It is only the optimists who achieve anything in this world —theorist John Ellis once read this adage on a candy wrapper. It stuck with him, so much so that in 1986 he referenced this candy-wrapper wisdom in his Nature article “The superstring: theory of everything, or of nothing?”

“I was pretty upbeat,” Ellis says. “I was pretty positive about it.”

According to Ellis, ‘theory of everything’ is a rather tongue-in-cheek term for an encompassing framework that links together all physical phenomena on a fundamental level. The idea went viral, both scientifically and culturally. Numerous authors, philosophers and scientific influencers jumped on the bandwagon, including the makers of a 2014 biopic about Stephen Hawking.

The machine, which weighs only 22 lb (10 kg), is a single-piston-linear-engine, that runs exclusively on hydrogen. As it has only 20 components and one moving part, the engine is also much cheaper to produce and maintain than traditional engines.

Cryonicists hope that modern technology will one day bring frozen bodies back from the dead. But how realistic is a second life after a deep freeze?

A few hours ago, the Fuego volcano erupted in Guatemala.
An orange alert has been declared.
The eruption resulted in the formation of ash columns over 5 km high.
Lava flows began to descend from the crater.
Abundant volcanic ash fell on nearby villages.
The evacuation of residents and the blocking of roads begins.
It is expected that the activity of the volcano will continue for at least another 24 hours.
Fuego is one of the most active volcanoes in the country.
It is located 40 km from the capital of Guatemala.

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Electrical signals could resemble conversations between fungi.

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A place to write what you’re feeling. If no new messages are received for 24 hours, the site will go away.

Perhaps our best chance for nearby life in the Universe?

Posted on Big Think, for direct link see.

All that glitters isn’t usually gold, and the same is true for 183 million-year-old fossils found in the Posidonia Shale. Moreover, while the researchers used to think the shiny gold coating on the fossils was fool’s gold, new research has revealed a more surprising answer.

The Posidonia Shale in southwest Germany is the source of many of these golden-hued fossils, particularly those of soft-bodied sea life such as squid and ichthyosaur embryos that were around in the early Jurassic. These geological deposits containing soft-bodied preserves are known as Konservat-Lagerstätten and are extremely rare.

Previously it was thought that anoxic conditions helped to fossilize these specimens. While pyrite, also known as fool’s gold, was thought to be the source of this shine, a closer inspection has revealed more about the conditions in which these fossils were formed.