Hi-Sci-Fi

by Irma Arkus

Do you know what is the largest civilization on Earth?

First, let me first assure you, it is not human, but rather a recently discovered ant colony.

What was touted as a first confirmed “supercolony” were related ants living in colonies that spanned miles across North and South America, Europe and even parts of Asia. Scientists determined that the ants are part of a larger body because they “recognized” members from different colonies as relatives, rather than engage in war-like response reserved for those who were considered other.

But now, the scientists say that it is not only nickel particles that once assembled start to behave like a rather predatory organism. The supercolonies too behave in these patterns, resembling a living biological organism.

When conducting an analysis of some 168 species of ants at University of Florida, it has been found that while members maintain a certain “individuality” as a collective group, a colony, they tend to organize themselves in such a way to suggest a “superorganism.”

What is a super-organism anyways?

Well, according to the researchers, these superorganisms very much correspond to life, development and behaviour of an individual. Essentially, if one is to undestand the actions of colonies that have captured our imagination for millenia, then perhaps undestanding them as a singular is the key (and this is where I fondly harken back to Greg Bear’s “Slant”)

Once more, the research applies to not only ants, but bees, termites, and wasps. The findings will be offering a new, fresh perspective on how societies evolve and develop, perhaps most importantly, giving us new tools to learn about humans, or…that superhuman organism? ([ufl]

According to the US-based Argonne National Laboratories, these self-assembled magnetic “snakes” very much emulate biological life, and do follow Markovnikov’s rule:

“Nickel particles float peacefully in a liquid medium until a giant snake seems to swim by and snatch several particles up, adding to its own mass. The self-assembled “snakes” act like biological systems, but they are not alive and are driven by a magnetic field. The research may someday offer some insight into the organization of life itself.”

This image was uploaded with the post Ancient Viruses Uncovered.

by Irma Arkus

Recent efforts to drill core samples of ancient frozen lakes in Antarctica and Arctic have been controversial to say the least.

Many in scientific circles have been outspoken over the facts that drilling those samples may contaminate precious life that still may exist in the lakes underneath the permafrost. Others have warned that collecting ice samples may even release ancient bacteriae and viruses.

But the value of these samples is undeniable. Not only do they represent an immense amount of information in terms of climate change, but recently, samples have uncovered a remarkable number of viruses which may shed light on evolution of life in general.

Recent study revealed some 10,000 virus species present in the samples from Lake Limnopolar at Antarctic Peninsula.

Furthermore, the viruses are extremophiles, meaning that many of them are still very much alive, prone to surviving in extreme conditions including low grade temperatures, low light, oxygen deprivation and low nutrient factors. [SciAm

The soft spongy properties of its body allow the robot to move and manouver through squeeze spaces.

This image was uploaded with the post Is Our Universe a Result of a Multiverse Collision? .

by Irma Arkus

According to Anthony Aguirre, a collision between our universe and an alien one, decimating everything in its path, may have already happened.

Apparently, “there are tantalizing hints that our universe has already survived such a collision—and bears the scars to prove it.” Not only are initial theories prompting scientists to think differently about our universe, but about the concpet of multiverses as well.

Our universe, for example, is superbly uniform and smooth. Physicists say that the reason for such uniformity is fast expansion at high rate. Andrei Linde and Alex Vilenkin at Tufts University proposed that such expansion does not occur only once, but could potentially reoccur. Every such event would cause a bubbling of yet another space and time bubble, and this continuous bubbling would lead to ongoing creation of multiverses.

But more importantly, these would, however unlikely, run into other bubbles and collide with them.

The question posed then is whether our universe would survive such collision, or whether such an event already occured?

According to Vilenkin, “when you think about it, in an infinite multi­verse, with bubbles being formed all the time, sooner or later a bubble will form near the boundary of our bubble, and we will be hit,” Vilenkin says. “There’s the possibility of a benign collision when the cosmological characteristics of the alien bubble are similar to ours, so that it doesn’t destroy us but recedes away.”

But what are these scars? They are everywhere, physicists posit, and since the idea is relatively novel, they are still uncertain as to what it all means.

Microwave radiation for example, shows variable hot and cold spots, which may imply scars of an earlier collision.

Furthermore, New York University physicsist Thomas Levi, doing work on string theory, has also located a spot in the universe that defies explanations. Except that the explanation of a multiverse, and more specifically, a multiverse collision may lie at the heart of it. [Discover]

This image was uploaded with the post Hadron Collider: The Future Works Against It.

by Irma Arkus

Large Hadron Collider, the multi-billion dollar machine that just won’t start up, has been plagued by numerous problems since the moment of announcement that “she’s ready to go captain.”

Last year, we’ve patiently awaited its start, and since then, the damn thing was breaking and facing numerous technical issues.

But a pair of physicists, Holger Bech Nielsen, of the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen, and Masao Ninomiya of the Yukawa Institute for Theoretical Physics in Kyoto, Japan, say that this may not be an accident, but rather that the Higgs boson particle is so dangerous, that the time itself is rippling, trying to stop the collider from starting in a roundabout time-travelling sort of way.

In fact, they’ve written two papers on the subject: “Test of Effect From Future in Large Hadron Collider: a Proposal” and “Search for Future Influence From LHC,” available on arXiv.org.

According to the NYTimes musings: “It must be our prediction that all Higgs producing machines shall have bad luck,” Dr. Nielsen said in an e-mail message. In an unpublished essay, Dr. Nielson said of the theory, “Well, one could even almost say that we have a model for God.” It is their guess, he went on, “that He rather hates Higgs particles, and attempts to avoid them.”

In other words, the physicists say that god, or rather some angry deity, is putting halt to the CERN collider because it hates the idea of Higgins Boson particle, thus engaging in time travel to halt it from being found.

As farfetched as this may sound, they say that this may explain why US abandoned its plans in 1993 for a similar collider after already investing billions of dollars.

My question though is, if something doesn’t want us to turn the damn thing on, why not stop the project at its inception? Why wait until its built?[NYTimes]

This image was uploaded with the post Papua New Guinea: The Undiscovered Flora & Fauna.

by Irma Arkus

“Fanged frogs, grunting fish and tiny bear-like creatures” have been identified in a volcanic crater in Papua New Guinea.

The pristine habitat is host to numerous species unafraid of humans, untouched by civilisation. Until now that is…

A giant rat, potentially largest in the world, has been identified along with numerous species of frogs, birds and insects never seen before.

Papua New Guinea’s forests are currently undergoing a devastating deforestation efforts, disappearing at an alarming rate of 3.5% a year, and yet they represent untold plethora of fauna and flora that has not even been encountered or recorded. [Guardian]

This image was uploaded with the post Dino Footprints Found in Switzerland Alps.

by Irma Arkus

Remember Ricola guy? He was probably chewing on his herbal candy, while stepping on some fosilized dinosaur prints. Yes, dinosaurs roamed Switzerland (and evolved into bankers???).

Natural History Museum in Basel has revealed its findings from Ela Nature Reserve, in Switzerland, revealing fosilized print of animal estimated to be between 15 and 20 feet long.

The prints are estimated to be approximately 210 million years old [Discoveryon].

This image was uploaded with the post New Element Added to the Periodic Table.

by Irma Arkus

Yeey for science! The Periodic Table is being updated with a new, superheavy element added to the roster. he International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) will add the element 112, known only as UUB, is a lab-manufactured element, produced by using zinc and lead.

The decision to include the superheavy element in the Periodic Table will undoubtedly result in various teams competing for production of an even heavier element.

Time to burn your old chem books now. [New Scientist]

This image was uploaded with the post Population Control: Are We To Limit Number of People on Earth? .

by Irma Arkus

This morning I awoke to find a strange, yet relevant article on SciAm: “Population and Sustainability: Can We Avoid Limiting the Number of People?”

Good question. Or is it?

For a long time we’ve been asking the question of how many people is enough people? Most of these questions however, were prompted by popularity of horrific socio-political ideologies. Eugenics comes to mind for one. In 18th century, the poor were identified as too fruitful. Of course, that is if you entirely dismiss their value and ignore the fact that it is these poor that fueled the economy, working dirtiest, and lowest paid jobs that ultimately built the empires of colonial powers.

Similar questions were asked of certain populations deemed undesirable. Natives in North and South America, for one. Or Jews, during the 20th century. How many Jews is enough Jews? Speaking as one, I’d have to shrug as say that I’m not entirely certain of the number, but since there are about 13 million Jews in a 6.9 billion people world, and counting the fact that 6 million Jews perished in WWII, I quite frankly believe that we could use a few more.

See what I mean?

Many sociologists have wondered: how may rich people do we need? After all, with all this power of the billionnaires, and the preposterous ideas of liberal politics including gems such as “consumers voting with their dollars,” seems to imply that however many extremely wealthy people there are, there seems to be too many of them. They do seem to require a remarkable amount of resources. Private jets, extraordinary paycheques that could feed entire countries, multiple domiciles, huge car collections, etc…

While the article in SciAm asks this pertinent question, I am counfounded by its monumental nature: “Whereas more people once meant more ingenuity, more talent and more innovation, today it just seems to mean less for each.” It goes on to list: less water, less food, less land for farming, less capacity in the atmosphere to trap gasses.

Population control is evidently something we need to consider. But who is “we” and how are we going to apply our considerations?

Is it just me or is the problem in the system we’ve developed, that devoured the planet as we know it? Is it just me, or have the technologies (and I am using that term widely) created scarcity of land, water, and food?

Is it also just me, or is our global economic system hooked on concept of “growth.” This fidgety concept is very much dependent on steadily growing population. Sheer beauty of Fordism demands that we expand the pools of consumers for our goods, and the simplest way to do so is to enlarge our populations.

The question of population control brings up a lot of old wounds and prejudices. And though it may be relevant to ask, in light of recent climate change issues, it may be better still to inquire whether we require more profound changes to existing systems: from manufacturing, consumerism and trade, to pinning responsibilities for creating pollution where it deservedly belongs. Should we not examine those issues at length, prior to demanding birth control and limiting number of people?

I highly recommend you read the article on SciAm, and do keep these questions in mind when doing so.

This image was uploaded with the post Stem Cells Restore Sight.

by Irma Arkus

Three patients suffering from acute corneal disease had their sight restored using an experimental stem cell technique.

The findings, published in journal Transplantation, reveal a simple technique using stem cells that would attach themselves to damaged areas of removed corneal lens tissue. The technique is touted to be so simple that it require no sophisticated equipment and could be used to restore sight in third world countries.

The process lasts only 10-14 days and results speak of moderate improvements in sight. [TheAustralianNews]

This image was uploaded with the post Ida: Missing Link Or Slow News Day?.