Elusive X-particle
The scientific journal Physical Review Letters published an article that talked about the first ever experiment to produce X-particles in a quark-gluon plasma at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN.
The measurements on the basis of which such conclusions were made were made on one of the two detectors of elementary particles of the LHC - the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS).
Scientists from dozens of countries, including Russia, took part in the work.
Meson X (3872) was discovered by physicists back in 2003
during an experiment on the collision of high-energy electrons and positrons.
However, then the resulting particles "lived" too short for scientists to be able to study their structure.
Physicists have suggested that it is possible to study the mysterious particle in a quark-gluon plasma.
It was possible to test this hypothesis empirically only in 2022.
It is believed that X-particles are a kind of witness to the birth of the Universe - they arose millionths of a second after the Big Bang in a red-hot up to 1 trillion
°C "soup" of quarks and gluons, which, as they cool, began to combine into protons and neutrons.
However, before that, quarks and gluons actively collided, as a result of which X-particles appeared.
Studying the structure of these mesons will allow scientists to better understand exactly how the first stages of the formation of our Universe took place.
Paralysis treatment
Tel Aviv University announced the first-ever successful experience in the implantation of a spinal cord grown from human fat cells.
The transplantation of the implant made it possible to walk again in all experimental mice suffering from acute paralysis, and 80% of rodents with a chronic form of the disease.
Gettyimages.ru
© D-Keine
Israeli biologists used human adipose tissue to grow the implant.
With the help of genetic engineering methods, scientists returned fat cells to the state of embryonic stem cells.
Such cells are capable of transforming into cells of any tissue of the body.
The scientists then placed the resulting stem cells in a special hydrogel that prevents the immune system from attacking foreign tissues.
Stem cells already enclosed in a protective frill were turned into three-dimensional spinal cord implants.
Scientists hope that the technique can be used to treat paralyzed people after the necessary clinical trials have been conducted.
ancient galaxy
The press service of the Harvard-Smithsonian Astrophysical Center (CfA) announced the discovery by an international team of scientists of the most distant and ancient galaxy of all previously observed by people.
The galaxy, dubbed HD1, is located in the constellation Sextans at a distance of 13 million light-years from Earth.
Therefore, we see this object in the state in which it was only 300 million years after the Big Bang - almost immediately after the formation of the first stars in the young Universe began.
Galaxy HD1
© ALMA/Harikane et al
HD1 is a relatively small but unusually bright galaxy.
According to the scientific hypothesis, the brightness of HD1 may be due to the increased activity of the supermassive black hole at its center, or the fact that most of the stars in the galaxy are short-lived luminaries consisting of pure hydrogen.
monkeypox
Against the backdrop of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, reports of the spread of new dangerous infections were of particular concern to both specialists and society.
In May, an outbreak of monkeypox became the focus of epidemiological and media attention.
Although isolated cases of this zoonotic disease in humans have been reported before, this time the virus has spread to tens of thousands of people around the world.
The infection was first identified in 1958 in laboratory monkeys.
The pathogen is able to overcome the interspecies barrier and be transmitted from animals to humans, as well as circulate among people.
The monkeypox virus is transmitted through physical contact and through objects.
The disease manifests itself in the form of fever, headache, muscle pain.
Also, a rash appears on the patient's body.
In most cases, the disease goes away on its own in a few weeks, but it can also cause a serious condition up to death.
According to WHO, monkeypox has a mortality rate of 1 to 10%.
At the same time, a vaccine developed at one time for the prevention of smallpox can provide protection against this disease.
WHO has declared an outbreak of monkeypox in several countries a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.
By autumn, the total number of cases of monkeypox infection in the world had reached more than 70 thousand people.
Photograph of a black hole in the Milky Way
The first-ever image of the shadow of a supermassive black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy was obtained using a global network of radio and millimeter-wave observatories called the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT).
The black hole is located at a distance of about 27 thousand light years from the Sun and is associated with the radio source Sagittarius A* (Sagittarius A*).
First-ever image of the shadow of a supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy
Gettyimages.ru
© NASA
The fact that in the center of the Milky Way is a supermassive black hole, scientists have guessed before.
In 2020, the Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded precisely for this discovery: German astrophysicist Reinhard Gensel and American astronomer and Ph.D. Andrea Ghez proved that an exceptionally heavy and invisible object controls the orbits of stars in the center of the Milky Way.
Scientists have come to the conclusion that it can only be a supermassive black hole.
Scientists also found that the mass of this object is 4.29 million solar masses, and the radius of the event horizon is 12 million km.
Young Universe
NASA has released a snapshot of the galaxy cluster SMACS 0723, 4.6 billion light-years away from Earth.
This was the first image taken by the James Webb Space Telescope.
Scientists call this image the clearest and deepest infrared image of the early Universe to date.
Galaxy cluster SMACS 0723
AP
© NASA/ESA/CSA
The photo shows the effect of the so-called gravitational lensing - the distortion of light under the influence of gravitational forces.
Because of this, some of the galaxies are captured in the image in a curved form, and in addition, the stars are perceived by the observer as brighter.
Younger foreground galaxies appear as bright circles, while older ones appear as reddish arcs.
It took the James Webb Telescope 12.5 hours to capture this image.
For comparison, the exposure for a similar image at the Hubble telescope would be several weeks.
Apocalypse Insurance
The American space probe DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test - "Experiment to change the orbit of a double asteroid") crashed into the asteroid Dimorph.
The purpose of the experiment is to test the technology for deflecting the trajectory of asteroids potentially dangerous for the Earth.
The launch of the DART probe into space took place in November 2021 using the SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicle.
DART space probe during an asteroid impact
AP
© Teddy Kareta, Matthew Knight/NOIRLab
The experiment was a success - the probe completed its task by changing the direction of the Dimorph asteroid.
This was announced to journalists in October by the head of NASA, Bill Nelson.
He explained that as a result of the collision, Dimorph's orbit around the larger asteroid Didyme decreased by 32 minutes.
The positioning of the Dimorph relative to the larger celestial body has also changed.
These changes were recorded with the help of terrestrial telescopes.
According to the head of NASA, the experiment can be called a watershed moment in protecting our planet from an asteroid threat.
Orbital "Sphere"
The first satellite from the future satellite constellation "Sphere" "Skif-D" was launched into the earth's orbit.
The satellite was delivered into space by a Soyuz-2.1b carrier rocket equipped with a Fregat upper stage; the rocket was launched from the Vostochny cosmodrome.
At the same time, three Russian communications satellites Gonets-M were launched into orbit.
This was reported by the press service of the state corporation "Roscosmos".
Recall that Sfera is one of the main projects of Russia in the space field.
We are talking about creating a modern system of communications and monitoring by launching into orbit a large constellation of communications satellites and remote sensing of the Earth.
Unlike foreign colleagues, Russian specialists have decided to create not one global satellite constellation, but several regional systems that will be able to solve both relatively narrow tasks and tasks on a global scale.
New Alzheimer's Treatment Plan
Russian scientists from St. Petersburg State University (SPbGU), together with colleagues from Belgium and Italy, have discovered a fundamentally new approach that may help in the future to cure Alzheimer's disease.
Today, this neurodegenerative disease that causes dementia is considered almost incurable.
Scientists have succeeded in restoring cognitive abilities in laboratory animals suffering from dementia by activating specific receptors in their brains for amines, the molecular residues of amino acids.
The existence of such residues in the mammalian brain has long been known to science, but it was not clear what role these molecules play.
However, after receptors capable of perceiving these compounds were discovered in the brain, it became clear that amines are involved in the work of neurons.
Researchers have found that the artificial activation of one of these receptors leads to the normalization of brain function in patients with Alzheimer's disease.
Activation awakens to work precisely the signaling system in the nervous tissue that ceases to work in this disease.
We are talking about the glutamate neurotransmitter system - glutamate normally serves as a signal transmitter between neurons.
Thermonuclear Alternative
American physicists held a session of controlled thermonuclear fusion.
The experiment was carried out at the NIF experimental fusion facility (National Ignition Facility, NIF).
A record-breaking ratio for today was achieved between the plasma spent on heating and the energy received.
Scientists define this parameter as Q, so far the largest value that could be obtained in the framework of fusion experiments was 0.7.
American physicists managed to exceed this indicator by more than twice - in this case, the Q parameter was about 1.5.
At the same time, for a power fusion reactor that could generate energy on an industrial scale, Q should be on the order of 10. Therefore, although the experiment is of great importance for science, it is too early to talk about creating an industrial reactor.
Experimental fusion facility National Ignition Facility
AP
© Damien Jemison/Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
The experiment was carried out on a facility that has a design different from common tokamaks.
Recall that plasma is usually held and heated to start a thermonuclear reaction using a magnetic field - such a design, invented in the USSR, is called a tokamak.
It is on this principle that the international experimental thermonuclear reactor ITER will operate.
American scientists have implemented an alternative approach - in this case, a thermonuclear reaction is triggered by compressing thermonuclear fuel with powerful lasers.