Friday, January 20, 2023

Standard Model of Cosmology Survives JWST’s Surprising Finds

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ASTROPHYSICS | ALL TOPICS

 

Standard Model of Cosmology Survives JWST's Surprising Finds

By REBECCA BOYLE

Reports that the James Webb Space Telescope has killed the reigning theoretical model of the cosmos turn out to have been exaggerated. But astronomers still have much to learn from distant galaxies glimpsed by the telescope.

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GRAPH THEORY

 

Finally, a Fast Algorithm for Shortest Paths on Negative Graphs

By BEN BRUBAKER

Researchers can now find the shortest route through a network nearly as fast as theoretically possible, even when some steps can cancel out others.

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Related: 
New Algorithm Breaks Speed
Limit for Solving Linear Equations

By Kevin Hartnett (2021)

MICROBIOME

 

Mobile Genes From the Mother Shape the Baby's Microbiome

By YASEMIN SAPLAKOGLU

Tiny genetic sequences in a mother's bacteria seem to hop into the infant's bacteria, perhaps ensuring a healthy microbiome later in life.

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Related: 
The Gut Microbiome Helps
Social Skills Develop in the Brain

By Yasemin Saplakoglu (2022)

COMBINATORICS

 

Mathematicians Roll Dice and Get Rock-Paper-Scissors

By ERICA KLARREICH

Mathematicians have uncovered a surprising wealth of rock-paper-scissors-like patterns in randomly chosen dice.

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Related: 
How and Why Computers
Roll Loaded Dice

By Stephen Ornes (2020)

QUANTA SCIENCE PODCAST

 

Record-Breaking Robot Highlights How Animals Excel at Jumping

Podcast hosted by SUSAN VALOT;
Story by YASEMIN SAPLAKOGLU

Robots can surpass the limitations on how high and far animals can jump, but their success only underscores nature's ingenuity in making the most of what's available.

Listen to the podcast

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Around the Web

A Whale of a Tale
Researchers have found four genes that enable whales to become gigantic, partly by protecting them from developing cancer in their extra tons of tissue, Will Dunham reports for Reuters. Elephants get similar protection from cancer by a different set of genes. In 2017 Viviane Callier wrote for Quanta about how the ancient remnants of genetic junk were repurposed for culling cancerous cells before they can grow.


Magma in the Meditteranean
Researchers just discovered a growing magma chamber beneath a submarine volcano near Santorini, Greece. Measurements suggest that it could cause a devastating eruption within the next 150 years, reports JoAnna Wendel for Live Science. Mapping the flow of magma underground is important for predicting future eruptions and understanding what drives them. In a 2021 story for Quanta, Robin George Andrews wrote about a massive mantle plume that was responsible for a vast portion of Earth's volcanic activity.
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