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Researchers at the University of Warsaw have unveiled a breakthrough method for detecting and precisely calibrating terahertz frequency combs using a quantum antenna made from Rydberg atoms. By combining atomic electrometry with a powerful terahertz-to-light conversion technique, they achieved the first measurement of a single terahertz comb tooth—something previously impossible due to the limits of electronics and optical tools.

MOCHI uses microscopic, air-filled channels to stop heat in its tracks while remaining nearly crystal clear. If scaled up, it could transform windows into powerful energy savers and solar harvesters.

A new study, analyzing over 1,600 galaxies observed with Chandra over two decades, suggests that smaller galaxies do not contain supermassive black holes nearly as often as larger galaxies do.

From Inside the Magic comes a story I’ve known for a while—but you might not. It’s about the feral cats that roam the original Disneyland at night, taking care of the rodent problem. Click below to see the story; excerpts are indented:

Excerpts:

It’s no news that Disney parks hide some special park features in plain sight, like the hidden suite in Cinderella Castle, Walt Disney’s apartment at Magic Kingdom in Disneyland Park, and the private members-only Club 33, also located in Disneyland Park.

However, Disneyland Resort in California focuses much of its attention on a “secret attraction” in Disney park 24/7, and they manage to hide it in plain sight. [JAC: Disneyland Resort comprises two parks, one of them the original Disneyland, which I went to once as a child.]

To be more exact, around 200 of these “secret attractions.” Yes, you read it right — There are about 200 feral cats at Disneyland! The adorable feral cat colony lives in the happiest place on earth.

. . . . There have been sightings going as far as 1955, soon after Disneyland opened.

The story goes: When Walt Disney decided that there should be an attraction inside the Sleeping Beauty Castle — what we know today as the Castle Walkthrough attraction — he brought engineers into the castle to begin the planning. But to his surprise, he was greeted by a feral cat colony that had made the court their home.

But the cats had brought a huge problem — an infestation of fleas. Walt Disney knew he couldn’t just get rid of the cats without sparking public uproar, so he adopted each cat and made them all Cast Members. By doing so, the problem seemed to be solved in the best possible way.

Unfortunately, things weren’t that simple. Due to the theme park’s rustic design, Disneyland had ironically brought unwelcomed guests to the park — rodents.

For Walt’s luck, not all feral cats had set home in the castle but other places around the park property. Those cats found their wonderland inside the park with a good source of food — the rodent population — plus, the park was a place free of the typical dangers that a stray cat faces. They would come out at night and hunt inside the park in peace.

Someone at the Disney company had a brilliant idea; allow the cats to live in the park. By nature, feral cats are scared of humans. Therefore they wouldn’t bother the park’s guests, and apparently, they were doing a better job at pest control than human exterminators.

The idea worked so well that the cat population at Disneyland still exists with over 200 felines! The kittens received a forever home at the happiest place on earth, and the theme park guests are always surprised and glad to spot one of the felines around the park. So, next time you are at Disneyland, keep an eye out for some whiskers, bushy fur tails, and significant cuteness.

Note that these aren’t really feral cats, as the park takes care of them and adopts some out.

After deciding to keep the cats, the Disney Company established protocols and ways to keep the cats and guests safe. Disney placed feeding stations around the property, the cats were all spayed/neutered, vaccinated the entire feral population, and Circle D Ranch Cast Members were assigned to care for the furry batch of Disneyland Cast Members. The cats a very well taken care of at Disneyland!

Mostly, the cats stay hidden during the day and roam around at night. But not all cats follow that rule. Park guests often spot the feral cats sleeping around the park or wandering around the park property during the day. For that reason, and as a general rule, Disney does not encourage guests to try to get too close or even pet the cats. They are better off remaining solitary and admired from a distance. But, by all means, take some pictures!

If, by any chance, a Disneyland cat starts getting too comfortable around park guests, Disney adopts the feline out to a Disney cast member. The same goes for any new litter of kittens accidentally born within any Disney property. So, please don’t encourage the cats to lose their permanent home inside the happiest place on earth.

If any of the Disneyland cats start to get too friendly around the park’s guests, or if a new cat litter is born, Disney decides to put them up for adoption to a Disney employee — So they are always part of the Disney family.

I knew that any company that makes its living by extolling animals would take care of cats this way! Has any reader who’s been to the original Disneyland seen these cats?

And here’s a video showing them, including Walt himself, holding stroking an orange moggy:

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The other day I got an unexpected package in the mail, and, opening it up, I found a wonderful picture book, large and full of glossy photos of domestic cats (both moggies and purebreds) as well as wild cats like tigers and lions. It’s published by Abrams Books, where the hardcover goes for $70 (only $49 at Amazon); the fantastic photos were taken by Tim Flach, and the text is by evolutionary biologist and ailurophile Jon Losos.  I figured out quickly that, because I reviewed Jon’s book The Cat’s Meow in the Washington Post, and favorably (I called it “the definitive book on the biology, ecology and evolution of the house cat{“). Jon had the book sent to me. I was right: Jon told me, “The publisher asked for suggestions about whom to send it to, and you immediately came to mind.”

I was delighted, and sent the photo below to Jon that day.

Flach, a British photographer specializing in animals, does spectacular work here’s a video he produced about the book:

View this post on Instagram

One of Flach’s photos from the book, somewhat degraded as I took it with an iPhone. But even so it’s mesmerizing.

Here’s an eight-minute video aired on CBS about Flach and his photos of cats (and other creatures):

This book would make a great Christmas present for ailurophiles, and you can get it for less than fifty bucks on Amazon. Have a look!

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Mount Washington Observatory in New Hampshire has some of the worst weather in the United States. Located atop the eponymous 6,288-foot mountain, it has human residents who stay for a week at a time, but also a cat, Nimbus, who’s a permanent resident.  The Observatory is a private, nonprofit organization aimed at producing scientific data, and Wikipedia says this:

The U.S. Signal Service, a predecessor to the Weather Bureau, occupied the summit and kept records from 1870 to 1892. Starting in 1932, the current observatory began keeping records. On April 12, 1934, the observatory staff recorded a wind gust of 231 mph that at the time was the highest recorded wind speed in the world, a record that was held until 1996. [JAC: the new record was set in 1996 “at Barrow Island, Australia during Typhoon Olivia. According to the report, the new record stands at 253 mph.”] The observatory’s weather data have accumulated into a valuable climate record since. Temperature and humidity readings have been collected using a sling psychrometer, a simple device containing two mercury thermometers. Where most unstaffed weather stations have undergone technology upgrades, consistent use of the sling psychrometer has helped provide scientific precision to the Mount Washington climate record.

The observatory makes prominent use of the slogan “Home of the World’s Worst Weather”, a claim that originated with a 1940 article by Charles Brooks (the man generally given the majority of credit for creating the Mount Washington Observatory), titled “The Worst Weather In the World” (even though the article concluded that Mt. Washington most likely did not have the world’s worst weather). The Sherman Adams summit building, named for the 67th Governor of New Hampshire, houses the observatory; it is closed to the public during the winter and hikers are not allowed inside the building except for emergencies and pre-arranged guided tours.

It’s dire up there in winter; here’s a photo from 2004:

 

User:{{{1}}}|{{{1}}}]] at the English-language Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The observatory has a page on “History of cats on the mountain,” showing that they go back to the 1930s, and there has been one ever since I can remember. The current resident, Nimbus (formerly “Greg”) came from The Conway Area Humane Society, and while he goes out in summer, he’s always well taken care of and well fed. You can read “20 FAQs about Nimbus, the Summit Cat“, and here’s an excerpt (Nimbus wrote it himself):

10. What does Nimbus like to do all day?

When I am not outside, I enjoy begging for treats from the Observers and taking naps on the couch or on someone’s lap. At night, I like to hunt for mice and I take that role very seriously; after all, it is my purrsonal responsibility to keep the rodent population in check.

11. What is Nimbus’ personality like?

I consider myself a sociable cat and I like to use meows, chatters, and purrs to get the attention of staff members and visitors.

12. Does Nimbus live at the summit year round?

Besides my occasional routine visit to the doctor, I do live at the mountain year round. When I do take a trip down to the valley, though, I always forget how there is 20% more oxygen at the base of the mountain than at the summit.

13. Does Nimbus like the winter season at the summit?

I am less than thrilled when the weather turns colder, snowier, and windier at Mount Washington in the winter. So, most days, the observers will find me enjoying the warmth of our living quarters. Sometimes, I’ll even lay directly on the heater in the living quarters when I am not warm enough.

Here’s Jen, the “Good News Girl,” narrating some video and facts about the Summit Cat:

And an Instagram post from the Observatory showing all the cold-weather gear that Nimbus has acquired. I seriously doubt, though, whether he ever dons this stuff. But look at his booties!

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Lagniappe 1: Larry the Cat in a photobomb

Lagniappe 2:  Cat vs. d*g (cat wins!)

Lagniappe 3: Cat vs. snow. Click on the picture to go to the video:

h/t: Andrew, Phil

But this is a reminder to send in your photo of cats with a Christmas theme.  The instructions are here and we have only about eight photos. (Note: the cat below is AI generated; we don’t want those!)

This is the second part of a batch of photos sent in by Neil K. Dawe from Vancouver Island, British Columbia. (His first batch, showing a visit to Darwin’s Down House is here.) Neil’s captions are indented and you can enlarge his photos by clicking on them.

The Eurasian Magpie (Pica pica) is a fairly common species in Britain. It was formerly considered conspecific with the Black-billed Magpie (Pica hudsonia) of North America and many authorities still consider them the same species. The magpie belongs to the corvid family, a group of some of the smartest birds including crows, ravens, and jays. The magpie is one of the few animals that is known to have self-awareness: an individual can pass the mirror test, recognizing itself in its mirrored reflection. Here’s a link to Ian Tyson’s descriptive song about this “pretty bird”:

 The Eurasian Jackdaw (Coloeus monedula) is another member of the corvid family, a common species throughout most of Britain. Jackdaw means “small crow”:

The Eurasian Blue Tit (Cyanistes caeruleus) is common at feeders and was a familiar bird everywhere we went in Britain. It is known for its habit, first observed in the 1920s, of pecking through milk-bottle tops to sip the cream. Other blue tits quickly learned this behaviour through observation and by the 1950s most of Britain’s Eurasian Blue Tit population had learned this behaviour. However, with the advent of supermarkets and the stopping of doorstep milk delivery the habit has since died out. Interestingly, some European Robins (Erithacus rubecula) also acquired this behaviour but it never spread to the entire robin population as it did with the blue tits.

Blue Tit

The Great Tit (Parus major) was a common bird in most of the places we visited on our travels. Since spring temperatures have been increasing due to climate heating, a mismatch has occurred between the hatching of nestling tits and the peak caterpillar hatch, an important food for nestlings. This has caused a selection for earlier Great Tit egg-laying dates by up to 11 days and a shortening of the fledging period by 3–4 days. Second broods are also now more common:

The European Robin (Erithacus rubecula) gave its name to the American Robin (Turdus migratorius) whose reddish breast reminded early European Settlers of this familiar European bird:

The Dunnock (Prunella modularis), nicknamed the “hedge sparrow” has cooperative nesting behaviour, most often in the form of polyandry with two males and a female tending the nest and young. Polygyny has been reported to a lesser extent:

In Britain, males of the Common Chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs) tend to overwinter near their breeding areas while the females migrate further south, hence the male nickname “bachelor finch”:

The European Goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis) is a favourite cagebird in parts of its range. One study found it to be extinct or very scarce in the wild in much of Algeria and Tunisia but estimated a captive population of 15.6 million across the entire western Maghreb (Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia). The practice of catching and keeping caged migratory birds is no longer allowed in Britain:

News Items: Young Cancer, Adapting to Modern Life, Safety of mRNA Vaccines, Cosmic Rays Ground Aircraft, Reverse Aging Claim; Who's That Noisy; Your Questions and E-mails: EU Gene Editing; Who Said That; Science or Fiction

In the early 20th century, after years of effort, Albert Einstein developed his general theory of relativity. This was a massive improvement in our understanding of gravity, giving us a sophisticated view into the inner workings of that fundamental force.

Tracking down resources on the Moon is a critical process if humanity decides to settle there permanently. However, some of our best resources to do that currently are orbiting satellites who use various wavelengths to scan the Moon and determine what the local environment is made out of. One potential confounding factor in those scans is “space weathering” - i.e. how the lunar surface might change based on bombardment from both the solar wind and micrometeroid impacts. A new paper from a researchers at the Southwest Research Institute adds further context to how to interpret ultra-violet data from one of the most prolific of the resource assessment satellites - the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) - and unfortunately, the conclusion they draw is that, for some resources such as titanium, their presence might be entirely obscured by the presence of “old” regolith.

Radio astronomers hunting for the faint whispers of the early universe face an unexpected threat from above: satellites designed to be silent are leaking radio noise into space. New research using the Murchison Widefield Array has set the first limits on unintended radio emissions from distant geostationary satellites, revealing that most remain mercifully quiet in the frequency range crucial for next-generation telescopes. The findings offer cautious hope that the Square Kilometre Array, set to become the world's most sensitive radio telescope, might avoid the radio pollution crisis now plaguing observations of low Earth orbit satellites.

Astronomers have been observing the Cosmic Owl for years, wondering if what they were seeing was a long-predicted runaway black hole. Now, 50 years after scientists first predicted the phenomenon, the JWST has provided the clinching evidence.

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope reobserved interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS on 30 November with its Wide Field Camera 3 instrument. At the time, the comet was about 286 million km from Earth. Hubble tracked the comet as it moved across the sky.

Efforts to lower the levels of CO2 in the atmosphere may come too late to prevent long-term changes to the Arctic

A new report identifies searching for life as the top science priority for humanity's first landing on Mars, ranking it above understanding water cycles, mapping geology, or even studying how the Martian environment affects astronaut health. The report outlines four possible exploration campaigns, with the highest ranked approach calling for missions totalling 330 sols at a single scientifically rich site where crews could investigate everything from ancient lava flows to active dust storms. By placing the search for extraterrestrial life at the centre of human Mars exploration, the report reimagines the first crewed mission not just as a milestone for spaceflight but as humanity's best chance to answer whether we're alone in the universe.

Yes, it’s that time of year again: time to send in photos of your Christmas cats (or, if you have a Jewish cat, a Hanukkah-themed photo). If I get twenty pictures, I’ll put them together for a Christmas Day/beginning of Koynezaa post.

The rules are simple:

a. Email me a photo of your moggy/moggies with a Christmas theme. If you don’t know where to send them, go here

b. One picture per customer, even if you have multiple cats.

c.  Give the name or names of the cats, and say a few words about them.

Have them to me by Dec. 23 or so.  Now’s the time to make your cat famous and show it off.

Thanks!

There are two small moons in orbit around Mars today, but both may be remnants of a much larger moon that had enough of a gravitational pull to drive tides in the Red Planet's lost lakes and seas

Let’s say you are transported back in time to some ancient culture. And along the way you somehow forget everything you knew about modern cosmology (don’t worry about the details, it’s just to get us going here, pretend if you have to that it’s a very strange and selective sort of amnesia introduced by the time traveling device).

The Hubble Tension is one of the great mysteries of cosmology. Solving it might require a fundamental change in how we understand the universe - but scientists have to prove it actually exists first. A new paper from a collective of cosmologist researchers known as the TDCOSMO Collaboration adds further fuel to that first with updated measurements of the “Late Universe” measurement of the Hubble Constant using gravitational lenses of quasars, which shows that the Tension might exist after all.

Scientists have managed to observe solar neutrinos carrying out a rare atomic transformation deep underground, converting carbon-13 into nitrogen-13 inside the SNO+ detector. By tracking two faint flashes of light separated by several minutes, researchers confirmed one of the lowest-energy neutrino interactions ever detected.

Scientists have managed to observe solar neutrinos carrying out a rare atomic transformation deep underground, converting carbon-13 into nitrogen-13 inside the SNO+ detector. By tracking two faint flashes of light separated by several minutes, researchers confirmed one of the lowest-energy neutrino interactions ever detected.