Happy Monday, listeners! For American scientists Science quickly, This is Allison Parshall filling for Rachel Feltman. Let’s start the week with a quick summary of some of the latest scientific news.
First, an update on that condemned spacecraft of the Soviet Era Rachel mentioned last week. After spending more than half a century in the orbit of the Earth, the Cosmos-482 probe reached a clash that landed on May 10. According to a position in the Telegram application of the Russian Space Agency Roscosmos, the spacecraft crashed into the Indian somewhere. Space.com reports that other space agencies have estimated different landing points for the probe, from land locations in southern Asia to stretching of the Eastern Pacific. We may never know where Cosmos-482 finally rested. In any case, we have not heard any report of space garbage that causes humans, so it seems likely that the object crashed somewhere outside the road.
Now for some accidental alchemy. Despite the wishes of medieval scholars, there is no way to turn lead into gold, right? Mistaken. The physicists of the great Hadron colider apparently did exactly that, completely letters, but still. Scientists published a description of this magic transformation earlier this month in the magazine Physical review c.
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This is how it worked: CERN scientists use the great Hadron colider to study the early universe firing lead nuclei to each other at almost the speed of light. Instead of breaking from the front, the nuclei usually spend very close to each other. In these nearby people, the powerful electric field of one nucleus can shake the other. If the field is strong enough, you can eliminate three protons from an incoming lead core. Since gold has three protons less than lead, this transforms lead into gold.
Researchers estimate that 89,000 golden centers occur for the second time of experiments. That means that between 2015 and 2018, the second accelerator race, which is when the scientists gathered this data, the coliside produced 29 billionths of a gram of gold. Unfortunately for any search engine in CERN, those atoms tend to be erased in approximately a microsecond. Nature He reports that another CERN accelerator also observed this alchemical reaction that carried out an execution from 2002 to 2004. But because this experiment used less energy, there was less gold.
In public health news, the data and prevention data published last Wednesday indicates a massive fall in overdose deaths between 2023 and 2024. In the 45 years that CDs have compiled equivalent data, the largest year of one year in 2018, Chordin-Yyyyinging in 2018 Associated Press. The deaths fell from approximately 110000 in 2023 to approximately 80,000 in 2024, which represents a decrease of almost 27 percent. The AP reports that experts mentioned several possible factors behind the fall, including the highest availability of naloxone to treat overdose.
It is important to keep in mind that, although this is a promising news, we still have a long way to go. Overdose deaths remain higher than them before Covid pandemic, and overdose remains the main cause of death for people in the US. UU. Between 18 and 44 years. If you still do not take the nalate with you in case you look for some experienced, some sacrifices of the Experscence County for training and distribution. You can consult Gendaloxonow.org to find more information.
We will wrap with a couple of fun animals.
Let’s start with flamenco. They are not exactly known for being very active. You are probable imagining birds standing calmly in crystalline water. But according to a study published last Monday in the magazine Proceedings of the National Academy of SciencesThey are surprisingly occupied just below the surface.
Similar to the way spiders use the web to catch prey, the study authors say, flamenco create small water tornadoes to convince food directly in the mouth.
First, birds use their feet to shake the sediment. Then they move their heads, turning those small spirals of sediment into vortices. Meanwhile, animals chat their peaks to create even more water movement, pulling the sediment spinning in the mouth. From there, flamenco can filter small prey as brine shrimp, but it seems that this filter diet is much less passive than it seems.
In other animal news, it turns out that chimpanzees use leaves for everything, from first aid to bath hygiene. In a study published on Tuesday in Borders in ecology and evolutionResearchers describe their observations from two different communities or chimpanzees in Uganda. The researchers identified numerous instances of “self -care” using leaves, from abused wounds to packing them with chewed plant matter. Chimpanzees sometimes also offered this attention to others. That is similar to the behavior that other researchers reported last year in the orangutans in Indonesia. The orangutans have also been seen in the leg applying juice made of saliva and the leaves of a plant with anti -inflammatory properties in all their bodies, that scientists suspect that they could be doing and muscle pain.
Plants also seem to be part of a larger well -being routine for chimpanzees: scientists also saw them using the leaves to clean the issues after peanut or have sex. The researchers even described an instance of what they called “cleaning of the prosocial postcoital penis”, which means that a chimpanzee leaned into another hand with intimate personal hygiene.
While these are not the first documented cases of first aid in non -human animals, or only in chimpanzees, whom it has been putting broken insects in their wounds, possible for medical points, scientists are excited Mor Medicce ispredce ispreecce iscecececececcedess our close relationships. That could suggest that wound care dates back to our evolutionary history.
That is all for the news summary of this week. Rachel will return on Wednesday.
Science quickly It is produced by Rachel Feltman, Fonda Mwangi, Kelso Harper, Naeem Amarsy and Jeff DelViscio. This episode was presented by me, Allison Parshall, and edited by Alex Sugiura. Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck verify our program. Our musical theme was composed of Dominic Smith. Subscribe to American scientist For more up -to -date and depth scientific news.
For Scientific American, This is Allison Parshall. Have a great week!
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