Yet Another Mini Crazy Thought: The JP Jones Class Destroyer

"USS JP Jones" at top, USS Zumwalt below at scale
stop mocking my photoshopping!!!

I've been playing around again.  This picture is hardly as good as what I did to create the second MC Perry class, but it does outline what is possible for a potential next generation destroyer.  While, like the MC Perry, the JP Jones is a name which is already in use, the point is to pick a name which is recognizable and easily short handed (and probably will end up getting recycled).  This is meant to be what I think, roughly, what the Navy's Future Surface Combatant ought to be.

I left a copy of the Zumwalt next to the JP Jones for comparison sake.

The missions of a destroyer in the US Navy is both that of an escort and as an independent combatant.  With the except of the Zumwalts, all current American destroyers are anti air guided missile destroyers.  This is primarily because other than the Zumwalts, the only ships which we have are the various flavours of the Burke class.  Likewise, the other role which the Burkes fill is of ASW, anti submarine, hunters.  Except the earliest versions of the Burke, they carry a pair of helicopters to hunt subs.

The JP Jones is far, far more conservative than the MC Perry.  To be sure, they share a lot of the same weapon systems, but the MC Perry is a far smaller hull with a lot of nontraditional approaches taken.  The Jones is more in line with traditional ship building.

There are nontrivial differences with the JP Jones compared to the previous generations of destroyer.  The JP Jones is meant as an escort and an independent combatant when necessary.  Its also meant to take on a lot of the newer technological weapons the Chinese, the up and coming power, have and will develop.

The JP Jones is shorter than the Zumwalt by 25 feet.  However, it displaces significantly more: 3,200 tons more (making her almost 19k tons).  This is due to the fact the Jones have a more traditional bow.  The draft of the Jones is deeper as well: about 3 feet, but still.  The beam matches the Zumwalts.  The deckhouse is shorter than on the Zumwalts, too.  The total crew is larger than the Zumwalts (190 vs 140).

The Jones will have a Aegis/ADMR radar combination.  A sonar tail would also be necessary, but also a set of UUVs which would be able to dive to different depths for sonar coverage while linked to the destroyer. 

The Jones class sports more VLS cells than either the Zumwalt or the Burke.  The largest number the Burkes have is 96.  The Zumwalt has a total of 80.  The Jones will have a total of 108 cells.  These are the same MK 57 cells, like the Zumwalts, allowing for larger missiles in the future, over the Mk 41.  While acting as an escort, I'd expect 16 cells to be filled with ASROC, 16 cells to be filled with 64 ESSM, 8 cells to be filled with LRASM (or TLAM equivalent) and the rest of the load out would be SM series missiles (68).  When operating along, the SM series would probably be reduced in favor of Tomahawks or whatever replacement missiles there are.  Likewise, when they become available, the LRASM will likely be replaced by a hypersonic missile.

However, those are not the only weapons on the ship.  In the past, they would have constituted the primary weaponry and in many ways, they still are.  However, that's not all that is being touted for here. 

Like the MC Perrys, the JP Jones' have a railgun.  This is meant for both naval gunfire and when coupled with the radar, to be a defensive BMD weapon: a little hard to run away from a mach 7 projectile.  The reason there are not two railgun guns is due to the power equipment, power requirements and just plain real estate: there is only so much volume and space on a warship of even this size.

Also like the MC Perrys, the Jones' have kept up with the high energy lasers.  There are two megawatt class fleet defense lasers and two weapons grade self defense lasers.  The former are atop the deckhouse and are meant to protect at long range the entire battle group, whereas the self defense lasers are on the port and starboard deck and meant for a combination of CIWS and ASuW work.

The Jones' retain the large flight deck of the Zumwalts and nominally carry 2 SH-60s, 4 firescouts and 2 TERNs.  The VTOL capabilities are intended to be primarily for sub hunting.  However, the TERNs are meant for the ISR and light strike role.

Okay.

Why this load out?

For example, why keep so many VLS cells when you have lasers and a railgun?  Backup.  Really.  There are circumstances when the lasers will be degraded based on weather and other factors.  Its best to have weapon systems which can still engage the targets under those circumstances.  The ESSM will be necessary for certain circumstances.  

I have said this before, but...I will say the ESSM needs an upgrade for the distance which it can engage at given the coming age of hypersonic missiles.  10 miles is 10 seconds from the ship at Mach 5.  That's almost point defense range under those circumstances.  The next generation replacement for the ESSM will need to at least engage to the horizon (30 miles).  The ideal is to be able to have a range such that if the first salvo of missiles against an incoming 'vampire' miss, there is time to engage again.  30 seconds might not be enough even then.

It was tempting to place another railgun at the aft end of the ship and increase the length of ship by another 30 ft.  However, the cost and weight would be high and even more so, placing a weapon which might interfere with the flight deck makes me uncomfortable.  The VLS cells in the aft are only there as a backup in case the bow cells are damaged.  However, it has been done before and could be considered.

ASW is going to be just as important for the destroyers of the future.  The torpedo tubes will be necessary on ship as well as the ASROC and its eventual replacement.  The new ability to carry unmanned underwater vehicles (drone subs) will be very important.  These will give sonar and other sensors in areas where the destroyer is blind currently.  Eventually, those UUVs will become armed and have short range torpedoes of their own.  In the mean time, the ability to hunt subs both from the air with the Firescouts and SH-60s and underwater with the UUVs, sonar tail and shipboard sensors, will improve the situation over what it is now significantly.

Escort duties:

A carrier battle group would have a Nimitz or Ford class carrier, a pair of cruisers (the Gravelys, to be written up), three Jones and two Perrys.  

Currently, a CVBG has ~424 cells.  Between the Perrys and the Jones, there would be 388 VLS cells.  The Perry and Jones would add 5 railguns, 8 megawatt class fleet defense lasers and 6 multi hundred kilowatt self defense lasers.

Currently, neglecting the ASW helicopters on the carrier, the escorts have a maximum of 8 SH-60s.  The Perry and Jones have ten, but they also have 16 firescouts.  This is part of the reason I was thinking to shift off the ASW assets from the carrier airwing.

Additionally, the Perrys and Jones would add 10 TERNs to the mix for ISR.  With this number you can keep between 2 to 3 TERNs constantly in the air at a minimum without worrying about wearing them out.  This is also why I'd think the UCLASS ought not be focused on ISR.  If you embrace the Navy's 'distributed lethality' idea, the destroyers, cruisers and frigates would be able to provide the ISR.  The carrier ought to focus on the high end then.

Sketching in the Gravelys (scaled up Jones class like the Ticos were for the Spruance), you end up with over 700 VLS cells, 9 railguns, 14 fleet defense lasers, 10 self defense lasers, 12 SH-60s, 24 Firescouts and 18 TERNs.  ASW (from the VTOL POV) and ISR are sufficiently covered.  Ballistic missile defense is also covered: the railguns can fire 54 rounds per minute in aggregate and could take out that number of missiles.  With ~5 second engagement times, the fleet defense lasers could take down 84 Mach 5 sea skimming missiles.  The self defense lasers could take down a max (though they'd have to be coming in the right way (HA!)), of 30 Mach 5 sea skimming missiles with a ten second engagement time.  If each ship had 64 ESSM, totally 448 missiles, then in a hypersonic attack scenario, they could take out up to 112 Mach 5 sea skimming missiles.  That means it ought to be possible to take down a total of 226 hypersonic missiles (280 if the rainguns are used against the seas skimmers).

Total cost for that defense is less than $160M.  The total cost for the attackers is at least $600M if not well over a billion dollars.  With no probable kills. 

And the battle group can engage like this at least four times.

And this does not count the abilities of the standard missiles as well (potentially bagging up to another 120 missiles, if only 1/4 of the SM magazine used).  Pushing the total cost to nearly over a billion per engagement, if not 2. 

And that does not count the ability of the carrier airwing to engage either (like with the fleet defense avengers I talked about earlier).

This means to kill a carrier battlegroup you're going to need to spend as much as the carrier battle group in missiles, if not much more because those pesky lasers and railguns are cheap to fire. 

Defending against subs, we have now 36 ASW VTOLs flitting around the battle group a 4 1/2 times increase.  Additionally, the use of UUVs makes for a dramatic increase in the number of submerged sensors as well.

If the US Navy keeps 11 battle groups and you are an opponent of the US at war with the US, at least 5 of those are going to be approaching your coast.  Assuming it takes $20 billion kill a battle group, you're looking at $100 billion (or one Apollo Program) to kill all 5...and they have 6 more siblings to seek vengeance with.

Other thoughts:

One concept which I have been 'in love with' since the 1990s, but don't see happening is the DDV.  This is a destroyer that carries its own F-35Bs.  The DDVs were meant to give CAP and strike capability only available to carriers without trying to be a full blown carrier.  Originally, the idea was to have 2 F-35s, four SH-60s and whatever drones were available.  A surface action group with four DDVs could keep a continuous CAP.  A single DDV would be able to keep an ASW patrol up 24/7 without the drones, but with the addition of the Firescouts this could be an extensive, persistant ASW patrol.  An updated theoretical airwing of a DDV would have a pair of F-35Bs, four SH-60s, 6 Firescouts and four TERNs.

However, when adding in the normal capabilities of a destroyer (VLS, sonar, etc) plus the aviation capabilities, you are looking at a very big ship.  To accommodate the F-35s, even only operating in the VTOL mode, you're looking at needing a flight deck of 80 ft wide and a 101 ft long: you could go smaller, but it'd be really, really tight.   I'd speculate this would become a beam of 80 ft and a length of at least 650 ft for the ship.  That would lead to a near 20k ton ship.  The cost would be prohibitive and then there is the need to procure more F-35Bs: they cost ~$104M each and each ship would need four.  Yes, four because two will be deployed, one spare would be needed back Stateside and the other is effectively the loss replacement, when, if planes are lost.  That alone increases a ship's cost by $416M and this ship is likely to cost as much as a Burke: $1.9B.  And while giving some unique capabilities, its a jack of all trades and master of none (smaller # of VLS, etc).

Alas.

Remember folks, this is all in fun.   Kind of the beer and pretzels discussion equivalent of blogging.

South Korea Reports Sixth Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Virus Death, 87 Infections, 2300 Quarantined

South Korea recorded its sixth death and biggest single day jump in Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) infections on Monday, with 23 new cases in the largest outbreak of the potentially deadly virus outside Saudi Arabia.

From just four cases two weeks ago, the total number of infections now stands at 87, including six people who have died.

The latest fatality was a man in his 80s who had been diagnosed in Daejeon, 140 kilometres south of Seoul, and died in hospital on Monday morning, local officials said.

The outbreak has triggered widespread public concern in South Korea, with 2,300 people placed under quarantine orders and nearly 1,900 schools -- mostly in Seoul and surrounding Gyeonggi province -- closed down.

Among the 23 new cases, 17 were infected at the Samsung Medical Centre in southern Seoul, the health ministry said.

link.

What is Fusion Energy Startup Tri Alpha Doing?

Of the handful of startup companies trying to achieve fusion energy via nontraditional methods, Tri Alpha Energy Inc. has always been the enigma. Publishing little and with no website, but apparently sitting on a cash pile in the hundreds of millions, the Foothill Ranch, California–based company has been the subject of intense curiosity and speculation. But last month Tri Alpha lifted the veil slightly with two papers revealing that its device, dubbed the colliding beam fusion reactor, has shown a 10-fold improvement in its ability to contain the hot particles needed for fusion over earlier devices at U.S. universities and national labs.

“They’ve improved things greatly and are moving in a direction that is quite promising,” says plasma physicist John Santarius of the Fusion Technology Institute at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Fusion energy seeks to replicate the power source of the sun and stars: heating atoms to enormous temperatures so that their nuclei slam together with enough force to overcome their mutual repulsion and fuse, releasing energy. The challenge on Earth is to confine plasma—an ionized gas, with electrons and nuclei separated—at high temperatures (greater than 150 million degrees Celsius) long enough for fusion reactions to occur. Most effort over the past 60 years of fusion research has focused on tokamaks—huge doughnut-shaped vessels that confine plasma with powerful magnets—and laser fusion, which uses high-energy laser pulses to squeeze tiny capsules of fuel. But between these low-density and high-density extremes there is a range of other approaches that have received little government funding. Now, startup companies are moving into that vacuum.

link.

Closing in on BioArtificial Replacement Limbs

A team of Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) investigators has made the first steps towards development of bioartificial replacement limbs suitable for transplantation. In their report, which has been published online in the journal Biomaterials, the researchers describe using an experimental approach previously used to build bioartificial organs to engineer rat forelimbs with functioning vascular and muscle tissue. They also provided evidence that the same approach could be applied to the limbs of primates

"The composite nature of our limbs makes building a functional biological replacement particularly challenging," explains Harald Ott, MD, of the MGH Department of Surgery and the Center for Regenerative Medicine, senior author of the paper. "Limbs contain muscles, bone, cartilage, blood vessels, tendons, ligaments and nerves - each of which has to be rebuilt and requires a specific supporting structure called the matrix. We have shown that we can maintain the matrix of all of these tissues in their natural relationships to each other, that we can culture the entire construct over prolonged periods of time, and that we can repopulate the vascular system and musculature."

link.

How Much Did Aboriginal Fire Impact the Australian Environment Over the Last 20,000 Years?

Exploring the relationship between Aboriginal population indices and fire in Australia over the last 20,000 years

Authors:

Williams et al

Abstract:

The extent of prehistoric human impact on the environment is a contentious topic in various palaeo-environmental sciences. The long history of humans in Australia and its extensive fire-prone biota makes this continent a key research area for better characterization of prehistoric human–fire interactions. Here we use statistically robust cross-correlation of archaeological radiocarbon data (n = 4102 ages from 1616 sites) and a new synthesis of charcoal records (n = 155 sites) to test for any relationship between people and fire over the last 20,000 years at continental and regional (25–45°S) scales. We find that the statistical correlation between the two datasets is weak at both spatial scales, with short-lived synchronous responses only in the terminal Pleistocene–Holocene transition, at the onset of the mid-Holocene climatic optimum (~ 10–7 ka) and during significant transitions of El Niño Southern Oscillation (~ 5–4 ka and 1.2–0.8 ka). One interpretation of this is that Aboriginal populations were implementing ‘fire-stick farming’ only intermittently during periods of societal stress resulting from climatic variability. However, the synchronicity of the correlations with climate changes, along with the low populations through much of this time, suggests that both datasets were independently responding to external climatic forcing. Under either scenario, a lack of significant change in the charcoal record implies that there were no long-lasting impacts to the environmental biota, and macro-scale palaeoenvironmental records prior to European colonization largely reflect responses to non-human influences. While we do not discount the possibility of systematic or deliberate manipulation of fire regimes at local spatial scales, we conclude that human control of fire by prehistoric people in Australia is not evident at broad landscape levels. This conclusion contradicts persistent suggestions of Australian-wide land management and the pervasiveness of the impacts of ‘fire-stick farming’.

Reexamining the Material Footprint of Nations

The material footprint of nations

Authors:

Wiedmann et al

Abstract:

Metrics on resource productivity currently used by governments suggest that some developed countries have increased the use of natural resources at a slower rate than economic growth (relative decoupling) or have even managed to use fewer resources over time (absolute decoupling). Using the material footprint (MF), a consumption-based indicator of resource use, we find the contrary: Achievements in decoupling in advanced economies are smaller than reported or even nonexistent. We present a time series analysis of the MF of 186 countries and identify material flows associated with global production and consumption networks in unprecedented specificity. By calculating raw material equivalents of international trade, we demonstrate that countries’ use of nondomestic resources is, on average, about threefold larger than the physical quantity of traded goods. As wealth grows, countries tend to reduce their domestic portion of materials extraction through international trade, whereas the overall mass of material consumption generally increases. With every 10% increase in gross domestic product, the average national MF increases by 6%. Our findings call into question the sole use of current resource productivity indicators in policy making and suggest the necessity of an additional focus on consumption-based accounting for natural resource use.

How old is Titan's Karst Terrain?

Dissolution on Titan and on Earth: Towards the age of Titan's karstic landscapes

Authors:

Cornet et al

Abstract:

Titan's polar surface is dotted with hundreds of lacustrine depressions. Based on the hypothesis that they are karstic in origin, we aim at determining the efficiency of surface dissolution as a landshaping process on Titan, in a comparative planetology perspective with the Earth as reference. Our approach is based on the calculation of solutional denudation rates and allow inference of formation timescales for topographic depressions developed by chemical erosion on both planetary bodies. The model depends on the solubility of solids in liquids, the density of solids and liquids, and the average annual net rainfall rates. We compute and compare the denudation rates of pure solid organics in liquid hydrocarbons and of minerals in liquid water over Titan and Earth timescales. We then investigate the denudation rates of a superficial organic layer in liquid methane over one Titan year. At this timescale, such a layer on Titan would behave like salts or carbonates on Earth depending on its composition, which means that dissolution processes would likely occur but would be 30 times slower on Titan compared to the Earth due to the seasonality of precipitation. Assuming an average depth of 100 m for Titan's lacustrine depressions, these could have developed in a few tens of millions of years at polar latitudes higher than 70{\deg} N and S, and a few hundreds of million years at lower polar latitudes. The ages determined are consistent with the youth of the surface (greater than 1 Gyr) and the repartition of dissolution-related landforms on Titan.

Homo erectus and Environmental Change in the Beijing Plain: Benefactor or Driver?

Vegetation and climate change in the Beijing plain during the last million years and implications for Homo erectus occupation in North China

Authors:

Cai et al

Abstract:

Beijing is of great significance in human evolution studies. However, the lack of well-dated records of climate and environmental changes, which are frequently cited as important drivers of early human evolution, impede understanding of the evolution and dispersal of humans on the Beijing plain. A 150-m deep drill core was collected from the Changping District of the Beijing plain to reconstruct the changes in vegetation and climate during the Middle Pleistocene using pollen records. The results indicated that the tree genus Ulmus and the herb genus Artemisia were dominant in most of the samples from 0.96 to 0.61 Ma, reflecting an open forest steppe covering the Beijing region. Between 0.61 and 0.44 Ma, the vegetation communities shifted to an Artemisia-steppe as the tree cover declined. This was followed by a further shift in vegetation community structure to a Chenopodiaceae-Asteraceae steppe between 0.44 and 0.23 Ma, followed by the conversion to an Artemisia-Asteraceae steppe after 0.23 Ma. The pollen record revealed a long-term deterioration of the vegetation, which indicated an increasing trend of drying and cooling in the Beijing plain during the Middle Pleistocene. This coincides with the Homo erectus colonization of North China during this period. These findings provide supporting evidence that a shift in climate towards cold and dry conditions during the Middle Pleistocene may have directly benefited Homo erectus populations in open habitats of North China. This general pattern of declining vegetation cover in the study area is consistent with climatic and environmental patterns in other regions of North China, which were probably influenced by global cooling during the Middle Pleistocene.

Ukraine War Update: хоп, лягушки! хоп!

Video from the Kiev-1 Battalion during the mop up.  Note the difference in how the soldiers move and cover compared to a year ago.

Except for the artillery, the fighting seems to have died back.  

However, at the Donetsk Airport, the artillery clash is definitely nontrivial.  There have been over 350 explosions, either from incoming or outgoing fire, at the airport over a 24 hour period. 

However, that's not the most concerning bit.  The OSCE noted the use of IEDs in the conflict now.  Yup.  The conflict might have taken an ugly turn.

However, the assault on Maryinka still doesn't make sense.

DARPA's Robopocalyptic Robotic Challenge Bots

DARPA'S

ROBOPOCALPTIC!

BOTS!




Here!

Even Worse News for the PAK-DA Bomber: 50 Tu-160M2 Bomber Production to Resume in 2023

Russia is planning to resume production of Tu-160 supersonic strategic bombers after 2023, Deputy Defense Minister Yuri Borisov said on Thursday.

"According to the current schedule, this will happen sometime after 2023," Borisov, who is on a visit to France, said.

link.

Bolt Threads Successfully Produces Usable Biotech Spider Silk From Yeast

Five years ago, the graduate students behind a secretive startup called Bolt Threads set out to replicate the unique chemical properties of spider silk, an almost magically flexible and durable material that’s in some ways as strong as steel. One of the first things they did was buy a batch of Nephila spiders—the common golden silk orb-weavers—from an insect dealer in Florida. Then they let the spiders spin their webs all over the company’s first office at the University of California at San Francisco. One day a well-known UCSF molecular biologist walked in, saw a spider hanging in a doorway, and ran away screaming.

Scientists, at least those who aren’t arachnophobes, have tried to mass-produce spider silk for decades with little success. Spiders are territorial and cannibalistic—try to farm them, and they end up eating each other. But scientists have long believed that if spiders would only cooperate, fabric made from their silk would be well-suited for use in military and medical equipment, like wound sutures or artificial tendons, as well as in high-performance athletic clothing and other garments.

Bolt Threads has ditched the live spiders but held on to this goal. The company has developed a synthetic alternative to spider silk by engineering proteins identical to the natural threads stretched across the nooks in your basement. It’s raised $40 million from Silicon Valley venture capital firms Foundation Capital, Formation 8, and Founders Fund to commercialize its technology and turn those proteins into fabric. “Over the past few decades, as clothing companies squeezed on price, they’ve taken the innovation out of apparel,” says Dan Widmaier, a graduate of the UCSF Ph.D. program in chemical biology and Bolt’s chief executive officer.

Widmaier and co-founders Ethan Mirsky, Bolt’s vice president for operations, and David Breslauer, its chief scientific officer, are genetically modifying yeast, single-cell organisms that convert simple carbohydrates to proteins through fermentation, and getting them to excrete silk-like proteins. “What would have been done in cells of spiders is now being done by yeast in our lab,” Widmaier says.

link.

Periodicity Rebuked: No Evidence Sun's Galactic Orbit Corrolates to Terrestrial Cratering, Glacial Events

Investigations into the impact of astronomical phenomena on the terrestrial biosphere and climate

Author:

Feng

Abstract:

This thesis assesses the influence of astronomical phenomena on the Earth's biosphere and climate. I examine in particular the relevance of both the path of the Sun through the Galaxy and the evolution of the Earth's orbital parameters in modulating non-terrestrial mechanisms. I build models to predict the extinction rate of species, the temporal variation of the impact cratering rate and ice sheet deglaciations, and then compare these models with other models within a Bayesian framework. I find that the temporal distribution of mass extinction events over the past 550 Myr can be explained just as well by a uniform random distribution as by other models, such as variations in the stellar density local to the Sun arising from the Sun's orbit. Given the uncertainties in the Galaxy model and the Sun's current phase space coordinates, as well as the errors in the geological data, it is not possible to draw a clear connection between terrestrial extinction and the solar motion. In a separate study, I find that the solar motion, which modulates the Galactic tidal forces imposed on Oort cloud comets, does not significantly influence this cratering rate. My dynamical models, together with the solar apex motion, can explain the anisotropic perihelia of long period comets without needing to invoke the existence of a Jupiter-mass solar companion. Finally, I find that variations in the Earth's obliquity play a dominant role in triggering terrestrial deglaciations over the past 2 Myr. The precession of the equinoxes, in contrast, only becomes important in pacing large deglaciations after the transition from the 100-kyr dominant periodicity in the ice coverage to a 41-kyr dominant periodicity, which occurred 0.7 Myr ago.

Counter argument.

Adaptations of PaleoArchean Microbial Mats to Coastal Habitats

Morphological adaptations of 3.22 Ga-old tufted microbial mats to Archean coastal habitats (Moodies Group, Barberton Greenstone Belt, South Africa)

Authors:

Homann et al

Abstract:

Microbial life was well established and widespread by the Paleoarchean; however, the degree of evolutionary advancement such as microbial motility, intra- and inter-species interactions, phototropism, or oxygenic photosynthesis by that time remains highly debated. The 3.22 Ga Moodies Group in the Barberton Greenstone Belt (BGB, South Africa) are Earth's oldest well-preserved siliciclastic tidal deposits. They exhibit a unique assemblage of microbial mats, providing an excellent opportunity to decipher the morphological adaptations of microbial communities to different paleoenvironmental settings. The fossil mats are preserved as kerogenous laminations (0.5–1 mm thick) that can be traced laterally for ∼15 km in a ∼1000 m-thick succession of fine- to coarse-grained tidal sandstones and conglomerates. We here present a detailed stratigraphic and depositional facies analysis, documenting the association of the three principal mat morphotypes with specific environmental settings: (1) planar-type in coastal floodplain, (2) wavy-type in intertidal, and (3) tufted-type in upper inter- to supratidal facies. All mat types indicate a flourishing phototrophic biota; moreover, the tufted morphology suggests an intricate level of coordinated growth commonly known from cyanobacterial mats in modern environments.

(Ukraine War Update): Отдых для Лягушка?

The fighting has died back, save for the mopping up in Marinka by the Ukrainians and the artillery duels which have been with us for some time, and a ceasefire of sorts has resumed.  It is not to say the fighting has completely halted, but it has died back from the direct assaults.

Artillery continues to rain down up and down the ceasefire line.

I have to admit, I am perplexed by what happened in Maryinka.  The DNR made an attack, pressed multiple times from the morning until the evening and even made some nontrivial gains into the town.  They blew p the police station, frex.  OTOH, they seem to have been driven out and suffered significant casualties and doing far less to the Ukrainians than even the Ukrainians reported initially.  What was the point?  There seemed to be a half assed assault on multiple fronts, but none seemed to have made any progress.  In the end, the attack on Maryinka and the other places was repulsed.   It accomplished nothing: the Ukrainians have moved more equipment up and the victory here and elsewhere has increased morale.  

The only way it makes sense is if it was meant to be a recon in force: probe the Ukrainians by hitting them fairly hard with a moderate sized force.  Even then, I find the reasoning questionable: too much is being risked for so little. Even worse when it was sound defeat.

The size of the DNR forces seems to have been about what I guessimated: a battalion of tanks and a brigade of infantry.  Their losses appear to be 80 dead, over 100 wounded and ten tanks lost. 

Interestingly, there are reports of gunfire in Gorlovka and in other places it seems highly unlikely there are government troops there.  What is going on?

There are supposedly sirens going off in Donetsk now.  Are we about to see another attack?  Or did something happen in Donetsk?

No Robopocalypse Required: Have Your Furniture Grown

Much of our furniture is made from timber. The wood to make that furniture has to be harvested from a felled tree which is then milled, sawed, planed, sanded, put back together with glue and screws, and finished. Wouldn't it be easier to avoid most of these steps and simply coax a tree to grow into a piece of furniture? That way, it would be one-piece, inherently strong, and could potentially last many years longer than assembled furniture. Gavin Munro thought this too, and about a decade ago set about achieving this goal. He now creates furniture by cajoling trees to grow into one-piece items that are not only inherently practical, they are also eminently beautiful.

link.

A Robopocalypse That can Adapt Like Animals

Robots that can adapt like animals

Authors:

Cully et al

Abstract:

Robots have transformed many industries, most notably manufacturing, and have the power to deliver tremendous benefits to society, such as in search and rescue, disaster response, health care and transportation. They are also invaluable tools for scientific exploration in environments inaccessible to humans, from distant planets to deep oceans. A major obstacle to their widespread adoption in more complex environments outside factories is their fragility. Whereas animals can quickly adapt to injuries, current robots cannot ‘think outside the box’ to find a compensatory behaviour when they are damaged: they are limited to their pre-specified self-sensing abilities, can diagnose only anticipated failure modes, and require a pre-programmed contingency plan for every type of potential damage, an impracticality for complex robots. A promising approach to reducing robot fragility involves having robots learn appropriate behaviours in response to damage , but current techniques are slow even with small, constrained search spaces Here we introduce an intelligent trial-and-error algorithm that allows robots to adapt to damage in less than two minutes in large search spaces without requiring self-diagnosis or pre-specified contingency plans. Before the robot is deployed, it uses a novel technique to create a detailed map of the space of high-performing behaviours. This map represents the robot’s prior knowledge about what behaviours it can perform and their value. When the robot is damaged, it uses this prior knowledge to guide a trial-and-error learning algorithm that conducts intelligent experiments to rapidly discover a behaviour that compensates for the damage. Experiments reveal successful adaptations for a legged robot injured in five different ways, including damaged, broken, and missing legs, and for a robotic arm with joints broken in 14 different ways. This new algorithm will enable more robust, effective, autonomous robots, and may shed light on the principles that animals use to adapt to injury.

MERS Outbreak in Korea Climbs to 35 Infected, 2 Deaths

Hundreds more schools closed on Thursday in South Korea as officials struggled to ease growing panic over an outbreak of the MERS virus that has infected 35 people, killed two and caused thousands to cancel travel plans.

More than 700 schools -- from kindergartens to colleges -- have now shut their gates in response to public fears over what has become the largest outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) outside Saudi Arabia.

Five more cases were confirmed on Thursday, bringing the total number of known infections to 35, the health ministry said.

The first case -- reported on May 20 -- was of a 68-year-old man diagnosed after a trip to Saudi Arabia.

Since then, more than 1,300 people who may have been exposed directly or indirectly to the virus have been placed under varying levels of quarantine.

link.

Regaliceratops peterhewsi: A Maastrichtian Cretaceous Chasmosaurine Ceratopsid Nicknamed 'Hellboy'

A New Horned Dinosaur Reveals Convergent Evolution in Cranial Ornamentation in Ceratopsidae

Authors:

Brown et al

Abstract:

Ceratopsid (horned) dinosaurs are an iconic group of large-bodied, quadrupedal, herbivorous dinosaurs that evolved in the Late Cretaceous and were largely restricted to western North America. Ceratopsids are easily recognized by their cranial ornamentation in the form of nasal and postorbital horns and frill (capped by epiossifications); these structures show high morphological disparity and also represent the largest cranial display structures known to have evolved. Despite their restricted occurrence in time and space, this group has one of the best fossil records within Dinosauria, showing a rapid diversification in horn and frill morphology. Here a new genus and species of chasmosaurine ceratopsid is described based on a nearly complete and three-dimensionally preserved cranium recovered from the uppermost St. Mary River Formation (Maastrichtian) of southwestern Alberta. Regaliceratops peterhewsi gen. et sp. nov. exhibits many unique characters of the frill and is characterized by a large nasal horncore, small postorbital horncores, and massive parietal epiossifications. Cranial morphology, particularly the epiossifications, suggests close affinity with the late Campanian/early Maastrichian taxon Anchiceratops, as well as with the late Maastrichtian taxon Triceratops. A median epiparietal necessitates a reassessment of epiossification homology and results in a more resolved phylogeny. Most surprisingly, Regaliceratops exhibits a suite of cranial ornamentations that are superficially similar to Campanian centrosaurines, indicating both exploration of novel display morphospace in Chasmosaurinae, especially Maastrichtian forms, and convergent evolution in horn morphology with the recently extinct Centrosaurinae. This marks the first time that evolutionary convergence in horn-like display structures has been demonstrated between dinosaur clades, similar to those seen in fossil and extant mammals.

Was There an Oxygen Spike, Crash and Mass Extinction During the PaleoArchean?

Variations in the abundance of photosynthetic oxygen through Precambrian and Paleozoic time in relation to biotic evolution and mass extinctions: evidence from Mn/Fe ratios

Author:

Jackson

Abstract:

This paper reports new information about variations in the abundance of photosynthetic oxygen through Precambrian and Paleozoic time. Non-detrital marine sediments (cherts, limestones, and dolomite) were analysed for NH2OH·HCl/acetic acid-extractable Mn and Fe, and the Mn/Fe ratio (a proxy for the oxidation–reduction potential of the sediment at the time of deposition) was plotted against geologic age. The method has never before been applied to ancient sediments, but previously published data produced independently by other methods confirmed its applicability and underlying assumptions. The Mn/Fe ratio was unexpectedly high ca. 3.416 Ga, implying localised oxidation due to oxygen production by cyanobacteria, but fell dramatically over the interval 3.416–3.298 Ga, suggesting mass mortality or mass extinction of early Archaean cyanobacteria owing to asteroid impacts. However, the ratio increased continuously, though at episodically varying rates, from a minimum at ∼1.8783 Ga to a maximum at ∼0.680 Ga, signifying accumulation of oxygen in the atmosphere and hydrosphere. The rate of increase was relatively high at first but dropped abruptly at some point during the interval 1.8783–1.6 Ga, possibly signalling the appearance of eukaryotic herbivores. The ratio increased exponentially from 1.6 to 0.8 Ga and then rose more rapidly from 0.8 to 0.680 Ga, indicating a late Proterozoic upsurge of oxygen production, whereupon it fell catastrophically to a minimum in the Cambrian, reflecting widespread anoxia due to mass extinction of Ediacaran organisms. The crisis at the Precambrian–Cambrian boundary was followed by a logarithmic increase from the Cambrian to the Permian, indicating a resurgence of photosynthetic activity.

Кипячение лягушка (a Ukraine War Update): The Fighting Spreads

The DNR attempted today to take Maryinka, a village outside of Donetsk. During the first half of the day, the reports were that the DNR had taken Maryinka and were advancing on Krasnohorivka. The second half, the Ukrainians claimed they still held Maryinka and had blunted the attack. By 7 PM, the OSCE had both the DNR and the Ukrainians agreeing Ukraine still held Maryinka. The OSCE stated the DNR started the attack and the OSCE tried to contact the DNR leaders to get them to stop or at least get a ceasefire. None of the DNR leaders would speak to the OSCE. The OSCE stated the fighting had stopped at or before 7 PM. Yet multiple sources have stated the fighting is still ongoing and the DNR is hardly giving up. More than one has stated the DNR is in the center of the village now. Take with large grain of salt. Combat losses for the DNR seem to be 24 KIA and over 90 WIA. The losses for the Ukrainians are supposed to be 19 KIA and 25 WIA.  There are claims casualties for both sides were higher.

Supposedly the fighting is still going on. Videos of fighting at night are being posted, but the question is whether or not they are from early this morning or tonight. Reinforcements for the Donnie Rebs have been seen moving through Donetsk towards Maryinka.

Fighting was also reported at Shirokyne and Volnovakha early in the day. The fighting also spread to Avdeevka. There are rumors of elsewhere as well.

Shelling was virtually everywhere (Gorlovka scares us and some of the people ranting about the shelling in the online videos are known to us)

The Russians first claimed the Ukrainians caused the fight in Maryinka.

The Russians also told OSCE due to Ukrainian actions, there would be no further attempts to negotiate for the foreseeable future regarding peace in Ukraine. The Ukrainians had reported days ago there was an impasse and the Russians were obstructing. 

The OSCE found Russian troops in Russian uniforms with Russian plates in the Donbass as well.

If I were a betting man, I'd say there will be another significant push at 4 am Donetsk time.  Around an hour after this post goes up.

Oregon State University Emu Bot (ATRIAS) Able to Handle 6 Inch Obstacles Without Vision Systems

Sheesh! Even Livestock Follows Cope's Rule

The paper on Zooarchaeology 'Livestock management in Spain from Roman to post-medieval times: a biometrical analysis of cattle, sheep/goat and pig' by the researcher of the Department of Geography, Prehistory and Archaeology of the UPV/EHU-University of the Basque Country Idoia Grau-Sologestoa, appeared recently in the Journal of Archaeological Science. The study shows successive changes in the size of domestic animals over time relating to changes in the landscape and production systems.

Zooarchaeology is a discipline that studies the relationship between human beings and animals throughout history. To do this, zooarchaelogists study the remains of animals found in archaeological sites. This discipline studies questions relating to livestock husbandry, food or the ritual use of animals, among other things.

The paper 'Livestock management in Spain from Roman to post-medieval times: a biometrical analysis of cattle, sheep/goat and pig' is the outcome of the PhD research work conducted by Idoia Grau-Sologestoa and completed in 2014 at the UPV/EHU, and has been published recently in the prestigious Journal of Archaeological Science which specialises in archaeology.

It is an analysis of metric data taken from the remains of domestic animals (cows, sheep and pigs) salvaged on archaeological sites across the Iberian Peninsula. The measurements analysed (numbering over 2,500) come from 41 archaeological sites dating between the Roman era and today, since the 1st century BCE until the 21st century. Many of these sites are located in the Basque Country, but also in Aragón, Castilla y León, Catalonia, Madrid, Murcia, Navarre, Valencia and the south of Portugal.

The study shows successive changes in the size of domestic animals over time relating to changes in the landscape and production systems. "The increase in animal size is normally linked to improvements of an environmental type (for example to new ways of feeding) or of a genetic type (for example, by importing larger animals). Larger domestic animal size entails a number of economic advantages with an increase in meat production or traction strength. What is more, improved domestic animals tend to grow faster which helps to increase their productivity," explained Idoia Grau.

link.

Pre Agricultural Europeans Were More Robust

Modern lifestyles have famously made humans heavier, but, in one particular way, noticeably lighter weight than our hunter-gatherer ancestors: in the bones. Now a new study of the bones of hundreds of humans who lived during the past 33,000 years in Europe finds the rise of agriculture and a corresponding fall in mobility drove the change, rather than urbanization, nutrition or other factors.

The discovery is reported in the early edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences the week of May 18. It sheds light, researchers say, on a monumental change that has left modern humans susceptible to osteoporosis, a condition marked by brittle and thinning bones.

At the root of the finding, the researchers say, is the knowledge that putting bones under the "stress" of walking, lifting and running leads them to pack on more calcium and grow stronger.

"There was a lot of evidence that earlier humans had stronger bones and that weight-bearing exercise in modern humans prevents bone loss, but we didn't know whether the shift to weaker bones over the past 30,000 years or so was driven by the rise in agriculture, diet, urbanization, domestication of the horse or other lifestyle changes," says Christopher Ruff, Ph.D. , a professor of functional anatomy and evolution at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

"By analyzing many arm and leg bone samples from throughout that time span, we found that European humans' bones grew weaker gradually as they developed and adopted agriculture and settled down to a more sedentary lifestyle, and that moving into cities and other factors had little impact."

link.

paper link.

PreColumbian Native Americans Significantly Modified Upstate New York Forests

A new study by University at Buffalo geographers explores how humans altered the arboreal make-up of Western New York forests before European settlers arrived in large numbers.

The research looked at land survey data from around 1799-1814, and used this information to model which tree species were present in different areas of Chautauqua County, New York, at that time.

The analysis placed hickory, chestnut and oak trees in larger-than-expected numbers near the historical sites of Native American villages, said co-author Steve Tulowiecki, who conducted the research as a geography PhD candidate at the University at Buffalo and is now an adjunct lecturer of geography at SUNY Geneseo. This finding is important because these species produce edible nuts, and are also more likely than many other trees to survive fires.

"Our results contribute to the conversation about how natural or humanized the landscape of America was when Europeans first arrived," Tulowiecki said. "Our society has competing views about this: On one hand, there is the argument that it was a wilderness relatively untouched by man. Recently, we've had this perspective challenged, with some saying that the landscape was dramatically altered, particularly through burning and other clearance practices."

The findings of the new research -- more fire-tolerant, large-nut-bearing trees than expected within about 15 kilometers of village sites -- suggest that Native American communities in the study area modified the forest in ways that favored those species, Tulowiecki said. He noted that flame-sensitive beech and sugar maples, which burn readily in forest fires, appeared in smaller numbers than expected near village sites.

Forest modifications may have impacted upwards of 20 percent of total land area in modern-day Chautauqua County, according to Tulowiecki's analysis.

link.

Modern Humans Were in Europe by 41,000 Years Ago During Pleistocene Quaternary

The makers of the Protoaurignacian and implications for Neandertal extinction

Authors:

Benazzi et al

Abstract:

The Protoaurignacian culture is pivotal to the debate about the timing of the arrival of modern humans in western Europe and the demise of Neandertals. However, which group is responsible for this culture remains uncertain. We investigated dental remains associated with the Protoaurignacian. The lower deciduous incisor from Riparo Bombrini is modern human, based on its morphology. The upper deciduous incisor from Grotta di Fumane contains ancient mitochondrial DNA of a modern human type. These teeth are the oldest human remains in an Aurignacian-related archaeological context, confirming that by 41,000 calendar years before the present, modern humans bearing Protoaurignacian culture spread into southern Europe. Because the last Neandertals date to 41,030 to 39,260 calendar years before the present, we suggest that the Protoaurignacian triggered the demise of Neandertals in this area.

The Terrestrial Biota Prior to the Evolution of Plants

The terrestrial biota prior to the origin of land plants (embryophytes): a review of the evidence

Authors:

Wellman et al

Abstract:

It is often assumed that life originated and diversified in the oceans prior to colonizing the land. However, environmental constraints in chemical evolution models point towards critical steps leading to the origin of life as having occurred in subaerial settings. The earliest fossil record does not include finds from terrestrial deposits, so much of our understanding about the presence of a terrestrial microbial cover prior to the Proterozoic is based on inference and geochemical proxies that indicate biospheric carbon cycling during the Archaean. Our assessment is that by 2.7 Ga, microbial ecosystems in terrestrial settings were driven by oxygen-generating, photosynthetic cyanobacteria. Studies of modern organisms indicate that both the origin and primary diversification of the eukaryotes could have occurred in terrestrial settings, shortly after 2.0 Ga, but there is no direct fossil evidence of terrestrial eukaryotes until about 1.1 Ga. At this time, it appears that the diversity of life in non-marine habitats exceeded that found in marine settings where sulphidic seas may have impaired eukaryotic physiology and retarded evolution. Geochemical proxies indicate the establishment of an extensive soil-forming microbial cover by 850 Ma, and it is possible that a rise in atmospheric oxygen at this time was due to the evolutionary expansion of green algae into terrestrial habitats. Direct fossil evidence of the earliest terrestrial biotas in the Phanerozoic consists of problematical palynomorphs from the Cambro-Ordovician of Laurentia. These indicate that the evolution of the first land plants (embryophytes) during the Middle Ordovician took place within a landscape that included aeroterrestrial algae which were actively adapting to selection in subaerial settings.

Кипячение лягушка (Ukrainian War Update): The Donnie Reb (DNR) Offensive Has Begun

It appears the proclamation from last night about the Ukrainians attacking I called right.  The Donnie Rebs (DNR) has launched an offensive.  How large remains to be seen.

Maryinka may have fallen to the DNR.  The DNR is claiming so at least.  There was at least a battalion of tanks in support of the DNR at Maryinka and a guessimated brigade of infantry. 

Krasnohorivka is being invaded.

Pesky is being very heavily shelled.

There are reports of the same going on at Volnovkha and, of course, Shirokyne.

There are rumors of battles elsewhere.  

The conventional wisdom has been Putin wasn't going make any further offensives and let Ukraine fall apart economically and politically.  Then he could scoop it up without having to be further condemned by the West.  

The conventional wisdom has been flat out wrong time and again about Ukraine.  Russians are not Westerners with a funny sounding language.  Putin does not want to work within the current international order.  He has said so.  Do not expect him accept a compromise which reinforces that order.

I sincerely hope to God that this offensive is just a blip, a stupid short thing which doesn't pan out.  However, based on the amount of equipment which has been moved in the DNR and LNR, this is not likely to be the case.  The summer fighting season is here.  So, too, seems to be the fight.

Кипячение лягушка (Ukraine War Update): Say Hello to Our Little Green Friends

It has been a while since I have written an update on the war in Ukraine.  The fighting never stopped.  It was confined immediately at the start of the ceasefire to the Donetsk Airport area, Shyrokyne and Debaltseve.  This has now spread up and down the ceasefire line.  The Ukrainians have taken a few villages, but these were originally on their side of the line and the DNR had been doing 'salami tactics' to slice away a small piece at a time.  However, the front hasn't moving?  Why?

The reason the front hasn't resumed moving just yet (the muck of Ukraine):

As I said though, there is still fighting and Russians are up to their lying necks in it.  Two Spetznaz were caught outside of Shchastya. They killed a Ukrainian on duty in a trench and were shot at by the other Ukrainian soldiers.  Two were wounded and captured.  They were operated on and interrogated.  Russia claims they are not part of the armed forces and left them hanging in the wind.  They maintain different and give full account of their unit, officers and orders. 

Russian Spetznaz in Ukraine [part 1]: two GRU Special Forces Soldiers caught...after killing an Ukrainian Soldier

They are not the only Russian Special Forces  (Spetznaz) there.  The doofs record themselves, as has happened multiple times.  Operational security is really screwed with the modern smart phones.  You almost have to wonder if it was intentional. 

Russian Spetznaz in Ukraine [part 2] or why cell phones are the worst thing for OpSec out there:

Even the virtually useless OSCE has noticed the number of DNR tanks.  They spotted growing numbers of tanks:

Despite claims that withdrawal of heavy weapons was complete, the SMM observed 37 tanks, mainly T-72 type, in two concentrations in “DPR”-controlled areas east of Donetsk city and nine tanks, mainly T-72 type, in government-controlled areas north of Donetsk. Furthermore, the SMM observed 10 tanks, mainly T-64 type, in government-controlled areas north-west of Luhansk city.

The SMM unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) observed a concentration in “DPR”-controlled territory, 61km north-east and 30km east of Mariupol, of at least 10 main battle tanks (MBT) of unknown type.

What the OSCE sees is just a fragment, a glimpse of what is going on.  The DNR is said to have more tanks now that Germany, France, Italy and  British combined.  (as an amusing aside, the Poles have more than those four countries combined.  I can see it now: the Poles marching to Brussels to possess the "Imperial" capital and getting Brussels at the end of the march, too!)  

Al Jazeera observed tanks and whatnot with their insignia removed and moved to the border of Ukraine.  Reuters has followed unmarked Russian tanks in the border area in large numbers.

The LNR has their own large army as well:

A Motorized Rifle Battalion Moving into Lugansk:

A Su-24 buzzed the USS Ross, an American Burke class destroyer in the Black Sea.  It hardly chased away the Ross despite what the Russian media claims.

Oh and the New York Times did a long expose on the Russian Online Troll Army (ROTA) and its chilling abilities.  ROTA has been obvious to those online in the Russophonic section of the internet and those who have been observing the confict in Ukraine from the outside. 

Ukraine also made Saakashvili the governor of Odessa.  oy.  I'm going to see if I can find out what the locals think of this.  Ukraine has a strong sense of 'other' and Georgians are viewed as very much other.  Stalin is far from loved in Ukraine and he's remembered as a Georgian.

Russia has banned numerous EU officials from traveling in Russia.  The EU Parliament has protested.

The DNR has been claiming the Ukrainians are going to attack right at the time of this post.  Somehow I doubt it.  OTOH, claiming the Ukrainians are attacking and launching a "counterattack" seems entirely possible.

US Navy, Indian Navy Begin Collaboration on Aircraft Carriers

The head of the U.S. Navy’s aircraft carrier design and engineering office is set to meet his Indian counterparts later this month to discuss the design of India’s next carrier, he told USNI News last week.

Program Executive Officer for Aircraft Carriers Rear Adm. Tom Moore will lead a Navy contingent to work with the Indian navy on designing its next indigenous aircraft carrier program.

“Our two countries are working through a number of close relationships, and one of the things the Indians are interested in is learning more about aircraft carriers,” Moore told USNI News on Thursday.

“So I’m actually heading up a Navy contingent to work with the Indian navy on aircraft carrier technology to the point that we could help them with their desire to build an indigenous aircraft carrier over in the Indian navy.”

He characterized the talks as being in the formative stages, with the Indians still trying to determine what capabilities they’d want their carrier to have.

“We’ve got a series of meetings with them coming up, they are interested in obviously learning from us big picture stuff about how you start from a clean sheet of paper and what are the processes used to build a carrier,” Moore said.

“But they’re really in the process of figuring out, ‘how big do I want it to be, how many planes do I want it to carry,’ along those lines. So once we’ve had those conversations with them, we’ll certainly be happy to engage with them where it makes sense for us.”

Moore and his team will begin meeting with Indian navy officials next month, as the two countries have tightened their defense and non-defense relationships in the last several months.

link.

US Army Starts Future Fighting Vehicle Program (aka Yet Another Bradley Replacement Attempt)

From the ashes of the US Army's canceled 70-ton ground combat vehicle, the Future Fighting Vehicle (FFV) program has begun to sprout — at least concepts for it.

The Army has awarded two contracts of more than $28 million each to BAE Systems Land and Armaments and General Dynamics Land Systems to develop design concepts for the FFV. The work is due Nov. 28, 2016.

The effort is meant to inform whether the Army will produce an entirely new vehicle or a potential replacement for the BAE-manufactured Bradley fighting vehicle, or lead to a third round of improvements for the Bradley.

link.

Sec Nav Mabus: Continue X-47B Testing, but do NOT Give Northrop an Edge in UCLASS RFP

Navy Secretary Ray Mabus said he would like to see the Unmanned Carrier-Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike (UCLASS) program move forward soon, and he’d like to continue testing the X-47B Unmanned Carrier Air Vehicle demonstrator (UCAS-D) program in the mean time without giving an advantage to builder Northrop Grumman.

Speaking at the American Enterprise Institute on Tuesday, Mabus said the Navy has had a UCLASS request for proposals (RFP) ready to go for almost two years now, but “it’s been held up because of a look at overall ISR [intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance] systems.”

The ISR review is a Defense Department-level initiative, but many in Congress, including Senate Armed Services Committee chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.), have said they want to see a greater emphasis on strike capability from the platform. McCain said the requirements so far focus on things like unrefueled endurance – important for ISR missions – rather than payload capacity for strike missions.

Mabus explained that ISR is “certainly one role” for UCLASS but not the only role.

“One of the reasons we’d like to go ahead and get the RFP out is that we’d like to find out what’s available out there in industry,” he said.

“We put certain key parameters in terms of endurance, in terms of stealth, in terms of payload, but we don’t know what industry, how far they can go in these. Payload is obviously strike.”

“We would like very much to get going on UCLASS,“ he said, but until the Navy can push out its RFP the service will continue working with UCAS-D.

“We are still testing UCAS, the X-47B. We’ve done air-to-air refueling now, we’ve done a lot of the things – we’ve shown you can move it around the deck, we’ve obviously shown it can take off and land from a carrier,” he said.

“The issue with it is how you continue to do that without giving one manufacturer just a huge advantage over what comes next. I think there are ways around it, but we’ve got to be careful not to give the people that made UCAS a huge advantage over what the next iteration is.”

link.

US Air Force Research Lab Working on Comprehensive Hypersonic X-51 Follow-on Air Vehicle

Scientists with the Air Force Research Laboratory and the Pentagon’s research arm are working to build a new hypersonic air vehicle that can travel at speeds up to Mach 5 while carrying guidance systems and other materials.

Air Force Chief Scientist Mica Endsley said the service wants to build upon the successful hypersonic test flight of the X-51 Waverider 60,000 feet above the Pacific Ocean in May of 2013.

Endsley said the Air Force and DARPA, the Pentagon’s research entity, plan to have a new and improved hypersonic air vehicle by 2023.

“X-51 was really a proof of concept test. It showed that you could get a scram jet engine, launch it off an aircraft and it could go hypersonic. It was able to go more than Mach 5 until it ran out of fuel. It was a very successful test of an airborne hypersonic weapons system,” Endsley said.

[...]

Endsley added that the next-generation effort is not merely aimed at creating another scramjet but rather engineering a much more comprehensive hypersonic air vehicle.

“What they are trying to do now is build the whole system so that it is not just about the engine. You have to have materials that can operate at the kind of temperatures you have when you are going at hypersonic speeds. You have to have guidance systems that will function when you are going at those types of speeds. There are a bunch of technological challenges that have to be addressed to make a functioning system that will work,” she said.

The new air vehicle effort will progress alongside an Air Force hypersonic weapons program. While today’s cruise missiles travel at speeds up to 600 miles per hour, hypersonic weapons will be able to reach speeds of Mach 5 to Mach 10, Air Force officials said.

The new air vehicle could be used to transport sensors, equipment or weaponry in the future, depending upon how the technology develops.

link.

A 4 Celsius Cold Snap in the Aptian/Albian Cretaceous High Arctic

Mid-Cretaceous High Arctic stratigraphy, climate, and Oceanic Anoxic Events

Authors:

Herrie et al

Abstract:

Over the past decades, much research has focused on the mid-Cretaceous greenhouse climate, the formation of widespread organic-rich black shales, and cooling intervals from low- to mid-latitude sections. Data from the High Arctic, however, are limited. In this paper, we present high-resolution geochemical records for an ∼1.8-km-thick sedimentary succession exposed on Axel Heiberg Island in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago at a paleolatitude of ∼71°N. For the first time, we have data constraints for the timing and magnitude of most major Oceanic Anoxic Events (OAEs) in brackish-water (OAE1a) and shelf (OAE1b and OAE2) settings in the mid-Cretaceous High Arctic. These are consistent with carbon-climate perturbations reported from deep-water records of lower latitudes. Glendonite beds are observed in the upper Aptian to lower Albian, covering an interval of ∼6 m.y. between 118 and 112 Ma. Although the formation of glendonites is still under discussion, these well-dated occurrences may support the existence of cool shelf waters in the High Arctic Sverdrup Basin at this time, coeval with recent geochemical data from the subtropical Atlantic indicating a drop in sea-surface temperature of nearly 4 °C.

Morphological Evidence Mitochondria are Endosymbiotic α-proteobacterium

Ancient Homology of the Mitochondrial Contact Site and Cristae Organizing System Points to an Endosymbiotic Origin of Mitochondrial Cristae

Authors:

Muñoz-Gómez et al

Abstract:

Mitochondria are eukaryotic organelles that originated from an endosymbiotic α-proteobacterium. As an adaptation to maximize ATP production through oxidative phosphorylation, mitochondria contain inner membrane invaginations called cristae. Recent work has characterized a multi-protein complex in yeast and animal mitochondria called MICOS (mitochondrial contact site and cristae organizing system), responsible for the determination and maintenance of cristae [ 1–4 ]. However, the origin and evolution of these characteristic mitochondrial features remain obscure. We therefore conducted a comprehensive search for MICOS components across the major groups that encompass eukaryotic diversity to determine the extent of conservation of this complex. We detected homologs for the majority of MICOS components among opisthokonts (the group containing animals and fungi), but only Mic60 and Mic10 were consistently identified outside this group. The conservation of Mic60 and Mic10 in eukaryotes is consistent with their central role in MICOS function [ 5–7 ], indicating that the basic mechanism for cristae determination arose early in evolution and has remained relatively unchanged. We found that eukaryotes with ultrastructurally simplified anaerobic mitochondria that lack cristae have also lost MICOS. We then searched for a prokaryotic MICOS and identified a homolog of Mic60 present only in α-proteobacteria, providing evidence for the endosymbiotic origin of mitochondrial cristae. Our study clarifies the origins of mitochondrial cristae and their subsequent evolutionary history, provides evidence for a general mechanism of cristae formation and maintenance in eukaryotes, and points to a new potential factor involved in membrane differentiation in prokaryotes.

US Navy Hypersonic Railgun Round Being Adapted to Standard Deck Guns

The U.S. Navy’s deck guns could take on new relevance if ongoing tests to fire a guided round at five times the speed of sound from their muzzles are successful, USNI News has learned.

Using rounds initially designed for the service’s emerging electromagnetic railgun, Naval Sea Systems Command are now in early testing phases of using the planned hyper velocity projectile (HVPs) with the service’s existing gunpowder-based deck guns found on almost every U.S. Navy surface ship, NAVSEA told USNI News.

The HVPs from a traditional deck gun will be slower than one launched from a railgun — a little over Mach 5 versus Mach 7 — but still double the speed of an unguided regular shell from the service’s Mk 45 five-inch gun found on its guided missile cruisers and destroyers, according to information from NAVSEA.

While deck guns are standard through out the fleet, they lack the range precision of the guided missiles found on cruisers and destroyers and have had shrinking utility in high-end warfare.

A high speed guided round from a deck gun could give U.S. ships more options to deal with air and ballistic missile threats while the Navy continues to refine the railgun design.

link.

The Albian/Maastrichtian Cretaceous Vertebrate Fauna of India's Cauvery Basin

Cretaceous vertebrate fauna of the Cauvery Basin, southern India: Palaeodiversity and palaeobiogeographic implications

Author:

Verma

Abstract:

The vertebrate fauna from the late Albian to Maastrichtian succession of the Cauvery Basin, south India has been known since 1845, but it received only scant attention as compared to the vertebrates already known from the Deccan volcanic province of peninsular India. Recent fossil discoveries appear to support the emergence of significantly diverse marine and non-marine vertebrates comprising fishes, frogs, reptiles (ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, turtles, crocodiles and dinosaurs) and a mammal from the Cauvery Basin have revived the interest in the fauna of the basin as it has significant implications for understanding the palaeobiogeography of India. The latest Albian to Turonian marine vertebrates such as sharks, ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs show a wide geographic distribution and marine territory, while sharks are typically cooler water fauna of high palaeolatitudes. The latest Maastrichtian non-marine vertebrates especially turtles, crocodiles, dinosaurs and a mammal are considered to show mixed Gondwanan and Laurasian affinities thus providing new lines of evidence in favour of a latest Cretaceous biotic links between India and the neighbouring continents. An overview of the vertebrate faunal diversity of the Cretaceous sequences of the Cauvery Basin and its palaeobiogeographic considerations are presented.

Academic Bun Fight Over Sulfur Cycling bacteria: Serial Convergence or 1.8 Billion Year Evolutionary Stasis?

Putative extremely long evolutionary stasis in bacteria might be explained by serial convergence

Authors:

Dvorak et al

Abstract:

In a recent paper, Schopf et al. (1) analyzed 1.8-Ga-old fossil sulfur bacteria and found an intriguing morphological similarity between fossil and modern species. Moreover, the authors showed that the deep-water sulfur cycling environment, where these bacteria reside, has not significantly changed throughout time. Thus, the authors hypothesize that this phenomenon is a result of an extreme evolutionary stasis in these bacteria. Such a static evolution is termed hypobradytelic and it has also been described in some cyanobacteria (2), where an evolutionary stasis is expected to be more than 2 Ga. However, these conclusions rely only on geological and morphological evidence.

Counterattack!

Reply to Dvořák et al.: Apparent evolutionary stasis of ancient subseafloor sulfur cycling biocoenoses

Authors:

Schopf et al

Abstract:

We thank Dvořák et al. for their comment (1) on our paper (2), in which we compare sulfur-cycling ∼1.8- and ∼2.3-Ga fossil communities with their modern counterparts and report that the community fabric of the fossil and modern microbes, as well as their organismal and cellular morphology, their interlinked energy-production via anaerobic sulfate-reduction and sulfur species oxidation, and their use of sulfate and nitrate to fuel this sulfur cycle appear to have remained unchanged over a segment of geological time equivalent to half the age of the Earth.