Teleportation and its Implications for the Human Race

Teleportation and wormholes have had a large presence in American film and literature. Often, the outlets that incorporate these ideas are associated with space or time travel as well. These futuristic pieces seem to create the idea that these concepts are far from reality or will take centuries to develop. However, teleportation has been traced far beyond recent times. The New Testament and Quran both mentioned teleportation, especially in regards to large bodies of water. The idea that someone was able to teleport across water leaves an impression of holiness or advancing beyond the human race. In modern film, we now see a slight shift in the theme of instantaneous travel. Rather than being associated with religion, time travel is more connected to the human desire to explore the universe efficiently and safely.

The idea of teleportation brought about discussion on many phenomena such as quantum teleportation, multiple dimensions, and wormhole teleportation. Although these seem abstract, some scientific concepts suggest that they may actually be possible. According to previous research, quantum teleportation seems to be one of the most feasible of the teleportation techniques. Quantum teleportation involves making a duplicate copy of a quantum state in another location so that it would appear to travel instantly. Although the procedure for quantum teleportation is quite clear, there are still a few problems to be addressed before we can use this technique. These problems include making simultaneous measurements and destroying the original copy. In fact, this process has been demonstrated in scientific laboratories by teleporting single particles and photons. Scientist Eugene Polzik was even able to teleport an atomic system with 10¹² atoms half a meter away in 2006.

In addition, discussion of general relativity has led some to believe that teleportation via other dimensions is possible as well. As a result, they have conjectured that shadow matter may be able to exist in addition to normal matter in the hidden dimensions. This means that hidden dimensions may allow for the existence of parallel universes that one can teleport to by changing from normal to shadow matter. Einstein’s research in 1935 also gave way to the concept of wormholes. He found that general relativity has solutions involving curve space objects connecting different regions of space-time to each other, which are now called “wormholes”. Afterwards, other researchers investigated the stability of wormholes and found that they could be stable if converted into time machines by connecting one time to another in the same physical location. In addition, conservation laws suggest that an object of equal mass must pass through the opposite direction to avoid the wormhole exploding.

Although dimension and wormhole physics are still underdeveloped theories, experiments with quantum teleportation suggest that it is a very possible development. Although able to work on particles, scientists still have a lot of work before they are able to teleport humans. The biggest issues that need to be addressed before teleportation on humans can initiate are preserving human characteristics and keeping with conservation laws. Currently, they might seem impossible to overcome, but hopefully humans will be able to teleport in the upcoming centuries.

Sources:

“All About Teleportation” by John G. Cramer (2008) – published by Analog Science Fiction & Fact

- Shreya Punya

Complex life and the hydrogen hypothesis

There is more to complex life on Earth than most people believe. Our 4.5-billion-year-old planet was lifeless and empty for hundreds of millions of years, until the first organisms, the prokaryotes, appeared about 4 billion years ago. Another 2 billion years passed until complex life, the first eukaryotes, appeared. As we will see, these cells were critical to the development of life on Earth as it is today. The prokaryotes are comprised of two groups, archaea and bacteria, which are morphologically similar, but very different in their genomes. Along with eukaryotes, they constitute the three domains in biological taxonomy, the highest rank in the classification of living beings.

It was previously believed that eukaryotes evolved in the traditional way—prokaryotes became more complex through mechanisms of evolution, such as natural selection, until they were different to their ancestors. Yet there is no evidence of an evolutionary intermediate between prokaryotes and eukaryotes in the fossil record. Plants and fungi, for instance, two types of eukaryotes, did not develop from different types of prokaryotes. Instead, eukaryotes are monophyletic—a population of eukaryotes arose once, and all plants, animals, fungi, algae, and protists evolved from this original eukaryotic population. What is most fascinating about the origins of eukaryotes is that it can be seen as a singular event. In other words, either a eukaryotic population occurred only once in 4 billion years, or it occurred any number of times, yet only one population survived long enough to populate the planet. In either case, the birth of the eukaryotes is a complex and possibly extremely rare event. So what caused it?

The hydrogen hypothesis suggests what the nature of the event might have been. During the two billion years in which the Earth was populated entirely by prokaryotes, an endosymbiotic relationship arose between an archaeon and a bacterium. For this to have occurred, several conditions must be true of the host, in this case the archaeon: (1) it was anaerobic, (2) it possessed a hydrogen-based metabolism, and (3) it was strictly autotrophic, capable of providing itself with nutrients using inorganic substances. Similarly, the symbiont, the bacterium in this case, must have been able to provide the host with the hydrogen it needed. This results in a relationship in which the bacterium, the symbiont, lives within the cell membrane of its host, the archaeon, supplying its host with the hydrogen needed for metabolic processes since it is a byproduct of anaerobic respiration. Methanogens are archaea that satisfy the conditions above, strongly suggesting that the original eukaryotic cells had methanogens or a similar archaeon as the host. Finally, when the archaeon host is removed from geological hydrogen (for whatever reason), it becomes dependent on the hydrogen provided by the symbiont. This lethal selective force led to the survival of only those cells that had this endosymbiotic relationship, in the population in which the event occurred. Over time, this relationship permanently changed the population of surviving cells, as the bacteria developed into organelles, such as nuclei and mitochondria, and the archaeon host became a cell adapted to utilizing these internal structures. The eukaryotes, genetic chimeras with genes of their predecessors, then had the capability to evolve into the countless species that have existed on the planet.

Sources:

Lane, Nick. The Vital Question: Energy, Evolution, and the Origins of Complex Life. New York: W.W. Norton, 2015. Print.

Martin, William, and Miklós Müller. "The hydrogen hypothesis for the first eukaryote." Nature 392.6671 (1998): 37-41.

- Ricardo Roche

Will we ever colonize Mars?

Out of all the planets we have discovered so far, Mars always gains the most attention. Why is that? In part, it may be because Mars is seen as the one planet that is possible for the human race to inhabit. Some people also wonder why we might become so desperate to go live on Mars when Earth is already comfortable. Well, Mars would be our backup plan if Earth were to ever collapse due to situations such as climate change. There is also the option of trying to search for extra water during droughts on Earth, and look for extra metal and croplands to bring extra food back.

In order to explore more, NASA is putting together a manned-mission to Mars. It finds value in this exploration, as Mars is a possible new home for the human race and we can possibly obtain valuable resources such as water ice from under the surface. Furthermore, it believes that we might be able to learn more about the history of Earth by learning about Mars, and we might be able to determine if life exists somewhere in the solar system. Even though there is an endless list of what we can learn about Mars and the possibilities of future life there, we must consider the actual conditions of the planet and whether the human race would really be able to survive in those conditions.

Humans can currently survive on Earth because we have an atmosphere with oxygen. However, Mars’ atmosphere is very thin and has an atmospheric pressure lower than that of Earth’s. Also, most of Mars’ atmosphere mainly has carbon dioxide and the thin atmosphere would not be able to keep harmful cosmic radiation from reaching Mars’ surface. Mars also has very cold temperatures that average at about negative fifty degrees Celsius, with winters even being colder than that. Moreover, there are dust storms that can cause some danger to humans.

In the end, will humans ever be able to colonize Mars? Scientists are currently and continuously looking for ways humans may inhabit the planet. For example, in 2004, astronomers and Dr. Todd Clancy, the head of the research team at the Space Science Institute, found hydrogen peroxide in Mars’ atmosphere. They were able to detect this because of the 2003 opposition of Mars, where Earth and Mars were closest together in their orbit around the sun. Since hydrogen peroxide is used as an antiseptic on Earth, it would “retard any biological activity on the surface on Mars.” By taking into account discoveries like this one, we humans may have a chance of colonizing Mars one day.

Sources:

http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/journey-to-mars-next-steps-20151008_508.pdf
http://www.universetoday.com/9350/new-insights-into-martian-atmosphere/
http://www.universetoday.com/87300/conditions-on-mars/
http://www.universetoday.com/111462/how-can-we-live-on-mars/

- Minami Makino

Colonization of Mars

Many people strongly believe that the world is coming to an end. So, where will we move? What is to happen to the future of humanity? The answer: colonization of Mars.

This would not be Sci-Fy story. Scientists actually believe this is possible, Since Mars is the most similar planet to Earth, with the a dry solid surface and presence of sub-surface water. The temperature and atmosphere can be made similar to Earth’s after terraforming. Mars also contains material that can act like soil when combined with sufficient bacteria and water, which is necessary for long-term habituation. The day/night timing will also be similar to Earth’s. One day, or “sol” on Mars is 24 hours, 39 minutes, and 35 seconds.

But what is really the problem is the cost of transporting civilization to Mars. Costs have been the bane of human existence. Is it worth it? Can we afford it? Terraforming an entire planet would be a very expensive feat. Mars’ surface area is 28.4% of the Earth’s, but would still cost around 3-4 trillion dollars to terraform it. Converting a red planet (a dead planet) to a blue planet (a planet with an acceptable atmosphere and temperature) would take between 100 and 200 years to complete. The five most important aspects brought up are the surface temperature rising, atmospheric pressure increasing, chemical composition changing, making the surface wet, and reducing surface flux of UV radiation. Then, it will take another 100 years for Mars to reach the green planet status, when one will be able to grow and host microbes and algae. The history of Mars permits terraforming to actually work, and become similar to Earth, but there are many ethical arguments involved when talking about terraforming and reshaping an environment, which I will discuss in a latter blog post.

The next major cost in colonizing Mars is that of transportation. Transporting a family of four would take $30 billion, food and water would take $52 million, and shelter would cost $150 million. And that’s only for a family of four. Of course, more people can fit in a spaceship than four people so the cost of travelling will not be this much for the entire population, but this gives us a general idea on how much it will be. Of course, not every family is able to afford a trip to Mars, and even bringing one million people to Mars would still be very expensive.

The next step for colonization is the actual colonization. This involves building cities on Mars using 3D printed houses. Gravity on Mars is much lighter than Earth, around 30% of Earth’s gravitational strength, so the architecture and machinery will be very different. The 3D printed cities will cost around 1.5 trillion dollars and will take 70 years to transport and complete. The amount of money going into this is obviously an abnormal amount, but given that this could ensure the future of humanity, money should not be an issue.

Sources:

http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2013-01/how-much-would-it-cost-live-mars-infographic

https://www.quora.com/How-much-would-it-cost-to-colonize-Mars-including-R-D

http://io9.gizmodo.com/5868115/how-we-will-terraform-mars

- Ata Numanbayraktaroglu

Mission to Europa

An image of Europa taken
by Galileo in the late 1990's.
The brown streaks suggest the
presence of a sub-surface
ocean because contaminant
(claimed to include sea salt)
have mixed with the icy surface
to create the "dirty ice."
http://cseligman.com/text/moons/europa.htm

The Galileo mission, launched in 1989, revealed possible evidence of salt water below the surface of Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons. What Galileo discovered on Europa are bumpy features called chaos terrains. Analysis suggests that these features are formed from a heat exchange between Europa’s icy shell and an underlying ocean. This could provide a model for transferring nutrients and energy between the surface and the inferred ocean. While it was running out of fuel, Galileo was intentionally sent into Jupiter to be destroyed, in case leaving it in orbit would lead to it crashing into Europa and contaminating any potential life.

The Galileo mission piqued scientists’ curiosity about this moon, and a mission to Europa is expected to launch in the 2020’s. This mission, the Europa Clipper, will perform 45 flybys at various altitudes, from 1700 miles to 16 miles above the surface. Its goal is to take high-resolution pictures of the surface to determine its composition, and use an ice-penetrating radar to search for sub-surface waters. A thermal emission imaging system will survey the surface in search of any recent eruptions of warmer water, and other instruments will search for evidence of water and tiny particles in the moon’s atmosphere. This flyby approach will obviate the need to drill through layers of ice to find possible signs of life.

Why is drilling currently not an ideal approach? It is not definite that there is an ocean below the surface. It is possible that drilling before fully understanding Europa will be a waste of time, resources, and money. Also, the surface of the moon is exposed to extreme radiation from Jupiter’s radiation belts. A drilling machine or spacecraft will need a vast amount of radiation protection, which will make the craft heavy and thus expensive to transport. The flyby approach will decrease the amount of protection needed because the Europa Clipper will only be close to Jupiter during a small portion of its orbit.

On the other hand, if the Europa Clipper discovers strong evidence that suggests Europa has a sub-surface ocean that may be habitable for people or other lifeforms, a drill will be necessary to reach the habitable area. The amount of radiation on the surface is enough to cause severe illness or death after a single day’s exposure, but the thick, icy crust is thought to be able to shield the ocean from the radiation on the surface. While the Europa Clipper is not designed to search for life, a future mission would need to be designed to determine if Europa is already inhabited. It is uncertain now whether Europa is suitable to house life, but the Europa Clipper mission hopes to reveal if the ability is present.

Sources:

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/europa-mission/
http://www.space.com/18632-galileo-spacecraft.html
http://www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsystem/features/europa_20111116.html
http://earthsky.org/space/nasa-steps-closer-to-a-europa-mission

- Amanda Monteavaro

Shedding Light on Dark Matter and Dark Energy

Looking at the night sky, the heavens appear to be utterly empty. Space draws its name from seeming to be just that – empty space. While seemingly obvious, this assumption does not hold true. Approximately 68% of the universeⁱ is composed of mysterious energy known as dark energy. Originally predicted by Einstein’s erroneous cosmological constant, dark energy may function as a reduced form of a constant in the equations for relativity. If this form of energy is indeed fixed,ⁱⁱ dark energy functions as a constant term in equations. Considered in Friedman’s equation,ⁱⁱⁱ H² = (8 π G / 3) ρ - k c² / R² + Λ/3, the cosmological constant Λ/3 may be construed as dark energy. While Einstein may have inadvertently directed attention to the existence of dark energy, the discovery that the Universe is flat lends strength to an argument for the existence of dark energy’s counterpart, dark matter. In very general terms, dark matter is defined as a structure with mass and that does not reflect light, hence the title “dark." For the Universe to be flat it must contain a certain amount of mass to meet the required density so that gravitational waves exist also exist in a flat plane. As observable mass and energy alone, another mechanism must be at work. Dark matter has been inferred to be this mechanism, providing a large portion of the Universe’s mass without reflecting light. For the sake of understanding, this entry will focus primarily on dark matter, as its counterpart dark energy requires an understanding of dark matter.

Given the strange nature of dark matter a question remains: what is the function of dark matter? For dark matter to exist, such matter must have mass. Simulations of the Milky Way Galaxy from the Big Bang to the present predict a scattering of matter^iv. As the Milky Way is not a particularly massive galaxy, no collection of identifiable objects is capable of providing the gravitational pull to hold the galaxy together. In the context of the simulations, identifiable objects are defined as objects who may reflect light. The mass of the visible objects alone is not sufficient for the Milky Way to maintain its spiral form – suggesting another source of mass. For the universe as it currently exists to make sense, mass that does not reflect light must exist. Thus it may be concluded that dark matter is responsible for mass but do not reflect light – lending it the prefix “dark.”

https://www.ohio.edu/research/communications/clowe.cfm

Despite rapid advancements in modern telescopes, both studying and observing dark matter is extremely difficult. As this phenomenon cannot be seen by conventional means, scientists must turn to creative and inventive methods of detection. Chief among the techniques used to detect this strange form of matter is gravitational lensing. Measuring the distortion and bending of far-away light^v, the potential effect of an object between the observer and the vent may be measured. When scientists observed the collision of the Bullet Cluster, they found that the majority of the mass after the collision was located on the periphery of the collision – proof that dark matter particles do not interact with one another. If the opposite held true – that dark matter particles do interact with one another, the gas in the center of the collision would have been slowed down. Thus, dark matter’s lack of interaction with itself allows for the distribution of mass along the periphery of the Bullet Cluster, as indicated by orange lines in the picture below.

Numerous astronomical objects have been proposed as candidates to be dark matter. When used in this sense, the term dark matter is applied to mean matter that at extremely low luminosities and temperatures. “Baryonic”^vi dark matter, matter made from regular elements and compounds, may include black holes, dwarf stars and neutron stars. While it is tempting to accept both dwarf and neutron stars as dark matter, these may be ruled out due to the age of the universe. Put simply, the universe has not existed for a time period sufficient to achieve the creation of enough neutron stars to account for all of dark energy. Black holes seem to be a logical candidate due to their absorbance of light – yet are not common enough in the Universe to account for all of dark matter. This causes scientists to look to non-standard matter, also known as “Non-Baryonic Matter.” Such matter would be composed of unknown exotic particles high enough in mass to have an observable effect on galaxies. Finally, some scientists argue that dark matter does not exist. Equating the gravitational shift to differing properties of gravity on large scales, dark matter may be unknown gravitational properties of extremely high mass objects.^vii

Sources:

ⁱ http://science.nasa.gov/astrophysics/focus-areas/what-is-dark-energy/ 

ⁱⁱ http://hubblesite.org/hubble_discoveries/dark_energy/de-did_einstein_predict.php 

ⁱⁱⁱ http://abyss.uoregon.edu/~js/ast123/lectures/lec16.html 

^iv http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/dark-energy-the-biggest-mystery-in-theuniverse-9482130/?no-ist 

^v https://www.ohio.edu/research/communications/clowe.cfm 

^vi http://abyss.uoregon.edu/~js/ast123/lectures/lec16.html 

^vii http://www.space.com/4554-scientists-dark-matter-exist.html

- Frank Kovacs

Practical Considerations of Terraforming Mars

The concept of altering Mars’ environment so that it is habitable for humans, or terraforming, has been subject to a lot of speculative fiction and debate. The idea was first incorporated into Arthur C. Clarke’s novel, The Sands of Mars, in 1951. Since then, the prospect has been explored and tested through numerous studies and is now seen as possibility. A key issue to making this a reality deals with altering Mars’ atmosphere so that it will have sufficient levels of oxygen/ozone. The methods to which this can be achieved, as studied by NASA, seem feasible but still impractical in the long term, particularly in terms of cost. Mars’ atmosphere is mainly composed of carbon dioxide, and oxygen makes up about 0.1% of it(NASA). Mars’ temperature, which is much lower than that of Earth, would also need to be altered in the terraforming process. Terraformation on Mars has been a popular idea, since its environmental characteristics are the closest to Earth’s so far. But, due to the specifics of Mars’ temperature and atmosphere, it is unlikely that life can prosper in those conditions. There are some solutions to terraforming the hostile characteristics of Mars’ environment. For example, creating greenhouse effects with vapor would raise the temperature to a sufficient degree. However, these solutions are not achievable in the long-run. There are other potential solutions, such as genetic engineering, or altering the atmosphere to sustain more oxygen. But for now, all of these ideas are either impractical in the long run or would take way too long to be concluded as effective solutions.

Sources:

http://www.universetoday.com/127311/guide-to-terraforming/

http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19770005775

- Haeun Bang