In a recent study, researchers confirmed the existence of so-called “heavenly diamonds” following they were found at the Earth’s surface, following long-standing discussions regarding the truth of the stone also called “Lonsdalite”, according to CNN.
In this context, the natural chemical process by which scientists believe that the Lonsdalite stone was formed might inspire a way to manufacture ultra-durable industrial components, according to the authors of the study published on September 12, 2022, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, known for its acronym. “PNAS”.
The Lonsdalite stone has a hardness and strength that exceeds those of ordinary diamonds, and this rare mineral arrived here by a meteorite, according to the study.
The discovery began when geologist Andy Tomkins, a professor at Monash University in Australia, was abroad in the field of classification of meteorites. Study co-author Alan Salk, a PhD student and researcher at the Royal Institute of Technology in Melbourne, said he had found a strange type of diamond “bent” in a space rock in northwest Africa.
Salk added that Tomkins theorized that the meteorite carrying Lonsdalite came from the mantle of a dwarf planet that existed regarding 4.5 billion years ago.
With advanced methods and future possibilities, the discovery is exciting, said Paul Acemo, professor of geology and geochemistry at Caltech (he was not involved in the study).
The team was able to analyze the meteorite with the help of electron microscopy and advanced synchrotron techniques, which made maps of the components of the space body, including londesalite, diamond and graphite, according to the study.
Diamonds and Lonsdalites can be formed in three ways; Either during high pressure and temperature over a long period of time, which is what diamonds look like on the surface of the Earth, or the impact of a meteorite impact at high speed, or the release of vapors of fractured graphite that would attach to a small piece of diamond and build on it, he says. Asimo.
He added that the way the mineral is formed can affect its size. While the researchers in this study suggested that the third method constituted the largest sample they found, pointing out that finding the largest sample of Lonsdalite is not just an anomaly from other diamonds.
On the other hand, Salk said that regular diamonds, like the diamonds you see in fine jewelry, are made of carbon and have a cubic atomic structure. He added that Lonsdalite is also made of carbon, but has an unusual hexagonal structure instead.
Salk also noted that researchers have come up with models for the structure of Lonsdalite before, and they have theorized that the hexagonal structure can make it 58% harder than ordinary diamonds.
This hardness might make rare space diamonds a valuable resource for industrial applications if scientists can find a way to use the new production method to produce large enough minerals.
It is noteworthy that scientists discussed the existence of Lonsdalite long before this discovery, as scientists first identified parts of the mineral in 1967, but it was minute – regarding 1 to 2 nanometers, which is a thousand times smaller than what was found in the latest discovery, he said. passable.
Now that scientists know regarding this mineral, the discovery raises the question of whether they can replicate it.
Tag:
discovery
Discover a new way to stop the growth of the most dangerous types of cancer
written by Alexandra Hartman Editor-in-Chief
Al-Marsad Newspaper: Scientists have come up with a new way to stop the growth of melanoma, the most dangerous type of skin cancer, which arises in melanocytes, which produce the pigment melanin, which gives the skin its color. And scientists from America have shown for the first time that inhibiting a key metabolic enzyme “promises” in killing cancerous skin cells and stopping tumor growth, according to what was published in the journal Nature Cell Biology.
Study leader Professor Zeev Ronai, director of the Sanford Burnham Prebys Cancer Center for Medical Discovery, explained that melanoma cannot survive and grow without an enzyme called GCDH, which plays a key role in amino acid metabolism. Professor Rooney explained that inhibiting GCDH leads to a structural change in another protein called NRF2, which then acquires the ability to suppress cancer cells.
“Our goal now is to find a drug, or drug, that limits the activity of GCDH,” he said, as it has been found to be extremely important for cancer cells for energy and growth.
Dr Sachin Verma, one of the study’s authors, added: “Melanoma cells eat lysine and tryptophan, two types of amino acids essential for human health, which are eaten by cancer cells to produce energy.”
And he added: “However, harnessing the energy from this pathway requires cancer cells to quench the toxic waste generated during this process.” Further experiments found that inhibition of GCDH in an animal model conferred NRF2-inhibiting properties.
Professor Ronai’s team is now working with scientists at the Konrad Priebes Center for Chemical Genomics at Sanford Burnham Priebes to identify small molecule GCDH inhibitors that might be the starting point for future skin cancer therapies.
The Ghost Galaxy looked its most beautiful thanks to the James Webb Telescope
written by Alexandra Hartman Editor-in-Chief
Posted in: 01/09/2022 – 17:58
Scientific Bulletin titles: Anatomy discovers a new additional artery in the human forearm – the ghost galaxy looked the most beautiful thanks to the James Webb telescope – a remote area in South America where a new type of bird appeared
During autopsies, it was increasingly found that many adult humans had three arteries in their forearms instead of two. To what does this physiological characteristic belong?
In the list of oddities of human evolution, we notice the disappearance of wisdom teeth, a decrease in bone density, and the body temperature tends to decrease to settle on average at the edge of 36.6 degrees Celsius.
But the other physiological change that occurred in some people is that their forearms have three arteries instead of two. Thirty percent of people born at the end of the twentieth century had an extra artery in their forearms, compared to only 10% of people who, by 1880, had a third artery in their forearms. This was disclosed by an Australian study, the results of which were published in the Journal of Anatomy. Three arteries in the forearm may become normal in 2100, according to the Australian study.
Normally, the extra vessel in the forearm is in principle temporary and its role is to supply blood to the fetus’s arm and hand. The third artery in the forearm retracts in favor of the other two and eventually disappears even before the newborn is born. The authors of the Australian study were unable to find a logical explanation for the phenomenon of survival of the third artery in the forearm, which is nothing but evidence that human evolution can act in a blind way.
The James Webb Space Telescope has captured new details of the spiral “Fantôme” galaxy in stunning images published by the European and American space agencies.
Since its launch into space in late 2021 and its practical entry into service last July, the James Webb Telescope has provided a wealth of unprecedented data to scientists, by revealing images of Jupiter and a number of nebulae and other distant galaxies.
In the latest harvest of the James Webb Telescope, we learned new details regarding Messier 74, the so-called Fantôme Galaxy, a galaxy 32 million light-years away from Earth. In the new image of the Ghost Galaxy provided by the mid-infrared study MIRI instrument, a vortex appears with a blue circle in the center. The telescope also helped to show minute filaments of gas and dust in the bright spiral arms that extend from the center of the image of the Fantôme Galaxy. NASA reminded that the famous Hubble Space Telescope, which was launched in 1990 and is still in service, had previously observed this galaxy.
Currently, the $10 billion James Webb Telescope is located regarding 1.5 million kilometers from Earth. This telescope was for the first time in a short period of time the presence of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of a planet outside the solar system, which includes the Earth.
At the frigid tip of South America lives a small bird that has never been discovered but is spurring scientists to study the world’s most remote places.
In the Diego Ramirez archipelago, 100 kilometers from cap Horn in southern Chile, ornithologists have spotted a new bird, Aphrastura subantarctique. This small bird, which weighs 16 grams, is distinguished by its brown color, striped black and yellow stripes, and a large beak that confuses biologists.
At the frigid tip of South America, where the Aphrastura subantarctique was found, there are no bushes and no forests, yet this jungle bird has managed to survive in the South Pacific.
University of Chile biologist Rodrigo Vasquez reported that genetic studies confirmed that the newly discovered bird differed in a mutation from the rest of the classical rayadito species, in addition to other differences in appearance and behavior.
The bird Aphrastura subantarctique might become a symbol that would contribute to the recognition of the little-known Diego Ramírez islands.
Controversy in Egypt after discovering that the Sphinx was an Emirati and married to Queen Hatshepsut .. and “Zahi Hawass” responds
written by Alexandra Hartman Editor-in-Chief
Al-Marsad Newspaper: A great case of controversy arose in Egypt following news circulated regarding the discovery of a papyrus from the Seventh Dynasty by former Minister of Antiquities Zahi Hawass that the Sphinx was an Emirati married to Queen Hatshepsut.
For his part, Dr. Zahi Hawass, an Egyptian archaeologist and former Minister of Antiquities, said that everything that was circulated is completely false, and the fact that the Sphinx married Queen Hatshepsut is a “fake” from rumor mongers.
Hawass pointed out, “We are now searching for the tomb of the architect Imhotep in Saqqara, who built the Step Pyramid at Saqqara, the first person in the history of making a roof and materials from stone, and was known as the god of medicine. King Amenhotep III.