Cold dark matter takes a hit; a new paradigm for biology; those fracking earthquakes

This week, researchers formulated a new method to calculate the probability of generating intelligent life in the universe. Investigations of a meteorite that originated on Mars revealed that it once interacted with liquid water. And an analysis of fossilized teeth suggests that long childhoods are a precondition for the evolution of large brains. Additionally, astronomers threw cold water on cold dark matter; biologists suggested a new, holistic approach to the field; and if we have to frack, we might as well do it with fewer earthquakes.

Webb confounds

Cold dark matter theory holds that galaxies formed gradually in the early universe. So in accordance with CDM, astronomers always assumed that when we finally had the optical wherewithal—I want to say “horsepower” to annoy engineers—to peer back to the earliest stages of the universe, we’d find small, dim, vaguely embarrassing galaxies that had not yet accreted enough matter to become robust, star-forging galaxies we know from the more recent epochs of the universe.

And then, in 2022, the James Webb Space Telescope with its 25.4-m² collecting area, began science operations out there in the L2 point and rapidly revealed girthy, blindingly illuminated galaxies in the extremely ancient universe. Score 1 for modified Newtonian dynamics, or MOND, which predicted back in 1998 that large structures may have formed rapidly in the early universe.

MOND predicts rapid assembly of galactic mass that expands outward with universal expansion; as the stronger force of gravity slows this expansion and then reverses it, the material collapses on itself into a galactic structure. A recent paper described this process in light of Webb’s ongoing season of universal discovery, and the authors are not huge boosters of CDM.

“The bottom line is, ‘I told you so,'” says Case Western Reserve astrophysicist Stacy McGaugh. “I was raised to think that saying that was rude, but that’s the whole point of the scientific method: Make predictions and then check which come true.”

Complicating McGaugh’s argument is a finding by astronomers at the University of Texas at Austin, who reported last summer that many of those galaxies are less massive than they appear; excessively bright accretion disks around the central black holes in many of the ancient galaxies make them seem brighter and more populous than they actually are.

Organisms interdependent

Historically, biologists have studied organisms in silos, as discreet entities uninfluenced by the surrounding ecology of microbes. Now, researchers are promoting a new theory called holobiont biology, which takes a holistic approach to biology with consideration of microbial life, holding that microbes are fundamental to the development, processes and evolution of higher life forms. An international collaborative of researchers has published a paper in Science summarizing this approach.

In an interview, Seth Bordenstein, professor of biology and entomology at Penn State, says, “What we’re learning today and over the past decade, is that sometimes microbes explain more biological trait variation in organisms than genes do. This is the case, for instance, with the likelihood of human colon cancer, cholesterol levels, and body mass index. And, more importantly, if you take host genetics and microbes together, you start to see a fuller picture of how life varies and changes over time.”

Good fracking news

Hydraulic fracturing gave the petroleum industry access to ground resources that were previously inaccessible, along with side effects including air emissions, groundwater contamination, adverse health effects and the honestly astonishing phenomenon of human-induced earthquakes.

The magnitudes of many of these quakes are too small for humans to detect, but a number have been directly reported by affected populations, with damage including broken home foundations. Over the last two decades in Oklahoma, there has been a dramatic rise in seismic activity associated with fracking.

Researchers at the U.S. Geological Survey are reporting that regulatory efforts to backfill injection wells with cement and reduce injection volumes have lowered Oklahoma’s induced seismic activity rate. The finding suggests that reducing the depth of wastewater injection could also control seismic activity in other states.

“Each basin is different, but we’ve repeatedly seen the connection between injection depth and the likelihood of inducing earthquakes across the country,” says Robert Skoumal of the U.S. Geological Survey.

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