DNA shows Sitting Bull’s descendant; a more transmissible Delta variant; speed-testing EVs; people living underground; the year’s best view of the solar system’s green giant
| Wednesday, November 3, 2021 | |
In today’s newsletter, DNA shows Sitting Bull’s descendant; a more transmissible Delta variant; speed-testing EVs; people living underground … and the year’s best view of the solar system’s green giant.
| |
 | | PHOTOGRAPH BY GERHARD HÜDEPOHL, ESO | | By Victoria Jaggard, SCIENCE executive editor
Later this week, anxious astronomers across the U.S. expect to hear “the voice of God.” That’s the nickname some in the profession have bestowed upon the more prosaically named Astronomy and Astrophysics Decadal Survey, which ranks the projects this community wants to prioritize for the next 10 years. The nation’s astronomers have been doing Decadal Surveys since the mid-1960s, laying out the state of the field and making recommendations to government funding agencies to help them direct their dollars toward the most exciting science.
The process sounds dry and technical, but the stakes can be huge for people building their careers around questions that can be answered only with very big—and very expensive—telescopes. Decadal Surveys also set the agenda for the type of science the public can expect to swoon over in coming years. Hubble may not have “gotchu” (as Late Night with Jimmy Fallon puts it) without endorsements from past Decadal reports. And fans of science fiction movies can thank previous surveys for recommending construction of the Very Large Telescope (pictured above), which has made repeated appearances on the silver screen in addition to fulfilling its primary job of studying odd radio phenomena across the cosmos.
The latest survey is due to drop on Thursday, and while everyone involved is sworn to secrecy, the report is expected to name NASA’s next big flagship mission. With this Decadal Survey, some astronomers think they could get funding for multiple flagships, each rolling out in succession, if they unite the proposed missions with a common cause. And as Lee Billings reports for Scientific American, “arguably no topic has broader appeal than humankind’s long, unrequited search for alien life.”
Perhaps that’s why three of the four proposed projects would expand our understanding of exoplanets. The past two decades saw a boom in the number of planets we know exist across the Milky Way (and perhaps even in other galaxies). We’ve also started to home in on ever-smaller worlds that might have the requisite conditions for life as we know it. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (pictured below) should help with this effort after it launches later this year. But without new dedicated observatories, astronomers are struggling to see the fine details that would help cinch the case for habitability.
| | | |
 | PHOTOGRAPH BY CHRIS GUNN, NASA
| | Of course, this is all speculation for now; the report could recommend only one flagship, or even none. Priorities for other ongoing projects also could be re-ranked. This week will be a nail-biter for space fans, and I for one will be among those waiting eagerly for the release of a document that could, as Billings puts it, “make or break the next 30 years of U.S. astronomy.”
Do you get this daily? If not, sign up here or forward this to a friend.
| | | |
| Testing EVs: The Mojave Desert’s salt flats are ideal for testing electric vehicles. Photographer and Nat Geo Explorer David Guttenfelder watched carmakers from EV West test—and try to break land-speed records for—their Electraliner, built with a Tesla motor and battery pack. The image is part of the cover story in National Geographic’s October issue, “The Revolution Is Here: Electric Cars, Hydrogen-Powered Planes, and the Dream of a Cleaner Commute.”
| | | |
| Ancient DNA: Scientists confirmed what a South Dakota man says he always knew: He is the great-grandson of the legendary Lakota Sioux leader Sitting Bull, or Tatanka Iyotake. Ernie LaPointe, 73, tells Insider the DNA analysis was conducted using a 130-year-old hair sample.
Cancer clusters: ProPublica has published the most detailed maps yet of cancer-causing industrial pollution in the United States. An analysis of EPA data shows 1,000-plus toxic hot spots nationwide. These areas, where 250,000 people live, may be exposed to levels of excess cancer risk. Not only has the EPA allowed the risk to people, but the agency also has a term for these areas: “sacrifice zones.”
Those Vikings: Although the Portuguese have long lorded over the Azores island chain in the Atlantic, the Vikings got there first, a new study shows. And so did the Vikings’ mice, the Guardian reports.
We asked, you responded: Are you using your economic power to buy more sustainable items for your household? Hundreds of readers emailed after we asked this question last week. Rachael Penhorwood agreed her household is studying the materials of a product itself, but also “1) How renewable is the packaging? 2) How far did it have to travel to get to me? and 3) Was it produced humanely, in fair working conditions?” Reader Jeannie Byers, of western Indiana, says she’s stuck between two nearby grocery stories with conventional products in standard packaging and a slightly better natural foods story that is a 30-mile one-way trip in her Ford F150.
This week’s question: Keyed to the big climate change summit, should government intervene to seek to slow climate change? Do you believe weather extremes and natural disasters have increased because of climate change? Let us know. We’re polling Americans on this and will report the results next week.
| | | |
 | | PHOTOGRAPH BY TAMARA MERINO | | | Living underground: In Coober Pedy, a town in the southern Australian outback, the majority of the population lives in underground houses called dugouts. Photographer and Nat Geo Explorer Tamara Merino discovered the town by accident when a flat tire sidelined her on a road trip through the Australian desert. As she explored, she came across old signs advertising an "underground bar" and "underground restaurant.” In the latest episode of our podcast Overheard, Merino takes listeners to subterranean Australia, Spain, and Utah. (Pictured above, Gabriele Gouellain waits in the kitchen for her husband to return from mining.) | | | |
| PAID CONTENT FOR GENERAL MOTORS | |
 | | PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY GENERAL MOTORS. SIMULATED BATTERY AND VEHICLE SHOWN. | | | Engineering a More Equitable Future for All | | How do we get to an all-electric, zero-emissions future? By building transportation, technologies and infrastructure that brings everyone along for the ride. Learn how General Motors is building a future with “everybody in” and how they plan offer low-carbon energy mobility solutions that are accessible and affordable for all. | | | |
 | | ILLUSTRATION BY ANDREW FAZEKAS | | A sixth world: Much of the time, our eyes can see only five planets in the night sky: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. But tomorrow night is the best chance of the year for people with minimal light pollution to see Uranus, the green ice giant. How? Late at night, look toward the east in the constellation Aries. Uranus will be found about 18 degrees from the Pleiades star cluster. The light from the planet, 1.75 billion miles from Earth, takes nearly 2.5 hours to reach your eye. (Nat Geo’s September issue featured the small wonders of the solar system.)—Andrew Fazekas
| | | |
 | | PHOTOGRAPH BY TOLGA AKMEN, AFP/GETTY IMAGES | | That new COVID-19 variant: A more transmissible version of the Delta variant has been spreading throughout the United Kingdom since summer, and it has already appeared in 33 U.S. states. The mutant, known as AY.4.2, is currently behind less than 0.5 percent of all sequences identified so far in the U.S., Nat Geo reports, but concern is high that it may keep spreading during the winter. (Pictured above, commuters on an underground train in London last month.)
| | | |
This newsletter has been curated and edited by David Beard, Jen Tse, and Monica Williams. Have an idea or a link? We'd love to hear from you at david.beard@natgeo.com. Thanks for reading, and happy trails. | |
PREVIOUSLY ON NAT GEO DAILY ... | |
 | SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS | | We'd like to hear from you! Tell us what you think of our emails by sharing your feedback in this short survey.
| | | |
Clicking on the Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and National Geographic Channel links will take you away from our National Geographic Partners site where different terms of use and privacy policy apply.
This email was sent to: tiendasfrikiscineseriestvcomicsjuegos@barcelonafriki.com. Please do not reply to this email as this address is not monitored.
This email contains an advertisement from:
National Geographic | 1145 17th Street, N.W. | Washington, D.C. 20036
Stop all types of future commercial email from National Geographic regarding its products, services, or experiences.
© 2021 National Geographic Partners, LLC, All rights reserved. | | |
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.