderson city officials to close the public pool early on both Thursday and Friday.

“Our inclement weather closure policy has been activated due to the extreme heat,” city officials noted in a Facebook post.

Source: www.nbcnews.com

Introducing the Billionaire’s Unconventional and Lavish Doomsday Bunker

Posted on July 14, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Have you ever considered what your doomsday plan would entail? If not, you’re not alone. While most people are more concerned with what’s for dinner tomorrow than surviving the apocalypse, billionaires have already thought ahead.

Instead of spending millions on extending their lifespans, reversing aging, or planning space trips, the ultra-rich are now investing in giant underground shelters to prepare for the end of the world. These luxurious bunkers offer comfortable living conditions below the surface, away from the chaos above.

While doomsday bunkers are not a new concept, recent trends show that billionaire bunkers are becoming increasingly extravagant. From zombie-proof fire moats to 10-car garages, these shelters cater to the highest levels of luxury. It seems fitting, considering they will likely be located underground.

But what exactly are the ultra-rich preparing for? And what do these apocalyptic shelters look like?

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What are they preparing for?

Once seen as odd and paranoid, those who invest in shelters now have valid concerns about the future. The rise of artificial intelligence, pandemics, and global warming has instilled fear in many, even among the wealthiest individuals.

According to Douglas Rushkoff, a billionaire and writer who focuses on doomsday scenarios, the ultra-rich are not driven by fear but by desire. They see isolation in space stations or underground shelters as a reward for their accomplishments. It’s about winning the game of life and building the best shelter, not merely preparing for worst-case scenarios.

What do these bunkers look like?

End-of-life shelters come in various sizes, luxury levels, and features. Some are as small as a single room, while others resemble small apartments with amenities like garages, gyms, and saunas. The top-tier bunkers designed for billionaires include added rooms, tanks, and other necessary items, driving up prices significantly.

For many wealthy individuals, owning an island with a grand mansion on the surface conceals a maze of rooms underground for emergency situations. These bunkers serve as highly secure vacation homes with additional features for survival.

Will we all soon have bunkers?

While shelters were once exclusive to the ultra-rich and paranoid, the trend is shifting. Newer firms offer shelter options for a broader demographic, making it more accessible to average individuals. Popular group bunkers reminiscent of games like Fallout are also on the rise, accommodating large groups at a fraction of the cost of individual bunkers.

Architect Dante Vicino describes these group bunkers as underground cruise ships, with private and communal spaces for residents to gather, eat, and relax together. While luxury shelters may offer comfort during doomsday scenarios, building connections with neighbors and forming a community may be a more realistic survival strategy.

About our experts

Douglas Rushkoff is a writer and documentarian who has researched billionaire behavior and attitudes regarding doomsday scenarios.

Dante Vicino is the project lead at Vivos, a doomsday shelter company specializing in affordable alternatives.

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Source: www.sciencefocus.com

What lies on the other side of a black hole? (Speculation included)

Posted on July 13, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

One of the most astonishing scientific discoveries of the past decade is the abundance of black holes in the universe.

These black holes come in a range of sizes, from slightly larger than the Sun to billions of times more massive. They are detected through various methods, such as radio emissions from material falling into them, their impact on orbiting stars, gravitational waves from black hole mergers, and the unique distortions of light they create, like the “Einstein rings” seen in images of Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way.

Our universe is not flat but filled with holes like a sieve. The physical characteristics of black holes are accurately described by Einstein’s theory of general relativity.

Although Einstein’s theory aligns well with our current knowledge of black holes, it fails to address two crucial questions. First, what happens to matter once it crosses the event horizon of a black hole? Second, how does a black hole eventually disappear? Theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking proposed that, over time, black holes shrink through a process called Hawking radiation, emitting high-temperature radiation until they become very small.

These unanswered questions are related to quantum aspects of space-time, specifically quantum gravity, for which we lack a comprehensive theory.

An attempt at an answer

Despite these challenges, there are evolving tentative theories that offer some insights into these mysteries. While these theories require further experimental support, they provide possible explanations for the fate of black holes.

One prominent theory in this realm is loop quantum gravity (LQG), a promising approach to understanding quantum space-time developed since the late 1980s. LQG proposes a novel scenario where black holes transition into white holes, where the interior evolves under quantum effects, causing a reversal of its collapse.

White holes, the hypothetical opposites of black holes, may hold the key to understanding the fate of evaporating black holes. These structures could potentially explain the enigmatic nature of dark matter, offering a compelling link between well-established principles of general relativity and quantum mechanics.

Same idea but in reverse

While the direct detection of white holes remains challenging due to their weak gravitational interactions, technological advancements may enable future observations. If dark matter indeed comprises remnants of evaporating black holes in the form of white holes, this hypothesis could shed light on the elusive nature of dark matter.

By reevaluating long-held assumptions about black holes and incorporating quantum gravity phenomena, we may uncover a more nuanced understanding of these cosmic phenomena. The evolving field of quantum gravity offers a fresh perspective on the dynamics of black holes and the potential existence of white holes as remnants of their evaporation.

Next steps

Exploring the implications of white holes and their possible role in dark matter formation requires further research and technological advancements. As we continue to refine our understanding of black holes and quantum gravity, we may unlock new insights into the fundamental nature of our universe.

Source: www.sciencefocus.com

Miocene giraffe species possessed double sets of antlers

Posted on July 13, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Pakistani paleontologists have uncovered a new genus and species of a prehistoric relative of the giraffe from the Miocene period.

Reconstruction of an ancient giraffe. Image by Apokryltaros / CC BY 3.0.

Blamiscus Micro It lived in what is now northern Pakistan about 9 million years ago (Miocene epoch).

This prehistoric species Giraffeare a large family of ruminant, artiodactyla mammals that share a common ancestor with deer and bovids and that include modern-day giraffes and okapis.

Blamiscus Micro Probably two pairs Bone horn (horn-like protrusions) on its head.

“Blamiscus Micro “This giraffe probably possessed two pairs of antlers that differed in size, orientation and ornamentation from those of other early and middle Miocene giraffids and giraffiniformes,” Dr Maria Rios from the New University of Lisbon and her colleagues wrote in the paper.

Skull, teeth, and remains after the skull Blamiscus Micro The fossils were discovered at the Dok bun Amir Khatun (Chinji Formation) fossil site in Chakwal district, Punjab province, Pakistan. Additional fossils were identified from the Hasvard Siwaliks collection.

“Early Miocene giraffids are less diverse and abundant than their Late Miocene counterparts, with most of the evidence coming from the Chinji Formation of Pakistan,” the paleontologists write.

“Giraffidae remains have also been found in the Kalodir, Ropelot and Mol Olot Hills of the Losidok Formation of West Turkana, Kenya, on Rusinga Island in the Hiwegi Formation of Kenya, and at Gebel Zelten in Libya.”

“The genera known from the Early Miocene are Progirafa and Canthomerix” they added.

“By the Middle Miocene, several more species (e.g. Ginger-leaf lily, giraffe) Adaptive radiation then occurred, with several more giraffidae species occurring in the Chinji Formation of Pakistan, Fort Ternan in Kenya, and on the island of Chios in Greece, with many more species found in Africa and the Middle East.

Blamiscus Micro It coexisted simultaneously with other giraffes. Progirafa exigua, Ginger-leaf lily, giraffe, giraffeand other species yet to be named.

“Our specimen is the oldest record of a giraffe with true bony horns in the Indian subcontinent,” the researchers concluded.

their paper Published online in the journal Paleoniologia Electronica.

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Maria Rios others2024. New Kirin Blamiscus Micro A new genus and species (Ruminant, Giraffidae) discovered from the Miocene of northern Pakistan. Paleoniologia Electronica 27(2):a29; Source: 10.26879/1243

Source: www.sci.news

Here’s Why Your Risk of Death is Higher on Your Birthday

Posted on July 12, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

With the approach of a special day, we often find ourselves balancing the celebration of a new year’s wisdom and the apprehension of time passing by. However, the “birthday effect” adds an interesting twist to this traditional celebration.

The birthday effect is a statistical phenomenon, which unfortunately puts a damper on parties, indicating that people are more likely to pass away around their birthdays.

This somber discovery has been supported by various studies, such as the 2012 Swiss study, which revealed a 13.8 percent increase in the number of people aged 60 and above who died on their birthdays compared to other days.

Similarly, the 2015 Study from the United States showed a 6.7 percent higher risk of mortality on one’s birthday.

Various theories attempt to explain why this phenomenon occurs. Some suggest that excessive celebrations involving alcohol on birthdays can lead to risky behavior, accidents, and poor judgment. Others believe that for those battling terminal illnesses, birthdays serve as important milestones, giving them the strength to hold on until another year passes.

Birthdays can also trigger reflection, leading to feelings of sadness and depression known as “birthday blues.” Sadly, these emotions can increase the risk of suicide, as demonstrated by a Japanese study in 2016, which found a 50 percent higher risk of suicide on one’s birthday.

Another possibility is that errors in death registration records may inaccurately document some individuals’ birth and death dates as the same. However, these errors are unlikely to significantly impact the observed results.

The birthday effect remains a complex and not fully understood phenomenon, likely influenced by a combination of factors mentioned above and others. So, while blowing out the candles, perhaps hold off on that shot of tequila.

This article addresses the question from Alex Mercado in Manchester regarding the “birthday effect.”

For any inquiries, please email us at the address below. For more information: check out our Facebook page, Twitter, or Instagram. Remember to include your name and location.

Ultimate Fun Facts: Explore this page for more fascinating science content.

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Source: www.sciencefocus.com

Finalists in the space photography contest: these stunning photos stun viewers

Posted on July 12, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Astronomy Photographer of the Year An annual photo contest showcasing all things space-relatedis back for the first time in 16 years^Number Run.

More than 3,500 photos were submitted for the award, and Karina Leterrier Baeza's photo was among the 30 finalists. Arctic DragonThis photo taken at Arctic Henge in Iceland shows the aurora borealis, the result of a geomagnetic storm caused by a coronal mass ejection, resembling a rearing dragon.

The final candidates are The cry of a dying star (Below), photo by Jan Sainty. The “star” in question is actually the remnant of a supernova explosion, when a star dies and explodes, releasing a tremendous amount of light and energy. This explosion occurred about 10,000 years ago.

Sainty combined clear skies and a long exposure in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco to capture rarely seen details of this glowing remnant, called Cygnus Loop, named after the famous painting. scream Sainti said the painting symbolizes Edvard Munch's “The Scream,” but also the “scream” that reverberates through the universe after a star dies.

Below is a stunning photo of the sun's corona (the outermost layer of the atmosphere) over the Himalayan mountain ranges, taken by Geshuang Chen near the Tibetan city of Shigatse. Normally hidden by the brightness of the sun's surface, the corona can be glimpsed here because thin clouds are diffracting sunlight, producing a vibrant array of rainbow colors. Chen calls this image the “solar corona.” Himalayan Palette.

The winner of the competition, run by the Royal Observatory, will be announced on September 12th. The winning submission, along with the finalists' works, will be displayed in an exhibition at the National Maritime Museum in London from September 14th.

Source: www.newscientist.com

New understanding suggests LUCA, the last common ancestor of all life, emerged earlier than previously believed

Posted on July 12, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Illustration showing LUCA possibly being attacked by a virus

Scientific Graphic Design

The organisms that gave rise to all life on Earth evolved much earlier than previously thought – just a few hundred million years after Earth formed – and may have been more sophisticated than previous assessments had suggested.

The DNA of all living organisms today is E. coli There are many similarities in the evolution leading up to the blue whale, suggesting that we can trace our origins back to a universal common ancestor, LUCA, billions of years ago. While many efforts have been made to understand LUCA, studies taking a broader approach have revealed surprising results.

“What we're trying to do is bring together representatives from different disciplines to develop a comprehensive understanding of when LUCA existed and what its biological characteristics were,” he said. Philip Donahue At the University of Bristol, UK.

Genes that are currently present in all major lineages of life may have been passed down uninterrupted from LUCA, which could help us understand what genes our ancient ancestors had. By studying how these genes changed over time, we should be able to estimate when LUCA lived.

In reality, this is a lot more complicated than it sounds, as genes are lost, gained, and swapped between branches. Donohue says the team created a complex model that took this into account, to work out which genes were present in LUCA. “We've found a much more sophisticated organism than many have previously claimed,” he says.

The researchers estimate that 2,600 protein-coding genes come from LUCA, up from previous estimates of as few as 80. The team also concludes that LUCA lived around 4.2 billion years ago, much older than other estimates and surprisingly close to the formation of Earth 4.5 billion years ago. “This suggests that the evolution of life may have been simpler than previously claimed, because evolution happened so quickly,” Donohue says.

The earlier date is largely due to the team's improved methodology, but also because, unlike others, they don't assume that LUCA could have existed only after the Late Heavy Bombardment, when Earth was hit so hard by space debris that any new life that emerged could have been wiped out. Based on rocks returned from the Moon, the period has been put at 3.8 billion years ago, but there's a lot of uncertainty around that number, Donohue says.

Their reconstruction suggests that LUCA had genes that protected it from ultraviolet damage, which leads them to believe that it likely lived on the ocean's surface. Other genes suggest that LUCA fed on hydrogen, which is consistent with previous findings. The team speculates that LUCA may have been part of an ecosystem with other types of primitive cells that are now extinct. “I think it's extremely naive to think that LUCA existed on its own,” Donohue says.

“I think this is compelling from an evolutionary perspective.” Greg Fournier “LUCA is not the beginning of the story of life, but merely the state of the last common ancestor that we can trace back to using genomic data,” say researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The results also suggest that LUCA had a primitive version of the bacterial defense system known as CRISPR to fight viruses. “Even 4.2 billion years ago, our earliest ancestors were fighting viruses,” the team members say. Edmund Moodyalso at the University of Bristol.

Peering into the distant past is fraught with uncertainty, and Donohue is the first to admit that his team may have missed the mark. “We've almost certainly got it all wrong,” he says. “What we're trying to do is push the envelope and create the first attempt to synthesize all of the relevant evidence.”

“This won't be the last word,” he said, “and it won't be our last word on this subject, but we think it's a good start.”

Patrick Forter Researchers at the Institut Pasteur in Paris, France, who coined the term LUCA, also believe that the organism did not live in isolation. “But the claim that LUCA lived before the Late Heavy Bombardment 3.9 billion years ago seems to me completely unrealistic,” says Forterre. “I'm convinced that their strategy for determining the age and gene content of LUCA has several flaws.”

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Source: www.newscientist.com

Study reveals last common ancestor lived 4.2 billion years ago

Posted on July 12, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

The Last Universal Common Ancestor (LUCA) is a hypothetical common ancestor of all modern cellular life, from single-celled organisms such as bacteria to giant sequoia trees and even to us humans. Our understanding of LUCA therefore has implications for our understanding of the early evolution of life on Earth.

Probabilistic inference of metabolic networks for modern organisms present in LUCA. Image courtesy of Moody others., doi: 10.1038/s41559-024-02461-1.

LUCA is a node on the tree of life from which the basic prokaryotic domains (Archaea and Bacteria) branch off.

Modern life evolved from LUCA from a variety of different sources: the same amino acids used to build proteins in all cellular organisms, a shared energy currency (ATP), the presence of cellular machinery such as ribosomes involved in creating proteins from information stored in DNA, and even the fact that all cellular organisms use DNA itself as a way to store information.

In the new study, University of Bristol scientist Edmund Moody and his colleagues compared all the genes in the genomes of modern species and counted the mutations that had occurred in the sequences over time since a common ancestor called LUCA.

The time when some species split off is known from the fossil record, and the team used a genetic equivalent of a familiar equation used in physics to calculate speed to determine when LUCA existed, arriving at 4.2 billion years ago – just 400 million years after Earth and the solar system formed.

“The evolutionary history of genes is complicated by the exchange of genes between lineages,” Dr Moody said.

“Reconciling the evolutionary history of genes with species lineages requires the use of complex evolutionary models.”

“We didn't expect LUCA to be so old, within just a few hundred million years of Earth's formation,” said Dr Sandra Alvarez-Carretero, also from the University of Bristol.

“But our findings are consistent with modern views of the habitability of early Earth.”

The study authors also traced the lineage of life back to LUCA and modeled the physiological traits of modern species to elucidate LUCA's biology.

“One of the real advantages here is that we applied the gene tree and species tree reconciliation approach to a highly diverse dataset representing the major domains of life: Archaea and Bacteria,” said Dr Tom Williams from the University of Bristol.

“This allows us to make statements with some confidence about how LUCA lived and to assess that level of confidence.”

“Our study shows that LUCA was a complex organism not too different from modern prokaryotes, but what's really interesting is that LUCA clearly had an early immune system, indicating that by 4.2 billion years ago our ancestors were in an arms race with viruses,” said Professor Davide Pisani, from the University of Bristol.

“LUCA clearly used and transformed its environment, but it is unlikely to have lived alone,” said researcher Dr Tim Lenton, from the University of Exeter.

“That waste would then serve as food for other microorganisms, such as methanogens, helping to create a recycling ecosystem.”

“The insights and methods provided by this study will also inform future studies looking in more detail at the subsequent evolution of prokaryotes in the context of Earth's history, including the less-studied archaea and their methanogens,” said Professor Anja Spang, researcher at the Royal Netherlands Institute for Marine Research.

“Our study brings together data and methods from multiple disciplines, revealing insights into the early Earth and life that could not be achieved by any single discipline alone,” said Professor Philip Donoghue, from the University of Bristol.

“It also shows how quickly ecosystems were established on the early Earth.”

“This suggests that life may thrive in an Earth-like biosphere somewhere in the universe.”

This study paper Published in the journal today Natural Ecology and Evolution.

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ERR Moody othersThe nature of the last universal common ancestor and its impact on the early Earth system. Nat Ecol EvolPublished online July 12, 2024, doi: 10.1038/s41559-024-02461-1

This article is a version of a press release provided by the University of Bristol.

Source: www.sci.news

Astronauts are able to drink their own urine thanks to water-recycling space suits

Posted on July 12, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Part of the urine collection system

Luka Bielski

Astronauts on spacewalks may soon be able to drink their own urine, thanks to a water filtration and recycling system that could be ready in time for NASA's upcoming manned missions to the moon.

Urine and sweat wastewater is already recycled on the International Space Station, but the bulky equipment required to do so doesn't fit in a space suit. NASA's current solution is the Maximum Absorbency Garment, which, despite its technical name, is essentially just an adult diaper for collecting urine and feces. At the end of the spacewalk, these diapers are sent to the ISS's waste system and eventually burned in Earth's atmosphere, a frustrating waste of resources.

Chris Mason A researcher from Cornell University in New York says that current solutions are sufficient for spacewalks, which often last only a few hours, but that increased activity in space will require better solutions. He and his colleagues have developed a shoebox-sized, 8-kilogram device that can recycle urine collected through a unisex external catheter through a two-stage osmotic membrane filter with 87 percent efficiency.

The purified water is ready to drink and can be piped to a bag inside the spacesuit, which has the added benefit of providing a steady supply of drinking water. Current NASA spacesuits only provide a little less than a liter of drinking water, which is often not enough for long spacewalks. The remaining 13 percent of the water cannot be extracted and remains in the filter.

“I thought this had already been done, but it hasn't,” Mason said. “People who push the boundaries of humanity often trade discomfort for the opportunity to explore entirely new areas of science and medicine.”

The filtration technology is the same one already used on the ISS; however, unlike ISS wastewater, urine does not contain soap or chemicals, so it is easier to extract water from it, the team says. Extracting water from feces is not yet “fully solved,” but this is not as big a constraint, since astronauts often insist on just holding in their bowels during spacewalks, Mason says.

While many of NASA's current spacesuits have worked so far, change is needed because future astronauts will likely be more diverse in body shapes and sizes than their predecessors, he said. “The democratization of space brings new opportunities, but it also creates new challenges that we must address.”

Currently, the device is a prototype that is only being tested in a lab, but human trials involving collecting urine, recycling it, and drinking the water are expected to begin by November.

The researchers say the device could be incorporated into new versions of spacesuits planned for NASA's upcoming Artemis missions to the moon. NASA has contracted the private company Axiom Space to build the new suits, but the company declined to answer questions. New ScientistWhen asked how the spacecraft would deal with human waste, NASA declined to comment.

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Source: www.newscientist.com

Study finds ancient genome structure preserved in 52,000-year-old mammoth skin

Posted on July 12, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Scientists from Baylor College of Medicine and other institutions have announced the discovery of ancient chromosome subfossils in a female mammoth fossil.Mammutus primigeniusThe mammoth, a species of mammoth known as the pygmy mammoth, died 52,000 years ago in what is now Siberia. The fossil preserves the structure of its ancient chromosomes down to the nanometer (billionth of a meter) scale. Researchers hypothesize that the cold of Siberia naturally freeze-dried the mammoth's skin, causing a glass transition that preserved the fossil.

Sandoval Velasco othersAssembled the genome and 3D chromosome structure of a 52,000-year-old woolly mammoth. Image courtesy of Sandoval Velasco. others., doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2024.06.002.

“This is a new type of fossil, one whose scale far exceeds that of individual ancient DNA fragments, with sequences a million times larger,” said Dr. Erez Lieberman Aiden, director of the Center for Genome Architecture at Baylor College of Medicine.

“This is also the first time that an ancient sample has been karyotyped.”

Knowing the three-dimensional structure of a genome gives us a lot of additional information beyond its sequence, but most ancient DNA specimens are made up of very small, jumbled up pieces of DNA.

Building on their work mapping the 3D structure of the human genome, Dr Aiden and his colleagues reasoned that the same strategy could be used to assemble ancient genomes, provided suitable ancient DNA samples were found.

The researchers tested dozens of samples over a five-year period, eventually locating an unusually well-preserved woolly mammoth that was unearthed in September 2018 near Belaya Gora, in the Sakha Republic in northeastern Siberia.

“We believe that the freeze-drying occurred naturally shortly after death, and the nuclear structures in the dried samples can remain viable for an incredibly long period of time,” said Dr. Olga Dudchenko of the Center for Genome Structure at Baylor College of Medicine.

To reconstruct the mammoth's genome structure, the authors extracted DNA from skin samples taken from behind the mammoth's ears.

They are, High C This allows them to detect which parts of DNA are in spatial proximity and likely to interact in their natural state within the nucleus.

“Imagine having a puzzle with 3 billion pieces, but not having the final puzzle picture at hand,” said Professor Marc-Marty-Renom, a structural genomicist at the National Center for Genome Analysis and Genomic Regulation.

“Hi-C allows me to get a rough idea of what the picture looks like before I start putting the puzzle pieces together.”

They then combined the physical information from the Hi-C analysis with DNA sequences to identify interacting DNA sections and produced a neat map of the mammoth genome using the modern elephant genome as a template.

The analysis revealed that mammoths had 28 chromosomes, the same number as modern Asian and African elephants.

Remarkably, the fossilized mammoth chromosomes retained a great deal of physical integrity and detail, including the nanoscale loops that contact transcription factors with the genes they control.

By examining the compartmentalization of genes within the nucleus, the scientists were able to identify active and inactive genes in the mammoth skin cells, a proxy for epigenetics and transcriptomics.

Compared with skin cells from the mammoth's closest relative, the Asian elephant, the mammoth's skin cells showed different gene activation patterns, including genes that may be related to fur and cold tolerance.

“For the first time we have mammoth tissue where we can roughly tell which genes are on and which are off,” said Professor Martti Renom.

“This is a surprising new type of data, the first time we've measured cell-specific genetic activity of genes in ancient DNA samples.”

Team result Published in today's journal cell.

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Marcela Sandoval Velasco others2024. A 52,000-year-old mammoth skin sample contains 3D genome structure. cell 187(14):3541-3562; doi:10.1016/j.cell.2024.06.002

Source: www.sci.news

Is it true that tachyons exist as particles?

Posted on July 12, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Tachyon They are hypothetical particles that always travel faster than light. Until recently, they were commonly thought to be entities that did not fit into the special theory of relativity. New paper In the journal Physics Review DThese faster-than-light particles “are not only not excluded by the theory, but also allow us to better understand its causal structure.”

Tachyon AI impression.

“Movement at speeds faster than the speed of light is one of the most controversial problems in physics,” Professor Andrzej Dragan Researchers from the University of Warsaw and the National University of Singapore and their colleagues.

“Tachyons, hypothetical particles capable of traveling faster than the speed of light, are the awesome geniuses of modern physics.”

“Until recently, they were widely thought to be creations that did not fit into the special theory of relativity.”

“There are currently at least three known reasons why tachyons do not exist in quantum mechanics,” the researchers added.

“First, the ground state of the tachyon field must be unstable, which means that such faster-than-light particles would form avalanches.”

“Second, a change in the inertial observer must lead to a change in the number of particles observed in his reference system, but the presence of, say, seven particles cannot depend on who is looking at it.”

“The third reason is that faster-than-light particles can have negative energies.”

“Previous difficulties with tachyons have a common root,” the physicists said.

“It turns out that the boundary conditions that determine the course of physical processes include not only the initial state of a system but also its final state.”

“Simply put, to calculate the probability of a quantum process involving tachyons, we need to know not only the past initial state but also the future final state.”

“Once this fact was incorporated into the theory, all of the aforementioned difficulties disappeared completely and the tachyon theory became mathematically consistent.”

“It's a bit like internet advertising – one simple trick can solve the problem,” Prof Dragan said.

“The idea that the future influences the present, rather than the present determining the future, is not new in physics.”

“But until now this kind of view has at best been an unorthodox interpretation of certain quantum phenomena, and now we are forced to this conclusion by the theory itself.”

“We had to expand the state space to make room for tachyons.”

“We also predict that expanding the boundary conditions has consequences: a new kind of quantum entanglement appears in the theory, one that mixes the past and the future, that doesn't exist in classical particle theory.”

The team's paper also raises the question of whether tachyons described in this way are purely a mathematical possibility, or whether such particles might one day be observed.

“Tachyons are not merely a possibility but are in fact an essential component of the spontaneous destruction processes responsible for the formation of matter,” the authors say.

“This hypothesis implies that the Higgs field excitations, before the spontaneous symmetry breaking, could travel faster than the speed of light in a vacuum.”

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Jerzy Paczos others2024. Covariant quantum field theory of tachyons. Physics Revision D 110(1):015006; doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.110.015006

This article is a version of a press release provided by the University of Warsaw.

Source: www.sci.news