The Hubble Space Telescope celebrated its 32nd year in orbit by premiering a stunning new Hubble image of a collection of five galaxies, known as Hickson Compact Group 40. Even after all these years, Hubble continues to uncover the mysteries of the universe. These are a few science achievements from Hubble’s latest year in orbit.
Category Archives: Science
Cover Preview: Discover Magazine – May/June 2022
Cover Preview: Science Magazine – April 22, 2022
Preview: New Scientist Magazine – April 23, 2022
- COVER STORIES
- FEATURES What psychology is revealing about ‘ghosting’ and the pain it causes
- FEATURES How four big industries are driving the exploitation of our oceans
- NEWS MS reversed by transplanted immune cells that fight Epstein-Barr virus
- NEWS Blind Mexican cave fish are developing cave-specific accents
- NEWS Rediscovered orchid was presumed extinct for almost a century
- NEWS Tiny structures in rock may be fossils of earliest known life on Earth
Science: Global Warming Pledges, Energy Storage, Leeches And Biodiversity
What COP26 promises will do for climate
At COP26 countries made a host of promises and commitments to tackle global warming. Now, a new analysis suggests these pledges could limit warming to below 2˚C — if countries stick to them.
03:48 Efficiency boost for energy storage solution
Storing excess energy is a key obstacle preventing wider adoption of renewable power. One potential solution has been to store this energy as heat before converting it back into electricity, but to date this process has been inefficient. Last week, a team reported the development of a new type of ‘photothermovoltaic’ that increases the efficiency of converting stored heat back into electricity, potentially making the process economically viable.
Science: ‘Thermal batteries’ could efficiently store wind and solar power in a renewable grid
07:56 Leeches’ lunches help ecologists count wildlife
Blood ingested by leeches may be a way to track wildlife, suggests new research. Using DNA from the blood, researchers were able to detect 86 different species in China’s Ailaoshan Nature Reserve. Their results also suggest that biodiversity was highest in the high-altitude interior of the reserve, suggesting that human activity had pushed wildlife away from other areas.
ScienceNews: Leeches expose wildlife’s whereabouts and may aid conservation efforts
11:05 How communication evolved in underground cave fish
Research has revealed that Mexican tetra fish are very chatty, and capable of making six distinct sounds. They also showed that fish populations living in underground caves in north-eastern Mexico have distinct accents.
New Scientist: Blind Mexican cave fish are developing cave-specific accents
14:36 Declassified data hints at interstellar meteorite strike
In 2014 a meteorite hit the Earth’s atmosphere that may have come from far outside the solar system, making it the first interstellar object to be detected. However, as some of the data needed to confirm this was classified by the US Government, the study wasn never published. Now the United States Space Command have confirmed the researchers’ findings, although the work has yet to be peer reviewed.
LiveScience: An interstellar object exploded over Earth in 2014, declassified government data reveal
Vice:
Cover Preview: Nature Magazine – April 21, 2022
Life speed
Cells acquire mutations throughout life, a process that is known to give rise to cancer and has been proposed to contribute to ageing. There is little knowledge, however, about the rate at which mutations accumulate in species other than humans, and whether this rate is influenced by biological traits such as lifespan or body size. In this week’s issue, Alex Cagan, Adrian Baez-Ortega and colleagues address these questions. The researchers studied the speed at which mutations accumulate during life in 16 mammalian species and found that the number of mutations increases by a roughly constant amount each year. They also observed that the molecular processes causing mutations are broadly similar across species. Crucially, the team identified a strong anticorrelation between lifespan and mutation rate: longer-lived species accrue mutations at a slower pace than shorter-lived ones, such that different species have roughly the same number of mutations by the end of their respective lifespans.
Science: Climate Change Hits Desert Soil, Mayan Calendars In Guatemala
On this week’s show: Climate change is killing critical soil organisms in arid regions, and early evidence for the Maya calendar from a site in Guatemala.
Staff Writer Elizabeth Pennisi joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss how climate change is affecting “biocrust,” a thin layer of fungi, lichens, and other microbes that sits on top of desert soil, helping retain water and create nutrients for rest of the ecosystem. Recent measurements in Utah suggest the warming climate is causing a decline in the lichen component of biocrust, which is important for adding nitrogen into soils.
Next, Sarah talks with Skidmore College anthropologist Heather Hurst, who directs Guatemala’s San Bartolo-Xultun Regional Archaeological Project, and David Stuart, a professor of art history and director of the Mesoamerica Center at the University of Texas, Austin, about their new Science Advances paper. The study used radiocarbon dating to pin down the age of one of the earliest pieces of the Maya calendar. Found in an archaeological dig in San Bartolo, Guatemala, the character known as “seven deer” (which represents a day in the Maya calendar), was dated to 300 B.C.E. That early appearance challenges what researchers know about the age and origins of the Maya dating system.
Cover Preview: Science Magazine – April 15, 2022
COVER – A glass structure about 4.5 mm tall with features as small as 0.25 mm is 3D printed with microscale computed axial lithography followed by high-temperature sintering. The process enables the synthesis of highly transparent and inert glass parts with fine details, which are useful for a variety of applications.
IN DEPTH
Global project gears up to study vaccine safety
Pandemic propels international efforts to understand incidence of rare side effects
Earth’s oldest land ecosystem spotted in drilled cores
Campaign probes for earliest signs of oxygen-producing life
Thermal batteries could back up green power
Efficiency jump in key component raises hopes for storing renewable energy as heat
Preview: New Scientist Magazine – April 16, 2022
Science: Longer Lives And Slower Mutations, The Largest Galaxy Structure
For biologists, a long-standing question has been why some animals live longer than others. This week a team have attempted to answer this, by measuring the rates that different animal species accumulate mutations. They show that longer-lived animals acquire mutations at a slower rate, which helps to explain why cancer risk does not scale with lifespan.
07:56 Research Highlights
A clinical trial suggests a change to the treatment of a pregnancy ailment, and astronomers identify the largest known structure produced by a single galaxy.
Research Highlight: Ambitious trial inspires a rethink on a common ailment of pregnancy
Research Highlight: Even among ‘giant’ galaxies this one is record-setting
10:43 The war in Ukraine’s effects on global energy
Many European countries are dependent on Russian fossil fuels for energy production. Following Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, these countries are looking to wean themselves off these fuels, which could have short- and long-term impacts on emissions and food production.
Feature: What the war in Ukraine means for energy, climate and food
Editorial: The EU can simultaneously end dependence on Russia and meet climate goals
Editorial: The war in Ukraine is exposing gaps in the world’s food-systems research
19:58 A new measurement of a particle’s mass hints at new physics
Last week, a new estimate of the W boson’s mass caused much excitement among physicists. The result suggests that this particle is heavier than theory predicts, a finding that could be the first major breach in the standard model of particle physics. However, measuring W bosons is notoriously tricky, and further work will be needed to confirm the finding.
News: Particle’s surprise mass threatens to upend the standard model
Boomers Daily 