Illustration of a carcass of Ichthyotitan severnensis washed up on the beach
Sergey Krasovsky
The fossilized remains of an ancient 200 million-year-old ichthyosaur unearthed on the coast of southwest England may be some of the largest marine reptiles ever discovered.
In 2020, amateur fossil hunters stumbled upon a huge chunk of bone at Blue Anchor Beach in Somerset. Upon further inspection, dean lomax He and his colleagues at the University of Manchester in England quickly realized that it was a fragment of the jawbone of a giant ichthyosaur, a type of reptile that roamed the oceans between 250 million and 90 million years ago. Noticed.
Subsequent excavations on the beach uncovered 11 more fragments, and the team was able to partially piece together the bone at the back of the jaw, called the mandible.
“It was clear that this was another giant jawbone,” Lomax said. “So I was very, very excited.”
After comparing the partial exohorn bone with the complete exoskeleton of other ichthyosaurs, the researchers estimated that the entire bone was at least 2 meters long, meaning the animal was about 20 to 25 meters long.
“We're working on something really huge,” Lomax says. “It would definitely be the largest officially described marine reptile.”
The properties of the exoceratops, which match those reported in 2018, mean both fossils must belong to previously undescribed ichthyosaur species, Lomax said.named by the team Ichthyotitan severnensismeaning giant fish lizard of the River Severn.
The site is about 202 million years old, just before the great global extinction event that wiped out many species, including many giant ichthyosaurs.
“They are quite literally the last giants,” Lomax says. “No ichthyosaur will ever come close to this size again.”
Driver abandons car after rainstorm in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, April 17
Christopher Pike/Bloomberg/Getty
Record rainfall has hit the Arabian Peninsula this week, causing flooding in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and other coastal cities in the United Arab Emirates. The extreme weather sparked speculation on social media that the UAE’s long-standing cloud seeding program may have played a role. However, cloud seeding almost certainly does not have a significant impact on flooding.
How unusual was the recent rain in the Arabian Peninsula?
It was the most extreme event in the UAE since record-keeping began in 1949. according to to the state-run Emirates News Agency. From April 15th to 16th, some parts of the country received more than their normal annual rainfall in a 24-hour period. Heavy rains in desert regions are not uncommon, but they are not unheard of – as the UAE sees it. heavy rain and flooding For example, 2016.
A drainage system in a coastal city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has been overwhelmed by spills, causing flooding. Dramatic images of a plane driving through stagnant water at Dubai International Airport have been widely shared online.
In neighboring Oman, died in flash flood At least 18 people. Parts of Bahrain, Qatar and Saudi Arabia also experienced unusual rainfall.
What is cloud seeding? Did it affect extreme rain?
Cloud seeding is a way to increase precipitation, From about the 1940s. This involves spraying powders such as silver iodide onto clouds from airplanes or rockets, or burning them from stations on the ground. Droplets of supercooled water form around these particles and fall to the ground as rain or snow.
Since 2002, the UAE has maintained one of the largest cloud seeding programs in the world. Planes regularly fly cloud-seeding missions in an effort to increase freshwater resources in arid regions.
Meteorologists at the UAE’s National Center of Meteorology (NCM) have further fueled speculation that cloud formations may be responsible for the recent rains. Saidbloomberg news That in the days before the storm, planes had spread clouds over the country. However, NCM later stated: statement That no seed was sown during the storm.
“We take the safety of our employees, pilots and aircraft very seriously,” the company said. “NCM does not conduct cloud seeding operations during extreme weather conditions.”
Even if cloud formation had occurred during the storm, it would have had at most a small effect on precipitation and would have been localized. The extent of rainfall across several countries and the generally limited influence of cloud species suggest that cloud occurrence almost certainly does not play a significant role. “There is no technology that can create or even significantly alter this type of rainfall event.” Maarten Ambaum at the University of Reading, UK statement.
He noted that cloud seeding would have little impact on clouds that were already predicted to bring rain to the region. And that assumes that cloud seeding is effective at all.
“Many claims of successful cloud seeding are false, scientifically flawed, or actually fraudulent,” he says. Andrew Dessler at Texas A&M University. “This makes most atmospheric scientists very skeptical about cloud formation.”
What weather factors were behind the rain?
The extreme precipitation was caused by large storms called mesoscale convective systems. Suzanne Gray Researchers at the University of Reading say this happens “when many individual thunderstorms coalesce to form a single large high-level cloud shield.”
Forecasters had predicted a high risk of flooding in the area for at least a week before the storm.Writing in progress XJeff Berardelli, a meteorologist at WFLA-TV in Florida, linked the storm to a blocking pattern created by a slow-moving jet stream.
Has climate change made rain worse?
Further analysis is needed to link this particular event to climate change, but climate change likely plays a role.
“These types of heavy rainfall events are likely to become more extreme with climate change, as a warming atmosphere retains more water vapor,” Ambaum said. Changes in temperature can also affect atmospheric circulation patterns in the form of changes in precipitation.
For example, recent study The same type of storm that caused this extreme rainfall has occurred in the region 95 times since 2000, with the most frequent occurrences on the Arabian Peninsula in March and April, researchers found. However, it has also been found that the duration of these storms has increased over the UAE since 2000, which may be linked to rising temperatures.
Alternative climate modeling study They predict that annual rainfall in the UAE will increase by 10 to 25 percent by mid-century, characterized by more intense precipitation events.
Hala Point neuromorphic computer is powered by Intel’s Loihi 2 chip
Intel Corporation
Intel has developed the world’s largest neuromorphic computer, a device that aims to mimic the behavior of the human brain. The company hopes to be able to run more advanced AI models than traditional computers can run, but experts say the device will not be able to compete with, let alone surpass, the cutting-edge. says there are engineering hurdles to overcome.
Expectations for neuromorphic computers are high because they are inherently different from traditional machines. While regular computers use a processor to perform operations and store data in separate memory, neuromorphic devices use artificial neurons for both storage and calculation, similar to our brains. To do. This eliminates the need to pass data between components, which can be a bottleneck in today’s computers.
This architecture has the potential to result in much greater energy efficiency, and Intel says its new Hala Point neuromorphic computer will solve an optimization problem that involves finding an optimal solution to a problem given certain constraints. It claims to use 100 times less energy than traditional machines when running. It also trains and runs AI models that use chains of neurons, similar to how a real brain processes information, rather than mechanically passing input through each layer of artificial neurons as in current models. New methods may also become possible.
Hala Point contains 1.15 billion artificial neurons across 1152 Loihi 2 chips, capable of 380 trillion synaptic operations per second. mike davis Despite this power, Intel says it takes up only six racks of space in a standard server case, which is about as much space as a microwave oven. Larger machines will also be possible, Davis said. “We built a system of this scale because, honestly, one billion neurons was a good number,” he says. “So there were no special technical engineering challenges that would cause us to stop at this level.”
No other existing machine can match Harapoint’s scale, but Deep South, a neuromorphic computer due for completion later this year, is said to be capable of 228 trillion synaptic operations per second.
The Loihi 2 chip is still a prototype that Intel has produced in small numbers, but Davis said the real bottleneck is the processing required to take a real-world problem, translate it into a format that can run on a neuromorphic computer, and run it. It is said to be in the software layer. process. This process, like neuromorphic computing in general, is still in its infancy. “Software is a big limiting factor,” he says. That means there’s still little point in building a large machine.
Intel has suggested that machines like Hala Point could create AI models that continuously learn, rather than having to be trained from scratch to learn new tasks like current models do. Masu.but james knight Researchers at the University of Sussex in the UK dismissed this as “hype”.
Knight points out that current models like ChatGPT are trained using graphics cards running in parallel, which means many chips can be used to train the same model. But since neuromorphic computers operate on a single input and cannot be trained in parallel, it could take decades to even initially train something like ChatGPT on such hardware. He says it’s expensive, let alone come up with a way to enable continuous learning once it’s up and running.
Although current neuromorphic hardware is not suitable for training large-scale AI models from scratch, Davis said that one day pre-trained models could be used to learn new tasks over time. He said he hopes it will be possible. “Although this method is still in the research phase, this is a kind of continuous learning problem that large-scale neuromorphic systems like Hala Point can solve in a very efficient way in the future. “It’s considered,” he says.
Knight said neuromorphic computers could solve many other computer science problems as the tools needed for developers to write software for these problems to run on their own hardware become more mature. We are optimistic that we can improve this and increase efficiency at the same time.
It may also offer a better path toward human-level intelligence, also known as artificial general intelligence (AGI), although many AI experts believe that large-scale language models that power things like ChatGPT I think it’s impossible. “I think it’s becoming less and less of a controversial opinion,” Knight says. “The dream is that one day neuromorphic computing will allow us to create brain-like models.”
Changing the color of crops may make it easier to distinguish between target plants and weeds
John Martin – Photography/Alamy
Common crops such as wheat and corn could be genetically modified to be brightly colored to make them easier for weeding robots to work with, researchers have suggested.
Weeding reduces the need for herbicides, but the artificial intelligence models that power weeding robots can have trouble distinguishing weeds from crops that are similar in shape and color.
To avoid this problem, Pedro Correia Researchers from the University of Copenhagen in Denmark and their colleagues have suggested that crop genomes could be adapted to express pigments such as anthocyanins, which make blueberries blue, and carotenoids, which make carrots orange.
It is also possible to grow crops with unusually shaped leaves or other traits that are invisible to the naked eye but can be detected by sensors such as those in the infrared spectrum.
Correia said AI's weeding struggles could get worse as wild species adapt to agriculture, taking advantage of their ability to cope with changing climate. This type of new domestication can produce crops that are more environmentally sustainable and higher yielding, but can also be difficult to distinguish from their unchanged ancestors.
“We're trying to change a very small number of genes to increase productivity,” Correia says. “It would be great if he could change one or two more genes to make them more recognizable and to be able to use robots to weed.”
charles fox The University of Lincoln in the UK says there is precedent for intentionally changing the color of crops. Orange carrots were not common until producers selectively bred stable varieties. But he thinks genetic modification is probably not the easiest way to improve the effectiveness of weed-killing robots.
“Other methods would probably be much easier and less controversial because people generally don't like genetic modification,” Fox says. “Sounds like a lot of effort.”
Correia says he's not suggesting creating something new or adding animal genes. The research involves modifying crop genomes to incorporate genes for pigments already produced in other plants. “We're just making some changes to the crop so they can eat it too,” he says. “We'll have to test everything and test for side effects and things like that, but I think it's quite possible.”
Pessimism is a dirty word in climate policy circles. There are good reasons for this. Especially because while optimism can encourage positive change, assuming the worst can paralyze us and prevent us from taking action. But when it comes to climate modeling, a certain amount of negativity can be a good thing.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is already working on various models and pathways to assess how to limit warming to 1.5°C and how to ensure that carbon emissions continue unabated or experience many possibilities in between. I use it to hedge my bets. These pathways are backed by thousands of scientific papers, tons of data, and the brains of the world’s climate scientists, but like all models, they are built on assumptions.
One of the key assumptions in the scenario of keeping temperature rise below 1.5°C is that the technology to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere will be rapidly perfected in the near future. This is not an unreasonable prediction, given human ingenuity and strong incentives to do so. But incorporating carbon capture technology into these models is like declaring that winning the lottery will balance the household budget. If you can’t reduce your spending to an affordable level, you better hope that a big prize is on the way.
As the two articles in this issue demonstrate, this is a dangerous approach. A detailed analysis of geological carbon storage plans shows that it is at least very unlikely, if not impossible, to meet the levels envisioned for many 1.5°C pathways. (“Our plans to tackle climate change with carbon storage add up”). The chances of winning the lottery don’t seem that high. On the other hand, we also received an unexpected carbon bill in the form of melting Arctic permafrost, releasing more greenhouse gases than previously accounted for. Frozen soil is now a major net source of greenhouse gases (see “Frozen soil is now a major net source of greenhouse gases”).
While these revisions in our understanding of climate change are entirely expected and to be welcomed, they do signal that the challenges we face over the next decade will only get more difficult. . Rather than narrowing down climate models until the numbers roughly match the 1.5°C goal, perhaps it would be better to take a more pessimistic outlook and accelerate efforts to limit the damage.
Forget about megalodons being scary, there’s a new prehistoric creature in town with jaws that may rival Meg’s in power, making it the largest marine reptile ever identified on Earth.
The giant jawbone of this beast measures over 2 meters (6.6 feet), allowing for a bite force strong enough to crush bones. In comparison, the jawbone of a megalodon, which was about the same size, measured only 0.5 meters (1.6 feet).
Experts believe that this massive new ichthyosaur species was a staggering 25 meters (82 feet) long, similar in size to a modern blue whale. (Megalodon was about 15-20 meters, or 65 feet in length).
The fossilized remains of this creature were found on the Somerset coast.
The research team named this new species Ichthyotitan severnensis, meaning “Giant Fish Lizard of the Severn.” These bones date back to around 202 million years ago, towards the end of the Triassic period, just before the dinosaur extinction event.
The first jawbone of this mysterious species was discovered in 2016, with this recent find confirming its existence.
Dr. Dean Lomax, a paleontologist at the University of Manchester, expressed excitement about the discovery, hoping that more complete specimens may be found in the future.
Lomax and his team compared the two jawbones and found shared unique features, indicating they were from the same geological period.
Ruby Reynolds, an 11-year-old girl, discovered a new salangular on the beach in 2020, leading to further discoveries by her and her team, including the final piece of the jawbone in 2022.
Now 15, Ruby Reynolds has contributed to naming the new species and is already a published scientist, listed as a contributor to research in the journal PLoS ONE.
With more than 5,500 exoplanets detected, the search for life is entering a new era. Astrobiologists from Cornell University and the University of Minnesota have used life on Earth as a guide to look beyond the lush landscape and expand our ability to detect signs of surface life on other worlds. A new study characterizes the reflectance spectra of purple sulfur and non-sulfur bacteria from different environments.
Coelho to extend the baseline for finding life in the universe other. They measured the reflectance of purple bacteria growing in different anoxic and aerobic environments. Image credit: Sci.News.
From houseplants and gardens to fields and forests, green is the color most associated with life on Earth’s surface. On Earth, conditions were favorable for the evolution of organisms that carried out photosynthesis, using the green pigment chlorophyll a to produce oxygen.
But an Earth-like planet orbiting another star could look completely different, receiving little or no visible light or oxygen and instead relying on photosynthesis, like some environments on Earth. may be covered in bacteria that use invisible infrared light to promote
Many such bacteria on Earth contain purple pigments instead of green, and in a world where they are predominantly purple, they could produce unique “light fingerprints” that can be detected by next generation ground and space telescopes. will be generated.
Ligia Fonseca Coelho, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow at Cornell University’s Carl Sagan Institute, said, “Purple bacteria are able to thrive under a wide range of conditions, making them one of the leading candidates for life that has the potential to dominate many different worlds.” “We have become one,” he said.
“We are building a database of signs of life so that telescopes can detect life even if they don’t look exactly like what we encounter around us every day,” said Dr. Lisa Kaltenegger, director of the Carl Sagan Institute. We need to make sure we don’t miss out,” he added. at Cornell University.
For this study, the authors collected samples of more than 20 types of purple sulfur and non-sulfur bacteria that can be found in a variety of environments, from shallow waters, beaches, and wetlands to deep-sea hydrothermal vents. collected and grown.
Bacteria, collectively known as purple bacteria, actually have a variety of colors, including yellow, orange, brown, and red, due to pigments related to the pigments that make tomatoes red and carrots orange.
They use a simpler photosynthetic system that utilizes a form of chlorophyll that absorbs infrared light and produces no oxygen, and they thrive in low-energy red or infrared light.
They were likely widespread on early Earth before the advent of plant-type photosynthesis, and may be particularly suited to planets orbiting cool red dwarfs, the most common type in the galaxy. there is.
“They are already thriving in certain areas here,” Dr. Coelho said.
“Imagine if they weren’t competing with green plants, algae, and bacteria. The red sun might give them the most favorable conditions for photosynthesis.”
After measuring the purple bacteria’s biological pigments and optical fingerprints, the researchers created a model of an Earth-like planet with varying conditions and cloud cover.
“In a variety of simulated environments, both wet and dry purple bacteria produced a dark-colored biosignature,” Dr. Coelho said.
“If purple bacteria thrive on the surface of frozen Earth, ocean worlds, snowball Earths, or modern Earth orbiting cooler stars, we have the tools to search for them. can do.”
team’s work will appear in Royal Astronomical Society Monthly Notices.
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Ligia Fonseca Coelho other. 2024. Purple is the new green. Spectrum of biological pigments and a purple world similar to the Earth. MNRAS 530 (2): 1363-1368; doi: 10.1093/mnras/stae601
Physicist from CMS cooperation at CERN just published the combination of CMS measurements that helped establish the discovery of the Higgs boson in 2012.
CMS event display showing a Higgs boson candidate decaying into two photons. It is one of two decay channels that were key to the particle’s discovery. Image credit: CERN.
“Physical measurements based on data from CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC) are typically reported as central values and corresponding uncertainties,” the CMS physicists said.
“For example, shortly after observing the Higgs boson in the LHC’s proton-proton collision data, CMS determined its mass to be 125.3 plus or minus 0.6 GeV (the mass of a proton is about 1 GeV).”
“But this figure is just a quick summary of the measurements, and is like the title of a book.”
In measurement, the complete information extracted from the data is encoded into a mathematical function known as a likelihood function. This function includes measurements of quantities and dependence on external factors.
“For CMS measurements, these factors include the calibration of the CMS detector, the accuracy of the CMS detector simulation used to facilitate the measurements, and other systematic effects,” the researchers said.
“To fully understand the nasty collisions that occur at the LHC, many aspects need to be determined, so the likelihood function for measurements based on LHC data can be complex.”
“For example, the likelihood function for the combined CMS Higgs boson discovery measurement that CMS just released in electronic form has nearly 700 parameters for a fixed value of the Higgs boson mass.”
“Only one of these, the number of Higgs bosons found in the data, is an important physical parameter, and the rest model systematic uncertainties.”
“Each of these parameters corresponds to a dimension of a multidimensional abstract space in which the likelihood function can be drawn.”
“It is difficult for humans to visualize spaces that contain multiple dimensions, much less spaces that contain many dimensions.”
The new release of the CMS Higgs boson discovery measurement likelihood function, the first publicly available likelihood function from this collaboration, allows researchers to avoid this problem.
Using a publicly accessible likelihood function, physicists outside the CMS Collaboration can now accurately incorporate CMS Higgs boson discovery measurements into their studies.
“The release of this likelihood function and the Combine software used to model likelihood and fit data marks another milestone in CMS’s 10-year commitment to fully open science.” said the people.
“This joins hundreds of open access publications, the release of nearly 5 petabytes of CMS data on the CERN Open Data Portal, and the publication of the entire software framework on GitHub.”
Brown dwarfs, often referred to as “failed stars,” are a fascinating type of celestial object. They are too large to be considered planets, yet too small to undergo the fusion process necessary to become fully-fledged stars.
One such brown dwarf, named WISEP J193518.59–154620.3 (or W1935 for short), is believed to be observable from Earth, especially towards the north and south poles. Astronomers suspect that it may exhibit an aurora similar to the mesmerizing aurora borealis, but on a much brighter scale.
Research featured in the journal Nature utilized NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to study W1935. This brown dwarf is relatively close to us in the galaxy, approximately 47 light-years away from Earth.
Upon pointing a space telescope the size of a tennis court towards the brown dwarf, researchers noticed a peculiar glow emanating from it.
“We were expecting to detect methane as it’s abundant in these brown dwarfs. However, instead of absorbing light, we found methane emitting light,” stated Dr. Jackie Faherty, the lead author of the study. “My initial reaction was, ‘What’s going on? Why is this object emitting methane?'”
Co-author Dr. Ben Burningham mentioned to BBC Science Focus that in the search for alien auroras in objects like W1935, astronomers traditionally focused on emissions from other gases found higher up in the object’s atmosphere.
“Methane emissions were not anticipated to be significant, but now it appears to be a significant factor,” he added.
Computer modeling of W1935 to elucidate the unusual methane emissions revealed a surprising temperature inversion, where the atmosphere gets warmer with increasing altitude. This phenomenon is common for planets orbiting stars but unexpected for an isolated object like W1935 without an apparent external heat source.
Further investigation led researchers to compare W1935 with Jupiter and Saturn from our solar system, which also exhibit methane emissions and temperature inversions.
The observed features in the solar system giants are attributed to auroras, luminous phenomena generated when energetic particles interact with the planet’s magnetic field and atmosphere.
Auroras are known to heat the upper atmosphere of planets, aligning with the researchers’ findings regarding W1935.
However, a missing element in the puzzle was the source of particles causing high-energy auroras in our solar system, which stem from the sun and travel as solar wind. Since W1935 is a rogue star without a host star, solar wind was ruled out as a possible explanation.
Scientists hypothesize that an undiscovered active satellite could be generating the alien aurora observed in W1935, akin to moons around Jupiter and Saturn that expel material into space enhancing the gas giants’ auroras.
“W1935 presents an intriguing expansion of solar system phenomena without any stellar illumination to clarify it,” Faherty remarked. “With Webb, we can delve into the chemistry and unravel the similarities or differences in auroral processes beyond our solar system.”
About our experts
Jackie Faherty is a senior scientist and education manager at the American Museum of Natural History, focusing on detecting and characterizing brown dwarfs and exoplanets. She advocates for increasing diversity in STEM fields through her unique outreach efforts.
Ben Burningham is an Associate Professor and Head of Outreach at the University of Hertfordshire, specializing in brown dwarfs, substellar objects, and superplanets. Burningham has contributed to research published in the Astrophysical Journal, Nature, and Astronomical Journal.
Bumblebees may be more resilient than previously thought
Aaron Bastin/Alamy
A lab error has revealed that hibernating bumblebees can survive for at least seven days even when completely submerged in water. This ability suggests that beleaguered insects are more resilient than previously thought.
Sabrina Rondeau I came across this discovery by chance while researching eastern bumblebees (St. impatiens) in a laboratory at the University of Guelph, Canada. One week, she was checking on the hibernating queen bees kept in a hibernation chamber, a tube filled with soil in the refrigerator, when moisture overflowed into the tube and four queens were submerged in the water. I noticed that I was sinking. “I was a little surprised,” she says. “I was sure the queens were dead.”
To everyone's surprise, after draining the water, the bees woke up unharmed. Rondeau had a hunch that undiscovered abilities were at work.
She systematically drowned 21 queens over seven days, and 17 of them, or 81%, survived the flood. “This is a very high survival rate, not much different than before. [hibernation survival] When there’s no water,” Rondeau says. This achievement is probably due to the fact that dormant bees reduce their metabolic rate. This means that bees require very little oxygen, which can be met by air stored within their bodies.
“Wow, the fact that you can submerge a land animal in water for a week and find that it's still alive is really amazing,” he says. Lars Chitka at Queen Mary University of London.
Male bees and worker bees die before the winter, but the queen bee endures the cold for up to eight months by hibernating, waking up in the spring to begin building a new nest. The number of queens that survive is directly related to future population growth.
These bees hibernate underground, so extreme weather can destroy their safe haven. “It's a pinch point in their life cycle,” he says Nigel Lane, Dr. Rondeau's supervisor at the University of Guelph, Canada. This is a problem because about a third of all bumblebee species are already in decline. Finding that they are physically adapted to survive potential flooding is “really, really good news,” he says.
A rogue wave is a single swell that is much higher than nearby waves and can cause damage to ships and coastal infrastructure. Ocean waves are one of the most powerful natural forces on Earth, and they could become even more powerful as global trends suggest ocean winds will blow even stronger with climate change. there is. Scientists at the University of Melbourne have discovered in a new study that rogue waves are generated by strong winds and unpredictable wave patterns, confirming an idea previously only proven in the lab.
Toffoli other.We report direct observations of surface waves from a stereo camera system and simultaneous measurements of wind speed during an expedition across the Southern Ocean during the Antarctic winter aboard a South African icebreaker. SA Agulhas II. Image credit: Alessandro Toffoli.
“Rogue waves are huge, twice as tall as nearby waves, and appear out of nowhere,” said University of Melbourne’s Professor Alessandro Toffoli, lead author of the study.
Using cutting-edge technology and embarking on an expedition to one of the most unstable ocean regions on Earth, Professor Toffoli and colleagues have introduced a new technique for 3D imaging of ocean waves.
Operating a stereo camera on a South African icebreaker SA Agulhas II During their 2017 Antarctic expedition, they captured valuable insights into the behavior of waves in this remote region.
Their method, which mimics human vision through continuous imaging, allowed researchers to reconstruct the wavy ocean surface in three dimensions, providing unprecedented clarity into ocean wave dynamics. Ta.
The first scientific measurement of a rogue wave was the 25.6 m Draupner wave recorded in the North Sea in 1995. Since the beginning of the 21st century, 16 cases of suspected rogue waves have been reported to him.
“Scientists have long theorized that Antarctica’s rough seas and fierce winds can cause large waves to ‘self-amplify’, resulting in rogue wave frequencies. “However, this has not yet been tested underwater,” Professor Toffoli said.
The team’s observations, using numerical and laboratory studies that suggested the role of wind in the formation of rogue waves, provided validation of these theories in a real marine environment.
“Our observations show that unique sea conditions with rough waves occur during the ‘young’ stage of the waves, when they are most susceptible to wind effects. This suggests that wind parameters are the missing link,” Professor Toffoli said.
“Wind creates a chaotic situation where waves of different dimensions and directions coexist.”
“The wind causes young waves to grow higher, longer and faster.”
“During this self-amplification, waves grow disproportionately at the expense of neighboring waves.”
“We show that young waves are showing signs of self-amplification and are likely to be wind-driven.”
“Once every six hours, we recorded waves that were twice as high as nearby waves.”
“This reflects laboratory models. The theory is that sea conditions are more likely to self-amplify, creating more rogue waves.”
“In contrast, no rough waves were detected in mature oceans that are not influenced by winds.”
The authors highlight the critical importance of integrating wind dynamics into predictive models for rough sea prediction.
“This shows that scientists need to take wind into account thoroughly when developing tools to predict rogue waves,” Professor Toffoli said.
of findings It was published in the magazine physical review letter.
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A. Toffoli other. 2024. Observation of the bad waters of the Southern Ocean. Physics.pastor rhett 132 (15): 154101; doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.132.154101
An international team of scientists has generated the highest quality reference genome to date for coffee arabica, the world's most popular coffee species (arabica coffee tree). Their results suggest that this species developed through natural hybridization between two other coffee species in the forests of Ethiopia more than 600,000 years ago. coffee tree and robusta coffee (Coffea genus).
arabica coffee tree. Image credit: Sci.News.
Arabica is the source of approximately 60% of all coffee products in the world, and its seeds help millions of people start their day and stay up late.
Arabica populations waxed and waned throughout millennia of Earth's heating and cooling periods, eventually being cultivated in Ethiopia and Yemen and then spreading around the world.
Professor Victor Albert of the University at Buffalo said: “We are using genomic information from living plants to go back in time and map the long history of Arabica as accurately as possible, and to understand how modern cultivars have evolved. “We have clarified whether the two are interrelated.'' .
From a new reference genome created using state-of-the-art DNA sequencing technology and advanced data science, Professor Albert and his colleagues identified 39 Arabica species and the 18 that Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus used to name the species. Even century specimens could be sequenced.
“Although other public references exist on Arabica coffee, the quality of our team's research is very high,” said Dr. Patrick Descombe from Nestlé Research.
“We used state-of-the-art genomics approaches, including long-read and short-read high-throughput DNA sequencing, to create the most advanced, complete and continuous Arabica reference genome to date.”
arabica coffee tree It is formed as a natural hybrid between Coffea genus and coffee treethen received two sets of chromosomes from each parent.
Scientists have struggled to pinpoint exactly when and where this allopolyploidization phenomenon occurred, with estimates ranging from 10,000 years ago to 1 million years ago.
To find evidence of the original event, the researchers ran the genomes of various Arabica species through a computational modeling program, looking for traces of the species' foundation.
The model shows three population bottlenecks in the history of Arabica, the oldest of which occurred about 29,000 generations, or 610,000 years ago.
this suggests arabica coffee tree It was formed shortly before that, between 610,000 and 1 million years ago.
“So the hybridization that produced Arabica was not human-made. It is clear that this polyploidy phenomenon predates modern humans and coffee cultivation,” Professor Albert said.
Coffee trees were long thought to have developed in Ethiopia, but the varieties the researchers collected around the Great Rift Valley, which stretches from southeastern Africa to Asia, showed a clear geographic divide.
The wild species studied all originate from the western side, whereas all cultivated varieties originate from the eastern side, closest to the Bab al-Mandab strait that separates Africa and Yemen.
This is consistent with evidence that coffee cultivation may have originated primarily in Yemen around the 15th century.
Indian monk Baba Budhan believed it Around 1600 AD, the legendary “seven seeds” were smuggled out of Yemen, establishing the Indian Arabica variety and setting the stage for today's global spread of coffee.
“It appears that Yemen's coffee diversity may be the originator of all of today's major varieties,” Dr. Descombe said.
“Coffee is not a crop that has been highly hybridized to create new varieties, like corn or wheat.”
“People mainly chose their favorite varieties and grew them. So the varieties we have today have probably been around for a long time.”
East Africa's geo-climatic history is well documented through research on human origins, allowing researchers to understand how climate change and wild and cultivated Arabica populations have fluctuated over time. can be compared.
Modeling shows a long period of low population size between 20,000 and 100,000 years ago, combined with a prolonged drought that is thought to have hit the region between 40,000 and 70,000 years ago. This almost corresponds to a cold climate.
The population then increased during the Wet Period in Africa, about 6,000 to 15,000 years ago, and growing conditions are thought to have become more favorable.
Around the same time, about 30,000 years ago, wild species diverged from the varieties that would eventually become domesticated by humans.
“They still occasionally breed with each other, but this probably stopped around 8,000 to 9,000 years ago, around the end of the African Humid Period and the widening of the straits due to rising sea levels,” said Yarko, a researcher at the Southern Ocean Institute of Technology. Dr. Sarojärvi said. University.
of result Published in an online journal this week natural genetics.
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J. Sarojärvi other. 2024. Allopolyploid genomes and population genomics arabica coffee tree Uncovering the history of modern coffee variety diversification. Nat Genet 56, 721-731; doi: 10.1038/s41588-024-01695-w
Tardigrades can withstand amazing amounts of ionizing radiation, about 1,000 times more lethal than humans. How they do so is not fully understood. In a new study, scientists at the University of North Carolina found that tardigrade species Hypsibius exemplaris Gamma irradiation causes DNA damage, but that damage can be repaired. This study shows that this species has a specific and strong response to ionizing radiation. In short, irradiation induces rapid upregulation of many DNA repair genes.
Artist's impression of tardigrade species Hypsibius exemplaris.
First discovered in 1773, tardigrades are a diverse group of microscopic invertebrates famous for their ability to withstand extreme conditions.
Also known as tardigrades or moss piglets, they can live up to 60 years, grow to a maximum size of 0.5 mm, and are best seen under a microscope.
Tardigrades can survive for up to 30 years without food or water at temperatures as low as -272 degrees Celsius (-457 degrees Fahrenheit) or as hot as 150 degrees Celsius (-302 degrees Fahrenheit) and for a few minutes at temperatures as low as -20 degrees Celsius. can. Minus 4 degrees Celsius (minus 4 degrees Fahrenheit) continues for decades.
It can withstand pressures from virtually 0 atmospheres in outer space to 1,200 atmospheres at the bottom of the Mariana Trench.
It is also resistant to radiation levels up to 5,000-6,200 Gy.
“What we saw surprised us. Tardigrades are behaving in ways we didn’t expect,” said researcher Professor Bob Goldstein from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
In their research, Professor Goldstein and his colleagues Hypsibius exemplaris Tardigrades can also withstand strong radiation.
The researchers found that although tardigrades are not immune to DNA damage, and that radiation damages their DNA, tardigrades can repair extensive damage.
They were surprised to discover that tardigrades can increase production of DNA repair genes.
Unlike humans, they are able to produce extremely high levels of DNA repair gene products, making them some of the most abundant gene products of any animal.
“These animals have an incredible response to radiation, and that seems to be the secret to their extreme survivability,” said Dr. Courtney Clark-Hachtel, a researcher at the University of North Carolina at Asheville. Ta.
“What we’re learning about how tardigrades overcome radiation stress could lead to new ideas about how we try to protect other animals and microorganisms from harmful radiation. “
Courtney M. Clark Hucktell other.Tardigrade Hypsibius exemplaris Dramatically upregulates DNA repair pathway genes in response to ionizing radiation. current biology, published online on April 12, 2024. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2024.03.019
Pluto's surface is dominated by Sputnik Planitia, a giant pear-shaped basin. Although it appears to be of impact origin, modeling has not yet accounted for its unique shape. Planetary scientists at the University of Bern have proposed an impact mechanism that would both recreate the topography of the basin and explain the alignment around the Pluto-Charon axis. According to their research, Sputnik Planum was created by a collision between Pluto and a planet about 700 km (435 miles) in diameter.
This mosaic of Pluto was created from the New Horizons LORRI image taken on July 14, 2015 from a distance of 49,700 miles (80,000 km). This view is projected from 1,118 miles (1,800 km) above Pluto's equator, from northeast over the dark, cratered Cthulhu region to a bright, smooth, icy plain called Sputnik Planum. I am. Pluto's north pole is off the left side of the image. This mosaic was created using panchromatic imagery from the New Horizons LORRI camera, with color overlaid from New Horizons' built-in Ralph color mapper. Image credit: SA Stern other.
In 2015, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft revealed that Pluto's surface is geologically complex.
The region is dominated by a 1,200 x 2,000 km (746 x 1,243 mi) nitrogen ice-filled basin called Sputnik Planitia.
Sputnik Planitia is located in the western part of Pluto's Tombow region, a famous heart-shaped structure.
This basin is 3 to 4 km (1.9 to 2.5 miles) lower in elevation than most of the dwarf planet's surface.
“Sputnik Planitia's bright appearance is due to the fact that it is filled with mainly white nitrogen ice, which moves and convects to constantly smooth the surface,” said Dr. Harry Ballantyne, a planetary scientist at the University of Bern. Ta.
“Due to the low altitude, this nitrogen likely accumulated quickly after the impact.”
“The eastern part of the 'heart' is also covered with a similar but much thinner layer of nitrogen ice, the origin of which is not yet clear to scientists, but is probably related to Sputnik Planum.”
“The elongated shape of Sputnik Planitia strongly suggests that the impact was an oblique impact rather than a direct head-on impact,” said Dr. Martin Jutzi, a planetary scientist at the University of Bern.
This high-resolution image of Pluto was taken by New Horizons on July 14. Pluto's surface boasts an astonishing range of subtle colors, highlighted in this view by a rainbow of pale blues, yellows, oranges, and deep reds. Many landforms have unique colors that tell complex geological and climatological stories that scientists are only beginning to decipher. Image credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute.
The authors used smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) simulation software to digitally recreate such collisions while varying both the composition of Pluto and its impactors, as well as the speed and angle of the impactors. did.
These simulations confirmed our suspicions about the oblique angle of the impact and determined the configuration of the impactor.
“Pluto's core is so cold that the rocks remain very hard and do not melt despite the heat of the impact, and the angle and low speed of the impact prevents the impactor's core from sinking into Pluto's core, leaving it intact. “It's like a splatter,” Dr. Ballantyne said.
Dr. Eric Asfaug, a planetary scientist at the University of Arizona, added: “Somewhere beneath Sputnik are the remains of the core of another giant object that Pluto was not able to fully digest.”
“The strength and relatively low velocity of this core were the keys to the success of these simulations. At low strengths, the highly symmetrical remnants look nothing like the teardrop shape observed on New Horizons. surface features are obtained.
“We're used to thinking of planetary collisions as incredibly violent events, and we can ignore the details except for things like energy, momentum, and density.”
“But in distant solar systems the velocities are very slow and the solid ice is strong, so the calculations need to be more accurate. That's where the fun begins.”
The research team's findings also shed new light on Pluto's internal structure.
“In fact, a giant impact like the one simulated is much more likely to have occurred very early in Pluto's history,” the researchers said.
“But this poses a problem: giant depressions like Sputnik Planitia are expected by the laws of physics to move slowly towards the dwarf planet's poles over time because of the lack of mass. ” But paradoxically, it is close to the equator. ”
“A previous theoretical explanation was that Pluto, like several other planetary bodies in the outer solar system, has an ocean of liquid water underground.”
“Previous explanations suggest that Pluto's icy crust thins in the Sputnik Planum region, where the oceans swell and liquid water is denser than ice, creating a mass surplus that triggers a shift toward the equator. It will be.”
“But new research offers a different perspective.”
“In our simulations, all of Pluto's primordial mantle is excavated by the collisions, and as the impactor's nuclear material splatters into Pluto's core, it creates a localized overmass that causes the absence of a subsurface ocean. Or, at best, it could be explained as moving toward the equator without the ocean being present, “very thin,'' Dr. Yutzi said.
“This novel and original origin of Pluto's heart-shaped feature may lead to a deeper understanding of Pluto's origins,” said Dr. Adeen Denton, a planetary scientist at the University of Arizona.
of result It was published in the magazine natural astronomy.
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HA Ballantine other. Sputnik Planum as an impact debris showing an ancient rocky mascon on oceanless Pluto. Nat Astron, published online on April 15, 2024. doi: 10.1038/s41550-024-02248-1
Parts of the Middle East were hit by heavy rains on Tuesday, leading to school closures in the United Arab Emirates and flooding at Dubai International Airport. Oman has reported at least 18 deaths in recent days due to the inclement weather.
The storm caused flooding on roads and dangerous conditions throughout the region. This area is typically dry and not used to heavy rainfall or flash floods.
Airport officials confirmed that flights to Dubai Airport had to be diverted temporarily due to the unusual weather events in the UAE. Statement
Cars drive through flooded roads in Dubai on Tuesday after a heavy rainstorm. Abdel Hadi Ramahi/Reuters
Video footage showed Dubai’s tarmac flooded, with planes navigating through floodwaters and support vehicles almost submerged, according to reports from Saudi Arabia’s Al Arabiya news agency.
Over 4.7 inches of rain fell in a day in the UAE, causing road and property flooding in Dubai. Associated Press reported.
The UAE’s National Emergency, Crisis and Disaster Management Authority advised people to stay home. Commenting on X’s post, they suggested parking vehicles in safe, elevated areas away from flood-prone zones.
Pedestrians cross a flooded road in Dubai on Tuesday. Anadolu (via Getty Images)
Private schools in the UAE were closed before the storm and government employees were advised to work remotely.
While the UAE is known for its dry climate, rain does occur occasionally during the winter.
In neighboring Oman, recent storms and heavy rain have led to the deaths of 10 school children and an adult driver in a flooded car, as reported by the Associated Press.
Other parts of the Middle East, such as Qatar and Saudi Arabia, also experienced unusually wet weather this week.
It’s unclear if recent storms have been influenced by global warming, but the warming atmosphere from climate change can hold more moisture, leading to stronger storms and heavier rainfall. Studies have suggested this possibility.
Using data from ESA’s Gaia mission, astronomers discovered a nearby binary system of massive stars orbiting a dormant star-derived black hole over a period of 11.6 years. The black hole’s estimated mass (33 solar masses) is significantly larger than all known stellar-mass black holes in the Milky Way and within the mass range of extragalactic black holes detected by gravitational waves.
Locations of the first three black holes discovered in the Milky Way by ESA’s Gaia mission. Image credit: ESA/Gaia/DPAC.
The binary star system in question is named Gaia BH3 and is located 1,926 light-years from Earth in the constellation Aquila.
Also known as Gaia DR3 4318465066420528000, LS II +14 13, and 2MASS J19391872+1455542, it consists of an old, very metal-poor giant star and a dormant stellar-mass black hole.
Gaia BH3 is the third dormant black hole discovered by ESA’s interstellar mapping satellite Gaia.
“This is the kind of discovery that only happens once in a research career,” said Dr. Pasquale Panuzzo, an astronomer at the CNRS and the Paris Observatory.
“So far, black holes this large have only been detected in distant galaxies by the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA collaboration, thanks to observations of gravitational waves.”
The average mass of the known stellar-origin black holes in our galaxy is about 10 times the mass of the Sun.
Astronomers face the pressing problem of explaining the origin of black holes as large as Gaia BH3.
Our current understanding of how massive stars evolve and die does not immediately explain how this type of black hole could be born.
Most theories predict that as massive stars age, a significant portion of their material is shed by powerful winds. Eventually, it will be partially blown into space when it explodes as a supernova.
The remainder of the core shrinks further, becoming either a neutron star or a black hole, depending on its mass.
It is extremely difficult to explain a core large enough to eventually become a black hole 30 times the mass of the Sun. But the clues to solving this mystery may lie very close to Gaia BH3.
The star, which orbits Gaia BH3 at about 16 times the distance between the Sun and Earth, is quite unusual and is an ancient giant that formed during the first two billion years after the Big Bang, when our galaxy began to form. It’s a star.
It belongs to the family of galactic stellar halos, which move in the opposite direction to the stars in the galactic disk.
Its orbit indicates that the star was probably part of a small galaxy, or globular cluster, that was swallowed up by the Milky Way more than 8 billion years ago.
This companion star contains almost no elements heavier than hydrogen or helium, indicating that the massive star that became Gaia BH3 may also have been extremely poor in heavy elements.
For the first time, the theory that the massive black holes observed in gravitational wave experiments were created by the collapse of primordial massive stars lacking heavy elements has been confirmed.
These early stars may have evolved differently from the massive stars we see in our galaxy today.
The composition of the companion star can also reveal the formation mechanism of this surprising binary system.
“We were surprised that the chemical composition of the companion star is similar to that seen in older, metal-poor stars in the Milky Way,” said Dr. Elisabetta Cuffo, an astronomer at the CNRS and the Paris Observatory.
“There is no evidence that this star was contaminated by material ejected from the supernova explosion of the massive star that became BH3.”
“This may suggest that the black hole acquired a mate from another star system for the first time after its birth.”
of the team paper be published in a magazine astronomy and astrophysics.
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P. Panuzzo other. (Gaia collaboration). 2024. Gaia astronomical measurements prior to release discovered a dormant black hole with the mass of 33 solar masses. A&A, in press. doi: 10.1051/0004-6361/202449763
This artist's impression shows the orbits of both a massive stellar black hole and its companion star
ESO/L. Calzada
Astronomers have discovered Gaia-BH3, the largest stellar black hole ever discovered. It has a mass 33 times that of the Sun and is dwarfed only by supermassive black holes and black holes formed by merging with other black holes.
At about 2000 light-years away, Gaia-BH3 is also the second closest black hole to Earth ever discovered. george seabroke Researchers at University College London used the Gaia Space Telescope to discover this stellar black hole, formed from a star that has reached the end of its life.
Because light cannot escape from a black hole, most black holes are discovered by looking for the glow of hot material orbiting around them and falling. However, BH3 is in a dormant state and does not phagocytize substances. Instead, researchers made their discovery by noticing the strange movement of a star that appeared to be orbiting a part of empty space.
The star itself is also unusual, being made almost entirely of hydrogen and helium. Most stars contain at least some heavy elements, which formed in the cores of massive stars and were distributed throughout the universe by supernovae. However, the first generation of stars would have had very low amounts of heavy elements. The composition of BH3's partner star suggests that the massive star that eventually collapsed to form BH3 was also one of these primitive objects and evolved differently from the way massive stars do today. suggests that it is possible. This would explain how black holes became so huge. If it had evolved like a normal star, it would be difficult to explain its size.
The discovery of such a massive black hole was not a complete surprise. Experiments looking for gravitational waves (ripples in space-time caused by the motion of heavy objects) have found signs of them in other galaxies.
“These gravitational wave measurements should lead us to expect that such a black hole exists in our galaxy, but until now it hasn't,” Seabrook said. And this should be just the beginning, he says. “This star is very bright, so if you find a star this bright, you generally expect to find many fainter stars.”
Three new species belong to the extinct genus Kangaroo Protemnodon was a common member of Cenozoic communities in Australia and New Guinea until extinction in the late Pleistocene.
Artist's impressions of newly described fossil species Protemnodon Viator and their relatives protemnodon anak, compared in scale with modern red kangaroos and eastern gray kangaroos. Image credit: T. Klarenbeek, Flinders University.
Protemnodon Kangaroos lived in Australia and New Guinea from about 5 million to 40,000 years ago.
The first species is Protemnodon Described in 1874 by British paleontologist Owen, he followed the common approach of the time, focusing primarily on fossilized teeth. He observed slight differences in teeth between specimens and described the teeth of six species. Protemnodon.
Protemnodon They looked similar to giant kangaroos, but were generally stockier and more muscular.
Some species weighed around 50 kg, while others were much larger than modern kangaroos.
However, one new species was named as part of the research – Protemnodon Viator – was much larger and weighed up to 170 kg. This is about twice the size of the largest male red kangaroo.
Protemnodon Viator They were well adapted to the arid habitats of central Australia and lived in areas similar to today's red kangaroos.
This species was a kangaroo with long limbs and could jump fairly quickly and efficiently.
The remaining two new species are Protemnodon Mamukura and Protemnodon dorsonae.
“Previously, some or all Protemnodon Dr Isaac Kerr, a paleontologist at Flinders University, says:
“However, our research suggests that this is true for only three or four species of animals. ProtemnodonIt could have animated things like quokkas and potoroos. Sometimes it would jump on four legs, sometimes on two legs. ”
“The newly described Protemnodon Mamukura Probably one of these. A large but thick-boned and strong kangaroo, it probably moved quite slowly and inefficiently. Perhaps it only rarely jumped when it was startled. ”
“The best fossils of this type come from Green Waterhole Cave in south-eastern South Australia, on the land of the Boadick people.”
“It is unusual for a single genus of kangaroos to live in such diverse environments. Protemnodon They are now known to inhabit a wide range of habitats, from the arid regions of central Australia to the rain-rich, forested mountains of Tasmania and New Guinea. ”
Protemnodon dorsonae Compared to the other two species, there are fewer known fossils and more mysteries. It was probably a medium speed hopper, something like a swamp wallaby.
“By about 40,000 years ago, all Protemnodon “It is now extinct in mainland Australia, but may survive for a little longer in New Guinea and Tasmania,” the authors said.
“This extinction occurred despite differences in size, adaptation, habitat, and geographic range.”
“For reasons that are not yet clear, the same thing did not occur in many similar relatives, such as wallaroos and giant kangaroos.” I might be able to answer that.”
“It's great that we now have some clarity on the identity of the animal species.” Protemnodon' said Professor Gavin Prideaux from Flinders University.
“Fossils of this genus are widespread and regularly discovered, but in many cases there is no way to be sure which species you are looking at.”
“This study may help researchers approach their studies with more confidence.” Protemnodon”
This finding is reported in the following article: paper Published in today's magazine Megataxa.
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Isaac AR Carr other. 2024. Systematics and paleontology of the late Cenozoic genus Kangaroo Protemnodon (Marsupialia, Megapoda). Megataxa 11(1); doi: 10.11646/megataxa.11.1.1
Archaeologists from Necmettin Erbakan University have announced the discovery of the world’s oldest known bread, dating from 6600 BC, at the famous Neolithic settlement of Çatalhöyük in Turkiye, central Anatolia (formerly Turkey).
8,600-year-old bread found in Çatalhöyük, Turkiye. Image credit: Necmettin Erbakan University.
Çatalhöyük is one of the largest and best preserved Neolithic settlements in the world.
The site is located southeast of the modern Turkish city of Konya, approximately 145 km (90 miles) from Mount Hasan.
Çatalhöyük began as a small settlement around 7500 BC, and may have consisted of a few adobe houses during what archaeologists call the Early Period.
The settlement reached its peak in the mid-6700-6500 BC period, rapidly declining in population during the later period, and was abandoned around 5950 BC.
Its inhabitants were early farmers, growing crops such as wheat and barley and raising sheep and goats.
Discovered by British archaeologist James Mellaart in the early 1960s, Çatalhöyük attracted worldwide attention for its large scale and well-preserved architecture.
Previous excavations at the site unearthed a vast number of artifacts and ancient structures, including a large mural depicting a town and two mountain peaks, sometimes called the world’s oldest map.
This is an artist’s impression of Çatalhöyük. Image credit: Dan Lewandowski.
Archaeologists from Necmettin Erbakan University have discovered an ancient building with an oven in the Mekan 66 area of Çatalhöyük in a new excavation.
Wheat, barley and pea seeds were found around the oven, as well as “spongy” organic residue.
Researchers determined that the residue was uncooked leavened bread.
“The small round ‘spongy’ residue found in the corner of the oven turned out to be bread,” said Dr. Ali Umut Türkan, an archaeologist at Necmettin Erbakan University.
“Because the building was covered with fine clay, both the wood and the bread were able to be preserved to this day.”
“We found that the bread had a porous and spongy structure and was not cooked,” added Dr. Yassin Ramazan Eker, also from Necmetin Erbakan University.
“The first known example of leavened bread was discovered in Egypt,” Dr. Turkan said.
“The newly discovered bread in Çatalalhöyük can be said to be the oldest bread in the world.”
Invertebrates are highly sensitive to heat stress, so coral health is closely linked to seawater temperature. Corals turn whitish when stressed. release symbiotic algae They live in organizations. Bleaching indicates that the health of the coral is at risk.
“When a coral bleaches, it doesn’t mean it’s dead. It means it’s weak and at risk of dying if conditions don’t improve,” says Ana Palacio, a scientific assistant at the Oceanic and Atmospheric Research Institute Collaborative Research Institute based at the University of Miami in partnership with NOAA.
Corals are important ecosystems that support a wide variety of fish and aquatic species, helping to nourish coastal communities and attract tourists. The economic value of coral reefs is estimated at $2.7 trillion annually. According to the 2020 report of the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network.
“They protect our coastlines. They protect us from storms and hurricanes. They have great value to our economy and security,” said Palacio.
Coral ecosystems are among the ecosystems that scientists believe are most at risk from global warming. In 2018, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimated that: 70% to 90% of the world’s coral reefs They will disappear if the average global temperature drops. exceeded the threshold of 1.5 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial average.
Last year was the hottest year on record on Earth. The average global temperature has approached that threshold for the first time, but scientists believe 2023 was an anomaly, driven by El Niño.
Experts say bleaching began early in the season as sea surface temperatures soared in Florida.
“Typically, bleaching is observed around August to September in the Northern Hemisphere. We started observing the bleaching phenomenon in July last year,” said marine biologist Fanol Montoya Maya from the Coral Restoration Foundation, an organization that collects, restores, and replants coral.
Palacio said the area has seen widespread mortality of elkhorn and staghorn corals, two species that are the focus of restoration efforts.
“In some places, about 20 percent of those populations survived,” Palacio said of the restored corals. “We’re focusing our hopes on why those corals survived and what they can tell us about resistance, and how corals can become more resilient.”
The last global coral bleaching event occurred in 2014 and lasted until 2017. More than 56% of the world’s coral reef areas experienced temperatures that could cause bleaching during that period.
Bleached coral at Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary off the coast of Galveston, Texas, Gulf of Mexico, September 16, 2023. LM Otero / AP
Manzello said in an email Monday that 54% of the world’s coral reef areas have experienced bleaching-level heat stress in the past year, and this event could be the worst bleaching event on record.
“The proportion of coral reef areas experiencing bleaching-level heat stress is increasing by about 1% every week,” Manzello said. “This event is likely to exceed the previous peak.”
Montoya-Maya said bleaching warnings were already issued in Florida earlier than last year. He said the Coral Restoration Foundation is preparing for a busy summer in response to new bleaching events.
The natural pattern of El Niño is beginning to disappear, and NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center estimates that an El Niño event is possible. There is a 60% chance of a La Niña event occurring this summer.This could cool the waters of the Atlantic Ocean and allow some corals to recover, at least temporarily.
“This is very heartbreaking and will cause damage to many coral reefs around the world,” Palacio said. “I hope this bleaching event creates some traction and people start to care more and pay attention to what’s happening to the climate.”
Sarah Wiggard and Ralf Sommer / Max Planck Institute for Biology Tübingen
Tiny soil insects called nematodes usually feed on bacteria and algae and have small mouths to accommodate their diet. However, when baby nematodes are fed the fungus, their mouths double in size, giving them the ability to cannibalize their mates.
that’s what ralph sommer Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Biology in Tübingen, Germany, made the discovery while studying the development of predatory soil nematodes. Allody Progaster Sudhouushi.when the larvae are raised Penicillium Some of them ate fungi and cheese and grew into cannibals with giant mouths. “We were shocked,” he says.
The researchers knew that the different mouth shapes seen in this species resulted from different feeding habits. Nematodes that feed on bacteria have narrow mouths, while nematodes that feed on much smaller nematode species have slightly wider mouths. But this extreme variant, which the researchers called “teratostomia,” or Te morphology, had not been previously documented.
Sommer and colleagues investigated the genetics underlying these different mouth shapes and found that all three were controlled by the same sulfatase gene. But that activity only seems to result in a giant, gaping mouth. A. Sudaushi. The species’ complete set of genetic instructions was duplicated only recently in its evolution, Sommer said, so the doubling of gene pairs may have facilitated the origin of the worm’s giant mouth. That’s what it means.
Because the fungi’s diet was low in nutrients and more Te forms were found in high-density conditions, the researchers found that Te forms and their associated cannibalistic habits may have evolved as a response to the stresses of starvation and crowding. That’s what I think.
Nicholas Levis Indiana University points out that a similar phenomenon is seen in several other species. For example, the tadpoles of spadefoot toads and some salamanders can develop into cannibalistic carnivores depending on environmental conditions, Levis says.
But even in such cases, animals often avoid eating their own kind. Te nematodes are nondiscriminatory and prey on genetically identical neighbors. Levis says this is a “surprising finding” that could indicate that the development strategy is “really hopeless.”
“This discovery…made me wonder how much more diverse there is in the natural world than what we see,” Levis says. “How many other hidden ‘monsters’ are there waiting to be discovered under the right environmental conditions?”
Have you ever felt like you’re stuck in a hole? Newsflash: Yes, you are. Astronomers call it a “local hole,” but that’s quite an understatement. It’s vast, it’s gigantic, it’s gigantic – but the truth is, adjectives are inapplicable when it comes to this expanse of nothingness. It is the largest cosmic cavity known to us, spanning 2 billion light years. Our galaxy happens to be near its center, but the problem with this hole is not that it poses any immediate danger, but rather that it shouldn’t exist.
The question is whether one of our most firmly held beliefs about the universe is true. This assumption, known as the cosmological principle, states that matter in the universe should be uniformly distributed on the largest scale. It is the foundation upon which much of modern cosmology is built. If the void were real, the stone might have collapsed.
Because of this, few people dared to believe that the void could be real. But as evidence has grown in recent years, astronomers have moved from suspicion to reluctant acceptance. They discovered other similarly huge structures. So now the question is being asked with increasing urgency: If we are indeed living in a vacuum, do we need to significantly revise our cosmological model? That may include rethinking the nature of gravity, dark matter, or both.
The idea that the universe has the same properties from beginning to end can be traced back at least to Isaac Newton. He claimed that the motion of stars and planets could be explained…
The upwelling of cold water from the deep ocean to the surface can be deadly to marine animals, and such events are becoming more frequent due to climate change.
In March 2021, hundreds of dead seafood, squid, octopus, manta rays, and bull sharks washed up on South African beaches.
The animals were fleeing high water temperatures from a marine heatwave hitting South Africa's coastal waters.
However, during their escape, they were caught in a sudden burst of cold water from the region's Agulhas Current, causing ocean temperatures to plummet.
“These upwelling events occurring on the banks of the Agulhas River could cause temperatures to suddenly drop by about 10 degrees Celsius.” [18°F] “within 24 hours” Zoe Jacobs At the UK National Marine Centre. “This is a very intense, short-term event.”
Nicholas Lubitz Professors at Australia's James Cook University used 41 years of sea surface temperature data and 33 years of sea surface temperature data to assess cold water upwelling in two regions affected by the Agulhas Current and the Australian Current, which meanders along Australia's east coast. I studied wind records.
They conclude that stronger ocean currents and changes in wind patterns associated with climate change are increasing both the frequency and strength of cold water upwelling in both regions.
Most marine organisms that live near these currents are adapted to sudden fluctuations in water temperature and can therefore cope with these changes.
However, the study warns that migratory species such as bull sharks, which pass through these waters and are unprepared for sudden changes in temperature, are at risk.
Bull sharks struggle to survive when water temperatures drop below 19°C (66°F) for extended periods. Lubitz and colleagues used data from 41 tagged bull sharks in southern Africa and Australia to study their migration patterns.
As soon as summer ends and water temperatures begin to drop, sharks migrate to warmer tropical waters. During migration, they appear to take steps to avoid cold water upwelling by moving to warmer surface waters as they swim through upwelling zones, or by seeking refuge in estuaries and bays during migration. .
But as upwelling events increase in frequency and intensity, researchers warn that it will become increasingly difficult for bull sharks and other migratory species to avoid them.
But Jacobs, who was not involved in the study, said the effects may be limited to the two areas studied. “These two particular regions of hers are very special cases because the upwelling that occurs there is a very short and intense phenomenon,” she says. Other global upwelling systems are more permanent or seasonal, and marine species are better adapted to withstand or avoid changes in water temperature, she says.
Aggregates of protein α-synuclein (brown) and antibody (green)
Biolution GMBH/Science Photo Library
Drugs that target protein accumulations associated with Parkinson's disease may slow the progression of motor symptoms in patients with advanced Parkinson's disease. This shows potential as a disease-modifying treatment for Parkinson's disease, but it is unclear whether the drug actually removes the protein from the brain.
Accumulation of a misfolded protein called alpha-synuclein in the brain has long been thought to be the underlying cause of Parkinson's disease. This results in the loss of neurons that produce the neurotransmitter dopamine, which is involved in motor control.
Some existing treatments aim to alleviate these symptoms by improving dopamine levels in the brain, but their long-term effects are limited. To date, there are no approved disease-modifying treatments to stop or slow the progression of Parkinson's disease.
In an effort to counter this, Gennaro Pagano Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche and colleagues recruited 316 people who appeared to have early stages of Parkinson's disease. Of these people, 105 received an intravenous infusion of a placebo, and 211 received a low or high dose of Roche's drug plasinezumab every four weeks for a year.
Placinezumab is an antibody designed to bind to aggregates of misfolded alpha-synuclein within dopaminergic neurons. “It is hypothesized that placinezumab may reduce neurotoxicity, prevent cell-to-cell movement of pathological alpha-synuclein aggregates, and slow disease progression,” Pagano says.
Trial results initially suggested the antibody had no significant effect, but the team later realized it may have an effect in trial participants with more severe forms of Parkinson's disease. I did.
These people suffered from rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder, which causes intense, often violent dreams that are common in Parkinson's disease. He was taking a drug called an MAO-B inhibitor to manage his symptoms. Or, he has been rated by an expert at 2 out of 5 on a symptom scale, with higher numbers indicating greater severity.
Additional analyzes showed that both low and high doses of the drug had greater effects than seen in the first study, especially among critically ill participants. The rate at which participants' motor symptoms worsened over a one-year period was significantly reduced compared to those taking a placebo.
For example, based on the Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale for Motor Symptoms, patients who took an MAO-B inhibitor and then received a placebo infusion had a score of 6.82 at the end of the year, compared to Patients who took the drug had a score of 4.15.
“These results suggest that potential treatment benefits may be more likely to be achieved in populations that experience greater deterioration over time and more rapid progression,” Pagano says. This is because patients with Parkinson's disease, which progresses more rapidly, have higher amounts of misfolded alpha-synuclein in their brains, so they may benefit more from drugs that can remove this protein. There is a possibility.
However, Professor Pagano said researchers lacked a biomarker that could monitor how participants' levels of misfolded alpha-synuclein changed, so it was unclear what was happening in the participants' brains. He said it was not possible to make an accurate assessment.
Vinata Vedam Mai Researchers at the University of Florida Health say a limitation of the study is that it did not assess whether alpha-synuclein was cleared from the brain. Without this, she says, the results cannot conclusively show that plasinezumab is disease-modifying. Vedam-Mai said he would also like to see long-term data to better assess the drug's safety and effectiveness. No serious adverse events occurred in the latest trial.
Researchers could also investigate whether plasinezumab, when taken over a long period of time, is effective for patients with mild Parkinson's disease, Pagano said.
In August 2021, ESA/JAXA BepiColombo spacecraft bound for Mercury Performed a second flyby of Venus, providing short-term observations of its guided magnetosphere. The spacecraft detected cold oxygen and carbon ions at a distance of about six planet radii, in an area of the magnetosphere that has never been explored before.
Schematic illustration of planetary material escaping through the sides of Venus's magnetic sheath. The red line and arrow indicate the observation region and direction of BepiColombo as the ions escape (C+,oh+,H+) was observed. Image credit: Thibaut Roger / Europlanet 2024 RI / Hadid other.
Venus was similar to Earth in many ways during its formation, including the presence of large amounts of liquid water.
However, Venus eventually underwent a divergent evolution, leading to major differences between the two planets.
Unlike Earth, Venus is currently a very dry planet with no inherent magnetic field.
The continuous influence of the solar wind on the atmospheres of both planets results in significant atmospheric losses.
Venus' atmosphere is primarily composed of carbon dioxide and small amounts of nitrogen and other trace species, and is affected by interactions with the solar wind, leading to significant ion fluxes.
“This is the first time that positively charged carbon ions have been observed to be ejected from Venus's atmosphere,” said Dr. Lina Hadid, a researcher at the Plasma Physics Institute and CNRS.
“These are heavy ions that typically move slowly, so we're still trying to understand the mechanism.”
“An electrostatic 'wind' may be moving them away from Earth, or they may be accelerated by centrifugal action.”
“Unlike Earth, Venus does not generate an intrinsic magnetic field at its core.”
“Nevertheless, interactions between charged particles emitted by the sun (solar wind) and charged particles in Venus' upper atmosphere create a weak, comet-shaped 'induced magnetosphere' around the planet. ”
“Around the magnetosphere there is a region called the 'magnetic sheath' where the solar wind is slowed down and heated.”
On August 10, 2021, BepiColombo passed Venus to slow down and adjust its course towards its final destination, Mercury.
The probe soared up the long tail of the planet's magnetic sheath, emerging from the nose of the magnetic region closest to the sun.
Over a 90-minute observation period, BepiColombo's mass spectrometer (MSA) and mercury ion analyzer (MIA) will measure the number and mass of charged particles encountered, and detect chemical and Captured information about physical processes. magneto sheath.
“Characterizing the loss of heavy ions on Venus and understanding the escape mechanisms will help us understand how Venus's atmosphere evolved,” said Dr. Dominique Delcourt, principal investigator at MSA and researcher at the Plasma Physics Institute. “This is critical to understanding how water is lost.” .
“This result shows a unique result from measurements made during a flyby of a planet, in which the spacecraft may pass through areas that are generally inaccessible to orbiting spacecraft. '' said Dr. Nicolas Andre, a researcher at the Astrophysical and Planetary Institute.
of study It was published in the magazine natural astronomy.
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LZ Hadid other. BepiColombo's observations of cold oxygen and carbon ions on the side of Venus' induced magnetosphere. Nat Astron, published online on April 12, 2024. doi: 10.1038/s41550-024-02247-2
During sleep, we can sporadically find patterns of neural activity in areas of the bird's brain that are activated during song production. Recently, it was found that patterns of activity during these silent plays can be detected in the vocal muscles of sleeping birds. In a new study, researchers from the University of Buenos Aires and CONICET employed a dynamic systems model for song production in suborder birds. Tyrani This is to convert the vocal muscle activity during sleep into a synthetic song.
Great Kiskadee (Pitangus sulfuratus) July 2011, Beeville, Texas, USA. Image credit: Tess Thornton / CC BY-SA 3.0 Deed.
“Dreams are one of the most intimate and elusive parts of our existence,” said Dr. Gabriel Mindlin, senior author of the study.
“It's very moving to know that we share something with species so far away. And the possibility of entering the mind of a dreaming bird – of hearing the sounds of its dreams. is a temptation that cannot be resisted.”
A few years ago, Dr. Mindlin and his colleagues discovered that these patterns of neuronal activity were transmitted to the syringe muscle, the bird's vocal organ.
They are able to capture sleeping birds' muscle activity data via recording electrodes called electromyograms and convert it into a synthetic song using a dynamical systems model.
“For the past 20 years, I have been studying the physics of bird calls and how muscular information is translated into calls,” Dr. Mindlin said.
“In this way, we can use the muscle activity patterns as time-dependent parameters in a bird song production model and synthesize the corresponding song.”
Trill electromyographic activity recorded during sleep and synthetic sounds generated by a dynamic model.Image credit: Doppler other., doi: 10.1063/5.0194301.
Many birds have complex muscle structures, so translating syringe activity into calls is a bit difficult.
“For this first piece, we chose Wonderful Kiskadi (Pitangus sulfuratus)“It's a member of the flycatcher family, a species for which we recently discovered the physical mechanism of its song and showed some simplifications,” Dr. Mindlin said.
“In other words, we selected species for which the first steps of this program were viable.”
The authors heard the sound emerge from the data of birds dreaming of territorial battles by raising the tops of their wings, a gesture reminiscent of calls used during daytime conflicts. I was incredibly moved.
“Imagining that lonely bird reenacting its territorial battles in my dreams really resonated with me. We have more in common with other species than we often realize.” said Dr. Mindlin.
This study presents biophysics as a new exploratory tool that can open the door to the quantitative study of dreams.
“We are interested in interacting with dreaming birds using these syntheses that can be implemented in real time,” Dr. Mindlin said.
“And for species that learn, to address questions about the role of sleep during learning.”
Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have taken photos of NGC 3783, a bright barred spiral galaxy in the constellation Centaurus.
This Hubble image shows NGC 3783, a barred spiral galaxy about 135 million light-years away in the constellation Centaurus. The color images consist of infrared and optical observations from Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3). Based on data obtained through five filters. Color is obtained by assigning different hues to each monochromatic image associated with an individual filter. Image credits: NASA / ESA / Hubble / MC Benz / DJV Rosario.
Also known as ESO 378-14, LEDA 36101, or 2XMM J113901.7-374418, this galaxy was first discovered It was announced by British astronomer John Herschel on April 21, 1835.
NGC 3783 is home to a rapidly rotating black hole of 2.8 million solar masses.
It is a major member of the NGC 3783 galaxy group, which is a collection of 47 galaxies.
“Like galaxy clusters, galaxy groups are gravitationally bound collections of galaxies,” the Hubble astronomers said.
“However, galaxy groups are smaller and contain fewer members than galaxy clusters. Galaxy clusters can contain hundreds or even thousands of member galaxies, whereas galaxy groups typically contain fewer than 50. It does not include galaxies that exceed
“The Milky Way is actually part of a group of galaxies known as the Local Group, which includes two other large galaxies (Andromeda and the Triangular Galaxy) and dozens of satellite galaxies. Contains dwarf galaxies.
“On the other hand, the NGC 3783 galaxy group contains 47 galaxies,” they added.
“It also appears to be at a fairly early stage in its evolution, making it an interesting subject to study.”
“Although the focus of this image is spiral galaxy NGC 3783, your eye is equally focused on a very bright object in the lower right-hand portion of this image. This is the star. HD 101274” said the researchers.
“The perspective of this image makes the stars and galaxies appear to be close companions, but this is an illusion.”
“HD 101274 is only about 1,530 light-years from Earth, which means it is about 85,000 times closer than NGC 3783.”
“This explains how a single star can appear to outshine an entire galaxy.”
According to scientists, NGC 3783 type I Seyfert galaxy — A galaxy with a bright central region.
“In this image, thanks to five separate images taken at different wavelengths of light, Hubble shows incredible detail, from the glowing central bar to the thin, winding arms and the dust that passed through them. ,” the researchers said.
“In fact, the center of the galaxy is bright enough for Hubble to exhibit diffraction spikes that are normally only seen in stars such as HD 101274.”
Research led by Liangxue Lai from China’s Guangzhou Institute of Biomedical and Health Research has successfully extended the survival time of human stem cells in animal embryos. The team is focused on a five-year project to cultivate human organs for transplantation, bypassing the need for donor organs. To date, no scientist has been able to grow an organ within an animal embryo composed entirely of human cells.
Utilizing pig embryos due to their physiological and developmental similarities to humans, Lai’s team injected human stem cells into pig embryos. By deactivating specific genes in the pig embryos responsible for organ development, human stem cells could replace pig cells during organ growth.
The team also applied a small amount of the antibiotic doxycycline to the embryos, allowing them to control the activation of genes in the stem cells. This antibiotic helped activate genes that enhanced the survival and development of stem cells within the embryo, increasing the likelihood of organ formation.
The research aimed at growing kidneys, which are frequently transplanted organs and among the first to develop in human fetuses. The team implanted about 2,000 pig embryos into 13 surrogate pigs, resulting in kidney development within 20 days. After full growth, the embryos were analyzed for human stem cell content.
Despite efforts to minimize cell death, only a few embryos survived. Genetic testing confirmed the presence of human genetic sequences in the surviving embryos, indicating the potential for organ development from human stem cells within the pig embryos.
While the embryos showed signs of developing human kidneys, compatibility issues were identified, and human cells were found in other parts of the fetus’s body. The researchers concluded that the technique shows promise for growing human-compatible organs in the future.
Do you notice your muscles becoming more rigid and harder to manage as you age? A new ‘Atlas of Aging’ has been developed to explain why this happens and to provide potential treatments to prevent it. Additionally, it may lead to legal action.
Focusing on the effects of natural aging, this atlas delves into the intricate changes that occur in muscle tissue at the cellular and molecular levels as we grow older. It also highlights how our muscles actively combat the aging process, potentially aiding in the development of new treatments to enhance the aging body.
As we age, our muscles can weaken, making everyday activities like standing and walking more challenging. However, the underlying causes of this decline are not fully understood. Frailty can lead to an increased risk of falls, reduced mobility, and loss of independence.
Lead author, Dr. Sarah Teichman from the Wellcome Sanger Institute, states that these insights into healthy skeletal muscle aging are empowering researchers worldwide to explore various strategies to combat inflammation, promote muscle regeneration, maintain neural connections, and more.
Longevity expert Andrew Steele emphasizes the importance of understanding the cellular changes that contribute to the loss of physical strength as we age. He underscores the potential of this research to develop therapeutic interventions that support healthier aging in future generations.
The creation of the atlas of aging muscle involved utilizing advanced imaging and single-cell sequencing techniques to analyze skeletal muscle samples from 17 adult donors aged between 20 and 75. The findings shed light on gene activity related to protein production and revealed how muscle fibers age at different rates.
Age-related loss of primary fast-twitch muscle fibers is mitigated by the body’s ability to enhance the properties of remaining fibers and rebuild connections between weakened nerves and aging muscles. This understanding can potentially inform strategies to maintain strength and independence as we grow older.
To learn more about the experts involved in this research, Dr. Andrew Steele, a scientist, author, and presenter, has authored “Ageless: The new science of growing older without getting older.” Combining his background in physics with biology, Steele’s work focuses on deciphering human DNA at the Francis Crick Institute in London.
Read more:
What happens to my body as I get older?
9 simple science-backed changes to reverse your biological age
Groundbreaking discovery of anti-aging cells could help people stay young for longer
A lawyer representing O.J. Simpson, who passed away from cancer at the age of 76 last week, announced on Sunday that Simpson’s body will be cremated in the coming days and there are no plans to donate his brain for research purposes, according to his attorney Malcolm LaVergne.
LaVergne mentioned that there had been inquiries about studying Simpson’s brain for chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain disease linked to repeated head trauma in football players, but stated firmly that the entire body, including the brain, will be cremated.
Further details about the cremation and decision regarding brain research were first reported in The New York Post.
As the executor of Simpson’s estate, LaVergne mentioned plans for a small “celebration of life” gathering restricted to close friends and family. Simpson had three children from his previous marriages and was famously acquitted in the murders of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman in 1995.
Regarding financial matters, LaVergne expressed that he does not want the Goldman family, victims’ relatives, to receive any funds from Simpson’s estate. He acknowledged the need to handle the situation calmly and impartially.
Mr. Simpson’s debts, including those to the IRS, will be addressed as his estate is evaluated, and assets are inventoried to settle claims. Creditors will be prioritized for payment, with the Goldman family amongst them.
Despite potential legal battles over financial assets, Cook emphasized that the main goal is post-acquittal justice and accountability for the deaths of Brown Simpson and Goldman.
Looking ahead, LaVergne seeks funding for a suitable memorial at Simpson’s burial site as specified in his will, emphasizing the importance of carrying out his wishes without contention.
Dinosaurs, in the form of birds, continue to exist today. However, traditional dinosaurs like tyrannosaurus, triceratops, and stegosaurus, are unlikely to evolve again if the climate and temperatures return to Cretaceous conditions.
While pondering this idea is entertaining, it is impossible to accurately predict future evolutionary developments. Evolution is largely influenced by chance and natural selection, which occurs in response to immediate needs rather than long-term planning.
The late paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould once contemplated rewinding the tape of life to a past era and playing it again. He theorized that each replay would result in a different world, shaped by random quirks and unpredictable paths.
One thing that becomes clear with fossil record analysis is that once a species goes extinct, it is gone forever. Trilobites, for example, have not reappeared despite similarities in today’s climate to theirs in the past.
Evolution through convergence is a powerful force, leading different species to develop similar traits when faced with similar environmental challenges. Therefore, if Earth were to undergo a Cretaceous-like climate shift, it is possible that new large reptiles may evolve, but not necessarily tyrannosaurus and triceratops.
In response to a reader’s question about the possibility of dinosaurs evolving again under different Earth conditions, this article explores the unpredictable nature of evolution and the potential for new species to emerge under changing circumstances.
If you have any questions, please contact us at: questions@sciencefocus.com or reach out on our Facebook or Instagram pages.
Explore more fascinating science topics on our website and stay curious!
Many of us have a friend or acquaintance who is consistently late, struggling with time management. While it may be a source of humor in social circles, being chronically late can lead to serious consequences like missing important meetings, flights, or appointments.
Several factors may contribute to habitual lateness. Individuals with lower scores on conscientiousness and neuroticism on personality tests are more likely to be late. This trait can also be attributed to a relaxed personality type or influenced by upbringing and cultural background.
Psychologically, some individuals may be considered “time optimists,” underestimating the time things take or struggling with procrastination. Familiarity with a given route can also lead to underestimating travel time, as demonstrated in studies on spatial cognition.
An aversion to arriving early, which often requires waiting, can also contribute to lateness. To address these factors, committing to arrive early, accurately estimating travel time with a buffer, and planning activities for waiting time can help improve punctuality.
If you resonate with these reasons for being late, taking proactive steps to address them can lead to better time management habits. By analyzing travel time more realistically and allowing for extra buffer time, it becomes easier to arrive punctually and avoid stressful situations.
This article aims to address the question “Why am I always late?” (submitted by Alvin Pittman via email).
For any queries, please reach out to us at:questions@sciencefocus.comor connect with us onFacebook, Twitter, or Instagram (remember to provide your name and location).
On April 8th, a total solar eclipse will occur in Mexico, the United States, and Canada. This type of solar eclipse only occurs when the sun and moon line up perfectly in the sky, causing the moon to cover the entire disk of the sun and cast a shadow on Earth. The path this shadow follows as it crosses the ground at speeds exceeding 2,400 kilometers per hour is called a total path, and during this eclipse, the shadow will cross from the west coast of Mexico, across 13 states of the United States, to Ontario, Quebec, Newfoundland, and beyond. At any given location, totality lasts from about 90 seconds to nearly 4.5 minutes.
During this period, the sky becomes dark as at dusk and the temperature drops by 10 degrees. Viewers will be able to remove their eclipse glasses, which are essential during the partial phase of the eclipse, and look directly at the Sun, which is covered by the Moon. At this range, the sun’s outermost layer, the corona, becomes visible. At other times, it may be too dark to see due to the glare of the sun. Total solar eclipses like this one are rare opportunities for researchers studying the sun and have led to major scientific advances over the years.
Solar eclipse in 2024
On April 8th, a total solar eclipse will pass over Mexico, the United States, and Canada. Our special series covers everything you need to know, from how and when to see a solar eclipse to the strangest solar eclipse experience of all time.
One of the most eagerly anticipated sky-watching events in recent years is set to take place on Monday, with a total solar eclipse gracing North American skies.
Weather permitting, millions of people in Mexico, 15 U.S. states, and eastern Canada will have the opportunity to witness the moon passing between Earth and the sun, momentarily blocking the sun’s light.
The total solar eclipse will be visible along a “total path” that spans more than 100 miles wide and extends across the continent, with the moon completely obstructing the sun, casting darkness over the afternoon sky for a few minutes.
The rest of the continental United States will experience a partial solar eclipse, where the moon will appear to take a bite out of the sun, with the size of the “bite” varying by location.
The first total eclipse event in North America on Monday will occur on the Pacific coast of Mexico at around 11:07 a.m. Pacific time, as per NASA.
Moving northeast through Mexico, the eclipse’s path will cross through states such as Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, and beyond, leading into parts of Canada including southern Ontario and Quebec.
The duration and timing of the total solar eclipse will vary depending on location, with most areas experiencing about two minutes of darkness, with the longest period usually occurring at the center of the eclipse’s path.
This year, the longest totality period will last 4 minutes and 28 seconds in the northwest region of Torreon, Mexico.
The moon covers the sun during a total solar eclipse in Cerulean, Kentucky, August 21, 2017. Timothy D. Easley / AP File
Below is a list of times for some US cities along the path of totality. According to NASA.
Dallas: A partial solar eclipse will start at 12:23 p.m. CT, with a total eclipse commencing at 1:40 p.m. CT.
Idabel, Oklahoma: A partial solar eclipse begins at 12:28 p.m. CT, and a total eclipse starts at 1:45 p.m. CT.
Little Rock, AR: A partial solar eclipse will begin at 12:33 p.m. CT, and a total solar eclipse is scheduled for 1:51 p.m. CT.
Poplar Bluff, Missouri: The partial solar eclipse begins at 12:39 p.m. CT, with totality kicking off at 1:56 p.m. CT.
Paducah, Kentucky: A partial solar eclipse will commence at 12:42 p.m. CT, followed by a total solar eclipse at 2 p.m. CT.
Carbondale, IL: The partial solar eclipse will start at 12:42 p.m. CT, with the total solar eclipse beginning at 1:59 p.m. CT.
Evansville, Indiana: A partial solar eclipse will begin at 12:45 p.m. CT, and a total eclipse will begin at 2:02 p.m. CT.
CLEVELAND: A partial solar eclipse will begin at 1:59 p.m. ET, followed by a total eclipse starting at 3:13 p.m.
Erie, Pennsylvania: A partial solar eclipse will begin at 2:02 p.m. ET, and a total solar eclipse will start at 3:16 p.m. ET.
Buffalo, NY: A partial solar eclipse will start at 2:04 p.m. ET, with a total solar eclipse beginning at 3:18 p.m.
Burlington, Vermont: A partial solar eclipse will begin at 2:14 p.m. ET, and a total solar eclipse is set to start at 3:26 p.m. ET.
Lancaster, New Hampshire: The partial solar eclipse begins at 2:16 p.m. ET, followed by a total solar eclipse starting at 3:27 p.m.
Caribou, Maine: A partial solar eclipse begins at 2:22 p.m. ET, with a total solar eclipse starting at 3:32 p.m. ET.
Remember, when observing celestial events, never look directly at the Sun through binoculars, telescopes, or camera lenses. Special solar eclipse glasses are necessary to view the eclipse safely and avoid permanent eye damage.
On April 8th, while most people in the United States will be staring into the sky (preferably wearing appropriate safety glasses), animals will have no idea what’s going on.
That’s natural, right? For animals, the sun constitutes their entire life. Without energy drinks and late-night TV to disrupt their sleep schedules, the sun is an all-in-one alarm clock, sleeping pill, and calendar for animals.
“Basically, everything we’ve ever heard about animal behavior during a solar eclipse can reasonably be considered anecdotal from a scientific perspective.” Professor Adam Hartstone Rose says the person who led the research. BBC Science Focus.
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Hartstone-Rose and his team observed the behavior of 17 species at Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia, South Carolina. This is the first time such a study has been conducted. What did they find? Now, how animals behave during a total solar eclipse varies dramatically, from not at all bothersome to downright weird…
Strange ways animals may react to solar eclipses
Heartstone-Rose said animals responded to celestial events in one of four ways. These include not responding at all, starting nighttime routines, showing anxiety, and exhibiting new behaviors.
“Most animals fall into a category that we call related to circadian rhythms. So basically, animals treat solar eclipses as if they were evening, then night, then morning; “I get into a routine,” he says.
Similar nighttime routines have been widely reported for other eclipses. As the moon passes in front of the sun, expect birds to quiet down and crickets and cicadas to become more active.
The next largest behavioral category was, somewhat sadly, anxiety-related behaviors. For example, evidence gathered by Hartstone-Rose and her research team suggests that if you’re near a giraffe during a solar eclipse, you should stay well away from them.
“During the peak of the eclipse, the giraffes started running around like crazy and in potentially dangerous ways,” Hartstone-Rose explains.
“Giraffes in the wild are very gentle animals. They’re a little bit wild and sensitive. They don’t do crazy things unless they have to, so when I saw giraffes running around…, only when startled by a predator, vehicle, etc.”
Thankfully, any disturbing behavior didn’t last long. “The good news is that all of the animal’s behavior returns to normal very quickly, literally within minutes.”
But what about these so-called “novel” behaviors? This is where things get weird.
The siamang is a type of gibbon that lives in the forests of Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand. Although they look cute, they are known to be very noisy and have large throat pouches.use their heads to help sing.
The research team recorded the calls of the siamang during and for several days before and after the eclipse, and found that it emitted a unique call during the totality. It was something they had never heard before.
“We were able to statistically show that vocalizations during a solar eclipse are much different than at any other time we’ve been able to record vocalizations,” Hartstone-Rose says. “That was pretty remarkable.”
read more:
The prize for the strangest solar eclipse behavior is… giant tortoise?
If anxious runs and strange songs weren’t enough, Riverbanks Zoo’s Galapagos tortoises took their reaction to the solar eclipse to a different level.
“Galapagos tortoises are not charismatic animals,” Hartstone-Rose says. “They’re like weird looking rocks that can live to be well over 100 years old.”
Galapagos giant tortoises began mating from the moment of totality. – Image credit: Getty
According to stereotypes, they are not particularly fast moving and the males Weight is over 227 kg making it the largest turtle species on Earth.
When the sun eclipsed the moon in 2017, Galapagos tortoises started doing something unexpected. They literally started breeding right before our eyes. “
Therefore, a solar eclipse may lift your turtle’s mood. Did anyone know?
How can I participate this time?
After 2017’s surprising discoveries, researchers hope to do even more this year.
Hartstone-Rose and a team of researchers plan to observe animal behavior at the Fort Worth Zoo in Texas. They will observe and compare some of the same species and new species from 2017.
But you don’t have to be a trained researcher to help scientists understand animal behavior during this once-in-a-lifetime event.
If you want to participate, just choose the animal you want to observe, whether it’s a dog, cat, domestic animal, or natural animal.
You don’t have to go down the path of perfection either. There will be at least a partial solar eclipse across the United States on April 8, and researchers want to know whether the severity of the eclipse affects behavior.
Before you worry that you’ll miss the eclipse itself because you’re too busy checking to see if your dog is scratching its ears, don’t worry. Data collection only takes a few seconds every few minutes, so you still have time to understand everything.
Why study animals during a solar eclipse?
While understanding how different animals behave during a solar eclipse may seem interesting to some, it is ultimately a pointless endeavor. Fair point. Although there is some method to madness.
First, Hartstone-Rose points out that it’s important to understand which animals exhibit anxiety.
“If solar eclipses are upsetting, or if the human response to solar eclipses is upsetting, that’s important information for us to know. For example, giraffes really If it runs around, it may be ethical to move the giraffe indoors during the next solar eclipse.
“At the end of the day, we don’t want them to hurt themselves.”
Even more poignantly, he thinks this could answer some of the big questions about our relationship with animals.
“One of the big questions, and anyone who has a pet dog or cat knows this, is what’s going on inside this animal’s head. Do you know? ? What is my dog thinking at any given moment? People have such questions not only about dogs, but about all their favorite animals.”
Perhaps by understanding how animals respond to one of the most unique and fascinating experiences on earth, we can move one step closer to solving the mystery.
About our experts
adam hartstone rose He is a professor of biological sciences at North Carolina State University. His research typically focuses on anatomical adaptations (e.g. feeding experiments), muscle examination (e.g. masticatory muscles), and analysis of bones and teeth in live animals. In 2017, he led a study on animal behavior during a total solar eclipse at Riverbanks Zoo and Gardens in Columbia, South Carolina.
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory scientists and engineers have completed work on the most powerful camera ever created.
The Legacy Survey of Space and Time camera (LSST) boasts an impressive 3,200-megapixel capacity and is approximately the size of a small car, weighing around 3,000 kg. The installation of these cameras in the newly constructed Vera C. Rubin Observatory building will allow scientists to capture incredibly detailed images of the Southern Hemisphere’s skies over the next decade.
Multiple organizations were involved in the production of the camera. Brookhaven National Laboratory contributed a digital sensor array, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory designed and built the lenses, and the Institute of Particle and Nuclear Research at the National Center for Scientific Research in France played a role as well.
With the completion of SLAC’s LSST camera and its integration with Rubin Observatory systems in Chile, the project is on track to produce comprehensive night sky maps. University of Washington professor Željko Ivezic, the Rubin Observatory construction director, emphasized the significance of this achievement.
The LSST camera team successfully attached the cryostat to the camera body on April 8, 2022 – Image courtesy of Travis Lange/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
The new camera’s capabilities are immense, including photographing the entire visible sky every few nights, potentially discovering billions of stars and galaxies over the next decade. It would require hundreds of ultra-high-definition TV screens to display a single image at full resolution.
The LSST camera is being installed facing the ground towards completion.Roughly the size of a small car and weighing 3 tons, the camera has a 5-foot-wide front lens, a 3,200-megapixel sensor, and is cooled to -100°C to reduce noise – Image credit : Jacqueline Ramseyer Orrell/ SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
The camera’s detailed images of the Southern Hemisphere sky aim to fill gaps in previous space observations and provide insights into galaxy distribution, dark energy, dark matter, and other astronomical mysteries. By detecting weak gravitational lensing and studying the evolution of the universe, astronomers hope to gain valuable insights from this data.
Travis Lange, LSST camera deputy project manager, shines a flashlight on the completed LSST camera – Image credit: Jacqueline Ramseyer Orrell/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
Researchers believe the LSST camera could aid in the creation of more detailed maps of solar system objects and help identify near-Earth object threats. The installation of the camera at the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile is expected to be completed soon.
A look inside the completed LSST camera – Image credit: Jacqueline Ramseyer Orrell/SLAC National Accelerator LaboratoryMost of the LSST camera team in a clean room with completed cameras, taken in January 2024 – Image credit: Jacqueline Ramseyer Orrell/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (Jacqueline Ramseyer Orrell/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)
Vera C. Rubin Observatory – the new home for cameras
The nearly completed Vera C Rubin Observatory is visible at sunset in January 2022 – Image credit: Vera C Rubin Observatory/NOIRLab/AURA/NSF/J Fuentes
Following the completion of the LSST camera, preparations are underway to transport it to the Vera C. Rubin Observatory atop a rugged Andean mountain pass. Its initial imaging is expected in early 2025, allowing the public to witness its capabilities by 2027.
The camera will be installed atop the Simoni Survey Telescope at the Vera C. Rubin Observatory high in the Chilean Andes – Image courtesy of Rubin Observatory/NSF/AURA
About our experts:
Željko Ivezic: With a PhD in physics from the University of Kentucky, Željko Ivezic’s expertise lies in electromagnetic radiation analysis and celestial body observation. He spearheads the Rubin Observatory/LSST project as the construction project director, bringing a wealth of experience in scientific research.
There are plenty of solar eclipse activities to enjoy with your kids
Edwin Remsburg/Alamy
If you’re planning to enjoy the total solar eclipse on April 8 with your kids, here are some things you can do before and during the eclipse to help them understand what causes it and get the most out of the experience. Here are some activities.
1. Build an Eclipse viewer
The day before the solar eclipse, you and your kids can get excited about this big event by creating a solar eclipse viewer. There are several ways to do this. The first method is a simple pinhole camera that uses two pieces of paper. Cut a hole in a piece of paper and cover it with aluminum foil, then cut a small hole in the foil. On the day of the eclipse, when he lifts the paper and shines the sun’s rays through the hole, a version of the eclipse is projected onto his second piece of paper, which he places on the ground.
For a slightly more complicated version, place a piece of paper on one end of a cereal or shoe box and cut two holes in the other end. Place a piece of tin foil over one of the two holes and re-drill it to allow sunlight to pass through. More information on how to create both versions can be found here.
solar eclipse 2024
On April 8th, a total solar eclipse will pass over Mexico, the United States, and Canada. Our special series covers everything you need to know, from how and when to see a solar eclipse to the strangest solar eclipse experience of all time.
2. Build a solar eclipse model
Another activity you can do before a solar eclipse is to build or act out models of the sun, moon, and earth to understand what a solar eclipse is. All you need to assemble is 3 sticks and his 3 balls to place on the sticks. You can paint and color them to look like the sun, moon, and earth. Make sure the sun is bigger than the moon. You can then show your children what a solar eclipse looks like by placing the sun in the center and moving the earth around the sun and the moon around the earth. A solar eclipse occurs when these three lines line up and the moon moves between the sun and the earth. A lunar eclipse occurs when the moon is on the opposite side of the earth from the sun.
Children can also act out a solar eclipse. Of them, she will give one person a flashlight or flashlight to play the role of the sun and ask them to shine the flashlight on the wall. The other person is the moon, which can move around until it blocks the light of the torch. Both children can play with moving back and forth to show why the distance between the Moon, Earth, and Sun is important when it comes to solar eclipses.
3. Use sunlight to pop balloons
This can be done on any sunny day. But on days when you’re waiting for a total solar eclipse, you can show your kids how to pop balloons using the power of sunlight. This activity requires balloons and a magnifying glass. Inflate the balloon and then hold a magnifying glass over it to magnify the sunlight hitting the balloon. Wait a few minutes and the balloon will eventually pop. Do the same trick by inflating a white balloon inside a black balloon for an even more exciting atmosphere. The black balloon pops, leaving the white balloon inside intact. You can use this to explain how dark surfaces absorb sunlight and light surfaces reflect sunlight.
4. Play with the shadows
On the day of the solar eclipse, a partial solar eclipse phase will last for several hours while we wait for the total solar eclipse. Parents and children can enjoy the solar eclipse by watching and playing with the changes in the shadow. If you have trees nearby, observe the shadows they cast on the ground during the eclipse and you’ll notice that they begin to look like the sun has been bitten. This also works by crossing your fingers and casting a shadow on the ground. Another way to view the eclipse through the shadows is to use a colander or something with small holes. As the eclipse progresses, the shadow begins to take on the shape of the eclipse. You can punch a series of holes in the paper and spell out a word or your child’s name in the shape of a crescent moon.
5. Draw a shadow
This is another activity you can do during the time before and after totality, again making the most of the interesting shadows created by the partially eclipsed Sun. Place a large piece of white paper or sheet on the ground and ask the children to draw the shadows cast by different objects. If you do this at the beginning of the partial phase, and again when everyone is already close, you will be able to see how these shadows change as the eclipse progresses. By now you should have noticed that as the amount of light around you decreases, the shadows become more distinct.
Observing how people effectively communicate during office meetings or social events can be truly enlightening. Have you ever encountered a super communicator who effortlessly engages in conversations while listening attentively?
Fortunately, effective communication skills can be developed with practice. Pulitzer Prize-winning author Charles Duhigg, author of Super Communicator: How to unlock the secret language of connection, shares valuable insights on enhancing conversation skills for everyone.
Ask Deep Questions
Intriguingly, super communicators tend to ask significantly more questions than average individuals. They often pose deep questions that encourage meaningful discussions about values, beliefs, and experiences. Asking someone about their profession can lead to profound insights about their motivations and perspectives.
Listening Actively
Active listening is crucial in effective communication. When engaging in deep conversations, it is essential to not only listen but also demonstrate understanding through follow-up questions. This technique, known as looping for understanding, shows the other person that their words are valued and respected.
Be Authentic
Genuineness is essential in communication. Authenticity fosters mutual trust and vulnerability in conversations. By asking deep questions, actively listening, and sharing personal experiences, individuals can establish authentic connections that transcend superficial interactions.
Establish a Connection
At its core, conversation is about connecting with others. When engaged in dialogue, the neural activity of individuals becomes synchronized, reflecting a deep sense of connection. Communication allows individuals to share thoughts and emotions, fostering understanding and empathy.
About Our Expert Charles Duhigg
Charles Duhigg is a renowned journalist and author of several best-selling books, including The Power of Habit and Smarter, Faster, Better. In his book Super Communicator, he delves into the art of effective communication and building meaningful connections.
He has also made notable contributions to various media outlets, such as This American Life and NPR, showcasing his expertise in communication and storytelling.
Waking up in the morning can be a challenge, and sometimes we need a little help to get going. For many, that help comes in the form of coffee, with its invigorating aroma and taste.
A dose of caffeine can boost your energy and alertness, providing a much-needed kickstart to your day. But when is the optimal time to enjoy your first cup?
“The stress hormone cortisol peaks in the early morning hours, helping us wake up and get moving,” explains Kirsten Jackson, founder of Food Treatment Clinic and a consultant nutritionist. “This rise in cortisol levels between 7 and 8 a.m. helps raise blood sugar levels, giving us the energy we need for the day ahead.”
Similar to cortisol, caffeine from coffee boosts energy levels and brain activity. However, consuming coffee when cortisol levels are already high may not be as effective in providing the desired energy boost.
To maximize the benefits of your coffee, it’s recommended to wait until later in the morning to enjoy your first cup. By aligning your coffee consumption with your body’s natural cortisol rhythms, you can make the most of its stimulating effects.
Cortisol levels typically peak in the morning, so having coffee at this time may not fully enhance its effects. Waiting until around 10-11 a.m. allows you to first benefit from your body’s natural wakefulness before enjoying the caffeine-induced stimulation.
When is the best time to drink coffee?
Considering factors like cortisol levels and caffeine’s impact on sleep cycles, it’s advised to avoid consuming coffee after noon to prevent sleep disruptions caused by lingering caffeine in your system.
“Drinking coffee later in the day can interfere with your ability to have a restful night’s sleep, as caffeine binds to adenosine receptors, inhibiting drowsiness,” Jackson explains.
By following a specific coffee drinking schedule, such as having a cup between 10 a.m. and 12 p.m., you can align your caffeine intake with your body’s natural rhythms and optimize its effects throughout the day.
About our experts
Kirsten Jackson, also known as the ‘IBS Dietitian’, is a registered dietitian specializing in Irritable Bowel Syndrome. She established the Food Treatment Clinic in 2015, offering expert gastroenterology advice for various conditions.
Using data from ESA's Extraterrestrial Planet Characterization Satellite (CHEOPS) and several other ESA and NASA missions, astronomers detected signs of extraterrestrial planets. Rainbow-like “glory effect” In the atmosphere of super-hot Jupiter WASP-76b. This effect occurs when light is reflected from a cloud composed of a completely homogeneous but so far unknown material. This “glory effect” is common on Earth, but it has only been discovered once on another planet, Venus. If confirmed, this first extrasolar glory would reveal more about the nature of this puzzling exoplanet and hold exciting lessons about how to better understand strange, distant worlds.
WASP-76b is the superhot planet Jupiter located 640 light-years away in the constellation Pisces.
First discovered in 2016, this exoplanet orbits the F-type star WASP-76 once every 1.8 days.
WASP-76b is tidally locked to its star. It takes about the same amount of time to rotate around its axis as it does to orbit its parent star.
On the day side, the planet receives thousands of times more radiation from its star than Earth receives from the Sun.
Temperatures on the dayside can exceed 2,400 degrees Celsius (4,352 degrees Fahrenheit), high enough to vaporize metals. However, nighttime temperatures are much cooler at 1,316 degrees Celsius (2,400 degrees Fahrenheit).
Here, the elements that form Earth's rocks melt and evaporate, condensing on the slightly cooler night side and creating iron clouds that drip rain of molten iron.
But astronomers have been puzzled by the apparent asymmetry, or oddity, of WASP-76b's “limbs,” the outermost regions seen as it passes in front of its host star.
“WASP-76b is being 'inflated' by the intense radiation from its star,” said Dr. Monica Rendl, an astronomer at the University of Geneva.
“That means it's 10% less massive than our cousin Jupiter, but almost twice the size.”
“The important thing to keep in mind is the incredible scale of what we are witnessing,” says ESA astronomer Dr Matthew Standing.
“WASP-76b is a very hot gas giant planet hundreds of light years away, likely raining molten iron. Despite the chaos, we detected potential signs of glory. It seems like it's an incredibly weak signal.''
In this study, the authors analyzed data from a variety of ESA and NASA missions, including CHEOPS, TESS, Hubble, and Spitzer.
CHEOPS intensively monitored WASP-76b as it passed in front of and around a Sun-like star. After making her 23 observations over three years, the data showed a surprising increase in the amount of light emanating from the planet's eastern “terminator,” the boundary where night and day meet. .
This allowed astronomers to disentangle the signal and constrain its origin.
“This is the first time that such a sudden change in the brightness of an exoplanet, its 'phase curve', has been detected,” said Dr. Olivier Demanjon, an astronomer at the Spanish Institute of Astronomical Sciences in Portugal.
“This discovery led to the hypothesis that this unexpected glow may be caused by a strong, locally anisotropic (direction-dependent) reflection, or glow effect.”
“Never before have we seen such colorful concentric rings on an extrasolar object,” said Dr Thomas Wilson, an astronomer at the University of Warwick.
“Therefore, if future studies confirm the glory of this first exoplanet, WASP-76b will be a truly unique object, providing insight into the atmospheres of distant exoplanets and how habitable they may be. It’s a beautiful tool for understanding.”
Confirmation of the glory effect means that the cloud, which is made up of perfectly spherical droplets, has lasted at least three years or is constantly replenished.
For these clouds to persist, the atmospheric temperature must also remain stable over time. This is an interesting and detailed insight into what's going on with WASP-76b.
Importantly, being able to detect such subtle wonders at great distances will teach scientists and engineers how to detect other less visible but important phenomena. For example, sunlight reflecting off liquid lakes and oceans is a requirement for habitability.
“More evidence is needed to say conclusively that this interesting 'extra light' is a rare glory,” said Dr Teresa Luftinger, project scientist for ESA's upcoming Ariel mission.
“Follow-up observations by the NIRSPEC instrument aboard the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope could do just that. Or perhaps ESA’s upcoming Ariel mission will prove its existence.” We may even discover brighter colors shining from other exoplanets.”
a paper The survey results were published in a magazine astronomy and astrophysics.
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ODS demansion other. 2024. Asymmetry in the atmosphere of superhot Jupiter WASP-76b. A&A 684, A27; doi: 10.1051/0004-6361/202348270
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