Monthly Archives: August 2020

Not even a decade ago, scientists discovered a bizarre new state of matter in which atoms arranged themselves in a repeating pattern, similar to what youd find in a crystal metal or rock.

But rather than only being arranged in a pattern in space, these atoms were in constant motion over time as well. And thats how they got their fantastical name: time crystals.

The unusual phenomenon has only been observed a handful of times since synthesizing time crystals for the first time but now, an international team of researchers have achieved the next breakthrough: theyve observed two time crystals interacting with each other.

Controlling the interaction of two time crystals is a major achievement, Samuli Autti from Lancaster University, lead author of an article about the work published in the journal Nature Materials, said in a statement. Before this, nobody had observed two time crystals in the same system, let alone seen them interact.

This means that we could be one step closer to actually taking advantage of time crystals, likely within atomic clocks. Atomic clocks measure time far more accurately than a standard clock by using minuscule changes in frequencies, and have been used in the creation of GPS.

The team also suggests that their experiment proves that time crystals obey the general dynamics of quantum mechanics and that it should be further investigated whether they could be applied in the field of quantum information processing.

To make their observation, the team observed a rare helium isotope called Helium-3, which has one missing neutron, at within one ten thousandth of a degree from absolute zero (-273.15 degrees Celsius). At these cold temperatures, helium forms a superfluid, behaving like a liquid with zero viscosity.

In this state, the researchers created two time crystals and allowed them to touch each other. For the first time, they observed particles flowing back and forth from one crystal to the other. In physics, thats known as the Josephson effect when a current flows uninterrupted without any voltage being applied, usually observed with two or more superconductors.

READ MORE: First ever observation of time crystals interacting [Lancaster University]

More on time crystals: Physicists Created the First-Ever Time Crystals

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Scientists Observe Time Crystals Interacting With Each Other - Futurism

RoBeetle

A team of researchers have built a tiny microbot that runs entirely on methanol, a type of alcohol. The robot, dubbed RoBeetle, weighs less than a tenth of a gram and doesnt even need any other external power sources such as cables or electromagnetic fields to crawl along.

The energy density of batteries is very low, so we needed new sources of power, Nestor Perez-Arancibia at the University of Southern California, the designer of the robot, told New Scientist. We were able to make it so light and small because were not relying on batteries.

Heres how it works: as the methanol vapor of the fuel burns, tiny nickel-titanium alloy wires the robots artificial muscles repeatedly expand and then contract as they cool, causing it to crawl forward.

According to the researchers paper published in Science Robotics on Wednesday, the RoBeetle is a real powerhouse. It can lug 2.6 times its own weight. It can also carry an additional 95 milligram fuel tank, allowing it to crawl along for up to two hours.

The team is now trying to figure out how to keep it running for even longer. Theyre also seeing if they can attach wings to the tiny robot with funding from DARPA.

We want to create the first completely autonomous flying robot at beetle scale, Perez-Arancibia told New Scientist.

READ MORE: Watch a tiny robot powered by alcohol [Science]

More on robots: US Army Scientist Brags That Hes Trying to Build the Bad Guy From Terminator 2

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Relatable: This Tiny Robot Is Powered by Alcohol - Futurism

A team of Harvard astronomers have a wild new theory: the Sun used to have a companion star, making our solar system a binary one during its ancient history.

The astronomers say the theory could explain the formation of the Oort cloud, a theoretical cloud of dust and smaller objects in the distant regions of our solar system that many believe was created out of the left overs from the early solar system.

In a new preprint submitted last month to the preprint archive arXiv, the team suggests that the Sun used to have a long lost binary star companion. Such a system could explain how some objects were scattered to the far reaches of the solar system, sometimes even making it to neighboring systems and vice versa.

Previous models have had difficulty producing the expected ratio between scattered disk objects and outer Oort cloud objects, Amir Siraj, a Harvard undergraduate student involved in the research, said in a statement. The binary capture model offers significant improvement and refinement, which is seemingly obvious in retrospect: most Sun-like stars are born with binary companions.

A binary star system would be far more likely to capture the Oort cloud.

Binary systems are far more efficient at capturing objects than are single stars, co-author Avi Loeb said in the statement. If the Oort cloud formed as observed, it would imply that the Sun did in fact have a companion of similar mass that was lost before the Sun left its birth cluster.

The theory could also have sweeping implications of how life came to be on Earth.

Objects in the outer Oort Cloud may have played important roles in Earths history, such as possibly delivering water to Earth and causing the extinction of the dinosaurs, said Siraj.

The implications dont end there. Some astronomers believe our solar system is hiding a ninth major planet from us, dubbed Planet Nine. This potential planet so far has been hypothesized to be anything from a massive super-Earth planet to a collection of over 100 minor planets found well beyond the orbit of Neptune or even a tiny black hole.

The astronomers want to use the upcoming Vera C Rubin Observatory (VRO), slated to begin operations early next year, to confirm the existence of Planet Nine and other potential trans-Neptunian objects like it.

It is unclear where they came from, and our new model predicts that there should be more objects with a similar orbital orientation to Planet Nine, Loeb said.

If the VRO verifies the existence of Planet Nine, and a captured origin, and also finds a population of similarly captured dwarf planets, then the binary model will be favored over the lone stellar history that has been long-assumed, Siraj argued.

The team suggests that the Suns long lost binary companion would have been removed by other stars, born alongside our Sun in the same cluster, through their gravitational influence.

The Suns long-lost companion could now be anywhere in the Milky Way, Siraj said.

READ MORE: The sun may have started its life with a binary companion [Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics]

More on Planet Nine: Astronomers Want to Figure Out What the Hell Planet Nine Is

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Harvard Astronomers Propose That Our Star System Used to Be Binary - Futurism

Leaking Air

NASA is investigating a small air leak on board the International Space Station. Luckily, the three current crew members arent in immediate danger, according to NASA, and will spend the upcoming weekend inside the Russian segment of the station as they try to find the source of the leak.

A small amount of air leakingout of the station is to be expected.

The stations atmosphere is maintained at pressure comfortable for the crew members, and a tiny bit of that air leaks over time, requiring routine repressurization from nitrogen tanks delivered on cargo resupply missions, reads a NASA statement.

That leak rate, however, has slightly increased, according to NASA, so the teams are working a plan to isolate, identify, and potentially repair the source.

While hunkered down in the Russian segment of the ISS, the crew will close all hatches so that mission control can monitor air pressure in each module. NASA expects some kind of answer by the end of next week.

The Russian segment will allow all three astronauts to float around the main Zvezda module, the Poisk mini-research module, and their Soyuz MS-16 spacecraft.

READ MORE: NASA investigating small air leak on International Space Station [Space.com]

More on the ISS: Researchers Built a Gravity Suit to Keep Astronauts Healthy

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NASA Says There's a Small Leak on the International Space Station - Futurism

According to researchers at the University of Illinois, a supernova 65 light-years from Earth likely caused a mass extinction event during the Late Devonian period, 359 million years ago.

The researchers found radioactive isotopes in rocks that may be able to confirm such an event, as detailed in a new paper published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

During the Late Devonian period, when most life was found in the oceans, one of the worst mass extinctions in Earths history gravely damaged its ecosystem. Yet its never been clear what caused it.

To explain the event, the team looked at rocks that contain ancient plant spores. These spores appeared to have been severely sunburnt by ultraviolet light, likely the consequence of a long-term lack of ozone in the atmosphere.

Earth-based catastrophes such as large-scale volcanism and global warming can destroy the ozone layer, too, but evidence for those is inconclusive for the time interval in question, astronomy and physics professor Brian Fields, lead author, said in a statement. Instead, we propose that one or more supernova explosions, about 65 light-years away from Earth, could have been responsible for the protracted loss of ozone.

It would have been quite the event, lighting up the skies.

To put this into perspective, one of the closest supernova threats today is from the star Betelgeuse, which is over 600 light-years away and well outside of the kill distance of 25 light-years, graduate student and study co-author Adrienne Ertel added.

The team also looked at other ozone depletion causes, including meteorite impacts, and gamma-ray bursts, but those wouldnt have caused a depletion in the longer term.

They suggest that the violent supernova flooded our planet with dangerous UV, X-, and gamma rays, irradiating the ozone layer with effects that would have lasted for up to 100,000 years, according to the researchers.

To confirm their suspicions, the team is now looking for the smoking gun two specific radioactive isotopes of plutonium, originating from the Late Devonian period, that only could have come to Earth from cosmic explosions.

The overarching message of our study is that life on Earth does not exist in isolation, Fields explains. We are citizens of a larger cosmos, and the cosmos intervenes in our lives often imperceptibly, but sometimes ferociously.

READ MORE: An Exploding Star 65 Light-Years From Earth May Have Triggered a Mass Extinction [Science Alert]

More on supernovas: Scientists Discover That Bones Are Made Out of Stars

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Scientists: Exploding Star Likely Caused Mass Extinction on Earth - Futurism

The Fastest Charger

Electric car company Lucid Motors claims that that its Lucid Air luxury sedan will be the fastest charging electric vehicle ever offered with the capability to charge at rates of up to 20 miles per minute, according to a press release.

Thats about 300 miles of range in just 20 minutes of charging, according to the company, which is making a pretty big deal out of its upcoming four door sedan right now. Just last week, Lucid announced that the vehicle will have awhopping 517 miles (832 km) on a single charge, beating out Teslas current range king, the Model S, with an estimated 402 miles.

Today, Lucid announced a 900-volt charger that can charge at an impressive rate of up to 300 kilowatts. To put that into perspective, the third generation of Teslas Supercharger network maxes out at 250 kW.

Lucid claims its charging tech will have full interoperability with public charging infrastructure, including existing 350 kilowatt fast chargers that are currently being built in the country.

But it will also with the help of Electrify America, a subsidiary of Volkswagen build out a separate fast charger network in the US, using the Combined Charging System (CCS) standard.

The company also announced what it claims to be the first-ever bidirectional AC charging station for the home, meaning that the charger can use their Lucid Air to pump electricity back into houses or off-grid vacation properties, according to the release, like a giant battery.

READ MORE: Lucid Motors boasts it will have the fastest charging electric vehicle ever offered [The Verge]

More on Lucid: Tesla Competitor, Lucid, Claims Their Car Will Have a 517 Mile Range

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Tesla Competitor Claims Its Car Will Be the "Fastest Charging" EV Ever - Futurism

With the endless torrent of COVID-19 updates, its easy to forget that there are other diseases spreading around the world.

Well, fret no more! Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and top White House coronavirus adviser, is here to remind you just how many dangerous outbreaks are happening right now.

Nipah Virus in southern India, measles in the U.S., diphtheria in Russia, and dozens more outbreaks are all pinpointed on a map that Fauci published alongside a preprint paper soon to be published in the journal Cell. Its meant to an educational resource. The paper lays out the myriad global conditions that enabled COVID-19 to bring the planet to its knees. But, as Gizmodo astutely points out, its also such a bummer.

The paper itself describes how genetic mutations can make diseases more or less dangerous and infectious over time. For instance, it points out that the common cold used to cause deadly epidemics before evolving into a far milder disease.

Thats not to say that the coronavirus will do the same, as Gizmodo notes. But it is interesting to see how past epidemics and outbreaks have shaped the current landscape of global diseases.

Read more from the original source:
Dr. Fauci Just Released a World Map of Ongoing Disease Outbreaks - Futurism

Beginning next week, 40,000 volunteers will take the coronavirus vaccine that was recently approved and lauded by the Russian government.

The vaccine, which Russia has dubbed Sputnik V, is going to be distributed in a randomized, double-blinded, and placebo-controlled clinical study, Ars Technica reports. Such large-scale experiments are a crucial part of making sure that a vaccine or any other medical treatment is both safe and effective but its also something that usually happens before that vaccine is approved amidst fanfare.

Its that reverse order that has experts around the world skeptical of Russias claims. Doctors have only tested Sputnik V in small, earlier-stage clinical trials, and the data from those experiments still arent available.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has been trying to get any sort of information about those earlier studies out of the Russian government, Ars Technica reports, but to little avail. That doesnt necessarily mean that the vaccine doesnt work as well as the Russian government claims but,at the same time, theres no evidence available that it does.

And some of Russias claims are pretty bold.

I know it has proven efficient and forms a stable immunity, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced earlier this month, according to AP News. We must be grateful to those who made that first step very important for our country and the entire world.

But without cold, hard data, experts are unlikely to be swayed.

Its essential we dont cut corners in safety or efficacy, WHO senior emergency official Catherine Smallwood told AP News.

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40,000 Russians Are About to Get That Untested COVID-19 Vaccine - Futurism