Posted on Jul 14, 2022 in Planet Earth, Science, Science News
Today’s stories range from to is the Metaverse Science Fiction or Reality to Seven Spectacular Lessons from Webb’s First Image to the Quantum Theory of Consciousness Put in Doubt, and much more.
Seven spectacular lessons from James Webb’s first deep-field image –Even with only 12.5 hours of exposure time, James Webb’s first deep-field image taught us lessons we’ve never realized before, reports Big Think. “Despite devoting just 1/50th of the time that went into Hubble’s deepest image of the Universe, the Hubble eXtreme Deep Field, JWST has revealed details we’ve never seen before.”
Webb Telescope Reveals a New Vision of an Ancient Universe, reports The New York Times, “The universe was born in darkness 13.8 billion years ago, and even after the first stars and galaxies blazed into existence a few hundred million years later, these too stayed dark. Their brilliant light, stretched by time and the expanding cosmos, dimmed into the infrared, rendering them — and other clues to our beginnings — inaccessible to every eye and instrument. Until now.
Organic molecules found in a Mars rock were probably not from Martian life, reports Phil Plait for SyFy Wire. “In the last days of 1984, a team of meteorite hunters spotted a dark rock in the ice of Antarctica. Fifteen centimeters long and tipping the scale at nearly 2 kilos, it’s a big space rock, and analysis of gases trapped in bubbles in the rock showed beyond doubt that it came from Mars. “
Why we shouldn’t fear the search for alien life–But rather than hope that the extraterrestrials have launched signals our way, let’s knock on their door — and get their attention, reports Seth Shostak for NBC “Think.”
The Metaverse: Science Fiction or Reality? –We tend to overestimate a technology’s abilities in the near term, and massively underestimate what it can do in the long term., reports Quillette.com. “In Neal Stephenson’s 1992 novel Snow Crash, he envisaged the metaverse (meta + universe) as a 3D virtual world that existed parallel to the real world, similar to a simulation where people can use avatars or virtual humans to interact with each other.”
Imaginary numbers are real –These odd values were long dismissed as bookkeeping. Now physicists are proving that they describe the hidden shape of nature, reports Aeon.com. “Though imaginary numbers have been integral to quantum theory since its very beginnings in the 1920s, scientists have only recently been able to find their physical signatures in experiments and empirically prove their necessity.”
Are cryptocurrencies a Ponzi scheme? Here’s the view from two sides, reports Interesting Engineering. One side predicts the crypto cycle will ‘collapse instantaneously and the value will be zero.’ Bitcoin and cryptocurrency have faced a $2 trillion crash over the last six months, and some experts fear worse is to come. As Forbes points out, China’s Blockchain-based Service Network (BSN) has had its say on the current situation, calling bitcoin and cryptocurrency “the biggest Ponzi scheme in human history.”
Physicists Find The ‘Missing Link’ That Could Provide Quantum Internet Technology, reports Science Alert–“new research shows is that certain defects in the silicon – known as T centers – can act as photonic (or light-based) links between qubits.”
Quantum theory of consciousness put in doubt by underground experiment, reports Physics World. “Based on results from an experiment done under Gran Sasso mountain in Italy, the new work concludes that Roger Penrose’s and Stuart Hameroff’s Orchestrated Objective Reduction theory (Orch OR) is “highly implausible” when based on the simplest type of gravity-related wavefunction collapse – although they point out that more complex collapse models leave some wiggle room.
If Octopuses are Really Smart, Should We Eat Them, asks Mind Matters–“Extraordinary recent science discoveries re octopus intelligence have created an ethical dilemma: Octopus arms (tentacles) are gourmet delicacies in Korea, Japan, and the Mediterranean countries and many poor people make a living providing them. Factory farming is of octopuses is slowly becoming practical. But should we do to them what we wouldn’t do to dogs?
Mysterious artifacts hint at ‘another realm’ of ancient China–Bronze Age artifacts found in China were burned to commune with ‘another realm,’ reports Live Science.
40 facts about Earth to deepen your knowledge of the planet. Want to know more about planet Earth? Here are some surprising facts about it, reports Interesting Engineering. For example, “The Earth is made mostly of just four elements to The vast majority of fresh water on Earth is frozen.”
Protecting planet Earth from asteroids–“The threat of asteroids is real,” NASA scientist Elena Adams said during a panel discussion June 28 on international cooperation for planetary defense. Adams is the systems engineer for the first planetary defense mission, known as the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART). The DART mission is a collaboration among NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Italian Space Agency.
Robot that can perceive its body has self-awareness, claim researchers –The team claims to have given a robot self-awareness of its location in physical space, but others are skeptical, reports New Scientist.
The Case for Popularizing Ocean Science –Why Schmidt Ocean Institute’s Carlie Wiener thinks octopuses and science fiction matter to ocean conservation, reports Nautilus.
A company aims to power the world for millions of years by digging the deepest holes ever. And it utilizes a nuclear fusion technology, reports Interesting Engineering. “An MIT spinout aims to use X-rays to melt rock and repurpose coal and gas plants into deep geothermal wells – effectively transforming dirty fossil-fuel plants into clean ones.”
Why spending time near water gives us a powerful mental health boost–We have long known that connecting with nature in green spaces is great for our mental health. Now fresh research is showing that time near water – by the coast, rivers and even fountains in the park – is even more restorative, reports New Scientist.
The unseen whale killer–Ocean noise pollution is terrible for sealife. Reducing it could be an easy win. “Over the past 50 years, increased shipping has contributed to a 30-fold increase in the low-frequency noise present along major shipping routes – Lucille Chapuis.”
Astrophysicist Paul Sutter explains the world’s seeming lack of trust in science, reports astrophysicist Paul Sutter for Ars Technica. “The public has a very strange relationship with science. Perennial issues of public mistrust like evolution and climate change have recently been joined by a range of conspiracy theories about the COVID pandemic—even the shape of the Earth has become an issue.”
James Webb’s first science images: before-and-after –Now that it’s fully commissioned, the James Webb Space Telescope begins its exploration of the Universe, reports Big Think.
Webb’s Record-Breaking First Image Shows Why We Build Telescopes –A new galaxy-packed picture from the James Webb Space Telescope offers a chance to rekindle our wonder about the universe, reports Grant Tremblay for Scientific American.
The Explosive Ambitions of Kate the Chemist –At the lecture halls of the University of Texas or on TV, Kate Biberdorf is working to catalyze more people into careers in science, reports The New York Times. “The dream is Vegas.That is not a typical aspiration of someone who teaches chemistry to undergraduates. For Dr. Biberdorf — better known as Kate the Chemist — that dream is part of her goal to capture the fun of scientific exploration and to entice children, especially girls, to consider science as their life’s calling.”
Eight Superfoods That Could Future-Proof Our Diet –These climate-resilient crops could find more prominent placement on our plates in the next few decades, reports The Smithsonian.
When does the fetus become a “person”? The philosophy of gradualism provides a moral guide. Gradualism rejects the idea of a “bright line” in the abortion debate, reports Big Think.
Here’s what we know sex with Neanderthals was like, reports BBC Future. “Scientists know a surprising amount about the titillating episode in human history when our species got together, including whether we kissed and the nature of their sexual organs.”
Microparticles could be used to deliver “self-boosting” vaccines –With particles that release their payloads at different times, one injection could provide multiple vaccine doses, reports MIT News.
Curated by The Daily Galaxy Editorial Staff
Recent Planet Earth Reports:
NASA Zooms in on UFOs to Is Life the Result of Entropy?
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
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