in Southeast Asia – an industry that is believed to have enslaved tens of thousands of workers lured with the promise of decently paid jobs in online sales and the information technology industry.
But that does not mean that the scientists have found irrefutable evidence of life. Far from it.Madhusudhan acknowledged that it is possible that the traces of DMS and DMDS found in the atmosphere of K2-18b are the outcome of chemical phenomena that are as of now, unknown to humanity.
“It’s important that we’re deeply sceptical of our own results, because it’s only by testing and testing again that we will be able to reach the point where we’re confident in them,” Madhusudhan said. “That’s how science has to work.”His colleagues in the research team agreed.“Our work is the starting point for all the investigations that are now needed to confirm and understand the implications of these exciting findings,” said co-author Savvas Constantinou, also from Cambridge’s Institute of Astronomy.
Is there other evidence of extraterrestrial life?The findings of the Cambridge-led team follow a series of breakthroughs in recent years that have excited scientists about the possibilities of finding life beyond Earth.
In 2011, NASA scientists announced that they had found chemicals that are components of DNA on meteorites that had landed in Antarctica. The chemical traces they had discovered couldn’t have been the result of contamination after the meteorites landed on Earth. The only explanation – that asteroids and comets could contain the building blocks of life.
A year later, astronomers at Copenhagen University tracked down a sugar molecule in a distant star system. That molecule is an essential component of ribonucleic acid or RNA, a molecule that is critical for most biological functions.Republicans in the United States Congress are pushing for an increase in taxes on US universities, under a new bill championed by President Donald Trump that narrowly
in the House of Representatives last Thursday.The bill’s supporters argue that a provision relating to higher educational institutions is crafted to target “woke” universities.
Trump’s executive ordersand decisions aimed at changing education and immigration in the country, alongside cracking down on pro-Palestine protests that took place on US college campuses last year.