Ghostly galaxies composed almost entirely of dark matter speckle the universe. Unlike normal galaxies, these extreme systems contain very few stars and are almost devoid of gas. Most of the luminous matter, so common in most galaxies, has been stripped away, leaving behind a dark matter shadow. These intriguing galaxies—known as dwarf spheroidals—are so faint that, although researchers believe they exist throughout the universe, only those relatively close to Earth have ever been observed. And until recently, no scientific model proposed to unravel their origin could simultaneously explain their exceptional dark matter content and their penchant for existing only in close proximity to much larger galaxies.

Now, Stelios Kazantzidis, a researcher at Stanford University's Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology (KIPAC), in collaboration with ... has developed an elegant explanation for how galaxies come to be dominated by dark matter. ...   more »

Thanks to Rakesh for referring this article:

...Suddenly, it seems everything from mobile phones to MP3 players, printers to global positioning system (GPS) receivers has Bluetooth built in — `cutting the cord,' so to speak, from one device to another. With its tiny power requirement and unrestricted operating frequency band, Bluetooth has held its own against WiFi and carved out its own application space. ...   more »

Ray Kurzweil wrote this article as the introduction to James Gardner's new book, "The Intelligent Universe: AI, ET, and the Emerging Mind of the Cosmos." It's a good summary of Ray's latest thinking. Though its very techno-optimistic view is contrary to the post-modern skeptical flavor often presented on SCIY, I've been following Ray's thinking for years and continue to be impressed with his erudite scholarship. -- In any case, I believe it's an important function of SCIY to present viewpoints that are contrary to our own; to be skeptical of our own skepticism.

... It is remarkable to me that almost all of the discussions of cosmology fail to mention the role of intelligence. In the common cosmological view, intelligence is just a bit of froth, something interesting that happens on the sidelines of the great cosmic story. But in the standard view, whether the universe winds up or down, ends up in fire (a great crunch and new Big Bang), or ice (an ever-expanding and ultimately dead universe), or something in-between, depends only on measures of dark matter, dark energy, and other parameters we have yet to discover. That the story of the universe is a story yet to be written by the intelligence it will spawn is almost never mentioned. This book will help to change the common "unintelligent" view.

So what will we do when our intelligence is in the range of a google (10^100) cps? One thing we may do is to engineer new universes. Similarly, our universe may be the creation of some superintelligences in another universe. In this case, there was an intelligent designer of our universe--that designer would be the evolved intelligence of some other universe that created ours. Perhaps our universe is a science fair experiment of a student in another universe. (Reading the news of the day, you might get the impression that this erstwhile adolescent superintelligence who designed our universe is not going to get a very good grade on his or her project.)

But the evolution of intelligence here on Earth is actually going very well. All of the vagaries (and tragedies) of human history, such as two world wars, the cold war, the great depression, and other notable events, did not make even the slightest dent in the ongoing exponential progressions I previously mentioned. ...   more »

Former vice president Al Gore used the success of his documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth," to expand his efforts to educate people about global warming — and to tell a few jokes. — The film turned Gore's road show about climate change into a film that won Academy Awards for best documentary and best song.

Earlier in the evening, Gore and Leonardo DiCaprio took the stage to unveil a series of efforts the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences took to make this year's awards more environmentally friendly. ... The win was especially pleasing to Gore because it came during a year when the academy had taken steps to save energy and preserve the environment.

Oscar ballots were made from partially recycled paper and organic produce was served at the Gov.'s Ball. The academy joined with the Natural Resources Defense Council to reduce energy usage and increase recycling. — "For the first time in the history of the Oscars, this show has officially gone green," DiCaprio said. ...   more »

Book III 03 Abolishing the signless emptiness.mp3

MP3 File

WASHINGTON — Chimpanzees living on the West African savanna have been observed fashioning spears from sticks and using them to hunt small mammals — the first routine production of deadly weapons observed in animals other than humans.

The chimps were repeatedly seen using their hands and teeth to tear the side branches off long straight sticks and peeling back the bark and sharpening one end of the sticks with their teeth, the researchers report in Thursday's online issue of the journal Current Biology. Then, grasping the weapon in a "power grip," they jabbed into tree-branch hollows where bush babies — small monkey-like mammals — sleep during the day. ...   more »

...We do not yet know what makes some systems more adaptable than others, but research on complexity has yielded some clues. Some of my own work on physical systems called spin glasses suggests that the level of central control over subsidiary parts of a system is an important consideration. Too much control freezes the system into limited configurations; too little causes it to wander aimlessly. Only systems that hover on the border between order and chaos exhibit the needed general stability and capacity to explore the universe of possible solutions to challenges.

The path to maximum prosperity will depend on finding ways to build economic systems in which new niches will generate spontaneously and abundantly. Such an approach to economics is indeed radical. It is based on the emergent behavior of systems rather than on the reductive study of them. It defies conventional mathematical treatments because it is not prestatable and is nonalgorithmic. Not surprisingly, most economists have so far resisted these ideas. Yet there can be little doubt that learning to apply these lessons from biology to technology will usher in a remarkable era of innovation and growth. ...   more »

Water that scientists expected to see on two planets outside the solar system has not been detected, according to pioneering new measurements. Astronomers suspect the water may be hiding beneath a dusty haze blanketing the two Jupiter-like planets.

This is the first time that scientists have obtained the spectra of planets outside the solar system – a major step towards the ultimate goal of learning more about Earth-like planets in the future.   more »

PUDUCHERRY: Thousands of people from across the country are expected to visit the Aurobindo ashram here on Wednesday on the 129th birth anniversary of its co-founder late Mirra Alfassa, better known as the ‘Mother’. - All necessary arrangements were being made for the convenience of the devotees who would throng the premises, ashram sources said here on Tuesday.

When Sri Aurobindo founded the ashram in November 1926, he entrusted its full material and spiritual charge to the Paris-born Alfassa. She became the leader of the community after Aurobindo’s death in 1950 and passed away in 1973. ...   more »

NORFOLK, Va. -- At the Naval Network Warfare Command here, U.S. cyber defenders track and investigate hundreds of suspicious events each day. But the predominant threat comes from Chinese hackers, who are constantly waging all-out warfare against Defense Department networks, Netwarcom officials said. - Attacks coming from China, probably with government support, far outstrip other attackers in terms of volume, proficiency and sophistication, said a senior Netwarcom official, who spoke to reporters on background Feb 12. The conflict has reached the level of a campaign-style, force-on-force engagement, he said.

“They will exploit anything and everything,” the senior official said, referring to the Chinese hackers’ strategy. And although it is impossible to confirm the involvement of China’s government, the attacks are so deliberate, “it’s hard to believe it’s not government-driven,” the official said. - The motives of Chinese hackers run the gamut, including technology theft, intelligence gathering, exfiltration, research on DOD operations and the creation of dormant presences in DOD networks for future action, the official said. ...   more »

...Urban utopias took a new avatar in Paolo Soleri's Arcosanti where architecture and environmentalism hit a new [level of] collaboration. Auroville near Puducherry is one such utopian vision conceived partly as an ashram retreat and partly like a rationally organised urban precinct. This book is a documentation of the urban development and architecture witnessed within Auroville since 1964.

Mirra Alfassa, popularly known as the Mother visualised Auroville as an urban experiment to "undertake the work of evolution of consciousness." She commissioned the French architect Roger Anger to give form to her vision. Anger came with a spiral plan that resembled a galaxy with the Matri-mandir at its centre. The entire city was divided into industrial, cultural, residential and international zones with a green belt encircling it. The town was designed for a population of 50,000. The book discusses the features of urban planning and architectural accomplishments in three sections. The first section briefly documents the important stages of Auroville's urban development. It reproduces some of the archival images, sketches and notes that illuminate the ideas leading to its conception. In the second part, the details of the plan, the various zones and important buildings within them are listed and described. The last section profiles the various architects who are part of Auroville and gives brief description of their important works and views. ...    more »

Scientists have developed a new technique for species identification - a DNA barcode. Similar to the barcodes that identify consumer products, species barcodes identify unique animals or plants. - Now, taking the use of DNA barcoding to a more complex level, an international team of scientists reports assembling a barcoded genetic portrait of bird life in the United States and Canada - the prelude to a genetic portrait of all animal life on Earth.

Based on DNA barcode identifiers, the scientists have discovered 15 new genetically distinct species, nearly indistinguishable to human eyes and ears and thus overlooked in centuries of bird studies. ...   more »

Book I Canto III 01 A world's desire compelled her mortal birth.mp3

MP3 File

The next known close encounter with an asteroid will occur, somewhat ominously, on Friday the 13th of April 2029. Then, Near-Earth Object 99942--also known as Apophis (Greek for "The Demon of Darkness")--is expected to miss the planet by a mere 30,000 kilometers. The real sweating begins soon after, when astronomers must determine whether Earth's gravity has steered Apophis onto a course for impact seven years later. ...   more »

This is an unusually long article for SCIY. It's copyrighted by Eric M. Weiss, and was his dissertation for his Ph.D. at CIIS, the California Institute of Integral Studies, with a concentration in Philosophy, Cosmology and Consciousness. I'm taking the liberty of posting it here because, in my opinion, it's one of the most thorough and insightful treatments of the core concern of SCIY; the multiple & interpenetrating relationships between science, culture, and consciousness, placed within the contextual framework of Sri Aurobindo's Integral Yoga. - Warning: This is challenging material, but I believe working through it and contemplating its implications is well worth the effort. - My deepest appreciation goes to Dr. Eric Weiss for his extraordinary and groundbreaking work. ~ ron

...Here we are, at the dawn of the Twenty First Century, and I have awakened to find myself living in a science fiction novel. If this novel were to be written from the standpoint of the 23rd century, looking back to the beginning of the 21st, it might start something like this:

At that time, the certainties of science had faltered. The great charism of the men in white lab coats had faded. The bastions of materialism had crumbled from within, and the civilization that it had fostered was losing its way.

Meanwhile, three centuries of rapacious assault on the biosphere were, at last, showing decisive results. The globe was poisoned, people were sick, species were being slaughtered by the tens of thousands, global temperatures and global sea levels were both beginning to rise. A civilization was ending, and in its death throes, it was bringing to a close the Cenozoic Era. The Earth was preparing for a fresh creation.

Looking back, too, we can see that the promise of the new civilization had already begun to shine. The iron cage of the material world, in which the species had been trapped for centuries, was starting to dissolve. Here and there, the experiences of the subtle worlds were breaking through. A few intrepid explorers had seen the promise, and had just begun to glimpse the vast freedoms and the limitless horizons that we now enjoy, but the darkness was still thick and Kali was dancing wildly across the face of the globe. This is the story of those early pioneers…   more »

The world's oceans claim on average one ship a week, often in mysterious circumstances. With little evidence to go on, investigators usually point at human error or poor maintenance but an alarming series of disappearances and near-sinkings, including world-class vessels with unblemished track records, has prompted the search for a more sinister cause and renewed belief in a maritime myth: the wall of water. Waves the height of an office block. Waves twice as large as any that ships are designed to ride over...

...No current could have created such huge waves. There is none in that part of the Atlantic. Clearly, there was another effect investigators needed to find. Except someone already had: it existed (on paper at least) in the world of quantum physics. Al Osborne is a wave mathematician with 30 years experience devising equations to describe open ocean wave patterns. Quantum physics has at its heart a concept called the Schrodinger Equation, a way of expressing the probability of something happening that is far more complex than the simple linear model. Al's theory is based on the notion that in certain unstable conditions, waves can steal energy from their neighbours. Adjacent waves shrink while the one at the focus can grow to an enormous size. His modified Schrodinger Equation had been rejected in the past as implausible, but with research attention centred on analysing these rogue waves - including global satellite radar surveillance by the new European Remote Sensing Satellite - data began to emerge backing his case. ...   more »