Tag Archives: particles

How Ghostly Particles Could Revolutionize Our Understanding of the Universe

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Neutrinos: The Elusive Ghost Particle

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The enigmatic neutrino, often considered a ghostly particle, could be reshaping our understanding of all particles and forces in the universe.

The Standard Model of particle physics stands as a monumental achievement in contemporary science, meticulously cataloging known particles and forces. However, physicists have long been aware of its deficiencies and are eager to establish a more cohesive model. Notably, it fails to tie gravity to the other three fundamental forces.

During stress tests that expose weaknesses in the Standard Model, researchers can pinpoint areas in need of further exploration. Francesca Dorday and her team at the National Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN) in Cagliari, Italy, have identified a potential flaw by investigating the mysterious behaviors of neutrinos.

“In every assessment of the Standard Model over the past two decades, we’ve consistently confirmed its predictions. This necessitates the derivation of more precise outcomes, especially since neutrinos exhibit unique characteristics,” Dorday explains.

Neutrinos possess an extraordinarily small mass—so insignificant that they were once considered massless. They interact so weakly with matter that they pass through substances undetected—akin to tiny phantoms. Nonetheless, recent investigations have managed to quantify some minimal electromagnetic interactions of neutrinos using a measurement known as the charge radius. Neutrinos can also engage with other particles via the weak nuclear force.

Dorday and her team have meticulously examined the nuances of neutrino interactions and charge radius through numerous experiments, gathering data from neutrinos produced by nuclear reactors, particle accelerators, and even the nuclear fusion activities within the Sun. Additionally, by utilizing detectors created for dark matter, they found sensitivity to neutrinos.

Team member Nicola Calgioli remarked that compiling this data was challenging but ultimately offered a comprehensive overview of our understanding of neutrinos. “We essentially integrated all available data,” added Christoph Ternes from Italy’s Gran Sasso Scientific Institute, who collaborated on this project.

While the value of the neutrino’s charge radius matched Standard Model expectations, researchers uncovered an intriguing phenomenon concerning the particles’ weak interactions. They observed “mathematical degeneracy,” meaning that both the Standard Model and a slight variant could explain the findings equally well. Strikingly, further examination revealed that the alternative model might fit the data even more closely, hinting at a long-anticipated crack in our current grasp of particle physics.

Despite the new analysis not achieving a definitive statistical breakthrough, it represents an initial foray into rigorously evaluating the Standard Model through neutrinos. Researchers aspire to gather additional data to substantiate or refute their findings as new detection technologies emerge. If these discrepancies persist, the implications could be profound.

“Identifying flaws may necessitate a complete re-evaluation of established principles,” cautions Calgioli. New models beyond the Standard Model might postulate entirely new particle types with interactions congruent with the neutrino dynamics revealed in the research.

Omar Miranda underscores that capturing neutrino interactions, particularly at ultra-low energies, is exceedingly complex, now made feasible thanks to advancements in detector technology, including those designed for dark matter research. He emphasizes the significance of neutrino detection as a litmus test for the Standard Model.

The new findings call on particle physicists to conduct ultra-precise neutrino experiments across various settings in the coming years, assert the authors. As Jose Valle from the University of Valencia, Spain points out, better measurements of neutrinos’ electromagnetic properties are still essential to uncover their internal structure.

CERN and Mont Blanc: Unraveling Dark Matter

Discover CERN, Europe’s leading hub for particle physics, situated near the picturesque city of Geneva, where researchers operate the renowned Large Hadron Collider.

Topics:

  • neutrino/
  • particle physics

Source: www.newscientist.com

The Heart of Our Galaxy Could Be Teeming with Dark Matter Particles

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Gamma rays are detected in unusually high amounts at the center of the Milky Way galaxy

The center of our galaxy is exhibiting unusual behavior, potentially linked to dark matter. In 2009, observations from the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope uncovered unexpectedly high levels of gamma ray emissions from the Milky Way’s center, a phenomenon termed galactic central gamma-ray excess (GCE). Simulations suggest these gamma rays could arise from the annihilation of dark matter particles.

The discussion surrounding the origins of GCE has intensified since its initial discovery, leading to two main theories. The first posits that it may stem from a previously unobserved population of pulsars, rapidly spinning neutron stars that emit considerable radiation.

Alternatively, it could be linked to weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs), long considered primary candidates for dark matter. These particles seldom interact with normal matter, but a collision between two can lead to annihilation and consequently, a burst of gamma rays.

However, the dark matter explanation has lost traction recently, especially after searches for WIMPs yielded no results. “The dark matter interpretation demands greater proof due to insufficient direct evidence of its existence despite thorough investigations,” notes Jeff Grube from King’s College London.

Another factor contributing to this skepticism is that dark matter in galaxies is expected to be evenly distributed, while GCEs display a flattened distribution. Yet, new simulations by Joseph Silk and his colleagues at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland indicate that this discrepancy may not be significant.

These new simulations carefully considered the Milky Way’s history in relation to GCEs. “We know from history that our galaxy merged with smaller galaxies billions of years ago, which contributed to the formation of dark matter,” noted Silk. “No one would have anticipated that the galaxy’s center would exhibit spherical symmetry due to this history.”

The results confirmed this notion, resulting in a distorted dark matter distribution aligned with the shape of GCE, reviving the dark matter theory. However, the mystery remains unresolved, as pulsars continue to be a viable explanation. “At best, the situation is still ambiguous,” added Grube.

The current gamma-ray observatories do not possess the capability to distinguish between these two theories; however, the Cherenkov Telescope Array observatories, under construction in the Canary Islands and Chile and expected to begin operations in 2026, could provide clarity.

“In many ways, there’s a 50 percent chance that we may have discovered significant dark matter, but we require new telescopes to confirm this,” stated Silk. If GCE is indeed the result of dark matter, it could offer the best insight yet into this enigmatic substance that underpins the universe.

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Source: www.newscientist.com

Clues to Exotic Dark Matter Particles Could Be Found in LHC Data

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ATLAS Detector of the Large Hadron Collider

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The theoretical particles known as axions have attracted the attention of physicists for decades, as they are significant candidates for identifying dark matter. Recent research suggests that we might not need new experiments to discover these exotic particles; evidence could already be embedded in existing data from previous particle collider experiments.

Particle colliders like the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), located at CERN near Geneva, Switzerland, discover new particles by colliding protons and ions, analyzing the resulting debris. Now, Gustabo Gilda Silveyra and his team at CERN are exploring another avenue: can we detect when a proton or ion emits a new particle during acceleration? Their findings indicate that this may indeed be possible.

The axion was theorized in the 1970s as part of a pivotal solution to a significant problem in physics. Its importance surpasses even that of antimatter. Although the ongoing search for experimental evidence of axions has not yet yielded results, it raises the possibility that other particles resembling axions might exist. Due to their incredibly low mass, they bear a close resemblance to substantial quantities of light or photons, interacting together with the LHC.

This interaction primarily occurs when protons or ions are accelerated to astonishing energy levels. As these particles approach each other, they begin to emit radiation in the form of photons, which may then collide with one another. Researchers have modeled this scenario, replacing photons with axion-like particles. Their results indicate that accelerated protons exhibit a higher likelihood of generating axion-like particles compared to accelerated ions, with both producing photons simultaneously. Consequently, the team has identified collisions between protons and lead ions as optimal for uncovering signals related to axions influencing photons. The specific proton-lead ion collisions were executed at the LHC in 2016, and the researchers propose that data from these experiments might have been previously overlooked but could contain vital hints about new axion-like particles.

Lucien Haaland Lang from University College London has remarked that this approach presents an intriguing new pathway to uncover potential undiscovered particles, though he cautions about the challenges involved. “Such collision events are rare, and we must be cautious to differentiate our findings from background processes that may inadvertently mimic the signals we seek,” he notes.

Access to older LHC data poses challenges due to updates in software, according to Da Silveira. However, he expresses optimism regarding future experiments at the LHC. “We will be able to adjust the detector to capture this specific signal,” he states.

Identifying a particle signal analogous to an axion does not equate to discovering an actual axion, thus leaving one of the major unresolved questions in physics unanswered. Nonetheless, it expands our understanding of particle physics, prompting inquiries into how new particles might interact with known counterparts and whether they might help explain the enigmatic dark matter that permeates the universe.

Journal Reference: Physical Review Letter, In print

Topics:

  • Large Hadron Collider/
  • Particle Physics

Source: www.newscientist.com

20 Million Clouds of Energy Particles Found Surrounding Distant Galaxy Clusters

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Astronomers have identified the largest known cloud of energy particles encircling galaxy clusters, with around 20 million annual clouds around the galaxy cluster PLCK G287.0+32.9.

This new composite image, created using X-rays from NASA’s Chandra X-Ray Observatory (blue and purple), radio data from Meerkat Radio Telescope (orange and yellow), and optical images from Panstarrs (red, green, and blue), illustrates the giant galaxy cluster PLCK G287.0+32.9. Image credit: NASA/CXC/CFA/Rajpurohit et al. / panstarrs / sarao / meerkat / sao / n. wolk.

Located 5 billion light years from Earth in the Hydra constellation, PLCK G287.0+32.9 has garnered astronomers’ attention since its initial detection in 2011.

Prior research uncovered two bright relics, revealing a massive shock wave illuminating the cluster’s edges. However, the extensive, faint radio emissions filling the space between them went unnoticed.

Recent radio images have shown that the entire cluster is enveloped in a faint radio glow that is nearly 20 times the diameter of the Milky Way, suggesting an extraordinary and powerful phenomenon at play.

“We anticipated finding a bright pair of relics at the cluster’s edge. Found “The Harvard & Smithsonian Astrophysics Center” mentioned: “The Harvard & Smithsonian’s Astrophysics Center is a great way to help you get started,” Dr. Kamursh Rajprohit, an astronomer at the Harvard & Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, noted.

“No energy particle clouds of this magnitude have been spotted in such galaxy clusters or anything comparable.”

Previous record holders, located around Abel 2255 in the Galaxy Cluster, spanned about 16.3 million light years.

In the central region of the cluster, Dr. Rajprohit and his team identified radio halos where frequencies of this scale are typically undetectable, marking the first discovery of size at 114 million light years at 2.4 GHz.

The findings posed questions for the team, providing compelling evidence of magnetic fields where cosmic ray electrons and magnetic fields extend throughout the cluster.

However, it remains uncertain how these electrons can accelerate over such vast distances.

“Very extended radio halos are seldom visible across most frequencies, as the electrons responsible for them tend to lose energy. They are aged and have cooled over time,” Dr. Rajpurohit stated.

“The discovery of this colossal halo has now led to a significant increase in radio emissions between the catastrophic impact and the rest of the cluster.”

“This suggests something is actively accelerating or re-accelerating the electrons, yet none of the usual explanations apply.”

“We suspect that extensive shock waves and turbulence may be contributing factors, but additional theoretical models are needed to arrive at a definitive conclusion.”

This discovery offers researchers a new pathway to investigate cosmic magnetic fields—one of the primary unanswered questions in astrophysics—helping to elucidate how magnetic fields shape the universe on the largest scales.

“We’re beginning to perceive space in ways we have never imagined,” Dr. Rajprohit emphasized.

“This necessitates a reevaluation of how energy and matter traverse through its grandest structures.”

“Observations from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, managed by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, reveal boxy structures, comet-like tails, and several other distinct features of the cluster’s hot gas, indicating that the cluster is highly disturbed.”

“Some of these X-ray features correspond with radio-detected structures, pointing to substantial shocks and turbulence driven by merging events, facilitating electron acceleration or re-acceleration.”

“In the core of a cluster, some of these features may arise from the merger of two smaller galaxy clusters, or an explosion triggered by an exceptionally large black hole, or a combination of both.”

Source: www.sci.news

New Study Reveals How Astrophysicists Can Utilize Black Holes as Superco-leaders of Particles

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A recent study conducted by physicists at the University of Oxford, Johns Hopkins, and the Institute of Astrophysics in Paris reveals a natural process involving a gravitational particle charger that utilizes free-falling particles from infinity, matter collisions from the most stable circular orbit of rotating black holes, and a gravitational particle charger that repeatedly cycles mass energy—excluding heavy particles. In essence, this describes the Super Collider.

The artist’s concept depicts an ultra-high massive black hole in the heart of the Milky Way galaxy known as Sagittarius A*. Image credits: NASA/ESA/CSA/RALF CRAWFORD, STSCI.

Particle corridors accelerate protons and other subatomic particles towards one another at nearly the speed of light, revealing the fundamental properties of matter.

A subtle energy flash occurs upon collision, with fragments potentially unveiling previously unknown particles that may serve as candidates for dark matter—a crucial, yet elusive, component of the universe that remains undetected by scientists.

Facilities like the Large Hadron Collider also contribute to advancements in areas such as the internet, cancer therapy, and high-performance computing.

“One of the great aspirations for a particle collider like the Large Hadron Collider is to produce dark matter particles, though we have yet to find any evidence,” commented Professor Joseph Silk, an astrophysicist from Johns Hopkins University and Oxford University.

“This is why there’s ongoing dialogue about the necessity of constructing a much more powerful version for the next generation of Super Collider.”

“However, we’ve been waiting for 40 years to invest $30 billion in building this Super Collider, allowing nature to give us a glimpse into the future with supermassive black holes.”

A black hole can rotate around its axis like a planet but possesses significantly greater strength due to its intense gravitational field.

Increasingly, scientists are discovering that massive black holes rapidly spinning at the center of galaxies release enormous explosions of plasma, potentially due to jets transporting energy from the spin and surrounding accretion disks.

These phenomena can yield similar results to those produced by engineered Super Colliders.

“If ultra-high energy black holes can generate these particles through high-energy proton collisions, we could receive signals on Earth. Some high-energy particles pass through the detectors rapidly,” Professor Silk explained.

“This indicates a new particle collider effect within one of the universe’s most mysterious entities, achieving energies unattainable by any accelerator on Earth.”

“We may observe something with a unique signature believed to indicate the presence of dark matter. While this is somewhat speculative, it remains a possibility.”

New research indicates that gas falling into a black hole can harness energy from its spin, resulting in more violent behavior than previously thought.

Near rapidly spinning black holes, these particles can collide in a coordinated manner.

While not identical, this process resembles the collisions created using strong magnetic fields, where particles are accelerated in a circular high-energy particle corridor.

“Some particles from these collisions are swallowed by the black hole and vanish forever,” stated Professor Silk.

“However, due to their energy and momentum, some particles emerge, achieving unprecedented high energies.”

“We have recognized the immense energy of these particle beams, rivaling what can be produced in a Super Collider.”

“Determining the limits of this energy is challenging, but these phenomena are certainly aligned with the energy levels of the latest Super Colliders we plan to construct, providing complementary results.”

To detect such high-energy particles, scientists can utilize observatories that are already monitoring supernovae, massive black hole eruptions, and other cosmic occurrences.

These include detectors like the IceCube Neutrino Observatory and the Kilometer Cube Neutrino Telescope in Antarctica.

The difference between a Super Collider and a black hole is their vast distances from one another. Nevertheless, these particles still reach us.

The team’s paper was published this week in the journal Physical Review Letters.

____

Andrew Mamalie and Joseph Silk. 2025. Black Hole Super Collider. Phys. Rev. Lett. 134, 221401; doi:10.1103/physrevlett.134.221401

Source: www.sci.news

Long-term Studies Show That Small Particles Continue to Display Unexpected Behavior

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Long-term conclusive results from US-based experiments have emerged. The latest release on Tuesday highlights a tiny particle behaving unexpectedly, which is still positive news for our understanding of Physics Laws.

“This experiment represents a remarkable achievement in precision,” noted Toba Holmes, an experimental physicist at the University of Tennessee Knoxville, who is not affiliated with the collaboration.

The enigmatic particles known as Muons are heavier than electrons. They exhibit a wobbling motion akin to a spinning top when subjected to a magnetic field, and scientists are scrutinizing this motion to determine its compliance with the well-established physics framework known as the standard model.

Findings from the 1960s and 1970s suggested everything was functioning as expected. However, investigations at Brookhaven National Laboratory in the late 1990s and early 2000s yielded unexpected results.

Decades later, an international coalition of scientists opted to revisit the experiment with enhanced accuracy. The team navigated Muons around magnetic, ring-shaped tracks akin to those used in the initial Brookhaven studies, and recorded the wobble signals at Fermilab National Accelerator Laboratory near Chicago.

The outcomes from the initial two sets published in 2021 and 2023 appear to affirm the odd behavior of Muons, encouraging theoretical physicists to reconsider the standard model alongside new metrics.

Recently, the team finalized the experiment and published Muon wobble measurements that align with their earlier findings, utilizing more than double the data collected in 2023.

Nevertheless, this does not finalize the fundamental understanding of what underpins the universe. As Muons travel along their paths, other researchers have devised methods to better harmonize standard models with observed behaviors, leveraging the power of supercomputers.

Further investigation is essential as researchers collaborate, and upcoming experiments will encourage future studies that assess Muon wobble. Scientists are also examining the latest Muon data for insights into other mysterious entities like dark matter.

“This measurement will serve as a benchmark for years to follow,” remarked Marco Incagli from the Italian National Institute of Nuclear Physics.

In their pursuit of Muons, scientists aim to unravel fundamental questions that have long intrigued physicists, as noted by Peter Winter from the Argonne National Laboratory.

“Isn’t it something we all wish to understand—how the universe operates?” Winter questioned.

Source: www.nbcnews.com

Scientists Trace the Source of Exotic Particles

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In the universe, there’s an unseen flow of particles and energy that surrounds and passes through us. This phenomenon is akin to the force from Star Wars, though it is grounded in reality. This so-called “force” is a critical by-product of nuclear processes and high-energy particle interactions that maintain the universe, known as neutrinos.

Neutrinos are tiny subatomic particles that travel close to the speed of light without an electric charge, constantly flowing through us. As you read this, approximately 100 trillion neutrinos are passing through your body every second, yet you’re completely unaware of them! As fundamental components of the universe, neutrinos aren’t composed of smaller particles, making them elementary particles.

Neutrinos originate from nuclear and high-energy reactions. Most neutrinos reaching Earth come from nuclear reactors and various stars. These neutrinos are low-energy, about 400 kiloelectron volts (6 x 10-14 Joules). To put that in perspective, it would take nine quarters to match the energy contained in a single 12-ounce soda can. Additionally, neutrinos from beyond our solar system can strike Earth, possessing billions to trillions of electron volts of energy, which would require about 4 trillion yen to equal the energy of the same soda can.

Astrophysicists are eager to discover the origins of high-energy neutrinos emitted from deep space. They proposed that these neutrinos are generated by rapidly moving protons, known as cosmic rays that collide with unstable particles called pions. Physicists theorize that these collisions can generate high-energy gamma-ray photons and sometimes ultra-high-energy neutrinos. According to this hypothesis, neutrino detectors may observe a spike in detections from the same areas in the universe where gamma rays have been identified by other scientists.

To test this theory, the team analyzed neutrino detection data from the IceCube Neutrino Observatory in Antarctica. They noted that detectors like IceCube are one of three methods for scientists to uncover activities occurring in space, alongside gravitational wave detectors and telescopes. However, this is a challenging task, as scientists must wait for neutrinos to collide with atomic nuclei in water molecules. Such collisions produce a distinct blue light known as Cherenkov radiation that is measurable by the detector, and by evaluating the patterns of Cherenkov emissions, researchers can assess the energy levels of the incoming neutrinos.

The blue light depicted on this reactor exemplifies Cherenkov radiation. “HFIR refueling July 2015 (19944787756)” by Oak Ridge National Institute Licensed under CC by 2.0.

Once the neutrino detector was installed, the next task was to identify areas where gamma rays are typically found. To achieve this, astrophysicists utilized data from the Large High-Altitude Air Shower Observatory (LHAASO). This data revealed gamma rays originating from sections of the sky containing much of the Milky Way galaxy, known as the galactic plane. The research team created a sky map delineating areas where LHAASO scientists detected gamma rays and developed several model maps predicting potential neutrino events, comparing them against IceCube neutrino detection data. One model assumed neutrinos could emerge from anywhere on the galactic plane, while another suggested they would arise from regions with dense gas concentrations, and a third posited that neutrinos could be emitted from all directions in the sky.

Astrophysicists then evaluated these maps against 2,500 days of IceCube data collected between 2011 and 2018, during which approximately 900,000 high-energy neutrinos were identified. Statistical analysis revealed that slightly more neutrinos originated from the galactic plane, supporting the theory that these particles are produced when cosmic rays collide with pions. They focused on specific regions of the galaxy, particularly near the constellation Sagittarius, where the most significant neutrino detections occurred. They recommended that future research focus on this part of the sky to study high-energy particle collisions in the universe.


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Source: sciworthy.com

Unattainable Particles Hinting at the Universe’s Greatest Secret

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                <img class="Image" alt="A new scientist. Science News and Long read from expert journalists covering science, technology, health, and environmental developments." width="1350" height="900" src="https://images.newscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/25114701/SEI_248764888.jpg" sizes="(min-width: 1288px) 837px, (min-width: 1024px) calc(57.5vw + 55px), (min-width: 415px) calc(100vw - 40px), calc(70vw + 74px)" srcset="https://images.newscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/25114701/SEI_248764888.jpg?width=300 300w, https://images.newscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/25114701/SEI_248764888.jpg?width=400 400w, https://images.newscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/25114701/SEI_248764888.jpg?width=500 500w, https://images.newscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/25114701/SEI_248764888.jpg?width=600 600w, https://images.newscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/25114701/SEI_248764888.jpg?width=700 700w, https://images.newscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/25114701/SEI_248764888.jpg?width=800 800w, https://images.newscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/25114701/SEI_248764888.jpg?width=837 837w, https://images.newscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/25114701/SEI_248764888.jpg?width=900 900w, https://images.newscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/25114701/SEI_248764888.jpg?width=1003 1003w, https://images.newscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/25114701/SEI_248764888.jpg?width=1100 1100w, https://images.newscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/25114701/SEI_248764888.jpg?width=1200 1200w, https://images.newscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/25114701/SEI_248764888.jpg?width=1300 1300w, https://images.newscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/25114701/SEI_248764888.jpg?width=1400 1400w, https://images.newscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/25114701/SEI_248764888.jpg?width=1500 1500w, https://images.newscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/25114701/SEI_248764888.jpg?width=1600 1600w, https://images.newscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/25114701/SEI_248764888.jpg?width=1674 1674w, https://images.newscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/25114701/SEI_248764888.jpg?width=1700 1700w, https://images.newscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/25114701/SEI_248764888.jpg?width=1800 1800w, https://images.newscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/25114701/SEI_248764888.jpg?width=1900 1900w, https://images.newscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/25114701/SEI_248764888.jpg?width=2006 2006w" loading="eager" fetchpriority="high" data-image-context="Article" data-image-id="2478096" data-caption="" data-credit="Adobe Stock"/>
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    <p>For over a decade, floating cranes have been lowering unusual cargo to depths of around 3,000 meters in the Mediterranean. These objects resemble something from a different realm: large, shiny spheres filled with electronic devices. In reality, they are detectors for a project called <a href="https://www.km3net.org/">KM3Net</a>, which aims to explore one of the most enigmatic fundamental particles.</p>
    <p>The facility has been in operation for only a few years. In 2023, <a href="https://www.cppm.in2p3.fr/web/en/pratical_info/directory/Y295bGVAY3BwbS5pbjJwMy5mcg==.html">Paschal Coyle</a> was astonished to discover a significant signal in the preliminary data. While it turned out to be a neutrino, it was unlike anything previously observed. "My program crashed when I first encountered this event," recalls Coyle, a physicist from the Centre for Particle Physics in Marseille, France.</p>

    <p>KM3Net detected neutrinos with roughly 35 times the energy of any previously recorded instances. These neutrinos were thousands of times more energetic than those produced by our best particle accelerators. Neutrinos are notoriously difficult to study as they interact very weakly with matter, making their detection elusive. This challenge was a key factor in placing the detectors on the ocean floor, a decision that seemed almost improbable.</p>
    <p>Now, the scientific community is racing to understand what could have generated this phenomenon in space. Astronomers are exploring two primary theories, both of which delve into some of the universe's most profound mysteries. Unraveling the origin of this particle will enhance our understanding of neutrinos and...</p>
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Source: www.newscientist.com

Drug developed by Eli Lilly decreases presence of mysterious LP(A) particles related to heart attack risk

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One in five people (an estimated 64 million people in the US) has increased levels of small particles in their blood. It can significantly increase the risk of heart attacks and strokes.

But few people knew about it and there was not much to do, so little doctors would have checked it. Dieting is useless. I don’t even exercise. There were no medicines.

But that may change in the near future.

On Sunday, the cardiologist announced that the experimental drug created by Eli Lily of Repodisilan can lower particle levels by 94% with a single injection. The effect lasted for 6 months and there were no serious side effects.

However, it has not yet been confirmed that lowering LP(a) levels reduces the risk of heart attacks and strokes. It awaits a massive clinical trial currently underway.

Lily’s research was presented on Sunday at the American Society of Cardiology’s Annual Meeting and was presented simultaneously Published New England Journal of Medicine. At least four companies are also testing innovative drugs that block the production of the body of LP(A) and the mixing of lipids and proteins.

Dr. David Maron, a preventive cardiologist at Stanford University who is not involved in Lily’s research, said evidence of a severe and long-term reduction in lipoprotein levels by repodisilans is “thrilling.”

Dr. Martha Gulati, a preventive psychologist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, was also not involved in the exam, saying the study was “really elegant.”

Eli Lilly is currently conducting large clinical trials asking whether the drug can prevent heart attacks, strokes or cardiovascular death. It will end in 2029. Clinical trials of other drugs targeting LP(a) end more quickly. The first is a study of Novartis drugs that are injected monthly, with results expected in 2026.

However, cardiologists warn that there is no guarantee that medicine will protect people. They remember too well the lessons they learned, assuming that changing risk factors could change risk. Cardiologists were once keen on drugs that raise HDL levels known as “good cholesterol.” People with naturally higher HDL levels had a lower incidence of heart disease. These HDL raming drugs did not help.

Dr. Daniel Rader, a preventive psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, says LP(A)-lowering “is a huge new frontier in cardiovascular medicine.” Dr. Radar is a member of Novartis’ Scientific Advisory Committee and has written editorials to accompany new papers.

Treatments targeting LP(a) took a long time.

Lipoprotein was identified as a in 1974 Risk factors for heart disease This is controlled by genes rather than lifestyle or environment.

People with slightly higher than normal LP(a) levels have an approximately 25% increase in their risk of heart attacks and stroke. And very high levels can double the risk, as seen in 10% of the population.

Cardiologists say patients with no obvious reason for heart attacks or stroke (with normal cholesterol levels and blood pressure and not smoking) often know that their LP levels are high. Usually, it is found that they have a family history of heart disease of unknown cause.

The same applies to people who are experiencing heart attacks at a young age, says Dr. Stephen Nissen, a preventive psychologist at Cleveland Clinic, is an academic leader in the Lilly drug trials, and for clinical trials of three other new drugs.

“If you go to the coronary care unit and see a 40-year-old with an acute myocardial infarction, you need to know your LP(a) level,” he said, referring to a heart attack. Often they said their levels were 250 nanomoles or even higher per liter. The normal limit is 75.

Dr. Maron said his clinic is full of people who don’t know why they developed heart disease until they learn that they have high levels of LP.

One is Montewood, a 71-year-old retired firefighter who lives in Reading, California. His LDL cholesterol levels rose to moderately. His blood pressure was normal. He didn’t smoke. However, he had his first heart attack in 2006 while taking cholesterol-lowering statins.

It appeared that almost all of Mr. Kisae’s family had died of heart disease.

His paternal grandmother had her first heart attack when she was in her 40s. She died of a heart attack at the age of 63. His father and his father’s brother died of heart disease. Mr. Kisae’s brother died of a heart attack.

When Dr. Maron tested Wood’s LP level, it was above 400.

Dr. Maron and other preventive psychologists say they regularly test LP(a) levels in all patients, like Dr. Grati, Dr. Nissen and Dr. Radar. Because LP(a) levels are gene-controlled, patients should only test once.

Dr. Nissen is dull with LP(a) patients.

“We say: You have a disability that has serious meaning. I want to take all the risk factors you’ve been off the table,” he said.

But Dr. Grati said that a study found it. 0.3% The US population is receiving insurance-paid LP(a) tests, with only 3% of heart disease patients being tested.

She and other preventive cardiologists say that all adults should take the LP(a) test. If the level is high, your doctor should actively treat all other risk factors.

For Kisei, it meant taking Repatha, a powerful cholesterol-lowering drug that lowered his LDL cholesterol levels to 30.

However, Mr. Kisae’s case did not end there. Dr. Maron led one of the new drugs that lower LP(a) levels to clinical trial testing.

During the exam, Kisae had no symptoms of heart disease. I had no chest pain or shortness of breath. When the exam was finished, his symptoms returned, leading to a square bypass operation.

“It’s anecdotal,” Dr. Maron said. “But these drugs can prevent heart attacks.”

Source: www.nytimes.com

Pushing the Boundaries of Light Speed: Unusual Particles Impacting the Laws of the Universe

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We've all seen it frequently in science fiction films, so the concept seems completely plausible. Characters enter commands, and spacecraft reverse speed, jump to hyperspace, and create wormholes through space and time.

Whatever the terminology, the outcome is always the same. They fly through fictional universes faster than the speed of light, so travel between star systems is not only possible, but practical.

But in the real universe we live in, a huge barrier appears to forbid this. According to Albert Einstein's special theory of relativity, it cannot travel faster than light.

The light travels at an incredible speed of approximately 3 x 108 meters per second. This means that when you look at the universe, you won't see the heavenly objects as they are currently appearing. You can see how light from them first emerged when they departed across the universe.

Within the solar system, these delays are relatively short. For example, it takes only one second of sunlight to bounce off the surface of the moon and reach the Earth, but it takes eight minutes to cover the distance between the sun and our world.

Due to the enormous distance from us, if the sun suddenly disappears, you won't notice until 8 minutes later – Photo Credit: Getty

The more visible the longer the delay, which gives rise to the light-year concept as a measure of distance. Our closest star, Proxima Centauri, is about 4.25 light years away. In other words, it takes 4.25 years to get there from there. Therefore, the stars are not as they are now, and look like 4.25 years ago.

Beyond the vast expanse of the universe, distance is ultimately measured in billions of light years. This is what makes cosmology possible. The more we see the universe, the older the objects we see, and we can diagrammaticize today's evolution into stars and galaxies.

But if you can travel there and see what those objects look like now, wouldn't that be great?

Having a warp drive may sound like it, but it has some pretty weird results. For one thing, it would ruin the notion of causality.

Causality is our common sense perception that precedes effectiveness. But if you saw a faster spaceship trip towards you, you will see the ship in two places at once. The light carrying information about the ship's departure would not have reached the eye before the ship could be seen along the way.

Worse, the mathematics of relativity shows that if the speed exceeds the speed of light, literally time travel is possible.

This creates a full-scale causal paradox such as the famous “grandfather's paradox.” And how does it work – will you just no longer exist?

read more:

  • What happens at Black Hole Event Horizon?
  • Ghost Detector: This new machine can reveal the deepest secrets of the universe
  • Do you know what the star core looks like?

Negative energy inside

At first glance, Einstein's theory appears to protect us from such head-envelope challenges, as it appears to make it impossible to move faster than light. Masu.

According to the equation, the energy required to accelerate the ship to such a speed is infinite. However, researchers then began to look at mathematics in more detail.

A general theory of relativity – Einstein's extension of his special relativity – he proposes that the universe is made of adaptive fabrics called the space-time continuum, and he uses gravity to make this fabric I explained that it was distorted.

Who knows if tachyons exist, but if so, the theory suggests that it travels faster than light. – Image credits: Science Photography Library

1994, Physicist Dr. Miguel Alcubière At the University of Wales, and at Cardiff, we showed that solutions exist within the theory of general relativity that can be interpreted as warp drives. The problem was that it requires an exotic substance known as “negative energy” to make it work.

Astronomers have toyed using the concept of negative energy to explain why the universe appears to be accelerating, but with an understanding of physics, matter is comfortable to exist It cannot be done.

Then in May 2024, A group of researchers reexamined mathematics We will use only the types of particles and energy that make up the planet and people to see if the Alkbiere Warp phenomenon can be generated.

Their conclusion: Yes, they did. Dr. Jared Fuchs And colleagues at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, USA, discovered that they could arrange for normal material and energy to create warp phenomena and transport people through space. But there was a catch: they could only make it work at sub-light speed.

“It takes a lot of energy to make small changes to the space,” Fuchs says. To move the passenger seat, the size of a small room requires a small house-sized “warp bubble” for the size of a small room. And to make it, you need to narrow the mass of Jupiter several times. It becomes the volume that is the size of a small asteroid.

“now, [is that] Is it possible? perhaps. [Is it] Practical? I wouldn't say that,” says Fuchs. Even if it was possible to create such a device, the old boundaries still exist. To accelerate faster than the speed of light, you need an infinite amount of energy.

“We will not resolve the future of rapid transportation like Star Trek,” admits Fuchs.

Trouble with Tachon

Other researchers have conducted their own research into relativity. Professor Andrzej Dragan Collaborators at the University of Warsaw in Poland decided to consider possible solutions within the equation of particles that travel faster than light.

Physicists have previously messed with such concepts. They even called such virtual particles “tachyons,” but essentially considered them more than mathematical curiosity. However, Dragan and her colleagues found an equation explaining Tachyon's behavior.

“Mathematically, they make perfect sense,” says Dragan. In other words, our familiar world of secondary particle particles could coexist with the upper heart family of the second family, the tachyon.

Unfortunately, this does not mean that spacecraft can speed faster than light. To do that, Dragan explains that it requires the infinite energy that Einstein predicted, as well as the infinite energy to slow the Tachyon down to a sub-blue-minal speed.

“You can't exceed the speed of light in either direction,” says Dragan.

Nevertheless, the study We have proposed some fascinating results that may explain some of the most inexplicable observations physicists are working on.

When dealing with Tachon, Dragan and his colleagues encountered the causal issues they had been expecting. But the more I looked into these details, the more I realized that something surprising was happening. The strict lack of causes and effects was very similar to the behavior of normal, everyday subatomic particles.

The theory of relativity explains the behavior of the universe at its largest scale, while quantum theory describes the subatomic domain as a very different location.

Quantum theory introduces probability into particle interactions. For example, we know that an atom can absorb photons of light and at some stage it will re-emit that photon, but we cannot predict when or in which direction it will take.

In other words, the exact cause is hidden from us, and all we have left is an observable effect. Dragan suggests that when tachyon interacts with normal substances, the outcome of that interaction is unpredictable – like the emission of photons.

So, while these latest ideas do not seem to open a route to practical warp drives, they may only show a deeper look at the nature of the cosmos and the origins of quantum behavior.

About our experts

Dr. Jared Fuchs He is the CEO of Celedon Solutions Inc. and works in the Faculty of Physics at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, USA. His work has been published Classical and quantum gravity.

Professor Andrzej Dragan He is a filmmaker and professor of physics at the University of Warsaw in Poland, and a visiting professor at the National University of Singapore. His work has been published Physical review, Classic and Quatnam Gravity and New Journal of Physics.

read more:

  • What is the most powerful material in the universe?
  • This is our first photo of a star outside our galaxy
  • How the hidden “scars” of the universe unlock time travel

Source: www.sciencefocus.com

Unraveling the Mystery of Space Mediation Particles: Exploring the Most Detailed Survey

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International Space Station AMS particle detector

NASA

The 11 -year survey of particles near our sun and anti -particles has emerged the history of our solar system and causes a new mystery about the particles itself.

“It seems like I stepped into a dark room and saw a lot of new things.” Samuel Tin At Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Energy particles are filled in the space, which is moved by burst called cosmic rays. When the cosmic ray enters the Alpha Magnetic Difference (AMS) detector of the International Space Station (ISS), the magnetic field separates particles based on the charge, and the detector measures mass and energy. This separation is important because it helps to identify the differences between particles and their anti -particles.

AMS collaboration, and his colleagues, analyzed more than 11 years of AMS data, and found that we didn’t know much about the particle behavior as we thought. For example, this survey reveals how the number of particles tends to be over time and how different types of particles interact with each other. Ting says that there are more than 600 theoretical models that can explain each of these trends, but there is nothing to explain both surveys at the same time.

And the results of the survey may be important for more than a single particle. Researchers say that the changing characteristics may be useful as a record of the history of the solar system, so they are shooting cosmic rays with different detectors for more than a century. Jamie Lankin At Princeton University. However, she says that we have never understood how the solar cycle affects the light rays.

This is because 11 years is the length of one solar cycle, so collecting data during that period captures all repeated fluctuations in the sun magnetic field, and the behavior of cosmic rays changes. She says that such a detailed investigation can be a key to solving a method of using cosmic rays in “solar system archeology”.

However, he says that the cosmic ray itself is still mysterious. Gavin Lowell At Adelaide University in Australia. “The measured value of the particle AMS is essentially from outside the solar system,” he says. Detailed amounts of new analysis, including how different particle nuclei on the cosmic ray acts, may help researchers focus on more decisive theories of cosmic rays.

There is also a question of other unexplored universe. “It’s a big mystery for me that AMS can observe antiproton because we don’t see antimatters in our world.” Ian Low At Northwestern University, Illinois. He says that the origin of these anti -particles is connected to a mysterious dark substance, and otherwise it may be better than our current universe.

Ting and his colleagues are currently working on upgrading the AMS detector, can detect more particles, and are adjusted as astronauts who support the installation.

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Source: www.newscientist.com

Mysterious ghost particles cause havoc in our high-tech devices.

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Being a physicist, I have a deep appreciation for all small particles. Each particle plays a crucial role in the universe, and by studying them, we gain a better understanding of the fundamental laws of nature that govern our existence. However, as a researcher in the field of Dark Matter, I must confess that Neutrinos present a unique challenge.

Neutrinos are elusive little particles. From their inception, they defied all expectations.

Confronted with this dilemma, physicists had two unsatisfactory options: either abandon the conservation of energy or posit the existence of invisible particles that could not be detected by conventional means. They opted for the latter, eventually coining the term “Little Neutral” for these new particles, which possessed no charge and were abundant in quantity.

The absence of charge was the defining feature – without charge, the particles do not interact at all through electromagnetic force. This led physicist Wolfgang Pauli to famously remark, “I have done a terrible thing. I have postulated a particle that cannot be detected.”

Fortunately, Pauli’s skepticism about detectability was proven wrong in the end. Neutrinos, though notoriously resistant to interactions with other particles, do pass through our planet on a daily basis without our notice. It took a truly heroic effort to develop instruments capable of detecting them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkcsik4zzby

Even now, we are still struggling to capture neutrinos. The standard detection method involves constructing large water tanks deep underground or filled with other liquids (to shield them from cosmic rays). Each day, researchers anxiously wait for one of the four neutrinos that pass through the Earth to directly collide with an atom underwater.

If such a collision occurs, a flash of light is produced as the charged particles in the water move quickly. This light flash acts like an electromagnetic version of the Sonic boom, encoding information about neutrinos and providing insights into these invisible particles that constantly permeate the Earth.

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Most of the neutrinos detected on Earth come from the solar nucleus. When hydrogen fuses with helium, neutrinos are produced as by-products. They emanate in all directions as soon as they are generated, mostly unaffected by the sun’s mass, and escape into space.

The reason neutrinos pose a specific challenge to dark matter detectors is their similarity to the hypothetical dark matter particles we seek known as Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs). Like neutrinos, these “weakly interacting massive particles” have no charge and can traverse the Earth unnoticed.

If they do interact with other matter, it is through weak nuclear force – the same force that may (albeit rarely) cause neutrinos to interact with the underwater particles in the neutrinoscope. Similar to neutrino detectors, dark matter detectors are situated deep underground to shield them from cosmic rays, designed to register any interactions occurring within the detector with these invisible particles.

The challenge arises from the fact that the dark matter detector has become incredibly sensitive, picking up signals caused by neutrinos. Both types of detectors have now produced evidence of solar neutrinos colliding with target materials. The amount of rock cover cannot adequately shield experiments from neutrinos.

Our estimated 27% of the universe consists of dark matter – Photo Credit: Getty

It may take several decades for a dark matter signal detector unaffected by solar neutrino interference to achieve total clarity. Currently, most detectors are only sensitive to high-energy solar neutrinos, which have been causing complications thus far.

Some physicists are intrigued by the phenomenon of “coherent neutrino scattering” and see it as an opportunity to overcome the challenges of both dark matter detection and neutrino interference. Ultimately, dark matter may be composed of an entirely different substance.

Nevertheless, if dark matter does indeed comprise WIMPs, we will need to think outside the box in our experiments. For those of us delving into the mysteries of the universe’s dark side, the seemingly bright future of neutrinos may blind us to the realities of dark matter.

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Source: www.sciencefocus.com

Scientists uncover mysteries of quantum entanglement in proton particles

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Physicists have discovered a new way to look inside protons using data from smashups of high-energy particles. Their approach uses quantum information science to map how the tracking of particles flowing from electron-proton collisions is affected by quantum entanglement inside the protons. As a result, it became clear that quarks and gluons, the basic building blocks of the proton’s structure, are affected by so-called quantum entanglement.

Data from past proton-electron collisions provide strong evidence that proton quarks and gluon oceans are entangled, which plays a key role in strong force interactions. There is a possibility that there are. Image credit: Valerie Lentz / Brookhaven National Laboratory.

“Until we did this work, no one had observed the internal entanglement of protons in experimental high-energy collision data,” said Brookhaven Laboratory physicist Zhoudunming (Kong) Tu. states.

“For decades, we have had the traditional view of the proton as a collection of quarks and gluons, and we have had many questions about how the quarks and gluons are distributed within the proton, so-called single particles. The focus has been on understanding the nature of

“Now that we have evidence that quarks and gluons are entangled, this situation has changed. We have a much more complex and dynamic system.”

“This latest paper further deepens our understanding of how entanglement affects the structure of protons.”

“Mapping the entanglement between quarks and gluons inside the proton provides insight into other complex questions in nuclear physics, such as how parts of the larger nucleus affect the proton’s properties. There is a possibility that

“This will be one of the focuses of future experiments at the Electron-Ion Collider (EIC), a nuclear physics research facility scheduled to open at Brookhaven Laboratory in the 2030s.”

In their study, Dr. Tu and his colleagues used the language and equations of quantum information science to predict how entanglement would affect particles flowing from collisions between electrons and protons.

Such collisions are a common approach to probing the structure of protons, most recently performed at the Hadron Electron Ring Accelerator (HERA) particle collider in Hamburg, Germany, from 1992 to 2007, and were used to investigate the future EIC. Experiments are also planned.

The equation predicts that if quarks and gluons are entangled, it can be revealed from the entropy of the collision, or disorder.

“Think of a child’s cluttered bedroom with laundry and other things strewn about. Entropy is very high in that cluttered room,” Dr. Tu said.

Calculations show that protons with maximally entangled quarks and gluons (high “entanglement entropy”) should produce a large number of particles with a “random” distribution (high entropy).

“For maximally entangled quarks and gluons, a simple relationship exists that predicts the entropy of particles produced in high-energy collisions,” says the theory, which is affiliated with both Brookhaven Institute and Stony Brook University. said Dr. Dmitri Kharziyev of the house. .

“In our paper, we used experimental data to test this relationship.”

The scientists started by analyzing data from proton-proton collisions at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider, but they also wanted to look at “cleaner” data produced by electron-proton collisions. .

Physicists have cataloged detailed information from data recorded from 2006 to 2007, including how particle production and distributions change, as well as a wide range of other information about the collisions that produced these distributions. It became.

When we compared the HERA data with the entropy calculations, the results were in perfect agreement with our predictions.

These analyzes, including the latest results on how the particle distribution changes at different angles from the point of collision, provide strong evidence that quarks and gluons inside the proton are maximally entangled .

“Unraveling the entanglement between quarks and gluons reveals the nature of their strong force interactions,” Dr. Kharziyev said.

“It could provide further insight into what confines quarks and gluons inside protons, one of the central questions in nuclear physics investigated at the EIC.”

“Maximum entanglement inside the proton appears as a result of strong interactions that produce large numbers of quark-antiquark pairs and gluons.”

of the team work appear in the diary Report on advances in physics.

_____

Martin Henczynski others. 2024. QCD evolution of entanglement entropy. Progressive member. physics 87, 120501; doi: 10.1088/1361-6633/ad910b

This article is based on a press release provided by Brookhaven National Laboratory.

Source: www.sci.news

Using sunscreen particles to spray rice during heatwaves enhances growth

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Sunrise over rice terraces in Bali, Indonesia

Aliaksandr Mazurkevich / Alamy

Zinc nanoparticles, a common sunscreen ingredient, could help protect rice from heat-related stress, an increasingly common problem under climate change.

Zinc is known to play an important role in plant metabolism. Minerals in the form of salts are often added to the soil as fertilizer or sprayed on the leaves, but this is not very efficient. Another approach is to deliver zinc as particles smaller than 100 nanometers, which can pass through microscopic pores in leaves and accumulate within the plant.

Researchers have been studying such nanoparticles as a way to deliver more nutrients to plants and maintain crop yields while reducing the environmental damage caused by excessive fertilizer use. now Hu Hong Researchers from China's Nankai University tested how zinc oxide nanoparticles affected crop performance under heat wave conditions.

They grew flowering rice in a greenhouse under normal conditions and a simulated heat wave in which temperatures exceeded 37 degrees Celsius for six consecutive days. Some plants were sprayed with nanoparticles, while others were not treated at all.

When harvested, the average grain yield of plants treated with zinc nanoparticles was 22.1% higher than non-sprayed plants, and the rice also contained higher levels of nutrients. Zinc was also beneficial under heat wave conditions. In fact, in these cases, the difference in yield between treated and untreated plants was even greater.

Based on detailed measurements of nutrients in leaves, the researchers found that zinc boosts yields by fortifying enzymes involved in photosynthesis and antioxidants that protect plants from harmful molecules known as reactive oxygen species. concluded.

“Nanoscale micronutrients have great potential to increase climate resilience of crops through a number of unique mechanisms related to reactive oxygen species,” he says. jason white At the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station.

The researchers also found that rice plants treated with zinc nanoparticles maintained a greater diversity of microorganisms living on the leaves (called the phyllosphere), which may contribute to improved growth. I also discovered that.

Tests of zinc oxide nanoparticles on plants such as pumpkin and alfalfa have also shown increased yields. But Hu says more research is needed to verify that this could benefit other crops, such as wheat.

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Source: www.newscientist.com

Using sunscreen particles on rice during heatwaves boosts growth

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Sunrise over rice terraces in Bali, Indonesia

Aliaksandr Mazurkevich / Alamy

Zinc nanoparticles, a common sunscreen ingredient, could help protect rice from heat-related stress, an increasingly common problem under climate change.

Zinc is known to play an important role in plant metabolism. Minerals in the form of salts are often added to the soil as fertilizer or sprayed on the leaves, but this is not very efficient. Another approach is to deliver zinc as particles smaller than 100 nanometers, which can pass through microscopic pores in leaves and accumulate within the plant.

Researchers have been investigating such nanoparticle carriers as a way to provide more nutrients to plants and help maintain crop yields while reducing environmental damage from excessive fertilizer use. Ta. now Hu Hong Researchers from China’s Nankai University tested how these zinc oxide nanoparticles affected crop performance under heat wave conditions.

They grew flowering rice in a greenhouse under normal conditions and a simulated heat wave in which temperatures exceeded 37 degrees Celsius for six consecutive days. Some plants were sprayed with nanoparticles, while others were not treated at all.

When harvested, the average grain yield of plants treated with zinc nanoparticles was 22.1% higher than non-sprayed plants, and the rice also contained higher levels of nutrients. Zinc was also beneficial under heat wave conditions. In fact, in these cases, the difference in yield between treated and untreated plants was even greater.

Based on detailed measurements of nutrients in leaves, the researchers found that zinc boosts yields by fortifying enzymes involved in photosynthesis and antioxidants that protect plants from harmful molecules known as reactive oxygen species. It was concluded that it increased.

“Nanoscale micronutrients have great potential to increase climate resilience of crops through a number of unique mechanisms related to reactive oxygen species,” he says. jason white At the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station.

The researchers also found that rice treated with zinc nanoparticles retained a greater diversity of microorganisms living in the leaves, called the phyllosphere, which may contribute to improved growth. I discovered it.

Tests of zinc oxide nanoparticles on other crops such as pumpkin and alfalfa have also shown increased yields. But Hu says more research is needed to verify that this could benefit other crops.

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Source: www.newscientist.com

China and the US race to study neutrinos, the mysterious ‘ghost particles’ of the cosmos

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Trillions of neutrinos pass through our bodies every second. The sun produces them through nuclear fusion. The same goes for nuclear power plants. Some come from supernova explosions in space. Neutrinos are paired with antineutrinos, which scientists believe mirror the behavior of neutrinos.

As such, JUNO is designed to capture antineutrinos, specifically the antineutrinos emitted by two nuclear power plants located approximately 53 miles from the observatory.

The 13-story JUNO sphere will be filled with a special liquid called a scintillator and submerged in a cylinder of purified water, said project leader Wang Yifang, director of the China Institute of High Energy Physics.

When the antineutrinos pass through the liquid, they trigger a chemical process that produces a brief burst of light that can be picked up by sensors inside the sphere.

“This event will cause a flash that will last only about 5 nanoseconds, and we hope to capture it with thousands of photomultiplier tubes surrounding the sphere,” he says, as a worker behind him says, Mr. Wang, wearing a helmet, spoke while installing the doubler. “We hope to catch 60 events per day.”

Thanks to its approach, JUNO should be able to measure differences in antineutrino masses about 10 times more accurately than previous instruments.

First of three new neutrino observatories

JUNO is part of China’s ambitious efforts to become a global scientific powerhouse. In a speech this year, President Xi Jinping laid out plans to transform the country into a science and technology superpower by 2035.

October 11th, workers at the bottom of JUNO.Eric Baclinao/NBC News

JUNO is expected to be the first of three next-generation neutrino observatories to open over the next decade, making it a kind of spearhead in a new era of physics. In Japan, the Hyper-Kamiokande Observatory is scheduled to open in 2027. And a U.S.-backed program called the Deep Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) calls for particle accelerators to send beams of neutrinos underground from Illinois to North Dakota starting in 2027. 2031.

The three upcoming observatories are both complementary and competitors, as they all plan to use different techniques to detect particles. Each project involves extensive international collaboration aimed at advancing the field, creating new spin-off technologies and training a new wave of scientists.

“When you start these experiments, it’s not unlikely that you’ll observe something unexpected,” said Chris Marshall, an assistant professor of physics at the University of Rochester who works on the DUNE project. “Trying to unravel these very complex effects will require multiple experiments measuring things in different ways.”

The ability of each observatory to answer important physics questions depends in part on how well researchers can collaborate between and among projects. But there is growing concern among some scientists around the world that rising geopolitical tensions between the United States and China, and the resulting deterioration in their scientific relations, could hinder progress. are.

In recent years, the United States has pursued policies to prevent Chinese scientists from bringing American-based technology to the country and to prevent China from poaching its scientific stars.

Wang said the U.S. is denying visa applications for 2022 and 2023 without explanation and limiting U.S. involvement in JUNO.

“In science, cooperation and competition are good, but it can’t be all about competition,” he said.

On October 11, Mr. Wang pointed out to journalists the underlying characteristics of JUNO’s domain.Eric Baclinao/NBC News

U.S.-based scientists also said they have found new obstacles to cooperation with Chinese scientists.

“From the U.S. side, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to obtain funding for collaborations with Chinese colleagues,” Patrick Huber, director of the Center for Neutrino Physics at Virginia Tech, said in an email. It has also become much more difficult for our Chinese colleagues to obtain U.S. visas.” .

“It’s not impossible to collaborate with Chinese scientists, but it’s becoming increasingly difficult,” said Ignacio Taboada, a physics professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology who directs an existing neutrino observatory in Antarctica. “I’m working on it,” he said.

Solving the mystery of neutrinos

The data generated by JUNO could go a long way toward solving important mysteries about how and why neutrinos change shape more than other elementary particles.

Neutrinos can oscillate, or transform, between three so-called “flavors” during their travels: muon, tau, and electron. For example, the sun sends electron neutrinos toward Earth, but they can also arrive as muon neutrinos. When neutrinos interact (which rarely happens), they settle on a particular flavor.

Additionally, scientists believe that neutrinos travel as one of three different mass states, and that state helps determine the likelihood of a neutrino interacting as a particular flavor. However, it is not yet clear which state has the largest population.

Scientists also found that neutrinos and antineutrinos may deform differently as they travel, and that those differences may account for some of the imbalance in the physics between matter and antimatter in the universe. I think there is.

Journalists take photos at the top of JUNO’s sphere on October 11th.Eric Baclinao/NBC News

If so, learning more about the masses and oscillations of neutrinos and antineutrinos will help researchers find a missing page in the Standard Model of physics (the rulebook of particles and their interactions), or something that has never been known before. This could help researchers understand whether missing particles or forces are having invisible effects. role.

“Our beautiful theory of reality, the Standard Model, is not the final theory,” said Sergio Bertolucci, an Italian particle physicist and DUNE co-spokesperson. “It turns out that we need to know more about neutrinos to answer things that the standard model can’t answer.”

Wang hopes JUNO will win the race to determine the neutrino mass hierarchy before the United States and other countries.

“We just want to be good scientists. In science, being first is most important. There’s nothing to be second,” he said. “As a scientist, I can’t always be a follower. I want to have my own thing.”

Entrance to the Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory in China.Eric Baclinao/NBC News

If JUNO explains the neutrino mass story before DUNE comes online, the U.S.-led project will be able to measure that question differently and confirm JUNO’s results.

DUNE’s plan is to measure neutrinos as they leave the Illinois facility, then travel 800 miles around Earth, where they can interact and oscillate. If the neutrinos arrive in South Dakota and can be detected, scientists could compare the flavor combinations of the neutrinos at the beginning and end of their journey. However, the project experienced delays and cost overruns.

“JUNO’s uniquely rich dataset, alone or in combination with other experiments, will play a key role in determining bulk orders by 2030,” said Professor Pedro Ochoa said in physics and astronomy from the University of California, Irvine.

However, several scientists involved in neutrino observation projects acknowledged that it is impossible to predict how much benefit the research will actually bring to Earth. They suggested that in the future, new technologies could be spun off, driving innovation in data-intensive computing and advancing particle accelerator science.

“We can’t make electric light by improving candles, so we need to take a step forward. We need a break,” said John C., a particle physicist at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory and co-spokesperson for the DUNE project. Mary Bishai says. “Basic research inherently creates discontinuities.”

Wang put it another way, saying his work is driven by pure curiosity: “I work in ‘useless’ science.”

Source: www.nbcnews.com

Physicists at CERN study the characteristics of enigmatic particles

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

They also examined low-energy scattering parameters.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

_____

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

This article is based on the original release from CERN.

Source: www.sci.news

Is it true that tachyons exist as particles?

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

Tachyon AI impression.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Source: www.sci.news

Magnetic particles transform water droplets into skilled tightrope walkers

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New technology allows water droplets to be guided precisely around obstacle courses to trigger chemical reactions

Jonathan Knowles/Getty Images

By placing tiny magnetic particles inside ordinary water droplets, you can turn them into liquid acrobats. Droplets can climb steps, jump over obstacles, and initiate chemical reactions. This level of control could be useful for drug delivery and the creation of more complex lab-on-a-chip technologies.

Fan Shilin He and his colleagues at Sun Yat-sen University in China created a surface with tiny grooves and covered it with a superhydrophobic, or wet-resistant, varnish. They know that a water droplet resting on such a groove can spontaneously jump up due to the pressure difference between the bottom of the droplet, which is deformed by the small groove, and the rounded and less constrained top part. I did.

The researchers wanted to create this pressure difference on demand. They added small magnetic particles to each droplet and placed an electromagnet beneath the groove. When the electromagnet was turned on, some of the particles, or droplets, were drawn into the groove. When I turned it off, the water droplet shape bounced and flew upwards as if from a slingshot.

Using this technique, the team was able to enable droplets to hop down millimeter-scale stairs and overcome small obstacles. The researchers were also able to direct a droplet into the narrow space between two wires and connect a circuit to light a light bulb.

Xiao Yan Researchers from China’s Chongqing University say this is a creative way to control pressure-based droplet jumps and could become a valuable tool for precisely transporting chemical droplets. It has said.

In one experiment, researchers plunged and mixed droplets into a liquid chemical sample under a microscope lens, allowing them to observe the resulting chemical reaction from start to finish. Another experiment involved mixing two droplets with a third in a closed box, which would have been ruined if the researchers had had to open the box to let air in. The reaction was initiated remotely.

Such precise chemical control can be applied to drug delivery. Huang hopes the technology will also advance “lab-on-a-chip” technology, an effort to miniaturize complex biochemical experiments that typically require a lot of space and glassware. He proposes a “lab-on-stacked chip” in which droplets jump vertically between levels to generate many reactions in parallel.

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  • chemistry /
  • fluid mechanics

Source: www.newscientist.com

An undisclosed ice base uncovers ethereal cosmic particles in Antarctica

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Scientists have faced a challenge for nearly a century: How do you detect the undetectable, like the elusive neutrino? But now, in a groundbreaking discovery, neutrinos from elsewhere in the Milky Way have been detected for the first time, shedding light on a new era of neutrino astronomy.

The discovery of neutrinos has opened up new possibilities, and researchers like Steve Sclafani from the University of Maryland are excited about this new frontier. Neutrinos, the second most abundant elementary particles in the universe, are notoriously difficult to detect due to their elusive nature. When Austrian physicist Wolfgang Pauli proposed their existence in the 1930s, he thought they could never be detected, but he was proven wrong in 1956.

The discovery of neutrinos from outside the Milky Way was made possible by the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, a massive telescope located near the South Pole. By detecting high-energy neutrinos from distant galaxies, scientists are uncovering the mysteries of cosmic particle accelerators. These accelerators, like supermassive black holes, can provide clues about the origins of cosmic rays and other cosmic phenomena.

Small particles, huge targets

The IceCube detector, operated by a collaboration of scientists from around the world, works by detecting Cherenkov radiation emitted when high-energy neutrinos interact with the ice. This innovative approach allowed researchers to distinguish Milky Way neutrinos from other background signals, leading to the detection of hundreds of neutrinos over a 10-year period.

By studying the distribution of these neutrinos, scientists hope to learn more about the origins of cosmic rays and other high-energy phenomena in our galaxy. With plans to expand the IceCube observatory and improve detection methods, the future of neutrino astronomy looks promising.

Birth of neutrino astronomy

The detection of high-energy neutrinos from the Milky Way marks a new era in astronomy, providing researchers with a unique tool to study cosmic phenomena. By tracking these neutrinos back to their sources, scientists hope to uncover the mechanisms behind cosmic particle accelerators and other cosmic mysteries.

Neutrino astronomy offers a new perspective on the universe, allowing researchers to peer into the heart of energetic and turbulent environments near supermassive black holes. This discovery opens up a whole new window on the universe, providing invaluable insights into the workings of the cosmos.

New perspective

Neutrino astronomy has the potential to revolutionize our understanding of the universe, offering a rare glimpse into the inner workings of cosmic particle accelerators and other energetic phenomena. By studying the origins of high-energy neutrinos, researchers can uncover the mysteries of the cosmos and explore new frontiers in astrophysics. Exciting times lie ahead for neutrino astronomy, with new discoveries and advancements on the horizon.

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About our experts

Mirko Hünefeld from Dortmund University of Technology and Steve Sclafani from the University of Maryland are leading scientists in the field of neutrino astronomy. Their contributions to the IceCube observatory have helped advance our understanding of the universe and unlock new insights into cosmic phenomena.

Source: www.sciencefocus.com

UV Light Found to Inactivate Coronavirus Particles, New Study Shows

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Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) has had a profound impact on humanity. Prevention of infection by disinfecting surfaces and aerosols using non-chemical methods is highly desirable. Ultraviolet C (UVC) light is uniquely positioned to achieve pathogen inactivation.in new paper in a diary ACS PhotonicsScientists have reported the inactivation of the SARS-CoV-2 virus by UVC radiation and are investigating the mechanism.

David other. demonstrated inactivation of SARS-CoV-2 by 266 nm UVC light. This closely matches the absorption spectra of RNA and aromatic amino acids.Image credit: David other., doi: 10.1021/acsphotonics.3c00828.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 spreads through nosocomial, public, and workplace-based infections.

Transmission is thought to be direct through respiratory droplets or indirect through fomites, leading to increased interest in virus disinfection.

The SARS-CoV-2 virion consists of a core of nucleic acid strands containing the virus's genetic information, surrounded by a lipid membrane with protruding protein spikes. Each component is required for infection.

In the new study, Sumeet Mahajan and colleagues at the University of Southampton investigated how ultraviolet laser light affects each of these key components and destroys the virus.

By using special lasers with two different wavelengths, they were able to see how each viral component breaks down under bright light.

They found that the genomic material was highly sensitive to degradation, and the protein spike lost the ability to bind to human cells.

UV light includes UVA light, UVB light, and UVC light. Very little UVC light with frequencies below 280 nm reaches the Earth's surface from the sun.

The authors used UVC light in their study, which is less studied because of its antiseptic properties.

UVC light is strongly absorbed by various viral components, such as genetic material (about 260 nm) and protein spikes (about 230 nm), allowing the team to choose laser frequencies of 266 nm and 227 nm for this project.

Researchers found that low-power 266nm light causes RNA damage and affects the genetic information of viruses.

266 nm light also damaged the structure of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, reducing its ability to bind to human cells by breaking disulfide bonds and aromatic amino acids.

Although 227 nm light was less effective at inducing RNA damage, it was effective at damaging proteins through oxidation, a chemical reaction involving oxygen that unravels protein structures.

Importantly, SARS-CoV-2 has one of the largest genomes of any RNA virus. This makes them particularly sensitive to genomic damage.

“Inactivating airborne viruses with light provides a versatile tool for disinfecting public spaces and sensitive equipment that is difficult to decontaminate using traditional methods,” Professor Mahajan said.

“We found differences in the susceptibility of the molecular components of the virus to light inactivation. This opens up the possibility of fine-tuned disinfection techniques.”

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George David other. Mechanism of SARS-CoV-2 inactivation using UVC laser irradiation. ACS Photonics, published online on December 25, 2023. doi: 10.1021/acsphotonics.3c00828

Source: www.sci.news

Researchers find approximately 250,000 undetected nanoplastic particles in each liter of bottled water

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The average bottle of water contains nearly 250,000 tiny, invisible particles of nanoplastic that were detected and classified for the first time using a dual-laser microscope.

Scientists have long suspected that there are a lot of these tiny pieces of plastic, but until researchers at Columbia University and Rutgers University made calculations, they had no idea how many or what types they were. Researchers examined five samples of each of three common bottled water brands and found particle levels ranging from 110,000 to 400,000 per liter, with an average of about 240,000, according to Monday’s findings.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

These are particles less than 1 micron in size. One inch is 25,400 microns (also called a micrometer because it is one millionth of a meter).
The width of a human hair is approximately 83 microns.

Previous research looked at slightly larger microplastics, ranging from visible 5 millimeters (less than a quarter of an inch) to 1 micron. The study found that about 10 to 100 times more nanoplastics than microplastics were found in bottled water.

Nisin Kian, the study’s lead author and a physical chemist from Colombia, said much of the plastic appears to come from the bottles themselves and the reverse osmosis filters used to keep out other contaminants. She did not reveal her three brands because the researchers need more samples and would like to study more brands before singling out one. Still, she said they were common and she bought them at Walmart.

Researchers still can’t answer the big question: Are these nanoplastic pieces harmful to health?

“That’s under consideration right now. We don’t know if it’s dangerous or how dangerous it is,” said study co-author Phoebe Stapleton, a toxicologist at Rutgers University. “We know they invade tissues (of mammals, including humans)…and current research is investigating what they do inside cells.”

The International Bottled Water Association said in a statement: “Currently, there is a lack of standardized (measurement) methods and no scientific consensus on the potential health effects of nano- and microplastic particles. Reports will only unnecessarily scare consumers.”

The American Chemistry Council, which represents plastics manufacturers, had no immediate comment.

The world is “driving under the weight of plastic pollution, with more than 430 million tonnes of plastic produced annually” and microplastics are being found all over the planet.
world ocean,
food and
drinking water
Some of it comes from clothing and cigarette filters, according to
United Nations Environment Programme. Initiatives towards
global plastic treaty It will continue even after negotiations stalled in November.

All four co-authors interviewed said they had reduced their use of bottled water after conducting the study.

Wei Ming, a Colombian physical chemist who pioneered dual-laser microscopy technology, said he has cut his use of bottled water in half. Stapleton said he is now using more filtered water at his home in New Jersey.

But Bayzan Yan, a co-author of the study and a Colombian environmental chemist who has increased tap water usage, said the introduction of plastic could cause problems with the filters themselves.

“There’s no chance of winning,” Stapleton said.

Naixin Qian, a physical chemist at Columbia University, zooms in on an image of microscopic pieces of plastic that appeared as bright red dots in New York on Monday.
Mary Conlon/Associated Press

Outside experts who praised the study agreed there were general concerns about the dangers of plastic particles, but it was too early to say for sure.

“The dangers of plastic itself are an unanswered question. To me, the additives are the most concerning,” said Jason Somarelli, professor and director of the Comparative Oncology Group at Duke University School of Medicine. . He did not participate in this study. “We and other researchers have shown that these nanoplastics can be taken up into cells, and that nanoplastics have the potential to cause cellular stress and DNA damage, altering metabolism and cell function. We know that it contains all kinds of chemical additives that are harmful.”

Somarelli said his unpublished research found more than 100 “known carcinogenic chemicals in these plastics.”

Zoe Diana, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Toronto, said: “The concern is that small particles are showing up in various organs and can cross membranes that they’re not supposed to cross, such as the blood-brain barrier.'' ” he said.

Diana, who was not involved in the study, said this was an exciting development in the study of plastics in the environment and in the body, thanks to the new tools researchers used.

About 15 years ago, Min invented a dual-laser microscopy technique that identifies specific compounds by their chemical properties and how they resonate when exposed to a laser. Yang and Qian approached him about using the technology to find and identify plastics that are too small for researchers using established methods.

“This study could be an important advance in the detection of nanoplastics,” said Kara Lavender-Law, an oceanographer at the Marine Education Association, adding that other analytical chemists will not be able to replicate the technique and results. He said he would like to see it done.

Dennis Hardesty, an Australian government oceanographer who studies plastic waste, said context was needed. The total weight of the nanoplastics found is “approximately the weight of one penny, which is the volume of two Olympic-sized swimming pools.”

Mr. Hardesty is less concerned about nanoplastics in bottled water than others, saying, “I am privileged to live in an area with access to ‘clean’ tap water, and I don’t have access to drinking water in single-use containers. There’s no need to buy one.”

Yang said other municipalities, including Boston, St. Louis and Los Angeles, are starting to look at how much plastic is in their tap water.
Previous research We’re looking for microplastics, and some early tests show tap water may have less nanoplastics than bottled water.

Despite the unknowns about human health, Yang said he has one recommendation for those concerned. It’s about using reusable bottles instead of single-use plastics.

Source: www.nbcnews.com

1 Liter Water Bottle Can Hold 240,000 Plastic Particles

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Scientists used lasers to identify plastic particles in water bottles

Naixin Qian, Columbia University

One liter water bottle can contain 240,000 microscopic plastic particles. The health effects of ingesting plastic are not clear, but early research suggests that such particles can travel to various organs in the body.

Millions of tonnes of plastic are produced every year as a result of human activities such as fishing and household waste. Most of this is made up of microplastics with diameters between 1 micrometer and 5 millimeters.

Previous studies have suggested that microplastics may act as carriers. Transport of pollutants and Pathogensay Yan Beizan At Columbia University in New York.

Plastic fragments less than 1 micrometer in diameter are known as nanoplastics and can pose an even bigger concern than microplastics. Their smaller size means they may have a better chance of penetrating the body's intestinal lining. placenta And even the blood-brain barrier, Yang says.

Nanoplastics are difficult to detect due to their large size, but Yang and his colleagues have developed an innovative technique to detect them.

The researchers took six 1-liter bottles of private-label water from three unnamed U.S. supermarkets and shot them with a laser that vibrated when they encountered plastic debris. On average, each bottle contained approximately 240,000 plastic particles. Up to 100x more than previous studies.

The type of plastic in the water was determined from the intensity of the laser's vibrations, and approximately 90% of it was nanoplastic. He was only able to identify 10% of this, but it contained polyethylene terephthalate (PET), the raw material for bottles.

There's no reason why other U.S. water bottles or water bottles from other countries wouldn't have similar amounts of nanoplastics, but this needs to be verified in independent research, Yang said.

In the future, researchers hope to improve the technique to identify more nanoplastics in water, he said.

shelley mason Researchers at Penn State University called the study “a very impressive and groundbreaking study.”

“We know that plastics emit particles, just as human skin cells continually shed particles, but being able to quantify and identify these plastic particles to the nanoplastic range is important for human health. “This is important for advancing our understanding of the impact on the human body,” she says.

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Source: www.newscientist.com

Scientists are puzzled by the detection of ultra-high energy particles plummeting towards Earth, according to Science and Technology News.

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Astronomers have detected a rare and extremely energetic particle falling to Earth.

Scientists say the ray, named after the Japanese sun goddess Amaterasu, is one of the most energetic cosmic rays ever detected.

The Amaterasu particle has an energy of more than 240 exaelectron volts (EeV), making it the second particle in recorded history, after another ultra-high-energy cosmic ray, the Oh My God particle (320 EeV), detected in 1991.

The origins of the particles are unknown, but experts believe that only the most powerful astronomical phenomena, larger than an exploding star, can produce them.

Toshihiro Fujii, associate professor at Osaka Metropolitan University, Japansaid that when he first discovered this particle, he thought, “There must have been a mistake.”

“We’ve seen energy levels unprecedented in the last 30 years,” he said.

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The particle seems to come out of nowhere, further deepening the mystery for scientists.

John Matthews, a research professor in the University of Utah’s Department of Physics and Astronomy, explains that there was nothing in the area high-energy enough to cause this phenomenon.

It appeared to emerge from the Local Void, the empty space adjacent to the Milky Way.

“We should be able to point to where in the sky they came from,” Professor Matthews says.

“But in the case of the Oh My God particle and this new particle, even if we trace its trajectory back to its source, there is nothing high enough energy to produce it.

“That’s the mystery – what the hell is going on?”

Typically, when ultra-high-energy cosmic rays hit Earth’s atmosphere, they create a cascade of secondary particles and electromagnetic radiation known as a massive air shower.

Some charged particles in air showers travel faster than the speed of light and produce a type of electromagnetic radiation that can be detected with special equipment.

One of those instruments is the Telescope Array Observatory in Utah, which discovered the Amaterasu particle.

image:
Telescope Array Surface Detector in Utah.Photo: Associated Press

It is now hoped that this particle will pave the way for further research that will help uncover ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays and their origins.

Experts suggest this may indicate a much larger magnetic deflection than predicted, an unidentified source within the local void, or an incomplete understanding of high-energy particle physics.

Another Utah professor, John Beltz, said he was “throwing out crazy ideas” to try to explain the mystery.

“These events appear to be coming from completely different places in the sky. There is no one mysterious source,” he said. “It could be a flaw in the fabric of space-time, causing cosmic strings to collide.”

However, he added, “There is no conventional explanation.”

Source: news.sky.com