Science is cool! Always new things to discover - it's a BIG Universe!

 OK, so humans have been watching the sky for millenia, and we have discovered a lot of objects orbiting the Sun, we've learned a lot about our own galaxy, the Milky Way; and we have learned a lot about how we are not the only galaxy in the universe, but one of more than a trillion of galaxies flying away from each other in all directions through the vastness of space and time! Because there are a mind-numbing number of objects out there in space-time, we still do not have a solid handle on our own neighborhood, our solar system. For many years, some scientists have wondered and even expected to find "Planet 9" or "Planet X", another planet well beyond the orbits of Neptune and the former planet Pluto. There are reasons for this suspicion, of course, but no direct evidence for it. 

But now, there is a new paper that provides the BEST statistical analysis and reasoning yet that requires the existence of Planet 9, which is needed to explain small perturbations in the orbits of the outer planets. This is why science is so cool! There will always be new information, measurements, observations, and theories coming in and out of existence as scientists try to piece together countless objects moving around the universe, all of which influence each other through gravity. It is ridiculously complicated and hard, but that's where the fun is for us, trying to figure it out! The diagram is via Wikipedia.

Article about progress on understanding why the Strong Force is so strong

 Check out this article in Scientific American! 

Southern Africa, including Malawi, face drought and increased levels of hunger

 The combination of El Nino and climate change continues to hit some of the poorest countries in the world, with widespread drought and increased levels of hunger in southern Africa. This includes our friends in Malawi. For the fourth consecutive year, the Malawian President has had to call for a state of disaster due to climate issues; this includes Malawi and some of the schools we help being hit by Cyclone Freddy last year. The drought is the worst that has been experienced in the last 50 to 100 years, depending where one is.

This further encourages us to continue to help support our Malawi friends into the future. They need additional funding to maintain crops, drill wells, and create irrigation systems to continue to survive through the extreme weather they experience in Sub-Saharan Africa. 

Climate change affecting the rotation of the earth, and thus how we keep time

 As ice sheets melt, more liquid water is settling near the equator. As mass redistributes like this, guess what changes for the earth? All juniors and seniors should have it click in your brains that the moment of inertia of the rotating earth changes ever so slightly, which in turn will affect the angular velocity of the earth due to conservation of angular momentum. As this happens, another consequence will be slight changes in how humans keep and measure time! Interesting applications of the rotational motion we study. 

Might the strong force have an effect on the gravitational waves zipping through the universe?

 A really interesting idea is being investigated by astronomers at LIGO, the famous experiment that detected gravitational waves, predicted by Einstein around 1915 and discovered by LIGO in 2015. Some early low-energy gravitational waves should have been produced in the fractions of a second after the Big Bang occurred. This is similar to the microwave background found everywhere in the universe. New techniques are being considered for trying to detect these incredibly low energy waves, which would have been generated during a phase where the strong nuclear force emerged from the Big Bang. More fascinating ideas to consider! 

How did first cells on earth come to exist? Scientists have some thoughts

 This is an article from phys.org, and gets into how some scientists are thinking the first cells to form on earth came into existence. Always fascinating to think about this! 

Earth's magnetic field has anomaly!

 As the seniors were discussing, the earth's magnetic field is constantly changing, and every 200,000 or so years, on average, it reverses! Compasses will point south someday, as they have many times in earth's history. 

From computer simulations, one thing that happens before a reversal is the earth's overall magnetic field weakens, and then anomalies in the field begin to form - small regions of the field where it begins to reverse itself, due to complex fluid dynamics going on in the earth's liquid iron outer-core. Scientists are identifying such anomalies, suggesting that the weakening field (the has in fact decreased at a quick pace over the last few centuries) may be getting set for a full reversal! This is something to follow in the coming years, to see how the field evolves. 

Get up to speed with AI - it will affect some 40% of jobs globally

 A new report from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) concludes that AI will affect nearly 40% of jobs around the world. In developed countries, it is expected to impact as high as 60% of jobs! These are staggering numbers that will have a profound impact on people's lives in every country around the world, eliminating many while increasing productivity, which is the driver for nearly any company. Some tech leaders say the effect AI will have on humanity is on par with the effect fire had - that is, how shall we say...BIG! 

For students, this means there is a new pressure to become acquainted with and learn how to use AI in creative ways. It means finding jobs where showing actual, real humanity will be irreplaceable. No one can predict how this will turn out. The implementation of AI into the global economy will evolve quickly, and without feelings. It will be a multi-trillion dollar industry, so many are looking at how they can profit from the development of AI. This is already a big part of your world, and is about to become one of teh most dominant pieces of your world, whether you like it or not. 

A climate scientist's approach to dealing with the latest global climate conference

 For the past two weeks, tens of thousands of delegates from, I believe, every country on the planet, were in Dubai for this year's global climate conference. There have been something like 30 of these over the past few decades. And unfortunately, no real progress has been accomplished. 

We just had the latest hottest year on record. We just had a record year for most CO2 emissions. And the 'agreement' signed in Dubai a couple days ago, looks to reduce and eliminate burning fossil fuels by 2050. That sounds great! But the trouble is history shows this will not come close to happening, and since there is no timetable or blueprint for actionable steps or goals along the way, it is easy to be skeptical that not much progress will be made even twenty years from now. 

Keep in mind more poorer countries will want to progress and develop, and population growth continues to happen. We will see 10 billion people in the next few decades. Our younger generation needs to be aware of all this and take the lead sooner than later, since you and your kids will inherit a massive problem. 

Does Gravity have to be quantized?

 For many decades, the assumption in physics has been that all the forces, including gravity, must be quantized - that is, we must look and find the quantum theory for gravity. And that the key to the "theory of everything" rests on that great discovery waiting to happen. 

But decades of work by the top theoretical and mathematical minds of multiple generations have not resulted in any testable theories. A good question to ask is: does gravity have to be quantized? Maybe, just maybe, gravity in this universe is 'classical' and continuous, and really just the result of warps in spacetime as Einstein proposed in general relativity! Some physicists are asking just that type of question, and developing theories based on gravity being classical with the others - electromagnetism and the strong and weak nuclear forces - follow quantum field theories. Maybe, just maybe, this is the reason gravity is SO different from the others and so difficult to link into the Standard Model. I am really interested in seeing how this evolves, and may very well create testable experiments in the near future...something that has not happened yet for quantum models of gravity. In the end, experimental results will determine how things really work.