Recent Comments

    Mysteriously bright flash is a black hole jet pointing straight toward Earth, astronomers say

    December 1, 2022, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Artist’s impression of star being tidally disrupted by a supermassive black hole
    Artist’s impression of star being tidally disrupted by a supermassive black hole Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser

    Astronomers have determined the source of an incredibly bright X-ray, optical and radio signal appearing from halfway across the Universe.

    The signal, named AT 2022cmc, was discovered earlier this year by the Zwicky Transient Facility in California. Findings published today in Nature Astronomy, suggest that it is likely from a jet of matter, streaking out from a supermassive black hole at close to the speed of light.

    The team, including researchers from MIT and the University of Birmingham, believe the jet is the product of a black hole that suddenly began devouring a nearby star, releasing a huge amount of energy in the process...

    Read More

    Protons Fix a Long-Standing Issue in Silicon Carbide Electronics

    December 1, 2022, Categories  Technology/Electronics

    image.jpg
    Proton implantation prevents the expansion of stacking faults and solves the problem of bipolar degradation.
    Electroluminescence images of PiN diodes made from silicon carbide after being subjected to electrical stress. In the first diode (a), on which proton implantation was not applied, expanded stacking faults show up as dark regions. The other three diodes (b, c, and d) undergo proton implantation at increasing hydrogen ion doses. Contrary to the first diode, these exhibit no stacking fault expansion and, in turn, bipolar degradation.
    Image credit: Masashi Kato from Nagoya Institute of Technology

    Silicon carbide (SiC) is a promising semiconductor material for power electronic devices, but it suffers from bipolar degradation, which severely limits its lifespan...

    Read More

    Rare Sighting of Luminous Jet Spewed by Supermassive Black Hole

    December 1, 2022, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Image credit: Zwicky Transient Facility/R.Hurt (Caltech/IPAC).

    What happens when a dying star flies too close to a supermassive black hole? Astronomers discover a bright optical flare caused by a dying star’s encounter with a supermassive black hole.

    According to University of Maryland astronomer Igor Andreoni, several things happen: first, the star is violently ripped apart by the black hole’s gravitational tidal forces — similar to how the Moon pulls tides on Earth but with greater strength. Then, pieces of the star are captured into a swiftly spinning disk orbiting the black hole. Finally, the black hole consumes what remains of the doomed star in the disk. This is what astronomers call a tidal disruption event (TDE).

    But in some extremely rare cases, the supermassive black ho...

    Read More

    Mom’s Dietary Fat Rewires Male and Female Brains Differently

    November 30, 2022, Categories  Biology/Biotechnology

    A microglia (in magenta) from a male mouse born to a mom on a high-fat diet, which sequesters more brain serotonin (in green) than males with mom’s eating a typical lab diet. (Bilbo Lab)
    A microglia (in magenta) from a male mouse born to a mom on a high-fat diet, which sequesters more brain serotonin (in green) than males with mom’s eating a typical lab diet. (Bilbo Lab)

    Excess fat triggers immune cells to overeat serotonin in the brain of developing male mice, leading to depression-like behavior. More than half of all women in the United States are overweight or obese when they become pregnant. While being or becoming overweight during pregnancy can have potential health risks for moms, there are also hints that it may tip the scales for their kids to develop psychiatric disorders like autism or depression, which often affects one gender more than the other.

    What hasn’t been understood however is how the accumulation of fat tissue in mom might signal through the ...

    Read More