Researchers capture the first example of an extremely bright, and fast-evolving astronomical event in the distant universe

A team of astronomers have discovered a mysterious short-duration astronomical event, or transient, that is as bright as a superluminous supernova, but evolving much faster, reports a study in The Astrophysical Journal Letters published on July 12.

The universe is full of energetic transient phenomena, astronomical events that occur over a short period of time. For example, most massive stars end their lives by exploding spectacularly, known as a supernova, a major type of transients. In order to understand the origin of these transient phenomena, various time-domain surveys have been carried out in the past few decades. As more and more transients have been discovered, researchers began noticing some new transient types in recent years.

To figure out the nature of various transient phenomena, an international transient survey project called "MUltiband Subaru Survey for Early-phase Supernovae" (MUSSES), led by Ji-an Jiang, a former Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (Kavli IPMU) Project Researcher (currently postdoctoral fellow at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ)) attempt to catch various fast-evolving transients within one day of their occurrence, using the most powerful survey facility in the world, the Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC) mounted on the 8.2-m Subaru telescope.

By carrying out consecutive Subaru/HSC observations in December 2020, 20 fast-evolving transients have been discovered, and one of them, MUSSES2020J (AT 2020afay), caught Jiang's attention.

"MUSSES2020J was discovered with very low brightness on December 11 in 2020, and its brightness showed significant brightening during our observation. More surprisingly, the fast light curve evolution and very high redshift of the transient confirmed by follow-up observations indicate that the brightness of MUSSES2020J was about 50 times higher, while the rising phase was much shorter than those of normal supernovae, which indeed show high similarity to a recently discovered peculiar transient, AT 2018cow. We suggest calling these extreme transients as Fast Blue Ultraluminous Transient (FBUT). So far only a handful of them have been discovered, and we had never seen one soon after its occurrence due to their extremely fast evolution. Thanks to the high-cadence survey mode and the excellent performance of Subaru/HSC, we were able to perfectly catch this amazing phenomenon for the first time. The early multiband light-curve data bring some unique information to understand the origin of these amazing transients," said first author Jiang.

The data has stimulated intensive discussion about the origins of MUSSES2020J and a few other FBUTs, led by various researchers within the team including Kyoto University graduate student Kohki Uno, Kyoto University Associate Professor Keiichi Maeda, NAOJ Assistant Professor Takashi Moriya, and Kavli IPMU Senior Scientist Ken'ichi Nomoto.

The theoretical investigation is still ongoing, but the team has so far narrowed down the possibilities to a few scenarios, most of which involve an active compact object -- either a black hole or a highly magnetized neutron star -- to power these extremely bright objects.

"There is almost no doubt that an active compact object is involved, and it is a main reason why these transients are so different from normal supernovae. The remaining possibilities are an event where a star is tidally disrupted by a massive black hole, or a massive star collapse which is different from normal supernovae in a sense that it has probably left a highly active compact object like an accreting black hole. The very early-phase data provided for the first time for a class of FBUTs hints the existence of sub-relativistic outflow distinctly from a bulk of the slower ejecta, and this must be a key to solving the problem. We are currently checking the details of each model to robustly identify the origin of MUSSES2020J, with the strong constraint provided by this new observation," said Maeda.

"MUSSES2020J shows a similar light curve of AT 2018cow. The light curve of AT 2018cow is well-reproduced by the model of interaction between circumstellar matter and the ejecta of a pulsational pair-instability supernova (PPISN). The PPISN is the explosion of a very massive star which would collapse to form a black hole and eject the outer layer in a jet-like form. Therefore, it is possible that a similar PPISN model with a different amount of circumstellar matter can also explain the light curve of MUSSES2020J," Nomoto said.

Jiang's team will continue looking for the answer of the origin of this newly confirmed transient type by carrying out transient surveys with telescopes all over the world.

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Air pollution caused 2,780 deaths, illnesses, and IQ loss in children in Massachusetts in 2019

Air pollution remains a silent killer in Massachusetts, responsible for an estimated 2,780 deaths a year and for measurable cognitive loss in Bay State children exposed to fine particulate pollutants in the air they breathe, according to a new study by researchers at Boston College's Global Observatory on Planetary Health.

The study was supported by the Barr Foundation and is the first to examine far-reaching public health consequences of air pollution in the state on a town-by-town basis. The study found air-pollution-related disease, death and IQ loss occur in every city and town regardless of demographics or income level. Highest rates were in the most economically disadvantaged and socially underserved cities and towns.

The Boston College team estimates the cumulative impact on childhood cognitive development in Massachusetts in 2019 was a loss of almost 2 million Performance IQ points, or more than 2 IQ points for the average child, according to the report, published today in the journal Environmental Health. IQ loss impairs children's school performance and reduces graduation rates, the team noted.

"We are talking about the impacts of air pollution at a very local level in Massachusetts -- not just statewide," said lead author Boston College Professor of Biology Philip J. Landrigan, MD, director of the Observatory. "This report gives the people in every city and town the opportunity to see for themselves the quality of the air they and their families are breathing and the dangerous health implications for both adults and children as a consequence of air pollution."

"All of these health effects occurred at pollution levels below current EPA standards," Landrigan noted.

The average level of fine particulate pollution across Massachusetts in 2019 was 6.3 micrograms per cubic meter, and levels ranged from a low of 2.77 micrograms per cubic meter in Worcester County to a high of 8.26 in Suffolk County. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency standard is 12 micrograms per cubic meter, and the World Health Organization's recommended guideline is 5.

"Clearly, current EPA air pollution standards are not adequately protecting public health," Landrigan said.

Town-by-town air pollution information is not typically available, given there are not enough air quality monitoring stations in the state. The team determined levels for all cities and towns using available data and computer modeling.

While Massachusetts meets federal clean air guidelines and air pollution in the U.S. has declined 70 percent since the passage of the Clean Air Act in the 1970s -- when Landrigan and other scientists successfully pushed for the removal of lead from gasoline -- unclean air at current levels still poses health hazards to both healthy individuals and those with other ailments or illnesses.

"We do not have the level of air pollution you see in China or India and because it is mostly invisible today people tend to forget about air pollution and we get complacent," Landrigan said. "We hope to break through this complacency and increase awareness. Air pollution is killing 2,780 people in Massachusetts each year, nearly 5 percent of all deaths in the state, and that is a big deal. Air pollution is something we can fix. We know the steps that need to be taken to reduce fatalities and the impact on our children and grandchildren. Now citizens in every city and town across the Commonwealth need to urge our elected officials to take those necessary steps."

Additional findings include:
 

• Of the 2,780 deaths attributable to air pollution in Massachusetts in 2019, at least 2,185 were due to lung cancer 1,677 to heart disease, 343 to chronic lung disease, and 200 to stroke.
• Air pollution was responsible for 15,386 cases of pediatric asthma and an estimated 308 low-birthweight babies (5.5 lbs. or less).

More than 95 percent of air pollution in Massachusetts results from the combustion of fossil fuels. Cars, trucks, buses, planes, trains and ships produced two-thirds of pollutant emissions-655,000 tons -- in 2017, the most recent year for which data were available. Power plants, industrial facilities, and home heating and cooking produced 283,000 tons. In all, these sources emitted 938,000 tons of pollutants.

Fossil fuel combustion is also the major source of the carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that drive global climate change, which the researchers said should further incentivize Massachusetts to reduce air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions by transitioning to cleaner fuels.

"Air pollution harms our environment and young people, and these burdens disproportionately impact environmental justice communities," said Kathryn Wright, the Barr Foundation's Senior Program Officer for Clean Energy. "Meaningful action on climate change requires us to swiftly address air pollution from transportation and our energy system and its many harmful effects."

Fine particulate air pollution is linked to multiple non-communicable diseases in adults, including cardiovascular disease, stroke, lung cancer and diabetes. Among infants and children air pollution increases risk for premature birth, low birthweight, stillbirth, impaired lung development, and asthma.

"All of these adverse health effects occur at fine particulate matter pollution levels below the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's current annual standard of 12 micrograms per cubic meter," said Landrigan. "So even for a state like Massachusetts, which registered below that standard, air pollution is a formidable public health threat that needs urgently to be addressed."

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'Junk' DNA could lead to cancer by stopping copying of DNA

Scientists have found that non-coding 'junk' DNA, far from being harmless and inert, could potentially contribute to the development of cancer.

Their study has shown how non-coding DNA can get in the way of the replication and repair of our genome, potentially allowing mutations to accumulate.

It has been previously found that non-coding or repetitive patterns of DNA -- which make up around half of our genome -- could disrupt the replication of the genome.

But until now scientists have not understood the underlying mechanism, or how it could contribute to cancer's development. In the new study, scientists at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, reconstituted the entire process of DNA replication in a test tube in order to understand it more completely.

The researchers were able to describe how repetitive patterns of DNA are copied during replication and how they are able to stall replication entirely -- increasing the risk of errors that can be an early driver of cancer. This vital knowledge may eventually lead to better drugs and treatments.

The researchers believe the work could also help to improve the diagnosis and monitoring of some cancers, such as bowel cancer, where common errors in copying the repetitive sequences of DNA indicate whether cancer is progressing.

The study, published in Nature Communications, was funded by Wellcome and the Royal Society, with additional support from The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) itself.

Scientists at the ICR -- a charity and research institute -- found that when the DNA replication machinery encountered repetitive DNA, it was able to unwind the DNA strands, but it sometimes failed to copy the opposite DNA strand. This error could cause replication to stall, resulting in collapse of the replication machinery in a manner similar to that induced by DNA damage.

The findings lead scientists to believe that repetitive DNA sequences could trigger a damage response signal indicating that errors in DNA replication have occurred and require repair.

DNA damage and ensuing genome instability are known to promote cancer formation and progression, so the research strengthens the link between junk DNA and cancer.

It was scientists at the ICR who, in the 1960s, provided the first conclusive evidence that DNA damage is the fundamental cause of cancer. In the early 2000s, ICR researchers then showed that drugs called PARP inhibitors could be genetically targeted against cancers with DNA repair mutations.

Our researchers now hope that improved understanding of DNA replication, and how it can go wrong, might lead to new ways of treating the disease.

Study leader Dr Gideon Coster, Team Leader in Genome Replication at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, said:

"We wanted to understand why it seems more difficult for cells to copy repetitive DNA sequences than other parts of the genome. Our study suggests that so-called junk DNA is actually playing an important and potentially damaging role in cells, by blocking DNA replication and potentially opening the door to cancerous mutations.

"We now believe that repetitive DNA sequences trigger a response that is very similar to the one induced by DNA damage, which we know can lead to cancer. Our study therefore fundamentally advances our understanding of cancer, and I'm hopeful it will help us come up with new treatments in the future."

Professor Kristian Helin, Chief Executive of The Institute of Cancer Research, London, said:

"This study helps to unravel the puzzle of junk DNA -- showing how these repetitive sequences can block DNA replication and repair. It's possible that this mechanism could play a role in the development of cancer as a cause of genetic instability -- especially as cancer cells start dividing more quickly and so place the process of DNA replication under more stress.

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Skin: An additional tool for the versatile elephant trunk

A new study from Georgia Institute of Technology suggests that an elephant's muscles aren't the only way it stretches its trunk -- its folded skin also plays an important role. The combination of muscle and skin gives the animal the versatility to grab fragile vegetation and rip apart tree trunks.

The research, in collaboration with Zoo Atlanta, finds that an elephant's skin doesn't uniformly stretch. The top of the trunk is more flexible than the bottom, and the two sections begin to diverge when an elephant reaches more than 10%. When stretching for food or objects, the dorsal section of the trunk slides further forward.

The findings could improve robotics, which today are typically built for either great strength or flexibility. Unlike an elephant's trunk, the machines can't do both.

As an example, the study's authors point to soft robotics. Their fluid-filled cavities allow flexible movements but can easily break when forces are applied. The researchers say the elephant findings suggest that wrapping soft robotics with a skin-like structure could give the machines protection and strength while continuing to allow flexibility.

The paper is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) by the same Georgia Tech team that authored a study last summer about how elephants use their trunk muscles to inhale food and water.

"When people extend their tongue -- a muscle-filled, boneless tissue similar in composition to an elephant's trunk -- it stretches uniformly. We expected the same when we challenged an elephant to reach for food," said Andrew Schulz, the study's lead author and a Ph.D. student in Georgia Tech's George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering. He and the team filmed two African savanna elephants reaching for bran cubes and apples at Zoo Atlanta.

"But when we looked at our high-speed camera footage and plotted the trunk's movements, we were surprised. The top and bottom weren't the same at all," Schulz said.

After seeing the video, Schulz stretched the tissue of a dissected elephant to better understand the skin's elasticity. That's when he found that the top of the skin, which is folded, is 15% more flexible than the wrinkled bottom side. It's also when the team realized they weren't just seeing muscle movement on the video. They were also tracking a thick sheet of skin.

"Flexible skin folds are the elephant's innovation," said David Hu, Schulz's advisor and a professor in the Woodruff School and the School of Biological Sciences. "They protect the dorsal section and make it easier for the elephant to reach downward, the most common gripping style when picking up items."

The Georgia Tech study also found that an elephant trunk differs in another way from other boneless, muscle-filled appendages found in nature, such as squid and octopus tentacles. Instead of extending evenly, an elephant telescopically stretches its trunk like an umbrella, gradually lengthening in waves.

An elephant first extends the section that includes the tip of its trunk, then the adjacent section and so on, gradually working its way back toward its body. Schulz says the progressive movement towards the base is intentional.

"Elephants are like people: they're lazy," he said. "The section at the end of the trunk is 1 liter of muscle. The section closest to its mouth is 11-15 liters of muscle. An elephant will first stretch the end of its trunk, then the adjacent section, because they're easier to move. If an elephant doesn't have to work very hard to reach something, it won't."

Schulz said he had to rely on a drawing from 1908 when learning about trunk anatomy because scientists and engineers haven't done much research on the biomechanics of elephants during the last century. Part of his curiosity of elephants is based on helping them; he thinks a better understanding of the animals will lead to better conservation efforts. As a mechanical engineer, Schulz also sees the applications of robotics.

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'Black hole police' discover a dormant black hole outside our galaxy

A team of international experts, renowned for debunking several black hole discoveries, have found a stellar-mass black hole in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a neighbour galaxy to our own. "For the first time, our team got together to report on a black hole discovery, instead of rejecting one," says study leader Tomer Shenar. Moreover, they found that the star that gave rise to the black hole vanished without any sign of a powerful explosion. The discovery was made thanks to six years of observations obtained with the European Southern Observatory's (ESO's) Very Large Telescope (VLT).

"We identified a 'needle in a haystack'," says Shenar who started the study at KU Leuven in Belgium and is now a Marie-Curie Fellow at Amsterdam University, the Netherlands. Though other similar black hole candidates[ have been] -- proposed, the team claims this is the first 'dormant' stellar-mass black hole to be unambiguously detected outside our galaxy.

Stellar-mass black holes are formed when massive stars reach the end of their lives and collapse under their own gravity. In a binary, a system of two stars revolving around each other, this process leaves behind a black hole in orbit with a luminous companion star. The black hole is 'dormant' if it does not emit high levels of X-ray radiation, which is how such black holes are typically detected. "It is incredible that we hardly know of any dormant black holes, given how common astronomers believe them to be," explains co-author Pablo Marchant of KU Leuven. The newly found black hole is at least nine times the mass of our Sun, and orbits a hot, blue star weighing 25 times the Sun's mass.

Dormant black holes are particularly hard to spot since they do not interact much with their surroundings. "For more than two years now, we have been looking for such black-hole-binary systems," says co-author Julia Bodensteiner, a research fellow at ESO in Germany. "I was very excited when I heard about VFTS 243, which in my opinion is the most convincing candidate reported to date."

To find VFTS 243, the collaboration searched nearly 1000 massive stars in the Tarantula Nebula region of the Large Magellanic Cloud, looking for the ones that could have black holes as companions. Identifying these companions as black holes is extremely difficult, as so many alternative possibilities exist.

"As a researcher who has [debunked] -- potential black holes in recent years, I was extremely skeptical regarding this discovery," says Shenar. The skepticism was shared by co-author Kareem El-Badry of the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian in the USA, whom Shenar calls the "black hole destroyer." "When Tomer asked me to double check his findings, I had my doubts. But I could not find a plausible explanation for the data that did not involve a black hole," explains El-Badry.

The discovery also allows the team a unique view into the processes that accompany the formation of black holes. Astronomers believe that a stellar-mass black hole forms as the core of a dying massive star collapses, but it remains uncertain whether or not this is accompanied by a powerful supernova explosion.

"The star that formed the black hole in VFTS 243 appears to have collapsed entirely, with no sign of a previous explosion," explains Shenar. "Evidence for this 'direct-collapse' scenario has been emerging recently, but our study arguably provides one of the most direct indications. This has enormous implications for the origin of black-hole mergers in the cosmos."

The black hole in VFTS 243 was found using six years of observations of the Tarantula Nebula by the Fibre Large Array Multi Element Spectrograph ([FLAMES] -- ) instrument on ESO's[ VLT].

Despite the nickname 'black hole police', the team actively encourages scrutiny, and hopes that their work, published today in Nature Astronomy, will enable the discovery of other stellar-mass black holes orbiting massive stars, thousands of which are predicted to exist in Milky Way and in the Magellanic Clouds.

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Insects harbor over a thousand genes from microbes, which help them survive

Hundreds of millions of years ago, microbes and plants might have given insects an evolutionary advantage by passing genes to them through horizontal gene transfer. In a study published in the journal Cell on July 18, researchers report that more than 1,400 genes across 218 insect species, including butterflies and moths, that originated from bacteria, viruses, fungi, and plants. The study argues that these genes might have been essential for insect evolution by allowing them to develop beneficial traits in mating behavior, nutrition, growth, and adaptation to environmental changes.

Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) is fairly common between microbes. For example, bacteria use this mechanism to transmit antibiotic-resistance genes between species, but scientists more recently have been systematically looking at the phenomenon between insects and microbes or plants.

"Previous studies have shown that HGT may have contributed to insect biodiversity, but nobody knew how large a role it plays in this process," says senior author Xing-Xing Shen, an evolutionary biologist at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, China. "Since there are a lot of high-quality insect genomes available for our analysis, I thought that now is a good time to systematically investigate how prevalent HGT is in insects."

Shen's team at Zhejiang University started this project in collaboration with Antonis Rokas, an evolutionary biologist at Vanderbilt University by gathering 218 high-quality insect genome samples representing 11 of 19 species-rich orders of insects. With the data, they were able to draw an evolutionary tree, identify out-of-place genes that are more commonly found in non-animal genomes, and examine what factors contribute to the fate of HGT in insects.

"There were HGT events everywhere we looked," says Shen. "However, we don't know whether these transfers of genes are beneficial to the insects, or even the functions for most of these genes," says Shen. He enlisted help from another expert -- Jianhua Huang, who studies insect gene functions at Zhejiang University.

"Shen walked into my office with a list of more than 1,400 genes, and we had to decide where to start," Huang says. The team decided to validate the function of the most prevalent foreign gene without known functions in insects: LOC105383139.

"This gene was horizontally introduced into nearly all moths and butterflies from a donor in the bacterial genus Listeria," they report in the study, meaning this gene has persisted in the genome since the time of moths' and butterflies' common ancestor more than 300 million years ago.

They decided to delete this ancient gene from diamondback moths, a pest affecting broccoli and cabbage, and observe what kind of functions it has. "Surprisingly, we saw those moths lacking this gene cannot produce many viable eggs," Huang says. "Then, we found that the gene influences the male courtship behavior."

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To keep up with evolving prey, rattlesnakes tap genetically diverse venom toolbox

In the evolutionary arms race between rattlesnakes and their prey, rodents, birds and other reptiles develop resistance to the snakes' deadly venom to survive. But new research led by the University of Colorado Boulder and University of Texas at Arlington sheds light on how snakes manage to keep the upper hand: They maintain a broad and diverse toolkit of genes that encode snake venom, allowing them to adapt as local prey and conditions change.

The findings, published today in Nature Ecology and Evolution, help explain how rattlesnakes have kept up with prey species evolving resistance to their venoms over millions of years. This research overturns decades of thought on what factors shape venom gene evolution and venom variation, and sheds new light on why developing effective antivenom treatments for snakebites remains so challenging.

"We found these rattlesnakes had a more diverse venom repertoire, more genetic tools in the toolkit, than their venom composition alone might suggest," said Drew Schield, lead author on the paper and postdoctoral fellow in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at CU Boulder.

Snake venom, an evolutionary adaptation, is made up of different enzymes and toxins that enable snakes to capture their prey. For decades, biologists have thought that co-evolution between predator and prey would drive snake venom to become highly specialized: the venom evolving to effectively kill specific prey and unused venom gene genetic diversity disappearing along the way. Known in evolutionary biology as "directional selection" this process is like the sharpening of a knife -- while the weapon gets more deadly, it loses a bit of itself in the process.

The new study proposes that instead, "balancing selection" is the mechanism at play, an evolutionary process where multiple versions of a gene -- in this case, genes that encode venom proteins -- are maintained instead of eliminated. This could be the key to how snakes prevent themselves from going down evolutionary dead ends.

"The existence of these resistance mechanisms in prey led us to wonder: If there's selection pressure imposed back on the snakes, then it might make sense evolutionarily to have a more expanded venom arsenal," said Schield.

As rattlesnakes prey on a variety of animals, including mice, voles, birds and lizards, selection over time may not only maintain, but proactively select for a greater venom gene diversity, something no research has shown before.

"Our findings help explain decades of seemingly contradictory theory and evidence for what drives the extreme variation observed in snake venoms. It turns out that the arms-race between snakes and prey ends up favoring the constant re-shuffling of venom variants that are favored, leading to the retention of lots of venom variants over time, some of which are ancient," said Todd Castoe, co-author on the study and professor of biology at the University of Texas at Arlington.

Population level insights

During his work as a graduate student and postdoctoral researcher at the University of Texas at Arlington in 2019, Schield and his colleagues figured out where the venom genes reside in the rattlesnake genome, which up until that point was mostly a mystery. Now knowing the genetic architecture of venom as a trait (published in Genome Research), he realized scientists could investigate what evolutionary mechanisms have been operating on the venom genes.

Snake venom is a popular study subject, a promising model for understanding the origins of gene novelty. But previous studies in this field have not explored how selection has shaped this trait within closely related populations, so the researchers focused on select populations of rattlesnakes in Colorado, Montana, California and Idaho.

After scouting out locations where these snakes live, Schield and his co-authors traveled to a series of sites over several years in late spring and early summer from 2017 to 2020, where they collected 68 rattlesnakes belonging to two different species occupying the western United States in order to sample their blood, venom and take physical measurements.

They sequenced and analyzed genomes from these rattlesnake species, investigating genetic variation in regions of the genome housing venom genes. They found striking genetic diversity and strong evidence for natural selection maintaining multiple forms of different venom genes, adding to a growing body of evidence that balancing selection is more pervasive in nature than previously thought.

Based on the new study, Schield suspects that while directional selection may have driven the origins of venom, in more recent timescales, there may be an equilibrium shift towards balancing selection favoring diverse venom repertoires.

This may be one reason that snakebite is notoriously difficult to treat.

"These evolutionary mechanisms ramp up the complexity that you're contending with when you develop antivenoms, as venom composition within the same species but in different geographic regions might be totally different," said Schield.

Understanding how diverse venomous snake genomes truly are -- from rattlesnakes to cobras and coral snakes -- can inform advances in anti-venom therapeutics and save lives around the world, Schield said.

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Cooperation among strangers has increased since the 1950s

Despite common concerns that the social fabric is fraying, cooperation among strangers has gradually increased in the U.S. since the 1950s, according to research published by the American Psychological Association.

"We were surprised by our findings that Americans became more cooperative over the last six decades because many people believe U.S. society is becoming less socially connected, less trusting and less committed to the common good," said lead researcher Yu Kou, PhD, a professor of social psychology at Beijing Normal University. "Greater cooperation within and between societies may help us tackle global challenges, such as responses to pandemics, climate change and immigrant crises."

The researchers analyzed 511 studies conducted in the United States between 1956 and 2017 with a total of more than 63,000 participants. Those studies included lab experiments measuring cooperation among strangers. The research was published online in Psychological Bulletin.

The study found a small, gradual increase in cooperation across the 61-year period, which the researchers said may be linked to notable shifts in U.S. society. The increase in cooperation was associated with increases in urbanization, societal wealth, income inequality and the number of people living alone. The study cannot prove those factors caused an increase in cooperation, only that there is a correlation.

Increased cooperation has been linked with market competitiveness and economic growth in prior research. As more people live in cities and on their own, they may be forced to cooperate with strangers, said study co-author Paul Van Lange, PhD, a professor of social psychology at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.

"It's possible that people gradually learn to broaden their cooperation with friends and acquaintances to strangers, which is called for in more urban, anonymous societies," Van Lange said. "U.S. society may have become more individualistic, but people have not."

The studies that were analyzed occurred in lab settings primarily with college students as participants, so the findings may not be representative of real-life situations or of U.S. society as a whole. However, the researchers noted that prior studies have not found that levels of cooperation vary by gender or ethnicity in the U.S.

The study did not measure some other societal factors, such as levels of trust about strangers. Prior research has found a general decline in trust over several decades in the U.S.

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NASA Reveals Webb Telescope's first images of unseen universe

 The dawn of a new era in astronomy is here as the world gets its first look at the full capabilities of NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, a partnership with ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency).

The full set of the telescope's first full-color images and spectroscopic data, which uncover a collection of cosmic features elusive until now, released Tuesday, are available at:

https://www.nasa.gov/webbfirstimages

"Today, we present humanity with a groundbreaking new view of the cosmos from the James Webb Space Telescope -- a view the world has never seen before," said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. "These images, including the deepest infrared view of our universe that has ever been taken, show us how Webb will help to uncover the answers to questions we don't even yet know to ask; questions that will help us better understand our universe and humanity's place within it.

"The Webb team's incredible success is a reflection of what NASA does best. We take dreams and turn them into reality for the benefit of humanity. I can't wait to see the discoveries that we uncover -- the team is just getting started!"

NASA explores the unknown in space for the benefit of all, and Webb's first observations tell the story of the hidden universe through every phase of cosmic history -- from neighboring planets outside our solar system, known as exoplanets, to the most distant observable galaxies in the early universe.

"This is a singular and historic moment," said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. "It took decades of drive and perseverance to get us here, and I am immensely proud of the Webb team. These first images show us how much we can accomplish when we come together behind a shared goal, to solve the cosmic mysteries that connect us all. It's a stunning glimpse of the insights yet to come."

"We are elated to celebrate this extraordinary day with the world," said Greg Robinson, Webb program director at NASA Headquarters. "The beautiful diversity and incredible detail of the Webb telescope's images and data will have a profound impact on our understanding of the universe and inspire us to dream big."

Webb's first observations were selected by a group of representatives from NASA, ESA, CSA, and the Space Telescope Science Institute. They reveal the capabilities of all four of Webb's state-of-the-art scientific instruments:
 

• SMACS 0723: Webb has delivered the deepest and sharpest infrared image of the distant universe so far -- and in only 12.5 hours. For a person standing on Earth looking up, the field of view for this new image, a color composite of multiple exposures each about two hours long, is approximately the size of a grain of sand held at arm's length. This deep field uses a lensing galaxy cluster to find some of the most distant galaxies ever detected. This image only scratches the surface of Webb's capabilities in studying deep fields and tracing galaxies back to the beginning of cosmic time.
• WASP-96b (spectrum): Webb's detailed observation of this hot, puffy planet outside our solar system reveals the clear signature of water, along with evidence of haze and clouds that previous studies of this planet did not detect. With Webb's first detection of water in the atmosphere of an exoplanet, it will now set out to study hundreds of other systems to understand what other planetary atmospheres are made of.
• Southern Ring Nebula: This planetary nebula, an expanding cloud of gas that surrounds a dying star, is approximately 2,000 light years away. Here, Webb's powerful infrared eyes bring a second dying star into full view for the first time. From birth to death as a planetary nebula, Webb can explore the expelling shells of dust and gas of aging stars that may one day become a new star or planet.
• Stephan's Quintet: Webb's view of this compact group of galaxies, located in the constellation Pegasus, pierced through the shroud of dust surrounding the center of one galaxy, to reveal the velocity and composition of the gas near its supermassive black hole. Now, scientists can get a rare look, in unprecedented detail, at how interacting galaxies are triggering star formation in each other and how the gas in these galaxies is being disturbed.
• Carina Nebula: Webb's look at the 'Cosmic Cliffs' in the Carina Nebula unveils the earliest, rapid phases of star formation that were previously hidden. Looking at this star-forming region in the southern constellation Carina, as well as others like it, Webb can see newly forming stars and study the gas and dust that made them.

"Absolutely thrilling!" said John Mather, Webb senior project scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. "The equipment is working perfectly, and nature is full of surprising beauty. Congratulations and thanks to our worldwide teams that made it possible."

The release of Webb's first images and spectra kicks off the beginning of Webb's science operations, where astronomers around the world will have their chance to observe anything from objects within our solar system to the early universe using Webb's four instruments.

The James Webb Space Telescope launched Dec. 25, 2021, on an Ariane 5 rocket from Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana, South America. After completing a complex deployment sequence in space, Webb underwent months of commissioning where its mirrors were aligned, and its instruments were calibrated to its space environment and prepared for science.

The public can also view the new Webb images Tuesday on several digital screens in New York City's Times Square and in London's Piccadilly Circus beginning at 5:30 p.m. EDT and 10:30 p.m. GMT, respectively.

The James Webb Space Telescope is the world's premier space science observatory. Webb will solve mysteries in our solar system, look beyond to distant worlds around other stars and probe the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it.

NASA Headquarters oversees the mission for the agency's Science Mission Directorate. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages Webb for the agency and oversees work on the mission performed by the Space Telescope Science Institute, Northrop Grumman, and other mission partners. In addition to Goddard, several NASA centers contributed to the project, including the agency's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, Ames Research Center in California's Silicon Valley, and others.

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'Life-like' lasers can self-organize, adapt their structure, and cooperate

While many artificial materials have advanced properties, they have a long way to go to combine the versatility and functionality of living materials that can adapt to their situation. For example, in the human body bone and muscle continuously reorganise their structure and composition to better sustain changing weight and level of activity.

Now, researchers from Imperial College London and University College London have demonstrated the first spontaneously self-organising laser device, which can reconfigure when conditions change.

The innovation, reported in Nature Physics, will help enable the development of smart photonic materials capable of better mimicking properties of biological matter, such as responsiveness, adaptation, self-healing, and collective behaviour.

Co-lead author Professor Riccardo Sapienza, from the Department of Physics at Imperial, said: "Lasers, which power most of our technologies, are designed from crystalline materials to have precise and static properties. We asked ourselves if we could create a laser with the ability to blend structure and functionality, to reconfigure itself and cooperate like biological materials do.

"Our laser system can reconfigure and cooperate, thus enabling a first step towards emulating the ever-evolving relationship between structure and functionality typical of living materials."

Lasers are devices that amplify light to produce a special form of light. The self-assembling lasers in the team's experiment consisted of microparticles dispersed in a liquid with high 'gain' -- the ability to amplify light. Once enough of these microparticles collect together, they can harness external energy to 'lase' -- produce laser light.

An external laser was used to heat up a 'Janus' particle (a particle coated on one side with light-absorbing material), around which the microparticles gathered. The lasing created by these microparticle clusters could be turned on and off by changing the intensity of the external laser, which in turn controlled the size and density of the cluster.

The team also showed how the lasing cluster could be transferred in space by heating different Janus particles, demonstrating the adaptability of the system. Janus particles can also collaborate, creating clusters that have properties beyond the simple adding of two clusters, such as changing their shape and boosting their lasing power.

Co-lead author Dr Giorgio Volpe, from the Department of Chemistry at UCL, said: "Nowadays, lasers are used as a matter of course in medicine, telecommunications, and also in industrial production. Embodying lasers with life-like properties will enable the development of robust, autonomous, and durable next-generation materials and devices for sensing applications, non-conventional computing, novel light sources and displays."

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