The icy mantles of satellites in the outer solar system may transport heat by solid-state convection, which is important because it provides a mechanism for cycling material between a ocean and surface, controls the rate of heat transport, and may produce surface geological features. The style of convection and rate of heat transport depend strongly on ice rheology, which is complex.
How does one search for a needle in a multi-dimensional haystack not knowing what a needle is and not being sure there is one in the haystack? Solving this sort of problem might seem to be impossible, yet this is exactly what Dynamic Quantum Clustering (DQC) manages to do.
A new generation of telescopes is coming online. Operating at wavelengths from radio, through optical, to gamma ray, they are particularly well-suited to time-domain survey science -- essentially, making large-format movies of the sky.
Artistic expression that involves technology can be a quite challenging affair. Is building tools just an exhausting necessity or an essential part of the artistic process? What is the relationship between intuition and engineering? How to judge the artistic outcome?
The investigation of the origins of life has been hindered by what we think we know about current living organisms. This includes three assumptions about necessary conditions: 1) that it emerged entirely on Earth, 2) that it is dependent on the availability of liquid water, and 3) that it is coextensive with the emergence of molecules able to replicate themselves.
The alkaline hydrothermal theory for the emergence of life holds that the endergonic (thermodynamically uphill) reactions vital for life’s origin and continued existence require free energy converters (nano-engines) fuelled by various disequilibria.
The search for signals out of noise is a problem not only with radio signals from the sky but in the study of animal communication on Earth. Like SETI radio signal searches, dolphin sound analysis includes the detection, recognition, analysis, and interpretation of signals.
