A North Carolina State University researcher has taken a "snapshot" of the way particles combine to form carbon-12, the element that makes all life on Earth possible. And the picture looks like a bent arm.

Carbon-12 can only exist when three alpha particles, or helium-4 nuclei, combine in a very specific way. This combination is known as the Hoyle state. NC State physicist Dean Lee and German colleagues Evgeny Epelbaum, Hermann Krebs and Ulf-G. Meissner had previously confirmed the existence of the Hoyle state using a numerical lattice that allowed the researchers to simulate how the protons and neutrons interact. When the researchers ran their simulations on the lattice, the Hoyle state appeared together with other observed states of carbon-12, proving the theory correct from first principles.

But they also wanted to find out how the nucleons (the protons and neutrons inside the nucleus of an atom) were arranged inside the nucleus of carbon-12. This would enable them to "see" the structure of the Hoyle state. Using the same lattice, the researchers, along with collaborator Timo Laehde, found that carbon-12's six protons and six neutrons formed three "alpha clusters" of four nucleons each. At low energy, the alpha clusters tended to clump together in a compact triangular formation. But for the Hoyle state, which is an excited energy state, the three alpha clusters combined in a "bent arm" formation.

These are the stunning images which capture the breathtaking beauty of a new world discovered in an ice chasm beneath the Rocky Mountains. The cave, called Booming Ice Chasm, was named for it's incredible acoustics - as falling rocks crash and 'boom' when they tumble down the 140 metre deep cave. The crystal clear ice is several meters thick - and explorers say navigating across it makes them feel like they are flying.
However, although the water makes people feel like they're flying, one slip can send climbers hurtling down the frozen water slide slamming into the wall below.

Additional images

Discovery Date: November 27, 2012

Magnitude: 18.2 mag

Discoverer: M. Schwartz and P. R. Holvorcem (Tenagra II Observatory near Nogales, AZ, U.S.A.)

The orbital elements are published on M.P.E.C. 2012-X13.

The Maori of New Zealand have been cooking in earth ovens, called hangi or umu, since at least the 1200s. These ovens are fire pits, scooped out of the ground. A fire is built and large volcanic stones are laid over the fire. When the fire burns down, the food is wrapped in leaves, placed in baskets and laid on the rocks with wet fern fronds. A layer of earth is scraped over the food, sealing in the heat and steam.

The stones inside these ovens reach temperatures as high as 1,100C. This heat is high enough that the magnetic minerals in these stones will align themselves with the current magnetic field direction.

The Earth's magnetic field extends from the core of our planet out to the solar winds. It is sometimes easy to think of this field as a giant bar magnet running from the North to South Pole. Unlike a solid bar magnet, the Earth's field is created by the interaction of the molten metal core at the center of our planet, so the field doesn't align with "true" North exactly. It is currently off by about 11 degrees. Moreover, it can - and has - flipped polarity in the past. The Earth's field protects the planet from collision with solar particles and erosion by the solar winds.

"Earth's magnetic field is important to us," Professor John Tarduno, from the University of Rochester told the European Geosciences Union meeting in 2010. Tarduno's team developed techniques for studying tiny magnetite minerals trapped inside the crystals of volcanic rock, which align themselves with the magnetic field, and then lock into place once the rocks' host environment temperatures drop below 580C.

A new plant-parasitic nematode worm (Meloidoderita salina) was found in a tidal salt marsh at Mont Saint Michel Bay (MSMB) in France, where its abbey is a world-famous historical heritage. The species name 'salina' refers to salty soil and is derived from the Latin word 'sal' or 'salis' meaning 'salt'. The study was published in the peer-reviewed, open source scientific journal ZooKeys.

The female nematode worm of Meloidoderita salina deposits its eggs in two different structures. One of them is called egg mass which is an external gelatinous matrix, the other one is a cystoid, which is a swollen uterus containing some eggs. Cystoid are harder and stronger than gelatinous matrix. On the surface of the cystoids of Meloidoderita salina, nematologists observed a specific and unique hexagonal beaded pattern.

McMaster University biologist Jianping Xu trekked over 30 kilometers a day through mountainous terrain and inclement weather in southwestern China to discover that a wild mushroom wasn't at the root of 400 unexplained deaths.

His findings, published online in Applied and Environmental Biology, shattered a myth started by a 2010 article in the journal Science, claiming the Trogia venenata mushroom contained high concentrations of the metal barium, causing high blood pressure, cardiac arrests and sudden deaths in southwestern China over the past 30 years. The deaths mainly occurred in small villages, some of which saw nearly one-third of their population perish quickly.

"Although there was no published evidence supporting the theory that barium in the T. venenata mushroom was the leading culprit of what was called Sudden Unexplained Death (SUD), it was picked up as a fact by almost all of the major news media," said Xu, associate professor of biology and a member of the Michael G. DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research at McMaster University. "These reports caused significant concern among the public about potentially high levels of barium in wild edible mushrooms in southwest China."

Every summer since 2009, Xu and his team have travelled across the Yunnan province, collecting fruiting bodies of T. venenata as well as other mushrooms from villages severely impacted by these deaths.

© Aaron LevinDavid Wasserman, J.D., notes that causal links between genes and crime are largely unknown.

Abstract

Bringing the genetics of criminal behavior into the courtroom could turn out to be a double-edged sword.

The relationship between genetics and criminal behavior is controversial, but meta-analyses of family and adoption studies suggest that about 50 percent of the variance in criminal behavior is attributable to genes, said Steven Hoge, M.D., at the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law's annual meeting in Montreal in October.

A number of genes are associated with increased rates of criminality, noted Hoge, a forensic psychiatrist in private practice in New York City and director of the Columbia-Cornell Forensic Psychiatry Fellowship Program.

For instance, the catechol-O-methyl­transferase (COMT) gene produces an enzyme involved in the degradation of epinephrine, norepinephrine, and dopamine. The low-activity allele (met/met) is associated with a 40 percent higher rate of criminality in individuals with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and schizophrenia.

People with the 10-repeat allele of the DAT1 polymorphism of the dopamine transporter gene have a higher risk of delinquency than those with the 9-repeat allele.

The dopamine receptor gene DRD2 has two alleles. The A1/A1 version is associated with higher levels of victimization, alcoholism, pathological gambling, and possibly violence, while the A1/A2 variant is associated with a higher risk for delinquency.

Finally, the long-running Dunedin (New Zealand) Study found an association between the combination of low monoamine oxidase inhibitor-A and severe maltreatment with later criminal activity. About 12 percent of the study sample had that combination, Hoge explained, but they were associated with 44 percent of the criminal convictions in the sample.

About 200 million years ago, a leech released a slimy mucous cocoon that unwittingly encased and trapped a bizarre animal with a springy tail, preserving it until researchers discovered the teardrop-shaped creature in Antarctica recently.

The cocoon looks like those produced by living leeches, such as the medicinal leech Hirudo medicinalis. Encased inside was a bell animal that looked similar to species in the genus Vorticella; its body extends 25 microns (about the width of some human hairs) with a tightly coiled stalk about twice that long. And like all eurkaryotes, the organism was equipped with a nucleus - in this case, a large horseshoe-shaped nucleus inside the main body. (A micron is one-millionth of a meter.)

This bell animal lived during the Late Triassic Period, when the Earth was much warmer, with dense rain forests flourishing along what is today the Transantarctic Mountain Range where it was found. At the time, Antarctica was part of the supercontinent Gondwana, though it was still located at high latitudes.

Past research has suggested this coiled stalk, which is used to attach to substrates, may be one of the fastest cellular engines known, changing from a telephone wirelike structure to a tight coil at a speed of about 8 centimeters (3.1 inches) per second - the equivalent of a human being walking the across more than three football fields in one second.

Preserving soft tissue

Possibly even more amazing is the fact that this soft-bodied, microscopic creature survived the vagaries of time. Preserving a soft-bodied organism like this one for so long is tricky and requires some outside intervention to keep the tissues from degrading. In this case, rather than tree resin (called amber when hardened) that preserved dino DNA in the bellies of amber-trapped mosquitoes in Jurassic Park, a mucous cocoon did the trick.

The universe we live in may not be the only one out there. In fact, our universe could be just one of an infinite number of universes making up a "multiverse."

Though the concept may stretch credulity, there's good physics behind it. And there's not just one way to get to a multiverse - numerous physics theories independently point to such a conclusion. In fact, some experts think the existence of hidden universes is more likely than not.

Here are the five most plausible scientific theories suggesting we live in a multiverse:

1. Infinite Universes

Scientists can't be sure what the shape of space-time is, but most likely, it's flat (as opposed to spherical or even donut-shape) and stretches out infinitely. But if space-time goes on forever, then it must start repeating at some point, because there are a finite number of ways particles can be arranged in space and time.

So if you look far enough, you would encounter another version of you - in fact, infinite versions of you. Some of these twins will be doing exactly what you're doing right now, while others will have worn a different sweater this morning, and still others will have made vastly different career and life choices.

Because the observable universe extends only as far as light has had a chance to get in the 13.7 billion years since the Big Bang (that would be 13.7 billion light-years), the space-time beyond that distance can be considered to be its own separate universe. In this way, a multitude of universes exists next to each other in a giant patchwork quilt of universes.

San Francisco - Volcanic activity in modern-day India, not an asteroid, may have killed the dinosaurs, according to a new study.

Tens of thousands of years of lava flow from the Deccan Traps, a volcanic region near Mumbai in present-day India, may have spewed poisonous levels of sulfur and carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and caused the mass extinction through the resulting global warming and ocean acidification, the research suggests.

The findings, presented Wednesday (Dec. 5) here at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union, are the latest volley in an ongoing debate over whether an asteroid or volcanism killed off the dinosaurs about 65 million years ago in the mass die-off known as the K-T extinction.

"Our new information calls for a reassessment of what really caused the K-T mass extinction," said Gerta Keller, a geologist at Princeton University who conducted the study.

For several years, Keller has argued that volcanic activity killed the dinosaurs.

But proponents of the Alvarez hypothesis argue that a giant meteorite impact at Chicxulub, Mexico, around 65 million years ago released toxic amounts of dust and gas into the atmosphere, blocking out the sun to cause widespread cooling, choking the dinosaurs and poisoning sea life. The meteorite may impact may also have set off volcanic activity, earthquakes and tsunamis.

The new research "really demonstrates that we have Deccan Traps just before the mass extinction, and that may contribute partially or totally to the mass extinction," said Eric Font, a geologist at the University of Lisbon in Portugal, who was not involved in the research.