Scientists Successfully Simulate Time Travel

Using particles of light, scientists have achieved success in simulating time travel. The particles of light acted as quantum particles and the scientists were able to first send them away and then bring back to their original space-time location. This is a big step forward being taken to find a point of convergence between general relativity and quantum mechanics in lab conditions.

Australian researchers from the UQ's School of Mathematics and Physics wanted to bridge the gap between two most commonly accepted physics theories. The task was not as easy as it may sound because Einstein's theory, on the one hand, predicts how massive object like planets and galaxies behave. But on the other, theory of quantum mechanics is based on the, molecular-level description of our world, which is a clear contradiction to the one by Einstein.

The study saw the use of light particles known as photons. These particles stood in for actual quantum particles, which helped the researchers to see how they behaved while moving through space and time. The team made it possible to simulate the behavior of a single photon capable of traveling back into time through a wormhole and meeting its older self - an identical photon.

"We used single photons to do this but the time-travel was simulated by using a second photon to play the part of the past incarnation of the time traveling photon", said UQ Physics Professor Tim Ralph as quoted by The Speaker.

Findings of the study have been published in the journal Nature Communications. It was suggested by Einstein that it is possible to travel back in time and return to the starting point. But, Kurt Godel theorized in 1949 that the classical laws of physics will not allow anyone to prevent their grandparents from meeting by traveling back in time, because it will not allow the person to born.

However, Tim Ralph suggested in 1991 that quantum mechanics' flexible laws could avoid such situations.

This poem cleanses air of pollution

This poem is printed on a material that according to the researchers can eradicate the air pollution caused by 20 cars per day.

The material is devised by the researchers from University of Sheffield. The material is capable of removing harmful nitrogen oxide from the atmosphere.

Well-known poet Simon Armitage, professor of poetry at the University, and pro-vicechancellor for science Tony Ryan have joined hands to create a poem called 'In Praise of Air' and this poem is printed on material which can purify the air.

The researchers said that this technology is quite cheap and it could be applied to billboards and advertisements in order to bring down pollution.

The material is coated with microscopic pollution-eating particles of titanium dioxide which uses sunlight and oxygen to react with nitrogen oxide pollutants and purify the air.

"This is a fun collaboration between science and the arts to highlight a very serious issue of poor air quality in our towns and cities," Ryan, who came up with the idea of using treated materials to cleanse the air, said.

The poem will remain on display at the Alfred Denny Building, Western Bank, for a year.

New Human Body Part Discovered

The newest addition to human anatomy is just 15 microns thick, but its discovery will make eye surgery safer and simpler. Harminder Dua, a professor at the University of Nottingham, recently found a new layer in the human cornea, and he's calling it (can you guess?) Dua's layer.

Dua's layer sits at the back of the cornea, which previously had only five known layers. Dua and his colleagues discovered the new body part by injecting air into the corneas of eyes that had been donated for research and using an electron microscope to scan each separated layer.

The researchers now believe that a tear in Dua's layer is the cause of corneal hydrops, a disorder that leads to fluid buildup in the cornea. According to Dua, knowledge of the new layer could dramatically improve outcomes for patients undergoing corneal grafts and transplants.

“This is a major discovery that will mean that ophthalmology textbooks will literally need to be re-written," Dua says. “From a clinical perspective, there are many diseases that affect the back of the cornea which clinicians across the world are already beginning to relate to the presence, absence or tear in this layer.”

First space tourist planning historic trip to Mars in 2018

A multi-millionaire investment tycoon and space travel enthusiast is planning a privately funded 501-day round trip mission to Mars in 2018.

Inspiration Mars Foundation, a nonprofit organisation, led by millionaire Dennis Tito - the world's first space tourist -- will hold a news conference next week to announce the mission, for a January 2018 launch.

"This 'Mission for America' will generate new knowledge, experience and momentum for the next great era of space exploration," Inspiration Mars officials wrote in a media advisory.

Some people and media reports speculate that given the speakers' backgrounds and the lofty goals articulated in the media advisory, Inspiration Mars is planning a manned mission to the Red Planet, 'SPACE.com' reported.

According to the NewSpace Journal, Tito's paper discusses "a crewed free-return Mars mission that would fly by Mars, but not go into orbit around the planet or land on it. This 501-day mission would launch in January 2018, using a modified SpaceX Dragon spacecraft launched on a Falcon Heavy rocket."

The Journal writes: "According to the paper, existing environmental control and life support system ( ECLSS) technologies would allow such a spacecraft to support two people for the mission, although in Spartan condition."

It added the mission would be privately financed and cheaper than previous estimates for manned Mars efforts, though no overall cost is given.

A 501-day mission would pose potentially serious physiological and psychological issues for astronauts, experts say.

Tito made history in 2001, plunking down a reported $20 million for an eight-day trip to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft.

Scientists discover oldest star in universe

Scientists have identified a star, at least 13.2 billion-years-old, as the oldest yet seen in the universe and it is just 186 light years away from Earth.

The Big Bang is calculated by scientists to have taken place about 13.77 billion years ago and the star, known as HD 140283, was among the earliest stars to form.

"We believe this star is the oldest known in the Universe with a well determined age," Howard Bond, an astronomer at Pennsylvania State University, told the American Astronomical Society.

Since it contains some heavy elements it is thought to have been one of the second generation of stars to be created following the Big Bang.

The first generation of stars contained hardly any elements heavier than helium but when they exploded in a succession of supernovas within a few hundred million years after forming they were replaced by stars like HD 140283.

Observations from the Hubble Telescope helped researchers fix the distance of the star from the Earth with unprecedented accuracy which allowed them to make more accurate measurements of how brightly it shines.

Once its brightness was established they were able to work out how rapidly its hydrogen is being exhausted and so determine its age.

When stars start running short of hydrogen they start dimming which is regarded as a reliable indicator of age.

The actual age that the astronomers' calculations gave was 13.9 billion years but calculations of this type usually contain large error margins, the report said.

In the case of HD 140283 the error margin was 700 million years, making it at least 13.2 billion years old.

One other star, known as Methuselah2, has previously been shown to be 13.2 billion years old but the research team are confident they have determined HD 140283's age with greater certainty.

Scientists make new material

Lead investigator Vijay Sivan from RMIT's Platform Technologies Research Institute says these marbles are like flexible ball bearings that can endure high impacts and temperatures, and operate like semi-conducting systems.

He says it is early days but the possibilities of the new platform appear to be "amazing", as it overcomes the limitations of liquid metals.

"Because it is a liquid metal it can be used in soft electronics where you need flexibility," Dr Sivan told AAP.

"It has a nanoparticle coating so it will not stick on the surface and also by having a functional material as a coating you can use it like a transistor.

"Again, because it's liquid metal, any damage caused in the circuit can be self-healed."

He says he and his colleagues look forward to exploring the potential of liquid metal marbles in a range of applications.

It could be used in optical sensing as a heavy metal sensor and it also has a high sensitivity to gas.

The multidisciplinary team research, published in the journal Advanced Functional Materials, stemmed from investigations into flexible conductive systems for electronic and electromagnetic units.

More than 700 species of bacteria in breast milk identified

Scientists have found more than 700 species of bacteria in breast milk, the main source of nourishment for newborns.

Spanish researchers traced the bacterial microbiota map in breast milk and found a larger microbial diversity than originally thought.

The breast milk received from the mother is one of the factors determining how the bacterial flora will develop in the newborn baby. However, the composition and the biological role of these bacteria in infants remain unknown.

A group of Spanish scientists have now used a technique based on massive DNA sequencing to identify the set of bacteria contained within breast milk called microbiome.

The finding will enable pre- and postnatal variables influencing the micriobial richness of milk to be determined.

Colostrum is the first secretion of the mammary glands after giving birth. In some of the samples taken of this liquid, more than 700 species of these microorganisms were found, which is more than originally expected by experts.

"This is one of the first studies to document such diversity using the pyrosequencing technique (a large scale DNA sequencing determination technique) on colostrum samples on the one hand, and breast milk on the other, the latter being collected after one and six months of breastfeeding," explain the coauthors, Maria Carmen Collado, researcher at the Institute of Agrochemistry and Food Technology (IATA-CSIC) and Alex Mira, researcher at the Higher Public Health Research Centre (CSISP-GVA).

The most common bacterial genera in the colostrum samples were Weissella, Leuconostoc, Staphylococcus, Streptococcus and Lactococcus.

In the fluid developed between the first and sixth month of breastfeeding, bacteria typical of the oral cavity were observed, such as Veillonella, Leptotrichia and Prevotella.

"We are not yet able to determine if these bacteria colonise the mouth of the baby or whether oral bacteria of the breast-fed baby enter the breast milk and thus change its composition," outline the authors in a statement.

The study also found that the milk of overweight mothers or those who put on more weight than recommended during pregnancy contains a lesser diversity of species.

The type of labour also affects the microbiome within the breast milk: that of mothers who underwent a planned caesarean is different and not as rich in microorganisms as that of mothers who had a vaginal birth.

The results also suggested that the hormonal state of the mother at the time of labour also plays a role.

"The lack of signals of physiological stress, as well as hormonal signals specific to labour, could influence the microbial composition and diversity of breast milk," the authors said.

The study was published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.