Lifeboat Foundation

Noting that some theropod dinosaurs had large brains, large grasping hands, and likely binocular vision, paleontologist Dale Russell suggested that a branch of these dinosaurs might have evolved to a human intelligence level, had dinosaurs not become extinct. I offer reasons why the likely pallial organization in dinosaurs would have made this improbable, based on four assumptions. First, it is assumed that achieving human intelligence requires evolving an equivalent of the about 200 functionally specialized cortical areas characteristic of humans. Second, it is assumed that dinosaurs had an avian nuclear type of pallial organization, in contrast to the mammalian cortical organization. Third, it is assumed that the interactions between the different neuron types making up an information processing unit within pallium are critical to its role in analyzing information. Finally, it is assumed that increasing axonal length between the neuron sets carrying out this operation impairs its efficacy. Based on these assumptions, I present two main reasons why dinosaur pallium might have been unable to add the equivalent of 200 efficiently functioning cortical areas. First, a nuclear pattern of pallial organization would require increasing distances between the neuron groups corresponding to the separate layers of any given mammalian cortical area, as more sets of nuclei equivalent to a cortical area are interposed between the existing sets, increasing axon length and thereby impairing processing efficiency. Second, because of its nuclear organization, dinosaur pallium could not reduce axon length by folding to bring adjacent areas closer together, as occurs in cerebral cortex.

Keywords: avian brain; axonal length; connectivity; dinosaur evolution; humans; intelligence; troodon.

© 2023 The Authors. The Journal of Comparative Neurology published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.

A recent study published in Nature discusses the confirmation of an exoplanetary system based on data collected in 2020. The system, known as HD 110,067, possesses six planets whose orbits are in resonance with each other, or “in sync”, meaning which could offer profound insights into the formation and evolution of planetary systems throughout the cosmos. All the planets exhibit sizes between Earth and Neptune, also known as sub-Neptunes, and was conducted by an international team of researchers using data from NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and the European Space Agency’s CHaracterising ExOPlanet Satellite (Cheops).

Artist illustration of the planets within the HD 110,067 system exhibiting orbital resonances with the colored lines depicting their resonances with each other. (Credit: CC BY-NC-SA, Thibaut Roger/NCCR PlanetS)

“This discovery is going to become a benchmark system to study how sub-Neptunes, the most common type of planets outside of the solar system, form, evolve, what are they made of, and if they possess the right conditions to support the existence of liquid water in their surfaces,” said Dr. Rafael Luque, who is a Postdoctoral Scholar in the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Chicago and lead author of the study.

Similar to human teenagers, teenage galaxies are awkward, experience growth spurts and enjoy heavy metal — nickel, that is.

A Northwestern University-led team of astrophysicists has just analyzed the first results from the CECILIA (Chemical Evolution Constrained using Ionized Lines in Interstellar Aurorae) Survey, a program that uses NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to study the chemistry of distant galaxies.

According to the early results, so-called “teenage galaxies” — which formed two-to-three billion years after the Big Bang — are unusually hot and contain unexpected elements, like nickel, which are notoriously difficult to observe.

A collaborative team of scientists has explored and mapped the cellular landscape of the cerebellum, leading to new insights on the evolution of the human brain.

Summary: New research reveals the cerebellum’s significant role in the evolution of human cognitive functions. The study mapped the genetic development of cerebellar cells in humans, mice, and opossums, uncovering both ancestral and unique cellular characteristics.

Key findings include the increased proportion of specific Purkinje cells in humans, potentially linked to higher cognitive functions, and the identification of over 1,000 genes with varying activity profiles across species, some related to neurodevelopmental disorders.

The European Space Agency (ESA) has a number of missions ongoing to discover and study exoplanets, which are planets outside of our solar system.

One of those missions, Cheops (CHaracterising ExOPlanet Satellite), has uncovered a rare star system that lies around 100 light-years away.

It’s an important find because it can tell us about the formation and evolution of the planetary system, according to ESA.

Modern scientists aren’t content with predicting how life evolves. They want to shape it.

Author: Sharika Dhakappa The Big Bang is the most widely accepted theory of how the universe originated. Most physicists believe that the tremendously large universe we observe today began as a tiny, dense point. If the evolution of the universe till today were to be depicted as a movie, the Big Bang would be the beginning of it. We do not yet know what came before the Big Bang or whether that is even a meaningful question to ask. The cosmic movie would run for 13.8 billion years which is the current age of the universe as estimated by the WMAP satellite.

What is the weather like on water-rich exoplanets? This is something a recent study published in Nature Astronomy hopes to shed light on as a team of researchers conducted laboratory experiments to simulate how hazy skies might form on such exoplanets throughout the cosmos. Haze changes the way light reacts to various gases within a planet’s atmosphere, which alters what astronomers detect, as well. This study comes as the number of potential water-rich exoplanets continues to grow and holds the potential to help scientists better understand the conditions necessary for the formation and evolution of water-rich exoplanets, including how life might form and evolve on them, whether on their surfaces or in their atmospheres.

Artist illustration of water-rich exoplanets comprised of hazy atmospheres, which was the focus of this study. (Credit: Roberto Molar Candanosa/Johns Hopkins University)

“The big picture is whether there is life outside the solar system, but trying to answer that kind of question requires really detailed modeling of all different types, specifically in planets with lots of water,” said Dr. Sarah Hörst, who is an associate professor of Earth and planetary sciences at Johns Hopkins University and a co-author on the study. “This has been a huge challenge because we just don’t have the lab work to do that, so we are trying to use these new lab techniques to get more out of the data that we’re taking in with all these big fancy telescopes.”