KOREA

Severe decline in NICU physicians amid prolonged government-doctor conflict

기자명 Kim Eun-young
Published 2024.09.19 

Physicians who treat critically ill pediatric patients, including high-risk newborns, are rapidly declining in number amid the prolonged government-doctor conflict caused by the push to increase the medical school enrollment quota.

As of June, only seven trainee doctors were left in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs), and specialists had dropped by eight persons from the previous year.

The protracted healthcare crisis has led to the loss of doctors to treat critically ill pediatric patients, including high-risk newborns. (Credit: Getty Images)

According to data submitted to Rep. Park Hee-seung of the Democratic Party of Korea by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, only seven trainee doctors were left in NICUs in June this year.

Only five of the 51 hospitals had trainee pediatricians. They were Jeju National University Hospital, with one trainee doctor, Soon Chun Hyang University Hospital Cheonan (two), Busan St. Mary's Hospital (one), Daegu Fatima Hospital (two), and Hallym University Sacred Heart Hospital (one).

The number of junior doctors working at NICUs has been declining sharply due to the low birthrate and the avoidance of pediatrics. The number of junior pediatricians working at NICUs decreased by 59.8 percent over the past five years, from 122 in 2019 to 111 in 2020, 95 in 2021, 88 in 2022, and 49 in 2023.

Some hospitals have seen a decrease in the number of specialists working in NICUs this year. In June, the number of specialists fell from six to five at Chonnam National University Hospital compared to the same month last year, from four to three at Chungbuk National University Hospital, from four to two at Jeju National University Hospital, from seven to four at Soon Chun Hyang University Cheonan Hospital, and from three to two at Ilsin Christian Hospital.

In contrast, the number of critically ill pediatric patients requiring intensive care in the NICU, including low birth weight babies, premature babies, and multiple births, is on the rise.

The number of births decreased by 24 percent from 302,676 in 2019 to 230,028 last year. However, the share of high-risk newborns, such as those with low birth weight, increased from 19.2 percent of the total in 2019 to 22.9 percent in 2023, with about one in five needing intensive care.

“The ripple effects of the medical crisis caused by the Yoon Suk Yeol administration have spilled over to neonatal care. Newborn children can be at a crossroads between life and death if they don't receive proper treatment in time,” Rep. Park said. “No newborn patient should be left unattended due to a shortage of medical staff.”

AI-Generated Videos Implant False Memories, Distorting Human Recollections

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By Soham Nandi

Reviewed by Joel Scanlon

Sep 18 2024

AI-altered visuals are not just reshaping memories but deeply distorting them, leaving us to question what’s real and what’s fabricated—how much can we trust our minds in an AI-driven world?

Illustration of how AI-edited media can create false memories. The top row depicts a person using AI to enhance an image or video to make it more positive. Over time, the person revisits the image without recalling that it was edited, leading to the development of a false memory of the event. The lower section depicts a situation where AI inadvertently modifies an image, eliminating bystanders from the frame as part of an automatic filter without retaining the original version (a feature already available in Google Photos and other camera apps). Later, when the individual reviews the photograph—potentially related to a crime scene—they develop a false recollection that matches the edited image rather than the actual event, leading to false witness testimony. This figure highlights the impact of AI-generated edits on human memories, demonstrating how subtle changes can distort recollection.

*Important notice: arXiv publishes preliminary scientific reports that are not peer-reviewed and, therefore, should not be regarded as conclusive, guide clinical practice/health-related behavior, or treated as established information.

In an article submitted to the arXiv preprint* server, researchers investigated the effect of artificial intelligence (AI)-altered visuals on the formation of false memories.

In a study with 200 participants, it was found that AI-edited images increased false recollections by 1.67 times, while AI-generated videos of these edited images amplified this effect by 2.05 times, with the videos having the strongest impact.

The paper also explored potential applications in human-computer interaction (HCI) and addressed ethical, legal, and societal concerns associated with AI-driven image manipulation.
Background

Memory-editing technologies have long been a focal point of both science fiction and cognitive psychology. The concept of altering or erasing memories has been explored in films like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Inception.

However, research on false memories—recollections of events that never occurred or are distorted—has been central to psychology due to their potential impact on witness testimony, decision-making, and legal processes.

Early studies, such as Loftus and Palmer's investigation into eyewitness memory, demonstrated how subtle wording changes can alter recollections.

Similarly, the "Lost in the Mall" study revealed that entirely fabricated childhood memories could be implanted in participants. While these experiments advanced understanding, they primarily involved controlled environments with manually manipulated images.

Recent advancements in AI present a new frontier for memory alteration, especially in automating the creation and dissemination of manipulated content.

This study is among the first to provide empirical evidence on how AI-edited images and videos affect memory formation, exploring both the risks and potential therapeutic benefits of AI-assisted memory modification.

The stimulus set consisted of four distinct categories: unedited images, AI-edited images, AI-generated videos from unedited images, and AI-generated videos from AI-edited images. The edits were further divided into three subgroups based on the type of change: People, Objects, and Environment. In the questionnaire, masked versions of the images were used to facilitate recall without revealing the edited features.
Experimental Methodology

The researchers investigated the influence of AI-altered images and videos on the formation of false memories. A total of 200 participants were shown 24 original images, followed by AI-modified versions featuring changes in people, objects, or environments. Participants were then asked to recall specific details from the original images.

The study design simulated real-world scenarios where individuals encounter AI-edited media on platforms like social media, often without awareness of the alterations.

The figure illustrates how AI-generated content can potentially create false memories, particularly through AI-altered videos on social media platforms like TikTok. A recent trend on these platforms involves using AI to animate photos of deceased relatives, creating simulated interactions. These artificial experiences may blur the line between genuine memories and digitally fabricated ones, potentially affecting how people remember their loved ones.

Four experimental conditions were tested, including static AI-edited images and AI-generated videos. Statistical analysis using the Shapiro-Wilk and Kruskal-Wallis tests was employed to assess memory accuracy and confidence levels. Participants’ familiarity with AI filters was also evaluated.

Key findings indicated that exposure to AI-edited media could distort memory, with participants frequently recalling false details. AI-generated videos of AI-edited images not only led to more false memories but also increased participants’ confidence in these inaccuracies by 1.19 times.

The authors also highlighted the risk of false memories in sensitive scenarios, such as AI-edited political content, and explored the impact of AI-generated labels that indicated manipulated media.
Results of Analysis

The primary analysis revealed that AI-edited images significantly distort memory recall, leading to increased false memories and heightened confidence in these inaccuracies. Specifically, AI-edited images induced 1.67 times more false memories than unedited ones, and when these AI-edited images were converted into videos, the number of false memories rose by 2.05 times.

Confidence in false memories was similarly affected, with AI-generated videos of AI-edited images inducing the highest confidence levels. In contrast, no significant differences were observed in uncertain memories across conditions.

Further subgroup analysis based on image content (daily life, news, archival) showed a consistent increase in false memory reports across all categories when exposed to AI-edited images and videos.

Additional exploratory analysis indicated that AI manipulations of people, objects, and environments resulted in varying levels of false memories, with people-related edits producing the highest number of false memories, and environmental edits showing the largest relative increase in memory distortion.
Insights and Implications

AI-edited and generated media significantly impacted memory distortion, leading to false memories that could deeply affect recall and confidence.

Research indicated that participants exposed to AI-altered images and videos were more likely to report inaccurate memories, with environmental changes leading to a 2.2x increase in false memory reports.

Despite labeling AI-edited content, false memories persisted, highlighting the need for more proactive measures. Age influenced susceptibility, with younger individuals being more affected, but skepticism and familiarity with AI offered limited protection.

In legal contexts, AI-induced false memories could influence witness testimony, emphasizing the need for AI detection tools to ensure the integrity of evidence.

AI also posed risks in spreading misinformation by altering public media, potentially affecting societal beliefs and voter opinions.

This figure illustrates the study procedure for our experiment examining how AI-generated images and videos can induce false memories. Participants first viewed original images to establish baseline memories, then were exposed to AI-modified versions after a filler task. These modifications included changes like increased military presence or removed climate change indicators. Finally, participants’ memories of the original images were assessed through a series of questions, allowing researchers to measure the impact of AI-edited visuals on recall accuracy.

To mitigate these risks, the development of robust AI detection tools and media literacy programs is crucial.

Additionally, while AI can be used positively for therapeutic memory reframing and boosting self-esteem, ethical considerations regarding consent and privacy are essential.

Future research should address these issues, exploring long-term effects and developing strategies to counteract AI-induced distortions.
Conclusion

In conclusion, the authors demonstrated that AI-altered media significantly distorted human memory, with AI-generated videos exacerbating this effect.

Participants exposed to AI-edited images and videos were more likely to develop false memories and show high confidence in these inaccuracies, particularly with AI-generated videos.

These findings have critical implications for legal proceedings, public misinformation, and ethical AI applications.

While AI can offer therapeutic benefits, such as reframing traumatic memories, it also poses risks that necessitate stringent regulations and improved detection tools.

Future research should focus on developing interventions and fostering interdisciplinary collaboration to address the challenges of AI-induced memory distortion.

*Important notice: arXiv publishes preliminary scientific reports that are not peer-reviewed and, therefore, should not be regarded as conclusive, guide clinical practice/health-related behavior, or treated as established information.
Journal reference:
Preliminary scientific report. Pataranutaporn, P., Archiwaranguprok, C., Samantha, C., Loftus, E., & Maes, P. (2024). Synthetic Human Memories: AI-Edited Images and Videos Can Implant False Memories and Distort Recollection, ArXiv.org.DOI: 10.48550/arXiv.2409.08895, https://arxiv.org/abs/2409.08895



Written by
Soham Nandi
Soham Nandi is a technical writer based in Memari, India. His academic background is in Computer Science Engineering, specializing in Artificial Intelligence and Machine learning. He has extensive experience in Data Analytics, Machine Learning, and Python. He has worked on group projects that required the implementation of Computer Vision, Image Classification, and App Development.

Traditional infrastructure often makes flooding worse, UMich study shows

by Kate Levy and Alexis Spector

September 18, 2024

Design by Evelyn Mousigian

Ten years ago, a record-breaking rainfall hit southeast Michigan on Aug. 11, resulting in flooding across the region. The catastrophe led to highway closures, power outages, stranded drivers and property damage to more than 100,000 homes, costing $1.8 billion.

Today, University of Michigan researchers have utilized data from the disaster to conduct a study of the U.S. stormwater infrastructure in order to better prepare for future severe weather events. The study, published on Aug. 27, found that decades-old stormwater infrastructure around the United States could be worsening the impacts of flooding during severe weather events.

Researchers also found that historical infrastructure design is not efficient in mitigating flooding. Most of this infrastructure fails to account for flood connectivity — the interplay between flooding mechanisms and drainage pathways in an urban environment. The interactions between different stormwater systems and the movement of water in river channels and pipes are often unanticipated, worsening flood conditions.

Valeriy Ivanov, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University, is an author on the study and contributor to a policy brief on stormwater management. In an interview with The Michigan Daily, he said researchers recognized the need for a holistic approach to stormwater infrastructure design after examining the 2014 flood in southeast Michigan.

“When we looked at the 2014 flood, we noticed that none of the traditionally designed systems for motor infrastructure could have handled the event,” Ivanov said. “What we discovered through that research was that, essentially, there is interaction between different parts of the watershed as the flood is taking place. I think that there is a need to go away from this sort of local thinking or local design solutions. We need to have interactions in a system.”

Ivanov described floods as one of the most economically harmful kinds of natural disasters for a community.

“I think economically or impact- wise, in terms of dollar amount, I think it’s number one of all the natural hazards,” Ivanov said. “Everywhere, actually around the world — not only the United States — floods are the most impactful economic events.”

In an interview with The Daily, Joan Nassauer, professor in the School for Environment and Sustainability, said traditional infrastructure systems need to be updated because many of them were designed for smaller urban environments than they currently serve. Nassauer also said new infrastructure designs should use “green and blue infrastructure,” a term describing the network of natural and semi-natural systems that ultimately enhance the environmental quality of ecosystems.

“That infrastructure was originally designed often for a smaller urban footprint — when cities were smaller — and certainly before climate change,” Nassauer said. “The existing infrastructure needs maintenance and replacement, which is a huge project. I would emphasize that GBI should really be part of the system-wide approach, and that there are particular opportunities to do that in cities that have a higher proportion of open land, either planned open space or opportunities with vacant land.”

Rackham student Yuanqiu Feng, a doctoral student in the School for Environment and Sustainability who studies under Nassauer, explained her perspective on how to mitigate flooding with the current infrastructure in place. Feng said an effective solution would use green infrastructure, which includes landscaping vacant areas with trees to act as windbreaks, absorb atmospheric carbon and increase canopy.

“What I’ve been looking at in my research is green infrastructure — basically can we make use of all that vacant land to store some of that storm water without having to revamp the entire stormwater infrastructure system?” Feng said.

Feng said she believes refurbishing existing infrastructure is an important element of addressing the impacts of flooding.

“Can we make it such that these vacant lots are able to hold some of that stormwater and let it go into the system more slowly rather than overwhelming it in a very short period of time, which is how these problems with sewer flow happen and basement backups and so on?” Feng said.

Ivanov said in light of the study’s findings, infrastructure design must use a more holistic approach.

“We’re still using simplified solutions in design, and these solutions are not necessarily capable of taking a holistic perspective,” Ivanov said. “It is crucial to move to more sophisticated design models.”

Daily Staff Reporters Kate Levy and Alexis Spector can be reached at kjlevy@umich.edu and alexissp@umich.edu.

The memory in seeds: how plants carry environmental clues across generations

18-Sep-2024 

by Chinese Academy of Sciences


Credit: Horticulture Research

Cyclic Manhattan plots of P values for phenotypic plasticity through the whole Arabidopsis genome (composed of five chromosomes represented by distinct colors) calculated by coFunMap.

Phenotypic plasticity enables plants to adjust their physical traits in response to environmental variations, playing a vital role in their survival and adaptability. While past research has primarily focused on how these traits manifest within a single generation, the genetic basis of transgenerational inheritance remains largely unexplored. Addressing this gap is essential to fully understand how plants transmit adaptive traits from one generation to the next.

This research (DOI: 10.1093/hr/uhae172), conducted by teams from Beijing Forestry University and Tsinghua University, was published on June 25, 2024, in Horticulture Research. Utilizing a nested experimental design, the study explored how maternal light conditions influence the phenotypic traits of Arabidopsis thaliana offspring. By integrating ecological and computational methods, the researchers identified critical genetic regions associated with transgenerational phenotypic plasticity, providing fresh insights into plant adaptation mechanisms.

The study implemented a reciprocal experimental design, cultivating recombinant inbred lines (RILs) of Arabidopsis under high- and low-light conditions. Offspring were then grown in both matching and contrasting light environments. This setup allowed researchers to assess the influence of maternal conditions on traits such as leaf number and to understand how these traits are inherited across generations. The findings revealed that the genetic framework of phenotypic plasticity evolves between generations and is significantly impacted by maternal environmental experiences. Specific Quantitative Trait Loci (QTLs) linked to phenotypic plasticity were identified, varying with light conditions and generational context. The study underscored a complex interplay between genetic and epigenetic factors that drive these adaptive responses.

Dr. Rongling Wu, the study’s lead author, noted, “Our research provides a detailed view of how plants inherit adaptive traits across generations through both genetic and non-genetic pathways. Recognizing the complex interactions between maternal environments and offspring traits could pave the way for enhancing plant resilience in the face of climate change.”

This research offers critical insights into plant adaptation strategies, which are invaluable for agriculture and environmental conservation. Understanding the genetic and epigenetic foundations of phenotypic plasticity can help breeders and scientists predict plant responses to future environmental challenges, guiding the development of more resilient crops. The study also enriches our understanding of evolutionary biology, revealing how organisms manage environmental variability across generations.

###

References

DOI

10.1093/hr/uhae172

Original Source URL

https://doi.org/10.1093/hr/uhae172

Funding information

This work is partially supported by special grants of Beijing Forestry University.

About Horticulture Research

Horticulture Research is an open access journal of Nanjing Agricultural University and ranked number one in the Horticulture category of the Journal Citation Reports ™ from Clarivate, 2022. The journal is committed to publishing original research articles, reviews, perspectives, comments, correspondence articles and letters to the editor related to all major horticultural plants and disciplines, including biotechnology, breeding, cellular and molecular biology, evolution, genetics, inter-species interactions, physiology, and the origination and domestication of crops.

 

Rutgers Receives $3.2 Million from NIH to Study Micronanoplastics in the Digestive System

Researchers will look at the potential health hazards of ingested plastic particles on the intestine and other organs and tissues

18-Sep-2024 2:05 PM EDT, by Rutgers University-New Brunswick

Newswise — Rutgers received a $3.2 million dollar grant from the National Institutes of Health to study the impact of micronanoplastics on the digestive system.

The byproduct of environmental and industrial processes, micro- and nano-scale plastic particles and fibers increasingly contaminate the environment. These plastics — now found in our food, air and water — are a potential health hazard.

“This is a concern of epic proportions, especially because we know so little about micronanoplastics’ impact on our health,” said Philip Demokritou, the Henry Rutgers Chair and Professor of Nanoscience and Environmental Bioengineering at Rutgers Health and principal investigator of the project.

With little existing research on micronanoplastics, there is a need for data based on environmentally relevant micronanoplastics and their potential health implications. This five-year NIH-funded project aims to assess the micronanoplastics impact within the human digestive system and other organs, especially for susceptible populations with inflammatory bowel diseases.

Researchers will look at the potential health hazards of ingested micronanoplastics on the intestine and other organs and tissues as well the cellular process behind this. The research also will examine the roles that plastic type and chemistry (e.g., polyethylene, polystyrene, polyethylene terephthalate), size and other properties play in their uptake and toxicity. They also will look at the impact of micronanoplastics on intestinal inflammation.

“We hope that the results of our work will help risk assessors and policy makers assess the risks of micronanoplastics ingestion, provide the basis and rationale for regulatory action and will open new areas of research in toxicology and epidemiology for this emerging and novel pollutant,” said Demokritou, who is the director of the division of environmental health biosciences at the Environmental Occupational Health Sciences Institute (EOHSI) and a professor in the department of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Rutgers School of Engineering and the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health and Justice at the Rutgers School of Public Health and leader of the project.

The grant will support ongoing research activities in micronanoplastics at the EOHSI Nanoscience and Advanced Materials Center, which studies how environmental and engineered nanoparticles interact with biological and environmental systems. It also will expand collaborations across Rutgers and the Rutgers Department of Genetics with Michael Verzi, the Duncan and Nancy MacMillan Chair in Cancer Genomics, a co-principal investigator of the study, and an expert on metabolic diseases in the gastrointestinal tract.

The harder I work, the luckier I get? What coaches, athletes and fans need to understand about luck in sport

by Steven Rynne and Michael John O'Keeffe, 

The Conversation

SEPTEMBER 18, 2024

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

In the world of elite sport, where everything is planned down to the last minute detail, surprisingly few are prepared to acknowledge the inherent role of luck in the outcomes of sporting contests.

It is surprising because luck is a factor that has the potential to affect the outcomes of competition. It can be the difference between a premiership and an early finals exit, or a gold medal and no medal at all.

It is also surprising because the notion of luck is ingrained in so many areas of sport and society—through common actions (fingers crossed, or wearing "lucky socks"), sayings (wishing competitors "good luck"), and religious connections (prayers to various gods of luck or fortune).

Even if athletes, coaches and fans do not want to outwardly acknowledge it, luck is actually part of what makes sport so compelling.

While stronger competitors and teams tend to win, weaker teams or athletes know they still have a chance to snatch victory based on something more than skill alone.

The harder I work, the luckier I get

Presumably, part of the reason that coaches and athletes in particular do not want to outwardly acknowledge the role of luck is that they spend most of their waking hours reducing the possible influence of luck (and increasing the array of things that are perceived as being under their control).

This matches well with the variously-attributed maxim "the harder I work, the luckier I get."

But it's not that simple.

Take injuries for example. Coaches and sport scientists use a variety of training and recovery activities to prepare athletes for the rigors of competition.

But as elite athletes push their bodies to the limits, they are more susceptible to injuries.

The timing and severity of injuries can drastically alter careers and seasons.

A key player getting injured before a crucial match can shift the balance of power—cricket fans will never forget Australian bowler Glenn McGrath rolling his ankle on a stray cricket ball in a pre-game warmup, which affected the outcome of the 2005 Ashes series.

Similarly, avoiding injuries can be seen as fortunate for those who manage to stay fit. Take former NRL champion Cameron Smith, the only player to have surpassed the 400-game milestone.

Life's great lottery: Birth

Despite often having similar training regimes, some athletes in the same sports seem to be more or less lucky than their compatriots.

This can be partly attributed to the luck involved in life's great lottery—birth.

There is great evidence supporting the advantages in sport that come with having lucky genetics.

Think about Simone Biles' height and power, having a lucky birth date (known as the relative age effect), birthplace (the birthplace effect), and other fortunate circumstances (socio-economic status or sibling order).

External unpredictability

Luck also exists beyond the individual and their circumstances.

For example, unpredictability in physical environments, such as rain delaying matches, wind affecting ball trajectories and extreme temperatures impacting player performance.

Athletes and teams often have little control over these conditions, and a result can sometimes come down to a matter of luck—a ball bouncing one way and not the other, or a gust of wind for one player and not their rival.

The postponement of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games is a terrific example of this.

An injured or young competitor who was able to make the 2021 event may have considered the delay a fortunate circumstance. But an older athlete who didn't have the capacity to stretch out their career for an additional year may have been very unlucky.

Getting 'lady luck' on your side

In elite sports, the difference in skill between contestants can be razor thin—it is the best of the best.

The subsequent suggestion is that luck therefore has the potential to play an increasingly important role.

This significant and under-appreciated role of luck poses a number of challenges for coaches.

Because it's almost impossible for an athlete to train to develop luck like they develop a skill or physical attribute, coaches tend to focus on:

Foregrounding process and backgrounding outcome: The importance of outcomes in elite sport is unquestionable.

However, quality coaches emphasize the processes that are most likely to lead to a positive outcome, rather than focusing on the outcome itself.

Even more specifically, the best coaches concentrate their attention (and that of their players) on the things they have most influence over, such as skills, preparation, and decision-making, rather than things they do not (like a coin toss, random bounces and deflections, poorly timed injuries or equipment failures).

Training and recovery: Coaches plan for high level training that accounts for as many performance factors as possible, including biophysical (physical capacities of the athlete) and psychosocial (knowing themselves and working with others).

They also try to fully leverage certain inherent forms of luck such as capitalizing on genetics through talent identification and training.

Avoiding overtraining is another approach that coaches take to reduce the chances of bad luck through injuries.

Train for unpredictability: As well as generally emphasizing quality repetitions for their athletes in training, contemporary coaches also regularly introduce variable practices, scenario-based disruptions, and natural variations in the physical environment.

This not only provides players with opportunities to practice their core skills, it gives them opportunities to practice responding in positive ways to good luck ("seize the moment") and bad luck (refocusing after freak occurrences).

Balancing planning with instinct: Coaches work with their athletes to develop comprehensive game plans and a variety of contingency plans for competition.

However, coaches will also often support their athletes to deviate from these established plans to "roll the dice" when appropriate. This typically involves coaches giving their players license to take calculated risks (such as taking a long-range shot from a difficult angle in soccer) when certain circumstances arise.

There's no escaping luck in sports

While skill and preparation are indispensable, the role of luck in elite sports is undeniable.

From Steven Bradbury's serendipity at the 2002 Winter Olympics to St Kilda's unfavorable bounce at the end of the drawn AFL grand final in 2010, luck has almost certainly impacted all athletes at some stage of their careers.

Luck adds an element of unpredictability, makes sports thrilling and, at times, heartbreakingly capricious.

Provided by The Conversation 

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

New models may help coaches improve throwing athletes' performance

SPACE

Earth May Have Once Had a Saturn-Like Ring, New Study Says

Researchers believe an asteroid broke up while passing by Earth, creating the ring.

Joe Hindy

Sept. 18, 2024 

CNET

The planet Saturn is shown in a digitally improved NASA image.

Roberto Machado Noa/Getty Images

Saturn sports some of the coolest bling of any planet in our solar system. Its nine rings, which are mainly comprised of dust, rock and ice, have been the subject of scientific research for years. While Saturn's rings are the best known, Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune also have rings. And now, a new study published in the scientific journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters seems to show that Earth itself once had a similar ring.

The new study asserts that Earth's ring formed around 466 million years ago and stuck around for around 40 million years before dissipating. Researchers say that the existence of such a ring would help solve several puzzles from Earth's past and that much of the data they collected supports its existence.

The study starts with a period in history when things were rather tumultuous. Around 466 million years ago, scientists have found evidence that Earth suffered a veritable shower of meteors, and the meteorite impacts caused tsunamis, craters and other mayhem during that period. In particular, 21 high-impact meteorite craters were found to have occurred during that time.

Scientists used models of how Earth's tectonic plates have moved over that time to pinpoint where those impacts initially took place and found that all 21 impacts occurred close to the equator. This is odd, since meteorites can hit anywhere on the Earth's surface and seeing them all occurring around the same latitude on Earth with impacts around the same period would be an exceptional coincidence.

This led the researchers to propose that Earth once had its own ring, and that ring showered debris onto the Earth's surface, which would account for the patterns.

Earth may have destroyed and eaten an asteroid

The researchers believe that Earth's possible ring was generated by an asteroid that got a little too close for comfort. When something small like an asteroid comes too close to something larger, like Earth, it becomes stretched by gravity and falls apart. The theory purports that an asteroid came within Earth's Roche limit -- the distance at which the asteroid would fall apart due to Earth's gravity -- broke apart, and the remnants formed a ring that gradually rained down on Earth for tens of millions of years.

It's not a farfetched theory given that asteroids come pretty close to Earth all the time, and some even stick around for a bit as a second moon.

"So if Earth destroyed and captured a passing asteroid around 466 million years ago, it would explain the anomalous locations of the impact craters, the meteorite debris in sedimentary rocks, craters and tsunamis and the meteorites' relatively brief exposure to space radiation," said Andrew Tomkins, the study's lead researcher.

Tomkins and fellow researchers Erin Martin and Peter Cawood posit that a ring of debris around Earth would solve a few puzzles about Earth's past, including the aforementioned meteorite craters and tsunamis. The team is also exploring the idea that the ring shaded Earth from the sun, contributing to the intense amount of global cooling that caused the Hirnantian Ice Age, which was one of the coldest periods in Earth's history.

2nd Kuiper Belt? Our solar system may be much larger than thought

By Keith Cooper 

Space.com 

SEPTEMBER 18, 2024

Eleven objects found at the extremities of the solar system could mark the location of a 'Kuiper Belt 2.'

An illustration of the Kuiper Belt. (Image credit: NASA/SOFIA/Lynette Cook)

A brand-new group of frozen objects, orbiting the sun out beyond the distant Kuiper Belt, has been spotted by the Subaru telescope, working with NASA's New Horizons mission to find new targets for the spacecraft to investigate.

"If this is confirmed, it would be a major discovery," said Fumi Yoshida, from the University of Occupational and Environmental Health Sciences and the Planetary Exploration Research Center, Chiba Institute of Technology, in a statement.

Subaru, which is an 8-meter (26-foot) telescope atop Mauna Kea in Hawaii, has been working with New Horizons since its 2006 launch toward Pluto, which the spacecraft flew by in 2015. Since then, New Horizons has been blazing a trail through the Kuiper Belt, which is a ring-shaped region of icy cometary bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune at distances between 33 and 55 astronomical units (AU). An astronomical unit is equivalent to Earth's average distance from the sun, which is 149.6 million kilometers (93 million miles).

When Subaru began searching for Kuiper Belt objects in 2004 as potential targets for New Horizons to either visit up close or to watch with its cameras from a distance after encountering Pluto, the telescope was faced with a problem. At the time, Pluto and the area of the outer solar system to which New Horizons was headed was in the constellation of Sagittarius, which has the dense center of the Milky Way as a backdrop, making it hard to pick out Kuiper Belt objects from all the background stars. At the time, Subaru identified just 24 Kuiper Belt objects, all of which were too far away for New Horizons to reach or view with its cameras after leaving Pluto. (Arrokoth, a Kuiper Belt object that New Horizons visited on New Years' Day 2019, was found by the Hubble Space Telescope.)

Related: What is the Kuiper Belt?

Now, however, Pluto and that part of the solar system has moved away from the backdrop of the Milky Way into a sparser region of the night sky. With its Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC), Subaru has discovered 239 Kuiper Belt objects since 2020. Most of these are regular Kuiper Belt objects, but a smattering seem to be very special indeed.

"The most exciting part of the HSC was the discovery of 11 objects at distances beyond the known Kuiper Belt," said Yoshida.

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This new group of objects isn't a mere extension of the Kuiper Belt. There appears to be a gap between 55 AU and 70 AU where no objects have yet been found, and then a second belt — let's call it "Kuiper Belt 2" — between 70 and 90 AU, which is as far out as 13.5 billion kilometers (8.4 billion miles) from the sun. For comparison, Neptune lies at 30 AU and New Horizons is currently 60 AU from the sun, while NASA's Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 probes are 164.7 and 137.6 AU from the sun, respectively — out in interstellar space.

Related: Solar system planets, order and formation: The ultimate guide





A graph that shows the number of Kuiper Belt objects versus their distance from the sun. The 11 new objects seem to form a second Kuiper Belt, with a gap between 55 and 70 AU. (Image credit: Wesley Fraser)

The architecture of the solar system, including the asteroid belt and the Kuiper Belt, was determined by the processes that formed the planets, including how the young Jupiter migrated through the system, scattering smaller bodies far and wide.

"I think the discovery of distant objects and the determination of their orbital distribution are important as a stepping stone to understanding the formation history of the solar system, comparing it with exoplanetary systems, and understanding universal planet formation," said Yoshida.

The discovery of this new population of bodies is not entirely out of the blue. The Student Dust Counter instrument on board New Horizons keeps detecting impacts from dust particles, though the rate of impacts should be decreasing as New Horizons departs the Kuiper Belt. The continued presence of dust suggests that it is being produced by a population of bodies farther out. In addition, New Horizons has witnessed unexplained stellar occultations — when an object passes in front of and briefly blocks the light of a distant star — that could be the product of objects in this newly discovered, more distant 'Kuiper Belt 2.'

Furthermore, observations of protoplanetary disks around other stars, such as those seen by ALMA, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array in Chile, clearly show extended regions and numerous belts and gaps in the region beyond where the Kuiper Belt is in our solar system.

"Our solar system's Kuiper Belt long appeared to be very small in comparison with many other planetary systems, but our results suggest that idea might just have arisen due to an observational bias," said Wes Fraser of the National Research Council of Canada, who led the new findings. "So maybe, if this result is confirmed, our Kuiper Belt isn't all that small and unusual after all compared to those around other stars."

Because the Kuiper Belt had seemed small, one theory had been that the solar nebula that formed our planetary system had also been smaller than normal. The discovery of this Kuiper Belt 2 suggests that was not necessarily the case.

"The primordial solar nebula was much larger than previously thought, and this may have implications for studying the planet formation process in our solar system," said Yoshida.

RELATED STORIES:

— Our solar system map may need an update — the Kuiper belt could be way bigger

— What cosmic object 'Arrokoth' can tell us about our solar system's formation

— Could an 'Earth-like' planet be hiding in our solar system's outer reaches?

Astronomers will continue to use Subaru to track the 11 objects in this new belt to better define their orbits. Given they were found in a small region of space, they probably are only the tip of the iceberg and hint at a much larger population. Their discovery is further evidence that there is still much to be discovered in the extreme depths of the outer solar system, including the possibility of more dwarf planets and even the hypothesized Planet Nine.

"This is a groundbreaking discovery revealing something unexpected, new and exciting in the distant reaches of the solar system," said Alan Stern, who is the principal investigator on the New Horizons mission. "This discovery probably would not have been possible without the world-class capabilities of the Subaru Observatory."

The findings are set to be published in the Planetary Science Journal, and are currently available as a preprint.
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Keith Cooper
Contributing writer
Keith Cooper is a freelance science journalist and editor in the United Kingdom, and has a degree in physics and astrophysics from the University of Manchester. He's the author of "The Contact Paradox: Challenging Our Assumptions in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence" (Bloomsbury Sigma, 2020) and has written articles on astronomy, space, physics and astrobiology for a multitude of magazines and websites.

 

Artemis I mission data show astronauts sent to the moon aboard Orion will be protected from radiation

Artemis I instruments and radiation environments. Credit: Nature (2024). 

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-07927-7

According to a large team of technical and health specialists, astronauts aboard the Orion spacecraft will be well protected from radiation when the Artemis II mission travels to the moon and back next year.

In their study published in the journal Nature, the group analyzed data collected from sensors inside and outside the Orion spacecraft as it made two moon flybys in 2022. They also studied data from sensors on the spacesuits worn by two dummies that went along for the ride.

NASA plans to send four astronauts to the moon next year as part of the Artemis II mission. The astronauts will be carried to the moon in the Orion spacecraft, where they will conduct a flyby before returning to Earth.

For this new study, the research team studied data from the Artemis I mission, which conducted a similar trip with dummies instead of human astronauts. The purpose of the mission was to establish the viability and safety of sending humans back to the moon, and one of the safety issues under study was exposure to radiation, both from the sun and from extrasolar sources.

To learn more about the amount of radiation striking astronauts traveling to the moon and back, the builders of the Orion spacecraft added radiation sensors to several sites on both its exterior and interior. The spacesuit designers did the same and even gave one of the dummies that traveled to the moon and back a special protective vest.

The researchers analyzed the data from all the sensors to learn more about the amount of radiation exposure future astronauts aboard Orion will experience. They found that the design of the spacecraft more than meets safety levels for future missions.

They also identified ways to minimize exposure. Turning the spacecraft to a certain position as it passes through the Van Allen belt could reduce exposure by approximately 50%.

They also noted that there were large differences in the amount of exposure in different parts of the space capsule. The most protected areas received four times less radiation than the least protected areas. Therefore, the astronauts could be protected during the most severe solar events simply by directing them to the most well-protected parts of the ship.

More information: Stuart P. George et al, Space radiation measurements during the Artemis I lunar mission, Nature (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-07927-7

Journal information: Nature 

© 2024 Science X NetworkStarship Super Heavy breezes through wind tunnel testing at NASA Ames

An innovative system for seeing into the bowels of a volcano

by CNRS

 SEPTEMBER 18, 2024

(a) 3D view of the volcano obtained by confocal migration of the reflection matrix. The image obtained is blurred by distortions of seismic waves caused by the volcano’s heterogeneities. (b) Matrix imaging of the volcano obtained via adaptive focusing laws compensating for its heterogeneities. The image reveals La Soufrière’s tortuous conduit to a depth of 5 km. Beyond that, a magma storage zone was identified with a complex array of horizontal magma lenses connected to one another. Credit: Elsa Giraudat

A team of researchers from the CNRS and the Paris Institute of Planetary Physics has developed an innovative imaging method that can probe the bowels of a volcano with unparalleled resolution and depth. This new method is based on the deployment of a network of geophones that capture not only the powerful shaking of earthquakes, but also the seismic noise caused by wind, the ocean, and human activity.

Their study was conducted on La Soufrière volcano in Guadeloupe, and provided a 3D view of its internal structure to a depth of 10 kilometers, with a precision on the order of 100 meters. It confirmed the existence, in the depths beneath La Soufrière, of a large magma storage zone structured by a network of interconnected magma pockets.

This imaging tool can be applied to any geophone network and could record volcanic activity much more thoroughly, thereby providing greater anticipation of volcanic eruptions throughout the world.

The study recently appeared in the journal Communications Earth & Environment.

More information: Elsa Giraudat et al, Matrix imaging as a tool for high-resolution monitoring of deep volcanic plumbing systems with seismic noise, Communications Earth & Environment (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s43247-024-01659-2

Journal information: Communications Earth & Environment 

Provided by CNRS Crystals hold a secret history of volcanoes—and clues about future eruptions

Tropical cyclone intensity exacerbated by increasing depth of ocean mixed layer, finds study

by Hannah Bird , Phys.org

Simulated sea surface temperature changes and upper ocean currents after 72 hours

since tropical cyclone initiation according to ocean mixed layer depth: 2 m (a), 5 m (b), 

10 m (c), 15 m (d), 20 m (e), 50 m (f) and 100 m (g).

Credit: Zhang et al. 2024.

Tropical cyclones can have severe consequences for both the marine and terrestrial environments, as well as the organisms and communities who inhabit them. In the oceans, there can be alterations in sea surface temperature that disrupt biological processes and hospitable conditions for life, the devastation of surface algae and other primary producers, which impacts complex marine food chains, as well as damaging coral reefs. Meanwhile, on land, the heavy rainfall, strong winds and storm surges can lead to significant damage to property and infrastructure, as well as loss of lives.

These natural phenomena are powered by warm surface waters, as the rising water vapor causes condensation of water droplets, and thus cloud formation and rain. This releases heat, warming the atmosphere further and causing the air to continue to rise, bringing in cooler air towards the base, which we experience as strong winds. Consequently, as tropical cyclones move over land they lose this initial energy source and eventually dissipate.

Therefore, the surface layer of the ocean is particularly important. Recent research published in Frontiers in Marine Science has investigated how the depth of the mixed layer (the deepest layer affected by surface turbulence and separating cooler ocean depths from atmospheric interactions) impacts ocean temperatures, and subsequently tropical cyclone formation.

To do so, Yalan Zhang, of China's National University of Defense Technology, and colleagues used models to simulate different ocean mixed layer depth (2 m, 5 m, 10 m, 15 m, 20 m, 50 m and 100 m) influences on tropical cyclones in the western North Pacific over four days, in both one and three dimensions. The former model type focuses mostly on the influence of depth, while the latter incorporates heat, salinity and water mass movement (for example, upwelling).

Tropical cyclone destructive potential (PDS) increase according to seven experimental ocean mixed layer depths. Credit: Zhang et al. 2024.

The researchers found that ocean mixed layer depth only has a small influence on the track the tropical cyclone takes, with slower translation speeds resulting from shallower ocean mixed layer depth moving the center of the tropical storm. However, they discovered a greater impact on the size and intensity of the event, reaching its peak 72 to 84 hours after initiation.

Importantly, this is only the case up to 15 m water depth, after which the ocean mixed layer depth prior to the tropical cyclone has marginal influence on the destructiveness of the event. The destructive potential increased 325.2% when the ocean mixed layer depth reached 5 m, reducing to 50% at 15 m and below 15% at depths thereafter.

This is because surface winds bring cold water from below the ocean mixed layer depth when it is shallower than 15 m, which decreases the temperature of the upper ocean. In fact, the scientists suggest 75% to 90% of sea surface cooling can be attributed to turbulence from wind-induced vertical shear (the change in wind speed and direction with altitude).

However, as the ocean mixed layer depth increases beyond this threshold point of 15 m, the effect of surface winds on sea surface temperature cooling is reduced, leading to increasing surface temperatures below the tropical cyclones, therefore fueling their development.

Furthermore, the passage of multiple tropical cyclones through the same area can cause the ocean mixed layer depth to deepen, which may reduce their future activity in that region, though the timescales between events to allow this are still being studied.

This research is significant, as global warming is likely to exacerbate tropical cyclone occurrences due to rising sea surface temperatures, so the role of ocean mixed layer depth in modulating these is paramount to understanding these phenomena of the marine realm and allowing populations to mitigate against their devastation in vulnerable regions.

More information: Yalan Zhang et al, Impact of ocean mixed layer depth on tropical cyclone characteristics: a numerical investigation, Frontiers in Marine Science (2024). DOI: 10.3389/fmars.2024.1395492

Journal information: Frontiers in Marine Science 

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Tropical Atlantic mixing rewrites climate pattern rules