Friday 4 November 2016

Altered bacterial behavior in space may result from reduced extracellular transport

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Gene expression data suggest that bacteria experience reduced glucose uptake and increased extracellular acidity in E. coli in space.
via Science Daily
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Elon Musk Says SpaceX Rocket Launches Might Resume Next Month

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The chief executive of SpaceX outlined some details of what caused a rocket explosion in September.
via New York Times

If a ‘Big Whack’ Made the Moon, Did it Also Knock the Earth on Its Side?

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A new study suggests that it did. It also explains that the collision can explain the formation of the moon without a second event.
via New York Times

TEDxCERN creates ‘ripples of curiosity’

The fourth TEDxCERN will be simultaneously webcast around the world at 50 locations. (Image: TEDxCERN)

CERN hosts its fourth TEDxCERN event with the theme “Ripples of Curiosity.” TEDxCERN is an annual conference which features bold talks by trailblazers in science, technology and the humanities.

This year more than 50 locations are webcasting the conference live between 14:00 and 18:30 CET on Saturday 5 November 2016. Join the conference by attending one of these satellite events or…

watch the webcast.

You can also follow along on social media using the hashtag #TEDxCERN.

This edition of TEDxCERN is showcasing talks by 12 pioneers from physics, biology, engineering, computing, the humanities and the social sciences. These visionaries will share how their pursuits are shaping the ways we interact with each other, our bodies, and the world around us.

The first set of talks examines how new technology and techniques are enabling us to understand more about our environment and our place on this planet. The second session shifts the focus inwards and asks us to examine our own physical and mental identities. Both sessions feature cutting-edge research and new ideas by leaders in their fields.

For instance, physicist Laura Baudis will tell us why she is looking for dark matter deep underground. Dennis Lo will recount how inspiration struck while he was cooking noodles, leading to his revolutionary procedure for non-invasive prenatal testing, and Eleonore Paweuls will highlight the promise and perils of DNA editing, which involves replacing faulty genes to treat and cure diseases.

Other topics include global literacy, DIY science, drones, oceanography, health innovations and the origins of creativity. These short talks will be enriched by educational videos, and followed by a musical performance by the Agalma Foundation.


via CERN: Updates for the general public
http://home.cern/about/updates/2016/11/tedxcern-creates-ripples-curiosity

Portrait of NGC 281

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Look through the cosmic cloud cataloged as NGC 281 and you might miss the stars of open cluster IC 1590. Still, formed within the nebula that cluster's young, massive stars ultimately power the pervasive nebular glow. The eye-catching shapes looming in this portrait of NGC 281 are sculpted columns and dense dust globules seen in silhouette, eroded by intense, energetic winds and radiation from the hot cluster stars. If they survive long enough, the dusty structures could also be sites of future star formation. Playfully called the Pacman Nebula because of its overall shape, NGC 281 is about 10,000 light-years away in the constellation Cassiopeia. This sharp composite image was made through narrow-band filters, combining emission from the nebula's hydrogen, sulfur, and oxygen atoms in green, red, and blue hues. It spans over 80 light-years at the estimated distance of NGC 281.
Tomorrow's picture: fisheye flythrough
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ASACUSA improves measurement of antiproton mass

The ASACUSA experiment at CERN today reported new precision measurement of the mass of the antiproton relative to that of the electron. (Image: Sophia Bennett/ CERN)

In a paper published yesterday in the journal Science, the ASACUSA experiment at CERN reported new precision measurement of the mass of the antiproton relative to that of the electron. This result is based on spectroscopic measurements with about 2 billion antiprotonic helium atoms cooled to extremely cold temperatures of 1.5 to 1.7 degrees above absolute zero. In antiprotonic helium atoms an antiproton takes the place of one of the electrons that would normally be orbiting the nucleus. Such measurements provide a unique tool for comparing with high precision the mass of an antimatter particle with its matter counterpart. The two should be strictly identical.

"A pretty large number of atoms containing antiprotons were cooled below minus 271 degrees Celsius. It’s kind of surprising that a  ‘half-antimatter’ atom can be made so cold by simply placing it in a refrigerated gas of normal helium," said Masaki Hori, Spokesperson of the ASACUSA collaboration.

Matter and antimatter particles are always produced as a pair in particle collisions. Particles and antiparticles have the same mass and opposite electric charge. The positively charged positron, for example, is an anti-electron, the antiparticle of the negatively charged electron. Positrons have been observed since the 1930s, both in natural collisions from cosmic rays and in particle accelerators. They are used today in hospital in PET scanners. However, studying antimatter particles with high-precision remains a challenge because when matter and antimatter come into contact, they annihilate – disappearing in a flash of energy.

CERN’s Antiproton Decelerator is a unique facility delivering low-energy antiproton beams to experiments for antimatter studies. In order to make measurements with these antiprotons, several experiments trap them for long periods using magnetic devices. ASACUSA’s approach is different as the experiment is able to create very special hybrid atoms made of a mix of matter and antimatter: these are the antiprotonic helium atoms composed of an antiproton and an electron orbiting a helium nucleus. They are made by mixing antiprotons with helium gas. In this mixture, about 3% of the antiprotons replace one of the two electrons of the helium atom. In antiprotonic helium, the antiproton is in orbit around the helium nucleus, and protected by the electron cloud that surrounds the whole atom, making antiprotonic helium stable enough for precision measurements.

The measurement of the antiproton’s mass is done by spectroscopy, by shining a laser beam onto the antiprotonic helium. Tuning the laser to the right frequency causes the antiprotons to make a quantum jump within the atoms. From this frequency the antiproton mass relative to the electron mass can be calculated. This method has been successfully used before by the ASACUSA collaboration to measure with high accuracy the antiproton’s mass. However, the microscopic motion of the antiprotonic helium atoms introduced a significant source of uncertainty in previous measurements.

The major new achievement of the collaboration, as reported in Science, is that ASACUSA has now managed to cool down the antiprotonic helium atoms to temperatures close to absolute zero by suspending them in a very cold helium buffer-gas. In this way, the microscopic motion of the atoms is reduced, enhancing the precision of the frequency measurement. The measurement of the transition frequency has been improved by a factor of 1.4 to 10 compared with previous experiments. Experiments were conducted from 2010 to 2014, with about 2 billion atoms, corresponding to roughly 17 femtograms of antiprotonic helium.

According to standard theories, protons and antiprotons are expected to have exactly the same mass. To date, no difference has been found between their masses, but pushing the precision limits of this comparison is a very important test of key theoretical principles such as the CPT symmetry. CPT is a consequence of basic symmetries of space-time, such as its isotropy in all directions. The observation of even a minute breaking of CPT would call for a review of our assumptions about the nature and properties of space-time.

The ASACUSA collaboration is confident that it will be able to further improve the precision of antiproton’s mass by using two laser beams. In the near future, the start of the ELENA facility at CERN will also allow the precision of such measurements to be improved.


via CERN: Updates for the general public
http://home.cern/about/updates/2016/11/asacusa-improves-measurement-antiproton-mass

Adding hydrogen to graphene

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Adding hydrogen to graphene could improve its future applicability in the semiconductor industry, when silicon leaves off. Researchers have recently gained further insight into this chemical reaction. These findings extend the knowledge of the fundamental chemistry of graphene and bring scientists perhaps closer to realizing new graphene-based materials.
via Science Daily

Crack discovered in Earth's magnetic shield

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The GRAPES-3 muon telescope recorded a burst of galactic cosmic rays of about 20 GeV, on 22 June 2015 lasting for two hours. The burst occurred when a giant cloud of plasma ejected from the solar corona, and moving with a speed of about 2.5 million kilometers per hour struck our planet, causing a severe compression of Earth's magnetosphere from 11 to 4 times the radius of Earth. It triggered a severe geomagnetic storm that generated aurora borealis, and radio signal blackouts in many high latitude countries.
via Science Daily
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