Astronomers Observe Black Hole Choking On A Star 2.9 Billion Light-Years Away. In 2009, a very bright flash of light was caught by the ROTSE IIIb telescope, sparking confusion as to its origin. Now, a paper in The Astrophysical Journal proposes that the event was the death throes of a star being swallowed by a black hole. However, the consumption is proving unusually difficult for the black hole. When the ROTSE3 J120847.9+430121 event was observed on January 21, 2009, as part of the ROTSE Supernova Verification Project (RSVP), four theories were offered about what could have caused such a brief, bright event. It could be the result of two neutron stars merging, a gamma-ray burst whose main radiation was directed away from us, a superluminous supernova, or a star getting eaten by the supermassive black hole at the center of its galaxy.
Extensive study of Dougie's rapidly fading afterglow, combined with modelling of each of the physical processes, suggested that the consumption of a star was the best fit. 4-Year-Old Australian Boy Receives World’s First Artificial Pancreas. In 2013 alone, over 79,000 children around the globe were diagnosed with type 1 diabetes: an autoimmune disorder that affects the amount of insulin produced by the pancreas. Receiving insulin therapy through a traditional pump or injections can require a lot of work to ensure blood sugar levels are safe, particularly during the night.
A tremendous step forward has been made in the treatment of this disease when a 4-year-old boy from Australia was fitted with the world’s first commercially-available artificial pancreas which automatically regulates his insulin levels. With the device managing insulin output, diabetics who typically test their blood sugar up to eight times a day will need to do so less frequently. Xavier Hames from Perth received the device from Princess Margaret Hospital for Children, where he has been receiving treatment for his diabetes since he was 22 months old.
Read this next: First Waterproof, Wireless Smart Earphones Are A Game Changer. The Speed Of Light Can Vary In A Vacuum. A rare sighting of an upside-down... - I fucking love science. X-rays Reveal Text on Scorched Herculaneum Scrolls. When Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD, it buried several seaside Roman cities including Pompeii and Herculaneum, preserving them under thick volcanic material for many centuries. In the 1750s, hundreds of ancient, handwritten papyrus scrolls were discovered on shelves in the library of Villa dei Papiri in Herculaneum—the only library to have survived from the classical world. But the hot volcanic gas had carbonized the documents, making them too fragile and brittle to unravel. Attempts to read the scrolls have only led to further damage, until now. Using a non-invasive imaging technique, researchers have managed to decipher some of the text in two scorched scrolls.
In antiquity, the most common writing materials were sheets of papyrus and black, carbon-based ink. The researches were able to reconstruct the complete 24-letter Greek alphabet from the rolled-up scroll. “At least we know there are techniques able to read inside the papyri, finally,” Mocella tells New York Times. Images: E. NASA and NOAA Agree: 2014 Was Hottest Year On Record. Though it might be hard to believe right now since the Northern Hemisphere is currently experiencing the coldest part of winter, our average global temperatures are increasing at a worrying rate. NASA and NOAA have analyzed the data independently of one another and yet have arrived at the same conclusion: 2014 is the warmest year on record since 1880. This is the 38th consecutive year with above average surface temperatures. The dataset has been released by NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS). “NASA is at the forefront of the scientific investigation of the dynamics of the Earth’s climate on a global scale,” NASA’s John Grunsfeld said in a press release.
“The observed long-term warming trend and the ranking of 2014 as the warmest year on record reinforces the importance for NASA to study Earth as a complete system, and particularly to understand the role and impacts of human activity.” Surface temperatures in 2014 averaged 0.8° C (1.4° F) warmer than 1880. New Evidence Suggests There Are More Dwarf Planets In Our Solar System. There are five recognized dwarf planets in our solar system, and Pluto is probably the most well-known and well-loved. It has been debated that there are an unknown number of dwarf planets located far beyond Pluto, and science might be on the brink of meeting two of them. The research was published in two papers in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Carlos de la Fuente Marcos from Complutense University of Madrid in Spain was lead author of both papers.
The two dwarf planets were suggested in order to explain the orbits of extreme trans-Neptunian objects (ETNO), which are minor planets beyond Neptune. Theory suggests that these objects should have a semi-major axis of around 145 AU, with an orbit very close to the plane of other planets in the solar system. However, study of 12 ETNOs revealed that the inclination of their orbits was closer to 20 degrees, with semi-major axes vastly varying, reaching up to 525 AU. Insecticide-Drenched Nets Could Have Encouraged The Emergence Of Resistant Hy...
Humans are constantly engaged in an evolutionary arms race with pathogens. We spend years developing drugs, such as antibiotics or antivirals, only for resistance to rapidly appear. The same thing happens when we confront troublesome weeds with herbicides, or crop-ravaging insects with pesticides. Now, humans have been dealt another devastating blow with the emergence of a hybrid malaria mosquito that is resistant to the insecticides on treated bed nets. What’s more, scientists believe that the introduction of these nets could have promoted the emergence of these hybrid “super mosquitoes.” This worrying situation is occurring in Mali, West Africa, which has been struggling with malaria for many years. Because malaria is transmitted by mosquitoes, it is a preventable disease which also has the potential to be eradicated. Millions of these mosquito nets are delivered yearly, including to Mali, and they have been a huge success. Read this next: Shark Giving Birth Caught On Camera.
Temporary Tattoo Monitors Blood Glucose Levels. Scientists from the University of California, San Diego, have developed and tested a tiny stick-on temporary tattoo that painlessly extracts glucose and monitors its levels in the body. It works by gently drawing glucose from between cells to the surface of the skin where it can then be measured by in-built sensors. Not only is the gadget non-invasive and discreet, it’s extremely cheap—costing just a few cents—and works just as well as the dreaded finger prick tests. Although it’s just at a proof-of-concept stage, it’s hoped that one day it could be used to replace painful daily blood sampling, and could even be adapted to test other medically important molecules or deliver medicines. Diabetes affects hundreds of millions of people worldwide and despite many advances in both modern medicine and our understanding of the disease, it remains one of the leading causes of deaths globally. UCSD/Jacobs School of Engineering [Via Analytical Chemistry, UCSD, Gizmodo and Science Alert]
How Big Are The Largest Marine Animals? Comparing the size of large marine animals to everyday objects, such as a school bus, is meant to make it easier to imagine the size of these massive creatures. Unfortunately, this has led to exaggerations and misconceptions about the animal’s true size. In an effort to reign in reality, a team of researchers has analyzed the legitimate sizes of 25 large marine animals. Craig McClain of the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center in North Carolina is lead author on the paper, which was published in the journal PeerJ. "Several years ago I noticed that people kept staying that giant squids reached 60 feet in length, which is amazingly long," McClain said in a press release.
"When I started actually looking at the data, I found that that estimate was actually quite unrealistic.” Much of the confusion about the length of giant squids stemmed from analysis of specimens that had washed onto beaches during the 1800s. A human is included in each column for size comparison. Mega Star Viewed In Unprecedented Detail. A star millions of times as bright as the sun has been imaged using a combination of space and Earth-based telescopes to provide extraordinary detail. The observations could help us predict when the star will go through an explosion that is likely to offer us a spectacular show. Within the Eta Carinae stellar system is a truly phenomenal star, with an estimated mass so great it has forced us to reconsider how heavy stars can be without blowing themselves apart. More massive stars have since been found, and it is thought they once grew bigger still, but nothing so large is anything like it so close.
In 1843, Eta Carinae had an extraordinary outburst, making it temporarily the second brightest star in the sky. Its fading is thought to result from a cloaking cloud of dust, rather than any diminution of emitted light. We now know Eta Carinae is two stars orbiting each other with a period of 5.5 years. Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/T. Coming To A River Near You: The Invasion Of The Intersex Demon Shrimp. Demon vs killer shrimp sounds like the latest CGI movie to come out of Hollywood. But in fact these are two particularly pernicious crustaceans that have been making their way westward across Europe from countries surrounding the Black Sea, eradicating native freshwater rivals en route.
Unlike the meatier species we might be more familiar with from our dining plates, the killer shrimp (Dikerogammarus villosus) and the demon (D. Haemobaphes) are technically amphipods, a group of small, flattened, shrimp-like creatures. They’re barely bigger than a finger nail, yet they possess the most striking and dramatic of common names. The titles are somewhat justified. These shrimp not only out-compete the slightly smaller native (Gammarus pulex) for space and food, as often happens with invasive species, they go much further – killer and demon shrimp directly prey on the hapless locals. Demon shrimp are measured in millimetres. Facing The Demons It’s an important question. Diseases And Parasites. Mysterious Legendary Metal From Atlantis Found In Shipwreck Off Sicily.
When the mythical island of Atlantis famously submerged into the ocean, it took all of its orichalcum with it. The legendary cast metal was reputedly second only to gold in value. Now, a team of divers say they’ve recovered 39 blocks of orichalcum in a sixth-century shipwreck on the seafloor near Sicily, Discovery News reports. The 2,600-year-old ship, likely from Greece or somewhere in Asia Minor, was carrying the metal to Gela in southern Sicily when it was caught in a storm and sank around 300 meters (1,000 feet) from the port. "Nothing similar has ever been found," Sebastiano Tusa of Sicily's Sea Office says. "We knew orichalcum from ancient texts and a few ornamental objects. " Experts nowadays agree that orichalcum is a brass-like alloy that was made in that past by reacting zinc ore, charcoal, and copper metal.
Tusa’s team is now working on excavating the entire shipwreck, which may reveal more about artisan workshops in antiquity. Why Did This Mysterious Ancient Chinese Civilization Disappear? One of the oldest known Chinese civilizations disappeared approximately 3000 years ago. However, some evidence suggests it relocated, rather than collapsing, and a new theory suggests this was driven by a distant earthquake redirecting the river that once fed the valley in which the people once lived.
The first artifacts from the Sanxingdui civilization near Chengdu, Sichuan, were found in 1929, but it was only in 1986 that the astonishing richness of the culture came to light. Bronze statues 2.4m tall were larger than anything produced elsewhere in the world at the time, and a formidable set of canals provided irrigation and defence. Sanxingdui would hardly be unique in reaching an awe-inspiring peak before being destroyed by war or environmental disaster.
"The current explanations for why it disappeared are war and flood, but both are not very convincing," Niannian Fan of Sichuan University told LiveScience. Fan et al. New Study Reveals Most Influential Languages. What makes a language important on a global scale? Is it the oldest? The one spoken by the most people? What about the one that has the greatest ability to reach other people by being translated? A multidisciplinary research team has examined the languages of the world and categorized them on how widely certain forms of media are translated into other languages. César Hidalgo of MIT led the research, and the paper was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. “Of the many languages that have ever been spoken, only a few of them have been able to achieve global prominence, they have been important enough to become a global language,” Hidalgo told Serious Science. The researchers began to form their Global Language Network by identifying sources of media that had been translated into multiple languages.
The map shows what languages are connected to one another, with the thickest lines indicating the strongest links. [Hat tip: Science] New Analysis Suggests Sixth Mass Extinction Could Occur By 2200. We’ve already been warned that our planet faces a sixth mass extinction, and some even believe that we are already in the early stages of such an event. Now, the harsh reality of the impending situation has been highlighted by the scientific journal Nature, with a special report detailing the threats that major animal groups face. According to the analysis, those predicted to take the greatest hit are amphibians, with an alarming 41% of species within this group facing extinction. But mammals and birds won’t get off lightly, with 26% and 13% of species similarly threatened, respectively.
Among the known critically endangered species are numerous different primates, such as the snub-nosed monkey, black rhinos, the yangtzee river dolphin, western gorillas and the Amur leopard. But many species that are currently only listed as endangered also face being wiped out, such as bonobos and loggerhead turtles. The primary driver? Humans. So what can we do? The Most Influential Scientist You May Never Have Heard Of. Gaze at Alexander Von Humboldt’s 1814 self-portrait and you peer into the eyes of a man who sought to see and understand everything. By this point in his life, at age 45, Humboldt had tutored himself in every branch of science, spent more than five years on a 6,000 mile scientific trek through South America, pioneered new methods for the graphical display of information, set a world mountain climbing record that stood for 30 years and established himself as one of the world’s most famous scientists, having helped to define many of today’s natural sciences.
Humboldt, born in Berlin, is sometimes called the last Renaissance man – he embodied all that was known about the world in his day. He spent the last three decades of his life writing Kosmos, an attempt to provide a scientific account of all aspects of nature. An 1823 map using Humboldt’s innovation of isotherm lines, which connect points that average the same temperature. In reflecting on this ambition in Kosmos, Humboldt wrote: Is Stephen Hawking Right? Could AI Lead To The End Of Humankind? Teen Invents Device To Protect His Grandfather From Alzheimer’s-Related Wande... Deadly Gamma-Ray Burst Could Have Triggered A Mass Extinction On Earth. Every Ship That Has Carried Humans Into Space Scaled Into One Chart. Is There a Parallel Universe That's Moving Backwards in Time?
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