Search

Temporal metamaterials, which can manipulate and rewind waves, are being used to test fundamental ideas in physics. These materials can change their properties rapidly, creating a boundary that acts as a mirror in time. Researchers have been able to manipulate acoustic and electromagnetic waves using temporal metamaterials, and these materials have practical applications in various industries. They also offer new ways to test the behavior of light and explore concepts like quantum friction and the special theory of relativity. However, understanding the effects of time boundaries in these materials presents a challenge for physicists. [Extracted from the article]

A recent study suggests that a massive impact billions of years ago may have caused Jupiter's largest moon, Ganymede, to become reoriented. Researchers at Kobe University in Japan studied Ganymede's furrow system, which is believed to be remnants of the largest impact structure in the outer solar system. Through simulations, they determined that the impactor responsible likely had a diameter of about 150 kilometers, much larger than the asteroid that caused the extinction of the dinosaurs on Earth. The impact would have breached Ganymede's icy crust and created a region of stronger gravity, causing the moon to reorient over time. However, accurately estimating the size of the impactor is challenging due to limited data on Ganymede's gravity and topography. [Extracted from the article]

Florida carpenter ants have been found to perform life-saving amputations on their injured nestmates, making them only the second animal species known to do so, alongside humans. Researchers discovered that the ants identify limb wounds on their peers and treat them with either cleaning or amputation. The surgeries have significantly improved the survival rates of the injured ants, with femur injuries seeing a survival rate increase from less than 40% to between 90 and 95% when amputations were performed. The researchers speculate that the ants only amputate femur injuries due to speed limitations, as the process takes at least 40 minutes to complete. [Extracted from the article]

OCTOPUSES can adapt to changes in temperature by tweaking their genetic code to alter the proteins that are made in their nerve cells. However, most edits take place in non-coding RNA - that is, RNA that isn't translated into a protein. [Extracted from the article]

Next, the researchers applied different magnetic fields to the graphene to measure how its magnetoresistance changed. This is partly down to graphene's electrons and holes being highly mobile and therefore sensitive to tiny changes in an external magnetic field, the researchers write in their paper. Its unparalleled ability to increase or decrease its electrical resistance in response to a magnetic field could one day have applications for how we store data. [Extracted from the article]

The woman, known as the New York patient, has been clear of detectable HIV since 2017, after she received HIV-resistant stem cells - which can turn into different types of blood cell - that had been harvested from umbilical cord blood to treat her leukaemia. RECEIVING a transplant of stem cells from umbilical cord blood has caused a mixed-race woman to go into remission for HIV for the first time. [Extracted from the article]

RADIOACTIVE meteorites may have helped create key chemicals for life a few million years after the solar system was formed. Exactly how these amino acids could be created in meteorites has remained a mystery, but now Yoko Kebukawa at Yokohama National University in Japan and her team have shown that some could have been synthesised by chemical reactions driven by gamma rays. [Extracted from the article]

If the original bombarding asteroids were just 10 per cent water, the lower limit for C-type meteorites, they would have deposited enough of it to create a global ocean (illustrated above), say the researchers. Solar system THE space rocks that bombarded Mars during the early days of the inner solar system may have carried enough water to create a 300-metre-deep ocean there. [Extracted from the article]

That added up to a total of 50 grams of oxygen in total - which would be about 100 minutes' worth of breathable oxygen for a single astronaut ( I Science Advances i , doi.org/gqqzpr). NASA's attempt to produce oxygen on Mars managed to generate about 100 minutes' worth of breathable oxygen in 2021. [Extracted from the article]

Fossils dating back 1.75 billion years have provided the earliest direct evidence of photosynthesis. Cyanobacteria, the oldest known life form on Earth, were found in fossils from Australia and Canada. These cyanobacteria fossils contained photosynthetic structures called thylakoid membranes, which convert light into chemical energy. The discovery pushes back the fossil record of these membranes by 1.2 billion years. The rise in atmospheric oxygen around 2.45 billion years ago, known as the Great Oxidation Event, transformed life on Earth, but the exact cause of this event is still debated among scientists. The use of electron microscopy in this study could help reanalyze older fossil samples to determine when cyanobacteria first evolved these membranes. [Extracted from the article]

A recent physics paper suggests that black holes could potentially be used as a source of energy. The study proposes two methods for extracting energy from black holes based on their rotational and gravitational properties. In one scenario, scientists would charge the black hole by injecting it with electrically charged particles until it reached a point where the electromagnetic repulsion was greater than the gravitational pull. The researchers estimate that this process could have an efficiency of 25%, making it significantly more efficient than an atomic bomb. [Extracted from the article]

The article discusses the mysterious regeneration process of the henon bamboo, a species that flowers only once every 120 years, with recent observations showing limited asexual reproduction, potentially posing economic and environmental challenges.