Technology

A group of researchers has discovered the genetic signature of sarin gas, a deadly substance that despite being outlawed and classified as a “weapon of mass destruction” continues to be used as a chemical weapon. The finding has made it possible to detect this compound in the remains of a bombardment that occurred four years ago in Iraq.

An international group of scientists has confirmed the existence of a new superheavy chemical element that has the atomic number 115, previously suggested by Russian researchers. If officially recognized, ununpentium would become part of the periodic table.

Not only is your hands sweating and your heart racing not harmful when you're trying to reach an agreement, it can be beneficial, according to a new study from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Business Administration and Management. USA). It is the conclusion reached by Ashley D. Brown and her colleagues through an experiment in which several subjects had to negotiate their working conditions. The participants who were predisposed to negotiate and who walked while they did so, sweating and thus increasing their heart rate, achieved a more favorable economic treatment than those who, with the same attitude, remained seated and relaxed. In contrast, those who had a negative attitude towards negotiation did worse if they moved than if they stayed still.

Young people are more distracted while driving, are less precise and make more mistakes and infractions on the road if they listen to their favorite music at the wheel, according to a study by Ben-Gurion University (Israel) just published in the journal Accident Analysis and Prevention .

The Voyager 1 probe, the furthest human-made object from Earth, could have reached interstellar space after passing the orbit of Pluto. The University of Maryland study affirms that this happened just over a year ago, which contradicts the information recently offered by NASA that placed the spacecraft still in the heliopause, a transition zone between our Solar System and the rest of the world. the Galaxy.

The effects of global warming on food are poorly understood, despite the interest they may have. An analysis of the records of the attributes of the apples of the Fuji variety collected since 1970 in two orchards in Japan reveals that they are becoming less acidic, have less firmness and their core has become more watery. The study, conducted by the National Agriculture and Food Research Organization in Japan (NARO) suggests that the qualities of apples are undergoing long-term changes due to climate change.

Thanks to ESA's XMM-Newton space telescope, a team of scientists has discovered that a curious dead star has one of the strongest magnetic fields in the universe, despite the fact that all indications seemed to indicate that its magnetism was unusually weak. The object, known as SGC 0418 + 5729 (or SGR 0418 for short), is a magnetar, that is, a type of neutron star.

The company Opertech Bio, based in Philadelphia (USA), has succeeded in patenting a methodology and a device for the evaluation of taste. It is the Microtiter Operant Gustometer (MOG), a system that allows measuring both flavor quality and palatability, as the creators have made public through a study published in the journal PLOS ONE.