Science & Medicine
Here we bring you the latest on all things science from physical science, evolution, astronomy, space, physics, chemistry, and medicine.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
UK’s £3 Million Bet Could Help NASA Find Life on Nearby Planets
By Royal Astronomical Society – SciTechDaily
A £3 million investment could help secure a leading UK role in NASA’s future search for life on nearby planets.
An Earth-like planet orbiting a nearby star would appear as little more than a dim point beside a light source 10 billion times brighter. British astronomers are preparing technology that could help NASA separate that faint planetary signal from the glare and search its atmosphere for possible evidence of life.
The UK Space Agency (UKSA) has awarded researchers £3 million to continue developing a proposed core instrument for NASA’s Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO). Expected to launch in the 2040s, HWO is planned as NASA’s next flagship space telescope after the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope.
The latest funding expands a series of UK-led instrument studies that have already been shared with NASA. Those studies are helping guide the observatory as it enters its next stage of development.
“The Habitable Worlds Observatory is one of the most…Read more here.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Earth’s First Complex Organisms May Hold Clues to Life Beyond Our Planet
By Bruce Dorminey, Universe Today – SciTechDaily
Earth’s oldest eukaryotic fossils may illuminate both the rise of complex life and the search for life elsewhere.
Searching for life on Mars or the icy moons Europa and Enceladus may attract more attention than studying how life developed on Earth. Yet tracing the appearance of the first eukaryotes on our planet is just as important to astrobiology, especially because microbial organisms dominated roughly 90 percent of Earth’s history.
Life originated on Earth more than 3.5 billion years ago, Ross Anderson, a paleontologist at the University of Oxford in the U.K., explained. Cyanobacteria and oxygen-producing photosynthesis were present at least 2.3 billion years ago, followed by eukaryotes no later than 1.7 billion years ago, he said.
Algae appeared at least one billion years ago and probably earlier. Animals emerged at least 570 million years ago, and possibly somewhat before then.
To reach the shared ancestor of plants and animals, however,…Read more here.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Scientists Built a Programmable Chip That Can Slow Light on Command
By Seoul National University – SciTechDaily
New technology enables light to be stored, delayed, and controlled within a single photonic chip, with potential applications in low-power optical computing for AI servers and next-generation optical communication systems.
Light moves quickly enough to transmit enormous amounts of information, but that speed creates a problem when a computer needs to hold, delay, or synchronize an optical signal. Researchers from Seoul National University and the University of Seoul have now designed a programmable photonic integrated circuit that can slow light whenever needed.
The project was led by Professors Namkyoo Park and Sunkyu Yu of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Seoul National University, working with Professor Xianji Piao of the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Seoul.
The rapid growth of generative AI and large-scale artificial intelligence models…Read more here.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
One Asteroid Collision May Have Rocked Earth, Mars, and the Moon
By Southwest Research Institute – SciTechDaily
A shattered asteroid may have unleashed a long-lasting cosmic barrage that left scars across the inner solar system and possibly changed Earth’s history.
A violent asteroid collision may have sent a wave of debris sweeping through the inner solar system about 800 million years ago, potentially affecting Earth, the Moon, and Mars.
A new study led by the Southwest Research Institute connects that ancient bombardment to the breakup of the Eulalia parent body, a large object in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. According to the researchers, the collision may have produced an enormous supply of fragments that later crossed the paths of the rocky planets.
The event could help explain a mysterious increase in large impacts recorded on the Moon from the same period. It may also have had broader geological and biological consequences on Earth, although direct evidence from such an ancient era is difficult to preserve. Read more here.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
