Whether you are a student, a professional, or simply a science enthusiast, this article will provide you an engaging and informative insights and updates. Plus, as a compliment, you will get a peep into pretty quirky AI generated images by me related to those particular topics.
In today's blog, you will read about the following science events of the week:
NASA unveils new space suit for Moon missions
The Beethoven’s cause of death revealed by testing strands of his hair
How Humans lived on Roof of the World since last 5000 years
The Tesla’s New Mystery Magnet to reduce use of rear earth metals
Fruit fly found to taste Alkaline foods; first among Invertebrates
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| NASA unveils new space suits, Beethoven's cause of death revealed, Tesla's new mystery magnet and other science news of the week; Mufawad |
NASA unveils new space suit for Moon missions
NASA officials on Wednesday unveiled the latest suit for lunar space missions, black with orange and blue highlights, from Axiom Space in Houston. The moon suit is a key component for the Artemis program, which will be sending astronauts back to the moon in 2025.
NASA is relying on new commercial space enterprises to provide key components faster and cheaper than it could itself develop. According to NYT Science, James Stein, the suit's chief engineer, demonstrated with the new lunar gear, showing how he could easily squat and move around.
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| P.C: NASA |
The suits large clear bubble around the head provides wide visibility and lighting for astronauts to step into shadowed craters near the lunar south pole. It also has a mount for a high-definition camera. Astronauts will get into and out of the spacesuit via a hatch in the backside. On the back is a backpack-like contraption containing the life support system.
The prototype shown Wednesday was not exactly what will be going to the moon, but the actual suits will be white instead of dark, reflecting heat from sunlight instead of absorbing it, and have an outer insulation layer to protect the astronaut from extreme temperatures, radiation and dust.
Axiom is a private space company led by Michael Suffredini, who previously served as NASA's program manager for the International Space Station. The company has been focused on low-Earth orbit, sending private astronauts to the I.S.S and building a private module that is yet to be added to the space station.
Outsourcing the development of spacesuits to Axiom is a major course correction for NASA, which spent years and millions of dollars developing its own suit called the Exploration Extravehicular Mobility Unit, or xEMU.
In 2019, NASA officials showed off a prototype of the xEMU in patriotic red, white and blue, describing how it would provide more flexibility for walking, bending and twisting.
In June last year, NASA selected two companies, Axiom and Collins Aerospace, to build NASA's future spacesuits for the moon and the I.S.S. The awards would be worth up to $3.5 billion through 2034 for the companies.
Axiom won the first instalment of $228 million for the development of the moon suit. Axiom will retain ownership of the suits even as NASA astronauts use them. The company officials said about one-half of their design is based on the xEMU.
Axiom engineers designed the Artemis suit, which includes the boots, helmet bubble and upper torso. The pressure suit and gloves are other two examples of components designed by Axiom engineers.
Axiom turned to experts in the automotive, oil and gas, and theatre industries for innovations to add to the design. The suits will also fit more people than current spacesuits, and have different sizes of elements that can be swapped out for different components.
NASA maintains that it remains on track for a moon landing in 2025, and the Biden administration is mulling for more than $27 billion for NASA next year, a 7 percent increase.
The first Artemis mission, Artemis I, launched with no crew aboard in November, helped in testing the Orion capsule that will carry astronauts to lunar orbit and back to Earth. The mission was a success, although not a perfect one.
Orion's heat shield performed well enough to protect the spacecraft as it re-entered the atmosphere, but not as well as it was designed to. The Artemis II mission, scheduled for next year, will carry astronauts for the first time: three Americans and a Canadian.
NASA plans to announce the Artemis III crew on April 3. At least one of the two astronauts who will walk on the moon during Artemis III will be a woman, wearing an Axiom spacesuit.
The Beethoven’s cause of death revealed by testing strands of his hair
Ludwig van Beethoven wrote a letter to his brothers in 1802, imploring them to seek out his physician after his death and beg him in his name to describe his malady. In December 1826, the composer’s health deteriorated rapidly. As he developed jaundice and his limbs swelled, both signs of liver failure. He took to his bed and remained there until his death in March 1827. Two centuries later, researchers hadn’t come the closest yet to honouring that wish.
Now, Tristan Begg, an ancient-genome researcher at the University of Cambridge, UK, and his colleagues extracted genetic material from preserved locks of hair that are purported to be Beethoven's. The study suggests that Beethoven probably died from liver disease brought on by a combination of viral hepatitis, alcohol consumption and genetic factors.
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| Image generated by Mufawad using AI |
The DNA extracted showed that he had two copies of a particular variant of the gene PNPLA3 that has been linked to liver cirrhosis. Beethoven had two variants of the HFE gene that cause hereditary haemochromatosis, a condition that damages the liver.
DNA extracted from hair cut from his head after his death also contained fragments of the hepatitis B virus, which can cause liver damage. This suggests that Beethoven might had a chronic, dormant infection that was reactivated in the months before he died.
According to Nature, Ian Gilmore, a liver specialist at the University of Liverpool, UK, says that the hair analysis points to various potential causes of liver cirrhosis, and the truth probably lies in the interaction between several of these.
Moreover, the cause of Beethoven's hearing loss also remains a mystery. Begg and his colleagues scanned the composer's genome for several conditions linked to hearing loss, including Paget's disease and lupus.
Beethoven had a number of genetic markers indicating a heightened risk of developing lupus, but Begg doesn't think it's a strong contender as the cause of his deafness.
Medical genetics struggles with the same problems in patients that are alive today, as the DNA sequence doesn't provide all the information that is required to understand the causes for a disease.
Medical historians have speculated that otosclerosis, a condition in which a tiny ear bone fuses with other parts of the ear, might have been responsible for Beethoven's hearing loss. The genetic causes of otosclerosis are yet to be identified, so this remains possible, but the theory cannot be confirmed by this study.
How Humans lived on Roof of the World since last 5000 year
Researchers have sequenced dozens of ancient genomes from the Tibetan Plateau, revealing where exactly its ancient settlers came from and how they adapted to such high-altitude living.
The study confirms that permanent occupation of the region pre-dates historical records and paints a complex picture of where early Tibetans migrated from and how their interactions in the region and with their lowland neighbours shaped their heritage.
Analysis of the genomes reveals that the ancient occupants of the plateau have strong genetic links to the Tibetan, Sherpa and Qiang ethnic groups that live on or near the plateau today.
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| Image generated by Mufawad using AI |
Comparisons of the oldest genomes with ancient and living people across Asia suggest that the ancestors of modern Tibetans arrived from the east. The genomes reveal fresh influxes of genes that suggest lowland East Asian immigrants arrived on the plateau more than once.
Trade with millet farmers from the upper Yellow River region of what is now north-eastern China was probably responsible for interactions between existing Tibetan settlers and newcomers before 4,700 years ago.
The genomes also reveal how Tibetan settlers adapted to their environment, with many present-day inhabitants of the Tibetan Plateau having a version of a gene, EPAS1, that allows them to thrive in the lower-oxygen environment. The high-altitude variant of EPAS1 is thought to have originated from Denisovans and is still unclear when it first appeared.
Scientists involved in the study are keen to find answer to these question by sequencing genomes of older remains, if they are discovered on the plateau.
The Tesla’s New Mystery Magnet to reduce use of rear earth metals.
Tesla's investor day on 1st March began with a rambling discourse on energy and the environment before transitioning into a series of mostly predictable announcements and boasts. Then, out of nowhere, came an absolute bombshell: "We have designed our next drive unit, which uses a permanent-magnet motor, to not use any rare-earth elements at all." This was a stunning disclosure that left most experts in permanent magnetism wary and perplexed.
Alexander Gabay, a researcher at the University of Delaware, wondered flatly if any non-rare-earth permanent magnet could be used in a synchronous traction motor in the near future.
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| P.C: IEEE Engineering |
Alena Vishina, a physicist at Uppsala University, in Sweden, elaborates that she is not sure if it is possible to use only rare-earth-free materials to make a powerful and efficient motor. At a recent magnetics conference, Ping Liu asked other researchers what they thought of Tesla's announcement.
But we all know, Tesla's technical prowess should never be underestimated, but its CEO has a history of making sensational claims that don't pan out. The problem here is physics, which not even Elon Musk can alter.
Researchers discovered decades ago that magnetic strength can be greatly improved by adding unpaired electrons in the 4f orbital of rare-earth elements. These 4f electrons enhance a characteristic of the crystalline lattice called magnetic anisotropy, which can be exploited to achieve high coercivity.
Since the 1980s, a permanent magnet based on a compound of neodymium, iron, and boron (NdFeB) has dominated high-performance applications, including motors, smartphones, loudspeakers, and wind-turbine generators.
Ferrite magnets, based on a form of iron oxide, are cheap and account for nearly 30 percent of the permanent-magnet market by sales, but they are weak.
A key performance indicator of a permanent magnet is its maximum energy product, measured in megagauss-oersteds (MGOe).
Niron Magnetics, a Minneapolis startup, is commercializing technology that was pioneered with funding from ARPA-E by Jian Ping Wang at the University of Minnesota in the early 2000s. The company intends to introduce its first product late in 2024, which will be a permanent magnet with an energy product above 10 MGOe, for which it anticipates applications in loudspeakers and sensors.
If it succeeds, it will be the first new commercial permanent magnet since NdFeB 40 years ago, and the first commercial non-rare-earth permanent magnet since strontium ferrite, the best ferrite type, 60 years ago.
The list of attributes needed for a commercially successful permanent magnet includes high field strength, high coercivity, tolerance of high temperatures, good mechanical strength, ease of manufacturing, and lack of reliance on elements that are scarce, toxic, or problematic for some other reason. One or two of these could very well break through.
Fruit fly found to taste Alkaline foods; first among Invertebrates
Researchers have discovered an entirely new kind of taste receptor in fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster) that allows them to detect alkaline substances and avoid toxic meals and surfaces.
The discovery, published in Nature Metabolism this week, could inform future research into the physiological mechanisms underlying alkaline taste in other organisms.
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| P.C: Sciencephoto.com |
The researchers chose to investigate whether flies have a receptor specific to high pH, because previous work has shown that the insects can sense a broad spectrum of tastes.
To test the flies' preferences for foods with different pH levels, Yali Zhang and his colleagues presented them with a Petri dish of sweet gel mixed with sodium hydroxide to make it alkaline.
The researchers found that the higher the pH of the alkaline food, the more the flies rejected it for the more neutral cuisine. Screening of these flies revealed that they had a mutation in a gene that the researchers named alkaliphile (or alka for short).
The gene was found to be active in taste neurons at the fleshy tip of their elongated proboscis and in cells at the ends of their feet and antennae. In cell studies, they found that the alka gene expresses a receptor protein, whose normal activity is stimulated by alkaline solutions.
This receptor protein opens a channel in the cell membrane to let negatively charged chloride ions escape the neuron, immediately relaying a message to the fly's brain to avoid the food.
The discovery could bring new insights into how insects more generally respond to environmental cues, for example in decisions on where to lay their eggs, as well as for pest control.
