Tag: science

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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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY CONSTRUCTING FIRST-EVER ELECTRON-ION COLLIDER TO EXPLORE THE BUILDING BLOCKS OF MATTER

The United States Department of Energy (DOE) and the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) have signed a “Statement of Interest” to collaborate on the construction of the world’s first-ever Electron-Ion Collider (EIC).

Scheduled to be built in the U.S. at DOE’s Brookhaven National Laboratory in partnership with DOE’s Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (Jefferson Lab), the agencies say that the ultra-powerful collider will allow researchers an unprecedented ability to “explore the building blocks of matter and the strongest force in nature.”

“The EIC is the only collider planned to be constructed anywhere in the world in the next decade—and the first to collide a beam of high-energy polarized electrons with a counter-circulating beam of high-energy polarized protons or heavier ions,” a statement from the Brookhaven National Laboratory explains. “A sophisticated detector will capture snapshots of these collisions to reveal how the particles and forces at the heart of atomic nuclei build up the structure and properties of everything we see in the universe today—from stars to planets to people.”

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EUROPEAN SATELLITE SPOTS MYSTERIOUS GLOW COMING FROM MARS

A European Space Agency satellite has detected a mysterious glow coming from Mars. Measured in the visible spectrum with the NOMAD-UVIS instrument on board the European Space Agency (ESA) Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) satellite, the unexpected glow emanates from the night side of Mars and was observed in the planet’s upper atmosphere.

A similar glow was witnessed by the same research team using a satellite orbiting Venus. Like that visible light signal, the researchers believed the mysterious glow coming from Mars resulted from oxygen interacting with the planet’s upper atmosphere. That’s mainly because they also saw a similar mysterious glow coming from Mars, only in the daytime.

“Back in 2020, we were already able to detect the presence of a green emission between 40 and 150 km in altitude, present during the Martian day,” explained Jean-Claude Gérard, a planetologist at the Laboratory for Planetary and Atmospheric Physics (LPAP) at the University of Liège (BE), where the research team was headquartered. “This was due to the dissociation of the CO2 molecule, the main constituent of the atmosphere, by ultraviolet solar radiation”.

However, the researchers soon discovered that this unexpected mysterious glow coming from Mars was originating from the nighttime side. They also figured out it was caused by something else entirely.

“This emission is due to the recombination of oxygen atoms created in the summer atmosphere and carried by the winds towards the high winter latitudes,” explained Lauriane Soret, a researcher at LPAP.

Once at higher altitudes, the atoms recombine with CO2 molecules when they come in contact. This reaction, the researcher explains, produces an oxygen molecule “in an excited state” that relaxes, causing it to emit light “in the visible range.”

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Scientific breakthrough as China creates the world’s first living ‘chimeric’ monkey that was grown using stem cells

China announced it birthed the world’s first living ‘chimeric’ monkey – an animal created in a lab using special cells.

Researchers took cells from two embryos of the same monkey species – crab-eating macaques – that were genetically different and fused them together.

The team used cells from seven-day embryos, mixed them with those from a five-day-old embryo and implanted the combination into female macaques, resulting in one live glowing green-eyed infant with yellow fingertips. 

While most animals contain mixed cells from their parents, the chimeric monkey was born with several that are genetically distinct – holding distinct DNA from each biological parent, the two embryos.

The baby monkey’s body had many donor cells detected from both embryos in the brain, heart, kidney, liver, gastrointestinal tract, testes, and the cells that turn into sperm. 

The team in China said the work has vast implications, such as allowing them to increase animal populations that are on the brink of extinction and learning more about IVF.

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