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The Hindu
a day ago
- Science
- The Hindu
Heaviest proton emitter astatine-188 detected
Thirty years after bismuth emitting a proton was detected and measured in 1996, an international collaboration led by researchers at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland, detected and measured the half-life of the heaviest proton emitter 188At (astatine) isotope, which decayed by emitting a proton. While isotopes often undergo radioactive decay by emitting alpha, beta, and gamma particles, rarely do they emit a proton. The study was published in the journal Nature Communications. 'The measured half-life for the 188At is 190 microseconds, which defines the time scale for the proton emission,' Henna Kokkonen, the first and one of the corresponding authors from the University of Jyväskylä said in an email to The Hindu. 'For a nucleus with given proton and neutron numbers, if we keep on adding more protons, we will reach a limit where the last-added proton would simply drip away. Such proton-rich nuclei often decay by emitting a proton, which is a rare process and is measured with highly specialised experimental facilities and corroborated with state-of-the-art theoretical descriptions,' explained Paramasivan Arumugam, Professor in the Department of Physics at IIT Roorkee, a coauthor of the paper. 'This might be occurring naturally but this was the first time that an Astatine isotope decaying by proton emission was detected and measured in a lab.' To a question why the emission of a proton by Astatine was not detected and measured earlier, Dr. Kokkonen said: 'Studies of the nuclei at this area of the nuclear chart are extremely challenging and require highly selective equipment to perform the experiments. The nuclei are challenging to produce, since the production rate is very low. The measurement techniques and the analysis have advanced significantly during the past years allowing us to study more and more exotic nuclei.' The heaviest Astatine (At) nucleus, with an atomic number 85, was produced in a fusion-evaporation reaction by irradiating a silver target with a strontium ion beam. Of the several nuclei that were formed when the strontium beam hit the silver target, the 188At isotope was identified using a Recoil-Ion Transport Unit (RITU) recoil separator. After the emission of the proton, the 188At isotope has 84 protons and 103 neutrons. 'When the 188-astatine emits the proton, it becomes 187-polonium isotope, which has a half-life of only 1.4 milliseconds. The 187-polonium isotope then decays via alpha decay into 183-lead and so on, until it reaches a stable nucleus,' Dr. Kalle Auranen, the other corresponding author from the University of Jyväskylä, said in an email. The role of the IIT Roorkee team led by Prof. Arumugam was in ascertaining the proton emission through theoretical calculations. Sophisticated measurements carried out at the University of Jyväskylä have to be corroborated with theoretical calculations to ascertain the detection of proton emission. 'We have been developing the theory for proton emission since 2008 in collaboration with the Universidade de Lisboa in Lisbon, Portugal,' said Prof. Arumugam. 'The theoretical calculations allowed us to determine the shape of the Astatine nucleus to be strongly prolate (watermelon-shaped),' Prof. Arumugam said. 'The structure of the nucleus is represented by the shape parameter, and the half-life strongly depends on the shape parameter.'
Daily Mirror
24-04-2025
- Health
- Daily Mirror
Age at which harms from drinking and smoking kick in uncovered by scientists
A 30-year study found that changing ways early by your thirties could prevent years of ill health... but researchers say it is never too late to change The effects of heavy drinking, smoking and not exercising enough kick in by the age of 36, scientists have found. A 30-year study found that changing our ways early in adulthood and midlife can prevent years of subsequent ill health. But, researchers insist, it is never too late to change and see benefits. The experts assessed people for the three lifestyle habits at the ages of 27, 36, 42, 50 and 61. The study, published in the Annals of Medicine, concluded: 'The cumulative association of earlier risky behaviours exists already at age 36 and not only in the later phases of midlife." Smoking causes lung cancer and heart and breathing problems, while a lack of exercise and too much alcohol are linked to issues such as cancer, stroke, heart attacks and early death. The decades-long trial by Finish universities tracked 326 people and their mental health was assessed via surveys on symptoms of depression and psychological wellbeing. Physical health was measured by creating a metabolic risk score based on blood pressure, waist size and levels of blood sugar, cholesterol and other fats in the blood. People were also asked to rate their health over the previous year. Dr Tiia Kekalainen, a health scientist from the University of Jyväskylä in Finland who worked on the study, said: "Non-communicable diseases such as heart disease and cancer cause almost three-quarters of deaths worldwide. But by following a healthy lifestyle, an individual can cut their risk of developing these illnesses and reduce their odds of an early death. "Our findings highlight the importance of tackling risky health behaviours, such as smoking, heavy drinking and physical inactivity as early as possible to prevent the damage they do from building up over the years, culminating in poor mental and physical health later in life.' In the study symptoms of depression and overall psychological wellbeing were measured on a scale of 1-4; self-rated health was measured on a scale of 1-5; and metabolic risk was scored from 0-5. Three risky behaviours were assessed at each point in time - smoking, heavy drinking and physical inactivity (exercising less than once a week). The results of the study showed that if people had all three unhealthy habits at a given point in time, their mental and physical health were worse than if they had none. In particular, depressive symptoms rose by 0.1 points, metabolic risk score rose by 0.53 points, psychological wellbeing fell by 0.1 points and self-rated health fell by 0.45 points. Furthermore, having all three unhealthy behaviours long term was even more strongly associated with poor health. Depressive symptoms rose by 0.38 points, metabolic risk score rose by 1.49 points, psychological wellbeing fell by 0.14 points and self-rated health fell by 0.45 points if this was the case. The researchers wrote that "the findings of the present study suggest that the associations were mainly similar across time from age 36 to 61". Dr Kekalainen added: "However, it is never too late to change to healthier habits. Adopting healthier habits in midlife also has benefits for older age."
Yahoo
17-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Finland finds its first giant virus
Many viruses measure just tens of nanometers (nm) in size, but that's not always the case. In some rare instances , so-called 'giant viruses' can grow to as much as 1,000 times larger than their relatives. But despite the terrifying name, giant viruses aren't necessarily any more dangerous than a standard-sized species. And in Finland, researchers recently discovered the nation's first known example. Meet Jyvaskylavirus, a 200 nm diameter giant that's roughly two times bigger than influenza or coronavirus. Jyvaskylavirus is detailed in a study recently published in eLife, and named for Jyväskylä, the Finnish city where it was to researchers, the new species was discovered after mixing environmental samples with a culture of amoeba called Acanthamoeba castellanii. 'We elucidated the genome and structure of the Jyvaskylavirus, which was found to be related to Marseilleviruses previously isolated from France,' Lotta-Riina Sundberg, study co-author and University of Jyväskylä professor Lotta-Riina Sundberg, said in a statement on April 16. What makes Jyvaskylavirus particularly interesting to researchers is where it was found. So far, the majority of most known giant viruses so far have only been identified in Europe and South America. Finding a strain so far north leads the study's authors to theorize that giant viruses may be more widespread in soil and water than previously believed. Giant virus life cycles and spread are still not very well understood. That said, certain Arctic species have been shown to infect specific kinds of algae that are currently exacerbating the melting of Earth's polar ice caps. Because of their size, giant viruses also have exponentially larger genomes than their standard-sized counterparts—as many as 2.5 million base DNA pairs compared to the usual 7,000–20,000. While large, Jyvaskylavirus is still dwarfed by the biggest known example, Pandoravirus salinas (500 nm) Researchers hope further study of examples like Jyvaskylavirus will lead to a better understanding of the unique microscopic organisms. But while Jyvaskylavirus is Finland's first catalogued giant virus, Sundberg made clear it certainly isn't the last. 'Other new giant viruses were also detected in [our] environmental samples,' they teased.
