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Snapshot
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photo: lockheed martin, nasa, brad plummer/slac, yong xu/tsinghua university, corbis, college of dentistry/ university of iowa
Ursa Major Leo
GRB 130427A
Artic Turn 70,000km
Sooty Shearwater 64,000km
Grey Whale 22,000km
Great White Shark 4,000km Wandering Albatross 10,000km
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The hope is that we will soon be able to swallow a pill of nanoparticles to fight disease more effectively
Meteorology
Doraemon Wakuwaku Skypark
DARK MATTER
SO WHAT IS DAR
Many different theories have been put forward regarding the Universe’s ‘missing mass’ – here’s a step-by-step guide to some of the most popular
There are invisible particles
Particles called WIMPS
There is a vast amount of ‘dark’ matter, whose extra gravity explains the anomalous orbital motion of stars in spiral galaxies and galaxies in galaxy clusters. This dark matter outweighs the normal matter in the Universe by a factor of about 5.5. So what exactly is it?
START HERE
photo: science photo library x2, cern, nasa/spitzer, alan r/wikipedia
The gravitational pull of the visible matter in the Universe fails to explain the motion of stars observed in galaxies and galaxies in galaxy clusters. For instance, the stars in the outer regions of spiral galaxies like our own Milky Way are orbiting so fast they ought to fly off into interstellar space. The question is, why don’t they?
Mini black holes
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The dark matter is made of ‘axions’. These have very small masses but there are huge numbers of them. The motivation for their existence has to do with nature’s strong nuclear force, which holds together atomic nuclei. Axions could have been produced in prodigious numbers during the earliest moments of the Big Bang.
Dark matter is made of fridgesized black holes, each the mass of Jupiter. These would have been created in the first millionth of a second of the Big Bang and survived. The nearest would be 30 light-years from the Earth, almost 10 times farther away than the nearest star, Alpha Centauri. So they would pose no danger to the Earth!
Gravity is wrong
Some think our theory of gravity is wrong. It’s far stronger than Newton would have predicted in the outer regions of spiral galaxies, which is preventing the stars there from flying off into interstellar space. So what’s the answer?
Particles called axions
Modify gravity
Modified Newtonian Dynamics theorises that gravity acts more strongly than predicted by classical physics below a critical acceleration (10-10m/s2). Such tiny values exist in the outer reaches of spiral galaxies, which is why stars there whirl around faster than expected. Another version compatible with Relativity is known as TeVeS.
How could we detect black holes?
K MATTER? Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPS) are particles predicted by supersymmetry and by theories that claim there are more than three dimensions of space. In the latter case, ‘echoes’ in the extra dimensions manifest as so-called ‘Kaluza-Klein’ particles, which are super-heavy versions of standard subatomic particles. How could we detect them?
Detect WIMPS directly
Direct detectors use a large mass of a single element such as silicon or xenon. The idea is that, if a dark matter particle slams into an atomic nucleus, the nucleus will recoil violently. The detectors tend not to observe the recoil itself, but rather a secondary effect such as the emission of light by the material.
Detect WIMPS indirectly Make our own
How could we detect axions?
The way to detect a passing axion is by placing a ‘microwave cavity’ – a closed metal structure used to amplify certain frequencies of microwave – in a magnetic field. An axion is expected to interact with such a magnetic field to create microwaves, which can then be easily detected within the cavity.
Evidence for fridge-sized black holes left over from the Big Bang is the flickering of the light from quasars – superbright distant galaxies. Some astronomers suggest this might be caused when a black hole passes between Earth and the quasar and its gravity magnifies the quasar’s light, an effect called ‘gravitational microlensing’.
Collider detectors, such as the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva, use the energy of colliding particles to create new particles. Obviously, the energy of the incoming particles must equal that of the outgoing particles. If it does not, this missing mass would be the tell-tale sign that a dark matter particle had also been created.
Indirect detectors look for the gamma rays expected when a dark matter particle in space meets its antiparticle and annihilates. No-one knows the mass of any dark matter particle and so the energy of the gamma rays they should expect to see. However, a characteristic of such gamma rays is that they should all be at pretty much the same energy.
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Human 11,500 million
African elephant 11,000 million
Chimpanzee 6,200 million
Bottlenose dolphin 5,800 million
Gorilla 4,800 million
National maritime museum/hulton archive–getty images
Christian IV, king of Denmark and Norway. His inability to pay a ransom had terrible consequences for Reverend Ólafur’s family
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PLANETARY EXPLORATION
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Andrew Parkinson
“Within hours of infection, there are millions of these invading lifeforms milling around inside our bodies”
The H1N1 virus is one recently identified strain of flu
The measles virus uses our cells to replicate and is transferred by coughing
Sore throats are usually a result of your body’s struggle to fight off viral infections
By our expert panel
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The best thing to do in an accident: SHOUT!
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TOP TEN
HEAVIEST FRESHWATER FISH
1. Beluga Location: Caspian and Black Sea basins Heaviest recorded: 1,571kg Status: Critically endangered
2. White sturgeon Location: North America Heaviest recorded: 816kg Status: Common
3. Giant freshwater stingray Location: Southeast Asia Heaviest recorded: 544kg Status: Endangered
What’s the difference between good cholesterol and bad cholesterol? Possibly not much. ‘Good’ cholesterol refers to high-density lipoprotein (HDL) and ‘bad’ cholesterol to low-density lipoprotein (LDL). The conventional wisdom, promoted by government as well as pharmaceutical companies, is that eating fats, especially saturated fats high in LDL, leads to heart disease. Yet scientists have known for decades that the amount of cholesterol you eat is unrelated to the amount in your blood. This is because what you eat is broken down by digestion and may, or may not, be used to make cholesterol again. Convention has it that ‘bad’ cholesterol causes heart disease and ‘good’ cholesterol protects against heart disease, but some recent research shows that even people with enough HDL may still
have heart disease because other factors, such as exercise, affect the way HDL works. Some scientists are now arguing that high cholesterol levels do not cause heart disease at all – indeed that the whole cholesterol hypothesis is a con. SB
4. Chinese paddlefish
PHOTO: ALAMY X3, GETTY X2, UFWS X2, MAGNUS MANSKE/WIKIPEDIA, AMELIA GUO/WIKIPEDIA, THINKSTOCK
Location: Yangtze River Heaviest recorded: 450kg Status: Feared extinct
5. Bull shark
Location: Oceans and rivers worldwide Heaviest recorded: 315kg Status: Near threatened
6. Giant barb carp
Doesn’t Darwinism mean nice people are losers?
7. Mekong giant catfish
Darwin’s theory of evolution is often summed up by terms like ‘survival of the fittest’, in which ‘selfish genes’ favour nasty creatures over nice ones. Yet the reality is that many organisms – including humans – do better by adopting traits like co-operation and altruism. Theoretical biologists have investigated this counterintuitive fact using computer simulations. These create virtual collections of organisms able to use various different co-operation strategies, and then monitor the degree to which they thrive in the ‘Darwinian struggle’ over thousands of generations. The results confirm that co-operating organisms are fitter than nasty ones, but only if they also adopt certain other traits. For example, they must be willing to start out thinking the best of other organisms, and to forgive occasional transgressions – while being prepared to
Location: Southeast Asia Heaviest recorded: 300kg Status: Critically endangered
Location: Southeast Asia Heaviest recorded: 300kg Status: Critically endangered
8. Arapaima
Location: Amazon River Heaviest recorded: 200kg Status: Uncertain
9. Nile perch
Location: Africa Heaviest recorded: 200kg Status: Invasive species
10. Alligator gar
Location: North America Heaviest recorded: 148kg Status: Uncertain
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High-density cholesterol like this is thought to reduce the chances of heart disease
give as good as they get if necessary. But the research also shows that societies of ‘nice guys’ don’t last forever: sometimes bad guys rule. RM Being a nice guy doesn’t necessarily make you a loser in life
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