Best of Last Week—kin of gravitational waves, world's beer supply threatened and bone strength bolstered by nutrition
Bob Yirka
news contributor
It was another good week for physics as an international team found what they described as the kin of a gravitational wave source—a luminous blue kilonova. Also, a team with members from Northwestern, Harvard and Yale universities conducted a study and found results that support the Standard Model of particle physics and also excludes alternative models. It involved studying the shape of an electron charge with very high precision. And a team with members from the Technical University of Munich, the University of Waterloo and IBM developed the first proof of a quantum computer advantage by developing a quantum circuit that was capable of solving a certain algebraic problem.
In biology news, a team at UC Santa Cruz conducted a study that involved documenting paternal transmission of epigenetic memory via sperm in roundworms—offering some clues regarding how a father's experiences can influence the health of his descendants. And a team with members from Aarhus University and the University of Gothenburg found evidence that suggested that mammals cannot evolve fast enough to escape the current extinction crisis. They predict that so many mammals will go extinct over the next half-century that it would take nature 3 to 5 million years to recover. Also, a team at MIT found that mixing probiotics and antibiotics can create killer combinations able to overcome drug-resistant bacteria. And in related news, a team with members from several institutions in the U.S and Israel cured drug-resistant infections without antibioticsby blocking toxin formation in bacteria.
In other news, a team at the University of East Anglia made worldwide headlines when they announced that the world's beer supply could be threatened by future weather extremes. And a team at The Australian National University found evidence that confirmed Earth's inner core is solid by detecting shear waves in the inner core.
And finally, if you are one of the millions of people around the world worried about your bone strength, you might want to take a closer look at what you eat. A team at the University of Michigan found, that contrary to popular opinion, nutrition has a greater impact on bone strength than exercise.
