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New scientific results confirm an anomaly seen in previous experiments, which may point to an as-yet-unconfirmed new elementary particle, the sterile neutrino, or indicate the need for a new interpretation of an aspect of standard model physics, such as the neutrino cross section, first measured 60 years ago. Los Alamos National Laboratory is the lead American institution collaborating on the Baksan Experiment on Sterile Transitions (BEST) experiment, results of which were recently published in the journals Physical Review Letters and Physical Review C.

“The results are very exciting,” said Steve Elliott, lead analyst of one of the teams evaluating the data and a member of the Los Alamos Physics division. “This definitely reaffirms the anomaly we’ve seen in previous experiments. But what this means is not obvious. There are now conflicting results about sterile neutrinos. If the results indicate fundamental nuclear or atomic physics are misunderstood, that would be very interesting, too.” Other members of the Los Alamos team include Ralph Massarczyk and Inwook Kim.

More than a mile underground in the Baksan Neutrino Observatory in Russia’s Caucasus Mountains, BEST used 26 irradiated disks of chromium 51, a synthetic radioisotope of chromium and the 3.4 megacurie source of electron neutrinos, to irradiate an inner and outer tank of , a soft, silvery metal also used in previous experiments, though previously in a one-tank set-up. The reaction between the electron neutrinos from the chromium 51 and the gallium produces the isotope germanium 71.

The human middle ear—which houses three tiny, vibrating bones—is key to transporting sound vibrations into the inner ear, where they become nerve impulses that allow us to hear.

Embryonic and proves that the human middle ear evolved from the spiracle of fishes. However, the origin of the vertebrate spiracle has long been an unsolved mystery in vertebrate evolution.

Some 20th century researchers, believing that early vertebrates must possess a complete spiracular gill, searched for one between the mandibular and hyoid arches of early vertebrates. Despite extensive research spanning more than a century, though, none were found in any vertebrate fossils.

After some serious number crunching, a UBC researcher has come up with a mathematical model for a viable time machine.

Ben Tippett, a mathematics and physics instructor at UBC’s Okanagan campus, recently published a study about the feasibility of . Tippett, whose field of expertise is Einstein’s theory of general relativity, studies black holes and science fiction when he’s not teaching. Using math and physics, he has created a formula that describes a method for time travel.

“People think of time travel as something as fiction,” says Tippett. “And we tend to think it’s not possible because we don’t actually do it. But, mathematically, it is possible.”

Time travel into the past is a tricky thing. We know of no single law of physics that absolutely forbids it, and yet we can’t find a way to do it, and if we could do it, the possibility opens up all sorts of uncomfortable paradoxes (like what would happen if you killed your own grandfather).

But there could be a way to do it. We just need to find a wormhole first.

Wormholes are shortcuts through space, a tunnel that connects two distant parts of the universe through a very short path. If you could somehow construct a wormhole, you can casually walk down through the tunnel and end up thousands of light years away without even breaking a sweat.

Oh joy. I’d ask snarkaly what could possibly go wrong, but in this case going right IS going wrong, so… 🤯


Chinese scientists have reportedly developed and tested a device that aims to help online censors better police pornography in the country.

Researchers at Beijing Jiaotong University in China created a helmet that can track the brain waves of its wearers. The scientists published their findings in the domestic peer-reviewed Journal of Electronic Measurement and Instrumentation earlier this month.

In China, where watching porn is illegal, the government employs mostly women as so-called porn appraisers, or “jian huang shi,” who screen online photo and video content. These human censors make use of artificial intelligence (A.I.) to help them in flagging explicit content faster.

New technologies have the potential to greatly simplify the lives of humans, including those of blind individuals. One of the most promising types of tools designed to assist the blind are visual prostheses.

Visual prostheses are that can be implanted in the brain. These devices could help to restore vision in people affected by different types of blindness. Despite their huge potential, most existing visual prostheses achieved unimpressive results, as the vision they can produce is extremely rudimentary.

A team of researchers a University of California, Santa Barbara recently developed a that could significantly enhance the performance of visual prostheses, as well as other sensory neuroprostheses (i.e., devices aimed at restoring lost sensory functions or augmenting human abilities). The model they developed, presented in a paper pre-published on arXiv, is based on the use of a neural autoencoder, a brain-inspired architecture that can discover specific patterns in data and create representations of them.

According to Big Bang Theory, About 13.7 billion years ago, our entire universe existed as a singularity. It is really Difficult to imagine, how all the matter in the universe and space itself, existed in a form smaller than a subatomic particle.
But here, even more difficult question suddenly arises: What existed before the big bang?
Actually it doesn’t make any sense to ask, what happened before the big bang, as it is believed that time itself did not exist before the big bang!!! Space and time both were created after the big bang.
It is something like asking, what part of earth is north of the north pole. The north Pole is the most northern point on earth and so there is nowhere north of it.
But there is also possibility that something was there before the Big Bang happened
According to the “the big Bounce” theory, our universe is the recycled result of another universe, that dies and.
collapses in on itself. This collapsing universe would come back to a singularity before bouncing back out. It results in the big bang and a brand-new universe is again created.
But there is a problem with the big Bounce theory. Actually according to current observations, our universe is constantly expanding faster than ever before. But the big Bounce theory requires the universe to be contracted so that it can reach at the stage of singularity.
Another Possibility is of the parallel universe. According to this theory our universe is not the only Universe that exists. it is one of many universes in the Grand multiverse.
According to some scientists it may also be possible, our universe is at the other end of a black hole called a white hole.
A White hole has properties just opposite to that of the black hole.
In general relativity, a white hole is a hypothetical region of spacetime which cannot be entered from the outside, although matter and light can escape from it. In this sense it is the reverse of a black hole, which can only be entered from the outside from which matter and light cannot escape. Unlike black holes, white holes spew material into space rather than sucking material in.
All that we have discussed here, are the possibilities, what existed before the big bang. Actually we don’t really know, what really caused the big bang and what was present before it. Was there no space and time before Big Bang is also a mystery.

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New models that show how the continents were assembled are providing fresh insights into the history of the Earth and will help provide a better understanding of natural hazards like earthquakes and volcanoes.

“We looked at the current knowledge of the configuration of plate boundary zones and the past construction of the continental crust,” said Dr. Derrick Hasterok, Lecturer, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Adelaide who led the team that produced the new models.

The continents were assembled a few pieces at a time, a bit like a jigsaw, but each time the puzzle was finished it was cut up and reorganized to produce a new picture. Our study helps illuminate the various components so geologists can piece together the previous images.