Science X Newsletter Week 50

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Here is your customized Phys.org Newsletter for week 50:

	New US space mining law to spark interplanetary gold rush Flashing some interplanetary gold bling and sipping "space water" might sound far-fetched, but both could soon be reality, thanks to a new US law that legalizes cosmic mining.
	Physicists investigate unusual form of quantum mechanics (Phys.org)—In a new study, physicists at Penn State University have for the first time proposed a way to test a little-understood form of quantum mechanics called nonassociative quantum mechanics. So far, all other tests of quantum mechanics have dealt with the associative form, so the new test provides a way to explore this relatively obscure part of the theory.
	German physicists see landmark in nuclear fusion quest Scientists in Germany said Thursday they had reached a milestone in a quest to derive energy from nuclear fusion, billed as a potentially limitless, safe and cheap source.
Quantum physics problem proved unsolvable: Godel and Turing enter quantum physics A mathematical problem underlying fundamental questions in particle and quantum physics is provably unsolvable, according to scientists at UCL, Universidad Complutense de Madrid - ICMAT and Technical University of Munich.
	Report of discovery of large object in far outer edges of solar system incites skeptical reactions (Phys.org)—Two separate teams of researchers (one from Mexico, the other Sweden), have incited skepticism among the astronomy community by posting papers on the preprint server arXiv each describing a different large object they observed in the outer edges of the solar system. Both teams made their observations after reviewing data from ALMA—a cluster of radio dishes in the Chilean mountains.
	Engineers build biologically powered chip Columbia Engineering researchers have, for the first time, harnessed the molecular machinery of living systems to power an integrated circuit from adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the energy currency of life. They achieved this by integrating a conventional solid-state complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) integrated circuit with an artificial lipid bilayer membrane containing ATP-powered ion pumps, opening the door to creating entirely new artificial systems that contain both biological and solid-state components. The study, led by Ken Shepard, Lau Family Professor of Electrical Engineering and professor of biomedical engineering at Columbia Engineering, is published online Dec. 7 in Nature Communications.
	Did 'dark matter' or a star called Nemesis kill the dinosaurs? The dinosaur extinction 66m years ago was most likely caused by a comet or big asteroid hitting the Earth. But given that asteroids don't actually hit our planet very often, could this really be the whole story? Many scientists are now asking whether some sort of cosmological event could have boosted the number of comets at the time, making such a collision more likely.
	Study points to metal powders as potential replacement for fossil fuels Can you imagine a future where your car is fueled by iron powder instead of gasoline?
	Chomsky was right, researchers find: We do have a 'grammar' in our head A team of neuroscientists has found new support for MIT linguist Noam Chomsky's decades-old theory that we possess an "internal grammar" that allows us to comprehend even nonsensical phrases.
	Scientists teach machines to learn like humans A team of scientists has developed an algorithm that captures our learning abilities, enabling computers to recognize and draw simple visual concepts that are mostly indistinguishable from those created by humans. The work, which appears in the latest issue of the journal Science, marks a significant advance in the field—one that dramatically shortens the time it takes computers to 'learn' new concepts and broadens their application to more creative tasks.
	The amazing camera that can see around corners (w/ video) How can a person see around a blind corner? One answer is to develop X-ray vision. A more mundane approach is to use a mirror. But if neither are an option, a group of scientists led by Genevieve Gariepy have developed a state-of-the-art detector which, with some clever data processing techniques, can turn walls and floors into a "virtual mirror", giving the power to locate and track moving objects out of direct line of sight.
	Unexpected wood source for Chaco Canyon great houses The wood in the monumental "great houses" built in Chaco Canyon by ancient Puebloans came from two different mountain ranges, according to new research from the University of Arizona Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research.
	15-year-old boy builds smart microwave that spares the salad A desire to help his father make a perfect cup of hot tea inspired this Oregon teenage tinkerer to use his advanced math and computer programming skills to transform a conventional microwave oven into an automated smart kitchen appliance.
	Researchers create powerful pseudomagnetic fields in graphene University of Maryland (UMD) researchers have made a breakthrough discovery in graphene research that could provide a testbed for understanding how electrons move in extremely high magnetic fields. Since its discovery in 2004, graphene has become a celebrity in the materials science and physics world due to its remarkable physical properties.
	Scientists reveal that the rotation of Earth's core holds a clue to understanding global sea-level rise Scientists are studying past changes in sea level in order to make accurate future predictions of this consequence of climate change, and they're looking down to Earth's core to do so. "In order to fully understand the sea-level change that has occurred in the past century, we need to understand the dynamics of the flow in Earth's core" says Mathieu Dumberry, a professor in physics at the University of Alberta.
	Skyscraper-style chip design boosts performance 1,000-fold For decades, engineers have designed computer systems with processors and memory chips laid out like single-story structures in a suburb. Wires connect these chips like streets, carrying digital traffic between the processors that compute data and the memory chips that store it.
	What makes Tom Hanks look like Tom Hanks? Tom Hanks has appeared in many acting roles over the years, playing young and old, smart and simple. Yet we always recognize him as Tom Hanks. Why? Is it his appearance? His mannerisms? The way he moves?
	Increased CO2 in the atmosphere has altered photosynthesis of plants over the 20th century Researchers at Umeå University and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences have discovered that increasing levels of CO2 in the atmosphere have shifted photosynthetic metabolism in plants over the 20th century. This is the first study worldwide that deduces biochemical regulation of plant metabolism from historical specimens. The findings are now published in the leading journal PNAS and will have an impact on new models of future CO2 concentration in the atmosphere.
	Rare mergers of binary neutron stars found as the source of radioactive plutonium-244 in nature In a letter published in the prestigious journal Nature Physics, a team of scientists from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem suggests a solution to the Galactic radioactive plutonium puzzle.
	Computing with time travel Why send a message back in time, but lock it so that no one can ever read the contents? Because it may be the key to solving currently intractable problems. That's the claim of an international collaboration who have just published a paper in npj Quantum Information.

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