Carl Sagan's Scarily Accurate Prediction from 1995 Has People Flipping Out

Under closer scrutiny, it's not all that noteworthy.

Gabe Bergado

Carl Sagan may have died back in 1996, but one of his predictions has some people a little tweaked out 21 years later.

Making the rounds on Twitter (but not so much to warrant a “viral” label) is a passage from Sagan’s Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark in which he forecasts a future where America’s manufacturing would be totally outsourced and people would be unable to question authority among grim possibilities.

Here’s the complete passage from Sagan’s 1995 book that has some people on edge:

“I have a foreboding of an America in my children’s or grandchildren’s time — when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the key manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and whats true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness.”

Director of Science Friday Charles Bergquist was the first to notice Sagan’s prediction and shared on Twitter a screenshot of the passage on Sunday.

It definitely has people talking, mesmerized by the iconic scientist’s words. Theoretical physicist Robert McNees tweeted, “Good grief, I couldn’t believe how spot-on that Carl Sagan quote was. I had to check to make sure it was accurate.”

View image on Twitter

 Follow

Robert McNees @mcnees

Good grief, I couldn't believe how spot-on that Carl Sagan quote was. I had to check to make sure it was accurate.

https://books.google.com/books?id=ulqPDQAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=I+have+a+

foreboding+of+an+America&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi

76tbpqNfRAhVq4YMKHW10CRoQ6AEIHDAA#v=onepage&q&f

=false …

4:27 AM - 23 Jan 2017

•  4,2194,219 Retweets
•  5,0335,033 likes

While it’s great that major scientists like Sagan, Neil deGrasse Tyson, and Bill Nye are treated like celebrities nowadays, it’s also vital to remember that these men can be wrong and sometimes their high profile ends up being detrimental to actual progress. People should probably take what these scientists say or tweet with a grain of salt.

Dan Seitz at Uproxx observes that doomsayers tend to be wrong (looking at you, ancient Mayans who said we’d all be gone in 2012). Predicting a bleak future isn’t anything revolutionary. Somebody’s always going to be pessimistic about what’s next — that doesn’t necessarily mean that we should all lay down and let it take over.

Sagan’s prediction holds some legitimacy, but parts of it can also be debunked. Yes, China beats out the United States when it comes to manufacturing. But the United States is still the second most competitive manufacturing economy. Also, “awesome technological powers” aren’t in the hands of “a very few.” According to a 2015 Pew Research Center report, 64 percent of Americans own a smartphone of some kind. And the approximately 470,000 people in the women’s march just in Washington, D.C. will probably contest that they know how to “knowledgeably question those in authority.”

Then there are those that are genuinely intrigued by Sagan’s prediction and are questioning whether or not he’s actually a time traveler.

 Follow

keith @KeithRushMoore

@neiltyson, where are you hiding Carl Sagan's time machine!?!?

7:42 PM - 23 Jan 2017

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Jim McQuaid @jimmcquaid

Carl Sagan.... incredible prediction, he must have invetned time travel too!

 https://twitter.com/mcnees/status/823371505086197760 …

9:39 AM - 23 Jan 2017

•  Retweets
• likes

OK, they’re probably all joking, because you know, time travel’s practically unattainable, according to experts.

Fittingly enough, the prediction comes from the same book that Sagan touts the “fine art of baloney detection,” also known how to recognize bullshit when it lands right on your face. While there definitely is some truth to Sagan’s prediction, it might be worth it to evaluate all parts of before choking on some fake deli meat.

{ https://www.inverse.com/ }

Alien hunter claims Nasa cut its live feed from the space station yet again after another UFO is spotted

• A 'solid' object was spotted floating above the planet on Nasa's ISS live stream
• John Craddick who saw it said 'there's nothing human which can fly that high'
•  It could have been reflections from the station windows or lights from Earth
• The footage was taken on 20th January around 11:30 PM GMT, the man claims

By Cheyenne Macdonald and Abigail Beall For Mailonline

An object spotted flying by the International Space Station moments after its livestream went dead has conspiracy theorists claiming NASA is covering up proof of a UFO. 

In the footage, an object seems to be floating above the planet.

The man that spotted the object says it is definitely a UFO, but this is unlikely.

There are many alternative explanations - like reflections from the station windows or lights from Earth - that could explain the sighting.

Scroll down for video 

An object spotted flying by the International Space Station moments after its livestream went dead has conspiracy theorists claiming NASA is covering up proof of a UFO. The object is circled in red

John Craddick, from Wolverhampton, told the Sun he was sitting with a friend, teaching him how to use the Nasa live feed when he spotted the object on Friday 20 January.

'I've been watching it for years but never seen any UFOs on it before,' he said. 

'At first it was really small and then it grew bigger, lasting for about 25 seconds.' 

Mr Craddick said 'there's nothing human which can fly that high', which he took as evidence it was a UFO.

While it is not always possible to determine exactly what these objects are during the brief period they appear in the stream, there are a number possible explanations for these types of sightings.

'It is astonishing how many UFOs are seen buzzing around the ISS, but like this video there is usually a simple explanation for them,' Nigel Watson, UFO expert and author of the UFO Investigations Manual, told MailOnline. 

'This could well be a lens reflection that appears and then goes as the light changes, giving the impression of an extraterrestrial space coming into view and then cruising out of sight.

'Many UFOs caught by the ISS's cameras can be also be explained as images of space junk or satellites in the distance, and even very small flecks of paint or particles can appear like UFOs when caught by the bright light from the sun.'

In the past, a Nasa spokesperson has explained, 'Reflections from station windows, the spacecraft structure itself or lights from Earth commonly appear as artefacts in photos and videos from the orbiting laboratory.' 

John Craddick, from Wolverhampton, told the Sun he was sitting with a friend, teaching him how to use the Nasa live feed when he spotted the object on Friday 20 January

Mr Craddick said 'there's nothing human which can fly that high', which he took as evidence it was a UFO. Pictured is the mysterious object disappearing out of sight

This is just the latest in a series of claims Nasa footage shows UFOs before cuttin out.

In footage from the ISS channel uploaded to YouTube by user ColdPyro in November last year, a white speck can be seen emerging from the darkness just above Earth's horizon.

Right before the 'UFO' travels out of view, the feed cuts to a grey screen, followed by a statement asking users to 'please stand by' due to technical issues. 

A fast-moving object spotted flying by the International Space Station moments before its livestream went dead has conspiracy theorists claiming NASA is covering up proof of a UFO. The white speck can be seen emerging from the darkness just above Earth's horizon

The object in question can only be seen for a moment – it emerges around the 5-second mark, just to the left of center in the frame, and then the feed cuts out to grey just two seconds later. A blue screen follows this, and then a statement

While many viewers may not have noticed anything out of the ordinary, UFO hunters claim the 'amazing footage' shows the appearance of a mysterious spacecraft.

'This was found on the official ISS channel it appears a UFO comes into frame and the feed it then immediately cut,' wrote YouTuber ColdPyro.

The object in question can only be seen for a moment – it emerges around the 5-second mark, just to the left of center in the frame, and then the feed cuts out to grey just two seconds later.

A blue screen follows this, and then a statement:

'Please stand by. The High Definition Earth Viewing experiment is either switching cameras, or we are experiencing a temporary loss of signal with the International Space Station.'

This isn't the first time UFO hunters have spotted something strange near the ISS.

Just last month, alien enthusiasts claimed a strange light captured in the livestream was a glowing blue UFO hovering close to the space station.

And in September, it was argued that footage from the ISS showed two UFOs traveling around a progress capsule, a feature that's used to supply the station. 

{ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

Buzz Aldrin: On the Moon we were ordered by aliens to move away

THE FOLLOWING IS TRANSLATED:

Here are the statements by the former astronauts:

Professor: What really happened out of Apollo 11?

Buzz Aldrin: An amazing thing, even though we have always known of this possibility. The fact is that they (aliens) have ordered us to turn away! .

Professor: What do you mean “warned to move away”?

Buzz Aldrin: I can not go into details, there are structures on the Moon, and not ours. I can only say that their ships were far superior to ours both in size and technology. Wow if you were big! … And menacing!

Professor: But NASA also sent to the moon missions after Apollo 11 ….

Buzz Aldrin: Naturally, NASA had already announced at that time, and could not risk panic on Earth .

According to the American ufologist Vladimir Azhazha, “Buzz Aldrin said to Mission Control that two large unknown objects were watching him and Aldrin after landing on the moon. But this message was never heard by the public, because NASA censored it. “But a 2006 video interview made astronaut Buzz Aldrin, it is analyzed the footage of the meeting between the Apollo 11:02 UFO. This was just one of many “encounters” with aliens, duration the journey to the moon.

Aleksandr Kasantesev says Buzz Aldrin made a color film of the UFO from inside the ship, and continued filming them, Buzz Aldrin and himself even when they were out. Buzz Aldrin confirmed that the story was true but refused to give more details, then admitted that the CIA wanted to hide the incident.

It should also add that for some time circulating on the Internet an audio file that contains the conversation between the astronauts and control center in Houston, captured from various terrestrial radio stations frequency ultra-fast, before NASA suppressed in the telecast that illustrated the ‘ arrival of Apollo XI on the moon (NASA despite assertions to the contrary, there was in fact a slight shift between the real-Apollo NASA communications and those relayed to the world).

Here is the full text:

Astronaut 1: But what is that?

Astronaut 2: Do you have an explanation?

Houston: Do not worry, stick to the program!

Astronaut 1: My God, it’s amazing, that’s great, do not you could ever imagine!

Houston: We know this, go to the other side!

Astronaut 1: What the hell is that? It’s amazing …… God … but what is it? So, you tell me?

Houston: Change frequency, use Tango, Tango!

Astronaut 1: Then it is a form of life, that one!

Houston: Change frequency.

Houston: Use Tango Bravo, Bravo Tango, choose Jezebel, Jezebel!

Astronaut: …… yes! Matutto … .. this is incredible!

Houston: Switch on Bravo Tango, Tango Bravo!

At this point the connection is broken. 

Source: www.segnidalcielo.it

{http://alien-ufo-sightings.com/ }

Earth Size UFOs Visiting Our Sun On Daily Basis, NASA Ignores It, Video, January 24, 2017, UFO Sighting News.

 

Date of sighting: January 24, 2017
Location of sighting: Earths Sun
Source: NASA/SOHO images

This video with many UFOs near our sun was made by UFOnearSun of Youtube also famously known as Myunhauzen74 among UFO researchers. I have been following his discoveries for years and every video causes me to wonder how NASA could ignore this information and not confess to the public about moon size alien craft making regular visits to our sun. The UFO in the above photo is actually 2-3 times the size of Earth itself. In the photo above, the visible part is only a section of the craft. 70% of its hidden in the shadows. 
Scott C. Waring

{ http://www.ufosightingsdaily.com/ }

UFO Mysteriously Appears In The Skies Northeast Of Antioquia, Colombia On Jan 20, 2017, Video, UFO Sighting News.

Date of sighting: January 20, 2017
Location of sighting: Segovia, Colombia
Source: http://inexplicata.blogspot.tw

Here is a great UFO report from Inexplicata.com and we were lucky enough to get hold of a copy of the original video from UFO researcher Andries Riphagen of Youtube. When you see something like this in the sky you have to wonder where it came from, but I am glad that the local residents say that they will keep and eye out for its return. We may be getting more footage in the coming months of this UFO from a new angle. I believe the cycles within circles are due to the energy pulse or flow of the energy around the UFO causing this effect. As the eyewitnesses said, it only had the waves in photos, but not with the naked eye. 
Scott C. Waring

Inexplicata states:
Colombia: Mysterious Phenomenon in the Skies Northeast of Antioquía Residents of Segovia and Remedios were bewildered around 9 o'clock in the evening by a phenomenon looking like a static red fireball in the middle of the dark sky. This region of Northeastern Antioquía is rich not only in gold, but also in stories of witchcraft and sorcerers, so local residents would find nothing odd in having a "supernatural" force making itself visible. Yen Milea Bran, who took photos and made cellphone recordings like many others, said that her family and neighbors took to the streets - in the La Cruzada district in Remedios - to see a sort of "very bright star" that hung in the heavens for some three minutes before disappearing,. "It looked like a very large, shining star, lighting everything around it. But when recorded with the cellphone, it wasn't captured the way one's eyes perceived it. It looked like a fireball and in some images it displayed hypnotic circles," added the young woman. Many hypotheses have been put forth about the phenomenon, which had never been seen in the skies of northeastern Antioquía. "Many say it could be a UFO. Others say it could be a portal to another world. Others say it is surely a sign that the end is near and that we should repent, and others say that it has something to do with astronomy, that a star had surely exploded into a fireball," Yen Milenia explained. The images have already been inspected in the Planetarium of Antioquía’s capital city, and have yet to ascertain its true nature. Angela Perez, the astronomical coordinator, noted that the possibilities range from unidentified flying objects, to an optic phenomenon with the lens or a fire balloon. "Objects that cannot be identified are UFOs. However, the term is generally associated with spaceships and other things, but this cannot be said to be the answer until any other possibility has been discarded. Let's say that given the image's brightness, it could be one of those little balloons that get sent aloft with a candle inside," Pérez explained. The fact of the matter is that some residents intend to be vigilant these days to see if the mysterious phenomenon stages a return. [Translation (c) 2017 S. Corrales, IHU with thanks to Guillermo Giménez, Planeta UFO]

{ http://www.ufosightingsdaily.com/ }

Silver Disk Seen Over Sutherland Springs, Texas During Day, Jan 21, 2017, Photos, UFO Sighting News.

Date of sighting: January 21, 2017 

Location of sighting: Sutherland Springs, Texas, USA

News source: MUFON #81691

 

Here is a cool sighting just in today. A thick silver disk was moving over Texas when a guy noticed it and snapped four photos before the UFO shot off. You will notice some dark rectangles on the UFO, those are windows. Its very rare to get such a sweet shot of a UFO during daylight hours. Because of this, we can clearly make out the windows as well as its metallic shell. The UFO also has a rigged look to it instead of a smooth even look. 

 

Now, this reminds me of the Stephenville UFO incident that took place back in January 8, 2008. It happened just 140 miles from this new sighting at Sutherland Springs. It too was metallic but it was a rectangle craft that was 300 meters long and seen by hundreds including the local sherif, but the UFO then continued making a bee line to Presidents Bush ranch near Crawford...after that the gov says the UFO was off radar, but we all know radar will cover the Bush ranch. All this happened not far from this new sighting. I believe they are connected. But is it a secret USAF project making these part alien part human craft or is it truly 100% alien? 

 

Scott C. Waring

 

Eyewitness states: 

Witness was loading PVC pipe into the back of his pick-up parked at the diesel pump at the VP gas station / convenience store on Hwy 87 in Sutherland Springs. Witness was facing southeast when he first saw the object to the southeast. It's silver reflective color caught his attention (mid day, bright sunlight). It was hovering approximately 450 feet southeast of witness's position, about 300-400 off the ground, to the right / SE of Hwy 87. Witness had no idea what it could be so he continued to watch it. He describes the object as a silver disc about 8 - 10 feet in diameter. Did not see any other markings or shapes (ie dome, lights, etc). From it's hovering position it made an "erratic" sudden move to the right (south)then ascended somewhat, tilted and began moving off toward the northeast, crossing Hwy 87. Witness took out is cell phone and took four photos as the object flew off toward the north. Witness describes the motion of the object as it was flying off as an extended arc, similar to skeet being launched on a gun range. 

 

Witness remained in has position behind his truck throughout the sighting. He did not hear, smell or sense anything else from the object. The sighting lasted approximately 45 seconds from when it was first noticed until it flew out of sight. Witness states that later in the day, he felt some anxiety, but does not think this was related to this sighting. 

{ http://www.ufosightingsdaily.com/ }

Luminous UFO Baffles Stargazers In Western Russia

A UFO in the Russian skies has brought amazement to some Russian sky watchers who thought it was something unusual airborne object. Initially, the video shows a lattice-like sphere of light that appears nothing more than an ordinary small light in the sky.

However, when the woman who filmed the event zoomed in, the bright thing seemed more like a giant ball with visible microstructures within.

According to the report, the object appears like a tiny sea creature under a microscope.

The object’s scale is somewhat emphasized as the sky gazer filming the event zooms in and out. Many observers believe that the thing is too small to be the moon but too big to be any other identifiable objects.

When something appears to be moving on the surface of the UFO, the videographer notices a grey strip running on it. She can be heard in the background talking about the particular moment.

The UFO was filmed in the sky over the city of Ryazan in western Russia. As of date, no information yet on the nature of the mysterious aerial thing.

Luminous spheres usually come from an atmospheric phenomenon called ball lightning, but they are much smaller than the one caught in the video. They range from a pea size to a few meters in diameter. Furthermore, these luminous spheres only last a few seconds before exploding or disappearing.

{ http://www.latest-ufo-sightings.net/ }

Triangle UFO captured over National City, California 23-Jan-2017

This UFO video of a triangular-shaped formation was taken over National City in California on 23rd January 2017.

Witness report:

 These 3 fire like lights were just hovering inside a big rain cloud. You see halfways through that the one of the left starts to fade away or go into the horizon. My batteries were low on my cell phone but after this video a 4th light appeared to the right of the street lamp and the one that had disappeared re-appeared. This happened around 8:15pm Pacific Time.

Author (source: MUFON)

{ http://www.latest-ufo-sightings.net/ }

Unknown lights caught on tape over Goodyear, Arizona – January 2017

Check out this interesting UFO sighting video of a bright unidentified flying object hovering above Goodyear in Arizona. This was filmed this month (in January 2017).

What do you think about this footage? Please leave your comments below.

Witness report: 

My daughter and I were driving at night in the dark when we noticed 4 lights that looked very bright above the distant mountains. Four of them lined up next to one another from right to left. They stayed stationary for a few moments and then 1 would fly swiftly away from the others leaving 3 in a linear horizontal line before it disappeared. It would spontaneously reappear and then fly above the other 3, move left again and then realign with the other 4 leaving 4 brightly shining in the sky. We also saw a distant airplane but it appeared farther away, higher and with blinking lights.

The UFOS we saw were solid bright white/yellow and were brilliant against the night sky. They flew fluidly, and would move great lengths across the sky in an instant, disappearing and reappearing. They were much larger than stars in the sky and brighter than the brightest star. We felt excited and in awe, and happy they would reappear so we could get good pictures and videos. Our neighbors also saw them while out driving. We finally left to go home. We have seen them before in a dark night sky over the Estrella mountains to the East. They are common in this part of Goodyear. We see them several times a year.

Author (source: MUFON)

{ http://www.latest-ufo-sightings.net/ }

Portugal UFO sighting: Huge object appears and disappears 17-Jan-2017

Here’s one new footage of a huge bright lights that appeared over Portugal. This happened on 17th January 2017.

Witness report: 

Yesterday around 10 pm in the sky a bright, static light of white color was captured “increasing and decreasing the density of light.
Enthusiast of the ovnology and collaborator of Ufo Portugal of the parish of Maceira, Leiria, has sighted and filmed in the same place hundreds of UFOs in the space of 4 years.

Author

{ http://www.latest-ufo-sightings.net/ }

Family baffled by hovering 'alien spaceship' as dog goes crazy in shock UFO footage

A MYSTERIOUS ball of light UFO, textured like a spaceship, has been spotted hovering above a city in baffling footage.

The video has gone viral online but people are baffled as to what it is.

Some people believe is may be ball lightning, which is an atmospheric phenomenon that produces luminous spheres.

However, they are much smaller than the one in the video, ranging from pea size to a few metres in diameter, and only last a few seconds before disappearing or exploding.

“There is also a strip moving on it, a grey one”

Stargazer

There have been some crazy UFO sightings recently.

One was seen "sucking water from the ocean" in terrifying footage.

While a bloke claimed Google Earth has evidence of aliens abducting him.

• ‘Google Earth has evidence of ALIENS ABDUCTING me’ Shock claims over satellite images
• UFO caught ‘sucking water from the ocean’ in terrifying footage
• ‘ALIENS are living in the South Pole’ Astounding claims after 'UFO' uncovered

{ http://www.dailystar.co.uk/ }

‘ALIENS are living in the South Pole’ Astounding claims after 'UFO' uncovered

THE South Pole is home to a huge colony of aliens who use spaceships to get around, according to incredible claims.

“I can only describe it as a clear-cut shot of a saucer of some sort”

Tyler Glocker

So-called “truth-seekers” have shared the image over numerous internet forums, claiming it is proof of an “underground alien base”.

Alien-hunter Tyler Glockner, who runs conspiracy Youtube channel SecureTeam10, posted a video about the Arctic UFO find.

He said: "I can only describe it as a clear-cut shot of a saucer of some sort.

"Look at this, it’s obvious – this is a disc, it even has a shadow underneath it and what would appear to be some sort of design on the top of it."

He added: “And look at the outer rim – look how sharp that looks.”

But claims of aliens in Earth’s coldest continents have surfaced before.

Just this month, conspiracists claimed to have found a staircase in the Antarctic, calling it evidence we’ve been visited by Martians.

• EUROPE'S HOLY WAR: Continent to be 'DESTROYED by merciless RELIGIOUS conflict'
• ‘Google Earth has evidence of ALIENS ABDUCTING me’ Shock claims over satellite images
• Massive UFO spotted hovering over Mexico by stunned locals

{ http://www.dailystar.co.uk/ }

Experiment Resolves Mystery About Wind Flows on Jupiter

Jupiter’s colorful, swirling winds known as “jets” have long puzzled astronomers. One mystery has been whether the jets exist only in the planet’s upper atmosphere — much like the Earth’s own jet streams — or whether they plunge into Jupiter’s gaseous interior. If the latter is true, it could reveal clues about the planet’s interior structure and internal dynamics.

Now, UCLA geophysicist Jonathan Aurnou and collaborators in Marseille, France, have simulated Jupiter’s jets in the laboratory for the first time. Their work demonstrates that the winds likely extend thousands of miles below Jupiter’s visible atmosphere.

This research is published online today in Nature Physics.

“We can make these features in a computer, but we couldn’t make them happen in a lab,” said Aurnou, a UCLA professor of earth, planetary and space sciences, who has spent the past decade studying computer models of swirling winds. “If we have a theoretical understanding of a system, we should be able to create an analog model.”

The challenge to re-creating swirling winds in the lab was building a model of a planet with three key attributes believed to be necessary for jets to form: rapid rotation, turbulence and a “curvature effect” that mimics the spherical shape of a planet. Previous attempts to create jets in a lab often failed because researchers couldn’t spin their models fast enough or create enough turbulence, Aurnou said.

The breakthrough for Aurnou’s team was a new piece of laboratory equipment. The researchers used a table built on air bearings that can spin at 120 revolutions per minute and support a load of up to 1,000 kilograms (about 2,200 pounds), meaning that it could spin a large tank of fluid at high speed in a way that mimics Jupiter’s rapid rotation.

The scientists filled an industrial-sized garbage with 400 liters (about 105 gallons) of water and placed it on the table. When the container spun, water was thrown against its sides, forming a parabola that approximated the curved surface of Jupiter.

“The faster it went, the better we mimicked the massively strong effects of rotation and curvature that exists on planets,” Aurnou said. But the team found that 75 revolutions per minute was a practical limit: fast enough to force the liquid into a strongly curved shape but slow enough to keep water from spilling out.

While the can was spinning, scientists used a pump below its false floor to circulate water through a series of inlet and outlet holes, which created turbulence — one of the three critical conditions for the experiment. That turbulent energy was channeled into making jets, and within minutes the water flow had changed to six concentric flows moving in alternating directions.

“This is the first time that anyone has demonstrated that strong jets that look like those on Jupiter can develop in a real fluid,” Aurnou said.

The researchers inferred that the jets were deep because they could see them on the surface of the water, even though they had injected turbulence at the bottom.

The researchers are looking forward to testing their predictions with real data from Jupiter, and they won’t have to wait long: NASA’s Juno space probe is orbiting Jupiter right now, collecting data about its atmosphere, magnetic field and interior. Initial results from the Juno mission were presented at the American Geophysical Union meeting in December in San Francisco, and Aurnou was there.

“The Juno data from the very first flyby of Jupiter showed that structures of ammonia gas extended over 60 miles into Jupiter’s interior, which was a big shock to the Juno science team,” Aurnou said. “UCLA researchers will be playing an important role in explaining the data.”

This year, Aurnou and his team will use supercomputers at Argonne National Laboratory in Argonne, Illinois, to simulate the dynamics of Jupiter’s interior and atmosphere. They’ll also continue their work at the laboratory in Marseilles to make the spinning table simulation more complex and more realistic.

One goal is to add a thin, stable layer of fluid on top of the spinning water, which would function like the thin outer layer of Jupiter’s atmosphere that’s responsible for the planet’s weather. The researchers believe this will help them simulate features like Jupiter’s famous Great Red Spot.

The research was funded by the National Science Foundation Geophysics Program, the French Agence Nationale pour la Recherche and the Aix-Marseille University Foundation.

Credit: ucla.edu

{ http://www.astrowatch.net/ }

NASA develops AI for future exploration of extraterrestrial subsurface oceans

 by Tomasz Nowakowski, Astrowatch.net

Credit: NASA

NASA is developing technology that could enable autonomous navigation of future underwater drones studying subsurface oceans on icy moons like Jupiter's Europa. The agency is working on artificial intelligence (AI) that would allow submersibles to make their own decisions during exploration of extraterrestrial water worlds.

Space exploration missions and astronomical observations in recent years have shown that our solar system is abundant in water and could host at least several subsurface liquid oceans. The scientific community assumes that water exists beneath the crust of Europa, as well as on other icy moons like Saturn's Dione and Ganymede. Compelling evidence of hidden oceans on dwarf planets Ceres and Pluto has been also presented recently, proving that many mysteries may lie deep within these frigid celestial bodies, waiting to be uncovered by underwater robotic explorers.

NASA is aware of the emerging challenges that it must face if it wants to successfully explore subsurface oceans on Europa and other icy worlds. Such underwater drones would focus on searching for microbial life in this harsh environment, which strongly impedes nominal communications with mission control on Earth. Therefore, the key issue is to develop highly autonomous, submarine-like probes capable of making decisions on their own in real time in order to continue exploration and research uninterrupted.

"Depending on the exact mission concept under consideration, autonomous underwater vehicles exploring ocean worlds will need to operate autonomously for days to months. Within this timeframe, they must manage their own resources, explore a largely unknown environment, including navigating to and from a single point of insertion which also serves as a communications link to the outside world," Steve Chien of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) told Astrowatch.net.

Chien leads the Artificial Intelligence Group at JPL, which is currently developing AI for underwater drones. From August 26 to September 4, 2016, the team tested a fleet of coordinated drones in Monterey Bay, California, with the aim of detecting changes in temperature and salinity.

The fleet that was tested includes three autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), two ocean gliders, and one Tethys-class Long-Range AUV. The system is complemented by a 300-meter resolution ROMS (Regional Ocean Modeling System) free-surface, terrain-following, primitive equations ocean model developed especially for this project, and a suite of planning software. The software identifies the location of specific scientific targets based on the ROMS output and autonomously determines the optimal sampling strategy for a heterogeneous array of autonomous vehicles.

During last year's test runs, the fleet of these six small submersibles sensed how the ocean actively changed around them, which is essential for the development of autonomous navigation systems. The gliders were deployed earlier in the summer to provide over a month of data prior to the intensive field program.

These tests were part of the team's continuous effort to design and plan future autonomous vehicles with the focus on further refining and demonstrating AI technologies. The next set of test runs is planned for the spring 2017.

"We are developing mission concepts and developing some of the needed technologies as well as demonstrating technologies to Earth analogues and Earth science problems," Chien said.

Given that the main goal of future underwater drones exploring subsurface oceans would be looking for microbial lifeforms, Chien proposes that the probes should concentrate on searching for fissures in a planet's surface known as hydrothermal vents. These features, commonly found on ocean basins, are perceived as potential life-supporting environments due to geothermally heated water emissions. Furthermore, more general characterization of such an alien underground watery world is also needed, as these represent totally unknown and unexplored realms.

The team is convinced that their project will provide a framework for designing robotic missions to extraterrestrial ice covered oceans.

"The vast majority of space exploration is conducted by robotic probes. Increasing the autonomy in future missions is essential to both increasing the effectiveness of space exploration as well as exploring more distant, challenging environments, such as sub-ice oceans," Chien concluded.

 Explore further: Testing robots from Monterey Bay to Europa

{https://phys.org/ }

Scientists May Have Discovered What Allowed Life to Evolve

 Luis Molina / iStock

IN BRIEF

• Researchers have discovered that chemically active droplets grow to a set size and then divide on their own accord in a way that's very similar to living cell division.
• The discovery could help us understand how the very first living cells initially evolved from protocells billions of years ago, though much more research is still ahead of us.

THE ORIGIN OF LIFE

Modern science has advanced significantly over the last couple of decades. We’ve managed to answer several of the world’s most long-standing questions, but some answers have continued to elude today’s scientists, including how life first emerged from the Earth’s primordial soup. However, a collaboration of physicists and biologists in Germany may have just found an explanation to how living cells first evolved.

In 1924, Russian biochemist Alexander Oparin proposed the idea that the first living cells could have evolved from liquid droplet protocells. He believed these protocells could have acted as naturally forming, membrane-free containers that concentrated chemicals and fostered reactions.

In their hunt for the origin of life, a team of scientists from the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems and the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, both in Dresden, drew from Oparin’s theory by studying the physics of “chemically active” droplets (droplets that cycle molecules from the fluid in which they are surrounded). Unlike a “passive” type of droplet, like oil in water, which will just continue to grow as more oil is added to the mix, the researchers realized that chemically active droplets grow to a set size and then divide on their own accord.

This behavior mimics the division of living cells and could therefore be the link between the nonliving primordial liquid soup from which life sprung and the living cells that eventually evolved to create all life on Earth. “It makes it more plausible that there could have been spontaneous emergence of life from nonliving soup,” said Frank Jülicher, co-author of the study that appeared in the journal Nature Physics in December 2016. It’s an explanation of “how cells made daughters,” said lead researcher David Zwicker. “This is, of course, key if you want to think about evolution.

ADD A DROPLET OF LIFE

Some have speculated that these protocellular droplets might still be inside our system “like flies in life’s evolving amber.” To explore that theory, the team studied the physics of centrosomes, which are organelles active in animal cell division that seem to behave like droplets. Zwicker modeled an “out-of-equilibrium” centrosome system that was chemically active and cycling constituent proteins continuously in and out of the surrounding liquid cytoplasm. The proteins behave as either soluble (state A) or insoluble (state B).  An energy source can trigger a state reversal, causing the protein in state A to transform into state B by overcoming a chemical barrier. As long as there was an energy source, this chemical reaction could happen. “In the context of early Earth, sunlight would be the driving force,” Jülicher said.

Lucy Reading-Ikkanda/Quanta Magazine

Odarin famously believed that lighting strikes or geothermal activity on early Earth could’ve triggered these chemical reactions from the liquid protocells. This constant chemical influx and efflux would only counterbalance itself, according to Zwicker, when a certain volume was reached by the active droplet, which would then stop growing. Typically, the droplets could grow to about tens or hundreds of microns, according to Zwicker’s simulations. That’s about the same scale as cells.

The next step is to identify when these protocells developed the ability to transfer genetic information. Jülicher and his colleagues believe that somewhere along the way, the cells developed membranes, perhaps from the crusts they naturally develop out of lipids that prefer to remain at the intersection of the droplet and outside liquid. As a kind of protection for what’s within the cells, genes could’ve begun coding for these membranes. But knowing anything for sure still depends on more experiments.

So, if the very complex life on Earth could have begun from something as seemingly inconspicuous as liquid droplets, perhaps the same could be said of possible extraterrestrial life? In any case, this research could help us understand how life as we know it started from the simplest material and how the chemical processes that made our lives possible emerged from these. The energy and time it took for a protocell to develop into a living cell, and the living cells into more complex parts, until finally developing into an even more complex organism is baffling. The process itself took billions of years to happen, so it’s not surprising we need some significant time to fully understand it.

References: 

• WIRED, 
• Nature Physics

{ https://futurism.com/ }

Roswell - What's Next?

The other day someone asked me, “What’s the next step for Roswell?”

It was a question that I hadn’t thought about much but is one that needs to be addressed though I thought I had made a note of this in Roswell in the 21^st Century. (Sure, some of you might be annoyed at these little promotional mentions, but hey, I don’t charge you a membership to visit here.)

One of the displays in the Roswell UFO

Museum. Copyright by Randle.

Let’s look at it this way. If there is a first-hand witness still alive who saw anything, if he or she has not come forward and we all who have been searching for every possible witness hasn’t found that person, I would bet that person simply didn’t see much at all or is long past providing us with any useful information. Certainly nothing that would break the case open and provide the smoking gun. Everyone at the top levels of the Roswell command structure, whether officer or NCO, is dead. Some of the lower ranking and therefore younger members might still be out there, but the odds are that they are deep into their nineties with the 70^th anniversary looming. There has been an effort to find papers, documents, diaries, journals, letters, anything that mentions the crash and recovery and written prior to 1978 when Jesse Marcel first burst onto the scene. To this point there is simply nothing of value found, certainly nothing that can be properly dated and nothing that leads us into the realm of the alien.

So, witnesses can no longer be interviewed, unless you resort to talking to the children or the grandchildren of those stationed at Roswell. This is something that I don’t think bears much fruit. Those former service members certainly could have been spinning a tale or two, the listeners could have misinterpreted what was said, or thought they heard things that weren’t said. If someone had written it down in one of those seemingly nonexistent diaries or journals at the time the tale was uttered, then we might have something interesting or something that would provide a lead, but none of that has borne fruit either.

There really isn’t a next step, except for the search for documents, and that hasn’t gone all that well. Personally, I’ve made dozens of FOIA requests and I’m not alone in that. Hundreds, if not thousands, have been made, and I’m still waiting for responses on some of them. (Or I get snide letters such as the one from the CIA… I had asked about the analysis of the Ramey Memo done in the mid-1990s by an organization that was, at that time, part of the CIA… I mentioned that the photo had been taken in 1947 and they told me that the CIA didn’t exist in 1947. I didn’t bother telling that the Central Intelligence Group did but my question dealt with the Air Force inquiry that came in the 1990s not something from 1947).

We can review the information already collected. Many, if not most, of the interviews were conducted on audio and videotape so that a record of them exists that might provide some clues. These can be reviewed. As I was doing that, I did find some interesting tidbits overlooked at the time. Oh, nothing that would alter anyone’s view, but interesting tidbits that helped complete an overall picture. And, of course, we can compare later statements with earlier ones to see if any, or rather how much, those statements have changed. Sometimes it’s just little things and other times it is a major alteration. That also can provide information but that sort of data won’t lead us to the extraterrestrial, or any other answer for that matter.

We can continue the onslaught of FOIA, but the records sought, if they even exist, would be so highly classified that national security would come into play and the records would be withheld. We would be told that the specific agency under FOIA could neither confirm nor deny the existence of the records sought. And that’s if they even bother to look for them. We just might just be told that they have no records that are responsive to our requests. I once FOIAed a document, giving the title, the date it was written, the author, and the overall topic and was told that my request hadn’t been specific enough. I’m not sure that if I have even given them the first page or two that would have been specific enough. I just don’t know what else I could have included to make it clearer to them and there seemed to be nowhere to go with the next request.

Thinking about this carefully, I just can’t seem to think of anything more to be done except another “cold case” review of the information. The testimony has been collected, the documentation has been sought, and archives have been searched. A review might suggest something to someone who has not been immersed in the case for decades, or he or she might think of an avenue of research that hasn’t been explored, but I don’t know what it would be. We are now dead in the water, waiting for inspiration.

{ http://kevinrandle.blogspot.be/ }

Sci-fi holograms a step closer

Date:

January 24, 2017

Source:

Australian National University

Summary:

Physicists have invented a tiny device that creates the highest quality holographic images ever achieved, opening the door to imaging technologies seen in science fiction movies such as 'Star Wars.'

Concept artwork of the holographic image that was created with the ANU invention.

Credit: Lei Wang, ANU

{ https://www.sciencedaily.com/ }

Forget solar panels, optical ‘rectenna’ converts light directly to electricity

From Georgia Tech, a news release that we missed when it first came out, but still well worth talking about.

First Optical Rectenna – Combined Rectifier and Antenna – Converts Light to DC Current

Using nanometer-scale components, researchers have demonstrated the first optical rectenna, a device that combines the functions of an antenna and a rectifier diode to convert light directly into DC current.

This schematic shows the components of the optical rectenna developed at the Georgia Institute of Technology. (Credit: Thomas Bougher, Georgia Tech)

Based on multiwall carbon nanotubes and tiny rectifiers fabricated onto them, the optical rectennas could provide a new technology for photodetectors that would operate without the need for cooling, energy harvesters that would convert waste heat to electricity – and ultimately for a new way to efficiently capture solar energy.

In the new devices, developed by engineers at the Georgia Institute of Technology, the carbon nanotubes act as antennas to capture light from the sun or other sources. As the waves of light hit the nanotube antennas, they create an oscillating charge that moves through rectifier devices attached to them. The rectifiers switch on and off at record high petahertz speeds, creating a small direct current.

Billions of rectennas in an array can produce significant current, though the efficiency of the devices demonstrated so far remains below one percent. The researchers hope to boost that output through optimization techniques, and believe that a rectenna with commercial potential may be available within a year.

“We could ultimately make solar cells that are twice as efficient at a cost that is ten times lower, and that is to me an opportunity to change the world in a very big way” said Baratunde Cola, an associate professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Tech. “As a robust, high-temperature detector, these rectennas could be a completely disruptive technology if we can get to one percent efficiency. If we can get to higher efficiencies, we could apply it to energy conversion technologies and solar energy capture.”

The research, supported by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the Space and Naval Warfare (SPAWAR) Systems Center and the Army Research Office (ARO), was reported September 28 in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.

Developed in the 1960s and 1970s, rectennas have operated at wavelengths as short as ten microns, but for more than 40 years researchers have been attempting to make devices at optical wavelengths. There were many challenges: making the antennas small enough to couple optical wavelengths, and fabricating a matching rectifier diode small enough and able to operate fast enough to capture the electromagnetic wave oscillations. But the potential of high efficiency and low cost kept scientists working on the technology.

“The physics and the scientific concepts have been out there,” said Cola. “Now was the perfect time to try some new things and make a device work, thanks to advances in fabrication technology.”

Using metallic multiwall carbon nanotubes and nanoscale fabrication techniques, Cola and collaborators Asha Sharma, Virendra Singh and Thomas Bougher constructed devices that utilize the wave nature of light rather than its particle nature. They also used a long series of tests – and more than a thousand devices – to verify measurements of both current and voltage to confirm the existence of rectenna functions that had been predicted theoretically. The devices operated at a range of temperatures from 5 to 77 degrees Celsius.

Fabricating the rectennas begins with growing forests of vertically-aligned carbon nanotubes on a conductive substrate. Using atomic layer chemical vapor deposition, the nanotubes are coated with an aluminum oxide material to insulate them. Finally, physical vapor deposition is used to deposit optically-transparent thin layers of calcium then aluminum metals atop the nanotube forest. The difference of work functions between the nanotubes and the calcium provides a potential of about two electron volts, enough to drive electrons out of the carbon nanotube antennas when they are excited by light.

In operation, oscillating waves of light pass through the transparent calcium-aluminum electrode and interact with the nanotubes. The metal-insulator-metal junctions at the nanotube tips serve as rectifiers switching on and off at femtosecond intervals, allowing electrons generated by the antenna to flow one way into the top electrode. Ultra-low capacitance, on the order of a few attofarads, enables the 10-nanometer diameter diode to operate at these exceptional frequencies.

“A rectenna is basically an antenna coupled to a diode, but when you move into the optical spectrum, that usually means a nanoscale antenna coupled to a metal-insulator-metal diode,” Cola explained. “The closer you can get the antenna to the diode, the more efficient it is. So the ideal structure uses the antenna as one of the metals in the diode – which is the structure we made.”

The rectennas fabricated by Cola’s group are grown on rigid substrates, but the goal is to grow them on a foil or other material that would produce flexible solar cells or photodetectors.

Cola sees the rectennas built so far as simple proof of principle. He has ideas for how to improve the efficiency by changing the materials, opening the carbon nanotubes to allow multiple conduction channels, and reducing resistance in the structures.

“We think we can reduce the resistance by several orders of magnitude just by improving the fabrication of our device structures,” he said. “Based on what others have done and what the theory is showing us, I believe that these devices could get to greater than 40 percent efficiency.”

This work was supported by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the Space and Naval Warfare (SPAWAR) Systems Center, Pacific under YFA grant N66001-09-1-2091, and by the Army Research Office (ARO), through the Young Investigator Program (YIP), under agreement W911NF-13-1-0491. The statements in this release are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official views of DARPA, SPAWAR or ARO. Georgia Tech has filed international patent applications related to this work under PCT/US2013/065918 in the United States (U.S.S.N. 14/434,118), Europe (No. 13847632.0), Japan (No. 2015-538110) and China (No. 201380060639.2)

CITATION: Asha Sharma, Virendra Singh, Thomas L. Bougher and Baratunde A. Cola, “A carbon nanotube optical rectenna,” (Nature Nanotechnology, 2015).http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2015.220