July 27, 2023: The most surprising discoveries in physics, record-breaking heat that won't end and U.S. Senator Edward J. Markey weighs in on artificial intelligence. All that and more below. —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor | | |
Highlights: A few discoveries, such as the accelerating expansion of the universe, were so groundbreaking that multiple experts picked them as top choices. Other recurring themes: neutrinos and their oscillations, spacetime and black hole phenomena. One of my favorite replies: "One of the most shocking findings in the history of physics was the discovery of dark energy just before the turn of the millennium. None of us working in physics saw that coming!" said Katherine Freese, theoretical astrophysicist at the University of Texas at Austin.
Takeaways: Many of the events mentioned in their replies occurred relatively recently, showing that the field of physics continues to astound us. I recommend you read all of their answers. | | | This newsletter has had its own recurring theme in recent weeks: extreme heat. As our sustainability editor Andrea Thompson wrote in her Earth and environment newsletter this week, "I'm feeling like a broken record about heat breaking records." As if to further her point, today she gathered a list of the latest all-time high temps–ALL set in 2023. To cap it off, this July is set to be the hottest month ever recorded on Earth—and likely the hottest in about 120,000 years—preliminary analyses show.
What's causing this: Breaking high-temperature records is a hallmark of climate change. With more and more heat being trapped in the atmosphere by the greenhouse gases emitted when humans burn fossil fuels, heat records are now set increasingly more often than cold ones.
What the experts say: As Andrea told me yesterday, the solution is to ditch fossil fuels as soon as possible and to build up our use of renewable energy. Easier said than done, yes, but if extreme weather is the sweltering, flooding, hurricaning canary in the coal mine we know it to be, the urgency to make change is ramping up. | | | Credit: Amanda Montañez; Source: Goddard Institute for Space Studies Surface Temperature Analysis, NASA | | | • Scientists are gearing up for a high-stakes finale to OSIRIS-REx, the first U.S. mission to get a sample from an asteroid (which I wrote about last week). This is how they're hoping it will go. | 8 min read | | | OSIRIS-REx team members practice getting a mock sample capsule packed for its helicopter flight to a clean room on the Department of Defense's Utah Test and Training Range. Credit: NASA/Keegan Barber | | | • Despite the pride in his achievement, J. Robert Oppenheimer became vocal about the need to contain dangerous nuclear technology. But the U.S. didn't heed his warnings, leading to nuclear proliferation. "Oppenheimer's example holds lessons for us today, too. We must not make the same mistake with artificial intelligence as we made with nuclear weapons," writes Senator Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts, chair of the Senate Subcommittee on Clean Air, Climate and Nuclear Safety. | 5 min read | | | I hope you're staying cool wherever you are. Let me know how you're enjoying this newsletter and how I might improve it by emailing me: newsletters@sciam.com. Same time tomorrow! | —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor | | Subscribe to this and all of our newsletters . | | | | Scientific American
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