Posted on Dec 27, 2021 in Alien Life, Astrophysics, Big Bang, Biology, Climate Change, Evolution, Exoplanets, quantum physics, Science, Solar System, YouTube Channel
Another week of amazing news from our Pale Blue Dot, with stories ranging from strange things are happening at the outer edges of our solar system to plants feel pain and might even see to a wrinkle in nature could lead to alien life.
Strange things are happening at the outer edges of our solar system. An object up to ten times the mass of Earth is pulling others towards it. Is it a planet, or something else? asks BBC Future.
If Aliens Exist, Here’s How We’ll Find Them –Two esteemed astrophysicists peer into the future of space exploration, reports Martin Rees and Mario Livio, for Nautilus.
What Is a Lagrange Point?–NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope will travel to a special spot where the gravity from Earth and the sun is balanced, reports Scientific American.
Where Aliens Could Be Watching Us –More than 1,700 stars could have seen Earth in the past 5,000 years, reports Lisa Kaltenegger for Nautilus.
Tsunamis create magnetic fields that could act as an early warning system –The movement of seawater in a tsunami generates a magnetic field that travels ahead of changes in sea level, which could help us predict and prepare for it, reports New Scientist.
Plants Feel Pain and Might Even See –It’s time to retire the hierarchical classification of living things, reports Peter Wohlleben for Nautilus.
What Near-Death Experiences Reveal about the Brain –A close brush can leave a lasting mental legacy—and may tell us about how the mind functions under extreme conditions, reports Scientific American.
The Year in Biology –-The detailed understanding of brains and multicellular bodies reached new heights this year, while the genomes of the COVID-19 virus and various organisms yielded more surprises, reports Quanta.
A Wrinkle in Nature Could Lead to Alien Life –There may be more than one way to tune a universe for life, reports Caleb Scharf for Nautilus.
Occam’s razor: The medieval monk who saw the power of simplicity –William of Ockham was tried for heresy before the Pope, only to make a daring escape. His big idea, known as Occam’s razor, remains the keenest tool for honing our understanding of the world, reports New Scientist.
“The Lesson?” –Our Modern Climate-Change Sequel May Be More Like Science Fiction Than Anything in Earth’s History–“It was literally a singular event in Earth history — a monster,” said MIT’s Seth Burgess, of the event 250 million years ago known as the Great Dying, when life on Earth collapsed in spectacular and unprecedented fashion, as more than 96 percent of marine species and 70 percent of land species disappeared in a geological blink of an eye writes Peter Brannen in The Ends of Worlds.
The Year in Physics –Puzzling particles, quirky (and controversial) quantum computers, and one of the most ambitious science experiments in history marked the year’s milestones, reports Quanta.
What Makes the Earth a Unique Planet? “Earth is, in many respects, like the other planets of the solar system. It orbits in the same plane and in the same direction. It’s composed of the same chemical elements and obeys the same physical laws of motion, energy, electricity, and magnetism. But the Earth is also unique; it has extensive surface deposits of liquid water, which is the essential medium for life as we know it,” reports Great Courses Daily.
Three former SpaceX engineers have launched a robot restaurant that makes a pizza every 45 seconds. Stellar Pizza, a robotic pizza restaurant that can make a pizza in less than five minutes, has more than 23 employees who used to work at SpaceX, reports Business Insider.
The ‘Liquid’ Asteroid –That Ushered in the Rise of Homo Sapiens –“This is where we get to the great irony of the story – because in the end it wasn’t the size of the asteroid, the scale of blast, or even its global reach that made dinosaurs extinct – it was where the impact happened,” said Ben Garrod, in the BBC documentary The Day The Dinosaurs Died.”
Nine equations that changed the world, reports Adam Mann for Live Science–“Here’s a rundown of some groundbreaking concepts from mathematics.”
How small was the Universe when the hot Big Bang began? –We know it couldn’t have began from a singularity. So how small could it have been at the absolute minimum? asks Big Think.
These Robotic Factories Will Make Supermaterials in Space, reports Singularity Hub–““Earth is a wonderful place to live on but terrible for manufacturing so many things,” cofounder and CEO Joshua Western of Space Forge, told The Guardian. “You have to fight gravity and the dense atmosphere while trying not to cause pollution. But in space you have no gravity to interfere with the mixing of materials, while you have a pure vacuum and no atmospheric pollution. And you also turn your instruments towards or away from the Sun to heat or cool them rapidly.”
A Weather Radio Can Save Your Life –There are many ways to stay informed during a disaster. A weather radio is one of the most reliable. reports Scientific American.
Recent Planet Earth Reports…
Planet Earth Report — “Exoplanet Earth to Inside Story of Pentagon’s UFO Report”
Planet Earth Report –”Made on Exoplanet X to Space Hurricane Above Earth”
Planet Earth Report –“Reality of ‘Galactic Empires’ to Quantum Observatories Hundreds of Kilometers Wide”
Planet Earth Report –“If Aliens Exist, Here’s How We’ll Know to Mars is a Hellhole”
Planet Earth Report –“The Terrifying Message Lurking in Earth’s Ancient Record to Robots Evolving Autonomously”
Planet Earth Report –“The Quantum Century to Events That Could Have Ended Humanity”
Planet Earth Report –“The ‘Douglas Adams Epoch’ to Earth’s Earliest Life May Owe Existence to Viruses”
Planet Earth Report –“Man Who Decoded Origins of Life to Is Our Universe an Experiment by an Ancient Civilization”
Planet Earth Report –“Beyond Homo Sapiens to Did Neanderthals Go to War with Our Ancestors?”
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