It's coming up daffodils in the Rocky Mountains and our first golf outing is on the calendar, which means spring has arrived. Sort of.

But it is March and that means: Pi Day and all things mathematical. March Madness. Rah! And some astronomical events.

In honor of my nephew who recently received his PhD in conceptual mathematics, let's start with Pi Day. Pi (π) is a non-repeating mathematical constant and is derived by dividing the circumference of a circle (C) with its diameter (d) - π=C/d. Known since 1900BC and used by the Babylonians, with an early approximation value of 3.125. They and the Egyptians used these approximations of π in geometric calculations for building projects. The first six digits of π are 3.14159 which is about as much as one needs to remember when doing simple geometry. Now, π has been calculated to 105 trillion digits without discovering a repeating series. So, March 14 (3.14) will always be Pi Day. FYI, blueberry is my favorite when thinking about Pi or Pie.

And then there is March Madness. For all our non-American readers, this crazy three week period in March is a college basketball playoff tournament between the 64-highest ranking teams from across the country. It is a tradition to create a bracket from round one games with the 64 teams to the final two teams in the championship game-picking the team you think will win throughout the tournament to ultimately be the overall winner. Odds of picking all 64 games correctly is 9.22 quintillion to 1. Odds of being struck by lightening 15,300 to 1, winning the powerball lottery 292 million in 1. Given these odds you can see why Warren Buffet feels safe in offering up a $1M dollar prize for the person who picks a perfect bracket. Mr Buffet dodged the bullet again this year as all but 1% of the brackets were busted in the first 32 games. Gotta love those Cinderella upsets. But, if you like college sports - this is better than football.

As to astronomy, March was a busy month, we had a total lunar eclipse, producing a Blood Moon over the night of March 13-14. The earth completely blocked the sun as the moon orbited into Earth's shadow. Next one in 2025 is September 7 in Australia and the Pacific. North America's next one is March 3, 2026. And remember, the moon is slowly moving away from the Earth at about 3.8 cm/year. So in around 600 million years, we will no longer have total solar eclipses and lunar eclipses will be fewer and fewer. Why is the moon moving away from Earth? It's all about the tides created by the moon's gravity slowing the rotation of the Earth. The oceans' water is pulled away from the planet by lunar gravity, creating tidal bulges. These bulges drag on the moon while transferring some of the Earth's angular momentum energy back to the moon, constantly enlarging its orbit. Over time, this effect will lengthen our days on Earth and continue to push the moon farther away.

The other astronomical event in March is the spring or vernal equinox. This is one of two times in the year that the sun is directly over the Earth's equator at noon. This marks the astronomical beginning of spring in the northern hemisphere and the beginning of fall (autumnal equinox) in the southern hemisphere. Did you know there are two equinox in each season? Because of the eccentricities of Earth's orbit about the sun, the times of the astronomical equinox vary, thus meteorologists set their own equinox, the meteorological equinox is always on March 1 to make record keeping easier.

Point of clarification: A solstice is different from an equinox. Solstices occur when the sun is directly overhead at the maximum point of axial tilt in reference to the poles. The Earth's rotational axis is tilted away from vertical (think about a spinning toy top that is slowing down-it begins to lean over, the rotational axis tilts away from vertical, the top now spinning at an angle not up and down- this is the orientation of the Earth with a tilted axis), when the sun is 23.44deg away from the equator (north or south) you get the longest or shortest days. Why the Earth's axis is tilted is a story for another day.

Sooo... March is chucky-jammed full of fun things. Hope you're ready for summer or winter depending on your locale.

I can't talk about March Madness without saying something about the science of 'choking under pressure'. We've all seen it - the missed penalty kick in futbol, the missed free throw in basketball, the missed field goal in football, even actors will flub their lines on opening night. No one is exempt from this phenomenon, the most experienced professionals will crack under pressure. Why do we fail? According to a study released in Neuron (Its All About Our Brains), when we are under pressure our neurons that prepare us for movement (speech or physical) decrease in activity when the rewards increase in size. In a study completed at Carnegie Mellon University with Rhesus monkeys, the monkeys were reward with a treat when they moved a cursor over a target. When the size of the treat pile was significantly increased the monkeys failed to match the target more frequently. Monitoring their brain waves, researchers found that neuron activity was shown to increase with an increase of reward size to a point. Then, after this treat size, if the amount of treats continue to increase the neuron activity declines no matter how many treats are shown. The question remains, can we overcome our natural neural activity to not choke?

Some months ago, we spoke about the OSIRIS-REx mission to visit the asteroid Bennu. In 2020, the spacecraft bounced against the 500m wide rock orbiting 168 million kilometers from Earth to collect material from its surface. In September 2023, the spacecraft returned to Earth with 121.6 grams of sample. There was a catch though, NASA couldn't open the sample container. Extreme care was required to maintain the samples in absolute isolation from any contamination with Earth's environment. Once they designed new tools to work the jammed bolts free, NASA recovered the samples. Analysis shows the Bennu samples contain amino acids, abundant ammonia and the molecular bases for DNA and RNA (DNA bases are: adenine, cytosine, guanine, and thymine, while RNA bases are adenine, cytosine, guanine, but substitutes uracil for thymine). (Building Blocks) This discoveries leads to the idea - the building blocks for life may be spread across the solar system. These pristine samples (never damaged by interactions with planets or other solar bodies) is truly extraterrestrial and the samples are not contaminated by anything from Earth environs. It is know hypothesized - these molecules formed from gaseous clouds in the early solar system through irradiation from solar energy. Researchers are setting aside 70% of the Bennu samples to be stored for future analyses when new techniques are developed which will allow scientists to gain new insights. The same reserve was established with the Apollo lunar samples. 

Who has the rights to study the rocks in your backyard? For more than two decades the 'backyard' of the Inuit people in the northern most reaches of Quebec Canada was open for geologists to study the suspected oldest rocks in the North American craton. The outcrops of the Nuvvuagittuq Greenstone Belt which borders Hudsons Bay were suspected to contain traces of early life as well as preserved primordial magnetic fields, which can be used as an indicator of the beginning of plate tectonics. These 3.8 billion year old rocks may hold the answers to the early days of Earth's history. Not all geologists care about these outcrops but those that do, know how rare and special they are. Dr. O'Neil from the University of Ottawa conducted field work there over the last two decades and now cannot return to the site. When he visited, all geologists were ferried to the sites by Inuit elders and allowed to remove fist-size samples. Then a supposed group of 'museum curators' brought in heavy equipment by barge to remove large amounts of the greenstones and left a ravaged landscape behind. They went so far as to sell samples for large sums on the internet. These miscreants destroyed the landscape as well as the tribal trust toward other scientists. (Abuse) Though access is still denied, there's hope - the Inuit and scientists are working together to set up a provincial park to protect the Nuvvuagittuq rocks. But, sampling will no longer be allowed. I studied greenstone belt rocks in southern Ontario for my Masters thesis - not being able to sample and analyze these rocks would have greatly diminished the results.

Everything in computing today is all about the next AI bot - ChatGPT, MerlinAI, Claude, Gemini, MetaAI, CoPilot, yada yada yada. Since OpenAI released ChatGPT in 2022, hackers and security researchers have tried to find ways through all the bots backdoors, guardrails, and other safety blocks. The safety breach-goal is to force the AIs to spew hate, bomb-making instructions, propaganda, etc. Now with rigorous testing, most creators reinforce their security defenses to prevent infiltration. Why place guardrails in AI systems? The guardrails are to prevent malicious intrusions into the 'learning brain' part of the AI system. The brain is constantly absorbing data/information to learn and expand its understanding. If all the input it receives is about hate and dangerous activities then all its responses to any query will contain answers based in this malignant thinking.

In the news DeepSeek, the Chinese AI bot, has been questioned about its safety. Where does the  Chinese AI platform DeepSeek rank in security? DeepSeek rapidly rose to prominence due to its cheaper R1 reasoning algorithm-it's essentially free to users. Beware - you get what you pay for. Security analysts at Cisco and University of Pennsylvania tested the bot against 50 malicious prompts designed to generate toxic learning and therefore slant its responses. Result - DeepSeek did not detect or block any of the prompts. The researchers were 100% successful in their attack rate. To protect the integrity of their tests, the researchers used local machines and did not run their prompts through the app or DeepSeek's website which sends data to China. All researchers used the same HarmBench software to generate their prompts. But it's not just the Chinese DeepSeek with security issues, Meta's Llama failed at nearly the same rate as DeepSeek. Nothing in computing is fail-proof nor totally safe from hack. It's up to the user to protect themselves. So, don't open that odd email, report as junk the weird text from foreign telephone numbers, and if you didn't place the call or don't recognize the number don't answer. There all probably generated by an AI bot seeking entrance to your systems. (Protect Yourself)

News in Medicine - the good and the bad

A new form of insulin is being developed which can switch itself off and on based on glucose levels. This 'smart insulin', developed by NovoNordisk senses glucose levels and adjusts accordingly. The molecular switch comes in two parts - a ring-shaped macrocycle and glucoside (insulin molecule). When glucose levels fall the glucoside binds with the ring macrocycle keeping the internal insulin closed and inactive. When levels rise, blood sugar displaces the glucoside opens the ring and turns on the insulin. This molecular switch is now being tested through a range of blood sugar levels found in diabetic humans. (Smart Molecule) That's the good.

Now for the bad. Tobacco Companies have developed synthetic nicotines - these modified versions are chemically-similar to nicotine but different enough they are not regulated by the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) since the FDA's chemical definition of nicotine is very narrow. The other bad thing is these new nicotines are appearing in cigarette products, vaping liquids and oral pouches. And they are much more addictive than nicotine. None of the new chemicals have been fully researched for impact - including lethality. Metatine is a new nicotine molecule, it hazards include elevating blood pressure to dangerous levels and generating behavioral changes. In mice the lethal dose of metatine is much smaller than nicotine. What about the risks in humans? The FDA has indicated it recognizes the risks of these new nicotine chemicals and is aware of the increased potency. Seems its time to do the work and regulate these chemicals. (Risks Exist) When combined with candied flavors which attract children and teens the risk of enhanced addiction rises.

10,000 gigawatts? The amount of additional solar and wind power capacity China needs by 2060 to achieve carbon neutrality.

6 million tons? The amount of carbon dioxide the world produces in an hour! One million metric tons is roughly equal to the average annual emissions of 35 commercial airliners, 216,000 passenger vehicles, and 115,000 homes in the United States.

The Inuit have revoked scientists’ access to the Nuvvuagittuq Greenstone Belt on Hudson Bay in northern Quebec.JONATHAN O’NEIL

The layered rocks in the Nuvvuagittuq Greenstone Belt may preserve traces of early life and primordial magnetic fields that scientists hoped to study.DAVID HUTT/ALAMY

Smart Molecules:

Crystals of insulin. A new kind of insulin can modify its activity in response to glucose levels in the blood.Credit: Antonio Romero/Science Photo Library

In 1843, Ada Lovelace imagined a machine which could be instructed to follow directions and complete calculations - an analytical engine. She was envisioning the modern-day computer. Her first program was a calculation for the seventh Bernoulli number, but wondered if it could be expanded to understand symbols, even create music or art. She was the founder of the core concept of the digital age. She was the daughter of Lord Byron and Annabella Milbanke (another unrecognized mathematical genius). Ada was introduced to Charles Babbage at the age of 17. At the age of 27 she published her translation of Babbage's analytical engine paper, adding a Notes section (3 times longer than the original paper) which described how a computer would work as well as the first computer program of her design. (Overlooked)

Just a reminder for my readers - I always provide the reference to the information I share - it's usually in a link. I'll often name the link something related to the news bite or factoid - make sure you click on the link if you're interested in learning more about the subject. And we will never employ AI in the design, construction or editing of our newsletters.

Quantum Time is coming to fruition! Planning the cover and the audio book companion! Join Alex and Lauren on their next adventure in the Milky Galaxy.

We'll be back next month with another installment. Be well, be kind. CA