Kate Rauner's Blog, page 28

Would Earth-like exoplanet really fit the bill if its star was dark? #astronomy #exoplanet #solarsystem

[image error]More than 4,000 known exoplanets, but I haven’t really thought about the stars enough.

Almost all of the Earth-sized planets known to have potentially Earth-like surface temperatures are in orbit around red dwarf stars, which do not emit visible light but infrared radiation instead. Many red dwarfs are also notorious for emitting high-energy flares and for frying their planets. scitechdaily.com

Well, that would be a depressing place to colonize (not that the possiblity exists yet.) It is interesting to think that the night sky is dark, not because there is blackness between stars, but because the human eye perceives such a tiny fraction of the electromagnetic spectrum. However, a planet around Kepler-160 could be the right combination of planet and sun to appeal to us humans, and only 3000 light-years away.

Of course, it’s possible the “planet” is only a statistical fluke or a measurement error. As usual, more data is needed. But if we can find the planet and maybe someday analysze its atmosphere, we may be able to look up wistfully at the constellation of Lyra and wonder if anything is looking back.

 

Space Song – Home on Lagrange #poem #poetry #science

[image error]Oh give me a locus

Where the gravitons focus,

Where the three-body problem is solved,

Where the microwaves play

Down at 3 degrees K,

And the cold virus never evolved.

by William S. Higgins and Barry D. Gehm

Thanks to NASA

Math Problem Solved – 4D Knot #math #mathematics #puzzles

What have you been up to?

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In math, knots have no ends, no separate threads. The ends connect like in a magic trick.

It took Lisa Piccirillo less than a week to answer a long-standing math problem about a strange knot. quantamagazine.org

This isn’t the same problem you and I have when our shoe laces get tangled.

The question asked whether the Conway knot is a slice of a higher-dimensional knot. “Sliceness” is one of the first natural questions knot theorists ask about knots in higher-dimensional spaces… The Conway knot had thumbed its nose at mathematicians for decades.

I’m not likely to understand the question, much less the solution, but for those of you with the math chops, there’s more explanation and diagrams in the article. You’ll find a beauty in the math that, alas, I’ll never share, but I still enojy the tale.

 

People Need Electricity – People Need to Stop Global Warming – Here’s a Surprising Possibility #GlobalWarming #ClimateChange #NuclearEnergy

If you’ve heard that nuclear energy is the low-carbon way out of the global warming‘s slow motion (and not-so-slow motion) disaster, you may wonder if the answer is worse than the problem. But wait. Today’s designs aren’t your parents’ nuclear reactors. Not even uranium powered.

I hope that catches your attention. Check out this video for more.

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Thorium Reactors: Fact and Fiction

This Lost Bird’s a Turkey #birdwatching #wildlife

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View thru my window – turkey’s right below the hanging feeder. Those shapes are there to help birds “see” the glass and avoid neck-breaking collisions

A flock of wild turkeys visited my bird feeder this winter. On and off, I’ve seen turkeys in the arroyo below me, but my windy ridge never attracted them before. This winter, up to 30 came at a time to peck at seed on the ground, but now it’s spring and they’ve gone home to the arroyo.

Mostly.

Lately, one lone bird had reappeared. There was a short turkey hunting season recently, and I heard shots in the forest, so I suspect that scattered her buddies.

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Closer look at the turkey

She’s a nervous thing, barely grabbing a few seeds between periods at high alert. Being a lone turkey is a tough job. I enjoy her visits, but I hope she’ll find her way home to her flock soon.

 

Deep Time – Virtual Tour from the National Museum of Natural History #MuseumFromHome

[image error]More to do while you stay safe at home. Interactive tours. Manuver yourself around the museum.

Click to access the Deep Time tour

Check out more virtual tours.

Lead Your Fleet of Robot Planes Into Battle – It’s Not Scifi #ArtificialIntelligence #AirForce #AirCraft

[image error]Your Loyal Wingmen fly alongside you into danger. These craft have no pilots, not even remote operators, and are no burden on you. They can engage the most dangerous parts of the mission while you stand off at a safer distance.

Safety for our pilots, but how sure are we that AI planes will make humane / human decisions? Is a battle that is tidier better for our future? Makes me think of a Star Trek TOS episode, A Taste Of Armageddon. But, I’m binging on TOS, so everything makes me think of one episode or another.

This is a Boeing Australia project, and thanks to Skeptiod’s Brian Dunning for pointing it out.

Universe’s Past is Lost #sciku #haiku #science #astronomy #cosmology #poem

Farther means faster

But the universe has changed

The blind cannot see

[image error] Thanks to livescience.com

Writing Advice: Interview with Kate Rauner — W. Wang’s World Commentary

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A dozen authors local to Silver City New Mexico have assembled tips for anyone interested in writing

It’s a treat to be interviewed, and here’s a great place to read about the writing secrets book I contributed to, my own scifi, and lots more. Check it out via Writing Advice: Interview with Kate Rauner — W. Wang’s World Commentary

This is Impossible, But I Read it Anyway #fossil #dinosaur #DNA

[image error]Cartilage with DNA’s chemical signature? From a dinosaur? Preposterous.

One study found that half of remaining DNA deteriorates every 521 years. Granted, different levels of preservation exist, but that says finding wooly mammoth DNA is amazing. Dinosaurs? Impossible.

But if there’s any chance at all, it’s fascinating.

Chinese Academy of Sciences paleontologist Alida Bailleul and her colleagues think they’ve got the proof.

Okay – I see “China” and I’m more skeptical than usual. Some questionable reports come out of China. But so do some remarkable fossils.

What about bacterial contamination, whether recent or ancient? What about analytical errors handling what-must-be tiny samples? Should we even talk about this before replication studies are published?

Keep an eye open. Every controversial field of study had to start someplace.