Each week, I devote part of my Sunday to reading.  I tend to accumulate a lot of saved links on Facebook during the week, and I like to try to keep up with what fellow writers are posting here on WordPress.  At the end of my reading day, I like to put up a post to draw my readers’ attention to a few articles I found to be of particular interest.

Here’s what I enjoyed this week:

Could aliens harness stars to keep ahead of expanding universe?

by Bob Yirka, Phys.org

The expansion of the Universe is a slow process, but it’s also inevitable.  While, from our vantage point, the Universe around us appears static, in reality not only is it expanding, but it’s doing so at an ever-increasing rate.  Over time, galaxies will grow increasingly isolated.  So, cut off from other galaxies by seemingly intractable cosmic distances, how would a highly-advanced alien species see to its growing energy needs?  Well, as Bob Yirka of Phys.org reports, a recent paper suggests a rather remarkable approach: hoarding stars.

My longtime readers might recognize the term “Dyson Sphere”, as it serves as a major plot device in Wide Horizon.  First proposed by notable physicist Freeman Dyson, a Dyson Sphere is a theoretical structure built to house a star.  Envisioned as either a fully-enclosed sphere or (more plausibly) a dense, interconnected network of satellites, such a structure is intended to collect the full output of solar energy from a star, which a civilization could store or transmit and use as they see fit.  While all previous theoretical models of Dyson Spheres focused on the ability to collect energy, a recent paper from Dan Hooper, a senior researcher with the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory has suggested that a civilization advanced enough to construct such a structure might be capable of using it to encapsulate a star, allowing it to be moved, perhaps even between galaxies.

While the stars within a galaxy will not be affected by universal expansion, as they are held together by collective gravity, galaxies themselves will grow further and further apart, which could pose a challenge for civilizations whose energy needs have grown beyond the total output of their home galaxy.  Of course, this likely won’t become a problem for roughly 100 billion years or so.  But given the distances between galaxies, the task of moving stars from one galaxy to another would take billions of years itself.  As such, Hooper suggests that forward-thinking civilizations would likely be performing this task now, so as to assure that when the day comes, they’ll be capable of sustaining their civilization.

Now, of course at first glance there appears to be a glaring problem with this theory: to date, we’ve not seen any evidence of such a process occurring.  However, Hooper notes that humans, at our level of advancement, would likely be incapable of understanding the mechanics of moving a star.  However, he believes we might be able to search for evidence, by looking for stars that appear to be moving between galaxies, or conspicuous gaps in galaxies where stars have already been removed.

This Device Pulls Water Out of Desert Air

by Emily Matchar, Smithsonian.com

From California to South Africa, severe droughts have been making headlines the past few years, and as climate change continues it’s only going to get worse.  Recent research suggests that, should climate change continue at its current pace, roughly a quarter of Earth’s landmass could fall under permanent drought.  While the idea solution is to stop, then eventually reverse climate change, in the short term we need a means to deal with such severe water shortages.  That’s the focus of a recent study at UC Berkeley, as reported this week by Emily Matchar for Smithsonian.

The result of the study was a passive system capable of pulling water from the air, even in desert climates, and using only natural sunlight.  The technology relies on the use of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs): materials that are solid, yet highly porous.  These materials show a remarkable capacity for storing water, up to three ounces per pound of MOF.  The device is comprised of a solid block of MOF housed in a transparent cube.  At night, the lid of the cube is left off, allowing air to pass through the MOF, which locks in moisture.  By day, the cover is replaced, and heat from the sun causes the MOF to release water, which condenses on the sides of the cube before running down to the base, where it can be collected.

The key advantage of the system is its simplicity: the device is easy to use, and because it’s energy-passive and only uses thermal energy from the sun, it doesn’t contribute to carbon emissions.  Thus, we’ll be able to deal with the effects of climate change without contributing to it.

Where Did Soccer Start? Archaeology Weighs In.

by Erin Blakemore, National Geographic

Each week for Reading Day, I like to feature at least one article with a somewhat less scientific bent.  This week I had a hard choice: the past week included stories about evidence of Bronze Age beer brewing in Scandinavia, why margarine was once died pink, and perhaps most notably how the T-Rex couldn’t stick its tongue out (that last one generated headlines in every major science publication and journal this past week, and I’m still not sure why).  Ultimately, however, I decided to highlight a timely piece by Erin Blakemore for Nat Geo, in honor of the FIFA World Cup.

Football (known as soccer in my country) is as universal a sport as is to be found on Earth.  Much of its beauty lies in its simplicity: all one really needs to play is a ball and goal.  And in that simplicity lies accessibility: anyone can play.  Anyone can triumph.  Anyone can win.  It is the great equalizer.

But while the details of what we consider football today might have come from Europe or Asia, research suggests that the spirit of the game, its heart, comes from Mesoamerica.  Long before Europeans “discovered” them, the people of North, South, and Central America had developed advanced cultures and societies, ones so profoundly different from the Eurasian model that we’re still trying to understand them today.  Sport, specifically team sports involving a ball, played a central role in many of these societies, so much so that physically punishing games involving teamwork and a rubber ball were even more ubiquitous across Mesoamerica than football was in Europe at the time.

In this brief but fascinating article, Blakemore discusses the archaeological finds and historic accounts that inform our understanding of Mesoamerican sports.  There were marked differences between the brutal sports of their time and the rather reserved football of today.  The balls used were indeed rubber, but while hollow they were nonetheless significantly heavier than those used today, and life-threatening injuries were common.  And while injuries from playing the ball could result in death, losing carried far greater risk: in some instances, the losing team of a tournament was sacrificed to the gods.

 

Knowledge is power. Take time out to read a bit every day. It’s your window into the world around you. – MK