Category: Uncategorized

VESTIGIAL SENSE. “There is evidence suggesting that such a magnetosense—or at least the vestiges of it—may exist in humans.” http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/early/2012/03/12/rspb.2012.0324.short View in LinkedIn

EFFECTS ON MAN. “A controversial body of literature demonstrates associations of geomagnetic storms (GMS) with numerous cardiovascular, psychiatric and behavioural outcomes.” (GMS = geomagnetic storms). http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/early/2012/03/12/rspb.2012.0324.short View in LinkedIn

GEOMAGNETIC STORMS. “Six physiological parameters of cardio-vascular system of rabbits and ultrastructure of cardiomyocytes were investigated during two planetary geomagnetic storms. At the initial and main phase of the storm the normal circadian structure in each cardiovascular parameter was lost. The asynchronicity was growing together with the storm and abrupt drop of cardia activity was observed during the main phase of storm.” (1995). http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8555294 View in LinkedIn

MAGNETIC EFFECTS ON HORMONES. “It is hypothesized that the cryptochrome compass system is mediating stress responses more broadly across the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis (including alterations to circadian behaviour) in response to changes in the GMF. It is therefore proposed that GMS lead to disorientation of hormonal systems in animals and humans, thus explaining the effects of GMS on human health and behaviour.” (GMS = geomagnetic storms; GMF = geomagnetic field). http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/early/2012/03/12/rspb.2012.0324.short View in LinkedIn

TINY STEPS. “As a result of the feedback NASA received from that workshop, most of the SETI-exclusionary language was removed in the amended 2018 ROSES document, and “technosignatures” was explicitly solicited in the amended version of the ROSES 2018 XRP and Exobiology calls in early 2019.” https://lnkd.in/djnMhU6 View in LinkedIn

DANCING IN THE CORNER. “At the workshop NASA Deputy Associate Administrator for Research Michael New expressed his personal view that within NASA the term “SETI” is heavily associated with HRMS and radio programs, while the term “technosignatures” is “freighted with less history” and “doesn’t provoke as many antibodies” at NASA.” https://lnkd.in/djnMhU6 View in LinkedIn

TECHNOSIGNATURES. “The rebranding seems to have helped. In 2018 Congress considered requiring NASA to include searches for technosignatures (by that name) within its science portfolio as part of the House version of the NASA appropriations bill. In anticipation of this language (which did not ultimately become law) NASA hosted the “NASA Technosignatures Workshop” in September 2018 to learn about the searches for technosignatures and how it could support them, because it had little internal expertise on the topic.” https://lnkd.in/djnMhU6 View in LinkedIn

REBRANDING SETI. “The community has long perceived that part of the difficulty is persistent confusion within and beyond NASA about whether “SETI” refers to a specific radio signal search rationale and technique, the SETI Institute itself, or to the broader effort to identify technological life in the universe. This led Tarter (2007) to coin the term “technosignatures” by analogy with biosignatures to refer to any sign of technological life, including communicative transmissions and other technologies.” https://lnkd.in/djnMhU6 View in LinkedIn

POLITICAL RESISTANCE. “There is a strong perception within the technosignature search community that NASA has an institutional hostility, or at least staunch resistance, to including searches for technosignatures in its research portfolio. This perception comes from, among other things, private discussions with NASA officials, public comments by NASA officials, and explicit (and often contradictory) language in NASA funding calls excluding searches for technosignatures.” https://lnkd.in/djnMhU6 View in LinkedIn

FRAGMENT FROM NATURE continues from last weekend and ends this weekend on a history of the search for extraterrestrial life and recommendations going forward supported by 126 prominent experts. Of note, this covers only the search for technosignatures of intelligent life, not any efforts to see if biosignatures of other life forms might exist, such as bacteria or viruses, or life as we do not know it. Logically, they are inextricably connected, but our search for biosignatures is an even sadder story of institutional lack of support. View in LinkedIn