Fourth-year Bachelor of Advanced Science (Honours) student Germain Tobar has been investigating the possibility of time travel, under the supervision of UQ physicist Dr. Fabio Costa. “Classical dynamics says if you know the state of a system at a particular time, this can tell us the entire history of the system,” Mr. Tobar said. “This has a wide range of applications, from allowing us to send rockets to other planets and modeling how fluids flow....

Positive psychological effects associated with taking small doses of psychedelic drugs are likely the result of users’ expectations, suggests a study published in eLife. The study – the largest placebo-controlled trial on psychedelics to date – used an innovative ‘self-blinding citizen science’ approach, where members of the public who were already microdosing implemented their own placebo control following online instructions. The results from the trial may influence future studies in real-world settings....

Scientists studying intermediate to large earthquakes in California have discovered detectable changes in the local magnetic field that occur 2-3 days before an earthquake. A recent study found that the signal of the magnetic field change is faint but statistically significant, and the seismologists hope their technique can be refined to eventually help forecast earthquakes. The research was published recently in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth. “It’s a modest signal,” said Dan Schneider, a co-author of the study....

If you have important guests coming over for dinner, you might set your table with expensive “crystal” glasses. To scientists, however, crystal and glass are actually two very different states that a liquid might assume when cooled. A crystal has a defined three-dimensional lattice structure that repeats indefinitely, while glass is an amorphous solid that lacks long-range ordering. Current theories of glass formation cannot accurately predict which metallic mixtures will “vitrify” to form a glass and which will crystallize....

Diabetes mellitus is a complex disease characterized by the loss or dysfunction of insulin-producing beta cells in the islets of Langerhans, a specialist “micro-organ” in the pancreas that controls systemic blood sugar levels. Diabetes complications, such as chronic high blood sugar, systemic metabolic failure and, in the long-term, multi-organ damage, create enormous medical and social burdens and leads to premature death. Currently no pharmacological treatment can stop or reverse disease progression....

Two different studies published in the journal Nature reveal that cancers can resist destruction by drugs with the help of proteins recruited from surrounding tissues. The cancer-assisting proteins in the stromal tissue that surrounds solid tumors could help explain why some targeted drug therapies rapidly lose their potency. Targeted cancer therapies are tailored to a cancer’s genetic make-up in a patient. They identify mutations that accelerate the growth of cancer cells, and selectively block copies of mutated proteins....

Powerful radio signals that Jupiter generates could be used to help researchers scan its giant moons for oceans that could be home to extraterrestrial life, according to a recent study submitted to the journal Icarus. Jupiter, the largest planet in the Solar System, possesses 67 known moons, including three giant icy moons that might possess liquid oceans underneath their frozen surfaces. Astrobiologists want to investigate Europa, Ganymede and Callisto for extraterrestrial life, as there is life virtually wherever there is liquid water on Earth....

Study in red-haired mice uncovers mechanisms involved and suggests new treatment strategies for pain. New research led by investigators at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) provides insights on why people with red hair exhibit altered sensitivity to certain kinds of pain. The findings are published in Science Advances. In people with red hair (as in numerous other species of animals with red fur), the pigment-producing cells of the skin–called melanocytes–contain a variant form of the melanocortin 1 receptor....

The invention led by the University of Bristol, revealed today in the journal Science Advances, has the potential to serve millions of users, is understood to be the largest-ever quantum network of its kind, and could be used to secure people’s online communication, particularly in these internet-led times accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. By deploying a new technique, harnessing the simple laws of physics, it can make messages completely safe from interception while also overcoming major challenges that have previously limited advances in this little used but much-hyped technology....

Orion is the only spacecraft capable of carrying humans from Earth on Artemis missions to deep space and bringing them back to Earth from the vicinity of the Moon. More than just a crew module, Orion has a launch abort system to keep astronauts safe if an emergency happens during launch, and a European-built service module that is the powerhouse that fuels and propels Orion and keeps astronauts alive with water, oxygen, power, and temperature control, as well as a heat shield that can handle high-speed returns from deep space....

Strikingly, some individuals can make it through this period without gaining any weight — we all know these people who can eat what they want but do not appear to gain weight. A consortium of international researchers including scientists from IMBA, the University of British Columbia, Medical University of Vienna, and the Estonian Biobank have now taken a unique approach: thus far, the regulation of fat metabolism has mainly focused on finding genes linked to obesity....

The DNA sequences produced are also called oligonucleotides. These are widely used for disease identification, for the manufacture of oligonucleotide-based drugs, and for several other medical and biotechnological applications. The high demand for oligonucleotides therefore requires an efficient automated method for their chemical production. This process relies on phosphoramidites, which are chemical compounds that have the disadvantage of being unstable unless stored at the ideal -20 degrees Celsius. Instruments used for DNA synthesis are not able to cool down the phosphoramidites, and consequently it is unavoidable that some of them degrade after being added to the instrument....

Actin is one of the most common molecules in a cell and a key component of the cell skeleton, which is why cell biologists are particularly interested in it. In our lifetime, we produce more than 100 kilograms of actin. It is present in large amounts in all cell types and has a variety of functions, including giving cells structure and making them firmer, playing a key role in cell division, propelling cells forward, and giving our muscles strength....

Periodic pattern consisting of magnons is formed at room temperature. A team of researchers has succeeded in creating a micrometer-sized space-time crystal consisting of magnons at room temperature. With the help of an ultra-precise X-ray microscope, they were able to capture the recurring periodic magnetization structure in a movie. A space time crystal formed by magnons filmed with the scanning transmission X-ray microscope Maxymus. A German-Polish research team has succeeded in creating a micrometer-sized space-time crystal consisting of magnons at room temperature....

Cracks in the desert floor appear random to the untrained eye, even beautifully so, but the mathematics governing patterns of dried clay turn out to be predictable — and useful in designing advanced materials. In a pair of new studies from Princeton University, researchers found that in a large class of common materials, including clay and human skin, individual grains of the material shrink as they dry. The amount and speed of shrinkability vary with the material’s physical properties....

When Sierra Simpson was in college, she was sick for a year with recurring fevers and vomiting. Her doctors couldn’t figure out what she had. Suspecting a bacterial infection, they tried treating her with high doses of antibiotics. “It turned out I had malaria and needed a different treatment,” Simpson said. “But by then the antibiotics had messed with my stomach and I felt more anxious than I had before....

Caecilians are peculiar creatures, being nearly blind and using a combination of facial tentacles and slime to navigate their underground tunnels. “These animals produce two types of secretions–one is found mostly in the tail that is poisonous, while the head produces a mucus to help with crawling through the earth,” says senior author Carlos Jared, a biologist and Director of the Structural Biology Lab at the Butantan Institute in São Paulo....

Stroke is the fourth leading cause of death and a common cause of long-term disability in the United States, but doctors have very few proven treatment methods. Now a new device that mechanically removes stroke-causing clots from the brain is being hailed as a game-changer. In a recent clinical trial, the SOLITAIRE Flow Restoration Device dramatically outperformed the standard mechanical treatment. Findings from the trial, called SOLITAIRE With the Intention for Thrombectomy (SWIFT), are published online today in the journal The Lancet and will also appear in a later print edition of the journal....

The grand green-and-orange delta filling most of the image is a faraway nebula or a cloud of gas and dust in space. Though the cloud may appear to flow from the bright white spot at its tip, it is actually what remains of a much larger cloud that has been carved away by radiation from stars. The bright region is illuminated by massive stars, belonging to a cluster that extends above the white spot....

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