James' World 2

Click the link below the picture

.

All living cells power themselves by coaxing energetic electrons from one side of a membrane to the other. Membrane-based mechanisms for accomplishing this are, in a sense, as universal a feature of life as the genetic code. But unlike the genetic code, these mechanisms are not the same everywhere: The two simplest categories of cells, bacteria, and archaea have membranes and protein complexes for producing energy that are chemically and structurally dissimilar. Those differences make it hard to guess how the very first cells met their energy needs.

This mystery led Nick Lane, a professor of evolutionary biochemistry at University College London, to an unorthodox hypothesis about the origin of life. What if life arose in a geological environment where electrochemical gradients across tiny barriers occurred naturally, supporting a primitive form of metabolism while cells as we know them evolved? A place where this might be possible suggested itself: alkaline hydrothermal vents on the deep seafloor, inside highly porous rock formations that are almost like mineralized sponges.

Lane has explored this provocative idea in a variety of journal papers, and he has touched on it in some of his books, such as The Vital Question, where he wrote, “Carbon and energy metabolism are driven by proton gradients, exactly what the vents provided for free.” He describes the idea in more detail for the general public in his latest book, Transformer: The Deep Chemistry of Life and Death. In his view, metabolism is central to life, and genetic information emerges naturally from it rather than the other way around. Lane believes that the implications of this reversal touch almost every big mystery in biology, including the nature of cancer and aging.

.

In contrast to many other researchers who study the origin of life, Nick Lane, a professor of evolutionary biochemistry at University College London, suggests that some form of primitive metabolism may have arisen in deep-sea hydrothermal vents before the appearance of genetic information.  Philipp Ammon for Quanta Magazine

.

.

Click the link below for the article:

.

__________________________________________

Some content on this page was disabled on April 15, 2025 as a result of a DMCA takedown notice from Guardian Media Group. You can learn more about the DMCA here:

https://wordpress.com/support/copyright-and-the-dmca/

Click the link below the picture

.

For thousands of years, humans have pondered the meaning of our existence. From philosophers who debated whether their minds could be trusted to provide accurate interpretations of our reality to physicists who’ve attempted to interpret the weirder aspects of quantum physics and relativity, we’ve learned that some aspects of our Universe appear to be objectively true for everyone, while others are dependent on the actions and properties of the observer.

Although the scientific process, combined with our experiments and observations, have uncovered many of the fundamental physical laws and entities that govern our Universe, there’s still much that remains unknown. However, just as Descartes was able to reason, “I think, therefore I am,” the fact of our existence — the fact that “we are” — has inevitable physical consequences for the Universe as well. Here’s what the simple fact that we exist can teach us about the nature of our reality.

To start with, the Universe has a set of governing rules, and we’ve been able to make some sense of at least some of them. We understand how gravity works at a continuous, non-quantum level: by matter and energy curving spacetime and by that curved spacetime dictating how matter and energy move through it. We know a large portion of the particles that exist (from the Standard Model) and how they interact through the three other fundamental forces, including at the quantum level. And we know that we exist, composed of those very same particles and obeying those same laws of nature.

.

That the Universe exists and that we are here to observe it tells us a lot. It enables us to place constraints on various parameters, and to the infer the existence of states and reactions that present themselves as gaps in our present-day knowledge. But there are severe limits to what we can learn from this type of reasoning as well  (Credit: NASA/NEXSS collaboration)

.

.

Click the link below for the article:

.

__________________________________________

Click the link below the picture

.

In a world where the word friend is associated by most people with superficial relationships formed on social media, true friendship is hard to come by. True friends are those who are there for you in good times and bad, who tell you what you need to hear, not just what you want to hear, and who help you be the best version of yourself–all of which can prove invaluable to entrepreneurs and business owners.

So, actually, you don’t necessarily want more friends. Rather, you want “true” friends. But to have true friends, you first need to be a friend.

But to have true friends, you first need to be a friend. How do you do that?

Emotional intelligence can help. Emotional intelligence is the ability to identify, understand, and manage emotions. This ability can help you not only understand others better but also strengthen your relationships with them.

.

.

.

Click the link below for the article:

.

__________________________________________

Click the link below the picture

.

Mark didn’t mean to cut the guy off. The man in the pickup truck honked repeatedly. Mark nodded at him: Sorry. But a few minutes later Mark accidentally cut the guy off again. And that’s when things went sideways…

The man raced his truck forward and blocked Mark’s car. With both vehicles now stopped, the guy got out. All six-foot-five and three hundred pounds of him. (If I was Mark I would have considered calling ahead to reserve one of the nicer rooms in the ICU.)

The guy started banging his fist on Mark’s door. Bellowing at him with rage. Inexplicably, Mark rolled down his window:

“Have you ever had such an awful day that you’re just hoping to meet someone who will pull out a gun, shoot you, and put you out of your misery? Are you that someone?”

The man’s jaw dropped. “What?”

“Yeah, I really mean it. I don’t usually cut people off, and I never cut someone off twice. I’m just having a day where no matter what I do or who I meet—including you!—I seem to mess everything up. Are you the person who is going to mercifully put an end to it?”

The man’s demeanor changed instantly. He became calm. Reassuring.

“Hey. C’mon, man. It’ll be okay. Really! Just relax, it’ll be okay. Everyone has days like this.”

They talked for a while. Nicely. The guy got back into his truck. He waved to Mark in the rearview mirror. And drove off.

.

True

.

.

Click the link below for the article:

.

__________________________________________

Some content on this page was disabled on April 15, 2025 as a result of a DMCA takedown notice from Guardian Media Group. You can learn more about the DMCA here:

https://wordpress.com/support/copyright-and-the-dmca/

Click the link below the picture

.

Whether it’s Megan and Thomas Markle or Britney and her teen sons, celebrity family feuds are having a moment. Nevertheless, with roughly 10 percent of Americans estranged from a parent or child, you very likely know someone in your own life with parental problems.

Therapists and researchers believe that rifts in families are becoming more common, particularly with adult children stopping contact with one or both parents. A study in 1997 explored family relationships in later life and found that 7 percent of adult children had cut ties with their mother and 27 percent from their father. In 2020, research by sociologist Karl Pillemar showed that 1 in 4 Americans are estranged from their families—roughly 67 million people.

Simone Bose is a relationship therapist based in London. She deals with family issues every day in her practice, including estrangement, with her clients coming from a range of backgrounds and circumstances.

“It’s never an easy decision,” she told Newsweek. “It’s the hardest thing in the world to separate yourself from your parents.

“They were your everything as a child, and no matter what age they are your parents can be huge in your life.

.

A stock photo of an adult daughter giving her mother the silent treatment, while her mother places her hand on her shoulder. Toxic and narcissistic behaviors are just one reason why adult children are distancing themselves from their parents. JackF/iStock/Getty Images Plus

.

.

Click the link below for the article:

.

__________________________________________

Click the link below the picture

.

Since the first James Webb Space Telescope images were released in July, our feeds have been flooded with mind-bogglingly gorgeous photos of space – from insanely detailed images of Jupiter to the most distant known star.

Now, Webb has done it again, this time capturing an almost perfect Einstein ring whose light has traveled roughly 12 billion light-years to reach us. And we can’t stop staring.

You can see the colorized image, which was shared by astronomy grad student Spaceguy44 on Reddit, below.

As Spaceguy44 explains on Reddit, an Einstein ring occurs when a distant galaxy has been magnified and wrapped into an almost-perfect ring by a massive galaxy in front of it.

The galaxy in question is called SPT-S J041839-4751.8.

.

Colorized image of a distant Einstein ring. (JWST/MAST; Spaceguy44/Reddit)

.

.

Click the link below for the article:

.

__________________________________________