Proposed underground geometry of the Mare Tranquillitatis on the Moon
Wagner and Robinson
A network of caves may be hidden just beneath the Moon's surface, and researchers may have finally discovered an access point. These caves have long been predicted, but until now it has been difficult to prove their existence or find a way to directly explore them with future missions.
The Moon's surface is dotted with holes, or so-called skylights, which are openings in the ceilings of caves that are thought to have been formed by the collapse of ancient lava tubes – tunnels formed when lava flows beneath the solid crust. Leonardo Carrell Researchers from the University of Trento in Italy have discovered that the deepest part of these formations, the “The Pit of the Sea of TranquilityThese images were taken by NASA's Lunar Rover in 2010.
By comparing their simulations with lava tubes on Earth, the researchers found that the Mare Tranquillitatis hole appears to open into a large cavern buried at least 400 feet (130 meters) underground. The cave appears to be about 150 feet (45 meters) wide and at least 100 feet (30 meters) long, but could be much larger.
Caves like these could offer a unique window into the evolution of the Moon, says Carell. “Analyzing rocks from lunar caves, which have not been altered by the harsh lunar environment, could provide important insights into key scientific questions, such as the timeline and duration of volcanic activity on the Moon and the actual composition of the Moon's mantle,” Carell says.
The same stone ceiling that protects the cave rocks from the intense radiation experienced on the surface could also provide valuable shielding for future human explorers on the Moon. “Unlike the surface of the Moon, where temperatures change dramatically between day and night, [the caves] “It has a stable internal temperature, and it's also a natural shield against radiation and impacts,” Carrell says.
The idea of using natural caves like these as lunar base camps has long been popular, and future astronauts may one day call the Sea of Tranquility home.
Weight loss can be a challenging journey, but there may be a breakthrough discovery that could make it easier. Scientists have found a way to burn calories without changing your diet or exercising, thanks to a fat-burning mechanism in your body known as “beige fat.”
While diet and exercise are still crucial, researchers from the University of San Francisco have identified a way to convert regular white fat cells into beige fat cells.
In most mammals, including humans, there are three types of fat cells: white, brown, and beige. White fat cells store calories, brown fat cells burn energy for heat, and beige fat cells can do both.
This conversion from white to beige fat cells allows the body to naturally burn fat more efficiently.
Although the study was conducted with mice, it could pave the way for new weight-loss drugs and shed light on why previous trials have not been successful.
Scientists believed that stem cells were required to create beige fat, but the research shows that by inhibiting the production of a protein called KLF-15, white fat cells can be converted to beige fat cells. This finding offers promising insights into potential weight-loss treatments.
Feldman and his team discovered that KLF-15 controls the levels of the Adrb1 receptor, which plays a role in maintaining energy balance. Targeting this receptor with drugs could be a more effective approach for weight loss compared to current treatments.
By understanding the mechanisms behind beige fat cells, researchers hope to develop safer and more long-lasting weight-loss solutions for the future.
These bright (hot) “heat rings” are a common phenomenon and indicate active lava lakes. Jupiter Infrared Auroral Mapper (JIRAM) instrument aboard NASA’s Juno spacecraft.
Visible, infrared and temperature maps of Loki Patera and Dazhbog Patera. Image courtesy of Mura others., doi: 10.1038/s43247-024-01486-5.
Io is the innermost of Jupiter’s four Galilean moons and the fourth largest moon in the solar system.
Apart from Earth, it is the only known place in the solar system with volcanoes that spew hot lava like Earth’s.
Io has over 400 active volcanoes, which are caused by tidal heating due to gravity from Jupiter and the other Jovian moons.
There are many theories about the types of volcanic eruptions on the Moon, but little data to support them.
NASA’s Juno spacecraft will pass by Io in May and October 2023, coming within about 35,000 km (21,700 miles) and 13,000 km (8,100 miles), respectively.
Among Juno’s observational instruments giving a closer look at the fascinating moon was JIRAM.
JIRAM is designed to capture infrared light emitted from deep within Jupiter, studying the weather layer 50 to 70 km (30 to 45 miles) below Jupiter’s cloud tops.
However, during Juno’s long mission, the mission team also used the instrument to study moons such as Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto.
JIRAM images of Io showed the presence of bright rings surrounding the base of many hotspots.
“The high spatial resolution of JIRAM’s infrared images, combined with Juno’s favorable position during the flyby, revealed that Io’s entire surface is covered by lava lakes in caldera-like formations,” said Dr Alessandro Mura, a researcher at the National Institute for Astrophysics in Rome and Juno co-investigator.
“In the area of Io’s surface where we have the most complete data, we estimate that about 3% of it is covered by one of these lava lakes. Calderas are large depressions that form when volcanoes erupt and collapse.”
This image taken by NASA’s Galileo spacecraft shows volcanic eruptions on Io. Image credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona.
JIRAM’s flyby data will not only reveal Io’s rich lava reserves, but also provide a glimpse into what’s going on beneath the surface.
Infrared images of some of Io’s lava lakes show a thin circular layer of lava at the boundary between the central crust that covers most of the lake and the lake walls.
The lack of lava flows above or beyond the lake’s edge suggests melt circulation, demonstrating a balance between the melt erupted into the lava lake and that circulated back into the subsurface system.
“We now know what the most frequent volcanic activity on Io is: huge lava lakes with magma rising and falling,” Dr Mura said.
“The lava crust collapses against the lake wall, forming the typical lava rings seen in Hawaiian lava lakes.”
“The walls are thought to be hundreds of metres high, which explains why magma is not typically observed spilling out of pateras – bowl-shaped formations formed by volcanic activity – and moving across the lunar surface.”
JIRAM data suggests that the surfaces of these Io hotspots consist largely of a rocky crust that periodically moves up and down as one continuous surface due to central upwelling of magma.
In this hypothesis, friction between the crust and the lake wall would prevent it from sliding, causing it to deform and eventually break away, exposing the lava just below the surface.
Another hypothesis, which remains valid, is that magma wells up in the middle of the lake, spreading out and forming a crust that sinks along the lake’s edge, exposing the lava.
“We’re just beginning to look at the results from JIRAM’s approach to Io in December 2023 and February 2024,” said Juno principal investigator Dr. Scott Bolton from the Southwest Research Institute.
“These observations reveal fascinating new information about Io’s volcanic activity.”
“When we combine these new results with Juno’s long-term campaign to monitor and map Io’s never-before-seen north and south pole volcanoes, JIRAM is poised to become one of the most valuable tools for learning about the workings of this tormented world.”
A team of physicists at the University of California, Berkeley has developed the most sophisticated instrument ever designed to search for dark energy, the mysterious force that is accelerating the expansion of the universe.
The results of their experiment were published today in a prestigious journal. Nature – targets a hypothetical particle known as the chameleon, which could hold the key to unlocking this mysterious cosmic force.
First identified in 1998, dark energy makes up about 70 percent of all matter and energy in the universe, and despite many theories, its true nature remains a mystery.
One leading hypothesis is that there is a fifth force that is distinct from the four fundamental forces known in nature (gravity, electromagnetism, and the strong and weak nuclear forces).
This power is thought to be mediated by particles known as chameleons due to their ability to hide in plain sight.
In an experiment at the University of California, Berkeley, Professor Holger Muller utilizes an advanced atom interferometer combined with an optical lattice.
If that sounds technical, it is. Essentially, this setup allows for precise gravity measurements by holding free-falling atoms in place for a set period of time.
Physicists at UC Berkeley have clamped a small cluster of cesium atoms (the pink blob) in a vertical vacuum chamber and split each atom into a quantum state where half of the atom is close to the tungsten weight (the shiny cylinder) and the other half (the split sphere below the tungsten) is close to the tungsten weight. – Image credit: Cristian Panda/UC Berkeley
The longer we can keep the atoms there, the greater our chances of finding (or not finding) a trace of the chameleon.
“Atom interferometry is the technology and science that exploits the quantum properties of particles – their properties as both particles and waves. We split the waves so that the particles take two paths at the same time, and then we interfere with them at the end,” Muller said.
“The waves are either in phase and add, or out of phase and cancel each other out. The key is that whether they are in phase or out of phase depends very sensitively on the quantities you want to measure, such as acceleration, gravity, rotation, or fundamental constants.”
Whereas previous experiments have only been able to move atoms for a few milliseconds at a time, the new device can keep them in motion for much longer periods – from seconds to tens of seconds – a major improvement that improves the most precise measurements by a factor of five.
In a recent paper published in the journal Natural Physics Muller and his colleagues extended the hold time to a whopping 70 seconds.
To reveal whether chameleon particles are indeed the dark energy mastermind, scientists would need to find holes in the outcomes predicted by the accepted theory of gravity — something no one has managed to do since Isaac Newton formulated it 400 years ago.
Muller and his team found no deviations from Newtonian gravity in their recent tests, suggesting that if chameleons exist, their effects are quite subtle.
Still, the researchers are optimistic: The improved precision of their instruments means future experiments may provide the evidence needed to confirm or disprove the existence of chameleons and other hypothesized particles that contribute to dark energy.
About the Experts
Holger Muller At the age of 14, he successfully filed his first patent. He then wrote his undergraduate thesis under the supervision of Jürgen Mullinek at the University of Konstanz in Germany. He graduated from the Humboldt University in Berlin with Achim Peters as his supervisor. Müller received a fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and joined Steven Chu’s group at Stanford University as a postdoctoral researcher. In July 2008, he joined the Physics Department at the University of California, Berkeley, where he is currently a Professor of Physics and Principal Investigator. He is currently the Principal Investigator of his research group, the Müller Group.
Introducing a new addition to the realm of peculiar dinosaurs, this creature dons magnificent (albeit slightly perilous) headgear that can rival any fashion runway creation. Lociceratops rangiformis is the latest discovery in the realm of dinosaurs, described as one of the largest and most ornate ceratopsians ever found.
Among the distinct features of this ceratopsian are elements previously unseen by scientists, notably the immense, curved, blade-like horns located on the underside of its frill, the largest ever observed on a ceratopsian.
This dinosaur sports an unconventional, asymmetrical spike at the center of its frill, and most uniquely, it lacks a nose horn seen in other horned dinosaurs.
The first part of the dinosaur’s name, Lociceratops, pays homage to the blade-wielding Norse god Loki, while the latter part ‘rangiformis’ indicates its antler-like formations, similar to those of a caribou or reindeer.
The name ‘rangiformis’ was chosen to reflect the peculiarity of this dinosaur’s antler-like feature, reminiscent of the asymmetrical spines seen in caribou or reindeer.
Published in the journal Peer J, this fossil was unearthed in 2019 in the badlands of northern Montana, USA, not far from the Canadian border, where ceratopsians roamed over 78 million years ago.
Despite its blade-like horns and status as the largest ceratopsian of its time, this dinosaur was an herbivore and likely fell prey to predators like Tyrannosaurus rex.
Portrait reconstructions of all four centrosaurine dinosaur species that coexisted in the Kennedy Coulee assemblage of northern Montana and southern Alberta. Lociceratops, at top left, is characterized by its large, curved horns, asymmetrical “spikes,” and lack of a nasal horn. – Image courtesy of Fabrizio Lavezzi
Ceratopsians emerged during the Late Cretaceous period, evolving extravagant features and distinct horn patterns, including those of Lociceratops rangiformis. These dinosaurs were part of an isolated lineage on the island continent of Laramidia (modern-day North America) and exhibited rapid evolution. Ceratopsians survived until the mass extinction event that wiped out all dinosaurs.
The paleontologists involved in the study, led by Joseph Sertich from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and Colorado State University, noted that this new dinosaur showcases the peak of eccentricity in ceratopsian head adornments, boasting the largest frill horns ever seen in a ceratopsian.
These findings challenge previous assumptions about dinosaur diversity, expanding the known coexisting species of ceratopsians to five during that era, transforming our understanding of dinosaur life at the time.
Jewish Revolt Constantius Gallus, alias Gallus' RebellionThe Roman Civil War of 351-354 AD broke out during the Roman Civil War and was the last Jewish revolt against Rome.
Bronze and silver coins from the 4th century AD found at Lod in central Israel. Image courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority.
The 1,650-year-old treasure was discovered by archaeologists from the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA). rodcentral Israel.
The treasury contains 94 silver and bronze coins dating from 221 to 354 AD.
“The most recent coins date to the period of Gallus' revolt (351-354 AD),” the IAA archaeologists said.
“Documentary evidence for the revolt is scarce, but there are documents that document the destruction of major Jewish communities, such as Lod, Tzipori, and Tiberias, by the armies of Constantine Gallus.”
Also found were impressive stone and marble artifacts, inscriptions in Greek, Hebrew and Latin, and inscriptions bearing the names of Jewish men of priestly descent.
“This is probably a magnificent Jewish building where the city's elders lived,” said IAA archaeologists Shahar Crispin and Mol Wiesel.
“We know from Talmudic texts that Lod was the most important center for the Jews after the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem.”
“Famous 'Sages of Rod' include Rabbi Eliezer ben Horcanos, Rabbi Tarfon, Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Yossi Hagalili.”
“The building, destroyed down to its foundations, is a clear indication that the rebellion was forcibly put down with violence and brutality, and was not merely a localized uprising as previous studies have claimed.”
“This is the only evidence so far of the scope and power of this rebellion in Lod, which is in the heart of the country.”
“It is difficult to determine whether this magnificent building was used as a synagogue, a study hall, a meeting place for the elders, or all three functions combined,” said IAA professor Joshua Schwartz.
“What is clear, however, is that the size of the buildings, the coin deposits, and the assemblage of archaeological finds produced by the excavations fit well with the description of Lod/Diospolis as depicted in both Jewish and non-Jewish sources as a center of Torah-faithful Jewish life during the Mishnaic and Talmudic periods.”
“Lod's role as a leading community with elders continued from the time of its destruction until this moment, when it was brutally destroyed in the Gallus Rebellion.”
“The incredible finds made here reinforce our commitment to researching and protecting Rod's history and rich heritage,” said IAA director Eli Escuse.
“Together with the city's new exhibition centre with its beautiful rod mosaics, we will bring this building into public awareness.”
Many of the circled objects represent previously unknown supernovae.
Collaboration between NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI and JADES
Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have discovered a surprising number of supernovae in the distant universe, including some of the most distant yet seen. Their discoveries increase the number of known supernovae in the early universe by a factor of ten.
The researchers imaged the same small patch of sky twice, in 2022 and 2023, and found 79 new supernovae. “It’s actually very small, about the size of a grain of rice held at arm’s length,” the researchers said. Christa DeCourcy “We’ve spent more than 100 hours on JWST,” said Dr. [observing] I took my time with each image, which gives them a lot of depth.”
Astronomers then compared the two images with each other and with previous photos of the same area taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, looking for bright spots that appear in one image but not the other.
These specks are relatively faint stars that shone brightly before fading in bright supernova explosions. Some of them are candidates for the most distant supernovae ever found, although their distances have yet to be confirmed. And one of them is definitely the most distant one ever seen. This star exploded when the universe was only about 1.8 billion years old.
Such supernovae would have produced the heavy elements that are now widespread throughout the universe, so they would have had lower concentrations of these elements than modern supernovae. “The universe at this early stage was fundamentally different from what has been explored in the past by the Hubble Space Telescope and especially ground-based surveys,” he said. Justin Pierre “This is really new territory that JWST is breaking into,” he said during a presentation at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Maryland, where observations could help shed light on what the first stars were like.
Paleontologists from the University of Texas at Austin and other institutions have discovered fragments of the jaw of a feline with scimitar teeth. Homotherium McFaddin Beach, Texas. Homotherium from the continental shelf of the Gulf of Mexico. The topography may have formed a broad subtropical gulf coastal corridor that facilitated the dispersal of Neotropical species along the coast between Texas and Florida. The associated fauna at McFaddin Beach includes Neotropical mammals common to South Texas and Florida, Homotherium It was a type of animal that lived in the Gulf Coast Corridor during the Late Pleistocene.
Homotherium serumImage credit: Sergiodlarosa / CC BY-SA 3.0.
Homotherium It is an extinct genus of scimitar-toothed cat that lived in the Americas, Eurasia, and Africa during the Pliocene and Pleistocene epochs, from about 4 million to 12,000 years ago.
These animals are large, sturdy cats about the size of a jaguar, with elongated faces, long, slender front legs, and sloping backs that end in short, cropped tails.
Their serrated canines were covered with large gum tissue, similar to that of modern domestic dogs.
Their fossils have been found in several areas of Texas, but the newly discovered remains show for the first time that the big cats roamed the now-submerged continental shelf between Texas and Florida.
“This region was a neotropical corridor,” said John Moretti, a doctoral student at the University of Texas at Austin, and his colleagues.
“Animals that couldn't move any further north, such as capybaras and giant armadillos, used these moist grasslands to migrate from Mexico to Texas and Florida.”
In this fossil specimen Homotherium Moretti's research otherstwo teeth are visible at the bottom: an incisor and the tip of a partially evolved canine. Scale bar – 1 cm. Image courtesy of Sam Houston State University.
The fossils studied by the team were discovered more than 60 years ago. McFaddin BeachIt was written by Professor Russell Long of Lamar University, south of Beaumont.
“The fossil appears to consist of a few exposed teeth in a rugged, rounded rock that appears slightly damaged after being submerged and tumbling on the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico for thousands of years before washing up on the shore,” the researchers said.
“But when we X-rayed the fossil, we found more than met the eye: hidden canines that had not yet erupted from the jawbone.”
“That was the information we needed to identify the fossils as belonging to a specific organism. HomotheriumIt is a genus of large cats that roamed large areas of the Earth for millions of years.”
“This cat wasn't fully developed when it died, so its characteristic sabre-shaped canines hadn't fallen out of place. The teeth were still nestled inside the jaw, protecting them from the environment.”
“If the sabre teeth had been fully developed and in their adult form, rather than during the awkward period of their mid-teens, they would have broken right away,” Moretti said.
“It wouldn't have been there and it couldn't have been used as evidence.”
“The discovery Homotherium “Studying the animals that lived along this corridor gives scientists a glimpse into the local ecosystem during the Late Pleistocene,” he added.
“These large carnivores, like cats, helped shape the wider animal community, suppressing prey populations and impacting local biodiversity.”
John A. Moretti othersScimitar Cat Homotherium From the submerged continental shelf of the Gulf Coast of Texas. Anatomy recordPublished online April 23, 2024, doi: 10.1002/ar.25461
Palaeontologists from the Victoria Museum Research Institute and other institutions have discovered Cymostenurus occidentalis Fossils of a eastern grey kangaroo, a species of giant short-faced kangaroo that lived in Australia until about 42,000 years ago, have been discovered in Nightshade Cave in Gunaikurnai County, north of the town of Buchan in eastern Victoria, Australia.
“Short-faced kangaroo They appear in the Australian fossil record around 10 to 15 million years ago, when tropical rainforests began to give way to drier habitats.” Said Dr Tim Ziegler, Collections Manager at Museum Research Victoria;
“They especially diversified during the Late Pleistocene, about 500,000 years ago, during the transition to our present-day arid climate.”
“But in a wave of extinction around 45,000 years ago, they disappeared from the entire continent, along with up to 85% of Australia's large animals.”
49,400-year-old skeleton of a giant short-faced kangaroo Cymostenurus occidentalis It was discovered in Nightshade Cave in Victoria.
The animal's skull was discovered by a local cave group in 2011, and just 10 years later, the individual's skeleton below the skull was discovered by expert paleontologists.
“The skull had a deep snout, robust jaws and teeth, characteristic of a short-faced kangaroo,” Dr Ziegler explained.
“Behind it there were many more bones. It was amazing to see the vertebrae, shoulders, hips, limbs and thin rib cage. Many of the bones had not been moved at all and were still in their original position. This was one animal, not just bones scattered randomly. It felt like the Holy Grail of fossils.”
According to the team, the discovery was made at a young age. Cymostenurus occidentalis.
“This is a further distinction from other species of this animal as it is a juvenile rather than an adult kangaroo,” Dr Ziegler said.
“The teeth had barely worn down, the skull had not yet fused, and the ends of the limbs had not yet joined together.”
“Based on the size of its limbs, we estimate its weight to be around 80 kilograms, which is roughly the weight of an average human. However, as an adult, it may have been half that size.”
The specimen consists of 150 preserved bones and is the most complete fossil skeleton ever found in a Victorian cave.
This fossil, along with others from Nightshade Cave, are now permanently housed and cared for at the Melbourne Museum.
“The skeleton we found has a perfectly intact spinal column, providing new insights that aren't possible from isolated bones,” Dr Ziegler said.
“Thanks to the detailed 3D model, this nearly complete skeleton can be studied from anywhere in the world.”
“A key idea under investigation is whether the Stenulin kangaroo was striding rather than hopping.”
Astronomers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have discovered very old stars in the Milky Way’s halo, a cloud of stars that covers the entire disk of our galaxy. These objects formed between 12 and 13 billion years ago, when the first galaxies were beginning to form. Researchers believe that each star once belonged to its own dwarf galaxy, which was later absorbed into the larger but ever-growing Milky Way, making them known as small accreting star systems (SASS). It’s called a star.
Artist’s concept of the Milky Way galaxy. Image credit: Pablo Carlos Budassi / CC BY-SA 4.0.
“Given what we know about galaxy formation, these oldest stars should definitely exist,” says MIT professor Anna Froebel.
“They are part of our cosmic family tree. And now we have a new way to find them.”
As they discover similar SASS stars, Professor Froebel and his colleagues hope to use them as analogues of ultrafaint dwarf galaxies, which are thought to be some of the first living galaxies in the universe.
These galaxies remain intact today, but they are too distant and faint for astronomers to study in detail.
SASS stars may once have belonged to similar primitive dwarf galaxies, but they are now located within the Milky Way and are much closer, making them more accessible for understanding the evolution of ultrafaint dwarf galaxies. This could be the key.
“Now we can look for more brighter analogs in the Milky Way and study their chemical evolution without chasing these very faint stars,” Professor Froebel said.
The low chemical abundances of these stars suggest that they first formed between 12 and 13 billion years ago.
In fact, their low chemical signature was similar to what astronomers had previously measured for several ancient, ultra-dark dwarf galaxies.
Are the team’s star players from similar galaxies? And how did they come to exist in the Milky Way?
Based on a hunch, scientists studied the orbital patterns of stars and how they move across the sky.
The three stars are located in different locations throughout the Milky Way’s halo and are estimated to be about 30,000 light-years from Earth.
When astronomers used observations from ESA’s Gaia satellite to trace the movement of each star around the galaxy’s center, they noticed something strange. All three stars appeared to be in motion, compared to most of the stars in the main disk, which move like cars on a race track. Wrong way.
In astronomy, this is known as retrograde motion, and is information that the object was once accreted or pulled in from elsewhere.
“The only way to get a star wrong from other members is if you throw it the wrong way,” Professor Froebel says.
The fact that these three stars orbit in a completely different way than the rest of the galactic disk or halo, combined with the fact that their chemical abundances are low, suggests that these stars are actually It was strongly argued that it was ancient and once belonged to an earlier era, a small dwarf galaxy that fell into the Milky Way at a random angle and continued its stubborn orbit billions of years later.
The authors were interested in whether retrograde motion was a feature of other ancient stars in the halo that astronomers had previously analyzed, and they looked at the scientific literature and found similarly low strontium and barium contents, discovered 65 other stars that appear to be moving in retrograde motion as well. Galaxy flow.
“Interestingly, they are all traveling very fast, hundreds of kilometers per second, in opposite directions,” Professor Froebel said.
“They’re on the run! We don’t know why it happened, but this is the piece of the puzzle we need and we never expected it when we started.”
Researchers are keen to find other ancient SASS stars, and now have a relatively simple recipe for doing so. First, they look for stars with low chemical abundance, then track their orbital patterns for signs of retrograde motion.
Researchers hope this method will uncover a small but significant number of the universe’s oldest stars, out of the more than 400 billion stars in the Milky Way.
“I really enjoyed working with three female undergraduates. It was a first for me,” said Professor Froebel.
“This is just an example of the MIT way. It is. And anyone who says, ‘I want to participate,’ can do so, and good things happen.”
team’s paper Published in Royal Astronomical Society Monthly Notices.
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Hilary Diane Anders other. 2024. The oldest star with a small amount of neutron-capturing elements and originating from an ancient dwarf galaxy. MNRAS 530 (4): 4712-4729; doi: 10.1093/mnras/stae670
Discovered by chance in 2019, Odd radio circles (ORCs) are circular regions of faint radio radiation with bright edges that are not visible to optical, infrared, ultraviolet, and X-ray wavelengths.
Some ORCs contain galaxies at their centers, while others do not, but what sets them apart is their size, which is significantly larger than normal galaxies. Some ORCs display a double ring structure, while others have a single ring. There are also some with internal arc-like structures that might be linked to galaxies surrounded by bubbles of radio emission.
While objects with high spherical symmetry are common in the universe, ORCs appear to be distinct from them all, prompting astronomers to classify them as a new type of object.
ORCs could potentially be a type of spherical shock wave generated by fast radio bursts, gamma-ray bursts, or neutron star mergers. If this is the case, they must be extremely ancient to have grown to such a large size.
Alternatively, they may be associated with material jets emanating from the central regions of radio galaxies, but explaining their size and the absence of central objects in all galaxies is challenging.
One intriguing theory suggests that ORCs are created by the fusion of two supermassive black holes in a central galaxy. The available data also support the idea that the shell is caused by a “shock termination” of high-energy particle winds from the central “starburst” galaxy.
Another hypothesis proposes that the ORC is the throat of a “wormhole,” a theoretical passage through spacetime. However, astronomers have yet to agree on the true nature of ORC.
This article addresses the question (by Bradford’s Brendan Owens): “What are strange radio circles?”
If you have any questions, please email us at:questions@sciencefocus.comor send us a messageFacebook,XorInstagramPage (remember to include your name and location).
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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.
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
In a new study, a team of paleontologists examined the structure of teeth. Feredkodon Chowi aims to better understand the phylogenetic relationships and evolutionary paths of a new species of Xuozalaid mammal that lived in what is now China during the Jurassic period.
rebuilding the life of Feredkodon Chowi (right) and Dianoconodon Yonggi (left). Image credit: Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Professor Patricia Vickers-Rich, a researcher at Monash University and Museums Victoria, said: “Our study challenges current theory and provides a new perspective on the evolutionary history of mammals.”
“By describing the complex tooth shapes and occlusal patterns, we provide important insights into the phylogenetic relationships and evolutionary trajectory of the family Xenodiaceae, which was largely unknown until its recent discovery in China. ”
Shoeteraid a mammal-like animal from the Jurassic period, has baffled scientists because of its unique dental features.
These creatures have so-called pseudoclaws (basin-like structures) located in front of the triangular teeth of the mandibular molars, and the claws seen in modern therian mammals are similar to the triangular teeth of the lower molars. It is different from the claw-like pattern located at the back.
“This unique tooth pattern hinders our understanding of schootelid relationships and the first steps in the evolution of mammalian species,” Professor Vickersrich said.
Professor Vickers Rich and her colleagues examined the pseudotribosphene tooth of a new Jurassic schiotelid. Feredkodon Chowi represented by two skeletal specimens.
They were able to more completely dissect the tooth structure using a variety of analyses, and the results suggested that the tooth structure of schootherids is very similar to that of docodontans. Ta.
This study suggests that there are no true trigonids present in the basal teeth of Xuozalidae, indicating that they are more closely related to Docodontans than previously thought.
This reassessment of tooth structure not only resolves outstanding interpretations but also triggers a reconsideration of evolutionary connections within mammals.
“In 1982, a single small Jurassic mandible with four teeth was placed at a single point in the mammal family tree,” said Dr Thomas Rich, also from Monash University and Museums Victoria.
“We now have two virtually complete specimens analyzed in different ways, all of which place them in very different positions on the mammal family tree.”
“Additional specimens and different methods suggest different interpretations. Science often works like this.”
Based on new data, the Xuozidae appears to belong to a separate clade, the Docodontiformes, separate from the Auscutolibospheniformes, and are therefore grouped as follows: docodontance.
This finding highlights the importance of pseudotribosphenic characters in elucidating the initial diversification of mammals.
“This study highlights the presence of a huge variety of tooth morphologies in early mammals, demonstrating unique ecomorphological adaptations throughout the evolutionary development of mammals,” Professor Vickersrich said. Ta.
F. Mao other. The Jurassic family Xenotheliidae represents the earliest dental diversification of mammals. Nature, published online on April 3, 2024. doi: 10.1038/s41586-024-07258-7
According to a team of experts from the Israel Antiquities Authority and the University of Friborg, this unusual amulet seal is at least 2,800 years old (first temple period).
A 2,800-year-old amulet seal excavated from the Tel Rekesh ruins in Israel. Image credit: Israel Antiquities Authority.
“The scarab, made of a semi-precious stone called carnelian, depicts either a mythical griffin creature or a galloping horse with wings,” said archaeologist Professor Osmar Kiel of the University of Friborg. .
“Similar scarabs are dated to the 8th century BC.”
“A beautiful scarab beetle was discovered at the foot of the mountain.” Tel Rekesh, one of the most important stories in Galilee. ”
“The location is identified as the town of ‘Anahrat’ in the territory of the tribe of Issachar (Joshua 19:19).”
“This is one of the most important finds at Tel Rekesh, dating from the Iron Age (7th-6th century BC),” added Dr. Itzik Paz, an archaeologist with the Israel Antiquities Authority.
“At that time, a large fortress appears to have been under the control of the Assyrian Empire, which was responsible for the destruction of the northern kingdom of Israel.”
“Thus, the scarab found at the foot of Tell very likely proves Assyrian (or perhaps Babylonian) rule at the site.”
“The griffin motif on seals is a known artistic motif in ancient Near Eastern art and is commonly seen on Iron Age seals.”
“If we can actually date the seal, it may be possible to link it to the Assyrian presence at the Tell Rekesh fortress. This is a very important discovery.”
A 2,800 year old amulet seal. Image credit: Israel Antiquities Authority.
“The scarab is a type of seal that was widely used in the ancient world from the 4th millennium BC onwards,” the researchers explained.
“The scarab seal is shaped like a dung beetle, hence its name. The Egyptians considered the scarab to be a symbol of the creator god, so the Egyptian name comes from the verb 'to become' or 'to be created.' ” is derived from. ”
“Although scarabs were made from a variety of stones, including semi-precious stones such as amethyst and carnelian, most scarabs are made from steatite, a soft gray-white talcum stone, usually coated with a blue-green glaze. I was there.”
“Glaze persists only in dry climates such as Egypt, so the scarab found in Israel has very little trace of glaze. In this context, the deep orange color of this scarab is both unusual and striking. ”
The Assyrian scarab-shaped seal was discovered by Erez Abrahamov, 45, a resident of Peduel.
“I had two days off from working in the Israeli Defense Forces Reserve, so I decided to take advantage of the sunny days and go hiking,” Abrahamov said.
“As I was walking, I saw something shiny on the ground. At first I thought it was a bead or an orange stone.”
“When I picked it up, I noticed it was carved to look like a scarab or beetle.”
“I called the Israel Antiquities Authority and reported my amazing discovery.”
In The Truth of Areke, the last remaining free city in the Eternal Desert has been under siege for centuries.
Shutterstock / Liu Zishan
This month we have new works by several big name authors. Cixin Liu and Ann Leckie both have easy-to-read collections of short texts. It also depicts a dystopian future by award-winning Thea Obret, and a world where woolly mammoths have been brought back from the world. Douglas Preston's bestseller.He also loves the sound of Scott Alexander Howard's debut song another valleya town where past and future versions exist in the following valleys, and the space adventures of Sofia Samatar. Practice, horizon, and chain. There are so many things I want to read and not enough time…
This is a collection of short stories by science fiction author Liu, who is currently on the rise thanks to a new Netflix film. three body problem, from essays and interviews to short stories. I love this excerpt from an essay about science fiction fans. In it he calls us “mysterious aliens in the crowd.” They “jump like fleas from the future to the past and back again, floating like gas clouds between nebulae. In an instant we can reach the edge of the universe or tunnel into quarks.” or swim inside the core of a star.''Aren't we lucky to have a world like this on our shelves?
Leckie is a must-read author for me, and this is the first complete collection of her short stories, ranging from science fiction to fantasy. On the sci-fi side, we'll be able to dip in again. imperial latch And we're also promised to “learn the secrets of the mysterious Lake of Souls” in a brand new novel.
In the disastrous future, an 11-year-old girl arrives in Morningside with her mother. Once a luxury high-rise, Morningside is now another crumbling part of Island City, half submerged under water. Obrecht won the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2011 for her debut novel. tiger's wife.
Samatar won all kinds of awards for his first novel. Stranger in Olondria. Her latest work depicts the story of a boy who grew up working on a mining ship in the stars, but whose life changes when he is given the opportunity to receive an education at the ship's university. Sounds interesting.
A boy grows up working on a mining ship surrounded by starry skies in The Practice, Horizon, and The Chain.
Getty Images
It's set in a Rocky Mountain valley, where guests at the luxury resort can see woolly mammoths, giant ground sloths and Irish moose brought back from extinction through genetic engineering. But then a series of murders begins, and the two investigators must find out what's really going on.this is what it looks like Jurassic Park-It looks like a lot of fun. And if you want more mammoth-related reading, try my colleague Michael Le Page's excellent explanation of why they won't be coming back anytime soon.
The award-winning author we have to talk about kevin Reflecting her thoughts on the so-called “culture wars” in her fiction, she imagines a world where the “spiritual equality movement” is at its peak, and “the worst thing you can do is call someone 'stupid'.” There is.
This speculative novel alternates endlessly through the wilderness, with the same town to the east 20 years ahead of its time, and the same town to the west 20 years behind. Border crossings are only allowed on “memorial tours,'' which allow people to see the dead in towns where they are still alive. Odile, 16, will take a seat on the Conseil Commission, which can decide who can travel across borders. I love this sound.
Many may wonder if Marvel's superhero stories are really science fiction, but I'm leaning toward the multiverse aspect of this here and including it because it seems kind of interesting. This is the first installment in a new series that reimagines the origins of some of our biggest heroes. Here, Thor died defending Earth from Loki's pranks, and the Norse trickster god, exiled to our planet, is now dealing with the consequences.
the second book of eternal desert The series is set 500 years in the future. Ajungo's lie, which follows a junior peacekeeping force in the last remaining free city in the Eternal Desert, which has been under siege for centuries. It was actually released in March, but I missed it then, and science fiction contributor Sally Addy introduced it as a title to watch this year, so I'm introducing it now.
abnormality Written by Andrei Nikolaidis, translated by Will Firth
On New Year's Eve, the last year of humanity, various stories unfold, from a high-ranking minister with blood on his hands to a nurse with a secret. Later, in a cabin in the Alps, a musicologist and his daughter, the last people left on Earth, try to make sense of this catastrophe.according to independent personNicolaidis makes “Samuel Beckett look aggressively cheerful,'' and I admit that I sometimes want to see stories like that.
In this techno-thriller, Mal is a free AI, unconcerned with the conflicts going on between humans, but is trapped inside the body of a cyborg mercenary and is responsible for keeping the girl she died protecting. It will be.
Paleontologists from the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and others have discovered a partial fossil of an ancient tapeworm preserved in Kachin amber from Myanmar from the mid-Cretaceous period.
A 99-million-year-old amber fragment containing a tapeworm fossil (long tentacles) and other inclusions: (AB) Overall view of the amber fragment. (C) Trichophytes of Gleichenidae. (D) Scale insect larva. (E) Sand grains. Scale bar – 2 mm inches (A, B), 0.1 mm inches (CE).Image credit: Luo other., doi:10.1130/G52071.1.
Parasites, especially parasitoids, are ubiquitous in extant ecosystems but poorly preserved in the geological record.
One such group is Sestoda (tapeworms), a special group of internal parasites flatworm.
These organisms have complex life cycles with at least two hosts and infect all major vertebrate groups.
However, due to its soft tissue and hidden habitat, the fossil record is very sparse, with the only widely accepted example of a pre-Quaternary period being a shark egg found in a Permian coprolite. be.
The lack of body fossils greatly hinders our understanding of early evolution.
Dr. Bo Wang, a researcher at the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, said: “The fossil record of tapeworms is extremely poor due to its soft tissue and endoparasite habitat, which is a major hindrance in understanding its early evolution. ''. Science.
The new fossil exhibits unique external (armature pattern) and internal (partially invaginated tentacles and rootless hooks) features that are most consistent with extant tentacles. Trypanolhynch tapeworm Parasitic substances of marine life elasmobranch (mainly sharks and rays).
“This discovery is the most convincing platyzoan fossil ever discovered,” said Dr. Cihang Luo. candidate at Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences.
“Our study provides an exceptional example of a marine endoparasite trapped in amber and also sheds new light on amber taphonomy.”
“Specifically, we showed that amber can preserve the internal structure of helminths.”
“Using high-resolution micro-CT, we discovered that inside the modern fossil, a folded vertical structure extending spirally around the longitudinal axis extends to the very front. It matches the tentacle you entered.”
“On the other hand, rootless hooks are the same as trypanorhynch hooks.”
“Previous studies have shown that internal structures can be preserved intact, similar to modern forms, but all such studies have focused on arthropods.”
A hypothetical ecological recreation of the Trypanorhynch tapeworm fossil. Image credit: Dinghua Yang / Luo other., doi:10.1130/G52071.1.
“Our results show that amber can preserve the internal structure of helminths such as tapeworms over geological time scales,” Dr. Wang said.
“In addition to remarkable examples of marine endoparasites trapped in amber, several Gleichenia trichomes and scale insect larvae were also preserved in the same amber specimen along with partial insect remains. I did.”
“This clearly indicates that it was in a terrestrial or terrestrial environment at the time it was trapped in the resin.”
“Additionally, many sand grains are evenly distributed throughout the amber, suggesting that the fossil was buried in a sandy environment.”
“Furthermore, evidence so far indicates that Kachin amber was deposited in a near-shore environment.”
“One possible scenario for the tapeworm being deposited in the amber is that its elasmobranch host became stranded by tides or storms.”
“In such a scenario, the host would have been bitten by a high level of terrestrial predator or scavenger.”
“When the host was consumed by a predator, the tentacles were pulled apart, detached from the intestine, and attached to nearby resin.”
“Our study further supports the hypothesis that Kachin amber was probably deposited in a paleoenvironment in the Pala region, and also highlights the importance of amber studies in paleoparasitology.”
team's paper It was published in the magazine geology.
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Jikyoura other. Exceptional preservation of marine tapeworm tentacles preserved in Cretaceous amber. geology, published online March 22, 2024. doi: 10.1130/G52071.1
A new genus and species of plesiosaur that lived near the beginning of the Epoch Epoch. Early to mid-Jurassic sales It was identified from two elaborate three-dimensionally preserved skeletons discovered in Bavaria, Germany.
rebuilding the life of Franconiasaurus brevispinus. Image credit: Joschua Knüppe.
Franconiasaurus brevispinus It lived in the early Jurassic seas about 175 million years ago.
The ancient reptile was a member of plesiosaurinaea group of plesiosaurs known from the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods.
“Plesiosaurs are Mesozoic reptiles perfectly adapted to aquatic life.” sven sachs From the Bielefeld Nature Museum and colleagues.
“Throughout an evolutionary history of more than 140 million years, plesiosaurs have dispersed throughout the world, acquired substantial diversity, occupied a variety of ecological niches, and experienced multiple faunal shifts. did.”
“Of these, the Early/Middle Jurassic transition event (175 to 171 million years ago) has received increased interest recently, as it apparently had a profound impact on all three major lineages of plesiosaurs. I am. Romareosauridae, Pliosauridae and plesiosaurinae. ”
“This event clearly had a significant impact on several clades of marine tetrapods, including the 'fish-like' ichthyosaurs, which are relatives of marine crocodiles.Taratoskian), as well as all three major lineages of plesiosaurs. ”
“The predatory plesiosaur clade Romareosauridae, which was dominant in the Early Jurassic seas, began to disappear and reached its final demise around 161.5 million years ago (late Middle Jurassic), while the pliosaurids and chief… The dragon family has become more diverse.”
“Pliosaurs established a successful clade of large predators that controlled the upper layers of marine ecosystems from 171 million years ago to 90 million years ago, making them one of the largest aquatic predators to ever live. It consisted of a predatory quadrupedal animal that was over 10 meters long.
“Plesiosaurs were then derived from the rich assemblages of microclades common in the European euoceanic waters of Toarchia to the cryptocliids, which represented the globally dominant plesiosaur component of the Middle and Late Jurassic. Switched to fauna. Leptocraidian and elasmosaurids Close to the transition period from the Jurassic to the Cretaceous. ”
Diagnostic skeletal elements of type specimens Franconiasaurus brevispinus.Image credit: Sax other., doi: 10.3389/feart.2024.1341470.
two fossilized skeletons Franconiasaurus brevispinus It was discovered in a now abandoned clay pit in a part of the eurensis melgel layerlocated in Mistelgau, Bavaria, Germany.
“Franconiasaurus brevispinus has been established on the basis of two exquisite three-dimensionally preserved specimens,” said the paleontologist.
“The holotype contains a nearly complete skeleton, but a large portion of the skull is missing.”
“The specimen mentioned represents a larger individual and consists of vertebrae, ribs, and some girdle and limb elements.”
Franconiasaurus brevispinus shows a mixture of characters that combines features that are almost uniformly distributed in early plesiosaurs with features that are typically observed in later members of the clade.
“Through systematic analysis, we can reliably Franconiasaurus brevispinus as a sister taxon of Cryptocridiabridging the evolutionary gap between early plesiosaurs such as plesiosaurus“They are representative forms of later-divergent clades such as cryptocliids, leptochleidians, elasmosaurids, and microclades,” the researchers concluded.
their paper Published in an online journal Frontiers of Earth Science.
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sven sachs other. 2024. Elaborate skeleton of new transitional plesiosaur fills a gap in plesiosaur evolutionary history. front.earth science 12; doi: 10.3389/feart.2024.1341470
Things happen at a glacial pace in Antarctica. Just ask Peter Gorham. For a month at a time, he and his colleagues float a giant balloon loaded with a collection of antennas above the ice, traversing more than a million square kilometers of frozen terrain in search of evidence of high-energy particles arriving from space. I watched it scan.
When the experimental aircraft returned to the ground after its first flight, it showed nothing of itself, except for the odd flash of ambient noise. The same situation occurred after the second flight over a year later.
During the balloon's third flight, the researchers decided to revisit past data, especially signals that had been ignored as noise. It was lucky that they did. Upon closer inspection, one signal appeared to be a signature of a high-energy particle. But that wasn't what they were looking for. Plus, it seemed impossible. These particles did not fall from above, but were ejected from the ground in an explosive manner.
This strange discovery was made in 2016. Since then, all kinds of proposals rooted in known physics have been put forward to explain this complex signal, but all have been ruled out. What is left behind is shocking in its implications. To explain this signal, we need the existence of a dizzying universe that was created in the same Big Bang as ours and exists in parallel. In this mirror world, plus is minus, left is right, and time goes backwards. This is probably the most heart-melting idea ever to come out of Antarctic ice, and it just might be true.
Archaeologists have dated ancient stone tools unearthed at the Korolevo site along the Tisza River in western Ukraine to 1.42 million years ago. Therefore, these artifacts are homo erectus — provides the earliest evidence of humans in Europe and supports the hypothesis that the continent was colonized from the east.
Stone tools from Korolevo I, Ukraine.Image credit: Garba other., doi: 10.1038/s41586-024-07151-3.
“To the east of Europe is the important site of Dmanisi, Georgia, where layers containing human skull remains and stone tools have been reliably dated to approximately 1.85 million to 1.78 million years ago.” said lead author and archaeologist Dr. Roman Garba. Institute of Archeology and Nuclear Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences, and colleagues.
“The path from Africa to Dmanisi through the Levantine Corridor is consistent with Mode 1 stone artefacts recorded in Jordan's Zarqa Valley, dating back approximately 2.5 million years.”
“The earliest dated evidence of humans in Europe was found at two sites in the southwest: Atapuerca, Spain, the oldest hominin fossils at Sima del Elefante are dated to about 1.2 million years old. and 1.1 million years ago. And in the Valone Cave in southern France, stone artifacts are limited to about 1.2 to 1.1 million years ago.”
“However, the vast spatial and temporal gap separating the Caucasus from southwestern Europe leaves important aspects of the first human dispersal into Europe largely unresolved.”
The Korolebo website is first discovered It was discovered in 1974 by Ukrainian archaeologist Vladislav Gradylin.
It is located near where the Tisza River, a tributary of the Danube, emerges from the eastern Carpathians and spreads southwest across the Pannonian Plain.
“The layers of loess and paleosoil accumulated here are up to 14 meters deep and are known to contain thousands of stone artifacts. Korolevo is an important raw material for their production. ” said co-author Dr. Vitalij Usyk, an archaeologist at the Institute of Archeology of the Czech Academy of Sciences.
“We have identified seven epochs of human occupation in the stratigraphic strata, and at least nine different Paleolithic cultures have been recorded in the region. I lived here until a year ago.”
Selected stone tools from Korolevo I, Ukraine: (a) chopper core; (b) Flakes with double-sided treatment. (c) Multiplatform Core. (d) Combewa flakes. (e) Flakes with parallel scar patterns. Scale bar – 3 cm.Image credit: Garba other., doi: 10.1038/s41586-024-07151-3.
The stone tools of Korolevo are oldowan stylethe most primitive form of tool making.
“We applied two complementary dating methods to calculate ages from measured concentrations of beryllium-10 and aluminum-26 of cosmic origin,” said lead author, Czech Academy of Sciences Geophysical Research said Dr. John Jansen, a researcher at the institute.
“However, the most accurate age was obtained from our proprietary method based on mathematical modeling known as P-PINI.”
“This study is the first time our new dating approach has been applied to archeology.”
“We expect our new dating approach to have a major impact on archaeology, as it can be applied to highly fragmented deposits – deposits with lots of erosional voids.”
“In archaeology, we almost always find a fragmentary record, whereas the traditional long-distance dating method, magnetostratigraphy, relies on a more continuous record.”
The First Peoples of Europe: (a) Ruins and dispersal routes mentioned in the text. The maximum extent of the Eurasian ice sheet is indicated by the gray dashed line. Blue arrows indicate possible early human dispersal routes. (b) Korolevo I, Gostly Verv, Ukraine, seen from Beyvar Hill with excavation XIII (red box).Image credit: Garba other., doi: 10.1038/s41586-024-07151-3.
According to the research team, Korolevo is the northernmost known archaeological site. homo erectus.
“The radiometric dating of the first human presence at the Korolevo site not only bridges the large spatial gap between the Dmanisi and Atapuerca sites, but also shows that the first dispersal pulse of humans into Europe came from the east or southeast. This also supports our hypothesis,'' Dr. Garba said.
“Based on climate models and field pollen data, we identified three possible interglacial warm periods during which the first humans most likely followed the Danube migratory corridor to reach Korolevo. .”
a paperThe survey results were published in a magazine Nature.
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R. Garba other. 1.4 million years ago, humans dispersed from east to west across Europe. Nature, published online March 6, 2024. doi: 10.1038/s41586-024-07151-3
Curious about what goes on inside a black hole? Wondering about the origins of the Big Bang and how the forces of the universe came together? These are some of the biggest questions humanity has about the universe, and new discoveries are bringing us closer to the answers than ever before.
Scientists have made a breakthrough in measuring gravity in the quantum world, with British, Dutch, and Italian teams utilizing new technology to detect weak gravity on small particles. By suspending particles weighing just 0.43 mg at ultra-low temperatures, they were able to isolate the vibrations of the particles using magnets and superconducting devices.
This groundbreaking technique allowed scientists to measure weak attractive forces of only 30 attonewtons (aN), a force smaller than that of a bacterium on a table’s surface. Previously, understanding how gravity worked at the microscopic level had eluded scientists, but this discovery has shed light on the interaction of forces with particles at a small scale.
Lead author of the study, Tim Hooks from the University of Southampton, noted that scientists have been struggling for a century to understand how gravity and quantum mechanics interact. This new discovery brings us closer to unraveling the mysteries of the universe and potentially paves the way for further advancements in measuring quantum gravity.
By continuing to refine the method used in this study, researchers hope to delve deeper into the forces that govern the universe, ultimately leading to a better understanding of the very structure of our cosmos.
“We are on the brink of new discoveries about gravity and the quantum world,” said Professor Hendrik Ulbricht, one of the study authors.
genus mouse pseudosyndrome It is one of the few terrestrial placental mammals to have established itself in Australia without human intervention.
The delicate rat of the Pilbara (Pseudomys pyruvalensis). Image credit: Ian Boole.
of Native little mouse (Pseudomys delicaturus)The mouse, also known as the delicate mouse, was previously thought to be a single species that spread across a vast country, from the Pilbara in Western Australia, across parts of the Northern Territory, through Queensland to the New South Wales border. It was getting worse.
“Thanks to new genetic technology, we now identify not one but three species of these delicate mice.”
“Identifying undescribed species and giving them official names will go a long way in ensuring they are properly managed.”
“Although it may be difficult for amateurs to tell the species apart, this discovery is important for the future of this small mouse.”
“The two new species did not receive conservation or research attention because we did not know they were there.”
“For example, we don't know whether population declines were not detected as a result of all three species being assessed as a single unit.”
“This delicate rat was not a priority for conservation, but that's because the distribution of the rat was thought to be three times larger than it actually is. That would allow for a reassessment.”
“Sensitive mice differ from the mice you encounter in your home or backyard in several important ways.”
“Mus musculus, black rats and brown rats are non-native species that have been introduced to Australia since European colonization.”
“Evolutionarily and ecologically, they are very different from native rodents. They compete with our native species for resources.”
“Delicate mice are part of a group of native rodents that have evolved in Australia over the past five million years. They are an important part of Australia's natural environment and ecosystem.”
“The delicate mouse is Australia's smallest rodent. Weighing only 6 grams, it's really small.”
Researchers also discovered that the delicate mice were able to adapt well to their environment, whether it was an arid desert or a forest.
“These three species will now be referred to by common names that reflect their habitat: Western or Pilbara delicate mouse, Eastern delicate mouse and Northern delicate mouse,” they said. Stated.
An international team of herpetologists led by scientists from the University of New Mexico Highlands and the University of Queensland has described a mysterious new species of anaconda living deep in the Amazon.
anaconda (genus Eunectes) is a group of aquatic snakes endemic to the east of the Andes Mountains of South America.
These large-bodied snakes live in lowland rivers and wetlands. They have typical adaptations for an aquatic lifestyle, such as their nostrils and eyes located on the dorsal side of their heads, and exhibiting dorsal coloration and markings that blend well with aquatic plants.
Prior to this study, four species were recognized in this genus. Eunectes murinus represents the sister lineage of a group consisting of Eunectes veniensis, Eunectes deschaouenseiand Eunectes Noteus.
The largest of these species is Eunectes murinusor the blue anaconda, lives in most tropical regions of the continent, including the Amazon, Essequibo, and Orinoco river basins and several smaller watersheds.
The other three species are smaller Eunectes murinus distributed within or adjacent to the distribution of Eunectes murinus.
recently described species Eunectes veniensisor venian anaconda, is restricted to the Beni region of Bolivia.
Eunectes deschaouensei, or black-spotted anaconda, is distributed in the northeastern part of the continent. They range from the Amazon River Delta in Brazil to French Guiana and possibly Suriname.
Eunectes Noteusor yellow anaconda, is distributed in the south. Eunectes murinus Includes the Pantanal, Chaco, and other highly seasonal regions of tropical and subtropical South America, including Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay, Argentina, and Uruguay.
“Our team received an unusual invitation from the Huaorani people to explore the area and collect samples from an anaconda population, rumored to be the largest extant species,” the University of Queensland said. Professor Brian Fryco-lead author of the study.
“Indigenous hunters took us on a 10-day expedition into the jungle to search for snakes they consider sacred.”
“As we paddled our canoes down the river system, we were lucky enough to spot a few anacondas lurking in the shallows, waiting for prey.”
“The size of these magnificent creatures was incredible. The female anaconda we encountered was a whopping 6.3 meters (20.7 feet) long.”
“The Huaorani have reported other anacondas in the region measuring over 7.5 meters (24.6 feet) and weighing about 500 kilograms.”
named Eunectes Acaimaor northern green anaconda, a new species occurs in the Orinoco Basin.
“Eunectes Acaima branched from Eunectes murinus They are almost 10 million years old and genetically 5.5% different,” Professor Fry said.
“This is very important. To put it into perspective, there is only about a 2% difference between humans and chimpanzees. This discovery is the highlight of my career.”
“The Amazon continues to face alarming ecological threats,” he added.
“Deforestation in the Amazon basin due to agricultural expansion has resulted in an estimated loss of 20-31% of habitat and could affect up to 40% of the forest by 2050.”
“Another growing problem is habitat degradation due to land fragmentation caused by heavy metal pollution associated with runoff from industrialized agriculture and oil extraction activities.”
“Forest fires, drought and climate change are also notable threats.”
“These rare anacondas and the other species that share this remote ecosystem face significant challenges.”
“Our next research project will focus on heavy metal pollution in the Amazon,” Professor Fry said.
“It's not just these giant snakes that are facing environmental threats, but almost every creature in this region.”
“While the discovery of a new species of anaconda is exciting, it is important to emphasize the urgent need to further study these endangered species and ecosystems.”
“Particularly urgent is investigating how petrochemicals from oil spills are affecting the fertility and reproductive biology of rare snakes and other keystone species in the Amazon.”
discovery of Eunectes Acaima is explained in paper in diary Diversity.
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Jesus A. Rivas other. 2024. Untangling the anaconda: Unraveling a new species of green and rethinking yellow. Diversity 16(2):127; doi: 10.3390/d16020127
Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have captured stunning images of the dwarf spiral galaxy IC 3476 in the constellation of Coma.
This Hubble image shows IC 3476, a dwarf spiral galaxy located 54 million light-years away in the constellation Coma. This image consists of observations made by Hubble's Altitude Survey Camera (ACS) in the near-infrared and optical parts of the spectrum. This is based on data obtained through his two filters. Color is obtained by assigning different hues to each monochromatic image associated with an individual filter. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / M. Sun.
IC 3476 It is located in the constellation Coma, approximately 54 million light-years from Earth.
This galaxy is first discovered It was proposed by German astronomer Arnold Schwassmann on November 22, 1900.
IC 3476, also known as IRAS 12301+1419 or LEDA 41608, is a member of the Virgo Cluster.
On the other hand, new Hubble images of the galaxy don't look quite as dramatic. The actual physical events occurring in IC 3476 are highly energetic.
“IC 3476 is undergoing a process known as ram pressure stripping, which promotes unusually high levels of star formation within the region of the galaxy itself,” the Hubble astronomers said.
“We tend to associate the letter 'ram' with the acronym RAM, which refers to random access memory in computing.”
“But ram pressure has a perfectly clear definition in physics: it is the pressure exerted on an object by the overall resistance of the fluid as it moves through some form of fluid.”
“If the entire galaxy is under ram pressure, then the galaxy is a 'celestial body', and the intergalactic medium or the intracluster medium (dust and gas that permeates the space between galaxies, in the latter case the intergalactic space) becomes a “celestial body”. fluid'. “
“Lamb pressure stripping occurs when gas is stripped from a galaxy by ram pressure,” the astronomers explained.
“Gas is absolutely key to star formation, so removing this gas could lead to reduced levels of star formation or even a complete cessation.”
“But the ram's pressure could also compress other parts of the galaxy, which could actually promote star formation.”
“This is what appears to be happening in IC 3476: no star formation appears to be occurring at the edges of the galaxy, which are bearing the brunt of the ram pressure separation, but in deeper regions of the galaxy, the rate of star formation slows down. It seems to be clearly above average. ”
Astronomers used the FORCAST instrument on NASA's retired Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) to obtain mid-infrared spectra of four S-type (silicate-rich) asteroids: Iris, Partenope, Melpomene, and Massalia. Did. They detected features on two of her asteroids, Iris and Massalia, that could clearly be attributed to water molecules.
Arredondo other. Using his FORCAST instrument at NASA's SOFIA Observatory, he observed four silicate-rich asteroids and found mid-infrared spectral signatures indicating molecular water on two of them, Iris and Massalia. Separated. Image credit: NASA/Carla Thomas/Southwest Research Institute.
“Asteroids are leftovers from the planet-forming process, so their composition varies depending on where in the solar nebula they form,” said Dr. Anisia Arredondo, a planetary researcher at the Southwest Research Institute.
“Of particular interest is the distribution of water on the asteroid, as it may reveal how water was delivered to Earth.”
Anhydrous, or dry, silicate asteroids form close to the Sun, and icy material coalesces farther away.
Understanding the location of asteroids and their composition can help us understand how material within the solar nebula has been distributed and evolved since its formation.
The distribution of water in our solar system provides insight into the distribution of water in other planetary systems, and because water is necessary for all life on Earth, there is potential both within and outside the solar system. You will decide where to look for natural life.
“We detected features on the asteroids Iris and Massalia that are clearly attributable to water molecules,” Arredondo said.
“We are building on the success of the team that discovered water molecules on the moon's sunlit surface.”
“We thought we could use SOFIA to find this spectral feature in other objects.”
Sofia detected water molecules in one of the largest craters in the moon's southern hemisphere.
Previous observations of both the Moon and the asteroid have detected some types of hydrogen, but have not been able to distinguish between water and its chemical cousin hydroxyl.
Scientists found that in the cubic meters of soil spread across the moon's surface, there is approximately the equivalent of a 12-ounce (355 ml) bottle of water trapped chemically bonded to minerals.
“Based on the band intensities of the spectral features, the water abundance on the asteroid matches the water abundance on the sunlit moon,” Arredondo said.
“Similarly, in asteroids, water not only binds to minerals, but also adsorbs to silicates and can become trapped or dissolved in silicate impact glass.”
Data from two fainter asteroids, Partenope and Melpomene, were too noisy to draw definitive conclusions.
The FORCAST instrument appears not to be sensitive enough to detect the spectral signature of water, if it exists.
But with these discoveries, researchers are calling on NASA/ESA/CSA's James Webb Space Telescope to take advantage of its precise optics and superior signal-to-noise ratio to investigate more targets. I am requesting you to do so.
“We conducted initial measurements of two more asteroids with Mr. Webb during Cycle 2,” said Dr. Arredondo.
“We are making another proposal to consider 30 more goals in the next cycle.”
“These studies will improve our understanding of the distribution of water in the solar system.”
A new genus and species of pterosaur has been identified from fossils found at the site. Kilmalag Formation Originally from the Isle of Skye, Scotland.
Reconstructed by artists Theoptera evansae. Image credit: Mark Witton / Natural History Museum, London.
Professor Paul Barrett of London's Natural History Museum and colleagues said: “The oldest known pterosaur fossils date from the late Triassic period, but the group persisted until extinction at the end of the Cretaceous period.''
“Pterosaurs are known on every continent and experienced two major peaks in species richness during the Early-Middle Cretaceous and the Late Cretaceous.”
“However, that distribution is highly influenced by the 'Lagerstetten effect' and other forms of sampling bias.”
“Most of our knowledge about the evolutionary history of pterosaurs is based on material from a small number of archaeological sites with limited spatiotemporal extent.”
The newly discovered species lived in what is now Scotland between 168 and 166 million years ago (during the mid-Jurassic period).
named Theoptera evansaeIt was the first pterosaur named in Scotland and the most complete pterosaur discovered in Britain since its discovery by Mary Anning. Dimorphodon Macronix Early 1800s.
The remains of this flying reptile consist of a three-dimensionally preserved partial skeleton, including the shoulders, wings, legs, and part of the spine.
Many of the bones remain fully embedded in the rock and can only be studied using CT scans.
Theoptera evansae, almost as found (top) and with CT reconstruction using the elements (bottom). Image credit: Martin-Silverstone other.
“Theoptera evansae is part of the pterosaur clade Dalwinoptera'' said the paleontologists.
“The discovery shows that this clade is much more diverse than previously thought and persisted for more than 25 million years, from the Late Late Jurassic to the Late Jurassic.”
The discovery also shows that all of the major Jurassic pterosaurs evolved earlier than previously thought, well before the end of the Early Jurassic.
“Theoptera evansae “This helps narrow down the timing of some key events in the evolution of flying reptiles,” said Professor Barrett.
“Most of its relatives are from China, so its appearance in Britain during the mid-Jurassic period was a complete surprise.”
“This shows that the advanced group of flying reptiles to which it belongs appeared earlier than we thought and quickly acquired a near-global distribution.”
“During that period, Theoptera evansae This period is one of the most important in the evolution of pterosaurs, and it is also the period with the lowest number of specimens, demonstrating its importance,” said Dr Liz Martin-Silverstone, a palaeontologist at the University of Bristol. said.
“We found more bones embedded in the rock, some of which were essential to identifying the type of pterosaur.” Theoptera evansae This was an even better discovery than originally thought. ”
“This brings us one step closer to understanding when and where more advanced pterosaurs evolved.”
elizabeth martin silverstone other. 2024. A new pterosaur and the diversification of early flying reptiles from the Middle Jurassic of Skye, Scotland. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontologyin press.
Marine biologist at Schmidt Ocean Institute R/V Falco Two expeditions in 2023 exploring seamounts off Costa Rica's Pacific coast discovered at least four new species of deep-sea octopus.
A newly hatched octopus swims away from its egg near a small rocky outcrop informally known as El Dorado Hill. Image credit: Schmidt Ocean Institute.
“The impact is that R/V Falco Research to understand Costa Rica's deep Pacific Ocean will continue into the future and hopefully generate awareness that will lead to policies that protect the country's deep sea,” said Dr. Jorge Cortés, a researcher at the University of Costa Rica.
“We hope this expedition will inspire new generations. Further international cooperation is needed to increase knowledge about our deep-sea heritage.”
During the first expedition in June 2023, Dr. Cortes and colleagues discovered two octopus farms associated with thermal springs.
Six months later, they returned to the nursery and confirmed that they appear to be active year-round.
They also observed several other new species of octopus away from the hot springs.
One of the new species belongs to the genus Octopus Muusocops The octopus is named after the small rocky outcrop, informally known as El Dorado Hills, where it was first discovered.
This is a different species, closely related to, but a different deep-sea octopus farm, found in California's Davidson Seamount in 2018.
Of the four new species in Costa Rica, only the dorado octopus was observed spawning in hot springs.
This discovery is Muusocops This genus evolved to raise its eggs in warm springs on the ocean floor.
“After hard work, our team has discovered a new hydrothermal spring off the coast of Costa Rica, which has become a nursery for deep-sea octopuses and a unique biodiversity site,” said Dr. Beth Orcutt, a researcher at the Bigelow Institute of Marine Science. We confirmed that this is the habitat.”
“It was less than 10 years ago that low-temperature hydrothermal eruptions were detected in ancient volcanoes located far from mid-ocean ridges.”
“These locations are very difficult to find because you can't detect any trace of it in the water column.”
Researchers also discovered a thriving deep-sea skating nursery on the top of another seamount in Costa Rican waters, which they named Skatepark.
They also discovered three hydrothermal springs within the region, located 10 to 30 nautical miles from each other.
These springs all differ from each other in the temperature and chemistry of their fluids, indicating that unique reaction processes drive their formation.
“The Schmidt Ocean Institute supports the global scientific community wherever it is located. Falcor ” said Dr. Jyothika Virmani, Executive Director. Schmidt Ocean Institute.
“Dr. Cortés and Dr. Orcutt have assembled a team that truly embodies international collaboration that empowers Costa Rica's domestic scientists and enriches local knowledge and understanding of the ocean.”
“We look forward to operating off the coasts of Peru and Chile in 2024 and welcoming scientists from South America.”
The physics of proton gravitational form factors and their understanding in quantum chromodynamics have advanced significantly over the past two decades through both theory and experiment.a new paper inside modern physics review We provide an overview of this progress, highlighting the physical insights revealed by studies of the gravitational form factor and reviewing its interpretation in terms of the mechanical properties of protons.
A 2D representation of the quark contribution to the force distribution within the proton as a function of distance from the proton center. Light gray shading and long arrows indicate areas of stronger force, while dark gray shading and short arrows indicate areas of weaker force. Left panel: Normal force as a function of distance from center. The arrows change size and always point radially outward. Right panel: tangential force as a function of distance from center. The force changes direction and magnitude as indicated by the direction and length of the arrow. The sign of the force changes around 0.4 fm from the proton center. Image credit: Burkert other., doi: 10.1103/RevModPhys.95.041002.
“This measurement reveals insight into the environment experienced by the proton's components,” said Volker Burkert, principal investigator at the Jefferson Institute.
“A proton is made up of three quarks held together by a strong force.”
“At its peak, this amounts to more than four tons of force that would have to be applied to the quark to pull it out of the proton.”
“Of course, it is not possible in nature to separate just one quark from a proton because quarks have a property called color.”
“Protons have three colors mixed with quarks, and appear colorless from the outside. This is a requirement for them to exist in the universe.”
“When you try to extract a colored quark from a proton, the energy you invested in separating the quarks is used to create a meson, a pair of colorless quark and antiquark, leaving behind a colorless proton (or neutron).”
“In other words, the number four tons represents the strength of the force inherent in protons.”
The result is only the second of the mechanical properties of the protons to be measured.
Mechanical properties of protons include internal pressure (measured in 2018), mass distribution (physical size), angular momentum, and shear stress (shown here).
This result was made possible by predictions from half a century ago and data from 20 years ago.
In the mid-1960s, nuclear physicists realized that if they could observe how gravity interacted with subatomic particles like protons, such experiments could directly reveal the mechanical properties of protons. It was theorized that
“But at the time, we had no choice. For example, if you compare gravity to electromagnetic forces, there's a difference of 39 orders of magnitude. So it's pretty hopeless, right?” said Latifa El-Adhriri, a staff scientist at the Jefferson Institute. .
This data comes from experiments conducted at the Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility (CEBAF) at the Jefferson Research Institute.
A typical CEBAF experiment involves a high-energy electron interacting with another particle by exchanging a packet of energy and a unit of angular momentum called a virtual photon with the particle. The energy of an electron determines which particles it interacts with in this way and how it reacts.
In the experiment, a high-energy beam of electrons interacting with protons inside a target of liquefied hydrogen gas exerted a much greater force on the protons than the four tons needed to pull out the quark/antiquark pair.
“We have developed a program to study deep virtual Compton scattering,” said Dr. El-Adrili.
“This is where electrons exchange virtual photons with protons.”
“And in the final state, the proton stays the same but recoils, and you actually produce one very high-energy photon, and you also get a scattered electron.”
“At the time we acquired the data, we did not know that beyond the intended 3D imaging with these data, we were also collecting the data needed to access the mechanical properties of the protons.”
“It turns out that this particular process, the highly virtual Compton scattering, may be related to how gravity interacts with matter.”
“A general version of this relationship is stated in Einstein's 1973 textbook on general relativity.gravityWritten by Charles W. Meisner, Kip S. Thorne, and John Archibald Wheeler. ”
“In it, they say, “A massless spin 2 field would give rise to a force indistinguishable from gravity, because a massless spin 2 field would couple with a stress-energy tensor in the same way as a gravitational interaction.'' It is written as 'It is from.'.'.
“Thirty years later, theorist Maxim Polyakov continued this idea and established a theoretical foundation linking deep virtual Compton scattering processes and gravitational interactions.”
“This theoretical breakthrough establishes a relationship between measurements of deep virtual Compton scattering and the gravitational shape factor.”
“And we were able to take advantage of that for the first time and bring out the pressure that we gave during the game.” Nature A paper was published in 2018 and now normal and shear forces are being studied,” Dr. Burkert said.
“A more detailed explanation of the relationship between deep virtual Compton scattering processes and gravitational interactions is provided in a new paper describing the first results obtained from this study.”
In April 2019, the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration resolved the central black hole of the giant elliptical galaxy Messier 87 (M 87), known as M87*, the first-ever event horizon-scale black hole. I reported the image. . In a new paper, astronomers present new images of M87* from data collected by the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA), the Greenland Telescope, and several other instruments within the EHT. doing. These new images show the shadow of his M87* as predicted by general relativity. Interestingly, the peak brightness of the ring is shifted by about 30 degrees compared to the first image. This is consistent with the theoretical understanding of fluctuations due to turbulent matter around a black hole.
The Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration has released new images of M87* from observations taken in April 2018, one year after the first observations in April 2017. The new observations reveal a familiar bright luminescent ring, the same size as the one originally observed. The brightest part of the ring has moved about 30 degrees to the 5 o'clock position compared to the 2017 image. Image credit: EHT Collaboration.
“A fundamental requirement of science is to be able to reproduce results,” says Dr. Keiichi Asada, an astronomer at the Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Academia Sinica.
“The confirmation of the ring in a completely new data set is a major milestone for our collaboration and a strong indication that we are observing the shadow of a black hole and the matter orbiting around it. .”
An image of M87* taken in 2018 is strikingly similar to what astronomers saw in 2017.
They see bright rings of the same size, with a dark central area and one side of the ring brighter than the other.
Because M87*'s mass and distance do not increase appreciably over a human lifetime, general relativity predicts that the diameter of the ring will remain the same from year to year.
The diameter stability measured in the 2017-2018 images strongly supports the conclusion that M87* is well described by general relativity.
“One of the remarkable properties of a black hole is that its radius strongly depends on only one quantity: its mass,” said Dr. Nitika Yadrapalli-Yurku, a postdoctoral fellow at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
“M87* is not a material that gains mass rapidly, so according to general relativity, its radius will change little throughout human history. We see our data confirm this prediction. That's very interesting.”
Although the size of the black hole's shadow did not change between 2017 and 2018, the location of the brightest region around the ring changed significantly.
The bright area rotated about 30 degrees counterclockwise and settled in the lower right part of the ring, at about the 5 o'clock position.
Historical observations of M87* with less sensitive arrays and a small number of telescopes also show that the shadow structure changes from year to year, but with low precision.
Although the 2018 EHT array cannot yet observe jets emerging from M87*, the black hole's axis of rotation predicted from the location of the brightest region around the ring is more consistent with the axis of jets seen at other wavelengths. Masu.
“The biggest change is that the brightness peak has moved around the ring, which is actually the first time in 2019 that “This is what we predicted when we announced the results.”
“According to general relativity, the size of the ring should remain approximately constant, but radiation from the turbulent and messy accretion disk around the black hole causes the brightest parts of the ring to move toward a common center. It wobbles around you.”
“The amount of wobble observed over time can be used to test theories about the magnetic field and plasma environment around the black hole.”
of new results appear in the diary astronomy and astrophysics.
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Collaboration with Event Horizon Telescope. 2024. The persistent shadow of M 87's supermassive black hole. I. Observation, Calibration, Imaging, and Analysis. A&A 681, A79; doi: 10.1051/0004-6361/202347932
Scientists have made a monumental discovery about what lies beneath a mysterious mass buried below Mars’ equator, revealing the presence of ice that could be crucial in planning for potential life on the red planet.
New data from ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft has uncovered ice extending several kilometers below the surface of Mars, providing unprecedented insight into the planet’s subsurface.
Fifteen years ago, Mars Express explored the wind-sculpted Medusae fossai formation, which is where the ice is currently located. The spacecraft initially found large deposits estimated to be 2.5 km (1.6 miles) deep, but the content of these deposits remained a mystery until now. Scientists have since confirmed that the deposit stretches an incredible 3.7 km (2.3 miles) deep and is thicker than previously thought.
The volume of ice discovered is substantial, with enough water content to cover Mars with a layer 1.5 to 2.7 meters (4.9 to 8.9 feet) deep if melted – equivalent to the Red Sea’s capacity on Earth.
“Interestingly, the radar signal is consistent with what you would expect to see from layered ice, and from the polar caps of Mars, which we know to be very ice-rich,” said Thomas Watters of the Smithsonian Institution, lead author of the study.
The recent discovery, published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, constitutes the largest detection of water in this region of Mars yet. The presence of water could significantly impact future human exploration of Mars, potentially favoring equatorial locations over the ice-rich polar caps.
“The finding of water ice buried underground on Mars does not directly provide optimism for discovering extraterrestrial life there, but it does offer hope for human colonization on the red planet,” commented Dr. Darren Baskill, an astronomy lecturer at the University of Sussex.
The deposit’s location close to the equator suggests that the water ice is a relic from Mars’ history, challenging current understandings of the planet’s climate and prompting further research into its implications.
About our experts
Dr. Darren Baskill is an Outreach Officer and Lecturer in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Sussex. He previously lectured at the Royal Observatory Greenwich and organized the annual Astronomical Photographer of the Year competition.
Artist's impression of a pulsar orbiting a black hole – one possible interpretation of the mysterious binary star system
Daniel Hutseller (artsource.nl)
Some 40,000 light-years away, a strange object could be either the heaviest neutron star or the lightest black hole ever seen, and it resides in a mysterious celestial void that astronomers have never directly observed. .
Neutron stars form when a star runs out of fuel and collapses due to gravity, creating a shock wave called a supernova and leaving behind an extremely dense core. Astrophysical calculations show that these nuclei must remain below a certain mass, about 2.2 times the mass of the Sun, or they will collapse further to form a black hole.
However, black holes have only been observed to have a mass more than five times that of the sun, leaving a gap in scale between neutron stars and black holes. Gravitational-wave observatories have observed several dense objects in this gap, but astronomers have never discovered them with conventional telescopes.
now, Ewan Barr Researchers at Germany's Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy discovered an object with 2.5 times the mass of the Sun by observing pulsars orbiting around it. A pulsar is a neutron star that emits pulses of light at regular millisecond intervals due to a strong magnetic field.
As predicted by Albert Einstein's theory of relativity, pulsars emit light with great regularity, but very large nearby objects can distort these rhythms. Dr. Barr and his team were able to calculate the mass of the pulsar's partner by observing the pulsar's pulses for more than a year using his MeerKAT radio telescope in South Africa.
“What we've discovered in this binary system appears to go beyond that [upper limit for neutron star mass]This suggests that there is some new physics going on here and that this is either a new type of star, or simply a black hole, the lightest stellar-mass black hole yet discovered. “There will be,” Barr said.
Pulsars are located in globular clusters, which are dense regions of stars and some rare objects that can pass close to each other. These unusual interactions could explain the mysterious object, Barr said.
If it's a black hole, researchers will be able to test theories of gravity that weren't possible before. “A pulsar is just a ridiculously accurate measuring device in orbit around a black hole, but it's not going anywhere. It's going to be around for the next billion years,” Barr says. “So this is an incredibly stable and natural test bed for investigating the physics of black holes.”
“If it's a neutron star, it would be more massive than any neutron star we've ever seen,” he says. Christine Dunn At Durham University, UK. “This actually tells us about the ultimate density that a star can support before it collapses under its own gravity and becomes a black hole. We need to understand the physics of matter at such extreme densities. I don't know what the limits are.”
Barr and his team plan to observe the pulsar with other telescopes over the next few years, looking for clues about what the object is. If it were a black hole, we would see the pulsar's orbit change over time, as the black hole dragged through spacetime around it, much like a ship dragging a small boat behind it. Or if it's a neutron star, more sensitive instruments might be able to detect the light.
Interestingly, the gamma-ray signal detected by NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has a similar orientation to another unexplained feature produced by some of the most energetic cosmic particles ever detected. and are found to be approximately the same size.
This artist's concept shows the entire sky in gamma rays, with a magenta circle indicating the uncertainty in the direction in which more high-energy gamma rays appear to be arriving than average. In this view, the plane of the Milky Way crosses the center of the map. The circle encloses the region that contains these gamma ray sources with a probability of 68% (inside) and 95%. Image credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.
“It was a completely serendipitous discovery. We found a much stronger signal in a different part of the sky than what we were looking for,” said the University of Maryland and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Space. said academic Dr. Alexander Kashlinsky.
Dr. Kasilinsky and his colleagues were looking for gamma-ray signatures associated with the cosmic microwave background (CMB), the oldest light in the universe.
This light occurred when the hot, expanding universe cooled enough to form the first atoms, and this event released a burst of light that could penetrate the universe for the first time.
Stretched out by the subsequent expansion of the universe over the past 13 billion years, this light was first detected in 1965 in the form of faint microwave waves across the sky.
In the 1970s, astronomers noticed that the CMB had a so-called dipole structure, which was later measured with high precision by NASA's COBE mission.
The CMB has more microwaves than average in the direction toward Leo and is about 0.12% hotter, and in the opposite direction it is cooler by the same amount with fewer microwaves than average.
To study small temperature changes within the CMB, this signal must be removed.
Astronomers generally believe that this pattern is the result of our solar system's motion relative to the CMB at about 370 km per second (230 miles per second).
This movement causes a dipole signal in the light coming from astrophysical sources, but so far only the CMB has been accurately measured.
By looking for patterns in other forms of light, astronomers can confirm or refute the idea that the dipole is entirely due to the motion of the solar system.
“Such measurements are important because the discrepancy in the size and orientation of the CMB dipole allows us to extend the possibility of going back to the very beginning of the universe, when the universe was less than a trillionth of a second old. “Because we can get a glimpse of certain physical processes,” said Professor Fernando Atrio Barrandera from the University of Salamanca.
Astronomers reasoned this by summing up years of data from Fermi's Large Area Telescope (LAT).
Due to the effects of relativity, gamma-ray dipoles should be amplified five times more than currently detected CMBs.
The authors integrated 13 years of Fermi LAT observations of gamma rays above about 3 billion electron volts (GeV). For comparison, visible light has an energy of about 2 to 3 electron volts.
They removed all resolved and identified sources and removed the central plane of the Milky Way to analyze the extragalactic gamma-ray background.
“We have discovered a gamma-ray dipole, but its peak is located in the southern sky, far from the CMB, and its magnitude is 10 times larger than expected from our motion.” said astrophysicist Dr. Chris Schroeder. Catholic University of America.
“Although this is not what we were looking for, we think it may be related to similar features reported for the highest-energy cosmic rays.”
Cosmic rays are accelerated charged particles, primarily protons and atomic nuclei. The rarest and most energetic particles, called UHECRs (Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays), carry more than a billion times the energy of 3 GeV gamma rays, and their origin remains one of the greatest mysteries in astrophysics.
Since 2017, the Pierre Auger Observatory in Argentina has report Dipole in the direction of arrival of UHECR.
Because cosmic rays are electrically charged, they are deflected by galaxies' magnetic fields by different amounts depending on their energy, but the peak of the UHECR dipole is at a position in the sky similar to that found by researchers with gamma rays.
And both have surprisingly similar sizes. About 7% more gamma rays or particles than average come from one direction, and correspondingly less gamma rays or particles come from the opposite direction.
“The two phenomena are probably related, and an as-yet-unidentified source may be producing both gamma rays and very high-energy particles,” the scientists said.
“To solve this cosmic puzzle, we must either locate these mysterious sources or propose alternative explanations for both features.”
of findings Published in Astrophysics Journal Letter.
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A. Kashirinsky other. 2024. Exploration of dipoles in the diffuse gamma-ray background. APJL 961, L1; doi: 10.3847/2041-8213/acfedd
Artist's impression of Tyrannosaurus macraensis, a relative of Tyrannosaurus rex
sergei krasinski
A portion of a dinosaur skull discovered 40 years ago has been identified as a new species of dinosaur. tyrannosaurusand is probably the closest relative tyrannosaurus rex. The study adds a new twist to the long-standing debate about how many different tyrannosaurus species there were, and could help shed light on how the iconic predator evolved.
tyrannosaurus They first appeared in North America about 68 million years ago, 2 million years before the mass extinction event that wiped out most dinosaurs. Paleontologists are puzzled about the origins of this carnivore. Some suggest that it is an ancestor of tyrannosaurus Some people walked across land bridges from prehistoric Asia, while others traced their origins to southern North America.
Anthony Fiorillo Researchers from the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science reviewed fossils in the museum's collection that were discovered in a rock formation known as the McRae Formation in western New Mexico.
Skulls were originally classified as: tyrannosaurus, Fiorillo and his colleagues noticed differences in the bones.They proposed that this specimen represented an older species, which they named Tyrannosaurus macraiensis in reference to the rock in which it was found.
They estimated that the dinosaur was about 12 meters long, comparable in size to an aosaurus. Tyrannosaurus, However, it lived about 4 million years ago.
difference between tyrannosaurus and T. macraensis It would have been relatively subtle.on the other hand tyrannosaurus He had a prominent ridge on his eyebrow, and a bone-crushingly wide jaw with the same ridge. T. macraensis The body is less developed and the skull is thinner, Fiorillo said.
Jawbone identified as new species of Tyrannosaurus
nick longrich
Other recent studies have proposed that several species exist. tyrannosaurus And the so-called tyrannosaurus Fossils need to be reallocated. However, such proposals are controversial and are mostly rejected by dinosaur paleontologists. The new study is likely to spark further debate about that number. tyrannosaurus The species was found in North America.
“I hesitate to consider Tyrannosaurus macraiensis as different from tyrannosaurus rex” Jared Voris at the University of Calgary, Canada. He points out that many of the anatomical features that make the new species unique are also present in the specimen. tyrannosaurus.
Regardless of species assignment, the existence of such large tyrannosaurs millions of years ago is tyrannosaurus This suggests that southwestern North America was an important center of dinosaur evolution. “The age range of the proposed specimen is unique and requires further study,” Voris said. That's because it could outline a clearer picture of dinosaur evolution during the last few million years of the Cretaceous.
The New Mexico tyrannosaurus was discovered in the same rock as a giant horned dinosaur, an anthropomorphic duck-billed dinosaur, and a long-necked herbivore up to 30 meters long. Fiorillo and his colleagues tyrannosaurus It may have evolved to its gigantic size to prey on these large herbivores, and later spread north as the last “tyrant lizard” to stalk the planet.
The credit for discovering the first dinosaur bones is usually given to an English gentleman who discovered them in England between the 17th and 19th centuries. British natural historian Robert Plott first described dinosaur bones in his 1676 book. Oxfordshire natural history. Paleontologists from the University of the Witwatersrand and Nelson Mandela University have presented evidence that the first dinosaur bones may have been discovered in Africa as much as 500 years before Plott's discovery.
tyrannosaurus rex. Image credit: Amanda Kelly.
Humans were born in Africa. homo sapiens It has existed for at least 300,000 years.
And this continent is home to a wide variety of rock outcrops, including the Kem Kem Formation in Morocco, the Fayum Depression in Egypt, the Rift Valley in eastern Africa, and the Karoo in southern Africa, which contain fossils that were always accessible to our ancestors. I am.
So it's not just that Africans were likely the first to discover fossils. It was inevitable.
In many cases, the first dinosaur fossils claimed to have been discovered by scientists were actually brought to our attention by local guides.
An example is the discovery of giant dinosaurs. jobaria By the Tuareg people of Niger Giraffatitan By the Mwera people of Tanzania.
our paperPublished in Geological Society, London, Special Publicationreviews what is known about African indigenous fossil knowledge.
We enumerate fossils that may have been known since ancient times at various sites in Africa and discuss how they were used and interpreted by African communities before the science of paleontology was born. .
One of the highlights of our paper is the ruins of Borara, a Late Stone Age rock shelter in Lesotho.
Various dating techniques indicate that the site was inhabited by the Khesan and Basotho peoples from the 12th to 18th centuries (1100-1700 AD).
The shelter itself is surrounded by hills formed by compacted sediments deposited under harsh deserts like the Sahara some 180 to 200 million years ago, when the first dinosaurs roamed the Earth. Masu.
This region of Lesotho is particularly well known for its deliveries. Massospondylus carinatusa dinosaur with a body length of 4 to 6 meters, a small head and a long neck.
Fossilized bones of this kind are abundant in this area and were already the case when this place was occupied by people in the Middle Ages.
In 1990, archaeologists working in Bolarla discovered a human finger bone. Massospondylus He was being carried into a cave.
There are no fossilized skeletons protruding from the cave walls. So the only possibility that this phalanx ended up there is that someone picked it up in the distant past and carried it to a cave.
Perhaps this person did it out of simple curiosity, or to turn it into a pendant or toy, or to use it in a traditional healing ritual.
After heavy rains, it is not uncommon for people in the area to discover bones of extinct species that have been washed away from the host rock.
They usually recognize them as belonging to dragon-like monsters that swallow humans and even entire houses.
In Lesotho, the Basotho people call the monster “Holmormo,'' and in the Eastern Cape, which borders South Africa, the Xhosa people call it “Amagongonko.''
The exact date on which the phalanx was collected and transported has unfortunately been lost to time.
Given current knowledge, the period of occupation of the shelter could be between the 12th and 18th centuries.
This leaves open the possibility that the dinosaur bones were collected up to 500 years before Plott's discovery.
Early knowledge about extinct organisms
Most people have known about fossils long before the age of science, as far back as society's collective memory can go.
For example, in Algeria, people referred to some dinosaur footprints as belonging to the legendary “rock bird”.
In North America, cave paintings depicting dinosaur footprints were painted by the Anasazi people between 1000 and 1200 AD.
Indigenous Australians have identified dinosaur footprints as those of the legendary 'Emuman'.
In the south, the infamous conquistador Hernán Cortés was gifted a fossil mastodon femur by the Aztecs in 1519.
In Asia, Hindus have worshiped ammonites (coiled fossil shells), which they call “shaligrams,” for more than 2,000 years.
Claim credit
The fact that African people have known about fossils since ancient times is clear from folklore and the archaeological record, but there is still much to learn about them.
For example, unlike peoples in Europe, the Americas, and Asia, indigenous African paleontologists appear to have little use of fossils in traditional medicine.
We do not yet know whether this is a truly unique cultural feature common to most African cultures, or whether it is due to our admittedly still incomplete knowledge.
Also, some fairly prominent fossil sites, such as Morocco's Kem Kem Formation and South Africa's UNESCO World Heritage Cradle of Man caves, do not yet provide solid evidence of indigenous knowledge.
This is unfortunate, as fossil-related traditions can help bridge the gap between local communities and paleontologists, thereby contributing to the preservation of important heritage sites.
By investigating the paleontology of Africa's indigenous peoples, our team brings together the pieces of a forgotten past and serves local communities.
We hope this will inspire a new generation of local paleoscientists to follow in the footsteps of Africa's first fossil hunters.
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julian benoit other. 2024. Paleontological knowledge of African indigenous peoples. Geological Society, London, Special Publication 543; doi: 10.1144/SP543-2022-236
author: julian benoita paleontologist at the University of the Witwatersrand.
cameron penn clarka paleontologist at the University of the Witwatersrand.
charles helma paleontologist at Nelson Mandela University.
A giant Jurassic pliosaur skull pulled from a cliff in Dorset, England, is providing scientists with a wealth of new information about these sea reptiles. “This is very likely a new species,” says Judith Sassoon from the University of Bristol, UK.
This fossil is the subject of a new documentary, attenborough and the giant sea monster, which will premiere on BBC One on January 1st and air on PBS in the US in February. The skull is extremely well preserved, and CT scans show that the sensory holes in the nose (pictured above) were connected to blood vessels and nerves, allowing Pliosaurus to sense changes in pressure and move through murky water. It is revealed that it can hunt prey (photo below, CGI image from the documentary).
There is hope that the remaining fossils are still intact on the cliff. “There may be evidence in that skeleton of how it died,” said Steve Etches, who led the team that extracted and prepared the skull. Below, a still from the documentary shows Mr Etches having a nose exam with David Attenborough (left).
Sir David Attenborough and Steve Etches investigate Pliosaurus' fossilized nose
bbc studio
Surface scans of the specimen helped scientists estimate the strength of its bite. Emily Rayfield, a paleontologist at the University of Bristol, suggests that its bite would have been twice as powerful as that of a saltwater crocodile, one of the most powerful bites known. Evidence of trihedral teeth with two sharp cutting edges and striped grooves is shown below.
These grooves are thought to have stopped the vacuum that formed when the teeth plunged into prey, allowing Pliosaurus to bite repeatedly and quickly, further cementing its status as one of the most feared predators of its time. Masu. The skull is on display at the Etches Collection in Dorset, England.
Baleen whales (mysterious animals) are the largest animals on Earth. How they achieved such enormous sizes is still debated, and research to date has focused primarily on when they grew, rather than where they grew. was. Paleontologists now report on the remains of a toothless baleen whale (chaeomysticete) from South Australia. At an estimated length of 9 meters, it is the largest baleen whale from the early Miocene. Analysis of body size over time shows that ancient baleen whales in the Southern Hemisphere were larger than those in the Northern Hemisphere.
Mysterious gigantism from the early Miocene. Image credit: Ruairidh Duncan
It was previously thought that the onset of the Ice Age in the Northern Hemisphere about 3 million years ago triggered the evolution of truly gigantic baleen whales.
The new study, led by Dr James Rule of Monash University and the Natural History Museum in London, reveals that this evolutionary size jump did, in fact, occur as early as 20 million years ago, and in the exact opposite direction in the southern hemisphere. I made it.
The major discovery came from a study of 16- to 21-million-year-old fossils held in Museum Victoria’s collection.
This specimen, the anterior end of the lower jaw of a large edentulous baleen whale, was discovered in 1921 on a cliff face on the banks of the Murray River in South Australia, but was largely unrecognized in collections.
In their study, Dr. Ruhl and colleagues explain how whales evolved to be larger in the southern hemisphere rather than the northern hemisphere, and that whales have been larger in the southern hemisphere throughout their evolutionary history (about 20 million to 30 million years). It was shown that
The discovery highlights the vital importance of the Australian and wider Southern Hemisphere fossil record in putting together a global picture of whale evolution.
The Murray River whale fossil confounds that theory, although previous leading theories were based primarily on fossils found in the northern hemisphere.
“The Southern Hemisphere, and Australia in particular, has always been overlooked as a frontier for fossil whale discovery,” says Dr Eric Fitzgerald, a palaeontologist at Museums Victoria Research Institute.
“Like the Murray River whale, the fossil whale discoveries in the south have shaken up whale evolution, giving us a more accurate, truly global picture of what was happening in the oceans in ancient times. .”
Researchers have discovered that the tip of a baleen whale’s jaw can expand depending on its body size.
They estimated the baleen whale to be about 9 meters long.
“The largest whales alive today, such as the blue whale, reach the length of a basketball court,” Dr. Ruhl said.
“About 19 million years ago, Murray River whales were nine meters long, already a third of this length. So baleen whales were well on their way to becoming ocean giants.”
of result will appear in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
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James P. Rule other. 2023. A huge baleen whale emerges from its cold cradle in the south. Procedure R. Soc. B 290 (2013): 20232177; doi: 10.1098/rspb.2023.2177
The multidisciplinary team discovered that AI models, and Transformer in particular, process memories in a manner similar to the hippocampus in the human brain. This breakthrough suggests that applying neuroscience principles like NMDA receptors to AI can improve memory function, advance the field of AI, and provide insight into human brain function. doing. Credit: SciTechDaily.com
Researchers have discovered that memory consolidation processes in AI are similar to those in the human brain, particularly the hippocampus, opening the door to advances in AI and a deeper understanding of human memory mechanisms.
The interdisciplinary team, comprised of researchers from the Center for Cognition and Sociality and researchers from the Data Science Group within the Institute of Basic Sciences (IBS), will study memory processing in artificial intelligence (AI) models and the hippocampus and hippocampus of the human brain. revealed that there are striking similarities between the two. This new discovery provides a new perspective on memory consolidation, the process of converting short-term memory into long-term memory in AI systems.
Evolving AI through understanding human intelligence
Understanding and replicating human-like intelligence has become a key research focus in the race to develop artificial general intelligence (AGI), led by influential organizations such as OpenAI and Google DeepMind. At the heart of these technological advances is the Transformer model. [Figure 1]its fundamental principles are now being explored in new depths.
Figure 1. (a) Diagram showing ion channel activity in a postsynaptic neuron. AMPA receptors are involved in the activation of postsynaptic neurons, while NMDA receptors are blocked by magnesium ions (Mg2⁺), whereas calcium ions (Ca2⁺) are activated when postsynaptic neurons are fully activated. Induces synaptic plasticity through influx. (b) Flow diagram representing the computational process within the Transformer AI model. Information is processed sequentially through stages such as feedforward layer, layer normalization, and self-attention layer. The graph showing the current vs. voltage relationship for the NMDA receptor is very similar to the nonlinearity of the feedforward layer. Input-output graphs based on magnesium concentration (α) show nonlinear changes in NMDA receptors.Credit: Basic Science Research Institute
Brain learning mechanism applied to AI
The key to powerful AI systems is understanding how they learn and remember information. The research team focused on the learning principles of the human brain, particularly memory consolidation via the NMDA receptors in the hippocampus, and applied them to the AI model.
NMDA receptors are like smart doors in the brain that facilitate learning and memory formation. The presence of a brain chemical called glutamate excites nerve cells. Magnesium ions, on the other hand, act as small gatekeepers that block the door. Only when this ionic gatekeeper steps aside can substances flow into the cell. This is the process by which the brain creates and retains memories, and the role of the gatekeeper (magnesium ions) in the whole process is very specific.
AI models that mimic human brain processes
The research team made an interesting discovery. The Transformer model appears to use a gatekeeping process similar to the brain’s NMDA receptors. [see Figure 1]. This discovery led the researchers to investigate whether the consolidation of Transformer memories could be controlled by a mechanism similar to the NMDA receptor gating process.
In animal brains, low magnesium levels are known to impair memory function. Researchers have discovered that mimicking NMDA receptors can improve long-term memory in transformers. Similar to the brain, where changes in magnesium levels affect memory, tweaking the transformer parameters to reflect NMDA receptor gating improved memory in the AI model. This breakthrough suggests that established knowledge from neuroscience can explain how AI models learn.
Expert insights on AI and neuroscience
“This research is an important step in the advancement of AI and neuroscience,” said C. Justin Lee, the institute’s director and neuroscientist. This will allow us to delve deeper into how the brain works and develop more advanced AI systems based on these insights.
CHA Meeyoung is a data scientist on the team. kaist
says, “The human brain is remarkable in that it operates on minimal energy, unlike large-scale AI models that require vast amounts of resources. It opens up new possibilities for low-cost, high-performance AI systems that learn and remember information.”
Fusion of cognitive mechanisms and AI design
What makes this work unique is its commitment to incorporating brain-inspired nonlinearity into AI structures, representing a significant advance in simulating human-like memory consolidation. The fusion of human cognitive mechanisms and AI design not only enables the creation of low-cost and high-performance AI systems, but also provides valuable insights into the workings of the brain through AI models.
A new study has proven a direct link between high insulin levels and increased risk of pancreatic cancer in people with obesity and type 2 diabetes. This landmark study shows how excess insulin overstimulates pancreatic acinar cells, leading to inflammation and precancerous cells, particularly in the case of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). These findings highlight the importance of maintaining healthy insulin levels and may lead to new strategies for cancer prevention and treatment, including lifestyle interventions and targeted therapies.
For the first time, we explain in detail why people with obesity and type 2 diabetes have an increased risk of pancreatic cancer.
A recent study conducted by scientists at the University of British Columbia’s Faculty of Medicine revealed a direct relationship between high blood pressure and high blood pressure. insulin This level is frequently observed in patients with obesity, type 2 diabetes, and pancreatic cancer.
This study cell metabolismprovides the first detailed explanation of why people with obesity and type 2 diabetes are at increased risk of pancreatic cancer. This study shows that excessive insulin levels overstimulate pancreatic acinar cells, which produce digestive juices. This excessive stimulation causes inflammation and transforms these cells into precancerous cells.
“In addition to rapid increases in both obesity and type 2 diabetes, we are also seeing an alarming increase in the incidence of pancreatic cancer,” said co-senior author and professor in the Department of Cellular Physiology Sciences and co-senior author of the study. said Dr. James Johnson, interim director of the agency. UBC’s Institute of Life Sciences. “These findings help us understand how this is happening and highlight the importance of keeping insulin levels within a healthy range. can be achieved through medication.”
Dr. James Johnson is a professor in the Department of Cellular and Physiological Sciences and interim director of the UBC Life Sciences Institute. credit: UBC Faculty of Medicine
The study focused on pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), the most common type of pancreatic cancer and a highly aggressive disease with a five-year survival rate of less than 10 percent. The incidence of pancreatic cancer is on the rise. By 2030, PDAC is expected to become the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths.
Role of insulin in pancreatic cancer
Although obesity and type 2 diabetes were previously established as risk factors for pancreatic cancer, the exact mechanisms by which this occurs remained unclear. This new study sheds light on the role of insulin and its receptor in this process.
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Reference: “Hyperinsulinemia causes pancreatic cancer through acinar insulin receptors by increasing digestive enzyme production and inflammation” (Anni MY Zhang, Yi Han Xia, Jeffrey SH Lin, Ken H Chu, Wei Chuan K. Wang, Titine JJ Ruiter, Jenny) CC Yang, Nan Chen, Justin Choa, Shilpa Patil, Haoning Howard Sen, Elizabeth J. Rideout, Vincent R. Richard, David・F. Shafer, Rene P. Zahedi, Christoph H. Borchers, James D. Johnson, Janelle L. Kopp, October 31, 2023. cell metabolism. DOI: 10.1016/j.cmet.2023.10.003
This study was funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Lustgarten Foundation.
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