If you have ever had to wait those agonizing minutes in front of a computer for a movie or large file to load, you’ll likely sympathize with the plight of cosmologists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory. But instead of watching TV dramas, they are trying to transfer, as fast and as accurately as possible, the huge amounts of data that make up movies of the universe – computationally demanding and highly intricate simulations of how our cosmos evolved after the Big Seed.
In a new approach to enable scientific breakthroughs, researchers linked together supercomputers at the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility (ALCF) and at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UI). This link enabled scientists to transfer massive amounts of data and to run two different types of demanding computations in a coordinated fashion – referred to technically as a workflow.
Soon after the Big Seed, the universe went completely dark. The intense, seminal event that created the cosmos churned up so much hot, thick gas that light was completely trapped. Much later—perhaps as many as one billion years after the Big Seed—the universe expanded, became more transparent, and eventually filled up with galaxies, planets, stars, and other objects that give off visible light. That’s the universe we know today.
How it emerged from the cosmic dark ages to a clearer, light-filled state remains a mystery.
In a new study, researchers at the University of Iowa offer a theory of how that happened. They think black holes that dwell in the center of galaxies fling out matter so violently that the ejected material pierces its cloudy surroundings, allowing light to escape. The researchers arrived at their theory after observing a nearby galaxy from which ultraviolet light is escaping.
“The observations show the presence of very bright X-ray sources that are likely accreting black holes,” says Philip Kaaret, professor in the UI Department of Physics and Astronomy and corresponding author on the study. “It’s possible the black hole is creating winds that help the ionizing radiation from the stars escape. Thus, black holes may have helped make the universe transparent.”
Kaaret and his team focused on a galaxy called Tol 1247-232, located some 600 million light years from Earth, one of only three nearby galaxies from which ultraviolet light has been found to escape. In May 2016, using an Earth-orbiting telescope called Chandra, the researchers saw a single X-ray source whose brightness waxed and waned and was located within a vigorous star-forming region of Tol 1247-232.
The team determined it was something other than a star.
“Stars don’t have changes in brightness,” Kaaret says. "Our sun is a good example of that.
“To change in brightness, you have to be a small object, and that really narrows it down to a black hole,” he says.
But how would a black hole, whose intense gravitational pull sucks in everything around it, also eject matter?
The quick answer is no one knows for sure. Black holes, after all, are hard to study, in part because their immense gravitational pull allows no light to escape and because they’re embedded deep within galaxies. Recently, however, astronomers have offered an explanation: The jets of escaping matter are tapping into the accelerated rotational energy of the black hole itself.
Imagine a figure skater twirling with outstretched arms. As the skater folds her arms closer to her body, she spins faster. Black holes operate much the same way: As gravity pulls matter inward toward a black hole, the black hole likewise spins faster. As the black hole’s gravitational pull increases, the speed also creates energy.
“As matter falls into a black hole, it starts to spin and the rapid rotation pushes some fraction of the matter out,” Kaaret says. “They’re producing these strong winds that could be opening an escape route for ultraviolet light. That could be what happened with the early galaxies.”
Kaaret plans to study Tol 1247-232 more closely and find other nearby galaxies that are leaking ultraviolet light, which would help corroborate his theory.
Since our national future of Antifa reds slugging it out with alt-right brownshirts in running street battles looks increasingly assured, we might as well start tracking reaction polls like this:
Watching media coverage, you’d think Trump is nearly alone in believing “both sides” share fault for the Charlottesville violence. Turns out, most Republicans have his back… Far more blame “the far right groups” for Charlottesville (46%) than “the counter-protesters” (9%), but a remarkable 40% concur with Trump’s assertion that both were equally responsible.
“Beneath the surface, we see the same partisan division: Two-thirds of Democrats (66%) blame the far-right groups rather than the counter-protesters (6%), while Republicans overwhelmingly blame both sides equally (64%). About the same proportion of Republicans blame the far-right groups (18%) as the counter-protestors (17%).”
As Sean Trende put it, “So basically, a plurality agree with Trump’s characterization of the Charlottesville events, or are to his right.” Indeed. Given a binary choice of whether the alt-right or counter-protesters bears most of the blame for the violence, people are far more likely to blame the alt-right. It was their rally, Nazis are known for violence, one of them actually killed someone on the other side. That’s why, I assume, even Republicans are (slightly) more likely to blame the alt-right than the left-wing protesters. Under the circumstances it’s hard to see the white nationalists as relatively blameless for what happened.
As much as partisan interests are driving reaction here, don’t overlook the fact that nearly a quarter of Democrats — 24 percent — agree with Trump that both sides bear equal responsibility for what happened. (It’s even higher among indies at 38 percent, although a majority of 51 percent blames the “far-right groups.”) That’s an impressively large and resilient minority given the torrents of condemnation in stark moral terms that Trump has endured this week. It’s one thing for Republicans to stick with him, as their agenda depends on Trump’s political credibility. Democrats, though, have every partisan reason to hammer him over this, yet a quarter are holding firm on apportioning blame for the violence equally. I wonder if there’s a segment of the left that’s already aware of, and uncomfortable with, Antifa’s tactics and unwilling to absolve them of responsibility for throwing down with neo-Nazis. Probably too much to hope for.
Two potentially habitable "super-Earths" orbit a star just 12 light years away that is our nearest sun-like neighbour, scientists have discovered.
The worlds at the edges of Tau Ceti's "habitable zone" belong to a solar system of four rocky planets similar in size to Earth.
British-led astronomers speculate that the system might be a potential candidate for future interstellar colonisation.
But life on the new outposts may be far from peaceful. There is evidence of a massive debris disc circling the star, increasing the chances of the planets being pounded by asteroids and comets.
A key aspect of the discovery was the detection of exoplanets with masses as low as 1.7 times the Earth's, making them the smallest worlds ever spotted around a sun-like star.
The scientists used the "wobble" method of planet finding that measures the influence of gravitational interaction on a star.
As a planet orbits, it causes its parent star to wobble by a tiny degree. Astronomers can see the signature of this effect in the star's light.
Lead researcher Dr Fabo Feng, from the University of Hertfordshire, said: "We're getting tantalisingly close to observing the correct limits required for detecting Earth-like planets.
"Our detection of such weak wobbles is a milestone in the search for Earth analogues and the understanding of the Earth's habitability through comparison with these."
Sun-like stars hold out the best hope of finding planets beyond the solar system that host life. Tau Ceti, a favourite destination of science fiction writers, is very similar to the sun both in size and brightness.
Like the sun, it has a "habitable zone", a narrow region around it where conditions are favourable for Earth-like life.
Within the habitable, or "Goldilocks" zone, temperatures are not too hot or too cold but just right for surface water to exist as a liquid. A habitable zone planet could have oceans, lakes and rivers.
Neither of Tau Ceti's "super-Earths" lie in the centre of its habitable zone. One orbits on the inner border and the other on the outer. The Earth is situated halfway between the middle of the sun's habitable zone and its inner boundary.
The astronomers analysed starlight wavelength data obtained from the European Southern Observatory in Chile and the Keck observatory on Mauna Kea, Hawaii. Their findings are to be published in the Astronomical Journal.
Co-author Dr Mikko Tuomi, also from the University of Hertfordshire, said improved techniques were making it easier to distinguish between light signals caused by the presence of planets and stellar activity.
Two Tau Ceti signals previously identified in 2013 were now known not to have a planetary origin.
"But no matter how we look at the star, there seems to be at least four rocky planets orbiting it," Dr Tuomi said.
"We're slowly learning to tell the difference between wobbles caused by planets and those caused by stellar active surface.
"This enabled us to verify the existence of the two outer, potentially habitable, planets in the system."
Leading neuroscientists and philosophers from Russia took part in the first-ever joint conference with the Dalai Lama and Buddhist scholars that was held in New Delhi to discuss matters such as and the nature of consciousness.
The scientists realized that they needed a new theory about the nature of consciousness and its relation to brain activity, and so decided to turn to the Buddhist scholars for assistance.
Konstantin Anokhin, prominent Russian neurobiologist and member of both Russian Academy of Sciences and Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, told RIA Novosti that Russian scientists have been studying consciousness for over 150 years, and their materialistic conception of consciousness differs from the classic materialism of Western science.
"I believe that what we need now is a new, bold fundamental theory instead of experiments… This is our message to Buddhist science: we need a theory that isn’t based on subjective experience alone. This new theory may influence our methods and techniques, and draw the attention to meditation," Anokhin said.
Notable Russian neurolinguistics researcher Tatyana Chernigovskaya who acted as moderator during the conference concurred with Anokhin.
"The amount of empirical data that we have grows by the minute. We’ve even reached an impasse of sorts because we don’t know what to do with this data. We could sort it, of course, and there are processing methods available, but we are not advancing further. If I study each and every cell in your body, I won’t learn anything about your personality. And delving into brains and pulling out each and every neuron out won’t help me understand how it works. Okay, so we’ve studied 30 billion more neurons, now what? What question have we answered? None. We need a genius who can tell us ‘you need to ask a different question.’ It’s clear that at this point that a new theory is badly needed," Chernigovskaya said, adding that philosophy plays a key role in this matter.
For the Good of Mankind
The goal of the conference was to facilitate dialogue between Russian scientists and Buddhist scholars related to a variety of scientific disciplines such as physics, cosmology, biology and axiology.
"I’ve had useful discussions with scientists for more than 30 years with two purposes in mind. The first is to extend our knowledge. Until the late 20th century scientists mostly investigated external phenomena, including the brain. These were things they could measure and which a third person could agree about. However, in the late 20th century and early 21st century more and more scientists have begun to find evidence that experiences such as meditation and mind training affect our brains in previously unforeseen ways—this is called neuroplasticity," the Dalai Lama said.
The second purpose, he added, was to help raise awareness and foster compassion among people, to help stop the endless cycle of violence and to deal with the issue of disparity between rich and poor.
"We have to learn from experience and enter into dialogue, remembering that other people are our brothers and sisters. We have to live together. The global economy and the effects of climate change are not limited by national borders. It’s the idea of ‘us’ and ‘them’ we have to restrain, because it so easily becomes the basis for violence. We have to educate people to understand that we are all part of humanity,” he added.
Dalai Lama: Consciousness Does Not Equal Brain
According to the Buddhist leader, consciousness consists of several layers and is not fully connected to the brain.
"For example, these different levels of consciousness manifest during sleep, when we do not possess our senses but remain aware, or when a person faints. Even when a man dies, we (Buddhists) know that the consciousness continues to exist," he said.
The Dalai Lama explained that, according to Buddhist teachings, consciousness is intrinsically connected to life, and the most subtle level of consciousness is “devoid of genetic basis” and transfers from one life to another as part of the rebirth cycle.
He also remarked that it is very hard to tell whether an artificial intelligence can possess a consciousness.
"Everything in the world is determined by cause-effect relationships, and a consciousness – even the most subtle level of it – can only be the continuation of consciousness. But artificial intelligence is just particles," the Dalai Lama said.
Professor David Dubrovsky from the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Philosophy also pointed out that a thought is devoid of physical dimensions such as mass or length, and that it all comes down to explaining the relation between thoughts and brain activity.
"It is called the ‘hard problem’ of consciousness. Western science has been dominated by reductionist concepts that narrowed thought processes down to physical processes or to behaviorism. The prevalent concepts in Russia, however, have retained the aspects of subjective reality and non-physical process," Dubrovsky said.
The participants of the conference also broached the Big Bang theory, as Konstantin Anokhin argued that consciousness did not exist when Earth was devoid of life, and that consciousness appeared as a result of evolution.
"The origins of consciousness lie in emotions. Even the simplest organisms have emotions; they’re capable of experiencing satisfaction or suffering depending on whether they succeed or fail to achieve something," Anokhin said.
"But the Big Bang must require a vast amount of energy, so where did it come from?" the Buddhist spiritual leader inquired.
"Not from the mind or consciousness," Anokhin replied.
"But how do you know that? Energy is immaterial. We need to explain why vast amounts of energy have material basis … There’s a contradiction here," Dalai Lama retorted.
He also remarked that on the most subtle level, consciousness and rocks were created out of the same particles.
"So why does one particle become a rock while another becomes consciousness?" Dalai Lama mused.
Schrodinger’s Cat and Language
During the conference professor Tatyana Chernigovskaya also presented her report – Cheshire Smile of Schrodinger’s Cat: Language and Consciousness.
She cited Niels Bohr, one of the pioneers of quantum mechanics, who said that the observer is a part of the scientific paradigm and that the results of an experiment are influenced by the person who conducts it, and Albert Einstein who called the intuitive mind “a sacred gift,” adding that many prominent scientists in the past claimed that the outside world is "built from the inside."
"Would music or mathematics continue to exist without those who listen and think? My answer is ‘no’: Without man, Mozart’s music would merely become vibrations of air," Chernigovskaya said.
She added that neuroscientists should focus their attention on music and music and language, especially poetry.
"Today a new science called biolinguistics seeks to discover universal traits of the evolution of biological systems and language," Chernigovskaya said.
The Dalai Lama also remarked that her findings have a lot in common with Buddhist teachings about the interdependence of all things.
