By Adrienne Crezo
Contributing Writer, [GAS]

Last week, NASA announced that their Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has detected antimatter produced by thunderstorms on Earth. Though it was long suspected that lightning activity (associated with terrestrial gamma-ray flashes, or TGFs) potentially created antimatter particles, this latest announcement is the first hard evidence of the phenomenon.

So, how does lightning make warp-drive fuel? Well, it’s Science:

Scientists long have suspected TGFs arise from the strong electric fields near the tops of thunderstorms. Under the right conditions, they say, the field becomes strong enough that it drives an upward avalanche of electrons. Reaching speeds nearly as fast as light, the high-energy electrons give off gamma rays when they’re deflected by air molecules. Normally, these gamma rays are detected as a TGF.

But the cascading electrons produce so many gamma rays that they blast electrons and positrons clear out of the atmosphere. This happens when the gamma-ray energy transforms into a pair of particles: an electron and a positron. It’s these particles that reach Fermi’s orbit.

The detection of positrons shows many high-energy particles are being ejected from the atmosphere. In fact, scientists now think that all TGFs emit electron/positron beams. A paper on the findings has been accepted for publication in Geophysical Research Letters.

Here’s a handy video, which illustrates the process in a clearer way:

[source]

Thanks to Apple, many of us have decorated our homes with shiny white plastic items. It turns out that one type of bird does exactly the same thing.

Research in Spain has shown that the black kite that has the biggest collection of shiny white plastic pieces is likely to have the most chicks. (That can’t necessarily be said of we humans.)

A report published in the latest edition of Science magazine details how the plastic is displayed in nests as a status symbol: not as a sign of wealth (given the lack of banking facilities in the avian community), but rather a sign that the kite living there will aggressively defend the nest if attacked.

Staff at the Donana National Park investigated the issue after noticing that many nests had been filled with white materials, usually strips of plastic bags, but occasionally cloth or even paper. As well as taking note of which birds had which decoration, they also tried replacing or removing the rubbish to see if it made any difference.

The main conclusion was that the birds most likely to have the material were middle aged (in the sense of being between childhood and old age, rather than the “inappropriate ponytail and motorbike” sense), in the best physical condition, and most likely to take control of any food laid out by researchers. It also appeared that birds with large displays were more likely to rear multiple chicks in the same breeding season.

At one point the researchers tried adding plastic to the nests of lower-status birds, only to find that they almost immediately began removing it. This suggested the birds did not want to risk appearing to challenge the status of their stronger rivals. Those that weren’t quick enough to remove the plastic soon came under attack, apparently from other birds wanting to test the accuracy of the apparent status claim.

In another test, researchers put out shreds of bags that were white, transparent or green. In 29 out of 33 cases, birds only picked up the white shreds. That appears to not be a style choice, but rather a simple matter of the white being more visible.

(Picture credit: Spanish National Research Council )