With a grain of salt: what halite has to offer to discussions on the origin of life

This experimental study investigated how the dynamics of the crystallization of the evaporite mineral halite could affect the accumulation and preservation of organic macromolecules present in the crystallizing solution. Halite was grown under controlled conditions in the presence of polymer nanoparticles that acted as an analog to protocellular material. Optical microscopy, atomic force microscopy, and laser scanning confocal fluorescence microscopy were used to trace the localization of the nanoparticles during and after growth of halite crystals. The present study revealed that the organic nanoparticles were not regularly incorporated within the halite, but were very concentrated on its surfaces. Their distribution was controlled dominantly by the morphologic surface features of the mineral rather than by specific molecular interactions with an atomic plane of the mineral. This means that the distribution of organic molecules was controlled by surfaces like those of halite's evaporitic growth forms. The experiments with halite also demonstrated that a mineral need not continuously incorporate organic molecules during its crystallization to preserve those molecules: After rejection by (non-incorporation into) the crystallizing halite, the organic nanoparticles increased in concentration in the evaporating brine. They ultimately either adsorbed in rectilinear patterns onto the hopper-enhanced surfaces and along discontinuities within the crystals, or they were encapsulated within fluid inclusions. Of additional importance in origin-of-life considerations is the fact that halite in the natural environment rapidly can change its role from that of a protective repository (in the absence of water) to that of a source of organic particles (as soon as water is present) when the mineral dissolves.     

Microbial survival rates of Escherichia coli and Deinococcus radiodurans under low temperature, low pressure, and UV-Irradiation conditions, and their relevance to possible Martian life

Viability rates were determined for microbial populations of Escherichia coli and Deinococcus radiodurans under the environmental stresses of low temperature (-35 degrees C), low-pressure conditions (83.3 kPa), and ultraviolet (UV) irradiation (37 W/m(2)). During the stress tests the organisms were suspended in saltwater soil and freshwater soil media, at variable burial depths, and in seawater. Microbial populations of both organisms were most susceptible to dehydration stress associated with low-pressure conditions, and to UV irradiation. However, suspension in a liquid water medium and burial at larger depths (5 cm) improved survival rates markedly. Our results indicate that planetary surfaces that possess little to no atmosphere and have low water availability do not constitute a favorable environment for terrestrial microorganisms.     

The Physical Foundation of Forecasting Disturbances in the Geospace From Solar Disk Characteristics

The five main types of antisunward propagating energetic fluxes (particles and emission) may be thought of as well established to date, the effects of which lead to a particilar character of disturbance in the near-terrestrial environment (the Earth's magnetosphere, ionosphere and atmosphere). The strongest global restructuring of the magnetosphere and ionosphere is caused by fluxes of relatively dense n of 1-70 cm-3 at the Earth's orbit) Solar Wind (SW) quasi-neutral, low-energy (E ＜ 10 keV) plasma which cause magnetospheric and ionospheric storms lasting 24 hours or longer. For that reason, main attention is given to their study at the initial stage of research. The physical essence of the method of predicting disturbances in the near-terrestrial space environment, the amplitude of which can be expressed in, for example, the Kp index units, involves:(1) identifying all the most geo-effective SW streams of type, (2) determing their sources on the solar disk,and (3) quantifying the correlations between the characteristics of their solar sources with a maximum value of the Kp-index that is caused by the concerned type of SW stream. Semi-phenomenological relations have been obtained, which relate parameters of type SW stream sources to characteristics of geomagnetic storms:storm commencement, the time at which the storm intensity reaches its maximum values, the storm duration,as well as to the storm amplitude expressed in terms of geomagnetic indeces.      

Study of the Enhancement Events of Relativistic Electron at the Geosynchronous Orbit

The high flux of energetic electron on geostationary orbit can induce many kinds of malfunction of the satellite there, within which the bulk-charging is the most significant that several broadcast satellite failures were confirmed to be due to this effect. The electron flux on geostationary orbit varies in a large range even up to three orders accompanied the passage of interplanetary magnetic cloud and the following geomagnetic disturbances. Upon the investigation of electron flux enhancement events, two types of events were partitioned as recurrent events and random ones. Both of the two kinds of events relate to the interplanetary conditions such as solar wind parameters, IMF etc and their evolution characters as well. As for the recurrent events, we found that, (1) all of the events exhibits periodic recurrence about 27 days, (2) significant increase of electron flux relates to interplanetary index and characters of their distribution, (3) the electron flux also has relation to solar activity index. An artificial neural network was constructed to estimate the flux I day ahead. The random electron flux enhancement events are rare and present different distribution figures to the recurrent ones. The figure of the random events and the conditions of their occurrence is also discussed in this paper.      

突破有限元分析的极限

有限元法FEM分析变得日益复杂,同时有限元分析模型的大小和细节设计要求也在不断增加。由数百万个单元和数百万的自由度组成的有限元网格的模型已经变得司空见惯,然而模型的尺寸也在     

电推进系统为何会扰乱MRO行业

<正>随着电推进系统研发工作取得持续的进展,航空维修领域非常有必要提前了解电推进的发展现状和未来走势,尤其是发动机维修售后市场参与者需要尽早参与电动飞机设计过程,以便获得对飞机维修性的最直接的实践反馈,并且及早建立与之相适应的维修能力、维修设施、维修模式和维修培训系统等。     

先进的模块化跟踪器：一个实时的电视跟踪器

本文叙述先进的模块化跟踪器(AMT)，一个可以实时跟踪诸如运载火箭、卫星等目标的电视跟踪器。AMT是美国空军菲力浦实验室为捕获、跟踪、瞄准(ATP)实验而自行开发的一个项目。它采用了DATACUBE公司并行流水式图象处理硬件和图象流软件。目前的AMT版本使用：DATACUBE公司的MAXVIDEO-20、MAXSCAN和MLA860板。AMT可同时对二个不同的视频输入进行行星、边缘和相关跟踪，并可实时进行输入图象的视频转换、实时直方图计算及图象的处理。AMT具有自动捕获跟踪目标，自动调节阈值和波门大小的能力，它可用于任何地基、空基和天基等需要自动跟踪的应用场合。     

特异意识状态：新的领域

日渐明显的是,许多特异意识状态(ASC)和相关问题可以进入科学探索的领域.许多这些主观的状态或现象原先被归类为本质上是宗教的或神秘主义的,因而作为非客观的、非物理性的或不属于普遍的观察而被排除于科学研究之外.这种态度正在改变.首先是因为主观——客观二分法的困境证明了意识的重要性;其次是因为技术的发展使得发现主观状态的生理相关性成为可能——例如,现在可以通过快速眼动和脑电图记录探查和监督做梦.作为这些进展的结果,先前的这些神秘主义主题正转向科学证实和探索的领域.