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It turns out that such cannibalism cannot explain the missing pulsar problem, according to Caizzo. “We found that in our current model PBHs are not able to disrupt these objects but this is only considering our simplified model of 2 body interactions,” he said. It doesn’t rule out the existence of PHBs, only that in specific instances, such capture isn’t happening.

So, what’s left to examine? If there are PHBs in the cores and they’re merging, no one’s seen them yet. But, the center of the Galaxy is a busy place. A lot of bodies crowd the central parsecs. You have to calculate the effects of all those objects interacting in such a small space. That “many-body dynamics” problem has to account for other interactions, as well as the dynamics and capture of PBHs.

Astronomers looking to use PBH-neutron star mergers to explain the lack of pulsar observations in the core of the Galaxy will need to better understand both the proposed observations and the larger populations of pulsars. The team suggests that future observations of old neutron stars close to Sgr A could be very useful. They’d help set stronger limits on the number of PBHs in the core. In addition, it would be useful to get an idea of the masses of these PBHs, since those on the lower end (asteroid-mass types) could interact very differently.

NASA’s Juno spacecraft recently spotted a glassy-smooth lava lake amid the volcanic hellscape of Jupiter’s moon Io.

When Juno’s orbit swooped past Io last December, its cameras captured a mirrorlike reflection from a small patch of the moon’s surface. The strangely shiny landmark turns out to be a lava lake, covered with a thin crust of smooth, gleaming volcanic rock. The rock was probably something like obsidian, a natural glass that forms from cooling magma here on Earth. Known as Loki Patera, the lava lake stretches 127 miles long and is dotted with rocky islands, and its edges glow with heat from the molten magma just beneath the surface.

Loki Patera isn’t the first lava lake scientists have spotted on Io; previous spacecraft, including Galileo (RIP) have also sent home images of similar features, but Juno’s pics are the clearest and most detailed. Based on Juno’s data, NASA created this animation of what a flight over Loki Patera might look like.

Researchers Kazuaki Takasan and Kyogo Kawaguchi of the University of Tokyo with Kyosuke Adachi of RIKEN, Japan, have demonstrated that ferromagnetism, an ordered state of atoms, can be induced by increasing particle motility and that repulsive forces between atoms are sufficient to maintain it.

The discovery not only extends the concept of active matter to but also contributes to the development of novel technologies that rely on the magnetic properties of particles, such as magnetic memory and quantum computing. The findings were published in the journal Physical Review Research.

Flocking birds, swarming bacteria, cellular flows. These are all examples of active matter, a state in which individual agents, such as birds, bacteria, or cells, self-organize. The agents change from a disordered to an ordered state in what is called a “phase transition.” As a result, they move together in an organized fashion without an external controller.

A clinical trial led by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators showed that a nasal spray that patients administer at home, without a physician, successfully and safely treated recurrent episodes of a condition that causes rapid abnormal heart rhythms. The study, published March 25 in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, provides real-world evidence that a wide range of patients can safely and effectively use the experimental drug, called etripamil, to treat recurrent paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia (PSVT) episodes at home, potentially sparing them the need for repeated hospital trips for more invasive treatments.

The study is the latest in a series of studies by lead author Dr. James Ip, professor of clinical medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine and a cardiologist at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, and colleagues to demonstrate the potential of nasal spray calcium-channel blocker etripamil as an at-home treatment PSVT.

Dr. Ip received compensation as a steering committee member for Milestone Pharmaceuticals, the maker of etripamil and sponsor of the trial.