Science News

https://phys.org/news/2021-11-physicists-neutrinos-large-hadron-collider.html Physicists detect signs of neutrinos at Large Hadron Collider: The FASER particle detector that received CERN approval to be installed at the Large Hadron Collider in 2019 has recently been augmented with an instrument to detect neutrinos. The UCI-led FASER team used a smaller detector of the same type in 2018 to make the first observations of the elusive particles generated at a collider. The new instrument will be able to detect thousands of neutrino interactions over the next three years, the researchers say. Credit: CERN The international Forward Search Experiment…

https://phys.org/news/2021-11-social-scientists-replication-capable-beliefs.html Testing social scientists with replication studies shows them capable of changing their beliefs: A team of researchers from the University of Alabama, the University of Melbourne and the University of California has found that social scientists are able to change their beliefs regarding the outcome of an experiment when given the chance. In a paper published in the journal Nature Human Behavior, the group describes how they tested the ability of scientists to change their beliefs about a scientific idea when shown evidence of replicability. Michael Gordon and Thomas Pfeifer with Mas…

https://phys.org/news/2021-11-pandemic-amazon-rainforest-clues.html The Amazon rainforest offers troubling clues: extracts: In the three decades since Darah Lady's widowed grandmother first arrived in this remote stretch of northern Brazil, clearing the jungle by hand to build a house for her 14 children, the family has pushed deeper and deeper into the Amazon. It has been driven by the frontier maxim that prosperity comes when nature succumbs to human dominion. Yet their growing outpost in northeastern Amazonas state—one of thousands of informal settlements throughout the world's largest rainforest—could imperil not only their children's future but al…

https://phys.org/news/2021-11-absolutely-bonkers-mars-artificial-magnetosphere.html Terraforming Mars is one of the great dreams of humanity. Mars has a lot going for it. Its day is about the same length as Earth's, it has plenty of frozen water just under its surface, and it likely could be given a reasonably breathable atmosphere in time. But one of the things it lacks is a strong magnetic field. So if we want to make Mars a second Earth, we'll have to give it an artificial one. The reason magnetic fields are so important is that they shield a planet from solar wind and ionizing particles. Earth's magnetic field prevents most high-energy charged particles from…

https://phys.org/news/2021-09-game-changer-hydrogen-production.html Graphical abstract. Credit: DOI: 10.1016/j.nanoen.2021.106463: Curtin University research has identified a new, cheaper and more efficient electrocatalyst to make green hydrogen from water that could one day open new avenues for large-scale clean energy production. Typically, scientists have been using precious metal catalysts, such as platinum, to accelerate the reaction to break water into hydrogen and oxygen. Now Curtin research has found that adding nickel and cobalt to cheaper, previously ineffective catalysts enhances their performance, which lowers the energy required to…

"Elemental carbon exists in different structural forms including graphite, diamond, fullerenes, and amorphous carbon. In nature, these materials are produced through abiotic chemical processes under high temperature and pressure but are considered generally inaccessible to biochemical synthesis or breakdown. Here, we identified and characterized elemental carbon isolated from consortia of anaerobic methanotrophic archaea (ANME) and sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB), which together carry out the anaerobic oxidation of methane (AOM)." "In addition, we found that select methanogens also produce amorphous carbon with similar characteristics to the carbon from AOM consortia…

https://phys.org/news/2021-11-longest-lunar-eclipse-centuries-week.html The longest lunar eclipse in centuries will happen this week, NASA says: You can see the longest partial lunar eclipse in hundreds of years this week. The "nearly total" lunar eclipse is expected overnight Thursday, Nov. 18, to Friday, Nov. 19, NASA said. "The Moon will be so close to opposite the Sun on Nov 19 that it will pass through the southern part of the shadow of the Earth for a nearly total lunar eclipse," NASA said on its website. The eclipse will last 3 hours, 28 minutes and 23 seconds, making it the longest in centuries, Space.com reported. more at link.......…

https://phys.org/news/2021-11-space-junk-station-astronauts-docked.html Space junk sends station astronauts into docked capsules: Space junk threatened the seven astronauts aboard the International Space Station on Monday and forced them to seek shelter in their docked capsules. The U.S. Space Command said it was tracking a field of orbiting debris, the apparent result of some type of satellite break-up. The astronauts retreated into their docked capsules early Monday, after being told of the last-minute threat. Mission Control had them close the hatches between the space station compartments again later in the day, as a safety precaution. "We are…

While it is not entirely unknown in birds, it is still interesting to see examples. As in this case, Californian Condors were found to reproduce without input from males, though one was present. https://academic.oup.com/jhered/advance-article/doi/10.1093/jhered/esab052/6412509

https://www.fastcompany.com/90687369/this-ingenious-wall-could-harness-enough-wind-power-to-cover-your-electric-bill I've run across art projects that pretended to be science over the years and didn't stand up to scrutiny, and this has a faint whiff of that given the lack of any detailed analysis. But it's an intriguing idea 20 mph wind is about 600 Watts/m^2 so even if you are only harvesting 10% of that energy, a 10m^2 wall gives you 600 W of electricity. 24 hours of that per day gives you 14.4 kWh, which is only about half of what's claimed, but my assumption of only harvesting 10% of the energy could be too low*. Seems like the ballpark is that the…

https://www.space.com/james-webb-space-telescope-deployments-video NASA's James Webb Space Telescope will face '29 days on the edge' after launch (video) The observatory will have to make about 50 major deployments after liftoff. NASA's newest space telescope will face 29 "harrowing" days after launch as it makes its way to a deep-space destination nearly 1 million miles (1.6 million km) from Earth, the agency says in a new YouTube video. The video, called "29 Days on the Edge," was released Monday (Oct. 18). It focuses on the journey and 50 expected deployments the James Webb Space Telescope will undergo after its expected launch on Dec. 18. The…

https://phys.org/news/2021-10-team-approach-unveil-life-evaporation.html Team discovers a new approach to unveil the Origin of Life: Evaporation: The image shows the evaporation-induced phase separation process inside an all-aqueous sessile droplet (Scale bar: 500 microns). The droplet is initially single-phase with PEG (Polyethylene glycol) and dextran dissolved. Upon evaporation, the concentration of PEG and dextran increases and incompatibility arises, forming tiny dextran-rich droplets (green fluorescently labelled) dispersed in the continuous PEG-rich phase. These tiny dextran-rich droplets move towards the center of the sessile droplet with the inwar…

https://phys.org/news/2021-09-chinese-astronauts-earth-day-mission.html The launch of Beijing's first crewed mission in nearly five years coincided with the 100th anniversary of the ruling Communist Party. Three Chinese astronauts returned to Earth Friday after completing the country's longest-ever crewed mission, the latest landmark in Beijing's drive to become a major space power. The capsule carrying the trio deployed its parachute and landed in the Gobi desert at 1:34 pm local time (0534 GMT). "It feels very good to be back!," Tang Hongbo told state broadcaster CCTV after the 90-day mission, a record for China. "I want to say dad,…

This is the meat of the linked article from Quanta Magazine. Anybody interested in discussing this idea ?

The crew offshore in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch achieved our largest ocean plastic catch to date in a single extraction with System 002 on September 22nd 2021. This load amounts to 3.8 tons and concludes the last short test of the campaign. The next weeks will see the crew putting the system to longer tests, potentially harvesting significantly more. While we look forward to bigger catches, the reactions of the crew members as the deck gets filled with trash are already an indication of how close we are to proving the capacity and efficiency of our latest system. To learn more and support the cleanup, visit: https://bit.ly/3leiT33 Another interesting vide…

The Efficacy of Fecal Microbiota Transplantation for Children With Tourette Syndrome: A Preliminary Study (Dec 2020, n = 5) https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2020.554441/full At least 25% reduction in Tourette symptoms after a single FMT

https://phys.org/news/2021-10-nobel-prize-physics-awarded-scientists.html Physics Nobel rewards work on complex systems, like climate Secretary General of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Goran Hansson, center, flanked at left by member of the Nobel Committee for Physics Thors Hans Hansson, left, and member of the Nobel Committee for Physics John Wettlaufer, right, announces the winners of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Physics at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, in Stockholm, Sweden, Tuesday, Oct. 5, 2021. The Nobel Prize for physics has been awarded to scientists from Japan, Germany and Italy. Syukuro Manabe and Kl…

On what date of 2021, the nobel prize in medicine being announced.

https://phys.org/news/2021-09-sky-year-old-brazilian-girl-dubbed.html Head in the sky: 8-year-old Brazilian girl dubbed world's youngest astronomer When Nicole Oliveira was just learning to walk, she would throw up her arms to reach for the stars in the sky. Today, at just eight years of age, the Brazilian girl is known as the world's youngest astronomer, looking for asteroids as part of a NASA-affiliated program, attending international seminars and meeting with her country's top space and science figures. extract: "Beaming with pride, Nicolinha told AFP she has already found 18 asteroids. "I will give them the names of Brazilia…

https://plus.maths.org/content/galileo-and-science-deniers Galileo and the Science Deniers by Mario Livio: The title is the name of a book by Mario Livio [have heard of him somewhere] and an account on the life and times of Galileo, and a review of book, Galileo and Mario. I will be making an effort to obtain it as my next read. The followings are extracts from the review that gelled with me.... in a famous quote from Galileo: "I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use." It took a long time, but today Galileo has been vindicated even in the eyes of…

New findings at Whitesands https://ww Earliest definitive evidence of people in Americas By Paul Rincon Science editor, BBC News website Published 2 hours ago image source, Bournemouth University image captionThe footprints belonged to teenagers and children who lived between 23,000 and 21,000 years ago Humans reached the Americas at least 7,000 years earlier than previously thought, according to new findings. w.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-58638854

https://phys.org/news/2021-09-spacex-tourist-crew-healthy-happy.html SpaceX's tourist crew 'healthy, happy and resting': Extract: Its main goal, however, is to prove that space is accessible to ordinary people as the United States and private companies like SpaceX seek to further commercialize the cosmos. :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: OK, don't get me wrong, as personally I would jump at the chance to be a part of something like this. But I can't help thinking, shouldn't an astronaut/professional be part of the payload? Great to see automation and remote control from E…

https://phys.org/news/2021-09-black-holes-exert-pressure-environment.html Black holes found to exert a pressure on their environment: Physicists at the University of Sussex have discovered that black holes exert a pressure on their environment, in a scientific first. In 1974 Stephen Hawking made the seminal discovery that black holes emit thermal radiation. Previous to that, black holes were believed to be inert, the final stages of a dying heavy star. The University of Sussex scientists have shown that they are in fact even more complex thermodynamic systems, with not only a temperature but also a pressure. The serendipitous discover…

https://phys.org/news/2021-09-nasa-space-telescope-december.html NASA's next space telescope to launch in December: The James Webb Space Telescope, which astronomers hope will herald a new era of discovery, will launch on December 18, NASA said Wednesday. more at link....

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/study-measuring-earths-vital-signs-warns-climate-tipping-points-180978320/ Study Measuring Earth’s Vital Signs Warns of Climate Tipping Points: The authors say tropical coral reefs, the Amazon rainforest, and the West Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets may have passed dangerous tipping points: This map shows how land and ocean temperatures have changed from June 2021 relative to the 1951-1980 base period. High values (darker red colors) indicate temperatures that are higher than those in the base period. The number in the top right is an estimate of the global mean temperature increase. All temperatures are in…