Science X Newsletter Week 03

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Here is your customized Phys.org Newsletter for week 03:

	Three nearly Earth-size planets found orbiting nearby star NASA's Kepler Space Telescope, despite being hobbled by the loss of critical guidance systems, has discovered a star with three planets only slightly larger than Earth. The outermost planet orbits in the "Goldilocks" zone, a region where surface temperatures could be moderate enough for liquid water and perhaps life, to exist.
	Trans-Neptunian objects suggest that there are more planets in the solar system There could be at least two unknown planets hidden well beyond Pluto, whose gravitational influence determines the orbits and strange distribution of objects observed beyond Neptune. This has been revealed by numerical calculations made by researchers at the Complutense University of Madrid and the University of Cambridge. If confirmed, this hypothesis would revolutionise solar system models.
	Researchers conduct first direct measurement of gravity's curvature (Phys.org)—A team of researchers working in Italy has successfully conducted an experiment to directly measure gravity's curvature for the first time. In their paper published in the journal Physical Review Letters, the team describes their work and note that what they have accomplished could lead to an improvement in G, the Newtonian constant of gravity.
	Extending Einstein's spooky action for use in quantum networks An international team, including researchers from Swinburne University of Technology, has demonstrated that the 1935 Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) quantum mechanics paradox may be extended to more than two optical systems, paving the way for exploration of larger quantum networks.
Chemists one step closer to new generation of electric car battery An ultra-thin nanomaterial is at the heart of a major breakthrough by Waterloo scientists who are in a global race to invent a cheaper, lighter and more powerful rechargeable battery for electric vehicles.
	Acceleration in sea level rise far larger than initially thought, study shows The acceleration in global sea level from the 20th century to the last two decades has been significantly larger than scientists previously thought, according to a new Harvard study.
	New evidence for anthropic theory that fundamental physics constants underlie life-enabling universe For nearly half a century, theoretical physicists have made a series of discoveries that certain constants in fundamental physics seem extraordinarily fine-tuned to allow for the emergence of a life-enabling universe. Constants that crisscross the Standard Model of Particle Physics guided the formation of hydrogen nuclei during the Big Bang, along with the carbon and oxygen atoms initially fused at the center of massive first-generation stars that exploded as supernovae; these processes in turn set the stage for solar systems and planets capable of supporting carbon-based life dependent on water and oxygen.
	NASA's Dawn spacecraft will introduce us to a strange new world, says the mission director NASA's Dawn mission is closing in on a mysterious, unknown world in the asteroid belt. The dwarf planet Ceres named after the Roman goddess of agriculture awaits to unlock its secrets. So far, we've only had a glimpse of this enigmatic orb using the Hubble Space Telescope, so it's more than intriguing what we will find there after Dawn's arrival. Marc Rayman, the Mission Director and Chief Engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, can't hide his contagious excitement: "Everyone should be excited by this. Everyone who has ever gazed in wonder at the night sky, everyone who yearns to know what lies beyond the confines of our humble home, everyone who longs for adventure and seeks to peer beyond the horizon, and everyone awed by the mystery, the grandeur, and the immensity of the cosmos can share in this," he told astrowatch.net. "Together we are going to be introduced to a strange new world!"
	Rare mineral found in a Wisconsin crater Scientists have discovered one of the rarest minerals on Earth in a Wisconsin impact crater.
How well can information be stored from the beginning to the end of time? (Phys.org)—Information can never be stored perfectly. Whether on a CD, a hard disk drive, or a piece of papyrus, technological imperfections create noise that limits the preservation of information over time. But even if you had a perfect storage medium with zero imperfections, there would still be fundamental limits placed on information storage due to the laws of physics that govern the evolution of the universe ever since the Big Bang. But what exactly these fundamental limits are is still unclear.
	Stone Age man wasn't necessarily more advanced than the Neanderthals A multi-purpose bone tool dating from the Neanderthal era has been discovered by University of Montreal researchers, throwing into question our current understanding of the evolution of human behaviour. It was found at an archaeological site in France. "This is the first time a multi-purpose bone tool from this period has been discovered. It proves that Neanderthals were able to understand the mechanical properties of bone and knew how to use it to make tools, abilities usually attributed to our species, Homo sapiens," said Luc Doyon of the university's Department of Anthropology, who participated in the digs. Neanderthals lived in Europe and western Asia in the Middle Paleolithic between around 250,000 to 28,000 years ago. Homo sapiens is the scientific term for modern man.
	Study details a link between inflammation and cancer A new study from MIT reveals one reason why people who suffer from chronic inflammatory diseases such as colitis have a higher risk of mutations that cause cancer. The researchers also found that exposure to DNA-damaging chemicals after a bout of inflammation boosts these mutations even more, further increasing cancer risk.
	The heat is on; NOAA, NASA say 2014 warmest year on record For the third time in a decade, the globe sizzled to the hottest year on record, federal scientists announced Friday.
	One of the Milky Way's arms might encircle the entire galaxy Given that our Solar System sits inside the Milky Way Galaxy, getting a clear picture of what it looks like as a whole can be quite tricky. In fact, it was not until 1852 that astronomer Stephen Alexander first postulated that the galaxy was spiral in shape. And since that time, numerous discoveries have come along that have altered how we picture it.
	Planets outside our solar system more hospitable to life than thought A study by astrophysicists at the University of Toronto suggests that exoplanets - planets outside our solar system - are more likely to have liquid water and be more habitable than we thought.
	Rice-sized laser, powered one electron at a time, bodes well for quantum computing Princeton University researchers have built a rice grain-sized laser powered by single electrons tunneling through artificial atoms known as quantum dots. The tiny microwave laser, or "maser," is a demonstration of the fundamental interactions between light and moving electrons.
	Vitamin A deficiency may be involved in type 2 diabetes Investigators have long sought the answer to a vexing question: What are the biological mechanisms involved in the development of type 2 diabetes? A recent study from Weill Cornell Medical College researchers suggests that the culprit may be a lack of vitamin A, which helps give rise to the cells, called beta cells, in the pancreas that produce the blood sugar-regulating hormone insulin.
	Research team finds a way to produce black phosphorus in bulk (Phys.org)—A team of researchers working at Trinity College in Ireland has found a way to produce black phosphorus in bulk, theoretically paving the way for its use in real applications. They have written a paper describing their technique and have uploaded it to the preprint server arXiv.
	Largest-ever study quantifies the value of rooftop photovoltaics A multi-institutional research team of scientists led by the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkley Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), in partnership with Sandia National Laboratories, universities, and appraisers found that home buyers consistently have been willing to pay more for homes with host-owned solar photovoltaic (PV) energy systems —averaging about $4 per watt of PV installed—across various states, housing and PV markets, and home types. This equates to a premium of about $15,000 for a typical PV system. The team analyzed almost 22,000 sales of homes, almost 4,000 of which contained PV systems in eight states from 1999 to 2013—producing the most authoritative estimates to date of price premiums for U.S. homes with PV systems.
	Metasurface solves calculus problems as an analog computer Scientists have demonstrated that a 2-D man-made material called a metasurface can perform spatial differentiation and integration, the two main types of calculus problems, when illuminated by a laser beam. Essentially, the metasurface transforms the shape of the incoming light wave profile (the input) into the shape of its derivative or integral (the output). The achievement requires very precise control of light at the nanoscale—specifically, controlling both the amplitude and the phase of the reflected light at the same time.

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