MI weekly selection #161
How information might be retrieved from a black hole
There may be a way to retrieve a bit of information from inside a black hole. A team of physicists from the California Institute of Technology theorizes that the information can be gleaned by using Hawking radiation exiting the black hole and quantum teleportation.
Crows seen making, using tools
New Caledonian crows create tools to help them forage for food. Scientists attached small cameras to the birds’ tail feathers and filmed them shaping, then using, a hook-shaped tool from a V-shaped stick to scoop out bugs and larvae from logs and underneath leaves. “Tool use is fairly rare in the animal kingdom, but manufacturing tools is exceedingly rare. There are very few animals, apart from humans, that actually manufacture anything that resembles a complex tool,” said Jolyon Troscianko, an author of the study published.
Plutonium for deep-space missions made in US for first time since 1980s
The US Energy Department has begun manufacturing plutonium-238, the fuel needed for deep space missions, at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, the first time since the late 1980s that the substance has been made in the US.
DNA disruption found in brain cancer study
Scientists have found a new way for cancer cells to form due to a disruption in DNA. The disruption causes the separation between two genetic areas to fall away, allowing a bit of DNA from one area into the other, where it triggers a growth gene, researchers say. Scientists discovered the process while studying brain tumor DNA.
Blocking molecule in uterus may delay or stop premature labor
Premature labor may be delayed or even stopped by blocking a molecule in the uterus, according to a new study. Researchers looked at the molecule TRPV4 in mice and found that blocking it prevented premature labor.