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.
Inside the Race to Discover a Water Vapor World
livescience.com – The discovery of K2-18b is remarkable.
Source: Björn Benneke, et al. Water Vapor on the Habitable-Zone Exoplanet K2-18b. arXiv, 2019.
Here’s what happened in the impact crater the day it did in the dinos
arstechnica.com – Rock core allows researchers to create an incredible timeline.
Source: Sean P. S. Gulick, et al. The first day of the Cenozoic. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2019.
Huge, mysterious 'bubbles' discovered at the heart of the Milky Way
nbcnews.com – The radio-emitting bubbles are near our galaxy's supermassive black hole.
Source: I. Heywood, et al. Inflation of 430-parsec bipolar radio bubbles in the Galactic Centre by an energetic event. Nature, 2019.
Thermoelectric Device Generates Light from ‘Darkness of Space’
sci-news.com – A thermoelectric generator device developed by researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles and Stanford University harnesses the cold darkness of space without active heat input, generating electricity that powers LEDs at night.
Source: Aaswath P. Raman, Wei Li, Shanhui Fan. Generating Light from Darkness. Joule, 2019.
MIT engineers develop “blackest black” material to date
mit.edu – Made from carbon nanotubes, the new coating is 10 times darker than other very black materials.
Source: Kehang Cui, Brian L. Wardle. Breakdown of Native Oxide Enables Multifunctional, Free-Form Carbon Nanotube–Metal Hierarchical Architectures. ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 2019.
Ecologists Say Neonicotinoid Seed Treatments Give Birds Anorexia
science20.com – A team of ecologists exposed Zonotrichia leucophrys (white-crowned sparrows) to the seed treatment known as imidacloprid (in the class of insecticides known as neonicotinoids) and say the measured weight mass declined in just a few hours, which led to the birds delaying migration.
Source: Margaret L. Eng, Bridget J. M. Stutchbury, Christy A. Morrissey. A neonicotinoid insecticide reduces fueling and delays migration in songbirds. Science, 2019.
Two New Species of Electric Eels Discovered
sci-news.com – The electric eel (Electrophorus electricus) has long been assumed to be one species, but an international team of scientists has now discovered there are actually three separate ones.
Source: C. David de Santana, et al. Unexpected species diversity in electric eels with a description of the strongest living bioelectricity generator. Nature Communications, 2019.
Banging, Zooming, Ringing, and Raining
sciam.com – Explosions on Titan, cometary visitors, a black hole merger, and water in an exoplanetary atmosphere
Source: Valerio Poggiali, et al. High-Resolution Topography of Titan Adapting the Delay/Doppler Algorithm to the Cassini RADAR Altimeter Data. IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, 2019.
Drenchable Drones, Prickly Cells and Face-Tracked Chimps: Science GIFs to Start Your Week
sciam.com – Enjoy and loop on
Source: R. Zufferey, et al. Consecutive aquatic jump-gliding with water-reactive fuel. Science Robotics, 2019.
A Newly Identified Protein May Be the Key to Vanquishing the Common Cold
sciam.com – Inactivating this protein in human cells and mice provided immunity to a range of viruses, but an effective treatment is still a long way off
Source: Jonathan Diep, et al. Enterovirus pathogenesis requires the host methyltransferase SETD3. Nature Microbiology, 2019.
