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As February rapidly draws to a close, let’s take a look at last week’s science and technology headlines. Microplastics are complicating efforts to define a new era in Earth’s history, reduced metabolism may be responsible for knotted gut, machines are reading minds to learn more about Earth’s history is. Brain mysteries solved, astronomers discover a billion-year-old black hole eruption that may have led to unusual star formation.
Microplastics and their use in determining geological time
Geologists have long considered using microplastics to define a new era in Earth’s history, the Anthropocene, marked by the effects of human activity on Earth.
Microplastics tend to settle to the bottom of lakes. However, recent research shows that scientific progress They found plastic particles that migrated into older sedimentary layers, including samples from centuries before plastic production began. Researchers led by Inta Dimante Deimantovica from the Latvian Institute of Aquatic Ecology carried out the study in three Latvian lakes, using microplastics as a dating tool to track the beginning of the Anthropocene. It was concluded that it cannot be used directly.
Still, some scientists believe microplastics may still provide valuable insights. Although not all lakes will have the same results as the Latvian lake, and the extent of microplastic transfer varies from place to place, this discovery is another example of the significant impact humans have had on Earth’s ecosystems. We provide.
Research conducted in tadpoles provides insight into intestinal malrotation
Approximately 1 in 500 babies is born with intestinal malrotation. This is a condition where the intestines are not twisted properly. Most people’s intestines curve neatly counterclockwise. Malrotation of the intestine may go undetected, but in some cases it can cause obstruction or obstruction of the intestine.
For researchers at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, the similarly coiled intestine structure of the Xenopus frog has provided valuable insight into the causes of birth defects in humans.
When scientists exposed frog embryos to the common herbicide atrazine, they observed that much of the frog’s intestines grew in the opposite direction. Atrazine was found to interfere with the frogs’ metabolism, impeding energy production, and causing intestinal growth stunting and intestinal malrotation.
Although this does not prove the cause of intestinal malrotation in humans, the results of this experiment link errors in metabolic processes to birth defects. The question of what exactly interferes with metabolism is still unclear, but scientists now have further clues that could lead to the discovery of preventive measures.
Machines are reading minds and unraveling the mysteries of the human brain
Since electrical activity in the brain was first observed nearly a century ago, scientists have come a long way in developing new tools that use electrical activity to reveal more about the brain.
A Brain Computer Interface (BCI) is an implant that uses electrodes to capture signals and analyzes them with the help of a decoder program. These implants have helped people with paralysis, and are a unique tool that has allowed scientists to study brain function.
Unlike the images of the human brain in most textbooks, the human brain is not divided into neat categories. In fact, researchers observed that the brain’s neuronal pathways are mixed.
With BCI, scientists have learned more about the brain’s incredibly complex thinking and imagination patterns. And while BCI is a new technology still in development, scientists are working to improve the decoding system to better understand the brain and improve outcomes for patients with motor loss.
Arrangements of stars caused by the explosion of a black hole
Billions of years ago, a huge eruption occurred from a black hole in a galaxy far, far away (about 3.8 billion light years). Astronomers discovered this massive event in a star system known as SDSS J1531 using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and several telescopes. The research was conducted at the Center for Astrophysics at Harvard University and the Smithsonian University.
SDSS J1531 is a massive star system containing two giant galaxies in the process of colliding at its center. Osase Omoruyi, who led the study, likened the discovery to a paleontologist discovering an ancient fossil. Although that is what caused the formation of the unique pattern of stars in the SDSS J1531 system.
This single event, which occurred billions of years ago, is thought to have triggered the formation of star clusters that span thousands of light-years. It took millions of years after the eruption for the star clusters to form a pattern strikingly similar to beads on a string.
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