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Our ability to study faint radio signals from when the first stars began to form is being threatened by SpaceX's Starlink satellites, which seem to be unintentionally leaking radio signals that overpower astronomers' telescopes

What we have now just…isn't going to cut it. Right now if you want power in space you essentially have two options: solar panels, and a kind of nuclear power called radioisotope thermoelectric generators.

Planets may begin forming much earlier than scientists once believed during the final stages of a star s birth, not afterward. This bold new model, backed by simulations from researchers at SwRI, could solve a long-standing mystery: why so many exoplanet systems have tight clusters of similarly sized planets orbiting close to their stars. These compact systems seem to emerge naturally if planets start forming amid the swirling chaos of gas and dust still feeding the star.

A new understanding of how tumours exploit our nervous system is leading to new ways to treat cancer using familiar drugs like Botox and beta blockers

A sauropod dinosaur fossil has been found with preserved stomach contents for the first time, providing insights into what they ate and how

Inspired by yesterday’s post of Dylan and Johnny Cash singing “Girl from the North Country”, I got juiced up to make a list of the Dylan songs I love most.

I could have called this post (which will be a pleasure to write), “The best Bob Dylan songs,” but of course music is a matter of taste. After all, I hear that some people even like the music of Taylor Swift.  I originally intended to post my favorite 20 Bob Dylan songs, but I whittled it down to thirteen and, reviewing all his albums, I can’t find any other song that is par with these. But of course readers might find some that I’ve missed, and at any rate feel free to comment below. Since this is a subjective matter, also feel free to criticize my choices.

All these songs were written by Dylan, and I’ve put in clips for every one, though some show performances with other people, and two don’t show Dylan at all.  That said, here we go. These are given in no particular order: they are just a selection I culled from reviewing his output. Links to the Wikipedia entries of each song are provided, and I’ve shown live performances when possible:

Positively 4th Street  (1965).  These are multiple takes from the studio recording:

My Back Pages (1964).  This is from the Dylan 30th Anniversary Concert in 1992, and there’s more rock talent onstage at this concert than I’ve seen in any other performance.  I won’t name all the singers and players as you should be able to recognize the stars, but I have to say that the guitar solo is stellar.

All Along the Watchtower (1967). The classic version by Hendrix, which Dylan liked better than his own. This is a live version from the Isle of Wight concert:

Mr. Tambourine Man (1965). From the Newport Folk Festival, introduced by Pete Seeger:

The Times They are A-Changin’ (1964). The caption gives the time and place: “Starlight Ballroom, Belleview Hotel, Clearwater, Florida, 22nd April 1976.”

Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door (1973). I think the recorded version (written for the movie “Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, is the best take (the echoes improve it a lot), but I’ve put up a good live version performed along with Tom Petty (and the Heartbreakers).

Love Minus Zero/No Limit (1965), from the 1971 Concert for Bangladesh in New York:

I Shall Be Released (1967). This is one of my very favorites.  And there’s never been better covers than those by Joan Baez (she was of course involved with Dylan). What a voice! This performance was at Woodstock, but you can see a duet with Dylan here.

It’s all Over Now, Baby Blue (1965).  This performance is from Manchester, England in 1965:

Tonight I’ll be Staying Here with You (1969). This may be a bit of a ringer, but I do love it. The best version is the recorded one:

Blowin’ in the Wind (1963). This is without doubt Dylan’s best protest song, and it’s a work of genius. Here’s a version from the Live Aid Concert in 1985, performed with Keith Richards and Ron Wood:

Girl from the North Country (1963). This version was performed with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers (though I hear nobody but Dylan) in Australia in 1986:

Like a Rolling Stone (1965). This is surely on everyone’s list of favorite Dylan songs, and there’s no version like the recorded one. I must have heard it a gazillion times, but when the opening chords sound, I know I have to listen to the whole thing.  Al Kooper is on the organ.

It’s clear that I favor the early Dylan over the later one. Note that all of these songs, with the exception of “Heaven’s Door,” were released between 1963 and 1969.

Go here to see a list of Dylan’s favorite songs written other people. He considers Glenn Campbell’s “Wichita Lineman“, written by Jimmy Webb, to be “the greatest song ever written.” I can understand that, for it mirrors Dylan’s own style when he sings about love rather than politics.

Today we have two photographs from crack bird photographer and retired medical entomologist Scott Ritchie, who lives in Cairns, Australia. His captions are indented and you can enlarge the photos by clicking on them. Note: the bower is not a nest, though many people think it is. In fact it is simply a structure designed to attract female bowerbirds—an “extended phenotype” of sexual display, as Richard Dawkins might call it. As Scott notes below, the nest is built separately—by the female.

Here’s another couple of photos that might interest your readers. Picture one. The bower of the Golden Bowerbird [Prionodura newtoniana].  Photographed in the tropical rainforest in the Atherton Tablelands southwest of Cairns, Queensland Australia, this bower is a bachelor’s pad where he swoons females. The male builds this extravagant stick structure, decorating it with lichens and flowers. Females come and inspect the bower and give it (or not) her seal of approval. He always displays for her at the bower, and makes the most unusual metallic calls. If she likes it enough, the good old boy gets lucky. A brief cloacal kiss at the bower and off she goes. The male of course, keeps tidying up his bower, putting more extravagant displays up to an almost Mar-a-Lago structure. They last for years.  The female, of course, is left to do the heavy lifting of building the proper nest and raising the chicks.

Picture number two entitled.” Are you free for dinner tonight?”  Here the male Golden Bowerbird brings an inflorescence  of the Melicope tree to decorate his bower.  This “flower” is highly valued by Golden Bowerbirds, and this fellow hopes these red roses will win the day—or rather the night—for him.

Citrus greening (also called Huanglongbing or HLB) is an infectious disease affecting citrus trees in Florida. It is a bacterium, Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus, and spread by an invasive fly, the Asian citrus psyllid. Since 2004 it has caused a reduction in the Florida citrus industry by 90% and doubled production costs. It is close to completely wiping out the Florida citrus industry. Various methods have been tried to keep it under control, but they have all failed.

There is good news, however. The University of Florida in collaboration with the company Soilcea, has developed a GMO orange that is highly resistant to citrus greening. They expect to have commercial trees available by the Spring of 2027. The limiting factor is that it takes years to grow test trees to see that they remain resistant and produce viable fruit. So far the test trees are doing well.

The company licensed the finding of Nian Wang, a professor at the University of Florida, who found that the bacterium is dependent upon interactions with the host that can be traced to several genes. The company used CRISPR to silence those genes, making it more difficult for the bacterium to infect plants and thereby making the plants resistant to infection. This approach has apparently worked, although again we won’t be sure until the first test trees reach maturity.

Also, the USDA has determined that these genetically altered cultivars do not qualify as subject to regulation under Federal rules, which removes a significant barrier to commercialization. This is a bit of a controversy. The USDA in 2020 decided to exempt certain kinds of genetic engineering from requiring USDA approval. For example, if you are simply silencing existing genes that was no longer considered a “GMO”, because no new genes were being introduced. However a court later struck down that ruling saying that the USDA still has to review and approve those cultivars. This makes the current USDA decision interesting – they are essentially saying that this cultivar does not fall within their regulatory sphere.

“APHIS did not identify any plausible pathway by which your modified sweet orange, or any sexually compatible relatives, would pose an increased plant pest risk relative to comparator sweet orange plants,” the agency said in the regulatory determination.

The EPA also has to determine there is no environmental risk. The FDA has to determine that the resulting oranges are substantially similar to existing varieties and therefore pose no health risk. Give the nature of these modifications, these should not be significant barriers.

At this point it is very possible that these CRISPR modified oranges that are substantially resistant to HLB will save and revitalize the Florida citrus industry. This is exactly what has already happened in the Hawaiian papaya industry. The industry was almost wiped out by the ring spot virus. A GMO papaya was introduced which saved the industry. Like these oranges, the GMO papayas were created through silencing an existing gene rather than introducing a new gene. Hawaii culturally remains anti-GMO, but the state quietly carved out an exception for the GMO papaya.

We are also seeing the same thing with the American chestnut. This tree was mostly wiped out by an Asian fungus. A GMO variety resistant to the fungus has been created, although there is a question about how well they are performing in the field. Researchers may need to do some more genetic tweaking before they get a variety that is worth planting widespread.

Last year a GMO variety of banana resistant to the Tropical Race-4 fungus which is currently wiping out the commercial Cavendish banana industry, was approved for human consumption in Australia and New Zealand. This genetic variety makes the banana plants almost immune to the fungus. While it is currently considered a backup plan if other attempts at fighting the fungus fail, this variety will very likely be necessary to save the banana industry.

It is now a simple fact of life that in order to grow enough food to feed the world, we need massive agriculture. Growing a lot of the same plants invites pests, and so like it or not we are now in an arms race with pests. There are lots of things we can do to mitigate pests, and most experts recommend integrated pest management which uses a variety of methods together. But even still, in many cases we are simply losing this battle.

The only technology that is fast and powerful enough to keep up with evolving pests, and the spread of pests caused by globalization, is genetic engineering. We are fortunate that genetic technology has advanced so much so quickly over the last 20 years. Without it agricultural industries would be toppling one-by-one in the face of evolving pests. So far the anti-GMO propaganda industry has either opposed these crop-saving cultivars, usually by saying they are not necessary, or they quietly ignore them and focus their attention elsewhere. What they never do is admit that GMO technology has saved entire crop industries and will be necessary to save more in the future.

 

The post GMOs May Save Florida Citrus first appeared on NeuroLogica Blog.

Extreme weather, pest outbreaks and overharvesting are turning forest carbon sinks into carbon sources across Europe, undermining a crucial part of countries’ net-zero plans

Last Thursday during a roundtable on stem cell therapies, new FDA Commissioner Marty Makary referred to EBM levels of evidence as an artificial and dogmatic construct. Apparently Dr. David Katz's "more fluid concept of evidence" now reigns at the FDA—selectively.

The post Drs. Marty Makary and Vinay Prasad embrace a “more fluid concept of evidence” at the FDA first appeared on Science-Based Medicine.

A team of researchers has shown that even small-scale quantum computers can enhance machine learning performance, using a novel photonic quantum circuit. Their findings suggest that today s quantum technology isn t just experimental it can already outperform classical systems in specific tasks. Notably, this photonic approach could also drastically reduce energy consumption, offering a sustainable path forward as machine learning s power needs soar.

Computers have been involved in spaceflight since almost the very beginning. Just like on the Earth, computers aid in a variety of tasks, like navigation and communication. But unfortunately, space is really, really unkind to electronics.

Here’s an unusual pair of singers: Joni Mitchell performing the song “Long Black Veil” with Johnny Cash on his television show.

The history of the song from Wikipedia.  It’s been covered many times (see a version by Neil Young here, and one by Rod Stewart here).

“Long Black Veil” is a 1959 country ballad, written by Danny Dill and Marijohn Wilkin and originally recorded by Lefty Frizzell.

It is told from the point of view of a man falsely accused of murder and executed. He refuses to provide an alibi, since on the night of the murder he was having an extramarital affair with his best friend’s wife, and would rather die and take their secret to his grave than admit the truth. The chorus describes the woman’s mourning visits to his gravesite, wearing a long black veil and enduring a wailing wind.

In 2019, Frizzell’s version of “Long Black Veil” was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Recording Registry for being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.

You can hear Lefty Frizzell’s preserved version here.

This was from the second episode of the Johnny Cash Show on June 21, 1969. He was 37 and she was only 26, but had already released two albums. They both get a chance to sing lead, and it’s a sad but beautiful duet. There’s a bit of pre-song banter, too:

 

Lagniappe:  Here they perform Dylan’s “Girl from the North Country“; one site says this aired on October 7, 1970.

Of course one YouTube video leads to another, and here’s Dylan himself doing a duet of the same song with Johnny Cash.  I’d almost forgotten about this Dylan song, but it made me realize once again what a great songwriter he was. One site says this was on the first episode of the Johnny Cash Show on May 1, 1969.

h/t: Greg Mayer

As you surely know, the “Freedom Flotilla,” which is a boat called the Madleen carrying a bunch of activists (most notably Greta Thunberg), is heading to Gaza with a bit of aid for civilians. (I heard it was enough aid for about a dozen Gazans, but I don’t know for sure.). Israel has vowed to block the ship, and in fact there is a UN report allowing Israel to impose a general blockade as a means of self defense (this followed a violent incident in 2011 when another Gaza Freedom Flotilla clashed with Israeli commandos, resulting in the death of 9 activists).  If you’re a supporter of Israel like me, there’s a downside for whatever decision Israel makes: if Greta & Co. is allowed to pass through the blockade, they will broadcast loudly about how horrible Israel has been to Gaza; but if their boat is blocked, it’ll be a stopping of humanitarian aid—just a tiny amount, but, curiously, Greta still has a loud voice. And that will also look bad.  I’m leaning towards letting the ship in, though I don’t know the consequences for the UN resolution.

From NBC News:

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz has vowed to block an aid vessel carrying Greta Thunberg and other activists from reaching Gaza, by “any means necessary.”

The Madleen departed Sicily last Sunday, aiming to breach Israel’s naval blockade on Gaza, deliver humanitarian aid, and draw attention to the worsening humanitarian crisis in the enclave.

According to a live tracker on board the vessel, it was sailing north of the Egyptian coastal city of Rosetta on Sunday morning, roughly 160 nautical miles from Gaza.

Katz said Sunday that he had instructed the Israel Defense Forces to “prevent the ‘Madelaine’ hate flotilla from reaching the shores of Gaza.”

“To the anti-Semitic Greta and her fellow Hamas propaganda spokespeople, I say clearly: You should turn back — because you will not reach Gaza,” he posted on Telegram.

“Israel will act against any attempt to break the blockade or aid terrorist organizations — at sea, in the air and on land.”

On Sunday, a press officer for the Madleen, Hay Sha Wiya, said the crew was “preparing for the possibility of interception.”

One thing I’m sure of, unlike the previous incident, I don’t think the crew of the Madleen will use weapons as part of their “preparations.”

Here’s Greta making their case (note: I’m not vouching for the veracity of any assertion):

So, I’ll solicit comments (I no longer am able to insert polls:

What do you think of this molehill on a mountain?  Should Israel let the Madleen into Gaza or should it intercept the ship and send it back?  Or should it take some other action If you don’t care, there’s no need to say that.

 

 

Friday was the one-month anniversary of Esther’s brood hatching, and yesterday was the “monthiversary” of the ducklings venturing into the water from their nest under the tree, a entry that I witnessed.  Now the ducklings are large, resembling small, half-fuzzed versions of the adults (see below), and they’re getting their feathers. They are entering the “punk duckling” phase in which they are no longer unbearably cute, but I still love them.  In about three weeks they’ll start trying to fly.

Here are some photos and videos taken the last week of May and one or two showing them more recently. They’re all healthy and rambunctious, and I take some credit for keeping them alive, as there is no real food for them in the pond.  They get a diet of Mazuri duck chow (now they’re able to eat the adult-sized pellets) combined with mealworms as a special treat.

Just as a reminder, here’s the brood at one day old within 10 minutes after they entered the water (there were seven, but we mysteriously lost one on the first day):

And here is a video from May 30: the brood is now a flotilla of miniature ducks. This is how they come to me when I call them for meals:

A “baby” losing its down and getting feathers, They start growing on the wing and the tail.

After meals, the babies like to disport themselves in the “cold tubs”: leftover plant pots:

A duckling with a few real feathers, also sporting a longish duck bill:

Much of the activity that charms duck-watchers is how they dive, preen, and flap their little winglets after a meal, comme ça:

More partly-feathered little ones. Note the pointy feathers on the tail:

Here’s some of that wing-flapping and dunking that occurs after meals.  Onlookers love it when they flap their little wings.  In a few short weeks, though, those little stubs will be big, able to carry the ducks high into the sky:

A half-fuzzer scratching himself. This may well be a male because of the greenish-brown color of the distal portion of the bill (females are said to be orange). The color-identification method isn’t fully reliable given that we never see the babies after they’ve developed their adult plumage that enables us to tell them apart.

A favorite activity after meals is jumping onto the east edge of the pond for preening, sunbathing, and snoozing. Esther, ever watchful, stands up. (She does nap sometimes.)

The postprandial sunning-and-preening session. Note the swollen throats; they store food in their esophagus to digest later:

And often, especially when it’s a bit cool, they’ll form a pile o’ ducks:

Here’s the brood splashing and diving after a meal. Esther is the role model:

And the Queen herself, watching over her offspring:

Today we have the second and final installment of damselflies from evolutionist John Avise.  What will John send next? Stay tuned.

His IDs and captions are indented, and you can enlarge the photos by clicking on them.

Damselflies in North America, Part 2

This week’s post concludes my photos of the Damselflies, which are in the Order Odonata and can be thought of as svelte relatives of the Dragonflies.  I also show the state where I took each photo.

Rambur’s Forktail, Ischnura ramburii, mature female (Florida):

Rambur’s Forktail, young female (Florida):

River Jewelwing, Calopteryx aeguabilis, female (Michigan):

Spreadwing, Lestes sp. (Michigan):

Spreadwing, Lestes sp., mating pair (Michigan):

Tule Bluet, Enallagma carunculatum, male (California):

Tule Bluet, female (California):

Vivid Dancer, Argia vivida, male (California):

Vivid Dancer, female (California):

Western Forktail, Ischnura perparva, male (California):

Western Forktail, female (California):

Physicists have managed to simulate a strange quantum phenomenon where light appears to arise from empty space a concept that until now has only existed in theory. Using cutting-edge simulations, researchers modeled how powerful lasers interact with the so-called quantum vacuum, revealing how photons could bounce off each other and even generate new beams of light. These breakthroughs come just as new ultra-powerful laser facilities are preparing to test these mind-bending effects in reality, potentially opening a gateway to uncovering new physics and even dark matter particles.

In a world where over a billion smartphones are produced yearly, a team of researchers is flipping the script on electronic waste. Instead of tossing out older phones, they ve demonstrated a groundbreaking approach: turning outdated smartphones into micro data centers. This low-cost innovation (just 8 euros per phone) offers practical applications from tracking bus passengers to monitoring marine life without needing new tech.

But in space, like on the Moon or Mars, we have…none of that. Zero. No GPS satellites, no globe-spanning networks. Just radio broadcasts from command centers here on Earth to tell our robots and crews what to do.

Scientists at Binghamton University are bringing a sci-fi fantasy to life by developing tiny batteries that vanish after use inspired by Mission: Impossible. Led by Professor Seokheun Choi, the team is tackling one of the trickiest parts of biodegradable electronics: the power source. Instead of using toxic materials, they re exploring probiotics friendly bacteria often found in yogurt to generate electricity. With engineered paper-based batteries that dissolve in acidic environments, this breakthrough could revolutionize safe, disposable tech for medical and environmental use.