How Different Were Galaxies In The Early Universe?

An array of 350 radio telescopes in the Karoo desert of South Africa is getting closer to detecting the “cosmic dawn” — the era after the Big Bang when stars first ignited and galaxies began to bloom.

A team of scientists from across North America, Europe, and South Africa has doubled the sensitivity of a radio telescope called the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array (HERA). With this breakthrough, they hope to peer into the secrets of the early universe.
“Over the last couple of decades, teams from around the world have worked towards a first detection of radio waves from the cosmic dawn. While such a detection remains elusive, HERA’s results represent the most precise pursuit to date,” says Adrian Liu, an Assistant Professor at the Department of Physics and the Trottier Space Institute at McGill University.
The array was already the most sensitive radio telescope in the world dedicated to exploring the cosmic dawn. Now the HERA team has improved its sensitivity by a factor of 2.1 for radio waves emitted about 650 million years after the Big Bang and 2.6 for radio waves emitted about 450 million years after the Big Bang. Their work is described in a paper published in The Astrophysical Journal.
Although the scientists have yet to detect radio emissions from the end of the cosmic dark ages, their results provide clues about the composition of stars and galaxies in the early universe. So far, their data suggest that early galaxies contained very few elements besides hydrogen and helium, unlike our galaxies today. Today’s stars, have a variety of elements, ranging from lithium to uranium, that are heavier than helium.
Ruling out some theories
When the radio dishes are fully online and calibrated, the team hopes to construct a 3D map of the bubbles of ionized and neutral hydrogen – markers for early galaxies – as they evolved from about 200 million years to around 1 billion years after the Big Bang. The map could tell us how early stars and galaxies differed from those we see around us today, and how the universe looked in its adolescence, say the researchers.
According to the researchers, the fact that the HERA team has not yet detected these signals rules out some theories of how stars evolved in the early universe. “Our data suggest that early galaxies were about 100 times more luminous in X-rays than today’s galaxies. The lore was that this would be the case, but now we have actual data that bolsters this hypothesis,” says Liu.
Waiting for a signal
The HERA team continues to improve the telescope’s calibration and data analysis in hopes of seeing those bubbles in the early universe. However, filtering out the local radio noise to see the signals from the early universe has not been easy. “If it’s Swiss cheese, the galaxies make the holes, and we’re looking for the cheese,” says David DeBoer, a research astronomer in University of California Berkeley’s Radio Astronomy Laboratory.
“HERA is continuing to improve and set better and better limits,” says Aaron Parsons, principal investigator for HERA and a University of California Berkeley Associate Professor of astronomy. “The fact that we’re able to keep pushing through, and we have new techniques that are continuing to bear fruit for our telescope, is great.”
The HERA collaboration is led by University of California Berkeley and includes scientists from across North America, Europe, and South Africa, with support in Canada from Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, Fonds de recherche du Québec – Nature et technologies, and from the Trottier Space Institute at McGill University. The construction of the array is funded by the National Science Foundation, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, with key support from the government of South Africa and the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO).
About the study
“Improved Constraints on the 21 cm EoR Power Spectrum and the X-Ray Heating of the IGM with HERA Phase I Observations” by the HERA Collaboration was published in The Astrophysical Journal.

If you don't blow your own horn ...

Nobody else will.

Basically Invincible: Meet The 10 Toughest Animals In The World

What makes an animal tough? Animals are considered tough for their ability to withstand harsh conditions or difficult situations. Often, they have a unique way of adapting that allows them to take on these challenges.
The animals on this list are considered tough for a variety of reasons – from how well they can defend themselves against larger predators to their ability to survive extreme temperatures. You may be surprised by which animals are considered the toughest creatures in the world! Discover why they made the list.
Basically Invincible: Meet The 10 Toughest Animals In The World

What Ocean Animal Could Be Scarier Than a Great White Shark?

The great white shark is the largest known predatory fish in the world. It has 300 teeth yet does not chew its food—it only rips and swallows. The shark’s heavy, torpedo-like body allows it to cruise efficiently for a long time and then suddenly switch to high-speed bursts in pursuit of prey.
Being at the top of the food chain, what animal can challenge this great fish in the ocean? Let’s find out!
What Ocean Animal Could Be Scarier Than a Great White Shark?

Trinity the T-rex claws in more than $6 million

A composite Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton called Trinity sold for 5.5 million Swiss francs ($6.1 million) in a rare auction on Tuesday.

Trinity the T-rex claws in more than $6 million

95-Million-Year-Old Sauropod Dinosaur Skull First Of Its Kind In Australia

A Curtin University-led research team has analyzed Australia’s first nearly complete sauropod dinosaur skull found in Queensland, Australia, gaining a better understanding of the animal’s anatomy, relationships to other sauropods, and feeding habits. A Curtin University-led research team has analyzed Australia’s first nearly complete sauropod dinosaur skull found in Queensland, Australia, gaining a better understanding of the animal’s anatomy, relationships to other sauropods, and feeding habits.
The research, published in Royal Society Open Science and completed in collaboration with the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum of Natural History, found that the skull – belonging to a dinosaur nicknamed ‘Ann’ – was from the species Diamantinasaurus matildae. Diamantinasaurus is a member of the dinosaur group Sauropoda, known for having small heads, long necks and tails, barrel-like bodies, and four columnar legs.
Lead researcher and palaeontologist Dr Stephen Poropat, from Curtin’s School of Earth and Planetary Sciences, said ‘Ann’ is the first sauropod dinosaur found in Australia to include most of the skull, and also the first Diamantinasaurus specimen to preserve a back foot.
“I was lucky enough to be involved in this Australian-first discovery. Being able to lead the research on these fossils was a huge privilege. This skull gives us a rare glimpse into the anatomy of this enormous sauropod that lived in northeast Australia almost 100 million years ago,” Dr Poropat said.
“In analyzing the remains, we found similarities between the ‘Ann’ skull and the skull of a titanosaur called Sarmientosaurus musacchioi, which lived in South America at about the same time as Diamantinasaurus lived in Queensland. These include details of the braincase, the bones forming the back end of the skull near the jaw joint, and in the shape of the teeth (which are conical and curved).
“Our research suggests that Diamantinasaurus was one of the most ‘primitive’ titanosaurs. Gaining a better understanding of this species might explain why titanosaurs were so successful, across so much of the world, right until the end of the Age of Dinosaurs.”
Dr Poropat said the findings support previous theories suggesting that sauropods were using Antarctica as a pathway between South America and Australia between 100 and 95 million years ago.
“We suggest that sauropods were travelling between Australia and South America, via Antarctica, during the mid-Cretaceous. Warmer conditions that far south might have been favorable for them,” Dr Poropat said.
“The window between 100 and 95 million years ago was one of the warmest in Earth’s geologically recent history, meaning that Antarctica, which was more or less where it is now, had no ice. Similarly, Australia, which was much further south than today, was warmer with less seasonality. In that climate, Antarctica was forested, and might have been an attractive habitat or pathway for wandering sauropods.”
The sauropod skull was discovered on Elderslie Station, near Winton in 2018 by the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum during its annual dinosaur dig. ‘Ann’ is the third fossil specimen of Diamantinasaurus matildae to have been discovered on Elderslie by the Museum, and the fourth specimen overall.
The full paper is titled, ‘A nearly complete skull of the sauropod dinosaur Diamantinasaurus matildae from the Upper Cretaceous Winton Formation of Australia.

Animal Pictures

The Drift

Welcome to today's issue of Carolina Naturally

'Nuff Said!

Today is April 18, 2023

Today is: Pet Owners Independence Day

On This Day In History

In 1025CE: Bolesław Chrobry is crowned in Gniezno, becoming the first King of Poland.

Ain't That The Truth

Oh, and while you're at it - check out our sister blog Come What May for off the cuff and off the wall seriousness. Heck, who are we kidding, it's just fun and hilarity.

Editorial Comment

Spring and the Summer heat is here. 

Same as yesterday only hotter!

We do want to give a shout out to our readers in Greece and Thailand and say thanks for stopping by to read Carolina Naturally.

Remember to have fun and enjoy life.

Editorial Staff

Don't Forget to Put Nuts in Your Stews and Soup

Allie shares this:
This balmy New York weather is trying to trick me, but I know it’s still soup season. Just when I start filling my fridge with fresh fruit, spring is gonna turn around and give me a big middle finger of 50 degrees and rain. So I’ll be keeping my soup pots handy for a couple more weeks, thank you very much, and you should too. Join me as I hold on to warm meals for a little bit longer. If you’re getting bored, you can always add a bit of unexpected texture with a handful of nuts.
Don't Forget to Put Nuts in Your Stews and Soup

The 32 ingredients in a handmade egg sandwich

A food columnist at The Guardian makes note of the absolutely stunning number of ingredients incorporated into modern food. Having bought a “handmade” egg sandwich on a train, he organizes its ingredients into a vertical list, as if he were about to try to shop for these scientific-sounding things. The visual effect is startling and chastening. Each column – there are two – is preposterously long, for the sandwich has no fewer than 32 ingredients, most unknown to a domestic cook. Eggs, for instance, come in at number 22, just after potassium sorbate... In Britain, he tells us, we eat an awful lot of highly seductive, hyper-palatable, ultra-processed food – it comprises 57% of our diet, a figure higher than anywhere else in Europe – and it makes us hungrier, or less satisfied, than we should be, with the result that we eat more of it, and put on more weight.

So tired ...

Issues You Might Face Due To Having A Higher IQ

Intelligence is a trait that has earned its place among those most desirable to us. We seek it out in ourselves, friends, families, and coworkers, and it's often credited as the driving force that makes the world go round. Though having a high IQ comes with many incredible advantages -- excellent grades in school, greater earning potential in the workforce, and the ability to contribute new ideas and products to the world that propel us into the future -- it is not without downsides.

11 Issues You Might Face Due To Having A Higher IQ

We make thousands of unconscious decisions every day. Here’s how your brain copes with that

Do you remember learning to drive a car? You probably fumbled around for the controls, checked every mirror multiple times, made sure your foot was on the brake pedal, then ever-so-slowly rolled your car forward.
We make thousands of unconscious decisions every day. Here’s how your brain copes with that

We May Finally Know How Our Eyesight Evolved, And It's Not From Our Branch of Life

The evolution of the human eye has long been considered one of biology's more challenging mysteries, drawing debate over the sequence of steps required to turn rudimentary sensitivity to light into a complex photographic system.

New research suggests some components of vertebrate vision may not have been shaped incrementally as their genes passed down family lines but were 'stolen' from entirely different branches of life.

We May Finally Know How Our Eyesight Evolved, And It's Not From Our Branch of Life

This farm-to-solar trend can help accelerate the renewable energy transition

Access to solar power is increasing in rural parts of the U.S., partly with the support of farmers who lease out their land for utility-scale solar arrays. This farm-to-solar trend known as “agrivoltaics”—defined by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) as “the co-location of agricultural production and solar energy generation on the same land”—is intertwined with regenerative farming, a trend that has centuries-old roots within Indigenous cultures. This mindful cooperation between farming and energy poses a threat to the status quo fueling climate change and is facing a surge of opposition, but the emerging field of agrivoltaics could help neutralize the critics and break down barriers to solar development. 
This farm-to-solar trend can help accelerate the renewable energy transition

Just laugh ....

Missouri wingnut defends letting adults marry 12-year-old kids

Missouri wingnut Mike Moon (w) this week defended the rights of parents to marry off children as young as 12 years old.
The Springfield News-Leader reports that Moon made the remarks during a contentious debate over banning gender-affirming care for transgender minors in which Democratic State Rep. Peter Meredith accused him of hypocrisy for supporting the bill despite positioning himself as a champion of parents' rights. 
Missouri wingnut defends letting adults marry 12-year-old kids

Why does the word pedophilia come to mind when reading this horseshit?!

Oops! Wisconsin Wingnut Charged With Election Fraud

Former school board member John Harter faces three counts of election fraud for falsifying his voter registration. And there's more!
A former school board member in Wisconsin, John Harter, had been charged with three counts of election fraud for falsifying his voter registration:

Last week, 28-year-old John Harter abruptly resigned from the Hartland Lakeside School Board. 
On Friday, he was charged with three counts of election fraud after the DA's office said he falsified his voter registration address for the last three years.
According to the criminal complaint, Harter told others that he filed the candidacy documents using his father's address in Pewaukee because he visits his father's house when he is not working and that is the house he grew up in.

But that is only the beginning of the problems for the Harter family.
Oops! Wisconsin Wingnut Charged With Election Fraud

As it always is - wingnuts actually doing what they accuse everyone else of doing...

Man charged with murder after fatally shooting New York woman who turned into the wrong driveway

The shooting of Ralph Yarl in Kansas City after he reportedly went to the wrong door is raising awareness about another case in New York in which a group of friends was fired on after accidentally turning into the wrong driveway, the Times Union reported Monday.
Washington County Sheriff Jeffrey Murphy announced on Monday that 65-year-old Kevin Monahan has been charged with second-degree murder for shooting and killing 20-year-old Kaylin Gillis on Saturday evening.
Man charged with murder after fatally shooting New York woman who turned into the wrong driveway

Colorful People

The Stories of Oral Societies

Every once in a while, we need to remind ourselves that our ancestors, even ancient ancestors, weren't stupid. They were just as smart as people today, but they lacked the number of advancements we inherited to build on. We have writing and books and instant communication. Pre-literate cultures had their own way of passing along crucial knowledge in the form of oral history. The stories of things that happened, people, places, and events that are important, were related over and over again by storytelling, until the next generation knew these things intimately.

Author and geography professor Patrick Nunn tells us about oral histories passed along by indigenous cultures that reveal important geological events that happened many thousands of years ago, when volcanoes changed the landscape and islands formed where there was once continuous dry land. These stories come from all over the world and have been confirmed by geological studies. The ability to memorize and pass on such knowledge indicates how monumental those events were to the people who witnessed them. Of course, people remember only what they need to remember. You don't memorize a movie when you can see it again on demand, but in 1977, it was important to see Star Wars as many times as you could because it would eventually be gone from theaters. In pre-literate societies, memorizing everything about the land, the people, and their history was just what was done to preserve that knowledge.
Some of those stories became infused with mythology over time. Nunn explains that with the need to embellish stories with explanations that kept the audience's attention and helped them to understand difficult concepts. We can look beyond the supernatural embellishments to find the core nuggets of why these stories were crucial to pass along. Read about the oral history knowledge that is still being passed on today in a thought-provoking essay at Aeon.

Ingenious Forms Of Birth Control Used In Ancient Times

Throughout recorded history, humans have been clever and resourceful as they sought out ways to avoid getting saddled down with an unwanted kid. The Onion looks back on the most ingenious forms of birth control used in ancient times.
Let's take the journey with them ...
Ingenious Forms Of Birth Control Used In Ancient Times

Prehistoric Europeans Used Highly Unpleasant Drugs

Bronze Age humans, 3,000 years ago, got high on hallucinogenic plant alkaloids so powerful and dangerous that even psychedelic users of today avoid them, according to a new study. The humans may have had out-of-body experiences or thought they were growing fur or feathers as a result of consuming the anticholinergic substances atropine or scopolamine.
Prehistoric Europeans Used Highly Unpleasant Drugs

Letting the light shine on ...

... Vitamin D absorption