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    How James Webb Space Telescope data have already revealed surprises

    Massimo Pascale wasn’t planning to study the galaxy cluster SMACS 0723. But as soon as he saw the cluster glittering in the first image from the James Webb Space Telescope, or JWST, he and his colleagues couldn’t help themselves.

    “We were like, we have to do something,” says Pascale, an astronomer at the University of California, Berkeley. “We can’t stop ourselves from analyzing this data. It was so exciting.”

    Pascale’s team is one of several groups of scientists who saw the first JWST images and immediately rolled up their sleeves. In the first few days after images and the data used to create them were made public, scientists have estimated the amount of mass the cluster contains, uncovered a violent incident in the cluster’s recent past and estimated the ages of the stars in galaxies far beyond the cluster itself.

    “We’ve been preparing for this for a long time. Myself, I’ve been preparing for years, and I’m not very old,” says Pascale, who is in his fourth year of graduate school.  JWST “is really going to define a new generation of astronomers and a new generation of science as a whole.”

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    Cluster collision

    When the image of SMACS 0723 was released in a White House briefing on July 11, most of the focus went to extremely distant galaxies in the background (SN: 7/11/22). But smack in the middle of the image is SMACS 0723 itself, a much closer cluster of galaxies about 4.6 billion light-years from Earth. Its mass bends light from even farther away, making more distant objects appear magnified, as if their light had traveled through the lens of another cosmic-sized telescope.

    The light from the most distant galaxy in this image started its journey to JWST about 13.3 billion years ago — “almost at the dawn of the universe,” says astrophysicist Guillaume Mahler of Durham University in England, who is already using the picture as his Zoom background.

    But the image can also fill in the history of the intervening galaxy cluster itself. “People sometimes forget about that — the galaxy cluster is also very important,” Pascale says.

    Pascale’s and Mahler’s teams each started by taking inventory of the distant galaxies that appear stretched and distorted in the image. The light from some of those galaxies is warped such that multiple images of the same galaxy appear in different places. Mapping those multiply imaged galaxies is a sensitive probe of the way mass is spread around the cluster. That, in turn, can reveal where the cluster contains dark matter, the invisible, mysterious substance that makes up the majority of the mass in the universe (SN: 9/10/20).

    Both teams found that SMACS 0723 is more elongated than it appeared in previous observations. They also found a faint glow, called intracluster light, inside the cluster from stars that don’t belong to any particular galaxy. Together, those features suggest that SMACS 0723 is still recovering from a relatively recent smash-up with another galaxy cluster, the teams report separately in a pair of papers submitted to arXiv.org on July 14.

    A galaxy cluster that has been sitting on its own for eons should have a rounder distribution of matter and intracluster light, rather than SMACS 0723’s oblong shape. The stars that emit the intracluster light were probably ripped from their home galaxies by gravitational forces during the collision.

    “Two separate clusters have merged together, and it looks to us as if it’s not totally settled yet,” Pascale says. “What we might be looking at is an ongoing merger.”

    Three examples of multiply imaged galaxies — marked with white, red and yellow arrows — popped out of this small region of the first JWST image. The gravity from a foreground galaxy cluster distorted the light from these galaxies, making them appear in at least two places at once.Reproduced from M. Pascale et al/arXiv.org 2022

    Far-flung galaxies

    Mapping out mass in the cluster is also essential to decoding the properties of the more distant galaxies in the background of the image, Mahler says. “You need to understand the cluster and its magnification power to understand what’s behind.”

    Some scientists are already investigating those distant galaxies in detail. The first JWST data include not just pretty pictures but also spectra, measurements of how much light an object emits at various wavelengths. Spectra allow scientists to determine how much a distant object’s light has been stretched — or redshifted — by the expansion of the universe, which is a proxy for its distance. Such data can also help reveal a galaxy’s composition and the ages of its stars.

    “The main thing that limits the study of star formation in galaxies is the quality of the data,” says astrophysicist Adam Carnall of the University of Edinburgh. But with the vastly improved data from JWST, he says, he and his team were able to measure the ages of stars in those remote galaxies.

    Carnall and colleagues turned their attention to the spectra of the distant galaxies just a few days after the SMACS image was released. They measured the redshifts of 10 galaxies, five of which were particularly distant, the team reports in a paper submitted to arXiv.org on July 18. One had already been highlighted as one of the most distant galaxy ever seen, with light that was emitted just 500 million years after the Big Bang 13.8 billion years ago. The other four shone as late as 1.1 billion years after the Big Bang.

    All 10 galaxies were relatively young when they emitted the light captured by JWST, Carnall says. They had all switched on their star formation just a few million years earlier. That’s not especially surprising, but it is interesting.

    “The ability to look at these small, faint galaxies … gives you a sense of how all galaxies must look when they start forming stars,” Carnall says.

    Scientists hope to use JWST to find the first instances of star formation ever. Other early results suggest they’re already getting close.

    Some galaxies in a JWST image of another cluster may hearken from an even earlier time, as early as 300 million years after the Big Bang, two research teams report in a pair of papers submitted to arXiv.org on July 19. One of those galaxies seems to have already built up a spiral disk about a billion times the mass of the sun, which is surprisingly mature for such an early galaxy.

    And a tally of galaxies seen in the SMACS 0723 image suggests that galaxies with mature disks, rather than disorganized blobs or ones made up mostly of dark matter, may have been more common in the very early universe than previously thought, another team reports in an arXiv.org paper submitted July 19. That means those early disks might not be outliers.

    “Definitely these galaxies are a big deal, but it remains to be seen how exciting they will look in the context of a few months’ progress with JWST,” Carnall says. The best is yet to come.

    [embedded content]
    Exploded stars, colliding galaxies, and beautiful clouds feature in the first space photos released by The James Webb Space Telescope July 12. More

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    Mistakenly calling AIs 'sentient' is more dangerous than we think

    A Google engineer recently claimed an AI was alive and that it had hired a lawyer. If judges were to accept these claims, it could lead to AIs being frozen in their biased states, writes Annalee Newitz

    Humans

    | Columnist

    20 July 2022

    By Annalee Newitz

    Shutterstock/PeachShutterStock
    IN EARLY June, a Google engineer named Blake Lemoine dropped a bombshell. He told Washington Post reporter Nitasha Tiku that his employer had secretly developed a sentient artificial intelligence, and that it wanted to be free.
    The AI in question is called LaMDA (Language Model for Dialogue Applications). It is a large language model, or LLM, a type of algorithm that chats with people by drawing on a huge body of text – often from the internet – and predicting which words and phrases are most likely to follow each other. After chatting with LaMDA, Lemoine decided it … More

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    How to grow chilli plants in cooler climates

    Chilli plants can thrive in summer and survive the winter even in temperate climes, says the heat-loving Clare Wilson, who offers some top tips

    Humans

    20 July 2022

    By Clare Wilson
    GAP Photos/Rachel Warne
    CHILLI plants hail from warmer parts of South America. As a result, they aren’t natural candidates for growing in temperate countries like the UK, unless you have a greenhouse. But they also do well in pots, so if you have a suitable spot by a window to nurture them indoors, you can produce a good crop of chilli peppers.
    The chilli is such a valuable culinary addition because it contains a chemical called capsaicin that binds to heat receptors called TRPV1 on our tongues, triggering sensations ranging from tingling to agony, depending on the concentration. The discoverer of this process … More

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    Let slip the online shiba inus of war

    Feedback lifts the veil on the cartoon dogs debunking Russian propaganda, while also checking in on the hunt for the legendary Sasquatch

    Humans

    20 July 2022

    Josie Ford
    The dogs of war
    Even the stationery cupboard, so well insulated from the outside world, now resounds to the yapping of shiba inus. Cartoon versions of these goofy-looking dogs, sporting tracksuits and fatigues in trademark Volodymyr Zelenskyy chic, are popping up across social media in response to Russian disinformation about the Ukraine invasion. No sooner do you post a pro-Vladimir Putin line, than tens of thousands of GIFs and JPEGs appear in reply, showing the dogs blowing up Russian fuel depots and firing anti-tank weapons.
    Behind the dogs lurks NAFO, the North Atlantic Fella Organization. Former US Marine @IamtheWarax says … More

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    Cameraless photography creates lockdown 'supernovae' at home

    These entrancing orbs look like something plucked from distant universes, but they were in fact created by photographer Charlotte Greenwood using her own spin on cliché-verre printing

    Humans

    20 July 2022

    By Gege Li
    Charlotte Greenwood
    Photographer Charlotte Greenwood
    THESE entrancingly vibrant orbs look like something plucked from an alien planet, but they were in fact created without a camera by photographer Charlotte Greenwood as part of her ongoing project, Cliché-Verres in Colour.
    Confined to her home during the lockdowns of the covid-19 pandemic, Greenwood was motivated to pursue a form of photography outside the traditional photographic darkroom. Her technique is based on cliché-verre, which combines photography with painting or drawing on transparent surfaces, such as glass, to create negatives.Advertisement
    Greenwood put her own spin on cliché-verre to create these images, which reveal the interaction between traditional art materials and household substances. She wishes to keep her process secret to preserve the mystery and allure of her work, she says.
    The top row of images are titled Toxin, Mocha III and Oculus, while the bottom row shows Halcyon, Cerulean and Cosmic Conception 1.
    “I present unseen perspectives of the natural world that offer viewers new ways of seeing and allow them to perceive micro details usually invisible to the naked eye,” says Greenwood. “As I work with unpredictable and uncontrollable materials, creating the images is a true collaboration with nature.”

    More on these topics: More

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    Beware the rise of corporate rituals designed to manipulate employees

    Companies are increasingly looking to engender loyalty by tapping into our evolved need to belong. But the emotional costs of bonding sessions and other techniques can be high and the sense of belonging false, warns Jonathan R Goodman

    Humans

    | Comment

    20 July 2022

    By Jonathan R. Goodman
    Michelle D’urbano
    ONE of Apple TV’s latest shows, WeCrashed, is a drama series based on the founding and subsequent travails of WeWork, the workspace-providing company once known for its cult-like culture. The founders of the firm encouraged its employees to blend work and life through ritualistic retreats and events, dubbed Summer Camps, and to view their colleagues and managers as family – a tradition in corporate life that aims to instil a feeling of camaraderie in staff.
    At a glance, this, and similar practices in the corporate world, seem really weird, as rituals and familial connections don’t have much to do with the … More

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    Travel the world and universe from home with these video games

    If you can’t leave the country over the holidays, then video games have you covered, whether you fancy flying a plane with Microsoft Flight Simulator or exploring a galaxy of planets with No Man’s Sky, says Jacob Aron

    Humans

    20 July 2022

    By Jacob Aron
    Asobo Studios/IGDB

    Subnautica
    Unknown Worlds Entertainment
    PC, PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch

    No Man’s Sky
    Hello Games
    PC, PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S

    NEXT week, I am leaving the UK for the first time in over half a decade, having been travel-constrained since 2016 by a combination of young children and the coronavirus pandemic. With that in mind, I have been thinking about the best travel … More

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    Historical plagues led to revolutions – could coronavirus do the same?

    From an Ancient Egyptian plague to the Black Death and Spanish flu, epidemics have often spurred societal transformations. Understanding why can help us create a better world after covid-19

    Humans

    18 July 2022

    By Laura Spinney
    Pete Reynolds
    FIRST the pharaoh changed his name, from Amenhotep IV to Akhenaten. Then he decreed that a new capital should be built far away from the old one. And in this city, one god should be worshipped, forsaking all others: the sun god Aten. Akhenaten’s heresy didn’t last long, ending with his death less than 20 years later. It was a blip in the 3000 years of cultural stability that characterises Ancient Egypt, but its enduring trace in art and thought places it among the most debated religious revolutions of all time. One common explanation is that Akhenaten was fed up with the powerful priests in the old capital of Thebes, who worshipped many gods.
    But what if he was actually fleeing an epidemic? The idea isn’t new, but it has enjoyed a revival since covid-19 arrived. Having lived through the worst pandemic in a century, many Egyptologists and archaeologists are looking back with fresh eyes. They have seen first-hand the social impact a pandemic can have – the exacerbation of inequality, rejection of authority, xenophobia and search for meaning – and realised that these probably aren’t without precedent.
    “Communicable disease plays a cultural and economic role that is repeated through time, up to the present day,” says Louise Hitchcock at the University of Melbourne, Australia. Witnessing how tightly entwined social discord, viral ideas and real viruses are, Hitchcock and others are asking if this could explain major cultural shifts throughout history, from Akhenaten’s time to the Black Death and 1918 flu. Could it even explain some of the ideological crosswinds that buffet us now, and that may shape the post-covid world?
    The … More