Science & TechnologyS


Sun

Sun is resource for quantum entanglement, may reveal internal solar processes

Chris Lee
Ars Technica
Thu, 22 Aug 2019 19:25 UTC
CME on Sun
© NOAAA nearby source of quantum photons.
Up until the mid-20th century, light was pretty ordinary. Yes, it was both a particle and a wave, but it didn't do anything very weird. Then scientists, under-employed after the end of World War II, started paying more attention to the properties of light. This was, in part, driven by the availability of surplus searchlights, which could be turned into cheap arrays of light detectors to measure the properties of stars.

That began the photon gold rush, with scientists identifying all sorts of interesting potential behaviors. But actually observing them would require having rather special light sources, which didn't exist. Now, scientists have shown that our own Sun can be turned into one of these light sources.
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Bizarro Earth

Hundred-year floods could happen EVERY YEAR in New England, disturbing prediction reveals


RT
Fri, 23 Aug 2019 16:45 UTC
waves
© Reuters / Tom Mihalek
Alarming new research predicts that 100-year floods are going to occur annually in New England, and could happen every one to 30 years along the Gulf of Mexico and the southeast Atlantic coast.

Researchers made the startling discoveries by developing new flood maps which took into account storm surge, sea level rise and the predicted increase in the strength and occurrence of tropical storms and hurricanes to create an account of flood hazard possibility.

The term '100-year flood' refers to extreme hydrologic events that have a probability of taking place just once in 100 years, taking historical data into account. These floods have about a one percent chance of happening in any year, but, "may change to one-year floods in Northern coastal towns in the US," said Ning Lin, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at Princeton University.

In a new paper published in the journal Nature Communications, researchers explain that northern US coastlines will experience higher flood levels as a result of rising sea levels, while southern areas will see higher flood levels due to increased storms.

The researchers hope that the creation of more accurate maps which are customized to local county conditions will help municipalities better prepare for the chaos and devastation likely to come.
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Sherlock

Straw in the wind? Darwin's random variation is discredited in a recent paper


Uncommon Descent
Thu, 22 Aug 2019 16:20 UTC
darwin
From the University of Glasgow. A friend draws our attention to these words in a recent open-access paper: "Although biologists are now moving beyond the idea that random mutation provides the sole source of variation for adaptive evolution, we still assume that variation occurs randomly..." in the Abstract.

Later: "Darwin's idea that variation is generated randomly has largely been taken for granted rather than tested, representing a fundamental gap in our understanding of evolution."
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Dig

Biodynamic farming: Sorcery or science?

Tim Lee
abc.net.au
Fri, 16 Aug 2019 10:25 UTC
biodynamic farming
© Podolinsky familyAlex Podolinsky's work in biodynamic farming invited plenty of criticism, but his methods are still followed today.
Sorcery or science? How can a concoction made from manure buried in cow horns in the dead of winter and sprayed on tired dirt under a new moon reinvigorate soil?

Not even the founding father of Australian biodynamics Alex Podolinsky knew the answer.

But 50 years later, farmers who follow this practice are paid top dollar for their dairy products, beef, rice and almonds.

This week, the world's first international conference on biodynamics will be held in China, a fitting tribute to Mr. Podolinsky, who died in June, just shy of his 94th birthday.
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Galaxy

Stardust in the Antarctic snow provides insight into solar system


Technical University of Munich
Tue, 20 Aug 2019 12:00 UTC
Kohnen Station
© Martin Leonhardt / Alfred-Wegener-Institut (AWI)The Kohnen Station is a container settlement in the Antarctic, from whose vicinity the snow samples in which iron-60 was found originate.
The rare isotope iron-60 is created in massive stellar explosions. Only a very small amount of this isotope reaches the earth from distant stars. Now, a research team with significant involvement from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has discovered iron-60 in Antarctic snow for the first time. The scientists suggest that the iron isotope comes from the interstellar neighborhood.

The quantity of cosmic dust that trickles down to Earth each year ranges between several thousand and ten thousand tons. Most of the tiny particles come from asteroids or comets within our solar system. However, a small percentage comes from distant stars. There are no natural terrestrial sources for the iron-60 isotope contained therein; it originates exclusively as a result of supernova explosions or through the reactions of cosmic radiation with cosmic dust.

Comment: See also:

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Microscope 1

CRISPR enters its first human clinical trials

Tina Hesman Saey
Science News
Wed, 14 Aug 2019 08:00 UTC
CRISPR scissor
© traffic_analyzer/getty images plusCUTTING ROOM Scientists will soon wield the molecular scissors CRISPR/Cas9 in the human body. Some people with a form of inherited blindness will have the gene editor injected into their eyes, where researchers hope it will snip out a mutation. Two other trials are CRISPR editing cells outside of the body to treat cancer or blood disorders.
Since its debut in 2012, CRISPR gene editing has held the promise of curing most of the over 6,000 known genetic diseases. Now it's being put to the test.

In the first spate of clinical trials, scientists are using CRISPR/Cas9 to combat cancer and blood disorders in people. In these tests, researchers remove some of a person's cells, edit the DNA and then inject the cells back in, now hopefully armed to fight disease.

Researchers are also set to see how CRISPR/Cas9 works inside the human body. In an upcoming trial, people with an inherited blindness will have the molecular scissors injected into their eyes.

Those tests, if successful, could spur future trials for Duchenne muscular dystrophy, cystic fibrosis and a wide variety of other genetic diseases, affecting millions of people worldwide.

"CRISPR is so intriguing," says Laurie Zoloth, a bioethicist at the University of Chicago Divinity School, "and so elegant."

But big questions remain about whether CRISPR/Cas9 can live up to the hype.

Comment: See also:

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Better Earth

Russia's Northern Fleet seeks confirmation of new Arctic islands discovery


TASS
Mon, 19 Aug 2019 09:27 UTC
Arctic islands
© Lev Fedoseev/TASSIslands in the Arctic
The surveyors will land on Pakhtusov Island to search for traces of the first expeditions and historic artifacts

The Northern Fleet sailors plan to confirm the discovery of new islands and other geographic objects that emerged from ice caps near the Novaya Zemlya archipelago, the Northern Fleet's press service reported on Monday.

"The Northern Fleet's surveyors who carry out missions onboard the Altai rescue tugboat and the Gorizont survey vessel will confirm and detail the geographic discoveries made based on space monitoring data," the report says.

The press service reported that both vessels are currently found in the Kara Sea. The Gorizont's crew is carrying out hydrographic research in the Bely Island area. The vessel entered the Kara Sea several days ago through the Kara Strait.

The integrated expedition to study Franz Josef Land onboard the Altai vessel passed through the Matochkin Shar Strait that separates the Yuzhny and Severny islands of the Franz Josef Land archipelago. On Monday, the explorers will land on Pakhtusov Island to search for traces of the first expeditions and historic artifacts.
Map Arctic expedition
© Arctic EconArea of Northern Fleet's expedition and discovery
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Info

Scientists turn living cells into computers and recording devices

Nick Carne
Cosmos Magazine
Thu, 22 Aug 2019 18:53 UTC
New DOMINO technology and DNA
© MR.COLE_PHOTOGRAPHER / GETTY IMAGESThe new DOMINO technology can combine and layer multiple DNA reading and writing events.
US scientists have developed a new technology they say can turn living cells into computers and recording devices, with programs encoded in their DNA.

DOMINO (DNA-based Ordered Memory and Iteration Network Operator), which works much like the gene-editing system CRISPR, can execute cascades of DNA writing events - where one DNA mutation event triggers another - in response to biological signals.

Writing in the journal Molecular Cell, the team from Massachusetts Institute of Technology says the technology enables the deep interrogation of biology and the use of engineered cells as devices that can process, monitor, and store information occurring within cells and/or their environment.

Potentially it could be used to create sensors that sit in the body collecting and storing information for health monitoring, or in systems to measure and record contamination in rivers and waterways.

"We need better strategies to unravel how complex biology works, especially in diseases like cancer where multiple biological events can occur to transform normal cell into diseased ones," says senior author Timothy Lu.
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Umbrella

It's raining plastic: US Geological survey finds plastic in the rocky mountains

Jacita Bower
Science Alert
Thu, 15 Aug 2019 10:02 UTC
mountains
© Peter Pryharski/UnsplashBear Lake Trailhead, Colorado.
While a team of researchers from the US Geological Survey (USGS) was analyzing rainwater samples for nitrogen pollution, they found something they weren't expecting - plastic.

In a new report, aptly titled "It is raining plastic", the team explain that plastics were identified in over 90 percent of the rainwater samples they took at eight different sites, most of which are between Denver and Boulder, Colorado.

While it wouldn't be surprising for microplastics to contaminate most sample sites, considering the abundance of plastic in urban locations, some of these sites are remote. One of them, called CO98, is 3,159 metres (10,400 feet) above sea level in the Rocky Mountains.
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Bulb

Indian researchers develop biosensor device to detect heart disease


Hindustan Times
Mon, 19 Aug 2019 18:58 UTC
doctors hospital
© AFP 2019/ Prakash Singh
Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad Researchers are collaborating with research institutions across the world to develop a device to detect heart disease with high speed, sensitivity and reliability. Their ground-breaking work has recently been published in the reputed peer-reviewed Journal of Materials Chemistry B.

The Research Team is headed by Prof Renu John, Head, Department of Biomedical Engineering, IIT Hyderabad. Their work not only offers promise in the diagnosis or prediction of heart disorders within minutes but can also be extended to detection of other diseases.
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