Posted on May 1, 2021 in Planet Earth, Science, Technology
So ends another intriguing week on Planet Earth, with former CIA Director, John Brennan revealing that unexplained UFO phenomenon might constitute a different form of life to Hubble’s first image on an exoplanet to Michio Kaku suggesting that the Universe is simpler than we think to Marie Curie’s still radioactive notebooks.
‘Exotic compact objects’ could soon break physics, new study suggests–Gravitational wave detectors could soon uncover hints of new physics from exotic compact objects, reports Space.com.–“”We can’t be so naïve to presume that we know everything that is out there,” Luís Longo, a doctoral candidate in physics at the Universidade Federal do ABC in São Paulo, Brazil, told Live Science.
Physics of DNA –“In Each of Us Lies a Message, Its Beginnings Lost in the Mists of Time” reports The Daily Galaxy –“In each and every one of us lies a message,” writes astrophysicist Paul Davies. “It is inscribed in an ancient code, its beginnings lost in the mists of time. Decrypted, the message contains instructions on how to make a human being. Nobody wrote the message; nobody invented the code. They came into existence spontaneously. Their designer was Mother Nature herself.”
Asteroid Impact Simulation Has Ended in Disaster –An international exercise to simulate an asteroid striking Earth has come to an end. With just six days to go before a fictitious impact, things don’t look good for a 185-mile-wide region between Prague and Munich, reports Gizmodo.
How the Pentagon Started Taking U.F.O.s Seriously –For decades, flying saucers were a punch line. Then the U.S. government got over the taboo, reports Gideon Lewis-Kraus for the New Yorker. ““Some of the phenomena we’re going to be seeing continues to be unexplained and might, in fact, be some type of phenomenon that is the result of something that we don’t yet understand and that could involve some type of activity that some might say constitutes a different form of life,” said former C.I.A. director John Brennan.
The Ultimate Mystery –”Consciousness is Like Space-time Before Einstein’s Theory of Relativity” reports The Daily Galaxy –“Is it possible that consciousness may exist by itself, even in the absence of matter, just like gravitational waves, excitations of space, may exist in the absence of protons and electrons?” asks Andrei Linde, Russian-American theoretical physicist and the Harald Trap Friis Professor of Physics at Stanford University
Michio Kaku Says the Universe Is Simpler Than We Think –“Kaku’s latest concern is with what he calls the “holy grail” of all science, the metaphorical “umbilical cord” of our infant universe, whenever it was (or wasn’t) born out of the alleged multiverse,” reports The New York Times.
Why bringing Martian rocks back to Earth is a bad idea, reports New Scientist. –“no one knows if those samples – to be gathered soon by the Perseverance rover – could contain Martian pathogens to which we would have no defenses. Nor do we know if the capsule could break on impact (NASA’s solar wind sampler Genesis was breached when it crashed in Utah in 2004 after its parachute failed), risking contamination of wildlife, rivers, plants and fisheries as well as cities. While BSL-4 labs are highly secure, there have been lapses in the past, with human error usually suspected.”
Homo sapien’s ‘Shadow’ Species –“Hints We May Have Had Story of Evolution All Wrong” reports The Daily Galaxy–“Carl Sagan observed that the frontal lobe of the human brain, comprising more than two-thirds of our brain mass, is where “matter is transformed into consciousness.” Maybe, suggest scientists, we’ve had the story of human evolution wrong: that language evolved before our brains started getting larger (we have brains 3x the size of apes), and language led to brain size increase instead of being a result of it?”
How fast the Universe is expanding? Dark sirens could tell that exactly, says cosmologists –Hubble constant helps in determining the expansion rate of the Universe but there have been conflicting results over the years. How will dark sirens solve the cosmological crisis.
New York Times: They Are Not Alone: U.F.O. Reports Surged in the Pandemic –With skies lacking light pollution and most nights free, New Yorkers reported nearly twice as many mysterious sightings last year.
NASA pretended to crash an asteroid into Earth, reports Space.com –“Every two years, as part of the International Academy of Astronautics’ Planetary Defense Conference, scientists and emergency response personnel gather to discuss a made-up asteroid threat from discovery to impact. During this year’s exercise, which unfolded online from April 26 to April 28, the scenario presented an impact just six months away, a pointed reminder that limited lead time is a key weakness in our asteroid defense systems.”
Hubble Captures First-Ever Ultraviolet Image of Exoplanet –Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have imaged a Jupiter-sized, still-forming planet around the orange dwarf star PDS 70. This is the first time that an exoplanet has been directly imaged in the ultraviolet (UV), reports Sci-News.
How to Rewrite the Laws of Physics in the Language of Impossibility –Chiara Marletto is trying to build a master theory — a set of ideas so fundamental that all other theories would spring from it. Her first step: Invoke the impossible, reports Quanta. “Declaring something impossible leads to more things being possible,” writes Marletto. “Bizarre as it may seem, it is commonplace in quantum physics.”
Marie Curie’s notebooks are still radioactive, reports New Scientist. –More than 100 years after their discoveries, the couple’s notebooks are still so radioactive they have to be kept in lead-lined boxes and handled only while wearing protective clothing.
Scientists Spot Yet Another Unexplained Ring-Shaped Radio Structure In Space –A new Odd Radio Circle (ORC) appears to span a million light years, and contains a clue that could explain these ghostly structures, reports Motherboard/Vice Science.
The World’s Richest Men Are Brawling Over the Moon –NASA gave Elon Musk’s SpaceX a coveted contract for a lunar mission. Jeff Bezos plans to fight for it, reports The Atlantic.
Why Dead Trees Are ‘the Hottest Commodity on the Planet’ –Blame climate change, wildfires, hungry beetles … and Millennial home buyers.
How scientists caught footage of ‘the kraken’ after centuries of searching –Tricking the giant squid’s basketball-size eyes may have been the key, reports Live Science. “Architeuthis dux — the world’s largest known squid — is surprisingly camera shy. The elusive giant squid has wriggled its way into folklore for thousands of years, inspiring tales of fearsome krakens with bodies as large as islands. In reality, A. dux is a tad smaller than that, capable of growing to about 46 feet (14 meters) long — about the length of a semi-trailer.”
The Daily Galaxy Editorial Staff
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