Science X Newsletter-Week 14

"Huge star explosion to open in sky in once-in-a-lifetime event."

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Huge star explosion to appear in sky in once-in-a-lifetime event

Sometime between now and September, a massive explosion 3,000 light years from Earth will flare up in the night sky, giving amateur astronomers a once-in-a-lifetime chance to witness this space oddity.

A periodic table of primes: Research team claims that prime numbers can be predicted

Both arithmetic aficionados and the mathematically challenged will be equally captivated by new research that upends hundreds of years of popular belief about prime numbers.

A return to roots: Lab builds its first stellarator in 50 years and opens the door for research into new plasma physics

For the first time, scientists have built a fusion experiment using permanent magnets, a technique that could show a simple way to build future devices for less cost and allow researchers to test new concepts for future fusion power plants.

'Humbling, and a bit worrying': Researcher claims that models fail to fully explain record global heat

Deadly heat in the Southwest. Hot-tub temperatures in the Atlantic Ocean. Sweltering conditions in Europe, Asia and South America.

New research traces the fates of stars living near the Milky Way's central black hole

Despite their ancient ages, some stars orbiting the Milky Way's central supermassive black hole appear deceptively youthful. But unlike humans, who might appear rejuvenated from a fresh round of collagen injections, these stars look young for a much darker reason.

Autism and ADHD are linked to disturbed gut flora very early in life

Disturbed gut flora during the first years of life is associated with diagnoses such as autism and ADHD later in life. This is according to a study led by researchers at the University of Florida and Linköping University and published in the journal Cell.

A frozen chunk of genome rewrites our understanding of bird evolution

An enormous meteor spelled doom for most dinosaurs 65 million years ago. But not all. In the aftermath of the extinction event, birds—technically dinosaurs themselves—flourished.

Researchers say neutron stars are key to understanding elusive dark matter

Scientists may be one step closer to unlocking one of the great mysteries of the universe after calculating that neutron stars might hold a key to helping us understand elusive dark matter.

Dinosaur study challenges Bergmann's rule

When you throw dinosaurs into the mix, sometimes you find that a rule simply isn't.

NASA wants to come up with a new clock for the moon, where seconds tick away faster

NASA wants to come up with an out-of-this-world way to keep track of time, putting the moon on its own souped-up clock.

Far-UVC light can virtually eliminate airborne virus in an occupied room, study shows

Far-UVC light is a promising new technology for reducing airborne virus levels in occupied indoor spaces, but its effectiveness has not been evaluated in real-life scenarios.

Researchers use the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument to make the largest 3D map of our universe

With 5,000 tiny robots in a mountaintop telescope, researchers can look 11 billion years into the past. The light from far-flung objects in space is just now reaching the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI), enabling us to map our cosmos as it was in its youth and trace its growth to what we see today.

DESI first-year data delivers unprecedented measurements of expanding universe

Scientists have analyzed the first batch of data from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument's quest to map the universe and unravel the mysteries of dark energy.

New research uses coaxial 'dish' antenna to scan for dark matter

One of the great mysteries of modern science is dark matter. We know dark matter exists thanks to its effects on other objects in the cosmos, but we have never been able to directly see it. And it's no minor thing—currently, scientists think it makes up about 85% of all the mass in the universe.

Astronomers detect potential 'glory effect' on a hellish distant world for the first time

Potential signs of the rainbow-like "glory effect" have been detected on a planet outside our solar system. Glory are colorful concentric rings of light that occur only under peculiar conditions.

Chemical reactions can scramble quantum information as well as black holes

If you were to throw a message in a bottle into a black hole, all of the information in it, down to the quantum level, would become completely scrambled. Because in black holes this scrambling happens as quickly and thoroughly as quantum mechanics allows. They are generally considered nature's ultimate information scramblers.

Scientists discover speed of visual perception ranges widely in humans

Using a blink-and-you'll-miss-it experiment, researchers from Trinity College Dublin have discovered that individuals differ widely in the rate at which they perceive visual signals. Some people perceive a rapidly changing visual cue at frequencies that others cannot, which means some access more visual information per timeframe than others.

Hair from tiger thought to be extinct found by conservationist on Java

A team of environmentalists and zoologists affiliated with several institutions in Indonesia has confirmed that a tiger species once thought extinct is still living on the island of Java. In their study, published in the journal Oryx, the group conducted a DNA analysis of a hair found by a conservationist on a plantation on the island.

Prehistoric henge reveals centuries-old sacred site in Lincolnshire

Archaeologists from Newcastle University have unearthed evidence for an evolving sacred landscape spanning centuries in Crowland, Lincolnshire. The study is published in the Journal of Field Archaeology.

New sunflower family tree reveals multiple origins of flower symmetry

The sunflower family tree has revealed that flower symmetry evolved multiple times independently, a process called convergent evolution, among the members of this large plant family, according to a new analysis. The research team, led by a Penn State biologist, resolved more of the finer branches of the family tree, providing insight into how the sunflower family—which includes asters, daisies and food crops like lettuce and artichoke—evolved.