Space News: Twisted magnetic field observed around Milky Way's central black hole

 

Twisted magnetic field observed around Milky Way's central black hole

Black holes are extraordinarily dense objects with gravity so strong that not even light can escape, making viewing them extremely challenging.

By REUTERS, MARCH 27, 2024

https://www.jpost.com/science/article-794037

 This image shows the polarised view of the Milky Way black hole. The lines overlaid on this image mark the orientation of polarisation, which is related to the magnetic field around the shadow of the black hole. (photo credit: EUROPEAN SOUTHERN OBSERVATORY/HANDOUT VIA REUTERS)

Astronomers on Wednesday announced that they have detected a strong and organized magnetic field twisted in a spiral pattern around the Milky Way's supermassive black hole, revealing previously unknown qualities of the immensely powerful object lurking at the center of our galaxy.

The structure of the magnetic field emanating from the edge of the black hole called Sagittarius A*, or Sgr A*, closely resembles one surrounding the only other black hole ever imaged, a larger one residing at the center of a nearby galaxy called Messier 87, or M87, the researchers said. This indicates that strong magnetic fields may be a feature common to black holes, they added.

The magnetic field around the M87 black hole, called M87*, enables it to launch powerful jets of material into space, the researchers said. This indicates that while such jets have not been detected to date around Sgr A*, they might exist - and might be observable in the near future, they added.

The researchers released a new image showing the environment around Sgr A* in polarized light for the first time, revealing the magnetic field structure. The polarized light comes from subatomic particles called electrons gyrating around magnetic field lines.

Sgr A* possesses 4 million times the mass of our sun and is located about 26,000 light-years - the distance light travels in a year, 5.9 trillion miles (9.5 trillion km) - from Earth.

  An image of the night sky above Paranal, Chile, taken by ESO astronomer Yuri Beletsky. This is the Milky Way, the galaxy to which we belong. (credit: ESO/WIKIPEDIA)

Image was obtained using Event Horizon Telescope

"For a while, we've believed that magnetic fields play a key role in how black holes feed and eject matter in powerful jets," said astronomer Sara Issaoun of the Center for Astrophysics - Harvard & Smithsonian and co-leader of the research.

"This new image, along with a strikingly similar polarization structure seen in the much larger and more powerful M87* black hole, shows that strong and ordered magnetic fields are critical to how black holes interact with the gas and matter around them," Issaoun added.

Black holes are extraordinarily dense objects with gravity so strong that not even light can escape, making viewing them extremely challenging.

"The magnetic field appears to be organized into a spiral, similar to M87*. This magnetic field geometry implies that the black hole can power very efficient jets that shoot off into the galaxy," said another of the researchers, Center for Astrophysics astronomer Angelo Ricarte.

The new image, like the previous images of Sgr A* and the M87 black hole, was obtained using the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) international scientific collaboration's global network of observatories working collectively to observe radio sources associated with black holes.

A black hole's event horizon is the point of no return beyond which anything - stars, planets, gas, dust and all forms of electromagnetic radiation - gets dragged into oblivion.

"By imaging polarized light from hot glowing gas near black holes, we are directly inferring the structure and strength of the magnetic fields that thread the flow of gas and matter that the black hole feeds on and ejects," Issaoun said.

"Compared to the previous results, polarized light teaches us a lot more about the astrophysics, the properties of the gas, and mechanisms that take place as a black hole feeds," Issaoun added.

Light is an oscillating electromagnetic wave that lets objects be seen. Light sometimes oscillates in a specific orientation, and that is called polarized light.

The M87 black hole has a mass 6 billion times that of our sun and inhabits the center of a giant elliptical galaxy. It ejects a powerful jet of plasma - gas so hot that some or all its atoms are split into the subatomic particles electrons and ions - visible at all wavelengths.

The evidence for a jet flowing from Sgr A* is mounting, the researchers said.

"One thing we're really excited about is the prediction for a powerful jet. As our instrumentation improves in the upcoming years, if it exists, we should be able to tease it out of the data," Ricarte said.

The findings were published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.     

See the Milky Way's Sagittarius A* black hole in an amazing polarized Event Horizon Telescope image

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Technology News: New robot called Figure 01 can speak and move like a human

 

New robot called Figure 01 can speak and move like a human

Robot Figure 01 learns to make coffee via video with OpenAI. Advances in mechanics and language, but skepticism raised by Livescience.com.

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF, MARCH 27, 2024 

https://www.jpost.com/science/article-793911   

                                                             The robot (photo credit: Figure)

A human-shaped robot with the ability to learn from its mistakes has successfully managed to learn how to make a cup of coffee just by watching a video of a person doing so. This new robot, called Figure 01, can serve you food, and answer questions in a friendly voice using a technology called OpenAI.

The OpenAI technology is mostly known for the product ChatGPT. While it is unlikely that this invention uses ChatGPT due to its use of pause words such as “um,” the possibility still exists. In an article about this robot, Livescience.com argues that if everything that the company’s video shows works “it means an advancement in two key areas of robotics.”

 

The first area that Livescience.com refers to is the mechanical aspect of robotics. This robot’s human-like movement capabilities showcase an advancement in the ability to build mechanical constructs with “dexterous, self-correcting movement.” This means that modern engineers can imitate the human hand, including the smaller bones, to a better level. This also means that the finer motors, allow the robot to carry out tasks and hold objects delicately.

The second advancement that Livescience.com talks about in their article relates to natural language processing (NPL.) According to the article, OpenAI’s engine is immediate and responsive to queries, as well as able to translate data into speech. However, Livescience.com argues that the video might be prerecorded.

Live science’s skepticism

In the article, Livescience.com suggests that the video showcases “what Figure Robotics is working on rather than a live field test.” A series of occasions where the robot’s speech imitates natural human speech too well - such as at 0.52s and 1.49s according to the article - leads Livescience.com to question an AI’s ability to “include such random, humanlike tics of diction.”

NASA Dexterous Robotics engineers Alex Sowell and Misha Savchenko setting up the Valkyrie robot at Woodside Energy. (credit: Credits: NASA/JSC)

From the article, it seems like Livescience.com’s skepticism stems from Figure 01’s ability to create the “unconscious cadence humans use in speech.” Overall, Livescience.com concludes that if the video is a live field test, then Figure 01 is a “giant leap towards the future.”      

                                               Do you want cream in your coffee?

     

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Science News: Researchers develop new tool to improve healing of eye injuries

 

Researchers develop new tool to improve healing of eye injuries

A new type of contact lenses can heal wounds to the cornea using a slow-release drug

By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH, Jerusalem Post, MARCH 24, 2024 

https://www.jpost.com/science/article-793462

The image shows the eye after treatment without inflammation or edema. (photo credit: SHAARE ZEDEK MEDICAL CENTER)

People who wear contact lenses have to be very careful to clean them properly and follow their ophthalmologists’ exact instructions or they can suffer damage to their eyes. But can contact lenses actually heal damage to one’s eyes?

A cross-disciplinary team at Ontario’s University of Waterloo has developed a patented, new contact-lens material that could act as a bandage for corneal wounds while releasing drugs in a controlled manner to help the eye heal faster.

Corneal injury and subsequent damage to the corneal epithelium can lead to corneal scarring, vision loss, and even blindness. An estimated 1.5 to two million cases of monocular blindness in the world are caused by ocular trauma and corneal ulceration annually. Historically, the standard treatment for a corneal abrasion is the insertion of a lubricant onto the ocular surface, followed by patching the eye to prevent blinking, permitting the epithelium to heal under the patch. 

However, the use of an eye patch leads to frustration for the patient due to the loss of vision in two eyes. Furthermore, if the eye patch is not worn appropriately, then it can lead to delays in recovery of the epithelium. It is also cumbersome for clinicians to assess the wound healing progress, as this requires the removal of the patch.

Typically, corneal abrasion patients spend seven to 10 days wearing a clear, oxygen-permeable bandage contact lens, often containing antibiotic eyedrops – but the one-time antibiotic application makes it difficult to ensure enough drugs remain on the eye for sustained treatment. 

                            Illustrative image of a contact lens. (credit: PIXABAY)

“It’s a targeted-release drug delivery system that is responsive to the body,” said Prof. Lyndon Jones at the Canadian university’s School of Optometry and Vision Science and director of the Center for Ocular Research and Education. “The more injured you are, the more drug gets delivered, which is unique and potentially a game changer.” 

Jones knew there was a market for a drug-delivering bandage contact lens that could treat the eye and allow it to heal simultaneously; the question was how to develop it.

Disrupting the boundaries of health

As the university has several researchers and entrepreneurs working on technology to disrupt the boundaries of health, Jones was able to team up with Dr. Susmita Bose, Dr. Chau-Minh Phan, and chemical engineering Prof. Evelyn Yim to work on collagen-based materials. Also collaborating were Dr. Muhammad Rizwan, a former postdoctoral fellow, and John Waylon Tse, a former graduate student, both with Yim’s lab.

They have just published their discovery in the journal Pharmaceutics under the title “Fabrication and characterization of an enzyme-triggered, therapeutic-releasing hydrogel bandage contact lens material.”Collagen is a protein naturally found in the eye that’s also often involved in the wound healing process –but it’s too soft and weak to be a contact lens material. Yim found a way to transform a collagen derivative named gelatin methacrylate into a biomaterial 10 times stronger.

One unique property of collagen-based materials is that they degrade when exposed to an enzyme called matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) that is naturally found in the eye. 

“These enzymes are very special because they’re involved in wound healing, and when you have a wound, they’re released in greater quantities,” Phan said. “If you have a material that can be degraded in the presence of this enzyme and we add a drug to this material, we can engineer it so it releases the drug in a way that is proportional to the amount of enzyme present at the wound – so, the bigger the wound, the higher the amount of drug released.”

The team used bovine lactoferrin as a model wound-healing drug and entrapped it in the material. This glycoprotein is a molecule made of of protein and carbohydrate chains involved in many physiological functions including immunity. Bovine lactoferrin was first isolated from cow’s milk in 1939 and shown in 1960 to be the main iron-binding protein in human milk. In human cell culture study, the researchers achieved complete wound healing within five days using the drug-releasing novel contact lens material.

Another benefit of the material is that it becomes activated only at eye temperatures, providing an inbuilt storage mechanism. The next step is fine-tuning the material, including entrapping different drugs in it. The scientists believe their material has great potential – not only for the eye but potentially for other body sites, especially large skin ulcers.     

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Defense News: Sweden Acquires 321 Patria Armored Vehicles in €470 Million Deal

Sweden Acquires 321 Patria Armored Vehicles in €470 Million Deal

The vehicles set for delivery are the troop transportation model, capable of carrying up to 12 crew members. They will be utilized for command and control, as well as ambulance duties

Eyal Boguslavsky, Israel Defense, 25/03/2024 

https://www.israeldefense.co.il/en/node/61593

                                                            The Patria 6x6 vehicle, Photo: Patria website

The Swedish Defense Procurement Agency (FMV) has signed a contract to purchase 321 6x6 armored vehicles from the Finnish-Norwegian company Patria, valued at around €470 million.

These 321 vehicles, known as Pansarterrängbil 300 in Sweden, will be stationed at the Livgardet regiment in Kungsängen and several other units nationwide. Patria had previously delivered 20 6x6 vehicles under a separate contract signed in April 2023.

The Patria 6x6 vehicle scheduled for delivery is the troop transportation model, equipped with cutting-edge vehicle technology providing advanced protection for up to 12 crew members. It features a modular design, allowing it to be configured for various purposes. In addition to troop transport, it will serve command and control, as well as ambulance duties in Sweden.

Finnish Company Patria to supply Sweden with 321 Patria 6x6 armored vehicles

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Science News: Israeli innovation develops method to detect water contamination

Israeli innovation develops method to detect water contamination

Bar-Ilan University researchers develop cost-effective method to detect low concentrations of contaminants and pharmaceutical waste in water. 

By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH, Jerusalem Post, MARCH 22, 2024

https://www.jpost.com/business-and-innovation/article-793246

 

Alexander River – in the Emek Hefer Region of Israel’s Mediterranean Coastal Plain is a beautifully restored river which runs the width of Israel to its estuary near the moshav of Beit Yannai.

(photo credit: ISRAEL ESTUARINE RESEARCH CENTER)

Medications and contaminants disposed of in the garbage present a growing concern around the world, especially to our drinking water and food.

A new study by researchers at the chemistry department and Institute of Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials at Bar-Ilan University (BIU) in Ramat Gan has resulted in the development of a highly sensitive plasmonic-based detector that specifically targets the detection of harmful piperidine residue in water.

Piperidine, a small potent molecule that serves as a building block in the pharmaceutical and food additive industries; it is also used as a solvent and to make rubber.

It was first discovered in 1850 by the Scottish chemist Thomas Anderson and again two years later, independently by French chemist Auguste Cahours, who named it. Both of them obtained piperidine by reacting piperine with nitric acid.

Ensuring drinking water a food safety

It poses significant health risks to both humans and animals due to its toxic nature. Detecting even miniscule amounts of piperidine is essential for ensuring drinking water and food safety. 

                                            Clean drinking water (credit: INGIMAGE)

The plasmonic substrate developed at BIU that was made up of triangular cavities milled in a silver thin film and protected by a 5-nanometer layer of silicon dioxide, offers unparalleled sensitivity to piperidine, detecting low concentrations in water, the team said. 

Mohamed Hamode, a doctoral student working with Dr. Elad Segal, developed the dime-sized device using a focused ion microscope to drill nanometer-sized holes on a metal surface. Next week, Hamode will present the innovation at an international conference on microscopy taking place in Italy.

By programming the beam with a custom-built computer program, Hamode created holes of various shapes that are smaller than the wavelength of visible light and enhance the electrical field on the surface, leading to concentrated light in very small areas. This amplification enables optical phenomena to be significantly increased, allowing for the identification of a low concentration of molecules that were previously undetectable with optical probes.

Due to its confined and enhanced electromagnetic field, the plasmonic substrate offers an efficient alternative to other substrates currently used in Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS), making possible the use of cost-effective and portable Raman devices that enable quicker and more affordable analysis.

“This study represents a significant advancement in the field of environmental monitoring,” said lead researcher BIU chemistry Prof. Adi Salomon. 

“By leveraging nano-patterned metallic surfaces, we’ve have shown that the detection of low concentrations of piperidine in water using affordable optics offers a promising solution for environmental analytical setups, she continued.

The findings of the study, just published in the journal Environmental Science: Nano under the title “Plasmonic-based Raman sensor for ultra-sensitive detection of pharmaceutical waste,” show the potential of plasmonic-based detectors in revolutionizing environmental monitoring, particularly in the detection of pharmaceutical waste and contaminants.

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Technology News: Self-heating concrete will make snow shovels obsolete

Self-heating concrete will make snow shovels obsolete 

 The self-heating concrete is the latest in an ongoing effort to create more environmentally responsive and resilient infrastructure, particularly in the northern regions of the US. 

By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH, Jerusalem Post, MARCH 21, 2024 

https://www.jpost.com/business-and-innovation/article-793039

 Researchers tested concrete slabs containing phase-change material that can warm themselves up when temperatures fall in order to melt off snow and ice. (photo credit: DREXEL UNIVERSITY)

Clearing roads and sidewalks of snow with mechanical snowplows and salt to lower temperatures at which it melts is a very expensive procedure, and they often seriously harm the concrete and asphalt. Now, researchers at Drexel University in Philadelphia are coming closer to making such a chore obsolete.

Tucked inconspicuously next to a parking lot for the university’s facilities vehicles, two 76 by 76-centimeter slabs have been warding off snow, sleet and freezing rain on their own – without shoveling, salting or scraping – for over three years. Researchers recently reported on the science behind special concrete they developed that can warm itself up when it snows or as temperatures approach freezing.

The self-heating concrete is the latest in an ongoing effort to create more environmentally responsive and resilient infrastructure, particularly in the northern regions of the US, where the National Highway Administration estimates that cold states spend $2.3 billion on snow and ice-removal operations each year and millions to repair roadways damaged by winter weather.

The Golan Heights, Upper Galilee, Jerusalem, Gush Etzion, and other locations in Israel spend large amounts of money and mechanical shovels to clear the roads in winter.

“One way to extend the service life of a concrete surfaces, like roadways, is to help them maintain a surface temperature above freezing during the winter,” said civil engineering Prof. Amir Yaghoob Farnam who has been leading the research. “Preventing freezing and thawing and cutting back on the need for plowing and salting are good ways to keep the surface from deteriorating. So, our work is looking at how we can incorporate special materials in the concrete that help it to maintain a higher surface temperature when the ambient temperature around it drops.”

 Snow falls in Majdal Shams, in the Golan Heights, Northern Israel on January 30, 2024 (credit: MICHAEL GILADI/FLASH90)

Team has been developing the tech for five years

The Drexel team has been developing its cold-weather-resilient concrete mix over the last five years. Until now, the success of their self-heating concrete – which they have previously reported can melt snow and prevent or slow ice formation for an extended period of time – has been only in a controlled lab setting. In a paper just published in the American Society for Civil Engineering’s Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering under the title “Development of Self-Heating Concrete Using Low-Temperature Phase Change Materials: Multiscale and In Situ Real-Time Evaluation of Snow-Melting and Freeze–Thaw Performance,” the group took the important step of proving its viability in the natural environment.

“We have demonstrated that our self-heating concrete is capable of melting snow on its own, using only the environmental daytime thermal energy and doing it without the help of salt, shoveling, or heating systems,” Farnam said. The self-heating concrete is suitable for mountainous and northern regions in the US such as Northeast Pennsylvania and Philadelphia and in snowy countries abroad where there are suitable heating and cooling cycles in winter.

The secret to the concrete’s warming is low-temperature liquid paraffin, which releases heat when it turns from its room-temperature state as a liquid to a solid when temperatures drop. 

One method they devised involves treating porous lightweight aggregate – pebbles and small stone fragments that are ingredients in concrete –with the paraffin. The aggregate absorbs the liquid paraffin before being mixed into the concrete. The other strategy is mixing micro-capsules of paraffin directly into the concrete.

The researchers poured one slab using each method and a third without any phase-change material, as a control. All three have been outside in the elements since December 2021. In the first two years, they faced a total of 32 freeze-thaw events — instances where temperature dropped below freezing, regardless of precipitation and five snowfalls of 2.5 centimeters or more.

Using cameras and thermal sensors, the researchers monitored the temperature and snow and ice-melting behavior of the slabs. The heating is enough to melt five centimeters of snow, at a rate of about a quarter of an .5 centimeters of snow per hour. And while this may not be warm enough to melt a heavy snow event before plows are needed, it can help de-ice the road surface and increase transportation safety even in heavy snow events.

Simply preventing the surface from dropping below freezing also goes a long way when it comes to preventing deterioration, according to the researchers.

“Freeze-thaw cycles, periods of extreme cooling – below freezing – and warming, can cause a surface to expand and contract in size, which puts a strain on its structural integrity and can cause damaging cracking and spalling over time,” said doctoral student Robin Deb who helped lead the research. “One of the promising findings is that the slabs with phase-change materials were able to stabilize their temperature above freezing when faced with dropping ambient temperatures.”

Overall, the treated lightweight aggregate slab performed better at sustaining its heating, keeping the temperature above freezing for up to 10 hours. 

“Our findings suggest that the phase-change material treated lightweight aggregate concrete was more suited for de-icing applications at sub-zero temperatures due to its gradual heat release within wider range of temperature,” Farnam said.

“With these findings, we will be able to continue to improve the system to one day optimize it for longer heating and greater melting. We planto continue to collect data on the slabs to understand the long-term effectiveness of the phase-change materials and study how this method may extend the lifespan of concrete,” the team concluded. 

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Defense News: U.S. to Supply Javelin Anti-Tank Missile Systems to Morocco

 

U.S. to Supply Javelin Anti-Tank Missile Systems to Morocco

 U.S. to Supply Javelin Anti-Tank Missile Systems to Morocco

By Eyal Boguslavsky, Israel Defense, 21/03/2024 

https://www.israeldefense.co.il/en/node/61565

U.S. Army Javelin anti-tank missile system, Photo: Lockheed Martin website

The U.S. State Department has approved the sale of Javelin anti-tank missile systems to Morocco at an estimated total cost of $260 million. As part of this sale, Morocco will be supplied with 612 Javelin FGM-148F missiles, which include 12 fly-to-buy missiles, along with 200 Javelin lightweight command launch units (LWCLUs).

British Army Javelin Anti-Tank Missile System. By Photo: Stuart A Hill AMS/UK MOD

According to the U.S. State Department, this proposed sale will support the foreign policy and national security objectives of the United States by enhancing the security of a major non-NATO Ally. Morocco is recognized as an important force for political stability and economic progress in North Africa. It is emphasized that the proposed sale of this equipment and support will not disrupt the fundamental military balance in the region.

Javelin Anti-Tank Missile Training

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First-of-Its-Kind 'Quantum Tornado' Achieves Record-Breaking Black Hole Mimicry

21 March 2024, ByM. STARR

https://www.sciencealert.com/first-of-its-kind-quantum-tornado-achieves-record-breaking-black-hole-mimicry

A quantum tornado in a helium superfluid.

  (Leonardo Solidoro)

A superfluid vortex controlled in a lab is helping physicists learn more about the behavior of black holes.

A whirlpool generated in helium cooled to just a fraction above absolute zero mimics the gravitational environment of these objects to such high precision that it's giving unprecedented insight into how they drag and warp the space-time around them.

"Using superfluid helium has allowed us to study tiny surface waves in greater detail and accuracy than with our previous experiments in water," explains physicist Patrik Švančara of the University of Nottingham in the UK, who led the research.

"As the viscosity of superfluid helium is extremely small, we were able to meticulously investigate their interaction with the superfluid tornado and compare the findings with our own theoretical projections."

Black holes are quite probably the weirdest, most extreme objects in a whole Universe of very weird things. They're also notoriously difficult to study. They don't emit any radiation we can detect; we can only see light from the space immediately around them. But we have some very good theoretical studies that can describe their observed behavior quite accurately.

One way we can learn more about them is by creating black hole analogs. These are experiments that can recreate the theory of black holes to elucidate other aspects of their behavior. One type of black hole analog is a vortex or whirlpool.

Any material that comes close enough to a black hole starts to swirl around it, and then fall onto it, like water circling and gurgling down a drain.

So apt is this comparison that scientists have even built water vortices to study black hole behavior. Švančara and his colleagues, however, wanted to take this a step further – with superfluid helium.

This is an isotope of helium – helium-4 – that has been cooled to -271 degrees Celsius (-456 Fahrenheit), just slightly above absolute zero. At this extremely cold temperature, the bosons in helium-4 slow down enough to overlap and behave as one super-atom – a fluid with zero viscosity, or superfluid.

The team's experiment, with a vortex swirling around the helium superfluid.

 (Leonardo Solidoro)



The team harnessed the unusual quantum properties of superfluid helium-4 to generate a sort of 'quantum tornado'.

"Superfluid helium contains tiny objects called quantum vortices, which tend to spread apart from each other," Švančara says. "In our set-up, we've managed to confine tens of thousands of these quanta in a compact object resembling a small tornado, achieving a vortex flow with record-breaking strength in the realm of quantum fluids."

By studying this tornado, the researchers were able to identify similarities between the vortex flow and the influence of a spinning black hole on the curved space-time around it. In particular, the researchers observed standing waves analogous to black hole bound states, and excitations analogous to the ringdown of a newly formed black hole.

And this is just the start. Now that the researchers have demonstrated that their experiment works the way they intended, the vortex is poised to unlock a new area of black hole science.

"When we first observed clear signatures of black hole physics in our initial analog experiment back in 2017, it was a breakthrough moment for understanding some of the bizarre phenomena that are often challenging, if not impossible, to study otherwise," says physicist Silke Weinfurtner of the University of Nottingham.

"Now, with our more sophisticated experiment, we have taken this research to the next level, which could eventually lead us to predict how quantum fields behave in curved spacetimes around astrophysical black holes."

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Astrophysicist explains science behind once-in-a-lifetime nova outburst that will light up the sky this year

Mar. 19, 2024, by C. Mello-Klein, Northeastern U.

https://phys.org/news/2024-03-astrophysicist-science-lifetime-nova-outburst.html

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

The total solar eclipse isn't the only reason to keep your eyes to the sky this year. For the first time in 80 years, a star system 3,000 light years away will be visible to the naked eye thanks to a once-in-a-lifetime nova outburst.

NASA announced that the nova, which will create a "new" star in the night sky, will light up the night sky some time between now and September and be as bright as the North Star. One of only five recurring novae in our galaxy, it will be visible for a week before it fades back down.

Jonathan Blazek, an assistant professor of physics at Northeastern University, says this is an exciting moment for amateur astronomers and astrophysicists alike. It's not technically a new star, just a star that is now bright enough for people to see more clearly, Blazek says, but it provides an opportunity to see and understand the cosmos in a new way.

What exactly is a nova?

"There's a broad class of these sorts of events, and they typically share the trait of having two objects, or sometimes more than two objects, close to each other, and you're transferring mass from one to the other," Blazek says. "Eventually, you build up enough mass on usually the hotter object that it ignites, in this case undergoing fusion, and then suddenly you get a very rapid release of energy so it gets much, much brighter."

The star system in question is T Coronae Borealis, or T CrB, and it contains a white dwarf and red giant, two stars that create the perfect conditions for a nova outburst.

A red giant is what happens when a star, like our sun, runs out of fuel and becomes larger and cooler, turning red instead of the white or yellow of a hot star. A white dwarf is what a red giant turns into when it runs out of even more fuel: a very compact star.

What happens when these two stars co-orbit one another is that the white dwarf steadily strips away the atmosphere of the expanding red giant.

"The white dwarf is much smaller and much more compact, so you build up a little disk of mostly hydrogen and maybe some helium as well sitting on the white dwarf," Blazek says. "Eventually enough of it builds up and basically ignites. It's not literally burning in the sense of fire; it's thermonuclear burn and you have hydrogen undergoing a fusion reaction."

As it undergoes that runaway thermonuclear reaction, the white dwarf gets hotter, bigger and brighter, making it easier for us to see it back on Earth. This entire process is part of the natural lifecycle of these stars and why they happen every 80 years. After a white dwarf like this goes nova, it goes back to stripping gas away from the red giant, building up gas at the same rate before eventually another outburst occurs.

Outside of the novelty of these novae,, Blazek says systems like T CrB are particularly interesting for astrophysicists because they are prime candidates for Type 1a supernovae, even larger stellar explosions that are integral to mapping the cosmos.

When a star like T CrB's white dwarf hits a certain mass after repeated novae and it can't support its own mass, it starts to collapse and erupts into a massive, bright explosion, known as a supernova. Novae occur every 80 years, but supernovae are one-time events because they are so powerful that they end up destroying a star. Type 1a supernovae are even more notable because they seem to always have the same brightness, which means they likely always happen to stars of the same mass, Blazek says.

"These are cosmologically super interesting because you can see them really, really far away, and because they're almost always the same brightness, you can use them as very particular probes of the universe," Blazek says. "You can basically map out how bright something is at different distances away and use that to say, "How is the universe changing at different distances?" This is actually how they discovered dark energy."

This is why organizations like NASA and astrophysicists across the globe will likely be pointing countless telescopes at the sky to monitor this nova, Blazek says.

"We're at the stage where we have discovered dark energy using the supernova, but if we want to go to the next level of precision, we need to do a better job of really understanding deep down what these things are, how much variance there is between different objects and things like that," Blazek says.

As for the rest of us, looking up into the night sky and seeing a new source of light in the night sky will be enough. Luckily, it's so bright that this might be one of the few times where city dwellers might have an advantage when it comes to stargazing.

"Obviously, you'll get a better view if you go somewhere dark, but if you go somewhere dark, you'll see a lot of stuff up there," Blazek says. "If you want to have an easier time finding it, stay somewhere bright and then you can only see the really bright stuff, so it'll pop out behind the Boston glow."

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Medical Technology News: New wearable neck patch invention allows people to speak with no vocal cords

 

New wearable neck patch invention allows people to speak with no vocal cords

Looking forward, the research team plans to continue enlarging the vocabulary of the device through machine learning and to test it in people with speech disorders.

By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH, Jerusalem Post, MARCH 17, 2024

https://www.jpost.com/science/article-792282

 Photo of person’s neck with the device – a black adhesive square attached outside the throat.

(photo credit: Jun Chen Lab/UCLA)

A person can lose their voice (dysphonia) from a cold, speaking constantly as a teacher, singing at the top of their voice at a concert, or from allergies – but they always recover.

However, there are diseases that cause vocal cord paralysis, in which you can’t control the movement of the muscles that control your voice when the nerve impulses to your voice box (larynx) are disrupted. This results in chronic paralysis of the vocal cord muscles.

Vocal cord paralysis can make it hard to speak and even breathe; that’s because your vocal cords not only produce sound but also protect the airway by preventing food, drink, and even your saliva from entering your windpipe and making you choke. Possible causes of vocal cord paralysis include certain cancers, nerve damage during surgery, cervical spine injuries, and even serious viral infections.

However, there is hope for people who have lost their voice chronically or permanently – a new wearable, adhesive device using artificial intelligence developed by bioengineers at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA).They invented a soft, thin, stretchy device measuring just over 6.5 sq. cm. that can be attached to the skin outside the throat to help people with dysfunctional vocal cords regain their voice function.

The invention has just been disclosed in the prestigious journal Nature Communications, under the title “Speaking without vocal folds using a machine-learning-assisted wearable sensing-actuation system.”

The bioelectric system, developed by Prof. Jun Chen at UCLA’s Samueli School of Engineering and his colleagues, is able to detect movement in a person’s larynx muscles and translate those signals into audible speech with the assistance of machine-learning technology with nearly 95% accuracy.

  People walk on the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) campus before the start of semester (credit: REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson)

This is the latest breakthrough in Chen’s efforts to help those with disabilities. His team previously developed a wearable glove capable of translating American Sign Language (ASL) into English speech in real time to help users of ASL communicate with those who don’t know how to sign.

The patch's design

The tiny new patch-like device consists of two components. One, a self-powered sensing component, detects and converts signals generated by muscle movements into high-fidelity, analyzable electrical signals. These electrical signals are then translated into speech signals using a machine-learning algorithm. The other, an actuation component, turns those speech signals into the desired voice expression.

The two components each contain two layers: a layer of biocompatible silicone compound polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) with elastic properties and a magnetic induction layer made of copper induction coils. Sandwiched between the two components is a fifth layer containing PDMS mixed with micromagnets, which generates a magnetic field.

Using a soft magnetoelastic sensing mechanism developed by Chen’s team three years ago, the device can detect changes in the magnetic field when it is changed by mechanical forces – in this case, the movement of laryngeal muscles. The embedded serpentine induction coils in the magnetoelastic layers help generate high-fidelity electrical signals for sensing purposes.

Measuring 3 cm. on each side, the device weighs about 7 gr. and is just 1.5 mm. thick. With double-sided biocompatible tape, it can easily adhere to an individual’s throat near the location of the vocal cords and can be reused by reapplying tape as needed.

Voice disorders are prevalent across all ages and demographic groups; research has shown that almost a third of people will experience at least one such disorder in their lifetime. Yet with therapeutic approaches, such as surgical interventions and voice therapy, voice recovery can stretch from three months to a year, with some invasive techniques requiring a significant period of mandatory voice rest after surgery.

“Existing solutions such as handheld electro-larynx devices and tracheoesophageal-puncture procedures can be inconvenient, invasive or uncomfortable,” said Chen, who has been named one the world’s most highly cited researchers five years in a row. “This new device presents a wearable, non-invasive option capable of assisting patients in communicating during the period before treatment and during the post-treatment recovery period for voice disorders.”

The researchers tested the wearable technology on eight healthy adults in their experiments. They collected data on laryngeal muscle movement and used a machine-learning algorithm to correlate the resulting signals to certain words and then chose a corresponding output voice signal through the device’s actuation component.

The research team showed how accurate the system is by having the participants pronounce five sentences – both aloud and voicelessly – including “Hi, Rachel, how are you doing today?” and “I love you!” The overall prediction accuracy of the model was 94.68%, with the participants’ voice signal amplified by the actuation component, demonstrating that the sensing mechanism recognized their laryngeal movement signal and matched the corresponding sentence the participants wished to say.

Looking forward, the research team plans to continue enlarging the vocabulary of the device through machine learning and to test it in people with speech disorders.     

Speaking without vocal cords, thanks to a new AI-assisted wearable device

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