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Sep- 2021 -15 SeptemberScience
Exquisitely Preserved Fossils Show What the Ancestral Brains of Arthropods Looked Like 500 Million Years Ago
Lead image: An artist’s depiction of a Kaili Leanchoilia showing its long scissor-like appendages situated behind sideward eyes on stubby stalks. Fourteen pairs of appendages likely served a double role – providing the animal with oxygen and allowing it to move about. Credit: Nicholas Strausfeld Rare fossils preserving the brains of creatures living more than half a billion years ago shed new light on the evolution of arthropods. Exquisitely preserved fossils left behind by creatures living more than half a billion years ago reveal in great detail identical structures that researchers have long hypothesized must have contributed to the archetypal…
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15 SeptemberSpace
Astrophysicists Identify “Significant Reservoirs” of Organic Molecules Necessary To Form the Basis of Life
lead image: An artist’s impression of the gas and dust in the protoplanetary disk surrounding the young star. The inset shows the molecular gas targeted by the MAPS observations, made up of a ‘soup’ of both simple and complex molecules in the vicinity of still-forming planets. Credit: M.Weiss/Center for Astrophysics/Harvard & Smithsonian Analysis of unique fingerprints in light emitted from material surrounding young stars has revealed “significant reservoirs” of large organic molecules necessary to form the basis of life, say researchers. Dr. John Ilee, Research Fellow at the University of Leeds who led the study, says the findings suggest that…
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12 SeptemberScience-Tech
Atomically-Thin, Twisted Graphene Has Unique Properties That Could Advance Quantum Computing
Lead image: New collaborative research describes how electrons move through two different configurations of bilayer graphene, the atomically-thin form of carbon. These results provide insights that researchers could use to design more powerful and secure quantum computing platforms in the future. Researchers describe how electrons move through two-dimensional layered graphene, findings that could lead to advances in the design of future quantum computing platforms. New research published in Physical Review Letters describes how electrons move through two different configurations of bilayer graphene, the atomically-thin form of carbon. This study, the result of a collaboration between Brookhaven National Laboratory, the University…
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4 SeptemberEnvironment
A Bad Solar Tsunami Could Cause an ‘Internet Apocalypse’
Lead image:The solar tsunamis have a great potential to cause long blackouts which can result in $7.2 billion loss in a single day by damaging our electrical equipment and satellites. And to make matters worse, this isn’t one of those “What if…?” scenarios as people have experienced the effects of these solar storms back in 1989 when the electrical supply was cut off for nine hours for over 6 million people in Quebec. This also resulted in putting a pause on the Toronto Stock Exchange for three hours by disrupting the operations of a computer. And seeing how we are…
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4 SeptemberScience-Tech
Wireless Microscale Neural Sensors Enable Next-Generation Brain-Computer Interface System
Lead image: Tiny chips called neurograins are able to sense electrical activity in the brain and transmit that data wirelessly. Credit: Jihun Lee / Brown University Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) are emerging assistive devices that may one day help people with brain or spinal injuries to move or communicate. BCI systems depend on implantable sensors that record electrical signals in the brain and use those signals to drive external devices like computers or robotic prosthetics. Most current BCI systems use one or two sensors to sample up to a few hundred neurons, but neuroscientists are interested in systems that are able…
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