Weird Science // Current TV

Ejected Black Holes Drag Clusters of Stars With Them

The tight cluster of stars surrounding a supermassive black hole after it has been violently kicked out of a galaxy represents a new kind of astronomical object which may provide telltale clues to how the ejection event occurred. “Hypercompact stellar systems” result when a supermassive black hole is violently ejected from a galaxy, following a merger with another supermassive black hole. The evicted black hole rips stars from the galaxy as it is thrown out. The stars closest to the black hole move in tandem with the massive object and become a permanent record of the velocity at which the kick occurred.

“You can measure how big the kick was by measuring how fast the stars are moving around the black hole,” said David Merritt, professor of physics at the Rochester Institute of Technolyg. “Only stars orbiting faster than the kick velocity remain attached to the black hole after the kick. These stars carry with them a kind of fossil record of the kick, even after the black hole has slowed down. In principle, you can reconstruct the properties of the kick, which is nice because there would be no other way to do it.”

In a paper published in the July 10 issue of The Astrophysical Journal, Merritt and his colleagues discusses the theoretical properties of these objects and suggests that hundreds of these faint star clusters might be detected at optical wavelengths in our immediate cosmic environment. Some of these objects may already have been picked up in astronomical surveys. .

“Finding these objects would be like discovering DNA from a long-extinct species,” said team member Stefanie Komossa, from the Max-Planck-Institut for Extraterrestrial Physics in Germany.

The astronomers say the best place to find hypercompact stellar systems is in cluster of galaxies like the nearby Coma and Virgo clusters. These dense regions of space contain thousands of galaxies that have been merging for a long time. Merging galaxies result in merging black holes, which is a prerequisite for the kicks.The tight cluster of stars surrounding a supermassive black hole after it has been... more

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Making Medicine Out of...Recycled LCD Screens??

A particular chemical used in LCD display screens can also be used in medicine from pills to bandages. Researchers are hoping this is a solution not just for hospital patients but also for e-waste.

Eurekalert reports that polyvinyl-alcohol (PVA) is a key ingredient in LCD screens, and it turns out can also be used in medicine as in ingredient for making tissue scaffolding to help parts of the body regenerate. Researchers from The University's department of Chemistry have figured out a way to recover the chemical from LCD displays and turn it into this medicinal compound, which could be put into pills or dressings.

The research is in a paper titled "Expanding the potential for waste polyvinyl-alcohol," published in Green Chemistry.

The unique twist to this research - as if we need anything stranger than using old TVs for medicine - is that the discovery comes to us not through researchers seeing the medical use of PVA and then looking at sources for it, but rather researchers looking at what to do with e-waste, and finding a medical use for it.

Professor James Clark, director of the York Green Chemistry Centre of Excellence and one of the author's of the research, said: "With 2.5 billion liquid crystal displays already reaching the end of their life, and LCD televisions proving hugely popular with consumers, that is a huge amount of potential waste to manage.
"It is important that we find ways of recycling as many elements of LCDs as possible so we don't simply have to resort to burying and burning them."

Clark explains that even though PVA isn't a major environmental hazard, there's no sense in wasting it since it is a non-renewable resource. And because LCD waste from electrical and electronic equipment is the fastest growing waste stream in the European Union, it makes sense to find some use for LCDs other than incinerating or landfilling them.

We're expecting that a whole lot of research will have to go into this to ensure it's safe. But if it turns out to be so, perhaps there will be a more direct corollary between recycling TVs and saving lives.A particular chemical used in LCD display screens can also be used in medicine from... more

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