The Reunion and Mauritius islands, much frequented by tourists, have now become the focus of scientists after discovering that they hide an unknown microcontinent, according to a study published in the journal 'Nature Geoscience' in its latest edition. Its authors assure that this microcontinent of the Indian Ocean, baptized as Mauritia, broke off approximately 60 million years ago, just at the time when Madagascar and India were separated. And that since then it has remained sunk and hidden under large masses of lava. Had it remained on the surface, it would have spawned an island the size of Crete.
The brain of fetuses between 28 and 32 weeks of gestation is already prepared to establish the neural functions responsible for deciphering human speech, as stated in a study published today in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS ).
Scientists from the Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO) in Barcelona, in collaboration with German and American researchers, have just demonstrated that graphene is capable of converting an absorbed photon into multiple electrons that can conduct electrical current. This promising discovery makes graphene an important alternative for solar energy technology, currently based on conventional semiconductors such as silicon, as published today in the journal Nature Physics.
The astronomical popularization magazine 'Astronomy', one of the most widely read in the Anglo-Saxon world, has placed the Spanish research that led to the discovery of the origin of the brightest stellar event in history, a supernova of 1006, in second place in its annual ranking. The list of findings is headed by the discovery of the Higgs Boson and includes other milestones such as the studies around the asteroid Vesta, the discovery of the comet ISON, the adventures of 'Curiosity' on Mars or the latest findings in the field of exoplanets. .
A physicist at Texas A&M University named Dave Hyland has proposed developing a device to "kill" asteroids by launching spray paint. Based on the Yarkovsky effect, Hyland argues that the paint would change, producing a change in the amount of sunlight the asteroid reflects.
Since the discovery of the first exoplanet in 1995, researchers have completed a vast scenario of planetary systems very different from our own. But only recently, thanks to the great precision of the Kepler space telescope, launched in 2009, have it been possible to detect rocky planets the size of the Earth and even quite smaller around stars similar to our Sun. Scientists from the Madrid Astrobiology Center, associated at NASA Astrobiology Institute, they have just identified, for the first time, a planet smaller than Mercury.
Did you know that a potato chip is shaped like a hyperbolic paraboloid, or in other words, a saddle? This form of nature, which astrophysicists consider to be also the one adopted by the Universe, minimizes the deformation of the potato when, due to temperature changes in the pan, it is subjected to stress.
Scientists at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (USA) have investigated whether there are differences based on sex in the expression of the Foxp2 gene, involved in the development of language in humans and in oral communication in birds and other animals.
Danni Büchner is invited to Sam Dylan's Halloween party. But the "Goodbye Germany" emigrant has no desire for many other party guests. And find clear words.
