Dark energy: The apocalyptic wild card of the universe
Dr. Katie Mack explains what dark energy is and two ways it could one day destroy the universe.
25 January, 2021
- The universe is expanding faster and faster. Whether this acceleration will end in a Big Rip or will reverse and contract into a Big Crunch is not yet understood, and neither is the invisible force causing that expansion: dark energy.
- Physicist Dr. Katie Mack explains the difference between dark matter, dark energy, and phantom dark energy, and shares what scientists think the mysterious force is, its effect on space, and how, billions of years from now, it could cause peak cosmic destruction.
- The Big Rip seems more probable than a Big Crunch at this point in time, but scientists still have much to learn before they can determine the ultimate fate of the universe. "If we figure out what [dark energy is] doing, if we figure out what it's made of, how it's going to change in the future, then we will have a much better idea for how the universe will end," says Mack.
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How ‘heat death’ will destroy the universe
The expansion of the universe is speeding up—contrary to what many physicists expected. A "heat death" is coming, but it's not what you think.
25 December, 2020
- The expansion of the universe is accelerating as the force of dark energy wins out over the pull of all the universe's collective gravity.
- As every object in space moves farther and farther away from all other objects in space, the universe will reach a state of maximum entropy, and 'heat death' will ensue. As astrophysicist Dr. Katie Mack points out, heat death is not actually a hot phenomenon—it's also known as the "Big Freeze."
- Around 100 billion years from now, the universe will have expanded so much that distant galaxies won't be visible from Earth, even with high-powered telescopes. Stars will disappear in a trillion years and new stars will no longer form. The "good" news is that humans probably won't be around to witness the machine as it breaks down and dies.
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Interventions in school years can prevent "deaths of despair"
While most of these deaths are driven by external factors, interventions can still help prevent them.
23 December, 2020
Credit: Daniel Reche from Pexels
- A decades-long study suggests childhood interventions are effective against deaths of despair.
- The students who had interventions went on to drink less, engage in less risky behavior, and reported less self-harm.
- The findings suggest that similar programs have the potential to save countless lives.
<p> The increase in the number of deaths of despair over the past few years has been catastrophic to some communities and <a href="https://www.sciencenews.org/article/deaths-of-despair-depression-mental-health-covid-19-pandemic" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">demographics</a>. Among Americans aged 25 to 44, suicide has become the second leading cause of death, liver disease has risen to sixth alongside dangerous drinking habits, and the number of opioid overdoses continues to <a href="https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/80172" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">increase</a>. </p><p>There are several factors behind these statistics. The decline of <a href="https://www.news-medical.net/news/20201202/Study-links-declines-in-working-class-jobs-to-suicide-deaths-of-despair.aspx" target="_blank">economic opportunity</a> for large swaths of American <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/life-expectancy-in-the-us-keeps-going-down-and-a-new-study-says-americas-worsening-inequality-could-be-to-blame/articleshow/72308976.cms" target="_blank">society</a>, the well-recorded pushing of opioid painkillers on people who didn't need <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/i-was-a-drug-rep-i-know-how-pharma-companies-pushed-opioids/2019/11/25/82b1da88-beb9-11e9-9b73-fd3c65ef8f9c_story.html" target="_blank">them</a>, and genetic predispositions towards certain behaviors are among them. However, many studies have shown that there are a number of quite malleable elements that can be the subject of intervention in addition to these external or genetic factors.</p><p>A recent <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/117/50/31748" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">study</a> published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences followed two decades of interventions with at-risk children and recorded their outcomes compared to peers left to their own devices. The findings may offer a partial solution to the crisis. </p>
The road to despair often begins in childhood
<p> Studies have found that there are "behaviors of despair," such as a tendency towards suicidal ideation or substance abuse, which can lead to deaths of despair later. These behaviors are predicted by other factors, such as <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF00917538" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">impulsivity</a> or a lack of healthy stress coping <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0306460399000581" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">mechanisms</a>. In principle, these factors can be addressed by intervention programs. If these behaviors are controlled or prevented at the source, then the later deaths can be prevented as well. </p><p>Since many of these factors arise in <a href="https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-12-childhood-intervention-deaths-despair.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">childhood</a>, the researchers started there with a program that aims to give children the skills needed to avoid developing behaviors of despair in the first <a href="https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-12/du-cic121720.php" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">place</a>.</p><p>The program they used<strong>, </strong><a href="https://fasttrackproject.org/overview.php" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Fast Track</a> (FT), is an intervention program centered around the idea that multiple factors can leave a child without the social skills, academic preparedness, or ability to regulate the behavior that can help prevent them from having issues later in school and as young adults. </p><p>Starting with at-risk children in kindergarten in 1991, the researchers identified children in participating schools that scored high on a diagnostic for aggressive behavior in the classroom. These children and their parents were sorted into control and experimental groups. Those in the experimental group got the whole package of interventions. These focused on building the student's social skills, reducing their impulsivity, helping the parents form a more positive relationship with their child, and in-school interventions to help the student succeed. </p><p>Check-ins and tests followed over the subsequent years, in hopes of determining the success of the interventions. </p><p>The results were dramatic. There was an immediate reduction in aggressive or disruptive behaviors at home and school. While these benefits seemed to decline as the children reached middle school, they returned as they reached high school.</p><p>Later on, when the students began to report their drug and alcohol use, those who had interventions engaged in hazardous drinking 46 percent less than their peers who had not. Their weekly opioid use was 61 percent lower, and they were much less likely to report suicidal tendencies. These benefits existed for students of all demographic groups. </p><p> The children who were in the study are now in their 30s. With any luck, they will do better than many of their peers. </p><iframe width="730" height="430" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/JyzoIYqmzMQ" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe><p> What can we take away from this? That a long-term, holistic program aimed at giving students the skills they need to succeed may help prevent many of the behaviors of despair, which can lead to adverse life outcomes. The authors argue that the program's long-term nature, up to 10 years in some cases, was vital to its success. Additionally, they say that the program's multifaceted approach, especially when focusing on interpersonal relationships, allowed it to help the students overcome challenges that could have driven them to drug use or self-harm:</p><p style="margin-left: 20px;"> "...our findings suggest that prevention programs aimed at facilitating the solid acquisition of key social, behavioral, and academic skills in children at risk for conduct problems could be one way to reverse the alarming rise in early and midlife mortality due to deaths of despair."</p>
<iframe width="730" height="430" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-xA5xgAqj1I" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe><p> The findings are not nationally representative, though they include results for a diverse group of students from across the country. While the authors maintain that the results are generally applicable, it remains possible that some detail could arise in a more comprehensive study that was not seen here. The study could not control genetic predispositions to despair, perhaps causing the results to skew one way or the other. </p><p> Despite these limitations, the study's basic findings are likely generally applicable. Additionally, it supports previous studies that suggest that these interventions' focus should be on helping the children acquire specific academic, social, and behavioral skills. </p><p>While teaching at-risk students social skills and helping them in school won't end the crisis we find ourselves in by itself, this study offers us a powerful tool for saving lives. Let us hope that it will be used alongside more comprehensive efforts to make life better for everyone.</p><p> <em>If you are having suicidal thoughts, help is available. </em><em>The Suicide Hotline can be reached at 1-800-273-8255.</em></p>
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Is there life after death?
Is death the final frontier? We ask scientists, philosophers, and spiritual leaders about life after death.
18 December, 2020
- Death is inevitable for all known living things. However on the question of what, if anything, comes after life, the most honest answer is that no one knows.
- So far, there is no scientific evidence to prove or disprove what happens after we die. In this video, astronomer Michelle Thaller, neuroscientist and philosopher Sam Harris, science educator Bill Nye, and others consider what an afterlife would look like, what the biblical concepts of 'eternal life' and 'hell' really mean, why so many people around the world choose to believe that death is not the end, and whether or not that belief is ultimately detrimental or beneficial to one's life.
- Life after death is also not relegated to discussions of religion. "Digital and genetic immortality are within reach," says theoretical physicist Michio Kaku. Kaku shares how, in the future, we may be able to physically talk to the dead thanks to hologram technology and the digitization of our online lives, memories, and connectome.
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What the Greek classics tell us about grief and the importance of mourning the dead
The rites we give to the dead help us understand what it takes to go on living.
29 November, 2020
Photo by Stavrialena Gontzou on Unsplash
As the coronavirus pandemic hit New York in March, the death toll quickly went up with few chances for families and communities to perform traditional rites for their loved ones.
<p>A reporter for <a href="https://time.com/5839056/new-york-city-burials-coronavirus/" target="_blank">Time magazine described</a> how bodies were put on a ramp, then onto a loading dock and stacked on wooden racks. Emergency morgues were set up to handle the large number of dead. By official count, New York City alone had <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/05/28/863710050/reckoning-with-the-dead-journalist-goes-inside-an-nyc-covid-19-disaster-morgue" target="_blank">20,000 dead</a> over a period of two months. </p><p>Months later, our ability to mourn and process death remains disrupted due to the ever-present fear of the threat of the coronavirus and the need to observe social distancing.</p><p>As a <a href="https://www.brandeis.edu/facultyguide/person.html?emplid=1be7ee967d45605afddf7da9ad4ca2c049a26c0b" target="_blank">scholar of classical studies</a>, I tend to look to the past to help understand the present. Ancient literature, especially ancient Greek epics, explore what it means to be human and part of a community. </p><p>In the Greek classic “The Iliad," Homer specifies few universal rights, but one that emerges clearly is the expectation of proper lamentation, burial and memorial. </p>
<h2>Valuing life in death</h2><p>Homer's "Iliad" explores the themes of 10 years of war – the Trojan War – over a narrative that lasts around 50 days. It shows the internal strife and the struggles of the Greeks as they try to defend themselves against the Trojans.</p><p>It humanizes the city of Troy by emphasizing the scale of loss and suffering and not just the boastful nature of its kings and warlords.</p><p>The epic <a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0134" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">begins with the recognition</a> that the rage of its main character, Achilles, on account of a slight to his honor, "created myriad griefs" for the Greeks and "sent many strong heroes to the underworld."</p><p>The epic's conflict <a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hom.+Il.+1.100&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0134" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">starts</a> when king Agamemnon, leader of the Greek army, deprives the semi-divine hero Achilles of Briseis, an enslaved woman he was awarded as a prize earlier in the war.</p><p>Briseis is said to be Achilles' "geras," a physical token indicating the esteem his fellow Greeks have for him. The meaning of the word "geras" develops as the poem progresses. But as readers learn alongside Achilles, physical objects are essentially meaningless when one is going to die anyway.</p><p>By the end of the epic, physical tokens of honor are replaced in importance by burial rites. Zeus accepts that his mortal son Sarpedon can at best receive "the geras of the dead" when he is <a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0134%3Abook%3D16%3Acard%3D394" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">buried and mourned</a>. Achilles too insists that mourning is "the geras of the dead" when he gathers the Greeks to <a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0134%3Abook%3D23%3Acard%3D1" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">honor his fallen comrade, Patroklos</a>.</p><p>The epic ends with a justification for the burial of Achilles' opponent, Hector, the greatest of the Trojan warriors and another victim of Achilles' rage.</p><p>For Hector's funerary rites, the Greeks and the Trojans agree to an armistice. The Trojans gather and clean Hector's body, cremate him, and bury his remains below a monumental tomb. The women of the city tell the story of the brave hero <a href="https://chs.harvard.edu/CHS/article/display/6668" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">in their laments</a>.</p><p>This is its foundational narrative – that burial rites are essential to the collective work of communities. Failure to observe burial provokes crisis. In the Iliad, the gods meet to resolve <a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0134%3Abook%3D24%3Acard%3D22" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">the problem of Hector's unburied body</a>: Achilles must quit his rage and give Hector's body back to his family.</p>
<h2>A divine right</h2><p>This narrative is repeated in other ancient Greek myths. Best known, perhaps, is Sophocles' "Antigone," a Greek tragedy dating from the 440s B.C. In this play, two brothers, Eteocles and Polynices, are killed in their fight for control of the city.</p><p>Creon, their uncle, who takes over the city, <a href="http://philosophyfaculty.ucsd.edu/faculty/ewatkins/Phil107S13/Sophocles-Antigone.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">forbids burial of one</a>. The play's conflict centers around their sister Antigone, who buries her brother against the new king's wishes, consigning herself to death.</p><p>In opposing this basic right, Creon is shown to suffer in turn, losing his wife and son to suicide in the process. In response to the capital punishment of Antigone for performing the rites due to her brother, his son Haemon takes his life and his mother Eurydice follows him.</p><p>Properly honoring the dead – especially those who have died serving their people – is from this perspective a divinely sanctioned right. Furthermore, mistreatment of the dead brings infamy on the city and pollution. Plague often curses cities and peoples who fail to honor their fallen.</p><p>This is central to the plot of "<a href="http://classics.mit.edu/Euripides/suppliants.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Suppliants</a>," another Greek play telling us the story of the conflict between the sons of Oedipus, king of the Greek city of Thebes. In this play by Euripides, the Thebans refuse to bury any of the warriors who fought against their city. The crisis is resolved only when the Athenian hero Theseus leads an army to force them to honor the dead.</p><p>One of the most famous examples of classical rhetoric shares in the tradition of honoring the dead as a public duty. Greek historian Thucydides writes about the funeral oration of Pericles, who was a popular leader in Athens during the 430s B.C.</p><p>On the occasion of offering the "<a href="https://oxfordre.com/classics/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.001.0001/acrefore-9780199381135-e-2461" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">epitaphios</a>," a speech over the fallen war dead, Pericles articulates his vision of the Athenians as standing against foreign threats in the past.</p><p>Memories of the past were an important guide to the future. This is in part why the funeral oration became so important in Athenian life: It provided an opportunity to explain why those lives were sacrificed in service of a shared civic mission and identity.</p>
<h2>Communities of memory</h2><p>Even today, memories are shaped by stories. From local communities to nations, the stories we tell will shape what we will remember about the past.</p><p>Researchers from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation predict that an estimated 200,000 people in the U.S. will have died from the coronavirus <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/covid-19-united-states-coronavirus-deaths-projection-400000-by-end-of-year/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">by Sept. 26</a> and some 400,000 by the year-end.</p><p>Many people who see loved ones die will deal with unresolved loss, or "<a href="https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/complicated-grief/symptoms-causes/syc-20360374" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">complicated grief</a>" – grief that results from not knowing what happened to one's loved ones or without having the social structures to process their loss. That grief has been compounded by the current isolation. It has prevented many from carrying out those very rites that help us learn to live with our grief.</p><p>Just recently, I lost my 91-year-old grandmother, <a href="https://www.rivertowns.net/obituaries/obits/6665780-Beverly-Jean-Mjolsness" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Beverly Mjolsness</a>, to a non-coronavirus death. My family made the hard decision not to travel across the country to bury her. Instead, we gathered for a video memorial of a celebration of a life well-lived. As we did so, I could see my family struggling to know how to proceed without the rituals and the comfort of being together.</p><p>Such grief that does not allow for collective in-person memorialization can turn into <a href="https://www.apa.org/news/apa/2020/04/grief-covid-19" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">debilitating trauma</a>. Our public discourse, however, when it has not tried to minimize the number of the dead or the continuing threat, has not sought to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/national-mourning-coronavirus/2020/05/15/b47fc670-9577-11ea-82b4-c8db161ff6e5_story.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">provide any plan for memorials</a>, now or in the future.</p><p>What Homer and Sophocles demonstrate is that the rites we give to the dead help us understand what it takes to go on living. I believe we need to start honoring those we have lost to this epidemic. It will not just bring comfort to the living, but remind us that we share a community in which our lives – and deaths – have meaning.<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/145827/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation"></p><p><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/joel-christensen-965979" target="_blank">Joel Christensen</a>, Associate Professor of Classical Studies, <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/brandeis-university-1308" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Brandeis University</a></em></p><p>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-the-greek-classics-tell-us-about-grief-and-the-importance-of-mourning-the-dead-145827" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">original article</a>.</p>
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