Science Watch

Weighing in at just one zeptogram, it’s a few xenon atoms.

Which is a billion trillion times smaller than a gram. Smoke that. :)

What scientists did was use a set of scales that involve a really really narrow wire in a magnetic field, to weight small clusters of atoms.

In this example, they measured a group of xenon atoms.

Why, though? Isn’t this pointless?

Well, actually, this is pretty important in medicine - what they are trying to do is be able to weigh individual proteins.

This would be really useful because a lot of the stuff that makes up our bodies is built from the same material.

Which means when you are working with a really really tiny sample of tissue from someone, it can be really hard to work out which building blocks of the body you’re working with. And very hard to tell how much of it there is.

By being able to measure proteins individually, they can make really precise measurements when trying to study new medicines, and how they can best help our bodies, for example.

The next step is to improve the technique a thousand times. Then instead of measuring in terms of zeptograms, they’ll be measuring in yoctograms. :)

Source: World’s most sensitive scales weigh a zeptogram

Once upon a time there was this big red giant - only it wasn’t a normal giant, it was a star blowing itself to pieces.

And it wasn’t once upon a time - it’s happening all around in the universe.

Scientists have known for a while that the sun will change. After a few billion years, it’ll grow really big, into a type of star known as a red giant.

How big would the sun be as a red giant? Well, the edge of the sun would be touching the earth - that’s how massive it would become. Not for a few billion years, though.

Anyway, normally when astronomers are searching for other planets that may have life, they look for places that look like how our solar system is at the moment.

But a group of astrophysicists from the US and Europe say they should also be looking at solar systems that have red giants.

Why? Because if they have any planets on the far outskirts of a red giant, they could have great conditions for developing life.

So when our sun becomes a red giant, it won’t be good for the earth - everything on this planet will be dead.

But other places in our solar system may develop just the right conditions for life because of it.

There are plenty of moons in the solar system with water on them, such as Europa, Callisto, and maybe even Titan - when they start to melt, they may just start to form seas that could support life.

So it’s worth looking for planets around other stars that are not simply just like our own sun. As it is at the moment.

Source: Dying stars could make frozen planets habitable