Posted on Jun 12, 2022 in Alien Life, Artificial Intelligence, Climate Change, Extraterrestrial Life, James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), NASA, Origin of Life, Planet Earth, Plate Tectonics, quantum physics, Science, Technology
Today’s stories range from Could the Blueprint for Life Have Been Generated in Asteroids to Do AI Systems Really Have Their Own Secret Language to How Plate Tectonics, Mountains, and Deep-Sea Sediments Have Maintained Earth’s ‘Goldilocks’ Climate, and much more.
Could the Blueprint for Life Have Been Generated in Asteroids? asks NASA. While it is unlikely that DNA could be formed in a meteorite, this discovery demonstrates that these genetic parts are available for delivery and could have contributed to the development of the instructional molecules on early Earth. The discovery, by an international team with NASA researchers, gives more evidence that chemical reactions in asteroids can make some of life’s ingredients, which could have been delivered to ancient Earth by meteorite impacts or perhaps the infall of dust.
Do AI Systems Really Have Their Own Secret Language? asks Singularity Hub. ” AI language models don’t read text the way you and I do. Instead, they break input text up into “tokens” before processing it.
James Webb Space Telescope Set to Study Two Strange Super-Earths –Space agency officials promise to deliver geology results from worlds dozens of light-years away, reports Elizabeth Howell, at Space.com
Is life the result of the laws of entropy? –Nearly 80 years ago, Erwin Schrödinger used the physics of the day to try to understand the origins of life. Now, Stephon Alexander and Salvador Almagro-Moreno try to do the same with modern science, reports New Scientist.
NASA is putting together a research team to study UFOs. Still not saying it’s aliens, though, reports The Verge. “The study team, to be led by astrophysicist David Spergel under NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, will attempt to identify what data is out there on UAPs and figure out how to best capture data on UAPs in the future. NASA noted that the limitations in sightings make it hard to come to logical conclusions about where UAPs come from.”
Why haven’t plastic-eating bacteria fixed the ocean plastic pollution problem? Scientists have discovered enzymes from several plastic-eating bacteria. So, why are our oceans still full of plastic pollution? asks Big THink.
Could we live without plastic? –How our lives would change if we lost access to plastic, reports BBC Future. “Of the 8,300 million tons of virgin plastic produced up to the end of 2015, 6,300 million tons has been discarded. In fact, plastic waste is now so widespread that researchers have suggested it could be used as a geological indicator of the Anthropocene.”
How the universe got its magnetic field –Where did the “seed” magnetic field come from in the first place? asks Big Think. “Professor Ellen Zweibel of the University of Wisconsin at Madison notes that “despite decades of remarkable progress in cosmology, the origin of magnetic fields in the universe remains unknown. It is wonderful to see state-of-the-art plasma physics theory and numerical simulation brought to bear on this fundamental problem.”
Can gravity batteries solve our energy storage problems? asks BBC Future. “Could a cutting-edge technology that harnesses one of the universe’s fundamental forces help solve our energy storage challenge?”
What Is It About the Human Brain That Makes Us Smarter Than Other Animals? asks Singularity Hub. “Our understanding of brain function has changed over the years. But current theoretical models describe the brain as a “distributed information-processing system.” This means it has distinct components that are tightly networked through the brain’s wiring. To interact with each other, regions exchange information though a system of input and output signal.”
How Plate Tectonics, Mountains, and Deep-Sea Sediments Have Maintained Earth’s ‘Goldilocks’ Climate, reports Singularity Hub. “New research published in Nature shows how tectonic plates, volcanoes, eroding mountains, and seabed sediment have controlled Earth’s climate in the geological past. Harnessing these processes may play a part in maintaining the “Goldilocks” climate our planet has enjoyed.”
Pandemic, war, and climate change have brought matters to a head. The world faces what the United Nations secretary general, António Guterres, this week called “an unprecedented wave of hunger and destitution.”
Scientists Have Established a Key Biological Difference Between Psychopaths and Normal People, reports SciTechDaily. “The research found that the striatum region of the brain was on average ten percent larger in psychopathic individuals compared to a control group of individuals that had low or no psychopathic traits.”
Geology from 50 Light-Years: Webb Gets Ready to Study Rocky Worlds, reports NASA. “Among the investigations planned for the first year are studies of two hot exoplanets classified as “super-Earths” for their size and rocky composition: the lava-covered 55 Cancri e and the airless LHS 3844 b. Researchers will train Webb’s high-precision spectrographs on these planets with a view to understanding the geologic diversity of planets across the galaxy, and the evolution of rocky planets like Earth.”
Can humanity leave nature behind? asks BBC Future. “In the face of environmental collapse, humanity may need to turn to artificial replacements for nature – how might we avoid the most dystopian of these futures? Researcher Lauren Holt makes the case for a broader form of “offsetting” to help balance technology with natural systems.”
Notes on “E.T.,” now that we are both in our 40s. In a never-ending homage economy, the lack of a sequel doesn’t necessarily mean a story can be at rest, reports Salon.com.
Galapagos tortoise thought extinct for 100 years has been found alive –A single female of the Fernandina Island tortoise species that was thought to be extinct for a century has been found in the Galapagos Islands, reports New Scientist.
Curated by The Daily Galaxy Editorial Staff
Recent Reports:
James Webb Space Telescope’s Super-Secret Targets to Is Geometry a Language Only Humans Know?
Critics Horrified by World’s First Octopus Farm to Quest for Immortality
China’s One-of-a-Kind Cyber-Espionage to Multiverse of Universes All with Randomly Dialed Higgs Masses Virus from
Age of Dinosaurs Found in Human Genome to Is Earth’s Core a Weird State of Matter?
Why are NASA Spaceships Exploring Earth’s Deepest Oceans to Is Reality a Wavefunction?
The Terrifying Message Lurking in Earth’s Ancient Record to Robots Evolving Autonomously
The Quantum Century to Events That Could Have Ended Humanity
The ‘Douglas Adams Epoch’ to Earth’s Earliest Life May Owe Existence to Viruses
The Galaxy Report newsletter brings you daily news of space and science that has the capacity to provide clues to the mystery of our existence and add a much needed cosmic perspective in our current Anthropocene Epoch.
Yes, sign me up for my free subscription.
Read about The Daily Galaxy editorial team here