Here are today’s most important updates from the realm of Science and Space.
India’s space observatory AstroSat has uncovered new clues about the mysterious behaviour of a distant black hole, GRS 1915+105. A team of Indian scientists used two of its onboard instruments, the Large Area X-ray Proportional Counter (LAXPC) and the Soft X-ray Telescope (SXT), to study the black hole’s mysterious signal pattern. They found a repeating pattern: a few hundred seconds of dim X-ray light, followed by a similar period of bright light. During the brighter phases, they discovered something remarkable, a fast X-ray flickers occurring 70 times per second, known as Quasi-periodic Oscillations (QPOs). These flickers vanished during the dimmer phases. In the dim phases, it cools and expands, causing the flickers to disappear. The black hole is part of a binary system, pulling matter from a companion star into a hot spinning disc.
A US startup has claimed that it has found a novel way to turn mercury into gold, opening a new 'revenue stream for the future'. San Francisco-based Marathon Fusion stated that using the nuclear fusion process, the precious element can be developed. Using the radioactivity from neutron particles in a nuclear fusion reactor, the team claimed mercury can be converted into mercury-197. Afterwards, this element decays into a stable form of gold: gold-197. As per the estimates by the researchers, a fusion power plant could produce 5,000 kg of gold per gigawatt of thermal power in a single year of operation. Meanwhile, nuclear fusion could help in generating limitless, clean energy for the planet. The researchers said the gold was the bonus byproduct of the fusion reactors, and it would not interfere with the plant's primary purpose of developing clean energy.
Researchers analyzed over 200 clinical trials of OTC (Over-The-Counter) depression remedies and found solid evidence for a few (like St John’s Wort and saffron), mixed results for many (like magnesium), and virtually none for dozens. Few showed safety issues, but more rigorous research is needed. Promising results were shown by folic acid, lavender, zinc, tryptophan, and rhodiola. Also, Bitter orange, Persian lavender, and chamomile tea showed positive effects in two trials each. Some products that are gaining in popularity, such as melatonin, magnesium, and curcumin, showed mixed effects upon depression across multiple clinical trials. Mixed results were also found for cinnamon, echium, vitamin C, and a combination of vitamin D plus calcium. Prebiotics, which support the good bacteria in our gut, and a supplement called SAMe did not seem to be better than placebo. Depression is increasingly common, to the extent that it is sometimes described as an epidemic.
Human activity is rapidly transforming the Earth, and once reliable seasonal patterns are becoming unfamiliar. Examples include "haze seasons" in the northern and equatorial nations of south-east Asia, when the sky is filled with smoke for several weeks. This is caused by widespread burning of vegetation to clear forests and make way for agriculture during particularly dry times of year. Or there is the annual "trash season", during which tidal patterns bring plastic to the shores of Bali, Indonesia, between November and March. At the same time, some seasons are disappearing altogether, with profound consequences for ecosystems and cultures. These extinct seasons can encompass drastically altered or terminated migratory animal behavior, such as the decline of seabird breeding seasons in northern England. The timings of key seasonal events, like when leaves fall or certain migratory species arrive, are becoming more unpredictable.
