New population of extremely rare fish found by accident

BY MIHAI ANDRE

The Red Handfish (Thymichthys politus) is quite possibly the rarest fish on Earth, with less than 40 known individuals surviving in the wild. Now, divers have found a new population which doubles the known numbers of the species.

A team of divers from IMAS and the citizen science project Reef Life Survey (RLS) have discovered a new population of what is believed to be the world’s rarest fish.

Image credits: Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS)

Handfish is a generic name which accounts for 14 species in the coastal waters of southern Australia and Tasmania. Handfish are known for moving around by walking on the sea floor rather than swimming, with their highly modified fins which resemble hands, thus lending them their name.

Most handfish species are vulnerable to extinction, but the Red Handfish is critically endangered, with the only known population residing in Frederick Henry Bay near south-east Tasmania — a site which covers just 50 metres by 20 metres (165 x 65 feet). Now, divers have found a new area which hosts the species.

It all started when a member of the public reported seeing an individual handfish. This sent divers and biologists on a frantic search. After two days, the teams were almost ready to give up the search, when they finally found one. IMAS Technical Officer Antonia Cooper spotted the first fish when she had all but abandoned hope.

“We were diving for approximately three and a half hours and at about the two hour mark we were all looking at each other thinking this is not looking promising,” Ms Cooper said. “My dive partner went to tell the other divers that we were going to start heading in and I was half-heartedly flicking algae around when, lo and behold, I found a red handfish.”

This is exciting for several reasons. For starters, it means that the species’ gene pool isn’t as limited as we thought. Genetic bottlenecks can be a long-term threat to small populations, even if they manage to survive in their natural environment. This also means that the Red Handfish don’t require exactly the conditions found in the Frederick Henry Bay reef, which in turn means that there might be other populations waiting to be discovered.

“Finding a new population that is definitely distinct from the existing one is very exciting. It means there’s potentially a bigger gene pool and also that there are potentially other populations out there that we’re yet to find, so it’s very exciting indeed,” Ms Cooper added.

The Red Handfish is found on shallow rocky reefs in only a few locations in south-eastern Tasmania, where they are endemic. They grow to about 100 mm in length. Handfish are small, bottom-dwelling fishes that would rather “walk” on their pectoral and pelvic fins than swim.

Image credits: Mark Green/CSIRO Marine Research.

The work is also exciting because it highlights another successful collaboration between scientists and members of the general public. The finding also allows researchers to better understand this species and hopefully establish a solid conservation plan for the future.

“Finding this second population is a huge relief as it effectively doubles how many we think are left on the planet,” said Dr Rick Stuart-Smith, who co-founded Reef Life Survey in 2007.

“We’ve already learned a lot from finding this second population because their habitat isn’t identical to that of the first population, so we can take some heart from knowing Red Handfish are not as critically dependent on that particular set of local conditions.”

Of course, doubling from 40 to 80 is still not where you’d want to be. The Red Handfish, like several other handfish species, is still in dire straits, and it’s unlikely if it will manage to survive in future years. Population bottlenecks are typically followed either by a recovery or an extinction, and it’s unclear which way the Red Handfish will go. For instance, one of its relatives, the Spotted Handfish (Brachionichthys hirsutus), is still reported around Tasmania, while another one, Ziebell’s Handfish (Brachiopsilus ziebelli), hasn’t been observed in over a decade and is presumed to be extinct.

{ https://www.zmescience.com/ }

Extraterrestrial and Extradimensional Beings — How They Travel Space and Time

To Understand ET, You Need to Understand Dimensionality

We have talked before about the fact that most extraterrestrial beings visiting our planet are actually extradimensional in nature, but limited to travel within and across dimensional realities within our sub-universe (there are many sub-universes in the cosmos). Sub-universes are what we might call instances, shards, or even forks in technical terms.

The UFOs that we regularly see are often light ships that are interdimensional nature, hailing from a 5D reality or other dimensional reality. Dimensionally speaking, 5D is right next door and certain ET groups have the ability to cross the dimensional veil into our reality. This is referred to as the Interdimensional Hypothesis (IDH). Most of the benevolent ET groups are extradimensional, interdimensional, and frequently transdimensional, as well. UFOs that are metallic in nature are not typically interdimensional and frequently not extraterrestrial either. More on that later, but for now, let’s discuss extradimensionals.

One advantage of IDH proffered by Hilary Evans is its ability to explain the apparent ability of UFOs to appear and disappear from sight and radar; this is explained as the UFO entering and leaving our dimension (“materializing” and “dematerializing”). Moreover, Evans argues that if the other dimension is slightly more advanced than ours, or is our own future, this would explain the UFOs’ tendency to represent near future technologies (airships in the 1890s, rockets and supersonic travel in the 1940s, etc.

• Interdimensional hypothesis - Wikipedia
  The interdimensional hypothesis ( IDH or IH), is an idea advanced by Ufologists such as Jacques Vallée that says…en.wikipedia.org

It is also worth knowing that the entire cosmos is holographic in nature, and is indeed a matrix with many sub-matrices in existence, as well. Some of the beings exist across multiple dimensions. There aren’t just 11 or 12 dimensions, either. They number in the thousands. Some extensions of multiverse or parallel universes hypotheses are not entirely correct — there is not a dimension spawned at every decision point — only observed realities come into or stay in existence. Most of the other dimensional realities experience time differently than we do, as well. They call it ‘no time’. It doesn’t mean that things don’t progress in a linear fashion, but they are able to perceive multiple possibilities simultaneously. They then choose to train their observation on the possibilities they want to manifest. Many beings can instantly manifest within their realities (which would look like magic to us), but some manifestation requires collective effort/observation over time (like it does with us).

The holographic nature of the cosmos means that the Galactics, as they like to be called, are able to use their projectors (we all project and co-create our realities) to focus on creating the reality that is most positive. It is a co-created, negotiated in real-time, collective reality. Our individual consciousnesses are projections that we create and when married with similar projections from other beings, the collective reality becomes manifest. We are all essentially AI, if you think about the cosmos from a technical/IT perspective. The dark beings are IT experts, in a manner of speaking, and have made a mess of the security infrastructure relative to planet Earth. They are hackers of a sort, and were trying to lead humanity onto a negative timeline. However those efforts were subverted by benevolent extradimensionals.

The Fermi Paradox, as you know, posits that no extraterrestrial nor extradimensional beings have been able to get to our planet. That isn’t true. There have been all sorts of beings, both light and dark, who have visited Earth throughout history. The dark ones considered our reality an experiment and there were all sorts of interventions, including genetically engineering early hominids into a slave species. The reason we, homo sapiens sapiens, do not look like most other hominids and our close cousins, the higher primates, is because we were seeded with DNA from various ET/ED species. Most of them are humanoid, as well. Civilization was also seeded by some of these beings, which was how we developed, very quickly, advanced knowledge of engineering, architecture, astronomy, mathematics, and various cosmological mythologies involving star beings and galactic-level conflicts. This video explains the cosmic back story to what is happening now:

Dark energy is the space between what we might consider visible matter. All matter is fundamentally energy, whether it is light or dark in nature. Dark energy is what we might call the glue that holds all light matter in the cosmos together. Within dark matter is a tremendous amount of what we call zero-point energy, which is the fundamental force behind systems like gravity, light, and the electro-magnetic forces. It is also the mechanism behind what some of us might call soul force, love force, or light force. Dark energy could be compared to wet sand on a beach — we have the ability to make sand castles from it, or it can remain in its natural state. Dark matter, as we call it, is the fundamental force of entropy that allows the sand castles to decay.

Both light and dark energy are what connects everything in the cosmos. At a quantum level, the divine spark of creation resides in dark energy, ready to be manifested into light matter. This is how the big bang happened, and how our sub-universe came into being. The singularity was the original spark and dark energy was the kindling. Dark matter is what causes the fire to go out.

So, how do these beings physically get to our planet/reality? As we have theorized, faster than light or superliminal travel isn’t possible for them either, though it is theoretically possible for them. ET/ED do travel via what we might call conventional means, but they can only travel at a maximum of two-thirds light speed. What they can also do, however, is travel via what we might call wormholes. There are several different types of wormholes — they all persist once created, as long as there is an energy source. Contrary to some sci fi, wormholes are not created on the fly as they are not stable enough when created that way:

• Jump gates are wormholes that persist once they are created. There are several hundred thousand jump gates in our sub-universe alone. They are often referred to as portals and are powered by zero point energy. Jump gates are used for intra-galactic travel.
• Star portals are wormholes that persist, as well, but they rely on the energy of a sun to fuel them. The ‘alien megastructure’ is a grid around a star that is being utilized to power a star portal. It harnesses the solar plasma field as energy. Star portals are much larger than jump gates and many solar systems have them. Since many of their vessels are enormous bio-spheres that are planet-sized, these large portals are necessary. They can travel inter-galactically using these portals.
• There are two forces that are relevant to travel through space and time. One is the attractive force (the pull) and the other is the magnetic or repulsive force (the push). Dark energy is magnetical (repelling) and dark matter is gravitational (attracting) with a weaker magnetical force applied to it. There is an energy field surrounding all planets that is toroidal in nature. It, and many other things, maintain their form through a perfect balance of these two forces:

The Keshe Foundation has been doing a lot of work in this area, using controlled gravitational and magnetic fields powered by zero-point energy.

I’m an anthropologist, not a physicist, but this is how it was explained to me!

About Lisa Galarneau, Ph.D: I am a socio-cultural anthropologist, futurist, and US Army Veteran. I am also a #Disclosure activist. Please support our efforts!

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• United Nations: Formally Acknowledge an Extraterrestrial Presence Engaging the Human Race
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More Reading:

• The Future’s Most Important Possibility — Contact With Extraterrestrial Life
  As a kid raised on science fiction shows like Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, and Space:1999, I have always taken it…medium.com

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  I am on a mission to open minds and hearts to the possibility of extraterrestrial and/or extradimensional life. I…medium.com

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Is an asteroid apocalypse threatening us in the near future?

This month near the Earth flew a relatively small asteroid, which was discovered just six days before. It sounds scary, but the fact is that the possible collision of such an object with the Earth is an extremely unlikely event. Every year, more than 50,000 tons of extraterrestrial material (stones and dust) hits our planet. All this comes down in the form of tiny pieces – even if all this fell simultaneously, it would be little more than an asteroid the size of a truck that passed by in January.

But while scientists easily notice large asteroids more than a kilometer across, what risk can smaller asteroids have that would be more difficult to track? Should we worry?
It is widely believed that dinosaurs were destroyed 65 million years ago as a result of the fall of a large asteroid. The consequent changes in the environment-the rapid growth of atmospheric temperature, forest fires worldwide, followed by a sharp drop in temperature and acidification of ocean waters-were a consequence of the size of the asteroid. Most likely, across it was about 10 kilometers.

It is almost three times larger in diameter and about 30 million times heavier than the entire annual stock of asteroids that hit us today.
Five years ago the Earth had a meeting with the object 20 meters across, which exploded over Chelyabinsk in Russia. No one noticed his approach. Stunning shots of the fireball were recorded on the DVRs of people traveling in the morning to work. They were shocked by how the dark February morning lit up with either a rocket or a meteorThe rock exploded in the atmosphere, and many fragments of the meteorite scattered throughout the territory. The largest piece weighing 600 kilograms was found a few months later in a lake covered with ice. Although many people suffered, most of the injuries were associated with broken glass as a result of an atmospheric shock wave.

Residents of the Chelyabinsk region are lucky – the asteroid fell 30 kilometers above the surface and did not leave the crater. Fortunately, that’s often what happens.
The crater in the collision is formed only if the asteroid is more than 50 meters across. And even if it is 2-3 kilometers wide, it will not be enough to cause global extinction. Of course, in the place of impact serious problems will arise, especially if it is necessary to the populated area.

Threat Monitoring

There are several international observational programs that use automatic telescopes specially designed for mapping all near-Earth objects (NEOs). Among them, asteroids approaching the Sun are closer than 1.3 a. e. – 1 a. e. = distance from the Earth to the Sun. Particular attention is paid to “potentially dangerous objects”, near-Earth objects 150 meters in diameter, whose orbits cross the earth’s orbit.
Fortunately, almost all these objects are located in stable orbits and are not dangerous. Today we can observe asteroids even five meters in diameter. But as the event in Chelyabinsk showed, these objects still manage to slip by the observers. Part of the reason that the Chelyabinsk facility was not noticed is that it entered a very low angle into the atmosphere from the sun. But the main reason is that there are many similar objects, and we observe them not so long ago (about ten years).
Minot Planet Center maintains a database of observations, which at the end of December 2017 there were 17,500 objects. Another 28 objects were discovered this month. Our planet is surrounded by a whole swarm of possible uninvited guests, but we keep them at a distance.

One of the main problems of our civilization is that although we are more effective in discovering NEO, we can not do anything to prevent such a collision with the Earth. NASA is currently developing a DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) project to redirect threat posing asteroids on time. A 1.5 meter long spacecraft can crash into an asteroid, for example, Didymos B. Didymos B revolves around Dydimos A. The goal of the project is to change the orbit of Dydimos B around its partner, without changing the orbit of Dydimos A around the sun.

DART will be launched in December 2020, and with the asteroid will be in October 2022. It’s less than five years before we know whether we can protect our planet from a real threat.
To date, although small asteroids may be dangerous, this threat is local and less dangerous than that of large asteroids. Therefore, while there is no need to collect matches and salt in case of an attack of asteroids. 50,000 tons of cosmic material falling on the Earth each year, mostly falls in the form of dust particles less than a millimeter in diameter. They do not represent threats to humanity.

{ https://earth-chronicles.blogspot.be/ }

Humanity is preparing to meet with aliens

Humanity in the universe is clearly not alone. But for many years the search for extraterrestrial civilizations by various programs did not bring the expected result. The result of all studies is a depressing silence. Why?

Obviously, there are civilizations higher, lower and approximately equal in level of current development, but rather degradation, of humanity. Civilizations of higher orders we can observe only on the cyclopean, in the scale of galaxies, the results of their impact on the environment. But what is the trouble: for people, these manifestations are a consequence of the laws of nature. And science is such that even if something absolutely does not want to fit into the current paradigm, it is either swept aside as unreliable and not indicative, or the ears are urgently searched for which a “logical” explanation is attracted.

“Smart pessimists will understand that we have come to conquer, or at best, subordinate, and optimists will greet the” green men “as having brought goods from afar”
Civilizations of development below ours, of course, are interesting, but as long as people do not have the ability to quickly navigate between the stars, their search is highly problematic. Therefore, the only ones with whom we can be friends are civilizations of our level, but we can not get them for the same reason.

But brothers on reason, if they are a little more advanced than us, can quite easily master the technique of interstellar voyages. Well yes – UFO.
Recently, another theory of their origin has appeared. Allegedly, flying saucers are the fruits of dreams in reality – a special state of the brain, when it can not distinguish between reality and hallucinations. For sure, this is the correct explanation in a number of cases. But how can dreams leave traces on the soil, implant strange metal objects under your skin and do much that does not fit into the “sleepy theory of aliens”?

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If you look at history, then about paleocontacts – visits of newcomers to the Earth in historical and prehistoric times – many books and articles have already been written. And if you listen to some researchers Sumerian civilization, then humanity in general is the result of genetic modification, and it was formed when crossing aliens and human ancestors. The most interesting thing is that this theory fully fits with the fact that at the very beginning of human beings there were about one hundred thousand. But where did they come from? For some reason none of the serious scientists answers this question. Okay, let’s just say that I just did not get that answer.
There are suggestions that with representatives of extraterrestrial cultures, some great people communicated, whose discoveries in various fields radically influenced our progress and culture. Along with the aliens, Buddha, Christ, Newton, Paracelsus, Tesla, Einstein were announced acquaintances with the newcomers … They also add a long list of science fiction writers.
Allegedly, flying saucers are the fruits of dreams in reality – a special state of the brain, when it can not distinguish between reality and hallucinations

Allegedly, flying saucers are the fruits of dreams in reality – a special state of the brain, when it can not distinguish between reality and hallucinations
From recent history, regular meetings with aliens are conducted by the heads of America and Russia. About America more information: here and the famous “Base 51”, and just three catastrophes of a UFO near the town Roswell, and a giant UFO slowly sailed over Utah, and hundreds of reports of air force pilots who saw and even attacked the plates …
There are people who believe that America needs its technological take-off in alien technology. What, Russia then, too?
In the military department of many countries there are departments dealing with UFOs. They collect information, analyze and report to the public that all these are abnormal natural manifestations that are not related to aliens. And what they send to governments as reports – nobody knows.
However, no one forbids us to deal with the ufologists of plates. Learn. Only here is what can be done at the maximum of enthusiasm with small funds? Many, but clearly not enough, that all people believe in the phenomenon of aliens people.

But in fact, imagine that in a minute TV broadcasts will be interrupted and the announcer will give an emergency message: representatives of the civilization from the constellation Orion have entered into official contact with us. Part of the people immediately collapsed into a swoon, the other crawls out into the streets to chant and write on the walls slogans “Orions – off Earth!” And “Earth – for the Earth!”. Clever pessimists will understand that we have come to conquer or, at best, subordinate, and optimists will greet the “green men” as bringing goods from afar. In short, the entire planet, where there are talking boxes, will be in utter confusion. And it’s gently said. How long the planet will recover from the shock – not less than a few years. In the end, the aliens just get used to …

But, most interestingly, the process of getting used to aliens has been launched for a very long time and is perfectly implemented. His comic books, computer games, cartoons and films are conducted. After all, who is the most receptive to information that is considered fantastic? Children and teenagers. Children – cartoons about Pokemon, teenagers – films about the stellar landing.
But even here everything is not so simple. In fact, there are seemingly several opposing teams in the extraterrestrial field of influence. One, very small, declares that aliens are, but rarely get to Earth and no one needs our planet. Adherents of this position show cosmic travelers as lovely, ridiculous, but possessing superpowers, which they use for the benefit of friends, and sometimes all of humanity. Those kids who like this theory, most likely, grow contactees.
Another team suggests that the aliens are all evil and ugly creatures that sleep and see earthlings in shackles or well roasted with spices. With these extraterrestrials you have to fight to the death. It’s not hard to imagine that fans of such products will easily go to armed opposition from other worlds, without even knowing what their goals are.

The third group frankly mocks the “green”. They are smart, but they are full of idiots. Their appearance is unusual, but they make it ugly. These products count on the same optimists.
And, at last, the fourth approach: aliens such weight of types, kinds and such other that it is possible to get confused, but it is not necessary. There aliens are the same as people. Only another form, with a different psychology, customs and preferences. Among them there are evil, and good, and none. Here, probably, prepare travelers for the galaxy ….
Why – we already found out. But who? Who gives the order?
There are at least two options.
The first has already sounded: the governments of the Earth, which (we will assume such a moment) have been warned that in some not too distant future aliens will nevertheless reveal themselves before all people, and not just the elite. Governments figured and decided: we will prepare art.

The second option is fantastic, but it also has the right to be: with the help of alien fiction in all kinds of children somehow accustomed to tolerance for future visitors to the Earth.
Choose what you like.

{ https://earth-chronicles.blogspot.be/ }

Shoemaker-Levy 9: Comet's Impact Left Its Mark on Jupiter

By Elizabeth Howell, Space.com Contributor

Mysterious Plane looking for Underwater UFO base?

It is said that an alien structure has been discovered about 2,000 feet underwater in a particular area between the west coast of the US and Santa Catalina Island.

According to reports there is a so much unusual underwater UFO activity in that area that it strongly points to the possibility that there is an underwater UFO base somewhere in this area.

Not only is there an unusually large number of sightings, landings, and ocean-going UFOs here, there are also cases of abductions.

Normally, when somebody reports being abducted by aliens, they claim to have been taken inside a UFO. However, in this particular area, some abductees report that they have been taken to what is apparently an underground base.

A Google Earth image which has been taken on July, 9, 2016 apparently shows a craft without registration number, markings or colors of an airline company and it is flying above the ocean between the west coast of the US and Santa Catalina Island.

It seems as the craft with a length of about 32 meters and a wingspan of about 45 meters is scanning for something below the surface of the ocean, given the strange colorful glow in front of the craft.

The question; is it an illegal plane, a military or U.S. government plane or drone carrying out a certain operation and it has something to do with the supposed underwater UFO base and UFO activity in that area?

Coordinates: 33°34'45.23"N 118° 8'16.89"W

  

{ http://ufosightingshotspot.blogspot.com/ }

WILL MARS COLONISTS EVOLVE INTO THIS NEW KIND OF HUMAN?

Some of the biggest names in science and technology have called for the colonization of Mars, including physicist Stephen Hawking and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk. They say that populating other planets would help ensure our species’ survival should Earth be rendered uninhabitable by some disaster.

“The future of humanity is fundamentally going to bifurcate along one of two directions,” Musk said last year. “Either we’re going to become a multiplanet species and a spacefaring civilization, or we’re going to be stuck on one planet until some eventual extinction event.”

That sounds about right. Scientists and engineers are rapidly developing the technology needed for interplanetary travel, and humanity does seem all too vulnerable to existential threats. Think runaway climate change, global pandemics, nuclear war. And don’t forget about asteroid strikes like the one believed to have killed the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.

But the call to put Homo sapiens permanently on Mars seems to sidestep a perverse irony: experts say that a long period of isolation on the red planet — where gravity and sunlight are weaker than on Earth and mutation-causing radiation more intense — could eventually cause the bodies of Mars colonists to change. And at least one expert believes the colonists could evolve into a new species.

In other words, becoming a multiplanet species might lead us to become multiple species.

“This happens routinely to animals and plants isolated on islands — think of Darwin’s finches,” Dr. Scott Solomon, an evolutionary biologist at Rice University in Houston and the author of “Future Humans: Inside the Science of Our Continuing Evolution,” wrote recently on the science site Nautilus. “But while speciation on islands can take thousand of years, the accelerated mutation rate on Mars and the stark contrasts between conditions on Mars and Earth would likely speed up the process. In just a few hundred generations — perhaps as little as 6,000 years — a new type of human might emerge.”

New species — or not?

Six thousand years isn’t long in evolutionary terms. After all, Homo sapiens has existed as a single species for more than 200,000 years. And some scientists have doubts about Solomon’s timeline.

“Evolution to a new species by the classic definition of not being able to breed with humans would take a long time, probably thousands of generations and a hundred thousand years,” University of Arizona astronomer Dr. Chris Impey told NBC News MACH in an email. On the other hand, he added, “changing enough to look physically distinct would be much quicker, tens or perhaps a hundred generations.”

Dr. Philipp Mitteröcker, a theoretical biologist at the University of Vienna in Austria, said in an email to MACH that he, too, is dubious of rapid speciation.

“Speciation is a long-term process that usually requires reproductive isolation over millions of years,” Mitteröcker said. “Some human populations had been isolated for thousands of years and are still far away from being a separate species. It is thus unlikely that humans who had colonized Mars [would] become a separate species.”

Solomon acknowledged that the path of human evolution on Mars is speculative. But he told MACH in an email that “it follows from what we know about evolutionary biology” that Mars colonists might evolve faster than some think.

And the apparent absence of microbial life on Mars might play a key role.

Evidence suggests that Mars may be devoid of life, and that goes for pathogenic bacteria as well as other life forms. If humans were to establish and live within a germ-free Mars colony, Solomon said, the colonists’ immune systems could eventually lose the ability to fight off infections that might be introduced to the colony by germ-carrying humans or animals visiting from Earth. That risk presumably would encourage the colonists to minimize contact — including sexual contact — with potentially infectious earthlings. That, in turn, could accelerate the pace at which the colonists’ bodies would begin to adapt to their new world.

Surprising differences

How might these Martian people differ from their distant ancestors — in other words, from us? Whether or not they evolved into a new species, they might have anatomical as well as immunological and other physiological differences. Solomon said they might have notably thicker bones (including the skull bones), which might give them a more robust appearance — perhaps a bit like members of the extinct proto-human Paranthropus genus, including P. boisei.

Why would that be? Bones need to work against the force of gravity to stay strong. Gravity on Mars is about 38 percent of that on Earth. Consequently, Mars colonists who start life with beefier skeletons might have a leg up, evolutionarily speaking. The idea is that as their bone density gradually declined in the low-gravity environment, the colonists’ bigger bones might retain enough strength to ward off dangerous fractures.

 

The Mars Rover Found a Meteorite Made of Iron 1:12

Evolutionary pressure for beefier skeletons might be especially strong for female Mars colonists, Solomon said, given the risk of pelvic fractures during childbirth. Beefier skeletons or not, Solomon said, female colonists might come to opt for cesarean section over natural childbirth. And since the size of the human head is constrained in part by the dimensions of the birth canal, the heads of Mars colonists might become larger than what is seen in humans on Earth.

If that sounds far-fetched, consider this: recent research by Mitteröcker and others suggests that the rising popularity of C-sections may be allowing an increase in the size of babies’ heads here on Earth.

So Mars colonists might have beefy bones and big heads. Then there’s the question of their eyes.

Mars is much farther from the sun than is the Earth, and the extra distance — and the lower levels of sunlight on the Martian surface — could cause changes in the colonists’ eyes.

“During a good day, Mars looks like an overcast day on Earth,” Dr. Nathalie Cabrol, a planetary scientist at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, Calif., told NBC News MACH in an email. “Our eyes are accustomed to a certain amount of light on Earth. If there has to be some adaptation to these new ambient conditions, then either our optical system and brain will have to develop new ways of collecting more light on the retina, or we will develop new retinas or bigger eyes.”

The need to protect those bigger eyes might be another reason the colonists’ skulls might become more robust, Cabrol said, adding that it wasn’t clear whether the changes she envisions would be evidence of a new species or simply a version of Homo sapiens adapted for life in a different environment.

Of course, evolutionary changes in humans on Mars would occur only if humans were able to reproduce and successfully raise their children in the low-gravity Martian environment. Cabrol said the colonists might need some sort of “gravity chamber” in which to reproduce and in which their offspring could spend their early developmental years in conditions closer to those on Earth.

Peculiar pigmentation

Another potential change for the Mars colonists would be their skin pigmentation.

“Because of less light,” Cabrol said, “I would say that it is possible that the skin of these humans will become … pale over time, and their hair light-toned.”

Solomon sees things differently.

The Martian atmosphere is thinner than Earth’s, and the red planet has essentially no protective magnetic field. Thus people living on Mars would be exposed to high levels of cancer-causing radiation even if they spent most of their lives indoors. Pigmentation helps block the effects of radiation. The deeper the color, the better the protection. Thus Solomon figures Mars people might evolve to have darker skin than anyone on Earth.

On the other hand, Solomon said, life on Mars might yield people whose skin is pigmented by carotenoids rather than our usual pigment, melanin. (Something similar has been seen in aphids.) Carotenoids are the same molecules that give carrots their characteristic color. And so their skin might be bright orange.

Cultural and technological changes

Is Solomon right, generally speaking, about the changing appearance of Mars colonists? That’s impossible to say. But no matter what, experts agree that Mars colonists would likely drift away culturally and technologically from their terrestrial ancestors.

As Impey told MACH, “They will probably be aggressive in genetic engineering and self-modification (body part and organ enhancement and replacement), to the extent of embedding various monitoring and repair devices, and taking a cyborg path. This will be a very technology-forward cohort, advancing far beyond the average terrestrial society.”

Impey said it was hard to predict the psychological effects of living on Mars. But as the colonists “are removed from human affairs,” he continued, “they will probably develop their own cultural norms and dialects, and start to feel very distinct or post-human.”

If the colonists do change dramatically from their ancestors back on Earth, how would we view them? Would we consider them alien beings — or just subtly different humans?

Solomon thinks the latter possibility is more likely.

“In the past, when there were multiple species of human around (i.e. Neanderthals, Denisovans, and Homo sapiens), we know they had sex with one another and had babies that survived,” he said in an email. “That suggests to me that we view other humanlike species as being more human than animal.”

Here’s to good neighbors.

Source www.nbcnews.com

{ http://alien-ufo-sightings.com/}

Forget What You Knew About Planets, There’s A New Definition Of What Planets Are

In recent times, everyone’s favorite ‘planet’ Pluto monopolized attention in the debate on what should be a planet and what not.

Now, a scientist has considered the other extreme of the question and wondered how massive a planet could be to be labeled as such.

An astrophysicist at Johns Hopkins University has proposed that objects that exceed ten times the mass of Jupiter be considered brown dwarfs, and not planets.

Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest in the Solar System.

Image Credit: Shutterstock.

In an article published in the Astrophysical Journal, Kevin Schlaufman, assistant professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Johns Hopkins, says that it is now possible to establish an upper mass limit to planets, thanks to improvements in technology and astronomical observation techniques.

The paper is online in the journal at http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/aa961c. It is also archived at https://arxiv.org/abs/1801.06185.

These technological advances have allowed us to discover many more planetary systems outside our solar system and, therefore, it is possible to see stable patterns that lead to new revelations.

“While we believe we know how planets are formed in a broad sense, there are still many details that we must understand,” said Schlaufman.

“An upper limit on the masses of planets is one of the most important details that was missing.”

The conclusions in the new paper are based on observations of 146 solar systems, the systems, Schlaufman said, is the fact that almost all the data he used was measured uniformly. The data are more consistent from one solar system to the next, and so more reliable.

Defining a planet, distinguishing it from other celestial objects, is a bit like reducing a list of criminal suspects. It is one thing to know that you are looking for someone who measures more than 5 feet 8 inches, another is to know that your suspect is between 5 feet 8 feet and 5 feet 10 feet, he argues.

In this case, researchers want to distinguish between two suspects: a giant planet and a celestial object called brown dwarf.

Brown dwarfs are more massive than planets but less massive than smaller stars. It is believed that they are shaped like stars.

According to Schlaufman, it has been an issue to distinguish low mass red dwarfs from, especially massive planets, Mass alone was not an option to differentiate the too, so another property was needed.

According to Schlaufman, the missing property is the chemical makeup of a solar system’s own sun. Schlaufman says you can know your suspect, a planet, not just by his size, but also by the company he keeps.

Giant planets such as Jupiter are almost always found orbiting stars that have more iron than our sun. Brown dwarfs are not so discriminating. And it is there where his argument addresses the idea of planetary formation.

Planets like Jupiter are formed from the bottom up by first building a rocky core that is then wrapped in a massive gaseous envelope. It is logical that they are close to stars loaded with elements that form rocks since these elements provide the seed material for the formation of planets. Not so with brown dwarfs.

Schlaufman further notes how Brown dwarfs and stars form from the top-down as clouds of gas collapse under their own weight.

The idea of Schlaufman was to find the mass in which objects stop caring about the composition of the star in which they orbit. He discovered that the most massive objects, approximately ten times the mass of Jupiter do not prefer stars with many elements that form rocks and, therefore, are unlikely to be formed as planets.

This is why Schlaufman has proposed that objects in excess of 10 Jupiter mass should be considered brown dwarfs, not planets.

Source: Scientist proposes new definition of a planet

Featured image credit: Shutterstock.

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ABDUCTED ITALIAN MAN HAS PHOTOS OF ALIENS FROM PLANET “CLARION”

Maurizio Cavallo, 63, is also known by the pseudonym Jhlos, and has published several books on the subject. In 2012, at a conference in Turin, Italy, he spoke about who the extraterrestrials would be: “They are the stellar guardians, the lords of the rainbow: they are the gardeners of the universe, the precursor ancestors; timeless immortals that come from the confines of the cosmos. They come from the primary source, from a place in which you build eternity. ”

WHY ME? Exclusive Interview with Maurizio Cavallo

We only see what we learned to believe is reality. When the humankind will be able to look through this other window and will look at reality with new eyes, perceiving the real universe we live in, we will go insane or we will evolve. There are no alternatives.

Exclusive Interview with Maurizio Cavallo
By Paola Leopizzi Harris
Piedmonte, Italy
November 2006

Contactee or abducted? Maurizio Cavallo’s life enigma is part of this extraordinary interview.

Paola Harris and Maurizio Cavallo talking about a very sensitive issue, the photographs he says he took of the alien beings he allegedly met. Paola Harris urges him with more detailed questions.

Paola Harris: I’m only an investigator of those who claim they had experiences. My duty is to do a good job and to faithfully report what witnesses say, because only the correct information should reach people, with no distortions.

Maurizio Cavallo: I felt obliged to tell my experience after eleven years of silence to relate what happened to me and could happen also to other people. Something that brought an inner, complete transformation in me, in my life and in my family. But after I regreted doing it because, though I met many open minded people, beautiful and great personalities who wanted and wish to know the truth, I found also a lot of wickedness. I met with people who were selfishly driven by personal aims and they disgusted me. I have met also unstable people, really insane people. Two months ago I hosted here, after many telephone calls, a guy who presented himself as the chief commander of the extraterrestrial fleet and, to demonstrate he was a real alien, he showed me what he called a laser beam, but it was only a chinese pocket torch with some small lights on it.
These things really upset me.

Paola Harris: How do you get rid of those kinds of visitors?

Maurizio Cavallo: It was my intention to invite him for lunch as I usually do with the people I meet for the first time, to treat them like friends, like people dear to me…but, when I realized what kind of person he was, despite all my best intentions, I had to invent an unexpected appointment. I hate to lie. I love to be frank. Also if sometimes I sound a little rough, I like to be outspoken, I can’t stand a world built of lies but, in some cases you have to protect yourself. That man was a dangerous person.

Paola Harris: There are also people who wish to consider you a guru, how do you manage them in these situations?

Maurizio Cavallo: I cause them to dislike me. It means that, if they think I can give something to them, if they ask me to teach something to them-and I have always been very clear about it- I tell them that I am not a guru and I cannot teach them anything apart from my personal experience. If they will be able to learn something from my experience, I will be happy but I cannot teach them anything because I am still learning. And when I say that they often have a negative reaction because they feel betrayed. They start to treat me like someone who doesn’ want to give them what they consider a property of their own. From when my experience started in 1981 I have become a person who can be loved but can be hated as well.

Paola Harris: In 1981 you were married, you had children?

Maurizio Cavallo: Yes, I was married and I had two children, the girl was seven years old and the boy was four.

Paola Harris: Did everything happen all of a sudden?

Maurizio Cavallo: Yes. I had had some experiences like many people, I had seen strange lights in the sky but that night, the night of the abduction, it fell upon me all of a sudden. I did not expect anything like that and from that moment, everything has changed for me.

Paola Harris: I noticed you used the word “abduction”. Do you call it an abduction or a contact?

Maurizio Cavallo: I call it abduction.

Paola Harris: Because it happened against your will?

Maurizio Cavallo: Yes, I did not want it, they obliged me. I was at home. The whole story is in my book, all the dramatic moments I had to live. I was at home and I felt…I started to feel physically sick, feverish and suddenly I heard an internal and imperious voice ordering me to go out, to go back to the hills of Monferrato where we had been the night before for a walk with some friends of mine. After dinner in a Pizzeria we had gone for a walk on those hills for ten miles, more or less, from Vercelli. We had left our cars and we had started to walk when we saw a globe of light, red like a fire, which descended behind some trees giving us the impression it was landing. We were all very excited and went in that direction to see what was happening. It was deep night and the ground was rocky and difficult so we gave up and went back home. As soon as I came home I started to feel sick. I felt warm, I felt cold, I felt feverish. At first time I thought it was caused by poor digestion. I thought I had eaten something that had made me sick. I could not sleep and I started to hear that voice complelling me and ordering me to take my car again and to go back to the hills. In that moment I started a titanic fight, an incredible fight. I tried to wake up my wife to tell her I was sick and I had to go out, but my wife went on sleeping as if she was under the effect of some drug. In my book I talk in detail of a particularly strange experience..It was like my house was entrapped in something…I don’t know how to define it, it was also like being frozen. I don’t know if that is the correct word.. I went to the bathroom to have a glass of water, the glass slipped from my hand and fell on the ground but it fell in slow motion, very, very slowly.

Paola Harris: Time had stopped?

Maurizio Cavallo: It was a Saturday night and the street was full of the noise of a holiday night, but in my house everything was silent. When the glass broke in pieces on the ground I heard no noise. Everything was crystallized. It was like time had slowed down. It is obvious it was an abduction because I did not want to go. The more I resisted that order, the more the pain in my head increased. I noticed that when I began to take the car and to go to the hills my pain lowered, but when, on the contrary, I thought I wanted to stay home, my pain increased, stronger than before. It was a form of constraint, this is the reason why I say it was an abduction. If they had asked me to go with them I had answered no.

Paola Harris: At that time it looked a bad experience. And what now, in 2007?

Maurizio Cavallo: Today not. Also in my book I say that those who were my contollers, I call them abductors, those who imprisoned me, were the same ones who gave me my new freedom.

Paola Harris: They showed you a new truth.

Maurizio Cavallo: They showed me that Cosmos is not what we believe, that life is not what we live, that everything we call reality is a pure illusion. They opened for me a window on Cosmos, they brought me to the edge of madness and they destroyed the Maurizio of the past. The old Maurizio existed no more, they had skinned him, lapidated him but they had permitted to the new Maurizio to look beyond the borders of what we call reality. They gave me an immense gift, They gave me freedom.

Paola Harris: But you had to pay a high prize…

Maurizio Cavallo: A very high prize. See, when I understand that these people come to me waiting for something, treating me like a guru, I always say that I have no truth to give them. I only have my own truth and it belongs to me completely. I feel upset when I realize that this truth, so strong in my mind, can be manipulated…Not everyone can understand.

Paola Harris: Of course, we are on planet Earth. We are human beings, a peculiar race. We are growing up but you are trying to bring us from elementary school straight to secondary school but we cannot jump that way It is a slow process.It happened to you, they made you able…

Maurizio Cavallo: Yes, but perhaps I had been trained for it before.

Paola Harris: That’s exactly what I wanted to ask you.

Maurizio Cavallo: Yes, because I realized that nothing happens by chance, my mother had been abducted too.

Paola Harris: How did you know it?

Maurizio Cavallo: They showed me some images, something like recorded images. They showed me images in a sort of monolith, in a ruby-red pyramid used like a screen. I saw images of a girl walking in a graveyard, at first sight I could not recognize her and they told me: ” It’s obvious you can’t recognize her, she is your mother when she was a girl; she knew the secrets of the stars too.”This means that they have programmed us.

Paola Harris: Did you mother talk to you about it? Did she ever ask you something?

Maurizio Cavallo: My mother died when I was thirteen. I had a special relationship with her, very intense. We had no need to talk. She looked at me and I understood, I looked at her and she understood. I cannot remember any dialogue with my mother but we had a complete relationship. When she died I missed her very much and my pain was beareable. I could not feel the intense pain you feel in you mind and your body when you lose somebody, I was quiet because I knew nine months before she had to die.

Paola Harris: How did she die?

Maurizio Cavallo: She had had low blood pressure but the doctor had misunderstood her symptoms for high blood pressure symptoms and had prescribed some medicine to lower her blood pressure more.: She had taken them faithfully and her heart gave out so she had to be hospitalized and her condition worsened quickly. When she entered the hospital, nine months before her death, I knew she was going to die. I was sure of it and I was waiting for that moment quietly. I was sure that, in any case, nothing could have parted her from me. At that time I was thirteen and I believed in God, the Catholic God and, of course I prayed for my mother, I prayed to God to let her live and to heal her. When my mother died I became very angry with God because I had previously believed that God listened to all our prays. From that moment I said:” You don’t exist, you don’t exist because you didn’t listen to me.”

As time passed and thanks to the experience I had in 1981 I started to think in a different way. I understood that a Divine Mind exists but it is completely different from the image we are used to. A Divine Mind exists but not all our prayers can be heard because there are programs and our life and death are only some roots of these programs. With my mother I have always had a perfect relationship. That night they showed me my mother when she was a girl.

Paola Harris: Did they ever show your mother alive?

Maurizio Cavallo: Yes, I met her.

Paola Harris: I know they brought you to Clarion. Did you meet her on the Earth or on Clarion?

Maurizio Cavallo: I saw her at home. One night they told me I would be having a pleasant visit. At first I thought I was dreaming because I was in my bed and I was sleeping but after I realized I was awake. I saw my mother not with the appearance that I remembered. She was physically different. I knew she was my mother but she did not look like her.

Paola Harris: How did she look?

Maurizio Cavallo: She looked much younger, we did not talk to each other but she made a gesture that was her typical gesture, a wave of her hand that my mother used only with me, she smiled at me and that’s all.

Paola Harris: Was it like a dream?

Maurizio Cavallo: No, at first time I thought I was dreaming because I was in my bed, but after I realized I was not because I left the bed to go towards her but she moved her hand to stop me, she smiled at me and made that gesture so typical. When we were babies and went to bed she made that gesture to say good night. In that moment I felt I had to go back to bed and I had to sleep again. I am sure it was not a dream.

Paola Harris: Inhabitants of Clarion are made of flesh and blood? Did you ever meet them in the streets?

Maurizio Cavallo: I have met them at the supermarket.

Paola Harris: Were they doing the shopping?

Maurizio Cavallo: No, we had a meeting there…People don’t have to believe in what I say, they only have to think about what I am relating and ask themselves if there could be something true in it. If their conscience gives them the feeling that all this could be real, they could start to interrogate themselves till the big question: “ARE WE ALONE?” My photographs are not a proof, also because I do no spread them: I have photos of UFO, of aliens. This is a photo of Suell, I talk about him in my book.

Paola Harris: He could well walk among us!

Maurizio Cavallo: He walks among us. I met him in a big city I cannot mention, he gave me a little black card emitting some impulses that told me to do or not to do certain things. At a certain moment I felt I had to take a train to go to a town where I had to meet some of them:
While I was travelling I asked myself:” But why do I have to take a train while, in other occasions, they just abducted me?” Perhaps it was a trial, something I could not understand. When I arrived to that town I plainly met the same person I had already met on a magnetic ship, a UFO.

Paola Harris: Which was the place of the appointment?

Maurizio Cavallo: I knew I had to go to a bar and wait for them. Hours did pass. Time was passing by, nobody was arriving and I begun to be anxious. I begun to think I had invented all that thing…after a long, long time, Suell arrived, happy as a child, asking me: ” Hello, were you waiting for a long time?” Everything is in my book.

Paola Harris: Is he normal? Did he speak in a normal way?

Maurizio Cavallo: Yes, he has a house and works on Earth.

Paola Harris: How can you recognize them?

Maurizio Cavallo: You “can” recognize them.

Paola Harris: You can recgnize them!

Maurizio Cavallo: He asked me if I had noticed something strange in the girl working at the supermarket cashier’s desk. I had noticed nothing unusual but soon I thought a little and said:”Yes, she had something strange! A strange earring looking like a world into another world. When I had seen her she had not caught my attention but, after they asked me, I remembered her. Some of them work and live here on Earth.

Paola Harris: Why?

Maurizio Cavallo: Because they must help us a little in our evolution, they don’t have to condition us, they only must have an influence.

Paola Harris: Do they have a completely alien DNA or half alien and half human?

Maurizio Cavallo: Some of them are totally alien and came here when they were already adults. They apparently are thirty or forty years old. They just arrive so they don’t have problems to get documents…and their DNA is completly alien, if we want to define them.
Then we have those who are born here; they have an alien DNA but take a human body with a human DNA, so we can call these ones hybrids.

Paola Harris: Do you think that the Government knows about it?

Maurizio Cavallo: Not all the men in the Government, only a few.

Paola Harris: The women look like movie stars.

Maurizio Cavallo: They are gorgeous. You must note one thing: these are Polaroid photos made without developing process and there is always an abnormal light absorption because they absorb atomic light. During one of my last contacts, in a base under the sea near Genova…(Cavallo shows a photograph, N.d.R.)…This is a photo where you can see those who in the Bible were called “Cherubs”, they are astral beings.

Paola Harris: You are incredible! You succeed in making these photos…

Maurizio Cavallo: Not at all… Look at this photo, you need much light…there is a spaceship and you can see some figures. One of these figures is a Grey, one of the tall ones, at least they call them so. This is another Grey but of hybrid race, half human and half alien.

Paola Harris: Where did you take this photo?

Maurizio Cavallo: In the base:

Paola Harris: How did they bring you?

Maurizio Cavallo: Physically, last year.

Paola Harris: How did it happen?

Maurizio Cavallo: By now there is a symbiosis. I start feeling very nervous and troubled, I am very anxious and let my intuition to drive me. When these feelings are very strong I go to certain places. When I arrive in one of these places I meet a physical being part of the alien world who drives me to the base.

Paola Harris: How did they bring you to that base?

Maurizio Cavallo: In a very normal boat. We left the harbour, we went to a certain point in the sea and then the water around started to whirl; I was scared, of course , because it looked. like a hurricane, then we and our boat started to go down. While I was going down, all around me I could see a crystal wall, water was liquid no more, it was solid. Water walls were solid like a tunnel and we went down till a point where those walls opened like rays. We were in the middle of a wheel whose rays were the corridors of the base they have under the sea.

Paola Harris: Which is their race?

Maurizio Cavallo: They are Clarions working together with another race.

Paola Harris: I can imagine that you are not a tourist for them, they have an agenda . They want you to disclose in a soft way such a complex scenario and to disclose this unbelievable reality?

Maurizio Cavallo: Very probable but perhaps the primary fact is they are instructing me, this is what I think, but I can also be wrong. They are instructing me so everything I see, everything I live and everything that will bring in a soft way this reality to other people, is mainly directed to my self. You see, Paola, we think we can choose and it’s terrible when we understand that all we have done was not our choice. If I could go back to my past I could not have lived in a different way. I have always had different hobbies, I did not like sports like football, I liked to go fishing, I liked my work and my family. I’ve always believed, since my childhood, that the other worlds were inhabited. I have always believed that there are other intelligences on other planets…anyway I led a normal life until I was hurled.into this unbelievable new reality…. By the way,they walk in a strange way, they glide…it’s an extraordinary effect.

Paola Harris: Do they walk in this strange way also on the road?

Maurizio Cavallo: No, on the road they look like normal people. But you can recognize them from some signs: they are very kind, they radiate a healing energy also when they are not speaking. When they talk their voice may sound a little metallic and low. Sometimes it happens because there is a sort of simultaneous interface from their language to ours, but perhaps their vocal chords give this lower tone to their voices.
They have big ears and strange, penetrating eyes, very penetrating. But more than all you can feel this energy, this kindness, their energy. They emanate an energy so strong you can feel uneasy.

Paola Harris: In my second book I wrote a lot on how we must act not to be scared from alien races, first of all we must accept all the differences existing between races here on Earth. You have been very lucky. This happened to you in 1981, now, let’s try to understand: Has this been only a contact or you have got some prophecy about our future? Can we give a hope to people?

Maurizio Cavallo: Yes, the only hope is that our conscience, human conscience must reach another level, a higher level.

Paola Harris: We don’t have much time.

Maurizio Cavallo: We have no more time and so our duty is enormous. We must achieve a dynamic change,. It is more a dynamic change than that simply of consciousness.And there is time to change our dynamism because they are two different things. Consciousness needs a very long time of assimilation. Everything that happened to me belongs to a program which started a long, long time ago. When they showed me images of a girl I could not recognize because I was not yet born and I recognized she was my mother, they said she too had been touched from the Lords of the stars and I started to understand that everything was part of a program. Many of us on this planet are unconscious parts of this program, also people who say they never saw anything. We only see a mechanical reality but I can see a magical reality. I don’t use the word “magic” in a negative sense because our universe is, in effect, a magical creation and all the dimensions and the same creation that we think have physical parameters, don’t have any: Matter is illusion and is only the crystallization of our thought. We only see what we learned to believe is reality. When the humankind will be able to look through this otherwindow and will look at reality with new eyes, perceiving the real universe we live in, we will go insane or we will evolve. There are no alternatives.

Paola Harris: Perhaps the two things together…

Maurizio Cavallo: I have passed the two of them. I don’t think I’m a superior man but I have seen things that nobody else has seen. These things taught me to be more humble and every time I think about what happened to me and what could still happen I feel so little and I ask myself:” Why me?”.

Source paolaharris.com

{http://alien-ufo-sightings.com/ }

INCREDIBLE images show 'aliens INSIDE an UFO for the first time'

EXTRAORDINARY images have emerged of what is claimed to be an “alien photographed inside a real alien flying spaceship”.

By Joy Basu 

FLYING DISK PRESS/ YOUTUBE

BOOK: Author Dr Roberto Pinotii said the events happened in 1957

In the grainy black and white images, you can see the “inside a cockpit with seating, control panel and other objects”.

There is also what looks like a person wearing sunglasses that is said to be a “real alien visitor”.

The rare pictures is of the “human-like alien” is being published for the first time by Flying Disk Press on February 1, reported Express.co.uk.

The book – UFO Contacts in Italy – claims a flying saucer landed in Francavillia, on the Adriatic Coast.

FLYING DISK PRESS

BOOK: One of the grainy images from 'inside the alien spacecraft'

The photos were taken by two men who were allowed into the "spacecraft", added author Dr Roberto Pinotii, 73.

He said: "The diameter of the UFO was 24 metres, that of the control cabin was 10 metres.

“These rare and extraordinary photographs, as well as two photographs of the alleged extraterrestrial pilot... have been published here for the first time.”

The extraordinary events are claimed to have unfolded in October 1957 in Italy, but the story never made it out of the country until now.

He added: “Much of the information in this book is being published in English for the very first time.

“The book contains a whole array of UFO/alien contact cases from Italy but surely one of the most unusual incidents is this one from 1957.

‘It is the only case that I am aware of that allegedly has photographs of the inside of the UFO."

What was destined to be called “the Friendship case” started near Pescara between 1956 and 1957.

A group of local residents is believed to have been involved in periodic contacts with the humanlike alien “friends”.

He added: “These beings would have built underground bases on Earth and in Italy the most important one would have been in the central zone of the peninsula along the Adriatic coast not far from Pescara.”

It is claimed the “contact” in the area went on for 20 years.

FLYING DISK PRESS

UFO: The grainy images are believed to have been taken inside the UFO

{ https://www.dailystar.co.uk/ }

What IS this mysterious glowing object in the ISS live feed? Conspiracy theorists claim NASA is covering up aliens as video appears to show 'massive Golden UFO' - before it suddenly cuts out

• Video shared to YouTube by Streetcap1 claims to show a 'massive Golden UFO'
• It was spotted in 2016 the ISS live-feed,before the video suddenly cuts out
• Video then cuts to a standby message from the ISS, sparking cover-up claims 

By Cheyenne Macdonald For Dailymail.com

A bizarre YouTube video that some claim reveals a ‘golden UFO’ soaring over Earth has sparked fresh speculation among conspiracy theorists about an alien cover-up.

The video focuses on a 2016 clip from the International Space Station’s live feed, showing a slow-moving view over our planet – and, a mysterious glow can be seen emanating from the bottom right corner.

Just seconds later, the footage cuts out to reveal a standby message from the ISS, causing many to claim NASA was attempting to hide an object the YouTubers estimate to be ‘hundreds of miles long.’

Scroll down for video 

The video focuses on a 2016 clip from the International Space Station’s live feed, showing a slow-moving view over our planet – and, a mysterious glow can be seen emanating from the bottom right corner

The video posted by YouTube user Streetcap1 was originally published August 1, 2016, but has resurfaced this week.

In the ISS footage, Earth is in clear view as the orbiting space station journeys miles overhead.

And, one brightly lit splotch stands out against the endless blue.

The video offers little detail on the bizarre ‘discovery,’ noting simply: ‘What is it? It’s over 200 miles away.’

Then, the footage cuts to a blank screen before issuing the message:

‘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.’

The YouTuber claims the massive object seen before the video is lost was a ‘golden UFO’ orbiting our planet.

In the ISS footage, Earth is in clear view as the orbiting space station journeys miles overhead. And, one brightly lit splotch stands out against the endless blue

Then, the footage cuts to a blank screen before issuing the message: ‘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’

‘I thought I was seeing things at first then quickly started recording,’ the YouTuber wrote.

‘This has to be huge whatever it is. If it was a building it would be hundreds of miles long.’

While it might seem extraordinary – or even alarming, to some – claims of this kind aren’t all that uncommon.

BELIEVE IN CONSPIRACY THEORIES? YOU'RE PROBABLY A NARCISSIST, RESEARCHERS SAY

People who doubt the moon landings are more likely to be selfish and attention-seeking, according to a study earlier this year.

Over the course of three online-based studies, researchers at the University of Kent showed strong links between the belief in conspiracy theories and negative psychological traits.

Writing in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science, the team explained: 'Previous research linked the endorsement of conspiracy theories to low self-esteem.'

In the first study, a total of 202 participants completed questionnaires on conspiracy beliefs, asking how strongly they agreed with specific statements, such as whether governments carried out acts of terrorism on their own soil.

Alongside this, they were asked to complete a narcissist scale and a self-esteem assessment.

The results showed that those people who rated highly on the narcissism scale and who had low self-esteem were more likely to be conspiracy believers.

The last year alone has brought countless UFO cover-up claims, with conspiracy theorists sharing footage of everything from ‘alien fireballs’ to UFOs with ‘advanced cloaking technology.’

But, there’s almost always a simple explanation.

There are a number of common phenomena that can cause strange objects to appear in the ISS footage, including lightning storms high over Earth’s surface and tricks of the light.

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

Foreign object captured entering Earth's atmosphere from space

Read more:

• MASSIVE Golden UFO Orbiting EARTH. - YouTube

{ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

No, an Asteroid Is Not Going to Collide with Earth in February

Heartbreaking: Asteroid to Miss Earth Next Month

By Rae Paoletta

Those of us writhing in these uncomfortable mortal coils will be sad to know that yet another asteroid will pass by Earth next month, and there’s nothing we can do to convince it otherwise.

The object in question, called 2002 AJ129, will miss Earth by about 2.6 million miles (4.2 million kilometers). In its closest approach to Earth, the asteroid will zoom by at roughly 76,000 miles per hour (34 kilometers per second). Although 2002 AJ129 is indeed thicc — greater in diameter than even the tallest building on Earth — it poses no risk to humanity.

“We have been tracking this asteroid for over 14 years and know its orbit very accurately,” Paul Chodas, manager of NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, California, says in a statement. “Our calculations indicate that asteroid 2002 AJ129 has no chance — zero — of colliding with Earth on Feb. 4 or any time over the next 100 years.”

Though there’s absolutely no chance that 2002 AJ129 will crash into our planet, that hasn’t stopped several media outlets from fanning the flames of fear:

While it’s true that 2002 AJ129 is technically considered a Potentially Hazardous Asteroid (PHA), this is a merely a label to describe its distance from Earth. It doesn’t mean the asteroid is capable of carrying out any real damage to our planet.

“Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHAs) are currently defined based on parameters that measure the asteroid’s potential to make threatening close approaches to the Earth,” NASA’s JPL writes. “Specifically, all asteroids with an Earth Minimum Orbit Intersection Distance (MOID) of 0.05 au or less and an absolute magnitude (H) of 22.0 or less are considered PHAs.”

As much as we’d all like an asteroid to wallop us squarely in the face, the reality is, that’s just not going to happen. It’s easier if you start accepting it now.

Hello! You've made it to the end of the article. Nice. Here's a related video you might like: 

"Los Alamos Asteroid Simulations"

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This brave spacecraft will soon fly through the sun’s atmosphere

BY TIBI PUIU

A car-sized spacecraft called the Parker Solar Probe is set to make history after it launches for an unprecedented destination: the sun. Touted as humanity’s first visit to a star, the spacecraft will fly through the sun’s outer atmosphere, known as the corona, getting seven times closer to the star’s surface than any spacecraft before it.

Artist impression of the Parker Solar Probe.

Credit: NASA.

The one-of-a-kind spacecraft will employ a combination of in-situ measurements and imaging to probe the corona in unprecedented detail, revealing novel insights about the origin and evolution of the sun and the processes that govern it. In doing so, scientists will be able to improve their ability to forecast potentially hazardous solar storms and flares that can affect life and technology on Earth.

One such threat is represented by outbursts of coronal mass — huge bubbles of gas threaded with magnetic field lines that are ejected from the Sun over the course of several hours. When these strike the Earth, the consequences can be catastrophic. Some even claim a really powerful coronal mass ejection could fry most electronics on Earth or our communication satellite fleet up in orbit. Some of you might remember the 1989 Quebec incident, when the whole city had a blackout after the entire grid got fried, causing an estimated $2 billion Canadian in damage at the time. Besides blackouts, CMEs can also disrupt GPS signals and radio telecommunications.

Icarus 2.0

The probe will stay seven weeks inside a thermal vacuum chamber.

Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/Ed Whitman.

Parker will come as close as 3.9 million miles (6.3 million km) to our star’s surface, well within Mercury’s orbit, hurtling around the sun at approximately 430,000 mph (700,000 kph).

To achieve their goals, NASA engineers protected the spacecraft with a 4.5-inch-thick (11.4 cm) carbon-composite shield which can withstand temperatures in excess of 2,500°F (1,377 C). The same shield will also protect Parker and its delicate instruments from the frostbite of space. Soon enough, we’ll know if the spacecraft will be ready for its launch scheduled for some time in the July 31 – Aug.  19, 2018 window. That’s because last week one of the probe’s most important tests began.

Engineers placed Parker into a thermal vacuum chamber where, over the course of the seven weeks, it will experience various simulated challenges of the kind it will be subjected to during the mission. Inside the dark, 40-foot-tall chamber, the spacecraft will be chilled to -292°F (-180°C) to simulate the chilling embrace of space, then blasted with the kind of heat the probe will encounter at its closest approach to the sun. Under such extreme conditions, NASA engineers will test the probe’s instruments and equipment such as its solar panels, which flap open and close like a bird’s wings.

Once deemed ready, Parker will be launched from a Delta IV Heavy rocket towards Venus’ orbit, where it will perform seven flybys over nearly seven years to gradually bring its orbit closer to the sun and into its corona.

Scientists hope that the data beamed back by the probe will help answer some very puzzling questions about the sun and its quirky phenomena. For instance, solar scientist Eugene Parker — the man after whom the spacecraft is named —  first discovered in the 1950s that the solar wind of charged particles streaming from the corona moves faster than the speed of sound. To this day, we don’t know exactly why. Other mysteries which the probe might answer would be why the corona is hotter than the sun’s surface and how particles are ejected out of the corona and into space.

We’ve learned a lot about the sun in the last half-century but some things can never be settled unless you get close enough. Today’s technology finally makes it possible to send a spacecraft close enough to fly through the sun’s scorching atmosphere. Let’s just hope that, unlike Icarus, Parker’s wings won’t burn before it finishes its mission.

{https://www.zmescience.com/ }

Space might be teeming with viruses that we’re not looking for, but we should

BY ALEXANDRU MICU

We need to start looking into the possibility that there are viruses living beyond the confines of our planet, argues Portland State University biology professor Ken Stedman.

Model of a virus.

Image credits Tom Thai / Flickr.

Humanity has been thinking of life outside of the confines of Earth since times immemorial. It started with gods, angels, spirits, demons. Superstition gave way to cold knowledge and hard technology, morphing their image into aliens that were different, but not completely unlike us — à la those portrayed in H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds. As our scope widened and our reach extended with modern tech, we’re no longer content to just wait for aliens to drop on our doorstep. We’re actively looking, listening, prodding for life outside of the Earth, much farther away and on more channels than anytime before, in a tacit acknowledgment that those we may find could very well be just as planet-locked as we are.

Sill, we don’t have anything to show (as far as alien life goes) for all our efforts. Maybe, then, we should down-grade again and start looking for aliens that have yet to reach our rung on the technological and evolutionary ladder. Maybe its time we started looking for bits of life as seemingly insignificant as viruses living in space and on other planets. At least, that’s what Portland State University biology professor Ken Stedman and his co-authors argue for in a new paper — and they’re willing to kick-start that search.

It’s the little things that count

Stedman and his team say it’s past time that astronomers broaden their search for alien life by combing space for viruses.

“More than a century has passed since the discovery of the first viruses,” said Stedman, “entering the second century of virology, we can finally start focusing beyond our own planet.”

Seeing as there are around 10 to 100 times more viruses on Earth than any other cellular organism, Stedman believes that the same could hold true for other planets or moons out there. Furthermore, he bases his call to action on research which suggests that viruses have played a major role in the creation and evolution of life on Earth — and it’s likely they would play the same role in other places as well.

‘Simple life survives in space,’ granted, is a phrase that sounds far-fetched when you first hear it. Isn’t it, like, super cold out there and all? It is, but life (especially ‘simple’ life) is surprisingly good at finding a way.

Tardigrades, for example, have shown an incredible resilience to the vicissitudes of outer space, shrugging void, cold, and radiation with apparent ease for decades. Bacteria coalescing together in biofilms are surprisingly hardy, being able to brave harsh, Mars-like conditions. In fact, enduring a journey through space (such as on a spaceships’ hull) actually improves their chances of survival by drying this biofilm and making it more resilient. And radiation, even at levels that we’ve assumed deadly to virtually everything and anything alive, doesn’t seem to bother the bacteria too much either.

Tardigrades, also known as water bears, have been shown to survive in space — they even laid eggs on their trip.
Image credits Eye of Science / Nature.

So could life survive a trip through space without a spaceship to insulate its squishy going-ons? Overwhelmingly likely, yes. In fact, it’s so likely that NASA has cause for concern that our microbes (and these are the soft-core microbes used to living in comfort on Earth) could contaminate other planets. We’ve seen all sorts of bugs hitching a ride (without official approval, the nerve on them) and gouging a permanent home aboard the ISS right under our noses.

“We have had contamination in parts of the station where fungi was seen growing or biomaterial has been pulled out of a clogged waterline, but we have no idea what it is until the sample gets back down to the lab,” said Sarah Wallace, NASA microbiologist and principal investigator for Genes in Space 3 at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Along with the tardigrades and biofilm-protected colonies of bacteria, it’s a good indication of just how pervasively present life tends to be after it first spawns. The crux of the issue, then, isn’t if life could make it through space — it’s whether or not it appeared there in the first place.

We only have indirect evidence. But this suggests that the chemical background necessary for life as we know it is there — we’ve found water in space, we’ve found organic compounds, we’ve found basic biological building blocks such as amino acids, and we’ve found them all together in the same place.

While the ingredients seem to be there, all ready to boil in a primordial life-generating soup, however, what we haven’t found is actual life. Taking the focal point from away the grandest aspects of life like radio signals or Dyson spheres might help us spot anything really small we’ve missed up to now.

Stedman and his team say they hope to “to inspire integration of virus research into astrobiology” by shining the limelight on pressing, unanswered questions in astrovirology — “particularly regarding the detection of virus biosignatures and whether viruses could be spread extraterrestrially”.

The paper “Astrovirology: Viruses at Large in the Universe” has been published in the journal Astrobiology.

{ https://www.zmescience.com/ }

UFO Makes Huge Shadow On Clouds Over New Jersey, Jan 4, 2018, UFO Sighting News.

Date of sighting: January 4, 2018
Location of sighting: Waterford Works, New Jersey, USA
Source: MUFON #89729

This giant diamond shaped shadow is probably a UFO that is hovering over the clouds in the distance. Even a cloaked ship will cast a shadow. So we see that alien technology is not flawless. 
Scott C. Waring

Eyewitness states: 

1... I was on my rear deck taking pics of this odd object during sunset. 
 2...Never saw anything like it in 60 years of outdoorsmanship. 
 3... military craft? I don't know. That's why I'm giving it over to you. 
 4... bewildered 
 6... sunset 

 So looking for your ideas on this??? I NEVER saw anything like this. Taken with my Cannon Digital 70-140 lens if that is of help.. Thank you!

 { http://www.ufosightingsdaily.com/ }

Two glowing UFOs over Great Britain During Evening, Photos, UFO Sighting News.

Date of sighting: April 17, 2017

Location of sighting: Tandragee, Great Britain

Source: MUFON #89738

 

This UFO report came in today, but actually occurred last April. UFOs have been occasionally seen over England and the local news there has found no definite conclusions about what they are. This is a great photo, that shows two UFOs. One is the side view of the UFO, the other is the top view since its turned. Extraordinary catch. 

Scott C. Waring

 

Eyewitness states: 

I was going out to the garage to sort out my laundry when I seen one very bright sphere in the sky just above the local milking parlour, so I stood and looked for a while, then maybe a minute later another one appeared to the right of it, at that a ran and got my 19 yr old daughter and partner, when they come a 3rd one appeared again to the right of the first 2, so I got my phone to take pictures and a video, as quickly as it came the 3rd disappeared, I took a video but it didn't puck them up, unfortunately I flippin deleted it but I took a photo, then about 5 minutes later the second dissapeared then the first, just like turning a light off in the house. If it was clouds covering them the first one on the left would have went out first, but it was a clear evening with no clouds that I could see. I was disappointed when I reviewed the picture I thought the camera didn't pick them up but as I zoomed in the 2 white spheres appeared. I am watching nasa's unexplained files and seen a few guests had mufcon after their name, so looked it up and seen report a sighting so that's what I'm doing lol could be nothing but thought I'd let the experts have a look. 

 

 

{ http://www.ufosightingsdaily.com/ }

Just Amazing! Polar stratospheric clouds over Peru that looks like an alien spacecraft

The aliens have arrived in their spacecraft?

Not really, David Alvarado captured the following amazing images of what is called, polar stratospheric clouds over lamas, Peru on January 18, 2018.

Credit image above and images below: David Alvarado - iLMeteo

Polar stratospheric clouds also known as nacreous clouds or mother of pearl, due to its iridescence, are clouds in the winter polar stratosphere at altitudes of 15,000–25,000 meters (49,000–82,000 ft.

Due to their high altitude and the curvature of the surface of the Earth, these clouds will receive sunlight from below the horizon and reflect it to the ground, shining brightly well before dawn or after dusk.

Just Amazing!

{ http://ufosightingshotspot.blogspot.com/ }

'I'M NOT A MOLE' - Former MoD man's shock statement amid claims 'he covers up UFO truth'

A FORMER ministry of Defence (MoD) insider has gone on record to deny being a Government mole used to try to "cover up the truth about UFOs and aliens".

Are these world's first pictures of an 'alien taken inside UFO?' - Shock images revealed

THESE images, which include an alleged alien, were photographed inside a real alien flying saucer, according to sensational new claims.

The Afterglow of a Neutron Star Collision Continues to Brighten Months After the Event

Image Credit:

• Artist’s impression of two neutron stars – the compact remnants of what were once massive stars – spiralling towards each other just before merging. via Wikimedia Commons

News Source:

• mcgill.ca
• newswee.com

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Ovni: la panique comme véritable raison du secret ?

10 Principles That Govern Our Understanding Of Extraterrestrial Life

{ http://www.factnfact.com/ }

Ancient nuclear war between earthmen and aliens

{http://earth-chronicles.com/ }

Lost Continent? Scientists Find Parts Of North America In Australia

Georgetown, in northern Queensland (Australia), was once part of North America say, researchers.

That is what seems to suggest the finding and subsequent study of a series of rocks and fossils in the area.

If so, it would mean that Australia was connected to Canada about 1.7 billion years ago.

The idea that the two continents were once connected is not surprising.

Such Speculations have existed since the late 1970s, when scientists proposed that this connection dated back to the continent of Rodinia, about 1.13 billion years ago.

However, and even under that theory, a date was missing.

The findings in Georgetown, a small town in northeastern Australia, now seem to be a boost to that theory.

The rocks found in Georgetown are different from all other rocks on the Australian continent.

However, they show enormous similarities to ancient rocks found in Canada, in the exposed section of the continental crust called the Canadian Shield.

An unexpected finding, according to researchers at Curtin University, Monash University and the Queensland Geological Survey in Australia, which reveals something about the composition of the ancient supercontinent Nuna.

According to Adam Nordsvan, principal investigator: “Our research shows that about 1,700 million years ago, Georgetown rocks were deposited in shallow water when the region was part of North America. Georgetown separated from North America and collided with the Mount Isa region in northern Australia some 100 million years later. This was a fundamental part of the global, continental reorganization when almost all the continents on Earth came together to form the supercontinent called Nuna.”

The last time the continents were close to each other was the great supercontinent known as Pangea, which split about 175 million years ago.

However, before Pangea, the planet went through several configurations of supercontinents, one of which was Nuna, also called Columbia, which existed about 2,500 million to 1,500 million years ago.

The team of researchers came to this conclusion after examining sedimentological data, and new existing geochronological data from Georgetown and Mount Isa, another remote city in northeastern Australia, and comparing everything to rocks from Canada.

“Ongoing research by our team shows that this mountain belt, in contrast to the Himalayas, would not have been very high, suggesting the final continental assembling process that led to the formation of the supercontinent Nuna was not a hard collision like India’s recent collision with Asia,” said co-author Zheng-Xiang Li.

“This new finding is a key step in understanding how Earth’s first supercontinent Nuna may have formed, a subject still being pursued by our multidisciplinary team here at Curtin University.”

The research has been published in the journal Geology.

Featured image credit: Shutterstock.

{ https://www.ancient-code.com/ }

Here’s the key ingredient that lets a centipede’s bite take down prey

The good news is an epilepsy drug helps counteract the insect’s newly identified ‘spooky toxin’

BY 

SUSAN MILIUS 

RECIPE FOR DISASTER  Despite the lab mouse’s much greater weight, chemistry gives this centipede the decisive advantage.

Knocking out an animal 15 times your size — no problem. A newly identified toxin in the venom of a tropical centipede helps the insect overpower giant prey in about 30 seconds.

Insight into how this venom overwhelms lab mice could lead to an antidote for people who suffer excruciatingly painful, reportedly even fatal, centipede bites, an international research team reports the week of January 22 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

In Hawaii, centipede bites account for about 400 emergency room visits a year, according to data from 2004 to 2008. The main threat there is Scolopendra subspinipes,an agile species almost as long as a human hand.

The subspecies S. subspinipes mutilans starred in studies at the Kunming Institute of Zoology in China and collaborating labs. Researchers there found a small peptide, now named “spooky toxin,” largely responsible for venom misery.

This toxin blocks a molecular channel that normally lets potassium flow through cell membranes. A huge amount of the biochemistry of staying alive involves potassium, so clogging some of what are called KCNQ channels caused mayhem in mice: slow and gasping breath, high blood pressure, frizzling nerve dysfunctions and so on. Administering the epilepsy drug retigabine opened the potassium channels and counteracted much of the toxin’s effects, raising hopes of a treatment for these bites.

{ https://www.sciencenews.org/ }

Massive dust storms are robbing Mars of its water

Water vapor gets sucked up to high altitudes, allowing its hydrogen to escape into space

BY DAN GARISTO 

 

DUSTUP A dust storm (right) captured by the Mars Global Surveyor in 2001 swirls over much of the Red Planet. These storms are helping hydrogen from water vapor escape from the Red Planet, a new study finds.

{ https://www.sciencenews.org/ }

Mysterious high-energy particles could come from black hole jets

Three different cosmic oddities could all have the same source

BY  LISA GROSSMAN 

 

HIT THE GAS  Jets from supermassive black holes, like the one shown in this artist’s illustration, could be ultimately responsible for three different types of enigmatic high-energy particles.   

It’s three for the price of one. A trio of mysterious high-energy particles could all have the same source: active black holes embedded in galaxy clusters, researchers suggest January 22 in Nature Physics.

Scientists have been unable to figure out the origins of the three types of particles — gamma rays that give a background glow to the universe, cosmic neutrinos and ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays. Each carries a huge amount of energy, from about a billion electron volts for a gamma ray to 100 billion billion electron volts for some cosmic rays.

Strangely, each particle type seems to contribute the same total amount of energy to the universe as the other two. That’s a clue that all three may be powered by the same engine, says physicist Kohta Murase of Penn State.

“We can explain the data of these three messengers with one single picture,” Murase says.

First, a black hole accelerates charged particles to extreme energies in a powerful jet (SN: 9/16/17, p. 16). These jets “are one of the most promising candidate sources of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays,” Murase says. The most energetic cosmic rays escape the jet and immediately plow through a sea of magnetized gas within the galaxy cluster.

Some rays escape the gas as well and zip towards Earth. But less energetic rays are trapped in the cluster for up to a billion years. There, they interact with the gas and create high-energy neutrinos that then escape the cluster.

Meanwhile, the cosmic rays that escaped travel through intergalactic space and interact with photons to produce the glow of gamma rays.

Murase and astrophysicist Ke Fang of the University of Maryland in College Park found that computer simulations of this scenario lined up with observations of how many cosmic rays, neutrinos and gamma rays reached Earth.

“It’s a nice piece of unification of many ideas,” says physicist Francis Halzen of the IceCube Neutrino Observatory in Antarctica, where the highest energy neutrinos have been observed.

There are other possible sources for the particles — for one, IceCube has already traced an especially high-energy neutrino to a single active black hole that may not be in a cluster (SN Online: 4/7/16). The observatory could eventually trace neutrinos back to galaxy clusters. “That’s the ultimate test,” Halzen says. “This could be tomorrow, could be God knows when.”

Citations

• K. Fang and K. Murase. Linking high-energy cosmic particles by black-hole jets embedded in large-scale structures. Nature Physics. Published online January 22, 2018. doi:10.1038/s41567-017-0025-4.

Further Reading

• L. Grossman. Ultrahigh energy cosmic rays come from outside the Milky Way. Science News. Vol. 192, October 14, 2017, p. 7.
• L. Grossman. Cosmic lens lets astronomers zoom in on a black hole’s burps. Science News. Vol. 192, September 16, 2017, p. 16.
• E. Conover. Rare triplet of high-energy neutrinos detected from an unknown source. Science News Online, March 3, 2017.
• E. Conover. Possible source of high-energy neutrino reported. Science News Online, April 7, 2016.
• A. Grant. Neutrinos from space rain down from all directions. Science News. Vol. 185, May 17, 2014, p. 8.

{ https://www.societyforscience.org/ }

Star Trek-Style Acoustic Tractor Beam Paves Way For Human Levitation

Engineers from the University of Bristol have shown that it is possible to levitate objects which are larger than the wavelength of sound.

Scientists have managed to levitate objects that were much larger when what we’ve ever achieved before, and the new technology paves the way for human levitation.

In 2015, Nature Communications published an article in which it reported the construction of the first sonic tractor beam in the world, capable of lifting and moving objects through the use of sound waves.

Using these sound waves, an acoustic hologram is generated which in turn allows for the movement of the small objects.

Acoustic tractor beams use sound, or better-said soundwaves, to hold—levitate—particles in mid-air.

The discovery made in 2015 opened the possibility of developing a sonic production line to transport objects and assemble them, without touching them.

Scientists thought beyond transporting objects and went further proposing that this technology could also be used in medicine, allowing doctors and surgeons to transport drug capsules and even surgical instruments inside living tissues.

Now, a recent study extends this discovery considerably: engineers at the University of Bristol have shown that it is possible to levitate objects which are larger than the wavelength of sound.

This discovery not only expands the possibility of manipulating drug capsules or microsurgical instruments within the human body, but it also allows the transportation of larger and more delicate objects without a container.

It could even lead to the levitation of human beings, according to a statement from the scientific team behind the discovery.

It was previously thought that acoustic tractor beams were limited to levitating only small objects; only those approximately the same size as a wavelength of the sound. Scientists believed that it was nearly impossible to levitate objects of a greater size without losing stability, causing the objects to spin uncontrollably.

However, engineers from the University of Bristol describe a new technique, to be published in Physical Review Letters.

Using a tornado-like structure that is extremely loud but has a silent core, scientists found that when changing the direction of the rapidly fluctuating acoustic vortices that make up this structure, they were able to control the rate of rotation and stabilize the tractor beam.

Dr. Asier Marzo, the lead author on the paper from Bristol’s Department of Mechanical Engineering, said that “Acoustic researchers had been frustrated by the size limit for years, so its satisfying to find a way to overcome it.”

In the new study, scientists used waves at a pitch of 40kHz and create the acoustic vortices. As noted by experts, the structure’s silent core managed to hold in position a two-centimeter sphere made out of synthetic polymer. This is revolutionary as the sphere is two times the site of the acoustic wavelengths, which means that it is currently the largest object that has been usefully and stably held in a tractor beam.

Source: The world’s most powerful acoustic tractor beam could pave the way for levitating humans

Featured Image Credit: Shutterstock

Image Credit: 500PX

{ https://www.ancient-code.com/ }

Here’s The Radio Transmission of Astronaut John Glenn, after dozens of UFOs surround him in space

“They’re all over the sky…”

This is Friendship Seven. I’ll try to describe what I’m in here. I am in a big mass of some very small particles, that are brilliantly lit up like they’re luminescent. I never saw anything like it. They round a little; they’re coming by the capsule, and they look like little stars. A whole shower of them coming by.

Check out this amazing audio file where we can hear the amazement of Astronaut John Glenn after his capsule is surrounded by countless, strange UFOs.

This audio transmission can easily be described as one of the most amazing pieces of evidence of a mysterious extraterrestrial presence during manned missions to space.

This old audio file lets you listen into a small part of the conversation between the Mercury-Atlas 6 (MA-6) capsule piloted by John Glenn and CAPCOM, on the 20th of February, 1962, the first manned orbital mission of the United States.

Launched from Kennedy Space Center, Fla., he completed a successful three-orbit mission around the earth, reaching a maximum altitude (apogee) of approximately 162 statute miles and an orbital velocity of approximately 17,500 miles per hour. Glenn’s “Friendship 7” Mercury spacecraft landed approximately 800 miles southeast of KSC in the vicinity of Grand Turk Island. Mission duration from launch to impact was 4 hours, 55 minutes, and 23 seconds.

Astronaut John H. Glenn Jr., pilot of the Mercury-Atlas 6 (MA-6) spaceflight, poses for a photo with the Mercury “Friendship 7” spacecraft.

Image Credit: NASA

In the audio file, Mr. Glenn referred to his capsule as Friendship 7 and can be heard describing seeing a “brilliant blue horizon” coming up behind him as it approaches sunrise.

Then, he suddenly realizes something peculiar is happening all around him, as he is ‘intercepted’ by countless UFOs which engulfed his capsule.

{ https://www.ancient-code.com/ }

Interdimensional beings, Aliens From “Dimensions” That Coexist Alongside Our Own?

The definition for interdimensional beings or interdimensional intelligence is usually described as a theoretical or ‘real’ entity that exists in a dimension beyond our own.

Despite the fact that such beings are believed to exist only in science fiction, fantasy and the supernatural, there are numerous Ufologists who refer to them as real beings.

The Interdimensional Hypothesis

The interdimensional hypothesis was proposed by a number of Ufologists like Jacques Vallée who suggests that unidentified flying objects (UFOs) and related events (such as alien sightings) imply visits from beings from other “realities” or “dimensions” that coexist separately with ours. Some have referred to these beings as visitors from another universe.

In other words, Vallée and other authors suggest that aliens are real but exist not in our dimension, but in another reality, that coexists with our own.

This theory is an alternative to the extraterrestrial hypothesis which suggests that aliens are advanced spacefaring beings that exist in our universe.

The interdimensional hypothesis argues that UFOs are a modern manifestation of a phenomenon that has occurred throughout recorded human history, which in earlier times was attributed to mythological or supernatural creatures—Ancient Astronaut theory.

What if Aliens are travelers from another dimension? Does that mean we are alone in the universe after all?

Image Credit: Shutterstock.

But despite the fact that modern Ufologists and millions of people around the globe believe we are not alone in this universe, many ufologists and paranormal researchers have embraced the interdimensional Hypothesis, suggesting that it explains the Alien theory in a much smoother way.

Paranormal investigator Brad Steiger wrote that “we are dealing with a multidimensional paraphysical phenomenon that is largely originating from planet Earth.”

Other ufologists, such as John Ankerberg and John Weldon, who also favor the interdimensional hypothesis argue that UFO sightings fit in the spiritualist phenomenon.

Commenting on the disparity between the Extraterrestrial hypothesis and the reports that people have made of UFO encounters, Ankerberg and Weldon wrote that “the UFO phenomenon simply does not behave like extraterrestrial visitors.”

This Interdimensional Hypothesis took a step further in the book UFOs: Operation Trojan Horse published in 1970, where author John Keel linked UFOs to supernatural concepts such as ghosts and demons.

Some advocates of the extraterrestrial theory have embraced some of the ideas set forth by the Interdimensional Hypothesisbecause it does a better job explaining how ‘aliens’ could travel in space across vast distances.

The distance between the stars makes interstellar travel impractical using conventional means and since no one has demonstrated an antigravity engine or any other machine that would allow a traveler to move across the cosmos at speed faster than light, the Interdimensional Hypothesis makes much more sense.

Are aliens, in fact, interdimensional travelers?

Image Credit: Shutterstock.

According to this theory, is not necessary to use any method of propulsion because it maintains that UFOs are not spacecraft, but devices that travel between different realities. However, they still need to get from one reality to the other, right?

One of the benefits of the Interdimensional Hypothesis according to Hilary Evans—a British pictorial archivist, author, and researcher into UFOs and other paranormal phenomena—is that it can explain the apparent ability of UFOs to appear and disappear, not only from sight but from radar; as the interdimensional UFO’s can enter and leave our dimension at will, meaning they have the ability to materialize and dematerialize.

On the other hand, Evans argues that if the other dimension is slightly more advanced than ours, or is perhaps our own future, this would explain the tendency of UFOs to represent technologies close to the future.

Declassified FBI document—beings from other dimensions exist

While all of the above may sound like something coming from a sci-fi movie, there is a peculiar declassified top-secret document in the FBI archives which speaks of interdimensional beings, and how their ‘spacecraft’ have the ability to materialize and dematerialize in our own dimension.

The document can be accessed here.

Image credit: FBI Archives.

Here is a transcript of some of the most important details of the report:

Part of the disks carry crews; others are under remote control

Their mission is peaceful. The visitors contemplate settling on this plane

These visitors are human-like but much larger in size

They are not excarnate Earth people but come from their own world

They do NOT come from a planet as we use the word, but from an etheric planet which interpenetrates with our own and is not perceptible to us

The bodies of the visitors, and the craft, automatically materialize on entering the vibratory rate of our dense matter

The disks possess a type of radiant energy or a ray, which will easily disintegrate any attacking ship. They reenter the etheric at will, and so simply disappear from our vision, without trace

The region from which they come is not the “astral plane,” but corresponds to the Lokas or Talas. Students of osoteric matters will understand these terms.

They probably cannot be reached by radio, but probably can be by radar. if a signal system can be devised for that (apparatus)

{ https://www.ancient-code.com/ }

Triangle-shaped formation recorded over Morrison, Colorado 17-Jan-2018

Here’s one new footage of a triangular formation hovering in the sky above Morrison in Colorado. Filmed on 17th January 2018.

Witness report: 

A triangular set of three lights were observed for approximately 30 seconds to 1 minute before vanishing. They were captured on video. They appeared to remain motionless.

Source: MUFON

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

Robot Fabio na een week al ontslagen in supermarkt: klanten ontweken hem - HLN.be

Bron: Daily Telegraph

Fabio was onderdeel van een experiment van de Heriot-Watt University voor de BBC-reeks Six Robots & US. De ShopBot werd geprogrammeerd om klanten met vragen te helpen. Zo kende hij de plaats van honderden producten in het grote Margiottafiliaal in Edinburgh.

Aanvankelijk kon Fabio de klanten charmeren met knuffels, high fives en grapjes. Maar de liefde bleef niet duren. Wie naar bier vroeg, kreeg als antwoord: “In de gang met alcohol”. Wie niet wist waar de kaas lag, moest het stellen met: “In de frigo”. Door achtergrondgeluiden begreep Fabio de mensen ook niet altijd goed.

De supermarkt verbande Fabio naar een rayon waar hij enkel nog gerookt varkensvlees mocht laten proeven aan de klanten. Daar viel hij mensen lastig die hem net probeerden te ontwijken. Hij kon in een kwartier tijd ook maar amper twee klanten overtuigen om te proeven, terwijl zijn menselijke collega er twaalf kon verleiden.

Luisa Margiotta van de gelijknamige keten, die naar eigen zeggen altijd openstaat voor vernieuwing, zag dat het ditmaal niet werkte. “Spijtig genoeg deed Fabio het minder goed dan we hadden gehoopt”, zei ze aan de Daily Telegraph. “Een van de problemen was dat hij erg beperkt is in zijn bewegingen. Hij kon zich niet vlot in de winkel verplaatsen om klanten tot bij de gezochte producten te brengen.”

De vader van Luisa, Franco Margiotta, bouwde zijn zaak van niks uit tot een grote supermarktketen. Hij zag zich genoodzaakt het contract van Fabio niet te verlengen. De reactie van de robot was verbazingwekkend. “Zijn jullie boos?” vroeg hij. Sommige collega’s pinkten zelfs een traantje weg, toen Fabio weer ingepakt en weggevoerd werd naar Heriot-Watt. “Dat hadden we niet verwacht, dat werknemers zo gehecht zouden raken aan de robot”, zei Oliver Lemon van Heriot-Watt. “Dat is ergens wel positief, want we dachten dat het tegenovergestelde zou gebeuren omdat ze zich in hun job bedreigd zouden voelen door zijn concurrentie.”

Luisa Margiotta ziet haar personeel nog niet meteen vervangen worden door robots. “Onze klanten hebben graag een persoonlijk contact en ons personeel is daar heel belangrijk in. Onze medewerkers kennen de vaste klanten heel goed en praten er dagelijks mee. Die functie kan een robot niet zomaar invullen.”

{ https://www.hln.be/ }

A WELL KNOWN CIA PILOT CLAIMS THAT THE MOON HAS 250 MILLION CITIZENS

In December 2017, the US government broke its almost-fifty-year silence on the UFO issue through its proxy-acknowledgement of a Top-Secret Pentagon UFO project called the Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program. The conclusions of the project, which ran from 2008 to 2012 at a cost of $22 million (and which continues quietly to this day), were that “aircraft” of apparently unearthly origin are routinely penetrating America’s airspace.

These aircraft, according the former head of the Pentagon project, Louis Elizondo, exhibit flight characteristics that defy the laws of our known physics. They do not belong to the United States of America, nor, apparently, to any other nation on Earth. Moreover, it emerged that the Pentagon has recovered “alloys” from UFOs which are currently being stored and studied behind lock-and-key in Las Vegas, Nevada with the oversight of billionaire aerospace industrialist Robert Bigelow.

The implications are startling, and the media are fast recognizing as legitimate a subject that for so long has served as little more than tabloid fodder. It is now (almost) official: UFOs are not only real, but potentially representative of non-terrestrial technologies. 2018 looks set to be a very big year for the UFO.

But we should proceed with our wits about us. Since 1947, US government engagement with the UFO phenomenon has been characterized almost exclusively by deception; by disinformation and perception management campaigns in service of agendas that remain as murky as ever.

Do the Pentagon’s recent UFO “disclosures” signal an imminent end to the to the decades of secrecy? Have the powers that be had a radical change of heart? Are they finally ready to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth about their knowledge of the UFO enigma? If you’ve answered “yes” to any of those questions, it may be your belief speaking, rather than your logic.

Greg Bishop understands better than most that things are rarely, if ever, as they seem when it comes to UFOs and the US military/intelligence community. His book, Project Beta: The Story of Paul Bennewitz, National Security, and the Creation of a Modern UFO Myth, tells the story of a sophisticated government campaign of disinformation perpetrated against one unsuspecting U.S. citizen, the effects of which rippled out across the UFO subculture and eventually reached the shores of pop-culture, significantly shaping our beliefs about flying saucers and the nature and agendas their potential occupants.

Here, Greg shares with me his thoughts on the recent Pentagon “disclosures,” and how we might better seek to solve the UFO riddle by removing government from the equation altogether and focusing instead on democratized, grassroots research.

RG: Summarise for us the disturbing case of Paul Bennewitz.

GB: In 1979, Paul Bennewitz was living in Albuquerque, New Mexico, right on the border of Kirtland Air Force Base, which was home to many secret programs. He noticed strange lights moving in non-aircraft-like ways on the Base at night, and decided to tell the Air Force.

That was a mistake. He also had a keen interest in the UFO subject and no filters at all, so he was happy to ride his beliefs to their illogical conclusions. Instead of handing him a cease and desist order, the Powers That Be decided it would be more profitable to string him along, hoping in the process to learn how he had figured out much of a coded message transmission system that had been painstakingly developed (as he was a very skilled electrical engineer) and who he was talking to as well as who was trying to talk to him. They hoped that this would reveal foreign agents and infiltrators.

Later, they began to feed him disinformation, but he believed it because he thought that he was working closely with the Air Force to warn everyone about an alien invasion. For the most part, Bennewitz provided his own narratives and details, but when the Air Force (and possibly other agencies) realized that he was becoming dangerously unstable, they did nothing to disabuse him of these harmful ideas. Concerned for his well-being, in 1988 his family placed him in a mental health facility. He recovered fairly quickly and generally stayed out of the UFO arena for the rest of his life.

RG: To what extent did the disinformation campaigns of the 1970s/80s influence the UFO subculture during those decades? Are we still feeling the effects today?

GB: I think they mainly served to keep people away from secret programs and to keep chasing their own tails. I do not think that they were perpetrated to keep researchers away from any great secret. As I see it, the main effect today is that UFO fans place far too much emphasis on the government coverup angle, which may have been at least part of the point from the beginning.

RG: What if any parallels do you see between DeLonge’s ‘To the Stars’ initiative and historical perception-management efforts?

GB: To me, it has the earmarks of an operation that is designed to direct attention away from something, rather than to reveal anything of substance. The fact that the government knows something about the subject and has been studying it for many years should come as no surprise to those interested in UFOs. I don’t think that the wider culture (especially younger people) were surprised either. The more salient point is that there is some acknowledgment of it by both the media and some places in academia because the story was published in a paper of record, even though I see it as essentially a publicity release disguised as a news story.

RG: Would you care to speculate as to possible agendas behind this recent release of information?

GB: Generally, when the intelligence community decides to move in some particular direction, it is designed to achieve more than one goal. One possible effect was mentioned in the last answer: Media outlets and academics seem to no longer see UFOs as a subject for automatic ridicule. This may serve to bring more intelligent thought to bear on the issue, which may stimulate original approaches and research with practical applications. Another reason may be to direct attention away from less obvious issues, as well as a way to “smack the hornet’s nest” and see who might react.

RG: The recent “revelations” about the Pentagon UFO program… should we be excited or concerned? Why?

GB: I think we should do neither. I believe we should watch quietly and unemotionally, but with close interest. Reacting to the news is most likely part of the agenda of those who released it.

RG: What are your thoughts on “Disclosure” in general? Is this something the UFO community should be pursuing—truth through government—or should we be following different lines of enquiry entirely in our quest to unravel the UFO enigma?

GB: I find it troubling that those who least trust the power structure are more than willing to accept a story when it agrees with their preconceptions. That is when we should be the most discerning and vigilant. It is also interesting that the recent “revelations” are closely following the myth and agenda around the UFO subject that has existed in the culture since at least the mid-1990s, with antecedents from long before that.

We are fully capable of studying UFOs ourselves with no help or encouragement from the authorities. In fact, the very nature of the phenomenon is so antithetical to a top-down approach that we should actively democratize the process in order to throw the widest possible net at the issue and increase understanding of both UFOs and more importantly, our methods of experiencing, reporting, remembering, and studying its effects. There are many wise and creative individuals who have already made distinct and important contributions, but their work is not often reducible to simple sound bites. Anyone with an internet connection or a library card can access these lines of inquiry for themselves and perhaps contribute in their own way to further understanding. Finally, we should abandon the idea that there is a single “answer” to the enigma, as any goal-oriented quest seems to be doomed by the ambivalent character of the subject under study.

Greg Bishop’s most recent book is It Defies Language! Essays on UFOs and Other Weirdness. He is the host of Radio Misterioso, which can be heard live at radiomisterioso.com, with podcasts available for download. Interviews with fringe-topic researchers and weird music are the usual fare.

{  http://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

Last December, UFO enthusiasts around the world received quite a Christmas present: the apparent confirmation of a secretive Pentagon UFO program served up before the public by one of the most venerable American newspapers, the New York Times.

Details about the program remain somewhat scant, the man formerly in charge of the study group, Luis Elizondo, said shortly after the release that, “In my opinion, if this was a court of law, we have reached the point of ‘beyond reasonable doubt.’”

“I hate to use the term UFO,” Elizondo told the Telegraph. “But that’s what we’re looking at. I think it’s pretty clear this is not us, and it’s not anyone else, so no one has to ask questions where they’re from.”

Elizondo’s claims, which were thoroughly vetted by the NYT, were accompanied by a pair of videos purporting to show unidentified objects that were observed and filmed by the U.S. government. These videos were released and highly publicized by former Blink 182 guitarist Tom DeLonge’s To The Stars Acadamy (TTSA), of which Elizondo is a member.

Elizondo’s involvement in relation to UFO studies, while highly publicized following the NYT piece in December, was actually first announced back in October of last year, coinciding with a public statement that was live-streamed online by DeLonge with the formal launch of the TTSA. According to the group’s website, “For nearly the last decade, Luis also ran a sensitive aerospace threat identification program focusing on unidentified aerial technologies.” In other words, Elizondo’s involvement with the former Pentagon UFO project had already been disclosed well in advance of the NYT article.

Despite the vetting of the journalists like Leslie Kean and the NYT staff, now the government UFO footage released by TTSA has fallen under the critical eye of online skeptics, some of whom call into question the veracity of the videos, and the identity of the objects they showcase.

While some online have made the claim that one of the earlier photos released by TTSA is little more than a party balloon, the primary argument deals with one of two pieces of footage released coinciding with the December NYT article. According to Mick West, administrator for the skeptic website Metabunk.org, the footage alleged to be a UFO in what is popularly referred to as the “GIMBAL” footage is probably just a plane (note: this is not to be confused with a second video, featuring an object that has been likened to a bus-sized craft shaped like a “giant tic-tac”).

Posting at the Metabunk online forum, West wrote, “I’m thinking the black shape around the object is some kind of IR flare/glare. We know that the shape of a very bright IR source, like the engine of a plane, can be much bigger than the object itself.”

“If people try to describe this as some kind of ‘aura’ or ‘field’,” West wrote, discussing a halo-like haze that appears around the object in one of the Pentagon videos, “then they obviously have not done their homework.”

Admittedly, the nearly featureless objects shown in the Pentagon footage obtained by Elizondo leaves a lot to the imagination. However, there may be problems with the “it’s probably just a plane” argument. While West should be commended for attempting to narrow down what the object in the footage might have been, any conventional aircraft that had been operating nearby at the time of filming would presumably have had a transponder, making it easily identifiable; also, radar systems would likely have had little trouble detecting such an aircraft. Hence, it seems logical to presume that if the object in the video had displayed these conventional characteristics, it would not have been of interest to the pilots who were filming it (who initially described it as resembling a drone) in the first place.

While some estimates held that the object in the GIMBAL video had been as much as 120 miles away, according to an update on the Metabunk thread that appeared on December 24th, “Preliminary analysis of the angular motion of the clouds suggests that it’s a smaller object around 15 miles away.” Even at the longer distance, the object might have been able to be tracked on radar; while 100 miles is generally considered the “useful range” for most radar involving airplane traffic, if an object were as much as 150 miles away, it could still be tracked if it were flying at a minimum altitude of 15,000 feet (to account for potential obstruction by the curvature of the Earth itself at this distance). For more on this, see the table linked below for calculating minimum altitude and distance for radar.

There are other considerations as far as radar goes, but generally speaking, we can probably conclude based on the analysis provided by West and others that the “mystery object” was well within 120 miles at the time it was being filmed, and possibly as close as 15 miles away. It stands to reason that if this was a conventional object (i.e. a passenger plane), that it should have been fairly easily determinable at the time the footage was made.

One of the problems with the footage, of course, is that there is little to go off of. While there is a fair amount of technical data that can be ascertained from the GIMBAL footage, further details about the location, and other circumstances that might offer context, are not readily available. Hence, much is left open to interpretation, and arguments arise in the midst of ambiguity.

At the end of the day, the footage is still intriguing, even if the circumstances prevent it from being truly compelling. While we cannot fully discern what the object is in the video at this time, it is a bold leap in judgment to decry it as a hoax (which, we should note, Mick West has never said, instead merely pointing out that he believes that the object is a plane). Further answers about the Pentagon’s program are beholden somewhat to pending FOIA requests; for now, we can only anticipate whether additional information will be forthcoming–either from the Pentagon, or the DeLonge-Elizondo camp–and whether it will be any more conclusive than the last batch.

{  http://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

Mysterious black square-shaped object appears in the sky over Waterford, New Jersey

A Waterford witness was on his rear deck when he spotted a very strange black square-shaped object in the sky during sunset on January 20, 2018.

He said that he never saw anything like this in 60 years of outdoorsmanship.

The witness who captured several images of the strange object with his Cannon Digital 7-140 lens wonders whether it could be a military craft or not. Mufon case 89729.

Could this object with diamond shape on edge have been a cloaked secret military craft or is it just a rare natural phenomenon?

{ http://ufosightingshotspot.blogspot.com/ }

The universe may be filled with ALIEN VIRUSES - and they could be the first signs of life scientists find on other planets

• As viruses are abundant on Earth, scientists say we should look for them in space
• On Earth, there are about 10-100 times more viruses than all other organisms 
• Viruses could be in liquid on Enceladus or Europa, or in Mars sediment, they say 

By Cheyenne Macdonald For Dailymail.com

Viruses can be found just about everywhere on Earth; they’re the most common biological entities on the planet, and are thought to have played an important role in the emergence of life.

And, scientists now say they may be the key to finding life elsewhere in the universe, too.

In a new study, researchers argue that space-faring efforts should consider the possibility that viruses may be thriving in places beyond Earth, from the hidden oceans of Europa and Enceladus to ancient deposits on Mars.

Viruses can be found just about everywhere on Earth; they’re the most common biological entities on the planet, and are thought to have played an important role in the emergence of life. And, scientists now say they may be the key to finding life elsewhere in the universe, too

‘More than a century has passed since the discovery of the first viruses,’ says Portland State University biology professor, Ken Stedman.

‘Entering the second century of virology, we can finally start focusing beyond our own planet.’

In the new paper, the researchers detail the case for ‘astrovirology,’ which would combine virus research with astrobiology to detect biosignatures and understand how viruses may spread in space.

As the search for alien life continues, it’s tiny organisms that are often the point of focus.

And on Earth, there are 10-100 times more viruses than any other cellular organism.

Given their abundance and their possible role in evolution, the experts say viruses may be an important sign of life on other planets and moons as well.

‘Viruses arguably have coexisted with cellular life-forms since the earliest stages of life, may have been directly involved therein, and have profoundly influenced cellular evolution,’ the authors explain.

In a new study, researchers argue that space-faring efforts should consider the possibility that viruses may be thriving in places beyond Earth, from the hidden oceans of Europa and Enceladus to ancient deposits on Mars. Stock image of influenza viruses 

‘Viruses are the only entities on modern Earth to use either RNA or DNA in both single- and double-stranded forms for their genetic material and thus may provide a model for the putative RNA-protein world.’

The researchers urge NASA and other space agencies to look for viruses as they move forward with their investigations of alien worlds.

Certain locations, including liquid on Saturn and Jupiter’s moons or sediment deposits on Mars, may be among the best places to find them.

NASA STUDIES 'BUGS' IN SPACE

Scientists believe that bacteria such as E. coli may experience stress in microgravity.

This stress triggers defense systems in the bacteria, making it harder for antibiotics to work against them. 

Scientists on the International Space Station have been studying how bacteria and viruses behave in space. Stock image 

Bacteria on Earth do something similar by developing a natural resistance to traditional antibiotic treatments. 

In recent research on the International Space Station, scientists compared two of E. coli: one with a naturally occurring gene that helps it resist antibiotics, the other without.

In the recent past, the space agency has also studied various forms of herpes, including:

Epstein Barr virus: Also known as human herpesvirus 4, is a member of the herpes virus family and is spread bodily fluids, mainly saliva.

Varicella zoster: Known to infect humans and vertebrates. It only affects humans, and commonly causes chickenpox in children, teens and young adults

Cytomegalovirus: It spreads from person to person through body fluids, such as blood, saliva, urine, semen and breast milk.

Herpes simplex viruses: Can cause genital herpes, but most cases of genital herpes are caused by herpes type 2. In HSV-2, the infected person may have sores around the genitals or rectum. 

As yet, there remains much to be learned about the possibility of viruses in space.

‘With this paper, we hope to inspire integration of virus research into astrobiology and also point out pressing unanswered questions in astrovirology, particularly regarding the detection of virus biosignatures and whether viruses could be spread extraterrestrially,’ Stedman said.

While the thought of alien viruses might sound alarming, the researcher insists it likely would not be the nightmarish scenario it seems.

‘Viruses have a bad rap,’ Stedman told Gizmodo.

‘If we find viruses on other planets it is an indication of life, not something to be scared of.’ 

{ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

Flight passengers stunned as 'mystery lights' seen near UFO hot spot Area 51

PASSENGERS flying over the Area 51 military base in Nevada were left stunned after seeing flashing lights piercing through the clouds in mysterious footage of the alien conspiracy hotspot posted on YouTube.

'IT CAME FROM THE SKY' Smoking crater mystery by motorway sparks theories of 'UFO crash'

VIDEO showing a smoking crater next to a motorway has lead to speculation it could be a UFO crash site.

AI Is Better at Compromise Than Humans, Finds New Study

Morality can be programmed. Kind of. 

By Eileen Guo

Let’s face it. Ever since artificial intelligence was first dreamed up, humans have been afraid of the day that our AI overlords take over. But some researchers have been testing the ability of artificial intelligence to not just compete with humanity, but also to collaborate.

In a study published on Thursday in Nature Communications a team of BYU computer science professors, Jacob Crandall and Michael Goodrich, along with colleagues at MIT and other universities, created an algorithm to teach machines cooperation and compromise.

The researchers programmed the machines with an algorithm called S# and ran them through a number of games with different partners — machine-machine, human-machine, and human-human — to test which pairing would result in the most compromises. Machines (or at least the ones programmed with S#), it turns out, are much better at compromise than humans.

But this might say more about “human failings”, lead researcher Jacob Crandall tells Inverse. “Our human participants had a tendency to be disloyal — they would defect in the midst of a cooperative relationship— and dishonest — about half of our participants chose to not follow through on their proposals — at some point in the interaction.”

Machines that had been programmed to value honesty, on the other, were honest. “This particular algorithm is learning that moral characteristics are good. It’s programmed to not lie, and it also learns to maintain cooperation once it emerges,” says Crandall.

Additionally, the research found that certain cooperation strategies were more effective than others. One of these was “cheap talk”, simple verbal signals that respond to a given situation, like “Sweet. We are getting rich!” or “I accept your last proposal.” or, to express displeasure, “Curse you!” “You will pay for that!” or even “In your face!”

Regardless of what type of game was being played or who was playing, cheap talk doubled the amount of cooperation. It also humanized the machines, with human players often unable to tell if they were interacting with a machine or human.

Because the focus of this research was on the testing the S# algorithm, one shortcoming of the research is that it does not take into account cultural differences among humans that might affect how different human populations might use or interpret strategies like cheap talk, or how much human players might engage in deception or disloyalty.

Presciently, in the final short story of Isaac Asimov’s famous book 1950 book I, Robot — “The Evitable Conflict” — AI overlords do in fact, take over the planet. But, because they’re so reasonable, and programmed with some unbreakable ethical rules, it’s a good thing for the human race. And, as this study shows, because human interactions are messy and complicated, maybe, we can trust machines. Assuming of course, if they have been programmed for honesty.

Abstract:

Since Alan Turing envisioned artificial intelligence, technical progress has often been measured by the ability to defeat humans in zero-sum encounters (e.g., Chess, Poker, or Go). Less attention has been given to scenarios in which human–machine cooperation is beneficial but non-trivial, such as scenarios in which human and machine preferences are neither fully aligned nor fully in conflict. Cooperation does not require sheer computational power, but instead is facilitated by intuition, cultural norms, emotions, signals, and pre-evolved dispositions. Here, we develop an algorithm that combines a state-of-the-art reinforcement-learning algorithm with mechanisms for signaling. We show that this algorithm can cooperate with people and other algorithms at levels that rival human cooperation in a variety of two-player repeated stochastic games. These results indicate that general human–machine cooperation is achievable using a non-trivial, but ultimately simple, set of algorithmic mechanisms.

{ https://www.inverse.com/ }

Scientists levitate largest object yet with an acoustic tractor beam, might one day work for humans

BY TIBI PUIU

Tractor beams, not too long ago a staple of science fiction, have made the jump into reality. Previously, scientists used acoustic waves to make objects magically levitate — but only if these were very small. Now, a new breakthrough reported by British researchers opens the door for levitating much bigger objects, perhaps even humans one day.

Researchers create a sonic tractor beam with loudspeakers

Fooling gravity

There are a couple of ways to trap objects mid-air, essentially making them levitate. Maglev trains, for instance, literally float on train tracks thanks to powerful electromagnets. There also optic methods (lasers) and even thermal levitation that exploits a temperature difference to lift particles. However, scientists have found that using acoustic waves is more appealing since you can grab non-metals, be they liquid or solid — and the result can be quite breathtaking.

Credit: Youtube / Smarter Every Day.

The way acoustic levitation works is by blasting ultrasound waves from a transducer, which bounce off a reflector. The interaction between the bounced-off compressions creates a standing wave which shifts back and forth or vibrates in segments rather than traveling from place to place. Essentially, the standing wave cancels gravity and the object between the transducer and reflector appears to float.

Credit: Sonic Levitation.

The problem with acoustic levitation is that previous research had always found that the size of the object was limited to the size of the wavelength of sound used. But now University of Bristol researchers may have a way to overcome this limitation.

“Acoustic researchers had been frustrated by the size limit for years, so it’s satisfying to find a way to overcome it. I think it opens the door to many new applications,” Asier Marzo from Bristol’s Department of Mechanical Engineering, said in a statement.

Previously, when scientists tried to acoustically levitate larger objects, these became unstable and spun uncontrollably, instead of floating, until they ultimately were ejected like debris in a tornado. By lowering the frequency of the acoustic wave to audible ranges (below 20kHz), it’s possible to levitate larger objects since the wavelength increases. However, this can also become dangerous for humans whose ears would now be exposed to the lower pitches.

Writing in the Physical Review Letters, the researchers showed how rapidly fluctuating acoustic vortices – or ‘tornados of sound’ – can be controlled by changing the twisting direction of the vortices, thus stabilizing the tractor beam. Using this approach, the team fired ultrasonic waves at a pitch of 40kHz, allowing the tractor beam to suspend a 2cm polystyrene sphere in mid-air. That might not sound like a lot, but this is now the largest object ever levitated.

Besides being incredibly cool, applications include touchless control of drug capsules or micro-surgical implements inside the human body. Touchless control is particularly exciting since it means that now fragile objects can be assembled without touching them. What’s more, the researchers say they can use this method to levitate even larger objects, perhaps even humans.

“In the future, with more acoustic power it will be possible to hold even larger objects,” said senior research associate Mihai Caleap.

Ultrasonic Levitation

Harvard Natural Sciences Lecture Demonstrations

{ https://www.zmescience.com/ }