Buzz
As the week draws to a close, let's take a brief moment to revisit some of the noteworthy stories that might have slipped under your radar. Click here for more serious updates, and continue reading for the strange and quirky news items.
This week has been particularly strange for the art world. We've encountered a case of mistaken identity, an art enthusiast swallowed by a mysterious void, and even a painting created by AI. Meanwhile, scientists explored a few space enigmas. They discovered an odd object on Mars but are still perplexed by Steve, the skyglow.
10. NASA Discovers PPFOD
Mars is currently caught in a dust storm that could potentially endanger the Opportunity rover. Meanwhile, Curiosity continues to explore the Red Planet, sending back some fascinating images. Over a week ago, the spacecraft transmitted a strange photograph showing a peculiar, flat object. Scientists named it the Pettegrove Point Foreign Object Debris (PPFOD). After a few days of puzzling over it, they finally identified it.
As expected, many hoped (or even assumed) that it might be the remains of some long-lost Martian civilization. NASA, however, was more concerned it could be a piece of the rover that had broken off. In the end, it turned out to be nothing more than a strangely shaped rock fragment.
The Curiosity team closely examined the object using a tool known as ChemCam RMI on board the rover. The analysis revealed that it was a sliver of rock, which had a different color from the surrounding sands and debris. NASA scientists aren't entirely sure why this is, but for now, they’re just relieved that Curiosity is still intact.
9. Falling Into A Bottomless Pit
An Italian man fell into a hole in Portugal. On its own, this might not seem like a major news event, but the circumstances surrounding the fall are what make it noteworthy. The 'chasm' in question is a Looney Tunes-like circular black hole that serves as the centerpiece of an art installation by Anish Kapoor, titled Descent into Limbo.
The installation is located at the Serralves Contemporary Art Museum in Porto. Created in 1992, Descent into Limbo consists of a cube-shaped room with a large hole in the center. Its deep blackness can make the hole appear as though it is just a painted circle on the floor. However, it is very much real, as one art enthusiast discovered the hard way.
Last Monday, a man in his sixties from Italy fell into the hole and suffered minor injuries. Fortunately, the pit is only 2.5 meters (8 feet) deep and is not a true void as it seems. A museum spokesperson stated that visitors must sign a safety waiver before entering the installation and are accompanied by a staff member inside the cube. However, it was not clarified whether the fall was accidental or if the man intentionally jumped, thinking the hole was merely painted on the floor.
8. The Mysterious Black Sarcophagus Remains Fascinating
We’ve already discussed the black sarcophagus discovered last month in Alexandria. Initially, there was a lot of excitement about who might be inside, with some even speculating it could be the tomb of Alexander the Great. However, the hype quickly turned to disappointment when the coffin was opened and revealed three skeletons floating in sludge due to a leak. Then, for reasons unknown, people began petitioning the Egyptian government to allow them to drink the foul liquid.
Now that archaeologists have had time to study the remains, they've made some fascinating discoveries. The bodies belong to two men and one woman, who seem to have been interred at different times. This largely dispels the theory that they were soldiers. The skeletons have been dated back to the Ptolemaic or early Roman period.
One of the male skulls features a hole, which was initially thought to have been caused by an arrow. However, upon closer examination, it was found that the wound healed, and the man lived for years afterward. This suggests the hole was likely a result of trepanning.
Trepanning was a common practice in the ancient world, though we only have a few known examples from Egypt, making this discovery particularly significant. The next steps involve conducting DNA tests and CT scans on the bones, possibly uncovering whether the three individuals were related. In the meantime, the biggest question still remains—why were they placed in such a large, black sarcophagus in the first place?
7. Steve the Sky Ribbon Continues to Baffle Astronomers
In 2016, scientists discovered a new type of aurora that illuminated the night sky, taking the form of a delicate ribbon of white and purple light. However, a recent study published in Geophysical Research Letters suggests that this phenomenon may not be an aurora at all, but rather an entirely new celestial event.
The researchers dubbed this unusual occurrence Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement (Steve), and now they claim it cannot be considered an aurora due to the fact that it utilizes a different atmospheric process to produce its glow. The exact process behind it remains unknown.
Auroras occur when solar flares release vast amounts of particles toward Earth, which then collide with atmospheric molecules, creating the spectacular Northern (or Southern) Lights. However, a team led by astronomer Bea Gallardo-Lacourt from the University of Calgary, using data from NASA’s THEMIS mission and NOAA’s Polar Orbiting Environmental Satellite, observed a Steve event from 2008. Despite the presence of purple light, there was no particle precipitation from a solar flare. As a result, the researchers argue that the phenomenon, which they have named a “skyglow,” is caused by a different mechanism entirely.
Scientists are actively investigating Steve and have launched a crowdsourcing project called Aurorasaurus. They are encouraging people to share any photos they may have of Steve (the skyglow, not the guy from work).
6. The Survival of the Laziest
A recent study from the University of Kansas proposes that laziness might actually be a successful survival tactic, from an evolutionary viewpoint. In fact, species that expend less energy may have a better chance of survival than their more active counterparts.
At least, that appears to be the case for mollusks. Researchers analyzed approximately 300 species of bivalves and gastropods from the Western Atlantic Ocean over the past five million years. They assessed the resting metabolic rates of each species and found that higher metabolism rates were linked to a greater likelihood of extinction. Most of the 178 extinct species examined displayed significantly different energy usage compared to the living mollusks.
Bruce Lieberman, the lead researcher and a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, explained that the most likely reason for this phenomenon is that less active species have lower energy needs. This could be advantageous during tough times when food is scarce.
The next step is to explore whether high metabolism contributed to the extinction of other species, including land mammals. If a correlation can be established, this insight might help conservationists better predict which species could be at risk in the future.
5. Scottish Chemist Mistaken for French Architect in Russian Park
If you’re strolling through St. Petersburg and admiring the neoclassical beauty of buildings like the Old Stock Exchange, you can thank 18th-century architect Jean-Francois Thomas de Thomon. He was even honored in 2011 with a life-sized bronze statue in Alexander Park, alongside other renowned architects of the Russian Empire. But here’s the twist—the statue doesn’t actually represent him.
The sculpture, created by artist Alexander Taratynov, is part of a series titled The Architects. But, as Russian newspaper Fontanka recently revealed, the statue isn’t of French architect Jean-Francois Thomas de Thomon at all; it actually depicts Scottish chemist Thomas Thomson.
Taratynov explained that he sourced the likeness from Wikipedia, and the St. Petersburg tourism site confirmed it as accurate. Nevertheless, it took seven years before anyone noticed the blunder.
4. AI-Generated Painting Heads to Auction
Christie’s is poised to make history as the first auction house to sell artwork created by artificial intelligence.
The painting was created by the Paris-based art collective Obvious using their machine learning algorithm, Generative Adversarial Networks (GAN). The result? A series of 11 portraits featuring the noble Belamy family. While Obvious came up with the family’s names and backstories, the likenesses of the family members were entirely generated by GAN.
Hugo Caselles-Dupre, one of Obvious’s founders, explained that GAN operates in two stages. The first stage is the Generator, which creates images based on a database of over 15,000 real portraits painted between the 14th and 20th centuries. The second stage is the Discriminator, which evaluates whether the generated portraits are convincing enough to pass as human-created. Once a portrait fools the Discriminator, the work is considered complete.
Portrait of Edmond Belamy will be up for auction this October at Christie’s Prints and Multiples sale. Obvious estimates that the painting will fetch between $8,000 and $11,500. Caselles-Dupre anticipates that this auction will spark debates within the art world, reminiscent of the controversy photography caused when it was first introduced.
3. How A Volcano Played A Role In Napoleon's Downfall
A new study in Geology suggests that one of history's most powerful volcanic eruptions may have been partially responsible for Napoleon’s crushing defeat at Waterloo.
On June 18, 1815, Napoleon’s forces were decisively defeated at the Battle of Waterloo, marking the end of the Napoleonic Wars. For years, historians have debated the reasons behind the French emperor’s failure, with one significant factor being the harsh weather conditions that hindered Napoleon’s troops and delayed their assault.
A few months before Napoleon's defeat, Mount Tambora erupted on the island of Sumbawa, part of the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia). This cataclysmic eruption released ash into the atmosphere, causing global temperatures to drop and leading to the infamous Year Without a Summer in 1816. That same ash might have contributed to the end of the Napoleonic Era.
The idea that Mount Tambora’s eruption caused the dreadful weather at the Battle of Waterloo has been circulating for some time. Now, Dr. Matthew Genge of Imperial College London has provided evidence to support this. His research reveals that volcanoes can launch ash as high as 100 kilometers (62 miles) into the atmosphere—far higher than earlier estimates. This ash disrupted the ionosphere and triggered a cloud formation pulse, causing heavy rainfall across Europe. While weather records from 1815 are sparse, later eruption data seems to back up his findings.
2. Penguin Erector Position Stirred Up Emotions
It was an emotional rollercoaster for many this week when they first heard about the 'dream job' of penguin erector, only to later discover it was all a hoax. The story went viral after social media claimed that Edinburgh Zoo employed someone whose sole responsibility was to pick up fallen penguins that couldn't get back up.
Like most great stories, this one began at the pub. Employee Shauni Humphries overheard a tale from a patron who claimed to be the penguin erector at the zoo. According to him, when planes flew overhead, the penguins would look up and tumble over. It was his job to go around and help them back on their feet.
Eventually, the truth came out when the Edinburgh Zoo confirmed that there was no such thing as a 'penguin erector.' It turns out penguins don’t follow airplanes, and when they do fall, they don’t need assistance getting back up.
1. The Universe Is Teeming with Water Worlds
A recent study from Harvard University suggests that water worlds are far more prevalent in the universe than we once believed. The study posits that over one-third of all midsize exoplanets should be rich in water, according to a new model developed by the university’s Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences.
Using data from NASA’s Kepler telescope and the ESA’s Gaia spacecraft, the research team explored the connection between a planet’s mass and radius. Their findings indicate that planets similar in size to Earth tend to be rocky, while larger planets are mainly gaseous. In between, planets two to four times the size of Earth may contain up to 50 percent water by weight. For perspective, Earth’s oceans make up just 0.02 percent of the planet’s total weight.
According to study leader Li Zeng, these planets are likely to have multiple layers of water in varying states. The outermost layer, heated to hundreds of degrees Celsius, consists of a water vapor atmosphere. Beneath this, there is a layer of liquid water, followed by high-pressure ices surrounding the solid, rocky core. Zeng is optimistic that the James Webb Space Telescope, slated for launch in 2021, will be able to provide a clearer understanding of these fascinating worlds.
