The Hoyle State - Is the Universe Fine-Tuned for the Formation of Carbon and Oxygen?
Is the Universe fine-tuned for life? A team of physicists is looking at the conditions necessary to the formation of carbon and oxygen two elements in the universe that are the foundation of life as we currently know it. They’ve found that when it comes to supporting life, the universe leaves very little margin for error.
“The Hoyle state of carbon is key,” says NC State physicist Dean Lee. “If the Hoyle state energy was at 479 keV or more above the three alpha particles, then the amount of carbon produced would be too low for carbon-based life. The same holds true for oxygen,” he adds. “If the Hoyle state energy were instead within 279 keV of the three alphas, then there would be plenty of carbon. But the stars would burn their helium into carbon much earlier in their life cycle. As a consequence, the stars would not be hot enough to produce sufficient oxygen for life. In our lattice simulations, we find that more than a 2 or 3 percent change in the light quark mass would lead to problems with the abundance of either carbon or oxygen in the universe.”Both carbon and oxygen are produced when helium burns inside of giant red stars. Carbon-12, an essential element we’re all made of, can only form when three alpha particles, or helium-4 nuclei, combine in a very specific way. The key to formation is an excited state of carbon-12 known as the Hoyle state, and it has a very specific energy – measured at 379 keV (or 379,000 electron volts) above the energy of three alpha particles. Oxygen is produced by the combination of another alpha particle and carbon.
The international team — Lee and German colleagues Evgeny Epelbaum, Hermann Krebs, Timo Laehde and Ulf-G. Meissner— had previously confirmed the existence and structure of the Hoyle state with a numerical lattice that allowed the researchers to simulate how protons and neutrons interact. These protons and neutrons are made up of elementary particles called quarks. The light quark mass is one of the fundamental parameters of nature, and this mass affects particles’ energies.
(via mackberry)
A mix of mouse stem cells that have been encouraged to develop into specialized cells. Each color is a specific cell type that developed from the previously uniform collection of cells. (via)
Nature Has A Formula That Tells Us When It’s Time To Die
“Below the pulse, which you see here, elegantly captured by Shanghai photographer/designer Yunfan Tan, is a life/death cycle, a pattern that shows up in the teeniest of plants, (phytoplankton, algae, moss), also in the bigger plants, (shrubs, bushes, little trees) — and even in the biggest, the needle bearing giant sequoias.”
Explorer’s Rare Scotch Returned to Antarctic Stash
Talk about whisky on ice: three bottles of rare, 19th century Scotch found beneath the floor boards of Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton abandoned expedition base were returned to the polar continent after a distiller flew them to Scotland to recreate the long-lost recipe.
But not even New Zealand Prime Minister John Key, who personally returned the stash, got a taste of the contents of the bottles of Mackinlay’s whisky, which were rediscovered 102 years after the explorer was forced to leave them behind. “I think we’re all tempted to crack it open and have a little drink ourselves now,” Key joked at a ceremony handing over the bottles to Antarctic Heritage Trust officials at New Zealand’s Antarctic base on Ross Island.
Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/01/explorers-rare-scotch-returned-antarctic-stash
Amazing science facts that will blow your mind pt. 2.
You and your viewers will hopefully enjoy it! :)
-AsapSCIENCE
Two new studies shed light on pulmonary edema, a condition that causes fluid to leak into the air sacs of the lungs. A lung-on-a-chip device that mimics the functions of healthy lungs can be used to test drugs that treat the condition. Dongeun Huh at Harvard University and colleagues…
(Source: stm.sciencemag.org)
A team from Columbia University have grown 50 plus stable and healthy bones originated from stem cells. The team have so far developed part of the femur bone as well as the cheek bone and a temporomandibular joint (found in the ear allowing jaw movement), nothing bigger that 2.5 inches yet.
The…
Drugs May Restore Blood-Brain Barrier
Research led by Queen Mary, Univ. of London, has opened up the possibility that drug therapies may one day be able to restore the integrity of the blood-brain barrier, potentially slowing or even reversing the progression of diseases like multiple sclerosis (MS).
The blood-brain barrier (BBB) is a layer of cells, including endothelial cells, which line the blood vessels in the brain and spinal cord. These cells act as a barrier, stopping certain molecules, including immune cells and viruses, passing from the blood stream into the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord).
Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/01/drugs-may-restore-blood-brain-barrier
FDA approves pill to prevent HIV infections
The drug, Truvada, is the first medication intended to prevent HIV infections in people having sex with infected individuals.
(JEFF CHIU/AP)
IT JUST GOT REAL
What good news for the world.
Remember when this made the news weeks ago and US news outlets didn’t find it worth reporting?
BLESS THIS
This should have like, 1,000% more notes.
This is amazing.
Are you telling me that those Ryan Gosling cupcakes have 45,000 notes and this post hasn’t even reached 5,000?
Relevant.
And it was on this day that this appeared on my dash, and I said “Damn, finally some good news!” and reblogged the hell out of it.
(via itsmerandi)
