Weekly Science Headlines

[Abbot Mythos]

Taken at face value, this announcement didn't appear to me to be all that interesting:

Research News Brief: sketching E.T. with the fundamental logic of life

And, the long, formal paper being announced is likely going to attract the attention of only the hardcore life sciences types:

Fundamental constraints to the logic of living systems

But, this research paper did catch the attention of Sabine Hossenfelder, and I found her insights to be quite interesting, as follows:

"New Study Finds Alien Life Must Be Similar To Us"

Still, I have to admit that learning alien life must be similar to us is a bit depressing. After all, I have met "Us."

[Abbot Mythos]

A neutrino mass mismatch could shake cosmology's foundations

As per this article:

"Recent cosmological data collected by the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument, or DESI, favors masses that are unexpectedly small and creeping close to conflict with those of particle physics experiments. In fact, some interpretations of the DESI data suggest that neutrinos have no mass or even negative mass, normally a forbidden concept in physics (SN: 11/21/14)."

Now, that sentence caught my attention, as the words "negative mass" usually only appear in the technobabble of science fiction. So, those already mysterious neutrinos are becoming curiouser and curiouser!

[Doktor Howl]

I was involved installing that beast.

[Abbot Mythos]

Being left-handed, and having tried both hands at fencing while, as the British say, "at uni," I can attest to the fact that the fencing part of the following article's title is true:

Left-handers rank high in fencing and table tennis

For a lefty fencing a right-handed person having little experience facing lefties, it's like fighting an unarmed person. I know that sounds ridiculous, but it's true.

On the other hand, two lefties fencing each other, both of whom have little experience facing our fellow lefties, is like a Keystone Kops movie scene. Most of the time, the two lefties barely touch blades, and end up trying to pummel each other with the guards of their swords. It's hilarious.

[Abbot Mythos]

Geez, it's called the dark side of the moon for a reason. So, plan your vacation trip accordingly, and pack some warmer clothes.

Far side of the moon may be colder than the near side, lunar rocks suggest

And, as the dark side of the moon has been giving Mother Earth the cold shoulder for eons, this really shouldn't be that much of a surprise.

[Abbot Mythos]

Astronomers detect lowest mass dark object ever measured using gravitational lensing

As per this article:

""Hunting for dark objects that do not seem to emit any light is clearly challenging," said Devon Powell at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics and lead author of the study. "Since we can't see them directly, we instead use very distant galaxies as a backlight to look for their gravitational imprints.""

Now, these astronomers are not claiming that what they've found is definitively a "dark matter clump." But, it might be, and that's a big deal.

Here's the link to the original research paper:     A million-solar-mass object detected at a cosmological distance using gravitational imaging

[Abbot Mythos]

UBCO study debunks the idea that the universe is a computer simulation

"New study uses logic and physics to definitively answer one of science's biggest questions"

As per this study:

"The research hinges on a fascinating property of reality itself. Modern physics has moved far beyond Newton's tangible "stuff" bouncing around in space. Einstein's theory of relativity replaced Newtonian mechanics. Quantum mechanics transformed our understanding again. Today's cutting-edge theory—quantum gravity—suggests that even space and time aren't fundamental. They emerge from something deeper: pure information.

This information exists in what physicists call a Platonic realm—a mathematical foundation more real than the physical universe we experience. It's from this realm that space and time themselves emerge.

Here's where it gets interesting. The team demonstrated that even this information-based foundation cannot fully describe reality using computation alone. They used powerful mathematical theorems—including Gödel's incompleteness theorem—to prove that a complete and consistent description of everything requires what they call "non-algorithmic understanding.""

Well, alrighty then. I'm glad we finally got that out of the way.

[Pope Mome Apocrypha]

It seems we've got a guest moon for the next hot minute, everyone say hello to 2025 PN7, our new quasi-satellite!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_PN7

[Abbot Mythos]

It seems we've got a guest moon for the next hot minute, everyone say hello to 2025 PN7, our new quasi-satellite!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_PN7

I don't know ... I'm thinking that, just maybe, the Lligor are in some way involved in this. I mean, it sounds an awful lot like someone just might be utilizing 2025 PN₇ to keep an eye (Or, possibly some other cybernetic, genetically advanced, or even evolutionary advanced sensory organ.) on us. And, if not the Lloigor, then who?

[Abbot Mythos]

I don't know ... if this is true, I should be one of the strongest people on the planet.

How swearing makes you stronger

As per this article:

"Letting out a swear word in a moment of frustration can feel good. Now, research suggests that it can be good for you, too: Swearing can boost people's physical performance by helping them overcome their inhibitions and push themselves harder on tests of strength and endurance, according to research published by the American Psychological Association.

"In many situations, people hold themselves back—consciously or unconsciously—from using their full strength," said study author Richard Stephens, Ph.D., of Keele University in the U.K. "Swearing is an easily available way to help yourself feel focused, confident and less distracted, and 'go for it' a little more.""

Well ... okay. That's probably true. Still, swearing is a habit I wish I had never gotten into in the first place.

[Abbot Mythos]

The universe may be lopsided – new research

Well, duh. As Lord Omar Khayyam Ravenhurst himself has taught us " ... the whole Material Universe is exclusive property of the Greco-Roman Goddess of Chaos, Confusion, Strife, Helter-Skelter and Hodge-Podge." So, why would Discordians expect it to be otherwise?

And, although interesting, this isn't the most well written article on the subject, as the acronym "FLRW" acronym should have been explained to mean "Friedmann-Lemaître-Robertson-Walker," as people unfamiliar with the science of cosmology should not be expected to know that.

Anyway, as per this article:

"The shape of the universe is not something we often think about. But my colleagues and I have published a new study suggests it could be asymmetric or lopsided, meaning not the same in every direction.
 
Should we care about this? Well, today's "standard cosmological model" – which describes the dynamics and structure of the entire cosmos – rests squarely on the assumption that it is isotropic (looks the same in all directions), and homogeneous when averaged on large scales.
 
But several so-called "tensions" – or disagreements in the data – pose challenges to this idea of a uniform universe.

We have just published a paper looking at one of the most significant of these tensions, called the cosmic dipole anomaly. We conclude that the cosmic dipole anomaly poses a serious challenge to the most widely accepted description of the universe, the standard cosmological model (also called the Lambda-CDM model)."

The above referenced published paper is "paywalled," unless you're institutionalized. But, its earlier arXiv version is available here:      Colloquium: The Cosmic Dipole Anomaly

So, the Sacred Confusion Continues!

Hail Eris!

All Hail Discordia!