Science!

Previous Next
Deep inside Earth is a solid metal ball that rotates independently of our spinning planet, like a top whirling around inside a bigger top, shrouded in mystery.

This inner core has intrigued researchers since its discovery by Danish seismologist Inge Lehmann in 1936, and how it moves — its rotation speed and direction — has been at the center of a decades-long debate. A growing body of evidence suggests the core’s spin has changed dramatically in recent years, but scientists have remained divided over what exactly is happening — and what it means.

Part of the trouble is that Earth’s deep interior is impossible to observe or sample directly. Seismologists have gleaned information about the inner core’s motion by examining how waves from large earthquakes that ping this area behave. Variations between waves of similar strengths that passed through the core at different times enabled scientists to measure changes in the inner core’s position and calculate its spin.
Click to expand...

 
Scientists have raised hopes for a cheap and simple test for autism after discovering consistent differences between the microbes found in the guts of autistic people and those without the condition.

The finding suggests that a routine stool sample test could help doctors identify autism early, meaning people would receive their diagnosis, and hopefully support, much faster than with the lengthy procedure used in clinics today.

“Usually it takes three to four years to make a confirmed diagnosis for suspected autism, with most children diagnosed at six years old,” Prof Qi Su at the Chinese University of Hong Kong said. “Our microbiome biomarker panel has a high performance in children under the age of four, which may help facilitate an early diagnosis.”


Rates of autism have soared in recent decades, largely because of greater awareness and a broadening of the criteria used to diagnose the condition. In the UK and many other western countries, about one in 100 people are now thought to be on the autism spectrum.……


www.theguardian.com

Autism could be diagnosed with stool sample, scientists say

Researchers found differences in the gut microbes of autistic people, raising hopes for faster diagnosis
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com
 
Scientists have been delighted find that a distant, horrifying planet stinks of rotten eggs.

The achievement not only fills in our understanding of the intensely hot world, but could help our search for alien life.

The exoplanet HD 189733 b, a Jupiter-sized gas giant, has trace amounts of hydrogen sulphide, the researchers in the new study found…….

www.independent.co.uk

Scientists delighted to find distant planet stinks of rotten eggs

Exoplanet HD 189733 b, a Jupiter-sized gas giant, may offer scientists clues in our search for alien life
www.independent.co.uk www.independent.co.uk
 
Hot enough to melt metal and blanketed by a toxic, crushing atmosphere, Venus ranks among the most hostile locations in the solar system.

But astronomers have reported the detection of two gases that could point to the presence of life forms lurking in the Venusian clouds.

Findings presented at the national astronomy meeting in Hull on Wednesday bolster evidence for a pungent gas, phosphine, whose presence on Venus has been fiercely disputed.

A separate team revealed the tentative detection of ammonia, which on Earth is primarily produced by biological activity and industrial processes, and whose presence on Venus scientists said could not readily be explained by known atmospheric or geological phenomena.

The so-called biosignature gases are not a smoking gun for extraterrestrial life. But the observation will intensify interest in Venus and raise the possibility of life having emerged and even flourished in the planet’s more temperate past and lingered on to today in pockets of the atmosphere.

“It could be that if Venus went through a warm, wet phase in the past then as runaway global warming took effect [life] would have evolved to survive in the only niche left to it – the clouds,” said Dr Dave Clements, a reader in astrophysics at Imperial College London, told the meeting.…….

www.theguardian.com

Signs of two gases in clouds of Venus could indicate life, scientists say

Separate teams find evidence of phosphine and ammonia, potential biomarkers on planet whose surface reaches 450C
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com
 

Create an account or login to comment

You must be a member in order to leave a comment

Create account

Create an account on our community. It's easy!

Register

Log in

Already have an account? Log in here.

Previous Next

Share this page

 

Twitter

Back
Top Bottom