Detma

Let that sink in.........

M31: The Andromeda Galaxy

The most distant object easily visible to the unaided eye is M31, the great Andromeda Galaxy. Even at some two and a half million light-years distant, this immense spiral galaxy -- spanning over 200,000 light years -- is visible, although as a faint, nebulous cloud in the constellation Andromeda. In contrast, a bright yellow nucleus, dark winding dust lanes, and expansive spiral arms dotted with blue star clusters and red nebulae, are recorded in this stunning telescopic image which combines data from orbiting Hubble with ground-based images from Subaru and Mayall. In only about 5 billion years, the Andromeda galaxy may be even easier to see -- as it will likely span the entire night sky -- just before it merges with our Milky Way Galaxy.

Source: NASA

Welcome to planet Earth

R Aquarii: An Expanse of Light

The universe emits light or energy in many different forms. This object is, in fact, a pair: a white dwarf star that steadily burns at a relatively cool temperature and a highly variable red giant. As they orbit each other, the white dwarf pulls material from the red giant onto its surface. Over time, enough of this material accumulates and triggers an explosion. Astronomers have seen such outbursts over recent decades. Evidence for much older outbursts is seen in the spectacular structures observed by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope (red and blue). X-ray data from Chandra (purple) shows how a jet from the white dwarf is striking material surrounding it and creating shock waves, similar to sonic booms from supersonic planes.

Source: NASA

Progress..........

Hubble Deep Field: The Most Important Image Of The Universe Ever Taken

Nano-architected material refracts light backward; an important step toward creating photonic circuits

Source: phys.org

This image shows growth of cotton cells during the Plant Habitat-05 study, which looks at gene expression in certain cells and could help identify ways to engineer cotton plants with specific qualities such as drought resistance.

Source: NASA

SPACEThe Cost of Space Flight Before and After SpaceX

Source: visualcapitalist.com

NASA’s Curiosity Rover Measures Intriguing Carbon Signature on Mars – Possible Indication of Biological Activity

Water V***r Detected on “Super Neptune” Exoplanet

Scientists Discover How To Halt and Control Cellular Death Process – Previously Thought To Be Irreversible

A study published by researchers at the University of Illinois Chicago describes a new method for analyzing pyroptosis — the process of cell death that is usually caused by infections and results in excess inflammation in the body — and shows that process, long thought to be irreversible once initiated, can in fact be halted and controlled.

The discovery, which is reported in Nature Communications, means that scientists have a new way to study diseases that are related to malfunctioning cell death processes, like some cancers, and infections that can be complicated by out-of-control inflammation caused by the process. These infections include sepsis, for example, and acute respiratory distress syndrome, which is among the major complications of COVID-19 illness.

Pyroptosis is a series of biochemical reactions that uses gasdermin, a protein, to open large pores in the cell membrane and destabilize the cell. To understand more about this process, the UIC researchers designed an “optogenetic” gasdermin by genetically engineering the protein to respond to light.

“The cell death process plays an important role in the body, in both healthy states and unhealthy ones, but studying pyroptosis — which is a major type of cell death — has been challenging,” said Gary Mo, UIC assistant professor in the department of pharmacology and regenerative medicine and the department of biomedical engineering at the College of Medicine.

Mo said that methods to examine the pyroptosis mechanisms at play in live cells are difficult to control because they are initiated by unpredictable pathogens, which in turn have disparate effects in different cells and people.

“Our optogenetic gasdermin allowed us to skip over the unpredictable pathogen behavior and the variable cellular response because it mimics at the molecular level what happens in the cell once pyroptosis is initiated,” Mo said.

The researchers applied this tool and used florescent imaging technology to precisely activate gasdermin in cell experiments and observe the pores under various circumstances. They discovered that certain conditions, like specific concentrations of calcium ions, for example, triggered the pores to close within only tens of seconds.

This automatic response to external circumstances provides evidence that pyroptosis dynamically self-regulates.

“This showed us that this form of cell death is not a one-way ticket. The process is actually programmed with a cancel button, an off-switch,” Mo said. “Understanding how to control this process unlocks new avenues for drug discovery, and now we can find drugs that work for both sides — it allows us to think about tuning, either boosting or limiting, this type of cell death in diseases, where we could previously only remove this important process.”

Source: scitechdaily.com

30 days later. has finally arrived at the L2 orbit point.

Webb's Mirror Segment Deployments COMPLETED

Happy birthday Edwin Eugene Aldrin Jr.

January 20, 1930 (age 92 years)

Tardigrades could be the first interstellar space travellers

More at: sciencefocus.com

NASA’s Lucy Spacecraft

ORIGINS

Profound Discovery on Origins of Life on Earth – Evolution of Metal-Binding Proteins

Addressing one of the most profoundly unanswered questions in biology, a Rutgers-led team has discovered the structures of proteins that may be responsible for the origins of life in the primordial soup of ancient Earth.

The study appears in the journal Science Advances.

The researchers explored how primitive life may have originated on our planet from simple, non-living materials. They asked what properties define life as we know it and concluded that anything alive would have needed to collect and use energy, from sources such as the Sun or hydrothermal vents.

In molecular terms, this would mean that the ability to shuffle electrons was paramount to life. Since the best elements for electron transfer are metals (think standard electrical wires) and most biological activities are carried out by proteins, the researchers decided to explore the combination of the two — that is, proteins that bind metals.

Source: scitechdaily.com

New Theory Proposes Forgetting Is Actually a Form of Learning

The scientists behind the new theory – outlined today in leading international journal Nature Reviews Neuroscience – suggest that changes in our ability to access specific memories are based on environmental feedback and predictability. Rather than being a bug, forgetting may be a functional feature of the brain, allowing it to interact dynamically with the environment.

In a changing world like the one we and many other organisms live in, forgetting some memories can be beneficial as this can lead to more flexible behaviour and better decision-making. If memories were gained in circumstances that are not wholly relevant to the current environment, forgetting them can be a positive change that improves our wellbeing.

So, in effect, the scientists believe we learn to forget some memories while retaining others that are important. Forgetting of course comes at the cost of lost information, but a growing body of research indicates that, at least in some cases, forgetting is due to altered memory access rather than memory loss.

The new theory has been proposed by Dr Tomás Ryan, Associate Professor in the School of Biochemistry and Immunology and the Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience at Trinity College Dublin, and Dr Paul Frankland, Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Toronto and the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto.

Both Dr Ryan and Dr Frankland are fellows of the Canadian global research organization CIFAR, which enabled this collaboration through its Child & Brain Development program, which is pursuing interdisciplinary work in this area.

Dr Ryan, whose research team is based in the Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute (TBSI), said:

“Memories are stored in ensembles of neurons called ‘engram cells’ and successful recall of these memories involves the reactivation of these ensembles. The logical extension of this is that forgetting occurs when engram cells cannot be reactivated. The memories themselves are still there, but if the specific ensembles cannot be activated they can’t be recalled. It’s as if the memories are stored in a safe but you can’t remember the code to unlock it.

“Our new theory proposes that forgetting is due to circuit remodelling that switches engram cells from an accessible to an inaccessible state. Because the rate of forgetting is impacted by environmental conditions, we propose that forgetting is actually a form of learning that alters memory accessibility in line with the environment and how predictable it is.”

Dr Frankland added:

“There are multiple ways in which our brains forget, but all of them act to make the engram – the physical embodiment of a memory – harder to access.”

Speaking to the case of pathological forgetting in disease, Dr Ryan and Dr Frankland note:

“Importantly, we believe that this ‘natural forgetting’ is reversible in certain circumstances, and that in disease states – such as in people living with Alzheimer’s disease for example – these natural forgetting mechanisms are hijacked, which results in greatly reduced engram cell accessibility and pathological memory loss.”

Source: neurosciencenews.com

WHO OWNS THE MOON?

Here on Earth, we’re used to the idea of land ownership. A piece of land belongs to someone, whether that’s an individual, a company, or a state, and the owner has rights over what is done with that land. But what about the Moon? Who owns that?

The short answer is that no one owns the Moon. That’s because of a piece of international law. The Outer Space Treaty of 1967, put forward by the United Nations, says that space belongs to no one country. “The exploration and use of outer space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies,” it reads (via UN), “shall be carried out for the benefit and in the interests of all countries, irrespective of their degree of economic or scientific development, and shall be the province of all mankind.”

This specifically includes the Moon, with the treaty going on to say that, “Outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, shall be free for exploration and use by all States without discrimination of any kind.”

This means that legally speaking, no country can claim to own the Moon. Countries might plant their flags there, but this is a symbolic gesture rather than a proof of ownership. In this way, the Moon is similar to Antarctica, which researchers from different countries can visit and work on but can’t claim ownership of.

Source: slashgear.com

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Self-Healing Nanomaterials: Self-Repairing Electronics Are on the Way.

The field of self-repairing materials is rapidly expanding, and what used to be science fiction might soon become reality, thanks to Technion – Israel Institute of Technology scientists who developed eco-friendly nanocrystal semiconductors capable of self-healing. Their findings, recently published in Advanced Functional Materials, describe the process, in which a group of materials called double perovskites display self-healing properties after being damaged by the radiation of an electron beam. The perovskites, first discovered in 1839, have recently garnered scientists’ attention due to unique electro-optical characteristics that make them highly efficient in energy conversion, despite inexpensive production. A special effort has been put into the use of lead-based perovskites in highly efficient solar cells.

The Technion research group of Professor Yehonadav Bekenstein from the Faculty of Material Sciences and Engineering and the Solid-State Institute at the Technion is searching for green alternatives to the toxic lead and engineering lead-free perovskites. The team specializes in the synthesis of nano-scale crystals of new materials. By controlling the crystals’ composition, shape, and size, they change the material’s physical properties.

Nanocrystals are the smallest material particles that remain naturally stable. Their size makes certain properties more pronounced and enables research approaches that would be impossible on larger crystals, such as imaging using electron microscopy to see how atoms in the materials move. This was, in fact, the method that enabled the discovery of self-repair in the lead-free perovskites.

The perovskite nanoparticles were produced in Prof. Bekenstein’s lab using a short, simple process that involves heating the material to 100°C for a few minutes. When Ph.D. students Sasha Khalfin and Noam Veber examined the particles using a transmission electron microscope, they discovered the exciting phenomenon. The high voltage electron beam used by this type of microscope caused faults and holes in the nanocrystals. The researchers were then able to explore how these holes interact with the material surrounding them and move and transform within it.

They saw that the holes moved freely within the nanocrystal, but avoided its edges. The researchers developed a code that analyzed dozens of videos made using the electron microscope to understand the movement dynamics within the crystal. They found that holes formed on the surface of the nanoparticles, and then moved to energetically stable areas inside. The reason for the holes’ movement inwards was hypothesized to be organic molecules coating the nanocrystals’ surface. Once these organic molecules were removed, the group discovered the crystal spontaneously ejected the holes to the surface and out, returning to its original pristine structure – in other words, the crustal repaired itself.

This discovery is an important step towards understanding the processes that enable perovskite nanoparticles to heal themselves, and paves the way to their incorporation in solar panels and other electronic devices.

Source: scitechdaily.com

Elon musk's Neuralink might this year have the first human trails.

It has been said that lightening never strikes the same place twice...... But this isn't the case, it's been shown that lightening can strike the same place more than two times, the chances of that happening is very low.

- Are you willing to take the chances?💁🏾‍♂️

THE JAMES WEBB TELESCOPE IS FINALLY FULLY DEPLOYED.... awaiting it's arrival at L2 orbit point

CHINA's 'ARTIFICIAL SUN' JUST BROKE A MAJOR WORLD RECORD FOR PLASMA FUSION

Just seven months after it announced a milestone record for plasma fusion, the Chinese Academy of Sciences has absolutely smashed it.

Their 'artificial Sun' tokomak reactor is has maintained a roiling loop of plasma superheated to 120 million degrees Celsius (216 million degrees Fahrenheit) for an incredible 1,056 seconds, the Institute of Plasma Physics reports.

This also beats the previous record for plasma confinement of 390 seconds, set by the Tore Supra tokamak in France in 2003.

This breakthrough by the EAST (Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak, or HT-7U) reactor is a significant advance for fusion experimentation in the pursuit of fusion energy.

Succeeding in the generation of usable amounts of energy via nuclear fusion would change the world, but it's incredibly challenging to accomplish. It involves replicating the processes that take place at the center of a star, where high pressure and temperature squeeze atomic nuclei together so tightly that they fuse to form new elements.

In the case of main sequence stars, these nuclei are hydrogen, which fuse to form helium. Since one helium nucleus is less massive than the four hydrogen nuclei that fuse to make it, the excess mass is radiated as heat and light.

This generates a tremendous amount of energy – enough to power a star – and scientists are striving to harness the same process here on Earth. Obviously, there's a significant challenge in creating the heat and pressure that we find at the center of a star, and there are different technologies to address them.

In a tokamak, plasma is superheated, and confined in the shape of a torus, or donut, by powerful magnetic fields. But maintaining that confined, superheated plasma for longer time frames in order to cultivate longer reaction times is another problem, since superheated plasmas are chaotic and turbulent, prone to instabilities, resulting in leakage.

EAST previously reported a temperature record of 160 million degrees Celsius (288 million degrees Fahrenheit), sustained for 20 seconds (the Sun's core, for context, is 15 million degrees Celsius; the extra heat in a tokamak makes up for the lower pressure).

On 30 December 2021 – just squeaking in for its goal of achieving 1,000 seconds in 2021 – EAST broke the time record, too.

Make no mistake, fusion still has a very long way to go. At the moment, far more energy goes into a fusion generator than we can get out of it; but lengthening the time of plasma confinement is a really important step forward in making self-sustaining plasma fusion a reality.

Source: sciencealert.com

Webb Telescope MIRI Instrument Marks a First Milestone in Space

While the Webb team was tensioning the sunshield, other activities were also taking place among the instruments. One milestone: unlocking the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) Contamination Control Cover. We’ve asked Gillian Wright, European principal investigator for MIRI, to tell us about it.

“MIRI has a Contamination Control Cover, because the constraints of its extra-cold operating temperature mean that it is not possible to include other means of dealing with ice contamination, such as heaters for sensitive components. For launch it was safest to have this cover locked, and the timing for operating it is driven by the temperatures of the observatory.

“To unlock the cover, we first had to power on our Instrument Control Electronics and confirm that they were functioning correctly. Then the commands to the cover could be sent. After successfully completing the tests and unlocking the cover, the instrument control electronics were then powered off before the next steps on the sunshield tensioning activities. This key step for MIRI was monitored remotely by team members in Europe, ready to provide assistance if it were needed.

Source:scitechdaily.com

LASER MILITARY WEAPON

The iconic science-fiction weapon is closer than ever to reality. The Navy’s testing of its Laser Weapon System aboard the USS Ponce in the Persian Gulf went swimmingly, and the Navy expects to deploy even larger laser weapons aboard ships to protect them from threats such as small attack boats and drones.

Meanwhile, on land, Boeing and the Army are working on a truck-mounted laser that can zap incoming threats such as mortar shells or drones. This program has the catchy name HEL MD, for High-Energy Laser Mobile Demonstrator. Competitor Lockheed Martin is also looking for a piece of the Defense Department’s ray gun business with its ATHENA system.

One of the many benefits of lasers is that they can fire repeatedly for minimal cost—just the diesel to power the truck-mounted generator that provides the bursts of energy the laser concentrates downrange.

Source: kiplinger.com

China's Tianwen 1 spacecraft at Mars pulled a big New Year's surprise with stunning new images captured by a small camera that flew free of the orbiter to snap epic selfies above the Red Planet.

An international team of researchers are claiming to have performed the first ever experiment successfully ‘quantum entangling’ a multi-celled organism.

The team, whose research was recently published in a pre-print paper, says it’s managed to place a tardigrade – a tiny critter affectionately known as a “water bear” – in a state of quantum entanglement between a pair of superconducting qubits.

We're still anxiously waiting for this stage

The Holographic Principle and a Teapot

Sure, you can see the 2D rectangle of colors, but can you see deeper? Counting color patches in the featured image, you might estimate that the most information that this 2D digital image can hold is about 60 (horizontal) x 50(vertical) x 256 (possible colors) = 768,000 bits. However, the yet-unproven Holographic Principle states that, counter-intuitively, the information in a 2D panel can include all of the information in a 3D room that can be enclosed by the panel. The principle derives from the idea that the Planck length, the length scale where quantum mechanics begins to dominate classical gravity, is one side of an area that can hold only about one bit of information. The limit was first postulated by physicist Gerard 't Hooft in 1993. It can arise from generalizations from seemingly distant speculation that the information held by a black hole is determined not by its enclosed volume but by the surface area of its event horizon. The term "holographic" arises from a hologram analogy where three-dimension images are created by projecting light through a flat screen. Beware, some people staring at the featured image may not think it encodes just 768,000 bits -- nor even 2563,000 bit permutations -- rather they might claim it encodes a three-dimensional teapot.
Source: nasa.org

China ‘fires hypersonic missile that circles globe to hit target’

China tested a nuclear-capable hypersonic missile that flew round the earth before speeding towards its target, catching US intelligence services by surprise, it was reported.

The technology demonstrates an advanced space capability showing China’s progress on hypersonic weaponry to be far more developed than US officials realised, according to the Financial Times.

source: independence

Earth receives first radio signals from planet outside of Solar System

Dark energy might be neither particle nor field

Dark energy dominates the energy content of the universe, making up more than 2/3rds of all that's out there.


But while everything else clumps or clusters together, dark energy remains uniform throughout space and time.


Instead of being a particle or field, it could be a property inherent to space itself, with alternatives creating more problems than they solve.

Source: bigthink.com

Apophis: The asteroid we thought might hit us

On Friday, April 13, 2029, Earth will experience a dramatic close encounter with the asteroid 99942 Apophis. The 1,120 feet (340-meter) wide object will pass within just 19,000 miles (31,000 km) of our home planet — a distance that brings it closer than most geostationary satellites.
Thanks to the tremendous size of Apophis, its close-passage will be so bright that around 2 billion people will be able to witness it with the naked eye. First becoming visible in the southern hemisphere, the asteroid will appear as a bright star streaking across the sky from east to west, initially passing over Australia, then the Indian Ocean, and eventually crossing the equator over Africa.
Fortunately, this spectacular and historic event won't be as severe as experts once thought. Initially, scientists were unsure whether the passage of Apophis would result in a collision with Earth.
Source: space.com

Mmmmh...interesting 🤔