- Warren Buffett is full of praise for Elon Musk ‘solving the impossible,’ but says he and Charlie Munger look for ‘the easy job’ Fortune
- Buffett on investing in EVs: ‘You won’t see anyone that owns the market’ Yahoo Finance
- Warren Buffett: I know where Apple is going to be in five or ten years, but not car companies CNBC Television
- Berkshire Hathaway stock price is set to rise but there are 2 key risks Invezz
- Buffett on the regional bank crisis: ‘Messed up’ incentives and ‘poor’ communication Yahoo Finance
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Tag Archives: Solving
Putin welcomes China’s willingness to play ‘constructive role’ in solving ‘Ukraine crisis’ – The Guardian
- Putin welcomes China’s willingness to play ‘constructive role’ in solving ‘Ukraine crisis’ The Guardian
- China as Peacemaker in the Ukraine War? The U.S. and Europe Are Skeptical. The New York Times
- Russia-Ukraine war news: Putin visits Crimea, Mariupol; Germany says it would arrest him The Washington Post
- On eve of Xi visit, Putin welcomes Chinese role in Ukraine crisis Reuters.com
- Vladimir Putin Accuses West of Trying to Contain Russia, China Ahead of Xi Jinping Visit The Wall Street Journal
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MSP make plea for help in solving homicides of 3 rappers found in Highland Park abandoned building – WDIV ClickOnDetroit
- MSP make plea for help in solving homicides of 3 rappers found in Highland Park abandoned building WDIV ClickOnDetroit
- Michigan police urge public to help solve murders of 3 men Yahoo! Voices
- Michigan authorities urge public to help solve killings of 3 men whose bodies were found near Detroit: “This was a gang violence incident” CBS News
- State Police: 2 rappers, friend found in Highland Park were killed in gang violence Detroit News
- New information in murders of 3 rappers whose bodies were found in Highland Park abandoned building Click On Detroit | Local 4 | WDIV
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Physicists Discover a New Approach for Solving the Bizarre Dark Energy Mystery
Physicists have proposed a new interpretation of dark energy. It could shed insight on the interconnection between quantum field theory and general relativity theory, as two perspectives on the universe and its elements.
What is behind dark energy — and what connects it to the cosmological constant introduced by Albert Einstein? Two physicists from the University of Luxembourg point the way to answering these open questions of physics.
The universe has a number of bizarre properties that are difficult to understand with everyday experience. For example, the matter we know, consisting of elementary and composite particles building molecules and materials, apparently makes up only a small part of the energy of the universe. The largest contribution, about two-thirds, comes from “dark energy” – a hypothetical form of energy whose background physicists are still puzzling over. Moreover, the universe is not only expanding steadily, but also doing so at an ever-faster pace.
Both characteristics seem to be connected, because dark energy is also considered a driver of accelerated expansion. Moreover, it could reunite two powerful physical schools of thought: quantum field theory and the general theory of relativity developed by Albert Einstein. But there is a catch: calculations and observations have so far been far from matching. Now two researchers from Luxembourg have shown a new way to solve this 100-year-old riddle in a paper published by the journal Physical Review Letters.
The trail of virtual particles in a vacuum
“Vacuum has energy. This is a fundamental result of quantum field theory,” explains Prof. Alexandre Tkatchenko, Professor of Theoretical Physics at the Department of Physics and Materials Science at the University of Luxembourg. This theory was developed to bring together quantum mechanics and special relativity, but quantum field theory seems to be incompatible with general relativity. Its essential feature: in contrast to quantum mechanics, the theory considers not only particles but also matter-free fields as quantum objects.
“In this framework, many researchers regard dark energy as an expression of the so-called vacuum energy,” says Tkatchenko: a physical quantity that, in a vivid image, is caused by a constant emergence and interaction of pairs of particles and their antiparticles — such as electrons and positrons — in what is actually empty space.
Cosmic microwave background seen by Planck. Credit: ESA and the Planck Collaboration
Physicists speak of this coming and going of virtual particles and their quantum fields as vacuum or zero-point fluctuations. While the particle pairs quickly vanish into nothingness again, their existence leaves behind a certain amount of energy.
“This vacuum energy also has a meaning in general relativity,” the Luxembourg scientist notes: “It manifests itself in the cosmological constant Einstein included into his equations for physical reasons.”
A colossal mismatch
Unlike vacuum energy, which can only be deduced from the formulae of quantum field theory, the cosmological constant can be determined directly by astrophysical experiments. Measurements with the Hubble space telescope and the Planck space mission have yielded close and reliable values for the fundamental physical quantity. Calculations of dark energy on the basis of quantum field theory, on the other hand, yield results that correspond to a value of the cosmological constant that is up to 10120 times larger – a colossal discrepancy, although in the world view of physicists prevailing today, both values should be equal. The discrepancy found instead is known as the “cosmological constant enigma.”
“It is undoubtedly one of the greatest inconsistencies in modern science,” says Alexandre Tkatchenko.
Unconventional way of interpretation
Together with his Luxembourg research colleague Dr. Dmitry Fedorov, he has now brought the solution to this puzzle, which has been open for decades, a significant step closer. In a theoretical work, the results of which they recently published in Physical Review Letters, the two Luxembourg researchers propose a new interpretation of dark energy. It assumes that the zero-point fluctuations lead to a polarizability of the vacuum, which can be both measured and calculated.
“In pairs of virtual particles with an opposite electric charge, it arises from electrodynamic forces that these particles exert on each other during their extremely short existence,” Tkatchenko explains. The physicists refer to this as a vacuum self-interaction. “It leads to an energy density that can be determined with the help of a new model,” says the Luxembourg scientist.
Together with his research colleague Fedorov, they developed the basic model for atoms a few years ago and presented it for the first time in 2018. The model was originally used to describe atomic properties, in particular the relation between polarizability of atoms and the equilibrium properties of certain non-covalently bonded molecules and solids. Since the geometric characteristics are quite easy to measure experimentally, polarizability can also be determined via their formula.
“We transferred this procedure to the processes in the vacuum,” explains Fedorov. To this end, the two researchers looked at the behavior of quantum fields, in particular representing the “coming and going” of electrons and positrons. The fluctuations of these fields can also be characterized by an equilibrium geometry which is already known from experiments. “We inserted it into the formulas of our model and in this way ultimately obtained the strength of the intrinsic vacuum polarization,” Fedorov reports.
The last step was then to quantum mechanically calculate the energy density of the self-interaction between fluctuations of electrons and positrons. The result obtained in this way agrees well with the measured values for the cosmological constant. This means: “Dark energy can be traced back to the energy density of the self-interaction of quantum fields,” emphasizes Alexandre Tkatchenko.
Consistent values and verifiable forecasts
“Our work thus offers an elegant and unconventional approach to solving the riddle of the cosmological constant,” sums up the physicist. “Moreover, it provides a verifiable prediction: namely, that quantum fields such as those of electrons and positrons do indeed possess a small but ever-present intrinsic polarization.”
This finding points the way for future experiments to detect this polarization in the laboratory as well, say the two Luxembourg researchers. “Our goal is to derive the cosmological constant from a rigorous quantum theoretical approach,” emphasizes Dmitry Fedorov. “And our work contains a recipe on how to realize this.”
He sees the new results obtained together with Alexandre Tkatchenko as the first step toward a better understanding of dark energy — and its connection to Albert Einstein’s cosmological constant.
Finally, Tkatchenko is convinced: “In the end, this could also shed light on the way in which quantum field theory and general relativity theory are interwoven as two ways of looking at the universe and its components.”
Reference: “Casimir Self-Interaction Energy Density of Quantum Electrodynamic Fields” by Alexandre Tkatchenko and Dmitry V. Fedorov, 24 January 2023, Physical Review Letters.
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.130.041601
Latest on Idaho murders: College students’ autopsies released as surviving roommates may be ‘key’ to solving case
Video shows mystery man with slain Idaho students
Autopsy findings have been released for the four University of Idaho students murdered in an off-campus home, officially ruling their deaths homicides by stabbing.
Latah County Coroner Cathy Mabbutt confirmed that each victim suffered multiple stab wounds with “a larger knife”, describing their injuries as “pretty extensive”.
DNA samples have been taken from the crime scene as the hunt for the killer or killers continues, with no suspects named and no arrests made five days into the investigation.
Ethan Chapin, 20, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Kaylee Goncalves, 21, were found dead inside a home in the small college town of Moscow, Idaho, at around midday on Sunday.
Police were called to the home to a report of an unconscious individual and arrived to find the horror crime scene. Two surviving roommates were in the home at the time of the killings and were still there when officers arrived.
Idaho State Police spokesman Aaron Snell said that the two female students could be “the key to this whole thing”.
Boyfriend of Idaho university student has had world ‘turned upside down’ by her murder
The boyfriend of one of the murdered University of Idaho students has had his world “turned upside down” by her brutal slaying – which came just days before the young couple planned to enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday together.
Madison Mogen, 21, had been in a relationship with fellow Idaho university student Jake Schriger for around a year.
His mother Stacy Schriger described the young couple as being like “peanut butter and jelly” and the pair often posted loving photos of each other on their social media accounts.
On Sunday, Mogen was brutally stabbed to death along with three friends inside her college home, in an attack that officials are describing as “personal”.
The Independent’s Rachel Sharp has the full story:
Rachel Sharp18 November 2022 17:28
No sign of sexual assault
Latah County Coroner Cathy Mabbutt confirmed that there was no sign of sexual assault on any of the victims of the brutal knife attack.
Some of the victims did have defensive wounds and the injuries were all “pretty extensive”, she said, adding that it caused the victims to bleed out into the home.
She added that it was not possible to determine from the injuries the order in which the four victims were attacked but officials are using “other text messages and other technology” to try to build up a timeline, she said.
She told local outlet Idaho News that the autopsies did reveal one thing: “It’s personal.”
Rachel Sharp18 November 2022 17:01
University of Idaho victim’s injuries ‘show she fought killer’ as officials say attack ‘was personal’
One of the University of Idaho students murdered in her college home fought her killer to the very end in a brutal knife attack that officials are describing as “personal”.
Autopsy findings, released on Thursday, revealed that Xana Kernodle, 20, Ethan Chapin, 20, Madison Mogen, 21, and Kaylee Goncalves, 21, were all stabbed multiple times with a large knife – sustaining injuries that caused them to bleed out inside the home.
The deaths have been ruled homicides with the killer or killers still at large five days on from the slayings that have sent shockwaves across the small college town of Moscow, Idaho.
Kernodle’s devastated father Jeffrey Kernodle said that his daughter’s injuries showed how she desperately tried to fight off the person who killed her, her boyfriend and two friends in the horror attack.
“Bruises, torn by the knife. She’s a tough kid. Whatever she wanted to do, she could do it,” he told CBS5.
The Independent’s Rachel Sharp has the full story:
Rachel Sharp18 November 2022 16:41
Victim’s boyfriend’s ‘world has been turned upside down’
The boyfriend of one of the murdered University of Idaho students has had his world “turned upside down” following her brutal slaying – which came just days before the young couple planned to enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday together.
Madison Mogen, 21, had been in a relationship with fellow Idaho university student Jake Schriger for around a year and the pair often posted loving photos of each other on their social media pages.
His mother Stacy Schriger told The New York Post that the young couple were like “peanut butter and jelly”. Now the grieving boyfriend’s “world has been turned upside down,” she said.
Mogen and Mr Schriger were planning to go to Ms Schriger’s home for Thanksgiving later this month, she added.
“We were expecting her for Thanksgiving,” she said. “Whenever we talked on the phone, she always said, ‘I love you.’”
Rachel Sharp18 November 2022 16:10
Neighbour heard no commotion on night of killings
A neighbour of the college students found slain in their six-bedroom home in Moscow, Idaho, has revealed that they didn’t hear any commotion from the home on the night of the murders.
Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Kaylee Goncalves, 21, lived together with two other students in the rental property close to the univeristy campus.
Dakota Sparks, 21, who lives on the same road, told The New York Post that she and her boyfriend were up late on Saturday night and into Sunday morning but noticed nothing out of the ordinary coming from the home.
“I didn’t go to bed until 2 or 3 and I didn’t hear anything,” she said. She added that she left the house at 11.45am the next day – minutes before the 911 call was placed – and again noticed nothing suspicious.
“For us, it was shock. We wondered if we had just turned our heads and looked, could we have helped?” she said.
Rachel Sharp18 November 2022 15:50
‘It’s personal’: Coroner says about autopsy
The autopsies for the four University of Idaho students murdered in their college home have revealed that the killings were “personal”, according to the coroner.
Autopsy findings were released on Thursday, officially ruling the victims’ deaths homicides by stabbing.
Latah County Coroner Cathy Mabbutt told local outlet Idaho News that the findings revealed: “It’s personal.”
From the start of the investigation, police have said the attack was “targeted” – but have not made any arrests or identified any suspects in the case.
Rachel Sharp18 November 2022 15:31
Sister of Idaho university victim begs students to ‘leave’ town: ‘Grades are less important than your lives’
The grieving sister of one of the University of Idaho victims stabbed to death in a brutal knife attack has begged other students to “leave” the college town, telling them that “your grades are severely less important than your lives”.
Kaylee Goncalves’s sister Aubrie Goncalves issued an impassioned plea on her Instagram page, warning students in the small town of Moscow, Idaho, that they are not safe while her sibling’s “sicko” killer remains at large.
“To the students of the University of Idaho that are still staying around campus, leave,” she wrote.
“Your grades are severely less important than your lives. I wish all the students of U of I safety and peace. You guys are not safe until this sicko is found.”
The Independent’s Rachel Sharp has the full story:
Rachel Sharp18 November 2022 15:09
Victim’s father says daughter fought killer to the end
The father of one of the University of Idaho students murdered in her college home has said that his daughter fought her killer to the very end.
Jeffrey Kernodle told CBS5 that the autopsy findings showed that Xana Kernodle, 20, tried to fight off the person who killed her, her boyfriend and two friends.
“Bruises, torn by the knife. She’s a tough kid. Whatever she wanted to do, she could do it,” he said.
Mr Kernodle described his daughter as a “tough kid” who “didn’t really worry about the drama and stuff that much”.
“She was never into that. She just liked having fun. Never about materialistic things,” he said.
“She was, all the time, always with her friends.”
Rachel Sharp18 November 2022 14:40
Victims killed with ‘large knife’
The four victims killed in Sunday’s horror attack were stabbed multiple times with a “large knife”, according to authorities.
The murder weapon used in the brutal slayings was not found on the scene and is yet to be recovered five days on.
Latah County Coroner Cathy Mabbutt said that – based on the extent of the victims’ wounds – the autopsies determined “a bigger knife” was used in the attack.
Investigators are hunting for a military-style knife thought to be the murder weapon and are now exploring the possibility that more than one killer is responsible for the killings.
Over the last few days, police officers have come knocking at a local home improvement store to inquire about potential sales of a Ka-Bar knife – as they continue to try to locate the murder weapon.
Scott Jutte, the general manager of Moscow Building Supply, revealed to the Idaho Statesman that officers have turned up multiple times but that he has been unable to help as the store does not stock those knives.
Ka-Bar knives typically have a six inch-long blade with a smooth edge on one side and a serrated edge on the other. They became popular with the US military after first being adopted by the US Marines during the Second World War. Today, they are popular tactical-style knives for outdoor enthusiasts. While Ka-Bar is actually the name for the brand Ka-Bar Knives Inc, the name is now used to describe any knife of a similar blade pattern.
Mr Jutte described the blades as being “similar to the knife Rambo has” – referring to the Sylvester Stallone character – describing it as “more of a combat knife” whereas the store stocks mainly hunting knives.
Rachel Sharp18 November 2022 14:20
Officials don’t know who was attacked first
Officials are still trying to piece together the timeline for what exactly happened inside the home when four students were stabbed to death in a violent attack.
Latah County Coroner Cathy Mabbutt told NBC News that it was not possible to determine from the autopsies the order in which the four victims were attacked but officials are using “other text messages and other technology” to try to build up a timeline.
The autopsies confirmed that the victims were killed “early in the morning, sometime after 2 am, but still during the night,” she said.
On the night of Saturday 12 November, Chapin and Kernodle had been at a campus party while Mogen and Goncalves spent the night at a bar in town.
They are all believed to have returned to the property sometime after 1.45am.
Officials previously said the victims were stabbed to death with an “edged weapon such as a knife” at around 3 or 4am on Sunday morning.
Twitch footage, seen by The Independent, captured Mogen and Goncalves stopping by a local food truck for a late-night bit to eat – not long before the murders unfolded.
The footage shows the two best friends arriving at the food truck at around 1.41am, where they stayed for around 10 minutes ordering food, laughing, and chatting casually to other students at the food truck.
An unidentified man appears to arrive at the truck with them but Mogen and Goncalves leave the area alone.
The two best friends leave together, walking off at around 1.51am.
It is not clear if they got a taxi or walked home after this or if they went to another location. The truck was just over a mile walk from the victims’ home. If Mogen and Goncalves had walked, it would have taken around 20 to 25 minutes.
The unidentified man, who was chatting to another student at the time, was seen in the footage gesturing at the two women as they walk off, before he turns and walks off in the opposite direction to the two women.
Police confirmed that they are looking to speak to the other people in the footage. Neither the man nor anyone else in the footage has not been identified as a suspect or person of interest in the case.
Rachel Sharp18 November 2022 14:00
Latest on Idaho murders: College students’ autopsies released as surviving roommates may be ‘key’ to solving case
Video shows mystery man with slain Idaho students
Autopsy findings have been released for the four University of Idaho students murdered in an off-campus home, officially ruling their deaths homicides by stabbing.
Latah County Coroner Cathy Mabbutt confirmed that each victim suffered multiple stab wounds with “a larger knife”, describing their injuries as “pretty extensive”.
DNA samples have been taken from the crime scene as the hunt for the killer or killers continues, with no suspects named and no arrests made five days into the investigation.
Ethan Chapin, 20, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Kaylee Goncalves, 21, were found dead inside a home in the small college town of Moscow, Idaho, at around midday on Sunday.
Police were called to the home to a report of an unconscious individual and arrived to find the horror crime scene. Two surviving roommates were in the home at the time of the killings and were still there when officers arrived.
Idaho State Police spokesman Aaron Snell said that the two female students could be “the key to this whole thing”.
Xana Kernodle is remembered as ‘positive and funny’ by her sister
Jazzmin Kernodle told the Associated Press that her sister would light up every room she walked into.
“You rarely get to meet someone like Xana,” Ms Kernodle said. “She was so positive, funny and was loved by everyone who met her.”
Xana Kernodle went to high school in the city of Post Falls. She was majoring in marketing and was a member of the Pi Beta Phi sorority.
Ethan Chapin and Xana were longtime friends and had started dating over the summer. He was also killed in the attack.
Rachel Sharp18 November 2022 13:00
Ethan Chapin’s parents say he spent his last day with his siblings
Chapin, one of four University of Idaho students stabbed to death last weekend, was a triplet.
His brother and sister also attend the University of Idaho. Before the murders, Ethan attended a dance hosted by his sister’s sorority.
“He was our daughter Maizie’s date, and his brother was Maizie’s roommate’s date,” Chapin’s mother, Stacy Chapin, told the Associated Press on Wednesday.
“They all spent their last day together, all dressed up, and had a great time. We’re all thankful that they spent that time together.”
“He could read any situation and make it better,” Ms Chapin added. “He was just so carefree.”
Rachel Sharp18 November 2022 12:40
Idaho students suffered ‘multiple, extensive’ stab wounds from ‘large knife’, autopsy finds
The four University of Idaho students murdered in a horror attack in an off-campus home suffered “multiple” stab wounds from a “large knife”, according to the local coroner – as she revealed that DNA samples have been collected from the crime scene.
Autopsy findings for Ethan Chapin, 20, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Kaylee Goncalves, 21, were released on Thursday, officially ruling their deaths homicides by stabbing.
Latah County Coroner Cathy Mabbutt confirmed that each victim was stabbed multiple times, describing their wounds as “pretty extensive” and revealing that they bled out inside their student home.
The Independent’s Rachel Sharp has the full story:
Rachel Sharp18 November 2022 12:20
Kaylee Gocalve had big plans for her future before she was murdered
Goncalves was a senior majoring in general studies at the University of Idaho. She was one month shy of completing her degree.
Her family said that after college, she planned to travel to Europe.
“She had everything going for her, absolutely everything,” her sister, Alivea Goncalves told NBC’s TODAY show. “She had her job lined up. She had worked really hard for it.”
Andrea Blanco18 November 2022 12:00
Timeline: What we know so far
Officials in the small town of Moscow, Idaho, have been a little cryptic about what happened to four University of Idaho students who were murdered last weekend.
So far, neither the suspect nor the murder weapon have been traced and the police have cautioned the small town of 25,000 people to remain vigilant.
So what exactly happened in the hours before and after the students’ bodies were discovered?
Here’s the best timeline we currently have.
Alisha Rahaman Sarkar18 November 2022 11:40
Victim’s sister urges students to leave Moscow
Family members of the victims hit out at law enforcement over their response.
“No one is in custody therefore no one is safe,” she wrote in an Instagram post. “If you have friends, family or loved ones in Moscow our family encourages you to get them home,” she added.
Andrea Blanco18 November 2022 11:10
Idaho police search for Ka-Bar knife
Scott Jutte, the general manager of Moscow Building Supply, revealed that officers have turned up multiple times searching for Ka-Bar knives.
The combat knives typically have a six-inch-long blade with a smooth edge on one side and a serrated edge on the other. They became popular with the US military after first being adopted by the US Marines during the Second World War.
While Ka-Bar is actually the name for the brand Ka-Bar Knives Inc, the name is now used to describe any knife of a similar blade pattern.
Mr Jutte described the blades as being “similar to the knife Rambo has” – referring to the Sylvester Stallone character.
“They were specifically asking whether or not we carry Ka-Bar-style knives, which we do not,” he said of the officers.
Alisha Rahaman Sarkar18 November 2022 10:50
Ethan Chapin’s family decries law enforcement ‘lack of information’
Family members of the victims have hit out at law enforcement over their handling of what information is released to the public.
Chapin’s father Jim Chapin urged the local police to release further information about the killings.
“There is a lack of information from the University of Idaho and the local police, which only fuels false rumors and innuendo in the press and social media,” Mr Chapin said.
“The silence further compounds our family’s agony after our son’s murder. For Ethan and his three dear friends slain in Moscow, Idaho, and all of our families, I urge officials to speak the truth, share what they know, find the assailant, and protect the greater community.”
Andrea Blanco18 November 2022 10:30
Victim’s body had ‘bruises’, says father
Jeff Kernodle, the father of slain University of Idaho student Xana Kernodle, said his daughter had “bruises” on her body which indicates that she put up a fight against the killer.
“Bruises, torn by the knife,” Mr Kernodle told CBS 5.
“She’s a tough kid. Whatever she wanted to do, she could do it.”
Alisha Rahaman Sarkar18 November 2022 10:10
Victims last seen alive in footage just hours before murders
In the early hours of Sunday morning, Maddison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves were seen stopping by a local food truck for a late-night bit to eat.
Twitch footage, seen by The Independent, captured the two best friends arriving at the food truck at around 1.41am.
An unidentified man appears to be walking with them, before he steps back as they approach the truck.
Mogen and Goncalves go up to the truck and order food, while the man stands a few feet behind them – before pulling his hood over his head.
Over the next 10 minutes, the group of young people and students are seen laughing and chatting away as they wait for their orders.
The man is seen chatting and laughing to another man in the line, while Mogen and Goncalves appear to laugh and joke with each other and take photos.
When their food is ready, Mogen and Goncalves leave together, walking away from the truck and turning left.
The Independent’s Io Dodds and Rachel Sharp have the story:
Andrea Blanco18 November 2022 09:50
Obama tells Midwestern voters worried about inflation that GOP is ‘not interested in solving problems’
CNN
—
Former President Barack Obama on Saturday sought to sway voters who are worried about inflation, warning in two key Midwestern states that Republicans seeking control of Congress have no plans to rein in prices and could target social safety net programs.
Campaigning alongside Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in Detroit, and later Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers and Democratic Senate nominee Mandela Barnes in Milwaukee, Obama acknowledged the economic realities Americans face. But he said handing power on Capitol Hill to the GOP would do little to solve those problems.
“In your gut, you should have a sense: Who cares about you?” he said in Wisconsin.
In a moment that rapidly spread across social media, Obama lambasted Barnes’ opponent, Republican Sen. Ron Johnson, who is seeking a third term. He cited Johnson’s past comments comparing the management of Social Security to a “Ponzi scheme” and criticized Johnson’s vote for the 2017 GOP-led tax overhaul.
“Some of you here are on Social Security. Some of your parents are on Social Security. Some of your grandparents are on Social Security. You know why they have Social Security?” Obama said. “Because they worked for it. They worked hard jobs for it. They have chapped hands for it. They had long hours and sore backs and bad knees to get that Social Security.”
“And if Ron Johnson does not understand that – if he understands giving tax breaks for private planes more than he understands making sure that seniors who’ve worked all their lives are able to retire with dignity and respect – he’s not the person who’s thinking about you and knows you and sees you, and he should not be your senator from Wisconsin,” the former President said.
Obama is traveling to some of the most important midterm battlegrounds in the days before the November 8 midterm elections. In addition to the stops in Michigan and Wisconsin, Obama also held an event Friday in Georgia. He will visit Nevada on Tuesday and then hold multiple events in Pennsylvania alongside President Joe Biden on Saturday.
All five states feature hotly contested governor’s races, and all but Michigan also have Senate contests that will play a role in determining which party controls the evenly divided chamber.
The former President on Saturday portrayed the modern GOP as unserious and uncompromising, describing the party – with few exceptions – as beholden to former President Donald Trump’s whims.
“Own the libs and getting Donald Trump’s approval. That’s their agenda,” Obama said in Milwaukee.
“They’re not interested in solving problems. They’re interested in making you angry, and then finding somebody to blame,” he said. “And they’re hoping that’ll distract you from the fact that they don’t have any answers of their own.”
Obama’s message mirrored Biden’s insistence that Republicans have not offered proposals to rein in inflation and his warnings that GOP congressional majorities would target popular safety net programs like Social Security and Medicare.
It also echoed what former President Bill Clinton said at a campaign stop for Democratic Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney in New York on Saturday. Clinton said that the GOP’s midterm slogan should be: “This is a real problem. Let’s vote for somebody who will make it worse.”
The difference is location: Obama is hitting the campaign trail in places other Democrats can’t visit without provoking costly political backlash. Biden, whose approval rating is underwater in CNN polls conducted by SSRS across key midterm states, is largely limiting his role to fundraisers, though he will travel to Pennsylvania – his state of birth – in the election’s closing weekend. Other figures, such as Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, can energize progressives but have limited appeal beyond core supporters. Obama, though, remains a national Democratic figure who can motivate the party’s base while also appealing to moderate voters.
Obama described inflation as a global challenge that resulted from a coronavirus pandemic that “threw off supply and demand,” as well as Russia’s war in Ukraine, which he said has driven up gas prices.
“When gas prices go up, when grocery prices go up, that takes a bite out of people’s paycheck. That hurts,” Obama said. “But the question you should be asking is: Who’s going to do something about it? Republicans are having a field day running ads talking about it, but what is their actual solution to it?”
“I’ll tell you: They want to gut Social Security, then Medicare, and then give some more tax breaks to the wealthy,” he said. “And the reason I know that’s their agenda is, listen, that’s their answer to everything.”
That theme – that Republicans have lost interest in compromising, keeping the government running or even acknowledging basic realities, including the outcome of the 2020 presidential election – echoed through Obama’s remarks in Michigan and Wisconsin.
Gone were the days of former first lady Michelle Obama’s insistence that “when they go low, we go high.” Obama acknowledged Saturday that his wife is discouraged by today’s political landscape. “I’m usually a little more optimistic,” he said in Michigan.
He contrasted the moment the United States now faces with the early stages of his own political career.
He described losing a 2000 effort to unseat incumbent Rep. Bobby Rush in a Democratic primary – the only time Obama was defeated at the ballot box.
“You know what I didn’t do, though? I didn’t claim the election was rigged. I didn’t try to stop votes from being counted. I didn’t incite a mob to storm the Capitol,” Obama said in Detroit. “I took my lumps. I figured out why my campaign hadn’t connected, and I tried to run a better race the next time, because that’s how our democracy is supposed to work.”
Obama described driving around Illinois as a Senate candidate in 2004, meeting people at diners in conservative areas of the state and having cordial conversations.
He pointed to the example of the late Arizona Sen. John McCain, who delivered a gracious concession speech after losing the 2008 presidential election to Obama. And he said that while he didn’t like the outcome of the 2016 presidential race, he stayed up until 3 a.m. to call Trump and congratulate him, and proceed with a peaceful transfer of power.
In Milwaukee, Obama even joked about birtherism – the racist conspiracy theory fueled by Trump that Obama was not born in the United States.
Obama compared himself to Barnes, saying the Senate nominee, who is also Wisconsin lieutenant governor, faces a barrage of Republican ads portraying him as out of touch with the state’s values “just because Mandela’s named Mandela; just because he’s a Democrat with a funny name.”
“It sounds pretty familiar, doesn’t it? So Mandela,” Obama said, turning to Barnes onstage, “get ready to dig up that birth certificate.”
“Remember when that was the craziest thing people said? That wasn’t that long ago. People were like, ‘Wow, that was some crazy stuff,’” Obama said. “Now, it doesn’t even make the top 10 list of crazy.”
Obama saved his sharpest criticism for Johnson, saying the GOP senator had a “gold medal” in trafficking conspiracy theories about the 2020 election.
In remarks earlier this month, Johnson appeared to downplay the violence from the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the US Capitol and noted that the rioters “did teach us how you can use flagpoles, that kind of stuff, as weapons.” A campaign spokesperson later said the senator’s comments were meant to compare the methods used by racial justice protesters in the summer of 2020 with the January 6 rioters.
In a debate with Barnes in October, Johnson said, “I immediately and forcefully and repeatedly condemned the violence on January 6.”
In Michigan, Obama warned that a “dangerous climate” was developing as a result of incendiary rhetoric in the United States – “when we don’t just disagree with people, but we start demonizing them making wild crazy allegations about them.”
“If elected officials don’t do more to explicitly reject that kind of rhetoric, if they tacitly support or encourage their supporters to stand up outside voting places armed with guns dressed in tactical gear, more people can get hurt,” Obama said.
In a moment Obama used as an exclamation point for his comments about the direction of the GOP, a protester in the audience interrupted him by shouting. That prompted the former President to respond, “So, this is this is what I’m saying.”
“There is a process that we set up in our democracy right now. I’m talking, you’ll have a chance to talk sometime,” he said to the protester. “And this is part of the point that I want to make: Just basic civility and courtesy works, and that’s what we want to try to encourage.”
The protester was quickly drowned out by chants of “Obama!” from the crowd.
Why Do Humans Sleep? Scientists Find Clues for Solving This Age-Old Mystery
According to the researchers, this study found the clearest indication of motor cortex replay during human sleep that has ever been seen.
New insights into brain activity when sleeping may help in the creation of tools for those suffering from neurologic disease or damage
Why do humans sleep? This issue has been debated by scientists for hundreds of years, but a recent study from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers that was carried out in collaboration with experts from Brown University, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and several other institutions adds new clues for solving this mystery. Their research, which was recently published in the Journal of Neuroscience, may help to explain how individuals remember things and pick up new skills. It may also help with the creation of assistive tools for those with neurological conditions or injuries.
According to the lead author of the research and neurologist Daniel Rubin, MD, Ph.D., of the MGH Center for Neurotechnology and Neurorecovery, scientists have long known that during sleep, a phenomenon known as “replay” takes place. Replay is thought to be a mechanism used by the brain to recall new information. When a mouse is taught to navigate a labyrinth, monitoring equipment may indicate that a precise pattern of brain cells, or neurons, light up as it follows the proper path. “Then, later on, while the animal is sleeping, you can see that those neurons will fire again in that same order,” says Rubin. Scientists theorize that this is how the brain practices newly acquired knowledge during sleep, allowing memories to be consolidated—that is, turned from short-term memories to long-term memories.
Replay, however, has only been properly shown in lab animals. “There’s been an open question in the neuroscience community: To what extent is this model for how we learn things true in humans? And is it true for different kinds of learning?” asks neurologist Sydney S. Cash, MD, Ph.D., co-director of the Center for Neurotechnology and Neurorecovery at MGH and co-senior author of the study. Importantly, says Cash, understanding whether replay occurs with the learning of motor skills could help guide the development of new therapies and tools for people with neurologic diseases and injuries.
Researchers have found the first evidence of replay in the human motor cortex, which controls voluntary movement, in a new study. This might give insights to the developers of assistive tools for people with paralysis and also provide information about how we learn and create long-term memories. Credit: Massachusetts General Hospital
To study whether replay occurs in the human motor cortex—the brain region that governs movement—Rubin, Cash, and their colleagues enlisted a 36-year-old man with tetraplegia (also called quadriplegia), meaning he is unable to move his upper and lower limbs, in his case due to a spinal cord injury. The man, identified in the study as T11, is a participant in a clinical trial of a brain-computer interface device that allows him to use a computer cursor and keyboard on a screen. The investigational device is being developed by the BrainGate consortium, a collaborative effort involving clinicians, neuroscientists, and engineers at several institutions with the goal of creating technologies to restore communication, mobility, and independence for people with neurologic disease, injury, or limb loss. The consortium is directed by Leigh R. Hochberg, MD, Ph.D., of MGH, Brown University, and the Department of Veterans Affairs.
In the study, T11 was asked to perform a memory task similar to the electronic game Simon, in which a player observes a pattern of flashing colored lights, then has to recall and reproduce that sequence. He controlled the cursor on the computer screen simply by thinking about the movement of his own hand. Sensors implanted in T11’s motor cortex measured patterns of neuronal firing, which reflected his intended hand movement, allowing him to move the cursor around on the screen and click it at his desired locations. These brain signals were recorded and wirelessly transmitted to a computer.
That night, while T11 slept at home, activity in his motor cortex was recorded and wirelessly transmitted to a computer. “What we found was pretty incredible,” says Rubin. “He was basically playing the game overnight in his sleep.” On several occasions, says Rubin, T11’s patterns of neuronal firing during sleep exactly matched patterns that occurred while he performed the memory-matching game earlier that day.
“This is the most direct evidence of replay from the motor cortex that’s ever been seen during sleep in humans,” says Rubin. Most of the replay detected in the study occurred during slow-wave sleep, a phase of deep slumber. Interestingly, replay was much less likely to be detected while T11 was in REM sleep, the phase most commonly associated with dreaming. Rubin and Cash see this work as a foundation for learning more about replay and its role in learning and memory in humans.
“Our hope is that we can leverage this information to help build better brain-computer interfaces and come up with paradigms that help people learn more quickly and efficiently in order to regain control after an injury,” says Cash, noting the significance of moving this line of inquiry from animals to human subjects. “This kind of research benefits enormously from the close interaction we have with our participants,” he adds, with gratitude to T11 and other participants in the BrainGate clinical trial.
Hochberg concurs. “Our incredible BrainGate participants provide not only helpful feedback toward the creation of a system to restore communication and mobility, but they also give us the rare opportunity to advance fundamental human neuroscience—to understand how the human brain works at the level of circuits of individual neurons,” he says, “and to use that information to build next-generation restorative neurotechnologies.”
Rubin is also an instructor in neurology at Harvard Medical School (HMS). Cash is an associate professor of Neurology at HMS. Hochberg is a senior lecturer on Neurology at HMS and a professor of Engineering at Brown University.
The study was funded by the National Institute of Neurologic Disease and Stroke, the American Academy of Neurology, the National Institute of Mental Health, Conquer Paralysis Now, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the MGH-Deane Institute, and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at Stanford University.
Reference: “Learned Motor Patterns Are Replayed in Human Motor Cortex during Sleep” by Daniel B. Rubin, Tommy Hosman, Jessica N. Kelemen, Anastasia Kapitonava, Francis R. Willett, Brian F. Coughlin, Eric Halgren, Eyal Y. Kimchi, Ziv M. Williams, John D. Simeral, Leigh R. Hochberg and Sydney S. Cash, 22 June 2022, Journal of Neuroscience.
DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2074-21.2022
Something’s Glowing at The Galactic Core, And We Could Be Closer to Solving The Mystery
Something deep in the heart of the Milky Way galaxy is glowing with gamma radiation, and nobody can figure out for sure what it might be.
Colliding dark matter has been proposed, ruled out, and then tentatively reconsidered.
Dense, rapidly rotating objects called pulsars were also considered as candidate sources of the high-energy rays, before being dismissed as too few in number to make the sums work.
A study by researchers from Australia, New Zealand and Japan could breathe new life into the pulsar explanation, revealing how it might be possible to squeeze some serious intense sunshine from a population of spinning stars without breaking any rules.
Gamma radiation isn’t your typical hue of sunlight. It requires some of the Universe’s most energetic processes to produce. We’re talking black holes colliding, matter being whipped towards light speed, antimatter combining with matter kinds of processes.
Of course, the center of the Milky Way has all of these things in spades. So when we gaze into the heavens and consider all of the crashing bits of matter, spiraling black holes, whizzing pulsars, and other astrophysical processes, we’d expect to see a healthy gamma glow.
But when researchers used NASA’s Fermi telescope to measure the intense shine within the heart of our galaxy about ten years ago, they found there was more of this high-energy light than they could account for: what’s known as the Galactic Centre Excess.
One exciting possibility involves unseen bits of matter bumping together in the night. These weakly interacting massive particles – a hypothetical category of dark matter commonly described as WIMPs – would cancel each other out as they smoosh together, leaving nothing but radiation to mark their presence.
It’s a fun explanation to consider, but is also light on evidence.
“The nature of dark matter is entirely unknown, so any potential clues garner a lot of excitement,” says astrophysicist Roland Crocker from the Australian National University.
“But our results point to another important source of gamma ray production.”
That source is the millisecond pulsar.
To make one, take a star much bigger than our own and let its fires die down. It will eventually collapse into a dense ball not much wider than a city, where its atoms pack together so tightly, many of its protons are slowly baked into neutrons.
This process generates super-strong magnetic fields that channel incoming particles into fast-flowing streams glowing with radiation.
Since the object is rotating, these streams swivel around from the star’s poles like the Universe’s biggest lighthouse beacons – so it appears to pulse with energy. Pulsing stars that spin hundreds of times a second are known as millisecond pulsars, and we know a lot about the conditions under which they’re likely to form.
“Scientists have previously detected gamma-ray emissions from individual millisecond pulsars in the neighborhood of the Solar System, so we know these objects emit gamma rays,” says Crocker.
To emit them, however, they’d need a generous amount of mass to feed on. Most pulsar systems in the center of the Milky Way are thought to be too puny to emit anything more energetic than X-rays, though.
That might not always be the case, however, especially if the dead stars they emerged from are of a particular variety of ultra-massive white dwarf.
According to Crocker, if enough of these heavyweights were to turn into pulsars and hold onto their binary partners, they would provide just the right amount of gamma radiation to match observations.
“Our model demonstrates that the integrated emission from a whole population of such stars, around 100,000 in number, would produce a signal entirely compatible with the Galactic Centre Excess,” says Crocker.
Being a purely theoretical model, it’s an idea that now needs a generous dose of empirical evidence. Unlike suggestions based on dark matter, however, we already know exactly what to look for.
This research was published in Nature Astronomy.
Best of Last Week – Solving Hawking’s black hole paradox, a new form of ice, bad cholesterol may not be so bad
It was a good week for physics research as work by two teams of theorists working independently may have solved Stephen Hawking’s black hole paradox. The first demonstrated that black holes are more complex than thought, while the second followed up on work by the first suggesting that their proposed “quantum hair” resolves the paradox. Also, a team at Pennsylvania State University developed a novel theory of entropy that may solve materials design issues. Called Zentropy, it involves predicting the change of volume as a function of temperature at a multiscale level. And a team at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas discovered a new form of ice, adding to the 20 known solid forms.
In technical news, a combined team from the University of Cambridge and the University of Oslo showed that a mathematical paradox can demonstrate the limits of AI, helping to explain why AI systems have difficulty “knowing” when they are making errors. Also, a team at Carnegie Mellon University created a system that allows users to control robotic hands and arms remotely by demonstrating movements in front of a camera. And a team at Sinhgad Institute of Technology Lonavala developed a new model to automatically detect and filter spam emails. Also, an international team of materials scientists discovered why perovskite solar cells degrade in sunlight and an easy fix for it, one that involves using a different surface treatment to resolve defects.
In other news, a team with members from Karolinska Institutet, the Helmholtz Center Munich and the Technical University of Munich, found that elevated inflammation can persist in immune cells for months after a mild COVID-19 infection. Also, an international team of researchers found evidence of the effects of ancient carbon releases on the planet, suggesting possible scenarios for Earth’s future climate.
And finally, a team at The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland’s University of Medicine and Health Sciences found the link between high cholesterol and heart disease to be “inconsistent.”
Scientists may have solved Stephen Hawking’s black hole paradox
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