Monday, May 29, 2017

Science X Newsletter Week 21

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Here is your customized Science X Newsletter for week 21:

Construction begins on the world's first super telescope

Scientists are a step closer to understanding the inner-workings of the universe following the laying of the first stone, and construction starting on the world's largest optical and infrared telescope.

Scientists find 7.2-million-year-old pre-human remains in the Balkans

The common lineage of great apes and humans split several hundred thousand years earlier than hitherto assumed, according to an international research team headed by Professor Madelaine Böhme from the Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment at the University of Tübingen and Professor Nikolai Spassov from the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. The researchers investigated two fossils of Graecopithecus freybergi with state-of-the-art methods and came to the conclusion that they belong to pre-humans. Their findings, published today in two papers in the journal PLOS ONE, further indicate that the split of the human lineage occurred in the Eastern Mediterranean and not - as customarily assumed - in Africa.

Collapsing star gives birth to a black hole

Astronomers have watched as a massive, dying star was likely reborn as a black hole. It took the combined power of the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT), and NASA's Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes to go looking for remnants of the vanquished star, only to find that it disappeared out of sight.

Researchers uncover new gravitational wave characteristics

Monash researchers have identified a new concept - 'orphan memory' - which changes the current thinking around gravitational waves.

3.3 million-year-old fossil reveals origins of the human spine

Analysis of a 3.3 million-year-old fossil skeleton reveals the most complete spinal column of any early human relative, including vertebrae, neck and rib cage. The findings, published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, indicate that portions of the human spinal structure that enable efficient walking motions were established millions of years earlier than previously thought.

Muscular men less likely to support social and economic equality, study suggests

Physically stronger men are less in favour of social and economic equality than weaker men, new research from Brunel University London indicates.

New blackbody force depends on spacetime geometry and topology

(Phys.org)—In 2013, a group of physicists from Austria proposed the existence of a new and unusual force called the "blackbody force." Blackbodies—objects that absorb all incoming light and therefore appear black at room temperature—have long been known to emit blackbody radiation, which repels small nearby objects such as atoms and molecules. But the physicists showed that blackbodies theoretically also exert an attractive force on these objects. They called this force the "blackbody force," and showed that it can be stronger than blackbody radiation, and—for very small particles—even stronger than gravity.

Researchers develop magnetic switch to turn on and off a strange quantum property

When a ballerina pirouettes, twirling a full revolution, she looks just as she did when she started. But for electrons and other subatomic particles, which follow the rules of quantum theory, that's not necessarily so. When an electron moves around a closed path, ending up where it began, its physical state may or may not be the same as when it left.

US beekeepers lost 33 percent of bees in 2016-17

Beekeepers across the United States lost 33 percent of their honey bee colonies during the year spanning April 2016 to April 2017, according to the latest preliminary results of an annual nationwide survey. Rates of both winter loss and summer loss—and consequently, total annual losses—improved compared with last year.

Toward mass-producible quantum computers

Quantum computers are experimental devices that offer large speedups on some computational problems. One promising approach to building them involves harnessing nanometer-scale atomic defects in diamond materials.

Fathers' brains respond differently to daughters than sons

Fathers with toddler daughters are more attentive and responsive to those daughters' needs than fathers with toddler sons are to the needs of those sons, according to brain scans and recordings of the parents' daily interactions with their kids.

'Smart genes' account for 20% of intelligence: study

Scientists on Monday announced the discovery of 52 genes linked to human intelligence, 40 of which have been identified as such for the first time.

Cannabis derivative cannabidiol reduces seizures in severe epilepsy disorder

After years of anecdotal claims about its benefits, the cannabis derivative cannabidiol reduced seizure frequency by 39 percent for patients with Dravet syndrome - a rare, severe form of epilepsy - in the first large-scale randomized clinical trial for the compound. The findings were published online May 24 in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Let there be light: Controlled creation of quantum emitter arrays

Transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) are layered semiconductors that can be exfoliated into layers only a few atoms thick. Recent research has shown that some TMDs can contain quantum light sources that can emit single photons of light. Until now, the occurrence of these quantum light emitters has been random. Now, researchers in the Graphene Flagship working at the University of Cambridge, UK, have created large scale arrays of these quantum emitters in different TMD materials. The work, also involving researchers from Harvard University, US, is published in Nature Communications. This new approach leads to large quantities of on-demand, single photon emitters, paving the way for integrating ultra-thin, single photons in electronic devices.

Vitamin D supplements could help pain management

Vitamin D supplementation combined with good sleeping habits may help manage pain-related diseases. This paper published in the Journal of Endocrinology, reviews published research on the relationship between vitamin D levels, sleep and pain management, and reports that levels of vitamin D combined with good quality sleep could help manage conditions including arthritis, menstrual cramps and chronic back pain.

Neutrons provide the first nanoscale look at a living cell membrane

A research team from the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory has performed the first-ever direct nanoscale examination of a living cell membrane. In doing so, it also resolved a long-standing debate by identifying tiny groupings of lipid molecules that are likely key to the cell's functioning.

Researchers studying century-old drug in potential new approach to autism

In a small, randomized Phase I/II clinical trial (SAT1), researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine say a 100-year-old drug called suramin, originally developed to treat African sleeping sickness, was safely administered to children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), who subsequently displayed measurable, but transient, improvement in core symptoms of autism.

Scientists solve mystery of how most antimatter in the Milky Way forms

A team of international astrophysicists led by The Australian National University (ANU) has shown how most of the antimatter in the Milky Way forms.

Ancient DNA evidence shows hunter-gatherers and farmers were intimately linked

In human history, the transition from hunting and gathering to farming is a significant one. As such, hunter-gatherers and farmers are usually thought about as two entirely different sets of people. But researchers reporting new ancient DNA evidence in Current Biology on May 25 show that in the area we now recognize as Romania, at least, hunter-gatherers and farmers were living side by side, intermixing with each other, and having children.

Regular chocolate consumption may be linked to lower risk of heart flutter

Regular chocolate consumption may be linked to a lower risk of developing the heart rhythm irregularity atrial fibrillation, also known as heart flutter, finds research published online in the journal Heart.


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