22 Oct What Do We Really Know About the Universe?

The word “Universe” comes from the Latin “Universum”, which was used by Roman authors to refer to the cosmos as they knew them. This consisted of the Earth and all life as well as the Moon, the Sun, the planets that they knew about (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn) and the stars.

The term “cosmos”, on the other hand, is derived from the Greek word kosmos, which means "order" or “the world”. Other words commonly used to define all of known-existence include “Nature” (from the Germanic word natur) and the English word “everything” (self-explanatory).

Today, the word Universe is used by scientists to refer to all existing matter and space. This includes the Solar System, the Milky Way, all known galaxies, and superstructures. In terms of modern science and astrophysics, it also includes all time, space, matter, energy, and the fundamental forces that bind them.

Cosmology, on the other hand, is used to describe the study of the Universe (or cosmos) and the forces that bind it. Thanks to thousands of years of scholarship, what we know about the physical Universe has grown by leaps and bounds. And yet, there is still so much that we don’t understand.

Sourced through Scoop.it from: interestingengineering.com

22 Oct Humans Will Never Live on an Exoplanet, Nobel Laureate Says. Here’s Why

Here’s the reality: We’re messing up the Earth and any far-out ideas of colonizing another orb when we’re done with our own are wishful thinking. That’s according to Michel Mayor, an astrophysicist who was a co-recipient of the Nobel Prize in physics this year for discovering the first planet orbiting a sun-like star outside of our solar system.

"If we are talking about exoplanets, things should be clear: We will not migrate there," he told Agence France-Presse (AFP). He said he felt the need to "kill all the statements that say, ‘OK, we will go to a livable planet if one day life is not possible on Earth.’"

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22 Oct Nigeria: Valuable Lessons From Nigeria’s Marathon Effort to Eradicate Polio

Analysis – The theme for World Health Day in 1995 was "Target 2000 — A World Without Polio". I delivered a lecture titled "Polio Eradication Race: Will Nigeria Finish Last?" to mark the occasion. Finishing last seemed likely because in the 1990s Nigeria’s routine immunisation rates were in the…

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16 Oct After a 10-Year Search, Scientists Find a Second ‘Short Sleep’ Gene, DEC2

Sleep is crucial for our survival, and many diseases are linked to long-term poor sleep quality. Before we can use sleep to enhance our health and performance and alleviate diseases associated with poor sleep, a greater understanding of sleep regulation is necessary. Researchers had identified a while ago a mutation in the β 1-adrenergic receptor gene (ADRB1) in humans who require fewer hours of sleep than most. In vitro, this mutation leads to decreased protein stability and dampened signaling in response to agonist treatment. In vivo, the mice carrying the same mutation demonstrated short sleep behavior. The scientists found that this receptor is highly expressed in the dorsal pons and that these ADRB1 + neurons are active during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep and wakefulness. Activating these neurons can lead to wakefulness, and the activity of these neurons is affected by the mutation. These results highlight the important role of β 1-adrenergic receptors in sleep/wake regulation.

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16 Oct Chinese farmers are breeding mutant pigs the size of polar bears

Farmers have always done their best to maximize yield, whether that be cramming another row of corn onto a field or breeding beefier cattle, but pig farmers in China are really taking things to a new level. As Bloomberg reports, some pig farmers in the country have bred their animals into an almost unrecognizable state, and boy are they big.

On a farm owned by a man named Pang Cong, one particularly supersized pig weighs in at over 1,100 pounds, making it bigger than a polar bear. Pork prices are currently high in many parts of China due to an illness that rapidly swept through farms and claimed the lives of countless animals. Now, the farms with healthy pigs are doing their best to meet the demand, and are getting top dollar for their animals as a bonus.

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15 Oct Nobel Prize-winning scientist says alien life will be found within the next 30 years

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15 Oct Johns Hopkins Researchers Discover Material That Could Someday Power Quantum Computers

Quantum computers with the ability to perform complex calculations, encrypt data more securely and more quickly predict the spread of viruses, may be within closer reach thanks to a new discovery by Johns Hopkins researchers.

"We’ve found that a certain superconducting material contains special properties that could be the building blocks for technology of the future," says Yufan Li, a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Physics & Astronomy at The Johns Hopkins University and the paper’s first author. The findings will be published October 11, 2019, in the journal Science.

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08 Oct 20 New Moons Found Around Saturn, Snagging Satellite Record from Jupiter | Space

Astronomers have discovered 20 more Saturn moons, boosting the ringed planet’s tally of known satellites to 82 — three more than Jupiter.

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08 Oct Parasites Can Mind-Control Animals Without Infecting Them

Sourced through Scoop.it from: www.theatlantic.com