Why is Mars barren and uninhabitable, while life has always thrived here on our relatively similar planet Earth?
A discovery made by a NASA rover has offered a clue for this mystery, new research said Wednesday, suggesting that while rivers once sporadically flowed on Mars, it was doomed to mostly be a desert planet.
Mars is thought to currently have all the necessary ingredients for life except for perhaps the most important one: liquid water.
However the red surface is carved out by ancient rivers and lakes, showing that water once flowed on our nearest neighbour.
Related: Extremely Weird Rock Found on Mars Looks Like Nothing Else Around It
There are currently several rovers searching Mars for signs of life that could have existed back in those more habitable times, millions of years ago.
Earlier this year, NASA’s Curiosity rover discovered a missing piece in this puzzle: rocks that are rich in carbonate minerals.
Site where Curiosity found a mineral that may help explain the planet’s fated desolation. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)
These “carbonates” – such as limestone on Earth – act as a sponge for carbon dioxide, pulling it in from the atmosphere and trapping it in rock.
A new study, published in the journal Nature, modelled exactly how the existence of these rocks could change our understanding of Mars’s past.
Brief ‘oases’
Lead study author Edwin Kite, a planetary scientist at the University of Chicago and a member of the Curiosity team, told AFP it appeared there were “blips of habitability in some times and places” on Mars.
But these “oases” were the exception rather than the rule.
On Earth, carbon dioxide in the atmosphere warms the planet. Over long timescales, the carbon becomes trapped in rocks such as carbonates.
Then volcanic eruptions spew the gas back into the atmosphere, creating a well-balanced climate cycle supportive of consistently running water.
However Mars has a “feeble” rate of volcanic outgassing compared to Earth, Kite said. This throws off the balance, leaving Mars much colder and less hospitable.
According to the modelling research, the brief periods of liquid water on Mars were followed by 100 million years of barren desert – a long time for anything to survive.
It is still possible that there are pockets of liquid water deep underground on Mars we have not yet found, Kite said.
NASA’s Perseverance Rover, which landed on an ancient Martian delta in 2021, has also found signs of carbonates at the edge of dried-up lake, he added.
Next, the scientists hope to discover more evidence of carbonates.
Kite said the best proof would be returning rock samples from the Martian surface back to Earth – both the United States and China are racing to do this in the next decade.
Are we alone?
Ultimately, scientists are searching for an answer to one of the great questions: how common are planets like Earth that can harbour life?
Astronomers have discovered nearly 6,000 planets beyond our Solar System since the early 1990s.
But only for Mars and Earth can scientists study rocks which allow them to understand the planet’s past, Kite said.
If we do determine that Mars never hosted even tiny micro-organisms during its watery times, that would indicate it is difficult to kick-start life across the universe.
But if we discover proof of ancient life, that would “basically be telling us the origin of life is easy on a planetary scale,” Kite said.
The ALMA Observatory, one of the world’s most advanced astronomical facilities, has uncovered unprecedented details about the earliest galaxies formed in the universe. The results of the CRISTAL survey, an ambitious research project that spans across several years, showcase the power of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) to explore the early cosmos. By focusing on galaxies just one billion years after the Big Bang, the survey has provided detailed maps of cold gas, dust, and stellar formations, offering a new perspective on how galaxies evolved during their infancy.
The groundbreaking study is not the first to showcase ALMA’s immense capabilities. Previously, ALMA helped reveal key information about the formation of galaxies, tracing star formation in the distant universe. However, the CRISTAL survey takes it a step further, presenting a complete view of galactic ecosystems. These findings, when combined with earlier works, provide a more thorough understanding of galactic birth and evolution. As scientists continue to examine how our universe’s galaxies formed, these recent discoveries by ALMA play a crucial role in reshaping our understanding of cosmic history.
A Closer Look at Early Galaxies: The CRISTAL Survey
The CRISTAL survey was designed to observe galaxies from a period known as the “cosmic dawn,” roughly one billion years after the Big Bang. Using the unique capabilities of ALMA, the survey reveals crucial aspects of early galactic structures, most notably the cold gas and dust that serve as the building blocks for stars. By focusing on [CII] emission, a type of light emitted by ionized carbon atoms, researchers could map the internal structures of 39 galaxies. These galaxies were selected to represent the typical star-forming populations of the early universe, providing essential clues into how galaxies like the Milky Way took shape.
“Thanks to ALMA’s unique sensitivity and resolution, we can resolve the internal structure of these early galaxies in ways never possible before,” said Rodrigo Herrera-Camus, the principal investigator of the CRISTAL survey. “CRISTAL is showing us how the first galactic disks formed, how stars emerged in giant clumps, and how gas shaped the galaxies we see today.” This breakthrough allows scientists to move beyond basic observations of distant galaxies and explore their complex structures, offering insights into their star formation processes and overall evolution.
A family portrait of galaxies from the CRISTAL survey. The image shows the gas traced by ALMA’s [CII] observations. Blue and green represent starlight captured by the Hubble and James Webb Space Telescopes. Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO) / HST / JWST / R. Herrera-Camus
The Formation of Galactic Disks and Clumpy Star Formation
One of the most significant findings of the CRISTAL survey is the discovery of large-scale, clumpy star formation in the early galaxies. These stars formed in clusters, with each spanning thousands of light-years. Such findings not only challenge previous assumptions about how early stars formed but also reveal the chaotic and energetic environment in which these galaxies took shape. As galaxies developed, they formed dense clumps of gas and dust where stars emerged. These clumps provided the fuel for star formation, allowing galaxies to grow and evolve at rapid rates during their infancy.
“What’s exciting about CRISTAL is that we are seeing early galaxies not just as points of light, but as complex ecosystems,” said Loreto Barcos-Muñoz, co-author of the study and astronomer at the U.S. National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO). “This project shows how ALMA can resolve the internal structure of galaxies even in the distant Universe — revealing how they evolve, interact, and form stars.” By visualizing these clumps, the CRISTAL survey offers an in-depth look at the very nature of star formation in the early universe and its connection to the overall structure of galaxies.
Cold Gas and Cosmic Dust: Understanding the Role of Gas in Galaxy Formation
Another key aspect of the CRISTAL survey is its examination of the cold gas that permeates these early galaxies. This gas plays a vital role in the formation of new stars, serving as the raw material that fuels stellar birth. Observations showed that the cold gas often extended far beyond the visible stars, a clear indication that it was either feeding future star formation or being expelled through stellar winds. In some cases, this gas was found to form rotation patterns, which hint at the formation of early galactic disks—a precursor to the spiral galaxies that would later dominate the universe.
“These observations highlight ALMA’s potential as a time machine, allowing us to peer into the early ages of the Universe,” said Sergio Martín, Head of the Department of Science Operations at ALMA. “Programs like CRISTAL demonstrate the power of ALMA’s Large Programs to drive high-impact science. They allow us to tackle the big questions of cosmic evolution with the unprecedented depth and resolution that only a world-class observatory like ALMA can provide.” These findings not only reinforce the importance of gas in galactic formation but also demonstrate how ALMA’s advanced technology can help scientists peer deep into the universe’s history.
Helen Schulman is not afraid to make you squirm. Across her long and distinguished career as a novelist and short story writer, she has fearlessly explored the awkward collisions between our private and public selves, between what we present to the world and what we conceal from even our closest companions. Her 2011 best-selling novel “This Beautiful Life” dared to plunge headfirst into the shark-infested waters of the internet while most of us were still basking in the glow of the web’s shiny benevolence. “Fools For Love,” her latest collection of stories, finds Schulman’s characters weighing the past against the present, looking for redemption in the wrong places and occasionally coming up roses.
My own artistic hope is to go as long as I can. I live to write!
— Helen Schulman
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✍️ Author Chat
Helen Schulman’s new story collection, “Fools For Love,” hits bookshelves this July.
(Knopf)
When it comes to ideas, what becomes a short story and what becomes a novel?
A lot of my ideas spring forward from something Henry James called the “germ” — the bit of overheated gossip, the newspaper article, an eavesdropped conversation on a public bus, a story told by other parents when you are both pushing toddlers on the swings in a playground, which injects itself into the writerly imagination and grows — often over large swaths of time. Sometimes these obsessions entangle, too. That’s what happened in [my story] “The Revisionist.” My husband had a college buddy over for dinner who told us this story about a friend of his who was walking home from work when a strange man ran into his own house and slammed the door in his face. Why? What? Who? The reality was somewhat pedestrian — the intruder was a drunken next-door neighbor, who I guess had overshot. But the anecdote stuck with me.
For some of your characters, the past is ever-present — they are fated to live with the sum of their choices, and it engenders a lot of regret. Can you speak to that?
My all-time favorite writer is William Faulkner. You must be familiar with his quote from the novel “Requiem for a Nun”: “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” I sometimes feel this way about existence in general, like each and every moment in a lifetime is somehow equal, and that as one ages the moments accrue and tag along wherever one goes. Certainly in my own life I don’t sweat my big choices; I’m happy about them. I think a person does the best they can with what they know at the time. But I’m infinitely curious about what could have happened instead.
There is a lot of status anxiety in your work— not just financial status, but marriage, career — the things you think will align pleasingly in middle age but often don’t.
My husband and I are both working writers. The marriage works; the financial status has gone in and out. I’m not sure I always looked to middle age as a time of “pleasing alignment,” but I also didn’t think the world would be as effed up as it is now. Some of my characters get older and wiser; some are just more wrinkled, taller kids. But there is a lot of endurance over time in these stories — love, friendship, workplace passions. I would venture to say that most of my characters have real lives, and some very real satisfactions within the stresses that inevitably go along with them.
There are also secrets in your stories. Are we as sick as our secrets, or are they simply unavoidable?
Everyone has secrets. In “The Revisionist,” the protagonist even keeps secrets from himself. One of my closest friends, after the death of her parents, found out that one was married before and that the other had two other children with someone else. Now everyone is dead, and so we don’t even know if the spouses knew this about each other. There is nothing pedestrian about “ordinary lives.” We all roil and we all excite. I feel like one of my jobs as a fiction writer is to dive down beneath the surface.
In the story “My Best Friend,” there is a shocking act of violence. Why did you take it in that direction?
That story is about two men, one an up-and-coming-actor and the other a want-to-be novelist, who fall into a deep brotherhood while sleeping with the same woman. In fact, they each marry her — sequentially, of course. At some point, the friendship goes south; the protagonist, Jake, and Jeannie, the woman, have kids together and his career dries up. The first husband, Phil, becomes a very successful TV showrunner and producer. Out of pity, he hires Jake to be a character in one of his nighttime soaps. Jake starts to become an audience favorite, and Phil tortures the character on the series. All their pent up homoerotic attachments and jealousies explode in a “manly” brawl, which I see as tragicomedic, at the end of the story. The love story is theirs, after all.
Kurt Vonnegut has a quote about, when one reaches advanced middle age, life becomes an epilogue. That is a hard thing to carry. Do you feel that this is the case? I guess I’m thinking about your story “In a Better Place,” which revisits the characters from the book’s titular story in old age.
No, honestly I don’t. That story is really about the celebration of long love between the couple at the heart of the story, its healing powers and sustaining comforts. What may make this all feel epilogue-y to you (not a word, I know) is because these two people feel happy and fulfilled by their marriage. … My own artistic hope is to go as long as I can. I live to write!
📰 The Week(s) in Books
Charlie English spotlights the CIA’s use of literature to fight communism during the Cold War in his latest book.
(Angel City Press at the Los Angeles Public Library)
Valerie Castellanos Clark weighs in on Charlie English’s “The CIA Book Club,” about how Polish citizens fought Russian communism with books. “As with the best spy novels, we know the good guy is going to win … but how English gets us there is exciting,” Clark writes.
Melina Sempill Watts calls Josh Jackson’s book, “The Enduring Wild: A Journey Into California’s Public Lands” a timely book for a state that is in danger of losing its most precious public resource: “Jackson’s assertion that we are all landowners is a clarion call amid a GOP-led push to sell off public land.”
Leigh Haber raves on Amy Bloom’s latest novel “I’ll Be Right Here.” “As Bloom has demonstrated throughout her stellar literary career,” writes Haber, “she can train her eye on any person, place or object and render it sublime.”
Jim Ruland calls Megan Abbott’s latest thriller, “El Dorado Drive,” a novel for our present age of anxiety, propelled by Abbott’s masterful narrative drive and her skill at “rendering the hot, messy inner lives of young people.”
📖 Bookstore Faves
Ken Concepcion, owner of Now Serving, tells us what’s been flying off the shelves at his Chinatown bookstore that specializes in cookbooks.
(Shelby Moore / For The Times)
This week we are perusing the shelves at Now Serving, a cozy bookshop devoted to the culinary arts and located on the ground floor of Chinatown’s Far East Plaza. Co-owner Ken Concepcion gives us the scoop on the hot goods.
What books are selling right now?
“Umma,”“By Heart,”“Fat + Flour,”“Salsa Daddy” and “The Choi of Cooking.”
What food trend are customers excited about right now?
Being that we are in L.A., there has always been a demand for vegetarian and vegan titles. The interest in plant-based cookbooks that delve into specific cuisines such as Filipino, Vietnamese, Mexican and Japanese has definitely grown over the years, and the diversity of voices has been wonderful to see. There needs to be better representation for Ecuadorian, Guatemalan and other Central and South American cuisines as well — there is a real demand for it.
Why do you think cookbooks are still important, despite the ubiquity of recipes online?
As with anything that you can find online, recipes are no different. There are thousands upon thousands available. Most of them are copycat recipes. We think cookbooks are still unparalleled in that they can deliver a narrative, historical context and incredible imagery and stunning design in a world that is more reliant on technology than ever. Cookbooks at best are functional objects of art that can be then passed down from generation to generation. They can often become keepsakes, time capsules and family heirlooms.
Located at the foot of Tokyo Skytree, Kataoka Byōbu carries on the millennium-old tradition of making folding screens. Using ancient techniques, the shop creates original items with a modern twist for customers from around the globe.
Folding Screens Made to Order
Ornate folding screens called byōbu have been part of Japanese interior décor since the sixth century. Today, Kataoka Byōbu, a specialty shop in the Mukōjima neighborhood of Tokyo’s Sumida, uses traditional techniques paired with contemporary know-how to create original renditions of the decorative items that reflect modern tastes.
The shop, founded in 1946, nestles in a residential area just a stone’s throw from the Tokyo Skytree. Run by third-generation head Kataoka Kōta, it has drawn attention in Japan and abroad for its made-to-order services.
While in high school, Kataoka spent time studying in the United States and was impressed by how fellow exchange students from other countries eloquently shared about their own cultures. He says that the experience opened his eyes, convincing him that folding screens were a tradition Japan could take pride in. This led him to join the family business, following in the footsteps of his grandfather, who founded the shop, and his father.
Since taking the reins in 2024, he has embraced Japan’s uptick in foreign visitors as an opportunity to share the ancient charms of Japan’s traditional folding screens “More and more, people around the world are incorporating aspects of Japanese culture into their daily lives,” he explains, beaming. “That includes using byōbu to add a touch of art to living spaces.”
Byōbu, which are Chinese in origin, have been used in Japan since the Nara period (710–94), initially to protect against drafts in sleeping quarters and as room dividers. They took on a more decorative role starting in the Muromachi period (1333–1568), with screens coming to display pictures in artistic styles ranging from modest ink paintings to ornate scenes depicted on gold-leaf backgrounds. Many of the masterpieces that have survived to the present were commissioned by samurai and aristocratic families as well as Buddhist temples.
As there is little call for folding screens in modern homes though, demand has shrunk, with many producers closing their doors forever. Today, Kataoka Byōbu is the sole shop of its kind in Tokyo. Its main business is making screens for traditional doll manufacturers and other businesses specializing in seasonal decorations, an industry that itself is feeling the pinch of Japan’s changing demographic landscape.
Recognizing the shifting winds, the shop under began accepting general orders. It launched its made-to-order service whereby customers can purchase byōbu of their own design for special occasions like wedding anniversaries. As its customizing business has grown, the shop has also seen an uptick in orders from companies and local governments.
A fashion display incorporates a special-order folding screen made by Kataoka Byōbu. (Courtesy Kataoka Byōbu)
Kataoka says that foreigners interested in traditional Japanese culture are another growing segment and now account for some 30% of the shop’s sales. Motifs like pine trees and Mount Fuji are popular made-to-order designs. He and staff take orders directly at the store or interact online using texting apps to meet customer requests for aspects like size and color schemes, shipping the final creations nearly anywhere in the world.
A folding screen ordered by a foreign customer featuring a Japanese maple in autumn and gold leaf. (Courtesy Kataoka Byōbu)
Kataoka enjoys meeting a wide variety of customer requests, declaring that “the process of creating an original folding screen from scratch is a thrill.” Starting with a basic budget, the staff work closely with customers to come up with a design. Once this is finalized, artisans go to work in the store’s second-floor workshop, preparing the frame, washi that serves as the canvas, and other parts. With larger, more intricate works, it can take up to three months to finish a screen.
Kataoka Byōbu has poured energy into spreading understanding of the traditional artform in Japan and abroad, including collaborations with foreign artists in exhibitions. Kataoka says that nothing brings him more pleasure than introducing people to the world of byōbu. “I encourage everyone to drop by the shop while visiting the Tokyo Skytree and see the amazing skills of our artisans firsthand.”
Hours: weekdays 10:00 to 17:00; closed weekends and national holidays
Getting there: one minute from the front exit of Tokyo Skytree station on the Tōbu Line; five minutes from the A4 exit of Honjoazumabashi station on the Toei Asakusa Line; six minutes from the A3 exit of Oshiage station on the Tokyo Metro Hanzōmon Line
I don’t often get asked about the phones I’m testing when I’m out and about, unless it’s a folding phone. Then I usually hear some version of the same thing: “Oh, I thought about getting one of those! But then I just got a [insert slab-style phone name here].” My anecdotal data matches the actual sales figures; there are many more people curious about folding phones than there are buyers of folding phones. Samsung would very much like that to not be the case, and, by all indications, it’s about to pull out all the stops at at its Unpacked event on July 9th. But is putting the Ultra name on a folding phone enough?
The weak sales are not for lack of trying — Samsung has been trying to sell us on foldables for a good chunk of the last decade, and Google also got in the game a couple of years ago. Motorola has had substantial success selling clamshell-style flip phones; Counterpoint Research found that the brand’s foldable market share grew 253 percent year-over-year in 2024. But that’s a bigger piece of a very small pie. TrendForce estimated that foldables made up just 1.5 percent of the overall smartphone market in 2024. In the US, Samsung was the earliest and loudest folding phone maker, but a half dozen iterations of folding phones hasn’t managed to make a significant dent.
The company has all but confirmed that we’ll get an Ultra-branded Fold for the first time, with a thinner profile to rival the recent efforts from Honor and Oppo. The Z Flip 7 is likely to get a bigger, Razr-style screen that covers most of the front panel, and we might see a cheaper FE version with the old cover screen design. That all seems to address a couple of common complaints about foldables: they’re too pricey and come with too many tradeoffs compared to a slab-style phone.
I’m not quite sure it’ll be enough, though. Foldables remain more susceptible to damage from dust than a standard flagship phone — and repairs can be pricier. Despite saying years ago that it’s pursuing full dustproofing, Samsung doesn’t seem to have cracked the code on a fully IP68-rated foldable just yet. Taking a chance on an expensive phone that’s less durable than your typical $1,000 flagship? That’s kind of a big ask, especially with prices on everything else we buy going up, too.
It’s not all doom and gloom for foldables, however. Analysts are putting a lot of stock in rumors of a folding phone from Apple coming in 2026. An iFold or whatever it might be called could help expand the market, at least in the US, and maybe that rising tide would float Samsung’s boat, too. Maybe a couple of new models hitting different price segments is enough to get Samsung’s marketshare growing again — a strategy that has worked well for the company in the past. Maybe an Ultra foldable with ultra specs will convince some people who were on the fence about folding phones. And if anyone was holding out for an extra hinge, well, Samsung might just have that covered, too.
Zanubrutinib (Brukinsa; BeOne Medicines) outperforms other covalent Bruton tyrosine kinase inhibitors (BTKis) in relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), suggest findings of a new comparative analysis.1
Compared with its competitors, zanubrutinib showed an edge in reducing the risk of disease progression or death, researchers found in analyzing data from pivotal trials of covalent BTKis. In the absence of head-to-head trials, the study, published in Blood Advances, is the first to offer indirect comparisons between the treatments, which the researchers say is particularly important for certain patient subgroups.
“The results provide insights that cannot be derived directly from assessment of the individual trial outcomes and were not previously known,” explained the group. For example, while there is consensus on optimaltreatment for patients with certain high-risk factors, including del(17p) or TP53 mutations, uncertainty remains around the best course of action for patients with del(11q) or IGHV mutational status.
The meta-analysis assessed data on the 3 covalent BTKis approved in CLL—zanubrutinib, acalabrutinib (Calquence; AstraZeneca), and an earlier generation counterpart ibrutinib (Imbruvica; Pharmacyclics and Johnson & Johnson)—as well as bendamustine + rituximab (Rituxan; Genentech and Biogen) and idelalisib (Zydelig; Gilead) + rituximab (BR/IR). The analysis did not take into account data on the noncovalent BTKi pirtobrutinib (Jaypirca; Eli Lilly).
The indirect comparative analysis is the first of its kind to assess the relative efficacy of approved covalent Bruton tyrosine kinase inhibitors to treat CLL in the absence of head-to-head trials.
Image credit: photon_photo – stock.adobe.com
Data came from the 3 pivotal randomized controlled trials for the BTKis—ALPINE (comparing zanubrutinib vs ibrutinib in patients with TP53 mutations and/or del[17p]),2 ELEVATE-RR (comparing acalabrutinib vs ibrutinib among patients with del[17p] and/or del[11q]),3 and ASCEND (comparing acalabrutinib vs BR/IR among patients with TP53 mutations and/or del[17p]).4 Follow-up within the trials ranged from 39 months to 46.5 months.
Compared with other BTKis and BR/IR, zanubrutinib showed significant improvements in progression-free survival (PFS), and while not statistically significant, numerical improvements in overall survival against acalabrutinib (HR, 0.72; 95% credible interval [CrI], 0.35-1.50) and ibrutinib (HR, 0.59; 95% CrI, 0.31-1.11), as well as against BR/IR (HR, 0.65; 95% CI, 0.23-1.75)
The analysis showed a 51% reduced risk of disease progression or death against ibrutinib (HR, 0.49; 95% CrI, 0.31-0.78) and a 45% reduced risk against acalabrutinib (HR, 0.55; 95% CrI, 0.32-0.94) among high-risk patients. PFS improvements associated with zanubrutinib were more pronounced against BR/IR (HR, 0.12; 95% CrI, 0.05-0.26).
This benefit, explained the researchers, remained even when adjusting data from the ALPINE trial for deaths related to COVID-19.
The group also looked at differences in response rates, observing similar findings coming from the ALPINE study, with more favorable overall (ORR) (OR, 3.09; 95% CrI, 1.40-7.26) and complete response (CR) (OR, 1.96; 95% CrI, 0.55-8.14) rates for zanubrutinib against ibrutinib. Numerical improvements in ORR (OR, 1.91; 95% CrI, 0.75-5.00) and CR (OR, 2.07; 95% CrI, 0.50-9.67) for zanubrutinib versus acalabrutinib were also documented.
The researchers noted that due to limited sample sizes provided in the data, they were unable todetermine clear long-term survival outcomes. The group also emphasized caution in takeaways of their findings based on the indirect comparisons made.
“When interpreting the results of the present study, the structure of the network must be considered; specifically for comparisons of zanubrutinib versus BR/IR which rely on indirect evidence (via ibrutinib), thereby decreasing the certainty of relative effect estimates,” wrote the researchers. “When estimates are informed by a single study per node along a chain, differences in effect modifiers across studies within the chain may impact the observed relative effects that rely on those chains, thereby making results less reliable.”
References
Shadman M, Brown J, Mohseninejad L, et al. Comparative efficacy of Bruton tyrosine kinase inhibitors in high-risk relapsed/refractory CLL: a network meta-analysis. Blood Adv. 2025;9(12):2863-2870. doi:10.1182/bloodadvances.2024014523
Brown J, Eichhorst B, Hillmen P, et al. Zanubrutinib or ibrutinib in relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia. N Engl J Med. 2023;388:319-332. doi:10.1056/NEJMoa2211582
Byrd JC, Hillmen P, Ghia P, et al. Acalabrutinib versus ibrutinib in previously treated chronic lymphocytic leukemia: results of the first randomized Phase III trial. J Clin Oncol. 2021;39(31):3441-3452. doi:10.1200/JCO.21.01210.
Ghia P, Pluta A, Wach M, et al. ASCEND: Phase III, randomized trial of acalabrutinib versus idelalisib plus rituximab or bendamustine plus rituximab in relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia. J Clin Oncol. 2020;38(25). doi:10.1200/JCO.19.03355
This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to Space.com’s Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.
Picture this: a small audience is quietly ushered into a darkened room. They gasp in awe, as a brilliant night sky shines above. They wonder – as many after them will do – what trickery has made the roof above their heads disappear?
But this is a performance; the stars above an ingenious projection. For the first time a public audience has experienced the spectacle of the opto-mechanical planetarium. The location is the newly opened Deutsches Museum in Munich, built to celebrate science and technology. The date is May 7 1925.
Visualizing the heavens
Throughout time, cultures around the world have used the stars to help make sense of the world, to understand where we come from and determine our place in the cosmos.
People have tried to recreate the movements of the stars and planets since antiquity. In the 1700s, the orrery, a clockwork model of the Solar System, was developed. The word “planetarium” was invented to describe orreries that featured the planets.
One room-sized orrery example was built by the self-taught Frisian astronomer Eise Eisinga. It’s still operational today in Franeker, Netherlands.
No human has ever been to the edge of the Solar System to see this view. Orreries, and other mechanical models of the universe like celestial globes, present views from impossible, external perspectives.
Breaking space news, the latest updates on rocket launches, skywatching events and more!
This clockwork model of the solar system was constructed with the pendulum clock that drives the mechanism in the ceiling. (Image credit: Erik Zachte)
The first planetariums
The desire for a realistic view of the stars and planets, created from a perspective we actually see, gathered pace in the early 20th century as light pollution from growing cities diminished the view of the night sky.
People like Oskar von Miller, first director of the Deutsches Museum in Munich, Germany, wanted to return this vision of the stars and planets to everyone. (Ironically, von Miller’s earlier career was as an electrical engineer, rolling out the city lighting that contributed to light pollution.)
One early attempt to create this view of the night sky was the Atwood Sphere, installed in Chicago in 1913.
Approximately five metres across, it was made of sheet metal perforated with a star map. When viewed from the inside, the light shining through 692 pinholes replicated the Chicago night sky. The whole structure could even be rotated to simulate the motion of the stars.
The original projector at the Manitoba Museum Planetarium, colloquially known as ‘Marvin,’ sits on display. (Image credit: TMMCommunications)
A realistic display of the stars is one thing. Representing the planets, whose positions in the sky change from night to night, is a different one. Von Miller and others at the Deutsches Museum knew that fixed holes could not represent the complexity of a moving planet.
What if the planets were displayed by projection? If so, couldn’t the stars be projected, as well? With this realization, a new kind of planetarium was born, borrowing the name from earlier orreries but working in a completely different way.
The task of building such a device was given to the German optical company Carl Zeiss AG. After many setbacks, their first planetarium projector was completed in 1923, with the first performance at the Deutsches Museum a century ago today.
A view from the front of the Jennifer Chalsty Planetarium in New Jersey. (Image credit: Tzim78 via Wikimedia Commons)
Planetariums were a hit with the public. Within decades, they had spread around the world – the first planetarium in the United States opened in Chicago in 1930, while the first one in Asia opened in Osaka, Japan in 1937. The popularity of planetariums particularly accelerated in the US during the space race of the 1960s.
Australia’s oldest operating planetarium is the Melbourne Planetarium, managed by Museums Victoria since 1965. In Aotearoa New Zealand, Auckland’s Stardome Observatory has been in operation since 1997. The current longest-running planetarium in the southern hemisphere is in Montevideo, Uruguay, operational since 1955.
Changing pace of technology
The opto-mechanical planetarium projector remains a technological wonder of the modern world. Individual plates, perforated with pinholes, are illuminated by a bright central light. Separate lenses focus each projection from one of these star maps to fill the entire dome with about 5,000 stars.
The Sun, Moon and planets have separate projectors driven by gears and rods that mechanically calculate the object’s position in the sky for any time or place.
The opto-mechanical planetarium projector remains a technological wonder of the modern world. Individual plates, perforated with pinholes, are illuminated by a bright central light. Separate lenses focus each projection from one of these star maps to fill the entire dome with about 5,000 stars.
The Sun, Moon and planets have separate projectors driven by gears and rods that mechanically calculate the object’s position in the sky for any time or place.
By the 1990s, a digital revolution had begun. With the advent of computers, the positions of the planets could now be calculated digitally. The Melbourne Planetarium became the first digital planetarium in the southern hemisphere when it installed the Digistar II in 1999.
This system, developed by computer graphics company Evans and Sutherland, replaced the multiple lenses of earlier projectors with a fisheye lens. A single beam of light swept across the whole dome so rapidly that it seemed to create a single image – albeit in a bizarre green color, rendering a starfield of fuzzy green blobs.
The trade-off for a less crisp starfield was a 3D database with more than 9,000 stars. For the first time, planetarium audiences could fly through space, far beyond the edge of the Solar System.
Planetarium technology continues to develop. Today, most planetariums operate through video projection. Known as fulldome, the output from multiple projectors is blended together to create a seamless video, transforming the planetarium into a sophisticated 360-degree theatre.
The Adler Planetarium is a popular hotspot for space fans across the US (Image credit: JJxFile via Wikimedia Commons)
A gateway to the stars
Astronomy has also changed over the last century. Just as Zeiss was completing its first projector, astronomer Edwin Hubble discovered that other galaxies exist beyond our Milky Way galaxy.
The stars shown on the dome in Munich in 1925 turned out to be just a tiny part of the universe that we know today.
Planetariums’ digital systems now incorporate data from telescopes and space agencies around the world. Audiences can fly off Earth, orbit the planets and moons of the Solar System, and explore the billions of known galaxies.
Yet some things have not changed. From orreries and lantern slides to opto-mechanical and digital planetariums, the communication of astronomy has always been about more than just the latest results of science.
The power of the planetarium over the last 100 years has been its ability to evoke wonder and awe. It taps into our enduring fascination with the vast mystery of the night sky.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Tim’s upcoming new album Tim Minchin Time Machine, will be out later this month! It’ll be available July 25th.
Four singles have been released already: ‘Ruby’, ‘The Song of The Masochist’, ‘I Wouldn’t Like You’ and ‘You Grew On Me‘.
You can pre-order ‘Tim Minchin Time Machine’ here including a limited number of signed art card options and various bundles.
Tim: “Tim Minchin Time Machine: Eleven tracks, all written in my 20s, re-imagined and – finally! – properly recorded and produced. Some songs you will know (including the first ever studio version of RocknRoll Nerd, which utterly bangs), and some songs you may not. It’s not a comedy record (though there’s plenty of joy and musical foolery), nor is it a chin-stroker (but there is plenty of loveliness). I’ll be dropping singles between now and then. Stay tuned, monkeys.”
TimMinchinTimeMachine Tracklist 1. Understand It 2. I Wouldn’t Like You 3. Ruby 4. The Song of The Masochist 5. You Grew On Me 6. Dark Side 7. Pop Song 8. Moment of Bliss 9. Rock n Roll Nerd 10. If All You Ever Had Was Love
All the released singles’ official videos, lyrics, and streaming/download links are available via the links above.
Kids often dream of becoming police officers or doctors. For “Jurassic World Rebirth” director Gareth Edwards, however, his childhood dream was a bit more specific: working with iconic director Steven Spielberg. And now it’s finally come true with the latest in the dinosaur action film franchise.
Edwards has found the Hollywood moviemaking sweet spot: directing major blockbusters that are also creatively satisfying.
He found geek boy superstardom when he made the first-ever spin-off in the “Star Wars” franchise, 2016’s “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.” It’s gone on to be regarded as one of the best ever within the beloved galaxy far, far away (though he disagrees with that opinion).
He followed that up by creating an original idea out of the studio system, a rarity these days, when he released 2023’s “The Creator.” The movie stars John David Washington as a special forces agent hired to hunt down and kill an AI.
Now, Edwards is taking on the legacy IP genre by helming “Jurassic World Rebirth,” out now. Taking place decades after the events of “Jurassic World Dominion,” the story, penned by “Jurassic Park” screenwriter David Koepp, follows Scarlett Johansson as the leader of a team of operatives who travel to an island research facility to take genetic material from dinosaurs.
For Edwards, making the movie checked off a childhood dream of working alongside Steven Spielberg, who was heavily involved in the filmmaking process. And it shows as “Rebirth” features several hat tips to the master, ranging from “Jurassic Park” to “Jaws.”
“I hate the word IP, but there are only two franchises I would absolutely drop everything for and just do them. I already did one of them with ‘Star Wars,’ and this was the other one,” Edwards told Business Insider. “So when Steven gives you this script, you’re just checkmated immediately. The idea that you turn Steven Spielberg down is impossible.”
BI spoke with Edwards while he was in New York City about the hourslong conversations he had with Spielberg while making the movie, his thoughts on “Rogue One” as it nears its 10th anniversary, and whether he’d ever consider making another “Star Wars” movie.
“Jurassic World Rebirth” director Gareth Edwards.
John Nacion/Getty
Business Insider: So what led you to sign onto “Jurassic”?
After “The Creator,” I started the process of what am I going to do next. There was a thing in my mind that I was excited about. And in that process, a sequence from “Jurassic Park” entered my mind, and I forgot how they pulled it off, so I just put it on to get a refresher. I’m doing this with “Jurassic” and the next day my friend saw on the internet that Universal was looking for a director for a new “Jurassic” movie.
So I sent that to my agent, and I just typed in the text with the link to the story, “Is this stupid?” hoping he’d say, “Yes, stay away.” And hours later, my agent got back to me, and the ball started rolling. Be careful what you wish for.
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What I really enjoyed about “Rebirth” is its stand-alone feel. Was that intentional?
It was in David Koepp’s script. That’s why I really liked it. What the best sequels have in common is that the first one didn’t know it was part of a trilogy or the start of sequels. It was just this self-contained story. So that’s the way to go, to try to tell the best film you can.
It’s then a high-class problem after that. And I’m not joking, but I haven’t had a single conversation about a sequel with anyone from Universal or the producers.
That was my follow-up. Nobody tapped you on the shoulder and suggested a more heavy-handed way to tease another movie?
No. It was even a joke with the actors.
“Jurassic Park.”
Universal
But the movie also has a lot of nostalgia, with hat tips ranging from “Jurassic Park” to “Jaws. ” Did that come organically?
When I got the script, it felt like a magical ticket back to being a kid again. So a lot of that was already in there, and half of it I probably brought with me.
I mean, you’re making a movie for Amblin that features a giant creature in the water. Of course, you’re going to lean into “Jaws.”
Yeah. The script said, “They’re chasing a giant dinosaur in the water, on a boat, with a rifle leading out the front,” and you’re like, “Guys, I don’t know if you’ve ever seen this movie called ‘Jaws,’ but I don’t know how we escape those visuals.” So it was a difficult situation, and the only way I got through it was this being a giant love letter to Steven Spielberg. Whenever there’s a gap, I’m going to put something in that is a reflection of something from his movies that we love.
You have now worked with two faces on the Mt. Rushmore of American cinema, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. Compare and contrast working for them.
Well, George had retired when we started “Rogue One,” so he was totally happy for us to go do our thing. But I did have the more surreal moment of showing him around the set of “Rogue One.” But what I did to take the pressure off myself, seeing I was doing a “Star Wars” spin-off, I was competing with the likes of the holiday special and Caravan of Courage, the Ewok adventure. So I jokingly framed those movie posters in my office as a reminder to me that I just have to do better than those.
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Then, one day I was told George is here, and he just walked into the office, and I was blown away. And as I was talking to him, I realized the posters on the wall. So I’m trying to be as animated as possible so he wouldn’t look at the wall.
Steven developed the story with David, so he was fully engaged from the start. He was in the meetings during preproduction. He would call me when I started shooting. He watched the dallies every day. We even sent him the first cut of the movie. I would have hour and a half phone calls with him giving me feedback.
Were you prepared he’d be so hands-on?
It was definitely the right amount, but going in I didn’t know if I’d see him once or all the time. I didn’t know how it was going to play out. And I remember on day one, the first meeting at Universal, I get there early, and the next person who walked in was Steven Spielberg.
I’ll never forget the first interaction I ever had with him. It was right after “Godzilla.” I got an email from [“The Lord of the Rings” creator] Peter Jackson, and there’s a video attached. I hit play and it’s Steven Spielberg. Peter Jackson was filming Steven Spielberg at George Lucas’ birthday party. Steven had just seen “Godzilla” and was saying really nice things about it, so Peter sent it to me. I watched it and collapsed and burst into tears.
There are moments as a filmmaker where everything you’re doing in your life, you ask, Why am I doing this? What is the goal? You don’t know. That is the answer to why I’m doing this; for that moment, for that little video.
“Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.”
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
We’re coming close to 10 years of “Rogue One” coming out in theaters. Do you appreciate your contribution to “Star Wars”? It’s arguably the best “Star Wars” movie since Disney bought Lucasfilm, and it’s up there as one of the best out of all the movies. Can you appreciate that?
I don’t agree with it, but I appreciate it. I’m very grateful that people say nice things. But what’s super interesting about it, which you have to keep in your pocket as you go through making other films, is that it’s not about how people feel the day it gets released, it’s how people feel about it 10, 20 years from now.
When you make a movie, you’re living at least a year from now. You’re trying to imagine what it’s like, all these decisions you’re making, what they are going to be like a year from now when this movie is released. What’s the audience going to think? And as the movie comes out, you go, “I’m going to pretend I’m living 10 years from now and it doesn’t matter what people say in the moment.” It’s the kid who comes up to you 20 years from now and goes, “Oh my god, I loved that movie!” I think that’s the reward.
Would you ever go down that road of doing “Star Wars” again?
It’s the thing that was in my life before I knew what a film was. And so it’s like your mom; it’s like something so a part of you. I’m always fascinated by what they’re doing. I never stop loving that trilogy, but I’m very happy to move on and do my thing.
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
