So, Let’s delve into the new scientific research that happened in the past month or so and explore the latest technologies that are being created and breakthroughs that were achieved in this field.
In the current blog, you will read about the following science events of the month:
- “Vasuki indicus” the fossils of a giant snake discovered in India
- Our brains tend to form memories in a unique way: By breaking the DNA
- South Korea to join EU’s ambitious Horizon programme
- New study warns that most of the major cities in China are sinking
- Taiwan stuck by the earthquake for which it was preparing for decades
- Bird Flu hits cattle in the USA
- “Wigner crystal” made of only electrons revealed for the first time
- Rare Solar Eclipse sweeps across the North America
- Eco-Anxiety on rise across the generations around the globe
- First ever eukaryote, An algae that can fix atmospheric nitrogen discovered
- New research shed light on how our perception of time is skewed by what we see
- Chinese create the most detailed atlas of the Moon
- China sends mission to collect the rocks from the far side of the moon
- Peter Higgs, who discovered Gods particle, dies at 94
- Mathematician who worked on randomness in Algorithms wins Turing award 2023
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| Current Science Report: April 2024, Mufawad |
“Vasuki indicus” the fossils of a giant snake discovered in India
Scientists have discovered the remains of one of the largest snakes ever lived, estimated to be up to 49 feet i.e. 15 meters in length. The snake, named Vasuki indicus, is said to be a slow-moving ambush predator that subdued its prey through constriction, similar to anacondas and pythons.
The snake lived in a marshy swamp near the coasts of Gujrat at a time when global temperatures were higher than today. Although the nature of the remains is said to be incomplete, the researchers gave an estimated length of about of 49 feet and a rough estimate of a metric ton (1000 Kg) in weight.
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Vasuki, named after the snake king associated with the Hindu deity Shiva, rivals another huge prehistoric snake called Titanoboa, whose fossils were discovered in a coal mine in northern Colombia in 2009. Titanoboa, estimated at 42 feet long and 1.1 metric tons, lived 58-60 million years ago.
The largest Vasuki vertebra was around 4-1/2 inches (11.1 cm) wide, and Vasuki appears to have had a broad, cylindrical body perhaps around 17 inches (44 cm) wide. The skull was not found. The researchers are not sure what prey Vasuki ate, but considering its size it could have included crocodilians. Other fossils in the area included crocodilians and turtles, as well as fish and two species of primitive whales, Kutchicetus and Andrewsiphius.
Vasuki is said to be a member of the Madtsoiidae snake family that appeared roughly 90 million years ago but went extinct about 12,000 years ago. These snakes are said to spread into India through southern Eurasia and into north Africa after the Indian subcontinent collided with Eurasia around 50 million years ago. This was a dominant snake family during the dinosaur age’s latter stages and into the early Cenozoic era.
Courtesy: DD News
Our brains tend to form memories in a unique way: By breaking the DNA
A new American study published in Nature has found that DNA damage in the brain and its subsequent repair helps cement long-term memories. The research, conducted by scientists from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, shows that when long-term memory forms, some neurons in the brain experience strong electric pulses that cause their DNA’s to snap and break. This triggers an immune system response, which causes inflammation and eventually helps repair the damage to cement long-term memory.This is the first time DNA damage has been associated with long-term memory. Typically, breaks and damage in both strands of the DNA are associated with all kinds of diseases in the body. However, DNA damage in the brain has also previously been associated with learning.
The study is significant on another count. Diseases like Alzheimer's, an advanced form of dementia, are already known to progress due to protein buildup in neurons. The new findings suggest that it is this system of DNA damage and repair that malfunctions and leads to a buildup of errors in people with such neurodegenerative diseases.
To understand the role of DNA damage in memory formation in the brain, the team trained adult mice to be afraid of a specific type of environment. They then examined the gene activity in the hippocampus, the part of the brain believed to be crucial to memory.
After genetically editing mice to remove the particular gene, the animals had trouble remembering their training and were less afraid when exposed to the shock-generating environment, indicating no long-term memory formation.
Courtesy: The Print
South Korea to join EU’s ambitious Horizon programme
The European Commission has announced that South Korea will join Horizon Europe, a 7-year, 95.5 billion euro ($104 billion) research funding program that continues to expand beyond the continent. As the first East Asian country to "associate to" Horizon Europe, South Korea will pay into the program so that its researchers can apply for and lead Horizon grants on an equal footing with scientists from EU member states. Associating presents an opportunity for Korean researchers to tackle globally important research topics and expand their international contacts and collaborators.
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The deal comes less than a year after New Zealand became the first country from outside of the European region to join Horizon Europe, as the European Union seeks to internationalize the program.
Under past iterations, only countries in Europe's neighbourhood could join, but Horizon Europe opens the option up to nations further afield which share a common understanding of fundamental principles and values in research and innovation.
Researchers, institutions, and businesses in associated countries can apply for grants from the €53.5 billion pot of what is called "Pillar 2" funding, which supports research into global challenges in the areas of health, climate change, energy, and industrial competitiveness. In return, associate countries contribute to the European Horizon budget on an adjusted scale, depending on how many grants their researchers win.
However, not all EU researchers are keen to welcome distant countries into a European funding program. There has been a long-running debate between those calling for a further opening of EU programs and those in favour of putting Europe first. The program's expansion could make it even harder for researchers from smaller EU countries to successfully apply for Horizon Europe grants, as these countries already struggle to be competitive with limited research infrastructure and capacity.
Countries such as New Zealand and Canada have concluded negotiations and will be signing an associating agreement later this year. Singapore and Japan are said to be in preliminary discussions with the Commission.
Courtesy: The Science
New study warns that most of the major cities in China are sinking
A new study published in the journal Science has found that nearly half of China's major cities are facing a "moderate to severe" risk of subsidence due to water extraction and the increasing weight of urban buildings and infrastructure.The research found that 45% of China's urban land was sinking faster than 3 millimetres per year, with 16% at a rate of over 10 millimetres per year. The study measured land subsidence in every Chinese city with a population of more than 2 million people over the period from 2015 to 2022. Some cities are subsiding rapidly, with one in six exceeding 10mm per year.
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The subsidence appears to be associated with a range of factors such as groundwater extraction and the weight of buildings. High-rise buildings are sprouting up, road systems are expanding, and groundwater is being used at a rapid pace. Natural factors associated with city subsidence include the geological setting of each city and the depth of the bedrock, which influenced the amount of weight the ground could hold up without sinking.
Additionally, urban transportation networks, hydrocarbon extraction, and mining are other factors that contribute to city subsidence. The key to addressing China's city subsidence could lie in the long-term, sustained control of groundwater extraction. Subsidence jeopardizes the structural integrity of buildings and critical infrastructure and exacerbates the impacts of climate change in terms of flooding, particularly in coastal cities where it reinforces sea-level rise.
Researchers caution that the new findings reinforce the need for a national response even in other susceptible cities outside China.
Courtesy: NDTV
Taiwan stuck by the earthquake for which it was preparing for decades
The world's media often portrays disasters as dramatic destruction, but this is not always the case. In the city of Hualien, a city of tens of thousands, only a few buildings suffered structurally, despite the city's largely unscathed state. This has sparked discussions about how and why Taiwan has made significant progress in coping with earthquakes.
Many believe that the wake-up call for Taiwan was its 1999 Chi Chi earthquake, which caused the deaths of over 2,400 people and destroyed tens of thousands of buildings.
The aftermath of that disaster was marked by the collapse of many brand new apartment buildings. Experts found that the design of these buildings was fundamentally flawed, with base pillars not big enough and the amount of steel in them too small. It was found many such building were being constructed using sea sand concrete, which corrodes steel reinforcement bars and causes concrete cancer.
After the Chi Chi earthquake, building codes were changed, and all new buildings are now required to meet a basic earthquake resistance level. The government is also constantly revising the quake resistance levels required of buildings, identifying those that need upgrading.
After 1999, seismic retrofitting was carried out, typically adding a framework of steel beams to a building's exterior or adding reinforcements like extra pillars. This applied to infrastructure like bridges as well.
During the current earthquake. only 10 deaths reported so far this week, with one tragic loss of life occurred due to a building collapse, while the others were associated with landslides and rockfalls.
Luck also played a part in Taiwan's limited damage to the 7.4 earthquake. The quake began offshore before hitting south of the nearest major population center, Hualien. The epicentre was 30km (18 miles) to the south of the city, so Hualien and its environs were spared the worst shaking. Instead, the earthquake occurred in the mountains to the south, west, and north, causing huge rock slides, damaging roads and bridges, and tragically, causing deaths.
Despite the powerful 7.4 earthquake, Taiwan was well-prepared for the event. Other pillars of Taiwan's earthquake response include an early warning system, public awareness, and fast responders. The island's disaster response team actively tracks social media and can tap into surveillance cameras to assess damage, triangulating which locations to send aid to.
Courtesy: BBC
Bird Flu hits cattle in the USA
Researchers are monitoring the spread of avian influenza to cattle and few people working at farms in six US states, marking the first widespread outbreak of bird flu in cows. The outbreak is concerning as humans frequently come into contact with cattle on farms, giving the virus ample opportunity to spread to people. Health officials have stated that the overall threat to people remains low, but they are watching the situation unfold closely.
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Scientists are assessing the effectiveness of candidate vaccines and antiviral drugs against the circulating strain and updating diagnostic kits for identifying infections in people quickly. They are also trying to understand whether the cows were infected by birds or another source and are on alert for any changes in the situation that could raise the risk for people.
The influenza strain called H5N1 was first detected in 1996 in China and has been spreading ferociously in birds since 2021, killing hundreds of millions of domestic and wild birds around the world. In the past two weeks, health officials have detected H5N1 in cows from 16 herds across six states, a number likely to increase as US surveillance is stepped up.
The more mammalian species the virus infects, the more opportunities it has to evolve a strain that is dangerous to humans. One dairy worker in Texas has been infected, but the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that the person is recovering. The worker's variant has a mutation linked to more-efficient spread in mammals, which doctors say has appeared many times in other animals infected with H5N1.
The H5N1 virus is spreading between cows, and understanding how they get infected is crucial for controlling its spread to other farms and people. Researchers are closely monitoring samples of H5N1 globally for mutations known to signal that it is becoming better at spreading in mammals. The virus has not spread widely in humans in part because it can't readily enter the cells that line the nose and mouth. However, if the virus developed mutations that would help it gain entry to these cells, it would be worrisome.
The virus is also looking out for mutations that would make the strain less susceptible to antiviral drugs. Pigs host many influenza A viruses, making them a "mixing vessel" in which strains of avian and mammalian viruses can mix and match and become more efficient at transmitting to people.
The WHO also maintains a list of candidate vaccines that provide protection against H5N1 and could be mass-produced. Some countries, including the United States, maintain a small stockpile of vaccine doses should they need to vaccinate at-risk populations, such as front-line workers.
Besides that the CDC has reported that the viral strain isolated from the infected person is closely related to two strains targeted by a candidate vaccine.
In conclusion, understanding how the H5N1 virus is spreading between cows is essential for controlling its spread to other farms and people. By gathering evidence and addressing these questions, researchers can better understand the global spread of the virus and its potential impact on cattle populations.
Courtesy: The Nature
“Wigner crystal” made of only electrons revealed for the first time
Scientists have successfully directly imaged a "Wigner crystal," which is made of only electrons. The Wigner crystal, predicted by physicist Eugene Wigner in 1934, is formed when electrons form a uniform grid at very low temperatures due to repulsive electric forces.
Researchers made their Wigner crystal from electrons inside two thin sheets of graphene, each one atom thick. To diminish the electrons' kinetic energy, they placed the graphene inside a fridge that cooled it to a few hundredths of a degree above absolute zero and immersed it in a strong magnetic field.
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The graphene had very few imperfections where electrons could get stuck, as otherwise, the particles could form a crystal-like state due to the structure of those imperfections.
In previous experiments, researchers would try to nudge electrons into forming currents, but the current team directly imaged its crystal with a special microscope using a quantum effect called tunnelling. This microscope scanned an extremely sharp metallic tip across the surface of the graphene, creating a small electric current that allowed them to know where and how densely the electrons were positioned inside the graphene, thus allowing them to create the most precise images of a Wigner crystal yet.
In their images, the team saw electrons sitting at vertices of repeating triangles, just as Wigner predicted. They also tracked how the crystal's structure changed as they shifted factors such as temperature, the strength of the magnetic field, and the number of electrons it contained.
Under these changing conditions, the crystal "melted" into an exotic, incompressible electron fluid, as well as a fluid where electrons formed stripes.
Courtesy: MSN
Rare Solar Eclipse sweeps across the North America
A rare total solar eclipse occurred across North America on Monday, offering scientists invaluable data on various aspects of the Earth's upper atmosphere, including the Sun's atmosphere, strange animal behaviours, and possible effects on humans. The event came with the Sun near the peak of its 11-year solar cycle, setting the stage for a breathtaking display.Total solar eclipses offer "incredible scientific opportunities," according to NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy. The US space agency was one of the institutions ready for the eclipse, which launched "sounding rockets" to study the effects on Earth's upper atmosphere.
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During an eclipse, the outermost edge of the Sun's atmosphere, or corona, was visible in a special way, with things happening within the corona that scientists struggle to fully understand. Solar flares and solar prominences takes place in the corona, making it more clearly visible than when using specialized instruments to block the central part of the Sun.
The total eclipse also allowed scientists to study changes in part of the Earth's upper atmosphere known as the ionosphere, which affects radio waves used for communication and navigation. NASA's three sounding rockets were launched before, during, and just after the eclipse from Virginia to measure these changes.
The major decrease in sunlight provoked by the eclipse allowed researchers to learn more about how light affects the ionosphere so they can better predict potential problematic disruptions.
Besides that, Animal behaviours have also been noted during eclipses, with giraffes galloping, roosters and crickets crowing and chirping, and temperatures and wind decreasing significantly during an eclipse. Researchers at Cornell University studied how eclipses affect birds using weather surveillance radar to detect birds in flight.
Courtesy: Live Mint
Eco-Anxiety on rise across the generations around the globe
Climate change is exacerbating mental disorders, which already affect almost one billion people and are among the world's biggest causes of ill health. A global survey in 2021 found that more than half of people aged 16-25 felt sad, anxious, or powerless, or had other negative emotions about climate change.Scientists say the topic has been sorely neglected, but is leaping up the research agenda. Researchers want to unpick the many pathways by which climate change affects mental health, from trauma caused by hurricanes, floods, droughts, and fires to 'eco-anxiety'— a chronic fear of environmental doom.
Studies on methods that can help people prevent or manage these problems are also needed, although some work suggests that climate action and activism might help.
A seam of climate injustice is exposed by the research. Young people are likely to experience the greatest mental burden from climate change that older generations have caused. Groups of people that already experience poverty, illness, or inequalities are most at risk of deteriorating mental health. Climate change exacerbates already existing economic situations, where it’s the poorer people who are feeling even worse.
The fact that climate change affects people’s mental health is not surprising: what’s new is the attention the issue is attracting i.e. the myriad ways that scientists are documenting its varied and sometimes shocking effects.
It is well known that extreme weather events and disasters can have an immediate traumatic impact, as well as “a long tail of mental-health conditions like post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, depression, substance abuse,” says Emma Lawrance, who studies mental health at Imperial College London. Also taking a mental-health toll in vulnerable countries are less sudden — but nonetheless devastating — disruptions caused by global warming’s impacts, such as forced migration, loss of livelihoods, food insecurity, and community breakdown.
There is evidence that directly experiencing higher temperatures can worsen mental health. A 2018 study of suicide data from the United States and Mexico over two or more decades showed that suicide rates rose by 0.7% in the United States and 2.1% in Mexico, with a 1 °C increase in average monthly temperature.
Other work has shown that higher temperatures are linked to poor sleep, which can in turn contribute to mental distress. Studies also suggest that people with existing mental illness are at greater risk of dying during extreme heat, but “understanding why that is and what we can do to stop it is really unexplored.
In a 2018 survey, 72% of people aged 18–34 said that negative environmental news stories affected their emotional well-being, such as by causing anxiety, racing thoughts, or sleep problems. A 2020 survey in the United Kingdom found that young people aged 16–24 reported more distress from climate change than from COVID-19.
Climate change is a significant existential crisis that has been affecting humanity for centuries. It is happening now, affecting the entire globe at once, and many people feel angry that they have to bear the brunt of climate change caused by others.
Courtesy: The Nature
First ever eukaryote, an algae that can fix atmospheric nitrogen discovered
Researchers have discovered a type of organelle, called a nitroplast, in algae that can convert nitrogen gas into a form useful for cell growth. This structure, called a nitroplast, could support efforts to genetically engineer plants to convert or 'fix' their own nitrogen, which could boost crop yields and reduce the need for fertilizers.
The discovery was published in Science on 11 April. Ocean ecologist Jonathan Zehr at the University of California, Santa Cruz, a co-author of the study, states that nitrogen fixation only occurs in bacteria and archaea. This species of algae is the "first nitrogen-fixing eukaryote," referring to the group of organisms that includes plants and animals.
J. Zehr and his colleagues had earlier reported that the marine alga “Braarudosphaera bigelowii” interacted closely with a bacterium called UCYN-A that seemed to live in, or on, the algal cells. The researchers hypothesized that UCYN-A converts nitrogen gas into compounds that the algae use to grow, such as ammonia. In return, the bacteria were thought to gain a carbon-based energy source from the algae.
However, in the latest study, Zehr and his colleagues concluded that UCYN-A should be classed as an organelle inside the alga, rather than as a separate organism. According to genetic analysis from a previous study, ancestors of the algae and bacteria entered a symbiotic relationship around 100 million years ago, resulting in the nitroplast organelle, now seen in this particular algae.
Understanding how the nitroplast interacts with its host cell could support efforts to engineer crops that can fix their own nitrogen, which would reduce the need for nitrogen-based fertilizers and avoid some of the environmental damage they cause.
Courtesy: The Nature
New research shed light on how our perception of time is skewed by what we see
A study published in Nature Human Behaviour found that the brain processing of visual information and its perception of time is heavily influenced by what we're looking at. Participants perceived the amount of time they had spent looking at an image differently depending on how large, cluttered, or memorable the contents of the picture were. They were also more likely to remember images that they thought they had viewed for longer. The findings could offer fresh insights into how people experience and keep track of time.
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Research has shown that humans' perception of time is intrinsically linked to our senses. Basic features of an image, such as its colors and contrast, can alter people's perceptions of time spent viewing the image. In the latest study, researchers set out to investigate whether higher-level semantic features, such as memorability, can have the same effect.
The researchers first created a set of 252 images, which varied according to the size of the scene and how cluttered it was. They then developed tests to determine whether those characteristics affected the sense of time in 52 participants. When viewing larger or less-cluttered scenes, participants were more likely to experience time dilation; thinking that they had viewed the picture for longer than they actually did. The opposite effect ‘time constriction’ occurred when viewing smaller-scale, more cluttered images.
To investigate whether more-memorable images could have an effect on time perception, the researchers showed 48 participants a set of 196 images rated according to their memorability by a neural network. Participants not only experienced time dilation when looking at more-memorable images but were also more likely to remember those images the next day.
Questions remain about exactly how people perceive time and how this interacts with memory. The next step would be to validate the findings with a larger sample of participants and refine the model of the visual system.
Courtesy: The Nature
Chinese create the most detailed atlas of the Moon
The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) has released the highest-resolution geological maps of the Moon yet, the Geologic Atlas of the Lunar Globe. Compiled over a decade, the maps reveal 12,341 craters, 81 basins, and 17 rock types, along with other basic geological information about the lunar surface..png "Current Science Report: April 2024") |
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The maps were made at an unprecedented scale of 1:2,500,000. The new lunar atlas is considered a resource for the whole world, as every question in geology starts with looking at a geological map.
The CAS also released a book called Map Quadrangles of the Geologic Atlas of the Moon, comprising 30 sector diagrams that together form a visualization of the whole Moon.
Jianzhong Liu, a geochemist at the CAS Institute of Geochemistry in Guiyang and co-leader of the project, says that existing Moon maps date from the 1960s and 1970s. The US Geological Survey used data from the Apollo missions to create a number of geological maps of the Moon, including a global map at the scale of 1:5,000,000 and some regional, higher-accuracy ones near the landing sites. Since then, our knowledge of the Moon has advanced greatly, and those maps could no longer meet the needs for future lunar research and exploration.
China will use the maps to support its lunar ambitions and will be beneficial to other countries as they undertake their own Moon missions. The updated atlas will help scientists better understand the history of the Moon, evaluate potential lunar resources, and conduct comparative geological studies. It will also inform the location choices of future missions, including where to build a lunar research base.
Chinese researchers started compiling the maps in 2012 as they were searching for the next targets to explore on the Moon. In partnership with Russia and more than a dozen other countries and organizations, China is leading the construction of the International Lunar Research Station, which is intended to take shape in the mid-2030s at the Moon's south pole for scientific exploration and resource exploitation.
Courtesy: The Nature
China sends mission to collect the rocks from the far side of the moon
China is set to embark on its second trip to the Moon's far side, collecting the first rocks from inside the South Pole Aitken (SPA) basin, the largest and oldest impact crater on the lunar surface.
The Chang’e-6 mission, which is now tucked into the nose of a 57-metre-tall Long March 5 rocket, aims to gather the first accurate measurements of the age and composition of the geology of the Moon's far side. This data could provide key clues to why the two sides of the Moon are so different, known as the lunar dichotomy mystery, and help to test theories about the early history of the Solar System.
The SPA basin is a vast indentation on the lower half of the far side and is some 2,500 kilometers wide and 8 kilometers deep. Inside the basin's northeastern part, the mission team, led by deputy chief designer Chunlai Li at the National Astronomical Observatories in Beijing, has identified three potential landing areas.
The researchers think the sites could have a variety of materials formed during repeated asteroid impacts and volcanic eruptions over two billion years, and could therefore be scientifically rich. The most likely rock to be collected is basalt, a dark-colored cooled lava, which has previously been brought back to Earth for analysis from the Moon's near side.
With the first far-side basalt samples, scientists will be able to date them and assess their chemical composition, giving clues to their formation.
Being able to pin down the SPA basin's age would also be a major achievement, says planetary geologist Carolyn van der Bogert from the University of Munster, Germany. It will help settle the long-standing debate about whether the Moon and the inner Solar System was battered by a massive cluster of asteroids between 4.0 and 3.8 billion years ago.
If the SPA basin is older, then it would cast doubt on the heavy bombardment theory. In addition to basalts, scientists hope that Chang’e-6 will also pick up fragments of other rocks that have been scattered during impact events.
Courtesy: The Nature
Peter Higgs, who discovered Gods particle, dies at 94
Peter Higgs, the Nobel prize-winning physicist who proposed the Higgs boson, has passed away at the age of 94. He was awarded the Nobel prize for physics in 2013 for his work in 1964, which showed how the boson helped bind the universe together by giving particles their mass.
After a series of experiments, which began in 2008, his theory was proven by physicists working at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Switzerland in 2012. The Nobel prize was shared with Francois Englert, a Belgian theoretical physicist whose work in 1964 also contributed directly to the discovery.
Higgs spent most of his professional life at Edinburgh University, which set up the Higgs Centre for Theoretical Physics in his honour in 2012. His pioneering work has motivated thousands of scientists and his legacy will continue to inspire many more for generations to come.
Higgs leaves two sons, Chris and Jonny, his daughter-in-law Suzanne, and two grandchildren. His wife, Jody, a linguistics lecturer from whom he separated, died in 2008.
Courtesy: The Guardian
Mathematician who worked on randomness in Algorithms wins Turing award 2023
The 2023 Turing Award, the computing world's Nobel Prize equivalent, has been awarded to mathematician Avi Wigderson for his groundbreaking contributions to computer science. Wigderson focused on randomness and unpredictability, which have had profound impacts on modern computing.Wigderson discovered that adding unknowns (randomness) to algorithms could turn up a solution more easily and quickly, and that randomness could be removed from other algorithms, making it easier to arrive at a solution. His work has had profound impacts on modern computing, with Madhu Sudan, a computer scientist at Harvard University who collaborated with Wigderson on research, stating that there is very little space in computer science without intersecting with his work.
Wigderson's work has expanded far beyond computer science, impacting fields such as cryptography, cloud computing, and blockchain development. For example, his work with randomness and algorithms helped advance zero-knowledge protocols, a crucial method within computer security that allows for the transfer and confirmation of sensitive information between parties.
It is pertinent to mention that the 2024 Abel Prize, the world's top award in mathematics, was given to French mathematician Michel Talagrand last month for his advances in developing formulas to make random processes more predictable.
Courtesy: Smithsonian Magazine
