Either stars are strange, or there are 234 aliens trying to contact us
We all want there to be aliens. Green ones, pink ones, brown ones, Greys. Or maybe Vulcans, Klingons, even a being of pure energy. Any type will do.
That's why whenever a mysterious signal or energetic fluctuation arrives from somewhere in the cosmos and hits one of our many telescopes, headlines erupt across the media: "Have We Finally Detected An Alien Signal?" or "Have Astronomers Discovered An Alien Megastructure?" But science-minded people know that we're probably getting ahead of ourselves.
Skepticism still rules the day when it comes to these headlines, and the events that spawn them. That's the way it should be, because we've always found a more prosaic reason for whatever signal from space we're talking about. But, being skeptical is a balancing act; it doesn't mean being dismissive.
What we're talking about here is a new study from E.F. Borra and E. Trottier, two astronomers at Laval University in Canada. Their study, titled "Discovery of peculiar periodic spectral modulations in a small fraction of solar type stars" was just published at arXiv.
The two astronomers used data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, and analyzed the spectra of 2.5 million stars. Of all those stars, they found 234 stars that are producing a puzzling signal. That's only a tiny percentage. And, they say, these signals "have exactly the shape of an ETI signal" that was predicted in a previous study by Borra.
The 234 stars in Borra and Trottier's study aren't random. They're "overwhelmingly in the F2 to K1 spectral range" according to the abstract. That's significant because this is a small range centred around the spectrum of our own Sun. And our own Sun is the only one we know of that has an intelligent species living near it. If ours does, maybe others do too?
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We all want there to be aliens. Green ones, pink ones, brown ones, Greys. Or maybe Vulcans, Klingons, even a being of pure energy. Any type will do.
That's why whenever a mysterious signal or energetic fluctuation arrives from somewhere in the cosmos and hits one of our many telescopes, headlines erupt across the media: "Have We Finally Detected An Alien Signal?" or "Have Astronomers Discovered An Alien Megastructure?" But science-minded people know that we're probably getting ahead of ourselves.
Skepticism still rules the day when it comes to these headlines, and the events that spawn them. That's the way it should be, because we've always found a more prosaic reason for whatever signal from space we're talking about. But, being skeptical is a balancing act; it doesn't mean being dismissive.
What we're talking about here is a new study from E.F. Borra and E. Trottier, two astronomers at Laval University in Canada. Their study, titled "Discovery of peculiar periodic spectral modulations in a small fraction of solar type stars" was just published at arXiv.
The two astronomers used data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, and analyzed the spectra of 2.5 million stars. Of all those stars, they found 234 stars that are producing a puzzling signal. That's only a tiny percentage. And, they say, these signals "have exactly the shape of an ETI signal" that was predicted in a previous study by Borra.
The 234 stars in Borra and Trottier's study aren't random. They're "overwhelmingly in the F2 to K1 spectral range" according to the abstract. That's significant because this is a small range centred around the spectrum of our own Sun. And our own Sun is the only one we know of that has an intelligent species living near it. If ours does, maybe others do too?
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@EverythingScience
DNA data offer evidence of unknown extinct human relative
Traces of long-lost human cousins may be hiding in modern people’s DNA, a new computer analysis suggests.
People from Melanesia, a region in the South Pacific encompassing Papua New Guinea and surrounding islands, may carry genetic evidence of a previously unknown extinct hominid species, Ryan Bohlender reported October 20 at the annual meeting of the American Society of Human Genetics. That species is probably not Neandertal or Denisovan, but a different, related hominid group, said Bohlender, a statistical geneticist at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. “We’re missing a population or we’re misunderstanding something about the relationships,” he said.
This mysterious relative was probably from a third branch of the hominid family tree that produced Neandertals and Denisovans, an extinct distant cousin of Neandertals. While many Neandertal fossils have been found in Europe and Asia, Denisovans are known only from DNA from a finger bone and a couple of teeth found in a Siberian cave.
Bohlender isn’t the first to suggest that remnants of archaic human relatives may have been preserved in human DNA even though no fossil remains have been found. In 2012, another group of researchers suggested that some people in Africa carry DNA heirlooms from an extinct hominid species.
Less than a decade ago, scientists discovered that human ancestors mixed with Neandertals. People outside of Africa still carry a small amount of Neandertal DNA, some of which may cause health problems. Bohlender and colleagues calculate that Europeans and Chinese people carry a similar amount of Neandertal ancestry: about 2.8 percent. Europeans have no hint of Denisovan ancestry, and people in China have a tiny amount — 0.1 percent, according to Bohlender’s calculations. But 2.74 percent of the DNA in people in Papua New Guinea comes from Neandertals, and another 3 to 6 percent stems from Denisovans, Bohlender calculated.
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Traces of long-lost human cousins may be hiding in modern people’s DNA, a new computer analysis suggests.
People from Melanesia, a region in the South Pacific encompassing Papua New Guinea and surrounding islands, may carry genetic evidence of a previously unknown extinct hominid species, Ryan Bohlender reported October 20 at the annual meeting of the American Society of Human Genetics. That species is probably not Neandertal or Denisovan, but a different, related hominid group, said Bohlender, a statistical geneticist at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. “We’re missing a population or we’re misunderstanding something about the relationships,” he said.
This mysterious relative was probably from a third branch of the hominid family tree that produced Neandertals and Denisovans, an extinct distant cousin of Neandertals. While many Neandertal fossils have been found in Europe and Asia, Denisovans are known only from DNA from a finger bone and a couple of teeth found in a Siberian cave.
Bohlender isn’t the first to suggest that remnants of archaic human relatives may have been preserved in human DNA even though no fossil remains have been found. In 2012, another group of researchers suggested that some people in Africa carry DNA heirlooms from an extinct hominid species.
Less than a decade ago, scientists discovered that human ancestors mixed with Neandertals. People outside of Africa still carry a small amount of Neandertal DNA, some of which may cause health problems. Bohlender and colleagues calculate that Europeans and Chinese people carry a similar amount of Neandertal ancestry: about 2.8 percent. Europeans have no hint of Denisovan ancestry, and people in China have a tiny amount — 0.1 percent, according to Bohlender’s calculations. But 2.74 percent of the DNA in people in Papua New Guinea comes from Neandertals, and another 3 to 6 percent stems from Denisovans, Bohlender calculated.
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It gives me immense pleasure to announce that a person with a background in Physics and Electrical engineering is gonna be the next Secretary-General of the United Nations.
António Guterres, will be succeeding Ban-Ki Moon. And his service period will start begin from 1st January 2017.
REX for @Fizikx and @EverythingScience
António Guterres, will be succeeding Ban-Ki Moon. And his service period will start begin from 1st January 2017.
REX for @Fizikx and @EverythingScience
Virus triggers immune proteins to aid enemy
Crucial immune system proteins that make it harder for viruses to replicate might also help the attackers avoid detection, three new studies suggest. When faced with certain viruses, the proteins can set off a cascade of cell-to-cell messages that destroy antibody-producing immune cells. With those virus-fighting cells depleted, it’s easier for the invader to persist inside the host’s body.
The finding begins to explain a longstanding conundrum: how certain chronic viral infections can dodge the immune system’s antibody response, says David Brooks, an immunologist at the University of Toronto not involved in the research. The new studies, all published October 21 in Science Immunology, pin the blame on the same set of proteins: type 1 interferons.
Normally, type 1 interferons protect the body from viral siege. They snap into action when a virus infects cells, helping to activate other parts of the immune system. And they make cells less hospitable to viruses so that the foreign invaders can’t replicate as easily.
But in three separate studies, scientists tracked mice’s immune response when infected with lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus, or LCMV. In each case, type 1 interferon proteins masterminded the loss of B cells, which produce antibodies specific to the virus that is being fought. Normally, those antibodies latch on to the target virus, flagging it for destruction by other immune cells called T cells. With fewer B cells, the virus can evade capture for longer.
The proteins’ response “is driving the immune system to do something bad to itself,” says Dorian McGavern, an immunologist at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke in Bethesda, Md., who led one of the studies.
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Crucial immune system proteins that make it harder for viruses to replicate might also help the attackers avoid detection, three new studies suggest. When faced with certain viruses, the proteins can set off a cascade of cell-to-cell messages that destroy antibody-producing immune cells. With those virus-fighting cells depleted, it’s easier for the invader to persist inside the host’s body.
The finding begins to explain a longstanding conundrum: how certain chronic viral infections can dodge the immune system’s antibody response, says David Brooks, an immunologist at the University of Toronto not involved in the research. The new studies, all published October 21 in Science Immunology, pin the blame on the same set of proteins: type 1 interferons.
Normally, type 1 interferons protect the body from viral siege. They snap into action when a virus infects cells, helping to activate other parts of the immune system. And they make cells less hospitable to viruses so that the foreign invaders can’t replicate as easily.
But in three separate studies, scientists tracked mice’s immune response when infected with lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus, or LCMV. In each case, type 1 interferon proteins masterminded the loss of B cells, which produce antibodies specific to the virus that is being fought. Normally, those antibodies latch on to the target virus, flagging it for destruction by other immune cells called T cells. With fewer B cells, the virus can evade capture for longer.
The proteins’ response “is driving the immune system to do something bad to itself,” says Dorian McGavern, an immunologist at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke in Bethesda, Md., who led one of the studies.
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MICE SQUEAK BY EXPELLING AIR AT SUPERSONIC SPEED
The animal kingdom's mating rituals are almost as weird as humanity's: Frogs are out there inventing new sex positions, ocean crabs are embracing polygamy, and female bonobos are faking it to play the field.
The modest mouse, however, might be the most metal of them all. They're singing to soulmates using a mechanism similar to a supersonic jet engine, according to new research published in Current Biology.
This sound isn't new to scientists. They have known that mice and rats use their ultrasonic squeaks to call mates and defend their turf. The way they do it, however, has been up for debate: Is it more like blowing through a tiny flute, or strumming a super-taught guitar string? In fact, it's neither. "I found the standing hypothesis without proper evidence or poorly tested, and set out to do so with a team of experts," Coen Elemans, senior author on the study from the University of Southern Denmark told Popular Science
The team used high-speed imaging of the vocal folds from 15 excised mouse larynges to find that the mice enact a "glottal jet" of air aimed at the inner wall of the larynx. The vocal cords remain motionless. "Interestingly this mechanism is known only to produce sound in supersonic flow applications, such as vertical takeoff and landing with jet engines, or high-speed subsonic flows, such as jets for rapid cooling of electrical components and turbines," Anurag Agarwal, co-author and head of the Aero-acoustics laboratories at the University of Cambridge, UK noted in a release.
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The animal kingdom's mating rituals are almost as weird as humanity's: Frogs are out there inventing new sex positions, ocean crabs are embracing polygamy, and female bonobos are faking it to play the field.
The modest mouse, however, might be the most metal of them all. They're singing to soulmates using a mechanism similar to a supersonic jet engine, according to new research published in Current Biology.
This sound isn't new to scientists. They have known that mice and rats use their ultrasonic squeaks to call mates and defend their turf. The way they do it, however, has been up for debate: Is it more like blowing through a tiny flute, or strumming a super-taught guitar string? In fact, it's neither. "I found the standing hypothesis without proper evidence or poorly tested, and set out to do so with a team of experts," Coen Elemans, senior author on the study from the University of Southern Denmark told Popular Science
The team used high-speed imaging of the vocal folds from 15 excised mouse larynges to find that the mice enact a "glottal jet" of air aimed at the inner wall of the larynx. The vocal cords remain motionless. "Interestingly this mechanism is known only to produce sound in supersonic flow applications, such as vertical takeoff and landing with jet engines, or high-speed subsonic flows, such as jets for rapid cooling of electrical components and turbines," Anurag Agarwal, co-author and head of the Aero-acoustics laboratories at the University of Cambridge, UK noted in a release.
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Recent Supernova analysis shows feeble evidence for the existence of Dark Energy
As New statistical analysis casts doubt on accelerating expansion of the universe.
for @Fizikx & @EverythingScience
As New statistical analysis casts doubt on accelerating expansion of the universe.
for @Fizikx & @EverythingScience
First peek under clouds reveals Jupiter’s surprising depths
Jupiter’s clouds have deep roots. The multicolored bands that wrap around the planet reach hundreds of kilometers down into the atmosphere, NASA’s Juno spacecraft reveals, providing an unprecedented peek into the giant planet’s interior.
“Whatever’s making those colors and stripes still exists pretty far down,” planetary scientist Scott Bolton, head of the Juno mission, said October 19 at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society’s Division for Planetary Sciences. “That came as a surprise to many scientists.” Until now, researchers weren’t sure if Jupiter’s stripes were just blemishes atop the clouds or extended farther inward. The bands reach at least 350 to 400 kilometers beneath the cloud deck, Bolton reported in a news conference.
Juno arrived at Jupiter on July 4 and made its first up-close investigation of the planet on August 27. Coming within 5,000 kilometers of the cloud tops, Juno recorded the intensity of radio waves emanating from the planet. Different frequencies come from different depths; low frequencies originate from deep in the atmosphere while high frequencies originate higher up.
“Deep down, Jupiter is similar but also very different than what we see on the surface,” said Bolton, of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. Some bands broaden while others vanish. “We can’t tell what all of it means yet, but it’s telling us hints about the deep dynamics and chemistry of Jupiter’s atmosphere.”
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Jupiter’s clouds have deep roots. The multicolored bands that wrap around the planet reach hundreds of kilometers down into the atmosphere, NASA’s Juno spacecraft reveals, providing an unprecedented peek into the giant planet’s interior.
“Whatever’s making those colors and stripes still exists pretty far down,” planetary scientist Scott Bolton, head of the Juno mission, said October 19 at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society’s Division for Planetary Sciences. “That came as a surprise to many scientists.” Until now, researchers weren’t sure if Jupiter’s stripes were just blemishes atop the clouds or extended farther inward. The bands reach at least 350 to 400 kilometers beneath the cloud deck, Bolton reported in a news conference.
Juno arrived at Jupiter on July 4 and made its first up-close investigation of the planet on August 27. Coming within 5,000 kilometers of the cloud tops, Juno recorded the intensity of radio waves emanating from the planet. Different frequencies come from different depths; low frequencies originate from deep in the atmosphere while high frequencies originate higher up.
“Deep down, Jupiter is similar but also very different than what we see on the surface,” said Bolton, of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. Some bands broaden while others vanish. “We can’t tell what all of it means yet, but it’s telling us hints about the deep dynamics and chemistry of Jupiter’s atmosphere.”
Brought to you by: @EverythingScience
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Elon Musk Talks SpaceX Mars Colony Ships and More in Reddit AMA
SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk provided some additional details Oct. 23 about a Mars transportation system he unveiled last month, including plans to test in the near future one of its key technologies.
- REX
Join @Fizikx and @EverythingScience for more highlights!
SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk provided some additional details Oct. 23 about a Mars transportation system he unveiled last month, including plans to test in the near future one of its key technologies.
- REX
Join @Fizikx and @EverythingScience for more highlights!
No, the Universe is not expanding at an accelerated rate, say physicists
Back in 2011, three astronomers were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for their discovery that the Universe wasn’t just expanding - it was expanding at an accelerating rate.
The discovery led to the widespread acceptance of the idea that our Universe is dominated by a mysterious force called dark energy, and altered the standard model of cosmology forever. But now physicists say this discovery might have been false, and they have a much larger dataset to back them up.
When Perlmutter, Riess, and Schmidt measured all the data for known Type 1a supernovae, recorded by the Hubble space telescope and a number of large ground-based telescopes, they found something incredibly strange.
As the Royal Swedish Academy explained on the morning of the Nobel Prize announcement in Stockholm:
"In a Universe which is dominated by matter, one would expect gravity eventually should make the expansion slow down. Imagine then the utter astonishment when two groups of scientists ... discovered that the expansion was not slowing down, it was actually accelerating.
By comparing the brightness of distant, far-away supernovae with the brightness of nearby supernovae, the scientists discovered that the far-away supernovae were about 25 percent too faint. They were too far away. The Universe was accelerating. And so this discovery is fundamental and a milestone for cosmology. And a challenge for generations of scientists to come."
The find was backed up by data collected separately on things like clustering galaxies and the cosmic microwave background - the faint afterglow of the Big Bang.
And earlier this year, NASA and ESA scientists found that the Universe could be expanding around 8 percent faster than originally thought.
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Back in 2011, three astronomers were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for their discovery that the Universe wasn’t just expanding - it was expanding at an accelerating rate.
The discovery led to the widespread acceptance of the idea that our Universe is dominated by a mysterious force called dark energy, and altered the standard model of cosmology forever. But now physicists say this discovery might have been false, and they have a much larger dataset to back them up.
When Perlmutter, Riess, and Schmidt measured all the data for known Type 1a supernovae, recorded by the Hubble space telescope and a number of large ground-based telescopes, they found something incredibly strange.
As the Royal Swedish Academy explained on the morning of the Nobel Prize announcement in Stockholm:
"In a Universe which is dominated by matter, one would expect gravity eventually should make the expansion slow down. Imagine then the utter astonishment when two groups of scientists ... discovered that the expansion was not slowing down, it was actually accelerating.
By comparing the brightness of distant, far-away supernovae with the brightness of nearby supernovae, the scientists discovered that the far-away supernovae were about 25 percent too faint. They were too far away. The Universe was accelerating. And so this discovery is fundamental and a milestone for cosmology. And a challenge for generations of scientists to come."
The find was backed up by data collected separately on things like clustering galaxies and the cosmic microwave background - the faint afterglow of the Big Bang.
And earlier this year, NASA and ESA scientists found that the Universe could be expanding around 8 percent faster than originally thought.
Brought to you by: @EverythingScience
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MRSA uses decoys to evade a last-resort antibiotic
The superbug MRSA uses decoys to evade a last-resort antibiotic, reveals new research. The findings suggest potential new ways of tackling the bacteria, such as interfering with the decoys.
The findings, from scientists at Imperial College London, suggest potential new ways of tackling the bacteria, such as interfering with the decoys.
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is responsible for thousands of deaths around the world each year. However, because the bacteria are resistant to many different antibiotics, treatment options are limited, and often ineffective.
One of the few antibiotics that can be used against MRSA is a drug of last resort known as daptomycin. However nearly a third of MRSA infections are not cured by this drug, leaving patients with a poor prognosis.
But until now scientists didn't know how MRSA managed to survive daptomycin treatment.
In the latest findings, published in the journal Nature Microbiology, a team from Imperial discovered that MRSA releases decoy molecules that allow them to escape being killed by the antibiotic.
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The superbug MRSA uses decoys to evade a last-resort antibiotic, reveals new research. The findings suggest potential new ways of tackling the bacteria, such as interfering with the decoys.
The findings, from scientists at Imperial College London, suggest potential new ways of tackling the bacteria, such as interfering with the decoys.
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is responsible for thousands of deaths around the world each year. However, because the bacteria are resistant to many different antibiotics, treatment options are limited, and often ineffective.
One of the few antibiotics that can be used against MRSA is a drug of last resort known as daptomycin. However nearly a third of MRSA infections are not cured by this drug, leaving patients with a poor prognosis.
But until now scientists didn't know how MRSA managed to survive daptomycin treatment.
In the latest findings, published in the journal Nature Microbiology, a team from Imperial discovered that MRSA releases decoy molecules that allow them to escape being killed by the antibiotic.
Brought to you by: @EverythingScience
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Vaginal vs Clitoral orgasm: What's the difference?
It's still science 😉
It's still science 😉
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Vaginal vs. Clitoral Orgasm: What's the Difference?
Scientists have found that women have different types of orgasms, but what makes them different? Are some orgasms better than others?
Could Sex Kill Your Grandpa? - https://youtu.be/RdlBG7z07JQ
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Could Sex Kill Your Grandpa? - https://youtu.be/RdlBG7z07JQ
Sign Up For The Seeker Newsletter Here - http://bit.ly/1UO1PxI…
Trip to Mars Could Throw Off Astronauts' Balance
After months in space, your crew has finally made it to Mars, but there's a nasty readjustment awaiting all of them.
Living in zero gravity during the Earth-Mars transit will have some pretty harsh side effects, but most urgently they'll have to readjust to gravity again. And those first few days on Mars will be busy as the first Mars explorers get their bearings, prepare their habitat for the stay and begin thinking about setting up experiments.
You can therefore see why NASA is so intent on figuring out how to help astronauts stay healthy and happy after long stays in space so they can adjust quickly for life on Mars. We already know that a six-month stay on the International Space Station wreaks havoc with bone and muscles, but at least when the space station crew return to Earth they have a team of medical professionals to look after them. The first Mars astronauts will have no such luxury.
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After months in space, your crew has finally made it to Mars, but there's a nasty readjustment awaiting all of them.
Living in zero gravity during the Earth-Mars transit will have some pretty harsh side effects, but most urgently they'll have to readjust to gravity again. And those first few days on Mars will be busy as the first Mars explorers get their bearings, prepare their habitat for the stay and begin thinking about setting up experiments.
You can therefore see why NASA is so intent on figuring out how to help astronauts stay healthy and happy after long stays in space so they can adjust quickly for life on Mars. We already know that a six-month stay on the International Space Station wreaks havoc with bone and muscles, but at least when the space station crew return to Earth they have a team of medical professionals to look after them. The first Mars astronauts will have no such luxury.
Brought to you by @EverythingScience
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'Alien Megastructure' Star Targeted by $100 Million SETI Search
If intelligent aliens actually do live around Tabby's star, astronomers are determined to find them.
The Breakthrough Listen initiative, which will spend $100 million over the next 10 years to hunt for signals possibly produced by alien civilizations, is set to begin studying Tabby's star with the 330-foot-wide (100 meters) Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia, project team members announced Tuesday (Oct. 25).
"The Green Bank Telescope is the largest fully steerable radio telescope on the planet, and it's the largest, most sensitive telescope that's capable of looking at Tabby's star given its position in the sky," Breakthrough Listen co-director Andrew Siemion, who also directs the Berkeley SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Research Center at the University of California, Berkeley, said in a statement.
"We've deployed a fantastic new SETI instrument that connects to that telescope, that can look at many gigahertz of bandwidth simultaneously and many, many billions of different radio channels all at the same time so we can explore the radio spectrum very, very quickly," Siemion added.
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If intelligent aliens actually do live around Tabby's star, astronomers are determined to find them.
The Breakthrough Listen initiative, which will spend $100 million over the next 10 years to hunt for signals possibly produced by alien civilizations, is set to begin studying Tabby's star with the 330-foot-wide (100 meters) Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia, project team members announced Tuesday (Oct. 25).
"The Green Bank Telescope is the largest fully steerable radio telescope on the planet, and it's the largest, most sensitive telescope that's capable of looking at Tabby's star given its position in the sky," Breakthrough Listen co-director Andrew Siemion, who also directs the Berkeley SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Research Center at the University of California, Berkeley, said in a statement.
"We've deployed a fantastic new SETI instrument that connects to that telescope, that can look at many gigahertz of bandwidth simultaneously and many, many billions of different radio channels all at the same time so we can explore the radio spectrum very, very quickly," Siemion added.
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Consciousness could be a side effect of 'entropy', say researchers
It's impressive enough that our human brains are made up of the same 'star stuff' that forms the Universe, but new research suggests that this might not be the only thing the two have in common.
Just like the Universe, our brains might be programmed to maximise disorder - similar to the principle of entropy - and our consciousness could simply be a side effect.
The quest to understand human consciousness - our ability to be aware of ourselves and our surroundings - has been going on for centuries. Although consciousness is a crucial part of being human, researchers still don't truly understand where it comes from, and why we have it.
But a new study, led by researchers from France and Canada, puts forward a new possibility: what if consciousness arises naturally as a result of our brains maximising their information content? In other words, what if consciousness is a side effect of our brain moving towards a state of entropy?
Entropy is basically the term used to describe the progression of a system from order to disorder. Picture an egg: when it's all perfectly separated into yolk and white, it has low entropy, but when you scramble it, it has high entropy - it's the most disordered it can be.
This is what many physicists believe is happening to our Universe. After the Big Bang, the Universe has gradually been moving from a state of low entropy to high entropy, and because the second law of thermodynamics states that entropy can only increase in a system, it could explain why the arrow of time only ever moves forwards.
So researchers decided to apply the same thinking to the connections in our brains, and investigate whether they show any patterns in the way they choose to order themselves while we're conscious.
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It's impressive enough that our human brains are made up of the same 'star stuff' that forms the Universe, but new research suggests that this might not be the only thing the two have in common.
Just like the Universe, our brains might be programmed to maximise disorder - similar to the principle of entropy - and our consciousness could simply be a side effect.
The quest to understand human consciousness - our ability to be aware of ourselves and our surroundings - has been going on for centuries. Although consciousness is a crucial part of being human, researchers still don't truly understand where it comes from, and why we have it.
But a new study, led by researchers from France and Canada, puts forward a new possibility: what if consciousness arises naturally as a result of our brains maximising their information content? In other words, what if consciousness is a side effect of our brain moving towards a state of entropy?
Entropy is basically the term used to describe the progression of a system from order to disorder. Picture an egg: when it's all perfectly separated into yolk and white, it has low entropy, but when you scramble it, it has high entropy - it's the most disordered it can be.
This is what many physicists believe is happening to our Universe. After the Big Bang, the Universe has gradually been moving from a state of low entropy to high entropy, and because the second law of thermodynamics states that entropy can only increase in a system, it could explain why the arrow of time only ever moves forwards.
So researchers decided to apply the same thinking to the connections in our brains, and investigate whether they show any patterns in the way they choose to order themselves while we're conscious.
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ExoMars '96 Percent' Successful Despite Lander Crash: ESA
The ExoMars 2016 mission gets a solid "A" thus far despite the failure of its Schiaparelli lander to touch down softly on the Red Planet, European Space Agency (ESA) officials said.
Schiaparelli stopped communicating with its handlers less than a minute before its planned touchdown Wednesday morning (Oct. 21). While ExoMars team members are still analyzing the lander's data, early indications suggest that Schiaparelli fired its thrusters for an insufficient amount of time toward the end of the descent and slammed into the Martian surface hard — an interpretation bolstered by photos of the apparent crash site taken by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
But ESA is accentuating the positive, and there definitely was good news on Wednesday as well. For example, the mission's Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) began circling Mars that morning after acing a make-or-break, 139-minute-long engine burn.
"The importance of TGO and EDM can be described as 80 percent versus 20 percent, respectively. Since we obtained at least 80 percent of the data during the descent, the overall success rate can be calculated as follows: 80+20x0.8 = 96 percent. All in all, a very positive result," ESA Director General Jan Woerner wrote in a blog post today (Oct. 21).
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The ExoMars 2016 mission gets a solid "A" thus far despite the failure of its Schiaparelli lander to touch down softly on the Red Planet, European Space Agency (ESA) officials said.
Schiaparelli stopped communicating with its handlers less than a minute before its planned touchdown Wednesday morning (Oct. 21). While ExoMars team members are still analyzing the lander's data, early indications suggest that Schiaparelli fired its thrusters for an insufficient amount of time toward the end of the descent and slammed into the Martian surface hard — an interpretation bolstered by photos of the apparent crash site taken by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
But ESA is accentuating the positive, and there definitely was good news on Wednesday as well. For example, the mission's Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) began circling Mars that morning after acing a make-or-break, 139-minute-long engine burn.
"The importance of TGO and EDM can be described as 80 percent versus 20 percent, respectively. Since we obtained at least 80 percent of the data during the descent, the overall success rate can be calculated as follows: 80+20x0.8 = 96 percent. All in all, a very positive result," ESA Director General Jan Woerner wrote in a blog post today (Oct. 21).
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Physics tweak solves five of the biggest problems in one go!
"Dubbed SMASH, the model is based on the standard model of particle physics, but has a few bits tacked on. The standard model is a collection of particles and forces that describes the building blocks of the universe. Although it has passed every test thrown at it, it can’t explain some phenomena.
For example, we don’t understand dark matter, the mysterious substance that makes up 84 per cent of the universe’s mass. Nor why there is more matter than antimatter. Nor why the universe grew so rapidly in its youth during a period known as inflation. The list continues.
So something is still missing from the standard model. “Presumably we need some new particles,” says Mikhail Shaposhnikov at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne. “The question is, how many new particles do we need?”
REX for @Fizikx and @EverythingScience
"Dubbed SMASH, the model is based on the standard model of particle physics, but has a few bits tacked on. The standard model is a collection of particles and forces that describes the building blocks of the universe. Although it has passed every test thrown at it, it can’t explain some phenomena.
For example, we don’t understand dark matter, the mysterious substance that makes up 84 per cent of the universe’s mass. Nor why there is more matter than antimatter. Nor why the universe grew so rapidly in its youth during a period known as inflation. The list continues.
So something is still missing from the standard model. “Presumably we need some new particles,” says Mikhail Shaposhnikov at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne. “The question is, how many new particles do we need?”
REX for @Fizikx and @EverythingScience
Archaeologists have found the first ever fossilised dinosaur brain, and it's surprisingly complex
Dinosaurs have a fearsome reputation for their hunting abilities but less so when it comes to their intelligence. This is partly due to the fact that many species have long been thought to have had relatively small brains, their heads full of protective tissue that supposedly left little room for grey matter.
But the recent discovery of the first recorded fossilised brain tissue could help challenge that image.
The fossilised brain was found by a collector on a beach near Bexhill in Sussex, England. It preserves brain tissue of a large herbivorous dinosaur similar to Iguanodon, one of the first dinosaur species to be identified.
Found among rocks laid down during the early Cretaceous Period around 133 million years ago, the fossil is an endocast, formed as layers of sediment gradually filled up the skull.
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Dinosaurs have a fearsome reputation for their hunting abilities but less so when it comes to their intelligence. This is partly due to the fact that many species have long been thought to have had relatively small brains, their heads full of protective tissue that supposedly left little room for grey matter.
But the recent discovery of the first recorded fossilised brain tissue could help challenge that image.
The fossilised brain was found by a collector on a beach near Bexhill in Sussex, England. It preserves brain tissue of a large herbivorous dinosaur similar to Iguanodon, one of the first dinosaur species to be identified.
Found among rocks laid down during the early Cretaceous Period around 133 million years ago, the fossil is an endocast, formed as layers of sediment gradually filled up the skull.
Image
Full Story
Brought to you by @EverythingScience
EverythingScience
Archaeologists have found the first ever fossilised dinosaur brain, and it's surprisingly complex Dinosaurs have a fearsome reputation for their hunting abilities but less so when it comes to their intelligence. This is partly due to the fact that many species…
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Google AI invents its own cryptographic algorithm; no one knows how it works
Neural networks seem good at devising crypto methods; less good at codebreaking.
Google Brain has created two artificial intelligences that evolved their own cryptographic algorithm to protect their messages from a third AI, which was trying to evolve its own method to crack the AI-generated crypto. The study was a success: the first two AIs learnt how to communicate securely from scratch.
The Google Brain team (which is based out in Mountain View and is separate from Deep Mind in London) started with three fairly vanilla neural networks called Alice, Bob, and Eve. Each neural network was given a very specific goal: Alice had to send a secure message to Bob; Bob had to try and decrypt the message; and Eve had to try and eavesdrop on the message and try to decrypt it. Alice and Bob have one advantage over Eve: they start with a shared secret key (i.e. this is symmetric encryption).
Importantly, the AIs were not told how to encrypt stuff, or what crypto techniques to use: they were just given a loss function (a failure condition), and then they got on with it. In Eve's case, the loss function was very simple: the distance, measured in correct and incorrect bits, between Alice's original input plaintext and its guess. For Alice and Bob the loss function was a bit more complex: if Bob's guess (again measured in bits) was too far from the original input plaintext, it was a loss; for Alice, if Eve's guesses are better than random guessing, it's a loss. And thus an adversarial generative network (GAN) was created.
The results were... a mixed bag. Some runs were a complete flop, with Bob never able to reconstruct Alice's messages. Most of the time, Alice and Bob did manage to evolve a system where they could communicate with very few errors. In some tests, Eve showed an improvement over random guessing, but Alice and Bob then usually responded by improving their cryptography technique until Eve had no chance (see graph).
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(Pictured below)The setup of the crypto system. P = input plaintext, K = shared key, C = encrypted text, and PEve and PBob are the computed plaintext outputs.
Neural networks seem good at devising crypto methods; less good at codebreaking.
Google Brain has created two artificial intelligences that evolved their own cryptographic algorithm to protect their messages from a third AI, which was trying to evolve its own method to crack the AI-generated crypto. The study was a success: the first two AIs learnt how to communicate securely from scratch.
The Google Brain team (which is based out in Mountain View and is separate from Deep Mind in London) started with three fairly vanilla neural networks called Alice, Bob, and Eve. Each neural network was given a very specific goal: Alice had to send a secure message to Bob; Bob had to try and decrypt the message; and Eve had to try and eavesdrop on the message and try to decrypt it. Alice and Bob have one advantage over Eve: they start with a shared secret key (i.e. this is symmetric encryption).
Importantly, the AIs were not told how to encrypt stuff, or what crypto techniques to use: they were just given a loss function (a failure condition), and then they got on with it. In Eve's case, the loss function was very simple: the distance, measured in correct and incorrect bits, between Alice's original input plaintext and its guess. For Alice and Bob the loss function was a bit more complex: if Bob's guess (again measured in bits) was too far from the original input plaintext, it was a loss; for Alice, if Eve's guesses are better than random guessing, it's a loss. And thus an adversarial generative network (GAN) was created.
The results were... a mixed bag. Some runs were a complete flop, with Bob never able to reconstruct Alice's messages. Most of the time, Alice and Bob did manage to evolve a system where they could communicate with very few errors. In some tests, Eve showed an improvement over random guessing, but Alice and Bob then usually responded by improving their cryptography technique until Eve had no chance (see graph).
Image
Full Story
Brought to you by @EverythingScience
(Pictured below)The setup of the crypto system. P = input plaintext, K = shared key, C = encrypted text, and PEve and PBob are the computed plaintext outputs.
Gut instinct drives battery boost
Scientists have designed a new prototype battery that mimics the structure of the human intestines.
In humans, villi are used to absorb the products of digestion and increase the surface area across which this process can take place.
In the new lithium-sulphur battery, a layer of material with a villi-like structure, made from tiny zinc oxide wires, is placed on the surface of one of the battery's electrodes.
This can trap fragments of the active material when they break off, keeping them accessible for ongoing reactions and allowing the material to be reused.
"It's a tiny thing, this layer, but it's important," said study co-author Dr Paul Coxon from the University of Cambridge's department of materials science and metallurgy.
"This gets us a long way through the bottleneck which is preventing the development of better batteries."
The researchers say that, if hurdles to commercial development can be overcome, lithium-sulphur batteries could have five times the energy density of the lithium-ion batteries used in smartphones and other electronics.
But as lithium-sulphur batteries discharge, sulphur molecules transform into chain-like structures known as poly-sulphides.
As the devices undergo several charge-discharge cycles, bits of the poly-sulphide go into the battery's electrolyte (the electrically-conducting solution), so that over time the battery loses active material.
"This is the first time a chemically functional layer with a well-organised nano-architecture has been proposed to trap and reuse the dissolved active materials during battery charging and discharging," said lead author Teng Zhao, a PhD student from Cambridge.
"By taking our inspiration from the natural world, we were able to come up with a solution that we hope will accelerate the development of next-generation batteries."
The device is currently a proof of principle; commercially-available lithium-sulphur batteries are still some years away.
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Brought to you by @EverythingScience
Scientists have designed a new prototype battery that mimics the structure of the human intestines.
In humans, villi are used to absorb the products of digestion and increase the surface area across which this process can take place.
In the new lithium-sulphur battery, a layer of material with a villi-like structure, made from tiny zinc oxide wires, is placed on the surface of one of the battery's electrodes.
This can trap fragments of the active material when they break off, keeping them accessible for ongoing reactions and allowing the material to be reused.
"It's a tiny thing, this layer, but it's important," said study co-author Dr Paul Coxon from the University of Cambridge's department of materials science and metallurgy.
"This gets us a long way through the bottleneck which is preventing the development of better batteries."
The researchers say that, if hurdles to commercial development can be overcome, lithium-sulphur batteries could have five times the energy density of the lithium-ion batteries used in smartphones and other electronics.
But as lithium-sulphur batteries discharge, sulphur molecules transform into chain-like structures known as poly-sulphides.
As the devices undergo several charge-discharge cycles, bits of the poly-sulphide go into the battery's electrolyte (the electrically-conducting solution), so that over time the battery loses active material.
"This is the first time a chemically functional layer with a well-organised nano-architecture has been proposed to trap and reuse the dissolved active materials during battery charging and discharging," said lead author Teng Zhao, a PhD student from Cambridge.
"By taking our inspiration from the natural world, we were able to come up with a solution that we hope will accelerate the development of next-generation batteries."
The device is currently a proof of principle; commercially-available lithium-sulphur batteries are still some years away.
Image
Full Story
Brought to you by @EverythingScience
