Category: 7. Science

BERLIN   –   Stone Age humans living by a lake in what’s now Germany systematically processed animal carcasses for fatty nutrients — essentially running what scientists describe as a “fat factory” to boil bones on a vast scale, according to new research. Archaeologists uncovered the factory by analyzing some 120,000 bone fragments and 16,000 flint tools unearthed over several years at a site known as Neumark-Nord, south of the city of Halle, they reported in a study published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances. Excavators found the artifacts alongside evidence of fire use. The researchers believe that Neanderthals, an extinct species of human known to have lived in that area as far back as 125,000 years ago, smashed the marrow-rich bones into fragments with stone hammers, then boiled them for several hours to extract the fat, which floats to the surface and can be skimmed off upon cooling. Since this feat would have involved planning hunts, transporting and storing carcasses beyond immediate food needs, and rendering the fat in an area designated specially for the task, the finding helps paint a picture of the group’s organization, strategy and deeply honed survival skills. “This attitude that Neanderthals were dumb — this is another data point that proves otherwise,” said Wil Roebroeks, study coauthor and professor of Paleolithic archaeology at Leiden University in the Netherlands. A string of archaeological discoveries in recent decades have showed that Neanderthals were smarter than their original brutish stereotype might suggest. The ancient humans lived across Eurasia and disappeared 40,000 years ago, and previous studies have found they made yarn and glue, engraved bones and cave walls, and assembled jewelry from eagle talons. Details in the new research suggest that Neanderthals may have been unexpectedly sophisticated in their approach to nutrition, too.

The Neanderthals living at the German site over a 300-year period also clearly understood the nutritional value of the bone grease they produced, according to the study. A small amount of fat is an essential part of a healthy, balanced diet. The substance was even more essential for hunter-gatherers, such as Neanderthals, who likely depended heavily on animal foods. A diet dominated by lean meat and deficient in fatty acids can lead to a debilitating and sometimes lethal form of malnutrition, in which the capacity of liver enzymes to break down the protein and get rid of excess nitrogen is impaired, the researchers noted in their paper. Known today as protein poisoning, the condition earned a reputation among early European explorers of North America as “rabbit poisoning” or “mal de caribou.”

Fruits and vegetables are often sprayed with fungicides to keep mold at bay. However, new research suggests one of these chemicals could be quietly harming insects that are critical to healthy ecosystems and could lead to an insect apocalypse.

According to a study from Macquarie University, one of the world’s most widely used fungicides, chlorothalonil, drastically reduces insect fertility. It does so even at the lowest levels commonly found on produce.

During testing and research, scientists exposed fruit flies to real-world doses of the chemical and found that their egg production dropped by over a third. The effect wasn’t something that happened slowly over time, either. Instead, it was immediate and significant, the statement says, affecting both male and female fertility. And this isn’t an effect like when researchers got fruit flies hooked on cocaine, either. This is actually life threatening for the population.

And while that might sound useful, especially considering how annoying fruit flies can be when they settle down a plant in your home, it’s a big deal for more than just flies. Insects like bees, flies, and other pollinators are crucial for growing the food we eat. If their populations decline, it could disrupt pollination and harm crops in the long run. This study is just the latest in a growing list of research documenting steep drops in insect populations around the world, which some scientists have heralded as an impending insect apocalypse.

What’s especially concerning is that this fungicide isn’t just used when there’s a risk of infection. It’s often applied preventatively, when no disease is present in the crops. While it’s true that chlorothalonil is banned in the European Union, it remains widely used in places like Australia, where it’s applied to everything from vineyards to farms that harvest berries.

Despite its popularity, chlorothalonil hasn’t been studied under the microscope all that much. Fewer than 25 published studies have explored its impact on insects, so this new study could be a massive piece of a case against the future usage of this chemical. This also points to a major gap in how we evaluate the environmental effects of common pesticides we rely on.

The researchers behind the study suggest rethinking how often chlorothalonil is applied. By spacing out treatments, farmers could give insect populations time to recover between sprays. While not the best outcome by any means, it would at least mitigate some of the damage we’re doing to the insect populations, though how long it will take for them to recover between sprays would need to be determined, too.

For the first time, an international team of scientists has experimentally simulated spontaneous symmetry breaking (SSB) at zero temperature using a superconducting quantum processor. This achievement, which was accomplished with over 80% fidelity, represents a milestone for quantum computing and condensed matter physics.

The system began in a classical antiferromagnetic state, in which particles have spins that alternate between one direction and the opposite direction. It then evolved into a ferromagnetic quantum state, in which all particles have spins that point in the same direction and establish quantum correlations.

“The system began with a flip-flop configuration of alternating spins and evolved spontaneously, reconfiguring itself with spins aligned in the same direction. This phase transition is due to symmetry breaking,” summarizes Alan Santos, a physicist currently researching at the Institute of Fundamental Physics of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and co-organizer of the theoretical team involved in the study. At the time the work was developed, Santos was a FAPESP postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Physics of the Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar) in the state of São Paulo, Brazil.

The research was conducted by scientists from the Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen, China; Aarhus University in Aarhus, Denmark; and UFSCar. The results were published in the journal Nature Communications.

“The crucial point was simulating dynamics at zero temperature. There had already been previous studies on this type of transition, but always at temperatures other than zero. What we showed was that, by setting the temperature to zero, it’s possible to observe symmetry breaking even in local particle interactions, between first neighbors,” says Santos.

It is worth remembering that absolute zero cannot be physically achieved because it is equivalent to the total immobility of a material system. The researchers simulated what would happen to the system at zero temperature through quantum computing. The experiment used a quantum circuit of seven qubits arranged in a configuration that allows interactions only between immediate neighbors. They applied an algorithm to simulate adiabatic evolution at zero temperature. “We designed the circuit, and the experimenters in China implemented it physically,” says Santos.

The phase transition was identified using correlation functions and Rényi entropy, which revealed the formation of ordered patterns and quantum entanglement. Entanglement is one of the most important and distinctive properties of quantum mechanics. It refers to a situation in which two sets of particles are correlated such that the state of one particle instantly determines the state of another, even if they are separated by large distances. Introduced by Hungarian mathematician Alfréd Rényi (1921-1970) in the 1960s, Rényi entropy is used to quantify the degree of entanglement and its distribution among parts of a quantum system. It allows us to measure the degree to which the subsystems are entangled.

Santos points out that entanglement and superposition are two central features of quantum computing: “Superposition allows a system to exist in multiple states simultaneously, called quantum parallelism. Entanglement is a type of correlation that cannot be reproduced on classical computers. To give you an intuitive idea, imagine you have a bunch of keys and need to find out which one opens the lock. A classical computer tests the keys one by one. A quantum computer, on the other hand, can test several of them at the same time, which speeds up processing,” compares Santos.

In practical terms, the difference between a classical computer and a quantum computer comes down to performance. Both can solve the same mathematically formulable problems in theory. The question is how long it takes them to do so. Some calculations, such as factoring huge numbers into two prime numbers, would take classical computers millions of years but can be performed much faster on quantum computers.

It would be counterintuitive to use a classical computer to simulate quantum systems. Sometimes it is an impossible task. The study in question showed that it is possible to use quantum computing resources for such simulations. The experiment was conducted at the Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen. Shenzhen is currently one of the most advanced scientific, technological, and industrial hubs on the planet. Selected in 1980 as China’s first “special economic zone,” the city has evolved from a fishing village of about 30,000 people into a metropolis of over 17 million. It is home to giant companies that lead the global market.

The implementation used superconducting qubits based on aluminum and niobium alloys that operate at temperatures around one millikelvin. “The advantage of superconducting qubits is their scalability. It’s technically possible to build chips with hundreds of them,” says Santos.

The concept of symmetry breaking is present in all areas of physics. All of physics is structured around symmetries and their breaking. “Symmetry gives us the laws of conservation. Symmetry breaking allows complex structures to emerge,” summarizes Santos.

Impact craters exist on every continent on Earth. While many have eroded away or been buried by geologic activity, some remain visible from the ground and from above. This week, we revisit stories featuring some of our most captivating satellite images of impact sites around the planet. The images and text on this page were excerpted from content originally published on April 22, 2024.

In the Kutch district of northwest India, a vast desert where salt is harvested in colorful rectangular ponds stretches to the Arabian Sea. In a neighboring grassland, a less conspicuous circular feature has attracted curiosity in recent decades. Scientists in India had suspected, but not confirmed, that an object from outer space made this mark on the landscape. Now, a geochemical analysis of the structure has revealed it contains the characteristic signatures of a meteorite impact.

Impact craters on our planet are a relative rarity; fewer than 200 structures from around the world are confirmed in the Earth Impact Database. The number of craters is so modest in part because many of the meteorites that survive the trip through Earth’s atmosphere ultimately splash down into water. Of the meteorites that do fall on land, evidence of their impact may be erased by forces such as wind, water, and plate tectonics.

The footprint of the newly studied Luna impact crater—named for its proximity to a village of the same name—is visible in this image, acquired by the OLI (Operational Land Imager) on the Landsat 8 satellite on February 24, 2024. The crater measures approximately 1.8 kilometers (1.1 miles) across, and its outer rim rises about 6 meters (20 feet) above the crater floor.

The Luna structure is situated in India’s Gujarat state in a grassland called the Banni Plains. The Great Rann of Kutch, an expansive white salt desert, lies just to the north. Parts of these low-lying areas are submerged for much of the year, and the Luna crater often contains water. Researchers took advantage of a dry period in May 2022 to collect samples from throughout the structure.

In the rocks and sediments, scientists detected several minerals that are uncommon in natural settings on Earth. These rare minerals form under the extremely high temperatures and pressures generated when a meteorite hits the ground. The researchers also measured anomalously high concentrations of the rare element iridium, consistent with findings at other impact craters.

Based on the radiocarbon dating of plant remnants contained in silt at the site, the team determined the impact occurred about 6,900 years ago. The crater is near the remains of an ancient Harappan settlement, but it is uncertain whether the impact predates the arrival of humans.

NASA Earth Observatory image by Michala Garrison, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey. Story by Lindsey Doermann.

3I/ATLAS is only the third object of its kind ever observed, following the interstellar asteroid 1I/ʻOumuamua in 2017 and the interstellar comet 2I/Borisov in 2019.

3I/ATLAS is currently around 670 million km (420 million miles) from the Sun and will make its closest approach in October 2025, passing just inside the orbit of Mars.

It is thought to be up to 20 km (12 miles) in diameter and is traveling roughly 60 km per second (37 miles per second) relative to the Sun.

It poses no danger to Earth, coming no closer than 240 million km (150 million miles) — over 1.5 times the distance between Earth and the Sun.

3I/ATLAS is an active comet; if it heats up sufficiently as it nears the Sun, it could begin to sublimate — a process in which frozen gases transform directly into vapor, carrying dust and ice particles into space to form a glowing coma and tail.

However, by the time the comet reaches its closest point to Earth, it will be hidden behind the Sun. It is expected to reappear by early December 2025, offering astronomers another window for study.

“Spotting a possible interstellar object is incredibly rare, and it’s exciting that our Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) telescope caught it,” said Professor John Tonry, an astronomer at the University of Hawai’i.

“These interstellar visitors provide an extremely interesting glimpse of things from solar systems other than our own.”

“Quite a few come through our inner Solar System each year, although 3I/ATLAS is by far the biggest to date.”

“The chances of one actually hitting the Earth are infinitesimal, less than 1 in 10 million each year, but ATLAS is continually searching the sky for any object that might pose a problem.”

Astronomers are using telescopes in Hawai’i, Chile, and other countries to monitor the comet’s progress.

They are interested in learning more about this interstellar visitor’s composition and behavior.

“What makes interstellar objects like 3I/ATLAS so extraordinary is their absolutely foreign nature,” ESA astronomers said in a statement.

“While every planet, moon, asteroid, comet and lifeform that formed in our Solar System shares a common origin, a common heritage, interstellar visitors are true outsiders.”

“They are remnants of other planetary systems, carrying with them clues about the formation of worlds far beyond our own.”

“It may be thousands of years until humans visit a planet in another solar system and interstellar comets offer the tantalizing opportunity for us to touch something truly otherworldly.”

“These icy wanderers offer a rare, tangible connection to the broader galaxy — to materials formed in environments entirely unlike our own.”

“To visit one would be to connect humankind with the Universe on a far greater scale.”

IN A NUTSHELL

🚀 Scientists are developing two experimental propulsion methods—nuclear fusion and solar sails—to reach Sedna. 🌌 Sedna, named after the Inuit goddess of the ocean, offers a rare chance to explore the outer solar system. 🔬 Exploring Sedna could unlock insights into the early solar system and the formation of celestial bodies. 🌍 The mission presents engineering challenges but holds immense potential for future space exploration.

As humanity looks to the stars, the dwarf planet Sedna presents an intriguing challenge for scientists and adventurers alike. Located billions of miles from the Sun, Sedna offers a rare opportunity to explore the outer reaches of our solar system. With its next closest approach to the Sun set for 2076, researchers are keen to capitalize on this chance to gather invaluable data about the early solar system. Recently, a team of scientists has proposed utilizing nuclear propulsion and solar sails to reach Sedna in a mere seven years, a feat that could revolutionize space exploration.

Flying to Sedna with Two Experimental Spacecraft Concepts

Back in 2003, astronomers made a groundbreaking discovery when they identified Sedna, a distant object orbiting the Sun far beyond Pluto. Named after the Inuit goddess of the ocean, Sedna provided a tantalizing glimpse into the mysteries of the outer solar system. With a staggering orbital period of 10,000 years, it travels billions of miles from the Sun. However, its upcoming perihelion in 2076 offers a window of opportunity for exploration.

In a recent paper published on arXiv, a team of researchers from Italy outlined two pioneering propulsion concepts that could significantly cut travel time to Sedna. The first involves a nuclear fusion rocket engine, while the second explores the potential of a solar sail. These innovative technologies promise to reduce the journey to Sedna by more than 50%, making it feasible to reach the dwarf planet in just seven to ten years. At its closest approach, Sedna will be within 7 billion miles of the Sun, a distance that might be surmountable with these advanced spacecraft.

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Nuclear Propulsion and Solar Sailing

The first of the proposed technologies is the Direct Fusion Drive (DFD) rocket engine, currently under development at Princeton University’s Plasma Physics Laboratory. This engine aims to generate both thrust and electrical power through controlled nuclear fusion reactions. The DFD presents a promising alternative to conventional propulsion methods, offering a high thrust-to-weight ratio and continuous acceleration. However, several engineering challenges remain, such as plasma stability and heat dissipation, which need to be addressed before it can be deployed in deep-space missions.

On the other hand, the concept of solar sailing utilizes the Sun’s energy to propel a lightweight spacecraft at high speeds. This method gained traction with the successful mission of LightSail 2 by The Planetary Society in 2019. In this approach, a large sail captures photons from the Sun, providing thrust without the need for heavy fuel. The Italian researchers propose enhancing this concept by coating the sails with a material that releases molecules when heated, further increasing propulsion through thermal desorption. This could enable a solar sail mission to reach Sedna in just seven years, although it would be limited to a flyby.

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The Strategic Importance of Sedna Exploration

Exploring Sedna is not just about reaching a distant celestial body; it holds strategic significance in understanding the early solar system. By studying Sedna, scientists hope to uncover clues about the formation and evolution of our solar neighborhood. Sedna’s remote and icy environment may contain preserved materials from the solar system’s infancy, offering insights into the building blocks of planets and other celestial bodies. Such knowledge could reshape our understanding of planetary science and the processes that govern the cosmos.

Moreover, the technological advancements required for a mission to Sedna could have far-reaching implications for future space exploration. The development of nuclear propulsion and solar sailing technologies could pave the way for more ambitious missions to even more distant objects, potentially leading to human exploration beyond the current boundaries of our solar system. As we push the frontiers of space travel, Sedna stands as a gateway to the unknown, beckoning us to venture further into the universe.

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The Challenges and Opportunities Ahead

While the prospect of reaching Sedna in seven years is exciting, it is not without its challenges. Developing and testing the necessary technologies will require significant time, resources, and international collaboration. Overcoming the engineering hurdles associated with nuclear propulsion and solar sails is critical to the success of the mission. Additionally, the mission will need to navigate the logistical complexities of deep-space travel, including communication, navigation, and power generation.

Despite these challenges, the potential rewards of a successful mission to Sedna are immense. By pushing the limits of current space technology, we can open new avenues for exploration and scientific discovery. The pursuit of Sedna is a testament to human ingenuity and our relentless quest for knowledge. As we stand on the brink of this new frontier, one question remains: what other secrets does the universe hold, waiting to be uncovered by our pioneering spirit?

Our author used artificial intelligence to enhance this article.

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