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There is more lurking below the surface of Arrakis than sandworms. Dune author Frank Herbert had a keen interest in fungi, and so should we, says Corrado Nai

The seafloor of Jupiter’s icy moon Europa was thought to provide energy and nutrients to its ocean, but it turns out that may not be possible

If you, like me, have dabbled with telescope making you will know what a fickle friend light can be. On one hand you want to capture as much as you can (but only from the object, not from nearby lights) and want to reflect or refract it to the point of observation or study.  What you most certainly don’t want is stray light to be bounced around inside the telescope so components (except the mirror!) are sprayed as black as possible. Unfortunately black paints tend to be quite susceptible to damage and struggle to cope with the harsh conditions and cold temperatures telescopes are subjected to. A team has recently developed a new atomic-layer deposition method which absorbs 99.3% of light and is durable too. 

A team of scientists from the University of Shanghai for Science and Technology and the Chinese Academy of Sciences have recently published a paper in the Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology. The paper announces that they have engineered an ultrablack thin-film coating which boasts the remarkable light absorption rate of 99.3%. The technique is tailored for coating aerospace grade magnesium alloys (not a lot of help for my telescope but there is hope) and the result is a coating that is durable and capable of withstanding harsh environmental conditions. 

Of course, this is designed for telescopes operating in the harsh environment of space rather than the cold winter nights of Norfolk in the UK but it will certainly help with professional observatories atop mountains too. Current coatings like vertically aligned carbon nanotubes or black silicon tend to be easily damaged needing repair and leaving contamination that has to be carefully managed. 

Another problem is the often difficult and intricate shapes and curves that the black coatings are to be deposited upon. To overcome these problems, the team explored atomic layer deposition (ALD). Items to be coated are paced in a vacuum chamber and exposed to different gasses in sequence which will adhere to the object’s surface in thin layers. It’s a technique not too dissimilar to aluminising a telescope mirror that is placed inside a vacuum chamber before allowing the aluminium to be deposited on the mirror surface. 

The vacuum coating method is far easier to apply to intricate shapes than previous techniques. To build up the layers, the process uses alternating layers of aluminium mixed with titanium carbide and silicon nitride. The two materials work well together to stop nearly all light from reflecting off the coated surface. 

During the test phase, the team tested wavelengths of light from violet light at 400 nanometers to near infrared at 1,000 nanometers and found average absorption levels over 99% across all wavelengths. The coating seems to withstand heat, friction, damp and extreme changes in temperature well so it is most certainly suited to space instrumentation. The team haven’t given up yet though, they are now working to improve the performance of the material. 

Source : Ultrablack coating could make next-gen telescopes even better

The post Ultrablack Coating Could Be Ideal for Telescopes appeared first on Universe Today.

Once again I importune my faithful reader/photographers to send in their wildlife photos. Thanks!

Today we have some birds from one of my future destinations: South Africa. The photographer is Billy Terre Blanche, his notes and IDs are indented, and you can enlarge his photos by clicking on them.

As your readers know by now I am keen birder,  and South & Southern Africa is the ideal place to enjoy this past-time (obsession!}.

Many of the below pictures were taken at the Rietvlei Nature Reserve, a charming small reserve located right on the edge of Pretoria, within 5km of my house. As you can see, I decided to concentrate on the smaller members of the bird family.

African Stonechat – Male (Saxicola torquatus):

African Yellow Warbler (Iduna natalensis):

Capped Wheatear (Oenanthe pileata):

Cuckoo=Finch (Anomalospiza imberbis).  The Cuckoo Finch is a brood parasite, with a wide variety of hosts including Cisticolas, Prinias and Bishops. This is the male, which looks nothing like its potential host, but the female is very similar in appearance to the females of the hosts species mentioned above:

Half-collared Kingfisher (Alcedo semitorquata):

Levaillant’s Cisticola (Cisticola tinniens):

Little Sparrowhawk (Accipiter minullus):

Malachite Kingfisher (Alcedo cristata):

Pearl-spotted Owlet (Glaucidium perlatum). A very small owl, on average only about 19cm (7.5 inches) in size, and unlike most other owls it is often  seen during the day:

Pin-tailed Whydah (Vidua macroura).  This bird is displaying its extravagant breeding plumage, only seen during the summer months, while in winter it turns into a plain brown bird. See also the Shaft-tailed Whydah below:

Red-billed Oxpecker (Buphagus erythrorhynchus):

Rufous-naped Lark (Mirafra africana):

Shaft-tailed Whydah (Vidua regia):

White-fronted Bee-eater (Merops bullockoides):

I often drag out the amazing fact that the Andromeda Galaxy, that faint fuzzy blob just off the corner of the Square of Pegasus, is heading straight for us! Of course I continue to tell people it won’t happen for a few billion years yet but a recent study suggests that we are already seeing hypervelocity stars that have been ejected from Andromeda already. It is just possible that the two galaxies have already started to exchange stars long before they are expected to merge. 

We tend to think of stars as stationery objects in the sky, except for their slow westward drift across the sky as the Earth rotates. The reality is different though, stars do move but due to the vast distances in interstellar space, that motion is largely not noticeable. There are exceptions such as Barnard’s star in the constellation Ophiuchus. This inconspicuous red dwarf star moves 10.39 seconds of arc each year (by comparison, the full Moon is 1,900 seconds or arc in diameter.)

Another type of star can be observed, hypervelocity stars (HVSs), and these are among the fastest objects in the Galaxy. They are defined as stars that have a velocity which is of the order 1,000 km per second and by comparison, the Earth travels through space at a velocity of around 30 km per second! The first was discovered in 2005 but since then a number of HVSs have been found, and some of them have the potential to escape from the Milky Way. 

Typically the motion of stars is the result of their motion around the centre of a galaxy. Our own star the Sun, takes 220 million years to complete one orbit of the centre of the Milky Way. The origin of the HVSs high velocity is believed to stem from gravitational interactions between binary stars and black holes. The idea was proposed by Jack Gilbert Hills is a stellar dynamicist, born on 15 May 1943. In this process, a black hole (stellar or the supermassive black hole at Galactic centre) captures one of a binary star system while the other gets ejected at high velocity. Other theories include ejection of one of a binary star system when the other goes supernova or from galactic interactions.

To understand the interactions between the Milky Way and the Andromeda Galaxy the team (led by Lukas Gülzow from the Institute for Astrophysics in Germany) had to go through painstaking analyses. First they had to understand the relative motion fo the two galaxies, they then had to model the gravitational potential of the entire system – this is the total acceleration acting upon an object at any position in either of the galaxies at any time. Finally the team could generate simulations of stellar motion to model the HVSs trajectories. 

The study calculated the trajectories of 18 million HVSs for two different scenarios taking into account the two galaxies having equal mass and the other with the Milky Way having about half the mass of the Andromeda Galaxy. The starting positions of the HVSs in the simulation were randomly generated around the centre of Andromeda. The ejection directions were random and the results showed that 0.013 and 0.011 percent of HSVs are now within a radius of 50kpc around the Milky Way centre. 

The explored the velocity of HVSs on arrival with both galaxy mass simulations and found that many approximately retain their initial velocity. Interestingly due to the time taken for the journey, a significant proportion may well evolve off the main sequence during their journey. Some of the HVSs slow down sufficiently to be captured by the Milky Way.

Artist impression of ESA’s Gaia satellite observing the Milky Way (Credit : ESA/ATG medialab; Milky Way: ESA/Gaia/DPAC)

The team mapped the simulated position of stars against the sky and ran the data against high velocity star positions from Gaia data (Release 3) and found the simulated position distribution consistent with the Gaia data. The study concludes that it is highly likely that HVSs from Andromeda could indeed migrate to the Milky Way. Whilst they are not expected in their thousands, they are expected to distribute equally around the Milky Way centre. It might even be possible to detect them based on stellar velocity and trajectories but further studies are now required to take that next step. 

Source : On Stellar Migration from Andromeda to the Milky Way

The post Are Andromeda and the Milky Way Already Exchanging Stars? appeared first on Universe Today.

Gamma-ray telescopes observing neutron star collisions might be the key to identifying the composition of dark matter. One leading theory explaining dark matter it that is mostly made from hypothetical particles called axions. If an axion is created within the intensely energetic environment of two neutron stars merging, it should then decay into gamma-ray photons which we could see using space telescopes like Fermi-LAT.

About 130 million years ago, a pair of neutron stars collided violently. The powerful gravitational waves from the impact radiated outwards at the speed of light, followed shortly after by a tremendous flash of radiation. On 17 August 2017, the gravitational waves reached Earth, and were detected by both detectors of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) in the United States, and the Virgo interferometer in Italy. This event was named GW170817. Mere seconds later, the Fermi-LAT gamma ray telescope recorded a burst of gamma rays in the same region of sky. Over the next few days, other telescopes saw and recorded the event in visible light and other wavelengths. This marked the first ever multi-messenger observation of two neutron stars merging.

What is an axion?

One of the leading theories around the composition of dark matter is that it is mostly made from a hypothetical particle called an axion. If enough axions were created in the big bang, and if their masses fall within a specific range, then they could account for much of the dark matter shaping the universe today. Unfortunately, axions have never been observed, and nobody has yet confirmed whether they even exist. But according to Dr Bhupal Dev of Washington State University, axions and axion-like particles (ALPs) could be created within the extreme conditions of a neutron star collision, and we might be able to see their signature from Earth.

An artist’s depiction showing how an ALP (dashed line), after being produced in the NS merger, escapes and decays outside the merger environment into photons, which can be detected by the Fermi satellite (or future MeV gamma-ray telescopes.

Physicists have spent decades trying to solve the mystery of dark matter. It seems likely that it could be made mostly from axions and axion-like particles, but these particles are still only hypothetical. The axion was first proposed in 1977, as a solution to the Strong CP Problem, but has yet to be confirmed.

Theory predicts, however, that axions can be briefly created by passing high-energy photons through a powerful magnetic field. These axions last for a short while, then decay back into a pair of gamma-ray photons. A number of experiments are being conducted around the world, using this phenomenon to try and create axions, and watching for the gamma radiation of their decay. Others, like the Axion Dark Matter eXperiment (ADMX) are looking for naturally existing axions by using a similar process to convert them into microwave photons.

But there are lots of places in the Universe where axions can be created in this manner, including the cores of stars, around magnetars, and anywhere else with strong magnetic fields. One possible location is the site of a neutron star collision. When such massively dense objects collide, they release a tremendous amount of energy, some of it in the form of hard electromagnetic radiation and powerful magnetic fields: perfect conditions to create axions!

By modelling the energies involved, researchers can predict the masses of axions that will be produced. From there they can deduce the specific frequency of gamma ray photons that would be produced when they decay. If we can detect another such merger, and spot that specific spectrum of gamma radiation coming from the collision, that would confirm that axions are real, and provide evidence supporting a major theory about dark matter.

Natural particle accelerators One of the H.E.S.S. telescopes in Namabia. Credit: H.E.S.S.

An experiment like this would not be the first time scientists have tried to use natural events in place of a particle accelerator. Our own upper atmosphere is one such place where high energy particle collisions happen all the time. Unlike gamma radiation, cosmic rays are subatomic particles hurtling through space at relativistic speeds, and they from catastrophic events like supernova explosions. When they encounter our atmosphere, they smash into air molecules with greater violence than we are able to create in our largest particle accelerators. Telescopes like the High Energy Stereoscopic System (HESS) in Namibia are built to detect these collisions, high up in the sky. HESS is a pair of telescopes which focus on the upper atmosphere, looking for the characteristic bursts of cherenkov radiation that reveal the cascades of particles generated whenever a cosmic ray smashes into the atmosphere.

The observations from GW170817 have already been used by Dr Dev: careful analysis of the gamma rays observed by Fermi-LAT have already helped to narrow the constraints on the properties of axions and axion-like particles.

Observations like this, combined with the work of earth-bound experiments like ADMX, are critical to finding out whether axions exist. And although they haven’t found it yet, we still learn something each time an experiment fails to find anything. Each test is tuned for a specific mass, so those negative results all work together to narrow the range of possibilities. Hopefully it won’t be long before we have a definitive answer.

To learn more, visit https://source.wustl.edu/2024/03/finding-new-physics-in-debris-from-colliding-neutron-stars/

The post Colliding Neutron Stars are the Ultimate Particle Accelerators appeared first on Universe Today.

Tik Tok is a cesspool of wellness pseudoscience and misinformation. All of social media has the potential to spread misinformation without any filter, but for some reason Tik Tok has become the preferred platform for the most outrageous claims and nonsense. A recent trend on Tik Tok (and within the wellness community generally) is the parasite cleanse. The idea is that many […]

The post Parasite Cleanse first appeared on Science-Based Medicine.

Most physicists believe that only a quantum theory of gravity can fully explain mysteries of the universe like dark matter, but now an idea called "post-quantum gravity" is demonstrating an alternative approach

A ‘gene drive’ that spreads through plant populations could be used to wipe out pests such as superweeds, or to help save species by making them resistant to heat or disease

The James Webb Space Telescope has found an unusual galaxy in the early universe with a black hole almost half the mass of the galaxy itself, raising questions about how it formed

A protein engineering method using simple, cost-effective experiments and machine learning models can predict which proteins will be effective for a given purpose, according to a new study.

The Voyager spacecraft carried on board a plethora of scientific instruments but attached to the side was a golden record. The sounds of Earth were recorded upon it. Now, another mission is going to be carrying a message out into space. The Europa Clipper mission will launch in October and it will carry a plaque with images, illustrations and messages. There will be more than 2.6 million names and the word for ‘water’ converted into waveform from 103 languages. 

I think Captain James T Kirk would be proud of NASA for boldly going. This time with another message to the Cosmos on board the Europa Clipper. The destination is Jupiter’s moon Europa which has an icy crust and it is thought, a subsurface ocean. If the ocean exists, and all evidence seems to point to its presence, then there is likely twice as much water by volume than here on Earth. The plaque has been attached to commemorate the connection between the two worlds. 

The triangular shaped tantalum metal plaque measures about 18x28cm and has an engraving of a handwritten poem by Ada Limon “In Praise of Mystery: A Poem for Europa”. The 2.6 million names are engraved upon a silicon microchip that is in the centre of an illustration of a bottle among the Jovian system, NASA’s message in a bottle. 

In a statement, Lori Glaze, director of Planetary Science Division at NASA said “The plate combines the best humanity has to offer across the Universe – science, technology, education, art and math.” He went on to say “The message of connection through water, essential for all forms of life as we know it, perfectly illustrates Earth’s tie to this mysterious ocean world we are setting out to explore.”

One perhaps more controversial inclusion is the famous Drake Equation. Scientists have been divided about the validity and benefit of this equation which was developed by Frank Drake in 1961. Drake’s equation attempts to answer the question, using mathematics, of how many advanced civilisations there may be in our Galaxy. Aside from its varied levels of support, the equation has been etched onto the plate as well, on the inward facing side.

The probe is scheduled to launch later this year and, after a 2.6 billion km journey, will arrive at Europa in 2030. It will then begin making a total of 49 flyby’s of Europa to try and establish if the conditions could support life. To that end, it will have a host of instruments to explore the subsurface ocean, the crust, the atmosphere and the space environment around the moon. To ensure the instruments don’t fail in the high levels of radiation from Jupiter, they are housed in a metal container with one of the openings sealed by the plaque. 

This view of Jupiter’s icy moon Europa was captured by the JunoCam imager aboard NASA’s Juno spacecraft during the mission’s close flyby on Sept. 29, 2022. Image data: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS Image processing: Kevin M. Gill CC BY 3.0

The illustrations don’t just advertise what we are like, they also depict how we communicate. References are made to radio frequencies that we could use for interstellar communication just in case an alien civilisation intercepts the probe some time in the future. It reveals how we use radio bands to listen out for alien signals and includes the frequencies emitted by water. 

If all of that wasn’t enough, in a lovely touch and a nod to one of the founders of planetary science and advocate for the mission, there is a portrait of Ron Greeley too. It was he who laid the very building blocks for the mission and it is a fitting gesture that he should be travelling to Jupiter with the craft he dreamed of.

Source : NASA Unveils Design for Message Heading to Jupiter’s Moon Europa

The post This is Europa Clipper’s Version of the Golden Record appeared first on Universe Today.

Galaxy NGC3799 lies around 16 million light years from Earth. Any event observed today within that galaxy took place 16 million years ago. One such event was observed in February 2023 when a surge in brightness in the core was followed by a rapid dimming. The observations that followed revealed that the event was a star being torn apart by a supermassive black hole at the heart of the galaxy. This is not the first time such an event has been observed but it is the first to be within our galactic backyard suggesting it may be more common that first thought. 

Normal stellar mass black holes form when massive stars reach the end of their lives. The star ceases fusion in its core, the star collapses leading to a rebound visible as supernova explosions. The remains, if the star was massive enough, is a black hole. These black holes tend to be between 5 and 50 times the mass of the Sun yet at the core of most galaxies seem to be black holes that can be up to several billion times the mass of the Sun. 

Our own Milky Way hosts one such supermassive galaxy with its gravitational pull that is so immense that even light cannot escape. The presence of these colossal objects has an influence on the dynamics of the galaxy and can reshape the orbit of stars and gas clouds  around them. The origin and evolution of supermassive black holes has been the subject of much debate over recent years. 

Researchers at the University of Hawaii Institute of Astronomy (IfA) have recently published a paper detailing the nearest observation of a supermassive black hole shredding a star. The team co-led by Jason Hinkle (a graduate student from the IfA) used the All-Sky Automated Survey for Supernovae (ASAS-SN) to observe a sharp increase in brightness followed by a fading from the heart of NGC3799. 

Following on from the discovery, subsequent observations were conducted using the Asteroid Terrestrial Last Alert System (ATLAS) on Maunaloa, the Keck Observatory and a few other ground and space based telescopes. These events occur when a star wanders too close to a supermassive black hole. The intense gravitational pull from the black hole varies greatly with distance so the unsuspecting star is torn apart. Eventually the star is consumed by the black hole. 

The sun sets on Mauna Kea as the twin Kecks prepare for observing. Credit: Laurie Hatch/ W. M. Keck Observatory

The change in brightness was was the result of a flare released when the star was consumed. The event has been called ASASSN-23bd and was visible on all-sky cameras. It was unique in its proximity to Earth but unique for other reasons too; more energy released than previous Tidal Disruption Events (TDEs), closest discovered using visible light and a faster light curve profile than other events.

It’s not unusual to see stars being ripped apart by supermassive blackholes but the team have observed one closer than ever before. Willem Hoogendam, an IfA graduate student who co-led the study reported “This discovery holds the potential to significantly enhance our comprehension of the growth of supermassive black holes and their accretion of surrounding material.”

Source : Star ripped apart by black hole in rare discovery

The post Black Holes are Tearing Stars Apart All Around Us appeared first on Universe Today.

Populations of moths living in urban places may have evolved smaller wings to limit how much bright city lights disrupt their lives

Since their introduction in the 1800s, giant sequoia trees in the UK have grown up to 55 metres tall and capture 85 kilograms of carbon a year on average

Some parts of the Universe only reveal important details when observed in radio waves. That explains why we have ALMA, the Atacama Large Millimetre-submillimetre Array, a collection of 7-meter and 12-meter radio telescopes that work together as an interferometer. But, ALMA-type arrays have their limitations, and astronomers know what they need to overcome those limitations.

They need a radio telescope that’s just one single, massive dish.

Many astronomical objects emit radio waves. From massive galaxies to individual molecules, radio waves and the observatories that sense them provide insights into these objects in ways that other observatories can’t. But there’s a problem. In order to do radio astronomy with a usable signal-to-noise ratio, astronomers need huge antennae or dishes. That’s why ALMA exists. It’s a collection of dishes working together via interferometry to create a much larger dish.

But as powerful as ALMA is, and as much as it continues to make a huge contribution to astronomy, it has its limitations.

That’s why some in the astronomical community are calling for a new radiotelescope with one single large dish. It’s called AtLAST, for the Atacama Large Aperture Submillimeter Telescope, and the idea has been fermenting for a few years. Now, a new paper is fine-tuning the idea.

The paper is “Design of the 50-meter Atacama Large Aperture Submm Telescope,” and it’s currently in pre-print. The lead author is Tony Mroczkowski, an astronomer and submillimetre instrument specialist at the European Southern Observatory (ESO), one of the organizations behind ALMA.

“Submillimetre and millimetre wavelengths can reveal a vast range of objects and phenomena that are either too cold, too distant, or too hot and energetic to be measured at visible wavelengths,” the paper states. They point out that the astronomical community has “highlighted the need for a large, high-throughput sub-mm single dish” radio observatory that can advance radio astronomy.

“The Atacama Large Aperture Submillimeter Telescope (AtLAST), with its 50-m aperture and 2o maximal field of view, aims to be such a facility,” they explain.

Their paper presents the full design concept for AtLAST.

This is the CAD drawing of AtLAST. Note the truck shown for scale. The telescope’s innovative rocking chair design drives its functionality. Image Credit: Mroczkowski et al. 2024, AtLAST.

AtLAST’s large 50-meter aperture is its critical feature. Smaller apertures, even when combined together in an interferometer like ALMA, can only see more extreme features due to noise. That’s why two or more smaller dishes can’t replace a single large one.

There are some large-aperture radio antennae, like the Japanese Nobeyama 45 m telescope and the IRAM 30 m telescope. But due to their designs they can’t observe as well as AtLAST will. AtLAST will be able to see closer to the spectral energy distribution (SED) peak of galaxies and will be able to observe far infrared (FIR) emission lines in the interstellar medium and in high-redshift galaxies. ALMA can observe these SEDs and FIRs, but not as well as AtLAST will.

Existing large dishes also have smaller fields of view (FOV.) But AtLAST’s design was driven by the need for a larger FOV of 2 degrees. This will give AtLAST a much higher mapping speed for science cases that need large fields of several hundred degrees square.

AtLAST’s overarching scientific goal is multifaceted. The telescope will perform the most complete, deepest, and highest-resolution survey of the Milky Way. This includes gas clouds, protoplanetary disks, protostars, and dust. AtLAST will even survey some parts of the Local Group of Galaxies. The radio telescope will even be able to detect complex organic molecules, the precursors to life.

The gas and dust in the Universe is of particular interest to AtLAST. Much of the gas and dust in the Universe is cold and dense. The interstellar medium (ISM) consists of clouds of gas and dust that have unique spectral signatures in the sub-millimetre range. ALMA has given us some of our best looks at these structures with high-resolution images of some of the fine details of the ISM. But single-dish antennae have given astronomers glimpses of other discoveries waiting to be made. That’s one of the reasons the international astronomy community is so enthusiastic about AtLAST.

AtLAST will also be able to take a census of star-forming galaxies at high redshifts. It’ll also map out the reionization of the Universe and track the Universe’s dust, gas, and metallicity across cosmic time.

AtLAST will dig into the deeper, fundamental aspects of galaxies by examining the circumgalactic medium (CGM). The CGM is cold gas and dust that exists in galactic haloes and shapes the evolution of galaxies. This material is invisible at other wavelengths.

This graphic shows some of the details of the CGM, though much of it is uncertain. At the very center are the galaxy’s red central bulge and blue gaseous disk. Gaseous outflows emerge in pink and orange, and some is recycled back into the galaxy. The diffuse gas is shown in mixed tones to reflect its multiple sources. The accreting gas is moving directly into the galaxy. Image Credit: Tumlinson J. et al. 2017.

The radio telescope’s single-dish design has some advantages over ALMA that are separate from its dish size and its field of view. As a single-dish antenna, AtLAST will be able to switch targets quickly and even track moving targets. It’ll employ several different scanning modes, as well as tracking modes that allow the telescope to track comets, asteroids, and near-Earth objects. Its innovative rocking chair design is behind some of AtLAST’s performance, a design it shares with extremely large optical telescopes like the ELT.

This cutaway view shows some of AtLAST’s details. Note the green human-sized figures for scale. Image Credit: Mroczkowski et al. 2024, AtLAST.

AtLAST will be designed to last many decades. It’ll have six instrument bays and will allow rapid switching between instruments. With a nod to our changing climate, AtLAST will be powered by renewable energy.

But what it’s really all about is science.

“The design presented here is expected to meet all of the specifications set for AtLAST to achieve its broad scientific goals,” the paper states. The details of the design allow it to meet the stringent requirements needed to reach its goals. “Namely, these are the large field of view, the high surface
accuracy, fast scanning and acceleration, and the need to deliver a sustainable, upgradeable facility that will serve a new generation of astronomers and remain relevant for the next several decades.”

It’s a complex project, as are all astronomical observatories. But as technology advances, so does the complexity. There’s a lot of work yet to be done and quite a bit of time before construction can even begin.

“Despite the amount of work that remains to be done, AtLAST is on track to potentially begin construction, if fully funded, later this decade,” the authors conclude.

The post Astronomers Propose a 50-Meter Submillimeter Telescope appeared first on Universe Today.

The US House of Representatives is voting on a bill that would require TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, to sell the app or risk a nationwide ban

"Science cannot survive in a society that does not value truth and strive to discover it."

The post Dr. Martin Kulldorff, Who Posted Pictures of Guillotines and Promised Herd Immunity Would Arrive 3-6 Months After Lockdowns Ended, Fired for “Clinging to the Truth”. first appeared on Science-Based Medicine.

Here’s actor Benedict Cumberbatch reading one of the last letters of imprisoned Russian dissident Alexei Navalny, whose sudden death on February 16 is still a mystery. This letter was written about a month before that. It’s only five minutes long, so have a listen.

Last month Vladimir Putin’s most prominent critic, Alexei Navalny, paid the ultimate price for his beliefs, dying in a West Siberian prison after years of relentless campaigning against corruption and a near-fatal poisoning. By the time of his death, Navalny had been imprisoned for more than two years, during which time he wrote to his supporters and the wider world through letters shared on his social media accounts. This is one of the last messages he wrote.

The letter answers a question Navalny got frequently: “Why did you come back?” (He returned to Russia from Germany, facing certain arrest, after he was poisoned by Russia while in Russia.) The short answer: “If I didn’t stick to my convictions, I’d have no credibility.” What those principles are you can hear in the reading.

There are few men as brave as Navalny.  I suppose one could compare him to a soldier ordered to undertake a mission resulting in certain death, like the attacks on the Ottomans at Gallipoli. But there’s a big difference: Navalny wasn’t under orders, and voluntarily returned to Russia, knowing what he’d face.

 

h/t: Jez

A new study finds that pollution from oil and gas venting and flaring results in $7.4 billion in health damages, more than 700 premature deaths, and 73,000 asthma exacerbations among children annually. Researchers also conclude that emissions are underreported and controlling emissions is not only profitable for operators, but also can significantly improve public health in surrounding communities.