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Brightest supernova ever is a baffler
Matt Bertone
in Brief Other people’s faces, on the brain
We share our homes with 100 kinds of creepy-crawly IF ONLY they paid rent. There are on average 100 species of creepy-crawly in each house, according to the first comprehensive census of house-dwelling arthropods. Some are part of an intricate ecosystem that relies on food crumbs and nail clippings for food. Others are accidental visitors trapped in this strange and dangerous world, unbeknownst to most homeowners. The survey found 579 species, mainly insects, spiders, beetles, mites, flies and ants, in 50 detached houses in the leafy suburbs of Raleigh, North Carolina. “The residents were really surprised and often horrified that
we found so much, so we had to calm them down by saying it was normal,” says Matt Bertone of North Carolina State University in Raleigh, who led the survey (PeerJ, DOI: 10.7717/peerj.1582). He says the results dispel ideas that modern homes are sterile deserts, showing instead that they teem with unseen life. “The biggest surprise was finding at least one species in almost every room, with only five of the 554 rooms drawing a blank,” says Bertone. Some have adapted to live in human homes permanently, such as cobweb spiders and booklice. Bertone says that the species the team spotted most frequently are known to be abundant worldwide, but the exact proportions of creatures found in this suburb may differ from those in inner-city tower blocks or rural houses.
Brightest supernova ever is a baffler WE ARE now sure the incredibly violent stellar explosion spotted last June is the brightest ever seen. But astronomers remain baffled about its source. Supernovas mark the violent deaths of stars that collapse on themselves and explode, and are some of the brightest and most energetic objects in the universe. This one, called ASASSN-15lh, is 200 times more powerful than
most, and twice as bright as the previous record holder. “This is really on steroids, and then some,” says Krzysztof Stanek of Ohio State University, who spotted the outburst on 14 June while perusing telescope images over his morning coffee. He and his team suspected it was a rare “superluminous” supernova. Now they have seen details that confirm that it was
the brightest supernova ever recorded (Science, doi.org/bbvt). But it’s still weird: it appears to be in an unusually old, large galaxy, and is much hotter than other stellar explosions. That means astronomers aren’t totally sure what it is, Stanek says. Follow-up observations with the Hubble Space Telescope will help. “When you see something which has never been seen before, you get excited,” Stanek says. “It doesn’t happen that often.”
A MAP for other people’s faces has been discovered in the brain. We already knew that our body parts are represented in the brain by different regions of neurons. These regions tend to preserve the basic spatial layout of the body: neurons that represent fingers are closer to neurons that represent arms than feet, say. Now Linda Henriksson at Aalto University in Helsinki, Finland, has discovered that the same goes for other people’s faces. Her team scanned 12 people’s brains as they looked at images of facial features to see which areas became active. This revealed a region in the occipital face area in which features next to each other on a real face are organised together in the brain’s representation of that face. The team plans to explore differences between people’s face maps to see if they relate to their ability to recognise faces (Cortex, doi.org/bbwc).
Tiny brain monitor dissolves after use A DEVICE the size of a grain of rice can wirelessly monitor brain pressure and temperature before dissolving without a trace. People with brain injuries often have their vital signs measured by an implanted sensor connected to an external monitor. But wires into the head are a focal point for infection, says John Rogers at the University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign, who created the mini sensor. Once injected, it tracks fluctuations in resistance caused by changes in temperature and pressure and transmits the data. In tests in rats it was as accurate as existing devices, wirelessly sending data for a week. Three months later it had dissolved in the rats’ cerebral fluid (Nature, DOI: 10.1038/nature16492). 23 January 2016 | NewScientist | 17
in Brief Other people’s faces, on the brain
We share our homes with 100 kinds of creepy-crawly IF ONLY they paid rent. There are on average 100 species of creepy-crawly in each house, according to the first comprehensive census of house-dwelling arthropods. Some are part of an intricate ecosystem that relies on food crumbs and nail clippings for food. Others are accidental visitors trapped in this strange and dangerous world, unbeknownst to most homeowners. The survey found 579 species, mainly insects, spiders, beetles, mites, flies and ants, in 50 detached houses in the leafy suburbs of Raleigh, North Carolina. “The residents were really surprised and often horrified that
we found so much, so we had to calm them down by saying it was normal,” says Matt Bertone of North Carolina State University in Raleigh, who led the survey (PeerJ, DOI: 10.7717/peerj.1582). He says the results dispel ideas that modern homes are sterile deserts, showing instead that they teem with unseen life. “The biggest surprise was finding at least one species in almost every room, with only five of the 554 rooms drawing a blank,” says Bertone. Some have adapted to live in human homes permanently, such as cobweb spiders and booklice. Bertone says that the species the team spotted most frequently are known to be abundant worldwide, but the exact proportions of creatures found in this suburb may differ from those in inner-city tower blocks or rural houses.
Brightest supernova ever is a baffler WE ARE now sure the incredibly violent stellar explosion spotted last June is the brightest ever seen. But astronomers remain baffled about its source. Supernovas mark the violent deaths of stars that collapse on themselves and explode, and are some of the brightest and most energetic objects in the universe. This one, called ASASSN-15lh, is 200 times more powerful than
most, and twice as bright as the previous record holder. “This is really on steroids, and then some,” says Krzysztof Stanek of Ohio State University, who spotted the outburst on 14 June while perusing telescope images over his morning coffee. He and his team suspected it was a rare “superluminous” supernova. Now they have seen details that confirm that it was
the brightest supernova ever recorded (Science, doi.org/bbvt). But it’s still weird: it appears to be in an unusually old, large galaxy, and is much hotter than other stellar explosions. That means astronomers aren’t totally sure what it is, Stanek says. Follow-up observations with the Hubble Space Telescope will help. “When you see something which has never been seen before, you get excited,” Stanek says. “It doesn’t happen that often.”
A MAP for other people’s faces has been discovered in the brain. We already knew that our body parts are represented in the brain by different regions of neurons. These regions tend to preserve the basic spatial layout of the body: neurons that represent fingers are closer to neurons that represent arms than feet, say. Now Linda Henriksson at Aalto University in Helsinki, Finland, has discovered that the same goes for other people’s faces. Her team scanned 12 people’s brains as they looked at images of facial features to see which areas became active. This revealed a region in the occipital face area in which features next to each other on a real face are organised together in the brain’s representation of that face. The team plans to explore differences between people’s face maps to see if they relate to their ability to recognise faces (Cortex, doi.org/bbwc).
Tiny brain monitor dissolves after use A DEVICE the size of a grain of rice can wirelessly monitor brain pressure and temperature before dissolving without a trace. People with brain injuries often have their vital signs measured by an implanted sensor connected to an external monitor. But wires into the head are a focal point for infection, says John Rogers at the University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign, who created the mini sensor. Once injected, it tracks fluctuations in resistance caused by changes in temperature and pressure and transmits the data. In tests in rats it was as accurate as existing devices, wirelessly sending data for a week. Three months later it had dissolved in the rats’ cerebral fluid (Nature, DOI: 10.1038/nature16492). 23 January 2016 | NewScientist | 17