Recent research by Curtin University reveals that an ancient influence, previously believed to have occurred 1.2 billion years ago, actually took place 990 million years ago, leading to the formation of the STAC FADA member. This discovery corrects the dating of some of the UK’s oldest non-marine microfossils and their significance in the timeline of eukaryotic colonization on land.
STAC FADA member. Image credit: Tony Prave.
“We utilized small zircon crystals as geological ‘time capsules’ to accurately date the impact at 990 million years ago,” stated Professor Chris Kirkland from Curtin University.
“These tiny crystals recorded precise moments of impact, some transforming into the rare mineral Reidite, which forms under extreme pressure.”
“This provided irrefutable evidence that the meteorite strike initiated the STAC FADA deposit.”
“When a meteorite strikes, it partially resets the atomic clocks within the zircon crystal. Although these ‘broken clocks’ can’t generate dates, they developed a model to reconstruct timing, affirming the impact’s occurrence 990 million years ago.”
The impact events coincided with the earliest emergence of freshwater eukaryotes, the ancient precursors to plants, animals, and fungi.
“The new date indicates that these life forms in Scotland appeared roughly at the same time as the meteorite impact,” Professor Kirkland remarked.
“This presents intriguing questions about whether significant impacts could have affected environmental conditions, potentially influencing early ecosystems.”
“The impact crater has yet to be located, but this study has gathered additional clues that may eventually uncover its position.
“Understanding the timeline of meteorite impacts will enable us to explore their potential effects on Earth’s environment and the diversification of life beyond the oceans.”
The team’s findings will be published in the journal Geological.
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CL Kirkland et al. The impact of Scottish meteors 100 million years ago. Geological Published online on April 28, 2025. doi: 10.1130/g53121.1
Bolivian “zombie” volcanoes are displaying signs of activity; however, scientists assure that the risk of an eruption is minimal at this time.
The majestic summit of the Central Andes, Uturuncu, last erupted around 250,000 years ago.
For many years, researchers have noted unusual occurrences, including minor earthquakes and distinctive “sombrero” ground deformation patterns. The center of the volcano is gradually rising while the surrounding land sinks.
The cause of this phenomenon has yet to be determined.
A recent study published in the journal PNAS has identified pressure pockets, indicating that heated liquids and gases are still in motion beneath Uturuncu, causing surface deformations.
An international team of researchers from China, the UK, and the US has leveraged seismic data from over 1,700 earthquakes to create the most detailed three-dimensional representations of the volcano’s subsurface structure.
They discovered liquid rock rising from the Altiplano Puna Magma body, a large reservoir of partially melted rock located deep within the Andes.
GPS station with Cerro Uturuncu in the background. – Duncan Muir, Cardiff University
As these liquids ascend through narrow vertical channels, they gather just below the summit of the volcano, creating a reservoir of gas and brine. Instead of new magma being injected, this fluid movement seems to sustain Uturuncu’s ongoing activity.
“Our findings illustrate how integrated geophysical and geological methods can enhance our understanding of volcanoes and the hazards and potential resources they entail,” stated Professor Mike Kendall from Oxford University, a co-author of the study.
Notably, the researchers found that gas accumulation underground is relatively low, indicating a reduced likelihood of a significant eruption at this time.
These findings are intended to reassure the local community while highlighting the need for ongoing monitoring. Uturuncu is among numerous “zombie” volcanoes globally; these are classified as dormant yet still exhibit internal movement.
“This methodology can be applied to over 1,400 potentially active volcanoes,” remarked co-author Professor Matthew Pritchard from Cornell University. “This approach may also be relevant to other dormant volcanoes like Uturuncu that demonstrate signs of life.”
Currently, Uturuncu remains restless beneath the surface but is not prepared to awaken just yet.
Recently identified by astronomers, this newly discovered molecular cloud is one of the largest structures in the sky and is among the closest to the Sun and Earth ever detected.
The EOS Cloud is situated at the boundary of your local bubble—a region populated by large gases within the solar system. Image credits: Thomas Müller, HDA & MPIA/Thavisha Dharmawardena, NYU.
Molecular clouds consist of gas and dust, primarily composed of hydrogen, the most prevalent molecule in the universe and essential for the formation of all known stars and planets.
Additionally, these structures harbor other molecules, including carbon monoxide.
Traditional detection methods for molecular clouds often involve wireless and infrared observations, which readily capture the chemical signatures of carbon monoxide.
However, Blakely Burkhart, an astrophysicist from Rutgers University in New Brunswick, and his team took a different approach.
“This is the first molecular cloud discovered by directly seeking out the distant ultraviolet radiation of molecular hydrogen,” Dr. Burkhart stated.
“Our data revealed glowing hydrogen molecules detected through fluorescence in distant ultraviolet light. This cloud truly shines in the dark.”
The new molecular cloud, named EOS, was located approximately 300 light-years from Earth and can be viewed here.
It resides at the periphery of a local bubble, a region filled with gases surrounding the solar system.
Astronomers estimate that these crescent clouds are immense, spanning about 40 months across the sky and having a mass approximately 3,400 times that of the Sun.
They are projected to dissipate within 6 million years.
According to the research team, the EOS cloud poses no threat to Earth or the solar system.
Its proximity offers a unique opportunity to explore the properties of structures within the interstellar medium.
The interstellar medium, composed of gas and dust, fills the space between stars in the galaxy and is a key source for new star formation.
“When you look through a telescope, you observe the solar system in its formative phase, but the exact process remains unclear,” Dr. Burkhart explained.
“The discovery of EOS is thrilling because it allows us to directly measure how molecular clouds form and dissolve, as well as how galaxies transform interstellar gas and dust into stars and planets.”
“Utilizing distant UV fluorescence technology could redefine our understanding of the interstellar medium, uncover hidden clouds across the galaxy, and even push our exploration further back to the very edge of the universe’s inception.”
The findings are reported in a study published today in the journal Nature Astronomy.
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B. Burke Hart et al. Dark molecular clouds near local bubbles revealed via H2 fluorescence. Nature Astronomy. Published online on April 28, 2025. doi:10.1038/s41550-025-02541-7
Tabular icebergs are away from Antarctica ice shelves
James Kirkham
When the ice sheets covering much of Northern Europe were rapidly retreating about 18,000-20,000 years ago, urban-sized icebergs once drifted through the British coast.
James Kirkham During a survey in the Antarctic of England, his colleagues discovered preserved scour marks created by these giants, which were created when they ploughed underwater sediments. The long comb-like features are buried under the mud of the North Sea, but are still visible in seismic survey data collected for searches for oil and gas.
“We know about the degree of scouring and ancient sea level, so we can estimate that these bergs are probably five to tens of kilometers wide, and perhaps hundreds of meters thick.
In Antarctica, table-form or table-top icebergs are a spectacular sight. Some will rival even small states in the US from a regional standpoint, like the recent giants known as the A23A and A68A. They listen from the ice shelf – a wide floating protrusion of a glacier flowing from the glacier.
Therefore, the perception that tabular icebergs once existed in the North Sea clearly shows that they had both the sea edges of the British and Ireland ice sheets and ice shelves. And that means there may be some lessons for the future decline of Antarctica, says Keycam.
In the North Sea, the large iceberg’s straight trams are written by wavy valleys made by narrow keels of much smaller blocks of ice. In other words, there is a “change of administration” in which large icebergs are replaced by countless small icebergs when ice shelves are crushed in response to rising temperatures, says Keekam.
Radiocarbon dating of sediments indicates that this shift occurs between 20,000 and 18,000 years ago.
Observations question the idea that labours of megabergs like the A23A and A68A may signal the widespread collapse of Antarctic ice shelves.
Emma Mackey The University of Florida tracks tabular iceberg sizes with satellite data since the mid-1970s, finding this trend to be inherently flat.
“James’ research highlights the mines, which means that major birth events are not necessarily signs of instability or cause of alarm,” says McKee. “In fact, ice shelves are disintegrated by death by 1,000 cuts. You need to worry when you stop watching large-scale birth events.”
At 3 months’ age (born October 1, 2024), the miserable wolves of giant biological sciences, Romulus and Remus. Image credit: Colossal Biosciences.
The miserable wolves were like big cans, and were among the most common extinct carnivorous animals of the late Late Pleistocene megafauna in America.
These animals first appeared in the late Pliocene period 3.5 million to 2.5 million years ago, as a result of the mixing between two ancient Canid strains.
The miserable wolf was 25% heavier than the grey wolf, with a slightly wider head, with light thick fur and strong jaws.
As hypercarnivores, their diet consisted mainly of at least 70% meat from horses and bison.
They were extinct at the end of the recent ice age about 13,000 years ago.
The main hypothesis explaining their extinction is that their body size is larger than gray wolves and coyotes, making them more specialized in hunting large prey and unable to survive the extinction of giant prey.
“Our team collected DNA from 13,000-year-old teeth and 72,000-year-old skulls to create healthy, miserable puppies,” said Ben Lamm, CEO of Colossal Biosciences.
“It was once said that “a sufficiently advanced technology cannot be distinguished from magic.” “
“Today, our team will be unveiling some of the magic they are working on, revealing the broader impact on conservation.”
Three liters of the wicked wolves of giant biological science include two adolescent men (Romulus and Remus) and one female puppy (Khaleesi).
They thrive in more than 2,000 acres of safe ecological reserves, including specialized engagement zones and habit types.
They are continuously monitored through live cameras, security personnel and drone tracking on-site to ensure safety and welfare.
“The disastrous wolves’ disappearance is more than a biological revival,” said Mark Fox, chairman of MHA Nation Tribal.
“Its birth symbolizes awakening. The ancient spirit has returned to the world.”
“The miserable wolves have the echoes of our ancestors, their wisdom, and connections to the wild.”
“Its existence reminds us of our responsibility as custodians of the Earth to protect the delicate balance of not only wolves but life itself.”
“The work of our team…Red wolf (Canis Rufus) From three different genetic founder lines.
These liters include the adolescent female Red Wolf (hope) and three male Red Wolf puppies (flame, cinders, ashes).
“We’ve seen a lot of trouble with the stakes,” said Dr. George Church, a geneticist at Harvard University and co-founder of Colossal Biosciences.
“Another source of ecosystems comes from genes lost after being deelectrically removed from new technologies, such as deep ancient DNA sequencing, polyphyllatic characterization, multiplexed germ cell editing, and cloning.”
“The disastrous wolves are an early example of this, so far, including the maximum number of accurate genome editing in healthy vertebrates: their exponentially growing ability.”
Paleontologists have discovered 131 large theropods and sauropods in the formations of the central Jurassic Kirmalag at Prince Charles’s point, located on the northwest coast of the Troternas Peninsula in Sky.
A 167 million-year-old dinosaur trackway located at Prince Charles’s point on the Isle of Skye. Image credit: Blakesley et al. , doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0319862.
The rocks of Isle of Skye are rich in dinosaur footprints, providing insight into the distribution and behavior of dinosaurs at critical times of evolution.
The newly discovered footprint was left in the wavy sands of an ancient subtropical lagoon dating back to the mid-Jurassic period about 167 million years ago.
The footprint is 25-60 cm long and comes in two types. This is a round “Tyre-Size” track, made by three untidy trucks left by Bipedal: a carnivorous theropod, a tetrapod, and a long-necked sauropod.
Based on comparisons with previous fossil discoveries, the most likely truck maker is Megalosaurus Similar to early branching members of the Neosauropod group CethiosaurusBoth are known from British skeletal ruins.
According to paleontologists, many of these footprints occur together in successive steps.
The longest of these trackways is over 12m, among the longest known examples from the Isle of Skye.
The spacing and orientation of these trackways represent slow walking without consistent orientation or interaction with each other, and what is probably left by the dinosaurs is casually crushed at slightly different times.
The site at Prince Charles’s point supports previous evidence that the Jurassic Sauropod frequently visited Scottish lagoons.
However, this site contains a higher percentage of theropod tracks than similar locales, perhaps indicating differences in the environment between these ancient lagoons.
The site also does not have footprints from other dinosaurs such as Stegosaurus and Ornithopods, but it remains unclear whether these animals really do not exist in this environment or simply did not leave a mark on this site.
“Prince Charles’s footprint at points provides fascinating insight into the behavior and environmental distribution of meat-eating theropods and plant-eating long-necked sauropods during key periods of evolution.”
“In Sky, these dinosaurs obviously preferred shallow, submerged lagoon environments to muddy air exposed.”
“Interestingly, this site also has historical significance as a location for Skye, where Prince Bonnie landed and hidden while flying through Scotland following the Battle of Culloden.”
Discoveries are reported in a paper Published online in the journal PLOS 1.
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T. Blakely et al. 2025. A new central Jurassic Lagoon margin assembly of theropod and sauropod dinosaur trajectories from the Isle of Skye, Scotland. PLOS 1 20(4): E0319862; doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0319862
2MASX J23453268-0449256 (J2345-0449 for short), a very huge, rapidly spinning, jet lag spiral galaxy with approximately 947 million light years in the Aquarius constellation, a mass of billions of people billions that are billions of times the sun’s, and mounted on a massive radio jet spanning six million light years. This is one of the largest known in any spiral galaxy, and such powerful jets are almost exclusively found in elliptical galaxies rather than spiral, thus covering the conventional wisdom of galaxies’ evolution. It also means that the Milky Way can potentially create similar energetic jets in the future.
This image shows the Spiral Galaxy 2Masx J23453268-0449256 and its huge radio jet. Image credit: Bagchi et al. /Giant Metrure Lave Radio Telescope.
“This discovery is more than just weird. It forces us to rethink the evolution of galaxies and how super-large black holes grow and shape the environment within them,” said Professor Joydeep Baguch of Christ University.
“If spiral galaxies can not only survive, but also thrive under such extreme conditions, what does this mean for the future of our own Milky Way galaxies?”
“Can our Galaxy experience similar high-energy phenomena that have serious consequences for the survival of precious lives within it?”
In a new study, astronomers have unraveled the structure and evolution of the Spiral Galaxy J2345-0449, three times the size of the Milky Way.
Using observations from NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, Giant Metruh Rave Radio Telescope, Atacama’s Large Millimeter/Sub-Millimeter Array (ALMA), and multi-wavelength analysis, we detected the giant ultrafine black holes of its mind and radio jets in the largest radio jets by creating rare galaxies.
Traditionally, scientists believed that such huge, superimpression violent activities would destroy the delicate structures of spiral galaxies.
But for all possibilities, J2345-0449 retains its quiet nature with a well-defined spiral arm, bright nuclear bars and an uninterrupted ring of stars.
In addition to enigma, the galaxy is surrounded by vast halos of hot x-ray exhaust, providing important insights into its history.
This halo cools slowly over time, but the black hole jets act like space furnaces, preventing new star formation despite the abundant star-building materials present.
The authors also found that J2345-0449 contains 10 times the dark matter as the Milky Way.
“Understanding these rare galaxies could provide important clues about the invisible forces that govern the universe, such as the nature of dark matter, the long-term fate of the galaxy, and the origin of life,” says Ph.D. A student at the University of Christ.
“In the end, this research brings us one step closer to solving the mystery of the Cosmos and reminds us that the universe holds surprise beyond our imagination.”
Survey results It was published in Monthly Notices from the Royal Astronomical Society.
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Joydeep Bagchi et al. 2025. Announcing bulge disk structures, AGN feedback and baryon landscapes in a large helical galaxy with MPC-scale radio jets. mnras 538(3): 1628-1652; doi: 10.1093/mnras/staf229
Illustration of Duonychus Tsogtbaatari, a Cretaceous theropod dinosaur
Masato Hatri
A new species of dinosaur found on the Mongolian building site has the largest fully preserved claws ever discovered. The bipedal herbivores only had two fingers in each hand, so they may have been used to grab a branch and pull it towards their mouth.
The 90 million-year-old fossil containing parts of the pelvis, arms and hands, and parts of numerous vertebrae was discovered in 2012 near Kambogd in the Gobi Desert, but is now properly studied and given a scientific name. Duonychus tsogtbaatari. The genus name means “two claws” and the species name honors Mongolian paleontologists Kishigjav tsogtbaatar.
Duonychus It's a small relative of Tericinosaurusthe features of the movie Jurassic World Dominion. Yoshitug Kobayashi In Hokkaido, Japan, his colleague estimates that the dinosaurs were about 3 meters long and weighed about 270 kilograms.
“Discovery Duonychus tsogtbaatari It's a big deal because it's the first known tericinosaurus with only two fingers,” says Kobayashi.
Overall, five groups of theropods have evolved to have only two fingers. Tyrannosaurus.
DuonychusThe nails are nearly 30 centimeters. Unusually, the nail sheath is made of keratin, the same material as the nail – is preserved.
“Keratin usually doesn't become fossilized. It fades long before bones do it,” says Kobayashi. “Most of the time, when we find dinosaur claws, we just look at the nucleus of the bone. But in life, the actual claws are covered in thick keratin sheaths, which are longer and curved.”
Team Members Darla Zelenitsky At the University of Calgary, Canada, finding a two-fingered Tericinosaurus was very surprising.
Duonychus Tsogtbaatari nails
Kobayashi et al.
“This is the largest 3D dinosaur claw that is completely preserved. “This claw is not preserved as the outline of the rock surrounding the bone. This is quite typical for fossils where the true claw is preserved. This claw is actually three-dimensional and forms a sheath around the underlying phalanx, similar to what is found on dog and cat's paws.”
Researchers believe that the nails are adaptations for grabbing and pulling down vegetation. Less fingers can make each one stronger, more flexible, narrower, and more controlled grips possible, Kobayashi says.
“The curved claws and extreme flexion suggest that they can be more easily connected to leaf branches and clusters,” he says. “Three fingers may have just got in the way, but two provided a more accurate and efficient grasp.”
Astronomers using Near-infrared camera (NIRCAM) NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope equipped and captured corona graphic images of the HR 8799 and 51 Eridani Planetary Systems. These observations revealed HR 8799 and four known gas giants around 51 Eridani. They also revealed that all HR 8799 planets are carbon dioxide-rich.
This Webb/Nircam image shows the multiplanet system HR 8799. Image credits: NASA/ESA/CSA/STSCI/W. BALMER, JHU/L. PUEYO, STSCI/M. PERRIN, STSCI.
HR 8799 is a star from 30 million years ago, about 129 light years away from the Pegasus constellation.
Hosts large chip disks and four supergipers: HR 8799b, c, d, and e.
Unlike most exoplanet discoveries inferred from data analysis, these planets are seen directly via ground telescopes.
“We have shown that the atmosphere of these planets has quite a lot of heavy elements, such as carbon, oxygen and iron.
“Given what we know about the stars, it's likely that it indicates that they were formed through Core landing this is an exciting conclusion for the planet we can see firsthand. ”
The planets within HR 8799 are still hot from the formation of the turbulent, ejecting a large amount of infrared rays that provide valuable data about how scientists formed.
Giant planets can take shape in two ways. Like giants in the solar system, by slowly building heavy elements that attract gas, or the particles of gas rapidly merge into giant objects from a cooling disk of a young star made of the same kind of material as the stars.
The first process is called core accretion and the second is called disk instability.
Knowing which formation models are more common can provide clues to scientists distinguish the types of planets they have found in other systems.
“Our hope in this type of study is to understand our own solar system, life and ourselves, in comparison to other exoplanet systems.
“We want to take photos of other solar systems and see how they look similar or different from us.”
“From there we can feel how strange or normal our solar system is.”
This Webb/Nircam image shows the 51 Eridani system. Image credits: NASA/ESA/CSA/STSCI/W. BALMER, JHU/L. PUEYO, STSCI/M. PERRIN, STSCI.
51 Eridanus is located approximately 97 light years from Earth in the constellation of Eridanus.
51 If called ERI, C ERIDANI, or HD 29391, the star is only 20 million years old and by astronomy standards it is merely a toddler.
Host one giant planet, 51 Eridani B. It orbits the star at a distance of approximately 13 AU (astronomical units), equivalent to that of Saturn and Uranus in the solar system.
Images of HR 8799 and 51 rib ticks were made possible by Webb's Nircam Coronagraph.
This technique allowed astronomers to look for infrared rays emitted by planets at wavelengths absorbed by a particular gas.
They discovered that the four HR 8799 planets contain more heavy elements than previously thought.
“There is other evidence suggesting these four HR 8799 planets formed using this bottom-up approach,” says Dr. Laurent Puueyo, an astronomer at the Institute of Space Telescope Science.
“How common is this on planets we don't know yet?
“We knew that Webb could measure the colour of outer planets in a directly imaged system,” added Dr. Remi Somer of the Institute of Space Telescope Science.
“We waited for 10 years to ensure that the finely tuned operations of the telescope had access to the inner planet.”
“We now have results and we can do some interesting science.”
William O. Balmer et al. 2025. JWST-TST High Contrast: Living on the Wedge, or Nircam Bar Coronagraph reveals CO2 HR 8799 and 51 ERI extracts atmosphere. AJ 169, 209; doi:10.3847/1538-3881/ADB1C6
The ARP 105 features star and gas tide tails that exceed 362,000 light years.
The elliptical galaxy NGC 3561B (top left) and the Spiral Galaxy NGC 3561A (bottom right) form the ongoing merger-sparking guitar shapes known comprehensively as ARP.
ARP 105 It is located approximately 400 million light years from Earth, in the constellation of Ursa major.
Also known as NGC 3561, it was discovered by British astronomer John Herschel on March 30, 1827.
It consists of two huge galaxies, the elliptical galaxy NGC 3561B and the Spiral Galaxy NGC 3561A.
“The ARP 105 is one of the brightest objects in the busy Galaxy Cluster Abell 1185,” Hubble Astronomers said in a statement.
“Abell 1185 is a chaotic cluster of at least 82 galaxies, many of which are not only interacting, but many wandering spherical clusters that are not gravity attached to a particular galaxy.”
The gravity dance between the NGC 3561B and NGC 3561A creates the features of an attractive collision galaxy.
“The giant tail is drawn from two galaxies by gravity interaction, embedding a cluster of stars and a galaxy of d star,” the astronomer said.
“The uniquely shaped arrangement of the galaxy and tail gives the grouping the nickname: guitar.”
“The long lanes of dark dust emerging from the NGC 3561b oval galaxy may be ingesting the bright blue region of star-forming at the bottom of the guitar known as Ambartsumian's Knot.”
“Ambartsumian's Knot is a tidal star galaxy. It is a type of star-forming system that develops from fragments of the tidal arms of interacting galaxies.”
“The two bright blue regions of star formation are evident in Hubble images at the edge of a distorted helical galaxy.”
“The region on the left of the spiral galaxy may be very similar to the knot of Ambartumian, the knot of intense star-forming knot caused by the merger.”
“The area on the right is still under investigation. It may be part of the collision, but its velocity and spectral data are different from the rest of the system, so it could be a galaxy in the foreground.”
“The thin, faint gas tips are barely visible that stretch between two galaxies.”
“These tendrils are of particular interest to astronomers as they may help define the timescale of this collision evolution.”
Elon Musk stated on Monday that X was hit by a “massive cyberattack,” causing intermittent service disruptions that affected social media networks throughout the day. The platform, formerly known as Twitter, was unresponsive for many users as posts failed to load.
“We face attacks every day, but this one was well-resourced,” said the platform’s CEO. He posted, “Large, coordinated groups and/or countries are involved.”
Down detector, a website monitoring for outages, showed a spike in thousands of outage reports around 5:45 am on various platforms. Another surge in reported outages occurred around noon, with most issues happening on the company’s mobile app. Tweets that failed to display showed a “something went wrong” message prompting users to try reloading.
The world’s richest man did not provide evidence for his claim. His statements were in response to cryptocurrency influencers suggesting a pause following other resistance to Musk’s ventures. Protests against the “Ministry of Government Efficiency” initiative resulted in vandalism against Musk’s leadership and Tesla dealers in the previous week.
The CEO of SpaceX, who acquired Twitter for $44 billion in 2022, alleged that the previous platform outage was due to a cyberattack. Musk previously claimed a “massive DDOS attack” caused the crash of his live-streamed interview with Donald Trump last year, although company sources later told The Verge there was no attack.
The X outage adds to the challenges facing Musk’s businesses and initiatives. A SpaceX rocket exploded in flight near the Bahamas on Friday, scattering debris. “Tesla Takedown” protests across the nation targeted Tesla dealers, with owners selling vehicles, and the company’s stock prices hitting a low on Monday. Trump also had a heated meeting with Musk and his Cabinet Secretary, hinting at curbing Musk’s influence against government officials who fired many from various agencies.
Standing up to a science rally in Washington Square Park, New York City on March 7th
James Dinneen
Thousands of people in American cities protested March 7th against the Trump administration's cuts to scientific funding.
In New York City, over 1,000 people gathered at Washington Square Park and chanted “Fund Science Not War!” People had signs of mourning the cut, including one that said, “Science makes America great.”
The protest was one of at least 30 “stand-up for science” rallies in US cities, and over 150 events were expected worldwide. The researchers also left the institute as part of the protest.
Since President Donald Trump took office on January 20th, the administration has cancelled or frozen billions of dollars in federal funds for scientific and medical research. Much of the reduction focuses on research related to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and research on climate change and gender. The government has also fired thousands of federal employees at U.S. scientific institutions, including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“Science is something that needs to be cherished. I think everyone has to be here. I'm rather working with my cells in my lab, but I think we need to bring awareness to these issues.” Anna Vivineteda neuroscientist at Weill Cornell Medicine who participated in the New York protest. She had signs that read, “So bad, even introverts are here.”
Demonstrators keep signs during stand-up at a science rally at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC on March 7th
Tierney L Cross / Bloomberg via Getty Images
“Science is being attacked, and funds are now being cut for decades in ways that affect the well-being of our country,” says Maia, a researcher at the Columbia University Eco Museum in New York. She says she and her colleagues lost funds for their research.
The largest gathering took place in Washington, D.C., where thousands of people attended. It included scientist Bill Nye. Francis Collins, former director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Several members of the Congress. Over 1,500 people attended the New York event. There, notable researchers also spoke, including Lisa Randall, the chief scientist at Meta Ayan Lekun, former NIH director and Nobel laureate, theoretical physicist at Harvard.
Researchers from around the world participated in the New York protests. “America has been a very exceptional thing to science. I really believe that science has made America great. We are very disappointed because everything is destroyed,” says a French cancer biologist.
New Scientist We also spoke with scientists from Argentina, Israel, Canada and Australia at the rally. Some of them worried that they might have to leave the US to continue their work. “I am heartbroken. Vivinezze, from Argentina, said:
Dennis Robbinsa science educator at Hunter College in New York had a sign that read, “Now I am a crazy scientist.” He says he had the same signs in his first “March for Science” protest in 2017.
#StandUpForScience2025 At the Michigan State Capitol. It's time to still come out and defend government scientific funding and sustaining evidence-based decision-making. pic.twitter.com/jvtktzocaf
– Rebecca Santelli (girlfriend) (@rebeccasantelli) March 7, 2025
A crowd of people at the Philadelphia science march! The most popular sign: “I left the lab for this.” The protests have just begun, so please join us! #marchforscience #science #philly
Radcliffe’s wave visualization, a series of dust and gas clouds (marked here) throughout the Milky Way. Approximately 400 light years from the sun, marked yellow
Alyssa A. Goodman/Harvard University
Our solar system passed through vast waves of gas and dust about 14 million years ago, darkening the views of the Earth’s night sky. The waves may have left a trace on our planet’s geological records.
Astronomers previously discovered large ocean-like waves of milky stars, gas and dust that ripple up and down for millions of years. One of these closest and most studied is the Radcliffe waves, about 9,000 light years wide and only 400 light years from the solar system.
Now, Efrem Maconi The University of Vienna and his colleagues discovered that the waves of Radcliffe once were far closer to us, surpassing the solar system 11 to 18 million years ago.
Maconi and his team used data from Gaia Space Telescope, which tracked billions of stars in the Milky Way, to identify recently formed groups of stars within the Radcliffe Wave, and identify the dust and gas clouds that formed from them.
Using these stars, they tracked the cloud orbits in time to reveal historic locations to show how the entire wave was moving. They also calculated the past paths of the solar system, rewind the clock for 30 million years, and discovered that the waves and our sun were approaching intimately about 15-12 million years ago. It is difficult to accurately estimate when the intersection began and ended, but the team believes the solar system is within the wave range around 14 million years ago.
This would have made Earth’s galactic environment as dark as it is today, as we currently live in a relatively empty space realm. “If we are in a dense region of interstellar media, that means that the light coming from the stars will dim,” says Macconi. “It’s like being on a foggy day.”
The encounter may have left evidence in Earth’s geological records and deposited radioactive isotopes on the crust, but considering how long ago it happened, this would be difficult to measure, he says. It says it is useful to find such a galactic encounter, as explaining the geological record of the Earth is a continuous problem. Ralph Schoenrich University College London.
More speculatively, the crossing appears to have occurred during a period of cooling, known as the mid-Miocene. Maconi said the two could be linked, but this would be difficult to prove. Schoenrich thinks that is unlikely. “The rule of thumb is that geology outweighs the influence of the universe,” he says. “When you move around the continent or disrupt ocean currents, you need more because climate change is occurring.”
In the quest for clean energy and a shift away from fossil fuels, scientists may have uncovered new sources of power, potentially hidden in our mountains. A team of researchers from Germany has identified a vast reservoir of hydrogen gas, generated by rocks formed millions of years ago, through advanced simulations.
This discovery is significant as hydrogen (H2) as a power source does not emit greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, making it a more sustainable alternative to fossil fuels that contribute to climate change. Additionally, the production of hydrogen results in water instead of harmful emissions. However, the challenge lies in the fact that natural hydrogen production is rare, with the current synthetic production relying on fossil fuels.
The main hurdle in hydrogen production is sourcing it naturally. While geological processes can generate natural hydrogen without the need for fossil fuels, the availability of large accessible reserves remains uncertain. The recent study conducted by German researchers could potentially address this issue.
“We may be on the brink of a new era in natural hydrogen exploration,” said Dr. Frank Zworn, the lead author of the study published in the journal Advances in Science. “This could pave the way for a new natural hydrogen industry.”
Researchers at the GFZ Helmholtz Center for Geosciences in Germany utilized simulations of plate tectonic processes to identify a substantial reserve of natural hydrogen.
Natural hydrogen can be generated through various methods, such as bacterial transformation of organic matter or the splitting of water molecules due to radioactivity in the Earth’s crust. However, one of the most promising natural methods involves a geological process known as “serpentinization,” where rocks from the Earth’s mantle react with water to release H2 gas.
According to researchers, when these hydrogen-rich rocks are situated near the Earth’s surface, they can create potential zones for large-scale hydrogen production via excavation. These rocks are brought closer to the surface through processes such as continental rifting and mountain formation over millions of years.
As the crustal plates collide and create mountains, deep mantle rocks push up to the surface of the Earth. ‘Hot spots’ of hydrogen gas were identified where these rocks surfaced. – Image credit: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 USGS/ESEU Frankswaan edition, GFZ
By analyzing two processes, researchers determined that mountain formation offers ideal conditions for hydrogen generation. The combination of cold environments in mountains and increased water circulation could enhance hydrogen levels significantly. Simulations showed that rocks emerging through mountain formations have 20 times the hydrogen capacity compared to those brought to the surface via continental rifting.
Signs of natural hydrogen production have already been observed in mountainous regions such as the Pyrenees, European Alps, and Balkans. The research team anticipates that their findings will inspire further exploration of natural hydrogen in these areas and other mountainous regions.
Professor Sasha Brune, the head of the geodynamic modeling section at GFZ, emphasized the economic prospects tied to natural hydrogen. He stated, “It is now crucial to delve deeper into the migration pathways of microbial ecosystems that consume hydrogen, both shallow and deep, and to gain a better understanding of where potential hydrogen reservoirs can be formed.”
The astronomers have identified nine rings using NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and WM KECK Observatory’s KECK COSMIC Web Imager (KCWI) data.
Pasha et al。 Nine rings around the Leda 1313424, a ring galaxy, about 567 million lights, have been detected around the constellation of Pisces. They also confirmed that the galaxy had pigeons and created these rings through the Reda 1313424. Image Credit: NASA / ESA / HUBBLE / IMAD PASHA & Pieter Van Dokkum, Yale University.
LEDA 1313424 A ring galaxy found in the image of Legacy Survey Dr9 in 2019.
The galaxy called Bulls Eye’s nickname has an reddish transition of Z = 0.0394 corresponding to the distance of 567 million light years.
The diameter of LEDA 1313424 is 250,000 light years. This is almost 2.5 times that of the Milky Way galaxy.
“This was an accidental discovery,” said Imado Pasha, a student in the Yale University doctoral course.
“I was looking at a ground -based imaging survey, but when I saw a galaxy with some transparent rings, I was immediately drawn to it. I had to stop to investigate it. did.”
Approximately 50 million years ago, a small blue dwarf galaxy moved like a dart that passed the core of LEDA 1313424.
With this collision, 10 rings were created around LEDA 1313424. This has detected nine unprecedented rings.
A thin gas trail links the pair, but is currently 130,000 light years away.
“We are catching Bulls Eye at a very special moment,” said Professor Peter Van Dockm of Yale University.
“When there are many rings in such a galaxy, there is a very narrow window after the impact.”
Researchers used Hubble’s clear vision to identify the eight rings of LEDA 1313424 and check another ring using KECK.
They also discovered a brilliant connection between Ring Galaxy and many years. The galaxy ring seems to have moved almost exactly as expected as the model predicted.
“The theory was developed on the day I saw a lot of rings,” said Professor Van Dokum.
“I am very pleased to confirm the predictions for these years in the Bulls Eye Galaxy.”
From the top, it is clear that the Galaxy ring is not evenly spaced like a Dart board. The image of Hubble shows the galaxy from a slight angle.
“If you look down on the galaxy directly, the ring looks circular, the ring will be bundled in the center, and will gradually be far away and gradually break away,” Pasha explained.
a paper Regarding this discovery, it was released today Astronomical physics journal letter。
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Imad Pasha et al。 2025. Bullsia: HST, KECK/KCWI, and the characteristics of the giant 9 -ring dragon fly. APJL 980, L3; DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/AD9F5C
The view of the two large gorge, the month of the month radly radiated from the Schrodinger basin
Nasasvsernie T. Wright
The vast collision crater near the month of the moon was formed on an asteroid that moved in more than 1 kilometer for 1 second or more, and released 130 times the energy of all existing nuclear weapons. Currently, researchers say that two unusual and straight gorge were formed within 10 minutes by a secondary debris chain of two unusual and straight gorge.
David King In Houston, Texas, and the planetary research institute, we investigated a 312 kilometer Schreading Glator for 15 years. Part of it was to develop a landing site that could have a NASA concertation program. This tried to return people to the moon, but ended in 2009.
“They are basically hidden and in a sense mysterious. [of the moon]King says. “And they are generally overlooked.”
For more information, Kring and his colleagues are using a computer model to investigate the origin of two gorgees or “light rays” extending north from the crater. One is VALLISSCHREDINGER, 270 km long, 2.7 km in depth, 280 km in length and 3.5 km in depth. For comparison, Arizona's Grand Canyon length is 446 km and depth of 1.9 km.
However, it has been engraved in water for millions of years, but the gorge of the moon is a straight and straight groove formed by vast shocking force within 10 minutes. The dramatic asteroid strike not only spread dust and tile BLE throughout the moon, but also spread to space and earth.
Researchers also suggest that the main ones that cause the main crater of the main, faster, to drive the fragments that run through the moon, focusing on narrow areas due to the irregularity of Legoris, which is a loose material that covers the moon. It may have been combined.
Using their models, researchers have calculated that asteroids collide 3811 billion years ago to create the speed and direction of debris to create a gorge. 。
“There is a rock that hits 2 kilometers per second per second, perhaps 2 kilometers per second, and it may be devastating,” says Kring. “I knew that Schrödinger's impact would create these rays, but the related process needed some attention.”
Kring is not deep enough at any of the landing points that Legolis, who was kicked out of Schrölinger, was sued to seriously interfere with geological experiments, so Kring is the moon in the ARTEMIS III mission of NASA. He says that he has a sense of security to put an astronaut in. 。 If they were planning to land north of Schledinger, where much more materials landed, they would have faced a very deep layer that hid the early geology.
The view of the gorge that looks straight at the moon
Nasasvsernie T. Wright
Mark Birchel At Kent University in the UK, this study is done in some way to prove that the gorge is formed by a shock chain, but it is necessary to investigate up close.
“The ultimate evidence is the person who brings back the rocks from one or some rocks in these gorgees,” says Birchel. “Then there is a mineral grain that you just cut out, and was shocked there. [by impacts]And some of them have changed the structure as a result. “
Anti-Japanese and Mongolian paleontologists have found the footprints of Hadrosaurus dinosaur fossils eating large plants from the Cretaceous.
A huge Hadrosaurus dinosaur footprint in the Gobi Western Desert in Mongolia. Image credit: Okayama Science University.
The newly discovered Hadrosaurus footprint dates back about 70 million years ago (Cretaceous).
One of them is about 92 cm in diameter (3 feet), one of the largest Hadrosaurus footprints found so far.
“It is thought that the biggest footprint belongs to the giant SaurolovsIt is estimated that the overall length of the whole body exceeds 15 m (50 feet), and evenly Tyrannosaurus and Turbo saurus Team leader of size Shinobu IshigakiOkayama Science University Dinosaur Museum Research Bureau, and his colleagues stated in a statement.
Saurolovs Is a large Hadrosaurus dinosaur known by the Canadian horseshoe canyon and the Mongolian Nemegut layer.
According to an old-fashioned scholar, it is one of the few dinosaur genus from multiple continents.
“Our discovery suggests that one of the largest bipedal behaviors known so far lived in Mongolia, and also enhances hope for the discovery of large-scale skeletal archeological sites. They say. “
In addition, researchers have found a 24 m (79-foot) trackway composed of about 85 cm (2.8 feet) fossils (2.8 feet).
“From June 1 to 15, 2024, we conducted a follow-up survey in the Nishi Gobi Desert,” he said.
“As a result, we discovered a new trackway, including three footprints of the largest Hadrosaurus discovered so far and 13 fossiled footprint sequences.”
“The identification of 14 trackways, including those found before 2018, enables analysis of posture, walking style, speed, and group movements. This is an unpredictable details.”
“So far, the largest known Hadrosaurus skeleton belongs. Shunton SaurusThey were found in Shandong Province, China. “
“However, the latest discovery in Mongolia suggests the possibility of clarifying large-scale skeletal archeological sites in this area.”
“Our next goal is to clarify a large full skeleton. Saurolovs I will be in charge of these footprints, “said Dr. Ishikawa.
Black hole is a spots in the universe that cannot be escaped by light because the gravity is very strong. One of the black holes that confuses astronomers is how large they are. Researchers explain one category of black holes over 100,000 to 10,000,000,000,000,000 times, like the sun. Super Massive Black Hall。 These black holes are very large, so Whole galaxy! It generally exists in the center of the galaxy, including ourselves milky wayOur thing is a modest 4,000,000 sun. Scientists are wondering if the universe, which was formed only in the universe, has grown very much. 13.7 billion years ago Big bang.
Gas and dust falling in the black hole, Light flashing attachedIt also occurs slowly to explain the growth of the ultra -high MASSIVE black hole. For example, our Galaxy's super huge black hole grows with just one sun. 3,000 years。 However, assuming that the black hole grows at a constant speed, the huge hole has had to increase the mass of the sun more than the value of the sun every year since the Big Bang.
To solve this problem, astronomers theorize how Black Hall was born in the early universe. Super Massive Black Hall requires a good start compared to the conventional black hole cousin. There is a sun from 10S to 100 years。 Thus, astronomers assume that many black holes and many 100,000 solar sun must have been formed early in the universe. They call these early black holes seed。 Roughly speaking, astronomers propose two potential origin, a black hole species. Giant clouds of dust It collapses directly into the black hole Population III star explosion.
Columbia University's astronomers have recently explored how the seeds have grown to grow to today's size, and how they have appeared in a very large black hole. The first step of the astronomer was to find an appropriate formula to calculate the initial quantity of black holes. Researchers have indicated that black hole growth is almost completely exponential. Therefore, this astronomer began with a modified index growth ceremony, like the calculation. Compound interest。 He took this type of derivative and determined how fast the black hole grew. Astronomers have assumed that all super -large black holes formed between the Big Bangs between 100 and 200 million years will be formed.
Astronomers selected 132,539 ultra -large black holes with sufficiently measured mass, and calculated the characteristics of seeds using his new formula. He discovered that 54 % of the seeds could be less than 350 times the mass of the sun, and could occur from the explosion of the individual group III stars. Another 40 % was 350-2,000 times the mass of the sun, and only 2,000 to 30,000 times the mass of the sun was about 6 %. He suggested that the latter two categories could cause small seeds that fuse immediately after being formed. He pointed out that these results did not directly exclude the collapse of the dust in black holes, indicating that there was no need to explain the ultra -large black hole we are looking at today. I mentioned.
Astronomers suggested that these ultra -large black holes have accumulated most of their mass in the first 1.5 billion years of the universe. 。 He explained that the universe was very dense at the time. Later, the galaxies were approaching each other, so a large amount of materials could fall into the black hole. He concludes that the ultra -large black hole is ultimately the relic of the primitive universe, and has been in a very different way than today's organic stars, dust clouds, and galaxies. I did it.
New data from a very large telescope between NASA's CHANDRA X-Ray Observatory and ESO provides evidence that explosions from ultra-large black holes can help you cool the gas and feed yourself.
These images indicate two galaxy clusters of research, Perseus cluster and Centaul scraster. The chandradata represented by blue reveals X -rays from hot gas filaments, and VLT data indicates a red cooler filament. Image Credit: NASA / CXC / SAO / OLIVARES et al. / dss / cfht / sitelle / ESA / STSCI / ESO / VLT / MUSE / N. wolk.
In a new study, Dr. Valeria Olibales and her colleagues of Santiago De Chile University analyzed the deep observations of seven galaxy clusters, which indicate a remarkable poly-phase filament structure: Perseus, M87, Centaur, Abel 2597, Abel 1795, Hydra-A, Hydra, and Hydra PKS 0745-191.
“At the center of the galaxy cluster is the huge galaxy in the universe. This galaxy has a huge black hole with millions to billion times a mass of the sun.” I said.
“The jet from these black holes is driven by the black hole that exhales gas.”
Their results support a model in which the explosion from the black hole causes hot gases and cools down a narrow gas filament.
Gas turbulence also plays an important role in this trigger process.
According to the model, some of these warm gases in these filaments should flow into the center of the galaxy and supply them to black holes, causing explosions.
The explosion cools more gas, supplies black holes, and leads to further explosions.
The model predicts that it is related to the bright gas and warm gas filament at the center of the galaxy cluster.
More specifically, in areas where hot gas is bright, warm gases need to be brightened.
“Our results provide a new understanding of filament filled with these gases. This is important not only for feeding black holes, but also for forming new stars.” The person said.
“This progress has been made possible by innovative technology that separates hot filaments of Chandra X -ray data from other structures, including a large cavity of hot gas created by a black hole jet.”
“The newly discovered relationship of these filaments indicates the remarkable similarity of what is found in the tail of the jellyfish. These are peeled off when moving the surrounding gases and the long tail. It was formed.
“This similarity means that the universe connection between the two objects is revealed and that these objects have a similar process.”
Team paper Published in the journal Natural astronomy.
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V. Olivary et al. Hα-X-ray surface gaze correlation of the cooling flow cluster filament. Nut asron Released online on January 27, 2025. Doi: 10.1038/S41550-02473-8
The deepest blue hole in the world, also known as an ocean sinkhole, can be found off the coast of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. It plunges to a depth of at least 420 meters (1,378 feet), remaining unexplored by researchers.
Local divers discovered the lake, named “Ta’am Dja” or “Deep Sea” in Mayan, over two decades ago. In 2021, scientists attempted to measure its depth using an echo sounder, estimating it to be 275 meters (902 feet). However, a later expedition in 2023 employed a device called a conductivity, temperature, and depth (CTD) profiler, revealing a depth of 420 meters (1,378 feet) without reaching the bottom.
Blue holes are naturally formed vertical-walled caves on the ocean floor, typically found in coastal regions with soluble rock formations like limestone. These geological formations may reach only a few tens of meters in depth and could be interconnected with underwater cave systems.
Due to poor water circulation, blue holes lack oxygen in their depths, posing challenges for organisms. Some microorganisms thrive in these conditions by consuming sulfur-based compounds like hydrogen sulfide. Additionally, creatures such as foraminifera and nematodes have been discovered living in blue holes, prompting further exploration to unveil the mysteries of Ta’am Dja’s deep blue waters.
This article (by Preston Levy of Norwich) addresses the question, “What are Mexican Blue Holes?”
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In the UK, thousands of people are currently experiencing issues making or receiving calls due to a network outage affecting Three.
Downdetector, a website that tracks outages, has received over 10,000 reports of problems across mobile networks on Thursday.
Customers of smaller mobile providers like Smarty and iD Mobile are also impacted as they rely on Three’s network.
While Three is working on resolving the issue, there is no specific timeline for a fix. iD Mobile has informed customers that engineers have identified and isolated the problem.
Three has approximately 10.5 million customers in the UK, with many expressing frustration on social media due to the disruption.
Some customers have reported missing important appointments or feeling stranded due to the inability to make calls.
It is uncertain if customers will receive compensation for the disruption, with Ofcom suggesting that refunds may be appropriate.
Following approval from the Competition and Markets Authority, Three’s merger with Vodafone has been finalized in a £16.5bn deal.
In a statement on X, Three acknowledged the issue with voice services and assured customers that data and emergency calls will not be affected.
A massive flood called the Zanclean Flood ended the Messinian salinity crisis that lasted from 5.97 million to 5.33 million years ago, according to a new study led by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI).
One of the scenarios being discussed for ending the Messinian Salinity Crisis 5.33 million years ago is the catastrophic backfilling of the Mediterranean Sea by the Zanclean Flood. Micallef others. They present clear onshore and offshore evidence that this deluge spilled over a shallow marine corridor in southeastern Sicily into the nearby underwater Noto Gorge. This aerial photo shows a ridge eroded by a major flood, located northeast of Masseria del Volpe, in southeastern Sicily. Image credit: Kevin Sciberras and Neil Petroni.
“The Zanclean Flood is an awe-inspiring natural phenomenon, with flows and velocities that seem dwarfed by any other known flood in Earth’s history,” said the study’s lead author, C.A. said Dr. Aaron Micallef, a research scientist at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute.
“Our study provides the most convincing evidence yet of this unusual event.”
During the Messinian salinity crisis, the Mediterranean Sea was isolated from the Atlantic Ocean and evaporated, creating vast salt deposits that transformed the region’s landscape.
Scientists have long believed that this dry period would gradually end and that the Mediterranean Sea would be reclaimed over 10,000 years.
However, the discovery in 2009 of an eroded channel stretching from the Gulf of Cadiz to the Alboran Sea called this idea into question.
The discovery points to a single major flooding event lasting between two and 16 years, which became known as the Zanclean Flood.
Estimates indicate that the outflow of this megaflood was between 68 and 100 Sverdraps (Sv), where 1 sievert is equivalent to 1 million cubic meters per second.
In their research, Dr. Micallef and his colleagues combined newly discovered geological features with geophysical data and numerical modeling to provide the most comprehensive picture of the megaflood to date. did.
The researchers investigated more than 300 asymmetric streamlined ridges in the corridor across the Sicilian Sil, a submerged land bridge that once separated the western and eastern Mediterranean basins.
“The morphology of these ridges corresponds to erosion by large-scale turbulence, mainly in a north-easterly direction,” said Professor Paul Carling from the University of Southampton.
“They reveal the immense power of the Zanclean Flood and how it changed the landscape and left a lasting mark on the geological record.”
Scientists sampled the ridge and found that it was overlain by a layer of rock debris containing material eroded from the sides of the ridge and surrounding areas. This indicates that it was deposited there rapidly and with great force.
This layer lies right on the boundary between the Messinian and Zanclean periods, where the Great Flood is thought to have occurred.
Using seismic reflection data, a type of geological ultrasound that allows scientists to see layers of rock and sediment beneath the Earth’s surface, the authors found a “W-shaped” shape on the continental shelf east of Sicily’s Sill. discovered a waterway.
This channel, dug into the ocean floor, connects the ridge to the Noto Gorge, a deep underwater canyon located in the eastern Mediterranean.
The shape and location of the channel suggest that it functioned like a giant funnel.
When the mega-flood flowed into Sicily’s Sill, this channel is thought to have carried the water towards the Noto Valley and into the eastern Mediterranean.
The research team developed a computer model of the flood to simulate how the water behaved.
The model shows that floodwaters change direction and increase their strength over time, reaching speeds of up to 32 meters per second (72 miles per hour), carving deeper channels, eroding more material, and increasing their length. This suggests that they may have been transported over long distances.
“These discoveries not only reveal a critical moment in Earth’s geological history, but also prove that landforms persist for five million years,” Dr. Micallef said.
“This opens the door to further research on the Mediterranean coast.”
of study Published in a magazine Communication Earth and Environment.
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A. Micallef others. 2024. Land-to-sea indicators of the Zanclean Flood. common global environment 5,794;doi: 10.1038/s43247-024-01972-w
The issue of energy consumption and its sources has always been a significant concern in the context of the climate crisis. In response, efforts are being made to utilize cleaner and newer fuels. Recently, a groundbreaking discovery of vast reservoirs of hydrogen energy hiding beneath the Earth’s surface has emerged, prompting questions about its potential impact.
Naturally occurring geological hydrogen is formed through Earth’s geochemical processes and has been identified in limited locations such as Albania and Mali. Research published in the journal Scientific Progress suggests that these reserves are widespread globally.
The study posits that if just 2 percent of the underground hydrogen could be extracted, it could yield 1.4 × 10^16 Joules of energy, equivalent to the world population’s energy consumption in 35 minutes. This amount of energy exceeds that of all natural gas reserves on Earth and could aid in achieving net-zero carbon goals.
While current methods for obtaining hydrogen involve fossil fuels or water-intensive electrolysis processes with a carbon footprint, extracting geological hydrogen is a comparatively low-carbon process, albeit currently practiced only in Mali.
Researchers at the U.S. Geological Survey have developed a model combining knowledge of hydrogen occurrence and geological data to explore these reservoirs on a global scale, estimating a substantial amount of hidden hydrogen beneath the Earth’s surface.
However, experts are hesitant about committing resources to extraction due to the scale and infrastructure required, as highlighted by geoscientist Professor Bill McGuire from University College London (UCL). He emphasizes the abundance of renewable energy sources like wind and solar and questions the necessity of tapping into another finite resource.
About our experts
Professor Bill McGuire is a volcanologist, climatologist, and author currently serving as Professor of Geophysics and Climate Hazards at UCL. His works include books on natural disasters, environmental change, and climate solutions.
Today, the moon is a cold, dead world, but it hasn’t always been that way. Early in its history, the Moon was host to volcanic activity.
Now, the latest results from the first-ever samples returned from the far side of the moon by China’s Chang’e 6 spacecraft reveal this volcanic activity. It may have happened more recently More than previously suspected. But what remains unclear is how these eruptions were able to continue for so long.
The moon is tidally locked to the Earth, meaning the same side is always facing us. Throughout human history, the dark ocean on the moon’s near side (known as Mare) has been clearly visible.
However, the far side of the Moon was hidden from our view and remained a mystery until the advent of the Space Age. In 1959, the Soviet Union’s Luna 3 satellite returned the first-ever images of the far side of the Moon, revealing a completely different surface than the familiar near side. There are only a handful of small oceans on the moon. Instead, much of the opposite side is pocked with impact craters.
Why do we know so little about the far side of the moon?
The Moon is dual-faced, and each side has a markedly different appearance. In recent years, experiments such as NASA’s GRAIL satellite have revealed that this dual personality extends underground as well.
“There is a dichotomy of the crust between the near and far sides, and the crust on the far side is much thicker,” he says. Professor Clive Neal a planetary geologist at the University of Notre Dame in the United States.
The cause of this split is one of the biggest unanswered questions about the moon. To get to the bottom of it, researchers first need to investigate what causes the two different appearances in the first place.
In the ’60s and ’70s, the Luna and Apollo missions returned vast amounts of lunar rock, confirming what geologists had long suspected: that the lunar maria was formed primarily from basalt (cooled lava). We were able to confirm that it is made of minerals.
The moon’s oceans were actually ancient volcanic floodplains that formed between 4.3 billion and 3.1 billion years ago. This conclusively proved that there was volcanic activity on the surface.
A photo of the far side of the Moon taken and transmitted to Earth by the Soviet lunar probe Luna 3 in 1959. – Photo credit: Getty
The absence of maria on the moon may suggest that there are no signs of volcanic activity on the far side, but a closer look at the craters on the far side shows that this may not be the case. Over time, the rocky world develops the patina of impact craters from meteorite impacts.
If the planet is volcanically active, lava flooding the surface will fill these craters and erase them from the surface. This means that the more craters there are on a planet’s surface, the longer it has been volcanic.
Using orbital images of the moon’s surface, scientists have been able to count craters on the moon, and it appears that the far side of the moon has actually been carved clean by volcanic activity on roughly the same time scale as seen on the near side. I discovered that it looks like.
So what did the new mission find?
The only way to confirm this theory was to test for volcanic minerals on samples from the backside. Unfortunately, all early lunar exploration aimed at the easiest place to land: the brightly lit equator in front of the moon.
Things changed on June 1, 2024, when China’s Chang’e 6 lander touched down on the far side of an area known as the Antarctic Aitken Impact Basin. This was China’s second venture into the far side, after landing a spacecraft in 2019. Chang’e 6’s main purpose was to bring samples of the far side back to Earth, ultimately revealing how geologically different this region is from the far side. .
Immediately after landing, Chang’e 6 scooped up some of the moon’s soil, known as regolith. They also used a 2-meter (6.5-foot) long drill to collect samples from underground, where moon rocks are somewhat protected from the sun’s radiation.
In all, the mission collected 1,935 g (4.2 pounds) of lunar material, which was packaged into an ascent vehicle and returned to Earth on June 6.
The return capsule of the Chang’e 6 probe will land in Xiziwangban, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China, on June 25, 2024. – Photo credit: Getty
The return capsule was immediately taken to a special facility, where it was opened and subjected to preliminary tests, which revealed that the sample contained grains of basalt, proving that there was indeed a volcanic past behind it. It was done.
To learn more about what this past was like, more than 100 basalt fragments were extracted and sent to two independent teams of researchers who published their findings. science and nature November of this year.
They found that the basalt is about 2.8 billion years old, younger than the samples collected by Luna and Apollo.
How volcanic activity became possible is a “mystery”
The new sample matched a similarly young sample taken by China’s previous sample return mission, Chang’e 5.
Neither sample contained a group of metals called KREEP (potassium, rare earth metals, and phosphorus with the element symbol K) that were abundant in the previous samples. There was also a clear shortage of radioactive metals. Also a sample of Chang’e.
“The mystery is that young basalts, less than 3 billion years old, do not contain large amounts of KREEP radioactive elements either in the foreground or in the background,” said one of the few Western scientists allowed to cooperate in this research. Mr. Neil, one of the Analysis at this time.
“This is a mystery, but it matches the young basalt of Chang’e 5, which is 2 billion years old.”
Heat from the decay of radioactive metals is one of the main mechanisms that sustains volcanic activity on our planet, but their apparent disappearance does not seem to have immediately stopped volcanic activity on the Moon. As it turns out, the samples are very similar in many other ways.
“They are similar in bulk composition to previous samples, which adds to the mystery: What was the heat source that produced such magmas?” says Neal.
Getting to the bottom of the mystery will almost certainly require more samples taken from different parts of the moon, as well as a closer look at what’s happening beneath the surface.
“The absence of creep elements in the basalts on the far side suggests that the Moon’s mantle is also bipartite. To understand the nature of the Moon’s interior, we need to use global geophysical networks to You need to explore what’s inside.”
It appears the other side still wants to keep some of its secrets hidden, at least for now.
About our experts
Professor Clive Neil is an expert in civil and environmental engineering and geosciences at the University of Notre Dame in the United States. His research is natural earth science, science and advances in space research.
Small brown bat (Myotis lucifugus) suffers from white-nose syndrome, which has devastated bat populations across the United States.
piemags/FWL / Alamy Stock Photo
A study has revealed that a decline in bat populations in the United States, caused by the spread of a fungal disease, has resulted in reduced farm incomes and an additional 1,300 deaths of infants under the age of one.
The research found that in counties affected by bat disease, farmers had to increase their use of insecticides by 31% to make up for the decreased insect predation by bats. Eyal Frank, a researcher at the University of Chicago in Illinois, estimated that farmers in these affected counties lost $27 billion between 2006 and 2017 due to reduced crop sales and higher pesticide costs.
Furthermore, the study observed an 8% increase in the number of infant deaths before the age of one in affected counties, which Frank links to the elevated pesticide usage. He expressed concerns about the inherent toxicity of pesticides, even when used within regulated levels, suggesting potential health hazards.
The white-nose syndrome, discovered in hibernating bats in a New York state cave in 2006, has since spread across North America, resulting in millions of bat deaths. This disease has raised questions about the benefits that bats provide to farmers.
By analyzing agricultural census data, Frank compared counties where white-nose disease was detected by 2017 with those where it hadn’t been identified yet. The results indicated a consistent increase in insecticide usage in affected areas each year post-detection of the disease.
In light of the study findings, the potential link between bat deaths, pesticide use, and higher infant mortality rates was examined. While the results point towards a correlation, the exact mechanism through which increased pesticide use might lead to elevated infant mortality remains unclear.
Experts like Roel Vermeulen from Utrecht University in the Netherlands emphasize the need to broaden human health impact assessments to consider the indirect effects of environmental factors like bat population decline. Moving forward, efforts are required to preserve the vital role wildlife species play in maintaining human health and well-being.
Neolithic people appear to have understood advanced concepts from sciences such as physics and geology, and used this knowledge to build megalithic monuments in southern Spain.
The dolmen, called Menga Dolmen, was built between 3600 and 3800 BC and is one of the oldest megalithic structures in Europe. The covered enclosure is made of 32 large stones, some of which are the largest ever used for such a structure. The heaviest stone weighs over 130 tonnes, more than three times the heaviest stone at Stonehenge in England, which was built more than 1000 years later.
“[In the Neolithic Period]”It must have been an impressive experience to experience these huge stone structures,” he said. Leonardo Garcia San Juan He studied at the University of Seville in Spain. “It still moves me. It still makes an impression on me.”
García Sanjuan and his colleagues are now conducting a detailed geological and archaeological analysis of the stones to deduce what knowledge Menga's builders needed to construct the monument in the city of Antequera.
Paradoxically, they found that the rock was a type of relatively brittle sandstone, meaning that it was at high risk of breaking, but the team found that they could compensate for that risk by shaping the rock, locking it into a very stable overall structure.
Neolithic people would have needed some way to make the stones fit together very snugly, Garcia-Sanjuan says. “It's like Tetris,” he says. “The precision, and how tightly each stone is fastened to each other, forces you to think they had some concept of angles, even if it was just rudimentary.”
The researchers also discovered that the 130-ton stone, laid horizontally on top to form part of the roof, has a raised surface in the middle and slopes down at the edges, which helps distribute forces in the same way an arch does and strengthens the roof, Garcia-Sanjuan says. “To our knowledge, this is the first time the principle of the arch has been documented in human history.”
The purpose of the mengas is unknown, but they were positioned to create unique light patterns inside them during the summer solstice, and the stones are protected from water damage by layers of carefully pounded clay, supporting evidence of their builders' knowledge of architecture and engineering.
“They knew about geology and the properties of the rocks they were working with,” Garcia San Juan says. “When you put all of this together — engineering, physics, geology, geometry, astronomy — you get what you call science.”
There are other Neolithic structures in France of a similar size to Menga, but less is known about how it was built, Garcia San Juan said. “To date, Menga is unique both in the Iberian peninsula and in Western Europe.”
“What's surprising is how sophisticated it is.” Susan Greaney “This architectural understanding of how weight is distributed is something I've never seen anywhere before,” says Professor David Schneider of the University of Exeter in the UK. But, she adds, this may be a testament to an understanding of architecture and engineering rather than an understanding of science.
Life on Earth has faced various threats over millions of years, from asteroids to pandemics to climate change. According to the IPCC, nearly one in five terrestrial species is at risk of extinction by 2100 due to rising global temperatures.
Marine life is also in peril, with coral reefs disappearing rapidly. Dr. Mary Hagedorn, a coral reef expert, has been working on cryopreserving coral to ensure its survival and potential reintroduction into ecosystems.
Her innovative idea involves creating a lunar biorepository to store frozen cell samples of key species for ecosystem reconstruction. The moon’s cold temperatures and protection from radiation make it an ideal location for such a vault.
The focus is on preserving fibroblasts, which can be reprogrammed into different cell types, including stem cells for cloning. This initiative aims to safeguard Earth’s ecosystems and potentially support future human space exploration, such as Mars missions.
While the concept may seem futuristic, the team has already begun freezing cell samples from species like the starry goby for testing. The ultimate goal is to send diverse genetic samples to the lunar vault to ensure the preservation of essential species.
Creating a biorepository on the moon presents logistical challenges but could be achievable with NASA’s support and funding. Future generations might benefit from this innovative approach to conservation and space exploration.
Dr. Mary Hagedorn and Professor Ian Crawford are leading experts in this field, with a focus on conservation, lunar science, and astrobiology. Their research and work contribute to the understanding of ecosystems and the future of space exploration.
On Tuesday, Elon Musk’s social media platform X filed a lawsuit against a global advertising coalition and several major companies, including Unilever, Mars, and CVS Health. The lawsuit alleges that they illegally conspired to alienate the social network and intentionally cause it to lose revenue, claiming they engaged in a “massive advertiser boycott.”
Company X filed the lawsuit against the World Federation of Advertisers and the companies in federal court in Texas on Tuesday.
“We’ve been trying for peace for 2 years, now it’s war,” Musk tweeted on Tuesday.
The lawsuit claims that advertisers, through the Global Alliance for Responsible Media, withheld “billions of dollars in advertising revenue” from X, violating U.S. antitrust law.
X CEO Linda Yaccarino stated, “When the marketplace of ideas is restricted, people hurt. A few should not have a monopoly on what is monetized.” She expressed concern that the boycott aimed to deprive X of its users.
The World Advertising Federation, Unilever, Mars, CVS Health, and Ørsted did not provide immediate comments on the lawsuit.
X’s advertising revenue declined after Musk acquired the company in 2022. The lawsuit mentions the surge in anti-Semitic content on X following changes made by Musk and a pending trial against Media Matters in April 2025.
The Responsible Media Initiative was launched in 2019 to address harmful content monetization. X claims to meet or exceed the standards set by the Global Alliance for Responsible Media, seeking damages and an injunction to prevent further withholding of advertising dollars.
The complaint alleges that Company X has become less competitive in digital advertising sales.
Jacqueline Gates of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory isolating livermorium atoms.
Marilyn Sargent/Berkeley Lab 2024 Regents of the University of California
The third heaviest element in the universe has been created in a way that points the way to synthesizing the elusive element 120, the heaviest element in the periodic table.
“We were very shocked, very surprised and very relieved that we had not made the wrong choice in installing the equipment,” he said. Jacqueline Gates At the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), California.
She and her colleagues created the element, livermorium, by bombarding pieces of plutonium with beams of charged titanium atoms. Titanium has never been used in such experiments before because it’s hard to turn into a well-controlled beam and it takes millions or trillions of collisions to create just a few new atoms. But physicists think that the titanium beam is essential to making a hypothetical element 120, also known as unbinylium, which has 120 protons in its nucleus.
The researchers first evaporated a rare isotope of titanium in a special oven at 1,650°C (about 3,000°F). They then used microwaves to turn the hot titanium vapor into a charged beam, which they sent into a particle accelerator. When the beam reached about 10% of the speed of light and smashed into a plutonium target, a fragment of it hit a detector, where it detected a trace of two livermorium atoms.
As expected, each atom rapidly decayed into other elements. The stability of an atomic nucleus decreases as an atom’s mass increases. But the measurements were so precise that there’s only about a one in a trillion chance that the discovery was a statistical fluke, Gates says. The researchers announced their findings on July 23. Nuclear Structure 2024 Meeting at Argonne National Laboratory, Illinois.
Michael Thornessen The Michigan State University researcher says the experiment supports the feasibility of creating element 120. “We have to do the basic research and we have to go in the dark, so this is a really important and necessary experiment in that sense,” he says.
Toennesen says the creation of unbinylium will have profound implications for our understanding of the strong force, which determines whether heavy elements are stable. Studying unbinylium may also help us understand how exotic elements formed in the early universe.
The heaviest artificial element to date, element 118 (also known as oganesson), has two more protons than livermorium and was first synthesized in 2002. Since then, researchers have struggled to make atoms even heavier, because that requires colliding already-heavy elements with each other, which themselves tend to be unstable. “It’s really, really difficult work,” Thornesen says.
But the new experiment has LBNL researchers feeling optimistic: They plan to launch experiments aimed at creating element 120 in 2025 after replacing the plutonium target with the heavier element californium.
“I think we’re pretty close to knowing what to do,” Gates says, “and we have an opportunity to add new elements to the periodic table.” [is exciting]”…Very few people get that opportunity.”
A large number of Microsoft Windows computers around the world today were found to be unable to boot, instead displaying the so-called “Blue Screen of Death” (BSOD), among the computers reportedly affected, with the UK’s Sky News ceasing live broadcasts just before 6am local time, as well as causing outages for a number of airline and banking services.
What’s happening on my Windows computer?
Some users have reported that their Windows devices are refusing to boot up, while others have witnessed their computers suddenly display a BSOD while in use.
Eddie Major of the University of Adelaide in Australia…
A newly described trunk tetrapod exceeding 2.5 meters (8.2 feet) in length Gaiacia geniae It was probably the largest organism of its kind.
Reconstructing your life Gaiacia geniaeImage courtesy of Gabriel Lio.
Gaiacia geniae It lived in what is now Namibia during the Early Permian period, about 280 million years ago.
“Most of our ideas about the early evolution of tetrapods come from fossils found in the vast coal-producing ancient equatorial wetlands of what is now Europe and North America,” said paleontologist Claudia Marsicano of the University of Buenos Aires and her colleagues.
“but Gaiacia geniae They come from far south and live in the area of the southern supercontinent Gondwana, around 55 degrees south latitude.”
The structure of the skull and jaw Gaiacia geniae It had a powerful bite that allowed it to catch large prey.
“Gaiacia geniae “This dinosaur was significantly larger than a human and likely lived near the bottom of a swamp or lake,” said Dr Jason Pardo, a postdoctoral researcher at the Field Museum of Natural History.
“It has a big, flat, toilet seat-shaped head with an open mouth so it can suck in prey. It has huge fangs, and the whole front of its mouth is made up of giant teeth.”
“It's a large predator, but it could also be a relatively slow-moving ambush predator.”
Nearly complete skeleton Gaiacia geniae After preparation. Image courtesy of Claudia Marsicano.
At least four fossils Gaiacia geniaeRemains were found, including skull fragments and an incomplete spinal column. Gaias Layer Northwestern Namibia.
“When we found this enormous specimen lying in the outcrop as a giant concretion, we were truly shocked,” Dr Marsicano said.
“As soon as we saw it we knew it was something completely different. Everyone was so excited,” he said.
“When I examined the skull, the structure at the front of the skull caught my attention.”
“That was the only part that was clearly visible at the time, and it showed large tusks that interlocked in a very unusual way, creating a biting technique that was so typical of early tetrapods.”
“We had some really amazing material, including a complete skull, which allowed us to compare it to other animals from this period and learn what kind of animal it was and what makes it unique. We could see there's a lot that's special about this creature,” Dr Pardo added.
Gaiacia geniae They are related to the extinct family of amphibian-like animals called colosteids. Colostacea) are thought to date back even further, having been replaced by more modern amphibians and reptiles during the Late Carboniferous period, about 307 million years ago.
“There are ancient animals that survived 300 million years ago, but they were rare, small and had unique behaviours,” Dr Pardo said.
“Gaiacia geniae They are large, they are numerous, and they appear to be the primary predators in their ecosystem.”
“This shows that what was happening in the far south was very different from what was happening at the equator.”
“This is really important because we don't really know where a lot of the animal groups that showed up during this time came from.”
“What we discovered is Gaiacia geniae “This tells us that there must have been a rich ecosystem in the oceans far to the south that could support these very large predators.”
“The more we look, the more answers we may find about the major animal groups that interest us, such as the ancestors of mammals and modern reptiles.”
CA Marsicano othersGiant trunk tetrapods were apex predators during the Late Palaeozoic glacial stages of Gondwana. NaturePublished online July 3, 2024; doi: 10.1038/s41586-024-07572-0
RCW 7 is located in the constellation Puppis, about 5,300 light years from Earth.
This Hubble image shows the nebula RCW 7. Image courtesy of NASA/ESA/Hubble/J. Tan, Chalmers University, University of Virginia.
“Nebulae are regions of space that are rich in the raw materials needed to form new stars,” the Hubble astronomers said.
“Due to the effects of gravity, some of these molecular clouds collapse and merge into protostars surrounded by a rotating disk of remaining gas and dust.”
“In the case of RCW 7, the protostar forming here is particularly massive, emitting intense ionizing radiation and a powerful stellar wind that propelled the star into a “H II region“.
“The H II regions are filled with hydrogen ions. HI refers to regular hydrogen atoms, and H II is hydrogen that has lost an electron.”
“Ultraviolet rays from the massive protostar excite the hydrogen, which then emits light that gives the nebula its soft pink glow.”
“IRAS 07299-1651 still resides within a cocoon of glowing gas, in clouds swirling towards the top of the nebula,” the researchers said.
To expose this star and its sibling, the new image was created from separate exposures taken in the near-infrared region of the spectrum. Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3).
“This massive protostar is most bright in ultraviolet light, but it also emits a lot of infrared light that penetrates much of the surrounding gas and dust and can be seen by the Hubble Telescope,” the scientists said.
“Many of the other large visible stars in this image are not part of the nebula, but are located between the nebula and the solar system.”
Assuming a circular orbit, IRAS 07299-1651 is estimated to have a minimum total mass of 18 times that of the Sun and a maximum period of 570 years.
“The formation of the H II region marks the beginning of the end of the molecular cloud,” the authors said.
“Over just a few million years, radiation and winds from the massive stars gradually disperse the gas, and this dispersion continues as the most massive stars end their lives in supernova explosions.”
“Only a small portion of this gas will be absorbed by new stars within the nebula, while the rest will spread throughout the galaxy and eventually form new molecular clouds.”
Astronomers using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope discovered a giant asteroid impact around Beta Gactris, the second brightest star in the constellation Scorpio.
Chen othersBeta Pictoris has a dynamic circumstellar environment, suggesting that periods of active collisions could produce large dust clouds that could blow through the planetary system and increase dust accretion to the giant planets Beta Pictoris b and c. Image credit: Roberto Molar Candanosa / Johns Hopkins University / Lynette Cook / NASA.
Beta Pictoris is an A5 type star located in the constellation Pictoris, approximately 63 light years from Earth.
The star has a mass about 1.8 times that of the Sun and is only 20 million years old.
It contains a circumstellar disk of gas and dust, numerous comet-like objects, and two giant planets, Beta Pictoris b and Beta Pictoris c.
Beta Pictoris b is a gas giant with a mass about 9-13 times that of Jupiter. It orbits its parent star at a distance of 9.8 astronomical units (AU) and completes one revolution around its parent star every 22 years.
Beta Pictoris c has a mass 8.2 times that of Jupiter and is located quite close to its star, orbiting it at a distance of 2.7 AU with an orbital period of about 1,200 days.
“Beta Pictoris is at an age where terrestrial planetary belt planet formation is still ongoing due to giant asteroid impacts, so what we're seeing here is essentially how rocky planets and other objects are forming in real time,” said Dr Christine Chen, an astronomer at Johns Hopkins University.
By comparing the new data with data from the Webb Space Telescope in 2004 and 2005, Dr Chen and his colleagues found a significant change in the energy characteristics emitted by the dust particles around Beta Pictoris.
Webb's detailed measurements allowed the researchers to track the composition and size of dust particles in the very region that Spitzer had previously analyzed.
The researchers focused on heat given off by crystalline silicates – minerals commonly found around young stars, on Earth and other celestial bodies – and found no trace of the particles observed in 2004 and 2005.
“This suggests that a catastrophic collision occurred between the asteroid and another object about 20 years ago, shattering the asteroid into microscopic dust particles smaller than pollen or powdered sugar,” Dr Chen said.
“We believe the dust is the same as that first observed in Spitzer data in 2004 and 2005.”
“The best explanation given by Webb's new data is that we have in fact witnessed the aftermath of a rare catastrophe between large, asteroid-sized objects, completely changing our understanding of this solar system.”
The new data suggests that dust dispersed outward by radiation from the system's central star can no longer be detected.
Initially, dust near the star heated up and emitted thermal radiation that Spitzer's instruments identified.
Now, as the dust cools away from the star, it no longer emits its thermal properties.
When Spitzer collected its previous data, scientists assumed that small objects abrading the ground would stir up the dust and steadily replenish it over time.
But Webb's new observations showed that the dust had disappeared and not been replaced.
“The amount of dust kicked up is about 100,000 times the size of the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs,” Dr Chen said.
Using sensitive instruments aboard ESA’s International Gamma-ray Astrophysics Laboratory (Integral) mission, astronomers GRB231115A Taken from the center of Messier 82 (M82, NGC 3034, or the Cigar Galaxy). Messier 82 (M82, NGC 3034, or Cigar Galaxy) is a starburst irregular galaxy located 12 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major. They say the spectral and timing characteristics of GRB 231115A, as well as the lack of X-ray and optical observations and gravitational wave signals several hours after the event, indicate that this outburst was the result of a giant flare from a magnetar. Suggests. They conclude that starburst galaxies like Messier 82, which are known to produce magnetars, could be promising targets for studying giant flares.
On November 15, 2023, Integral detected a burst of gamma rays that lasted just one-tenth of a second. The detection was sent to the Integral Science Data Center, where software determined it came from the nearby galaxy Messier 82. A small square on Integral's map indicates the location of the burst. Blue circles on the two cropped images indicate corresponding locations. Image credit: ESA / Integral / XMM-Newton / INAF / TNG / M. Rigoselli, INAF.
Giant flares are short explosive events that release very large amounts of energy as gamma-ray bursts (GRBs).
Only three such flares have been observed from magnetars in our Milky Way galaxy and the nearby Large Magellanic Cloud in the past roughly 50 years.
Observations of giant flares from distant magnetars are hampered by the fact that at long distances it is difficult to identify the source of the energy burst.
“Some young neutron stars have very strong magnetic fields, more than 10,000 times stronger than a typical neutron star. These are called magnetars. They emit energy as flares, and sometimes these flares can be huge,” said ESA astronomer Dr. Ashley Climes.
“However, in the past 50 years of gamma-ray observations, huge flares from our galaxy's magnetars have only been observed three times.”
“These explosions are extremely powerful. The explosion detected in December 2004 came from 30,000 light-years away from us, but was still powerful enough to affect the upper layers of Earth's atmosphere. It's like a solar flare coming from much closer to us.
“The flare detected by Integral is the first confirmation of the existence of a magnetar outside the Milky Way,” said Dr. Sandro Meleghetti, an astronomer at the National Institute of Astrophysics.
“We suspect that some of the other 'short gamma-ray bursts' revealed by Integral and other satellites are also giant flares from magnetars.”
“This discovery will begin the search for other extragalactic magnetars. If we can find more stars, we will be able to understand how often these flares occur and how the stars lose energy in the process. We can begin to understand that,” Dr. Cromes said.
“However, such short-lived explosions can only be caught by chance if the observatory is already pointing in the right direction,” said Dr. Jan-Uwe Ness, a scientist at the Integral project.
“This makes Integral, with its wide field of view more than 3,000 times the area of the sky covered by the Moon, extremely important for these detections.”
“Messier 82 is a bright galaxy in which star formation occurs,” the authors said.
“In these regions, massive stars are born, live short, turbulent lives, and leave behind neutron stars.”
“The discovery of magnetars in this region confirms that magnetars are likely young neutron stars.”
“The search for additional magnetars will continue in other star-forming regions to understand these extraordinary objects.”
of findings It was published in the magazine Nature.
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S. Meleghetti other. A giant magnetar flare in the nearby starburst galaxy M82. Nature, published online March 7, 2024. doi: 10.1038/s41586-024-07285-4
Ichthyotitan severnensis It lived in the Triassic seas around 202 million years ago and may have grown over 25 meters (82 feet) long.
Ichthyotitan severnensis. Image credit: Gabriel Uguet.
Ichthyosaurs are dolphin-like marine reptiles known from hundreds of fossils from the time of the dinosaurs.
These creatures ranged in size from less than a meter to over 20 meters (65 feet) in length.
All animals gave birth to live young in the sea, and some had giant eyes and so-called warm-blooded physiology, and some were fast swimmers and deep divers.
“Ichthyosaurs first evolved during the early Triassic period, about 250 million years ago,” said Dr Dean Lomax and colleagues from the Universities of Bristol and Manchester.
“Within a few million years, some ichthyosaurs evolved to reach lengths of 15 meters or more, and by the late Triassic period (about 200 million years ago), the largest fish, including the newly described ichthyosaurs. The dragon has evolved. Ichthyotitan severnensis“
“But this reign didn’t necessarily last long. Some species of ichthyosaurs continued to roam the oceans for millions of years, but these ‘giant ichthyosaurs’ It is thought to have become extinct during the Tatami-Jurassic extinction event. And this unique group of marine reptiles never reached such a world again. Huge size.”
two fragmentary jaw bones Ichthyotitan severnensis Collected from the uppermost layer of the Triassic period Westbury Mudstone Formation Located in Somerset, England.
Based on the length of the fossil, the new species could have been a whopping 25 meters long, or twice as long as a city bus.
“In 2018, my team studied and described a giant jawbone, and we were hopeful that one day another jawbone would be revealed,” Dr. Lomax said.
“The new specimen is more complete and better preserved, showing that there are two large bones (called quadrilateral bones) with unique shapes and structures.”
“It’s quite amazing to think that gigantic ichthyosaurs, the size of blue whales, were swimming in the seas around Britain during the Triassic period.”
“These jaw bones provide intriguing evidence that perhaps someday the complete skull or skeleton of these giants may be discovered. You never know.”
discovery of Ichthyotitan severnensis is explained in paper in diary PLoS ONE.
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DR Lomax other. 2024. The last giant: new evidence of a giant Late Triassic (Rhaetian) ichthyosaur from Britain. PLoS ONE 19 (4): e0300289; doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0300289
Police have uncovered a disturbing trend among university students, who are resorting to cyber fraud to boost their income. They have managed to infiltrate a large phishing site on the dark web that has defrauded tens of thousands of individuals.
The site, known as LabHost, has been operational since 2021 and serves as a hub for cyber fraud, enabling users to create realistic-looking websites mimicking reputable companies like major banks. It has ensnared 70,000 users globally, including 70,000 individuals in the UK.
Victims unknowingly provided sensitive information, which was then used to siphon money from their accounts. The perpetrators behind the site profited by selling this stolen data on the dark web to other fraudsters.
According to the Metropolitan Police, the primary victims fall within the 25-44 age bracket, with a significant portion of their activities carried out online.
Law enforcement authorities have apprehended one of the alleged masterminds behind the site, along with 36 other suspects detained in the UK and abroad. The arrests were made at various airports in Manchester, Luton, Essex, and London.
British police are facing mounting pressure to demonstrate their effectiveness in combating the rising tide of cyber fraud.
Despite the relatively small impact of dismantling this particular site, the police intend to dismantle additional cyber fraud operations to undermine the confidence of criminals who believe they can act with impunity.
While fraud and cybercrime present considerable challenges for law enforcement agencies, they often compete for resources with other policing priorities, such as safeguarding children and enhancing women’s safety.
LabHost managed to amass significant amounts of sensitive data, including 480,000 debit or credit card numbers and 64,000 PIN numbers, generating over £1 million in membership fees from 2,000 individuals who paid in cryptocurrency.
The company lured users with tutorial videos on committing crimes using the site and on utilizing new consumer products. It promised quick installation of software in five minutes and offered “customer service” in case of any issues.
DI Oliver Richter noted the shift in cyber fraud from requiring technical skills like coding to now being accessible to individuals ranging from late teens to late 20s, many of whom are college students.
He expressed concern that these users may not fully grasp the risks and consequences of their actions, assuming anonymity and ease of operation.
Following the dismantling of the site, 800 users received warnings that the police were aware of their activities.
Detective Inspector Helen Rance, head of the Metropolitan Police’s cybercrime unit, described the LabHost bust as a sophisticated operation targeting those who have commercialized fraudulent activities. She highlighted collaboration with 17 factions globally, both in the public and private sectors.
She emphasized the success of penetrating the service, identifying the perpetrators, and understanding the scale of their illicit operations.
Forget about megalodons being scary, there’s a new prehistoric creature in town with jaws that may rival Meg’s in power, making it the largest marine reptile ever identified on Earth.
The giant jawbone of this beast measures over 2 meters (6.6 feet), allowing for a bite force strong enough to crush bones. In comparison, the jawbone of a megalodon, which was about the same size, measured only 0.5 meters (1.6 feet).
Experts believe that this massive new ichthyosaur species was a staggering 25 meters (82 feet) long, similar in size to a modern blue whale. (Megalodon was about 15-20 meters, or 65 feet in length).
The fossilized remains of this creature were found on the Somerset coast.
The research team named this new species Ichthyotitan severnensis, meaning “Giant Fish Lizard of the Severn.” These bones date back to around 202 million years ago, towards the end of the Triassic period, just before the dinosaur extinction event.
The first jawbone of this mysterious species was discovered in 2016, with this recent find confirming its existence.
Dr. Dean Lomax, a paleontologist at the University of Manchester, expressed excitement about the discovery, hoping that more complete specimens may be found in the future.
Lomax and his team compared the two jawbones and found shared unique features, indicating they were from the same geological period.
Ruby Reynolds, an 11-year-old girl, discovered a new salangular on the beach in 2020, leading to further discoveries by her and her team, including the final piece of the jawbone in 2022.
Now 15, Ruby Reynolds has contributed to naming the new species and is already a published scientist, listed as a contributor to research in the journal PLoS ONE.
A rogue wave is a single swell that is much higher than nearby waves and can cause damage to ships and coastal infrastructure. Ocean waves are one of the most powerful natural forces on Earth, and they could become even more powerful as global trends suggest ocean winds will blow even stronger with climate change. there is. Scientists at the University of Melbourne have discovered in a new study that rogue waves are generated by strong winds and unpredictable wave patterns, confirming an idea previously only proven in the lab.
Toffoli other.We report direct observations of surface waves from a stereo camera system and simultaneous measurements of wind speed during an expedition across the Southern Ocean during the Antarctic winter aboard a South African icebreaker. SA Agulhas II. Image credit: Alessandro Toffoli.
“Rogue waves are huge, twice as tall as nearby waves, and appear out of nowhere,” said University of Melbourne’s Professor Alessandro Toffoli, lead author of the study.
Using cutting-edge technology and embarking on an expedition to one of the most unstable ocean regions on Earth, Professor Toffoli and colleagues have introduced a new technique for 3D imaging of ocean waves.
Operating a stereo camera on a South African icebreaker SA Agulhas II During their 2017 Antarctic expedition, they captured valuable insights into the behavior of waves in this remote region.
Their method, which mimics human vision through continuous imaging, allowed researchers to reconstruct the wavy ocean surface in three dimensions, providing unprecedented clarity into ocean wave dynamics. Ta.
The first scientific measurement of a rogue wave was the 25.6 m Draupner wave recorded in the North Sea in 1995. Since the beginning of the 21st century, 16 cases of suspected rogue waves have been reported to him.
“Scientists have long theorized that Antarctica’s rough seas and fierce winds can cause large waves to ‘self-amplify’, resulting in rogue wave frequencies. “However, this has not yet been tested underwater,” Professor Toffoli said.
The team’s observations, using numerical and laboratory studies that suggested the role of wind in the formation of rogue waves, provided validation of these theories in a real marine environment.
“Our observations show that unique sea conditions with rough waves occur during the ‘young’ stage of the waves, when they are most susceptible to wind effects. This suggests that wind parameters are the missing link,” Professor Toffoli said.
“Wind creates a chaotic situation where waves of different dimensions and directions coexist.”
“The wind causes young waves to grow higher, longer and faster.”
“During this self-amplification, waves grow disproportionately at the expense of neighboring waves.”
“We show that young waves are showing signs of self-amplification and are likely to be wind-driven.”
“Once every six hours, we recorded waves that were twice as high as nearby waves.”
“This reflects laboratory models. The theory is that sea conditions are more likely to self-amplify, creating more rogue waves.”
“In contrast, no rough waves were detected in mature oceans that are not influenced by winds.”
The authors highlight the critical importance of integrating wind dynamics into predictive models for rough sea prediction.
“This shows that scientists need to take wind into account thoroughly when developing tools to predict rogue waves,” Professor Toffoli said.
of findings It was published in the magazine physical review letter.
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A. Toffoli other. 2024. Observation of the bad waters of the Southern Ocean. Physics.pastor rhett 132 (15): 154101; doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.132.154101
Pebanista Yacluna About 16 million years ago, it lived in the Miocene Amazon of Peru.
The ancient dolphin was estimated to be 2.8–3.5 m (9.2–11.5 ft) long, making it the largest freshwater dolphin species. dentate (Dolphins, porpoises, and all other toothed whales) are known.
Such large sizes have also been recorded in other proto-Amazonian inhabitants (i.e. fish and crocodiles) and may be due to the greater availability of resources in the proto-Amazonian ecosystem.
“16 million years ago, the Peruvian Amazon looked very different from what it looks like today,” said Dr. Aldo Benitez Palomino, a paleontologist at the University of Zurich.
“Most of the Amazon plain was covered by large lake and swamp systems called pebas.”
“This landscape included aquatic, semi-aquatic, and terrestrial ecosystems (swamps, floodplains, etc.) and spanned what is now Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia, Peru, and Brazil.”
“When the Pebas system began to give way to what is now the Amazon about 10 million years ago, the new habitat caused Pebanista Yaclunaprey disappears, and the giant dolphin is driven to extinction. ”
“This opened up an ecological niche that is used by relatives of today's Amazon river dolphins (genus Delphinus). inia), and with the rise of new cetaceans such as modern dolphins, they were on the brink of extinction in the oceans. ”
Pebanista Yacluna was a member of platanist ideasa group of dolphins that were common in oceans around the world from 24 million to 16 million years ago.
“We discovered that size is not the only thing to note,” said Dr. Aldo Benitez Palomino, a paleontologist at the University of Zurich and the Natural History Museum of the National University of San Marcos. Told.
“With this fossil record excavated in the Amazon, we expected to find a living relative of the Amazon river dolphin, but instead we found the Amazon river dolphin's closest relative. Pebanista Yacluna It is a river dolphin from South Asia. ”
“Pebanista Yacluna and Platanista Both share a highly developed facial crown, a specialized bone structure associated with echolocation, the ability to emit high-frequency sounds and “see” by listening to their echoes, which is useful for hunting. relies heavily on this. ”
“Echolocation and biosonar are even more important for river dolphins because the waters they live in are very murky, which impedes their vision,” said Dr. Gabriel Aguirre Fernandez, a paleontologist at the University of Zurich.
“The elongated snout with many teeth suggests that: Pebanista Yacluna Like other species of river dolphins today, they eat fish. ”
large adult skull Pebanista Yacluna It was discovered in 2018 at an exposed stratigraphic level along the Rio Napo in Loreto, Peru.
“After 20 years of research in South America, we have discovered several giant dolphins in this region, but this is the first of its kind,” said Dr. Marcelo Sánchez Vilagra, a paleontologist at the University of Zurich. .
“We were particularly intrigued by its unique and deep biogeographical history.”
team's paper Published in the Journal on March 20, 2024 scientific progress.
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Aldo Benitez Palomino other. 2024. The largest freshwater toothed whale: A relative of the South Asian river dolphin that lives in the primitive Amazon. scientific progress 10(12); doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adk6320
Impression of Stenopterygius quadrissis, a type of ichthyosaur
Dotted Zebra / Alamy Stock Photo
Prehistoric Earth was home to monsters. They included a 2.5 meter long millipede, a flying reptile with an 11 meter wingspan, and a snake weighing more than a ton. But common sense says that if you're looking for the biggest animal of all time, there's no need to go back in time. Blue whales are known for reach 30 meters The length and weight reach 199 tons. In more than 500 million years of animal evolution, even the largest dinosaurs have no equal.
Conventional wisdom may be wrong. The fossil record may hide animals that were even larger than blue whales. For decades, evidence has trickled in that truly gigantic superpredators swam the oceans 200 million to 250 million years ago. Now, a series of discoveries and reanalyses of previous findings have dramatically supported this claim.
The impact is far-reaching. We don't know exactly what this giant animal looked like, and it doesn't even have a name. But we are beginning to understand how such gigantic creatures were able to feed themselves in prehistoric oceans. If confirmed to be larger than a blue whale, it would indicate that we may have significantly underestimated how large toothed carnivores can grow. More than that, the discovery that such a Leviathan emerged so soon after the most devastating mass extinction in Earth's history suggests that we may need to rethink the factors driving evolution on such a grand scale. ing.
When dinosaurs ruled the land, several groups of marine reptiles also ruled.
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