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In this episode of SpaceTime, we uncover exciting new research challenging our understanding of dark matter, reveal hidden treasures beneath the Earth's surface, and explore the potential for life on Titan, Saturn's enigmatic moon.
Modified Newtonian Dynamics: A Dark Matter Alternative
Recent studies suggest that modified Newtonian dynamics (MOND) may serve as a viable alternative to the elusive dark matter hypothesis. This theory, proposed by physicist Mordecai Milgrom, modifies Newton's laws to explain the gravitational behavior observed in galaxies without relying on dark matter. We delve into the latest findings that support MOND, including a novel method for measuring gravity in wide binary star systems, which indicates that gravity may actually be stronger than Newton's predictions under certain conditions.
Earth's Hidden Gold Reserves
A groundbreaking study reveals that Earth's core may contain vast reserves of gold and other precious metals, far beyond what is accessible on the surface. Researchers discovered traces of ruthenium in volcanic rocks from Hawaii, suggesting that these metals originated from the core and are leaking into the mantle. This research opens new avenues for understanding Earth's internal dynamics and the movement of materials from the core to the surface.
Searching for Life's Chemistry on Titan
NASA's upcoming Dragonfly mission aims to investigate the intriguing chemistry of life on Titan, Saturn's largest moon. With its organic-rich environment and unique geological features, Titan presents an opportunity to study prebiotic chemistry in a way that Earth cannot. We explore how Dragonfly will analyze the moon's surface and atmosphere to uncover clues about the processes that may have led to the emergence of life, potentially reshaping our understanding of habitability in the universe.
www.spacetimewithstuartgary.com
✍️ Episode References
Astrophysical Journal
https://iopscience.iop.org/journal/0004-637X
Nature
https://www.nature.com/nature/
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00:00 This is Space Time Series 28, Episode 68 for broadcast on 6 June 2025
01:00 Modified Newtonian dynamics as an alternative to dark matter
12:15 Earth's hidden gold reserves
22:30 Searching for life's chemistry on Titan
30:00 Science report: Ancient tool-making from whale bones and quantum computing breakthroughs
00:00:00 --> 00:00:03 Stuart Gary: This is space time series 28, episode 68
00:00:03 --> 00:00:06 for broadcast on the 6th of June, 2025.
00:00:06 --> 00:00:09 Coming up on Space Time, confirmation of
00:00:09 --> 00:00:12 modified Newtonian dynamics is a viable alternative to
00:00:12 --> 00:00:15 dark matter. a new study shows the Earth's core contains
00:00:15 --> 00:00:17 vast hidden gold reserves. And looking for
00:00:17 --> 00:00:20 the chemistry of life on the Saturnian moon
00:00:20 --> 00:00:23 Titan. All that and more coming up
00:00:23 --> 00:00:24 on Space Time.
00:00:25 --> 00:00:28 Voice Over Guy: Welcome to Space Time with Stuart
00:00:28 --> 00:00:29 Gary
00:00:45 --> 00:00:48 Stuart Gary: A new study has provided more evidence that the hypothesis
00:00:48 --> 00:00:51 of modified Newtonian dynamics, or mond, could provide
00:00:51 --> 00:00:53 a plausible alternative to dark matter.
00:00:54 --> 00:00:57 Dark matter is one of the biggest mysteries in science
00:00:57 --> 00:00:59 today. It's a mysterious, invisible
00:00:59 --> 00:01:02 substance which only interacts gravitationally with
00:01:02 --> 00:01:05 ordinary so called baryonic matter, providing the additional
00:01:05 --> 00:01:08 mass needed to, for example, stop galaxies from
00:01:08 --> 00:01:11 flinging apart as they revolve. And there's a lot
00:01:11 --> 00:01:14 of it making up over 85% of all the matter in
00:01:14 --> 00:01:16 the universe. And that's disturbing for
00:01:16 --> 00:01:19 science because it means less than 15% of the
00:01:19 --> 00:01:21 universe is made up of the stuff we know, the normal
00:01:21 --> 00:01:24 baryonic matter, the stuff stars, planets, houses,
00:01:24 --> 00:01:27 trees, cars, cats and people are made of. The problem
00:01:27 --> 00:01:30 is scientists have no idea what dark matter
00:01:30 --> 00:01:33 is. There are several subatomic candidates for
00:01:33 --> 00:01:36 it, but there's no proof. And that's where
00:01:36 --> 00:01:39 modified Newtonian dynamics comes in.
00:01:39 --> 00:01:42 MOND is a theory that proposes a modified form
00:01:42 --> 00:01:45 of Newton's laws to account for the observed properties of
00:01:45 --> 00:01:47 galaxies. MOND was developed back in
00:01:47 --> 00:01:50 1982 by Israeli physicist Mordecai
00:01:50 --> 00:01:52 Milgram. Milgram noted that galaxies
00:01:52 --> 00:01:55 rotational curve data, which seem to show that
00:01:55 --> 00:01:58 galaxies contain more matter than is observed, could be, could also be
00:01:58 --> 00:02:01 explained if the gravitational force experienced by a star in
00:02:01 --> 00:02:04 the outer regions of a galaxy decays more slowly than
00:02:04 --> 00:02:07 what's predicted by Newton's law of gravity. So
00:02:07 --> 00:02:09 MOND modifies Newton's laws for extremely small
00:02:09 --> 00:02:12 accelerations, which are common in galaxies and galaxy
00:02:12 --> 00:02:15 clusters. And this provided a good fit for the
00:02:15 --> 00:02:17 rotational curve data, while at the same time
00:02:18 --> 00:02:21 leaving the dynamics of, say, our solar system with its strong
00:02:21 --> 00:02:23 gravitational field intact. The new
00:02:23 --> 00:02:26 research reported in the Astrophysical Journal looked at
00:02:26 --> 00:02:29 wide binary stars with separations greater than
00:02:29 --> 00:02:32 2 astronomical units, which are interesting
00:02:32 --> 00:02:35 natural laboratories for allowing a direct probe of gravity
00:02:35 --> 00:02:38 at low acceleration weaker than about 1 nanometer per
00:02:38 --> 00:02:41 second squared. By the way, an astronomical unit,
00:02:41 --> 00:02:44 well, that's the average distance between the Earth and the sun, about
00:02:44 --> 00:02:46 150 million kilometers or 8.3 light
00:02:46 --> 00:02:49 minutes. That's where the new method comes in.
00:02:50 --> 00:02:52 Astrophysicist Kai Yung Sheh from Siong University
00:02:52 --> 00:02:55 has developed a new method of measuring gravity with all three
00:02:55 --> 00:02:58 components of the velocities of stars. As a major
00:02:58 --> 00:03:01 improvement over existing statistical methods which rely on
00:03:01 --> 00:03:04 sky projected two dimensional models. The new
00:03:04 --> 00:03:07 method derives directly the probability three dimensional
00:03:07 --> 00:03:10 distribution of gravity between a distant pair of stars
00:03:10 --> 00:03:13 in a binary system. Shea says existing
00:03:13 --> 00:03:16 methods to infer gravity have the limitation that
00:03:16 --> 00:03:18 only the sky projected velocities are being used,
00:03:19 --> 00:03:22 and so they have limitations in accounting for the uncertainties of factors,
00:03:22 --> 00:03:24 including stellar masses. To derive the probability
00:03:25 --> 00:03:27 distribution of a gravity parameter. This
00:03:27 --> 00:03:30 new method overcomes these limitations.
00:03:30 --> 00:03:33 Until now, the motions of wide binaries can only be measured in
00:03:33 --> 00:03:36 a sort of snapshot method observed only at a specific
00:03:36 --> 00:03:39 phase of orbital motion. That's because of the very
00:03:39 --> 00:03:42 long orbital periods of these binaries, which ideally should
00:03:42 --> 00:03:45 be observed for the full orbit. That's where the new method
00:03:45 --> 00:03:47 comes in. It requires accurate values for a third
00:03:47 --> 00:03:50 velocity component, the line of sight or radial
00:03:50 --> 00:03:53 velocity. So only wide binaries with
00:03:53 --> 00:03:55 precisely measured radial velocities could be used.
00:03:56 --> 00:03:59 To test the model. Shea looked at 300 wide
00:03:59 --> 00:04:01 binaries with relatively precise radial velocities, which were
00:04:01 --> 00:04:04 selected from the European Space Agency's Gaia Database
00:04:04 --> 00:04:07 3 release. Shea found that for wide binaries
00:04:07 --> 00:04:10 whose stars orbit each other with an internal acceleration greater than
00:04:10 --> 00:04:13 about 10 nanometers per second squared, the inferred gravity
00:04:13 --> 00:04:16 is precisely Newtonian. But for an
00:04:16 --> 00:04:19 internal acceleration lower than about 1 nanometer per second
00:04:19 --> 00:04:21 squared, or a separation greater than about 2
00:04:21 --> 00:04:24 astronomical units, inferred gravity is actually about
00:04:24 --> 00:04:27 40 to 50% stronger than Newton. The
00:04:27 --> 00:04:29 significance of this deviation is
00:04:29 --> 00:04:32 4.2-sigma, meaning that standard gravity is
00:04:32 --> 00:04:34 outside the 99%
00:04:34 --> 00:04:37 probability range. And that just happens to match the
00:04:37 --> 00:04:40 predictions of mond. Shea says the findings
00:04:40 --> 00:04:43 are encouraging, encouraging enough for
00:04:43 --> 00:04:46 further investigation. This is space
00:04:46 --> 00:04:49 time still to come. A new study shows
00:04:49 --> 00:04:51 that Earth's core would contain vast amounts of gold
00:04:51 --> 00:04:54 reserves and plans to look for the chemistry of
00:04:54 --> 00:04:57 life on Saturn's moon Titan. All that and more
00:04:57 --> 00:04:59 still to come on, space time,
00:05:06 --> 00:05:06 foreign.
00:05:13 --> 00:05:16 A new study has found that Earth's largest gold
00:05:16 --> 00:05:19 reserves aren't kept deep inside Fort Knox, but
00:05:19 --> 00:05:21 instead lie buried deep under 3
00:05:21 --> 00:05:24 kilometers of solid rock. A report in the
00:05:24 --> 00:05:25 journal Nature suggests that over
00:05:25 --> 00:05:28 99% of Earth's stores of gold
00:05:28 --> 00:05:31 and other precious metals are locked away within Earth's, metallic
00:05:31 --> 00:05:34 core and, and far beyond the reaches of humans.
00:05:34 --> 00:05:37 The findings are based on the discovery of traces of the
00:05:37 --> 00:05:40 precious metal ruthenium in volcanic rocks. On the islands
00:05:40 --> 00:05:43 of Hawaii that were literally blasted out from the
00:05:43 --> 00:05:46 Earth's core. Now, compared to Earth's rocky mantle,
00:05:46 --> 00:05:49 the metallic core contains a slightly higher abundance of a
00:05:49 --> 00:05:52 specific ruthenium isotope, Ru100.
00:05:52 --> 00:05:55 That's because part of the ruthenium, which was locked in the Earth's core
00:05:55 --> 00:05:58 together with gold and other precious metals when the planet formed
00:05:58 --> 00:06:01 4.6 billion years ago, came from a different source Than
00:06:01 --> 00:06:03 the scarce amount contained in the Earth's mantle today.
00:06:04 --> 00:06:07 These differences in RU100 are so tiny that until
00:06:07 --> 00:06:09 now, it was impossible to detect them. But a
00:06:09 --> 00:06:12 new test has now made it possible to resolve them.
00:06:12 --> 00:06:15 The unusually high RU100 signal found in lavas on
00:06:15 --> 00:06:18 Earth's surface would have ultimately originated from the core mantle
00:06:18 --> 00:06:21 boundary region that's 3 kilometers down.
00:06:21 --> 00:06:24 The study's authors, Niels Messling and Matthias Wilbold
00:06:24 --> 00:06:27 from Gartner University, say the results confirm that
00:06:27 --> 00:06:30 material in the Earth's core, including gold and other precious metals,
00:06:30 --> 00:06:33 are leaking into the planet's mantle above. The
00:06:33 --> 00:06:36 findings not only show that the Earth's core isn't as isolated as
00:06:36 --> 00:06:39 previously assumed, it also proves that huge volumes of
00:06:39 --> 00:06:41 superheated metallic material, several hundreds of
00:06:41 --> 00:06:44 quadrillion metric tons of rock, originate from the core
00:06:44 --> 00:06:47 mantle boundary and then rise to the surface to form
00:06:47 --> 00:06:50 oceanic islands like Hawaii. The authors
00:06:50 --> 00:06:52 say these new findings are opening up an entirely new
00:06:52 --> 00:06:55 perspective on the evolution of the internal dynamics
00:06:55 --> 00:06:58 of our home planet. This is space
00:06:58 --> 00:07:01 time still to come. Looking for the
00:07:01 --> 00:07:04 chemistry of life on the moon Titan. And later in
00:07:04 --> 00:07:07 the science report, a new study claims humans
00:07:07 --> 00:07:10 may have been making tools from whale bones as far
00:07:10 --> 00:07:13 back as 20 years ago. All that and more
00:07:13 --> 00:07:14 still to come on, space time
00:07:24 --> 00:07:25 foreign.
00:07:31 --> 00:07:34 Through the thick golden haze of Saturn's moon Titan,
00:07:34 --> 00:07:36 NASA's Dragonfly rotorcraft will find an
00:07:36 --> 00:07:39 eerily similar Earth like terrain.
00:07:39 --> 00:07:42 It'll see dunes wrapping around Titan's
00:07:42 --> 00:07:44 equator. There will be clouds drifting across its
00:07:44 --> 00:07:47 skies. Rain will be drizzling down to the
00:07:47 --> 00:07:50 surface, Forming rivers which flow into canyons,
00:07:50 --> 00:07:52 streaming into lakes and eventually seas.
00:07:53 --> 00:07:56 But not everything is as familiar as it seems.
00:07:56 --> 00:07:59 See, at minus 180 degrees Celsius, the sand
00:07:59 --> 00:08:02 dunes on Titan aren't, silicate grains, but organic
00:08:02 --> 00:08:05 material. The rivers, lakes and seas aren't, water,
00:08:05 --> 00:08:07 but liquid methane and ethane. On
00:08:07 --> 00:08:10 Titan, water is frozen solid, forming
00:08:10 --> 00:08:13 bedrock. Titan, you see, is a frigid
00:08:13 --> 00:08:16 world laden with organic molecules. Yet
00:08:16 --> 00:08:19 Dragonfly, a car sized rotorcraft set to launch
00:08:19 --> 00:08:22 no earlier than 2028, will explore this frigid world
00:08:22 --> 00:08:24 to potentially answer one of science' biggest
00:08:24 --> 00:08:27 questions. How did life begin? Now, I
00:08:27 --> 00:08:30 admit seeking answers about life in a place where it can't likely
00:08:30 --> 00:08:33 survive seems strange, but that's precisely
00:08:33 --> 00:08:36 the point. Dragonfly principal investigator
00:08:36 --> 00:08:39 ZB Turtle from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in
00:08:39 --> 00:08:41 l' Oreal, Maryland, says Dragonfly isn't a mission to
00:08:41 --> 00:08:44 detect life. Instead, it's a mission to
00:08:44 --> 00:08:47 investigate the chemistry that came before biology here on, Earth.
00:08:47 --> 00:08:50 On, Titan, scientists can export the chemical processes that may
00:08:50 --> 00:08:53 have led to life on Earth without life complicating the picture.
00:08:54 --> 00:08:56 See, on Earth, life has already reshaped everything,
00:08:56 --> 00:08:59 burying its chemical forebears deep beneath eons
00:08:59 --> 00:09:02 of evolution. Turtle says you need to go from
00:09:02 --> 00:09:05 a simple to complex form of chemistry before you can
00:09:05 --> 00:09:08 jump across to biology. But science doesn't know
00:09:08 --> 00:09:11 all the steps, and Titan will allow researchers to
00:09:11 --> 00:09:14 uncover at least some of them. In this way, I guess you can
00:09:14 --> 00:09:17 think of Titan as an untouched chemical laboratory where all
00:09:17 --> 00:09:19 the ingredients known for life, organics, liquid water, and
00:09:19 --> 00:09:22 energy existence and have interacted in the past.
00:09:23 --> 00:09:26 What Dragonfly will uncover will illuminate a, past
00:09:26 --> 00:09:28 long since raised on Earth. And it will refine
00:09:28 --> 00:09:31 science's understanding of habitability and whether the chemistry that
00:09:31 --> 00:09:34 sparked life on Earth is actually a universal
00:09:34 --> 00:09:37 rule or a wondrous cosmic fluke
00:09:37 --> 00:09:40 that only happened once before.
00:09:40 --> 00:09:43 NASA's Cassini Huygens mission researchers did know just how
00:09:43 --> 00:09:45 rich Titan is in organic molecules.
00:09:45 --> 00:09:48 Huygen mission data, combined with laboratory experiments have
00:09:48 --> 00:09:51 revealed a molecular smorgasbord and ethane,
00:09:51 --> 00:09:54 propane, acetylene, acetone, vinyl,
00:09:54 --> 00:09:57 cyanide, benzene. These molecules all
00:09:57 --> 00:10:00 fall to the surface, Forming thick deposits on Titan's
00:10:00 --> 00:10:02 frozen water bedrock. And scientists believe life
00:10:02 --> 00:10:05 related chemistry could have started there if given some liquid
00:10:05 --> 00:10:08 water, Such as from, say, an asteroid impact. And that's
00:10:08 --> 00:10:11 why scientists are, looking at a specific location on Titan
00:10:11 --> 00:10:14 called Silk Crater, an 80 kilometer wide impact
00:10:14 --> 00:10:17 site. It's a key Dragonfly destination,
00:10:17 --> 00:10:20 not only because it's covered in organics, but also because it may have once
00:10:20 --> 00:10:22 had liquid water for an extended period of time.
00:10:23 --> 00:10:26 See, the impact that formed silk melted the frozen water
00:10:26 --> 00:10:29 bedrock, Thereby creating a temporary pool of liquid
00:10:29 --> 00:10:32 water that could have remained liquid for hundreds of thousands of
00:10:32 --> 00:10:35 years under an insulating layer of ice, Sort of like
00:10:35 --> 00:10:37 winter ponds here on Earth. If a natural
00:10:37 --> 00:10:40 antifreeze like ammonia were mixed in, the pool could have remained
00:10:40 --> 00:10:43 unfrozen even longer. Blending water with organics and the
00:10:43 --> 00:10:46 impact of silicon, phosphorus, sulfur, and iron to form a
00:10:46 --> 00:10:49 primordial soup for decades now, scientists
00:10:49 --> 00:10:51 have simulated Earth's early conditions, mixing water with
00:10:51 --> 00:10:54 simple organics to create a sort of prebiotic soup
00:10:54 --> 00:10:57 and then jump starting reactions with an electrical shock.
00:10:57 --> 00:11:00 The problem is time. Most of these tests last
00:11:00 --> 00:11:02 weeks, maybe a few months or years at most.
00:11:03 --> 00:11:06 But the milk pools in Silk Crater, could possibly have lasted
00:11:06 --> 00:11:08 for tens of thousands of years. Now, that's still
00:11:08 --> 00:11:11 shorter than the hundreds of millions of years it took for life to emerge
00:11:11 --> 00:11:14 on Earth. But potentially, it's enough time for
00:11:14 --> 00:11:17 critical chemistry to occur. Thing is, we don't know, how
00:11:17 --> 00:11:20 long it took for Earth life to be created because conditions
00:11:20 --> 00:11:23 had to stabilize and the chemistry itself needed time.
00:11:23 --> 00:11:26 But the models show that if you do toss Titan's organics
00:11:26 --> 00:11:29 into water, tens of thousands of years should be plenty of time
00:11:29 --> 00:11:32 for chemistry to happen. And Dragonfly will
00:11:32 --> 00:11:34 test that theory. Landing near Silk, it'll
00:11:34 --> 00:11:37 fly from site to site, analyzing the surface chemistry
00:11:37 --> 00:11:40 to investigate the frozen remains of what could have been
00:11:40 --> 00:11:43 prebiotic chemistry in action. Dragonfly will
00:11:43 --> 00:11:46 use a mass spectrometer to search for indicators of complex
00:11:46 --> 00:11:49 chemistry. For example, on Earth, amino acids,
00:11:49 --> 00:11:52 fundamental to proteins, appear in specific patterns.
00:11:52 --> 00:11:55 A world without life would merely manufacture the simplest
00:11:55 --> 00:11:58 amino acids and form fewer complex ones.
00:11:58 --> 00:12:01 generally, Titan isn't regarded as habitable. It's
00:12:01 --> 00:12:04 far too cold for the chemistry of life as we know it to occur.
00:12:05 --> 00:12:08 And there's no liquid water on the surface where the organics and
00:12:08 --> 00:12:10 likely energy sources exist. Still,
00:12:10 --> 00:12:13 scientists are assuming that if a place has life's ingredients
00:12:13 --> 00:12:16 and enough time, complex chemistry, eventually even
00:12:16 --> 00:12:19 life could emerge. Now,
00:12:19 --> 00:12:22 if Titan proves otherwise, it could mean scientists have
00:12:22 --> 00:12:24 misunderstood something about how life began. And that
00:12:24 --> 00:12:27 means life would be a lot rarer than what we thought.
00:12:27 --> 00:12:30 But of course, they won't know unless they look. And that's
00:12:30 --> 00:12:33 where Dragonfly comes in. This report from
00:12:33 --> 00:12:34 NASA tv.
00:12:35 --> 00:12:38 NASA TV: Saturn's largest moon, Titan, has a thick
00:12:38 --> 00:12:40 atmosphere and a frozen surface rich in
00:12:40 --> 00:12:43 organic molecules. In 2034,
00:12:43 --> 00:12:46 a NASA mission called Dragonfly will arrive at
00:12:46 --> 00:12:48 Titan and study its chemical makeup.
00:12:48 --> 00:12:51 Dragonfly is a rotorcraft designed to
00:12:51 --> 00:12:54 visit multiple sites across the moon's varied
00:12:54 --> 00:12:57 terrain. At
00:12:57 --> 00:12:59 each new landing site on Titan's surface,
00:12:59 --> 00:13:02 Dragonfly uses a pulsed neutron generator
00:13:02 --> 00:13:05 and onboard gamma ray sensor to detect key
00:13:05 --> 00:13:08 elements, such as carbon and hydrogen in organic
00:13:08 --> 00:13:10 materials or oxygen in water ice.
00:13:11 --> 00:13:14 Dragonfly determines if there are well defined layers of
00:13:14 --> 00:13:16 these materials just below the lander.
00:13:17 --> 00:13:19 For a closer inspection, Dragonfly uses its
00:13:19 --> 00:13:22 drill to generate tailings from Titan's hard,
00:13:22 --> 00:13:25 frozen surface. These surface
00:13:25 --> 00:13:28 samples can then be ingested through the pneumatic system
00:13:28 --> 00:13:31 carried with Titan air into the chilled sample
00:13:31 --> 00:13:33 lines and to the sample collection carousel.
00:13:34 --> 00:13:37 One of the carousel sample cups is placed in a
00:13:37 --> 00:13:40 pneumatic port. The cup captures the surface
00:13:40 --> 00:13:43 material from the cold air stream and transfers it
00:13:43 --> 00:13:45 to the chemical laboratory for measurement.
00:13:45 --> 00:13:48 Pulses from a laser release large organic
00:13:48 --> 00:13:51 molecules from the surface sample for analysis in the
00:13:51 --> 00:13:54 mass spectrometer. The mass spectrometer
00:13:54 --> 00:13:56 sorts molecules by mass and measures
00:13:56 --> 00:13:59 diagnostic fragments that tell Dragonfly the
00:13:59 --> 00:14:01 kinds of chemical components that are present in the surface
00:14:01 --> 00:14:04 and whether there are molecules of prebiotic interest.
00:14:05 --> 00:14:08 For those potential prebiotic samples, a new
00:14:08 --> 00:14:11 cup is placed into an oven and heated to release
00:14:11 --> 00:14:14 molecules into a gas chromatograph, where they are
00:14:14 --> 00:14:16 sorted for size and type before entering the mass
00:14:16 --> 00:14:19 spectrometer. This advanced separation of
00:14:19 --> 00:14:21 organic components includes isolating
00:14:21 --> 00:14:24 molecules with the same formula but different chiral
00:14:24 --> 00:14:27 arrangements or handedness. Having a preference
00:14:27 --> 00:14:30 for one handedness over another is a key
00:14:30 --> 00:14:33 biosignature for life on Earth. When
00:14:33 --> 00:14:35 the chemical analysis is complete, Dragonfly may
00:14:35 --> 00:14:38 choose to take another surface sample or
00:14:38 --> 00:14:41 find a new location on Titan to investigate.
00:14:49 --> 00:14:51 Stuart Gary: This is space, time,
00:15:07 --> 00:15:10 and time. Now to take another brief look at some of the other stories making use
00:15:10 --> 00:15:12 in Science this week with a Science report.
00:15:13 --> 00:15:16 A new study claims humans may have been making tools
00:15:16 --> 00:15:19 from whale bones for at least the last 20
00:15:19 --> 00:15:21 years. The findings, reported in the journal
00:15:21 --> 00:15:24 Nature Communications, are based on an analysis of
00:15:24 --> 00:15:27 83 bone tools and 90 additional bones excavated
00:15:27 --> 00:15:30 from dig sites around. The authors
00:15:30 --> 00:15:33 claim that these objects could represent the earliest human use
00:15:33 --> 00:15:36 of whale remains. The bones came from at least
00:15:36 --> 00:15:39 five species of large whales, including sperm whales,
00:15:39 --> 00:15:41 fin whales, blue whales and right or bowhead
00:15:41 --> 00:15:44 whales. Interestingly, a chemical analysis of the
00:15:44 --> 00:15:47 bones also showed that the feeding habits of the whales were
00:15:47 --> 00:15:49 slightly different from those species living today.
00:15:51 --> 00:15:54 Scientists have for the first time used a quantum
00:15:54 --> 00:15:56 computer to simulate the chemical dynamics of real
00:15:56 --> 00:15:59 compounds, which could lead to new drugs and medical
00:15:59 --> 00:16:02 treatments. A report in the Journal of the American
00:16:02 --> 00:16:05 Chemical Society claims the creation of new drugs or
00:16:05 --> 00:16:07 medical treatments are among the greatest promises of quantum
00:16:07 --> 00:16:10 computing. The research is a vital step
00:16:10 --> 00:16:13 towards modeling more complex molecules and designing
00:16:13 --> 00:16:15 bespoke chemicals that could lead to improved
00:16:15 --> 00:16:17 sunscreen or skin cancer treatments.
00:16:19 --> 00:16:22 A new study has found that biodiversity in Antarctic
00:16:22 --> 00:16:25 soils may be much greater than previously thought. The
00:16:25 --> 00:16:28 authors used DNA sequencing to measure biodiversity
00:16:28 --> 00:16:31 in some of the driest, coldest and most nutrient poor
00:16:31 --> 00:16:33 soils weathered debris in front of a glacier in
00:16:33 --> 00:16:36 Antarctica. They found a range of previously
00:16:36 --> 00:16:39 unsuspecting interactions between different organisms, and these
00:16:39 --> 00:16:41 results imply that new, mutually beneficial
00:16:41 --> 00:16:44 relationships play an essential role in shaping the
00:16:44 --> 00:16:47 system, a report in the journal Frontiers in
00:16:47 --> 00:16:49 Microbiology claims the findings indicate
00:16:49 --> 00:16:52 biodiversity in Antarctica is far greater
00:16:52 --> 00:16:53 than previously thought.
00:16:55 --> 00:16:57 One of the most famous sea battles of the Second World War
00:16:57 --> 00:17:00 was the Battle of the Denmark Strait, which occurred on
00:17:00 --> 00:17:03 24 May 1941. It
00:17:03 --> 00:17:05 involved the British Royal Navy battleship HMS Prince of
00:17:05 --> 00:17:08 Wales and the battlecruiser HMS Hood.
00:17:08 --> 00:17:11 They fought the Nazi Kriegsmarine battleship Bismarck and the
00:17:11 --> 00:17:14 heavy cruiser Prinz Eugens as they were attempting to break out of the
00:17:14 --> 00:17:17 North Atlantic between Greenland and Iceland in order to launch
00:17:17 --> 00:17:20 attacks on Allied merchant shipping. At the
00:17:20 --> 00:17:23 time, the Hood was celebrated as one of Britain's greatest
00:17:23 --> 00:17:26 all time warships. A floating recruitment poster
00:17:26 --> 00:17:29 exemplifying the might of the Royal Navy. In fact,
00:17:29 --> 00:17:32 it had travelled the world showing how Britannia ruled
00:17:32 --> 00:17:35 the seas. Yet less than half an hour after
00:17:35 --> 00:17:38 intercepting and engaging Bismarck, the Great Hood was
00:17:38 --> 00:17:41 sunk, going down in just three minutes with 14,
00:17:41 --> 00:17:44 15 crew on board, only three of which survived.
00:17:45 --> 00:17:47 It was a massive blow to English pride at a time of
00:17:47 --> 00:17:50 war and a huge propaganda boost for the Nazis.
00:17:51 --> 00:17:54 And this is where this story gets interesting. It's claimed
00:17:54 --> 00:17:56 the news of the sinking of the Hood was broken not by
00:17:56 --> 00:17:59 official channels, but by a Scottish medium, Helen
00:17:59 --> 00:18:02 Duncan, who was promptly arrested and charged with, of all things,
00:18:02 --> 00:18:05 witchcraft in order to keep a quiet. And as
00:18:05 --> 00:18:08 Tim Mendham from Australian Skeptics explains, that
00:18:08 --> 00:18:10 brought her to the attention of no one less than Prime
00:18:10 --> 00:18:13 Minister Winston Churchill. And that resulted in the
00:18:13 --> 00:18:16 media beating up the story of Witty and Britain's
00:18:16 --> 00:18:17 last witch.
00:18:17 --> 00:18:20 Tim Mendham: Apparently Winston Churchill, the Prime Minister of Britain during
00:18:20 --> 00:18:23 the Second World War, wrote a memo to the courts
00:18:23 --> 00:18:26 here asking about why they were harassing a particular lady
00:18:26 --> 00:18:29 who was, classed as a witch in a was Helen Duncan. She was
00:18:29 --> 00:18:32 born in the late 1800s and she'd been around doing
00:18:32 --> 00:18:34 spiritual meetings, seances, that sort of stuff, calling up the
00:18:34 --> 00:18:37 dead. And during the war she happened to mention to someone from
00:18:37 --> 00:18:40 the Admiralty a better ship sinking. Now the
00:18:40 --> 00:18:43 details are a bit vague as to how much detail she had, but she said
00:18:43 --> 00:18:46 that a ship had just sunk and that the person from
00:18:46 --> 00:18:49 the Admiralty then said what? Phoned up and found out that no one had heard of
00:18:49 --> 00:18:52 it yet. It turned out to be true. Now, like a lot of stories,
00:18:52 --> 00:18:55 it might be embroidered a bit, but anyways they charged her with the
00:18:55 --> 00:18:58 Witchcraft act, sort of designed to keep people like her off the
00:18:58 --> 00:19:01 streets. And then Churchill wrote a mess email saying, you know what, what are you
00:19:01 --> 00:19:04 doing about this witch? Why are you harassing this witch? Actually, what he was
00:19:04 --> 00:19:07 saying about, why are you wasting court time on such
00:19:07 --> 00:19:10 a stupid little thing? And he called it obsolete tomfoolery.
00:19:10 --> 00:19:12 During this rather serious period of the Second World War. She was
00:19:12 --> 00:19:15 fined, actually she was put in prison for a short time. When she got out, she
00:19:15 --> 00:19:18 continued practicing for a bit, but not that much longer. The story was
00:19:18 --> 00:19:21 that she had a good reputation. Someone was saying that actually the court
00:19:21 --> 00:19:24 case gave her a better reputation and caused a lot more business.
00:19:24 --> 00:19:27 Her family descendants are very much supportive of her. But the
00:19:27 --> 00:19:30 story goes, it's pretty much the people who went to see her who were
00:19:30 --> 00:19:33 convinced were from a mixture of background. Some of them pretty ordinary
00:19:33 --> 00:19:35 people, some of them in high positions believed her. Others who
00:19:35 --> 00:19:38 had tested her didn't believe her. There was famous ghost hunter
00:19:38 --> 00:19:41 named, Henry Price, who was around that time in a lot
00:19:41 --> 00:19:44 of famous cases. And he investigated her and he found out that she was
00:19:44 --> 00:19:47 his point of view. She was a shonk. He was a, fake.
00:19:47 --> 00:19:49 This is a time when spirituals were a case of.
00:19:49 --> 00:19:52 Stuart Gary: She was listening to propaganda radio from the
00:19:52 --> 00:19:55 Germans. And they boasted that the Bismarck
00:19:55 --> 00:19:58 had just sunk the hood. And she started boasting about
00:19:58 --> 00:20:01 that herself. And at that stage the admiralty hadn't been told
00:20:01 --> 00:20:04 that the hood been sunk. And they wanted to know how she found out. And
00:20:04 --> 00:20:07 there was no actual law they could charge her with. So they dug up this
00:20:07 --> 00:20:10 thing from the. What was it? 1735, the Witchcraft
00:20:10 --> 00:20:10 Act.
00:20:10 --> 00:20:13 Tim Mendham: That's right. Yeah. A pretty old act. It was actually still, in place
00:20:13 --> 00:20:15 in Australia too, for a long time actually. And I think in one
00:20:15 --> 00:20:18 state was only taken out about 20 years ago. They thought it was a bit silly
00:20:18 --> 00:20:21 law. No one had ever been charged under it for a long time. The issue
00:20:21 --> 00:20:24 was where did she get her information from? Maybe she heard it
00:20:24 --> 00:20:27 from other sources, you know, German sources or whatever. Or
00:20:27 --> 00:20:30 maybe someone in the know told her before it became common knowledge.
00:20:30 --> 00:20:33 And you often wonder about some of these stories being a bit embroidered
00:20:33 --> 00:20:36 as far as the chronology goes, as far as, you know, what's the order of things, how
00:20:36 --> 00:20:39 much detail did she give, etc. So, this thing about this story that
00:20:39 --> 00:20:42 came out recently, Winston Churchill got involved in this court case.
00:20:42 --> 00:20:45 So this case against the witch, not really true. He wrote an
00:20:45 --> 00:20:48 email, probably took him about three minutes, dictating it to somebody saying,
00:20:48 --> 00:20:51 you know, really, don't you have more important things to do? And, that was
00:20:51 --> 00:20:51 probably it.
00:20:51 --> 00:20:54 Stuart Gary: That's Tim Mendham from Australian Skeptics.
00:21:09 --> 00:21:12 And that's the show for Now, Space Time is
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