Menu

Blog

Page 6303

May 6, 2019

Nearby collision of two neutron stars sprinkled our solar system with precious heavy elements

Posted by in category: space

A cataclysmic collision between a pair of dead stars may have seeded our solar system with precious heavy metals including gold and uranium, according to a newly published study. If such an event were to be observed in the present day, it would be the brightest point in the night sky.

Read more

May 6, 2019

World-first Centre for Psychedelics Research launched in UK

Posted by in category: futurism

Watch Carhart-Harris further discuss the new Centre for Psychedelics Research in the video below.

Read more

May 6, 2019

World’s first “flap-free” aircraft maneuvered by blown air takes flight

Posted by in category: transportation

BAE Systems has made aviation history by maneuvering the first aircraft in flight using supersonically blown air instead of ailerons or other control surfaces. Taking to the skies over Wales, the wing-shaped Magma UAV makes use of two new technologies that could revolutionize aircraft design.


May 6, 2019

Lightning Makes Mushrooms Multiply

Posted by in category: climatology

Lightning strikes can more than double some mushroom crops, according to ongoing experiments that are jolting fungi with electricity.

Read more

May 6, 2019

‘Catastrophe’ as France’s bird population collapses due to pesticides

Posted by in category: food

Bird populations across the French countryside have fallen by a third over the last decade and a half, researchers have said.

Dozens of species have seen their numbers decline, in some cases by two-thirds, the scientists said in a pair of studies – one national in scope and the other covering a large agricultural region in central France.

“The situation is catastrophic,” said Benoit Fontaine, a conservation biologist at France’s National Museum of Natural History and co-author of one of the studies.

Continue reading “‘Catastrophe’ as France’s bird population collapses due to pesticides” »

May 6, 2019

Solar Power Stations In Space Could Supply The World With Limitless Energy

Posted by in categories: solar power, space, sustainability

Thankfully, it’s unlikely the solar array could be weaponized into an orbiting “death ray”.

Read more

May 6, 2019

First demonstration of antimatter wave interferometry

Posted by in categories: particle physics, quantum physics

Matter waves constitute a crucial feature of quantum mechanics, in which particles have wave properties in addition to particle characteristics. This wave-particle duality was postulated in 1924 by the French physicist Louis de Broglie. The existence of the wave property of matter has been successfully demonstrated in a number of experiments with electrons and neutrons, as well as with more complex matter, up to large molecules.

For antimatter, the wave-particle duality has also been proven through diffraction experiments. However, researchers of the QUPLAS collaboration have now established wave behavior in a single positron (antiparticle to the electron) interference experiment. The results are reported in Science Advances.

The QUPLAS includes researchers from the University of Bern and from the University and Politecnico of Milano. To demonstrate the wave duality of single positrons, they performed measurements with a setup similar to the so-called double-slit experiment. This setup was suggested by physicists including Albert Einstein and Richard Feynman; it is often used in to demonstrate the wave nature of .

Continue reading “First demonstration of antimatter wave interferometry” »

May 6, 2019

The new techniques revealing the varied shapes of chromatin

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

Researchers are realizing that the DNA–protein complex doesn’t just have one form but many.

Read more

May 6, 2019

Algorithms help spot cancer ‘lottery winners’ in new Fred Hutch study

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, information science, robotics/AI

For most patients, a diagnosis of stage 4 non-small cell lung cancer comes with a dire prognosis. But for patients with specific mutations that cause the disease, there are potentially life-saving therapies.

The problem is that these mutations, known as ALK and EGFR, are not always identified in patients — meaning they never get the treatment.

A new study from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle used machine learning to find these needle-in-a-haystack patients. The idea was to leverage cancer databases to see if patients were being tested for the mutations and receiving these personalized treatments.

Continue reading “Algorithms help spot cancer ‘lottery winners’ in new Fred Hutch study” »

May 6, 2019

99-million-year-old, unknown millipede found trapped in Burmese amber

Posted by in category: evolution

Scientist now have to reevaluate what they know – or thought they knew – about the evolution of millipedes due to a tiny, 8.2-mm member of the order Callipodida who got its many feet stuck in some tree resin, which turned up in Myanmar, 99 million years later, as a golden lump of amber.

Read more