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Stephen Hawking thought black holes were 'hairy'. New study suggests he was right.
The outer edges of a black hole might be "fuzzy" instead of neat and smooth.
27 January, 2020
NASA
- A recent study analyzed observations of gravitational waves, first observed in 2015.
- The data suggests, according to the researchers, that black holes aren't bounded by smooth event horizons, but rather by a sort of quantum fuzz, which would fit with the idea of Hawking radiation.
- If confirmed, the findings could help scientists better understand how general relativity fits with quantum mechanics.
<p><br></p></div>
<p>What's it like on the outer edges of a black hole?</p><p>This mysterious area, known as the event horizon, is commonly thought of as a point of no return, past which nothing can escape. According to Einstein's theory of general relativity, black holes have smooth, neatly defined event horizons. On the outer side, physical information might be able to escape the black hole's gravitational pull, but once it crosses the event horizon, it's consumed. </p><p>"This was scientists' understanding for a long time," Niayesh Afshordi, a physics and astronomy professor at the University of Waterloo, <a href="https://dailygalaxy.com/2020/01/weird-world-of-quantum-black-holes-may-confirm-stephen-hawkings-hypothesis/" target="_blank">told</a> <em>Daily Galaxy. </em>The American theoretical physicist John Wheeler summed it up by saying: "Black holes have no hair." But then, as Afshordi noted, Stephen Hawking "used quantum mechanics to predict that quantum particles will slowly leak out of black holes, which we now call Hawking radiation."</p>
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMjYyMjQ3NS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxMzI1MDk1N30.Fnld7ChMUzXy_VdBtxP3kSXHkhqqqclW7GYseub__qY/img.jpg?width=980" id="1d682" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="3dd54daf3d98c373321a719b8624844b" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
ESO, ESA/Hubble, M. Kornmesser
<p>In the 1970s, Stephen Hawking famously proposed that black holes aren't truly "black." In simplified terms, the theoretical physicist reasoned that, due to quantum mechanics, black holes actually emit tiny amounts of black-body radiation, and therefore have a non-zero temperature. So, contrary to Einstein's view that black holes are neatly defined and are not surrounded by loose materials, Hawking radiation suggests that black holes are actually surrounded by quantum "fuzz" that consists of particles that escape the gravitational pull.</p><p>"If the quantum fuzz responsible for Hawking radiation does exist around black holes, gravitational waves could bounce off of it, which would create smaller gravitational wave signals following the main gravitational collision event, similar to repeating echoes," Afshordi said.</p><img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMjYyMjQ0My9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzMzI3NTgxMX0.2XJnYQfIv90vqMxBFGvSMxnpyF73-wkkENIOsvGqEjE/img.jpg?width=980" id="0173a" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="80754bdfb6f1c5159c263da4e7f1cbf0" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/Jeremy Schnittman
<p>A new study from Afshordi and co-author Jahed Abedi could provide evidence of these signals, called gravitational wave "echoes." Their analysis examined data collected by the <a href="http://www.virgo-gw.eu/" target="_blank">LIGO and Virgo gravitational wave detectors</a>, which in 2015 detected the first direct observation of gravitational waves from the collision of two distant neutron stars. The results, at least according to the researchers' interpretation, showed relatively small "echo" waves following the initial collision event.</p><p>"The time delay we expect (and observe) for our echoes ... can only be explained if some quantum structure sits just outside their event horizons," Afshordi told <em><a href="https://www.livescience.com/black-hole-echoes-unsettle-einstein-relativity.html" target="_blank">Live Science</a>.</em></p><img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMjYyMjQ1Ni9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyNTg3MDE1OX0.uoQzdeyGHm66Ivj0jvXQiKpeaO3CLCl8AjaH574qYck/img.png?width=980" id="44bac" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="753409b3403a3784c95122d8a9f4af2b" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Afshordi et al.
<p>Scientists have long studied black holes in an effort to better understand fundamental physical laws of the universe, especially since the introduction of Hawking radiation. The idea highlighted the extent to which general relativity and quantum mechanics conflict with each other. </p><p>Everywhere — even in a vacuum, like an event horizon — pairs of so-called <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/something-from-nothing-vacuum-can-yield-flashes-of-light/" target="_blank">"virtual particles"</a> briefly pop in and out of existence. One particle in the pair has positive mass, the other negative. Hawking imagined a scenario in which a pair of particles emerged near the event horizon, and the positive particle had just enough energy to escape the black hole, while the negative one fell in.</p><p>Over time, this process would lead black holes to evaporate and vanish, given that the particle absorbed had a negative mass. It would also lead to some interesting <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_hole_information_paradox#Recent_developments" target="_blank">paradoxes</a>.</p><p>For example, quantum mechanics predicts that particles would be able to escape a black hole. This idea suggests that black holes eventually die, which would theoretically mean that the physical information within a black hole also dies. This violates a key idea in quantum mechanics which is that physical information can't be destroyed.</p><p>The exact nature of black holes remains a mystery. If confirmed, the recent discovery could help scientists better fuse these two models of the universe. Still, some researchers are skeptical of the recent findings.</p><p>"It is not the first claim of this nature coming from this group," Maximiliano Isi, an astrophysicist at MIT, <a href="https://www.livescience.com/black-hole-echoes-unsettle-einstein-relativity.html" target="_blank">told</a> Live Science. "Unfortunately, other groups have been unable to reproduce their results, and not for lack of trying."</p><p>Isi noted that other papers examined the same data, but failed to find echoes. Afshordi told <em>Galaxy Daily</em>:</p><p>"Our results are still tentative because there is a very small chance that what we see is due to random noise in the detectors, but this chance becomes less likely as we find more examples. Now that scientists know what we're looking for, we can look for more examples, and have a much more robust confirmation of these signals. Such a confirmation would be the first direct probe of the quantum structure of space-time."</p>
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Has a black hole made of sound confirmed Hawking radiation?
One of Stephen Hawking's predictions seems to have been borne out in a man-made "black hole."
18 June, 2019
Image source: NASA/JPL-Caltech
- Stephen Hawking predicted virtual particles splitting in two from the gravitational pull of black holes.
- Black holes, he also said, would eventually evaporate due to the absorption of negatively charged virtual particles.
- A scientist has built a black hole analogue based on sound instead of light.
<p>While black holes may well be points in space into which everything falls and from which even light can't escape, the image many of us have of an ever-growing nonstop universe-eater may not be so. <a href="https://bigthink.com/u/stephenhawking" target="_self">Stephen Hawking</a> didn't think it was. He theorized that black holes eventually evaporate as a byproduct of the gradual release of tiny bits of radiation now known as "Hawking radiation". Such emissions are too faint for us to observe from so far away, but now the behavior of an artificial, lab-created black hole of sorts has lent support to Hawking's theory. There's nothing about this story that isn't <a href="https://bigthink.com/videos/black-holes" target="_blank">interesting</a>. For one thing, this man-made "black hole" is made of sound. It's also formed inside some always-bizarre Bose-Einstein condensate.</p>
What Hawking predicted
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTYwNjAyOS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzNTU2ODMyM30.WQZs1L8SuWHexiGKXj_uuH0eBlNFdSPtdW14TnctPK0/img.jpg?width=980" id="f6261" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="7467feaf63835aeb8733c46a05f28bf5" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />Physicist Stephen Hawking.
Photo: Bruno Vincent/Getty
<p>While it's known that photons can't escape the pull of a black hole, Hawking's equations, intolerant of absolute nothingness, suggested "empty" space is actually full of virtual quantum matter/antimatter pairs that blink into existence, and immediately annihilate each other thanks to their opposite electrical charges, quickly blinking out again.</p><p>Hawking proposed that when virtual pairs pop into existence near a black hole, though, they're torn apart by the pull of the black hole, with the antimatter being sucked in while the matter shoots off into space — at this point, they're no longer virtual, but real, particles. The negative charge belonging to the antimatter particles reduces the energy and mass of the black hole that's absorbed it by a tiny amount — however, when a black hole ingests enough of these, it evaporates. The positively charged particles fly away as what's now called "Hawking radiation." It would be very weak, but nonetheless there.</p><p>Hawking also predicted that the radiation emitted would exhibit a continuous thermal spectrum rather than discreet light wavelengths preferred by individual escaping photons. The temperature of the spectrum would be determined instead by the black hole's mass. </p><p>Part of the problem in testing Hawking's theories was summarized by physicist Silke Weinfurtner, who <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-01592-x" target="_blank">has written</a>: </p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">"The temperature that is associated with Hawking radiation, known as the Hawking temperature, is inversely proportional to the mass of the black hole. And for the smallest observed black holes, which have a mass similar to that of the Sun, this temperature is about 60 nanokelvin. Hawking radiation therefore produces a tiny signal, and it would seem that the phenomenon cannot be verified through observation."</p>The analogue black hole in Haifa
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTYwNjA0Ni9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyMjQyOTQ2Mn0.sN5CVbwsVQf3nYxKLDJhzwb2djqulfBmRTaShuYQOT0/img.png?width=980" id="18b44" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="9bf76ae01c1f55d620b63cb2e08bf1d1" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />Physicist Jeff Steinhauer.
Image source: Technion–Israel Institute of Technology
<p>Experimental physicist <a href="https://phsites.technion.ac.il/atomlab/" target="_blank">Jeff Steinhauer</a> of Technion–Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, Israel, has been <a href="https://www.nature.com/news/one-man-band-the-solo-physicist-who-models-black-holes-in-sound-1.20437" target="_blank">working alone</a> in his lab for years creating sonic "black holes" that suck in and trap sound waves. (He's a drummer, too.) Physicist <a href="https://www.phas.ubc.ca/users/william-unruh" target="_blank">William Unruh</a> of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, first proposed the creation of a sound-wave black-hole replica in 1981 as a safe way of observing the behavior of the stellar version. (After all, creating a real black hole in a lab or anywhere nearby could lead to The End of Life as We Know It.)</p><p>Steinhauer's black-hole replica was "constructed" within a <a href="https://www.livescience.com/54667-bose-einstein-condensate.html" target="_blank">Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC),</a> an extremely strange form of matter in which atoms are cooled to a temperature vanishingly close to absolute zero. At this temperature, there's so little energy available that atoms barely move at all in relation to each other, and thus the entire <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/superfluid" target="_blank">superfluid</a> begins to behave as one big, unified atom. Within such a frigid condensate, weak quantum fluctuations occur, and these produce pairs of entangled <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonon" target="_blank">phonons</a>, compressional waves that can create the air-pressure changes we perceive as sound.</p><p>Working with a cigar-shaped trap just a few millimeters long, Steinhauer cooled some 8,000 iridium atoms into a BEC. Inside it, the speed of sound, the rate at which the condensate flowed, dropped from 343 meters per second to an almost stationary half a millimeter per second. Reducing the density of one area of the BEC to allow atoms to travel at 1 millimeter per second, though he created a supersonic region — at least compared to the lower speed in the rest of the condensate, that is. Its comparatively rapid current overwhelmed and pulled in any high-energy phonons that came near its event horizon, thus trapping them.</p><p>In August, Steinhauer published a paper in <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1241-0" target="_blank"><em>Nature</em></a> that documented his observation of phonons emerging from his artificial black hole in line with Hawking's predictions. Steinhauer reports entangled phonon pairs popping into existence together equidistant across the condensate's event horizon and behaving much as Hawking predicted: One pulled over the supersonic waterfall and trapped in the supersonic region, and the other escaping outward, away from it, just as Hawking radiation would do. The symmetry in the number of phonons inside and outside the event horizon further supported their entangled beginnings and eventual separation, as in Hawking's prediction.</p><p>On top of that, the aggregate radiated phonons did indeed produce a thermal spectrum determined by the system's analogue to gravity/mass, which in this model's case was the relationship between the speed of sound and the flow of the BEC, and not individual phonons' sonic wavelengths.</p>Analogies are usually imperfect
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTYwNjk0NC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0ODkzNDMyMH0.dt_9tjvChU65e_TuE-idR276Tywb8GnjjxhfqACofj4/img.jpg?width=1245&coordinates=0%2C70%2C0%2C199&height=700" id="5cb83" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="c24f5a5debfcf50a12d691f43bb02177" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />Image source: Alex Farias/Shutterstock
<p>While the behavior of Steinhauer's phonons in his black hole analogue certainly supports the plausibility of Hawking's hypothesis, it doesn't constitute proof. His experiment deals with sound and phonons instead of light and photons, and obviously operates on an entirely different scale than a real black hole — and scale does matter in quantum physics. Still, it's fascinating.</p><p>Theoretical physicist <a href="http://www.th.u-psud.fr/annuaire2.php3?fiche=renaud.parentani" target="_blank">Renaud Parentani</a> enthuses to <a href="https://www.livescience.com/65683-sonic-black-hole-spews-hawking-radiation.html" target="_blank"><em>Live Science</em></a>, "These experiments are a tour de force. It's a very precise experiment. From the experimental side, Jeff Steinhauer is really, at the moment, the world-leading expert of using cold atoms to probe black hole physics." Other aren't as impressed. Speaking with <a href="https://www.nature.com/news/artificial-black-hole-creates-its-own-version-of-hawking-radiation-1.20430#/hole" target="_blank"><em>Nature</em></a>, physicist <a href="http://ulfleonhardt.weizmann.ac.il" target="_blank">Ulf Leonhardt</a> says that while, "For sure, this is a pioneering paper," he considers it incomplete, however, in part because Steinhauer was only able to correlate phonons of high energy across the event horizon, and didn't find that low-energy phonons also behaved as Hawking predicted. In addition, Leonhardt is concerned that what was inside the trap wasn't a true BEC, and that it could be producing other forms of quantum fluctuation that just <em>look</em> like Hawking radiation.</p>
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No Planet B can 'ever' be made as comfortable as Earth, says British astronomer Martin Rees
The end of the world is the main focus of his new book.
11 January, 2019
Image source: KARIM SAHIB / AFP / Getty Images
- Everybody from Elon Musk to Stephen Hawking has said we should colonize a 'Planet B' due to the threat to our existence. Martin Brees, the UK's Astronomer Royal, has another perspective on it.
- "I think we have to accept that there's no planet B, which can ever be made as comfortable as the Earth," he recently told The Current's Anna Maria Tremonti.
- In a time of ever-worsening climate change that threatens the very existence of human beings, his focus is on maintaining and fixing the planet we now live on, but still with an eye toward the stars.
<p>Nuclear annihilation. Global climate catastrophe. A rogue asteroid causing mass extinction not seen since the dinosaurs. World War III with nuclear weapons.These are all possible ways that planet Earth could see an end of humans and likely most other species, and they're something that Britain's Astronomer Royal, Martin Rees, has given a lot of thought to. </p><p>As a matter of fact, it's the main focus of his new book,<em> </em><a href="https://amzn.to/2AJiz4L" target="_blank"><em>On the Future: Prospects for Humanity</em></a>.</p><p><br></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<a href="https://amzn.to/2AJiz4L" target="_blank"><img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTA4MTI3OC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1NTQ2MTE5OX0.rRAZkb1lt6wPwiiIaegjq_YeJ64DGgwMlqjc7iRgC0M/img.jpg?width=980" id="83cb8" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="45a282584e5b611bc8d5b4e64d6fb3d5" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="Martin Rees, On The Future: Prospects For Humanity"></a>
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption..."><a href="https://amzn.to/2AJiz4L" target="_blank">New book</a> from Martin Rees</small></p><p><br></p>
A Mars Colony?
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTA4MTI4NC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0NzA4MjQ5MX0.LdGQubVQ46auy47e1a8Ntd309UNVfn_cPbihvQeIR3A/img.jpg?width=980" id="0930b" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="501b2f3b3c78358075ab5051ad9e4f41" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="Mars Rover Curiosity, Mount Sharp" />Diverse Terrain Types on Mount Sharp, MarsPhoto by NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS via Getty Images
<p>When you consider that well-known people, such as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/jun/16/life-on-mars-elon-musk-reveals-details-of-his-colonisation-vision" target="_blank">Elon Musk</a> and <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/05/05/stephen-hawking-human-extinction-colonize-planet.html" target="_blank">Stephen Hawking</a>, have talked about the need to begin a colony on Mars because there's a chance Earth won't make it — or at least humans won't — and we'd need a place to start over, it's an interesting prospect. </p><p>When <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/the-current-for-january-7-2019-1.4963706/jan-7-2019-episode-transcript-1.4969087" target="_blank">asked by CBC interviewer</a> Anna Maria Tremonit whether they're wrong about that idea, he responded thusly</p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">"They're only half wrong. I mean I agree with that in the long run, there will be a small community living on Mars and I think they will be important for the future of intelligence. But what I don't agree with is something, which I think both Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking believe, which was there'd be mass emigration. I think we have to accept that there's no Planet B which can ever be made as comfortable as the Earth. We've got to accept that dealing with climate change, though hard, is a doddle compared to terraforming Mars and it's a dangerous delusion I think to believe that there can be mass emigration, a million people or so going to Mars."</p><p>According to Rees, the goal should instead be, </p><blockquote><em>To make the Earth habitable not just now, but for future centuries, that's the top priority.</em></blockquote>Can we survive sustainably?
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTA4MTI5MS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTU5NTkxNTYzMH0.wJApr33YXca9ckDu0JOGECFcEs-lEAWVqO6qK4M0klY/img.jpg?width=980" id="754dd" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="207a4841bffbb85213a9b07898d08661" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="North Korea nuclear ambitions" />Empty seats are seen prior to the start of an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council concerning North Korea's nuclear ambitions
Drew Angerer/Getty Images
<p>How do we ensure Earth's habitability?<br></p><p>In an <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wnet/amanpour-and-company/video/astronomer-royal-lord-martin-rees-climate-change-y6japt/" target="_blank">earlier PBS interview</a>, he talked with Christiane Amanpour about that:</p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">"The Earth's been around for 45 million centuries, but this is the first when one species, namely the human species, has the future of the planet in his hands because what we do in this century will determine whether we leave a depleted planet for future generations or whether we can survive sustainably."</p>
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10 great minds we lost in 2018
Renowned scientists and technologists who've passed away in 2018.
24 December, 2018
Getty Images
- We lost a great deal of internet pioneers and geniuses of physics in 2018.
- Creations of fiber optic cables, men on the moon and the unsung heroes of the life sciences made their mark on the scientific enterprise.
- The loss of men like Stephen Hawking leaves a hole in the sciences, but his work and many others will continue to inspire the generations to come.
<p><span></span>Death is an inevitability every passing year. As time marches on to the eternal beyond, we look to some of the great minds we lost in 2018. Many celebrities, musicians and politicians have graced the grave's ledger. Their praises have been sung far and wide. Here we remember and reflect upon the great accomplishments of a few notable titans of science and technology.</p>
Paul G. Allen
<p>Paul G. Allen was many things to many people. He had a long list of pursuits, talents and genius through his lifetime. From revolutionizing the world in the age of the PC as one of the founders of <strong>Microsoft</strong>, to running the scientific philanthropist outfit known as the Allen Institute. He had an unflinching curiosity to dig deep into the genome and the neurological centers of humankind itself.</p><p>Allen succumbed to cancer earlier this year on October 15th. Throughout his life he amassed a large fortune from Microsoft, which he put to use in the most noble of ways until the very end. His legacy will continue on in the research coming out of the Allen institute for Artificial Intelligence and the many other great things he left behind.</p>Kuen Charles Kao
<p>Underpinning the entirety of our interconnected world are miles of <strong>fiber-optic cables.</strong> The man responsible for the first kernel of this idea was Kuen Charles Kao. In 1966 he proposed the use of optical fibers as the major infrastructure for communication. During his heyday, telecommunications used either coaxial electronic cables or broadcast radio signals. Kao among a few others wrote a largely unnoticed paper that would go on to influence and change the course of the world. For this eventual work he set out to do, he'd go on to win the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2009. He died in Hong Kong on September 23rd. </p>Osamu Shimomura
<p>Born in 1928 in the town of Fukuchiyama, during the height of Japanese expansion, Osamu Shimomura lived through dark and perilous times. Against all odds he went through school and the hardships of his upbringing to eventually discover a crucial component for the biomedical sciences. He discovered the <strong>green fluorescent protein (GFP,) </strong>which would be the fundamental tool used by researchers to code and confirm the insertion of genes. He shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2008 with chemist Roger Tsien and neurobiologist Martin Chalfie.</p><p>Shimomura died in Nagasaki, Japan on October 19th, He was the first to show that a protein could be fluorescent and contain a light-emitting function in its own protein peptide chain. His pioneering research has allowed this discovery to be used as a tool for inserting genes into other organisms. Until the aequorin, which he discovered and named, was able to be genetically engineered – he freely shared his massive stock he'd collected to laboratories around the world.</p>Thomas A. Steitz
<p>Carrying on the work of what Francis Crick called the central dogma of biology - the genes - Thomas A. Steitz would go on to discover the secrets of the <strong>ribosome</strong>. In 2009 he received a Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work that contributed to solving the structure of the ribosome, the component responsible for translating genetic information into proteins from the cell. Steitz was a crystallographer who came from a humble background and continued to push forth the important work up until the day he died on October 9th. A colleague of his, Peter Moore, once called him: "the most accomplished structural biologist of his generation."</p>Stephen W. Hawking
<p>One of the most famous physicists of our time, Stephen W. Hawking roused the public's attention for his deep pursuit into the mysteries of the universe. Theoretical physicist Michio Kaku said of Hawking after his death: </p><blockquote>"Not since Albert Einstein has a scientist so captured the public imagination and endeared himself to tens of millions of people around the world." </blockquote><p>A unique figure who's adversity against total paralysis became a symbol of human determination and strength, Hawking didn't let his long-running physical ailments stop his triumph for truth. He'd go onto become our leading voice on the strange physics of <strong>black holes and quantum theory.</strong></p>Alan Bean
<p>Alan Bean was the fourth man to step foot and walk on the <strong>moon</strong>. In his later years he turned to painting as he told the grand story of one of our most important achievements of mankind. Alan Bean stepped onto the Lunar surface after the Apollo 12 flight some four months after Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin had first landed on the moon. Although not the first flight or given as much fanfare as Apollo 11, this mission resulted in a more thorough exploration of the moon. Bean would go on to command a flight to the orbiting space station Skylab and set a record for being in space for 59 consecutive days.</p>Dorothy Cheney
<p>Dorothy L. Cheney changed the dynamics of we view the <strong>primate</strong> life and social structure. With her husband and research partner, Professor Robert M. Seyfarth, they did some of the most important field work with baboons. In a comment about her life in the New York Times it was said:</p><blockquote>"Along with Robert Seyfarth, she did wonderfully clever, elegant field experiments that revealed how other primates think about the world — showing that they think in far more sophisticated and interesting ways than people anticipated."</blockquote>Much of their research was put into the book: <em>How Monkeys See the World: Inside the Mind of Another Species</em> "The most human features of monkeys and apes lie not in their physical appearance but in their social relationships." Cheney helped change and usher in a new way of research to view and understand our primate cousins, by existing in their home territory and seeing their lives in natural action.Frank Heart
<p>Frank Heart was the engineer who oversaw the first development of a routing computer for the famous <strong>Arpanet</strong>, the government's precursor to the internet. In 1969, he led a small team of engineers that would go on to build something called the Interface Message Processor (I.M.P.) The computer's main function was to switch data among other computers connected on the Arpanet. Much of what Heart was doing made it a necessity for him to invent while he went along, things that are fundamental to the internet like error resistance. Mr. Heart invented much of the technology that would go on to be the basis for the router systems we use today.</p>Leon Lederman
<p>Leon Lederman was a physicist that delved into a wide range of new areas of fundamental physics. He would go on to discover things such as the <strong>muon neutrino, neutral kaon meson</strong> and learned about something called bottom quarks which make up the fundamental parts of neutrons and protons. Born in 1922 to Jewish Russian emigrants, he lived in a time when Jewish scientists were fleeing Europe en masse. He was part of a cadre of genius physicists who'd help revolutionize the field in the early 20th century.</p><p>He shared the 1988 Nobel Prize in physics for his work on the discovery that fundamental particles require symmetry as an intrinsic part of the natural order of things. His scientific legacy lives on as there are continued efforts to explore the many particles he discovered.</p>Aaron Klug
<p>Aaron Klug was responsible for mapping the structure of <strong>viruses</strong>. He discovered the geometrical rules and eventual form of the poliovirus. Klug invented electron tomography, which resulted in the three dimensional image of a virus. This won him the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1982. Other components of his work would go on to allow him and the many scientists that came after him, the ability to initiate the transcription of RNA, which would become the basis for gene therapy. Klug was knighted in 1988. Throughout his life we went on to lead the Medical Researcher Council and Laboratory of Molecular Biology in the Royal Society.</p>
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A $100-million startup shares incredible plan to propel spacecraft with giant lasers
Breakthrough Starshot is moving ahead with an audacious vision for space exploration.
11 December, 2018
- The Breakthrough Starshot initiative was co-founded by Stephen Hawking.
- The project raised $100 million and is moving ahead with extensive research.
- The goal of Starshot is to send tiny "StarChip" spacecraft to explore neighboring star systems.
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<p>Imagine paper-thin nano-spacecraft being propelled through space at <strong>134 million mph </strong>by super-powerful lasers, brighter than the sun. They would also be strong enough to ignite entire cities in minutes, if turned back towards Earth. Where are the spaceships headed? Towards a potential new habitat for humanity in the nearby star system <strong>Alpha Centauri,</strong> which is just about <strong>25.7 trillion miles away.</strong> Now imagine no more - this is not science fiction but an actual project gathering steam.</p><p>The <a href="https://breakthroughinitiatives.org/initiative/3" target="_blank">Breakthrough Starshot</a> initiative raised <strong>$100 million</strong> for research from funders like the Russian-American billionaire <strong><a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/yuri-milner/#28cfe4535e26" target="_blank">Yuri Milner</a> </strong>and a host of Silicon Valley investors. Notably, the Starshot initiative included the late <strong>Stephen Hawking </strong>and the Harvard University astronomer <strong>Avi Loeb</strong> among its founders. What gives this group additional potential is that their idea for exploring space is based on <a href="https://breakthroughinitiatives.org/research/3" target="_blank">80 scientific studies</a> on interstellar travel.</p><p>What the scientists, lead by <strong>Peter Klupar,</strong> the engineering director of the <a href="https://breakthroughinitiatives.org/" target="_blank">Breakthrough Foundation </a>and the Starshot initiative, figured out after much experimentation and studies is that the best way to send an object to another star is by building a giant laser.</p>
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODk5MzEwOS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0NDUyMDg2M30.y_fD0UTebUCpgf8HPhWuO8EqnU8oJUxZPASs75QTPd4/img.jpg?width=980" id="1d91f" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="7cb63da70335c89a5a4e3a73889f59f3" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Stephen Hawking at press conference to announce Breakthrough Starshot on April 12, 2016 in New York City.
(Photo by Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for Breakthrough Prize Foundation)
<p>The technology the project is looking to implement would involve launching around 1,000 tiny <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/breakthrough-starshot-sprite-spacecraft-launch-2017-7" target="_blank">"StarChip" spacecraft</a> at about <strong>20% of the speed of light</strong> towards Alpha Centauri. It happens to be the second-closest star system to Earth. <strong>Proxima Centauri,</strong> an even closer star system, is also being discussed as a destination. </p><p>The chips would weigh about <strong>a gram</strong> each and be attached to light sails. They would also be equipped with cameras to record everything they see. Propelling the ships through space would be a <strong>100-gigawatt laser "beamer"</strong> that would be so powerful it could quickly burn down cities, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/breakthrough-starshot-laser-beam-power-2018-12" target="_blank">according to Klupar.</a> That is if it was mirrored back at us by some enterprising aliens (or our own hubris). </p><p>Hopefully, such an outcome does not come to pass but instead the Starchips, launched by <strong>mid-2030s,</strong> would send us back photos of new Earth-like worlds by<strong> 2060s.</strong> They would travel for about 25 years and there'd be about 4 years for the data to get back to us.</p>
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODk5MzExMC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0NTA5MTIxMX0.kDTfEn_Qfqm0REl700bsP3N-lFySE_4J6qHYUgnbQiU/img.jpg?width=980" id="62d46" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="90788d968e73dc60af90f26c350572ca" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Yuri Milner, Breakthrough Prize and DST Global Founder, demonstrates a new chip on stage at press conference to announce Breakthrough Starshot on April 12, 2016 in New York City.
(Photo by Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for Breakthrough Prize Foundation)
<blockquote>"You would think that this is all impossible, but we have folks at Caltech and the University of Southampton and Exeter University working on about 50 contracts on making all [of] this happen," <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/breakthrough-starshot-laser-beam-power-2018-12" target="_blank">Klupar said</a> at the Economist's <a href="https://events.economist.com/events-conferences/americas/space-summit/" target="_blank">Space Summit</a>. "No one has come up with a deal-breaker that we can find yet. It all seems real."</blockquote><p>The project is certainly not without its challenges. A particular technical hurdle to overcome is the design of the light sail that would "catch" the beam from the laser and turn that energy into motion for the spaceship. The considerable challenge is to make it not fall apart from the amazing heat or acceleration and make sure it continues to go on course while avoiding interstellar space and dust, as <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/breakthrough-starshot-laser-beam-power-2018-12" target="_blank">points out</a> Dave Mosher from Business Insider. Another issue is the <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/1805.01306" target="_blank">massive cost</a> of the laser facility.</p><p>While working out solutions, Starshot has already been launching early spaceships into space, starting with a fleet of six that <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/breakthrough-starshot-sprite-spacecraft-launch-2017-7" target="_blank">went up</a> in June 2017. They plan to launch more improved models that include cameras next year. </p>
<span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="d122261cfe39cf5ee9fb0e5e86b29531"><iframe type="lazy-iframe" data-runner-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xRFXV4Z6x8s?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span><p>Credit: Breakthrough Starshot</p>
<p>One of the project's big goals is to build a 1-gigawatt laser station in the Sierra Nevada mountains and send starchips past planets like Mars, asteroids and other space bodies that aren't as far away from us. These spaceships would travel at about 1% of the speed of light. Mars would be just a few days away. Such an endeavor would cost around <strong>$1 billion</strong> to make real but the facility could make frequent exploration of deep space quite cost-effective moving forward.</p><p>After that, the ultimate goal will be the building of the 100-gigawatt laser – an effort requiring global cooperation, according to Klupar. That laser will be so bright that it will be "seen across the galaxy," said the scientist. It could also damage satellites, if the launch is not internationally coordinated. </p><p>One positive outcome of that, says Klupar, is that it will tell any alien civilization that "intelligent life exists" on Earth, adding "we're not really doing this just for one group of people. It's also the whole planet."</p>
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