Best of Last Year: Phys.org’s Best Papers of 2022

It was a good year for research of all kinds as three men shared the Nobel Prize in Physics for their work which showed that tiny particles separated from each other at great distances can become entangled. Alain Aspect, John Clauser and Anton Zeilinger won the award for their work showing that the counterintuitive field of quantum entanglement is real and also demonstrable.

A team from the Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution has made a breakthrough in determining the origins of life on Earth, and possibly on Mars as well. They discovered that ribonucleic acid can form spontaneously on basalt lava glass. This glass was abundant on early Earth when scientists thought life first arose – and basalt lava glass exists on Mars today.

And earlier this year, a team made up of members of institutions in France, Spain, Mexico and Switzerland discovered that a spike protein on the SARS-CoV-2 virus activates human endogenous retroviruses in blood cells. The finding helped explain many of the commonly seen pathogenic characteristics of the virus. Specifically, they found evidence that the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein activates the HERV-W-encoded envelope protein in blood cells.

Additionally, last spring a combined team of German and Iraqi archaeologists uncovered a 3,400-year-old Mittani Empire-era city that once stood on the Tigris River. The colony appeared due to a prolonged drought in the area around the Mosul Reservoir which significantly lowered water levels. Studies of artifacts at the site have shown that they were made by the Zakhiku, an ancient people who lived in the area during the 1550s to 1350s BC.

And last winter, researchers working at the Polar Observation Center and with the Modeling and British Antarctic Survey reported that satellite images showed a ‘mega-iceberg’ called A68A had released around 152 billion tonnes of water. gentle in the ocean as it scraped. the South Atlantic island of South Georgia. They noted that it had broken away from the Larsen-C ice shelf.

Additionally, last spring, an international team of researchers analyzing audio recordings received from two microphones aboard the Perseverance rover found that, as expected, sound travels slower on Mars than on Earth, and that it also two speeds, depending on pitch – higher sounds travel faster than lower sounds.

In September, two researchers, one from Uppsala University in Sweden, the other from Oviedo University in Spain, found they could watch evolution in action by studying black frogs. in the areas affected by the meltdown of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Pablo Burraco and Germán Orizaola discovered that before the radiation was released in the area, the frogs were all green.

A combined team of researchers from the Florida Museum of Natural History and the Georgia Museum of Natural History studying the DNA of a domestic American horse that once occupied what is now an abandoned Caribbean colony has proven that horses from the island of Assateague came from Spanish explorers, probably due to a shipwreck.

And just months ago, a combined team of researchers from Liverpool John Moores University and the University of Montpellier discovered that massive stars emit a warning when they are about to go supernova. They found that stars between 8 and 20 solar masses darken precipitously a few months before exploding due to the buildup of nearby material blocking the view.

Last February, a team of researchers from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst developed a new material capable of absorbing and releasing huge amounts of energy. They described the rubbery solid as similar to a “super elastic”, storing large amounts of energy when stretched and releasing it afterwards.

An international team of researchers using artificial intelligence routines has compressed into four equations a quantum problem that previously required 100,000 equations to fully describe. They note that in addition to making the problem easier to solve, the approach could revolutionize how other problems are tackled in the future.

Over the summer, a team of physicists affiliated with several institutions in the United States discovered that by shining a laser on a group of atoms arranged in a sequence inspired by Fibonacci numbers, they could create a new phase of matter that behaved as if it worked. in two time dimensions. This, despite the fact that there was still only one time stream in the system.

Last spring, a team from the Universiteit Amsterdam, together with a colleague from the Amsterdam University Medical Center, discovered microplastics in human blood for the first time. The discovery highlights the ubiquity of tiny particles, many of which are almost invisible to the naked eye. The Dutch team found particles in almost 80% of the samples they tested.

Additionally, last fall, a team of researchers affiliated with several institutions in the United States detected the first definitive evidence of elusive fingerprints at sea level, where sea level shifts between areas near the melting ice sheet and remote areas. Flipping occurs due to changes and subsequent differences in gravitational pull as ice breaks away from an ice shelf and then melts over time.

An atmospheric scientist from Colorado State University confirmed his discovery of a “milky sea” bioluminescent event via testimony from a crew aboard a private yacht. Steven Miller discovered the event by studying satellite images and got confirmation from a crew aboard a yacht that was cruising in the area at the time.

A team from the Computer, Computational, and Statistical Sciences Division at Los Alamos National Laboratory has found an error in a paradigm developed by Riemann and furthered by Helmholtz and Schrödinger that has been used for more than a century to describe how the eye discriminates colors. Using the patched version should improve visualization in the electronics and paint industries.

Last summer, a team from Cambridge University’s Department of Archeology found that Augustinian Friars living in medieval Cambridge were twice as likely to be infested with intestinal parasites as others living in the same area. town. The result was surprising because conditions in the monasteries of the time were considered more sanitary than in the city and because the friars used both latrine blocks and hand-washing facilities.

Last summer, scientists working with data from the James Webb Space Telescope and NASA began preparing to better observe an exoplanet called 55 Cancri e, a planet that orbits so close to its star that some on the ground l compared to descriptions of Hell in the Bible. Only 2.5 million kilometers from its sun, it does not rotate; thus, one side is always expected to burn.

A team from Northwestern University has developed a simple method to destroy so-called eternal chemicals quickly and easily. Known as PFAS, the chemicals can be broken down using certain inexpensive reagents at low temperatures, leaving only benign end products behind, the researchers say.

A team made up of members affiliated with a number of institutions in Japan and one in Taiwan has discovered an unknown structure in the galaxy 3C273 using high-contrast imagery. They found a faint radio emission spanning a giant galaxy with an energetic black hole at its center. They also found that the emission was generated as gas inside the black hole and suggest the technique could be used to learn more about quasars.

In July, humanity reached a dubious milestone – by the 28th day of that month, humanity had collectively consumed everything the planet could sustainably produce for the entire year. Called “Earth Overshoot Day”, this date marked a tipping point that cannot be sustained year after year. This highlights the fact that humans are using more than the planet can produce and unless improvement measures are taken, shortages will become the norm.

In the same month, a team of physicists from the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Edinburgh used mathematical calculations to show that quantum communications through interstellar space should be possible. The discovery, they note, suggests that interstellar communications with extraterrestrials should be possible, if any.

In August, a team from Cornell University reported on an experiment they had sent to the International Space Station that confirmed a theory from a recently deceased team member. The experiments showed that water droplets oscillate and propagate on solid surfaces in microgravity, a finding that could impact how 3D and other spray operations are performed in applications here on Earth.

And a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University’s Center of Mathematical Sciences and Applications answered a 150-year-old chess problem last January: how to solve the mathematical n-queens problem. He found that the equation (0.143n)^not could be used to describe the number of ways queens can be placed on a chessboard so that none attacks another on nxn chessboards.

And finally, Angolan miners announced in July that they had extracted the largest pure pink diamond discovered in 300 years. The diamond turned out to be 170 carats and was named Lulo Rose, after the mine in Australia where it was discovered. The discovery marks one of the rarest and purest forms of a natural stone. Its owners, the Lucapa Diamond Company and the Angolan government, announced that it would be sold as soon as possible to the highest bidder.

Like a primethere was also a “top videothis year. Scientists at Durham University’s Institute for Computational Cosmology used a supercomputer to simulate an alternative explanation for the origin of the moon. They performed hundreds of simulations and then used the results to create a video showing an object called Theia colliding with early Earth, which left a moon-like body orbiting Earth.

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