Category: Innovation

More on the human brain

One that I can republish and another that I can refer to.

First, the article presented in The Conversation that I can republish.

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Using light to control brain cells – neuroscientist Karl Deisseroth explains how he made his Nobel‑winning discovery

Illustration of brain scan with red threads reaching from the side towards it
Optogenetics involves the use of light to alter the activity of neurons. Westend61/Getty Images

Karl Deisseroth, Stanford University

The 2026 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine honored Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel for their work developing optogenetics – a technique that allows researchers to control the activity of neurons with light.

The Conversation Weekly podcast talked to Karl Deisseroth, a neuroscientist at Stanford University, about his journey developing optogenetics and its potential to treat a wide range of neuropsychiatric conditions. What follows is an edited transcript of the podcast.

Take us back to the early 1990s. You’re training to be a doctor and you start a rotation working with psychiatric patients. What questions about the brain did that raise for you?

Both basic neuroscience (people asking how the brain works) and clinical neuroscience (doctors trying to help people with brain disorders) have faced a very similar problem, which is the brain is quite mysterious and quite hard to study.

It’s billions of fragile, transparent, very fast-acting cells, buried within the skull and doing very complex things. We don’t have a good model for how the brain works, unlike the heart, which is very obviously a pump. We don’t actually know what the brain’s trying to do.

A lot of neuropsychiatric treatments are not as effective as they could be, and developing new ideas has been hard. The treatments we had were not grounded in a solid understanding of the cells involved. What are the cells actually doing? What are they trying to do? This was a problem that held back treatment.

When I was in psychiatry training in the early 2000s, and also as a medical student in the late 1990s, I was very much impressed with the magnitude of the challenge.

You went on to get a Ph.D. in neuroscience, and then you set up a lab at Stanford trying to understand how to control particular cells in the brain. What were the first experiments you did?

I have a background in molecular biology, and I knew how to work with genes. So I was motivated to see if we could use genetics to make a treatment or an intervention that targets one kind of cell.

Every cell has genes that tell it what to do. Different cells in the brain, just as other parts of the body, can be genetically targeted because different cells have different jobs. A cell that is a dopamine neuron has all the machinery needed to make the hormone dopamine. It uses different genes than a cell that makes the hormone serotonin, so they can be distinguished from each other.

And so the thought was maybe I could have a way of controlling just the dopamine cells or just the serotonin cells by inserting a specific gene into them. But I didn’t know what would work well, so I tried inserting different types of genes into neurons.

Close-up of hand holding an Erlenmeyer flask containing a sample of neon green liquid
Inside this flask is the unicellular algae that played a critical role in the development of optogenetics. Tobias SchwarzSCHWARZ/AFP via Getty Images

Some of the genes I tried were quite conventional; they were genes from mammals that I thought might affect the activity of neurons. But one was a gene from a single-celled algae – a microbe that converts light to energy. This gene coded for a light-activated protein called channelrhodopsin-2 that Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel identified a few years earlier.

And I thought it was worth a try. It was the least likely to work, but why not try it?

And amazingly, that was the one that worked. The genes that were lower risk didn’t work, and this gene from a single-cell microbe actually did.

Walk us through what you did. You inserted the gene into rat cells, right?

I had a preparation of cultured rodent neurons in a dish – basically a 24-well plate that let me look at many different conditions at the same time in different wells of this plate. This let me test side by side the conventional mammalian genes and this gene from the algae.

So the first step was to get the genes into the cells. Then I exposed some plates of cells to light, while others I did not. I used a test to see which cells had activated.

When I looked across the cells in the screen, I found that the ones that had the algae gene and had gotten light were showing this marker of activation, whereas the others had a much lower signal. That was a really thrilling moment because it showed that this gene from a photosynthetic single-celled organism – almost as far as you can possibly be from mammals evolutionarily – was working beautifully in fragile mammalian neurons.

It was a moment of a lot of pressure and complexity, but also delight.

You went on to name your method optogenetics – the ability to control specific nerves using light in the brain – and you soon went on to using it to control living mice in various ways. What was it like in those first few years of working with live animals?

The first experiment was in 2004, but we didn’t show that it could control the behavior of freely moving mammals until 2007. So it took almost three years. But that first moment in 2007 was quite uplifting because that showed we had gone a big, big chunk of the way toward making it work.

This was an experiment that was very visible and easy to understand. The right side of the brain controls the left side of the body and attention to the left side of the world. We put in a fiber optic into the right part of a mouse motor cortex – the part that controls movement – and when we flipped the switch, the mouse immediately began going left in circles.

And then as soon as we turned off the laser light, it stopped and just looked up at us, as if nothing had happened.

That, coupled with the first experiment – those were transcendent moments.

What changed in your understanding of the brain in the moment you were able to switch particular neurons on and off?

We understood that the technique would probably work to help us understand the brain better at that moment. And then we immediately started applying it to all sorts of different cells where things were mysterious – where nobody knew or couldn’t prove exactly what one cell type or another was doing in perception and cognition and action.

We were able to find cells that were involved in hunger and thirst – basic survival drives. We were able to identify cells and pathways controlling aggression and defensiveness, parenting, how all the different parts of anxiety come on together and go away together, memory, motivation.

The general applicability became clear over the subsequent years.

Researchers are now using optogenetics in attempts to restore sight in people with visual impairment. How does that work?

In 2010, two of my colleagues in Europe were interested in delivering one of these light-activated proteins to human eye samples – specifically the retina of the eye – which worked very well.

So they did careful studies in monkeys and in people. And in 2021, just five years ago, they published a paper showing they could confer light sensitivity back to the retinas of a person who was completely blind from a neurodegenerative disease called retinitis pigmentosa.

That’s what we call direct optogenetics. It’s somewhat complicated because you have to deliver the gene and light to the person.

Karl Deisseroth sitting and smiling in a chair with laptop in his lap, Michelle Monje-Deisseroth sitting adjacent to him reaching a hand out to hold his shoulder
Karl Deisseroth, left, and his wife, Michelle Monje-Deisseroth, were at home when they were notified of his Nobel win. AP Photo/Noah Berger

And going back to your psychiatric patients, who you still see in the clinic today, how do you hope optogenetics will be able to help them?

There’s a much easier and more broadly impactful avenue that we call indirect optogenetics, which uses the knowledge that comes from studying which cells matter in a symptom and then designing medications that target those cells. This is something we’ve really lacked in neuropsychiatry for a long time.

Indirect optogenetics is making strong headway for autism and schizophrenia. There are trials that are moving to their final stages for those disorders.

My particular clinical specialty is autism, and I see the difficulties that come with irritability and anxiety in these patients. And I can see optogenetics leading to new medications that will help.

Karl Deisseroth, D. H. Chen Professor, Professor of Bioengineering and of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Next, the article in Nature what has the title: Memory stays strong in old age when this brain enzyme is active

An enzyme found in the brain could help to preserve cognitive resilience with advancing age, according to research in mice, humans and cells1.

Researchers found that high levels of the enzyme are linked to low levels of inflammation in the brains of aged mice. They also showed that the enzyme boosts the growth of neurons in ageing brains. The findings were reported on 15 October in Nature Neuroscience.

The enzyme seems to act “as a compensatory cognitive-resilience mechanism”, says study co-author Amar Sahay, a neuroscientist at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

“This is a fantastic, very thoughtful approach to get at what could be protecting neurons,” says Timothy Hohman, a neuroscientist and geneticist at the Vanderbilt Memory & Alzheimer’s Center in Nashville, Tennessee, who was not involved in the study. “This is a great example of how you can use a model system to get at some of these resilience mechanisms that are super challenging to study in humans.”

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Maybe, just maybe, the workings of the human brain is not such a mystery as it used to be.

Workout information

This is an interesting report.

Exercise is good. From the following article we read that exercise is much more than an event. Read on to see where I am coming from.

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Your cells keep a record of every workout you’ve ever done – and those gains persist even after a break from exercise

Person lying half on a treadmill, half on the ground
Your body retains the benefits of exercise even when you need to hit pause. Williams+Hirakawa/The Image Bank via Getty Images

Diego Hernandez-Saavedra, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Yi-Heng (Hank) Huang, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Have you ever taken months off training – maybe due to an injury, a new baby or crushing work deadlines – and come back convinced you were starting from zero?

Research from our team has some good news: At the cellular level, you probably weren’t.

We found that muscle and liver cells store memories from every training session in ways that may help improve endurance, control blood sugar levels and even slow weight regain after inactivity.

Use it or lose it? Maybe not

For most of the past century, long before fad diets and fancy workout trends took off, exercise was considered one of the most effective lifestyle changes to lower the risk of heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, several cancers and early death for people of all ages. But people typically understood exercise as something whose beneficial effects fade away over time: You use it or lose it.

When you stop training, your maximum oxygen uptake, muscle gains and insulin sensitivity drift back to where they started, often within weeks. Physical activity guidelines are built on this fact, which is why they emphasize consistency above all else.

Consistency, however, is a luxury that roughly 3 in 4 American adults aren’t able to enjoy. People can experience injuries, illness, pregnancy or jobs that limit their time for or ability to exercise. If adaptation really resets, every time you step into the gym would be as if you’ve never been there before. But that scenario doesn’t match what coaches and returning athletes typically describe: In practice, people who have trained before can get fit again faster than those who haven’t undergone similar training.

In recent years, however, scientists have started challenging the concept of “use it or lose it.” New research hints that your cells might keep a record of your training history so all of your gains are not completely lost.

More than muscle

We are exercise physiologists who study how cells remember exercise. Our lab and others have shown that the body is able to store a form of exercise memory across different organs.

To study how this exercise memory works, our team of researchers use an ON-OFF-ON exercise training protocol in mice, which involves an initial four- to eight-week training period, followed by detraining – a period of no exercise – and a second training bout. This method allows us to examine how cells form a memory of exercise, maintain a record of exercise through detraining, and recall memories of prior training when exposed again to exercise.

Using this strategy, our team found that skeletal muscle memory accelerates muscle growth. Compared to mice with no training history, mice who retrained grew bigger muscles, and the individual muscle fibers inside those muscles grew too. Larger muscle fibers meant that the working cells were themselves getting bigger, rather than the surrounding tissue.

Microscopy image of small pink dots enclosed within several circular membranes
Individual muscle fibers (the pink dots) grow larger with exercise. Ed Reschke/Stone via Getty Images

Looking more closely at these muscle cells, we found that retrained muscle is better at matching energy production to demand – meaning, the muscles were better at drawing from energy stores when it’s needed most – and this ability persists without further exercise. This memory held even when the mice ate a high-fat diet, suggesting that prior training can still offer benefits even when diet is working against those gains.

Muscle isn’t the only body part that learns from exercise. Working muscle needs fuel, and the liver supplies it during and after training sessions.

My colleagues and I found that liver cells also store exercise memory and uses it to feed muscle more efficiently. In both mice and people who trained, stopped, then trained again, their livers released higher levels of a family of enzymes called carboxylesterases. These enzymes chop up lipids circulating in the blood, delivering fat in a form that muscle can take up and burn as it grows.

A record that outlives you

Recorded cellular memories of exercise may even be passed down to future generations.

In mice, we found that three to four weeks of maternal and paternal endurance exercise can have a lasting effect on their offspring. Compared to offspring born to sedentary parents, parental exercise granted protection against poor blood sugar levels and excess weight gain for an entire year after birth.

Researchers have hypothesized numerous ways that prenatal exercise may affect offspring. For example, maternal exercise might allow offspring to spend more time developing in the womb or lead parents to producer higher quality milk.

But there remains much to be discovered on how parents influence the health of their children and whether their lifestyle could provide a fitness advantage across generations.

Every cell remembers

Biology has traditionally granted memory to a short list of cells. Neurons store memory in the connections between them. Immune cells store memory so they can recognize pathogens faster and more strongly the next time they encounter them.

Researchers previously considered all other cells to be memoryless; a cell responds to a signal, then returns to baseline without keeping a record of that interaction. But that assumption is now coming apart.

Skin stem cells can keep a record of inflammation, allowing them to heal a new wound faster months later. Human fat cells keep a record of obesity that persists even after substantial weight loss, which may account for why you gain weight faster when switching back to a high-calorie diet – the so-called yo-yo effect.

Two people sitting inside a gym, fit bumping
While consistent exercise is still key to health, don’t stress if you need to take a break. The Good Brigade/DigitalVision via Getty Images

We propose that every cell in the body remembers exercise, regardless of how little or how much someone trains. The question is how long these records are stored and whether researchers could prolong or expand each cell’s storage capacity. Better understanding of how cells learn and remember exercise, where they store memories and how those memories are preserved could help improve exercise guidelines for those who cannot exercise for prolonged or consistent periods of time.

To be clear, none of these findings are evidence for skipping the gym; nothing in our data suggests the effects of past training can substitute for present training. But there is hope that the work you put into getting in shape isn’t completely lost over time.

Somewhere, deep in your cells, there is a record waiting to be replayed the next time you lace up your running shoes, pick up a pair of dumbbells or want to fulfill a New Year’s resolution.

Diego Hernandez-Saavedra, Assistant Professor of Applied Health Sciences, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Yi-Heng (Hank) Huang, Ph.D. Candidate in Applied Health Sciences, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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There were many aspects of this applied health science that surprised me, and I suspect will surprise others. It is another supporting reason why I go cycling three or four times a week.

Back in business

And I want to republish this article.

I am slowly getting to know my new Mac, and there are many features that make it an improvement over my old Mac.

So to today’s post. It is an article published by The Conversation about the cosmos.

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An overlooked era of cosmology is stealing the show in the quest to understand the cosmos

A telescope on a mountaintop set in a box with two antenna disks
The Large Binocular Telescope was used to take the new measurement of primordial helium-4. NASA

Cara Giovanetti, University of California, Berkeley

Could you imagine if pagers made a comeback? Sure, your smartphone would still be your notepad-flashlight-camera-personal assistant-MP3 player-wallet-social media browser. But imagine if pagers made it so easy to do that one important thing – pinging your friends and associates – that we all brought them back into our lives, or adopted them for the first time.

A redemption arc like this is happening in cosmology, the study of the history of our universe. The hero – rather than old technology – is an epoch of cosmological history called Big Bang Nucleosynthesis, or BBN.

Some cosmologists have thought that BBN is too old-school to be as good a tool for cosmology as other probes of the early universe. But BBN is the darling of my research program, where I use cosmology to learn more about particle physics. I have seen firsthand how recent results from this old cosmological epoch can guide new research about our universe.

The smartphone of cosmology

Cosmology’s superstar is the Cosmic Microwave Background, or CMB, which formed some 400,000 years after the Big Bang. It’s an all-sky mosaic of hot and cold patches of light, which appeared while electrons and nuclei combined into the first neutral atoms. Viewed from Earth, each hot or cold patch is small enough for the Moon to block out.

The CMB’s intricate patterning has been the subject of several intense observational campaigns, and for good reason. The key scientific model in cosmology has six major unknown quantities that researchers must measure to understand the universe. All of these quantities can be inferred with good measurements of the CMB.

But the CMB’s much older, less famous cousin is starting to steal some of its limelight.

A game of musical chairs

The universe started with a bang – the Big Bang – and about 10 minutes later, the largest game of musical chairs in history began. By that time, the universe was still dense, and hotter than the Sun. But it had cooled just enough for formerly freewheeling protons and neutrons to fuse into nuclei, which make up the centers of atoms.

The game started, and every proton searched for neutrons to fuse with. A proton lucky enough to find a neutron partner formed deuterium. That couple could snatch either another neutron to make tritium, or another proton to make helium-3. One more proton or neutron each finally made helium-4, which has a remarkably stable nucleus with two protons and two neutrons.

A diagram showing a proton and neutron fusing into deuterium, two deuteriums fusing into helium-3 or tritium, and those fusing into helium-4
Particles fused together in the first few minutes of the universe to create larger and more complicated particles. Cara Giovanetti, CC-BY-SA

The catch is that the number of neutrons in the universe plummeted during the game, like chairs being yanked out of line. Neutrons are unstable when they’re not bound in nuclei, spontaneously spitting out lighter particles in about 15 minutes to become the slightly lighter proton.

The music stopped for good when the universe became too cold for these particles to continue fusing. By that time – just 20 minutes after the game started – nearly all neutrons had either turned into protons or ended up in helium-4. Any proton that wasn’t lucky enough to partner up probably remained single for millennia, and might even be wandering the universe alone today.

This process is called Big Bang Nucleosynthesis. Astrophysicists can actually measure the quantities of helium-4 and deuterium that formed by the time it ended, referred to as primordial abundances.

But a new measurement of the primordial helium-4 abundance, published in September 2026, has reached stunning precision, providing information about the universe during BBN at a level of detail never before known.

A window to the early universe

Just a few seconds after the Big Bang, neutrons could absorb lighter particles and become protons, setting the stage for Big Bang Nucleosynthesis in processes distinct from the decays that happened toward the end of BBN 15 minutes later. This conversion could occur as long as the universe was very dense and hot. The longer that condition was satisfied, the more neutrons could turn into protons before BBN began.

But the universe expanded quickly after the Big Bang. The stretching of the fabric of the universe was propelled by radiation, where “radiation” refers to hot particles with tiny masses. The rate of expansion – and, by proxy, the amount of radiation – determined how quickly the universe became less dense.

It’s harder for neutrons to absorb particles and convert into protons in a diluted universe, because everybody’s so far away. The quicker the universe expanded, the less time there was to turn neutrons into protons, and so the more neutrons there would be the start of BBN. More neutrons at the beginning of musical chairs means more helium-4 by the end of it.

A diagram showing two images. The left, labeled 'dense,' shows a universe full of particles, while the right, labeled 'diluted,' shows a universe with particles scattered thinly.
In a dense universe, particles interact easily, and neutrons (blue) turn into protons (red). If the universe is not very dense, interaction becomes much harder, and more neutrons stick around. Cara Giovanetti, CC-BY-SA

The amount of radiation therefore determines the final helium-4 abundance. By measuring that abundance, my colleagues and I work backward to find the precise amount of radiation in the early universe.

That’s an important quantity to measure. Among other reasons, particle physicists can use it to learn more about dark matter, a largely invisible substance that constitutes 80% of the matter in the universe.

Many models of dark matter, or other hypothetical physics, call for slightly more or slightly less radiation than what’s expected in standard cosmology. Measuring this quantity precisely helps particle physicists differentiate these predictions from the truth.

Looking ahead

BBN now determines the amount of radiation in the early universe better than the CMB. And its newfound prowess doesn’t stop at helium-4. Measurements of primordial deuterium, taken throughout the 21st century, tell cosmologists the density of particles like protons and neutrons with extreme precision. The precision with which BBN determines this quantity rivals, though does not yet exceed, that of the CMB.

The CMB isn’t quite ready to give up its spotlight. Even more precise measurements of all of the major unknowns in cosmology are already underway, as the Simons Observatory – a new high precision CMB telescope – makes its first observations. But there’s no clear path to improved measurements after the Simons Observatory finishes taking data, since the next-generation experiment CMB-S4 was suspended indefinitely last year.

Maybe it’s good timing, then, for BBN to be making its comeback. Getting even better BBN data doesn’t require dedicated observatories. Instead, observers only need more time on existing or planned telescopes. With near-term improvements to astronomical observations, physicists may get closer than ever to understanding the makeup – and therefore history and future – of our universe.

Cara Giovanetti, Postdoctoral Researcher in Physics, University of California, Berkeley

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Now there’s another thing I have just learnt (on the 26th). That is to copy and paste I now have to use the Command key plus the appropriate letter key.

Life Beyond Planet Earth

Yet more stories.

It seems as though many articles are exploring life beyond Earth at the moment.

Here is an article from The Conversation.

Have a read.

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Many space missions are searching for life beyond Earth – but are we prepared for the fallout if they succeed?

An illustration of floating round microbes
Several space missions are searching for extraterrestrial life, which could come in the form of microbes. ClaudioVentrella/iStock via Getty Images Plus

Margaret E. Kosal, Georgia Institute of Technology; Dayana Alagirova, Georgia Institute of Technology, and Karryl Kim Sagun Trajano, Nanyang Technological University

Microbes from space have fueled the plots of science fiction mainstays like “Project Hail Mary” and “The Andromeda Strain.” But with more space missions launching each year, finding extraterrestrial life in a microbial form is becoming more plausible. What will the response be back here on Earth if – or when – scientists discover extraterrestrial microbes? Will the international policy and security communities be prepared for the fallout?

When you hear about extraterrestrial life, your mind may go to intelligent life, like the kind present in a lot of Hollywood science fiction. But even the confirmation of microbial life that originated somewhere other than on Earth – which is much more likely – would be a paradigm-shifting event. Thinking about what these consequences might look like early on can help nations and the international community prepare.

Our team is interested in this question. We’re made up of a full professor of international affairs, who earned a Ph.D. in chemistry, and whose expertise is on how emerging science and technologies could affect global conflict and cooperation, as well as an emerging scholar in space policy and security and an expert on social and political implications of frontier technologies, such as AI, space, quantum and energy sources.

Multiple Mars landers have identified large amounts of frozen and liquid water, essential for life, on the red planet. Samples retrieved by Japan’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft from a near-Earth asteroid revealed the presence of uracil, part of RNA, which is a building block of life. Uncrewed space probes like NASA’s Europa Clipper and the European Space Agency’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer are on their way to conduct detailed reconnaissance of the planet’s moons and to investigate whether they have conditions suitable for life. https://www.youtube.com/embed/3HN_zx4JJfM?wmode=transparent&start=0 Scientists are searching for life in space using what they know about life on Earth. But what will happen if or when they find something?

Along with data from the James Webb Space Telescope and future missions targeting Saturn’s icy moon Enceladus, the likelihood of discovering extraterrestrial microbial life has increased substantially.

A governance challenge

The discovery of microbial life would expose significant gaps in international governance related to space.

While there are some existing international agreements, including the Outer Space Treaty, that provide space law guidelines, these are ill-equipped to address the complexities posed by extraterrestrial biology.

The Outer Space Treaty, established in 1967, dictates that countries should use outer space peacefully. It also states that no single nation may claim ownership or exert sovereignty over parts of outer space or celestial bodies such as the Moon.

A semicircle-shaped room full of people sitting at tables.
The U.N. Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space is one of the few existing pathways for the governance of space. United States Mission to International Organizations in Vienna, CC BY-NC-ND

However, it doesn’t have much to say about who can own extraterrestrial organisms or what to do about biosecurity risks. It doesn’t have direction for who can use, preserve or destroy living things, such as bacteria or fungi, that may be discovered in space.

Historical analogies and future pathways

While people have yet to discover extraterrestrial life of any kind, there are some major geopolitical events that can help researchers understand what the consequences might look like.

While the space race of the 1950s and ’60s led to exploration of the Moon, it was driven by a Cold War power struggle between two nations back on Earth. Instead of coming together to explore space, both countries experienced a renewed sense of nationalism. They used the new discoveries that came from the space race to invest in their military capabilities.

On the other hand, researchers can look at how states respond to asteroid threats. Since an asteroid could pose a truly existential threat from space, preventing the worst-case scenario requires cooperation and thinking ahead.

Astronomers have built a global, collaborative network to monitor for and sound the alarm about any potential threats. This network has shown that nations can put aside terrestrial rivalries to work together if they perceive something from space as a truly existential threat.

The International Space Station is another example showing how nations that are competing great powers on Earth work together to cooperate in space. Countries have collaborated to solve issues on the International Space Station that have specific, short-term and clearly identified goals.

The International Space Station, which is a metal structure with solar panels coming off it, floating above Earth
The ISS is an example of countries cooperating in space research. NASA/Roscosmos

These examples show a range of possible reactions to the discovery of space microbes. The situation could renew space races between competing countries and lead to militarization, or it could create unprecedented cooperation.

Potential outcomes

We’ve identified three main possible outcomes to the discovery of microbial extraterrestrial life.

First, there’s a cooperative outcome, reminiscent of the asteroid threat network or the International Space Station. Here, nations collaborate to regulate research, share data, protect the planet or advance specific interests they share.

This pathway isn’t inherently benign or malignant. It could entail expanding the roles of international organizations or creating new legal instruments.

Second there’s a competitive outcome, characterized by strategic rivalry between countries. Like in the space race, nations could fight to be technologically superior. They might try to monopolize access to the extraterrestrial microbes or to leverage biological discoveries from the microbes for their own economic or military advantage.

Scientific breakthroughs derived from extraterrestrial organisms could lead to innovations in medicine, agriculture, energy and beyond. However, the organisms could also be weaponized, intentionally or otherwise, which would amplify biosecurity risks. In this sense, the discovery of microbial life could create a new form of technological competition, one that merges space exploration with biological research and development.

The increasing role of private companies, such as SpaceX, complicates this dynamic. These companies receive contracts from the government, blurring the lines between commercial civilian and strategic activities.

For example, around 60% of all satellites currently orbiting the Earth belong to SpaceX’s Starlink subsidiary. The company can – and has – chosen to block access selectively, in alignment with its political priorities. When commercial interests and national priorities diverge, who has access versus who is denied access can be uncertain.

A rocket moving upwards off a launchpad, with a streak of flame and a plume of smoke coming off it.
A SpaceX rocket launches a load of Starlink satellites into orbit around Earth. AP Photo/John Raoux

Research around biopiracy may come into play. Biopiracy is a term that applies to two primary issues: the patenting of indigenous knowledge or the patenting of natural resources, such as microbes, for profit. The Budapest Treaty prohibits claiming ownership of a naturally occurring microbe on Earth, but there’s no equivalent for microbes in space.

Third is an isolationist outcome, in which states could sever their involvement in international cooperation due to biosecurity concerns or political distrust. The potential for unknown biological risks, however minimal, could trigger precautionary restrictions on data sharing, which limits international collaboration.

Countries may lose or gain allies as they grapple with whether the microbe could cause harm to humans or the environment, or be developed into a biological weapon.

Emerging technologies will also shape these outcomes. Artificial intelligence and machine learning are already integral to scientific research. Scientists use them to process astronomical data and identify potential biosignatures. Nanotechnology and advances in the life sciences and engineering could allow researchers to study, modify or exploit extraterrestrial microbes, if they’re given access to them.

Countries will have to prepare not only for the scientific implications of discovery but also for its societal and political reverberations. The politicization of scientific discoveries from the microbes could complicate or change how countries respond domestically and at the international scale. Misinformation about the microbes could shape policy and public response.

Preparing for the unprecedented

The discovery of extraterrestrial microbial life would not merely mark a scientific milestone. It would be a geopolitical event.

Rather than attempting to predict a singular outcome, policymakers could adopt scenario-based planning approaches in the meantime to anticipate and prepare for a range of possibilities. In these approaches, participants explore multiple futures through structured activities similar to professional or military wargaming or path games, in which they explore multiple outcomes systematically to test strategies, to plan and to analyze potential outcomes under realistic uncertainty.

In our view, the question is not whether humanity will discover life beyond Earth, but whether it is prepared for the consequences when it does.

Margaret E. Kosal, Associate Professor of International Affairs, Georgia Institute of Technology; Dayana Alagirova, Ph.D. Student in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, Georgia Institute of Technology, and Karryl Kim Sagun Trajano, Research Fellow for Future Issues and Technology, Nanyang Technological University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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It states that the discovery of extraterrestrial life would be a ‘geopolitical event’.

I should say so. I would expect the news worldwide would be focussed on this happening!

These academics mentioned above are, I presume, not the only scientists engaged in this.

It would be a fabulous discovery, and I wonder if it will happen before I die!

Cosmology

“That the universe is odd is a given. But it may soon become less odd than it was.”

This quote was in The Economist of August 29th, 2026. It was in the Science & technology section.

I did not understand it but that didn’t stop me from being fascinated by the article.

Then, coincidentally, yesterday Patrice Ayme posted another similarly-themed post. I have his permission to reproduce that post. Again I did not understand it. 😉

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RELATIVITY FASTER THAN LIGHT

FTL FROM REDUCING THE DOMAIN OF DEFINITION OF THE LORENTZ TRANSFORMATION

Abstract: Quantum Entanglement has been experimentally demonstrated with utmost certainty to go Faster Than Light, FTL. FTL is NOT signalling (yet!) However, the two notions are extremely close. Special Relativity is conventionally said to exclude Faster-Than-Light signaling because Lorentz transformations can reverse the temporal order of spacelike-separated events. We readjust that notion to make it Entanglement and FTL signaling compatible. 

For an explicit FTL signal with (u=2c), a perfectly ordinary Lorentz transformation indeed assigns a negative reception time in a sufficiently rapidly moving inertial frame.
But this does not demonstrate that physical time travel occurs; it demonstrates that coordinate-time ordering is frame-dependent for spacelike intervals.

The essay argues that the real assumption requiring examination is not the mathematics of the Lorentz transformation, but its unrestricted physical interpretation.
If FTL influences exist, they need not be required to possess the same relativistic transformation properties as ordinary subluminal processes (and they should not as they potentially come from completely different physics)..

The proposed solution is to introduce a preferred Cosmic Manifest Frame (CMF), identified approximately by the Cosmological Microwave Background, CMB, in which FTL propagation and causal ordering are physically defined.
Other inertial frames may assign negative coordinate times to the same FTL process, but those coordinates do not represent reversed physical causality.
Lorentz symmetry is thereby retained as an effective symmetry for domains where it has been experimentally validated, and theoretically deduced, while it is denied fundamental universality.
SQPR adopts precisely such a preferred causal structure, with nonlocal quantum influences propagating at a finite superluminal speed such as TAU (>>>>> c).
The proposal thus attempts to separate the mathematical freedom of spacetime coordinates from the physical ordering of causes and effects.

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We consider first a concrete numerical example of a specific superluminal speed to make the conventional argument found in Special Relativity textbooks (which we think is erroneous) completely explicit.

The standard argument against Faster Than Light SIGNALING goes as follows:

“Given Special Relativity, SR, if you allow faster‑than‑light signaling, then the Lorentz transformation between inertial frames implies that some observers will see the signal arrive before it is sent. With two such FTL signals, you can construct a closed causal loop, i.e. a form of ‘time travel’ that violates causality.” 

We will show that the “closed causal loop” construction is superfluous to make this (erroneous) argument work. The traditional argument can be made more compact, no need for a loop. This irony is significant, because the existence of a sharper (erroneous) argument against FTL from SR shows that the physicists who pretend to have demonstrated that FTL is impossible from SR have not bothered to find the sharpest argument, possibly indicating that they find the subject unappetizing… Or could it be that they were afraid to be cut by the sharpness of the argument, because, as it turns out, the argument doesn’t even need a causal loop? … It’s that basic…

First let’s give a concrete example. Let the Faster than Light (FTL) signal speed be u = 2c. And let the speed of S’ relative to S be .6c. And the separation L be two light second (twice Earth-Moon). Computation shows that, BLINDLY using the Lorentz transformation, the FTL signal is received in S’ at MINUS .25 second. In other words, time travel.

We argue that this is absurd, and caused by a misuse of the Lorentz transformation by overextending its domain of definition over the spacelike subset of Poincaré spacetime. (Poincaré discovered and used Poincaré spacetime and its metric months or years before those who plagiarized him. In particular Poincaré found the full Lorentz Transformation, LT, using the most general argument; this is important because, in spite of his success using it, clearly Poincaré took Poincaré spacetime with a grain of salt; the present essay explains a plausible reason why; there is another; later, following Poincaré once again, Einstein confessed he didn’t like Poincaré spacetime… Make no mistake: Poincaré’s argument about getting LT from Poincaré spacetime was entirely mathematically correct; what was not done is the physical restriction we undertake below).

Recapitulation in the general case:

We set the frame S and S’ such that their space and time origin coincide x = x’ = t = t’ = 0. That’s event A. Event B is at (L,T) in S, such that L/T = u, superluminal: u > c.

What is the time of B in S’? T’(B) is: (T – v L/cc)γ 

If the signal is FTL, L> cTL. Then there exists some subluminal v high enough such that:

(T− vL/cc) < 0…. Thus t’(B) < 0.

In other words the FTL signal is received at a negative time in S’ … thus before it is sent. 

This is my sharper version of the erroneous argument many physicists have made against FTL.

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GRAND RETURN OF ABSOLUTE SPACE:

Solution to the riddle of the Lorentz Transformation creating events which have not happened yet: Reject the claim that all inertial frames are equivalent  In other words, as observed in Physical Reality, I mean the cosmos out there, there is a preferred frame in the universe, the one in which the CMB is at rest. (Mach and Newton would opine that this absolute space gives us some hope of explaining inertia. Einstein developed General Relativity in the hope of explaining inertia… He completely failed in that hope, but then we got GPS from GR…)

So postulate a special frame in which FTL is defined and causality is enforced. This is the path of SQPR.

In other frames, you might get “backwards in time” coordinates, but you declare that only the preferred frame’s ordering is physically meaningful.

This does not even abandon standard Special Relativity formally, and certainly not in practice (all the usual formulas are still effective, say for GPS, but one cannot extend the domain of the Lorentz Transformation over the space-like domain). SR has no difficulty representing spacelike intervals. 

What we reject formally is the additional assumption that an FTLphysical influence must transform exactly like an ordinary subluminal signal, with every inertial observer’s time coordinate having equal causal status. 

The Lorentz transformation is mathematically valid on spacetime, but its physical interpretation as a symmetry of every possible causal process need not be valid. Clearly when Poincaré published on June 5, 1905, the Lorentz Transformation as a rotation of Poincaré spacetime, he could not have guessed the EPR argument of 1935 of the demonstration of FTL by Aspect in 1982 (the latter proving that there are causal processes which are not confined by the speed of light; this outside of the domain of the Lorentz Transformation).

***

We can send (not yet controlled) information faster than light (Bell style experiments). Yes the orientation of the device at A has a real physical effect at B, even if the interval AB is spacelike. That has been amply proven theoretically and experimentally. 

We do not reject Poincaré spacetime… After all, it’s the geometrodynamics of light in the first approximation! But it’s just a first approximation; by the way, that seems to have been the point of view of his creator Henri Poincaré, that’s why he talked about the “ether” so much… Similarly Einstein admitted that, in General Relativity, the speed of light varies… The “ether” was a placeholder concept for the sort of hyperspace in which Physical Reality is embedded and that yours truly advocates for…

There are very deep math reasons for this; the math was not yet developed at the time but Poincaré, the world’s greatest topologist then, may have guessed them..

Instead we posit a preferred frame, the CMF, Cosmic Manifest Frame, as given by the CMB, the Cosmic Microwave Background. Call CMF by the letter S (for Stationary).

  • Causality is fundamentally defined.
  • FTL influences propagate with some speed u>c. In the case of SQPR one cosmic quantum collapse/entanglement speed is hypothesized: TAU. 
  • The Lorentz transformation is an effective symmetry only for certain classes of phenomena (e.g. electromagnetism), not a fundamental symmetry of all physics…. Just like light is not all of physics, and sure has little to say about the QUANTUM ENTANGLEMENT machinery it is subjected to (see Aspect Nobel Prize winning FTL experiments). 

This is exactly the loophole that avoids the “FTL ⇒ time travel” argument.

By the way, this restriction of the Lorentz Transformation proposed here will no doubt do wonders to help avoiding causal time like loops around Black Holes…

As we are into grandiose semi poetic evocations, let’s go all the way. I have an entanglement-clock argument: which questions the elevation of coordinate time to fundamental physical time. In the present essay, I similarly question the elevation of Lorentz-frame equivalence to a universal causal principle.

That gives the essay a much deeper unifying thesis: coordinate transformations need not dictate physical causality. (Ironically that idea is nothing new: it led to the creation of Special and General Relativity; what’s new is to push it beyond the old epistemological frontiers, taking FTL and Entanglement seriously…)

Patrice Ayme

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Just because this entire post is beyond me, it does not mean that I should not publish it. Because there will be others, one hopes, that will understand the science and the mathematics. And the idea that ‘faster than light’ does exist is incredible.

Picture Parade Five Hundred and Thirty-Eight

The Lunar eclipse of August 28th.

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It is so marvellous that these days all one has to do is to find a good sharing website and download the images!

The Scottish Crannog Centre

Sustainable Thinking through Time and Place.

Recently I listened to a programme on BBC Radio 4 about sustainable building. Then I saw that this item had been posted as a pdf and it was available to be shared. Here it is.

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By using materials that compost and breakdown into compounds that ecosystems can handle, we are in essence relearning from the people of the Iron Age. Our imprint on the land around us should not adversely affect those that come after.

The Scottish Crannog Centre has always been rooted in experimental archaeology. Oakbank Crannog, which was located on Loch Tay was excavated in the 1980s. During the late 1990s, a one-to-one reconstruction of Oakbank Crannog was built, four miles downstream at the original Scottish Crannog Centre site. The preservation at Oakbank was extraordinary, with the anaerobic conditions allowing many artefacts that would normally decay to survive intact.

In 2018, the organisation became an accredited museum, a fundamental step towards the ambitious desire to become a sector leading museum. With this change came the appreciation that our responsibilities would become broader and wider; our guardianship of the collection for future generations would need to improve and the responsibility to engage with communities would become more important.

Our vision is to be a national treasure loved by all, with social justice at its heart. This acts as our North star and is our guiding light, as Figure 1 highlights. Our mission is to bring the story of the crannog dwellers to life, through the use of our collection and community engagement. Our values of compassion, curiosity and respect help us to carry out this mission. This is seen in our activism, where leadership runs right through the organisation, where the right person in the right place is able to make the decision. We also acknowledge that the abundance is on the outside, and it is only by having strong partnerships with other people, organisations, and communities that the Centre can bring the collections to life.

These changes paved the way and set the foundations for a redevelopment project. The small size of the existing site prevented expansion, and in the long term, the existing site was not sustainable. As a result, in June 2020, the Trust was successful in its application for Community Asset Transfer to buy a new site from Forestry Land Services. The site is located on the other side of the loch from the existing centre, a mile closer to the original Oakbank Crannog site. The proposals for the new centre, embedded within its social and environmental heritage, with co-curated displays and plans to create community-built crannogs, was so strong that the Trust was granted the land for the token sum of £1. This was followed by the securing of £2.3m of Scottish Government funding over two financial years for the delivery of the first phase of the development, supported by the vision of the Scottish Government that the Scottish Crannog Centre becomes a National Museum.

In June 2021, the iconic reconstruction of Oakbank Crannog was destroyed by fire. The outpouring of support from friends near and far was tremendous, and resulted in fundraising campaigns, offers of labour and raw materials, offers of professional services, and much more. Just as the people who lived in Oakbank Crannog 2500 years ago were almost surely grateful to be able to rebuild, we are thankful no one was hurt, we are thankful we have most of our belongings, and now we look forward to rebuilding a crannog once again. The fire meant that the move to the new Dalerb site had to be accelerated. The development was split into two phases and the first phase must now be fast-tracked. While the fire was devastating for all involved it gave us a unique opportunity to reassess our vision and look ahead to the future.

Our new aim is to become Scotland’s most sustainable museum, with a desire to move from sector leading to sector defining. We will do this by embracing the four areas of sustainability: economic, social, environmental, and human. These four areas have now been taken to the core of the Trust and incorporated into the four-branched model of the organisation. These branches are:

  1. A trusted Partner that organisations and individuals want to work alongside. A special Place people want to visit and support.
    2. A Place of choice to work and grow.
    3. A Place that belongs in, and cares for, its environment.

Each branch of the model does not represent a specific or single area of sustainability, even though some have a greater focus on a certain aspect. The branches entwine and combine with themselves to create a sustainable system that gives structure, whilst also allowing for flexibility. This also allows us to think both about short- and long-term sustainable goals as we move forward with our development plans. As we look to the future, sustainable thinking must become the norm. With the current climate emergency, there is a clear need for a change in the way we interact with our environment; but it also goes deeper and broader than that. It also must ensure that people are treated fairly, and they have the space to be who they are and are allowed to grow. To ensure that this is possible, financial stability must be considered but it should not be the sole driving factor in decision making.

We have already made some progress on our sustainable journey which is highlighted by:

  1. Becoming an accredited employer with the Real Living Wage Scotland initiative. Becoming a Disability Confident Employer and Leader.
  2. Implementing a digital-focused marketing system, shifting away from paper. Committing to the Young Person’s Guarantee framework.

Working with Universities through Interface, hosting 19 projects with students providing consultant work on going paperless with marketing, sustainable business models and branding.

Creation and delivery of an apprenticeship scheme, where young people can explore and gain experience of a wide range of crafts as well as learning life and career skills.

The new development will allow us to do more. Phase one of Dalerb will focus on moving the collection to its new home, expanding our capacity to deliver an exceptional visitor experience, and using the archaeological record to inform the construction of an Iron Age village, roundhouse, and crannog. With this move we have been able to consider the sustainable practices that the people from 2500 years ago would recognise themselves.

The museum’s ‘Ideas’ collection is a place that shows the skills and materials that will be needed in the construction of the Iron Age buildings. The way that the timbers that were used as uprights in Oakbank crannog show that there was a level of sophistication to their design, with the alder being placed in upside down to extend the life of the timbers. From this we can interpret that the people of Oakbank crannog had excellent woodworking skills. These skills would have been taught for each generation to be able to construct and maintain buildings of their own.

As part of our reconstruction, we will be emulating many of the same actions that the crannog dwellers of 2500 years would have practiced. The materials that we have source have come from as local as possible. The stone from Kenmore, the reed has come upriver from Errol and the timber from Drummond Hill.

We will also learn new skills and techniques while building that will use the resources to their fullest. Working with experts in thatching, dry-stone walling, and turf-roofing, we learn the skills needed to be able to repair and maintain the buildings. Alongside this our apprentices will also be developing their skills in green woodworking, allowing for that knowledge to carry on to a new generation.

We will also be engaging with communities during the construction, with 1000 fingerprints helping to create the new Centre . The Cross-Cut Co-op will be leading part of the build, a women’s woodworking co-operative. They will be working with volunteer groups from a variety of interests and backgrounds, helping to teach new skills and giving people the chance to try their hand at something new.

The nature of the materials that were used during the Iron Age do not survive well, outside of very specific conditions. This contrasts with modern day materials that take hundreds of years to degrade. By using materials that compost and breakdown into compounds that ecosystems can handle, we are in essence relearning from the people of the Iron Age. Our imprint on the land around us should not adversely affect those that come after.

Through all this work we still need to look towards the future and consider more ways that the Centre can embrace sustainable practices. With the skills that will have been developed from the build we will be able to teach more people how to thatch, stone-wall and work wood allowing these traditional skills to prosper.

We will also have the unique opportunity of producing our own resources for the site, with the creation of a coppice on Drummond Hill. This will give us a sustainable source of wood to use in the maintenance of the Iron Age structures. We will also start our own forest garden, using permaculture principles, that will allow us to supply our cafe with locally grown produce.

With all this we will also look at the more modern issues facing the museum. We will look at how to decarbonise transport links by working with partners, move towards a zero-waste site and explore the opportunities for the centre to generate its own electricity.

As a museum we are in the privileged position of inviting our visitors to see the belongings of the people who lived on the shores of Loch Tay 2500 years ago. When those visitors leave, we hope they gain an appreciation for not only the people but the skills and knowledge that they possessed. As we continue our sustainable journey, we will show everyone how sustainable ideas and practices can be incorporated into everyday life, allowing people to see sustainability in action and moving us all towards a fairer future.

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I appreciate that many people, especially those not born in the U.K., may find this article not of interest. Here are some pictures with more appearing on Sunday.

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Your pet’s milestones.

Another article from Penny.

These milestones would not be in place without us owners. For all pets, cats and dogs and birds, and more, do not think in terms of milestones.

However, our pets are so special to us humans that we create these special moments.

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How to Capture and Cherish Your Pet’s Special Milestones

For pet owners watching their companions move through different pet life stages, the days can blur faster than expected. The core tension is real: documenting pet milestones sounds meaningful, but pet memory keeping often slips between busy routines and the pressure to make every photo, note, or keepsake “perfect.” Yet the emotional value of pet moments shows up later, when a goofy habit fades or a first-time victory becomes a distant detail. Preserving pet memories turns everyday life into something that can be held onto.

Quick Summary: Pet Milestones Made Easy

  • Start by choosing a few essential pet milestones you want to remember and track.
  • Capture special moments with photos to preserve milestones in a simple, shareable way.
  • Record quick notes alongside memories to add context and meaning over time.
  • Keep small keepsakes from key moments to create lasting, tangible reminders.

Rescue Blurry Milestone Photos With AI Upscaling

Once you’ve decided which “firsts” you want to keep, the next challenge is making sure the photos look as special as the moment felt. AI image optimization tools can help rescue milestone shots that are dim, soft, or low-resolution by automatically improving lighting, sharpening tiny details (like whiskers and fur texture), reducing blur, and enriching colors for a clearer, more vibrant result. That’s especially helpful for those quick, imperfect captures, your pet’s first day home, first park trip, or first birthday, where you don’t get a redo.

An AI image upscaler takes this a step further by enhancing resolution and clarity so you can enlarge a favorite photo while still preserving detail and visual quality. If you want a simple starting point, the Adobe Firefly AI image upscaler feature is one way to create a print-ready version for albums, frames, and long-term saving. With your milestone images looking crisp, you’re ready to follow a straightforward process for documenting your pet’s life without overwhelm.

Build a Simple System to Capture Pet Milestones

This process helps you reliably capture your pet’s big moments and keep the memories easy to find later. It matters because when life gets busy, a simple system beats a perfect plan you never use.

  1. Pick your “must-capture” milestones
    Start with 6 to 10 moments you truly care about, such as first day home, first vet visit, first groom, first trip, and adoption anniversary. Keeping the list short prevents decision fatigue and makes it more likely you will follow through. Add one flexible category like “unexpected win” for funny or sweet surprises.
  2. Set up a one-glance reminder you will actually see
    Put key dates into a personalized calendar so upcoming milestones do not sneak past you. A year-round visual reminder also prompts you to capture seasonal favorites like the first sweater day or first beach trip. Choose one place to track dates, not three.
  3. Create a repeatable photo checklist for “firsts”
    When the moment happens, take three quick shots: a wide scene (context), a close-up (face details), and one with you or a family member (connection). Use natural window light when possible and keep the background simple so your pet stays the focus. This tiny checklist makes even rushed photos feel intentional.
  4. Log the memory and file it immediately
    Right after you take the photos, write one sentence in your notes app: what happened, the date, and one detail you do not want to forget. Then save everything into a single folder using the same naming style each time, such as “2026-07 First Park Trip.” This keeps your camera roll from becoming a scavenger hunt.
  5. Organize health records alongside the memories
    Choose one home for pet documents, such as a binder with tabs or a digital folder with subfolders for vaccines, meds, and receipts. After each visit, add a quick summary like weight, any new instructions, and the next due date. Pairing health notes with milestone photos gives you a fuller picture of your pet’s life story.

Habits That Make Pet Milestones Easy to Keep

Milestones are easiest to cherish when they become routine, not a once in a while project. These habits keep memory keeping light, repeatable, and realistic, even on busy weeks.

One-Minute Memory Note

  • What it is: Write one sentence: date, what happened, and one detail you loved.
  • How often: After any notable moment.
  • Why it helps: Tiny notes make photos meaningful years later.

Sunday “Sort and Label” Reset

  • What it is: Spend five minutes naming new photos and moving them into your pet folder.
  • How often: Weekly.
  • Why it helps: You avoid a giant camera roll backlog.

Window-Light Photo Habit

  • What it is: Take pictures near soft diffused lighting instead of harsh overhead bulbs.
  • How often: Whenever you photograph.
  • Why it helps: Your pet looks calmer and clearer in a less stressful light.

Monthly Keepsake Check-In

  • What it is: Add one favorite photo and one note to a monthly album page.
  • How often: Monthly.
  • Why it helps: A median of 59 days can turn effort into autopilot.

Start Small to Preserve Your Pet’s Milestones for Life

It’s easy to love your pet fiercely and still let the little moments slip by in the rush of everyday life. A gentle, routine-first mindset, tiny check-ins instead of big projects, keeps pet memory simple and sustainable while reflecting on the pet-owner bond. Over time, those small captures become a clear, comforting record of pet growth and milestones, valuing your pet’s life journey without pressure. Celebrate one tiny milestone today, and your pet’s story will take care of itself. Pick one small next step now: label a favorite photo, jot a two-line note, or record a quick moment. That’s how motivating pet milestone preservation turns into a steadier sense of connection that lasts well beyond the day.

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Once again Penny has written about looking after our pets, and she has set out some brilliant habits. I particularly like the monthly keepsake check-in, and starting small so that you do not end up not doing anything at all.

Our pets are so precious to us.

Our changing world.

Now, it is the technology being applied to our electricity supply.

Although we have an array of solar panels here at home, we still have electricity cables coming to the house. In the Winter, when the solar panels are nowhere enough for our electic consumption, we depend on Pacific Power to provide the electic power for our home.

That is why the following article, published by The Conversation, was highly relevant.

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Electric companies don’t need to black out customers to prevent wildfires – here are 3 relatively fast, affordable solutions

Jasmine Garland, University of Colorado Boulder

A severe winter snow drought has left snowpack levels far below normal across the American West in 2026. Without a slow-melting blanket of snow to keep the soil and forests moist, alpine vegetation is drying into a tinderbox earlier than normal and ramping up the fire risk.

The historic dryness means electric utilities are facing a dilemma: how to deliver power through dry, windy regions without accidentally starting a catastrophic fire.

To cope, many utilities are turning to a controversial method pioneered in California: the public safety power shut-off – better known as a preemptive blackout. Imagine your power provider deliberately cutting electricity to your entire neighborhood for hours to days, not because a storm hit or a wire broke, but because the weather forecast is hot, dry and windy. This preventive darkness is fast becoming the new normal for millions of residents in the West.

A map of the Western U.S. shows just about everywhere except northern Idaho far below normal.
Most of the snowpack in the Western U.S. was far below the 30-year average in June 2026, suggesting a dry summer ahead. Snow-water equivalent is a measure of the amount of water in snowpack. National Water and Climate Center

As an energy systems researcher living in the West, I study how our electric grid interacts with these escalating climate risks. I believe utilities have better options that boost fire safety quickly while avoiding the drastic move of shutting off the power or investing in expensive alternatives, such as underground power lines or microgrids.

Billion-dollar spark: Why the West is going dark

To understand why a utility would willingly turn off its own product, you have to look at how the Western grid was built.

Most rural power lines consist of bare, uninsulated aluminum wires strung across thousands of miles of wooden poles, often through rugged forests. If those wires accidentally touch one another or trees or the ground, they can short-circuit, sending off sparks that can start fires.

This system, once considered the greatest engineering achievement of the 20th century, has been responsible for some of the worst fire disasters in U.S. history.

Utility workers in hard hats and reflective vests burying a power line in a trench next to a road.
Burying power lines can keep the wind from blowing tree branches into them, but it can be prohibitively expensive, particularly where transmission lines pass through rugged mountains. AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli

In California, electricity infrastructure has ignited eight of the state’s 20 most destructive wildfires. The legal and financial fallout can be devastating. In 2019, Pacific Gas & Electric was forced into bankruptcy due to an estimated US$30 billion in wildfire liabilities stemming from equipment-caused blazes, including the 2018 Camp Fire that destroyed much of the town of Paradise. Because utilities are regulated monopolies, they can pass these massive liability costs to their customers over time.

California utilities have been using preemptive outages for several years to avoid causing more fires on hot, dry, windy days. Today, that strategy has spread beyond the state. According to the Western Electricity Coordinating Council, the independent grid reliability authority for the West, 24 western power entities had used preemptive shut-offs by 2026.

Colorado’s Xcel Energy implemented its first major preemptive blackout in 2025. Some of these outages have left communities without power for up to five days.

Chart shows how the number of utilities and agencies with policies for preemptive blackouts increased from 16 in the years before 2025 to 24 in 2026 alone
The number of utilities and agencies with policies of using wildfire preemptive blackouts has risen quickly in recent years in Western states. Jasmine Garland, based on WECC data, CC BY-ND

Fortunately, keeping communities safe does not have to mean leaving them in the dark. There are ways utilities can modernize electric system infrastructure quickly that lower the fire risk and keep the power flowing.

Solution 1: Covered conductors

The quickest, most cost-effective physical fix is to use covered conductors. Think of the electrical cords in your house. If you touched the bare copper wire inside, it would spark. But you don’t get shocked by household cords because they are wrapped in plastic insulation.

Utilities like Southern California Edison are actively wrapping their high-risk mountain wires in heavy, weather-resistant polymer insulation. By the end of 2025, SCE had installed over 700 circuit miles (1,126 kilometers) of this insulated “tree wire” in high-fire districts over the span of about a year and committed to modify an additional 1,481 miles (2,383 kilometers) by 2028.

A worker stands by a giant roll of covered conductor line – power lines covered in a plastic.
A Southern California Edison crew installs new covered conductor power lines in Aguanga, Calif. Elisa Ferrari/Southern California Edison

If a severe windstorm blows a heavy pine branch directly onto an insulated line, it simply rests against the wire without sparking. It is a highly effective middle-ground fix that’s significantly less expensive than burying transmission lines in mountain forests, and it can be deployed rapidly across thousands of miles.

2. ‘Fast-trip’ settings and topology optimization

Another option is to change how the electricity behaves inside the power line using automated technology.

Traditionally, if a tree branch touched a power line, the system would try to push electricity through the line anyway, causing repeated sparking. Today, utilities are deploying “fast-trip” settings on their circuit breakers.

Think of these like the ultra-sensitive circuit breakers in your home. The microsecond a branch bumps an outdoor line, these smart systems detect the disruption and cut the power to that specific wire before a spark can even form. This allows operators to isolate a single high-risk area rather than shutting down power to an entire county.

Topology optimization is another promising operations technique. It acts like Google Maps for the electric grid. Instead of shutting power down when one line is facing high risks, advanced software attempts to safely route electricity around the danger zone using neighboring, lower-risk lines.

By dynamically changing the pathway of the power, utilities can drastically reduce the electrical load and heat on vulnerable lines without cutting power.

Solution 3: AI and real-time smart sensors

Advanced computer software and artificial intelligence are also helping utilities act with surgical precision.

In the past, if a utility feared a windstorm could spark a fire, it had to shut off power to a large region because it lacked localized data. Today, utilities are deploying smart sensors called dynamic line rating that are installed directly onto power lines. These sensors act like digital stethoscopes, measuring real-time wire temperature, wind speed and line sag.

When combined with panoramic, AI-powered camera networks, the grid gains eyes. Xcel Energy in Colorado has deployed 81 of these cameras. Instead of executing a sweeping blackout, operators can use these cameras and automated smart switches to isolate the high-risk span in a windy canyon while keeping the lights safely on for the surrounding town.

The era of risk-aware grid design

The future of Western energy relies on moving away from static, 20th-century safety manuals and toward a practice called risk-aware dispatching.

In simple terms, this means treating the power grid like a living, breathing weather map. On a calm day, electricity is routed along the cheapest path. But when fire conditions spike, AI algorithms will automatically recalculate the region’s electricity flow, diverting power away from fragile forest lines and routing it through safer plains or underground urban corridors.

The era of cheap, unmonitored overhead power lines is over. To adapt to a changing climate, I believe the grid must evolve from a passive network of copper, aluminum and wood into a smart, dynamic machine. By combining insulated wires, targeted undergrounding of power lines, and real-time sensor data, utilities can avoid sparking devastating fires without resorting to frequent blackouts.

Jasmine Garland, Ph.D. Candidate, University of Colorado Boulder

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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We live (very happily) in a rural part of Southern Oregon. Much of the land close to us is covered in trees. Large parts of our property has trees and bushes. We try and keep the area directly around the home clear, but what with me being over 80 and Jeannie with Parkinson’s, it is a challenging task.

We have had far less snow over the Winter than normal. There is no guarantee the coming Winter will provide the (historically) past levels of snow. We will have to wait and see.

Far, far away (in stellar terms).

Deep space is beyond anything we have ever known.

Like many other people, I am fascinated by the dark, clear, night sky. It appears to go on forever.

But this ‘foreverness’ is just our galaxy.

As is said in the following article: “…. if Earth were the size of a pea, the distance to Proxima Centauri would roughly equal the distance between New York and Sydney, Australia.”

The article shows how distant we are, how small we are, how irrelevant we are, in the vastness of the universe.

This article is republished courtesy of The Conversation.

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Could aliens ever visit Earth? An aerospace scientist unpacks the challenges of interstellar spaceflight

The universe is vast and teeming with stars – but if intelligent life exists, it may not be able to visit Earth. NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Rohan Naidu (MIT); Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI), CC BY

Kai James, Georgia Institute of Technology

On May 22, 2026, the Pentagon released a second batch of previously classified photos and videos showing what appear to be unexplained flying objects. These file dumps were the culmination of a process that was set in motion back in July 2023, when a group of government whistleblowers testified before Congress that the U.S. government was secretly in possession of extraterrestrial spacecraft and suspected alien body parts.

That congressional hearing marked the beginning of a cultural shift in which UFO reports are increasingly treated as a matter for serious discussion, both within the government and the scientific community.

A grainy photo of a dark, blurry object in the sky.
The Pentagon released over 200 previously classified UFO files in May 2026. Department of Defense

But is this newfound legitimacy deserved? As an aerospace scientist who studies aircraft and spacecraft design, I approach this question using math, physics and the principles of engineering. To assess the plausibility of alien visitors, it’s necessary to understand the obstacles that an extraterrestrial vessel would need to overcome to reach Earth.

The tyranny of distance

There is no evidence of intelligent alien life in our solar system. So any extraterrestrial visitors would likely have to come from another star system within our Milky Way galaxy.

Proxima Centauri, the star closest to our Sun, is located 4.25 light-years (about 25 trillion miles or 40 trillion kilometers) away.

For perspective, if Earth were the size of a pea, the distance to Proxima Centauri would roughly equal the distance between New York and Sydney, Australia.

Even the stars closest to Earth are incredibly far away.

Since only a fraction of stars are thought to host intelligent life, the nearest alien civilization – if one exists – is surely much farther away than Proxima.

A need for speed

Given the scale of interstellar distances, it’s inevitable that any alien voyage to Earth would span many years and possibly several centuries. But as the time spent in transit increases, so does the risk of catastrophic accidents or system malfunctions that could jeopardize the mission. So it’s important to avoid an overly lengthy journey by traveling as fast as possible.

No object can reach or exceed the speed of light (roughly 186,000 miles or 300,000 kilometers per second). But well before approaching that threshold, engineering constraints begin to assert themselves. Limited fuel availability and the potential for structural damage will restrict the spacecraft’s peak velocity.

There is no universally accepted upper limit on interstellar flight speeds, but studies tend to converge around 19,000 miles per second (30,000 km/s) – 10% of the speed of light – as a realistic cruise velocity. At this speed, a journey of 10 light-years will take approximately 100 years to complete.

Fueling the dream

Finding a way to accelerate the ship to its target cruise speed is the central challenge facing any would-be alien explorers.

Interstellar space is unforgivingly vast, but the emptiness has some advantages. The lack of atmosphere means there is no aerodynamic drag. So when the ship reaches its cruise speed, it can shut down its propulsion system and coast toward the final destination. Unfortunately, the lack of atmosphere also means there is nothing to slow the ship down prior to arrival. So ideally, the propulsion system would be used for both acceleration at the start of the trip and deceleration at the end.

One of the more exotic propulsion strategies employs high-powered laser beams to push the ship through space. The beam is projected from a stationary array near the travelers’ home planet and directed toward a thin reflective sail attached to the ship. The beam’s photons exert radiation pressure on the sail, propelling the ship forward.

This approach has a major advantage in that it requires no onboard fuel. But the amount of energy and infrastructure needed to operate the laser would be staggering. Also, beamed propulsion provides no mechanism for deceleration. At best, this method could be deployed as part of a hybrid strategy that uses a separate system for deceleration.

A more practical approach is to use rocket propulsion. Rockets generate propulsive force, also known as thrust, by expelling high-velocity exhaust in a rearward stream. By reversing the direction of the exhaust, rockets can also be used to slow the ship down.

Their main disadvantage is that rockets must carry their own fuel in addition to carrying the passengers, the habitat and other life-sustaining systems. The extra load necessitates even more fuel. In other words, you need fuel to transport your fuel. The result is a costly snowball effect that can cause the total fuel requirement to balloon to absurd proportions.

Rocket propulsion can be divided into three broad categories.

Chemical propulsion uses chemical reactions – typically combustion – to extract energy from the bonds between atoms. All human space missions thus far have used chemical propulsion. The problem with this method is that it accesses only a tiny fraction of the energy contained within the fuel.

Consequently, using chemical propulsion on a spacecraft with a cruise velocity of 19,000 miles per second (30,000 km/s) would require more fuel than all the mass in the observable universe.

Antimatter propulsion is theoretically the most efficient option. When antimatter comes into contact with ordinary matter, the two undergo mutual annihilation and 100% of their combined mass is converted into energy. This makes it possible to achieve the same cruise velocity – one-tenth the speed of light – with fuel accounting for less than a quarter of the ship’s total mass. This is science fiction-level fuel efficiency, which makes antimatter an attractive option for interstellar propulsion.

The downside is that antimatter is extremely unstable and difficult to make. To date, particle physicists have produced less than 20 billionths of a gram of antimatter. Moreover, these particles had lifespans lasting only fractions of a second and a price tag in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Nuclear fusion offers a more viable alternative to antimatter. This approach harvests energy stored inside the nucleus of an atom using the same process that powers the Sun. With current technology, fusion engines remain aspirational, but they could, in theory, produce 10 million times more energy per kilogram than chemical rockets.

An illustration of a cylindrical spacecraft orbiting Earth
NASA has been working to develop nuclear propulsion. This artist’s impression shows what a nuclear-powered rocket could look like. John Frassanito & Associates/Wikipedia

Still, a fusion-powered ship with a cruise velocity of 19,000 miles per second (30,000 km/s) would require fuel equivalent to 150 times the mass of the ship itself.

A delicate balancing act

These numbers assume that our extraterrestrial visitors have figured out how to efficiently convert the energy released by their reactor – whether nuclear fusion or antimatter – into thrust.

Just as importantly, they must be able to create optimized fuel tank structures that are ultra lightweight yet highly secure. Designing the structure of the ship, from the fuel tanks to the hull, would be one of the biggest engineering challenges of the entire mission.

Interstellar space contains a sparse smattering of hydrogen atoms and microscopic grains of cosmic dust. At 19,000 miles per second (30,000 km/s), dust particles would smash into the ship’s hull with the energy of a .22-caliber bullet. The bombardment of hydrogen atoms would produce a violent cascade of radiation that could erode even the most resilient engineering materials.

Surviving the onslaught would require no less than a flying fortress with complex magnetic shielding. This would increase the total mass of the ship, which further drives up the demand for fuel.

This example is just one of the hundreds of delicate design trade-offs that would plague any interstellar vessel. Each individual design requirement acts as a filter, reducing the number of feasible solutions.

Finding a single system that simultaneously satisfies all the requirements is analogous to shopping for a car online. With each new filter you apply – four-wheel drive, black exterior, less than 10,000 miles on the odometer – the number of available options dwindles.

When design requirements are in tension with one another – for example, requiring a structure that is lightweight but also supremely durable – the number of feasible solutions can drop to zero.

No single law of physics prohibits an interstellar voyage to Earth. But the combined effects of hundreds of extreme, often conflicting engineering requirements may render it physically infeasible.

It’s also possible that alien civilizations have discovered novel technologies that outperform anything currently known to humans. But like the examples discussed here, any such technology will inevitably encounter its own engineering hurdles.

The trillion-dollar question

Ultimately, engineering challenges are just some of the many barriers to interstellar travel. Any prospective alien visitors must also have sufficient cognitive ability, technological maturity, physical resources, collective desire and proximity to Earth.

That said, if the stars were to align and an alien vessel made it to Earth intact, it would trigger a torrent of burning questions: Where are they from? What do they want? What are they made of?

But the question that would go furthest in shedding light on the deeper mysteries of the universe is, “How on Earth did they get here?”

Kai James, Professor of Aerospace Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Kai James poses the unanswerable questions in the last two paragraphs. And how about this statement: “Consequently, using chemical propulsion on a spacecraft with a cruise velocity of 19,000 miles per second (30,000 km/s) would require more fuel that all the mass in the observable universe.“