It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Tuesday, March 21, 2023
A 'hole' 30 times Earth's size has spread across the sun, blasting solar winds that'll hit our planet by end of this week
Rebecca Cohen Tue, March 21, 2023
A video from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory shows the massive hole in the sun's atmosphere.NASA/Solar Dynamics Observatory
The sun is sporting a giant coronal hole that could fit 20-30 Earths across, back-to-back.
Coronal holes blast rapid solar winds into space that travel 500-800 kilometers per second.
The relatively-harmless winds should reach Earth by Friday for a more stunning aurora.
Despite the name, however, this isn't a physical hole in the solar surface. Coronal holes are cooler in temperature, so they don't glow as bright and therefore look black against the rest of the sun.
"The current coronal hole, the big one right now, is about 300,000 to 400,000 kilometers across," Alex Young, associate director for science at NASA Goddard's Heliophysics Science Division, told Insider over email. "That is about 20-30 Earths lined up back-to-back."
One Earth compared to the size of the sun.ESA & NASA
Coronal holes like these are common. There is "nothing unusual here," Scott McIntosh, a solar physicist and deputy director of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, told Insider in an email.
Holes like this are part of the sun's normal activity. However, they're "not well understood. Their origins are unclear," McIntosh added, calling these events "the 'dark side' of solar activity."
It's worth noting that these coronal holes are the source of rapid solar winds — reaching speeds of about 500-800 km per second, Young wrote to Insider. In this case, the solar winds from this coronal hole are scheduled to reach Earth by the end of this week.
An animation of the solar wind shows particles streaming from the sun towards Earth.NASA
"We will probably start seeing the effects of the high-speed wind on March 24," Young added. "When the high-speed wind reaches Earth, the particles and the magnetic field it carries will interact with Earth's magnetic field, effectively rattling it or like ringing a bell."
More powerful magnetic fields, like from a coronal mass ejection, could cause electrical blackouts or disrupt communication technology. But coronal holes — even large ones like this — are far less violent. So the main effect to look forward to this Friday is more vibrant aurora borealis, aka northern lights.
The Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) is seen over the sky near Rovaniemi in Lapland, Finland, October 7, 2018.Alexander Kuznetsov/Reuters
However, we are entering a new phase of increasing solar activity where coronal holes will be less the norm and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) and powerful solar flares will become more common, Young said.
That can be a concern since the powerful magnetic fields from CMEs and solar flares have been known to surge power grids and fry satellites. However, these events are few and far between.
In reality, Young said that for him and other solar scientists, as solar activity increases, "it's gonna get more and more exciting and interesting."
Biden orders release of intelligence on potential links between Covid and Wuhan lab
Move poses political risk for US president, who has a difficult relationship with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping
Agence France-Presse Tue 21 Mar 2023
A bill requiring the release of intelligence materials on potential links between the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic and a laboratory in the Chinese city of Wuhan has been signed into law by US president Joe Biden.
“We need to get to the bottom of Covid-19’s origins … including potential links to the Wuhan Institute of Virology,” Biden said in a statement. “In implementing this legislation, my administration will declassify and share as much of that information as possible.
“I share the Congress’s goal of releasing as much information as possible about the origin” of Covid, he said.
Biden said that in 2021, after taking office, he had “directed the intelligence community to use every tool at its disposal” to investigate the origins of the virus.
That work is “ongoing,” but as much as possible will be released without causing “harm to national security”, he said.
However, much of Congress wants to pursue the theory further, and the issue has become a rallying point in particular for Biden’s Republican opponents.
Congress passed and sent the bill to Biden earlier this month.
The Covid-19 outbreak was first detected in 2019 in the eastern Chinese city of Wuhan, leading to almost 7 million deaths worldwide so far, according to official counts, with over a million of them in the US.
The US Energy Department – one of the US agencies investigating the disaster – concluded with “low confidence” that the virus probably came from a lab, agreeing with the assessment of the FBI, but contradicting the conclusions of several other agencies.
WUHAN RACCOON DOG (CANID/FOX)
DENYING HUMAN RIGHTS
Uganda passes bill criminalizing people for identifying as LGBTQ
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Bill prescribes jail terms of up to 10 years for offences related to same-sex relations
The Associated Press ·
Ugandan lawmakers passed a bill prescribing jail terms of up to 10 years for offences related to same-sex relations, responding to widespread anti-LGBTQ sentiment in the country but piling more pressure on the East African country's LGBTQ community.
The bill was passed late Tuesday inside a packed parliamentary chamber, and after a roll call ordered by the House speaker, who had repeatedly warned it was necessary to identify those who might oppose the bill. It was supported by nearly all of the 389 legislators present.
"Congratulations," said Speaker Anita Among. "Whatever we are doing, we are doing it for the people of Uganda."
The new law appears to be the first to outlaw identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning/queer (LGBTQ), according to rights group Human Rights Watch
An earlier version of the bill enacted in 2014 later was nullified by a court on procedural grounds. Human Rights Watch has described the legislation as "a more egregious version" of the 2014 law, which drew widespread international concern and was struck down amid pressure from Uganda's development partners.
The bill now will go to President Yoweri Museveni, who can veto or sign it into law. He suggested in a recent speech that he supports the bill, accusing unnamed Western nations of "trying to impose their practices on other people."
The bill was introduced last month by an opposition lawmaker who said his goal was to punish "promotion, recruitment and funding" related to LGBTQ activities. The bill also creates the offence of "aggravated homosexuality," which applies to same-sex cases relating to those infected with HIV as well as minors and other vulnerable people. It was not immediately clear what the punishment is for that offence following last-minute amendments in a protracted plenary session in the capital, Kampala.
Jail terms for 'attempted homosexuality'
The bill also creates the offence of "attempted homosexuality," punishable with up to 10 years in jail.
Same-sex activity is already punishable with life imprisonment under a colonial-era law targeting "carnal knowledge against the order of nature," partly the basis of a report by dissenters on the parliamentary committee that vetted the bill before Tuesday's vote.
The bill is "ill-conceived" and unconstitutional because it "criminalizes individuals instead of conduct," said lawmaker Fox Odoi, representing the dissenters.
The bill, if signed into law, "would violate multiple fundamental rights, including rights to freedom of expression and association, privacy, equality, and non-discrimination, according to Human Rights Watch.
"One of the most extreme features of this new bill is that it criminalizes people simply for being who they are as well as further infringing on the rights to privacy, and freedoms of expression and association that are already compromised in Uganda," the group's Oryem Nyeko said in a statement earlier this month.
"Ugandan politicians should focus on passing laws that protect vulnerable minorities and affirm fundamental rights and stop targeting LGBT people for political capital."
Anti-LGBTQ sentiment growing in Uganda
Anti-LGBTQ sentiment in Uganda has grown in recent weeks amid alleged reports of sodomy in boarding schools, including a prestigious school for boys where a parent accused a teacher of abusing her son. Authorities are investigating that case.
Uganda's LGBTQ community in recent years has faced pressure from civilian authorities who wanted a tough new law punishing same-sex activity.
The Ugandan agency overseeing the work of NGOs last year stopped the operations of Sexual Minorities Uganda, the most prominent LGBTQ organization in the country, accusing it of failing to register legally. But the group's leader stated that his organization had been rejected by the registrar of companies as undesirable.
The recent decision of the Church of England to bless civil marriages of same-sex couples also has inflamed many in Uganda, including some who see homosexuality as imported from abroad.
"The Church of England has departed from the Anglican faith and are now false teachers," Ugandan Archbishop Stephen Kaziimba said in a statement last month that described "a crisis at hand."
Homosexuality is criminalized in more than 30 of Africa's 54 countries.
With files from Reuters
Ugandan parliament passes bill to jail gay people
Published
By Patience Atuhaire in Kampala & James Gregory in London
BBC News
Uganda's parliament has passed a bill which would criminalise people who identify as gay, or a sexual minority.
Individuals could face lengthy prison terms if the bill is signed into law by President Yoweri Museveni.
Under the proposed legislation, friends, family and members of the community would have a duty to report individuals in same-sex relationships to the authorities.
Homosexual acts are already illegal in the east African country.
But the bill seeks to go further and criminalise people on the basis of their sexual identity.
It will now go to President Museveni who can choose to use his veto - and maintain good relations with Western donors and investors - or sign it into law.
The bill also stipulates that a person who is convicted of grooming or trafficking children for purposes of engaging them in homosexual activities faces life in prison.
Individuals or institutions which support or fund LGBT rights' activities or organisations, or publish, broadcast and distribute pro-gay media material and literature, also face prosecution and imprisonment.
A small group of Ugandan MPs on a committee scrutinising the bill disagreed with its premise. They argue the offences it seeks to criminalise are already covered in the country's Penal Code Act.
Activists and LGBT people in Uganda have said that anti-homosexuality sentiment in the country is exposing them to physical and online violence, and that the bill may have far-reaching consequences for Ugandans in general.
In 2014, Uganda's constitutional court nullified a similar act which had toughened laws against the LGBT community.
It included making it illegal to promote and fund LGBT groups and activities, as well as reiterating that homosexual acts should be punished by life imprisonment.
The court ruled that the legislation be revoked because it had been passed by parliament without the required quorum. The law had been widely condemned by Western countries.
Same-sex relations are banned in about 30 African countries, where many people uphold conservative religious and social values.
Ugandan MPs pass bill imposing death penalty for homosexuality
Human rights campaigners condemn bill introducing capital and life imprisonment sentences
MPs in Uganda have passed a controversial anti-LGBTQ+ bill, which would make homosexual acts punishable by death, attracting strong condemnation from rights campaigners.
All but two of the 389 legislators voted late on Tuesday for the hardline anti-homosexuality bill, which introduces capital and life imprisonment sentences for gay sex and “recruitment, promotion and funding” of same-sex “activities”.
“A person who commits the offence of aggravated homosexuality and is liable, on conviction to suffer death,” reads the bill presented by Robina Rwakoojo, the chairperson for legal and parliamentary affairs.
Just two MPs from the ruling party, Fox Odoi-Oywelowo and Paul Kwizera Bucyana, opposed the new legislation.
“The bill is ill-conceived, it contains provisions that are unconstitutional, reverses the gains registered in the fight against gender-based violence and criminalises individuals instead of conduct that contravenes all known legal norms,” said Odoi-Oywelowo.
“The bill doesn’t introduce any value addition to the statute book and available legislative framework,” he said.
An earlier version of the bill prompted widespread international criticism and was later nullified by Uganda’s constitutional court on procedural grounds. The bill will now go to President Yoweri Museveni, who can veto or sign it into law. In a recent speech he appeared to express support for the bill.
One MP in the chamber, John Musila, wore a gown reading: “Say No To Homosexual, Lesbianism, Gay.”
The bill marks the latest in a string of setbacks for LGBTQ+rights in Africa, where homosexuality is illegal in most countries. In Uganda, a largely conservative Christian country, homosexual sex was already punishable by life imprisonment.
Human rights campaigners have condemned the new move to enact the harsh law, describing it as “hate legislation”.
“Today marks a tragic day in Uganda’s history. @Parliament_Ug has passed legislation that promotes hatred and seeks to strip LGBTIQ individuals of their fundamental rights!” tweeted Sarah Kasande, a Kampala-based lawyer and human rights activist.
“The provisions of the anti-homosexuality bill are barbaric, discriminatory and unconstitutional,” she said.
She added: “To the LGBTIQ community, I know this is a difficult day, but please don’t lose hope. The battle is not over; this repugnant bill will ultimately be struck down.”
Gay activist Eric Ndawula tweeted: “Today’s events in parliament are not just immoral, but a complete assault on humanity. It’s frightening that our MPs’ judgment is clouded by hate & homophobia. Who benefits from this draconian law?”
More than 110 LGBTQ+ people in Uganda reported incidents including arrests, sexual violence, evictions and public undressing to advocacy group Sexual Minorities Uganda (Smug) in February alone. Transgender people were disproportionately affected, said the group.
Kasha Jacqueline Nabagesera, a lesbian activist in Kampala, said efforts to overturn the legislation would continue.
“We shall continue to fight this injustice. This lesbian woman is Ugandan even this piece of paper will [not] stop me from enjoying my country. Struggle just begun,” said Nabagesera in a tweet.
Kasande said: “We will fight until all individuals in Uganda can enjoy the rights guaranteed to them by the constitution.”
President Museveni last month said Uganda will not embrace homosexuality, claiming that the west was seeking to compel other countries to “normalise” what he called “deviations”.
“The western countries should stop wasting the time of humanity by trying to impose their practices on other people,” said Museveni in a televised address to parliament on 16 March.
“Homosexuals are deviations from the normal. Why? Is it by nature or by nurture? We need to answer those questions. We need a medical opinion on that,” he said.
“It’s disappointing that parliament would, once again, pass a bill that is clearly in contravention of several basic human rights,” said Oryem Nyeko, a researcher in the Africa division at Human Rights Watch.
“This just opens the door for more regressive laws and for people’s rights to be violated across the board. President Museveni shouldn’t assent to it,” he said.
Scientists Discover RNA Component Buried in The Dust of an Asteroid
A sample extracted from an asteroid far from Earth has confirmed that RNA nucleobases can be found in space rocks.
Analysis of dust ferried home from asteroid Ryugu has been found to contain uracil – one of the four nucleobases that make up RNA – in addition to niacin, a form of the vitamin B3, which plays an important role in metabolism.
This adds to a growing body of evidence that the building blocks for life form in space, and may have been at least partially delivered to Earth by asteroid bombardment early in our planet's history.
"Scientists have previously found nucleobases and vitamins in certain carbon-rich meteorites, but there was always the question of contamination by exposure to the Earth's environment," says astrochemist Yasuhiro Oba of Hokkaido University in Japan.
"Since the Hayabusa2 spacecraft collected two samples directly from asteroid Ryugu and delivered them to Earth in sealed capsules, contamination can be ruled out."
How life emerged, and how common that emergence might be across the Milky Way galaxy, are two questions that humanity would love to know the answers to. One way to interrogate them is to seek the building blocks of life in space, and explore potential mechanisms for their delivery from out there to down here.
Put together, the evidence suggests that life's building blocks may indeed have been alien… but certainty remained elusive until scientists could rule out the permeation of Earth material into space rocks after their arrival here.
To figure out what was in the pristine samples Hayabusa2 brought back from Ryugu, Oba and his colleagues employed a new technique they developed for the small-scale detection and identification of nucleobases in tiny amounts.
The team took the two samples, obtained from different locations on the asteroid, soaked them in hot water, and subjected them to high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with electrospray ionization high-resolution mass spectrometry. This technique, when employed on the Murchison meteorite that fell to Earth in 1969, yielded all five canonical nucleobases.
The range of biomolecules found in Ryugu was smaller, but still significant, the researchers believe.
"We found uracil in the samples in small amounts, in the range of 6–32 parts per billion (ppb), while vitamin B3 was more abundant, in the range of 49–99 ppb," Oba says. "Other biological molecules were found in the sample as well, including a selection of amino acids, amines and carboxylic acids, which are found in proteins and metabolism, respectively."
The compounds identified, which join around 20 amino acids previously found in Ryugu samples, differ from those found in other carbon-rich meteorites that have fallen to Earth, but are broadly similar. This suggests that biomolecules may be quite common in carbonaceous meteorites, and could have hitched a ride to Earth during periods of bombardment.
As to how they got on the asteroids, scientists believe that compounds containing nitrogen may have formed from simpler molecules, including formaldehyde, ammonia, and hydrogen cyanide.
These have not been found in the Ryugu samples, but they were likely present if, early in its history, the asteroid or its parent body had been a comet, coated in ices rich in these molecules.
Ryugu, however, is just the beginning. NASA has collected a sample from another asteroid, Bennu, and is ferrying it home to Earth for analysis. Early studies indicate that it, too, contains organic materials that are consistent with the building blocks of life.
"The discovery of uracil in the samples from Ryugu lends strength to current theories regarding the source of nucleobases in the early Earth," Oba says.
"The OSIRIS-REx mission by NASA will be returning samples from asteroid Bennu this year, and a comparative study of the composition of these asteroids will provide further data to build on these theories."
It seems the star stuff we're made of took a detour by way of asteroids.
Researchers have analyzed samples of asteroid Ryugu collected by the Japanese Space Agency’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft and found uracil—one of the informational units that make up RNA, the molecules that contain the instructions for how to build and operate living organisms. Nicotinic acid, also known as Vitamin B3 or niacin, which is an important cofactor for metabolism in living organisms, was also detected in the same samples.
This discovery by an international team, led by Associate Professor Yasuhiro Oba at Hokkaido University, adds to the evidence that important building blocks for life are created in space and could have been delivered to Earth by meteorites. The findings were published in the journal Nature Communications.
“Scientists have previously found nucleobases and vitamins in certain carbon-rich meteorites, but there was always the question of contamination by exposure to the Earth’s environment,” Oba explained. “Since the Hayabusa2 spacecraft collected two samples directly from asteroid Ryugu and delivered them to Earth in sealed capsules, contamination can be ruled out.”
The researchers extracted these molecules by soaking the Ryugu particles in hot water, followed by analyses using liquid chromatography coupled with high-resolution mass spectrometry. This revealed the presence of uracil and nicotinic acid, as well as other nitrogen-containing organic compounds.
“We found uracil in the samples in small amounts, in the range of 6–32 parts per billion (ppb), while vitamin B3 was more abundant, in the range of 49–99 ppb,” Oba elaborated. “Other biological molecules were found in the sample as well, including a selection of amino acids, amines and carboxylic acids, which are found in proteins and metabolism, respectively.” The compounds detected are similar but not identical to those previously discovered in carbon-rich meteorites.
The team hypothesizes that the difference in concentrations in the two samples, collected from different locations on Ryugu, is likely due to the exposure to the extreme environments of space. They also hypothesized that the nitrogen-containing compounds were, at least in part, formed from the simpler molecules such as ammonia, formaldehyde and hydrogen cyanide. While these were not detected in the Ryugu samples, they are known to be present in cometary ice—and Ryugu could have originated as a comet or another parent body which had been present in low temperature environments.
“The discovery of uracil in the samples from Ryugu lends strength to current theories regarding the source of nucleobases in the early Earth,” Oba concludes. “The OSIRIS-REx mission by NASA will be returning samples from asteroid Bennu this year, and a comparative study of the composition of these asteroids will provide further data to build on these theories.”
The Hayabusa2 project has been led by JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) in collaboration with DLR (German Space Center) and CNES (French Space Center) and supported by NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) and ASA (Australian Space Agency). This research is partly supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) under KAKENHI (21H04501, 21H05414, 21J00504, 21KK0062, 20H00202); the Consortium for Hayabusa2 Analysis of Organic Solubles, supported by NASA. This study was partly conducted by the official collaboration agreement through the joint research project with JAMSTEC, Keio University and HMT Inc. This study was conducted in accordance with the Joint Research Promotion Project at the Institute of Low Temperature Science, Hokkaido University (21G008, 22G008).