The "random fireworks" in the universe are so beautiful, FAST will help you see them｜Expo Daily

The " random fireworks " in the universe are so beautiful , FAST will show them for you

The team led by Li Di, chief scientist of the National Astronomical Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences' "China Sky Eye" (FAST), has made important progress in the study of fast radio bursts. They proposed a new method to comprehensively analyze the behavior of active fast radio bursts in the time-energy phase space.

Fast radio bursts are one of the most violent explosion phenomena in the radio band in the universe. The energy released in a very short period of time is huge, enough to drive human society for trillions of years. The signals of these bursts can travel across most of the universe and be captured by radio telescopes on Earth. Although the discovery of fast radio bursts provides an excellent experimental field for exploring the extreme environment of the universe and verifying physical theories, their search for periods from milliseconds to seconds has not been successful, which has caused researchers to begin to reconsider their emission methods.

Zhang Yongkun, a member of Li Di's team, developed the "Pincus-Lyapunov phase diagram" analysis method, which provides a new standard for measuring and comparing the randomness and chaos of different celestial events in the two-dimensional space of time and energy. The study found that fast radio bursts show obvious randomness, while other phenomena such as earthquakes and solar flares show significant chaos. This discovery challenges the popular model that the vibration of the dense star shell triggers fast radio bursts.

With the advancement of technology, radio telescopes such as FAST allow scientists to more accurately capture these "random fireworks" in the universe. This research not only promotes a leap in the understanding of fast radio bursts, but also provides valuable data and new perspectives for future cosmic exploration and physical theory research.

Carbon, where do you come from and where is your home?

Life on our blue planet, from the simplest microorganisms to the most complex higher organisms, cannot do without a key element - carbon. However, when the Earth was first formed, it was actually a "carbon-poor" planet. So where does the abundant carbon on Earth come from?

During the formation of the solar system, the Earth, as an inner planet, was closer to the Sun, and most of its lighter matter was "blown away" by the solar wind. According to the condensation model theory, the carbon content of the Earth at the time of its formation may have been only 140ppm (parts per million), which is obviously far from enough for the birth and development of life.

Scientists have proposed the concept of the "smoke line", which is a boundary that existed in the early days of the solar system and marks whether carbon can be retained on a planet. Before the sun lit up, the solar system was dominated by accumulation, and the smoke line was far away from the original sun, making it difficult for the earth to retain carbon. After the sun lit up, the solar system was dominated by radiation, and the smoke line moved into the orbit of the earth, and carbon began to accumulate on the earth.

So how did the carbon on Earth become so abundant? Research by Professor Jie Li and her team at the University of Michigan shows that most of the carbon on Earth is likely inherited directly from the interstellar medium. Within the first million years of the formation of the solar system, a series of asteroids transported water and carbon from farther away than the "smoke line" to Earth. The impact of these asteroids not only brought disasters, but also brought the basic elements of life to Earth - water and carbon.

The Hadean Eon, the first geological era when the Earth was formed, was full of meteorite impacts. However, it was these "uninvited guests" that brought us carbon and water.

It can glow even without being plugged in, what a black technology!

Wearing clothes made of luminous fibers, you will be the brightest person on the street. However, traditional luminous fibers are always inseparable from chips and batteries, which makes the corresponding textile products larger and heavier, and it is difficult to make them soft and light.

A research team from Donghua University has made a breakthrough in the field of smart fibers. They have developed a new type of smart fiber that can gather electromagnetic energy dissipated in the atmosphere and generate electrical signals, achieving self-luminescence and power generation without relying on external power sources.

This newly developed new type of smart fiber adopts a "non-von Neumann architecture" to integrate energy collection, information perception, signal transmission and other functions into a single fiber. This fiber can be activated by human contact, using the human body as a carrier of energy interaction to convert electromagnetic energy originally dissipated in the atmosphere into electrical signals to achieve light emission and power generation.

The new fiber has a three-layer structure, with the core layer being a fiber antenna that senses alternating electromagnetic fields, the middle layer being a dielectric layer that increases the electromagnetic energy coupling capacity, and the outer layer being a light-emitting layer that is sensitive to electric fields. Due to its low cost and the fact that the processing of fibers and fabrics can be done using mature processes, this new technology has the capacity for mass production.

And its application prospects are very broad. It can be used in daily textiles such as clothing, fabric decoration, etc., and can perform visual sensing and interaction through light emission, and even high-brightness lighting. At the same time, it can also generate unique wireless signals for different postures and movements of the human body, and then wirelessly remotely control electronic products such as smart home appliances.

Fatal asthma caused by a stampede in the bronchial tubes? !

Although asthma is common, its cause remains unclear. Recently, scientists at King's College London have found that asthma is related to a biological process called "cell extrusion".

The human epithelial cells are the cells that build a barrier between the human body and the outside world. Once there are dead cells, loopholes will appear.

In order to prevent holes in the human body, the epithelial tissue increases pressure before a cell dies, squeezing out the dying cell, and other cells squeeze in to fill its place.

During an asthma attack, the bronchial contraction causes excessive pressure on the bronchial epithelial cells, so many cells think they are squeezed out... and then they actively die. A large number of dead cells induce an inflammatory response, producing a large amount of mucus that blocks the bronchi, so... people may be suffocated to death by these dead cells.

The scientists used mouse models to show that many of the hallmarks of an asthma attack—inflammation, mucus secretion, and damage to the airway barrier that protects against infection—are caused by this crowding-out effect in mouse models.

The findings suggest that blocking this process could prevent the damage, inflammation and mucus caused by asthma attacks. So what could stop this cell extrusion? The answer is a compound called gadolinium (gá). In this study, the researchers showed that it works in mice, preventing the excessive extrusion that causes damage and inflammation after an asthma attack. But gadolinium has not been tested in humans and is not considered safe or effective.

What on earth is the Chinese garden penguin?

In the past two years, a strange creature has been frequently circulated on social networks: the Chinese garden penguin. In fact, the so-called Chinese garden penguin refers to a kind of bird: the night heron.

The reason why this bird has such a strange name comes from some pictures widely circulated on the Internet: a night heron mixed in with a group of penguins in a zoo. Their appearances are too similar, and at first glance it is impossible to distinguish which is the penguin and which is the night heron.

The most prominent feature of its appearance is its thick, short neck. When resting, they like to fold their necks and cover them with their neck feathers, making it look like their necks have disappeared. Coupled with its black, white and gray color scheme, which is very similar to that of penguins, it can blend in among a group of penguins without looking out of place.

Not only that, night herons are famous for their love of blending in with penguin groups. The most classic case is at the Hirakawa Zoo in Kagoshima, Japan, where a night heron would blend in with the Humboldt penguin group on time every day to eat and drink.

The night heron is a member of the large family of Ardeidae. In the eyes of people who are not familiar with birds, the night heron is considered an unpopular bird rarely seen in the city, but among bird watching enthusiasts, the night heron has long been a highly discussed "Internet celebrity".

The distribution range of night herons is extremely wide, and they are found all over the world except Antarctica. In my country, they can be found almost everywhere except western Tibet, and they mainly live in streams, swamps, shallow lakes and other places.

How did the Internet come into being in China 30 years ago?

While you can enjoy all the conveniences of the Internet, have you ever thought about the source of all this?

On April 20, 1994, a 64K international dedicated line was connected to the Internet from the Computer Network Information Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, realizing the full-function connection between China and the Internet. Since then, China has become the 77th country to truly have a full-function Internet. Building 2 of the Software Park of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has thus become the birthplace of China's Internet...

After nearly 30 years of development, the number of Internet users in my country has reached 1.067 billion, ranking first in the world. The number of ".CN" domain names has ranked first in the world among national top-level domains for many years in a row, and the Internet penetration rate has reached 75.6%.

Over the past 30 years, basic network technologies have supported a wide variety of Internet applications, allowing people to experience the convenience of life brought by the Internet; at the same time, the development of the Internet has also brought the world into the digital age.

The content is compiled from China Science Expo Weibo, Science Academy, China National Geographic, and China Science News

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