A digest of popular science news for the week that we haven't written about

Astronomers observe planet formation around binary stars

On meeting American Astronomical Society, a team of researchers from the National Radio Observatory announced about the existence of protoplanetary disks around young binary stars. They used the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, known as ALMA, and the near-infrared capabilities of the 10-meter Keck II telescope. ALMA was installed in the Atacama Desert at an altitude of 5,000 meters, where the air is clean and dry. It consists of 66 antennas that work together as an interferometer, studying the coldest and most distant objects in the universe.

The disks around main-sequence binaries were announced as a great opportunity to study them and try to find answers. The team studied the size, structure and tilt of the disks as a function of the star's rotation speed and magnetic field strength to try to understand the complex processes that occur within them. Binary and multiple star systems, such as the DF Tau and FO Tau binary system that was the subject of the study, are quite common, making them an excellent case study.

Physicists have developed a new method for combining the regular Internet with the quantum one

Four researchers from the Institute of Photonics at Leibniz University Hannover developed a new transmitter-receiver concept for transmitting entangled photons over optical fiber. This breakthrough could enable the next generation of telecommunications technology — a quantum Internet — over optical fiber. The quantum Internet promises eavesdrop-proof encryption methods that even future quantum computers will not be able to decipher, keeping critical infrastructure secure.

“To make the quantum internet a reality, we need to transmit entangled photons over fiber optic networks,” speaks Professor Dr. Michael Kues, Director of the Institute of Photonics and Member of the Board of the PhoenixD Cluster of Excellence at Leibniz University Hannover. “We also want to continue to use optical fiber for conventional data transmission. Our research is an important step towards merging the conventional internet with the quantum internet.”

In their experiment, the researchers demonstrated that the entanglement of the photons is maintained even when they are transmitted together with a laser pulse. “We can change the color of the laser pulse using a high-speed electrical signal so that it matches the color of the entangled photons,” explains Philipp Rübeling, a doctoral student at the Institute of Photonics who is researching the quantum internet. “This effect allows us to combine laser pulses and entangled photons of the same color in an optical fiber and separate them again.”

This effect could bridge the gap between the traditional Internet and the quantum Internet. Until now, it has not been possible to use both methods to transmit data in a single color in an optical fiber. “The entangled photons block the data channel in the optical fiber, preventing it from being used for normal data transmission,” says Jan Heine, a doctoral student in Kues' group.

New Model Disproves Leading Theory of Earth's Continent Formation

Recently published in the journal Nature Geoscience article David Hernandez Uribe of the University of Illinois at Chicago is plugging holes in the leading theory of how continents formed. Hernandez Uribe used computer models to study the formation of magma, which is thought to hold clues to the origin of the continents.

Magma is a molten substance that cools to form rocks and minerals. Hernandez Uribe was looking for magmas that matched the composition of rare minerals called zircons, which date back to the Archean period (2.5 to 4 billion years ago), when scientists believe the continents first formed.

Last year, scientists from China and Australia published a paper arguing that Archean zircons could only have formed through subduction—two tectonic plates colliding underwater, pushing land up to the surface. The process still happens today, causing earthquakes and volcanic eruptions and reshaping continental coastlines.

But Hernandez Uribe, an associate professor of earth and environmental sciences, found that subduction was not necessary for the Archean zircons to form. Instead, he found that the minerals may have formed under the high pressures and temperatures associated with the melting of Earth’s thick, primordial crust.

“Using my calculations and models, we can get the same signatures for zircons and even get a better match due to partial melting of the lower crust,” speaks Hernandez Uribe: “So based on these results, we still don't have enough evidence to say what process formed the continents.”

Water does something very strange when it gets into tiny holes.

Predicting how liquid H2O navigates its way through molecular plumbing requires a level of modeling that even the most powerful computers currently cannot handle.

That's why researchers from the US contacted to machine learning to figure out how the electrical properties of water change when trapped inside nanometer-sized cylinders of pure carbon.

Don't be fooled by the apparent simplicity of water. Within each molecule, a single oxygen atom creates a charge imbalance called a dipole.

This imbalance gives water its unusual properties, allowing its molecules to stick together freely, due to surface tension, or to spread out into a variety of shapes when it freezes into ice.

Packed inside a hydrophobic carbon nanotube, water molecules enhance their interaction with the electric field due to their closed nature. How and why exactly this happens has not yet been fully described.

“A better understanding of the dielectric response of confined water is important not only for the development of separation technologies but also for other new applications such as energy storage and conversion,” speaks Lead author of the paper Marcos Calegari Andrade, a materials scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL).

The dielectric effect describes how materials such as water respond to electric fields. When conductive materials such as copper wires transmit electrical charges as current, the charged components of the dielectric materials rotate and align so that they return to the larger electric field.

Packing water molecules into carbon nanotubes less than 10 nanometers in diameter has allowed scientists in the past to discover new phases of water and show that they facilitate much faster proton transport along one-dimensional chains of water molecules.

The expansion of pore size also suggests the formation of ice structures that are not seen in large bodies of water.

To determine the permittivity of the chamber in other directions, the researchers ran the fundamental principles through a machine learning process. This provided a more complete picture, incorporating quantum effects to calculate potential energy and describe the vibrations of individual molecules.

Their approach revealed an electronic structure that would not be obvious from conventional modeling: it is constructed parallel to the walls of a tube running along the axis of the water column.

Nissan develops 'cooling paint' for cars to keep drivers cooler

Nissan has demonstrated what it calls “cooling paint” to keep people inside cars cool, although the coating is six times thicker than normal paint, making it a challenge to commercialize.

The company's announcement on Tuesday was timely as Japan experienced record-breaking temperatures.

Nissan Motor Co. tested the paint on cars cruising around Tokyo's Haneda Airport, which has plenty of unshaded areas, making it a good place to evaluate the technology.

The cars with the special paint looked like regular cars, but felt much cooler to the touch.

According to Nissan, the cool paint reduced the temperature of the roof panels by 12°C and the interior by 5°C.

Nissan's cool paint reflects sunlight better and also creates electromagnetic waves that block the rays, redirecting the energy away from the car.