Science & Technology

Highest-energy cosmic rays detected in star clusters

Michigan Technological University
Phys.org
Thu, 11 Mar 2021 12:00 UTC

© Binita Hona
A 24 micrometer infrared map from the Cocoon region with Spitzers MIPS overlaid with a gamma-ray significance map from HAWC (greenish-yellow to red indicate higher gamma-ray significance). The map is centered at Cocoon with about 4.6 degrees in x and y direction

For decades, researchers assumed the cosmic rays that regularly bombard Earth from the far reaches of the galaxy are born when stars go supernova — when they grow too massive to support the fusion occurring at their cores and explode.

Those gigantic explosions do indeed propel atomic particles at the speed of light great distances. However, new research suggests even supernovae — capable of devouring entire solar systems — are not strong enough to imbue particles with the sustained energies needed to reach petaelectronvolts (PeVs), the amount of kinetic energy attained by very high-energy cosmic rays.

And yet cosmic rays have been observed striking Earth's atmosphere at exactly those velocities, their passage marked, for example, by the detection tanks at the High-Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) observatory near Puebla, Mexico. Instead of supernovae, the researchers posit that star clusters like the Cygnus Cocoon serve as PeVatrons — PeV accelerators — capable of moving particles across the galaxy at such high energy rates.

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Gondwana: Antarctica's magnetic link to ancient neighbors

European Space Agency
Phys.org
Wed, 10 Mar 2021 12:00 UTC

© University of Kiel
For the first time, an international team of scientists has used magnetic data from ESA’s Swarm mission together with aeromagnetic datasets to help unveil the mysteries of the geology that underlies Antarctica’s kilometres-thick ice sheets. Their findings compare well with the geology of formerly adjacent continents, namely Australia, India and South Africa, which were once part of the ancient Gondwana supercontinent.

For the first time, an international team of scientists has used magnetic data from ESA's Swarm satellite mission together with aeromagnetic data to help reveal the mysteries of the geology hidden beneath Antarctica's kilometers-thick ice sheets, and link Antarctica better to its former neighbors.

Not only is Antarctic sub-ice geology important to understand global supercontinent cycles over billions of years that have shaped Earth's evolution, it is also pivotal to comprehend how the solid Earth itself influences the Antarctic ice sheet above it.

The research team from Germany's Kiel University, the British Antarctic Survey and National Institute of Oceanography and Applied Geophysics, and Witwatersrand University in South Africa has today published their findings in the Nature journal Scientific Reports.

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Also check out SOTT radio's: MindMatters: The Meaning of the World's Mythologies

Fifty new genes for eye colour found

King's College London
Medical Xpress
Thu, 11 Mar 2021 12:00 UTC

The genetics of human eye color is much more complex than previously thought, according to a new study published today.

An international team of researchers led by King's College London and Erasmus University Medical Center Rotterdam have identified 50 new genes for eye color in the largest genetic study of its kind to date. The study, published today in Science Advances, involved the genetic analysis of almost 195,000 people across Europe and Asia.

These findings will help to improve the understanding of eye diseases such as pigmentary glaucoma and ocular albinism, where eye pigment levels play a role.

In addition, the team found that eye color in Asians with different shades of brown is genetically similar to eye color in Europeans ranging from dark brown to light blue.

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Breaking the warp barrier for faster-than-light travel

Göttingen University
Tue, 09 Mar 2021 17:54 UTC

Astrophysicist at Göttingen University discovers new theoretical hyper-fast soliton solutions.

© E Lentz
Artistic impression of different spacecraft designs considering theoretical shapes of different kinds of “warp bubbles”.

If travel to distant stars within an individual's lifetime is going to be possible, a means of faster-than-light propulsion will have to be found. To date, even recent research about superluminal (faster-than-light) transport based on Einstein's theory of general relativity would require vast amounts of hypothetical particles and states of matter that have "exotic" physical properties such as negative energy density. This type of matter either cannot currently be found or cannot be manufactured in viable quantities. In contrast, new research carried out at the University of Göttingen gets around this problem by constructing a new class of hyper-fast 'solitons' using sources with only positive energies that can enable travel at any speed. This reignites debate about the possibility of faster-than-light travel based on conventional physics. The research is published in the journal Classical and Quantum Gravity.

The author of the paper, Dr Erik Lentz, analysed existing research and discovered gaps in previous 'warp drive' studies. Lentz noticed that there existed yet-to-be explored configurations of space-time curvature organized into 'solitons' that have the potential to solve the puzzle while being physically viable. A soliton - in this context also informally referred to as a 'warp bubble' - is a compact wave that maintains its shape and moves at constant velocity. Lentz derived the Einstein equations for unexplored soliton configurations (where the space-time metric's shift vector components obey a hyperbolic relation), finding that the altered space-time geometries could be formed in a way that worked even with conventional energy sources. In essence, the new method uses the very structure of space and time arranged in a soliton to provide a solution to faster-than-light travel, which - unlike other research - would only need sources with positive energy densities. No "exotic" negative energy densities needed.

Over 140,000 virus species in the human gut identified, half of which are new to science

Dr Trevor Lawley
Wellcome Sanger Institute
Thu, 18 Feb 2021 12:00 UTC

Illustration of phage viruses attacking a bacterium. The mysterious DNA sequences appear to help bacterial cells spot when they've been infected with viruses — and prompt those cells to self-destruct.

The results form the basis of the highly-curated Gut Phage Database (GPD) which will be an invaluable resource for those studying bacteriophages and the role they play on regulating the health of both our gut bacteria and ourselves

Viruses are the most numerous biological entities on the planet. Now researchers at the Wellcome Sanger Institute and EMBL's European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) have identified over 140,000 viral species living in the human gut, more than half of which have never been seen before.

The paper, published today (18 February 2021) in Cell, contains an analysis of over 28,000 gut microbiome samples collected in different parts of the world. The number and diversity of the viruses the researchers found was surprisingly high, and the data opens up new research avenues for understanding how viruses living in the gut affect human health.

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Humans evolved to run on less water than other primates

Cosmos Magazine
Tue, 09 Mar 2021 10:09 UTC

It's an age-old question in evolution: how did humans become the dominant primate, able to venture out from tropical rainforests to the savannah and then populate the entire world? In other words, what makes us unique?

Science offers many explanations, including our large brains, bipedal gait and ability to craft complex tools - but a new study suggests that we're also more efficient at conserving water.

For humans, water is life: our bodies are 60% water and we need to drink 2-3 litres per day to replenish what we lose through sweat, urination and even breathing. And yet, according to an international team of scientists, humans actually use about 30-50% less water per day than our closest primate cousins.

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Meteorite from brilliant UK fireball is England's first in 30 years

Mike Wall
Space.com
Tue, 09 Mar 2021 21:23 UTC

© The Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London
A chunk of the meteorite that was recovered from Winchcombe in England on March 1, 2021 — the first meteorite found in the United Kingdom since 1991.

A piece of the space rock that lit up skies over England on Feb. 28 has been found.

The singed hunk of asteroid was discovered in the driveway of a house in Winchcombe, a small town in the county of Gloucestershire in southwestern England. The rock, which weighs nearly 10.6 ounces (300 grams), is the first meteorite found in the UK since 1991, experts said, and the first known carbonaceous chondrite ever discovered in the country.

Carbonaceous chondrites are especially pristine and primitive meteorites that generally contain lots of organic material, including complex molecules such as amino acids. Studying carbonaceous chondrites can shed light on the early solar system and how the building blocks of life found their way to Earth, researchers say.

Such study is already under way at the Natural History Museum in London, where the meteorite now resides.

"This is really exciting. There are about 65,000 known meteorites in the entire world, and of those only 51 of them are carbonaceous chondrites that have been seen to fall like this one," Sara Russell, a meteorite scientist at the museum, said in a statement.

"It is almost mind-blowingly amazing, because we are working on the asteroid sample-return space missions Hayabusa2 and OSIRIS-REx, and this material looks exactly like the material they are collecting," Russell said. "I am just speechless with excitement."

Comment: Blazing meteor fireball observed across UK - Update: Sonic boom reported

Moderna's COVID Vaccine is an 'operating system' - is this Transhumanism?

John O'Sullivan
Principia Scientifc
Tue, 05 Jan 2021 00:00 UTC

Documents obtained from Moderna reveal that the so-called vaccine being peddled by the company is actually an 'operating system'. This startling admission confirms what vaccine skeptics have claimed - that COVID is about control, not a virus.

It won't be lost on anyone who has done due diligence over this pandemic to see past the glib claims of paid-off politicians and compliant media that all is not as it seems.

To start, it is no coincidence that one of the key promoters of these new mRNA 'vaccines' is none other than Microsoft billionaire, Bill Gates. Bill gave a Ted Talk where he boasted vaccines can help cut global population by 15 percent.

Yes he said cut population. How does that work - by deactivating these vaccine-implanted operating systems in us?

Well, psychopathic Bill couldn't fix his Microsoft operating system to prevent endless computer viruses, so why should we trust him now that he is spearheading what is seen as a major step towards transhumanism. For those who care about what goes into their bodies, and those of their loved ones, see if you can detect something very sinister from what is being foisted upon a gullible public.

Heads up: Some sea slugs grow new bodies after decapitation

Seth Borenstein
AP News
Mon, 08 Mar 2021 22:08 UTC

This undated photo provided by Sayaka Mitoh shows a Elysia cf. marginata sea slug after autotomy. According to a study released in the journal Current Biology on Monday, March 8, 2021, scientists have discovered that some Japanese sea slugs can grow whole new bodies if their heads are cut off, taking regeneration to the most extreme levels ever seen.

Scientists have discovered the ultimate case of regeneration: Some decapitated sea slugs can regrow hearts and whole new bodies.

This "wonder of nature," reported in a biology journal on Monday, could eventually help scientists better understand and tackle regeneration of human tissue.

Biology researcher Sayaka Mitoh said she loves studying Japanese sea slugs because they are small, cute and weird. They can even briefly photosynthesize like a plant drawing food from the sun.

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Microbes deep beneath seafloor survive on byproducts of radioactive process

The University of Rhode Island
Sun, 07 Mar 2021 11:34 UTC

A team of researchers from the University of Rhode Island's Graduate School of Oceanography and their collaborators have revealed that the abundant microbes living in ancient sediment below the seafloor are sustained primarily by chemicals created by the natural irradiation of water molecules.

The team discovered that the creation of these chemicals is amplified significantly by minerals in marine sediment. In contrast to the conventional view that life in sediment is fueled by products of photosynthesis, an ecosystem fueled by irradiation of water begins just meters below the seafloor in much of the open ocean. This radiation-fueled world is one of Earth's volumetrically largest ecosystems.

The research was published today in the journal Nature Communications.

Comment: It's becoming clear that life of some kind or other exists just about everywhere:

How to beat a dead horse. Next up, Gay Bond? Gay Star Trek? Gay President? Oh right, we already had that sequel.

bbrebozo

Wonder what the implications are from this for both Southwest and the other airlines doing business in Texas: [Link] BK

Buffalo_Ken

Uummm, dude, maybe you need a better news feed: There is still no “hundred-employee” vaccine mandate Jon Rappoport Oct 13, 2018 [Link]

Good Optics

Fewtile of many. Time cannot be killed. It is fixed. It moves on on its own. It just is. It is time. tick-tock....time. So I reckon in the...

Buffalo_Ken

For one, there is no.... time .....like the present.....so stop killing it ;)

Fewtile

Science & Technology

Highest-energy cosmic rays detected in star clusters

Gondwana: Antarctica's magnetic link to ancient neighbors

Fifty new genes for eye colour found

Breaking the warp barrier for faster-than-light travel

Over 140,000 virus species in the human gut identified, half of which are new to science

Humans evolved to run on less water than other primates

Meteorite from brilliant UK fireball is England's first in 30 years

Moderna's COVID Vaccine is an 'operating system' - is this Transhumanism?

Heads up: Some sea slugs grow new bodies after decapitation

Microbes deep beneath seafloor survive on byproducts of radioactive process

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