Tension Over Smoothness
By collating several astronomical huge datasets, cosmologists have compiled the most detailed map yet of all the matter in the universe, reports Camille Carlisle for Sky & Telescope. It points to a new tension, or discrepancy, between theory and observation: The universe isn't as clumpy as it should be. This "sigma-8" tension — as well as the more famous Hubble tension over the universe's expansion rate — suggests that our cosmological model is incomplete. As Charlie Wood reported for Quanta in 2020, most efforts to resolve one tension worsen the other.
Big Surprise in a Small Package
In a surprising discovery, researchers found that some bacteria encase their DNA in proteins called histones, reports Heidi Ledford for Nature. Until recently, scientists didn't think bacteria even had these proteins. Histones package DNA in complex cells, too — but in them, the DNA spools around the proteins rather than being encased. In 2021, Viviane Callier wrote for Quanta about how histones could help us understand the origins of complex eukaryotic life. | |
