I have tried to summarize the thoughts in my head for a while on the scientific news I have found recently. They may not be as recent anymore due to how long it has been since I read about them, and when I am posting about them, but they are still important, and I think they deserve more time in the spotlight. This has been a demanding task to do as life happens and one must deal with other stuff aside from just writing, but this is a task that I have chosen so here I have put my thoughts into a concrete script that I present to you now.
Water Hidden Under Earth’s Crust
I found this information while searching
for scientific breakthroughs a while ago. I like to see what news articles I can
find and then proceed from there to search on scientific journals. The premise
of this article is as follows:
Scientists found that water is stored inside the mantle’s
rock in a unique state, which is not a liquid, solid or a gas. This state is
known as the fourth state (I am guessing is plasma water which I never thought
about but I kind of want to create on a lab now).
It all came from a rare piece of diamond found in 2022. When
analyzed they were able to determine that this diamond originated 660 km or 410
miles beneath earth surface in the transition zone.
The unique thing about this diamond is that it contained
ringwoodite, a high-pressure phase of Mg2SiO4 (magnesium silicate) formed
at high temperatures and pressures of the Earth's mantle, with hydrous phases
which means it is rich in water implying that the transition zone is a wet
zone, contrary to previous beliefs.
It has been known that water can fall to the mantle through
the tectonic plates and make its way back through volcanic activity in
something known as the deep water cycle but this discovery is something else we
did not expect. If this zone contains at least 1% of the total water then it
implies that there must be more water than the one available in the surface,
and if that is the case our models on how water appear on earth might need
revisions.
The team that made the discovery also found ferropericlase (Mg,Fe)O
and enstatite MgSiO3, using X-ray diffraction and micro-Raman spectroscopy. This
discovery aligns with another discovery made that the earth’s core is cooling
down and it may be due to this appearance of water in the Earth mantle, but
further research needs to be done on the subject.
Room Temperature Superconductor Research
The next one I found it on a video on TIK TOK and decided to
find the article and read it. The article
“Evidence of near-ambient superconductivity in a N-doped lutetium hydride”
talks about the first ever discovered room temperature superconductor. If you
are not familiar with the term, a superconductor is a material that can conduct
electricity without any resistance. The reason why the wires get hot when you
use a hair blower for an extended period of time, or your phone, or any other
electrical device you may think of is because of the resistivity of copper and
other materials to conduct electricity. This causes a loss of energy in the
form of heat, but in the case of a superconductor this will not occur as electricity
will freely flow without any resistance.
MRIs, levitated trains, even the particle accelerator at CERN, are possible due to superconductivity, but as of now those devices depend on one big factor. To create superconductivity in materials such as mercury, lead, indium, and tin, the temperatures must be extremely cold, we are talking about 7 kelvin and lower, and they must be kept at that temperature because once the material starts to heat up it loses it superconductivity properties. Therefore, creating a material that sustains its superconductivity at room temperature has been researched for decades.
The James Webb Space Telescope Has Done It Again
Finally, the one that knocked the socks off (figuratively) of
many physicists in the last few weeks. My boy, once again, the JWST found what
is being classified as the oldest known galaxies thus far. These galaxies date
back to a time when the universe was only 2 percent of its current age, approximately
300 to 500 million years after the big bang.
The discovery was made using faster
photometry-based techniques that essentially use obvious variations in
galaxies’ brightness to estimate their redshift rather than pining down cosmic
coordinates to measure their redshift.
The JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey (JADES) confirmed estimates for the four new galaxies. Of the four, the most distant is one with the name JADES-GS-z13-0. It has a redshift value of 13.2, meaning we are seeing the galaxy as it appeared just 320 million years after the big bang.
While the galaxies don’t yet pose problems for leading
models of cosmology, they suggest galactic formation began earlier and
proceeded faster than expected in the universe, this could revolutionize the
field of cosmology and modification to the theory of the big bang may need to
be made.
Some science popularizers deem this discovery as the beginning
of the end for the theory of the Big Bang, others simply claim that the model
may need to make some adjustments, I think that it is just astounding to see
how much the JWST has contributed to the field of cosmology and astronomy since
its launch. This may create more opportunities for the field of astronomy and cosmology
as more people get interested in learning about the new discoveries the JWST
will continue to bring in the years to come.
When I started this, I did not expect to find this many exciting news so often. People tend to say that science is dead and not many discoveries occur often as the news is constantly bombarded with other kind of news, but I keep finding interesting articles and discoveries every day, and as you see I have only covered the ones related to the field of physics and geology but there are more news in the fields of biology, chemistry and medicine that if I find anything that catches my eyes I will write about it.
To learn more:
- https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.08759
- https://www.quantamagazine.org/room-temperature-superconductor-discovery-meets-with-resistance-20230308/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JADES-GS-z13-0
- https://arxiv.org/abs/2212.04568
- https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/jwsts-newfound-galaxies-are-the-oldest-ever-seen/
- https://www.natureworldnews.com/articles/56052/20230402/ocean-under-the-crust-massive-water-formation-found-beneath-the-planet.htm
- https://www.samaaenglish.tv/news/40031004
