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IMAGE: Calcium carbonate samples from a sediment core drilled from the mid-Pacific Mountains show evidence of ocean acidification 127 to 100 million years ago. view more
Credit: Northwestern University
EVANSTON, Ill. Around 120 million years ago, the earth experienced an extreme environmental disruption that choked oxygen from its oceans.
Known as oceanic anoxic event (OAE) 1a, the oxygen-deprived water led to a minor but significant mass extinction that affected the entire globe. During this age in the Early Cretaceous Period, an entire family of sea-dwelling nannoplankton virtually disappeared.
By measuring calcium and strontium isotope abundances in nannoplankton fossils, Northwestern earth scientists have concluded the eruption of the Ontong Java Plateau large igneous province (LIP) directly triggered OAE1a. Roughly the size of Alaska, the Ontong Java LIP erupted for seven million years, making it one of the largest known LIP events ever. During thi
Robust stellar flares might not prevent life on exoplanets, could facilitate its detection
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Credit: NASA s Goddard Space Flight Center/S. Wiessinger
Although violent and unpredictable, stellar flares emitted by a planet s host star do not necessarily prevent life from forming, according to a new Northwestern University study.
Emitted by stars, stellar flares are sudden flashes of magnetic imagery. On Earth, the sun s flares sometimes damage satellites and disrupt radio communications. Elsewhere in the universe, robust stellar flares also have the ability to deplete and destroy atmospheric gases, such as ozone. Without the ozone, harmful levels of ultraviolet (UV) radiation can penetrate a planet s atmosphere, thereby diminishing its chances of harboring surface life.
By combining 3D atmospheric chemistry and climate modeling with observed flare data from distant stars, a Northwestern-led team discovered that stellar flares could play an important role in the long-term evolution of a planet s atmosphere and habitability.
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Innovative step by Northwestern, UChicago scientists could boost computing, sensing
December 08, 2020
Scientists have developed a way to synthesize tailor-made molecular qubits. Illustration courtesy of Daniel Laorenza, Northwestern University.
With their ability to harness the strange powers of quantum mechanics, qubits are the basis for potentially world-changing technologies â like powerful new types of computers or ultra-precise sensors.
Qubits (short for quantum bits) are often made of the same semiconducting materials as our everyday electronics. But an interdisciplinary team of chemists and physicists at Northwestern University and the University of Chicago has developed a new method to create tailor-made qubits: by chemically synthesizing molecules that encode quantum information into their magnetic, or âspin,â states.
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