Questões de Inglês

Text II

The Possible Parallel Universe of Dark Energy

By Corey S. Powell

Are you a baryonic matter chauvinist? Probably,

yes, but if not so sure, here is the definition of baryonic

matter. Baryonic matter is that with which we are all

familiar and that interacts with visible light: Protons,

neutrons and electrons; atoms and molecules; your

body, your car, stars, galaxies. Almost all of us are

chauvinist in relation to baryonic matter. We tend to

think of ourselves and the world immediately around

us as something special. Then, by extension we

regard our kind of matter as the most important kind

of matter in the universe. We act as if the only kinds of

matter that mattered were the ones we can see.

Sorry to disappoint you, but science tells a starkly

different story. Last spring, the European Space

Agency’s Planck Spacecraft completed an ultraprecise

15-month census of the composition of the universe.

Baryonic matter, also named light matter, makes up

only 4.9% of the total composition of the universe.

Planck Spacecraft also found evidence that

another fundamentally invisible, cool and mysterious

type of matter, named dark matter, vastly outweighs

baryonic matter, accounting for 26.8% of the universe.

Dark matter is undetectable by its emitted radiation,

but its presence can be inferred from gravitational

effects on visible matter.

The remaining 68.3 % is dark energy, an even

more baffling component that consists of formless

forces. According to Einstein, dark energy is an

intrinsic property of space. As more space comes

into existence, more of this energy-of-space appears.

A hypothesis is that, as a result, this form of energy

might cause the Universe to expand faster and faster.

While this theory is still not well understood or proven,

it is certain that more than two-thirds of the universe

has no substance at all!

While we usually focus on matter made of visible

atoms, researchers learn more about dark matter’s

and dark energy’s complexities. In view of the

discomfiting Planck result, we must let go of all our

feelings of supremacy. After all, it seems possible that

our galaxy lives on top of shadow galaxies without us

even knowing it.

Available at: . Retrieved on: July 2013. Adapted.

Text II

The Possible Parallel Universe of Dark Energy

By Corey S. Powell

Are you a baryonic matter chauvinist? Probably,

yes, but if not so sure, here is the definition of baryonic

matter. Baryonic matter is that with which we are all

familiar and that interacts with visible light: Protons,

neutrons and electrons; atoms and molecules; your

body, your car, stars, galaxies. Almost all of us are

chauvinist in relation to baryonic matter. We tend to

think of ourselves and the world immediately around

us as something special. Then, by extension we

regard our kind of matter as the most important kind

of matter in the universe. We act as if the only kinds of

matter that mattered were the ones we can see.

Sorry to disappoint you, but science tells a starkly

different story. Last spring, the European Space

Agency’s Planck Spacecraft completed an ultraprecise

15-month census of the composition of the universe.

Baryonic matter, also named light matter, makes up

only 4.9% of the total composition of the universe.

Planck Spacecraft also found evidence that

another fundamentally invisible, cool and mysterious

type of matter, named dark matter, vastly outweighs

baryonic matter, accounting for 26.8% of the universe.

Dark matter is undetectable by its emitted radiation,

but its presence can be inferred from gravitational

effects on visible matter.

The remaining 68.3 % is dark energy, an even

more baffling component that consists of formless

forces. According to Einstein, dark energy is an

intrinsic property of space. As more space comes

into existence, more of this energy-of-space appears.

A hypothesis is that, as a result, this form of energy

might cause the Universe to expand faster and faster.

While this theory is still not well understood or proven,

it is certain that more than two-thirds of the universe

has no substance at all!

While we usually focus on matter made of visible

atoms, researchers learn more about dark matter’s

and dark energy’s complexities. In view of the

discomfiting Planck result, we must let go of all our

feelings of supremacy. After all, it seems possible that

our galaxy lives on top of shadow galaxies without us

even knowing it.

Available at: <http://discovermagazine.com/2013/julyaug/ 21-the-possible-parallel-universe-of-dark-matter>. Retrieved on: July 2013. Adapted.

Moon phases tied to sleep cycles

By Nicholas Bakalar

July 31, 2013

The lunar cycle has been tied to a range of mysterious powers, from increases in violent crimes and hospital admissions to fertility and blood loss, and scientists consider most such beliefs nonsensical.

But now Swiss researchers have found evidence that the lunar cycle may affect sleep patterns. They found the connection by testing 33 healthy men and women, ages 20 to 74, in a sleep laboratory, and correlating the data with the moon’s phases. Thestudy appears in the Aug. 5 issue of Current Biology.

Melatonin levels, total sleep time and delta sleep time (the deepest sleep, as recorded by EEG) reached their lowest levels at full moon, and their highest as the moon waxed and waned. The average time it took to fall asleep and the time to arrive at REM sleep (the type of sleep in which dreams occur) followed the opposite pattern, longest at the full moon and shorter as it waxed and waned.

Christian Cojochen, a professor of neuroscience at the University of Basel, Switzerland, who led the study, was surprised and puzzled by the finding. “The only explanation we could come up with is that maybe there is a lunar clock in the brain, as found in other species like fish and other marine animals,” he said. “But we don’t have direct evidence for that.”

(http://well.blogs.nytimes.com. Adaptado.)

Moon phases tied to sleep cycles

By Nicholas Bakalar

July 31, 2013

The lunar cycle has been tied to a range of mysterious powers, from increases in violent crimes and hospital admissions to fertility and blood loss, and scientists consider most such beliefs nonsensical.

But now Swiss researchers have found evidence that the lunar cycle may affect sleep patterns. They found the connection by testing 33 healthy men and women, ages 20 to 74, in a sleep laboratory, and correlating the data with the moon’s phases. Thestudy appears in the Aug. 5 issue of Current Biology.

Melatonin levels, total sleep time and delta sleep time (the deepest sleep, as recorded by EEG) reached their lowest levels at full moon, and their highest as the moon waxed and waned. The average time it took to fall asleep and the time to arrive at REM sleep (the type of sleep in which dreams occur) followed the opposite pattern, longest at the full moon and shorter as it waxed and waned.

Christian Cojochen, a professor of neuroscience at the University of Basel, Switzerland, who led the study, was surprised and puzzled by the finding. “The only explanation we could come up with is that maybe there is a lunar clock in the brain, as found in other species like fish and other marine animals,” he said. “But we don’t have direct evidence for that.”

(http://well.blogs.nytimes.com. Adaptado.)

Moon phases tied to sleep cycles

By Nicholas Bakalar

July 31, 2013

The lunar cycle has been tied to a range of mysterious powers, from increases in violent crimes and hospital admissions to fertility and blood loss, and scientists consider most such beliefs nonsensical.

But now Swiss researchers have found evidence that the lunar cycle may affect sleep patterns. They found the connection by testing 33 healthy men and women, ages 20 to 74, in a sleep laboratory, and correlating the data with the moon’s phases. Thestudy appears in the Aug. 5 issue of Current Biology.

Melatonin levels, total sleep time and delta sleep time (the deepest sleep, as recorded by EEG) reached their lowest levels at full moon, and their highest as the moon waxed and waned. The average time it took to fall asleep and the time to arrive at REM sleep (the type of sleep in which dreams occur) followed the opposite pattern, longest at the full moon and shorter as it waxed and waned.

Christian Cojochen, a professor of neuroscience at the University of Basel, Switzerland, who led the study, was surprised and puzzled by the finding. “The only explanation we could come up with is that maybe there is a lunar clock in the brain, as found in other species like fish and other marine animals,” he said. “But we don’t have direct evidence for that.”

(http://well.blogs.nytimes.com. Adaptado.)

Moon phases tied to sleep cycles

By Nicholas Bakalar

July 31, 2013

The lunar cycle has been tied to a range of mysterious powers, from increases in violent crimes and hospital admissions to fertility and blood loss, and scientists consider most such beliefs nonsensical.

But now Swiss researchers have found evidence that the lunar cycle may affect sleep patterns. They found the connection by testing 33 healthy men and women, ages 20 to 74, in a sleep laboratory, and correlating the data with the moon’s phases. Thestudy appears in the Aug. 5 issue of Current Biology.

Melatonin levels, total sleep time and delta sleep time (the deepest sleep, as recorded by EEG) reached their lowest levels at full moon, and their highest as the moon waxed and waned. The average time it took to fall asleep and the time to arrive at REM sleep (the type of sleep in which dreams occur) followed the opposite pattern, longest at the full moon and shorter as it waxed and waned.

Christian Cojochen, a professor of neuroscience at the University of Basel, Switzerland, who led the study, was surprised and puzzled by the finding. “The only explanation we could come up with is that maybe there is a lunar clock in the brain, as found in other species like fish and other marine animals,” he said. “But we don’t have direct evidence for that.”

(http://well.blogs.nytimes.com. Adaptado.)