Science News

NASA reports hydrated clay like minerals have been detected by the OSIRIS-Rex spacecraft on the asteroid Bennu. This could mean the asteroid was once part of a larger object. https://www.sciencealert.com/nasa-just-found-signs-of-water-on-an-asteroid

Nice development. Always thought that the constant tapping of rain could be utilised. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/mar/13/rain-or-shine-new-solar-cell-captures-energy-from-raindrops

Tidal and Hydro power are surely an underutilised resource: https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/scotland-floating-turbine-tidal-power-record-sr2000-scotrenewables-ofgem-a8503221.html With the reliability of tides, you would presume that more countries would be investing heavily and rapidly in this technology.

Quantum entanglement has been subject to many experiments at subparticle scale. But when it goes to human scale, we are approaching the science fiction realm; the so called teleportation. https://theconversation.com/experiment-shows-einsteins-quantum-spooky-action-approaches-the-human-scale-95372

Baboons are used as pre-clinical models for transplanting pig hearts, but they don’t live long after a transplant. Now, improvements to the process have kept baboons alive for three times as long as before, promising better research in pre-clinical studies of human heart transplants, too. research: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0765-z

Do you see any promising future for these vortex bladeless electricity generators ? Production costs against power generation capability ? How solid technology can this become ? ----> https://vortexbladeless.com/technology-design/ (Please move to 'Engineering' if better deserved)

Pakistan could "run dry" by 2025 as its water shortage is reaching an alarming level. The authorities remain negligent about the crisis that's posing a serious threat to the country's stability, reports Shah Meer Baloch. According to a recent report by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Pakistan ranks third in the world among countries facing acute water shortage. https://www.dw.com/en/water-crisis-why-is-pakistan-running-dry/a-44110280

https://phys.org/news/2018-12-greenland-ice-sheet-centuries.html Greenland ice sheet melt 'off the charts' compared with past four centuries December 5, 2018, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Surface melting across Greenland's mile-thick ice sheet began increasing in the mid-19th century and then ramped up dramatically during the 20th and early 21st centuries, showing no signs of abating, according to new research published Dec. 5, 2018, in the journal Nature. The study provides new evidence of the impacts of climate change on Arctic melting and global sea level rise. "Melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet has gone into overdrive. As a result, Gree…

https://phys.org/news/2018-12-mantle-neon-illuminates-earth-formation.html The Earth formed relatively quickly from the cloud of dust and gas around the Sun, trapping water and gases in the planet's mantle, according to research published Dec. 5 in the journal Nature. Apart from settling Earth's origins, the work could help in identifying extrasolar systems that could support habitable planets. Drawing on data from the depths of the Earth to deep space, University of California Davis Professor Sujoy Mukhopadhyay and postdoctoral researcher Curtis Williams used neon isotopes to show how the planet formed. "We're trying to understand where and how the neon in…

https://phys.org/news/2018-12-inosine-potential-route-rna-life.html Inosine could be a potential route to the first RNA and the origin of life on Earth December 3, 2018, Harvard University: Somewhere in the hostile environment of early Earth, life was born. Credit: Harvard University Our prehistoric Earth, bombarded with asteroids and lightening, rife with bubbling geothermal pools, may not seem hospitable today. But somewhere in the chemical chaos of our early planet, life did form. How? For decades, scientists have attempted to create miniature replicas of infant Earth in the lab. There, they hunt for the primordial ingredients that created the …

https://phys.org/news/2018-12-vacuum.html The vacuum fluctuations of light (yellow wave) are amplified in an optical cavity (upper and lower reflecting mirrors). Crystal lattice vibrations (red atoms) at a two-dimensional interface surf this strong light wave. The thus mixed light-vibrational waves couple particularly strongly to electrons in a two-dimensional atomically thin material (green and yellow atoms), changing its properties. Credit: J. M. Harms, MPSD Scientists from the Theory Department of the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter (MPSD) at the Center for Free-Electron Laser Science (CFEL) in Hamburg, Germany have shown th…

https://phys.org/news/2018-12-saturn-satellites-earth-moon-phoebe.html The water in Saturn's rings and satellites is like that on Earth except for moon Phoebe, which is out of this world December 3, 2018, Planetary Science Institute Above image lower left: Cassini VIMS infrared view of Saturn. Blue is infrared light where water ice reflects relatively brightly. Red is longer wavelength thermal emission showing heat from deep inside the planet. Green is infrared wavelengths where aurora emit light. Above image upper right: Phoebe in visible light. Phoebe is very dark, like charcoal whereas the rings are very bright in visible light like slightly dirty sn…

https://phys.org/news/2018-11-probing-quantum-physics-macroscopic-scale.html Why does quantum mechanics work so well for microscopic objects, yet macroscopic objects are described by classical physics? This question has bothered physicists since the development of quantum theory more than 100 years ago. Researchers at Delft University of Technology and the University of Vienna have now devised a macroscopic system that exhibits entanglement between mechanical phonons and optical photons. They tested the entanglement using a Bell test, one of the most convincing and important tests to show a system behaves non-classically. Ever since its inception more than 100 yea…

https://phys.org/news/2018-11-black-hole-donuts-fountains.html Black hole 'donuts' are actually 'fountains' November 30, 2018, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan Based on computer simulations and new observations from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), researchers have found that the rings of gas surrounding active supermassive black holes are not simple donut shapes. Instead, gas expelled from the center interacts with infalling gas to create a dynamic circulation pattern, similar to a water fountain in a city park. Most galaxies host a supermassive black hole, millions or billions of times as heavy as the Sun, in their c…

https://phys.org/news/2018-10-mars-oxygen-life.html alty water just below the surface of Mars could hold enough oxygen to support the kind of microbial life that emerged and flourished on Earth billions of years ago, researchers reported Monday. In some locations, the amount of oxygen available could even keep alive a primitive, multicellular animal such as a sponge, they reported in the journal Nature Geosciences. "We discovered that brines"—water with high concentrations of salt—"on Mars can contain enough oxygen for microbes to breathe," said lead author Vlada Stamenkovic, a theoretical physicist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. "This…

On 26 November, NASA’s InSight mission will attempt to touch down near the Martian equator. If it arrives safely, it will embark on the first mission dedicated to listening for seismic energy rippling through the red planet. Any ‘marsquakes’ it detects could yield clues to the planet’s mysterious interior, including how it is separated into a core, mantle and crust. Whatever scientists learn about Mars’s innards could help illuminate how our own planet evolved billions of years ago. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-07482-y

The first spacecraft to collect Martian rocks for eventual return to Earth will explore Jezero crater, NASA announced on 19 November. Jezero is a 45-kilometre-wide crater that was once filled with water, where Martian life could have thrived. “Getting samples from this unique area will revolutionize how we think about Mars and its ability to harbour life,” says Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA’s associate administrator for science, who chose Jezero over three other finalists. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-07472-0

https://phys.org/news/2018-11-evidence-reveals-heavy-elements-big.html The Big Bang theory and the question of how life on Earth began has fascinated scientists for decades, but now new research from The University of Western Australia suggests the conditions that resulted from the Big Bang are different to what we thought. extract: "It is traditionally considered that turbulence was the mechanism for energy transfer and accumulation which resulted in chemicals being formed in the supernova," Professor Abarzhi said. "However our research has revealed it wasn't turbulent but actually a slow process where hot spots of energy were localised and trapped, result…

The Paris Agreement promotes forest management as a pathway towards halting climate warming through the reduction of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. However, the climate benefits from carbon sequestration through forest management may be reinforced, counteracted or even offset by concurrent management-induced changes in surface albedo, land-surface roughness, emissions of biogenic volatile organic compounds, transpiration and sensible heat flux. Consequently, forest management could offset CO2 emissions without halting global temperature rise. It therefore remains to be confirmed whether commonly proposed sustainable European forest-management portfolios would comply with…

A 3,500-kilogram mammal nicknamed the Siberian unicorn for the long horn that jutted from its forehead became extinct surprisingly recently. Elasmotherium sibiricum, a rhinoceros that roamed the steppes of central Asia, was the last surviving member of its subfamily. To determine when the species became extinct — an event previously estimated to have occurred 200,000 years ago — researchers led by Adrian Lister at the Natural History Museum in London applied radiocarbon dating to the remains of 23 individuals. This revealed that the most recent specimens may have died only 35,000 years ago.https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-07543-2

A new satellite, intended to be one of a network of monitoring satellites with 6m resolution capability. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-46312874 First images from Sydeny Harbour, The Pyramids and marine locations.

A very cool animation of the black holes that created the first detected gravitational waves (a simulation, not an "artists impression")

https://phys.org/news/2018-11-huge-quake-edges-zealand-islands.html Huge quake edges New Zealand islands closer together November 24, 2018: The Kaikoura earthquake raced north from the middle of New Zealand's South Island towards Cook Strait covering 170 kilometres in about 74 seconds A destructive earthquake that struck New Zealand two years ago has left its two main islands edging towards each other, and one city sinking, according to scientists. But the margins are minimal with the gap between the North and South islands narrowing a mere 35 centimetres (13 and a half inches), while Nelson at the top of the South Island has sunk by up to 20 mill…

https://phys.org/news/2018-11-alma-highest-frequency-scientific-result.html#jCp ALMA's highest frequency receiver produces its first scientific result on massive star formation: November 22, 2018, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan: The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) has tuned in another new channel for signals from space. Using its highest frequency receivers yet, researchers obtained 695 radio signatures for various molecules, including simple sugar, in the direction of a massive star forming region. These first scientific results from the ALMA Band 10 receivers developed in Japan ensure a promising future for high frequenc…

https://phys.org/news/2018-11-climate-simulations-wetter-windier-hurricanes.html Climate simulations project wetter, windier hurricanesNovember 14, 2018, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory New supercomputer simulations by climate scientists at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have shown that climate change intensified the amount of rainfall in recent hurricanes such as Katrina, Irma, and Maria by 5 to 10 percent. They further found that if those hurricanes were to occur in a future world that is warmer than present, those storms would have even more rainfall and stronger winds. Read more at: https://phys.org/n…