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Here is your customized Phys.org Newsletter for week 24:
Data from Voyager 1 point to interstellar future
(Phys.org) -- Data from NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft indicate that the venerable deep-space explorer has encountered a region in space where the intensity of charged particles from beyond our solar system has markedly increased. Voyager scientists looking at this rapid rise draw closer to an inevitable but historic conclusion - that humanity's first emissary to interstellar space is on the edge of our solar system.
Ancient effect harnessed to produce electricity from waste heat
A phenomenon first observed by an ancient Greek philosopher 2,300 years ago has become the basis for a new device designed to harvest the enormous amounts of energy wasted as heat each year to produce electricity. The first-of-its-kind "pyroelectric nanogenerator" is the topic of a report in ACS' journal Nano Letters.
Research shows humans are primary cause of global ocean warming
(Phys.org) -- The oceans have warmed in the past 50 years, but not by natural events alone.
Neutrons escaping to a parallel world?
In a paper recently published in European Physical Journal C, researchers hypothesised the existence of mirror particles to explain the anomalous loss of neutrons observed experimentally. The existence of such mirror matter had been suggested in various scientific contexts some time ago, including the search for suitable dark matter candidates.
Theorem unifies superfluids and other weird materials
(Phys.org) -- Matter exhibits weird properties at very cold temperatures. Take superfluids, for example: discovered in 1937, they can flow without resistance forever, spookily climbing the walls of a container and dripping onto the floor.
Got mass? Scientists observe electrons become both heavy and speedy
A Princeton University-led team of scientists has shown how electrons moving in certain solids can behave as though they are a thousand times more massive than free electrons, yet at the same time act as speedy superconductors.
Proposed experiment would prove that quantum jumps are not objective events
(Phys.org) -- The famous physicist Niels Bohr first conceived of the notion of quantum jumps, or quantum leaps, in 1913. Bohr understood quantum jumps as objective events in which an atom emits or absorbs a photon, causing an electron to jump from one energy level – or quantum state – to another inside the atom. But a few decades later, when physicists began to understand how the act of measuring can affect the result in quantum mechanics, the assumed objectivity of quantum jumps required a second look.
Engineers unveil two-way wireless breakthrough
(Phys.org) -- Groundbreaking two-way wireless technology resulting in vastly superior voice and data services has been developed by a University of Waterloo engineering research team led by Amir K. Khandani, the Canada Research Chair in Wireless Systems.
New evidence supporting theory of extraterrestrial impact found
An 18-member international team of researchers that includes James Kennett, professor of earth science at UC Santa Barbara, has discovered melt-glass material in a thin layer of sedimentary rock in Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Syria. According to the researchers, the material –– which dates back nearly 13,000 years –– was formed at temperatures of 1,700 to 2,200 degrees Celsius (3,100 to 3,600 degrees Fahrenheit), and is the result of a cosmic body impacting Earth.
Is it time to return to the Moon?
Humans haven’t set foot on the Moon -- or any other world outside of our own, for that matter -- since Cernan and Schmitt departed the lunar surface on December 14, 1972. That will make 40 years on that date this coming December. And despite dreams of moon bases and lunar colonies, there hasn’t even been a controlled landing there since the Soviet Luna 24 sample return mission in 1976 (not including impacted probes.) So in light of the challenges and costs of such an endeavor, is there any real value in a return to the Moon?
The basic building blocks of life to be rethought after one discovered to be missing
(Phys.org) -- A gene thought previously to be present in all life on earth has been found to be missing in life near volcanoes.
New model suggests ocean pH falling more rapidly
(Phys.org) -- A new computer model developed in Switzerland shows that the pH of the ocean waters off the west coast of the US will fall over the next four decades faster than previously thought. The region studied is on the eastern boundary of an upwelling zone, and is important for commercial fishing and for its diversity in marine life.
Startup turns carbon dioxide into fuels
(Phys.org) -- Ask Andrew Bocarsly about the innovation behind Liquid Light, a New Jersey startup company that turns carbon dioxide into fuels and industrial chemicals, and the Princeton University chemistry professor smiles ruefully. "The project goes back to the early '90s," he said. "But nobody cared about carbon dioxide at that time."
The Antikythera time machine
Leonardo da Vinci may have left behind sketches of helicopters, tanks and submarines but it is rare that we find actual artifacts that seem so way ahead of their time. Almost like a science fiction tale of archaeologists finding a wristwatch buried deep in an Egyptian pyramid or motorcar under the foundations of Stonehenge, we do have an example of a scientific computer that was built between 150 and 100 BC. It was so advanced, nothing as complex would be developed again until the 14th century.
Engineers investigate why the cochlea is coiled
(Phys.org) -- The word “cochlea” comes from the Latin for “snail shell.” While this inner ear component has a clear spiral shape, it’s currently unclear why that is. In the 1980s, scientists supposed that the shape evolved solely for space conservation, but in the past few years researchers have questioned this view and proposed that the spiral curvature could have perceptual benefits as well. In a recent study, a team of engineers has added evidence to this view by performing simulations showing that a coiled cochlea can detect the source of a sound in the vertical direction significantly better than a straight cochlea.
China sends its first woman astronaut into space (Update)
China on Saturday launched its most ambitious space mission to date, sending its first female astronaut into orbit and bidding to achieve the country's first manual space docking.
Offspring of older fathers may live longer: study
(Medical Xpress) -- If your father and grandfather waited until they were older before reproducing, you might experience life-extending benefits.
A safer route to a nuclear future?
By using thorium instead of uranium as fuel, nuclear power could be safer and more sustainable, according to new research.
'Extremely little' telescope discovers pair of odd planets
Even small telescopes can make big discoveries. Though the KELT North telescope in southern Arizona carries a lens no more powerful than a high-end digital camera, it's just revealed the existence of two very unusual faraway planets.
After ten years of trying, researchers measure distance to starburst galaxy HDF 850.1
(Phys.org) -- Back in 1998, researchers studying submillimeter light emissions in the Hubble Deep Field (long exposures of a portion of the sky taken by Hubble in 1995) discovered something really bright, a galaxy that appeared to be producing stars at an unprecedented rate. Unfortunately, scientists weren’t able to figure out how far away it was, which led a few years later to various attempts to measure it, all to no avail. Now, nearly ten years after the effort began, a research team is reporting in their paper published in the journal Nature that they have finally met with success and have found that starburst galaxy HDF 850.1 is 12.6 billion light years away from us.
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