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What Happens When World Runs Out of Oxygen for 5 Seconds?

Holding your breath for five seconds might not seem hard. You might think surviving without oxygen for a short time is okay. But imagine a world without oxygen for just five seconds – it would be catastrophic.

Dams built on rivers would crumble, and structures made with cement wouldn’t last. That’s because oxygen is crucial to hold cement together; without it, cement can’t bond.

Metals would start to mix uncontrollably. Usually, metals don’t mix because of limited oxygen. Take away that oxygen, and you have a recipe for disaster. Without oxygen, human and animal bodies would burn under sunlight.

The air pressure would drop by 21 percent. Our ears have sensitive cartilage that’s affected by air pressure changes. If the air pressure varies too quickly, it can harm the eardrum.

Fire needs oxygen to burn. Without oxygen, fires all over the world would go out. Car engines would stall, and non-electrical appliances would stop working.

Planes would crash to the ground. The absence of oxygen would reduce light scattering, turning the sky black. The Earth’s crust might crumble since a significant part of it is made of oxygen.

Algae and other plants on Earth and in the oceans play a crucial role in cleaning the air. There’s usually enough oxygen for all of Earth’s processes to work properly. However, human activities harm the environment, and we need to prevent further damage.

November 7, 2023
North Sentinel Island: The Last Untouched Corner of Earth

In our modern world, people can travel to many places with ease thanks to technology and information. However, there’s an island in the Bay of Bengal where travelers never return. This mysterious place is called North Sentinel Island.

Until today, no one has been able to enter the interior of this island successfully. Those who tried often met a cruel fate. Even though it’s geographically part of India, the Indian government has no control over this isolated island.

India has made several attempts to gather information about North Sentinel Island, but it’s been a challenging task. The indigenous people on the island have been living there for a remarkable 7,000 years, making them the oldest known inhabitants of the world in terms of anthropology.

Their way of life primarily revolves around fishing, and they hunt and consume various wild animals as food. Agriculture is unfamiliar to them, and they do not possess the knowledge of how to make fire. The language spoken by these people is called the Sentinel language, and it’s believed that their ancestors originally came from Africa.

North Sentinel Island stands as one of the last remaining places on Earth untouched by modern civilization. In 1973, a research team attempted to make contact with the island’s inhabitants. They brought along three individuals who could communicate in a common language, hoping to foster understanding. However, the islanders reacted with anger and hostility, showing their absolute intolerance for outsiders.

An unfortunate incident involved an American priest who ventured to the forbidden island to preach Christianity. Tragically, he was killed by an arrow, demonstrating the islanders’ fierce defense of their isolation. When they kill someone from the outside, they place the body on the seashore, tied to a bush, sending a clear message that outsiders are not welcome.

November 6, 2023
Life on Earth: A Trillion Times More Cells than Sand Grains

New calculations indicate that the number of living cells on Earth surpasses the estimated count of sand grains and stars in the universe. Researchers estimate that there are one trillion times more cells than grains of sand on Earth and one million times more cells than there are stars in the universe. These calculations provide critical insights into our planet’s biological diversity and could help predict how lifeforms will utilize carbon in the future.

These calculations are essential for scientists in their quest to ask meaningful questions and comprehend the world around us. Being able to count and measure different aspects of our environment is fundamental for conducting scientific research.

Peter Crockford, a geologist at Carleton University, led the study. The research began with an inventory of the number of microbes in the ocean, soil, and Earth’s subsurface, combined with the count of cells in larger organisms, to determine the number of cells currently alive, which amounts to an astonishing 10^30 cells, primarily cyanobacteria.

The key to this calculation was primary productivity, the process that transforms carbon dioxide (CO2) into carbon-based compounds that sustain life. These compounds, such as sugars and starches, travel up the food chain: photosynthesizing microbes and plants are consumed by other organisms, which, in turn, are eaten by larger organisms. All of these eventually die, decompose, and return CO2 to the atmosphere, completing the carbon cycle.

To understand how primary productivity has evolved over Earth’s history, the researchers analyzed various factors, such as the numbers and types of photosynthesizing organisms at different points in time, as well as the amount of food they produced. By examining the primary productivity of modern cells, they could estimate the number of cells needed to sustain past productivity levels. They also adjusted their calculations for factors like the emergence of different lifeforms and the impact of ice ages on their activity.

The research reveals that, over time, the number of cells on Earth has cycled through all of the planet’s carbon about 100 times. However, it also suggests that there is an upper limit to these numbers. Earth cannot support more than 10^41 cells.

The findings have been met with support from scientists in various fields. The numbers are seen as reasonable and realistic, providing insights into the evolution of life on Earth. The calculations also offer a glimpse into the future, where it’s suggested that changes in the Earth’s environment, including alterations in CO2 levels, could impact life on the planet, possibly leading to the decline of biomass and a radically transformed Earth in the distant future.

October 24, 2023
NASA’s Exciting Plan: Travel Anywhere on Earth in Just 2 Hours!

NASA is working on an amazing idea to make travel faster. They want to use special planes to take people around the world in just 2 hours. It sounds unbelievable right now.

The special plane is called the X-59. It can go really fast, almost 1,500 kilometers in one hour. NASA is calling it the “Son of Concorde.” It’s like Concorde, but a bit smaller and slower.

This new plane could make trips much shorter. For example, a flight from New York to London could be 3 hours and 30 minutes faster. Even a long trip like London to Sydney, which usually takes 22 hours, might only take 2 hours with this new plane.

The X-59 is special because it tries to be quiet. When planes go super fast, they make loud noises called sonic booms. The X-59 is designed to make a softer sound, more like a “sonic thump.” This is much better for people on the ground.

The X-59 is a bit longer than a bus and has small wings. It can carry one person. Imagine going from New York to London in less than an hour! This new way of traveling is still being tested, but it could change how we explore the world in the future.

August 2, 2023
NASA’s Discovery: A Distant Black Hole Points Powerful Jet at Earth

A NASA mission spotted a powerful black hole aiming its energetic jet straight at Earth. But don’t worry, it’s far away, about 400 million light-years distant.

Supermassive black holes are surrounded by swirling disks called accretion disks, which gradually feed them over time. Some material from the disks is channeled toward their poles and then blasted out at incredibly high speeds. These events are called blazars.

The blazar observed by NASA, called Markarian 421, is located in the constellation Ursa Major. NASA’s Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) studied it and found something surprising. The jet of particles coming out of Markarian 421 had a magnetic field with a helical structure in the part where particles were being accelerated.

Blazar jets can stretch across space for millions of light-years, but we still don’t fully understand how they are launched. The discoveries made with Markarian 421’s jet may give us more insights into this cosmic phenomenon.

The reason blazars are so bright is that particles approaching the speed of light release enormous amounts of energy. This behavior follows Einstein’s theory of special relativity. Blazar jets are even brighter because their orientation toward Earth causes light waves associated with their jets to bunch up, increasing their frequencies and energies.

Blazars can shine brighter than all the stars in their galaxies combined. IXPE’s observations of Markarian 421 provided valuable information about the physics in the jet’s heart and identified the glowing beam’s origin.

Previously, models suggested that blazar jets have helical magnetic fields, but they didn’t predict that these fields would host areas where particles are accelerated. IXPE’s data showed surprising rotations in the polarization of the jet, indicating a twisting magnetic field.

This twisting magnetic field appeared to carry a shockwave, accelerating jet particles to relativistic speeds. The observations from IXPE’s study of Markarian 421 and another blazar, Markarian 501, supported the idea that helical magnetic fields contribute to the acceleration of jet particles.

These discoveries enhance our understanding of black holes and the extreme cosmic events surrounding them. IXPE’s observations have been beyond the researchers’ expectations, opening up new possibilities for studying magnetic fields and particle acceleration in relativistic jets.

Understanding these phenomena helps us comprehend the intricate workings of our Universe and the powerful forces that shape it. Studying distant cosmic events like blazars gives us valuable insights and sparks our curiosity about the vast and mysterious cosmos.

July 31, 2023