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00:00:00 --> 00:00:01 Stuart Gary: This is space time.
00:00:01 --> 00:00:03 Stuart Gary: Series 29, episode 123 will
00:00:03 --> 00:00:06 broadcast on the 14th of October 2026.
00:00:07 --> 00:00:10 Coming up on Space Time. Surf's up
00:00:10 --> 00:00:12 on Titan. How planet Earth rock and
00:00:12 --> 00:00:13 rolls on
00:00:13 --> 00:00:16 Stuart Gary: its axis and scientists have glue
00:00:16 --> 00:00:16 balls.
00:00:17 --> 00:00:19 Stuart Gary: All that and more coming up on Space
00:00:19 --> 00:00:20 Time.
00:00:21 --> 00:00:24 Stuart Gary: Welcome to Space Time with Stuart.
00:00:40 --> 00:00:43 Stuart Gary: A new study suggests that lakes and seas on
00:00:43 --> 00:00:45 the Saturni moon titan can produce 3 metre
00:00:45 --> 00:00:48 surf under the right conditions. The
00:00:48 --> 00:00:50 findings, reported in the Journal of
00:00:50 --> 00:00:52 Geophysical Research Planets, are based on a
00:00:52 --> 00:00:55 new wave model developed by scientists at
00:00:55 --> 00:00:57 mit. The Planet Waves Computer
00:00:57 --> 00:00:59 programme is the first to capture the full
00:00:59 --> 00:01:02 dynamics of waves and what it takes to whip
00:01:02 --> 00:01:05 them up under different planet conditions. It
00:01:05 --> 00:01:08 indicates that while on a calm day here on
00:01:08 --> 00:01:10 Earth, a light breeze might barely ripple the
00:01:10 --> 00:01:12 surface of a lake, on Saturn's largest moon,
00:01:12 --> 00:01:15 Titan, a similar mild wind would kick up
00:01:15 --> 00:01:17 three metre tall waves. The
00:01:17 --> 00:01:19 authors applied the model to predict how
00:01:19 --> 00:01:21 waves would behave on planetary bodies that
00:01:21 --> 00:01:24 might host liquid lakes and oceans, including
00:01:24 --> 00:01:27 the liquid methane and ethane seas of Titan,
00:01:27 --> 00:01:29 as well as water on ancient Mars and
00:01:29 --> 00:01:31 hypothetical oceans on three exoplanets
00:01:31 --> 00:01:34 beyond our solar system. The new computer
00:01:34 --> 00:01:36 programme shows that a gentle wind would be
00:01:36 --> 00:01:38 enough to stir up huge waves on Titan, where
00:01:38 --> 00:01:40 lakes are filled with light liquid
00:01:40 --> 00:01:43 hydrocarbons. In contrast, it would take
00:01:43 --> 00:01:45 hurricane forced winds to barely move the
00:01:45 --> 00:01:48 surface of a lake on the exoplanet 55
00:01:48 --> 00:01:50 Cancri e, which is thought to be a lava world
00:01:51 --> 00:01:53 covered in hot, dense, molten liquid rock.
00:01:54 --> 00:01:56 The study's lead author, Andrew Ashton from
00:01:56 --> 00:01:58 the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, says,
00:01:58 --> 00:02:00 on Earth, we get accustomed to certain wave
00:02:00 --> 00:02:03 dynamics, but with this model, we can see how
00:02:03 --> 00:02:06 waves behave on other planets, planets with
00:02:06 --> 00:02:08 different liquids, different atmospheres and
00:02:08 --> 00:02:10 even different gravity, all of which can
00:02:10 --> 00:02:12 challenge our intuition. Ashton and
00:02:12 --> 00:02:14 colleagues were especially keen to see how
00:02:14 --> 00:02:17 waves would form on Titan. This
00:02:17 --> 00:02:19 massive moon is the only planetary body in
00:02:19 --> 00:02:21 our solar system other than Earth that's
00:02:21 --> 00:02:23 known to currently host liquid lakes. And
00:02:23 --> 00:02:25 anywhere where there's a liquid surface with
00:02:25 --> 00:02:27 wind blowing over it, there's the potential
00:02:27 --> 00:02:30 to make waves. For Titan, the
00:02:30 --> 00:02:32 tantalising thing is that we don't actually
00:02:32 --> 00:02:34 have any direct observations of, uh, what
00:02:34 --> 00:02:36 these waves would look like. So we don't know
00:02:36 --> 00:02:38 for sure what kind of waves could exist
00:02:38 --> 00:02:40 there. And that's where this new model comes
00:02:40 --> 00:02:43 in. It gives us an idea. When wind
00:02:43 --> 00:02:45 blows over water, it creates waves that can
00:02:45 --> 00:02:48 be strong enough to carve out coastlines and
00:02:48 --> 00:02:50 redistribute sediment brought to the coast by
00:02:50 --> 00:02:53 rivers. Through this process, waves can be a
00:02:53 --> 00:02:55 significant force in shaping and reshaping
00:02:55 --> 00:02:58 landscape over time. The authors were
00:02:58 --> 00:03:00 wondering how waves might behave on other
00:03:00 --> 00:03:02 worlds where gravity, atmospheric conditions
00:03:02 --> 00:03:04 and liquid compositions could be very
00:03:04 --> 00:03:06 different from what's found here on Earth.
00:03:06 --> 00:03:08 Now, uh, there have been previous attempts to
00:03:08 --> 00:03:10 try and predict how gravity affects waves on
00:03:10 --> 00:03:12 other planets, but they don't quantify other
00:03:12 --> 00:03:14 factors, such as the composition of the
00:03:14 --> 00:03:17 liquid that's making the waves. But this new
00:03:17 --> 00:03:19 computer programme takes all that into
00:03:19 --> 00:03:21 account. Not just the planet's gravity, but
00:03:21 --> 00:03:23 also the properties of its surface liquid,
00:03:23 --> 00:03:26 such as density, viscosity and even surface
00:03:26 --> 00:03:28 tension. How, uh, resistant the liquid is to
00:03:28 --> 00:03:30 rippling. The authors also incorporated the
00:03:30 --> 00:03:32 effect of the planet's atmospheric pressure
00:03:32 --> 00:03:34 and how a planet's liquid surface would
00:03:34 --> 00:03:37 evolve in response to winds of a given speed.
00:03:37 --> 00:03:39 Ashton and colleagues first tested their new
00:03:39 --> 00:03:41 model using wave data here on Earth. Using
00:03:41 --> 00:03:43 measurements of waves that were collected by
00:03:43 --> 00:03:46 buoys across Lake Superior over a 20 year
00:03:46 --> 00:03:49 span, they found their model, which took into
00:03:49 --> 00:03:50 account Earth's gravity, the composition of
00:03:50 --> 00:03:53 liquid water and the atmospheric conditions,
00:03:53 --> 00:03:55 was able to accurately predict the, the wind
00:03:55 --> 00:03:57 speeds it would take to generate waves across
00:03:57 --> 00:03:59 the lake and how high those waves would grow
00:03:59 --> 00:04:02 for a given wind strength. They then applied
00:04:02 --> 00:04:04 their model to predict how waves would behave
00:04:04 --> 00:04:06 on other planetary bodies that are known to
00:04:06 --> 00:04:09 host liquid on their surface. So they first
00:04:09 --> 00:04:11 looked at Titan, where NASA's Cassini mission
00:04:11 --> 00:04:13 previously captured radar images of lake
00:04:13 --> 00:04:16 formations and where NASA's new Dragonfly
00:04:16 --> 00:04:19 mission will soon go. The authors used the
00:04:19 --> 00:04:21 new model to calculate the Moon's wave
00:04:21 --> 00:04:23 dynamics, given its gravity, atmospheric
00:04:23 --> 00:04:26 pressure and liquid composition. And they
00:04:26 --> 00:04:28 found that on Titan, it's surprisingly easy
00:04:28 --> 00:04:30 to make waves. See, the relatively light
00:04:30 --> 00:04:32 liquid combined with low gravity and
00:04:32 --> 00:04:35 atmospheric pressure means that even a gentle
00:04:35 --> 00:04:38 wind can stir up huge waves. To you
00:04:38 --> 00:04:40 and me, the result would look like really
00:04:40 --> 00:04:42 tall waves, but moving in slow motion.
00:04:43 --> 00:04:45 If you were standing on the shore of this
00:04:45 --> 00:04:47 lake, you might feel only a soft breeze, but
00:04:47 --> 00:04:49 you'd see these enormous waves heading
00:04:49 --> 00:04:51 towards you, which you simply wouldn't expect
00:04:51 --> 00:04:53 to see under those conditions on Earth.
00:04:54 --> 00:04:56 The authors then considered wave activity on
00:04:56 --> 00:04:58 ancient Mars when the Red Planet was a
00:04:58 --> 00:05:01 warmer, wetter world. Mars hosts many
00:05:01 --> 00:05:03 impact basins that were once filled with
00:05:03 --> 00:05:05 water before the planet's atmosphere
00:05:05 --> 00:05:08 dissipated. The water evaporated away and
00:05:08 --> 00:05:10 Mars was transformed into a freeze dried
00:05:10 --> 00:05:13 desert. Uh, one of these basins they looked
00:05:13 --> 00:05:15 at was Jezero Crater, which is currently
00:05:15 --> 00:05:17 being explored by NASA's Perseverance rover.
00:05:17 --> 00:05:19 With a new model, the authors were able to
00:05:19 --> 00:05:21 show that as the Red Planet's atmosphere
00:05:21 --> 00:05:24 gradually Disappeared, reducing its pressure.
00:05:24 --> 00:05:26 Over time it would have required stronger and
00:05:26 --> 00:05:29 stronger winds to make the same sized waves.
00:05:30 --> 00:05:32 And beyond our solar system, they applied the
00:05:32 --> 00:05:35 model to three different exoplanets. The
00:05:35 --> 00:05:38 first, LHS1140B is a cool
00:05:38 --> 00:05:40 super Earth, colder and larger than our
00:05:40 --> 00:05:43 planet. It hosts liquid water, but because
00:05:43 --> 00:05:45 it's so large it also has stronger gravity.
00:05:45 --> 00:05:47 And the model showed that the same wind on
00:05:47 --> 00:05:49 Earth, uh, would generate much smaller waves
00:05:49 --> 00:05:52 of water on a super Earth due to that
00:05:52 --> 00:05:54 difference in gravity. Meanwhile, on Kepler
00:05:54 --> 00:05:57 1649b, a Venus like planet which has
00:05:57 --> 00:05:59 gravity similar to Earth's but with lakes of
00:05:59 --> 00:06:02 sulfuric acid which are about twice as dense
00:06:02 --> 00:06:04 as water is. The authors found that it would
00:06:04 --> 00:06:06 take strong winds to make even a ripple. And
00:06:06 --> 00:06:08 the effect was even more pronounced on the
00:06:08 --> 00:06:11 third exoplanet, 55 Cancri e.
00:06:11 --> 00:06:14 A lava world that has both higher gravity
00:06:14 --> 00:06:16 than Earth and also much denser, more viscous
00:06:16 --> 00:06:19 surface liquid. Scientists suspect the planet
00:06:19 --> 00:06:22 hosts oceans of liquefied rock. In
00:06:22 --> 00:06:23 this environment, the model predicts
00:06:23 --> 00:06:26 hurricane force winds on Earth about 140
00:06:26 --> 00:06:28 kilometres per hour would generate only very
00:06:28 --> 00:06:30 small waves, just a few centimetres high.
00:06:31 --> 00:06:33 The new models also helped answer long
00:06:33 --> 00:06:35 standing questions of planetary landscape
00:06:35 --> 00:06:38 formation. See unlike Earth, where there's
00:06:38 --> 00:06:40 often a delta where a river meets the coast,
00:06:40 --> 00:06:42 on Titan there are very few things
00:06:42 --> 00:06:43 Stuart Gary: that look like river deltas.
00:06:43 --> 00:06:45 Stuart Gary: Even though there are plenty of rivers and
00:06:45 --> 00:06:48 coastlines. The question is, could waves
00:06:48 --> 00:06:49 be responsible for this?
00:06:50 --> 00:06:53 NASA's Dragonfly mission will launch in 2028.
00:06:53 --> 00:06:56 Arriving in the titanium system in 2034.
00:06:57 --> 00:07:00 The car sized nuclear powered rotocopter will
00:07:00 --> 00:07:02 fly autonomously to numerous locations,
00:07:02 --> 00:07:04 focusing on the Shangri La June field and the
00:07:04 --> 00:07:07 Selick impact crater. Uh, it will use a mass
00:07:07 --> 00:07:09 spectrometer, a gamma ray and neutron
00:07:09 --> 00:07:11 spectrometer, a suite of cameras and a drill
00:07:11 --> 00:07:13 system to study this strange world's
00:07:13 --> 00:07:16 prebiotic chemistry, its surface organic
00:07:16 --> 00:07:18 compounds and planetary habitability.
00:07:19 --> 00:07:22 This report on Dragonfly from NASA tv.
00:07:22 --> 00:07:25 Stuart Gary: NASA is pushing the boundaries of human
00:07:25 --> 00:07:27 knowledge and expanding the limits of
00:07:27 --> 00:07:30 technology. Our next New Frontiers
00:07:30 --> 00:07:33 mission, Dragonfly will explore
00:07:33 --> 00:07:35 Saturn's largest moon, Titan.
00:07:35 --> 00:07:38 Dragonfly will be the first drone lander with
00:07:38 --> 00:07:41 the capability to fly over 100 miles through
00:07:41 --> 00:07:43 Titan's thick atmosphere. Titan is
00:07:43 --> 00:07:46 unlike any other place in our solar system
00:07:46 --> 00:07:48 and the most comparable is to early Earth.
00:07:48 --> 00:07:50 The instruments on board will help us
00:07:50 --> 00:07:53 investigate organic chemistry and search for
00:07:53 --> 00:07:56 chemical signatures of past, um, or even
00:07:56 --> 00:07:57 present life.
00:07:58 --> 00:08:01 Nicky Fox: So we have on um, Titan opportunity
00:08:01 --> 00:08:03 to observe the processes that um, were
00:08:03 --> 00:08:05 present on early Earth when life began to
00:08:05 --> 00:08:08 form and possibly even conditions that may
00:08:08 --> 00:08:11 be able to harbour life today. One of the
00:08:11 --> 00:08:14 things that is particularly exciting about
00:08:14 --> 00:08:16 this mission is that we can do the very
00:08:16 --> 00:08:18 detailed chemical measurements, but be able
00:08:18 --> 00:08:21 to put them in the context of Titan as a
00:08:21 --> 00:08:21 system.
00:08:21 --> 00:08:24 Stuart Gary: It's the science that really motivates us to
00:08:24 --> 00:08:27 do this exciting and difficult measure. And
00:08:27 --> 00:08:29 in that report from NASA tv, we heard from
00:08:29 --> 00:08:31 the agency's administrator, Jim Bridenstine,
00:08:31 --> 00:08:33 the director of NASA's Planetary Science
00:08:33 --> 00:08:36 Division, Laurie Gleise, Dragonfly Principal
00:08:36 --> 00:08:38 Investigator Elizabeth Turtle, and the
00:08:38 --> 00:08:40 associate administrator of NASA's Science
00:08:40 --> 00:08:42 Mission Directorate, Thomas Aboukin.
00:08:43 --> 00:08:45 Stuart Gary: This is space time still to come.
00:08:46 --> 00:08:49 How planet Earth rock and rolls on its axis
00:08:49 --> 00:08:52 and scientists have glue balls. All that
00:08:52 --> 00:08:54 and more still to come on, um, spacetime.
00:09:10 --> 00:09:12 Ancient sea level changes have provided new
00:09:12 --> 00:09:14 evidence showing that planet Earth
00:09:14 --> 00:09:17 experienced episodes of what's known as rapid
00:09:17 --> 00:09:20 true polar wander during the Jurassic and
00:09:20 --> 00:09:23 Cretaceous periods. Because the Earth isn't a
00:09:23 --> 00:09:25 perfect sphere, its rotational axis is
00:09:25 --> 00:09:26 naturally balanced by
00:09:26 --> 00:09:28 Stuart Gary: the distribution of mass around the planet.
00:09:29 --> 00:09:32 Stuart Gary: So when tectonic and mantle processes like
00:09:32 --> 00:09:34 continental drift redistribute mass, this
00:09:34 --> 00:09:37 balance can be disturbed. And that causes the
00:09:37 --> 00:09:40 solid Earth to reorient itself relative to
00:09:40 --> 00:09:42 its spin axis. And that's the phenomenon, uh,
00:09:42 --> 00:09:44 which scientists call true polar wander.
00:09:45 --> 00:09:47 During true polar wander, the crust and
00:09:47 --> 00:09:49 mantle effectively shift relative to the
00:09:49 --> 00:09:52 Earth's, uh, spin axis, while the core and
00:09:52 --> 00:09:54 climate belts remain tied to the axis. So
00:09:54 --> 00:09:57 this means, for example, that a region near
00:09:57 --> 00:09:59 the north pole can end up near the equator
00:09:59 --> 00:10:01 and an area near the equator can shift
00:10:01 --> 00:10:04 upwards to the pole. When scientists study
00:10:04 --> 00:10:06 true polar wonder, they usually look at
00:10:06 --> 00:10:08 evidence of ancient magnetic fields locked in
00:10:08 --> 00:10:11 rocks. That's because large rapid episodes
00:10:11 --> 00:10:13 of true polar wander can produce major
00:10:13 --> 00:10:16 changes in climate, the biosphere and the
00:10:16 --> 00:10:19 Earth's magnetic field. However, determining
00:10:19 --> 00:10:21 whether rapid true polar wander has occurred
00:10:21 --> 00:10:23 in the past is challenging because tectonic
00:10:23 --> 00:10:26 motion can mimic true polar wonder
00:10:26 --> 00:10:28 signatures. And previous studies have yielded
00:10:28 --> 00:10:31 conflicting interpretations from negligible
00:10:31 --> 00:10:33 or slow true polar wander, uh, to brief
00:10:33 --> 00:10:35 episodes of rapid large scale reorientation.
00:10:36 --> 00:10:38 The new findings, reported in the journal
00:10:38 --> 00:10:41 Science, refute the view that true polar
00:10:41 --> 00:10:43 wonder is negligible or persistently slow.
00:10:44 --> 00:10:47 Stuart Gary: It shows that this provides an episodic
00:10:47 --> 00:10:49 Stuart Gary: control on sea level change and possibly on
00:10:49 --> 00:10:51 other global environmental and biological
00:10:51 --> 00:10:54 dynamics. To determine the truth,
00:10:54 --> 00:10:56 the study's lead author, Matthew Daumier from
00:10:56 --> 00:10:57 the University of
00:10:57 --> 00:10:59 Stuart Gary: Oslo, developed a new way to detect
00:10:59 --> 00:11:02 Stuart Gary: true polar wonder by examining ancient sea
00:11:02 --> 00:11:05 level changes. Because true polar wander
00:11:05 --> 00:11:07 can cause predictable global spanning
00:11:07 --> 00:11:08 patterns of continental flooding and
00:11:08 --> 00:11:11 Exposure. Dummeer and colleagues analysed
00:11:11 --> 00:11:13 maps of these changes at 10 million year
00:11:13 --> 00:11:14 intervals, and they used statistical
00:11:14 --> 00:11:17 modelling to identify patterns consistent
00:11:17 --> 00:11:19 with rapid true polar wander over the past
00:11:19 --> 00:11:22 320 million years. When
00:11:22 --> 00:11:24 our planet's solid outer layers shift
00:11:24 --> 00:11:27 relative to its spin axis, the oceans respond
00:11:27 --> 00:11:29 faster than what the solid Earth can change
00:11:29 --> 00:11:32 shape. And this causes relative sea levels to
00:11:32 --> 00:11:34 rise in two opposite regions and fall into
00:11:34 --> 00:11:37 others. And finding that distinct high and
00:11:37 --> 00:11:39 low pattern across ancient maps helped the
00:11:39 --> 00:11:42 authors confirm when rapid true polar wonder
00:11:42 --> 00:11:44 actually occurred. Their
00:11:44 --> 00:11:46 analysis revealed four intervals with
00:11:46 --> 00:11:49 significant true polar wonder signals.
00:11:50 --> 00:11:52 One was during the Oligocene and miocene
00:11:52 --> 00:11:54 period, between 30 and 20 million years ago.
00:11:55 --> 00:11:57 Another happened in the mid Cretaceous
00:11:57 --> 00:11:59 between 190 million years ago.
00:12:00 --> 00:12:01 Stuart Gary: There was one in the Late Jurassic
00:12:01 --> 00:12:04 Stuart Gary: at early Cretaceous between 150 and 140
00:12:04 --> 00:12:07 million years ago, and another during the
00:12:07 --> 00:12:09 early Jurassic between 200 and
00:12:09 --> 00:12:12 190 million years ago. The new
00:12:12 --> 00:12:14 findings broadly corroborate earlier
00:12:14 --> 00:12:16 paleomagnetic and plate motion studies, which
00:12:16 --> 00:12:19 have already suggested that rapid true polar
00:12:19 --> 00:12:20 wonder is real.
00:12:20 --> 00:12:23 Stuart Gary: This is space time. Still to come, the
00:12:23 --> 00:12:25 discovery of glue
00:12:25 --> 00:12:27 Stuart Gary: balls, and later in the Science report,
00:12:27 --> 00:12:30 new warnings about the dangers of daylight
00:12:30 --> 00:12:32 saving and it's actually worse than you
00:12:32 --> 00:12:32 think.
00:12:33 --> 00:12:35 Stuart Gary: All that and more still to come on space
00:12:35 --> 00:12:36 time.
00:12:45 --> 00:12:47 Physicists have finally discovered long
00:12:47 --> 00:12:50 elusive glue balls, a substance made
00:12:50 --> 00:12:52 entirely of elemental particles called
00:12:52 --> 00:12:55 gluons. The new findings, reported at
00:12:55 --> 00:12:56 the International Conference on High Energy
00:12:56 --> 00:12:59 Physics in Brazil, is the strongest evidence
00:12:59 --> 00:13:01 yet confirming the existence of this exotic
00:13:01 --> 00:13:03 form of matter composed entirely, or at least
00:13:03 --> 00:13:06 almost entirely, of particles carrying the
00:13:06 --> 00:13:08 strong nuclear force. The discovery by
00:13:08 --> 00:13:10 scientists from the international Bears 3
00:13:10 --> 00:13:12 collaboration at the Beijing Electron
00:13:12 --> 00:13:14 Positron Collider was able to reach a
00:13:14 --> 00:13:16 significance of 11.7-sigma.
00:13:17 --> 00:13:19 Now, in particle physics, the gold standard
00:13:19 --> 00:13:21 threshold for the confirmation of a new fact
00:13:21 --> 00:13:24 is five sigma. Gluons are, uh,
00:13:25 --> 00:13:27 force particles, which carry the strong
00:13:27 --> 00:13:29 nuclear force, which is the most powerful of
00:13:29 --> 00:13:31 the four fundamental forces in nature.
00:13:31 --> 00:13:32 Roughly a hundred times stronger than
00:13:32 --> 00:13:35 electromagnetism and 100 trillion trillion,
00:13:35 --> 00:13:37 trillion times stronger than gravity. The
00:13:37 --> 00:13:40 strong nuclear force confines quarks
00:13:40 --> 00:13:43 inside protons and neutrons, and it binds
00:13:43 --> 00:13:45 these and other hadrons together inside
00:13:45 --> 00:13:47 atomic nuclei, overcoming the electrostatic
00:13:47 --> 00:13:49 repulsion of the positively charged protons.
00:13:50 --> 00:13:53 But the strong force only acts over extremely
00:13:53 --> 00:13:55 short distances, typically between just one
00:13:55 --> 00:13:57 and three femtometers, dropping off rapidly
00:13:57 --> 00:14:00 past the edge of an atomic nucleus. The thing
00:14:00 --> 00:14:03 is, quantum chromodynamics predicts that
00:14:03 --> 00:14:05 gluons could attract one another and bind
00:14:05 --> 00:14:07 together independently. And that's where this
00:14:07 --> 00:14:09 new discovery comes in. It follows a
00:14:09 --> 00:14:11 comprehensive analysis of more than 100
00:14:11 --> 00:14:14 billion particle collisions showing that a
00:14:14 --> 00:14:16 particle designated as X2370 is
00:14:16 --> 00:14:19 dominated by a glue ball component. Because
00:14:19 --> 00:14:22 gluons themselves carry a colour charge, they
00:14:22 --> 00:14:24 can stick together to form a stable particle
00:14:24 --> 00:14:26 of pure self interacting force without any
00:14:26 --> 00:14:29 valence quarks inside. By the way, colour
00:14:29 --> 00:14:31 change, that's a property of quarks and
00:14:31 --> 00:14:33 gluons that dictates how they interact
00:14:33 --> 00:14:35 through the strong nuclear force. In particle
00:14:35 --> 00:14:38 physics it acts sort of similar to an
00:14:38 --> 00:14:40 electric charge, but it comes in three types
00:14:40 --> 00:14:42 labelled red, blue and green, instead of just
00:14:42 --> 00:14:44 positive and negative. By the way, those
00:14:44 --> 00:14:46 names red, blue and green aren't really
00:14:46 --> 00:14:48 colours, they're just used for convenience
00:14:48 --> 00:14:51 sake. The authors first detected the
00:14:51 --> 00:14:53 X2370 particle back in 2011
00:14:53 --> 00:14:56 and spent the next 15 years mapping its
00:14:56 --> 00:14:59 properties and finding its spin parity. The
00:14:59 --> 00:15:00 new data uh, reported to the Institute of
00:15:00 --> 00:15:03 High Energy physics confirmed that x2370
00:15:03 --> 00:15:06 decays in a mathematical flavour singlet
00:15:06 --> 00:15:09 signature. That means it breaks down evenly
00:15:09 --> 00:15:11 across particle types without showing any
00:15:11 --> 00:15:13 preference for its specific quark flavour, a
00:15:13 --> 00:15:15 fundamental constant in a particle born
00:15:15 --> 00:15:18 purely nucleadic gluons. Quarks also come
00:15:18 --> 00:15:20 in three colour types of red, blue and green,
00:15:20 --> 00:15:23 as well as six flavours up, down, top,
00:15:23 --> 00:15:25 bottom or beauty, charm and strange.
00:15:26 --> 00:15:29 Ordinary subatomic mass is determined heavily
00:15:29 --> 00:15:32 by the quarks inside them. But a gluon's
00:15:32 --> 00:15:34 mass emerges almost entirely out of the
00:15:34 --> 00:15:36 vacuum state kinetic energy of the strong
00:15:36 --> 00:15:39 nuclear force itself. Proving
00:15:39 --> 00:15:41 that massless force mediators can bind
00:15:41 --> 00:15:43 together generating measurable mass confirms
00:15:43 --> 00:15:45 the non ablian gauge structure of the
00:15:45 --> 00:15:47 standard model of particle physics at low
00:15:47 --> 00:15:50 energy limits. While quantum mechanics
00:15:50 --> 00:15:53 dictates that the X2370 state likely
00:15:53 --> 00:15:55 mixes a small percentage of ordinary quarks
00:15:55 --> 00:15:57 into the structure at uh, roughly an 80:20
00:15:57 --> 00:15:59 ratio. The dominance of the glue ball
00:15:59 --> 00:16:02 component represents an historic shift in
00:16:02 --> 00:16:04 science's understanding of these basic
00:16:04 --> 00:16:07 building blocks of the universe. It's a
00:16:07 --> 00:16:09 fascinating discovery and will open a new
00:16:09 --> 00:16:11 window into quantum dynamics.
00:16:12 --> 00:16:14 This is space, time.
00:16:30 --> 00:16:32 And time. Now to take another brief look at
00:16:32 --> 00:16:33 some of the other stories making news in
00:16:33 --> 00:16:35 Science this week with a science report.
00:16:36 --> 00:16:39 A new study says that sticking with standard
00:16:39 --> 00:16:41 time is more likely better overall for a
00:16:41 --> 00:16:43 population's health than swapping to daylight
00:16:43 --> 00:16:46 savings time. The findings, reported in the
00:16:46 --> 00:16:48 Canadian Medical Association Journal looked
00:16:48 --> 00:16:50 at how different Canadian regions might act
00:16:50 --> 00:16:52 if they were to switch to just a single time
00:16:52 --> 00:16:55 zone for the year. Several regions in the
00:16:55 --> 00:16:57 country are considering ditching the time
00:16:57 --> 00:16:59 changing between summer and winter and the
00:16:59 --> 00:17:01 authors say there's evidence that time zone
00:17:01 --> 00:17:03 changes are linked to short term health and
00:17:03 --> 00:17:06 safety risks. The authors analysed existing
00:17:06 --> 00:17:08 research on the effects of daylight savings
00:17:08 --> 00:17:10 versus standard time to figure out which
00:17:10 --> 00:17:12 would be more suitable to keep permanently
00:17:13 --> 00:17:15 the transition at daylight saving time
00:17:15 --> 00:17:17 disrupts circadian rhythms and sleep wake
00:17:17 --> 00:17:20 cycles leading to acute cardiovascular
00:17:20 --> 00:17:22 stress, including a notable spike in heart
00:17:22 --> 00:17:24 attacks and ischemic strokes, mood
00:17:24 --> 00:17:27 disturbances and fatigue related accidents,
00:17:27 --> 00:17:30 including a uh, 6% increase in fatal
00:17:30 --> 00:17:33 accidents. It also induces a uh, sort of
00:17:33 --> 00:17:35 mini jet lag, impairing cognitive performance
00:17:35 --> 00:17:37 judgement and elevating the rates of mood
00:17:37 --> 00:17:39 disturbances, irritability and missed
00:17:39 --> 00:17:42 appointments. They say while some people may
00:17:42 --> 00:17:44 prefer a permanent daylight savings time
00:17:44 --> 00:17:46 they've introduced because it allows them
00:17:46 --> 00:17:47 more daylight in their recreational time
00:17:47 --> 00:17:50 after work standard time is generally more
00:17:50 --> 00:17:53 beneficial for human health, especially for
00:17:53 --> 00:17:54 those whose mood and mental health are
00:17:54 --> 00:17:57 particularly affected by dark mornings.
00:17:58 --> 00:18:01 A new study claims too much exposure to light
00:18:01 --> 00:18:04 during night can influence the shape of your
00:18:04 --> 00:18:06 heart. The findings reported in the European
00:18:06 --> 00:18:09 Heart Journal could explain a known link
00:18:09 --> 00:18:11 between light pollution and heart disease.
00:18:11 --> 00:18:13 Looking into this link, the authors asked
00:18:13 --> 00:18:16 11 UK adults to wear light sensors
00:18:16 --> 00:18:18 on their wrists for a week to see how dark
00:18:18 --> 00:18:21 their sleep environment was. Three years
00:18:21 --> 00:18:23 later, uh, the participants underwent a heart
00:18:23 --> 00:18:26 scan using mri. The authors say the
00:18:26 --> 00:18:28 scan results for the participants who were
00:18:28 --> 00:18:30 exposed to the most amount of light at night
00:18:30 --> 00:18:32 were remarkably different. There was evidence
00:18:32 --> 00:18:34 of changes in the structure of three of the
00:18:34 --> 00:18:36 four heart chambers and the hearts didn't
00:18:36 --> 00:18:38 appear to be flexing as effectively during
00:18:38 --> 00:18:41 each beat. The researchers say these are all
00:18:41 --> 00:18:44 signs of stress or injury and could lead to a
00:18:44 --> 00:18:46 weaker heart or even heart failure.
00:18:48 --> 00:18:50 Palaeontologists have discovered the first
00:18:50 --> 00:18:52 ever Diplodocus dinosaur fossils outside
00:18:52 --> 00:18:55 North America. The discovery, which includes
00:18:55 --> 00:18:57 14 exceptionally well preserved tail
00:18:57 --> 00:18:59 vertebrae and several chevron bones, were
00:18:59 --> 00:19:01 unearthed at a dig site in Spain.
00:19:01 --> 00:19:04 Diplodocus are members of the iconic Ceropod
00:19:04 --> 00:19:07 dinosaur family, the ones with elephant like
00:19:07 --> 00:19:10 bodies and legs, a long, long tail at one end
00:19:10 --> 00:19:12 and a long neck and small head at the other.
00:19:12 --> 00:19:13 Just think of Fred Watson Flintstone's pet
00:19:13 --> 00:19:16 Dino. They can reach lengths of over 25
00:19:16 --> 00:19:19 metres. Until now, all confirmed
00:19:19 --> 00:19:21 Diplodocus specimens have come exclusively
00:19:21 --> 00:19:23 from the Morrison Formation in the western
00:19:23 --> 00:19:26 United States. Its presence in Europe
00:19:26 --> 00:19:28 provides compelling evidence that dinosaurs
00:19:28 --> 00:19:30 could migrate between North America and
00:19:30 --> 00:19:33 Europe during the late Triassic period 150
00:19:33 --> 00:19:35 million million years ago, likely crossing
00:19:35 --> 00:19:38 temporary land bridges that emerged as the
00:19:38 --> 00:19:40 proto North Atlantic Ocean underwent
00:19:40 --> 00:19:43 regressive phases. A
00:19:43 --> 00:19:44 new study warns that People in the early
00:19:44 --> 00:19:47 stages of psychosis may be more vulnerable to
00:19:47 --> 00:19:50 AI chatbots, making their condition worse.
00:19:51 --> 00:19:52 A report of the Journal of the American
00:19:52 --> 00:19:55 Medical association claims AI psychosis
00:19:55 --> 00:19:57 is more common in people experiencing their
00:19:57 --> 00:19:59 first episode of the mental illness.
00:20:00 --> 00:20:02 The study used health records to look at the
00:20:02 --> 00:20:05 role AI chatbots played in people's psychotic
00:20:05 --> 00:20:07 symptoms. They found that around
00:20:07 --> 00:20:10 0% of patients with
00:20:10 --> 00:20:12 psychosis had records showing their psychosis
00:20:12 --> 00:20:15 worsened when they used chatbots. The
00:20:15 --> 00:20:17 authors say psychosis worsening interactions
00:20:17 --> 00:20:20 with AI chatbots were most common among
00:20:20 --> 00:20:22 patients experiencing their first episode of
00:20:22 --> 00:20:24 psychosis, which suggests that the early
00:20:24 --> 00:20:26 phase of the psychotic illness may leave
00:20:26 --> 00:20:28 people especially vulnerable.
00:20:29 --> 00:20:32 Beijing says it now expects to have a fully
00:20:32 --> 00:20:34 combat ready robotic army within the next
00:20:34 --> 00:20:37 five to 10 years. China is now
00:20:37 --> 00:20:39 producing tens of thousands of humanoids
00:20:39 --> 00:20:42 annually. Beijing is now actively testing and
00:20:42 --> 00:20:44 integrating humanoid robots, quadruped
00:20:44 --> 00:20:47 robotic dogs and unmanned ground and aerial
00:20:47 --> 00:20:49 vehicles into the People's Liberation Army.
00:20:49 --> 00:20:52 Chinese state media and the PLA have already
00:20:52 --> 00:20:54 showcased humanoid super soldiers, including
00:20:54 --> 00:20:57 prototypes from Unitree and UVTech, which are
00:20:57 --> 00:20:59 capable of autonomous actions, navigating
00:20:59 --> 00:21:01 stairs, rubble and rough terrain,
00:21:01 --> 00:21:04 participating in tactical drills and urban
00:21:04 --> 00:21:06 combat exercises. They've also
00:21:06 --> 00:21:09 demonstrated armed UM B1 series quadrupeds
00:21:09 --> 00:21:11 carrying automatic rifles, grenade launchers
00:21:11 --> 00:21:13 and even rocket launchers. While they are now
00:21:13 --> 00:21:15 being deployed into operational situations
00:21:15 --> 00:21:18 like police patrols, most current machines
00:21:18 --> 00:21:20 still face limitations, including battery
00:21:20 --> 00:21:22 life limits of just two to three hours.
00:21:23 --> 00:21:25 Nevertheless, the recent robotic Olympics set
00:21:25 --> 00:21:28 numerous human beating records, including the
00:21:28 --> 00:21:30 100, 400 metre sprints and the high jump.
00:21:31 --> 00:21:33 With the details of just where our robotic
00:21:33 --> 00:21:35 future is going, we're joined by technology
00:21:35 --> 00:21:38 editor Alex Zaharov Vroit from Tech Advice
00:21:38 --> 00:21:39 Live.
00:21:39 --> 00:21:42 Alex Zaharov-Reutt: We have seen these robots from China running
00:21:42 --> 00:21:44 marathons. There's a story of this
00:21:44 --> 00:21:47 robot barista in, uh, China. In one of their
00:21:47 --> 00:21:50 Cities, they did 202 coffees in an
00:21:50 --> 00:21:52 hour. They did it very smoothly. The people
00:21:52 --> 00:21:54 were impressed how the puppet tasted. They
00:21:54 --> 00:21:55 turned up, but they had to wait in a long
00:21:55 --> 00:21:57 queue and before they knew it, they had their
00:21:57 --> 00:21:57 coffee.
00:21:57 --> 00:21:59 Stuart Gary: I think what people are more concerned about,
00:21:59 --> 00:22:01 though, is the scenes that we've
00:22:01 --> 00:22:03 Stuart Gary: seen where these robots are running at
00:22:03 --> 00:22:05 Stuart Gary: really high speeds, much faster than a human
00:22:05 --> 00:22:07 can. They're jumping higher than a person
00:22:07 --> 00:22:10 can. We've already seen robot dogs fitted
00:22:10 --> 00:22:12 with guns. This is sort of the area we're
00:22:12 --> 00:22:13 heading into now, isn't it?
00:22:13 --> 00:22:15 Alex Zaharov-Reutt: Well, it is. And you've got both Elon Musk
00:22:15 --> 00:22:17 and all the Chinese manufacturers racing
00:22:17 --> 00:22:19 ahead to try and create robots that are
00:22:19 --> 00:22:21 superhuman. They can run faster, they can
00:22:21 --> 00:22:22 Jump higher, as you said. But you know, we've
00:22:22 --> 00:22:24 also seen the robots that have run at the end
00:22:24 --> 00:22:26 of the Chinese marathon and somehow tripped
00:22:26 --> 00:22:28 and then fell into, you know, broke into a
00:22:28 --> 00:22:29 million pieces. Or robots that have reached
00:22:29 --> 00:22:31 the finish line but instead of stopping, they
00:22:31 --> 00:22:33 kept on thrown to a wall and started
00:22:33 --> 00:22:35 convulsing on the floor and fell apart again.
00:22:35 --> 00:22:37 People are trying very hard to accelerate
00:22:37 --> 00:22:40 this technology and to make it an Android
00:22:40 --> 00:22:41 that is indistinguishable from a human like
00:22:41 --> 00:22:43 we've seen in all the science fiction and
00:22:43 --> 00:22:44 movies and books by Asimov and all the rest.
00:22:44 --> 00:22:46 But it's still going to take a decade or two
00:22:46 --> 00:22:48 before we get to true and potentially longer.
00:22:48 --> 00:22:50 But this true dexterity, robots that can
00:22:50 --> 00:22:53 truly be creative, robots that can feel at
00:22:53 --> 00:22:55 the moment AI can fake empathy, fake
00:22:55 --> 00:22:58 feelings, fake concern and seem very
00:22:58 --> 00:23:00 sincere. But at the moment the robot can't
00:23:00 --> 00:23:02 feel anything. Now is that going to change in
00:23:02 --> 00:23:04 the future? Yes, inevitably. But at the
00:23:04 --> 00:23:06 moment, yes. The robot called Neo, if you
00:23:06 --> 00:23:07 watch the video on YouTube, eight minutes
00:23:07 --> 00:23:09 long. I mean it's very slow. It can vacuum,
00:23:09 --> 00:23:12 it can clean your room, it can unload the
00:23:12 --> 00:23:14 dishwasher and put things in the dryer, but
00:23:14 --> 00:23:16 it's so slow and funky. It's like watching a
00:23:16 --> 00:23:18 33,6K modem. You've been able to buy robots
00:23:18 --> 00:23:20 by the end of this decade that will be a home
00:23:20 --> 00:23:22 robot will be the roads of the robot. But the
00:23:22 --> 00:23:25 robots that you'll truly trust to give you a
00:23:25 --> 00:23:27 hygiene at the dentist, uh, cook your food to
00:23:27 --> 00:23:29 perfection. I mean that's still some years
00:23:29 --> 00:23:31 away and potentially decades away.
00:23:31 --> 00:23:34 Stuart Gary: I see the prices getting lower. $20 for
00:23:34 --> 00:23:36 something in the US that's the of a used car.
00:23:36 --> 00:23:38 Alex Zaharov-Reutt: Well, it is, but uh, wait until Those robots
00:23:38 --> 00:23:40 are $2 at your local Harvey Norman.
00:23:40 --> 00:23:42 Stuart Gary: That's Alex Sahar of Roy from Tech Advice
00:23:42 --> 00:23:45 Start Life. And this is Space.
00:24:01 --> 00:24:02 And that's the show for now.
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