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late October 2017 |
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Visitor from another star system? (Guardian) A/2017-U1 came within 23 mi of the sun on 9/9/2017 Juno finds surprises at Jupiter (Nature @ DPS) winds extend into the interior; gravity field differs in N & S hemispheres Using light to create and destroy (Trojan) asteroids (Astronomy) A comet escapee? (Sky & Telescope) from another star More (circumstantial) evidence for Planet 9? (Earth & Sky) from computer simulations Methane monsoons on Titan (UCLA) Saturn's rings: 7 moons to bind them (Astronomy) climate change 2 crucial Antarctic glaciers accelerate toward the sea (NY Times) Sea level rise of 1.3 m by 2100... 50% more than thought (Guardian) unless coal goes away by 2050 Renewable energy sources: the best bang for the back (Vox) Looming threat of a carbon bubble (New Yorker) prolonging the decline of fossil fuels invites global economic collapse? EPA to scientists: go away or shut up (Vox) climate researchers banned from meeting presentations from the deniers We need more CO2! (Scientific American) |
the first detected kilonova event 30 research papers released in one day (most all not behind a paywall) A golden binary (Nature) with links to Nature- published papers A cosmic multi- messenger gold rush (Science) with links to Science- published papers The best short peer-reviewed paper I've seen so far (Science) a synthesis paper; its supplementary materials are here It's far more readable than the 4000+-author paper which has summarizes (?) the grand synthesis (Astrophysical Journal Letters) authored by 1/3 of all research astronomers alive today! The neutron-star merger's significance (Matt Strassler) the best summary and synthesis first commentaries First detection of a neutron-star collision (Science) a life-changing event? A rush to solve many cosmic mysteries? (Nature) Shaking space-time and lighting up the sky (Quanta) from the telescopes LIGO/Virgo gravitational-wave detection (LIGO) First light from a gravitational- wave event (Hubble) Gamma-ray burst seen 2 seconds after LIGO detection (NASA) Swift sees bright but quickly-fading ultraviolet source X-rays not seen until 9 days later (Chandra) more commentary Hitting astronomers' mother lode (Scientific American) Standard sirens (Preposterous Universe) How small telescopes will follow up (Nature) Transforming our understanding of the universe (phys.org) A summary chart of element origins (Astronomy) ns-ns collisions: once every 104 years in our galaxy? What if a neutron-star merger happens in our galaxy? (Scientific American) woe is us for non-scientists: What it all means (Washington Post) better than average An astronomical treasure hunt (Vox) better than average Cosmic fireworks (NY Times) Astronomers strike gold .... (LA Times) and platinum, and silver, and ..... New 'Rosetta Stone' (Atlantic) ----------------------- Rebooting the Messier catalog? (Hubble) more correctly, Hubble images of the Messier objects |
Kronos: devourer of its own planets (Eureka Alert) 15 Earth masses... and counting Another answer to the Fermi paradox: the prevalence of ice worlds (AAS DPS) |
Will colliding neutron stars solve cosmology's biggest controversy? (Quanta) the universe's expansion rate... but how soon? Measuring cosmic expansion with gravitational waves from the neutron star merger (Discover) "Properties of Expanding Universes" (U Cambridge) Hawking's PhD thesis.... demand crashes Cambridge server |
New test of electron's roundness could help explain asymmetry of matter/antimatter (Science) does the electron have a dipole moment? A new wormhole that allows info to escape a black hole? (Quanta) I'll believe it when I see it A century of gravitational waves (Astronomy) download a free minibook (30 pages) Closing in on dark matter (Cosmos) or maybe not |
1st amendment There is no 1st- Amendment right on college campuses (Vox) No, hate speech isn't protected on college campuses (Vox) Liberal fascists in charge of higher education? (American Spectator) supporting academic freedom only for themselves? ------------------------ robots and jobs The shape of work to come (Nature) 3 ways the digital revolution is shaping the work force of the future Robopocalypse not! (Wired) robots are not taking our jobs 6 charts that explain why American politics is so polarized (Vox) from a Pew survey Uber/Lyft: hurting public transportation? (NY Times) evidence starts to appear How the Frightful 5 suppress start-ups in Silicon Valley (NY Times) unfair competition tops the list |
9 months+ & counting: Trump still has no science advisor (Science) why have one if you don't understand science? science On Growth and Form: 100th anniversary (Stephen Wolfram, via Wired) how D'arcy Thompson cracked biological mysteries with math Photons pair up like superconducting electrons (Nature) does a photo- supercurrent exist? A simple guide to CRISPR (Vox) biggest science story of the decade? Insects are in serious trouble (Atlantic) pollutants the likely cause Toxic and chemical waste now rule at the EPA (NY Times) A 16-page free e-book on stargazing (Sky & Telescope) in exchange for your email address, of course ----------------------------- school Why do NC teachers have to pandhandle for school supplies? (New & Observer) shame on us and even more on the GA Let the kids sleep (News & Observer) roll back school start times The decline of the Midwest's public research universities (Atlantic) threatening economic vibrancy ------------------------ News and Observer 5-part series on Charter Schools Charter vs traditional: benefits not clear-cut Why UNC charters are richer & whiter How charters changed Durham public schools Profiting off education and an inferior education, to boot Experimenting with online charters which are all low-performing ----------------------- NCAA ruling on UNC's scandal What the UNC scandal ruling says about the NCAA (News & Observer) Exposing college sports hypocrisy (Time) Did UNC get away with it? (News & Observer) media reaction ----------------------- |
early October 2017 |
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Dwarf planet Haumea has a ring! (Science) On to the Moon (Atlantic) says the Trump administration The comet that came in from the cold (Hubble) the most distant (15 au) active comet ever seen New discoveries at Pluto (NASA) landslides on Charon, snow on Pluto JWST delayed until spring 2019 (Sky & Telescope) Hurricane damage threatens Arecibo observatory's future (Science) climate change Nature journal's special on climate change The real climate debate what role should scientists play Sea change the increasing threat of ocean acidity We have the technology to reduce carbon emissions Getting political scientists need to run for office --------------------------- Trump saves coal? (Washington Post) fortunately, it's too late US fossil fuels: recipients of $20 billion in energy subsidies (Vox) how stupid can we be? CO2 emissions as skyscrapers (Wired) Obama's methane reduction regulation gets a reprieve (Guardian) temporary or permanent? Meat-based diets are destroying global diversity (Guardian) and raising the planet's temperature Political partisanship: global warming and environmental regs (Chapter 7 of the Pew report) The demise of the Clean Power Plan? (NY Times) |
Do fleeting nanoflares cause the solar corona's mega-K temperatures? (Nature) Exotic states of matter inside of a neutron star (Astrobites) hypothetical, of course Counting stellar black holes (Astrobites) and implications for LIGO/Virgo |
Tabby's star: the mystery deepens (Scientific American) again? Smoking gun: Tabby's star alien intelligence ruled out (Earth & Sky) |
Mapping the far side of the Milky Way (Science) using H2O clouds Claim: 30% of the missing baryonic mass has been found (Science) in the cosmic web Are repeating fast radio bursts cosmically amplified? (Quanta) by galactic plasma lenses? Sloshing, supersonic gas built the universe's first SMBHs? (Science) and Starving vs. feasting black holes (Sky & Telescope) and A change in the unified model of active galaxies? (U Maryland) published article (Nature) How many dwarf galaxy satellites does the Milky Way have? (Astrobites) once only 11, now 55, but are there more than 100? Is the Milky Way an abnormal galaxy? (Earth & Sky) |
Columbus and before 1491 (Atlantic) before Columbus came to America Why Columbus Day has been protested from the start (NY Times) A new history of the First Peoples in the Americas (Atlantic) Did Easter Islanders visit South America before the Europeans? (Science) --------------------------- the economy Worse than the Great Depression? (NY Times) The report that the Trump administration wants to suppress (Washington Post) corporate tax effects are not borne by by labor -- but capital, instead (i.e., lowering corporate taxes does not increase jobs or wages) --------------------------- state of the union Partisan political divide widens (Pew) lengthy, but important and a short summary (NY Times) Living in a kakistocracy (Atlantic) government by the inept and the corrupt The death of the State Department? (Politico) blame Rex Tillerson Impeachable offenses (NY Books) 2 book reviews --------------------------- guns Gun control save lives (Vox) the research is clear America's gun fantasy (Slate) 3% of Americans own 50% of the guns How much money from the gun lobby does your representative get? (Politico) ------------------------ How immigration shaped the '16 election (NY Times) gerrymandering The new math of gerrymandering (NY Times) how it works How the Supreme Court could fix gerrymandering (Vox) using 8 simple diagrams The math behind gerrymandering and wasted votes (Quanta) Supreme Court: allergic to math (538) Return sovereignty to NC voters (News & Observer) Gerrymandering gets its day in court (Vox) Kennedy's silence during the hearing means ??? (538) The convenient scapegoat of gerrymandering (Vox) blame political polarization instead ------------------------ Facebook, media et al. What Facebook did to American democracy (Atlantic) it isn't pretty Why (big) tech should make you uneasy (NY Times) Reality becomes the victim (Washington Post) when Facebook and Google rule The Facebook excuse (Politico) silly, childish, and inexcusable 12 questions for Facebook, but only 5 answers (NY Times) Zuckerberg's preposterous defense of Facebook (NY Times) Facebook: still in denial (Wall Street Journal) Silicon Valley is not your friend (NY Times) 10 reasons to stay calm about Russian Facebook ads (Washington Examiner) maybe true, but irrelevant Media: stop rationalizing Trump's behavior (538) Campaigning has nearly zero effect on voters (Atlantic) Media coverage of Puerto Rico, post-hurricane (Vox) Fox news fails ------------------------- Trump tax plan A bonanza for the rich (Vox) Major gains for the richest 1% (Washington Post) uneven benefits for middle class Supercharging economic growth? (Wall Street Journal) Tax cuts shrink over time (NY Times) except for very rich Promise the moon; deliver tax credits for the wealthy (LA Times) done |
A supervolcano surprise (NY Times) Yellowstone could erupt again within decades of new lava movement Untold story of America's women codebreakers (Politico) Code Girls: a review 2017 Nobel Prizes Nobel Prize - Physics (Nobel Prize) for discovery of gravitational waves advanced science background Science comments Nature comments Gravitational waves, explained (Vox) just in case The inside story of how physicists found gravitational waves (New Yorker) Nobel Prize - Chemistry (Nobel Prize) imaging the molecules of life popular science background advanced science background Nobel Prize - Medicine (Nobel Prize) molecular mechanisms controlling circadian rhythm scientific background The absurdity of Nobel prizes in science (Atlantic) most science is group science not individual breakthrough ------------------------ Take back the ivory tower (Chronicle of Higher Education) democracy requires thinking citizens The purpose of education (Atlantic) according to students The traveling salesman problem -- a good- enough solution (Quanta) When fall foliage really comes to your region (Vox) apparently it doesn't come to Durham! |
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late September 2017 |
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Last comet image from Rosetta found (NY Times) Hawaii agency approves 30-meter telescope (Science) with conditions The importance of evaporating planetismals (Nature) intrinsic to the formation of Earth? A special issue on Enceladus (Astrobiology Jrnl, September 2017) including: Can Life begin on Enceladus? Is it snowing microbes on Enceladus? The big questions about Saturn that Cassini may yet answer (Nature) composition of its atmosphere, age of the rings, & the origin of its magnetic field A new map of water on the Moon (Sky & Telescope) in its surface dust Cassini retrospective (Scientific American, October 2017 issue) and it's free Download the 100+- page Cassini e-book (NASA) Back to Saturn? (NY Times) 5 proposed missions or if not, 6 other missions already in progress (NY Times) Mars, Europa, Bennu, WFIRST, Mercury, and the Sun An ancient lake on Mars was able to support life (Astrobiology Mag) in Gale crater More evidence for water on Mars (Earth & Sky) the sedimentary basin Aeolis Dorsa Frozen water beneath Vesta's surface? (Nature) Already planning for the April 8 2024 American eclipse? Eclipse Path and What will the eclipse look like in your city? (Time and Date) Weather prospects along the path (Eclipsophile) ----------------------- climate change Decline of Arctic sea ice since 1979 (NY Times) in 3 charts We're halfway to doubling of CO2 radiative forcing (Nature Geoscience) since the 1860s Limiting global warming to 1.5 °C may still be possible (Nature) commentary to research article (Nature Geoscience) Follow the spoonbill: move away from the coast (Washington Post) Creating a system to deal with climate damages (Vox) we need to start soon The real unknown in climate change: our behavior (NY Times) |
4th detection of colliding stellar black holes (LIGO) 31- & 25-Msun black holes combine to form a 53-Msun b.h. Advanced VIRGO comes online (VIRGO) in time to detect GW170814 paper accepted in Phys Rev Letters Scientific American comments Sky & Telescope comments "There are other interesting events and they are being analyzed." ------------------------ An aging carbon star blows its top (ALMA) U Antliae |
A heavy metal atmosphere (Sky & Telescope) signs of TiO Can giant planets form by accretion? (Astrobites) and do they need small pebbles or not to do so? Can humans survive without Earth? (Astronomy) without its water, its magnetic field, its oxygen, its fuel resources, & more 4 configuration possibilities for Boyajian's star (system) (Science 2.0) ...and an ETI one |
New evidence that highest energy cosmic rays come from beyond Milky Way (Science) Auger detector finds strong asymmetry in arrival directions of cosmic rays A 'candidate' pair of SMBHs orbiting 1-cyr apart (Sky & Telescope) a combined 400 million solar masses, in Mrk 533 |
How things get heavy (Physics Teacher, October 2017 issue) the nature of mass Could a hidden Higgs reveal the universe's dark sector? (Quanta) is the LHC producing new particles but not detecting them? What no new particles means for physics (Quanta) something no one envisioned 30 years ago (the diphoton bump has disappeared, alas) The Neutrino Puzzle (Scientific American, October 2017 issue) will the largest neutrino experiment ever point the way to new physics? |
Apparently Russians didn't influence Durham's 2016 elections (Raleigh N&O) despite earlier claims Will the NY Times issue a correction or an apology? Facebook's belated awakening (NY Times) to its Russian- influence problem Facebook knows a lot more about Russian meddling (NY Times) shouldn't we? Zuckerberg: "I regret ... being dismissive" (Guardian) seems doubtful Are 'experts' worried about AI? (Vox) We're at the end of white Christian America (Guardian) praise the lord! full report: America's changing religious identity (PRRI) 48 pages yet she persists Hillary Clinton looks back in anger (New Yorker) the longest review of 'What Happened'? Why isn't Hillary Clinton angrier? (Slate) The ongoing delusions of Hillary Clinton (The Week) Is Clinton right about why she lost? (538) What (really) happened in the 2016 election (Vox) in 7 charts How she lost (Prospect) one of the best analyses There's no single explanation for Trump's election (Atlantic) duh ----------------------- Ken Burns's Vietnam War Watch on-line (PBS) Required viewing? (Washington Post) review/interview (Mother Jones) Too many sides? (New Republic) Conversation with Ken Burns (Prospect) and The American War podcast (Washington Post) commentary after each episode ----------------------- Is there a 'correct' punishment for tearing down a monument? (Atlantic) division in Durham Why the Midwest needs immigration (Atlantic) and please stop calling it 'the Rust Belt' |
Possible 3.95-billion- year-old life found in NE Canada (Atlantic) oldest confirmed life is 3.7 BY old NC: one of the worst states to live in if you're a teacher (Raleigh N&O) 45th out of 51 Wallet Hub rankings here We need to start teaching tech in kindergarten (NY Post) an unconvincing argument by Ivanka Trump Education isn't the key to a good income (Atlantic) school quality is the main determinant of upward mobility Profiteering off NC's public schools (Durham Herald-Sun) good money thrown at bad solutions The media has a probability problem (538) misinterpreting - and then blaming - the data Winners in the Weather-Photographer- of-the-Year contest (Royal Photographic Society) science (& math) The colors of moths (NY Times) When watermelons turned into pumpkins (NY Times) How dinosaurs traded teeth for beaks (NY Times) The Science in Sherlock Holmes (Nature) book review Publishers attack ResearchGate (Science) for illegal sharing of journal articles Proven: p-infinity and t-infinity are equal! (Quanta) no way Marijuana use during teen years is a major risk for adult schizophrenia (Scientific American) |
early September 2017 |
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Cassini @ Saturn the 4-billion -$ Cassini crashes into Saturn on Friday, 9/15 @ 7:55am EDT (NASA) watch (the humans watching) it here with live Q&A sessions leading up to the crash or watch NASA tv beginning at 7 am EDT the crash "is going to be awesome" (Atlantic) The most "inspiring, beautiful, and historic images" from Cassini (Vox) 100 images: Cassini at Saturn (NY Times) Cassini's greatest hits (Physics Today) the moons, the rings, & the clouds: 20 of the best images Goodbye Saturn (538) last look for a generation Cassini's Grand Tour (National Geographic) where it went, what it did Remember when... Some people were worried that Cassini might destroy all life on Earth (Atlantic) because of the plutonium fuel it contained ----------------------- 9/18/2017: Mars & Mercury pair up in the sky (National Geographic) in mid-September Meet the primordial asteroid family (Science) evidence favors large initial asteroids which were later reduced in size by collisions The mystery of Jupiter's aurorae (NASA) electrons appear to be accelerated by turbulent waves in the magnetic field (not electric voltage diffs, as on Earth) Solar system graveyard (Science) an interactive look at the 42 spacecraft that met their end on another planet JWST's look-to-be at ocean worlds (America Space) targeting Europa & Enceladus NASA can't afford a manned trip to Mars (New Scientist) despite what it says, until at least the 2040s climate change climate denial research: flawed Learning from mistakes in climate research (Theoretical and Applied Climatology) the few (2%) scientific papers doubting global warming?: flawed methodology; bogus physics commentary by Quartz What happens when you try to replicate climate denial research (Guardian) it doesn't hold up Vox summarizes the climate deniers' farce carnival ------------------------ hurricanes and global warming from 2005: How many killer hurricanes before we get serious about global warming? (The Nation) Harvey encourages linking extreme weather to global warming (Physics Today) with links to many other stories (or opinions?) Harvey and the storms to come (New Yorker) How an ocean climate cycle favored Harvey (Science) Why deny global warming now? (NY Times) it's like denying Harvey ------------------------- Global fingerprints of sea-level rise revealed by satellites (Nature) the water from melted glaciers and ice sheets goes to mid-latitudes How the coastal real estate industry blocks sea-level-rise warnings (Raleigh N&O) to increase its profits How just 1 °C of ocean warming can upend marine ecosystems (Science) Climate change in the Arctic accelerates (Physics Today) air temperatures are warming at twice the global average Melting Arctic: up for grabs? (Washington Post) |
Solar storm: giant sunspots, flares & CMEs (Sky & Telescope) aurorae to follow? |
A blistering, pitch-black planet (Hubble) an albedo < 0.06; light absorbed by atmospheric hydrogen The (unin)habitability of exomoons (Physics Today) why moons of large exoplanets that lie in habitable zones might be uninhabitable Are solar system planets detectable from near-by exoplanets? (Earth & Sky) 68 could detect Jupiter; 1 could detect Earth Is uv light the key to searching for ET life? (Earth & Sky) might M stars emit insufficient uv to kick-start life? Does the organic matter in comets predate the origin of the solar system? (CNRS) 15 more fast radio bursts from only known FRB repeater (Earth & Sky) alien hunters salivate Why these FRB are not from aliens (Starts with a Bang) First evidence for transiting exocomets (America Space) |
New supernova analysis questions dark energy and cosmic acceleration (phys.org) Cosmic Velocity Web (Sky & Telescope) the 3-D flow of matter nearby A second SMBH at Milky Way's center! (Guardian) 105 solar masses Science chimes in "best case for an intermediate black hole" Nature has the published article A black hole with kick (Astrobites) commentary A different explanation for the Milky Way's γ-ray excess (Astrobites) molecular clouds? Does dark energy change with time? (Sky & Telescope) If so, it could explain the discrepancy in H0 values from CMB and supernovae data so claims published article in Nature or the un-refereed version from arXiv |
Scattering neutrinos caught in the act (Science) a new tool to test Standard Model Probing particle- physics frontiers with tabletop experiments (Science) Did LIGO detect dark matter? (Astrobites) could dark matter be black holes? |
A innovative way to learn economics (New Yorker) an e-textbook, freely available online voting, or not The US's shameless history of voter suppression (Guardian) continues with the Kobach commission Durham, NC officials object to NY Times story on Russian hacking of '16 election (Raleigh N&O) and with good reason ----------------------- politics American politics is no longer about ideas (NY Times) it's about team loyalty The end of the American era? (Atlantic) what Trump has wrought What happens when know-nothings and amateurs hold power (Washington Post) Trump's hard-line immigration won him the White House (538) will this over-ride DACA momentum? The state of American health care/insurance (Vox) in 5 charts 16 years later: how does terrorism end? (New Yorker) "it's foolish to think that we can eradicate all causes of violence" AG Sessions joins the 4-Pinocchio club (Washington Post) no, there isn't a violent crime wave sweeping the nation... quite the contrary ----------------------- Voynich The solution to the Voynich manuscript (Times Literary Supplement) it's not a cipher, but a medieval woman's health manual Really? the Voynich has been solved? (Atlantic) be suspicious, be very suspicious Will Voynich hoax- solutions never end? (New Yorker) ----------------------- our techno-future (if we're not careful) Monopoly and conformity (Washington Post) how Google, Apple, Facebook, & Amazon want to squash conformity and taste Facebook wins, democracy loses (NY Times) The biggest surveillance enterprise in the history of mankind (London Review of Books) Facebook, of course ----------------------- Labor Day Time for equality between workers and employers (Washington Post) an appropriate Labor Day message Happy Labor Day to everyone except Elon Musk (New Republic) union buster Workers and the hypocrisy of (Ivanka) Trump (Washington Post) equal pay; family leave; tax cuts geared to workers: no thank you The staggering anti-worker rollbacks of Trump (The Nation) The ongoing attack on workers by the Trump administration (Washington Post) threatening worker safety; attacking unions and labor laws; undercutting pay ---------------------- DACA non-renewal 9 things to know about DACA (Vox) before Trump cancels it? The economic senselessness of Trump's DACA repeal (Atlantic) The case for immigration (Vox) fuel for the economy and wage growth; less crime; cultural enrichment ---------------------------- how to create flooding Why the Houston flooding happened.... (Washington Post) .... and will happen again... and again.... How Houston created the perfect flood conditions (NY Times) Harvey's damage was magnified by its own development policies Everyone's a socialist after a natural disaster (The Nation) ---------------------------- The truth about corporate tax rates (Politico) the average is 22% What you could have learned at gerrymandering summer camp (Wired) The best nonfiction writing of 2016 (Atlantic) 100 (or so) articles |
How elite colleges promote Trumpism and fuel working- class resentment How US News' college rankings promote economic inequality on campus (Politico) how their ranking criteria promote incentives favoring the wealthy How colleges became finishing schools for the wealthy (Vox) and discriminate against the poor How Ivy League colleges, Duke, MIT, Stanford, etc cater to the rich and privileged (Equality of Opportunity Project) they have more students from the top 1% than the bottom 50% ----------------------- the war against public education Michigan gambled on public schools (NY Times) its children lost The war on public schools (Atlantic) is a huge mistake NC public schools' losing battle (Raleigh N&O) the unethical shift of public money to private schools ----------------------- education, good & bad Why teachers need their autonomy (Atlantic) higher engagement, more innovative teaching, less burnout Teachers as brands? (NY Times) inevitable in the digital age? Why you should read your textbook (Wired) the entire textbook, and not during class ----------------------- random science The great nutrient collapse (Politico) the atmosphere is changing the food we eat... for the worse Can American soil be brought back to life? (Politico) The case against civilization (New Yorker) did hunter-gatherers have it better? Revisiting the Los Alamos Primer (Physics Today) how to make a nuclear bomb and the actual primer Losing the plot (New Scientist) everything you learned about human origins is probably outdated Physics of the Musk hyperloop (Wired) Physics of animal locomotion (Physics Today) the rise of neuromechanics |
