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Categories: Offbeat: General, Space: Astrophysics
Published Secrets of the Van Allen belt revealed in new study
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A challenge to space scientists to better understand our hazardous near-Earth space environment has been set in a new study.
Published Researchers name prehistoric amphibian ancestor discovered in Smithsonian collection after Kermit the Frog
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Scientists have uncovered the fossilized skull of a 270-million-year-old ancient amphibian ancestor in the collection of the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History. The team of researchers described the fossil as a new species of proto-amphibian, which they named Kermitops gratus in honor of the iconic Muppet, Kermit the Frog.
Published Heat to blame for space pebble demise
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source The dust of comets fills the space between the planets, collectively called the zodiacal cloud. Still, severe breakdown has reduced that dust in size so much that it now scatters sunlight efficiently, causing the faint glow in the night sky known as the 'zodiacal light.' It was long thought that high-speed collisions pulverized the comet ejecta, but now a team of researchers reports that heat is to blame.
Published Decoding the plant world's complex biochemical communication networks
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A research team has begun translating the complex molecular language of petunias. Their grammar and vocabulary are well hidden, however, within the countless proteins and other compounds that fill floral cells. Being rooted to the ground, plants can't run away from insects, pathogens or other threats to their survival. But plant scientists have long known that they do send warnings to each other via scent chemicals called volatile organic compounds.
Published Deep Earth electrical grid mystery solved
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source To 'breathe' in an environment without oxygen, bacteria in the ground beneath our feet depend upon a single family of proteins to transfer excess electrons, produced during the 'burning' of nutrients, to electric hairs called nanowires projecting from their surface.
Published High school students contribute to exoplanet discovery
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A group of high school students from Oakland, California, made contributions to the field of exoplanet research. Researchers worked with the students to use backpack-sized digital smart telescopes. These young citizen scientists played a role in observing and confirming the nature of a warm and dense sub-Saturn planet, known as TIC 139270665 b, orbiting a metal-rich G2 star.
Published Icy impacts: Planetary scientists use physics and images of impact craters to gauge the thickness of ice on Europa
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source New study reveals that Europa's ice shell is at least 20 kilometers thick.
Published Research suggests how turbulence can be used to generate patterns
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Physicists show how patterns can emerge from chaos in turbulent fluids.
Published Scientists find one of the most ancient stars that formed in another galaxy
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source The first generation of stars transformed the universe. Inside their cores, simple hydrogen and helium fused into a rainbow of elements. When these stars died, they exploded and sent these new elements across the universe. The iron running in your veins and the calcium in your teeth and the sodium powering your thoughts were all born in the heart of a long-dead star.
Published Robotic metamaterial: An endless domino effect
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source If it walks like a particle, and talks like a particle... it may still not be a particle. A topological soliton is a special type of wave or dislocation which behaves like a particle: it can move around but cannot spread out and disappear like you would expect from, say, a ripple on the surface of a pond. Researchers now demonstrate the atypical behavior of topological solitons in a robotic metamaterial, something which in the future may be used to control how robots move, sense their surroundings and communicate.
Published Quantum tornado provides gateway to understanding black holes
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Scientists have created a giant quantum vortex to mimic a black hole in superfluid helium that has allowed them to see in greater detail how analogue black holes behave and interact with their surroundings.
Published Study reveals 'cozy domesticity' of prehistoric stilt-house dwellers in England's ancient marshland
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Detailed reports on thousands of artifacts pulled from 'Britain's Pompeii' reveals the surprisingly sophisticated domestic lives of Bronze Age Fen folk some 3,000 years ago -- from home interiors to recipes, clothing, kitchenware and pets.
Published Astrophysicist's research could provide a hint in the search for dark matter
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Dark matter is one of science's greatest mysteries. Although it is believed to make up about 85 percent of the cosmos, scientists know very little about its fundamental nature. Research provides some of the most stringent constraints on the nature of dark matter yet. It also revealed a small hint of a signal that, if real, could be confirmed in the next decade or so.
Published New archive of ancient human brains challenges misconceptions of soft tissue preservation
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A new study has challenged previously held views that brain preservation in the archaeological record is extremely rare. The team compiled a new archive of preserved human brains, which highlighted that nervous tissues actually persist in much greater abundances than traditionally thought, assisted by conditions that prevent decay.
Published Across oceans and millennia: decoding the origin and history of the bottle gourd
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Researchers have uncovered intriguing details about the origins and spread of the bottle gourd, one of the oldest domesticated crops. Their work unveils the genetic diversification and population history of this hard-shelled plant that was used to make bottles, instruments, and containers for over 10,000 years by ancient civilizations.
Published In flies, a single brain cell can drive multiple movements of the body
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Motor neurons are the cells the brain uses to command muscles to act. Scientists typically thought of them as simple connections, much like the cables that link computers with their accessories. Now, in fly studies, researchers have discovered that single motor neurons can each direct an insect's body to move in far more complex ways than previously thought.
Published Molecular crystal motors move like microbes when exposed to light
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source At first glance, Rabih Al-Kaysi's molecular motors look like the microscopic worms you'd see in a drop of pond water. But these wriggling ribbons are not alive; they're made from crystallized molecules that perform coordinated movements when exposed to light. With continued development, these tiny machines could be used as drug-delivery robots or engineered into arrays that direct the flow of water around submarines.
Published Brain-inspired wireless system to gather data from salt-sized sensors
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source In a new study, researchers describe a novel approach for a wireless communication network that can efficiently transmit, receive and decode data from thousands of microelectronic chips that are each no larger than a grain of salt.
Published Artificial nanofluidic synapses can store computational memory
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source In a step toward nanofluidic-based neuromorphic -- or brain-inspired -- computing, engineers have succeeded in executing a logic operation by connecting two chips that use ions, rather than electrons, to process data.
Published Fairy circles: Plant water stress causes Namibia's gaps in grass
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Namibia's legendary fairy circles are mysterious, circular, bald patches in the dry grasslands on the edge of the Namib Desert. Their formation has been researched for decades and has recently been the subject of much debate. With extensive fieldwork, researchers investigated how freshly germinated grass dies inside the fairy circle. Their results show that the grass withers due to a lack of water inside the fairy circle. The topsoil, comprised of the top 10 to 12 centimeters of the soil, acts as a kind of 'death zone' in which fresh grass cannot survive for long.