Daily Archives: December 7, 2021

Blast off to a beverage adventure with Samuel Adams Space Craft IPA – FoodSided

Posted: December 7, 2021 at 5:51 am

As rocket after rocket seems to blast off from the launch pad, there are plenty of reasons to toast to infinity and beyond. With the Samuel Adams Space Craft IPA, this special beer offering could offer a glimpse into the future of beer. Is there a new hoppy harvest waiting to give rise to a more robust brew?

Recently the iconic Boston beer brand debuted Samuel Adams Space Craft IPA. Made with hops that were part of the first ever all-civilian space mission, the 66 pounds of Citra and Mosaic hops are the heart of the West Coast-style IPA.

While this offering is a limited release for Samuel Adams, the flavors are a bold step forward for the brand. The tropical forward flavors of grapefruit, guava and passionfruit highlight the hoppy flavors.

Like the mystery that space holds, this beer offering invites drinkers to explore brewerys creativity. Even if that traditional lager is always a pour away, sometimes that touch of what is possible brewers a great appreciation for the classic.

Many brewers are always looking for a way to set themselves apart both on the shelf and in the taproom. While there is craft and art to making the perfect brew, the ingredients are the starting point.

While there is buzz surrounding the Samuel Adams Space Craft IPA, it isnt the only beer that has used space hops. Budweiser tested this idea many years ago. That brands experiment was a forward-looking idea about how to accomplish enjoying and creating beer in space. Given that space travel seems to be likely for more people than just select astronauts, it seems logical that people might want a refreshing beverage to toast that journey.

Even before that Ninkasi Brewing Company used yeast that had been to the celestial heavens. The Ground Control Imperial Stout had many people talking all those years ago and the conversation hasnt waned.

Many breweries use space as a theme for their earthy creations. From Elysian Brewings Space Dust to Playalindas Robonaut Red, there are plenty of spacey-beers to enjoy. Whether it is peoples fascination with the great unknown or just a creative name, these beers entice people to grab a can or two from the shelf.

As another rocket blasts off from the launch pad, crack open a space-themed beer. It might not be one small step for man, but it is a sip of refreshment that everyone can appreciate.

Original post:

Blast off to a beverage adventure with Samuel Adams Space Craft IPA - FoodSided

Posted in Space Travel | Comments Off on Blast off to a beverage adventure with Samuel Adams Space Craft IPA – FoodSided

BACK TO EARTH: What Life in Space Taught Me About Our Home Planet and Our Mission to Protect It by Nicole Stott book review – Geographical

Posted: at 5:51 am

Very few of us will ever get to venture into space, but for those who do it is not just a dream come true, a scientific pursuit, or a step for mankind it is also a profound experience, and one that can in some small way, be passed on to those below. We have known this ever since astronaut William Anders took his famous Earthrise photo on 24 December 1968. Said to have played a huge part in galvanizing the environmental movement, it suggests that there is something about looking down at the planet that inspires us to protect it.Nicole Stotts book, Back to Earth, is very much in this vein. Now with her feet firmly on the ground, the retired astronaut, who undertook two spaceflights and spent 104 days living and working in space as a crew member on both the International Space Station (ISS) and the Space Shuttle, dedicates much of her time to passing on the lessons she learned. These lessons are largely drawn from the extraordinary international cooperation that the ISS represents, where, since 2000, 15 countries have peacefully worked together. It is, says Stott, a model for how we should be living and working together as the crew of Spaceship Earth.Rather than strict commandments, each chapter loosely highlights a particular way of being, taken from life in space including act like everything is local and never underestimate the importance of bugs. Theres no hint of preachiness and, in fact, the bulk of the narrative is taken up with fascinating stories of Stott and others time spent in space sure to please anyone who wishes more than anything they could experience it themselves.Stotts ways of being really boil down to being respectful of your environment. On the ISS, this is essential to ensure the survival of the crew. But, of course, its a good analogy the same applies to the planet as a whole. This is then both a manifesto and a memoir, fascinating for anyone interested in space travel, environmentalism or ideally, both.

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR MONTHLY PRINT MAGAZINE!Subscribe to Geographicaltoday for just 38 a year. Our monthly print magazine is packed full of cutting-edge stories and stunning photography, perfect for anyone fascinated by the world, its landscapes, people and cultures. From climate change and the environment, to scientific developments and global health, we cover a huge range of topics that span the globe. Plus, every issue includes book recommendations, infographics, maps and more!

See more here:

BACK TO EARTH: What Life in Space Taught Me About Our Home Planet and Our Mission to Protect It by Nicole Stott book review - Geographical

Posted in Space Travel | Comments Off on BACK TO EARTH: What Life in Space Taught Me About Our Home Planet and Our Mission to Protect It by Nicole Stott book review – Geographical

How to Access the Dark Web Complete Guide? – The Bulletin Time

Posted: at 5:49 am

How to Access the Dark Web Complete Guide?

The dark web can be considered as Area-51 of the internet. Not everyone knows about its existence. It is dangerous, full of controversies, and requires special efforts to locate and enter into it.

It is a black market for criminals that gather there away from the eyes of the law to conduct various dirty businesses. While generally, it is a bad place, it can also become a good place to visit on very rare occasions.

One of the ways to access the dark web is by using a Tor browser. One of the main reasons for using the dark web is to obtain anonymity. Unfortunately, with just the Tor browser, that is not possible.

It means that without a proper security and privacy tool such as a virtual private network, your internet service provider may see what you are doing over the internet.

Not just any virtual private network would do the job for you. Youd specifically need one of the most secure and fastest VPN providers in the world to quickly and securely navigate alleys of the dark web.

Lets take a look at the steps for accessing the dark web.

Step 1: Subscribe to a reliable virtual private network.

Make sure that the VPN provider you select for this job offers robust security and encryption features such as military-grade AES-256-Bit encryption and internet kill switch.

Step 2: Download and install the VPN application on your device.

Top-tier VPN providers offer compatible VPN applications for various devices and operating systems. You can install your desired application from the official VPN provider website.

Step 3: Log in to the application and connect to a VPN server.

Using the login details provided by the VPN provider, log into the VPN application and then connect to the closest VPN server from your actual location to get the fastest connection speeds.

Step 4: Download Tor

Download Tor from their official website download center. Currently, they offer applications for Windows, Mac, Android, and Linux.

Step 5: Install Tor

Launch the downloaded installation file. It will ask you for your preferred installation language. Pick on and complete the whole installation process.

Step 6: Connect/Configure Tor

Once Tor is fully installed, you will be presented with two options, i.e., to Connect or Configure. If you are using a restricted network such as an office, hospital, school, bank, library, or any other place, then Tor will confirm if it is censored in that location.

On the other hand, if you are not present in any restricted network environment, you can simply click on Connect and start using the Tor browser.

Now that you know how to access the dark web, we thought to share some beneficial resources with you.

Even though we have said that these resources are beneficial, it still doesnt mean that you lower your guard down. Accessing these resources without VPN protection makes you vulnerable to various online threats such as hackers, crackers, trojans, malware, and god knows what else.

However, if you are equipped with the necessary precautions, then you may enjoy some of the positive benefits the dark web has to offer, such as:

Here are some common safety precautions to adapt when you browse through the dark web.

Use antivirus software. It will add a layer of protection for safeguarding your device from various online threats. Make sure to update your software frequently.

If you have to use an email address on the dark web, make sure to use a fake email address. Do not use your legitimate email address on any forums, chat rooms, or discussion groups on the dark web.

Make sure not to use anything that can reveal your identity. For example, strictly avoid using your actual name, phone number, or even your photograph.

If you are purchasing something on the dark web, use cryptocurrency as it is completely anonymous. Do not provide your financial details on the dark web at any cost.

If your device has GPS or location service features, then make sure to disable them before visiting the dark web. These geographical features can reveal your actual location to anyone on the internet.

The rest is here:
How to Access the Dark Web Complete Guide? - The Bulletin Time

Posted in Tor Browser | Comments Off on How to Access the Dark Web Complete Guide? – The Bulletin Time

A year later, Cyberpunk 2077 has fewer bugs but still feels like it’s in Early Access – PC Gamer

Posted: at 5:45 am

As I sat down at my PC on December 10, 2020, I had big plans. I was going to start playing Cyberpunk 2077 as a Corpomy version of V would be young, driven, and privilegeda ruthless company techbro. I carefully designed my character with a tidy hairstyle, no tattoos, and minimal cyberware.

I figured as I progressed through the game and fell deeper and deeper into the violent underworld of Night City, I'd alter my appearance. My hairstyle would get shaggier and wilder. I'd slowly add tattoos and more severe cyberware to my face and body. My character's looks would reflect his life. You know. Roleplaying.

That was the plan. But it became clear almost immediately I wouldn't be able to do anything like that.

The Corpo lifepath in Cyberpunk 2020 was absurdly briefI walked around an office for a bit, clicked a few things on my desk, got a wad of cash and a shady assignment from my boss, and then met my old friend Jackie in a barwhere I was immediately fired from my job and severed from my corporate contacts. That was it? That was the Corpo lifepath option I'd heard about so much in the pre-launch buildup to the game? It's hard to call something a path if you run into a brick wall after a single step.

An even shorter cutscene showed my character descending into a life of violent crimethe sort of thing I wanted to experience myself rather than sit there watching. A few minutes into the game I was, essentially, a Street Kid, the lifepath I deliberately didn't choose. And more bafflingly, I could forget about changing my looks to mirror my new lifestyle. There were no character customization options once I began playing. I couldn't alter my appearance or add tattoos. In a game about becoming whoever you want, I couldn't even change my nail polish color once I'd picked it.

That was a lot of disappointment to experience in the first 20 minutes of one of the most hyped and highly-anticipated games ever. And the Corpo lifepath I'd chosen felt like it rarely came into play over the next 20 hours. There were some dialogue options, one or two Corpo-related choices to make during quests, and one side-mission late in the game which was more of a quick encounter. The disappointments didn't end there.

Bugs. Everywhere there were bugs. The first time I stepped out of V's apartment and into the streets of Night City, I just stood and stared. I should have been gawping at the city itself, but instead I was drawn to a street corner where each and every car that turned down the block plowed into the same concrete barricade. Doors were torn off, glass shattered, bumpers bent and crumpled, and drivers shouted expletives as they sped off in their ruined cars.

As the first few hours passed it became clear Cyberpunk 2077 wasn't just a buggy game. Cyberpunk 2077 was an unfinished game.

Most of the bugs I experienced in my first playthrough of Cyberpunk 2077 weren't major. There were one or two that actually prevented me from progressing and required a reload of my last save, which is always irritating. But it really wasn't the individual bugs themselves that were the issue. It was the overwhelming number of them. In every missionthat's not an exaggeration, it was every single missionat least a few things would go wrong. A character would repeat the same line of dialogue over and over from start to finish or T-pose during a dramatic moment. A weapon would wind up sticking out of someone's face or an object would simply hover in midair. A notification would get stuck on the screen or someone would get stuck walking in midair or my car would get stuck in another car, flip upside down, and explode.

Every game has bugs and glitches, but they were inescapable in Cyberpunk 2077. It was a mess, and distracted heavily from interactions with interesting characters and what would otherwise be engrossing storylines.

Other issues weren't the result of bugs but systems that seemed incomplete at best or simply nonexistent at worst. It felt weird how quickly police would respond to a crime, and weirder how they'd prefer to run after your car than jump into their own to give chase, until it became obviousthey didn't possess the ability to follow you in cars and they responded so quickly because they were simply teleporting to a space a few feet behind you. In one mission where cops are specifically supposed to pursue me in cars, they diduntil I briefly looked away from them. When I looked back, they'd vanished:

As the first few hours passed it became clear Cyberpunk 2077 wasn't just a buggy game. Cyberpunk 2077 was an unfinished game. There's a big difference.

Cyberpunk 2077 was a massive hit, with 13 million copies sold within 10 days across all platforms. It was also a major disaster, with backlash from unhappy fans and angry developers inside CD Projekt, a refund debacle, its removal from the PlayStation store, multiple lawsuits, and the rapid erosion of CDP's reputation.

The apologies began to arrive a few days after launch, with the studio first suggesting issues with AI were just bugs, which was obviously not the case, then doubling down by saying that pre-launch testing "did not show a big part of the issues," which was clearly bullshit. The game wasn't finished and everyone knew it. Our review recommended coming back in a few months to see if some of the major bugs had been fixed, but I personally felt it needed another two years of development. A couple patches weren't going to fix Cyberpunk 2077, because it didn't just need to be fixed, it needed to be finished.

Cyberpunk 2077's launch was a rotten situation on all sides. It was unfair to players who bought the game expecting it to be complete. It was unfair to the developers who worked for years and weren't allowed to take their game across the finish line before it was shipped. Cyberpunk 2077 was, and still is, an Early Access game. It just didn't say that on the box. It should have. It would have tempered expectations and no one would have felt cheated.

The patches began rolling out alongside repeated promises to make Cyberpunk 2077 whole. Stability, performance issues, and critical quest and game-breaking bugs were addressed first, along with a bizarre memory limit issue that was corrupting saved games over a certain size. Last-gen consoles, which bore the brunt of the problems, were naturally a big focus of patches and the game finally returned to the PlayStation store in June. I jumped back in to try it again on PC after the v1.2 patch, which was a whopping 32GB in size. I played a few hours, then quit because despite the patch addressing over 500 different issues, the game was still a huge mess. Even those cars I witnessed smashing into the barricade outside V's apartment on day one were still doing it. That was back in April. There was a long way to go, I wrote at the time. There still is.

I'm playing through Cyberpunk 2077 again now, almost exactly a year after launch. And it's honestly nice to be back. There are some excellent characters with interesting stories, and despite all the problems my first time around I truly enjoyed getting to know them and seeing their stories develop. There's some great dialogue (along with plenty that's terrible) and some truly excellent missions.

And I can, finally and definitely, see the difference a year of patches has made. I'm not getting anywhere near as many bugs as I did those first few weeks and the following several months. The cops still teleport when I get a warrant on V (they're a shade more subtle about it) and still won't chase me in cars, but I wasn't really expecting that to have improved. Maybe in 2022.

There's been an impressive amount of work done over the year, and it shows. An early quest where Jackie kept getting stuck midway through the level on my first run went perfectly smoothly this time, and looking through patch notes it appears dozens of other quest bugs have been squashed along with that one. I haven't been launched through the air while climbing ladders, something that happened regularly the last time I played, and notifications don't get stuck on my screen anymore.

I'm especially happy to see some quality of life changes, like fewer messages from fixers trying to sell me cars (this, and the rest of the near-constant phone call spam was a major irritant for me), the improved zoom level on the minimap so I don't miss turns while following the GPS, and the fact that open world NPCs now react differently to events instead of all crouching or running or exiting their cars in perfect unison, which was pretty immersion breaking.

I am, however, getting far more frequent crashes to desktop than I ever did. In about eight hours of playing, the game crashed five or six times. That's not great, especially since crashing was one problem I never really had originally (and I'm using the exact same PC). And I'm pretty pleased to report that the cars outside V's apartment no longer ram mindlessly into that barricade.

But like I said, bugs aren't the only problem. I still can't change my appearance after starting the game. The lifepaths still feel entirely pointless. And playing the game again I'm remembering other things I was excited about, like brain dancing, which turned out to be used only a few times to solve some low-level puzzles, and the fearsome Trauma Team, who show up what, once? Twice? And have absolutely no other part in the game? Surely there was meant to be more of them.

I'd love to be writing a year later that it's a great time to be jumping back into Cyberpunk 2077. Apparently a lot of new players are having a great time. But honestly, if you've waited this long, I recommend waiting another year to see if more than just bugs get patched. A lotbut not nearly everythinghas been fixed in a year, but making Cyberpunk 2077 whole will mean not just fixing what's broken but addressing what's lacking. I'm sure they'll eventually do the first part. I'm not so sure about the second. Maybe I'll try again next December.

More here:

A year later, Cyberpunk 2077 has fewer bugs but still feels like it's in Early Access - PC Gamer

Posted in Cyberpunk | Comments Off on A year later, Cyberpunk 2077 has fewer bugs but still feels like it’s in Early Access – PC Gamer

When is the Cyberpunk: Edgerunners Anime Being Released on Netflix? – GiveMeSport

Posted: at 5:45 am

CD Projekt Red has confirmed that they will be adding to the lore of Cyberpunk 2077 and Night City with the Cyberpunk: Edgerunners anime series, but when is it being released?

The anime was initially announced ahead of the actual release of Cyberpunk 2077 in 2020l however, fans have become more interested in the Netflix release following the major success of the League of Legends Arcane anime on the streaming service.

While the massively botched initial release of Cyberpunk 2077 on consoles and PC initially took all of the headlines, the Cyberpunk: Edgerunners anime is now back in the minds of fans as the game proper gets closer to being the realisation of the vision that CDPR originally had for the game.

The initial press release for the anime stated that it would: "tell a standalone, 10-episode story about a street kid trying to survive in a technology and body modification-obsessed city of the future.

Having everything to lose, he chooses to stay alive by becoming an edgerunnera mercenary outlaw also known as a cyberpunk."

Cyberpunk 2077 game director Adam Badowski explained why the company was bringing out the standalone series, saying: We are so excited to finally reveal that we are working on an anime in the Cyberpunk world.

Weve devoured just about all the cyberpunk fiction there is to watch, read, and play; its a genre that leaves so much room for creativity, and has had such a strong influence on us. Cyberpunk: Edgerunners is our love letter to cyberpunk as a whole, and to stories told in animated form.

Heres everything you need to know about the release of Cyberpunk: Edgerunners on Netflix.

Read More: Cyberpunk 2077 Patch 1.4 Update: Release Date, Roadmap, Patch Notes and Everything We Know So Far

The Netflix original series is set to be released in 2022, although there is currently no exact date for the actual release.

With CDPR set to release the Next-Gen version of the game in the first quarter of 2022, it is likely that the anime will be coming after, assuming that all goes smoothly with the latest update of the game.

CDPR will clearly be hoping to replicate the success of Arcane: League of Legends, bringing even more potential fans to the world of Night City and Cyberpunk 2077 as a franchise.

We will update this page as and when there is an official release for Cyberpunk: Edgerunners on Netflix!

Read More: Cyberpunk 2077 Patch 1.4 Update: Release Date, Roadmap, Patch Notes and Everything We Know So Far

Enter the November Giveaway to win a Nintendo Switch with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and FIFA 22 Legacy Edition!

You can find all of the latest Cyberpunk 2077 News and everything Gaming related right here at GiveMeSport.

Link:

When is the Cyberpunk: Edgerunners Anime Being Released on Netflix? - GiveMeSport

Posted in Cyberpunk | Comments Off on When is the Cyberpunk: Edgerunners Anime Being Released on Netflix? – GiveMeSport

Path to PhD started with a small planetarium and an intro astronomy course – ASU Now

Posted: at 5:45 am

December 6, 2021

Editor's note:This story is part of a series of profiles ofnotablefall 2021 graduates.

McCall Langford was introduced to the design principles of biomimicry at a very early age. She came to appreciate the intricacies of natures complex systems, processes and forms through the work of her grandfather, Ray Anderson, founder of eco-friendly and sustainability-focused textile manufacturing company Interface. Langford was influenced by the biomimicry and sustainability thought leaders with whom her grandfather worked closely to design products inspired by the regenerative properties of the natural world. McCall Langford. Download Full Image

After receiving her bachelor of business administration in marketing from Georgia State University, she channeled her passion for equity and sustainability into the environmental nonprofit sector, serving as the director of development of One More Generation.

The pull of the natural world was strong, and she stepped away from her corporate career to immerse herself fully in nature, spending over a year camping and backpacking in the U.S. wilderness. It was there that she was able to observe just how nuanced and special the harmonious nature of the biological world truly is.

Upon returning from her adventures, Langford had solidified her lifes purpose: to not only reacquaint herself with nature, but to advocate for a global reconnection to the natural world to create a more sustainable and regenerative future. She enrolled in the College of Global Futures Master of Science in biomimicry programthrough ASU Online, and she hopes to use her experience and degree to continue to help bridge the gap between modern technology, innovation and the natural world.

Question: What was your aha moment when you realized you wanted to study the field you majored in?

Answer: I was exposed to biomimicry when I was really young through my grandfathers work. He became really active in the sustainability community through his mission at Interface. His organization worked with biomimicry consultants to create regenerative and sustainable designs.

In my undergrad, I did nonprofit development work in fundraising and donor management, later serving as the director of development of an environmental youth education and endangered species advocacy nonprofit. I also took some time away from the corporate world to backpack.

During that time, I was immersed in nature. I really started to observe the level of complexity and efficient productivity of natural processes. These natural systems are filtering water, sequestering carbon, removing air pollutants, cooling the ground, generating abundant nutrients and so on, without causing any of the issues or challenges our human designs cause. There are so many complex cooperative relationships in nature. The ecological systems surrounding us are performing all of the functional tasks that the human race is trying to accomplish, and theyre doing so much more efficiently than us.

Nature creates conditions conducive to life because its sole purpose is to continue surviving. I realized the power of natures advice, and biomimicry helps us formalize the process of asking, How does nature do this, and what can we learn from her? We could solve a lot of wicked challenges that we're experiencing at this very crucial point in human history. My big aha moment came from looking around and seeing all of this very complex solution space where these answers already exist and knowing I wanted to tap into the library of solutions the biological world is leveraging.

Q: Whats something you learned while at ASU in the classroom or otherwise that surprised you or changed your perspective?

A: It really struck me while I was in this program just how much humans are designing. Obviously we're designing buildings, infrastructure, products and a plethora of tangible things that give us modern conveniences. We are also designing so much more than that. The human race designs intangible processes and systems as well. Whether it's how you're going to spend your morning or how to engage a community, we are constantly generating new ideas for how to optimize our lives. With biomimicry, we have the opportunity to bridge innovative human design with efficient and effective nature-inspired design solutions.

Q: Why did you choose ASU?

A: In the early 90s, (her grandfather) Ray Anderson set out to identify leaders and change agents in the sustainability field to aid in the development of sustainable designs inspired by nature at Interface. Janine Benyus and Dayna Baumeister, the co-founders of Biomimicry 3.8, were among those leaders, and I followed their careers closely over the years. What I appreciated about ASU and its partnership with Biomimicry 3.8 was that the program not only stressed the importance of emulating nature in design, the ultimate goal is to create ethical and sustainable systems that work in harmony with nature. ASUs program instills emulating nature for the sake of sustainable and regenerative futures.

The holistic design thinking methodology offered at ASU guides a comprehensive approach to mimicking natural systems to establish a genuine symbiosis with the Earth. We can create conditions conducive to life, just like our natural ecosystems do, and in that process, we can re-engage a deep relationship with the natural world.

In addition to the unique opportunity to learn from leaders of the field, ASU is recognized for its prestigious and well-equipped online programming. In my eyes, there was nowhere else I wanted to go but ASU.

Q: Which professor taught you the most important lesson while at ASU?

A: Dayna Baumeister is the backbone of the biomimicry masters program. We also have a wonderful group of adjunct professors that uplift and support Daynas work while bringing additional knowledge and perspectives into the program. Its so difficult to choose just one professor who has had an impact. They have all played a massive role in the advancement of my academic career.

Q: Whats the best piece of advice youd give to those still in school?

A: My best piece of advice is to go above and beyond what the courses require of you. More specifically, identify how you can be an advocate for the work you are doing here. The master's program is built to be flexible for career professionals, designed to be accessible and achievable with this underlying implication that you can go further and customize your education and experience. Its not about the grades on your transcript, its about learning everything you can and then taking that knowledge and applying it to make the world a better place.

Q: What was your favorite spot for power studying?

A: I really don't consider this solely an online program because we're being called to go out into nature and learn from her. This program encourages us to be outside all of the time, so truly I spent most of my time out in the field, observing and learning how to view the natural world through a functional lens.

Q: What are your plans after graduation?

A: I'm formally practicing biomimicry within my regenerative design career. I'm currently working as a biomimicry consultant on a project bringing biomimetic design to an 18-mile stretch of testbed highway that's been deemed an innovation lab for regenerative design. The innovation lab initiative is showing interest in pulling in bio-inspired design to improve the regenerative qualities of our nations transportation systems. After graduation I'm going to continue leveraging biomimetic design to get us closer to the harmonious place that I know we can arrive.

Q: If someone gave you $40 million to solve one problem on our planet, what would you tackle?

A: The School of Complex Adaptive Systems focuses on developing frameworks to guide the design of our systems, while in a highly technical way, also incorporating these frameworks into social and conceptual designs. To do both, you have to have a culture shift, so Id love to put that towards encouraging people to invest in biomimetic solutions by showing them how regeneration will improve their conditions. I would invest the $40 million into demonstrating the value of funding and implementing regenerative and efficient systems inspired by the natural world in lieu of a lot of the current maladaptive solutions.

Were getting there. Over the past decade weve seen a massive culture shift towards a more equitable and inclusive social mentality. We definitely have to address the economic and social perspectives before we can see the massive complex systems change necessary to solve these wicked problems.

More:

Path to PhD started with a small planetarium and an intro astronomy course - ASU Now

Posted in Astronomy | Comments Off on Path to PhD started with a small planetarium and an intro astronomy course – ASU Now

Astronomers Measure Mass and Age of Beta Crucis A – Sci-News.com

Posted: at 5:45 am

Beta Crucis is represented in the flags of Australia, Brazil, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and Samoa.

Beta Crucis. Image credit: Naskies at en.wikipedia / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Beta Crucis is a triple star system located at a distance of 280 light-years from the Earth.

Also known as HD 111123, HIC 62434, Becrux and Mimosa, it is the second-brightest object in the constellation of Crux and the 20th brightest star in the night sky.

The primary star in the system, beta Crucis A, is a beta Cephei variable star with rapid brightness changes.

The secondary, beta Crucis B, is a main sequence star with a stellar class of B2.

And the third companion is a low mass, pre-main sequence star.

To crack the age and mass of beta Crucis A, Dr. Daniel Cotton from the Australian National University and Monterey Institute for Research in Astronomy and his colleagues combined asteroseismology, the study of a stars regular movements, with polarimetry, the measurement of the orientation of light waves.

Asteroseismology relies on seismic waves bouncing around the interior of a star and producing measurable changes in its light, they explained.

Probing the interiors of heavy stars that will later explode as supernovae has traditionally been difficult.

In the study, the authors analyzed data from NASAs WIRE and TESS satellites, high-resolution spectroscopic data from ESO, and polarimetric data from Siding Spring Observatory and Western Sydney Universitys Penrith Observatory.

We wanted to investigate an old idea, Dr. Cotton said.

It was predicted in 1979 that polarimetry had the potential to measure the interiors of massive stars, but its not been possible until now.

The size of the effect is quite small, added Professor Jeremy Bailey, an astronomer at the University of New South Wales.

We needed the worlds best precision of the polarimeter we designed and built.

The team found beta Crucis A to be approximately 14.5 times as massive as the Sun and around 11 million years old, making it the heaviest star with an age determined from asteroseismology ever.

Analyzing the three types of long-term data together allowed us to identify Mimosas dominant mode geometries, said Professor Derek Buzasi, an astronomer at Florida Gulf Coast University.

This opened the road to weighing and age-dating the star using seismic methods.

This polarimetric study of Mimosa opens a new avenue for asteroseismology of bright massive stars, added Professor Conny Aerts, an astronomer with the Institute of Astronomy at KU Leuven, Radboud University Nijmegen, and the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy.

While these stars are the most productive chemical factories of our Galaxy, they are so far the least analyzed asteroseismically, given the degree of difficulty of such studies. The heroic efforts by the Australian polarimetrists are to be admired.

The teams paper was published in the journal Nature Astronomy.

_____

D.V. Cotton et al. Polarimetric detection of non-radial oscillation modes in the Cephei star Crucis. Nat Astron, published online December 6, 2021; doi: 10.1038/s41550-021-01531-9

Read the original post:

Astronomers Measure Mass and Age of Beta Crucis A - Sci-News.com

Posted in Astronomy | Comments Off on Astronomers Measure Mass and Age of Beta Crucis A – Sci-News.com

Astronomers spot supermassive black hole duo that’s the closest to Earth yet – CNET

Posted: at 5:45 am

Close-up and wide views of the nearest pair of supermassive black holes.

Scientists have spotted a pair of the most powerful monsters known to humans, and this destructive duo is closer to our planet than any ever seen before.

Fortunately, the couple of supermassive black holes discovered by astronomers using the Very Large Telescope in Chile are still 89 million light years away from us in the galaxy NGC 7727. That's plenty far enough for humanity to be able to continue to sleep well at night for the rest of our existence without being kept up by the prospect that this terrible team is coming to swallow everything we've ever known.

Unlock the biggest mysteries of our planet and beyond with the CNET Science newsletter. Delivered Mondays.

But while it's a comfortable distance, it's much closer than the previous record for a supermassive black hole pair, which is 470 million light years distant.

Karina Voggel, an astronomer at the Strasbourg Observatory in France, explains in a statement that these tumultuous twosomes form when huge galaxies merge and the supermassive black hole at the center of each set a course for collision.

"It is the first time we find two supermassive black holes that are this close to each other, less than half the separation of the previous record holder."

That separation is more than it appears, though, at 1,600 light years.

Voggel is also lead author of apaperdetailing the new discovery published online Tuesday in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.

Remarkably, when the two already supermassive black holes eventually do collide, the will create an even bigger nightmare void.

"The small separation and velocity of the two black holes indicate that they will merge into one monster black hole, probably within the next 250 million years," adds co-author Holger Baumgardt from the University of Queensland in Australia.

The researchers say they now expect to find even more such cosmic colossuses in deep space.

"Our finding implies that there might be many more of these relics of galaxy mergers out there and they may contain many hidden massive black holes that still wait to be found," says Voggel. "It could increase the total number of supermassive black holes known in the local Universe by 30 percent."

Some may be even closer to Earth, which should be okay, so long as we measure the distance in millions of light years.

View post:

Astronomers spot supermassive black hole duo that's the closest to Earth yet - CNET

Posted in Astronomy | Comments Off on Astronomers spot supermassive black hole duo that’s the closest to Earth yet – CNET

How Our Largest Dwarf Galaxy Keeps the Others In Line – SkyandTelescope.com

Posted: at 5:45 am

Theres something strange about the dwarf galaxies around the Milky Way.

These smaller galaxies orbit our own, but many of their orbits align along what astronomers term the vast polar structure: a pancake-shaped plane that intersects our own crepe-thin galaxy. Out of the dozens of known satellites in the Milky Ways retinue, about half of them, maybe even more, belong to this structure, dotting the plane like raisins in the pancake. Whats more this pancake rotates, the blueberries whirling around the Milky Way in the same direction.

This alignment has puzzled astronomers since the first hints of it appeared in the 1970s. Cosmological simulations dont generally predict this effect. Some researchers have even wondered if the problem is with our understanding of dark matter or of gravity itself.

In a paper posted to the astronomy preprint arXiv, Nicols Garavito Camargo (University of Arizona) and colleagues suggest the focus ought to be on the biggest of all the little fish: the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC).

The LMC is a massive dwarf, with at least a tenth the mass of the Milky Way. Its swinging around our galaxy for the first time on a trajectory that aligns with the vast polar structure, and it may have brought a half dozen smaller galaxies in with it. That cant be a coincidence, right? Astronomers have thought so, too, and several have suggested that the LMC has somehow inspired the mysterious polar structure.

In fact, earlier this year, Jenna Samuel (now at University of Texas, Austin) and colleagues made this case: Samuels led simulations to demonstrate that dwarf galaxies tend to align along cosmic pancakes and stay that way, at least for a while when theres a massive dwarf like the LMC in the mix.

The question is how: The LMC and its retinue are only a few of the Milky Ways many satellites, so it and its attendants cant account for the plane simply by falling in. Garavito Camargo and colleagues describe how the LMC could have affected the orbits of the other galaxies.

In short, the dwarf galaxy is throwing its weight around, affecting the Milky Way, its dark matter halo, and its satellites, all via the simple force of gravity. Not only does the dwarf pull on the other satellite galaxies ahead of it in its orbit, it also draws the material behind it into a wake. In addition, the researchers realized, they would need to account for their own place in the galaxy.

As it falls in, the LMC has pulled the Milky Way off-center. Our galaxy is enormous, though, and the shift in center of mass has taken time to travel outward. While the inner regions of the galaxy and its halo are already orbiting the new center of mass, the outer regions havent gotten the memo yet. So, from our perch in the inner galaxy, we see the outer regions rotate.

Were actually in a moving car, when we thought we were just sitting still, explains coauthor Gurtina Besla (University of Arizona). You see all these things move by you and you think theyre moving at some speed, but in fact were moving along with it and theyre actually moving slightly slower. In effect, when we see the satellite galaxies moving together in concert, some of that is simply the effect of our own motion something that we hadnt considered before.

Garavito Camargo, Besla, and colleagues combined all of these effects in a simulation of the LMCMilky Way encounter, confirming that the LMCs infall is capable of reshaping the orbits of numerous objects around the Milky Way.

Even taking all these effects together, though, they still might not fully explain the strange alignment of Milky Way satellites. Then again, they dont have to: After all, cosmological simulations do create planes of satellites, just not ones as organized as the one around the Milky Way.

The idea is that, after correcting for all these effects, the remaining plane may better resemble the structures predicted in cosmological simulations, Garavito Camargo says. All this together can create something thats kind-of weird and statistically more improbable than what you might find in a generic cosmological simulation.

The new work offers a fresh approach and one that is a very thorough and convincing piece of research, which naturally got me and others working on this issue very excited, says Marcel Pawlowski (Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam), who wasnt involved in the new study. He maintains, however, that theres still work to be done to understand the structures origin.

Advertisement

Excerpt from:

How Our Largest Dwarf Galaxy Keeps the Others In Line - SkyandTelescope.com

Posted in Astronomy | Comments Off on How Our Largest Dwarf Galaxy Keeps the Others In Line – SkyandTelescope.com

What if Einstein never existed? – Big Think

Posted: at 5:44 am

If you ask the average person to name one scientist from any time or place in history, one of the most common names youre likely to hear is Albert Einstein. The iconic physicist was responsible for a remarkable number of scientific advances during the 20th century, and perhaps single-handedly overthrew the Newtonian physics that had dominated scientific thought for more than 200 years. His most famous equation, E = mc, is so prolific that even people who dont know what it means can recite it. He won the Nobel Prize for advances in quantum physics. And his most successful idea the General theory of Relativity as our theory of gravity remains undefeated in all tests more than 100 years after Einstein first put it forth.

But what if Einstein had never existed? Would others have come along and made precisely the same advances? Would those advances have come quickly, or would they have taken such a long time that some of them might not have occurred, even at present? Would it have taken a genius of equal magnitude to bring his great achievements to fruition? Or do we severely overestimate just how rare and unique Einstein was, elevating him to an undeserved position in our minds based on the fact that he was simply in the right place at the right time with the right set of skills? Its a fascinating question to explore. Lets dive in.

Einstein had whats known as his miracle year in 1905, where he published a series of papers that would have revolutionary effects on a wide variety of areas in physics. But just prior to that, there were a great number of advances that had occurred recently, throwing many long-held assumptions about the Universe into great doubt. For over 200 years, Isaac Newton had stood unchallenged in the realm of mechanics: both in the terrestrial and celestial realms. His law of Universal Gravitation applied just as well to objects in the Solar System as it did to balls rolling down a hill or cannonballs fired from a cannon.

In the eyes of a Newtonian physicist, the Universe was deterministic. If you could write down the positions, momenta, and masses of every object in the Universe, you could calculate how each of them would evolve to arbitrary precisions at any moment in time. Additionally, space and time were absolute entities, and the gravitational force traveled at infinite speeds, with instantaneous effects. Throughout the 1800s, the science of electromagnetism was developed as well, uncovering intricate relationships between electric charges, currents, electric and magnetic fields, and even light itself. In many ways, particularly given the successes of Newton, Maxwell, and others, it seemed that physics was almost solved.

Until, that is, it wasnt. There were puzzles that seemed to hint at something new in many different directions. The first discoveries of radioactivity had already taken place, and it was realized that mass was actually lost when certain atoms decayed. The momenta of the decaying particles didnt appear to match the momenta of the parent particles, indicating that either something wasnt conserved or that something unseen was present. Atoms were determined to not be fundamental, but to be made of positively charged atomic nuclei and discrete, negatively charged electrons.

But there were two challenges to Newton that seemed, somehow, more important than all of the others.

The first confusing observation was the orbit of Mercury. Whereas all of the other planets obeyed Newtons laws to the limits of our precision in measuring them, Mercury did not. Despite accounting for the precession of the equinoxes and the effects of the other planets, Mercurys orbits failed to match predictions by a minuscule but significant amount. The extra 43 arc-seconds-per-century of precession led many to hypothesize the existence of Vulcan, a planet inner to Mercury, but none was there to be discovered.

The second was, perhaps, even more puzzling: when objects moved close to the speed of light, they no longer obeyed Newtons equations of motion. If you were on a train at 100 miles-per-hour and threw a baseball at 100 miles-per-hour in the forward direction, the ball would move at 200 miles-per-hour. This is what youd expect, intuitively, to occur, and also what does occur when you perform the experiment for yourself.

But if youre on a moving train, and you shine a beam of light in the forwards direction, the backwards direction, or any other direction, it always moves at the speed of light, regardless of how the train is moving. In fact, its also true regardless of how quickly the observer watching the light is moving.

Moreover, if youre on a moving train and you throw a ball, but the train and ball are both traveling close to the speed of light, addition doesnt work the way were used to. If the train moves at 60% the speed of light and you throw the ball forward at 60% the speed of light, it doesnt move at 120% the speed of light, but only at ~88% the speed of light. Although we were able to describe whats happening, we couldnt explain it. And thats where Einstein came onto the scene.

It was with this backdrop that Einstein came onto the scene. Although its difficult to condense the entirety of his achievements into even a single article, perhaps his most momentous discoveries and advances are as follows.

The equation E = mc: when atoms decay, they lose mass. Where does that mass go, if its not conserved? Einstein had the answer: it gets converted into energy. Moreover, Einstein had the correct answer: it gets converted, specifically, into the amount of energy described by his famous equation, E = mc. It works the other way as well; weve since created masses in the form of matter-antimatter pairs from pure energy based on this equation. In every circumstance its ever been tested under, E = mc is a success.

Special Relativity: When objects move close to the speed of light, how do they behave? In a variety of counterintuitive ways, but all described by the theory of Special Relativity. There is a speed limit to the Universe: the speed of light in a vacuum, and all massless entities in a vacuum move precisely at that speed. If you have mass, you can never reach, but only approach that speed, and the laws of Special Relativity dictate how objects moving near the speed of light accelerate, add-or-subtract in velocity, and how time dilates and lengths contract for them.

The photoelectric effect: When you shine direct sunlight on a piece of conducting metal, it can kick the most loosely-held electrons off of it. If you increase the lights intensity, more electrons get kicked off, while if you decrease the lights intensity, fewer electrons get kicked off. But heres where it gets weird: Einstein discovered that it wasnt based on the lights total intensity, but on the intensity of light above a certain energy threshold. Ultraviolet light only would cause the ionization, not visible or infrared, regardless of the intensity. Einstein showed that lights energy was quantized into individual photons, and the number of ionizing photons determined how many electrons got kicked off; nothing else would do it.

General Relativity: This was the biggest, most hard-fought revolution of all: a new theory of gravity governing the Universe. Space and time were not absolute, but made a fabric that all objects, including all forms of matter and energy, traveled through. Spacetime would curve and evolve owing to the presence and distribution of matter and energy, and that curved spacetime told matter and energy how to move. When put to the test, Einsteins relativity succeeded where Newton failed, explaining Mercurys orbit and predicting how starlight would deflect during a solar eclipse. Since it was first proposed, General Relativity has never been experimentally or observationally contradicted.

In addition to this, there were many other advances that Einstein himself played a major role in initiating. He discovered Brownian motion; he co-discovered the statistical rules under which boson particles operated; he contributed substantially to the foundations of quantum mechanics through the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen paradox; and he arguably invented the idea of wormholes through the Einstein-Rosen bridge. His scientific career of contributions was truly legendary.

And yet, there are many reasons to believe that despite the unparalleled career that Einstein had, the full suite of advances that were made by Einstein would have been made by others in very short order without him. Its impossible to know for certain, but for all that we laud the genius of Einstein, and hold him up as a singular example of how one incredible mind can change our conception of the Universe as he, in fact, actually did pretty much everything that occurred on account of Einstein would have occurred without him just as well.

Prior to Einstein, back in the 1880s, physicist J.J. Thomson, discoverer of the electron, began thinking that the electric and magnetic fields of a moving, charged particle must carry energy with them, and attempted to quantify the amount of that energy. It was complicated, but a simplified set of assumptions allowed Oliver Heaviside to make a calculation: he determined the amount of effective mass that a charged particle carried was proportional to the electric field energy (E) divided by the speed of light (c) squared. Heaviside had a proportionality constant in there of 4/3 that was different from the true value of 1 in his 1889 calculation, as would Fritz Hasenhrl in 1904 and 1905. Henri Poincar independently derived E = mc in 1900, but didnt understand the implications of his derivations.

Without Einstein, we were already perilously close to his most famous equation; it seems unrealistic to expect we wouldnt have gotten the rest of the way there in short order had he not come along.

Similarly, we were already extremely close to Special Relativity. The Michelson-Morley experiment had demonstrated that light always moved at a constant speed, and had disproven the most popular aether models. Hendrik Lorentz had already uncovered the transformation equations that determined how velocities added and how time dilated, and independently along with George FitzGerald, determined how lengths contracted in the direction-of-motion. In many ways, these were the building blocks that led Einstein to develop the theory of Special Relativity, but it was, in fact, Einstein who put it together. Again, its difficult to imagine that Lorentz, Poincar, and others working at the interface of electromagnetism and the speed of light wouldnt have taken similar leaps to arrive at this profound conclusion. Even without Einstein, we were already so close.

Max Plancks work with light set the stage for the discovery of the photoelectric effect; it surely would have occurred with or without Einstein.

Fermi and Dirac worked out the statistics for fermions (the other type of particle, besides bosons) while it was Satyendra Bose who worked them out for the particles that bear his name; Einstein was merely the recipient of Boses correspondence.

Quantum mechanics, arguably, would have developed just as well in the absence of Einstein.

But General Relativity is the big one. With Special Relativity already under his belt, Einstein set about to fold in gravity. While Einsteins equivalence principle the realization that gravitation caused an acceleration, and that all accelerations were indistinguishable to the observer is what led him there, with Einstein himself calling it his happiest thought that left him unable to sleep for three days, others were thinking along the same lines.

Of all the advances that Einstein made, this was the one that his peers were farthest behind when he put it forth. Still, although it might have taken many years or even decades, the fact that others were already so close to thinking precisely along the same lines as Einstein leads us to believe that even if Einstein had never existed, General Relativity would eventually have fallen into the realm of human knowledge.

We typically have a narrative in how science advances: that one individual, through a sheer stroke of genius, spots the key advance or way of thinking that everyone else had missed. And that without that one individual, humanity would never have gained that remarkable knowledge that was stored away, just waiting to come out, in the mind of that key, brilliant realization.

Only, when we examine the situation in greater detail, we find that a great many individuals were often nipping at the heels of that discovery just before it was made. In fact, when we go back through history, we find that many people had similar realizations to one another at about the same time. Alexei Starobinskii put many of the pieces of inflation together before Alan Guth did; Georges Lematre and Howard Robertson put together the expanding Universe before Hubble did; even Sin-Itiro Tomonaga worked out the calculations of quantum electrodynamics before Julian Schwinger and Richard Feynman did.

Einstein was the first to cross the finish line on a number of independent and remarkable scientific fronts, but had he never come along, many others were close behind him. He may have possessed every bit of dazzling genius that we often attribute to him, but one thing is almost certain: genius is not as unique and rare as we often assume it to be. With a lot of hard work and a little luck, almost any properly trained scientist can make a revolutionary breakthrough simply by stumbling upon the right realization at the right time.

Read more:

What if Einstein never existed? - Big Think

Posted in Quantum Physics | Comments Off on What if Einstein never existed? – Big Think