It would be just mind boggling to see what these next telescopes will see.
One is the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT), a titanic device equipped with seven 27.5-foot mirrors that will be housed inside a 12-story building on top of Las Campanas Observatory in the Atacama region of Los Andes, Chile.
The interesting thing about life is that it has stable modes ie. the chemistry produces persistent molecules. Not infinitely stable but long enough in our case to reproduce. Now carbon chemistry gives this in spades so it is reasonable to hypothecate other life elsewhere has that base. With an entropy differential, a hot sun and a cool vacuum, life is downhill to carbon. Many stars make carbon and not in small amounts, and supernovae spread it all over the place. We know some simple molecules exist in the interstellar medium. Life is chancy though, as everything has to work right to make it, especially a stable and non lethal environment. We happen to live by using a corrosive gas to gradually convert lower entropy molecules to higher entropy ones, thus linking catabolism to anabolism. That oxidative phosphorylation mechanism (Kreb's/citric cycle et al) is probably not unique, though what other types of life may form in environments more suited to them ?
The main trick is to kick start life when there is a plethora of ways to die. There have been hypotheses about various bodies transporting the relevant ingredients around the universe. Then there was that 'lightning in a test tube' experiment done quite a while ago that produced organic molecules from simple elements. Life is a slow crawl uphill. Well at least up until nuclear weapons production or viral engineering efforts (yep, both are still ongoing as we speak) as you get a very quick slide from there alas.
Cheers, Mike.
I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...
... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal
A subtle but useless distinction. Probably only misunderstood at high school level : my secondary school physics teacher was an educated idiot. In context with the entirety of Newton's work there is no error, certainly not if you have done university physics. Headline should read Philosopher Doesn't Get Simple Physics Right.
{ It all comes down to what is defined as internal versus external, in fact a trivial labelling exercise but requires care nonetheless. There are similar concerns with the laws of thermodynamics, a minefield for the careless of thought. }
Cheers, Mike.
I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...
... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal
Just when we thouht we were
)
Just when we thouht we were all alone in the universe, JWST may have found a source of life elsewhere.
https://futurism.com/experts-rumors-james-webb-life-detection
It would be just mind boggling to see what these next telescopes will see.
One is the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT), a titanic device equipped with seven 27.5-foot mirrors that will be housed inside a 12-story building on top of Las Campanas Observatory in the Atacama region of Los Andes, Chile.
https://www.discovermagazine.com/the-sciences/meet-the-giant-telescope-that-may-find-life-elsewhere
The other is the solar gravity lens (SGL), a space telescope that has nothing to do with the Webb, Hubble, or GMT.
https://phys.org/news/2022-10-solar-gravitational-lens-humanity-powerful.html#:~:text=One%20idea%20is%20to%20use,light%20passes%20by%20the%20sun.
Proud member of the Old Farts Association
The interesting thing about
)
The interesting thing about life is that it has stable modes ie. the chemistry produces persistent molecules. Not infinitely stable but long enough in our case to reproduce. Now carbon chemistry gives this in spades so it is reasonable to hypothecate other life elsewhere has that base. With an entropy differential, a hot sun and a cool vacuum, life is downhill to carbon. Many stars make carbon and not in small amounts, and supernovae spread it all over the place. We know some simple molecules exist in the interstellar medium. Life is chancy though, as everything has to work right to make it, especially a stable and non lethal environment. We happen to live by using a corrosive gas to gradually convert lower entropy molecules to higher entropy ones, thus linking catabolism to anabolism. That oxidative phosphorylation mechanism (Kreb's/citric cycle et al) is probably not unique, though what other types of life may form in environments more suited to them ?
The main trick is to kick start life when there is a plethora of ways to die. There have been hypotheses about various bodies transporting the relevant ingredients around the universe. Then there was that 'lightning in a test tube' experiment done quite a while ago that produced organic molecules from simple elements. Life is a slow crawl uphill. Well at least up until nuclear weapons production or viral engineering efforts (yep, both are still ongoing as we speak) as you get a very quick slide from there alas.
Cheers, Mike.
I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...
... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal
+1
)
+1
A Proud member of the O.F.A. (Old Farts Association). Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.® (Garrison Keillor)
https://www.sciencealert.com/
)
https://www.sciencealert.com/weve-been-misreading-a-major-law-of-physics-for-the-last-300-years
A Proud member of the O.F.A. (Old Farts Association). Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.® (Garrison Keillor)
A subtle but useless
)
A subtle but useless distinction. Probably only misunderstood at high school level : my secondary school physics teacher was an educated idiot. In context with the entirety of Newton's work there is no error, certainly not if you have done university physics. Headline should read Philosopher Doesn't Get Simple Physics Right.
{ It all comes down to what is defined as internal versus external, in fact a trivial labelling exercise but requires care nonetheless. There are similar concerns with the laws of thermodynamics, a minefield for the careless of thought. }
Cheers, Mike.
I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...
... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal
https://phys.org/news/2024-01
)
https://phys.org/news/2024-01-ngc-xmm4-super-eddington-neutron.html
A Proud member of the O.F.A. (Old Farts Association). Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.® (Garrison Keillor)
https://scitechdaily.com/new-
)
https://scitechdaily.com/new-recycling-method-could-make-polyethylene-waste-a-thing-of-the-past/
The future is "plastics" (ref from film "the graduate")
A Proud member of the O.F.A. (Old Farts Association). Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.® (Garrison Keillor)
https://www.nature.com/articl
)
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-00254-x
Really low notes.
A Proud member of the O.F.A. (Old Farts Association). Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.® (Garrison Keillor)
https://phys.org/news/2024-04
)
https://phys.org/news/2024-04-millions-gamers-advance-biomedical-reconstruct.html
A Proud member of the O.F.A. (Old Farts Association). Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.® (Garrison Keillor)
https://phys.org/news/2024-04
)
https://phys.org/news/2024-04-advance-gravitational-collisions-neutron-stars.html
A Proud member of the O.F.A. (Old Farts Association). Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.® (Garrison Keillor)