Science Hub

Physicists Measure Quantum Geometry of Electrons For First Time

2025-01-06T02:43:00.000+05:00

A new breakthrough may help scientists solve some of the mysteries of the quantum realm.

A visualization of one of the properties of the quantum geometry tensor. (Kang et al., Nat. Phys., 2024)

For the first time, physicists have been able to measure the geometrical 'shape' a lone electron adopts as it moves through a solid. It's an achievement that will unlock a whole new way of studying how crystalline solids behave on a quantum level.

"We've essentially developed a blueprint for obtaining some completely new information that couldn't be obtained before," says physicist Riccardo Comin of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

The research was led by physicists Mingu Kang – formerly of MIT and now at Cornell University – and Sunjie Kim of Seoul National University.

Within the physical Universe, matter behaves in ways that are well described by classical physics.

However, on a more fundamental level of particle interactions and methods of measurement, things can get a little weird. On the finest of scales, precision must give way to a more fuzzy description represented by waves of possibility known as quantum mechanics.

We refer to objects like electrons as particles, and that conveys the impression that they are like teeny tiny little balls. Given their size, the properties and behaviors of electrons are far more accurately described by their wave-like quantum nature.

To describe the wave aspect of electrons, physicists use wave functions: mathematical models that describe the properties of the wave as evolving possibilities of finding the particle in a specific place with specific features.

Some of these features we can think of as a kind of geometry, often not unlike a curve or sphere that rotates in an infinite number of directions. Other forms of quantum geometry, like those of electrons in a lattice of atoms, are as complicated as a Klein bottle or a Möbius strip.

Determining some aspects of the messy quantum geometry of an electron in a solid has previously involved a lot of guesswork based on properties that physicists can measure.

To measure the quantum geometry of electrons, Kang, Jie, and their colleagues sought the measurement of a property known as the quantum geometric tensor, or QGT. This is a physical quantity that encodes the entire geometric information of a quantum state, similar to the way a two-dimensional hologram encodes information about a three-dimensional space.

The technique they used is called angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, in which photons are fired at a material to dislodge electrons and measure their properties, such as polarization, spin, and angle.

This was directed at single crystals of a cobalt-tin alloy, a material known as a kagome metal – a quantum material whose properties the team had previously investigated using the same technique.

The results provided the researchers with the first measurement of the QGT in a solid, and from this, they were able to infer the rest of the quantum geometry of the electrons in the metal.

The team compared this to theoretically derived quantum geometry for the same material, allowing them to determine the usefulness of estimating the geometry compared to measuring it directly.

And, they say, their technique will be applicable to a broad range of materials, not just the cobalt-tin alloy used for this study. It's a result that will have some interesting implications. For example, quantum geometry could be leveraged to discover superconductivity in materials where it is not usually found.

"The geometric interpretation of quantum mechanics underpins many recent advances in condensed-matter physics," an anonymous expert told Nature Physics.

"These authors have pioneered a methodology to experimentally access the quantum geometric tensor, which fundamentally characterizes the geometric properties of quantum states. The developed methodology is straightforward, applicable to various solid-state materials, and has great potential for boosting experimental activity in pursuit of geometric understanding of novel quantum phenomena."

NASA's Stunning New Image Reveals Dust Devils in Action on Mars

2025-01-06T02:39:00.002+05:00

An incredible image of Mars has been released that captures the relentless activity of dust devils, swirling across the planet's surface. These Martian whirlwinds form, move across the surface and dissipate before others take their place.

Dust devil tracks on Mars. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona)

The image was taken by the HiRISE camera aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in September 2022 and shows part of the Haldane Crater, where dust devils have left their mark on the landscape.

Scientists study the image tracks and the rate at which dust accumulates on Mars, helping them better understand the planet's atmospheric processes.

Mars, the fourth planet from the Sun, is often referred to as the 'Red Planet' because of its reddish colour, which results from iron oxide in its soil. Its atmosphere is thin and mostly made up of carbon dioxide which contributes to its cold climate with an average temperature of around -60 °C.

The surface of Mars features plains, volcanoes (like Olympus Mons), and the vast canyon system Valles Marineris. Geological evidence suggests that Mars had liquid water once and a thicker atmosphere suggesting the potential for past life.

The atmosphere of Mars is thin and made up mostly of carbon dioxide (about 95 percent.) There are traces of nitrogen, argon, and oxygen too. This sparse atmosphere is only about 1 percent the density of Earth's and is unable to support human life without significant technological aid.

Despite its thinness, the Martian atmosphere is active, and one of its most fascinating phenomena is the occurrence of dust devils. These swirling columns of dust and air are similar to tornadoes on Earth.

Dust devils are created when the surface heats up and causes warm air to rise rapidly, drawing in dust particles into a rotating column. They can range in size from small, harmless whirlwinds to massive, kilometer-wide spirals that can last for hours.

Dust devils on Mars are important for scientists because they help to redistribute dust across the planet's surface, driving its weather patterns and even the Martian climate.

A fascinating phenomenon but a friend and foe to machines on the surface of the Red Planet; they can both deposit and clear particles of dust from solar panels and other instruments. The swirling nature of these vortex weather events can lift up the fine dust particles, carry them across the Martian surface and over time, they can accumulate on surfaces.

When depositing on solar panels, the effect can reduce the efficiency by blocking sunlight, and reduce power output. Their strong winds, though, can act as cleaners by scrubbing the panels clean.

An image recently released by NASA JPL shows dust devils tracking across the surface of Mars. Teams of astronomers are studying their fading tracks to calculate the rate of deposition of dust over time. Gaining a better understanding of this helps to safeguard future space missions.

Damaged Hearts May Have Hidden Self-Healing Powers, Study Finds

2025-01-06T02:36:00.000+05:00

The right therapy can dramatically boost the self-healing capabilities of the human heart after heart failure, a new study has found – giving the vital organ regenerative powers even beyond those of a healthy heart.

(SDI Productions/E+/Getty Images)

It means we may be able to develop treatments that improve recovery rates for damaged hearts, according to the international team of researchers behind the study – though for now it's not clear exactly why this repair rate boost happens.

"The results suggest that there might be a hidden key to kickstart the heart's own repair mechanism," says molecular biologist Olaf Bergmann, from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden.

Recovery rates were monitored in 52 patients who had suffered heart failure, 28 of whom were treated using a left ventricular assist device (LVAD), a surgically implanted device that helps to pump blood around the body.

Advanced heart failure patients normally receive this implant for life or until they can get a heart transplant. Some patients' hearts improve so dramatically that LVAD removal becomes an option.

However, the mechanisms underlying LVAD-supported recovery are not clear, and it was previously unknown whether new heart muscle cells, known as cardiomyocytes, are generated during this process.

To track cardiomyocyte renewal, the team looked at the levels of radioactive carbon (14C) inside heart cells. Since nuclear testing was banned in 1963, the levels of 14C in the atmosphere are steadily falling over time, so its presence in cells gives a good idea of how old those cells are.

Mathematical models were then applied to calculate regeneration levels. In hearts damaged by heart failure, the regeneration rate of cardiomyocytes was found to be 18–50 times lower than in a typical healthy heart.

However, the researchers found that when an LVAD was implanted, the cells were able to regenerate with impressive speed – at least six times faster than in a healthy heart. This benefit was in addition to the improved heart function and structure that an LVAD brings.

That LVAD-supported hearts seem to have supercharged repair abilities is encouraging, but more research will be needed to understand why it's happening, before any drugs or treatment methods can be explored.

"In the existing data we cannot find an explanation for the effect, but we will now continue to study this process at a cellular and molecular level," says Bergmann.

Supporting the heart's own self-healing processes would be a more natural and straightforward therapy than other options that are currently being investigated, such as transplanting cells from elsewhere in the body.

Working out how to get a damaged heart back up to something close to full speed again is a huge challenge for scientists, but progress is being made: researchers are continually improving approaches to growing heart tissue in the lab, for example.

Recent studies have also taken a closer look at the biological processes involved when the heart attempts to repair itself, and at techniques for getting heart cells to act more like stem cells when damage needs fixing. Now we have another promising route to explore.

"This offers some hope that the recovery after a heart incident can somehow be boosted," says Bergmann.

Altered States of Consciousness Can Distort Time, And Nobody Knows Why

2025-01-06T02:32:00.000+05:00

We all know that time seems to pass at different speeds in different situations. For example, time appears to go slowly when we travel to unfamiliar places. A week in a foreign country seems much longer than a week at home.

(Volodymyr Horbovyy/Getty Images)

Time also seems to pass slowly when we are bored, or in pain. It seems to speed up when we're in a state of absorption, such as when we play music or chess, or paint or dance. More generally, most people report time seems to speed up as they get older.

However, these variations in time perception are quite mild. Our experience of time can change in a much more radical way. In my new book, I describe what I call "time expansion experiences" – in which seconds can stretch out into minutes.

The reasons why time can speed up and slow down are a bit of a mystery. Some researchers, including me, think that mild variations in time perception are linked to information processing.

As a general rule, the more information – such as perceptions, sensations, thoughts – that our minds process, the slower time seems to pass. Time passes slowly to children because they live in a world of newness.

New environments stretch time because of their unfamiliarity. Absorption contracts time because our attention becomes narrow, and our minds become quiet, with few thoughts passing through. In contrast, boredom stretches time because our unfocused minds fill with a massive amount of thought-chatter.

Time expansion experiences

Time expansion experiences (or Tees) can occur in an accident or emergency situation, such as a car crash, a fall or an attack. In time expansion experiences, time appears to expand by many orders of magnitude. In my research, I have found that around 85 percent of people have had at least one Tee.

Around a half of Tees occur in accident and emergency situations. In such situations, people are often surprised by the amount of time they have to think and act. In fact, many people are convinced that time expansion saved them from their serious injury, or even saved their lives – because it allowed them to take preventative action that would normally be impossible.

For example, a woman who reported a Tee in which she avoided a metal barrier falling on to her car told me how a "slowing down of the moment" allowed her to "decide how to escape the falling metal on us".

Tees are also common in sport. For example, a participant described a Tee that occurred while playing ice hockey, when "the play which seemed to last for about ten minutes all occurred in the space of about eight seconds". Tees also occur in moments of stillness and presence, during meditation or in natural surroundings.

However, some of the most extreme Tees are linked to psychedelic substances, such as LSD or ayahuasca. In my collection of Tees, around 10 percent are linked to psychedelics. A man told me that, during an LSD experience, he looked at the stopwatch on his phone and "the hundredths of a second were moving as slow as seconds normally move. It was really intense time dilation," he said.

But why? One theory is that these experiences are linked to a release of noradrenaline (both a hormone and a neurotransmitter) in emergency situations, related to the "fight or flight" mechanism. However, this doesn't fit with the calm wellbeing people usually report in Tees.

Even though their lives might be in danger, people usually feel strangely calm and relaxed. For example, a woman who had a Tee when she fell off a horse told me: "The whole experience seemed to last for minutes. I was ultra-calm, unconcerned that the horse still hadn't recovered its balance and quite possibly could fall on top of me."

The noradrenaline theory also doesn't fit with the fact that many Tees occur in peaceful situations, such as deep meditation or oneness with nature.

Another theory I have considered is that Tees are an evolutionary adaptation. Maybe our ancestors developed the ability to slow down time in emergency situations – such as encounters with deadly wild animals or natural disasters – to improve their chances of survival. However, the above argument applies here too: this doesn't fit with the non-emergency situations when Tees occur.

A third theory is that Tees aren't real experiences, but illusions of recollection. In emergency situations, so this theory goes, our awareness becomes acute, so that we take in more perceptions than normal. These perceptions become encoded in our memories, so that when we recall the emergency situation, the extra memories create the impression that time passed slowly.

However, in many Tees, people are certain that they had extra time to think and act. Time expansion allowed a complex series of thoughts and actions that would have been impossible if time had been passing at a normal speed.

In a recent (not yet published) poll of 280 Tees, I found that less than 3 percent of the participants believed that the experience was an illusion. Some 87 percent believed it was a real experience that happened in the present, while 10 percent were undecided.

Altered states of consciousness

In my view, the key to understanding Tees surrounds altered states of consciousness. The sudden shock of an accident may disrupt our normal psychological processes, causing an abrupt shift in consciousness. In sport, intense altered states occur due to what I call "super-absorption".

Absorption normally makes time pass faster – as in flow, when we are absorbed in a task. But when absorption becomes especially intense, over a long period of sustained concentration, the opposite occurs, and time slows down radically.

Altered states of consciousness can also affect our sense of identity, and our normal sense of separation between us and the world. As the psychologist Marc Wittmann has pointed out, our sense of time is closely bound up with our sense of self.

We usually have a sense of living inside our mental space, with the world "out there" on the other side. One of the main features of intense altered states is that sense of separation fades. We no longer feel enclosed inside our minds, but feel connected to our surroundings.

This means the boundary between us and the world softens. And in the process, our sense of time expands. We slip outside our normal consciousness, and into a different time-world.

Scientists Have Created VR Goggles For Mice And They're Adorable

2025-01-06T02:26:00.000+05:00

Scientists at Cornell University have created mini virtual reality headsets for mice. These MouseGoggles aren't just to help the critters unwind after a long day in the lab; they offer researchers a glimpse into their behavior and brain functions.

A mouse dons a VR headset called MouseGoggles. (Cornell University)

A mouse wearing a tiny VR headset is an adorable mental image, but the set does lack the mobility of our own face-mounted goggles. Instead, MouseGoggles are held in place on a scaffold, sporting two smartwatch displays behind a pair of Fresnel lenses, complete with tech that tracks the animals' eye movements and pupil dilation.

The mice quickly learned to navigate their virtual environment by running on a spherical treadmill. And those visuals appeared to be more immersive than ever – seen through MouseGoggles, the mice reacted to reward and fear stimuli far more strongly than when viewing virtual worlds on big 360-degree projector screens.

It's not all fun and games, though. By making VR more realistic for mice, scientists can more precisely monitor the brain activity associated with spatial navigation and memory.

If you've ever strapped on a VR headset, you'll know that it feels more immersive than watching something on a big screen. According to the new Cornell study, it seems even mice feel that way.

Earlier attempts at testing the animals in virtual environments involved placing them in the center of circular screens, with visuals projected on the walls. While the mice did learn to navigate by running on a spherical treadmill, the stuff they were seeing was apparently less convincing.

The researchers tested mice in MouseGoggles and traditional screen-based VR systems with a 'looming stimulus.'

A dark blob quickly expanded in their field of view, simulating an approaching predator. The mice would not only jump and arch their backs but also slow their walking speed, shift their gaze, and dilate their pupils.

"When we tried this kind of a test in the typical VR setup with big screens, the mice did not react at all," says neuroscientist Matthew Isaacson, lead author of the study.

"But almost every single mouse, the first time they see it with the goggles, they jump. They have a huge startle reaction. They really did seem to think they were getting attacked by a looming predator."

In experiments that were more pleasant for the subjects, the team trained mice on a looped linear VR track where they were given liquid rewards for licking at a certain spot. On the fourth or fifth day, they were given no reward – yet they still licked in the same location in anticipation of a treat, and slowed their 'exploratory licking' outside the reward zones.

These results indicated that the MouseGoggles setup could still allow for spatial learning in mice.

The ultimate goal isn't just to provide better VR gaming experiences – more accurate simulations mean scientists can test the neurological responses of mice in a wider variety of situations than otherwise possible in the lab. As the looming experiments show, projection-based VR just isn't believable enough for the mice.

"The more immersive we can make that behavioral task, the more naturalistic of a brain function we're going to be studying," says biomedical engineer Chris Schaffer.

The MouseGoogles design is cheaper too, and allows for extra features like eye tracking.

The next steps, according to the team, are to develop wearable versions for other animals, and even integrate other senses into the experience.

"I think five-sense virtual reality for mice is a direction to go for experiments, where we're trying to understand these really complicated behaviors, where mice are integrating sensory information, comparing the opportunity with internal motivational states, like the need for rest and food, and then making decisions about how to behave," says Schaffer.

Astronomy & Astrophysics 101: Magnetosphere

2025-01-04T23:22:00.000+05:00

What Is a Magnetosphere?

Earth is surrounded by a giant magnetic bubble called the magnetosphere, which is is part of a dynamic, interconnected system that responds to solar, planetary, and interstellar conditions. Credit: NASA

A magnetosphere is the region surrounding a planet that is dominated by its magnetic field. While other planets in our solar system also have magnetospheres, Earth’s stands out as the strongest among the rocky planets. This vast, comet-shaped magnetic bubble has been essential to Earth’s habitability, providing protection that has allowed life to develop and thrive. The magnetosphere shields the planet from harmful solar and cosmic radiation and prevents the solar wind — a continuous stream of charged particles from the sun — from eroding our atmosphere.

Earth’s magnetosphere is part of a dynamic and interconnected system influenced by solar, planetary, and interstellar forces. It is powered by the movement of electrically charged, molten iron deep within Earth’s outer core. The constant bombardment of solar wind compresses the magnetosphere on the sun-facing side, known as the dayside, which extends six to ten times Earth’s radius. On the opposite side, the nightside magnetosphere stretches outward into a vast magnetotail that fluctuates in length, reaching hundreds of Earth radii and extending well beyond the moon’s orbit.

NASA heliophysics studies the magnetosphere to better understand its role in our space environment. Such research helps unravel the fundamental physics of space, which is dominated by complex electromagnetic interactions unlike what we experience day-to-day on Earth. By studying this space environment close to home, we can better understand the nature of space throughout the universe. Additionally, space weather within the magnetosphere — where many of our spacecraft reside — can sometimes have adverse effects on space technology as well as communications systems. Better understanding of the science of the magnetosphere helps improve our space weather models.

NASA’s studies of the magnetosphere include research into: understanding the nature of the electromagnetic phenomena in near-Earth space; how near-Earth space responds to external and internal stimuli; how the coupled middle and upper atmosphere respond to external factors; and how the various regions of the magnetosphere and upper atmosphere interact with each other.

Revolutionizing Electronics: The 2D Twist That Defied Scientific Predictions

2025-01-04T23:17:00.001+05:00

Scientists are exploring 2D materials — sheets just one atom thick — with unique and promising electronic properties.

Exploring 2D materials, scientists discovered unexpected behavior in twisted tungsten disulfide, paving the way for future electronics innovations. Credit: SciTechDaily.com

When two of these sheets are layered at specific angles, they can exhibit remarkable behaviors, such as superconductivity. Antonija Grubišić-Čabo, a materials scientist at the University of Groningen, and her colleagues investigated one such “twisted” material and found that it behaved in ways that defied existing theoretical predictions.

2D Materials and Superconductivity

Grubišić-Čabo, along with collaborators from Poland, Germany, France, and Italy, studied sheets of a 2D material called tungsten disulfide. Theoretical predictions suggested that when two sheets, or a bilayer, are stacked at a precise angle of 4.4 degrees, the electrons within the material should exhibit collective behavior.

“And when they are so closely connected, their collective behavior can create new, fascinating effects,” explains Giovanna Feraco, first author of the study.

Unexpected Results in Electron Behavior

However, experiments did not reveal this predicted behavior. This discrepancy is linked to the interactions between atoms in the bilayer, which the twist is supposed to enhance.

“But by studying the electronic structure in the bilayer, we discovered that this material tends to ‘relax’ into large, untwisted regions,” Feraco explains. In other words, the twisted bilayer partially reverts to a more stable, lower-energy untwisted state, challenging prior assumptions.

This finding highlights the importance of understanding how the two sheets of the bilayer form different regions with varying properties. The study has also enhanced scientists’ ability to predict and manipulate the behavior of 2D structures, paving the way for future applications in different types of electronics.

Reference: “Nano-ARPES investigation of structural relaxation in small angle twisted bilayer tungsten disulfide” by Giovanna Feraco, Oreste De Luca, Przemysław Przybysz1,2, Homayoun Jafari, Oleksandr Zheliuk, Ying Wang, Philip Schädlich, Pavel Dudin, José Avila, Jianting Ye, Thomas Seyller, Paweł Dąbrowski, Paweł J. Kowalczyk, Jagoda Sławińska, Petra Rudolf and Antonija Grubišić-Čabo, 26 December 2024, Physical Review Materials.

New plasmonic wave analysis reveals spin texture of meron pairs in quantum world

2025-01-04T23:13:00.003+05:00

Scientists have come up with an interesting technique to study plasmonic waves, combining time-resolved electron microscopy with the use of multi-polarization lasers.

Representational image depicting spin textures.

For a long time, scientists have been trying to devise ways to study a special type of light wave called plasmonic waves. These are ripples of electron oscillations that travel along the surface of metals, like waves on water, when light interacts with the metal.

Plasmonic waves can concentrate light into tiny spaces, creating a bridge between light and the nanoscale world. They have numerous applications. For instance, using these waves scientists can examine tiny biomolecules, detect microscopic changes in biological and chemical reactions, develop high-resolution medical imaging tools, enhance solar cell efficiency, and boost the performance of photonic devices.

Now, a new study has revealed an interesting technique to examine plasmonic waves. The study authors claim their technique is probably the most precise plasmonic wave analysis method developed so far.

Combining microscopy with lasers

As part of the study, researchers focused on plasmon polaritons, special waves that occur when light interacts with electrons on the surface of a metal. These are considered hybrid waves as they are a mix of light (photons) and electron vibrations (plasmons), traveling together along the surface of the metal.

Scientists have been using time-resolved electron microscopy to study plasmon polaritons. This approach involves using ultra-short pulses of electrons to freeze and observe the motion of atoms and molecules.

The study authors integrated this approach with multi-polarization lasers, a technique deployed to study material properties using multiple linearly polarized lasers that are placed on top of one another. This two-in-one method can reveal plasmonic wave behavior with high accuracy and great depth, according to the researchers.

Testing the approach to study meron pairs

Various magnetic and quantum systems contain tiny swirling patterns called meron pairs. These patterns or spin textures can be reconstructed using electric field and magnetic field vectors of surface plasmon polaritons.

The study authors employed numerous time-delayed laser pulses with multiple polarizations to determine the magnetic vectors. Using their approach they successfully reconstructed the spin texture and topological features of a system.

Moreover, it also revealed insights into the stability of the spin texture during the experiment. Such insights can shed light on the factors that keep a material intact at the nanoscale.
The next goal is to use this approach to study other complex plasmon polaritons. Hopefully, the method will improve our understanding of nanoscale phenomena.

Moon’s magnetic pull lasted longer than thought, lunar rocks reveal

2025-01-04T23:01:00.003+05:00

Lunar rocks retrieved by China’s Chang’e-5 mission reveal that the moon’s magnetic field lasted much longer than scientists previously thought, offering new perspectives on planetary evolution and habitability.

Although the moon no longer generates a magnetic field, evidence suggests it once did. (Representational image)

Chinese scientists discovered that the moon’s magnetic field lasted much longer than expected, persisting into its midlife.

By studying tiny rocks brought back by the Chang’e-5 mission, they found the moon’s magnetic field measured two to four microteslas about two billion years ago, less than 10% of Earth’s current surface field, findings published in Science Advances showed.

Magnetic field likely driven by core and mantle interactions

Ross Mitchell from the Institute of Geology and Geophysics in Beijing explained that the moon’s magnetic field persisted much longer than previously believed. The study suggests the weak but enduring magnetic field was likely driven by internal processes such as the crystallization of the moon’s core or core-mantle interactions, according to planetary scientist Benjamin Weiss from MIT, who was not part of the research.

These processes likely sustained the moon’s magnetic engine, known as the lunar dynamo, for billions of years. Weiss noted that the findings align with the Chang’e missions’ symbolic connection to the moon goddess, who is associated with immortality in Chinese mythology, the South China Morning Post reported.

Now, the findings suggest that the moon’s persistent magnetic field could have shielded its surface from solar radiation and helped retain volatile compounds like water. This deeper understanding of the moon’s magnetic history provides crucial insights into planetary habitability and evolution.

Although the moon no longer generates a magnetic field, evidence suggests it once did. Samples from NASA’s Apollo missions indicated that over three billion years ago, the moon’s magnetic field was as strong as Earth’s current field, which ranges from 25 to 65 microteslas.

Chang’e-6 rocks reveal moon’s magnetic field 2.8 billion years ago

Chinese researchers studying rocks from the moon’s far side, collected during the Chang’e-6 mission, reported that about 2.8 billion years ago, the moon’s magnetic field measured between five and 21 microteslas. However, the duration of the lunar dynamo remains uncertain.

Studying Apollo samples to answer this question has been difficult due to their older age, large iron grains that poorly preserve magnetic signals, and other challenges, according to Weiss. In contrast, the 1.73kg (3.8lbs) of rocks collected by China’s Chang’e-5 mission in 2020 are precisely two billion years old, making them much younger than the samples from Apollo or the Soviet Luna missions of 50 years ago.

The researchers selected nine small basalt fragments, each 3-8mm (0.1-0.3 inch) in size and weighing less than 0.3 grams (0.01 ounce), for this study. These fragments acted as magnetic recorders, preserving the magnetic field from when they formed billions of years ago. The team then used sensitive lab techniques to extract the ancient magnetic signals.

Lead author Cai Shuhui, a colleague of Mitchell’s at the Institute of Geology and Geophysics, explained that small sample sizes result in weak magnetic signals, requiring difficult and meticulous lab work. Fortunately, the Chang’e-5 samples were of sufficient quality for the study, the researcher added.

Scientists Discover Mystery Volcano That Cooled The Globe in 1831

2025-01-04T22:51:00.000+05:00

In 1831, somewhere on Earth's surface, a portal to the underworld appeared.

Cores extracted from the Greenland ice sheet. (Michael Sigl)

A massive volcano opened wide its jaws and belched forth so much ash and smoke that the skies dimmed, cooling the Northern Hemisphere.

Crops failed. People starved. Yet for all the devastation, the volcano's location remained a mystery.

Now, through the careful analysis of ash from the eruption that had been trapped and preserved in the Greenland ice sheet, a team led by volcanologist William Hutchison of the University of St Andrews in the UK has found the culprit.

The world-changing event has at last been linked with the Zavaritskii volcano on Simushir of the Kuril Islands, an uninhibited strip of land barely 59 kilometers (37 miles) in length located between Russia and Japan.

Hutchison and his colleagues compared the chemistry of microscopic shards of ash extracted from Greenland ice cores with samples from the Zavaritskii caldera, and found a perfect match.

"Finding the match took a long time and required extensive collaboration with colleagues from Japan and Russia, who sent us samples collected from these remote volcanoes decades ago," Hutchison says.

"The moment in the lab when we analyzed the two ashes together, one from the volcano and one from the ice core, was a genuine eureka moment. I couldn't believe the numbers were identical. After this, I spent a lot of time delving into the age and size of the eruption in Kuril records to truly convince myself that the match was real."

Today in the 21st century, humanity has access to a suite of tools that allows us to identify the sites of geological activity, from global seismic monitoring stations, to a swarm of Earth-monitoring satellites in low orbit. Back in 1831, nearly 200 years ago, these tools didn't exist; so a volcanic eruption on a remote, uninhabited island could easily evade identification.

One eruption thought to be responsible for the global cooling event from 1831 to 1833 was attributed to Babuyan Claro in the Philippines.

This, a 2018 paper discovered, never actually happened.

Another theory, based on the sulfur belched during the eruption, suggested that the volcano may have been on Graham Island, a disappearing-reappearing volcanic mass in the Strait of Sicily. Hutchison and his colleagues found that the sulfur in the ice cores confirmed an 1831 eruption in the Northern Hemisphere, but did not match this location.

Instead, their work found evidence of what is known as a Plinian eruption, one that is similar to the eruption of Vesuvius. A closer examination of microscopic volcanic glass shards recovered from the Greenland ice showed an exact match to samples from Simushir.

And we have a crater to prove it. Today, Zavaritskii is dominated by a caldera – the hollow basin that remains when a volcano explodes. This caldera likely formed during that 1831 eruption, the researchers say.

The team's estimates for the volume of volcanic matter spewed forth from Earth's guts would cause cooling of around 1 degree Celsius – comparable to the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines.

Volcanoes on Earth often continue to remain active for eons; and one that catastrophically erupts once can do so again. The team's findings suggest that remote volcanoes need to be studied and monitored more closely.

"There are so many volcanoes like this, which highlights how difficult it will be to predict when or where the next large-magnitude eruption might occur," Hutchison says.

"As scientists and as a society, we need to consider how to coordinate an international response when the next large eruption, like the one in 1831, happens."

Grieving orca mom carries dead calf around on her head for a 2nd time

2025-01-04T02:18:00.004+05:00

An orca famous for carrying a dead calf around has once again been spotted with a deceased newborn on her head in Puget Sound, but there's some good news for her endangered southern resident killer whale pod.

Tahlequah, or J35, carrying her dead calf in Puget Sound on Jan. 1. (Image credit: NOAA Fisheries)

An endangered orca is carrying a dead calf around on her head in a tragic repeat of behavior that made headlines six years ago.

Tahlequah, or J35, became famous in 2018 for embarking on what some scientists described as a "grief" tour, pushing her dead calf through the ocean for 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) until she eventually let go. She went on to successfully rear two other calves. But now, Tahlequah, part of a struggling group called the southern resident killer whale population, appears to be grieving another calf.

Researchers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) photographed Tahlequah carrying a dead newborn calf in Puget Sound off Seattle on Wednesday (Jan. 1).

"This is an unfortunate way to start the new year with the news that southern resident killer whale J35 has lost another calf and is again keeping it with her," Michael Milstein, an NOAA public affairs officer, said at a news conference on Thursday (Jan. 2). "She is of course known around the world for carrying her earlier calf for 17 days in 2018, which was heartbreaking at the time. It's that much harder to see now that she has lost another one."

Southern resident killer whales (Orcinus orca) are listed under the U.S. Endangered Species Act and have been struggling for decades. Scientists have identified three main reasons for their decline: less prey — mainly Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha); pollution; and boat disturbance, according to NOAA.

A 2017 study published in the journal PLOS One found that nearly 70% of southern resident killer whale pregnancies failed between 2008 and 2014, with one-third of those pregnancy losses occurring late in gestation or immediately after birth. The NOAA researchers who documented J35's latest calf believe that it only lived for about a week.

The team first noticed the new calf on Dec. 20, after citizen scientists spotted it, Brad Hanson, a wildlife biologist at NOAA's Northwest Fisheries Science Center, said at the news conference. Researchers noted that the calf was alive on Dec. 23, but they were immediately concerned about its health.

Tahlequah appeared to be pushing the calf — called J61 — around even when it was alive, and while the calf seemed to be viable at the time, something wasn't right. "When it was surfacing, it looked like it might be struggling," Hanson said.

When the researchers got out on the water again on Dec. 31, they noticed that the calf was missing and Tahlequah appeared to be pushing something around, which they later confirmed was the now-deceased J61.

Good news

While Tahlequah became famous for this behavior in 2018, she is not unusual. Orcas are one of several species of whale and dolphin that have been observed carrying dead offspring.

NOAA will continue to monitor Tahlequah's pod, which is called "J Pod." Despite the tragic events of the last week, they are hopeful for the pod's future, particularly as there was another birth this week.

"The better news to remember is that J35 has given birth to calves that have survived and give us hope for the population," Milstein said. "And at the same time that the team realized that J35's calf had died, they also saw a new calf in J Pod that is very much alive and looks healthy."

Scientists Identify New Blood Group After 50 Year Mystery

2025-01-04T02:12:00.004+05:00

When a pregnant woman had her blood sampled back in 1972, doctors discovered it was mysteriously missing a surface molecule found on all other known red blood cells at the time.

Scanning electron micrograph of red and white human blood cells. (Steve Gschmeissner/Science Photo Library/Brand X Pictures/Getty Images)

After 50 years, this strange molecular absence finally led to researchers from the UK and Israel describing a new blood group system in humans. In September, the team published their paper on the discovery.

"It represents a huge achievement, and the culmination of a long team effort, to finally establish this new blood group system and be able to offer the best care to rare, but important, patients," UK National Health Service hematologist Louise Tilley said, after nearly 20 years of personally researching this bloody quirk.

While we're all more familiar with the ABO blood group system and the rhesus factor (that's the plus or minus part), humans actually have many different blood group systems based on the wide variety of cell-surface proteins and sugars that coat our blood cells.

Our bodies use these antigen molecules, amongst their other purposes, as identification markers to separate 'self' from potentially harmful not-selves.

If these markers do not match up when receiving a blood transfusion, this life-saving tactic can cause reactions or even end up being fatal.

Most major blood groups were identified early in the 20th century. Many discovered since, like the Er blood system first described by researchers in 2022, only impact a small number of people. This is also the case for the new blood group.

"The work was difficult because the genetic cases are very rare," explained Tilley.

Previous research found more than 99.9 percent of people have the AnWj antigen that was missing from the 1972 patient's blood. This antigen lives on a myelin and lymphocyte protein, leading the researchers to call the newly described system the MAL blood group.

When someone has a mutated version of both copies of their MAL genes, they end up with an AnWj-negative blood type, like the pregnant patient. Tilley and team identified three patients with the rare blood type that didn't have this mutation, suggesting that sometimes blood disorders can also cause the antigen to be suppressed.

"MAL is a very small protein with some interesting properties which made it difficult to identify and meant we needed to pursue multiple lines of investigation to accumulate the proof we needed to establish this blood group system," explained University of the West of England cell biologist Tim Satchwell.

To determine they had the correct gene, after decades of research, the team inserted the normal MAL gene into blood cells that were AnWj-negative. This effectively delivered the AnWj antigen to those cells.

The MAL protein is known to play a vital role in keeping cell membranes stable and aiding in cell transport. What's more, previous research found that the AnWj isn't actually present in newborn babies but appears soon after birth.

Interestingly, all the AnWj-negative patients included in the study shared the same mutation. However, no other cell abnormalities or diseases were found to be associated with this mutation.

Now that the researchers have identified the genetic markers behind the MAL mutation, patients can be tested to see if their negative MAL blood type is inherited or due to suppression, which could be a sign of another underlying medical problem.

These rare blood quirks can have devastating impacts on patients, so the more of them we can understand, the more lives can be saved.

New Theory Solves Paradox of Schrödinger's Cat by Claiming We're in a Multiverse

2025-01-04T02:08:00.007+05:00

In 1935, Austrian-born physicist Erwin Schrödinger described a thought experiment that magnified a glaring problem at the heart of quantum mechanics.

(Anita Kot/Getty Images)

To this day, the problem remains, summed up by Schrödinger's seemingly ludicrous notion of a cat existing in an undecided state of life and death.

Theoretical physicists from the Autonomous University of Barcelona in Spain think they might at last have an explanation for why Schrödinger's cat would always appear in a single state once it's observed.

Their proposal rests largely on the assumption that every possibility of a quantum system constitutes a universe itself, a concept known as the many-worlds theory.

From this, Philipp Strasberg, Teresa E. Reinhard, and Joseph Schindler use first principles to show how the entanglement of particles in an existing landscape drags Schrödinger's cat out of its own equation, decidedly dead or alive but never in between.

Some of the earliest debates in quantum physics were over ways to interpret uncertainty. In the words of Albert Einstein, God "does not play dice".

While combinations of particle states are forced into a range of possible fates on paper, they exist as physical absolutes even when nobody is looking … right?

Nope.

A century on, Einstein's metaphorical deity is still rolling the bones in a cosmic game of craps, and physicists are still discussing what this even means beyond abstract calculations.

One attempt to make sense of this distinction in realities is to imagine all possibilities of a particle's states as equally valid, each representing its own private universe. Of these many worlds, just one is woven into ours when it encounters our own vast network of settled possibilities, earning the right to be considered 'real'.

In the team's numerical demonstration, the sheer scale of interactions quickly builds in a way that suppresses possibilities until single states remain.

In other words, given the complexity of the Universe surrounding Schrödinger's cat, one that includes the box, observers, the building they're in, and far beyond, rapidly growing interactions between an environment and the alive and dead states over time mean the two won't appear as a mix.

In fact, this merging of worlds happens on such a small level, so quickly, relatively few particles can quickly iron out the fuzziness of an undecided state, making the quantum haze all but vanish on the smallest of scales.

"Since objects of daily life contain a huge number of particles, this explains why the multiverse is not directly perceptible to us," the team writes in their paper.

Problem solved, right? Yes and no. While the hypothesis helps us visualise the selection of a single state from a lottery of countless possibilities, the explanation still relies on assuming that all universes behave in this way. Those universes also don't take into account complexities of general relativity.

It might yet be imagined that the right combination of entangled states could still cough up a mix of alive cat and dead cat, or at least, it's not ruled out. There also remains the question of just how far quantum randomness can exert an influence in a macroscopic reality like ours.

Nonetheless, it's not the first time theoretical physicists have suggested a need to include larger-scale pictures of existing states to make sense of why an undecided quantum blur suddenly settles on a single measurement.

Schrödinger's cat will remain an enigma in physics for a while to come, spinning in its grave as the perfect metaphor for a field of physics that remains rich in possibility.

An Expert Explains Why Some People's Hair And Nails Grow Faster

2025-01-04T02:04:00.002+05:00

Throughout recorded history, our hair and nails played an important role in signifying who we are and our social status. You could say, they separate the caveman from businessman.

(Eugenio Marongiu/Getty Images)

It was no surprise then that many of us found a new level of appreciation for our hairdressers and nail artists during the COVID lockdowns. Even Taylor Swift reported she cut her own hair during lockdown.

So, what would happen if all this hair and nail grooming got too much for us and we decided to give it all up. Would our hair and nails just keep on growing?

The answer is yes. The hair on our head grows, on average, 1 centimeter per month, while our fingernails grow an average of just over 3 millimetres.

When left unchecked, our hair and nails can grow to impressive lengths. Aliia Nasyrova, known as the Ukrainian Rapunzel, holds the world record for the longest locks on a living woman, which measure an impressive 257.33 cm.

When it comes to record-breaking fingernails, Diana Armstrong from the United States holds that record at 1,306.58 cm.

Most of us, however, get regular haircuts and trim our nails – some with greater frequency than others. So why do some people's hair and nails grow more quickly?

Remind me, what are they made out of?

Hair and nails are made mostly from keratin. Both grow from matrix cells below the skin and grow through different patterns of cell division.

Nails grow steadily from the matrix cells, which sit under the skin at the base of the nail. These cells divide, pushing the older cells forward. As they grow, the new cells slide along the nail bed – the flat area under the fingernail which looks pink because of its rich blood supply.

A hair also starts growing from the matrix cells, eventually forming the visible part of the hair – the shaft. The hair shaft grows from a root that sits under the skin and is wrapped in a sac known as the hair follicle.

This sac has a nerve supply (which is why it hurts to pull out a hair), oil-producing glands that lubricate the hair and a tiny muscle that makes your hair stand up when it's cold.

At the follicle's base is the hair bulb, which contains the all-important hair papilla that supplies blood to the follicle.

Matrix cells near the papilla divide to produce new hair cells, which then harden and form the hair shaft. As the new hair cells are made, the hair is pushed up above the skin and the hair grows.

But the papilla also plays an integral part in regulating hair growth cycles, as it sends signals to the stem cells to move to the base of the follicle and form a hair matrix. Matrix cells then get signals to divide and start a new growth phase.

Unlike nails, our hair grows in cycles

Scientists have identified four phases of hair growth, the:

anagen or growth phase, which lasts between two and eight years
catagen or transition phase, when growth slows down, lasting around two weeks
telogen or resting phase, when there is no growth at all. This usually lasts two to three months
exogen or shedding phase, when the hair falls out and is replaced by the new hair growing from the same follicle. This starts the process all over again.

Each follicle goes through this cycle 10–30 times in its lifespan.

If all of our hair follicles grew at the same rate and entered the same phases simultaneously, there would be times when we would all be bald. That doesn't usually happen: at any given time, only one in ten hairs is in the resting phase.

While we lose about 100–150 hairs daily, the average person has 100,000 hairs on their head, so we barely notice this natural shedding.

So what affects the speed of growth?

Genetics is the most significant factor. While hair growth rates vary between individuals, they tend to be consistent among family members.

Nails are also influenced by genetics, as siblings, especially identical twins, tend to have similar nail growth rates.

But there are also other influences.

Age makes a difference to hair and nail growth, even in healthy people. Younger people generally have faster growth rates because of the slowing metabolism and cell division that comes with ageing.

Hormonal changes can have an impact. Pregnancy often accelerates hair and nail growth rates, while menopause and high levels of the stress hormone cortisol can slow growth rates.

Nutrition also changes hair and nail strength and growth rate. While hair and nails are made mostly of keratin, they also contain water, fats and various minerals. As hair and nails keep growing, these minerals need to be replaced.

That's why a balanced diet that includes sufficient nutrients to support your hair and nails is essential for maintaining their health.

Nutrient deficiencies may contribute to hair loss and nail breakage by disrupting their growth cycle or weakening their structure. Iron and zinc deficiencies, for example, have both been linked to hair loss and brittle nails.

This may explain why thick hair and strong, well-groomed nails have long been associated with perception of good health and high status.

However, not all perceptions are true.

No, hair and nails don't grow after death

A persistent myth that may relate to the legends of vampires is that hair and nails continue to grow after we die.

In reality, they only appear to do so. As the body dehydrates after death, the skin shrinks, making hair and nails seem longer.

Morticians are well aware of this phenomenon and some inject tissue filler into the deceased's fingertips to minimise this effect.

So, it seems that living or dead, there is no escape from the never-ending task of caring for our hair and nails.

Microplastics Suspected to Cause Fertility, Gut, And Lung Issues, Warns New Review

2025-01-04T01:56:00.004+05:00

A review on the health effects of microplastics has some scientists suspecting the worst.

(Svetlozar Hristov/Getty Images)

The tiny synthetic particles that are found in our air, food, and water may be causing fertility issues, colon cancer, and poor lung function in humans, according to researchers at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF).

Picking out some of the strongest evidence on microplastics published between 2018 and 2024, the team has identified several health risks to the digestive, reproductive, and respiratory systems of animals.

Their work is not a full systematic review but a 'rapid' one, designed to identify possible health issues for urgent clinical research.

Of the 31 studies considered, most were conducted on rodents, and only three observational studies included humans. Current research on microplastics, however, is still in its infancy, and animal models are usually the first step.

The three human studies included in the review were conducted between 2022 and 2024, in Turkey, Iran, and China. One measured microplastics in maternal amniotic fluid, another measured them in placenta, and yet another in nasal fluid.

The animal experiments were mostly conducted on mice and at research institutions in China.

Scientists at UCSF say they are among the first to analyze the quality and strength of the existing health evidence on microplastics.

When it comes to sperm quality and health of the gut's immune response, the team rates the overall body of evidence as "high" quality.

Based on the results, the researchers conclude that microplastic exposure is "suspected" to have adverse impacts "based on consistent evidence" and "confidence in the association."

Evidence for respiratory issues, like lung injury, pulmonary function, or oxidative stress, was rated as "moderate" in quality, with microplastics also "suspected" of negatively impacting the lungs. Evidence for impact on egg follicles and other effects on the gut, such as chronic inflammation, was also deemed to be of moderate quality.

"Given the ubiquity of microplastics and the consistent, growing recognition of their existence in the human body, it is likely that microplastics will impact other body systems, which is a potential area for future research," the team predicts.

"This is particularly timely given that plastic production is projected to triple by 2060."

Today, fragments of plastic have been found accumulating in human placenta, poop, lung tissue, breastmilk, brain tissue, and blood with largely unknown consequences.

While many scientists around the world have warned microplastics may pose a risk to humans if they stick around in the body for long enough, plastic production continues to outpace health research by a long stretch.

No human study included in the review investigated digestion issues, but several animal studies revealed "significant alterations to the colon" following exposure to plastic, as well as a significant decrease in mucosal surface area that was commensurate with the animal's level of plastic exposure.

Five other animal studies also investigated changes to sperm. Microplastics were associated with declines in living sperm, sperm concentrations, and sperm movement, the researchers found. Increases in sperm malformation were also observed.

A further seven rodent studies assessed microplastic exposure and its links to chronic inflammation, lung injury, lung function, and oxidative stress. While the evidence here is not as strong as for fertility and digestive outcomes, experiments among animals consistently suggest damage and fibrosis to the lung tissue.

Given the state of the evidence, researchers at UCSF "strongly recommend" that regulatory agencies and decision makers "act on limited evidence given that evidence has been shown to grow and get stronger and initiate actions to prevent or mitigate human exposure to microplastics."

We don't have time to waste. Just a whole lot of plastic.

What counts as 'binge drinking'? What about 'high-intensity drinking'?

2025-01-02T23:37:00.002+05:00

Episodes of "binge drinking" can have dangerous short-term effects, while repeated binge drinking can trigger longer-term problems.

Binge drinking is defined as having about four or more drinks for women and five or more drinks for men, within two hours. (Image credit: Jackyenjoyphotography via Getty Images)

During the festive season and other times of celebration, alcohol often flows freely. But how much is too much?

In short, what counts as "binge drinking," and what are the potential health effects?

Most people understand binge drinking as "drinking to get drunk," said Dr. Ryan Marino, a toxicologist and associate professor at Case Western Reserve University. But the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) offers a more precise definition.

Binge drinking refers to when a person consumes enough alcohol within about two hours to raise their blood-alcohol concentration (BAC) to 0.08% or higher. That's at least 0.08 grams of alcohol per deciliter of blood, and for average adults, it's about four or more drinks for women and five or more drinks for men. In the U.S., a standard drink contains 0.6 ounces (14 grams) of pure alcohol; that translates to about 12 ounces of beer, 5 ounces of wine, or 1.5 ounces of distilled spirits.

The binge-drinking threshold is lower for women because their bodies generally have more fat and less water than men of the same weight. Because alcohol dissolves in water, not in fat, women therefore reach a higher BAC than men after drinking the same amount.

Notably, there's a behavior that's even more extreme than binge drinking, known as high-intensity drinking. The NIAAA defines this as drinking at levels two or more times the thresholds for binge drinking — so 10 drinks or more for men, or eight or more for women, within about two hours.

What are the health risks of binge drinking?

In the short term, since alcohol slows brain activity, a person's reflexes after binge drinking are slower than normal, which can lead to accidents such as falls, drownings and car crashes. This suppressed brain activity also makes people more likely to engage in risky behaviors, such as unsafe sexual activity or violence, said Sarah Church, a psychologist and CEO of Wholeview Wellness, an addiction treatment center in New York City.

Drinking too much alcohol in a sitting impairs the hippocampus, a brain area critical for forming memories. This can result in blackouts, preventing a person from recalling what happened while they were intoxicated.

When alcohol levels in the bloodstream become excessively high, areas of the brain responsible for vital functions — such as breathing, heart rate and alertness — also begin to shut down. This is called alcohol poisoning, and it can lead to vomiting, seizures, coma or even death.

Health effects of repetitive binge drinking

A single episode of binge drinking can cause these immediate effects, and likely a hangover the next morning. Repeated binge drinking can have severe long-term effects on both physical and mental health.

It's the liver's job to break down alcohol, so if you drink more alcohol than the organ can process, it can become badly damaged, leading to liver disease. Frequent heavy drinking also affects the heart. Excess alcohol consumption is linked to high blood pressure, and over time, this strains the heart and can lead to cardiovascular disease, increasing the risk of heart attack and stroke.

Long-term heavy alcohol use also damages nerves, sometimes leading to "alcoholic neuropathy." Symptoms include numbness, painful sensations in the arms and legs, and difficulty walking.

There's also sufficient evidence to link heavy alcohol use to higher rates of various cancers. "The rate of cancer of the esophagus, stomach, pancreas, [and] liver is elevated in people who repeatedly drink large amounts of alcohol," said Linnea Axman, the associate dean at the University of Phoenix College of Nursing.

It also disrupts gut health. The gut is home to a large community of bacteria, the "gut microbiome," and "drinking excessive amounts of alcohol can lead to gut dysbiosis, an imbalance of the gut microbiome," said Trista Best, a registered dietitian. That means certain types of gut bacteria become too abundant, while others decline, with negative effects.

Alcohol can simultaneously weaken the gut lining, making it more permeable, which can allow harmful substances to enter your bloodstream, Best added. This can contribute to chronic gut inflammation.

Binge drinking increases the risk of developing an alcohol use disorder (AUD), a disease that causes craving for alcohol, loss of control when drinking and a negative emotional state when not drinking. Not everyone who binge drinks has an AUD, but their increased risk is significant.

High-intensity drinking amplifies all of these risks of binge drinking, said Dr. Rostislav Ignatov, a psychiatrist and chief medical officer at The Haven Detox, a group of addiction treatment centers. In the short term, severe alcohol poisoning or organ shutdown are more likely with high-intensity drinking than with binge drinking. Over the long term, the former accelerates the risk of developing organ damage and cancer typically tied to binge drinking, he said.

"Anyone who is concerned about their drinking should speak to a health care professional to see what treatment options are right for them," said Peter Vernig, a psychologist and vice president of mental health services at Recovery Centers of America.

Treatment options range from inpatient programs, in which you stay at a facility, to outpatient therapy groups and counseling. There are also prescription medications, such as naltrexone, that help to reduce alcohol cravings and dependence. "The most important thing to do is to reach out and start the conversation," Vernig emphasized.

Do We Live in a Special Part of the Universe?

2025-01-02T23:28:00.005+05:00

According to a tenet scientists call the cosmological principle, our place in space is in no way exceptional. But recent observations could overturn this long-held assumption.

An illustration of the cosmic web, the universe’s large-scale structure of composed of galaxy-rich clumps and filaments alongside giant intergalactic voids mostly bereft of matter. At even larger scales, cosmic structure seems to smooth out into near-featureless homogeneity. Mark Garlick/Science Photo Library/Alamy Stock Photo

Ever since humans started gazing at the heavens through telescopes, we have discovered, bit by bit, that in celestial terms we’re apparently not so special. Earth was not the center of the universe, it turned out. It wasn’t even the center of the solar system! The solar system, unfortunately, wasn’t the center of the universe either. In fact, there were many star systems fundamentally like it, together making up a galaxy. And, wouldn’t you know, the galaxy wasn’t special but one of many, which all had their own solar systems, which also had planets, some of which presumably host their own ensemble of egoistic creatures with an overinflated sense of cosmic importance.

This notion of mediocrity has been baked into cosmology, in the form of the “cosmological principle.” Its gist is that the universe is basically the same everywhere we look—homogenized like milk, made of common materials evenly distributed in every direction. At the top of the cosmic hierarchy, giant groups of galaxies clump into sprawling, matter-rich filaments and sheets around gaping intergalactic voids, but past that, structure seems to peter out. If you could zoom way out and look at the universe’s big picture, says Alexia Lopez of the University of Central Lancashire in England, “it would look really smooth.”

Lopez compares the cosmos with a beach: If you plunked a handful of sand under a microscope, the sand grains would look like the special individuals they are. “You would see the different colors, shapes and sizes,” she says. “But if you were to walk across the beach, looking out at the sand dunes, all you would see is a uniform golden beige color.”

That means Earth (or any of the other trillions of planets that must exist) and its tiny corner of the cosmos appear to hold no particularly privileged place in comparison to everything else. And this homogeneity is convenient for astronomers because it lets them look at the universe in part as a reliable way of making inferences about the whole; whether here in the Milky Way or in a nameless galaxy billions of light-years distant, prevailing conditions should be essentially the same.

This simplifying ethos applies to everything from understanding how dark matter weighs down galaxy clusters to estimating how common life-friendly conditions might be throughout the cosmos, and it allows astronomers to simplify their mathematical models of the universe’s past as well as their predictions of its future. “Everything is based on the idea that [the cosmological principle] is true,” Lopez says. “It is also a very vague assumption. So it’s really hard to validate.”

Validation is especially challenging when significant evidence exists to the contrary—and a host of recent observations suggest indeed that the universe could be stranger and have larger variations than cosmologists had so comfortably supposed.

If that’s the case, humans (and anyone else out there) actually might have a sort of special view of the light-years beyond—not privileged, per se, but also not average, in that “average” would no longer even be a useful concept at sufficiently large scales. “Different observers may see slightly different universes,” at least at large scales, says Valerio Marra, a professor at the Federal University of Espírito Santo in Brazil and a researcher at the Astronomical Observatory of Trieste in Italy.

Astronomers haven’t thrown out the cosmological principle just yet, but they are gathering clues about its potential weaknesses. One approach involves looking for structures so large they challenge cosmic smoothness even at a hugely wide zoom. Scientists have calculated that anything wider than about 1.2 billion light-years would upset the homogeneous cosmic apple cart.

And astronomers have found some. Lopez, for instance, has discovered a beast called the Giant Arc—a curve of galaxies strung across some 3.3 billion light-years. She’s also discovered the Big Ring, a torus of galaxies about 1.3 billion light-years across and four billion around. The two strangenesses are close together and may themselves be connected into an even larger structure.

The study of cosmology itself also gives reason to raise an eyebrow at the cosmological principle. For instance, the light leftover from the big bang, called the cosmic microwave background, has some mysterious large-scale fluctuations that don’t look totally random, notes Dragan Huterer, a cosmologist at the University of Michigan. “This was never satisfactorily explained,” he says.

Some scientists have argued that such potential challenges to the cosmological principle might be explained by another principle, cosmic variance, which refers to the statistical uncertainty inherent in astronomers’ measurements of the universe. We are always limited by what we can see and therefore always mathematically uncertain about what conclusions to draw from a limited sample. Maybe the variations astronomers saw were simply the result of incompleteness rather than a real reflection of the universe’s properties; perhaps what seems to be an anomalous bump in cosmic smoothness would flatten out when compared with an unobserved chunk of the cosmos adjacent to the volume visible to us.

And when it comes to studying suitably large patches of the universe, cosmologists are very limited indeed: the observable universe is only so big. “If you say, ‘I’m going to study the shapes of galaxies,’ well, lucky you: you have billions and billions of galaxies in the universe. You can address your questions with statistics, and your sample variance will be very small,” Huterer says. On larger scales, you only get a few examples because the observable universe only splits into so many big sections.

Marra thought for a while that certain cosmological discrepancies could be a result of cosmic variance. But it’s not enough to explain it anymore, according to his and others’ calculations.

Still, most cosmic observations hold up against the cosmological principle very well. So while scientists have enough information to reasonably question the idea’s validity, they aren’t at all ready to abandon it—least of all because no one has a solid alternative schema to replace it.

“There’s no smoking-gun evidence for the violation of principle,” Huterer says. “However, there are some very interesting anomalies.”

Regardless, it’s a hard problem to decipher because of the nature of cosmology. “Unlike in some lab experiment that you can do over and over and over again,” Huterer says, “you only get one universe.”

Nanotech Scientists Build on an Insect’s Odd Soccer-Ball-Like Excretions to Design Ingenious Camouflage

2025-01-02T23:23:00.003+05:00

In the early 1950s biologists at Brooklyn College were using an electron microscope to pursue a lead that the leafhopper, a common insect that is about the size of a rice grain and named after one of its signature behaviors, could be an agent of viral transmission.

Brochosomes. Science Photo Library/Alamy Stock Photo

In their research, the scientists incidentally observed, in their words, “certain ultramicroscopic bodies, hitherto undescribed,” on the wings of leafhoppers. In a 1953 note in the Bulletin of the Brooklyn Entomological Society, they dubbed these minuscule, spherical, jacklike structures “brochosomes,” after a Greek word meaning “mesh of a net.”

Since then a thin but determined line of scientists and engineers has built a brochosome-anchored hyperspecialty. These researchers are drawn to these subpinpoints of highly structured matter by the biological wonders they embody and the technological possibilities their elaborately porous forms and physical properties suggest. Brochosome aficionados do not hesitate to share their delight at having run across such an evolutionary tour de force.

“Our group first became intrigued by brochosomes around 2015, drawn to their nanoscale dimensions and intricate, three-dimensional buckyball-like geometries,” says Tak-Sing Wong, a biomedical and mechanical engineer at Pennsylvania State University. “We were amazed by how leafhoppers can consistently produce such complex structures at the nanoscale, especially considering that even with our most advanced micro- and nanofabrication technologies we still struggle to achieve such uniformity and scalability.”

As much as anyone interested in these structures, Wong has been working to channel his brochosome envy into the creation of a cabinet of technological curiosities based on brochosomes’ knack for absorbing specific ranges of visible and ultraviolet wavelengths. Wong, with his partners at Penn State and Carnegie Mellon University, has been granted two U.S. patents and has others pending for processes to manufacture synthetic counterparts to brochosomes.

Wong says the synthetic brochosomes are potentially suitable for a range of applications, including antireflection and camouflage materials, anticounterfeiting, data encryption and an “optical security,” tactic in which hidden information becomes visible only when it is illuminated with, say, infrared or ultraviolet light. The researchers have been able to garner grant money from the Office of Naval Research, which is always on the lookout for the next way to make it harder for adversaries to detect and track naval vessels, aircraft and other U.S. military assets.

Much of the recent brochosome-inspired R&D around the world, Wong notes, derives from the ultra-antireflective upgrade that nature-made brochosomes add to leafhoppers’ body. It’s not just cool optical physics: this trick of the light renders the insects stealthy on leaf surfaces where hungry insects, birds and spiders scan for prey.

Some of the forays into brochosome biology have revealed that these natural nanoscale innovations are composed of proteins and lipids that get assembled into the stealth-making nanospheres within specialized compartments of the insects’ Malpighian tubules, which are kidneylike excretory organs. With their hind legs, the insects groom their entire little selves with brochosome-packed microdroplets from their anus, resulting in light-absorptive cloaks that help them live another day.

But the nanospheres are good for more than just concealment. In a recent addition to the growing list of concepts and prototypes of brochosome-inspired technologies, Wong’s Penn State team joined Carnegie Mellon University researchers, led by mechanical engineer Sheng Shen, with an eye to delivering new materials not just for camouflage but for novel security and encryption devices as well. The technology leverages people’s inability to perceive infrared light.

As the researchers were making measurements of optical and other physical aspects of synthetic brochosomes, they noticed that “while these structures appeared identical under visible light, they exhibited dramatic contrasts in infrared imaging,” Shen says. And that sparked an encryption- and security-technology idea, which the researchers now are pursuing. The team is asking whether it might be possible to encode infrared information invisibly within the visible spectrum. A small dot of such an infrared-active brochosome material on currency could serve as a signature of authenticity and add an additional hurdle for would-be counterfeiters.

Researchers have explored a half-dozen ways of fabricating synthetic brochosomes of various sizes and geometries. Through the use of different polymeric, ceramic and metallic materials, the cabinet of brochosome-inspired technocuriosities is only becoming more eye-catching.

A team of Chinese researchers who are brochosome fans recently reported a process for making a vivid spectrum of color-bestowing particles by filling tiny indentations—“nanobowl” spaces—on silver brochosome structures with tiny polystyrene spheres. When the researchers tailored the sizes of the spheres with a precise etching method, they were able to tweak the electromagnetic interactions between the spheres and, thereby, the apparent colors of the synthetic brochosome-structures. In an ACS Nano paper in which the researchers rolled out their color-making strategy, they suggested this opened a pathway for producing longer-lasting and more stable colors compared with shorter-lived chemical dyes and pigments.

A different Chinese research group, attempting to emulate the master-of-disguise feats of chameleons, cephalopods and other creatures, fabricated tungsten-oxide-based brochosome structures that become less reflective when they are electrically stimulated. One possible end point for this work could be energy-saving applications—windows that could regulate the amount of solar and thermal energy that passed through them over the course of the day.

On an even more expansive and eclectic to-do list are light-harvesting electrodes that could generate and corral energized electrons to make hydrogen fuel and self-cleaning surfaces that could repel liquids and adhesives. Also on the list are sensors that could be tailored for detecting specific bacteria and proteins for environmental monitoring and health applications. Additionally, there is the prospect of brochosome-inspired particles whose pores and surfaces could be tailored to carry specific drugs to target tissues.

The promise seems enormous, but an era of brochosome-inspired technology is not an immediate prospect. “One of the major bottlenecks to the widespread use of synthetic brochosomes is the lack of scalable production technologies, as their complex 3D shapes and nanoscale dimensions remain challenging to replicate at scale,” Wong cautions.

Whether specific brochosome-inspired technologies get to the finish line or not, Wong says that he loves sharing his work with nonscientist family members and friends. “They are immediately captivated by the beauty of the brochosomes’ soccer-ball-looking structures,” he says. “When I explain that the structures are about 100 times thinner than the diameter of a hair, they can hardly believe it.”

Meanwhile Shen welcomes a humbling aspect of this research romance with brochosomes. “It’s a powerful reminder that innovation doesn’t always need to come from human ingenuity,” he says. “Sometimes nature has already solved the problems we’re working on.”

Kickstart 2025 With Quadrantids Peak, One of The Best Meteor Showers All Year

2025-01-02T23:18:00.000+05:00

Ready for another amazing year of skywatching?

Quadrantids meteor shower in northern Colorado, captured with 22-minute exposure. (Shannon Dizmang/Flickr/CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

The very first weekend of 2025 offers up a flurry of wintertime astronomy events, eluding a swift meteor shower, a January 'SuperSun,' and a lunar planetary pair up at dusk.
January's 'Quad Watch'

This year, the Quadrantid meteors peak on January 4th with a respectable projected Zenithal Hourly Rate (ZHR) of 80.

This is versus a 27% illuminated waxing crescent Moon. Said slender Moon won't hamper observations, making 2025 an ideal year for the 'Quads'.

Prospects in 2025

The short peak arrives at around 15:00-18:00 Universal Time (UT) on January 3rd, which favors the northern Pacific region at dawn.

Keep in mind, it is still worth it for North American and European observers to watch on the mornings of January 3rd, and the 4th, before and after, in the event the peak arrives late.

The obscure name for the Quadrantids is the remnant of the now defunct constellation Quadrans Muralis (the Mural Quadrant). This was divided up between Draco, Hercules, and Boötes (where the present-day radiant lies at the shower's maximum) when the modern constellations were formalized by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) in 1928 and published in 1930.

I think it's great how an obscure piece of astronomical history turns up in skywatching discussions once a year…

The source of the Quadrantids is asteroid 2003 EH1, a rarity among meteor showers.

The December Geminids also have a similar strange source, in rock-comet 3200 Phaethon.

It has always been my experience that the 'Quads,' while they're a strong stream, are often elusive, with a swift and brief peak.

Maybe, it's just because it tends to be brutally cold outside in early January, cutting the observing window short.

Be sure to dress warm, fill up your travel mug with hot tea or cocoa, and keep those backup camera batteries toasty warm on your January Quadrantid meteor quest.
Earth at Perihelion

Meanwhile, our home world reaches perihelion, or its closest approach to the Sun, on January 4th at 0.98333 AU distance, at around 13:00 UT/8:00 AM EST.

It may seem ironic that we actually reach our closest point in our orbit in the depths of Northern Hemisphere winter. Of course, it's currently summertime in the Southern Hemisphere.

This is also only true in our current epoch, as eccentricity of the Earth's orbit, the obliquity of the poles and precession of the equinoxes all change over time in what's known as Milankovitch cycles.

The Sun does indeed appear slightly bigger in January versus aphelion in July (32′ 32″ versus 31'28" across in apparent size)… we checked.

A 'Great European Occultation'

Finally, the Moon occults (passes in front of) Saturn on January 4th at ~17:24 Universal Time (UT).

The event favors Europe at dusk, and the Moon is a 25% illuminated, waxing crescent, one of the best times to catch an occultation. This is the first planetary occultation by the Moon for 2025.

This should be a spectacular event, as the planet disappears behind the dark limb of the Moon, and reappears behind the bright sunlit side. 39″ wide (including rings), +1st magnitude Saturn will take a leisurely 45 seconds to a minute to fully disappear behind the Moon.

The rings, though still barely visible, are headed towards the edge this year on March 23rd.

The rest of us get a consolation prize of seeing a close pairing on Saturn and the crescent Moon at dusk worldwide.

The Moon occults Saturn twice in 2025, with the next and final event occurring on February 1st for the remote Canadian Arctic and Alaska.

The International Occultation Timing Association lists ingress/egress times for locations along the track for the January 4th event.

…And Something More

Clouded out… or simply live in the wrong hemisphere?

Astronomer Gianluca Masi will host no less than three virtual sessions this weekend, covering the Quadrantid meteors, the occultation of Saturn by the Moon, and the Moon's close pass near Venus on January 3rd, just one week prior to its greatest (dusk) elongation 47 degrees east of the Sun on the 10th:

The Moon joins an enthralling planetary parade this weekend, sliding by Saturn and Venus to the west at dusk.

Meanwhile, Jupiter and Mars await their turn to greet the Moon later in January to the east.

Wherever you may happen to observe from this weekend, there's a skywatching event for you.

Be sure to embrace the cold as we kick off another year of astronomy and skywatching in 2025.

The Size of Your Pupils While You Sleep Could Reveal The Memories You're Reliving

2025-01-02T23:09:00.004+05:00

While our body shuts down in slumber each day, the brain remains busy at work, filing through the day's recordings and making sense of them with respect to past experiences.

(bluecinema/E+/Getty Images)

Just how fresh memories are processed without blurring into old recollections has never been clear, with scientists hypothesizing different methods of keeping our memories separate while we sleep.

Researchers from Cornell University in the US strapped brain-scanning electrodes and tiny eye-tracking cameras to mice, monitoring them as they learned new tasks in the day, such as navigating a maze, and slept during the night. (Fun fact: mice can sleep with their eyes open.)

The team found two substages happening during non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep, that restorative period crucial to forming memories. One replayed new memories, coinciding with a constriction of the pupils. The other substage featured recall of older memories, with the pupils dilated. Each phase occurred in quick succession.

The findings help answer the question of why consolidation of new memories doesn't erase old ones; for example, learning to play the piano without forgetting how to ride a bike. A similar analysis will need to be carried out in humans to verify the results, even if we do share a lot of brain similarities with mice.

"Our results suggest that the brain can multiplex distinct cognitive processes during sleep to facilitate continuous learning without interference," write the researchers in their published paper.

Previous studies have identified links between pupil size and sleep state, and between sleep state and memory formation, but this study adds a whole new level of detail to those connections.

Before now, there had been plenty of debate over how the brain fitted new memories in amongst the old ones during sleep – specifically, just how separated and intentional these processes are.

The team also found that blocking sharp-wave ripples (SWRs) – known to affect memory storage – during contracted pupil stages in the mice limited their capabilities to remember anything new.

"It's like new learning, old knowledge, new learning, old knowledge, and that is fluctuating slowly throughout the sleep," says neuroscientist Azahara Oliva, from Cornell University.

"We are proposing that the brain has this intermediate timescale that separates the new learning from the old knowledge."

The implications of the study are far-reaching: having a non-invasive means of monitoring brain function may help in the treatment of memory issues or the boosting of memory, for example.

The findings also lend weight to hypotheses on how our brains and computer systems have the potential to forget old information on a significant scale. In AI, it's known as catastrophic forgetting, and is one area where the machines are still way behind biology.

"This finding provides a potential solution for the long-standing problem in both biological and artificial neural networks of preventing catastrophic interference while also enabling memory integration," write the researchers.

China nuclear fusion discovery finds mysterious energy boost to power up plasma

2025-01-02T01:54:00.003+05:00

collaborative effort between researchers at the Shanghai Jiao Tong University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences led to the deployment of a simulation code on a nuclear fusion collision model that has unlocked the physics behind supra-thermal ions in the burning plasma.

EAST fusion-research tokamak at the Chinese Academy of Science’s Institute of Plasma Physics (ASIPP) in Hefei, China.

This helps us improve our understanding of how nuclear fusion reactions occur and how they can be improved.

In our bid to transition to clean energy, nuclear fusion is a critical component. Replicating reactions that power the Sun here on Earth could help us unlock boundless energy without emitting planet-warming gases. To reach there, we need to first succeed in getting more energy out of a nuclear fusion reactor than we put in.

Humanity made some progress in this direction when the US’s National Ignition Facility (NIF) achieved a net gain of 3.15 million Joules (MJ) of energy in December 2022. To make further advances, scientists are, however, focusing on another NIF milestone achieved in February of 2021 – burning plasma for the first time.

What is burning plasma?

In NIF’s approach to harnessing fusion energy, a fuel mix of deuterium and tritium (DT) undergoes implosion under reaction conditions similar to what exists in the stars. NIF refers to this approach as inertial confinement fusion (ICF).

In ICF, when deposited energy from alpha particles is more than required for achieving implosion, the reaction mix enters a burning state that amplifies energy densities in the plasma, also known as burning plasma.

While this state can help us unlock fusion energy, it also provides us glimpses of the conditions of the early universe. Subsequent experiments at the NIF provided us with more information about these conditions but also brought discrepancies in neutron spectrum data to the fore.

Supra thermal ions

Traditionally, the behavior of particles in fusion environments has been based on Maxwell distributions. However, researchers found that this approach overlooked critical kinetic effects arising in non-equilibrium scenarios and does not explain the presence of supra-thermal ions

To address this hurdle, a research team led by Jie Zhang at the Chinese Academy of Sciences proposed a novel model centered around large-angle collision dynamics, a revolutionary and multi-faceted approach.

Employing a hybrid-particle-in-cell simulation code called LAPINS, the team conducted high-precision simulations of ICF-burning plasma to gain insights into the fusion reaction. They found that large-angle collisions promote ignition reaction by 10 picoseconds, which could help improve fusion reactions.

The simulation detected the presence of supra-thermal D ions with energies below the threshold of 34 keV. This is important since the energy deposition is twice that of alpha particles. The team also found that alpha particle densities at the center of the hotspot were enhanced by 24 percent.

Can We Stop Brain Aging? Scientists Uncover Mitochondrial Key

2025-01-02T01:48:00.004+05:00

New research identifies E-TCmito as a key link between neuronal activity and mitochondrial function, highlighting its potential to address cognitive decline in aging and diseases like Alzheimer’s.

Researchers uncovered a mechanism called excitation-mitochondrial DNA transcription coupling (E-TCmito) linking neuronal activity to mitochondrial DNA transcription, crucial for maintaining brain function. Enhancing E-TCmito in aged mice improved cognition, offering a potential therapeutic target for age-related cognitive decline and neurodegenerative diseases.

New research in mice has identified a critical mechanism that connects neuronal activity with mitochondrial function, offering insight into potential strategies to address age-related cognitive decline. Mitochondria, essential for meeting the energy needs of active neurons, generate adenosine triphosphate (ATP) primarily through oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS).

As mammals age, the efficiency of mitochondrial metabolism in the brain declines, significantly impacting neuronal and network function. The disruption of the OXPHOS pathway contributes to oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction, exacerbating these challenges.
Challenges in Understanding Aging-Related Mitochondrial Decline

However, the mechanisms underlying the decline in OXPHOS activity and its impact on mitochondrial efficiency in aging neurons remain poorly understood, which, by extension, has limited the development of targeted interventions for age-related cognitive decline.

To address this, Wenwen Li and colleagues investigated the role of mitochondrial transcription in cognition in the hippocampus of young and aged mice. Li et al. identified a novel coupling mechanism, which they dubbed excitation-mitochondrial DNA transcription coupling (E-TCmito), that connects neuronal excitation with mitochondrial DNA transcription.

This coupling, distinct from the traditional excitation-transcription coupling in the nucleus, is essential for maintaining synaptic and mitochondrial health. In aging brains, the effectiveness of E-TCmito declines, leading to cognitive deficits. Notably, by enhancing E-TCmito in aged mice, the authors observed improved cognitive function, highlighting its potential as a therapeutic target for counteracting cognitive decline associated with aging.

“Through an impressive combination of innovative tools, innovative physiology, and behavior experiments, Li et al. provide key insights into mitochondrial biology in the aging mammalian brain,” write Deniz Bingul and Scott Owen in a related Perspective. “The findings raise the possibility of identifying targets for age-related neurocognitive disorders associated with mitochondrial dysfunction, including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases.”

Reference: “Boosting neuronal activity-driven mitochondrial DNA transcription improves cognition in aged mice” by Wenwen Li, Jiarui Li, Jing Li, Chen Wei, Tal Laviv, Meiyi Dong, Jingran Lin, Mariah Calubag, Lesley A Colgan, Kai Jin, Bing Zhou, Ying Shen, Haohong Li, Yihui Cui, Zhihua Gao, Tao Li, Hailan Hu, Ryohei Yasuda and Huan Ma, 20 December 2024, .

A Chinese spacecraft burned up over Los Angeles. Earthquake sensors mapped its path through the atmosphere.

2025-01-02T01:44:00.004+05:00

A Chinese spacecraft that burned up high over Los Angeles created a sonic trail detected by ground-based sensors.

Space debris from the Chinese Shenzhou-15 spacecraft lights up the California sky on 2 April 2024. (Image credit: Christopher H., American Meteor Society)

On 2 April, a shower of fireballs lit up the night sky over Los Angeles and much of central and Southern California. Onlookers wondered whether they were witnessing a meteor, a failed rocket launch, or even a UFO.

Astronomers later confirmed that the fireballs were space debris from the orbital module of a Chinese spacecraft called Shenzhou-15, first launched in November 2022. The spacecraft's uncontrolled reentry sparked international complaints about the dangers of space junk plunging to Earth, but the event also inspired a new way for seismologists to use ground signals to track the fate of such debris.

Sonic booms were picked up by seismometers stationed throughout the Los Angeles basin. Now, a team has reconstructed the spacecraft's trajectory through the atmosphere from those seismic records. This new technique could help researchers detect incoming space debris around the globe, even without visual observations.

I'm not aware of work that's been done to try to track and characterize space debris using seismic measurements," said planetary scientist Benjamin Fernando of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, the study's lead author. Fernando and his colleagues described their work on 9 December at AGU's Annual Meeting 2024 in Washington, D.C.
The growing hazards of space debris

Until recently, out-of-control space debris was a rare phenomenon. "Increasing space missions have led to larger and more spaceships being launched that subsequently deorbit," Fernando said. "Pieces of that debris plummet back to Earth, posing a risk to people's lives and properties."

Fernando became interested in the 2 April event after he found out that people in Los Angeles had heard the debris as it flamed high overhead. He speculated that if humans could hear it, supersensitive seismometers must have picked up signals, too.

"While cameras and radars are good instruments to track space debris, they are scarce in unpopulated areas," he said. "Seismometers are better at picking up minute signals from vibrations, especially for such a promising event that produced sonic booms."

Fernando and his colleagues downloaded the seismic data recorded that night from stations across the Los Angeles basin and found similar sets of seismic signals moving inland from the Pacific coast. Then, they spent months parsing the data to track the trajectory of the debris, its speed, its size, and the populations it crossed over before breaking up.

Fernando was involved last year with a planned effort to track an incoming human-made object through Earth's atmosphere: a capsule carrying samples from the asteroid Bennu, part of NASA's Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security–Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) mission. Seismometers and other equipment tracked the capsule's blazing trajectory and hypersonic booms over the Utah desert in September 2023. Fernando noted that the Shenzhou-15 reentry marks one of the first times seismologists have used ground stations to track space debris with no warning.

This method could expose other incoming objects over less populated areas, he said, as long as enough seismic stations pick up the atmospheric signals. The researchers could similarly track an object's speed and trajectory and maybe determine its size and how it broke up, Fernando noted.

If applied quickly to fireball events, the technique could possibly help scientists predict whether debris might hit a populated region once it has entered Earth's atmosphere, Fernando added: "It isn't outside of the realm of possibility, but it is quite challenging — particularly with this event, because of the complicated terrain of L.A."

The challenges of a moving target

The new approach is a novel use of seismic data, said Kathleen McKee, a volcano geophysicist at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn. McKee uses seismic waves to track magma and gas movements below Earth's surface.

Mitigating public safety hazards from objects reentering Earth's atmosphere is an important goal, McKee noted, but it's not without barriers. "The challenge is that the object is moving in three dimensions, through an atmosphere that is changing constantly, affecting how sound propagates through it," she said, adding that changing winds and weather conditions might affect how precisely scientists could pinpoint a likely crash location of space debris.

Nevertheless, it's a valuable challenge in applied research, she said. "It is a hard problem to solve, but definitely one worth pursuing."

How to use a rowing machine to lose weight

2025-01-02T01:40:00.000+05:00

A rowing machine can be an excellent tool both for helping you to lose weight as well as getting fit and building muscle.

(Image credit: Getty Images)

A rowing machine is an excellent device for raising your heart rate, providing a great cardio workout that can help you lose weight. And while you might perhaps associate them with people who are already superfine - like Olympic rowers - they are in fact suitable and useful for people of all levels of fitness, including total beginners.

It is however important to use them safely and effectively in order to maximize the benefits. We’ve done the research and also put togteher a few simple workout approaches for you, so you can try straight away, whether it is at the gym or on your own rowing machines.

In fact, if you have the space in your house, then a rowing machine is a perfect piece of equipment to use at home. It’s easy and safe to use, and there’s a huge variety of workouts you can do on it. Read on to learn how and why…

Weight loss is achieved by expending more calories than you consume. This is commonly done in two ways…

Consume fewer calories via dieting
Increase your calorie expenditure through exercise

While experts say that diet is always the most important factor, it is also true that an efficient form of exercise like rowing, which maximises energy expenditure during a workout, will be most effective in reaching your weight loss goals.

However in order to achieve a higher level of energy use, you will need to maintain the exercise for longer. That means not starting at too high an intensity, or you will not be able to maintain the exercise, and therefore burn fewer calories.

Take running as an example. Running is an excellent tool for weight loss when it comes to burning calories, but of course that's only the case if you can actually maintain it. If you need to slow down to a walk, then it’s simply not going to be as effective a solution for you if weight loss is your goal - though you can of course build up to running for longer periods.

The beauty of a rowing machine, however, is that it can also be used at slower speeds while still offering a good level of calorie burn. In fact it’s one of the best exercise machines to lose weight. When compared to indoor cycling, research shows that rowing burns more calories at similar intensities. If you prefer bikes, though, we have also looked into whether exercise bikes are good for weight loss as well.

However, it's worth noting that according to a study at the Biological Sciences department at Ohio university, you burn more calories for the same amount of effort on a rowing machine than you would on an exercise bike.

Beyond simple calorie burn, there are many other reasons why rowing machines are perfect for helping you to lose weight. Here’s a quick look at them.

It's relatively low injury risk

Many people struggle to enjoy running or find the impact on their muscles, ligaments and bones simply too much. Running can be difficult at first, and sometimes painful, especially for those who are new to the sport and don’t know how to run properly in order to minimise injury risk.

In a 2015, a meta-analysis of 13 studies on incidence of injuries in running, recreational runners suffered an average of 18 injuries per 1000 hours of running. Compare this to injury data in rowing where the average masters age (43-59) rower suffered only 2.25 injuries per 1000 training sessions on the rower.

If you are injury-prone, therefore, rowing may be a far safer form of exercise for you, as it avoids the high impact of running.

It’s perfect for home use

A rowing machine can be perfect for home use. Compared to bulky treadmills or other machines, they are relatively small and can often be stored upright or even folded in two. They also don't all need to be plugged in, so are cheaper to run than machines that require electricity.

Unlike treadmills, they are also more neighbor-friendly machines, especially if you live in an apartment block. They’re relatively quiet because there’s no motor running, and no noise from heavy footfall as there might be on a treadmill.

There’s little technique to learn

Whilst there is certainly some technique to learn, and it's a good idea to try and get it right for the most efficient use of the machine, its certainly not a hugely complicated piece of equipment to master. The basics can be picked up in a few minutes and learning efficient technique can help you avoid any common injuries too.

It’s a whole-body workout

It might look like your arms are doing most of the work, but a rowing machine trains the upper and lower body simultaneously, and even engages the core muscles too.

Many people may therefore prefer rowing as it can improve upper body strength and muscle tone as well as your legs, whereas exercises like running and cycling tend to focus far more on the lower body.

Rowing is suitable for all fitness levels

A rower works for all fitness levels because it can be operated at any speed and intensity. Operating a rower at even a very light intensity will still help you to get fit. As you get more experienced at using it, you can also mix up the types of intensity or speeds that you use it at.

So we have firmly established that a rowing machine is a fantastic tool for helping you to lose weight. But how should you use a rowing machine to lose weight? We have the answers.

Decide on a frequency

Aiming for higher frequency but shorter sessions is usually the best approach. That may not only better fit into a busy lifestyle, but will have just as much impact on your fitness and weight loss.

A study from the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Hallym University Chuncheon Sacred Heart Hospital, put participants through a series of 40 minute (10 minute warm up, 20 minute rowing, 10 minute cool down) workouts five days per week. All benefited significantly from a fitness and body composition standpoint. So aiming to build up to 4-5 shorter sessions per week rather than 2-3 longer sessions is an ideal way to use the rowing machine to lose weight.

Work hard!

If weight loss were easy, we'd all be at an idea weight. Alas, it is not. In order to use a rowing machine to help you expend more calories, you will need to work hard. That might be uncomfortable and require getting used to. But the good news is that a rowing machine when used at this high intensity is proven to be effective at helping you to reduce body fat levels.

So what does hard actually mean? There are two ways we can gauge that…

Using hard data - a heart rate monitor
Subjective data - working on the RPE (rate of perceived exertion scale)

In terms of intensity, and dependent on your age, then if you are wearing a heart rate monitor maintaining 70%+ of your maximum heart rate for 20 minutes or more is sufficient.

With the RPE scale, working at around a 7 out of 10 of intensity for 20 minutes or more is good. You want to be sweaty and breathless, but able to exchange a few words with someone nearby, not on the verge of collapse.

Use Interval training

There are two main types of cardio training:Steady state, where you work at a given intensity for a given period of time
Intervals, where you mix up periods of high and low intensity

Interval training is consistently proven to be a very effective and efficient way of improving cardiovascular fitness. Only one or two of your weekly workouts need to be interval sessions and there is no need to make them complicated. Here are three simple approaches to intervals during a 20 minute workout - though make sure you warm up properly first.

30 seconds gentle pace, 20 seconds medium/fast pace, 10 seconds full sprint. Repeat x 20
30 seconds slow, 30 seconds fast. Repeat x 20
20 Seconds slow, 10 seconds fast. Repeat x 40

For best results, you should mix up the training. Just make sure you work hard, get your heart rate up and your breath racing, and you will burn lots of calories!

Volcanic Activity Beneath Yellowstone's Massive Caldera Could Be on The Move

2025-01-02T01:23:00.000+05:00

Volcanic activity bubbling away beneath the Yellowstone National Park in the US appears to be on the move.

The Grand Prismatic Spring at Yellowstone National Park. (Peter Adams/Stone/Getty Images)

New research shows that the reservoirs of magma that fuel the supervolcano's wild outbursts seem to be shifting to the northeast of the Yellowstone Caldera. This region could be the new locus of future volcanic activity, according to a team led by seismologist Ninfa Bennington of the US Geological Survey.

"On the basis of the volume of rhyolitic melt storage beneath northeast Yellowstone Caldera, and the region's direct connection to a lower-crustal heat source, we suggest that the locus of future rhyolitic volcanism has shifted to northeast Yellowstone Caldera," they write in their paper.

"In contrast, post-caldera rhyolitic volcanism in the previous 160,000 years has occurred across the majority of Yellowstone Caldera with the exclusion of this northeast region."

Yellowstone is one of the world's largest supervolcanoes; a vast, complex, dynamic region of Earth's crust that is both spectacularly beautiful and deeply dangerous.

In the past 2 million years, Yellowstone has undergone three huge, caldera-forming eruptions – those that create the cauldron-like basins on Earth's surface when a subterranean magma chamber empties and collapses in on the hollowed-out cavity. These huge eruptions have been interspersed with smaller eruptions.

The caldera-forming eruptions at Yellowstone are sourced from reservoirs of rhyolitic melt. That's silica-rich magma, the volcanic equivalent of granite, sticky and viscous and slow-moving, and thought to be stored in vast volumes underneath the Yellowstone region.

Previous studies presumed the rhyolitic reservoirs were supported by deeper reservoirs of basaltic magma – molten material that has a much smaller silica content than rhyolite, but abundant iron and magnesium. It's also significantly less viscous than rhyolite, but also denser, and the way it conducts electricity differs to rhyolite.

This latter difference in properties gave Bennington and her colleagues the tools they needed to probe the magmatic reservoir contents beneath the Yellowstone Plateau.

One way to monitor activity beneath Earth's surface involves measuring surface variations in the planet's magnetic and electric fields. This is known as magnetotellurics, and it's particularly sensitive to the presence of subsurface melts.

Bennington and her colleagues carried out a wide-scale magnetotelluric survey across the Yellowstone Caldera, and used the resulting data to model the distribution of the melt reservoirs lurking therein.

Their results revealed that there are at least seven distinct regions of high magma content, some of which are feeding into others, at depths between 4 and 47 kilometers (2.5 to 30 miles) beneath the ground – down to the boundary of the crust and mantle.

The most interesting melt storage was in the northeast. There, huge reservoirs of basaltic magma in the lower crust heat and maintain chambers of rhyolitic magma in the upper crust. These chambers of rhyolitic magma contain an estimated melt storage volume of around 388 to 489 cubic kilometers – almost an order of magnitude higher than melt storage zones to the south, west, and north, where previous eruptions took place.

This volume, the researchers note, is also comparable to the melt volume of previous caldera-forming eruptions in Yellowstone.

The rhyolitic caldera-forming eruptions, the researchers note, were interspersed with smaller, basaltic eruptions within the caldera. However, it's unclear exactly how these kinds of eruptions work. The team's research suggests that the rhyolitic magma chambers have to cool completely before the basaltic magma can move in.

Exactly when and how these future eruptions are going to take place will, the researchers say, require further analysis.