Reconstruction of a Lokiceratops in the 78 million year old swamps of northern Montana, while two Probrachylophosaurus pass by in the background. Photo credit: Fabrizio Lavezzi
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Reconstruction of a Lokiceratops in the 78 million year old swamps of northern Montana, while two Probrachylophosaurus pass by in the background. Photo credit: Fabrizio Lavezzi
What did scientists do this week? Exactly four things, all summarized below.
“This cute baby can hold 4.3 million suns”
Supermassive black holes: How do they get so big? This simple question is much more complicated than it sounds. The science is grueling. But an international team of astronomers may have found an answer. In the relatively nearby galaxy ESO320-G030, which surrounds a supermassive black hole, they discovered a strong, rotating magnetic wind.
They chose this galaxy for their observation because it is highly active, with new stars forming ten times faster than in our own galaxy. It is also very luminous in the infrared, allowing details in the center of the galaxy to be seen that would otherwise be obscured by visible light and dust clouds.
Using ALMA, they peered through the surrounding dust and magnified the dense gas around the black hole. They were able to see patterns in the gas that strongly suggest the existence of a rotating, magnetized wind. Unlike other types of wind and jets that tend to blow matter away from supermassive black holes, the magnetic wind can feed matter into the black hole, making it larger over time. The researchers say the process is analogous to the way baby stars accumulate matter, but on a much larger scale.
League of Microbial Temperance
Binge drinking is generally defined as consuming a large amount of alcohol in a short period of time, resulting in a blood alcohol content of 0.08% or more. Binge drinking poses short-term health risks, but also carries an increased risk of alcohol abuse later in life. Although young people have reported a decline in illicit drug and alcohol use in recent years, researchers find that many young people engage in binge drinking on a regular basis.
Currently, support for alcohol use disorder is provided primarily through interventions such as therapy and peer-led support groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous, as few approved medications are available; researchers are interested in developing new and more effective pharmaceutical treatments.
A team from the University of Connecticut School of Medicine reports that binge drinkers have different gut microbiota patterns than nondrinkers; their gut microorganisms also produce a different mix of short-chain fatty acids associated with the fermentation of undigested fiber and protein. They hypothesized that the microbiome might influence drinking behavior.
Using mice bred to drink excessively, the researchers investigated whether changes in diet could affect drinking behavior. The mice were allowed to drink alcohol for four nights and were fed various types of short-chain fatty acids for ten days during the experiment. The researchers found that increasing the amount of valeric acid in the diet led to a 40 percent reduction in alcohol consumption in the genetically modified mice.
“There are likely multiple mechanisms at play in how valerate reduces drinking,” says Yanjiao Zhou, a microbiome researcher at the UConn School of Medicine. “But the influence of this microbial metabolite on brain epigenetics may be very powerful in regulating drinking behavior.”
When 3.14 is not good enough
A team of researchers at the Indian Institute of Science modeling high-energy particle interactions accidentally discovered a new series representation for Pi. Because these interactions involve so many parameters, one of the researchers was tasked with optimizing it. Using the Feynman diagram, a mathematical representation of energy exchange during particle interaction and scattering, and the Euler beta function, they managed to optimize their model of particle interactions, but also create a new series representation of Pi that combines certain parameters, allowing researchers to quickly determine the value of Pi, which can then be included in calculations.
“Our initial efforts were not aimed at finding a way to look at pi. We were simply studying high-energy physics in quantum theory and trying to develop a model with fewer and more precise parameters to understand how particles interact. We were excited when we found a new way to look at pi,” says Aninda Sinha, professor at the Center for High Energy Physics.
New dinosaur just released
A multidisciplinary team of paleontologists reports the discovery of a new herbivorous dinosaur in northern Montana with a spectacular, frilled arrangement of horns reminiscent of the headdress of the trickster god Loki from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And since the specimen is now kept in Denmark, the researchers named it Lokiceratops rangiformis. The fossilized bones were discovered in 2019, three kilometers south of the Canadian border.
After Colorado State University researcher Joseph Sertich and University of Utah professor Mark Loewen pieced together the skull fragments, they realized they had discovered a new species. Lokiceratops lived about 78 million years ago; remains of four other species have been found in the same rock layer, suggesting they all lived at the same time. They estimated that Lokiceratops was 22 feet long and weighed 11,000 pounds, making it the largest of the centrosaurine hornosaurs in North America.
“This new dinosaur pushes new boundaries in bizarre headgear for ceratopsians, featuring the largest frill horns ever seen on a ceratopsian,” Sertich said.
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