Science & TechnologyS


Microscope 1

Cell 'atlases' offer unprecedented view of placenta, intestines and kidneys

Heidi Ledford
Nature
Wed, 19 Jul 2023 18:12 UTC
cell map intestines
© M. Snyder et al./NatureIn this HuBMAP image, different colours represent different cell types inside the intestine.
Detailed maps of the cells in human organs show how the placenta commandeers the maternal blood supply, how kidney cells transition from healthy to diseased states and how cells in the intestine organize themselves into distinct neighbourhoods.

These atlases, published on 19 July in Nature1-3, are examples of a powerful and increasingly popular approach to studying the organs of the body in both health and disease. Each comprises hundreds of thousands of data points about gene activity and protein production in individual cells, which are then mapped to their specific location in the organ.

The hope is that the atlases will eventually yield clues about how to diagnose and treat disorders that can arise when those cells become injured or dysfunctional. "These cells organize themselves into neighbourhoods, towns, countries," says Michael Snyder, a geneticist at Stanford University in California and an author of the study looking at the intestine3. "And it affects their function."
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Info

Stunning discovery: Metals can heal themselves


Sandia National Labs
Wed, 19 Jul 2023 18:03 UTC
Microscopic cracks vanish in experiments, revealing possibility of self-healing machines.
Sandia National Laboratories researcher
© Photo by Craig FritzSandia National Laboratories researcher Ryan Schoell uses a specialized transmission electron microscope technique developed by Khalid Hattar, Dan Bufford and Chris Barr to study fatigue cracks at the nanoscale.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Scientists for the first time have witnessed pieces of metal crack, then fuse back together without any human intervention, overturning fundamental scientific theories in the process. If the newly discovered phenomenon can be harnessed, it could usher in an engineering revolution — one in which self-healing engines, bridges and airplanes could reverse damage caused by wear and tear, making them safer and longer-lasting.

The research team from Sandia National Laboratories and Texas A&M University described their findings today in the journal Nature.

"This was absolutely stunning to watch first-hand," said Sandia materials scientist Brad Boyce.

"What we have confirmed is that metals have their own intrinsic, natural ability to heal themselves, at least in the case of fatigue damage at the nanoscale," Boyce said.

Fatigue damage is one way machines wear out and eventually break. Repeated stress or motion causes microscopic cracks to form. Over time, these cracks grow and spread until — snap! The whole device breaks, or in the scientific lingo, it fails.
The fissure Boyce and his team saw disappear was one of these tiny but consequential fractures — measured in nanometers.

"From solder joints in our electronic devices to our vehicle's engines to the bridges that we drive over, these structures often fail unpredictably due to cyclic loading that leads to crack initiation and eventual fracture," Boyce said. "When they do fail, we have to contend with replacement costs, lost time and, in some cases, even injuries or loss of life. The economic impact of these failures is measured in hundreds of billions of dollars every year for the U.S."

Although scientists have created some self-healing materials, mostly plastics, the notion of a self-healing metal has largely been the domain of science fiction.

"Cracks in metals were only ever expected to get bigger, not smaller. Even some of the basic equations we use to describe crack growth preclude the possibility of such healing processes," Boyce said.
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Cassiopaea

Mercury discovered to have aurora, surprising scientists

Michelle Starr
Science Alert
Wed, 19 Jul 2023 11:16 UTC
Mercury
© Griffith ObservatoryAn illustration of the surface of Mercury.
A probe sent to study the sadly neglected innermost planet of the Solar System has finally revealed auroral processes that take place in spite of a practically nonexistent atmosphere.

In October 2021, the BepiColombo probe took measurements of electrons and ions at Mercury, finding evidence of their acceleration. Analysis showed that this was the result of auroral processes involving Mercury's magnetic field, ultimately producing a faint X-ray emission.

This means aurorae have now been seen on every single planet, suggesting that a mechanism for aurora production might be universal throughout the Solar System, in spite of the vast differences between the planets.

Comment: This comes on the heels of a discovery that Mercury has a magnificent comet-like tail.

The similarities between asteroids, comets, and even planets, are certainly curious; as Pierre Lescaudron writes in Earth Changes and the Human-Cosmic Connection:
Traces of this movement can be found in the late 19th century,when Scientific American published an article stating that Professor Zollner of Leipzig ascribed the 'self-luminosity' of comets to 'electrical excitement.' Zollner proposed that:
...the nuclei of comets, as masses, are subject to gravitation, while the vapors developed from them, which consist of very small particles, yield to the action of the free electricity of the sun
Then, regarding comet tails, the August 11th 1882 issue of English Mechanic and World of Science included the following:
There seems to be a rapidly growing feeling amongst physicists that both the self-light of comets and the phenomena of their tails belong to the order of electrical phenomena.
In 1896, Nature published an article stating:
It has long been imagined that the phenomenon of comet's tails are in some way due to a solar electrical repulsion, and additional light is thrown on this subject by recent physical researches.
[...]

So, comets don't seem to be dirty snowballs after all. From the data presented above, they are glowing chunks of rock. On the other side, asteroids don't seem to be the non-glowing chunks of rocks posited by mainstream science. For example asteroids P/2013 P5 recently puzzled the whole scientific community when it started exhibiting a million miles long glowing tail. To rationalize this oddity official science claimed the asteroid was spinning so fast that it was ejecting tons of dust, while acknowledging that finally the difference between 'comets' and 'asteroids' might not be so clear-cut.1

The fundamental difference between asteroids and comets is not their chemical composition, i.e. dirty, fluffy icy comets vs. rocky asteroids. Rather, as has long been put forward by plasma theorists, what differentiates 'comets' from 'asteroids' is their electric activity.

When the electric potential difference between an asteroid and the surrounding plasma is not too high, the asteroid exhibits a dark discharge mode2 or no discharge at all. But when the potential difference is high enough, the asteroid switches to a glowing discharge mode.3 At this point the asteroid is a comet. From this perspective, a comet is simply a glowing asteroid and an asteroid is a non-glowing comet. Thus the very same body can, successively, be a comet, then an asteroid, then a comet, etc., depending on variation in the ambient electric field it is subjected to.4

Note that a comet can also exhibit the third plasma discharge mode, namely lightning or 'arc discharge mode', which is probably what happened when Comet Shoemaker-Levy entered the vicinity of Jupiter in July 1994:
The following article from Mr Lescaudron sheds more light on the topic: The Seven Destructive Earth Passes of Comet Venus

And check out SOTT radio's:


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Nebula

Giant swirling waves at the edge of Jupiter's magnetosphere discovered

Southwest Research Institute
Phys.org
Mon, 17 Jul 2023 12:00 UTC
jupiter waves
© UCAR/Zhang, et.al.An SwRI-led team identified intermittent evidence of Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities, giant swirling waves, at the boundary between Jupiter's magnetosphere and the solar wind that fills interplanetary space, modeled here by University Corporation for Atmospheric Research scientists in a 2017 GRL paper.
A team led by Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) and The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) has found that NASA's Juno spacecraft orbiting Jupiter frequently encounters giant swirling waves at the boundary between the solar wind and Jupiter's magnetosphere. The waves are an important process for transferring energy and mass from the solar wind, a stream of charged particles emitted by the sun, to planetary space environments.

Jake Montgomery, a doctoral student in the joint space physics program between UTSA and SwRI, noted that these phenomena occur when a large difference in velocity forms across the boundary between two regions in space. This can create a swirling wave, or vortex, at the interface that separates a planet's magnetic field and the solar wind, known as the magnetopause. These Kelvin-Helmholtz waves are not visible to the naked eye but can be detected through instrument observations of plasma and magnetic fields in space. Plasma — a fundamental state of matter made up of charged particles, ions and electrons — is ubiquitous across the universe.

Comment: More recent discoveries regarding plasma: Also check out SOTT radio's:

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Galaxy

New research puts age of universe at 26.7 billion years, nearly twice as old as previously believed

Bernard Rizk
Phys.org
Thu, 13 Jul 2023 05:03 UTC
space dust clouds
Our universe could be twice as old as current estimates, according to a new study that challenges the dominant cosmological model and sheds new light on the so-called "impossible early galaxy problem."

The work is published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

"Our newly-devised model stretches the galaxy formation time by a several billion years, making the universe 26.7 billion years old, and not 13.7 as previously estimated," says author Rajendra Gupta, adjunct professor of physics in the Faculty of Science at the University of Ottawa.

For years, astronomers and physicists have calculated the age of our universe by measuring the time elapsed since the Big Bang and by studying the oldest stars based on the redshift of light coming from distant galaxies. In 2021, thanks to new techniques and advances in technology, the age of our universe was thus estimated at 13.797 billion years using the Lambda-CDM concordance model.
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Blue Planet

Turning the tables: Researchers find birds using 'anti-bird' spikes to build their nests

Michael Lee Simpson
People
Sun, 16 Jul 2023 20:52 UTC
bird nest in anti bird spikes
© Coyau / Wikimedia CommonsWhile deterring perching, bird spikes may not shift birds able to build large nests, and in fact can help them by providing a support to build the nest on.
'A brilliant comeback'

Some urban crows and magpies in Europe are building their nests using metal strips from buildings' anti-bird devices.

After finding bird nests built primarily out of anti-bird spikes and devices, researchers from the Natural History Museum in Rotterdam and the Naturalis Biodiversity Center in Leiden searched online for more cases of this phenomenon and found several examples, The Guardian reported.

"I really thought I'd seen it all," Kees Moeliker, director of the Natural History Museum Rotterdam, said, per the outlet.

"These anti-bird spikes are meant to deter birds, they are supposed to scare them off, but on the contrary, the birds just utilize them," the expert added.
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Better Earth

Massive lava outburst may have caused 'Snowball Earth' 717 million years ago

Maya Wei-Haas
Science.org
Wed, 12 Jul 2023 14:30 UTC
snowball earth ice age
© CLAUS LUNAU/SCIENCE SOURCESome 717 million years ago, glaciers covered the globe. Earlier eruptions may have triggered the event.
About 717 million years ago, a climate catastrophe struck the planet, as temperatures plunged and glaciers enveloped the globe. The cause of this "Snowball Earth" episode has been mysterious, but it took place around the same time as a massive outburst of volcanism. Many researchers thought there might be a connection. But the timing was uncertain.

Now, more precise dates, reported last month in Earth and Planetary Science Letters (EPSL) and in November 2022 in Science Advances, show the eruptions preceded the Snowball Earth event by 1 million to 2 million years. The lag points to a particular way the fire could have triggered the ice: through a chemical alteration of the fresh volcanic rocks known as weathering, which sucks carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere, turning down the planetary thermostat. The studies highlight the power of weathering as a key driver behind shifts in Earth's climate, and how components of the planet as disparate as rocks and the atmosphere are inextricably linked, says EPSL study co-author Galen Halverson, a sedimentary geologist at McGill University. "Nothing can be understood in isolation."
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Headphones

Experiment shows humans really can hear silence after all

David Nield
ScienceAlert
Tue, 11 Jul 2023 19:59 UTC
silence shhhhh finger over mouth
© Kristina Flour/Unsplash
Since the days of Aristotle, scientists and philosophers have debated whether silence is ever 'heard'. A new series of experiments by researchers from Johns Hopkins University in the US may just have settled the issue.

The research made clever use of a well-known trick called the one-is-more illusion, which fools the brains of listeners into thinking two discrete sounds are shorter than one single sound, even though in reality the total time is the same.

Replacing sounds with silence, the team found that the illusion still worked. You can try it out for yourself. A single continuous silence is perceived as being longer than two separate silences, despite them actually being the same duration overall.

"Silence, whatever it is, is not a sound - it's the absence of sound," says Rui Zhe Goh, a graduate student in philosophy and psychology from Johns Hopkins University. "Surprisingly, what our work suggests is that nothing is also something you can hear."
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Rocket

Chandrayaan-3: India launches historic mission to Moon

Vishwam Sankaran
Independent
Fri, 14 Jul 2023 19:40 UTC
Chandrayaan-3
© AP Photo/Aijaz RahiIndian spacecraft Chandrayaan-3
India's space agency has successfully launched a rocket that aims to land a rover at the Moon's south pole, signalling its arrival as a space power.

The Indian space research organisation's (ISRO) Chandrayaan-3 mission, carrying a lander and rover, blasted off at 2.35pm local time aboard the LVM3 rocket from India's main spaceport, Sriharikota, in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh.

"14 July 2023 will always be etched in golden letters as far as India's space sector is concerned... This remarkable mission will carry the hopes and dreams of our nation," Indian prime minister Narendra Modi tweeted on Friday, ahead of the launch.

ISRO confirmed that the spacecraft successfully entered its planned orbit around Earth, adding that with a set of carefully planned manoeuvres in the coming days the vehicle is expected to land near the Moon's south pole around 23 August.
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Galaxy

Metallic clouds turn scorching hot exoplanet into the universe's largest mirror

Robert Lea
Space.com
Tue, 11 Jul 2023 17:46 UTC
exoplanet LTT9779b metal clouds reflective
© Ricardo Ramírez Reyes (Universidad de Chile)An illustration of the exoplanet LTT9779b as it orbits its star
"It's a planet that shouldn't exist."

Astronomers have discovered the most reflective planet outside the solar system ever seen. The ultra-hot extrasolar planet, or exoplanet, acts like a cosmic mirror because it is covered by reflective clouds of metal.

The planet, designated LTT9779 b, is located around 264 light-years from Earth and reflects around 80% of the light that shines on it from its parent star. As a comparison to LTT9779 b, Earth reflects just 30% of the light that falls on it from the sun. The ultra-hot LTT9779 b is so reflective that it is the first exoplanet found that gives the solar system's shiniest planet, Venus, a run for its money; Venus has a thick layer of clouds that reflect around 75% of incident sunlight.
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