The model was to take Einstein’s theory of general relativity and to include quantum correction terms. These terms would correct for the effects of quantum mechanics. In a sense, quantum mechanics and general relativity are different languages. General relativity speaks to the macroscopic world of black holes and stars, whereas quantum mechanics speaks to the behavior of tiny particles which make up the universe. When these researchers used mathematical equations to correct for these quantum terms, they found they could avoid talking about the Big Bang in general. This means avoiding the current view that the universe came into existence some 13.8 billion years ago, and before that time there was nothing.

In fact, in the opening of their paper, they introduce a list of problems the current model needs to explain in better detail. Examples of these are the true nature of dark matter and the beginning of the universe or the Big Bang. Instead of a ‘big bang,’ they proposed the universe always existed as quantum potential. To explain this, they derived a differential equation with two quantum corrections. The first could be interpreted as dark matter and the other as the point of the singularity extended infinitely in time, thus never occurring.

“The second quantum correction term pushes back the time singularity indefinitely and predicts an everlasting universe,” the researchers said.

The Big Bang theory is the current and most accepted cosmological model for the origin of the universe. It came out of the solution for Einstein’s general relativity equations. In fact, one of the first signs of this came from the solutions done by a Belgian priest, Georges Lemaître.

Both theoretical and physical evidence has been mounted since that time. The problem thus far in understanding the Big Bang is the moment of the singularity. A commonly misunderstood concept, it is a point in space with infinite density and gravitational pull. At that point, however, the current laws of physics break down while explaining what’s going on. The new model proposed does not simply overthrow the Big Bang theory. It may open the doors for more interpretations and avenues in unravelling the truth about the origins of the universe.

What can a single breathing test do for you? It could do much more after the development of a new device which can help detect lung cancer in its early stages. The study is being led by Dr. Salman Siddiqui and clinical trials are being conducted at the University of Leicester, England.

The research suggests this new Lung Cancer Indicator Detection (LuCID) will change the detection rate of early forms of the cancer from 14.5 per cent to 25 per cent of people, according to data from the United Kingdom. The idea is that this new device will detect volatile organic compounds from patients’ exhaled breath. Volatile organic compounds are compounds which have a high vapor pressure at room temperature. Some of these compounds are associated with cancers and in particular, doctors can detect which ones are common with lung cancer. This detection method is non-invasive, as patients simply blow into an apparatus.

Other detection methods can be very costly and not as effective. Currently, there are few ways of detecting lung cancer. In Canada and the United States, the Canadian Cancer Society suggests research is mainly going toward imaging techniques to help detect cancer early. One example is the National Lung Screening Trial, which takes low-dose spiral CT scans of patients. This method has been found to better detect lung cancer than the simpler X-ray scans. However, the problem still remains that for these methods to be effective, you must have fast access to these scans and also be able to recognize the potential for its use.

“Lung cancer has one of the lowest five-year survival rates of all cancers; however, early diagnosis can greatly improve a patient’s prognosis. Current diagnostic procedures such as chest X-rays, CT scans and bronchoscopy are costly and are not without risks so the benefits of a non-invasive, cheaper alternative are clear.” said Siddiqui.

The Canadian Cancer Society gives a list of classical symptoms associated with lung cancer in its early stages. One common symptom is a simple cough which does not go away over time. Unfortunately, a simple cough, even if you are a chronic smoker, does not warrant such a scan. The technology developed by Siddiqui may offer a chance for medical doctors to detect lung cancer at simple clinical visits, given a simple set of parameters.

Lung cancer arises from damage done to lung tissue. Tobacco smoking respresents the leading cause of all lung cancers diagnosed in Canada –  about 85 per cent. The remaining 15 per cent represents second-hand smoke, asbestos exposure, radon exposure and a range of other environmental – possibly genetic – factors. In Canada, lung cancer is the most diagnosed type of cancer. In 2014, 26,100 Canadians were diagnosed with lung cancer and 20,500 will die from it. With new technology such as the one developed by Siddiqui, perhaps these grim numbers might turn around. Early detection is key in defeating any cancer, and this study provides some hope that it will be accomplished for lung cancer.

Want another reason to have that glass of wine at dinner? New research may be your talking point, as researchers have uncovered an indirect link between moderate wine consumption and fat burning. The research study was done by the Oregon State University and results published in the Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry under the title “Ellagic acid modulates lipid accumulation in primary human adipocytes and human hepatoma Huh7 cells via discrete mechanisms.”

The research centered not on wine in particular but on dark coloured grapes. Researchers found that consuming dark coloured grapes or products made from these grapes is correlated to weight loss and in paprticular, in our body’s ability to burn fat. They also found that it helped prevent or manage metabolic disorders.

One of the co-researchers, biochemist Neil Shay, used Muscadine grapes to extract its natural chemicals and then expose them to human liver and fat cells found in humans. Ellagic acid was found to be particularly powerful in terms of fat burning. It slowed the growth of preexisting fat cells and halted the growth of new ones. The idea is that these chemicals will have a significant metabolic effect on those who have other metabolic disorders. Therefore, it is not a method of losing weight in and of itself, but may help speed up a person’s metabolism.

This research is related to a previous study done by Shay and his graduate students at Oregon State University’s laboratory. They set up an experiment with obese rats to test whether or not dietary substitutes with grapes would cause any significant results. In the experimental group, he used a set of mice which had a 60 per cent fat content diet. He used a control group of a set of mice which had only 10 per cent of fat content. Some of the rats received a portion of grapes in their diet, which would be equivalent to about one and half cups of grapes per day for an adult human being.

After a 10-week period, the mice that were fed the fatty diet were found to have many problems associated with obese patients such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and liver disease. The mice that were fed the high fat diet and the supplement of grapes were found to have less fat on their liver and lower blood sugar, almost the same levels as the mice that were fed the 10 per cent fat diet.

Shay and his colleagues’ goal is to help make people better understand which foods contribute to a healthier life. They hope that his research will help us combine this finding in dietary habits and form healthier paths.

His study is not meant to dissuade people from using medications but rather point the way to what could be more beneficial eating habits.

“We are trying to validate the specific contributions of certain foods for health benefits,” said Shay.

Researchers have uncovered a perplexing puzzle about cancer: how do pancreatic cells avoid destruction? The question is not easy to answer nor is it easy to really begin answering.However, it seemed that either the drugs used were not well-understood in the context of pancreatic cancer or that the cancer was able to do something to stop the drugs.

“More likely, cancer cells have found a way to avoid DNA-damaging drugs,” said Yen.

Yen’s approach was trial by elimination. His objective was to slowly knock out each gene in the cell, and then expose the cell to chemotherapy. The cells with the greatest death rate give researchers a clue to which genes cancer cells are utilizing. Yen and his research team took out each gene found in pancreatic cells, totalling approximately 2,400. They then used a common pancreatic cancer chemotherapy drug, gemcitabine, to see which removed genes would cause a greater effect. In other words, which removed gene would allow the drug to kill the cells most efficiently. Although this approach yields many results which may indicate why pancreatic cells avoid destruction, one gene stood out amongst them. A gene that binds to vitamin D, which is important for bone maintenance was found to cause the most death in the exposed cells after removal.

“When we inactivated this vitamin D receptor in cancer cells and added gemcitabine, almost all of them died,” said Yen.

The nature of the cells’ usage of this vitamin D receptor is not clear. In other words, this study gave no clue to how the cancer cell was using this gene, but hypothesized it is a factor. Researchers now hope they can find a way to inactivate the vitamin D receptor in cancer cells and then use pancreatic chemotherapeutic agents to kill those cells.

Cancer is a class of diseases that icludes more than 100 different types. Pancreatic cancer and lung cancer have the highest death rate in Canada. According the Canadian Cancer Society, 2,400 men will be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and 2,200 will die from it, and 2,300 women will be diagnosed with the disease and 2,200 will die from it.

Usually, people diagnosed with pancreatic cancer do not have many treatment options. First, the cancer is usually detected in the late stage of the disease. Second, the cancer spreads very rapidly, and third, the drugs currently used are not very effective. The hope is that this research will help double the survival rate of pancreatic cancer patients by 2020.

How fast can your computer process data? It may get a lot faster, thanks to the development of a prototype quantum hard drive. This is the first time researchers have successfully developed a solid state quantum drive, which will store information longer and faster. The study was published in the journal Nature under the title “Optically addressable nuclear spins in a solid with a six-hour coherence time.”

Research at the Australian National University and the University of Otago in New Zealand involved developing a novel method of storing quantum information without using fiber optics. Their method included using a solid state device. They used the rare earth metal europium to store quantum information and then placed that into a crystal. Photons are the entity which carry quantum information, which is the word for a particle of light or packaged quantized light.

This method allowed them to overcome distance problems and storage capabilities. Quantum networks are very fragile and can currently extend to about only 100 km. This means one can transfer encrypted quantum information only a very short distance and even then, quantum information tends to be destroyed. Unlike conventional means of information transfer such as electronic transfer, an amplification of the quantum signal seems to cause more damage to the information. The current method used optical transfer of quantum information.

The new method described by this study makes it easier to transport information long range and for a greater amount of time. Their record storage retention time is six hours, which may not appear to be significant but relative to the competition, it is. Quantum technology will enable us to make unbeatable encryption codes, which can be used from a wide range of different areas, from banking to personal email.

The way this technology works is by the principle of quantum entanglement. The researchers exploit the fact that two particles can be related such that their information are intrinsically bound to one another. An entangled particle can be a distance across the universe from each other but the observation of a characteristic of one particle will collapse the quantum state of the other particle.

The consequence of quantum entanglement means information about one particle is instantly transferred to the other. The idea would be to store entangled light in separate solid state devices and transport them thousands of kilometers away.

“We believe it will soon be possible to distribute quantum information between any two points on the globe,” said physicist Manjin Zhong.

Using the solid state approach allows  physicists and researchers the ability to more extensively test one of the principle foundational concepts in modern concepts, quantum entanglement, as well improve on the technology itself. Currently, we have not been able to experiment with quantum entanglement with such long distances.

The massless particle that defines the speed limit of the universe can be slowed down after all. Researchers at the University of Glasgow have devised an experimental procedure which allows them to experimentally show that the speed of light can be slowed down in free space. This slowing down of light in the condition of empty, vacuous space, was once thought impossible.

The research was led by Daniel Giovannini, a research assistant at the University of Glasgow, and conducted by a team of research students and physicists. They published their results in Science Express under the title “Spatially structured photons that travel in free space slower than the speed of light.”

In order to design an experiment to slow light down, the researchers placed a mask over an optical device in order to give the individual light particles a spatial structure as they were ejected from the laser. This modified the light particles to give them a particular shape before they are shot into space. The researchers then raced their modified particles against regular photons to see if they would finish at different times. They found that the modified light particles were slowed down and finished later than their regular counterparts. When the normal light appeared across the finish line, the slower light was about a metre behind.

Even when the machine stopped acting on the light, the particles remained slowed down and did not rebound to their original velocity. The perpetual slowed state of the modified light particles is quite significant. Normal photons usually bounce back when they face resistance, but even after the machine stopped working on them, the light particles remain slower than their unaltered counterparts.

The idea of slowing down light particles is not new. Every time light passes through a medium such as water or glass, it slows down. As soon as it comes out of the medium, it immediately returns to its original speed.

“This finding shows unambiguously that the propagation of light can be slowed below the commonly accepted figure of 299,792,458 metres per second, even when travelling in air or vacuum,” postdoctoral student Jacquiline Romero said in a press release.

The accepted calculation of c, the symbol for the speed of light, is 299,792,458 metres per second. It is often regarded as the cosmic speed limit and it is used as a universal constant in physics. Einstein’s equations utilize the constant in order to derive many significant results such as his special theory of relativity and E=mc².

Slowing down the speed of light in a vacuum may force many physicists to rethink how they view the speed limit of the universe. Although it is doubtful it will have any immediate theoretical implications, Giovannini suggest it may have significant implications on how we use light in technology.

The newest research on planetary discovery yielded interesting results involving the habitability status of eight planets. Researchers have statistically determined that these planets are in range in what is known as the goldilocks region. This  region would be able to support liquid water on their surfaces.

Astronomers at the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics have been working for a year on a study concerning eight potential habitable planets in the goldilocks region. Among the eight, two of them seem particularly promising. Both Kepler-483b and Kepler-442b have been singled out for their comparison to our own planet, Earth. Their sizes are relatively similar and their proximity to their star allows for significant solar radiation. The size of these planets are particularly important, as it is a determinant for its chances of being rocky like Earth. A bigger planet, or a massive one like Jupiter, tends to be not rocky and may not be able to hold any liquid on its surface.

Researchers have been at this study for quite sometime. They first identified these candidates during a Kepler mission. However, the ability confirmation of important information, such as size and whether or not they were even planets, came only after the researchers used a computer program called BLENDER. The following year, researchers used different methods of studying the planets such as spectrometry and optics studies in order to learn more about their composition. Spectrometry involves a wide range of techniques of chemical analysis, and is used to determine the characteristics and properties of substances.

Kepler-442b is one of the planets most similar to Earth. It goes around its sun once every 112 days and is about one-third larger than Earth. Researchers calculated that the chances of it having rocky characteristics like that of Earth is about 60 per cent, but receiving only about two-thirds as much sunlight from its sun. Finalizing the statistical analysis for Kepler-442b puts the planet’s probability of being habitable at 97 per cent.

Kepler-438b is the second planet considered to be similar to Earth. It has a greater chance of having rocky characteristics at 70 per per cent, but receives only 40 per cent more light than Earth. The total analysis for this planet lies at 70 per cent chance of being habitable.

Kepler-438b’s lower statistic is mostly due to its large amount of sunlight intake. The goldilocks zone refers to a planet’s distance from the sun: it is not too far from the sun to cause water to be in a constant solid state and it is not too close for the water to vaporize. What is it? It seems that it may receive too much sunlight to maintain liquid water. However, the statistic is still considerably high.

The word habitable does not mean that it contains life. It simply means that if a planet is habitable, there is a higher chance for the development of life.

“We don’t know for sure whether any of the planets in our sample are truly habitable,” said center astronomer David Kipping.

A new study from the University of Illinois suggests there is a strong correlation between optimism and ideal cardiovascular health across socio-demographic and ethnic lines.

The study was published in the journal, Health Behavior and Policy Review, authored by many researchers but led by Rosalba Hernandez, a professor of social work. The study found that the people in the highest quartile of optimism were also likely to have close to ideal or ideal cardiovascular health. In contrast to their pessimistic counterparts, the most pessimistic participants had low scores, indicating low cardiovascular health. These results factored in socio-demographic differences, which may otherwise conflict or skew the data. They also utilized multi-ethnic study of atherosclerosis, which is a medical study of cardiovascular disease over a period of time. They accessed health related information through MESA’s participants of about 6,000 multiethnic men and women. MESA’s access to a multi-ethnic sample made it easier to get a general study. Cardiovascular health may range based on ethnicity, so factoring this in helped strengthen their findings.

The researchers used various metrics in their calculation of cardiovascular health. Among these were diet, physical activity, blood pressure, body mass index, blood sugar and total cholesterol. The most optimistic people had ideal values for these metrics or close to ideal, whereas their pessimistic counterparts did not. They were graded on a two-point scale, ranging from zero to two. The sum of these numbers for every category tested would be from zero to 14, where a higher score indicated a better cardiovascular health.

The highest scoring participants were found to have twice the probability of having ideal cardiovascular health. We can imagine, although it is not explicitly stated, a healthier outlook on life leads to less stress and more drive to keep healthy, whereas a negative outlook may lead to unhealthy lifestyle choices and stress.

The study collected data of adults from the ages of 52 to 84 who participated in MESA. The researchers for the optimism study used their data, with a sample size of 5,134, in order to discover the correlation between optimistic people and ideal cardiovascular health.

According to Statistics Canada, cardiovascular disease was the second leading cause of death among Canadians. Many cases of these diseases are preventable, and  a healthier look on life may certainly be a good start.

“At the population level, even this moderate difference in cardiovascular health translates into a significant reduction in death rates,” said  study leader Hernandez.