Tag Archives: surprising

Venus Express discovers surprising rise in deuterium to hydrogen ratio in Venus’ mesosphere

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Venus is often called Earth's twin, but its current surface conditions are very different from Earth's and are not suitable for life to exist: not only cannot liquid water exist due to the extreme temperatures and pressures beneath the thick cloud layer, but more importantly, there is almost no water in Venus' atmosphere. Solar Occultation Observatory in Infrared (SOIR) On ESA's Venus Express spacecraftPlanetary researchers have discovered an unexpected increase in the abundance of two variants of the water molecule.2O and HDO, and their ratio HDO/H2O in Venus' mesosphere. This phenomenon calls into question our understanding of Venus' water history and its possible past habitability.

Venus in true colors, processed from Mariner 10 images. Image credit: Mattias Malmer / NASA.

Currently, the temperature on Venus is about 460 degrees Celsius and the pressure is almost 100 times that of Earth.

The atmosphere is extremely dry, covered with thick clouds of sulfuric acid and water droplets, and most of the water resides beneath and within these cloud layers.

However, it is possible that Venus once contained as much water as Earth does.

“Venus is often called Earth's twin planet because its size is similar to Earth's,” says Dr. Hiroki Kario of Tohoku University.

“Despite the similarities between the two planets, their evolutionary processes are different. Unlike Earth, the surface conditions on Venus are extreme.”

Survey of H abundance2O and its deuterated isotope HDO (isotope) reveal insights into the history of water on Venus.

It is generally accepted that Venus and Earth originally had similar HDO/H2O ratio.

However, the ratio observed in Venus' entire atmosphere (below altitude 70 km) was 120 times higher, indicating a significant increase in deuterium over time.

This enrichment occurs primarily when solar radiation breaks down isotopes of water in the upper atmosphere, producing hydrogen (H) and deuterium (D) atoms.

Hydrogen atoms have a small mass and are therefore prone to escaping into space, so HDO/H2The O ratio gradually increases.

To understand how much hydrogen and deuterium has been released into space, it is important to measure the amount of isotopes in water at altitudes where hydrogen and deuterium are broken down by sunlight (above the clouds at altitudes of 70 km or more).

Dr. Caryu et al.2O and HDO increase between 70 and 110 km altitude, and HDO/H2In this range, the O ratio increases by an order of magnitude, reaching levels more than 1,500 times higher than in Earth's oceans.

“The proposed mechanism to explain these findings is the reaction of hydrated sulfuric acid (H2So4) aerosols,” the researchers said.

“These aerosols form just above the clouds, where temperatures drop below the dew point of sulfuric acid water, leading to the formation of deuterium-rich aerosols.”

“These particles rise to high altitudes and evaporate due to rising temperatures, releasing a much higher proportion of HDO compared to non-HDO.2“oh.”

“The steam is then conveyed downwards and the cycle begins again.”

“This study highlights two important points,” they added.

“First, altitude changes play an important role in pinpointing the location of deuterium and hydrogen reservoirs.”

“Second, the increase in HDO/H2The O ratio ultimately increases the release of deuterium, influencing the long-term change in the D/H ratio.”

“These findings encourage us to incorporate highly dependent processes into models to make accurate predictions about the evolution of D/H.”

“Understanding the evolution of Venus' habitability and water history can help us understand what makes a planet habitable and inform how to ensure Earth doesn't follow in its twin's footsteps.”

of result Published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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Arnaud Mahieu others2024. Unexpected increase in deuterium to hydrogen ratio in the Venus mesosphere. PNAS 121 (34): e2401638121; doi: 10.1073/pnas.2401638121

Source: www.sci.news

Pneumatic tubes are making a surprising comeback for this unexpected reason

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Do you remember the days when pneumatic tubes were used for fast delivery of packages, mail, and important documents? Despite being touted as the future of delivery technology in shows like Futurama and Star Trek, pneumatic tubes started to disappear with the rise of the Internet, online purchasing, and improved communication methods.

Surprisingly, pneumatic tubes are now making a high-tech comeback, primarily in hospitals where they are used for quick, hygienic, and safe transportation of samples and sensitive information within large buildings.

How did the pneumatic tube come about?

The idea of pneumatic tubes initially included plans for a mass transit system where people would travel through tubes at high speeds using jets of air. While this idea didn’t fully materialize, some unique uses of pneumatic tubes included sending messages across tables in a Berlin bar and transporting various items like money, parts, and even fish in different industries.

Why are they returning?

Even though pneumatic tubes fell out of use in many areas, hospitals have continued to utilize them for efficient internal transfers. The modern version of pneumatic tube systems is highly automated, allowing for quick deliveries of samples and medicines within hospital premises.

Aside from hospitals, pneumatic tubes have found applications in waste disposal systems, such as the one on Roosevelt Island in New York, where these tubes whisk away trash at high speeds, eliminating the need for trucks and crews for garbage collection.

Overall, the pneumatic tubing market is expected to grow in the coming years, with valuations increasing and projects being built worldwide in various industries like dairy farms, cannabis dispensaries, and more.

It’s fascinating to see how technology that originated in the 1850s is making a comeback in the modern world.

Source: www.sciencefocus.com

Surprising discovery: AMS detector detects a higher-than-expected number of cosmic rays containing deuterons

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Deuteron It is believed that atomic nuclei consisting of protons and neutrons, like those of helium-3 nuclei, are formed in collisions between helium-4 nuclei and other nuclei in the interstellar medium. If this were the case, the flux ratio of deuterons to helium-4 should be similar to that of helium-3 to helium-4. However, this is not the case. Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer Astronauts aboard the International Space Station (AMS) are watching.

Aguilar othersThe deuteron flux was measured using the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) on board the International Space Station.

Cosmic rays are high-energy particles with energies ranging from MeV to 10.20 Electronic V.

These properties are studied from measurements of the energy (stiffness) spectrum (number of particles per unit time, solid angle, surface area, and energy as a function of energy), which is characterized by a rapid decrease in the spectrum as the energy increases.

Cosmic rays with energies below PeV are thought to originate in our own Milky Way galaxy.

The elemental composition of these galactic cosmic rays is dominated by hydrogen nuclei, primarily protons, with helium nuclei making up about 10%, and electrons and nuclei heavier than helium making up just 1% each.

The species synthesized in stars, such as protons, electrons, and most atomic nuclei, are called primary cosmic rays.

Light nuclei, synthesized by nuclear fusion in the cores of stars, are more abundant than heavy nuclei because their production becomes energetically unfavorable as mass increases.

The synthesis of atomic nuclei heavier than iron, such as nickel, occurs through explosive phenomena such as supernova explosions that occur at the end of the life of massive stars, so atomic nuclei heavier than iron are extremely rare.

When primary nuclei are ejected from their source in space, they can collide with interstellar material and split into lighter species.

This is the primary production mechanism for atomic nuclei that are energetically unfavorable to produce by stellar nucleosynthesis, such as lithium, beryllium, boron, fluorine, scandium, titanium, and vanadium. These are called secondary cosmic rays.

Compared to primary nuclei of similar mass, secondary nuclei are less abundant and, as stiffness increases, their stiffness spectrum decreases faster than that of primary nuclei.

The energy (or rigidity) dependence of the cosmic ray spectrum arises from a combination of source-directed emission, acceleration, and propagation mechanisms that occur during a cosmic ray's passage through the galaxy.

Cosmic rays are diffusely accelerated by expanding shock waves, propagate diffusely through the interstellar medium, and are scattered by irregularities in the galactic magnetic field, both of which depend on the particle's momentum, and thus on its magnetic stiffness.

Cosmic ray propagation is described by a stiffness-dependent diffusion coefficient that incorporates the properties of turbulence in the galactic magnetic field.

“Hydrogen nuclei are the most abundant species of cosmic ray,” members of the AMS collaboration wrote in the paper.

“They are made up of two stable isotopes: protons and deuterons.”

“Big Bang nucleosynthesis predicts negligible production of deuterium, and over time the abundance of deuterons has decreased from its primordial value, with the ratio of deuterons to protons measured in the interstellar medium being 0.00002.”

“Deuterons are thought to arise primarily from the interaction of helium with interstellar matter, rather than being accelerated in supernova remnants like primary cosmic ray protons and helium-4.”

“Deuterons, along with helium-3, are called secondary cosmic rays.”

For the latest study, AMS physicists examined data from 21 million cosmic deuterons detected by AMS between May 2011 and April 2021.

When investigating how the deuteron flux varies with rigidity, a surprising feature was discovered.

The AMS data show that these ratios differ significantly above a stiffness of 4.5 GV, with the deuteron to helium-4 ratio decreasing more slowly with stiffness than the helium-3 to helium-4 ratio.

Furthermore, and again contrary to expectations, when stiffness exceeds 13 GV, the data show that the flux of deuterons is nearly the same as the flux of protons, the primary cosmic ray.

Simply put, researchers found more deuterons than expected from collisions between main helium-4 nuclei and interstellar matter.

“Measuring deuterons is very challenging due to the large cosmic proton background radiation,” said Dr Samuel Ting, spokesman for the AMS collaboration.

“Our unexpected results show how little we know about cosmic rays.”

“Future upgrades to AMS will increase the acceptance rate by 300 percent, enabling AMS to measure all charged cosmic rays with 1 percent accuracy, providing the experimental basis for the development of accurate cosmic ray theory.”

The team's paper was published in the journal Physics Review Letter.

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M. Aguilar others(AMS Collaboration). 2024. Properties of cosmic deuterons measured with the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer. Physiotherapy Rev Lett 132(26):261001;doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.132.261001

Source: www.sci.news

Microwave ovens are home to a surprising array of bacteria

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Microwaves heat food but don't necessarily kill bacteria

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Microwaves in homes, offices, and laboratories harbor a surprising variety of bacteria.

Microwaves are widely used to heat food and sterilize samples, but the radiation they emit is non-ionizing and does not damage biological molecules. Microwaves heat objects by vibrating water molecules, but bacteria are only killed if a high enough temperature is reached.

However, repeated heating and drying processes meant that microwaves were considered to be a difficult environment for microorganisms to survive.

Manuel Polker Researchers from the University of Valencia in Spain sampled 30 microwaves: 10 from private kitchens, 10 from shared kitchens such as corporate centers, scientific laboratories and cafeterias, and 10 from molecular biology and microbiology laboratories.

In total, the researchers found 747 different genera of bacteria within 25 bacterial phyla, with diversity lowest in domestic microwave ovens and highest in laboratory devices.

Many of the bacteria found in shared and single-family microwaves overlapped and were similar to bacteria commonly found on people's hands and elsewhere in the kitchen, suggesting that microbes don't need special adaptations to survive in microwaves, perhaps because food particles protect them from radiation, Polker said.

However, the microbiome found in the lab, where food was not cooked, was more distinctive and resembled those found in extremely dry, hot and irradiated environments, such as solar panels.

The researchers found that some of the bacteria found in household microwave ovens include: Klebsiella, Enterococcus and Aeromonaswhich may pose a risk to human health, but the microbial populations found on microwaves do not pose any unique or elevated risk compared to other common kitchen surfaces, the researchers said.

“What's clear is that the microwave cannot be trusted to be a cleaner environment in terms of microbes than the rest of the kitchen, and it should be cleaned just like the rest of the kitchen,” Polker says.

Belinda Ferrari A researcher from the University of New South Wales in Australia says she's not at all surprised that researchers found bacteria that can live in microwaves. “Bacteria can survive almost any extreme exposure and can adapt to anything,” she says.

Ferrari recommends regularly cleaning your microwave with a disinfectant: “Some microwaves in workplaces are filthy and no one cleans them,” she says.

She would like to see more detailed information about when microwaves were last cleaned in her research: “If we were to do this experiment, we would also like to study the biome before and after cleaning,” she says.

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Source: www.newscientist.com

Review of Arranger: Role-Playing Puzzle Adventure – Surprising Twists and Turns | Games

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debtFor Gemma, her life is a puzzle. Ever since she was left on a stranger's doorstep as a baby, she's never felt like she belonged, and she's desperate to know what the world is like outside the small town where no one ever leaves. What's more, when she moves, the whole world moves with her, like sliding tiles, a series of conveyor belts. It's the puzzle that gets her from point A to point B.

Each scene in Arranger: Role Puzzling Adventure is its own sliding block puzzle, where you need to think a couple steps ahead to move Gemma and the surrounding objects in the right direction. Some things don't move with Gemma, like purple static-covered rocks and robotic birds, but everything else does. So you'll need to carry a sword towards an intruding monster, a key towards a door, or a banana towards a shy orangutan. As long as Gemma's path isn't blocked, when she hits the end of a row or column, she'll reappear at the opposite end, adding another layer of spatial logic.

The game is hard to describe, but strangely enough, it's incredibly intuitive to play. I'm not sure exactly how I solved some of the rooms (I had been struggling for ages with a particularly tricky one with lasers and mannequins, and then suddenly it wasn't). My brain just figured out the rules. It made sense how Gemma moved along a tiled conveyor belt. The arrangers added surprising twists to these rules, introducing rafts to cross water, joysticks to control robots, grappling hooks, and more. I'd probably play it for 30 minutes to an hour before moving on to the next idea. It pushed the sliding block puzzle idea to its limits.

The cutesy fantasy-inspired art style and writing didn't do much to complement the puzzles for me; it's not without personality, but it felt mostly perfunctory. Arranger hints at a coming-of-age story for misfits, but doesn't really deliver on it. Instead, it's full of surreal vignettes, like shearing strange creatures for a painter who uses them as muses, or a teenager trying to sneak out of her parents' house to meet up with her long-distance boyfriend. The cartoon-inspired frames indicate the action and emotion that happens between puzzle scenes, but Arranger feels more cerebral than emotional.

Sure, it was brain-wracking at times; I briefly couldn't understand the logic of the puzzle's conveyor belt, not figuring out how to get three blocks to land on three separate switches at the same time, and just moving things around in circles. But mostly I felt trapped, racing through levels, placing them almost by instinct, and feeling like I was playing Tetris. I've reached the end of Jenna's adventure, so I'm definitely done with block puzzles for a while. But it's rare to play a game that explores one great idea so thoroughly.

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Source: www.theguardian.com

Deep Sea Nodules Uncovered as Surprising Oxygen Source

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Nodules taken from the ocean floor being examined in a laboratory

Camille Bridgewater (2024)

Metallic nodules scattered across the floor of the Indian and Pacific Oceans provide a source of oxygen for nearby marine life, a discovery that could upend our understanding of the deep ocean.

In some areas, the abyssal plains are dotted with potato-sized nodules rich in valuable cobalt, manganese and nickel that are targets for deep-sea mining activities.

Andrew Sweetman Researchers from the Scottish Institute for Marine Science in Oban, UK, were conducting research in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone of the Pacific Ocean (a region rich in nodules) in 2013 when they first noticed something odd about these waters.

Sweetman and his colleagues sent a machine to the ocean floor, sealed off a 22-square-centimeter section of the seafloor, and measured the flow of oxygen. Far from decreasing, the data suggested that oxygen content was actually increasing in the monitored areas.

But in the absence of any noticeable vegetation, Sweetman says, that didn’t make sense. “I was taught from an early age that oxygen-rich ecosystems were only possible through photosynthesis,” he says. He came to the conclusion that the machine he was using was flawed. “I literally ignored the data,” he says.

Then, in 2021, Sweetman went on another research cruise in the Pacific Ocean, and the machine made the same discovery: elevated oxygen levels at the ocean floor, even using a different measurement method.

“We were seeing the same oxygen production in these two different data sets,” Sweetman says, “and suddenly we realized that we’d been ignoring this incredibly innovative process for the last eight or nine years.”

He and his colleagues speculated that the metal nodules must play a role in boosting oxygen levels in the deep ocean, and laboratory tests of contaminating sediments and nodules ruled out the presence of oxygen-producing microorganisms.

Instead, Sweetman says the material in the nodules acts as a “geo-battery,” generating an electrical current that splits seawater into hydrogen and oxygen. “The reason these nodules are mined is because they contain everything you need to make electric car batteries,” he says. “What if the nodules themselves were acting as natural geo-batteries?”

When the team examined the rocks, they found that each nodule generated an electrical potential of up to 1 volt — when they combined together they could generate enough voltage to electrolyze seawater into hydrogen and oxygen, explaining why oxygen levels rise.

“We may have discovered a new natural source of oxygen,” Sweetman said, “We don’t know how widespread it is in time and space, but it’s very intriguing.”

Many questions remain unanswered. For example, the source of energy that creates the current remains a mystery. It’s also unclear whether the reaction occurs continuously, under what conditions, or how this oxygen contributes to maintaining the surrounding ecosystem. “We don’t have all the information yet, but we know it’s happening,” Sweetman says.

In deep-sea environments without sunlight or vegetation, some life forms get their energy from chemicals spewing from hydrothermal vents on the ocean floor. Some scientists believe life on Earth first emerged at these vents, but these early organisms would have needed a source of oxygen to make food from inorganic compounds. The new discovery suggests that the nodules could have been the oxygen source that helped life begin, Sweetman said.

That interpretation may be unreasonable, Donald Canfield The University of Southern Denmark researcher points out that oxygen is needed to produce the manganese oxides found in nodules. “Oxygenic photosynthesis is a prerequisite for the formation of nodules,” he says. “Therefore, oxygen production by nodules is not an alternative oxygen production equivalent to oxygenic photosynthesis. It is highly unlikely that nodules played a role in oxygenating the Earth.”

but, Ruth Blake The Yale researchers say the idea of ​​producing oxygen in the deep sea remains “exciting” and that further study is needed into the phenomenon and its potential impact on deep-sea ecosystems.

Sweetman’s research was funded in part by The Metals Company (TMC), a deep-sea mining company that is targeting metal nodules in the Clarion-Clipperton field. Patrick Downs TMC’s Downs said he had “serious concerns” about the findings, adding that his company’s analysis suggested Sweetman’s results were due to outside oxygen contamination. “We intend to write a rebuttal,” Downs said in a statement. New Scientist.

But the findings are likely to strengthen calls for a ban on deep-sea mining, backed by many oceanographers who say their understanding of these regions is still evolving. Paul Dando Researchers from the British Marine Biological Society said the paper reinforced the view among deep-sea scientists that “we shouldn’t mine these nodules until we understand their ecology”.

Sweetman said the discovery isn’t necessarily a “say-tale” move for deep-sea mining, but it could limit mining in places where oxygen production is low, and more research is needed to explore how sediments disturbed by the mining process affect oxygen production, he said.

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Source: www.newscientist.com

The Surprising Benefits of Running Slower for a Longer, Healthier Life – Here’s the Science behind It

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Slowing down isn’t typically a priority for runners. From elite athletes to casual runners, the focus is usually on speed, personal records, competition, and pushing limits.

However, the concept of slow running has gained popularity recently. It’s not just a trend promoted by social media influencers, but also endorsed by coaches, runners, and scientists.

What are the benefits of running slowly?

The idea is that running at a slower pace can actually yield faster results in terms of exercise benefits.

“For example, running slowly can lower your resting blood pressure and strengthen your heart,” says Professor Dan Gordon. “It still challenges the body but without the need for excessive stress to achieve cardiovascular improvements,” adds Jonathan Myers, an exercise physiologist at Anglia Ruskin University.

Running slowly is typically defined as a pace where you can comfortably hold a conversation. It’s an effort level of 4 or 5 on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being a sprint. This type of exercise, known as “Zone 2 exercise” in sports science, is considered to be a sweet spot for promoting longevity and overall health.

A study in Copenhagen found that light and moderate joggers had lower mortality rates than non-runners and intense runners. Vigorous joggers did not show significantly different mortality rates from non-runners.

Running slowly is beneficial for heart health, enhances metabolic functions, and improves mental well-being. It can prevent metabolic diseases, improve insulin sensitivity, and boost mitochondrial density in cells, leading to improved energy utilization.

Improved mental and physical health

Slow runners experience faster recovery, reduced risk of overtraining-related fatigue and injuries, and generally feel better overall.

“Slow running has a positive impact on mental health and social well-being,” says Gordon. “It allows for social interactions, which can motivate individuals to stay active and enjoy the process without pressure to perform.”

What we’re starting to realize is that you don’t need intense stress on your body to see cardiovascular benefits.

Gordon believes promoting slow running in groups can encourage more people to stay active consistently, as the social support can enhance motivation and enjoyment of the activity.

More Gains, Less Pain

Contrary to the belief that speed is essential for improvement, researchers suggest that slow running can yield significant results. Elite runners, for example, often perform majority of their training at a slow pace to build a strong aerobic base and enhance cardiovascular efficiency.

This concept of an “Aerobic Base” emphasizes the importance of improving cardiovascular capacity to enhance overall running performance. By running slowly, you can increase endurance, speed, and efficiency while reducing exertion.

In summary, slowing down not only improves longevity but also enhances running abilities in the long run.

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About our expert, Professor Dan Gordon

Dan Gordon is an Associate Professor at the Health and Technology Research Centre, Anglia Ruskin University, South East England. With over 20 years of experience in sports physiology, he specializes in endurance physiology assessment.

Source: www.sciencefocus.com

Can fungi be surprising allies in cancer detection?

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Scientists who study cancer have historically focused on understanding the various factors that contribute to cancer development and progression. They have looked at factors such as genes, lifestyle choices, and even bacteria. However, few researchers have investigated the role of fungi in the human body and how they affect cancer.

Researchers in Israel and the United States recently characterized the fungi that live inside human cancer tissue. Researchers took tumor, blood and plasma samples from more than 1,000 of her patients with various types of cancer and performed a type of “DNA sequencing.” ITS2 amplicon sequencing. They used this sequencing method to determine the presence of different fungal species within cancer tissue and measure the number of fungal cells living there.

Researchers found fragments of fungal DNA and cells in tissues from various human cancers. For example, they discovered several types of fungi associated with breast cancer. Cladosporium sphaerospermum, mainly affected patients over 50 years of age. they again, Malassezia globosaa skin fungus that affects pancreatic cancer patients, and Malassezia restriction bacterium, another skin fungus present in breast cancer tissue. Additionally, they discovered the following species: aspergillus and agar medium Found in lung cancer samples, especially those from smoking patients.

The researchers explained that their results were surprising. Skin fungi are not usually associated with breast cancer. Additionally, they suggested: Malassezia globosa DNA found in both breast and pancreatic cancer samples This suggests that it may play a broader role in cancer development.

The scientists then confirmed that the fungus was growing within the cancerous tumor using a method called . tissue staining. Histological staining is like adding color to a black and white photograph. In this case, the photos were of tissue taken from different types of cancer: melanoma, pancreatic cancer, breast cancer, lung cancer, and ovarian cancer. When we stained these tissues, we found that fungi often existed next to cancer cells.

The research team interpreted the results as indicating that fungi can influence cancer progression. They suggested that these fungi may have a commensal or even pathogenic relationship with cancer. In particular, they suggested that the fungus may function as follows. opportunistic pathogensIn other words, they were taking advantage of patients' weakened immune systems to cause infections that would not normally occur in healthy people.

Finally, the researchers used an advanced computational technique known as . machine learning, recognize and identify patterns in DNA data. They wanted to test whether certain types of fungi were present in different types of cancer. Scientists have determined that different types of cancer tissue are inhabited by different fungal communities.

The scientists concluded that understanding the relationship between fungi and cancer could help doctors develop new tools to diagnose and treat cancer patients. In particular, the researchers suggested that doctors could sort the fungal DNA in a patient's blood sample to detect which type of cancer they have. They suggested that fungi may provide a new non-invasive fingerprint for early detection of cancer.


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Source: sciworthy.com

The Surprising Influence of Your Skin on Your Well-being and Longevity

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woman applying body cream

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In winter, the backs of your hands can become dry, red, and cracked. Maybe you find yourself applying more moisturizer. Otherwise, itching and pain can be a big hindrance.

Cracked skin is annoying and uncomfortable, but it's not as serious as something like high blood pressure. However, that assumption may not hold, as with skin aging.

Growing evidence suggests that skin damage can have knock-on effects on other parts of the body, causing inflammation, muscle and bone loss, and even cognitive decline. The more your skin deteriorates, the faster the rest of your skin ages. This new perspective means that our skin not only reflects the signs of aging, but also contributes to it. There's even preliminary evidence that taking better care of your skin may slow down the negative effects of aging and improve your overall health.

Our skin is one of the first areas of our body to show signs of aging. Especially in active areas such as the outer corners of the eyes, wrinkles may increase and age spots may appear. Although these changes may seem to be literally skin deep, the importance of the skin to the rest of the body should not be underestimated. “The skin is the largest organ in the body,” he says. wendy borag At Augusta University in Georgia, USA.

And it's not just the size. Skin is essential for survival. The outer layer of the epidermis is impermeable to water, so body fluids, the source of life, are not lost to the air. If someone causes damage to a large area…

Source: www.newscientist.com

The Surprising Noisemaking Abilities of Tiny Fish

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Danionella celebraum male fish

Ralph Blitz/Senkenberg Dresden

One of the world’s smallest fish, measuring just 12 millimeters long, it can make a sound as loud as a firecracker at more than 140 decibels.

Danionella cerebrum It is a small fish that lives in small rivers along the Bago Yoma Mountains in Myanmar.it is smallest known brain of all vertebrates in the world.

“We study this fish primarily for neuroscience because it’s so small and transparent,” he says. verity cook Charité, Faculty of Medicine, University of Berlin, Germany. But the fish are so loud, she says, that she can hear the pulsating sound just by walking in front of the tank.

To investigate how these tiny fish make this sound, Cook and his colleagues gathered groups of three or four fish into small tanks and shot high-speed video.

When a fish makes a sound, the ribs next to the swim bladder (organs that control the buoyancy of the swim bladder) are pulled by special muscles into a small hollowed cartilage area.

“There’s a lot of tension in this contraction,” Cook said. “When it is released rapidly, [the rib] When you hit the swim bladder, it makes a drum sound. “

Based on gene expression analysis, these specialized muscles are more resistant to fatigue than other muscles in the fish, and are therefore able to produce more hits in a row.

It’s unclear why these fish make so much noise. D. cerebrum They typically live in murky, murky waters and may have evolved this behavior to help find each other when visibility is poor, Dr Cook said.

“But the fact that only males make sounds suggests that it is related to aggressive behavior towards other males and mating behavior with females,” she says.

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Source: www.newscientist.com

New Study Finds Surprising Similarities in Brain Development Between Sea Lampreys and Humans

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The lamprey and human hindbrains are built using very similar molecular and genetic toolkits, according to a new study led by the Stowers Institute for Medical Research.

These images show an adult lamprey (top and left) and a developing lamprey embryo. Image credit: Stowers Medical Research Institute.

“Our research on the hindbrain (the part of the brain that controls important functions such as blood pressure and heart rate) is essentially a window into the distant past and can serve as a model for understanding the evolution of complexity. “, said Dr. Hugo Parker. Researcher at Stowers Medical Research Institute.

Like other vertebrates, sea lampreys have a backbone and skeleton, but they noticeably lack a jaw, a characteristic feature of the head.

Most vertebrates, including humans, have jaws, so this striking difference in sea lampreys makes it a valuable model for understanding the evolution of vertebrate traits.

“About 500 million years ago, at the origin of vertebrates, there was a split between jawless and jawed animals,” said Dr. Alice Bedois, also of the Stowers Institute for Medical Research.

“We wanted to know how vertebrate brains evolved and whether there is something unique to jawed vertebrates that jawless vertebrates don't.”

Previous research had identified genes that structure and subdivide the sea lamprey's hindbrain as identical to genes in jawed vertebrates, including humans.

However, these genes are part of an interconnected network or circuit that needs to be initiated and directed to properly build the hindbrain.

In a new study, the authors identify common molecular cues known to direct head-to-tail patterning in a variety of animals as part of a genetic circuit that guides hindbrain patterning in the lamprey. .

“We found that the same genes, as well as the same cues, are involved in hindbrain development in sea lampreys. This suggests that this process is ancestral to all vertebrates. ,” Dr. Bedwa said.

“This signal is called retinoic acid, commonly known as vitamin A.”

Researchers have known that retinoic acid signals the genetic circuits that build the hindbrains of complex species, but they believe it is involved in more primitive animals like sea lampreys. was not considered.

Surprisingly, they discovered that the lamprey's core hindbrain circuit is also initiated by retinoic acid, providing evidence that these sea monsters and humans are much more closely related than expected.

“People thought that because lampreys don't have jaws, their hindbrains don't form like other vertebrates,” says Dr. Rob Krumlauf, a researcher at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research.

“We showed that this fundamental part of the brain is built exactly the same way as in mice, and even in humans.”

Signaling molecules that signal cell fate during development are well known.

Now, researchers have discovered that retinoic acid plays another key role in signaling important steps in development, such as the formation of the brainstem.

Furthermore, if hindbrain formation is a conserved feature in all vertebrates, other mechanisms must be involved to explain its incredible diversity.

“We all come from a common ancestor,” Dr. Bedwa said.

“The lamprey provided further clues.”

“We now need to go further back in evolutionary time to discover when the genetic circuits controlling hindbrain formation first evolved.”

of study It was published in the magazine nature communications.

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AMH Bedwa other. 2024. Lamprey reveals the origins of retinoic acid signaling and its coupling to vertebrate hindbrain segments. Nat Commune 15, 1538. doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-45911-x

Source: www.sci.news

The Surprising Reason Why Mental Exertion Can Drain Our Energy

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The myth that we only use 10 percent of our brains has been completely debunked. Perhaps this idea persists because it is so tempting to believe that you can become a genius simply by learning how to tap into your dormant 90 percent. In reality, no part of your brain can keep up with demands, and your brain is always switched on, even when you're asleep or not thinking at all.

But that doesn't necessarily mean that your brain uses the same amount of energy while daydreaming as it does when you're concentrating. We've all experienced the feeling of being mentally exhausted after concentrating on a difficult problem. It certainly feels like a lot of work to think about it in detail, but is it really? The answer is more nuanced than you might think.

It is true that the brain is a starving organ. “It's the most energy-intensive part of your body,” he says. Nili Ravi At University College London. It makes up about 2% of your body weight, but consumes about 20% of your energy at rest.

Most of this energy is used to maintain varying levels of electrical charge across the neuron's membrane. This unbalanced state must be restored after the neuron fires the signal. “That requires a lot of fuel,” he says. Ewan McNay at the University at Albany in New York.

Interestingly, when it comes to energy use, the brain doesn't differentiate between tasks we traditionally think of as “difficult” and tasks that come more naturally. This was the first…

Source: www.newscientist.com

Surprising Images of Nearby Star-Forming Regions Captured by Hubble

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astronomer using NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope We captured a vivid image of IRAS 16562-3959, a beautiful star-forming region in the constellation Scorpius.

This Hubble image shows IRAS 16562-3959, a star-forming region about 5,900 light-years away in the constellation Scorpius. Image credits: NASA / ESA / Hubble / R. Fedriani / J. Tan.

IRAS 16562-3959The star, also known as 2MASX J16594225-4003451, is located 5,900 light-years away in the constellation Scorpius.

“At the center of the image, IRAS 16562-3959 is thought to contain a massive star with a mass approximately 30 times that of the Sun, which is still in the process of formation,” Hubble team members said in a statement. Ta.

“At the near-infrared wavelengths that Hubble detects, the central region appears dark because there is so much dust in the way.”

“Near-infrared light, however, primarily leaks out from two sides, the top left and bottom right, where powerful jets from massive protostars are removing dust.”

“The multi-wavelength images containing this amazing Hubble scene will help us better understand how the largest and brightest stars in the Milky Way are born.”

The new image of IRAS 16562-3959 was created from separate exposures taken in the near-infrared region of the spectrum. Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3).

Four filters were used to sample different wavelengths. Color is obtained by assigning different hues to each monochromatic image associated with an individual filter.

“A filter is a thin piece of highly specialized material that only allows light at very specific wavelengths to pass through,” the astronomer explained.

“We can slide them in front of the light-sensing part of the telescope, allowing us to control which wavelengths of light the telescope collects for each observation.”

“This is useful not only for certain scientific studies, but also for creating images like this.”

“Regardless of which filter was used, raw telescopic observations are always monochrome,” they added.

“However, specially trained artists and image professionals can choose colors that match the wavelength range covered by individual filters.”

“Alternatively, if a direct match is not possible, for example the data used in this image is all in the infrared range, to which the human eye is not sensitive, so the artist has chosen colors that are wisely representative of what they are trying to represent.” You can. It’s happening.”

“For example, shorter wavelengths might be assigned a bluer color and longer wavelengths a redder color, as is the case with the visible light range.”

“The data from multiple filters can then be combined to build multicolor images that look beautiful and have scientific meaning.”

Source: www.sci.news

The Surprising Reasons Why Cats Lick People

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Licking: Cats are obsessed with licking. Research shows that adult felines can spend up to 8% of your waking hours grooming themselves. Licking also serves an important social role in felines, and adult cats often lick each other just before mating. But what about humans? Why do cats lick people? There is no evidence that your cat considers this part of a pre-mating ritual.

Scientists and cat behavior experts aren’t entirely sure why cats lick your face or hands with their little tongues. However, while there is no comprehensive and definitive explanation for this behavior, there are several theories as to why domestic cats lick humans. Your cat might not like all of them.

Why do cats lick people?

There is no single reason why a cat might lick you. However, there are three main theories as to why domestic cats behave this way:

  • It shows they trust you.
  • They are accessing biochemical information from your skin.
  • They are marking you as their property.

trust theory

Cats may lick you to show that they trust you or to show that they don’t consider you a serious competitor.

“This type of licking is similar to the cat-to-cat behavior known as allogrooming, which is essentially mutual grooming. When cats are young kittens who are blind and deaf, “They learn this from their mothers. It’s basically cleaning the kittens and strengthening their social bond.” doctor dEnthusiastic, Sands is an expert in animal psychology with over 25 years of clinical experience.

Read more about cats:

“Due to this maternal influence, adult cats will only lick other cats that they trust and are not in competition with. And this trusting grooming behavior may be transmitted to humans.

“At the end of the day, cats don’t sit there saying, ‘I’m a cat and you’re a human.’ To them, the animal is either in competition with them or not. And licking. That shows you’re not competing.”

In other words, if your cat licks you, it’s not a positive sign of affection. That’s not a negative thing at all (it’s as good as a cat).

Helpful note: Always think about where your cat last licked before allowing this. Photo credit: Getty

If in doubt, consider the cleverly titled Lincoln University study. Domestic cats show no signs of being attached to their owners.

Researchers swapped human owners with 20 felines and discovered they were felines. He seemed to be deepening his bonds with strangers. than in the actual owner (shown through behaviors such as play and mirroring).

The researchers wrote: “These results are consistent with the view that adult cats are also typically very autonomous in their social relationships and are not necessarily dependent on others to provide a sense of security and security.”’ “We are doing it,” he concluded.

biochemical theory

This sounds complicated, but essentially it’s a very simple idea: cats like you because they’re interested in the smell on your hands.

“Cats’ taste buds are so sensitive that they can detect the smell of our skin, which can contain pheromone secretions from other animals,” says Sands. “There could also be salt, moisturizer, or something else you’ve eaten on your hands. To cats, these are all interesting scents, and they can detect it by licking. It could just be that.”

possession play theory

As Sands says, cats are “head-to-tail sniffing machines.” And what’s their favorite smell? Themselves. In fact, they love their unique scent (which acts as a fingerprint suspended in the air) so much that they think it should replace other scents.

Sands explains that this is why cats lick themselves after petting you. “It’s purely to get rid of your smell!” he says.

Many other cat behaviors come down to ownership and territory. Everything they do is very territorial,” Sands added. “When cats groom other cats or humans, they may remove scents and replace them with their own. It’s their way of marking and saying, ‘This is mine.’ I’m yours!”

About our expert Dr. David Sands

Sands, who holds a PhD in animal behavior (animal psychology) from the University of Liverpool, has over 25 years’ experience in animal behavior clinics. He is a Fellow of the Dog and Cat Behavior Association (CFBA) and the Society for the Study of Animal Behavior (ASAB).

Sands is also the author of the following books: Cats 500 questions answered (Hamlin, £4).

Read more about cat science

Source: www.sciencefocus.com

Black Holes’ Eating Habits: A Surprising Revelation

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An imaginary diagram of the interstellar medium distribution of active galactic nuclei based on current observation results. Dense molecular gas from the galaxy flows along the disk’s surface toward the black hole. The energy generated by the high temperature of the material accumulated around the black hole destroys molecular gas, converting it into atoms and plasma. Most of these multiphase interstellar mediums are jets flowing outward from the galactic center (mainly plasma jets occur directly above the disk, and mainly atomic and molecular jets occur at an angle). However, it turns out that most of the particles flow back into the disk like a fountain. Credit: ALMA (ESO/National Astronomical Observatory of Japan/Nuclear Astronomical Observatory), T. Izumi et al.

Recent advances in astrophysics have led to groundbreaking observations of gas flows around supermassive black holes. These observations were made with great detail. light years Important insights into the behavior of these giant universes have been revealed. Remarkably, the researchers found that while large amounts of gas are attracted to these black holes, only a small portion (about 3 percent) is actually consumed. The remaining gas is ejected and recycled back to the host galaxy.

Not all substances fall into this. Black Hole It is absorbed, but some is excreted as effluent. However, it has been difficult to measure the ratio between the amount of material that a black hole “eats” and the amount that it “falls into.”

An international research team led by Assistant Professor Takuma Izumi of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan is developing the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (alma telescope) Observe a supermassive black hole in the Circus Galaxy, 14 million light-years away in the direction of the constellation Circus. This black hole is known to be actively feeding.

The center of the Silcinus galaxy observed with ALMA. Carbon monoxide (CO; indicating the presence of a medium-density molecular gas) is shown in red. Atomic carbon (C; indicates the presence of an atomic gas) in blue. Green is hydrogen cyanide (HCN; indicating the presence of a dense molecular gas). Pink hydrogen recombination line (H36α; indicating the presence of ionized gas). The central dense disk of gas (green) is about 6 light-years wide. The plasma outflow proceeds almost perpendicular to the disk. Credit: ALMA (ESO/National Astronomical Observatory of Japan/Nuclear Astronomical Observatory), T. Izumi et al.

ALMA’s role in solving the mystery of black holes

Thanks to ALMA’s high resolution, the research team was able to measure the inflow and outflow around a black hole for the first time on a scale of several light years. By measuring the flow of gases in different states (molecules, atoms, and states), plasma) The team was able to determine the overall feeding efficiency of the black hole and found it to be only about 3%. The researchers also confirmed that gravitational instability is driving the influx.

The analysis also showed that most of the ejected outflow was not fast enough to escape from the galaxy and be lost. They are recycled into the perinuclear region around the black hole and begin falling slowly towards the black hole again.

Reference: “Feeding and feedback of supermassive black holes are observed at subparsec scale” Takuma Izumi, Keiichi Wada, Masatoshi Imanishi, Koichiro Nakanishi, Kotaro Kono, Yuki Kudo, Daiki Kawamuro, Shunsuke Baba, Naoki Matsumoto , Yutaka Fujita, Conrad R.W. Tristram, 2 November 2023 science.
DOI: 10.1126/science.adf0569

This research was funded by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.

Source: scitechdaily.com

AI Found to Form Memories in Similar Way to Humans, a Surprising Discovery

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The multidisciplinary team discovered that AI models, and Transformer in particular, process memories in a manner similar to the hippocampus in the human brain. This breakthrough suggests that applying neuroscience principles like NMDA receptors to AI can improve memory function, advance the field of AI, and provide insight into human brain function. doing. Credit: SciTechDaily.com

Researchers have discovered that memory consolidation processes in AI are similar to those in the human brain, particularly the hippocampus, opening the door to advances in AI and a deeper understanding of human memory mechanisms.

The interdisciplinary team, comprised of researchers from the Center for Cognition and Sociality and researchers from the Data Science Group within the Institute of Basic Sciences (IBS), will study memory processing in artificial intelligence (AI) models and the hippocampus and hippocampus of the human brain. revealed that there are striking similarities between the two. This new discovery provides a new perspective on memory consolidation, the process of converting short-term memory into long-term memory in AI systems.

Evolving AI through understanding human intelligence

Understanding and replicating human-like intelligence has become a key research focus in the race to develop artificial general intelligence (AGI), led by influential organizations such as OpenAI and Google DeepMind. At the heart of these technological advances is the Transformer model. [Figure 1]its fundamental principles are now being explored in new depths.

Figure 1. (a) Diagram showing ion channel activity in a postsynaptic neuron. AMPA receptors are involved in the activation of postsynaptic neurons, while NMDA receptors are blocked by magnesium ions (Mg2⁺), whereas calcium ions (Ca2⁺) are activated when postsynaptic neurons are fully activated. Induces synaptic plasticity through influx. (b) Flow diagram representing the computational process within the Transformer AI model. Information is processed sequentially through stages such as feedforward layer, layer normalization, and self-attention layer. The graph showing the current vs. voltage relationship for the NMDA receptor is very similar to the nonlinearity of the feedforward layer. Input-output graphs based on magnesium concentration (α) show nonlinear changes in NMDA receptors.Credit: Basic Science Research Institute

Brain learning mechanism applied to AI

The key to powerful AI systems is understanding how they learn and remember information. The research team focused on the learning principles of the human brain, particularly memory consolidation via the NMDA receptors in the hippocampus, and applied them to the AI ​​model.

NMDA receptors are like smart doors in the brain that facilitate learning and memory formation. The presence of a brain chemical called glutamate excites nerve cells. Magnesium ions, on the other hand, act as small gatekeepers that block the door. Only when this ionic gatekeeper steps aside can substances flow into the cell. This is the process by which the brain creates and retains memories, and the role of the gatekeeper (magnesium ions) in the whole process is very specific.

AI models that mimic human brain processes

The research team made an interesting discovery. The Transformer model appears to use a gatekeeping process similar to the brain’s NMDA receptors. [see Figure 1]. This discovery led the researchers to investigate whether the consolidation of Transformer memories could be controlled by a mechanism similar to the NMDA receptor gating process.

In animal brains, low magnesium levels are known to impair memory function. Researchers have discovered that mimicking NMDA receptors can improve long-term memory in transformers. Similar to the brain, where changes in magnesium levels affect memory, tweaking the transformer parameters to reflect NMDA receptor gating improved memory in the AI ​​model. This breakthrough suggests that established knowledge from neuroscience can explain how AI models learn.

Expert insights on AI and neuroscience

“This research is an important step in the advancement of AI and neuroscience,” said C. Justin Lee, the institute’s director and neuroscientist. This will allow us to delve deeper into how the brain works and develop more advanced AI systems based on these insights.

CHA Meeyoung is a data scientist on the team.
kaist
says, “The human brain is remarkable in that it operates on minimal energy, unlike large-scale AI models that require vast amounts of resources. It opens up new possibilities for low-cost, high-performance AI systems that learn and remember information.”

Fusion of cognitive mechanisms and AI design

What makes this work unique is its commitment to incorporating brain-inspired nonlinearity into AI structures, representing a significant advance in simulating human-like memory consolidation. The fusion of human cognitive mechanisms and AI design not only enables the creation of low-cost and high-performance AI systems, but also provides valuable insights into the workings of the brain through AI models.

Source: scitechdaily.com

The surprising evolutionary advantage of aging: Why do we age?

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Researchers used computer models to investigate the evolutionary role of aging. They challenge the notion that aging has no positive effects and suggest that aging may promote evolution in a changing environment, thereby benefiting subsequent generations. I am. Their findings indicate that aging may be an advantageous trait selected by natural evolution. Credit: SciTechDaily.com

The mysteries of aging have fascinated people for thousands of years. Because aging is usually associated with a gradual decline in most bodily functions, many people are willing to do anything to stop or reverse this process. Aging is a natural part of life, but biologists understand surprisingly little about the evolutionary emergence of this process. It’s not clear whether aging is inevitable. That’s because there are some organisms that never seem to age at all, and there is also a phenomenon known as negative aging or rejuvenation. In some turtles, vital functions improve with age.

Studying the evolutionary role of aging

Researchers at the Institute for Evolution, led by scholar Airs Zatmary, have sought to debunk previously proposed but unproven theories of aging. This theory suggests that, under the right circumstances, evolution can encourage the proliferation of genes that control aging.

To test their hypothesis, the researchers used a computer model they developed. This model is an algorithm that allows scientists to simulate long-term processes in populations of organisms and genes in a controlled environment. Essentially, such models allow you to run evolutionary scenarios and get results in hours instead of millions of years. Modern evolutionary research is unthinkable without computer modeling.

Exploring the purpose of aging

The basic research question was simple. The question was, “Is there any meaning to aging?” Does it serve some evolutionary function or is it truly a bitter and deadly byproduct of life? “If there is selection for aging, then aging may have an evolutionary function. Our study aimed to reveal this selection,” he says Eörs Szathmáry. “According to the classical explanation, aging occurs in a population even without selection. It is because individuals die sooner or later without aging (as a result of disease or accidents), This creates an opportunity for genes to accumulate that have a negative effect on older individuals (thus causing aging), meaning that aging is only a side effect of evolution. It means that there is no adaptive function.”

Challenging common sense

During the last century, several evolutionary theories have been formulated to explain inevitable aging without active functions using different biological mechanisms. Although some scientists accepted this assumption as fact, the discovery of organisms that do not age led more and more researchers to question the inevitability of aging and to suggest that perhaps aging has benefits as well. I suggested that it might be.

“The evolutionary biology community has accepted that classical non-adaptive theories of aging cannot explain all aging patterns in nature, meaning that the explanation of aging has once again become an open question. “I mean,” Zatomary said. “Alternative adaptation theories provide a solution to this problem by suggesting positive effects of aging. For example, aging and death may be more advantageous for individuals in a changing environment. This is because doing so reduces competition that prevents the survival and reproduction of more fit offspring with a better genetic makeup.

However, this scenario is only true if the individual is surrounded primarily by relatives. Otherwise, during sexual reproduction, non-senescent individuals would “steal” better (better adapted to environmental changes) genes from aging population members, thus erasing significant senescence.

Aging as a catalyst for evolution

Hungarian biologists ran a model and found that aging can actually accelerate evolution. This is an advantage in a changing world. Faster adaptation allows us to find suitable traits faster, which supports the survival and spread of offspring genes. This means that aging can become a highly advantageous trait and be favored by natural selection.

Reference: András Siraj, Tamash Charan, Mauro Santos, Airs Zatmary, “Directional selection combined with kin selection favors the establishment of senescence”, October 23, 2023. BMC biology.
DOI: 10.1186/s12915-023-01716-w

Funding: National Agency for Research, Development and Innovation (Hungary), Bolyai János Research Fellowship of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, New National Excellence Program of the Ministry of Culture and Innovation, Ministry of Science and Innovation, Autonomous Region of Catalonia 2021 Special Guest Scientist Volkswagen Foundation, Hungary Fellowship Program of the Academy of Sciences (Initiative “Leben?

Source: scitechdaily.com

The Surprising Role of NASA in Tackling the Climate Crisis

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Flaring, the deliberate burning of excess natural gas into the atmosphere, is one way methane is released from oil and gas facilities. His EMIT mission for NASA, over more than a year of operation, demonstrated its proficiency in discovering methane and other greenhouse gas emissions from space.

Since its launch 16 months ago, the EMIT imaging spectrometer has international space station demonstrated the ability to detect more than just surface minerals. More than a year after first detecting a methane plume from its perch on the International Space Station (ISS), data from NASA’s EMIT instrument is now being used to analyze greenhouse gas emissions with a level of proficiency that surprised even its designers. used to identify source emissions.

EMIT‘s mission and capabilities

EMIT, which stands for Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation, was launched in July 2022 to map 10 major minerals on the surface of the world’s arid regions. Mineral-related observations are already available. researcher and the general public to better understand how dust in the atmosphere affects the climate.

Methane detection was not part of EMIT‘s primary mission, but the instrument’s designers expected the imaging spectrometer to have that capability. More than 750 sources of emissions have been identified since August 2022, some of which are small, located in remote areas, and persistent over long periods of time, according to a new study published in the journal However, this device is said to have achieved more than sufficient results in that respect. scientific progress.

EMIT identified a cluster of 12 methane plumes within a 150 square mile (400 square kilometer) area in southern Uzbekistan on September 1, 2022. The instrument captured this cluster, which the researchers call a “scene,” in a single shot.

Credit: NASA/JPL-California Institute of Technology

Methane emissions and climate change

“We were a little cautious at first about what this device could do,” said Andrew Thorpe, a research engineer on the EMIT science team. NASAis a researcher at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California and the paper’s lead author. “It exceeded our expectations.”

Knowing where methane emissions are coming from gives operators of landfills, agricultural sites, oil and gas facilities, and other methane-producing facilities the opportunity to address methane emissions. Tracking human methane emissions is key to limiting climate change because it provides a relatively low-cost and rapid approach to reducing greenhouse gases. Methane remains in the atmosphere for about 10 years, during which time it traps heat up to 80 times more strongly than carbon dioxide, which remains for centuries.

When strong winds kick up mineral rock dust(such as calcite or chlorite) on one continent, the airborne particles can travel thousands of miles and impact an entirely different continent. Airborne dust can heat or cool the atmosphere and the ground. This heating or cooling effect is the focus of NASA’s Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation (EMIT) mission.

Credit: NASA/JPL-California Institute of Technology

amazing results

EMIT has proven effective in detecting both large-scale sources (tens of thousands of pounds of methane per hour) and surprisingly small sources (hundreds of pounds of methane per hour). It has been. This is important because it will allow us to identify more “superemitters,” or sources that produce a disproportionate share of total emissions.

A new study documents how EMIT was able to observe 60% to 85% of the methane plumes typically seen during airborne operations, based on the first 30 days of greenhouse gas detections.

On September 3, 2022, EMIT detected a methane plume emitting approximately 979 pounds (444 kilograms) per hour in a remote corner of southeastern Libya. This is one of the smallest sources ever detected by this instrument.

Credit: NASA/JPL-California Institute of Technology

Comparison with airborne detection

From thousands of feet above the ground, an aircraft’s methane detection equipment is more sensitive, but researchers need advance notice that they will detect methane before the aircraft can be dispatched. Many areas are not explored because they are considered too remote, too dangerous, or too expensive. Furthermore, actual campaigns cover a relatively limited area over a short period of time.

EMIT, on the other hand, will collect data from a space station at an altitude of about 400 kilometers, covering a wide area of ​​the Earth, especially the arid region between 51.6 degrees north and 51.6 degrees south latitude. The imaging spectrometer produces a 50-mile-by-50-mile (80-kilometer-by-80-kilometer) image of the Earth’s surface (researchers call it a “scene”), including many areas that could not be reached with airborne instruments. capture.

“The number and size of methane plumes that EMIT has measured around our planet is astonishing,” said Robert O. Green. JPL Senior Researcher and Principal Investigator at EMIT.

NASA EMIT

We created this time-lapse video showing the International Space Station’s Canadarm2 robotic arm moving NASA’s EMIT mission outside the station. The Dragon spacecraft was launched…

Posted by NASA EMIT on Wednesday, October 26, 2022

Detection by scene

To help identify sources, the EMIT science team created maps of methane plumes and identified them as Websitethe underlying data are available at the NASA and U.S. Geological Survey Joint Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center (LPDAAC). Data from this mission will be available to the public, scientists, and organizations.

EMIT began collecting observations in August 2022 and has since recorded more than 50,000 scenes. The instrument discovered clusters of emission sources in little-studied areas. Southern Uzbekistan On September 1, 2022, we detected 12 methane plumes totaling approximately 49,734 pounds (22,559 kilograms) per hour.

Additionally, the instrument detected a much smaller plume than expected.captured in a secluded corner Southeastern Libya On September 3, 2022, one of the smallest sources to date was emitting 979 pounds (444 kilograms) per hour, based on local wind speed estimates.

Reference: “Attribution of Individual Methane and Carbon Dioxide Sources Using EMIT Observations from Space” Andrew K. Thorpe, Robert O. Green, David R. Thompson, Philip G. Brodrick, John W. Chapman, Clayton D. Elder, Itziar, Iraklis-Leuchert, Daniel H. Cusworth, Alana K. Ayasse, Riley M. Duren, Christian Frankenberg, Louis Gunter, John R. Warden, Philip.・E. Dennison, Dar A. Roberts, K. Dana Chadwick, Michael L. Eastwood, Jay E. Farren and Charles E. Miller, November 17, 2023, scientific progress.

DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adh2391

EMIT mission details

EMIT was selected from the Earth Venture Instrument-4 public offering by NASA’s Science Mission Directorate’s Earth Sciences Division and was developed at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, managed for NASA by the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California. Data from this instrument is publicly available for use by other researchers and the public at the NASA Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center.

Source: scitechdaily.com