Superpowerful ‘oscillon’ particles could have dominated the infant universe, then vanished

A weird, super-powerful particle that’s not truly a particle could have dominated the universe when it was just a second old, releasing a flood of ripples that permeated all of space-time. Source: https://www.livescience.com/oscillon-particle-early-univrse.html

Capuchin monkeys spotted eating infant in rare act of cannibalism

Cannibalism is extremely rare among the primates living in the Americas – but some capuchin monkeys have now been spotted eating a dead infant Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2260219-capuchin-monkeys-spotted-eating-infant-in-rare-act-of-cannibalism/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…

Galaxies in the infant universe were surprisingly mature

Massive galaxies were already much more mature in the early universe than previously expected. This was shown by an international team of astronomers who studied 118 distant galaxies with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). Source: https://phys.org/news/2020-10-galaxies-infant-universe-surprisingly-mature.html…

Plastic baby bottles shed millions of microplastics when shaken

The plastic bottles used to feed babies shed an average of 4 million microplastic particles per litre into infant formula, but the impact on child health is unclear Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2257599-plastic-baby-bottles-shed-millions-of-microplastics-when-shaken/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…

Astronomers find evidence planets start to form while infant stars are still growing

Astronomers have found compelling evidence that planets start to form while infant stars are still growing. The high-resolution image obtained with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) shows a young proto-stellar disk with multiple gaps and rings of dust. This new result, just published in Nature, shows the youngest and most detailed example of dust rings acting as cosmic cradles, where…

What are white dwarf stars?

White dwarfs are dead stars. A single white dwarf contains roughly the mass of our sun in a volume no bigger than our planet. Our sun will become a white dwarf someday. Source: https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/white-dwarfs-are-the-cores-of-dead-stars…

Lead lab selected for next-generation cosmic microwave background experiment

The largest collaborative undertaking yet to explore the relic light emitted by the infant universe has taken a step forward with the U.S. Department of Energy’s selection of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) to lead the partnership of national labs, universities, and other institutions that are joined in the effort to carry out the DOE roles and responsibilities. This next-generation…