65 years ago today‚ Berry Gordon founded what would become Motown Records. Motown played an important role in the racial integration of popular music as an African American-owned label that achieved crossover success. In the 1960s‚ Motown and its subsidiary labels ruled the airways with a style of soul music with a mainstream pop appeal. […] The post Good News in History‚ January 12 appeared first on Good News Network.

Robert Nichol: Over ten years ago‚ the Dark Energy Survey (DES) began mapping the universe to find evidence that could help us understand the nature of the mysterious phenomenon known as dark energy. I’m one of more than 100 contributing scientists that have helped produce the final DES measurement‚ which has just been released at the 243rd American Astronomical Society meeting in New Orleans. Dark energy is estimated to make up nearly 70% of the observable universe‚ yet we still don’t understand what it is. While its nature remains mysterious‚ the impact of dark energy is felt on grand scales. Its primary effect is to drive the accelerating expansion of the universe. The announcement in New Orleans may take us closer to a better understanding of this form of energy. Among other things‚ it gives us the opportunity to test our observations against an idea called the cosmological constant that was introduced by Albert Einstein in 1917 as a way of counteracting the effects of gravity in his equations to achieve a universe that was neither expanding nor contracting. Einstein later removed it from his calculations. However‚ cosmologists later discovered that not only was the universe expanding‚ but the expansion was accelerating. This observation was attributed to the mysterious quantity called dark energy. Einstein’s concept of the cosmological constant could actually explain dark energy if it had a positive value (allowing it to conform to the accelerating expansion of the cosmos). The DES results are the culmination of decades of work by researchers around the globe and provide one of the best measurements yet of an elusive parameter called “w”‚ which stands for the “equation of state” of dark energy. Since the discovery of dark energy in 1998‚ the value of its equation of state has been a fundamental question. This state describes the ratio of pressure over energy density for a substance. Everything in the universe has an equation of state. Its value tells you whether a substance is gas-like‚ relativistic (described by Einstein’s theory of relativity) or not‚ or if it behaves like a fluid. Working out this figure is the first step to really understanding the true nature of dark energy. Our best theory for w predicts that it should be exactly minus one (w=-1). This prediction also assumes that dark energy is the cosmological constant proposed by Einstein. Subverting expectations An equation of state of minus one tells us that as the energy density of dark energy increases‚ so the negative pressure also increases. The more energy density in the universe‚ the more repulsion there is – in other words‚ matter pushes against other matter. This leads to an ever-expanding accelerating universe. It might sound a bit bizarre‚ as it is counterintuitive to everything we experience on Earth. The work uses the most direct probe we have on the expansion history of the universe: Type Ia supernovae. These are a type of star explosion and they act as a kind of cosmic yardstick‚ allowing us to measure staggeringly large distances far into the universe. These distances can then be compared to our expectations. This is the same technique that was used to detect the existence of dark energy 25 years ago. The difference now is in the size and quality of our sample of supernovae. Using new techniques‚ the DES team has 20 times more data‚ over a wide range of distances. This allows for one of the most precise ever measurements of w‚ giving a value of -0.8. Facilities such as the Vera Rubin Observatory will make further measurements. H. Stockebrand/Rubin/NSF/AURARubinObs/NSF/AURA‚ CC BY At first sight‚ this is not the precise minus one value that we predicted. This might indicate that it is not the cosmological constant. However‚ the uncertainty on this measurement is large enough to allow minus one at a 5% chance‚ or betting odds of only 20 to 1. This level of uncertainty is not good enough yet to say either way‚ but it’s an excellent start. The detection of the Higgs Boson subatomic particle in 2012 at the Large Hadron Collider required odds of a million to one chance of being wrong. However‚ this measurement may signal the end of “Big Rip” models which have equations of state that are more negative than one. In such models the universe would expand indefinitely at a faster and faster rate – eventually pulling apart galaxies‚ planetary systems and even space-time itself. That’s a relief. As usual‚ scientists want more data and those plans are already well underway. The DES results suggest that our new techniques will work for future supernova experiments with ESA’s Euclid mission (launched July 2023) and the new Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile. This observatory should soon use its telescope to take a first image of the sky following construction‚ giving a glimpse into its capabilities. These next-generation telescopes could find thousands more supernovae‚ helping us make new measurements of the equation of state and shedding even more light on the nature of dark energy. Robert Nichol‚ Pro Vice-Chancellor and Executive Dean‚ University of Surrey This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. The post We are now one step closer to understanding dark energy appeared first on Anomalien.com.

Democratic Rep. Jerrold Nadler of New York said Thursday that “vegetables would rot in the ground” if illegal immigrants weren’t around to pick them.Nadler made the statement during his opening…

Fulton County‚ Georgia‚ District Attorney Fani Willis reportedly used her political power to collude with Democrat colleagues on how to prosecute former President Trump.  Advertisement According…

Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) is in mourning right now. We blew up a bunch of terrorists who were harassing international shipping routes in the Red Sea. For weeks‚ Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen were…

In sports and politics‚ the past year has brought a few surprising results from the Motor City. The Detroit Lions are good this season‚ and a freshman Democratic congressman has been bucking a large faction…

[unable to retrieve full-text content]A member of Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R-FL) security team was quick to take down a climate protester who interrupted the governor on stage during a campaign stop in…

“Reasonable argument is impossible when authority becomes the arbiter.” – Orson Scott Card The post The Editors’ Quote of the Day: appeared first on SurvivalBlog.com.

Here are the latest news items and commentary on current economics news‚ market trends‚ stocks‚ investing opportunities‚ and the precious metals markets. In this column‚ JWR also covers hedges‚ derivatives‚ and various obscura. This column emphasizes JWR’s “tangibles heavy” investing strategy and contrarian perspective. Today‚ we look at the new FinCEN BOI database reporting requirements. (See the Regulation and Taxes section.) Precious Metals: Reuters: Gold to enter 2024 with sights set on record highs. o  o  o Kelsey Williams‚ at Gold-Eagle.com: You May Get A Higher Gold Price‚ But… o  o  o 3 Promising Precious Metal Stocks Set to Shine … The post Economics &; Investing For Preppers appeared first on SurvivalBlog.com.