Keith T. Smith

How Should We Study the Relationship between Environmental Regulation and Innovation

This paper offers a conceptual framework for understanding the relationship between environmental regulation and innovation. It seeks to widen the concepts of innovation which are used in environment-oriented studies, while at the same time challenging the idea that regulation is either a straightforward facilitator or inhibitor of innovation. With respect to innovation, we present a ‘systems’ framework, one which emphasises the collective and interactive character of innovation, as an appropriate entry point for analysing the complex institutional, social and networking aspects of the impacts of regulation. With respect to regulation, we seek to challenge the stimulus-response model of the impacts of regulation on innovation. We contest the view that regulation either stops or starts innovation in any simple way. Rather, we take the view that regulation shapes or modulates innovation across networks of firms, and across groups of related industries. A productive way to think about the shaping of innovation is that firms innovate as a method of removing constraints. These may be constraints on the size or geographical location of the market they face, or constraints in labour supply, or finance, and so on. A significant constraint is the regulatory environment, which does not necessarily hinder innovation, but rather says that if firms are to innovate then they must do so with respect to certain performance parameters.

The Moon's time-variable exosphere

Lunar Atmosphere Earths Moon does not have a conventional gaseous atmosphere, but instead an “exosphere” of particles ejected from the surface. Colaprete et al. have used NASAs LADEE orbiter to investigate how the exosphere varies over time, by using the glow from sodium and potassium atoms as a probe (see the Perspective by Dukes and Hurley). The exosphere composition varies by a factor of 2 to 3 over the course of a month, as different parts of the Moon are exposed to sunlight. There are also increases shortly after the Moon passes through streams of meteoroids. Science , this issue p. [249][1]; see also p. [230][2] [1]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.aad2380 [2]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.aad8245

Fast-moving stars from other galaxies

Stellar Dynamics![Figure][1] Some fast-moving stars in our Milky Way Galaxy came from nearby dwarf galaxies. CREDIT: NASA/JPL-CALTECH/R. HURT (SSC/CALTECH) Dynamical interactions and supernovae can accelerate stars to high velocities, sometimes even fast enough that they are no longer gravitationally bound to their host galaxy and escape from it. Marchetti et al. have combined astrometric data with radial velocity measurements to determine the three-dimensional motions of 7 million stars within the Milky Way Galaxy. Within that sample, they identify 20 stars that are not bound to the Galaxy. Only seven of them are moving away from the Milky Ways disc; 13 stars originated elsewhere. The authors postulate that these apparently extragalactic stars may have been ejected or tidally stripped from nearby dwarf galaxies. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 10.1093/mnras/sty2592 (2018). [1]: pending:yes

Observing more massive stars

Stellar Astrophysics The number of stars that form at each mass is known as the initial mass function (IMF). For most masses, the IMF follows a power-law distribution, first determined by Edwin Salpeter in 1955. Schneider et al. used observations of the nearby star-forming region 30 Doradus (also known as the Tarantula Nebula) and combined these with stellar modeling to determine its IMF. They found more stars above 30 solar masses than predicted by the Salpeter distribution. Because the most massive stars also have the biggest influence on their surroundings—for instance, through ultraviolet radiation, stellar winds, supernova explosions, and production of heavy elements—this excess will have wide-ranging implications. Science , this issue p. [69][1] [1]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.aan0106

Many stars don't form in clusters

Star Formation Most stars are thought to form in dense, gravitationally bound molecular clouds, which should produce a bound cluster of stars. As unused gas is expelled from the system by stellar feedback, the cluster becomes gravitationally unbound to form an association, which gradually drifts

Searching the solar system with pulsars

Solar System![Figure][1] Radio waves from pulsars can be used to detect objects in the solar system, such as Mars (shown). PHOTO: NASA/JPL-CALTECH/MALIN SPACE SCIENCE SYSTEMS Pulsar timing arrays (PTAs) monitor the arrival times of radio pulses from numerous pulsars to search for shifts

Methane ice dunes on Pluto

Planetary Science Wind-blown sand or ice dunes are known on Earth, Mars, Venus, Titan, and comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Telfer et al. used images taken by the New Horizons spacecraft to identify dunes in the Sputnik Planitia region on Pluto (see the Perspective by Hayes). Modeling shows that these dunes could be formed by sand-sized grains of solid methane ice transported in typical Pluto winds. The methane grains could have been lofted into the atmosphere by the melting of surrounding nitrogen ice or blown down from nearby mountains. Understanding how dunes form under Pluto conditions will help with interpreting similar features found elsewhere in the solar system. Science , this issue p. [992][1]; see also p. [960][2] [1]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.aao2975 [2]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.aat7488

Measuring martian organics and methane

Planetary Science The Curiosity rover has been sampling on Mars for the past 5 years (see the Perspective by ten Kate). Eigenbrode et al. used two instruments in the SAM (Sample Analysis at Mars) suite to catch traces of complex organics preserved in 3-billion-year-old sediments. Heating the sediments released an array of organics and volatiles reminiscent of organic-rich sedimentary rock found on Earth. Most methane on Earth is produced by biological sources, but numerous abiotic processes have been proposed to explain martian methane. Webster et al. report atmospheric measurements of methane covering 3 martian years and found that the background level varies with the local seasons. The seasonal variation provides an important clue for determining the origin of martian methane. Science , this issue p. [1096][1], p. [1093][2]; see also p. [1068][3] [1]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.aas9185 [2]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.aaq0131 [3]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.aat2662

Neutrino emission from a flaring blazar

Neutrino Astrophysics Neutrinos interact only very weakly with matter, but giant detectors have succeeded in detecting small numbers of astrophysical neutrinos. Aside from a diffuse background, only two individual sources have been identified: the Sun and a nearby supernova in 1987. A multiteam collaboration detected a high-energy neutrino event whose arrival direction was consistent with a known blazar—a type of quasar with a relativistic jet oriented directly along our line of sight. The blazar, TXS 0506+056, was found to be undergoing a gamma-ray flare, prompting an extensive multiwavelength campaign. Motivated by this discovery, the IceCube collaboration examined lower-energy neutrinos detected over the previous several years, finding an excess emission at the location of the blazar. Thus, blazars are a source of astrophysical neutrinos. Science , this issue p. [147][1], p. [eaat1378][2] [1]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.aat2890 [2]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.aat1378

A vibrating molecular cloud in three dimensions

Interstellar Medium Molecular clouds are relatively dense assemblies of interstellar dust and gas (mostly molecular hydrogen) from which stars form. Determining the three-dimensional (3D) morphology of these clouds is difficult because we only see a 2D projection of them onto the sky. While