Science News

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…

https://phys.org/news/2021-06-source-gw190814-event-black-hole-strange.html JUNE 8, 2021 Could the source of the GW190814 event be a black hole-strange quark star system? On the 14th of August 2019, the LIGO-Virgo collaboration detected a gravitational wave signal believed to be associated with the merging of a binary stellar system composed of a black hole with a mass of 23 times the mass of the sun (M⊙) and a compact object with a mass of about 2.6 M⊙. The nature of GW190814ʼs secondary star is enigmatic, since, according to the current astronomical observations, it could be the heaviest neutron star or the lightest black hole ever observed. Research…

https://phys.org/news/2021-05-tardigrades-survive-impacts-meters.htmlMAY 21, 2021 REPORT the paper: https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/ast.2020.2405 Tardigrade Survival Limits in High-Speed Impacts—Implications for Panspermia and Collection of Samples from Plumes Emitted by Ice Worlds: Abstract The ability of tardigrades to survive impact shocks in the kilometer per second and gigapascal range was investigated. When rocks impact planetary surfaces, the impact speeds and shock pressures are in the kilometer per second and gigapascal range. This investigation tested whether tardigrades can survive in impacts typical of those that occur natur…

https://phys.org/news/2021-05-chinese-cargo-spacecraft-docks-orbital.html Chinese cargo spacecraft docks with orbital station: An automated spacecraft docked with China's new space station Sunday carrying fuel and supplies for its future crew, the Chinese space agency announced. Tianzhou-2 spacecraft reached the Tianhe station eight hours after blasting off from Hainan, an island in the South China Sea, China Manned Space said. It carried space suits, living supplies and equipment and fuel for the station. Tianhe, or Heavenly Harmony, is third and largest orbital station launched by China's increasingly ambition space program. The station's…

https://phys.org/news/2021-05-nihao-mars-china-zhurong-rover.html China lands on Mars in major advance for its space ambitions: In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, members at the Beijing Aerospace Control Center celebrate after China's Tianwen-1 probe successfully landed on Mars, at the center in Beijing, Saturday, May 15, 2021. China landed a spacecraft on Mars for the first time on Saturday, a technically challenging feat more difficult than a moon landing, in the latest advance for its ambitious goals in space. (Jin Liwang/Xinhua via China landed a spacecraft on Mars for the first time on Saturday, a technically challenging feat mo…

https://phys.org/news/2021-05-reveals-microsecond-big.html MAY 21, 2021 Study reveals new details on what happened in the first microsecond of Big Bang: Researchers from University of Copenhagen have investigated what happened to a specific kind of plasma—the first matter ever to be present—during the first microsecond of Big Bang. Their findings provide a piece of the puzzle to the evolution of the universe, as we know it today. About 14 billion years ago, our universe changed from being a lot hotter and denser to expanding radically—a process that scientists have named the Big Bang. And even though we know that this fast expansion created…

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/brazil-e2-80-99s-amazon-has-e2-80-98flipped-e2-80-99-and-now-emits-more-carbon-pollution-than-it-sinks/ar-BB1gjOir?ocid=BingNews

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/nasa-s-juno-mission-expands-into-the-future This view from the JunoCam imager on NASA’s Juno spacecraft shows two storms merging. The two white ovals seen within the orange-colored band left of center are anticyclonic storms – that is, storms that rotate counterclockwise. The image was taken on Dec. 26, 2019. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS Image processing by Tanya Oleksuik, © CC BY The spacecraft, which has been gathering data on the gas giant since July 2016, will become an explorer of the full Jovian system – Jupiter and its rings and moons. NASA has authorized a mission extension for its Juno spacecraf…