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Feedback is in awe of the authors of a new study in the International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, and how they handled requests from peer reviewers

A recent scandal over food hygiene ratings shows how deception destroys trust within society. We need to fight back, says Jonathan R. Goodman

A pair of photos, taken nearly six decades apart, reveals dramatic ice loss in the Arctic linked to climate change

Neuroscientist Ariel Zeleznikow-Johnston's book The Future Loves You presents a bold new take on dying

When I moved back to York, UK, I was shocked by its garbage system, with limited recycling and no composting. But a bit of digging showed its brilliance, says Graham Lawton

In Adam Roberts's Lake of Darkness, two spaceships meet to study a black hole. Their research comes to an abrupt halt, however, when crew members start dying horribly, says Emily H. Wilson

How to Feed the World, Vaclav Smil's "big numbers" book about future food supply, fails to address the impact of climate change

By 2050, 70 per cent of the world's population will live in urban centres - that's just one reason why mayors will be essential to addressing the climate crisis, making vital adaptations to cities to make them more bearable in a warming world

Yesterday I mentioned this interview in the new Sapir quarterly magazine edited by Bret Stephens, who in this article interviews Daniel Diermeier, the Chancellor of Vanderbilt University. Diermeier was our provost from 2016 to 2020, but left to take the top job at Vanderbilt.  I, among many, miss him, for at Vandy he’s turned the school into a model of academic freedom and free speech, but hasn’t neglected the enforcement of “time, place, and manner” restrictions on speech.

The discussion below shows how deeply Diermeier has pondered all the issues around freedom of expression and the purpose of a university. Combined with Stephens’s probing questions, it’s an excellent conversation.

Here are three excerpts from a longish discussion, which is worth reading in toto. First, the politicization of universities versus social inequality:

Bret Stephens: Until recently, surveys showed that Americans had high confidence in higher education. It was seen as an essential ticket to success in American life. In the past decade or so, that confidence has plummeted. The last survey I saw, from Gallup, showed a sharp decline, and that came out before October 7 and the protests that followed. What happened in the past 10 years to cause that decline?

Daniel Diermeier: We’ve seen the same data, and I’ve been very concerned about the drop in approval and trust in higher education. The decline has been larger among people on the conservative side of the political spectrum, but it’s across the board, from the Left and the Right. My sense is that it comes from two concerns. From the progressive side, the concern is that highly selective universities are perpetuating inequality. And the concern from the Right is that we’re woke factories.

Stephens: Both of them can be true.

Diermeier: One hundred percent. My own sense is that the concerns about the propagation of inequality are, on closer inspection, much overblown. I think the concerns on the politicization of higher education and the ideological drift are much more valid.

The question of the politicization of higher education has come into stark relief after what we’ve seen last year: the conflict in the Middle East and the drama on campus. These developments have elevated into the public consciousness concerns that have been present for years. They now are front and center, much more serious, and they require a course correction by many universities.

The University of Chicago’s “foundational principles“:

Stephens: A historian might say, “Go back to the University of Chicago or Yale in the 1950s and you’ll find conservative critics railing against higher education as hotbeds of radicalism.” Now we look back on that and sort of chuckle. Is the criticism more valid today? If so, why?

Diermeier: Yes, I think the criticism is more valid today. If you look back, there were three pillars of how a university thought about its role in society. If you look at the University of Chicago, one pillar was this commitment to free speech that goes back to the founding and then through a whole variety of presidents, reaffirmed, most recently, by the 2015 report, often referred to as the Chicago Principles. Universities need to be places for open debate.

Pillar two is what we call institutional neutrality, which means that the university will not get involved, will not take positions, on controversial political and social issues that bear no direct relevance to the university’s mission. The University of Chicago’s formulation of this policy was the Kalven Report from 1967, which so eloquently articulates that when the university formulates a party line on any issue, it creates a chilling effect for faculty and students to engage in debate and discourse.

And the third pillar, less appreciated but important, is a commitment to reason, to respect, to using arguments and evidence. Discourse and debate at the university shouldn’t be about shouting. That’s a more cultural aspect. All three have eroded, and they have eroded over the past 10 years in significant fashion. Now we see the consequences of that.

I’m not sure how institutional neutrality has eroded, since it was really only embraced by the University of Chicago until very recently. Now, as FIRE reports, 25 colleges and universities have adopted the position. It seems to me that institutional neutrality has expanded, not “eroded.”

Finally, the ambit of institutional neutrality,  how it differs from propagandizing classrooms, and why the question of “affirmative action for conservative faculty” is not a major issue:

Stephens: Let me ask you about the role of university leaders. One thing you sometimes hear from presidents is I have no power. The faculty rule the institution. There’s a limit to what I can do in terms of what happens on my own campus. Tell us about governance structures. How can university leadership effectively use its position within those structures to set a tone, create a culture, have a set of rules and expectations for how the student and faculty behave? If you were speaking to first-time university presidents from across the country, what would you advise them?

Diermeier:

. . . . Institutional neutrality does not constrain faculty or students. It does constrain administrators. So the second concern that you pointed out, which I’m going to call the politicization of the classroom, is a separate one. That, to me, is a question of professionalism. If you’re using your classroom for indoctrination or propaganda, you’re fundamentally not doing your job. You’re not creating an effective learning environment for your students. So I think these are two separate issues that should not be commingled, because the point of institutional neutrality is to create freedom for faculty and students. If that freedom and responsibility are abused, that’s a different conversation.

. . . .If [faculty are] using their classroom for political propaganda, it’s a different conversation. The right way to think about hiring and promotions is that they should be based on expertise and merit. I’ve cited a couple of these University of Chicago reports before, but there’s one called the Shils Report that makes that very clear: We do not want to have political litmus tests for whom we hire and promote.

That said, there is an important role for the university, including its curriculum, in a society that investigates and reflects on itself, its values, its history. A lot of that is in humanities, the social sciences, divinity schools, law schools, and so forth. There are multiple perspectives, and to have them in the classroom is vitally important. If you have a class on ethics, you want the students to deal with virtue ethics, deontological ethics, and consequential ethics. You want these perspectives well represented, so that they are challenged, and then students can make up their own mind about what they think. If that does not happen because of the ideological capture of a department or program, we’ve got a problem.

I’m very doubtful that the solution is affirmative action for conservatives. I’m also not convinced that these movements to create new centers are the solution, either. I think the challenge goes a little deeper than where people are on political orientation — it has to do with how fields of study are structured and how certain fields have evolved. But we cannot have an ideological monoculture in these types of classes. It’s a disservice to our students.

And, if you don’t want to read, here’s a 45-minute conversation between Diermeir and Dan Senor (Senor’s “Call Me Back” show) that covers much of the same ground as the Sapir article. Senor notes how happy Vandy’s students are compared to students at other places, and Diermeier tries to explain it (note: it has something to do with football, too). Diermeier does credit a lot of Vanderbilt’s academic policies to what he absorbed at the University of Chicago.

Note at about 30 minutes in, Diermeier describes the sit-in in the administration building which led to disciplining the pro-Palestinian protestors. The University of Chicago doesn’t go nearly this far in disciplining protestors that do exactly the same thing. At Vandy, there was suspensions, probation, and even arrests for assault. Diermeier also explains why he would not accede to the demonstrators’ demands for divestment of the university’s endowment from Israel, and explains why he considers encampments a violation of the school’s policy. At the end, he muses about what to do free speech crosses the borderline into illegal harassment or threats.

In my view, Diermeier is the best university President in America, for his policies are the best and are based on considerable thought (and of course, his experience at The University of Chicago).

Researchers used the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument to map how nearly 6 million galaxies cluster across 11 billion years of cosmic history. Their observations line up with what Einstein's theory of general relativity predicts.

Researchers used the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument to map how nearly 6 million galaxies cluster across 11 billion years of cosmic history. Their observations line up with what Einstein's theory of general relativity predicts.

Recycled pacemakers can function as well as new devices, according to a new study. These used and reconditioned devices have the potential to increase access to pacemaker therapy in low- and middle-income countries, where many patients cannot afford the treatment.

New research may make it possible to keep electronic devices powered with another piece of equipment you're likely to bring with you while exploring the great outdoors: camping stoves. The work focuses on using the excess heat produced by stoves to create a thermoacoustic engine, which converts thermal energy into acoustic energy. This acoustic energy can then be transformed into mechanical or electrical energy. When optimized, these engines can generate power ranging from tens to thousands of watts, depending on their size.

The pipe organ stands as a bastion in concert halls and church sanctuaries, and even when not in use, it affects the acoustical environment around it. Researchers performed a sine-sweep through loudspeakers facing the organ pipes and measured the response with a microphone at different positions. They verified experimentally that sympathetic resonance does occur in organ pipes during musical performances and speeches, and that the overall amplitude increases when the signal matches the resonance of one or more pipes.

Trust between humans and robots is improved when the movement between both is harmonized, researchers have discovered.

Trust between humans and robots is improved when the movement between both is harmonized, researchers have discovered.

A new method enables researchers to analyse magnetic nanostructures with a high resolution. The new method achieves a resolution of around 70 nanometers, whereas normal light microscopes have a resolution of just 500 nanometers. This result is important for the development of new, energy-efficient storage technologies based on spin electronics.

A new method enables researchers to analyse magnetic nanostructures with a high resolution. The new method achieves a resolution of around 70 nanometers, whereas normal light microscopes have a resolution of just 500 nanometers. This result is important for the development of new, energy-efficient storage technologies based on spin electronics.

Uranus is an oddball among the Solar System’s planets. While most planets’ axis of rotation is perpendicular to their orbital plane, Uranus has an extreme tilt angle of 98 degrees. It’s flopped over on its side, likely from an ancient collision. It also has a retrograde orbit, opposite of the other planets.

The ice giant also has an unusual relationship with the Sun that sets it apart from other planets.

Uranus’ uniqueness extends to its upper atmosphere, called the thermosphere-corona. That region’s temperature is above 500 Celsius, and the heat sources responsible have puzzled astronomers. The corona extends as far as 50,000 km above the surface, which also sets it apart from other planets. Even weirder, its temperature is dropping.

When Voyager 2 flew past Uranus in 1986, it measured the thermosphere’s temperature. In the intervening decades, telescopes have continuously measured Uranus’s temperature. All these measurements show that the planet’s upper atmosphere is cooling and that the temperature has halved. None of the other planets experienced the same changes.

Uranus, as seen by NASA’s Voyager 2 in 1986. To Voyager 2, the ice giant was a featureless sphere that gave away none of its secrets. Credit: NASA/JPL

Scientists know that Uranus’ thermosphere is a tenuous layer. It has an embedded ionosphere, and it helps astronomers measure the thermosphere’s temperature. It’s a layer of ions that separates the lower atmosphere from the planet’s magnetosphere. H3+ ions in the ionosphere quickly reach thermal equilibrium with the surrounding neutrals. The ions emit photons in the near-infrared (NIR) that allow astronomers to monitor the thermosphere’s temperature with ground-based telescopes since some NIR wavelengths get through Earth’s atmosphere. That’s how they know that the upper atmosphere is cooling, while observations of the lower atmosphere show no cooling.

The cooling is puzzling, and seasonal effects were ruled out as the cause of the temperature drop. So was the Sun’s 11-year solar cycle, which sees the energy level from the Sun change.

New research published in Geophysical Review Letters has an explanation for the temperature shift. It’s titled “Solar wind power likely governs Uranus’ thermosphere temperature.” The lead author is Dr. Adam Masters from the Department of Physics at Imperial College.

According to Masters and his colleagues, the solar wind is responsible for Uranus’ cooling. The solar wind is a stream of charged particles that comes from the Sun’s outermost layer, the corona. It’s a plasma composed of mostly electrons and protons and also contains atomic nuclei and heavy ions.

“This apparently very strong control of Uranus’ upper atmosphere by the solar wind is unlike what we have seen at any other planet in our Solar System,” Adams said.

While the Solar wind is unceasing, its properties gradually change over timescales that match the changes in Uranus’ upper atmosphere. Since about 1990, the solar wind’s average outward pressure has been dropping slowly but significantly. The drop doesn’t correlate with the Sun’s well-known 11-year cycle, but it does closely correlate with Uranus’ changing temperature.

This figure from the research shows how, as the solar wind’s pressure decreases, the size of Uranus’ magnetosphere increases and its temperature drops. Image Credit: Masters et al. 2024.

This suggested to the researchers that, unlike Earth, Uranus’ temperature isn’t controlled by photons.

It’s a well-known fact that photons from the Sun heat the Earth. It’s the basis for life. While our planet’s magnetosphere largely protects Earth from the solar wind, photons aren’t stopped.

Uranus is much further away from the Sun than Earth is, almost 3 billion km, while Earth is only about 228 million km from the Sun. The number of photons that reach Uranus is not enough to heat the planet. Instead, the decreasing solar wind is allowing Uranus’ magnetosphere to expand.

Since the magnetosphere shields Uranus from the solar wind, its expansion makes it more difficult for the solar wind to reach the planet. Energy flows through the space around the planet, eventually reaching the thermosphere and controlling its temperature.

“Declining solar wind kinetic power, or near-identically total solar wind power, should mean weakening heating of Uranus’ thermosphere, leading to the observed long-term temperature decline,” the authors explain in their paper.

This means that for close-in planets like Earth, starlight controls the temperature of the thermosphere, while for planets further away, the solar wind takes over.

This discovery could affect a proposed future mission to Uranus. The Planetary Science and Astrobiology Decadal Survey 2023-2032 identified a mission to Uranus as a top priority, though so far, none have been approved. The mission concept is called Uranus Orbiter and Probe (UOP), and one of its main goals is to study the ice giant’s atmosphere.

This image of a potential Uranus spacecraft comes from the 2023-2032 Decadal Survey Mission Concept: Journey to an Ice Giant System. Image Credit: NASA

The mission would address the mystery of Uranus’ cooling, but scientists struggled to understand it. These findings mean the mission goals can be updated, and the question becomes how the energy from the solar wind gets into Uranus’ unusual magnetosphere.

This study not only answers a puzzling question about Uranus but also extends to exoplanets. If this solar-wind cooling can happen here, it can happen elsewhere.

“Beyond the solar system, this explanation for Uranus’ thermosphere cooling implies that exoplanet companions to host stars without strong local driving (like at Jupiter) and with sufficiently large magnetospheres will undergo a predominantly electrodynamic interaction with their parent star,” the authors write. For these exoplanets, the stellar wind will strongly govern the thermal evolution of the upper atmosphere, not stellar radiation. The stellar wind may also drive certain types of aurorae.

“This strong star-planet interaction at Uranus could have implications for establishing if different exoplanets generate strong magnetic fields in their interiors – an important factor in the search for habitable worlds outside our Solar System,” Adams concluded.

The post Uranus is Getting Colder and Now We Know Why appeared first on Universe Today.

A re-engineered wearable ultrasound patch for continuous and noninvasive blood pressure monitoring has undergone comprehensive clinical validation on over 100 patients, marking a major milestone in wearable technology research. The soft, stretchy patch provides precise, real-time readings of blood pressure deep within the body. It could offer a simpler and more reliable alternative to current clinical methods.