Rats have a terrible rep, but they’re really cool critters! They’re smart and easily trained, which, coupled with their small size, makes them a great search-and-rescue animal for earthquakes. Equipped with tiny backpacks kitted out with microphones, cameras, and trackers, rats trained by Dr. Donna Kean’s team could serve as a lifeline between human rescue teams and people stuck under rubble. The rats, which return after hearing a beep, are being trained on mock debris but will be sent on their first mission the next time an earthquake strikes Turkey. Read full article here
Science
‘Ghostly’ neutrinos provide new path to study protons
In groundbreaking research, an international collaboration of scientists from the University of Rochester have used a beam of neutrinos to measure the size and shape of the protons that make up the nuclei of atoms. This feat, once thought impossible, provides scientists with a new way of looking at the small components of an atom’s nucleus and opens up a wealth of new information about the structure of an atom’s nucleus and the dynamics of the forces that affect neutrino interactions. The researchers solved the challenge of harnessing neutrinos in large numbers by using a neutrino detector containing a target of both hydrogen and carbon atoms, and over nine years of data collection at Fermilab’s accelerator. Read full article here
Merv
March 25, 2023
