November 19, 2018
Good Morning,
Science is capable of discovering and accomplishing so many remarkable things. One of those things is turing the Martian sunrise into a two-minute piece of music. No, seriously! It's science.
Learn about this and more interesting stories from the scientific community in today's issue.
Until Next Time,
Erin
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*-- Scientists turn Martian sunrise into a piece of music --*
You can now listen to the sun rise on Mars. Scientists in England have translated the Martian sunrise into a two-minute score.
Researchers used sonification techniques to translate image data into sounds, turning each pixel into a sonic data point. Using images of the 500th sunrise observed by the Mars rover Opportunity, scientists linked each pixel with brightness, color and elevation measurements.
Special algorithms helped researchers turn the pixel data points into pitch and melody, forming a piece of music.
The two-minute score will be shared with visitors to NASA's Mars Soundscapes exhibit on Tuesday at the Supercomputing SC18 Conference being held this week in Dallas, Texas. The song will be presented both sonically and vibrationally, so that it can be experienced by visitors with hearing disabilities.
"We are absolutely thrilled about presenting this work about such a fascinating planet," Domenico Vicinanza, director of the Sound and Game Engineering research group at Anglia Ruskin University, said in a news release. "Image sonification is a really flexible technique to explore science and it can be used in several domains, from studying certain characteristics of planet surfaces and atmospheres, to analyzing weather changes or detecting volcanic eruptions."
The different perspective offered by sound can help scientists study objects and gain insights that aren't available using traditional images.
"In health science, it can provide scientists with new methods to analyze the occurrence of certain shapes and colours, which is particularly useful in image diagnostics," Vicinanza said.
The Opportunity rover has been exploring Mars since 2004, but a dust storm earlier this summer disrupted its communication abilities. NASA hasn't traded messages with Opportunity for several weeks.
*-- Fruit, vegetable shapes controlled by newly discovered genetic mechanism --*
The diversity of morphologies available at the farmers market is impressive. Fruits and vegetables come in infinite shapes and sizes. But how?
Scientists at the University of Georgia have discovered a new genetic mechanism that controls the shape of fruits and vegetables.
Researchers at Georgia previously isolated novel genetic pathways responsible for tomato shapes. Now, the same scientists think all fruits and vegetables use a similar mechanism -- a novel group of genetic sequences.
"We found that in tomatoes, plant cells in the fruit divide in a column or in a row and that will determine their shape," Esther van der Knaap, a professor of horticulture at Georgia, said in a news release. "We also found that this mechanism is likely the same in several other plant species: melons, cucumbers, potatoes. We've even been able to go as far as finding that the same mechanism controls the shape of rice grains as well as leaves."
The new research -- published in the journal Nature Communications -- could prove useful for farmers and plant breeders keen on developing perfectly sculpted eggplants or inventing new pepper varieties.
The newly discovered genetic mechanism could also help botanists and biologists better understand the evolution and speciation of wild fruits and vegetables, as well as the ancient development of cultivated varieties.
In the original tomato study, researchers isolated genetic sequences that controlled cell division or cell size, which help control fruit shape and size. In the latest study, scientists located similar sequences in other fruits and vegetables.
The research showed some genetic pathways exert greater control over cell division and cell size later in the fruit development process, closer to ripening, while other pathways dictate growth earlier, just before flowering.
Scientists found the genetic pathways used by tomatoes and potatoes are most similar in their timing and effects. The plants' shape-controlling sequences are found in the same location in the genome. The similarities aren't surprising, as potatoes and tomatoes are both closely related members of the Solanaceae family.
In future studies, scientists hope to explore the possibility that similar genetic pathways control organ growth in all plant species.
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