Welcome to the Saturday Science Edition of Overnight News Digest
Overnight News Digest is a regular daily feature which provides noteworthy news items and commentary from around the world. The editorial staff includes side pocket, maggiejean, wader, Doctor RJ, rfall, and JML9999.
Neon Vincent is our editor-in-chief.
Special thanks go to Magnifico for starting this venerable series.
Astronomy
Cygnus Cargo Craft Comes Together For Space Station ‘Return to Flight’ Blastoff In December
The biggest and heaviest Cygnus commercial cargo craft ever built by Orbital ATK is coming together at the Kennedy Space Center as the launch pace picks up steam for its critical ‘Return to Flight’ resupply mission to the space station for NASA. Cygnus is on target for an early December blastoff from Florida and the Orbital ATK team is “anxious to get flying again.” “We are very excited about the upcoming [OA-4] cargo mission and returning to flight,” said Frank DeMauro, Orbital ATK Vice President for Human Spaceflight Systems Programs, in an exclusive interview with Universe Today. The vehicle’s last major component, the service module, has just arrived at Kennedy for final prelaunch assembly. “We have an obligation to our NASA customer and most importantly the crews aboard the International Space Station (ISS).” The ‘Return to Flight’ mission, dubbed OA-4, fulfills Orbital ATK’s commitment to “meet our cargo requirements to NASA under the Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract” following the catastrophic launch failure of the firms Antares/Cygnus Orb-3 resupply mission to the space station moments after liftoff one year ago from Wallops Island, Virginia on October 28, 2014. universetoday.com
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Mound Near Lunar South Pole Formed By Unique Volcanic Process
A giant mound near the Moon’s south pole appears to be a volcanic structure unlike any other found on the lunar surface, according to new research. The formation, known as Mafic Mound, stands about 2,600 feet tall (800 meters) and 47 miles across (75 kilometers), smack in the middle of a giant impact crater known as the South Pole-Aitken Basin. This new study suggests that the mound is the result of a unique kind of volcanic activity set in motion by the colossal impact that formed the basin. “If the scenarios that we lay out for its formation are correct, it could represent a totally new volcanic process that’s never been seen before,” said Daniel Moriarty from Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. Mafic Mound — mafic is a term for rocks rich in minerals such as pyroxene and olivine — was first discovered in the 1990s by Carle Pieters at Brown University. What makes it curious, other than its substantial size, is the fact that it has a different mineralogical composition than the surrounding rock. The mound is rich in high-calcium pyroxene, whereas the surrounding rock is low-calcium. [...] [C]ombined datasets suggested that Mafic Mound was created by one of two unique volcanic processes set in motion by the giant South Pole-Aitken impact. An impact of that size would have created a cauldron of melted rock as much as 30 miles deep (50km), some researchers think. As that sheet of impact melt cooled and crystalized, it would have shrunk. As it did, still-molten material in the middle of the melt sheet may have been squeezed out the top like toothpaste from a tube. Eventually, that erupted material may have formed the mound. astronomy.com
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Phase of the Moon October 17, 2015 Waxing Crescent 24% illuminated 388,230 km from Earth 4 days old
Biology
Biochemists Uncover Structure Of Cellular Memory Mechanism
Calcium is a crucial element in the body that controls thought, movement and other bodily functions. These events are directed by specialized proteins called ion channels that allow the flow of calcium ions in and out of cells and among cell compartments. For years, scientists have been unsure how calcium ion channels function. New atomic scale images of the structure of calcium's gatekeeper, IP3R, could go a long way toward solving this mystery and lead to treatments for the many diseases tied to channel malfunctions. [...]
"We now know the structure of the gating machinery of IP3R," said Irina Serysheva, Ph.D., the study's senior author and an associate professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at UTHealth Medical School. "This work will fuel many functional and translational studies and allow for new drug design venues."
When the IP3R calcium channel receives signals, it creates a pathway for calcium ions to move across cell membranes. While it works flawlessly most of the time, serious health issues occur when everything does not go to plan.
"Those health issues include Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease, cardiac hypertrophy, heart failure, cancer and stroke," she said.
sciencedaily.com
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The “Sixth Sense:” How Do We Sense Electric Fields?
A variety of animals are able to sense and react to electric fields, and living human cells will move along an electric field, for example in wound healing. Now a team lead by Min Zhao at the UC Davis Institute for Regenerative Cures has found the first actual “sensor mechanism” that allows a living cell to detect an electric field. The work is published Oct. 9 in the journal Nature Communications.
“We believe there are several types of sensing mechanisms, and none of them are known. We now provide experimental evidence to suggest one which has not been even hypothesized before, a two-molecule sensing mechanism,” Zhao said.
Zhao and colleagues have been studying these “electric senses” in cells from both larger animals (fish skin cells, human cell lines) and in the soil-dwelling amoeba Dictyostelium. By knocking out some genes in Dictyostelium, they previously identified some of the genes and proteins that allow the amoeba to move in a certain direction when exposed to an electric field. In the new work, carried out in a human cell line, they found that two elements, a protein called Kir4.2 (made by gene KCNJ15) and molecules within the cell called polyamines, were needed for signaling to occur. Kir4.2 is a potassium channel – it forms a pore through the cell membrane that allows potassium ions to enter the cell. Such ion channels are often involved in transmitting signals into cells. Polyamines are molecules within the cell that carry a positive charge. Zhao and colleagues found that when the cells were in an electric field, the positively-charged polyamines tend to accumulate at the side of the cell near the negative electrode. The polyamines bind to the Kir4.2 potassium channel, and regulate its activity. He cautioned that they do not yet have definitive evidence of how “switching” of the potassium channel by polyamines translates into directional movement by the cell. ucdavis.edu
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Chemistry
Microporous Copper Silicate Sucks Up Carbon Dioxide
A carbon capturing microporous copper silicate material has been created that could offer a cheaper and simpler way of capturing carbon dioxide from the gas flues of fossil fuel power plants. Carbon capture technologies currently employ a ‘wet’ method which involves aqueous amine solutions that react with carbon dioxide to form carbamates. The method is effective and, being already wet, isn’t affected by the presence of moisture in the flue gas. But the downside is that it's expensive. In a bid to lower the costs, researchers have tried to create a ‘dry’ method by investigating a variety of microporous materials, including metal–organic frameworks. One problem, however, is that moisture in the flue gas competes with carbon dioxide binding sites in the pores, significantly reducing the carbon capturing ability of these materials. To optimise their performance would mean dehydrating the flue gas, but this step would be costly and rule out any savings over the wet method. Now, Kyung Byung Yoon at Sogang University in Seoul, South Korea, and colleagues have found a possible workaround in a copper silicate material dubbed SGU-29. It can capture carbon dioxide directly from humid flue gases without the need for dehydration. Yoon's lab had been investigating a titanosilicate (ETS-10) they had synthesised and noticed it captured carbon dioxide, albeit not that much. Comparing this uptake with a vanadosilicate (AM-6) the team saw a significant increase in carbon capture. Since copper-containing MOFs are well recognised as carbon capture materials, Yoon's team wondered whether a copper silicate based on the structures of ETS-10 and AM-6 could be an optimal carbon capture material. In tests the team found that SGU-29 can capture carbon dioxide, even in the presence of moisture, because it has a hydrophobic silica nanotube region and a relatively hydrophilic region. Yoon says the size of the nanotube region of SGU-29 is an excellent fit for carbon dioxide. So, while water cannot enter the nanotube region, carbon dioxide can and is trapped. However, cheaply desorbing carbon dioxide from the material to use it again remains a challenge. 'Right now it requires vacuum and a temperature swing to reuse them,' says Yoon. rsc.org
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Thomas Jefferson's Hidden Chemistry Lab Discovered
A hidden chemistry lab has been found in the iconic Rotunda at the University of Virginia, and the room likely has a direct link to the third U.S. president, Thomas Jefferson, who designed the building, school officials said. While hidden for decades, the lab isn’t exactly a case of a founding father's version of “Breaking Bad.” The lab appears to be a specially designed hearth created to be used with a nearby chemistry classroom, when the university was first built in the 1820s, officials said. [...] Constructed sometime between 1822 and 1826, the hearth was walled off in 1850 and survived a major fire that destroyed much of the building in 1895, according to the University of Virginia website. It was discovered during an ongoing two-year renovation of the building. While cutting edge for its time, the hearth is far different from anything seen in a modern chemistry lab. Special flues carried out toxic air and heated sand was used to disperse and temper the heat instead of just turning down a knob. Anyone eager to see the hidden room will have a chance after renovations are completed and the room becomes part of the permanent display, officials said. “This may be the oldest intact example of early chemical education in this country,” Hogg said on the University of Virginia website. abcnews.go.com
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Earth Science
Noise Pollution Harms Wildlife, Degrades Habitats
Traffic noise is just another inconvenience for many of us. But for wildlife, noise from honking, and zooming vehicles can often be an insidious threat: it can degrade habitats without leaving any physical evidence of change, warns a recent study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Road noise — even in moderate levels — pushes migrating birds away from their stopover habitats, researchers from Boise State University in Idaho found. Those that stay back become weak.
“I was initially surprised that even moderate road noise — comparable to a suburban setting — would have such a wide-ranging impact on migrating birds,” William Laurance, a professor at James Cook University in Cairns, Australia, who was not involved in the study, told Mongabay. “On reflection, however, I guess such migrators have to be hyper-vigilent about noise, as they’re constantly moving to new areas where unseen predators could be lurking.” [...] “Migration is an energetically stressful time,” Laurance writes in a commentary about the study. "So any unpredictable noise in their stopover locations could potentially affect the time they spend being vigilant or feeding, ultimately affecting their health."
enn.com
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The Rainforests Hold The Key To Taming El Niño's Destruction
Indonesia is smouldering and Godzilla is to blame. But even though this is reality, not a monster movie, there is still a hero: the tropical rainforest. This year’s El Niño, the ocean-traveling climate cycle notorious for throwing the weather off kilter, is nicknamed “Godzilla”. While it is projected to deliver plenty of rain to some parts of the world, including drought-parched California, it is already causing dangerously dry conditions in the tropics. Papua New Guinea, for example, is experiencing its worst drought in decades, which spells doom for coffee and food crops. [...] Standing, healthy forests, the Earth’s “sweat glands”, pump moisture into the atmosphere, providing the globe with its greatest defense against droughts, forest fires and other weather-related disasters. Without this buffer, we’re more exposed and vulnerable to the whims of extreme weather. To maintain an effective buffer, it is imperative that global efforts to protect forests are accelerated. Tropical forests are important climate bulwarks, and the impact of cutting them down packs a wallop beyond the release of the vast stores of carbon they hold. Tearing down forests also changes the earth’s surface, triggering major shifts in rainfall and increases in temperature worldwide that can be just as disruptive to the climate and weather as those caused by carbon pollution. theguardian.com
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Physics
Tiny Terahertz Accelerator Could Rival Huge Free-Electron Lasers
Physicists in the US, Germany and Canada have built a miniature particle accelerator that uses terahertz radiation instead of radio waves to create pulses of high-energy electrons. A single accelerator module of the prototype is just 1.5 cm long and 1 mm thick, and the technology has the potential to create facilities that are much smaller than current radio-frequency (RF) accelerators. Potential applications include free-electron lasers, whereby the electrons are used to create coherent pulses of X-rays. However, the team cautions that much more work is needed to develop the technology so it can be used in medicine, particle physics and material science. Terahertz radiation falls between the microwave and infrared portions of the electromagnetic spectrum (300 GHz–3 THz), and its production and detection are not without significant technical challenges. However, terahertz technologies have been improving steadily and some physicists are keen on using the radiation in much the same way that radio waves and microwaves are used to accelerate charged particles. In this latest work Emilio Nanni and colleagues at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the Center for Free-Electron Laser Science (CFEL) at DESY in Germany and the University of Toronto have created a terahertz accelerator module with the aim of advancing experiments that use ultrafast electron diffraction to reveal the structure and dynamics of matter. Their prototype accelerator uses optically generated pulses centred at 450 GHz and a bandwidth of 200–800 GHz. The wavelength of this radiation is around 1000 times shorter than the electromagnetic radiation used by current particle accelerators – the Large Hadron Collider uses 400 MHz microwaves – everything else on the terahertz accelerator can also be 1000 times smaller. physicsworld.com
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A Particle Purely Made Of Nuclear Force
For decades, scientists have been looking for so-called "glueballs". Now it seems they have been found at last. A glueball is an exotic particle, made up entirely of gluons – the "sticky" particles that keep nuclear particles together. Glueballs are unstable and can only be detected indirectly, by analysing their decay. This decay process, however, is not yet fully understood. [...] Protons and neutrons consist of even smaller elementary particles called quarks. These quarks are bound together by strong nuclear force. "In particle physics, every force is mediated by a special kind of force particle, and the force particle of the strong nuclear force is the gluon", says Anton Rebhan (TU Wien). Gluons can be seen as more complicated versions of the photon. The massless photons are responsible for the forces of electromagnetism, while eight different kinds of gluons play a similar role for the strong nuclear force. However, there is one important difference: gluons themselves are subject to their own force, photons are not. This is why there are no bound states of photons, but a particle that consists only of bound gluons, of pure nuclear force, is in fact possible. [...] "Unfortunately, the decay pattern of glueballs cannot be calculated rigorously", says Anton Rebhan. Simplified model calculations have shown that there are two realistic candidates for glueballs: the mesons called f0(1500) and f0(1710). For a long time, the former was considered to be the most promising candidate. The latter has a higher mass, which agrees better with computer simulations, but when it decays, it produces many heavy quarks (the so-called "strange quarks"). To many particle scientists, this seemed implausible, because gluon interactions do not usually differentiate between heavier and lighter quarks. Anton Rebhan and his PhD-student Frederic Brünner have now made a major step forward in solving this puzzle by trying a different approach. There are fundamental connections between quantum theories describing the behaviour of particles in our three dimensional world and certain kinds of gravitation theories in higher dimensional spaces. This means that certain quantum physical questions can be answered using tools from gravitational physics. phys.org
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