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Category: evolution – Page 3

Information entropy untangles vortices and flows in turbulent plasmas

Turbulence in nature refers to the complex, time-dependent, and spatially varying fluctuations that develop in fluids such as water, air, and plasma. It is a universal phenomenon that appears across a vast range of scales and systems—from atmospheric and oceanic currents on Earth, to interstellar gas in stars and galaxies, and even within jet engines and blood flow in human arteries.

Turbulence is not merely chaotic; rather, it consists of an evolving hierarchy of interacting vortices, which may organize into large-scale structures or produce coherent flow patterns over time.

In nuclear fusion plasmas, plays a crucial role in regulating the confinement of thermal energy and the mixing of fuel particles, thereby directly impacting the performance of fusion reactors. Unlike simple fluid turbulence, plasma turbulence involves the simultaneous evolution of multiple physical fields, such as density, temperature, magnetic fields, and electric currents.

Earth’s seasonal rhythms are changing, putting species and ecosystems at risk

Seasonality shapes much of life on Earth. Most species, including humans, have synchronized their own rhythms with those of the Earth’s seasons.

Plant growth cycles, the migration of billions of animals, and even aspects of human culture—from harvest rituals to Japanese cherry blossom viewings—are dictated by these dominant rhythms.

However, climate change and many other human impacts are altering Earth’s cycles. While humans can adapt their behavior by shifting the timing of crop harvests or Indigenous fire-burning practices, species are less able to adapt through evolution or range shifts.

Is Our Universe Inside a Supermassive Black Hole?

Join Territory: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8SGU9hQEaJpsLuggAhS90Q/join.

Research paper: https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/538/1/76/8019798?login=false.

The James Webb Space Telescope has revealed ancient galaxies that appear far too massive and mature for their age, challenging our current understanding of cosmic evolution. These galaxies, observed just 330 million years after the Big Bang, should be small and irregular. Instead, they are well-formed and massive, suggesting that something fundamental about our models of the early universe may be incomplete.

One radical theory proposes that our universe could be the interior of a black hole in a larger parent universe. In this model, the Big Bang was not an explosion in empty space but the moment matter collapsed into a black hole, creating a new cosmos inside. The event horizon of this black hole would act as a boundary, beyond which everything—including time—behaves differently from an outside perspective.

Recent observations also suggest that the universe might have a preferred axis, contradicting the assumption that the cosmos is isotropic. The surprising alignment of galaxies on a large scale hints at unknown forces or structures shaping the universe. If true, this could support the idea that our universe is not an isolated system but is influenced by a larger framework, possibly the structure of a black hole’s interior.

Some theories also suggest that black holes could generate new universes through a process called a “big bounce,” where extreme torsion at high densities prevents a singularity from forming. Instead of collapsing to an infinitely small point, matter could rebound, triggering expansion. If our universe formed in such a way, it could explain why physical constants seem fine-tuned for life—because only stable, self-sustaining black hole universes would persist.

Continue reading “Is Our Universe Inside a Supermassive Black Hole?” | >

Bedrock analysis reveals evidence for lost mountains from Antarctica’s past

A new study led by University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh geologist Timothy Paulsen and University of Colorado Boulder thermochronologist Jeff Benowitz advances the understanding of the geologic history of Transantarctic Mountains bedrock, with implications for understanding the evolution of landscapes lying beneath the ice sheets covering Antarctica.

The team of researchers analyzed the chemistry of mineral grains commonly found in igneous rocks, like granite, from the Transantarctic Mountains. The research team includes other scientists from the University of Arizona, St. Louis University, The Ohio State University, and the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

The study was published in Earth and Planetary Science Letters.

Schrödinger’s Vat and the Evolution of Consciousness

Erwin Schrödinger’s famous thought experiment has always been deeply misunderstood. In this article I’d like to explain how, if understood properly, it might shed new light on the mechanism by which consciousness evolved.

Schrödinger’s cat and schrödinger’s hat

The purpose of Schrödinger’s thought experiment was to highlight serious problems in the (then very new) “Copenhagen Interpretation” of Quantum Mechanics (CI). The CI was a bit of a botch-job, because the founders of QM had no idea how to “interpret” the strange new physics they had discovered. The CI says quantum systems remain in a superposition (a “smeared out” state where everything than can happen is somehow happening in parallel) until measured, but does not define what counts as a “measurement”, or why. Schrödinger always rejected this idea, and his thought experiment was intended to demonstrate why. He proposes a sealed box (so no “measurements” can take place), in which has been placed a cat, and a quantum source with a 50% probability of releasing poison. According to the CI, so long as the system inside the box remains “unmeasured”, the poison has both been released and not-released and therefore that cat is both dead and alive.

The origin of vertebrate teeth and evolution of sensory exoskeletons

Re-examination of the presumed Cambrian fossil fish Anatolepis reveals previous misidentification of aglaspidid sensory structures as dentine, a vertebrate sensory tissue, showing it to be an arthropod, and shifting the origin of vertebrate hard tissues to the Middle Ordovician.

Cosmic ray research helps unravel lithium-7 origin

The origin of lithium (Li), the third element of the periodic table, has long been shrouded in mystery. This element, commonly found in cosmic rays as two stable isotopes, 6 Li and 7 Li, is crucial to understanding the origins of the universe and the evolution of its chemical elements.

In a recent study, an international team of researchers used the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS-02) aboard the International Space Station to measure the cosmic-ray fluxes of 6 Li and 7 Li based on data accumulated from May 2011 to October 2023.

Based on information from over 2 million nuclei amassed across 12 years, the team formulated a hypothesis that strengthens the case for one possible origin of lithium while challenging another previously accepted explanation.

How rapid DNA repair in plants protects genomes from internal threats

Scientists have uncovered a critical role for rapid DNA repair in maintaining genome stability. A new study reveals that repair of double-strand breaks (DSBs) in nuclear DNA in plants serves as a powerful safeguard against the integration of foreign DNA from chloroplasts—a phenomenon that, while important for evolution, can be highly destabilizing to the genome. The research expands our knowledge about plant genome evolution and also has relevance to the medical field.

The findings, presented by Dr. Enrique Gonzalez-Duran and Prof. Dr. Ralph Bock from the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology in Nature Plants, shed new light on endosymbiotic gene transfer (EGT)—an ongoing evolutionary process in which genes from organelles such as chloroplasts and mitochondria are relocated into the nuclear genome.

While successful gene transfers help the nucleus to better coordinate its function with that of the organelles, they also pose risks: Mutations arising from DNA insertion can disrupt essential nuclear genes and provoke harmful rearrangements.

The cost of some invasive species could be 16 times higher than we thought

From river-clogging plants to disease-carrying insects, the direct economic cost of invasive species worldwide has averaged about $35 billion a year for decades, researchers said Monday.

Since 1960, damage from non-native plants and animals expanding into new territory has cost society more than $2.2 trillion, more than 16 times higher than previous estimates, they reported in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution.

The accelerating spread of —from mosquitoes to to tough-to-eradicate plants—blights agriculture, spreads disease and drives the growing pace of species extinction.