Science X Newsletter Week 43

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Here is your customized Phys.org Newsletter for week 43:

	'Zeno effect' verified—atoms won't move while you watch One of the oddest predictions of quantum theory – that a system can't change while you're watching it – has been confirmed in an experiment by Cornell physicists. Their work opens the door to a fundamentally new method to control and manipulate the quantum states of atoms and could lead to new kinds of sensors.
	In unexpected discovery, comet contains alcohol, sugar Comet Lovejoy lived up to its name by releasing large amounts of alcohol as well as a type of sugar into space, according to new observations by an international team. The discovery marks the first time ethyl alcohol, the same type in alcoholic beverages, has been observed in a comet. The finding adds to the evidence that comets could have been a source of the complex organic molecules necessary for the emergence of life.
	Scientists find way to make leukemia cells kill each other Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have found a way to change leukemia cells into leukemia-killing immune cells. The surprise finding could lead to a powerful new therapy for leukemia and possibly other cancers.
	Life on Earth likely started 4.1 billion years ago—much earlier than scientists thought UCLA geochemists have found evidence that life likely existed on Earth at least 4.1 billion years ago—300 million years earlier than previous research suggested. The discovery indicates that life may have begun shortly after the planet formed 4.54 billion years ago.
	New mathematical method reveals structure in neural activity in the brain A newly-developed mathematical method can detect geometric structure in neural activity in the brain. "Previously, in order to understand this structure, scientists needed to relate neural activity to some specific external stimulus," said Vladimir Itskov, associate professor of mathematics at Penn State University. "Our method is the first to be able to reveal this structure without our knowing an external stimulus ahead of time. We've now shown that our new method will allow us to explore the organizational structure of neurons without knowing their function in advance."
	To infinity and beyond: Light goes infinitely fast with new on-chip material Electrons are so 20th century. In the 21st century, photonic devices, which use light to transport large amounts of information quickly, will enhance or even replace the electronic devices that are ubiquitous in our lives today. But there's a step needed before optical connections can be integrated into telecommunications systems and computers: researchers need to make it easier to manipulate light at the nanoscale.
	When self-driving cars drive the ethical questions Driverless cars are due to be part of day to day highway travel. Beyond their technologies and safety reports lies a newer wrinkle posed by three researchers, in the form of ethical questions which policy makers and vendors will need to explore.
	Physicists experimentally realize a quantum Hilbert hotel (Phys.org)—In 1924, the mathematician David Hilbert described a hotel with an infinite number of rooms that are all occupied. Demonstrating the counterintuitive nature of infinity, he showed that the hotel could still accommodate additional guests. Although clearly no such brick-and-mortar hotel exists, in a new paper published in Physical Review Letters, physicists Václav Potoček, et al., have physically realized a quantum Hilbert hotel by using a beam of light.
First patients dosed with 'gene silencing' drug for Huntington's disease The first few patients have received doses of an experimental RNA-targeting drug for Huntington's disease, it was announced today.
	Milky Way photo with 46 billion pixels is the largest astronomical image of all time Astronomers at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum have compiled the largest astronomical image to date. The picture of the Milky Way contains 46 billion pixels. In order to view it, researchers headed by Prof Dr Rolf Chini from the Chair of Astrophysics have provided an online tool (http://gds.astro.rub.de/). The image contains data gathered in astronomical observations over a period of five years.
	Astronomers catch a black hole shredding a star to pieces When a star comes too close to a black hole, the intense gravity of the black hole results in tidal forces that can rip the star apart. In these events, called tidal disruptions, some of the stellar debris is flung outward at high speeds, while the rest falls toward the black hole. This causes a distinct X-ray flare that can last for years.
	Most earth-like worlds have yet to be born, according to theoretical study Earth came early to the party in the evolving universe. According to a new theoretical study, when our solar system was born 4.6 billion years ago only eight percent of the potentially habitable planets that will ever form in the universe existed. And, the party won't be over when the sun burns out in another 6 billion years. The bulk of those planets—92 percent—have yet to be born.
	Historic Delft Experiments tests Einstein's 'God does not play dice' using quantum 'dice' Random number generators developed at ICFO - The Institute of Photonic Sciences, by the groups of ICREA Professors Morgan W. Mitchell and Valerio Pruneri, played a critical role in the historic experiment was published online today in Nature by the group of Ronald Hanson at TU Delft. The experiment gives the strongest refutation to date of Albert Einstein's principle of "local realism," which says that the universe obeys laws, not chance, and that there is no communication faster than light.
	Astronomers peer inside stars, finding giant magnets Astronomers have for the first time probed the magnetic fields in the mysterious inner regions of stars, finding they are strongly magnetized.
	New general-purpose optimization algorithm promises order-of-magnitude speedups on some problems Optimization problems are everywhere in engineering: Balancing design tradeoffs is an optimization problem, as are scheduling and logistical planning. The theory—and sometimes the implementation—of control systems relies heavily on optimization, and so does machine learning, which has been the basis of most recent advances in artificial intelligence.
	76-million-year-old extinct species of pig-snouted turtle unearthed in Utah In the 250-million-year evolutionary history of turtles, scientists have seen nothing like the pig nose of a new species of extinct turtle discovered in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument by a team from the Natural History Museum of Utah.
	Mysterious star stirs controversy Mysterious light on a distant star could be a sign of alien civilisation, some astronomers have claimed, stirring controversy among their peers. Not so fast, said NASA.
	Researchers develop new method for scaling up quantum devices (Phys.org)—When it comes to fabricating complex quantum devices, one limitation is the number of wires available on the measurement systems that the quantum devices are built on. Typically, controlling just three or four quantum dots requires about 20 wires, which is the limit of many systems. In a new study, engineers have devised a method that in principle can control 14 quantum dots using 19 wires. This improvement provides a way to build larger arrays of quantum devices, which could be useful for scaling up quantum computers and quantum information processing systems.
	Scientists experimentally demonstrate 140-year-old prediction: A gas in perpetual non-equilibrium (Phys.org)—In 1876, the Austrian physicist Ludwig Boltzmann noticed something surprising about his equations that describe the flow of heat in a gas. Usually, the colliding gas particles eventually reach a state of thermal equilibrium, the point at which no net flow of heat energy occurs. But Boltzmann realized that his equations also predict that, when gases are confined in a specific way, they should remain in persistent non-equilibrium, meaning a small amount of heat is always flowing within the system.
	Plague in humans 'twice as old' but didn't begin as flea-borne, ancient DNA reveals New research using ancient DNA has revealed that plague has been endemic in human populations for more than twice as long as previously thought, and that the ancestral plague would have been predominantly spread by human-to-human contact—until genetic mutations allowed Yersinia pestis (Y. pestis), the bacteria that causes plague, to survive in the gut of fleas.

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