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Oct 9, 2022

Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

Posted by in categories: chemistry, transportation

Prof. Ehud Pines (pictured above) is an iconoclast. What else can you call a scientist who spent 17 years doggedly pursuing the solution to an over 200-year-old chemistry problem that he felt never received a satisfying answer using methods no other scientist thought could lead to the truth? Now, he is vindicated as the prestigious Angewandte Chemie journal published a cover article detailing how his experiment was replicated by another research group while being x-rayed to reveal the solution Prof. Pines has argued for all along.

The question at hand is: How does a proton move through water? In 1,806, Theodor Grotthuss proposed his theory, which became known as the Grotthuss Mechanism. Over the years, many others attempted an updated solution realizing that strictly speaking, Grotthuss was incorrect, but it remained the standard textbook answer. Until now.

Prof. Ehud Pines suggested, based on his experimental studies at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in the Department of Chemistry, together with his PhD student Eve Kozari, and theoretical studies by Prof. Benjamin Fingerhut on the structure of Prof. Pines’ protonated water clusters, that the proton moves through water in trains of three water molecules. The proton train “builds the tracks” underneath them for their movement and then disassembles the tracks and rebuilds them in front of them to keep going. It’s a loop of disappearing and reappearing tracks that continues endlessly. Similar ideas were put forward by a number of scientists in the past, however, according to Prof. Pines, they were not assigned to the correct molecular structure of the hydrated proton which by its unique trimeric structural properties leads to promoting the Grotthuss mechanism.

Oct 9, 2022

Space Mysteries in our Solar System — Do Black Holes Create New Universes?

Posted by in category: cosmology

https://youtube.com/watch?v=paUPly9gAIo

In other words, the study suggests black holes might actually burrow into a kind of multidimensional object called a brane, and give birth to an entirely new universe in another colossally big bang.

Oct 9, 2022

One Florida community built to weather hurricanes endured Ian with barely a scratch

Posted by in categories: climatology, habitats

BABCOCK RANCH, Fla. — Like many others in Southwest Florida, Mark Wilkerson seemingly gambled his life by choosing to shelter at home rather than evacuate when Hurricane Ian crashed ashore last week as a Category 4 storm.

But it wasn’t just luck that saved Wilkerson and his wife, Rhonda, or prevented damage to their well-appointed one-story house. You might say that it was all by design.

…and yes it’s 30 miles inland, as that’s part of the design, with many more innovations.

Continue reading “One Florida community built to weather hurricanes endured Ian with barely a scratch” »

Oct 9, 2022

Physicists push limits of Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle

Posted by in categories: particle physics, quantum physics

Recently published research pushes the boundaries of key concepts in quantum mechanics. Studies from two different teams used tiny drums to show that quantum entanglement, an effect generally linked to subatomic particles, can also be applied to much larger macroscopic systems. One of the teams also claims to have found a way to evade the Heisenberg uncertainty principle.

One question that the scientists were hoping to answer pertained to whether larger systems can exhibit quantum entanglement in the same way as microscopic ones. Quantum mechanics proposes that two objects can become “entangled,” whereby the properties of one object, such as position or velocity, can become connected to those of the other.

Oct 9, 2022

Porphyromonas gingivalis Conditioned Medium Induces Amyloidogenic Processing of the Amyloid-β Protein Precursor upon in vitro Infection of SH-SY5Y Cells

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, neuroscience

Researchers at the School of Dentistry, University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) were the first to report the link between gum disease and Alzheimer’s disease. Now two new studies from the same research group at the School of Dentistry demonstrate that progress is being made in making much stronger connections between gum disease in the mouth and deteriorating brain function.

Abstract: Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease.

Antimicrobial, Polarizing Light, and Paired Helical Filament Properties of Fragmented Tau Peptides of Selected Putative Gingipains https://content.iospress.com/articles/journal-of-alzheimers-disease/jad220486

Continue reading “Porphyromonas gingivalis Conditioned Medium Induces Amyloidogenic Processing of the Amyloid-β Protein Precursor upon in vitro Infection of SH-SY5Y Cells” »

Oct 9, 2022

After 200 Years, a Key Physical Chemistry Mystery May Have Been Solved

Posted by in category: chemistry

The question of how precisely protons move through water in an electric field has fascinated scientists for centuries. Now, more than 200 years after the last major insight into the phenomenon, scientists have some clarity.

In 1,806, Theodor Grotthuss put forward a hypothesis, which came to be known as the Grotthuss mechanism for ‘proton jumping’, about how a charge might flow through a solution of water.

While Grotthuss’s hypothesis was very forward-thinking for its time – coming before protons, or even the actual structure of water, were even known about – modern-day researchers have long known that it didn’t provide a complete understanding of what happened at a molecular level.

Oct 9, 2022

China used advanced satellite to monitor Nord Stream leak

Posted by in category: futurism

The Gaofen-5 2 satellite provided the first accurate estimate of the leak from the suspected act of sabotage, scientists involved in the project say.

Oct 9, 2022

First Experimental Proof That Quantum Entanglement Is Real

Posted by in categories: particle physics, quantum physics

A Q&A with Caltech alumnus John Clauser on his first experimental proof of quantum entanglement.

When scientists, including Albert Einstein and Erwin Schrödinger, first discovered the phenomenon of entanglement in the 1930s, they were perplexed. Disturbingly, entanglement required two separated particles to remain connected without being in direct contact. In fact, Einstein famously called entanglement “spooky action at a distance,” because the particles seemed to be communicating faster than the speed of light.

Born on December 1, 1942, John Francis Clauser is an American theoretical and experimental physicist known for contributions to the foundations of quantum mechanics, in particular the Clauser–Horne–Shimony–Holt inequality. Clauser was awarded the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics, jointly with Alain Aspect and Anton Zeilinger “for experiments with entangled photons, establishing the violation of Bell inequalities and pioneering quantum information science.”

Oct 9, 2022

Two Intelsat video relay satellites ride to orbit on SpaceX rocket

Posted by in category: satellites

SpaceX launched a pair of four-ton Intelsat communications spacecraft from Cape Canaveral at twilight Saturday evening, two days later than planned after back-to-back scrubs, on the third flight of a Falcon 9 rocket this week.

The Falcon 9 rocket lit nine kerosene-fueled Merlin 1D engines and thundered away from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 7:05 p.m. EDT (2305 GMT) Saturday. Thrust vector controls pivoted nine main engines to steer the 229-foot-tall (70-meter) rocket due east from pad 40, and the Falcon 9 raced through the speed of sound in less than a minute.

Saturday’s mission, carrying Intelsat’s Galaxy 33 and 34 video relay satellites, marked the third Falcon 9 flight in a little more than three days, following back-to-back launches Wednesday.

Oct 9, 2022

An Unlikely Source Provides New Hope for Heart Disease Patients

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

Time halted during the European Football Championship last summer. When football player Christian Eriksen unexpectedly fell, passed away, and was resuscitated on live television, the buzzing anxiety that had filled the air vanished in a matter of seconds. And in no time, millions of people all over the globe were aware of the danger posed by cardiovascular diseases, the leading cause of mortality in the western world, according to the World Health Organization.

When the heart fails in young athletes, the condition ARVC is often to blame. Half of all cases of sudden cardiac arrest in athletes occurring during physical activity are thought to be caused by ARVC.

Researchers from the University of Copenhagen provide new insights into a process involved in the development of the disease in a recent study. In fact, they also present a viable treatment method, according to Professor Alicia Lundby, whose research team led the new study.