Author archives: César Tomé

MI weekly selection #525

MI weekly selection #525

Weekly Selection

By César Tomé

Human ancestors nearly went extinct a million years ago Humans almost faced extinction between 813,000 and 930,00 years ago when human ancestors’ population fell to about 1,280. Researchers studied the genomes of over 3,150 present-day people and found that human ancestors experienced a bottleneck for about 117,000 years, which may have driven the evolutionary divergence […]

Light-controled deracemization

Light-controled deracemization

CatalysisChemistry

By César Tomé

Just like our hands, certain organic molecules relate to each other like an image and its reflection – a phenomenon that chemists call “chirality” or “handedness”. The two mirror images of the same molecule, namely both enantiomers, often possess different biological properties. This is key, for example, for drug discovery, as many times only one […]

MI weekly selection #524

MI weekly selection #524

Weekly Selection

By César Tomé

Reduced cancer risk tied to short bouts of physical activity A study found that a minimum of 3.4 minutes and 3.7 minutes of vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity per day were associated with a 17% lower total cancer incidence risk and 28% lower physical activity-related cancer incidence risk, respectively. Full Story: MedPage Today Polyethylene plastic […]

Unprecedented sensitivity in an experimental setup for dark photons

Unprecedented sensitivity in an experimental setup for dark photons

CosmologyParticle physicsPhysics

By César Tomé

Scientists working on the Dark SRF experiment at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory have demonstrated unprecedented sensitivity in an experimental setup used to search for theorized particles called dark photons. Researchers trapped ordinary, massless photons in devices called superconducting radio frequency cavities to look for the transition of those photons into […]

MI weekly selection #523

MI weekly selection #523

Weekly Selection

By César Tomé

Astronomers discover first evidence of “Trojan planet” Scientists have spotted the first evidence of a “Trojan planet” that shares the same orbit around a star as another planet. Astronomers believe that Trojan planets form when dust clouds are held into stable material from the gravitational pull of a star and other planet and may be […]

High functional diversity of island plants

High functional diversity of island plants

BiologyEcologyPlant biology

By César Tomé

Oceanic islands provide useful models for ecology, biogeography and evolutionary research. Many ground-breaking findings – including Darwin’s theory of evolution – have emerged from the study of species on islands and their interplay with their living and non-living environment. Now, an international research team led by the University of Göttingen has investigated the flora of […]

MI weekly selection #522

MI weekly selection #522

Weekly Selection

By César Tomé

Annulated sea snakes do have genes to see colour Annulated sea snakes, a venomous species found in the oceans of Australia and Asia, can see colour, debunking assumptions of colorblindness after surviving the last 110 million years in the ocean. Researchers used genome sequencing to find four intact copies of the opsin gene SWS1 &#8212 […]

A topological pair-density-wave of spin-triplet Cooper pairs

A topological pair-density-wave of spin-triplet Cooper pairs

Condensed matterMaterials

By César Tomé

pair-density-wave Scientists have revealed a new phase of matter in candidate topological superconductors that could have significant consequences for condensed matter physics and for the field of quantum computing and spintronics. Researchers at the Macroscopic Quantum Matter Group at Cornell University have discovered and visualized a crystalline yet superconducting state in a new and unusual […]

MI weekly selection #521

MI weekly selection #521

Weekly Selection

By César Tomé

Earth’s inner core is textured, not smooth The Earth’s solid inner core is textured with ripples in the “fabric” that are more pronounced deeper into the core. Researchers examined seismic data from 2,455 earthquakes and found that the pattern of texture may mean Earth’s core endured a period of rapid growth before slowly hardening. Full […]