Science

One ongoing mystery on Mars is the sporadic detection of atmospheric methane. Since 1999 detections have been made by Earth-based observatories, orbital missions, and on the surface by the Curiosity Rover. However, other missions and observatories have not detected methane at all, and even when detected, the abundances appear to fluctuate seasonally or even daily.

So, where does this intermittent methane come from? A group of scientists have proposed an interesting theory: the methane is being sucked out of the ground by changes in pressure in the Martian atmosphere. The researchers simulated how methane moves underground on Mars through networks of underground fractures and found that seasonal changes can force the methane onto the surface for a short time.

In their paper, published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, the scientists say their simulations predict short-lived methane pulses prior to sunrise for Mars’ upcoming northern summer period, which is a candidate time frame for Curiosity’s next atmospheric sampling campaign.

“Our work suggests several key time windows for Curiosity to collect data,” said John Ortiz, a graduate student at Los Alamos National Laboratory who led the research team. “We think these offer the best chance of constraining the timing of methane fluctuations, and (hopefully) down the line bringing us closer to understanding where it comes from on Mars.”

The presence of methane (CH4) in the Martian atmosphere is of great interest to planetary scientists and exobiologists because it could indicate present or past microbial life. Or, it could also be related to nonbiological processes, such as volcanism or hydrothermal activity.

The problem with detecting methane is that it doesn’t last long. Once released into the atmosphere, it can be quickly destroyed by natural atmospheric processes. Therefore, any methane detected in Mars’ atmosphere means it must have been released recently, which only adds to the intrigue.

On Earth, most methane is produced by living creatures such as microorganisms in sedimentary strata, or in the guts of ruminants (cows, sheep, deer, etc.). For methane produced through abiotic or non-living processes, there is a high likelihood it could have been produced millions or even billions of years ago, lying trapped in underground rock formations.

But still, finding methane on Mars is a big deal because of the potential for biological sources, such as methanogenic microbes.

This graphic is the result of an analysis that gives a percentage chance of the methane originating in each grid square centered on Gale Crater. Image Credit: Giuranna et al. (2019)

In 2004, the Mars Express Orbiter (MEO) detected methane in the Martian atmosphere. In 2013 and 2014 Curiosity detected spikes in methane in the atmosphere at Gale Crater. Interestingly, MEO detected a methane spike again, at the same location that Curiosity did, only one day later.

Ortiz and his team wanted to better understand Mars’ methane levels, and used high-performance computing clusters to simulate how methane travels through networks of underground fractures, and then released into the atmosphere when driven by atmospheric pressure fluctuations. They also modeled how methane is adsorbed onto the pores of rocks, which is a temperature-dependent process that may contribute to the methane level fluctuations.

The team said their simulations predicted methane pulses from the ground surface into the atmosphere just before the Martian sunrise in the planet’s northern summer season, which just recently ended. This corroborates previous rover data suggesting that methane levels fluctuated not only seasonally, but also daily. With these insights, the Curiosity rover team can figure out when and where to look for methane, which could aid in the rover’s main goal, searching for signs of life.

“Understanding Mars’ methane variations has been highlighted by NASA’s Curiosity team as the next key step towards figuring out where it comes from,” Ortiz said. “There are several challenges associated with meeting that goal, and a big one is knowing what time of a given sol (Martian day) is best for Curiosity to perform an atmospheric sampling experiment.”

Paper: “Sub-diurnal methane variations on Mars driven by barometric pumping and planetary boundary layer evolution.” Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets. DOI: 10.1029/2023JE008043
LANL press release

The post Atmosphere Pressure Changes Could Explain Mars Methane appeared first on Universe Today.

Astronomers have used the James Webb Space Telescope to take astonishingly detailed images of spiral galaxies, revealing how and where they spark star formation

Exoplanet K2-18b is garnering a lot of attention. James Webb Space Telescope spectroscopy shows it has carbon and methane in its atmosphere. Those results, along with other observations, suggest the planet could be a long-hypothesized ‘Hycean World.’ But new research counters that.

Instead, the planet could be a gaseous mini-Neptune.

K2-18b is in the habitable zone of a red dwarf star about 134 light-years away. It’s about 2.6 Earth radii and about 8.6 Earth masses. Its orbital period is only 33 days, so it’s close to its star. But since the star is a dim red dwarf, K2-18b receives about the same amount of energy from its star as Earth does from the Sun.

Scientists are still puzzling over the planet’s density and composition. Its density is in between the densities of Earth and Neptune. Since it’s not predominantly rock like Earth or all gas like Neptune, that led to speculation that it’s a hycean (ocean) world. The only way scientists can determine what K2-18b is made of is to discover what’s in its atmosphere.

That’s what the JWST did, and its observations found a number of chemicals, including CO2 and methane. It also found a lack of ammonia.

Earlier this month, scientists presented some research (Shorttle et al. 2024) based on the JWST’s findings. By working with climate atmosphere models, those researchers concluded that K2-18b is most likely a magma ocean world. “The magma ocean model reproduces the present JWST spectrum of K2-18b,” they wrote, “… suggesting this is as credible an explanation for current observations as the planet hosting a liquid water ocean.”

But another group of researchers don’t agree with that. Those researchers don’t think the planet is a hycean world or a lava world. They’ve presented a paper titled “JWST observations of K2-18b can be explained by a gas-rich mini-Neptune with no habitable surface.” The lead author is Nicholas Wogan, a post-doctoral researcher in the Space Science Division at NASA’s Ames Research Center. Wogan studies the early Earth, as well as exoplanets and astrobiology.

The JWST found methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2) in K2-18b’s atmosphere, and it also detected no ammonia. Those results generally indicate a hycean world with a thick Hydrogen/Helium atmosphere. But Shorttle et al.’s analysis showed otherwise, saying that the results could also show a planet with a magma world.

The new paper from Wogan et al. comes to a different conclusion. “… we favour the mini-Neptune interpretation because of its relative simplicity and because it does not need a biosphere or other unknown source of methane to explain the data,” they write.

In their work, the researchers used photochemical and climate models to simulate different versions of K2-18b, including hycean worlds and a gas-rich mini-Neptune with no defined surface. Their work shows that the gas-rich mini-Neptune model fits the data best.

There’s an extraordinary amount of complexity in planetary atmospheres, and figuring out what’s going on from such a great distance is an enormous task. Not only do scientists need to know what chemicals are present (thanks, JWST), but they need to understand all the processes taking place. The temperature and pressure in an atmosphere play huge roles in what we can see and in what may remain hidden.

One aspect of K2-18b’s atmosphere is supercriticality. A supercritical fluid is one that’s above its critical point in temperature and pressure. Above this critical point, neither gas nor liquid phases exist. But the pressure isn’t high enough to force the material into a solid. Jupiter and Saturn have supercritical fluids deep in their atmosphere, and they behave very differently than liquids or gases. That adds another layer of complexity.

Researchers have climate models that embody the complexity as best they can, and the researchers compared the JWST’s findings to three modelled exoplanets: an uninhabitable hycean world, a habitable hycean world, and a gaseous mini-Neptune with no surface.

This figure from the research helps explain the findings. Each panel is a separate model compared to the JWST’s NIRSpec and Single Object Slitless Spectroscopy observations. JWST data rules out the lifeless hycean world model because it doesn’t have enough methane. The inhabited hycean model and the mini-Neptune model fit the JWST data better, but invoking a biotic source for the planet’s methane is too much of a reach for the authors. Instead, they’ve settled on the mini-Neptune model as the best fit. Image Credit: Wogan et al. 2024.

“Given the additional obstacles to maintaining a stable temperate climate on Hycean worlds due to H2 escape and potential supercriticality at depth, we favour the mini-Neptune interpretation because of its relative simplicity and because it does not need a biosphere or other unknown source of methane to explain the data,” the authors write.

The authors point out that for a hycean world to maintain its 1% atmospheric methane, there would need to be a biogenic source or some other unknown source. They also write that if K2-18b is a hycean world, it would be very difficult for it to avoid the runaway greenhouse effect and maintain a stable temperature. The authors discard the hycean hypothesis because it is full of challenges. According to them, a gaseous mini-Neptune scenario fits the data and models better.

They point to the planet’s deep atmosphere to explain the JWST’s findings. “Deep-atmosphere thermochemical quenching” can explain the methane and carbon dioxide that JWST found, and deep atmosphere kinetics like upwelling can explain the lack of ammonia and carbon monoxide.

This won’t be the last word on K2-18b. The data will be subjected to further analysis. As the effort to understand it continues, the results will also strengthen our existing atmospheric and climate models. One day in the future, scientists will know how to differentiate exoplanets.

But for now, they’re still figuring it out.

The post Another Explanation for K2-18b? A Gas-Rich Mini-Neptune with No Habitable Surface appeared first on Universe Today.

Black holes are powerful gravitational engines. So you might imagine that there must be a way to extract energy from them given the chance, and you’d be right. Certainly, we could tap into all the heat and kinetic energy of a black hole’s accretion disk and jets, but even if all you had was a black hole in empty space, you could still extract energy from a trick known as the Penrose process.

First proposed by Roger Penrose in 1971, it is a way to extract rotational energy from a black hole. It uses an effect known as frame dragging, where a rotating body twists nearby space in such a way that an object falling toward the body is dragged slightly along the path of rotation. We’ve observed the effect near Earth, though it is tiny. Near a rotating black hole, the effect can be huge. So strong that within a region known as the ergosphere objects can be dragged around the black hole at speeds greater than light in free space.

Trajectories of bodies in a Penrose process. Credit: Aleksandr Berdnikov, CC BY-SA 4.0

Roughly, the Penrose process is to fly into the ergosphere of a swiftly spinning black hole, and then release a bit of mass or radiation into the black hole. The resulting rotational kick sends you away from the black hole faster than you approached it. The extra energy you get is balanced by slowing down the black hole’s rotation. This process can in theory extract up to 20% of the black hole’s mass energy, which is huge. In comparison, fusing hydrogen into helium only yields about 1% of the mass energy.

Of course, theoretical physicists are never satisfied. If you can extract 20% of the mass energy from a black hole, why not more? This is the focus of a recent paper, though it should be noted that it focuses on a more abstract idea of a black hole than we see in the Universe.

Simple black holes can be characterized by three things: mass, rotation, and electric charge. The black holes we observe have the first two, but since matter is electrically neutral, not the third. This paper focuses on charged black holes. Our Universe is also expanding and can be roughly described by a solution to Einstein’s equations known as de Sitter space. It describes an empty universe with a positive cosmological constant. Anti-de Sitter space (AdS) would be a universe with a negative cosmological constant. Although AdS doesn’t describe our Universe, it allows for a few mathematical tricks theorists love, so it is often used to explore the limits of general relativity. This paper specifically looks at a charged black hole in anti-de Sitter space.

A visualization of anti-de Sitter space. Credit: Alex Dunkel

Although this study is entirely hypothetical, it’s interesting as a “what-if” scenario. Rather than extracting energy from a black hole’s rotation, the authors look at how to extract energy through particle decay using the Bañados-Silk-West (BSW) effect. Using some kind of electromagnetic or physical confinement mirrors, particles can be reflected back and forth near the event horizon, gaining energy from the black hole until they decay as usable energy. The problem with this idea, as the authors show, is that this can lead to a runaway effect where particle energy amplifies particle energy in a feedback look, leading to what’s known as a black hole bomb. So if you find yourself building a power plant near a charged black hole in an anti-de Sitter universe, tread carefully.

But more interesting is that the authors also looked at the case of a charged black hole in an otherwise empty anti-de Sitter universe. In this case, energy would also be extracted from the black hole. Instead of mirrors, the structure of spacetime itself would act as a kind of confinement chamber. So the charged black hole would release energy on its own. It would be similar to Hawking radiation, but in this case, it doesn’t rely upon quantum gravity. The authors also found that this case doesn’t lead to a black hole bomb.

As mentioned earlier, none of this applies to real black holes in our Universe. As far as we know, the Penrose process is the best we could really do. But studies like this are useful because of what they reveal about the fundamental nature of space and time. And now we know that even in a strange anti-universe we can only imagine, black holes can release energy over time.

Reference: Penrose, Roger, and R. M. Floyd. “Extraction of rotational energy from a black hole.” Nature Physical Science 229.6 (1971): 177-179.

Reference: Feiteira, Duarte, José PS Lemos, and Oleg B. Zaslavskii. “Penrose process in Reissner-Nordström-AdS black hole spacetimes: Black hole energy factories and black hole bombs.” arXiv preprint arXiv:2401.13039 (2024).

Reference: De Sitter, Willem. “On the relativity of inertia. Remarks concerning Einstein’s latest hypothesis.” Proc. Kon. Ned. Acad. Wet 19.2 (1917): 1217-1225.

The post It's a Fine Line Between a Black Hole Energy Factory and a Black Hole Bomb appeared first on Universe Today.

Going to Mars is a major step in space exploration. It’s not a quick jaunt nor will it be easy to accomplish. The trip is already in the planning stages, and there’s a good chance it’ll happen in the next decade or so. That’s why NASA and other agencies have detailed mission scenarios in place, starting with trips to the Moon. Recently, NASA updated its “Moon to Mars Architecture” documents, including a closer look at some key decisions about Mars exploration.

Those decisions cover a wide gamut of challenges to living and working on the Red Planet. NASA planners narrowed them down to these key areas: science priorities, number of crew members on the first trip, how many on each follow-up trip, number of crew members per Mars location, Mars surface power generation technologies, what kinds of missions will be sent (the “target state”), and establishing what they call a “loss of crew risk” posture. That last one involves making the right decisions about missions based on risk to the crew’s health and performance.

NASA Plans for the Moon and Mars

Why create a mission architecture for the Moon and Mars? Essentially, anybody going to these other worlds needs a mutually agreed-upon “roadmap” that plans the explorations and technologies needed. That’s why NASA created its first Moon to Mars objectives in 2022 and has been refining them ever since. The agency’s roadmap includes feedback from a wide swath of society. Members of academia, U.S. industry, international partners, and the NASA workforce all contributed to the project.

“Our new documents reflect the progress we’ve made to define a clear approach to exploration and lay out how we’ll incorporate new elements as technologies and capabilities in the U.S. and abroad mature,” said Catherine Koerner, associate administrator, Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “This process is ensuring that everything we are doing as an agency and together with our partners is focused on achieving our overarching exploration goals for the benefit of all.”

The Key Decisions Regarding Mars Exploration

In a white paper published along with the Moon to Mars Architecture document, NASA explains key areas of concern when it comes specifically to Mars exploration. The first is science. It’s the main reason for going the both the Moon and Mars, and its needs will drive almost all other considerations. It will determine the resources needed, including crew numbers, payloads, technology deliveries, and power and communications infrastructure, and contingencies for possible accidents or other challenges.

An artist’s concept of Mars explorers and their habitat on the Red Planet. Courtesy NASA.

Once the science is determined, planners can decide on crew needs for the first and subsequent missions. As the white paper states, “…a series of focused science exploration missions to different landing sites would favor one architecture. Establishing a permanent, fixed base from which astronauts could conduct many surface missions supporting diverse and evolving exploration activities would favor a very different architecture.”

From there, planners will figure out the “cadence” of the missions and crew deployments. How often do we send missions and how many people will go? Just as an example, let’s say that the first mission will land in Jezero Crater, near the Perseverance rover. NASA could use its data to determine further science exploration at the site. That will drive the best placement for habitats and other infrastructure, and the type of mission will dictate the number of crew members needed.

Those decisions will then drive the infrastructure and technology needed for each step. Science stations need power to do the science, but also to sustain the habitats for the science teams. If those teams travel across the surface, their rovers will need power, fuel, and possibly replacement parts. Crew members themselves will need to be able to grow food, use local resources to extract fuel and water, and otherwise maintain safe living conditions. And, these are just the first steps in the long-term exploration of Mars, enabled by what people learn about living and working on the Moon.

Why Does NASA Want a Moon to Mars Plan?

While it may seem sexy to send people directly to Mars without any intervening stops at the Moon, NASA and other agencies want a measured approach. The idea to use the Moon as a stepping stone to Mars is not new. The Moon makes a good “training base” of sorts where we can “practice” with the technologies and techniques of living on another world. In addition, it offers a unique environment for astronomy and planetary science exploration. Astronauts learn in an environment close to Earth and if something dire happens to them, rescue is not far away.

Artist’s impression of astronauts on the lunar surface, as part of the Artemis Program. Credit: NASA

These ideas underlie the planning for the upcoming Artemis missions to the lunar surface. There’s supposed to be a gateway orbiting the Moon, to which astronauts and equipment will fly. Then, from there, materials and people head to the Moon to explore various sites, and begin the complex tasks of exploration and habitat construction. That set of missions will establish the foundation for scientific exploration, and land a diverse set of people on the lunar surface, all in cooperation with international partners. Ultimately, everything they learn on the Moon will prepare people for the leap to Mars.

The Moon to Mars mission architectural plans unite both lunar and Mars exploration in one timeline, identifying technologies and capabilities needed to accomplish each step. They are living documents, updated every year to reflect changes in any aspect of mission planning and technology.

For More Information

NASA Shares Newest Results of Moon to Mars Architecture Concept Review
Moon to Mars Architecture
Key Mars Architecture Decisions (PDF)

The post NASA Gives us an Update on its Long-term Plans for the Moon and Mars appeared first on Universe Today.

A previously unknown type of replicating agent named "obelisks” has been found in genomic data from stool samples – but we know little about what these entities do

Meanwhile, the fun continues in New Zealand, as this article from Te Ao, which conveys Māori news, attests.  In fact, there’s a video, so you can see the whole episode, as well as a transcript of the video.

Here’s what happened: A local district council met and one of the participants wanted to recite a Māori prayer—a karakia— to open the meeting. Here’s how Wikipedia characterizes the term:

Karakia are Māori incantations and prayer used to invoke spiritual guidance and protection.  They are generally used to increase the spiritual goodwill of a gathering, so as to increase the likelihood of a favourable outcome, such as at a court hearing. They are also considered a formal greeting when beginning a ceremony.

The new mayor said “no”, saying was running a “secular council” that “respects everyone”. The Māori prayer woman kept insisting on reciting the prayer and the mayor kept saying “no”. As you’ll see in the video below, some minutes later she finally flouted the mayor and burst out reciting her prayer in Māori, while other council members chimed in or gave an “amen”. Here’s the text:

Conflict has erupted at a council meeting over a mayor’s decision to shutdown a wahine Māori councillor wishing to recite karakia, before the opening of business.

Kaipara District Council met for the first time Wednesday, under new Mayor Craig Jepson, elected at October’s local elections.

As is customary in councils and at the opening of parliament, Māori Ward councillor Pera Paniora, of Te Moanaui o Kaipara, wanted to begin the meeting with a karakia.

“Excuse me, just before we start, through the chair may I say the karakia?” Paniora said.

Jepson charged on saying ‘you cannot interrupt, sorry’.

Paniora stated her case explaining the tikanga of karakia, which appeared to trigger Jepson.

“This is a council that’s full of people who are non-religious, religious, of different ethnicities and I intend to run a secular council here which respects everybody and I will not be veering from that. Thank you.” he rebuked.

“I don’t agree with that.” Paniora said.

“You cannot interject,” Jepson struck back.

Paniora tried a final time by saying ‘Excuse me for those who do practice…’ but was ultimately shut down.

“Councillor Paniora, you are not allowed to speak in this manner and we will continue with our meeting.” Jepson said.

“It doesn’t really feel like a meeting,” a third councillor interjected.

Paniora appeared to give up, however in a throw back 20 minutes later she said the karakia and members of her supporters sang Tūtira Mai Ngā Iwi as part of her maiden speech.

“Seen as I wasn’t able to do the karakia this morning, it’s better late than never.” she said.

Fellow councillors and attendees in the public gallery could be heard closing the prayer in unison, with a collective ‘āmene’.

It’s clear that the article is written to show the hornéd secular mayor as the demon, even though New Zealand is a secular country. But of course the Māori must have special exemptions because they are indigenous. Note the repeated references that a karakia, which is in effect a verbal superstition (analogous to knocking on wood when you say something wishful) is customary.  The mayor, whom I consider enlightened, wanted to change that. But he didn’t get away with it, and I’m betting he won’t be reelected!  If this were in the U.S., also formally a secular country, the Freedom from Religion Foundation would be all over these councils, forcing them to stop saying their prayers.

The lesson: in New Zealand, when it comes to foisting superstition and religion on the public, the Māori always get their way. I hope to Ceiling Cat that they don’t suceeed in imbuing science education in schools with their superstitions, which they keep trying to do.

You can see the video and article by clicking below:

h/t: Luana

Science really does keep you on your toes. First there was matter and then there were galaxies. Then those galaxies had more stuff in the middle so stars further out were expected to move slowly, then there was dark matter as they actually seemed to move faster but now they seem to be moving slower in our Galaxy so perhaps there is less dark matter than we thought after all! 

Let’s start with dark matter.  It is a strange and mysterious form of matter that doesn’t really seem to behave in any way like normal matter. It doesn’t emit light, absorb or reflect it so is to all intents invisible, hence its name. It’s thought that about 27% of the Universe is made up of dark matter but the only way we can detect it is its gravitational effect on passing light and other matter. Despite mounting evidence for its existence, we have still yet to actually detect particles that make up dark matter, whatever they are. 

Physicists at MIT (the Massachusetts Institute of Technology) have measured the speed of stars in the Milky Way galaxy and found that those further out to the edge are moving slower than expected. This suggests, rather surprisingly that the core of the milky way may be lighter in mass than first thought and thus contain less dark matter. 

The team used data from Gaia and APOGEE (Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment) to plot the velocity of stars against their distance. This enabled them to generate a rotation curve that shows how fast matter rotates at a given distance from the centre of a galaxy. Interpreting graphs like these allow astronomers to estimate how much dark matter there is.

Artist impression of ESA’s Gaia satellite observing the Milky Way (Credit : ESA/ATG medialab; Milky Way: ESA/Gaia/DPAC)

This was quite in contrast to earlier observations since the 1970’s that revealed a hint of dark matter distribution. Measurements of previous galaxies showed that stars were moving around the centre at a fairly constant velocity with distance from centre. The only way this can be explained is dark matter. This work was pioneered by Vera Rubin from the Carnegie Institution in Washington and was supported by multiple observations from other astronomers in the following years. 

The efforts to measure galactic rotation have focussed on other galaxies rather than our own. It’s actually quite difficult to achieve the same in a galaxy that you live in but undaunted; Xiaowei Ou, Anna-Christina Eilers, and Anna Frebel set about the task. Their initial observations came from Gaia data but used APOGEE data to refine their results. They were able to measure distances of more than 33,000 stars out to a distance of 30 kiloparsecs (97,846 light years). The data was then incorporated into a model of circular velocity to estimate the velocity of stars given the location of all other stars in the galaxy. This gave them an updated and refined rotation curve. 

The curve their work revealed showed a more rapid decline over distance rather than the shallow decline they expected. Stars further out are moving slower than expected and so there is less matter in the centre of our galaxy. We can observe the ‘normal’ or baryonic matter but it requires less dark matter to account for the observations. Further research is now required to explore other galaxies like the Milky Way and perhaps, change our view of the amount of dark matter in the Universe. 

Source : Study: Stars travel more slowly at Milky Way’s edge

The post There’s Less Dark Matter at the Core of the Milky Way appeared first on Universe Today.

Scientists have identified 18 new tidal disruption events (TDEs) -- extreme instances when a nearby star is tidally drawn into a black hole and ripped to shreds. The detections more than double the number of known TDEs in the nearby universe.

Researchers are developing a new type of sensor that reacts to certain sound waves, causing it to vibrate. The sensor is a metamaterial that acquires its special properties through the structuring of the material. Passive sound-sensitive sensors could be used to monitor buildings, earthquakes or certain medical devices and save millions of batteries.

Researchers are developing a new type of sensor that reacts to certain sound waves, causing it to vibrate. The sensor is a metamaterial that acquires its special properties through the structuring of the material. Passive sound-sensitive sensors could be used to monitor buildings, earthquakes or certain medical devices and save millions of batteries.

Global warming continues to pose a threat to human society and the ecological systems, and carbon dioxide accounts for the largest proportion of the greenhouse gases that dominate climate warming. To combat climate change and move towards the goal of carbon neutrality, researchers have developed a durable, highly selective and energy-efficient carbon dioxide (CO2) electroreduction system that can convert CO2 into ethylene for industrial purposes to provide an effective solution for reducing CO2 emissions.

Global warming continues to pose a threat to human society and the ecological systems, and carbon dioxide accounts for the largest proportion of the greenhouse gases that dominate climate warming. To combat climate change and move towards the goal of carbon neutrality, researchers have developed a durable, highly selective and energy-efficient carbon dioxide (CO2) electroreduction system that can convert CO2 into ethylene for industrial purposes to provide an effective solution for reducing CO2 emissions.

Researchers showed that biofilm formation can be controlled with laser light in the form of optical traps. The findings could allow scientists to harness biofilms for various bioengineering applications.

Researchers have developed a robotic sensor that incorporates artificial intelligence techniques to read braille at speeds roughly double that of most human readers.

Researchers have developed a robotic sensor that incorporates artificial intelligence techniques to read braille at speeds roughly double that of most human readers.

   

Meteorites are fragments of asteroids which find their way to Earth as shooting stars and provide information on the origins of our solar system. A team of researchers has examined the so-called Winchcombe meteorite and demonstrated the existence in it of nitrogen compounds such as amino acids and heterocyclic hydrocarbons -- without applying any chemical treatment and by using a new type of detector design.

For decades scientists have been trying to solve Feynman's Sprinkler Problem: How does a sprinkler running in reverse work? Through a series of experiments, a team of mathematicians has figured out how flowing fluids exert forces and move structures, thereby revealing the answer to this long-standing mystery.

For decades scientists have been trying to solve Feynman's Sprinkler Problem: How does a sprinkler running in reverse work? Through a series of experiments, a team of mathematicians has figured out how flowing fluids exert forces and move structures, thereby revealing the answer to this long-standing mystery.