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    Neutrinos hint the sun has more carbon and nitrogen than previously thought

    After two decades of debate, scientists are getting closer to figuring out exactly what the sun — and thus the whole universe — is made of.

    The sun is mostly composed of hydrogen and helium. There are also heavier elements such as oxygen and carbon, but just how much is controversial. New observations of ghostly subatomic particles known as neutrinos suggest that the sun has an ample supply of “metals,” the term astronomers use for all elements heavier than hydrogen and helium, researchers report May 31 at arXiv.org.

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    The results “are fully compatible with [a] high metallicity” for the sun, says Livia Ludhova, a physicist at Research Center Jülich in Germany.

    Elements heavier than hydrogen and helium are crucial for creating rock-iron planets like Earth and sustaining life-forms like humans. By far the most abundant of these elements in the universe is oxygen, followed by carbon, neon and nitrogen.

    But astronomers don’t know exactly how much of these elements exist relative to hydrogen, the most common element in the cosmos. That’s because astronomers typically use the sun as a reference point to gauge elemental abundances in other stars and galaxies, and two techniques imply very different chemical compositions for our star.

    One technique exploits vibrations inside the sun to deduce its internal structure and favors a high metal content. The second technique determines the sun’s composition from how atoms on its surface absorb certain wavelengths of light. Two decades ago, a use of this second technique suggested that oxygen, carbon, neon and nitrogen levels in the sun were 26 to 42 percent lower than an earlier determination found, creating the current conflict.

    Another technique has now emerged that could decide the long-standing debate: using solar neutrinos.

    These particles arise from nuclear reactions in the sun’s core that turn hydrogen into helium. About 1 percent of the sun’s energy comes from reactions involving carbon, nitrogen and oxygen, which convert hydrogen into helium but do not get used up in the process. So the more carbon, nitrogen and oxygen the sun actually has, the more neutrinos this CNO cycle should emit.

    In 2020, scientists announced that Borexino, an underground detector in Italy, had spotted these CNO neutrinos (SN: 6/24/20). Now Ludhova and her colleagues have recorded enough neutrinos to calculate that carbon and nitrogen atoms together are about 0.06 percent as abundant as hydrogen atoms in the sun — the first use of neutrinos to determine the sun’s makeup.

    And though that number sounds small, it’s even higher than the one favored by astronomers who support a high-metal sun. And it’s 70 percent greater than the number a low-metal sun should have.

    “This is a great result,” says Marc Pinsonneault, an astronomer at Ohio State University in Columbus who has long advocated for a high-metal sun. “They’ve been able to demonstrate robustly that the current low-metallicity solution is inconsistent with the data.”

    Still, because of uncertainties in both the observed and predicted neutrino numbers, Borexino can’t fully rule out a low-metal sun, Ludhova says.

    The new work is “a significant improvement,” says Gaël Buldgen, an astrophysicist at Geneva University in Switzerland who favors a low-metal sun. But the predicted numbers of CNO neutrinos come from models of the sun that he criticizes as too simplified. Those models neglect the sun’s spin, which could induce mixing of chemical elements over its life and change the amount of carbon, nitrogen and oxygen near the sun’s center, thereby changing the predicted number of CNO neutrinos, Buldgen says.

    Additional neutrino observations are needed for a final verdict, Ludhova says. Borexino shut down in 2021, but future experiments could fill the void.

    The stakes are high. “We’re arguing about what the universe is made of,” Pinsonneault says, because “the sun is the benchmark for all of our studies.”

    So if the sun has much more carbon, nitrogen and oxygen than currently thought, so does the whole universe. “That changes our understanding about how the chemical elements are made. It changes our understanding of how stars evolve and how they live and die,” Pinsonneault says. And, he adds, it’s a reminder that even the best-studied star — our sun — still has secrets. More

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    Crimes of the Future review: Is Cronenberg sci-fi compelling or chaos?

    David Cronenberg’s latest outing is a fascinating sci-fi tale that sets out to be a transgressive exploration of human evolution, but ends up sunk by flaws in its internal logic

    Humans

    15 June 2022

    By Davide Abbatescianni

    Viggo Mortensen plays an artist who can grow new organsNikos Nikolopoulos/Neon
    Crimes of the Future
    David Cronenberg
    Now playing in US cinemas; UK dates pending

    SURGERY is the new sex – or at least it is in the world envisioned by David Cronenberg in his latest outing, Crimes of the Future, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival last month.
    The story takes place in an unsettling future, where humans have adapted to an environment they have polluted for decades – or is it centuries, perhaps millennia? In this dystopia, body modification represents … More

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    Time to drop the outdated and unfair anonymity rule in organ donation

    The rise of social media means decades-old rules requiring that the identities of deceased organ donors and organ recipients remain secret are fast becoming obsolete

    Humans

    | Comment

    15 June 2022

    By Charles Weijer and Nicholas Murphy
    Simone Rotella
    IN JUNE 2012, Canadian teen Tyler Schwering died after an accident. Knowing it is what he would have wanted, Tyler’s mother, Kim LeBlanc, consented to organ donation on his behalf. That decision saved the life of Dave Allingham, who received Tyler’s heart the next day. A year later, after finding one another with the help of social media, LeBlanc and Allingham met. Both say the experience was life-changing.
    “Seeing what has come of something horrible has given me peace,” says LeBlanc. Allingham, now free of his heart condition, welcomed the chance to express his gratitude. “I cherish the gift I’ve been given,” he says. “Tyler’s legacy … More

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    Beyond Measure review: How measuring the world betrays its human side

    Our neat ways of measuring tend to seem like they have always existed. A romp through history shows it is much messier and more human than that

    Humans

    15 June 2022

    By Chris Stokel-Walker

    Ancient Egypt’s systems of measurement were based on the human bodyScience History Images/Alamy
    Beyond Measure
    James Vincent
    Faber

    WE TAKE the certainty of measurements for granted, but their story is as complicated and changeable as any other part of human culture. Journalist James Vincent makes this clear in his new book, which explores the history of calculating things.
    Beyond Measure is a pacy romp through time and space, moving from ancient Egyptians with their body-centric measuring systems to present-day scientists seeking to standardise measurement. But it isn’t just the stories of … More

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    Is Uttoxeter’s World Parts Centre the answer to the world’s problems?

    Feedback is our weekly column of bizarre stories, implausible advertising claims, confusing instructions and more

    Humans

    15 June 2022

    Josie Ford
    Spare parts
    Crisis in the stationery cupboard as our veteran laptop’s power plug finally expires. Now who will sell us a legacy LAVAFLO charging cable from 2003 (2nd edition)?
    Seventy-eight per cent battery charge might just last us until we reach Uttoxeter (just off the UK’s A50 road) and JCB’s promising-sounding “World Parts Centre”. Reader Paul Ticher finds comfort in its recent arrival, given “all the damage we are currently doing to our planet”. (But you can see how his mind works: on the sad occasion of his father’s passing, Paul tells us he called on the services of a … More

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    Jellyfish Age Backwards review: Exploring nature's secrets to ageing

    Why do some jellyfish age backwards? Does intermittent fasting really make us live longer? Find out how much science knows about ageing in this whistle-stop tour

    Humans

    15 June 2022

    By Chen Ly

    FROM the Epic of Gilgamesh to alchemists’ quest to find the fabled philosopher’s stone, stories of perilous, yet ultimately fruitless, pursuits of immortality are ubiquitous. Even today, humanity seems determined to unlock the secrets of a long life. But now we look to science, not legend.
    In Jellyfish Age Backwards, molecular biologist Nicklas Brendborg takes us on a whistle-stop tour of the science of ageing. We begin with a visit to a few of the many natural wonders that defy our ideas of ageing. These include the 400-year-old shark that roams the … More

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    Don't Miss: Oddball heroes return in The Umbrella Academy season three

    New Scientist’s weekly round-up of the best books, films, TV series, games and more that you shouldn’t miss

    Humans

    15 June 2022

    Courtesy Of Netflix
    Watch
    The Umbrella Academy is back for a third season, in which the adopted-sibling superheroes meet their less dysfunctional counterparts in an alternative reality. Available to watch on Netflix from 22 June.

    Read
    The Digital Republic
    is possible, says Jamie Susskind. He explains how – with proper governance and new institutions, rights and regulators – freedom and democracy can survive despite powerful digital technologies. Buy from 23 June.
    Wired Productions/Keoken Interactive
    Play
    Deliver Us the Moon sends you to Earth’s moon as humanity’s last astronaut, on an open-ended, do-or-die mission to find a missing energy source and save our world. Available on PlayStation 4, … More

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    The Biggest Number in the World review: A brilliant guide to googology

    The largest numbers are so huge you need special notation to write them down. David Darling and Agnijo Banerjee’s new book on big numbers will take you to the edge of mathematics

    Humans

    15 June 2022

    By Timothy Revell
    Reaching far along the number line requires mathematical booster technologyGrant Faint/Getty Images

    DR EVIL (aka Adam Elga) walked up to a blackboard in front of a packed auditorium at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and wrote a single 1. It was a slow but tactical start to the 2007 Big Number Duel, an event described on its posters as: “Two competitors. One chalkboard. Largest integer wins.”
    The Mexican Multiplier (aka Agustin Rayo) wasn’t happy with such a slow start, so he filled in the blackboard with … More