Becoming Human

READER QUESTION:   We now know from evolutionary science that humanity has existed in some form or another for around 2 million years or more. Homo sapiens are comparatively new on the block. There were also many other human species, some which we interbred with. The question is then inevitable – when can we claim personhood in the long story of evolution? Are Chimpanzees people? Did Australopithecine have an afterlife? What are the implications for how we think about rights and religion? Anthony A. MacIsaac, 26, Paris, France.

In our mythologies, there’s often a singular moment when we became “human”. Eve plucked the fruit of the tree of knowledge and gained awareness of good and evil. Prometheus created men from clay and gave them fire. But in the modern origin story, evolution, there’s no defining moment of creation. Instead, humans emerged gradually, generation by generation, from earlier species.

As with any other complex adaptation – a bird’s wing, a whale’s fluke, our own fingers – our humanity evolved step by step, over millions of years. Mutations appeared in our DNA, spread through the population, and our ancestors slowly became something more like us and, finally, we appeared.  TO READ MORE, CLICK HERE...

Clever Dog

 

A Dangerous Dance Miles Away

Hubble Space Telescope image of Arp 91, a pair of intertwined galaxies (NGC 5953 and NGC 5954). Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, J. Dalcanton, Acknowledgement: J. Schmidt

This Picture of the Week features two interacting galaxies that are so intertwined, they have a collective name — Arp 91. This delicate galactic dance is taking place over 100 million light-years from Earth, and was captured by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. 

The two galaxies comprising Arp 91 do have their own names: the lower galaxy, which in this image looks like a bright spot, is known as NGC 5953; and the ovoid galaxy to the upper right is NGC 5954. 

In reality, both of these galaxies are spiral galaxies, but their shapes appear very different because they are orientated differently with respect to Earth.

Arp 91 provides a particularly vivid example of galactic interaction. NGC 5954 is clearly being tugged towards NGC 5953 — it looks like it is extending one spiral arm downwards. It is the immense gravitational attraction of the two galaxies that is causing them to interact. 

Such gravitational interactions between galaxies are common, and are an important part of galactic evolution. Most astronomers nowadays believe that collisions between spiral galaxies lead to the formation of another type of galaxy, known as elliptical galaxies. 

These immensely energetic and massive collisions, however, happen on timescales that dwarf a human lifetime — they take place over hundreds of millions of years. So we should not expect Arp 91 to look any different over the course of our lifetimes!

Great & Small

 

It's Just Trains

 

Ever since the invention of the steam locomotive in 1802, trains have been a driving societal force.

Invented in Britain at the height of the Industrial Revolution, steam trains gave the empire an unparalleled advantage in transporting goods and people. Soon it spread around the world as other nations scrambled to build their own railway networks to facilitate growth and commerce.

But just as nations rushed to build more railways, they also tried to build faster trains. Japan’s Tōkaidō Shinkansen or “bullet train” in 1964 was the first high-speed rail system, achieving a speed above 124 mph or 200 km/h.

How do other countries and trains compare?

Let’s dive into the fastest trains in the world using data from Travel and Leisure magazine.
Who Has The Fastest Trains in the World?

Japan started the high-speed train revolution in earnest, and it’s still at the top of the charts.

Though it’s fastest regular operating bullet trains (the N700A Shinkansen) can reach a top speed of 186 mph or 300 km/h, the country’s new development in magnetic levitation (maglev) is breaking speed records.

In fact, the top two fastest trains in the world are maglev, using two sets of magnets to elevate the train and propel it forward without friction to slow it down.

World's Fastest Trains                             Country                Speed Record

L0 Series Maglev                                        Japan                    374 mph (602 km/h)
CRRC Qingdao Sifang 2021 Maglev*        China                    373 mph (600 km/h)
TGV POS                                                    France                  357 mph (575 km/h)
CRH380A Hexie                                         China                    302 mph (486 km/h)
Shanghai Maglev                                        China                    268 mph (431 km/h)
HEMU-430X                                              South Korea         262 mph (422 km/h)
Fuxing Hao CR400AF                                China                    260 mph (418 km/h)
Frecciarossa 1000                                       Italy                      245 mph (394 km/h)


*No official name or designation has been given yet, so currently listed under the manufacturer’s name, CRRC Qingdao Sifang.

Japan’s L0 Series Maglev is still in production, but with a land speed record of 374 mph or 602 km/h it is the fastest train in the world.  TO READ MORE, CLICK HERE...

Crash

 

Heart Cath Procedure

On the 28th of this month, I will be having a heart catherization procedure to further explore the results of my nuclear stress test that indicated my LAD was displaying a limitation of air flow...  however, while there was an abnormal reading, I was able to achieve my target hearf rate for my age...  which typically does not happen if there is a restriction of air flow especially inside the LAD...  so, this procedure will provide results that will confirm either there is a problem or there is not or the problem does not warrant anything to be done about it at this time...

In other words:

• do nothing
• insert more stents
• have a bypass

Now...  depending upon the result...  I will make two different decisions...  either stay with UT Medical Center - Cardiology or asked to be referred to Vanderbilt Cardiology.  And, my reasoning?  I believe Vanderbilt has more experienced cardia surgeons.  For example, UT has only been putting in stents for the last 5 years and I just have the mentality that experience makes for a better surgeon, espeecially when one is dealing with the heart.

Twelve years ago when I had my 5 stents put in at NYC Presbyterian Hospital, I knew that stents were more often than not a temporary fix...  more than likely I would end up having a bypass at sometime down the road...  maybe now is that time...  or maybe not...

What I do know is that bypass surgery is commonplace and that it takes a good 12-18 months before the bypass patient is back to normal.  And, while I am still fairly young, my recovery will be a llittle longer that it might have been 12 years ago and it will be even longer if I get to wait another 12 years...

First Date

 

Halloween Born in "Hell Caves"

The current archaeological site of Rathcroghan displays an artist’s impression of the temple that once stood there. It was the main meeting place of the Connaught kingdom 2,000 years ago.PHOTOGRAPH BY RONAN O'CONNELL

In the middle of a field in a lesser known part of Ireland is a large mound occupied by sheep. These livestock wander freely, chewing the grass beneath their feet. Yet, had they been in that same location 2,000 years ago, these animals probably would have been stiff with terror, held aloft by chanting, costumed pagans while being sacrificed to Celtic demons that inhabited nearby Oweynagat cave.

Considered by the ancient Celts to be a passage between Ireland and its devil-infested “otherworld,” Oweynagat (pronounced “Oen-na-gat” and meaning “cave of the cats”) was the birthplace of the Samhain festival, the ancient roots of Halloween, according to Irish archaeologist Daniel Curley. Far from the child-friendly event it has become, Halloween can trace its origins to a bloody and eerie ritual marked in Rathcroghan, a former Celtic center buried beneath the farmland of Ireland’s County Roscommon.

Curley is an expert on Rathcroghan, which was the hub of the ancient Irish kingdom of Connaught. At the heart of Rathcroghan, on that monumental mound, animals were sacrificed at a mighty pagan temple during Samhain. Now Ireland is pushing for UNESCO World Heritage status for Rathcroghan (“Rath-craw-hin”), a 5,500-year-old mystery slowly being decoded by scientists and historians.  TO READ MORE, CLICK HERE...

Cats

 

An Oasis Found

Millions of miles away, on the surface of Mars, inside an enormous crater, a little NASA rover is taking some pictures. The view is quite stunning there—miles of undisturbed cinnamon terrain scattered with pebbles and boulders, with silky dunes where the craggy bedrock doesn’t peek through. But when the rover, named Perseverance, sent the photos back home from the crater, known as Jezero, scientists saw something more.

© NASA / JPL-Caltech

The arrangement of the sediment? It resembled a certain familiar landscape on Earth. Those boulders? A strong current had carried them in. Jezero, scientists could now see, wasn’t always dry and desolate. It was once a lake. The Perseverance rover was roaming what used to be a delta, where a small river met calm waters. A few billion years ago, the ground beneath its tires might have been sloshing with water.

On Earth, when a river pours into a lake, it carries grains of silt with it. Over time, that sediment builds up in layers that fan out from a narrow point where the running water meets the still. Observations from previous spacecraft missions, orbiting Mars from above, had shown something similar on the red planet’s surface, so scientists already suspected that Jezero crater, formed after a meteor impact, had been filled in with water. But they couldn’t be sure until Perseverance was there, snapping pictures like a mesmerized tourist. Here was history, the ancient ruins of Mars. The rover had looked out across the quiet terrain and observed not a barren wasteland, but a lost oasis.  TO READ MORE, CLICK HERE...

Cooking Burgers

 

What About our Future?

Why is next Tuesday different from Amsterdam's Central Station?

Next Tuesday is off in the future. It hasn't happened yet, and you can't say what it's going to look like. Maybe it will be like today. No big deal. But maybe you'll get hit by a falling meteor on Monday and be in the intensive care ward. Bummer. Amsterdam's Central Station, however, exists now. It's just over the Atlantic Ocean, and even as you read these words people are there, scurrying to get their trains or milling about buying weird Dutch fast food (try the greasy fried rice balls ... yum!).

So Amsterdam Central Station already exists. It's just at a different point in space. But next Tuesday, which is at a different point in time, doesn't exist.

What is up with that?

For physicists like myself, this question of the difference between space and time is rock bottom, fundamental, super important. We can't really do physics without starting with some kind of theory of space and of time and of their relationship.
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Newton's giant leap forward, 400 years ago, was to think about space and time as two totally separate domains. Space was the unchanging stage on which the drama of the world played out. Time was a river that flowed at an unchanging rate through every point on that cosmic change.

The power of Newton's conception changed the world, opening the floodgate for the mechanical era and the Industrial Revolution. There was only one small problem with this idea of a separate, absolute space and time.

It was wrong.

Of Albert Einstein's many great achievements, his most profound might be the recognition that space (the location of Amsterdam Central Station) and time (the location of next Tuesday) cannot be so easily separated. And that is why next Tuesday may already exist in the same way as Amsterdam's Central Station does.

Let me tell you about your "world line."

According to Einstein's theory of relativity, the drama of the world is "played" out not on the 3-D stage of space with time acting as an unchanging metronome. Instead, reality is composed of a four-dimensional space-time. There are three dimensions of space: left/right, forward/back, up/down. And there is one dimension of time: past/future. Just as every location on the surface of the Earth already exists in space, every event that has ever happened and ever will happen already exists in space-time.

To see how freaky this idea really gets, let's consider your life for a moment.  TO READ MORE ABOUT THIS CONCEPT, CLICK HERE...

Bird Wash

 

Macho Tool

Was Einstein Wrong?

As in history, revolutions are the lifeblood of science. Bubbling undercurrents of disquiet boil over until a new regime emerges to seize power. Then everyone's attention turns to toppling their new ruler. The king is dead, long live the king.

This has happened many times in the history of physics and astronomy. First, we thought Earth was at the center of the solar system — an idea that stood for over 1,000 years. Then Copernicus stuck his neck out to say that the whole system would be a lot simpler if we are just another planet orbiting the sun. Despite much initial opposition, the old geocentric picture eventually buckled under the weight of evidence from the newly invented telescope.

Then Newton came along to explain that gravity is why the planets orbit the sun. He said all objects with mass have a gravitational attraction towards each other. According to his ideas we orbit the sun because it is pulling on us, the moon orbits Earth because we are pulling on it. 

Newton ruled for two-and-a-half centuries before Albert Einstein turned up in 1915 to usurp him with his General Theory of Relativity. This new picture neatly explained inconsistencies in Mercury's orbit, and was famously confirmed by observations of a solar eclipse off the coast of Africa in 1919.  TO READ MORE, CLICK HERE...

Creating Pottery

 

Chinese Ghost Cities

China still has a startling number of vacant real-estate developments, judging from new satellite analysis by DigitalGlobe and Business Insider.

Chinese ghost cities have made headlines for nearly a decade, with huge new real-estate developments sitting mostly empty for years. Some see them as a sign China is heading for a real-estate crash. Others see them as just the typical style of urban expansion for a giant state-run economy.

While some ghost cities are reportedly filling in, the problem isn’t going away. A recent Baidu study of phone data gave clear evidence of 50 cities with areas of high vacancy. And just this fall China's richest man called Chinese real estate "the biggest bubble in history."

We looked inside some ghost cities with the latest in satellite technology, including time-lapse images, to show what’s making progress and what isn’t.  Highlights below.  TO SEE THESE HIGHLIGHTS, CLICK HERE...

Sharing

 

Workimg From Home

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amazon.com, amazon.com

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Uncommon Goods


Promising review: "This is such a sweet and unique item, and it really works with the changes in the weather!! I've had a number of friends who have remarked how cool it is. This is the perfect gift for anyone who has an interest in the weather or wants something different." —MM    Get it from Uncommon Goods for $25 or from Amazon for $22.46.    

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