Webb telescope spots super old, massive galaxies that shouldn’t exist

Nature:

Here we make use of the 1-5 μm coverage of the JWST early release observations to search for intrinsically red galaxies in the first ≈ 750 million years of cosmic history. In the survey area, we find six candidate massive galaxies (stellar mass > 1010 solar masses) at 7.4 ≤ z ≤ 9.1, 500–700 Myr after the Big Bang, including one galaxy with a possible stellar mass of ~1011 solar masses.

If verified with spectroscopy, the stellar mass density in massive galaxies would be much higher than anticipated from previous studies based on rest-frame ultraviolet-selected samples.

They posit two scenarios:

We infer that the possible interpretation of these JWST-identified “optical break galaxies” falls between two extremes. If the redshifts and fiducial masses are correct, then the mass density in the most massive galaxies would exceed the total previously estimated mass density...

The other extreme interpretation is that all the fiducial masses are larger than the true masses by factors of >10-100.

It will be extremely exciting to see if these mass density estimates are validated.

CU Boulder:

In a new study, an international team of astrophysicists has discovered several mysterious objects hiding in images from the James Webb Space Telescope: six potential galaxies that emerged so early in the universe’s history and are so massive they should not be possible under current cosmological theory.

“It’s bananas,” said Erica Nelson, co-author of the new research and assistant professor of astrophysics at CU Boulder. “You just don’t expect the early universe to be able to organize itself that quickly. These galaxies should not have had time to form.”

She explained that in astronomy, red light usually equals old light. The universe, Nelson said, has been expanding since the dawn of time. As it expands, galaxies and other celestial objects move farther apart, and the light they emit stretches out—think of it like the cosmic equivalent of saltwater taffy. The more the light stretches, the redder it looks to human instruments. (Light from objects coming closer to Earth, in contrast, looks bluer)...The team ran calculations and discovered that their old galaxies were also huge, harboring tens to hundreds of billions of sun-sized stars worth of mass, on par with the Milky Way.

Mashable:

While scanning a region of the cosmos near the Big Dipper, a group of astronomers identified six faint objects as they appeared well over 13 billion years ago. They suspect the objects are ancient galaxies. Scientists expect such early collections of stars and swirling matter to be relatively small. After all, such galaxies hadn't had much time to form or grow. But these galaxies are giants, the researchers report.

"If even one of these galaxies is real, it will push against the limits of our understanding of cosmology,” Nelson noted.

 

Chrome 110 will automatically discard background tabs

 ArsTechnica:

Heads up, everybody: Chrome will start doing stuff to your permanently open tabs. Chrome version 110 is rolling out now, and on Windows, macOS, and Linux, the release comes with the new "Memory Saver" feature that will be automatically enabled. We first wrote about this when it hit the Chrome nightly build "Canary Channel" in December, but now the feature is rolling out to everyone.

Google's explanation of the feature says, "When a tab is discarded, its title and favicon still appear in the tab strip but the page itself is gone, exactly as if the tab had been closed normally. If the user revisits that tab, the page will be reloaded automatically."

The feature is broadly similar to Edge's "sleeping tabs".

Digital Trends: 

First leaked in version 108, Memory Save and Energy Saver are the latest utilities rolling out globally to Chromebook, Mac, and Windows users right now. The rollout is gradual, so you may not see the update on your device(s) yet.

Memory Saver is touted to save up to 30% more RAM, by freeing up memory from inactive tabs. If the utility identifies an idling tab, it will put it in stasis, thus freeing up resources. If and when you revisit that tab, Chrome refreshes it as needed. 

Biden declines to veto Apple Watch ban

The Hill:

President Biden has upheld an International Trade Commission (ITC) ruling that could result in an import ban on the Apple Watch, according to AliveCor, a medical device company that has accused Apple of patent infringement.

The administration’s decision to uphold a potential ban on imports of the tech product sets the stage for a high-stakes legal battle.

Following the most recent ITC ruling, Apple hired the former chairwoman of the ITC to lobby on its behalf, in an apparent effort to secure a presidential veto. 

The dispute dates back to 2018, when Apple launched Apple Watch models with built-in electrocardiogram sensors, forcing AliveCor to cancel sales of its heart monitoring accessory. AliveCor said that it first shared its technology with Apple in 2015 in an effort to secure a partnership.

The Verge:

“We applaud President Biden for upholding the ITC’s ruling and holding Apple accountable for infringing the patents that underpin our industry-leading EKG technology,” AliveCor CEO Priya Abani said in a statement sent to The Verge.

Back in December, the ITC issued a final determination that Apple had infringed on AliveCor’s wearable EKG tech. If enforced, that would mean that Apple would no longer be able to import Apple Watch with EKG capabilities into the US for sale.

Biden’s decision doesn’t mean every Apple Watch from the Series 4 to the Apple Watch Ultra (excluding both generations of the SE) is about to disappear off shelves.

However, AliveCor isn’t the only medical tech company that’s seeking an import ban on the Apple Watch via the ITC. Masimo also sued Apple for allegedly infringing on five of its pulse oximetry patents.

That lawsuit is also still in the works but recently an ITC judge ruled in Masimo's favor.

CNET:

The Biden administration on Tuesday declined to overrule a US International Trade Commission decision that the Apple Watch had infringed health monitoring patents from medical device company AliveCor. As a result, the tech giant could face an import ban of its infringing Apple Watches, depending on how appeals work out.

Apple, for its part, said in December that it expects to prevail in the case because AliveCor's patents had been found invalid. It plans to appeal the ITC's decision to federal court. 

Systematic Near-Infrared Follow-up of Type Ic-BL Supernovae

Came across this interesting paper on the arXiv focusing on Type Ic-BL supernovae and their ability to produce rapid neutron-capture process (r-process) material. Also, they performed their photometric follow-up using the Las Cumbres Observatory, which is pretty neat!

arXiv:

We present the first systematic study of 25 SNe Ic-BL -- discovered with the Zwicky Transient Facility and from the literature -- in the optical/near-infrared bands to determine what quantity of r-process material, if any, is synthesized in these explosions. Using semi-analytic models designed to account for r-process production in SNe Ic-BL, we perform light curve fitting to derive constraints on the r-process mass for these SNe. We also perform independent light curve fits to models without r-process. 

Most of the SNe in our sample show no compelling evidence for r-process production. In our model fits, the general trend we observe is that the best fit consistently under-predicts the peak of the optical light curve, while performing better at predicting the NIR flux. In some cases, the under-prediction is egregious, while in other cases it is more modest. In general under-prediction indicates that the optical-NIR color of the SN is actually bluer than predicted by the models, providing stronger evidence towards favoring r -process-free models over the enriched models.

There is still potentially a link between r-process material and GRBs, but this study was unable to probe it due to the nature of the sample used. 

The fact that none of these SNe are linked to standard, classical long GRBs prevents us from exploring the proposed theoretical connection between the GRB energetics and r -process production. If the GRB jet energy, which scales with the mass accreted by the disk, correlates with the amount of r -process mass produced in the disk winds, then collapsars with no GRBs may not be able to produce detectable r-process signatures.

The work has a few important caveats as well.

First, we note that the r-process enriched and r-process-free models make different predictions about the relationship between nickel mass and SN luminosity...As a result, the amounts of nickel inferred by each model for a given luminosity are inconsistent.

Furthermore, differences between kilonovae and r -process-enriched SN (e.g., in their densities or their compositions) may mean that nebular-phase emission from the former is not a perfect predictor of nebular phase emission from the latter. 

Finally, we acknowledge the limitations of the dataset we present here for testing whether collapsars synthesize r -process elements. Due to the nature of our classical observing runs with WIRC, our NIR light curves are very sparse, and in some cases our upper limits are too shallow to be constraining.

Overall, an exciting paper. Type II/Ib/Ic supernovae have long been potential candidates for detection of prominent r-process influence. This fairly comprehensively presents a case to exclude SNe Type Ic from consideration. 

Enshittification and Meta, Twitter, Bing

Twitter: 

Twitter Blue is an opt-in, paid subscription that adds a blue checkmark to your account and offers early access to select features, like Edit Tweet.

Twitter Blue subscribers who joined for $7.99 on iOS will be notified by Apple that their subscription will be automatically renewed for $11/month (or your local pricing) unless they choose to cancel their subscription.

Those who initially subscribed on iOS for $2.99 or $4.99/month will need to upgrade their subscription for $8/month or $84/year on web or $11/month on iOS (or the local pricing), or lose their subscription.

Mark Zuckerberg (via Facebook):

This week we're starting to roll out Meta Verified -- a subscription service that lets you verify your account with a government ID, get a blue badge...Meta Verified starts at $11.99 / month on web or $14.99 / month on iOS.

This is clearly inspired by Twitter's "Twitter Blue"; however, I wonder how much of this decision was driven by the need for extra revenue now that Apple is attempting to choke off some of Meta's ad revenue.

Juli Clover (via Michael Tsai):

Instagram and Facebook are monetized through advertising at the current time, but changes like Apple’s App Tracking Transparency can make ads an unreliable revenue stream. Subscription payments will give Facebook a steady monthly income.

Twitter has also removed the free tier of their API access--a feature used by thousands of developers to make excellent and low-cost apps.  

TechCrunch:

A week after Twitter made the announcement about shutting down free access to the API, the company said today that it will charge $100 per month for the basic tier of API. This will get developers access to a “low level of API usage” — without specifying what that exactly means — and the Ads API.

Last week’s announcement drew a lot of criticism from developers — especially folks who made fun bots posting information or pictures. 

Apart from this, people have also pointed out that engineers building solutions for natural disasters like earthquakes also rely on Twitter API. So discontinuing the free tier will affect those solutions.

Akin Unver (via Twitter):

Couldn't come at a worse time. Most analysts and programmers that are building apps and functions for Turkey earthquake aid and relief, and are literally saving lives, are reliant on Twitter API. Any limit/structure/architecture change will make everyone's life difficult.

Microsoft saw this and followed suit:

Microsoft:

The existing Microsoft Bing Search APIs will increase in price effective May 1, 2023. The price increase will apply to all markets.

BigTechWire: 

Today, Microsoft sent shockwaves to the developers who rely on Microsoft Bing Search APIs by announcing price increase. This is not a usual nominal price increase update. With the new changes, pricing of some of the APIs have gone up to 10x. Yes, 10x.

Optional Bing Statistics Add-in which used to cost $1 per 1,000 transactions will now cost $10 per 1,000 transactions.

The above pricing equates to $0.028/query for less than 1M requests/day and a whopping $.20/query for over 1M requests/day. 

I spend a lot of time working with both free and paid APIs, I genuinely can't remember ever seeing one with $0.20 per query on any tier. That would be a completely prohibitive price tier for an independent developer, or developers providing a primarily free service. 

Michael Tsai: 

This sounds like a problem for DuckDuckGo and other search engines that rely on Bing, unless they have special long-term deals.

Cory Doctorow has a fantastic blog post about "enshittification," a term he coined describing how platforms crumble after locking in customers with appealing services before abusing them to milk every last ounce of profit, rendering the service unusable. Watching Meta, Twitter, and Bing riff terrible anti-customer ideas off of each other is very reminiscent of this.

SWPC Reports X-Class Solar Flare

Solar Weather Prediction Center: 

An X2.2/2b flare (R3) occurred late on February 17. The flare peaked Feb 17 15:16 ET. Effects: temporary degradation or complete loss of high-frequency radio signals on some of the sunlit side of the Earth.

NASA:

Solar flares are powerful bursts of energy. Flares and solar eruptions can impact radio communications, electric power grids, navigation signals, and pose risks to spacecraft and astronauts. This flare is classified as an X2.2 flare.  X-class denotes the most intense flares, while the number provides more information about its strength.

FoxWeather:

According to the SWPC, the geomagnetic storm may affect satellite operations and could even lead to weak power-grid fluctuations. In addition, migratory animals could be affected, and the Northern Lights may be visible farther south than usual, like in northern Michigan and Maine.

A G2-level solar storm could affect high-latitude power systems by triggering voltage alarms, and long-duration storms could cause damage to transformers. In addition, corrective actions may be necessary for spacecraft orbiting Earth.

HaloCME (via Twitter):

I love this!  Highly eruptive X2.2 flare with a nice coronal wave, although I doubt the CME will even glance Earth. 

HaloCME has a fantastic visualization in that tweet. 

Man beats machine at Go in human victory over AI

 ArsTechnica:

A human player has comprehensively defeated a top-ranked AI system at the board game Go, in a surprise reversal of the 2016 computer victory that was seen as a milestone in the rise of artificial intelligence.

The triumph, which has not previously been reported, highlighted a weakness in the best Go computer programs that is shared by most of today’s widely used AI systems, including the ChatGPT chatbot created by San Francisco-based OpenAI.

The tactics that put a human back on top on the Go board were suggested by a computer program that had probed the AI systems looking for weaknesses. The suggested plan was then ruthlessly delivered by Pelrine.

This approach to identifying flaws in LeelaZero and similar networks strongly reminds me of a generative adversarial neural network, where networks are pitted against each other in a zero-sum game. I really believe this approach will represent the next big step forward for AI; neural networks that only require an objective function and initial conditions, while all the normal fine-tuning that typically has to be done by humans will be handled by automated GANs. 

Bojan Tunguz (via Twitter):

Very interesting story. It seems that we can still beat AIs, but we’d need the help of another AI to teach us how.