Sci-News: Breaking Science News

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Accessed on 25 February 2020, 1535 UTC.

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ASTRONOMY

Cosmic Rays from beyond Solar System Affect Atmosphere of Titan

This view of Titan is among the last images NASA’s Cassini spacecraft sent to Earth before it plunged into the giant planet’s atmosphere. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute.Using data from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), a team of Japanese researchers has found that Galactic cosmic rays affect the chemical reactions involved in the formation of nitrogen-bearing organic molecules in the atmosphere of Titan, the largest moon of Saturn. This view of Titan is among the last images NASA’s Cassini spacecraft sent to Earth before it plunged into…

SPACE EXPLORATION

NASA Releases Remastered ‘Pale Blue Dot’ Image

This updated version of the iconic ‘Pale Blue Dot’ image taken by NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft uses modern image-processing software and techniques to revisit the well-known Voyager view while attempting to respect the original data and intent of those who planned the images. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.On February 14, 1990, cameras of NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft pointed back toward the Sun and snapped a series of pictures of the Sun, Earth and other planets, making the first ever ‘Family Portrait of the Solar System’ as seen from the outside. One of those images, the picture of Earth, is now known as the ‘Pale Blue Dot.’ For the 30th anniversary of the famous photo, researchers at NASA’s…

ARCHAEOLOGY

Ancient Nests of Mud Wasps Used to Date Australian Aboriginal Rock Art

A typical remnant mud wasp nest (A) overlying pigment from a Gwion motif before removal and (B) the remainder with pigment revealed underneath. Image credit: Damien Finch.Mud wasp nests have helped establish a date for the Gwion Gwion rock art in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. A typical remnant mud wasp nest (A) overlying pigment from a Gwion motif before removal and (B) the remainder with pigment revealed underneath. Image credit: Damien Finch. “The Kimberley region hosts thousands of rock art sites with some earlier depictions in a remarkably good…

PALEONTOLOGY

99-Million-Year-Old Bee Found Encased in Burmese Amber

Discoscapa apicula; the bee is carrying four beetle triungulins. Image credit: George Poinar Jr. / College of Science, Oregon State University.In a paper published online in the journal Palaeodiversity, Oregon State University’s Professor George Poinar Jr. described a new family, genus and species of pollen-collecting bee found in a piece of 99-million-year-old amber (mid-Cretaceous period) excavated from a mine in Myanmar. Discoscapa apicula; the bee is carrying four beetle triungulins. Image credit: George Poinar Jr. / College of Science,…

BIOLOGY

Biologists Solve Mystery of ‘Stinging Water’

Cassiopea xamachana medusae (5-12 cm in diameter) resting on umbrella apex with oral arms facing up, observed by authors in the natural mangrove habitat in Key Largo, Florida, the United States. Scale bar - 5 cm. Image credit: A. Morandini.Snorkelers in mangrove forest waters inhabited by the upside-down jellyfish Cassiopea xamachana report discomfort due to a sensation known as ‘stinging water.’ When Tohoku University’s Dr. Cheryl Ames and colleagues looked at toxin-filled mucus the jellyfish release into the water, they were surprised to discover gyrating balls of stinging cells — dubbed cassiosomes — inside the…

PHYSICS

Physicists Pioneer New Way to Turn Metal into Insulator

An artist’s impression of the dissolving of the electronic ‘traffic jam:’ the red atoms are different in their quantum nature and allow transport of electrons in their surroundings. Image credit: Berend Zwartsenberg.A team of physicists led by the University of British Columbia has demonstrated a novel way to precisely control electrical currents by leveraging the interaction between an electron’s spin and its orbital rotation around the nucleus. An artist’s impression of the dissolving of the electronic ‘traffic jam:’ the red atoms are different in their quantum nature and allow transport of electrons…

MEDICINE

Immune Cells Congregate and Coordinate with Neighbors to Decide Whether to React: Study

Immune cells count their neighbors before deciding whether or not the immune system should kick into high gear. Image credit: Northwestern University.Scientists have long known that immune cells migrate to the site of an infection, which individuals experience as inflammation. Now, a team of researchers at the University of Washington and Northwestern University has uncovered evidence that this gathering is not just a consequence of immune activation; immune cells ‘count’ how many of them have gathered to determine how much the immune system…

GENETICS

West Africans Carry DNA from Mysterious Archaic Hominin

Xu et al find genetic proof of interbreeding between an unknown ancient hominin and the ancestors of modern-day Africans. Image credit: Bob Wilder, University at Buffalo.Four West African populations — Yoruba, Esan, Mende, and Gambian — derive 2 to 19% of their genetic ancestry from a yet-undiscovered species of archaic hominin that diverged before the split of modern humans and the ancestors of Neanderthals and Denisovans, according to new research from the University of California, Los Angeles. Durvasula & Sankararaman provide complementary lines…

GEOLOGY

New Research Reveals Violent Birth of Continent Zealandia

Based on various lines of geological and geophysical evidence, particularly those accumulated in the last two decades, Nick Mortimer et al argue that Zealandia is not a collection of partly submerged continental fragments but is a coherent 4.9 million km2 continent. NC - New Caledonia; WTP - West Torres Plateau; CT - Cato Trough; Cf - Chesterfield Islands; L - Lord Howe Island; N - Norfolk Island; K - Kermadec Islands; Ch - Chatham Islands; B - Bounty Islands; An - Antipodes Islands; Au - Auckland Islands; Ca - Campbell Island. Image credit: Nick Mortimer et al, doi: 10.1130/GSATG321A.1.Zealandia — Earth’s seventh continent — experienced dramatic elevation changes between about 50 million and 35 million years ago, according to a new analysis of samples collected during the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) Expedition 371 in 2017; this topographic upheaval may have been due to a widespread reactivation of ancient faults linked to formation of the western…

OTHER SCIENCES

Physicists Pioneer New Way to Turn Metal into Insulator

An artist’s impression of the dissolving of the electronic ‘traffic jam:’ the red atoms are different in their quantum nature and allow transport of electrons in their surroundings. Image credit: Berend Zwartsenberg.A team of physicists led by the University of British Columbia has demonstrated a novel way to precisely control electrical currents by leveraging the interaction between an electron’s spin and its orbital rotation around the nucleus. An artist’s impression of the dissolving of the electronic ‘traffic jam:’ the red atoms are different in their quantum nature and allow transport of electrons…

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