The collective activity of life—all of the microbes, plants, and animals—has changed planet Earth.

Plants, for example, “invented” a way of undergoing photosynthesis to enhance their own survival, but in so doing, released oxygen that changed the entire function of our planet.

If the collective activity of life—known as the biosphere—can change the world, could the collective activity of cognition, and action based on this cognition, also change a planet? Once the biosphere evolved, Earth took on a life of its own. If a planet with life has a life of its own, can it also have a mind of its own?

These are questions posed by Adam Frank, the Helen F. and Fred H. Gowen Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Rochester, and his colleagues David Grinspoon at the Planetary Science Institute and Sara Walker at Arizona State University, in a paper published in the International Journal of Astrobiology.

Their self-described “thought experiment” combines current scientific understanding about the Earth with broader questions about how life alters a planet. In the paper, the researchers discuss what they call “planetary intelligence”—the idea of cognitive activity operating on a planetary scale—to raise new ideas about the ways in which humans might tackle global issues such as climate change. Learn more.

PhD student Dinesh Bommidi (left) and Andrea Pickel, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering, used an atomic force microscope to locate and move nanodiamond sensors. (University of Rochester photo / J. Adam Fenster)

For centuries people have placed the highest value on diamonds that are not only large but flawless.

Scientists, however, have discovered exciting new applications for diamonds that are not only incredibly small but have a unique defect.

In a paper in Applied Physics Letters, Andrea Pickel, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, and Dinesh Bommidi, a PhD student in her lab, describe a new way to measure temperature with these defects, called nitrogen vacancy centers, using the light they emit.

The technique, adapted for single nanodiamonds, allowed them to precisely measure, for the first time, the duration of these light emissions, or “excited state lifetimes,” at a broad range of temperatures.

The discovery earned the paper recognition as an American Institute of Physics “Scilight,” a showcase of what AIP considers the most interesting research across the physical sciences.

The Rochester method gives researchers a less complicated, more accurate tool for using nitrogen vacancy centers to measure the temperature of nanoscale-sized materials. The approach is also safe for imaging sensitive nanoscale materials or biological tissues and could have applications in quantum information processing. Learn more.

While about 70 percent of NFL players are Black, the overwhelming majority of head coaches are White.

“[W]e find evidence of profound pro-White bias in even the league’s most recent hiring,” writes Bethany Lacina, an associate professor of political science, in an analysis for the Washington Post’s “Monkey Cage” site.

In a data-driven analysis, Lacina examines the racial makeup of college football players, because most NFL head coaches have a background playing NCAA college football.

It is an apt benchmark “because college is the last shared step on the path to NFL head coach that is not under the NFL’s control,” she says.

Lacina’s findings show the stark degree to which Black coaches are underrepresented:

• Among NFL head coaches in 2021-22, 14 are young enough to have played in the NCAA since 1999 (when the NCAA started publishing student-athlete demographics).
• 13 out of these 14 coaches are White. Brian Flores, former Miami Dolphins head coach, is the only non-White person in the group.
• These 14 coaches come from the cohort of NCAA football players who played between 1999 and 2007 when the group was 60 percent White and 30 percent Black.
• Division I players in the same years were 49 percent White and 44 percent Black.

Learn more.

A virtual town hall meeting from noon to 1 p.m. today will feature Jonathan Jackson, a candidate for director and founder of the new Office of Health Equity Research at the University’s Clinical and Translational Science Institute (UR CTSI).

Jackson is executive director of the Community Access, Recruitment and Engagement (CARE) Research Center at Massachusetts General Hospital and assistant professor of neurology and psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. He studies mid- and late-life health inequities in clinical settings that affect under-resourced populations.

Register here.

Co-Directors Martin Zand and Nancy Bennett of the University’s Clinical and Translational Science Institute (UR CTSI) urge all faculty members to complete an online survey on research collaborations.

The survey takes 10 minutes or less and will help focus efforts to foster collaborative science and support emerging investigators and networks.

Participants can request their results by contacting the Research Help Desk. Surveys need to be submitted by Tuesday, March 1, 2022.

The Goergen Institute’s Advanced Certificate Program in Data Science is accepting applications through March 15.

This four-course, graduate credential is designed for working professionals with knowledge of data science who want to formalize their training.

The program is flexible and can be completed in two to four semesters of part-time study. Email Lisa Altman with questions or to receive an application fee waiver.

The University of Rochester Aging Institute (URAI) is soliciting grant applications to support up to three aging research projects.

One of these awards will be co-sponsored by the Wilmot Cancer Institute (WCI) and will focus on cancer and aging, and two are sponsored by the URAI with a focus on other basic, translational, or clinical aging research topics.

The award level is up to $50,000 for one year per award.  To learn more, click here. Letters of intent are due March 21.