Coming, Most Sensitive Dark Matter Detector

A next generation dark matter detector that will be 100 times more sensitive than its predecessor will begin its deep underground hunt for theoretical particles known as WIMPs, or weakly interacting massive particles. WIMPs are among the top prospects for explaining dark matter, which comprises 85% of all matter in the universe and is observed through gravitational effects, researchers said. The detector LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) has received approval from US department of energy for the project. The approval sets in motion the build out of major components and the preparation of its nearly mile-deep lair at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in San Diego.

Hate Standing In Line? Self-Driving Chairs Are Here

Hate standing in line at your favourite restaurant? Japanese carmakers Nissan claims to have just the thing for those sore legs. A company video released on 27 September re-enacts a busy restaurant with patrons waiting outside. They’re all sitting in a row of chairs but they won’t have to stand when the next hungry diner is called to a table. Instead, the chairs – equipped with autonomous technology that detects the sear ahead – glide along a path toward the front of the line. The now empty chair at the front moves out of pole position. The system, which is similar to the kind used in Nissan’s autonomous vehicle technology, will be tested at select restaurants in Japan this year. It appeals to anyone who has queued for hours outside a crowded restaurant: it eliminated the tedium and physical strain of standing in line. Although Tokyo has some 160,000 restaurants, long queues are not uncommon.

Europa Spews Water Jets

Scientists have collected clues for decades of an ocean beneath Europa’s icy shell. In 1979, Voyager spacecraft showed the ice was cracked in places. The 1990s Galileo mission that spent eight years orbiting Jupiter confirmed the ocean under Europa. Hubble Space Telescope has spotted what may be water vapour plumes erupting off Jupiter’s icy moon Europa. This is the second sighting of the water jets. Scientists first reported the phenomenon in 2013. Beneath its icy crust is a sizeable, H₂O ocean type that covers the whole moon. As an incubator for life chances are way better to find life than on Titan’s super-chilled methane lakes. A 2016 study suggested Europa produces 10 times more oxygen than hydrogen, a 2014 study suggested the moon may have plate tectonics, qualities that would make it like Earth.

EUROPA

                About the size of Earth’s moon, at its warmest only about: -260F (-160C), and covered in an icy shell that makes it one of the most reflective objects. It has a rocky core with range of chemicals, and energy generated by tidal heating.

What The Image Captured

                Jets that reach around 200km in height before falling back on to Europa. The calculation based on the 2013-reported work estimated a volume of water equivalent to an Olympic swimming pool could be being spewed into space about every eight minutes.

How Can You Tell It’s Water From An Image?

                Hubble made its latest identification by studying Europa as it passed in front of Jupiter. The Telescope looked in ultraviolet wavelengths to see if the giant planet’s light was being absorbed by material emanating from the moon’s surface. Ten times Hubble looked and on three of those occasions it spied what appeared to be “dark fingers” extending from the edge of Europa. The observations were made in 2014.

Expanding Club

                So far, the only ocean worlds we’ve got are Earth, Jupiter’s largest moon Ganymede, Saturn’s moons Titan and Encedalus, and now Europa. Those moons are where scientists think extra-terrestrial life in our solar system is most likely to be found.

Alcohol That'll Be Hangover Free

A new type of synthetic alcohol has been discovered which could allow people to enjoy the sociable effects of a few pints, but skip the hangover that usually follows. The new drink, known as ‘

alcosynth’ is designed to mimic the positive effects of alcohol but doesn’t cause a dry mouth. The researchers have patented around 90 different alcosynth compounds. Two of them are now being rigorously tested for widespread use and by 2050; researcher hopes alcosynth could completely replace normal alcohol. It will be there alongside the scotch and the gin, they’ll dispense the alcosynth into your cocktail and then you’ll have the pleasure without damaging your liver and your heart. They go very nicely into mojitos. They even go into something as clear as a Tom Collins. One is pretty tasteless; the other has a bitter taste.

By researching substances that work on the brain in a similar way to alcohol, researcher have been able to design a drug which they say is non-toxic and replicates the positive effects of alcohol. We know a lot about the brain science of alcohol. So researcher knows where the good effects of alcohol are mediated in the brain, and can mimic them. And by not touching the bad area, they don’t have the bad effects. Advocates of alcosynth believe it could revolutionize public health by relieving the burden of alcohol on the health service. According to alcohol concern, drinking is the third biggest risk factor for disease and death in the World, after smoking and obesity.