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Our advice columnist David Robson looks into the science of how we react to laughter

For an undercover operative, Sadie Smith takes unnecessary risks as she infiltrates an eco-activist group. Why? And where do the Neanderthals fit into Creation Lake, Rachel Kushner's Booker-longlisted climate fiction novel? Emily H. Wilson loved finding out

These photos showcase some of the intricately created birds' nests found in the Natural History Museum in Tring, UK, home to one of the world's largest ornithological collections

Despite some hype, OceanXplorers, a new ocean-life nature series, delivers on the visuals – and on showcasing the effects of climate change

I am one of millions of vapers in the UK, but growing evidence of the impact these e-cigarettes have on the environment means it may be time to quit, says Graham Lawton

Feedback brings news of a study in which scientists explored whether seeing happy broccoli eaters might encourage reluctant children to get on with it already and eat their vegetables

A video of a turtle with a straw up its nose changed attitudes to plastic pollution around the world. But we must do more, says marine biologist Vanessa Bézy

Where do morals come from? In Animals, Robots, Gods, anthropologist Webb Keane argues imagination and differing senses of the world are key to discerning right from wrong

A new test spots Lyme disease faster than the existing go-to approach and, if approved, could reduce the risk of complications

Many fear that voters are being manipulated by political campaigns that use Facebook ads, TikTok and YouTube videos, but research reveals a more surprising story

Artificial intelligence is a powerful tool for researchers, but with a significant limitation: The inability to explain how it came to its decisions, a problem known as the 'AI black box.' By combining AI with automated chemical synthesis and experimental validation, an interdisciplinary team of researchers has opened up the black box to find the chemical principles that AI relied on to improve molecules for harvesting solar energy.

Artificial intelligence is a powerful tool for researchers, but with a significant limitation: The inability to explain how it came to its decisions, a problem known as the 'AI black box.' By combining AI with automated chemical synthesis and experimental validation, an interdisciplinary team of researchers has opened up the black box to find the chemical principles that AI relied on to improve molecules for harvesting solar energy.

New research shows that echocardiograms performed remotely using robot arm technology have similar accuracy to those performed in person by cardiologists, providing new options for patients with poor access.

New research shows that echocardiograms performed remotely using robot arm technology have similar accuracy to those performed in person by cardiologists, providing new options for patients with poor access.

Betel-gurz or Beetle-juice has been a favourite among amateur astronomers for many years. However you pronounce it, its unexpected dimming draw even more attention to this red supergiant variable star in Orion. It has a few cycles of variability, one of them occurs over a 2,170 day period, 5 times longer than its normal pulsation period. A paper has just been published that suggests a companion star of 1.17 solar masses could be the cause. It would need an orbit about 2.43 times the radius of Betelgeuse and it might just lead to the modulation of dust in the region that causes the variations we see. 

One of the brightest stars in the sky, Betelgeuse is a red supergiant found situated prominently at the upper left of the constellation Orion. It represents the shoulder of the hunter although some translations suggest it refers to ‘the armpit of the giant!’ It’s one of the largest stars visible to the unaided eye with a radius about 1,000 times the Sun. At a distance of 642 light years away, its brightness in our sky tells us it must be giving out about 100,000 times more light than the Sun. Over the last five years it’s been getting special attention due to its unexpected dimming. 

Ground-based image of the Constellation of Orion. The Hubble Space Telescope continues to reveal various stunning and intricate treasures that reside within the nearby, intense star-forming region known as the Great Nebula in Orion.

The dimming occurred toward the end of 2019 and the returned to normal in the first half of 2020. It’s generally accepted that the dimming was caused by a dust cloud in the event that has now been dubbed ‘The Great Dimming.’ The observations of the dimming led to a change in our understanding of the behaviour of Betelgeuse and its surrounding environment such as the apparent 5km/s surface rotation, models of the nature of its variability and pulsation models (the periodic expansion and contraction of the star’s outer layers.)

As a well known variable star, the light curve of Betelgeuse displays a Long Secondary Period (LSP) of approximately 2100 days. It’s not unusual for stars in the Red Giant Branch of the Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram and can range from a few hundred days to thousands. To date though, the mechanism behind the LSP is unknown but it certainly does seem to be a secondary cycle to a shorter one. Interestingly the duration of the LSP seems to be generally in the region of a few tens of times slower than the stars radial pulsation. 

It’s the nature of this longer term variability in Betelgeuse that is the focus of a new paper published by Jared A. Goldberg and his team. A greater understanding will lead to a greater clarity of Betelgeuse’s evolutionary stage and ultimately to its death. One solution points to it simply being the result of the pulsation of the outer layers. If this were the case then it means Betelgeuse is larger than expected and would be further along its evolution branch and that a supernova explosion may be imminent within the next few hundred years! An exciting prospect for the stargazers among us. 

Simulation of Betelgeuse’s boiling surface

Interestingly though, the team conclude that the most likely explanation for the long term variability of Betelgeuse is a low mass companion star, named ? Ori B (Betelgeuse bares the alternative name ? Orionis.) It is possible that this binary star could be modulating the dust surrounding the system and when the companion is in transit, the dust leads to a reduction in brightness. If ? Ori B were to be confirmed, it would have a significant impact on our evolutionary understanding of Betelgeuse. It is expected to go supernova soon but this is largely because observed variations led to the conclusion it was close. Instead, ? Ori B being the cause means we may have some time to wait after all.

Source : A Buddy for Betelgeuse: Binary as the Origin of the Long Secondary Period in Alpha Orionis

The post Is Betelgeuse Actually a Binary Star? appeared first on Universe Today.

Hydrogen produced by splitting water with renewable energy is too expensive to take off, but a start-up hopes to bring down the cost with new electrolysers

Are we ready for the next potential pandemic? It seems like we are just get over COVID and already we have to worry about the next one. We first covered the monkey pox (now mpox) in 2022. Since then it has continued to be a concern. Where do our efforts to contain this infection stand? To recap, the disease mpox is the […]

The post Are We Ready for Mpox first appeared on Science-Based Medicine.

Meanwhile, in Dobrzyn, Hili is showing she is top cat, of course:

Hili: Don’t even think about it.
A: About what?
Hili: I’m speaking to Szaron because he wants to jump here as well.

Hili: Nawet o tym nie myśl!
Ja: O czym?
Hili: Do Szarona mówię, bo on też chce tu wskoczyć.

Ammonia is a gas that plays a crucial role in agriculture and industry and has the potential to become a zero-carbon fuel for energy conversion and storage technologies. However, the current methods of producing ammonia are highly energy-intensive, contributing to approximately 1.8% of global CO2 emissions. By focusing on spinel cobalt oxides, a research team has revealed how understanding and optimizing these catalysts could offer a solution to this challenge.

As humans spread into the cosmos, we will take a plethora of initially Earth-bound life with us for the ride. Some might be more beneficial or potentially harmful than others. And there is no lifeform more prevalent on Earth than bacteria. These tiny creatures and fungi, their long-lost cousins on the evolutionary tree, have a habit of clumping together to form a type of structure known as a biofilm. Biofilms are ubiquitous in Earth-bound environments and have been noticed on space missions for decades. But what potential dangers do they pose? More interestingly, what possible problems can they solve? A paper from a group of scientists focused on life support systems in the journal Biofilm provides a high-level overview of the state of the science of understanding how biofilms work in space and where it might need to go for us to establish a permanent human presence off-world. 

The paper is divided into five sub-sections, each of which examines how biofilms might impact them. The first two sub-sections focus on wet and dry areas of an object in space, while the third focuses on the potential impact on human health. Further sections include a focus on in-situ resource utilization (fourth) and biosensors (fifth). Let’s examine each one in turn.

Wet surfaces are probably the place most people would expect to see a biofilm. They are ubiquitous in uncleaned toilets and other areas where a continual source of nutrients and water are available. Unfortunately, space stations and crewed spaceships have the same necessary biological plumbing and could suffer from the same problem if not managed. However, they also have wet storage areas, like the water reclamation system or fuel tanks, that aren’t necessary for Earth-based systems. All that means there are plenty of areas where biofilms can pollute these systems and cause significant problems either mechanically or biologically for the crew.

Bacteria are hardy, as Fraser discusses with Dr. Michael Daly

Dry surfaces are essentially the same, though tracing the spread of the bacteria is trickier as typical deposition systems, like the settling of an aerosol from a person breathing, which happens to contain thousands of bacteria, isn’t as much of a problem in space. However, astronauts still touch surfaces, which deposits bacteria as well, and their breath does have to be recycled in air cleaners, which could lead to deposits near or even on the HEPA filters that keep the air in the craft fresh. 

Either way, those biofilms could prove problematic to the human occupants of any spacecraft. There are two main ways they can create problems—either through infections, especially if the astronauts drink contaminated water, or through allergies, which could be caused by things like black mold. Unfortunately, we don’t understand what, if any, impact microgravity has on all of these processes, including fundamentals like how virulent pathogens might become.

However, it’s not all doom and gloom regarding biofilms in space exploration. Some biofilms can be helpful—especially by filtering valuable materials. Biofilm reactors are becoming more common in Earth-bound processes, whereby they can capture valuable materials like platinum from wastewater streams of mines or recycling plants. A similar tactic could work on Mars, where bioreactors could filter out useful molecules like nitrogen from the atmosphere and allow human-made systems to access those resources.

NASA continues testing the effects of biofilms in space.
Credit – NASA Video YouTube Channel

However, such systems would be useless if they weren’t controlled, and developing biosensors to monitor the health of biofilms —or lack thereof if they happen to be dangerous—will be a crucial innovation for future permanent space exploration missions. Several sensors are coming on the market that could fill that need, but more experimentation is needed to see how effective they are in microgravity. 

Ultimately, humans will have to learn to live to co-exist with biofilms in space, just like we do down on Earth. Whether that relationship is adversarial, symbiotic, or some combination of both will be primarily up to us. But, as mentioned by the paper, and that holds for most things in the realm of science, it would be good if we had a better understanding of how these systems work in this new environment. Otherwise, we might be setting ourselves up for a very avoidable disaster.

Learn More:
Justiniano et al. – Mitigation and use of biofilms in space for the benefit of human space exploration
UT – There’s a Surprising Amount of Life Deep Inside the Earth. Hundreds of Times More Mass than All of Humanity
UT – Instead of Building Structures on Mars, we Could Grow Them With the Help of Bacteria
UT – Earth’s toughest bacteria can survive unprotected in space for at least a year

Lead Image:
Graphic depicting the various uses of biofilms.
Credit – NASA

The post How Can Biofilms Help or Hinder Spaceflight? appeared first on Universe Today.