Science

Researchers have built a drone that can walk, hop, and jump into flight with the aid of birdlike legs, greatly expanding the range of potential environments accessible to unmanned aerial vehicles.

Researchers have built a drone that can walk, hop, and jump into flight with the aid of birdlike legs, greatly expanding the range of potential environments accessible to unmanned aerial vehicles.

Helping out your neighbor or minding your own business? A challenging choice with different benefits for each decision. Game theory provides guidance in making such choices -- from a theoretical perspective. Novel findings reveal new network structures that enhance cooperation throughout a system. These insights have potential applications also in biology.

A new study shows the benefits of coordinating the siting of solar farms, wind farms, and storage systems, taking into account local and temporal variations in wind, sunlight, and energy demand. This approach maximizes the utilization of renewable resources and reduces costs.

I have arrived in Katowice (population 287,000), where it’s snowing, after a comfortable 5-hour train ride south from Wroclawek. I finished the novel I brought (A Gesture Life, by Change-rae Lee, highly recommended) and then reread the highlights of a book I’m reviewing for another site.

Although Polish trains have internet, I avoided using it, as for some reason I use long-distance transportation as a way to avoid being online.

Here is a map of Poland from Worldometers. The northern arrow is the approximate location of Dobrzyn, and the southern one shows Katowice:

Tomorrow I’ll have a look at the festival, and then I give my talks on Sunday and Monday mornings, flying home early Tuesday (6 A.M.!) from Katowice via Frankfurt.

My week in Dobrzyn is, sadly, at an end, and it was great to see Andrzej and Malgorzata again, and to experience their patented brand of hospitality, including political conversation, a soft couch to work on (I finished my essay), four meals a day featuring great pies and cakes, and three—count them, three—moggies.  Dobrzyn is paradise enow. I will return, but I know not when.

In the meantime, here are photos of the cats. Hili was often scarce, trying to stay outside as long as possible before the weather becomes intolerably cold, or sleeping in the basement. But sometimes she’d favor me by lying on my bed, in which case I would join her with my book. She likes to burrow under the covers.

Below: Szaron and Baby Kulka on the windowsill, each on their own blanket. You will NEVER find Kulka and Hili together in this position, as they hate each other. For readers who have asked me why, I have no answer.

Apparently when Szaron came into the house as a rescued stray (Kulka formally lives upstairs with the lodgers but is often downstairs), Hili also hated him, but she got over that. Now Hili and Szaron are friendly, though not so friendly that they cuddle together. But Hili’s hatred for Kulka is implacable, and they avoid each other completely.

Two photos of Kulka. I have trouble telling her apart from Hili in photos, but Andrzej and Malgorzata have no problem. Kulka has more white on her face:

And Szaron, the world’s most affectionate cat. I had some good lap time with him yesterday. All it takes is one pat on the back and he begins purring like a motorboat, and will not stop, nor cease soliciting further petting, until you have to do something else:

Finally, my spiffy Katowice hotel room across the street from the train station. I had to take a panoramic picture to get it all in (click to enlarge).

Tomorrow I head to the conference to register and see what’s about, and perhaps have a look around the area, hoping to find some pierogi and potato pancakes.

It may sound strange, but mathematicians have created an entire ladder of infinities, each larger than the next. Now a new kind of infinity threatens to upset that order, and perhaps redefine the structure of the mathematical universe

Scuba divers will attempt to collect semen from at least nine wild male leopard sharks for the first time, for use in captive breeding programmes aiming to boost wild populations

by Matthew Cobb

PCC(E) is travelling, so posting will be light.

Meanwhile, in Dobrzyn, Hili and Jerry have been chatting:

Jerry: I’m going to Katowice.
Hili: What for?
Jerry: I’m going to give two lectures there.
Hili: Tell them that I approved the texts.

Jerry: Jadę teraz do Katowic.
Hili: Po co?
Jerry: Będę tam miał dwa wykłady.
Hili: Powiedz im, że je zatwierdziłam.

Two bits of BlueSky news. Firstly, the precise genetic mechanism of the peppered moth story (and many other Lepidopteran coloration examples) has been identified. It is a short piece of RNA called a microRNA. The article just appeared in Science.

Our miRNA story is now in @science.org ! We found a microRNA, not a protein, that finally solved a long-standing evolutionary mystery of wing coloration in butterflies and moths. (1/n)www.science.org/doi/10.1126/…

— Shen Tian 田申 (@tianshenbio.bsky.social) 2024-12-05T21:35:54.747Z

Secondly, if I may be immodest for a moment:

Giving what will probably be my last ever lectures at @officialuom.bsky.social today (I “retired” in September but have given 20 lectures this semester…) One on the history of genetic information, the other, at *5pm on a Friday* on mammals. Both to first year students. Then, that will be that.

— (@matthewcobb.bsky.social) 2024-12-06T08:59:34.106Z

 

Doctors who gushed over RFK Jr. made their bed, and they'll lie in it.

The post Dr. Vinay Prasad “Sabotaging RFK Jr’s Confirmation Will Increase Vaccine Hesitancy” & “Doctors Criticizing RFK Jr. Paved the Way for His Ascendancy” first appeared on Science-Based Medicine.

An MRI-based imaging technique predicts the response of ovarian cancer tumors to treatment, and rapidly reveals how well treatment is working, in patient-derived cell models.

The opensource LabEmbryoCam uses 3D-printed components to form a robotic microscope and is the result of over a decade of research at the University of Plymouth. Its creators say the instrument can autonomously monitor the earliest stages of development in any aquatic species.

A high-resolution view of hailstones the size of tennis balls can reveal how they form – and help researchers better forecast which storms will generate these destructive pieces of ice

First-of-its-kind sensor monitors fluctuating proteins within the body in real time. In an animal study, device accurately tracked biomarkers of inflammation. Device also could track protein markers for other illnesses, including heart failure.

Nanoparticle-mediated gene therapy corrects a problem with the placenta that leads to pregnancy issues.

Physicists have outlined the next 10 years of global research into the behavior of neutrinos, particles so tiny that they pass through virtually everything by the trillions every second at nearly the speed of light.

Physicists have outlined the next 10 years of global research into the behavior of neutrinos, particles so tiny that they pass through virtually everything by the trillions every second at nearly the speed of light.

A new method of analyzing mammograms identified individuals at high risk of developing breast cancer more accurately than the standard, questionnaire-based method did. The new method, powered by artificial intelligence, could help diagnose cancer earlier and guide recommendations for earlier screening, additional imaging or risk-reducing medications.

For the past thirty years, NASA’s Great Observatories – the Hubble, Spitzer, Compton, and Chandra space telescopes – have revealed some amazing things about the Universe. In addition to some of the deepest views of the Universe provided by the Hubble Deep Fields campaign, these telescopes have provided insight into the unseen parts of the cosmos – i.e., in the infrared, gamma-ray, and ultraviolet spectrums. With the success of these observatories and the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), NASA is contemplating future missions that would reveal even more of the “unseen Universe.”

This includes the UltraViolet Explorer (UVEX), a space telescope NASA plans to launch in 2030 as its next Astrophysics Medium-Class Explorer mission. In a recent study, a team led by researchers from the University of Michigan proposed another concept known as the Mission to Analyze the UltraViolet universE (MAUVE). This telescope and its sophisticated instruments were conceived during the inaugural NASA Astrophysics Mission Design School. According to the team’s paper, this mission would hypothetically be ready for launch by 2031.

The study was led by Mayura Balakrishnan, a graduate student from the Department of Astronomy at the University of Michigan. She was joined by researchers from the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP), the Institute for Gravitation and the Cosmos (IGC), the Center for Cosmology and AstroParticle Physics (CCAPP), the Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, the European Space Agency (ESA), the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and multiple universities. The paper that details their findings appeared in the Astronomical Society of the Pacific.

NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured these images of the solar flares in the extreme ultraviolet wavelength. Credit: NASA/SDO

In the past fifty years, ultraviolet observatories have revolutionized our understanding of the Universe. However, observations of astrophysical phenomena in the ultraviolet (UV) wavelengths can only be performed at high altitudes or in space due to interference from Earth’s atmosphere – which is very efficient at absorbing UV radiation. As study co-author Dr. Emily Rickman, an ESA astronomer and Science Operations Scientist at the STScI, told Universe Today via email:

“UV astronomy provides us insight into highly energetic events that cannot be captured at other longer wavelengths, like in the visible or infrared wavelength regime, that have a much larger pool of facilities available. Through observing in the UV, our understanding of the Universe has made significant advancement through studying star formation, galaxy formation, as well as highly energetic events on planets both within our Solar System and in exoplanetary stellar systems.

“Some of the notable areas of this understanding have been in capturing UV radiation from stellar winds emitted from young high-mass stars, which help us piece together how such massive stars formed in the early Universe. On the planetary side, UV astronomy has allowed us to observe active aurorae on Jupiter’s poles and how these are influenced by solar storms on the Sun. These active aurorae on Jupiter were unexpected and opened up a whole new understanding of planets, their atmospheres, and how they interact within their environment.”

The first UV satellite, the Orbiting Astronomical Observatory 2 (OAO 2) launched in 1968, shortly before the highly anticipated launch of Apollo 8 (the first crewed mission to the Moon). Among its many accomplishments, OAO 2 enabled the early characterization of the absorption of electromagnetic radiation by interstellar gas and dust (aka. interstellar extinction). This was followed by the Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer (EUVE), which launched in 1992 and conducted the first all-sky survey of far-UV sources.

Artist’s impression of the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory. Credit: NASA

Then came the Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) in 1999, which conducted the first systemic investigations of the intergalactic medium (IGM). Then there was the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX), which operated from 2003 to 2013 and has conducted the deepest all-sky UV survey to date. There’s also the Ultraviolet and Optical Telescope on the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory and the three UV instruments on the Hubble Space Telescope – the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS), the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3), and the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph.

Unfortunately, none of these detectors can study the cosmos in the far- and extreme-ultraviolet wavelengths with the detail of a PI-led mission. As Rickman noted, this and other factors have limited UV astronomy so far:

“One of the biggest limitations really comes from the dearth of facilities capable of observing within the UV wavelength range. Because UV observatories have the requirement of being in space due to the Earth’s atmosphere blocking out most of the UV radiation, these space-based UV observatories are much more expensive to build and operate than ground-based observatories.

“Due to the limited number of UV observatories, the ones that are currently active, like the Hubble Space Telescope, are over-subscribed by astronomers all over the world, indicating the need and importance for such observatories to exist. In addition, the far extreme UV wavelength is not currently captured with existing instrumentation, providing a blind spot to some astronomical phenomena to be studied.”

While the proposed Habitable World Observatory (HWO) is expected to have advanced UV capabilities, this mission is still in the early stages of planning and is not expected to launch until the 2040s. To this end, the team proposed a UV space telescope concept called the Mission to Analyze the UltraViolet
universE (MAUVE), a wide-field spectrometer and imager conceived during the inaugural NASA Astrophysics Mission Design School (AMDS) hosted by the JPL in response to the 2023 Announcement of Opportunity. As Rickman explained:

“The MAUVE mission concept focuses on three main themes within the context of the Astronomy and Astrophysics 2020 Decadal Survey. Those themes are ‘Are We Alone?/Worlds and Suns in Context,’ ‘How Does the Universe Work?/New Messengers and New Physics,’ and ‘How Did We Get Here?/Cosmic Ecosystem.’ Within the context of answering the question ‘Are we alone?’, MAUVE seeks to study the atmospheric escape of sub-Neptunes, which is hypothesized to be due to either photoevaporation or core-powered mass loss. This will help us understand the habitability of extrasolar systems’ environments, as well as the formation and evolution of exoplanets and their atmospheres.”

“In addition, MAUVE would study the atmospheric composition of hot gas on giant exoplanets and whether they are influenced by equilibrium or disequilibrium condensation, which is vital in order for us to understand exoplanetary atmospheres, giving rise to clues of where life could exist in the Universe. For understanding ‘How does the Universe work?’”

“MAUVE would study whether blue kilonovae are driven by radioactive cooling or rapid shock cooling, which is fundamental in understanding explosive phenomena in the Universe, as well as studying whether type 1A supernovae arise from a white dwarf accreting material from a stellar companion, or from merging white dwarfs. And in order to study ‘How did we get here?’, MAUVE would look at if diffuse extragalactic emission results from faint galaxy cluster members and rogue stars, or from shocks of cluster mergers.”

Conceptual vision of the Habitable Worlds Observatory. Credit/©: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab

These general themes, said Rickman, are key unanswered questions that astronomers are very interested in addressing as they underpin our understanding of the Universe. By extending the wavelength range of existing UV observatories, MAUVE would be able to study the kinds of high-energy cosmological events that could answer some of these questions. In addition, said Rickman, MAUVE would be allocated a substantial amount (70%) of General Observer (GO) time:

“[This would allow] the wider community to propose their observing ideas that could be studied in this largely unexplored parameter space, answering fundamental questions like ‘How do star-forming structures arise and interact with the diffuse interstellar medium?’, ‘What are the most extreme stars and stellar populations?’,  ‘How do habitable environments arise and evolve within the context of their planetary systems?’. The possibility to study these questions would provide a fundamental insight into some of the building blocks of our understanding of the Universe.”

Further Reading: arXiv

The post MAUVE: An Ultraviolet Astrophysics Probe Mission Concept appeared first on Universe Today.

Researchers have used the ALMA telescope and found old elliptical galaxies in the universe can form from intense star formation within early galaxy cores.

Colorful auroras appeared around Japan's Honshu and Hokkaido islands on May 11, 2024, sparked by an intense magnetic storm. Usually, auroras observed at low latitudes appear red due to the emission of oxygen atoms. But on this day, a salmon pink aurora was observed throughout the night, while an unusually tall, blue-dominant aurora appeared shortly before midnight.