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Australian engineers solved 58-year-old quantum mystery by accident

David Nield
Science Alert
Sat, 14 Mar 2020 00:00 UTC
quantum experiment
© UNSW/Tory Melov
Artist's impression of the experimental setup
Nearly 60 years ago, Nobel Prize-winning physicist Nicolaas Bloembergen predicted an exciting new phenomenon called nuclear electric resonance. But no one has been able to demonstrate it in action - until now.

Actual evidence of nuclear electric resonance has now been discovered by accident in a lab at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Australia, thanks to faulty equipment. The breakthrough gives scientists a new level of control over nuclei, and could seriously speed up the development of quantum computers.

Central to the phenomenon is the idea of controlling the spin of individual atoms using electrical rather than magnetic fields. That means more precise and more miniaturised management of nuclei, which could have profound impacts in a variety of fields. Quantum physicist Andrea Morello, from UNSW explains:
"This discovery means that we now have a pathway to build quantum computers using single-atom spins without the need for any oscillating magnetic field for their operation. Moreover, we can use these nuclei as exquisitely precise sensors of electric and magnetic fields, or to answer fundamental questions in quantum science."
In some situations, nuclear electric resonance has the potential to replace nuclear magnetic resonance, which is widely used today for a variety of purposes: for scanning human bodies, chemical elements, rock formations, and more.

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Microscope 1

Evolution and mystery: Confessions of a Darwinian skeptic

Robert Shedinger
Lutheran Alliance for Faith, Science and Technology
Sun, 15 Mar 2020 00:01 UTC
darwin statue
It is common in mainline Christian circles these days to view religious faith and biological evolution as entirely compatible.

Many believe that rejection of evolutionary theory is restricted to fundamentalist Christians who read the Bible literally and view modern science as the work of Satan. But this is nothing more than a stereotype; evolutionary skepticism is a growing and respected intellectual movement populated by many people lacking fundamentalist Christian views. I should know; I am one of them.

For fifty-three of my sixty years on this planet, I accepted the truth of modern evolutionary theory without question and saw no incompatibility between it and my own admittedly liberal Christian faith. But in 2013, a senior colleague at Luther College who had taught a science and religion course for many years retired and knowing of my undergraduate degree in science and engineering, he asked me to continue teaching this course. I did so gladly, anxious to help my students see that evolutionary theory need not be an impediment to their religious faith. But then I did something very dangerous - I read!

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Syringe

Hopes for coronavirus vaccine rise after Chinese scientists find infected monkeys developed immunity


Sputnik
Mon, 16 Mar 2020 03:40 UTC
monkey
© Flickr / yasa_
Chinese scientists are optimistic about a COVID-19 vaccine after finding that monkeys that were infected with the novel coronavirus developed immunity to the disease after recovering from it.

Scientists at the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences found that when four rhesus monkeys were infected with a COVID-19 strain, they developed fevers and respiratory issues and lost their appetites. The disease viral loads were highest three days after infection but reached undetectable levels at around the 14-day mark.
About a month later, two of the monkeys that had recovered completely were reinfected through their mouths. The researchers found that their body temperatures increased slightly after infection, but that was the only symptom that appeared. Around two weeks later, the monkeys were found to have very high levels of antibodies for the disease, signifying that their immune systems were ready to fight the virus.
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Butterfly

The art of the miniature — Nature's smallest designs are the some of the most wonderful of all


Evolution News
Mon, 16 Mar 2020 15:50 UTC
cell machine miniature kinesin
© Discovery Institute
Kinesin at work in the cell, from “Kinesin: The Workhorse of the Cell,” via Discovery Institute.
The smaller a design is, the harder it may be to detect. But miniature designs can inspire awe even more than large ones.

In the Roaring 20s (the 20th century, not the present one), DeWitt Mott married Allegra Mitchell and discovered that she had an unusual collection: three shoeboxes full of miniature toys from Cracker Jacks boxes. Fascinated by the idea of miniature replicas of things, DeWitt started carving doll house furniture, and Mott's Miniatures was born. The couple gathered miniatures in addition to the ones DeWitt carved. The collection grew to include tiny churches, miniature doll houses with furniture inside, and other wonders on the small scale, including microscopic chessboards with all the pieces, miniature tea sets, tiny libraries with tiny books, storefronts with shelves full of goods, and even tiny ballrooms with dancers in costume. In addition to the ones DeWitt carved by hand, they collected miniatures from around the world.

The Mott collection grew into a museum that was exhibited at Knott's Berry Farm (a California amusement park) for 34 years, and was seen by millions. Some items were so small, they needed artificial magnifiers to appreciate, like the paintings on the heads of pins, including reproductions of Washington, Lincoln, and Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper. Visitors were amazed at the details on such small scales, and the skill and patience of the creators to make these tiny works of art.

Comment: A little more on the amazing kinesin motor protein, the truckers of the cell.



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Microscope 1

AI finds microbial signatures in tumours and blood across cancer types

Nadim Ajami & Jennifer Wargo
Nature
Wed, 11 Mar 2020 00:01 UTC
microbial dna
The world is filled with microorganisms, which have a profound impact on many facets of life. Do these microbial communities influence cancer1? Many studies of microbes and their genomes (collectively called the microbiome) have focused on the gut, where most of the body's microbes reside. This work has revealed a role for the gut microbiome in several types of cancer that arise in the intestinal lining itself2-4, and indicated that the gut microbiome might influence cancers at distant sites through its impact on the immune system1. In addition, emerging evidence indicates that microbial signatures (such as nucleic acids) can be found in tumours at other sites in the body5,6 and in the tissues and blood of individuals who don't have cancer7,8. Writing in Nature, Poore et al.9 build on this evidence, identifying signatures of microbial DNA and RNA, both in tumours and in the blood, across multiple human cancers. The authors further suggest that these signatures might augment existing clinical diagnostic tools, although further work is needed in this area.

Poore et al. used The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) — an online resource that includes DNA and RNA sequences — to analyse data for 33 cancer types, totalling more than 17,000 samples from some 10,000 patients. They analysed data sets derived from bulk tumour samples (primary tumours as well as recurrent ones, and tumours that had spread through metastasis), normal adjacent tissue and blood samples. The authors used multiple computational approaches, including independently trained artificial-intelligence (AI) models, to filter, normalize and classify microbial sequences in these samples. After stringent filtering approaches to address potential contamination and other variables, the group classified 7.2% of the total sequencing reads as non-human. Approximately one-third of those mapped to known sequences of bacterial, archaeal or viral origin, and 12.6% of these resolved to a particular genus from one of these groups.

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Brain

Scientists discover the mathematical rules guiding the pattern of brain growth


PhysOrg
Sun, 15 Mar 2020 16:29 UTC
flatworm brain growth pattern
© Margarita Khariton et al. / Stanford University
Stanford researchers used advanced microscopy and mathematical modeling to discover a pattern that governs the growth of neurons in the flatworm brain, shown here. Using this technique, they hope to find patterns that guide the growth of cells in other parts of the body in order to pave the way to bioengineer artificial tissues
Stanford researchers used advanced microscopy and mathematical modeling to discover a pattern that governs the growth of neurons in the flatworm brain, shown here. Using this technique, they hope to find patterns that guide the growth of cells in other parts of the body in order to pave the way to bioengineer artificial tissues and organs. Credit: Wang Lab

Life is rife with patterns. It's common for living things to create a repeating series of similar features as they grow: think of feathers that vary slightly in length on a bird's wing or shorter and longer petals on a rose.

It turns out the brain is no different. By employing advanced microscopy and mathematical modeling, Stanford researchers have discovered a pattern that governs the growth of brain cells or neurons. Similar rules could guide the development of other cells within the body, and understanding them could be important for successfully bioengineering artificial tissues and organs.
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Comet 2

Comet Y4 ATLAS brightening, could become naked-eye bright by spring

Bob King
Duluth News Tribune
Fri, 13 Mar 2020 17:00 UTC
Comet ATLAS
© Michael Jäger (main) and Gianluca Masi
Comet ATLAS looked like a misty ball of light with a brighter core (nucleus) on March 11. Hints of a tail are visible in both photos.
Not since December 2018 when Comet 46P/Wirtanen passed near the Pleiades star cluster has a naked-eye comet graced the night sky. It reached 5th magnitude at the time and looked like a small wad of glowing fuzz from a dark sky site. Wirtanen never developed a bright tail, one of the most distinguishing and beautiful aspects of a comet. Since then plenty of comets have passed by, but only a few have been visible in binoculars and most have required a telescope.

Comment: More info and visualizations of the comet:



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Comet 2

Scientist claims prevailing winds are spreading coronavirus, after it came to Earth on meteor

Ian Randall
Daily Mail
Thu, 12 Mar 2020 15:02 UTC
meteor

The scientist who claimed that coronavirus came from space by meteor has said that prevailing winds are spreading the disease to the hardest-hit countries. Pictured, the fireball caused by a meteor burning up in the Earth's atmosphere above China on October 11, 2019
A scientist who believes coronavirus came from space by meteor now says prevailing winds are spreading the disease to the hardest-hit countries.

Professor Chandra Wickramasinghe of the Buckingham Centre for Astrobiology has alleged that the meteor that exploded over China in October released viral particles.

Once in the upper stratosphere, the virus either fell to Earth or got caught up in the stratospheric air currents that circle the Earth, he told MailOnline.

From here, the virus has spread along 'a global band of between 40-60° latitude north', with all the 'main strong cases' appearing 'exactly along that range', he said.

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Fireball 5

Solar system mystery finally solved, thanks to salty space rock

Chelsea Gohd
Space.com
Sat, 14 Mar 2020 00:40 UTC
Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko
© ESA/Rosetta/NAVCAM – CC BY-SA IGO 3.0
Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko
Researchers have identified nitrogen previously thought to be "missing" in comets, helping to solve a longstanding mystery about the icy space rocks.

In analyzing the Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, which was visited and studied by the European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft, scientists have uncovered significant amounts of ammonium salts that ended up revealing this "missing" nitrogen.

Our solar system — which includes our sun and all of the planets and objects like comets and asteroids — formed from the condensation of a gaseous cloud known as the solar nebula. Scientists have long thought that the nitrogen-to-carbon ratio (N/C) of the sun should be roughly the same in comets, which formed in the cold outer reaches of the solar nebula far from the sun.
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Cross

The restoration of Notre Dame is yielding unexpected research bonanzas

Christa Lesté-Lasserre
Science
Thu, 12 Mar 2020 17:44 UTC
notre dame restoration
© Patrick Zachmann/Magnum Photos
In a 2019 fire, Notre Dame’s spire toppled and pierced its vaulted ceiling. Its lead roof melted into jagged stalactites.
Eight restoration scientists put on hard hats and heavy-duty boots and stepped inside the blackened shell of Notre Dame de Paris, the world's most famous cathedral. Ten days earlier, a fire had swept through its attic, melted its roof, and sent its spire plunging like an arrow into the heart of the sacred space. Now, it was silent but for the flutter of house sparrows. The space, normally sweet with incense, was acrid with ash and stale smoke. Light beamed through voids in the vaulted stone ceiling, cutting through the gloom and illuminating piles of debris on the marble floor.

Yet the scientists, called in by France's Ministry of Culture to inspect the damage and plan a rescue, mostly felt relief — and even hope. Rattan chairs sat in tidy rows, priceless paintings hung undamaged, and, above the altar, a great gold-plated cross loomed over the Pietà, a statue of the virgin Mary cradling the body of Jesus. "What matters isn't the roof and vault so much as the sanctuary they protect," says Aline Magnien, director of the Historical Monuments Research Laboratory (LRMH). "The heart of Notre Dame had been saved."
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