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First transiting exoplanet’s ‘chemical fingerprint’ reveals its distant birthplace

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Astronomers have found evidence that the first exoplanet that was identified transiting its star could have migrated to a close orbit with its star from its original birthplace further away.

Analysis of the planet’s atmosphere by a team including University of Warwick scientists has identified the chemical fingerprint of a planet that formed much further away from its sun than it currently resides.

It confirms previous thinking that the planet has moved to its current position after forming, a mere 7 million km from its sun or the equivalent of 1/20th the distance from the Earth to our Sun. [Read more…] about First transiting exoplanet’s ‘chemical fingerprint’ reveals its distant birthplace

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    On the quest for other EarthsIn the search for planets capable of sustaining life, an international research team with members from ETH has taken a significant step forward. As the researchers reported recently in the journal Nature Communications, they found signs of a Neptune-sized planet in the Alpha Centauri star system, a mere 4.4 light years…
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Heavy water tastes sweet

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Ordinary pure water has no distinct taste, but how about heavy water – does it taste sweet, as anecdotal evidence going back to 1930s may have indicated? And if yes – why, when D2O is chemically practically identical to H2O, of which it is a stable naturally-occurring isotope?

These questions arose shortly after heavy water was isolated almost 100 years ago, but they had not been satisfactorily answered until now.

Now, researchers Pavel Jungwirth and Phil Mason with students Carmelo Tempra and Victor Cruces Chamorro at the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences (IOCB Prague), together with the group of Masha Niv at the Hebrew University and Maik Behrens at the Technical University of Munich, found answers to these questions using molecular dynamics simulations, cell-based experiments, mouse models, and human subjects. [Read more…] about Heavy water tastes sweet

Keep pace: Walking with a partner is great but might slow you down

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If you walk with your spouse or partner on a regular basis, you might want to speed up. Or tell them to.

A new study by Purdue University nursing, health and kinesiology, and human development and family studies researchers shows that couples often decreased their speed when walking together. Speed further decreased if they were holding hands.

The study looked at walking times and gait speeds of 141 individuals from 72 couples. The participants ranged from age 25-79 and were in numerous settings, including clear or obstacle-filled pathways, walking together, walking together holding hands and walking individually. [Read more…] about Keep pace: Walking with a partner is great but might slow you down

Making cleaner, greener plastics from waste fish parts

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Polyurethanes, a type of plastic, are nearly everywhere – in shoes, clothes, refrigerators and construction materials. But these highly versatile materials can have a major downside. Derived from crude oil, toxic to synthesize, and slow to break down, conventional polyurethanes are not environmentally friendly. Today, researchers discuss devising what they say should be a safer, biodegradable alternative derived from fish waste – heads, bones, skin and guts – that would otherwise likely be discarded.

The researchers will present their results today at the spring meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS). ACS Spring 2021 is being held online April 5-30. Live sessions will be hosted April 5-16, and on-demand and networking content will continue through April 30. The meeting features nearly 9,000 presentations on a wide range of science topics.

If developed successfully, a fish-oil based polyurethane could help meet the immense need for more sustainable plastics, says Francesca Kerton, PhD, the project’s principal investigator. “It is important that we start designing plastics with an end-of-life plan, whether it’s chemical degradation that turns the material into carbon dioxide and water, or recycling and repurposing.” [Read more…] about Making cleaner, greener plastics from waste fish parts

Multilingual people have an advantage over those fluent in only two languages

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Multilingual people have trained their brains to learn languages, making it easier to acquire more new languages after mastering a second or third.

In addition to demystifying the seemingly herculean genius of multilinguals, researchers say these results provide some of the first neuroscientific evidence that language skills are additive, a theory known as the cumulative?enhancement model of language acquisition.

“The traditional idea is, if you understand bilinguals, you can use those same details to understand multilinguals. We rigorously checked that possibility with this research and saw multilinguals’ language acquisition skills are not equivalent, but superior to those of bilinguals,” said Professor Kuniyoshi L. Sakai from the University of Tokyo, an expert in the neuroscience of language and last author of the research study recently published in Scientific Reports. [Read more…] about Multilingual people have an advantage over those fluent in only two languages

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New method uses smartphone cameras to measure pulse, breathing rate and could help telehealth

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Telehealth has become a critical way for doctors to still provide health care while minimizing in-person contact during Covid-19. But with phone or Zoom appointments, it’s harder for doctors to get important vital signs from a patient, such as their pulse or respiration rate, in real time.

A University of Washington-led team has developed a method that uses the camera on a person’s smartphone or computer to take their pulse and respiration signal from a real-time video of their face. The researchers presented this state-of-the-art system in December at the Neural Information Processing Systems conference.

Now the team is proposing a better system to measure these physiological signals. This system is less likely to be tripped up by different cameras, lighting conditions or facial features, such as skin color. The researchers will present these findings April 8 at the ACM Conference on Health, Interference, and Learning. [Read more…] about New method uses smartphone cameras to measure pulse, breathing rate and could help telehealth

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New research shows photovoltaics ‘can make the world fossil-free faster than expected’

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A team of researchers led by Aarhus University and including experts from universities and knowledge institutions in the US, Europe, Japan and Australia has published an article in the prestigious scientific journal Joule confirming that the role of solar photovoltaic installations in future green energy systems ought to be significantly upgraded.

Solar photovoltaic technology has undergone dramatic development over the past 14 years causing the technology to be cheaper already today than has otherwise been assumed in the models that the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) uses for its 2050 scenarios.

“And there is good reason to believe that this development will continue. Intensive research is being conducted into photovoltaic technology, its integration into energy systems, as well as its synergy with other industries. Furthermore, innovative technologies are on the way that could further boost this development,” says Assistant Professor Marta Victoria from the Department of Mechanical and Production Engineering at Aarhus University, who is the leading author of the article. [Read more…] about New research shows photovoltaics ‘can make the world fossil-free faster than expected’

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The very first structures in the Universe

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The very first moments of the Universe can be reconstructed mathematically even though they cannot be observed directly.

Physicists from the Universities of Göttingen and Auckland (New Zealand) have greatly improved the ability of complex computer simulations to describe this early epoch.

They discovered that a complex network of structures can form in the first trillionth of a second after the Big Bang. [Read more…] about The very first structures in the Universe

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Turning wood into plastic: Yale scientists show how wood can be transformed into slurry

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Efforts to shift from petrochemical plastics to renewable and biodegradable plastics have proven tricky – the production process can require toxic chemicals and is expensive, and the mechanical strength and water stability is often insufficient. But researchers have made a breakthrough, using wood byproducts, that shows promise for producing more durable and sustainable bioplastics.

A study published in Nature Sustainability, co-authored by Yuan Yao, assistant professor of industrial ecology and sustainable systems at Yale School of the Environment (YSE), outlines the process of deconstructing the porous matrix of natural wood into a slurry.

The researchers say the resulting material shows a high mechanical strength, stability when holding liquids, and UV-light resistance. It can also be recycled or safely biodegraded in the natural environment, and has a lower life-cycle environmental impact when compared with petroleum-based plastics and other biodegradable plastics. [Read more…] about Turning wood into plastic: Yale scientists show how wood can be transformed into slurry

Seattle’s minimum wage increase did not change crime or employment rates

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Between 2015 and 2017, Seattle, Washington, became the first U.S. city to increase its hourly minimum wage to $15, more than double the federal minimum wage and 60 percent higher than Seattle’s previous minimum wage.

A new study examined the impact of this change on public safety.

The study was motivated by the idea that since crime is sometimes the result of material deprivation, changes in the minimum wage might have implications for criminal activity: Boosting the minimum wage could raise workers’ salaries (which could be associated with reduced crime). [Read more…] about Seattle’s minimum wage increase did not change crime or employment rates