KOLKATA, WEDNESDAY 19 MARCH 2014

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Legacy of the Big Bang?
PLUS POINTS
Growing again
Frozen moss that had been buried in the
Antarctic permafrost for more than 1,500
years and showed no sign of life has
started to grow again in a laboratory.
A CENTURY AFTER ALBERT EINSTEIN’S PREDICTIONS, SCIENTISTS History of the universe
Scientists said the moss last grew before
the rise of the Roman Empire but its long
period of being frozen solid in the ground
DISCOVER GRAVITATIONAL WAVES LEFT BY THE EXPANSION OF Gravitational waves did not appear to affect its ability to
regenerate itself once it was defrosted.
THE UNIVERSE IN ‘ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT GOALS OF Inflation
generates
This is the longest period of time that
frozen plants have been able to survive.
COSMOLOGY’. STEVE CONNOR REPORTS two types
of waves
Density waves
Waves imprint characteristic
polarisation signals
Previously, moss was known to survive
being frozen for about 20 years —
surviving for a millennium or more

S
cientists have detected the enigmatic ripples sonian Centre for Astrophysics in Massa- suggests the plants may be able to survive
in deep space that were triggered by the rapid chusetts and colleagues were able to “see” grav- an ice age, they said.

Radius of the visible universe

expansion of the Universe during the earliest itational waves by detecting swirly patterns of Free electrons Earliest time Samples of the plant were recovered

fluctuations
Quantum
moments of its creation some 13.7 billion polarised radiation within the faint glow of the scatter light visible with light from Signy Island in Antarctica by
years ago. In a groundbreaking experiment, microwave background radiation left over as drilling into a frozen bank of moss that
astrophysicists have captured the first indirect an “echo” of the Big Bang. “Detecting this sig- scientists estimated to be at least 2,000

Neutral hydrogen forms

Nuclear fusion begins

Nuclear fusion ends

images of so-called gravitational waves using nal is one of the most important goals in cos- years old. Carbon dating suggested the

Cosmic microwave
Protons formed

Modern universe
a telescope at the South Pole designed to mea- mology today. A lot of work by a lot of people samples were at least 1,530 years old.

background
sure the cosmic background radiation left has led up to this point,” Dr Kovac said. When the moss samples were carefully

Inflation
over from the Big Bang. The images emerged from data gathered by Big thawed out in the laboratory, the plants
Bang
The findings are powerful confirmation of the Bicep2 telescope in Antarctica. “The Sou-
the events that took place at the very beginning th Pole is the closest you can get to space and
of time when the Universe expanded rapidly still be on the ground. It’s one of the driest
during a period known as inflation, which was and clearest locations on earth, perfect for
the moment when gravitational waves were observing the faint microwaves from the Big
5
formed. Albert Einstein first predicted the Bang,” Dr Kovac said.
existence of gravitational waves a century ago The announcement is one of the most sig- 0 10 -32 s 1 us 0.01 s 3 min 380,000 years
13.8 Billion years
in his theory of general relativity
but no one has been able to measure Age of the universe
them directly despite a number of
The bottom part of this illustration shows the scale of the universe versus time. Specific events are shown such as the for-
elaborate experiments around the mation of neutral Hydrogen at 380 000 years after the big bang. Prior to this time, the constant interaction between matter
world designed to do just that. (electrons) and light (photons) made the universe opaque.
In the 1970s, cosmologists theorised Samples of the plant, estimated to be at least 1,530
that gravitational waves must have nificant in the field of cosmology for several which scans deep space for the cosmic micro- years old, were recovered from Signy Island in
Antarctica and revived in a laboratory.
been generated immediately after the decades because it is further scientific confir- wave background radiation, detected swirls of
Big Bang, as the Universe expanded mation for how the universe came into exis- polarised light in a pattern called B-mode, began to grow again from their existing
during its inflationary period from tence. In particular, it supports the idea of which could only be explained by the effect of shoots or rhizoids, said Peter Convey of
being a pea-sized object to an entity inflation, which preceded the generation of gravitational waves, the scientists said. Gravi- the British Antarctic Survey in
that extends beyond the reach of the the cosmic microwave background radiation tational waves squeeze space as they travel Cambridge.
most powerful telescopes. that came 380,000 years after the Big Bang. through it. They have a “handedness”, much “These mosses were basically in a very
Gravitational waves are important “This result is key to answering some of the like light waves, meaning they can have left- or long-term deep freeze. This timescale of
to the theory of how largescale struc- biggest questions in cosmology. It provides right-handed polarisations and so leave their survival and recovery is much, much
tures such as galaxies, stars and insights into processes that took place in the mark on the microwave background. longer than anything reported for them
planets were able to form from the Gravitational waves from inflation generate a faint but distinctive twisting early Universe, and just how violent the birth “The swirly B-mode pattern is a unique sig- before,” he said “This experiment shows
smoothly distributed matter of the pattern in polarisation, known as a “curl” or B-mode pattern. This is the actual of the Universe was,” said Professor Bangalore nature of gravitational waves because of that multi-cellular organisms, plants in
Universe, but they have proved far B-mode pattern observed with the Bicep2 telescope, with the line segments Sathyaprakash, a theoretical physicist at their handedness. This is the first direct ima- this case, can survive over far longer
too elusive to detect directly or indi- showing the polarisation from different spots on the sky. The red and blue Cardiff University, who was part of the ge of gravitational waves across the primor- timescales than previously thought.
rectly — until now. research team. dial sky,” said co-leader Chao-Lin Kuo of These mosses, a key part of the
John Kovac of the Harvard-Smith- shading shows the degree of clockwise and anti-clockwise twisting. The Bicep2 telescope at the South Pole, Stanford University in California. ecosystem, could survive to millennial
The scientists said they were surprised to periods of ice advance, such as the Little
see such a strong signal of B-mode polarised Ice Age in Europe,” he said.
radiation, which was bigger than theoretical “If they can survive in this way, then
cosmologists had predicted. They analysed the recolonisation following an ice age, once
data over a period of three years to try to elim- the ice retreats, would be a lot easier than
inate possible errors or interference, they said. migrating trans-oceanic distances from
“This has been like looking for a needle in a warmer regions. It also maintains
haystack, but instead we found a crowbar,” diversity in an area that would otherwise
said Clem Pryke of the University of Minne- be wiped clean of life by the ice advance.
sota and co-leader of the research project. “Although it would be a big jump from
Leonid Grishchuk of Cardiff University, the current finding, this does raise the
who died last year, predicted 40 years ago that possibility of complex life forms
gravitational waves would result in B-mode surviving even longer periods once
polarisation in the cosmic microwaves’ back- encased in permafrost or ice.”
ground. “It’s wonderful to see the realisation of
the prediction that our esteemed colleague THE INDEPENDENT
Leonid Grishchuk made back in 1975,” Seeing red
Professor Sathyaprakash said.
Ed Dew of Sheffield University, who was not Angry people really do “see red” where
part of the research team, said, “The discov- others don’t, scientists have shown. And a
ery has the feel of credibility, although people preference for red over blue may even be
will want to study the findings very carefully. an indicator of a more hostile personality.
If true, it’s very important and I can’t under- In a study examining humankind’s
The Dark Sector Lab, located three-quarters of a mile from the Geographic South Pole, housing “The South Pole is the closest you can get to space and still be on the ground,” said project leader estimate how significant it is.” ancient association of the colour red with
the BICEP2 telescope (left) and the South Pole Telescope (right). The team travelled there to John Kovac. “It’s one of the driest and clearest locations on earth, perfect for anger, aggression and danger, researchers
take advantage of its cold, dry, stable air. observing the faint microwaves from the Big Bang.” THE INDEPENDENT found that, when shown images that were
neither fully red nor fully blue, people
with hostile personalities were much

PLAYING WATER DOWSER

DIAMONDS FROM DEEP IN THE EARTH SUGGEST
THERE ARE VAST WATER RESERVES DOWN THERE,
SAYS S ANANTHANARAYAN
I
n Jules Verne’s Journey to the
Centre of the Earth (1864), Professor
Hardwigg and his group descend
into the entrails of the planet through
an extinct volcano in Iceland and dis-
cover a subterranean sea, over which
they make a raft voyage and meet
monstrous creatures. Even if it is not
this sea of water that has been found,
DG Pearson, FE Brenker, F Nestola, J
McNeill, L Nasdala, MT Hutchison, S
Matveev, K Mather, G Silversmit, S
Schmitz, B Vekemans and L Vincze
from Canada, the USA, Germany,
Austria, Italy, Belgium and the UK,
report in the journal Nature that a
mineral found between 400 metres to
670 km below the earth’s surface may
be rich in water, and hold as much as
the water in all the surface oceans!
The structure of the earth, going
down from the surface, is that after the
outer crust, of eight to 40 km, there is
the largest, semi-solid region, 2,900 km
deep, known as the mantle.
Below this is the molten and, hence,
liquid outer core and further down is
the inner core, which is solid, because
of the high pressure. The mantle itself,
which is composed of silicate rock, rich-
er in magnesium and iron that the crust,
has two zones, the outer, rigid mantle
and the inner mantle, which is stiffer,
again due to high pressure.
What kind of material there is at
great depths underground is known
mainly from the way seismic waves,
which are disturbances caused by vio-
lent events, are reflected by the sur-
faces of different materials that the
waves encounter. The reflected waves,
detected at the surface, tens or hun-
dreds of kilometres away, have revea-
led a structure of changing strata as
we go down, and also a transition zone,
from 400 metres deep and till 670 km
deep, between the upper and lower
mantle. The material of the mantle is
mostly a combination of magnesium,
iron and silica, or common sand, called
olivine. The structure of olivine keeps
changing with depth, as the pressure
increases, and geologist Alfred E
Ringwood first proposed that the chan-
ges detected by seismic waves were a
result of transitions in the forms, par-
ticularly a form known as “spinel”,
where there is a change in the posi-
tions of magnesium and iron atoms,
that olivine assumes. While we can-
not find actual samples of olivine from
great depths, what kind of olivine
there should be at different depths can
be worked out from laboratory studies.
When the proposed “spinel” form
was found present in meteorites that
had experienced the high shock pres-
sures during collisions in space, this
was verification and the form of
olivine was named ringwoodite.
Ringwood’s group, in fact, had found
that a high pressure form of olivine,
synthesised by them in the laboratory,
had a structure and distribution of
charges that could allow water to be
trapped. Substantial water content, in
fact, was later realised in the labora-
tory in this high-pressure form,
which is called wadstleyite and, sur-
prisingly, also to the extent of one per
cent in ringwoodite. To find water in
ringwoodite was surprising, because
water, or H2O, exists as H+ and OH-,
and the category to which the ring-
woodite structure belongs does not
admit the OH- group in its composi-
tion. But it was later found that the
ringwoodite structure contained ch-
arged areas that allowed the OH gro-
up to find a place and water can exist
in ringwoodite, as a reverse solution,
of molecules of a liquid being fitted
into the structure of solid crystals.
There was, hence, the possibility of
the transition zone below the shallow
mantle being rich in water, which
more likely to see red.
Scientists said the connection may be
linked to our evolution from ancestral
8-40 km hunter-gatherer times to link red with
danger and threats. The research is
Crust believed to be the first to look at
would influence the movement of the 2,900 km personality, hostility and the colour red,
softer material below the earth’s Mantle and involved a number of separate
crust and also the way the rigid plates experiments.
that form the crust and upper mantle
2,250 km
In the first, researchers from North
may shift or flow. But despite the possi- Outer Core Dakota State University asked a group of
bility of water being established, proof
that water exists has not been discov-
people which colour they preferred — red
or blue. Participants then completed
ered. The usual methods to assess the Inner Core
1,300
nature of the deep earth, like studies
of electrical conductivity, gave con- km
flicting results and the question has
stayed controversial.
Limited samples from the mantle,
derived from deeper volcanic pipes,
show that the upper mantle is pre-
dominantly olivine, and diamonds,
which arise at great depths, have been
studied for traces of wadsleyite or
ringwoodite, which were suspected to
be the forms that change into olivine
when they rise to lower pressures. But
samples from the transition zone personality tests. Results showed that
appear to undergo changes that deface those who opted for red tended to be inter-
original, possibly ringwoodite forms. tering. spectra are not inconsistent with the personally more hostile. During a second
The international group featured in The X-Rays reveal the atom-to-atom X-Ray findings and, furthermore, test, participants were presented with
Nature focused on diamonds from the level structure of mantle material indicate the presence of significant images that were faded so they were red or
Juina district of Mato Grosso, Brazil, brought up with diamonds and Raman OH, or water content. Further analy- blue to some extent. There was no
a well-known site for deep diamonds spectra showing the signature of low sis of the data yields a measure of the absolutely dominant colour, and they
originating in the transition zone and energy inter-atom interactions. The water content and the depth of for- could be perceived as either. Those who
lower mantle, using ultra-sensitive Nature group reports that the X-Ray mation of the crystal. The fact that predominantly saw red scored 25 per cent
techniques like high energy X-Ray- data shows the clear pattern that the upper mantle has little water higher on indicators of hostility in the
based tomography and Raman scat- belongs to ringwoodite. The Raman indicates that the water in the ring- personality test section of the study.
woodite must have come locally from “Hostile people have hostile thoughts;
Ringwoodite the transition zone. hostile thoughts are implicitly associated
The presence of water in the transi- with the colour red, and therefore hostile
tion zone is also consistent with other people are biased to see this colour more
data, like electromagnetic effects and frequently,” the researchers said,
the transmission of seismic waves and reporting their findings in the Journal of
it supports the idea that fluid activity, Personality.
notably of water, played a role in the Finally, the test participants were
formation of ultra-deep diamonds. presented with imaginary scenarios
The estimate of water content is one where they could take various forms of
per cent. Considering the huge size of action. Red-preferring people were more
the transition zone, this one per cent is likely to indicate that they would harm
comparable with the water content of another person in the scenarios than those
the surface oceans. The great depths, who preferred blue.
which are storehouses of industrially “A core take-home message from this
important metals, are, hence, seen to research is that colour can convey
hold huge water too. But the signifi- psychological meaning and, therefore, is
cance is for the structure of the earth, not merely a matter of aesthetics,” the
not as a source of water, as the water researchers said. “Our studies establish a
content is highly spread out. link between a preference for, and a bias to
see, the colour red and individual
Rough diamond, five millimetres THE WRITER CAN BE CONTACTED AT differences in interpersonal hostility.”
simplescience@gmail.com
across in its longest dimension ROGER DOBSON/THE INDEPENDENT