Bursts of Star Formation explain Mysterious Brightness at Cosmic Dawn

Artist conception of early starbursting galaxies. Stars and galaxies are shown in the bright white points of light, while the more diffuse dark matter and gas are shown in purples and reds. Image by Aaron M. Geller, Northwestern, CIERA + IT-RCDS

Intense flashes of light, not mass, resolve the puzzle of impossible brightness. When scientists viewed the James Webb Space Telescope’s (JWST) first images of the universe’s earliest galaxies, they were shocked. The young galaxies appeared too bright, too massive and too mature to have formed so soon after the Big Bang. It would be like an infant growing into an adult within just a couple years.

The startling discovery even caused some physicists to question the standard model of cosmology, wondering whether or not it should be upended.

Read More

Experimental Nasal Spray may offer Quick, Easy Remedy for Treating Rapid Heartbeat

Heart chambers illustration
Heart chambers illustration
4 chambers of the heart: right atrium, right ventricle, left atrium, left ventricle.
Watch, Learn, and Live Library
copyright American Heart Association

In a new study, etripamil, a rapid- and short-acting investigational medication formulated to be delivered via nasal spray, restored a normal heart rhythm in less than 30 minutes in most users with intermittent rapid heartbeats, sparing them a trip to the emergency room to receive intravenous medication.

A fast-acting medication delivered as a nasal spray may someday allow patients with intermittent rapid heartbeats to treat it themselves as soon as they develop symptoms, according to new research published today in the Journal of the American Heart Association, an open access, peer-reviewed journal of the A...

Read More

Scientists Unveil Fire-Safe Fuel. It Won’t Burn Without Electric Current

Firefighters trying to extinguish a vehicle fire at a gas station. (Thomas Hawk)

UC Riverside chemical engineers have designed a fuel that ignites only with the application of electric current. Since it doesn’t react to flames and cannot start accidental fires during storage or transport, it is a “safe” liquid fuel.

“The fuel we’re normally using is not very safe. It evaporates and could ignite, and it’s difficult to stop that,” said Yujie Wang, UCR chemical engineering doctoral student and co-author of a new paper about the fuel. “It is much easier to control the flammability of our fuel and stop it from burning when we remove voltage.”

The Journal of the American Chemical Society paper describes how the team created the fuel, and additional technical details are also included i...

Read More

We Should Find Extraterrestrial Life within 60 light-years if Earth is Average, professor claims

If earth is average, we should find extraterrestrial life within 60 light-years

In 1960, while preparing for the first meeting on the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI), legendary astronomer and SETI pioneer Dr. Frank Drake unveiled his probabilistic equation for estimating the number of possible civilizations in our galaxy—aka The Drake Equation. A key parameter in this equation was ne, the number of planets in our galaxy capable of supporting life—aka “habitable.” At the time, astronomers were not yet certain other stars had systems of planets. But thanks to missions like Kepler, 5,523 exoplanets have been confirmed, and another 9,867 await confirmation.

Based on this data, astronomers have produced various estimates for the number of habitable planets in our galaxy—at least 100 billion, according to one estimate...

Read More