内容摘要：If access to power is the currency that Angel and Doolan peddled, gold is the calling card of a string of — at times rival — smuggling operations.

If access to power is the currency that Angel and Doolan peddled, gold is the calling card of a string of — at times rival — smuggling operations.

“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.

In 2023, astronomers found traces of organic molecules in the gases around one of Saturn’s moons, Enceladus.And in mid-2024, scientists identified five greenhouse gases that they said would be telltale signs of life on any other planet.

But the journey of science is also about setbacks. In 2005, two NASA scientists claimed they had found potential traces of extraterrestrial life on Mars after they discovered signs of methane there. Yet those findings eventually did not hold up to scientific scrutiny and NASA distanced itself from their conclusions.

The Cambridge-led team has found DMS and DMDS with 99.7 percent certainty. But while that might sound like a near-perfect score, it is far from what is accepted as the benchmark for a new discovery by the exacting standards of science.“Even if the Senate passes the tax, it’s possible that they change the amount of the tax and the criteria for its application in the process,” said Emily Saulnier, editor-in-chief of the Boston College Law Review, a publication at Boston College Law School.

Centrist and conservative Republicans in the Senate are divided on the bill. House Speaker Mike Johnson has urged Republican senators to revise it as little as possible. If Senators pass a revised version, the House will need to vote on that new text for it to be passed onto Trump, who will then sign it into law.Wisconsin Republican Senator Ron Johnson has opposed the bill in its current form, arguing it will increase the national deficit, which is the difference between the amount of money the federal government spends and the amount it earns through revenue. Johnson said the House bill would add “$4 trillion” to the deficit. In 2024, the deficit was $1.83 trillion.

Republican Kentucky Senator Rand Paul raised similar concerns during a Fox News interview on May 25, saying while he supports parts of the bill, it would “explode the debt”.But if the bill does pass and is signed by Trump, “it will apply to all colleges and universities” that meet the conditions set in the legislation, Saulnier said.