Science

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It has been thought that the existence of plate tectonics has been a significant factor in the shaping of our planet and the evolution of life. Mars and Venus don’t experience such movements of crustal plates but then the differences between the worlds is evident. The exploration of exoplanets too finds many varied environments. Many of these new alien worlds seem to have significant internal heating and so lack plate movements too. Instead a new study reveals that these ‘Ignan Earths’ are more likely to have heat pipes that channel magma to she surface. The likely result is a surface temperature similar to Earth in its hottest period when liquid water started forming. 

Plate tectonics explains the movement and interaction of the Earth’s upper layers. More accurately, the lithosphere which is composed of the crust and upper layer of the mantle. It is divided into a number of pieces known as tectonic plates which float around on the semi-fluid layer below called the asthenosphere. Where the plates meet, various geological features form such as mountains, volcanoes and trenches. 

Location of the Mariana Trench. Credit: Wikipedia Commons/Kmusser

The process has been a crucial factor in the evolution of life on our planet. The shifting of landmasses has created new habitats and caused populations to become isolated allowing for individual ecosystems to form. Collisions of plates led to mountain range development which influenced the weather patterns and climate. Volcanic activity driven by plate movement led to soils becoming fertile, plant life to flourish and the release of gasses like carbon dioxide into the atmosphere that helped the planet regulate its climate. It really has been a crucial process in the evolution of our planet. 

A typical “black smoker” volcanic vent here on E

In some respects the process also stops a planet’s internal environment from overheating. There is a train of thought that if Earth didn’t have such plate movement then it may be too hot internally for a stable environment to evolve. This was the subject of the paper by Matthew Reinhold and Laura Schaefer that was published in Advancing Earth and Space Sciences. 

They explored the liklihood that such a world might have so much internal heating that instead, it would resemble bodies like Jupiter’s moon Io. Here we see intense levels of volcanism where laval violently erupts hundreds of kilometres into the atmosphere which is full of toxic gasses. It’s not just a lack of plate tectonics that can lead to high levels of internal heating. Tidal effects can cause worlds to have one face constantly pointing to the Sun giving a wide range of surface temperatures.

These are JunoCam images of Jupiter’s moon Io from its 3 February 2024 encounter. The first two images show Io illuminated by Jupiter-shine, and the rest are lit up by sunlight. The new volcano was captured in the second image in the sequence. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS.

Collectively these worlds are known casually as Ignan Earth’s and they are the target of the paper, to explore whether they are habitable. Exploring the geology of the bodies in our Solar System gives great insight. The team demonstrate that it is likely that worlds with high internal temperatures will develp a solid mantle. The crust will remain largely stable as a result with the only likely activity, heat-pipe tectonics – where some of the internal heat is transferred to the surface for example from volcanic activity. 

The team were able to model the the likely surface temperature range based upon a number of different types of world and found that, contrary to previous expectations, a wide range of internal heating rates may well lead to worlds where the environment is conducive to habitability.

Source : Ignan Earths: Habitability of Terrestrial Planets With Extreme Internal Heating

The post Planets Without Plate Tectonics Could Still Be Habitable appeared first on Universe Today.

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Well, I’m not sure that most American comedians working now are Jews, but surely they are still way overrepresented compared to the proportion of Jews in America, which is only 2.4%.

In fact, the first two comedians I thought of still working were Jerry Seinfeld and Sarah Silverman, both of course of the Hebrew persuasion.  But think of the great comedians of the past 50 years, and then of their religion.  As one site reports, “In 1978, 80 percent of American standup comedians were Jewish.”  But it’s not just the standups!

Here are are just a few well-known Jewish comedians (I’m leaving out ones that few people know, like Fanny Brice).

Groucho Marx
Mel Brooks
Rodney Dangerfield
Mort Sahl
Don Rickles
Henny Youngman
Jerry Seinfeld
George Burns
Lenny Bruce
Joan Rivers
Jackie Mason
Gilda Radner
Milton Berle
Curly, Moe, and Shemp Howard of The Three Stooges
Carl Reiner
Bill Maher
Jerry Lewis

I won’t go on; there are too many!  In fact, Wikipedia has three full pages of Jewish comedians, listed alphabetically (start here and continue by clicking at the bottom of each page).

There must be reasons for this inequity in comedy, and I’m also sure that many people have discussed this. But I don’t know of the speculations, so I asked three Jewish friends (one of them is ME) to give their theories.

1.) Malgorzata, my surrogate Polish mother:

Malgorzata lightheartedly suggested that the tendency of Jews to offer humor is the result of natural selection: since Jews have experienced dark times and pogroms throughout much of their history, those Jews who could laugh at themselves and the world were less likely to be depressed and to kill themselves, or more likely to tolerate intolerable situations. If there is genetic variation for humor, those with more “humor” genes would survive and reproduce. Other groups haven’t had such a history, ergo Jews tend to be comedians. (I am paraphrasing what she told me.) natural selection for people who could laugh and have a sense of humor because they would commit suicide.

2.) Me (PCC[E]):

I have a variant based on the impression of many Jews that the whole world of non-Jews hates them, something that is not far from the truth.  Jews, then, suffer from a lack of love from others.  To compensate for this, they become comedians, for what better way is there to get love and approbation than to have an audience laugh at your jokes? And they are not laughing at you, but laughing with you. That is s a form of love. This is a cultural explanation for the surfeit of Jewish comedians.

3.) Steve Pinker.  I asked him for his explanation, and this is his response (quoted with permission). Part of his theory jibes with Malgorzata’s, but he is looking for an explanation that itself is funny:

This has been a puzzle that others have (humorlessly) considered, including Ruth Wisse (former Harvard colleague and fellow Montrealer, grew up with my mother), and Howard Jacobson (British novelist, unlike most Brits proud of being Jewish). Something about humor being a subversive tactic, or a coping mechanism of the powerless and oppressed. The analyses were neither convincing nor funny.

But they may be consistent with the fact that many African Americans have been great comedians – Moms Mabley, Pigmeat Markham, Nipsey Russell, Flip Wilson, Richard Pryor, Eddie Murphy, Chris Rock, Dave Chappelle, and the greatest of all, Bill Cosby. (“Noah!”)

Of course this is a lighthearted post, but there is a real phenomenon to be explained, and I invite readers to offer their own theory, which is theirs.