Monday, March 20, 2017

Science X Newsletter Week 11

Dear Reader ,

Here is your customized Science X Newsletter for week 11:

Did humans create the Sahara Desert?

New research investigating the transition of the Sahara from a lush, green landscape 10,000 years ago to the arid conditions found today, suggests that humans may have played an active role in its desertification.

Mysterious isolated object investigated by astronomers

(Phys.org)—An international team of astronomers led by Philippe Delorme of the Grenoble Alpes University in France has recently investigated a mysterious object designated CFBDSIR J214947.2-040308.9 (CFBDSIR 2149-0403 for short) in order to reveal its true nature. The object is assumed to be a young isolated planetary-mass object or a high-metallicity low-mass brown dwarf. The results of new observations published Mar. 2 in a paper on arXiv.org could help distinguish between these two classes.

Running away from Einstein

Einstein's theory of gravity may have to be rewritten, after researchers at the University of St Andrews found a gigantic ring of galaxies darting away from us much faster than predicted.

Wi-fi on rays of light—100 times faster, and never overloaded

Slow wi-fi is a source of irritation that nearly everyone experiences. Wireless devices in the home consume ever more data, and it's only growing, and congesting the wi-fi network. Researchers at Eindhoven University of Technology have come up with a surprising solution: a wireless network based on harmless infrared rays. The capacity is not only huge (more than 40Gbit/s per ray) but also there is no need to share since every device gets its own ray of light. This was the subject for which TU/e researcher Joanne Oh received her PhD degree with the 'cum laude' distinction last week.

Spiders eat 400-800 million tons of prey every year

It has long been suspected that spiders are one of the most important groups of predators of insects. Zoologists at the University of Basel and Lund University in Sweden have now shown just how true this is - spiders kill astronomical numbers of insects on a global scale. The scientific journal The Science of Nature has published the results.

Engineers develop a plastic electrode that stretches like rubber but carries electricity like wires

The brain is soft and electronics are stiff, which can make combining the two challenging, such as when neuroscientists implant electrodes to measure brain activity and perhaps deliver tiny jolts of electricity for pain relief or other purposes.

European team announces superconductivity breakthrough

European researchers said Tuesday they had developed a cheaper and more efficient superconducting tape which could one day be used to double the potency of wind turbines.

400,000-year-old fossil human cranium is oldest ever found in Portugal

A large international research team, directed by the Portuguese archaeologist João Zilhão and including Binghamton University anthropologist Rolf Quam, has found the oldest fossil human cranium in Portugal, marking an important contribution to knowledge of human evolution during the middle Pleistocene in Europe and to the origin of the Neandertals.

Egyptian statue recently unearthed is not Ramses II

A massive statue recently unearthed in Cairo and thought to depict one of the country's most famous pharaohs may be of another ancient Egyptian ruler, the country's antiquities minister said Thursday.

Astronomers observe a dying red giant star's final act

An international team of astronomers has observed a striking spiral pattern in the gas surrounding a red giant star named LL Pegasi and its companion star 3,400 light-years from Earth, using a powerful telescope in northern Chile called Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, or ALMA.

LHCb observes an exceptionally large group of particles

The LHCb experiment at CERN is a hotbed of new and outstanding physics results. In just the last few months, the collaboration has announced the measurement of a very rare particle decay and evidence of a new manifestation of matter-antimatter asymmetry, to name just two examples.

Quantum shortcuts cannot bypass the laws of thermodynamics

(Phys.org)—Over the past several years, physicists have developed quantum shortcuts that speed up the operation of quantum systems. Surprisingly, some of these shortcuts theoretically appear to enable systems to operate nearly instantaneously while using no extra energy—a clear violation of the second law of thermodynamics. Although physicists have known that something is amiss, so far the solution to this predicament has been unclear.

Dietary anti-cancer compound may work by influence on cellular genetics

Researchers have discovered one of the reasons why broccoli may be good for your health.

Quantum physics offers insight into music expressivity

Scientists at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) are bringing us closer to understanding the musical experience through a novel approach to analysing a common musical effect known as vibrato.

Explaining a 'once-in-a-billion-year event': A perfect storm of fire and ice may have led to snowball Earth

What caused the largest glaciation event in Earth's history, known as 'snowball Earth'?Geologists and climate scientists have been searching for the answer for years but the root cause of the phenomenon remains elusive.

Quantum movement of electrons in atomic layers shows potential of materials for ele

Common sense might dictate that for an object to move from one point to another, it must go through all the points on the path.

Nanoscale logic machines go beyond binary computing

(Phys.org)—Scientists have built tiny logic machines out of single atoms that operate completely differently than conventional logic devices do. Instead of relying on the binary switching paradigm like that used by transistors in today's computers, the new nanoscale logic machines physically simulate the problems and take advantage of the inherent randomness that governs the behavior of physical systems at the nanoscale—randomness that is usually considered a drawback.

New research shows late bilinguals are sensitive to unique aspects of second language

Imagine coming across a sentence in English that reads like this: "Mary apple eats her delicious." For most native-English speakers, the sentence would likely strike you as odd because it doesn't seem to be structured in an order that immediately gets the message across.

A blood test for autism: Big Data techniques find biomarkers for Autism Spectrum Disorder

An algorithm based on levels of metabolites found in a blood sample can accurately predict whether a child is on the Autism spectrum of disorder (ASD), based upon a recent study. The algorithm, developed by researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, is the first physiological test for autism and opens the door to earlier diagnosis and potential future development of therapeutics.

As Moore's law ends, brain-like computers begin

For five decades, Moore's law held up pretty well: Roughly every two years, the number of transistors one could fit on a chip doubled, all while costs steadily declined. Today, however, transistors and other electronic components are so small they're beginning to bump up against fundamental physical limits on their size. Moore's law has reached its end, and it's going to take something different to meet the need for computing that is ever faster, cheaper and more efficient.


This email is a free service of Science X Network
You received this email because you subscribed to our list.
If you no longer want to receive this email use the link below to unsubscribe.
https://sciencex.com/profile/nwletter/
You are subscribed as jmabs1@gmail.com

No comments: