Science News

As reported on the Wits University website: Complex life evolved out of the chance coupling of small molecules “Life was a chance event, there is no doubt about that,” says Dr Pierre Durand from the Evolution of Complexity Laboratory in the Evolutionary Studies Institute at Wits University, who led a project to find out how exactly these molecules linked up with each other. Their results are published today in the journal Royal Society OS, in a paper entitled "Molecular trade-offs in RNA ligases affected the modular emergence of complex ribozymes at the origin of life”. Very simple ribonucleic acid (RNA) molecules (compounds similar to Deoxyribonucleic acid (DN…

According to this article in The Atlantic, based on a paper published in Nature: This BBC News article provides a diagrams of the location and size of the newly discovered void. Enjoy!

Physicists propose test of quantum gravity using current technology October 27, 2017 by Lisa Zyga Proposed experimental setup to probe the effects of noncommutative structure. Credit: S. Dey et al. ©2017 Nuclear Physics B Physicists have proposed a way to test quantum gravity that, in principle, could be performed by a laser-based, table-top experiment using currently available technology. Although a theory of quantum gravity would overcome one of the biggest challenges in modern physics by unifying general relativity and quantum mechanics, currently physicists have no way of testing any proposed theories of quantum gravity. Read more at: htt…

An energy release so powerful physicists considered keeping it a secrete. Fusing two bottom quarks release 8 times as much energy as hydrogen fusion! https://www.livescience.com/60847-charm-quark-fusion-subatomic-hydrogen-bomb.html?

In a recent discussion here at science forums, in a thread related to a similar discussion I explained how some scientists consider all observable matter as just ''longer lived'' fluctuations of the vacuum. This article seems to be related to these kinds of discussions. Scientific American is no stranger to the discussion of virtual particles. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/something-from-nothing-vacuum-can-yield-flashes-of-light/?utm_content=bufferbfd4d&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Interesting slightly pop paper on the subject of Gravitons. (which is still a hypothetical particle) https://arxiv.org/pdf/hep-ph/0701186.pdf

http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/10/why-haven-t-we-had-alien-contact-blame-icy-ocean-worlds Just an interesting (to me) thought.

According to this National Geographic Article: The article also contains a link to the original paper published on this finding, which definitively doesn't "rewrite human history". Enjoy!

Scientists have discovered India's first ever Ichthyosaur according to this AFP article. It's believe that this "groundbreaking discovery" could "shed light on a possible marine seaway between India and South America when the ancient continents were fused together millions of years ago". Enjoy!

https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/page/press-release-gw170817

I know this question refers to another site that is similar in function to ScienceForums for diseminating information and understanding though they follow a different format and cover a broader scope of topics. I imagine that many who post here also post as experts at the other site. I just now discovered that all links to threads on their server are timing out and wanted to confirm that their site is down to others as well and if there is any news about this? Sorry if this is not an appropriate topic, but I think such an outage would qualify as news. Update: it seems to be running again after being down from 30-60 minutes in California. One…

https://phys.org/news/2017-10-heavy-chemical-elements-theory-quantum.html A series of complicated experiments involving one of the least understood elements of the Periodic Table has turned some long-held tenets of the scientific world upside down. Florida State University researchers found that the theory of quantum mechanics does not adequately explain how the heaviest and rarest elements found at the end of the table function. Instead, another well-known scientific theory—Albert Einstein's famous Theory of Relativity—helps govern the behavior of the last 21 elements of the Periodic Table. This new research is published in the Journal of the American Chem…

Good summary of five popular physics hypotheses that just haven't panned out https://www.forbes.com/sites/startswithabang/2017/10/06/five-brilliant-ideas-for-new-physics-that-need-to-die-already/#13d3f59357b7 Plus the kicker at the end

Today I saw a documentary program on television proposing politicians to be robots running artificial intelligence. It left me thinking...

https://phys.org/news/2017-10-gravitational-detectors-dark.html Gravitational wave detectors could shed light on dark matter October 3, 2017 Schematic illustration of the cloud formed around a spinning black hole. The black hole loses energy E_S and angular momentum L_S through the growth of the cloud and emission of gravitational waves. Accretion of gas from the disk transports energy E_ACC and angular momentum L_ACC. The balance between these phenomena depends on the mass of the particles forming the cloud, and it determines whether the cloud can grow. Credit: University of Mississippi A global team of scientists, including two University of Mississi…

https://phys.org/news/2017-10-scientists-elusive-giant-black-hole.html Astronomers have identified a bumper crop of dual supermassive black holes in the centers of galaxies. This discovery could help astronomers better understand how giant black holes grow and how they may produce the strongest gravitational wave signals in the Universe. The new evidence reveals five pairs of supermassive black holes, each containing millions of times the mass of the Sun. These black hole couples formed when two galaxies collided and merged with each other, forcing their supermassive black holes close together. The black hole pairs were uncovered by combining data from a su…

This includes the results from VIRGO in Italy: https://www.forbes.com/sites/startswithabang/2017/09/27/ligo-virgo-detects-the-first-three-detector-gravitational-wave/#5e570c387f8f

https://phys.org/news/2017-09-gravitational-oscillate-neutrinos.html Gravitational waves may oscillate, just like neutrinos: (Phys.org)—Using data from the first-ever gravitational waves detected last year, along with a theoretical analysis, physicists have shown that gravitational waves may oscillate between two different forms called "g" and "f"-type gravitational waves. The physicists explain that this phenomenon is analogous to the way that neutrinos oscillate between three distinct flavors—electron, muon, and tau. The oscillating gravitational waves arise in a modified theory of gravity called bimetric gravity, or "bigravity," and the physicists show that t…

It may sound pompous, and I totally got lost in my imagination with this. The Wits biomedical engineers have connected a human brain to the internet. Long story short, it streams brainwaves to the web, by converting the brain into an Internet of Things (IoT) node on the World Wide Web. (more, here: http://insaneclopedia.com/1468/brainternet-project-first-human-brain-linked-internet-real-time/) I feel like this is a huge step for machine learning and it will start getting a lot of interest.

CNN Money: China is capitalizing on mistakes made by the fossil fuel feudalists who reign over both parties in the US. It puts China on moral high ground compared to the US. It signals the demise of the fossil fuel industry. And, the effects on climate change are good.

The genetic basis of individual differences in attitudes, including personality traits, physical characteristics, and academic achievement. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11414369 Wow....... So this study and claim are saying the person IQ , education achievement and academic achievement is base on genetics? If person dos really bad in school vs some one has PHD or tow PHD's is base on genetics? In others words if you smart or dumb is base on genetics? Or how well you do at school or your job?

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/tiny-supraballs-put-new-spin-creating-long-lasting-color?tgt=more by the way an awesome site for science related news, anyway I thought this was cool and wanted to hear your thoughts on this. Nano paintings? It would have much more important uses I'm sure

"The new hydrogel is more than 50 times stronger than comparable squishy self-healing materials, researchers led by Takuzo Aida of the University of Tokyo report in the Jan. 21 Nature. Such substances are well suited for the body; they are 95 percent water. Hydrogels may one day serve as scaffolding for growing new tissue, as matrices for keeping drugs in their targeted area or as replacements for damaged cartilage. The new gel, unlike similar materials, is quick and relatively simple to make." http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/55483/title/Break_up_doesn%E2%80%99t_keep_hydrogel_down

As I'm sure many of you know, Bill Gates has received a lot of criticism regarding his philosophy of depopulation. The CEO of Microsoft believes, counterintuitively, that as the childhood mortality rate decreases, the population size will naturally decrease as they parents have no need to reproduce again in order to ensure they have surviving offspring. My question is this; Why do so may people disagree so strongly with his logic and philosophy?

https://phys.org/news/2017-09-interstellar-ice-birth-dna.html Could interstellar ice provide the answer to birth of DNA? September 14, 2017 Researchers at the University of York have shown that molecules brought to earth in meteorite strikes could potentially be converted into the building blocks of DNA. They found that organic compounds, called amino nitriles, the molecular precursors to amino acids, were able to use molecules present in interstellar ice to trigger the formation of the backbone molecule, 2-deoxy-D-ribose, of DNA. https://phys.org/news/2017-09-interstellar-ice-birth-dna.html http://pubs.rsc.org/en/Content/ArticleLanding/2017/S…