NOTE: I offer a bit of a riff about the rarity of science - not just on Earth but possibly across the cosmos - at the end.
We are gadually trying to resume 'normal' life after our family suffered a 'disruption' in our living arrangements that has left us frazzled, with little time for blog updates. But things are a bit better now, so here is... a roundup of recent* space news and updates.
*(Well, 'recent' as of when these postings were actually drafted, in January, before we realized how crazy things were gonna get!)
== Heading for the moon ==
The landers contain scientific instruments to analyze the lunar regolith and magnetosphere, and set up a moon-based global navigation system, laying the groundwork for future lunar missions.
*As of March 30... well... any space junkies know how it went.
== Rogue planets all over! ==
One of the imperfectly insufficient (by itself) but substantially plausible theories for the Great Silence or “Fermi Paradox” (terrible name) is that interstellar travel… even at just 10% of light speed… is made very difficult by a minefield of hidden obstacles. No, I am not talking about my short story “Crystal Spheres.” But rather, these would be rogue planets that are untethered from stars. Every year we find they are more common in the galaxy.
For example, the infrared-sensitive Webb Telescope has found hundreds… down to Saturn size, just in the Orion Nebula, alone! Forty-two of them are in binary pairs. Wow. Implicit: billions of free-floating planets in the darkness between the stars.
One more incredible accomplishment by this fantastic instrument that this fantastic, scientific civilization created, in our steady and accelerating progress as apprentices in the Laboratory of Creation!
And yet some ignore the almost (or actual) theological significance of these incredible accomplishments (Robots roaming Mars! New human-made life forms! The new skills to save this beautiful world from … ourselves!) Okay, grad students in Creation’s Lab should respect those who clutch the Kindergarten text given to illiterate shepherds. Fine.
But those who wage all-out war vs science are clearly the real heretics, here.
See more incredible Webb Wonders! A way-kewl podcast from Fraser Cain.
== Monitoring Methane Emissions ==
Among the worst criminals alive today are those who are deliberately venting methane into the atmosphere. After GOP Congresses deliberately canceled or slashed the satellites to track down vents and Trump delayed them, we now, at last, have the policing tools. A satellite that measures methane leaks from oil and gas companies is set to start circulating the Earth 15 times a day next month. Google plans to have the data mapped by the end of the year for the whole world to see. (Thanks Sergey.)
Methane is a potent greenhouse gas estimated to be responsible for nearly a third of human-caused global warming. Scientists say slashing methane emissions is one of the fastest ways to slow the climate crisis because methane has 80 times the warming power of carbon dioxide over a decade. Though farming is the largest source of methane emissions from human activities, the energy sector is a close second. Oil, gas, and coal operations are thought to account for 40% of global methane emissions from human activities. The IEA says focusing on the energy sector should be a priority, in part because reducing methane leaks is cost-effective. Leaking gas can be captured and sold, and the technology to do that is relatively cheap.
Two new methane-detecting satellites - Carbon Mapper and MethaneSAT/EDF are now surveying the planet's climate. Because the Biden admin pushed through the quality methane satellites, the information will be so widely seen that members of the public will be able to act on their own - even despite a suborned EPA and Justice dept. A case where the right may be bitten by the 'market/consumer alternative to government' that they have long raved about.
== Dark comets, Dwarf galaxies - and Dark Matter ==
If I had followed my original scientific path – not lured away by the likes of you telling me to write more scifi – I’d likely have been in the mix of these studies of “dark comets,” whose orbits get significantly altered by gassy or dusty emissions, the way it happens with regular, icy comets, but without any visible signs of watery volatiles. “dark comets are different from another intermediary category between asteroids and comets, known as active asteroids, although there may be some overlap. Active asteroids are objects without ice that produce a cloud of dust around them, for a variety of reasons…”
Only the Dark Comets – and some include the odd cigar-shaped interstellar visitor ‘Oumuamua' – still have no firm explanation. Though some theories suggest emission of some volatile substance that doesn’t leave an ionized spectral trace.
Dark matter might not just be the silent partner of the universe—it could be the secret to understanding how supermassive black holes unite in their deadly dance.
Attempts to figure out dark matter have pinned hopes on the possibility that the dark… bits… whatever they might be… interact with regular matter in some way – even very slightly – beyond just gravity. At least that’s been the hope of particle physicists with their big machines. So far, the indicators suggest ‘only gravity.’ But this study of nearby anomalous dwarf galaxies hints there might be just a little something more.
== A couple of final notes about you-know-what ==
Science is - above all - about chasing down what's true about objective reality, even when the results conflict with your wishes or preconceptions.
This human-invented process has led to all of the benefits of enlightenment: unprecedented wealth, comfort, knowledge, safety and - yes - comparative peace... along withg our recent ambitions to overcome a myriad errors through cheerful exchange of criticism. Errors like prejudicial assumptions about whole classes of people. Errors like mismanaging a fragile planet.
Alas, science is a rare phenomenon. Rare across human history and -- given the way that evolution works -- probably rare across the universe. (My own top explanation for the Fermi Paradox, by the way.)
Across human history, science - and its ancillary arts like equality before law - almost never happened. Instead, people in most societies preferred stories. Incantations about the world, told by their parents and then by priests and by kings. I know about this, having had successful careers in both science and storytelling. I know the differences and the overlaps very well.
While romance and stories are essential to being human, they also can lead directly to horrors and Auschwitz, if they allow evil incantation-spewers to rile up whole populations toward hatred and cauterized hope.
Anyone who does not recognize what I just described as THE essential thing now happening across the globe is already lost to reason.
Moreover, if the recent trend - reverting human civilization back to 10,000 years of nescient rule by inheritance brats and chanting incantation spinners - does succeed at suppressing the rare era of science, then we'll truly have our answer for why no voices can be heard ac ross the cosmos.
221 comments:
«Oldest ‹Older 201 – 221 of 221Since the topic is American Democracy, I'd have been forgiven for dating it from the beginning of the FDR Administration. But the "our product" pitch is generally New Dealism, under which transparent and highly accountable government intervenes to level the playing field with three aims:
1. Prevent otherwise inevitable drift back into feudal rule by inheritance brats. (Our parents were keenly aware of the Marx-predicted scenario.)
2. Uplift all children from poverty into capable adults in a flat-fair-fun marketplace of skills and honest work, unimpeded by accidents of birth.
3. Keep markets flat-fair to maximize competitive -creative outcomes.
Fools who rail against "capitalism' as the world's evil force fail to distinguish flat-fair competitive markets from 10,000 years of feudalism. It is idiotic for them not to realize Adam Smith is the founding saint of liberalism.
Scott Galloway has an interesting and optimistic take on A.I. that is adjacent to things OGH has said. He's mainly talking about Deep Seek, but the point is that the best watchdog on A.I. is in fact A.I.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/3pSDTf_KbWw
(only 30 seconds)
Hi Dr Brin
I agree 100% with those goals/achievements
Just disagree that the USA is the ONLY place to do that - or even the most advanced!
Lots of nations did that - from my POV the USA was the first to "backslide" and the USA then used its muscle to push other nations to do the same
Without the US pressure and influence would we have had Thatcher and Muldoon?
Just got back from the downtown Chicago version of today's national protest. There was a crowd much larger than either of Trump's inaugurations, and much righteous anger but generally good-willed. No violence or vandalism that I saw, and not even any shouts of opposition that I heard.
I was glad to see a few signs bearing lines from appropriate musicals, Les Mis ("Do you hear the people sing?") and Hamilton ("History has its eyes on you!")
Some of the funnier slogans on signs were:
"It was the fuck uppest of times. It was the find outest of times"
and
"They're eating the checks! They're eating the balances!"
My own handmade sign had an image of a guillotine and the warning: "1789: Constitution or Revolution?" Because the guillotine has been one of my pet memes, I was gratified to see several other signs advertising Ikea Guillotines, and one cardboard-and-foil actual model guillotine made to look like wood and metal. But my own inspiration that I saw nowhere else was to adorn the container meant to catch the fallen heads with "Basket Of Deplorables." If my wife weren't there with me, that one could have gotten me laid.
@duncan,
I mostly agree with that as far as it goes, but then you seem to have done Boris Johnson and Brexit on your own.
LH gets post of the hour. Glad a good time was had. Even though Protests achieve nothing. The MAGAs live for one thing, to drink our tears. Trump gives them that food and nothing else matters.
No one I saw at the protest was displaying tears. Solidarity fueled by righteous anger was more like it.
Saw one speaker saying they feed on hate and fear, we feed on joy and hope.
scidata: "We feed on joy and hope."
A convenient characterizaqtion that ignores how vastly more common sales pitch #1 is among today's liberals. Look at many of YOU guys! So morose and doomer, citing essays by fools declaring the whole enlightenment experiment - certainly the merican branch - to be over!!!
LH surely you jest? You think millions of libs thronging the streets in utter, utter futility is not just as much food to MAGAs as literal tears?
Oh I support the rallies and we attend some. Like the march for science way back at the beginning of DT v. 1.0. And most who attend have no other recourse. And I honk when I pass the Tesla showroom sign-wavers. And it's all a normal person can do. And it beats sitting around moaning.
But one counter-intel guy shredding the blackmail cloaks protecting ANY Repub shill or Fox-zoid would do vastly more effectiv good.
The rallies are for the people attending. It lets them know they're not in this alone, which is what oppressors want.
... and I'm hearing a few usually utter gopshites are becoming uncharacteristically chatty with their constituents.
Maga are free to drink the bitter tears, but they may find they are becoming tainted with the sweetness of optimism.
Tony I hope you are right. But what I see is millions resisting a brown shirt movement that - as in 1862 - has all the generals who actually understand tactics.
So do I , David. So do I.
David, when did I deny that progress had not been made in the past? Ever?
Dr Brin:
LH, surely you jest.
Sigh. In for a penny, in for a pound.
You think millions of libs thronging the streets in utter, utter futility is not just as much food to MAGAs as literal tears?
Would you say the same about Republican voters in red districts who their congressfolk are scared to address at town halls? That they are just a bunch of "libs"? I think that, given the level of incompetence around national security exhibited by the WhiskeyLeaks scandal and the own-goal hit to the economy this past week, it's not just "libs" who want to show their opposition. And large rallies help bring people together who otherwise don't know what to do with their discontent with the status quo.
The generally peaceful nature of these rallies also lets people know that they needn't stay away for fear of violence and police retaliation. I can't speak for all of the locations, but here in Chicago, the police were not antagonistic, and the protesters were not committing vandalism, not even to the unfortunately-placed Tesla parked on one of the streets we passed. This was not Grant Park 1968.
Oh I support the rallies and we attend some. Like the march for science way back at the beginning of DT v. 1.0. And most who attend have no other recourse. And I honk when I pass the Tesla showroom sign-wavers. And it's all a normal person can do. And it beats sitting around moaning.
So, it's only a bad thing when I do it?
But one counter-intel guy shredding the blackmail cloaks protecting ANY Repub shill or Fox-zoid would do vastly more effectiv good.
And if my grandmother had wheels, she'd be a wagon. And if Huntley were Cronkite we'd watch NBC. None of us at the rallies had any way of doing that thing--except maybe by convincing someone who could that there's actually a good reason to do so, that he's not alone and powerless in his opposition. Movements grow like snowballs, attracting people as they go on until they're more than just the original core of "libs." Eventually, maybe that counter-intel guy comes along, or someone he knows and cares about does and then convinces him.
But what I see is millions resisting a brown shirt movement that - as in 1862 - has all the generals who actually understand tactics.
Which worked out so well for them?
On the other hand, when opponents have a chance to actually do something significant, they decide "the fate of Western Civilization" by overwhelming majority in the Wisconsin state supreme court race.
So there's that.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/03/opinion/trump-tariffs-us-security-stability.html
...
In other words, the world has been the way the world has been these past 80 years because America was the way America was: a superpower ready to let other countries take some advantage of it in trade, because previous presidents understood that if the world grew steadily richer and more peaceful, and if the United States just continued to get the same slice of global G.D.P. — about 25 percent — it would still prosper handsomely because the total pie would grow steadily. Which is exactly what happened.
The world has been the way the world has been because China brought more people out of poverty faster than any other country in history, largely on the back of a giant, relentless export engine that took advantage of the U.S.-engineered global free trade system.
The world has been the way the world has been because the United States had the good fortune to be bordered by two friendly democracies, Canada and Mexico. Together the three nations wove a network of supply chains that made them all richer, no matter that many goods manufactured in North America could have a label saying, “Made by America, Mexico and Canada together.”
The world has been the way the world has been thanks to the alliance between the United States and both the other members of NATO and the European Union, which, with U.S. help, kept the peace in Europe from the end of World War II right up to the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. This vast, prosperous trans-Atlantic partnership has been a pillar of global growth and security.
The world has been the way the world has been because America had the government work force it had, with an expertise, incorruptibility and funding of scientific research that were the envy of the world.
Trump is now betting that the world will stay the way the world was — growing more prosperous and peaceful — even if he converts the United States into a predatory power ready to seize territory, like Greenland, and even if he sends the message to aspiring talented legal immigrants, “If you do come here, be very, very careful what you say.”
If Trump turns out to be right — that we’ll still enjoy the economic benefits and stability we’ve had for nearly a century even if America suddenly shifts from a benign hegemon to a predator, from the world’s most important proponent of free trade to a global tariffing giant, from the protector of the European Union to telling Europe it’s on its own and from a defender of science to a country that forces out a top vaccine specialist like Dr. Peter Marks for refusing to go along with quack medicine — I will stand corrected.
But if Trump turns out to be wrong, he will have sown the wind, and we as a nation will reap the whirlwind. But so, too, will the rest of the world. And I can tell you, the world is worried.
...
Paraphrasing the PM:
If the US won't lead the free world anymore, Canada will.
LH: "So, it's only a bad thing when I do it?"
Seriously man? Why did you type that?
onward onward
onward
Seriously, where is there any hope?
Democracy is dying as MAGA ICE/Gestapo arrest people without due process.
The planet is burning as MAGA cuts FEMA and insurance companies deny coverage to homeowners.
The economy is crashing as MAGA piles on tariffs.
Ecosystems are crumbling as MAGA rapes what is left of our wilderness areas.
Health care is is financially out of reach of most Americans as MAGA cuts Medicaid.
So tell me...
Where do I find hope?
And for fucks sake don't tell me my children or grandchildren.
We Boomers with our stupidity, our ignorant racism and bigotry, our greedy consumerism, our short sightedness, our denials of basic science, and our idiotic conspiracy theories, have already fucked them over, leaving them a permanently stagnant economy, dying ecosystems, killer heat domes, CAT 6 hurricanes, wild fires now everywhere during every month of the year, CEOs and billionaire that have luxury bunkers while more of us live on the streets of dying towns, deaths of despair climbing ever higher, and bodies contaminated with microplastics and forever chemicals leaving their bodies stricken and brains stunted.
They will NOT have it as good as we did, and they have every right to hate us.
So where is there hope?
What do I tell my son when his insulin goes back up to over $1,000 a week?
And why the fuck should I be nice to anyone - even family - that helped make this possible, or excuse it, or justify it?
Amazing blog
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