Breaching the horizons: Universal spreading laws confirmed
eurekalert.org – By extending the computational horizons from one day to the unprecedented time scales, the IBS researchers were able to confirm that a cloud of quantum particles continue to spread even when particle to particle interactions originally deemed to be the activator of the spreading, exert almost no strength. Their findings are published online in Jan. 30, 2019, in Physical Review Letters.
Source: Ihor Vakulchyk, Mikhail V. Fistul, Sergej Flach. Wave Packet Spreading with Disordered Nonlinear Discrete-Time Quantum Walks. Physical Review Letters, 2019.
NASA discovers water vapor — and maybe more — on Jupiter’s moon Europa
digitaltrends.com – NASA has confirmed that one of Jupiter’s 79 moons, Europa, has water vapor above its surface, and possibly even a liquid water ocean, providing more evidence that the moon has the ingredients necessary for life. Scientists say that above the surface of Europa, there are plume-like configurations of water vapor.
Source: L. Paganini, et al. A measurement of water vapour amid a largely quiescent environment on Europa. Nature Astronomy, 2019.
A “mouse-deer,” seen once in the last century, has now been caught on film
arstechnica.com – No sightings of the silver-backed chevrotain for most of the last century.
Source: An Nguyen, et al. Camera-trap evidence that the silver-backed chevrotain Tragulus versicolor remains in the wild in Vietnam. Nature Ecology & Evolution, 2019.
Gigantopithecus is Related to Modern-Day Orangutans, New Study Shows
sci-news.com – Orangutans (genus Pongo) are the closest living relatives of Gigantopithecus blacki, the biggest primate that ever walked the Earth, according to new research published in the journal Nature.
Source: Frido Welker, et al. Enamel proteome shows that Gigantopithecus was an early diverging pongine. Nature, 2019.
Levitating Drugs, Star Wars Tech and a Simulated Universe: Science GIFs to Start Your Week
sciam.com – Enjoy and loop on
Source: Ryuji Hirayama, Diego Martinez Plasencia, Nobuyuki Masuda, Sriram Subramanian. A volumetric display for visual, tactile and audio presentation using acoustic trapping. Nature, 2019.
How Did a Virus From the Atlantic Infect Mammals in the Pacific?
nytimes.com – Thawing sea ice may have opened the door, allowing the infection to cross oceans, a new study suggests.
Source: E. VanWormer, et al. Viral emergence in marine mammals in the North Pacific may be linked to Arctic sea ice reduction. Scientific Reports, 2019.
How glow-in-the-dark vampire bats are helping scientists solve a $50M problem
digitaltrends.com – To test out the possible effectiveness of a future rabies vaccine, researchers from the University of Michigan and Scotland’s University of Glasgow recently traveled to Peru to make vampire bats glow in the dark. Why? It turns out that there's a very good and sensible reason.
Source: Kevin M. Bakker, et al. Fluorescent biomarkers demonstrate prospects for spreadable vaccines to control disease transmission in wild bats. Nature Ecology & Evolution, 2019.
Study: Husbands’ Stress Increases As Wives Make More Money
geek.com – Toxic masculinity is alive and well in the U.S., where husbands’ stress increases if their wife earns more than 40 percent of the household income. New research from the University of Bath suggests …
Source: Joanna Syrda. Spousal Relative Income and Male Psychological Distress. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 2019.
Scientists Uncover New State of Matter in Superconductor
sci-news.com – An international team of physicists and materials scientists from the United States and China has discovered a new state of matter they’ve named ‘Cooper pair metal.’
Source: Chao Yang, et al. Intermediate bosonic metallic state in the superconductor-insulator transition. Science, 2019.
Natural Genetic Engineering Allowed Plants to Move from Water to Land
sci-news.com – Horizontal gene transfer from soil bacteria to algae allowed early life to move to land, according to new research.
Source: Shifeng Cheng, et al. Genomes of Subaerial Zygnematophyceae Provide Insights into Land Plant Evolution. Cell, 2019.
Something in the Man’s Bed Was Making Him Sick
nytimes.com – Doctors were stumped, until a pulmonologist asked about feather bedding in the man's home.
Source: Patrick Liu-Shiu-Cheong, Chris RuiWen Kuo, Struan WA Wilkie, Owen Dempsey. Feather duvet lung. BMJ Case Reports, 2019.
