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Researchers have studied how nanoplastic affects aquatic organisms in lakes and rivers. The results are surprising and the researchers are the first to show that some species are being wiped out, while others -- such as cyanobacteria that contribute to algal blooms -- are completely unaffected.

Astronomers have published a gigantic infrared map of the Milky Way containing more than 1.5 billion objects -- the most detailed one ever made. Using the European Southern Observatory's VISTA telescope, the team monitored the central regions of our Galaxy over more than 13 years. At 500 terabytes of data, this is the largest observational project ever carried out with an ESO telescope.

Squinting into the treetops won't reveal the tiny organisms up there. But these creatures leave clues, in the form of DNA, on the leaves and branches. Now, researchers report that they have developed a way to collect this genetic material: a drone with a specialized fabric probe. The team flew the drone above the rainforest and, based on DNA collected by the probe, identified the invertebrates in the canopy.

Scientists successfully tested a new way to produce sustainable jet fuel from lignin-based agricultural waste. The team's research demonstrated a continuous process that directly converts lignin polymers, one of the chief components of plant cells, into a form of jet fuel that could help improve performance of sustainably produced aviation fuels.

In a surprise finding, astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have discovered that the blowtorch-like jet from a supermassive black hole at the core of a huge galaxy seems to cause stars to erupt along its trajectory. The stars, called novae, are not caught inside the jet, but apparently in a dangerous neighborhood nearby.

Scientists have used pressure with a twisting shear to permanently deform silicon, an important material for electronics. The resulting changes in silicon's microstructure produce material phases that feature different and potentially useful properties.

Scientists have used pressure with a twisting shear to permanently deform silicon, an important material for electronics. The resulting changes in silicon's microstructure produce material phases that feature different and potentially useful properties.

The key insight with a new strategy for training protein engineering models, called EvoRank, is to harness the natural variations of millions of proteins generated by evolution over deep time and extract the underlying dynamics needed for workable solutions to biotech challenges.

A research team has developed a new fluorine-free binder and electrolyte designed to advance eco-friendly, high-performance battery technology.

A research team has developed a new fluorine-free binder and electrolyte designed to advance eco-friendly, high-performance battery technology.

Some good news about free speech for the University of Chicago. This morning all of us got this message from the University President:

Dear Members of the University Community,

Today, I am thrilled to announce that an anonymous donor has committed $100 million in support of free inquiry and expression at the University of Chicago. Last year, the University launched the Chicago Forum for Free Inquiry and Expression, and it will mark its first anniversary next week. With this extraordinary gift, the Chicago Forum will thrive and endure for years to come.

Successfully upholding free inquiry and expression in a university requires a long-term commitment to building a culture that supports it, that flourishes from it, that even demands it. This is fundamental to a university that is truth seeking. Each generation of UChicago’s community has contributed new layers to the institution in protection of free inquiry and expression, from founding president William Rainey Harper’s vocal defense of academic freedom to the adoption of the Kalven Report and on to the Chicago Principles.

The Chicago Forum is the newest layer–an environment set aside for us and others to grapple with important issues related to the preservation of academic freedom and the practice of free expression. The historic framing documents and the Chicago Principles summarize our institution’s best thinking on our philosophy and policies over time. But the actual practice of free expression takes place every day–in classrooms in every department and school, in dormitories and dining halls, and on the quads. This living culture and the norms we create by it involves engagement from each of us in our varied roles: tradeoffs and decisions and the cultivation of habits of mind and attitudes. In my view, the collective culture we build is so important that it deserves to have a place where it can be continuously discussed across the University and with partners from other universities and sectors of society.

The magnitude of this gift mirrors the conviction of its donor. It was not made in furtherance of any ideology or political agenda. Rather, it is in the belief that this university has a calling to be principled and effective. The donor’s generosity represents a strong endorsement of the potential for the Chicago Forum to serve as the next step in our living commitment to upholding free inquiry and expression. It is to be the venue for the whole of the University community to come together and undertake the study and practice of all aspects of free inquiry and expression, and to do so in partnership with others beyond the University.

Already in its first year, the Chicago Forum has made a strong case for itself during this highly contested period for higher education. On many occasions student groups sought the support of the Chicago Forum as they were reflecting on the practice of the Chicago Principles as issues they cared about deeply were unfolding. It also sponsored more than a dozen events on challenging topics ranging from the conflict in Israel and Gaza to significant Supreme Court rulings, as well as one with the University’s faculty about my decision to end the encampment last spring. Through the Academic Freedom Institute it formed, the Chicago Forum convened leaders from more than 20 colleges and universities to participate in workshops and explore how to strengthen academic freedom at their institutions. We live in an era marked by intense polarization, and having a place where rigorous inquiry and reason are exercised through the mechanisms of dialogue is important. With this gift, the University will expand the depth and reach of such vital work.

In the near term, the gift will enable the Chicago Forum to launch a variety of initiatives, including those that will allow it to expand its work on orientation programming, to offer support for faculty to explore free expression through a diversity of academic lenses, to establish a fellowship program for junior scholars, and to provide resources that will allow the University to bring prominent figures, including leading public intellectuals, to campus to engage in dialogue with the broader community. You can learn more about the gift and its impact at UChicago News.

I want to extend my deepest gratitude for the visionary support of the gift’s benefactor, which will ensure that the University remains at the forefront of defending and promoting the principles of free inquiry and expression. As we continue to navigate a world that increasingly demands thoughtful, courageous engagement with important issues, this gift will not only help empower our community to meet the moment with integrity and intellectual rigor, but also inspire others by our example.

Sincerely,
Paul

—

Paul Alivisatos
President

$100 million bucks! And all for free speech! It’s amazing. The Chicago Forum, a new initiative, is poised to ensure that the University community knows about (and follows) the Chicago Principles of Free Speech and the Kalven Principle of institutional neutrality.  Look at the link above to see what it does.

Now nobody knows the donor, but he or she must have been loaded to give us all that dosh.  Right now I’m fighting to get one particular unit of the University to obey Kalven, and the University has been sitting on its hands about my report for three months. Maybe I can use this grant as leverage to get our school to take action, or at least set up a process to report violations of institutional neutrality. Right now, the unit responsible for reporting those violations happens to be ME.

But still: $100,000,000!!!

Northern sea robins are formidable marine hunters, and they owe their success to modified fin rays that let them find prey buried in the seabed

Forgive me if I put up two pieces on Israel’s wars today (i’m not sure what I’ll write about next), but it’s not only on my mind, it’s the main news besides the American election. (See the daily “Nooz” for this other stuff).

I don’t like to use the words “self-hating Jew,” for I don’t think that an anti-Semitic Jew can really hate himself or herself. (Yes, there are anti-Semitic Jews: who do you think runs “J Street” and “Jewish Voice for Peace?”).  I prefer “Jew-hating Jew,” and although that may seem a bit harsh when applied to Bernie Sanders, he has repeatedly taken actions against the state of Israel. It’s not because he hates Netanyahu, though I’m sure he does, but because he seemingly doesn’t favor the existence of the state of Israel. In other words, he’s an anti-Zionist, which to me equates to “anti-Semite,” ergo my characterization.

Again, I know some readers will disagree, but right now I think it’s the moral duty of the U.S. to help our closest ally in the Middle East—the only democracy in the Middle East—and fight against the terrorism of Hamas and Hezbollah. Given that the Israeli Army has taken great care not kill civilians as far as they can help it, and has produced one of the lowest civilians killed/Hamas terrorists killed in the history of warfare, there is no reason to decry Israel for a “disproportionate response” to being attacked by Hamas. For crying out loud, everyone agreed with Israel at the war’s outset that Hamas had to be eliminated after the butchery of last October 7. But when Israel tried to do that, and tried to avoid killing civilians, the world screamed “genocide” in response. It’s crazy.

So now, according to PBS, Bernie has prepared a resolution reducing American arms sales to Israel, just when it needs them to defend itself against Hezbollah as well. Click to read the PBS article.

An excerpt:

Sen. Bernie Sanders is preparing several resolutions that would stop more than $20 billion in U.S. arms sales to Israel, a longshot effort but the most substantive pushback yet from Congress over the devastation in Gaza ahead of the first year anniversary of the Israel-Hamas war.

In a letter to Senate colleagues on Wednesday, Sanders said the U.S. cannot be “complicit in this humanitarian disaster.” The action would force an eventual vote to block the arms sales to Israel, though majority passage is highly unlikely.

“Much of this carnage in Gaza has been carried out with U.S.-provided military equipment,” Sanders, I-Vt., wrote.

As the war grinds toward a second year, and with the outcome of President Joe Biden’s efforts to broker a cease-fire deal and hostage release uncertain, the resolutions from Sanders would seek to reign in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s assault on Gaza. The war has killed some 41,000 people in Gaza after the surprise Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack that killed about 1,200 people in Israel, and abducted 250 others, with militants still holding around 100 hostages. [JAC: Where, PBS, did you get that figure, and how many of them were Hamas fighters?]

While it’s doubtful the politically split Senate would pass the measures, the move is designed to send a message to the Netanyahu regime that its war effort is eroding the U.S.’s longtime bipartisan support for Israel. Sanders said he is working with other colleagues on the measures.

Key Senate Democrats have been pushing the Biden administration to end the Israel-Hamas war and lessen the humanitarian crisis, particularly in Gaza, where people’s homes, hospitals, schools and entire Palestinian families are being wiped out.

I would ask Senator Sanders and all of his running dogs in the Senate, as well as the Israel-hating “squad” in the House, this question: “How do YOU propose to wipe out Hamas and end its terrorism if you put shackles on Israel, and, especially, call for a cease-fire that leaves Hamas in power?”

Yes, I know that we don’t know what will happen after Hamas is defeated, as it will be, but as I recall, when the war began, everyone agreed with Israel that Hamas needed to be extirpated. But when Israel started doing that, and civilians died (put most of their deaths at the door of Hamas), they decided that no, Israel cannot be allowed to win this war. And if Israel doesn’t win, Hamas’s terrorism will continue (remember, Hamas vowed to repeat October 7 over and over and over again).

So, it galls me endlessly when the “progressives” like Sanders conveniently neglect several facts:

1.  Israel is not committing genocide in the Middle East.  The people who are doing so include Hamas, Hezbollah, and Bashar al-Assad of Syria, who has killed off 600,000 of his own people, apparently bent on a genocide of Syrians.  It’s clear that the terrorists want to wipe out Jews and the state of Israel, and that is genocide. It is not true that Israel’s aim is to wipe out all Palestinians. If they wanted to, they could have done so at any time in the last 50 years. They even gave Gaza to the Palestinians.
2. If there was a permanent cease-fire and the war ended now, it would leave Hamas in power. That would guarantee that their terrorism against Israel would continue indefinitely along with their oppression of the people of Gaza. Hamas is an odious, murderous, theocratic, and hateful regime.
3. Half of the death toll Sanders and everyone gives probably includes Hamas fighters, and of course those figures are provided by Hamas.  The ratio of civilians killed to Hamas soldiers killed is roughly between 1.3:1 and 1:1—very low for warfare and especially low for urban warfare. Remember that Hamas puts its weapons and rockets under schools, in hospitals and Gazan homes, and even in humanitarian zones. Why? I think nobody doubts that it is in Hamas’s expressed interest to ensure that Gazan civilians are killed to secure the world’s hatred of Israel.  So “40,000” is not the figure you want to bandy about.
4. The “humanitarian” crisis in Gaza has been greatly exaggerated because tons more food is being delivered now than a few months ago. If Gazans are starving, it’s because Hamas is commandeering humanitarian aid. (I don’t think anybody doubts this. either)  Yes, a lot of Gazan infrastructure has been destroyed, but put that again at the door of Hamas.

If Sanders really wanted to do something constructive, he could pass a resolution hauling Hamas and Hezbollah before the International Court of Justice for genocide. But of course neither he nor anybody else will do that.

It’s clear that the “progressive” Left in America is palpably against Israel in this war, decrying it constantly but almost never mentioning the war crimes of Hamas and Hezbollah. The Democratic “squad” in the House, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, and their allies, are part of this anti-Israel brigade. And I’m fairly certain that, if elected, Kamala Harris would join right in. That won’t make me vote for Trump, but I was certain, when I voted for Biden four years ago, that he would never become “woke”, for he vowed to “reach across the aisle.”  I was wrong.  And I’m pretty sure that Harris will be even more “progressive,” which is why Russia is trying to sabotage the U.S. elections in favor of Trump. (Their consideration is, of course, largely Ukraine.)

At any rate, opposition to Israel in the war is fueled by lies and misinformation, and, if I wanted to be cynical, I’d say that Bernie. his colleagues, and the Squad could care less if the state of Israel disappeared. And without US aid, it might.

One more comment, this one directed especially at Thomas “I Am a Moron” Friedman at the NYT. (See his latest column.) I’ll put it in caps: A TWO-STATE SOLUTION IS NOT THE “SOLUTION” TO THE WAR OR  THE EMNITY BETWEEN ISRAEL AND HAMAS.  The Palestinians don’t want such a solution (they’ve rejected it repeatedly, for what they want is a one-state solution that eliminates Israel), nor do the Israelis, who now realize that a Palestinian state abutting their own will subject them to constant terrorism. The two-state “solution” can be possible only if there are honest brokers and Palestinian leaders who truly want their people to thrive (I don’t see Netanyahu as an “honest broker” in this respect.)

Such a solution  if possible, is decades away. So people who propose such a “solution” are deeply ignorant of history. And that includes Bernie Sanders, who seems superannuated to me.

For an undercover operative, Sadie Smith takes unnecessary risks as she infiltrates an eco-activist group. Why? And where do the Neanderthals fit into Creation Lake, Rachel Kushner's Booker-shortlisted climate fiction novel? Emily H. Wilson loved finding out

We have a new submission, so I have at least two more days of reserve photos. Today’s photos are of LIONS and are from Phil Frymire, whose leopard photos were posted a week ago. As I said, I met him in Newark in line for the plane to Johannesburg; we were headed for separate safari trips and he recognized me. Phil’s captions are indented, and you can click on the photos to enlarge them.

Continuing with the big cats, here are some lion (Panthera leo) photos. We saw lions at both Timbavati and Mala Mala. One pride at Mala Mala had twenty members: two adult males and eighteen females, juveniles and cubs.

We begin with some nature red in tooth and claw. This is a Mala Mala pride feeding on a buffalo carcass.

We visited this kill site in Timbavati several times. A pride had taken down a pregnant giraffe and fed on it for several days. On the last day we visited, there was very little left. This female was gnawing on the scraps. You can see the giraffe’s hide in the foreground and its defleshed skull to the left.

Here she is biting with the side of her jaw, using the carnassial teeth to shear some meat off the bone.

Nursing cubs jockeying for position:

Mala Mala cubs with a bad case of mange which they are apparently transmitting to their mother:

Two juveniles:

Relaxing on the sand near the river at Mala Mala:

Profile of a Mala Mala male:

The same male showing the flehmen response, which moves scent molecules into the vomeronasal organ for analysis. He was part of a “lion wedding party”, as Jerry’s guide put it. I think our guide called it a “honeymoon”. [JAC: Actiually, DAN called it a “lion wedding party”.]

Another shot of the flehmen grimace. He was relentlessly following the female and sampling her rear end:

It has become trivially easy to use artificial intelligence to edit images or generate video to remove unwanted objects or beautify scenes, but doing so leads to people misremembering what they have seen

What? There’s a comet coming?

In fact, it’s already here. Oh yes, it seems that 2024 may not just be the year of a terrific solar eclipse and spectacular outbursts of northern lights (and maybe, just maybe, a nova.) In morning twilight, if you live in the right latitudes, an ever-brightening comet can apparently be spotted right now. I haven’t seen it yet, but I’m hoping to get a chance.

Nothing in cometary life is guaranteed; comets can fall apart unexpectedly, or fail to brighten as expected. So far, though, Comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS is looking promising; its tail may soon be longer than its name.

The comet will soon be seen in the evening sky. But for the next few days, it is visible in the morning sky during the last hour before sunrise. Depending on

• which day it is — the comet moves noticeably across the sky from one day to the next — and
• your latitude — close to the equator is better, and slightly south of the equator is best —

you may have an opportunity to find it. It will not be easy, as it will be close to where the Sun is soon to rise, and it is not bright enough to shine easily through the morning twilight. (Perhaps binoculars would help; I’m not sure.) But I have seen a photograph, so it can be found, with some effort.

You will definitely need a very low and clear horizon to see it this week. To get a sense of how high it might be above an ideal, unencumbered horizon, look at this informative chart made by Nick James (British Astronomical Association) and posted at spaceweather.com. It shows the comet’s altitude in degrees above the horizon, about 20 minutes before sunrise, for various latitudes (as labeled in the upper left corner; “+” means north, “-” means south), for each day over the next two weeks or so. In the US, you are best off in the next couple of days, and your chances are better you’re in the southern half of the country, around 30-35 degrees latitude or less. Much of northern Europe is probably out of luck for now. Over the coming few days, Africa, South and Central America, Australia and southern Asia should have the best views. Then the comet leaves the morning sky.

The comet may well be more easily and more conveniently visible in mid-October’s evening sky, so consider this the first but perhaps not the only opportunity to see it. Let me know if you manage to spot it this week!

The reason we call dark matter dark isn’t because it’s some shadowy material. It’s because dark matter doesn’t interact with light. The difference is subtle, but important. Regular matter can be dark because it absorbs light. It’s why, for example, we can see the shadow of molecular clouds against the scattered stars of the Milky Way. This is possible because light and matter have a way to connect. Light is an electromagnetic wave, and atoms contain electrically charged electrons and protons, so matter can emit, absorb and scatter light. Dark matter isn’t electrically charged. It has no way to connect with light, and so when light and dark matter meet up they simply pass through each other.

All of our observations suggest that dark matter and light only have gravity in common. When dark matter is clustered around a galaxy, for example, its gravitational tug can deflect light. Because of this we can map the distribution of dark matter in the Universe by observing how light is gravitationally lensed around it. We also know that dark and regular matter interact gravitationally. The tug of dark matter causes galaxies to gather together into superclusters. But an unanswered question is whether dark and regular matter only interact gravitationally. If an atom and dark matter particle intersected, would they really just pass through each other?

Since we haven’t directly observed dark matter particles we can only speculate, but most dark matter models argue that gravity is the only common link with light and regular matter. Dark and regular matter clump around each other, but they don’t collide and merge like interstellar clouds. But a new study suggests the two do interact, which could reveal subtle aspects of the mysterious stuff.

The study looks at six ultrafaint dwarf galaxies, or UFDs. They are satellite galaxies near the Milky Way that seem to have far fewer stars than their mass would suggest. This is because they are mostly made of dark matter. If regular and dark matter only interact gravitationally, then the distribution of stars in these small galaxies should follow a certain pattern. If dark and regular matter interact directly, then this distribution will be skewed.

To test this the team ran computer simulations of both scenarios. They found that in the non-interacting model the distribution of stars should become more dense in the center of the UFDs and more diffuse at the edges. In the interacting model the stellar distribution should be more uniform. When they compared these models with observations of the six galaxies, they found the interacting model was a slightly better fit.

So it seems dark and regular matter interact in ways beyond their gravitational tugs. There isn’t enough data to pin down the exact nature of the interaction, but the fact there is any interaction at all is a surprise. It means that our traditional models of dark matter are at least partly wrong. It may also point the way toward new methods of detecting dark matter directly. In time we may finally solve the mystery of this dark, but not entirely invisible, material.

Reference: Almeida, Jorge Sánchez, Ignacio Trujillo, and Angel R. Plastino. “The Stellar Distribution in Ultrafaint Dwarf Galaxies Suggests Deviations from the Collisionless Cold Dark Matter Paradigm.” The Astrophysical Journal Letters 973.1 (2024): L15.

The post Dark Matter Could a Have Slight Interaction With Regular Matter appeared first on Universe Today.

Of every world known to humans outside the Earth, Mars is likely the most habitable. We have not found any genuinely Earth-like exoplanets. They are almost sure to exist, but we just haven’t found any yet. The closest so far is Kepler 452-b, which is a super Earth, specifically 60% larger than Earth. It is potentially in the habitable zone, but we don’t know what the surface conditions are like. Within our own solar system, Mars is by far more habitable for humans than any other world.

And still, that’s not very habitable. It’s surface gravity is 38% that of Earth, it has no global magnetic field to protect against radiation, and its surface temperature ranges from -225°F (-153°C) to 70°F (20°C), with a median temperature of -85°F (-65°C). But things might have been different, and they were in the past. Once upon a time Mars had a more substantial atmosphere – today its atmosphere is less than 1% as dense as Earth’s. That atmosphere was not breathable, but contained CO2 which warmed the planet allowing for there to be liquid water on the surface. A human could likely walk on the surface of Mars 3 billion years ago with just a face mask and oxygen tank. But then the atmosphere mostly went away, leaving Mars the dry barren world we see today. What happened?

It’s likely that the primary factor was the lack of a global magnetic field, like we have on Earth. Earth’ magnetic field is like a protective shield that protects the Earth from the solar wind, which is charged so the particles are mostly diverted away from the Earth or drawn to the magnetic poles. On Mars the solar wind did not encounter a magnetic field, and it slowly stripped away the atmosphere on Mars. If we were somehow able to reconstitute a thick atmosphere on Mars, it too would slowly be stripped away, although that would take thousands of years to be significant, and perhaps millions of years in total.

But this may not have been the only process at work.  A recent study models the chemistry at the surface of Mars to see if perhaps the abundant CO2 in the early Mars atmosphere might still be there. What the model shows, based on known chemical reactions on Earth, is that CO2 in the early Mars atmosphere would have dissolved in high concentrations in any liquid water. As the CO2-rich water percolated through the crust of Mars it would have combined with olivine, an abundant iron-containing mineral on Mars. The oxygen would have combined with the iron, forming the red rusty color for which Mars is famous, while releasing the hydrogen. This hydrogen would then combine with CO2 to form methane. Over time the olivine would be converted to serpentine, which would then further react with water to form smectite, which today is very common in the clays near the surface of Mars.

The researchers calculate that if Mars has smectite clays down to 1,100 meters deep, that could contain enough sequestered carbon to account for the original amount of carbon in the early atmosphere of Mars. It is possible, therefore, that the atmosphere of Mars may mostly still be there, bound up in clays.

Does this have any practical application? Even if not, it is helpful to add to our knowledge of planetary science – how planets evolve and change over time. But it might also have implications for future Mars missions. A vast store of carbon could be quite useful. If some of that carbon is in the form of methane, that could be a valuable energy source.

In theory we could also release the CO2 from the smectite clays back into the atmosphere. Would this be a good thing (assuming it’s feasible)? On the plus side a thicker atmosphere would warm the planet, making it more livable. It would also reduce the need for pressurized suits and living spaces. Humans could survive in as little at 6% of an atmosphere on Earth – not comfortably, but technically survivable. If you get to 30-40% that is basically like being on top of a mountain, something humans could adapt to. We could theoretically get back to the point where a human could survive with just a mask and oxygen tank rather than a pressure suit.

The potential downside is dust storms. They are already bad on Mars and would be much worse with a thicker atmosphere. These occur because the surface is so dry. Ideally as we released CO2 into the atmosphere that would also melt the ice caps and release water from the soil. Surface water would reduce the risk of dust storms.

Terraforming Mars would be extremely tricky, and probably not feasible. But it is interesting to think about how we could theoretically do it. Then we would have the problem of maintaining the atmosphere against further soil chemistry and the solar wind. There has been discussion of how we could create an artificial magnetic field to protect the atmosphere, but again we are talking about massive geoengineering projects. This is all still in the realm of science fiction for now, but it is fun to think about theoretical possibilities.

 

The post What Happened to the Atmosphere on Mars first appeared on NeuroLogica Blog.

Replacing some existing vegetable oil crops with camellia oil could boost production while reducing environmental impacts such as greenhouse gas emissions