Knowledge Update

Washington, June 16 (IANS) For the second time in history, an international team of scientists and engineers have detected gravitational waves -- ripples in the fabric of space-time -- and a pair of colliding black holes.

Using the twin, US-based Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) detectors, the second detection occurred on December 26 last year and is named as the "Boxing Day event" (after the holiday celebrated in Britain).

LIGO's first detection of gravitational waves and merging black holes occurred on September 14, 2015 -- an event that made headlines worldwide, confirming a major prediction of Albert Einstein's 1915 general theory of relativity.

"Scientifically, these black holes are important because it shows binary black holes exist as a population, with a range of masses, forming from a range of different stars," said Vicky Kalogera, director of Northwestern University's centre for interdisciplinary exploration and research in astrophysics (CIERA).

Gravitational waves carry information about the origins of black holes and about the nature of gravity that cannot otherwise be obtained.

Physicists have concluded that these gravitational waves were produced during the final moments of the merger of two black holes -- 14 and eight times the mass of the sun -- to produce a single, more massive spinning black hole 21 times the mass of the sun.

In comparison, the black holes detected on September 14, 2015, were 36 and 29 times the sun's mass, merging into a black hole of 62 solar masses.

This time, the gravitational waves released by the violent black hole merger resulted in a longer signal, or chirp, providing more data.

The new chirp lasted one second; the September 14 chirp lasted just one-fifth of a second. The higher-frequency gravitational waves from the lower-mass black holes better spread across the LIGO detectors' sweet spot of sensitivity.

Gravitational waves are not sound waves, but researchers have converted the gravitational wave's oscillation and frequency to a sound wave with the same frequency, producing a "chirp" people can hear.

The discovery, accepted for publication in the journal Physical Review Letters, was made by the international LIGO Scientific Collaboration (which includes the GEO Collaboration and the Australian Consortium for Interferometric Gravitational Astronomy) and the Virgo Collaboration using data from the two LIGO detectors.

Northwestern alumnus David Reitze, now at Caltech and the executive director of the LIGO Laboratory, was one of three scientific leaders to announce the discovery at the summer meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) in San Diego.

Scientists now have a small population of black holes from which to learn more about the universe.

As Advanced LIGO becomes more and more sensitive, the number of detected black holes will only grow, producing a broad mass spectrum of black holes in nature.

"We expect black holes with a range of masses, which we now are seeing, showing us that black holes form ubiquitously in the universe," Kalogera added.

This second detection also proves the first was not a fluke -- the gravitational waves truly came from cosmic sources.

"It is very significant that these black holes were much less massive than those in the first detection," said Gabriela Gonzalez, spokesperson of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration.

Because of their lighter mass, they spent more time -- about one second -- in the sensitive band of the detectors.

"It is a promising start to mapping the populations of black holes in our universe," she noted.

During the merger, which occurred approximately 1.4 billion years ago, a quantity of energy roughly equivalent to the mass of the sun was converted into gravitational waves.

The detected signal comes from the last 27 orbits of the black holes before their merger.

Scientists from Rochester Institute of Technology and University of Maryland physicists also contributed to the identification of second gravitational wave event.​

​New York, June 16 (IANS) The same behavioural skills that are commonly taught to fight depression can also help unemployed people land a job, new research has found.

These skills included identifying negative thoughts and countering them with more positive responses and planning enjoyable activities to improve the mood.

This study is the first to show that cognitive behavioural (CB) skills not only predict changes in depression symptoms, but also real life functioning, said co-author of the study Daniel Strunk, associate professor of psychology at The Ohio State University in the US.

"Searching for a job is difficult in any circumstance, but it may be even more difficult for people who are depressed," Strunk said.

"But we found that there are specific skills that can help not only manage the symptoms of depression but also make it more likely that a person will receive a job offer," Strunk noted.

The study involved 75 unemployed people, aged 20 to 67, who participated in two online surveys taken three months apart.

About a third of the sample reported symptoms that would put them in the moderately to seriously depressed category, although they were not formally diagnosed. 

The remaining two-thirds had scores that ranged from mild depression to no symptoms.

The results showed that participants who reported more use of cognitive behavioural skills were more likely to show an improvement in depressive symptoms in the three months between the surveys -- and were more likely to report they had received a job offer.

The findings appeared in the Journal of Clinical Psychology.

"The people who got jobs in our study were more likely to be putting into practice the skills that we try to teach people in cognitive therapy," Strunk explained.​

New York, June 16 (IANS) Wearing a specifically designed compression collar around the neck may prevent or reduce the devastating effects of head collisions in sports, researchers have found.

Inspired by woodpeckers and bighorn sheep, the neck device, called a Q-Collar, is designed to press gently on the jugular vein to slow blood outflow increasing the brain's blood volume.

The resulting effect of the increased blood volume helps the brain fit tighter within the skull cavity, reducing the energy absorbed by the brain during collisions.

The analysis of neurophysiological and neuroanatomical data from the brain showed athletes in the non-collar wearing group had significant functional and structural changes to white matter regions of the brain but these changes were not evident in those who did wear the Q-Collar during play, findings from two studies showed.

"White matter of the brain essentially connects all the pathways including structure and function,” explained lead author of both studies Greg Myer, director of sports medicine research at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center in Ohio, US.

In the preliminary study published in Frontiers in Neurology, 15 high school hockey players took part. 

Half wore the collar for the hockey season and the other half did not. 

Each of the helmets for the athletes was outfitted with an accelerometer to measure every head impact. 

Results from the imaging and electrophysiological testing indicated that athletes in the non-collar wearing group had a disruption of microstructure and functional performance of the brain. 

Athletes wearing the collar did not show a significant difference despite similar head impacts.

In a follow-up study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, 42 football players from two Greater Cincinnati high schools participated. 

While half of the participants wore the collar, the other half did not. 

The results of this larger study showed similar protective effects of collar wear during the football season.

"The results of the studies demonstrate a potential approach to protecting the brain from changes sustained within a competitive football and hockey season, as evidenced by brain imaging," Myer said. ​

​New York, June 16 (IANS) Wearing a specifically designed compression collar around the neck may prevent or reduce the devastating effects of head collisions in sports, researchers have found.

Inspired by woodpeckers and bighorn sheep, the neck device, called a Q-Collar, is designed to press gently on the jugular vein to slow blood outflow increasing the brain's blood volume.

The resulting effect of the increased blood volume helps the brain fit tighter within the skull cavity, reducing the energy absorbed by the brain during collisions.

The analysis of neurophysiological and neuroanatomical data from the brain showed athletes in the non-collar wearing group had significant functional and structural changes to white matter regions of the brain but these changes were not evident in those who did wear the Q-Collar during play, findings from two studies showed.

"White matter of the brain essentially connects all the pathways including structure and function,” explained lead author of both studies Greg Myer, director of sports medicine research at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center in Ohio, US.

In the preliminary study published in Frontiers in Neurology, 15 high school hockey players took part. 

Half wore the collar for the hockey season and the other half did not. 

Each of the helmets for the athletes was outfitted with an accelerometer to measure every head impact. 

Results from the imaging and electrophysiological testing indicated that athletes in the non-collar wearing group had a disruption of microstructure and functional performance of the brain. 

Athletes wearing the collar did not show a significant difference despite similar head impacts.

In a follow-up study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, 42 football players from two Greater Cincinnati high schools participated. 

While half of the participants wore the collar, the other half did not. 

The results of this larger study showed similar protective effects of collar wear during the football season.

"The results of the studies demonstrate a potential approach to protecting the brain from changes sustained within a competitive football and hockey season, as evidenced by brain imaging," Myer said. 

New York, June 15 (IANS) Older people struggle to remember important details because their brains cannot resist the irrelevant "stuff" they soak up subconsciously, thereby making them less confident in their memories, a study says.

Using bio-sensors to look at brain activity, the researchers saw that older participants wandered into a brief "mental time travel" when trying to recall details. 

This journey into their subconscious veered them into a cluttered space that was filled with both relevant and irrelevant information. 

This clutter led to less confidence, even when their recollections were correct, the study said.

Cluttering of the brain is one reason older people are more susceptible to manipulation, the researchers said. 

"This memory clutter that's causing low confidence could be a reason why older adults are often victims of financial scams, which typically occur when someone tries to trick them about prior conversations that didn't take place at all," said lead researcher Audrey Duarte, associate professor of psychology at Georgia Institute of Technology in the US.

The findings appeared online in the journal Neuropsychologia.

For the study, the researchers showed that older adults (60 years and up) and college students a series of pictures of everyday objects while electroencephalography (EEG) sensors were connected to their heads. 

Each photo was accompanied by a colour and scene. Participants were told to focus on one and ignore the other. An hour later, they were asked if the object was new or old, and if it matched the colour and the scene.

Neither age group was very good at recalling what they were told to ignore. Both did well remembering the object and what they were supposed to focus on.

"But when we asked if they were sure, older people backed off their answers a bit. They weren't as sure," Duarte said.

The researchers noticed differences in brain activity between the young and old. Older adults' brains spent more time and effort trying to reconstruct their memories.

"While trying to remember, their brains would spend more time going back in time in an attempt to piece together what was previously seen," she said. 

"But not just what they were focused on -- some of what they were told to ignore got stuck in their minds," Duarte said.​

​Canberra, June 15 (IANS) Australia's Parkes Observatory telescope has discovered a molecule which displays key attributes associated with life, in a breakthrough set to help scientists solve the mystery of biology in space.

Chirality, or "handedness" is a key attribute related closely with life, but homochirality, or being exclusively either "left or right handed", has never been discovered outside of Earth, until the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation's (CSIRO's) Parkes telescope found the 'handed' molecule propylene oxide.

Dr John Reynolds, Director of Operations at CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science, said the discovery will give scientists the chance to further research how the Universe can contribute to sustaining life, Xinhua reported.

"This discovery gives us a window into how an incredibly important type of molecule is made in space, and gives us the chance to understand the impact that process may have on life in the universe," Reynolds said in a statement on Wednesday.

Typically, many molecules exist in forms that are mirror images of each other, but molecules associated with life, such as proteins, enzymes, amino acids and sugars are found to be made up of a single handedness.

Propylene oxide is a common homochiral compound used in making polyurethane plastics, and was discovered by the radio telescope in an interstellar cloud near the center of the Milky Way.

The cloud, known as Sagittarius B2, is actively forming stars, and Reynolds said scientists would follow the developments in the region to see if the Universe divulges any further secrets about the potential of life in outer space.

"Understanding how this came about is a major puzzle in biology, " he said.​

​Washington, June 15 (IANS) For the first time, an instrument onboard an orbiting NASA spacecraft has measured the methane emissions from a single, specific leaking facility on the Earth’s surface, the US space agency has said.

The observation -- by the Hyperion spectrometer on NASA’s Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) -- is an important breakthrough in our ability to eventually measure and monitor emissions of this potent greenhouse gas from space.

"This is the first time the methane emissions from a single facility have been observed from space,” said one of the researchers, David Thompson from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California.

In a new paper accepted for publication in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, a research team detailed the observation, which occurred over Aliso Canyon, near Porter Ranch, California. 

The Hyperion instrument successfully detected the methane leak on three separate overpasses during the winter of 2015-16. 

The research was part of an investigation of the large accidental Aliso Canyon methane release last fall and winter.

The orbital observations from Hyperion were consistent with airborne measurements made by NASA’s Airborne/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) imager flying onboard a NASA ER-2 aircraft.​

Canberra/Washington, June 15 (IANS) In a first, a team of scientists using highly sensitive radio telescopes has discovered the first complex organic “chiral” molecule in interstellar space near the centre of our galaxy.

Like a pair of human hands, certain organic molecules have mirror-image versions of themselves, a chemical property known as chirality.

These so-called "handed" molecules are essential for biology and have intriguingly been found in meteorites that have hit the Earth and comets in our solar system.

The molecule, propylene oxide (CH3CHOCH2), was found in an enormous star-forming cloud of dust and gas known as Sagittarius B2 (Sgr B2).

“This is the first molecule detected in interstellar space that has the property of chirality, making it a pioneering leap forward in our understanding of how prebiotic molecules are made in the universe and the effects they may have on the origins of life," explained Brett McGuire, Jansky post-doctoral Fellow with the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) in Charlottesville, Virginia.

"Propylene oxide is among the most complex and structurally intricate molecules detected so far in space," added Brandon Carroll, chemistry graduate student at the California Institute of Technology.

Detecting this molecule opens the door for further experiments determining how and where molecular handedness emerges and why one form may be slightly more abundant than the other.

Complex organic molecules form in interstellar clouds like Sgr B2 in several ways.

The most basic pathway is through gas-phase chemistry, in which particles collide and merge to produce ever more complex molecules.

To form more complex molecules like propylene oxide, astronomers believe thin mantles of ice on dust grains help link small molecules into longer and larger structures.

These molecules can then evaporate from the surface of the grains and further react in the gas of the surrounding cloud.

To date, more than 180 smaller molecules have been detected in space.

“Meteorites in our solar system contain chiral molecules that predate the Earth itself, and chiral molecules have recently been discovered in comets," noted Carroll. "Such small bodies may be what pushed life to the handedness we see today."

"By discovering a chiral molecule in space, we finally have a way to study where and how these molecules form before they find their way into meteorites and comets, and to understand the role they play in the origins of homochirality and life," McGuire said in a paper published in the journal Science.

The research was undertaken with the National Science Foundation's Green Bank Telescope (GBT) in West Virginia as part of the Prebiotic Interstellar Molecular Survey. Additional supporting observations were taken with the Parkes radio telescope in Australia.​

London, June 13 (IANS) A combination of text messages and individual counselling sessions help motivate patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), resulting in improved patient-reported clinical outcomes, finds a study.

"The findings support the introduction of behavioural approaches as an effective way to improve the health of rheumatoid arthritis patients which may also be applicable in other populations with chronic disease and limited mobility," said Tanja Thomsen from the Copenhagen Centre for Arthritis Research in Denmark. 

According to the researchers, RA patients tend to be more sedentary than the general population that can have serious health consequences, including an increased risk of cardiovascular disease and premature death. 

In the study, 75 adult RA patients underwent a 16-week intervention that included three individual motivational counselling sessions with a health professional and regular text messages aimed at improving motivation to reduce daily sitting time and replacing it with light intensity physical activity.

A control group of 75 healthy adult patients matched for other characteristics was encouraged to maintain their usual lifestyle. Daily sitting time was recorded using a wearable activity monitor.

The researchers found that after 16 weeks, there was a significant between-group difference in average daily sitting time in favour of the intervention group. 

Secondary outcomes that were also in favour of the intervention group included self-assessment scores of pain, fatigue, physical function and blood measurements of total cholesterol. 

The study was recently presented at the European League Against Rheumatism Annual Congress 2016 in London.​