The Approach of Emile Jaques-Dalcroze
R. J. David Frego, Ph.D.
The Dalcroze philosophy centers on the concept that the synthesis of the mind, body, and resulting emotions is fundamental to all meaningful learning. Plato said in his Laws: “Education has two branches, one of gymnastics, which is concerned with the body, and the other of music, which is designed for the improvement of the soul” (Pennington, 1925, p. 9). Emile Jaques-Dalcroze believed that every musician should strive to be sensitive and expressive, and to express music through purposeful movement, sound, thought, feeling, and creativity.
Mead (1994) cites four basic premises that encapsulate the Dalcroze philosophy:
1. Eurhythmics awakens the physical, aural, and visual images of music in the mind.
2. Solfège (sight-singing and ear-training), improvisation, and eurhythmics together work to improve expressive musicality and enhance intellectual understanding.
3. Music may be experienced through speech, gesture, and movement. These can likewise be experienced in time, space, and energy.
4. Humans learn best when learning through multiple senses. Music should be taught through the tactile, the kinesthetic, the aural, and the visual senses.
Jaques-Dalcroze wanted to create an approach to music education in which sensory and intellectual experiences are fused into one neuromuscular experience—reinforcing the body’s response to music (Caldwell, 1995). He felt that this would lead to performance at high levels, beyond expectation (Carder, 1990). He believed that music education should center on active involvement in musical experience. Technique and intellectual understanding are important, but active experience must come first. Today’s music education is based on the "sound before the symbol" philosophy, a legacy of Jaques-Dalcroze and Pestalozzi before him. Jaques-Dalcroze felt that students could practice and learn musical expression through the active discovery of time, space, and energy. He believed that as music moves, so should musicians; therefore, rhythm is elemental to this philosophy. Jaques-Dalcroze taught that through rhythmic movement, musicians could experience symmetry, form, tension and relaxation, phrasing, melody, and harmony. Experience should teach the musical elements (Martin, 1965).
Jaques-Dalcroze intended for his approach to develop musical understanding through eurhythmics and to help students develop immediate physical responsiveness to rhythmic stimuli. Developing muscular rhythms and nervous sensibility would ultimately lead to the capacity to discriminate even slight gradations of duration, time, intensity, and phrasing. Through rhythmic movement, students would begin to think and express themselves more musically. Initially, Jaques-Dalcroze’s conception of eurhythmics was designed for the education of conservatory musicians but soon expanded to the early musical education of children, and to those with special needs. His philosophy grew to include his belief in the development of a more musical society through rhythmic training in the schools (Campbell, 1991).
The Dalcroze approach, often identified as Eurhythmics, consists of three related components. The first is Rhythmic Solfège, or ear training. Jaques-Dalcroze believed that students must learn sophisticated listening skills and develop "inner hearing." Musicians should be able to hear what they write and write what they hear. Music notation is meaningless unless realized in real performance or in the imagination. Solfège is taught using the fixed-do approach, based on the French system. Students develop sensitivity to pitches, their relation to each other, and to the tonal framework. What makes Dalcroze solfège unique is that it is always combined with rhythm and movement, both locomotor and nonlocomotor.
The second component of Dalcroze music education is improvisation. Improvisation skills are developed sequentially and used in many ways. An instructor may play the piano while students improvise movement, react spontaneously to verbal instructions, or change in musical character. In the reverse, a student might improvise movement while another student accompanies with a drum, at the piano, or in song. Students soon develop skills to be able to improvise musically and expressively on their own instruments. These spontaneous performance activities are designed to improve response time and communication accuracy (Mead, 1994).
The third piece in the puzzle is the eurhythmics itself. Often considered the core of the Dalcroze approach, eurhythmics was actually the last part to be developed. It is of equal importance with rhythmic solfège and improvisation, but not more. The term eurhythmics is from the Greek "eu," meaning good, and "rhythmy," meaning rhythm, proportion, and symmetry. This idea embodies Dalcroze philosophy in two ways. First, human beings can experience symmetry, balance, and rhythmic accuracy in music through symmetry, balance, and rhythmic accuracy in movement. Second, the three components of the Dalcroze approach (rhythmic solfège, improvisation, and eurhythmics) are interdependent and must be taught together. The three complement and reinforce each other, providing a complete and balanced musical education. Modern music educators and music therapists often identify the approach as Eurhythmics, though all three facets are implied.
A typical introductory Dalcroze lesson involves activities or games that require total mental and kinesthetic awareness. The lesson is presented in a somatic approach that allows the participant to hear and react physically to the musical stimulus, which produces body awareness and sensations. These physical sensations are transmitted back to the brain as emotions and a more developed comprehension of the experience. It is common to begin a Dalcroze lesson with walking to improvised music and responding to changes in tempo, dynamics, and phrase in quick reaction games. Through these activities, the students begin to understand how physical adjustments, such as energy and flow of the body weight, need to occur in order to “physicalize” the music. Through these basic instructions, the teacher can address musical elements such as pulse, beat, subdivision, meter, rhythm, phrase, and form.
Intermediate Dalcroze lessons can address polymeters, polyrhythms, canon, tension and relaxation, breathing, conducting, counterpoint, and the interactions of anacrusis, crusis, and metacrusis. Creativity is pervasive throughout the lesson. All classes are in a group setting where the participants interact with partners or small groups to develop the nonverbal communication skills and creativity necessary in music and movement.
Plastique Animée, or more often referred to as plastique, is the culminating experience in a Dalcroze class. A plastique combines the skills addressed throughout the class, and from previous rhythmic experiences, into a loosely based choreography that is both physically expressive and musical. The students are provided with the basics of the requirements and are asked to spontaneously create an interactive composition with the music. Someone who is stepping into a Dalcroze studio at that moment would see music in motion and might not be aware that the movement is spontaneous.
Dalcroze in Today’s Classrooms
Modern music education benefits from Jaques-Dalcroze's teaching in many ways. Today's teachers focus on active learning on the part of the students. This implies less instruction and more experience for the students (Caldwell, 1993). Dalcroze philosophy also places emphasis on musical behavior and expression, and their demonstration through observable movement. Visible evidence of musical understanding through experience takes some of the mystery out of the verbal definitions of musicality.
Another aspect of modern music education inherited from Jaques-Dalcroze is the celebration of the individual. Teachers expect to provide appropriate musical experiences for all their students. Creativity and imaginary play are encouraged through improvisation. Music class is student oriented, with groups of students actively thinking about, listening to, and analyzing and creating music (Johnson, 1993).
Jaques-Dalcroze placed special emphasis on child-centered learning. He developed a particular interest in the natural development of the child (Johnson, 1993). Across ages, Jaques-Dalcroze developed music teaching strategies that were age and ability-level appropriate. His approach to music learning was broken down into experiences for the primary grades, intermediate grades, and upper grades (Mead, 1994).
Dalcroze exercises and pedagogical principles are easy to apply to most teaching situations (Johnson, 1993). Multiage classrooms are becoming popular; Dalcroze exercises can be adapted to suit a variety of student skill and experience levels. Dalcroze teacher training allows instructors to become creative and flexible in the give-and-take of modern education. The ability to be spontaneous in the classroom is valuable for all educators. Teachers can follow through unexpected teaching opportunities with ease, and provide students with a model of an adaptable and creative personality.
Today, Dalcroze Eurhythmics is taught in music preparatory schools and is part of the music theory and aural skills curriculum in conservatories and universities throughout North America, Europe, Asia and Australia. It also is used in K-12 music education, studio teaching, dance education, and therapeutic situation. Training in the approach is available in the United States and in Europe. In addition, national and international professional organizations exist to support eurhythmics teachers and those interested in pursuing the experience. The Dalcroze Society of America posts the locations of training sites in the United States. www.dalcrozeusa.org
Jaques-Dalcroze believed the learning process involved direct sensory experience. He advocated kinesthetic learning. Through movement, learning comes through experience in addition to observation. Varied musical experiences—including movement, singing, improvisation, music reading and writing, and playing instruments—reinforce musical learning (Johnson, 1993). Moreover, Jaques-Dalcroze believed that the way to health was through a balance of mind, body, and senses. Many people have discovered that they can improve and refine skills by rehearsing a combination of movements, first in the real body and then imagining going through these movements with special fluidity in the kinesthetic body. One can then return the same movement in the real body, allowing the improved flow of kinesthetic rehearsal to carry over into actual movement (Abramson, 1980).
Émile-Henri Jaques was born into a musical home on July 6, 1865. His Swiss parents were living in Vienna, and young Émile and his sister Hélène were supported in their artistic education by their mother Julie, herself a fine music teacher and pianist. She had studied the philosophy and teaching methods of educational reformer Heinrich Pestalozzi (1746-1827). He was an early advocate of teaching through the senses and through experience, not merely through the written word. He also supported the addition of vocal music instruction to school curricula. Pestalozzi's influence on Madame Jaques was evident in her son as well. Since the Dalcroze approach centers on the philosophy that experience in music is key to musical understanding, it seems that Pestalozzi and Dalcroze philosophies share common ground (Collins, 1993). Childhood in the Jaques household was a time of singing, playing, dancing, acting, and creating. Emile had a happy childhood and was described as "lively, friendly, and even contemplative for a child" (Spector, 1990, p. 5).
In 1875, the family moved to Geneva. After several years in a private school, Émile Jaques enrolled at the Geneva Conservatory. At the age of eighteen, he had not yet decided upon a career. The following year, 1884, he went to Paris where he studied drama at the Comédie Française and music at the Paris Conservatory. Young Emile reveled in the artistic atmosphere of the city. A passionate young actor and musician, he also found time to compose and perform, singing as he accompanied himself on the piano.
While in Paris, Émile Jaques became familiar with the teachings of Mathis Lussy (1828-1910), a piano instructor and writer. Lussy wrote extensively on the subject of expressive musical performance and musical understanding (Caldwell, 1995). Through Lussy, Émile Jaques learned of the process of scholarly inquiry: to recognize problems; to approach them scientifically; and to devise methods for their solution (Spector, 1990). Émile Jaques’ interests were shifting toward an emphasis in music, and after a visit with his family in Geneva in the summer of 1886, he accepted the position of assistant conductor and chorus master at the Théâtre des Nouveaux in Algiers, North Africa. Algeria had been a French colony since 1847, and consequently felt the influence of Western European culture. Émile Jaques underwent two changes while enjoying his first professional employment. Feeling that his youthful appearance might inhibit his effectiveness as a leader, he began sporting the mustache and goatee he would maintain for the rest of his life. This was also the time when he added Dalcroze to his birth name Jaques. It seems that a composer of polkas in Bordeaux, France, also had the name Emile Jaques. To avoid confusion, Émile-Henri borrowed the name Valcroze from a friend, changed the first letter to D, and was known thereafter as Emile Jaques-Dalcroze (Spector, 1990).
After one season, Jaques-Dalcroze returned to Geneva in 1887 and, later that year, moved to Vienna and enrolled at the Vienna Conservatory in the studio of Anton Bruckner (1824-1927). Their collaboration was brief: Bruckner insisted that "der dumme Franzose" study harmony from the beginning, which Jaques-Dalcroze refused to do. Eventually Bruckner attempted to have Jaques-Dalcroze thrown out of the conservatory, but was thwarted by the faculty. Adolf Prosniz (1827-1917) invited Jaques-Dalcroze into his studio. It may have been Prosniz who helped Jaques-Dalcroze focus his musical concentration and learn to study music with greater depth (Spector, 1990). In spite of his clashes with Bruckner, Jaques-Dalcroze considered their association valuable. Bruckner's intolerance and authoritative style were the antithesis of Jaques-Dalcroze's loving, playful nature. Perhaps this experience helped to solidify his idea that an effective teacher is one who respects and educates the whole child.
Spring of 1889 brought Jaques-Dalcroze's return to the Paris Conservatory and composition study with Gabriel Fauré. The twenty-four-year-old musician made the most of his opportunities, moving in the same musical circles as César Franck and other artists of his stature. Jaques-Dalcroze continued to compose an assortment of songs, ensembles, and sketches based on the customs of the day.
In 1892, Jaques-Dalcroze returned to the Geneva Conservatory, this time as a professor of solfège. He began to question the teaching methods of the day and wonder what improvements he could make. Careful observation of his students showed him that while the students could be good musical technicians, they often did not hear or feel the nuances of the music they were required to play. Just keeping a steady beat was often difficult for the students. Jaques-Dalcroze began by getting the students up from their seats keeping a steady beat by moving about the space. From there he added other fundamental qualities of singing, breathing, walking at various tempi, skipping, and conducting with large gestures (Odom, 1998). He then added quality to the movement by asking them to physically react to the improvised music that he was providing at the piano. These qualities included legato, marcato, and staccato movements to complement the music. Cooperative work with a partner allowed the students to experience timing, space, strength and weight, creativity, and cooperative learning. By adding rhythmic movement to music, students acknowledged the body as the first instrument of expression (Dutoit, 1971, p. 9). As instructor of solfège, Jaques-Dalcroze believed that the compartmentalization of music courses was detrimental to the pupils' true musical development (Carder, 1990). By combining solfège with rhythmic movement and improvisation into rhythmic gymnastics, as he first called this work, Jaques-Dalcroze began to teach in a holistic style.
From 1903 to 1910, Jaques-Dalcroze actively pursued the development of a teaching approach based on rhythmic gymnastics. However, his colleagues at the Geneva Conservatory considered him something of a radical. The disapproval that met his innovations was due partly to the conservatory faculty's unwillingness to condone his experimental techniques, and to have its students become "performing monkeys" (Dutoit, 1971, p. 14). Another branch of resistance was from Genevan society itself. Jaques-Dalcroze's students dressed in short-sleeved tunics, with bare legs and feet, to allow free movement in class. This was quite an affront to most Genevans, who lived according to the rigid morality of the early twentieth century.
People outside of Geneva, however, were keen to adopt Jaques-Dalcroze’s philosophy of music and movement education. After a demonstration of his approach in Berlin, Jaques-Dalcroze received an offer to develop an institution for rhythmic study at anhttp://www.real.com/?src=blackjack experimental Garden City being designed north of Dresden, Germany. The premise of Hellerau was to be a community that combined a planned industrial settlement with a school for artistic development attended by children and adults. Between the period of 1910 and 1914, Hellerau became a cultural center for music, theatre, and dance.
In partnership with Adolphe Appia, a noted theatre designer, Jaques-Dalcroze supervised the construction of a school and performance space that was noted for its architectural and theatrical innovations—instead of a proscenium, the space was now open, which brought the audience closer in to the performances. In addition, all components were completely modular, which allowed the performers to move the stage in front of the audience (Spector, 1990). During performances, students were not categorized as musicians, dancers, or actors, but functioned as all three. In the summers of 1912 and 1913, audiences flocked to Hellerau to see the student summer performance of Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice. These demonstrations attracted notable artists and teachers from around the world: theatre luminaries Konstantin Stanislavsky and George Bernard Shaw; dancers Mary Wigman, Sergei Diaghilev and Rudolf von Laban; and musician Darius Milhaud (Martin, 1965).
With the outbreak of World War I, the Hellerau school was closed and a permanent school was founded in Geneva. Jaques-Dalcroze, recognizing the need for qualified instructors, designed a professional training curriculum that enabled others to teach his approach. Instructors continue to graduate in Dalcroze Eurhythmics from the Dalcroze School in Geneva. These graduates have established training schools in many cities around the globe (Dutoit, 1971). Jaques-Dalcroze continued writing, composing, and teaching in Geneva until his death in 1950. Besides his teaching philosophy, he is also remembered as a prolific composer of songs, operettas, and large-scale festival presentations.
Abramson, R. M. (1980). Dalcroze-Based Improvisation. Music Educators Journal.Martin, F., Dénes, T., Berchtold, A., Gagnebin, H., Reichel, B., Dutoit, C., Stadler,
Caldwell, J. T. (1993). A Dalcroze perspective on skills for learning music. Music
Educators Journal, 79(7), 27-28.
Caldwell, J. T. (1995). Expressive singing: Dalcroze eurhythmics for voice. Englewood
Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Campbell, P. S. (1991). Rhythmic movement and public school education: progressive
views in the formative years. Journal of Research in Music Education, 19, 12-22.
Carder, P. (Ed.). (1990). The eclectic curriculum in American music education (2nd
ed.). Reston, VA: Music Educators National Conference.
Collins, D. L. (1993). Teaching choral music. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Dutoit, C. L. (1971). Music movement therapy. Geneva, Switzerland: Institut
Jaques-Dalcroze, E. (1920). The Jaques-Dalcroze method of eurhythmics: rhythmic
movement, Vols. 1 and 2. London: Novello, 1920. (Orgininal work published in
Jaques-Dalcroze, E. (1921). Rhythm, music and education (H. F. Rubinstein, Trans.).
New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons. (Original work published in 1921).
Jaques-Dalcroze, E. (1931). Eurhythmics, art and education (F. Rothwell, Trans.; C.
Cox, Ed.). New York: Barnes. (Original work published in 1930).
Johnson, M. D. (1993). Dalcroze skills for all teachers. Music Educators Journals, 79 (8), 42-45.
E. (1965). Émile Jaques-Dalcroze: L’homme, le compositeur, le créateur de la
rhythmique. Neuchâtel, Swisse: Baconnière.
Mead, V. H. (1994). Dalcroze eurhythmics in today's music classroom. New York:
Schott Music Corporation.
Odom, S. L. (1998) Jaques-Dalcroze, Emile. International Encyclopedia of Dance, Vol. 3. New York: Oxford.
Pennington, J. (1925). The importance of being rhythmic. New York: Knickerbocker
Spector, I. (1990). Rhythm and life: The work of Emile Jaques-Dalcroze. Stuyvesant,
NY: Pendragon Press.
Recommended Additional Readings and video
Aronoff, F. W. (1983). Dalcroze strategies for music learning in the classroom.
International Journal of Music Education, 2, 23-25.
Bachmann, M. L. (1991). Dalcroze Today. An Education through and into Music (D.
Parlett, Trans.). New York: Oxford University Press.
Dale, M. (2000). Eurhythmics for Young Children: Six Lessons for Fall. Ellicott City,
Maryland: MusiKinesis, 2000.
Driver, E. (1951). A Pathway to Dalcroze Eurhythmics. London: T. Nelson and Sons.
Findlay, E. (1971). Rhythm and Movement: Applications of Dalcroze Eurhythmics.
Secaucus, New Jersey: Summy Birchard, 1971.
Joseph, A. (1982). A Dalcroze Eurhythmics Approach to Music Learning in
Kindergarten Through Rhythmic Movement, Ear Training and Improvisation.
Doctoral dissertation, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh.
Leck, H. & Frego, R. J. D. (2005). Creating Artistry Through Movements. (DVD).
Milwaukee, Hal Lenard #08744511. ISBN: 0634098381.
Moore, S. F. (1992). The Writings of Emile Jaques-Dalcroze: Toward a theory for the
performance of musical rhythm. Doctoral dissertation, Indiana University.
(University Micro-films International, MI 48106).
David Frego, professor and Chair of the Department of Music at the University of Texas at San Antonio, received a G.M. from Brandon University in Canada, and an M.M., M.M.Ed. and a Ph.D. from Florida State University. In 1998 he established the Dalcroze Research Center in the Lawrence and Lee Theatre Research Institute at The Ohio State University. He regularly presents workshops in Dalcroze Eurhythmics throughout the globe. Dr. Frego is past-president of the Dalcroze Society of America.


ALLY', v.t. L. ligo.
1. To unite, or form a relation, as between families by marriage, or between princes and states by treaty, league or confederacy.
2. To form a relation by similitude, resemblance or friendship. Note. This word is more generally used in the passive form, as families are allied by blood; or reciprocally, as princes ally themselves to powerful states.
Dictionary of Words from the King James Bible. Public Domain. Copy freely.
Material presented was supplied by Brandon Staggs and was derived from the KJV Dictionary found on his website located at av1611.com.
The unabridged 1828 version of this dictionary in the SwordSearcher Bible Software at http://www.swordsearcher.com.
"Entry for 'Ally'". "King James Dictionary".


iCelebrating LGBTQ Pride in Central Park – Emma Stebbin’s iconic Angel of the Waters
Central Park has a long and celebrated history with the LGBTQ community, starting with the commission of Bethesda Fountain from artist Emma Stebbins. It was the earliest public artwork by a woman in New York City history. It was also the only sculpture included in the original plans for Central Park. It was cast in Munich and officially dedicated on May 31, 1873.
The Park Commission required that the sculpture be dedicated to “Love,” and this was a directive that the sculptor seems to have interpreted literally. The face of the Angel of the Waters statue is believed to be modeled after that of her lover, Charlotte Cushman, a leading actress of both the American and British stages. The women made no secret of the fact that they were partners in what was then known as a “Boston Marriage, a nineteenth century euphemism for a lesbian relationship.
Stebbins’ sculpture depicts the biblical “Angel of Bethesda”, a biblical symbol of healing and purity, resting on a base surrounded by four cherubs, which in turn represent “health,” “purity,” “peace,” and “temperance.” This theme was considered particularly appropriate as a symbol of the healthful benefits provided by the water from the Croton Aqueduct (opened in 1842), then stored in Central Park reservoirs. At the fountain’s dedication, Stebbins shared a pamphlet that spoke of the Angel as a healer.
Playwright Tony Kushner understood the symbolism of the curative powers of the water from the biblical fountain of Bethesda and, appropriately, set the final scene of the Perestroika section of the AIDS-themed play Angels in America (1993) at this location in Central Park.
Emma Stebbins and Charlotte Cushman


Author of Brave New World and The Doors of Perception, Aldous Huxley was born on July, 26 1894 and died on November 22, 1963—exactly 56 years ago today. In his memory, we’re republishing Jay Stevens’ article from the January, 1988 issue of High Times, originally titled “Door to Perception: Huxley Drops Mescaline,” which was excerpted from Stevens’ book, Storming Heaven: LSD and the American Dream.
He was born Aldous Leonard Huxley on July 26, 1894, in the county of Surrey, England, the third son of Dr. Leonard Huxley, educator, editor and minor literary figure, and the grandson of T.H. Huxley, eminent biologist and one of the most famous men in Victorian England. Known as “Darwin’s Bulldog,” T.H. was the man who had demolished Bishop Wilberforce in the famous Oxford debates over Darwin’s theory of evolution. He personified the scientific rationalist, and he eloquently argued its case in newspapers and magazines, and from lecterns throughout the English-speaking world. His collected essays, filling nine volumes, began appearing in the year of his third grandson’s birth, and just a few months before his own death at age seventy.
“Clear, cold logic engines,” were what T.H. demanded from his son and grandsons. As Aldous’s older brother, Julian, once defined it, the Huxley tradition was one of “hard but high thinking, plain but fiery living, wide intellectual interest and constant intellectual achievement.”
Huxley’s mother, Julia, came from equally impressive stock. She was the niece of poet Matthew Arnold and granddaughter of the moralist and educator Dr. Thomas Arnold, one of the eminent Victorians later eviscerated by Lytton Strachey in the book of that name. Julia Huxley was an educator who founded Prior’s Field, a girls’ school just a few meadows away from Hillside School, where young Aldous received his first education.
Author: High Times / High Times


Cerambyx dux (Faldermann)
Taxonomic placing: Insecta, Holometabola, Coleoptera, Cerambycidae.
Common name: Duke Beetle.
Geographic distribution: France, Italy, the Balkan, the Near East, Iran.
Host plants: Many rosaceous fruit trees.
Morphology: The female is dark-brown, about 25-45 mm in length, antennae as long as body, or longer. Larvae whitish, except the small brown head and small legs, about 50-60 mm long.
Life Cycle: The pest develops in living or moribund trees. It overwinters as partial-grown larvae, pupae and adults. Adults emerge in the spring; mated females colonize selected host trees and begin depositing eggs (about 30-40 per female) in bark crevices. The emerging larvae penetrate into the outer layers of the trunk and main branches of the host, later attacking the sapwood and heartwood. They require 1-2 years or more to complete their life cycle. The short-lived adults are active mostly during day.
Economic importance: The pest attacks stone fruit trees (apricot, almond, peach and ornamental trees or bushes, wherein it bores and whereon it feeds. The tunneling of the larvae may cause tree death. In Jordan the pest damaged about a quarter of the cultivated stone fruit trees.
Monitoring: Infested trees can be located by the large quantities of visible sawdust that the larvae expel near their entry holes, and by gum excreted by the trees. The adults, although active during day, are difficult to find due to their dark coloration.
Mechanical control: In small plots the larvae may be removed by pushing a flexible wire into the larva’s entrance hole and dragging it out.
Chemical control: This pest is difficult to control because the larvae are hidden within trees. Pesticides, aimed at the adults, may be applied during their early to mid- summer occurrence.
Biological control: In Malta larvae of Zeuzera pyrina, the leopard moth, are the main predators of C. dux, and have practically eliminated C. dux from that island. The ichneumonid parasitoid Dolichomitus kriechbaumeri (Schulz) attacks the Duke Beetle in Iran.
Abbasipour, H., Hasanshahi, G. and Jussila, R. 2012. First record of Dolichomitus kriechbaumeri (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae), a Larval parasitoid of long horned beetle, Cerambyx dux in Iran. Journal of BioControl in Plant Protection 1: 103-105.
Saliba, L.J. 1974. The adult behavior of Cerambyx dux Faldermann. Annals of the Entomological Society of America 67: 47-50.
Saliba, L.J. 1977. Observations on the biology of Cerambyx dux Fald in the Maltese Islands. Bulletin of Entomological Research 67: 107-11.
Sharaf, N.S. 2010. Colonization of Cerambyx dux Faldermann (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) in stone-fruit tree orchards in Fohais Directorate, Jordan. Jordan Journal of Agricultural Sciences 6: 560-578.


Difference between revisions of "Christopher of Lycia"
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The holy, glorious and right-victorious great-Martyr Christopher of Lycia (d. 249) the Christ bearer (Greek: ο Άγιος Χριστόφορος ο Κυνοκέφαλος), also known as the Cynocephalus or Dog-headed among the West, is a saint of the 3rd-century. He is believed to be the protector of travelers and is commemorated by the Church on May 9.
Saint Christopher lived in Lycia, under the reign of the Roman emperor Decius (reigned 249-251), and was at first named Reprobus before being baptised. Not much is known about him, but there are many legends connected to him.
The Orthodox tradition describes the saint as a tall man of tremendous strength who made a living carrying people across a raging river. One day his passenger was a child who grew so heavy as they crossed the river that St. Christopher feared they would both drown. He was amazed that such a small child could overcome someone so mighty as himself. The child then revealed that he was Christ, and the heaviness was caused by the weight of the world which he bore.
Although so little is known about the life of St. Christopher, there is much to be gathered from his experience of carrying Christ across the river. His story represents a message of hope that all Christians are called to bear and to "put on" Christ, by taking up the crosses, given to each of us, in our lives. Christopher bore his "cross" (Christ himself) and eventually suffered martyrdom for the faith, fulfilling the commandment of Christ, "He who does not take his cross and follow Me is not worthy of me" (Matt. 10:38).
St. Christopher came to martyrdom under the emperor who wanted to kill him for his faith. Christopher was first asked to renounce Christ. When he refused, he was tied to an iron stool, which was placed over fire. The stool melted, but St. Christopher was unharmed. The emperor then ordered archers to shoot him, but all the arrows missed. One archer shot the emperor in the eye. Outraged, the emperor then ordered that the saint be decapitated. St. Christopher's severed head told the emperor to put some of his blood in his wounded eye, and when the emperor did so, his sight was restored and he converted to Christianity.
The Greek word "Christophoros" translates into "Christ-bearer" and he is, therefore, depicted in iconography as carrying a child, who, in turn, is carrying a globe. Some people hold the superstition that if you see an [icon]] of St. Christopher you cannot die on that day; this superstition is not supported by the Orthodox Church.
"Cynocephalus" is a Greek word, literally meaning "dog-head." There are some rare icons that depict this martyr with the head of a dog. Such images may carry echoes of the Egyptian dog-headed god, Anubius; and Christopher pictured with a dog's head, is not generally supported by the Orthodox Church. However, these images have made him especially popular among the Roman Catholics who have created many stories to explain his "cynocephalatic" appearance.citation needed
His relics, including the head of the saint, are on the island of Rab in Croatia.
Kontakion (Tone 4)
- Your physique was overwhelming and your face horrifying. You willingly suffered trauma from your own people. Men and women tried to arouse consuming fires of passion in you, but instead they followed you to your martyrdom. You are our strong protector, o great martyr Christopher!
Troparion (Tone 4)
- In beautiful garments woven from thy blood thou dost stand before the King of Heaven. For thou dost chant the Thrice-holy hymn with Angels and Martyrs. By thy supplications save thy servants.


Published Soil Surveys for New York
When did soil survey begin in the United States?
Soil surveys were authorized by Congress in 1896 during an era of agricultural development. Soil survey field operations began in 1899 at four sites: Pecos Valley, New Mexico; Salt Lake Valley, Utah; Cecil County, Maryland; and the Connecticut Valley of Massachusetts and Connecticut.
What’s the purpose of a soil survey?
Soil surveys help people make the best decisions about the soil resource. They are used for selecting sites for development, road building, pipeline corridors, and waste disposal; for pollution control; for minimizing risks to human life and property; and for wildlife management, wetlands identification, and soil or water conservation.
How to use a soil survey
What information is in a soil survey?
Soil surveys provide a field-based scientific inventory of soil resources, including soil maps, data about the physical and chemical properties of soils, and information on the potentials and limitations of each soil.
Why are soils important?
Soils have many uses in addition to food, fiber, and fuel production. They play a major role in recycling carbon to the atmosphere and nitrogen in the soil, storing water for plant use, filtering surface waters, and in the disposal of solid and liquid wastes. Soils are also the base beneath most of our homes and roads as well as an important source of building materials, such as an adobe. Soils are the foundation for all life on Earth. Everything comes directly or indirectly from the soil.
How are the soil surveys of today different from those completed 100 years ago?
Today's soil surveys identify many more soil properties, utilize digital imagery for overlaying with other data, and are more detailed than earlier surveys. Early soil surveys identified very few soil properties, such as texture, color, depth, and wetness. Today’s surveys identify over 300 soil properties. Instead of publishing on hand-drawn maps, surveys now use aerial photo background imagery with digitized soil lines that can be used with other data layers in Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Map scale has changed from 1 inch to the mile (1:62,000 scale) to about 2.5 to 5 inches per mile (1:24,000 or 1:12,000 scale). Early surveys focused on farming, whereas surveys of today provide information for a variety of land uses in addition to agriculture.
After 100 years, why isn’t the soil survey completed for the United States?
Soil surveys are complete for over 96 percent of the private lands in the United States and more than 92 percent of all lands in the country. However, land use changes and new demands require soil surveys to improve, to refine the detail of the inventory, and to identify soil properties once thought unimportant. Advances in soil science allow us to better understand the soil. All soil survey information is now entered into a National Soil Information System to allow easier access and better interpretation of the information. Knowledge of soils continues to improve, and customer needs continue to change.
Who conducts the soil surveys?
The National Cooperative Soil Survey (NCSS) conducts the soil surveys. The NCSS is a nationwide partnership of Federal, regional, state, and local agencies, institutions, and private organizations. USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) leads the Federal part of the partnership. Nearly a thousand soil scientists (pedologists) map, classify, analyze, interpret and deliver soils information.
How do you become a Soil Scientist? Who hires them?
A soil scientist completes a core curriculum in soil science and has a basic education in chemistry, geography, geology, and other natural sciences. Apart from Federal government agencies, Soil Scientists are hired by state agencies, universities and other research organizations, and environmental consulting companies.
How do soil surveys benefit society?
Soils sustain plant and animal life. Protecting and preserving the soil resources ensures a productive agriculture for future generations. Soil surveys provide the scientific information needed to properly manage and conserve soils.
Soils regulate and partition water and solute flow. Water quality and water quantity are dependent on the health of the soil. Soil survey information can promote land use practices to manage this hydrological function of soils. Soils also filter, buffer, degrade, immobilize, and detoxify contaminants. Soil surveys help identify environmental treatment concerns for animal waste and water quality.
Soils provide support to buildings, transportation systems, and underground facilities. Soil surveys provide information to help in site selection and in the design and selection of building materials so these facilities last their intended design life.
Soil surveys provide data on the physical, chemical, and biological properties of soils; they show the relationship of soil to plants and water; they provide maps to display relationships for assessment and use; they provide the basis for predicting and minimizing degradation of soil and water resources; they offer guidance for site selection by flagging areas with constraints or potential for various uses; they enable the assessment of management impacts on ecological and environmental changes; and they enable the land user to manage the land in a sustainable manner.
How can a soil survey help me when buying a house or taking care of my property?
Soil surveys provide information about soil wetness, stability, permeability, flooding, and other properties important to soil use for a dwelling site.
What’s the future of soil surveys?
New demands and technology will drive the future of soil surveys. Land use changes, changes in crops, reclamation of mine lands, human-health interactions, and water conservation issues will create new demands on soil surveys for additional soil data, information on human-altered soils, and data relating to the properties that change during the year. The biology of the soil is significant to the soil's interaction with plants, animals, water, and humans. The biological aspects of soil are just now being investigated. Technology will drive soil surveys to find more efficient ways of collecting and delivering information. Spatial information technology will allow better presentation, analysis, and delivery of soil information at an accelerated pace.
Where can I get further information?
Information on soils and other natural resources is available at all of USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) local offices; local conservation districts; the Cooperative Extension Service; and land grant colleges and institutions. In addition, each NRCS state office has a Soil Scientist who has oversight for soil survey delivery in the state. Soil Scientists with other agencies provide assistance on Federal lands. Many parts of the country also have services available from private consulting firms. The NRCS Electronic Field Office Technical Guide (eFOTG) provides additional information.
Soil Survey Geographic (SSURGO) Database
Web Soil Survey


10 Key Components of Healthy, Equitable Communities
The ten key components for creating healthy, equitable communities build on the great work of our partners and were identified through analyzing local health data and research, and gathering extensive community feedback.
Within these 10 components, four priority areas were identified as key priorities for healthy, equitable communities that focus on the root causes of health, grouped as: Healthy Housing, Healthy Neighborhoods, Healthy Schools, and a Healthy Economy. Find more in our .
A healthy, equitable community is one that offers complete social, physical and mental well-being to all its residents at all stages of life and has the following themes embedded across all the components: accessibility, affordability, stability, diversity, safety, equity.


Arthritis is inflammation in or around a joint. Typical symptoms include swelling, warmth or redness, pain, tenderness, stiffness, and loss of motion in the joint. Although we usually see arthritis in older adults, the condition can affect people of all ages, including children.
There are more than 100 types of arthritis. Some of the most common types are osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis and gout. Osteoarthritis, a form of degenerative arthritis, occurs when the cartilage, or cushioning tissue between bones, wears away and allows bone to rub against bone. Degenerative arthritis is caused by normal wear and tear on the joints over time. Excessive weight, as well as potential genetic factors, contribute to this degeneration.
Rheumatoid and psoriatic arthritis are forms of inflammatory arthritis, autoimmune conditions in which the immune system mistakenly attacks the body. Rheumatoid arthritis typically affects the lining of joints, eventually causing bone erosion and swelling, and it can also attack other tissues and organs. Psoriatic arthritis affects up to 30 percent of people with psoriasis, a skin condition characterized by itchy red patches and scales. Pain, stiffness and swelling in the affected joint are the main symptoms. Both rheumatoid and psoriatic arthritis are thought to be caused by genetics and environmental factors like extreme stress or injury.
Gout, a form of metabolic arthritis, occurs when too much uric acid in the blood causes crystals to form in the joints—especially those of the big toes. Gout also can affect tendons and other parts of the body. The risk of getting gout is higher if you’re male, overweight, consume alcohol in excess, or have a diet high in meat or fish that contain chemical substances called purines.
There is no failsafe way to avoid getting arthritis, but there are things you can do to reduce your risk. To lower your risk of degenerative arthritis, maintain a healthy weight, lower your blood sugar if it’s too high, and maintain flexibility and motion in your joints with regular exercise.
To lower your risk of rheumatoid arthritis or slow its progression, eat a healthy diet that is low in sugar, sodium and fat, and avoid smoking and anything else that increases inflammation within the body. To avoid gout or lessen its effects, moderate your intake of alcohol and purine-rich foods, and maintain a healthy weight.
To learn more about arthritis, visit the Arthritis Foundation at www.arthritis.org.


From ancient times, the Moon is referred to as a Goddess and we find her depicted as a feminine figure on ancient sculptures of many civilizations. The main reason for the feminine personification of Moon is because of their similar monthly cycle i.e, the cycle or phases of the moon and the monthly menstrual cycle of a woman are similar. They both last for approximately the same number of days. In fact, even today, some women refer to their periods as being in their ‘moon time’. Even though it is a fact that the moon doesn’t exclude men from its impact and influences, the effects on women are distinct. We will be elaborating on the moon’s impact on women in this section, please check out our article about moons impact on men to learn more about it.
This connection between the phases of the moon and a woman’s cycle of the womb along with her changing moods have been written about from time immemorial. It is observed in scientific studies that certain body processes were impacted by natural light. The menstrual cycle is one of them, this explains the basic connection between menstrual cycle and moon phases. Some studies also show that many women have their periods around the full moon. A woman can feel her mood swing from being pleased to angry and then unhappy, in just a few hours during this tenure. This is part of the pre-menstrual syndrome(PMS). It can sometimes result in aggressive behavior and volatile tendencies. Increased violence is also noticed during this time. Some women experience the state of PMS every month when the moon is in a certain phase.
The changing moon phases also seem to affect a change in the bodily fluids and the basal body temperature which in turn effects conceiving and delivery too. The famed sex manual, Kamasutra, claims that since a woman’s sexuality is liquid, her different body parts could react differently during sex, depending on the phase of the moon. It gives us a chart of the shifting erogenous areas on a woman’s body, where she could be highly receptive, depending on the phase the moon is in.
It has also been observed that more babies are born when the moon is closest to the Earth and exerts its maximum gravitational pull on the Earth. The full moon also seems to affect the sleeping patterns of women and they have a disturbed sleep around this time. They also seem to sleep a little less on a full moon night.
Thus, it is not wrong to conclude that this celestial body has got a lot to do with a woman’s physiological and mental state.
Therefore your mental, emotional as well as physical well –being is very interconnected to the moon and its position. The shifting of the moon has a different impact depending on when and where you were born. It is precisely the reason why expert astrologers refer to the moon when talking about your state of mind, and what you should or should not do to overcome its impact.


Why Did Parents in the Chinookan tribe Perform Cranial Deformation on their Babies?
Beauty is a fickle thing. Worse than that, it is (as often as not) one of the most painful goals in the realms of the wealthy and elite. In China, the binding of feet was once seen to create beautiful, dainty extremities. To those in western culture, this is often viewed as a torturous activity. The Yoruba tribes of Nigeria, Benin, and Togo in Africa practice scarification: the cutting or burning of skin to create representations of familial ties. Once again, much of modern western culture would view this as a terrible childhood practice. Yet people with this perception do not realize that similar practices were performed not only in recent times, but in their own backyard. In North America one of the most prominent examples of painful beautification was the tradition of head-binding among the people of the Chinookan tribe in the Pacific Northwest.
Binding Children’s Heads to Show Nurturing and Status
In the Chinookan tribe, head binding (also known as artificial cranial deformation) occurred when an elite child, male or female, was first born, and it was the responsibility of the parents to ensure this practice was followed.
To accomplish this, the child's head was bound between wooden boards (called ‘cradle head boarding’) from the time the child turned three months old until he/she reached the one year mark. Anterior and posterior fontanels (soft spots) made it easier to shape the infant’s skull. (It should be noted, however, that this time frame is not precise, but based on archaeological analysis. The exact age this practice began and ended may have been slightly earlier or later in a child's life.)
Example of methods used by the Mayan people to shape a child's head. ( Public Domain )
The cradle head boarding technique would create an inclination from the eyebrows up to the crown. A raised ridge would also be present from ear-to-ear following this practice. Essentially, the indication of a flat head not only implied a higher status (and possibly intelligence or spiritual elevation) but it was also intended to reinforce social hierarchy for the Chinookans. In their culture, people with round heads could be, and often were, enslaved - or at least looked upon with disdain. Thus, high-standing mothers were expected to perform this procedure to show that they cared for and did not neglect their children – like most mothers, they wanted them to be accepted by their peers.
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Painting by Paul Kane, showing a Chinookan child in the process of having its head flattened, and an adult after the process. ( Public Domain )
Hind Binding in Other Cultures
The Chinookan tribe were not the only people to participate in the performance of artificial cranial deformation. A similar ritual was performed among the Maya people, as they believed a flat, longer head was one of the more desirable traits to possess. Further, according to ancient written sources—the Classical Greek writer Hippocrates in particular—the practice was performed as far back as 400 BC, and known by other cultures around the world.
Paracas skulls. ( Public Domain )
When these records are combined with archaeological data from locations such as Shanidar Cave in Iraq, this ritual appears to go as far back as the ninth millennium BC—though the actual ritualistic/societal purpose of the practice among Proto-Neolithic Homo sapiens is unknown.
‘Flat headed Indian child’. (1880) ( Public Domain )
The Forgotten Story of the Chinookan Tribe
According to scholars Robert Boyd, Kenneth Ames, and Tony Johnson in their book "Chinookan Peoples of the Lower Columbia", the Chinookan people have been living on the lower portion of the Columbia in modern day Oregon for thousands of years—over 10,000 years to be a bit more precise. The English arrived in the late 1700s, and men such as Lt. William R. Broughton (18th century) and Meriwether Lewis and William Clark (19th century) recorded the Chinookan culture through their "white-man" eyes. The Chinookans were described as sedentary people living in "large, cedar plan houses", with about “25% of the area's population" enslaved by the elite and more powerful commoners.”
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Chinook people meet the Corps of Discovery on the Lower Columbia, October 1805. ( Public Domain )
The tribe was not recognized by the US government until 2001, likely why they are one of the lesser known Native American cultures. Further, the following year, when George W. Bush took presidency after Bill Clinton, this recognition was revoked. Therefore, the Chinookan tribe is not widely known or studied in United States history courses.
Top image: Chinook child undergoing process of flattening the head. ( Public Domain )
By Ryan Stone
Boyd, Robert, Kenneth Ames and Tony Johnson (eds.) Chinookan Peoples of the Lower Columbia. University of Washington Press: WA, 2013.
Smith, Cameron. "Chinookan Culture." The Virtual Meier Site. Accessed January 20, 2017. http://web.pdx.edu/~b5cs/virtualmeier/society.html
Wilson, Katie. "Recognition move by Oregon tribe stirs Chinook concerns". Chinook Observer. 2014. Accessed January 20, 2017. http://www.chinookobserver.com/co/news/20141007/recognition-move-by-oregon-tribe-stirs-chinook-concerns


On Saturday, August 21, a potentially hazardous asteroid will safely fly past Earth at a distance of just 3.4 million kilometers (2.1 million miles), the closest approach for several decades. That’s just 8.9 times the distance between the Earth and the Moon.
Asteroid 2016 AJ193 is larger than 99 percent of all known Near-Earth objects and so it is good to keep an eye on it.
The space rock measures 1.37 kilometers (0.85 miles) according to measurements from NASA’s spacecraft NEOWISE. It is also surprisingly dark, reflecting very little light back making this close (and safe) approach an important chance to better study the object.
It was discovered by the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS) facility – located at Haleakala Observatory, Hawaii in January 2016. It is important to stress that an asteroid with the potential to devastate our planet was only discovered five years ago.
The asteroid orbits around the Sun every 5.9 years going far beyond the orbit of Jupiter and then as far as the orbit of Venus, with quite the inclination with respect to the plane of the solar system. Its next really close passage to Earth will be August 19, 2080, where the asteroid will be at about twice the distance that it will be on Saturday.
Professional astronomers will study this object using the Goldstone Observatory in California together with observatories in Spain, Germany, Italy, and Russia. The observations will cover the period August 20 to August 24, roughly the time that it is observable for them.
Telescopes of 20 centimeters (8 inches) or larger should be able to spot it. It will appear in the constellation of Lepus, near the Mu Leporis star. Better watch it just before dawn.
“Not only is 2016 AJ193 a near-Earth asteroid, but it is too classified as a Potentially Hazardous Asteroid. The flyby from a roughly 1-mile (~1.4 kilometers) large body does not only require specific attention, but it is also a clear reminder of the importance of building a community of observers capable of observing the sky from everywhere and all the time,” Franck Marchis, chief scientific officer at Unistellar, told IFLScience.
An asteroid about as long as the Great Pyramid of Giza is tall will make a “close” approach with Earth on Sunday (July 25), according to NASA calculations.
There is no worry that the space rock poses any threat to Earth, but NASA monitors such rocks to both learn more about the early solar system — asteroids are rocky fragments from that time — and because if their orbits were to change, the asteroid could pose a future risk to Earth.
On its closest approach, the near-Earth asteroid, called 2008 GO20, will swing within 2.8 million miles (4.5 million kilometers) of our blue marble. It will be trekking at a whopping 18,000 mph (nearly 29,000 km/h), according to news reports. RECOMMENDED VIDEOS FOR YOU…
The rock is estimated to be anywhere from 318 to 720 feet (97 to 220 meters) across. (The Great Pyramid of Giza stands at 450 feet, or 138 m, tall.) Any space rock larger than about 490 feet (150 m) across that is expected to make a shave with Earth within 4.6 million miles (7.5 million km) is considered a potentially hazardous asteroid (PHA); NASA’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies monitors all PHAs. For comparison, that distance is 19.5 times the span between Earth and the moon.
And in reality, that distance doesn’t hold a candle to the closest known flyby by an asteroid (at least one that didn’t smash into us), which occurred on Aug. 16, 2020, when 2020 QG zipped just 1,830 miles (2,950 kilometers) above the Indian Ocean, Live Science sister site Space.com reported. Such little space rocks pose no danger to life on Earth.RELATED CONTENT
On the other hand, 2008 GO20 is “potentially hazardous” because over time the gravitational tug of the planets could change the object’s orbital path so that it crosses Earth’s orbit. If that were to happen, a future collision with our planet is possible, NASA said.
This isn’t the first time 2008 GO20 has visited Earth’s quarters. It made its closest approach on Aug. 4, 1901, when the asteroid swung to 806,856 miles (1.3 million km) of our planet, according to NASA records. Its next closest flyby happened on July 31, 1935 at a distance of 1.15 million miles (1.85 million km) of Earth. When it next flies by Earth, on July 24, 20342008 GO20 will get as close as 3.1 million miles (5 million km).
Broadcast news networks are notoriously bad at covering the climate crisis, dedicating a vanishingly small amount of airtime — year after year — to the grave existential threat despite the many potential stories they could be running about it.
Their neglect of the climate crisis is on stark display in a new statistic: According to Media Matters for America, morning TV shows spent nearly as much time on Jeff Bezos’s space launch on July 20, 2021 as they did on the climate crisis in all of 2020.
The morning shows on broadcast networks combined spent 212 minutes covering Bezos’s space trip just on Tuesday alone, Media Matters researchers found. Meanwhile, in the entirety of last year, the shows spent a combined 267 minutes on the climate crisis.
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Bezos’s space trip was 11 minutes long. By contrast, the climate crisis has been ongoing for decades and daily threatens the fabric of our society and the continued existence of our species, if it continues unabated.
Further, Bezos’s trip to space was largely a PR stunt, meant to garner excitement around the billionaire and his space company while also buying fawning coverage from news outlets. It comes at a time when billionaires have come under increased scrutiny for paying zero or fewer taxes than ordinary working people and progressives put forward the argument that nobody should be allowed to accrue as much wealth as people like the Amazon CEO.
As progressives argue, the space trip was wasteful and almost insulting to the Amazon workers, who, under Bezos, suffer terrible work conditions. “Amazon workers did pay for this — with lower wages, union busting, a frenzied and inhumane workplace, and delivery drivers not having health insurance during a pandemic,” wrote Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter.
And yet, judging by the amount of coverage that the morning broadcast shows dedicated to the Bezos flight versus the climate crisis, it would almost seem as though they’re of equivalent importance.
In fact, CNNrecently bumped climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe, who was slated to discuss the climate crisis as Death Valley was hitting record high temperatures, in order to cover the other recent billionaire space stunt — businessman Richard Branson’s brief jaunt to the edge of space.
CNN’s decision to bump Hayhoe for Branson’s stunt “shows that cable news, and TV news as a whole, still largely continues to fail at grasping the climate crisis as the existential threat it is,” wrote Earther’s Molly Taft. “Instead, coverage prioritizes entertainment and sensationalism that keeps people watching the commercial breaks.”
What makes it especially frustrating too, Taft writes, is that TV news networks appear to be reaching a breakthrough with covering climate this year. Networks linked recent heat waves in the American West to climate change in 27 percent of segments, Media Matters research showed, and have improved coverage in recent months.
Mentioning the climate crisis in 27 percent of segments on the heat wave is still quite low, especially when researchers have found that it was almost certainly brought on and worsened by climate change.
Indeed, climate advocates have expressed frustration for years that broadcast news as a whole largely ignores the climate crisis. In 2019, according to Media Matters, broadcast news shows dedicated less than 1 percent of their reporting to the climate crisis.
That’s despite the fact that 2019 was a landmark year for the climate crisis as the second warmest year on record at the time. It’s now been bumped to third place, with 2020 tying for first place with 2016. And 2019 was even an improvement on 2018’s coverage, with networks having spent a combined 238 minutes on climate in 2019 versus only 142 minutes the year before.
Media analysts and climate communication researchers argue that broadcast news — and media at large — can make a difference with more urgent and frequent climate coverage. The American public is growing more and more concerned about the climate crisis despite a dearth of coverage from corporate news outlets, and that impact could be even higher if the networks dedicate the time and effort to cover it.
“We have the privilege of having discovered perhaps the largest comet ever seen.”
It has not visited the solar system in more than 3 million years.
People here on Earth will likely need to rely on telescopes to capture photographs of it.
This is a big one.
A giant comet – which scientists say is arguably the largest comet discovered in modern times – is on its way toward the sun and will make its closest approach to Earth in 2031.
“We have the privilege of having discovered perhaps the largest comet ever seen – or at least larger than any well-studied one – and caught it early enough for people to watch it evolve as it approaches and warms up,” said University of Pennsylvania astronomer Gary Bernstein, a co-discoverer of the object.
It is the most distant comet to be discovered on its incoming path, giving us years to watch it evolve as it approaches the sun, the National Science Foundation said.
The comet, which is estimated to be 60 to 120 miles across, or about 10 times the diameter of most comets, is an icy relic flung out of the solar system by the migrating giant planets in the early history of the solar system.
This comet is quite unlike any other seen before, the National Science Foundation said, and the huge size estimate is based on how much sunlight it reflects.
At its current pace, the comet will travel from its current point just past Neptune’s orbit to nearly reach Saturn’s orbit in 2031, Smithsonian magazine said.
The comet probably came from the Oort Cloud, which is believed to be a giant spherical shell that surrounds the solar system, according to NASA. Most long-period comets such as this one come from the Oort Cloud, NASA said.
It could be the largest object from the Oort Cloud ever detected, and it is the first comet on an incoming path to be detected so far away.
Astronomers suspect that there may be many more undiscovered comets of this size waiting in the Oort Cloud. These giant comets are thought to have been scattered to the far reaches of the solar system by the migration of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune early in their history.
The comet is dubbed Bernardinelli-Bernstein after the two astronomers who discovered it: Pedro Bernardinelli (also from the University of Pennsylvania) and Gary Bernstein. Its official name is 2014 UN271.
For centuries, Earthlings have gazed at the heavens and wondered about life among the stars. But as humans hunted for little green men, the extraterrestrials might have been watching us back.
In new research, astronomers have drawn up a shortlist of nearby star systems where any inquisitive inhabitants on orbiting planets would be well placed to spot life on Earth.
The scientists identified 1,715 star systems in our cosmic neighbourhood where alien observers could have discovered Earth in the past 5,000 years by watching it “transit” across the face of the sun.
Among those in the right position to observe an Earth transit, 46 star systems are close enough for their planets to intercept a clear signal of human existence – the radio and TV broadcasts which started about 100 years ago.Advertisement
The researchers estimate that 29 potentially habitable planets are well positioned to witness an Earth transit, and eavesdrop on human radio and television transmissions, allowing any observers to infer perhaps a modicum of intelligence. Whether the broadcasts would compel an advanced civilisation to make contact is a moot point.
“One way we find planets is if they block out part of the light from their host star,” said Lisa Kaltenegger, professor of astronomy and director of the Carl Sagan Institute at Cornell University in New York. “We asked, ‘Who would we be the aliens for if somebody else was looking?’ There is this tiny sliver in the sky where other star systems have a cosmic front seat to find Earth as a transiting planet.”
Earthly astronomers have detected thousands of planets beyond the solar system. About 70% are spotted when alien worlds pass in front of their host stars and block some of the light that reaches scientists’ telescopes. Future observatories, such as Nasa’s James Webb Space Telescope due to launch this year, will look for signs of life on “exoplanets” by analysing the composition of their atmospheres.
To work out which nearby star systems are well placed to observe an Earth transit, Kaltenegger and Dr Jackie Faherty, an astrophysicist at the American Museum of Natural History, turned to the European Space Agency’s Gaia catalogue of star positions and motions. From this they identified 2,034 star systems within 100 parsecs (326 light years) that could spot an Earth transit any time from 5,000 years ago to 5,000 years in the future.
One star known as Ross 128, a red dwarf in the Virgo constellation, is about 11 light years away – close enough to receive Earth broadcasts – and has a planet nearly twice the size of Earth. Any suitably equipped life on the planet could have spotted an Earth transit for more than 2,000 years, but lost the vantage point 900 years ago. If there is intelligent life on any of the two known planets orbiting Teegarden’s star, 12.5 light years away, it will be in a prime position to watch Earth transits in 29 years’ time.https://04d10349443cb018b282b3a98518c963.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html
At 45 light years away, another star called Trappist-1 is also close enough to eavesdrop on human broadcasts. The star hosts at least seven planets, four of them in the temperate, habitable zone, but they will not be in position to witness an Earth transit for another 1,642 years, the scientists write in Nature.
The findings come as the US government prepares to publish a hotly anticipated report on unidentified flying objects (UFOs). The report from the Pentagon’s Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force, which was set up to gain insights into the nature and origins of unknown aircraft, is not expected to reveal evidence of alien antics, or rule it out.
Prof Beth Biller at Edinburgh University’s Institute for Astronomy, who was not involved in the Nature study, said the work could change how scientists approach Seti, the search for extraterrestrial life. “What was striking to me was how few of the stars within 100 parsecs could have viewed a transiting Earth,” she said.
“The transit method requires a very precise alignment between the transiting planet, its star, and the sun for a given planet to be detectable, so this result is not surprising. Now I am curious about what fraction of the stars in the Gaia catalogue of nearby stars have the right vantage point to detect the Earth via other exoplanet detection methods, such as the radial velocity method or direct imaging!”
Astronomers have discovered a huge and previously unknown object entering our solar system that will reach the orbit of Saturn in 2031. It is possibly the largest body from the outer reaches of our solar system ever found to make such a close approach to the sun.
Known as 2014 UN271, it is estimated to be between 100 and 370 kilometres across. The object was spotted by the Dark Energy Survey (DES), a project using the Victor …
A 1,100 km-wide, false-color radar view of Lavinia Planitia, one of the lowland regions on Venus where the lithosphere has fragmented into blocks (purple) delineated by belts of tectonic structures (yellow). Image credit:NC State University based upon NASA/JCL imagery
Venus’ surface is not a single, solid “lithosphere”, as once thought, but a patchwork of tectonic plates with similar activity to – but not the same as – those here on Earth, according to a new study out today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The study shows that these tectonic plates jostle and bump against one another like pack ice on a frozen lake, suggesting Venus is still geologically active.
“We’ve identified a previously unrecognised pattern of tectonic deformation on Venus, one that is driven by interior motion just like on Earth,” says Paul Byrne, associate professor of planetary science at North Carolina State University, the lead and co-corresponding author of the work. “Although different from the tectonics we currently see on Earth, it is still evidence of interior motion being expressed at the planet’s surface.”
Byrne and an international team of researchers used radar images from NASA’s Magellan spacecraft, which imaged the entire surface of Venus before plunging into the Venusian atmosphere in the summer of 1993 and breaking apart. Looking at the extensive Venusian lowlands, the team saw areas where large blocks of the lithosphere appeared to have moved, some pulling apart, others pushing together, and others sliding past one another.
By creating a computer model of this deformation, the team found that sluggish motion in the planet’s interior explains the more gentle tectonic activity occurring on Venus – as opposed to the violent tectonic motions on Earth, which can create huge mountain ranges or vast subduction systems.
The find is significant because Venus was once thought to have a motionless, solid surface just like Mars or the Moon, rather than a geologically active, moving surface.
“We know that much of Venus has been volcanically resurfaced over time, so some parts of the planet might be really young, geologically speaking,” Byrne says. “But several of the jostling blocks have formed in and deformed these young lava plains, which means that the lithosphere fragmented after those plains were laid down. This gives us reason to think that some of these blocks may have moved geologically very recently – perhaps even up to today.”
The new “pack ice” pattern identified on our furnace-hot neighbour may offer clues about the deformation of tectonic plates on planets outside the solar system, as well as the geological formation of early Earth.
“The thickness of a planet’s lithosphere depends mainly upon how hot it is, both in the interior and on the surface,” Byrne says. “Heat flow from the young Earth’s interior was up to three times greater than it is now, so its lithosphere may have been similar to what we see on Venus today: not thick enough to form plates that subduct, but thick enough to have fragmented into blocks that pushed, pulled, and jostled.”
The new study is part of a renaissance in interest surrounding our neighbouring planet. Both NASA and the European Space Agency recently approved three new missions to Venus that will observe the planet’s surface and assess whether it once held oceans – and potentially life.
“It’s great to see renewed interest in the exploration of Venus, and I’m particularly excited that these missions will be able to test our key finding that the planet’s lowlands have fragmented into jostling crustal blocks,” Byrne says.
(CNN)Hundreds of mysterious fast radio bursts have been detected in space thanks to a Canadian telescope and an international group of researchers.The origins of these bright, millisecond-long flashes of light are unknown because the bursts, or FRBs, are unpredictable and vanish quickly. Scientists first observed them in 2007. In the decade following, they only observed about 140 bursts across the universe.”The thing about FRBs is that they are really hard to catch,” said Kiyoshi Masui, assistant professor of physics at MIT and member of the university’s Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research. “You have to have your radio telescope pointed at just the right place at just the right time and you can’t predict where or when that will be.”
That all changed when the CHIME telescope, located at the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory in British Columbia, Canada, began receiving radio signals in 2018 during its first year of operation.
The CHIME radio telescope array, pictured here, detected 535 fast radio bursts in its first year of operation.The stationary radio telescope, called the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment, detected 535 new fast radio bursts between 2018 and 2019.This enabled scientists to create the CHIME catalog of fast radio bursts, which was presented Wednesday at the 238th American Astronomical Society Meeting, an event that’s occurring virtually.
Not only does the catalog expand on the known number of fast radio bursts, but it also broadens the information available about their locations and properties. While most of the fast radio bursts occurred just once, 61 of them were repeating fast radio bursts from 18 sources. The repeating bursts appear differently — each flash lasts a little longer than the single bursts.When a burst repeats, scientists have a much better chance of tracing it back to its point of origin. These locations could help scientists determine what causes the bursts as well.
Fast radio burst may have come from the Milky WayBased on their observations, the researchers believe that single fast radio bursts may have sources that are different from repeating ones.”With all these sources, we can really start getting a picture of what FRBs look like as a whole, what astrophysics might be driving these events, and how they can be used to study the universe going forward,” said Kaitlyn Shin, CHIME member and a graduate student in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Department of Physics, in a statement.
How CHIME works
The CHIME telescope functions a bit differently from others used for radio astronomy. The array of four giant radio antennas, comparable to the size and shape of half-pipes used for snowboarding, are entirely motionless. As Earth rotates on its axis, this array receives radio signals from half of the sky.Typically, radio dishes move to capture light from different areas in the sky. Instead, CHIME uses an all digital design and has a correlator, a digital signaling processor to capture incoming radio signals. It can churn through massive amounts of data — about 7 terabits per second, or the equivalent of a small percentage of global internet traffic.
Mysterious fast radio bursts traced to spiral galaxy arms“Digital signal processing is what makes CHIME able to reconstruct and ‘look’ in thousands of directions simultaneously,” Masui said. “That’s what helps us detect FRBs a thousand times more often than a traditional telescope.”The 535 bursts detected by CHIME came from all parts of the sky — and space. Based on the information they gathered, the researchers calculated that these bright fast radio bursts likely occur about 800 times per day across the entire sky.”That’s kind of the beautiful thing about this field — FRBs are really hard to see, but they’re not uncommon,” Masui said. “If your eyes could see radio flashes the way you can see camera flashes, you would see them all the time if you just looked up.”While these bursts would be intriguing enough based on their mysterious nature alone, scientists also believe they can use the bursts to have a better understanding of the universe and even map the distribution of gas across it.Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more.When these radio waves travel through space, it’s likely they’re encountering gas or plasma. This can distort the waves, change their properties and even their trajectory. Determining this information about a radio burst could help scientists estimate the distance it traveled and how much gas it encountered.”This carries a record within it of the structure of the universe that it has traveled through on its way to get from the source to us,” Masui said. “Because of this, we think that they are going to be the ultimate tool for studying the universe.”Many of these bright radio bursts detected by CHIME traveled from distant galaxies and were likely created by incredibly energetic sources — but researchers are still trying to determine the exact nature of those sources.This sky map shows fast radio bursts based on CHIME detections.
With enough fast radio bursts, it may be possible to map out the large-scale structure of the universe.”These large structures make up the filaments of the cosmic web,” said Alex Josephy, a doctoral student in physics at McGill University in Canada. “With the FRB catalog, we have detected this correlation between FRBs and large-scale structure. This is really, really exciting and ushers in a new era of (fast radio burst) cosmology.”
An international group of collaborators, including scientists from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and The University of New Mexico, have discovered a new, temperate sub-Neptune sized exoplanet with a 24-day orbital period orbiting a nearby M dwarf star. The recent discovery offers exciting research opportunities thanks to the planet’s substantial atmosphere, small star, and how fast the system is moving away from the Earth.
The research, titled TOI-1231 b: A Temperate, Neptune-Sized Planet Transiting the Nearby M3 Dwarf NLTT 24399, will be published in a future issue of The Astronomical Journal. The exoplanet, TOI-1231 b, was detected using photometric data from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and followed up with observations using the Planet Finder Spectrograph (PFS) on the Magellan Clay telescope at Las Campanas Observatory in Chile. The PFS is a sophisticated instrument that detects exoplanets through their gravitational influence on their host stars. As the planets orbit their hosts, the measured stellar velocities vary periodically, revealing the planetary presence and information about their mass and orbit.
The observing strategy adopted by NASA’s TESS, which divides each hemisphere into 13 sectors that are surveyed for roughly 28 days, is producing the most comprehensive all-sky search for transiting planets. This approach has already proven its capability to detect both large and small planets around stars ranging from sun-like down to low-mass M dwarf stars. M dwarf stars, also known as a red dwarf, are the most common type of star in the Milky Way making up some 70 percent of all stars in the galaxy.
M dwarfs are smaller and possess a fraction of the sun’s mass and have low luminosity. Because an M dwarf is smaller, when a planet of a given size transits the star, the amount of light that is blocked out by the planet is larger, making the transit more easily detectable. Imagine an Earth-like planet passing in front of a star the size of the sun, it’s going to block out a tiny bit of light; but if it’s passing in front of a star that’s a lot smaller, the proportion of light that’s blocked out will be larger. In a sense, this creates a larger shadow on the surface of the star, making planets around M dwarfs more easily detectable and easier to study.
Although it enables the detection of exoplanets across the sky, TESS’s survey strategy also produces significant observational biases based on orbital period. Exoplanets must transit their host stars at least twice within TESS ‘s observing span to be detected with the correct period by the Science Processing Operations Center (SPOC) pipeline and the Quick Look Pipeline (QLP), which search the 2-minute and 30-minute cadence TESS data, respectively. Because 74 percent of TESS’ total sky coverage is only observed for 28 days, the majority of TESS exoplanets detected have periods less than 14 days. TOI-1231b’s 24-day period, therefore, makes its discovery even more valuable.
NASA JPL scientist Jennifer Burt, the lead author of the paper, along with her collaborators including Diana Dragomir, an assistant professor in UNM’s Department of Physics and Astronomy, measured both the radius and mass of the planet.
“Working with a group of excellent astronomers spread across the globe, we were able to assemble the data necessary to characterize the host star and measure both the radius and mass of the planet,” said Burt. “Those values in turn allowed us to calculate the planet’s bulk density and hypothesize about what the planet is made out of. TOI-1231 b is pretty similar in size and density to Neptune, so we think it has a similarly large, gaseous atmosphere.”
“Another advantage of exoplanets orbiting M dwarf hosts is that we can measure their masses easier because the ratio of the planet mass to the stellar mass is also larger. When the star is smaller and less massive, it makes detection methods work better because the planet suddenly plays a bigger role as it stands out more easily in relation to the star,” explained Dragomir. “Like the shadow cast on the star. The smaller the star, the less massive the star, the more the effect of the planet can be detected.
“Even though TOI 1231b is eight times closer to its star than the Earth is to the Sun, its temperature is similar to that of Earth, thanks to its cooler and less bright host star,” says Dragomir. “However, the planet itself is actually larger than earth and a little bit smaller than Neptune—we could call it a sub-Neptune.”
Burt and Dragomir, who actually initiated this research while they were Fellows at MIT’s Kavli Institute, worked with scientists specializing in observing and characterizing the atmospheres of small planets to figure out which current and future space-based missions might be able to peer into TOI-1231 b’s outer layers to inform researchers exactly what kinds of gases are swirling around the planet. With a temperature around 330 Kelvin or 140 degrees Fahrenheit, TOI-1231b is one of the coolest, small exoplanets accessible for atmospheric studies discovered thus far.
Past research suggests planets this cool may have clouds high in their atmospheres, which makes it hard to determine what types of gases surround them. But new observations of another small, cool planet called K2-18 b broke this trend and showed evidence of water in its atmosphere, surprising many astronomers.
“TOI-1231 b is one of the only other planets we know of in a similar size and temperature range, so future observations of this new planet will let us determine just how common (or rare) it is for water clouds to form around these temperate worlds,” said Burt.
Additionally, with its host star’s high Near-Infrared (NIR) brightness, it makes an exciting target for future missions with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). The first set of these observations, led by one of the paper’s co-authors, should take place later this month using the Hubble Space Telescope.
“The low density of TOI 1231b indicates that it is surrounded by a substantial atmosphere rather than being a rocky planet. But the composition and extent of this atmosphere are unknown!” said Dragomir. “TOI1231b could have a large hydrogen or hydrogen-helium atmosphere, or a denser water vapor atmosphere. Each of these would point to a different origin, allowing astronomers to understand whether and how planets form differently around M dwarfs when compared to the planets around our Sun, for example. Our upcoming HST observations will begin to answer these questions, and JWST promises an even more thorough look into the planet’s atmosphere.”
Another way to study the planet’s atmosphere is to investigate whether gas is being blown away, by looking for evidence of atoms like hydrogen and helium surrounding the planet as it transits across the face of its host star. Generally, hydrogen atoms are almost impossible to detect because their presence is masked by interstellar gas. But this planet-star system offers a unique opportunity to apply this method because of how fast it’s moving away from the Earth.
“One of the most intriguing results of the last two decades of exoplanet science is that, thus far, none of the new planetary systems we’ve discovered look anything like our own solar system,” said Burt. “They’re full of planets between the size of Earth and Neptune on orbits much shorter than Mercury’s, so we don’t have any local examples to compare them to. This new planet we’ve discovered is still weird—but it’s one step closer to being somewhat like our neighborhood planets. Compared to most transiting planets detected thus far, which often have scorching temperatures in the many hundreds or thousands of degrees, TOI-1231 b is positively frigid.”
In closing, Dragomir reflects that “this planet joins the ranks of just two or three other nearby small exoplanets that will be scrutinized with every chance we get and using a wide range of telescopes, for years to come so keep an eye out for new TOI1231b developments!”
This article is in press at The Astronomical Journal.
The planet has captured the fascination of Hollywood, the U.S. and China both landed rovers on its surface and Elon Musk, the head of SpaceX, recently announced that his company hopes to launch its next-generation rocket in 2022 from a platform in the Gulf of Mexico. His sights are set on Mars.
Other planets have become something of an afterthought. When was the last time you caught yourself thinking about Neptune? Pluto had the worst fate of all and in 2006 was downgraded to dwarf planet.
But NASA on Wednesday announced its intention to bring more attention to Venus, the second planet from the sun. The planet–which is one of the brightest objects in the night sky– is considered an “inferno-like world” but may have been “the first habitable world in the solar system, complete with an ocean and Earth-like climate.”
NASA said in a statement that the two missions to the planet will be part of its Discovery Program and will award about $500 million per mission for development. The voyages are expected to take place at the end of the decade.
One will study the planet’s atmosphere, which could shed light on whether the planet once had an ocean. The other mission will study the planet’s surface in hopes to learn “why it developed so differently than Earth.”
The U.S. and the former Soviet Union sent multiple spacecraft to Venus in the early days of space exploration. NASA’s Mariner 2 performed the first successful flyby in 1962, and the Soviets’ Venera 7 made the first successful landing in 1970.
In 1989, NASA used a space shuttle to send its Magellan spacecraft into orbit around Venus.
The European Space Agency put a spacecraft around Venus in 2006.
“It is astounding how little we know about Venus, but the combined results of these missions will tell us about the planet from the clouds in its sky through the volcanoes on its surface all the way down to its very core,” Tom Wagner, NASA’s Discovery Program scientist, said in the statement. “It will be as if we have rediscovered the planet.”