Science & TechnologyS


Nebula

What could go wrong?! Physicists are creating lasers that would be powerful enough to rip holes in the fabric of reality

Jake Anderson
The Mind Unleashed
Thu, 26 Sep 2019 23:27 UTC
CERN Hadron Collider
New technology could allow a high-velocity laser to pierce "through [the] fabric of the Universe."

People generally balk at the idea of scientists experimenting with and manipulating certain pillars of physical reality, whether that be gene splicing, artificial intelligence, or nuclear fusion.

But in the last couple of decades, a new twist on this modern Island of Dr. Moreau-style narrative has surfaced in the form of scientists experimenting on high-velocity elementary particles (such as the CERN Hadron Collider) and other quantum enigmas.

Laser physicists recently chortled "hold my beer" in announcing that they are developing a laser so powerful it can shred all matter, including the very electrons and nuclei that constitute the fabric of reality itself.

Earlier this month, the physics journal Physical Review Letters published a paper discussing how new technology could allow a high-velocity laser to pierce "through [the] fabric of the Universe." The trick, according to a researcher at the Université Paris-Saclay, is to anchor and focus the laser using a mirror made of plasma.
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Telescope

Unexpected observation: Scientists watch a black hole shredding a star


The Ohio State University
Thu, 26 Sep 2019 00:00 UTC
accretion disk around black hole
© NASA's Goddard Space Flight CenterThis illustration shows a tidal disruption, which occurs when a passing star gets too close to a black hole and is torn apart into a stream of gas. Some of the gas eventually settles into a structure around the black hole called an accretion disk.
A NASA satellite searching space for new planets gave astronomers an unexpected glimpse at a black hole ripping a star to shreds.

It is one of the most detailed looks yet at the phenomenon, called a tidal disruption event (or TDE), and the first for NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (more commonly called TESS.)

The milestone was reached with the help of a worldwide network of robotic telescopes headquartered at The Ohio State University called ASAS-SN (All-Sky Automated Survey for Supernovae). Astronomers from the Carnegie Observatories, Ohio State and others published their findings today in The Astrophysical Journal.

Patrick Vallely, a co-author of the study and National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow at Ohio State:
"We've been closely monitoring the regions of the sky where TESS is observing with our ASAS-SN telescopes, but we were very lucky with this event in that the patch of the sky where TESS is continuously observing is small, and in that this happened to be one of the brightest TDEs we've seen.

"Due to the quick ASAS-SN discovery and the incredible TESS data, we were able to see this TDE much earlier than we've seen others — it gives us some new insight into how TDEs form."
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Meteor

Pure hubris: NASA investing in 'planetary defense' to detect, deflect city-killing asteroids

Frank J. Connor
Yahoo! News
Fri, 27 Sep 2019 15:22 UTC
NASA DART program
© Fox News
NASA has doubled what it is spending to help detect and possibly deflect asteroids on a collision course with Earth.

Next year, the U.S. space agency plans to spend $150 million on its so-called "planetary defense" programs. Some of the money would be going to develop systems to detect asteroids and comets like the football-field-sized space rock that zipped past the Earth this summer at 55,000 mph. It was only spotted by astronomers 24-hours after it passed by.

This close, passing asteroid was characterized as a "city killer" by Swinburne University astronomy professor Alan Duffy. If it had been on a collision course, it would have crashed into the Earth with more than 30 times the energy of the atomic blast at Hiroshima, the Sydney Morning Herald reported. NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine likened it to the meteor that struck Chelyabinsk, Russia, in 2013.

Even though NASA missed this relatively small asteroid, the agency is "really good at characterizing, cataloging and tracking objects that are one kilometer or larger, which is the type of object that could damage the Earth permanently, Bridenstine said. But NASA is investing in capabilities to discover these smaller objects.
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Comet 2

Hunting asteroids: NASA's Planetary Defense budget grew 4000% in 10 years

Casey Dreier
Planetary.org
Sat, 28 Sep 2019 16:32 UTC
asteroid earth
© Photo: Science Photo Library / ANDRZEJ WOJCICKI / Getty ImagesIt wasn't the arguments that changed, it was the politics.
In 2005, Congress passed a bill requiring NASA to find and track at least 90% of all near-Earth objects (NEOs) 140 meters or larger by 2020. It was a significant step toward protecting the planet from potential asteroid impacts, but it had a major flaw: Congress neglected to specify funding for the new mandate. As a consequence, NASA's NEO survey effort was sidelined for years; as of January 2019, only 40% of the total estimated population of hazardous asteroids 140 meters and larger had been found. Meeting the 2020 mandate is now impossible.

For five years after the 2005 law, NEO survey efforts at NASA limped along with an annual budget of less than $4 million per year — roughly 0.02% of the space agency's total expenditures and less than the travel budget for employees at NASA headquarters. This money supported observation time on ground-based telescopes around the world — an important but ultimately inadequate method for detecting the extremely faint signatures of near-Earth objects.

Comment: As noted in Earth enters densest stream of deadly Taurid meteor cluster this June:
[...] scientists have identified more than 90 percent of the objects large enough to cause a global-scale disaster.

But moving down the size scale, the census is far spottier. Only about 30 percent of medium-size objects - 140 meters (460 feet) in diameter or larger - have been spotted. And she said only about 1 percent of objects have been found that are the size of the Tunguska impactor, which was about 40 meters (130 feet) in diameter. She said she welcomed the idea of a special effort to look for objects during the Taurid swarm in June.
And if something even as small as the Tunguska asteroid struck over a major city it would cause mass mortality; the situation could be particularly dire if it was part of a swarm.

For more on the current threat, see: And for an idea on the previous cataclysms humanity has endured: Also check out SOTT radio's:

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Microscope 2

Extremophile worm discovered that has 'three sexes'

California Institute of Technology
Phys.org
Thu, 26 Sep 2019 12:00 UTC
nematode
© CaltechThis newly discovered species of nematode is considered an extremophile--it thrives under high-salt, high-pH, arsenic-rich conditions that are otherwise hostile to life. But it is surprisingly versatile because it can also live in "normal" conditions in the laboratory.
Caltech scientists have discovered a new species of worm thriving in the extreme environment of Mono Lake. This new species, temporarily dubbed Auanema sp., has three different sexes, can survive 500 times the lethal human dose of arsenic, and carries its young inside its body like a kangaroo.


Comment: Science alert provides more detail on this 'three sexes' business:
When it comes to differentiation of the sexes, nematode species usually keep it simple, dividing into hermaphrodites and males. But Auanema sp. also has worms of the female sex. Furthermore, they have other interesting sex characteristics, as the researchers note "the arrangement of genital papillae in Auanema sp. males is unique in the genus."

Comment: See also:

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Galaxy

Big world around tiny star throws theory of planet formation in a spin

Marcia Dunn
Phys.org
Thu, 26 Sep 2019 12:00 UTC
star planet
© CARMENES/RenderArea/J. Bollaín/C. GallegoJupiter-like planet with a blueish colour orbiting a cool red dwarf.
A giant world discovered around a tiny star is putting a new spin on how planets form.

Astronomers reported Thursday they've found a Jupiter-like planet orbiting a star that's a mere 12% the mass of our sun. There may even be another big gas planet lurking in this system 31 light-years away.

The Spanish-led team wrote in the journal Science that the newly confirmed planet did not form the usual, gradual way, where a solid core of merging particles takes shape before a gas buildup. Instead, in a surprise to scientists, the planet seems to have arisen straight from gas.

Lead author Juan Carlos Morales of the Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia said the planet may be almost as big as its star. A year there is about 200 days.

Comment: Check out Did Earth 'Steal' Martian Water? for more insight on planet 'formation'. It's notable that there have been an increasing number of discoveries calling into question the mainstream understanding of how planets come to be: Also check out SOTT radio's:

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Brain

Resist the Borg! Facebook buys mind-reading startup for $1BN

Anthony Cuthbertson
Independent
Tue, 24 Sep 2019 16:10 UTC
CTRL Labs
© CTRL-LabsCTRL-Labs says it is 'building a world where computers are natural extensions of thought and movement'
Facebook has acquired neural interface startup CTRL-Labs in a deal expected to be worth around $1 billion (£800m).

The US-based startup joins Facebook Reality Labs, the social media giant's augmented and virtual reality division, with the idea of bringing its mind-reading technology into consumer products.

It is Facebook's biggest acquisition since it bought virtual reality startup Oculus VR in 2014 for $2bn, and reinforces Facebook's commitment to developing hardware.

Comment: The most apparent issue here is Facebook's continued encroachment into people's private lives, and now even more deeply into their psyche and physiology. People have willingly dismantled their boundaries of what they allow to be seen and taken of themselves, as though such things never had much value in the first place. And now, people are gradually being steered to integrate this technology into their bodies as an extension of their nervous system. Facebook isn't going to all of the sudden change and become some beneficent organization. It's lust for control and dominance is just being integrated further and further into the mind of everyday people.

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Brain

Brain studies aim to predict who is likely to commit murder

Bigad Shaban and Robert Campos
NBC Washington
Thu, 26 Sep 2019 14:06 UTC
Dr. Hannes Vogel
© NBC Bay Area"I was involved in the examination of Steven Paddock's brain, the mass murder from Las Vegas," said Dr. Hannes Vogel, a Neuropathologist at Stanford University. Vogel has studied thousand of brains over the past three decades.
An NBC Bay Area investigation details first-of-its-kind research that found detecting abnormalities in the brain may help identify who might be at risk of committing violent attacks in the future

Cutting-edge research is revealing new ways to potentially prevent violent acts, including mass shootings, years before the thought of violence ever crosses the minds of murderers.

A study of roughly 1,000 prisoners revealed across-the-board brain abnormalities in those who committed homicide, leading researchers to believe such behavior, if identified early enough, can be quashed with therapy and medication.

The findings come in the wake of several recent mass shootings across the country - seven dead in Odessa, Texas; 22 shot and killed at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas; and three people, including two children, killed by an active shooter at the Gilroy Garlic festival.

Researchers have linked such violent behavior to abnormalities in the brain, and believe early detection may help identify who might be at risk of committing violent attacks in the future.
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Radar

Mysterious 'pocket' of underwater gas could contain millions of tons of natural gas or CO2

Brandon Specktor
Live Science
Fri, 27 Sep 2019 10:24 UTC
carbon dioxide
© Takeshi Tsuji, Kyushu UniversityIn this seismic velocity map, the long blue blob sitting within the green section represents a vast reservoir of greenhouse gases trapped below the seafloor.
The bottom of the sea can be a gassy place. Underwater volcanoes and vents spew carbon dioxide (CO2) near the crevices where tectonic plates rift apart. Hungry bacteria convert decomposing creatures of the deep into natural methane. And, new research from Japan reminds us, enormous, miles-wide reservoirs of greenhouse gases lurk in untouched pockets just below the seafloor.

In a study published Aug. 19 in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, a team of researchers discovered one such pocket at the bottom of the Okinawa Trough, a massive submarine basin sitting southwest of Japan where the Philippine Sea plate is slowly sinking below the Eurasian plate. Using seismic waves to map the trough's structure, the team found a huge gas pocket stretching at least 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) wide and potentially containing more than 100 million tons (90.7 million metric tons) of CO2, methane or some combination of the two.

Depending on its contents, this massive stash of seafloor gas could represent an untapped source of natural gas, or a ticking time bomb of greenhouse gas emissions just waiting to seep up to the surface, the researchers wrote.

Comment: It's just as well, then, that neither methane nor CO2 has any real effect on climate, and if this is a natural gas deposit it could be a boon for worldwide energy needs: Also check out SOTT radio's:

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Flashlight

Climate theory casts a new light on the history of Chinese civilisation

Stephen Chen
South China Morning Post
Tue, 24 Sep 2019 01:30 UTC
Chinese ancient ruins
© AlamyGeologists compare plant and lake bed data to ancient written records to try to explain ups and downs in Chinese civilization.
Researchers say that when 500-year-long sun cycles brought warmth, communities flourished, but when the Earth cooled, ancient societies collapsed

Scientists say they have found evidence beneath a lake in northeastern China that ties climate change and 500-year sun cycles to ups and downs in the 8,000 years of Chinese civilisation.

According to the study by a team at the Institute of Geology and Geophysics in Beijing published in the science journal Nature Communications this month, whenever the climate warmed, Chinese civilisation prospered and when it cooled, it declined.

While historians have used various social and economic factors to explain changes over the millennia, Dr Xu Deke, lead author of the paper, and his colleagues said that while people played their part, their study indicated that cycles in solar activity influenced human activity:
"We just point out there is a natural constraint on human efforts. We are in a much more capable position than our ancestors with the help of technology and machines in face of global cooling, but preparation must start now."
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