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Scientists Challenge Climate-Change Naysayers: "As Real as Evolution and the Big Bang"

Tom McFay — Wed, 12 May 2010 08:50:00 +0000

“Climate change is a theory as certain as the theory of the Earth’s age (4.5 billion years), the Big Bang Theory, and the theory of evolution.” Members of the National Academy of Sciences, in their words, have countered the “lies”…

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Scientists Challenge Climate-Change Naysayers: "As Real as Evolution and the Big Bang"

Chandra Space Observatory Locates "Missing Matter" of the Universe

Tom McFay — Wed, 12 May 2010 08:30:00 +0000

One of the great, unsolved mysteries of 21st-century science is the existence of the missing matter of the universe. Using observations with NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and ESA’s XMM-Newton, astronomers have announced a robust detection of a vast reservoir of…

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Chandra Space Observatory Locates "Missing Matter" of the Universe

Robotic Probes Poised to Explore Milky Way by 2020 -A Galaxy Insight

Tom McFay — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 09:00:00 +0000

Before the year 2020, scientists are expected to launch intelligent space robots that will venture out to explore the universe for us. “Robotic exploration probably will always be the trail blazer for human exploration of far space,” says Wolfgang Fink, physicist and researcher at Caltech. “We haven’t yet landed a human being on Mars but we have a robot there now. In that sense, it’s much easier to send a robotic explorer. When you can take the human out of the loop, that is becoming very exciting.” While Fink is encouraged by the progress made by missions such as the Mars Phoenix and its robotic arm, he emphasizes that the link between human and robot needs to be eliminated, allowing robots to make their own decisions on what science needs to be carried out. In reference to the Phoenix’s robotic arm he said, “The arms are the tools, but it’s about the intent to move the arms. That’s what we’re after. To have the robot know that something there is interesting and that’s where it needs to go and then to go get a sample from it. That’s what we’ve after. You want to get rid of the joystick, in other words. You want the system to take control of itself and then basically use its own tools to explore.” The physicist said he envisions a time when humans send out intelligent probes to explore the far reaches of the universe and send information back to Earth – without having to send people on excruciatingly long and dangerous space missions. “In the old Star Wars movies, especially in the Empire Strikes Back, the empire was sending out probes or floating robots,” said Fink. “Those were ideal robotic explorers because they floated over planets and had sensors and communication capabilities. Once you venture out to other planets, you need something that can operate on its own. You can’t monitor and supervise every single step. You want to deploy something that, on its own, can start a reconnaissance of the area and report back.” The key attribute robots need to possess is the ability to recognize something of interest, such as a rock or crater, something that a human mind would see as a scientific opportunity. At Caltech, Fink and others are working on programs that use images for robots to distinguish colors, textures, shapes and obstacles. Once artificial intelligence has the ability to do this, if the programming is complex enough, the robot can notice something that is out of place, or a region worth investigating (such as a strangely coloured patch of Mars regolith that a Mars robot will decide to dig into). The researchers also are working on a wish list of sorts for the spacecraft. The list would include things that NASA and university scientists would like the robot to investigate. “It’s very difficult to teach a spacecraft,” said Fink. “When a geologist goes into the field, they can tell you if they see something that sparks their interest. Based on that interest, it triggers more refined research. But the problem is if you encounter something that scientists had not foreseen, then you run the risk of not detecting it We’ll equip it with a database and a wish list, along with the ability to flag an anomaly.” Fink said NASA has shown some interest in their work. And that makes sense since NASA is planning an unmanned mission to Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, around 2017. The CalTech physicist explained that an orbiter would most likely release a balloon-type vehicle that would float above the surface of the moon and send its findings back to Earth. “It takes more than hour to send communications back and forth to a space probe at Saturn or Titan,” said Fink. “It is not a problem so much if you are dealing with a Lander, which is immobile, or when you’re dealing with a rover which is not moving too fast. It becomes a significant problem if you deploy a balloon or air ship on Titan, let’s say. They are floating so you need a much quicker reaction time. If there’s a mountain or hill coming up, you need to make a decision right there and then. The main question is will robotic missions trump our basic human desire to explore space via manned missions? Posted by Casey Kazan. http://www.universetoday.com/2008/07/28/by-2020-droids-will-explore-space-for-us/

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Robotic Probes Poised to Explore Milky Way by 2020 -A Galaxy Insight

MIT Team Offers ‘Snapshot’ of Life in Other Universes

Tom McFay — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 09:00:00 +0000

Modern cosmology theory holds that our universe may be just one in a vast collection of universes known as the multiverse. MIT physicist Alan Guth has suggested that new universes (known as “pocket universes”) are constantly being created, but they cannot be seen from our universe. In this view, “nature gets a lot of tries — the universe is an experiment that’s repeated over and over again, each time with slightly different physical laws, or even vastly different physical laws,” says Jaffe. Some of these universes would collapse instants after forming; in others, the forces between particles would be so weak they could not give rise to atoms or molecules. However, if conditions were suitable, matter would coalesce into galaxies and planets, and if the right elements were present in those worlds, intelligent life could evolve. Some physicists have theorized that only universes in which the laws of physics are “just so” could support life, and that if things were even a little bit different from our world, intelligent life would be impossible. In that case, our physical laws might be explained “anthropically,” meaning that they are as they are because if they were otherwise, no one would be around to notice them. MIT physics professor Robert Jaffe and his collaborators felt that this proposed anthropic explanation should be subjected to more careful scrutiny, and decided to explore whether universes with different physical laws could support life. The MIT physicists have showed that universes quite different from ours still have elements similar to carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, and could therefore evolve life forms quite similar to us, even when the masses of elementary particles called quarks are dramatically altered. Jaffe and his collaborators felt that this proposed anthropic explanation should be subjected to more careful scrutiny, so they decided to explore whether universes with different physical laws could support life. Unlike most other studies, in which varying only one constant usually produces an inhospitable universe, they examined more than one constant. Whether life exists elsewhere in our universe is a longstanding mystery. But for some scientists, there’s another interesting question: could there be life in a universe significantly different from our own? In work recently featured in a cover story in Scientific American, Jaffe, former MIT postdoc, Alejandro Jenkins, and recent MIT graduate Itamar Kimchi showed that universes quite different from ours still have elements similar to carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, and could therefore evolve life forms quite similar to us. Even when the masses of the elementary particles are dramatically altered, life may find a way. “You could change them by significant amounts without eliminating the possibility of organic chemistry in the universe,” says Jenkins. Although bizarre life forms might exist in universes different from ours, Jaffe and his collaborators decided to focus on life based on carbon chemistry. They defined as “congenial to life” those universes in which stable forms of hydrogen, carbon and oxygen would exist. “If you don’t have a stable entity with the chemistry of hydrogen, you’re not going to have hydrocarbons, or complex carbohydrates, and you’re not going to have life,” says Jaffe. “The same goes for carbon and oxygen. Beyond those three we felt the rest is detail.” They set out to see what might happen to those elements if they altered the masses of elementary particles called quarks. There are six types of quarks, which are the building blocks of protons, neutrons and electrons. The MIT team focused on “up”, “down” and “strange” quarks, the most common and lightest quarks, which join together to form protons and neutrons and closely related particles called “hyperons.” In our universe, the down quark is about twice as heavy as the up quark, resulting in neutrons that are 0.1 percent heavier than protons. Jaffe and his colleagues modeled one family of universes in which the down quark was lighter than the up quark, and protons were up to a percent heavier than neutrons. In this scenario, hydrogen would no longer be stable, but its slightly heavier isotopes deuterium or tritium could be. An isotope of carbon known as carbon-14 would also be stable, as would a form of oxygen, so the organic reactions necessary for life would be possible. The team found a few other congenial universes, including a family where the up and strange quarks have roughly the same mass (in our universe, strange quarks are much heavier and can only be produced in high-energy collisions), while the down quark would be much lighter. In such a universe, atomic nuclei would be made of neutrons and a hyperon called the “sigma minus,” which would replace protons. They published their findings in the journal Physical Review D last year. Jaffe and his collaborators focused on quarks because they know enough about quark interactions to predict what will happen when their masses change. However, “any attempt to address the problem in a broader context is going to be very difficult,” says Jaffe, because physicists are limited in their ability to predict the consequences of changing most other physical laws and constants. A group of researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has done related studies examining whether congenial universes could arise even while lacking one of the four fundamental forces of our universe — the weak nuclear force, which enables the reactions that turn neutrons into protons, and vice versa. The researchers showed that tweaking the other three fundamental forces could compensate for the missing weak nuclear force and still allow stable elements to be formed. That study and the MIT work are different from most other studies in this area in that they examined more than one constant. “Usually people vary one constant and look at the results, which is different than if you vary multiple constants,” says Mark Wise, professor of physics at Caltech, who was not involved in the research. Varying only one constant usually produces an inhospitable universe, which can lead to the erroneous conclusion that any other congenial universes are impossible. One physical parameter that does appear to be extremely finely tuned is the cosmological constant — a measure of the pressure exerted by empty space, which causes the universe to expand or contract. When the constant is positive, space expands, when negative, the universe collapses on itself. In our universe, the cosmological constant is positive but very small — any larger value would cause the universe to expand too rapidly for galaxies to form. However, Wise and his colleagues have shown that it is theoretically possible that changes in primordial cosmological density perturbations could compensate at least for small changes to the value of the cosmological constant. In the end, there is no way to know for sure what other universes are out there, or what life they may hold. But that will likely not stop physicists from exploring the possibilities, and in the process learning more about our own universe. Casey Kazan via MIT News Office

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MIT Team Offers ‘Snapshot’ of Life in Other Universes

SETI Founder Recommends Space-Based Search for Intelligent ET Life

Tom McFay — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 08:36:00 +0000

At this last’s week’s 2010 TED Conference, Frank Drake, the founder of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI), offered a radical suggestion to enhance current efforts in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. Drake wants to anchor the search about 82 billion kilometers away or 550 times the distance from Earth to the sun, to a point in space where the electromagnetic signals from planets orbiting distant stars would be focused by the gravitational lensing effect of our sun, making them, in theory, more easily detected. Drake wants to send a space-based listening post there in a bid to overhear alien communications, which would be too faint for telescopes on Earth to detect. The major drawback to the proposal, of course, is that with existing propulsion technology, the spaceship would take hundreds of years to make the voyage. Gravitational lenses could also be used to transmit signals, amplifying them so they could travel further and potentially reach distant civilisations. It’s also possible, Drake says, that intelligent civilisations have built an intergalactic internet using such techniques and are just “waiting for us to log on”. We don’t think Google will be too pleased about this. The SETI project – Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence – has been in existence in one form or another for several decades, dating back to Drake’s first SETI experiment named Project Ozma. SETI is basically the search for intelligence through listening for radio waves of another civilization. For Drake back in the 1960’s, this was no doubt the sign of a technologically prevalent society, and the smartest means to search for life. Several experts, however, look at that decision and see it as a mistake. At least, that is what some scientists and others connected to the field of extra-terrestrial search feel, such as George Dvorsky, who serves on the Board of Directors for the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies. Recent insights in such fields as cosmology, astrobiology have changed our perception of the cosmos and the ways in which advanced life might develop. The Drake Equation does not take into consideration such factors as the age of the Galaxy, when intelligence first emerged, or the presence of physiochemical variables such as the presence of metals necessary for the presence of life and the formation of planets. The equation, Dvorsky emphasizes, assumes “a sort of cosmological uniformity rather than a dynamic and ever changing universe.” The equation asks us to guess the number of Earth-like planets, but it does not ask us to estimate when Earth-like planets -intelligence itself may have been present as long as 2 to 4.5 billion years ago. The Galaxy’s extreme age and the potential for intelligence, which may have been present as long as 2 to 4.5 billion years ago, to have emerged at disparate points in time leaves an absurdly narrow window for detecting radio signals. The Drake Equation, Dvorsky believes, does not tell us about exponential civilizational growth on account of Von Neumann probe disbursement. “It does not tell us where advanced ETI’s may be dwelling or what they’re up to (are they outside the Galaxy? Do they live inside Jupiter Brains? Do they phase shift outside of what we regard as habitable space? ). This is a serious shortcoming because the answers to these questions should help us determine not just where we should be looking, but they can also provide us with insight as to the makeup of advanced intelligence life and our own potential trajectory.” In other words, Dvorsky concludes, post-Singularity machine-based intelligence may represent the most common mode of existence for late-stage civilizations. And that’s who we should be looking for rather than radio transmitting civilizations. Casey Kazan via New Scientist

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SETI Founder Recommends Space-Based Search for Intelligent ET Life

Space Station to Begin Search for Proof of Dark Matter

Tom McFay — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 08:16:00 +0000

The long-awaited experiment that will search for dark matter is getting closer to heading to the International Space Station. The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) is undergoing final testing at ESA’s Test Centre in the Netherlands before being launched on the space shuttle to the ISS, currently scheduled for July, 2010. The AMS will help scientists better understand the fundamental issues on the origin and structure of the observable universe by observing dark matter, missing matter and antimatter. As a byproduct, AMS will gather other information from cosmic radiation sources such as stars and galaxies millions of light years from our home galaxy. ISS officials have been touting that science is now beginning to be done in earnest on the orbiting laboratory. The AMS will be a giant leap in science capability for the ISS. Not only is it the biggest scientific instrument to be installed on the International Space Station (ISS), but also it is the first magnetic spectrometer to be flown in space, and the largest cryogenically cooled superconducting magnet ever used in space. It will be installed on the central truss of the ISS. Results from AMS may take up to three years to search for antimatter in other galaxies, and dark matter in our own. The instrument was built at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva, Switzerland. The first part of the tests was also conducted at CERN, when the detector was put through its paces using a proton beam from CERN’s Super Proton Synchrotron accelerator to check its momentum resolution and its ability to measure particle curvature and momentum. AMS’s ability to distinguish electrons from protons was also tested. This is very important for the measurement of cosmic rays, 90% of which are protons and constitute a natural background for other signals that interest scientists. AMS will be looking for an abundance of positrons and electrons from space, one of the possible markers for dark matter. Once the extensive testing is complete, AMS will leave ESTEC at the end of May on a special US Air Force flight to Kennedy Space Center in Florida. It will be launched to the ISS on the Space Shuttle Endeavour on flight STS-134, now scheduled for July. Only four percent of the universe is made of materials we sort of understand. So what about that remaining 96%? For the most part we’ve labeled it under two names, dark matter and dark energy. We have no clear idea what these materials are. But astronomers are attempting to “simplify the dark side of the universe”. They say the two most mysterious constituents in the universe are actually the same thing. Dr HongSheng Zhao, of the University of St Andrews School of Physics and Astronomy, has found that the puzzling dark matter and its counterpart dark energy are so closely intertwined that it’s not clear that they’re even two different materials. A British astrophysicist and Advanced Fellow of the UK’s Science and Technology Facilities Council, Zhao points out, “Both dark matter and dark energy could be two faces of the same coin. “As astronomers gain understanding of the subtle effects of dark energy in galaxies in the future, we will solve the mystery of astronomical dark matter at the same time. “ Many astronomers believe that both the universe and galaxies are held together by the gravitational attraction of a huge amount of unseen material. This idea was first noted by the Swiss astronomer Fritz Zwicky in 1933, and now commonly referred to as dark matter. Dr Zhao reports, “Dark energy has already revealed its presence by masking as dark matter 60 years ago if we accept that dark matter and dark energy are linked phenomena that share a common origin.” In Dr Zhao’s model, dark energy and dark matter are simply different manifestations of the same thing, which he has considered as a ‘dark fluid’. On the scale of galaxies, this dark fluid behaves like matter and on the scale of the Universe overall as dark energy, driving the expansion of the Universe. Notably, his model, unlike many other works, is detailed enough to produce the same 3:1 ratio of dark energy to dark matter as predicted by cosmologists. Efforts are currently underway to hunt for very massive dark-matter particles with a variety of experiments. According to Dr Zhao, these efforts could turn out to be fruitless. The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva is a particle accelerator that amongst other objectives, an many hope it could potentially detect dark matter particles. “In this simpler picture of universe, the dark matter would be at a surprisingly low energy scale, too low to be probed by upcoming Large Hadron Collider,” said Zhao. “The search for dark-matter particles so far has concentrated on highly-energetic particles. If dark matter however is a twin phenomenon of dark energy, it will not show up at instruments like the LHC, but has been seen over and over again in galaxies by astronomers.” However, the observable universe might be absent of dark-matter particles altogether. The findings of Dr Zhao are also compatible with an interpretation of the dark component as a modification of the law of gravity rather than particles or energy. Dr Zhao concluded. “No matter what dark matter and dark energy are, these two phenomena are likely not independent of each other.” Cosmologists agree that understanding the nature of dark matter and dark energy is key in understanding the expansion of our universe. “Explaining why the expansion of the Universe is currently accelerating is certainly the most fascinating question in modern cosmology,” says Luigi Guzzo, lead author of a recent paper on the subject in the journal Nature. “We have been able to show that large surveys that measure the positions and velocities of distant galaxies provide us with a new powerful way to solve this mystery.” Ten years ago, astronomers made the startling discovery that the Universe is now expanding at a faster pace today than it used to. “This implies that one of two very different possibilities must hold true,” explains Enzo Branchini, who is working with Guzzo to unveil the mystery. “Either the Universe is filled with a mysterious dark energy which produces a repulsive force that fights the gravitational brake from all the matter present in the Universe, or, our current theory of gravitation is not correct and needs to be modified, for example by adding extra dimensions to space.” Recently professor Jose Senovilla, and his colleagues at the University of the Basque Country in Bilbao, Spain, has recently proposed a mind-bending alternative to dark matter and energy. Their model shows that if time itself is slowing down, as in accordance with their new theory, our solitary time dimension is slowly turning into a new space dimension. Therefore the far-distant, ancient stars seen by cosmologists would from our perspective, look as though they were accelerating. “Our calculations show that we would think that the expansion of the universe is accelerating,” says Prof Senovilla. The theory bases it’s idea on one particular variant of superstring theory, in which our universe is confined to the surface of a membrane, or brane, floating in a higher-dimensional space, known as the “bulk”. In billions of years, time would cease to be time altogether. “Then everything will be frozen, like a snapshot of one instant, forever,” Senovilla told New Scientist magazine. “Our planet will be long gone by then.” Though radical and in many way unprecedented, these ideas are not without support. Gary Gibbons, a cosmologist at Cambridge University, say the concept has merit. “We believe that time emerged during the Big Bang, and if time can emerge, it can also disappear – that’s just the reverse effect.” In other words, these are all very interesting theories. Only time will tell—assuming it doesn’t run out before then. Hard data from the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) should shed some light on one of the central mysteries of the universe. Casey Kazn with Rebecca Sato via ESA

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Space Station to Begin Search for Proof of Dark Matter

Climate’s Tipping Points Arrive Suddenly -New Forecast & Study of Ancient Antarctica Warns

Tom McFay — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 08:46:00 +0000

“Climate scientists worry about 'tipping points' … thresholds beyond which a small additional increase in average temperature or some associated climate variable results in major changes to the affected system. Among the tipping points we face in the near future are the complete disappearance of Arctic sea ice in summer, leading to drastic changes in ocean circulation and climate patterns across the whole Northern Hemisphere; acceleration of ice loss from the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, driving rates of sea-level increase to 6 feet or more per century; and ocean acidification from carbon dioxide absorption, causing massive disruption in ocean food webs.” U.S. presidential science adviser John Holdren According to a new University of California, Davis, study it is harder than experts thought to predict when sudden shifts in Earth's natural systems will occur — a worrisome finding for scientists trying to identify the tipping points that could push climate change into an irreparable global disaster. “Many scientists are looking for the warning signs that herald sudden changes in natural systems, in hopes of forestalling those changes, or improving our preparations for them,” said UC Davis theoretical ecologist Alan Hastings. “Our new study found, unfortunately, that regime shifts with potentially large consequences can happen without warning — systems can 'tip' precipitously. “This means that some effects of global climate change on ecosystems can be seen only once the effects are dramatic. By that point returning the system to a desirable state will be difficult, if not impossible.” Hastings, a professor in the UC Davis Department of Environmental Science and Policy, is one of the world's top experts in using mathematical models to understand natural systems. His current studies range from researching the dynamics of salmon and cod populations to modeling plant and animal species' response to global climate change. Scientists widely agree that global climate change is already causing major environmental effects, such as changes in the frequency and intensity of precipitation, droughts, heat waves and wildfires; rising sea level; water shortages in arid regions; new and larger pest outbreaks afflicting crops and forests; and expanding ranges for tropical pathogens that cause human illness. Elsewhere, supporting the tipping point theory, an international team of scientists found proof of a sudden, remarkably warm period in Antarctica that occurred about 15.7 million years ago and lasted for a few thousand years. Last year, as Sophie Warny, LSU assistant professor of geology and geophysics was studying samples sent to her from the latest Antarctic Geologic Drilling Program, or ANDRILL one sample stood out as a complete anomaly. First I thought it was a mistake, that it was a sample from another location, not Antarctica, because of the unusual abundance in microscopic fossil cysts of marine algae called dinoflagellates. But it turned out not to be a mistake, it was just an amazingly rich layer,” said Warny. “I immediately contacted my U.S. colleague, Rosemary Askin, our New Zealand colleagues, Michael Hannah and Ian Raine, and our German colleague, Barbara Mohr, to let them know about this unique sample as each of our countries had received a third of the ANDRILL samples.” The two scientists in charge of the drilling, David Harwood of University of Nebraska – Lincoln, and Fabio Florindo of Italy, were equally excited about the discovery,” said Warny. “They had noticed that this thin layer had a unique consistency that had been characterized by their team as a diatomite, which is a layer extremely rich in fossils of another algae called diatoms.” All research parties involved met at the Antarctic Research Facility at Florida State University in Tallahassee. Together, they sampled the zone of interest in great detail and processed the new samples in various labs. One month later, the unusual abundance in microfossils was confirmed. Among the 1,107 meters of sediments recovered and analyzed for microfossil content, a two-meter thick layer in the core displayed extremely rich fossil content. This is unusual because the Antarctic ice sheet was formed about 35 million years ago, and the frigid temperatures there impede the presence of woody plants and blooms of dinoflagellate algae. “We all analyzed the new samples and saw a 2,000 fold increase in two species of fossil dinoflagellate cysts, a five-fold increase in freshwater algae and up to an 80-fold increase in terrestrial pollen,” said Warny. “Together, these shifts in the microfossil assemblages represent a relatively short period of time during which Antarctica became abruptly much warmer.” These palynomorphs, a term used to described dust-size organic material such as pollen, spores and cysts of dinoflagellates and other algae, provide hard evidence that Antarctica underwent a brief but rapid period of warming about 15 million years before present. “This event will lead to a better understanding of global connections and climate forcing, in other words, it will provide a better understanding of how external factors imposed fluctuations in Earth’s climate system,” said Harwood. “The Mid-Miocene Climate Optimum has long been recognized in global proxy records outside of the Antarctic region. Direct information from a setting proximal to the dynamic Antarctic ice sheets responsible for driving many of these changes is vital to the correct calibration and interpretation of these proxy records.” These startling results will offer new insight into Antarctica’s climatic past – insights that could potentially help climate scientists better understand the current climate change scenario. “In the case of these results, the microfossils provide us with quantitative data of what the environment was actually like in Antarctica at the time, showing how this continent reacted when climatic conditions were warmer than they are today,” said Warny. According to the researchers, these fossils show that land temperatures reached a January average of 10 degrees Celsius – the equivalent of approximately 50 degrees Fahrenheit – and that estimated sea surface temperatures ranged between zero and 11.5 degrees Celsius. The presence of freshwater algae in the sediments suggests to researchers that an increase in meltwater and perhaps also in rainfall produced ponds and lakes adjacent to the Ross Sea during this warm period, which would obviously have resulted in some reduction in sea ice. These findings most likely reflect a poleward shift of the jet stream in the Southern Hemisphere, which would have pushed warmer water toward the pole and allowed a few dinoflagellate species to flourish under such ice-free conditions. Researchers believe that shrub-like woody plants might also have been able to proliferate during an abrupt and brief warmer time interval. “An understanding of this event, in the context of timing and magnitude of the change, has important implications for how the climate system operates and what the potential future response in a warmer global climate might be,” said Harwood. “A clear understanding of what has happened in the past, and the integration of these data into ice sheet and climate models, are important steps in advancing the ability of these computer models to reproduce past conditions, and with improved models be able to better predict future climate responses.” “The SMS Project Science Team is currently looking at the stratigraphic sequence and timing of climate events evident throughout the ANDRILL AND-2A drillcore (image above), including those that enclose this event,” said Florindo. “A broader understanding of ice sheet behavior under warmer-than-present conditions will emerge.” Casey Kazan via University of California – Davis Source: http://www.lsu.edu/highlights/2009/10/antarctic.shtml

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Climate’s Tipping Points Arrive Suddenly -New Forecast & Study of Ancient Antarctica Warns

A Deadly Orbit? -The Solar System’s Journey Through the Milky Way

Tom McFay — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 08:40:00 +0000

Is there a genocidal countdown built into the motion of our solar system? Recent work at Cardiff University suggests that our system's orbit through the Milky Way encounters regular speedbumps – and by “speedbumps” we mean “potentially extinction-causing asteroids”. Professor William Napier and Dr Janaki Wickramasinghe have completed computer simulations of the motion of the Sun in our outer spiral-arm location in the Milky Way (image left of spiral arms). These models reveal a regular oscillation through the central galactic plane, where the surrounding dust clouds are the densest. The solar system is a non-trivial object, so its gravitational effects set off a far-reaching planetoid-pinball machine which often ends with comets hurled into the intruding system. The sun is about 26,000 light-years from the center of the Milky Way Galaxy, which is about 80,000 to 120,000 light-years across (and less than 7,000 light-years thick). We are located on on one of its spiral arms, out towards the edge. It takes the sun -and our solar system- roughly 200-250 million years to orbit once around the Milky Way. In this orbit, we are traveling at a velocity of about 155 miles/sec (250 km/sec). Many of the ricocheted rocks collide with planets on their way through our system, including Earth. Impact craters recorded worldwide show correlations with the ~37 million year-cycle of these journeys through the galactic plane – including the vast impact craters thought to have put an end to the dinosaurs two cycles ago. Almost exactly two cycles ago, in fact. The figures show that we're very close to another danger zone, when the odds of asteroid impact on Earth go up by a factor of ten. Ten times a tiny chance might not seem like much, but when “Risk of Extinction” is on the table that single order of magnitude can look much more imposing. Worse, Bruce Willis will only be available to save us for another fifty years at most. But you have to remember that ten times a very small number is still a very small number – and Earth has been struck by thousands of asteroids without any exciting extinction events. A rock doesn't just have to hit us, it has to be large enough to survive the truly fearsome forces that cause most to burn up on re-entry. Professors Medvedev and Melott of the University of Kansas have a different theory based on the same regular motion. As the Sun ventures out “above” the galactic plane, it becomes increasingly exposed to the cosmic ray generating shock front that the Milky Way creates as it ploughs through space. As we get closer to this point of maximum exposure, leaving the shielding of the thick galactic disk behind, the Kansas researchers hold that the increasing radiation destroys many higher species, forcing another evolutionary epoch. This theory also matches in time with the dinosaur extinction. Either way, don't go letting your VISA bill run up just yet. “Very close” in astronomical terms is very, very different to “close” in homo sapien time. Posted by Luke McKinney.

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A Deadly Orbit? -The Solar System’s Journey Through the Milky Way

Was Neanderthal’s Speech Different Than Modern Humans? Experts Say "Yes, Very"

Tom McFay — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 08:26:00 +0000

Recent research shows that Neanderthals didn't talk like us. Shocking, we know, but this isn't the uber-obvious statement it might initially appear. Because it's not about languages, or how discussing daily bison hunts might be more exciting than last night's “Lost” – it's about a fundamental difference in the fundamental noises they could make. The Neanderthal pronunciation has been re-created at Florida Atlantic University. But before you storm off with pitchforks and fire to prevent an even-worse real life version of the goddamn Geico cavemen, they aren't reconstructing Neanderthals. After all, if we could reconstruct biological specimens from the past it'd be dinosaurs. Obviously. Instead Dr Robert McCarthy is using computer simulations to synthesize the sound of Neanderthal speech based on fossil records. The work isn't exact – the soft tissues that actually make noise don't often hang around in fossils, and the only noises you can make with your skeleton are taps or loud, breaking ones. Neither of which work terribly well for communication (other than communicating “Oh god help call an ambulance”). There are several steps of reconstruction between fossil and phonetics and some researchers have criticized Dr McCarthy's work as inaccurate. Still, turning on your PC to bring back voices unheard for fifty thousand years still kicks the hell out of your Solitaire-and-spreadsheets box. The syntheses show that the Neanderthal vocabulary contained less sounds than ours, lacking the “quantal vowels” that tell us the difference between “meat” and “mitt”. Not that the Neanderthals would have played baseball, to the best of our knowledge. This was not necessarily a hurdle – Morse code shows you can communicate fully with one sound, although it takes a bit more time and brainpower – which the Neanderthals may have had, according to other recent research. More likely it demonstrates the ability of our ability to communicate, as new and improved versions of humanity (anthropologically speaking) can both produce and understand a wider variety of useful sounds. Unfortunately, they can also produce sounds like “Oops, I did it again”, but every process has side effects. Posted by Luke McKinney

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Was Neanderthal’s Speech Different Than Modern Humans? Experts Say "Yes, Very"

Are Black Holes Sucking the Heat Out of Universe?

Tom McFay — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 09:00:00 +0000

“It’s kind of like your coffee cup cooling down … when your coffee cup reaches the temperature of the room it is in, that’s equilibrium…. The stars, which are burning hydrogen, are like the coffee cup – they’re hot and slowly cooling down….. The question is, when will it end? … And all you can say is we are closer to the heat death than we anticipated.” Charles “Charley” H. Lineweaver, professor at the Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics at Australian National University Australian researchers led by Charley Lineweaver have measured the amount of entropy that exists now in the Universe. They found that the Universe has much less energy available than had been previously measured, which has a potentially long-term scary implication: the Universe aging faster. Their analysis of the entropy within the universe found that it is about 30 times higher than other projections had previously measured. In other words, according to these researchers, the universe has a thirty times higher entropy number than what was earlier calculated. Entropy is a measure of energy expenditure of any system, such as the Universe. The universe began with a low entropy number (low disorder). As the universe ages its entropy number gets higher (higher disorder) as it expends more energy. Thus, the higher entropy number (the more entropy), the more energy has been expended. Entropy is calculated to find out how efficient a system is, such as an engine or a universe, and how quickly the system will run down. The team is trying to find out how much energy will be available to life forms anywhere in the universe, and where this energy is. The first step in this procedure is to determine the entropy of the universe. The measurements by Lineweaver and Egan are based largely on the number of the black holes in the universe, along with their masses, a key to figuring out entropy in the universe, but they considered all contributions to the entropy of the observable universe: stars, star light, the cosmic microwave background. They also made an estimate of the entropy of dark matter. Lineweaver and team concluded that it’s the entropy of super-massive black holes that dominates the entropy of the universe. When they used the new data on the number and size of super-massive black holes, they found that the entropy of the observable universe is about 30 times larger than previous calculations. Dr. Lineweaver compared their results and its message for life in the universe to a car’s gas tank. He states, “It’s a bit like looking at your gas gauge and saying `I thought I had half a gas tank, but I only have a quarter of a tank.” “But I can’t tell you how many kilometres you can go on that quarter of a tank yet,” Lineweaver added. Currently, Lineweaver is looking into a measurement on how much longer the universe will be able to support life. However, this figure will be difficult to come up with because astronomers are unsure about how much energy was available at the beginning of the Big Bang. Casey Kazan via material provided by Australian National University The abstract to their paper (“A Larger Estimate of the Entropy of the Universe”) is found on the ArXiv.org website

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Are Black Holes Sucking the Heat Out of Universe?