S27E52: Cosmic Time Capsules: Unraveling the Origins of Interstellar Stardust

[00:00:00] This is SpaceTime, Series 27 Episode 52 for broadcast on the 29th of April 2024

[00:00:07] Coming up on SpaceTime, Stardust from the Supernova confirms a new type of star.

[00:00:13] Good news for NASA with the historic Voyager 1 spacecraft finally phoning home.

[00:00:19] And New Zealand's Electron rocket launches NASA's new SolarSale satellite.

[00:00:25] All that and more coming up on SpaceTime.

[00:00:28] Welcome to SpaceTime with Stuart Gary.

[00:00:49] Scientists studying a rare dust particle trapped in an ancient meteorite have found that it originated

[00:00:55] in another star system and came from a new type of star. A report in the astrophysical journal

[00:01:01] claims the tiny particle was created in an only recently discovered type of hydrogen

[00:01:06] burning supernova which exploded long before our solar system was even born.

[00:01:11] The discovery by Nicole Neville and colleagues from Curtin University was made after the authors

[00:01:16] identified grains with an unusual isotopic composition. Most meteorites that arrive on Earth

[00:01:23] are composed of material that formed in our solar system out of the protoplanetary disk

[00:01:27] which also formed the Sun and planets 4.6 billion years ago. But occasionally such as

[00:01:33] with this sample meteorites can also contain tiny particles known as pre-solar grains.

[00:01:39] These originate from stars which were born, lived and died long before the Sun came into existence.

[00:01:46] Clues that these particles are relics from other stars are found by analyzing the different types

[00:01:51] of elements inside them. To do this the authors used a technique called atom probe tomography.

[00:01:57] This analyzes the particle and reconstructs its mineral composition at an atomic scale

[00:02:03] revealing hidden information within. Neville says these particles are like celestial time

[00:02:08] capsules providing a snapshot into the life of their parent star. You see minerals created in

[00:02:14] our solar system have very predictable ratios of certain isotopes at its variance of elements

[00:02:19] with different numbers of neutrons. However this sample has a ratio of magnesium isotopes that's

[00:02:25] very distinct from anything in our solar system. That means its origins had to be interstellar.

[00:02:32] The study's co-author Phil Bland from Curtin School of Earth and Planetary Sciences says

[00:02:37] the results were literally off the charts. The most extreme magnesium isotope ratio from previous

[00:02:43] studies of pre-solar grains was about 1200 but the grain in this sample has a value of 3,025,

[00:02:51] the highest ever recorded. This exceptionally high isotopic ratio can only be explained by its

[00:02:57] formation in a recently discovered type of star known as a hydrogen burning supernova.

[00:03:03] Hydrogen burning supernovae are the remnants of a type of star that has only recently been

[00:03:08] discovered at about the same time as the authors were analyzing their meteorite sample.

[00:03:13] The atom probe has therefore provided a new level of detail helping astronomers understand

[00:03:18] how these stars are formed. Bland says new discoveries from studying rare particles in

[00:03:23] meteorites are enabling scientists to gain fresh insights in the newly discovered cosmic

[00:03:28] events well beyond our solar system. Bland says it's quite amazing to think that atomic scale

[00:03:34] measurements carried out in the lab in Perth could be linked to a recently discovered previously

[00:03:38] unknown type of star deep in the cosmos. This is the work that a former PhD student has done,

[00:03:45] the cold novel and she was a graduate at Kayton University both degree and PhD. What she's

[00:03:52] done here is look at very, very ancient meteorites ones that are really quite well preserved that are

[00:03:58] not an awful lot happened on the asteroids that they come from in terms of the geology and and

[00:04:03] studied their grains in rare meteorites that actually come from other stars before the

[00:04:10] solar system forms. So it's kind of the last trace of the precursor material that was the

[00:04:16] cloud of dust and gas that then the sun and the planets formed from. And what she's done

[00:04:21] is used these really amazing high resolution techniques to study and found this one grain

[00:04:27] that is pretty unique. That is actually comes from a star, a type of star that was only recently

[00:04:33] recently discovered by astronomical techniques. So it's really fascinating.

[00:04:38] So this type of star is called a hydrogen supernova tell me about it. Yes, so it's

[00:04:44] really we don't know an awful lot actually. And so one of the things that we get from

[00:04:48] pre solar grains is the ability to kind of compliment the astronomy by establishing kind

[00:04:55] of details of the chemistry and the isotopic composition of what's going on in a star or

[00:05:01] what's going on in a supernovae. You only get so much from astronomy. So being able to kind of

[00:05:07] have a little piece of that in the lab means that you can then tune a lot of your models

[00:05:12] about what's happening in those stars are in a supernova. And so it's crazy, but you

[00:05:17] can actually use 100 micron or smaller grains to give you information about galactic chemically

[00:05:24] resolution. So the thing that I'm fascinated by is really trying to get at if you think of

[00:05:31] all of the sources for all of the ingredients that were there in the cloud of dust and gas

[00:05:38] that then contributed to the material in our solar system, one of those was one of these

[00:05:44] hydrogen burning supernovae. And it'll be really fascinating now to find, all right, was that kind

[00:05:50] of local? Did that occur locally in our region of the galaxy just before or during accretion of those

[00:05:58] stars? Or was it like a previous generation? Was it kind of, you know, a long time before and that

[00:06:04] cloud had just kind of accumulated stuff from several previous generations of stars? So that's

[00:06:09] a thing now that colleagues can kind of dive into. As the solar system moves through the Milky Way,

[00:06:15] we're currently in what's called a local bubble and that local bubble is thought to have been created

[00:06:20] by a supernova explosion. Right. And I think the more that we are finding really about kind of

[00:06:28] how dynamic star formation was and planet formation almost as like a complement of star

[00:06:35] formation. I mean, when I was doing, I did geology at university 30 years ago and at that time we

[00:06:41] didn't even know if there were other planets in the universe. And so, you know, maybe the solar

[00:06:46] system is it. And then there was some work. I still remember Pegassi 51. It's a favorite of mine.

[00:06:51] Right, exactly. And so now our estimates are that there are probably more planets in the Milky

[00:06:57] Way. And there are stars, which is just remarkable. And like you say, Stuart, the Milky Way as

[00:07:02] this like kind of dynamic environment where, you know, we're in a bubble here of supernova and star

[00:07:08] formation is this really complicated, very dynamic situation. It's not like a creep one star in a

[00:07:14] quiet little place. There are dozens and dozens of stars accreting in there and coming together

[00:07:20] in the same region and have close gravitational approaches to one another and the discs around

[00:07:26] them can get stripped off and swapped. And the further we go, the more fascinating and dynamic

[00:07:32] that whole process is. As we're talking, there's a growing body of evidence suggesting that our own

[00:07:37] sun and solar system were triggered into being by another supernova that just provided

[00:07:42] enough shock for a molecular gas and dust cloud to collapse. That's right. And that's,

[00:07:47] it's you know, we don't know. It's a theory that's been around for quite a while and

[00:07:52] every now and then, you know, we get maybe a little bit more evidence for that. And then

[00:07:55] there's evidence against. But what we certainly know is that that environment, like I say, was

[00:08:00] really dynamic and you will have had stars that were forming and then were going through and

[00:08:06] they were large and going through a life cycle that was much, much quicker, much faster than the

[00:08:11] one that our star is in. And now we can actually look at star-forming regions and kind of, you

[00:08:18] know, people have sort of tracked back stars that have come from a different region. So you

[00:08:23] can see how all those stars have kind of pinged off from their formation region. So there's kind

[00:08:29] of a whole other area of study now that is, like I say, is like the galaxy is a really dynamic system.

[00:08:35] And these specific pre-solar grains that your team's been looking at,

[00:08:39] they have high levels of magnesium isotopes. Right. And so the ways that a long time ago,

[00:08:45] actually not that long ago, for most of my time as a planetary scientist, people would

[00:08:49] find pre-solar grains by basically dissolving an awful lot of rock and then just leaving the

[00:08:57] really hard, really tough minerals that were often work pre-solar grains that were diamond

[00:09:03] and silicon carbide things that wouldn't react with acid. But more recently over the last sort

[00:09:08] of 15 years or so, 20 years maybe we've had techniques that are able to see isotopic

[00:09:14] anomalies in situ. It's like you have a microscope and you can see the variation

[00:09:18] in isotopes in the rock as you scan over an area in a metroid. And what those anomalies are basically

[00:09:24] saying is on a diagram of one isotope of an element versus another, everything in the solar system

[00:09:30] plus there's around really a small area. It's like we've kind of exchanged all these elements

[00:09:36] with everything else over the history of the solar system. And now, you know,

[00:09:40] there's very little variation and you'll see these other grains that have tremendous

[00:09:45] isotopic anomalies that just you cannot get from anything occurring in the solar system.

[00:09:49] And that's how we identify pre-solar grain, the ability to do it in situ and then to extract

[00:09:56] that material and then study that in detail is much more recent. And the stuff that Nicole

[00:10:01] is really doing is right on the cutting edge, both analytically in the techniques that she's

[00:10:06] using and in interpretation. And that's where Adam Probe Tomography comes in.

[00:10:11] Exactly. And this is an amazing technique. So what happens there is you find a grain that you're

[00:10:16] looking for in a rock and then you use a technique to basically sample a thin wafer. By thin, I just

[00:10:25] mean, you know, it's like tens of microns across and then you shake that into a needle,

[00:10:30] which is even smaller. And then you put that into the atom probe and a laser basically

[00:10:36] decomposes that. But as it's doing that, you are measuring both the position and the isotopic

[00:10:41] composition of each atom that comes off or the mass of each atom that comes off. And so what you

[00:10:47] end up with is actually a 3D model of the position and composition of every atom that has come off

[00:10:56] this object. So you kind of, you destroy this tiny needle in the process, but then you get an

[00:11:01] amazing kind of 3D model that you can kind of rotate on the screen. And you can see there is

[00:11:06] variation in a tiny over tiny area, you can actually see that in the model that you've generated.

[00:11:11] And yeah, and that's what she's been really pioneering in the study of me. So the laser

[00:11:16] is evaporating the sample. Does it do it layer by layer or atom by atom? Or does it go for

[00:11:22] the specific atoms first like at first grabs ones which have maybe fewer electrons or

[00:11:28] or fewer neutrons? Yeah, so it doesn't do that. Basically, it's kind of counting everything that

[00:11:35] comes off sort of irrespective of first come first served. Exactly. The fact that we're seeing

[00:11:40] so much variation in these pre solar grains, it shows there's a lot of mixing going on in our

[00:11:46] part of the galaxy. Absolutely. And I think this is part of when we get into the sort of

[00:11:52] the study, you know, for planetary scientists and what is the nature of planets in our solar system

[00:11:58] is that you can really only make these sort of objects after kind of multiple generations of

[00:12:03] star formation where you're kind of building heavier elements in the atmosphere of stars and

[00:12:08] stars and in supernovae. And so you actually need multiple generations of star formation and

[00:12:14] then you create the material from the previous generation and then you could better find

[00:12:18] to get an abundance of those heavy elements. So that kind of, you know, generation after

[00:12:24] generation after generation and mixing as well is an inherent part of star formation and planet

[00:12:30] formation. So it takes 280 million years for our sun and solar system to make one complete orbit

[00:12:37] around the Milky Way galaxy, but it isn't just going around the black hole. It's also going up

[00:12:43] and down through the width of the galaxy itself, through the disk. Yes, that is true. We also migrate

[00:12:49] through spiral arms, which is fascinating, isn't it? Well, the fascinating thing is the density

[00:12:54] of those spiral arms doesn't change as the stars move through them. Yeah. This is where dark matter

[00:12:59] starts to come into the whole. Yes, exactly. And so you know, the idea that we're that the

[00:13:04] galaxy that we see is really just one element of the galaxy is it truly exists. It's gorgeous.

[00:13:12] Yeah. That's Professor Phil Bland from Curtin University School of Earth and Planetary Sciences.

[00:13:18] And this is Space Time. Still to come, celebrations at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory

[00:13:24] after NASA's historic Voyage 1 spacecraft finally phones home. And New Zealand's Electron

[00:13:30] Rocket launches a new NASA solar cell satellite into orbit. All that and more still to come

[00:13:37] on Space Time. There are celebrations at NASA today with vital communications restored with

[00:13:58] the agency's historic Voyage 1 spacecraft. The probe, which is the most distant man made

[00:14:04] object in existence lost normal communications with mission managers back in November when it

[00:14:09] suddenly started transmitting unusable gibberish instead of the usual data about its surrounding

[00:14:14] environment and the health and status of its onboard systems. Together with its sister

[00:14:19] spacecraft Voyager 2, which launched two weeks earlier, Voyage 1 was launched from the Cape

[00:14:24] Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida 46 years ago. Its launch date, September 5, 1977, and its

[00:14:32] mission was a grand tour of the outer solar system. You see a few years earlier, astronomers had

[00:14:38] discovered that the planets were about to align in such a way that a spacecraft could use the

[00:14:43] gravity of one of the outer planets as a slingshot, fleeing itself to the next planet and from

[00:14:48] there on to the next and so on. Amazingly, this would allow the two Voyagers to undertake a grand

[00:14:54] tour visiting the gas giants Jupiter and Saturn. Voyager 1 would then head for the edge of the

[00:15:00] solar system, eventually becoming the first spacecraft to reach and explore interstellar

[00:15:05] space and the galaxy beyond. Meanwhile, Voyager 2 would continue its grand tour of the solar

[00:15:11] system visiting the ice giants during a synaptune before it too would leave the solar system

[00:15:16] traveling in a different direction. Voyager 1 is now located more than 24.3 billion kilometers away,

[00:15:23] well beyond the boundary of our solar system. It's been in constant communications with

[00:15:28] mission managers, reporting not just what the surrounding space is like but also how its

[00:15:33] own systems are performing more than four decades into its journey. However, on November 14 last

[00:15:40] year, Voyager 1 began sending unreadable data to mission managers at the Jet Propulsion

[00:15:45] Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Mission controllers could tell the 815 kilogram spacecraft

[00:15:51] was still receiving their commands and otherwise appear to be operating normally. It took several

[00:15:57] months of inventive sleuthing but technicians finally determined the problem was tied to one

[00:16:02] of the spacecraft's three major onboard computers called the Flight Data Subsystem.

[00:16:07] It's responsible for packaging the science and engineering data before it's sent onto

[00:16:12] Earth. The team discovered that a single chip responsible for sorting a portion of the computer's

[00:16:18] memory including some of its software code had stopped working and the loss of that code had

[00:16:23] rendered the science and engineering data unusable. Unable to repair the chip, the team

[00:16:28] decided to place the affected code elsewhere in the memory. Problem is no single location aboard

[00:16:34] the spacecraft, remember it's 46 years old and it took years before that to build so you're

[00:16:39] talking about half a century here, no single place was large enough to hold the code in its entirety.

[00:16:45] So instead, mission managers devised a plan to divide the affected code into sections and store

[00:16:51] these sections in different places in the Flight Data Subsystem. Now to make this plan work,

[00:16:56] they also needed to adjust these code sections to ensure that they all still function as a

[00:17:01] whole. Any references to the location of that code in other parts of the Flight Data Subsystem

[00:17:06] memory also needed to be updated. The team started by singling out the code responsible for packaging

[00:17:12] the spacecraft's engineering data. They sent that to a new location in the memory on April 18th.

[00:17:18] Now a radio signal takes 22 and a half hours to reach for each one from Earth.

[00:17:23] Then there's another 22 and a half hours for the return signal to come back to Earth.

[00:17:28] Needless to say, the wait was excruciating. But when mission managers finally heard

[00:17:34] the return signal from the spacecraft on April 20th, they knew their modification had worked.

[00:17:39] For the first time in five months, they've been able to check the health and status of the Voyager

[00:17:44] 1 spacecraft. Now over the next few weeks, the team will relocate into just other affected

[00:17:50] portions of the Flight Data Subsystem software and these include the portions that will start

[00:17:55] returning fresh science data to NASA. As for its sister probe, Voyager 2,

[00:18:00] it continues to operate normally. There are no problems there.

[00:18:04] And together, the two Voyager spacecraft remain the longest running and most distant

[00:18:09] spacecraft in history. This space time. Still to come, Rocket Lab successfully launches an

[00:18:16] electron rocket carrying NASA's new experimental solar sail into orbit. And later in the science

[00:18:22] report a new study warns that women with braggart genes who get breast cancer within 10 years

[00:18:27] of giving birth are more likely to die. All that and more still to come on space time.

[00:18:49] Rocket Lab has successfully launched an electron rocket carrying NASA's new ACS-3

[00:18:54] technology demonstrator experimental solar sail into orbit. The flight from launch complex 1

[00:19:00] on New Zealand's North Island's Mahaya Peninsula will explore solar propulsion by deploying

[00:19:05] a CubeSat into orbit around 1000 km above the Earth. Called the beginning of the swarm

[00:19:11] mission, it'll test the CubeSat's reflective solar cells properties with the pressure of

[00:19:16] photons from sunlight alone. Comparable with the force of a paperclip falling on the palm of

[00:19:21] your hand will be used to manoeuvre the satellite without engaging conventional rocket engines.

[00:19:26] Stage 1 and Stage 2 tanks are pressed for flight. High-flow engine approach enabled.

[00:19:30] 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

[00:19:44] Stage 1 propulsion is normal. The beginning of the swarm has begun its

[00:19:48] ride to space with that clean electron liftoff from LC1. Electrons trajectory will take it up

[00:19:54] and over the South Pacific Ocean as it heads away from the launch pad. Our first mission

[00:19:58] milestone will be Max-Q, otherwise known as Maximum Aerodynamic Pressure, which is the moment

[00:20:03] where electron experiences the most amount of stress as it climbs through the atmosphere.

[00:20:08] We're coming up on that moment now and expecting to hear the call for Max-Q shortly.

[00:20:15] Bat is electron clear through Max-Q with the rocket now at 15 km in altitude and moving

[00:20:21] at over 2200 km an hour.

[00:20:26] Electron will perform three actions that are only seconds apart. The first is called MECO or

[00:20:31] main engine cutoff and this is when the nine engines at the bottom of the rocket there

[00:20:35] shut off in preparation for the second step and that move is called out as stage separation.

[00:20:40] When the first stage of electron separates from its second and falls back to Earth.

[00:20:44] Now the third call-out after separation should be second stage engine ignition

[00:20:49] when the single vacuum optimized rudder foot engine fires up to maintain the mission's

[00:20:53] course to low Earth orbit. 15 seconds to staging and to burnout detect mode MECO confirmed.

[00:21:02] There we go that was MECO stage separation and engine start on the second stage. Beginning

[00:21:07] of this form is now over 100 km above Earth past the common line and moving at more than 8,000

[00:21:14] km an hour. The next mission milestone is fairing jettison or separation of the nose cone.

[00:21:19] Fairing jettison is now complete we drop those two fairing hubs early into the mission because

[00:21:23] they're not needed for satellite protection anymore now that we're through Earth's atmosphere.

[00:21:28] That dead weight is gone and the mission is now a step closer to our first payload deployment

[00:21:32] at 520 km. Now before deploying NASA's solar sail the mission deployed South Korea's Neo-Sat

[00:21:38] 1 Earth observation satellite into a 520 km high orbit. The Neo-Sat 1 is equipped with a

[00:21:44] high resolution optical camera which is paired with artificial intelligence in order to provide

[00:21:49] critical data for disaster relief. We have a couple of minutes to go until our next mission

[00:21:54] milestone and that will be the battery hot swap on the second stage currently expected to take

[00:21:59] place at the T plus 6 minutes 20 second mark. Right now though electrons second stage is

[00:22:04] continuing along nicely to our target apogee of 520 km for our first payload deployment for

[00:22:11] KIST. This KIST satellite is the first of up to 11 satellites planned by them which will help to

[00:22:17] increase the program's observation rates of once every two to three days to three to four times

[00:22:23] daily. Electron is still progressing smoothly through flight and all remains healthy with

[00:22:27] KIST and NASA's satellites. For NASA's payload packed into this small satellite are composite

[00:22:33] booms that will unfurl once the payload is deployed much like how a butterfly's wings emerge from its

[00:22:38] cocoon. Following two months of subsystem checks and verifications the CubeSat will execute a series

[00:22:44] of maneuvers in order to demonstrate potential attitude adjustments using nothing but the solar

[00:22:49] sails. The project's designed to test more cost-effective missions using solar sail propulsion

[00:22:54] for early warning systems space weather monitoring and exploratory missions to asteroids destinations

[00:23:01] like the moon and Mars. Now solar sails have been tried in orbit before with varying degrees of success

[00:23:08] these ones use new materials and deployable structures and are comparable in area to that

[00:23:13] of a small apartment. This satellite will test how the pressure of sunlight pushing against

[00:23:18] its sails moves the satellite around the closer to the sun the better to test its solar

[00:23:22] sail technology hence the reason for this mission requirement of a much higher orbit than

[00:23:27] the primary payload on Electron today. T plus five minutes 32 seconds and our launch operators

[00:23:33] next call out will be for the battery hot swap our rocket engine's pump is battery powered and

[00:23:39] since it's been flying for a while now its power source is starting to run low so to keep

[00:23:44] the engine and the mission going Electron's engine power system swaps to a new battery pack

[00:23:49] for fresh and continuous energy supply to the electric pumps the old set of batteries will

[00:23:54] be discarded hot sops successful and as confirmed by mission control battery hot sop has been completed

[00:24:00] for the second stage brotherhood engine propulsion remains nominal and the mission is continuing

[00:24:05] on its journey to that first payload deployment with kai's and neon sat one now of course once

[00:24:10] neon sat one is deployed that is only the first of two satellites to be released on this mission

[00:24:15] Electron is also carrying NASA's advanced composite solar sail system satellite that

[00:24:19] will be deployed at twice the altitude we're heading to now from 520 kilometers above earth

[00:24:25] to 1000 to do that we'll first need to repeat the stage separation process we completed earlier in

[00:24:30] the mission this time separating Electron's third stage or kick stage from the second stage

[00:24:35] that second engine cutoff milestone which you'll hear called out at seco is expected at around

[00:24:40] nine minutes into the mission the mission is continuing nominally we have about 16 percent

[00:24:46] of propellant remaining we're currently cruising along at a speed of over 21 000 kilometers an hour

[00:24:51] and approaching an altitude of almost 209 we're coming up now to engine cutoff on the second

[00:24:58] stage the last action this stage will perform for the mission much like with the first stage

[00:25:03] Electron will power down the rather fit engine on the second stage to allow the kick stage to

[00:25:08] separate cleanly we time the engine shut down for right as we reach that target perigee of 250

[00:25:14] kilometers let's listen out for the engine shutdown and stage separation now see co confirmed

[00:25:22] a great call from mission control the second stage engine has turned cold and the kick stage

[00:25:27] has separated ready to begin the payload deployment process this mission of course is a little different

[00:25:32] to a regular Electron mission so here is a reminder of how today's two deployments will

[00:25:37] work now that the kick stage has been released it will now go into a phasing orbit of earth

[00:25:42] because it's been set into an elliptical orbit from its perigee it needs to head around to the

[00:25:48] other side of the planet to an apogee of 520 kilometers before it fires up the curie engine

[00:25:54] to course correct into a circular orbit now once it does neon sat one will be deployed to begin

[00:26:00] its mission for kai's and that will be phase one for the kick stage phase two we'll see it

[00:26:05] light up its engine again to perform an apogee race to 1000 kilometers the target altitude

[00:26:10] for nasa's satellite that apogee rays will bring the kick stage out of a circular orbit and back into

[00:26:15] another elliptical one here the kick stage will do another half pass of earth before the dots reconnect

[00:26:20] again at 1000 kilometers where it will light up its curie engine for a third time to circularize

[00:26:25] its orbit before payload deployment once that's done it will be on to phase three the curie

[00:26:31] engine will ignite a fourth and final time to undo its circularization and bring it back into

[00:26:37] an elliptical orbit this orbit lowering maneuver will help to speed up the kick stages d orbit

[00:26:43] doing our best to keep space as tidy as possible the launch is rocket lab's fifth flight this year

[00:26:48] and the 47th electron mission overall this spacetime and time that to take a brief look

[00:27:10] at some of the other stories making news in science this week with the science report

[00:27:15] a new study claims women with bracket genes who get breastcats within 10 years of giving birth

[00:27:21] are more likely to die the findings reported in the journal of the american medical association

[00:27:26] looked at data from 903 british women with cancer causing bracket genes and found that those who were

[00:27:32] diagnosed with breast cancer within 10 years of giving birth were more likely to die from the

[00:27:37] disease than those who were diagnosed later or women who had not given birth the highest risk

[00:27:42] was seen among women with a bracket one gene who were diagnosed with estrogen receptor positive

[00:27:47] breast cancer within five years of giving birth and women with a bracket one gene diagnosed with

[00:27:53] estrogen negative breast cancer between five and ten years after giving birth interestingly the same

[00:27:58] pattern was not seen among women with a bracket two gene the authors say the result should be

[00:28:04] used to inform genetic counseling prevention and treatment strategies for women with bracket genes

[00:28:11] new research suggests that the degree to which genetics influence autism could be different

[00:28:16] for males and females a report in the journal the american medical association analyzed data

[00:28:21] from a study including over a million swedish children of which 12226 received a diagnosis of

[00:28:28] autism spectrum disorder they found hereditability of autism spectrum disorder that is a measure

[00:28:34] of how well the trait can be attributed to genetics was estimated to be between 10 and

[00:28:39] 12 percent higher in males than in females the authors say the findings indicate there

[00:28:44] could be a difference in the underlying causes and prevalence of the condition and may not

[00:28:48] necessarily indicate a protective effect in females but rather differences in the genetic

[00:28:53] variances between sexes an accompanying editorials says the findings are an important addition

[00:28:59] to the field of autism likelihood and so warrant further population research

[00:29:05] scientists have found that tiny plastic fibers of polyester materials are messing with the

[00:29:10] way organic matters usually broken down on the seafloor a report in the journal marine pollution

[00:29:16] bulletin was that the effect of these microplastics differed depending on the makeup of marine

[00:29:20] sediments but they were always disruptive the authors say polyester microfiber pollution

[00:29:26] is causing profound ecological harm interfering with natural cycling processes in coastal

[00:29:32] ecosystems that are important for supporting life on earth or believe it or not rabbits

[00:29:39] can and occasionally do grow horns that's led to a major breakthrough in medical science

[00:29:45] but as Tim Mendham from astral skeptics explains these horny rabbits for one of the better term

[00:29:51] have also spawned a massive hoax which is spread like wildfire across the american wild west

[00:29:56] there's a bunny that appeared and they've been talked about for some time in america mainly and

[00:30:01] it probably gave rise to the jackalope mist of these sort of antelope stroke bunnies

[00:30:06] that are sort of around in their period with so often in the american midwest but what it turns out

[00:30:10] is that there are bunnies with horns sort of okay basically what they have is rabbits that have got

[00:30:17] some sort of papillomavirus and that creates sort of fibromas on the skin which build up

[00:30:23] and they look like horns I don't know how hard they are they're trying to look at the reports

[00:30:26] to find out how solid the horns are people think they're not particularly dangerous so it's

[00:30:30] unlikely but these are confirmed animals and they're basically animal suffering from a disease

[00:30:36] but one of the most interesting things is it's actually led to people trying to find cures for

[00:30:40] cancer because what these things are is actually their cancerous conditions that these poor little

[00:30:45] bunnies are suffering from this has helped via various processes not directly the ultimate

[00:30:50] researchers looking at rabbits but the information that's coming out to the human papillomavirus

[00:30:55] treatment against um cervical cancer and things like that which has been hugely successful

[00:30:59] the fellow who originally worked on finding the link between the rabbit and this papillomavirus

[00:31:03] has won a Nobel Prize for his work and obviously he's picked up other researchers and leading to

[00:31:07] what we are saying now so these horned rabbits which are real have given indirectly a great medical

[00:31:13] benefit about the same time as these horned rabbits first started showing up took a rabbit

[00:31:17] body and an antelope body I think we got the antelope from never mind and put them together

[00:31:22] and said look this is a creature and because of the excitement about horned bunnies way back

[00:31:27] we're talking depression era time that suddenly this jackalope which had been created was given

[00:31:31] some imprimaturist being real and ever since then jackalope have faded in a lot of jokes a lot of

[00:31:36] people have jackalopes stuffed well a lot of people in the american midwest anyway have jackalopes

[00:31:42] above their bars in saloons etc and tourist industry galore etc so not the same thing as the

[00:31:48] horned bunnies but perhaps inspired by them so horned bunnies have created a very real

[00:31:54] and and worthwhile cancer treatment and have created a tourism industry at the same time I wonder

[00:32:00] if that's also the inspiration for movies like donnie daco where the evil rabbit keeps appearing in

[00:32:04] his dreams I think that's a pookers sounds like the name of a chihuahua it's actually a it's

[00:32:11] actually a Scottish myth I think a pookers but it's also if you see the film harvey yes

[00:32:16] give me stewart that's the pookers that's a big rabbit too but donnie daco is like a dark

[00:32:20] nation of them harvey that's timindum from australian skeptics and that's the show for now

[00:32:41] spacetime is available every monday wednesday and friday through apple podcasts iTunes

[00:32:47] stitcher google podcast pocket casts spotify a cast amazon music bites dot com soundcloud

[00:32:54] youtube your favorite podcast download provider and from spacetime with stewart gary dot com

[00:33:01] spacetime's also broadcast through the national science foundation on science own radio and on

[00:33:06] both i heart radio and tune in radio and you can help to support our show by visiting the

[00:33:11] spacetime store for a range of promotional merchandising goodies or by becoming a spacetime

[00:33:17] patron which gives you access to triple episode commercial free versions of the show as well as

[00:33:22] lots of bonus audio content which doesn't go to air access to our exclusive facebook group

[00:33:27] and other rewards just go to spacetimewithstewardgarry.com for full details and if you want more

[00:33:34] spacetime please check out our blog where you'll find all the stuff we couldn't fit in the show

[00:33:38] as well as heaps of images news stories loads of videos and things on the web i find interesting

[00:33:44] or amusing just go to spacetimewithstewardgarry.tumblr.com that's all one word and that's

[00:33:51] tumblr without the e you can also follow us through at stewart gary on twitter at spacetime

[00:33:56] with stewart gary on instagram through our spacetime youtube channel and on facebook just go to

[00:34:02] facebook.com forward slash spacetime with stewart gary you've been listening to spacetime with

[00:34:08] stewart gary this has been another quality podcast production from bites.com