Lifeboat Foundation

Researchers have been performing these experiments for nearly 30 years but they always encounter the same problem: the bottle technique yields an average neutron survival time of 880 s, while the beam method produces a lifetime of 888 s. Importantly, this eight-second difference is larger than the uncertainties of the measurements, meaning that known sources of error cannot explain it.

A mix of different neutron states?

A team led by Benjamin Koch and Felix Hummel of TU Wien’s Institute of Theoretical Physics is now suggesting that the discrepancy could be caused by nuclear decay producing free neutrons in a mix of different states. Some neutrons might be in the ground state, for example, while others could be in a higher-energy excited state. This would alter the neutrons’ lifetimes, they say, because elements in the so-called transition matrix that describes how neutrons decay into protons would be different for neutrons in excited states and neutrons in ground states.

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NASA’s Quesst mission marked a major milestone with the start of tests on the engine that will power the quiet supersonic X-59 experimental aircraft.

These engine-run tests, which began Oct. 30, allow the X-59 team to verify the aircraft’s systems are working together while powered by its own engine. In previous tests, the X-59 used external sources for power. The engine-run tests set the stage for the next phase of the experimental aircraft’s progress toward flight.

A study presents battery-free, polymer-based wearable devices that wrap around neurons, allowing for real-time monitoring and modulation of cellular activity. This innovation aims to restore neuronal function in conditions like multiple sclerosis.

A new study could help further attempts to slow human aging as gene tweaking experiments have improved the lifespans of fruit flies by 30%.

An undersea volcano off the southeastern coast of the Big Island of Hawaii has been rocked by a swarm of more than 70 earthquakes since the weekend, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The startup competes against the likes of Google and ChatGPT-maker OpenAI.

More than paying lip service, the cells may offer new opportunities to research and treat various lip conditions.

At 9:52 a.m. EST, the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft successfully docked to the forward port of the International Space Stations Harmony module.

This mission, SpaceX’s 31st commercial resupply service for NASA, delivered over 6,000 pounds of scientific equipment and cargo to the space station. The journey began at 9:29 a.m. on November 4, when a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

A new 450-million-year-old arthropod fossil, Lomankus edgecombei, has been uncovered in New York, revealing crucial evolutionary shifts in appendage function from predation to environmental sensing among ancient arthropods. A new 450-million-year-old fossil arthropod, preserved in 3D by iron py.