Science stories of the week

Haha I immediately thought of Sharknado. Trump is obsessed with sharks (at least according to Stormy Daniels) so maybe he will allow funding to continue on that particular programme.
lol Yep.

They're (researchers) being very careful, but I hope that the sharks aren't harmed in any way. Doesn't sound like it so far.
 
[...] Without getting too political, not sure why Trump is defunding oceanic research, especially related to global warming initiatives. :rolleyes: Regardless of why he doesn't believe that global warming is a priority, why he would cut funding for this area of weather research is ignorant to me, especially in light of the dramatic uptick of natural disasters that continue to plague the US.

It's part of the general budget cuts aimed at “deconstructing a wasteful and weaponized bureaucracy.”

While there is no doubt that government agencies and departments are inefficient and wasteful (compared to the private sector where your company perishes if you are not the reverse), we usually have a pragmatic worry prevailing of "letting them be bloated is better than the danger-risk of too much decrease and entering a state of inadequacy", when it comes to bureaucracy affiliated with critical areas of survival, preparation, and defense.

And in this particular context, the "weaponized" propaganda part would ultimately pertain to how the anti-capitalist and anti-Western goals of the far-left coincidentally align somewhat with the radical rehabilitation of the world necessary to combat climate change. But that kind of paranoia does not take into account that traditional progressives (who run those operations) are still capitalists. There is instead only a shift to other areas of industry and business cashing in on this energy, tech, and lifestyle reform process boom -- as opposed to the classic enterprises related to oil/gas (etc) dependency profiting.

Capitalism has assimilated the "climate change crisis" (including climate justice) to serve its own ends. Just as it has all political activism and prescribed socioeconomic transitions and existential transformations (like this) over the decades. Bloated bureaucracy in the US is managed by one stripe of capitalist representative or another. The only way that will ever change is if Zohran Mamdani triggers a national revolutionary wave after he becomes mayor of NYC. Which is extremely unlikely, as there were far more robust Marxist and socialist movements around that attracted the working class during the first half of the 20th-century, which never remotely succeeded. And it is Trump and his populist legacy inheritors who ironically own the working class now.
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This has been coming for a while.

What will be funny is when Trump appoints another photogenic blonde bimbo, from Fox or Breitfart or somewhere, to head NASA, having rejected this Jared Isaacson (Oy vey or wot?) bloke, presumably because Musk proposed him.
 
This has been coming for a while.

From the article:
Earlier this year, the Trump administration's proposed NASA budget put a return to the moon and a journey to Mars front and center, slashing science and climate programs.

The White House says it wants to focus on "beating China back to the moon and putting the first human on Mars." China is aiming for its first crewed lunar landing by 2030, while the US program, called Artemis, has faced repeated delays.


Soooo, Trump wants to slash the budget for NASA, in the form of decreasing head count, yet he wants to have a flourishing space exploration program. That makes total sense. -_O
 
If this is confirmed this will be interesting. Before you ask yes its from March so I missed the bus.

Beyond the first galaxies primordial black holes shine

Antonio Matter , Andrea Ferrara , and Andrea Pallottini


chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://arxiv.org/pdf/2503.18850#:~:text=The%20presence%20of%20nine%20candidate,alternative%20solution%20available%20so%20far.

Hopefully the link will work.

Objects found by Webb up to Z=25, when the Universe was 120 million years old.

I found this on YT from Anton (A good guy - he discusses papers) so I tracked this paper down.
 
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If this is confirmed this will be interesting. Before you ask yes its from March so I missed the bus.

Beyond the first galaxies primordial black holes shine

Antonio Matter , Andrea Ferrara , and Andrea Pallottini


chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://arxiv.org/pdf/2503.18850#:~:text=The%20presence%20of%20nine%20candidate,alternative%20solution%20available%20so%20far.

Hopefully the link will work.

Objects found by Webb up to Z=25, when the Universe was 120 million years old.

I found this on YT from Anton (A good guy - he discusses papers) so I tracked this paper down.

Thanks, PB. Nothing was registering as a link on this browser. Just in case there are others similarly afflicted...

If the first URL doesn't go directly to the paper, then the second one indirectly goes there (both HTML and PDF formats are accessible). Cheapened NASA press release below that.

Beyond the first galaxies primordial black holes shine
https://arxiv.org/html/2503.18850v1
https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.18850

Primordial black holes: Cosmic matchmakers or party crashers of the first stars?
https://nasaspacenews.com/2025/08/p...chmakers-or-party-crashers-of-the-first-stars

Conclusion: These findings could fundamentally reshape our understanding of both the first stars and the makeup of dark matter itself. If PBHs reside in that Goldilocks zone, they become both cosmic architects (enabling the first stars) and silent dark matter agents. Either outcome—PBHs exist or they don’t—tightens our picture of cosmic history. This is exciting because it uses the universe itself as an experiment: if star formation doesn’t align with predictions, PBHs get ruled out; if it does, we’ve found a candidate for dark matter. In short, the universe’s own “cosmic dawn” may hold the answer to one of physics’ longest-standing puzzles.
_
 
Thanks, PB. Nothing was registering as a link on this browser. Just in case there are others similarly afflicted...

If the first URL doesn't go directly to the paper, then the second one indirectly goes there (both HTML and PDF formats are accessible). Cheapened NASA press release below that.

Beyond the first galaxies primordial black holes shine
https://arxiv.org/html/2503.18850v1
https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.18850

Primordial black holes: Cosmic matchmakers or party crashers of the first stars?
https://nasaspacenews.com/2025/08/p...chmakers-or-party-crashers-of-the-first-stars

Conclusion: These findings could fundamentally reshape our understanding of both the first stars and the makeup of dark matter itself. If PBHs reside in that Goldilocks zone, they become both cosmic architects (enabling the first stars) and silent dark matter agents. Either outcome—PBHs exist or they don’t—tightens our picture of cosmic history. This is exciting because it uses the universe itself as an experiment: if star formation doesn’t align with predictions, PBHs get ruled out; if it does, we’ve found a candidate for dark matter. In short, the universe’s own “cosmic dawn” may hold the answer to one of physics’ longest-standing puzzles.
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Yes thats the one, I do not think it has been peer reviewed yet. Should be soon though, its been 4 months.

1755001423641.png
 
A piece on 31/ATLAS, Avi Loeb has his own ideas.....probably get a netflicks out of it.

 
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