June 22, 2023: Everything in the universe will evaporate, heartbeats affect perception of time and we visualize the staggering pressure at the bottom of the sea. Read it all below! —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor | | | Black holes emit a type of energy called Hawking radiation–the slow emission of thermal radiation as matter and antimatter particles escape from the black hole. Over time, this escaping energy depletes them, which causes them to slowly lose mass and evaporate. According to a new study, anything with gravity, meaning basically every object in the universe, will emit Hawking-like radiation and evaporate.
Why this matters: The long-lived remnants of dead stars such as white dwarfs and neutron stars—which have enormous mass—might have their life shortened if the phenomenon is real. But don't worry, even if it turns out to be true, you and all your belongings will be dust before the effect kicks in.
What the experts say: The analysis seems promising, says Tyler McMaken, a Ph.D. student who studies theoretical astrophysics at the University of Colorado Boulder. "This shows that there is definitively some effect where particles can be ripped apart just solely from gravitational forces in the vacuum." | | |
How it works: Pressure sensors in blood vessel walls send signals to the brain. As a result, between heartbeats the sensor activity drops, giving the brain more capacity to process incoming information. This increase in sensory impressions could make time feel longer.
What the experts say: These findings don't necessarily explain the differences in how we perceive time during specific events–say, time flying while playing with a litter of puppies, or dragging while at work (or at home during a global pandemic). The experience of time is influenced by many factors, including our emotion and attention. | | | GRAPHIC OF THE DAY
INCREASING OCEAN PRESSURES | | | Credit: Jen Christiansen, modified from "How the Ocean Sustains Complex Life," by Mark Fischetti, Kelly J. Benoit-Bird, Skye Morét and Jen Christiansen, in Scientific American; August 2022 | | | The pressure around the famous sunken Titanic is about 375 atmospheres. That means every square inch of an object's surface experiences the equivalent of 5,500 pounds of force. As submersibles descend into the water, one of the biggest dangers is increasing water pressure as the ocean gets deeper, which the crafts are intended to withstand. The U.S. Coast Guard announced today that rubble of the missing tourist sub, Titan, had been found. They said the debris showed signs consistent with catastrophic loss of the vessel's pressure chamber. | | | • Many cancer drugs (and other meds such as those for ADHD or antibiotics) are in short supply. These older but crucial generic drugs are often sold at a loss or for little profit, so manufacturers have little incentive to make them. | 9 min read | | | • A new way to look for life in the cosmos other than looking for "habitable zones" may be look for the "computational zones" of the universe, whether in RNA translation or in digital 1s and 0s or something else altogether, writes Caleb Scharf, senior scientist for astrobiology at NASA's Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley. | 5 min read | | | The graphic above illustrating pressure levels in the ocean was adapted from a fabulous package we published last summer on the oceans. I highly recommend you check it out! Personally, I can never see enough photos of sea angels, and there are some good ones in there. | This newsletter is for you! Let me know how you like it AND if there are ways we can improve it. Email me directly: newsletters@sciam.com. Until tomorrow! | —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor | | Subscribe to this and all of our newsletters . | | | | Scientific American
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