News at a glance: Big neutrino detectors, pesky Excel formatting, and a crackdown on lead

In Focus White storks patrol the edge of a controlled fire in Kenya’s Maasai Mara National Reserve, hoping to catch prey, such as worms, insects, and spiders, fleeing from the heat. The photo was among those honored in this year’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition , produced by the Natural History Museum in London. © ELZA FRIEDLÄNDER, WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR ASTRONOMY China plans big neutrino catcher China plans to build one of the world’s largest neutrino detectors deep underwater to catch the elusive messengers from deep space. The Tropical Deep-sea Neutrino Telescope (TRIDENT), announced this month, would be operational by 2030. Neutrinos are byproducts of nuclear reactions in stars. They rival photons in number, but rarely interact with ordinary matter. To observe them, researchers place light detectors in a large mass of water or ice and look for the rare flashes each time a neutrino hits an atom. TRIDENT would use 24,000 detectors moored at the bottom of the South China Sea, 3500 meters below the surface, to examine a space measuring 7.5 cubic kilometers. That collection volume is about the same as is planned for an upgrade to the U.S. IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the South Pole, which will make both new instruments far more sensitive than existing ones. LEADERSHIP Senate panel endorses NIH nominee ...
Source: Science of Aging Knowledge Environment - Category: Geriatrics Source Type: research