October 6, 2025 • 25 mins
In this episode of SpaceTime, we explore the future of our universe, the latest advancements in mapping our Milky Way, and the pivotal role fungi played in the evolution of life on land.
The Universe's Fate: A Big Crunch in 20 Billion Years
A groundbreaking study published in the Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics reveals that the universe is approaching the midpoint of its 33 billion-year lifespan and may end in approximately 20 billion years. Lead author Henry Tighe from Cornell University presents new data suggesting that the universe's cosmological constant may be negative, leading to a contraction and eventual collapse—a phenomenon referred to as the "big crunch." This research, based on observations from the Dark Energy Survey and the dark energy spectroscopic instrument DESI, challenges long-held beliefs about the universe's eternal expansion and opens new avenues for understanding cosmic evolution.
Mapping the Milky Way: Gaia's 3D View
The European Space Agency's Gaia Space Telescope has unveiled the most precise three-dimensional map of star-forming regions within our Milky Way galaxy. By analysing data from 44 million stars, Gaia has provided insights into the obscured molecular clouds where new stars are born. This innovative mapping technique allows astronomers to understand the distribution of ionised gas and the dynamics of star formation, offering a fresh perspective on our galaxy's structure and the processes that shape it.
Fungi: The Pioneers of Terrestrial Life
A recent study published in Nature Ecology and Evolution has identified that fungi played a crucial role in preparing Earth for life on land between 900 million and 1.4 billion years ago—much earlier than previously thought. Researchers from the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology utilised a novel gene swap method to trace the evolution of fungi, suggesting that these organisms were instrumental in creating the first ecosystems and nutrient recycling processes that facilitated the emergence of terrestrial life. This discovery reframes our understanding of the timeline for life on Earth and highlights the importance of fungi in shaping our planet's biosphere.
www.spacetimewithstuartgary.com
✍️ Episode References
Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/gaia
Nature Ecology and Evolution
https://www.nature.com/newe
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/spacetime-your-guide-to-space-astronomy--2458531/support.
The Universe's Fate: A Big Crunch in 20 Billion Years
Mapping the Milky Way: Gaia's 3D View
Fungi: The Pioneers of Terrestrial Life
The Universe's Fate: A Big Crunch in 20 Billion Years
A groundbreaking study published in the Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics reveals that the universe is approaching the midpoint of its 33 billion-year lifespan and may end in approximately 20 billion years. Lead author Henry Tighe from Cornell University presents new data suggesting that the universe's cosmological constant may be negative, leading to a contraction and eventual collapse—a phenomenon referred to as the "big crunch." This research, based on observations from the Dark Energy Survey and the dark energy spectroscopic instrument DESI, challenges long-held beliefs about the universe's eternal expansion and opens new avenues for understanding cosmic evolution.
Mapping the Milky Way: Gaia's 3D View
The European Space Agency's Gaia Space Telescope has unveiled the most precise three-dimensional map of star-forming regions within our Milky Way galaxy. By analysing data from 44 million stars, Gaia has provided insights into the obscured molecular clouds where new stars are born. This innovative mapping technique allows astronomers to understand the distribution of ionised gas and the dynamics of star formation, offering a fresh perspective on our galaxy's structure and the processes that shape it.
Fungi: The Pioneers of Terrestrial Life
A recent study published in Nature Ecology and Evolution has identified that fungi played a crucial role in preparing Earth for life on land between 900 million and 1.4 billion years ago—much earlier than previously thought. Researchers from the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology utilised a novel gene swap method to trace the evolution of fungi, suggesting that these organisms were instrumental in creating the first ecosystems and nutrient recycling processes that facilitated the emergence of terrestrial life. This discovery reframes our understanding of the timeline for life on Earth and highlights the importance of fungi in shaping our planet's biosphere.
www.spacetimewithstuartgary.com
✍️ Episode References
Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/gaia
Nature Ecology and Evolution
https://www.nature.com/newe
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/spacetime-your-guide-to-space-astronomy--2458531/support.
The Universe's Fate: A Big Crunch in 20 Billion Years
Mapping the Milky Way: Gaia's 3D View
Fungi: The Pioneers of Terrestrial Life
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is Spacetime Series twenty eight, episode one hundred and
twenty for broadcast on the sixth of October twenty twenty five.
Coming up on Space Time and You study warns the
universe will end in twenty billion years from now and
you three dimensional map of our Milky Way galaxy and
how fung guys set the stage for life on land
(00:20):
on planet Earth.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
All that and more Coming up on space Time.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
Welcome to Space Time with Stuart gary.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
Any study claims the universe is now approaching the midpoint
of its thirty three billion year lifespan and will come
to an end in around twenty billion years time. A
report in the Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics says
calculations based on new data from dark energy observatories suggests
that after expanding to its peak size and about eleven
(01:08):
billion years from now, our universe will begin to contract,
eventually snapping back like a rubber band to form a
singularity at the end of time. The study's lead author,
Henry Tie from Cornell University, says he reached his conclusion
after adding new data to a model involving Albert Einstein's
famous cosmological constant, A factor introduced more than a century
(01:29):
ago by Einstein and still used by cosmologists today to
predict the future of the universe. Tie says that for
the last twenty years, scientists to believe the cosmological consonant
was positive and the universe would therefore expand forever. But
he claims the new data seems to indicate that in fact,
the cosmological constant is actually negative and the universe will
(01:50):
end up in a big crunch. Right now, the universe
is thirteen point eight billion years old, and it's still
expanding now. According to current models based on dark energy.
It's two simplest fates of that either continuous present expansion forever,
that's if the cosmological constant is positive, or alternatively, if
the cosmological constant is actually negative, it will reach a
(02:12):
maximum size before contracting, eventually it collapsing back to zero.
Tay says this big crunch defines the end of the universe,
and he says that'll happen in around twenty billion years
from now. The findings are based on observations by the
Dark Energy Survey in Chile and the Dark Energy Spectroscopic
Instrument DESI in Arizona, which are both in good accord
(02:33):
with each other's data. The whole idea of the dark
energy survey of these two groups is to see whether
dark energy, which makes up roughly sixty eight percent of
the mass energy budget of the universe, really comes from
a pure cosmological constant. The authors found that the universe
is not just dominated by a cosmological constant known as
dark energy. Tying colleagues proposed, there's a hypothetical particle of
(02:57):
very low mass that behave like a cosmological consper than
early in the life of the universe.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
But doesn't anymore.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
And it's this simple model which fits the data so
well and tips the underlying cosmological constant into negative territory,
ty says. Scientists have said before that if the cosmological
constant is negative, then the universe would eventually collapse. That's
not new, However, here the model tells you when the
universe collapses and how it collapses. Hundreds of astronomers are
(03:25):
busy measuring dark energy by observing millions of galaxies across
the cosmos and determining the distance between these galaxies, gathering
more and more accurate data to feed into the model.
DESI will continue observations for another year, and observations are
ongoing or soon begin with several other dark energy observatories,
including the Zvicki Transient Facility in San Diego, the European
(03:49):
EUCLID Space Telescope, NASA's recently launched sphere X mission, and
the Vericea group in Observatory TI says knowing both the
beginning and the end of the universe provides a great
or understanding of the cosmos. As to where the universe
goes once it contracts down into a big crunch, Well,
the answer is simple.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
The universe goes into the future. This is space time.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
Still to come, a new three dimensional map of our
Milky Way Galaxy and how fun Guy set the stage
for life on land on planet Earth.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
All that and more still to come on space time.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
The European Space Agency's Guyas Space Telescope has created the
most accurate three dimensional map yet of star forming regions
in our Milky Way Galaxy. This new map will teach
astronomer's more about these obscure molecular gas and dust clouds
and the hot young stars born within them and which
ultimately shape them tooriously difficult to map and steady regions
(05:02):
of space where stars form because they're usually hidden from
view by thick clouds whose distances cannot be accurately directly measured.
Now guy itself doesn't see these clouds, but it can
measure stillar positions and the so called extinction of stars.
This means it can see how much light from the
star is being blocked by dust. From this, astronomers can
(05:23):
create three dimensional maps showing where the dust is and
use those maps to figure out how much ionized gas
is present, a telltale sign of star formation. The new
three dimensional map of star forming regions in the Milky
Way is based on guyer observations of some forty four
million ordinary stars and eighty seven spectroal typezer blue stars.
(05:44):
The map extends out to a distance of some four
thousand light years. Spectral type O blue stars are rare.
They're young, massive, and extremely bright and hot, and they
shine bright in ultraviolet light. These ultraviolet photons are so
energetic they can quite literally strip electrons away from hydrogen
atoms when hitting them. In this way, they ionize the
(06:06):
hydrogen gas around hot stars mini becomes a mixture of
charched particles. Astronomers call these ionized hydrogen clouds hydrogen two regions.
The characteristic signal that can be picked up from these
regions is the hydrogen alpha or H alpha spectral line
at a wavelength of six hundred and fifty six point
three nanometers. This is one way that astronomers can identify
(06:28):
regions in space where stars are being born. Many telescopes
have observed these regions, so astronomers have a good idea
of what they look like, but no one really knew
what they look like in three dimensions or from an
outside perspective, and that's where Guy comes in. Geya has
mapped the positions of velocities and motions across the sky
of billions of celestial objects, including millions of stars. The
(06:52):
result is the most accurate multi dimensional map of the
Milky Way galaxy ever created, and it's giving astronomers the
data to infer what the galaxy would look like from
the perspective of someone outside the Milky Way. Guys sky
maps in all three special coordinates plus three velocities that
he's moving towards or away from the Earth and moving
across the sky have revealed the precise merchants and positions
(07:13):
of millions of nearby stars. With this the telescope's already
revolutionized sciences view of the soular neighborhood, allowing astronomers to
comprehensively map the stars and interstellar material near the Sun
in a way that they were simply unable to do before.
One of the studies authors, Lewis McCallum from the University
of s Andrews, says, Guy is providing the first accurate
(07:34):
view of what our section of the Milky Way galaxy
really would look like from above. He says, there's simply
never been a model of the distribution of ionized gas
in the local Milky Way that matches other telescope's observations
of the sky so well. That's why astronomers are so
confident that guys top down view and fly through the
galaxy are a good approximation of what these clouds would
(07:56):
really look like in three dimensions. Lewis's new map included
its three dimensional views of the Gum Nebula, the North
American Nebula, the California Nebula, and the Orion Eridanus superbubble.
This data will allow astronomers to learn more about how
giant spectrotype O stars energize gas and how far out
their influence can reach. Laws and colleagues already notice that
(08:18):
some of the clouds in the star forming regions seem
to have broken open, and streams of gas and dust
are likely venting into a giant cavity. The map also
shows how radiation from massive stars ionizes the surrounding interstellar medium,
and how dust and gas interact with this radiation. The
three D model provides a detailed look at the processes
(08:39):
that shape our local galactic environment, and it helps astronomers
better understand interactions between the warm and cold components of
the local universe. In the future, this map, which requires
huge computational power to develop, will expand even further, including
an even larger area of our home galaxy.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
This report from east.
Speaker 4 (09:00):
What does the Milky Way look like from the outside.
No spacecraft can travel beyond our galaxy, so we can't
take a selfie. But during its lifetime, Gaya made three
trillion observations of two billion stars and other objects, giving
us the best insight yet of what our home galaxy
looks like. We can identify the Milky Way's central bar
(09:24):
and its spiral arms based on Gaya data. Going see
the galaxy edge on and it can identify its pulg
and disk. Gaya showed that our galaxy's disc is warped
in wobbles, possibly caused by a collision with another smaller
galaxy moving further out. Gaya also studied other galaxies around
(09:45):
the Milky Way, such as the large and the small
Midgellanic Clouds and forty other companions. Guya revealed our galaxy's
turbulent history by tracking the movements of streams of stars.
Gaya gives a unique view of our milchury, scanning our
galaxy from the inside out, building a more detailed map
(10:06):
than ever before, fundamentally changing what we thought we knew
about our home galaxy, where our sun is embedded among
billions of stars.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
This is space time still to come, how fungals set
the stage for life on land on planet Earth. And
Later in the science report, a new study says people
whose parents have mental illnesses are more likely to die prematurely.
All that and more still to come on space time.
(10:50):
A new study examining life save evolution on planet Earth.
It's found that fung guy set the stage for life
on land somewhere between nine hundred million and one point
four billion years ago, so that's hundreds of millions of
years earlier than previously thought. The findings were reported in
the journal Nature of collogen Evolution used a novel gene
swamp method to shed new light on the timelines and
(11:11):
pathways for the evolution of fungi. The discovery, but researchers
from the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, provides evidence
for the evolution of fungi run terrestrial ecosystems, and therefore
the emergence of life on land. It suggests these ecosystems
recycled nutrients and possibly partnered with other organisms. Pinning down
their timelines shows fungi with diversifying long before plants and
(11:35):
consistent with early partnerships with algae that likely help pave
the way for terrestrial ecosystems. Complex multicellular life, that is,
organisms made from many cooperating cells with specialized jobs, evolved
independently on Earth on at least five major occasions, animals, land, plants, fungi,
red algae, and brown algae. Understanding when these groups emerged
(11:59):
is fundamental to piecing together the history of life on Earth.
See Complex multicelluar life wasn't simply a matter of cells
clamping together. It was the dawn of organisms, where cells
took on specialized jobs and were organized into distinct tissues
and organs. For most of these groups, the fossil record
acts as a geological calendar, providing anchor points in deep time.
(12:21):
For example, red algae shows up as early as one
point six billion years ago in candidate seaweed like fossils
from India. Animals appeared around six hundred million years ago
based on idiakron fossils such the quilted pancake like Dickensernia.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
The first land plants took roughly four.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
Hundred and seventy million years ago based on the discovery
of tiny fossil spores and brown algae such as kelp.
Diversified tens to hundreds of million years later. Still, and
based on all this evidence, a chronological picture of life's
complexity starts to emerge. But the notable exception to this
fossil based timeline has always been fungi. The fungal kingdom
(13:00):
has long been an enigma for paleontologists. They are typically soft,
filamentalist bodies means they really fossilize well and Unlike animals
or plants, which appear to have a single origin of
complex multicellularity, it seems fungi evolved that's trait mudiple times
from the verse unicellular ancestors, making it difficult to pinpoint
a single origin event in the fossil record. To overcome
(13:23):
the gaps in the fungal fossil record, scientists are relying
on the steady rate at which genic mutations accumulate in
an organism's DNA for generations. By comparing the number of
genetic differences between two species, scientists can reach an estimate
of how long ago they diverged from a common ancestor.
The problem is this molecular clock still uncalibrated. It can
(13:45):
reveal relative time, but not absolute years. To set the clock,
scientists need to calibrate it with anchor points from the
fossil record, and given the scarcity of fungal fossils, this
has always been a major challenge. The new study addressed
this incorporating rare gene swaps between different fungal lineages, a
process known as horizontal gene transfer. While genes are normally
(14:08):
passed down vertically from parent to child, horizontal gene transfer
is like a gene jumping sideways from one species to another,
and if a gene from LINEA J is found to
have jumped into lineage B, it establishes a clear rule
the ancestors of linea J must be older than the
descendants of lineage B. By identifying seventeen such transfers, the
(14:29):
authors established a series of older than younger than relationships
at Alongside fossil records have helped to tighten and constrain
the fungal timeline. The analysis suggests a common ancestor for
living fungal dating to between roughly nine hundred million a
one point four billion years ago. That's rule before land plants.
That timing supports a long prelude of fungal algae interactions,
(14:51):
fundamentally reframing the story of life's colonization of land. It
suggests that for hundreds of millions of years before the
first true plants took root, fungi were already present, likely
interacting with algae in microbial communities, and this long preparatory
phase may will have been essential for making Earth's continents
habitable by breaking down rock and recycling nutrients. These ancient
(15:15):
fungi may well have been the first true ecosystems engineers,
creating the first primitive soils and fundamentally altering the terrestrial environment.
It means plants didn't colonize a barren wasteland, but rather
a ward that had already been prepared for them over
eons by the ancient and persistent activity of the fungal kingdom. Meanwhile,
(15:35):
a report in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy
of Sciences as unearthed new evidence in the ancient rock
record suggesting that some of the first animals on Earth
were likely ancestors of the modern day sea sponge. The
studies authors identified chemical fossils that may have been left
by ancient sponges in rocks that are almost five hundred
and forty one million years old. The chemical fossil is
(15:57):
a remnant of a biomolecule that originated from living organism
that has since been buried, transformed, and preserved in sediment,
sometimes for hundreds of millions of years. The newly identified
fossils are special types of sterraines, which are a geologically
stable form of sterols such as cholesterol, that are found
in the cell membranes of complex organisms. The sterrains were
(16:18):
found in rocks formed during the Adiapron period between roughly
five hundred and forty one and six hundred and thirty
five million years ago. That's just before the Cambrian Explosion,
when planet Earth experienced a sudden global explosion of complex,
multicellular lifeforms. The authors trace these special sterines to class
of sea sponges known as demosponges. Today, demosponges come in
(16:40):
a huge variety of sizes and colors, and they lived
throughout the oceans of the Earth at soft filter feeders.
The new discovery offers strong evidence that the ancestors of
demosponges were among the very first animals to have evolved,
and they likely did so much earlier than the rest
of Earth's major animal groups. This is space time, and
(17:16):
time that to take a brief look at some of
the other stories making news in science this week. With
a science report, scientists have found a significant link between
drinking soda beverages and depression. The findings, reported in the
Journal of the American Medical Association also showed that this
effect could be significantly mediated by how much of a
specific bacterium called egophilia existed in a person's intestinal tract.
(17:39):
The authors looked inside the soft drink habits and microbiomes
of almost one thousand people, just over four hundred of
whom had been diagnosed with major depressive conditions. They believe
that drinking pop may contribute to the condition through microbiome changes,
especially those involving egothelia in female patients. While this kind
of study cannot prove it connection between soft drinks and depression,
(18:02):
the authors are suggesting prevention strategies that reduce consumption of
these drinks and target the microbiomeing treatment. Scientists say people
whose parents have mental illnesses are more likely to die
prematurely up to middle age. The findings, reported in the
Journal of the American Medical Association, examined medical records for
more than three and a half million Swedish people, around
(18:24):
one point two million of whom had parents with mental illnesses.
They say the link between parental mental illness and premature
death held true for all mental disorders, and was strongest
for unnatural deaths, which include suicides, murder, and accidents, and
if both parents were diagnosed with mental disorders. The findings
highlight the importance of providing support for families with parents
(18:46):
with mental disorders. In order to minimize premature deaths among
their children. One of the oldest people in the world,
who died just last year at the ripe old age
of one hundred and seventeen, may have survived so long
because her body was still working as if she was
at a much younger biological age. Among signs of a
healthy body, the journals Cell Reports Medicine found that her
(19:07):
DNA had markings usually found in younger people that she
had read gene types linked to long life. They also
found differences in a microbiome, including having more of a
type that people typically lose with older age. The researcher
say this shows that old age doesn't always have to
be linked with disease. The glittering highlight of the Australian
(19:29):
skeptical calendar is the annual Skepticon Conference, which this year
was held in Melbourne. Of course, one of the highlights
of the event is the highly coveted Bent Spoon Award,
which is presented annually to the perpetrator of the most
preposterous piece of paranormal or pseudo scientific piffle. The award
is rumored to have been fashioned out of a piece
of go Forward salvaged from Noah's Ark. Upon its sturdy
(19:52):
base is a fixed a spoon rumored to have been
used at the Last Supper. The spoon was allegedly bent
by Yuri Gella using old magic energies unknown to science.
Past winners of this elegant trophy for displaying a total
lack of scientific understanding or an ability to pile the
bull up high have included the Australian Broadcasting Corporation the ABC,
(20:12):
demonstrating new lows in journalistic standards with their motto never
let the facts get in the way of a good story.
The University of Wollongong for proving once and for all
that you don't need to be smart, or even right,
or for that matter, scientifically accurate in order to get
a doctorate. Then there was the Adelaide psychic and Dankbar
for her discovery at the Colossus of Rhodes, which created
(20:32):
something of a media frenzy. Still it was shown to
be nothing more than modern builder's rubble. The ABC wanted
again for their television show's Second Opinion, which promoted so
much unscientific quackery that they really should have gotten a
few more opinions Southern across the University was another award
winner for offering a degree course in naturopathy. Even the
once exalted CSIRO has been awarded, with its chief Larry
(20:55):
Marshall getting a special mention for his support of water dividing.
The won the award yet again for spending taxpayer money
on psychic investigators. Then there was racing driver Peter Brock,
whose highly tarted energy polarizer generated more heat from the
murdering media than what did energy in his car. A
Special Broadcasting Service SPS won the award for their TV
(21:17):
program Medicine or Myth. They were promoting alternative medical treatments
as if they had some actual scientific credibility, as opposed
to being nothing more than an occasional pacebo effect. The
Melbourne Metropolitan Board of Works won their award for hiring
a US psychic archaeologist to help detect nonexistent electromagnetic photo fields.
Oh and once again the taxpayer fund that ABC won
(21:39):
the award, this time for their television showed the New Inventors,
which seriously considered the studio's scientific benefits of an anti
biowater conditioning system which probably should have been filtered through
the kidneys A few more times in case you're wondering,
that's more than a billion dollars of austrained taxpayers money
spent by the ABC every year. And of course there
was Pallier Peter Evans for his promotion of the bio Charger,
(22:02):
a miraculous device that, according to its manufacturers, has been
proven to restore strength, stamina, coordination and mental clarity. Like
the ABC, Evans was a modible winner. He previously won
the Spoon back in twenty fifteen. Is paleodiet advocacy, which
included promoting Burne broth as a formula replacement for babies,
as well as his campaigns against floridation and vaccination. Se
(22:25):
mindem from a Strange Skeptic says this year's Exalted winner
was ban naturopath Barbara O'Neil.
Speaker 5 (22:31):
The Beenspoon Award went to a lady named Barbara O'Neill.
Barbara O'Neill is a self entitled natural path even though
she doesn't have any qualifications, who was running a retreat
in New South Wales something the sort of forested areas
in the north and the area of people, including a
number of skeptics, complained about her activities and what she
was saying, and then the New South Wales's Healthcare Complaints
(22:53):
Commission took actions, looked at what she was saying, realized
what she was saying was extremely dangerous, totally unqualified and wrong,
and they actually ban her for life for practicing in
Australia in any medical capacity at all. So what she's
done there, she goes overseas and streams stuff. She's been
big in an island, in the UK and in the US.
She has a tendency to suggest people rub garlic and
(23:15):
onions and things like that on them to get rid
of vampire. If only it would be very handy to
cure all sorts of things, everything from cancer to medical
conditions of some sort of other mental conditions. Even we
always have the suspicion that because she's recommending so many vegetables,
she's been paid for by big farmer. But she is
(23:36):
totally unqualified. Even though she occasionally allows herself to be
called doctor, she's not. She's been really active in the
last year. A lot of people see as what she's
suggesting as not being dangerous in its own right. Rubbing
onions on your foot is not going to call you.
But the trouble is she is staying don't do chemotherapy,
don't do this therapy, don't do that therapy.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
It's going to kill your social life.
Speaker 5 (23:56):
But it's also it means you're turning away from actually
medical procedures that do work in favor of this quack
cures that she promote. And that's the weather dangerous to
anti vaccamations is all the usual anti thinks.
Speaker 1 (24:06):
That's timidum from Ustrinan skeptics, and that's the show for now.
(24:26):
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(24:47):
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(25:07):
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Speaker 3 (25:18):
You've been listening to space Time with Stuart Gary. This
has been another quality podcast production from bytes dot com
This is Spacetime Series twenty eight, episode one hundred and
twenty for broadcast on the sixth of October twenty twenty five.
Coming up on Space Time and You study warns the
universe will end in twenty billion years from now and
you three dimensional map of our Milky Way galaxy and
how fung guys set the stage for life on land
(00:20):
on planet Earth.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
All that and more Coming up on space Time.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
Welcome to Space Time with Stuart gary.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
Any study claims the universe is now approaching the midpoint
of its thirty three billion year lifespan and will come
to an end in around twenty billion years time. A
report in the Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics says
calculations based on new data from dark energy observatories suggests
that after expanding to its peak size and about eleven
(01:08):
billion years from now, our universe will begin to contract,
eventually snapping back like a rubber band to form a
singularity at the end of time. The study's lead author,
Henry Tie from Cornell University, says he reached his conclusion
after adding new data to a model involving Albert Einstein's
famous cosmological constant, A factor introduced more than a century
(01:29):
ago by Einstein and still used by cosmologists today to
predict the future of the universe. Tie says that for
the last twenty years, scientists to believe the cosmological consonant
was positive and the universe would therefore expand forever. But
he claims the new data seems to indicate that in fact,
the cosmological constant is actually negative and the universe will
(01:50):
end up in a big crunch. Right now, the universe
is thirteen point eight billion years old, and it's still
expanding now. According to current models based on dark energy.
It's two simplest fates of that either continuous present expansion forever,
that's if the cosmological constant is positive, or alternatively, if
the cosmological constant is actually negative, it will reach a
(02:12):
maximum size before contracting, eventually it collapsing back to zero.
Tay says this big crunch defines the end of the universe,
and he says that'll happen in around twenty billion years
from now. The findings are based on observations by the
Dark Energy Survey in Chile and the Dark Energy Spectroscopic
Instrument DESI in Arizona, which are both in good accord
(02:33):
with each other's data. The whole idea of the dark
energy survey of these two groups is to see whether
dark energy, which makes up roughly sixty eight percent of
the mass energy budget of the universe, really comes from
a pure cosmological constant. The authors found that the universe
is not just dominated by a cosmological constant known as
dark energy. Tying colleagues proposed, there's a hypothetical particle of
(02:57):
very low mass that behave like a cosmological consper than
early in the life of the universe.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
But doesn't anymore.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
And it's this simple model which fits the data so
well and tips the underlying cosmological constant into negative territory,
ty says. Scientists have said before that if the cosmological
constant is negative, then the universe would eventually collapse. That's
not new, However, here the model tells you when the
universe collapses and how it collapses. Hundreds of astronomers are
(03:25):
busy measuring dark energy by observing millions of galaxies across
the cosmos and determining the distance between these galaxies, gathering
more and more accurate data to feed into the model.
DESI will continue observations for another year, and observations are
ongoing or soon begin with several other dark energy observatories,
including the Zvicki Transient Facility in San Diego, the European
(03:49):
EUCLID Space Telescope, NASA's recently launched sphere X mission, and
the Vericea group in Observatory TI says knowing both the
beginning and the end of the universe provides a great
or understanding of the cosmos. As to where the universe
goes once it contracts down into a big crunch, Well,
the answer is simple.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
The universe goes into the future. This is space time.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
Still to come, a new three dimensional map of our
Milky Way Galaxy and how fun Guy set the stage
for life on land on planet Earth.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
All that and more still to come on space time.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
The European Space Agency's Guyas Space Telescope has created the
most accurate three dimensional map yet of star forming regions
in our Milky Way Galaxy. This new map will teach
astronomer's more about these obscure molecular gas and dust clouds
and the hot young stars born within them and which
ultimately shape them tooriously difficult to map and steady regions
(05:02):
of space where stars form because they're usually hidden from
view by thick clouds whose distances cannot be accurately directly measured.
Now guy itself doesn't see these clouds, but it can
measure stillar positions and the so called extinction of stars.
This means it can see how much light from the
star is being blocked by dust. From this, astronomers can
(05:23):
create three dimensional maps showing where the dust is and
use those maps to figure out how much ionized gas
is present, a telltale sign of star formation. The new
three dimensional map of star forming regions in the Milky
Way is based on guyer observations of some forty four
million ordinary stars and eighty seven spectroal typezer blue stars.
(05:44):
The map extends out to a distance of some four
thousand light years. Spectral type O blue stars are rare.
They're young, massive, and extremely bright and hot, and they
shine bright in ultraviolet light. These ultraviolet photons are so
energetic they can quite literally strip electrons away from hydrogen
atoms when hitting them. In this way, they ionize the
(06:06):
hydrogen gas around hot stars mini becomes a mixture of
charched particles. Astronomers call these ionized hydrogen clouds hydrogen two regions.
The characteristic signal that can be picked up from these
regions is the hydrogen alpha or H alpha spectral line
at a wavelength of six hundred and fifty six point
three nanometers. This is one way that astronomers can identify
(06:28):
regions in space where stars are being born. Many telescopes
have observed these regions, so astronomers have a good idea
of what they look like, but no one really knew
what they look like in three dimensions or from an
outside perspective, and that's where Guy comes in. Geya has
mapped the positions of velocities and motions across the sky
of billions of celestial objects, including millions of stars. The
(06:52):
result is the most accurate multi dimensional map of the
Milky Way galaxy ever created, and it's giving astronomers the
data to infer what the galaxy would look like from
the perspective of someone outside the Milky Way. Guys sky
maps in all three special coordinates plus three velocities that
he's moving towards or away from the Earth and moving
across the sky have revealed the precise merchants and positions
(07:13):
of millions of nearby stars. With this the telescope's already
revolutionized sciences view of the soular neighborhood, allowing astronomers to
comprehensively map the stars and interstellar material near the Sun
in a way that they were simply unable to do before.
One of the studies authors, Lewis McCallum from the University
of s Andrews, says, Guy is providing the first accurate
(07:34):
view of what our section of the Milky Way galaxy
really would look like from above. He says, there's simply
never been a model of the distribution of ionized gas
in the local Milky Way that matches other telescope's observations
of the sky so well. That's why astronomers are so
confident that guys top down view and fly through the
galaxy are a good approximation of what these clouds would
(07:56):
really look like in three dimensions. Lewis's new map included
its three dimensional views of the Gum Nebula, the North
American Nebula, the California Nebula, and the Orion Eridanus superbubble.
This data will allow astronomers to learn more about how
giant spectrotype O stars energize gas and how far out
their influence can reach. Laws and colleagues already notice that
(08:18):
some of the clouds in the star forming regions seem
to have broken open, and streams of gas and dust
are likely venting into a giant cavity. The map also
shows how radiation from massive stars ionizes the surrounding interstellar medium,
and how dust and gas interact with this radiation. The
three D model provides a detailed look at the processes
(08:39):
that shape our local galactic environment, and it helps astronomers
better understand interactions between the warm and cold components of
the local universe. In the future, this map, which requires
huge computational power to develop, will expand even further, including
an even larger area of our home galaxy.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
This report from east.
Speaker 4 (09:00):
What does the Milky Way look like from the outside.
No spacecraft can travel beyond our galaxy, so we can't
take a selfie. But during its lifetime, Gaya made three
trillion observations of two billion stars and other objects, giving
us the best insight yet of what our home galaxy
looks like. We can identify the Milky Way's central bar
(09:24):
and its spiral arms based on Gaya data. Going see
the galaxy edge on and it can identify its pulg
and disk. Gaya showed that our galaxy's disc is warped
in wobbles, possibly caused by a collision with another smaller
galaxy moving further out. Gaya also studied other galaxies around
(09:45):
the Milky Way, such as the large and the small
Midgellanic Clouds and forty other companions. Guya revealed our galaxy's
turbulent history by tracking the movements of streams of stars.
Gaya gives a unique view of our milchury, scanning our
galaxy from the inside out, building a more detailed map
(10:06):
than ever before, fundamentally changing what we thought we knew
about our home galaxy, where our sun is embedded among
billions of stars.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
This is space time still to come, how fungals set
the stage for life on land on planet Earth. And
Later in the science report, a new study says people
whose parents have mental illnesses are more likely to die prematurely.
All that and more still to come on space time.
(10:50):
A new study examining life save evolution on planet Earth.
It's found that fung guy set the stage for life
on land somewhere between nine hundred million and one point
four billion years ago, so that's hundreds of millions of
years earlier than previously thought. The findings were reported in
the journal Nature of collogen Evolution used a novel gene
swamp method to shed new light on the timelines and
(11:11):
pathways for the evolution of fungi. The discovery, but researchers
from the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, provides evidence
for the evolution of fungi run terrestrial ecosystems, and therefore
the emergence of life on land. It suggests these ecosystems
recycled nutrients and possibly partnered with other organisms. Pinning down
their timelines shows fungi with diversifying long before plants and
(11:35):
consistent with early partnerships with algae that likely help pave
the way for terrestrial ecosystems. Complex multicellular life, that is,
organisms made from many cooperating cells with specialized jobs, evolved
independently on Earth on at least five major occasions, animals, land, plants, fungi,
red algae, and brown algae. Understanding when these groups emerged
(11:59):
is fundamental to piecing together the history of life on Earth.
See Complex multicelluar life wasn't simply a matter of cells
clamping together. It was the dawn of organisms, where cells
took on specialized jobs and were organized into distinct tissues
and organs. For most of these groups, the fossil record
acts as a geological calendar, providing anchor points in deep time.
(12:21):
For example, red algae shows up as early as one
point six billion years ago in candidate seaweed like fossils
from India. Animals appeared around six hundred million years ago
based on idiakron fossils such the quilted pancake like Dickensernia.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
The first land plants took roughly four.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
Hundred and seventy million years ago based on the discovery
of tiny fossil spores and brown algae such as kelp.
Diversified tens to hundreds of million years later. Still, and
based on all this evidence, a chronological picture of life's
complexity starts to emerge. But the notable exception to this
fossil based timeline has always been fungi. The fungal kingdom
(13:00):
has long been an enigma for paleontologists. They are typically soft,
filamentalist bodies means they really fossilize well and Unlike animals
or plants, which appear to have a single origin of
complex multicellularity, it seems fungi evolved that's trait mudiple times
from the verse unicellular ancestors, making it difficult to pinpoint
a single origin event in the fossil record. To overcome
(13:23):
the gaps in the fungal fossil record, scientists are relying
on the steady rate at which genic mutations accumulate in
an organism's DNA for generations. By comparing the number of
genetic differences between two species, scientists can reach an estimate
of how long ago they diverged from a common ancestor.
The problem is this molecular clock still uncalibrated. It can
(13:45):
reveal relative time, but not absolute years. To set the clock,
scientists need to calibrate it with anchor points from the
fossil record, and given the scarcity of fungal fossils, this
has always been a major challenge. The new study addressed
this incorporating rare gene swaps between different fungal lineages, a
process known as horizontal gene transfer. While genes are normally
(14:08):
passed down vertically from parent to child, horizontal gene transfer
is like a gene jumping sideways from one species to another,
and if a gene from LINEA J is found to
have jumped into lineage B, it establishes a clear rule
the ancestors of linea J must be older than the
descendants of lineage B. By identifying seventeen such transfers, the
(14:29):
authors established a series of older than younger than relationships
at Alongside fossil records have helped to tighten and constrain
the fungal timeline. The analysis suggests a common ancestor for
living fungal dating to between roughly nine hundred million a
one point four billion years ago. That's rule before land plants.
That timing supports a long prelude of fungal algae interactions,
(14:51):
fundamentally reframing the story of life's colonization of land. It
suggests that for hundreds of millions of years before the
first true plants took root, fungi were already present, likely
interacting with algae in microbial communities, and this long preparatory
phase may will have been essential for making Earth's continents
habitable by breaking down rock and recycling nutrients. These ancient
(15:15):
fungi may well have been the first true ecosystems engineers,
creating the first primitive soils and fundamentally altering the terrestrial environment.
It means plants didn't colonize a barren wasteland, but rather
a ward that had already been prepared for them over
eons by the ancient and persistent activity of the fungal kingdom. Meanwhile,
(15:35):
a report in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy
of Sciences as unearthed new evidence in the ancient rock
record suggesting that some of the first animals on Earth
were likely ancestors of the modern day sea sponge. The
studies authors identified chemical fossils that may have been left
by ancient sponges in rocks that are almost five hundred
and forty one million years old. The chemical fossil is
(15:57):
a remnant of a biomolecule that originated from living organism
that has since been buried, transformed, and preserved in sediment,
sometimes for hundreds of millions of years. The newly identified
fossils are special types of sterraines, which are a geologically
stable form of sterols such as cholesterol, that are found
in the cell membranes of complex organisms. The sterrains were
(16:18):
found in rocks formed during the Adiapron period between roughly
five hundred and forty one and six hundred and thirty
five million years ago. That's just before the Cambrian Explosion,
when planet Earth experienced a sudden global explosion of complex,
multicellular lifeforms. The authors trace these special sterines to class
of sea sponges known as demosponges. Today, demosponges come in
(16:40):
a huge variety of sizes and colors, and they lived
throughout the oceans of the Earth at soft filter feeders.
The new discovery offers strong evidence that the ancestors of
demosponges were among the very first animals to have evolved,
and they likely did so much earlier than the rest
of Earth's major animal groups. This is space time, and
(17:16):
time that to take a brief look at some of
the other stories making news in science this week. With
a science report, scientists have found a significant link between
drinking soda beverages and depression. The findings, reported in the
Journal of the American Medical Association also showed that this
effect could be significantly mediated by how much of a
specific bacterium called egophilia existed in a person's intestinal tract.
(17:39):
The authors looked inside the soft drink habits and microbiomes
of almost one thousand people, just over four hundred of
whom had been diagnosed with major depressive conditions. They believe
that drinking pop may contribute to the condition through microbiome changes,
especially those involving egothelia in female patients. While this kind
of study cannot prove it connection between soft drinks and depression,
(18:02):
the authors are suggesting prevention strategies that reduce consumption of
these drinks and target the microbiomeing treatment. Scientists say people
whose parents have mental illnesses are more likely to die
prematurely up to middle age. The findings, reported in the
Journal of the American Medical Association, examined medical records for
more than three and a half million Swedish people, around
(18:24):
one point two million of whom had parents with mental illnesses.
They say the link between parental mental illness and premature
death held true for all mental disorders, and was strongest
for unnatural deaths, which include suicides, murder, and accidents, and
if both parents were diagnosed with mental disorders. The findings
highlight the importance of providing support for families with parents
(18:46):
with mental disorders. In order to minimize premature deaths among
their children. One of the oldest people in the world,
who died just last year at the ripe old age
of one hundred and seventeen, may have survived so long
because her body was still working as if she was
at a much younger biological age. Among signs of a
healthy body, the journals Cell Reports Medicine found that her
(19:07):
DNA had markings usually found in younger people that she
had read gene types linked to long life. They also
found differences in a microbiome, including having more of a
type that people typically lose with older age. The researcher
say this shows that old age doesn't always have to
be linked with disease. The glittering highlight of the Australian
(19:29):
skeptical calendar is the annual Skepticon Conference, which this year
was held in Melbourne. Of course, one of the highlights
of the event is the highly coveted Bent Spoon Award,
which is presented annually to the perpetrator of the most
preposterous piece of paranormal or pseudo scientific piffle. The award
is rumored to have been fashioned out of a piece
of go Forward salvaged from Noah's Ark. Upon its sturdy
(19:52):
base is a fixed a spoon rumored to have been
used at the Last Supper. The spoon was allegedly bent
by Yuri Gella using old magic energies unknown to science.
Past winners of this elegant trophy for displaying a total
lack of scientific understanding or an ability to pile the
bull up high have included the Australian Broadcasting Corporation the ABC,
(20:12):
demonstrating new lows in journalistic standards with their motto never
let the facts get in the way of a good story.
The University of Wollongong for proving once and for all
that you don't need to be smart, or even right,
or for that matter, scientifically accurate in order to get
a doctorate. Then there was the Adelaide psychic and Dankbar
for her discovery at the Colossus of Rhodes, which created
(20:32):
something of a media frenzy. Still it was shown to
be nothing more than modern builder's rubble. The ABC wanted
again for their television show's Second Opinion, which promoted so
much unscientific quackery that they really should have gotten a
few more opinions Southern across the University was another award
winner for offering a degree course in naturopathy. Even the
once exalted CSIRO has been awarded, with its chief Larry
(20:55):
Marshall getting a special mention for his support of water dividing.
The won the award yet again for spending taxpayer money
on psychic investigators. Then there was racing driver Peter Brock,
whose highly tarted energy polarizer generated more heat from the
murdering media than what did energy in his car. A
Special Broadcasting Service SPS won the award for their TV
(21:17):
program Medicine or Myth. They were promoting alternative medical treatments
as if they had some actual scientific credibility, as opposed
to being nothing more than an occasional pacebo effect. The
Melbourne Metropolitan Board of Works won their award for hiring
a US psychic archaeologist to help detect nonexistent electromagnetic photo fields.
Oh and once again the taxpayer fund that ABC won
(21:39):
the award, this time for their television showed the New Inventors,
which seriously considered the studio's scientific benefits of an anti
biowater conditioning system which probably should have been filtered through
the kidneys A few more times in case you're wondering,
that's more than a billion dollars of austrained taxpayers money
spent by the ABC every year. And of course there
was Pallier Peter Evans for his promotion of the bio Charger,
(22:02):
a miraculous device that, according to its manufacturers, has been
proven to restore strength, stamina, coordination and mental clarity. Like
the ABC, Evans was a modible winner. He previously won
the Spoon back in twenty fifteen. Is paleodiet advocacy, which
included promoting Burne broth as a formula replacement for babies,
as well as his campaigns against floridation and vaccination. Se
(22:25):
mindem from a Strange Skeptic says this year's Exalted winner
was ban naturopath Barbara O'Neil.
Speaker 5 (22:31):
The Beenspoon Award went to a lady named Barbara O'Neill.
Barbara O'Neill is a self entitled natural path even though
she doesn't have any qualifications, who was running a retreat
in New South Wales something the sort of forested areas
in the north and the area of people, including a
number of skeptics, complained about her activities and what she
was saying, and then the New South Wales's Healthcare Complaints
(22:53):
Commission took actions, looked at what she was saying, realized
what she was saying was extremely dangerous, totally unqualified and wrong,
and they actually ban her for life for practicing in
Australia in any medical capacity at all. So what she's
done there, she goes overseas and streams stuff. She's been
big in an island, in the UK and in the US.
She has a tendency to suggest people rub garlic and
(23:15):
onions and things like that on them to get rid
of vampire. If only it would be very handy to
cure all sorts of things, everything from cancer to medical
conditions of some sort of other mental conditions. Even we
always have the suspicion that because she's recommending so many vegetables,
she's been paid for by big farmer. But she is
(23:36):
totally unqualified. Even though she occasionally allows herself to be
called doctor, she's not. She's been really active in the
last year. A lot of people see as what she's
suggesting as not being dangerous in its own right. Rubbing
onions on your foot is not going to call you.
But the trouble is she is staying don't do chemotherapy,
don't do this therapy, don't do that therapy.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
It's going to kill your social life.
Speaker 5 (23:56):
But it's also it means you're turning away from actually
medical procedures that do work in favor of this quack
cures that she promote. And that's the weather dangerous to
anti vaccamations is all the usual anti thinks.
Speaker 1 (24:06):
That's timidum from Ustrinan skeptics, and that's the show for now.
(24:26):
Spacetime is available every Monday, Wednesday and Friday through Apple Podcasts, iTunes, Stitcher,
Google podcast, pocker Casts, Spotify a cast, Amazon Music, bytes
dot com, SoundCloud YouTube, your favorite podcast download provider, and
from space Time with Stuart Gary dot com. Space Time's
(24:47):
also broadcast through the National Science Foundation, on Science Own
Radio and on both iHeartRadio and tune in Radio. And
you can help to support our show by visiting the
space Time Store for a range of promotional merchandising goodies,
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Just go to space Time with Stewart Gary dot com
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Speaker 3 (25:18):
You've been listening to space Time with Stuart Gary. This
has been another quality podcast production from bytes dot com
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