Star Formation in Distant Galaxies by the James Webb Space Telescope

Galaxies at a great distance
The James Webb Space Telescope captured this image of a galaxy cluster (SMACS0723). The five zoomed in galaxies are so far away that we observe them as they were when the Universe was between one and five billion years old. Today the Universe is 13.7 billion years old. Credit: Image adapted from image release by NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI.

Thanks to the James Webb Space Telescope’s first images of galaxy clusters, researchers have, for the very first time, been able to examine very compact structures of star clusters inside galaxies, so-called clumps. In a paper published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, researchers from Stockholm University have studied the first phase of star formation in distant galaxies.

“The galaxy clusters we examined are so massive that th...

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The Possible Effects of Cinnamon on Memory and Learning

Credit: Mae Mu (Unsplash)

Cinnamon, the well-known aromatic spice that many of us use to bake cakes and cook savory dishes, is derived from the inner bark of Cinnamomum trees. These are evergreen trees found in the Himalayas and other mountain areas, as well as in rainforests and other forests in southern China, India and Southeast Asia.

In addition to its unique flavor, cinnamon could have other beneficial properties for humans. For instance, studies suggest that cinnamon has anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and anticancer properties, and can also boost the immune system.

Some works also showed that its bioactive compounds could boost brain function, particularly memory and learning. Yet the validity of these findings is yet to be established with certainty.

A team of research...

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Entangled Atoms Cross Quantum Network from one Lab to another

Illustration mehrerer Gebäude mit einer roten Kugel im ersten Gebäude und einer grünen Kugel im letzten, dazwischen eine strichlierte Linie.
The nodes of this network were housed in two labs at the Campus Technik to the west of Innsbruck, Austria.

Trapped ions are one of the leading systems to build quantum computers and other quantum technologies. To link multiple such quantum systems, interfaces are needed through which the quantum information can be transmitted. In recent years, researchers led by Tracy Northup and Ben Lanyon at the University of Innsbruck’s Department of Experimental Physics have developed a method for doing this by trapping atoms in optical cavities such that quantum information can be efficiently transferred to light particles. The light particles can then be sent through optical fibers to connect atoms at different locations...

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Hubble directly measures Mass of a Lone White Dwarf

Black background with stars. Image center: blue-white star (LAWD 37) surrounded by horizontal rectangle that indicates the area highlighted in an inset box. Inset box illustrates the path of LAWD 37 and the position of the background star relative to it.
This graphic shows how microlensing was used to measure the mass of a white dwarf star. The dwarf, called LAWD 37, is a burned-out star in the center of this Hubble Space Telescope image. Though its nuclear fusion furnace has shut down, trapped heat is sizzling on the surface at 180,000 degrees Fahrenheit, causing the stellar remnant to glow fiercely. The inset box plots how the dwarf passed in front of a background star in 2019. The wavy blue line traces the dwarf’s apparent motion across the sky as seen from Earth. Though the dwarf is following a straight trajectory, the motion of Earth orbiting the Sun imparts an apparent sinusoidal offset due to parallax. (The star is only 15 light-years away. Therefore, it is moving at a faster rate against the stellar background...
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