Here is your customized Science X Newsletter for week 15:
Scientists discover first nitrogen-fixing organelleModern biology textbooks assert that only bacteria can take nitrogen from the atmosphere and convert it into a form that is usable for life. Plants that fix nitrogen, such as legumes, do so by harboring symbiotic bacteria in root nodules. But a recent discovery upends that rule. | |
Magnetic levitation: New material offers potential for unlocking gravity-free technologyResearchers at the Quantum Machines Unit at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) are studying levitating materials—substances that can remain suspended in a stable position without any physical contact or mechanical support. | |
Ocean currents threaten to collapse Antarctic ice shelves, study findsA new study published in Nature Communications has revealed that the interplay between meandering ocean currents and the ocean floor induces upwelling velocity, transporting warm water to shallower depths. This mechanism contributes substantially to the melting of ice shelves in the Amundsen Sea of West Antarctica. These ice shelves are destabilizing rapidly and contributing to sea level rise. | |
Discovery of the first fractal molecule in natureAn international team of researchers led by groups from the Max Planck Institute in Marburg and the Philipps University in Marburg has stumbled upon the first regular molecular fractal in nature. They discovered a microbial enzyme—citrate synthase from a cyanobacterium—that spontaneously assembles into a pattern known as the Sierpinski triangle. Electron microscopy and evolutionary biochemistry studies indicate that this fractal may represent an evolutionary accident. | |
First languages of North America traced back to two very different language groups from SiberiaJohanna Nichols, a linguist at the University of California, Berkeley, has used her pioneering work in the field of language history to learn more about language development in North America. She has found that it can be traced back to two language groups that originated in Siberia. Her paper is published in the American Journal of Biological Anthropology. | |
Evidence of a new subatomic particle observedThe BESIII collaboration have reported the observation of an anomalous line shape around ppbar mass threshold in the J/ψ→γ3(π+π-) decay, which indicates the existence of a ppbar bound state. The paper was published online in Physical Review Letters. | |
The evolving attitudes of Gen X toward evolutionAs the centennial of the Scopes Monkey Trial of 1925 approaches, a new study illustrates that the attitudes of Americans in Generation X toward evolution shifted as they aged. | |
NASA unveils probe bound for Jupiter's possibly life-sustaining moonUS space scientists on Thursday unveiled the interplanetary probe NASA plans to send to one of Jupiter's icy moons as part of humanity's hunt for extra-terrestrial life. | |
Physicists solve puzzle about ancient galaxy found by Webb telescopeLast September, the James Webb Space Telescope, or JWST, discovered JWST-ER1g, a massive ancient galaxy that formed when the universe was just a quarter of its current age. Surprisingly, an Einstein ring is associated with this galaxy. That's because JWST-ER1g acts as a lens and bends light from a distant source, which then appears as a ring—a phenomenon called strong gravitational lensing, predicted in Einstein's theory of general relativity. | |
Archaeologists find that Neanderthals and Homo sapiens organized living spaces similarlyIn a study published in the Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory, archaeologists from Université de Montréal and the University of Genoa reveal that far from being more primitive, Neanderthals did much the same as their Homo sapiens successors: made themselves at home. | |
Physicists discover a novel quantum state in an elemental solidPhysicists have observed a novel quantum effect termed "hybrid topology" in a crystalline material. This finding opens up a new range of possibilities for the development of efficient materials and technologies for next-generation quantum science and engineering. | |
Quantum crystal of frozen electrons—the Wigner crystal—is visualized for the first timeElectrons—the infinitesimally small particles that are known to zip around atoms—continue to amaze scientists despite the more than a century that scientists have studied them. Now, physicists at Princeton University have pushed the boundaries of our understanding of these minute particles by visualizing, for the first time, direct evidence for what is known as the Wigner crystal—a strange kind of matter that is made entirely of electrons. | |
Discovery of pottery rewrites Aboriginal historyThe discovery of the oldest pottery ever found in Australia on Jiigurru/Lizard Island off the Queensland coast is challenging the idea that Aboriginal Australian communities were unaware of pottery manufacture before European settlement. | |
Searching for new asymmetry between matter and antimatterOnce a particle of matter, always a particle of matter. Or not. Thanks to a quirk of quantum physics, four known particles made up of two different quarks—such as the electrically neutral D meson composed of a charm quark and an up antiquark—can spontaneously oscillate into their antimatter partners and vice versa. | |
Research team discovers more than 50 potentially new deep-sea species in one of the most unexplored areas of the planetAn international group of scientists, co-led by researcher Ariadna Mechó of the Barcelona Supercomputing Center—Centro Nacional de Supercomputación (BSC-CNS), observed 160 species on seamounts off the coast of Chile that had not yet been known to live in the region and suspect that at least 50 of these species are new to science. | |
Scientists solve a long-standing mystery surrounding the moon's 'lopsided' geologyAbout 4.5 billion years ago, a small planet smashed into the young Earth, flinging molten rock into space. Slowly, the debris coalesced, cooled and solidified, forming our moon. This scenario of how the Earth's moon came to be is the one largely agreed upon by most scientists. But the details of how exactly that happened are "more of a choose-your-own-adventure novel," according to researchers in the University of Arizona Lunar and Planetary Laboratory who published a paper in Nature Geoscience. | |
New technique lets scientists create resistance-free electron channelsAn international research team led by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has taken the first atomic-resolution images and demonstrated electrical control of a chiral interface state—an exotic quantum phenomenon that could help researchers advance quantum computing and energy-efficient electronics. | |
ATLAS provides first measurement of the W-boson width at the LHCThe discovery of the Higgs boson in 2012 slotted in the final missing piece of the Standard Model puzzle. Yet, it left lingering questions. What lies beyond this framework? Where are the new phenomena that would solve the universe's remaining mysteries, such as the nature of dark matter and the origin of matter-antimatter asymmetry? | |
Seismologists suspect earthquake on San Andreas Fault is imminent despite odd attenuation parametersA trio of seismologists affiliated with Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, the Berkeley Seismological Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley reports that a part of the San Andreas Fault, at Parkfield, is not producing signals that would suggest an earthquake is going to happen any time soon, but they assert there are factors that suggest otherwise. |
Aucun commentaire:
Enregistrer un commentaire