ريتشارد دوكنز's Blog, page 360

Exclusive: We may have detected a new kind of gravitational wave

By Mika McKinnon

Have we detected a new flavour of gravitational wave? Speculation is swelling that researchers have spotted the subtle warping of the fabric of space resulting from the cataclysmic collision of two neutron stars.

Now optical telescopes – including the Hubble space telescope – are scrambling to point their lenses at the source of the possible wave: an elliptical galaxy hundreds of millions of light years away.

Gravitational waves are markers of the most violent events in our universe, generated when dense objects such as black holes or neutron stars crash together with tremendous energy. Two experiments – LIGO in the US and VIRGO in Europe – set out to detect minuscule changes in the path of laser beams caused by passing gravitational waves.

LIGO has discovered three gravitational wave sources to date, all of them colliding black holes. The two observatories have been coordinating data collection since November, increasing their sensitivity. That collaboration may be about to pay off.

Continue reading by clicking the name of the source below.

Martian weather kicks into high gear at night

By Rachael Lallensack

When night arrives on Mars, plunging temperatures can lead to weather much worse than researchers previously thought was possible on the Red Planet. Snowstorms can spring up with whipping winds that could create problems for missions to the planet, according to a new study.

The analysis upends researchers’ previous assumptions that Martian snow falls slowly and gently from the sky. Getting a handle on the planet’s weather is important for future exploratory missions. But it could also help to explain how Mars lost a lot of its water, and what might happen to the water that remains. The study, published on 21 August in Nature Geoscience1, moves researchers closer to an answer by providing the first detailed peek into what happens to the water in the Red Planet’s clouds.

The new work combined three widely used computer models which enabled the team to simulate large-scale global climates, calculate air turbulence and even make localized weather predictions for Mars. Previously, researchers used only one model at a time. When scientists used only a global climate model, they could predict where clouds might be, but they didn’t have any idea about the dynamics within a cloud, says Aymeric Spiga, a planetary scientist at Pierre and Marie Curie University in Paris and lead study author. “That’s the reason why these snowstorms were not discovered before.”

Continue reading by clicking the name of the source below.

Intelligence and the DNA Revolution

By Alexander P. Burgoyne and David Z. Hambrick

More than 60 years ago, Francis Crick and James Watson discovered the double-helical structure of deoxyribonucleic acid—better known as DNA. Today, for the cost of a Netflix subscription, you can have your DNA sequenced to learn about your ancestry and proclivities. Yet, while it is an irrefutable fact that the transmission of DNA from parents to offspring is the biological basis for heredity, we still know relatively little about the specific genes that make us who we are.

That is changing rapidly through genome-wide association studies—GWAS, for short. These studies search for differences in people’s genetic makeup—their “genotypes”—that correlate with differences in their observable traits—their “phenotypes.” In a GWAS recently published in Nature Genetics, a team of scientists from around the world analyzed the DNA sequences of 78,308 people for correlations with general intelligence, as measured by IQ tests.

The major goal of the study was to identify single nucleotide polymorphisms—or SNPs—that correlate significantly with intelligence test scores. Found in most cells throughout the body, DNA is made up of four molecules called nucleotides, referred to by their organic bases: cytosine (C), thymine (T), adenine (A), and guanine (G). Within a cell, DNA is organized into structures called chromosomes­. Humans normally have 23 pairs of chromosomes, with one in each pair inherited from each parent.  

Continue reading by clicking the name of the source below.

Justice Dept. Tells Court to Dismiss Atheist Group’s Johnson Amendment Lawsuit

By Hemant Mehta

Back in May, Donald Trump signed an executive order supposedly weakening the Johnson Amendment. That’s the rule the forbids non-profit groups from endorsing candidates if they want to keep their tax exemptions. Which also means pastors can’t tell their congregations how to vote.

Trump said on the campaign trail he would eliminate the rule, which would, in effect, turn a lot of churches into nothing more than branches of the Republican Party.

This was Trump’s attempt to make it happen… but he didn’t have the power to repeal it by himself so the executive order lacked any real bite. It told the IRS to “not take any adverse action” against churches whose pastors played politics from the pulpit, but the reality was that the IRS wasn’t doing that to begin with. For reasons that included higher priorities elsewhere and an already overextended staff, they hadn’t revoked any tax exemptions even when pastors begged them to do it (so that they could sue the IRS and overturn the Johnson Amendment through the courts).

Trump’s order mostly formalized the IRS’ inaction. From a practical standpoint, it didn’t change much. But the wording was still a serious problem because Trump was telling the IRS not to enforce the law. He sent the message to churches that endorsing candidates from the pulpit was perfectly fine, and that they should go ahead and do it if they wanted to. They wouldn’t suffer any consequences.

Continue reading by clicking the name of the source below.

The Trump administration just disbanded a federal advisory committee on climate change

By Juliet Eilperin

The Trump administration has decided to disband the federal advisory panel for the National Climate Assessment, a group aimed at helping policymakers and private-sector officials incorporate the government’s climate analysis into long-term planning.

The charter for the 15-person Advisory Committee for the Sustained National Climate Assessment — which includes academics as well as local officials and corporate representatives — expires Sunday. On Friday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s acting administrator, Ben Friedman, informed the committee’s chair that the agency would not renew the panel.

The National Climate Assessment is supposed to be issued every four years but has come out only three times since passage of the 1990 law calling for such analysis. The next one, due for release in 2018, already has become a contentious issue for the Trump administration.

Continue reading by clicking the name of the source below.

Eclipse: It’s All about the Umbra

By Caleb Scharf

In recent days I’ve been reading a few eye-witness accounts of total solar eclipses across the ages. What’s common to almost all of these descriptions is the genuine sense of awe that a blocked-out sun evokes. That awe come from different pieces of the experience. It’s in the alien vista of the Sun’s corona, or in the spectacle of Bailey’s beads, or the sudden chill that descends on an otherwise warm sunny day and the wind that whips up.

But what’s bothered me is why some of these phenomena should have such a visceral impact. After all, a stray cloud can do a pretty good job at blotting the Sun out, as can a well-placed umbrella or hand.

And that got me interested in the actual dimensions of the shadow cast by the Moon. This shadow is really divided into three zones, depending on the eclipse configuration. The inner umbra of total eclipse, the outer penumbra of partial eclipse, and the antumbra between these two if the moon’s distance allows an annular eclipse – the Sun peeking around the lunar disk.

Continue reading by clicking the name of the source below.

Antarctic mystery microbe could tell us where viruses came from

By Michael Marshall

A peculiar Antarctic microbe may offer a clue to one of the biggest mysteries in evolution: the origin of viruses.

The microorganism is host to a fragment of DNA that can build a capsule around itself. It may help solve the mystery of how viruses first arose.

Viruses are not like other life forms. Arguably, they are not alive at all. All other living things are made of cells: squashy bags filled with the other essential molecules of life. Cells are intricate machines that can feed and reproduce independently.

Viruses are much simpler. A typical virus is a small piece of genetic material encased in a shell called a capsid. On its own, a virus can do little. But if it enters a living cell, it starts making copies of itself. Viruses often harm their hosts: for instance, the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) can cause AIDS when it infects a person.

Biologists have puzzled for decades about where viruses come from. Are they an older, simpler form of life – or are they parasites that arose only once cells had evolved?

Continue reading by clicking the name of the source below.

Some Liberty University Grads Are Returning Their Diplomas To Protest Trump

By Sarah McCammon

A group of alumni from one of the country’s most influential evangelical Christian universities is condemning their school’s president for his continued alignment with President Trump.

A small but growing number of Liberty University graduates are preparing to return diplomas to their school. The graduates are protesting university President Jerry Falwell Jr.’s ongoing support for Trump. They began organizing after Trump’s divisive remarks about the deadly white supremacist protests in Charlottesville, Va.

Chris Gaumer, a former Student Government Association president and 2006 graduate, said it was a simple decision.

“I’m sending my diploma back because the president of the United States is defending Nazis and white supremacists,” Gaumer said. “And in defending the president’s comments, Jerry Falwell Jr. is making himself and, it seems to me, the university he represents, complicit.”

Continue reading by clicking the name of the source below.

Christians Are Using #EmptyThePews To Explain Why They Left Their Churches

By Hemant Mehta

While three separate councils assembled by Donald Trump have disbanded in the wake of his both-sides-ism following the white supremacist march in Charlottesville, the one group that has remained in place is his Evangelical Advisory Board.

Only one member has announced his resignation since last week: Pastor A.R. Bernard, who noted that he had unofficially left the group months ago.

It makes you wonder: What’s wrong with everyone else? Is there anything Trump can do that would push the other evangelical leaders away? How much will they put up with in exchange for more anti-abortion justices appointed to federal benches?

And why are members of their congregations going to church at all, lending their tacit support to everything Trump does, if they disagree with it? (Because, make no mistake, the Trump administration and white evangelical Christianity are fully intertwined at this point.)

Continue reading by clicking the name of the source below.

Grown-up chimps are less likely to help distressed friends

By Sam Wong

There, there! Adult chimpanzees are less likely than younger ones to console their companions in times of distress. The finding raises questions about how the capacity for empathy changes with age in our closest relatives – and us.

When a chimpanzee gets upset, perhaps after losing a fight, companions will often sit with them and provide reassurance by kissing, grooming or embracing them.

The same is true of young children. By age 2, children typically respond to a family member crying by consoling them in a similar way.

We know chimpanzees have personalities: individual differences in their behaviour that are consistent over time. But it was unclear whether their empathetic tendencies are part of their personality, and whether they change over time.

Continue reading by clicking the name of the source below.