Astronomy Pic Of The Day

Northern Fox Fires
Image Credit & Copyright:Dennis Lehtonen

Explanation: In a Finnish myth, when an arctic fox runs so fast that its bushy tail brushes the mountains, flaming sparks are cast into the heavens creating the northern lights. In fact the Finnish word “revontulet”, a name for the aurora borealis or northern lights, can be translated as fire fox. So that evocative myth took on a special significance for the photographer of this northern night skyscape from Finnish Lapland near Kilpisjarvi Lake. The snowy scene is illuminated by moonlight. Saana, an iconic fell or mountain of Lapland, rises at the right in the background. But as the beautiful nothern lights danced overhead, the wild fire fox in the foreground enthusiastically ran around the photographer and his equipment, making it difficult to capture in this lucky single shot.

Tomorrow’s picture: ocean of storms

Alabama taxpayers are funding Christian textbooks that lie to children

What’s new at the NASA Earth Observatory

It is indeed good to see the NASA Earth Observatory newsletter in my Inbox again, since the shutdown ended. This is one of the things we the people own and pay taxes to maintain, and it’s a wonderful thing, good for all to learn about our world. Even if a person never gets farther than their own downtown, they can still learn about the world with the information we receive from the Observatory. We need to keep the stuff we’ve paid for!

Go and explore here: https://science.nasa.gov/earth/earth-observatory/ . There is all manner of stuff! And you, too, can have a newsletter!

Snippet: We are back! After the lapse in appropriations at the beginning of October, and therefore a lapse in our ability to pay for our newsletter platform, the Earth Observatory team is back to publishing our Image of the Day and we are happy to be back in your inbox. We have a slate of new stories to share with you (I will include them all below so you can catch up) and more planned. But in other news…

Satellites Detect Seasonal Pulses in Earth’s Glaciers

Another Science-y Q&A from XKCD

For Science!-ish?

Quantum teleportation between photons from two distant light sources achieved

https://phys.org/news/2025-11-quantum-teleportation-photons-distant-sources.html

by Jutta Witte, University of Stuttgart

edited by Gaby Clark, reviewed by Robert Egan

Editors’ notes

Physicists from research groups at the University of Stuttgart, Saarbrücken, and Dresden conducting an experiment on quantum teleportation (left to right: Tobias Bauer, Marlon Schäfer, Caspar Hopfmann, Stefan Kazmaier, Tim Strobel, Simone Luca Portalupi). Credit: Julian Maisch

Everyday life on the internet is insecure. Hackers can break into bank accounts or steal digital identities. Driven by AI, attacks are becoming increasingly sophisticated. Quantum cryptography promises more effective protection. It makes communication secure against eavesdropping by relying on the laws of quantum physics. However, the path toward a quantum internet is still fraught with technical hurdles.

Researchers at the Institute of Semiconductor Optics and Functional Interfaces (IHFG) at the University of Stuttgart have now made a decisive breakthrough in one of the most technically challenging components, the quantum repeater. They report their results in Nature Communications.

Nanometer-sized semiconductor islands for information transfer

“For the first time worldwide, we have succeeded in transferring quantum information among photons originating from two different quantum dots,” says Prof. Peter Michler, head of the IHFG and deputy spokesperson for the Quantenrepeater.Net (QR.N) research project.

What is the background? Whether WhatsApp or video stream, every digital message consists of zeros and ones. Similarly, this also applies to quantum communication, in which individual light particles serve as carriers of information.

Zero or one is then encoded in two different directions of polarization of the photons (i.e., their orientation in the horizontal and vertical directions or in a superposition of both states). Because photons follow the laws of quantum mechanics, their polarization cannot always be completely read out without leaving traces. Any attempt to intercept the transmission would inevitably be detected.

Making the quantum internet ready for the fiber-optic infrastructure

Another challenge: An affordable quantum internet would use optical fibers—just like today’s internet. However, light has only a limited range. Conventional light signals, therefore, need to be renewed approximately every 50 kilometers using an optical amplifier.

Because quantum information cannot simply be amplified or copied and forwarded, this does not work in the quantum internet. However, quantum physics allows information to be transferred from one photon to another as long as the information stays unknown. This process is referred to as quantum teleportation.

Quantum teleportation setup. Credit: Nature Communications (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-65912-8

Quantum repeaters as nodes for information transmission

Building on this, physicists are developing quantum repeaters that renew quantum information before it is absorbed in the optical fiber. They are to serve as nodes for the quantum internet. However, there are considerable technical hurdles. To transmit quantum information via teleportation, the photons must be indistinguishable (i.e., they must have approximately the same temporal profile and color). This proves extremely difficult because they are generated at different locations from different sources.

“Light quanta from different quantum dots have never been teleported before because it is so challenging,” says Tim Strobel, scientist at the IHFG and first author of the study. As part of QR.N, his team has developed semiconductor light sources that generate almost identical photons.

“In these semiconductor islands, certain fixed energy levels are present, just like in an atom,” says Strobel. This allows individual photons with defined properties to be generated at the push of a button.

“Our partners at the Leibniz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research in Dresden have developed quantum dots that differ only minimally,” says Strobel. This means that almost identical photons can be generated at two locations.

Information is ‘beamed’ from one photon to another

At the University of Stuttgart, the team succeeded in teleporting the polarization state of a photon originating from one quantum dot to another photon from a second quantum dot. One quantum dot generates a single photon, the other an entangled photon pair.

Entangled means that the two particles constitute a single quantum entity, even when they are physically separated. One of the two particles travels to the second quantum dot and interferes with its light particle. The two overlap. Because of this superposition, the information of the single photon is transferred to the distant partner of the pair.

Instrumental for the success of the experiment were quantum frequency converters, which compensate for residual frequency differences between the photons. These converters were developed by a team led by Prof. Christoph Becher, an expert in quantum optics at Saarland University.

Improvements for reaching considerably greater distances

“Transferring quantum information between photons from different quantum dots is a crucial step toward bridging greater distances,” says Michler.

In the Stuttgart experiment, the quantum dots were separated only by an optical fiber of about 10 m length. “But we are working on achieving considerably greater distances,” says Strobel.

In earlier work, the team had shown that the entanglement of the quantum dot photons remains intact even after a 36-kilometer transmission through the city center of Stuttgart. Another aim is to increase the current success rate of teleportation, which currently stands at just over 70%. Fluctuations in the quantum dot still lead to slight differences in the photons.

“We want to reduce this by advancing semiconductor fabrication techniques,” says Strobel.

“Achieving this experiment has been a long-standing ambition — these results reflect years of scientific dedication and progress,” says Dr. Simone Luca Portalupi, group leader at the IHFG and one of the study coordinators. “It’s exciting to see how experiments focused on fundamental research are taking their first steps toward practical applications.”

Astronomy Pic Of The Day Today

M77: Spiral Galaxy with an Active Center
Image Credit: Hubble, NASA, ESA, L. C. Ho, D. Thilker

Explanation: What’s happening in the center of nearby spiral galaxy M77? The face-on galaxy lies a mere 47 million light-years away toward the constellation of the Sea Monster (Cetus). At that estimated distance, this gorgeous island universe is about 100 thousand light-years across. Also known as NGC 1068, its compact and very bright core is well studied by astronomers exploring the mysteries of supermassive black holes in active Seyfert galaxies. M77’s active core glows bright at x-ray, ultraviolet, visible, infrared, and radio wavelengths. The featured sharp image of M77 was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. The image shows details of the spiral’s winding spiral arms as traced by obscuring red dust clouds and blue star clusters, all circling the galaxy’s bright white luminous center.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html

Navigation in the Modern World

Good Morning All. One of the difficulties and blessings we enjoy is the very thing we are doing right now: social media. People are able to express their information, their interests, their opinions to a world. We once trusted the network news and then a clown descended an escalator. Below is a 15-minute video from Neal DeGrasse Tyson that I found really helpful in navigating the bull. Hugs. Randy

“Virginia Partridge”

or “Virginia Quail.”

Snippet:

The Northern Bobwhite, also known as Virginia Quail or Virginia Partridge, is in the same family as the Montezuma and Scaled Quails, but the bobwhite is the only native quail species in the eastern United States. This delightfully round little quail is capable of strong, short bursts of flight — particularly when fleeing predators — though they prefer to walk or run, scuttling about under the dense, low cover of vegetation in grasslands, agricultural fields, and open forests.

The Northern Bobwhite is more often heard than seen, its namesake whistled bob-white! call sounding from the brushy undergrowth, where their dappled brown-and-white plumage provides excellent camouflage. But sometimes, especially when calling in spring, males will occupy highly visible locations, perching atop fenceposts and tree limbs.

A popular game bird, the Northern Bobwhite has a whopping 22 subspecies across its range, one of which — the Masked Bobwhite — is federally listed as Endangered. Its status as a game bird has made it one of the most well-studied birds in the world, and scientists have observed sharp declines, likely owing to multiple causes that include habitat loss and the increased use of pesticides.

Threats

Populations of Northern Bobwhite plunged between 1966 and 2019, resulting in an overall decline of 81 percent, according to the North American Breeding Bird Survey. Partners in Flight considers the Northern Bobwhite as a “Common Bird in Steep Decline.” For years, an explanation for such drastic declines has been elusive. However, most biologists agree that multiple causes are to blame. (snip-MORE on the page)

https://abcbirds.org/birds/northern-bobwhite/

Well, Then. (Another Exec. Order)

This came in Notifications on my tablet, which I only use as a book reader as it’s too old for updates of any sort. Anyway, I found the headline curious, so I read it, and here it is. I linked a news story at the end, too. We’ll discuss. Good Morning! 🌞

LAUNCHING THE GENESIS MISSION

Executive Orders

November 24, 2025

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered:

Section 1. Purpose. From the founding of our Republic, scientific discovery and technological innovation have driven American progress and prosperity. Today, America is in a race for global technology dominance in the development of artificial intelligence (AI), an important frontier of scientific discovery and economic growth. To that end, my Administration has taken a number of actions to win that race, including issuing multiple Executive Orders and implementing America’s AI Action Plan, which recognizes the need to invest in AI-enabled science to accelerate scientific advancement. In this pivotal moment, the challenges we face require a historic national effort, comparable in urgency and ambition to the Manhattan Project that was instrumental to our victory in World War II and was a critical basis for the foundation of the Department of Energy (DOE) and its national laboratories.

This order launches the “Genesis Mission” as a dedicated, coordinated national effort to unleash a new age of AI‑accelerated innovation and discovery that can solve the most challenging problems of this century. The Genesis Mission will build an integrated AI platform to harness Federal scientific datasets — the world’s largest collection of such datasets, developed over decades of Federal investments — to train scientific foundation models and create AI agents to test new hypotheses, automate research workflows, and accelerate scientific breakthroughs. The Genesis Mission will bring together our Nation’s research and development resources — combining the efforts of brilliant American scientists, including those at our national laboratories, with pioneering American businesses; world-renowned universities; and existing research infrastructure, data repositories, production plants, and national security sites — to achieve dramatic acceleration in AI development and utilization. We will harness for the benefit of our Nation the revolution underway in computing, and build on decades of innovation in semiconductors and high-performance computing. The Genesis Mission will dramatically accelerate scientific discovery, strengthen national security, secure energy dominance, enhance workforce productivity, and multiply the return on taxpayer investment into research and development, thereby furthering America’s technological dominance and global strategic leadership.

Sec. 2. Establishment of the Genesis Mission. (a) There is hereby established the Genesis Mission (Mission), a national effort to accelerate the application of AI for transformative scientific discovery focused on pressing national challenges.

(b) The Secretary of Energy (Secretary) shall be responsible for implementing the Mission within DOE, consistent with the provisions of this order, including, as appropriate and authorized by law, setting priorities and ensuring that all DOE resources used for elements of the Mission are integrated into a secure, unified platform. The Secretary may designate a senior political appointee to oversee day-to-day operations of the Mission.

(c) The Assistant to the President for Science and Technology (APST) shall provide general leadership of the Mission, including coordination of participating executive departments and agencies (agencies) through the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) and the issuance of guidance to ensure that the Mission is aligned with national objectives.

Sec. 3. Operation of the American Science and Security Platform. (a) The Secretary shall establish and operate the American Science and Security Platform (Platform) to serve as the infrastructure for the Mission with the purpose of providing, in an integrated manner and to the maximum extent practicable and consistent with law:

(i) high-performance computing resources, including DOE national laboratory supercomputers and secure cloud-based AI computing environments, capable of supporting large-scale model training, simulation, and inference;

(ii) AI modeling and analysis frameworks, including AI agents to explore design spaces, evaluate experimental outcomes, and automate workflows;

(iii) computational tools, including AI-enabled predictive models, simulation models, and design optimization tools;

(iv) domain-specific foundation models across the range of scientific domains covered;

(v) secure access to appropriate datasets, including proprietary, federally curated, and open scientific datasets, in addition to synthetic data generated through DOE computing resources, consistent with applicable law; applicable classification, privacy, and intellectual property protections; and Federal data-access and data-management standards; and

(vi) experimental and production tools to enable autonomous and AI-augmented experimentation and manufacturing in high-impact domains.

(b) The Secretary shall take necessary steps to ensure that the Platform is operated in a manner that meets security requirements consistent with its national security and competitiveness mission, including applicable classification, supply chain security, and Federal cybersecurity standards and best practices.

(c) Within 90 days of the date of this order, the Secretary shall identify Federal computing, storage, and networking resources available to support the Mission, including both DOE on-premises and cloud-based high-performance computing systems, and resources available through industry partners. The Secretary shall also identify any additional partnerships or infrastructure enhancements that could support the computational foundation for the Platform.

(d) Within 120 days of the date of this order, the Secretary shall:

(i) identify a set of initial data and model assets for use in the Mission, including digitization, standardization, metadata, and provenance tracking; and

(ii) develop a plan, with appropriate risk-based cybersecurity measures, for incorporating datasets from federally funded research, other agencies, academic institutions, and approved private-sector partners, as appropriate.

(e) Within 240 days of the date of this order, the Secretary shall review capabilities across the DOE national laboratories and other participating Federal research facilities for robotic laboratories and production facilities with the ability to engage in AI-directed experimentation and manufacturing, including automated and AI-augmented workflows and the related technical and operational standards needed.

(f) Within 270 days of the date of this order, the Secretary shall, consistent with applicable law and subject to available appropriations, seek to demonstrate an initial operating capability of the Platform for at least one of the national science and technology challenges identified pursuant to section 4 of this order.

Sec. 4. Identification of National Science and Technology Challenges. (a) Within 60 days of the date of this order, the Secretary shall identify and submit to the APST a detailed list of at least 20 science and technology challenges of national importance that the Secretary assesses to have potential to be addressed through the Mission and that span priority domains consistent with National Science and Technology Memorandum 2 of September 23, 2025, including:

(i) advanced manufacturing;

(ii) biotechnology;

(iii) critical materials;

(iv) nuclear fission and fusion energy;

(v) quantum information science; and

(vi) semiconductors and microelectronics.

(b) Within 30 days of submission of the list described in subsection (a) of this section, the APST shall review the proposed list and, working with participating agency members of the NSTC, coordinate the development of an expanded list that can serve as the initial set of national science and technology challenges to be addressed by the Mission, including additional challenges proposed by participating agencies through the NSTC, subject to available appropriations.

(c) Following development of the expanded list described in subsection (b) of this section, agencies participating in the Mission shall use the Platform to advance research and development aligned with the national science and technology challenges identified in the expanded list, consistent with applicable law and their respective missions, and subject to available appropriations.

(d) On an annual basis thereafter, the Secretary shall review and update the list of challenges in consultation with the APST and the NSTC to reflect progress achieved, emerging national needs, and alignment with my Administration’s research and development priorities.

Sec. 5. Interagency Coordination and External Engagement. (a) The APST, through the NSTC, and with support from the Federal Chief Data Officer Council and the Chief AI Officer Council, shall convene relevant and interested agencies to:

(i) assist participating agencies in aligning, to the extent permitted by law, their AI-related programs, datasets, and research and development activities with the objectives of the Mission in their respective areas of expertise, while avoiding duplication of effort across the Federal Government and promoting interoperability;

(ii) identify data sources that may support the Mission’s aim;

(iii) develop a process and resourcing plan in coordination with participating agencies for integrating appropriate and available agency data and infrastructure into the Mission, to the extent permitted by law and subject to available appropriations, including methods under which all agencies contributing to the Mission are encouraged to implement appropriate risk-based security measures that reflect cybersecurity best practices;

(iv) launch coordinated funding opportunities or prize competitions across participating agencies, to the extent permitted by law and subject to available appropriations, to incentivize private-sector participation in AI-driven scientific research aligned with Mission objectives; and

(v) establish mechanisms to coordinate research and development funding opportunities and experimental resources across participating agencies, ensuring agencies can participate effectively in the Mission.

(b) The APST shall coordinate with relevant agencies in establishing, consistent with existing authorizing statutes and subject to available appropriations, competitive programs for research fellowships, internships, and apprenticeships focused on the application of AI to scientific domains identified as national challenges for the Mission, to include placement of program participants at DOE national laboratories and other participating Federal research facilities, with the purpose of providing access to the Platform and training in AI-enabled scientific discovery.

(c) The Secretary, in coordination with the APST and the Special Advisor for AI and Crypto, shall establish mechanisms for agency collaboration with external partners possessing advanced AI, data, or computing capabilities or scientific domain expertise, including through cooperative research and development agreements, user facility partnerships, or other appropriate arrangements with external entities to support and enhance the activities of the Mission, and shall ensure that such partnerships are structured to preserve the security of Federal research assets and maximize public benefit. To facilitate these collaborations, the Secretary shall:

(i) develop standardized partnership frameworks, including cooperative research and development or other appropriate agreements, and data-use and model‑sharing agreements;

(ii) establish clear policies for ownership, licensing, trade-secret protections, and commercialization of intellectual property developed under the Mission, including innovations arising from AI-directed experiments;

(iii) implement uniform and stringent data access and management processes and cybersecurity standards for non-Federal collaborators accessing datasets, models, and computing environments, including measures requiring compliance with classification, privacy, and export-control requirements, as well as other applicable laws; and

(iv) establish procedures to ensure the highest standards of vetting and authorization of users and collaborators seeking access to the resources of the Mission and associated research activities, including the Platform and associated Federal research resources.

(d) The APST, through the NSTC, shall, to the extent appropriate, identify opportunities for international scientific collaboration to support activities under the Mission.

Sec. 6. Evaluation and Reporting. (a) Within 1 year of the date of this order, and on an annual basis thereafter, the Secretary shall submit a report to the President, through the APST and the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, describing:

(i) the Platform’s operational status and capabilities;

(ii) progress toward integration across DOE national laboratories and other participating Federal research partners, including shared access to computing resources, data infrastructure, and research facilities;

(iii) the status of user engagement, including participation of student researchers and any related training;

(iv) updates on research efforts and outcomes achieved, including measurable scientific advances, publications, and prototype technologies;

(v) the scope and outcomes of public-private partnerships, including collaborative research projects and any technology transitions or commercialization activities; and

(vi) any identified needs or recommendations for authorities or interagency support to achieve the Mission’s objectives.

Sec. 7. General Provisions. (a) Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:

(i) the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or the head thereof; or

(ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.

(b) This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.

(c) This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.

(d) The costs for publication of this order shall be borne by the Department of Energy.

DONALD J. TRUMP

THE WHITE HOUSE,

November 24, 2025.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/11/launching-the-genesis-mission/

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-executive-order-genesis-mission-ai-scientific-discovery-super-computer/