This week, astronomers examined whether dark energy varies across cosmic timescales. Using neutron analysis, physicists have revealed that some early Iron Age swords had recently been modified by crooks to make them more historically interesting. And a New Jersey professor has solved two fundamental problems that have baffled mathematicians for decades. Additionally, progress has been made in the areas of children’s craft materials, carbon sequestration and the changing map of the universe:
Solved Glitter
Researchers at the University of Melbourne have solved the glitter problem. Well, there are a number of problems associated with glitter – spills on carpets, kids’ crafts, overly fabulous cosmetics – but the specific problem addressed here is that, with particles smaller than 5 millimeters, glitter is the most shining from microplastic contaminants.
Microplastics are toxic to ocean species and are often consumed by land animals, causing a range of problems including starvation and gastrointestinal abrasions. And unlike sources like degrading plastic bottles and car body panels, glitter is actually designed to be thrown directly from a container onto things like glue-covered construction paper and onto participants in New York’s annual Mermaid Parade.
The glitter is made of PET – polyethylene terephthalate. The European Union has actually banned glitter, and Australian researchers, recognizing the urgent need for sustainable, biodegradable glitter to serve humanity, have now introduced cellulose-based glitter, as seen in environmental materials durable like trees and grass. They developed a cellulose nanocrystal that shimmers under light and degrades harmlessly in the environment.
The researchers tested both conventional glitter and their eco-glitter with springtails, a soil-dwelling microorganism. They found for the first time that at concentrations consistent with environmental contamination of microplastics, conventional glitter caused a 61% decline in reproduction, evidence that microplastics degrade soil and the organisms that enrich it. However, their cellulose flakes had no measurable effect on springtails.
DEI forests are better at carbon sequestration
Trees capture carbon dioxide, don’t they? Cultivating a tree monoculture therefore seems to be an easy approach to climate change. Just plant a few hundred thousand acres of, say, London plane trees, the most common tree in New York, and let nature solve your intractable addiction to fossil fuel consumption. London plane trees grow fast and quickly sequester a lot of carbon. But it turns out that this “set it and forget it” approach to forestry sequesters less carbon than more diverse forests that include a variety of tree species with different growth rates and lifespans.
Fast-growing trees can capture atmospheric carbon more quickly, but they have a shorter lifespan, meaning that over their lifetime they store less carbon and release it into the atmosphere more quickly. Slower-growing species that live longer and grow larger capture more carbon, particularly in forests with a diversity of trees, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Birmingham. The researchers analyzed measurements of 1,127 tree species across the Americas, a census spanning life expectancies from about one year to three millennia, identifying four types of tree life cycles, many of which grow in same areas.
Co-author Dr. Adriane Esquivel-Muelbert says: “Forests with diverse tree species can capture carbon more efficiently, which means that promoting forest biodiversity in forests can help capture more carbon. Understanding how these factors relate can guide restoration and conservation projects. By selecting the right combination of tree species, we may be able to maximize carbon storage and develop strategies that improve the resilience of forests to climate change.
Big neighborhood
Astronomers once believed that the Milky Way resided in a vast structure called a Local Supercluster, containing thousands of galaxies. But in 2014, a study of galaxy motions provided a new picture demonstrating that we are actually located in an even larger structure called the Laniakea Supercluster, along with about 100,000 other galaxies.
Now, according to a recent redshift study by astronomers at the University of Hawaii, researchers think Laniakea is likely part of a much larger structure called the Shapley Concentration, which is gravitationally bound, coming together rather than expand with the universe.
Shapley is about 10 times larger than Laniakea and includes a “basin of attraction”, a cosmic structure containing enough matter to exert gravitational influence on other structures. The entire Local Group, including the Milky Way, is moving toward Shapley and the challenge for researchers is to determine how far the gravitational influence of the superstructures extends.
© 2024 Science X Network
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