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The most likely way we will discover life on a distant exoplanet is by discovering a biosignature. This can be done by looking at the atmospheric spectra of a world to discover the spectral pattern of a molecule that can only be created through biological processes. While it sounds straightforward it isn’t. The presence of simple molecules such as water and oxygen don’t prove life exists on a planet. It’s true that Earth’s atmosphere is oxygen rich thanks to life, but geological activity can also produce large quantities of oxygen. And as a new study shows, some molecules we’ve long thought to be biological in origin may not be.

Ideally astronomers would love to find evidence of a really complex molecule such as chlorophyll. But there isn’t likely to be tons of chlorophyll in an atmosphere, so the spectral pattern would be faint, and even if it were clear the pattern is complex and hard to distinguish. So astronomers generally focus on simpler but unique molecules. One of these molecules is dimethyl sulfide, (CH3)2S or DMS for short. It is only produced by phytoplankton on Earth, so it would be a strong indicator of life. Or so we thought.

In this new work the team was able to synthesize DMS and other sulfur-based molecules in the lab abiotically. While that doesn’t prove the same process can happen in the wild, the team went on to show how DMS could be formed on a world with a thick organic haze. We know such planets exist because Saturn’s moon Titan is just such a world. If, for example, Titan happened to be closer to the Sun, the ultraviolet radiation would be significant enough to trigger the chemical reactions necessary to create DMS. If Titan were in Earth’s orbit, a distant alien race would detect DMS in the atmosphere of a planet in the Sun’s habitable zone. It would look like a slam dunk, but Titan would still be toxic to life as we know it.

How a biosignature molecule might form naturally. Credit: Reed, et al

But Titan might have some presence of exotic life, which is another conclusion to this study. While the authors show that the presence of DMS or similar molecules wouldn’t prove life exists on a world, they argue that it would indicate a strong potential for life. Basically, a warm planet with the kind of rich organic haze in its atmosphere would necessarily have the kind of complex organic molecules life needs to evolve. If DMS exists on a world, then the potential for life exists at the very least.

While this study shows we will need to be careful about treating particular molecules as biosignatures, it also supports what exo-biologists have known for some time. The discovery of life on another world isn’t likely going to happen as a single great eureka moment. What is more likely is that a handful of planets will have chemical markers that support the possibility of life. Over time as we find more candidate biomarkers in their atmospheres we will be ever more confident that life exists.

Reference: Reed, Nathan W., et al. “Abiotic Production of Dimethyl Sulfide, Carbonyl Sulfide, and Other Organosulfur Gases via Photochemistry: Implications for Biosignatures and Metabolic Potential.” The Astrophysical Journal Letters 973.2 (2024): L38.

The post Biosignatures Can be Made in the Lab. No Life Needed. appeared first on Universe Today.

The article below appeared a few days ago in MEMRI (the Middle East Media Research Institute), written by MEMRI’s founder and director Yigal Carmon. Carmon is an e-friend whom I met in Israel, and who, you might recall, predicted in the summer of 2023 that Israel would go to war with Gaza in September or October (see the prediction here). Now Yigal is not always correct, but his organization, tasked with listening to everything they can get from the Arab world and translating it into English, Hebrew, and other languages , has been essential for many countries’ intelligence.

Although Wikipedia accuses MEMRI of being “a strongly pro-Israel advocacy group,” that’s pretty much irrelevant, because its main job is translating what comes out of the Arab world (and yes, much of that is done in the cause of educating Israelis), but I am not aware of MEMRI ever having mistranslated anything. Isn’t more information better than less information, no matter who that information serves?  You may say that the article below, which advocates the US moving its military base out of Qatar, is “strongly pro-Israel,” but so what? If doing that helps dampen the terrorism strongly supported by Qatar, that’s all to the good.

There are other parts to come, so keep your eyes on the MEMRI site.

Carmon’s thesis, which is documented with extensive references, is that Qatar is a pervasive and wealthy sponsor of terrorism and Islamism (nobody really denies this), yet the US has graced it with the status as an ally, having taken an old Qatari military base and turned it into a U.S, CENTCOM base. Al Udeid Air Base harbors several thousand American troops and about 400 RAF troops (the Aussies used to have a few planes there, too, but wisely moved them to the United Arab Emirates).  That base is essential to Qatar because without it, it’s likely that the terrorism-sponsoring countryu would simply be taken over by the UAE or Saudi Arabia.

Qatar also funds terrorism big time. It has supported Hamas with gazillions of dollars and gives refuge to its members (and storage of its money) along with members of the Taliban. As Carmon writes (I’ve left the reference numbers in):

Qatar is the world’s foremost state sponsor of Islamic terrorist organizations and movements, backing a wide range of them, both Sunni and Shi’ite. They include the Islamic State (ISIS), Al-Qaeda, Hamas, Hizbullah, the Houthis, the Taliban, Jabhat Al-Nusra, Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC, see below) and even Islamist militias in northern Mali.[7]

Carmon argues that the U.S. should get its tuches out of Qatar, which will give us both credibility in the eyes of the world (why on Earth are we there when other and friendlier Arab countries have offered us a base?), or, alternatively, the opportunity to use leverage against Qatar by threatening to withdraw its base, which scares the bejeezus out of Qatar since its enemies would take over the tiny but oil-rich country.

But I digress. You can read the article for yourself by clicking above. I’ll give a few quotes, grouped under bold headings that I’ve created.

The situation. 

It is a tragedy that what is common knowledge for any vegetable vendor or taxi driver in the Arab and Muslim world eludes American (as well as Israeli) intelligence leaders – that is, Qatar’s anti-U.S. and terror-supporting role in the Arab and Muslim world as well as in the West.

Trump’s meeting also underlines that Qatar’s story is not a Gulf story, nor an Arab story. It is a story that impacts the whole West and its ability to counter its enemies.

This document will detail Qatar’s role and the consequences of an American embrace of it, and the devastating effects this has on America’s true allies, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). By embracing Qatar, the U.S. is alienating and abandoning its true allies, KSA and UAE, in favor of Qatar, which is their enemy and the enemy of the United States as well. Under these circumstances, KSA and UAE have no choice but to distance themselves from America and drift towards China and Russia.

Many who would agree that Qatar is an enemy of the U.S., not an ally, may still say that America must embrace Qatar because of the CENTCOM base located there. The truth is the opposite. First of all, America can move the base at any time to the UAE, Bahrain, or KSA. In fact, these countries had requested it, but America turned them down.

Second, Qatar holds CENTCOM in its territory not as a favor to the U.S. but as security and protection for itself. Without the American base, the Aal Thani family’s rule of Qatar would likely be ended by its neighbors. It is Qatar that is beholden to the U.S. for maintaining the base on its soil. Given that the Aal Thani family owes its very survival to the base’s location in Qatar, any U.S. administration could have pressured Qatar into a pro-U.S. policy instead of its pro-terrorist and pro-Iran one. Unfortunately, none have done it.[1]

Successive U.S. administrations have acted as if they somehow owe Qatar for hosting the base. This is as much a tragedy as it is an inexplicable strategic blunder that begs explanation – because this American approach cannot be explained by any strategic considerations. But there may be other considerations in play, such as Qatar’s immense wealth, that are impacting the policies of many countries, including the U.S.

Qatar’s double role as a U.S. “ally” as well as a sponsor of terrorism (see quote above as well):

Qatar is responsible for 9/11 – the worst of all anti-U.S. Islamist terror operations. It was also involved in many others (see comprehensive MEMRI report Qatar Is Responsible For Khalid Sheikh Mohammad’s 2,977 Murders On 9/11 – At The World Trade Center And The Pentagon, And On Two Other Hijacked Flights – That Are Only Some Of 31 Attacks And Plots That He Outlined In His Own Confession, September 13, 2024).

Qatar hosts the financiers of terrorism, according to the United Nations and to former U.S. Treasury Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence David Cohen.[8]

The September 2012 murder of U.S. Ambassador to Libya John Christopher Stevens in Benghazi was perpetrated by the Qatar-supported Al-Qaeda affiliate Ansar Al-Sharia.[9]

In 2021, Qatar succeeded in replacing the democratically elected and secular Afghanistan president Ashraf Ghani with the Taliban, whom it sustained for years with headquarters in Doha. It is also to blame for the 13 American soldiers killed during the Taliban’s violent takeover in August 2021.

Qatar provided Hamas with billions of dollars, which ended up financing the murder of over 30 Americans and the taking of 11 Americans as hostages to Gaza in its October 7 attack on Israel.[10]

Additionally, in 2007 in Gaza, it was thanks to their general support to Hamas as an organization that Hamas was able to take over Gaza from the Palestinian Authority.

Qatar also finances Hizbullah and Iran’s IRGC.[11]

Carmon documents Qatar’s support for Islamist movements, and notes this:

Qatar’s activity in the US, some of which is illegal:

Recently, it was revealed that Qatar even dared to bribe a leading Democratic senator, Robert Menendez, who was subsequently convicted of political corruption. Another striking example of this is Qatar’s contracting of a former CIA official to spy on Senators Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Tom Cotton (R-AR), and Reps. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL) and Ed Royce (former R-CA and House Foreign Affairs Committee chair), who are all opposed to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.[19]

Qatar brazenly ignored the order by the U.S. Department of Justice to register Al-Jazeera as a foreign agent.[20]

Qatar  has funded American universities to the tune of $4.7 billion, which is evident now in the wave of pro-Hamas protests sweeping American universities.[21]

Other and friendlier Arab countires have offered the U.S. military bases.  (Bolding below is mine)

In 1995, when the major Arab countries objected to the coup of the previous Emir (Hamad bin Khalifa) against his father (Khalifa bin Hamad Aal Thani), the new emir sought out the Americans to provide him with additional protection. Shrewdly, he offered them Al-Udeid airbase to serve the U.S. military. With that move, this base came to guarantee the safety of the dictatorial Aal-Thani family.

Threatened by Qatar’s Islamist activities, and striving for Westernization and socioeconomic progress, the regimes of the UAE and KSA offered the U.S. their territory for the CENTCOM base, but the U.S. turned them down. Under the Obama administration, America made it clear that it prefers its enemies, Iran and Qatar, to its natural allies – KSA, UAE, Bahrain, Egypt, and Jordan – who were also subject to constant attacks by the Qatar-supported Muslim Brotherhood.[22]

In 2017, KSA, UAE, Bahrain, and Egypt declared a total boycott on Qatar, in order to bring down the ruling Aal-Thani family. They set out the conditions for lifting the boycott: Qatar must stop supporting Iran and terrorism.[23]

It was again the U.S., alongside Iran and other anti-U.S. countries, that came to Qatar’s rescue to survive the boycott and the political pressure.

What lesson were KSA, UAE, Bahrain, and Egypt to learn from this? That the U.S. is completely blind to the role of Qatar as an anti-U.S. state sponsor of global Islamist terrorism and ally of Iran, and that it prefers its enemies to its allies. It is no wonder that over the years, in the face of this abandonment by the American administration, KSA and UAE have gradually drifted away from America and towards America’s adversaries and enemies – BRICS, Russia, and China.

Conclusion: the US should relocate its forces out of Qatar. (Or perhaps use the threat of that removal to get Qatar to stop sponsoring terrorism. A threat that works could end the war between Hamas and Gaza.  But of course Carmon realizes that this relocation is “unlikely”.)

One relatively simple move  could change America’s weak standing in the world into a strong one, and even prevent a looming world war, possibly resulting from the tensions created by Qatar worldwide – and that is moving the CENTCOM base from Qatar to the UAE or KSA. This would be a new approach by America – preferring its allies over its enemies in the Arab and Muslim world, fighting Islamism rather than embracing it, cutting off the flow of cash dollars for anti-Americanism, creating a real bloc against Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea, denying the Iranian ayatollahs’ regime a major ally worldwide, and ushering in a sane strategy of strengthening Western civilization over those who seek to destroy it.

Without the American airbase in Qatar, Qatar’s ruling family could be toppled by its neighbors as they tried to do in 2017, with no one in the Arab and Muslim world missing it except the Muslim Brotherhood, the Taliban, and other terrorist organizations.

Tragically, it is unlikely that any American administration will do this, not even a Republican one. The Arab and Muslim world, and particularly the countries that are considered the collective West that have been deserted by America, will all have to learn to live in a world without American and Western hegemony.

It is a complete mystery to me why the U.S. maintains a military presence in a country that is such a strong sponsor of terrorism. It can’t be for strategic reasons because both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have offered us locations for U.S. based—and we turned them down. We’re also in the position to stop Qatar from sponsoring terrorism, but aren’t doing it.

Now there’s one fly in the ointment that Carmon neglects, which is that now Turkey has a base in Qatar as well, which may have as many as 5,000 troops.  Moreover, Turkey is a member of NATO, which means that if the UAE or another country attacks Qatar, other NATO members are obliged to come in on the side of Turkey. I’ve written Yigal about this, as in my view it could scupper his whole argument.  I’ll report on his reply or perhaps he’ll leave a comment.

Myopia, or near-sightedness, has been steadily on the rise over the last half-century. A recent systematic review updates the literature on the extent and nature of this epidemic. Let’s get straight to the findings and then discuss what this means. The reviews includes: “276 studies, involving a total of 5,410,945 participants from 50 countries across all six continents.” The researchers find a […]

The post Myopia Epidemic first appeared on Science-Based Medicine.

Smart TVs from Samsung and LG take screenshots of what you are watching even when you are using them to display images from a connected laptop or video game console

When a massive star explodes as a supernova, it does more than release an extraordinary amount of energy. Supernovae explosions are responsible for creating some of the heavy elements, including iron, which is blasted out into space by the explosion. On Earth, there are two accumulations of the iron isotope Fe60 in sea-floor sediments that scientists trace back about two or three million years ago and about five to six million years ago.

The explosions that created the iron also dosed Earth with cosmic radiation.

In new research submitted to the Astrophysical Journal Letters, scientists examine how much energy reached Earth from these explosions and how that radiation may have affected life on Earth. The paper is titled “Life in the Bubble: How a nearby supernova left ephemeral footprints on the cosmic-ray spectrum and indelible imprints on life.” The lead author is Caitlyn Nojiri from UC Santa Cruz.

“Life on Earth is constantly evolving under continuous exposure to ionizing radiation from both terrestrial and cosmic origin,” the authors write. Terrestrial radiation slowly decreases over billions of years. But not cosmic radiation. The amount of cosmic radiation that Earth is exposed to varies as our Solar System moves through the galaxy. “Nearby supernova (SN) activity has the potential to raise the radiation levels at the surface of the Earth by several orders of magnitude, which is expected to have a profound impact on the evolution of life,” they write.

The authors explain that the two million-year-old accumulation is directly from a supernova explosion, and the older accumulation is from when Earth passed through a bubble.

The bubble in the study’s title comes from a particular type of star called OB stars. OB stars are massive, hot, and short-lived stars that usually form in groups. These stars emit powerful outflowing winds that create “bubbles” of hot gas in the interstellar medium. Our Solar System is inside one of these bubbles, called the Local Bubble, which is almost 1,000 light-years wide and was created several million years ago.

An artist’s conception of the hot local bubble. Image Credit: NASA

The Earth entered the Local Bubble about five or six million years ago, which explains the older Fe60 accumulation. According to the authors, the younger Fe60 accumulation from two or three million years ago is directly from a supernova.

“It is likely that the 60Fe peak at about 2-3 Myr originated from a supernova occurring in the Upper Centaurus Lupus association in Scorpius Centaurus (~140 pc) or the Tucana Horologium association (~70 pc). Whereas the ~ 5-6 Myr peak is likely attributed to the Solar System’s entrance into the bubble,” the authors write.

The left panel shows the Local Bubble and nearby stellar associations, while the right panel shows their galactic coordinates. The right panel also shows a new Galactic bubble discovered in 2018. It’s likely the remnant of an SN that exploded in Upper Centaurus Lupus. Image Credit: Nojiri et al. 2024.

The Local Bubble is not a quiet place. It took multiple supernovae to create it. The authors write that it took 15 SN explosions over the last 15 million years to create the LB. “We know from the reconstruction of the LB history that at least 9 SN exploded during the past 6 Myrs,” they write.

The researchers took all the data and calculated the amount of radiation from multiple SNe in the LB. “It is not clear what would the biological effects of such radiation doses be,” they write, but they do discuss some possibilities.

This figure shows the average dose rate experienced at ground level as a function of the distance to the nearby SN. The average dose is calculated over the first 10 kyr (solid line) and over the first 100 kyr (dashed line) after the SN explosion. It’s not enough to trigger an extinction, but it could’ve driven species diversification. Image Credit: Nojiri et al. 2024.

The radiation dosage may have been strong enough to create double-strand breaks in DNA. This is severe damage and can lead to chromosomal changes and even cell death. But there are other effects in terms of the development of life on Earth.

“Double-strand breaks in DNA can potentially lead to mutations and jump in the diversification of species,” the researchers write. A 2024 paper showed that “the rate of virus diversification in the African Tanganyika lake accelerated 2-3 Myr ago.” Could this be connected to SN radiation?

“It would be appealing to better understand whether this can be attributed to the increase in cosmic-radiation dose we predict to have taking place during that period,” the authors tease.

The SN radiation wasn’t powerful enough to trigger an extinction. But it could’ve been powerful enough to trigger more mutations, which could lead to more species diversification.

Radiation is always part of the environment. It rises and falls as events unfold and as Earth moves through the galaxy. Somehow, it must be part of the equation that created the diversity of life on our planet.

“It is, therefore, certain that cosmic radiation is a key environmental factor when assessing the viability and evolution of life on Earth, and the key question pertains to the threshold for radiation to be a favourable or harmful trigger when considering the evolution of species,” the authors write in their conclusion.

Unfortunately, we don’t clearly understand exactly how radiation affects biology, what thresholds might be in place, and how they might change over time. “The exact threshold can only be established with a clear understanding of the biological effects of cosmic radiation (especially muons that dominate at ground level), which remains highly unexplored,” Nojiri and her co-authors write.

The study shows that, whether we can see it in everyday life or not, or even if we’re aware of it or not, our space environment exerts a powerful force on Earth’s life. SN radiation could’ve influenced the mutation rate at critical times during Earth’s history, helping shape evolution.

Without supernova explosions, life on Earth could look very different. Many things had to go just right for us to be here. Maybe in the distant past, supernova explosions played a role in the evolutionary chain that leads to us.

The post How a Nearby Supernova Left its Mark on Earth Life appeared first on Universe Today.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is the buzz phrase of 2024. Though far from that cultural spotlight, scientists from agricultural, biological and technological backgrounds are also turning to AI as they collaborate to find ways for these algorithms and models to analyze datasets to better understand and predict a world impacted by climate change. Scientists have now demonstrated the capability of a recurrent neural network -- a model that teaches computers to process data using long short-term memory -- to predict maize yield from several remote sensing technologies and environmental and genetic data.

The rate of e-bike and powered scooter injuries surged between 2019 and 2022 -- by 293 percent and 88 percent, respectively. The research adds to the existing information and gap in knowledge on the sociodemographic and risk factor variables that might be contributing to micro-mobility vehicle-related injuries.

Scientists have discovered an ultra-rare particle decay process, opening a new path to find physics beyond our understanding of how the building blocks of matter interact.

Researchers have devised an agent to help large language models 'think.'

Scientists conclude that some video games created as mental health interventions can be helpful -- if modest -- tools in improving the mental well-being of children and teens with anxiety, depression and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Spintronics -- devices that use microscopic magnetism in conjunction with electric current -- could lead to computing technology as fast as conventional electronics but much more energy efficient. As such devices are developed and studied, an important unresolved question is how device operation is affected by heating.

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/sciencesalon/mss471_Theodore_Schwartz_2024_09_24.mp3 Download MP3

We’ve all heard the phrase “it’s not brain surgery.” But what exactly is brain surgery? It’s a profession that is barely a hundred years old and profoundly connects two human beings, but few know how it works, or its history. How did early neurosurgeons come to understand the human brain—an extraordinarily complex organ that controls everything we do, and yet at only three pounds is so fragile? And how did this incredibly challenging and lifesaving specialty emerge?

In this warm, rigorous, and deeply insightful book, Dr. Theodore H. Schwartz explores what it’s like to hold the scalpel, wield the drill, extract a tumor, fix a bullet hole, and remove a blood clot—when every second can mean life or death. Drawing from the author’s own cases, plus media, sports, and government archives, this seminal work delves into all the brain-related topics that have long-consumed public curiosity, like what really happened to JFK, President Biden’s brain surgery, and the NFL’s management of CTE. Dr. Schwartz also surveys the field’s latest incredible advances and discusses the philosophical questions of the unity of the self and the existence of free will.

A neurosurgeon as well as a professor of neurosurgery at Weill Cornell Medicine, one of the busiest and most highly ranked neurosurgery centers in the world, Dr. Schwartz tells this story like no one else could. Told through anecdote and clear explanation, this is the ultimate cultural and scientific history of a literally mind-blowing human endeavor, one that cuts to the core of who we are.

Theodore Schwartz, MD, is the David and Ursel Barnes Endowed Professor of Minimally Invasive Neurosurgery at Weill Cornell Medicine, one of the busiest and highest-ranked neurosurgery centers in the world. He has published over five hundred scientific articles and chapters on neurosurgery, and has lectured around the world—from Bogotá to Vienna to Mumbai—on new, minimally invasive surgical techniques that he helped develop. He also runs a basic science laboratory devoted to epilepsy research. He studied philosophy and literature at Harvard. His new book is: Gray Matters: A Biography of Brain Surgery.

Shermer and Schwartz discuss:

• Brief biographical history of how he became a brain surgeon and how you can too
• A brief anatomical lesson on the brain and nervous system
• How does anesthesia work and where does consciousness go?
• Wilder Penfield and brain mapping
• Head-on collisions and brain injuries
• Sports neurosurgery
• CTE, Football, Boxing, concussions, etc.
• Brain tumors and how to treat them: Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), Meningioma
• Cancer vs. tumors
• Strokes and aneurysms
• Cell phones and brain tumors
• Famous cases: Fyodor Dostoevsky, Johnny Cochrane, John McCain, Muhammad Ali, Ted Kennedy, H.M. (Henry Molaison), Phineas Gage, Andre the Giant, Joe Biden, Jim Brady, Eva Paron, Michael J. Fox, Lance Armstrong, Natasha Richardson
• Memory loss, dementia, senility, Alzheimer’s, etc.
• Frontal lobotomies: 1935–1955 over 60,000 were performed
• The neuroscience of violence and aggression: Donta Page, Mr. Oft, Charles Whitman
• Free will and determinism
• Sentience, consciousness, and the hard problem
• The Self: Theseus’s Ship (how much of the brain would need to change for loss of self?)
• Hindsight bias and how we justify our beliefs and behaviors
• His father’s stroke and death
• Neurolink and the future of computer-brain interface technology.

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

Dopamine was long thought to play a part in the placebo effect for pain relief, but a new study is questioning its true role

On June 6th, 2024, the fourth orbital test flight of the Starship successfully lifted off at 07:50 a.m. CT (08:50 a.m. EDT; 06:50 PDT) from SpaceX’s Starbase in Texas. This test was the first time the Starship (SN29) and Super Heavy (BN11) prototypes reentered Earth’s atmosphere and landed successfully. While the SN29 conducted a powered vertical landing before splashing down in the Indian Ocean, the BN11 executed a similar powered landing before splashing down in the Gulf of Mexico. In a recent tweet, Elon Musk shared a photo of the BN11 booster being pulled out of the sea.

Starship Super Heavy Booster Flight 4 pic.twitter.com/EMGpNVn58Q

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 23, 2024

News of the retrieval was posted via Elon Musk’s X account, where he hinted at the possibility of refurbishment and reuse, writing, “Fixer upper.” In addition to being the first flight test in which both vehicles made it back in one piece, this flight was also the first time that a Super Heavy booster simulated a landing at a “virtual tower.” In the future, SpaceX intends to retrieve its boosters by “catching” them with the Orbital Launch Mount tower at their Starbase facility. This is expected to occur for the first time during the fifth integrated flight test, scheduled for no earlier than late November 2024.

The flight test was originally scheduled for September but was delayed by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) until November due to environmental complaints and the licensing process. According to statements by the FAA and SpaceX, the company was already authorized to conduct multiple flights using the same mission profile they followed for the fourth flight test. However, adding an attempted “catch” has led the FAA to conduct a more thorough review of the flight and the launch facility.

The post SpaceX Recovers the Super Heavy Booster from Flight 4 appeared first on Universe Today.

Despite its importance for mathematics, the neuronal basis of the number zero in the human brain was previously unknown. Researchers discovered that individual nerve cells in the medial temporal lobe recognize zero as a numerical value and not as a separate category 'nothing'.

Scientists are pioneering a new approach to designing electrolytes for more energy-efficient and less carbon-intensive electrochemical processes. They hope to improve electrolyte performance in applications such as iron production for steel.

Researchers have developed a set of hexagon-shaped robotic components that can be snapped together into larger and larger structures. Each one of the component hexagons is made of rigid plates that serve as its exoskeleton. Driven by electricity, the plates can change their shape, shifting from long and narrow to wide and flat at high speed. The combined structures are capable of jumping four times their own body height, then can shape-shift to roll extremely fast, or use multimodal actuation to crawl through confined spaces.

The robotic components were developed at the Max-Planck-Institute for Intelligent Systems (MPI-IS). The modules are made of six lightweight rigid plates made from glass fiber that form a hexagon. Magnets embedded into the plates allows for quick connection to other components as well as providing a shared electrical ground between the modules.

Individual HEXEL modules combine soft artificial muscles with rigid components for fast and large motions. Credit: Zachary Yoder / MPI-IS Ellen Rumley / MPI-IS

The design team integrated artificial “muscles” into the inner joints of the hexagons, called hydraulically amplified self-healing electrostatic (HASEL) muscles. Applying a high voltage to the module causes the muscle to activate, rotating the joints of the hexagon and changing its shape from long and narrow to wide and flat.

“Combining soft and rigid components in this way enables high strokes and high speeds. By connecting several modules, we can create new robot geometries and repurpose them for changing needs,” said  Ellen Rumley, a visiting researcher from the University of Colorado Boulder, in a press release from MPI-IS. Rumley and Zachary Yoder, who are both Ph.D. students working in the Robotic Materials Department, are co-first authors of a new paper, “Hexagonal electrohydraulic modules for rapidly reconfigurable high-speed robots,” published in Science Robotics.

The modules are reconfigurable, with an easy process of attaching or detaching the modules. Chains of modules can be rapidly connected and can operate from one voltage source. The modules can each have their own behaviors, which allows for various operations.

The team created a video to show the various configurations and behaviors that can be created with HEXEL modules. The modules can be seen rolling, dancing, jumping, crawling, and many other motions.  

“In general, it makes a lot of sense to develop robots with reconfigurable capabilities,” said Yoder. “It’s a sustainable design option – instead of buying five different robots for five different purposes, we can build many different robots by using the same components. Robots made from reconfigurable modules could be rearranged on demand to provide more versatility than specialized systems, which could be beneficial in resource-limited environments.”

The post Shape-Shifting Robots Mimic Muscle Movements appeared first on Universe Today.

I hate writing about cancellations like this day after day, but I see it as part of my brief to let people know what’s going on.  This time we have writer Elisa Albert canceled—or rather, a panel she was scheduled to be on was canceled—because she was a “Zionist”, even though she wasn’t going to talk about Judaism. (To a very large extent, “Zionist” has become a euphemism for “Jews,” as nearly all Jews in America are Zionists—i.e., support the existence of Israel—and the only anti-Zionists I know who aren’t really anti-Semites are some Orthodox Jews, mostly in Israel.)

But I digress. The Free Press article below (click headline to read, or see it archived here), writer Elisa Albert was canceled because she was a Zionist Jew, even though the panel she was supposed to be on—a discussion of four women’s books at the University of Albany’s New York State Writer’s Festival—wasn’t going to be about Zionism.  This is the kind of cancelation that seems to me to presage a growing wave of anti-Semitism in America.  The story is below:

Excerpts (the author is Joe Nocera, and the subject, Elisa Albert, is in the photo above). Bolding is mine:

For the last seven years, the New York State Writers Institute has held an annual book festival at the University at Albany. It’s where notable authors come together and discuss big ideas like climate change, feminism, and immigration. But this year, the festival, which was held on Saturday, was disrupted because two authors refused to discuss their books with the panel’s moderator. Why? Because she is a “Zionist.”

The Zionist in question was Elisa Albert, a 46-year-old progressive feminist author whose novels—she’s written three of them—are dark comedies about subjects like modern motherhood and fame. She had agreed to moderate the panel months earlier, and she was looking forward to it. “I was going to be like a game-show host,” she told me in a phone interview. “Congenial and respectful. Have some fun in the process.”

But on Thursday afternoon, just as she was preparing to read the books by her fellow panelists, she received an email out of the blue from Mark Koplik, the assistant director of the Writers Institute. “Basically, not to sugar coat this, Aisha Gawad and Lisa Ko don’t want to be on a panel with a ‘Zionist,’ ” he wrote in an email shared with The Free Press. “We’re taken by surprise, and somewhat nonplussed, and want to talk this out.”

Albert was stunned. Though she described herself to me as “a proud Jew” who has been fiercely outspoken since October 7, there had been no hint of trouble in the months leading up to the festival. And the panel’s topic—“Girls Coming of Age”—seemed utterly benign.

But Aisha Abdel Gawad, a Muslim writer in her mid-30s whose novel Between Two Moons was published last year to considerable acclaim, and Lisa Ko, whose first book, The Leavers, was nominated for a National Book Award, were no longer willing to share the stage with a Jew who supports Israel. Unsure how to proceed, Koplik and the institute’s director Paul Grondahl contacted the third writer on the panel, the crime novelist Emily Layden who, according to Albert, told them she was dropping out as well because she wanted to avoid the controversy. (Gawad and Ko did not respond to emails, sent both to them and their literary agents, requesting comment.A request for comment was also emailed to Layden’s publicist, who did not respond.)

At that point the Writers Institute and the University at Albany, which administers the program, had to make a choice: They could publicly condemn the antisemitism displayed by Gawad and Ko and make sure the festival-goers were aware of what had happened. In a series of phone calls Thursday afternoon, Albert says she tried to convince them to do just that. Or they could capitulate to the bigotry by trying to sweep the whole thing under the rug, and listing the cancellation on the festival’s website as the result of “unforeseen circumstances.”

The institute chose the latter course.. . .

Albert suggested that they keep the panel, showing three empty chairs, but director Grondahl said that wouldn’t be fair if attendees were expecting a full panel. I can see the point there, but surely the Institute should have given Albert a chance to speak on her own: she even could have spoken about her cancellation. But it didn’t fly.  The article goes on to discuss the problems currently facing Jewish writers (I simply can’t imagine any adult fiction being written that is sympathetic to Jews or Israel).  The issue was highlighted this year in a NYT op-ed column by James Kirchick, who gives examples of “anti-Zionism” in the literary world. Click below to read, or find it archived here: Kirchick’s thesis is that Jews have a hard time making it in the literary world unless they’re willing to denounce Israel.

There has been some pushback. For one thing, banning someone from a state-sponsored panel because of their religious views is probably illegal:

In addition to failing to uphold its moral responsibility in the face of antisemitism, legal experts told me that the New York State Writers Institute may well have violated the law.

David Schizer, the dean emeritus of Columbia Law School—and the co-head of Columbia’s Task Force on Antisemitism—told me that because the Writers Institute is part of the University at Albany, which is state-funded, it must adhere to laws that outlaw discrimination. And the Department of Education has been clear that boycotting someone because of their religion is in violation of Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. “If a university that takes government money says it will not have panels with Jews, that is clearly a problem,” he told me. “That is clearly illegal.”

He added, “If an institution formally condemns the antisemitism and the exclusion of Jews from a panel, that could have gone a long way to mitigate the issue.” The institute could also have let Albert go on by herself, he said. Both options are precisely what Albert said she had asked the directors of the Writers Institute to do, but they refused.

This sentiment was echoed by the head of the whole SUNY system:

On Saturday, as the festival was taking place, King sent an angry email to Albany’s president, Havidán Rodríguez, which Albert obtained and showed to The Free Press. Expressing shock at learning “from media coverage” about the canceled panel, he said the festival should have issued “an unequivocal statement that bigotry and antisemitism are absolutely unacceptable and the panel would proceed with or without these people participating.” He added: “SUNY’s content-neutral commitment to free expression and our fidelity to the protections guaranteed by Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 would have led to a response along the lines the author suggested. As I wrote in a recent public letter and have emphasized to all SUNY campus presidents: Antisemitism is antisemitism whatever ‘code words’ are used, including if ‘Zionist’ is intended to mean the same thing as ‘Jewish.’ ”

King concluded: “I believe the only appropriate response at this point is to ensure that Ms. Albert is afforded the opportunity to have her views expressed to the greatest extent possible, whether that is during the remaining hours of the festival or at a subsequent event held by the Institute.”

As for Albert, she took it like a mensch, though she’s not sure she’ll participate in the Writers festival any more:

. . . But she imagined a different way this could have played out—one in which Gawad and Ko had stayed on the panel instead of walking away.

“Had they been even slightly more evolved thinkers, I can easily imagine a scenario in which they might have chosen to come to Albany with open minds and hearts,” she said. “Perhaps they might have hopped that train to Albany with some awareness that, while the moderator of their panel is a fellow novelist whose lived experience and history and inheritance and education and understanding and fear and trauma and grief and shame are profoundly different from their own, there might still be something—no matter how minor, or how seemingly banal—to learn from me. Perhaps, in my wishful scenario, they might even have found it within themselves to hold space for difference, and to maybe, just maybe, grow ever so slightly in the process. Perhaps, were they just that smallest bit more open-minded, they would have managed to teach me something in turn.

“Anyway,” she concluded, “I’m sorry we won’t have the chance to meet and talk, because it would have been super cool to understand them better. And, dare to dream, I could have offered them some understanding of myself in turn.”

Bravo for Albert, and boos to the hateful Aisha Gawad and Lisa Ko, as well as the cowardly Emily Laden!  I sympathize with Albert even more because my own children’s book, initially met with enthusiasm by a respected editor and a famous illustrator, wasn’t published because the editor wouldn’t dare show it to publishers. The problem: it was a fantasy book about cats in India, and I am not Indian. I had no credibility to write about Indian cats because. . . I was a white man!   (Are there any publishers out there with guts? If so, I have a book to sell!)

Remember, this was a literary festival, and in publishing all points of view are considered by good editors. To cancel a book discussion because one of the authors supports Israel is simply beyond the pale. But these days it seems almost normal. This normalization of anti-Zionism is, frankly, scary.

Here’s a short clip of Albert at that Festival in 2015.  She seems “cool” and funny:

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