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    A Massive Galaxy long ago and Far away

    February 6, 2017, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    1. An extremely massive elliptical galaxy at about three billion years after the big bang, as seen in an optical/near-infrared image. The galaxy is about ten times more massive than the Milky Way. Today the galaxy is not actively producing new stars, but its population of old, red stars appears to be the result of earlier episodes during which the galaxy was one of the most active star-forming examples known. Credit: NASA/Hubble 2. Age and abundance patterns of COSMOS-11494 in comparison to lower-redshift quiescent galaxies.

    1. An extremely massive elliptical galaxy at about three billion years after the big bang, as seen in an optical/near-infrared image. The galaxy is about ten times more massive than the Milky Way. Today the galaxy is not actively producing new stars, but its population of old, red stars appears to be the result of earlier episodes during which the galaxy was one of the most active star-forming examples known. Credit: NASA/Hubble
    2. Age and abundance patterns of COSMOS-11494 in comparison to lower-redshift quiescent galaxies.

    Galaxies today fall roughly into 2 categories: elliptically-shaped collections of reddish, old stars that formed predominantly during a period early in the history of the universe, and spiral shaped objects dominated by blue, young stars...

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    Missing Link for Fighting Viral Pneumonia identified

    February 5, 2017, Categories  Health/Medical, Biology/Biotechnology

    Loss of IL-27 signaling results in increased disease severity and lung immunopathology after SeV.

    Loss of IL-27 signaling results in increased disease severity and lung immunopathology after SeV.

    Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) causes ~60,000 hospitalizations of children aged 0 to four, and nearly 200,000 hospitalizations and 14,000 deaths among adults 65 and older. However, there are virtually no vaccines or treatments for these infections. Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine found evidence that cytokine Interleukin 27 (IL-27), may be the key to fighting and treating these infections.

    Working with a mouse-model of parainfluenza virus infection, Sendai virus, which causes similar symptoms and patterns of tissue damage to RSV, researchers found that mice fared much worse in fighting the infectio...

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    Protecting Quantum Computing Networks against Hacking Threats

    February 5, 2017, Categories  Physics, Technology/Electronics

    Ebrahim Karimi and Frederic Bouchard

    Professor Ebrahim Karimi, a member of uOttawa’s Department of Physics and holder of the Canada Research Chair in Structured Light, and doctoral student Frédéric Bouchard observe the setup they used to clone the photons that transmit information, called qudits.

    As we saw during the 2016 US election, protecting traditional computer systems from hackers is not a perfect science. University of Ottawa have uncovered clues that could help administrators protect quantum computing networks from external attacks. “Our team has built the first high-dimensional quantum cloning machine capable of performing quantum hacking to intercept a secure quantum message,” said University of Ottawa Department of Physics professor Ebrahim Karimi, who holds the Canada Research Chair in Structured Light...

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    Bump on a Plot from Chandra X-ray observatory reveals excess of X-rays, hinting at Dark Matter

    February 5, 2017, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    A massive cluster of yellowish galaxies, seemingly caught in a red and blue spider web of eerily distorted background galaxies, makes for a spellbinding picture from the new Advanced Camera for Surveys aboard NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. To make this unprecedented image of the cosmos, Hubble peered straight through the center of one of the most massive galaxy clusters known, called Abell 1689. The gravity of the cluster's trillion stars — plus dark matter — acts as a 2-million-light-year-wide lens in space. This gravitational lens bends and magnifies the light of the galaxies located far behind it. Some of the faintest objects in the picture are probably over 13 billion light-years away (redshift value 6). Strong gravitational lensing as observed by the Hubble Space Telescope in Abell 1689 indicates the presence of dark matter. Credit: NASA, N. Benitez (JHU), T. Broadhurst (Racah Institute of Physics/The Hebrew University), H. Ford (JHU), M. Clampin (STScI),G. Hartig (STScI), G. Illingworth (UCO/Lick Observatory), the ACS Science Team and ESA Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2017-02-plot-chandra-x-ray-observatory-reveals.html#jCp

    A massive cluster of yellowish galaxies, seemingly caught in a red and blue spider web of eerily distorted background galaxies, makes for a spellbinding picture from the new Advanced Camera for Surveys aboard NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. To make this unprecedented image of the cosmos, Hubble peered straight through the center of one of the most massive galaxy clusters known, called Abell 1689. The gravity of the cluster’s trillion stars — plus dark matter — acts as a 2-million-light-year-wide lens in space. This gravitational lens bends and magnifies the light of the galaxies located far behind it. Some of the faintest objects in the picture are probably over 13 billion light-years away (redshift value 6)...

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