Science X Newsletter Week 48

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Here is your customized Science X Newsletter for week 48:

	Geologist uncovers 2.5 billion-year-old fossils of bacteria that predate the formation of oxygen Somewhere between Earth's creation and where we are today, scientists have demonstrated that some early life forms existed just fine without any oxygen.
	West Antarctic ice shelf breaking up from the inside out A key glacier in Antarctica is breaking apart from the inside out, suggesting that the ocean is weakening ice on the edges of the continent.
	Team combines quantum physics and photosynthesis to make discovery that could lead to highly efficient solar cells A University of California, Riverside assistant professor has combined photosynthesis and physics to make a key discovery that could help make solar cells more efficient. The findings were recently published in the journal Nano Letters.
	This is your brain on God: Spiritual experiences activate brain reward circuits Religious and spiritual experiences activate the brain reward circuits in much the same way as love, sex, gambling, drugs and music, report researchers at the University of Utah School of Medicine. The findings will be published Nov. 29 in the journal Social Neuroscience.
	First signs of weird quantum property of empty space? By studying the light emitted from an extraordinarily dense and strongly magnetized neutron star using ESO's Very Large Telescope, astronomers may have found the first observational indications of a strange quantum effect, first predicted in the 1930s. The polarization of the observed light suggests that the empty space around the neutron star is subject to a quantum effect known as vacuum birefringence.
	Researchers discover astonishing behavior of water confined in carbon nanotubes It's a well-known fact that water, at sea level, starts to boil at a temperature of 212 degrees Fahrenheit, or 100 degrees Celsius. And scientists have long observed that when water is confined in very small spaces, its boiling and freezing points can change a bit, usually dropping by around 10 C or so.
	Biologists watch speciation in a laboratory flask Biologists have discovered that the evolution of a new species can occur rapidly enough for them to observe the process in a simple laboratory flask.
	Quantum physics offers new way to factor numbers (Phys.org)—Any number can, in theory, be written as the product of prime numbers. For small numbers, this is easy (for example, the prime factors of 12 are 2, 2, and 3), but for large numbers, prime factorization becomes extremely difficult—so difficult that many of today's cryptography algorithms rely on the complexity of the prime factorization of numbers with hundreds of digits to keep private information secure.
	Earth's 'technosphere' now weighs 30 trillion tons, research finds "The technosphere is a major new phenomenon of this planet – and one that is evolving extraordinarily rapidly" – Professor Mark Williams, University of Leicester
	Hallucinogenic drug psilocybin eases existential anxiety in people with life-threatening cancer In a small double-blind study, Johns Hopkins researchers report that a substantial majority of people suffering cancer-related anxiety or depression found considerable relief for up to six months from a single large dose of psilocybin—the active compound in hallucinogenic "magic mushrooms."
	Platypus venom could hold key to diabetes treatment Australian researchers have discovered remarkable evolutionary changes to insulin regulation in two of the nation's most iconic native animal species - the platypus and the echidna - which could pave the way for new treatments for type 2 diabetes in humans.
	Perovskite solar cells hit new world efficiency record They're flexible, cheap to produce and simple to make - which is why perovskites are the hottest new material in solar cell design. And now, engineers at Australia's University of New South Wales in Sydney have smashed the trendy new compound's world efficiency record.
	'Tennessine': Element 117 officially named The recently discovered element 117 has been officially named "tennessine" in recognition of Tennessee's contributions to its discovery, including the efforts of the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory and its Tennessee collaborators at Vanderbilt University and the University of Tennessee.
	Could there be life in Pluto's ocean? Pluto is thought to possess a subsurface ocean, which is not so much a sign of water as it is a tremendous clue that other dwarf planets in deep space also may contain similarly exotic oceans, naturally leading to the question of life, said one co-investigator with NASA's New Horizon mission to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt.
	How it takes just six seconds to hack a credit card Working out the card number, expiry date and security code of any Visa credit or debit card can take as little as six seconds and uses nothing more than guesswork, new research has shown.
	Discovery of bismuth superconductivity at extremely low temperature jeopardizes theory (Phys.org)—A team of researchers at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in India has found that cooling a sample of bismuth to 0.00053 Kelvin caused the material to become a superconductor, putting at risk a decades-old theory regarding how superconductivity works. In their paper published in the journal Science, the team describes their cooling and testing approach and why they believe what they found will require physicists to rethink theoretical work that describes the conditions under which a metal can become superconductive.
	Proposed quantum nano-MRI could generate images with angstrom-level resolution (Phys.org)—Similar to the way that a conventional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine uses large magnets to generate 3D images, physicists have developed a proposal for a quantum nano-MRI machine that would use the magnetic properties of a single atomic qubit to generate 3D images with angstrom-level (0.1-nanometer) resolution. The new technique could lead to the development of single-molecule microscopes for imaging biomolecules, with applications in drug discovery and better understanding diseases.
	Researchers discover a critical cellular 'off' switch for the inflammatory immune response that causes asthma attacks Working with human immune cells in the laboratory, Johns Hopkins researchers report they have identified a critical cellular "off" switch for the inflammatory immune response that contributes to lung-constricting asthma attacks. The switch, they say, is composed of regulatory proteins that control an immune signaling pathway in cells.
	High-precision magnetic field sensing Scientists have developed a highly sensitive sensor to detect tiny changes in strong magnetic fields. The sensor may find widespread use in medicine and other areas.
	First 'water-wave' laser created Technion researchers have demonstrated, for the first time, that laser emissions can be created through the interaction of light and water waves. This "water-wave laser" could someday be used in tiny sensors that combine light waves, sound and water waves, or as a feature on microfluidic "lab-on-a-chip" devices used to study cell biology and to test new drug therapies.

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