Friday, May 23, 2014 3:10:59 AM
We Are Dead Stars
Published on May 14, 2014 by The Atlantic [ http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCK0z0_5uL7mb9IjntOKi5XQ ]
Every atom in our bodies was fused in an ancient star. NASA astronomer Dr. Michelle Thaller explains how the iron in our blood connects us to one of the most violent acts in the universe—a supernova explosion—and what the universe might look like when all the stars die out.
This video is a collaboration between The Atlantic and SoundVision Productions' The Really Big Questions. Listen to TRBQ's one-hour radio special "What is a Good Death?" distributed by Public Radio International: http://trbq.org/topics/death/ .
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUo-Q8hhvB0 [with comments] [on Vimeo at http://vimeo.com/95180201 ] [via//embedded/more (linked) at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/21/we-are-dead-stars-the-atlantic-michelle-thaller_n_5366123.html (with comments)]
--
Did the Evolution of Animal Intelligence Begin With Tiktaalik?
Tiktaalik roseae had fish-like fins, a flattened skull (similar to a crocodile), and is thought to have lived in shallow water, using its fins to prop itself up.
(© Science Photo Library/Corbis)
How one marvelously preserved fossil sheds light on how the vertebrate invasion of land took place
By Jerry Adler
Smithsonian Magazine
June 2014
Water gave birth to life, and guarded it jealously. For billions of years, the land was barren, while life proliferated in the buoyant, nurturing bath of the seas, ignorant of such terrestrial concerns as falling down. The first invaders were plants, which began creeping upland from the streams and swamps some 450 million years ago, followed by arthropods and a few brave mollusks, which became the land snails. But waiting in the shallows was a nine-foot-long, crocodile-headed fish with both gills and, on the top of its head, air-breathing nostrils called spiracles. With a fateful lunge landward, it changed the course of life on earth forever.
In 2004, when the fossil bones of Tiktaalik roseae were dug from the ground of Ellesmere Island, in the Canadian Arctic, the discovery was hailed as a breakthrough not just for paleontology, but for beleaguered science teachers trying to keep creationism out of their classrooms. A fish (with scales and gills) clearly resembling a tetrapod (with a flat head, a neck and prototypes of terrestrial limb bones in its lobelike fins), it precisely filled one of the gaps in the fossil record that creationists cited as evidence against Darwinian evolution.
Scientists can’t say whether Tiktaalik itself is the ancestor of any species alive today; there were likely several related genera making the same transition around the same time. But the marvelously preserved fossil sheds new light on how the vertebrate invasion of land took place, some 375 million years ago.
Until this year, Tiktaalik was known only from its front half, but in January, evolutionary biologist Neil Shubin of the University of Chicago and his colleagues reported excavating the posterior skeleton of their original specimen. The hip and pelvis were surprisingly robust, suggesting more powerful rear limbs than previously believed. Although almost certainly still encased in fleshy lobes, appendages could have helped support or even propel the animal in shallow water or mud flats. If so, it changes our view of the evolution of tetrapods, whose ancestors were believed to drag themselves by their forefins, only developing useful hind legs once ensconced on land.
As for what drove this epochal migration, “it’s extremely bloody obvious: There were resources on land, plants and insects, and sooner or later something would evolve to exploit them,” says vertebrate paleontologist Mike Benton of the University of Bristol. It’s also possible, says Shubin, that fear played a part. “If you look at the other fish in the water at the time, they’re big monstrous predators,” he says. Some exceeded 20 feet in length. Even for Tiktaalik, a toothy carnivore itself, this was a “predator-rich, competitive environment.” If you can’t be the biggest fish in the pond, maybe it’s better to get out of the water altogether.
And from those first lumbering steps, it appears, came the whole parade of terrestrial vertebrates: amphibians and reptiles and birds and mammals, including those that later returned to the oceans. The process set in motion by Tiktaalik (or its cousins) was necessary for the great variety of animal life we see today.
On land, animals faced all new challenges. Nothing in the history of life to that point would have prepared them for the rude experience of slipping off a branch, or the shocking necessity of copulation as a substitute for broadcast spawning. Challenges, though, were also opportunities, to expand and diversify; Benton estimates that the land holds perhaps ten times as many species as the oceans.
Human intelligence is unique on the planet, and even by a generous definition of language, only a few mammals and birds seem to have mastered it. Simon Conway Morris of Cambridge, England, author of Life’s Solution, believes that evolution inevitably converges on certain traits, including intelligence. The octopus, which can manipulate objects with its arms and solve problems, is an example of an intelligent animal whose ancestors (as far as we know) never lived on land. But it’s hard to imagine anything like our technology developing underwater.
The emergence of intelligence remains a mystery, Benton says: “Arguably, a coral reef is equally complex as a forest. But why primates developed big brains to navigate around and find food, but not, say, clown fish—I couldn’t say.”
Shubin’s book, Your Inner Fish, recently adapted as a PBS series, traces the evolutionary history of the human body back through the time of Tiktaalik, showing, for instance, how a bone adjacent to the spiracle evolved into a bone in the tetrapod’s middle ear. A fish that hauled itself out of the water on its fleshy fins, for reasons we can only speculate on, bequeathed us our limbs, backbone, teeth and sense organs—and, perhaps, our expansive curiosity and restlessness.
Copyright 2014 The Smithsonian Institution
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/evolution-animal-intelligence-begin-tiktaalik-180951428/ [with comments]
--
National Geographic: The Story of Earth HD
Published on May 5, 2013 by ClimateState [ http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXy9Efp5QoTGGxmpKBujLLQ ]
Follow ClimateState on facebook for more climate research https://www.facebook.com/ClimateState
The Earth might seem solid beneath our feet but five billion years ago there was no sign of the planet we call home. Instead there was only a new star and a cloud of dust in our solar system. Over millions of years, a series of violent changes led to the formation of our world and, eventually, the creation of life.
In this photorealistic CGI epic, see how a boiling ball of rock transformed into the blue planet we know today. Explore every aspect of our world; learn how water first arrived on Earth, discover the vital role oxygen played as life forms began to evolve, and find out how land mammals evolved into dinosaurs and other giant beasts, before becoming extinct 65 million years ago.
Cutting-edge imagery also reveals how humans first began to walk on two feet and looks into the future to see what may be in store for our home over the next five billion years.
National Geographic: The Story of Earth (30 July 2011) TV Movie - Documentary, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1985159/ ; Earth: Making Of A Planet, http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/episodes/making-of-a-planet/, http://natgeotv.com.au/tv/earth-making-of-a-planet/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xsn3wpVAcjk [with comments] [another version of yours ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_3PFfMdZ9c {with comments}), with different title/narrator]
--
Illustris Simulation: Most detailed simulation of our Universe
Published on May 6, 2014 by Mark Vogelsberger [ http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNZiOR3mud0SrHsPoT9IfTA ]
The Illustris simulation is the most ambitious computer simulation of our Universe yet performed. The calculation tracks the expansion of the universe, the gravitational pull of matter onto itself, the motion of cosmic gas, as well as the formation of stars and black holes. These physical components and processes are all modeled starting from initial conditions resembling the very young universe 300,000 years after the Big Bang and until the present day, spanning over 13.8 billion years of cosmic evolution. The simulated volume contains tens of thousands of galaxies captured in high-detail, covering a wide range of masses, rates of star formation, shapes, sizes, and with properties that agree well with the galaxy population observed in the real universe. The simulations were run on supercomputers in France, Germany, and the US. The largest was run on 8,192 compute cores, and took 19 million CPU hours. A single state-of-the-art desktop computer would require more than 2000 years to perform this calculation.
Find out more at:
http://www.illustris-project.org
Publication:
"Properties of galaxies reproduced by a hydrodynamic simulation", Vogelsberger, Genel, Springel, Torrey, Sijacki, Xu, Snyder, Bird, Nelson, Hernquist, Nature 509, 177-182 (08 May 2014) doi:10.1038/nature13316
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v509/n7499/full/nature13316.html
Music:
moonbooter ( http://www.moonbooter.de/ )
Institutes:
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University, Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies, University of Cambridge, Institute for Advanced Study Princeton, Space Telescope Science Institute
Model Universe recreates evolution of the cosmos
Successful simulation lends weight to standard model of cosmology.
http://www.nature.com/news/model-universe-recreates-evolution-of-the-cosmos-1.15178
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/07/astronomers-virtual-universe-video_n_5282167.html
A cosmic history
Editorial
Millions of hours of processing time yield the best picture so far of how the Universe evolved.
http://www.nature.com/news/a-cosmic-history-1.15166
Cosmology: A virtual Universe
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v509/n7499/full/509170a.html
Gravitational-wave finding causes 'spring cleaning' in physics
Big Bang findings would strengthen case for multiverse and all but rule out a 'cyclic Universe'.
http://www.nature.com/news/gravitational-wave-finding-causes-spring-cleaning-in-physics-1.14910
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjSFR40SY58 [with comments] [embedded/more (linked) at http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/05/for-the-first-time-we-have-a-full-virtual-model-of-the-universe/361945/ (with comments)]
--
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Published on May 14, 2014 by The Atlantic [ http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCK0z0_5uL7mb9IjntOKi5XQ ]
Every atom in our bodies was fused in an ancient star. NASA astronomer Dr. Michelle Thaller explains how the iron in our blood connects us to one of the most violent acts in the universe—a supernova explosion—and what the universe might look like when all the stars die out.
This video is a collaboration between The Atlantic and SoundVision Productions' The Really Big Questions. Listen to TRBQ's one-hour radio special "What is a Good Death?" distributed by Public Radio International: http://trbq.org/topics/death/ .
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUo-Q8hhvB0 [with comments] [on Vimeo at http://vimeo.com/95180201 ] [via//embedded/more (linked) at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/21/we-are-dead-stars-the-atlantic-michelle-thaller_n_5366123.html (with comments)]
--
Did the Evolution of Animal Intelligence Begin With Tiktaalik?
Tiktaalik roseae had fish-like fins, a flattened skull (similar to a crocodile), and is thought to have lived in shallow water, using its fins to prop itself up.
(© Science Photo Library/Corbis)
How one marvelously preserved fossil sheds light on how the vertebrate invasion of land took place
By Jerry Adler
Smithsonian Magazine
June 2014
Water gave birth to life, and guarded it jealously. For billions of years, the land was barren, while life proliferated in the buoyant, nurturing bath of the seas, ignorant of such terrestrial concerns as falling down. The first invaders were plants, which began creeping upland from the streams and swamps some 450 million years ago, followed by arthropods and a few brave mollusks, which became the land snails. But waiting in the shallows was a nine-foot-long, crocodile-headed fish with both gills and, on the top of its head, air-breathing nostrils called spiracles. With a fateful lunge landward, it changed the course of life on earth forever.
In 2004, when the fossil bones of Tiktaalik roseae were dug from the ground of Ellesmere Island, in the Canadian Arctic, the discovery was hailed as a breakthrough not just for paleontology, but for beleaguered science teachers trying to keep creationism out of their classrooms. A fish (with scales and gills) clearly resembling a tetrapod (with a flat head, a neck and prototypes of terrestrial limb bones in its lobelike fins), it precisely filled one of the gaps in the fossil record that creationists cited as evidence against Darwinian evolution.
Scientists can’t say whether Tiktaalik itself is the ancestor of any species alive today; there were likely several related genera making the same transition around the same time. But the marvelously preserved fossil sheds new light on how the vertebrate invasion of land took place, some 375 million years ago.
Until this year, Tiktaalik was known only from its front half, but in January, evolutionary biologist Neil Shubin of the University of Chicago and his colleagues reported excavating the posterior skeleton of their original specimen. The hip and pelvis were surprisingly robust, suggesting more powerful rear limbs than previously believed. Although almost certainly still encased in fleshy lobes, appendages could have helped support or even propel the animal in shallow water or mud flats. If so, it changes our view of the evolution of tetrapods, whose ancestors were believed to drag themselves by their forefins, only developing useful hind legs once ensconced on land.
As for what drove this epochal migration, “it’s extremely bloody obvious: There were resources on land, plants and insects, and sooner or later something would evolve to exploit them,” says vertebrate paleontologist Mike Benton of the University of Bristol. It’s also possible, says Shubin, that fear played a part. “If you look at the other fish in the water at the time, they’re big monstrous predators,” he says. Some exceeded 20 feet in length. Even for Tiktaalik, a toothy carnivore itself, this was a “predator-rich, competitive environment.” If you can’t be the biggest fish in the pond, maybe it’s better to get out of the water altogether.
And from those first lumbering steps, it appears, came the whole parade of terrestrial vertebrates: amphibians and reptiles and birds and mammals, including those that later returned to the oceans. The process set in motion by Tiktaalik (or its cousins) was necessary for the great variety of animal life we see today.
On land, animals faced all new challenges. Nothing in the history of life to that point would have prepared them for the rude experience of slipping off a branch, or the shocking necessity of copulation as a substitute for broadcast spawning. Challenges, though, were also opportunities, to expand and diversify; Benton estimates that the land holds perhaps ten times as many species as the oceans.
Human intelligence is unique on the planet, and even by a generous definition of language, only a few mammals and birds seem to have mastered it. Simon Conway Morris of Cambridge, England, author of Life’s Solution, believes that evolution inevitably converges on certain traits, including intelligence. The octopus, which can manipulate objects with its arms and solve problems, is an example of an intelligent animal whose ancestors (as far as we know) never lived on land. But it’s hard to imagine anything like our technology developing underwater.
The emergence of intelligence remains a mystery, Benton says: “Arguably, a coral reef is equally complex as a forest. But why primates developed big brains to navigate around and find food, but not, say, clown fish—I couldn’t say.”
Shubin’s book, Your Inner Fish, recently adapted as a PBS series, traces the evolutionary history of the human body back through the time of Tiktaalik, showing, for instance, how a bone adjacent to the spiracle evolved into a bone in the tetrapod’s middle ear. A fish that hauled itself out of the water on its fleshy fins, for reasons we can only speculate on, bequeathed us our limbs, backbone, teeth and sense organs—and, perhaps, our expansive curiosity and restlessness.
Copyright 2014 The Smithsonian Institution
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/evolution-animal-intelligence-begin-tiktaalik-180951428/ [with comments]
--
National Geographic: The Story of Earth HD
Published on May 5, 2013 by ClimateState [ http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXy9Efp5QoTGGxmpKBujLLQ ]
Follow ClimateState on facebook for more climate research https://www.facebook.com/ClimateState
The Earth might seem solid beneath our feet but five billion years ago there was no sign of the planet we call home. Instead there was only a new star and a cloud of dust in our solar system. Over millions of years, a series of violent changes led to the formation of our world and, eventually, the creation of life.
In this photorealistic CGI epic, see how a boiling ball of rock transformed into the blue planet we know today. Explore every aspect of our world; learn how water first arrived on Earth, discover the vital role oxygen played as life forms began to evolve, and find out how land mammals evolved into dinosaurs and other giant beasts, before becoming extinct 65 million years ago.
Cutting-edge imagery also reveals how humans first began to walk on two feet and looks into the future to see what may be in store for our home over the next five billion years.
National Geographic: The Story of Earth (30 July 2011) TV Movie - Documentary, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1985159/ ; Earth: Making Of A Planet, http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/episodes/making-of-a-planet/, http://natgeotv.com.au/tv/earth-making-of-a-planet/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xsn3wpVAcjk [with comments] [another version of yours ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_3PFfMdZ9c {with comments}), with different title/narrator]
--
Illustris Simulation: Most detailed simulation of our Universe
Published on May 6, 2014 by Mark Vogelsberger [ http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNZiOR3mud0SrHsPoT9IfTA ]
The Illustris simulation is the most ambitious computer simulation of our Universe yet performed. The calculation tracks the expansion of the universe, the gravitational pull of matter onto itself, the motion of cosmic gas, as well as the formation of stars and black holes. These physical components and processes are all modeled starting from initial conditions resembling the very young universe 300,000 years after the Big Bang and until the present day, spanning over 13.8 billion years of cosmic evolution. The simulated volume contains tens of thousands of galaxies captured in high-detail, covering a wide range of masses, rates of star formation, shapes, sizes, and with properties that agree well with the galaxy population observed in the real universe. The simulations were run on supercomputers in France, Germany, and the US. The largest was run on 8,192 compute cores, and took 19 million CPU hours. A single state-of-the-art desktop computer would require more than 2000 years to perform this calculation.
Find out more at:
http://www.illustris-project.org
Publication:
"Properties of galaxies reproduced by a hydrodynamic simulation", Vogelsberger, Genel, Springel, Torrey, Sijacki, Xu, Snyder, Bird, Nelson, Hernquist, Nature 509, 177-182 (08 May 2014) doi:10.1038/nature13316
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v509/n7499/full/nature13316.html
Music:
moonbooter ( http://www.moonbooter.de/ )
Institutes:
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University, Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies, University of Cambridge, Institute for Advanced Study Princeton, Space Telescope Science Institute
Model Universe recreates evolution of the cosmos
Successful simulation lends weight to standard model of cosmology.
http://www.nature.com/news/model-universe-recreates-evolution-of-the-cosmos-1.15178
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/07/astronomers-virtual-universe-video_n_5282167.html
A cosmic history
Editorial
Millions of hours of processing time yield the best picture so far of how the Universe evolved.
http://www.nature.com/news/a-cosmic-history-1.15166
Cosmology: A virtual Universe
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v509/n7499/full/509170a.html
Gravitational-wave finding causes 'spring cleaning' in physics
Big Bang findings would strengthen case for multiverse and all but rule out a 'cyclic Universe'.
http://www.nature.com/news/gravitational-wave-finding-causes-spring-cleaning-in-physics-1.14910
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjSFR40SY58 [with comments] [embedded/more (linked) at http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/05/for-the-first-time-we-have-a-full-virtual-model-of-the-universe/361945/ (with comments)]
--
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Greensburg, KS - 5/4/07
"Eternal vigilance is the price of Liberty."
from John Philpot Curran, Speech
upon the Right of Election, 1790
F6
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