Daily Archives: January 19, 2022

In 2020, scientists with the European Space Agency announced that they had successfully used bacteria to extract rare earth minerals from basalt inside a small bioreactor onboard the International Space Station. The experiment was meant to simulate the microbial harvesting of elements from rocks similar to those found on the Moon and Mars, a process called biomining. Its success suggested genuine potential for what may seem like a science fiction future: using microbes to extract useful materials on the Moon, Mars, and beyond that can sustain space colonies.

If humans ever hope to establish permanent settlements elsewhere in the solar system, we are going to need a steady supply of water; oxygen; essential nutrients for plant nutrition as well as our own; gaseous elements like hydrogen, nitrogen, and helium to make fuel; and metals like iron, copper, and vanadium for structures and electronic components. Luckily, these all can be obtained from extraterrestrial rocks, and microorganisms can help.

Right now on Earth, specialized microbes are used to leach precious metals from rocks. Around 20-25% of copper and 5% of gold are harvested with biomining. Bacteria can also extract zinc, nickel, cobalt, uranium, and various other elements straight from mineral ores. What if we could do the same thing in space? The process would require relatively little energy and mitigate the need to import materials from Earth.

Charles S. Cockell and Rosa Santomartino, scientists at the UK Centre for Astrobiology and the University of Edinburgh, along with Luis Zea, an assistant research professor in aerospace engineering at the University of Colorado, are a few of the thinkers trying to lay the groundwork for space-based biomining. In a recent article published in the journal Extremophiles, they explained how it might work.

For starters, any biomining would require liquid water and need to take place in sophisticated bioreactors where internal conditions can be controlled. Bioreactors would protect microbes from damaging radiation, hold in oxygen if the microbes require it, maintain internal pressure, and keep a suitable temperature. Regolith and rock would be loaded in, then microorganisms added depending upon the material type and what elements users seek to extract. After a certain amount of time, the bioreactor is opened and the materials inside removed for use.

Thanks to new, exciting advances in bioengineering, microorganisms could be engineered to improve their biomining abilities.

Although synthetic biology applications to biomining are still young, approaches to ameliorate resistance to space conditions, to enhance extraction of elements under these, or overcome issues, could be an excellent opportunity for space biomining, Cockell, Santomartino, and Zea write.

As biomining has already been demonstrated to work in small quantitites in the microgravity environment of the International Space Station, a next logical location to try it would be on the surface of the Moon in a larger bioreactor. After all, water is widely available on the lunar surface and lunar regolith (soil) contains heaps of useful elements. Such a specialized experiment would be difficult to perform robotically, however, and thus would likely require human boots on the ground, a tall task in and of itself.

If we want those boots to stay there long term, however, we will probably need to sort out biomining. Maintaining a constant supply line from Earth would be taxing and treacherous, but biomining has the potential to make space colonies self-sustaining. Pair the practice with advanced 3D printing, and we may just have a blueprint for long-term human habitation of the solar system.

See original here:

How biomining could sustain space colonies - Big Think

[Ed. note: This article contains major spoilers for The Expanse books and the end of the TV show.]

The American physicist and philosopher Thomas Kuhn first coined the phrase paradigm shift in his 1962 book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions to describe the point at which scientists are confronted by a phenomenon that proves their previous understanding of how the universe worked was flawed. While Kuhn was describing transitions like the move from Newtonian mechanics to quantum mechanics, the term became a useful way to talk about other major changes in the way humans saw the world, from the first images of Earth from space jumpstarting the environmentalist movement, to the way COVID-19 changed how people view remote work.

The best science fiction isnt about predicting the future but commenting on the present, and The Expanse ultimately reflected on all the ways humanity has dealt with recent paradigm shifts. Throughout the series six seasons spread across Syfy and Amazon, the origins, abilities, and motives of the shows aliens remained fairly cryptic.

But Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck, who wrote the series of science fiction novels the show is based on under the pen name James S. A. Corey, seemed to mostly be interested in how humans handled the discovery of extraterrestrial technology. Those extraterrestrials were never really characters so much as an external pressure that pushed the shows various characters and political factions to quickly adapt.

Plots involving the protomolecule, a sort of self-sustaining probe sent to Earths solar system by a long extinct alien civilization, often felt at odds with the very recognizably human stories that the writers of The Expanse were otherwise telling. Viewers initially tuning in to the tales of the well meaning and scrappy crew of the Rocinante, or the sci-fi noir of Detective Josephus Miller investigating a disappearance that turns out to be at the heart of a conspiracy, might have been understandably baffled as the stakes ramped up to include an asteroid gaining sentience and heading on a collision course to Earth.

That divide was perhaps never as keenly felt than in the series sixth and final season, which wraps on Friday, where most of the alien weirdness was taking place in an entirely different solar system from the main action, on a Martian colony called Laconia. Considering the truncated length of the final season, and that the interludes on Laconia had little payoff beyond setting up a theoretical spinoff, its easy to feel like time spent there was replacing more moments of sweet bonding on the Rocinante, or tense standoffs between the United Nations fleet and the Belter Free Navy. Instead, precious screen time was dedicated to worrying about how some dog-like aliens were able to resurrect people.

Yet the brilliance of The Expanse was in placing almost all of the agency in the hands of its human characters. The creators of the protomolecule had the fairly benevolent desire to explore the galaxy and share it with other lifeforms, but their work became the center of numerous all-too-recognizable conflicts.

The protomolecule kills or transforms most people who come into contact with it, but it has no real malice. In fact, the vast majority of the harm it causes is directly orchestrated by humans looking to understand and weaponize it. In season 1, the ruthless tycoon Jules-Pierre Mao conspired to kill hundreds of thousands of Belters as part of an experiment designed to unleash the protomolecules power, and worked with Mars to create human-protomolecule hybrids to use as super soldiers.

And so, the protomolecule set off a new arms race, with various factions scheming to ensure they werent left behind (or at the mercy of the protomolecule). Rocinante crew member Naomi Nagata secretly gave a sample to Belter leader Fred Johnson, only to have it fall into the hands of Marcos Inaros after his loyalists assassinated Johnson. Inaros in turn sold it to the rogue Martian admiral Winston Duarte in exchange for the technology Inaros used to attack Earth.

While its origins may be extraordinary, the paradigm shift of the protomolecule has more in common with the early days of nuclear physics than more conventional first contact stories. As the series progressed, the writers effectively retread post-Cold War human history with the protomolecule serving as the primary catalyst for change. Individual leaders certainly had huge influences on how the people they represented responded to the all-too-interesting times they were living in. But the primary conflict always boiled down to how well a faction could react to radical changes in the world order they were used to.

The Martian marine Bobbie Draper represented successful, if turbulent, adaptation to the times. She was betrayed by her own people, the sole survivor of an attack by a protomolecule-human hybrid and wound up defecting to the United Nations to uncover the conspiracy. She was cleared of treason but then got in trouble again when the first Ring appeared and she tried to diffuse the situation there but her own soldiers disobeyed her orders to stand down.

Mars, which built its civilization on noble sacrifice for a terraforming project that would benefit future generations, all but collapsed when the Ring gates gave its citizens the chance to immediately live free under blue skies. Bobbie struggled to find new purpose, at first resorting to criminal activity, but then choosing a different path after seeing the harm her actions caused. She became a symbol for cooperation between old enemies as she allied herself with United Nations Secretary General Chrisjen Avasarala, and even helped push Avasarala to rethink her previously monstrous treatment of Belters.

Duarte expresses many of the same emotions Bobby went through in a monologue that serves as one of the most powerful moments of season 6. He mourns the dream that he and his people lost while sharing his ambitions for Laconia as a new force in the galaxy. I needed something to make it more than just death, he said. I needed to make it a sacrifice.

Ultimately, his position of power helps sidestep much of the awkwardness Bobbie experienced: While all of The Expanses protagonists are focused on stopping Inaros, the Belter leader is just being used by Duarte as a distraction so he is unhindered in his efforts to learn more about the technology of the Ring Builders and use it to make himself the self-appointed protector of the newly expanded galaxy. The breakthrough he reached is only hinted at within the finale, but in the books Duarte turns Laconia into a new empire.

The distance between whats happening on Laconia and the fight against the Free Navy may seem great, but the two plots are tightly connected. Duarte is a symptom of the collapse of Mars that Earth initially viewed as a victory, their long-time rivals demoralized and fragmented, and hes empowered by the desperate Belters using violence to get the Inners to take them seriously. The fact that almost everyone in the show is oblivious to what is happening on Laconia underscores one of the defining themes of the show: humanity is terrible at predicting the next threat because we have such a hard time looking beyond our current paradigms.

Those few people who can see what is on the horizon must struggle to make themselves heard, often fighting entrenched interests. Holden has a unique connection to the protomolecule, which allowed it to communicate with him through a manifestation of his dead friend Miller. He understands its incredible power and always pushes humanity to work together to deal with the danger it poses, constantly appealing to the better natures of the more morally ambiguous people around him.

That connection allowed him to understand that something was becoming angered by humanity traversing the galaxy. In season 6, that force took action by destroying ships. Like the Ring Builders, the new threat is not something that people can talk to. Its more akin to climate change, a terrible side effect to the rapid expansion of human progress that can only really be grappled with through collective action the kind of cooperation Holden urges throughout the series, exasperating the powers that be even if he does earn credibility by repeatedly saving the world.

The Expanse could have used more time to give its rich characters the sendoffs they deserved and explore the ways that the Ring gates and scientific advancements made with the protomolecule were changing the world. Yet the final season stayed close to its central themes by showing that dramatic change is inevitable, but humanity should meet new innovations and crisis with collaboration to make the best decisions possible. The writers ended the show on an optimistic note, with the creation of a new governing board for Ring travel formed with the help of Holden and all of the factions that started the series at each others throats. The transportation union not only allows for safe exploration of the galaxy but finally places the perpetually oppressed denizens of the Asteroid Belt on the same level as the residents of Earth and Mars. A new threat is coming from beyond the Ring, but the crew of the Rocinante once again saved the day and earned themselves the status of legends not only within the shows universe but within science fiction canon.

Independence Day, Watchmen, and Star Trek imagined that making first contact with aliens whether violent or peaceful would get humanity to put aside our differences and work towards something greater than ourselves. Abraham and Franck took a less simplistic view but one that still feels radically optimistic at a time when factionalism seems more pronounced than ever. With a crew representing people from Earth, Mars, and the Belt who have repeatedly saved humanity by acting as a voice of reason, the Rocinante could feel as utopian as the U.S.S. Enterprise.

The future of The Expanse is very recognizable in a world when space exploration is being dominated by billionaires who imagine Earth will eventually be a place people can just visit on vacation. If we do take to the stars en masse, we will likely bring with it all the worst aspects of capitalism and nationalism imagined in The Expanse. Yet, if were lucky, well also heed the shows message by occasionally pausing to question our assumptions about the way the world works and seeing if we can actually build something better.

The Expanse is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video.

Read more:

The Expanse season 6 used aliens for a political message in the end - Polygon

Destiny 2 players will revisit Mars with The Witch Queen expansion--despite the fact that the planet was removed from the game with the Beyond Light expansion. Rumors about Mars returning to Destiny 2 began when the first The Witch Queen trailer showed Ikora glaring at her evidence board of photos, maps, and alchemic signs while surrounded by red terrain. Fans later noticed a Destiny 1 Mars map on her board which is easier to see from Bungie's teaser clips that gave a closer look at the board. The Game Awards live-action trailer explained that we revisit Mars for the first mission and meet the Light-bearing Savathun. It seems similar to how we ventured to Phobos, a moon of Mars, at the start of Destiny 1's expansion, The Taken King.

We've dug into what we've seen of The Witch Queen and the lore of Mars to run down every lingering lore thread and story tidbit that you might need to know about heading into the expansion.

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Now Playing: Destiny 2: The Witch Queen - The Game Awards Trailer

In the lore of Destiny, Mars has been a beacon for the Light and Darkness for centuries, but the live-action trailer creates more puzzling connections between the two. Firstly, I noticed the out-of-place crop field on Mars within a boundary that reminded me of the dark Taken splotches, which have a bright outline. Remembering that I've seen this crop field before, I looked up The Witch Queen's Collector's Edition and found that the photo of the Martian crop field is there as well. It seems like whatever is happening within the boundary is not from the present day--and if that's the case, then this is most likely an image from the Golden Age on Mars.

In Year 1 of Destiny 1, a pre-Golden Age opening cinematic showed three astronauts during the Ares One mission witness the Traveler in person for the first time while it was terraforming Mars, making it another habitable world of the solar system. Habitable conditions led to colonies, including agriculture. A Golden Age agriculture container in the wreckage of the Nessus colony ship proves that crops were a part of colonizing. Like Mercury, Mars could've been a completely different place when it was first terraformed. Even some Destiny concept art shows a different type of Mars during early exploration, including an area that looks like a swamp.

An old postcard from the Martian city named Freehold illustrated it as one of humanity's great achievements: a home away from home in Meridian Bay. But then the Darkness came and swept the Bay under the red dunes and led the solar system into the Dark Age. A sparrow ride through The Buried City, the remains of Freehold, revealed historic signage of Clovis Bray, Daito, and the Off World Transit (OWT) railway. With the absence of Earthlings, extraterrestrial enemies grew their presence on Mars with their Vex structures and Cabal zones.

The Vex created a gateway with the Darkness using portals to the Black Garden. In the lore piece Legend: The Black Garden, a Guardian named Pujari tells their vision of the Garden. "The Traveler moved across the face of the iron world. It opened the earth and stitched shut the sky. It made life possible. In these things there is always symmetry. Do you understand? This is not the beginning but it is the reason." Pujari is referring to Mars as the iron world and signifying its mysterious relation to the Black Garden.

A Ghost scan in The Cistern on Nessus says, "A Conflux that's directly connected to Mars. The Vex there are having a heck of a time with the Red Legion, it seems like. 'Garden gate gone. Bay lost. Bastion fallen.' Huh." The Vex lost their strongholds on Mars while fighting Red Legion forces during the Red War in Destiny 2. It might be why we see Red Legion Psions and Cabal ships aggressively attack Savathun's Dreadnaught-looking ship in the live-action trailer.

Destiny 2's Warmind expansion took us to the icy caps of Hellas Basin, where something ancient lurked beneath Mars. Warsats crashing into the planet freed the banished son of Oryx named Nokris and the Hive God Xol--both were trapped under the Martian glaciers by the AI Warmind called Rasputin, whose core sat at BrayTech Futurescape. Ana Bray called Rasputin the most powerful weapon in the entire solar system so Xol sought to destroy the AI while Nokris commanded his Hive. Yet, we don't exactly know what attracted them to Mars.

A lore piece from Season of Arrivals may give a clue. During one mission, Ana Bray thanks the Guardian after you return an item to her called Helsom's Journal. In real life, Matt Helsom worked with Vicarious Visions and Bungie as senior environment artist and passed away in 2020. In the game, Helsom was a Golden Age xenoarchaeologist. Bungie's tribute to the artist through Ana Bray contains an interesting phrase about Mars. "He believed there were instances of contact between extrasolar species and humanity, long before the Traveler." Evidence from the Shadowkeep lore book Revelations proves that Darkness existed in our solar system pre-Collapse, hidden beneath our Moon's surface.

With the arrival of the Black Fleet, it was time to say goodbye to Mars and Rasputin, for now. In the view from Braytech Futurescape sat a gargantuan Pyramid ship. Season of Arrivals was about the new Tree of Silver Wings within the terraformed Cradle known as Last Eden on Jupiter's moon, Io. Ikora told our Guardian during the Red War that the Cradle and Io still had remnants of the Light since it was the last place the Traveler touched. Savathun interacted with Guardians for the first time during this season when she brought us into her Ascendant Court--preventing us from seeking the Pyramid ship's gift, the Seed of Silver Wings. It seemed like it was a different seed than the one from the Forsaken expansion where we received a Seed of Light through trees that grew from the Traveler's Light pulses on Io. This is relevant to the upcoming expansion because a perplexing scene in the live-action trailer showed a Cradle on Mars.

In the Tenebrous Tunnels mission on Mars, our Ghost says, "This rail system was endless. It connected colonies, dig sites. I'm even detecting a line that runs all the way up to the Cradle at the North Pole." However, this may conflict with the fact that Clovis Bray's research facility on Mars is also called the Cradle of Invention. Knowing that the Pyramid ship was viewable from BrayTech Futurescape, both of these Cradles might be near one another. The Exotic Titan armor called Ruin Wings from Destiny's Dark Below expansion says, "In the Garden grows a tree of silver wings. The leaves are ruin, the bark disaster. Of the seeds we do not speak." This may indicate that there are more seeds out there in other Cradles.

Myelin Games tackled many of the clues about the Cradle on Mars in their video covering the trailer and its themes. A cryptic Chartres-inspired labyrinth design seen recurringly related to the Light or the Darkness was shown at the center of the Cradle. I also noticed this symbol on The Singular Exegete lore book that had the labyrinth design inside Eris Morn's symbol and on the Psychometer Replica that holds the Hive Ghost shell in The Witch Queen Collector's Edition. Myelin also pointed out that Savathun's ship sits above the Martian Cradle like the Pyramid ships on Io in Season of Arrivals and how Savathun could have taken the Pyramid ship from Mars and placed it inside her Throne World. Removing a Pyramid ship could also free Mars from the anomaly that has hidden it, which would explain why we can reach the planet in The Witch Queen.

Mars, Io, Titan, and Mercury were taken by the Black Fleet by the end of the Season of Arrivals. A lore book called Captain's Log from the Season of the Chosen's Presage mission mentioned that in place of Mars lies an anomaly. In Presage, we discover that Cabal Emperor Calus was onboard the Glykon ship with his crew, heading to the anomaly. He was using the Crown of Sorrow, created by Savathun, to run experiments on the Scorn by merging minds as a way to communicate with The Entity, the intelligence that seems to be behind the powers of the Darkness. Interestingly, a scan from Presage reads, "It recounts a descent into the anomaly...Gravitational oscillations broke and reformed the Glykon many times over. It is as if every permutation of the ship's existence collided in one space." The Glykon was rearranged after contact with the anomaly, which suggests that the same thing could happen with Mars. We could be seeing various parts of Mars's existence becoming mushed into one.

In Season of the Lost, a conversation between Lord Saladin and Valus Or'ohk in the Peacebond lore tells us that there are Hive tombships near the Mars anomaly. Although the conversation turns towards Xivu Arath, those ships may be Savathun's preparations for her next trick at the end of the Season.

Even though we know Mars is returning, we don't know where the first mission is set or if we'll get more of Mars after that mission. However, we do know that Savathun's Throne World will be an explorable destination with many secrets.

Destiny 2 The Witch Queen launches on February 22.

Read the rest here:

Mars Remains Enigmatic As Ever Leading Up To Destiny 2 The Witch Queen - GameSpot

Starfield represents a bold new frontier for Bethesda Game Studios. It's the developer's first new universe in 25 years, for starters. Starfield is also its first Xbox Series X console exclusive since becoming a part of the Xbox Game Studios collective, and the developer's first attempt at building a game set amongst the stars after work on The 10th Planet was scrapped in the '90s. Fallout and The Elder Scrolls are Bethesda's past. Starfield is its future.

It's an exciting time for action-RPG players eager to escape this reality for another, but it would be disingenuous for me not to admit that one comment from Todd Howard has given me pause: "It's like Skyrim in space." That's how Bethesda Game Studios' executive producer described Starfield to The Washington Post and I can't shake it. With Starfield aspiring to reach greater heights, I hope the studio has found an updated roadmap to help guide it through the unknown.

Key Info

GameStarfieldDeveloperBethesda Game StudiosPublisherXbox Game StudiosPlatformsPC, Xbox Series XRelease2022

Had Skyrim's flame been allowed to extinguish, just as the torches we once carried for Morrowind and Oblivion did so many years ago, then perhaps the idea of Elder Scrolls among the stars would be more alluring. As it is, Skyrim is undoubtedly a better game to play today than it ever was in 2011, thanks to Bethesda's insistence on updating and expanding its fantasy sandbox. I've had my fill of it, on three generations of console, no less, and it's time for something new.

Yet in spite of Howard's comparison, it does appear that the studio is steering Starfield toward new horizons. For years now, Bethesda has cycled between the wilds of Fallout and the wildness of The Elder Scrolls. But Starfield is something bigger by nature, an adventure unfurling across a small pocket of the Milky Way, one that's designed to let us explore the frontiers of the Settled Colonies and navigate fracturing alliances in the aftermath of a bloody Colony War.

Starfield takes place in the year 2330 and in an area that extends outward from our Solar System for 50 light years. What we'll find there is Bethesda's science-fiction universe, one that's grounded in an understanding of technology and humanity as we know it today. That's the backdrop to Starfield's action as we enter it as a new member of Constellation, a faction committed to uncovering the mysteries of the galaxy by exploring the deepest reaches of the Settled Systems.

What we have heard of Starfield so far indicates that hostile alien worlds should be expected, although it's the star systems controlled by the two largest factions the United Colonies, settled on New Atlantis, and Freestar Collective, based out of Akila City that may pose the greatest threat to your survival. Not to mention rogue outfits like the Ecliptic Mercenaries, Pirates of the Crimson Fleet, and the fanatical zealots of House Va'ruun who are tussling for control of the space in-between.

"Fallout and The Elder Scrolls are Bethesda's past. Starfield is its future"

It's difficult to get a true sense of the scale of Starfield. Todd Howard has been careful in this regard, saying very little about the playable space most likely to avoid falling into the same trap that once ensnared Hello Games' No Man's Sky. Perhaps it's easy to over-promise and under-deliver when you lose the ability to enclose a playground with mountainous fencing. What's clear at this juncture, however, is that Starfield will have a different structure to the adventures contained within The Commonwealth or Tamriel. Where Fallout and The Elder Scrolls have you emerge from captivity and then set out to explore one sprawling world, Starfield will be spread amongst many.

We've seen just three cities so far, although each is set in a different part of the Settled System. New Atlantis, the capital city of the U.C., a mecca which Bethesda has described as being "a true reflection of the future of our world." And then there's Akila City, the capital of the Freestar Collective, a loose confederation of three distinct star systems, walled-off from the world to protect its citizens from the Ashta "alien predators that are a cross between a wolf and a velociraptor." And then there's the pleasure city of Neon, which appears to be Starfield's very own wretched hive of scum and villainy.

Visually, these areas couldn't be more distinct. Tonally and thematically divergent too. Bethesda is bringing decades of experience to this RPG and the mind can only wander as you imagine the possibilities; of the characters we'll meet and the quests they'll send us out on across the galaxy. The authored stories we'll encounter and the ones we'll write all on our own, as the disparate elements of Bethesda's sandbox combine in weird and wonderful ways in tandem with deep, expressive character modeling and progression systems.

Comparing Starfield to Skyrim makes total sense from a marketing perspective; The Elder Scrolls 5 has sold over 30 million copies and is perhaps the most recognisable RPG of the modern era. But from the perspective of play, I hope that the expanded scope of Starfield invites change that the nine years Bethesda has sunk into Starfield's production leads to more than a 'Skyrim in space'. There is, after all, already a mod that can make that happen.

All throughout January, GamesRadar+ is exploring the biggest games of the new year with exclusive interviews, hands-on impressions, and in-depth editorials. For more, be sure to follow along with Big in 2022.

The rest is here:

I hope that Starfield is more than "Skyrim in Space" - Gamesradar

When I openedthe linkto my first interview in themetaverse, theinterviewerappeared to be a monkey with heart-shaped glasses. He introduced himself as the avatar of the real interviewer, Club Metaverse podcast host Marc Fernandez, whose voice I could hear. Fernandez reasoned that this monkey is anon-fungible token(NFT) worth tens of thousands of dollars because it is part of a rare digital collection.

During the Q&A, I explained to the metaverse monkey with heart glasses that as a scientist, I am in love with the actual reality of the physical world, shared by all humans. And as a result of being in love with the physical reality, I want to know everything about it and not be distracted by fictitious notions of it. Just like cosmetic make-up, these notions hide true beauty along with any pimples. Naturally, Id prefer to see my real interviewers face and not the avatar, even if the latter is digital art worth a lot of money.

Metaverse assets could disappear as a result of a global electricity blackout. But other virtual realities are entrenched in our mind. For example, mainstream theoretical physicists dedicate their careers to exploring themultiversein the string theory landscape, without goggles attached to their heads. It is human nature to fly high on the wings of imagined narratives rather than be chained by the constraints of scientific evidence.

The metaverse interview focused on the question of whether`Oumuamua, the first interstellar object spotted near Earth by thePan-STARRSobservatory, might have been technological equipment sent by another civilization.

Three days later, I was interviewed by William Shatner who portrayed Captain James T. Kirk on the imagined USS Enterprise in Star Trek. I had never enjoyed Star Trek because its storyline violates the laws of physics and that bothers me as a physicist.

Following both interviews, I came to realize that the metaverse would be a fertile backdrop for science fiction narratives. However, in dealing with the reality we all share, we must separate science from fiction. And asGalileo Galileiadvocated, this is best done by subjecting ideas to experimental tests. In that vein, a science fiction idea such as the possibility thatan interstellar objectmight be technological equipment manufactured by an advanced technological civilization will be tested experimentally by theGalileo Projectthat I am leading.

Some extraterrestrial equipment that the Galileo Project finds might be defunct. NASA launched five spacecraft that will exit the solar system within tens ofthousands of years. They were intended to report back on what they probed in the solar system, but in a billion years they will be space trash. Most interstellar equipment might be like unusable plastic bottles on the surface of the ocean,accumulated over the billions of years of the cosmicstar formation history, during which most stars were born before the Sun.

The likelihood of success in finding mail within our mailbox the orbit of the Earth around the sun, depends on the abundance of artificial objects per unit volume. There may be many more small objects than large objects, and Pan-STARRS telescope is only able to detect reflected sunlight from objects bigger than a football field within the Earth-sun separation. NASA never sent out a craft that big but many smaller ones. Also, some spacecraft might move much faster than comets or asteroids and all the search algorithms employed by astronomers would miss very fast-moving objects.

The senders may not be alive at present. But even if we imagine electromagnetic communication of some probes with their senders, it would likely be done in brief, sporadic, directional, narrow-band transmissions to save power, and so we could easily miss them. The travel time of signals is very long, tens of thousands of years across the Milky Way disk. It, therefore, makes more sense for probes to pursue a task assigned to them by their senders without feedback, like a group of ants on a journey to a distant hill without the ability to communicate with their base colony in real time.

In an email correspondence I had with former NSF Director France Cordova, she noted insightfully that most of the exodus of probes might occur near the end in the life of the star hosting a civilization. The civilization from where probes were sent in a final act of distress might have died by now. In this case, it would be just the technological descendants that we will encounter.

Experimental data from the Galileo Project will serve as the meeting place between what is possible and what exists, similarly to my first interview in the metaverse. The metaverse allows a virtual reality, which violates the laws of physics. But when we take its goggles off, we must accept the pleasure and painof the real world in which the laws of physics do not budge. Pain because those laws dictate that humans cannot live a long life when exposed to cosmic-rays on the surface of Mars. Pleasure because the same laws allow humans to live long on Earth, where if they choose, they can pretend to be monkeys with sunglasses in the metaverse.

AviLoebis the head of theGalileo Project, founding director of Harvard University's Black Hole Initiative, director of the Institute for Theory and Computation at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, and the former chair of the astronomy department at Harvard University (2011-2020). He chairs the advisory board for the Breakthrough Starshot project and is a former member of the Presidents Council of Advisors on Science and Technology and a former chair of the Board on Physics and Astronomy of the National Academies. He is the bestselling author of Extraterrestrial:The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth and a co-author of the textbook Life in the Cosmos, both published in 2021.

Continue reading here:

An interview in the metaverse | TheHill - The Hill

Beth Doyle (bdoyle@wickedlocal.com), Maryclare Himmel (Special to Old Colony Memorial)| Wicked Local

Oceanfront Victorian on Manters Point overlooks Plymouth Long Beach

Situated on nearly an acre of oceanfront land in Plymouth, this Victorian Farmhouse overlooks the spectacular expanse of Long Beach and the Eel River.

Wochit

Conveniently located close to historicdowntownPlymouth,theEel RiverBeachClub and PlimothPatuxet,this picturesque Victorian farmhouseenjoys a unique setting with easy access to two of the areas most scenic waterways. Long Beach is a3-mile-longbarrier beachthat is home to shorebirds and wildlife that roam the wave- and windswept shores. The 3.9-mile-long Eel River begins its journey to the sea at the cranberry bogs east of Long Pond Road, flowing along PlimothPatuxetand paralleling the beach before emptying into Plymouth Harbor between the beach and Manters Point. A private staircase from the backyard of the home leads down to the river, allowing easy access for tubing and beach activities during the warmer months.

The home is situatedon nearly an acre of waterfront land overlooking theriver and the spectacular expanse of Long Beachin a private, quiet enclaveon Manters Point,where a single, one-lane roadway circles past shingled homes with sweeping views of the Atlantic.

Built in 1905, thehome maintains all the charm and essence of a quintessentialturn-of-the-centurybeach cottage,completewith acovered, wraparound porchthat speaks of long summer afternoons spent in rocking chairs watching the waves roll against the shore as gulls circle overhead.

Company:Gibson Sothebys International Realty

Website:www.GibsonSothebysRealty.com

Listing agent:Ashley Brennan

Email:Ashley.Brennan@GibsonSIR.com

Telephone:781-844-5302

Price:$2,495,000

Style:Victorian

Bedrooms:Five

Bathrooms:Three full, one half

Living space:3,440 square feet

Lot size:0.94acre

Garage:Two-car, attached

Highlights:Located on a rise overlooking the Eel River and the spectacular expanse of Long Beach, this delightful Victorian farmhouse sits on nearly an acre of rare oceanfront land.The expansive homemaintainsall ofthe charm of a turn-of-the-century beach cottage, complete with a covered, wraparound porch with commanding views of the ocean. Abright, open floor plan encompasses a light-filled living room and dining roomand aspacious, inviting kitchenthathas been renovated toincludesoapstone counters, stainless appliances and clean-lined cabinetrythatpromote an up-to-date feel while maintaining the delightful charm of the original design.Five bedrooms arranged on the two upper floors offer abundant charm and plenty of room for a large family and out-of-town guests. Additional cozy roomspose possibilities for use as office, studio or studyspace.Aprivate staircasefrom the manicured yard offers easyaccessto the river for tubing and beachingin the summer months.

Taxes:$23,050

For more information about this home, and additional South Shore real estate news, read the South Shore Real Estate section in this weeks newspaper.

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Oceanfront retreat overlooks Plymouth Long Beach and the Eel River - Wicked Local

The past year has been a one long battle for Free Play Arcade's plans to open its fourth location in Denton.

The arcade chain opened a fourth branch in a small space on West Hickory Street in 2018. Things got complicated when the pandemic forced them to close, which lead to a dispute with the landlord that brought the two parties to court in 2020 at the peak of the coronavirus pandemic.

"It was the hardest thing of my professional career," says Free Play Arcade owner Corey Hyden. "I think that's why we were so adamant on getting back to Denton."

After an undisclosed settlement and months of searching and renovating, Free Play Arcade is back in Denton in a place that's even better than anyone could have imagined even with a global virus that could gum up the works at a moment's notice.

This time, Free Play took on a much larger location on West Hickory Street right on Denton's downtown square, and it had a soft opening of its fourth and most ambitious Dallas-Fort Worth arcade concept in the old Abbey Inn building.

A classic style arcade sign is now part of the Denton square skyline thanks to Free Play Arcade.

Corey Hyden

The massive space houses three floors of arcade games, a big kitchen and an expanded bar space that now allows them to sell cocktails.

"This used to be a big restaurant that served a ton of food," Hyden says. "So now we're able to turn out a ton of food at our Denton location. So we've basically broken every food record we've ever had."

The locale required an extensive amount of renovation to turn it into a useable space. The exterior needed work, but wasn't much of a problem compared with the interior. Hyden says almost every inch of wood had been rotted or gutted out by leaks or the elements.

"The stage had been rotten through," Hyden says. "There were probably whole ecosystems living in there."

Doing a renovation of a massive space during a pandemic presented even more challenges than those that already come with the opening of a a new business.

"Every time we'd try to tackle one task, it takes so much longer than it used to," Hyden says. "The place started to take shape, and we realized we were in a dream situation to be there on the Denton square. It's amazing. It's a really fun row to be on as an arcade. There's lots of really nerdy stuff there together with some Denton nightlife-type stuff.

"It seemed like it was gonna be a real addition to the square. It felt like we should've been there from the start and the pandemic took us there."

The bigger space allows for more games to be on the floor, but Hyden says they are focused on quality over quantity as they are with all their locations. He says Denton's arcade space can hold between 125 and 145 games, but they want to use the extra space to bring in larger games like Skee-Ball and basketball cabinets and provide more breathing room for larger arcade cabinets such as Killer Queen, a three-on-three, multi-goal platformer that's built a competitive gaming league across the Free Play chain and other arcade brands.

"It's so ridiculously big," says Free Play's community liaison Chris Delp. "I walk inside, and I see Killer Queen right there. Then you go downstairs and snake around the corner and another corner and the whole way is lined with games. It's crazy."

Local artists such as Jose "Skilz" May decorated Free Play Arcade's new Denton location with colorful game murals like this mashup of Dig-Dug and Q*Bert.

Corey Hyden

"They've been kind of the nomads jumping from event to event," Delp says. "A lot of the successes I had post-pandemic has to do with the Denton players supporting my events and making the communities thrive in Fort Worth and Richardson. I owe those players a lot, so when I see that the Denton arcade is the best arcade, it makes me smile."

Read the rest here:

Free Play Arcade Is Home Again With a Massive Space in Denton - Dallas Observer

Plymouth Long Beach September 2016

Tranquil Plymouth Long Beach September 2016

Wicked Local

PLYMOUTH Plymouths innermost harbor is getting a long-awaited cleansing.

The inner basin, that small, but highly visible section of water between Water Street and Town Wharf, is one of the busiest parts of the harbor. Its docks are home to charter fishing boats, whale watch vessels, fishermen and the harbormaster, but, for decades now, it has slowly been filling with sediment.

At low tide, vast sections are exposed as flats, leaving some boats touching ground.

The town has been trying to dredge the basin for many years. But decades ago, a dangerous chemical settled there.

The town will never know for sure, but officials suspect that someone dumped the pesticide DDT into a storm drain that empties into the harbor.

The pesticide washed into the basin and, years ago, hot spots were identified in sediment samples.

More: State grant will help fund dredging of Town Wharf basin in Plymouth Harbor

More: Tall ships Harvey Gamage and Peacemaker visit Plymouth Harbor

Its presence changed the way the town could approach dredging. The sediment could not simply be scooped up and dumped out at sea.

It must be taken to an inland facility and treated in a way that makes it safe for disposal in a landfill.

The discovery of the pesticide added tremendously to the cost of proposed dredging operations and delayed removal of the material. But with help from the state, the town finally is clearing it out.

Town Meeting approved $1.3 million for the project last spring. The states executive office of Housing and Economic Development awarded a $1.3 million grant for the work as well.

AGM Marine Contractors Inc. of New Bedford has contracted to do the work. AGM completed the most recent dredging around other side of Town Wharf and, in addition to experience with the harbor, has dredges and barges that can fit into tight spaces if needed. And they are.

More: Time for maritime center

More: Whale and Dolphin Conservation responses vital to seals, whales, other marine animals

The project is small in comparison to other work in the harbor.

It will remove 6,000 cubic yards of material and ship it to a treatment plant in New Jersey, where it will be disposed of in a landfill after treatment.

The work is 1/50 of the size of the federally funded dredging project that cleared the harbor channel and and mooring field over the last few years. That project took 300,000 cubic yards of material.

Harbormaster Chad Hunter said AGM started dredging the basin Jan. 3 and has a permit to continue the work through January. The project should only require about seven days of actual dredging, but weather could be a factor in the timing.

The work will have a profound impact on the inner basin, which was last dredged nearly 60 years ago.

The dredging operation will dig out the basin to minus 8 feet. By comparison, the harbors main channel was recently dredged to minus 15 feet. Hunter said the inner basin had been at minus 4 feet, but was completely shoaled in some areas and appeared as mudflats at low tide.

This will basically restore the area to the way it once was, he said, explaining that work will protect usage of the basin and give boats space to maneuver.

The harbormaster cleared all boats from the area for the month to give workers room to dredge.

It is one of two dredging operations in the harbor this winter. A private dredging operation is also underway at the marina at the mouth of Town Brook.

A separate public project, also funded by a state grant, is restoring a section of Town Wharf this winter too.

The $1 million state Seaport Economic Council grant is funding the reconstruction of the bulkhead, timber pier construction and boardwalk on the section of the wharf between the Lobster Hut and Woods Seafood. The project will encase the existing bulkhead in concrete and add lighting to the new stretch of boardwalk.

The bulkhead was built in 1959 or 1960 and has never been repaired. The state grant required the town to contribute $331,000 toward the project. The town has contracted with New England Building and Bridge Co. for the work.

Hunter said the contractor plans to replace pilings in the next two weeks and expects to finish the project this spring.

Read the rest here:

Dredging project will give boats room to maneuver in basin of Plymouth Harbor - Wicked Local