| New 'whirling' state of matter discovered in an element of the periodic table Posted: 28 May 2020 01:10 PM PDT The strongest permanent magnets today contain a mix of the elements neodymium and iron. However, neodymium on its own does not behave like any known magnet, confounding researchers for more than half a century. Physicists have now shown that neodymium behaves like a so-called 'self-induced spin glass,' meaning that it is composed of a rippled sea of many tiny whirling magnets circulating at different speeds and constantly evolving over time. |
| In planet formation, it's location, location, location Posted: 28 May 2020 01:06 PM PDT Astronomers are finding that planets have a tough time forming in the rough-and-tumble central region of the massive, crowded star cluster Westerlund 2. Located 20,000 light-years away, Westerlund 2 is a unique laboratory to study stellar evolutionary processes because it's relatively nearby, quite young, and contains a large stellar population. |
| World's oldest bug is fossil millipede from Scotland Posted: 28 May 2020 08:58 AM PDT A 425-million-year-old millipede fossil from the Scottish island of Kerrera is the world's oldest 'bug' -- older than any known fossil of an insect, arachnid or other related creepy-crawly. |
| ESPRESSO confirms the presence of an Earth around the nearest star Posted: 28 May 2020 08:58 AM PDT The existence of a planet the size of Earth around the closest star in the solar system, Proxima Centauri, has been confirmed by a team of scientists. The planet, Proxima b, has a mass of 1.17 earth masses and is located in the habitable zone of its star. This breakthrough has been possible thanks to measurements using ESPRESSO, the most accurate spectrograph currently in operation. |
| AI reveals mechanism for kin selection in a wild primate Posted: 27 May 2020 12:01 PM PDT More like mom or dad? Human babies always get this curious look in their faces combined with the question of whom the child resembles most. The answers vary depending on the degree of kinship, gender and the time of assessment. Mandrills, monkeys living in Equatorial Africa, may recognize facial features coding relatedness better than humans. Scientists showed by using up-to-date artificial intelligence (AI) that half-sisters, who have the same father look more alike than half-sisters who share the same mother. The paternal half-sisters also have closer social relationships with each other than unrelated mandrills. This result provided the first evidence suggesting that interindividual resemblance has been selected to signal paternal kinship. |
| In stressed ecosystems Jurassic dinosaurs turned to scavenging, maybe even cannibalism Posted: 27 May 2020 12:01 PM PDT Among dinosaurs of ancient Colorado, scavenging and possibly cannibalism were responses to a resource-scarce environment, according to a new study. |
