Neuroscientist Discovers Potential New Source For Pain Inhibition

Possible case for fifth force of nature

A team of physicists at the University of California has uploaded a paper to the arXiv preprint server in which they suggest that work done by a team in Hungary last year might have revealed the existence of a fifth force of nature. Their paper has, quite naturally, caused quite a stir in the physics community as several groups have set a goal of reproducing the experiments conducted by the team at the Hungarian Academy of Science’s Institute for Nuclear Research.

The work done by the Hungarian team, led by Attila Krasznahorkay, examined the possible existence of dark photons - the analog of conventional photons but that work with dark matter. They shot protons at lithium-7 samples creating beryllium-8 nuclei, which, as it decayed, emitted pairs of electrons and positrons. Surprisingly, as they monitored the emitted pairs, instead of a consistent drop-off, there was a slight bump, which the researchers attributed to the creation of an unknown particle with a mass of approximately 17 MeV. The team uploaded their results to the arXiv server, and their paper was later published by Physical Review Letters. It attracted very little attention until the team at UoC uploaded their own paper suggesting that the new particle found by the Hungarian team was not a dark photon, but was instead possibly a protophobic X boson, which they further suggested might carry a super-short force which acts over just the width of an atomic nucleus - which would mean that it is a force that is not one of the four described as the fundamental forces that underlie modern physics.

The paper uploaded by the UoC team has created some excitement, as well as public exclamations of doubt - reports of the possibility of a fifth force of nature have been heard before, but none have panned out. But still, the idea is intriguing enough that several teams have announced plans to repeat the experiments conducted by the Hungarian team, and all eyes will be on the DarkLight experiments at the Jefferson Laboratory, where a team is also looking for evidence of dark photons - they will be shooting electrons at gas targets looking for anything with masses between 10 and 100 MeV, and now more specifically for those in the 17 MeV region. What they find, or don’t, could prove whether an elusive fifth force of nature actually exists, within a year’s time. [Image][Continue Reading→]

The rings of Saturn, observed by the Cassini space probe on May 3, 2005.

(NASA)

A physical visualization of a magnetic field.

(Source)

Why we need GMOs to survive climate change

Genetically modified organisms get a bad rap for many reasons, but we’ve actually been genetically altering what we eat since the dawn of human history.

“For 10,000 years, we have altered the genetic makeup of our crops,”explains UC Davis plant pathology professor Pamela Ronald.

“Today virtually everything we eat is produced from seeds that we have genetically altered in one way or another.” (You can read more about Ronald’s thoughts on genetically engineered food here.)

Right now her focus is on rice. It’s one of our basic crops and without it, we would struggle to feed much of the world.

With climate change, we’re seeing an increase in flooding in places like India and Bangladesh, which makes it harder to grow this important food staple.

So Ronald and her lab have developed a flood-tolerant strain of rice. It’s known as Sub1a or “scuba rice” and millions of farmers in South Asia are now growing it in their fields. 

Today is National Food Day, a day dedicated to hunger awareness. But as we focus on food insecurity, we need to talk more about how global warming will make the problem worse.

As our climate continues to heat up, it has huge impacts on what foods we are able to grow. Will our crops be able to survive droughts and floods? The University of California leads six labs that are working to develop other climate-resilient crops including chickpea, cowpea and millet.

Find out what other scientists are doing to improve our food.

Oh hey, not a big deal, but the hubble took a picture of a star that’s nearing supernova status 

Hair dryers keeping a paper plane in motion… because science.

Here are 17 jaw-dropping photos of space that show us just how small we really are:

This photo of the moon and Earth taken from the International Space Station.

A dwarf galaxy, about 11 million light-years away from us.

Earth as seen from the moon in 1968.

A cluster of stars, 20,000 light-years away from Earth.

The first flower grown in the International Space Station, photographed by astronaut Scott Kelly.

Saturn, seen through an infared filter.

These visible “loops” on the surface of the sun can reach up to 15 times the diameter of Earth in height.

The Northen Lights just North of Chicago, viewed from the International Space Station.

The Quintuplet Cluster, located 100 light-years from the center of our galaxy.

Pluto and one of its moons, Charon.

The Great Pyramids of Giza, seen from space.

Astronaut Bruce McCandless maneuvering, untethered, above Earth in 1984.

Galaxy NGC 6240, 400 million light-years away from Earth.

Palomar 12, a cluster of stars on the outskirts of the Milky Way.

The remnants of an exploded star.

New York City, seen from the International Space Station.

And the remains of a supernova whose explosion may have been seen almost 2,000 years ago by Chinese astronomers.

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Happy TRAPPIST-1 Day! 

Here’s a comic on our latest discovery! 

http://www.space.com/35806-trappist-1-facts.html

Listening To Music Releases Dopamine In The Brain

Have you ever been listening to a piece of music and experienced   intense pleasure, even chills? Valorie Salimpoor and team (2010)   conducted research that shows that listening to music can release the   neurotransmitter dopamine.

A wide range of music — The researchers used PET   (positron emission tomography) scans, fMRI, and psychophysiological   measures such as heart rate to measure reactions while people listened   to music. The participants provided music that they said gave them   intense pleasure and chills. The range of music varied, from classical, folk, jazz, elecronica, rock pop, tango, and more.

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