Science News

https://phys.org/news/2018-05-ancient-scientists-climate-deep.html Earth's orbital changes have influenced climate, life forms for at least 215 million years May 7, 2018, Columbia University Scientists drilling deep into ancient rocks in the Arizona desert say they have documented a gradual shift in Earth's orbit that repeats regularly every 405,000 years, playing a role in natural climate swings. Astrophysicists have long hypothesized that the cycle exists based on calculations of celestial mechanics, but the authors of the new research have found the first verifiable physical evidence. They showed that the cycle has been stable for hundreds of millions…

Hubble still doing work http://www.spacetelescope.org/news/heic1809/

Fascinating. A whole new communication method has been discovered between cells: tunnelling nanotubes. https://www.quantamagazine.org/cells-talk-and-help-one-another-via-tiny-tube-networks-20180423/

Archaeologists find ancient mass child sacrifice in Peru April 30, 2018 by Franklin Briceno This April 22, 2011 handout photo provided by National Geographic shows more than a dozen bodies preserved in dry sand for more than 500 years, at the Huanchaquito-Las Llamas site near Trujillo, Peru. Researchers reported that, "except for three adult burials (two females and one male), all the human skeletal remains were of children, ranging in age from approximately five to fourteen years, with the majority falling in the range of eight to twelve years of age." (Gabriel Prieto/National Geographic via AP) Archaeologists in northe…

Hi folks, I saw this in the news yesterday and thought it would be worth posting in case anyone here missed it. Scientists have observed advanced galactic forms over 12 billion years old which is apparently a first. https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/techandscience/the-largest-thing-in-the-universe-cosmic-collision-12bn-years-ago-created-mega-galaxy/ar-AAwlpr5 link to a U.K. news agency.

https://phys.org/news/2018-04-team-aims-nasa-telescope-capture.html Team aims to use new NASA telescope to capture light from the first stars to be born in the universe About 200 to 400 million years after the Big Bang created the universe, the first stars began to appear. Ordinarily stars lying at such a great distance in space and time would be out of reach even for NASA's new James Webb Space Telescope, due for launch in 2020. However, astronomers at Arizona State University are leading a team of scientists who propose that with good timing and some luck, the Webb Space Telescope will be able to capture light from the first stars to be born in the u…

https://phys.org/news/2018-04-blocks-life-space.html How the building blocks of life may form in space April 25, 2018, American Institute of Physics Low-energy electrons, created in matter by space radiation (e.g., galactic cosmic rays, GCR, etc.), can induce formation of glycine (2HN-CH2-COOH) in astrophysical molecular ices; here, icy grains of interstellar dust (or ices on planetary satellites) are simulated by ammonia, methane and carbon dioxide condensed at 20 K on Pt in UHV, and irradiated by 0-70 eV LEEs. CREDIT: Public domain image from NASA, Hubble, STScI. Star forming region (Pillars of Creation) in the Eagle N…

Breakthroughs in the next 50 years which will increase our life quality dramatically I am always curious about the future. How will things evolve? How much fun and opportunities will arise? Specially in technology, everything is improving so fast! I have been thinking about it and i will tell you the most important breakthroughs that are highly probable to happen (they are my life goals too) for the next 50 years (and how they relate to technology). 1 — Quantum Computing I always hated being limited by classic physics (one of my greatest fears). Quantum theories have expanded the horizons a lot. One of its greatest practical u…

http://www.absolute-knowledge.com/scientists-created-a-chemical-reaction-which-was-impossible-till-now-they-made-two-atoms-fuse-together/

Hello everyone, I would like utilise this community to get some feedback regarding my composed formula to diminish hangover symptoms and support our body during the degradation process of ethanol in a healthy way. My startup FENIX Hangover Care is currently performing a seed investment round to gather enough cash to start our first production in our Benelux (Belgium, Luxembourg & Netherlands) region. Doing so I'm of course also interested what this science community thinks about this idea/product, so all feedback is highly appreciated! We picked the ingredients for 2 main reasons: 1) Support the body while getting rid of the harmful by-products of alcohol…

I wanted to add this article to those interested. The paper does not have much data behind it so just treat it as an interesting idea. https://arxiv.org/pdf/1803.10503.pdf

Interesting article on what has been found and, just as importantly, not found by the LHC: https://medium.com/starts-with-a-bang/five-years-after-the-higgs-what-else-has-the-lhc-found-95b3149751b1

Can evolution be predicted? Scientists from AMOLF in Amsterdam and the ESPCI in Paris seem to have found a way to do so. https://phys.org/news/2018-04-method-evolution.html

LIGO and Virgo seem to have been quite of late, so I thought I would peak in... I hope most find the following interesting if not entirely new.... LIGO: A Discovery that Shook the World: This is the third video in Advanced LIGO Documentary Project's eight-part series on LIGO's historic discovery of gravitational waves and the birth of the new age of gravitational wave astronomy. In August 2017, LIGO and its Italian partner, VIRGO, made a discovery as important as its historic first detection of gravitational waves in 2015. They detected gravitational waves from two colliding neutron stars, which ejected a spectacular gamma ray burst that was seen by seven sp…

https://phys.org/news/2018-04-fine-structure-constant-dark-photon-theories.html Measurement of the fine-structure constant casts doubt on dark photon theories: A team of researchers from the University of California and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has conducted an ultra-precise measurement of the fine-structure constant, and in so doing, have found evidence that casts doubts on dark photon theory. In their paper published in the journal Science, the group describes their measurement process and what they found by using it. Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2018-04-fine-structure-constant-dark-photon-theories.html#jCp <<<<<<…

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-04/ras-pop040318.php Only the second study so far, but interesting nonetheless. I used to be one of those guys who thought it inevitable there was life out there somewhere, longer im alive the more i think it the other way round.

That sensor array in the photo looks promising: http://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-launch-tess-nasa-planet-hunting-telescope-2018-4?IR=T

I came across this, recently published in Nature : https://www.nature.com/articles/nature25029 " A density cusp of quiescent X-ray binaries in the central parsec of the Galaxy " by Charles J. Hailey, Kaya Mori, Franz E. Bauer, Michael E. Berkowitz, Jaesub Hong & Benjamin J. Hord Partial Quote of the Editorial Summary : "Many black holes in the Galactic Centre Simulations predict that the supermassive black holes near the centres of all large galaxies are surrounded by a concentration of stellar-mass black holes. Such black holes, however, have not previously been detected at the centre of our galaxy. Low-mass X-ray binary systems containi…

Human cells make up only 43% of the body's total cell count. The rest are microscopic colonists. Understanding this hidden half of ourselves - our microbiome - is rapidly transforming understanding of diseases from allergy to Parkinson's. The field is even asking questions of what it means to be "human" and is leading to new innovative treatments as a result. "They are essential to your health," says Prof Ruth Ley, the director of the department of microbiome science at the Max Planck Institute, "your body isn't just you". No matter how well you wash, nearly every nook and cranny of your body is covered in microscopic creatures. This includes bact…

https://phys.org/news/2018-04-background-space-reveal-hidden-black.html The background hum of space could reveal hidden black holes: April 12, 2018, Monash University: Deep space is not as silent as we have been led to believe. Every few minutes a pair of black holes smash into each other. These cataclysms release ripples in the fabric of spacetime known as gravitational waves. Now Monash University scientists have developed a way to listen in on these events. The gravitational waves from black hole mergers imprint a distinctive whooping sound in the data collected by gravitational-wave detectors. The new technique is expected to reveal the presence of thou…

The plot thickens (or not) https://phys.org/news/2018-04-dark-interactive.html

Researchers at the prestigious Lund University in Sweden have determined that a cryptochrome (CRY4) in eyes of birds enables their perception of Earth's magnetic field (magnetoreception). According the university's April 6th article: I imagine adaptations to the human eye may soon arrive. Enjoy!

https://theconversation.com/our-study-suggests-the-elusive-neutrino-could-make-up-a-significant-part-of-dark-matter-94051 Although, less than 5%

Massive magnetic anomaly located under the southern continent of Africa that is literally tugging on and weakening Earth's magnetic field which could very well be a precursor to the Earth's poles flipping one day soon ( soon being relative as this is a very slow process) it has been no secret that the Earth's magnetic field has been weakening for some time and has been happening in a pattern for the past 1,000 years. Scientists have recently pinpointed a certain area on the earth that is of concern located in a huge expanse of this field stretching from Chile to Zimbabwe across southern Africa known as the South Atlantic Anomaly (an area where the Earth's inner Van Allen …

E=mc2 becomes m=E/c2 Theoretically, it should be possible to turn light into matter. In practice, well - "easier said than done" is an understatement. Now, 84 years after the process was first theorized, some researchers reckon they're going to be able to do it - and they're about to start the experiment. It's called the Breit-Wheeler process, and it all has to do with E=mc2. The process was first described in 1934, by a pair of physicists named Gregory Breit and John A. Wheeler, in the journal Physical Review. In their paper, Breit and Wheeler proposed that, if you smashed two photons - particles of light - together, the collision would result in a…