Category: Science

The Sound Of Settled Science

I thought nothing could “escape” from a black hole;

A supermassive black hole lurking at the heart of a relatively close galaxy is firing off a rapid-fire slew of ultrafast gas “bullets” into the surrounding galaxy.

This is the conclusion of an international team of astronomers with the U.S./Japanese X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM), whose spacecraft was designed to observe the hot plasma winds that blow through galaxies.

The subject of the study was PDS 456, an active galactic nucleus located some 2.18 giga light-years from the Earth in the constellation of Serpens.

The team say that the energy being carried by the “bullets” of wind is far greater than was expected—and could shake up our understanding of how galaxies and their central black holes evolve in tandem.

But it’s Newsweek, so they probably got it wrong.

Oh No!

Globe and Mail- U.S. government is asking Canadian researchers whether their work deals with DEI, climate, gender

A list of approximately 30 questions was sent earlier this month to Canadian researchers working on projects funded by U.S. agencies. The U.S. Office of Management and Budget is scrutinizing grants to institutions outside the U.S. as part of a broader effort to cut what the White House has characterized as wasteful spending.

The Canadian Association of University Teachers says the questions being asked infringe on academic independence.

Francisco- Funny how all the folks complaining about their “academic independence” don’t fund their own research.

The Sound Of Settled Science

Gout is often associated with drinking too much or not eating healthily enough, but research suggests genetics play more of a factor in developing the arthritic condition than previously thought.[…]

“Gout is a chronic disease with a genetic basis and is not the fault of the sufferer – the myth that gout is caused by lifestyle or diet needs to be busted,” said epidemiologist Tony Merriman from the University of Otago in New Zealand, when the study was published last year.

47: NIH Under Lockdown

Birthing persons and trans-kids hardest hit.

Confusion and anxiety is rippling through the US health-research community this week following Donald Trump taking office as the 47th US president. His administration has abruptly cancelled research-grant reviews, travel and trainings for scientists inside and outside the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the world’s largest public biomedical funder. Adding to the worry: the Trump team appears to have deleted entire webpages about diversity programmes and diversity-related grants from the agency’s site.

The cancelling of meetings and travel is part of a pause in external communications issued on 21 January by the NIH’s parent organization, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Researchers who spoke to Nature say that although a short, daylong pause in communications at US agencies has occurred in the past when new administrations have started, to reorient strategy, the reach and length of the Trump team’s — it is set to last until at least 1 February — is unprecedented. Without advisory-committee meetings, the NIH cannot issue research grants, temporarily freezing 80% of the agency’s US$47-billion budget that funds research across the country and beyond.

Related savagery: Questioned by reporters in North Carolinaabout the removal of Anthony Fauci’s security detail – “He made a lot of money. He can pay for his own security.” Will you feel responsible if something happens to him? – “No.”

Navigation