Daily Archives: December 7, 2021

12/06/2021 at 12:30 CET

Scientists at Frances National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) have found that when the Earths orbit is more circular, equatorial regions show little seasonal variation and unspecialized species dominate all oceans. Instead, as the orbital eccentricity and more pronounced seasons appear near the equator, species diversify and influence the carbon cycle and the determination of ocean chemistry.

In principle, we must bear in mind that the Earth describes annually around the Sun a elliptical path called orbit. Earths orbit has a perimeter of 940 million kilometers, while the planet moves in outer space at an average speed of 107,227 kilometers per hour.

The earth orbit It is not perfectly circular, but rather describes an ellipse of great eccentricity. However, the maximum variation of the distance to the center that marks the Earths orbit is 1.39%: this means that on an imaginary scale of 10 centimeters the distance between the longest and shortest axes would reach a maximum of 0.14 millimeters, an imperceptible difference to the human eye.

Although the orbital changes are not so pronounced from our point of view, they do seem to mark strong variations in planetary dynamics. According to a press release, the study of a variety of microscopic algae called coccolithophores seems to indicate that changes in the Earths orbit could have a direct impact on the biological evolution of the Earth.

As French researchers indicate in a new study published recently in the journal Nature, while the role of Earths orbital variations In driving global climate cycles, its effect on biological evolution is unknown until now.

In order to determine this possible influence, the scientists focused on the coccolithophores, a vital part of plankton: these tiny algae make up small plates of limestone, called coccoliths, around their individual cells. The configuration and dimensions of coccoliths vary by species.

At the end of their life cycle, coccolithophores sink to the depths of the ocean and coccoliths accumulate in sediments: these elements faithfully record the detailed evolution of these organisms over geological time, providing valuable information to researchers. Now, they seem to indicate the crucial role of changes in Earths orbit in the planetary biodiversity.

Related topic: Earths orbit is associated with the extinction of some species.

Specialists have managed to verify that during the last 2.8 million years the morphological evolution of coccolithophores was forced by the Earths orbital eccentricity, with rhythms of around 100,000 years to 405,000 years, in periods different from those marked by contemporary global climatic cycles.

The diversity of coccolithophores species increases markedly when the Earths orbit is more eccentric, due to a clearer variation between the seasons in the equatorial regions. The opposite happens when the Earths orbit is more circular and regular: the seasons tend to be more even at the climatic level in areas close to the equator and biodiversity decreases.

On the other hand, the impact of earth orbit and the biological evolution of these microalgae could have set the rhythm of ancient climates, determining abrupt climatic variations that until now could not be explained.

As coccolithophores are responsible for half of the limestone produced in the oceans, they play a crucial role in the carbon cycle and in the characteristics of ocean chemistry. According to the researchers, in the absence of ice the biological evolution of these microalgae could have marked the rhythm of climates and determined its variations.

Cyclic evolution of phytoplankton forced by changes in tropical seasonality. Beaufort, L., Bolton, CT, Sarr, AC. et al. Nature (2021). DOI: https: //doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-04195-7

Photo: coccolithophores, an important component of plankton, evolved following the rhythm of Earths orbital eccentricity. Credit: Luc BEAUFORT / CNRS / CEREGE.

The rest is here:

Variations in the Earth's orbit mark the biological evolution on the planet - Central Valley Business Journal

Since achieving fame and fortune, Joe has spent most of his time in his various residences across the country. He's got Nerdville in sunny California and Nerdville East in Nashville. Both are almost-literal museums that house Joe's arguably unmatched collection of vintage guitars and amps. You will be very hard pressed to come across a finer collection. Yet in 2019, Joe found himself drawn back to New York City.

Joe Bonamassa - "Time Clocks" - Official Music Video

"It's a mid-life crisis. I always wanted to go back to where I lived 20 years ago, but not have to worry about hustling down sessions and gigs to make the rent every month," he says. "For as cool and exciting of a time as it was, it was also a very stressful time. I had this thing in my mind where I just wanted to be able to enjoy New York City and not have the stress of, 'Oh shit, it's either a subway ticket or ramen noodles tonight.'"

In February 2021, Joe went to Germano Studios in Manhattan's NoHo neighborhood to record Time Clocks, aka "The New York Album." Because of the pandemic, this recording session was like no other Joe had been involved with. Kevin "the Caveman" Shirley, Joe's longtime producer, was stuck in Australia due to strict COVID travel restrictions. The two have had a long working relationship and they've been inseparable for most of Joe's career. Shirley produced the guitarist's fifth studio album, You & Me, and has since produced over 30 of Joe's subsequent projects. So, when it came time to record Time Clockstravel restrictions be damnedthey found a way to work together. "We recorded it virtually with Zoom and some other technology where my producer in Australia could get the actual tracks from the session in real time or with about a second latency," says Joe. "It was totally fine. It was an odd record to make because of what we were doing, but it was also an odd time. So, why should anything be normal anymore?"

Even with the differences in time zones (Sydney, Australia, is 16 hours ahead of New York City), they found a way to make it work. "We would get there about noon. Kevin's an early riser so he would get to his studio, which is by his house in Sydney, by about 2 a.m. So, we would go from about noon to 6 or 7 at night, and he would go from 2 to 9 a.m., and then take naps."

Time Clocks is full of unexpected twists. It was recorded live as a trio with drummer Anton Fig and bassist Steve Mackey, and then other parts were layered in. The album has a diversity of sounds that belie Joe's blues categorization. "Notches" opens with an Ali Farka Tour-inspired 12-string riff, "Time Clocks" has a country-esque, Americana vibe, and "Curtain Call" is an homage to Led Zeppelin. "My ADD transcends into my musical life. It's a very different record for me. It's not a blues record, for sure. I just try to make records that don't bore me all the way throughwe've got this groove covered, we've got that groove covered, let's put a sorbet in, something out of left field," says Joe.

TIDBIT: Bonamassa's longtime producer, Kevin Shirley, had his hands on the wheel again, but remotely. He produced from Sydney, Australia, while the band recorded live on the floor in New York City.

"Some people think that all I do is play blues. I don't just play blues. I play whatever. We've all been in this game for a long time where we can adapt to any musical situation. It's fun. Every once in a while, I'll go sit in with friends. I just sat in with Nir Felder [at NYC's famed 55 Bar]. If I sit in with Nir, I'll be like, 'When these chord changes get too fucking adult for me, I'm bailing.' You just know your strengths and your weaknesses."

For the Time Clocks sessions, Joe used a much leaner gear selection than you might expect, especially given his cavernous collection. "In New York City, you go with what you got. There were only three amps. I had a [JB signature] high-powered Twin sent from our inventory that's still in the spare bedroom in the apartment. I ended up using two Deluxes. I had one Deluxe Reverb and one brown Deluxe," says Joe. We wonder if Joe was referring to a reissue Deluxe Reverb that might have happened to be at the studio, or one of his rare closet classics. He immediately snaps, "Think about that critically and ask yourself again, 'Who are you talking to?'" Point taken, Joe!

Im not going to live my life in indentured servitude to the fucking guitar.

"When I was a kid, I had a black [panel] Deluxe Reverb. I think this is probably one of the ones that I had for 25 years," he clarifies. "The black and brown circuits are totally different, so you get that kind of sweet/salt mix. The brown Deluxe does the real thick midrange stuff and the black does the low and the high. That's kind of always been my M.O. It's never just one amp. You're mid-stacking with amps that don't necessarily do the same thing. The bigger, thicker tones you hear on the solo, that's the high-powered Twin. The more jangly stuff was the Deluxes."

Joe also only used a handful of guitars on Time Clocks. "I don't keep a lot of guitars here," he says. "All I had was a Les Paul, a Strat, a 335, a Rickenbacker 12-string, an old bass from the movie Spinal Tap, the one that Nigel kept telling Rob Reiner not to touchI actually own that one. But it was less than six guitars. I also used a Martin acoustic. All the acoustic stuff was done with one acoustic.

A recent snapshot of Bonamassa's pedalboard.

"In Nashville, I have all my road guitars, but to be honest with you, over the years I've never gotten into this thing where you bring 50 guitars and use five. I did that a long time ago. It's nothing but a photo op. Most of the time I bring a Whitman's Sampler of what I think would work. The days of humping in 50 guitars and setting up six racks of them and going, 'Look what I got'that's a young man's game. That's for somebody in their 30s."

Joe's newfound minimalism goes hand in hand with living in a New York City apartment, where even playing with an amp on 1 will get you the "broomstick on a ceiling" retaliation. "I've been playing guitar and cranking amps for 40 years. Do you know the two things that prompt me to run away? Loud music and crowds. It's a paradox, I know," he says. "So, when I'm at home and I'm enjoying a very quiet Sunday afternoon, I have zero, absolutely zero, desire to crank an amp. And I have zero-plus-5-percent desire to sometimes even practice on a given day. It gives you a break. It's important to be good at your job on a given day. It's important to also step away and give yourself some perspective, so you're not so consumed by it."

Rig Rundown - Joe Bonamassa [2018]

Every aspiring guitaristno matter the genrelongs for their day in the spotlight. They too want to be a guitar god and inspire thousands of players and listeners, just like Joe. But what does it feel like on the other sidewhen you actually win?

The guitarist onstage with his frequent on-tour sparring partner in recent years, bass giant Michael Rhodes.

Photo by Debi Del Grande

"Then a whole 'nother set of circumstances come into play," he says. "It's managing time, managing your energy. It's also trying to keep in perspective what is it that you really do, because sometimes life comes at you twice as fast as it used to. All my energy is dedicated to the fans that keep me in business and come time and time again. That is 100 percent my biggest priority. When distractions and other things come into play that tend to take energy away from what you're supposed to be doing, that's the challenge. I realize I'm a very fortunate person, but I don't make any apologies for it, because, to be honest with you, that's what everybody strives for. Why should I apologize for working hard? I always tell people it's easy to dismiss, hard to replicate. If it was easy, as some claim, then it would be as easy as starting a TikTok. If it was that easy, then anybody could do it. But to be honest with you, anybody can do it. You've got to have the intestinal fortitude and the drive, and the ability to stick it out through thick and thin."

Bonamassa cradles his famed 1959 Les Paul Standard, Lazarus. The guitar was recreated for a limited-edition issue via Epiphone this year.

Older and wiser at 44, Joe, who started performing onstage at age 12, has now found time to explore other things in life besides guitar. He indulges in Law and Order marathons, is on an excruciatingly strict diet with Diet Coke as his only vice, and has found a new passion in cycling. He'll just as likely post details of his Central Park bike excursions on Instagram as he would another guitar-safari vintage find. Even with the potential danger of a career-ending fall, Joe, much like the late Allan Holdsworthwho was also an avid cyclistis willing to chance it. "If I fall and somehow my career ends on that particular day, then so be it," he says. "I'm not going to live my life in indentured servitude to the fucking guitar. If it's over, it's over. You've got to enjoy your life."

Joe Bonamassa is labeled a blues guitarist, but anyone that's heard him knows that he brings a huge diversity of stylistic elements to the genre. In this breathtaking, hyper-speed duo, Joe's right hand is like an unstoppable machine that keeps the intensity of the performance alive for over 6 minutes.

Read more from the original source:

Lighter and Louder: The Evolution of Bass Amplification - Premier Guitar

Paul M. Sutteris an astrophysicist at SUNY Stony Brook and the Flatiron Institute, host of "Ask a Spaceman" and "Space Radio," and author of "How to Die in Space." Sutter contributed this article to Space.com's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.

How do you test theories of the universe? By building gigantic supercomputers and simulating the evolution of the cosmos.

A team of Japanese scientists has built the largest-ever cosmic simulation to include tiny "ghost" particles called neutrinos. To explore one of physics' biggest unsolved mysteries, the researchers used a whopping 7 million CPU cores to solve for the evolution of 330 billion particles and a computational grid of 400 trillion units.

By far the most important form of matter in the universe is dark matter. We're not sure what it is or what it's made of, but we do know that there's a lot of it. It makes up about 80% of all matter. Baryonic matter the stuff that makes up stars, planets and the rich variety of the entire periodic table makes up just a small fraction of all the matter in the universe.

Related: Where did all the baryons go?

Dark matter forms the backbone of the cosmos. Billions of years ago, there were no structures in the universe. All of the matter dark or otherwise was smoothly distributed, and not lumpy at all. There simply weren't very many variations in density from place to place. Overall, it was a pretty boring universe.

But with time, the universe became more interesting. There were tiny density differences, seeded from microscopic quantum fluctuations in the early seconds of the Big Bang. Places with slightly higher density had slightly more gravity, and that's where dark matter began to pool together. As those early structures budded, they attracted even more material. Over billions of years, this process emptied out vast regions of the cosmos now known as cosmic voids pulling all the matter into an extensive network of clusters, walls and filaments.

And then there are neutrinos, extremely tiny particles that have barely any mass. Indeed, they make up less than 0.1% of all the mass in the universe. But these minuscule particles have an outsize influence on the evolution of structures. They are fast really fast capable of traveling at nearly the speed of light. This incredible speed dampens the formation of large structures, such as galaxies and clusters.

Whereas dark matter wants to keep piling up through gravity, neutrinos go too fast to settle down in one spot. And although neutrinos have very little mass, they still have some mass. They can use their gravity to weakly influence the behavior of dark matter, thus preventing it from clumping as tightly as it normally would.

In other words, the universe is a little smoother than it would be without neutrinos.

Finding the masses of the three known neutrino "flavors" electron neutrinos, muon neutrinos and tau neutrinos is a major unsolved problem in modern physics. But ironically, we can measure the masses of these tiny particles by mapping the largest structures in the universe.

To try to understand the nature of dark matter and the role of neutrinos in shaping cosmic evolution, cosmologists often turn to computer simulations. If you change the neutrino mass just a bit in the simulations, it will change how the neutrinos influence the formation of structures over billions of years. So by measuring those same structures, you can get an understanding of neutrino mass.

These simulations usually encompass a small fraction of the real universe and start with a set of dark matter "particles," with each particle representing a certain amount of dark matter for example, a single blob with a mass millions of times the mass of the sun. The simulations then position these particles as they would be in the early universe. The simulations track how those particles evolve through their mutual gravity, giving rise to the giant structures we see today.

This is an approximation technique, because the true behavior of dark matter is represented by a limited number of particles, but it works very well for dark matter. Simulating neutrinos is much more difficult because of their ridiculous speed. It's difficult to follow their behavior within the simulation because they can move from one side of the simulation to the other in a short amount of time. So the simulations can't keep up with how the neutrinos are acting and how they're influencing dark matter.

So maybe we shouldn't bother trying to approximate the behavior of neutrinos. To correctly follow the evolution of neutrinos and account for their fast behavior requires solving an incredibly complex equation. Solving this equation called the Vlasov equation, after Russian physicist Anatoly Vlasov however, requires immense computational resources.

So a team of Japanese scientists did just that: They used 7 million processors on the Fugaku supercomputer to trace the evolution of dark matter and the influence of neutrinos on the formation of structures. The researcher used 330 billion particles to represent dark matter and a computational grid of 400 trillion components to represent neutrinos, in the largest simulation of its kind.

And while it may not have solved the mystery of neutrinos' mass, the simulation does pave the way for more of its kind. In essence, this simulation was a proof-of-concept to show that we can now include neutrinos in simulations more accurately than ever before. Armed with this new technology, future simulations will open a window into the role of neutrinos in the universe and perhaps even reveal a key to unlocking their mass.

The team's paper was posted recently on the preprint server arXiv, and you can see the simulation here.

Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

See more here:

Massive simulation of the universe probes mystery of ghostly neutrinos - Space.com

On 5 December 1921 the Football Association banned women from playing football on league affiliated grounds, saying it was "most unsuitable" for them to play the game.

At the time the women's game was growing in popularity and attracting crowds of up to 53,000. The decision changed the course of female football forever.

The ban lasted nearly 50 years until an FA Council meeting in January 1970 rescinded the resolution made five decades earlier.

A year later the first women's FA Cup final was held and as the competition celebrates its 50 year anniversary season - and 100 years on from the controversial ban - BBC Sport speaks to female football legends on the evolution of the women's game.

Lesley Lloyd captained Southampton to glory in the first Women's FA Cup final in 1971, beating Scottish side Stewarton & Thistle 4-1 at Crystal Palace National Sports Centre. The Saints went on to win eight of the next 11 cups.

What was it like playing football during that time?

"I used to have a cheese and pickle sandwich before I walked out on to the pitch. We just turned up and that was it. When we went back to the changing rooms after playing we used to have to wash our boots with a pipe. It was crazy! We had no facilities but we just played for the love of it. We loved the game.

What was it like playing during the ban?

"We were laughed at, to be quite honest. We used to hear about this ban and boys used to make fun of us for being women playing football, but in the end I think they could see that we were serious about it."

What do you remember about that first FA Cup final and lifting the trophy?

"I remember getting to the final. We arrived at the pitch and they had forgotten to cut the grass.

"I remember the manager saying to us it was the most important game we were ever going to play so to get out there and do something.

"There was a wooden hut full of supporters. I'll never forget lifting the cup. That was my Wembley. I know now what the ladies have is brilliant, but to us that was it.

"We didn't even take a photograph of the team until the following week. We washed all our kit and the photo was taken a week later, not on the day. It shows how much things have changed."

How do you feel now watching a women's cup final and seeing way the game has developed?

"I think it's brilliant - they have everything. It's great to see what there is now. Women should be entitled to exactly what the men have and I'd love to have been born in this era. But no matter what era you're playing in, the competitive spirit doesn't change.

"I've still got people that come up to me and talk about it now. I'm still a season ticket holder at Southampton and my whole family have been brought up on football. My children and grandchildren love watching women's football. I'm actually bringing my grandson to the final at Wembley. You never lose the love of the game."

Former England captain Gill Coultard had a 25-year playing career from the mid 70s until 2001, winning the FA Cup six times with Doncaster Belles. Having become the first woman to reach 100 England caps, England's first woman to score in a Wembley international and the first to score for England in a women's World Cup, in 2021 she was awarded an MBE for services to football.

What were some of the barriers that you had to overcome as a woman playing football?

"One of the biggest things that stands out for me will always be the comment that I'm a woman, I shouldn't be playing football and that I should be washing up at the sink.

"We'd get comments from the stands about getting married and having kids. That happened quite a lot during my time, especially when I first started. I couldn't get my head around it, I was only 13 and I was playing for Doncaster Belles when I kept hearing people saying this even as I got older and just thought, it's not right."

Have you seen attitudes change?

"They've definitely changed and I think that's because there's much more opportunity now for women and girls to play the game. There's more of a pathway. There are England teams at youth level which weren't there before and it's massively grown, which is where we should be today."

On the 50th anniversary of the women's FA Cup final, how do you feel about being a pioneer in the game?

"There were pioneers before me and we've all paved the way for the next generation. It's great to see the final be played at Wembley again. It's the home of football, it's where everyone wants to play and for the final to be played there, that's how much the women's game has evolved and hopefully that'll be how it is for the rest of my lifetime."

Manchester City and England defender Lucy Bronze is one of the most recognisable names in women's football today. Two-time FA Cup winner with City, Bronze's first FA Cup final came as a 17-year-old with third-tier Sunderland. In 2018 and 2020 she was named BBC Women's Footballer of the Year and in 2019 became the first English footballer to win the Uefa women's player of the year award.

Do you feel you've had to overcome barriers during your time as a professional footballer?

"I think I'm part of the generation in the middle. I remember being in the FA Cup final for Sunderland in 2009 against Arsenal. I was 17 years old at the time and we couldn't even afford the bus to the stadium.

"We had to bag pack in one of the supermarkets to raise money to pay for the bus. We didn't even have a warm-up kit for that game - we had to wear our old away shirt from the season before to warm up in."

How do you think the game has developed?

"In my first final when I was 17 I was a complete nobody - my own team-mates barely knew who I was let alone anyone else. Whereas in the 2017 final, it was off the back of the World Cup where people started to know who I was. The women's game was changing in England, the England international team was changing and that was a really big deal, especially with it being played at Wembley."

Did you ever think you'd be walking out at Wembley in an FA Cup final?

"I never thought we'd be playing at Wembley. It's a stadium with so much history, it's so well known and so many people have a connection to it. It's amazing to get to play there."

What more needs to be done to change attitudes towards women's football?

"It's easy to say that the growth has been good for the sport, because it has. I don't think any other sport has grown at the rate of women's football but that's not to say that we're where we need to be.

"We need to grow, we need to get more girls playing and playing to a higher level. We need more clubs to invest so it's not just a small group of clubs that people talk about winning things and we want to see a bit more competition. I think we need to grow the fanbases of women's clubs too. Personally, I think there is room for improvement in every single area.

"I've experienced both ends of the scale and I love it. It makes me appreciate things more but it also makes me want to fight and keep going and not settle."

How much further on could the game be without the ban all those years ago?

"When you look back at pictures before the ban came in, stadiums are more full then than they are now. It blows my mind to see stadiums that full watching women's football, but it just shows that at one time it was at that same level as the men's game.

"We're chasing after that ban because during that time men's football was constantly growing and women's wasn't. It's a tough task but everyone involved is pushing for it to get back to where it was."

More:

Women's FA Cup final: The evolution of women's football - BBC Sport