The purpose of this blog is the creation of an open, international, independent and free forum, where every UFO-researcher can publish the results of his/her research. The languagues, used for this blog, are Dutch, English and French.You can find the articles of a collegue by selecting his category. Each author stays resposable for the continue of his articles. As blogmaster I have the right to refuse an addition or an article, when it attacks other collegues or UFO-groupes.
Druk op onderstaande knop om te reageren in mijn forum
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Deze blog is opgedragen aan mijn overleden echtgenote Lucienne.
In 2012 verloor ze haar moedige strijd tegen kanker!
In 2011 startte ik deze blog, omdat ik niet mocht stoppen met mijn UFO-onderzoek.
BEDANKT!!!
Een interessant adres?
UFO'S of UAP'S, ASTRONOMIE, RUIMTEVAART, ARCHEOLOGIE, OUDHEIDKUNDE, SF-SNUFJES EN ANDERE ESOTERISCHE WETENSCHAPPEN - DE ALLERLAATSTE NIEUWTJES
UFO's of UAP'S in België en de rest van de wereld Ontdek de Fascinerende Wereld van UFO's en UAP's: Jouw Bron voor Onthullende Informatie!
Ben jij ook gefascineerd door het onbekende? Wil je meer weten over UFO's en UAP's, niet alleen in België, maar over de hele wereld? Dan ben je op de juiste plek!
België: Het Kloppend Hart van UFO-onderzoek
In België is BUFON (Belgisch UFO-Netwerk) dé autoriteit op het gebied van UFO-onderzoek. Voor betrouwbare en objectieve informatie over deze intrigerende fenomenen, bezoek je zeker onze Facebook-pagina en deze blog. Maar dat is nog niet alles! Ontdek ook het Belgisch UFO-meldpunt en Caelestia, twee organisaties die diepgaand onderzoek verrichten, al zijn ze soms kritisch of sceptisch.
Nederland: Een Schat aan Informatie
Voor onze Nederlandse buren is er de schitterende website www.ufowijzer.nl, beheerd door Paul Harmans. Deze site biedt een schat aan informatie en artikelen die je niet wilt missen!
Internationaal: MUFON - De Wereldwijde Autoriteit
Neem ook een kijkje bij MUFON (Mutual UFO Network Inc.), een gerenommeerde Amerikaanse UFO-vereniging met afdelingen in de VS en wereldwijd. MUFON is toegewijd aan de wetenschappelijke en analytische studie van het UFO-fenomeen, en hun maandelijkse tijdschrift, The MUFON UFO-Journal, is een must-read voor elke UFO-enthousiasteling. Bezoek hun website op www.mufon.com voor meer informatie.
Samenwerking en Toekomstvisie
Sinds 1 februari 2020 is Pieter niet alleen ex-president van BUFON, maar ook de voormalige nationale directeur van MUFON in Vlaanderen en Nederland. Dit creëert een sterke samenwerking met de Franse MUFON Reseau MUFON/EUROP, wat ons in staat stelt om nog meer waardevolle inzichten te delen.
Let op: Nepprofielen en Nieuwe Groeperingen
Pas op voor een nieuwe groepering die zich ook BUFON noemt, maar geen enkele connectie heeft met onze gevestigde organisatie. Hoewel zij de naam geregistreerd hebben, kunnen ze het rijke verleden en de expertise van onze groep niet evenaren. We wensen hen veel succes, maar we blijven de autoriteit in UFO-onderzoek!
Blijf Op De Hoogte!
Wil jij de laatste nieuwtjes over UFO's, ruimtevaart, archeologie, en meer? Volg ons dan en duik samen met ons in de fascinerende wereld van het onbekende! Sluit je aan bij de gemeenschap van nieuwsgierige geesten die net als jij verlangen naar antwoorden en avonturen in de sterren!
Heb je vragen of wil je meer weten? Aarzel dan niet om contact met ons op te nemen! Samen ontrafelen we het mysterie van de lucht en daarbuiten.
15-08-2017
UFOs OUT OF THE BLUE – HD Documentary
UFOs OUT OF THE BLUE – HD Documentary
Narrated by Peter Coyote, OUT OF THE BLUE is widely considered one of the best documentary films ever made about UFOs and was directed by celebrated filmmakers James Fox, Tim Coleman and Boris Zubov. The films producers traveled around the world to investigate some of the most famous UFO events on record. Through exclusive interviews with high-ranking military and government personnel, this award-winning film supports the theory that some UFOs are of extraterrestrial origin.
This film features Governor Fife Symington, Astronaut Dr. Edgar Mitchell, Russian General Leonid Aleviev, President Jimmy Carter, Cosmonaut Major General Pavel Popovich, UK Admiral Lord Hill Norton, Physics Professor Dr. Brian Greene, President Gerald Ford, Astronaut Colonel Gordon Cooper. White House Chief of Staff John Podesta, and many more. Presents an International Scope, Quality Testimony, and Scientific Perspectives. OUT OF THE BLUE provides a Definitive Investigation of the UFO Phenomenon.
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10 Explanations For UFOs Weirder Than Aliens
10 Explanations For UFOs Weirder Than Aliens
If you don’t believe UFO sightings are the result of the misidentification of either astronomical or mundane aerial objects, you most likely believe in the extraterrestrial hypothesis, which states UFOs are vehicles sent by civilizations from far distant stars to bring us a message of peace or probe us mercilessly. Yet, there are other possibilities as well.
10. UFOs Are Earthlights
Some people believe that the appearance of UFOs is simply the result of an unknown natural byproduct of the Earth. This idea was developed by Professor Michael Persinger in the 1970s as tectonic strain theory, which we have mentioned in a previous article. These ideas were built upon by author Paul Devereux. He believes that while most UFO sightings can be explained as misidentified mundane aerial objects, mirages, hoaxes, and hallucinations, there are some that result from an unexplained electromagnetic phenomenon related to earthquake lights and ball lightning. He believes tectonic stress and strain in the Earth’s crust creates luminosity in the atmosphere, as do other geological and meteorological sources of energy.He refers to the phenomenon as “earthlights,” though earlier theorists called them “spooklights” or “ghost lights” and believed they were the explanation behind historical sightings of dragons, fairies, bodhisattvas, corpse candles, foo fighters, and ghost rockets. UFO behavior such as apparent intelligence and downright illogical movement and appearance suggest to Devereux that UFOs may be a form of macro quantum phenomenon, meaning UFOs represent phenomena that should only exist on the subatomic quantum level but have somehow manifested in the macroscopic, visible world.
9. UFOs Are Four-Dimensional Objects
Imagine a flat plane on which two-dimensional creatures live. They cannot perceive our third dimension, but we can see them. Say you stick your finger into their plane. From their point of view, an object has suddenly and inexplicably appeared out of nowhere. It also appears to change size and shape depending on exactly what cross-section of your finger is in their plane. When you pull your finger out, the object disappears, and no one believes the two-dimensional creature who saw it because he was drunk and is always making up crazy stories. A comparable theory has been promoted to explain UFO phenomena, particularly how some UFOs appear to change size and shape, morphing in the air. If a four-dimensional sphere—a hypersphere—passes through our three-dimensional space, it would appear to our limited perceptions to be a small sphere that appears suddenly, then rapidly grows in size before it shrinks again and vanishes altogether. Any four-dimensional object that entered our three-dimensional plane would appear to be capable of shape-shifting, impossible movement, and dematerialization, reflecting many reports of “morphing” UFOs. Claims of bizarre magnetic effects caused by UFOs could be explained as changes in the structure of three-dimensional space caused by the passage of a four-dimensional object in the same way a pebble dropped into water creates ripples on the surface. Some argue that entities from other planets or other three-dimensional universes could be using four-dimensional space as a convenient means of traveling to our world.
8. UFOs Are Demons
Some believe sightings of UFOs are actually manifestations of demonic activity prophesied to increase during the Last Days. Satan knows in the End Times he will be forced out of the spiritual realm entirely and therefore needs to corrupt human beings in large numbers. This theory posits that UFO abduction is actually abduction by Satan’s advancing forces. These forces take people to engage in sinful, sexual congress and open them up to possession, just as the fallen angels had sexual intercourse with human females in the days before the Great Flood, creating the giant race known as Nephilim. The entities onboard UFOs are demonic but pose as extraterrestrial visitors to weaken faith in Christ and prepare for the creation of a unified world occult religion venerating the fake aliens.The appearance of UFOs is also linked with the occult. Many UFO abductees have had previous experience with occult practices. Some claim there have been increased numbers of UFO sightings in areas where the Soviets conducted occult research as well as areas associated with US military research and Native American shamanism. Crop circles, meanwhile, represent an esoteric form of communication related to Kabbalah and the Illuminati, a secret demonic language. Of particular interest here is the Milk Hill Script, Hebrew-like letters that appeared in a field of crops in England. Animal and human mutilation during abductions is the result of demonic experiments to create artificial physical bodies for Satan’s forces to inhabit during the End Times. Abductees and psychics have reported sightings of “grays” relaxing in a vat of “human stew” made from blood and body parts in the hope of absorbing nutrients such as adrenaline. This stew is created by torturing and traumatizing human victims before death, particularly children.
7. UFOs Are Nazi Anti-Gravity Vehicles
Ernst Zundel is most famous for his Holocaust denial, but he was also famous for theorizing that UFOs are actually advanced craft created by the Third Reich. He was preceded by the work of Louis Pauwels and Jacques Bergier, who claimed the Vril Society, an occult Nazi conspiracy, made contact with Aryan aliens living in the Aldebaran system. The strange “foo fighters” reported by Allied pilots were actually the first prototypes of anti-gravity craft designed by the society, incorporated into the SS. The craft was allegedly powered by an electromagnetic-gravitic engine known as the Thule Triebwerk. After the war, the surviving Nazis regrouped to Antarctica to continue development. Bulgarian physicist Vladimir Terziski went even further, asserting that the Nazis had by 1942 landed on the Moon and later established bases there, which he claims has an atmosphere, water, and vegetation despite NASA’s propaganda to the contrary.But it was Zundel, working off the success of von Daniken’s Chariots of the Gods and other UFOlogy books, who truly popularized the idea. Writing under the pseudonym Christof Friedrich, he claimed a secret Nazi expedition to Antarctica discovered an almost tropical area the size of Germany where they established bases and withdrew in a massive convoy in 1945 with their secret weapons in tow. The CIA and KGB collaborated to keep the truth of the UFO phenomenon secret while they plotted to destroy the Nazis and establish a global dictatorship. Thankfully, an investigation of the evidence by UFOlogist Kevin McClure concluded the Nazi UFO mythos, like Holocaust denial, is nothing more than bigoted delusion.
6. UFOs Are Archons
According to the Gnostic theory of alien intrusion, the truth about UFOs was ascertained by ancient Gnostic seers known as siddhis 1,600 years ago. The theory claims the Nag Hammadi texts discovered in Egypt in 1947 contained information about a jealous group of predatory inorganic beings known as Archons, led by Jehovah. These arose during the formation of the solar system due to a wave of plasmatic energy from the galactic core and now intrude upon the Earth.They have two forms: a neonatal, embryonic form resembling aborted human figures and a more developed reptilian form, which corresponds with common descriptions of gray aliens and reptilian aliens. They are soulless bodies, robotic in behavior and lacking our ability to innovate and drive to create, and they hate us for it. They are also able to feed on our emotions, particularly fear, but they are no more powerful than we are. They merely have greater technology in the fields of virtual reality, space travel, and telepathy. They use mental conditioning techniques to influence the way we see the world and foster belief in Jehovah while secretly controlling the solar system like clockwork. They are occasionally visible to the mentally disturbed or drug abusers, who cannot truly comprehend them. The ancient Gnostic siddhi were able to perceive the truth of the universe and explore the heavens through remote viewing techniques, but they were wiped out by the bloodlust of those members of Abrahamic religions deluded by the Archons, who are themselves deluded into thinking they are our rightful rulers. Only through communion with the goddess Sophia, the Gaia spirit of the organic Earth, will humanity overcome these interlopers.
5. UFOs Are Extremophiles Or Plasma-Based Life
There is a theory that UFOs are indeed from space, but rather than being the vehicles of a technologically advanced interstellar race, they are instead biological in nature and indigenous to our very own solar system. The theory asserts there is a species living in interplanetary space, and sightings of these creatures explain many UFO sightings in the upper atmosphere and in orbit. One theorist believes the entities are either extremophiles (organisms that can survive in extreme conditions like thermal vents or deep space) or possibly a form of plasma life. They are said to resemble single-cell or simple multicellular organisms like algae with four distinct morphologies: sperm-shaped, cloud-shaped, donut-shaped, and cone-shaped.It is theorized they are attracted to electromagnetic energy created by storms, hurricanes, and tethered satellites, perhaps for reproductive purposes. They migrate between Jupiter, Venus, and Earth in search of storms. Another version of the theory suggests they may be beings of pure energy called “energyzoa,” resembling deep sea creatures like jellyfish or squid and existing on the edge of our three-dimensional space, which explains their abilities to appear and disappear, move great distances, and pass through solid objects. One of the earliest of these theorists was Trevor James Constable, who claimed in his 1959 book They Live in the Sky that while some UFOs were mechanical vehicles, others were invisible biological entities native to our atmosphere. He dubbed them “sky critters” and claimed they could usually only be photographed with infrared cameras.
4. UFOs Are Time Travelers
Perhaps UFOs do not come from distant space but rather a distant time. The visage of the famous gray aliens is considered by many the future evolutionary form of the human race. These humanoid beings have perhaps returned to this time period to help guide our genetic development. Some believe these future beings have become dependent on technology and suffered an erosive genetic atrophy. They are forced to visit our time period to take tissue samples through abductions, perhaps in an effort to cure future diseases. Dr. Bruce Goldberg, hypnotherapist and (self-declared) “world’s foremost authority on futuristic time travelers” believes human “chrononauts” from a few thousand years hence have traveled back to our time period via the fifth dimension in order to further our spiritual growth.One website claims that the UFO that landed at Rendlesham Forest in 1980 transmitted a sequence of ones and zeroes to US serviceman Jim Penniston after he touched strange symbols on the side of the craft. Penniston noted the sequence down in his journal but apparently didn’t think to check if it was some kind of code until 2010 at the 30th anniversary of the UFO encounter. The translated binary code began “EXPLORATION OF HUMANITY. CONTINUOUS FOR PLANETARY ADVANCE. FOURTH COORDINATE CONTINUOUS.” The code indicated an origin point in southern England in the year 8100 and listed a number of sites supposedly visited by the time travelers: Caracol Pyramid in Belize, Arizona, the Giza pyramids in Egypt, the Nazca Lines in Peru, China’s Tai Shan Mountain, and the Temple of Apollo in Greece. These future beings are said to be behind the crop circle phenomenon, which are theorized to be a way of navigating between parallel time streams like someone leaving marks in tree bark, warnings and portents of future events, or even the secrets of time travel and parallel dimensions.
3. UFOs Are A Metaphysical Control System
French-American computer scientist and astrophysicist Jacques Vallee was an early proponent of the idea that UFOs had an extraterrestrial source. But as time went on, his views began to change. In his 1969 book Passport to Magonia, he advanced the theory that UFOs are paranormal in nature and have been with us in various forms throughout human history, manifested as fairy lore and religious miracles. Vallee saw a deep connection between reports of UFOs and legends of devils and supernatural tricksters. Later, in his 1975 book The Invisible College, he asserts the UFO phenomenon is a control system influencing human understanding of reality, guided by a metaphysical intelligence of unknown nature.In his autobiographical book Forbidden Science, Vallee wrote, “[The UFO phenomenon] is physical in nature and it remains unexplained by contemporary science. It represents a level of consciousness we have not yet recognized or developed, which is able to manipulate dimensions beyond time and space as we understand them.” He believes there are three levels to UFOs. The first is the physical object, the exact nature of which he declines to speculate on but which surely contains a large amount of electromagnetic energy in a small area. The second is the perception of witnesses, who may be viewing an actual physical object or experiencing hallucinations caused by radiation. The third layer is the social, the effect of the UFO reports on society, which he claims to be most interested in. UFOs represent something fundamental about the nature of the universe, a technology or phenomenon able to affect the psychic environment of the witness and causing paralysis, hallucinations, space and time disorientation, and personality changes. They often first manifest in an amorphous way before assuming an appearance in accordance with the expectations of the viewer. He suspects physical traces of UFO activity are left as a deliberate deception, in the same way the British created artificial tank tracks to fool the Germans in World War II.
2. UFOs Come From The Imaginal Realm
The Imaginal Realm is a hypothetical alternate reality only perceivable by those in an altered state of consciousness. This theory was developed by psychiatrist Dr. Kenneth Ring to explain out-of-body experiences, near-death experiences, shamanic experiences, psychedelic experiences, night terrors, and encounters with UFOs. Ring describes this realm as “the cumulative product of imaginative thought itself.” This realm has throughout history been associated with fairies and other creatures of legend, but the modern world perceives entities from the realm as extraterrestrial beings. This is said to explain the history of supposed sexual liaisons with both fairies and elf-like creatures in folklore and with humanoid aliens in some abduction reports. Shamans, mystics, and visionaries are gifted with the ability to view this realm. It is possible to gain access to it via the use of psychotropic drugs, religious rituals, trances, and the heightened use of imaginative powers. UFO encounters are said to resemble near-death experiences with the sensation of being taken away into a strange environment, often featuring glowing lights. However, while near-death experiences are usually transcendent experiences, UFO abductions are more likely associated with feelings of violation and post-traumatic stress disorder. Both are seen by some as shamanic initiations into the world of the imagination.
1. UFOs Are Of Cryptoterrestrial Origin
This theory by late American author and blogger Mac Tonnies asserts that if we accept that UFOs are vehicles created by an advanced civilization and apply Occam’s razor, we can conclude that it is most likely the civilization originates from the Earth itself rather than a distant planet. Tonnies suggests that we share our planet with a humanoid race much older than humanity but related to us (explaining their physical form) and more technologically advanced. He dubbed these entities the “cryptoterrestrials,” rejecting “ultraterrestrial” as too linked to theories of humanoid visitors from other dimensions and “cryptohominid” as too suggestive of Bigfoot.Tonnies suggests the entities may be a dying civilization given to subterfuge by hiding underwater or underground. These entities promote and encourage the idea that UFOs are of extraterrestrial origin as a cover story to throw investigators off from the truth. Reports from abductees of aliens warning humanity to care for the Earth make more sense if they are fellow Earth residents rather than visitors from thousands of light-years away. As for the Roswell crash, Tonnies has an interesting take on it. Perhaps the cryptoterrestrials aren’t terribly more advanced than us after all, explaining why the unusual wreckage found at Roswell didn’t look all that high-tech. It may have been something like a weather balloon after all, but rather a balloon sent up into the atmosphere for surveillance by the cryptoterrestrials beneath the Earth’s surface. The US Air Force isn’t trying to cover up a threat from above, but the existence of another, slightly more advanced civilization below us. Tonnies admits that some alien encounters could very well be of extraterrestrial or interdimensional origin, but he believed the majority are the result of a deception campaign by a desperate, Earth-based military force of subterraneans hoping to keep our eyes fixed firmly on the skies.
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- Gemiddelde waardering: 0/5 - (0 Stemmen) Categorie:ALIEN LIFE, UFO- CRASHES, ABDUCTIONS, MEN IN BLACK, ed ( FR. , NL; E )
14-08-2017
Computers Made of Genetic Material Will Revolutionize Our World
Computers Made of Genetic Material Will Revolutionize Our World
Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres
IN BRIEF
Researchers have been able to create tiny structures for conducting electricity by using DNA and gold plating.
This new nanostructure could be the foundation of future electronics as soon as improvements are made on this breakthrough development.
GOLD AND DNA
Nanostructures made using DNA origami are fascinating. The ability to use DNA as a construction material, capable of holding scaffolds of molecules and atoms was one huge step in developing modern nanostrutures. Most recent of these developments are gold-plated nanowires constructed by scientists from the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) and from Paderborn University, which independently assembled themselves from single DNA strands, as published in the journal Langmuir.
These nanowires, due to their gold-plating, were able to conduct electricity. “Our measurements have shown that an electrical current is conducted through these tiny wires,” explains Artur Erbe of the Institute of Ion Beam Physics and Materials Research. The nano-sized structures were connected by two electrical contacts.
Even more fascinating is how these were made using modified DNA strands — stable double strands combined through their base pairs, from long single strands of genetic material and DNA segments. These allowed for the structures to independently take on their desired forms, complex structures developed by molecules through a self-assembling processes.
FROM THE BOTTOM-UP
“With the help of this approach, which resembles the Japanese paper folding technique origami and is therefore referred to as DNA-origami, we can create tiny patterns. Extremely small circuits made of molecules and atoms are also conceivable here,” says Erbe.
Usually, developing nano circuits use what is known as the “top-down” method, where the base material is chiseled until the desired structure is formed. This will become increasingly difficult as electronics continue miniaturization. The new “bottom-up” method changes how these electronic components are usually made.
Credits: B. Teschome, A. Erbe, et al.
There is one problem, though. “Genetic matter doesn’t conduct a current particularly well,” Erbe points out, which explains why the nanowires were gold-plated. But even with this, there was still difficulty with conducting current at room temperatures. Better melding of conductive materials need to be further developed, plus the option of using cheaper, more standard wire coating than gold.
Still, the research is promising. This nanowire that’s made partially out of genetic material could be the future of electronics. Smaller wires allow for more compact designs, which together with smaller transistors, can be used to make more powerful computers.
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Passagiers van vlucht richting Spanje beweren een UFO gezien te hebben en de beelden ga je niet geloven!
Passagiers van vlucht richting Spanje beweren een UFO gezien te hebben en de beelden ga je niet geloven!
Deze video gaat sinds gisteren ineens als een raket over het internet. De beelden zouden gefilmd zijn vanuit een vliegtuig dat zich in Spaans luchtruim bevindt. Mocht dit echt zijn dan is het natuurlijk de vraag wat daaronder het vliegtuig doorschiet. Maar de vraag is of deze video wel helemaal echt is.
Wat denk jij? Zien we hier inderdaad een ‘Unidentified flying object’ of is dit gewoon grote bullshit en simpel door iemand in elkaar geknutseld?
Have scientists discovered real alien 'Death Star' in far-flung corner of our galaxy?
Have scientists discovered real alien 'Death Star' in far-flung corner of our galaxy?
GALACTIC researchers who discovered a strange star they cannot seem to explain have speculated it could have been hidden by a "mega structure" created by aliens.
Aliens should always be the very last hypothesis you consider. But this looked like something you would expect an alien civilisation to build.
Jason Wright, Penn State astronomer
Jason Wright, a Penn State astronomer, said: "Aliens should always be the very last hypothesis you consider.
"But this looked like something you would expect an alien civilisation to build."
Although if a Dyson Sphere did exist, scientists would expect it to emit large amounts of infrared radiation, we would be able to detect at Earth, and this has not been the case.
The star dipped its light to as low as 20% of its brightest for between five and 80 days.
One explanation ruled out was a recent asteroid or comet collision.
ARXIV
The star has produced a series of bizarre light emissions over four years
"We thought it might be bad data or movement on the spacecraft, but everything checked out."
But her conclusion is a comet probably was involved.
She said: "By considering the observational constraints on dust clumps orbiting a normal main-sequence star, we conclude that the scenario most consistent with the data in hand is the passage of a family of exocomet fragments, all of which are associated with a single previous breakup event."
Mr Wright prefers the more interesting theory and plans working with the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligent Life (SETI) Institute in Berkeley to investigate further.
GIGANTIC 62-MILE UFO SPACE STATION DISCOVERED IN ESA PHOTO
GIGANTIC 62-MILE UFO SPACE STATION DISCOVERED IN ESA PHOTO
A UFO hunter claims to have caught the European Space Agency (ESA) attempting to cover-up the presence of a gigantic 62-mile alien UFO space station lurking in deep space near Lutetia, a large asteroid located in our solar system’s asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
Lutetia was discovered on November 15, 1852 by Hermann Goldschmidt, during observations made from the balcony of his apartment in Paris. On July 10, 2010, the European space probe Rosetta passed 3 160 km from 21 Lutetia, at a speed of 15 km / s, on its way to comet 67P / Churyumov-Gerasimenko, where it landed in 2014. 21 Lutetia was the First M-type asteroid to be visited by a space probe.
Lutetia is an ancient object, "a vestige of the primordial planetesimals" that formed, some more than 4 billion years ago, all the planets of the solar system, according to conclusions published in the American scientific journal Science.
The Rosetta spacecraft passed last year 3,142 km from the surface of Lutetia, which is positioned on the main asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter
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Was the Legend of Utsuro-bune a Close Encounter of the Third Kind?
Was the Legend of Utsuro-bune a Close Encounter of the Third Kind?
What is it about Asian culture that intrigues the western world so? The romance, the mystery, the enchantment…all of it seems to come together to form something ready made for western consumption.
The ancient Japanese legend of Tanabata comes to mind:
“In the night sky, there are two stars, Vega and Altair. Legend says that these two stars are the immortal lovers Orihime and Hikoboshi. The lovers, as they are referred to, have been separated by the Milky Way for eternity and though they gaze across the cosmos at each other, their love remains unfulfilled. Except, on the 7th day of the 7th month of every year, when all of the magpies on Earth, fly up to the heavens and, with their wings, form a bridge across the galaxy, allowing these star crossed lovers one night of passion among the darkness of space.”
That legend is part of an ancient sky festival that originates from the even older Chinese Qixi Festival, but most western readers would be more interested in the story of the lovers than the story of its origin. Perhaps therein lays the difference. Perhaps it is the inherently one-dimensional thinking of western culture that attracts us to these legends whilst simultaneously impairing our ability to fully understand their meaning, but in the case of the above, it’s quite easy to see the allegorical nature of the story.
This contrast is amply demonstrated in the common interpretation of Utsuro-bune. Depending on who you ask, Utsuro-bune (also Utsuro-fune or Urobune) is either a modern version of a very old legend, or it’s a story of out-of-place-artefacts and even a close-encounter of the third kind.
The story, which in western circles is also called The White Princess, goes like this:
In 1803 a group of Japanese fishers, in the Hitachi province of central Japan, had a chance encounter with an utsuro-bune – which means, simply, hollow ship – on the beaches of Haratono-hama. They were intrigued by the ship, which appeared to them as an ornately decorated and covered log boat. Such a thing would have been highly unusual to their eyes. It was described as almost 6 meters wide and almost 4 meters high. Apparently made of redwood, it was adorned with brazen plates on its lower half and had several transparent windows around its top half. The utsuro-bune was said to resemble a large incense burner, and after dragging it further ashore, the fishers were astonished to find what lay inside.
Peering through the windows, the fishers saw that the walls were covered in strange texts written in an unknown language. It contained items of food and clothing, and to their great surprise, it also contained a beautiful foreign woman.
She was described as 18-20 years old, with a very pale complexion and strikingly red hair that had been artificially extended with strands of white fur or fine fabric. She was dressed in elegant, flowing cloth of unknown origin, and her language was unknown so the fishers were unable to communicate with her, but despite this she remained friendly and courteous. She carried with her a quadratic box, which she protected from the fishers, no matter how pressingly they inquired about its contents.
Their encounter was brief, as the fishers, once their curiosity had been sated, thought it best not to meddle in the affairs of foreigners, and they ushered the woman back into the utsuro-bune, meticulously reassembling it, and set it again afloat on the sea. They knew not who the woman was or from where she had come. They knew not why she was on her lonely journey, nor where she was headed, but the story speculates, as narrated by an old man of the fisher’s village, that she was a princess of a foreign land, whom had betrayed her powerful husband by consorting with other townsmen. The old man suggested that, due to her beauty, she was loved by the people, and though her husband could have executed her for this wrong, he mercifully banished her and set her to the fates of the ocean, adding that perhaps her precious quadratic box contained the head of her deceased lover.
Ink drawing of the Utsuro-bune by Kyokutei Bakin (1825).
That is the story, or at least that’s one version of it. Even among ancient texts there are different versions. The three best known versions are contained in three books: Toen shōsetsu (‘tales from the rabbit garden’), composed in 1825 by Kyokutei Bakin, Hyōryū kishū (‘diary and stories of the castaways’), composed during the Edo period in 1835 by an unknown author, and Ume-no-chiri (‘dust of the apricot’), composed in 1844 by Nagahashi Matajirō. Toen shōsetsu is the most detailed, most often cited version of the story, even though there is striking similarity between each.
The relatively modern origin of the tale, coupled with the high level of detail suggests to some that this event really happened. Certainly, on its face there is no reason to assume that it didn’t happen. Such boats were common of the era, though the one described in the story was certainly more ornate and robust than would be considered normal. But this might be explained away by both its apparently foreign origin and it having been designed to survive a journey on the high seas rather than inland rivers and lakes where such a vessel would normally be seen.
Now, if we do take it on its face, the Utsuro-bune legend seems to talk of an encounter between peoples of distant lands, on Earth. From the detail given, it’s difficult to decide whether this speaks of a real event or is an allegorical morality tale. Some, however, prefer to take the story as a slight bit more literal, and suggest that the description of the vessel and of the woman are not only based on a real encounter, but some go so far as to claim that they actually describe an encounter with alien technology and a face-to-face meeting with an actual extraterrestrial.
Comparison of the Utsuro-bune symbols to those from RAF Bentwaters and Roswell
Much of the UFO theory regarding this story comes from the associated drawings and symbols that are/were recorded with the story in the books mentioned above. It has been suggested, based on drawings of the vessel, that it could have been a USO (Unidentified Submerged Object), and it’s claimed that the woman’s strange appearance and dress are explainable as that of an alien. Others claim that there is a similarity between the unidentified symbols that adorned the inside of the ship to those that were reportedly observed on the hull of the craft involved in the Rendlesham Forest Incident.
If you take the above to be true, then it does seem somewhat reasonable to draw these comparisons, however, there is much about this that suggests the above is not true.
The story of Utsuro-bune appears, to many scholars, to be an amalgamation of several much earlier cultural legends from both Japan and China. They claim that the elements of the story can be found in any number of other unrelated legends, which doesn’t automatically rule out Utsuro-bune as a truthful telling of a real event, but it casts doubt.
In 1997 a professor from Gifu University in Tokyo, Dr. Kazuo Tanaka, studied the legend of Utsuro-bune, and built upon work done earlier by Japanese historian Yanagida Kunio in 1925 and 1962. Tanaka concludes that the story is nothing more than a (relatively) modern retelling of an ancient allegory. He claims that the cited locations, Haratono-hama and Harayadori, are entirely fictitious, and that certain elements of the story are almost archetypal to Japanese attitudes toward foreigners in antiquity.
Doesn’t it seem though, that a deep analysis of these legends somehow cheapens their value as stories of romance and adventure and morality? Is there not something lost when we try to assign modern cultural values to the tales of our ancestors? Shouldn’t we simply see them, much as we see paintings and sculpture from ages past, as an artistic representation of what life was in those early days of human expression?
Is Utsuro-bune a tale of alien encounters and advanced technology? Is it a description of a real event, an event that carries with it the intrigue and mystery of foreign lands and strange cultures? We don’t really know, and perhaps that’s the way it should stay.
New Shocking Claim: 33 Flying Saucers Appeared Over Waco Air Force Base in 1954
New Shocking Claim: 33 Flying Saucers Appeared Over Waco Air Force Base in 1954
When: March 16th, 1954
Where: Waco, Texas
What:Dozens of flying saucer crafts forming V-shapes and both hovering and moving over Texas air force base; crafts were estimated to be 100-feet in diameter and 100,000 feet above the ground
A really phenomenal and detailed account of 30+ flying saucers flying in formation over the James Connally Air Force Base (now, a public use airport) in Waco, Texas in 1954 has just now surfaced on MUFON (case 85062). The witness wanted to take a picture of the event, but as he was training to become a fighter pilot at the time, he was not able to break the line and grab a camera. Although I could not find any photos or videos of this sighting, apparently the Air Force Base was able to confirm that the UFOs were hovering at 100,000 feet and were extremely large, about 100-feet in diameter. Read the testimony:
Saw thirty three 100 foot diameter flying saucers in three formations together
I was in advanced flying school at James Connally AFB,in Waco Texas in the last two weeks of my training to become a jet fighter pilot.It was a clear bright blue sky.and we had just come down from flying T-33 Jet trainers with our instructors.It was about three o'clock in the afternoon and we had just landed, about twenty of us including our instructors,and as I was walking into the flight shack with my parachute over my back, I looked down the ramp to my left and saw many people out on the ramp looking up into the sky. I turned around and looked up into the northeast of the clear blue sky and saw three "V" formations of glowing white flying saucers. I told all of my fellow cadets and instructors to look up.There were 33 altogether.There were 15 in the middle "V" and 9 in each of the other "V's on each side of the big "V". They were moving slowly from the northeast to the southwest. When they got at a 50 degree angle above us,the second saucer in the little "V" on the left side fell out of formation and fell like a falling leaf to the left. At that point, the entire formations stopped in midair. The falling saucer stopped falling and got control of itself and flew horizontally over to a position right under it's little "V" and then went straight up into its position in the little "V". Then all three "V'S" made a left climbing turn to the southeast and climbed on out into space at about a 45 to 50 degree angle and were out of sight in about 3 to 4 minutes. My instructor and anther ran into the flight shack and called Wing headquarters for permission to take a T-33 to fly up to them when we first saw them.Our T-33's had a limited ceiling of 39,000 feet with the wing fuel tanks. The tower told them that they were watching them and had done a triangulation with a theodolite and had determined that the saucers were at 100,000 feet and were 100 feet in diameter.We all just looked at each other and realized that there was a civilization far superior to ours and it was like we were in the dark ages compared to them. I had wanted to run back to my cadet housing to get my camera to take a picture of them,but we cadets were not allowed to leave the flight lineexcept in formation.I thought that there would be pictures in the paper the next day,but there were no pictures or any comments about them. The Air Force had really squelched any news about them. However the "tower" had to keep a detailed record of the saucers which was an Air Force regulation. I am sure that the record was deleted. There were thousands of people in Waco that saw them so somewhere there has to be a record of the incident. I went on to become a jet fighter pilot with the 452nd Fighter Day Squadron and 322nd Fighter Day Group during the Korean War, but never saw combat.
What do you think of this incredible testimony? During the 1940s and 50s, there were many documented flying saucer and UFO sightings, from Roswell to the White House UFO incident; perhaps this sighting should have joined that well-known documentation.
Or could this testimony simply be a hoax, or even an overreaction to something a bit more mundane? Though this seems unlikely, as the witness wrote into MUFON anonymously and with absolutely no fanfare... share your ideas on this story in the comments below, and/or join the discussion over on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.
If you remember this mass UFO sighting in Waco from the 1950s, or remember hearing about it, please help with this case and report your experience.
The Shadow People – ‘Interdimensional Beings’ Being Seen By Many
The Shadow People – ‘Interdimensional Beings’ Being Seen By Many
Have you ever spotted a dark figure in the corner of your eye, but when you have looked over to see who it was, the figure has suddenly vanished? This is being experienced by many people around the world (including myself) – more people are talking about seeing shadow people and are wondering who they are and what their purpose is on planet earth!
The Shadow people are commonly reported as being seen through peripheral vision and while you may feel something was there, the shadow person is either gone or quickly moving away from you by the time you turn your head – As mentioned above, many people have explained that they could see a dark person stood in the corner of their eye, but as soon as they look over there’s nothing there!
Interdimensional Beings
Art Bell from the Coast to Coast AM radio series once interviewed Harley SwiftDeer Reagan, also referred to as “Thunder Strikes” in this particular interview session. Thunder had made a rather controversial claim that the shadow people are actually parallel dimensional beings who were first recorded by indigenous people way back in 1153 BC!
It was mentioned in the interview by ‘Thunder’ that there was some kind of an awakening between 1980 through 2000 and beginning in 2001, there began “The Quickening” in which events and time seemed to speed up dramatically. At the same all this was occurring, shadow people were becoming visible as frequencies raise, entering into our dimension.
Thunder made a rather remarkable claim at the time and said that these shadow people, of whom he calls, “inorganic beings” live in a parallel dimension and are known to feed off of our emotional discharge of energy along with chaos. It has been noted that in essence, these shadow people are kind of like energy vampires.
Many people around the world (including myself) have stated that these shadow people appear to wear some kind of a cloak like apparel. Some have reported these figures as tall in height and others have said that they have seen small shadowy figures with piercing red eyes!
Please check out a video below of a reported ‘dark shadow’ figure caught on camera accidentally – us guys at U.I.P cannot confirm what or who this is on camera, but if real then we managed to work out that this figure would have been huge in height!
It has been stated before that these shadow figures are purely caused by an individuals state of mind and that anxiety and stress could have caused an overactive mind, which created these ‘shadow figures’. Other areas that have been blamed for these sightings are; sleep paralysis, illusions, or hallucinations brought on by physiological or psychological circumstances, drug use or side effects of medication, and the interaction of external agents on the human body. Another reason that could be behind the illusion is sleep deprivation, which may lead to hallucinations – it would be interesting to speak to other individuals who have encountered these shadow people, to see if they have had any of these ‘issues’ mentioned, I bet the vast majority don’t!
Talking To The Shadows
It can make you feel very lonely and worried once you have seen a shadow figure appear in your vision, as it is not something that you can freely talk about in public, unfortunately! This bizarre yet creepy brief encounter can make a person feel like they are going mad, but you are not and one of MANY who are having these encounters (myself included).
The big question is, “can you talk to these shadow people and see what they want” well unfortunately at the moment it appears not as they do not tend to stick around once they have been seen. Also if these beings are from another dimension then at this moment in time it will be impossible to interact with them – this can soon change if we ever decipher out exactly what is going on around the world and who these shadow people are.
It is important that you talk to others around you about your encounter, perhaps in group forums etc or check us out on FB and get involved with the conversations going on. Trust us, you are not alone.
Why me?
When I personally went through a long phase of about 6 months seeing these strange shadowy figures, apart from feeling a little crazy I also kept asking myself “why me” and I know this is something that many people feel after they have seen the same thing. One of the main explanations is that it could be found somewhere between metaphysics and quantum physics. It is possible that as our third dimensional veil lifts, we are becoming more perceptive to beings on different dimensions or who have different vibrations. As dimensions merge and overlap, it is quite possible that many more strange, unexplainable phenomena will appear. With all this being a possibility it could be that those who are more ‘open-minded’ could actually be more sensitive to seeing these interdimensional visitors!
Another interesting factor about these sightings is that animals are apparently able to see and sense these possible interdimensional visitors also – so if you ever see your pet looking up against a wall anxiously, it could mean that your shadowy friends are back again but perhaps just not visible to you this time!
U.I.P SUMMARY – I personally enjoyed writing this article as I have personally experienced seeing Shadow people before, and still occasionally do! When I first started witnessing these strange figures it freaked me out and as mentioned above I also felt like I was going crazy! However once I discovered that MANY people around the world were also experiencing the same thing, this is when I decided to do some more research.
They say that If you feel you have been visited by shadow people, there are ways to protect yourself from them! Most importantly, you will need to overcome your fear because until you do this, they will continue to feed off of it. Not that they are intentionally trying to scare anybody, perhaps they are trying to reach out to a person or maybe they don’t even know that they are appearing in another world. In the meanwhile, what you can do is stay calm, and date the time and place you saw the shadow figure and discuss it with other like minded people who have experienced the same thing – let us know please report it as a sighting on our website!
It has been said that perhaps these shadow figures are Ghosts, lost souls wandering around the planet stuck in a place they cannot get out of (you have seen the film Sixth Sense right). It has also been stated before by researchers that these figures could be time travellers visiting us from the future – perhaps us, the human race have discovered ways of going back in time!? Anything is possible.
Just the other day I saw a tall man stood there at the corner of my road when I was leaving my house, but guess what? Yes when I looked properly nobody was there. I think once you have seen them, you never stop seeing them.
One thing is for sure, the Shadow people are VERY real! Let us know your stories please?
TRAPPIST-1 would like to remind you that it was drinkin’ beer while you were still rompin’ around in your nappies — or whatever old people say. The ultra cool dwarf star system, which first was announced back in February, has garnered a lot of interest because it harbours seven Earth-size planets. At least three of those planets are within the habitable zone that can support liquid water and potentially, life. As we’re all clamouring to get off this planet understand this alien system, a duo of researchers has figured out some pretty salient information about its star’s age.
The team of astronomers used information gathered from various telescopes to determine TRAPPIST-1's age, which they estimate is between 5.4 and 9.8 billion years old. Our Sun is a whippersnapper by comparison: it’s only about 4.5 billion years old.
“We don’t get the birth certificates of stars when we find them, we just see how they are today,” University of California, San Diego astronomer Adam Burgasser, a co-author on the research, which is set to be published on The Astrophysical Journal, told Gizmodo. “So we had to look for clues that might change on the star over time.”
Artist’s rendering of the TRAPPIST-1 planetary system.
(Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
Burgasser and his colleague, NASA Exoplanet Exploration Program deputy program scientist Eric Mamajek, used various lines of known data about TRAPPIST-1 to piece together a statistical constraint, which is basically a damn good educated guess about the star’s age. For clues, the team looked at factors like the speed of TRAPPIST-1's orbit around the Milky Way, its atmosphere’s composition, and more.
Understanding more about this foreign star system just for the sake of it is pretty cool — after all, TRAPPIST-1 is so delightfully weird. But understanding the system’s age could have some pretty big implications for life on the planets, if there is any.
“Understanding age is pretty important important when you think about the development of planets themselves, and potentially life on these planets,” Burgasser said. “It took about four billion years for complex life to form on Earth, so if we’re thinking about if there’s any life on these planets, how long has it been there to evolve and develop.”
Obviously, the question of whether or not the TRAPPIST-1 planets can support life is up for debate. Some astronomers think that life probably couldn’t sustain itself on these planets, due to their close proximity to their host star. M dwarf stars like TRAPPIST-1 are known for spitting off large solar flares, and some researchers think this could have eroded the planets’ atmospheres. Also, after being so close to their star for billions of years, it’s possible that any water on these planets has boiled away, due to eons of bombardment with high-energy radiation. Of course, other researchers think there’s a shot life on these planets could exist in certain places, so at this point we’re still left with more questions than answers.
Hopefully, the launch of big telescopes like James Webb will aid in our understanding of alien systems like TRAPPIST-1. Now that we know it’s old, it seems there are even more mysteries out there waiting to be solved.
Raunchy replicants and amorous aliens: How real is sci-fi sex?
Raunchy replicants and amorous aliens: How real is sci-fi sex?
As part of our report exploring the future of sex, we get hot and sweaty with science fiction from "Blade Runner" to "Her." Not all of it is so far-fetched.
Warning: This story contains descriptions of racy onscreen sex -- and seductive aliens.
In Woody Allen's 1973 comic caper "Sleeper," 22nd-century citizens hop into a machine called the Orgasmatron for instant sexual gratification. Sounds pretty fantastical if your idea of high-tech sex is Netflix and chill, but as we slip into wearables that measure pelvic thrusts and have sex with increasingly lifelike robots, it seems the steamiest moments in sci-fi movies and TV shows might be coming sooner than you think.
As part of our CNET special report Turned On exploring the intersection of technology and sex, we take a romp with onscreen science fiction to see what's already made its way into our beds and what still awaits our touch.
Now let's lie back and think of the future.
Sci-fi often looks to tech to provide an alternative to all that icky, sticky physical fumbling. The 1968 sexploitation classic "Barbarella" sees lovers of the far future taking "exaltation-transference pills" and pressing together their palms instead of their mucky bits. And in 1993's "Demolition Man," defrosted man-out-of-time Sylvester Stallone looks forward to a night of passion with Sandra Bullock -- until she places brain-scanning helmets on their heads and kicks off a colorful sensory overload that proves too much for the Italian stallion.
Jane Fonda slips out of her spacesuit in "Barbarella."
Bettmann
At the climax of "Barbarella," a villainous scientist puts Jane Fonda's titular bed-hopping space adventurer into an orgasm-inducing device called the Excessive Machine. You probably don't have to worry about a deadly climax if a bad guy takes control of your favorite vibrator, but you do have to worry about today's smart sex toys being vulnerable to hacks.
Not all onscreen sci-fi gadgets provide happy endings. One of the most chilling, desolate moments in British TV series "Black Mirror" comes in "The Entire History of You." A couple's fractious bickering leads to an energetic bout of passionate lovemaking -- until we realize they're dispassionately reliving an earlier, better time in their relationship thanks to their tiny, memory-replaying camera implants.
Randy robots
Many sci-fi stories warn that replacing real love and sex with undemanding technology could lead to an austere, dysfunctional society -- and real-life academics have expressed similar concerns. In the 2013 movie "Her," Joaquin Phoenix plays a man in an idealized relationship with an AI. That scenario doesn't seem so far off considering we can already hang out with customizable sex chatbots.
Joaquin Phoenix gets close, very close, to his computer in "Her."
Warner Bros. Picture, For Times Community News
Sci-fi also shows us the ultimate sex toy: fully functional robots. Increasingly lifelike RealDolls with programmable personalities are just months away, though it may be awhile before they're bed-hopping with the masses. In the sci-fi future, however, people are having it away with androids left, right and center.
Daryl Hannah as a doll-like "basic pleasure model" in "Blade Runner."
Getty Images
"Star Trek: The Next Generation" sees Data getting his robotic rocks off more often than some of his fleshy human shipmates. In the polluted future of "Blade Runner," meanwhile, lifelike androids known as replicants colonize the galaxy, fight wars and generally do the jobs no one else wants. That includes entertaining the troops: Pris, played by Daryl Hannah in a straw wig and racoon makeup, is "a basic pleasure model." The scenario brings up uncomfortable questions of consent around sentient beings created solely for the gratification of others, an issue we're already beginning to confront with sex robots that can be programmed to resist your advances.
If we ever do find ourselves in conflict with artificial intelligence, our biological urges could prove our undoing. In the 2003 "Battlestar Galactica" series, the Cylons spot this weakness and infiltrate the human race through the clever tactic of being really, really hot.
X-rated extra-terrestrials
In real life, alien life will probably take the form of bacteria, which isn't anyone's idea of a hot date. In sci-fi, however, many aliens not only know English, but speak the language of love. Good news for Star Trek's Captain Kirk and Commander Riker, who are forever going on stardates, seeking out new life forms and new uncivilized things to do to them.
While Kirk and other sexual spacefarers have a girl in every galaxy, plenty of aliens have made the return trip with a twinkle of stardust in their eyes. David Bowie, Jeff Bridges and Jeff Goldblum make the earth move for the human women they encounter in "The Man Who Fell To Earth" (1976), "Starman" (1984) and "Earth Girls Are Easy" (1988). And in 1988's "My Stepmother is an Alien," Kim Basinger's race gave up sex 3,000 years ago, but that doesn't stop her getting it on with Dan Aykroyd to the strains of "Pump Up The Volume."
William Shatner as Star Trek's Captain James T. Kirk, doing his bit for interplanetary relations.
CBS Photo Archive
Another otherworldly being who learns about humanity on screen is the orange-haired Leeloo of 1997's "The Fifth Element," played by Milla Jovovich. She's designed to be the ultimate weapon in the battle with a vast and ancient evil. But once that's out of the way, what better way to celebrate than bumping multipasses with Bruce Willis? Big badaboom indeed.
Interestingly, alien beings taking on female form are often treated as horrifying or predatory. "Lifeforce" (1985), "Species" (1995) and "Under the Skin" (2014) all feature beautiful but deadly aliens taking the form of seductive human women to seduce and kill hapless horny men.
Cultural theorists like Barbara Creed have had a field day with these portrayals of female sexuality, referring to the Freudian concept of the archaic mother and the monstrous feminine.
That brings us to the "Alien" series, which inspired a vast mythology and endless scholarly articles around its phallic and vaginal imagery of violent penetration, impregnation and birth.
The series is rammed full of terrifying moments of reproductive body horror -- from the moment a monstrous egg gloopily peeled open and a facehugger leapt out in 1979's "Alien," through the egg-laying of the towering queen creature in 1986 sequel "Aliens" to the visceral gore of this year's "Alien: Covenant," in which an alien curls its spiked tail between two lovers and skewers them mid-coitus.
Fortunately, plenty of celluloid aliens have sex without all that blood and screaming, like the Antareans who join with Steve Guttenberg for a cerebral coupling in a swimming pool in 1985 heartwarmer "Cocoon."
The creatures of the "Alien" series mix phallic and vaginal imagery to horrifying effect.
20th Century Fox
Lonely clones
Historically, sex has been important to, y'know, continue this whole human race thing. In the future, however, technology could come up with new ways of propagating the species -- and the impact on society might not be much fun. George Lucas' first film "THX-1138" in 1971 and the 2015 film "Equals," starring Nicholas Hoult and Kristen Stewart, depict austere societies in which emotions and sexual relationships are banned in favor of dispassionate reproduction. While we're moving toward gene therapy and debating the merits of editing the DNA of our children, no one's yet suggesting we give up entirely on making the babies the old-fashioned way.
Fertility is at stake in Hulu's recent hit series "The Handmaid's Tale," based on the horrifying novel by Margaret Atwood. In the near future, it's not technological change at issue but social change, as women are subjugated under a totalitarian religious system in which the few fertile "Handmaids" are repeatedly raped and brutalized. Most chilling is that this sci-fi parable parallels some women's real-life experiences.
In the bleak, near-future parable "Code 46," released in 2003, cloning comes with its own new problems. The state monitors relationships to ensure no one with similar DNA gets together. That's enforced with smart viruses, including one that makes the people in relationships feel physically sick at the sight of each other, which kind of ruins the moment.
'Valerian': A sci-fi spectacular 40 years in the making
Nice piece of astronaut
With all those amorous androids and ardent aliens awaiting us, no wonder we're so keen to explore the stars. No one's had sex in space yet (as far as we know), but with commercial spaceflights nearly ready to blast off, it's surely a matter of time before someone joins the 62-mile-high club.
2000 movie "Supernova" and 2015 TV series "The Expanse" are among the sci-fi stories giving us a preview of zero-gravity groping and grinding, but perhaps the best example of getting wet and wild while weightless comes in "Moonraker." The late Roger Moore's James Bond celebrates saving the day by (what else?) "attempting re-entry."
For as long as we have kept records, humanity has marveled at the night sky. We have looked at the heavens to determine the will of the gods and to wonder about the meaning of it all. The mere 5,000 stars we can see with the unaided eye have been humanity’s companions for millennia.
Modern astronomical facilities have shown us that the universe doesn't consist of just thousands of stars — it consists of hundreds of billions of stars in our galaxy alone, with trillions of galaxies. Observatories have taught us about the birth and evolution of the universe. And, on Aug. 3, a new facility made its first substantive announcement and added to our understanding of the cosmos. It allows us to see the unseeable, and it showed that the distribution of matter in the universe differed a bit from expectations.
The Dark Energy Survey (DES) is a collaboration of about 400 scientists who have embarked on a five-year mission to study distant galaxies to answer questions about the history of the universe. It uses the Dark Energy Camera (DEC) attached to the Victor M. Blanco 4-meter telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatoryin the Chilean Andes. DEC was assembled in the U.S. at Fermilab near Batavia, Illinois, and is a 570-megapixel camera able to image galaxies so far away that their light is a millionth as bright as the dimmest visible stars.
Dark energy and dark matter
DES is hunting for dark energy, which is a proposed energy field in the universe that is a repulsive form of gravity. While gravity exerts an irresistible attraction, dark energy pushes the universe to expand at an ever-increasing rate. Its effect was first observed in 1998, and we still have many questions about its nature.
However, by measuring the location and distance of 300 million galaxies in the southern night sky, the survey will be able to make important statements about another astronomical mystery, called dark matter. Dark matter is thought to be five times more prevalent in the universe than ordinary matter. Yet it doesn’t interact with light, radio waves or any form of electromagnetic energy. And it doesn’t appear to congregate to form large bodies like planets and stars.
Map of dark matter made from gravitational lensing measurements of 26 million galaxies in the Dark Energy Survey.
Credit: Chihway Chang of the Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics at the University of Chicago and the DES collaboration
There is no way to directly see dark matter (hence the name). However, its effects can be seen indirectly by analyzing how fast galaxies rotate. If you calculate the rotational speeds supported by the galaxies’ visible mass, you will discover that they rotate more quickly than they should. By all rights, these galaxies should be torn apart. After decades of research, astronomers have concluded that each galaxy contains dark matter, which generates the additional gravity that holds the galaxies together. [6 Weird Facts About Gravity]
Dark matter in the universe
However, on the much larger scale of the universe, studying individual galaxies is not sufficient. Another approach is needed. For that, astronomers must employ a technique called gravitational lensing.
Gravitational lensing was predicted in 1916 by Albert Einstein and was first observed by Sir Arthur Eddington in 1919. Einstein’s theory of general relativity says that the gravity that we experience is really caused by the curvature of space-time. Since light travels in a straight line through space, if space-time is curved, it will look to an observer as if light were travelling a curved path through space. [8 Ways You Can See Einstein's Theory of Relativity in Real Life]
This phenomenon can be harnessed to study the amount and distribution of dark matter in the universe. Scientists who peer at a distant galaxy (called the lensing galaxy), which has another galaxy even farther away behind it (called the observed galaxy), can see a distorted image of the observed galaxy. The distortion is related to the mass of the lensing galaxy. Because the mass of the lensing galaxy is a combination of visible matter and dark matter, gravitational lensing allows scientists to directly observe the existence and distribution of dark matter on scales as large as the universe itself. This technique also works when a large cluster of foreground galaxies distorts the images of clusters of even more distant galaxies, which is the technique employed for this measurement.
Lumpy or not?
The DES collaboration recently released an analysis using exactly this technique. The team looked at a sample of 26 million galaxies at four different distances from Earth. The closer galaxies lensed ones that were farther away. By using this technique and looking carefully at the distortion of the images of all of the galaxies, they were able to map out the distribution of invisible dark matter and how it moved and clumped over the past 7 billion years, or half the lifespan of the universe.
As expected, they found that the dark matter of the universe was "lumpy." However, there was a surprise — it was a little less lumpy than previous measurements had predicted.
One of these contradictory measurements comes from the remnant radio signal from the earliest time after the Big Bang, called the cosmic microwave background (CMB). The CMB contains within it the distribution of energy in the cosmos when it was 380,000 years old. In 1998, the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) collaboration announced that the CMB was not perfectly uniform, but rather had hot and cold spots that differed from uniform by 1 part in 100,000. The Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) and Planck satellites confirmed and refined the COBE measurements.
Over the 7 billion years between when the CMB was emitted and the time period studied by DES, those hotter regions of the universe seeded the formation of structure of the cosmos. Nonuniform energy distribution captured in the CMB, combined with the amplifying force of gravity, caused some spots in the universe to become denser and others less so. The result is the universe we see around us.
The CMB predicts the distribution of dark matter for a simple reason: The distribution of matter in our universe in the present depends on its distribution in the past. After all, if there were a clump of matter in the past, that matter would attract nearby matter and the clump would grow. Similarly, if we were to project into the distant future, the distribution of matter today would affect tomorrow's for the same reason.
So, scientists have used measurements of the CMB at 380,000 years after the Big Bang to calculate what the universe should look like 7 billion years later. When they compared the predictions to the measurements from DES, they found that the DES measurements were a little less lumpy than the predictions.
Incomplete picture
Is that a big deal? Maybe. The uncertainty, or error, in the two measurements is big enough that it means they don’t disagree in a statistically significant way. What that simply means is that no one can be sure that the two measurements really disagree. It could be that the discrepancies arise by chance from statistical fluctuations in the data or small instrumental effects that were not considered.
Even the study’s authors would suggest caution here. The DES measurements have not yet been peer-reviewed. The papers were submitted for publication and the results were presented at conferences, but firm conclusions should wait until the referee reports come in.
So, what is the future? DES has a five-year mission, of which four years of data have been recorded. The recently announced result uses only the first year’s worth of data. More recent data is still being analyzed. Further, the full data set will cover 5,000 square degrees of the sky, while the recent result only covers 1,500 square degrees and peers only half of the way back in time. Thus, the story is clearly not complete. An analysis of the full data set won’t be expected until perhaps 2020.
Yet, the data taken today already could mean that there is a possible tension in our understanding of the evolution of the universe. And, even if that tension disappears as more data is analyzed, the DES collaboration is continuing to make other measurements. Remember that the letters "DE" in the name stand for dark energy. This group will eventually be able to tell us something about the behavior of dark energy in the past and what we can expect to see in the future. This recent measurement is just the very beginning of what is expected to be a scientifically fascinating time.
Follow all of the Expert Voices issues and debates — and become part of the discussion — on Facebook, Twitter and Google+. The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher.
This version of the article was originally published on Live Science.
The Most Interesting Science News Articles of the Week
The Most Interesting Science News Articles of the Week
By Live Science Staff
Each week we uncover the most interesting and informative articles from around the world, here are 10 of the coolest stories in science this week.
1. Adulting Includes Pot?
Marijuana's popularity among American adults is on the rise — and use of the recreational drug is expected to continue to increase, according to several surveys.
The top four reasons people give for using marijuana are to relax, to relieve pain, to have fun and to help them be social, according to a survey by Yahoo News/Marist College done in March. [Read more about the rise.]
2. Threat of Nuclear Attack
A gigantic mushroom cloud billowed over Nagasaki, Japan, when an atomic bomb was dropped on the city in 1945.
Credit: U.S. National Archives
North Korea has successfully miniaturized a nuclear warhead that could be fitted onto an intercontinental ballistic missile, and has now threatened to attack Guam, a U.S. territory, according to several news reports.
The saber rattling has raised concerns about the possibility of a nuclear attack on U.S. soil and heightened fears of doomsday. But is a global nuclear winter just around the corner? [Learn how to survive.]
3. Strange Marks
A bone from the right forearm of an adult human unearthed in Gough's Cave bears more than signs of cannibalism; researchers found zigzagging cuts that were likely intentionally engraved into the bone.
Credit: Bello et al (2017)
More than 17,000 years ago in what is now England, people may have performed cannibalistic rituals that involved engraving symbols on human bones, new research finds.
In the new study, Bello and her colleagues examined ancient human remains from the so-called Magdalenian culture, which existed across Europe during the later part of the Paleolithic about 12,000 to 17,000 years ago. The human bones from these sites often bear signs of cannibalism. [Read more about the cannibals.]
4. Biology or Sexism: That is the Question
A Google employee recently published an anti-diversity manifesto on an internal discussion board that has gone viral and stirred furious debate both inside and outside the company.
In the essay, James Damore claimed that differences in the number of women and men in tech companies such as Google can be largely explained by biological differences, rather than sexism. [Read more about the manifesto.]
5. Jellyfish Fossils
This oval impression is all that remains of a jellyfish that washed up on a beach 540 million years ago, part of a mass stranding in what is now Death Valley.
Credit: Aaron Sappenfield/University of California, Riverside
540 million years ago, seaside sand contained densely packed microbial communities, which created a gooey glue that was excellent for preserving impressions of ocean creatures left high and dry by retreating waves.
The ancient jellyfish were preserved in a slab of sandstone found in southeastern California. Scientists identified 13 of these oval specimens on the rocky surface, ranging from 1.2 to 8.3 inches (3 to 21 centimeters) in diameter. The fossils were lighter than the rock surrounding them, and they varied not only in size but also their style of preservation. [Read more about the graveyard.]
6. Simulating the Beginning
An illustration of the quark-gluon plasma created in the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider at Brookhaven National Laboratory
Credit: Brookhaven National Laboratory
Faster than a tornado, speedier than the giant storm swirling on Jupiter — it's the world's fastest-swirling vortex, which scientists have created in a primordial soup of gluey particles meant to re-create the Big Bang.
To understand exactly what happened in those moments after the Big Bang, scientists have re-created this primordial particle soup in an atom smasher at the RHIC, at Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, New York. [Read more about the vortex.]
7. A Question of Alcohol
Do you know how much alcohol is in your drink? If you're making a judgment based on taste and smell alone, you may miss the mark, a new study from England finds.
To see how well young adults could determine how much alcohol was in a drink, the researchers did two experiment with college students. [Read more about the bad judgement.]
8. Paper Organs?
Researchers have created a tissue paper-like material out of ground-up organs.
Credit: Northwestern University
Scientists have created paper-like biomaterials from organs such as the ovaries, uterus, heart, liver and muscle that are thin and flexible enough to fold into origami birds and other structures. [Read more about the origami organs.]
9. Not-so-fun at the Beach
Though small, amphipods such as Lepidepecreum longicornis can pack quite a bite.
Credit: Copyright Hans Hillewaert
Tiny marine creatures — each measuring a fraction of an inch in length — gnawed a teenager's legs bloody during a seaside dip in Melbourne, Australia, and experts identified a type of scavenging crustacean as the culprit in this exceedingly rare encounter. [Read more about terrifying attack.]
10. Cosmic Rarity?
The Mars rover Curiosity took these images of an annular, or ring, eclipse as Mars' largest moon, Phobos, passed directly in front of the sun on Aug. 20, 2013. The photos were taken 3 seconds apart.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Malin Space Science Systems/Texas A&M University
As Earthlings, we have the privilege of ooohing and aaahing at total solar eclipses, those dazzling celestial events in which the moon blocks the sun's light from hitting our planet. But is Earth the only world in our solar system that experiences this spectacular phenomenon? [Read more about eclipses across the Universe.]
What Causes Spooky Out-of-Body Experiences? It Could Be Your Ears
What Causes Spooky Out-of-Body Experiences? It Could Be Your Ears
By Amanda Onion, Live Science Contributor
About 10 percent of the general population has had an out-of-body experience at some point in their lives.
Credit: Mangojuicy/Dreamstime
While driving and accelerating in his car, a man in France suddenly had a bizarre sensation: He felt like he was outside his car, looking in at his physical self, which was still at the wheel.
The man was part of a new study that links problems of the inner ear with eerie "out-of-body" experiences. These experiences are curious, usually brief sensations in which a person's consciousness seems to exit the body and then view the body from the outside.
The study analyzed 210 patients who had visited their doctors with so-called vestibular disorders. The vestibular system, which is made up of several structures in the inner ear, provides the body with a sense of balance and spatial orientation. Problems with this system can cause dizziness or a floating sensation, among other symptoms. [7 Weird Facts About Balance]
Maya Elzière, an ear, nose and throat specialist at Hôpital Européen in Marseille, France, and co-author of the study, enlisted patients who had experienced a range of issues, from recurrent vertigo and tinnitus to infections in the ear. Among these patients, 14 percent reported out-of-body experiences, compared with only 5 percent of healthy people without vestibular disorders who said the same.
"Out-of-body experiences were about three times more frequent" in patients with vestibular disorders, versus those without these disorders, said Christophe Lopez, lead author of the study and a neuroscientist at Aix-Marseille Université in France.
Lopez said the example of the patient who felt like he was outside his body while accelerating in his car makes sense. The scientist explained that since the vestibular system would be responsible for orienting the driver and giving him the sensation of moving forward as he accelerated in a car, a faulty vestibular system could send crossed signals to the brain during the motion.
"If you are sending the wrong signals to your brain about your motion, it creates confusion — your brain has to make sense of conflicting information," Lopez told Live Science. "We think the conflicting signals create a kind of central incoherence, and that creates distortions in the sense of your body and the environment around you." [Top 10 Unexplained Phenomena]
Among the 29 patients in the study who reported experiencing out-of-body sensations, one described it as a "sensation of entering my body, like in an envelope, from the top." Another said, "I saw myself, smaller, from the top."
The research also found that most patients reported they had out-of-body sensations only after they had experienced dizziness for the first time. This suggests, Lopez said, that problems with the vestibular system were a factor in creating the odd sensations.
Out-of-body experiences have been documented for centuries, at least since the late 1800s. One case, recorded by French otologist Pierre Bonnier in 1905, describes a patient who felt "divided into two persons, one who had not changed posture and another new person on his right, looking somewhat outwardly. Then, the two somatic individuals approached each other, merged, and the vertigo disappeared."
Lopez said that doctors have commonly ascribed the sensation to a kind of psychosis. But the new study builds on other recent research that links the feeling, at least in some cases, to faulty wiring in the vestibular system, he said.
"What the authors of [this study] did is carefully quantify the incidence of vestibular sensations and their relation to symptoms traditionally labeled 'psychiatric,'" Peter Brugger, a psychologist at the University of Zurich in Switzerland, told Live Science. Brugger has studied similarly bizarre sensations of people seeing themselves, or their doppelgängers, before them.
Lopez said he was inspired to conduct his research after working in the lab of Olaf Blanke, a neuroscientist at Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland.
In 2002, Blanke showed that he could induce out-of-body sensations in a patient by electrically stimulating the brain area that integrates vestibular and visual input.
Terence Hines, a professor of psychology at Pace University in New York and author of the book "Pseudoscience and the Paranormal" (Prometheus Books, 2003), told Live Science that the new study makes sense given the role of the vestibular system in the human body.
"I don't think it's the only explanation for out-of-body experiences," Hines said. "But we know that this part of the inner ear plays a role in how we orient ourselves in our bodies, so if something is wrong there, things can go kind of haywire. It's one reasonable explanation."
Other factors have indeed been linked to out-of-body sensations. A personal history of migraines, anxiety and depression have also been associated with more frequent reports of the sensation, according to the recent study. Other research, led by psychologist Andra Smith at the University of Ottawa in Canada, describes the case of a woman who could deliberately trigger an out-of-body sensation, suggesting that it may be possible to do so through meditation.
Also, Lopez said it is common to experience "floating" or "sinking" sensations while falling asleep, dreaming or waking.
"In terms of neurophysiology, it's unclear why that happens," Lopez said. He excluded occurrences around sleep from his study, because they're not necessarily associated with a faulty vestibular system. He also excluded any sensations associated with drug or alcohol use.
Lopez said that while a faulty vestibular system is "not the only explanation for out-of-body experiences," it might be reassuring to some to know that a mechanical explanation could be at play.
"Having an out-of-body experience may happen because one of the main sensory systems is not processing correctly," he said. "It doesn't mean you're crazy."
The study was published online June 8 in the journal Cortex.
'Het leven is mogelijk meerdere keren op aarde ontstaan'
'Het leven is mogelijk meerdere keren op aarde ontstaan'
Caroline Kraaijvanger
Voordat onze voorouders ontstonden, leefden er wellicht andere complexe levensvormen op aarde die het uiteindelijk niet gered hebben.
Aangenomen wordt dat het ontstaan van complexe levensvormen op aarde heel bijzonder was en in de lange geschiedenis van onze planeet maar één keer plaatsvond. En wel nadat de hoeveelheid zuurstof in de atmosfeer rap was toegenomen. Maar nieuw onderzoek trekt die aanname nu ernstig in twijfel. De studie toont namelijk aan dat de hoeveelheid zuurstof in de atmosfeer niet één keer, maar zeker twee keer rap toe nam.
Kleine kans “Er is fossiel bewijs voor complexe levensvormen die tot zo’n 1,75 miljard jaar geleden leefden,” legt onderzoeker Roger Buick uit. “Maar het oudste fossiel is niet per se het oudste organisme dat ooit geleefd heeft, omdat de kans dat een organisme fossiliseert vrij klein is.” Onderzoek wijst nu uit dat de hoeveelheid zuurstof in de atmosfeer meer dan 1,75 miljard jaar geleden al eens sterk toenam om vervolgens – ongeveer een kwart miljard jaar later – weer af te nemen. “Dit onderzoek laat zien dat er nog voor het fossiele bewijs (voor complex leven ontstond, red.) genoeg zuurstof in de atmosfeer zat om de evolutie van complexe cellen mogelijk te maken. Het betekent niet dat dat ook echt gebeurde, maar het kan wel zijn gebeurd.”
Sedimenten Buick en collega’s trekken die conclusie nadat ze 2 tot 2,4 miljard jaar oude sedimenten bestudeerden. Ze richtten zich daarbij met name op het element seleen dat door de aanwezigheid van zuurstof beïnvloed wordt. Het onderzoek wijst uit dat er lang voor de oudste meercelligen waarvan resten zijn teruggevonden leefden, een periode was waarin de hoeveelheid zuurstof op aarde sterk toenam. En die hoeveelheid bleef ook een lange tijd hoog. Dat is belangrijk. Want de evolutie van complexe levensvormen vereist tijd. En dat was ze gegund in de eerste periode waarin de hoeveelheid zuurstof op aarde rap toenam.
Uniek Grote vraag is natuurlijk waarom de hoeveelheid zuurstof in de atmosfeer rap toenam om vervolgens een kwart miljard jaar later weer af te nemen en dus de ondergang in te luiden voor eventuele complexe levensvormen die dankzij de hogere zuurstofconcentratie waren ontstaan. Onderzoekers weten het niet. “Het is onbekend waarom het gebeurde en waarom er een einde aan kwam,” stelt onderzoeker Eva Stüeken. “Zoiets hebben we nooit meer in de aardse geschiedenis meegemaakt,” voegt Buick toe. “Als je kijkt naar de seleenisotopen door de tijd heen, dan is het een unieke interval: zowel ervoor als erna is alles anders.”
Het onderzoek vertelt niet alleen meer over de geschiedenis van de aarde, maar heeft tevens implicaties voor de zoektocht naar buitenaards leven. “De erkenning van deze periode in het verre verleden van de aarde waarin er bijna net zoveel zuurstof in de atmosfeer zat als nu het geval is, maar de bewoners heel anders waren, kan erop wijzen dat de detectie van een zuurstofrijke wereld niet direct bewijst dat er sprake is van een complexe biosfeer,” stelt onderzoeker Michael Kipp. Want hoewel het goed mogelijk is dat er meer dan 1,75 miljard jaar geleden meercellige organismen ontstonden, was deze eventuele meercelligen niet genoeg tijd gegund om te diversificeren.
Een printer waar levende wezens uitrollen: het begin is er...
Een printer waar levende wezens uitrollen: het begin is er...
Caroline Kraaijvanger
Een Amerikaanse onderzoeker heeft een apparaat ontwikkeld dat DNA, RNA, eiwitten en viruspartikels kan printen.
Het apparaat heeft de naam Digital-to-Biological Converter (kortweg DBC) gekregen en is ontwikkeld door de onderzoeksgroep van Craig Venter. Misschien gaat er bij het horen van die naam niet direct een belletje rinkelen. Maar binnen de synthetische biologie wordt de man gezien als een pionier. Hij verbaasde in 2000 vriend en vijand door met weinig mankracht in korte tijd het complete menselijke genoom in kaart te brengen. En in 2010 wist hij alle kranten te halen door – naar eigen zeggen – voor het eerst kunstmatig leven te creëren (zie kader). Een paar jaar later – in 2016 – presenteerde hij een uitgeklede versie van diezelfde synthetische levensvorm die enkel de genen herbergde die deze nodig had om te overleven (en dat waren er – verbazingwekkend genoeg – 437, veel meer dan vooraf werd gedacht).
SYNTHETISCH LEVEN
In 2010 creëerde Venter een volledig synthetisch genoom en plaatste dat vervolgens in een levende cel. Velen – waaronder Venter zelf – bestempelden het resulterende organisme als ’s werelds eerste synthetische levensvorm. Daar valt echter wel iets op af te dingen. Want dit organisme was niet vanuit het niets gecreëerd: Venter maakte immers alsnog gebruik van een bestaande, levende cel.
DBC En nu laat Venter dus weer van zich horen. En wel met de DBC. “Allerlei methoden die in het moleculair biologisch lab gebruikt worden, worden in dit apparaat geautomatiseerd,” vertelt professor Oscar Kuipers, als moleculair microbioloog verbonden aan de Universiteit van Groningen.
Van bits naar eiwitten Maar hoe werkt het apparaat dan precies? “Het begint allemaal met digitale informatie, dus bits: nullen en enen,” stelt Kuipers. Die bits beschrijven een DNA-sequentie, oftewel de volgorde van nucleotiden, waarvan adenine (A), Cytosine (C), Guanine (G) en Thymine (T) de meest voorkomende zijn. “Met twee bits kun je elke letter schrijven. A kan bijvoorbeeld 00 zijn. C kan 10 zijn, G kan 01 zijn en T kan 11 zijn.” Zo’n digitale DNA-sequentie kan het apparaat van Venter vervolgens omzetten in een echt DNA-molecuul, dat bestaat uit twee ketens van duizenden aan elkaar gekoppelde nucleotiden. “Deze DNA-syntheses (de kunstmatig gecreëerde DNA-moleculen, red.) bestaan bijvoorbeeld uit een paar duizend letters. Die kortere stukken DNA kunnen echter aan elkaar gekoppeld worden, zodat grotere stukken DNA ontstaan. En uiteindelijk kun je zo een compleet chromosoom maken.” Zo heeft Venter al aangetoond dat hij het chromosoom van een faag – een klein virus dat alleen een specifieke bacterie infecteert en uit een paar duizend basenparen bestaat – kan produceren. “Maar je kunt zeker ook grotere DNA-sequenties maken.” Het apparaat gaat echter vervolgens nog een stapje verder. “Als je zo’n stuk DNA hebt, kan het apparaat daar nog enzymen aan toevoegen die het DNA omzetten in RNA-moleculen en die coderen dan voor de eiwitten.” Door vervolgens nog wat andere stoffen – waaronder energiedragers, enzymen en ribosomen – toe te voegen, maakt het apparaat een eiwit. “En dat gebeurt dus allemaal in vitro, dus zonder tussenkomst van levende cellen.”
De Digital-to-Biological Converter. Afbeelding: Nature Biotechnology / doi:10.1038/nbt.3859.
Transformatie-unit Op dit moment kan het apparaat dus DNA-moleculen, RNA-moleculen en eiwitten maken. Daarnaast zit in het apparaat ook een transformatie-unit. Deze transformatie-unit kan het synthetische DNA in een levende cel plaatsen. Het betekent dat het apparaat in staat is om de ‘kunstmatige levensvorm’ die Venter in 2010 presenteerde, te ‘printen’.
Vaccins en medicijnen Het klinkt heel indrukwekkend. Maar wat kunnen we nu eigenlijk met dit apparaat? Venter ziet grote mogelijkheden. Hij ziet het apparaat al vaccins, medicijnen, voedsel en zelfs complexere levensvormen op misschien wel andere planeten printen. “Het apparaat kan onder meer RNA-moleculen maken en die worden weer gebruikt om vaccins van te maken,” vertelt Kuipers. Er liggen plannen om de DBC kleiner en mogelijk zelfs draagbaar te maken. Het zou kunnen betekenen dat vaccins straks op elke plek gemaakt kunnen worden. Hetzelfde geldt voor sommige medicijnen. “Stel je voor dat je in het regenwoud zit en je loopt een infectie op. Het apparaat kan dan de ziekteverwekker sequencen en daarmee identificeren. Dan kan een arts op afstand het apparaat opdracht geven om een geschikt antibioticum te printen.” Het klinkt misschien te mooi om waar te zijn. “Maar het is zeker niet onmogelijk, want een antibioticum kan een eiwitje of een complexe organische verbinding zijn en zolang je de juiste moleculaire bouwstenen en enzymen hebt, kun je die synthetiseren.”
WIE IS VENTER?
Sommige mensen noemen hem een genie. Anderen zien hem meer als een geslepen zakenman die erin slaagt om – onder meer bij bedrijven – honderden miljoenen dollars los te peuteren voor zijn onderzoek. Kuipers ontmoette Venter een aantal jaren geleden toen Venter de Leeuwenhoek Medaille in ontvangst mocht nemen. “Het is een charismatische man, een visionair, maar tegelijkertijd is hij ook heel zakelijk.” Of hij net als eerdere ontvangers van de Leeuwenhoek Medaille ooit de Nobelprijs in handen gedrukt gaat krijgen? Het zou Kuipers niet verbazen. “Hij heeft misschien geen concrete grote ontdekking gedaan, maar hij heeft wel enorm veel kennis verzameld en die kennis snel gebruikt om onderzoek en synthese te automatiseren. De moleculaire biologie is door hem absoluut in een versnelling geraakt.”
Biologische teleportatie naar Mars Maar Venter droomt groter. Hij ziet het ook wel voor zich dat dit apparaat in de toekomst naar Mars wordt gestuurd om daar micro-organismen te printen die de rode planeet terravormen. Of misschien kunnen we de planeet zelfs wel van een afstandje koloniseren door het genoom van complexere levensvormen – misschien zelfs mensen – naar zo’n apparaat op Mars te sturen. Venter noemt dat ‘biologische teleportatie’. “Het is een beetje Jules Verne-denken,” vindt Kuipers. Want er zitten vanzelfsprekend nogal wat haken en ogen aan dit wilde plan. “Eerst moet je het apparaat daar zien te krijgen en het moet ook daar – bij lage temperaturen en extreme omstandigheden – functioneren. Bovendien heeft Venter nog niet laten zien dat hij zonder tussenkomst van levende cellen een organisme kan printen. Dus dat betekent dat je cellen, al dan niet voorgeprepareerd, mee moet sturen om leven te kunnen ‘printen’.” Kuipers ziet zelf meer in die andere toepassing: snel medicijnen en vaccins printen op de plekken waar dat nu heel lastig is.
Echt nieuw leven printen Biologische teleportatie mag dan ver weg zijn: het maakt Kuipers niet minder enthousiast over de DBC. “Het is heel mooi dat er nu een machine is die van elke sequentie in principe een eiwit kan maken. Natuurlijk zijn er nog wel wat problemen.” Zo is niet elk eiwit dat Venter maakt, functioneel, omdat niet elk eiwit zich direct goed vouwt. “Daarvoor heb je hulp-eiwitten of andere stofjes nodig, maar die kunnen in de toekomst natuurlijk in het apparaat worden toegevoegd. In theorie is dan ook niets onmogelijk. De logische vervolgstap? Met dit apparaat een compleet genoom synthetiseren en in een bacterie plaatsen, zodat een heel nieuwe bacterie ontstaat.” Die nieuwe bacterie kan – in de toekomst wellicht samen met synthetische hogere organismen – ingezet worden om stoffen te produceren die wij mensen nodig hebben. “Denk aan medicijnen of voedsel.” En dat toekomstbeeld is de opmaat naar de heilige graal binnen de synthetische biologie: leven maken from scratch. “Dat is de uitdaging. Van levenloos materiaal – nucleotiden, aminozuren, suikers, vetten, metalen en vitamines – leven maken,” bevestigt Kuipers. “Maar dat is nog ver weg. Dat kan nog wel 20 jaar duren. Maar als het lukt, kunnen we ook dat proces waarbij uit moleculen cellen worden gemaakt, automatiseren.”
Venter mag dan zo langzamerhand uitgegroeid zijn tot het gezicht van de synthetische biologie: hij is bij lange na niet de enige die in dit onderzoeksveld actief is. Talloze onderzoeksgroepen wereldwijd proberen nieuwe moleculen en stofwisselingsprocessen in bacteriën te brengen of zelfs vanuit niets een micro-organisme te scheppen. En het lijkt een kwestie van tijd voor zij met semi-synthetische levensvormen op de proppen komen die de wereld gaan veranderen. “Ik denk dat de impact van dit onderzoeksveld enorm kan zijn. Het is een beetje vergelijkbaar met de impact die de smartphone en de personal computer op de wereld hebben gehad, denk ik.” Alleen zal de synthetische biologie toch het speelveld blijven van de specialisten. “Ik denk niet dat elke burger straks zijn eigen medicijnen print, maar de apotheek op de hoek wel.” Voor het zover is, zullen de ethische bezwaren die er altijd zijn als het gaat om het ‘knutselen met DNA’, nog regelmatig de kop opsteken. Maar ze zullen de opmars van Venter en collega’s hooguit vertragen en zeker niet stoppen. “Elke technologie kan natuurlijk ten goede of ten kwade gebruikt worden,” benadrukt Kuipers. “Maar ik kan veel gevaarlijkere technologieën bedenken dan deze.”
Bronmateriaal:
Interview met Oscar Kuipers De afbeelding van Craig Venter is afkomstig uit het blad PLoS ONE.
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Hawking Says Time Running Out – “Colonize Or Die”
Hawking Says Time Running Out – “Colonize Or Die”
Humans need to colonize another planet within 100 years or face the threat of extinction, Stephen Hawking has warned. At the beginning of 2016, Hawing warned about the dangers of nuclear war, global warming, genetically-engineered viruses, and the danger of artificial intelligence. In the new BBC documentary “Stephen Hawking: Expedition New Earth,” the professor warns that “the human race only has 100 years before we need to colonize another planet.”
“With climate change, overdue asteroid strikes, epidemics and population growth, our own planet is increasingly precarious,” Hawking adds in the film. Hawking used to believe we had about 1,000 years left, but that timeline appears to have shortened.
“Although the chance of a disaster to planet Earth in a given year may be quite low, it adds up over time, and becomes a near certainty in the next thousand or ten thousand years,” Hawking told the BBC in an interview last year. “By that time we should have spread out into space, and to other stars, so a disaster on Earth would not mean the end of the human race. However, we will not establish self-sustaining colonies in space for at least the next hundred years, so we have to be very careful in this period.”
Though Hawking’s timeline is more extreme than most, he is not the only visionary to warn about the threat to human existence. Earlier this year, Elon Musk said humans must merge with machines to avoid becoming irrelevant.
Alibaba founder Jack Ma, meanwhile, also recently warned that society could face decades of “pain” because of the disruption caused by new technology and the internet, CNBC notes.
What do you think of Hawking’s daunting prediction?
Astrophysicists Say Our Solar System Long Ago Had An Advanced Civilization…That Vanished Without a Trace!
Astrophysicists Say Our Solar System Long Ago Had An Advanced Civilization…That Vanished Without a Trace!
Was our solar system once home to an advanced civilization that predated humanity by hundreds of millions of years? And we don’t mean humans! While there is no evidence for a pre-human indigenous technological species, people have been speculating about it since ancient times. Now, one space scientist is pointing out that the existence of intelligent space aliens on Earth hasn’t been ruled out either. One so thoroughly wiped out by a comet strike that nearly all evidence of its existence vanished, never to be found again?
If a race of smart aliens did make their home in our solar system, there could be traces of evidence we simply haven’t discovered yet, Penn State astrophysicist Dr. Jason T. Wright notes in his paper “Prior Indigenous Technological Species.” Of course, Wright is not suggesting we’ll find any alien fossils. Instead, he’s talking about “techno-signatures,” a term encompassing a broad range of possible artifacts.
Wright argues that if a prior indigenous technological species did exist, it might have developed on Earth of pre-greenhouse Venus—or even Mars. With surface erosion and shifting tectonic plates on Earth, any evidence on our planet would have been lost long ago. And any artifacts left on Venus probably would have been destroyed by the planet’s atmosphere.
If the beings did make it to Mars, however, Wright believes they might still exist. Though he argues “it is unlikely that artifacts might be obvious from space imagery, or even from the sort of shallow probing performed by the various Martian rovers.” Any signatures would be buried deep under the surface.
Other places to look for techno-signatures would be our moon and the rocky moons and asteroids of the outer solar system. There might even be “large structures flee-floating in space.”
Not all experts are as enthusiastic about this proposal as Wright.
“If I had to guess, I’d say it’s highly unlikely, but not impossible, that an ancient civilization existed—probably even more unlikely we’ll ever find evidence,” Dr. Paul Horowitz, a research professor of physics at Harvard University commented.
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When Aliens Come…They Will Come As Machines!
When Aliens Come…They Will Come As Machines!
Why would aliens bother coming here in the flesh? Whatever their ‘flesh’ may be – that is! Afterall we sent Rover to Mars! Therefore, a SETI senior astronomer believes that humanity ought to alter its search parameters to incorporate — if not totally concentrate on — clever alien machines. And in the POSTBIOLOGICAL UNIVERSE: Aliens Are Machined Based, Not Meat Based so says NASA’s Chief Historian Steven J. Dick. He believes that the dominant form of life in the cosmos is probably post-biological. Advanced alien civilizations, either through their own trans-biological evolution or through the rise of their artificially intelligent progeny, are more likely to be machine-based than meat-based. We ourselves may be heading in this direction, as witnessed by current and pending advances in genetics, cybernetics, molecular nanotechnology, cognitive science, and information technology. Seth Shostak, senior astronomer at the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) institute, one of the globe’s leading alien hunting group, believes that the rise of advanced artificial intelligence (AI) is inevitable on any life-harbouring planet, including Earth.
Steven J. Dick is the second chairholder of the Baruch S. Blumberg NASA/Library of Congress Chair in Astrobiology at the Kluge Center. A well-known astronomer and historian of science, he previously served as the Charles A. Lindbergh Chair in Aerospace History at the National Air and Space Museum and as the NASA Chief Historian and Director of the NASA History Office.
As Dick noted in his paper, “The Postbiological Universe”: Because of the limits of biology and flesh-and-blood brains…cultural evolution will eventually result in methods for improving intelligence beyond those biological limits. If the strong Artificial Intelligence concept is correct, that is, if it is possible to construct AI with more intelligence than biologicals, postbiological intelligence may take the form of AI. It has been argued that humans themselves may become postbiological in this sense within a few generations.
Dr. Steven Dick THE POSTBIOLOGICAL UNIVERSE National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)/Headquarters (United States) steven.j.dick@nasa.gov Abstract
Throughout history scientists and the general public have debated whether intelligent life exists beyond Earth. Some, including most SETI scientists, have concluded that such life is likely, and that cosmic evolution has resulted in a biological universe (Dick, 1996; Dick, 1998), defined as characterized by abundant life beyond the mere physical universe of planets, stars and galaxies. However, another possibility exists: that cultural evolution over the long time scales of the universe has resulted in something beyond biology, namely, artificial intelligence (AI). Such a postbiological universe cannot mean a universe devoid of biological intelligence, since humans are an obvious counterexample.
Nor does it mean a universe devoid of lower forms of life, what I have termed the ’weak biological universe’ (Dick, 2000a), as advocated by Ward and Brownlee (2000). Rather, the postbiological universe is one in which the majority of intelligent life has evolved beyond flesh and blood intelligence, in proportion to its longevity. This argument has been broached by MacGowan and Ordway (1966), Davies (1995), and Shostak 1 (1998), and advanced in more detail by Dick (2003). But the possible role of artificial intelligence in the universe was completely overshadowed by the publication of Shklovskii and Sagan (1966). Although the last chapter of their book Intelligent Life in the Universe included a chapter on Artificial Intelligence and Galactic Civilizations the
However, another possibility exists: that cultural evolution over the long time scales of the universe has resulted in something beyond biology, namely, artificial intelligence (AI). Such a postbiological universe cannot mean a universe devoid of biological intelligence, since humans are an obvious counterexample.
Nor does it mean a universe devoid of lower forms of life, what I have termed the ’weak biological universe’ (Dick, 2000a), as advocated by Ward and Brownlee (2000). Rather, the postbiological universe is one in which the majority of intelligent life has evolved beyond flesh and blood intelligence, in proportion to its longevity. This argument has been broached by MacGowan and Ordway (1966), Davies (1995), and Shostak 1 (1998), and advanced in more detail by Dick (2003).
But the possible role of artificial intelligence in the universe was completely overshadowed by the publication of Shklovskii and Sagan (1966). Although the last chapter of their book Intelligent Life in the Universe included a chapter on Artificial Intelligence and Galactic Civilizations the AI thesis was very general and lost in the midst of the exciting – and at the time more verifiable and realistic – implications of the other chapters, which assumed biological beings.
Over the last 40 years SETI has focused almost exclusively on the biological paradigm, especially the radio SETI technique, as opposed the postbiological paradigm. THE GENERAL ARGUMENT My argument in this paper is simple, but firmly founded in the naturalistic evolutionary worldview. The overarching argument may be stated as follows: Advanced intelligence – defined as at least at the level of homo sapiens – implies culture; indeed some consider culture part of the very definition of advanced intelligence. Moreover, wherever culture exists there will be cultural evolution.
Therefore, if extraterrestrial intelligence (ETI) exists, it must have undergone cultural evolution, most likely in direct proportion to its longevity. Because nothing is more important in cultural evolution than intelligence itself, any society will tend to increase its knowledge and intelligence. Because of the limits of biology and flesh-and-blood brains, notwithstanding advances in biotechnology, cultural evolution will eventually result in methods for improving intelligence beyond those biological limits. If the strong Artificial Intelligence concept is correct, that is, if it is possible to construct AI with more intelligence than biologicals, postbiological intelligence may take the form of AI.
It has been argued that humans themselves may become postbiological in this sense within a few generations (Moravec, 1988; Moravec, 1999). This may be optimistic (or pessimistic depending on your outlook). But if ETI exists, and, as seems likely, it exceeds the age of terrestrial technological civilization, we may already live in a postbiological universe. This overarching argument harbors many assumptions: 1) that evolution by natural selection results in intelligence beyond the Earth; 2) That ETI is older than human intelligence 3) that intelligence results in culture; 4) that culture evolves; and 5) that increasing intelligence is a central goal of cultural evolution. Each of these assumptions can be addressed by subsidiary arguments. EXISTENCE AND AGE OF INTELLIGENCE BEYOND THE EARTH The existence of ETI has been debated for millennia (Dick, 1982; Dick, 1996; Crowe, 1986; Guthke, 1990) and the debate need not be recounted here. Suffice it to say that the Drake Equation, which estimates the number of technological civilizations in the Galaxy, has in the past yielded answers ranging from 1 (ourselves) to a billion or more. Never in the history of science has an equation given answers differing by 9 orders of magnitude, an indication of the uncertainties involved. But with the discovery of nearly 200 extrasolar planets over the last decade, one of the Drake Equation parameters, the fraction of stars forming planets, has been increasingly informed by empirical data. While these new discoveries are believed to be mainly gas giant planets, new instruments such as NASA’s Kepler spacecraft will soon yield numbers on Earth-size planets. That will still be only the beginning in determining whether they have life, much less intelligence. But for this part of the argument we make no more assumptions than standard SETI science arguments. The age and longevity of ETI is important for the overarching postbiological universe argument, since ETI somewhat older than humans is a necessity for more advanced cultural evolution. SETI scientists have had much to say about this too, and there is general consensus that ETI would indeed be much older than us (e.g. Tarter, 2000).
Cosmic evolution is our guide to the maximum age of extraterrestrial civilizations. Recent results from the WMAP spacecraft place the age of the universe at 13.7 billion years, with one percent uncertainty, and confirm that the first stars formed at about 200 million years after the Big Bang. The first Sun-like stars probably formed within about a billion years, or 12.5 billion years ago. By that time enough heavy element generation and interstellar seeding had taken place for the first rocky planets to form (Delsemme, 1998, p. 71; Larson and Bromm, 2001). Then, if Earth’s history is any guide, it may have taken another 5 billion years for intelligence to evolve.
Some 6 billion years after the Big Bang, therefore, some 7.5 billion years 2 ago, the first intelligence could have emerged. By the same reasoning, intelligence could have evolved in our Galaxy 4-5 billion years ago, since the oldest stars in our galaxy formed about 10-11 billion years ago (Rees, 1997). These conclusions are in line with those of a number of other astronomers using various methods. Norris (2000) argued that the median age of ETI is 1.7 billion years. Livio (1999) concluded that the first civilizations would emerge when the universe was about 10 billion years old, or 3.7 billion years ago. Kardashev (1997) concluded that cosmological models yield an age for civilizations of 6-8 billion years. Thus, several lines of evidence agree that extraterrestrial intelligence could have emerged several billion years ago. Even uncertainties of billions of years would not affect the argument for taking cultural evolution seriously
But civilizations do not necessarily reach this age. The maximum age of ETI is mitigated by L, the lifetime of a technological civilization (typically de- fined as radio-communicative). Sagan, Drake and others generally assigned L values in the neighborhood of a million years, and even some pessimists admitted 10,000 years was not unlikely (Dick, 1996, p. 441). L is thus hardly an objective parameter, though studies by social scientists might contribute to the debate. That a man-made disaster would totally wipe out civilization seems unduly pessimistic, though natural phenomena such as mass extinctions, supernovae and gamma ray bursters are more problematic (Norris, 2000; Scalo and Wheeler, 2002; Chapman and Morrison, 1989, 1994). But the important point is that, even at our low current value of L on Earth, biological evolution by natural selection is already being overtaken by cultural evolution, which is proceeding at a vastly faster pace than biological evolution. Technological civilizations do not remain static. Therefore cultural evolution must be taken into account in the Drake Equation no less than astronomical and biological evolution. Unlike biological evolution, L need only be thousands of years for cultural evolution to have drastic effects on civilization.
Read the full paper here: Dr. Steven Dick THE POSTBIOLOGICAL UNIVERSE
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Astronomers Discover A Galaxy Made of 99.99% Dark Matter
Astronomers Discover A Galaxy Made of 99.99% Dark Matter
NASA, ESA, M.J. Jee and H. Ford
IN BRIEF
After decades of being ignored, Ultra Diffuse Galaxies (UDGs) are finally being given the attention they deserve. These galaxies have very few stars and it is believed that dark matter holds these galaxies together. Astronomers turned their sights on Dragonfly 44, a recently discovered UDG, and found that it's comprised of only 0.01% normal matter, and 99.99% dark matter.
THE INVISIBLE GLUE BEHIND ULTRA DIFFUSE GALAXIES
For years, a galaxy named Dragonfly 44 remained unnoticed despite its relative proximity to us here in the Milky Way. This wasn’t surprising, seeing as this galaxy is very dim. Last year, astronomers finally gave it the attention it deserves—and rightly so.
The reason why Dragonfly 44 was dim was because it had very few stars, making it very easy to miss. An observation of the Coma Cluster by the Dragonfly Telephoto Array led to astronomers finally seeing that there was, in fact, a galaxy hiding out there in the expanse.
Image credit: Pieter van Dokkum, Roberto Abraham, Gemini Observatory/AURA
At first, the lack of stars did strike astronomers as odd. But upon contemplation, its ability to even keep these stars at all was far more strange and interesting than the former mystery.
Why? Sparse galaxies like Dragonfly 44, called Ultra Diffuse Galaxies (UDGs), have so few stars that normal assumption would dictate these galaxies easily losing the stars they have. Without enough mass in the galaxy to generate the gravitational attraction to keep the galaxy together, these stars could easily spin out of place (and maybe even be kidnapped by neighboring gravitational forces).
The galaxy being able to keep these stars in place despite the lack of visible mass implies one thing: dark matter is the missing link keeping them together.
The two Keck Telescopes on top of Mauna Kea in Hawaii.
NASA
DRAGONFLY 44: 99.99% DARK MATTER
Dragonfly 44 was particularly astonishing: it stretches 60,000 light years across, and only .01% of it comes in the form of stars and normal matter, which would mean the remaining 99.99% is dark matter.
For this study, the astronomers calculated the galaxy’s mass and monitored how fast the stars spin in a 33.5-hour period over six nights. “Motions of the stars tell you how much matter there is,” says lead author Pieter van Dokkum. “They don’t care what form the matter is, they just tell you that it’s there. In the Dragonfly galaxy stars move very fast. So there was a huge discrepancy: using Keck Observatory, we found many times more mass indicated by the motions of the stars, then there is mass in the stars themselves.”
A galaxy made up almost entirely of dark matter was unexpected, and astronomers do not have an explanation on how they form yet. But this finding is a significant aid in the quest to unmask what dark matter actually is.
The Sombrero galaxy—an ultradiffuse galaxy also located in the Coma Cluser.
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Ik ben Pieter, en gebruik soms ook wel de schuilnaam Peter2011.
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