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EEG recordings used in neurology could be made simpler by replacing the usual electrodes, wires and gels with a tattoo printed onto the scalp

As I’ve mentioned several times, Matthew Cobb has written what will likely prove the definitive biography of Francis Crick (1916-2004), co-discoverer of the structure of DNA and a general polymath. While writing it, Matthew came across some Crick material showing that biologists and historians have misunderstood Crick’s “Central Dogma” of molecular biology.

Matthew has corrected the record in the piece below from the Asimov Press. Click the headline, as it’s free to read:

You may have learned this dogma as “DNA makes RNA makes protein,” along with the caveat that it’s a one-way path. But Matthew shows that this was not Crick’s contention. I’ve indented Mathew’s words below:

The Central Dogma is a linchpin for understanding how cells work, and yet it is one of the most widely misunderstood concepts in molecular biology.

Many students are taught that the Central Dogma is simply “DNA → RNA → protein.” This version was first put forward in Jim Watson’s pioneering 1965 textbook, The Molecular Biology of the Gene, as a way of summarizing how protein synthesis takes place. However, Watson’s explanation, which he adapted from his colleague, Francis Crick, is profoundly misleading.

In 1956, Crick was working on a lecture that would bring together what was then known about the “flow of information” between DNA, RNA, and protein in cells. Crick formalized his ideas in what he called the Central Dogma, and his original conception of information flow within cells was both richer and more complex than Watson’s reductive and erroneous presentation.

Crick was aware of at least four kinds of information transfers, all of which had been observed in biochemical studies by researchers at that time. These were: DNA → DNA (DNA replication), DNA → RNA (called transcription), RNA → protein (called translation) and RNA → RNA (a mechanism by which some viruses copy themselves). To summarize his thinking, Crick sketched out these information flows in a little figure that was never published.

Crick’s figure is below. Note that the dogma is simply the first sentence typed in the diagram, implying that information from either DNA or RNA, translated into a protein, cannot get back into the DNA or RNA code again. Thus changes in protein structure cannot go back and change the genetic code (see the bottom part of the diagram).

As you see, the DNA—>RNA—>protein “dogma” is an extreme oversimplification of Crick’s views. And he meant the word “dogma” to mean not an inviolable rule of nature, but a hypothesis. Nevertheless, Crick was widely criticized for using the word “dogma”.

But getting back to the diagram:

The direct synthesis of proteins using only DNA might be possible, Crick thought, because the sequence of bases in DNA ultimately determines the order of amino acids in a protein chain. If this were true, however, it would mean that RNA was not always involved in protein synthesis, even though every study at that time suggested it was. Crick therefore concluded that this kind of information flow was highly unlikely, though not impossible.

Crick also theorized that RNA → DNA was chemically possible, simply because it was the reverse of transcription and both types of molecules were chemically similar to each other. Still, Crick could not imagine any biological function for this so-called “reverse transcription,” so he portrayed this information flow as a dotted line in his diagram.

We now know, though that the enzyme “reverse transcriptase” is used by some RNA viruses to make DNA to insert into their hosts’ genomes.

Here’s what Crick said he meant by the “Central Dogma,” and, in fact, this schema has not yet been violated in nature:

In other words, in Crick’s schema, information within the cell only flows from nucleic acids to proteins, and never the other way around. Crick’s “Central Dogma” could therefore be described in a single line: “Once information has got into a protein it can’t get out again.” This negative statement — that some transfers of information seem to be impossible — was the essential part of Crick’s idea.

Crick’s hypothesis also carried an unstated evolutionary implication; namely, that whatever might happen to an organism’s proteins during its lifetime, those changes cannot alter its DNA sequence. In other words, organisms cannot use proteins to transmit characteristics they have acquired during their lifetime to their offspring.

In other words, there can be no Lamarckian inheritance, in which environmental change affecting an organism’s proteins cannot become ingrained into the organism’s genome and thus become permanently heritable.

Matthew discusses several suggested modifications of Crick’s version of the Central Dogma. Prions, misfolded proteins that cause several known diseases, were thought by some to have replicated themselves by somehow changing the DNA that codes for them, but it’s now known that prions are either produced by mutations in the DNA, or can transmit their pathological shape by directly interacting with other proteins. Prion proteins do not change the DNA sequence.

Some readers here might also be thinking that “epigenetic inheritance”, in which DNA is modified by chemical tags affixed to its bases, might refute the central dogma, as those modifications are mediated by enzymes, which of course are proteins. But as Matthew notes, those modifications are temporary, while the DNA sequence of nucleotides (sans modifications) is forever:

In other cases, researchers have pointed to epigenetics as a possible exception to Crick’s Central Dogma, arguing that changes in gene expression are transmitted across the generations and thus provide an additional, non-nucleic source of information. But still, epigenetics does not violate Crick’s Central Dogma.

During an organism’s life, environmental conditions cause certain genes to get switched on or off. This often occurs through a process known as methylation, in which the cell adds a methyl group to a cytosine base in a DNA sequence. As a result, the cell no longer transcribes the gene.

These effects occur most frequently in somatic cells — the cells that make up the body of the organism. If epigenetic marks occur in sex cells, they are wiped clean prior to egg and sperm formation. Then, once the sperm and eggs have fully formed, methylation patterns are re-established in each type of cell, meaning that the acquired genetic regulation is reset to baseline in the offspring.

Sometimes, these regulatory effects are transmitted to the next generation through the activity of small RNA molecules, which can interact with messenger RNAs or proteins to control gene expression. This occurs frequently in plants but is much rarer in animals, which have separate lineages for their somatic and reproductive cells. A widely-studied exception to this is the nematode C. elegans, where RNAs and other molecules can alter inheritance patterns.

No matter how striking, though, none of these examples violate Crick’s Central Dogma; the genetic information remains intact and the epigenetic tags are always temporary, disappearing after at most a few generations.

That should squelch the brouhaha over epigenetics as a form of Lamarckian evolutionary change, as some have suggested that epigenetic (environmental) modifications of the DNA could be permanent, ergo the environment itself can cause permanent heritable change. (That is Lamarckian inheriance.) But we know of no epigenetic modifications that last more than a couple of generations, so don’t believe the hype about “permanently inherited trauma” or other such nonsense.

And there’s this, which again is not a violation of Crick’s “Dogma”:

. . . enzymes can modify proteins in the cell after they have been synthesized, so not every amino acid in a protein is specified in the genome. DNA does not contain all the information in a cell, but Crick’s original hypothesis remains true: “Once information has got into a protein it can’t get out again.”

Now Matthew does suggest a rather complicated way that the Dogma could be violated, but it’s not known to occur, though perhaps humans might use genetic engineering to effect it. But you can read about it in his piece.

It’s remarkable that Crick’s supposition that information in a protein can’t get back to the DNA or RNA code—made only three years after the structure of DNA was published—has stood up without exception for nearly seventy years. This is a testament to Crick’s smarts and prescience.

And if you remember anything about the Central Dogma, just remember this:

“Once information has got into a protein it can’t get out again.”

The last two years have seen unprecedented falls in the levels of sea ice around Antarctica, which serves as a protective wall for the continent's huge ice sheets. Researchers are now racing to understand the global impact of what could happen next

I didn’t bring any wildlife photos with me, but Greg Mayer volunteered the following contribution.

by Greg Mayer

While we’re likely to get to enjoy even more photos of Hili, Szaron, and Kulka while Jerry’s in Poland, there might be more need for wildlife photos, so I prevailed upon my correspondent in Miami, Christopher Hudspeth, to send some photos of crocodiles from “The 305“.

American Crocodile, Palmetto Bay, Florida, November 27, 2024.

Christopher easily spotted four at a brackish lagoon in Palmetto Bay, Florida, right next to Biscayne Bay. They were all adults, but not maximum-sized: in South Florida, crocodiles are known to get up to about 16 feet in length.

American Crocodile, Palmetto Bay, Florida, November 27, 2024, with human for scale.

Everyone is familiar with the American Alligator (Alligator mississippiensis), the broad-headed, black-when-full-grown denizen of swamps and marshes throughout the American South. As its name (derived from the Spanish el lagarto = ‘the lizard’) indicates, it’s been known since the Spanish discovery of Florida in the 16th century. That there’s a second native crocodilian in Florida was not made known till the 19th century. The American Crocodile (Crocodylus acutus), unlike the alligator, is restricted to coastal areas of southernmost Florida. The crocodile’s preference for salt and brackish water keeps the two species of crocodilians largely ecologically segregated by habitat.

Two American Crocodiles, Palmetto Bay, Florida, November 29, 2024. The crocodiles liked this pile of debris, being seen hanging out on it on the 27th and 29th.

Hunted for their skins, by the late 1970s the American Crocodile was endangered in Florida, with the range much restricted, the population down to the low hundreds, and only 20 breeding females. State and Federal protection has led to the population bouncing back, with there now being a few thousand adults and over 100 nests per year. They have also returned to vacated parts of their range, such as Coral Gables and Palmetto Bay along northern Biscayne Bay, areas which are quite developed.

Palmetto Bay, Florida, Google Earth.

In the above Google Earth view, note the man-made lagoon in the center, next to office buildings, at the edge of an extensive conurbation– this is where Christopher found the crocs!

American Crocodile, Palmetto Bay, Florida, November 27, 2024, with human for scale.

In 1971, Wilfred Neill published a photo of a croc on the beach at Key West taken in 1935, describing it as a “sight that can no longer be seen”; but the crocs are back there, too: another Florida correspondent sent me a photo of a croc on the beach there taken last December.

Crocodile at NAS Key West, December 4, 2023.

Behler, J.L. 1978. Feasibility of the Establishment of a Captive-Breeding Population of the
American Crocodile. Everglades National Park South Florid Research Center, Homestead, FL. pdf

Moler, P.E. 2019. American Crocodile. pp. 308-312 in K.L. Krysko, K.M. Enge, and P.E.Moler, Amphibians and Reptiles of Florida. University of Florida Press, Gainesville. publisher

Neill, W.T. 1971. Last of the Ruling Reptiles: Alligators, Crocodiles and Their Kin. Columbia University Press, New York. Abebooks

Climate change is a challenging issue on multiple levels – it’s challenging for scientists to understand all of the complexities of a changing climate, it’s difficult to know how to optimally communicate to the public about climate change, and of course we face an enormous challenge in figuring out how best to mitigate climate change. The situation is made significantly more difficult by the presence of a well-funded campaign of disinformation aimed at sowing doubt and confusion about the issue.

I recently interviewed climate scientist Michael Mann about some of these issues and he confirmed one trend that I had noticed, that the climate change denier rhetoric has, to some extent, shifted to what he called “doomism”. I have written previously about some of the strategies of climate change denial, specifically the motte and bailey approach. This approach refers to a range of positions, all of which lead to the same conclusion – that we should essentially do nothing to mitigate climate change. We should continue to burn fossil fuels and not worry about the consequences. However, the exact position shifts based upon current circumstances. You can deny that climate change is even happening, when you have evidence or an argument that seems to support this position. But when that position is not rhetorically tenable, you can back off to more easily defended positions, that while climate change may be happening, we don’t know the causes and it may just be a natural trend. When that position fails, then you can fall back to the notion that climate change may not be a bad thing. And then, even if forced to admit that climate change is happening, it is largely anthropogenic, and it will have largely negative consequences, there isn’t anything we can do about it anyway.

This is where doomism comes in. It is a way of turning calls for climate action against themselves. Advocates for taking steps to mitigate climate change often emphasize how dire the situation is. The climate is already showing dangerous signs of warming, the world is doing too little to change course, the task at hand is enormous, and time is running out. That’s right, say the doomists, in fact it’s already too late and we will never muster the political will to do anything significant, so why bother trying. Again, the answer is – do nothing.

This means that science communicators dealing with climate change have to recalibrate. First, we always have to accurately portray what the science actually says (a limitation that does not burden the other side). But we also need to put this information into a proper context, and think carefully about our framing and emphasis. For example, we can focus on all the negative aspects of climate change and our political dysfunction, trying to convince people how urgent the situation is and the need for bold action. But if we just do this, that would feed the doomist narrative. We also need to emphasize the things we can do, the power we have to change course, the assets (technological and otherwise) at our disposal, and the fact that any change in course has the potential to make things better (or at least less bad). As Mann says – we have created the sense of urgency, and now we need to create a sense of agency.

The framing, therefore, should be one of strategic optimism. Pessimism is self-defeating and self-fulfilling. Admittedly, optimism can be challenging. Trump has pledged to nominate for energy secretary Chris Wright, an oil executive who essentially denies climate change as an issue. Apparently, he does not deny that human-released CO2 is warming the climate, he just thinks the negative consequences are overblown, that the costs of a green energy transition are too great, and that the efforts of the US will likely be offset by emerging industrial nations anyway. Again – do nothing. Just keep drilling. I would dispute all of these positions. Sure, the media overhypes everything, but climate scientists are generally being pretty conservative in their projections. Some argue, too conservative if anything. Yes, the cost of the green transition will be great, but the cost of climate change will be greater. And for the investment we get less pollution, better health, and greater energy independence.

That last claim, essentially – why should the US bother to do anything unless everyone is making the same effort, is simply not logical. Climate change is not all or nothing, it is a continuum. Anything anyone does to mitigate greenhouse gas release will help. Also it’s pretty clear that the US has a leadership role to play in this issue, and when we take steps to mitigate climate change other countries tend to follow. Further still, the US has released more CO2 than any other nation, and we still have among the highest per capita CO2 release (mostly exceeded only by petro-states with high oil production and low populations), so it makes little sense to blame emerging economies with comparatively negligible impacts.

But if I’m trying to be optimistic I can focus on a couple of things. First, there is a momentum to technology that is not easily turned off. The IRA has provided billions in subsidies to industry to accelerate the green transition, and a lot of that money is going to red states. It’s doubtful that money will be clawed back. Further, wind and solar are increasing rapidly because they are cost effective, especially while the overall penetration of these sources is still relatively low. Electric vehicles are also getting better and cheaper. So my hope is that these industries have enough momentum to not only survived but to thrive on their own.

Also, there is one green energy technology that has bipartisan support – nuclear. As I discussed recently, we are making moves to significantly increase nuclear energy, and this does require government support to help revitalize the industry and transition to the next generation. Hopefully this will continue over the next four years.  So while having someone like Wright as energy secretary (or someone like Trump as president, for that matter) is not ideal for our efforts to make a green energy transition, it is not unreasonable to hope that we can coast through the next four years without too much disruption. We’ll see.

There is also some good news – bad news on the climate front. The bad news is that the negative effects of climate change are happening faster than models predicted. One recent study, for example, shows that there are heat wave hot spots around the world that are difficult to model. Climate models have been great at predicting average global temperatures, but are less able to predict local variation. What is happening is called “tail-widening” – as average temperatures increase, the variability across regions also increases, leading to outlier hotspots. This is causing an increase in heat related deaths, and bringing extreme heat to areas that have not previously experienced it.

We are also seeing events like hurricane Helene that hit North Carolina. Scientists are confident that the amount of rainfall was significantly increased due to increases in global temperatures. Warmer air holds more moisture. Dropping more rain meant increased flooding, bringing extreme flooding events and catastrophic damage to an area that was not considered a flood risk and was therefore largely unprepared to such an event.

What’s the good news part of this? Events like extreme heat waves and hurricane destruction seem to be shifting the political center of gravity. It’s becoming harder to deny that climate change is happening with potential negative effects. This gets back to the doomism phenomenon – increasingly, doomism is all the climate change deniers have left. They are essentially saying, sorry, it’s too late. But it is objectively not too late, and it will never be too late to make changes that will have a positive impact, even if that impact is just making things less bad.

The Biden Administration actually showed a good way forward, using essentially all carrots and no sticks. Just give industry some incentives and assurances to make investments in green energy, and they will. We also need to invest in infrastructure, which is also something that tends to have bipartisan support. Climate activists do need to become strategic about their messaging (the other side certainly is). This might mean focusing on bipartisan wins – investing in industry, investing in infrastructure, becoming economic leaders in 21st century technology, and facilitating nuclear and geothermal energy. These are win-wins everyone should be able to get behind.

 

The post Some Climate Change Trends and Thoughts first appeared on NeuroLogica Blog.

It won't be long before we're treated to the spectacle of Senators grilling antivax nominees like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (HHS) and Dr. Dave Weldon (CDC). We exist to serve, which is why I'm suggesting some questions for Senators to ask all of Trump's health picks.

The post Suggested questions for Donald Trump’s health nominees during confirmation hearings first appeared on Science-Based Medicine.

You know what it’s like. You get a new telescope and need to know where to point it! The bigger the telescope, the more potential targets and the harder the decision! To date, we have found over 5,000 confirmed exoplanets (5,288 to be exact) with thousands more candidates. With missions like Gaia identifying thousands of nearby stars like our Sun where Earth-like planets could be lurking, its time to hunt them down. A new paper takes on the goiath task of trying to filter down all the millions of candidates into about 1,000 main sequence stars or binaries worth exploring. From these, they have identified 100 most promising targets and from them, the 10 best planetary systems.

Exoplanets are planets that orbit stars outside our Solar System. The first confirmed discovery of an exoplanet occurred in 1992 and since then, thousands more have been identified. They come in a wide variety of sizes, compositions, and orbital properties, ranging from small, rocky Earth-like planets to massive gas giants many times larger than Jupiter. The exoplanets are often found in the habitable zone of their stars, where conditions might allow liquid water to exist, making them potential candidates for hosting life. They are detected using various different methods, including the transit method, where a planet passes in front of its star and causes a slight dip in brightness, and the radial velocity method, which measures the gravitational wobble a planet induces on its star. 

This artist’s impression shows a Jupiter-like exoplanet that is on its way to becoming a hot Jupiter — a large, Jupiter-like exoplanet that orbits very close to its star. Courtesy: NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/J. da Silva

There have been a number of telescopes that have turned their gaze on exoplanets and a number of different missions on the slate to explore their properties. One such project is the LIFE mission (the Large Interferometer for Exoplanets.) It will consist of four collector spacecraft separated by hundreds of metres and is designed to search for life outside the Solar System. The high resolution images it will produce will allow for direct imaging of exoplanets and more detailed analysis of their atmosphere. Of all its mission objectives its key task objective is to search for biosignatures, looking for molecules like oxygen, methane and carbon dioxide. All of these elements might indicate the presence of life. 

Graphic depiction of A Lunar Long-Baseline Optical Imaging Interferometer: Artemis-enabled Stellar Imager (AeSI). Credit: Kenneth Carpenter

The real challenge, greater even than assessing an exoplanets suitability for hosting life is where to begin looking in the first place. A paper authored by Franziska Menti from the Institute for Particle Physics and Astrophysics in Zurich and team has tackled just that problem. The LIFE mission teams have developed exoplanet target catalogs but it contains a large number of candidates. The intention was for it to facilitate the creation of further more refined target lists based upon specific criteria. The paper from Menti articulate this process. 

The catalog contains is compatible with the Virtual Observatory standards so is easily accessible to anyone with existing tools and contains stars, exoplanets, and protoplanetary disks. Anybody that has a need for a highly customised target list for exoplanetary research (such as the LIFE mission themselves or other projects like NASA’s World’s Habitable Worlds Observatory) can extract the necessary data themselves. The whole database (which contains data on as many as 104 stellar systems within 30 parsecs of the Sun)is available online at the German Astrophysical Virtual Observatory

Source : Database of Candidate Targets for the LIFE Mission

The post Just Built a Giant, Next Generation Planet Hunting Space Telescope? Here’s Where to Point It appeared first on Universe Today.

Space exploration is a dangerous business, especially when squishy living organisms, such as humans, are involved. NASA has always prided itself on how seriously it takes the safety of its astronauts, so as it gears up for the next big push in crewed space exploration, the Artemis program, it is looking for solutions to potentially catastrophic situations that might arise. One such catastrophe would be if one of the Artemis astronauts was incapacitated and couldn’t return to the lander. The only person who could potentially be able to save them would be their fellow astronaut, but carrying a fully suited human back to their base of operations would be a challenge for an astronaut similarly kitted out in their own bulky suit. So, NASA decided to address it as precisely that – a challenge – and ask for input from the general public, offering up to $20,000 for the best solution to the problem.

The challenge, “South Pole Safety: Designing the NASA Lunar Rescue System,” was announced on November 14th and accepts entries until January 23rd, 2025. It awards $45,000 to at least three winners, including $20,000 to the first-place winner. So, what does the challenge actually involve?

The work product is a design document for a system capable of moving fully suited astronauts at least two kilometers up a 20-degree slope without being attached to a rover. Oh, and it has to be able to operate in the harsh conditions of the lunar south pole. 

Fraser discusses what makes the lunar south pole so interesting.

Typically, a fully suited human wearing the new Axiom Extravehicular Mobility Suit, the new spacesuit explicitly designed for the Artemis missions, will weigh around 343 kg (755 lbs). However, lunar gravity is only about 1/6th that of Earth’s, so it will feel more like they weigh 57 kg (125 lbs). That’s still a lot to carry but much more manageable.

However, it’s probably infeasible for the other astronaut to fireman carry their unconscious comrade over that distance, especially since they are wearing their own spacesuit. So it’s up to technology to do the job. To do so, it will have to evade the pitfalls (in some cases literally) of the lunar south pole.

One hazard is the extreme temperatures—they can range from 54 C in full daylight to -203 C at night. Any materials used in the (especially electronics) would, therefore, need to be able to withstand such wild temperature swings. 

Dealing with lunar regolith for this challenge will be difficult, as Dr. Kevin Cannon discusses how annoying it can be.

Other hazards include razor-sharp lunar regolith, which is expected to cause havoc on most moving mechanical systems on the Moon. Navigating around craters and giant boulders while hopefully dodging micrometeoroid impacts adds to the complex nature of the rescue environment.

A panel of experts, including some NASA engineers, will judge this competition. Their scorecards will include categories like the overall mass of the solution, its ease of use, and how much it impacts the suit design, if any—luckily, treating the fallen astronaut while on the move back to safety is outside the scope of this challenge.

Suppose you’re interested in participating, potentially earning you or your team tens of thousands of dollars. In that case, NASA is accepting submissions through the HeroX portal (commonly used for public challenges) through January 25th. Maybe someday you’ll get to see your creation on the surface of the Moon—even if it will hopefully never be used.

Learn More:
NASA – South Pole Safety: Designing the NASA Lunar Rescue System
HeroX – South Pole Safety
UT – Lunar Astronauts Will Need Easy Walking Trails Around the Moon’s South Pole
UT – NASA, SpaceX Illustrate Key Moments of Artemis Lunar Lander Mission

Lead Image:
Logo of the South Pole Safety Challenge
Credit – NASA / HeroX

The post NASA Is Seeking Ideas for Rescuing an Astronaut from the Moon appeared first on Universe Today.

The Conversation, which seems a reputable and often interesting site,  now has some dire results of a survey of non-Māori New Zealand scientists. The new survey shows that many (but thank goodness not all) of these have been captured by the drive to sacralize the indigenous Māori “ways of knowing, or Mātauranga Māori (MM).

MM does contain some empirical knowledge, mostly of the practical sort like how to catch fish or when to harvest berries, but also includes religion, morality, the supernatural (the ubiquitous vitalism called mauri), guides to behavior, legends and word of mouth, and other non-scientific concepts that many see as “ways of knowing.”

Have a gander at this article (click to read). Note the “gender divide” mentioned in the headline, and guess how it shakes out:

Some indented excerpts (the article summarizes a research paper you can read or download here; I have not read it but assume the authors’ summary is correct. I could find no indication that the paper has been published or even accepted (I may have overlooked that), but if it is only submitted for publication and not peer-reviewed and accepted, it’s not really kosher to discuss preliminary results in a place like The Conversation.

While the New Zealand government plans to review 28 pieces of legislation with a view to changing or repealing references to the Treaty of Waitangi, the science sector is embracing engagement with Māori and leading the way in linking science and Indigenous knowledge at a national scale.

We surveyed 316 researchers from research organisations across New Zealand on their engagement with Māori and their attitudes towards mātauranga Māori (Indigenous knowledge system). We found the majority agree engagement is important and mātauranga Māori is relevant to their research.

Our preliminary findings show most of the surveyed researchers engaged with Māori to some degree in the past and expect to keep doing so in the future. A majority agreed mātauranga Māori should be valued on par with Western science.

. . . We examined the responses of the 295 non-Māori scientists in our survey and found 56% agreed mātauranga Māori should be valued on par with Western science. Only 25% disagreed. Moreover, 83% agreed scientists had a duty to consult with Māori if the research had impacts on them.

What? Valued on par with Western science? That is the result of the researchers having been ideologically captured by the widespread drive to make MM coequal with modern science. (An alternative hypothesis, which should not be ignored, is that many of these non-Māori scientists are hiding their real feelings, knowing that they could get fired or exorcised if they don’t go along with the ideological program.)

That said, of course if a project has impacts on Māori, they should certainly be consulted. That is only fair. But consultation does not mean that researchers must do what the Māori say, especially if it involves nonscientific things like incorporating the supernatural, as with the story of the kauri trees and the whales (see below)

If you study MM and know anything about modern science— mistakenly called “Western science” by MM advocates—you’ll know that this belief in coequality is simply fatuous.

More:

. . .New Zealand has been at the forefront of developing a nationwide approach through the 2007 Vision Mātauranga policy. This science-mātauranga connection has given New Zealand a global lead in how to meaningfully and practically mobilise science and Indigenous knowledge at a national scale.

In contrast, the US only recently developed its national Indigenous science policy.

The merging of Indigenous and Western knowledge is particularly important in the high-tech innovation field. Here, New Zealand’s approach is starting to have real impacts, including supporting innovations and capabilities that would not have happened otherwise.

Through years of engagement with the research and innovation sector, Māori are increasingly expecting the sector to work differently. This means both engaging beyond the laboratory and being open to the possibility that science and mātauranga Māori together can create bold innovation. Examples include supporting Māori businesses to create research and development opportunities in high-value nutrition, or using mātauranga to halt the decline of green-lipped mussels in the Eastern Bay of Plenty.

If you look at the “bold innovation” link, you will find a dearth of examples in which MM has actually enhanced the acquisition of scientific knowledge; rather, it’s largely a program for incorporating Māori researchers into projects actually driven by modern science. But would you expect anything else given that the empirical aspects of MM are all practical, aimed at helping people survive off the land? Given that, the “merging” of the two “ways of knowing”, much less promulgating the idea they are coequal, is a foolish endeavor.

The green-lipped mussel project, involving an important source of food, comes up again and again in these studies, and involves the use of traditional fiber materials to facilitate the settling of mussel spats. And it did indeed increase the number of spats.

But I see this project mentioned over and over again as an example of the fruitful combining of MM and modern science. If their merging is so successful, why do we find the same example used repeatedly?

And why is there no mention of ludicrous examples of merging, such as the useless attempt to revive the dieback of kauri trees by smearing their trunks with whale oil and whale bones, and playing whale songs to the trees (see here and here). The MM basis for this “science” is a Māori legend that the kauri trees and whales were created as brothers, but the whale-trees went roaming into the ocean, and the kauri dieback, really caused by soil-borne oomycetes (thanks modern science for that), is said by MM to reflect the trees’ longing to be with their whale brothers. Such is the kind of research that is also taken seriously by advocates of merging MM and modern science.

One more thing: the gender difference. I guessed, based on the greater empathy of women as well as their greater religiosity, would involve female researchers being be more sympathetic to incorporating indigenous ways of knowing into science. I was right:

However, there was a significant gender difference: 75% of women compared to 44% of men agreed mātauranga Māori should be valued on par with science. Only 8% of women disagreed with that statement compared to 34% of men.

That is a substantial difference!

The study reached two conclusions. The second was the observed difference between male and female non-Māori researchers in their desire to value MM as coequal with science. The authors say this needs more work, but I think it can already be explained by the difference between the sexes in empathy, “people” orientation, and religiosity.

The first conclusion was this:

First, it seems that exposing researchers to engagement with Māori communities may create a more open attitude to mātauranga Māori. A key aspect of the past few years has been to broaden the science sector’s engagement with various communities, including Māori.

The Vision Mātauranga policy has been explicit about this in the innovation sector and research and development areas. It appears likely this approach has, at least for some non-Māori researchers, created an openness to consider mātauranga Māori as an equivalent, although different, knowledge framework.

Again, I am not dismissing MM as without any value. What I am seriously questioning is the idea that MM is “an equivalent, although different, knowledge framework.” I don’t even know what that means, since I don’t see MM as even coming close to the methods of modern science in acquiring knowledge, or “justified true belief.” MM lacks nearly all the tools of modern science, like hypothesis testing, pervasive doubt and questioning, replication, peer review, the use of statistics, and so on. How can it possibly be coequal with modern science?

But the burgeoning drive to sacralize indigenous “knowledge” shows that wokeness, of which this drive is one example, is not on the way out.  By all means incorporate indigenous knowledge into science if it is shown to be empircally true. But to do that the indigenous knowledge has to be verified using modern science. Otherwise it remains in the hinterlands of Aunt Jobiska’s Theorem: “a fact that the whole world knows.”

Life goes on apace in this tiny town, with all of us working. Andrzej and Malgorzata are busy putting Listy together (supervised by Hili), and I am writing a piece for an online site, but more about that later.  It is too cold to go outside except for trips to buy groceries.

Here are a few photos from yesterday.

Andrzej at work. Note Editor-in-Chief Hili behind him in the chair:

Baby Kulka at work at her bowl (her real name is Kulka, but I always append “Baby” since I saw her first as a kitten):

Julia, the new baby (6 months old) from upstairs. Her father Mariusz is holding her:

Working on “my” couch with Szaron:

The cherry cheesecake baked by Malgorzata is half gone after one day (I have two pieces a day: one for breakfast and the other for third breakfast):

And me again with Szaron, working from the supine position. Szaron is the world’s most affectionate cat.

I got a short haircut before i traveled, but I can’t keep it from sticking up

Andrzej giving Hili a rare treat of cream. Part I: The Look. Treat impending!

Part II: Hili sniffs the cream:

Part III:  Hili laps up the cream. Szaron, rear, doesn’t get any:

And there’s now a stock of my favorite beer, Zubr (“Bison”) for dinner. Note the omnipresent Szaron:

And that’s a working day in Dobrzyn.

The moons of Mars are garnering increased attention, not only because they could provide a view of the solar system’s past but also because they could provide invaluable staging areas for any future human settlement on Mars itself. However, missions specifically designed to visit Phobos, the bigger of the two moons, have met with varying stages of failure. So why not make an inexpensive mission to do so – one that could launch multiple copies of itself if necessary? That’s the idea behind a CubeSat-based mission to Phobos, known as Perseus, which was initially described back in 2020.

Phobos is interesting for several reasons, but so far, we’ve only gotten relatively grainy pictures of this small moon, whose total diameter is the size of a medium-sized city. Most of those pictures have come from Mars orbiters, such as MRO, who occasionally turn their instruments on the other bodies in the system. Several planned missions to visit directly, such as Phobos 1 and 2 and, more recently, Phobos Grunt, have failed in space, limiting our understanding of this potentially helpful moon to secondary scraps from larger missions.

Enter a new mission concept—Perseus (which, surprisingly, appears to not be an acronym for anything) is designed as a 27U CubeSat that inherits several commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) systems used in other interplanetary CubeSat missions, including its own propulsion system and remote sensing kit. Depending on the funding the mission receives, it could branch into one of two different potential interaction styles with Phobos.

MMX is another mission to collect actual samples from Phobos, though its launch has been delayed until 2026 at the earliest.

First, the mission design preferred by the mission designers, who mainly come from the University of Arizona and Arizona State University, would involve capturing Perseus in a co-orbit with Mars and Phobos. This would allow the CubeSat to pass by the moon every day, with about a 6-minute encounter time. This would allow Perseus to capture multiple images of multiple sides of Phobos, some of which have never been seen before from such a short vantage point.

The other mission concept would put Perseus on a hyperbolic trajectory past Phobos itself. In this concept, Perseus would only get a single 2-minute flyby with the moon but could get much closer, and therefore higher resolution, images of a specific area it chose to fly by. It would then be flung into the solar system, eventually running out of fuel. Saving the cost of the larger fuel load for the orbital mission concept is the main reason for designing the less scientifically exciting flyby option.

With the orbital mission concept, Perseus could collect visible light images of the surface of Phobos down to 5m per pixel and thermal images of 25 m per one pixel, as its scientific payload would consist of visible light and thermal imagers. That is about 6 times better in visible light than the 30 m / pixel, which is the best information we have from an image from HiRISE on the Mar Reconnaissance Orbiter.

Fraser makes the case for sending humans to the Martian moons first.

That level of resolution could further explore some features of Phobos, such as the “grooves” that dominate its surface. Additionally, Perseus could scout potential landing sites for future human missions to prepare for a visit to the Red Planet.

However, the real benefit of Perseus is that it is relatively cheap. While relatively large by CubeSat standards at 54 kg and a 27U configuration, many components’ flight heritage means it would be relatively cheap to assemble and test. However, the mission has not been granted any funding so far, and a brief literature search doesn’t show any additional work on the project in the last several years. But, it fits well with the trend towards smaller, less risky, and less expensive missions. Maybe someday, a similar one will get the green light, and we can finally start collecting some detailed light from one of the most important moons in the solar system.

Learn More:
Nallapu et al. – Trajectory design of perseus: A cubesat mission concept to Phobos
UT – What Could We Learn From a Mission to Phobos?
UT – How Mars’ Moon Phobos Captures Our Imaginations
UT – Did An Ancient Icy Impactor Create the Martian Moons?

Lead Image:
Engineering Model of the Perseus Spacecraft.
Credit – Nallapu et al.

The post A CubeSat Mission to Phobos Could Map Staging Bases for a Mars Landing appeared first on Universe Today.

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.

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.

Interview with Andrea Love; News Items: Near Earth Microquasars, How to Watch Research Misconduct, Genetically Modifying Brains, Largest Prime Number, Magic Amulets, Atlantic Current Climate Tipping Point; Science or Fiction

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.

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!

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.

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.

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!

 

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.

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