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    Massive Gas Disk raises questions about Planet Formation Theory

    December 25, 2019, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    20191223_Higuchi_49Ceti_ALMA_separated_E
    ALMA image of the debris disk around the young star 49 Ceti. The distribution of dust is shown in red; the distribution of carbon monoxide is shown in green; and the distribution of carbon atoms is shown in blue.
    Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), Higuchi et al.

    Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) found a young star surrounded by an astonishing mass of gas. The star, called 49 Ceti, is 40 million years old and conventional theories of planet formation predict that the gas should have disappeared by that age. The enigmatically large amount of gas requests a reconsideration of our current understanding of planet formation.

    Planets are formed in gaseous dusty disks called protoplanetary disks around young stars...

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    Researchers produce First Laser Ultrasound Images of Humans

    December 23, 2019, Categories  Physics, Health/Medical, Biology/Biotechnology

    A new ultrasound technique uses lasers to produce images beneath the skin, without making contact with the skin as conventional ultrasound probes do. The new laser ultrasound technique was used to produce an image (left) of a human forearm (above), which was also imaged using conventional ultrasound (right).
    Image courtesy of the researchers

    Technique may help remotely image and assess health of infants, burn victims, and accident survivors in hard-to-reach place...

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    Mealworms safely consume Toxic Additive-containing Plastic

    December 23, 2019, Categories  Health/Medical, Biology/Biotechnology

    A new Stanford study shows mealworms can eat Styrofoam containing a common toxic chemical additive and still be safely used as protein-rich feedstock for other animals. (Image credit: Getty Images)

    Tiny mealworms may hold part of the solution to our giant plastics problem. Not only are they able to consume various forms of plastic, as previous Stanford research has shown, they can eat Styrofoam containing a common toxic chemical additive and still be safely used as protein-rich feedstock for other animals, according to a new Stanford study published in Environmental Science & Technology.

    The study is the first to look at where chemicals in plastic end up after being broken down in a natural system – a yellow mealworm’s gut, in this case...

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    Nightside Barrier gently Brakes ‘Bursty’ Plasma Bubbles

    December 23, 2019, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    An image from a magnetohydrodynamic simulation by the Gamera project at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory shows bursty flows (in red and brown) in the plasma sheet. Rice University space plasma physicists developed algorithms to measure the buoyancy waves that appear in thin filaments of magnetic flux on Earth’s nightside. Credit: K. Sorathia/JHUAPL

    Physicists extend Rice Convection Model with details of magnetospheric buoyancy waves. The solar wind that pummels the Earth’s dayside magnetosphere causes turbulence, like air over a wing. Physicists at Rice University have developed new methods to characterize how that influences space weather on the nightside.

    It’s rarely quiet up there...

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