Science News

"By tuning into a subset of brain waves, University of Michigan researchers have dramatically reduced the power requirements of neural interfaces while improving their accuracy—a discovery that could lead to long-lasting brain implants that can both treat neurological diseases and enable mind-controlled prosthetics and machines. The team, led by Cynthia Chestek, associate professor of biomedical engineering and core faculty at the Robotics Institute, estimated a 90% drop in power consumption of neural interfaces by utilizing their approach." https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-07-ultra-low-power-brain-implants-meaningful.html?fbclid=IwAR38LWu3r2MrpJOgIRa2…

Interesting article about the development of drug delivery particles that can pass the blood brain barrier. I wonder how much of an impact this could have https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-07-drug-delivery-particles-neurotransmitters-passport.html#:~:text=The%20study%20authors%20made%20use,gain%20access%20throughout%20the%20brain.&text=The%20LNPs%20can%20be%20injected,the%20drugs%20across%20the%20barrier.

The star TYC 8998-760-1 (top center) was photographed with two giant exoplanets (arrows), the first time astronomers have directly imaged more than one planet orbiting a sunlike star. The bright spots above star TYC 8998-760-1 are other stars in the background. BOHN ET AL/ESO https://www.sciencenews.org/article/first-picture-sun-like-star-multiple-exoplanets-astronomy-planets

A 35-mile-long rift opened up in the Ethiopian desert in 2005, the result of tectonic plates slowly spreading the continent apart. https://www.nbcnews.com/science/environment/african-continent-very-slowly-peeling-apart-scientists-say-new-ocean-n1234128

We report the discovery of a new exoplanet candidate orbiting the star GJ 3470. A total of three transits were detected by OKSky Observatory: the first one on December 23, 2019, the second one on February 27, 2020, and the third one on May 3, 2020. We estimate an average transit depth of 0.84 percent and duration of 1 hour and 2 minutes. Based on this parameter, we calculate a radius of 9.2 Earth radii, which would correspond to the size of a Saturn-like exoplanet. We also estimate an orbital period of 66 days that places the exoplanet inside the habitable zone, near the orbital distance at Earths equivalent radiation. Another twelve potential transits that do not belong …

https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-united-states-will-withdraw-from-the-world-health-organization

Wired.com/nuclear power balls

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-07-rna-reversing-mutations-underlying-neurological.html?fbclid=IwAR38JE4SGPC-ODBqRzTmdpenmcsLHHiSbfUa63rZhH42UFk0Lfxg-qPd5vI This sounds to me like a piece of very interesting news. Possibilities of editing RNA is a topic that fascinates me, although I still have to learn a lot about it.

A visualization showing the South Pole Wall, a large cluster of galaxies near the southernmost part of the sky. (Image: © D. Pomarede, R. B. Tully, R. Graziani, H. Courtois, Y. Hoffman, J. Lezmy.) https://www.livescience.com/south-pole-wall-discovered-in-space.html

Astronomers have witnessed for the first time how a large star in one of the neighboring dwarf galaxies, located in the constellation Aquarius, suddenly disappeared from the sky, presumably directly turning into a black hole. This was announced on Tuesday by the press service of the European southern Observatory (ESO). "Such large stars usually produce bright supernova bursts at the end of their lives, which is why the disappearance of this star has become an extremely unusual event for us. If it really directly turned into a black hole, then we are the first direct witnesses of how the life of a giant star ended in such a manner," said Andrew Allan, an astrophysicis…

https://scitechdaily.com/hungry-black-hole-among-the-most-massive-in-the-universe-34-billion-times-the-mass-of-our-sun/

The axion field rapidly runs over the potential barriers and eventually begins oscillations when sufficiently slowed down by friction. Credit: Co & Harigaya https://phys.org/news/2020-06-case-axion-dark-gains-traction.amp

I've just read this... ...and I was wondering if a gas can be "super cooled" and remain as a gas instead of condensing to a liquid (some go straight to a solid IIRC) can the same be true for plasma? Hopefully they might get some more interesting results with their research in to quantum level collisions, gravitational waves and the equivalency principle. I guess working in microgravity will be the next big milestone in our understanding of these things. Interesting times ahead. https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24632862-300-exotic-fifth-state-of-matter-made-on-the-international-space-station/

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-53151106

https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/scientists-prove-decades-old-theory-suggesting-extremely-odd-physics-about-black-holes-1679850

Some potential challenges with regard to immunity. Most patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 showed diminished IgGs (antibodies produced against the virus) after ~2 months of after discharge from the hospital. About 40% became seronegative (no antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 detected). https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-020-0965-6 This might put a dent into hopes that infected folks remain immune for an extended amount of time and could make vaccinations more critical. The study was based on 37 symptomatic and 37 asymptomatic patients, so more studies are going to be critical.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/may/31/nasa-spacex-dragon-crew-capsule-docks-international-space-station

This was posted to the [IOP Science](https://iopscience.iop.org/) website today (18th June 2020). https://ioppublishing.org/news/iop-publishing-joins-forces-with-other-publishers-to-make-research-publishing-more-inclusive-and-diverse/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/startswithabang/2020/06/17/is-it-dark-matter-mystery-signal-goes-bump-in-worlds-most-sensitive-detector/ Another article here: https://www.quantamagazine.org/dark-matter-experiment-finds-unexplained-signal-20200617/ And a Twitter thread from one of the physicists involved:

An interesting piece from the Guardian. The Overton window continues to open. "They may not be little green men. They may not arrive in a vast spaceship. But according to new calculations there could be more than 30 intelligent civilisations in our galaxy today capable of communicating with others." “I think it is extremely important and exciting because for the first time we really have an estimate for this number of active intelligent, communicating civilisations that we potentially could contact and find out there is other life in the universe – something that has been a question for thousands of years and is still not answered,” said Christopher Co…

Read more at: https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/ai-learns-from-lung-ct-scans-to-diagnose-covid-19-67625 Although the initial wave of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has abated in many countries, healthcare providers are still looking to identify as many COVID-19 patients as possible and contain the disease. Fast and accurate diagnosis is especially important when unsuspecting patients with a coronavirus infection come to the hospital with health complaints but don’t yet show symptoms of COVID-19. Nasal swab samples analyzed by RT-PCR are currently recommended for the diagnosis of COVID-19, however, supply shortages, a wait time of up to two days for results, a…

https://phys.org/news/2020-06-astrophysicists-cornerstone-einstein-theory-relativity.html

This article is interesting for the very different tactic of protecting mosquitos from malaria in order to protect people.

Detecting Exoplanets and Asteroids: First Citizen Science Successes for Backyard Astronomy Found this on Twitter and sharing here as it may be of interest, https://unistellaroptics.com/detecting-exoplanets-and-asteroids-first-citizen-science-successes-for-backyard-astronomy/ Great the citizen science is making a real contribution. Hope this is interesting Paul

But the best bit is the title: Your Brain Is Not an Onion With a Tiny Reptile Inside https://journals.sagepub.com/eprint/TWK8BX6W2M4FFRTYXBZD/full