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A ribbon of electrodes could nestle in the gut to help diagnose gastrointestinal diseases linked to Parkinson’s

A surprise discovery has revealed that female stink bugs have a small indent on their hind legs that they use for cultivating fungi before spreading it on their eggs

A poorly framed article on people who believe that COVID-19 vaccines injured them is being trumpeted by antivaxxerst. Where the New York Times and its reporter Apoorva Mandavilli go wrong?

The post A poorly framed article on COVID-19 vaccine injury in the New York Times first appeared on Science-Based Medicine.

Multiple space agencies are looking to send crewed missions to the Moon’s southern polar region in this decade and the next. Moreover, they intend to create the infrastructure that will allow for a sustained human presence, exploration, and economic development. This requires that the local geography, resources, and potential hazards be scouted in advance and navigation strategies that do not rely on a Global Positioning System (GPS) developed. On Sunday, April 21st, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) released the first complete high-definition geologic atlas of the Moon.

This 1:2.5 million scale geological set of maps provides basic geographical data for future lunar research and exploration. According to the Institute of Geochemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), the volume includes data on 12,341 craters, 81 impact basins, 17 types of lithologies, 14 types of structures, and other geological information about the lunar surface. This data will be foundational to China’s efforts in selecting a site for their International Lunar Research Station (ILRS) and could also prove useful for NASA planners as they select a location for the Artemis Base Camp.

Credit: CAS via Xinhua handout

Ouyang Ziyuan and Liu Jianzhong, a research professor and senior researcher from the Institute of Geochemistry of the CAS (respectively), oversaw these efforts. Since 2012, they have led a team of over 100 scientists and cartographers from relevant research institutions. The team spent more than a decade compiling scientific exploration data obtained by the many orbiters, landers, and rovers that are part of the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program (Chang’e), and other research about the origin and evolution of the Moon.

According to the CAS, the atlas includes an “upgraded lunar geological time scale” for “objectively” depicting the geological evolution of the Moon, including the lunar tectonics and volcanic activity that once took place. As a result, the volume could not only be significant in terms of lunar exploration and site selection. Still, it could also improve our understanding of the formation and evolution of Earth and the other terrestrial planets of the Solar System – Mercury, Venus, and Mars. As Jianzhong indicated in a CAS press release,

“The world has witnessed significant progress in the field of lunar exploration and scientific research over the past decades, which have greatly improved our understanding of the moon. However, the lunar geologic maps published during the Apollo era have not been changed for about half a century and are still being used for lunar geological research. With the improvements of lunar geologic studies, those old maps can no longer meet the needs of future scientific research and lunar exploration.”

Credit: CAS via Xinhua handout

Jianzhong also claims that the atlas could help inform future sample collection on the Moon. This includes the Chang’e-6 mission (consisting of an orbiter and lander), which launched this past Friday (May 3rd). The orbiter element will reach the Moon in a few days, and the lander element is expected to touch down the far side of the Moon by early June. By 2026, it will be joined by the Chang’e-7 mission, consisting of an orbiter, lander, rover, and a mini-hopping probe. While Chang’e-6 will obtain lunar soil and rock samples, Chang’e-7 will investigate resources and obtain samples of water ice and volatiles.

According to Gregory Michael, a senior scientist from the Free University of Berlin, the release of this atlas represents the culmination of decades of work, and not just by Chinese scientists:

“This map, in particular, is the first on a global scale to utilize all of the post-Apollo era data. It builds on the achievements of the international community over the last decades, as well as on China’s own highly successful Chang’e program. It will be a starting point for every new question of lunar geology and become a primary resource for researchers studying lunar processes of all kinds.”

Aside from updating data on lunar features and geology, the new maps reportedly double the resolution of the Apollo-era maps. These maps were compiled by the US Geological Survey in the 1960s and 70s using data from the Apollo missions. Among them was a global map at the scale of 1:5,000,000, though other regional maps and those that showed the terrain near the Apollo landing sites were of higher resolution. Geological and geographical information on the Moon has advanced considerably since then, requiring updated maps that reflect the objective of returning to the Moon with the intent to stay.

Credit: CAS via Xinhua handout

In addition to the Geologic Atlas of the Lunar Globe, the CAS also released a book called Map Quadrangles of the Geologic Atlas of the Moon. This document includes 30 sector diagrams that collectively form a visualization of the entire lunar surface. Both are available in Chinese and English, have been integrated into a digital platform called Digital Moon, and will eventually become available to the international research community.

Further Reading: CAS

The post China Creates a High-Resolution Atlas of the Moon appeared first on Universe Today.

A reader sent me an email he/she got touting a new project by the Templeton Religious Trust, one of the big-money-granting foundations that arose from the largesse of gazillionaire fund manager John Templeton. You can see the initiative by clicking on the screenshot below. Note that the subheading reprises the original purpose of the Templeton Foundation: to find evidence for God in science.  And of course they maintain the accommodationism that science and religion can be “mutually reinforcing”, which is ridiculous:

The grant for this project, which was a munifent $3,033,427, ended last October, and now they’re public. The email gave a summary, and we find no surprises there.  David Sloan Wilson, an evolutionary biologist, apparently was part of this project (he appears at 1:35 in the video below). I’m not going to discuss it in detail, as it’s incredibly boring and tendentious, so click the screenshot above if you want an eyeful.

The only thing I’ll mention about the palaver below is the old rotten assertion that both science and religion are “belief systems”. No, religion is a belief system, a “way of believing what you can’t confirm, but science is, as Carl Sagan notes below, a “way of thinking.” The claim that science and religion are coequal as “belief systems” is one way that people like those at Templeton try to simultaneously do down science and elevate religion.  It hasn’t worked: Christianity and Judaism are rapidly waning in the West as “nones” grow in number.

This is from the Templeton email; all bolding is theirs:

Can both science and religion help us find meaning?

Dominic Johnson at Oxford, and Michael Price at Brunel University say they can. Through a grant from Templeton Religion Trust, Johnson and Price have funded 18 research projects around the world to study how religious and scientific beliefs evolve over time and provide systems of meaning for people and whole communities.

“We are interested in the origins of two very important belief systems; religion and science; how these systems are compatible or incompatible, and what the implications are for society,” says Price.

To Price and Johnson, religion and science are both sources of wonder, awe, and life, and help satisfy the human need for meaning and purpose. Through this cross-cultural, interdisciplinary study, they have shown that many of the assumptions we have made about the relationship between religion and science have been wrong all along.

Doesn’t that remind you of sociologist Elaine Ecklund (who’s also been copiously funded by Templeton, making a career of osculating faith)?

“The findings that surprised me the most were that science and religion are not only not incompatible, but are actually mutually reinforcing,” continues Price. “The people who got the most benefits from science and religion were the people who subscribed to both belief systems.”

Science and religion are not in conflict, they’re stronger together.
For more information, watch this video

Who are they kidding? How is science, which operates without using the notion of gods or the supernatural, “stronger” because of religion?  Well, here’s a 5-minute video, and the last 30 seconds tells us how science and religion are mutually reinforcing. But it’s a con.

Another big-time waste of money.  What’s your meaning system?

Despite the notices from our President and our Dean of Students that the Encampment “cannot continue,” and that the University is at the point of intervention (both reproduced below), the Encampment and its crew of protestors are still here.

 

The Chicago Maroon is, as always, the best source of what’s going on here, as they have daily coverage that’s updated regularly.  Here are items from yesterday and right after midnight (coverage is indented):

Day 6 Summary

After yesterday’s heightened tensions, the sixth day of the encampment saw fewer major confrontations. The University released a statement on yesterday’s arrest of an adult male, which they said was “unrelated to the protest activity.” The University said an unregistered handgun was found in the individual’s car.

Negotiations between encampment leaders and University administrators occurred throughout the day and are expected to restart early Sunday morning.

Around 2 p.m., the launch of an encampment at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago drew attention away from the UChicago encampment. Speakers at a UChicago rally encouraged protesters to bring support to SAIC: “They’re at risk, we’re not, so we encourage you to travel there.”

Speakers today included 35th Ward Alderman Carlos Ramirez-Rosa, 8th District County Board Commissioner Anthony Quezada, and Reverend Jesse Jackson. The Maroon spoke with U.S. Representative Jonathan Jackson (D-Ill.), who visited the encampment and encouraged protesters to seek peaceful solutions as opposed to “a repeat” of the events at Columbia earlier this week.

May 4, 11:41 p.m.

There is significantly reduced police presence on the quad and immediate vicinity. No officers are consistently on the quad, 57th Street, or 58th Street, with at most one officer intermittently present.

This is a departure from previous days, when at least two, and often more, officers were visibly present on the quad at most times.

— Kayla Rubenstein, Co-Editor-in-Chief; Nikhil Jaiswal, Co-Editor-in-Chief Emeritus

May 4, 11:16 p.m.

The Maroon observed an unidentified individual on a bicycle grabbing an Israeli flag from a lamppost on the southern side of the quad and leaving with it.

Last night, one of the two remaining banners set up by Maroons for Israel went missing.

— Sabrina Chang and Katherine Weaver, Deputy News Editors

May 4, 11:06 p.m.

Negotiations have ended for the night and are expected to resume in the morning, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the situation.

I’m not sure what these “negotiations” are, nor who is doing the negotiating.  Here’s from late last night (bolding is mine).

May 5, 12:50 a.m.

The protesters have projected large red text on Levi Hall, facing the encampment. The text alternates between “From the river to the sea,” “By any means necessary,” “Free Palestine,” and “Fuck Paul.”

The concert is ongoing, with participants singing and clapping along with the performers.

— Sabrina Chang, Deputy News Editor

Photos with credits:

“Paul” is Paul Alivisatos, the President of the University

Now they’re projecting obscene messages on the admin building, the Jewish flags and banners have been stolen, and still the University is doing exactly nothing.

Like all of us, I’m wondering why. There are rumors that the mayor of Chicago doesn’t want to get the City of Chicago Police involved: that he prefers deescalation to arrests.  We probably have too few University police to deal with the encampment, and given the level of tension, the cops might be injured. But perhaps there are other types of pressure that can be used.

We’re all still waiting for something to happen, but nothing is happening. And so the Nation’s Gold Standard Free Speech University is doing nothing about the abrogation of speech. It’s embarrassing, and surely our Trustees must be paying attention.

Further, Alumni Weekend is from May 16-19, and our graduation is on June 1.  Having this pack of bawling protestors chanting and blocking much of the quad at those times would be not only a huge embarrassment to the University, probably resulting in the cancellation of graduation but intolerable from an academic viewpoint. I cannot believe that our administration is powerless.

Already at least two faculty I know of are talking seriously about leaving this University.  This shows the rapid erosion of our reputation and the pervasive disappointment among the rational moiety of our faculty—emotions that have arisen in only one short week. And that reputation will be very hard to recover.

In the clear vision of hindsight, what should have been done was removal of any tents the moment the first peg was driven into the ground.  And, given what the University administration said, we should have issued a statement like this:

University presidents everywhere need to embrace this simple statement by Ben Sasse, President of the University of Florida:

"At the University of Florida, we have repeatedly, patiently explained two things to protesters: We will always defend your rights to free speech and free…

— Michael Shermer (@michaelshermer) May 4, 2024

“We’re a university, not a daycare.” At the University of Chicago, you can swap the two nouns.

It’s Sunday, and that means bird photos from biologist John Avise. His IDs and notes are indented, and his pictures, from Portugal and Spain, can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Portugal and Spain Birds, Part 1 

In 2010, I went on a multi-stop seminar trip to various universities and conferences in Portugal and southern Spain.  In-between the lectures I delivered, there was ample time for bird-watching and avian photography.  The Mediterranean climate meant lots of sunny weather and ideal conditions for such outdoor activities.  This week’s post begins a three-part series highlighting species of European birds that I photographed on this delightful trip.

Azure-winged Magpie (Cyanopica cyanus):

European Bee-eater (Merops apiaster):

Black Kite (Milvus migrans) flying:

Black Stork (Ciconia nigra) flying:

Cinereous Vulture (Aegypius monachus) flying:

Black-winged Stilt (Himantopus himantopus) flying:

Calandra Lark (Melanocorypha calandra):

Cattle Egret (Bubulcus ibis) flying:

Coal Tit (Periparus ater):

Eurasian Collared Dove (Streptopelia decaocto):

Corn Bunting (Emberiza calandra):

Crested Lark (Galerida cristata):

Great Bustards (Otis tarda) flying:

Last November, NASA’s Lucy mission conducted a flyby of the asteroid Dinkinish, one of the Main Belt asteroids it will investigate as it makes its way to Jupiter. In the process, the spacecraft spotted a small moonlet orbiting the larger asteroid, now named Selam (aka. “Lucy’s baby”). The moonlet’s name, an Ethiopian name that means “peace,” pays homage to the ancient human remains dubbed “Lucy” (or Dinkinish) that were unearthed in Ethiopia in 1974. Using novel statistical calculations based on how the two bodies orbit each other, a Cornell-led research team estimates that the moonlet is only 2-3 million years old.

The research was led by Colby Merrill, a graduate student from the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Cornell. He was joined by Alexia Kubas, a researcher from the Department of Astronomy at Cornell; Alex J. Meyer, a Ph.D. student at the UC Boulder College of Engineering & Applied Science; and Sabina D. Raducan, a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Bern. Their paper, “Age of (152830) Dinkinesh-Selam Constrained by Secular Tidal-BYORP Theory,” recently appeared on April 19th in Astronomy & Astrophysics.

Merrill was also part of the NASA Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission, which collided with the moonlet Dimorphos on September 26th, 2022. As part of the Lucy mission, Merrill was surprised to discover that Dinkinesh was also a binary asteroid when the spacecraft flew past it on November 1st, 2023. They were also fascinated to learn that the small moonlet was a “contact binary,” consisting of two lobes that are piles of rubble that became stuck together long ago.

Artist’s Rendering of NASA’s Lucy mission, which will study asteroids within the Main Belt and Jupiter’s Trojan population. Credit: Southwest Research Institute

While astronomers have observed contact binaries before – a good example is the KBO Arrokoth that the New Horizons spacecraft flew past on January 1st, 2019 – this is the first time one has been observed orbiting a larger asteroid. Along with Kubas, the two began modeling the system as part of their studies at Cornell to determine the age of the moonlet. Their results agreed with one performed by the Lucy mission based on an analysis of surface craters, the more traditional method for estimating the age of asteroids. As Merrill said in a recent Cornell Chronicle release:

“Finding the ages of asteroids is important to understanding them, and this one is remarkably young when compared to the age of the Solar System, meaning it formed somewhat recently. Obtaining the age of this one body can help us to understand the population as a whole.”

Binary asteroids are a subject of fascination to astronomers because of the complex dynamics that go into creating them. On the one hand, there are the gravitational forces working on them that cause them to bulge and lose energy. At the same time, binary systems will also experience what is known as the Binary Yarkovsky–O’Keefe–Radzievskii–Paddack (BYORP) effect, where exposure to solar radiation alters the rotation rate of the bodies. Eventually, these forces will balance out and reach a state of equilibrium for the system.

For their study, Merril and his team assumed that Selam formed from material ejected from Dinkinesh before the BYORP effect slowed its rotation down. They also assumed that the system had since reached a state of equilibrium and that the density of both objects was comparable. They then integrated asteroid data obtained by the Lucy mission to calculate how long it would take Selam to reach its current state. After performing about 1 million calculations with varying parameters, they obtained a median age estimate of 3 million years old, with 2 million being the most likely result.

Artist’s impression of the DART mission impacting the moonlet Dimorphos. Credit: ESA

This new method complements the previous age estimates of the Lucy mission and has several advantages. As their paper indicates, this method can yield age estimates based on asteroid dynamics alone and does not require close-up images taken by spacecraft. It could also be more accurate where asteroid surfaces experienced recent changes and can be applied to the moonlets of other known binary systems, which account for 15% of near-Earth asteroids (NEAs). This includes Didymos and Dimorphos, which are even younger.

The researchers hope to apply their new method to this and other binary systems where the dynamics are well-characterized, even without close flybys. Said Kubas:

“Used in tandem with crater counting, this method could help better constrain a system’s age. If we use two methods and they agree with each other, we can be more confident that we’re getting a meaningful age that describes the current state of the system.”

Further Reading: Cornell Chronicle

The post Dinkinesh's Moonlet is Only 2-3 Million Years Old appeared first on Universe Today.

Let’s have a little humor before the trouble starts on the quad.

These are tee-shirts put up by those in our Encampment, and shows how incredibly clueless, both historically and culturally, these participants are. The photos were taken by a member of the university, who assures me that these were not put up by jokers outside the Encampment.

DEI statements are affirmations made when you’re applying for college admission, university jobs, or even science-society grants, recounting to the authorities your philosophy of “diversity, equity, and inclusion,” your history of DEI activities, and how you will implement DEI initiatives if you get the admission/job/grant.  I have posted quite a bit about them (see collection here), and object to them because they are not only compelled speech and are often completely irrelevant to what you’re applying for, but also ignore the fact that there are many ways to make contributions to society beyond enacting DEI. (For example, what about a college applicant who has taught illiterate adults to read?)  And I think many institutions are eliminating them. For one thing, some of them may violate the recent Supreme Court decision on race-based admission. Now MIT has joined the statement-eliminators.

The top headline in the screenshot below, which really is true, needs to be promulgated widely, as MIT is doing all it can to keep it quiet. So pass it on, repost it, or whatever.

Because this report originally came from The Babbling Beaver (a website that satirizes the mishigass at MIT, much like the Onion but better), my friend Jay Tanzman, who sent it to me, wasn’t sure whether it was true or false (click to read):

Here’s the entire article, and you can get an idea of its snark, a snark that makes one wonder if the ditching of DEI statements is genuine. But it is! There is of course snark, like the “carrying water for Hamas” bit, but the kernel of the article is true.

Quietly, in the dead of night, with neither announcement nor fanfare, MIT President Spineless Sally Kornbluth did the right thing. She banned the use of DEI statements for faculty hiring and promotions, across all schools and departments at MIT. In order not to rile up the Wokies, she left it to the Beaver to get the word out.

A private anonymous faculty poll revealed that about two-thirds of MIT’s professors hate the damned things. Merit lives, despite the fact that supporters have been largely hiding under their desks afraid to fight back.

About one in twenty faculty polled believe “DEI activities are as important as research and teaching in evaluating candidates.” It’s time to track those people down and show them the door. That’s precisely how MIT got saddled with a race-grifting chancellor totally unqualified for the job, along with a party-pack of radical progressive humanities professors that have been driving MIT’s culture into the ditch.

It remains to be seen whether individual departments will continue training their graduate students how to fill out these loyalty oaths when they seek academic positions elsewhere. One would think ChatGPT could do a bang-up job.

Reaction has been muted, most likely because DEI true believers have been too busy carrying water for Hamas. Or maybe they’re beginning to see the writing on the wall as the whole country wakes up to the damage DEIdeology has done to our college campuses.

And so, the pendulum swings. May it keep on swinging until sanity is restored.

Jay then wrote to the publisher of the piece, who replied with a statement that I can put on this site. Note: the pejorative characterization of MIT’s President is the publisher’s, and I know almost nothing about Sally Kornbluth.  Below the asterisks is Jay’s comment, with the BB publisher’s statement doubly indented:

********************

I asked the Publisher if the story was true, and the Publisher replied that it is. Specifically, the Publisher replied:

“It’s true. MIT has banned DEI statements. We have multiple confirmations, including one from President Spineless Sally Kornbluth herself. Alas, she didn’t have the courage to announce it. As far as I can tell, this report from the Babbling Beaver is the first publication to mention it.”

In a second email, the Publisher elaborated:

“Even better, let me give you a quote from an “Officer of the MIT Free Speech Alliance.

“The MIT administration has advised the departments that were requiring DEI statements to stop requiring them and to stop using this kind of information. This has just recently been disclosed to the faculty, but a general announcement to the students is not planned.”

“The MIT Free Speech Alliance is gratified that one of its key recommendations on putting an end to compelled speech on campus has been adopted.”

And please share the Babbling Beaver piece widely. Someone in the mainstream press needs to pick up on this story. It’s a real crack in the dam.

I then asked the Publisher if I could share this information with you [Jerry] in case you wanted to report it on your website, and he replied:

“Yes. The Babbling Beaver is a big fan of WhyEvolutionIsTrue. This story needs to get out.

***********************

So that’s the report: another crack in the dam.

It’s that time again! Time for another model that will finally solve the mystery of dark matter. Or not, but it’s worth a shot. Until we directly detect dark matter particles, or until some model conclusively removes dark matter from our astrophysical toolkit the best we can do is continue looking for solutions. This new work takes a look at that old theoretical chestnut, primordial black holes, but it has a few interesting twists.

Primordial black holes are hypothetical objects formed during the earliest moments of the Universe. According to the models they formed from micro-fluctuations in matter density and spacetime to become sandgrain-sized mountain-massed black holes. Although we’ve never detected primordial black holes, they have all the necessary properties of dark matter, such as not emitting light and the ability to cluster around galaxies. If they exist, they could explain most of dark matter.

The downside is that most primordial black hole candidates have been ruled out by observation. For example, to account for dark matter there would have to be so many of these gravitational pipsqueaks that they would often pass in front of a star from our vantage point. This would create a microlensing flare we should regularly observe. Several sky surveys have looked for such an event to no avail, so PBH dark matter is not a popular idea these days.

This new work takes a slightly different approach. Rather than looking at typical primordial black holes, it considers ultralight black holes. These are on the small end of possible masses and are so tiny that Hawking radiation would come into play. The rate of Hawking decay is inversely proportional to the size of a black hole, so these ultralight black holes should radiate to their end of life on a short cosmic timescale. Since we don’t have a full model of quantum gravity, we don’t know what would happen to ultralight black holes at the end, which is where this paper comes in.

Observational limits for primordial black holes. Credit: S. Profumo

As the author notes, basically there are three possible outcomes. The first is that the black hole radiates away completely. The black hole would end as a brief flash of high-energy particles. The second is that some mechanism prevents complete evaporation and the black hole reaches some kind of equilibrium state. The third option is similar to the second, but in this case, the equilibrium state causes the event horizon to disappear, leaving an exposed dense mass known as a naked singularity. The author also notes that for the latter two outcomes, the objects might have a net electric charge.

For the evaporating case, the biggest unknown would be the timescale of evaporation. If PBHs are initially tiny they would evaporate quickly and add to the reheating effect of the early cosmos. If they evaporate slowly, we should be able to see their deaths as a flash of gamma rays. Neither of these effects has been observed, but it is possible that detectors such as Fermi’s Large Area Telescope might catch one in the act.

For the latter two options, the author argues that equilibrium would be reached around the Planck scale. The remnants would be proton sized but with much higher masses. Unfortunately, if these remnants are electrically neutral they would be impossible to detect. They wouldn’t decay into other particles, nor would they be large enough to detect directly. This would match observation, but isn’t a satisfying result. The model is essentially unprovable. If the particles do have a charge, then we might detect their presence in the next generation of neutrino detectors.

The main thing about this work is that primordial black holes aren’t entirely ruled out by current observations. Until we have better data, this model joins the theoretical pile of many other possibilities.

Reference: Profumo, S. “Ultralight Primordial Black Holes.” arXiv preprint arXiv:2405.00546 (2024).

The post The Universe Could Be Filled With Ultralight Black Holes That Can't Die appeared first on Universe Today.

Quickie with Bob: Horizonal Running on the Moon; News Items: Vampire Facials, Kava and Liver Toxicity, Chiropractic Strokes, Merging Lifeforms; Who's That Noisy; Your Questions and E-mails: Rocket Lab Reusable Rockets; Science or Fiction

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/sciencesalon/mss428_Lisa_Kaltenegger_2024_05_04.mp3 Download MP3

For thousands of years, humans have wondered whether we’re alone in the cosmos. Now, for the first time, we have the technology to investigate. But once you look for life elsewhere, you realize it is not so simple. How do you find it over cosmic distances? What actually is life?

As founding director of Cornell University’s Carl Sagan Institute, astrophysicist Lisa Kaltenegger has built a team of tenacious scientists from many disciplines to create a specialized toolkit to find life on faraway worlds. In Alien Earths, she demonstrates how we can use our homeworld as a Rosetta Stone, creatively analyzing Earth’s history and its astonishing biosphere to inform this search. With infectious enthusiasm, she takes us on an eye-opening journey to the most unusual exoplanets that have shaken our worldview – planets covered in oceans of lava, lonely wanderers lost in space, and others with more than one sun in their sky! And the best contenders for Alien Earths. We also see the imagined worlds of science fiction and how close they come to reality.

With the James Webb Space Telescope and Dr. Kaltenegger’s pioneering work, she shows that we live in an incredible new epoch of exploration. As our witty and knowledgeable tour guide, Dr. Kaltenegger shows how we discover not merely new continents, like the explorers of old, but whole new worlds circling other stars and how we could spot life there. Worlds from where aliens may even be gazing back at us. What if we’re not alone?

Lisa Kaltenegger is the Director of the Carl Sagan Institute to Search for Life in the Cosmos at Cornell and Associate Professor in Astronomy. She is a pioneer and world-leading expert in modeling potential habitable worlds and their detectable spectral fingerprint. Kaltenegger serves on the National Science Foundation’s Astronomy and Astrophysics Advisory Committee (AAAC), and on NASA senior review of operating missions. She is a Science Team Member of NASA’s TESS Mission as well as the NIRISS instrument on James Webb Space Telescope. Kaltenegger was named one of America’s Young Innovators by Smithsonian magazine, an Innovator to Watch by Time magazine. She appears in the IMAX 3D movie “The Search for Life in Space” and speaks frequently, including at Aspen Ideas Festival, TED Youth, World Science Festival and the Kavli Foundation lecture at the Adler Planetarium.

Shermer and Kaltenegger discuss:

• Carl Sagan and his influence
• Sagan’s Dragon
• ECREE Principle
• How stars, planets and solar systems form
• How exoplanets are discovered
• Hubble Space Telescope, Kepler Space Telescope, James Webb Space Telescope
• What is life?
• The Origin of Life
• Fermi’s Paradox: where is everybody (the Great Silence, the Great Filter)
• SETI
• Biosignatures here and there
• Technosignatures here and there
• Dyson spheres and other technosignatures
• Will aliens be biological or AI?
• Interstellar travel
• Kardashev scale of civilizations
• Communicating with aliens: Arrival
• Aliens communicating with us: Contact
• Order of the Dolphin: how to talk to aliens when we can’t even talk to dolphins
• Deities for Atheists, Skygods for Skeptics: aliens as gods and the search as religion
• Why alien worlds matter.

If you enjoy the podcast, please show your support by making a $5 or $10 monthly donation.

NASA has given the go-ahead for SpaceX to work out a plan to adapt its Starlink broadband internet satellites for use in a Martian communication network.

The idea is one of a dozen proposals that have won NASA funding for concept studies that could end up supporting the space agency’s strategy for bringing samples from Mars back to Earth for lab analysis. The proposals were submitted by nine companies — also including Blue Origin, Lockheed Martin, United Launch Alliance, Astrobotic, Firefly Aerospace, Impulse Space, Albedo Space and Redwire Space.

Awardees will be paid $200,000 to $300,000 for their reports, which are due in August. NASA says the studies could lead to future requests for proposals, but it’s not yet making any commitment to follow up.

“We’re in an exciting new era of space exploration, with rapid growth of commercial interest and capabilities,” Eric Ianson, director of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program, said in a news release. “Now is the right time for NASA to begin looking at how public-private partnerships could support science at Mars in the coming decades.”

For years, SpaceX executives have been talking about using Starlink satellites in Martian orbit as part of billionaire founder Elon Musk’s vision of making humanity a multiplanetary species. In 2020, SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell told Time magazine that connectivity will be an essential part of the company’s Mars settlement plan.

“Once we take people to Mars, they are going to need a capability to communicate,” she said. “In fact, I think it will be even more critical to have a constellation like Starlink around Mars. And then, of course, you need to connect the two planets as well — so, we need to make sure we have robust telecom between Mars and back in Earth.”

Musk delved into more detail during last October’s International Astronautical Congress in Azerbaijan. “For Mars, you’d want a laser relay system, essentially,” he said. “It depends on what bandwidth you’re looking for. … Ultimately, we’d want terabit, maybe petabit-level data transfer between Earth and Mars.” Check out his comments on YouTube:

Musk could capitalize on NASA’s need to upgrade its communication relay system at the Red Planet, which relies on satellites that are up to 23 years old. The space agency’s main focus for future Mars exploration is its multi-mission strategy to retrieve samples that have been cached by the Perseverance rover. Last month, NASA said it would rework that strategy to reduce costs, in part by taking advantage of innovations coming from private industry. The innovations that are now the focus of the Mars Exploration Commercial Services program could play prominent roles in the revised strategy.

Blue Origin, the space venture founded by Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos, will look into adapting its Blue Ring transfer vehicle to host and deliver payloads heading for Mars. A separate study will focus on Blue Ring’s potential use for next-generation relay services. In a posting to X / Twitter, Blue Origin said it was “excited to be part of NASA’s studies around the future of Mars robotic science and the unique benefits our Blue Ring platform can provide by enabling large payload delivery, hosting, and next-gen relay services.”

Here are the other companies on NASA’s list, and the subjects of their studies:

• Albedo Space: How to adapt an imaging satellite originally meant for low Earth orbit to provide Mars surface imaging.
• Astrobotic Technology: How to modify a lunar-exploration spacecraft for large payload delivery and hosting services. Also, how to modify a lunar-exploration spacecraft for Mars surface imaging.
• Firefly Aerospace: How to adapt a lunar-exploration spacecraft for small payload delivery and hosting services.
• Impulse Space: How to adapt its Helios space tug to provide small payload delivery and hosting for Mars missions.
• Lockheed Martin: How to adapt a lunar-exploration spacecraft for small payload delivery and hosting. Also, how to provide communication relay services for Mars with a spacecraft originally meant for use in the vicinity of Earth and the moon.
• Redwire Space: How to modify a commercial imaging spacecraft originally meant for low Earth orbit to provide Mars surface-imaging services.
• United Launch Alliance (through United Launch Services): How to modify an Earth-vicinity cryogenic upper stage to provide large payload delivery and hosting services.

The post Starlink on Mars? NASA Is Paying SpaceX to Look Into the Idea appeared first on Universe Today.

Researchers have unveiled a quantum sensing scheme that achieves the pinnacle of quantum sensitivity in measuring the transverse displacement between two interfering photons.

Researchers have unveiled a quantum sensing scheme that achieves the pinnacle of quantum sensitivity in measuring the transverse displacement between two interfering photons.

A new study sheds light on the role that new and traditional media play in promoting and affecting character development, emotions, prosocial behavior and well-being (aka happiness) in youth.

The direction in which spin information is injected into chiral materials affects its ability to pass through them. These chiral 'gateways' could be used to design energy-efficient spintronic devices for data storage, communication and computing.

The JWST is astronomers’ best tool for probing exoplanet atmospheres. Its capable instruments can dissect the light passing through a distant world’s atmosphere and determine its chemical components. Scientists are interested in everything the JWST finds, but when it finds something indicating the possibility of life it seizes everyone’s attention.

That’s what happened in September 2023, when the JWST found dimethyl sulphide (DMS) in the atmosphere of the exoplanet K2-18b.

K2-18b orbits a red dwarf star about 124 light-years away. It’s a sub-Neptune with about 2.5 times Earth’s radius and 8.6 Earth masses. The exoplanet may be a Hycean world, a temperate ocean-covered world with a large hydrogen atmosphere.

In October 2023, researchers announced the tentative detection of dimethyl sulphide in K2-18b’s atmosphere. They found it in JWST observations of the planet’s atmospheric spectrum. “The spectrum also suggests potential signs of dimethyl sulphide (DMS), which has been predicted to be an observable biomarker in Hycean worlds, motivating considerations of possible biological activity on the planet,” the researchers wrote.

The DMS caught people’s attention because it’s produced by living organisms here on Earth, mostly by marine microbes. So, finding it on an ocean world is cause for a deeper look. A team of researchers from the USA, Germany, and the UK examined the detection to see how it fits with atmospheric models.

“The best biosignatures on an exoplanet may differ significantly from those we find most abundant on Earth today.”

Eddie Schwieterman, astrobiologist, University of California, Riverside

They published their results in a paper in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. It’s titled “Biogenic Sulfur Gases as Biosignatures on Temperate Sub-Neptune Waterworlds.” The lead author is Shang-Min Tsai, a University of California Riverside project scientist.

Most of the thousands of exoplanets we’ve discovered are nothing like Earth. Habitability is impossible according to every known metric. But some are more intriguing. Some, like K2-18b, are more difficult to understand regarding habitability.

There’s some disagreement over what type of planet K2-18b is. It was the first exoplanet scientists ever detected water vapour on. It may be the first example of a Hycean world if they exist.

Artist depiction of the mini-Neptune K2-18 b. Credit: NASA, CSA, ESA, J. Olmstead (STScI), N. Madhusudhan (Cambridge University)

There are some clear differences between K2-18b and Earth. Our atmosphere is dominated by nitrogen, which makes up about 78%. K2-18b’s atmosphere is dominated by hydrogen. But it’s enough like Earth in some ways that scientists are keen to understand it better.

“This planet gets almost the same amount of solar radiation as Earth. And if atmosphere is removed as a factor, K2-18b has a temperature close to Earth’s, which is also an ideal situation in which to find life,” said lead author Shang-Min Tsai.

The researchers who found DMS in K2-18b’s atmosphere also found carbon dioxide and methane. Finding CO2 and CH4 is noteworthy, but finding DMS with them is even more intriguing.

“What was icing on the cake, in terms of the search for life, is that last year these researchers reported a tentative detection of dimethyl sulfide, or DMS, in the atmosphere of that planet, which is produced by ocean phytoplankton on Earth,” Tsai said. DMS is oxidized in Earth’s oceans and is the planet’s main source of atmospheric sulphur.

K2-18b’s atmospheric composition as measured by the JWST’s near-infrared instruments. The detection of Dimethyl Sulphide is not holding up under increased scrutiny. Image Credit: NASA/CSA/ESA/STScI

However, the 2023 findings were not conclusive. There were hints of DMS but nothing strong enough to convince scientists and overcome their professional skepticism. “The potential inference of DMS is of high importance, as it is known to be a robust biomarker on Earth and has been extensively advocated to be a promising biomarker for exoplanets,” the authors of the 2023 paper explained.

“The DMS signal from the Webb telescope was not very strong and only showed up in certain ways when analyzing the data,” Tsai said. “We wanted to know if we could be sure of what seemed like a hint about DMS.”

The JWST has no alarm bell and flashing indicator that lights up and says, ‘Biomarker Detected!’ It produces data that must be processed to tease out its secrets. Scientists also rely on battle-tested climate and atmospheric chemistry models to understand what the JWST sees.

“In this study, we explore biogenic sulphur across a wide range of biological fluxes and stellar UV environments,” the researchers write. They performed experiments with a 2D photochemical model and a 3D general circulation model (GCM.) According to Tsai and his co-researchers, the data is unlikely to show the presence of DMS in K2-18b’s atmosphere.

“The signal strongly overlaps with methane, and we think that picking out DMS from methane is beyond this instrument’s capability,” Tsai said.

That doesn’t mean that DMS is ruled out. It’s possible that the chemical could build up to detectable levels if plankton or some other life form were producing it. But, they’d have to produce about 20 times more DMS than there is on Earth.

Professor Madhusudhan from Cambridge University is the lead author of the 2023 paper on K2-18b’s atmosphere. He’s being touted in the media as the man who discovered alien life on another planet. He’s clearly uncomfortable with some of the hyperbole, but the message is becoming bigger than the messenger.

This study will probably put a damper on the media’s enthusiasm. But for people who follow science, this is just another instance of science correcting itself.

The fact is, we’re only groping our way toward understanding exoplanet atmospheres. Scientists have a powerful tool in the JWST, but it has limitations. It measures light in extreme detail and leaves the rest up to us. “We find that it is challenging to identify DMS at 3.4 ?m where it strongly overlaps with CH4,” the authors explain. But, they continue, “it is more plausible to detect DMS … in the mid-infrared between 9 and 13 ?m,” the authors explain.

This figure from the research compares how detectable DMS is in NIR (left) vs MIR (right.) We’re mostly interested in the 20xSorg (20 x organic sulphur.) Its presence at that concentration is muddy in NIR but stands out more clearly in simulated MIR data. Image Credit: Left: Madhusudhan et al. 2023. Right: Batalha et al. 2017.

That means there’s hope for K2-18b. These observations were taken with the JWST’s near-infrared instruments, the NIRISS and the NIRSpec. Sometime next year, the JWST will examine the exoplanet’s atmosphere again, this time with its mid-infrared instrument MIRI. This instrument should tell us definitively whether DMS is present.

This figure shows the wavelength ranges of its instruments and the modes available to them. Image Credit: NASA/STScI

Scientists’ understanding of biosignatures has grown more detailed. Instead of searching for biosignatures like the ones on Earth, scientists are taking a larger, more holistic view of biosignatures and the nature of the atmospheres they might be present in.

“The best biosignatures on an exoplanet may differ significantly from those we find most abundant on Earth today. On a planet with a hydrogen-rich atmosphere, we may be more likely to find DMS made by life instead of oxygen made by plants and bacteria as on Earth,” said UCR astrobiologist Eddie Schwieterman, a senior author of the study.

The team’s work does show that sulphur could be a detectable biomarker for Hycean worlds. “The moderate threshold for biological production suggests that the search for biogenic sulphur gases as one class of potential biosignature is plausible for Hycean worlds,” they conclude.

The post Did You Hear Webb Found Life on an Exoplanet? Not so Fast… appeared first on Universe Today.

The inactivation of one copy of the X chromosome in female mammals may start to fail as they get older, which may be why women have a higher risk of autoimmune conditions such as lupus