While scientists understand that hydrogen bonding plays a significant part in water's many strange and fascinating forms, the specifics of how it works have remained a mystery.

An multinational team of researchers developed a novel method for visualising the locations of particles in liquid water, capturing their blur with femtosecond precision to illustrate how hydrogen and oxygen jiggle among water molecules.

Their findings may not help us make a better cup of tea, but they go a long way toward fleshing out quantum modelling of hydrogen bonding, perhaps improving theories explaining why water, which is so important to life as we know it, has such remarkable qualities.

"This has definitely opened up a new window to investigate water," says Xijie Wang, a physicist at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory of the US Department of Energy.

"Now that we can see the hydrogen bonds moving, we'd like to connect them to the bigger picture, which could throw light on how water contributed to the origin and survival of life on Earth, as well as inform the development of renewable energy methods."

A single molecule of water is a three-way custody war for electrons between two hydrogen atoms and a single oxygen atom when studied in isolation.

Oxygen receives significantly more electron love than its two weenie sidekicks since it has far more protons. This gives each proton a little more time without an electron than usual. Although the atoms aren't all positively charged, the result is a V-shaped molecule with a gentle slope of slightly positive tips and a slightly negative centre.

When enough energy is applied to a group of these molecules, the slight variances in charge will arrange themselves in the desired pattern, with same charges pushing apart and unlike charges merging together.

While this may appear to be a straightforward operation, the engine that drives it is anything but. Electrons move around according to numerous quantum principles, therefore the closer we get to them, the less certain we may be about their qualities.

Physicists had previously depended on ultrafast spectroscopy to learn how electrons travel in water's chaotic tug-of-war, collecting photons of light and analysing their signature to map electron positions.

Regrettably, this leaves out an important aspect of the scene: the atoms themselves. They stretch and wobble in response to the quantum forces changing around them, far from being passive onlookers.

"The low mass of hydrogen atoms emphasises their quantum wave-like activity," explains Kelly Gaffney of SLAC.

The team employed a Megaelectronvolt Ultrafast Electron Diffraction Instrument, or MeV-UED, to acquire insight into the atoms' configurations. This gadget at SLAC's National Accelerator Laboratory showers water with electrons, which ricochet from molecules and transmit important information about the atoms' configurations.

(Greg Stewart/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)

Above: An animation depicting the reaction of a water molecule to laser light. When an excited water molecule vibrates, its hydrogen atoms (white) pull oxygen atoms (red) from nearby water molecules closer before pushing them away, enlarging the distance between them.

With enough images, a high-resolution image of hydrogen jitter as the molecules bend and flex around them might be built, demonstrating how surrounding molecules drag oxygen towards them before forcefully flinging it back.

"This is the first study to show that the response of the hydrogen bond network to an energy impulse is critically dependent on the quantum mechanical nature of how the hydrogen atoms are spaced out, which has long been thought to be responsible for the unique properties of water and its hydrogen bond network," Gaffney says.

Researchers may now use the technique to investigate the tumultuous waltz of water molecules as pressures increase and temperatures fall, monitoring how it responds to life-building organic solutes or produces fascinating new phases under extreme conditions now that the tool has been proven to work in principle.

Never before had a storm appeared to be so lovely.

This study was published in the journal Nature.

The findings, which were derived from cardiopulmonary exercise tests (CPETs) and data from fitness-tracking wearables worn by 2,070 individuals, stayed true even after accounting for characteristics such as age, sex, obesity, and cardiovascular risk, according to the researchers.

In terms of improving fitness, each minute of additional moderate-to-vigorous exercise was comparable to around 3 minutes of walking and 14 minutes less sedentary time on average. Furthermore, spending more time exercising and raising daily step counts appear to be able to counteract the unfavourable effects of sedentary behaviour on fitness.

"We hope that our study will provide important information that can be used to improve physical fitness and overall health across the life course by establishing the relationship between different forms of habitual physical activity and detailed fitness measures," says cardiologist Matthew Nayor of Boston University.

CPETs are devices that measure peak oxygen uptake, or VO2, which is a measure of how much oxygen the body can use while exercising. The higher the level of aerobic fitness, the more oxygen the body can take in and process while working.

According to the CPET results, moderate-vigorous physical activity (or MVPA) is the best for increasing VO2. MVPA is defined as any activity that causes your heart to beat faster and your breathing to become heavier, such as a brisk walk or a bike ride.

It's worth noting that the study only looked at fitness levels rather than health outcomes, but fitness is associated to a lower risk of a variety of diseases, including diabetes, cancer, and cardiovascular disease.

"As a result, a better understanding of how to enhance fitness should have broad implications for better health," says Nayor.

While it's no surprise that MVPA is good for your fitness, few previous studies have examined both physical activity levels and aerobic fitness in such detail and across such a large number of participants at the same time as this study does.

The team was able to compare two distinct datasets from the same people, eight years apart, to determine the long-term benefit of regular exercise because the study participants were part of a long-term research project (the Framingham Heart Study).

The study has limits as well, because exercise affects us all differently, and this study looked at a group of middle-aged persons from the same political party. Nonetheless, it's a strong evidence of MVPA's fitness and health benefits.

"These data support the idea that diverse types of physical activity (particularly MVPA) are linked to cardiorespiratory fitness in the general population, regardless of age, gender, BMI, or cardiovascular disease status," the researchers write.

The findings of this study were published in the European Heart Journal.

This month, Facebook said that India would be the first country to implement its small business lending programme, which will provide loans to companies that advertise on its platform through a partner. The loans will be available in amounts ranging from 500,000 rupees ($6,720) to 5 million rupees, with interest rates ranging from 17 percent to 20 percent with no collateral required.

The social media giant's entry into India coincides with Xiaomi's plans to offer loans, credit cards, and insurance products in partnership with some of the country's biggest banks and startup digital lenders, according to the Press Trust of India, citing local head Manu Jain. Xiaomi is a Chinese manufacturer of everything from rice cookers to gaming monitors.

This month, Amazon.com made its first investment in the country's wealth management business, investing in a $40 million round led by fintech firm Smallcase Technologies Pvt.

Google, owned by Alphabet Inc., is likewise stepping up its game. After launching wealth management products such as digital gold and mutual funds on its famous Google Pay platform, it has now partnered with local Indian lenders to give users time deposits.

After online transactions soared during the pandemic and traditional lenders became wary due to a rise in bad debt, India's digital payments business has piqued the interest of some of the world's top IT companies. According to Boston Consulting Group predictions, digital financing will triple to $350 billion by 2023 and reach a total of $1 trillion in the five years after 2019.

“The payment sector earns very little money, but lending makes a lot of money,” says the expert "BCG's financial institutions practise managing director and senior partner Saurabh Tripathi remarked. “Indian consumers are looking for better-designed digital experiences, and many companies are taking advantage of this potential."

While India's lending industry has a lot of potential, it also has a lot of hazards. For the second year in a row, the country's bad loan ratio is predicted to grow to 11.3 percent by March, making it the poorest performance among big economies.

The Reserve Bank of India plans to supervise internet lenders, which include more than 300 startups, in addition to dealing with debt collections by digital enterprises.

According to a fresh report, small cracks have been discovered in the Zarya module of the International Space Station.

"Superficial fractures have been identified in several spots on the Zarya module," Vladimir Solovyov, head engineer of Moscow-based Energia, Russia's main contractor for human spaceflight, told Russia's state-owned RIA news agency, Reuters reported today (Aug. 30). "This is awful news, and it means that the cracks will widen over time."

According to Reuters, Solovyov did not disclose whether the cracks detected by Russian cosmonauts have caused any air to seep from Zarya (Russian for "Dawn").

Zarya, commonly known as the FCB (short for "Functional Cargo Block"), is a section of the Russian segment of the International Space Station (ISS). With its launch in November 1998, it was the first section of the station to reach orbit.

This isn't the first time cracks have been discovered on the International Space Station, which has been occupied by rotating astronaut crews since November 2000. Fissures in the Russian Zvezda module, for example, caused a tiny air leak on the orbiting lab in September 2019. The Zvezda breaches were patched by cosmonauts in October 2020 and March this year, but the problem has remained; Russia reported another pressure decrease in the module, which was sent into Earth orbit in July 2000, last month.

(An air leak was discovered by ISS controllers in August 2018, however it was quickly confirmed that it was caused by a drill hole in an attached Russian Soyuz spacecraft.) It's unclear how that hole got there in the first place. The majority of specialists believe it was caused by human mistake on the ground, but a Russian space official recently attempted to accuse NASA astronaut Serena Auón-Chancellor. According to NASA officials, this claim is without merit.)

In July 2021, Russia's long-awaited Nauka scientific module arrived at the International Space Station. That meeting did not go as planned; immediately after docking, Nauka's thrusters fired wildly, causing the entire station to rotate about 540 degrees. The issue was eventually brought under control, and the orbiting lab was returned to its regular orientation.

When the rotating air of an updraft (shown in purple) collides with the revolving air of a downdraft (shown in aqua) that has turned upward, a tornado can emerge.

Tornadoes can only arise when a thunderstorm has a specific wind pattern.

When the air rising in thunderstorms is impacted by winds flowing in opposite directions, it might begin to spin. It rises and is pushed to one side by the wind. It rises a little higher before being jolted again by wind blowing in the opposite direction. The ascending air begins to spin due to winds travelling at various speeds and directions at various heights.

Supercells, the most powerful type of thunderstorm, have air that spins as it climbs, although not all spinning air produces tornadoes.

There must also be spinning air near the ground for a tornado to occur. This occurs when the storm's air sinks to the ground and spreads out in gusts across the countryside. Warmer air rises when the wind blows. As they blow across the land, gusts of cooler air settle.

The air near the ground begins to spin if there are enough rising and descending gusts.

As it is pulled inward nearer its axis of rotation, the spinning air near the earth accelerates up. This is similar to how figure skaters spin quicker when their arms are brought in rather than outstretched. This is known as angular momentum conservation.

The rising, rotating air can tilt the rotating air vertically, causing it to move horizontally across the land. As a result, a tornado can form.

Supercell thunderstorms produce the majority of tornadoes, however not all supercell thunderstorms produce tornadoes. For a tornado to occur, the whirling air near the ground must rotate fast enough. If the rotating air near the ground is extremely cold, it will spread away from the storm and slow down like a figure skater with extended arms, preventing a tornado from forming.

NASA

Rather than later, sooner is preferable.

Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX, has hinted that Starship will be ready to land astronauts on the Moon before the estimated launch date of 2024.

Musk was responding to a tweet from a Tesla CEO on Saturday asking if the super heavy-lift launch vehicle will be ready to transport astronauts to the lunar surface by 2024, to which he replied, "Probably sooner."

Is he correct?

Of course, this may just be more of the typical Elon bravado we've all grown to despise and adore — especially given SpaceX's track record of missing mission and launch dates.

There's also the reality that Artemis will be a particularly difficult mission, requiring anywhere from eight to sixteen launches to prepare for a single voyage to the Moon. A lunar landing in 2024, according to NASA's own inspector general, is "not viable" due to delays in spacesuit development.

However, there are evidence that things are heading in the right direction. For one thing, SpaceX recently affixed Starship to the Super Heavy launcher, making it the world's largest rocket. They're simply waiting for the FAA to complete an environmental evaluation before attempting their first orbital test launch. As a result, there's a strong probability Starship will enter orbit in the fall.

In addition, according to Fox Business, NASA just made a $300 million payment to SpaceX for the planned $3 billion project. So, at the very least, the EPA is still confident in Musk's company's ability to complete the task.

In any case, it's best to treat planned launch dates for large, complex missions like Artemis with caution. The objective will be completed eventually — and even if you want to dunk on Blue Origin, it's best not to rush things (looking at you, Elon).

This article is originally published in - futurism

Batteries Can Be Recycled

Tesla claims in its 2020 Impact Report that it can now recycle up to 92 percent of the raw materials used in its battery cells, a method that the company's facilities have already started to apply.

The procedure could have a significant impact on the environmental cost of producing electric vehicle battery packs. Not only is the process energy-intensive, but Tesla's current battery lineup also requires cobalt, a rare element linked to controversial mining practises in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia, and elsewhere.

Long-term planning

Tesla, for example, did not provide any particular numbers on how many battery packs it recycled last year.

Tesla battery packs recycled 1,300 tonnes of nickel, 400 tonnes of copper, and 80 tonnes of cobalt in 2020, according to the company's calculations.

According to the study, “a Tesla battery pack is meant to outlast the vehicle itself.” “As a result, just a handful customer Tesla batteries have been retired to date, including those from our nearly nine-year-old Model S cars.”

According to InsideEVs, Tesla has been working with third-parties on the process for more than two years, but has remained tight-lipped about any details.

The study states, "The modest number of post-consumer batteries that we acquire are mostly generated from our fleet of on-the-road cars, predominantly taxi-like vehicles."

Because the Model S has only been in production for nine years, it will “likely be some time before we start getting back batteries in bigger volumes,” according to the business.

Tesla is keen on creating its own nickel, cobalt, and copper from recovered batteries, thus it makes sense for the company to invest in improving its recycling procedures.

Fortunately, this could also be beneficial to the environment.

This article is originally published in - futurism

Our world is made of elements and combinations of elements called compounds. An element is a pure substance made of atoms that are all of the same type. At present, 116 elements are known, and only about 90 of these occur naturally.

Rights: Pslawinski, Creative Commons 2.5

Neon sign

Neon – element number 10 on the periodic table – is an inert gas discovered by Sir William Ramsay in 1898. It is used in making neon advertising signs.

Elements and the ‘Big Bang’ theory

During the formation of the universe some 14 billion years ago in the so-called ‘Big Bang’, only the lightest elements were formed – hydrogen and helium along with trace amounts of lithium and beryllium. As the cloud of cosmic dust and gases from the Big Bang cooled, stars formed, and these then grouped together to form galaxies.

The other 86 elements found in nature were created in nuclear reactions in these stars and in huge stellar explosions known as supernovae.

Universal element formation

Elements are formed deep within the cores of certain types of star. Find out more in this interactive.

Elements and our Sun

For most of their lives, stars fuse elemental hydrogen into helium in their cores. Two atoms of hydrogen are combined in a series of steps to create helium-4. These reactions account for 85% of the Sun’s energy. The remaining 15% comes from reactions that produce the elements beryllium and lithium.

Rights: Public domain - worldwide

The Sun

At this stage of our Sun’s life cycle, hydrogen atoms are fused to form helium atoms. This nuclear reaction produces very large amounts of energy.

The energy from these nuclear reactions is emitted in various forms of radiation such as ultraviolet light, X-rays, visible light, infrared rays, microwaves and radio waves. In addition, energised particles such as neutrinos and protons are released, and it is these that make up the solar wind.

Earth is in the path of this energy stream, which warms the planet, drives weather and provides energy for life. The Earth’s atmosphere is able to screen out most of the harmful radiation, and the Earth’s magnetic field can deflect the harmful effects of the solar wind.

Dying stars

When a star’s core runs out of hydrogen, the star begins to die out. The dying star expands into a red giant, and this now begins to manufacture carbon atoms by fusing helium atoms.

More massive stars begin a further series of nuclear burning or reaction stages. The elements formed in these stages range from oxygen through to iron.

During a supernova, the star releases very large amounts of energy as well as neutrons, which allows elements heavier than iron, such as uranium and gold, to be produced. In the supernova explosion, all of these elements are expelled out into space.

What is the Big Bang theory?

Dr David Krofcheck is a particle physicist who believes that the Big Bang is how matter came about.

Our world is literally made up of elements formed deep within the cores of stars now long dead. As Britain’s Astronomer Royal Sir Martin Rees said, “We are literally the ashes of long dead stars.” When you buy a party balloon that floats in air, it is filled with helium gas – most of which was created when the universe was only 3 minutes old!

Examples of element making (nucleogenesis) in helium burning reactions:

• 3 helium atoms fusing to give a carbon atom: 3 @ 4He → 12C

• carbon atom + helium atom fusing to give an oxygen atom: 12C + 4He → 16O

• oxygen atom + helium atom fusing to give a neon atom: 16O + 4He → 20Ne

• neon atom + helium atom fusing to give a magnesium atom: 20Ne + 4He → 24Mg

Man-made elements

Only 90 of the 116 known elements occur naturally, so where have the other 26 come from?

The answer is to be found in the development of nuclear power plants and machines known as particle accelerators:

• Scientists discovered that, by allowing fast neutrons to collide with the common isotope of uranium known as U-238 in a nuclear reactor, the ‘new’ element plutonium was made.

• By smashing atoms together in machines known as particle accelerators, it was discovered that new elements could be made. For example, bombarding atoms of the element curium with atoms of neon made element 106 – seaborgium.