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Did Taylor Swift mime her songs in concert?

Why Evolution is True Feed - Sat, 11/30/2024 - 9:00am

I have never been a fan of Taylor Swift’s music, and this pair of videos further diminishes my opinion of her music, or at least of her performances.

These videos, by commenter and musician Fil from Wings of Pegasus, analyzes Swift’s live performances on her fabled “Eras” tour, for which tickets could cost thousands of dollars. Using electronic analyses of several of these performances, he proves, at least to my satisfaction, that Swift was lip-synching while purporting to sing live.  (The recordings to which she lip-synchs also appear to be autotuned.)

Here’s one. Look at the repeatability of her supposedly live vocals across several concerts, a repeatedly that apparently cannot be attained by the human voice.

A comment from one cynical reader.

Here’s another video by Fil, one demanded by Swift fans, repeating what he showed in the previous video:

As Fil says, listen and judge for yourself.  I have listened and judged. I don’t know about you, but if I paid mucho dollars to hear a live performance, I would want it to be really live. Now there’s one caveat here: perhaps Swift sang some of her songs live, and lip-synched others. But I would find that hard to believe.

Categories: Science

Reader’s wildlife photos: psychedelic edition

Why Evolution is True Feed - Sat, 11/30/2024 - 8:00am

Today we have a special feature: a word-and-text account of ecologist Susan Harrison‘s recent mental adventures after  (legally) ingesting psilocybin.  Her text is indented, and you can click on the pictures to enlarge them.

My Psilocybin Journey

In a recent Reader’s Wildlife post, I mentioned that the photos were taken just after a legal psychedelic trip in Oregon, which had intensified – among many other things — my appreciation for seeing and sharing natural beauty.  Some readers were curious enough to want to know more, and so with Jerry’s support I’ve written a longer account.

Photos 2-8 are from the Instagram account of Satya Therapeutics, the psilocybin provider with whom I worked, and are used here with permission.

The history

For me it all began with reading the book below, in which Michael Pollan recounts how the two leading psychedelic substances – LSD (a synthetic product) and psilocybin (found in Psilocybe cubensis mushrooms)– were researched extensively in the 1950s and early 1960s.  Both showed great promise in the treatment of PTSD, addiction, depression, and anxiety, but as the hippie era took hold, they were abruptly banned as menaces to the social order.  Pollan also describes what is now known about the science of psychedelics, the cautious modern resurgence of psychedelic-assisted therapy, and his own experiences.  My reaction to his well-written book was “Why would anyone NOT want to do this?”

The book:

The science

The current working view is that psilocybin and LSD bind to serotonin receptors in a brain structure called the default mode network (or just default network) and interrupt its regular pulsating messages to the rest of the brain.  The default network is associated with the ego, i.e., the sense of one’s unique identity and history.  It’s also associated with the excessive rumination that leads to unhappiness.  When the default network is quieted, the rest of the mind comes out to play – emotions, memory, sensory processing, and imagination operate more freely, as different brain areas talk to one another. These new neuronal connections may persist and may enable people to make positive life changes.  Psychedelics research is quite active; as an example, here is a cancer-related study in which a relative of mine was just invited to participate.

The theory, per an industry seminar:

The business

Where it’s legal, psilocybin can be used only on the premises and under the supervision of a licensed provider.  In Oregon, a few dozen such providers have been operating since June 2023, and in Colorado the industry is still emerging.  Thousands of clients with serious issues such as drug abuse have come to Oregon for psilocybin-assisted therapy.  Still, this new industry is not doing extremely well, because it’s expensive and there is a competing ‘gray market’ in illegal but decriminalized mushrooms. (Also, some communities in Oregon are scared of it.)  A licensed provider must offer each client many hours of pre-trip preparation, during-trip supervision, and post-trip ‘integration’, all of which help to make the legal therapy safe and effective, but also make it costly — typically $1,000 to $1,500 for one journey.

Clients begin by contacting a provider and then choosing a facilitator.   I was very fortunate to find Satya Therapeutics and work with its co-owner Andreas Met as my facilitator.  He’s extremely smart, empathetic, and more secular in worldview than many in this business — as he put it, his approach is “cognitive, not neoshamanistic.”  He’s also a leader in the industry and an expert at mushroom cultivation and processing.

Andreas with his wife Jennifer and their product, which they sell to other providers:

Mushroom processing and quality control:

My experience

Over my several-week preparation period, Andreas got me meditating and journaling, which help develop one’s ‘intentions for the journey,’ in the parlance.  My intention was to get to know my subconscious better, and I found myself examining some lifelong recurring dreams, for example. We talked about these personal issues and also about how the journey might go, including what to do if it became scary.  We decided on a dosing strategy of 15 mg followed by another 15 mg after an hour, which is in the typical range.  For music, we chose the seven-hour “Psychedelic Playlist – Overtone-based Music” created by Johns Hopkins psychedelics researchers.  (It is a wonderful playlist, and why didn’t I know about Henryk Gorecki’s ‘Symphony of Sorrowful Songs’ before??)

On the day, I showed up at 9 am with my stuffed cat, signed a large pile of legal paperwork, and was ushered to a converted office with a futon and chair and many pillows.   The psilocybin arrived as a powder in a vial accompanied by a cup of tea with lemon and honey.  A half-hour after mixing and drinking my tea, I noticed that the cat (formerly Stuffed Boris, but now known as Spirit Cat) was breathing and his eyes and fur were glowing, and so we were off on our adventure.  Andreas sat quietly present for the next 7 hours, waiting to help if needed.

Treatment room:

Tea tray:

Spirit Cat:

The progression of phases in my journey was typical.  One early phase was a visit to childhood memories and emotions, some of them sad, ultimately leading to deep feelings of catharsis and understanding.  Later came an unpleasant “stuck” phase that I’d been warned about; desiring to feel transcendence, I instead struggled with garish Day of the Dead visual imagery and the conviction that I was having a mere commercialized experience that proved my unworthiness. After realizing the need to let expectations go, there then came the “peak” phase, with a flying feeling and glorious imagery and inexpressibly beautiful realizations coming one after another.  What I would say now is that some of what was already in my mind as being meaningful– birdwatching, teaching, laughter, for example – was revealed as being divine, or at least as divine as anything else that exists.  Finally, there was a long and enjoyable coming-down phase full of grateful thoughts, and of delightedly watching the (nonexistent) movement in the pictures on the wall.  Throughout the seven hours, I didn’t talk much nor require intervention.  While I did achieve the liberating feeling of being a mere speck in the universe, I still knew who and where I was, a sign that this trip didn’t go as far as full dissolution of the ego.

One childhood memory was of beloved cat Seymour, who died when I was seven:

The modern avatar of long-ago Seymour, a.k.a. my beloved Boris:

The few weeks after a psychedelic journey are said to be a key time for integrating new insights while neuroplasticity remains heightened.  I’ve tried to keep meditating, journaling, taking walks, and cultivating greater openness and not-overthinking.  And I’m going to do it again…!

Me post-journey:

Evolutionary Coda

Why does a mushroom make a chemical that alters human minds?   Some neoshamanists might say that the fungi offer us their gift to unite humanity and save the Earth.  However, a recent genomic study concluded that psilocybin production is considerably older than Homo sapiens — in fact, about as old as primates — and has evolved repeatedly. While its natural function remains untested, the authors of the genomic study propose the Gastropod Hypothesis, speculating based upon its timing that it evolved to deter slugs from eating Psilocybe cubensis.

Categories: Science

Interstellar Objects Can't Hide From Vera Rubin

Universe Today Feed - Sat, 11/30/2024 - 7:50am

We have studied the skies for centuries, but we have only found two objects known to come from another star system. The first interstellar object to be confirmed was 1I/2017 U1, more commonly known as ?Oumuamua. It was discovered with the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS) and stood out because of its large proper motion. Because ?Oumuamua swept through the inner solar system, it was relatively easy to distinguish. The second interstellar object, 2I/Borisov, stood out because it entered the inner solar system from well above the orbital plane. But while we have only discovered two alien visitors so far, astronomers think interstellar objects are common. It’s estimated that several of them visit our solar system each year, and there may be thousands within the orbit of Neptune on any given day. They just don’t stand out, so we don’t notice them. But that could soon change.

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory is scheduled to come online in 2025. Unlike many large telescopes, Rubin Observatory isn’t designed to focus on specific targets in the sky. Its mirror can capture a patch of sky seven Moons wide in a single image. It will capture more than a petabyte of data every night, capturing images of solar system bodies every few days. This will allow astronomers to track even faint and slow-moving bodies with precision. The orbit of any interstellar object will stand out clearly. IF astronomers can find them. Which is where a new study comes in.

With so much data being gathered, there is no way to go through the data by hand. Some things, such as supernovae and variable stars, will be easy to distinguish, but interstellar bodies in the outer solar system will pose a particular challenge. In any given image, they will appear as a common asteroid or comet. It’s only after months or years of tracking that their unique orbits will reveal their true origins.

The fieldview of Rubin’s image compared to the Moon. Credit: SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

So the authors of this new work propose using machine learning. To demonstrate how this would work, the team created a database of simulated solar system bodies. Some of them were given regular orbits, while others were given interstellar paths. Based on this data, they trained algorithms to distinguish the two. They found that some machine learning methods worked better than others. In this case, the Random Forest approach, where one classifies decision trees statistically, and the Gradient Boosting method, which prioritizes “weak learners” to strengthen them, seem to work the best. The more commonly known Neural Network method was less effective.

Overall, the team found that machine learning can detect interstellar objects with great efficiency, and the number of false positives should be small enough that they could be effectively managed. While the approach won’t find all the interstellar bodies in our solar system, it should be able to find hundreds of them within the first year of Rubin’s operation. And that will give us plenty of data to better understand these enigmatic visitors.

Reference: Cloete, Richard, Peter Vereš, and Abraham Loeb. “Machine learning methods for automated interstellar object classification with LSST.” Astronomy & Astrophysics 691 (2024): A338.

The post Interstellar Objects Can't Hide From Vera Rubin appeared first on Universe Today.

Categories: Science

My grueling trip to Poland

Why Evolution is True Feed - Sat, 11/30/2024 - 6:15am

Starting on Thursday afternoon, here is the course of my journey to Poland:

Thursday, Noon: had a can of soup: my last food until Friday evening.

5 p.m. Took Uber to O’Hare airport for 10 pm flight, supposing there would be traffic. I forgot it was Thanksgiving. The Uber was early, so I got there at 5:35, with four hours to wait until boarding. Did not want to read my book as I’m saving it for the five-hour train journay from Wroclawek to Katowice.

10 p.m. Thursday to 1:15 pm Friday: Plane flight to Warsaw’s Chopin Airport. No good movies, so I had to watch “Ocean’s 11,” which was okay for a crime movie, but I hoped for better. There was nothing better on tap. Food was dreadful, so I refused dinner and breakfast. Had two glasses of blackcurrant juice, which I always drink on flight to and from Europe. I do not understand why Americans have not adopted the blackcurrant, which makes terrific jams and juices

The flight was more than half empty, so I tried to sleep on the three seats in my row. I was unsuccessful, as I always am when trying to sleep on planes.

Friday, 1:30-1:45.  Because our flight was empty, I got through customs in just a few minute.

1:45-2:30: Long taxi ride from station to the new train station in Warsaw, as the one I usually use is under renovation

2:30-4:15: Wait in cold waiting room for train to Włocławek, the town nearest Dobrzyn. Bought ticket but was told that the train was full and that I would have to stand. Boarded train after a nearly two-hour wait on an uncomfortable bench. Still no food, though there was a McDonald’s and KFC in the station, heavily patronized by the travelers.

The train was packed and people were sitting on the floor. I couldn’t find space on the floor and so stood for half an hour with my bag and daypack. Finally found floor space for 1.5 hours when a traveler debarked. A truly uncomfortable journey. Andrzej told me I should have purchased a first-class ticket with a reserved seat, which doesn’t cost much more than my senior “standing only” ticket.

4:15: Arrived in Włocławek, picked up at station by Malgorzata’s and Andrzej’s lodgers, the kindly Paulina and Mariusz.

5 p.m. Arrived at Dobrzyn, where Malgorzata had held a tasty dinner for me. First food since I left Chicago.  I chatted with Andrzej and Malgorzata, worked a bit, petted the cats and went to bed at 9:30 pm.

Saturday. (today) woke up at 2 a.m., started with the brain-racing anxieties and was worried that I wouldn’t get much sleep. But my body put me to sleep and I woke up at 7 a.m., well rested. Made coffee and had a big piece of cheesecake for breakfast.

Readers can figure out how long my journey was and how long I went without eating given the 7-hour time difference between Chicago and Poland.

Now, into a shower!

Categories: Science

The Early Earth Wasn’t Completely Terrible

Universe Today Feed - Fri, 11/29/2024 - 4:05pm

Earth formed 4.54 billion years ago. The first period of the history of the Earth was known as the Hadean Period which lasted from 4.54 billion to 4 billion years ago. During that time, Earth was thought to be a magma filled, volcanic hellscape. It all sounds rather inhospitable at this stage but even then, liquid oceans of water are thought to have existed under an atmosphere of carbon dioxide and nitrogen. Recent research has shown that this environment may well have been rather more habitable than once thought. 


The name ‘Hadean’ comes from Hades, the Greek god of the underworld. It nicely reflects the hot, hostile climate of the early Earth. During this period, Earth was largely a molten, chaotic world with volcanic eruptions a common sight on the landscape. Overhead, there would be regular visitors from space with meteorites and comets impacting the surface as the crust is still forming. Despite these conditions, it seems that water also began to accumulate as the planet cooled, possibly having been delivered by comets or released from outgassing from giant volcanoes. By the end of the era, the crust had solidified enough to form two early continents separated by forming oceans. 

Artist concept of Earth during the Late Heavy Bombardment period. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab.

In a paper published by a team of researchers from the University of California they confirm this conclusion that, far from being in hospitable, early Earth was actually far less tumultuous. The team, led by Christopher K Jones explore the evolution of the Earth from formation to the evolution of life. They review a number of different pathways for the origins of life during the Hadean in the context of the large-scale planetary environment at the time, including Earth’s position in the Solar System.

This view of Earth from space is a fusion of science and art, drawing on data from multiple satellite missions and the talents of NASA scientists and graphic artists. This image originally appeared in the NASA Earth Observatory story Twin Blue Marbles. Image Credits: NASA images by Reto Stöckli, based on data from NASA and NOAA.

In order to complete their work, the team look at the a number of critical aspects across different disciplines that included microbiology, atmospheric chemistry, geochemistry and planetary science. The relationships between life’s beginnings and the processes and state of the environment at the time is also assessed in their paper including the formation of the crust and evolution of the atmosphere. 

The paper also explores a number of different atmospheric processes from wet-dry and freeze-thaw cycles to hydrothermal vent systems. This is not just assessed on Earth but in the Solar System at large to see if there is any correlation or overlaps. The impact of comets too are considered and how they would impact on the atmospheric chemistry. 

According to a new study, a comet impact triggered massive wildfires and a temporary cooling 12,800 years ago. Credit: NASA/Don Davis

The team conclude that Earth, during the Hadean period, most likely had liquid water. The debate still rages on however about the existence of continents and their composition. This uncertainty has an impact on just how organic life could have got a foothold on Earth. However it did, life would have taken a hold by the end of the Hadean era and started to leave evidence in the geological records of the Archean period that followed. 

Unfortunately the paper is far from conclusive, leaving a number of questions unanswered but it does make a fabulous start to fill in the gaps at just how life began on this planet we call home.

Source : Setting the stage: Building and maintaining a habitable world and the early conditions that could favour life’s beginnings on Earth and beyond

The post The Early Earth Wasn’t Completely Terrible appeared first on Universe Today.

Categories: Science

Globular Clusters Evolve in Interesting Ways Over Time

Universe Today Feed - Fri, 11/29/2024 - 1:51pm

Globular clusters are among the oldest objects in the Universe. The early Universe was filled with dwarf galaxies and its just possible that globular clusters are the remains of these ancient relics. Analysis of the stars in the clusters reveals ages in the region of 12-13 billion years old. A new paper just published shows that the globular clusters are home to two distinct types of stars; the primordial ones with normal chemical composition and those with unusual heavy amounts of heavier elements. 

Globular clusters are dense, spherical collections of stars that orbit the outer regions of galaxies, usually in the galactic halo. They contain hundreds of thousands, sometimes millions of stars bound together by gravity. They differ from open clusters, which are younger and less tightly bound and found in the main body of a galaxy. Globular clusters in contrast, are ancient with ages typically in the regions of 10 to 13 billion years old. 

M13 – Credit: R. Jay GaBany

There stellar components are mostly composed of low-mass, metal-poor stars, suggesting they formed early in the history of the universe before the heavier elements appeared. Studying globular clusters can reveal lots about stellar evolution, the formation of galaxies and even dark matter. Our own Galaxy the Milky Way is home to over 150 known globular clusters like well known M13 in the northern hemisphere or Omega Centauri in the southern hemisphere.

Omega Centauri is the brightest globular cluster in the night sky. It holds about 10 million stars and is the most massive globular cluster in the Milky Way. It’s possible that globulars and nuclear star clusters are related in some way as a galaxy evolves. Image Credit: ESO.

In a paper recently published in Astronomy and Astrophysics, a team of researchers have advanced our understanding of these clusters by revealing more about their formation and dynamical evolution. The team led by Emanuele Dalessandro from the National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF) explored multiple populations of stars in the clusters. They studied the change in positions of the stars and their velocity in the first 3D kinematic analysis of 16 globular clusters. 

The team used data from ESA’s Gaia telescope the European Southern Observatory Very Large Telescope and Multi Instrument Kinematic Survey to measure the 3D velocity of stars within the clusters. This was a combination of proper motion (motion across the sky) and radial velocity (motion towards and away from us.) To gather the measurements, spectroscopic survey data was used.

Artist’s impression of the Gaia spacecraft detecting artificial signals from a distant star system. In this synchronization scheme, the star system’s inhabitants send the signal shortly after witnessing a supernova, which is also seen by telescopes on Earth. (Credit: Danielle Futselaar / Breakthrough Listen)

The formation and evolution of globular clusters has been one of the most hotly debated questions for the last few decades. The significance of understanding them is huge explains Dalessandro,’because they not only help us to test cosmological models of the formation of the Universe due to their age but also provide natural laboratories for studying the formation, evolution, and chemical enrichment of galaxies.’ Understanding the physical processes behind their formation was key to understanding how they evolve. This was the goal of their study which revealed for the first time that globular cluster form through multiple star formation events. 

Source : The first 3D view of the formation and evolution of globular clusters

The post Globular Clusters Evolve in Interesting Ways Over Time appeared first on Universe Today.

Categories: Science

I have landed!

Why Evolution is True Feed - Fri, 11/29/2024 - 11:08am

Well, it was a hell of a strenuous trip to Poland from Chicago, but more about that tomorrow (no seats on the train, so I had to sit on the floor for two hours).  Right now I’ll just provide empirical evidence that I have finally made it to Dobrzyn.

Dinner here was  an excellent chicken stew with peanut butter/coconut milk sauce over rice, served with salad, but I nommed it before I had a chance to photograph it. However, there was aksi a freshly made cherry cheesecake for dessert. It’s a big one, and Malgorzata cut slices for dessert.

A small slice for me, as I’ve hardly eaten anything since the morning of the day I left Chicago (that was yesterday). I will get my appetite back after a good night’s rest, for I’ve been up for over 24 hours.

The cats are here, too. I haven’t yet seen Baby Kulka, who lives mostly upstairs, but Hili seems to remember me and was friendly:

HILI in person (or rather in cat)

, , , and Szaron is still the world’s Most Affectionate Cat:

And, after dinner, it’s back to work on Listy for Andrzej and Malgorzata.

As for me, I’m going to brush my teeth and hit the hay. I’ll be in Dobrzyn for a week, and then on to Katowice to give science talks.

I hope all American readers had a good Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, LOT Polish Airlines didn’t serve turkey for the holiday (it is of course not celebrated in Poland), but the food on offer was so bad that I rejected both dinner and breakfast. My comestibles on the plane consisted of two glasses of blackcurrant juice, a wonderful drink that you’d never be served in America.

Bis bald!

 

Categories: Science

A Superfast Supercomputer Creates the Biggest Simulation of the Universe Yet

Universe Today Feed - Fri, 11/29/2024 - 10:30am

Scientists at the Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory have created the largest astrophysical simulation of the Universe ever. They used what was until recently the world’s most powerful supercomputer to simulate the Universe at an unprecedented scale. The simulation’s size corresponds to the largest surveys conducted by powerful telescopes and observatories.

The Frontier Supercomputer is located at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. It’s the second-fasted supercomputer in the world, behind only El Capitan, which pulled ahead in November, 2024. Frontier is the world’s first exascale supercomputer, though El Capitan has joined the ranks of exascale supercomputing.

The new Frontier simulation is record-breaking and is now the largest simulation of the Universe ever conducted. Its exascale computing allows it to simulate a level of detail that was unreachable prior to its implementation. Exascale is so advanced that it’s difficult to fully exploit its capabilities without new programming paradigms.

Frontier is a significant leap in astrophysical simulations. It covers a volume of the Universe that’s 10 billion light years across. It incorporates detailed physics models for dark matter, dark energy, gas dynamics, star formation, and black hole growth. It should provide new insights into some of the fundamental processes in the Universe, such as how galaxies form and how the large-scale structure of the Universe evolves.

“There are two components in the universe: dark matter—which as far as we know, only interacts gravitationally—and conventional matter, or atomic matter.” said project lead Salman Habib, division director for Computational Sciences at Argonne.

“So, if we want to know what the universe is up to, we need to simulate both of these things: gravity as well as all the other physics including hot gas, and the formation of stars, black holes and galaxies,” he said. “The astrophysical ‘kitchen sink’ so to speak. These simulations are what we call cosmological hydrodynamics simulations.”

Cosmological hydrodynamics simulations combine cosmology with hydrodynamics and allow astronomers to examine the complex interrelationships between gravity and things like gas dynamics and stellar processes that have shaped and continue to shape our Universe. They can only be conducted with supercomputers because of the level of complexity and the vast number of numerical equations and calculations involved.

The sheer amount of energy needed for Frontier to perform these simulations is staggering. It consumes about 21 MW of electricity, enough to power about 15,000 single-family homes in the US. But the payoff is equally as impressive.

“For example, if we were to simulate a large chunk of the universe surveyed by one of the big telescopes such as the Rubin Observatory in Chile, you’re talking about looking at huge chunks of time — billions of years of expansion,” Habib said. “Until recently, we couldn’t even imagine doing such a large simulation like that except in the gravity-only approximation.”

“It’s not only the sheer size of the physical domain, which is necessary to make direct comparison to modern survey observations enabled by exascale computing,” said Bronson Messer, Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility director of science. “It’s also the added physical realism of including the baryons and all the other dynamic physics that makes this simulation a true tour de force for Frontier.”

The Exascale-class HPE Cray EX Supercomputer (Frontier) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Image Credit: By OLCF at ORNL – https://www.flickr.com/photos/olcf/52117623843/, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=119231238

Frontier simulates more than just the Universe. In June, researchers working with it achieved another milestone. They simulated a system of 466 billion atoms in a simulation of water. That was the largest system ever modeled and more than 400 times larger than its closest competition. Since water is a primary component of cells, Frontier is paving the way for an eventual simulation of a living cell.

Frontier promises to make advancements in multiple other areas as well, including nuclear fission and fusion and large-scale energy transmission systems. It’s also been used to generate a quantum molecular dynamics simulation that’s 1,000 times greater in size and speed than any of its predecessors. It also has applications in modelling diseases, developing new drugs, better batteries, better materials including concrete, and predicting and mitigating climate change.

Astrophysical/cosmological simulations like Frontier’s are powerful when they’re combined with observations. Scientists can use simulations to test theoretical models compared to observational data. Changing initial conditions and parameters in the simulations lets researchers see how different factors shape outcomes. It’s an iterative process that allows scientists to update their models by identifying discrepancies between observations and simulations.

Frontier’s huge simulation is just one example of how supercomputers and AI are taking on a larger role in astronomy and astrophysics. Modern astronomy generates massive amounts of data, and requires powerful tools to manage. Our theories of cosmology are based on larger and larger datasets that require massive computing power to simulate.

Frontier has already been superseded by El Capitan, another exascale supercomputer at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). However, El Capitan is focused on managing the nation’s nuclear stockpile according to the LLNL.

The post A Superfast Supercomputer Creates the Biggest Simulation of the Universe Yet appeared first on Universe Today.

Categories: Science

Most comprehensive picture yet of how organs age at different rates

New Scientist Feed - Fri, 11/29/2024 - 9:00am
Our organs don't seem to age at the same rate, which could mean healthy habits are particularly important at certain times of our lives
Categories: Science

Heatwaves are surpassing the extremes predicted by climate models

New Scientist Feed - Fri, 11/29/2024 - 8:53am
Comparing historical heat extremes with climate simulations has revealed that in parts of the world the models are underestimating how extreme heatwaves are getting
Categories: Science

Swarms of cyborg cockroaches could be manufactured by robots

New Scientist Feed - Fri, 11/29/2024 - 7:04am
Robotic equipment can implant electrodes into cockroaches and connect them to an electronic backpack, making it feasible to mass-produce biorobots for search missions
Categories: Science

Friday: Hili dialogue

Why Evolution is True Feed - Fri, 11/29/2024 - 4:07am

PCC(E) is travelling to Poland, so posting will be light until he is installed.

Meanwhile, in Dobrzyn, Hili is practising her moves for when Jerry arrives:

Hili: Don’t you want to read a book?
A: Why?
Hili: So I can disturb you.

Hili: Czy nie chcesz poczytać jakiejś książki?
Ja: Dlaczego?
Hili: Żebym ci mogła przeszkadzać.

And some good news from Midway Island:

Categories: Science

Life on Mars could be surviving in an area deep underground

New Scientist Feed - Fri, 11/29/2024 - 3:01am
The Acidalia Planitia region of the Red Planet might have all the requirements for methane-burping bacteria to exist beneath the surface
Categories: Science

ZDoggMD on RFK Jr.’s Rise: “I’m Talking About Like These Science Based Medicine Guys”

Science-based Medicine Feed - Fri, 11/29/2024 - 12:00am

Dr. Zubin Damania praised and promoted RFK Jr.-loving doctors. We criticized these doctors and corrected their factual errors. See the difference?

The post ZDoggMD on RFK Jr.’s Rise: “I’m Talking About Like These Science Based Medicine Guys” first appeared on Science-Based Medicine.
Categories: Science

The way Cheerios stick together has inspired a new kind of robot

New Scientist Feed - Thu, 11/28/2024 - 12:00pm
Tiny robots designed to carry out environmental or industrial tasks could be powered by tricks involving surface tension
Categories: Science

Ancient footprints show how early human species lived side by side

New Scientist Feed - Thu, 11/28/2024 - 11:00am
Footprints preserved on the shore of Lake Turkana in Kenya seem to be from two ancient human species, showing they lived there at the same time about 1.5 million years ago
Categories: Science

How Much Are Asteroids Really Worth?

Universe Today Feed - Thu, 11/28/2024 - 10:51am

Popular media love talking about asteroid mining using big numbers. Many articles talk about a mission to Psyche, the largest metallic asteroid in the asteroid belt, as visiting a body worth $10000000000000000000, assumedly because their authors like hitting the “0” key on their keyboards a lot. But how realistic is that valuation? And what does it actually mean? A paper funded by Astroforge, an asteroid mining start-up based in Huntington Beach, and written by a professor at the Colorado School of Mine’s Space Resources Program takes a good hard look at what metals are available on asteroids and whether they’d genuinely be worth as much as the simple calculations say that would be.

The paper divides metals on asteroids into two distinct types—those that would be worth returning to Earth and those that wouldn’t. Really, the only metals judged to be worthy of returning to Earth are the platinum-group metals (PGMs), which are known for their extraordinarily high cost, relatively low supply, and high usefulness in a variety of modern-day technology. That includes catalytic converters, which is why they are commonly the target of thieves.

The other category would be metals used for in-space construction, such as iron, aluminum, and magnesium. While these might not be economically viable to send back to Earth because of their relatively low prices on our home planet, they are useful up in space for constructing large structures, such as space stations or solar power arrays. However, given the chicken-and-egg problem of not having any demand for these space-sourced metals because they are so expensive, it is hard to quantify how much they are worth. Its competition (i.e. launching the material from Earth), is priceable though, and at $10,000 / kg, plus $100 / kg for a common material such as iron.

Fraser talks about whether we would mine asteroids.

Those prices aren’t anywhere near the $500,000 / kg that a PGM such as Rhodium has ever back on Earth, but it could still make mining asteroids for iron economically viable if the material is used in space. So what do all those calculations mean for the actual value of the asteroids that we might mine?

First and most importantly, recent research suggests that asteroids made out of “pure metal,” such as Psyche is assumed to be, are likely pure fiction. While that might not be great news for any single benign asteroid worth a lot, the other part of that research is that even asteroids that were originally thought to be relatively low in metal content actually have reasonable quantities that could be economically extracted.

To prove the point, the paper looked in detail at a series of meteorite studies, which are the equivalent of left-over asteroids, and compared the “grades” of 83 different elements with ores found on or near the Earth’s surface. Since remote sensing has difficulty distinguishing between some of those elements, meteorite samples that can be subjected to advanced analysis techniques are our best bet at accurately calculating the chemical composition of asteroids, other than the few samples of in-tact asteroids that have been returned so far.

Isaac Arthur also discusses the prospects of asteroid mining.
Credit – Isaac Arthur YouTube Channel

That data showed that PGMs, while lower in concentration than considered initially (because of an assumption in a foundational paper on the composition of asteroids), are still in much higher concentrations than the equivalent terrestrial ores. In particular, a material known as a refractory metal nugget (RMN) could have concentrations of PGMs orders of magnitude higher than anything found on Earth or other types of asteroidal material.

RMNs are primarily found in a calcium aluminum inclusion (CAI) structure, mainly on L-type asteroids. L-types are relatively uncommon asteroids with a reddish tint, but we haven’t yet visited them. They might be made up of more than 30% CAIs, though, in which case, they could contain a significant amount of extractable PGMs without additional processing.

However, RMNs themselves are very small, at the micron to sub-micron range, making them extremely hard to process in the first place. So, bulk extraction from asteroidal regolith could range up to hundreds of ppm, which is already a few orders of magnitude greater than their concentration in Earth’s regolith.

Fraser talks about mining Psyche, the largest “metallic asteroid” in the asteroid belt.

When looking at the metals for use in space, they are about as abundant as initially predicted, but they face challenges in processing them out of their oxidized states. Typically, this requires some high-energy procedure, such as molten regolith electrolysis, to break off the elemental metal, which is needed for further processing. Again, there’s the chicken and egg problem of having a power source that is large enough to perform these processes, but building it would require the material that would require the power source.

Eventually, that problem will disappear if companies like AstroForge have their way. Remember that the company funded this study, and its two co-founders and Kevin Cannon, the professor at CSM, were co-authors. The company plans to launch its next mission, a rendezvous with near-Earth asteroids, to try to tell if they’re “metallic” in January. Perhaps that mission will help contribute to our growing understanding of the composition and value of the asteroids surrounding us.

Learn More:
Cannon, Gialich, Acain – Precious and structural metals on asteroids
UT – What Are Asteroids Made Of?
UT – What Is The Difference Between Asteroids and Meteorites?
UT – Asteroids: 10 Interesting Facts About These Space Rocks

Lead Image:
Asteroid mining concept.
Credit: NASA/Denise Watt

The post How Much Are Asteroids Really Worth? appeared first on Universe Today.

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