University of Toronto scientists appointed as GSK chairs will advance drug delivery research and vaccine education tools for healthcare professionals

Vaccine-focused chairs announced during World Immunization Week 2024 will build tools for broader vaccine uptake and drive discovery in the next wave of vaccine design

Business Announcement

UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO - LESLIE DAN FACULTY OF PHARMACY

The University of Toronto’s Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy has announced the appointments of two leading scientists as endowed GSK research chairs. These appointments represent the collaborative efforts between the two organizations to advance the field of pharmacy and drive positive change in patient care.

Anna Tadio, professor at the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Toronto, and senior associate scientist at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) is the inaugural holder of the GSK Chair in Vaccine Education and Practice-Oriented Tools.  

Bowen Li, assistant professor at the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Toronto, and the Canada Research Chair in RNA Vaccines & Therapeutics is the new GSK Chair in Pharmaceutics and Drug Delivery.

Among the most prestigious appointments in academia, endowed chairs are maintained in perpetuity. They enable continuous advancement in research and teaching and signify a long-term commitment to a specific area of impact.

“At GSK, we are committed to supporting innovative centers and thought leaders, and the collaboration with the University of Toronto's Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy aligns with our goals of positively impacting the future of pharmacy and supporting the development of next-generation vaccines and therapeutics,” said Dr. Bryan Tennant, scientific director, GSK Canada. “Congratulations to Dr. Taddio and Dr. Li on your appointments. This is a remarkable milestone in advancing pharmaceutical research and education, and we’re eager to see how your work will propel us toward a healthier society.”

GSK Chair in Vaccine Education and Practice-Oriented Tools

Earlier interventions and widespread vaccination can change the trajectory of diseases and reduce pressure on healthcare systems. Pharmacists play a pivotal role in promoting good health outcomes, and their significance only grows as community pharmacies are increasingly recognized as essential health hubs.

The GSK Chair in Vaccine Education and Practice-Oriented Tools was established by GSK and the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy in 2023 through a joint investment of $ 3 million. As the inaugural chairholder, Anna Taddio, professor, Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, will have a broad educational and research mandate and will focus on closing gaps in vaccine education for students and healthcare professionals, particularly pharmacists.  She will work to develop evidence-based models of vaccine care that health professionals can use across a range of settings and that build trust, address barriers, and improve health outcomes.

“Addressing barriers to vaccination is a crucial aspect of improving vaccine acceptance and, in turn, public health. We need to make important changes to how care is delivered that are directly informed by patient participation and experiences,” said Taddio. “This chair will help to further the work we are leading, creating and evaluating innovative and practical approaches that will drive how we educate providers to practice and support vaccination across the lifespan.”

A pharmacist and a scientist, Taddio is internationally recognized for her groundbreaking work developing evidence-based clinical guidelines focused on mitigating pain and fear during vaccinations and other needle procedures. In 2015, vaccine-administering recommendations developed by her team were written into Canadian immunization guidelines and adopted by the World Health Organization. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Taddio’s CARD system (short for Comfort, Ask, Relax, and Distract) was widely shared with healthcare networks and the public to help people feel more comfortable when receiving their vaccinations. The CARD system was implemented in specialized vaccination clinics across Ontario, including those run by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) in Toronto, Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health, and pop-up clinics at the University of Toronto.

GSK Chair in Pharmaceutics and Drug Delivery

Since its establishment in 2000, the GSK Chair in Pharmaceutics and Drug Delivery has earned a remarkable reputation for its dedication to advancing our understanding of drug discovery and delivery. With the appointment of Bowen Li, assistant professor, Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, the chair's legacy of groundbreaking research and innovation in pharmaceutics and drug delivery is set to continue.

Working at the intersection of biomaterials sciences, drug delivery, and immunoengineering, Li leads a cutting-edge research program dedicated to building nonviral delivery systems for nucleic acids, including mRNA, circular RNA, and CRSIPR-Cas9. This rapidly evolving, highly interdisciplinary area of biomedicine is focused on tapping the potential of RNA to encode therapeutic proteins to prevent or treat multiple diseases, infectious diseases, cancer, and genetic disorders.

“The next wave of vaccines and pharmaceuticals will revolve around RNA drugs. Unlike traditional and conventional small molecule drugs that can only reach a small number of disease targets, RNA drugs have the potential to target the entire genome,” said Li. “However, the full potential of RNA therapeutics is contingent on solving the challenge of delivering these molecules into target cells safely and efficiently. This chair will help us develop new and better ways of delivering these drugs, improving their bioavailability so that we can experience their full benefit.”

The Li lab recently developed a pioneering high-throughput platform integrating combinatorial chemistry with deep learning algorithms. This innovative approach enables the swift design, synthesis, and screening of versatile delivery vehicles for customized nucleic acids, with the goal of accelerating the clinical translation of next-generation medicines.

VIDEO: GSK Chair in Vaccine Education and Practice-Oriented Tools
VIDEO: GSK Chair in Pharmaceutics and Drug Delivery

 

Scientists discover higher levels of CO2 increase survival of viruses in the air and transmission risk

UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL

 

IMAGE: 

IMAGE SHOWS AN AEROSOL OF DROPLETS CONTAINING THE COVID-19 VIRUS BEING HELD IN THE AIR BY ELECTRIC FIELDS.

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CREDIT: ALLEN HADDRELL

The research, led by the University of Bristol and published today in Nature Communications, shows how CO2 is a major factor in prolonging the life of SARS-CoV-2 variants present in tiny droplets circulating in the atmosphere.

Lead author Dr Allen Haddrell, Senior Research Associate in Aerosol Science at the University’s School of Chemistry, said: “We knew SARS-CoV-2, like other viruses, spreads through the air we breathe. But this study represents a huge breakthrough in our understanding of exactly how and why that happens, and crucially, what can be done to stop it.  

“It shows that opening a window may be more powerful than originally thought, especially in crowded and poorly ventilated rooms, as fresh air will have a lower concentration of CO2, causing the virus to become inactivated much faster.

“But it also highlights the importance of our global net zero goals because the research indicates even slightly raised levels of CO2, which are increasing in the atmosphere with the onset of climate change, can significantly improve the rate of virus survival and the risk of it spreading.”

During the COVID-19 pandemic carbon dioxide monitors were used to help estimate ventilation in buildings, as both CO2 and the virus are present in exhaled breath. But this research has uncovered how CO2 itself actually makes the virus survive longer in the air. The researchers also found that different SARS-CoV-2 variants had different aerostabilities, with the latest ‘Omicron’ variant having an extended lifespan.

The researchers made these discoveries using unique bioaerosol technology they developed, called CELEBS – Controlled Electrodynamic Levitation and Extraction of Bioaerosols onto a Substrate, which allows the survival of different SARS-CoV-2 variants to be measured in laboratory generated airborne particles that mimic exhaled aerosol.

By varying the concentration of CO2 in the air between 400 parts per million (ppm) – the level in normal outdoor air) and 6,500 ppm, the team confirmed a correlation between increases in CO2 concentrations and the length of time airborne viruses remains infectious in air, compounding the risk of transmission.

Results showed increasing the CO2 concentration to just 800 ppm, a level identified as well ventilated, resulted in an increase in viral aerostability. After 40 minutes, when compared to clean air, around 10 times as much virus remained infectious when the air has a CO2 concentration similar to that of a crowded room (3,000 ppm).

Dr Haddrell said: “This relationship sheds important light on why super spreader events may occur under certain conditions. The high pH of exhaled droplets containing the SARS-CoV-2 virus is likely a major driver of the loss of infectiousness. CO2 behaves as an acid when it interacts with droplets. This causes the pH of the droplets to become less alkaline, resulting in the virus within them being inactivated at a slower rate.

“That’s why opening a window is an effective mitigation strategy because it both physically removes the virus from the room, but also makes the aerosol droplets themselves more toxic to the virus.”

Between now and the end of the century, recent climate science research has projected the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere is expected to reach more than 700 ppm.

Dr Haddrell added: “These findings therefore have broader implications not only in our understanding of the transmission of respiratory viruses, but how changes in our environment may exacerbate the likelihood of future pandemics. Data from our study suggests that rising levels of CO2 in the atmosphere may coincide with an increase in the transmissibility of other respiratory viruses by extending how long they remain infectious in the air.”

Co-author Professor Jonathan Reid, Director of the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Aerosol Science at the University of Bristol, said: “While there is much we still do not understand, we are now gaining a much more complete picture of the role exhaled respiratory aerosols play in transporting infectious viruses between people and the mechanisms that control their survival. 

“These findings can serve as a scientific basis for the design of mitigation strategies that could save lives in any future pandemic.”

The study was funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), the UKRI National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) rapid COVID-19 call, the Elizabeth Blackwell Institute (EBI), the University of Bristol, and the Health and Safety Executive PROTECT COVID-19 National Core Study on transmission and environment.

LOOKEE ITS A GREEN LANTERN

Image shows a top-down view of the suspended viral droplets, spanning around 2cm, in the unique CELEBS bioaerosol device.

CREDIT

Allen Haddrell

Scientists discover higher lev [VIDEO] | 

A video showing the viral droplets, which were suspended for different durations ranging from three seconds to 40 minutes, pulled through the CELEBS bioaerosol device and then tested for levels of infectivity.

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JOURNAL

Nature Communications

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

‘Ambient Carbon Dioxide Concentration Correlates with SARS-CoV-2 Aerostability and Infection Risk’

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

26-Apr-2024

AMS Science Preview: Hawaiian climates; chronic pain; lightning-caused wildfires

Early online research from journals of the American Meteorological Society

AMERICAN METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY

 

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NEW HAWAIIAN CLIMATE DIVISIONS, FIGURE 2(A) FROM LUO ET AL. (2024), “ROUTINE CLIMATE MONITORING IN THE STATE OF HAWAI‘I: ESTABLISHMENT OF STATE CLIMATE DIVISIONS,” BULLETIN OF THE AMERICAN METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-23-0236.1

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CREDIT: FROM LUO ET AL. (2024), “ROUTINE CLIMATE MONITORING IN THE STATE OF HAWAI‘I: ESTABLISHMENT OF STATE CLIMATE DIVISIONS,” BULLETIN OF THE AMERICAN METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY.

The American Meteorological Society continuously publishes research on climate, weather, and water in its 12 journals. Many of these articles are available for early online access–they are peer-reviewed, but not yet in their final published form.

Below is a selection of articles published early online recently. Some articles are open-access; to view others, members of the media can contact kpflaumer@ametsoc.org for press login credentials.

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Routine Climate Monitoring in the State of Hawai‘i: Establishment of State Climate Divisions
Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society

Dividing up Hawaiian climates. Despite its incredibly diverse weather patterns, Hawai‘i has until now been the only U.S. state without official climate zones–meaning the islands are excluded from many national climate analyses and models. A new study identifies twelve official climate divisions: two each for Kaua‘i, O‘ahu, and Maui County, and six on Hawai‘i Island. Establishment of these divisions will improve climate research, monitoring, and weather forecasting. Divisions 5, 7, and 10 (located in rain shadows at high elevations) have the lowest average rainfall (<50 mm/month) while the Hilo Division (12) sees the most rain (over 300 mm/month).

Anthropogenic Changes of Interannual-to-Decadal Climate Variability in CMIP6 Multi-Ensemble Simulations
Journal of Climate

Climate variability may increase/decrease in different parts of the world. A modeling study of anthropogenic effects on internal climate variability (including seasonal and interannual fluctuating patterns) found two major trends: a decrease in surface air temperature variability at high latitudes, related to melting sea ice; and increasing variability of temperature and precipitation closer to the tropics (associated with the El Niño-Southern Oscillation system), both of which could have profoundly destabilizing effects on human societies and ecosystems in the region.

How Being Inside or Outside of Buildings Affects the Causal Relationship Between Weather and Pain Among People Living with Chronic Pain
Weather, Climate, and Society

Chronic pain sufferers who spend time outside see stronger weather-based effects. The authors analyze records from a smartphone study in which participants with chronic pain reported daily pain severity and time spent outside. Respondents were slightly more likely to experience a pain event during periods of high wind speed, and less likely to experience a pain event on higher-temperature days–but the effects were only significant among people who spent some time outdoors. A significant yet small relationship was found between pain and low atmospheric pressure, regardless of time spent outside.

Assessing Flash Characteristics in Lightning-Initiated Wildfire Events between 1995 and 2020 within the Contiguous United States
Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology

Which type of lightning causes the most wildfires? Lightning-initiated wildfires (LIWs) are responsible for more than half the acres burned in the contiguous United States. Researchers believed most LIWs to be caused by positive cloud-to-ground (+CG) flashes, in which a channel of positive charge reaches down from the clouds and connects with ground-based negative charges. A new study uses 26 years’ worth of data to overturn that belief, finding that 92% of LIW ignitions are actually caused by more common negative cloud-to-ground (-CG) strikes. More than half of these -CG ignitions were caused by a single strike.

Are Atmospheric Models Too Cold in the Mountains? The State of Science and Insights from the SAIL Field Campaign
Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society

Climate models may overestimate how cold mountains are. Mountain temperatures have a crucial influence on the ice and snow reservoirs that drive water availability in many areas. A literature review, supported by SAIL field campaign observations in the Rockies, suggests that “atmospheric models, from those that predict the weather to those that predict the future climate, are several degrees too cold on-average in … mountain regions.” It’s possible that this “cold bias” could impact how well models estimate future weather, climate, and water resources–for instance, by over-predicting how much snow vs. rain will fall.

Supercell Tornadogenesis: Recent Progress in our State of Understanding
Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society

Reconceptualizing tornado formation. This article helps to further unravel the enduring meteorological mystery of how supercell storms generate tornadoes, thanks to new research techniques that allow us to observe and model small-scale processes. Blending prior research with recent insights, the authors propose a four-step conceptual model, with the following key processes: a) the initial creation of a rotating updraft, b) development of disorganized patches of rotation at the land surface, c) the organization of these patches into a more defined, symmetric vortex, and d) the final transition into a fully developed tornado, a newly understood phase in which air turns abruptly upward very near the surface, enabling the tornado vortex to more easily persist.

Climate Justice and Climate Adaptation in California: Indigenous Community Climate Adaptation Leadership and Opportunities for Scientific Collaboration
Weather, Climate, and Society

Indigenous adaptation. This paper examines ways in which climate science and funding practitioners can be better partners in Indigenous communities’ ongoing work adapting to climate change. Examples include the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust (STLT), an urban Indigenous women-led land trust located in the east San Francisco bay area, which is creating community spaces and resources to improve resilience and emergency preparedness; the Keepers of the Flame Project in which tribal, agency, and other stakeholders work together to integrate Indigenous knowledge and needs into fire management plans; and the Winnemum Wintu Tribe’s community activism, the success of which has built a base for future climate action.

Observed Climatology and Variability of Cattle Heat Stress in Australia
Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology

Heat stress and cows. Based on historical data, this study applied three different thermal stress indices to identify the conditions that cause the most heat stress in cattle in Australia. The authors found the worst effects during times of high relative humidity combined with low wind speeds, or high sun exposure combined with high surface temperatures; they concluded that multiple different indices are needed to properly assess and predict heat stress among cattle and describe the need for a standardized risk classification system across Australia’s varied climates.

Sublimation of Snow
Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society

Vaporizing snow may affect Colorado River water resources. Each winter, “sublimation” – the conversion of ice and snow directly to water vapor in the air – removes an unknown percentage of snowpack in the Rocky Mountains, later reducing the availability of water in the Colorado River basin. These first detailed, season-long measurements of snow sublimation on a mountain in Colorado quantify how much snow vaporizes (about 10% of peak snow accumulation over the season) and what environmental conditions drive increases in sublimation – for example, when snow is blowing in the wind.

Synoptic Conditions and Lake-to-Lake Connections for Days with Lake-Effect on All of the Great Lakes
Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology

Times when the Great Lakes sync up on snow are growing rarer. Only 17% of lake-effect (LE) snow days in the Great Lakes see LE snow across all five lakes–but this study found that those days are responsible for nearly one-third of the bands of lake-effect snow produced in a year. On most of those days, snow bands extend across multiple lakes, which can amplify the magnitude of snow squalls downstream. The number of days with lake effect snow across all five lakes has declined by nearly 50% since the winter of 2008-2009.

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You can view all research published in AMS Journals at journals.ametsoc.org.

ARM (atmospheric radiation measurement) radiometers and a rain gauge collecting data as part of the Surface Atmosphere Integrated Field Laboratory (SAIL) campaign, near Gothic, CO, January 2023. Photo by Travis Guy, Hamelmann Communications, courtesy of the U.S. Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility. Learn more about this project: https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-23-0082.1

CREDIT

Image courtesy of the U.S. Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility.

New Model of Tornado Formation

The stages of tornado formation, from Fischer et al. (2024), “Supercell Tornadogenesis: Recent Progress in our State of Understanding,” Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society.

CREDIT

From Fischer et al. (2024), “Supercell Tornadogenesis: Recent Progress in our State of Understanding,” Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society.

Sublimation of Snow Project principal investigator Jessica Lundquist (University of Washington) and co-principal investigator Julie Vano (AGCI) install a snow pillow, while members of the National Center for Atmospheric Research team install instrumentation on a 20 meter/70 ft tower at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory in Gothic, Colorado. Photo: Emilio Mateo/Aspen Global Change Institute. Read about this project: https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-23-0191.1

CREDIT

Photo: Emilio Mateo/Aspen Global Change Institute

About the American Meteorological Society

The American Meteorological Society advances the atmospheric and related sciences, technologies, applications, and services for the benefit of society. Founded in 1919, AMS has a membership of around 12,000 professionals, students, and weather enthusiasts. AMS publishes 12 atmospheric and related oceanic and hydrologic science journals; hosts more than 12 conferences annually; and offers numerous programs and services. Visit us at www.ametsoc.org/.

About AMS Journals

The American Meteorological Society continuously publishes research on climate, weather, and water in its 12 journals. Some AMS journals are open access. Media login credentials are available for subscription journals. Journals include the Bulletin of the American Meteorolocial Society, Weather, Climate, and Society, the Journal of Climate, and Monthly Weather Review.

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JOURNAL

Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society

 

Can AI Understand Our Universe? Test of Fine-Tuning GPT by Astrophysical Data

By Keith Cowing

April 26, 2024LinkedInFacebo

Twitter

Example of quasar, galaxy, star, and BAL spectra. The lighter colors depict the original highresolution spectral data, while the darker colors represent the downsampled version, consisting of 100 data points for each spectrum. — astro-ph.IM

ChatGPT has been the most talked-about concept in recent months, captivating both professionals and the general public alike, and has sparked discussions about the changes that artificial intelligence (AI) will bring to the world.

As physicists and astrophysicists, we are curious about if scientific data can be correctly analyzed by large language models (LLMs) and yield accurate physics. In this article, we fine-tune the generative pre-trained transformer (GPT) model by the astronomical data from the observations of galaxies, quasars, stars, gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), and the simulations of black holes (BHs), the fine-tuned model demonstrates its capability to classify astrophysical phenomena, distinguish between two types of GRBs, deduce the redshift of quasars, and estimate BH parameters.

We regard this as a successful test, marking the LLM’s proven efficacy in scientific research. With the ever-growing volume of multidisciplinary data and the advancement of AI technology, we look forward to the emergence of a more fundamental and comprehensive understanding of our universe. This article also shares some interesting thoughts on data collection and AI design.

Using the approach of understanding the universe – looking outward at data and inward for fundamental building blocks – as a guideline, we propose a method of series expansion for AI, suggesting ways to train and control AI that is smarter than humans.

Yu Wang, Shu-Rui Zhang, Aidin Momtaz, Rahim Moradi, Fatemeh Rastegarnia, Narek Sahakyan, Soroush Shakeri, Liang Li

Subjects: Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM); Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA); High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE); Artificial Intelligence (cs.AI); Machine Learning (cs.LG); Data Analysis, Statistics and Probability (physics.data-an)
Cite as: arXiv:2404.10019 [astro-ph.IM] (or arXiv:2404.10019v1 [astro-ph.IM] for this version)

Submission history
From: Yu Wang
[v1] Sun, 14 Apr 2024 20:52:19 UTC (1,141 KB)
https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.10019

Astrobiology

Keith Cowing

Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA Space Station Payload manager/space biologist, Away Teams, Journalist, Lapsed climber, Synaesthete, Na’Vi-Jedi-Freman-Buddhist-mix, ASL, Devon Island and Everest Base Camp veteran, (he/him) 

SPACE

Book Review: The Enduring Allure of Alien Worlds

In her new book, astronomer Lisa Kaltenegger explores how scientists might find life elsewhere in the universe.

An artist’s depiction of the planet Kepler-62f, which is in the habitable zone of a star about 1,200 light-years from Earth. Visual: NASA/Ames/JPL-Caltech

BY SARAH SCOLES
04.26.2024

LISA KALTENEGGER’S lab has a bit more color than a typical research facility, filled as it is with a plethora of bright glassware. It’s the kind of rainbow array you might expect to see in the lab of a life scientist. But Kaltenegger isn’t a life scientist, nor is she cultivating colorful organisms in these tiny, transparent homes for biological study. She’s an astronomer, interested in learning how masses of microbes located on distant planets might look through a telescope.

Kaltenegger has populated Petri dishes and other vessels with organisms like algae, samples of which she cajoled out of her life science colleagues at Cornell University. Each species changes the hue of its environment in a particular way, transforming the deserts, ice, or hot springs from which it came — or, in this case, the color scheme of Kaltenegger’s lab. Ocean algae, for example, can create a crimson bloom, while some hot-sulfur-spring-dwellers produce a mustard shade.

Kaltenegger’s lab is part of the interdisciplinary Carl Sagan Institute, which she founded in service of finding life in the universe. Her new book “Alien Earths: The New Science of Planet Hunting in the Cosmos” details the research that aims to find such life forms, and understand the planets they may inhabit — a pursuit that, for her, sometimes begins with those colorful organisms.

After a given group of organisms has grown enough, Kaltenegger and colleagues load it into a backpack and take it to Cornell’s civil engineering department. There, the scientists can use remote-sensing equipment to see the samples as a telescope would — measuring the different color patterns of light that result. That way, the idea goes, scientists can recognize potential alien organisms — which could, hypothetically, resemble algae and algae’s alterations of Earth — at a distance, based on their chromatic fingerprints.




“Once you try to find life somewhere else, you realize it is not so straightforward. Welcome to the world of science.”

The information about their color then gets plugged into computer models that Kaltenegger creates of planets, both actual and hypothetical. “A few keystrokes let me move the planet closer to the star, manipulate the color of its sun, heighten its gravity, create worldwide sand dunes, oceans, or jungles, and add or remove life-forms,” Kaltenegger writes. “I am creating worlds that could be and the light fingerprints to search for them with our telescopes.”

In “Alien Earths,” Kaltenegger lays out the state and stakes of this search, while exploring the array of planets in this solar system and beyond, all with the goal of answering that ultimate query: Are we alone? “The question should have an obvious answer: yes or no,” she writes. “But once you try to find life somewhere else, you realize it is not so straightforward. Welcome to the world of science.”

KALTENEGGER BEGINS “Alien Earths” by setting up the different ways that people have thought about life in the universe — or, rather, the lack of evidence for it so far. But the book’s substance is in investigating how and where life might appear in the universe, and how humans might recognize it. In this pursuit, it bounces from planetary evolution to exoplanet studies, from biological evolution to telescope technology, the text as interdisciplinary as her institute.

It’s a lot of ground to cover, and the flow of the book is not always tightly organized in a thematic way. But what the book may lack in structural coherence, it makes up for in vivid details that take readers to the titular worlds — and can lead them to view their own planet at a remove, as an alien would through its own telescope.

Take the imaginary planet that begins the book: One where a whole hemisphere is always dark, the other always light: “You wait for the sunset and the darkness of night, but they never come,” she writes. “To experience nightfall, you have to travel for days to the far side of this distant planet, a place of eternal dusk.”

Lisa Kaltenegger and her colleagues recently found that purple could be a key color to look for as a sign of life. Planets that get little or no visible light or oxygen may be covered by bacteria that use infrared light for photosynthesis and contain purple pigments. Visual: Cornell University/YouTube.

The text shines most when Kaltenegger writes about her own research, which is fascinating in its inventiveness. In the digital planets she creates, informed by her experiments, she acts as a kind of god, manipulating them to her liking and curiosity. “I can cover the oceans with a green algae bloom or dot continents with yellow microbial mats,” she says. “Without leaving my office, I can create new worlds.”

Kaltenegger explains this complex science in a straightforward, sometimes lyrical, and often humorous way. For instance, when discussing whether and how humans might communicate with extraterrestrial life, she writes that “the experience might end up being like a human trying to talk to a jellyfish. I’ve attempted that; the results were less than promising.”

The book also doles out the kind of big-picture cosmic facts that blow the minds of each new generation of pop-science readers, as when she discusses how the speed of light affects our perception of the stars: “Because light needs time to travel through the cosmos, you can find a link to your own past in the sky,” she writes. “There is a star in the night sky whose light was sent out when you were born and is just arriving now.”

Sometimes, the humor and the mindblowers come in one package, as in Kaltenegger’s description of the solar system whizzing around the galaxy’s center. “If you ever feel stuck,” she writes, “remember: cosmologically speaking, you are not. You are speeding through the cosmos. And you are part of it.”

In that cosmos, scientists have found more than 5,000 distant planets in the past 30 years, a wave of discoveries that Kaltenegger charts, with descriptions as rich as her imagined creations. For example, the planet CoRoT-7 b, discovered in 2009, is so hot that it melts its own rocks. These liquefied rocks evaporate, then fall back down to the cursed ground as lava rain.

Kaltenegger has experimented with a similar lava planet in her lab, to again understand how a telescope might see such a place: Her team picked 20 different rock varieties that might be found on planets, then mixed them in powder form to get the compositions for the type of planet they wanted to create. When placed on a heated metal strip, they become small-scale lava — a linear lava planet, of sorts. “The worlds we create are so small, they can easily fit in the palm of my hand,” Kaltenegger writes. She and colleagues then try to figure out how that lava would look large-scale to a telescope, so they can compare that signature to sights they actually see.

“If you ever feel stuck, remember: cosmologically speaking, you are not. You are speeding through the cosmos. And you are part of it.”

Readers may be surprised, though, to find that so much of “Alien Earths” focuses on this Earth and its close neighbors in the solar system. “When we look for life in the cosmos, Earth is our lone key to unlock the secrets of what it requires to get started,” Kaltenegger explains. And so exoplanet scientists actually spend a lot of their time looking closer to home — at the blooming life in their own Petri dishes, the evolution of familiar continents, the record of meteorite strikes, or the ways the atmosphere has transformed over time.

Conversely, studying other planets could reveal more about Earth and how it came to sustain life. Other planets might also serve as cautionary tales: “Exploring space allows us to gather the knowledge to save ourselves from asteroids, from pollution, and from using up the limited resources on Earth,” Kaltenegger writes.

But in her view, the best way for humans to save themselves long term isn’t necessarily to fend off planetary troubles. It’s to get out of here. All planets — alien or not, polluted or not — will someday be rendered uninhabitable: The stars they orbit will go out “in a hot blaze of glory,” boiling life out of existence, or they will slowly get dimmer and their worlds slowly colder. Though this won’t happen to Earth for billions of years, if you would prefer neither, Kaltenegger has a suggestion: “Let’s become wanderers of this amazing universe,” she writes. “It does not have to end in fire or ice.”


Sarah Scoles is a science journalist based in Colorado, and a senior contributor to Undark. She is the author of “Making Contact,” “They Are Already Here,” and “Countdown: The Blinding Future of 21st Century Nuclear Weapons.”

James Webb Space Telescope discovers some early universe galaxies grew up surprisingly fast

By Robert Lea

 

"This means we will have to adjust our views on early galaxy evolution."

From left to right: Hubble Space Telescope WFC3 F160W and James Webb Space Telescope NIRCam F356W and F444W (Image credit: Zoe Le Conte)

Using the James Webb Space Telescope, scientists have discovered that early universe galaxies must have grown up way faster than expected. Plus, the same team also found that, 10 billion years ago, the cosmos wasn't quite as disordered and chaotic as previously believed.

The international team, led by researchers from Durham University in the U.K., reached these conclusions by discovering evidence of structures called "star bars" forming in galaxies that existed just a few billion years after the Big Bang.

Star bars are elongated regions of increased star density found at the hearts of spiral galaxies like the Milky Way and other disk galaxies. As they form, star bars push gas toward the hearts of their respective galaxies, thereby regulating star birth. The presence of these central bar structures thus indicate that a galaxy has entered a more settled and "mature phase."

Related: James Webb Space Telescope finds dwarf galaxies packed enough punch to reshape the entire early universe

"Galaxies in the early universe are maturing much faster than we thought," Zoe Le Conte, team leader and a researcher at Durham University, said in a statement. "This is a real surprise because you would expect the universe at that stage to be very turbulent, with lots of collisions between galaxies and a lot of gas that hasn't yet transformed into stars.

"However, thanks to the JWST, we are seeing a lot of these bars much earlier in the life of the universe, which means that galaxies were at a more settled stage in their evolution than previously thought. This means we will have to adjust our views on early galaxy evolution."

Bar-hopping for the James Webb Space Telescope

This isn't the first time scientists have gone bar-hopping in the early history of the 13.8 billion-year history of the universe. 

The Hubble space telescope witnessed these features as well, but that orbiting eye on the universe could only go as far back as 8 billion to 9 billion years. The increased sensitivity and wavelength range of the JWST, however, has stretched such observations back at least another 1 billion years. This has revealed bar formation in galaxies that are seen as they were between 8 billion and 11.5 billion years ago. In fact, of 368 disk galaxies the team considered for the study, 20% already had bars.

That is double the number observed by Hubble.


A diagram of the Milky Way with is dense central bar visible in yellow. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt (SSC-Caltech))

"We find that many more bars were present in the early universe than previously found in Hubble studies, implying that bar-driven galaxy evolution has been happening for much longer than previously thought," team member and Durham University scientist Dimitri Gadotti said. "The fact that there are a lot more bars is what’s very exciting."

The further back in time the team looked with the JWST, the fewer bar structures they observed in galaxies. 

They believe this could be because galaxies at earlier stages of the universe were not as well formed. An alternative may be that shorter bars were more common in progressively earlier galaxies. Even the impressive observational power of the JWST isn't sufficient to see these short bars in early galaxies.

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With these results in hand, the team now wants to use the JWST to peer even further back into cosmic time, looking back as far as 12.2 billion years ago. This could reveal whether bar growth was common just 1.6 billion years after the Big Bang. 

"The simulations of the universe now need to be scrutinized to see if we get the same results as the observations we’ve made with the JWST," Gadotti concluded. "We have to think outside of what we thought we knew."

The team's research was published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

 

Researchers advance detection of gravitational waves to study collisions of neutron stars and black holes

Alerts can now be sent less than 30 seconds after detection.

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA

 

IMAGE: 

THE GRAPH SHOWS THE AMOUNT OF TIME IT TAKES RESEARCHERS TO SEND OUT AN ALERT, ON AVERAGE THE ALERT TIME IS UNDER 30 SECONDS. 

view more 

CREDIT: ANDREW TOIVONEN

MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL (04/26/2024) — Researchers at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities College of Science and Engineering co-led a new study by an international team that will improve the detection of gravitational waves—ripples in space and time. 

The research aims to send alerts to astronomers and astrophysicists within 30 seconds after the detection, helping to improve the understanding of neutron stars and black holes and how heavy elements, including gold and uranium, are produced.

The findings were recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS), a peer-reviewed, open access, scientific journal.  

Gravitational waves interact with spacetime by compressing it in one direction while stretching it in the perpendicular direction. That is why current state-of-the-art gravitational wave detectors are L-shaped and measure the relative lengths of the laser using interferometry, a measurement method which looks at the interference patterns produced by the combination of two light sources. Detecting gravitational waves requires measuring the length of the laser to precise measurements: equivalent to measuring the distance to the nearest star, around four light years away, down to the width of a human hair.

This research is part of the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA (LVK) Collaboration, a network of gravitational wave interferometers across the world. 

In the latest simulation campaign, data was used from previous observation periods and simulated gravitational wave signals were added to show the performance of the software and equipment upgrades. The software can detect the shape of signals, track how the signal behaves, and estimate what masses are included in the event, like neutron stars or black holes. Neutron stars are the smallest, most dense stars known to exist and are formed when massive stars explode in supernovas.

Once this software detects a gravitational wave signal, it sends out alerts to subscribers, which usually include astronomers or astrophysicists, to communicate where the signal was located in the sky. With the upgrades in this observing period, scientists are able to send alerts faster, under 30 seconds, after the detection of a gravitational wave. 

“With this software, we can detect the gravitational wave from neutron star collisions that is normally too faint to see unless we know exactly where to look,” said Andrew Toivonen, a Ph.D. student in the University of Minnesota Twin Cities School of Physics and Astronomy. “Detecting the gravitational waves first will help locate the collision and help astronomers and astrophysicists to complete further research.” 

Astronomers and astrophysicists could use this information to understand how neutron stars behave, study nuclear reactions between neutron stars and black holes colliding, and how heavy elements, including gold and uranium, are produced.

This is the fourth observing run using the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), and it will observe through February 2025. In between the last three observing periods, scientists have made improvements to the detection of signals. After this observing run ends, researchers will continue to look at the data and make further improvements with the goal of sending out alerts even faster.

The multi-institutional paper included Michael Coughlin, Assistant Professor for the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Minnesota in addition to Toivonen.

LIGO is funded by the National Science Foundation, and operated by Caltech and MIT. More than 1,200 scientists and some 100 institutions from around the world participate in the effort through the LIGO Scientific Collaboration. 

To read the entire research paper titled, “Low-latency gravitational wave alert products and their performance at the time of the fourth LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA observing run”, visit the PNAS website.

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JOURNAL

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

DOI

10.1073/pnas.2316474121 

ARTICLE TITLE

Low-latency gravitational wave alert products and their performance at the time of the fourth LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA observing run

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

23-Apr-2024