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last updated:  8 pm  February 29, 2020

This month's guide to the bright planets   or the   This Week's Sky-at-a-glance

and remember that many publications now have monthly article limits; plan ahead!
(including: NY Times, Washington Post, Raleigh N&O, The Atlantic, Science, Scientific American, Nautil.us)

solar system	stars and in between	exoplanets (and ET life)	galaxies & cosmology	relativity, quantum, & particle physics	cultural literacy	teaching/education, science & tech
late February 2020
Did a molten silicate ocean produce Earth's original magnetic field? (Science News) Tumultuous early times on Vesta (Curtin U) early volcanism and a differentiated interior InSight at Mars (Nature, various, unless noted) first publications Initial results Geology of the landing site The atmosphere paywall The seismicity paywall Many Marsquakes (Sky & Telescope) 174 detected in 10 months: does magma lie under the surface? The magnetic field paywall Crustal structure paywall ----------------------- What lies beneath Moon's far side (Science News) alternating layers of fine soil and  coarser material Science Advances has the details with images & diagrams explaining why the far side is more cratered & rugged 2020 CD3:  a new Moon for Earth (The Conversation) here today, gone tomorrow... literally Arrokoth upsets the planetary- formation applecart (Scientific American) down with planetesimals, up with streaming collapse and more on Arrokoth Juno correcting a 25-yr mis-impression about water on Jupiter (Inverse) it's there Watch the Moon occult Mars just before dawn, Tuesday 2/18/2020 (Sky & Telescope) around 7:18 am in Durham photos, as it happened (Earth & Sky) Happy birthday Pluto  (90) and Copernicus  (477) 🔥  climate crisis 🔥 how we know the planet is warming the big picture A very hot year (Bill McKibben, NY Books) January 2020: warmest on record (Scientific American) and the 4th above-   average ever methane  Fossil fuel burning is responsible for soaring methane levels (NY Times) and methane is worse than CO2 at global warming Human-caused methane emissions underestimated by 40% (Carbon Brief) published research (Nature) free to read but not save consequences of global warming The climate crisis at home: what to really worry about (New Yorker) flight delays, more flu, power outages, climate refugees, wildfires, damp clothes, beach erosion, ... and zombies... yes, zombies and another: Climate gentrification driving up housing prices (Ars Technica) and pushing long-time residents out methane, continued Old methane is less important for modern climate than new methane (Science) most permafrost will be oxidized before reaching the atmosphere paywall ----------------------- Iowa is about to lose its Goldilocks climate (Physics Today) A billion tons of Colorado river water disappears (Washington Post) yep, climate change River ice is disappearing (Eos) its persistence has decreased by 7 days over 3 decades rising seas Thwaite's glacier collapse could raise sea levels by >  0.5 meters (Nature) warm water coming from all directions Economic costs of rising seas steeper  than thought (Science News) published paper (Environ Res. Comm.) A new reason to visit Boston (Washington Post) best place to see the rising sea encroaching on downtown or Miami: it will be underwater soon, but drinking water could disappear first (Bloomberg Business) from 2018 -------------------------- The effect of ocean iron on ice ages (Nature) a 30-year anniversary climate tipping points (Carbon Brief) Irreversible permafrost emissions An Atlantic overturning current (AMOC) shutdown An Amazon deforestation dieback When will the Amazon hit a tipping point? (Nature) West Antarctica ice sheet melting and some less likely ones Greenland ice sheet disintegration Boreal forest shift Coral reef die-off Monsoon shifts in West Africa or India climate solutions or not Fossil-fuel subsidies must end.  now. (Scientific American) why are they still with us? and it's still $400 billion worldwide! Why fossil fuel subsidies matter (Nature) Children will have to emit 8x less carbon than their grandparents (Carbon Brief) plus, find your lifetime carbon budget How scientists wrestle with grief over climate change (Science News) Climate-change-solution ignorers: Trump & Sanders (Washington Post) each in their own way Carbon taxes would boost jobs across the U.S. (Scientific American) but, of course, offend fossil-fuel Republicans Fossil-fuel industry quietly winning local climate fights (The Atlantic) Global energy-related carbon emissions plateaued in 2019 (IEA) environment Food waste is a lot higher than you think (PLOS) and the USA leads the way 3 no-effort ways to save energy (NY Times) refrigerator, dryer, & dishwasher	Rethinking neutron-star formation? (Quanta) so indicates the 2nd neutron-star merger The blue stragglers (AAS Nova) every cluster has them How new-born stars prepare for the birth of planets (NRAO) young disks are more massive than old disks, but often the same size and 4 protostars caught in the earliest stages of star formation... along with 24 images plus a star-formation schematic Lighting up the universe (AAS Nova) making the first stars Solar-wind samples suggest new physics of coronal mass ejections (U Hawaii Manoa) why is the wind enriched in He & Ne? A brown-dwarf binary (AMNH) a rare pair indeed Betelgeuse again How the pulsation of a dying star (like Betelgeuse) should affect its subsequent supernova explosion (UCSB) The re-rise of Betelgeuse (Nature) it's brightening again Why Betelgeuse isn't about to explode (Starts with a Bang) probably Betelgeuse -- at a crossroads? (Sky & Telescope) What a Betelguese supernova would look like from Earth (Astronomy) and It's changing shape, too (ESO) it's no longer spherical ----------------------	Is Proxima Centauri b inhabitable? (Astrobites) A hot Jupiter on the eve of destruction? (U of Warwick) the planet with the shortest 'year': 18 hrs 1st exoplanet discovered by flare (Quanta) ET life The first extraterrestrial protein? (Astronomy) hemolithin, found inside a meteorite research article submitted, but not yet peer-reviewed First alien life to be found: will it be on Europa, on exoplanets, orvia an ET visitation? (Starts with a Bang) Panspermia gets a boost from 2 interstellar visitors (Astronomy) did life here arrive from other stars or planets? Breakthrough Listen takes on the entire sky (UC Berkeley) first scans show no interesting results	The biggest explosion in the universe...? (Chandra) triggered by a SMBH in Ophiuchus the Hubble tension Will Tip-of-the-Red-Giant-Branch method resolve the H0 tension? (Quanta) H0 = 69.6 km/s/Mpc (+ 0.8  + 1.7) the Wendy Freeman  et al. preprint (arXiv) Cosmos in Crisis (Scientific American, March 2020 issue) the H0 tension, continued mostly a rehash... nothing really new free for a very limited time	read with some caution String theory: a dream and a nightmare (Starts with a Bang) and maybe a swamp (Now Even Wrong) read with intense skepticism Probing quantum-entangled black holes (in the lab!) (Quanta) how does the author write this stuff with a straight face? "it's the latest is a long series of bogus claims ..." (Not Even Wrong and "the hype is in" (BackReaction) and it's not just that we don't live in adS (anti-deSitter space) ----------------------- Did (some of) LIGO's black-hole mergers result from a collision of dwarf galaxies? (AAS Nova) Does dark energy gravitate? (Starts with a Bang) it's complicated A universe without dark matter? (Starts with a Bang) what it would be like only 1 generation of stars; less structure in the universe Making galaxies (on computers) without dark matter? (Sky & Telescope) a win for MOND? particle physics New limits on the neutron electric dipole moment (Physics World) New limits on CPT symmetry breaking (Nature) using anti-hydrogen atoms The fleeting existence of a tetraneutron? (Nature) Fine structure constant remains the same near Milky Way's SMBH (Science News) e2/(hc) read with caution 4 pieces of evidence point beyond the Big Bang? (Starts with a Bang) contrary to the column title!	What Russia wants in 2020 Donald Trump re-elected (American Prospect) Bernie Sanders nominated (Washington Post) Election chaos (Wired) ------------------------------- America today America's crisis of trust (Vox) Warren is the only candidate who gets it, but Sanders rules the young & passionate The audacity of hate (NY Times) One chart that explains middle-American finances (Washington Post) one year of wages cannot cover expenses of a family of 4 An America where cheating pays off (Washington Post) from the baseball park to the White House Vacate the Astros World Series Championship (Washington Post) case closed Too much religion is bad for a country (Washington Post) and the U.S. is a prime example of too much The tyranny of the minority (NY Books) from the Iowa caucuses to the Electoral College How Stephen Miller manipulated Donald Trump (New Yorker) How the 'good war' (in Afghanistan) went bad (Foreign Policy) because it was never a good war? Good alternatives to strong GDP growth (On Point, 1-hr podcast) regenerative and redistributive growth the nuclear family The 'nuclear family' was a mistake (The Atlantic) extended families would have been much better for everyone especially kids or  is it just the least worse family form? (Institute for Family Studies) identity politics (Foreign Affairs) for: Stacey Abrams it strengthens democracy against: Francis Fukuyuma new tribalism puts democracy in crisis the pre-Nevada debate A circular firing squad: the worst Dem debate ever (CNN) Dems savage each other instead of Trump shame on them The Democrats attacked the wrong man   ?!? (The Atlantic) you'd think the author meant that they should have attacked 'Trump', but no, the author  meant 'Sanders' 3 winners, 4 losers (Vox) they missed 2 losers: issue voters and the Democratic party billionaires The billionaire election (NY Times) does the world belong to them or us? Is Jeff Bezos now the leader of the free world? (The Atlantic) what does his $10 billion climate commitment accomplish? Is Jeff Bezos part of the climate problem or the climate solution? (Politico) or, will his $10 billion contribution just be enough to clean up Amazon's delivery and data center emissions and make up for its 1% tax rate? NC primary Early Voting begins (Durham Co Votes) locations & hours; find your ballot NC's presidential delegate distribution (Raleigh N&O) it's complicated, very complicated Candidates for School Superintendent (Raleigh N&O) with candidate comparisons & websites Dem candidates for Senate (Raleigh N&O) with N&O's endorsement Websites of candidates for Durham Co. School Board and Commissioner (Raleigh N&O) and more primary info here ----------------------------- election meltdown? Election Meltdown (Slate) 5-part podcast, based on the book Americans should not be confident about 2020 election security (Washington Post) by the cybersecurity group ---------------------- more on Dem primary candidates how to choose Which candidate do you agree with the most, on issues? (Washington Post) Choose your champion (NY TImes) the best case for the top 6 candidates and  another version by Vox ----------------------- The $60 trillion man plan (The Atlantic)t the cost of Bernie Sanders' proposals over 10 years it would double the size of federal government Did the Dem debates break their primary? (The Atlantic) or was it the rules? Where the candidates stand on racial justice (Center for Urban and Racial Equity) Elizabeth Warren, best in show Where the candidates stand on Social Security (NY Times) Joe Biden brought this on himself (Washington Post) and to the rest of us Sanders' radical policies won't drive election turnout (Washington Post) Democrats have to persuade people in the middle in order to win Texas Dems sweat a Sanders ticket (Politico) "We'd be f---ed" Why young voters back Bernie (New York) fallout from the 2008 recession & low salaries for college grads Why is Warren struggling? (538) Deep cracks in Biden's firewall (Politico) 7 questions for Mike Bloomberg (New Yorker) No, Bloomberg is not the right person to defeat Trump (NY Times) despite a Tom Friedman endorsement did we not learn anything about buying an election in 2016? b/c of his statements on teacher unions on profane & sexist remarks Dem candidates are wasting their time bickering over policies that will never be enacted (Washington Post) and more primary info here ----------------------------- how democracy dies How democracy dies (Washington Post) in full view of an American public that couldn't care less How democracies die (Cornell U) audio/video + interactive transcript How to fix U.S. democracy (Washington Post) look to Canada books What stars are made of: The Life of Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin (Nature) the woman who explained the stars Why civilizations collapse (Nature) 9 books art/travel/museums Judd:  Donald Judd's first survey in 30 years (Museum of Modern Art) through July 11, 2020 a review (NY Times) Van Eyck: An Optical Revolution (Museum of FIne Arts, Ghent, Belgium) until April 30, 2020 Jan van Eyck: the once-in-a-lifetime show (NY Times) a review of the largest van Eyck exhibit ever Picasso and Paper (Royal Academy) until April 13, 2020 A 5-star review (The Guardian) Raleigh: the 2nd best state capital? (Raleigh N&O) Josef Albers: Homage to the Square (NC Museum of Art) 2/21/20 - 8/30/20 from the museum's collection Nevada's uncrowded bomb country (NY Books) the test-bomb sites Images of Oregon (The Atlantic) 9 rare natural phenomena (Smithsonian) worth traveling for	science coronavirus The true extent of U.S. coronavirus is unknown (Scientific American) because the Trump admin is refusing to test for virus How the U.S. badly bungled coronavirus testing (Science) In the midst of coronavirus outbreak, Trump proposed 19% cut to CDC (Ars Technica) the definition of idiocy Preparing for the coronavirus (Scientific American) people with symptoms need to STAY AT HOME but what if sick workers can't afford to stay home? (The Atlantic) Wash your damn hands (Vox) and how to do it properly Coronavirus approaching a tipping point (The Guardian) Coronavirus: looking like a pandemic (Vox) with big outbreak clusters in Italy, S. Korea, and Iran It's not looking good for stopping the coronavirus (Gizmodo) You're likely to get the coronavirus (The Atlantic) a vaccine won't stop it Coronavirus reveals the pathology of  Trump admin (Washington Post) Animal origins of coronavirus and flu (Quanta) how/why the jump to humans happens Why the coronavirus started in China (NY Times) accepted beliefs in eating exotic animals ------------------------ An ancient empire hiding in plain sight (Science) in central Mexico The ten most important physics effects (BackReaction) or at least Sabine Hossenfelder's favorite 10 effects but  there's still no evidence for #4: Hawking radiation, except for a similar -- but not identical -- effect in superfluids New discoveries in human anatomy (The Scientist) with advanced imaging and microscopy Nefertiti or not? (Nature) a debate rekindled education Durham: the most educated city in NC (Raleigh N&O) NCSSM alums running or serving office (NCSSM) NCSSM-Morganton opening delayed one year (NCSSM) due to NC budget impasse The college adjunct crisis (NY Books) the serfs of academia How not to be a grad student (Nature) bad media the McClatchy bankruptcy Black & White & Deal All Over (Indy Week) Financial engineers ravage American newspapers (American Prospect) bad tech Kessler Syndrome: a natural disaster triggered by a solar flare & too many artificial satellites (Starts with a Bang) Where are our driverless cars? (Vox) years away, fortunately
limited time?  read the most interesting & important stories from  early February 2020: 1) Arrokoth unveiled 2)  climate news ocean currents are accelerating sea-level rise is accelerating climate models from decades WERE accurate 3) political news Presidential primaries & caucuses have begun NC primary (March 3) news Presidential candidates the end of impeachment 4)  the rise of coronavirus 5) the first periodic FRB 5) lepton news:  muon colliders  &  neutrinos
early February 2020
To Venus -- or Io  -- or Triton? (NASA) will NASA go to one or all of the nastiest places in the solar system? (Gizmodo) decisions next year Arrokoth unveiled Arrokoth gives up its secrets (NASA) answering questions about the origin of solar system planetesimals Astronomy comments Sky & Telescope comments A deep dive into  the abyss (Science Advances) Arrokoth in detail (Science Advances) free for a limited time Origin in the solar nebula Geology and geophysics Color, composition, and thermal environment ---------------------- Our first interstellar visitor (Astronomy) Oumuamua What early Earth was really like (Air and Space) from 3 new studies What if Earth were a super-Earth? (Live Science) what would it (and we) be like? Nitrogen solid-gas oscillation drives winds on Pluto's surface (Sky & Telescope) Earth & Sky comments with different diagrams futures How the World Could End (Astronomy) 20 different ways a free 19-page downloadable ebook New life for the outer solar system (Astronomy) after the Sun becomes a red giant The night sky will never be the same (The Atlantic) thanks to Elon Musk and SpaceX ----------------------- Christina Koch (NCSSM '97) returns (NY Times) from space A detailed view of our 2nd interstellar visitor (AAS Nova) comet Borisov Differences between Uranus & Neptune: giant impacts? (Astronomy) explaining axial tilt, central condensation, interior heat source NCCE has 2 nice pictures 7 'other' dwarf planets? (Astronomy) Eris, 2007 OR10, Makemake, Quaoar, Triton, Sedna, Orcus just as weird as Pluto 🔥  the climate crisis 🔥 climate reporting Early (1970-2007) models accurately predicted global warming (Nature) reinforcing the importance of global observations 2019's big climate research papers (Carbon Brief) that made a splash in the media The environmental burden of Gen Z (Washington Post)   how we know the planet is warming the big picture global warming consequences Global warming has increased speed of Earth's ocean currents (Science) a kinetic energy increase of 15% over 2 decades published article (Science Advances) temporarily free How the world warmed in 2019 (Carbon Brief) the data is in An accelerating pace of sea-live rise on U.S. coasts (The Guardian) 40% of the population lives near coastlines Tropical forests losing ability to absorb CO2 (Carbon Brief) The shockingly  bad consequences of ocean acidification (Science) discovered by using ocean water saved from 19th-century voyages climate solutions (or not) The real problem with Netflix? (The Guardian) its carbon emissions but video transmissions &  downloading are only 1% of carbon emissions -- and Netflix does carbon offsets A path to U.S. carbon-neutrality by 2050 (Science News) U.S. carbon emissions will fall by only 4% by 2050 (CNN) according to new research death sentence for Earth?   Climate science does not tell us how to fix things (Vox) climate scientists are neither priests nor prophets Is natural gas really helping the climate? (Rhodium Group) only if you believe the lying fossil-fuel industry environment Trump opens National Monuments to mining & oil drilling (NY Times) are National Parks next? Plastics and the environment (Physics Teacher, February 2020 issue) what every physics teacher should know	First results from Parker solar probe (AAS Nova) plasma structures, dust-free zones, and more New details on the solar wind (Sky & Telescope) What's left after a giant star engulfs its former binary companion (Astronomy) 14% of all massive stars are destined to collide as black holes? (Vanderbilt) white dwarfs push GR to the limit Frame-dragging (Astronomy) Orbital decay (Astrobites)	Giant exoplanets form don't form like brown dwarfs (McDonald Observatory) the latter form like stars Clouds and water vapor on an exoplanet (Ap J Letters) a first Could a habitable planet orbit a black hole? (Science) as in Interstellar an old idea, revisited pre-published article (arXiv) ET life An 'almost certainty' that living organisms exist on Europa  (Liverpool Hope U) and maybe  Mars	XLSSC122: clues to the oldest galaxies (The Conversation) the galaxy made 1000s of stellar masses per year and then abruptly stopped Coming fireworks: a merger of 2 SMBHs? (Scientific American) this spring? The tension in H0 (Starts with a Bang) the expansion rate of the universe depends on when it's measured What the universe's galaxies look like at z ≈ 6 - 9 (Astrobites) The dissolution of Laniakea (Starts with a Bang) our home supercluster The mystery of the  first (and only) periodic FRB (Earth & Sky) and why the signals are not likely to be from aliens (Science Alert) published paper (Science Advances) free for a limited time	lepton news DAMA's dark- matter signal: poorly analyzed noise? (Starts with a Bang) A major advance in muon colliders (Nature) the success of 'reionization' cooling and what we might learn (The Conversation) More stringent upper limits on double-βeta decay (CUORE) Did neutrinos stop the universe from annihilating itself? (Universe Today) should be read with caution 3 new neutrino experiments about to come online (Smithsonian) LUX-Zeplin, SuperCDMS Snolab, & ADMX G2 KATRIN: a voyage to the heart of the neutrino (CERN Courier) to determine their absolute masses ------------------------ Are misbehaving kaons hinting at physics beyond the Standard Model? (Science News) Why particle acceleratorrs built by humans are limited in energy (Starts with a Bang) magnets and synchrotron radiation read with great skepticism 5 myths about the Big Bang (Starts with a Bang) heads up: only #2 is demonstrably false	Google maps pander to who's looking (Washington Post) different map boundaries depending on which country you're viewing from The 53-state solution (The Atlantic) to America's lack of minority representation add more states: DC, Puerto Rico, + ? Charity toward none, but malice toward all (The Atlantic) Trump  & Clinton: hubris vs. humility (MSNBC) the day after impeachment: in their own words contempt, lies, & name calling vs. dignity, humanity, & reconciliation How close is Iran to building a nuclear bomb? (Nature) they have material to build just 1, and it will likely take years State of the Union 6 takeaways (NY Times) 4 winners & 3 losers (Vox) 4 takeaways and 31 dubious claims (Washington Post) a fact check outright lies, fables & fantasies, hyperbole A Presidential Medal of Freedom for racism & sexism (Vox) ---------------------- the primaries and caucuses the NC primary in Durham county How to vote (Durham Co Votes) early-voting hours and sites; election-day voting sites primary candidate endorsements Indy Week names and brief reasons People's Alliance names only Durham Committee on Affairs of Black People names only Friends of Durham but only School Board & Commissioners --------------------- Iowa's breakdown: a great step for democracy? (Washington Post) hopefully it will lead to the the death of caucuses and of Iowa going first and why should we care about Iowa, when only 7% of voting-age Iowans bothered to show up to caucus? and now, questions about regularities in the results (NY Times) detailed Iowa results (Washington Post) How not to beat Donald Trump? (The Atlantic) and version 2 (Vox) How Iowa's caucuses work (NY Times) (or were supposed to) with cartoons or without cartoons (USA Today) and there could be 4 different winners, depending on how you count (NY Times) or will there be only 3 winners? (538) or maybe every candidate can win? (Vox) and how to fix them Maybe previous public service should count as much as fundraising and poll numbers (Washington Post) Fixing the primaries: bring back the fairness and equal-time doctrines (Washington Post) Did Democrats change the rules to include Bloomberg in the primaries? (The Guardian) Why Iowa shouldn't vote first (Washington Post) Georgia should and another way to fix the primaries (Vox) but it's boring but Iowa still shouldn't go first ---------------------- presidential primary candidates 2020 Dem candidates all have the same problem (The Atlantic) they're all niche candidates Why you can't know which candidates are 'electable' (538) so vote for whom you believe in Sanders: 37% chance of winning a delegate majority for the nomination (538) as of 2/12/2020... 'no majority' is 2nd place w/34% The best case for.... (a Vox series) Joe Biden Pete Buttigieg Bernie Sanders Elizabeth Warren Amy Klobuchar Mike Bloomberg wrong and wrong: there is no case for a billionaire GOP-er buying an election and, curiously, the same web site says Mike Bloomberg is a disaster ---------------------- ex-runner Martin O'Malley on the 2020 election and the Sanders scam (The Guardian) ----------------------------- How Democrats still misunderstand social class (New Republic) the U.S. is still a high-school nation Jared Kushner, the child who reads books (Washington Post) arrogance personified impeachment: the end 23 dangerous propositions just ratified by the Senate (The Atlantic) 8 unanswered questions about Trump & Ukraine (Washington Post) that will live on after impeachment 3 winners & 3 losers (Vox) or what they would be in a logical world but we aren't in one, are we? The show trial in the Senate (NY Books) it used to happen only in dictatorships but just anoather example of Corruption without consequences (NY Books) Problematic, but not impeachable (Washington Post) Trump's behavior, according GOP senators A trial without witnesses... (The Atlantic) ...is no trial at all And, no, you can't read Trump's 24 emails on Ukraine (Washington Post) 'protected by presidential privilege' books What science can learn from alien hunters (Wired) don't ignore all the outliers? Can Journalism be saved? (NY Books) a review of 14 books temporarily free (early Feb) art/museums/trips Anselm Kiefer: greatest living artist? (NY Times) sad, if true Vida Americana: Mexican Muralists remake American art, 1925 - 1945 (Whitney Museum) 2/17/20  -  5/17/20 When Mexican art crossed the border (Art Newspaper) a review	science policy Trump's budget: a ~9% cut for science research, (NSF, DoE, & NIH) (Nature) but NASA Moon-Mars missions gains Trump's budget drowns science research in red ink (Science) biggest % research cuts to DARPA, EPA, NOAA, & USGS science The corona-virus outbreak (Scientific American) what we know a special issue mostly paywall, some articles free The Enigma of Aerodynamic Flight (Scientific American, February 2020 issue) no one can explain why planes stay up in the air temporarily free... but not for long, I expect Physics of juggling (Physics Today, February 2020 issue) a short read What a lifetime of football can do to the human brain (Vox) A universal law of turbulence, proved? (Quanta) Traveling the universe on supernova surf? (Scientific American) education UNC's Silent Sam sham vacated (NC Policy Watch) Sons of Confederate Veterans had nos right to sue for ownership What should happen next with the statue (Raleigh N&O) but probably won't Can NC community colleges really turn out better teachers? (Raleigh N& O) it's not where the most educated professors are 3 bad reasons to take a postdoc (Science) A backlash against tablets and laptops in education? (Washington Post) by parents science publishing Open access publication (Physics Today, February 2020 issue) the cases for and against Does the publication industry own academic science? (Issues) bad tech Apps are selling your location data (Washington Post) and the government is buying bad media The disinformation campaign to re-elect Trump (The Atlantic) Twitter& Fbook  refuse to ban fake conservative news about Iowa vote (Washington Post) and it's only going to get worse (Washington Post) Are the election polling media making the same mistake as in 2016? (The Atlantic) or, can you still trust Nate Silver?
limited time?  read the most interesting & important stories from  early February 2020: 1) Arrokoth unveiled 2)  climate news ocean currents are accelerating sea-level rise is accelerating climate models from decades WERE accurate 3) political news Presidential primaries & caucuses have begun NC primary (March 3) news Presidential candidates the end of impeachment 4)  the rise of coronavirus 5) the first periodic FRB 5) lepton news:  muon colliders  &  neutrinos
late January 2020
The age of interstellar visitors (Quanta) because we've now had 2 of them? Mars's water was mineral-rich and salty (Tokyo Tech) Mapping the innards of Enceladus (SW Research) Enceladus's inner complexity:  good for life? (Earth & Sky) Titan's icy corridor (Astrobites) mapping the surface The Jovian planets in a post- apocalyptic solar system (AAS Nova) the fate of the giant planets after the sun transitions to red-gianthood The oldest known impact crater on Earth (Nature Communications) Did it trigger a global thaw? (The Conversation) Earth's atmosphere 2.7 Gyr ago: mostly CO2 (Astronomy) Getting irradiated on the way to Mars (Scientific American) a good chance that you'd end up dead or stupid by the time you get there The first asteroid orbiting entirely inside Venus's orbit (Science News) Chang'e-4: 1 year on the Moon's far side (Daily Mail) Kohoutek: the comet flop of last century (Space) what happened 🔥  the climate crisis 🔥 how we know the planet is warming the big picture Why global warming can't be blamed on the Sun (The Conversation) with 4 graphs Are CFCs causing extreme & rapid Arctic warming? (Nature) Sorry kids, no climate suit for you (Vox) under-18-ers have no legal standing and besides, "there is no fundamental right to a stable climate system" climate consequences Antarctica's most dangerous glacier is melting from below (Washington Post) 5 changes in animal behavior due to global warming (The Guardian) climate politics The worst case climate scenario is no longer plausible (Nature) should we discard RCP8.5 (aka 'business as usual' scenario)? but not everyone agrees (Washington Post) and a summary of RCP scenarios in case you forgot (The Guardian) Want the youth vote? support fossil-fuel divestment (The Guardian) A blessing in disguise?: the kids' climate suit (The Atlantic) but read the dissent Why is NC spending federal disaster-relief money on beach erosion? (Raleigh N&O) that is happening annually even in mild storms climate solutions or not Steel and cement industries are bigger climate problems than cars (Vox) and much harder to solve Trump's "A Trillion Trees": a great idea -- and a dangerous climate distraction (MIT Tech Review) it's no substitute to cutting carbon emissions What Treasury Secretary Mnuchin doesn't understand about climate economics (Washington Post) that Greta Thunberg does you mean you expected better from a former movie producer? Geoengineering gets 4-M$ injection from U.S. Congress (Science) clean energy Arizona's biggest utility wants to go carbon-free (Washington Post) an about-face in just one year in 2018 it spent millions fighting renewables Why we need small modular nuclear reactors (Neurologica) nuclear reactors are 'clean'? environment Trump erodes protection for wetlands and streams (Politico) 6 things to know a huge rollback of 1972's Clean Water Act and a major win for mining & fossil-fuel industries because local rule is more important than clean water -- and waterways --  for everyone (Washington Post) life will become more expensive for everyone -- except the polluters Australia: the fires and our future (NY Books) Trump's border wall: an environmental disaster (The Nation) Plastic bags have lobbyists (Politico) and they're winning	A white dwarf's rotation measured by frame-dragging spacetime (Astronomy) GR passes another test Most detailed  images of Sun's surface (National Solar Observatory) first light of Inouye telescope SN 2006gy A new explanation for superluminous supernovas: colliding stars? (Astronomy) but not everyone agrees the 'old' explanation was pair instability Starts with a Bang comments published paper (Science) a concise 3 pages paywall ------------------- The forbidden Ne transition that allows intermediate-mass stars to die (Physics World) Searching for intermediate black holes in globular clusters (Astrobites) with pulsars?!? The universe's 5 strangest stars? (Astronomy) Betelgeuse, still Betelgeuse: a supernova coming soon? (The Atlantic) it could happen tomorrow -- or not for another 100,000 yrs What we'll see if it does supernova (Starts with a Bang) Neutrinos: a early warning system for a Betelgeuse supernova (Starts with a Bang) a sign of advanced carbon- through silicon- shell burning early warning = 'hours' Betelgeuse is at its dimmest in recorded history (Universe Today) it's down to magnitude 1.5 due to a 9% radius increase ----------------------- What the Sun looked like last year (ESA) an image for every day in 2019 Are binary stars the source of long γ-ray bursts? (Astronomy)	KELT-9b: the hottest exoplanet (NASA) 4700 K, hot enough to break up molecules and hotter than most stars Fast and furious planet formation around red dwarfs (U Central Lancashire) protoplanets form within a few thousand years Why exoplanets come in only 2 flavors (Astronomy) small & rocky or big & gassy a very few super-Earths ET life Why life on other planets will resemble ours? (OneZero) but we've been surprised about exoplanets before a long read How Earth-grazing long-period comets could have brought Earth-life to other stars (Eos)	Do we need to expand cosmology's standard model? (Astrobites) 'we're missing something big (in the early universe)' is the claim and we've no clue what it is published article (Astrophysical Journal) An FRB repeats (AAS Nova) unexpectedly The CMB reveals the exact contact of the universe? (Quanta) relatively unchanged since 2003: dark energy: 71.4% dark matter: 24% normal matter: 4.6% article is short on details, long on assuredness How we can see things 46 Gc-yrs away (Starts with a Bang) even though we live in a 13.8-Gyr-old universe quite unconvincing How far to the edge of the universe? (Starts with a Bang) depends on how 'edge' is defined The Gaia-Enceladus dwarf galaxy added 50 billion Msun to our galaxy ~12 Gyr ago (Earth & Sky) 1st results from Dark Energy Survey (Harvard Smithsonian) cosmic voids occupy most of the universe not a particularly exciting explanation preprints: (arXiv) Mass-light relations and Lensing imprint	dark matter questions IceCube detection of high-energy non-interacting neutrinos is unsettling (Space) and non-Standard- Model The case for hunting for axions (Symmetry) axions solve 2 problems at once -- but maybe they're  just smoke and mirrors? and Looking for axions with black holes and gravitational waves (Astrobites) is black-hole superradiance really a thing? Is self-destructing dark matter causing the diffuse  γ-ray background? (LiveScience) otherwise, why is the the background intensity correlated with dark-matter locations? Who ordered all of that? (CERN) lepton masses & flavors, not to mention broken symmetry ------------------- dark energy questions Modified gravity unnecessary to explain accelerating universe (Starts with a Bang) a closet defense of dark energy a reaction to Massive gravity theory could explain why universe is accelerating (The Guardian) an article that explains virtually nothing Could photons reveal 'massive gravity'? (Live Science) Dark energy skeptics are out-numbered (Inside Science) despite concerns raised ---------------------- black hole questions Black-hole information paradox solved? (Scientific American) or is this just self- advertisement? A tentative gravitational-wave detection of echoes from black-hole formation? (U Waterloo) from the first ns-ns merger event but a skeptic asks Do black holes echo? (BackReaction) ---------------------- future of physics questions The battle for physics: fine tuning vs. naturalness (Symmetry) or What's wrong with Physics? (Scientific American) multiverses,string theory, the anthropic principle -- and a lack of diversity but has no problem with God ----------------------   quantum questions How spooky is quantum mechanics? (Nature) a 165-page paper says the answer is unknowable not yet peer-reviewed Yes, it's possible to test quantum gravity (BackReaction) in practice, not just in principle	democracy dying? What happens when the news is gone (New Yorker) a story centered on Pollocksville,  NC Why world dissatisfaction with democracy is increasing (The Atlantic) it's not just a 'lack of confidence' it's now over 50%, even in the U.S. Anti-democracy in the U.S. (Vox) the Senate; the  Electoral College; partisan gerrymandering; an unamendable US Constitution Mike Pompeo & Willam Barr AG William Barr: Trump's sword and shield (New Yorker) a long read The servility and obsequiousness of Mike Pompeo (New Yorker) are unsurpassed a reminder from last August The incompetent Rex Tillerson is looking better day by day (Washington Post) Mike Pompeo, liar (NPR) and of course the emails support the NPR reporter (Washington Post) --------------------- The case against the Saudis for 9/11 (NY Times) suppressed again by Barr and Trump a very long read 100 seconds to midnight (Vox) we're now the closest ever to Doomsday Why Biden should never be President (The Guardian) corruption makes him a weak candidate impeachment Trump's defense concludes (Vox) the last day The utter ridiculousness of the U.S. Senate (The Atlantic) the world's greatest deliberative body? Day 1 of the Trump defense (Washington Post) Trump did nothing wrong normalizing criminality Day 3 in the Senate (Washington Post) the 5-minute read What happened on Day 2 (Washington Post) the 5-minute read Key takeaways from the 1st day of arguments (Washington Post) what happened, in a 5-minute read The case for and against removing Trump (NY Times) The fight over the impeachment rules, explained (Vox) but the GOP won on every vote Trump's Washington -- and the closing of the Senatorial mind (New Yorker) Chief Justice Rovers reaps what he sowed (Washington Post) the mess in DC The persecution of Donald Trump (NY Times) irony always right, but always wronged Why Trump's lawyers keep attacking Adam Schiff (The Atlantic) it all goes back to the parody ----------------------- local news (Raleigh N&O) Is housing a human right? McDougald Terrace residents are still in hotels in Durham Judge rules too many NC students being left behind orders $8 billion more spending agrees with WestEnd report: NC not meeting constitutional  standards for education No NC budget is a loss for more than teachers & UNC construction affordable housing takes a big hit Astronomy Days: 1/25 - 1/26 at NC Natural Sciences Museum Triangle Restaurant Week: 1/20 - 1/26 9 best new Triangle restaurants of 2019 and best in class for all restaurants NC legislature fined for gerrymandering costs as it should be ------------------------ NY Times endorses Klobuchar and Warren the realist & the radical worth reading for their logic, no what whom your prefer truth Does anyone tell Trump the truth? (The Atlantic) or is the messenger always shot? About those 11 non-casulty casulties (Washington Post) How to stop lying (The Nation) by not having press conferences Erasing history (Washington Post) at the National Archives, of all places? ------------------------- money (Raleigh N&O) UNC bemoans NC budget impasse ironic, given their 'Silent Sam' payout Costs mount for McDougald Terrace residentsforced to move to hotels due to CO contamination but Durham Housing Director got a $15,000 bonus days before the evacuations and economics The battle over Paul Krugman (Washington Post) a microcosm of the partisanship battle? The rich are different from the rest of us (The Atlantic) they pay less in taxes -------------------- Gun crazy in Virginia (Washington Post) Guns and gun control in Virginia (Vox) a majority of counties have declared themselves 2nd-amendment sanctuaries The hypocrisy of college football (The Atlantic) 5 myths about bipartisanship (Washington Post) it's rare, not common books The Crowd and the Cosmos (Science News) celebrating the citizen science in the era of big data a review of the  Chris Lintott book Why we're polarized (Washington Post) the problems are structural (race & economics) and not due to individual leadership choices a review of the Ezra Klein book Why the media is so polarized (Vox) and makes us so, too an excerpt from the above book... a long read The Great Rift (NY Times) Cheney vs. Powell art/museums/trips Sahel: Art and Empires on the shores of the Sahara (Metropolitan Museum) through May 10, 2020 and a review (NY Times) Images of Indiana (The Atlantic) America in pictures (The Guardian) Larry Niehues's  'Nothing Has Changed'	education 75th Kavli Science Journalism awards (Science) mostly unrecognized writers & newspapers Preparing students for the 21st century? Physics is the perfect playground (American Journal of Physics) Why NC teachers are mad about pay (Raleigh N&O) Drop the chalk (Science) despite changes, science teachers are still lecturing A teacher walkout in NC? (Raleigh N&O) illegal, maybe, but morally just over lack of pay raises Judge rules too many NC students being left behind orders $8 billion more spending agrees with WestEnd report: NC not meeting constitutional  standards for education science policy Do we really have a President who thinks the coronavirus is 'good for America'? (NY Times) Is London ready for Orwell? (Washington Post) facial recognition -- with all its faults -- in real time Science conferences: stuck in the dark ages (Wired) exhausting, expensive, & exclusive they need more time for discussion and less for presentation The moral and intellectual decline in academia (James G Martin Center) and Duke is right there at the top Why scientists predict the Wuhan coronavirus will get much worse (Wired) Science ranks grow thin in Trump administration (Washington Post) scientists forced out, sidelined, or muted The top 10 science policy stories to watch for in 2020 (Physics Today) election consequences and climate top the list Vera Rubin gets her own telescope (NY Times) instead of a Nobel Prize? the renamed LSST food science How to make the best fried rice (Science News) according to physics NC astronaut Christian Koch looking forward to salsa and surf (Raleigh N&O) on return The math physics of brewing a better espresso (Ars Technica) use less coffee tops the list Cookies in space? (AP) still uneaten with Christina Hammock Koch other science Metallic hydrogen finally discovered? (Gizmodo) on Earth, that is NASA's Spitzer telescope shuts down on 1/30/2020 (Science News) a look back at its discoveries About that AMS-02 spectrometer that the Space Station astronauts are trying to fix (NASA) what it does... how it works How humans came to the Americas (Smithsonian) has become more controversial a long read Why Neanderthals went extinct (Inverse) 5 theories The coolest physics (Scientific American) quantum behavior in the ultracold what killed the dinosaurs? What didn't kill the dinosaurs (Science News) volcanic gas bursts probably It was the impact (Science) the oceans limited global warming from volcanic CO2 paywall What were dinosaurs for? (NY Books) reviews of 5 books bad science 2019: the return of UFOs (Air & Space) bad tech An unlawful approval of SpaceX's Starlink? (Scientific American) by the FCC bad media Trivializing the Presidential contest (Washington Post) the Warren-Sanders she-said, he-said feud Another day, another media failure?: Iran (The Nation) Iraq redux nothing scares Trump more than informed voters
limited time?  read the most interesting & important stories from  early January 2020:   1)  American Astronomical Society met in Honolulu accounting for the onslaught of discovery announcements, among them: a 2nd neutron-star merger?  (seen by only 1 of 3 gravitational wave detectors, and no light detected) a new and independent measurement of H0 K stars: the Goldilocks ones is dark energy a fantasy? a bright nova in 2083?  mark your calendar a 5th fast radio burst 2) climate change records set for the year and decade effects on migration Australian wildfires 3) is a Betelgeuse supernova imminent? and a gravitational-wave burst nearby? (a false alarm, or if real, the first-ever burst?) 4) avoiding a war with Iran? 5)  bad media sanitizing Trump     &     war-mongering and bad tech destroying truth     &     destroying newspapers 6)  unrest in high-energy physics? or the discovery of something important? 7) NC voter-id is finally settled (well, for the primary)
early January 2020
The continuing fight over Mauna Kea telescopes (Nature) how it could change astronomy How the solar system got divided (U Colorado) terrestrials v. Jovians and why it matters for life on Earth Found: meteorite grains older than the solar system (Astronomy) in the Murchison meteorite published paper (PNAS) Giant blobs at the edges of Earth's core? (Quanta) related to earthquakes? mass extinctions? A biological solution to Mars' methane mystery? (Air & Space) Chang'e 4's year on the Moon (Sky & Telescope) on the far side New evidence for active volcanoes on Venus (Space) Why the length of a day of Venus keeps changing (Astronomy) ok, ok... by just a few minutes A huge debris field from an asteroid hit 0.79 Myr ago (Astronomy) covering 20% of Eastern hemisphere When the Moon lost its magnetic dynamo (MIT) a billion years ago 🔥  yes, there is a  climate crisis 🔥 how we know the planet is warming the big picture The role of the iron ocean in climate (Knowable) 5-part Vox podcast series on climate causes We live in a good place and we're screwing it up with Kate Marvel The climate crisis is an ocean crisis with Ayana Johnson and solutions How to solve climate change with Saul Griffith The geoengineering question with Jane Flagel How to help your city/state pass clean energy policy aka 'Republicans vs. the planet' with Dave Roberts and 5 other climate podcasts (Climate Reality) global warming consequences a slew of records 2019: 2nd hottest year on record (NY Times) 2010s: world's hottest decade on record (Washington Post) last 5 years have been the hottest 5 2019: NC's hottest year ever (Raleigh N&O) says NOAA Warmest oceans in (recorded) history (NY Times) in 2019 published paper (Adv. in Atmospheric Science) --------------------- A 'new Arctic' is here (Scientific American) and not a good one The gathering firestorm in the southern Amazon (Science Advances) can fires flip Amazon from CO2 sink to source by 2050? free at the moment Science News summarizes The climate future (based on models) is bad (Science News) but how bad? New analysis challenges claims of altered fish behavior due to ocean acidification (Science) Plants: becoming the 4th meat? (The Atlantic) despite America not having reached peak meat yet migration effects On hummingbirds (Raleigh N&O) more choosing to stay in NC On monarch butterflies (Washington Post) playing havoc On humans (Review of Environmental and Economics &  Policy) a 2019 review article paywall ---------------------- Why it's so hot in Australia (Vox) ocean circulation, years of drought, global warming How climate change may make Australian wildfires more common (Science News) and more on the Australia wildfires The Americas are prone to catastrophic droughts (Science) the warning from tree rings The sad truth about the 1.5  C target (Vox) it's not attainable and keeping T under 2 C is going to be tough and why 2 C is worse than 1.5 C (Vox) climate politics House Democrats introduce 'CLEAN Future Act' as alternative to Green New Deal (Washington Post) aiming for consensus Boomers can still be climate heroes? (Vox) by power of the vote actually millennials and Gen X-ers have even more votes... the burden is on them! climate solutions America's coal consumption entered free-fall in 2019 (The Atlantic) but the rest of the economy's carbon emissions barely budged and a drop of 18% is not exactly free-fall More details about the U.S.'s 2019 carbon emissions (Rhodium Group) GHG emissions fell by 2.1% in 2019 from 2018 How to build a circular economy that recycles carbon (Vox) part 4 of 4 on carbon capture and utilization Geoengineering by a Space SunShade? (Starts with a Bang) mostly the disadvantages Reducing CO2 emissions is not enough (Physics Today) we need to take out CO2 that's already there 5 energy fights to watch in 2020 (E & E News) RGGI, clean energy, solar, storage, utility regulation paywall Slow Burn (Raleigh N&O) a multi-part series on wood pellets part 1 part 2 part 3 not solutions Oil lobby funds new campaign to promote fracking (Washington Post) it never ends Climate crimes: Imperial Oil (Exxon subsidiary) hid climate research (The Intercept) for decades Australia Australia: committing climate suicide (NY Times) How long will Australia be livable? (The Atlantic) 7 things to know (Vox) including how to help As Australia burns it pushes to emit more carbon (Scientific American) A billion dead animals in Australia? (Vox) due to the wildfires and NO, it's not arson (The Conversation) disinformation by twitter environment Dismantling U.S. national parks (The Guardian) by the Trump admin Trump set to gut water protections (Politico) for half the nation's wetlands and millions of miles of streams 5 environmental stories to follow in the new year (NC Policy Watch) Duke Energy to clean up its coal ash mess (NC Policy Watch) in a legal settlement with NC Dept of Environmental Quality it will take 20 years and cost $7 billion... so who will pay for this? Trump plan would narrow range of projects subject to environmental review (NY Times) and climate change could be ignored in planning infrastructure (How to) Get the Sustainable Development Goals back on track (Nature) and the 17 SDGs (United Nations) just in case you've forgotten A new danger threatens uranium nuclear waste disposal (Chemistry World) it becomes more soluble underground	4 new dust- shrouded objects near the Milky Way's SMBH (UCLA) merged binary stars? Gravitational wave burst detected near Betelgeuse (Earth & Sky) coincidence? LIGO mum, of course More Betelgeuse death rumors (The Conversation) and if Betelgeuse were to explode... (Science 2.0) gravitational waves come first, then neutrinos, then light The universe's first molecule (Scientific American, February  2019 issue) found:  HeH+ paywall Modeling vibration modes in stellar interiors (Harvard Smithsonian) new ns-ns merger probably 2nd ns-ns merger (Caltech @AAS) seen only by ½ of LIGO -  and not Virgo --  and no detection of light this time which means locality is hard to pin down GW190425: 'heaviest binary neutron star system ever seen' (LIGO) total mass = 3.4 Msun press release (LIGO) submitted-for- publication paper (LIGO) or is this a discovery of primordial black holes? (Scientific American) unlikely, say others ----------------------- V Sagittae, an in-spiraling binary, will light up the night sky (LSU @AAS) in 2083 (+ 16 yrs) it will be as bright as Sirius for ~ 1 month Earth & Sky comments MNRAS preprint A look into Cas A's past (Astrobites) from the discovery of a pre-explosion knot	A (candidate) 2nd planet around Proxima Centauri (Sky & Telescope) the details (Science Advances) free for the moment The death spiral of WASP-12b (Princeton U @AAS) in ~ 3 Myr TESS finds its first habitable Earth-s ized (1.2 Rearth) exoplanet (NASA @AAS) TOI700b orbits an M dwarf in 10 days and has at least 2 other planets (larger in size and farther from the star) in its system -- mass unknown, but probably rocky joining a handful or 2 of other known habitable- zone Earth-sized planets 'Cotton candy' in space: the ~15 super-puffy exoplanets (Earth & Sky) the size of Jupiter, but Earth-like in mass A new method for detection oxygen on exoplanets (UC - Riverside) based on O2-O2 collisions but it will have to wait for James Webb Space Telescope NEID -- new instrument cuts minimum radial velocity detectable (NASA JPL @AAS) to 1 foot/sec -- will lead to smaller- mass planets ET & origin of life Is biology best? (Scientific American) or is AI the dominant mode of life in the galaxy? or Alone in a Crowded Milky Way (Scientific American, January 2020 issue) even in a star- hopping galaxy teeming with alien civilizations,  isolated, unvisited planets should exist paywall Warm K stars are the Goldilocks places -- the best places to look for ET life (NASA @AAS) they have longer lifetimes than Gs, less X-radiation than Ms, although smaller habitable zone ranges than Gs Earth & Sky comments   Are we looking for ET life in the wrong places? (The Conversation) and in the wrong ways A carbonate-rich lake solution to the phosphate problem of the origin of life (Air and Space) if so, we should be searching for life on lake worlds (e.g., Mars) and not lake worlds (e.g., Europa) Earth & Sky comments published paper (PNAS) Looking for first life on Greenland (Science News) claims and counterclaims	New Hubble data strengthens H0 tension (NASA @AAS) new, independent method uses quasars: H0 = 73 + 1.8  km/s/Mpc but only 10 quasars Sky & Telescope comments Hubble sees smallest clumps of dark matter (NASA @AAS) 10-4 - 10-5 mass of Milky Way's dark matter and definitive 'proof' of CDM model of universe? (Universe Today) Impending Milky Way collision with LMC/SMC is birthing new stars (Simons Foundation @AAS) can they shed light of whether the Milky Way and LMC/SMC collided long ago? afterthoughts from Starts with a Bang A circum-galactic ring (Astronomy) the result of a collision with another galaxy? M87's SMBH jet'a ejection velocity: > 0.99 c (Chandra @AAS) 2 SMBHs caught in galactic merger (NRAO) Not all FRBs are created equal (Nature @AAS) do repeaters and non-repeaters come from different environments? 1000 more by year's end? The largest gaseous structure in the Milky Way (Harvard U) is made of interconnected stellar nurseries with a 47-minute presentation: The Rise of the Milky Way A new IR map of the Milky Way (Caltech @AAS) highlighting the distribution of gas and dust (s)MBHs in dwarf galaxies (NRAO @AAS) but not always at the center Sky & Telescope comments The fate of the universe (Aeon) rests on the Hubble constant's value a history of H0 emerging from the Dark Ages A cluster of galaxies illuminates the dark ages (Nature) its star formation began 370 Myr A.B. XLSSC at z = 12 'Furthest galaxy group' identified (NASA @AAS) uh, apparently not; see the Nature post just above EGS77 at z = 7.7 The EGS77 galaxies are blowing giant ionized bubbles (Science News @AAS) so what's producing the radiation that's starting the universe's reionization? Astronomy comments preprint submitted for publication (arXiv) ---------------------- Cosmological tests of General Relativity (Knowable) a summary of a longer published article (Annual Review of Astronomy & Astrophysics) paywall	A violation of lepton universality? (CERN) in decay of B baryons a crack in the Standard Model?   New evidence claiming dark-energy assumptions are in error (Yonsei U  @AAS) see last month for initial evidence but why some find fault with claim (Gizmodo) including Duke's Dan Scolnic it ignores majority of SN at intermediate distances: a cherry-picked sample? physics foundations Why the foundations of physics have not progressed in 40 (50?) years (Institute of Arts and Ideas) Hossenfelder slams 'unthoughtful' physicists Not Even Wrong piles on 'HEP theory has become dysfunctional' why and worse, look at what's being taught in physics grad school Musings on the state of High- Energy Physics (arXiv) "a shrinking branch of physics"... "a change in HEP priorities ... is likely" and let's stop the "non-empirically-confirmed" nonsense The Higgs, super-symmetry, & all that (CERN Courier) John Ellis seems to have a different opinion but then he's a string guy ------------------------ Another black-hole paradox, debunked (Starts with a Bang) does it take infinite time for infalling matter to increase a black hole's mass? What's the proton's lifetime? (Starts with a Bang) maybe it depends on whether the proton is 'free' or not? Brookhaven wins out over Jefferson for next big B$ nuclear collider (Science) to study structure of the proton Ice Cube neutrino observatory gets sensitivity upgrade (Symmetry) The triple slit experiment (Scientific American, January 2020 issue) opens new doors temporarily free Build a quantum internet -- in space (MIT Tech Review) Will AI take over? (The Conversation) quantum theory suggests otherwise Can AI see in higher dimensions? (Quanta)	"They started it" (Slate) what rules Mitch McConnell MBZ - the UAE ruler who has power only because his country has oil beneath it (NY Times) another accident of geography a very very long read Another day, another Dem debate what we learned Vox Washington Post Politico NY Times ------------------------- weapons The Space Force (The Atlantic) A need for speed (Science) fueling a hypersonic U.S.-China-Russia arms race do scientists working on this have a conscience? Iran Trump's explanation (Washington Post) 5 takeaways but Trump admin still can't get its explanation for the assassination straight (Vox) 10 days later, 5 explanations What a real Iran strategy would look like (Washington Post) When did it become acceptable to kill a top leader of another country? (Washington Post) that we aren't even at war with Pompeo: Trump doesn't want to bomb Iranian cultural sites; Trump: Yes, I do. (Vox) can anyone in this administration tell the truth? Operation Backfire (Washington Post) so much for ending 'endless wars' The price for killing Soleimani (The Atlantic) The case for killing Soleimani (Vox) A bizarre idea of winning (NY Times) Iran becomes a potential nuclear threat; more U.S. troops sent abroad; war on ISIS on hold; Iran's regime regains popularity; and more How Iran could use cyber and drone technology to attack the U.S. (Scientific American) ------------------------- Georgia has the newest Senator (538) pro-2nd Amendment, pro-military, pro-Trump, pro-wall and spending 20 M$ of her own fortune to get herself 're-elected' NC politics 5 goals for NC in 2020 (Raleigh N&O) expand Medicaid; increase teacher pay; address climate change; address rural-urban divide; restructure BoG 5 ways to make NC better in a decade (NC Policy Watch) raise minimum wage; early childhood education everywhere: health care for everyone (expand Medicare); access to decent and affordable housing; sound, basic K-12 education A new year, and NC still has no budget (Raleigh N&O) NC voter-id law How to vote in NC (Raleigh N&O) when, where, & how Fact check: voter-ID and voter fraud (Raleigh N&O) Voter-ID ruling just the latest twist and turn in big NC election year (Carolina Public Press) NC Attorney General will appeal voter-id block for November election (Raleigh N&O) but will let block stand for March primary Judge: NC voter-ID law written with discriminatory intent (Raleigh N&O) on why the temporary hold on the NC voter-id law the 60-page ruling Right-wing Judicial  Watch threatens 2 NC counties over 'excess' voter registrations (Carolina Public Press) GOP never gives up on trying to interfere with voting books A Very Stable Genius (Washington Post) not according to these authors e.g., Trump knew virtually nothing about Pearl Harbor, among so many other things another review (The Guardian) always the question: 'Why haven't you shut down the border?' Crazy economics (Nature) basing public policy on untested ideas reviews of 3 books The cookbooks you need for 2020 (NY Times) selected by chefs Imagined Life (Smithsonian) more on the 'Where are they?' debate Wilmington's Lie (Indy Week) white supremacists coup in Wilmington in 1898 by Pulitzer Prize winner David Zucchino and another review (Raleigh N&O) art/trips/museums Australia's bush fires in photos (The Atlantic) Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, and Mexican Modernism exhibit extended to 1/26/2020 (NC Art Museum) Indy Week review Raleigh N&O review but it's dwarfed by The biggest recent U.S. exhibit on Mexican Modernism (Philadelphia Museum of Art) happened in 2016-2017 52 places to go in 2020 (NY Times) images of the Equality State (The Atlantic) aka Wyoming Iranian cultural treasures to visit before Trump bombs them (The Guardian) 10 sites Book towns as vacation stops (Smithsonian) on why you should go to Hay-on-Rye The biggest art exhibits in 2020 (Art Newspaper) Raphael, Van Eyck, Christo, Richter, Nero, and the Olmecs Skip the Vatican Museum... go to the National Museum of Qatar instead (NY Times)	No raise for you, NC teachers (Raleigh N&O) legislature fails to override budget veto; then votes to go home until spring Stick to science? (Science) not when science has become politicized Astrobites @AAS in Honolulu Day 4: 1/8 stellar mass changes; future of Mauna Kea; new H0 from quasars; dark matter; Goldilocks stars; IR astronomy; M87 SMBH imaging; dwarf galaxies;  New Horizons at 2014 MU69 see columns to the left for details Day 3: 1/7 ingredients for a habitable planet: Milky Way inside & out; FRBs; galaxy evolution: gyrochronology see columns to the left for details Day 2: 1/6 feedback on galactic evolution; transient events; M87's jet velocity; exoplanet news; V Sge, a nova-to-be; Milky Way anatomy; Maunaea's legacy; kilonovae (aka merging neutron stars) see columns to the left for details Day 1: 1/5 black holes & tidal disruption; SMBHs in galaxies; Polynesian navigation; Li-Be-B abundances see columns to the left for details ----------------- science education The best new STEM toys from the Consumer Electronics Show (Wired) Dream of a more science-savvy Congress refuses to die (Physics Today) Astronomy Education, Vol I (AAS - IOP) evidence-based instruction for intro astro courses paywall downloadable with Duke proxy NC education NC needs more workers with post-high school degrees (Raleigh N&O) a 25-M$ grant will help train poor disadvantaged youth will it help enough? Are thousands of 3rd-graders in Wake Co being improperly promoted? (Raleigh N&O) state superintendent says 'yes'; schools say 'no' Students will take 1 fewer American History class -- in exchange for a new required class on personal finance (Raleigh N&O) but state education officials say "NC students will not learn less American History" seems like that violates a conservation law Daily Tar Heel sues UNC over Silent Sam affair (Raleigh N&O) NC GOP touts "strides in education" (Raleigh N&O) but 300-page report says otherwise... says it's a result of  a lack of sufficient funding Are charter schools partly responsible for re-segregation of NC schools? (Raleigh N&O) ---------------------- science Did the extinction of ice-age mammals trigger the rise of civilization? (The Conversation) Lead author of pro-red-meat study belatedly admits partial funding by beef industry (Washington Post) Annals of Internal Medicine posts a correction What you need to go with your new telescope (Sky & Telescope) science to come in the 2020(s) The biggest climate questions for the coming decade (Scientific American) 10 celestial events to watch for in 2020 (Smithsonian) 5 environmental stories to follow in the new year (NC Policy Watch) 5 energy fights to watch in 2020 (E & E News) RGGI, clean energy, solar, storage, utility regulation paywall Physics in the 2020s (Physics World) what will happen in the decade ahead The science events to watch for in 2020 (Nature) What's ahead for science in 2020 (Science News) Science stories likely to make headlines in 2020 (Science) 2020 Astronomy and Space events (NY Times) Space missions to watch in 2020 (Sky & Telescope) ----------------------- The simple truth about physics (Scientific American) theoretical models can be complex --  but the most successful usually aren't The materials that stay cool in direct sunlight (Nature) bad tech sadly, always here Lawmakers of both parties (finally) realize Fbook and Google are at fault for destroying local newspapers (NY Times) why did it take so long? and a possible solution? does truth matter? Big Tech gives politicians a license to lie (NY Times) apparently it's perfectly fine to lie, harass, & manipulate on-line -- as long as you're an elected official Amazon threatens workers for speaking out on climate (The Guardian) ----------------------- Musk's inadequate sop to astronomy (Nature) DarkSat... big deal not Scooter injuries to millennials triple in 1 year (The Guardian) evolution in action? Electric scooter injuries up 222% in 4 years in the U.S. (Science News) 8 remarkably unneeded gadgets from the CE Show (Smithsonian) a Segway lounge chair, a bicycle that rides on water, and more Only you can prevent dystopia (NY Times) how to survive the internet in 2020 and it's not going to be easy Will we survive the surveillance apocalypse? (Washington Post) only if we demand it bad media  How the media sanitizes Trump's lies (Vox) shame on you, NPR! Flood the zone with  shit (Vox) Trump, Bannon, and misinformation No one believes anything (NY Times) voters are worn aout by a fog of political news the warmongers are back Once again, major media spotlight pro-war politicians (Washington Post) where are the interviews with those who voted 'no' on the 2003 Iraq war? Hurtling toward catastrophe (On the Media 1-hr podcast) War propaganda (Current Affairs) it's everywhere, not just Fox News and how to avoid swallowing it Pro-assassination pundits are on the payroll of dense contractors (The Intercept) paid shills for the war industry but they never say so
looking for the best 10 lists of the year (or decade) ?
	limited time?  read the most interesting & important stories from  late December 2019:   coming soon!