Tag: science

Trannysaurus Rex: The Activist Academics ‘Queering’ Dinosaurs

Recently, I wrote about North Hertfordshire Museum’s pathetic attempts to imply the ancient (male, moustachioed) Roman Emperor Elagabalus was actually a transgender woman. If you thought this was ridiculous, there is a museum in the United States which possesses a Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton which came out as nonbinary back in 2017, proudly announcing it was now a user of they/them pronouns on Twitter.

The Chicago Field Museum, where the T. rex lives and tweets, justified this lunacy on the spurious grounds that it is quite difficult to determine the sex of old dinosaur specimens (it’s not even certain if such creatures had true external genitalia at all). Therefore, as curators did not know for sure whether the specimen was a boy-lizard or a girl-lizard, they made the insane leap in logic that it was actually a trans one.

Do please further note from the above tweet that, although museum staff profess not to know whether their T. rex is male or female, they have somehow managed to accurately determine its star sign.

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BREAKTHROUGH IN QUANTUM STORAGE OF ENTANGLED PHOTONS MAY USHER AGE OF SOLID STATE-BASED QUANTUM NETWORKS

Chinese researchers report the successful quantum storage of entangled photons at telecom wavelengths within a crystal, in a breakthrough achievement that reportedly lasted 387 times longer than past similar experiments.

The research team, based at Nanjing University, says their findings could potentially “pave the way for realizing quantum networks based on solid-state devices.”

Experts have differing opinions on how soon we may see a global quantum internet. However, no one disputes that once it is achieved, it will revolutionize how information is processed and secured. In the move toward that reality, researchers are currently focusing on ensuring that processes that include quantum storage and distribution of entangled photons will be compatible with existing telecommunications networks.

In the case of entangled photons, entanglement describes the quantum phenomenon where particles remain connected, which effectively allows actions performed on one to affect its entangled counterpart even from across great physical distances.

However, making sure that quantum networks work reliably using fiber-based systems, like those the Internet currently uses, presents a number of challenges, namely signal loss due to the limitations of optical fiber systems that are presently in use.

One way of overcoming these problems involves the use of devices called quantum repeaters, which can help extend the range of these systems by storing the quantum state of photons into matter. Successful quantum repeaters must accomplish three primary tasks: 1) they must match the standard telecom wavelength, which is around 1.55 μm; 2) they must be capable of storing data for long periods; and 3) they have to be able to handle multiple data streams simultaneously.

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The alien hunter: has Harvard’s Avi Loeb found proof of extraterrestrial life?

Avi Loeb has a chip on his shoulder. For years, the Harvard astrophysicist has been trying to find aliens. He’s in the middle of trying to record the entire sky with an international network of telescopes and recently travelled to Papua New Guinea to find out if a meteor detected in 2014 was actually part of an interstellar spaceship. Meanwhile, academics and pundits snipe at him in the media, and he’s sick of it.

“I hear that the scientists say: ‘Why would you go to the Pacific Ocean? It’s a waste of time, waste of energy.’ And I say: ‘I’m not taking any of your research money; I’m not asking you to do anything. I’m doing the heavy lifting.’ Why would they be negative about it?” Loeb complains as he shows me around his mansion in Lexington, Massachusetts, one of the richest boroughs in the US. He’s busy rehearsing for a one-man show about his life and work, which he’ll perform in his attic tomorrow. Apparently, I’m the “only journalist to be invited”, apart from the camera crew filming a documentary.

Loeb, 61, has just finished a five-mile run, which he does every day at about 5am before knuckling down to work. Small, suited, bespectacled and well groomed, he looks a bit like Jeffrey Archer in a schoolboy uniform. After a very brief tour of his office – blink and you’ll miss it – we arrive in his immaculately tidy living room. He offers me sparkling water and a bowl of chocolates. Loeb is slender, but he loves chocolate, consuming 800 calories a day from it. “I cannot give up,” he says. “I’m addicted.”

Is he nervous about his show? “No, no,” he says. “Because I’m playing myself – there’s no difference.” Netflix will be filming it; in June documentary-makers accompanied him on his trip to Papua New Guinea where he recovered debris from a fireball that landed in the sea to the north of Manus Island. “There were over 50 film-makers and producers that wanted to document what I’m doing. They wanted to be on the ship, but I said I had a contract just with one.”

A distinguished scientist, Loeb has published hundreds of papers, as well as a bestselling book, Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth. He’s the Frank B Baird Jr professor of science at Harvard, the director of the Institute for Theory and Computation at the Center for Astrophysics, and the director of the Galileo project at Harvard. But he was relatively unknown until a peculiarly shaped object zoomed through our solar system in 2017. Astronomers described it as having “extreme dimensions” and concluded it must be interstellar. Officially known as 1I/2017 U1, it was given the nickname ’Oumuamua – Hawaiian for “scout” or “first distant messenger” and pronounced like a child startled by a cow: Oh mooer mooer.

’Oumuamua was long, thin and flat, like a pancake. After further analysis, astronomers spotted more anomalies. They determined that before telescopes detected the object, it had accelerated while travelling past the sun. This is normal for comets, rocky icebergs that melt in the heat and release gases that act like booster rockets. This is what gives comets their signature tail, but this asteroid didn’t have one. According to Loeb: “No tail, no comet.” In a paper co-written with Sean Kirkpatrick, the director of the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, which investigates UFOs for the US Department of Defense, Loeb later hypothesised that ’Oumuamua could be a solar sail from an interstellar craft, using sunlight to accelerate through space. In other words, it belonged to aliens.

In what was a big year for UFO-hunters, 2017 was the year that the Pentagon admitted to investigating UFOs. The $22m budget was reportedly also used to investigate alleged UFO sightings and all manner of unexplained goings on. Loeb rode the wave of interest to international fame.

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NASA TO LAUNCH STADIUM-SIZED CRAFT OVER ANTARCTICA IN NEW MISSION TO EXPLORE COSMIC PHENOMENA

A long-duration aerial mission soon to be carried out by NASA over Antarctica will launch stadium-sized craft in support of a series of record-breaking science missions, the agency announced this week.

The Antarctic Long Duration Balloon (LDB) Campaign, which includes a trio of scientific balloon flights equipped to study a range of different phenomena, will launch at the beginning of December, according to a press release NASA issued on Monday.

The mission will employ a series of massive zero-pressure balloons, which the American space agency says will support five missions in total.

Equipped with open ducts through which gas can escape, thereby eliminating the buildup of pressure within, zero-pressure balloons expand as they accumulate heat from the rising Sun as they are being carried aloft. Conversely, as the Sun sets, heat is lost, which results in a loss of gas, which causes zero-pressure balloons to have a shorter flight duration than other inflatable systems.

However, long-duration missions can be achieved during the polar summer, a period during which the balloons remain in constant sunlight for extended periods.

One of the missions aims to break a previous long-duration balloon flight record of just over 55 days. The balloons will launch from NASA’s facility for balloon launches located close to McMurdo Station, the largest community on Earth’s southernmost continent located on the southern edge of Ross Island, Antarctica.

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EXPLORING INFANT CONSCIOUSNESS DEVELOPMENT: NEW RESEARCH REVEALS BABIES LIKELY DEVELOP CONSCIOUSNESS IN THE WOMB

Recent scientific advances are bringing us closer to understanding infant consciousness development and answering a question that has puzzled scientists, parents, and philosophers alike for centuries: when does consciousness begin? 

In a new study published in the peer-reviewed journal Trends in Cognitive Science, an international team of researchers says empirical evidence suggests infants possess consciousness before birth, by at least the third trimester of pregnancy. 

Researchers say the findings and pinpointing the moment when consciousness first appears could have significant clinical, ethical, and legal implications. 

Historically, the question of when consciousness first emerges has been a topic of much speculation and debate. 

It is generally accepted that the growing human fetus lacks the neural cells required for consciousness during the first trimester of pregnancy. However, traditional viewpoints differ widely on when consciousness first emerges. 

Some recent studies have proposed that consciousness emerges 24-26 weeks after conception when thalamocortical connections activate the neural cortex. 

Others have argued that infants lack the higher-order thought necessary for self-awareness until around the first birthday or even later. 

In this recent study, a team of neuroscientists and philosophers from Monash University, the University of Tübingen, the University of Minnesota, and Trinity College Dublin conducted a meta-analysis of the latest empirical findings and methodological advancements in infant consciousness development research. 

A vital component of the meta-analysis was accepting the complex nature of consciousness as a subjective phenomenon characterized by a unique experiential point of view.

Unlike adults and older children, infants cannot verbalize their experiences. Instead, researchers had to rely on indirect markers to gauge the presence of consciousness. These markers include behavioral responses, neural activities, and developmental milestones.

Examining these indirect markers, researchers found that several lines of evidence pointed to the early emergence of consciousness. 

One key piece of evidence was the development of intrinsic connectivity networks in the brain, such as the default mode network (DMN), which are active early in development.

These networks, typically associated with higher cognitive functions, are present in newborns and preterm infants, suggesting the early onset of consciousness.

Researchers also examined the role of attention in consciousness development. It’s generally understood that top-down (voluntary) attention develops around 3 to 6 months of age, while bottom-up (involuntary) attention is evident from birth. This distinction is crucial as it indicates that the emergence of consciousness might be linked to the development of attentional capabilities.

Another intriguing line of evidence came from the study of multisensory integration in infants. Certain complex forms of multisensory integration, thought to occur only when stimuli are consciously perceived, have been observed in infants as young as four months. This further supports the early-onset theory of consciousness.

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Three Graphs That Show There Is No “Climate Crisis”

As the West fitfully weakens industrial civilisation by trying to eliminate oil, coal and natural gas as energy sources, the scientific basis for Net Zero is based more on ‘general agreement’ than hard data. Climate scientists nevertheless sound optimistic about the progress that’s being made in destroying society’s carbon energy base.  

There are of course criticisms of the idea of a carbon-dioxide-induced apocalypse, largely supported as it is by general circulation (i.e., whole-earth) planetary models. There are too many different GCMs all with too many free parameters (aka ‘fudge factors’), as well as wildly divergent readings of historical climate records: Are violent climate events really more frequent, and how does weather actually relate to climate? The popular press cries havoc, but the data are not so clear. The looming economic costs of a Net Zero target are leading to some political pushback. Nevertheless, the recent jury acquittal of nine Extinction Rebellion vandals shows that passionate belief in the imminent dangers of CO2 is not limited to activists.

Climate science is complicated, but the key question is simple. The climate does seem to be getting warmer, but are we responsible? Does the level of atmospheric carbon dioxide have a major effect on the temperature of the earth? The standard answer is “yes, of course”. But in fact there are good reasons for doubt. 

Popular accounts of the ‘climate emergency’ rarely show quantitative data. Yet there are widely available graphs that anyone can understand. Here are three graphs which suggest that the answer to the question is probably “no”. It is likely that beyond a certain point, carbon dioxide has a relatively minor effect on planetary temperature. 

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THESE ARE THE TOP FOUR THEORIES THAT COULD BRING US CLOSER TO FASTER-THAN-LIGHT TRAVEL

Since Captain Kirk first ordered the Starship Enterprise to engage the warp drive back in 1967, fans of science fiction have dreamed of traveling to the stars at warp speed. That idea remained in the realm of science fiction until 1994, when Mexican mathematician Miguel Alcubierre proposed a mathematically viable solution for building a real-world faster-than-light warp drive.

Since then, numerous scientists and engineers have taken a swing at their own version of a viable, real-world warp drive, including an attempt to patent one of these “out there” ideas.

Here, The Debrief looks at three of the past most promising warp drive models, along with one brand new physics concept called the “Tri-Space Model,” which may hold the key to making faster-than-light travel possible.

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EERIE GLOWS AND ELECTRON BEAMS: WHAT WERE NASA’S ‘DISSIPATION’ AND ‘BEAM-PIE’ MISSIONS INVESTIGATING OVER REMOTE ALASKA?

On Wednesday, NASA launched a sounding rocket into the early morning skies above Fairbanks, as the wavering green glow of the aurora borealis danced over the Poker Flat Research Range near Mile 30 along Alaska’s Steese Highway.

The Wednesday launch was part of NASA’s DISSIPATION mission, managed out of Goddard Space Flight Center, which aims to capture data that will help scientists understand phenomena associated with auroras, including how high-altitude solar winds dissipate their energy, and how auroras contribute to heating the atmosphere, according to a NASA statement.

Part of the mission’s focus involves a region between 60 and 180 miles over the Earth and at latitudes above 65 degrees, known as the high-latitude ionosphere-thermosphere, where energy from charged solar wind particles is dissipated.

Researchers involved said that the launch, which occurred shortly after midnight, was timed perfectly with the peak of the aurora that morning, which lasted less than half an hour.

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Mysterious cosmic ray observed in Utah came from beyond our galaxy, scientists say

Space scientists seeking to understand the enigmatic origins of powerful cosmic rays have detected an extremely rare, ultra-high-energy particle that they believe traveled to Earth from beyond the Milky Way galaxy.

The energy of this subatomic particle, invisible to the naked eye, is equivalent to dropping a brick on your toe from waist height, according to the authors of new research published Thursday in the journal Science. It rivals the single most energetic cosmic ray ever observed, the “Oh-My-God” particle that was detected in 1991, the study found.

Cosmic rays are charged particles that travel through space and rain down on Earth constantly. Low-energy cosmic rays can emanate from the sun, but extremely high-energy ones are exceptional. They are thought to travel to Earth from other galaxies and extragalactic sources.

“If you hold out your hand, one (cosmic ray) goes through the palm of your hand every second, but those are really low-energy things,” said study coauthor John Matthews, a research professor at the University of Utah.

“When you get out to these really high-energy (cosmic rays), it’s more like one per square kilometer per century. It’s never going through your hand.”

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