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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on February 25, 2021 at 9:37am

Superstructures formed by 'walking' molecules could help create neu...

Superstructures formed by 'walking' molecules could help create neurons for regenerative medicine

If surgeons could transplant healthy neurons into patients living with neurodegenerative diseases or brain and spinal cord injuries?! And imagine if they could grow these neurons in the laboratory from a patients own cells using a synthetic, highly bioactive material that is suitable for 3D printing. By discovering a new printable biomaterial that can mimic properties of brain tissue, Northwestern University researchers are now closer to developing a platform capable of treating these conditions using regenerative medicine. A key ingredient to the discovery is the ability to control the self-assembly processes of molecules within the material, enabling the researchers to modify the structure and functions of the systems from the nanoscale to the scale of visible features.

 A research group  has demonstrated that these superstructures can enhance neuron growth, an important finding that could have implications for cell transplantation strategies for neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease, as well as spinal cord injury.

This is the first example where researchers have been able to take the phenomenon of molecular reshuffling we reported in 2018 and harness it for an application in regenerative medicine.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/advs.202004042

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/advs.202004042

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on February 25, 2021 at 8:52am

World's first video of a space-time crystal

A research  team has succeeded in creating a micrometer-sized space-time crystal consisting of magnons at room temperature. With the help of the scanning transmission X-ray microscope Maxymus at Bessy II at Helmholtz Zentrum Berlin, they were able to film the recurring periodic magnetization structure in a crystal.

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on February 25, 2021 at 8:40am

New study suggests supermassive black holes could form from dark matter

A new theoretical study has proposed a novel mechanism for the creation of supermassive black holes from dark matter. The international team find that rather than the conventional formation scenarios involving 'normal' matter, supermassive black holes could instead form directly from dark matter in high density regions in the centers of galaxies. The result has key implications for cosmology in the early Universe, and is published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

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Exactly how supermassive black holes initially formed is one of the biggest problems in the study of galaxy evolution today. Supermassive black holes have been observed as early as 800 million years after the Big Bang, and how they could grow so quickly remains unexplained.

Standard formation models involve normal baryonic matter—the atoms and elements that that make up stars, planets, and all visible objects—collapsing under gravity to form black holes, which then grow over time. However the new work investigates the potential existence of stable galactic cores made of dark matter, and surrounded by a diluted dark matter halo, finding that the centers of these structures could become so concentrated that they could also collapse into supermassive black holes once a critical threshold is reached.

According to the model this could have happened much more quickly than other proposed formation mechanisms, and would have allowed supermassive black holes in the early Universe to form before the galaxies they inhabit, contrary to current understanding.

Carlos R. Argüelles, the researcher at Universidad Nacional de La Plata and ICRANet who led the investigation comments: "This new formation scenario may offer a natural explanation for how supermassive black holes formed in the early Universe, without requiring prior star formation or needing to invoke seed black holes with unrealistic accretion rates."

Another intriguing consequence of the new model is that the critical mass for collapse into a black hole might not be reached for smaller dark matter halos, for example those surrounding some dwarf galaxies. The authors suggest that this then might leave smaller dwarf galaxies with a central dark matter nucleus rather than the expected black hole. Such a dark matter core could still mimic the gravitational signatures of a conventional central black hole, whilst the dark matter outer halo could also explain the observed galaxy rotation curves.

Carlos R Argüelles et al, On the formation and stability of fermionic dark matter haloes in a cosmological framework, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (2020). DOI: 10.1093/mnras/staa3986

https://phys.org/news/2021-02-supermassive-black-holes-dark.html?ut...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on February 25, 2021 at 8:34am

Asteroid dust found in crater closes case of dinosaur extinction

Researchers think they have closed the case of what killed the dinosaurs, definitively linking their extinction with an asteroid that slammed into Earth 66 million years ago by finding a key piece of evidence: asteroid dust inside the impact crater.

Death by asteroid rather than by a series of volcanic eruptions or some other global calamity has been the leading hypothesis since the 1980s, when scientists found asteroid dust in the geologic layer that marks the extinction of the dinosaurs. This discovery painted an apocalyptic picture of dust from the vaporized asteroid and rocks from impact circling the planet, blocking out the sun and bringing about mass death through a dark, sustained global winter—all before drifting back to Earth to form the layer enriched in asteroid material that's visible today.

Researchers collected nearly 3,000 feet of rock core from the crater buried under the seafloor. Research from this mission has helped fill in gaps about the impact, the aftermath and the recovery of life.

The telltale sign of asteroid dust is the element iridium—which is rare in the Earth's crust, but present at elevated levels in certain types of asteroids. An iridium spike in the geologic layer found all over the world is how the asteroid hypothesis was born. In the new study, researchers found a similar spike in a section of rock pulled from the crater. In the crater, the sediment layer deposited in the days to years after the strike is so thick that scientists were able to precisely date the dust to a mere two decades after impact.

"Globally distributed iridium layer preserved within the Chicxulub impact structure" Science Advances (2021). advances.sciencemag.org/lookup … .1126/sciadv.abe3647

https://phys.org/news/2021-02-asteroid-crater-case-dinosaur-extinct...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on February 24, 2021 at 1:13pm

How to improve your life using science

https://www.sciencefocus.com/science/improve-your-life-with-science...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on February 24, 2021 at 1:10pm

Physicists Just Reached a New Speed Limit For Moving Quantum Information

This latest research answers a fundamental question – how fast can a quantum process be? It's a useful piece of information to know if you want to build a quantum computer or a quantum network, as it tells you some of the limitations inherent in the system.

https://journals.aps.org/prx/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevX.11.011035

https://www.sciencealert.com/a-new-quantum-speed-limit-discovery-sh...

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Scientists begin building highly accurate digital twin of our planet

A digital twin of our planet is to simulate the Earth system in future. It is intended to support policy-makers in taking appropriate measures to better prepare for extreme events. A new strategy paper by European scientists and ETH Zurich computer scientists shows how this can be achieved.

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on February 24, 2021 at 11:39am

More than 87,000 scientific papers on coronavirus since pandemic

Study finds "astonishing" growth even as partnerships shrink

 Scientists from around the world have published more than 87,000 papers about coronavirus between the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and October 2020, a new analysis shows.

Even given the importance of the pandemic, researchers were surprised by the huge number of studies and other papers that scientists produced on the subject in such a short time.

Nearly all of the scientific community around the world turned its attention to this one issue.

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2021-02/osu-mt8022221.php

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on February 24, 2021 at 11:07am

Can we regenerate damaged organs in the lab?

Scientists are trying to do just that!

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on February 24, 2021 at 10:56am

Researchers are turning kitchen waste into biofuels

When we eat, our bodies convert food into energy that fuels our lives. But what happens to the energy stored in the several billion pounds of food thrown away annually?

As part of advancing sustainable energy solutions, scientists are converting food waste into clean, renewable fuel that could power our planes, trains and automobiles. Researchers successfully converted food waste  into an energy-dense biofuel that could help replace today's fossil fuels. Early results suggest food waste might deliver a trifecta of efficiency, economic and environmental benefits.

scientists pursuing this  begin by blending the waste, often with the help of customized equipment known as the Muffin Monster that grinds up everything from bones and gristle to seeds, wrappers and packaging. The resulting mush is warmed so it can be continuously pumped into a reactor and converted into fuel.

The researchers are testing different types of food waste to see if they can achieve consistent outcomes. During experiments, they address numerous chemical and process engineering challenges as they arise. They fine-tune the heat exchange design, resolve pumping issues and develop continuous separation techniques.

https://phys.org/news/2021-02-kitchen-biofuels.html?utm_source=nwle...

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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on February 24, 2021 at 9:41am

Simply speaking while infected can potentially spread COVID-19

COVID-19 can spread from asymptomatic but infected people through small aerosol droplets in their exhaled breath. Most studies of the flow of exhaled air have focused on coughing or sneezing, which can send aerosols flying long distances.

However, speaking while near one another is also risky since the virus can be ejected by merely talking.

In Physics of Fluids, scientists in Japan use smoke and laser light to study the flow of expelled breath near and around two people conversing in various relative postures commonly found in the service industry, such as in hair salons, medical exam rooms, or long-term care facilities.

In this study, electronic cigarettes were used to produce artificial smoke consisting of droplets about one-tenth micron in diameter, similar to the size of a virus particle. The liquid used in these vaping devices, a mixture of glycerin and propylene glycol, produces a cloud of tiny droplets that scatter light from a laser, allowing visualization of airflow patterns.

To study the effect of speech on exhalation, the word "onegaishimasu," a typical Japanese greeting in a business setting. The experiments revealed the exhaled air from an unmasked person who is speaking tends to move downward under the influence of gravity. If a customer or patient is lying below, they could be infected. When a mask is worn while standing or sitting, the vapor cloud tends to attach to that person's body, which is warmer than the surrounding air and flows upward along the body. If the technician is leaning over, however, the aerosol cloud tends to detach from that person's body and fall onto the client below.

The investigators also experimented with face shields and found it can prevent any aerosols that leak from around the technician's mask from traveling down to the customer.

"The face shield promoted the rise of the exhaled breath," said Ishii. "Hence, it is more effective to wear both a mask and a face shield when providing services to customers."

"Relationship between human exhalation diffusion and posture in face-to-face scenario with utterance" Physics of Fluids (2021). DOI: 10.1063/5.0038380

https://phys.org/news/2021-02-simply-infected-potentially-covid-.ht...

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