NASA, along with the Office of Science and Technology Policy, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and several other governmental agencies collaborated on this federal planning document for NEOs.
The 20-page document is titled “The National Near-Earth Object Preparedness Strategy and Action Plan,” and organizes and coordinates efforts related to the NEO efforts within the federal government during the next 10 years to ensure the nation can more effectively respond in case this type of very low-probability but very high-consequence natural disaster should occur. NASA’s Near-Earth Object Observation Program funds asteroid detection and tracking efforts at observatories across the U.S. and in space, and collaborates with other observatories around the world. The NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, maps and publishes the orbits of all detected objects so that everyone can understand the potential risk. NASA also is studying approaches for deflecting (turning aside) or disrupting (breaking up) asteroids. By completing the action plan, NASA and several other departments and agencies will evaluate and begin development of various approaches and technologies for defending Earth from a significant impact. The plan establishes five overarching strategic goals to reduce the risk of NEO impacts through improved understanding, forecasting, prevention, and emergency preparedness. The plan will:
enhance NEO detection, tracking, and characterization capabilities
improve NEO modeling prediction, and information integration
develop technologies for NEO deflection and disruption missions
increase international cooperation on NEO preparation, and
establish NEO impact emergency procedures and action protocols
Imagine playing a racing game like Mario Kart, using only your brain to execute the complex series of turns in a lap.
This is not a video game fantasy, but a real program that engineers at The University of Texas at Austin have created as part of research into brain-computer interfaces to help improve the lives of people with motor disabilities. More importantly, the researchers incorporated machine learning capabilities with their brain-computer interface, making it a one-size-fits-all solution. Typically, these devices require extensive calibration for each user — every brain is different, both for healthy and disabled users — and that has been a major hurdle to mainstream adoption. This new solution can quickly understand the needs of an individual subject and self-calibrate through repetition. That means multiple patients could use the device without needing to tune it to the individual. “When we think about this in a clinical setting, this technology will make it so we won’t need a specialized team to do this calibration process, which is long and tedious,” said Satyam Kumar, a graduate student in the lab of José del R. Millán, a professor in the Cockrell School of Engineering’s Chandra Family Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Dell Medical School’s Department of Neurology. “It will be much faster to move from patient to patient.” The research on the calibration-free interface is published in PNAS Nexus. (https://academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/article/3/2/pgae076/7609232) Millán’s work on brain-computer interfaces helps users guide and strengthen their neural plasticity, the ability of the brain to change, grow and reorganize over time. These experiments are designed to improve brain function for patients and use the devices controlled by brain-computer interfaces to make their lives easier. In this case, the actions were twofold: the car racing game, and a simpler task of balancing the left and right sides of a digital bar. An expert was trained to develop a “decoder” for the simpler bar task that makes it possible for the interface to translate brain waves into commands. The decoder serves as a base for the other users and is the key to avoiding the long calibration process. The decoder worked well enough that subjects trained simultaneously for the bar game and the more complicated car racing game, which required thinking several steps ahead to make turns. The researchers called this work foundational, in that it sets the stage for further brain-computer interface innovation. This project used 18 subjects with no motor impairments. Eventually, as they continue down this road, they will test this on people with motor impairments to apply it to larger groups in clinical settings. “On the one hand, we want to translate the BCI to the clinical realm to help people with disabilities; on the other, we need to improve our technology to make it easier to use so that the impact for these people with disabilities is stronger,” Millán said. On the side of translating the research, Millán and his team continue to work on a wheelchair that users can drive with the brain-computer interface. At the South by Southwest Conference and Festivals this month, the researchers showed off another potential use of the technology, controlling two rehabilitation robots for the hand and arm. This was not part of the new paper but a sign of where this technology could go in the future. Several people volunteered and succeeded in operating the brain-controlled robots within minutes. “The point of this technology is to help people, help them in their everyday lives,” Millán said. “We’ll continue down this path wherever it takes us in the pursuit of helping people.”
A team of archaeologists, geologists and historians has found that the Menga dolmen represents one of the greatest engineering feats of the Neolithic. In their study, published in Scientific Reports, the group used new technology to learn more about the stone that was used to create the ancient burial site and to explore how wood and rope would have been used in its construction.
The Menga dolmen is an ancient burial mound located near Antequera, Málaga, Spain. Is usually dated to approximately 5,700 years ago and is one of the largest known megalithic structures to be built in Europe. It was built into the top of a hill using large stones, the largest of which weigh more than 100 tons. In this new effort, the research team took a closer look at the composition of the stones used to build the burial mound, where they came from and how they were transported. To learn more about the makeup of the stones, the research team used petrographic and stratigraphic analysis techniques, which showed that the stones were mostly calcarenites, a type of detrital sedimentary rock. In the modern age, they are known as soft stones due to their fragility. According to the researchers, such a soft type of rock would have been difficult to transport without causing damage—a finding that suggests a certain level of engineering sophistication. Moving and placing such large stones, they concede, would have involved massive planning and engineering, particularly for the capstone, which, as its name implies, was laid across the top of the chamber to serve as a roof. The researchers say it weighs approximately 150 tons. They point out that placing such large rocks would have involved the use of scaffolds and ropes, and transporting them would have required level roads. The research team also states that the burial ground was built in such a way as to point in a desired direction. Its position aligns with nearby mountains in a way that creates complex light patterns inside the chamber. They also found that the early engineers had devised a way to place stones at the edges of the burial chamber in interlocking fashion to channel away water seepage as a means of preventing erosion. More information: José Antonio Lozano Rodríguez et al, The provenance of the stones in the Menga dolmen reveals one of the greatest engineering feats of the Neolithic, Scientific Reports (2023). https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-47423-y
Rolls-Royce has just announced that it has secured funding for research by Rolls-Royce into how nuclear power could be used to support a future Moon base for astronauts.
Scientists and engineers at Rolls-Royce are working on the Micro-Reactor program to develop technology that will provide power needed for humans to live and work on the Moon. All space missions depend on a power source, to support systems for communications, life-support and science experiments. Nuclear power has the potential to dramatically increase the duration of future Lunar missions and their scientific value. Minister of State at the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology, George Freeman, said: “Space exploration is the ultimate laboratory for so many of the transformational technologies we need on Earth: from materials to robotics, nutrition, cleantech and much more. “As we prepare to see humans return to the Moon for the first time in more than 50 years, we are backing exciting research like this lunar modular reactor with Rolls-Royce to pioneer new power sources for a lunar base. Relatively small and lightweight compared to other power systems, a nuclear micro-reactor could enable continuous power regardless of location, available sunlight, and other environmental conditions. The potential applications of Rolls-Royce Micro-Reactor technology are wide-ranging and could support commercial and defense use cases in addition to those in space. The aim is to create a world-leading power and propulsion capability for multiple markets and operator needs, alongside a clean, green and long-term power source. The partnership with Rolls-Royce comes after the UK Space Agency recently announced £51 million of funding available for UK companies to develop communication and navigation services for missions to the Moon, as part of the European Space Agency’s Moonlight program, which aims to launch a constellation of satellites into orbit around the Moon. This will allow future astronauts, rovers, science experiments and other equipment to communicate, share large amounts of data including high-definition video, and navigate safely across the lunar surface. https://www.rolls-royce.com/media/our-stories/discover/2023/uk-space-agency-backs-rolls-royce-nuclear-power-for-moon-exploration.aspx
A 280-million-year-old fossil that has baffled researchers for decades has been shown to be, in part, a forgery following new examination of the remnants.
The discovery has led the team led by Dr Valentina Rossi of University College Cork, Ireland (UCC) to urge caution in how the fossil is used in future research. Tridentinosaurus antiquus was discovered in the Italian alps in 1931 and was thought to be an important specimen for understanding early reptile evolution. Its body outline, appearing dark against the surrounding rock, was initially interpreted as preserved soft tissues. This led to its classification as a member of the reptile group Protorosauria. However, this new research, published in the scientific journal Palaeontology, reveals that the fossil renowned for its remarkable preservation is mostly just black paint on a carved lizard-shaped rock surface (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/pala.12690). The purported fossilized skin had been celebrated in articles and books but never studied in detail. The somewhat strange preservation of the fossil had left many experts uncertain about what group of reptiles this strange lizard-like animal belonged to and more generally its geological history. Dr Rossi, of UCC’s School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, said: “Fossil soft tissues are rare, but when found in a fossil they can reveal important biological information, for instance, the external colouration, internal anatomy and physiology. “The answer to all our questions was right in front of us, we had to study this fossil specimen in details to reveal its secrets – even those that perhaps we did not want to know”. The microscopic analysis showed that the texture and composition of the material did not match that of genuine fossilized soft tissues. Preliminary investigation using UV photography revealed that the entirety of the specimen was treated with some sort of coating material. Coating fossils with varnishes and/or lacquers was the norm in the past and sometimes is still necessary to preserve a fossil specimen in museum cabinets and exhibits. The team was hoping that beneath the coating layer, the original soft tissues were still in good condition to extract meaningful palaeobiological information. The findings indicate that the body outline of Tridentinosaurus antiquus was artificially created, likely to enhance the appearance of the fossil. This deception misled previous researchers, and now caution is being urged when using this specimen in future studies.
A breakthrough achieved by researchers from four Israeli universities will enable archaeologists to identify burnt materials discovered in excavations and estimate their firing temperatures. Applying their method to findings from ancient Gath (Tell es-Safi in central Israel), the researchers validated the Biblical account: “About this time Hazael King of Aram went up and attacked Gath and captured it. Then he turned to attack Jerusalem” (2 Kings 12, 18). They explain that unlike previous methods, the new technique can determine whether a certain item (such as a mud brick) underwent a firing event even at relatively low temperatures, from 200°C and up. This information can be crucial for correctly interpreting the findings.
The multidisciplinary study was led by Dr. Yoav Vaknin from the Sonia & Marco Nadler Institute of Archaeology, Entin Faculty of Humanities, at Tel Aviv University, and the Palaeomagnetic Laboratory at The Hebrew University. The paper has been published in the scientific journal PLOS ONE (https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0289424). The new method relies on measuring the magnetic field recorded and ‘locked’ in the brick as it burned and cooled down. Dr. Vaknin: “The clay from which the bricks were made contains millions of ferromagnetic particles – minerals with magnetic properties that behave like so many tiny ‘compasses’ or magnets. In a sun-dried mud brick the orientation of these magnets is almost random, so that they cancel out one another. Therefore, the overall magnetic signal of the brick is weak and not uniform. Heating to 200°C or more, as happens in a fire, releases the magnetic signals of these magnetic particles and, statistically, they tend to align with the earth’s magnetic field at that specific time and place. When the brick cools down, these magnetic signals remain locked in their new position and the brick attains a strong and uniformly oriented magnetic field, which can be measured with a magnetometer. This is a clear indication that the brick has, in fact, been fired. In the second stage of the procedure, the researchers gradually ‘erase’ the brick’s magnetic field, using a process called thermal demagnetization. This involves heating the brick in a special oven in a palaeomagnetic laboratory that neutralizes the earth’s magnetic field. The heat releases the magnetic signals, which once again arrange themselves randomly, canceling each other out, and the total magnetic signal becomes weak and loses its orientation. After proving the method’s validity, the researchers applied it to a specific archaeological dispute: was a specific brick structure discovered at Tell es-Safi – identified as the Philistine city of Gath, home of Goliath – built of pre-fired bricks or burned on location? The prevalent hypothesis, based on the Old Testament, historical sources, and Carbon-14 dating attributes the destruction of the structure to the devastation of Gath by Hazael, King of Aram Damascus, around 830 BCE. However, a previous paper by researchers including Prof. Maeir, head of the Tell es-Safi excavations, proposed that the building had not burned down, but rather collapsed over decades, and that the fired bricks found in the structure had been fired in a kiln prior to construction. If this hypothesis were correct, this would be the earliest instance of brick-firing technology discovered in the Land of Israel. To settle the dispute, the current research team applied the new method to samples from the wall at Tell es-Safi and the collapsed debris found beside it. The findings were conclusive: the magnetic fields of all bricks and collapsed debris displayed the same orientation – north and downwards. Dr. Vaknin: “Our findings signify that the bricks burned and cooled down in-situ, right where they were found, namely in a conflagration in the structure itself, which collapsed within a few hours. Had the bricks been fired in a kiln and then laid in the wall, their magnetic orientations would have been random. Moreover, had the structure collapsed over time, not in a single fire event, the collapsed debris would have displayed random magnetic orientations. We believe that the main reason for our colleagues’ mistaken interpretation was their inability to identify burning at temperatures below 500°C. Since heat rises, materials at the bottom of the building burned at relatively low temperatures, below 400°C, and consequently the former study did not identify them as burnt – leading to the conclusion that the building had not been destroyed by fire. At the same time, bricks in upper parts of the wall, where temperatures were much higher, underwent mineralogical changes and were therefore identified as burnt – leading the researchers to conclude that they had been fired in a kiln prior to construction. Our method allowed us to determine that all bricks in both the wall and debris had burned during the conflagration: those at the bottom burned at relatively low temperatures, and those that were found in higher layers or had fallen from the top –at temperatures higher than 600°C.”
In the quest to understand the potential for life beyond Earth, researchers are widening their search to encompass not only biological markers, but also technological ones. While astrobiologists have long recognized the importance of oxygen for life as we know it, oxygen could also be a key to unlocking advanced technology on a planetary scale.
In a new study published in Nature Astronomy, Adam Frank, the Helen F. and Fred H. Gowen Professor of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Rochester and the author of The Little Book of Aliens (Harper, 2023), and Amedeo Balbi, an associate professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the University of Roma Tor Vergata, Italy, outline the links between atmospheric oxygen and the potential rise of advanced technology on distant planets (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-023-02112-8). Frank and Balbi posit that, beyond its necessity for respiration and metabolism in multicellular organisms, oxygen is crucial to developing fire—and fire is a hallmark of a technological civilization. They delve into the concept of “technospheres,” expansive realms of advanced technology that emit telltale signs—called “technosignatures”—of extraterrestrial intelligence. “If you don’t have oxygen in the atmosphere, you’re not going to have a technological species.” On Earth, the development of technology demanded easy access to open-air combustion—the process at the heart of fire, in which something is burned by combining a fuel and an oxidant, usually oxygen. Whether it’s cooking, forging metals for structures, crafting materials for homes, or harnessing energy through burning fuels, combustion has been the driving force behind industrial societies. Tracing back through Earth’s history, the researchers found that the controlled use of fire and the subsequent metallurgical advancements were only possible when oxygen levels in the atmosphere reached or exceeded 18 percent. This means that only planets with significant oxygen concentrations will be capable of developing advanced technospheres, and, therefore, leaving detectable technosignatures. The levels of oxygen required to biologically sustain complex life and intelligence are not as high as the levels necessary for technology, so while a species might be able to emerge in a world without oxygen, it will not be able to become a technological species, according to the researchers. “You might be able to get biology—you might even be able to get intelligent creatures—in a world that doesn’t have oxygen,” Frank says, “but without a ready source of fire, you’re never going to develop higher technology because higher technology requires fuel and melting.” Enter the “oxygen bottleneck,” a term coined by the researchers to describe the critical threshold that separates worlds capable of fostering technological civilizations from those that fall short. That is, oxygen levels are a bottleneck that impedes the emergence of advanced technology. “The presence of high degrees of oxygen in the atmosphere is like a bottleneck you have to get through in order to have a technological species,” Frank says. “You can have everything else work out, but if you don’t have oxygen in the atmosphere, you’re not going to have a technological species.” Targeting extraterrestrial hotspots The research, which addresses a previously unexplored facet in the cosmic pursuit of intelligent life, underscores the need to prioritize planets with high oxygen levels when searching for extraterrestrial technosignatures. “Targeting planets with high oxygen levels should be prioritized because the presence or absence of high oxygen levels in exoplanet atmospheres could be a major clue in finding potential technosignatures,” Frank says. “The implications of discovering intelligent, technological life on another planet would be huge,” adds Balbi. “Therefore, we need to be extremely cautious in interpreting possible detections. Our study suggests that we should be skeptical of potential technosignatures from a planet with insufficient atmospheric oxygen.” This work was funded in part by a grant from NASA.
Genetic analysis of bone fragments from German archaeological site proves that modern humans reached northern Europe not long after they emerged from Africa
A genetic analysis of bone fragments unearthed at an archaeological site in central Germany shows conclusively that modern humans — Homo sapiens — had already reached Northern Europe 45,000 years ago, overlapping with Neanderthals for several thousand years before the latter went extinct. (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06923-7) The findings establish that the site near Ranis, Germany, which is known for its finely flaked, leaf-shaped stone tool blades, is among the oldest confirmed sites of modern human Stone Age culture in north central and northwestern Europe. The evidence that Homo sapiens and Homo neanderthalensis lived side by side is consistent with genomic evidence that the two species occasionally interbred. It also feeds the suspicion that the invasion of Europe and Asia by modern humans some 50,000 years ago helped drive Neanderthals, which had occupied the area for more than 500,000 years, to extinction. The genetic analysis, along with an archaeological and isotopic analysis and radiocarbon dating of the Ranis site, are detailed in a trio of papers appearing today in the journals Nature and Nature Ecology and Evolution.Stone tools from the Lincombian–Ranisian–Jerzmanowician technocomplex at Ranis. The partial bifacial blade point (left) is characteristic of the stone tools produced by hominids, now identified as modern humans, who occupied the Ranis cave. Stone tools like this are found at several sites across northwestern Europe, though excavations at Ranis in the 1930s also uncovered finely made bifacial leaf points (right) made by the same cultural group. The stone blades at Ranis, referred to as leaf points, are similar to stone tools found at several sites in Moravia, Poland, Germany and the United Kingdom. These tools that are thought to have been produced by the same culture, referred to as the Lincombian–Ranisian–Jerzmanowician (LRJ) culture or technocomplex. Because of previous dating, the Ranis site was known to be 40,000 years old or older, but without recognizable bones to indicate who made the tools, it was unclear whether they were the product of Neanderthals or Homo sapiens. The new findings demonstrate that “Homo sapiens made this technology, and that Homo sapiens were this far north at this time period, which is 45,000 years ago,” said Elena Zavala, one of four first authors of the Nature paper and a Miller Research Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley. “So these are among the earliest Homo sapiens in Europe.”
In the realm of quantum mechanics, the ability to observe and control quantum phenomena at room temperature has long been elusive, especially on a large or “macroscopic” scale. Traditionally, such observations have been confined to environments near absolute zero, where quantum effects are easier to detect. But the requirement for extreme cold has been a major hurdle, limiting practical applications of quantum technologies.
Now, a study led by Tobias J. Kippenberg and Nils Johan Engelsen at EPFL (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne), redefines the boundaries of what’s possible. The pioneering work blends quantum physics and mechanical engineering to achieve control of quantum phenomena at room temperature. “Reaching the regime of room temperature quantum optomechanics has been an open challenge since decades,” says Kippenberg. “Our work realizes effectively the Heisenberg microscope – long thought to be only a theoretical toy model.” In their experimental setup, published in Nature, the researchers created an ultra-low noise optomechanical system – a setup where light and mechanical motion interconnect, allowing them to study and manipulate how light influences moving objects with high precision. (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06997-3). These systems are useful for quantum information, and help us understand how to create large, complex quantum states. According to Alberto Beccari, the study’s co-author, the main problem with room temperature is thermal noise, which perturbs delicate quantum dynamics. To minimize that, the scientists used cavity mirrors, which are specialized mirrors that bounce light back and forth inside a confined space (the cavity), effectively “trapping” it and enhancing its interaction with the mechanical elements in the system. To reduce the thermal noise, the mirrors are patterned with crystal-like periodic (“phononic crystal”) structures.
Widespread caries and toothache – but also some dental work and filing of front teeth. Viking Age teeth from Varnhem in Sweden bear witness to surprisingly advanced dentistry. This has been shown in a study carried out at the University of Gothenburg.
The study examined 3,293 teeth from 171 individuals among the Viking Age population. The site is known for extensive excavations of Viking and medieval environments, including tombs where skeletons and teeth have been preserved well in favorable soil conditions. The teeth underwent clinical examinations using standard dentistry tools under bright light. A number of X-ray examinations were also performed using the same technique used in dentistry, where the patient bites down on a small square imaging plate in the mouth. The results, which have been published in the journal PLOS ONE, show that 49% of the Viking population had one or more caries lesions. Of the adults’ teeth, 13% were affected by caries – often at the roots. However, children with milk teeth – or with both milk and adult teeth – were entirely caries-free (https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0295282). The findings suggest that caries, tooth infections, and toothache were common among the Viking population in Varnhem. However, the study also reveals examples of attempts to look after teeth in various ways. “There were several signs that the Vikings had modified their teeth, including evidence of using toothpicks, filing front teeth, and even dental treatment of teeth with infections,” says Carolina Bertilsson, a dentist and Associate Researcher, and the study’s first-named and corresponding author. One sign of more sophisticated procedures was molars with filed holes, from the crown of the tooth and into the pulp, probably in order to relieve pressure and alleviate severe toothache due to infection. The filed front teeth may have been a form of identity marker. In both this and previous studies, the cases found were male. Carolina Bertilsson continues: “This study provides new insights into Viking oral health, and indicates that teeth were important in Varnhem’s Viking culture. It also suggests that dentistry in the Viking Age was probably more sophisticated than previously thought.”
