Stromatolites within the Hapcheon impact crater suggest that asteroid impacts created hydrothermal oases fostering early life and habitability, according to geochemical, isotopic, and microbial analyses from the Hapcheon crater lake in Korea.
Category: existential risks
Scientists create artificial egg to revive extinct giant bird
The South Island giant moa, a flightless bird that stood up to 12ft tall, last roamed New Zealand’s forests some 600 years ago. Yet the species may have taken a small, strange step back from extinction — thanks to an artificial egg made of silicone.
Colossal Biosciences, a Texan biotechnology firm, has developed a shell-less system it says is capable of supporting a bird embryo from early development through to the point of hatching.
So far the device has been used to produce baby chickens. The end goal, the company says, is to deploy a much larger version to resurrect the moa, whose eggs were about 80 times the volume of a farmyard hen’s.
Asteroid Apophis will skim past Earth in 2029, and a new joint mission plans to watch every change
The European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) have signed a Memorandum of Cooperation to deepen collaboration in planetary defense, alongside a dedicated agreement for collaboration on the Rapid Apophis Mission for Space Safety (Ramses) to the near-Earth asteroid Apophis.
The agreements were signed on 7 May by ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher and JAXA President Hiroshi Yamakawa at the Embassy of Italy in Berlin, Germany, in the presence of European and Japanese institutional and industrial leadership. The event was hosted in collaboration with the Italian Space Agency (ASI), in light of ESA’s selection of OHB Italia as prime contractor for the Ramses mission.
The move builds on a joint statement from November 2024, in which ESA and JAXA committed to expanding large-scale cooperation, including on planetary defense.
Where Are All The Alien Robots? The Chilling Idea Of Von Neumann Probes
As you know, I’m obsessed about the Fermi Paradox. Where are all the aliens? But an even stranger question is: where are all the robot aliens?
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Team: Fraser Cain — @fcain / frasercain@gmail.com.
Jason Harmer — @jasoncharmer.
Chad Weber — weber.chad@gmail.com.
Created by: Fraser Cain and Jason Harmer.
Edited by: Chad Weber.
Music: Left Spine Down — “X-Ray”
• Left Spine Down — Side Effect (new track 2…
If you’ve seen at least one other episode of the Guide to Space, you know I’m obsessed about the Fermi Paradox. This idea that the Universe is big and old, and should be teeming with life. And yet, we have no evidence that it exists out there.
We wonder, where are all the aliens?
Chickens Hatch From World’s First Artificial Eggs
On May 19, Dallas-based Colossal Biosciences, which last year made headlines when it effectively de-extincted the dire wolf, announced that it had hatched a flock of 26 live chicks from fully artificial eggs. The technology behind the breakthrough can be later applied to bring back the dodo and New Zealand’s giant, flightless moa—both on Colossal’s de-extinction ‘to do’ list…
…Designing an artificial shell is not easy because a natural shell is deceptively complex. Made principally of calcium carbonate arranged in a crystalline structure, a typical egg shell is no more than 0.4 mm thick, and covered with up to 17,000 tiny pores to allow for gas exchange with the ambient atmosphere—carbon dioxide out, and oxygen in. There are, too, a pair of slick inner membranes in the egg that perform another critical function, protecting the growing chick from invading bacteria. But those membranes have to be exceedingly thin…
…The egg Colossal invented was very different. The inner membranes were made of vanishingly thin silicon using a proprietary technology that Colossal is planning to patent. The shell itself was only about two-thirds of a shell—a titanium structure that resembles nothing so much as a soft-boiled-egg cup with its top missing, albeit with hundreds of hexagonal pores to allow for gas exchange. Once a few dozen of the titanium eggs were manufactured, Colossal gathered fertilized chicken eggs from an avian farm the company owns and operates and transported them to the lab. There, the scientists gently opened the top of the egg and transferred the yolk and the white and the tiny embryo onto the titanium egg cup and covered the cup with a transparent lid. The embryos were about three days past fertilization when they were transferred, meaning that they had 18 days remaining in their three-week incubation cycle.
‘We place the egg into an incubator that controls the environment,’ says Lambert. ‘We then collect visual images at periodic milestones to understand how development is progressing.’ When the incubation period was done, the chicks began ‘pipping,’ using their beaks to break through the membrane just the way an ordinary chick breaks through its shell. Eventually, the 26 chicks were moved to the same Texas farm from which their eggs were collected, where they can live out their five to 10 year lifespan.
The breakthrough could help bring giant birds back from extinction.
NASA Curiosity rover finds mysterious life linked molecules on Mars
NASA’s Curiosity rover has identified a wide range of organic molecules on Mars, including compounds that scientists consider key ingredients for the origin of life on Earth.
The discovery comes from a chemical experiment carried out on another planet for the first time. Results show that the Martian surface is capable of preserving molecules that could act as potential signs of ancient life. However, the experiment cannot determine whether these organic compounds came from past life on Mars, natural geological processes, or meteorites that struck the planet.
To confirm any true evidence of past life, scientists would need to bring Martian rock samples back to Earth for detailed study.
Every Theory About Why We Haven’t Found Aliens Yet Explained
Why haven’t we found aliens yet? From the Fermi Paradox to the Great Filter, the Dark Forest theory, rare Earth, simulation theory, and more — here’s every major explanation for why the universe seems so silent.
00:00 The Fermi Paradox.
00:54 The Great Filter.
01:45 The Rare Earth Hypothesis.
02:40 The Dark Forest Theory.
03:36 The Zoo Hypothesis.
04:34 The Self-Destruction Filter.
05:35 The Simulation Hypothesis.
06:33 The Communication Gap.
07:35 The Interstellar Distance Problem.
08:35 The Short Window Problem.
09:32 The Planetarium Hypothesis.
10:30 The Transcension Hypothesis
10 Chilling Theories About Why Aliens Haven’t Contacted Earth
Why haven’t aliens contacted Earth?
The universe contains hundreds of billions of galaxies, each filled with billions of stars and potentially habitable planets. Yet despite the vastness of the cosmos, we have never detected a single confirmed extraterrestrial civilization.
This mystery is known as the Fermi Paradox.
In this video, we explore 10 chilling theories that attempt to explain the silence of the universe — from the terrifying Dark Forest Hypothesis to the existential threat of the Great Filter.
Some theories suggest aliens are hiding.
Others suggest they are waiting.
And some suggest something far more disturbing.
If any of these theories are true, humanity may not be alone… but we may wish we were.
Subscribe for more videos about space, science, and the mysteries of the universe.
Fear memories fade faster when brain immune cells engage key neurons, study suggests
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and anxiety disorders are often characterized by fearful responses in specific situations that the mind learns to view as threatening. These fearful responses typically emerge following traumatic events or challenging life experiences, which prompt the brain to form unhelpful associations between specific stimuli and distressing events.
The fearful responses associated with PTSD or anxiety disorders can gradually diminish via a process known as fear extinction. This process entails the repeated exposure to a situation or stimulus perceived as threatening, but without any danger arising.
Understanding the neurobiological processes that support fear extinction could be very valuable, as it could help to devise new therapeutic strategies for treating symptoms of PTSD and anxiety disorders. While many past studies explored the role of neurons in fear extinction, fewer investigated the contribution of microglia, immune cells that reside in the brain and spinal cord.
