discovered

what a new study has discovered studying flies

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The brain is an extremely energy-demanding organ, as it needs a large amount of glucose to function correctly. But sometimes not everything focuses on functioning to live, but also to accumulate new memories or knowledge, something that students who put themselves in front of books need above all. And now we know that sugar can be your best ally. A new paradigm. A priori, we may think that what we eat is like a large amount of gasoline that we pour into the tank we have inside us. However, a recent study published in Nature describes an unprecedented biological mechanism, pointing out that it is not sugar that magically improves memory, but rather it is consuming it after learning something new, such as a study session, that can consolidate it. All this along with a good rest too. What has been seen? Here the researchers subjected a group of flies to aversive learning that began to be spaced out over time, in this way a neutral stimulus was associated with an experience that was detected as unpleasant so that they learned to reject it. Under this pretext, the researchers observed that subjecting the flies to this learning system causes the “hijacking” of the fructose-detecting neurons, which is a type of carbohydrate, in the brain of the flies. There is more. The fascinating thing about all this is that it happens even when the flies are completely full, so the learning generates a kind of temporary “non-homeostatic hunger.” In this way, after the cognitive effort, if the fly ingests sugar, these neurons, which had been disinhibited by learning, become massively activated. And it is something fundamental because activation triggers the release of a hormone called thyrostimulinwhich acts as the definitive signal to consolidate long-term memory. It’s not just about the taste. This article does not come out of nowhere, but already in 2017 a research group showed that the brain is too smart to be fooled by the sweeteners that give us the sweet taste. Here the concept “caloric frustration memory” was introduced, which pointed out that the brain perfectly distinguishes between sweet taste and real energy value. That is why for certain memories to be optimally consolidated, the nutritional value matters as much or more than the simple taste reward. Furthermore, this same French team demonstrated in 2024 that diverting the flow of glucose to neurons plays a vital role in memory memory. fruit fly, and that the metabolic activation of certain areas of the brain is an essential trigger for long-term memory. In humans. Although this is something that has been seen in flies right now, it offers us an incredible window into evolutionary neurobiology. This is something that gives us hope that, at a fundamental level, brains have evolved to link energy availability with metabolic expenditure in order to create new memories. If we look at the literature, there are studies that have analyzed this same effect in our own brains. Specifically, it has been seen that administering glucose can temporarily improve certain cognitive aspects. This is especially noticeable in verbal memory, episodic memory, and in hippocampal-dependent tasks such as object-location binding. Although in no case should you gorge yourself on sugar to be able to learn much faster. Images | Marcos Paulo Prado Daniel Kraus In Xataka | The memory of young people is deteriorating at a record pace. Science thinks it knows why

The James Webb Telescope has finally discovered Saturn’s best kept secret

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Saturn has become a headache for scientists since the Cassini probe in 2004 took action of its rotation speed that did not coincide with the figures accepted in the scientific community. Little by little, new data has been discovered that helps explain this inconsistency, but it has been necessary for the James Webb Space Telescope to come into play to find the definitive answer. Cassini’s incoherence. In 2004, the Cassini probe took advantage of its visit to Saturn to measure some important dataas its rotation speed. Normally this is calculated by analyzing parameters that occur periodically, such as radio emission pulses. It is a very consolidated method, which has been used to calculate the rotation rate of many planets. With Cassini, it was expected to obtain a figure that would coincide with what the Voyager 2 probe had previously taken in 1981. However, to the surprise of the scientists who studied the data, the numbers didn’t add up. A mysterious push. A planet cannot speed up or slow down without an external force driving it. There should be something driving those changes in rotation speed. Or, at the very least, some unknown factor that was falsifying the results. All this was a mystery until 2021, when a team of scientists from the University of Leicester published a study in which new clues were provided. The auroras enter the scene. For a month, scientists at the University of Leicester measured infrared emissions in Saturn’s upper atmosphere. This allowed them to map a series of variable fluxes of activity in the ionosphere, the layer of the atmosphere in which ionized particles are abundant. That is, atoms that have gained or lost electrons and have acquired a negative or positive charge, respectively. These flows were related to the formation of auroras. However, there was something strange. Unlike on other planets, including Earth, a good part of these auroras were produced by the action of rotating winds within Saturn’s own atmosphere, not only by the influence of the magnetosphere. A reminder about the auroras. The auroras are formed when charged particles interact with the atoms that make up a planet’s atmosphere, exciting them and causing the emission of light. Normally, these charged particles come from solar activity, as happens on Earth, or from volcanic eruptions on nearby moons, as happens on Jupiter. Be that as it may, they are concentrated in a region external to the planets, known as the magnetosphere. In the case of Saturn, the 2021 study showed that auroras were also forming within the planet’s own atmosphere. On Earth, auroras are formed by solar activity A puzzle still incomplete. The interaction of molecules and atoms in the atmosphere with charged particles does not only cause the emission of light. It also causes the emission of radiation in other regions of the spectrum. For example, radio pulses. Let us remember that these pulses are the ones that were used to measure the rotation of Saturn. The auroras could be falsifying them. These auroras, as we have seen so far, are produced by the action of rotating winds in Saturn’s own atmosphere. But where do those winds come from? The rock star arrives. The James Webb Space Telescope is the rock star of space telescopes. A state-of-the-art instrument, capable of reaching where other telescopes could not. Therefore, thanks to him, the necessary measurements could be taken to find the origin of Saturn’s winds. Specifically, it has captured the glow caused in the infrared by a molecule in Saturn’s upper atmosphere, called trihydrogen cation. This is very useful, because it acts as a kind of thermometer. It is very susceptible to environmental conditions, so its ionization state helps to know the surrounding temperature. By carefully analyzing its state in different regions of Saturn’s northern hemisphere, it has been possible to make a map of both temperatures and particle density. The missing piece. The temperature and particle density patterns match those predicted in a series of computer models 10 years ago. In these models, these patterns originated when the auroras themselves acted as a heat source. The endless cycle. What happens is this: the auroras, with all their display of light and radiation, heat the atmosphere at a specific point. This heating causes the movement of particles between points at different temperatures, generating a wind charged with electricity. This wind, in turn, propels electrically charged particles, which cause more auroras to form. It’s a vicious circle or, as the authors of the study explaina planetary heat pump. A perfect system that feeds itself. And, of course, the mysterious external factor that upset scientists trying to measure Saturn’s rotation. Image | NASA | Bruce Waters (Wikimedia Commons) | Vincent Guth (Unsplash) In Xataka | James Webb has been detecting red dots in the universe for years: the only problem is that we don’t know what they are

China has just discovered the largest deposit of rare earths in the world. And he did it just when he needed it most.

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China has a privileged position in terms of possession of rare earthbut it has just surprised the world with a new discovery: the Ministry of Natural Resources has confirmed that the Maoniuping deposit, in Sichuan province, is now the largest deposit of light rare earths on the planet. The news comes at a key moment, since it is these minerals that are the protagonists one of the hottest fronts between Beijing and Washington in their tariff war. What exactly has been found. New exploration in the Maoniuping mining area in Mianning county has confirmed the existence of 9.67 million tons of rare earth oxideswhich represents an increase of more than 300% compared to the reserves that were known until now, as announced by the Chinese Ministry of Natural Resources. With this data, the deposit surpasses that of Bayan Obo, in Inner Mongolia, which until now held the title of the largest light rare earth mine in the world with 44 million tons of proven industrial reserves. In addition to rare earth oxides, surveys have identified 27.1 million tons of fluorspar and 37.2 million tons of barite, both classified as deposits of exceptional scale. Why does it matter? Rare earth elements are the 17 elements that make electric car engines, fiber optic amplifiers, advanced weapons systems and smartphones possible, among many other technological elements that we use in our daily lives. Without them, much of the technology and defense industry simply does not work. China already produces more than 80% of the world supply annual of these materials, according to the state agency Xinhua. And this discovery further reinforces China’s position until now. The discovery within the discovery. According to Wang Denghong, director of the Institute of Mineral Resources of the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, what is truly striking about the discovery is not only the rare earths but fluorite and barite. Fluorite is an essential ingredient in the manufacturing of semiconductors and lithium-ion batteries. Barite, for its part, is essential in oil and gas extraction: it is used to stabilize wells and prevent blowouts. Without this element, hydrocarbon exploration, including fracking, would be paralyzed. Restrictions. Since April last year, China introduced export restrictions on seven rare earths and permanent magnets, precisely in response to the tariffs imposed by Donald Trump about Chinese products. China controls the gateway to rare earths, and basically any company that wants to take these materials out of the country needs express government authorization. Exports to Europe have picked up since the new licensing regime was implemented. Those going to the United States remain stagnant, according to collect Interesting Engineering. What’s coming now. With this discovery, Beijing consolidates its ability to use critical minerals as diplomatic and commercial leverage. The West has been trying for years diversify your supply chains of rare earths with projects in Australia, Canada or northern Europe, but none yet approach the scale of the Asian country. Cover image | aboodi vesakaran and ZME Science In Xataka | In 2010, Japan learned to acquire its rare earths without depending on China. Germany wants to copy its strategy now

More than 40 years ago we discovered a mysterious hexagon on Saturn. Today there is only one possible explanation

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If there is a planet within the Solar system as enigmatic as it is striking, it is Saturn. And not just because of their rings, probably caused by a collision of their moons. But it’s not the only thing that baffles the scientific community: if you look at Saturn’s north pole from space, you will discover a perfect geometric shape: a hexagon. 30,000 kilometers in diameter. To get the idea, two planets could fit inside it. Of that mysterious hexagon We know that it is there at least since 1981, when the Voyager 2 probe flew over the planet, leaving testimony of its existence. It is not that nature is not capable of making geometric shapes, but the hexagon is not exactly the most common. The latest and most solid hypothesis that attempts to elucidate what Saturn’s hexagon is to date was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences offering a possible explanation: the internal dynamics of the planet’s atmosphere. The hypothesis. What the research team from Harvard’s Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences suggests is that the hexagon is not a surface structure, but rather is generated by rotating deep convection inside Saturn. The turbulence of the deep layers of its atmosphere generates vortices that push and bend a high-speed air current that surrounds the north pole, deforming it so much that it acquires its hexagonal shape. The hexagon is not the storm, it is the trace of what happens underneath. Qor why it’s important. Because we have been carrying around the mystery of the hexagon since 1981 and none of the previous theories fit as well as this one, capable of generating the hexagon from basic physics without artifice. Also, it answers a question: how far do Saturn’s winds reach? According to this model, to the bottom. On the other hand, if this explanation is correct, it changes the perception of how we understand the dynamics of giant planets, not just Saturn. Saturn hexagon with images from the Cassini probe. NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute context. Before this 2020 theory, there were two clear sides: The forced Rossby wave proposed that the hexagon was an atmospheric wave held in place by an anticyclone, visible south of the pole in Voyager 2 data. When the Cassini probe arrived at Saturn in 2004, there was no trace of that anticyclone. That of the surface jet suggested that the hexagon was a surface wind that, when it becomes unstable, undulates and adopts a polygon shape. The problem was that it needed a starting current. Furthermore, it places the phenomenon in superficial layers, which contradicts the gravitational data of Cassini’s Grand Finale whose gravitational data suggest that Saturn’s winds maintain their intensity up to 100,000 bars of pressure. In both cases, they all reproduced the hexagon if you already gave them a base wind, but none of them generated it from scratch. How have they done it. The methodology is quite abstract, but roughly what they did was simulate a slice of Saturn, spinning it and heating it from below and letting physics act. No winds or hexes in the initial setup. So much the code used in the simulation like the data They are openly available, so anyone can reproduce and verify the results. Yes, but. The hypothesis developed by the Harvard team may be the best so far, but the paper itself recognizes Some objections to take into account. Thus, the simulation polygon is faster than what happens in reality, something that could be solved with a more powerful simulation. The simulation polygon moves faster than what happens in reality, something the authors attribute to the computational power available. Furthermore, the simulation only tests specific conditions and for a relatively short time: no one has yet verified whether the result holds under different parameters or on longer time scales. In Xataka | We have just discovered a true cosmic anomaly: an “invisible” galaxy made up almost 100% of dark matter In Xataka | A new “solar system” has just been discovered. There’s just one problem: it shouldn’t exist. Cover | NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

A new “solar system” has just been discovered. There’s just one problem: it shouldn’t exist.

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Observations from NASA and the European Space Agency telescopes have made possible the discovery of a new exoplanetary system 116 light years from Earth. According to research by an international team led by the University of Warwick published in the journal Sciencethis new “solar system” has a peculiarity: its architecture contradicts the standard model of planetary formation. In short, based on the astrophysics we know, it should not exist. We do not know if it will force us to rewrite current theories, but we do know that we will urgently review them. The discovery. The LHS 1903 system is made up of four planets orbiting a red dwarf, the most common and longest-lived type of star in the universe. The question is how they are arranged: the innermost planet is rocky, the next two are gaseous and surprisingly, the outermost planet (LHS 1903 e) is also rocky. That planet shouldn’t be there. LHS 1903 e It is a large super-Earth (it has 1.7 times the radius of the Earth and 5.79 Earth masses, thus achieving a similar density) located on the periphery, but of course, it should not be in that position, according to current models. It is not a minor anomaly: it breaks the paradigm from the foundations. This provision contradicts the usual pattern that we see in all known planetary systems: the rocky planets (refractory materials) are in the hot zone and the gas giants in the outer cold zone, beyond the “snow line“, where ice makes it possible to grow large nuclei that capture hydrogen. The canonical example is our solar system: the rocky Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars orbit closer and the gaseous Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune orbit further away. Why is it important. According to theory, a planet as large as LHS 1903 e in that cold zone should have devoured gas until it became a giant like Jupiter. But there is another reading: that the formation model fails and is not the only recipe that explains how exoplanetary systems form. But as we mentioned above, red dwarfs are the most abundant stars in the galaxy and if the model fails in this system, it is plausible that it will not hit the mark in much of the cosmos either. There may be other “inverted” systems pending interpretation or that we have misinterpreted. A possible explanation. What the research team proposes is the gas-poor formation mechanism hypothesis. In short, the important thing is not so much where but when. Thus, the planets were formed one after another in the opposite order to our solar system, starting first with the innermost one and going outwards from there. When planets form, they consume the gas available in the disk that surrounds the star. LHS 1903 was formed last, when there was no more gas left, so it could no longer become the gas giant that might have been expected. As explains Lead researcher and University of Warwick professor Thomas Wilson: “It means that the outermost planet formed millions of years after the innermost one. And because it formed later, there really wasn’t enough gas and dust left in the disk to build this planet.” The research method. The data analyzed by the international team comes from the collaboration of NASA’s TESS telescopes and ESA’s CHEOPS exoplanet characterization satellite: the first detects planets with the in-transit method and the second studies them in depth, which allows it to obtain information such as size, mass and, from there, density. Among the alternative hypotheses considered is its birth from impacts between planets or the loss of its gaseous envelope, which they ended up discarding. Astrophysics has pending subjects. Beyond finding a clear mechanism, what seems evident is that observing this system of exoplanets opens up a range of possibilities about how planets form around stars that will last for years. Néstor Espinoza, an astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore who was not involved in the study, explains it for CNN: “This system provides a very interesting piece of information that planetary formation models will try to explain for years, and I am sure that we will learn something new about the planetary formation process once they are compared to each other.” In Xataka | How the solar system was formed: for the Earth to be born, a star had to die first In Xataka | We have been deceived by the distances of the Solar System: the closest neighbor to Neptune is Mercury Cover | NASA Hubble Space Telescope

We just discovered that silicon has an invisible bottleneck, and that has a direct impact on our solar panels

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You turn on a solar cell and wait for the electrons to flow. But there is a moment, invisible and very brief, in which a part of them simply stops. A new study published in Physical Review B just explained why. The discovery. Researchers from the Madrid Institute for Advanced Studies in Nanoscience (IMDEA Nanoscience) and the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research in Germany (MPIP) have discovered that, in silicon, photoexcited electrons do not activate immediately when they receive light. For a few picoseconds (millionths of a millionth of a second) they become stuck in small traps of the material before they can circulate and generate current. The person responsible has a name: a phonon bottleneck. What are phonons and why do they matter? Silicon has a peculiarity compared to other materials: for an electron to be released when receiving light, photons are not enough. According to account IMDEA Nanoscience in its note also needs the collaboration of phonons, which are the vibrations of the crystalline lattice of the material itself. As has been discovered, when such timing vibrations are scarce, electrons become temporarily trapped in surface defects near the edge of the energy band. What no one expected to find. Enrique Cánovas himself, one of the authors of the study, recognize that the discovery was accidental. “What we observed was an accident. We expected an instantaneous response, but instead we saw the electrons take a breather,” he says. Until now, the phonon bottleneck was known in high-energy situations, when silicon was excited with very energetic electrons. This is the first experimental record of the phenomenon with low-energy excitations, which occur with near-infrared light, or even below, the absorption threshold of the material. Until now unexplored territory. Why it has practical relevance. Silicon is the heart of the vast majority of solar panels of the world. Any inefficiency in how your electrons respond to light has direct consequences on the performance of those photovoltaic cells. Understanding that this transient delay exists, and that it has an identifiable cause, opens the door to two possible paths: designing materials or structures that minimize this jam, or even taking advantage of it in a controlled way to improve the behavior of the device. It remains to be seen if the impact of this phenomenon is significant enough to justify redesigns in the manufacturing of solar cells and photovoltaic systems. Cover image | yue chan In Xataka | Imitating photosynthesis to transform CO2 into fuel was always a dream. One that has already come true

Researchers have discovered “lost continents” from 4 billion years ago

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The idea we have of the early Earth involves a huge ball of incandescent magma and conditions incompatible with life. The problem? That there are no rocks from 4.3 billion years ago to confirm this consolidated theory. What we do have are some microscopic crystals called zircons. And zircons are telling a different story, according to this study by a research team at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. published in Nature. What zircon says. Regarding the behavior of the Earth’s surface, geology valued two ideas for that period known as Hadean: that there was a plate tectonics where one plate sinks under another or that the Earth had a kind of stagnant lid, a rigid and hot surface where heat only escaped through large columns of magma. Well, neither one nor the other, both: zircons leave evidence of an Earth that already had oceans, liquid water and a crust that alternated both systems. John Valley, the University of Wisconsin-Madison geoscientist who leads the study explains that “There were about 800 million years of Earth’s history in which the surface was already habitable, although we have no fossil evidence and we do not know when life first emerged.” Why it is important. Because they determine that the Earth did not choose a single model, but rather that both processes took place at the same time in different places. Of course, it was not a stable plate tectonics like the one that exists today, but rather it had violent and short episodes of sliding of the edges of one plate under another (subduction) that coexisted with large jets of magma that rose from the interior of the Earth. This discovery is key to understanding how the Earth’s surface moved, the formation of continents and life. On the one hand, without tectonics, the felsic continental crust that floats on the mantle and makes up the lands on which we live would not exist. On the other hand, plate tectonics regulates the climate and recycles nutrients, so knowing when it started working helps understand when the Earth became a place compatible with life. How they analyzed it. The John Valley team analyzed the popular zircons from Jack Hills (Western Australia). These sand-sized minerals are a kind of time capsule, housing the only direct record of Earth’s first 500 million years. They were looking for chemical “fingerprints” that would reveal where and how they were formed, for which they used technology WiscSIMS high resolution. They then compared the results of the analysis with other zirconiums from the Hadic Eon found in Barberton (South Africa). Each one told a different story. Surprises in the “DNA” of the mineral. 47% of oceanic zircons had high levels of Uranium compared to Niobium, indicating that they formed in subduction zones where ocean water sinks into the mantle. On the other hand, the South African zircons show that they were born from virgin rock from the planet’s interior, confirming the classic ‘stagnant lid’ theory by which the Earth’s first solid surface was rigid and immobile. Or what is the same: while in Australia the crust sank and created protocontinents, in what is now South Africa the Earth behaved differently, with a rigid and stagnant crust. That is, the early Earth was a mosaic of tectonic styles. The Earth did not go from being hell to what it is today overnight, but rather it was a hybrid process and generated the necessary conditions for life sooner than we thought. In Xataka | We know it as “the red planet”, but 3.37 billion years ago Mars was almost as blue as Earth In Xataka | 4.5 billion years of Earth’s history, summarized in a spectacular video map Cover | Tomáš Malík and Javier Miranda

Using facial recognition to hunt for copycats seemed like a good idea. This Valencian university has just discovered that it was not

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Educational centers that decide to do online exams face a challenge: without being able to monitor students in person, how do you ensure that they do not copy? A Valencian university found the solution with a sophisticated video surveillance and facial recognition system. Well, the joke has paid off. Resolution. In the summer of last year, the Spanish Data Protection Agency (AEPD) filed a complaint against the International University of Valencia o VIU for the use of facial recognition and recording to conduct online exams. As reported in À Puntthe resolution has already arrived and the VIU is going to have to pay 650,000 euros The system. In the VIU evaluation regulationsit is detailed that a “facial recognition technology system” will be used in the online tests. This system consists of the use of two cameras (which the student must provide), one to monitor the student and another for the environment, ensuring that there are no other people in the same room. The software is constantly capturing and analyzing images in real time to verify the student’s identity through AI. At the same time, the program is responsible for controlling the screen and even the devices connected to the computer with which the test is carried out. Two fines. The 650,000 euros are actually the sum of two fines. The first, of 300,000 euros, is for having failed to comply with the article 9 of the GDPR which prohibits the processing of biometric data with few exceptions. The second, which amounts to 350,000 euros, is due to a breach of the article 5.1c of the GDPRwhich maintains that personal data must be “adequate, relevant and limited to what is necessary.” The AEPD considers the use of facial recognition for this purpose to be disproportionate. Consent discarded. One of the exceptions to article 9 of the GDPR and which the VIU tried to rely on is that “the interested party gave explicit consent.” It is true that the students had agreed to use this control system, the problem is that they were not given any alternative: either they accepted, or they did not take the exam. The AEPD does not “consider the mandatory acceptance of general conditions upon registration to be valid consent”, which is why it rules it out in its resolution. The VIU also tried to take refuge in the “essential public interest”, another of the exceptions of article 9, but the AEPD has rejected it because there is no specific law for the processing of biometric data in the educational context. The university invoked the university law that says that universities must verify that students have acquired a series of knowledge, but the AEPD has also rejected it as insufficient. Wow, we have to pay. It’s not just the VIU. There is other universities such as the European University, Isabel I, La Rioja or Burgos that also use similar systems that combine cameras and facial recognition. During the pandemic there was no choice but to opt for online training and this prompted the appearance of video surveillance systems in exams, which raised the eyebrows of the AEPDwhich in 2021 already warned that biometrics could not be used to monitor exams. This resolution is the first that imposes a large fine, so it is assumed that universities will make changes if they do not want to go to the cashier’s office. Open door. The AEPD does not close the door to the use of biometrics as fraud prevention in the educational field, including AI systems. However, he points out that according to the European Union AI Regulationbiometric data is considered high risk, which does not prohibit its use, but does not give express permission to use it in this context. In Xataka | I’ll take the exam online for €20: the new student situation is an open bar for cheating Images | VIU, Pexels

We knew that Mars has gravity. Now we have just discovered the unexpected effect it has on the Earth’s climate

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I don’t need to tell you that the Earth’s climate is not constant and it is not just because of the climate change: If we look at it in perspective, throughout the history of the planet it has gone through glaciations and warm periods. Many of these changes find explanation in the Milankovitch cycles or orbital variations, that is, the slow changes in the Earth’s orbit and the inclination of its axis due to the gravitational attraction of other planets. The surprising influence of Mars. It was known that the giant Jupiter or the nearby Venus are largely to blame, but now we have discovered another secondary actor that has gained importance: Mars, as explained this study collected in Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific and led by scientist Stephen Kane. What’s surprising about it? That Mars only has 10% of the mass of the Earth, hence there are simplified climate models that downplay its importance. The simulations. The hypothesis is: what would happen to the Earth’s orbit if Mars were much larger or did not exist? Since human research teams do not have millions of years to wait, they used simulations with a solar system model of ten million years each to study gravitational interactions. The only factor they changed in each simulation was the mass of Mars: from zero (Mars does not exist) to being ten times larger than Earth. Mars “weighs” much more than we think. And the results were conclusive: Mars is directly responsible for the “Great Cycle”, a 2.4 million year gravitational beat in which Mars rhythmically stretches and shrinks the Earth’s orbit, acting as a metronome that regulates the amount of solar radiation received and regulates the frequency of ice ages. Without Mars, that cycle would not exist. However, Kane nuance: “It doesn’t mean that without Mars the Earth wouldn’t have ice ages, but it would completely change the frequency with which they occur.” But if Mars were giant, Earth’s climate cycles would also change: they would be shorter and more extreme, going from an ice age to suffocating heat waves. In short, life adaptation would become more complicated. What would not change, according to the study, is the “great Jupiter – Venus cycle”, the 405,000-year gravitational pattern driven by a secular resonance of both planets that acts as the “master clock” of the Earth’s climate as it is the most stable and constant cycle in the planet’s geological history. Why is it important. Knowing better the influence of the planets around us on the climate is good news that helps us better understand our past and be able to glimpse the future with more precision. But it has an impact on the search for habitable exoplanets: it is not enough to find something similar to Earth, but you also have to look at its neighbors and pay attention to the fine print. That is, if it has a “Mars-type” planet nearby but of great mass, its climate has every chance of being too chaotic for life. In Xataka | Mars has just entered the exclusive club of planets with rays. This is discouraging news for NASA. In Xataka | We had been wondering for decades how Mars could have water, cold and life. Today we finally have an answer Cover | Photo of Planet Volumes in Unsplash

Testing the first light bulb in 1879, Edison came across a material that would be discovered 125 years later: the prodigious graphene.

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Edison has been one of the most prolific inventors of history. In fact, while he was looking for a way to make the light bulb, he carried out an exhaustive materials science experiment: tried more than 6,000 organic materials before decant by the carbonized bamboo filament. eye to the old patent no. 223,898 because it has all the necessary ingredients for the recipe. Tremendous Edison spoiler. He had, without knowing it, set up a primitive nanotechnological reactor to obtain graphene. That same graphene on which Philip Russell Wallace would theorize 20 years after the inventor’s death and 125 years before Konstantin Novoselov and Andre Geim won the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics for isolating it with the duct tape method. Or so he has discovered a recent study from Rice University. The prodigious graphene. Graphene is an allotrope of carbon that has a two-dimensional structure of atoms woven into a hexagonal network. Beyond this curiosity, graphene is an amazing material: it is 200 times stronger than steel but much lighter (airbrush, even lighter than air). It conducts electricity and heat better than any known metal. If we also take into account that it is almost transparent and very flexible, we have a prodigious material for technology. Without going any further, for semiconductors. It could also be used to improve roads or for responsive robotic tissues. And there’s a trick: when its layers are somewhat disordered and not stuck together like a block, they are much easier to separate. This is what Edison achieved unintentionally. Edison’s recipe. He turbostratic graphene can be produced by applying a voltage to a carbon-based material until it reaches a temperature of 2,000 to 3,000 °C, known as Joule heating instant. But what Edison had in his power was to light one of his newly patented light bulbs. Unlike the current ones, theirs had carbon-based filaments, more specifically bamboo. When you flipped the switch, the filament heated up and produced… light and maybe graphene. Account Lucas Eddy, the paper’s lead author, was looking for ways to mass-produce graphene with accessible, affordable materials and tried everything from arc welders to trees that had been struck by lightning. Then he remembered the light bulb. Edison’s patent It was a magnificent scheme to reproduce the experiment. Of course, it was difficult for him to find Edison-style light bulbs with carbon filaments and not tugsten. Then he only had to apply power to 110 volts and turn on the switch for 20 seconds. If you go too far, graphite can form instead of graphene. Why is it important. To begin with, because until now we thought that to obtain this prodigious material we had to resort to 21st century technology, but no: there were conditions to do so in the 19th century. On the other hand, it validates Joule heating as an efficient and scalable way to generate high-quality graphene from cheap carbon sources. And why not, because it opens the doors to reviewing other scientific experiments in history: who knows if other nanomaterials have not been synthesized by chance? under the microscope. Using the lens of an optical microscope, the research team was able to see that the carbon filament had gone from dark gray to a shiny silver. A visual change that predicted the suspicions that I ended up certifying with the Raman spectroscopywhich uses lasers to identify substances through their atoms with high precision: it was turbostratic graphene. While Edison experimented to create a light bulb for everyday use he was able to produce the wonderful material of the future (of today’s future). Obviously there is no way to know for sure what happened in their Menlo Park laboratories because even if the original light bulb were available for analysis, any graphene produced would probably have converted to graphite within a few hours. In Xataka | Electrocute elephants to win a war or how anything went in the fight between Tesla and Edison In Xataka | Don’t call it graphene, call it “goldeno”: this is the new material that is achieved using a peculiar Japanese forging technique Cover | Image of Thomas Edison, ca. 1918–1919. Source: National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), United States and HY ART

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