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Plastics are ubiquitous in our society, found in packaging and bottles as well as making up more than 18% of solid waste in landfills. Many of these plastics also make their way into the oceans, where they take up to hundreds of years to break down into pieces that can harm wildlife and the aquatic ecosystem.

A team of researchers, led by Young-Shin Jun, Professor of Energy, Environmental & Chemical Engineering in the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, analyzed how light breaks down polystyrene, a nonbiodegradable plastic from which packing peanuts, DVD cases and disposable utensils are made. In addition, they found that nanoplastic particles can play active roles in environmental systems. In particular, when exposed to light, the nanoplastics derived from polystyrene unexpectedly facilitated the oxidation of aqueous manganese ions and the formation of manganese oxide solids that can affect the fate and transport of organic contaminants in natural and engineering water systems.

The research, published in ACS Nano on Dec. 27, 2022, showed how the photochemical reaction of nanoplastics through light absorption generates peroxyl and superoxide radicals on nanoplastic surfaces, and initiates oxidation of manganese into manganese oxide solids.

For the first time, physicists at the Brookhaven National Laboratory have come across a novel type of quantum entanglement, the extremely bizarre phenomenon that occurs when a pair of particles remain connected even when separated by galactic distances. Thanks to this effect, the researchers were also able to peer inside the atomic nuclei with unprecedented detail.

Quantum entanglement is a strange and fascinating phenomenon that has puzzled scientists for decades. It occurs when pairs of particles become so closely connected that one can no longer be described without the other, no matter how far apart they may be. Even more strange, changing one will instantly trigger a change in its partner, even if it was on the other side of the universe. In theory, this effect would enable faster-than-light communication if you encode the changes in these states with 1s and 0s.

This concept may sound impossible to us, as it goes against our classical understanding of physics, and it even unnerved Albert Einstein, who referred to it as “spooky action at a distance.” However, numerous experiments have consistently proven the existence of quantum entanglement by manipulating the properties of the entangled particles, such as their spin or polarization, and observing the effects on the other particle. Today, quantum entanglement forms the backbone of emerging technologies such as quantum computers and networks.

Despite numerous searches, we have yet to detect dark matter particles.

Better treatments are definitely on the way.

Nanomedicines took the spotlight during the COVID-19 pandemic. Researchers are using these very small and intricate materials to develop diagnostic tests and treatments. Nanomedicine is already used for various diseases, such as the COVID-19 vaccines and therapies for cardiovascular disease. The “nano” refers to the use of particles that are only a few hundred nanometers in size, which is significantly smaller than the width of a human hair.

NIH Image Gallery/Flickr.

Continue reading “How these factors could lead to better nanomedicine treatments” »

A team from Nagoya University in Japan has observed, for the first time, the energy transferring from resonant electrons to whistler-mode waves in space. Their findings offer direct evidence of previously theorized efficient growth, as predicted by the non-linear growth theory of waves. This should improve our understanding of not only space plasma physics but also space weather, a phenomenon that affects satellites.

When people imagine outer space, they often envision it as a perfect vacuum. In fact, this impression is wrong because the vacuum is filled with charged particles. In the depths of space, the density of charged particles becomes so low that they rarely collide with each other.

Instead of collisions, the forces related to the electric and magnetic fields filling space, control the motion of charged particles. This lack of collisions occurs throughout space, except for very near to celestial objects, such as stars, moons, or planets. In these cases, the charged particles are no longer traveling through the vacuum of space but instead through a medium where they can strike other particles.

Positively and negatively charged versions of the same particle have been entangled for the first time, allowing us to map the hearts of atoms more precisely and opening the doors to more powerful communication tools.

The neutrons and protons that make up the nuclei of atoms are, in turn, composed of quarks. However, quarks alone would be unstable; they need gluons, the carriers of the strong force, to hold them together. Gluons are orders of magnitude too small to see, even with the most powerful microscopes – but they can still interact with photons to produce exceptionally short-lived rho particles that decay to charged two-quark particles called pions.

By measuring the angles and speed at which the positive and negative pions (π⁺ and π^-) emerge, scientists at the Brookhaven National Laboratory have created a map of gluon distribution within the nuclei of gold and uranium atoms. They report this map to be the most precise description of the inner workings of an atomic nucleus.

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AI researchers aim to achieve stability, speed, manipulability and a gain in operational height from for the robot by using machine learning and a 3D printed stick on the robot’s hind legs to allow quadruped transformers to become a humanoid biped robot and walk. Quantum researchers designed a machine learning-based method that shows how artificial controllers can discover non-intuitive pulse sequences that can rapidly cool a mechanical object from high to ultra cold temperatures, faster than other standard methods, which could be used to advance quantum computers. Researchers used deep reinforcement learning to arrange atoms into a lattice shape, which could be used to create new materials and nano devices, including a robot arm mate of atoms.

AI News Timestamps:
0:00 Transformers Robotics Tech.
2:39 Artificial Intelligence To Control Quantum Computer.
5:21 New Nano Scale Robot Arm.

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In other words, what appears to be emergent to us today, with our present limitations of what its within our power to compute, may someday in the future be describable in purely reductionist terms. Many such systems that were once incapable of being described via reductionism have, with superior models (as far as what we choose to pay attention to) and the advent of improved computing power, now been successfully described in precisely a reductionist fashion. Many seemingly chaotic systems can, in fact, be predicted to whatever accuracy we arbitrarily choose, so long as enough computational resources are available.

Yes, we can’t rule out non-reductionism, but wherever we’ve been able to make robust predictions for what the fundamental laws of nature do imply for large-scale, complex structures, they’ve been in agreement with what we’ve been able to observe and measure. The combination of the known particles that make up the Universe and the four fundamental forces through which they interact has been sufficient to explain, from atomic to stellar scales and beyond, everything we’ve ever encountered in this Universe. The existence of systems that are too complex to predict with current technology is not an argument against reductionism.

Neutron stars and black holes may be stellar corpses, but they are among the most active celestial objects. They produce some of the highest-energy radiation ever observed, and scientists have long puzzled over the physics that underlies the process powering their energetic emissions.

Now, in a recent paper published in Physical Review Letters, a Dartmouth physics major and an assistant professor have proposed a new theory that explains how magnetic energy can be very quickly released with explosive energy into charged particles in these extreme environments.

Similar magnetic explosions also occur closer to home, setting off solar flares and the Northern Lights. They can be observed wherever charged gases, called plasma, are found—even in a lab, says Matthew Goodbred ‘23, the paper’s lead author.