Science News

Excerpt: The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has announced that it has successfully demonstrated the operation of a “rotating detonation engine” for the first time in space. The novelty of the technologies in question is that such systems obtain a large amount of thrust by using much less fuel compared to conventional rocket engines, which is quite advantageous for space exploration. Source: https://www.inceptivemind.com/japan-tests-rotating-detonation-engine-first-time-space/20698/

https://newatlas.com/physics/gravitational-waves-dark-matter-black-hole/ Never-before-detected gravitational waves hint at dark matter: A new type of gravitational wave detector running in Western Australia has recorded two rare events that might be signals of dark matter or primordial black holes. These high-frequency gravitational waves are beyond the range of most detectors and have never been recorded before. Gravitational waves are ripples in the very fabric of spacetime, first predicted by Einstein over a century ago but not directly detected until 2015. In the years since, dozens of detections have been made, mostly by facilities like LIGO, which can …

Testing double use for the road. The intention is to not use farming fields. Do not know what to comment. 😐

This looks like no hype at all. My feeling is that this has the makings of a real breakthrough in quantum computing. The possible implications for investigations in climate models, protein-folding, virology models, etc. are mouth-watering. I can't wait for the moment when this chip is finally built. https://phys.org/news/2021-08-critical-advance-quantum.html?fbclid=IwAR2mj_PP9NqXylVALnJQSbysOxzwF4HnU9_zFeNVTBiflnSrTq8phZdNUe0

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/steven-weinberg-nobel-winning-physicist-who-united-principal-forces-of-nature-dies-at-88/2021/07/26/75d8d24a-ee31-11eb-bf80-e3877d9c5f06_story.html Nobel-Prize-winning Steven Weinberg dies at 88. One of the makers of the standard model. His influence in the world of physics in the second half of the 20th century has been only comparable to that of giants as Feynman, Gell-Mann, and 't Hooft. His books Dreams of a Final Theory and The First Three Minutes are a must-read for anybody willing to understand physics and how physicists think. He was notorious for his view of a universe without a purpose. …

On June 7, 2021, NASA’s Juno spacecraft flew closer to Jupiter’s ice-encrusted moon Ganymede than any spacecraft in more than two decades. Less than a day later, Juno made its 34th flyby of Jupiter. This animation provides a “starship captain” point of view of each flyby. For both worlds, JunoCam images were orthographically projected onto a digital sphere and used to create the flyby animation. Synthetic frames were added to provide views of approach and departure for both Ganymede and Jupiter.

Seems like an interesting story " Instead of regularly repeating rows of atoms, a time crystal would exhibit regularly repeating motion." https://www.newscientist.com/article/2119804-worlds-first-time-crystals-cooked-up-using-new-recipe/ http://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.118.030401

The following is probably a well known, scientifically based story, about a time when the Earth suffered an almighty blow. It is lengthy, very lengthy, and at the same time detailed, very detailed. I actually followed it by the audio reproduction, which I recommend to others. As I said, very detailed and descriptive, and for an amateur novice such as myself, some of it quite revealing. Hope all take the time to listen and/or read..... https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/04/08/the-day-the-dinosaurs-died?itm_content=footer-recirc The Day the Dinosaurs Died: By Douglas Preston March 29, 2019 ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::…

https://phys.org/news/2021-07-collisions-matterantimatter-pure-energy.html Collisions of light produce matter/antimatter from pure energy: Scientists studying particle collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC)—a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science user facility for nuclear physics research at DOE's Brookhaven National Laboratory—have produced definitive evidence for two physics phenomena predicted more than 80 years ago. The results were derived from a detailed analysis of more than 6,000 pairs of electrons and positrons produced in glancing particle collisions at RHIC and are published in Physical Review Letters. The primary finding …

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-57670006

https://phys.org/news/2021-07-methane-plumes-saturn-moon-enceladus.html An unknown methane-producing process is likely at work in the hidden ocean beneath the icy shell of Saturn's moon Enceladus, suggests a new study published in Nature Astronomy by scientists at the University of Arizona and Paris Sciences & Lettres University. Giant water plumes erupting from Enceladus have long fascinated scientists and the public alike, inspiring research and speculation about the vast ocean that is believed to be sandwiched between the moon's rocky core and its icy shell. Flying through the plumes and sampling their chemical makeup, the Cassini spacecraft detected a re…

https://phys.org/news/2021-07-massive-explosion-mystery-star.html New type of massive explosion explains mystery star: A massive explosion from a previously unknown source—10 times more energetic than a supernova—could be the answer to a 13-billion-year-old Milky Way mystery. Astronomers led by David Yong, Gary Da Costa and Chiaki Kobayashi from Australia's ARC Centre of Excellence in All Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions (ASTRO 3D) based at the Australian National University (ANU) have potentially discovered the first evidence of the destruction of a collapsed rapidly spinning star—a phenomenon they describe as a "magneto-rotational hypernova". …

https://phys.org/news/2021-07-earth-cryosphere-square-kilometers-year.html The global cryosphere—all of the areas with frozen water on Earth—shrank by about 87,000 square kilometers (about 33,000 square miles, an area about the size of Lake Superior) per year on average between 1979 and 2016, as a result of climate change, according to a new study. This research is the first to make a global estimate of the surface area of the Earth covered by sea ice, snow cover and frozen ground. The extent of land covered by frozen water is just as important as its mass because the bright white surface reflects sunlight so effectively, cooling the planet. Changes in the size …

https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/tdm/clock/index.html Deep Space Atomic Clock (DSAC) Since the 1950s, the gold standard for timekeeping has been ground-based atomic clocks. These clocks measure very stable and precise frequencies of light emitted by specific atoms, using them to regulate the time kept by more traditional mechanical, quartz crystal clocks. This results in a clock system that can remain ultra-stable over decades. While ground-based atomic clocks are phenomenally accurate, their designs are too bulky, power hungry and sensitive to environmental variations to be practical for spacefli…

One of my favorite aquarium fish! I've known for a long time they we special from their behaviors but this video suggests they actually talk. The details are too complex for me to do it justice but the video explains it very well and provides links to the papers the video author uses to make his video. The fish had the biggest brain to body ratio in the vertebrate kingdom and uses electrical impulses to communicate in a way that suggests language. The fishes cerebellum is extra large as well. These fish live in murky water and they school so they communicate to keep the school together but other impulses mimic actual conversations. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morm…

https://phys.org/news/2021-07-physicists-observationally-hawking-black-hole.html Physicists observationally confirm Hawking's black hole theorem for the first time: There are certain rules that even the most extreme objects in the universe must obey. A central law for black holes predicts that the area of their event horizons—the boundary beyond which nothing can ever escape—should never shrink. This law is Hawking's area theorem, named after physicist Stephen Hawking, who derived the theorem in 1971. Fifty years later, physicists at MIT and elsewhere have now confirmed Hawking's area theorem for the first time, using observations of gravitational wa…

https://phys.org/news/2021-06-hubble-space-telescope-science-halted.html Computer trouble hits Hubble Space Telescope, science halted: The Hubble Space Telescope has been hit with computer trouble, with all astronomical viewing halted, NASA said Wednesday. The orbiting observatory has been idle since Sunday when a 1980s-era computer that controls the science instruments shut down, possibly because of a bad memory board. Flight controllers at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland tried to restart the computer Monday, but the same thing happened. They're now trying to switch to a backup memory unit. If that works, the telescope will be tested fo…

Developing a standard vaccine for coronavirus will take at least a few months - what might be too late. However, its sequence is already known, and is nearly identical - suggesting recent single point of origin for human host. So the question is if/how there could be quickly started production of some provisional vaccine - not perfect but fast to introduce? Also exploiting the fact that these viruses are now nearly identical. For example synthesizing its outside proteins and putting them on liposomes - would its introduction to blood have a chance to prepare immune system for the real virus?

https://phys.org/news/2021-06-massive-protocluster-merging-galaxies-early.html A massive protocluster of merging galaxies in the early universe: Submillimeter galaxies (SMGs) are a class of the most luminous, distant, and rapidly star-forming galaxies known and can shine brighter than a trillion Suns (about one hundred times more luminous in total than the Milky Way). They are generally hard to detect in the visible, however, because most of their ultraviloet and optical light is absorbed by dust which in turn is heated and radiates at submillimeter wavelengths—the reason they are called submillimeter galaxies. The power source for these galaxies is thought to b…

Here's another.....https://newatlas.com/energy/seaborg-floating-nuclear-reactor-barge/ Copenhagen startup Seaborg Technologies has raised an eight-figure sum of Euros to start building a fascinating new type of cheap, portable, flexible and super-safe nuclear reactor. The size of a shipping container, these Compact Molten Salt Reactors will be rapidly mass-manufactured in their thousands, then placed on floating barges to be deployed worldwide – on timelines that will smash paradigms in the energy industry. Like other molten salt reactors, which have been around since the 1950s, they're designed to minimize the consequences of accidents, with a pair of very neat…

https://phys.org/news/2021-06-world-powerful-magnet-ready-ship.html World's most powerful magnet ready to ship: After a decade of design and fabrication, General Atomics is ready to ship the first module of the Central Solenoid, the world's most powerful magnet. It will become a central component of ITER, a machine that replicates the fusion power of the sun. ITER is being built in southern France by 35 partner countries. ITER's mission is to prove energy from hydrogen fusion can be created and controlled on earth. Fusion energy is carbon-free, safe and economic. The materials to power society with hydrogen fusion for millions of years are readily abundant.…

https://phys.org/news/2021-06-seed-black-hole-dark-halo.html Study points to a seed black hole produced by a dark matter halo collapse Supermassive black holes, or SMBHs, are black holes with masses that are several million to billion times the mass of our sun. The Milky Way hosts an SMBH with mass a few million times the solar mass. Surprisingly, astrophysical observations show that SMBHs already existed when the universe was very young. For example, a billion solar mass black holes are found when the universe was just 6% of its current age, 13.7 billion years. How do these SMBHs in the early universe originate? A team led by a theoretical physicist at the…

https://phys.org/news/2021-06-robot-chemist-insight-life.html Robot chemist offers insight into the origins of life: A robotic 'evolution machine' capable of exploring the generational development of chemical mixtures over long periods of time could help cast new light on the origins of life, scientists say. team of chemists from the University of Glasgow developed the robot, which uses a machine-learning algorithm to make decisions about which chemicals from a selection of 18 to combine in a reactor, and how to set conditions under which the reaction occurs. The robot is capable of running the experiments on its own, with minimal human supervision. T…

https://newatlas.com/materials/thermally-stable-zte-advanced-material Extraordinary new material shows zero heat expansion from 4 to 1,400 K: By Loz Blain June 11, 2021 Australian researchers have created what may be one of the most thermally stable materials ever discovered. This new zero thermal expansion (ZTE) material made of scandium, aluminum, tungsten and oxygen did not change in volume at temperatures ranging from 4 to 1400 Kelvin (-269 to 1126 °C, -452 to 2059 °F). That's a wider range of temperatures, say scientists from the University of New South Wales (UNSW), than any other material demonstrated to date, and it could make ortho…

https://phys.org/news/2021-06-subatomic-particle-antiparticle.html Subatomic particle seen changing to antiparticle and back: Physicists have proved that a subatomic particle can switch into its antiparticle alter-ego and back again, in a new discovery revealed today. The extraordinarily precise measurement was made by UK researchers using the Large Hadron Collider beauty (LHCb) experiment at CERN. It has provided the first evidence that charm mesons can change into their antiparticle and back again. Mixing phenomenon For more than 10 years, scientists have known that charm mesons, subatomic particles that contain a quark and an antiqu…