Dear Reader ,
Here is your customized PHYSorg.com Newsletter for week 39:
Researchers uncover secrets of 'miracle fruit'
(PhysOrg.com) -- Though not very well known in the United States, at least until the past few years, the miracle fruit is a cranberry like fruit that has the unique property of being able to make acidic or bitter foods taste sweet. And while the protein that makes this possible has been known for quite a while, just how exactly it did its trick has been a mystery; until now. A team of Japanese and French researchers working together have solved the puzzle and have published the results of their efforts in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Cosmic thread that binds us revealed
(PhysOrg.com) -- Astronomers at The Australian National University have found evidence for the textile that forms the fabric of the Universe.
Single dose of hallucinogen may create lasting personality change
A single high dose of the hallucinogen psilocybin, the active ingredient in so-called "magic mushrooms," was enough to bring about a measureable personality change lasting at least a year in nearly 60 percent of the 51 participants in a new study, according to the Johns Hopkins researchers who conducted it.
SpaceX says 'reusable rocket' could help colonize Mars
The US company SpaceX is working on the first-ever reusable rocket to launch to space and back, with the goal of one day helping humans colonize Mars, founder Elon Musk said Thursday.
Water supersaturation in the Martian atmosphere discovered
(PhysOrg.com) -- New analysis of data sent back by the SPICAM spectrometer on board ESA's Mars Express spacecraft has revealed for the first time that the planet's atmosphere is supersaturated with water vapour. This surprising discovery has major implications for understanding the Martian water cycle and the historical evolution of the atmosphere.
'Perfect plastic' created
(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at the University of Leeds and Durham University have solved a long-standing problem that could revolutionize the way new plastics are developed.
Scientists release most accurate simulation of the universe to date
(PhysOrg.com) -- The Bolshoi supercomputer simulation, the most accurate and detailed large cosmological simulation run to date, gives physicists and astronomers a powerful new tool for understanding such cosmic mysteries as galaxy formation, dark matter, and dark energy.
Canadian ice shelves halve in six years
Half of Canada's ancient ice shelves have disappeared in the last six years, researchers have said, with new data showing significant portions melted in the last year alone.
Flocking robots take to the sky (w/ video)
(PhysOrg.com) -- The next time you look up in the sky and think you are seeing a flock of geese flying south for the winter, take a closer look. If you are in Lake Geneva, Switzerland, these flocks may actually be robots from the Laboratory of Intelligence Systems.
Prediction or cause? Information theory may hold the key
(PhysOrg.com) -- "A perplexing philosophical issue in science is the question of anticipation, or prediction, versus causality," Shawn Pethel tells PhysOrg.com. "Can you tell the difference between something predicting an event and something actually causing an event?"
New 'FeTRAM' is promising computer memory technology
(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers are developing a new type of computer memory that could be faster than the existing commercial memory and use far less power than flash memory devices.
'Darker-than-black' metamaterial could lead to more efficient solar cells
(PhysOrg.com) -- If typical black paint absorbs about 85% of incoming light, then a newly designed metamaterial that absorbs up to 99% of incoming light may be considered “darker than black." By taking advantage of the unique light-scattering properties of metamaterials, researchers have discovered that a hyperbolic metamaterial with a corrugated surface can have a very low reflectance, which could make it promising for high-efficiency solar cells, photodetectors, and radar stealth technology.
Physicists discover 'magnetotoroidic effect'
(PhysOrg.com) -- For many years, scientists have known about the magnetoelectric effect, in which an electric field can induce and control a magnetic field, and vice versa. In this effect, the electric field has always been homogeneous. Now, scientists have found that a curled electric field can also be used to control magnetic fields, constituting a novel phenomenon that they call the "magnetotoroidic effect."
Researchers use maggots to heal diabetic wounds
(Medical Xpress) -- At the recent Interscience Conference on Anti-Microbial Agents and Chemotherapy, Dr. Lawrence Eron from the University of Hawaii presented his results on the use of maggots to heal diabetic wounds. The small trial treated 37 diabetic patients with 27 showing successful outcomes.
'Darkest' world enlightens astronomers about mysterious light-gobbling planet
(PhysOrg.com) -- A giant Jupiter-like gas planet has been revealed to be the most light-thirsty object in the known universe -- a finding that may help astronomers better understand a mysterious characteristic of similar planets found outside our solar system.
Astronomers discover new way to measure Universe
(PhysOrg.com) -- Astronomers at Copenhagen's Niels Bohr Institute have found a new way to measure distances. This may not sound like much, but working out how far away something is, is one of the toughest fundamental problems in astrophysics and is central to cosmology as it allows scientists to work out the age of the Universe and what it’s fundamental properties are. Because their new method uses quasars, some of the brightest objects known, scientists say they will be able to determine distances much further than achieved to date, paving the way to a better understanding of dark energy.
Pee power: Urine-loving bug churns out space fuel
Scientists on Sunday said they had gained insights into a remarkable bacterium that lives without oxygen and transforms ammonium, the ingredient of urine, into hydrazine, a rocket fuel.
3 Questions: Faster than light?
The news media were abuzz this week with reports of experiments conducted at the Gran Sasso particle detector complex in Italy, apparently showing subatomic particles called neutrinos had traveled from the giant particle accelerator at CERN, outside Geneva, to the Italian detector at a speed just slightly faster than the speed of light -- a result that, if correct, would overturn more than a century of accepted physics theory. Professor of Physics Peter Fisher, head of MIT's Particle and Nuclear Experimental Physics division, answered some questions about these new findings.
Antisocial personality traits predict utilitarian responses to moral dilemmas
A study conducted by Daniel Bartels, Columbia Business School, Marketing, and David Pizarro, Cornell University, Psychology found that people who endorse actions consistent with an ethic of utilitarianism—the view that what is the morally right thing to do is whatever produces the best overall consequences—tend to possess psychopathic and Machiavellian personality traits.
The quantum world writ large: Using short optical pulses to study macroscopic quantum behavior
(PhysOrg.com) -- Einstein infamously dismissed quantum entanglement as spooky action at a distance and quantum uncertainty with his quip that God does not play dice with the universe. Aside from revealing his conceptual prejudices, Einstein’s rejection of these now-established hallmarks of quantum mechanics point to the field’s elusive nature: Coherent quantum mechanical phenomena, such as entanglement and superposition, are not apparent at macroscopic levels of scale. In fact, a common view is that on these scales quantum behavior is masked by decoherence, or even that quantum mechanics itself needs revision. Encouragingly, however, researchers at the Vienna Center for Quantum Science and Technology (VCQ), University of Vienna, have recently proposed an experimental design that would use a macroscopic mechanical resonator, short optical pulses and optical microcavities to realize quantum state tomography, squeezing, and state purification that could shed light o! n this elusive boundary between the quantum and classical worlds.
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