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Cosmology has transformed our understanding of time past and the aeons to come, pointing to a deep future in which life may morph into incredible forms, says astronomer royal Martin Rees

At a novel sci-art festival celebrating the many cultural and scientific needs for dark skies in a time of serious light pollution, Alex Wilkins looks for hope

Glenn Loury and his podcasting buddy John McWhorter are back on Loury’s Substack page with a video (there’s also a transcript) answering a reader’s question:

Ibram X Kendi’s Center for Antiracist Research at Boston University raised around $43 million (estimates vary), and there’s very little to show for it. The Center has produced almost no meaningful research in that time, despite the outlandish funding at its disposal. In the Q&A from October of last year, a viewer asked John and I what we would do with that kind of money, if our goal was ending racism.

Click to read, or, better yet, watch the eleven-minute video below, as the entire transcript comes from the video:

Below: the video. I’m going to give just two brief excerpts of the answer, as you’d best watch the whole thing—or read the whole thing—yourself.

Loury suggests a race-centered equivalent to Princeton’s Institute of Advanced Study, hoping that a group of academics could produce something that could ameliorate racism or improve the situation of black people. McWhorter, on the other hand, would use the money to make a movie set in 1966—a year of racial ferment that changed black centrism to black activism and separatism. McWhorter’s idea is apparently that showing that “something went wrong in 1966” would re-center discussions about race from the extremes to which he thinks it’s gone.

Two quotes:

LOURY:

I’ll go first. I haven’t got a clue. I have no idea. I mean, I can tell you what I’d like to do. You know me. I would like to create a center where the best and most interesting and most provocative and deep-thinking and learned students of the subject could gather together. Some of them I’d hope to recruit to the faculty of the university by being able to offer departments funds to underwrite the appointments of senior members who would be members of the history department or the sociology department or the political science or psychology or economics department, but who would also be principles [sic] in my center. They’d be half-time teaching, half-time researchers. They’d have their own research programs. I wouldn’t have to figure out what they were researching, because they would already be leaders in their respective fields.

I’d try to combine that kind of initiative with the overall strategy for growth and improvement of the university. The psychology department is looking for a person who specializes in this, the history department for someone who specializes in that. I’d develop relationships with my colleagues in those departments and try to enrich the faculty and so forth by bringing people around.

Another thing I do is to try to develop programs for students and colleagues who are interested in the general subject of race and racial inequality. Speakers series, postdoctoral fellowships for young scholars who are just completing their dissertations and trying to convert them into books who could come in and work on that thing. A vital center of churning, people stimulating each other, sitting around the seminar room listening to somebody’s early draft of their chapter and critiquing it, and so on. That’s among the things that I’d like to do.

To anyone who’s been in academia—and that includes Loury, who should know better—getting together a bunch of scholars who will undoubtedly pursue their own interests, be it race-centered or not, is not a good way to solve a problem, especially a problem that hasn’t been clearly posed.  The center at first sounds like a bunch of synergistic humanities scholars, but clearly the program is to deal with issues of race.  But try doing that in today’s climate!  Clearly Loury himself would have to specify who gets hired so that heterodox thinkers like him are included. (He says, “I think I could be very happy ensconced in such a circumstance.

McWhorter’s idea is more inventive and creative: he wants to make a movie. But he adds that nobody would make such a movie today, nor would it change the world. But you can see his aim in the last para of his answer below:

McWHORTER

JOHN MCWHORTER: I would put that money into making a movie. Spike Lee would do it well, but it would be against his ideology. I would like there to be a movie about what happened to black thought in 1966. I wish more people understood how we got from integrationist to separatist, how we got to the idea that, for black people, we have to question what standards are and that just showing up is excellence and all of that. That’s so normal now. We’ve got, depending on how you count it, three generations of people who think of that as normal. If black people come up, you have to reserve judgment. Only so much can be expected of us. And maybe there’s a black way of doing things that’s better than the white way. But that’s new, and it’s easy to miss it now unless you’re very old or you’re a history buff.

There should be a 1966 movie with SNCC, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, turning against white people. That should be shown, with Stokely Carmichael deciding that. Somebody playing John Lewis kind of caught in the middle of all of this. Bayard Rustin should be in it.1 Francis Piven and Richard Cloward, the white sociologists promulgating the National Welfare Rights Organization should be in it, and getting people onto the rolls on purpose. Viola Davis and people like that should be playing the women who are treated that way. And there should be a really great soundtrack, because of how black music sounded at the time. That would be part of it.

You’ve got the afros and the dashikis but also the older civil rights guard with the cat eyeglasses and the suits and the cigarettes being kind of pushed aside. There would have to be—and I don’t mean me—a careful speech coach, because in this film I would like it to be seen that there was a way of speaking that many black people had that would sound very white today to a lot of people, and people like that were taken seriously. I want Bayard Rustin to talk like him. He should not be played by Samuel Jackson.

There are clips of Bayard Rustin speaking, so you can hear his style.

And when Loury asked him if he thought such a movie could change the world, McWhorter responds:

Not change the world any more than the institute that you’re talking about would, but it would be a handy reference point. Too many of the film reference points are, “Slavery was bad. Racism is bad. Racism is still there.” Well, you know what? We’ve learned that there is an, I guess you’re going to have to call it, a black conservative perspective—but really I think it’s just a black centrist perspective—that is not shown as much.

So those are the solutions, and while I’d love to see the movie (I suspect I’ve seen much of it already), neither seems to me effective. But pondering what I would do, I couldn’t come up with anything. Neither am I black nor any kind of expert in creating equality.

In a discussion of McWhorter’s book Woke Racism in February of last year, I summarized his three prescriptions for ending racism. As I wrote at the time:

Chapter 5 contains McWhorter’s recommendations for how to really help black people. They may sound too few, or too silly, but the more one thinks about them, the more they make sense. In his view, there are only three correctives.

1.) End the war on drugs

2.) Teach reading properly (he recommends phonics, and knows whereof he speaks)

3.) Get past the idea that everybody must go to college

#1 and #3 aren’t associated with higher costs, but with a change in attitudes. Spreading the teaching of phonics, which many experts now agree is the best way to teach kids to read, would cost a lot more, but perhaps the $43 million could be used in one state or one area along with a “control area” to see how well it works.

As for Kendi, he’s experienced a serious fall from grace, with mass layoffs at his Center for Antiracist research at Boston University, and a spate of people attesting that the Center was mismanaged  (see here, here and here).  And yes, the output of the Center was essentially nil.

If you have better ideas, please put them in the comments.

On November 8th, NASA’s Curiosity Rover paused its incessant science work and just watched the day unfold on Mars. The rover used its black-and-white Hazard-Avoidance Cameras (Hazcams) to watch an entire 12-hour day on Mars as the shifting Sun cast shadows across the Martian landscape. NASA chose this day because of the Mars solar conjunction when the Sun interferes with communications with the Red Planet, meaning the rover doesn’t do any roving about. The timelapse comprises 25 frames from both the front and rear Hazcams.

When the rover stays in one place, it works pretty well as a sundial, NASA says. You can see in the video below, posted on X, how the Sun and shadows move across Curiosity and the surrounding vistas. This is the first time the Hazcams were used to record 12 hours of images from a day on Mars.

Hey look – I’m a sundial!

Ok, not exactly, but I did get a sol to enjoy my surroundings. During solar conjunction, I used my hazard cameras to study the Martian weather and dust.

As this Earth year comes to an end, I hope you’ll take the time to soak in what’s around you. pic.twitter.com/eCQAcVtT1L

— Curiosity Rover (@MarsCuriosity) December 28, 2023

The rover team back on Earth sent the instructions to record the timelapse videos just before the start of Mars solar conjunction because during this time, the Sun’s plasma interferes with communications between Earth and Mars. While the rover isn’t completely out of contact, no complex instructions are sent during the several weeks of potential radio interference.

The Hazcams  are usually used to spot rocks, slopes, and other hazards that may be risky for the rover to traverse. Because Curiosity wasn’t doing any roving or other science, the team hoped that by using the Haxcams to record a day on Mars, they might be able to capture clouds or dust devils that could reveal more about the Red Planet’s weather. However, it was a relatively mild weather day on Mars, so no unusual weather events show up in the video.

The Hazcams have an autoexposure algorithm to deal with the various amounts of daylight at different parts of the day.  For example, during mid-day, the algorithm settles on exposure times of around one-third of a second. By nightfall, that exposure time grows to more than a minute. This causes a typical sensor noise known as “hot pixels” that appears as white snow across the final image.

The video posted on X shows the first part of the day, with images from the front Hazcam. The view looks southeast along Gediz Vallis, a valley found on Mount Sharp. Curiosity has been ascending the base of the 3-mile-tall (5-kilometer-tall) mountain, which sits in Gale Crater, since 2014.

This annotated image from NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover shows its wheel tracks in Jezero Crater and a distant view of the first potential location it could deposit a group of sample tubes for possible future return to Earth. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

At sunrise, the shadow of the rover’s 7-foot (2-meter) robotic arm moves to the left, and Curiosity’s front wheels emerge from the darkness on either side of the frame. Also visible at left is a circular calibration target mounted on the shoulder of the robotic arm. Engineers use the target to test the accuracy of the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer, an instrument that detects chemical elements on the Martian surface.

The second video, which is our lead animated gif image, shows the view of the rear Hazcam as it looks northwest down the slopes of Mount Sharp to the floor of Gale Crater. The rover’s right rear wheel is visible, along with the shadow of Curiosity’s power system. NASA explained that a small black artifact that appears at the left midway through the video, during the 17th frame, resulted from a cosmic ray hitting the camera sensor. Likewise, the bright flashing and other noise at the end of the video are the result of heat from the spacecraft’s power system affecting the Hazcam’s image sensor.

How well does your own dozen-plus-year-old camera work? NASA said that speckled appearance of the images, especially prominent in the rear-camera video, is due to 11 years of Martian dust settling on the lenses. You can see in the image above how dust settles on many parts of the rover.

Curiosity launched from Earth on November 26, 2011 and landed on August 4, 2012.

The post Watch a Full Martian Day, From Dawn to Dusk appeared first on Universe Today.

Fossilised bacteria from Australia contain the earliest evidence of photosynthetic structures called thylakoids, which may have driven the accumulation of oxygen in Earth's atmosphere

A newly discovered drug treated infections in mice caused by a strain of bacteria that is resistant to most available antibiotics

An AI analysis of satellite images reveals fishing, shipping and offshore development activities worldwide by monitoring boats that don't publicly broadcast their location

Neutrinos produced inside an exploding star could betray exotic particles that would lead to a deeper theory of physics. Will our detectors be ready in time for the next nearby supernova?

Today’s Jesus and Mo strip, called “please,” rings in the new year, with Mo asking for a distinction that’s not a difference.  And no, they’ll have to put up with blasphemy, though you might get executed for blaspheming Islam in countries that adhere to that faith. Blasphemy mesaures are still on the books in Western countries like Spain and Northern Ireland, but they’re never enforced.

 

Thanks to several readers who helped replenish the photo tank by sending in wildlife pictures. But there’s always a need for more, so don’t forget us. Thanks!

Today’s photos come from Chris Taylor in Australia. His captions are indented, and you can click on the photos to enlarge them.

Seen through a window.

For the last two years I have not been able to get out and take as many photos as before.  I was diagnosed with Myeloma, and had chemotherapy and a Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant.  As I result, I was restricted to home for a long time and spent a lot of that sitting at my “office” where I could look out into the paddocks behind the house.  I sometimes kept a camera nearby, and all of these photos are taken from my desk!

Although people don’t associate snow with Australia, we always get a little bit of snow each winter.  At the beginning of May this year, this was the sight from my window, as the high wind raised the snow among the eucalypts as the moon set behind the hill.

Red Fox, Vulpes vulpes.
In the middle of the day and as bold as brass, this fox came wandering into the house paddock.  It calmly walked around, went hunting for something on the grass and then slowly ambled away.  Foxes were introduced into Australia around 1840, so that fox hunting could take place!  They have spread across the continent and are a serious threat to many native animals:

The vegetable patch is just outside the window, and while I wasn’t able to maintain it, became rather overgrown.  But that was much to the liking of a number of the parrot species around here, who came to feast on the seeds.

Galah, Eolophus roseicapilla.
The galah is very common throughout much of Australia.  Male and female are very similar, and only differ in the eye colour.  This one is a male, because of his black eye.  The galah is a member of the Cockatoo family (Cacatuidae) and like most cockatoos they have a crest that can be raised, although it is only a short one

Crimson Rosella, (Platycercus elegans).

The other parrots commonly visiting are the rosellas.  Two species come regularly to feed in the garden, the Eastern and Crimson rosella.  The photos are of the Crimson Rosella.

A pair of adults feeding on some seed:

The juvenile rosellas have a lot of green plumage for the first few months:

Not all photos turn out right, even when I get the focus, shutter speed and lighting right.  Not quite the right moment for pressing the shutter!  This is the juvenile bird.

Eastern Rosella, Platycercus eximius.

This is the other rosella species that commonly visit.  For the last couple of years a pair has been nesting in an old tree trunk that is nest to the driveway to the house:

My property is named after a native word meaning Blue Wren.  There are a number of species of wren with more or less blue or violet and, in one case, red coloration.  The species here is the Superb Fairy Wren, Malurus cyaaneus.  The wrens live in a family group of up to a dozen or so, and the non-breeding birds help to raise the young. The male and female will form a bond and stay together, however both the males and females are sexually promiscuous, although the pair will raise all the young, regardless of parentage!

The first photo is a breeding male.  In breeding plumage, they are striking, with iridescent blue and black on the head:

Out of season, the male’s plumage changes dramatically.  Now they are much like the female, but they retain navy blue tail feathers and a dark bill:

The females remain the same colour all year:

Flame Robin, Petroica-phoenicea.

The beautiful Flame Robin and its relative the Scarlet Robin come down to my property during the winter, and seem to spend summer on the higher plains and mountains.  Seeing them arrive for the first time in a year is a harbinger of the winter to come. The males are striking, and their glowing red plumage can be seen from quite a distance:

The female though, is rather drab in comparison:

I often get to see the raptors hunting over the fields. These would include the Wedge-tailed Eagle, Brown Falcon, and Peregrine, but most common was the Nankeen Kestrel, Falco cenchroides.

This one came and sat in the top of a small pine tree growing in the garden, and let me take its portrait before taking off:

The other common raptor is the Black Shouldered Kite, Elanus axillaris. This year a pair took up residence in a tree just out of sight from my seat, built a nest and raised two young.  These photos were taken while one was hovering over the turkey nest dam searching for some prey, usually small mammals or reptiles:

Something startled it and it looked up, while maintaining its hovering flight!:

The 2024 Quadrantids meteor shower will peak on 3 and 4 January. While moonlight may get in the way, here’s what to do for your best chance of spotting it

In Iceland, scientists are planning to drill two boreholes to a reservoir of liquid rock. One will give us our first direct measurements of magma – the other could supercharge geothermal power

What medical breakthrough are likely in the near future?

The post Medical Science in 2024 first appeared on Science-Based Medicine.

A non-lethal method of catching great white sharks and releasing them 500 metres further out to sea can make the predators steer clear of beaches where people swim

The first ever soap films with chemically distinct sides are a step towards cheap soap-based devices that could create useful chemicals through artificial photosynthesis

People with severe covid-19 infections are more than 4 times as likely to later be diagnosed with schizophrenia than people who have not been infected, though the risk of developing the condition is relatively low

Palaeontologists can’t agree on whether fossils from several small dinosaurs represent juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex or smaller adults of a separate species that lived alongside them

Chemists found a way to use electricity to boost a type of chemical reaction often used in synthesizing new candidates for pharmaceutical drugs. The research is an advance in the field of electrochemistry and shows a path forward to designing and controlling reactions -- and making them more sustainable.