Mentatul

Category: Science

News about science.

  • Troubles with Antibiotics

    Troubles with Antibiotics

    The antibiotics industry is going through rough times. Big Pharma is heavily polluting Asia, where India and China are the main producers of the world’s most commonly used drugs:

    https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2018-01-24/big-pharma-fails-to-disclose-waste-leaked-from-factories^

    But it’s even worse when companies give up researching new antibiotics because these sort of medicine doesn’t give enough profit:

    https://cen.acs.org/business/finance/Antibiotic-developer-Achaogen-files-bankruptcy/97/i16^

    This is understandable given the way our economy works^. The sad effect is that it just doesn’t pay off to tackle new species of antibiotic-resistant bacteria (after the same antibiotic industry caused their emergence, in the never-ending battle with evolution – a battle that cannot be won at our current technological level):

    https://www.dw.com/en/big-pharma-nixes-new-drugs-despite-impending-antibiotic-apocalypse/a-50432213^

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  • Energy in 2019: Fusion, Fission and More

    Energy in 2019: Fusion, Fission and More

    Our species’ insatiable hunger for energy is in a permanent conflict with our quest to keep our planet clean. Some nation-states’ “clean energy” marketing is almost hypocritical given how little they do to address the root cause of rampant energy consumption: hyper-consumerism^.

    Anyway… how can we get cleaner energy?

    Fusion via tokamak

    Fusion^ is the holy grail of energy generation. It’s clean and the necessary fuel, hydrogen, is literally everywhere. Unfortunately, replicating the Sun’s mastery of fusion isn’t exactly a piece of cake.

    Once heralded as the world’s first nuclear fusion experimental reactor, wannabe ITER^ is well on its way to becoming one of our species’ worst scientific investments. Delay after delay^ have plagued the project and good news is scarce:

    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-nuclearpower-fusion-project/iter-nuclear-fusion-project-faces-delay-over-trump-budget-cuts-idUSKBN1E01RT^

    I’ve been following ITER for a long time now and was for many years rooting for it. But to be honest, it does begin to look like there are too many things wrong^ with the project. And given how well solar power^ has been doing (well, except the fact that it also may harm the environment^), who needs ITER?

    Fusion via stellerators

    Wendelstein 7-X is a smaller but apparently more promising fusion reactor. This type of system bears the catchy name of “stellarator”. Things have been going pretty well in Germany with this project:

    https://phys.org/news/2018-11-peak-stellarator-results.html^

    Stellarators were among the first type of fusion energy generation device to be considered possible. Tokamaks came a bit later and stole the show for a while, at least until ITER proved the world that perhaps we shouldn’t abandon stellarators just yet.

    How about some supercomputing?

    Building Wendelstein 7-X wouldn’t even have been possible without help from our rapidly advancing computing abilities. But wait until we add some machine learning on top of that:

    https://www.theverge.com/2019/1/29/18201220/nuclear-fusion-energy-artificial-intelligence-machine-learning-tae-google^

    Despite my skepticism regarding “AI”^, I do believe that this is one situation where machine learning can do miracles.

    Is there such a thing like clean fission?

    Nuclear fission^, aka splitting the atom, has always been dirty (nuclear waste, nuclear weapon material). The temptation to use such energy, however, is almost irresistible, as radioactive elements are by far the highest density fuel that we can currently exploit. Unfortunately, this stuff is also used to make nukes.

    For a while, people kept thinking that Thorium^ might actually prevent nuclear weapons proliferation, but that might not be true:

    https://thebulletin.org/2018/08/thorium-power-has-a-protactinium-problem/^

    In any case, Thorium-based fission power is still actively researched^.

    Renewable energy trends for 2019

    Last but not least, here are some interesting renewable energy trends to follow this year:

    https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesellsmoor/2018/12/30/6-renewable-energy-trends-to-watch-in-2019/#274618e64a1f^

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  • The (Virtual) Fourth Dimension

    The (Virtual) Fourth Dimension

    Light has been observed to move in the fourth dimension. So, does that mean that scientists have observed the dimension of time? Nope. Like many of these exotic mathematical discoveries, it’s a virtual fourth dimension. Isn’t it lovely how humans know to over-complicate things?

    http://www.ibtimes.com/4d-world-light-moving-fourth-dimension-observed-during-quantum-hall-experiment-2638484^

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  • Ricocheting Down the Neutrino Alley

    Ricocheting Down the Neutrino Alley

    Neutrinos^ are among the strangest elementary particles^. Or at least we call them elementary particles until, some time in the future, we’ll discover that they are also composed of various other smaller components. But until then, scientists are sparing no efforts in trying to understand them (an understanding that could and will probably be invested in new technologies, for example detectors for large bursts of energy release):

    From the article linked below:

    “Neutrinos are famously antisocial. Of all the characters in the particle physics cast, they are the most reluctant to interact with other particles. Among the hundred trillion neutrinos that pass through you every second, only about one per week actually grazes a particle in your body.

    That rarity has made life miserable for physicists, who resort to building huge underground detector tanks for a chance at catching the odd neutrino. But in a study published today in Science, researchers working at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) detected never-before-seen neutrino interactions using a detector the size of a fire extinguisher. Their feat paves the way for new supernova research, dark matter searches and even nuclear nonproliferation monitoring.”

    https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/ever-elusive-neutrinos-spotted-bouncing-off-nuclei-for-the-first-time/^

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  • Aliens on Super Earths Require a Lot More Smarts to Get in Orbit

    Aliens on Super Earths Require a Lot More Smarts to Get in Orbit

    Now that we got a new planet hunter in orbit (TESS^), we’re bound to find many more Earth-like planets. And, judging by discoveries so far, it’s quite likely that a lot of these planets will be super Earths, that is, terrestrial planets with a mass higher than Earth’s.

    One of the most interesting and often-overlooked problem with super Earths concerns their gravity. These planets are big, meaning that their gravity would make it very difficult not only for potential human settlers to land or take off again, but also for any intelligent species that might develop there and attempt space travel.

    https://www.space.com/40375-super-earth-exoplanets-hard-aliens-launch.html

    Personally, I think the increased gravity would force an intelligent species to come up with more advanced propulsion technologies, provided that the species is even curious about outer space.

    What if the species is more interested in their own planet? Perhaps before going into space, they would invest more in taking care of, understanding and integrating with the spaceship they’re already on. I believe this would give such a species an even better chance of colonizing other planets. Knowing you’re trapped on a planet might make you take better care of your world’s environment.

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  • Uranus Smells Like Rotten Eggs

    Uranus Smells Like Rotten Eggs

    Recently, scientists have come up with some interesting conclusions about the gas giant’s atmosphere. Thanks to infrared observations, they managed to detect a certain gas that is quite likely to be present towards the top of Uranus’ cloud cover. Hydrogen sulfide is what gives rotten eggs their charming smell:

    http://www.syfy.com/syfywire/ok-fine-lets-do-this-uranus-smells-like-rotten-eggs^

    I always thought Uranus is a beautiful name for a planet. But then my English improved and, at one point, the punchline hit me. Saying “Uranus” was never the same again. I still think it’s a beautiful name. I mean, the human body is beautiful, isn’t it? In English, it’s a beautiful funny name for a planet, so that makes it even better. Still, it makes it really difficult to say that I come from Uranus. Journalists across the web raced in coming up with the most memorable way to report the analytical news:

    http://time.com/5252381/uranus-stinks-smell/^

    https://gizmodo.com/stinky-molecules-confirm-uranus-smells-like-farts-1825467106^

    In closing, enjoy this short, brilliant clip from Futurama:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0czFnIvKOJY^

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  • Interesting NASA Experiments

    Interesting NASA Experiments

    There’s some pretty interesting human activity going on in outer space during this period. For example, NASA recently launched InSight^, yet another probe heading for Mars (yes, I do believe we’ve spending a bit too much on Mars). Along with that, they also launched two cubesats^, the world’s first interplanetary such (cheaper) satellites^. “MarCO-A and MarCO-B are demonstrating a number of cubesat technologies during their nearly 7-month cruise to Mars, including a folding high-gain antenna and a cold-gas propulsion system.”

    Then there’s this highly “visual” mission that saw a NASA rocket spew color clouds in the atmosphere, as part of a study on the magnetic field. “The vapor tracers that are released are made of barium, lithium, and trimethylaluminum, the same ingredients you might find in fireworks”:

    https://www.theverge.com/2017/6/29/15892738/nasa-sounding-rocket-terrier-improved-malemute-vapor-tracers^

    And last but not least, here are some findings about how spaceflight has caused changes in the gene expression of an astronaut twin. In order to make the analysis possible, NASA kept one brother on Earth and the another spent one year on the International Space Station:

    https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-twins-study-confirms-preliminary-findings^

    Say what you will about the USA, but their space program still kicks some major ass.

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  • The Dance of the Planets

    The Dance of the Planets

    Draw a line between the position of two planets every several days and behold the apparition of beautiful shapes:

    https://www.techworm.net/2016/03/enjoy-geometrical-dance-planets-splendid-patterns-form.html^

    The article above lists some other funky coincidences about the planetary bodies in our solar system. It’s written in a slightly “new age metaphysical” tone, but facts are facts and these are undoubtedly interesting facts. Personally, what I draw from all the above is a feeling of complete agreement with what a wiser person has said before me: “Mathematics is the language of nature” (and I perceive even physics and chemistry as flavors of mathematics).

    Astronomy (the mathematics of huge congregations of atoms) is one of my oldest passions. I’ve been fascinated by our solar system since as long as I can remember. When I went to gymnasium, I learned about the endless curiosities that can be found outside it. But my main area of interest remains our cosmic neighborhood, where I see the sun and planets as childhood friends.

    [ax_meta lnimgurl=’http://mentatul.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/03051-DanceOfPlanets-Thumb.jpg’ lnimgw=’250′ lnimgh=’250′ title=’The Dance of the Planets’ desc=’Draw a line between the position of two planets every several days and behold the apparition of beautiful shapes.’]

  • Best 99 Things That Happened in 2017

    Best 99 Things That Happened in 2017

    There’s a lot of negative news out here, and for good reason I’d say. The world has indeed improved since a century ago, but we as a species know we can do better. I’m happy to see that people strive in that direction by wanting to improve and shouting about those things that are obviously wrong with our civilization.

    But here’s a list of good news from around the world. And all of these happened in one, single year!

    https://qz.com/1169003/the-99-best-things-that-happened-in-2017^

    [ax_meta lnimgurl=’http://mentatul.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/03045-BestThingsHappened2017-Thumb.jpg’ lnimgw=’250′ lnimgh=’250′ title=’Best 99 Things That Happened in 2017′ desc=’Here's a list of good news from around the world. And all of these happened in one, single year!’]

  • Earth’s Humming a Little Tune

    Earth’s Humming a Little Tune

    Well, it’s only “little” when considering the ultralow frequencies involved. In fact, it’s a massive tune. It’s a world-wide phenomenon and probably as old (thus long) as the Earth itself. The article below summarizes years of research into a perpetual hum that has been detected in places such as Antarctica, Algeria and on the floor of the Indian Ocean:

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2017/12/08/scientists-are-slowly-unlocking-the-secrets-of-the-earths-mysterious-hum/?utm_term=.dd2b27f1f139^

    I always had a gut feeling that there’s more to what our bodies need from Earth, other than oxygen, water and nutrition. This primordial vibration that permeates all life on this planet should probably be considered if we think about relocating to another planet. Unless this can be replicated somehow, there could be unforeseen consequences to us departing our world long-term.

    The coming decades will clarify the relation between our body and certain facts about the environment on this planet, particularly previously-hidden “features” such as this humming. I’m going to keep my ears on the ground for more news about the Earth’s song. See what I did there?

    [ax_meta lnimgurl=’http://mentatul.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/02829-EarthsTune-Thumb.jpg’ lnimgw=’250′ lnimgh=’250′ title=’Earth's Humming a Little Tune’ desc=’A summary of years of research into a perpetual hum that has been detected in places such as Antarctica, Algeria and on the floor of the Indian Ocean.’]