Good Morning! 🌞 

I’m sure a lot of you will have already seen this, but in any case, it’s worth watching this insane stunt from two years ago again!

Earth Sciences

Extraterrestrial Message Decoded!

In a remarkable exercise of public science, SETI and the European Space Agency (ESA) organized an experiment called A Sign in Space, simulating an extraterrestrial message to test how citizen scientists might respond to a real interstellar signal. The ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, an ESA spacecraft studying atmospheric gases around Mars, transmitted a coded radio signal back to Earth. Three observatories intercepted the signal, which was shared with the public as a challenge: extract the message from the raw data and decode its meaning. The message took the form of five clusters of white dots on a black background, and participants worldwide dove in to uncover its secrets.

Over 5,000 citizen scientists on Discord collaborated for 10 days to extract the signal from a noisy mix of data, which also included transmissions from other spacecraft. However, decoding the message took longer and required both creativity and persistence. Father-daughter team Ken and Keli Chaffin became especially dedicated to the task, running hours of simulations and experimenting with various configurations until they realized that the white dots were changing every one-tenth of a second, revealing a pattern. The Chaffins eventually interpreted the clusters as representations of amino acids and proteins—the building blocks of life.

Their interpretation, dubbed the "Starmap," was later confirmed by media artist Daniela de Paulis, who organized the project in collaboration with astronomers and computer scientists. De Paulis emphasized the ambiguity of such a message, noting that if humanity ever received a true alien signal, understanding its intent might prove impossible. Despite this uncertainty, the experiment underscored human curiosity and collaborative problem-solving, with participants imagining animals like mice and starfish within the image. Ken Chaffin’s background in cellular automata—a computational pattern system—helped him spot biological patterns, while Keli found herself drawn into the project, seeing life in the coded imagery. This experiment, like NASA’s hidden message in the parachute of the Perseverance rover, illustrates the power of citizen science and the intrigue of decoding messages that could one day come from beyond Earth.

World News

Hotels Donate Furniture

For nearly a decade, Seoul’s municipal government has led an initiative to redistribute used furniture from luxury hotels to low-income individuals and homeless residents. This unique program, initiated through partnerships with 14 luxury hotels across the Seoul area, has resulted in the donation of over 120,000 high-quality furniture items to low-income housing, homeless shelters, and other community facilities.

This year, the program expanded significantly, welcoming 10 additional hotel partners and increasing the volume of donations. This growth has not only allowed for more furniture to be distributed but also created employment opportunities for individuals at risk of homelessness, enhancing the initiative’s impact on vulnerable populations. A Seoul government official recently commended the 24 participating hotels for their contributions, highlighting the profound community support they provide beyond standard corporate social responsibility efforts. By donating furniture from renovation projects, these hotels help improve the living conditions and self-esteem of families in need, offering them a sense of dignity often overlooked by traditional financial aid programs.

Once collected, the furniture is stored by the city government and distributed based on community requests, ensuring that each piece finds a home where it can make a meaningful difference. Through this thoughtful initiative, Seoul’s government not only provides essential household items but also fosters a sense of stability, belonging, and pride among recipients.

Environment

Hurricane Blows US Bird to Britain

A rare sighting of a scarlet tanager, a vibrant yellow bird typically native to North America, has captured the hearts of birdwatchers across the UK, drawing an enthusiastic crowd of around 300 to Sheffield. Perched on a clothesline in a local resident’s yard, this tanager marks the first UK sighting of the species since 2014. Experts believe the bird was likely blown off course by the intense hurricane winds that have recently swept through North America, steering it far from its usual migration path from Maine to Ecuador.

The unexpected visitor sparked a pilgrimage of bird enthusiasts to Sheffield. Among them was 75-year-old Dave Stone, who traveled 280 miles from Exeter. "I left at 2 a.m. and got here at first light," Dave shared. "If I see it, this will be my 500th bird species." For others, like Joe Eckersley from Leeds, it was a shorter, though equally momentous, trip. "It’s likely been here since October, and at just a few grams, it doesn’t take much for a bird to get blown off course," Joe remarked, after driving 40 minutes to catch a glimpse of the tanager.

The last time a scarlet tanager was seen in mainland UK was in Cornwall in the 1980s, making this sighting a true rarity.

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Mind Stretchers

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Answers to yesterday’s Mind Stretchers

What month are trees scared of? — Sept-timber! Jocelyn Linder got this correct first! 🌞 

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