28 Jan 2018

February – Guide to Mercury

The planet Mercury is the closest world to the Sun, and lies in a region of the solar system inhabited by rocks from comets that that never made a safe passing around our parent star. Also leftover debris from the origin of the Sun's family. In this month's program I present a Guide to Mercury.

13 Jun 2017

Jupiter is the most ancient Planet in The Sun’s family

To probe the planet's creation, experts sampled extra-terrestrial material that happens to land on Earth - ancient meteorites.

"It is possible that we have a naïve understanding of the way asteroid building blocks could move in an early Solar System, and that a Jupiter mass planet isn't necessary."

Thank Jupiter for sucking up most of that material.

12 Jun 2017

On This day 13 June 2017

mars jup sat

Please click on the images to enlarge

Comet C/2015 V2 Johnson is at perihelion today at a distance of just over 152 million miles from the Sun. The ‘green’ comet is visible in a pair of 10x50 binoculars, and can be found in the constellation of Bootes, before moving south into Virgo on 15 June. RA 14h 24m 24.8s DEC +07 13’ 27”.

Today THE MOON lies in the constellation of Sagittarius RA 20h 57m33s Dec -15 56’ 55” Lunation 19.21 days, illuminated 82.6% Libration, Position Angle -17.8° Latitude -00° 42’ in Longitude -05h 56m.

Today MERCURY is visible in the morning RA 04h 50m 28.7s Dec +22° 18’ 35” Mag -2.0 Diameter 5.28” Phase 0.930

Today Venus (Mag ‒4.4) is also visible in the morning sky. RA 2h 24m 47.8s Dec +11° 35’ 04” Diameter 20.84” Phase 0.56.

Today MARS (Mag +1.7) lies in the constellation Gemini close to the open cluster M35 RA 06h 27m 05.7” Dec +24° 13’ 45” Diameter 3.8”. The planet is visible in the west after sunset.

The Asteroid CERES was in conjunction with the Sun on 6 June

Juno (Mag +10) Constellation Scutum RA 18h 50m 11s Dec –04 52’ 21”

ashampoo_snap_2017.06Today Jupiter (Mag‒2.2) lies in the constellation of Virgo with the nice double star Gamma-Virginis --- Porrima --- to the upper right. RA 12h 50m 53.9s Dec -03° 57’ 19” Diameter 39.9.”  The longitude of the Great Red Spot is 270 degrees (System II) and will be visible on these dates.

Today Saturn (Mag 0.0) lies in the constellation of Ophiuchus RA 17h 36m 45.5s Dec -21° 58’ 16” Diameter 18.38”

Today Uranus (Mag +5.9) lies close to the star Omicron Piscium RA 01h 43m 04s Dec+10° 03’ 56.2”

Today Neptune (Mag +7.9) lies in the constellation Aquarius (Transit 05h 40m UT) RA 23h 03m 24” Dec -07 01’ 20.4”

10 Jun 2017

Comet Johnson chartAll times are given in UT ‘Universal Time’

Comet C/2015 V2 Johnson is visible in a pair of 10x50 binoculars, and can be found in the constellation of Bootes, and moves south into Virgo on 15 June.

RA 14h 26m 42.2s

DEC +07 13’ 21”.

In addition, comet 289/P Blanpain Mag +20 is at opposition. It lies in the constellation of Ophiuchus just below the planet Saturn.

The Asteroid 1674 Groeneveld (Mag 16.9) Occults the 6.4 Mag star HIP 42516 which can be seen by amateur astronomers in Brazil and Peru. RA 08h 40m Dec -20° 00’ 27.6”

The Apollo class Asteroid 2017 KF3 (Mag 21) flies by the Earth at a distance of about 3 million miles. The Amor class Asteroid 397 Vienna (1894 BM) also flies by the Earth today at a distance of 161,650 million miles.

Today THE MOON lies in the constellation of Sagittarius RA 19h 16m35s Dec -19 06’ 55” Lunation 17.21 days, and is at minimum Libration (Size 5.5°) Position Angle 128° Latitude -03° 14’  Longitude –03 50’.

Today Mercury is visible in the morning sky 5° north of Aldebaran RA 04h 33m 04.2s Dec +21° 23’ 41” Mag -2.0 Diameter 5.38” Phase 0.893

Today Venus is at Aphelion. The planet (Mag -4.4) is also visible in the morning sky. RA 2h 16m 54.7s Dec +10° 58’ 10” Diameter 21.71” Phase 0.540.

Today Mars (Mag +1.7) lies in the constellation Gemini close to the open cluster M35 RA 06h 21m 18.2” Dec +24° 16’ 28” Diameter 3.65”. The planet is visible in the west after sunset.

The Asteroid Ceres was in conjunction with the Sun on 6 June

The Asteroid Juno (Mag +10) lies in the Constellation Scutum RA 18h 57m 16s Dec –04 54’ 11”

Today Jupiter (Mag‒2.2) lies in the constellation of Virgo with the nice double star Gamma-Virginis --- Porrima --- to the upper right. RA 12h 50m 50.2s Dec -03° 56’ 21” Diameter 39.9”

Today Saturn (Mag 0.0) lies in the constellation of Ophiuchus RA 17h 37m 23.6s Dec -21° 58’ 29” Diameter 18.38”

Today Uranus (Mag +5.9) lies close to the star Omicron Piscium RA 01h 42m 47s Dec+10° 02’ 19.3”

Today Neptune (Mag +7.9) lies in the constellation Aquarius (Transit 05h 40m) RA 23h 03m 23.7” Dec -07 01’ 21.3”

8 Jun 2017

Killer Asteroid on Earth Collision Course May Lurk Among Shooting Stars

1032242493One of the largest and most famous annual meteor showers may have taken a sinister turn, as the risk of the shower heralding a large asteroid on a track to smash into Earth and cause untold devastation has become more and more significant, according to Czech astronomers.

The Astronomical Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences came to their grim conclusions after observing the Taurid meteor shower, which appears twice a year in the night sky: once during the early summer and once around Halloween.

A meteor shower occurs when Earth's movements send it through a stream of cosmic debris. Typically, the meteoroids that would hit Earth either disintegrate or are shrunken to a tiny size by Earth's atmosphere.

"We performed careful analysis of 144 Taurid fireballs observed by new digital autonomous fireball observatories of the European Fireball Network displaced over Czech Republic at 13 stations, Austria and Slovakia in 2015, when the activity was enhanced," researchers said.

The brightest fireball studied "was caused by a body in excess of 1,000 kg (2,204 lb), which corresponds to diameter more than one meter. Based on orbital similarity, we argue that asteroids of several hundred meters in diameter are members of the Taurid new branch as well."

The good news is that the larger asteroids seem to be porous and fragile, meaning they're more likely to split apart and subsequently disintegrate when they enter Earth's atmosphere. However, there's no guarantee that will happen.

Many of the Taurids come from Encke, a comet that orbits the sun and has been slowly crumbling over the last 30,000 years. Some astronomers have suggested that the Tunguska event, when a 500-foot asteroid exploded a few miles off the ground and flattened 770 square miles of Siberian wilderness in 1908, was caused by a fragment of Encke. The explosion was comparable to that of a 20-megaton nuclear bomb and would have been cataclysmic had it hit a densely populated area.

7 Jun 2017

Scientists just did something even Einstein didn’t think was possible

albert_einstein_by_zuzahin-d5pcbugResearchers just confirmed a theory originally proposed by Albert Einstein nearly a century ago, and it’s something that even the famed physicist thought was impossible. A team of scientists led by Kailash Sahu has observed a gravitational phenomenon in which light from stars is bent as it makes its way past neighbouring stars, and will publish their report in the journal Science on June 9th.

Now, modern technology makes such an observation possible, and researchers have just confirmed that Einstein was indeed correct. That isn’t to say there was any doubt — examples of gravitation micro lensing have been detected in space before, but never in this context, as Einstein predicted, and never studied and measured in this way.

6 Jun 2017

Celestial boondocks: Study supports the idea we live in a void

142350_webAUSTIN, Texas -- Cosmologically speaking, the Milky Way and its immediate neighbourhood are in the boondocks.

In a 2013 observational study, University of Wisconsin-Madison astronomer Amy Barger and her then-student Ryan Keenan showed that our galaxy, in the context of the large-scale structure of the universe, resides in an enormous void -- a region of space containing far fewer galaxies, stars and planets than expected.

The reason for that is that a void -- with far more matter outside the void exerting a slightly larger gravitational pull -- will affect the Hubble Constant value one measures from a technique that uses relatively nearby supernovae, while it will have no effect on the value derived from a technique that uses the cosmic microwave background (CMB), the leftover light from the Big Bang.

5 Jun 2017

Aliens … No … Famous ‘WOW’ signal was caused by two comets

Ashampoo_Snap_2017.06.05_21h02m44s_001_On 15 August 1977, the Ohio State University Radio Observatory detected a strong narrowband signal in the constellation Sagittarius (Sgr). The frequency of the signal, which matched  closely with the hydrogen line (1420.40575177 MHz), peaked at approximately 23:16:01 EDT. The signal was so strong that astronomer Jerry Ehman, who first spotted it, circled it in red pen and wrote "Wow!" in the margin. The "Wow! signal," as it would come to be known, became the best evidence ever obtained for extra-terrestrial life.At least, until now. One astronomer believes he's figured out what really caused the Wow! signal and—spoiler alert—it's not aliens.

On  the same date and time, comet 266P/Christensen was transiting in the vicinity where the “Wow!”

Signal was detected. The purpose of this investigation, therefore, was to collect and analyse  radio emission spectra and determine if comet 266P/Christensen and/or any other previously unknown  celestial body in the Solar System was the source of the 1977 “Wow!” Signal. This investigation, moreover, was designed to improve our understanding of the content and origin of the “Wow!’ Signal by determining if a neutral hydrogen cloud emitted from a short-period comet could be detected by a terrestrial radio telescope.

Astronomer Antonio Paris has been studying the Wow! signal for a long time. In 2016, he released a paper along with fellow astronomer Evan Davies suggesting that the signal could have been caused by a comet orbiting in the inner solar system. Specifically, the 2016 paper identified two comets, 266P/Christensen and P/2008 Y2 (Gibbs), that were both in the area where the Wow! signal was detected.

Paris also examined several other similar comets and found the same type of hydrogen cloud and the same type of signal, which means that even if comet 266P wasn't the specific source of the Wow! signal, another comet is most likely the culprit.

This is bad news for anyone holding out hope that the Wow! signal would be aliens, but it's a solid conclusion to one of the biggest mysteries in astronomy. Now that we know comets can create these otherworldly signals, any future signals we get will have to be vetted much more carefully.

29 May 2017

China's space telescope to observe 'big eaters' in universe

20170529144851CHINA'S new space telescope to be launched soon will probe many mysteries of the universe, including the belching "big eaters" -- active galactic nuclei at the most remote edges of the universe.

Scientists have discovered that almost every galaxy has a supermassive black hole with a mass several million to several billion times that of the Sun at its centre. With their mighty gravitational attraction, the supermassive black holes engulf the surrounding gas and dust.

The jet-flows and accretion disk of the supermassive black hole generate X-ray radiation strong enough to travel billions of light years. These galaxies have very bright nuclei -- so bright the central region can be more luminous than the remaining galaxy. Scientists call them active galactic nuclei.

The Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope (HXMT), developed by Chinese scientists, will observe some active galactic nuclei.

"Since the active galactic nuclei are very far from the Earth, our telescope can only detect the brightest ones," says Zhang Shuangnan, lead scientist of HXMT and director of the Key Laboratory of Particle Astrophysics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).

The big eaters are full of mysteries. Scientists have found the double jet phenomenon is very common in galaxies with active galactic nuclei, but they don't understand why supermassive black holes cannot engulf all the matter falling into them.

Supermassive black holes are very different from black holes of stellar mass, which are formed when very massive stars collapse at the end of their life cycles. Scientists are still not clear how supermassive black holes are formed and grow, which is a key to understanding the evolution of galaxies.

28 May 2017

China's space telescope to survey Milky Way

CoEs42PWEAA979FMany black holes and neutron stars are thought to be hidden in the Milky Way. Since they don't emit visible light, or are covered by dust, only X-ray telescopes can find them.

China will soon launch its first X-ray space telescope, the Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope (HXMT), with the aim of surveying the Milky Way to observe celestial sources of X-rays.

Compared with X-ray astronomical satellites of other countries, HXMT has larger detection area, broader energy range and wider field of view. These give it advantages in observing black holes and neutron stars emitting bright X-rays, and it can more efficiently scan the galaxy, Zhang says.

The telescope will work on wide energy range from 1 to 250 keV, enabling it to complete many observation tasks previously requiring several satellites, according to Zhang.

Other satellites have already conducted sky surveys, and found many celestial sources of X-rays. However, the sources are often variable, and occasional intense flares can be missed in just one or two surveys, Zhang says.

New surveys can discover either new X-ray sources or new activities in known sources. So HXMT will repeatedly scan the Milky Way for active and variable celestial bodies emitting X-rays.

Cpk5ENWXgAYevMTZhang says other countries have launched about 10 X-ray satellites, but they have different advantages and therefore different observation focuses.

"There are so many black holes and neutron stars in the universe, but we don't have a thorough understanding of any of them. So we need new satellites to observe more," Zhang says.

The study of black holes and neutron stars is often conducted through observing X-ray binary systems. The X-ray emissions of these binary systems are the result of the compact object (such as black hole or neutron star) accreting matter from a companion regular star.

By analysing binary system X-ray radiation, astronomers can study compact objects such as black holes or neutrons stars.

How do the black holes or neutron stars accrete matter from companion stars? What causes X-ray flares? These are questions scientists want to answer, and China's new space telescope might help.

Lu Fangjun, chief designer of the payload of HXMT, says the space telescope will focus on the Galactic plane. If it finds any celestial body in a state of explosion, it will conduct high-precision pointed observation and joint multiband observation with other telescopes either in space or on the ground.

26 May 2017

There are more black holes in the Universe than previously thought

Ashampoo_Snap_2017.05.26_09h17m13s_002_Astronomers have found what looks to a fresh trove of supermassive black hole pairs, increasing the number of known pairs by about 50 percent, after new image analysis techniques were used to study two of our most detailed sky surveys.

Finding these black hole pairs is crucial to understanding more about how they form and how galaxies eventually collide, with the new findings giving astronomers five new pairs to analyse.

At the centre of the new research is the hunt for dual active galactic nuclei (AGN) - the technical term for what's formed when two supermassive black holes get caught in a death spiral after the collision of their respective galaxies.

These two black holes get closer and closer before eventually crashing into each other to form an even larger supermassive black hole, shooting out huge amounts of energy at the same time - or at least that's the current hypothesis.

Occasionally, the collision seems to send the resulting black hole speeding off through space, but that's another story.

The AGNs are formed from the massive amounts of gas and dust stirred up as a result of this black hole death spiral, causing the final, really supermassive black hole to be heavier.

Active galactic nuclei can form around any black hole, giving us a better chance of spotting them from Earth, but to understand how all this works, we need to find more of them.

"Our model of the universe tells us [AGNs] should be there, but we have failed miserably to find them," lead research Sara Ellison from the University of Victoria in Canada told New Scientist.

Ellison and her colleagues looked at the WISE All Sky Survey and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey for their work, hunting for signs of recent galaxy collisions as well as high readings from the infrared part of the spectrum, which indicates lots of dust.

Further confirmation was found from luminosity measurements taken by the Chandra X-ray Observatory. The new technique turned up five new examples of dual AGNs, to add to the nine that had already been confirmed by X-ray studies.

That's "a significant new haul", write the researchers, and there could be more on the way.

We should point out that the research has yet to go through the peer-review process, so further confirmation of the findings is needed before they're confirmed, but this could end up being a very useful way of detecting more of these AGNs.

Once astronomers know where they are, they can study how they evolve, and how the resulting supermassive black holes grow.

These AGNs could also teach us more about gravitational waves, another after-effect of a collision of two black holes: or at least they will when the shock reaches us, in tens of millions of years.

25 May 2017

A Whole New Jupiter: First Science Results from NASA's Juno Mission

"We are excited to share these early discoveries, which help us better understand what makes Jupiter so fascinating," said Diane Brown, Juno program executive at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "It was a long trip to get to Jupiter, but these first results already demonstrate it was well worth the journey."

Among the findings that challenge assumptions are those provided by Juno's imager, JunoCam. The images show both of Jupiter's poles are covered in Earth-sized swirling storms that are densely clustered and rubbing together.

"We're puzzled as to how they could be formed, how stable the configuration is, and why Jupiter's north pole doesn't look like the south pole," said Bolton. "We're questioning whether this is a dynamic system, and are we seeing just one stage, and over the next year, we're going to watch it disappear, or is this a stable configuration and these storms are circulating around one another?"

Another surprise comes from Juno's Microwave Radiometer (MWR), which samples the thermal microwave radiation from Jupiter's atmosphere, from the top of the ammonia clouds to deep within its atmosphere. The MWR data indicates that Jupiter's iconic belts and zones are mysterious, with the belt near the equator penetrating all the way down, while the belts and zones at other latitudes seem to evolve to other structures. The data suggest the ammonia is quite variable and continues to increase as far down as we can see with MWR, which is a few hundred miles or kilometres.

Prior to the Juno mission, it was known that Jupiter had the most intense magnetic field in the solar system. Measurements of the massive planet's magnetosphere, from Juno's magnetometer investigation (MAG), indicate that Jupiter's magnetic field is even stronger than models expected, and more irregular in shape. MAG data indicates the magnetic field greatly exceeded expectations at 7.766 Gauss, about 10 times stronger than the strongest magnetic field found on Earth.

"Juno is giving us a view of the magnetic field close to Jupiter that we've never had before," said Jack Connerney, Juno deputy principal investigator and the lead for the mission's magnetic field investigation at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. "Already we see that the magnetic field looks lumpy: it is stronger in some places and weaker in others. This uneven distribution suggests that the field might be generated by dynamo action closer to the surface, above the layer of metallic hydrogen. Every flyby we execute gets us closer to determining where and how Jupiter's dynamo works."

Juno also is designed to study the polar magnetosphere and the origin of Jupiter's powerful auroras -- its northern and southern lights. These auroral emissions are caused by particles that pick up energy, slamming into atmospheric molecules. Juno's initial observations indicate that the process seems to work differently at Jupiter than at Earth.

"Every 53 days, we go screaming by Jupiter, get doused by a fire hose of Jovian science, and there is always something new," said Bolton. "On our next flyby on July 11, we will fly directly over one of the most iconic features in the entire solar system -- one that every school kid knows -- Jupiter's Great Red Spot. If anybody is going to get to the bottom of what is going on below those mammoth swirling crimson cloud tops, it's Juno and her cloud-piercing science instruments."

21 May 2017

Rainfall on Mars shaped the planet

MARS_Helmets_DLAt one stage in its history rain storms on Mars were so heavy – and the raindrops so large – that they changed the planet’s surface, carving valleys and altering the shape of meteorite impact craters, new research shows.

A paper by geologists Robert Craddock and Ralph Lorenz, published in the journal Icarus, suggests that over billions of years Mars’s atmospheric pressure fell, powering up the nature of its rainfall.

Soon after its formation around 4.5 billion years ago, atmospheric pressure on the red planet was around four bars. To compare, Earth’s is one.

At that pressure, Craddock and Lorenz say, rain would have looked more like mist. Raindrops could not have grown to more than three millimetres in diameter, and would not have penetrated the ground when they hit it.

Over deep time, however, the atmospheric pressure decreased to around 1.5 bars. This, combined with lower gravity than that of Earth, meant that raindrops as large as 7.3 millimetres across could form – substantially bigger than the 6.5 millimetre whoppers sometimes recorded on our own planet.

The geologists calculate that the intensity of big falls would have been only about 70% of those found on Earth, but would still have been easily strong enough to put a dent or two in the ground.

Indeed, they suggest that the falls would have overwhelmed the soil’s ability to absorb moisture, thus creating run-off currents that eventually formed valley networks and reshaped impact craters.

“We have shown that Mars would have seen some pretty big raindrops that would have been able to make more drastic changes to the surface,” comments Lorenz, from Johns Hopkins University in the US.

Craddock, who works at the Smithsonian Institute, adds that their paper represents the first time scientists have used physics to gain insight into the Martian climate.

9 May 2017

scientists now want to send a space probe to orbit Pluto

Participants came away from the April 24 workshop fired up and committed to doing their best to make such a project happen, said New Horizons principal investigator Alan Stern, who was there. [Destination Pluto: NASA's New Horizons Mission in Pictures]

24 Apr 2017

Scarborough Firm Invests in Pop-Up Planetarium

Andy Exton, director and astronomer for Hidden Horizons comments:

You can contact them here

23 Apr 2017

Spectacular Aurora display not over yet

Ashampoo_Snap_2017.04.22_23h09m43s_001_Brown University researchers have published the most detailed geological history to date for a region of Mars known as Northeast Syrtis Major, a spot high on NASA's list of potential landing sites for its next Mars rover to be launched in 2020.

The region is home to a striking mineral diversity, including deposits that indicate a variety of past environments that could have hosted life. Using the highest resolution images available from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, the study maps the extent of those key mineral deposits across the surface and places them within the region's larger geological context.

"When we look at this in high resolution, we can see complicated geomorphic patterns and a diversity of minerals at the surface that I think is unlike anything we've ever seen on Mars," said Mike Bramble, a Ph.D. student at Brown who led the study, which is published in the journal Icarus. "Within a few kilometres, there's a huge spectrum of things you can see and they change very quickly."

If NASA ultimately decides to land at Northeast Syrtis, the work would help in providing a roadmap for the rover's journey.

"This is a foundational paper for considering this part of the planet as a potential landing site for the Mars 2020 rover," said Jack Mustard, a professor in Brown's Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences and a co-author on the paper. "This represents an exceptional amount of work on Mike's part, really going into the key morphologic and spectroscopic datasets we need in order to understand what this region can tell us about the history of Mars if we explore it with a rover."

Within Northeast Syrtis are the mineral signatures of four distinct types of watery and potentially habitable past environments. Those minerals had been detected by prior research, but the new map shows in detail how they are distributed within the region's larger geological context. That helps constrain the mechanisms that may have formed them, and shows when they formed
relative to each other.

"We know that these environments existed near this major pivot point in Mars history, and in mapping their context we know what came first, what came next and what came last," Mustard said. "So now if we're able to go there with a rover, we can sample rock on either side of that pivot point, which could help us understand the changes that occurred at that time, and test different hypotheses for the possibility of past life."

Mustard and Bramble have led the charge for Northeast Syrtis, which has come out near the top of the list at each workshop. Last February, NASA announced that the site is one of the final three under consideration.

Mustard and Bramble hope this latest work might inform NASA's decision, and ultimately help in planning the Mars2020 mission.

"As we turn our eyes to the next target for in situ exploration on the Martian surface," the researchers conclude, "no location offers better access of the gamut of geological processes active at Mars than Northeast Syrtis Major."

21 Apr 2017

McDonald Observatory dedicates $40 million upgrade

McDonald_Observatory-167_Courtesy%20of%20Ethan%20Tweedie%20Photography_0The University’s McDonald Observatory in West Texas dedicated its $40 million telescope upgrade last week and is now performing an in-depth study of a mysterious force known as dark energy.

The upgrade gives McDonald’s 10-meter telescope the ability to create a 3-D map of the universe to study dark energy, a little understood concept that could explain the accelerating expansion of the universe.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Ethan Tweedie Photography | Daily Texan Staff

The telescope, the world’s third largest in size, can now see light that is close to 12 billion years old and can view 120 times more of the night sky than it previously could. Not even the largest telescope in the world at the Kek Observatory in Hawaii has as large of a field of view.

“It is sort of one of a kind right now,” McDonald Observatory director Taft Armandroff said. “It’s going to allow us to study a lot of areas of astronomy that are on the cutting edge.”

The Observatory received funding from the State of Texas, other universities and private donors to add four new instruments to the telescope along with expanding its view and depth. Two of these instruments, high and low resolution spectrographs, will be used to study the light from both galaxies and individual stars, Armandroff said.

Another new instrument allows the telescope to see high red-shift galaxies, or galaxies that are 10 to 12 billion light years away and were formed shortly after the Big Bang, Armandroff said.

Finally, Armandroff said the telescope now has a habitable zone planet finder which detects wobbles in the movement of a star to see if it has any orbiting planets.

Together, these devices will help astronomers at the University and elsewhere create a 3-D map they can use to measure how fast the universe’s expansion is accelerating and thereby give them an idea as to what force might be causing it, astrophysics professor Karl Gebhardt said.

“It’s crazy exciting. No one has looked at the universe in this way in the past,” Gebhardt said. “We may redefine what gravity actually is, (or dark energy) could be something like a new type of particle.”

Already, students at the University are analysing the data the telescope collects each night. After nightfall in West Texas, the telescope collects information that is sent to a server that both undergraduate and graduate students have access to.

After a class with Gebhardt last semester, aerospace engineering senior Jamie McCullough began working with the McDonald Observatory data. Most of the time, McCullough analyses the data sent over to adjust the information based on how much light was hitting the telescope. McCullough has also been working on writing a code that will perform these calibrations automatically.

“The upgrade is fantastic, and there’s so much data coming off of it, and there’s so much potential for so much advancement,” McCullough said. “It’ll really just be exciting to see what comes of it.”

19 Apr 2017

NASA Radar Spots Relatively Large Asteroid Prior to Flyby

18 Apr 2017

Do Meteors Hiss, Sizzle, and Pop?

imageFor hundreds of years there have been reports of people hearing the sound of meteors—shooting stars—as they streak across the sky. As early as 1714, astronomy Edmond Halley (yes, that Halley, of comet fame) dismissed these accounts of hissing, sizzling, and popping as figments of the imagination. After all, sound travels much more slowly than light—see: every thunderstorm ever—so any sound from the meteor breaking up in the atmosphere would arrive long after the streak of ionized gas has faded from the sky. But hearing and seeing a meteor at the same time is not a scientific impossibility. A new hypothesis published in Geophysical Research Letters might explain just how it happens, and why the described noises sound a lot like radio static.

When a meteor hits the atmosphere, at between 25,000 and 160,000 miles per hour, it releases electromagnetic radiation, including both light and what are known as very low frequency radio waves. Twenty-five years ago, scientists demonstrated that these waves, which travel just as fast as light, can cause objects, especially metal ones, to vibrate in a way that produces sound.

“The conversion from electromagnetic waves to sound waves … is exactly how your radio works,” Colin Price of Tel Aviv University, co-author of the new study, told Science. The study proposes that these waves come from an electrical current generated as the meteor interacts with the atmosphere. Though it involves coma ions, an am bipolar electric field, and Hall current, it’s the simplest explanation for the phenomenon yet.

Telescope project makes progress on radio-quiet zone

untitledThe Square Kilometre Array (SKA) SA project office has acquired half of the land it needs to create a radio-quiet zone around the large radio telescope and is on track to complete the process by the end of 2018, says spokesman Lorenzo Raynard.

It is an important milestone in a sensitive process as, if the farmers in the area refuse to sell their land, the government can expropriate it. The SKA is an international science project located in SA and Australia and will be the world’s most powerful radio telescope once completed. The South African core is 90km from Carnarvon in the Northern Cape.

About 131,500ha of land surrounding the telescope’s 176-dish core needs to be free from radio-frequency interference. The project acquired 13,500ha of this land in 2008. In 2016 it embarked on a process to acquire another 118,000ha comprising 36 parcels of land close to the core as well as access rights to servitudes that will hold another 21 dishes.

The SKA SA project office has acquired 14 parcels of land, comprising 61,000ha and needs to buy another 18 parcels of land totalling 57,000ha. Four parcels of land originally earmarked for purchase no longer needed to be bought, but would provide access rights to servitudes, said Raynard. The land-acquisition project is one of three SKA processes under way in SA. The Department of Science and Technology has been driving the implementation of legislation to protect the site from radio interference.

17 Apr 2017

Why Sending Stephen Hawking to Space Matters

Despite having been told he would not make it past his 25th birthday, now 75-year-old renowned cosmologist and science author Stephen Hawking is being sent to space on billionaire Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic ship. While confined to a wheelchair and communicating via a speech generator attached to a single cheek muscle, Stephen Hawking continues to contribute to the advancement of science in incredible ways. Over the course of his career, Hawking has also been a fierce advocate of disability rights and has shattered the glass ceiling of what people with disabilities are perceived to be capable of time and time again.

While the physical and intellectual capabilities of human beings differ greatly, they do not necessarily define us nor do they render us incapable of accomplishing significant feats. Stephen Hawking has visited one of Earth’s last thresholds, Antarctica, and has experienced weightlessness on a sub-orbital space flight. He is the Director of Research at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology at the University of Cambridge and has written several novels, of which A Brief History of Time was a record-breaking best-seller. The physicist famously theorized that black holes emit radiation and is a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the greatest award for civilians available in the United States. These are just a few of his accomplishments.

Hawking’s incredible career signifies the extent to which the empowerment of people with disabilities through increased accessibility and technological advancement can provide greater opportunities for everyone to pursue their dreams regardless of their circumstances. At age 21, Hawking was diagnosed with a rare early-onset form of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) that has slowly paralyzed him. While this disease is generally fatal within five years, Hawking has lived more than five decades since his initial diagnosis. While not everyone diagnosed with ALS may have access to the same treatment and care as this academic celebrity, the longevity and success of Hawking’s career demonstrates that investing in people with disabilities is a worthy pursuit.

While Stephen Hawking’s physical capabilities have continued to decline over the decades, his mind and intellect have remained intact. By providing Hawking with a vehicle to communicate his brilliance, the pursuit of science has benefited as a whole. People with disabilities are often erased in both science and science fiction. Becoming a spacefaring species was one of the greatest defining moments for human beings. Now, we look to colonizing other terrestrial bodies in the event that one day our own planet can no longer harbour life.

In a visit to London’ Space Museum in 2015, Stephen Hawking stated that space travel “represents an important life insurance for our future survival, as it could prevent the disappearance of humanity by colonizing other planets.” One of the cosmologist’s biggest dreams has been to travel to space himself which will, in the near future, become a reality. As an icon for disability rights activism, Hawking’s journey will allow people with disabilities to see themselves represented in the voyage to the stars.

In science fiction, writers imagine future worlds in which anything is possible. In these imaginings of tomorrow, be they utopian, dystopian or complex, nuanced worlds with problems like our own, disability is often perceived as something to be cured, fixed or erased altogether. In pathologizing disability or removing it entirely from futurist contexts, people with disabilities often do not find themselves represented or as fitting into the grand scheme. As a result, Stephen Hawking’s projected spaceflight matters immensely as it exemplifies that he, like anyone else, is an individual with his own physical and intellectual capacities, of which having a disability is not his sole-defining characteristic.

It is evident that Hawking’s career has been greatly empowered due to his intelligence and access to economic capital which others with his disease may not be as fortunate to have. However, he is a shining example of the potential that can be realized when society works to develop technology and increase accessibility for everyone. Today, accessibility can take on the form of ensuring all stations on public transit lines have elevators or that all new buildings use levers instead of door knobs. The shift towards accessibility in urban planning and the design of all things means that people with disabilities have a bright future ahead.

The rise of space tourism by private companies like Virgin Galactic and SpaceX are disrupting the entire space exploration industry. The CEO of SpaceX, founder of PayPal and Tesla Motors’ Elon Musk has launched private vehicles into space and enabled them to return to Earth with reusable rockets. In doing so, Musk has greatly reduced the cost of spaceflight and in turn made it more accessible. As these companies continue to develop space technology, the goal of taking humans to other planets becomes more realistic. Not only this but also sending human beings to space from all walks of life including those, like Stephen Hawking, with disabilities.

Stephen Hawking being sent so space matters for every dreamer who has imagined themselves leaving Earth to gaze down in wonder upon the curvature of the pale blue dot. It has traditionally only been astronauts with unparalleled physical and intellectual ability who have had the enormous privilege of leaving our planet’s atmosphere. Now, the extremely wealthy can purchase a ticket to the stars via private space travel companies. However, as evidenced by this change and while it may take centuries, it is only a matter of time before space travel becomes available to everyone.


M2 is as high as 192 trillion yuan. Please cherish this poli

According to the latest statistics released by the central bank, as of the end of June, the broad money M2 balance was 192.14 trillion yuan, an increase of 8.5% year-on-year, and the growth rate was unchanged from the end of last month, 0.5 percentage points higher than the same period of the previous year.

It is worth noting that M2 data includes cash flow + demand deposits + time deposits + resident savings + securities company customer deposit + housing Provident fund deposits + other deposits (including non-deposit financial institutions' deposits in deposit-taking financial institutions), while the M2 of 192.14 trillion yuan does not include nearly 4 trillion yuan of insurance premiums purchased by the people of the whole country.

First, let's talk about what problems M2 data can reflect.

M2 reflects both the purchasing power of reality (M1, the sum of cash and demand deposits) and the potential purchasing power. In other words, M2 is the embodiment of purchasing power, reflecting the ability to purchase goods and services after we have earned income, which is a reflection of the economic environment.

How much is the M2 of 192 trillion yuan?

According to the official website of the Federal Reserve, as of July 1, 2019, the US M2 data is $14.8194 trillion, which is about 101.9 trillion yuan according to the current exchange rate of 6.88. Beyond the US 90.24 trillion, it is nearly 1.89 times.

Looking at China's purchasing power level and price level from M2

On July 17, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs held a press conference. The data showed that in June, pork prices were wholesale. The price was 21.59 yuan per kilogram, up 4.7% from the previous month and up 29.8% from the same period of last year. The average price of six fruits including Fuji apple, pear, watermelon, banana, pineapple and Kyoho grape was 8.39 yuan per kilogram, up 11.1% from the previous month. It rose by 51.7%. Fuji Apple and Yali, which have the highest attention, rose 106.2% and 165.5% respectively.

First, in 2008, 10 years ago, China’s M2 was 47.52 trillion, which is now four times that time;

Look at the price, the average price of pork in June 2008 is 7.03 yuan / publicJin, in June this year, the average price of pork wholesale was 21.59 yuan / kg, which is now three times that.

4 times the level of purchasing power, relative to the price level of 3 times the level, 43.28 yuan / kg of pork, 16.78 yuan / kg of apples is still cheap.

If M2 maintains an 8.5% annual growth rate, it will reach 312 trillion yuan by June 2025. According to this speculation, if the house price does not rise during the period, the bubble is gradually eaten by M2. If the oversupply of the apartment during the same period, M2 will be released from real estate to other areas. Now, the insurance you bought for four or five thousand yuan is also worth cherishing!

In the future, insurance products will become more and more expensive, especially pure insurance insurance, not only because of your age, but also because of the high risk of future diseases, accidents, etc. The coordination of anti-inflation functions and economic indicators has led to an increase in the pricing of products.

In fact, China's actual purchasing power may be even more alarming in terms of M2. From the perspective of GDP, there is a lot of reasonable tax avoidance in China's GDP. This is contrary to the US, and the US tax is low. The data of 100 million yuan can be reported to 200 million (this can be used to finance 300 million). Others said that the renminbi has depreciated, income has been devalued, and living standards have fallen. But in fact, the use of the renminbi in the country, our purchasing power has not been reduced due to depreciation, in fact, there is not much change. In particular, the development of the mobile Internet and the continuous improvement of its penetration rate have accelerated the improvement of purchasing power.

Let's take a look at the two formulas of the insurance industry:

insurance depth = premium income / GDP

insurance density = premium income / total population

Look at another indicator: the ratio of M2/GDP, which represents both the degree of economic monetization and the macro leverage.

(in the past 10 years insurance depth and density trend)

(M2/GDP trend)

It is not difficult to see that The depth of insurance (premium/GDP) is positively correlated with the degree of economic monetization (M2/GDP). At the same time, when the M2 data grows appropriately, the money supply will increase, and some funds will flow into the insurance market.

LastAnother example is that M2

a student represents the central bank, and several other students represent different banks and depositors. When the central bank stipulates that the deposit reserve ratio is 10%, that is, every time a bank receives 100 yuan, it needs to keep 10 yuan to meet the cash withdrawal demand of the depositors, and cannot lend all the money.

Now the central bank pays 100 yuan to the professor. After the professor gets the money, he puts the money in the commercial bank. At this time, commercial bank A can leave 10 yuan and take the remaining 90 yuan to lend. For example, if you lend a small A, the small A will not hold the money all the time. If he saves to another commercial bank B, the commercial bank B can leave 9 yuan and take the remaining 81 yuan to lend.

The currency is circulated in this way. What will be the end result?

A 100-piece deposit, circulated at a 10% deposit reserve ratio, will eventually allow us to transfer 1,000 yuan to the entire society.

The base currency (M0) here is 100 issued by the central bank, and the broad money (M2) is 1000.

Under the 10% deposit reserve ratio, after the circulation of the commercial banking system, the social money supply can be expanded by a full 10 times. This multiple is just the reciprocal of the deposit reserve ratio of 10, also known as the currency multiplier. Therefore, for every additional base currency of 1 yuan, the commercial banking system can create more than 1 yuan of demand deposits.

Correspondingly, if the central bank raises the deposit reserve ratio, the amount of money circulating in the market will be less. At this time, there are fewer investment opportunities in the market (including investment insurance).

(In my opinion, if there is something wrong, welcome Yazheng)


Cortical Resonance Frequencies Emerge from Network Size and Connectivity

Neural oscillations occur within a wide frequency range with different brain regions exhibiting resonance-like characteristics at specific points in the spectrum. At the microscopic scale, single neurons possess intrinsic oscillatory properties, such that is not yet known whether cortical resonance is consequential to neural oscillations or an emergent property of the networks that interconnect them. Using a network model of loosely-coupled Wilson-Cowan oscillators to simulate a patch of cortical sheet, we demonstrate that the size of the activated network is inversely related to its resonance frequency. Further analysis of the parameter space indicated that the number of excitatory and inhibitory connections, as well as the average transmission delay between units, determined the resonance frequency. The model predicted that if an activated network within the visual cortex increased in size, the resonance frequency of the network would decrease. We tested this prediction experimentally using the steady-state visual evoked potential where we stimulated the visual cortex with different size stimuli at a range of driving frequencies. We demonstrate that the frequency corresponding to peak steady-state response inversely correlated with the size of the network. We conclude that although individual neurons possess resonance properties, oscillatory activity at the macroscopic level is strongly influenced by network interactions, and that the steady-state response can be used to investigate functional networks.

Left Superior temporal gyrus is coupled to attended speech in a cocktail-party auditory scene

Interesting low frequency (delta) results here.

Using a continuous listening task, we evaluated the coupling between the listener's cortical activity and the temporal envelopes of different sounds in a multitalker auditory scene using magnetoencephalography and corticovocal coherence analysis. Neuromagnetic signals were recorded from 20 right-handed healthy adult humans who listened to five different recorded stories (attended speech streams), one without any multitalker background (No noise) and four mixed with a “cocktail party” multitalker background noise at four signal-to-noise ratios (5, 0, −5, and −10 dB) to produce speech-in-noise mixtures, here referred to as Global scene. Coherence analysis revealed that the modulations of the attended speech stream, presented without multitalker background, were coupled at ∼0.5 Hz to the activity of both superior temporal gyri, whereas the modulations at 4–8 Hz were coupled to the activity of the right supratemporal auditory cortex. In cocktail party conditions, with the multitalker background noise, the coupling was at both frequencies stronger for the attended speech stream than for the unattended Multitalker background. The coupling strengths decreased as the Multitalker background increased. During the cocktail party conditions, the ∼0.5 Hz coupling became left-hemisphere dominant, compared with bilateral coupling without the multitalker background, whereas the 4–8 Hz coupling remained right-hemisphere lateralized in both conditions. The brain activity was not coupled to the multitalker background or to its individual talkers. The results highlight the key role of listener's left superior temporal gyri in extracting the slow ∼0.5 Hz modulations, likely reflecting the attended speech stream within a multitalker auditory scene.

Neural cross-frequency coupling: Connecting architectures, mechanisms, and functions

Looks good.

Congruent visual speech enhances cortical entrainment to continuous auditory speech

Nice article that bears out predictions made by Peelle & Sommers (2015).

We demonstrate that the cortical representation of the speech envelope is enhanced by the presentation of congruent audiovisual speech in noise-free conditions. Furthermore, we show that this is likely attributable to the contribution of neural generators that are not particularly active during unimodal stimulation and that it is most prominent at the temporal scale corresponding to syllabic rate (2–6 Hz). Finally, our data suggest that neural entrainment to the speech envelope is inhibited when the auditory and visual streams are incongruent both temporally and contextually.

Measuring directionality between neuronal oscillations of different frequencies

This measure is based on the phase-slope index (PSI) between the phase of slower oscillations and the power envelope of faster oscillations. Further, we propose a randomization framework for statistically evaluating the coupling measures when controlling for multiple comparisons over the investigated frequency ranges. The method was firstly validated on simulated data and next applied to resting state electrocorticography (ECoG) data. These results demonstrate that the method works reliably. In particular, we found that the power envelope of gamma oscillations drives the phase of slower oscillations in the alpha band.

Identifying neuronal oscillations using rhythmicity

Here, we present lagged coherence, a frequency-indexed measure that quantifies the rhythmicity of neuronal activity. We use this method to identify the sensorimotor alpha and beta rhythms in ongoing magnetoencephalographic (MEG) data, and to study their attentional modulation. Using lagged coherence, the sensorimotor rhythms become visible in ongoing activity as local rhythmicity peaks that are separated from the strong posterior activity in the same frequency bands.

Rhythmic auditory cortex activity shapes stimulus–response gain and background firing

We found that phase-dependent models better reproduced the observed responses than static models, during both stimulation with a series of natural sounds and epochs of silence. This was attributable to two factors: (1) phase-dependent variations in background firing (most prominent for delta; 1–4 Hz); and (2) modulations of response gain that rhythmically amplify and attenuate the responses at specific phases of the rhythm (prominent for frequencies between 2 and 12 Hz).

Oscillatory visual activity modulates spatial attention to rhythmic inputs

Using high-density electroencephalography in humans, a bilateral entrainment response to the rhythm (1.3 or 1.5 Hz) of an attended stimulation stream was observed, concurrent with a considerably weaker contralateral entrainment to a competing rhythm. That ipsilateral visual areas strongly entrained to the attended stimulus is notable because competitive inputs to these regions were being driven at an entirely different rhythm. Strong modulations of phase locking and weak modulations of single-trial power suggest that entrainment was primarily driven by phase-alignment of ongoing oscillatory activity.


His face

Over the centuries, Saint Anthony has been represented by many artists, painters and sculptors. But how reliable are their depictions? Probably not very much, because the interpretations of the artists are influenced by the sensitivities of their age, the relevant hagiographic canons or by the request of devoted spectators.

The Scientific Examination of January 1981

The 1981 study, by contrast, offers precious and more reliable information, which furnishes a more truthful picture of his face and physical characteristics.

Anthony was about 1.71 meters tall. His head was elongated so his face must have been straight and narrow, with a prominent chin, aquiline nose, large eyes and healthy, regular teeth.

The forensic reconstruction of the face

The portrait that emerged deviated partially from the tradition of a thin, stretched faced, as is evident even in Cremesini’s bust. The portrait is closer to the more "massive and corpulent” fresco found in a wall along the presbytery of the Basilica of Saint Anthony.


Capitalism-Doomed or Adapting?Have you ever really stopped to think about capitalism? How do you define it? Some definitions are more loaded than others if you look at the various links in this Google search However, if you own or lead a business, you are definitely participating in this system.

Describing the system to ourselves

There are so many words to describe the way we think about capitalism. There are variations on how capitalism is expressed if you start looking at how some corporate entities are state-owned to the mixed economy type.There are advocates for free markets, laissez-faire or free enterprise as if they are infallible. Other people raise questions about how money is distributed, how workers are treated by their employers or the potential for creating instability. No matter where you fall philosophically, the flaws in the system brought a great deal of havoc in 2008 and we’re still dealing with the consequences.

The flaws are the issue.

There are fierce debates in many countries about how to regulate this system. Certainly one of the most famous critique of capitalism is Das Kapital by Karl Marx. When we are faced with troubled companies that are “too big to fail” and they can harm a national or even global economy, something is amiss. It’s easy to blame the elite rich or labor unions or whomever is your target but at the end of the day, we’re still participating in this system.  There are ethical questions about what happens to the widening gap between each economic class, unemployment and consumerism. How do we talk about the flaws of capitalism?

The process of redefining capitalism

Perhaps it would have been more accurate to say it’s a process of redesigning capitalism. One movement has been sustainability. While it is often associated with green technology and environmentalism, sustainability also includes developing business models that can respond well to stressors and successes. Even in Nouriel Roubini’s post, “Is Capitalism Doomed?” the question lies in how we think about people and what makes them productive more than exploiting markets. There is also more expressed desires for a flexible work-life balance and work that has meaning and purpose. Where does this fit in?

Join the conversation.

It behooves us to not ask ourselves what we believe about capitalism and how we want to create businesses that are sustainable. This is the business climate we’re in and the turbulence isn’t going away in a hurry. We can choose to continue supporting current practices, foster a revitalized system or eliminate capitalism as we know it altogether. It may not be a clear answer but your answer is part of conversation.

In the next #kaizenblog (Twitter chat) on Friday, September 9th at 12pm ET/5pm BST/9am PT we’re discussing this topic. Please join us and add your thoughts and expertise. If you can’t join in on Twitter, please add your comments below.

Which aspects of capitalism are still relevant to the current economic climate?

What trends are you noticing in discussions about capitalism?

What is changing on a micro-level (within your business community) that is sustainable?


Author: Miranda Carter

Information about the author.

Book:Anthony Blunt: His Lives

Anthony Blunt: His Lives

Miranda Carter

Once an untouchable member of England’s establishment—a world-famous art historian and a man knighted by the Queen of England—in a single stroke Anthony Blunt became an object of universal hatred when, in 1979, Margaret Thatcher exposed him as a Soviet spy.

In Anthony Blunt: His Lives, Miranda Carter shows how one man lived out opposing trends of his century—first as a rebel against his class, then as its epitome—and yet embodied a deeper paradox. In the 1920s, Blunt was a member of the Bloomsbury circle; in the 1930s he was a left-wing intellectual; in the 50s and 60s he became a camouflaged member of the Establishment. Until his treachery was made public, Blunt was a world-famous art historian, recognized for his ground-breaking work on Poussin, Italian art, and old master drawings; at the Courtauld Institute he trained a whole generation of academics and curators. And yet…[more]

Book:George, Nicholas and Wilhelm: Three Royal Cousins and the Road to World War I

Miranda Carter

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Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron

Melanoma cancer therapy’s efficacy may depend on the existence of specific gut bacteria

Ipilimumab is a monoclonal antibody (mAb) that binds to, and activates T-cells. (Technically, the drug binds to the CTLA-4 receptor on T-cells, which decreases T-cell suppression)  It is currently an approved therapy for the treatment of metastatic melanoma.  Unfortunately, activation of the immune system can damage the microbiome, and taking iplimumab often results in adverse side effects in the gut, such as diarrhea.  Scientists from France were studying the effect of the drug on the microbiome when they discovered that its efficacy was actually dependent on the presence of certain gut bacteria.  They published their results in the journal Science.

First, the scientists administered the ipilimumab to three groups of mice that had been given cancer through an established model.  One group of mice had a normal microbiome, the second group was germ-free, and the final group had a normal microbiome, but then were given antibiotics.  Surprisingly, the mAb activated much fewer T-cells and was much less effective in destroying the cancer in the mice that were germ free and had been given antibiotics compared to the normal mice.  In addition, the scientists noted that intestinal inflammation occurred in the normal mice, but less so in the others.  Next, the scientists measured the microbiome changes as a result of administration of the mAb, and observed a rapid decrease in Bacteroidales, Burkholderiales, and an increase in Clostridiales.  The scientists then inoculated cancerous mice with specific bacterial species prior to administration of the drug, and then measured the drug’s efficacy.  Remarkably, specific species, such as Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron were able to reestablish the drug’s therapeutic potential and decrease inflammation.

The microbiome’s complex dynamic with the immune system once again presents itself, this time by modulating the efficacy of ipilimumab.  The scientists did do some work on humans, and they noted that not all human patients suffering from melanoma and taking ipilimumab have those beneficial bacteria in their stool.  The scientists did not discuss whether their existence was associated with the cancer’s progression in humans, although it would be interesting to see.  Ipilimumab is just one of many drugs that use the immune system to attack cancer.  Continued research is needed on the microbiome’s impact on these drugs.

New study shows how E. coli and B. theta grow in the gut mucus

The mucosal membrane continues to be one of the most intriguing and vexing components of the gut microbiome.  It is the interface between the body and the environment, it is inhabited many bacteria, and it is a nutritional source that shapes the populations in the gut.  There is still very little known about the specific interactions between gut mucous and bacteria, but this critical system is rapidly being studied.  In the most recent advance, scientists from Switzerland and Germany examined two very different gut bacteria that fill different mucosal niches. They published their results in the journal Nature Communications.  The two bacteria they studied were Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron (B. theta) and Escherichia coliB. theta is a slow growing bacteria that has high metabolic flexibility that is capable of directly using gut mucins as an energy source.  E. coli is a fast growing bacteria that is much more limited in its metabolism and can’t directly use the carbohydrates in the gut, but can take hold and rapidly proliferate after a course of antibiotics.

The researchers meticulously researched gnotobiotic mice and made many discoveries about bacteria in their mucous.  First, they discovered that the mucosal microbiome varies across its thickness, and is sterile closest to the intestines, but rich in life closest to the lumen.  In addition, they noted that the luminal microbiome is distinct from the mucosal microbiome, even though the mucous is constantly being shed into the lumen.  To this end, they confirmed that with regards to E. coli, these bugs replicate faster than they are shed (in about 3 hours in the mucous but 8 hours in the lumen), and that their persistence is due to replication rather than uptake from the lumen.  How though, can E. coli thrive with their limited ability to break down mucins?  The scientists learned that they likely metabolize iron, in addition to atypical carbon sources such as fatty acids and glycerol.  B. theta, on the other hand, has a huge repertoire of genes to break down mucins.  They do, though, have the ability to leave the mucins and form biofilms on bits of food, such as fiber, that pass through the lumen, and this is one way they travel through the gut.  Regardless of whether they are in the lumen or the mucins they proliferate at the same rate.

Each of these bacteria occupy different niches in the gut, and each is important to our health.  The discovery that E. coli can use iron for metabolism is particularly interesting, as chemotrophy is not normally considered as important in the body, and may be important to iron regulation.  As more research is published the mucous appears to be ‘where the rubber meets the road’ in the microbiome, and new discoveries in this area will be crucial to our overall understanding of the microbiome’s interaction with the body.

Algorithms that can analyze the microbiome after diet induced changes

An increasing body of evidence supports that the gut microbiome composition can alter host metabolism, and eventually result in disease.  To date most of these studies have pointed to associations between the microbiota and host metabolism, but little has been able to demonstrate causal relationships between the two.  To address this, researchers from Sweden developed a specialized computational platform called CASINO (Community and System-level Interactive Optimization) to quantify the release and consumption of metabolites from gut microbiota, and pairing this data to dietary intake characteristics and patterns.  CASINO in a multidimensional platform, but ties both species richness/diversity to dietary intake in the gut microbiome.  The algorithms were optimized to distinguish bacteria that consumed carbohydrates/metabolites, and those that produce metabolites instead.

In an in vitro validation test, the CASINO simulation was able to predict net production of metabolites produced by each community and was even able to distinguish between the syntheses of more essential amino acids as compared to non-essential amino acids.  In the past, researchers have been able to link two to three species to metabolic consumption rates.  Using CASINO, researchers in this study were able to write algorithms that could analyze at least five species.  The analysis quantified the contribution of individual bacteria to the overall microbiome, as it was shown that B. thetaiotaomicron, E. rectale, and F. prausnitzii dominated metabolism.

CASINO was also used in a clinical experiment.  Data was examined from an experiment in which 45 overweight and obese individuals were given a restricted low-calorie diet for 6 weeks.  The simulation was able to characterize species diversity and composition.  After characterizing the species, CASINO was also used to simulate the effect of diet on the gut microbiome composition at baseline and after diet intervention in the test subjects.  CASINO algorithms were able to predict a decrease in carbohydrate consumption and increase in amino acid consumption (i.e. protein) by analysis of microbiota metabolites of the five select gut bacterial species.

The CASINO algorithms examined most metabolic functions and allowed several species to be included in a simulation.  Furthermore, the authors propose that the program is scalable to include more than five species.  CASINO could pave the way toward development of quantification methods that could serve as a predictive interaction tool, especially in light of the importance of biomarkers in predicting disease onset.  We discussed biomarkers last week in our blog regarding renal disease, and these types of tools could provide exceptional value for clinical diagnostics.

Episode 5 of The Microbiome Podcast: Diet and its impact on our microbiota and health with Drs. Erica and Justin Sonnenburg

As we read on yesterday's blog post, dietary fibers alter the microbiome. On this week's episode of The Microbiome Podcast we talked in depth with Drs. Erica and Justin Sonnenburg from Stanford University about dietary fibers and their impact on our microbiota and our health.  Erica and Justin wrote a book that was published today called The Good Gut: Taking Control of Your Weight, Your Mood, and Your Long-term Health. You can buy it here on Amazon and it's a highly recommended read for anyone interested in the microbiome.

Check out the newest episode on iTunes, Stitcher, or listen on our website

We will continue answering your questions on the podcast so please call 518-945-8583 with any questions for us or for next week's guest, Dr. Elaine Hsiao.

See below for more detailed show notes from today's episode: