Category: Science | Page 20

Mars terraforming step (Elements of this image furnished by NASA). 3D rendering

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News
Date
April 3, 2021

Categorized
Arts & Culture, Science

Tagged
Mars, Terraforming}

Sci-fi Saturday: When Terraforming Mars Means Mars-forming People

_{In this award-winner, the underground humans must, according to the terraforming colony's rules, deny emotion, which pretty much guarantees a story} _{News
April 3, 2021

10

Arts & Culture, Science}

“New Mars” at DUST by Susie Jones (March 30, 2021, 19:14 min) Earth is no more. A new generation lives underground on Mars preparing to begin a new life as the colonists of a planet which is being terraformed into a new habitable world. ‘New Mars’ is a society driven by science and logic to ensure humans will not make the same destructive decisions this time round. But two young hopefuls struggle with the intensity of their feelings – which inadvertently propels them towards an unexpected truth about their existence. (IMDB) “New Mars” premiered in 2019 and has won a number of awards. It conveys the claustrophobia of an underground world where death rules the planet’s surface. Life on a Read More ›

Young girl playing with dolphin in Xel-ha park, Rivera Maya, Mexico

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News
Date
April 3, 2021

Categorized
Global Technology, Natural Intelligence, Science

Tagged
Carl Sagan, Cold War, dolphins, Douglas Adams, Frank Drake, John C. Lilly}

The Surprising Role Dolphins Have Played in the Search for ET

_{Dolphins, with their apparent alien intelligence, have been seen by scientists interested in ET as a stand-in} _{News
April 3, 2021

6

Global Technology, Natural Intelligence, Science}

In a recent essay, Thomas Moynihan, a researcher with Oxford’s Future of Humanity Institute, puts the explosion of interest in dolphin intelligence in context: It began during the Space Race (1957–1998) — which helped fuel and fund the search for extraterrestrial intelligences. Its development also coincided withe Cold War (1946–1991) between the US and the USSR. In 1961, amid the growing tensions, neuroscientist John C. Lilly claimed that he had made contact with the first “alien” intelligence. But, as Moynihan says, Lilly “wasn’t talking about little green men from Tau Ceti, he was talking of minds much closer to home: bottlenose dolphins.” Why dolphins? As Moynihan recounts, from ancient times, mariners knew that dolphins were intelligent and modern zoologists like Read More ›

saturn and moon in the sky of a barren landscape

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News
Date
March 27, 2021

Categorized
Arts & Culture, Science

Tagged
Science fiction}

Sci-fi Saturday: “The Big Nothing” melds sci-fi and whodunit

_{The combination of the sci-fi and detective genres takes some skill to pull off but this Australian crew succeeds} _{News
March 27, 2021

9

Arts & Culture, Science}

“The Big Nothing” at DUST by Sharptooth Pictures (March 4, 2021, 37.54) “When the captain of an isolated mining station near Saturn is murdered, Detective Lennox is sent to investigate the three remaining crew members. Centered around a series of interrogations and flashback, Lennox discovers that everyone has a motive to kill. With otherworldly threats approaching and the killer amongst them, will everybody make it off the station?” “The Big Nothing,” a sci-fi detective drama, actually premiered in 2018 as a TV miniseries. The combination of the sci-fi and detective genres takes some skill to pull off. Both genres feature conventions that producers ignore at the story’s peril. For example, sci-fi should feature science. Of course the story can be Read More ›

alien world, exoplanet in the habitable zone, planet with moon, water and plant life

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News
Date
March 27, 2021

Categorized
Science

Tagged
Exoplanets (water), Extraterrestrial life, Extraterrestrials (ET), Mars (water), Ocean planets, Perseverance (rover), Water}

Could the Universe Be Swimming in Watery Planets?

_{A new hypothesis of planet formation means that watery worlds may be common rather than rare} _{News
March 27, 2021

5

Science}

As the Mars Rover Perseverance motors around looking for evidence of past life on a now- mostly dry planet, some researchers are asking, can we be sure that most planets in our galaxy are dry? A common assumption among exoplanet experts is that most planets got their water via a chance hit early on from an icy asteroid. But researchers from the GLOBE Institute at the University of Copenhagen offer an alternative scenario, based on the millimetre-sized particles of ice and carbon that orbit all the young stars in our Milky Way galaxy. If masses of these particles are incorporated into a planet from its beginning, it isn’t a matter of chance whether the planet has water. It is a Read More ›

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Denyse O'Leary
Date
March 27, 2021

Categorized
Natural Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind, Science

Tagged
Bonobos, Cats, Chimpanzees, Dogs, Mammals (adopting other animals)}

Bonobo Chimpanzees Adopt Orphans, a First for Great Apes

_{But this story is not what it seems. Let’s cut through some pop science assumptions. The real story is a good argument that humans are not just animals} _{Denyse O'Leary
March 27, 2021

4

Natural Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind, Science}

There’s been a stir recently among primate zoologists around two female bonobos who adopted infants from outside their group: During observations at the Luo Scientific Reserve in Wamba, Democratic Republic of the Congo, the scientists saw the mother bonobos (Pan paniscus) carrying, grooming, nursing, and sharing food with their adoptees, who were in excellent health and treated well by their new social groups. The team’s analysis of DNA extracted from the infants’ faeces confirmed that the youngsters were genetically unrelated to the groups they lived in. “Bonobo mums open their arms to outsider orphans” at Nature Why do they do it? Various explanations are offered: The researchers suggest, “In both cases, adoptees had no maternal kin-relationship with their adoptive mothers. Read More ›

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News
Date
March 23, 2021

Categorized
Mathematics, Peer Review, Science

Tagged
Elon Musk, Featured, Gregory Chaitin, IBM (and innovation), Robert J. Marks}

Gregory Chaitin on How Bureaucracy Chokes Science Today

_{He complains, They’re managing to make it impossible for anybody to do any real research. You have to say in advance what you’re going to accomplish. You have to have milestones, reports} _{News
March 23, 2021

10

Mathematics, Peer Review, Science}

In last week’s podcast, “The Chaitin Interview III: The Changing Landscape for Mathematics,” Walter Bradley Center director Robert J. Marks interviewed mathematician and computer scientist Gregory Chaitin on how Stephen Wolfram’s software has taken much of the drudgery out of math. At the same time, in Chaitin’s view, a threat looms: A new, more bureaucratic, mindset threatens to take the creativity out of science, technology, and math: https://episodes.castos.com/mindmatters/Mind-Matters-126-Gregory-Chaitin.mp3 This portion begins at 19:45 min. A partial transcript, Show Notes, and Additional Resources follow. Robert J. Marks: I was sitting down tallying, I think, the intellectual giants that have introduced new mathematical ideas, brand new. I was thinking of people like Claude Shannon, Lotfi Zadeh, yourself… I don’t know if we Read More ›

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News
Date
March 17, 2021

Categorized
Programming, Science

Tagged
Amoebas, DNA, NP-Hard Problem, Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP)}

Is Computing With DNA the Wave of the Future?

_{We are running out of conventional space to store information and life forms’ DNA stores it much more efficiently} _{News
March 17, 2021

7

Programming, Science}

Why would we want to compute with DNA? Well, first, we are fast approaching the limit of how small we can make computers. So some scientists are turning to the designs in nature for help: The issue with transistors is that they now exist at the scale of a few nanometers in size—only a few silicon atoms thick. They can’t practically be made any smaller than they are now. If they get any smaller, the electrical current flowing through the transistor easily leaks out into other components nearby or deforms the transistor due to heat, rendering it useless. You need a minimum number of atoms to make the transistor work and we’ve functionally reached that limit. John Loeffler, “What is Read More ›

Futuristic Mars Space Scene with Large Moon

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News
Date
March 13, 2021

Categorized
Science

Tagged
Adam Frank, Aurora hypothesis, Caleb Scharf, Extraterrestrials (ET), Frank Tipler, Mars, Matt Williams, Perseverance (rover)}

The Aurora Hypothesis: ET Could Risk Only Rare Contact With Us

_{Given the difficulties and risks of space travel, extraterrestrials with advanced technology may have visited Earth only one in a million years, researchers say} _{News
March 13, 2021

8

Science}

In recent months we’ve been looking at science writer Matt Williams’s coverage of the many reasons (links below) that have been advanced as to why we do not see extraterrestrials except at the movies. Last Saturday, we considered the Percolation Hypothesis, whose beauty is its common-sense simplicity: The aliens can’t overcome the laws of physics, any more than we can. In the real world, barriers like years between communications even at the speed of light would take a toll on adventurousness. Another hypothesis that Williams has examined is our focus today, the Aurora Hypothesis, “just because planets are habitable doesn’t mean that intelligent life can colonize there.” (Williams) The thesis has had a busy life in science media. Its earliest Read More ›

Intestinal villi, mucosa intestinal. Bacteria and microbes in intestines. Microscopic villi and capillary. Human intestine, chronic disease. Hepatitis viruses, influenza, cell infections, 3D Rendering

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News
Date
March 13, 2021

Categorized
Arts & Culture, Philosophy of Mind, Science

Tagged
Cell biology}

Surprisingly, Many “Alien” Cells Live Inside Us

_{One zoologist thinks that they create our sense of self} _{News
March 13, 2021

5

Arts & Culture, Philosophy of Mind, Science}

At New Scientist, Graham Lawton asks us to think about them: For starters, we are chimeras: some parts of us are human, but genetically not “us”. Most, if not all, of us contain a few cells from our mother, our grandmothers and even elder siblings that infiltrated our bodies in the uterus. Women who have carried children host such cells too. “Something like 65 per cent of women, even in their 70s, when autopsies were performed, had cells in their brains that were not theirs,” says David Linden at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland. Chimeric cells have been found to contribute to both good and bad health, for example promoting wound healing but also triggering autoimmune disease. Graham Lawton, “Why Read More ›

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News
Date
March 6, 2021

Categorized
Information Theory, Neuroscience, Science

Tagged
Extraterrestrials (ET), Nervous system, Slime mold}

Slime Mold: An Earthbound “Alien” That Thinks Without a Brain

_{Researchers are beginning to learn just how giant molds can remember things without a nervous system. What, exactly, is doing the computations?} _{News
March 6, 2021

3

Information Theory, Neuroscience, Science}

Turns out, it’s all in the tubes. The slime mold Physarum polycephalum is a single cell, often very large. The way Physarum gets to be so large is that when it divides, the many single cells merge into one giant cell — with no nervous system: “Its body is a giant single cell made up of interconnected tubes that form intricate networks. This single amoeba-like cell may stretch several centimeters or even meters, featuring as the largest cell on earth in the Guinness Book of World Records. Technical University of Munich (TUM), “A memory without a brain” at ScienceDaily (February 23, 2021) The paper is closed access. But how does the giant Physarum cell, with no brain, mouth, limbs, or Read More ›

Asian woman is wearing facial mask during virus epidemic

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Heather Zeiger
Date
March 1, 2021

Categorized
Media, Medicine and Health, Science

Tagged
China, COVID-19, COVID-19 lab leak hypothesis, Featured, Peter Ben Embarek, Peter Daszak, SARS-CoV-2, WHO COVID-19 investigation in China, World Health Organization (WHO), Wuhan Institute of Virology}

Was the WHO Investigation of COVID-19’s Origin Thwarted by China?

_{The World Health Organization team was not really allowed to conduct a proper investigation in China} _{Heather Zeiger
March 1, 2021

11

Media, Medicine and Health, Science}

On January 14, 2021, an international team from the World Health Organization (WHO) landed in Wuhan in Hubei province in China to investigate the origins of the SARS-CoV-2 virus which causes COVID-19. From the outset, the investigation was plagued with three issues: 1) It ‘s been a year since the outbreak in Wuhan, which makes an investigation into the origins of the outbreak difficult. 2) WHO has catered to the Chinese government since the beginning of the pandemic, and 3) the scientists involved in the investigation had to be approved by Beijing. Two of them had conflicts of interest. When the WHO team arrived, they faced additional barriers to a thorough investigation. They were quarantined for two weeks so they Read More ›

Program development concept. Young man working with computer

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Richard W. Stevens
Date
March 1, 2021

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Programming, Science

Tagged
Stephen C. Meyer}

Why Software Cannot Just Evolve — a Demonstration

_{The claims for Avida — a software program that is supposed to “evolve” solutions via neo-Darwinian evolution — fail the most basic test} _{Richard W. Stevens
March 1, 2021

10

Artificial Intelligence, Programming, Science}

A Michigan State University publication headlined a media release declaring: “Evolution of learning is key to better artificial intelligence” (September 19, 2019). Reportedly, researchers used the computer simulation software, Avida, to show the “evolution of learning.” On that view, artificial intelligence arises via neo-Darwinian evolution. Really? The “Sound Bites” Were Exciting… The university’s team “composed of biologists and computer scientists used a digital evolution program that allowed them to observe tens of thousands of generations of evolution in just a few hours, a feat unachievable with living systems.” According to the release: • “The results are the first demonstration that shows the evolution of associative learning in an artificial organism without a brain.” • “While the environment was simulated, the Read More ›

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Michael Egnor
Date
February 28, 2021

Categorized
Philosophy, Religion, Science

Tagged
Atheism, Cosmic fine-tuning, Featured, Fine-tuning, God's existence, Inverse gambler's fallacy, Multiverse, Philip Goff, Steven Novella, Universe}

We Don’t Live in a Multiverse Because the Concept Makes No Sense

_{Neurologist Steven Novella and philosopher Philip Goff, both atheists, agree that there are many universes besides the one we live in} _{Michael Egnor
February 28, 2021

5

Philosophy, Religion, Science}

Cosmic fine-tuning is the observation that many of the values of the variables in the fundamental laws of physics specifically permit the existence of sentient life (life like us) within a very narrow margin of error. The likelihood of this happening by chance seems vanishingly small. It seems as if Someone expected us. How can we explain this? The fact that God created the universe explains fine-tuning. But for atheists, it’s a real conundrum. As a result, at Neurologica blog, neurologist Steven Novella (pictured) and philosopher Philip Goff have been discussing the most popular atheist explanation for fine-tuning, the “multiverse.” That is, there are countless universes out there, each with its own parameters, and ours just happens to be one Read More ›

Jupiter's moon Europa in front of the planet Jupiter

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News
Date
February 27, 2021

Categorized
Arts & Culture, Science

Tagged
Carl Sagan, Europa (moon), Extraterrestrials (ET), Matt Williams, Privileged Planet hypothesis}

Is Intelligent Life Found in Oceans Inside Planets and Moons?

_{The Ocean Planets Hypothesis is that intelligent beings may flourish in the interior oceans of the moons of gas giant planets — or within exoplanets — but they are trapped there} _{News
February 27, 2021

6

Arts & Culture, Science}

Readers will recall that last year, we were looking at science writer Matt Williams’s analysis of the various reasons that we do not see extraterrestrials except at the movies. (See the links below.) Last time out in November, we looked at the Transcension Hypothesis: The extraterrestrial intelligences exist—but after a Singularity, they became virtual intelligences, exploring inner space at an undetectably small scale. Williams has reported since then on some additional hypotheses so this week we look at a more conventional approach — the “Ocean Worlds” Hypothesis, that icy planets may have interior oceans that harbor life: To illustrate, there’s the search for life that is going on right now in the Solar System, which is almost entirely focused on Read More ›

Oumuamua is a mildly active comet, and the first interstellar object detected passing through the Solar System.

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News
Date
February 27, 2021

Categorized
Arts & Culture, Science

Tagged
Avi Loeb, Caleb A. Scharf, Caleb Scharf, Information, Oumuamua, Specified Complexity}

Astrobiologist Cautions Against Jumping the Gun in Spotting ET

_{Scientists he says, are cautious with good reason. There are many weird natural phenomena like Oumuamua out there.} _{News
February 27, 2021

4

Arts & Culture, Science}

At Nautilus, astrophysicist (and astrobiologist) Caleb A. Scharf offers some sobering reflections on the diligent search for extraterrestrial intelligences (ET) in recent decades: Despite this effort, there has been no evidence to date of extraterrestrial life. But that lack of evidence is not because the scientific enterprise is uniformly conservative, rigid, and close-minded, as implied by [astronomer Avi] Loeb and uncritically echoed by some columnists. It’s because no discovery or event has risen to the level where it is inexplicable in any other way. Could greater funding and support change that story? Perhaps, but the same could be said for almost any other ambitious scientific enterprise, and the answer cannot be known beforehand. Caleb Scharf, “The Alien-Haunted World” at Nautilus Read More ›

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News
Date
February 27, 2021

Categorized
Arts & Culture, Science

Tagged
Breakthrough Listen, Caleb A. Scharf, Extraterrestrials (ET), Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI), Will Lockett}

Astrophysicist Warns: Aliens May Be Boring or Unreachable

_{Researchers are taking the emissions from the vicinity of exoplanet Proxima B seriously. But if it is truly a technological signal, what would follow?} _{News
February 27, 2021

6

Arts & Culture, Science}

Boring? How very un-Star Trek of them! But it’s possible, says Caleb A. Scharf, director of astrobiology at Columbia University (pictured). He worries that, “Perhaps other life in the universe is, in the end, utterly dull.” Why might he think so? He is reflecting on the recent report of what may be a technological signal at roughly 982.002 MHz, coinciding with the direction of Proxima Centauri. If it is, what might the aliens turn out to be like? There’ll be some initial oddities, some curiosities that aren’t quite the things we planned for. A dull carrier wave signal for instance. Over time more evidence will show up, until eventually it’s clear that there are lots of species out there, puttering Read More ›

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post

Denyse O'Leary
Date
February 23, 2021

Categorized
Natural Intelligence, Science

Tagged
Animal Intelligence, Animal personality, Birds, Chimpanzees, Dogs, dolphins, Exothermy, fish, Gorillas, Personality, Ravens, Reptiles}

Why Do Researchers Wonder Whether Animals Have Personalities?

_{Every friend of dogs, cats, or birds knows what some researchers struggle to prove. Let’s take a look at what they found} _{Denyse O'Leary
February 23, 2021

9

Natural Intelligence, Science}

Recently, a research team announced that marmosets — small highly social New World monkeys — display personality traits, whether they are wild or captive: Some individuals were fast to approach any novelty, while others were more careful; hereby showing a similar pattern to humans: for instance, some humans enjoy trying out new restaurants, whereas others prefer to eat in their favorite restaurant. What is more interesting, when comparing personality traits of monkeys in Austria across four years, the authors found that these monkeys are quite consistent in their personality traits (e.g., those that are explorative when they are younger, stay similarly explorative four years afterwards). University of Vienna, “Marmoset Monkeys Have Personalities Too” at Neuroscience News The paper is open Read More ›

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News
Date
February 21, 2021

Categorized
Religion, Science

Tagged
Apologetics, Featured, For a Greater Purpose (book), Freedom of religion, Robert J. Marks, Walter Bradley, William Dembski}

How Walter Bradley Broke Down Campus Anti-Christian Prejudice

_{Bradley has been a very successful mechanical engineering researcher but he has never lost sight of larger goals, such as religious freedom at universities} _{News
February 21, 2021

7

Religion, Science}

In Thursday’s podcast, “The Life of Walter Bradley With William Dembski (Part II),” Walter Bradley Center director Robert J. Marks and design theorist William Dembski reflect on the biography they have written about a remarkable engineer, Walter Bradley, For a Greater Purpose: The Life and Legacy of Walter Bradley. In Part I, they discussed Bradley’s work in helping develop appropriate industries using sustainable technologies in the developing world. Here in Part II, they look at the way Bradley politely but effectively insisted on respect for the rights of religious students and faculty, as well as others. And got it. Robert J. Marks: When Walter Bradley was a professor, one of the things that he wanted to do was to talk Read More ›

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News
Date
February 21, 2021

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture, Science

Tagged
Casey Luskin, Consciousness, Elon Musk, Martin Rees, Matrix (film), Michael Egnor, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Nick Bostrom, Sabine Hossenfelder, Simulation hypothesis}

Theoretical Physicist Argues, the Sim Universe Is Pseudoscience

_{It’s a lot of fun in science fiction and some scitech celebs buy in. But Sabine Hossenfelder and others explain why it’s fiction} _{News
February 21, 2021

6

Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture, Science}

Theoretical physicist Sabine Hossenfelder does not like the notion that we are living in a giant computer sim. Elon Musk likes it (“Elon Musk says there’s a ‘one in billions’ chance reality is not a simulation”) and so does Neil deGrasse Tyson (“Neil deGrasse Tyson says it’s ‘very likely’ the universe is a simulation”). Philosopher of science Nick Bostrom advanced that view in a seminal 2003 paper in Philosophical Quarterly. Former Astronomer Royal Martin Rees is sympathetic to it. Some call it the Planetarium hypothesis, when it is cited as a reason we do not see intelligent extraterrestrials. One source offers “15 irrefutable reasons” why, like Neo in The Matrix (1999), we might be living in a universe that is Read More ›

Distant planet system in space with exoplanets 3D rendering elements of this image furnished by NASA

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post

News
Date
February 20, 2021

Categorized
Science

Tagged
Ethan Siegel, Habitability, Moon, Super-Earths}

We Are Warned: Don’t Try To Colonize Super-Earths

_{Theoretical astrophysicist Ethan Siegel tells us why he thinks it would end in disaster} _{News
February 20, 2021

5

Science}

According to NASA, super-Earth planets are “a class of planets unlike any in our solar system – are more massive than Earth yet lighter than ice giants like Neptune and Uranus, and can be made of gas, rock or a combination of both. They are between twice the size of Earth and up to 10 times its mass.” Such plants are common in our galaxy and so far we have discovered 1,342 of them. Some are hot enough to vaporize metal; some are dim and frozen. An infographic from NASA of the TOI 270 system provides examples of super-Earths in relation to Earth: From NASA: “This infographic illustrates key features of the TOI 270 system, located about 73 light-years away Read More ›