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SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME. “Images of the Eagle Nebula show the Hubble Space Telescope's ability to capture pictures in both visible (left) and infrared (right) light. NASA is celebrating the successful restart of the telescope's payload computer, opening the door to more observations.”" " https://lnkd.in/ddZZNyaT View in LinkedIn

The Veil Nebula seen by Hubble. https://lnkd.in/dAAK_yED View in LinkedIn

Perhaps one of the stranger children’s toys at the Figueres Toy Museum in Catalinia. This is on a parr with Grimm’s fairy tales. View in LinkedIn

STRANGER THAN STRANGE. “Kangaroos have three vaginas and two uteruses. “Koalas, wombats and Tasmanian devils all share the three-vagina structure. The side ones carry sperm to the two uteruses (and males marsupials often have two-pronged penises), while the middle vagina sends the joey down to the outside world. The programme also suggested that this might explain why marsupial embryos are born at such a premature stage of development.” https://lnkd.in/dNKiT4Z6 View in LinkedIn

PROKARYOTIC RESISTANCE TO RADIATION. “There is an enormous range in resistance to ionized radiation among modern unicellular life forms, including prokaryotes, which Sharma et al. (2017) showed to correlate with Mn2+ ions in antioxidant complexes within cells. This idea can perhaps be tested directly by analysis of cellular residues in Precambrian rocks.” https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0012825219302636?via=ihub View in LinkedIn

MAGNETIC RADIATION SHIELD. “Atmospheric oxygen is known to have been increasing in the relevant era but this is poorly quantified. A newly-formed, weak dipolar magnetic field originating about 600 m.y. ago, strengthening at about 550 m.y., could plausibly have shielded against ionized radiation, enabling the Ediacarian start and Cambrian acceleration of multicellular evolution.” https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0012825219302636?via=ihub View in LinkedIn

UV RADIATION. “The other lethal radiation is the high-energy fraction of ultraviolet light (short-wavelength UVB and shorter UVC) in the short-wavelength tail of solar radiation that consists mostly of visible light. UVB is mostly absorbed by a diffuse layer of ozone (O3) in the stratosphere and UVC is scattered to harmlessness by O2 and N2 molecules (which makes Earth's sky appear blue).” https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0012825219302636?via=ihub View in LinkedIn

COSMIC RADIATION. “One prerequisite is that two types of incoming radiation must have been largely blocked to allow profusely varied life forms to exist on Earth's surface. One of the lethal radiation types consists of cosmic rays (high-energy ionized particles from the Sun and from outside the Solar System) which are now mostly blocked from the surface by Earth's internally generated strong dipolar magnetic field.” https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0012825219302636?via=ihub View in LinkedIn

CONTENTIOUS STORY. “The causes of evolution across those two great thresholds, about 600 and 540 m.y. ago, have been subjects of much debate.” https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0012825219302636?via=ihub View in LinkedIn

OVERBEARING BIAS. “Most geoscience is done by interpreting the parts in terms of the assumed whole. Basic assumptions often are so entrenched that practitioners are unaware that there might be little or no evidence behind them. Data, narrowly sought and interpreted, fill the space between starting assumptions and conclusions required by them.” https://lnkd.in/d8kyQ4xj View in LinkedIn