‘Starquakes’ could Explain Mystery Signals

Two scatter charts and two line graphs
Comparing FRBs and earthquakes. The researchers analyzed the time and energy distribution of FRB and earthquake events, and by plotting the aftershock likelihood as a function of time lag, they found that the two are very similar. ©2023 T. Totani & Y. Tsuzuki

Fast radio bursts from distant neutron stars resemble earthquakes rather than solar flares. Fast radio bursts, or FRBs, are an astronomical mystery, with their exact cause and origins still unconfirmed. These intense bursts of radio energy are invisible to the human eye, but show up brightly on radio telescopes. Previous studies have noted broad similarities between the energy distribution of repeat FRBs, and that of earthquakes and solar flares...

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Calorie Restriction in Humans Builds Strong Muscle and Stimulates Healthy Aging Genes

NIA Caloric restriction
The research found calorie restriction improves muscle health and offers additional health benefits.

CREDIT: Illustration courtesy of NIA.

A small reduction in daily calories is beneficial for wellness. Reducing overall calorie intake may rejuvenate your muscles and activate biological pathways important for good health, according to researchers at the National Institutes of Health and their colleagues. Decreasing calories without depriving the body of essential vitamins and minerals, known as calorie restriction, has long been known to delay the progression of age-related diseases in animal models. This new study, published in Aging Cell, suggests the same biological mechanisms may also apply to humans.

Researchers analyzed data from participants in the Comprehensive Assessment of L...

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Simulations of ‘Backwards Time Travel’ can Improve Scientific Experiments

Digital generated image of abstract glowing tech data tunnel
Digital generated image of abstract glowing tech data tunnel
Credit: Yaroslav Kushta via Getty Images

Physicists have shown that simulating models of hypothetical time travel can solve experimental problems that appear impossible to solve using standard physics.

If gamblers, investors and quantum experimentalists could bend the arrow of time, their advantage would be significantly higher, leading to significantly better outcomes.

Researchers at the University of Cambridge have shown that by manipulating entanglement — a feature of quantum theory that causes particles to be intrinsically linked — they can simulate what could happen if one could travel backwards in time...

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Finding Explanation for Milky Way’s Warp Astronomers’ results Bolster Hypothesis of How Galaxy Evolved

The Milky Way’s galactic disk is warped and flared, similar to Galaxy ESO pictured here. Credit: NASA/Space Telescope Science Institute
The Milky Way’s galactic disk is warped and flared, similar to Galaxy ESO pictured here. 
Credit: NASA/Space Telescope Science Institute

The Milky Way is often depicted as a flat, spinning disk of dust, gas, and stars. But if you could zoom out and take an edge-on photo, it actually has a distinctive warp — as if you tried to twist and bend a vinyl LP.

Though scientists have long known through observational data that the Milky Way is warped and its edges are flared like a skirt, no one could explain why.

Now, Harvard astronomers at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard and Smithsonian (CfA) have performed the first calculations that fully explain this phenomenon, with compelling evidence pointing to the Milky Way’s envelopment in an off-kilter halo of dark matter...

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