That room must have been lovely to see!
Gassho
Sat today, lah
Gassho
Sat today, lah
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求道芸化 Kyūdō Geika
I am just a priest-in-training, please do not take anything I say as a teaching. -
But the planet has some negatives against life too ...Water detected on potentially 'habitable' exoplanet for first time, scientists say
Scientists have detected water vapor in the atmosphere of a “super-Earth” exoplanet with potentially habitable temperatures. The discovery, which is being touted as a milestone, could have major implications in the search for life outside the solar system.
Experts from University College London identified water vapor in the atmosphere of K2-18b, which is 110 light-years from Earth. A light-year, which measures distance in space, equals a little less than 6 trillion miles.
“K2-18b, which is eight times the mass of Earth, is now the only planet orbiting a star outside the solar system, or ‘exoplanet,’ known to have both water and temperatures that could support life,” researchers said in a statement.
A study detailing the research is published in the journal Nature Astronomy.
Gassho, JHowever, K2-18 b's large atmosphere is extremely thick and creates high-pressure conditions, which "likely prevents life as we know it from existing on the planet's surface," a news release reads.
So, while Benneke does not rule out the possibility that this exoplanet could, in theory, support some sort of life, there is "certainly not some animal crawling around on this planet," Benneke said. This is especially true, given the fact that "there is nothing to crawl on," because the planet doesn't really have a surface, he added.
https://www.livescience.com/first-ex...tmosphere.html
STLahALL OF LIFE IS OUR TEMPLEComment
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Thanks for this link Jundo. So much advancement in the science of exoplanets.
I think somewhere on this thread I already mentioned my fascination with astronomy and especially the research and discovery of exoplanets. If I were a young person I'd become an astronomer with that as my specialty. But instead I'm an old artist. Art exists in its own alien world I have to admit.
Over the last 4 or so years I've enrolled in classes offered by COURSERA...astronomy, Astro physics and many fascinating earth sciences. Right now I am taking a class in astrobiology. These classes are free, taught by experts in their field (a class on the solar system is taught by professor Brown, who demoted Pluto). So just a heads up !
Gassho
Anne
~lahst~Comment
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CONGRATULATIONS! We're 2.3 Billion Years Younger!
Gassho, JThe universe may be billions of years younger than we thought
New calculations point to an age of 11.4 billion years rather than the generally accepted number of 13.7 billion years.
The huge swings in scientists' estimates — even this new calculation could be off by billions of years — reflect different approaches to the tricky problem of figuring the universe's real age.
"We have large uncertainty for how the stars are moving in the galaxy," said Inh Jee, of the Max Plank Institute in Germany, lead author of the study in Thursday's journal Science .
Scientists estimate the age of the universe by using the movement of stars to measure how fast it is expanding. If the universe is expanding faster, that means it got to its current size more quickly, and therefore must be relatively younger.
https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science...ht-ncna1053231
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Missing Link Between Simple Cells and Complex Life-Forms Possibly Found
Scientists may have unearthed a missing link between simple and complex cells, which make up all animals, plants and fungi.
Scientists consider single-celled organisms called Archaea to lie between primitive bacteria, that lack a nucleus, and more complex cells, or eukaryotes, on the evolutionary timeline. Like their bacterial cousins, Archaea lack a nucleus, but the microbes contain DNA and DNA-replicating enzymes that closely resemble those in eukaryotes.
Some scientists theorize that eukaryotes evolved about 2 billion years ago from these intermediate organisms, when an ancient archaea grabbed a passing microorganism, sucked it into its cellular belly, and transformed it into a makeshift nucleus. Others suggest that an ancestral archaea sent out wandering "blebs," built from its own cell wall, that latched onto and then integrated helpful single-celled organisms that functioned like modern-day organelles, or the organ-like structures inside cells that perform specialized functions.
The details surrounding this major evolutionary event remain murky, partially because scientists have found little evidence of the transition period between simple and complex cells. But now, researchers have pinpointed a potential bridge between prokaryotes and eukaryotes: a striking similarity encoded in their proteins.
Gassho, J
STLahALL OF LIFE IS OUR TEMPLEComment
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Interesting, thank you.
I was always fascinated by the livings, that were classified as slime molds (Mycetozoa) in the past.
Now the different groups are seen separate (and not as molds, too).
Something like a next step, the link between single and multi cell organisms, imho
Dictyostelia for instance are living part of their life as single-celled amebas (amoebae?) and unite under certain conditions to a pseudoplasmoid,
a temporary multi-cell organism, that moves like a snail.
Reaching the right place, some develop into a stem, some into a sorus with spores.
Gassho,
Kotei sat/lah today.
Missing Link Between Simple Cells and Complex Life-Forms Possibly Found
Gassho, J
STLahLast edited by Kotei; 09-19-2019, 01:48 PM.義道 冴庭 / Gidō Kotei.Comment
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Tsukuba's Mad Scientist makes the CNN robot news ...
Yes, as mentioned before in this thread: "Cyberdyne" ... the company that built the Terminator ... and "HAL" ... the uncontrollable computer from 2001, the film ...Diagnosed in October 2018 with Guillain Barre syndrome, a rare disorder that affects the body's nervous system, she never expected to walk again. But earlier that year, the Brooks Cybernic Treatment Center in Jacksonville, Florida, became the first US center to use a unique rehabilitative technology developed in Japan -- the Hybrid Assistive Limb (HAL). HAL -- essentially a wearable cyborg -- helps those with spinal cord injuries and muscular dystrophy regain their movements and strengthen their nerves and muscles. Known as exoskeletons, they're a type of lightweight suit, with joints powered by small electric motors, that serve as mechanical muscle.
Here's what's truly mind-blowing: Patients use their brain waves to control them.
...
The brain behind HAL is bespectacled billionaire roboticist Sankai. He heads up Japanese company Cyberdyne -- founded in 2004 -- where his vision has been to create these "wearable cyborgs" designed to "fuse man, machine and information."
And while the name of Sankai's firm might recall the scary Cyberdyne Technologies that created villainous robots in US science-fiction blockbuster "Terminator," the Japanese roboticist wants to create tech not for war, but for peace and rehabilitation. When Sankai was a 9-year-old in the 1960s, he discovered "I, Robot" by science fiction writer Isaac Asimov and became entranced by the positive applications of technology. He decided to pursue engineering at the University of Tsukuba in Japan.
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/09/18/h...ign=sciencebin
A little more about Cyberdyne corp., a short 5 minute drive from Tsukuba Zendo ...
Gassho, J
STLahLast edited by Jundo; 09-19-2019, 09:05 PM.ALL OF LIFE IS OUR TEMPLEComment
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Haha Nikos good job fooling the technology! Love it[emoji120]Originally posted by NikosHey everyone! Something interesting happen to me that I would like to share with you.
Two weeks ago I bought one of those fitness bands that record your workout routine and your heart bits (and using your heart bits it can estimate when you sleep). Now, the funny thing is that today, and the Saturday before, it recorded maybe an hour of sleep during my sit with the weekly Zazenkai! Keep in mind that nothing similar happens when I read a book or watch TV. And I promise, I wasn’t sleeping..!
Anyway, I thought it’s interesting because it shows that Zazen has some actual physical results on our bodies, and everyone can measure it for himself/herself!
Gassho
Sat
Gassho
Jakuden
SatToday/LAH
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk ProComment
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Hmmm.
NASA chief scientist says 'we're close' to making announcements about life on Mars
In a startling interview, NASA's Planetary Science Division director Jim Green, Ph.D., has said the space agency is close to "making some announcements" about finding life on Mars — but that we're not ready for it.
“It will be revolutionary,” Green said in an interview with The Telegraph. “It’s like when Copernicus stated ‘no we go around the Sun.' Completely revolutionary. It will start a whole new line of thinking. I don’t think we’re prepared for the results. We’re not."
He added that he's worried because he believes NASA is close to finding life and making an announcement about it but wonders what will happen afterward.
“What happens next is a whole new set of scientific questions," Green continued. "Is that life like us? How are we related? Can life move from planet to planet or do we have a spark and just the right environment and that spark generates life -- like us or not like us -- based on the chemical environment that it is in?”
Gassho, J
STLah
ALL OF LIFE IS OUR TEMPLEComment
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I have always been ready for and expecting the news, even when I was a kid and Catholic and fairly religious... Most people I hear talk about aren't that surprised, either. I don't know why people think it will tear the fabric of society apart.
I'm exaggerating, but come on! We can take it.
Gassho
Sat today, lah求道芸化 Kyūdō Geika
I am just a priest-in-training, please do not take anything I say as a teaching.Comment
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All is was and will be connected and interflowing ...
Astronomers discover strands of the cosmic web that held the early universe together
The structure of the early universe looked similar to a spiderweb holding everything together, according to a new study.
Astronomers used multiple telescopes to observe glowing filaments of gas acting like the strands connecting galaxies in a massive web. They were discovered in a proto-cluster of galaxies, or a group of galaxies forming a cluster, 12 billion light-years away in the Aquarius constellation. The cluster is known as SSA22.
Given its distance from us, that makes the cluster a structure from a time when the universe was much younger. Clusters can be filled with hundreds or even thousands of galaxies.
Previously, astronomers believed that galaxies formed and pulled themselves into cluster structures. Now, astronomers believe that gas filaments led to the creation of galaxy clusters. This also allowed galaxies to form in areas where filaments crossed. These galactic crossroads also created dense areas of matter.
When astronomers looked at where the gigantic filaments crossed, they found the supermassive black holes that act as engines of galaxies. They also spied galaxies that were actively forming stars. The galaxies are fed by streams of cooling gas at these crossroads.
The Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer instrument on the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope helped the astronomers detect Lyman alpha radiation. This is ultraviolet light that is created by energized hydrogen gas that is irradiated by the galaxies in the cluster. They were able to pick out the faint filament wisps because they were energized by the bright light being thrown off by the galaxies creating stars.
Their findings published last week in the journal Science.
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The long filaments can extend for more than a million parsecs. A parsec is about 3.26 light-years.ALL OF LIFE IS OUR TEMPLEComment
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Brussels sprouts are good for you ...
... and a little space meat to go with the sprouts ...'Cosmic Mudball Meteorite' Smells Like Brussels Sprouts, ... resembles a malodorous mud brick, but it holds important clues about the origins of life on Earth.
It looks like a block of mud and smells (some say) like pungent vegetables. Nonetheless, the latest addition to the collection at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago is a wondrous thing — a visitor from across the cosmos that fell to Earth earlier this year as a meteorite.
This piece of the so-called cosmic mudball meteorite — dubbed Aguas Zarcas, for the region of Costa Rica where it landed — weighs about 4 lbs. (1.8 kilograms). Unlike many rocky or metallic meteorites, it has a distinctive aroma that is somewhat like that of cooked Brussels sprouts, Field Museum representatives said in a statement.
This odor comes from organic compounds such as amino acids. Billions of years ago, malodorous meteorites like this were likely what seeded Earth with the building blocks for life ...
Approximately 50,000 meteorites have been detected on Earth. Of that number, 99.8% come from asteroids; the rest are rocks blasted off Mars and our moon by meteor collisions, NASA says. There are three main types of meteorites: Either they're mostly iron, mostly stony or a mix of stone and metal in nearly equal quantities, according to NASA.
The mudball is a type of stony meteorite known as a carbonaceous chondrite; these make up only about 4% of all meteorites that reach Earth, said Philipp Heck, the Robert A. Pritzker Associate Curator of Meteoritics and Polar Studies at the Field Museum. They're an unusually rare type, because in most parent asteroids, intense heating over time changes the asteroid's chemistry and destroys amino acids ...
What lends the mudball its Brussels sprout scent? "We smell the organic volatile compounds that leave the meteorite," Heck explained. "Different meteorites have different volatile inventories, mainly because they were 'cooked' to different degrees for different amounts of time on their parent asteroids. That causes them to smell differently."
https://www.livescience.com/mudball-...s-sprouts.html
Yummy! And since it is from Israel, maybe it is Kosher too?Meat Grown in Space for the First Time Ever
For the first time ever, meat was created in space — but no animals were harmed in the making of this 3D bioprinted "space beef."
Aleph Farms, an Israeli food company, announced today (Oct. 7) that its experiment aboard the International Space Station resulted in the first-ever lab-grown meat in space. The company focuses on growing cultivated beef steaks, or growing an entire piece of real, edible meat out of just a couple of cells, in this case, bovine cell spheroids, in a lab. ... The experiment took place inside of a 3D bioprinter developed by 3D Bioprinting Solutions. Bioprinting is a process in which biomaterials, like animal cells, are mixed with growth factors and the material "bioink," and "printed" into a layered structure. In this case, the resulting structure is a piece of muscle tissue.
The "3D bioprinter is equipped with a magnetic force which aggregated the cells into one small-scaled tissue, which is what meat is constructed by," Yoav Reisler, an external relations manager at Aleph Farms, told Space.com in an email.
But, while 3D bioprinting has been used and tested on Earth for things like producing cartilage tissue, it works a little differently in space. "Maturing of bioprinted organs and tissues in zero gravity proceeds much faster than in Earth gravity conditions. The tissue is being printed from all sides simultaneously, like making a snowball, while most other bioprinters create it layer by layer. ... The company aims to build upon the success of this proof of concept experiment and, within a few years or so, make cultivated beef steaks available on Earth through "bio-farms" where they will grow this meat, Reisler added.
Gassho, J
STLahALL OF LIFE IS OUR TEMPLEComment
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Gassho, JNew fossil treasure trove shows what happened for a million years after the dinosaurs went extinct
... When searching for dinosaur fossils, paleontologists know that there is a certain layer in the Earth where the fossils disappear. That layer marks when an asteroid slammed into Earth 66 million years ago, causing dinosaurs to go extinct and wiping out more than 75% of species. What happened after the mass extinction event, including how quickly plant and animal life bounced back and what those creatures were -- outside of birds -- has remained murky. That is, until Denver Museum of Nature & Science volunteer Sharon Milito picked up an egg-shaped rock called a concretion at Corral Bluffs in Colorado.
... For the first time, the researchers were able to establish animals, plants, temperatures and a timeline of when they occurred, providing an overview of the first million years after the mass extinction event to see how the entire ecosystem recovered.
"We documented changes in the landscape after the impact, from a world dominated by palms to a world dominated by a more diverse group of trees," Miller said. "And then we saw the animal species change in lockstep fashion. And then we lined that up with changes in the environment, temperature. It turns out we really were able to paint a picture of the emergence of our modern world -- and that's phenomenal."
... For the first thousand years after the impact, small rat-like mammals lived among ferns at the site. Around 100,000 years later, the mammal population doubled and they grew to reach the size of the average, modern raccoon. Interestingly, this is the size of the mammals living at the site just before the asteroid impact, according to the Science article published along with the study.
Palm trees replaced the ferns and 200,000 years after the impact, mammal diversity spiked again and the rat-like mammals reached the size of a beaver. They feasted on plants similar to walnuts.
And 700,000 years after the devastation, pea pods representing the arrival of legumes appear, providing protein to the growing mammal surge, both in population and size. These mammals, like the Eoconodon, could reach the size of a large dog. Forests had also recovered.
Researchers uncovered a fossil timeline of the first million years after the dinosaurs went extinct in
Corral Blus. As seen in these fossils, the mammals grew larger over time. These four mammal skulls
represent Loxolophus, Carsioptychus, Taeniolabis and Eoconodon (left to right)
STLahALL OF LIFE IS OUR TEMPLEComment
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Jundo - this is a formal request to change my dharma name to Carsioptychus
Gassho
Carsiotypchus: the troublemaker formally known as Risho
-satlahEmail: risho.treeleaf@gmail.comComment
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