Degrees of Separation
That’s 18 trillion billions, or
about one trillion times the age
of the universe — and it’s also
the half-life of a radioactive
form, or isotope, of the element
xenon. Researchers at Italy’s Gran Sasso National
Laboratory recently made the first direct observation
of the isotope’s nuclear decay; they believe studying
such uber-slow isotopic decays ultimately may help
them spot dark matter.
The age at which optimism is
highest, according to researchers at
the University of California, Davis.
Optimism is lowest in people’s 20s,
then rises through middle age
before plateauing at age 55, suggests the study of
1,169 adults.
How much faster than average your
DNA ages if you’re a medical resident. A
study published in Biological Psychiatry
measured the length of telomeres — parts
of chromosomes that shorten as you grow
older — before and after the first-year residency of
250 brand-new doctors. Over the course of a year,
the researchers found that the residents’ telomeres
shortened six times more than the average general
population rate; they linked the accelerated shrinkage
to the new doctors’ long work hours.
The amount of sleep that could make
or break your workday, according to a
new study in Sleep Health. Researchers
found that losing just a quarter of
an hour compared with your normal
amount of shut-eye decreased focus and increased
stress at work the following day.
How much of your waking day is
spent with your eyes closed, thanks to
blinking. Your brain doesn’t notice this,
though, because it just picks up on
the visual stimulus right where it left
off. In essence, this pauses your perception of time,
according to a new study in Psychological Science.
The size of the tiniest-ever pixels
— the lit-up cells that make up
an image on a screen — in a new
material engineered by researchers
at the University of Cambridge.
The tech uses teeny tiny gold particles spread across
a reflective surface to trap light. Electricity can change
the particles’ chemical composition such that they
change color. And the whole system scales up so
easily, it could be used to create giant flexible displays
the size of buildings. — ANNA GROVES
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- Unidentifiable plastic
fragments: 16,106
- Food packaging (e.g., candy and
Popsicle wrappers, polystyrene
clamshells): 1,158
- Nurdles (pellets of raw material
used in plastic production): 891
- Bottle caps and lids: 840
5. Shoes: 549
6. Plastic bags/
plastic bag bits: 367
- Rope pieces: 297
- Drinking straws: 235
- Cotton swabs: 206
- Plastic bottles: 145
414 million pieces
Estimated man-made debris on
Cocos (Keeling) Islands
262 U.S. tons
Weight of
estimated debris
93%
Percentage of trash up to 4 inches
below the surface
(60% of this is micro-debris less
than a quarter-inch in size)
95.41%
plastic items
3.96%
foam (e.g. Styrofoam
cups)
0.63%
other (glass, metal, wood
and fabric)
Debris Found
Trashy Top 10 (by Number of Pieces Found)
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Humans have a trash problem. For years, researchers have warned
that our wasteful ways have been clogging up the planet, even in
places where we aren’t, like remote islands. Now, a new study in
Scientific Reports says the problem is even worse than we thought.
Previous surveys of debris in these isolated areas have mostly
focused on what was visible at the surface. However, the new
research, which focused on both inhabited and uninhabited islands
that make up Australia’s Cocos (Keeling) Islands, reports that the
problem goes deeper than that — literally. — LACY SCHLEY
Out of Our Depth
TRENDING
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DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COM
Source: “Significant plastic accumulation on the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Australia,”
Scientific Reports, 2019
THE CRUX