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The speed of light in a vacuum is the same wherever you measure it in the universe‚ according to Einstein's special theory of relativity. Whether you're sat on Earth‚ Mars‚ or Zoozve‚ if you measure the speed of light you'll find it chugging along at a cool 299‚792‚458 meters per second (983‚571‚056.43 feet per second)‚ the absolute speed limit of the universe.Sound is not the same as light. As the poster for Alien explains‚ in space no-one can hear you scream. Or to put it another way which won't sell as many movie tickets‚ sound cannot travel through a vacuum because it is a vibration propagating as an acoustic wave through a medium‚ be it liquid‚ solid‚ or gas. Sound moves at different speeds through those mediums‚ traveling faster at through greater densities. On Earth‚ sound moves at 1‚500 meters (5‚000 feet) per second in water‚ and in air around 340 meters (1‚115 feet) per second. In solids‚ sound moves much faster‚ though how fast depends on the solid. Scientists attempting to calculate the fastest that sound could possibly travel found that it decreases with the mass of the atom‚ implying that sound would be fastest if it were to propagate through solid hydrogen. Though solid hydrogen only occurs at astonishingly high pressures like those found inside gas giants like Jupiter‚ they calculated that sound would move along at 36 kilometers per second (22 miles per second) in it‚ likely the fastest possible speed that sound can travel.This leads us to answer the question in the title of this article. Earth's atmosphere is much thicker than Mars'‚ being roughly 100 times more dense on our planet's surface than on the red one. As such you'd expect sound to travel slower there than here‚ if the atmosphere is thick enough to carry sound any significant distance at all.Of course‚ we have recordings of sound on Mars‚ including that of a Martian dust devil‚ thanks to the army of robots we have sent there. So we know that sound travels there experimentally.          In fact‚ Mars is one of only two planets where we have actually measured the speed of sound. In an experiment in 2022‚ NASA's Perseverance rover fired lasers at rocks and waited for the resulting shockwave to be heard by its microphones. Just like on Earth‚ the speed of sound varies depending on temperature and altitude‚ but experiments conducted by the rover found that the speed of sound in the Jezero Crater averaged out to around 240 meters per second (540 miles per hour).As day changes to night on Mars‚ the speed was found to vary by around 10 percent‚ because of the resulting drop in temperature. Sound on Mars doesn't stop being weird there though. Due to how sound travels through carbon dioxide at low pressure‚ Mars goes through a change in the speed of sound in the audible bandwidth. "For an acoustic wave with a frequency higher than ~240 Hz [just below middle C on a piano]‚ CO2 vibrational modes activated through collisions do not have time to relax their energy‚" the team explained in their paper. "It turns out that‚ on Mars‚ frequencies above 240 Hz travel more than 10 m/s faster than low frequencies. It may induce a unique listening experience on Mars with an early arrival of high-pitched sounds compared to bass."All “explainer” articles are confirmed by fact checkers to be correct at time of publishing. Text‚ images‚ and links may be edited‚ removed‚ or added to at a later date to keep information current.  

Forget nuts and bolts. Japanese scientists have created a two-legged “biohybrid robot” that combines living biological muscle with an artificial skeleton. To create the robot‚ researchers at the University of Tokyo grew skeletal muscle in molds to create strips. They then fashioned the lightweight skeleton out of styrene board‚ a flexible silicone-based body‚ acrylic resin legs with brass wire weights‚ and 3D-printed feet. The strips of muscle tissue were then fixed along the body to the feet of the robot‚ not dissimilar to how they’re attached to an animal’s bone.With a jolt of electricity‚ the robot can slowly move forward and turn within a small circle. “Initially‚ we weren't at all sure that achieving bipedal walking was possible‚ so it was truly surprising when we succeeded. Our biohybrid robot managed to perform forward and turning movements with a bipedal walk by effectively balancing four key forces: the muscle contractile force‚ the restorative force of the flexible body‚ the gravity acting on the weight‚ and the buoyancy of the float‚” Professor Shoji Takeuchi‚ study author from the Graduate School of Information Science and Technology at the University of Tokyo‚ said in a statement.               Don’t expect a graceful gait from the robot just yet. The current model is only capable of nudging around by pivoting on its two “limbs‚” which it achieves at an achingly slow speed of just 5.4 millimeters per minute. It’s only capable of working underwater‚ as the lab-grown muscle dries out quickly when exposed to air.Nevertheless‚ the new research project shows roboticists are overcoming a major hurdle with biohybrid robots‚ which currently can move in straight lines or perform large turns.These early steps in creating “biohybrid robots” are part of scientists’ interest in using examples from living organisms to create smarter and smoother robots.“By incorporating living tissues as part of a robot‚ we can make use of the superior functions of living organisms‚” explained Takeuchi.Labeled illustration and image of the “biohybrid robot”.Image credit: ©2024‚ Kinjo et al/ Matter“We're working on designing robots with joints and additional muscle tissues to enable more sophisticated walking capabilities. Our findings offer valuable insights for the advancement of soft flexible robots powered by muscle tissue and have the potential to contribute to a deeper understanding of biological locomotion mechanisms‚ further enabling us to mimic the intricacies of human walking in robots‚” Takeuchi added.Beyond pure robotics‚ many other scientists are looking into ways to meld living structures with technological systems. Just a few weeks ago‚ researchers at Indiana University Bloomington unveiled a computer chip that was fused with human brain tissue‚ creating a mini hybrid cyborg in a Petri dish that can perform math equations and recognize speech.The study is published in the journal Matter. 

Archaeologists from the Université Bordeaux have constructed a continent-wide database of personal ornaments worn by Europeans 34‚000-24‚000 years ago‚ a period known as the Gravettian technocomplex. Combining the locations at which these were found with genetic data revealed nine distinct cultures. “We demonstrate that Gravettian ornament variability cannot be explained solely by isolation-by-distance‚” the authors write.Humans have been adorning our bodies with items such as shells for at least 140‚000 years. Over time‚ the range of the items used grew‚ and around 45‚000 years ago‚ there was an explosion in the diversity of types of beads made from bones‚ shells‚ ivory‚ and stones‚ among other raw materials.At this point‚ the authors of the study note‚ jewelry became a useful cultural marker for modern archaeologists. “The idea behind this approach‚” they write‚ “is that personal ornaments are a communication technology used to convey privileged information on group affiliation and social status.” Items buried with someone may carry an extra significance – if nothing else‚ the fact that the culture engaged in burial‚ which was not universal at the time.Some archaeologists have used differences in jewelry styles to distinguish cultures of the era. Others have disagreed‚ however‚ arguing that these reflect isolation by distance in an era when all travel was on foot. If seashells were not used far inland‚ for example‚ it might not represent a cultural discontinuity‚ but rather the difficulty of importing them.It should be possible to test these two competing explanations‚ the authors of the latest study note. If the second interpretation is correct‚ the differences in styles will be determined by distance. On the first view‚ factors such as language‚ environment‚ and ethnic differences would also play a role. When looking back 30‚000 years‚ we may not be able to measure some of these‚ but others will have left their mark.To test which is correct requires a large database of ornaments and their locations‚ and that is what first author Jack Baker built for his PhD thesis‚ using examples from 112 sites. Even by this time‚ shells were the most common ornaments‚ with 79 examples found‚ compared to 26 teeth and 29 made from other items. Although 13 of the shells could have originated inland‚ either being from freshwater species or made from fossils deposited in parts of Europe that were once underwater‚ the majority must have been brought from the coast‚ often far away.Along with the raw materials‚ the study identified differences in the ornaments’ styles between locations. As Baker told Science Magazine: Gravettian culture was not “one monolithic thing”.Although geographical distance was certainly a factor in the variation found between sites‚ the authors concluded it was far from the only one. They identified nine clusters of sites marked by commonalities in what was found at each. Three of these were composed of burial sites and six of places of occupation. The location of the Gravettian cultural clusters on a map of modern Europe (sea levels at the time were 100 meters lower). Note the intriguing similarity between Europe and Greece‚ despite the sea between.Image credit: Baker et al.‚ Nature Human Behavior 2024It's not just the adornments that reveal cultural differences. In Eastern Europe‚ all the burial sites are from the Early and Middle Gravettian periods‚ with the practice apparently stopping for some reason thereafter. On the other hand‚ it was only in the Middle and Late Gravettian that burials appear to have occurred in Italy. Perhaps once they learned the Italians were doing it‚ Eastern Europeans cooled on the whole burial idea.“Our results are consistent with the view that when choosing their personal ornaments‚ Gravettian hunter-gatherers followed‚ at least to some extent‚ conventions dictated by their sense of belonging to a cultural group‚ and that slightly permeable cultural boundaries existed between groups‚” the authors write.The recent ability to extract DNA from Ice Age humans has led to populations being identified by their genetic group rather than cultural items‚ as in the past. Baker and colleagues note evidence of a genetic discontinuity between western Europe at the time and central and southern parts of the continent‚ but clearly this was not the only cause of cultural divisions. Professor Peter Jordan of Lund University‚ who was not involved in the research‚ told Science Magazine that in this study‚ “The archaeology strikes back‚ showing that we can generate new narratives that also use a very rigorous‚ quantitative approach to the study of material traditions.” Much as genetic analysis has proven popular as the shiny new thing‚ Baker and co-authors note we have DNA from only a small number of individuals in the era‚ with much of the continent not covered.The study is published in Nature Human Behavior.

Spiral galaxies‚ like our own Milky Way‚ are fairly common in the Universe. And – without showing too much favoritism – they are also insanely pretty. New observations from JWST on relatively near galaxies have provided even more insights into the spiral structures in images that are beyond spectacular.The observations were conducted as part of the Physics at High Angular resolution in Nearby GalaxieS (PHANGS) program. More than 150 astronomers worldwide participated in it and it uses a variety of observational facilities from the Hubble Space Telescope to the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA).The goal is to understand spiral galaxies and JWST has just delivered the infrared motherlode‚ with bubbles and filaments of gas at incredible resolution. It allows us to see these structures at the smallest scales ever observed‚ delivering crucial insights into the star formation processes in these galaxies.The newly released images of the 19 spiral galaxies.Image Credit: NASA‚ ESA‚ CSA‚ STScI‚ Janice Lee (STScI)‚ Thomas Williams (Oxford)‚ PHANGS Team“I feel like our team lives in a constant state of being overwhelmed – in a positive way – by the amount of detail in these images‚” Thomas Williams‚ a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oxford‚ said in a statement.The images show holes in the distribution of gas‚ created by one or more stars going supernova‚ pushing the gas away as well as gas filaments that expand well beyond the spiral structure that we can see with our naked eye.“These structures tend to follow the same pattern in certain parts of the galaxies‚” Erik Rosolowsky‚ a professor of physics at the University of Alberta‚ added. “We think of these like waves‚ and their spacing tells us a lot about how a galaxy distributes its gas and dust.”The stunning NGC 1365 as seen by JWST.Image Credit: NASA‚ ESA‚ CSA‚ STScI‚ Janice Lee (STScI)‚ Thomas Williams (Oxford)‚ PHANGS TeamSpiral galaxies are believed to form from the inside out‚ so there is also a lot of attention given to the central regions of these objects. There sits a supermassive black hole and in some of these objects‚ they are bright. Some are so bright‚ they create the characteristic diffraction spike of oversaturated foreground objects.“That’s a clear sign that there may be an active supermassive black hole‚” said Eva Schinnerer‚ a staff scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg‚ Germany. “Or‚ the star clusters toward the center are so bright that they have saturated that area of the image.”The data coming from the PHANGS team is incredible. On top of the images‚ the researchers also released a catalog of roughly 100‚000 star clusters. That is the largest to date and they invite other researchers to get involved.“The amount of analysis that can be done with these images is vastly larger than anything our team could possibly handle‚” Rosolowsky emphasized. “We’re excited to support the community so all researchers can contribute.”All the high-resolution images can be accessed here.

In the realm of Ufology‚ an Abductee is an individual who subjectively recalls genuine memories of being forcibly taken from their beds or sleeping bags by small‚ green-grey entities. These individuals are firmly convinced of undergoing a traumatic abduction by extraterrestrial beings. Under hypnosis‚ most abductees or Experiencers describe harrowing scenes of invasive examinations conducted by these otherworldly creatures. These accounts often include unfamiliar buzzing noises‚ sensations of weightlessness‚ eerie cackling voices‚ and strange lights just moments before an abduction occurs. Abductees also report instances of seeing the Greys standing around their beds‚ accompanied by a sense of incomplete paralysis—an… This premium content is for PLUS+ members only. Visit the site and log in/register to read. The post Did The London Times Publish A UFO Abduction Case In 1873? appeared first on Anomalien.com.

In a breathtaking display of heroism caught on security cameras‚ a man saved a dog from a potentially fatal fall. In Ribeirao Preto‚ a city in Sao Paulo‚ Brazil‚ Joao Augusto spotted a small dog perched precariously on a neighboring balcony. The dog‚ a Shih Tzu named Mel‚ was dangerously close to falling off the... The post Man positions himself to catch dog from a 9-story drop but it’s his body that takes the hit appeared first on Animal Channel.

Within the next fifteen years‚ NASA‚ China‚ and SpaceX plan to send the first crewed missions to Mars. In all three cases‚ these missions are meant to culminate in the creation of surface habitats that will allow for many returns and – quite possibly – permanent human settlements. This presents numerous challenges‚ one of the greatest of which is the need for plenty of breathable air and propellant. Both can be manufactured through electrolysis‚ where electromagnetic fields are applied to water (H2O) to create oxygen gas (O2) and liquid hydrogen (LH2). While Mars has ample deposits of water ice on its surface that make this feasible‚ existing technological solutions fall short of the reliability and efficiency levels required for space exploration. Fortunately‚ a team of researchers from Georgia Tech has proposed a “Magnetohydrodynamic Drive for Hydrogen and Oxygen Production in Mars Transfer” that combines multiple functionalities into a system with no moving parts. This system could revolutionize spacecraft propulsion and was selected by NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program for Phase I development. The proposal comes from Alvaro Romero-Calvo‚ an assistant professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology‚ and his colleagues from the Georgia Tech Research Corporation (GTRC). The system employs a magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) electrolytic cell‚ which relies on electromagnetic fields to accelerate electrically conductive fluid (in this case‚ water) without any moving parts. This allows the system to extract and separate oxygen and hydrogen gas in microgravity‚ removing the need for forced water recirculation and the associated equipment (i.e.‚ pumps or centrifuges). As a specialist in low-gravity science‚ fluid mechanics‚ and magnetohydrodynamics‚ Romero-Calvo and his team have spent many years investigating the applications of MHD systems for spaceflight. The need for a dedicated study to assess the concept’s feasibility and integration into a suitable oxygen production architecture ultimately motivated their proposal. In a previous study‚ Romero-Calvo and co-author Dr. Katharina Brinkert (a professor of Chemistry at the University of Warwick) noted how water harvested in situ would reduce vehicle launch masses. However‚ they also noted that operating this kind of machinery in microgravity presented many unknowns‚ most of which are not addressed by current research. In particular‚ they stressed how the absence of buoyancy in microgravity results in major technical challenges‚ like the need to detach and collect oxygen and hydrogen bubbles‚ which was traditionally addressed using forced water recirculation loops. However‚ they argued‚ this leads to liquid management devices composed of multiple elements and moving parts‚ which are complex‚ inefficient‚ and unreliable in space. As Romero-Calvo explained in a recent Georgia Tech news release: “The idea of using MHD forces for liquid pumping is explored in the 1990 thriller The Hunt for Red October‚ where a stealth soviet submarine powered by an MHD drive defects to the United States. Although it’s fun to see Sean Connery playing the role of a Soviet submarine commander‚ the truth is that submarine MHD propulsion is very inefficient. Our concept‚ on the contrary‚ works in the microgravity environment‚ where the weak MHD force becomes dominant and can lead to mission-enabling capabilities.” Instead of traditional recirculation loops‚ the proposed MHD system relies on two distinct mechanisms to separate oxygen and hydrogen from water. The first comes from diamagnetic forces‚ which arise in the presence of strong magnetic fields and result in a magnetic buoyancy effect. Second‚ there are Lorentz forces‚ which are a consequence of the imposition of a magnetic field on the current generated between two electrodes. As Romero-Calvo noted in their proposal paper: “Both approaches can potentially lead to a new generation of electrolytic cells with minimum or no moving parts‚ hence enabling human deep space operations with minimum mass and power penalties. Preliminary estimations indicate that the integration of functionalities leads to up to 50% mass budget reductions with respect to the Oxygen Generation Assembly architecture for a 99% reliability level. These values apply to a standard four-crew Mars transfer with 3.36 kg oxygen consumption per day.” Two CubeSats communicated and then maneuvered toward one another in a recent technology demonstration. Credit: NASA If successful‚ this HMD system would enable the recycling of water and oxygen gas in long-term space travel. Romero-Calvo and other colleagues at the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering at Georgia Tech demonstrated in another paper that this technology could also have applications for water-based SmallSat propulsion and other mission profiles where ISRU is a must. At present‚ Romero-Calvo and his colleagues have formulated the concept and have developed analytical and numeral models. The next step will involve the team and their partners at Giner Labs (a Massachusetts-based electrochemical R&;D firm) conducting feasibility studies. Over the next nine months‚ they will receive $175‚000 to explore the system’s overall viability and technology readiness level. These will consist primarily of computational studies but will include prototypes testing key technologies here on Earth. As a Phase I proposal‚ they will also be eligible to compete for Phase II funding worth $600‚000 for a two-year study. An early demonstrator of this technology was tested aboard the 24th flight of the New Sheperd (NS-24)‚ an uncrewed mission that launched on December 19th‚ 2023. With support from Blue Origin and the American Society for Gravitation and Space Research (ASGSR)‚ Romero-Calvo’s team tested how magnets electrolyzer water in microgravity conditions. The data from this flight and the forthcoming tests will inform an HMD electrolyzer prototype and could lead to a system integrated aboard future space missions. Said Romero-Calvo: “We were studying the fundamental magnetohydrodynamic flow regimes that arise when we apply a magnetic field to water electrolyzers in spaceflight conditions‚” Romero-Calvo explained. “The Blue Origin experiment‚ in combination with our current collaboration with Prof. Katharina Brinkert’s group at the University of Warwick‚ will help us predict the movement of oxygen bubbles in microgravity and it hints at how we can build a future water electrolyzer for humans.” Further Reading: NASA‚ Georgia Tech The post A Magnetohydrodynamic Drive Could Lead to Fuel Stations on Mars appeared first on Universe Today.