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Fun Stuff => CHATTER => Topic started by: LTK on 13 May 2013, 13:59

Title: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: LTK on 13 May 2013, 13:59
I've realised that my everyday (read: compulsive) internet consumption didn't actually involve a whole lot of science, which is unfortunate considering I'm in the process of a career in it. So I've been looking for more sources to interesting topics in psychology, physics, chemistry, math and the like. So why don't we share?

Vi Hart's youtube channel (http://www.youtube.com/user/Vihart). A self-proclaimed mathemusician. Put simply, she does narrated doodling about math and music.
Veritasium youtube channel (http://www.youtube.com/user/1veritasium). Natural science videos by a bearded talky head. Just discovered this today. Educational!
PBS Idea Channel on youtube (http://www.youtube.com/user/pbsideachannel/about). Asking questions about pop culture, technology and art, and trying to answer them.

http://www.newscientist.com/. Science news for scientists.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/. Science news for everyone. It has too much content for me to consume efficiently, but still worth a mention.

http://www.thecollapsedwavefunction.com/. A blog intended to be informative and humorous.
http://brainsidea.wordpress.com/. Cognitive science blog, especially into language and music.

What are yours?
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Blue Kitty on 13 May 2013, 14:10
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: K1dmor on 13 May 2013, 14:20
 CrashCourse (http://www.youtube.com/user/crashcourse). John Green teaches you US History and Hank Green teaches you Chemistry.
 Vsauce (http://www.youtube.com/user/vsauce). Related with Veritasium; physics, chemistry, astronomy....you name it, they have it.
 
 I'll name these because they're part of Vsauce:
 Vsauce2 (http://www.youtube.com/user/vsauce2). More focused on people achievements, mind-blowing discoveries, etc.
 Vsauce3 (http://www.youtube.com/user/vsauce3). Focused on "fictional world", internet, games, etc.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Redball on 13 May 2013, 14:53
Radiolab (http://www.radiolab.org) This is the site and the name of the weekly NPR program. It's so entertaining I didn't think of it immediately as science education.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: LTK on 18 May 2013, 13:22
Vsauce didn't look all that interesting, but Minutephysics (http://www.youtube.com/user/minutephysics) does. Just look at this! (http://youtu.be/NMgcX8UNIGY)

Ars Technica also has a science section at http://arstechnica.com/science/. I found this pretty cool: A carnivorous plant has deleted most of its junk DNA (http://arstechnica.com/science/2013/05/carnivorous-plant-has-deleted-most-of-its-junk-dna/).
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Blue Kitty on 18 May 2013, 19:20
Radiolab (http://www.radiolab.org) This is the site and the name of the weekly NPR program. It's so entertaining I didn't think of it immediately as science education.

Sometimes behave so strangely (http://www.radiolab.org/2007/sep/24/behaves-so-strangely/)
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Is it cold in here? on 18 May 2013, 19:57
sciencenews.org
periodictable.com
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: LTK on 19 May 2013, 08:23
The paradox of the proof (http://projectwordsworth.com/the-paradox-of-the-proof/): about a mathematical proof that no mathematician is able to understand, save for the person who wrote it.

Quote
On MathOverflow, an online math forum, mathematicians around the world began to debate and discuss Mochizuki’s claim. The question which quickly bubbled to the top of the forum, encouraged by the community’s “upvotes,” was simple: “Can someone briefly explain the philosophy behind his work and comment on why it might be expected to shed light on questions like the ABC conjecture?” asked Andy Putman, assistant professor at Rice University. Or, in plainer words: I don’t get it. Does anyone?

The problem, as many mathematicians were discovering when they flocked to Mochizuki’s website, was that the proof was impossible to read. The first paper, entitled “Inter-universal Teichmuller Theory I: Construction of Hodge Theaters,” starts out by stating that the goal is “to establish an arithmetic version of Teichmuller theory for number fields equipped with an elliptic curve…by applying the theory of semi-graphs of anabelioids, Frobenioids, the etale theta function, and log-shells.”

This is not just gibberish to the average layman. It was gibberish to the math community as well.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: lilja on 21 May 2013, 08:43
This video about how cats land on their feet (I haven't got around to watching the rest of his videos) http://youtu.be/RtWbpyjJqrU (http://youtu.be/RtWbpyjJqrU)
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Edguy on 21 May 2013, 15:05
So, you people know when you suddenly find yourself on Wikipedia, reading about particle physics or theoretical space habitats, at five in the morning..!?

..that happens to me sometimes.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Carl-E on 21 May 2013, 21:42
The paradox of the proof (http://projectwordsworth.com/the-paradox-of-the-proof/): about a mathematical proof that no mathematician is able to understand, save for the person who wrote it.

Quote
On MathOverflow, an online math forum, mathematicians around the world began to debate and discuss Mochizuki’s claim. The question which quickly bubbled to the top of the forum, encouraged by the community’s “upvotes,” was simple: “Can someone briefly explain the philosophy behind his work and comment on why it might be expected to shed light on questions like the ABC conjecture?” asked Andy Putman, assistant professor at Rice University. Or, in plainer words: I don’t get it. Does anyone?

The problem, as many mathematicians were discovering when they flocked to Mochizuki’s website, was that the proof was impossible to read. The first paper, entitled “Inter-universal Teichmuller Theory I: Construction of Hodge Theaters,” starts out by stating that the goal is “to establish an arithmetic version of Teichmuller theory for number fields equipped with an elliptic curve…by applying the theory of semi-graphs of anabelioids, Frobenioids, the etale theta function, and log-shells.”

This is not just gibberish to the average layman. It was gibberish to the math community as well.

It will be decoded.  This happened with Bieberbach's conjecture back in 1984 - the unassuming Louis deBranges, a professor at Purdue (where I was just starting my master's in math) was lauded for solving it... 6 years after he had done so.  No one could read the damned thing, until a team of soviet mathematicians and grad students set out to prove that he had failed to prove the conjecture, as he had claimed. 

They wound up confirming (and cleaning up) his proof.  After which he was lauded throughout the world for solving an intractable problem. 

Oh, and there are only four terms in that "indecipherable" title I didn't recognize; which is better than my first mathematical mentor, who used to tell us, "After 40 years in mathematics, I can walk into the library, pull out a mathematical journal, flip to the table of contents, and have absolutely no idea what 95% of it is about!" 

The point is that math is so freaking specialized that, unless you're one of the two or three people in the world working directly on a particular problem, you're going to have a rough time understanding any of it! 


Note: Just because I recognize a bunch of terms in the title doesn't mean I'd have a snowball's chance in hell of understanding any of it...
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: celticgeek on 21 May 2013, 21:47
I recall a professor at my graduate school who allowed that he could no longer even understand the titles of paper in The Physical Review, so the problem is not specific to mathematics. 
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: LTK on 23 May 2013, 03:12
what the everloving fuck (http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21829184.400-string-theory-may-limit-space-brain-threat.html)
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Loki on 23 May 2013, 03:36
I concur.

In particular, I fail to see any practical application opposed to, say, math.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Carl-E on 23 May 2013, 03:47
Remember that thing about technology being indistinguishable from magic? 

I think we've hit the "science is indistinguishable from sci-fi" equivalence. 
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Akima on 23 May 2013, 03:58
I think we've hit the "science is indistinguishable from sci-fi" equivalence.
Well, we are talking about String Theory after all...
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: LTK on 25 May 2013, 07:01
MinutePhysics is so cool. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajhFNcUTJI0) I knew that the speed of light is the same regardless of at which speed you yourself are moving, but I didn't know how. I also knew that time passes at different rates depending on how fast you're moving relative to other objects, but I didn't know why. Only when I watched this video did I actually connect the two! If you have two observers at different speeds, and they both measure light as moving at the same speed, then what must be different between them is the rate at which time passes.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Pilchard123 on 25 May 2013, 08:14
I think we've hit the "science is indistinguishable from sci-fi" equivalence.
Well, we are talking about String Theory after all...

The two are indistringuishable?
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Redball on 25 May 2013, 09:15
I think we've hit the "science is indistinguishable from sci-fi" equivalence.
Well, we are talking about String Theory after all...

The two are indistringuishable?
Knot so!
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: LTK on 25 May 2013, 15:49
It's not exclusive to science per se but Memrise.com seems to be useful for learning stuff. Anyone ever heard of it?
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Loki on 26 May 2013, 00:05
Heard a lot of recommendations related to using it for learning a language; never tried it myself.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: celticgeek on 26 May 2013, 19:19
Everybody loves Quantum Magnetism. (http://news.yahoo.com/spin-zone-physicists-1st-look-strange-quantum-magnetism-131203960.html)
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Patrick on 27 May 2013, 03:36
I think we've hit the "science is indistinguishable from sci-fi" equivalence.
Well, we are talking about String Theory after all...

The two are indistringuishable?
I've probably told this story here before, but I think it's mostly the 3+ year forum vets who will remember it. Here goes.

My stepmom's father, one James Ricker Wilson, was a nuclear physicist working at LLNL during the Manhattan Project. He discovered the malleability of plutonium. When my sister (then a liberal arts major at Oglethorpe University in Atlanta) came home to visit, she told him the story of how she had witnessed several young male physics majors using explanations of String Theory in order to pick up on girls. Upon hearing this, Grandpa Jim harrumphed and said "Well, at least it's good for something."
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Carl-E on 27 May 2013, 17:11
...working at LLNL during the Manhattan Project.

My father's father, an engineer for Kellogg (later to merge with Brown & Root to become what's now known as KBR) also worked on that project.  Sworn to secrecy, he never told a soul what he did for it.  But, since he was what's now known as a materials engineer (stress fractures, bearing loads and all that) we think he probably worked on the case designs.  Who knows... I wonder if any of that's ever been declassified enough to find out what he did?  Maybe I should look...

There was a plaque we found in the basement signed by Harry Truman thanking him for his efforts on the project.  My father hung it up after they moved into the house... 60 years later. 
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Patrick on 28 May 2013, 13:38
Haha, we found a similar award for Grandpa Jim, but it was cleverly disguised as a summer camp youth achievement diploma. It had to do with Bikini Atoll.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Skewbrow on 14 Jun 2013, 12:35

The point is that math is so freaking specialized that, unless you're one of the two or three people in the world working directly on a particular problem, you're going to have a rough time understanding any of it! 


A related Spiked Math comic. (http://spikedmath.com/232.html) Actually I somewhat disagree with the two rightmost bars. The mathematicians know better, and the rightmost bar might fit better how undergrads feel (IIRC?) after a course in complex analysis and Galois theory. And after a lifetime of work, a mathematician surely absorbed a few PhDs worth. True, they have forgotten half of the stuff from graduate school...

The author that strip was in grad school at the time of the drawing.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: cesium133 on 14 Jun 2013, 14:03
Of what I've seen in experimental physics, undergrads know virtually nothing but think they know everything, graduate students know the most about how the experiment works but are convinced they know nothing, and the professor knows everything except the details of how to get the experiment to actually work, and thinks he knows absolutely everything.

edit -- I should note that my description may be biased.  :psyduck:
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Akima on 14 Jun 2013, 16:27
According to The Economist carbon-fibre lift cables (http://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21579437-new-lightweight-lift-cable-will-let-buildings-soar-ever-upward-other) are a real thing. YMMV on how exciting mile-high skyscrapers would be*, but even baby steps towards a space-elevator interest me.

*Though if they're technically feasible, I'm certain Pudong (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pudong) will soon have a few. Cue soundtrack by Vangelis. Image spoilered for size:
(click to show/hide)
Incidentally, that big skyscraper (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_World_Financial_Center) in the foreground? There is now a new one, 28% taller, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_Tower) under construction next door, that will beat Guangzhou's Canton Tower (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canton_Tower) for tallest structure in China. At least until the Ping An Tower (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ping%27an_International_Finance_Center) in Shenzen is completed... Come on Shanghai, get building! You know you owe it to yourself to have the tallest skyscrapers! :laugh:
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: J on 14 Jun 2013, 17:22
space elevators would be awesome, but mile-high archology towers are pretty cool too.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: GarandMarine on 14 Jun 2013, 18:46
(https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/1010914_392289197557885_807899711_n.jpg)

The Nanopatch, as it's been named, is used as a replacement for the traditional method of administering vaccines—injection with needle and syringe.

Currently a vaccine is injected into muscle tissue where it encounters immune cells, triggering a response. In contrast, the Nanopatch, which has thousands of projections on the skin side, injects the vaccine just under the skin, where Kendall notes, there are more immune cells. This means, he added, that less vaccine is needed to accomplish the same goal which in turn means each dose would cost far less.

One of the major problems with current injectable vaccines is that they are water based, which means they have be kept chilled to prevent spoilage. This can be a major problem for vaccination programs in areas where there is limited refrigeration facilities. Kendall cited recent reports that suggest up to half of the vaccines administered in Africa don't work properly due to refrigeration issues. With the Nanopatch, the vaccine is dry, thus it doesn't have to be kept chilled. Each patch is silicone based and has 20,000 micro-sized projections on its underside that deliver the vaccine—it's smaller than a typical postage stamp. Because the projections are so small, they cannot be felt piercing the skin, making the application of the vaccine completely painless. Thus far, testing of the Nanopatch by the development team has involved administering the flu vaccine to volunteers.

Kendall added that another advantage of the nanopatch is that it requires the use of much less adjuvants—chemicals added to vaccines to provoke a better immune response. Some of these adjuvants have been suspected of causing health problems, and in some cases autism, though no proof has ever been found. Looking ahead, Kendall said he believes the Nanopatch will soon become available for use against malaria infections as well.

http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-06-nanopatch-syringe-needle-unveiled-tedglobal.html
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: LTK on 15 Jun 2013, 05:18

Holy sheeeeeeeiiiiiiiiit

(click to show/hide)
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Masterpiece on 22 Jun 2013, 10:40
Not a valid youtube URL
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: LTK on 22 Jun 2013, 11:24
NeverWet? Or EverDry (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfUaKXasdD4)?

I'm not sure if they're different products, but Ars Technica (http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/03/the-internet-demanded-partially-scientific-testing-of-ultraeverdry-in-hd/) did a bunch of tests with EverDry and according to them, the biggest limitation of it is that the stuff is quite toxic. It's not recommended to put on your clothes, because it might get on your skin, neither should you coat your bathroom with it because the fumes are going to accumulate indoors. I wonder if the other one is any different.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: ackblom12 on 14 Jul 2013, 16:02
The Next Level of 3D Printing: Liquid Metal (http://mashable.com/2013/07/11/3d-print-liquid-metal/)

Fuck yeah SCIENCE!!!
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: LTK on 15 Jul 2013, 13:46
Strong evidence indicates T-Rex was a hunter, not a scavenger. (http://arstechnica.com/science/2013/07/t-rex-leaves-tooth-in-would-be-lunchs-tail-paleontologists-find-it/) They found a fossil of malformed Hadrosaur vertebrae with a T-Rex tooth stuck inside them, indicating the Hadrosaur was bitten by a T-Rex and survived.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: LTK on 20 Jul 2013, 14:17
Via Ars Technica (http://arstechnica.com/science/2013/07/weird-science-always-runs-current-through-its-brain-before-speed-dating/), this study (http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15298868.2012.687012#.Uer6QdJkMZ7) examined how women's self-identities affect their performance on math tests. They had one group of men and women making the test under a fake name, and another making the test under their real name. The women who used a fake name performed better on the math test than those who used their real name, but not the men. The authors say: "These findings suggest that women's impaired math performance is often due to the threat of confirming a negative stereotype as being true of the self."

If I understand that correctly, I think it would generalise to both men and women if they had lower expectations of their performance compared to others. Maybe you could find the same effect with racial stereotyping, both negative and positive.

Also, for your recommended daily intake of mindblowing astrophyical phenomena, I point you to starquakes (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starquake_(astrophysics)#Starquake). STARQUAKES.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Akima on 20 Jul 2013, 19:16
If I understand that correctly, I think it would generalise to both men and women if they had lower expectations of their performance compared to others. Maybe you could find the same effect with racial stereotyping, both negative and positive.
Is it low expectations of their performance by the test takers that this study illuminates? I gathered that the women were supposed to be put off because their high performance in Maths would somehow reflect badly on them. If true, this reflects very poorly on their social environment.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Carl-E on 21 Jul 2013, 01:08
When mathematical ignorance is the social norm, then yes, the social environment is to blame. 
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Jimor on 21 Jul 2013, 02:50
Oh boy oh boy oh boy! (I just got the original boxed set of DVDs for my birthday.)
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: LTK on 21 Jul 2013, 04:21
When mathematical ignorance is the social norm, then yes, the social environment is to blame. 
Shit. It hadn't even occured to me that people might consider having a certain skill a bad thing. That's kind of depressing.

So, when the authors are saying that the women are afraid of confirming a negative stereotype, it's not the stereotype of a woman, but the stereotype of a nerd. Goddamn it, I thought we had at least some progress in moving past that stigma by now.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Jimor on 21 Jul 2013, 05:00
When mathematical ignorance is the social norm, then yes, the social environment is to blame. 
Shit. It hadn't even occured to me that people might consider having a certain skill a bad thing. That's kind of depressing.

So, when the authors are saying that the women are afraid of confirming a negative stereotype, it's not the stereotype of a woman, but the stereotype of a nerd. Goddamn it, I thought we had at least some progress in moving past that stigma by now.

It's FAR more than just being seen as a nerd. The fear is that being good in math will make them literally unattractive to boys and doomed to a life of spinsterhood, and has been reinforced by a very large array of societal pressures that includes boys, other girls, media, teachers and even parents. It's one of the most insidious and intractable memes to ever hit modern society, and even when some people agree with the idea that girls are just as good or better at math as boys, they'll still council not showing off as better. Even on college campuses, hearing a woman say "Oh, I'm just not good at math" is no less common than hearing "oh, I had my period last week".
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: GarandMarine on 21 Jul 2013, 07:39
I find women who are very good at math extremely attractive. I absolutely suck at math and like it when a partner can compensate for my utter failure in certain fields.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: LTK on 21 Jul 2013, 08:07
It's FAR more than just being seen as a nerd. The fear is that being good in math will make them literally unattractive to boys and doomed to a life of spinsterhood, and has been reinforced by a very large array of societal pressures that includes boys, other girls, media, teachers and even parents. It's one of the most insidious and intractable memes to ever hit modern society, and even when some people agree with the idea that girls are just as good or better at math as boys, they'll still council not showing off as better. Even on college campuses, hearing a woman say "Oh, I'm just not good at math" is no less common than hearing "oh, I had my period last week".
But that doesn't even make any sense! What's so special about math? Is it hard? Is there a stigma against girls being smart, or academically competent?

Urgh. This makes me upset. I'm gonna read about black holes until I don't hate humanity any more.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Carl-E on 21 Jul 2013, 22:29
Actually, I was referring to the general societal stigma against mathematical understanding.  If a person's illiterate, they try and hide the fact.  But when someone's innumerate?  They brag about it.  "I never did understand any of that math stuff" is a common attitude, and parents saying "Oh, don't worry about it, I was bad at math too" just makes it socially hereditary in the worst possible way. 


And, of course, it's supposed to be worse for women, the poor dears - so difficult to wrap your head around such ideas when you're a barefoot, pregnant slave to your hormones...
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: LTK on 30 Jul 2013, 06:59
With our current possibilities going near speed of light is just as impossible as going faster than it, so why not assume the more practical way, seeing as both are equally impossible right now.

The way I see it, where there is actual matter, it 'displaces', for lack of a better word, the empty space that was previously there. This means that, while the empty space expands, it may push objects further apart, but it doesn't stretch them out, so distances on earth would stay the same. Of course I am no physicist, but this is how I think it works. I imagine it like balls floating in a pool of water. If you pour the water in a bigger pool it consume a wider area, but the balls stay the same size.

I considered that possibility but I've never read anything by an actual physicist that supports that view. Mass does distort the spacetime around it, which is the cause of gravitational force. I don't think it would be accurate to say that where there is mass, there can be no space - partly because atoms are at least 90% empty space - but it's entirely possible that the distortion of spacetime caused by mass is of the same type as the stretching out of spacetime caused by the expansion of the universe. Maybe they even counteract.

Also, I thought that the expansion of the universe would eventually result in all matter being pulled apart precisely because the expansion increases the size of objects along with the size of space, but when I went to confirm that on Wikipedia the article on Heat Death (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_death_of_the_universe) I couldn't find any mention of that being a factor, so I could be wrong.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: snalin on 30 Jul 2013, 15:39
Guys, there is no edge (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0o6hQLcSRc).

As far as I understand it, the universe is getting bigger, yes, but the gravity of galaxies should keep them together. Like...

Take a cup that is narrow at the bottom, but wide at the top. Put some beads (that float) in, and fill it with water. The beads are going to start close to each other, but after a while get farther apart. I think the universe is a bit like that*, with gravity keeping the galaxies (and atoms) together, even though they move further apart. Not quite sure if this is appropriate though.


*I guess the cup would be infinitely thin in the bottom, be infinitely high, be infinitely wide at the top. And have hella dimensions. Metaphor breakdown!
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: celticgeek on 30 Jul 2013, 15:46
"Space," it says, "is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mindbogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space, listen..."

-Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: SageJiraiya on 30 Jul 2013, 15:49
This makes me wonder if entropy is running its course. Has anyone else read the last question?
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: SageJiraiya on 30 Jul 2013, 15:50
Link for the lazy: http://filer.case.edu/dts8/thelastq.htm
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: snalin on 30 Jul 2013, 15:55
Yup. It's pretty damn good.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Carl-E on 30 Jul 2013, 20:41
Oh, I remember that one now...

Anyhoo, the universe is expanding, and this years winners for the nobel in physics showed it's increasing at an increasing rate... which means that the stars will be moving farther apart faster and faster, to the point where they'll all be too far away for detectable radiation to reach us...

...which means the night sky will be completely dark.  If the starts made you feel small, imagine what the void will do! 
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Akima on 31 Jul 2013, 02:18
What will happen to the Moon? And the planets that are visible with the naked eye?  :-D
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: ChaoSera on 31 Jul 2013, 03:00
That depends. If our sun's gravitational force is strong enough to keep the solar system together we would still be able to see them, even if the rest of the galaxy has drifted too far apart.
However, if the solar system also gets pulled apart, then we won't see anything in the sky, not even the moon. Even if it's still in orbit around earth and was not pulled away too, there won't be any light from our sun to be reflected off it. As far as i know the moon itself does not give off any detectable radiation, so without any background radiation we wouldn't even be able to detect it that way. :-D
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: LTK on 31 Jul 2013, 04:26
The sun will have died a hundred times over before we get to that point.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: ChaoSera on 31 Jul 2013, 04:30
Obviously, yes. But assuming it doesn't makes for more interesting scenarios.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: LTK on 31 Jul 2013, 12:00

So there's our answer!
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: ackblom12 on 31 Jul 2013, 14:35
http://www.engadget.com/2013/07/26/google-universal-translator-prototypes/

Quote
It sounds like Google's Babel fish-esque instant translation solution is making progress -- Android VP Hugo Barra told The UK Times that Google's got hardware prototypes (in the form of mobile phones) already working. Moreover, in a recent test he took part in, the system was "near-perfect" with certain language combinations (English to Portuguese is specifically cited).

The biggest barrier, beyond the translation itself, is speech recognition. In so many words, background noise interferes with the translation software, thus affecting results. But Barra said it works "close to 100 percent" when used in "controlled environments." Sounds perfect for diplomats, not so much for real-world conversations. Of course, Google's non-real-time, text-based translation software built into Chrome leaves quite a bit to be desired, making us all the more wary of putting our faith into Google's verbal solution. As the functionality is still "several years away," though, there's still plenty of time to convert us.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: mustang6172 on 18 Aug 2013, 19:33
NASA has deemed the Kepler probe to be beyond repair.

http://news.yahoo.com/nasa-calls-off-attempts-fix-kepler-space-telescope-204816633.html

I guess this means planet hunters are at the mercy of radio astronomy now.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Jimor on 19 Aug 2013, 03:14
http://www.engadget.com/2013/07/26/google-universal-translator-prototypes/

With Google building the system to caption every video on YouTube, they have the raw material for perfecting the algorithms, but what they need is a critical mass of people who go in and correct the errors so it can learn enough to work in non-ideal situations. It's both hilarious and fascinating to turn on the automatic captions for the videos that have it to see how far off it can be, but also occasionally scary with some of the lines it gets right against all odds.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Carl-E on 19 Aug 2013, 07:52
My daughter's a Taylor Swift fan, so we found this one enlightening. 


They do a bunch of others - find your favorite! 
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Patrick on 19 Aug 2013, 13:18
Actually, I was referring to the general societal stigma against mathematical understanding.  If a person's illiterate, they try and hide the fact.  But when someone's innumerate?  They brag about it.  "I never did understand any of that math stuff" is a common attitude, and parents saying "Oh, don't worry about it, I was bad at math too" just makes it socially hereditary in the worst possible way. 

And, of course, it's supposed to be worse for women, the poor dears - so difficult to wrap your head around such ideas when you're a barefoot, pregnant slave to your hormones...

I'm actually better at math than 99% of Americans, I just hate it with an unbridled passion. So much so that about a year before dropping out of school, I took a fundamentals of algebra class that I did only one homework assignment in (and nothing else) and failed the class with a 4%. When I pointed out to the teacher after class that there was no way my grade was that high, she just told me "Fuck you, you just proved that you could have passed this class but just refused to" and told me to leave.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Carl-E on 19 Aug 2013, 13:58
Attitude is everything!   :roll:
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: LTK on 01 Sep 2013, 07:22
The Guardian has a new science blog, and it's got some interesting stuff. For example:

The ups and downs of porn: sexism, relationships and sexual aggression (http://www.theguardian.com/science/head-quarters/2013/aug/30/porn-relationships-sexual-aggression-research)
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: LTK on 15 Sep 2013, 15:16
(http://birdandmoon.com/images/intheair.jpg)

I've always wondered what that smell was!

From birdandmoon.com, a biology webcomic.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: GarandMarine on 16 Sep 2013, 18:54
Mind BLOWN.

(http://www.trbimg.com/img-5233af7f/turbine/la-la-sci-leg-gears-jpg-20130913/600)

Quote
Gears may seem like a purely human invention. And yet the basic interlocking mechanism found inside grandfather clocks and car steering systems has now turned up in the remarkably powerful legs of young planthopper insects.

The discovery, published in Friday's edition of the journal Science, provides the first known example of working gears that evolved in a living being.

"It's a wonderful example of the clever solutions that nature comes up with," said Robert Full, a biomechanist at UC Berkeley who was not involved in the study. "It was brilliant."

While examining flightless planthopper insects in the genus Issus, University of Cambridge neurobiologist Malcolm Burrows discovered that the young insects' legs had gear teeth that locked into place while jumping.

"We weren't deliberately looking for it. Why would we?" said Burrows, who conducted the research with University of Bristol engineer Gregory Sutton. "There's been no description of gear wheels functioning in animals before. "

Issus planthoppers make fleas and other jumping insects look like junior varsity pole-vaulters. The adult bugs can leap with an acceleration of roughly 500 Gs in a matter of milliseconds. An average human can withstand about 5 Gs of acceleration before passing out.

To figure out what made these insects so springy, the researchers ventured outdoors to gather a few bugs, with a little help from the sharp eyes of Burrows' young grandson. Some of the planthoppers were adults, and some were nymphs.

The pair used a high-speed camera to photograph the planthoppers while they jumped. That's when they spotted the gear teeth on the insides of the insects' equivalent of thighs. Each gear strip was about 350 to 400 micrometers long — about half as thick as a credit card — with about 10 to 12 teeth in each.

The discovery was shocking. Burrows had been studying jumping insects for a long time, and he'd never seen anything like it.

Other insects, like grasshoppers, use their legs to push their bodies straight up. But the planthoppers' legs move more like a breaststroke, splaying out to the sides while propelling the body upward.

That method of locomotion can be tricky. If one leg fires first, the planthopper will end up spinning, like a one-armed breast-stroke swimmer.

But sending a signal from the brain to coordinate both legs takes time and extra neural bandwidth. So the planthopper's body has an ingenious solution that keeps the legs in step without a thought. When one leg starts to jump, the gear teeth on that leg engage with the gear teeth on the other so they both push off at the same time.

Using the gear method, the insects' legs can synchronize within 30 microseconds. If the insect had to think about synchronizing its legs, Burrows said, it would take one or two milliseconds to send a message from its brain to its muscles.

In other words, the gear method is tens of times faster than a single bug thought.

Oddly, only the nymphs have these gears, Burrows and Sutton discovered. The adults lose the gears when they're fully grown; apparently, they can generate enough friction between their strong, solid legs.

But if this is such a handy engineering tool, why not keep using it into adulthood? Perhaps it's because of wear and tear, Burrows said.

If you break a tooth on a gear in your car or your bike, you have to get it fixed. Nymphs don't have repair shops, but because they shed their bodies into progressively larger exoskeletons as they grow, they're constantly getting upgrades anyway. Once they're adults, stuck in their permanent bodies, they don't have that luxury.

While humans have been doing pretty well with their man-made gears, the insect's design could still provide insight for engineers, Burrows said. For example, these gear teeth are asymmetrical rather than uniform. Because they need to work only in one direction on the insect, perhaps the odd shape maximizes the bang for their potential energy buck.

There are other "ornamental cogs" in nature, the authors wrote in Science, such as those on the shell of the cog wheel turtle Heosemys spinosa. Crocodile hearts also have a toothed cog valve that may help them stay under water for longer periods by redirecting blood flow to their most vital organs.

In any case, the research shows it's rarely wise to underestimate evolution, the scientists said.

"Any statement that you make like that, that something is uniquely human is just waiting to be disproven," Full said.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Carl-E on 17 Sep 2013, 03:59
Yet again, more proof that God doesn't exist! 

Quote from: Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Now it is such a bizarrely improbable coincidence that anything so mind-bogglingly useful could have evolved purely by chance that some thinkers have chosen to see it as a final and clinching proof of the NON-existence of God.
The argument goes like this:
`I refuse to prove that I exist,' says God, `for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing.'
`But,' says Man, `Gears on a grasshopper are a dead giveaway, aren't they? They could not have evolved by chance. They prove you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you don't. QED.'
`Oh dear,' says God, `I hadn't thought of that,' and promptly disappears in a puff of logic.
`Oh, that was easy,' says Man, and for an encore goes on to prove that black is white and gets himself killed on the next zebra crossing.
Most leading theologians claim that this argument is a load of dingo's kidneys, but that didn't stop Oolon Colluphid making a small fortune when he used it as the central theme of his best-selling book, "Well, That about Wraps It Up for God."
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: pwhodges on 17 Sep 2013, 04:20
I went to see a stage production of HHGG (http://www.hitchhikerslive.com/about.html) at the weekend.  It had Simon Jones as Arthur Dent (the original radio actor), and Neil Gaiman as the Voice of the Book.  The transfer was generally well done, including quite a lot from the later books that was not in the original radio series (1 & 2), but the timing got sloppy in the second half, which also had some songs which were a waste of time (it was the first performance of a new run).  Marvin was particularly magnificent, though.

Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: LTK on 17 Sep 2013, 04:55
Mind BLOWN.
That is awesome, they not only figured out why they have these gears but also why they lose them as adults. Apparently animals have to deal with wear and tear as well!

(http://www.newscientist.com/data/images/ns/cms/mg21929340.100/mg21929340.100-1_1200.jpg)

This is a human brain. (http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21929340.100-is-this-the-most-extraordinary-human-brain-ever-seen.html)
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: ackblom12 on 17 Sep 2013, 12:23
A Jewel at the Heart of Quantum Physics (https://www.simonsfoundation.org/quanta/20130917-a-jewel-at-the-heart-of-quantum-physics/)

Quote
Physicists have discovered a jewel-like geometric object that dramatically simplifies calculations of particle interactions and challenges the notion that space and time are fundamental components of reality.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Carl-E on 22 Sep 2013, 02:25
And, on a slightly related note...



(this almost wound up in the pointless thread, but it isn't, really...)
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Akima on 22 Sep 2013, 02:58
Well, if String Theory achieves nothing else, that was very cool.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: LTK on 22 Sep 2013, 09:38
Best thing I've seen all month.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: LTK on 24 Sep 2013, 10:46
FUCKING


MAGNETS
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: LTK on 24 Sep 2013, 14:59
And because I can't think of a better place to put it, here's a very long write-up of the career of a James Fadiman, who was at the head of psychedelics research until the FDA banned them, and then decided to bring them back.

http://www.themorningnews.org/article/the-heretic
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: J on 25 Sep 2013, 01:28
from popular science Why We're Shutting Off Our Comments  (http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2013-09/why-were-shutting-our-comments?j6PLX0SwD5phxEcC.01)
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: pwhodges on 25 Sep 2013, 02:05
Very interesting...
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: LTK on 25 Sep 2013, 03:23
Indeed. The human mind is extremely permeable in many ways we don't yet know about. It's good to see that some people are taking the results to heart.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Carl-E on 25 Sep 2013, 23:38
there are a few other sites I wish woould take this to heart, especially news outlets. 
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: ackblom12 on 26 Sep 2013, 18:39
Sooooo, when can I get my lightsaber?

http://phys.org/news/2013-09-scientists-never-before-seen.html
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: cesium133 on 07 Oct 2013, 06:20
I think I've been around here too long, when I saw the headline for this article (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-24427951) about the biology Nobel Prize and thought they were studying something completely different than what they were.  :psyduck:
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: J on 08 Oct 2013, 01:53
Quote from: Robot meant to remove jellyfish might just be making more jellyfish (http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-jellyfish-removal-robot-20131007,0,1810881.story)
Watch out, jellyfish. JEROS, the jellyfish-destroying robot, is coming for you. Or possibly making more of you.

Developed by a team of engineers in Korea, JEROS is a robot designed for destroying jellyfish swarms, like the one that recently clogged the cooling pipes at a nuclear power plant in Sweden, temporarily shutting down the plant.

JEROS stands for Jellyfish Elimination Robotic Swarm, and it uses a camera and GPS system to spot jellyfish swarms underwater and maneuver autonomously toward them. A net underneath the robot gathers the gelatinous creatures, and a special propeller attached to the robot pulverizes the netted jellies into a wispy jellyfish soup. (See the video above).

It was developed by professor Myung Hyun, at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology. According to a release from the institution, JEROS is estimated to be three times more economical than physically gathering the jellyfish in nets and hauling them out of the water.

But unfortunately, said Robert Condon, a research scientist with the Dauphin Island Sea Lab who studies jellyfish, JEROS the jellyfish-destruction robot may actually create more jellyfish.

 "Grinding up jellyfish is a quick fix if it is outside a nuclear power plant, but it doesn't stop the jellyfish from reproducing," he said. "What it probably does is enable more jellyfish to be in a single area.

While the grinder may kill the jellyfish, it is likely not a fine enough grind to destroy the jellyfish's eggs and sperm, said Condon.

"Effectively you are mixing up all the egg and sperm in one spot and increasing the chance of them finding each other," he said. "If it is designed to stop a bloom in a particular area, it won't do that."


YouTube video shows JEROS, the Jellyfish Elimination Robotic Swarm, shredding jellyfish on a test run.

Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Masterpiece on 08 Oct 2013, 05:57
I HATE JELLYFISH
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: LTK on 13 Oct 2013, 05:21
I'd hate to be those jellyfish.

I Fucking Love Science comes to youtube! (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvOTgnW7oj9ZWDd2y5TEApw)
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: ackblom12 on 13 Oct 2013, 12:44
First Demonstration of Time Cloaking (http://www.technologyreview.com/view/424682/first-demonstration-of-time-cloaking/)

Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: LTK on 13 Oct 2013, 13:49
That article reads like genuine Star Trek technobabble, but this other article (http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/print/2011/jul/07/cloaking-space-time) does a better job of describing it. Still, this is pretty weird.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Masterpiece on 13 Oct 2013, 15:01
:psyduck:
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: pwhodges on 13 Oct 2013, 15:04
Hey, I haven't got my head around quantum entanglement of widely spaced particles yet...
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Masterpiece on 13 Oct 2013, 15:07
I don't think anyone has yet, Paul.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: LTK on 13 Oct 2013, 15:10
The concept isn't very hard to understand. The analogy of traffic flow is a good one. If you cause the cars on the back to slow down, and the cars on the front to speed up, something could cross the road through the gap safely. If you ask the drivers if they hit anything on the way, they will say no. If the traffic flow was constant, you would conclude that nothing had crossed the road at any point, which is incorrect: only nobody noticed it crossing the road.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: pwhodges on 13 Oct 2013, 15:11
Yeah, this one is easy by comparison...

I don't think anyone has yet, Paul.

Physics is like that.  That's probably behind why in my second term I changed my university course from Physics to Engineering Science (not that I didn't have to study quantum properties of materials for that as well).
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Patrick on 14 Oct 2013, 01:52
guys, this thread makes me go (http://i.imgur.com/FlcY53r.gif)
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: LTK on 14 Oct 2013, 05:08
Perhaps you should consult an entomologist.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: LTK on 14 Oct 2013, 17:14
The chemical composition of gas giants like Saturn and Jupiter leads astronomers to believe that it rains diamonds (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-24477667) over there.

Before you blast off in a spaceship to harvest them, you should maybe listen to James May (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHupgR2RGk8), who explains why diamonds are expensive.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: LTK on 18 Nov 2013, 11:34
MinutePhysics has started posting videos that explain physics in ten seconds.


There's also this:

Chilly temperatures foster cancer growth in mice. (http://arstechnica.com/science/2013/11/chilly-temperatures-foster-cancer-growth-in-mice/)

Sometimes science overlooks the simplest influencing factors.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Case on 18 Nov 2013, 16:18
My daughter's a Taylor Swift fan, so we found this one enlightening. 
...
They do a bunch of others - find your favorite!

Oh, but you don't knowledge beautifull (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEKdOxQhf0s)!
 :-)
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: GarandMarine on 18 Nov 2013, 16:47
Hey guys. Can someone explain spooky motion at a distance to me?
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: LTK on 22 Nov 2013, 04:36
You mean quantum entanglement? I don't think anyone can.

The author of the comic I posted above is involved with Stated Clearly (https://www.youtube.com/user/sciencestatedclearly?feature=watch), which is Evolution for Dummies. It's very helpful as an introduction:

Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: celticgeek on 22 Nov 2013, 07:10
Entanglement (http://www.amazon.com/Entanglement-Amir-Aczel/dp/0452284570/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1385133003&sr=1-1&keywords=entanglement+aczel)
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: LTK on 17 Dec 2013, 15:54
Workouts are no antidote to death by desk job (http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21829232.200-workouts-are-no-antidote-to-death-by-desk-job.html?full=true)

To summarise: Research has shown that exercising increases your life expectancy, but also that the inverse is true: sitting down for extended periods of time is actively shortening your life, even if you're also getting your 30 minutes of exercise in addition. And modern jobs and lifestyles are increasingly requiring a sedentary position, which does not bode well for our long-term health. The article also discusses the effect of regular (as in, two minutes per hour) exercise on glucose metabolism, which is relevant because type 2 diabetes is also an increasing risk factor in modern lifestyles. Two minutes of exercise for every hour you're sitting down has a positive effect on your insulin sensitivity compared to no exercise, which translates into an improved ability to metabolise fat instead of glucose, a lowered risk of Alzheimer's disease (http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22029453.400-are-alzheimers-and-diabetes-the-same-disease.html), as well as other generalised health benefits that my dad keeps harping on about.

I think I'll start setting a one-hour timer for walking up and down some stairs to work on this.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: LeeC on 02 Jan 2014, 13:10
Sticky note flash drives (http://imgur.com/gallery/hpykT)

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9244880/Graphene_sticky_notes_may_offer_32GB_capacity_you_can_write_on (http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9244880/Graphene_sticky_notes_may_offer_32GB_capacity_you_can_write_on)
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: pwhodges on 02 Jan 2014, 15:01
Quote
aimed at replacing thumb drives that it said are difficult to insert into computers.

Hang on, we are now being told it's too hard to plug in a USB stick, and the world needs something easier?  What will happen when people are no longer capable of picking up a glass of water and guiding it to their mouth, or of wiping their bottoms (which they can't see), I wonder.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: ChaoSera on 02 Jan 2014, 15:35
To be fair, at times USB ports, especially those at the back of a desktop pc, do seem to have at least 8 dimensions, when you try to insert the thumb drive.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: ankhtahr on 02 Jan 2014, 15:39
USB-B plugs are even worse, as their basic form fits in four ways instead of two. I usually end up turning them 8 times.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: cesium133 on 02 Jan 2014, 15:46
The worst computer I've dealt with for that was an old Dell we had in the lab (which later succumbed to capacitor blowout), which had two USB ports, at the bottom of the front panel, oriented downward. It was impossible to put a USB stick into one of those ports, because it was longer than the clearance distance between the port and the floor.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: pwhodges on 02 Jan 2014, 15:51
I seem to remember that my children discovered how to put things in holes the right way round as young toddlers - we even bought them things to learn with!
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: celticgeek on 02 Jan 2014, 16:14
I recall a saying about 5.0 inch floppy discs:  There are eight ways to insert a floppy disc - more if you fold them - only one way works.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: cesium133 on 02 Jan 2014, 16:31
I seem to remember that my children discovered how to put things in holes the right way round as young toddlers - we even bought them things to learn with!
Now let's train those children to put things in holes the right way around when they can't see the thing they're putting in the hole, or the hole itself. Either that, or throw out the computers with USB ports only on the back.  :psyduck:
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Akima on 02 Jan 2014, 22:16
The only complaint I have with USB insertion is that the icon (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fd/USB_Icon.svg) that indicates the "top" of cables (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB#Usability_and_orientation) is often not moulded so that it is detectable by touch. It is not uncommon for the manufacturer's logo or serial number on the reverse side to be more prominent, and on the micro-plugs used to connect to phones, Kindles etc. the icon is barely visible (I usually mark it with indelible ink, paint etc.). According to The Economist (http://www.economist.com/news/international/21588104-humble-usb-cable-part-electrical-revolution-it-will-make-power-supplies), Ajay Bhatt, the engineer who invented USB, is working on making the interface symmetrical so that we don't have to worry about flipping the plug.

Of course there is the issue of those stupid novelty thumb-drives (https://www.google.com.au/search?q=novelty+thumb+drives&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=blXGUoPHNor4lAXO_oH4CQ&sqi=2&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAQ&biw=1298&bih=1079) made to look like dogs, cars, hamburgers, ladybirds etc. that are too big to fit in many sockets, especially alongside other devices. That is not the fault of the USB standard, but "flippability" would reduce the problem.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Masterpiece on 03 Jan 2014, 00:55
I've also had cases where the position of the logo was misleading, ergo on the wrong side. That is really annoying as shit.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: GarandMarine on 21 Jan 2014, 09:08
Scientists at CERN have produced an Anti-Matter beam.
http://www.nbcnews.com/science/scientists-create-anti-atom-beam-use-it-good-not-evil-2D11959528
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: cesium133 on 21 Jan 2014, 09:17
I watched a talk by one of the scientists working on the antimatter trapping project at a conference I went to last year. If I remember correctly, they form the antihydrogen atoms in the trap by independently cooling antiprotons and positrons in traps, and then overlapping the traps to get them to combine. I guess since they have to form them that way, the trap experiments have to come before the beam experiments. With normal atoms, it is usually a lot easier to form a beam than to actually trap the atoms.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: ChaoSera on 21 Jan 2014, 10:34
Have to write a 10 page paper about Bioinspired Manufacturing Systems. Meh.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: GarandMarine on 22 Jan 2014, 08:21
More science! Mars edition! The rover found a rock!

http://news.msn.com/science-technology/mystery-white-rock-inexplicably-appears-near-nasa-mars-rover
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Pilchard123 on 22 Jan 2014, 09:10
*ALIENS* :roll:
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Carl-E on 22 Jan 2014, 10:21
All I can think of is the Charlie Brown halloween special. 


"I got a rock..."
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: GarandMarine on 22 Jan 2014, 13:21
Another extremely cool science follow up! http://www.nbcnews.com/science/there-life-ceres-dwarf-planet-spews-water-vapor-space-2D11970722
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: LTK on 27 Feb 2014, 04:46
On Medium, The man who destroyed America's ego. (https://medium.com/matter/94d214257b5) It describes how the idea of boosting self-esteem to create moral, succesful people took hold in the US, but was later shown to cause an increase in narcissism, which is actually associated with higher aggression, self-superiority and lower self-criticism. It's a very interesting look at how psychological science can sometimes go in completely the wrong direction because, ironically enough, the people who research this are too narcissistic themselves to see anything but what they want to see.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Akima on 28 Feb 2014, 16:07
On gaining a better understanding of metastasis. (http://www.economist.com/node/21596501/print)
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Barmymoo on 01 Mar 2014, 02:01
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: GarandMarine on 10 Mar 2014, 19:31
http://www.fox.com/watch/183733315515

You owe it to yourself to watch the new Cosmos.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: J on 11 Mar 2014, 10:47
indeed. the first episode was just beautiful.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: LeeC on 11 Mar 2014, 11:32
Watched it with my girlfriend on Sunday in HD.  Was magnificent.  She cried.  I wont spoil on why.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: mustang6172 on 11 Mar 2014, 19:45
Jupiter's red spot isn't a hurricane; it's an anticyclone.  This is an oversight of proportions approximately three times the size of Earth!
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Akima on 12 Mar 2014, 01:41
Confusing a cyclone (hurricanes are cyclones) with an anticyclone is rather more than an oversight; it's getting things backwards. I imagine they were going for drama; "it's big and stormy and rotates so its a hurricane!" Or perhaps someone was confused by the GRS' direction of rotation, forgetting that it is in Jupiter's southern hemisphere.

And I can't watch it... :(
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: J on 12 Mar 2014, 02:26
as a university film professor i once knew used to say "If only there were some sort of Beautiful Technology that could help you overcome this problem.


having listened to tyson's podcast (http://www.startalkradio.net/) regularly for several years now, i have a hard time imagining him not catching that if it was a mistake. i figure they decided to go with the word most people would be familiar with. i don't think most people realize that the term cyclone/hurricane indicates a specific direction of rotation, and stopping to explain that would have absolutely murdered the pacing.

one of the main points of the show is to communicate the love of science to people who might have previously been turned off by seemingly dry, passionless facts & figures they learned in school. for that, pacing and presentation are of prime importance.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: J on 12 Mar 2014, 03:25
now this is interesting...

Quote from: NASA is being forced by the US government to fly a mission to Europa – the most likely place we’ll find alien life in the Solar System (http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/178119-nasa-is-being-forced-by-the-us-government-to-fly-a-mission-to-europa-the-most-likely-place-well-find-alien-life-in-the-solar-system)
(http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Europa-luna-640x465.jpg)

n a rather intriguing twist, it appears that NASA is now mandated by law to fly a robotic mission to Jupiter’s watery moon Europa. Europa is an incredibly exciting science target, as it’s believed to have a 100-kilometer-thick (62 miles) outer layer of water, with water ice on top (it’s very cold out there) and a liquid water ocean beneath that. It’s believed that there’s more water on Europa than the entirety of Earth, despite being just a quarter the width of Earth. As we continue to learn more about the tenacious lifeforms found in deep, cold waters here on Earth, excitement grows over the possibility of Europa’s oceans harboring extraterrestrial life.

Up until the ’70s, the prevailing theory was that all life on Earth was dependent on energy from the Sun (i.e. everything ultimately revolves around photosynthesizing plants). Then, in 1977, an exploratory dive in the Galapagos Rift discovered giant tube worms, clams, and other crustaceans that survived without any access to the Sun. As it turned out, they were feeding on bacteria that got their energy from hydrogen and hydrogen sulfide emanating from underwater volcanic vents. There was a whole food chain down there that didn’t rely on the Sun at all. Cue much excited theorizing about the possibility of finding life in Europa’s massive oceans.

Quote
(http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/europa-earth-moon-size-comparison.jpg)
Europa (bottom left), Moon (top left), Earth (right) – size comparison

By the time the Voyager probes had flown through the Jovian system in 1979, scientists were fairly sure that Europa had an icy crust, and possibly a liquid ocean beneath. Further investigation by Galileo and New Horizons have provided yet more data (and some lovely images, such as the one at the top of the story (http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Europa-luna.jpg), captured by Galileo). Now, we’re almost certain that there’s liquid water on Europa — and so the next stage is sending some kind of robotic probe or rover out there, to do some real, up-close-and-personal science.

And this is the weird bit: It seems, thanks to Houston Congressman John Culberson, who appears to be a bit of a science nerd, that NASA is now mandated by law to develop a mission to Europa. Culberson is basically forcing this mission upon NASA: In 2013 and 2014, despite NASA not requesting any money for a Europa mission, Culberson gave it $43 million and $80 million respectively. In the 2014 budget bill (http://docs.house.gov/billsthisweek/20140113/CPRT-113-HPRT-RU00-h3547-hamdt2samdt_xml.pdf), finalized in December, there’s not a single mention of Mars or the Moon, but Europa’s right there on page 159. Culberson is expected to become the next chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee, too — and if that happens, NASA may find itself very flush indeed. This is rather refreshing, after years of budget cuts/stagnation!

Quote
(http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/800px-Europa_poster.svg_.png)
Europa poster diagram, showing its (theorized) structure

In an interview with the Houston Chronicle (http://blog.chron.com/sciguy/2013/12/love-planetary-science-dying-to-explore-europas-oceans-meet-the-man-who-can-make-it-happen/), Culberson had these rather uplifting words to say about Europa in specific and space exploration in general:

Quote
    If I’m successful in becoming chairman of the subcommittee that’s going to be right when the Europa mission will need its maximum funding. It needs to be a flagship mission. The biggest and best we’ve ever flown … I got on this incredible committee where I will be in exactly the right place at the right time to be able to help turn NASA around, to not only preserve America’s leadership role in space, but I also hope to be a key part in discovering life on another world for the first time. We’re only going to have one chance at this in our lifetimes. We’ve got one shot. I want to make sure you and I are here to see those first tube worms and lobsters on Europa.

As for an actual timeline for those first tube worms, if they exist, it’s still very, very early days. It seems, after two years of having money forced upon it, NASA finally caved and actually asked for $15 million in 2015 to help plan the Europa mission. All we really have to go on right now are the words of NASA’s CFO, Elizabeth Robinson, who said the launch could come as soon as the mid-2020s — probably after we launch the next Mars rover in 2020 (http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/160905-nasas-next-mars-rover-will-hunt-for-fossils-and-other-signs-of-life-with-a-microscope).

We are living in interesting times! Who knows, maybe it won’t be the next generation of space telescopes that discovers the first instance of extraterrestrial life — maybe it’ll be a NASA rover, right here in our own Solar System.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: ev4n on 12 Mar 2014, 15:59
Enceladus > Europa, but both are cool.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Case on 13 Mar 2014, 17:03
http://www.fox.com/watch/183733315515

You owe it to yourself to watch the new Cosmos.

COSMOS!?! Weeeeeeeearfghlblrlrb ...

The original series, and Carl Sagan, were a major influence in my life -> I'm earning my croissants as a physicist right now thanks to the virus that was planted into my defenseless, susceptible mind watching Cosmos as a kid. I recall that Mom told me about it because there was 'space' in the announcement in the listings magazine, and me being all exited because I thought it'd be something like Star Trek ... I was so very pissed during the first five minutes of watching it - I honestly felt cheated! "Meh! No Lasers, no aliens, no space battles. And who's that dude in the corduroy jacket? And a spaceship that looks like a flowerseed? You've got to shittin' me ... eeeeeeeee? Nuuuuuurrrrrrrrhh?Hmmmmmmmmmh!". This guy with his Gedankenexperiment-spaceship and his infectious enthusiasm and his curiosity - for everything, from supernovae to Heikegani crabs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heikegani) - did something to my brain.

It's a good thing Cosmos is continued! Get 'em while they're young ...

Anybody here read Contact?

P.S.: VeryVery sorry for the gushing & reminiscing, but ... weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee ... Ahem ...!

P.P.S: GM? Broken link in the previous post about ceres & water vapors ...
Another extremely cool science follow up! http://www.nbcnews.com/science/there-life-ceres-dwarf-planet-spews-water-vapor-space-2D11970722
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: J on 13 Mar 2014, 18:40
unfortunately, it seems not everyone shares your enthusiasm

Quote from: Oklahoma Fox station removes evolution from ‘Cosmos’ by cutting only 15 seconds (http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/03/12/oklahoma-fox-station-removes-evolution-from-cosmos-by-cutting-only-15-seconds/)
In what appeared to be an editing error, a Fox affiliate in Oklahoma managed to remove the only mention of evolution from Sunday night’s Cosmos science documentary by cutting only 15 seconds from the broadcast.

The much-anticipated reboot of Carl Sagan’s legendary Cosmos premiered on Sunday with an overview of the history of the Universe, from the Big Bang to the advent of humans.

It wasn’t until the last 10 minutes of the show that host Neil deGrasse Tyson hinted at human evolution.

“We are newcomers to the Cosmos,” he explained. “Our own story only begins on the last night of the cosmic year.”

“Three and a half million years ago, our ancestors — your and mine left these traces,” Tyson said, pointing to footprints. “We stood up and parted ways from them. Once we were standing on two feet, our eyes were no longer fixated on the ground. Now, we were free to look up and wonder.”

But for viewers of KOKH-TV in Oklahoma City, that 15 second paragraph was replaced by an awkwardly-inserted commercial for the evening news. The edit was caught on video and uploaded to YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8K-LrJkEDc) by Adam Bates.

At least one of the segments advertised in the news promo — a story about a 12-year-old bow hunter (http://www.okcfox.com/story/24927647/12-year-old-luther-boy-hosts-hunting-show) — did air on that evening’s newscast.

Watch the edited and original versions of Cosmos below, broadcast March 9, 2013.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: GarandMarine on 13 Mar 2014, 21:13
Oh there's plenty of morons butt hurt about Cosmos out there: http://thedailybanter.com/2014/03/the-christian-zealot-reaction-to-last-nights-cosmos-debut-is-about-what-youd-expect/
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: cesium133 on 13 Mar 2014, 21:23
unfortunately, it seems not everyone shares your enthusiasm

Quote from: Oklahoma Fox station removes evolution from ‘Cosmos’ by cutting only 15 seconds (http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/03/12/oklahoma-fox-station-removes-evolution-from-cosmos-by-cutting-only-15-seconds/)
In what appeared to be an editing error, a Fox affiliate in Oklahoma managed to remove the only mention of evolution from Sunday night’s Cosmos science documentary by cutting only 15 seconds from the broadcast.

The much-anticipated reboot of Carl Sagan’s legendary Cosmos premiered on Sunday with an overview of the history of the Universe, from the Big Bang to the advent of humans.

It wasn’t until the last 10 minutes of the show that host Neil deGrasse Tyson hinted at human evolution.

“We are newcomers to the Cosmos,” he explained. “Our own story only begins on the last night of the cosmic year.”

“Three and a half million years ago, our ancestors — your and mine left these traces,” Tyson said, pointing to footprints. “We stood up and parted ways from them. Once we were standing on two feet, our eyes were no longer fixated on the ground. Now, we were free to look up and wonder.”

But for viewers of KOKH-TV in Oklahoma City, that 15 second paragraph was replaced by an awkwardly-inserted commercial for the evening news. The edit was caught on video and uploaded to YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8K-LrJkEDc) by Adam Bates.

At least one of the segments advertised in the news promo — a story about a 12-year-old bow hunter (http://www.okcfox.com/story/24927647/12-year-old-luther-boy-hosts-hunting-show) — did air on that evening’s newscast.

Watch the edited and original versions of Cosmos below, broadcast March 9, 2013.
Heh. Now I kinda wish I had watched that.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: LeeC on 14 Mar 2014, 09:05
reminds me of this:

which is further funny because Family guy creator Seth MacFarlane is producing the new COSMOS  :-D
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: mustang6172 on 15 Mar 2014, 21:39
Scientists are now quite certain that neither Planet X or Nemesis exist.

http://news.yahoo.com/planet-x-myth-debunked-030652774.html

I always figured debunking Nemesis would require pointing an X-ray telescope along the plane of the ecliptic for a couple years.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Loki on 16 Mar 2014, 00:01
Hm. It sounds more like "we have been certain for years, here is another guy confirming this". At least I remember learning the bit about scientists overestimating the mass of Neptune years ago when I learned of Planet X.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Patrick on 23 Mar 2014, 15:43
I seem to remember that my children discovered how to put things in holes the right way round as young toddlers - we even bought them things to learn with!

damn you, Paul, I bit my tongue so hard I'm bleeding
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: mustang6172 on 28 Mar 2014, 21:05
Hm. It sounds more like "we have been certain for years, here is another guy confirming this". At least I remember learning the bit about scientists overestimating the mass of Neptune years ago when I learned of Planet X.

Another post-Kuiper Belt dwarf planet makes everyone sound like, "Ok, let's have another look at this."

http://www.newsmax.com/SciTech/Planet-X-Space-com-NASA-search/2014/03/28/id/562397/
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Sorflakne on 02 Apr 2014, 13:57
Since we're talking about space, how about an asteroid that has a ring system (http://news.discovery.com/space/asteroids-meteors-meteorites/first-asteroid-discovered-sporting-a-ring-system-140326.htm)?
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Akima on 02 Apr 2014, 14:51
Another post-Kuiper Belt dwarf planet makes everyone sound like, "Ok, let's have another look at this."
From The Economist, with a little more detail (http://www.economist.com/node/21599753/print).
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: LTK on 13 Apr 2014, 17:06
Scientists find out why water is splashy. (http://arstechnica.com/science/2014/04/the-physics-of-water-drops-and-lift-off/)

(http://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Water.jpg)

I enjoy learning about something I didn't know I didn't know. Why does water do this? Why doesn't a water droplet merge with the rest of the surface in an orderly fashion? It never occured to me to ask. And honestly, I haven't even read the whole article, I'm already satisfied having learned that I don't know.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: LTK on 20 Apr 2014, 04:40
Feeling irritable or aggressive? Eat a cookie. (http://arstechnica.com/science/2014/04/voodoo-dolls-show-how-hunger-and-lack-of-self-control-go-hand-in-hand/)
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Patrick on 22 May 2014, 16:55
When you see it... (http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11433-013-5387-8)
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: LTK on 22 May 2014, 17:05
A satellite that has been in space for 35 years is passing Earth in August (http://arstechnica.com/science/2014/05/nasa-hands-space-enthusiasts-the-keys-to-a-1970s-era-spacecraft/), and it's still working. The news is that NASA has given another company permission to try and reboot it so it can be put to use further. NASA themselves won't do it because all the equipment that they used to communicate with back then has been decomissioned and it's too expensive to bring it back. It's pretty awesome that they're letting someone else give it a shot!
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: GarandMarine on 28 May 2014, 04:28
Huh.

http://www.mendeley.com/catalog/correlation-between-oral-sex-low-incidence-preeclampsia-role-soluble-hla-seminal-fluid/

So swallowing when pregnant might lead to a healthier pregnancy.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Masterpiece on 28 May 2014, 06:25
Correlation does not imply causation.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: mustang6172 on 01 Jun 2014, 20:08
A satellite that has been in space for 35 years is passing Earth in August (http://arstechnica.com/science/2014/05/nasa-hands-space-enthusiasts-the-keys-to-a-1970s-era-spacecraft/), and it's still working. The news is that NASA has given another company permission to try and reboot it so it can be put to use further. NASA themselves won't do it because all the equipment that they used to communicate with back then has been decomissioned and it's too expensive to bring it back. It's pretty awesome that they're letting someone else give it a shot!

We have made contact!

http://news.yahoo.com/success-private-group-makes-contact-36-old-nasa-115401204.html
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: GarandMarine on 03 Jun 2014, 09:27
Universal translators: http://www.geek.com/microsoft/microsoft-emulates-star-trek-turns-skype-into-a-universal-translator-1595044/

and your reminder that Thorium reactors can and WILL change the universe. If we pull our heads out of our asses.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: J on 04 Jun 2014, 02:53
Quote from: Twins Scott and Mark Kelly ready for unique space study (http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/twins-scott-and-mark-kelly-ready-for-unique-space-study-1.2658467)

Astronauts Scott and Mark Kelly will take part in an unprecedented study of identical twins to better understand the effects of prolonged weightlessness by comparing the twin in space with the twin on the ground.

When Scott Kelly embarks on a one-year space station stint next spring, his twin brother and retired astronaut Mark Kelly will be joining in from Earth, undergoing medical testing before, during and after his brother's American-record-setting flight.

Mark Kelly draws the line, though, at mimicking his brother's extreme exercise in orbit or eating "crappy space station food."

Longest stay in space ever

This is the genetic double of the 50-year-old astronaut who has volunteered to spend an entire year aboard the International Space Station beginning next March, along with Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko, 54, a former paratrooper.

No American has come close to a year; seven months is NASA's maximum for a single human mission. The Russians, on the other hand, are old hands at long-duration spaceflight, claiming title to a record-setting 14 ½-month mission back in 1994-95.

"No second thoughts — I'm actually getting kind of excited about the whole idea as we get closer," Scott said in a recent interview with The Associated Press.

Scott knows what he's getting into: He spent five months on the orbiting lab in 2010-2011. He began counting down the days on Twitter in late March.

Eager to explore new medical territory, Scott offered to have a pressure sensor drilled into his skull to study the impaired vision experienced by some long-term space fliers.

He's also volunteered for spinal taps in orbit. He'll share quarters at one point, after all, with an emergency medical doctor-turned-NASA-astronaut. The space station crew typically numbers six.

"As a test pilot, I like to push the envelope on things and, in this case, I feel like I'm maybe trying to push the envelope on data collection as well," explained Scott, a retired Navy captain.

But NASA scientists insist there's no compelling need for implants and spinal taps. They admire his gung-ho attitude, though, and marvel at their good fortune in having a set of identical twins for comparison.

The Kellys represent a scientific gift, said Craig Kundrot, deputy chief scientist for the human research program at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.

10 times more time in space for Scott

"Not only are they the same genetically, but one is an astronaut, one's a retired astronaut. So they've followed very similar career paths. After Scott's mission is done, he'll have 540 days of spaceflight (in four missions). Mark will have 54. So exactly a 10-fold difference," Kundrot said.

"That's just an uncanny opportunity that we're taking advantage of."

NASA has selected 10 proposals for the twin study, involving the immune system, gut bacteria, reaction time, fluid shift in space and its potential connection to visual impairment, DNA and RNA molecular science, hardening of the arteries, among others. The researchers will receive a combined $1.5 million from NASA over three years.

A Stanford University sleep specialist and immunologist, Dr. Emmanuel Mignot, wants to give each brother a standard flu shot before, during and after the one-year mission. Blood draws will highlight any differences between the space twin and ground twin, and help researchers better understand changes to the body's immunity in weightlessness.

"No one really knows what happens to the immune system in space for a long period of time and, sooner or later, people are going to need to confront this issue," Mignot said

That's the whole point of Kelly and Kornienko's one-year mission: to identify physical challenges that need to be overcome before astronauts venture to Mars and beyond.

The pair will launch from Kazahkstan aboard a Russian rocket and return via a Russian capsule. Midway through their mission, they'll have a real change of pace.

English soprano Sarah Brightman — perhaps best known for her starring role on stage in The Phantom of the Opera — intends to fly up as a paying passenger in a private deal with the Russians.

"It would be hard to beat her" for breaking the monotony of space, said Scott, a longtime fan of the singer.

Mark, also a retired Navy captain with two daughters, is married to former congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who survived a 2011 assassination attempt —while Scott was on the space station. Mark commanded NASA's next-to-last shuttle flight four months after the shooting, then left NASA. They live in Tucson, Arizona.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Akima on 06 Jun 2014, 04:09
and your reminder that Thorium reactors can and WILL change the universe. If we pull our heads out of our asses.
I'm ashamed to admit that until I read this article in The Economist, I didn't know that Thorium was named after Thor. It is so obvious when pointed out. Asgard's Fire (http://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21600656-thorium-element-named-after-norse-god-thunder-may-soon-contribute) indeed.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Loki on 06 Jun 2014, 04:52
This short essay on sex in different species (http://sciencemadeeasy.kinja.com/what-can-we-learn-from-the-tree-of-sex-1585353821/+katharinetrendacosta) popped up in my Twitter feed. Really fascinating stuff, although I already knew roughly a third of it.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: GarandMarine on 12 Jun 2014, 04:39
http://sploid.gizmodo.com/holy-crap-nasas-interplanetary-spaceship-concept-is-fr-1589001939

This is your reminder that OUR FUCKING SPECIES IS WORKING ON A FUCK MOTHERING WARP DRIVE!


I just hope we're ready. The moon landings were able to bring a nation and, at best large parts of the West together, could a mission beyond our Solar system unite us all as we make those first, tentative steps into the universe?
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: LTK on 12 Jun 2014, 05:21
Now that is awesome. Hey, does anyone know what happens if you go into warp on the surface of a planet?

....Hold on, I'll ask Randall Munroe.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: GarandMarine on 12 Jun 2014, 06:38
Actually that's an interesting question. It's space that's being warped, so it's a question of how much that distortion might damage what's around it...
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Masterpiece on 12 Jun 2014, 08:31
Aren't you warping the space-time field, rather than warping space?
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Loki on 12 Jun 2014, 10:24
Is there a difference?
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Masterpiece on 12 Jun 2014, 10:50
I don't know. I think I was trying to sound smart.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: LeeC on 13 Jun 2014, 12:48

A visualisation of an asteroid's path of orbit which nearly collided with the Earth and Moon in 2003.
(http://i.imgur.com/SEOedVb.gif)
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: pwhodges on 13 Jun 2014, 13:15
^ Believed to be the third stage of the Apollo 12 mission.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: GarandMarine on 14 Jun 2014, 01:23

I know I've posted it before, but it's just so fucking cool
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Patrick on 15 Jun 2014, 03:21
Now that is awesome. Hey, does anyone know what happens if you go into warp on the surface of a planet?

....Hold on, I'll ask Randall Munroe.

Ask Zoe Washburne. "Won't that cause a blowback, burn us out?"
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: GarandMarine on 15 Jun 2014, 08:00
Pluto might be back in as a planet!

(https://scontent-a-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpf1/t1.0-9/10262248_641002035967928_4793447471617136224_n.jpg)
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Loki on 15 Jun 2014, 10:53
Source? All I can find is an article published on April 1st...
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: J on 15 Jun 2014, 15:12
Asteroid Discovery - 1980-2014 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2k2vkLEE4ko)

Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Barmymoo on 20 Jun 2014, 14:10

I significantly prefer this version to the original.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: LTK on 11 Jul 2014, 04:14
Stealing this from tragic_pizza because it has a far better place here:

Have we been wrong about Quantum Mechanics? (http://www.wired.com/2014/06/the-new-quantum-reality/?utm_content=buffer561ff&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer)

Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Barmymoo on 18 Jul 2014, 12:54
I'm studying the basics of genetics with Khan Academy and I am confused. If the O allele in blood types is recessive, how come O+ is the most common blood group? Is this only true in the UK? I'm assuming that if so, it's for the same reason that blonde hair and blue eyes are common here despite both of those things being recessive traits?
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Carl-E on 18 Jul 2014, 14:18
Give us time!  (I'm type A+) 

The A and B alleles showed up in Eastern Europe and Western Asia, respectively.  They were most common in those regions with O predominating everywhere else until there was more migration and genetic mixing. 

Also, O type is the absence of those alleles.  It will decline in the general population over many generations, but it's still a majority for now. 

And it seems there's a genetic or immune advantage to O type blood - type O mothers have more type O children than their partner's type when paired with either type A or B mates, indicating something's going on before birth, possible before embryo implantation, maybe even before fertilization that reduces the number of children with the alleles.  That makes the reduction of type O slower, but won't arrest it completely. 
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: LTK on 18 Jul 2014, 14:40
Hey, that neatly coincides with This Ars Technica article about blood types. (http://arstechnica.com/science/2014/07/whats-behind-your-blood-type/)
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Barmymoo on 19 Jul 2014, 01:46
Thank you, both - that's fascinating and informative, and sets me up well for today's two hours of studying blood!
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Carl-E on 19 Jul 2014, 08:05
LTK, thanks for finding a halfway decent reference.  I gathered my info from a half dozen sites, most of it coming from comments by scientists on articles that were less informed, which is why I didn't reference them. 
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: LTK on 04 Aug 2014, 12:37
MinuteEarth on bats and deadly virulent diseases:

Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: GarandMarine on 12 Aug 2014, 10:00
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: LeeC on 17 Sep 2014, 17:49

my reaction to this video:
(http://i.imgur.com/bnhj3.gif)
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: LTK on 18 Sep 2014, 14:16
That is the only reasonable reaction one can have. Anyway, that's a great channel, thanks for sharing!
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: LeeC on 30 Sep 2014, 12:51
(http://i.imgur.com/erg4L54.jpg)
http://www.sciencealert.com.au/news/20143009-26255-2.html (http://www.sciencealert.com.au/news/20143009-26255-2.html)
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: LTK on 30 Sep 2014, 14:25
Awesome. So I guess now we better start naming all the identifiable objects in the asteroid belt and the Kuiper belt too, since by that definition, every single one of them is a planet.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: LeeC on 01 Oct 2014, 08:17
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: LTK on 01 Oct 2014, 09:00
Wow. It's not really valid to imply a connection between a cooperation or mirror test to Theory of Mind, though I can see where they're coming from, but trying to connect Theory of Mind to spiritual beliefs is a stretch only Mr. Fantastic could do.

An example of an experiment testing Theory of Mind is this (https://www.staff.ncl.ac.uk/daniel.nettle/liddlenettle.pdf). You can scroll down to the appendix which contains little story snippets and questions to assess different levels of Theory of Mind. For example, in the first question, it is stated that Bobby keeps his chocolate in the cupboard, but when he's away, his mother takes it and puts it in her bag. The question is, when Bobby returns, where does he look for the chocolate?

I recall that they tested this in chimpanzees by putting one in a room with two people, one of whom the chimp saw hiding food in a location inaccessible to it, and another person who did not see this. They saw that the chimp would beg for food with the person who knows about the hidden food and ignore the other person, which suggests it has Theory of Mind. That says precisely diddly squat about whether chimps can have religious beliefs, though.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: LeeC on 01 Oct 2014, 09:20
I think the idea of that episode originally was if religion is a strictly human thing or if Aliens (provided they exist) could have religion too.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: LTK on 13 Oct 2014, 16:13
Welp, we've got another one: Cold fusion of nickel and hydrogen appears to have been achieved. (http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/191754-cold-fusion-reactor-verified-by-third-party-researchers-seems-to-have-1-million-times-the-energy-density-of-gasoline) Think this'll be the one?
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: cesium133 on 13 Oct 2014, 16:15
Quote
Think this'll be the one?

(click to show/hide)
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: mustang6172 on 13 Oct 2014, 19:25
I've read about Andrea Rossi and his inventions in Popular Mechanics about a year or two ago.  His previous legal troubles paint the image of a con artist.

It's hard to deny that the E-Cat produces energy, but a nuclear reaction would produce gamma rays.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: GarandMarine on 14 Oct 2014, 21:09

The new NASA space craft will be launching this December for it's unmanned test flight.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: J on 15 Oct 2014, 04:20
Quote from: Send Your Name on NASA’s Journey to Mars, Starting with Orion’s First Flight (http://www.nasa.gov/press/2014/october/send-your-name-on-nasa-s-journey-to-mars-starting-with-orion-s-first-flight)
(http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/styles/673xvariable_height/public/14-275_0.jpg?itok=C1Gx-pzn)

If only your name could collect frequent flyer miles. NASA is inviting the public to send their names on a microchip to destinations beyond low-Earth orbit, including Mars.

Your name will begin its journey on a dime-sized microchip when the agency’s Orion spacecraft launches Dec. 4 on its first flight, designated Exploration Flight Test-1. After a 4.5 hour, two-orbit mission around Earth to test Orion’s systems, the spacecraft will travel back through the atmosphere at speeds approaching 20,000 mph and temperatures near 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit, before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean.

But the journey for your name doesn’t end there. After returning to Earth, the names will fly on future NASA exploration flights and missions to Mars. With each flight, selected individuals will accrue more miles as members of a global space-faring society.

"NASA is pushing the boundaries of exploration and working hard to send people to Mars in the future,” said Mark Geyer, Orion Program manager. "When we set foot on the Red Planet, we’ll be exploring for all of humanity. Flying these names will enable people to be part of our journey."

The deadline for receiving a personal “boarding pass” on Orion’s test flight closes Friday Oct. 31. The public will have an opportunity to keep submitting names beyond Oct. 31 to be included on future test flights and future NASA missions to Mars.

To submit your name to fly on Orion’s flight test, visit:

http://go.usa.gov/vcpz

Join the conversation on social media using the hashtag #JourneyToMars.

For information about Orion and its first flight, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/orion

-end-

so, anyone interested?
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: LTK on 15 Oct 2014, 10:21
Quote
Think this'll be the one?

(click to show/hide)

How about this one? (http://arstechnica.com/science/2014/10/lockheed-martin-claims-technological-breakthrough-in-compact-fusion/)
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: cesium133 on 15 Oct 2014, 10:27
Quote
Think this'll be the one?

(click to show/hide)

How about this one? (http://arstechnica.com/science/2014/10/lockheed-martin-claims-technological-breakthrough-in-compact-fusion/)
Also no.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: J on 17 Oct 2014, 06:14
:(

Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: GarandMarine on 17 Oct 2014, 07:39
Quote
Think this'll be the one?

(click to show/hide)

How about this one? (http://arstechnica.com/science/2014/10/lockheed-martin-claims-technological-breakthrough-in-compact-fusion/)
Also no.

Lockheed Martin mocks your pessimism from their money throne.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: cesium133 on 17 Oct 2014, 08:13
Quote
Think this'll be the one?

(click to show/hide)

How about this one? (http://arstechnica.com/science/2014/10/lockheed-martin-claims-technological-breakthrough-in-compact-fusion/)
Also no.

Lockheed Martin mocks your pessimism from their money throne.
Many have claimed to be able to do fusion economically, and they've all been bullshit. I'll believe it when I see it.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: J on 17 Oct 2014, 18:26
well, first they need to research superconductors & pre-sentient algorithms.

it'd be nice to get that movement bonus & attack multiplier for all units though.

i hope they go for adv. ecological engineering afterwards, rather than organic superlubricants; we really need those super-formers, to help mitigate our low planet rating. buut then again, superlubricants does lead directly to adv. space flight, which leads to super tensile solids, & it'd be pretty cool if they could build the space elevator.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: cesium133 on 17 Oct 2014, 18:56
well, first they need to research superconductors & pre-sentient algorithms.

it'd be nice to get that movement bonus & attack multiplier for all units though.

i hope they go for adv. ecological engineering afterwards, rather than organic superlubricants; we really need those super-formers, to help mitigate our low planet rating. buut then again, superlubricants does lead directly to adv. space flight, which leads to super tensile solids, & it'd be pretty cool if they could build the space elevator.
WIN.

I was just playing a game of Alien Crossfire on the plane last weekend. I played as the Pirates and kicked ass. I may decide to go up a difficulty level on the next game.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: GarandMarine on 28 Oct 2014, 17:18
(https://scontent-b-ord.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xap1/t31.0-8/1911280_10152833914183606_1632201351477978418_o.jpg)

An Antares rocket with 5000 lbs of supplies for the ISS exploded just after lift off at Virginia's Wallops Island launch facility. Significant vehicle and property damage are reported, all personnel are accounted for with no injuries.

http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Unmanned-Rocket-Explodes-at-Wallops-Island-280708322.html
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: mustang6172 on 28 Oct 2014, 19:07
Well now that's not supposed to happen!
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: SubaruStephen on 28 Oct 2014, 19:39
No injuries. At least there's a plus side to this. I hope Space-X has a spare rocket to get another payload up there quickly.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: cesium133 on 28 Oct 2014, 21:36
Uh oh.
*presses Esc*
*clicks "Revert to VAB"*
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: GarandMarine on 28 Oct 2014, 21:42
The real issue is apparently the launch facilities at Wallops Island are pretty heavily damaged. So that's gonna be an issue. Getting the payload back together's gonna take a hot second too.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: SubaruStephen on 29 Oct 2014, 16:48
I just learned the the rocket as using a 40 year old Soviet built engine. No wonder it went boom.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Case on 29 Oct 2014, 17:09
If you've thought that Watch Dogs' (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watch_Dogs) ctOS, and it's ability to identify and steer meme dispersion via social networks (e.g. to spin newsstories and influence elections etc.) is pure science fiction, think again:

Media furor confronts NSF-funded study of social-media dynamics
 (http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/magazine/physicstoday/news/10.1063/PT.5.8075?utm_medium=email&utm_source=Physics+Today&utm_campaign=4881967_Physics+Today%3a+The+week+in+Physics+20-24+October&dm_i=1Y69,2WMY7,E1OB19,AIANM,1)Experimental evidence of massive-scale emotional contagion through social networks.  (http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/magazine/physicstoday/news/the-dayside/why-facebook-should-hire-astronomers-a-dayside-post?utm_medium=email&utm_source=Physics+Today&utm_campaign=4881967_Physics+Today%3a+The+week+in+Physics+20-24+October&dm_i=1Y69,2WMY7,E1OB19,AIANM,1)

Notably, amongst the first ones to worry about an AI-Big Brother (charmingly dubbed 'Truthy') are not Queda bloggers, but rather conservative news-sites, because "Feds creating a database to track hatespeech on twitter" (http://freebeacon.com/issues/feds-creating-database-to-track-hate-speech-on-twitter/) is a bad thing indeed when you're a publication "dedicated to uncovering the stories that the powers that be hope will never see the light of day”.

Well, and Fox-News, of course: ;)
Quote
In the 22 October Washington Times opinion piece “The feds’ ‘truthy’ new chill on free speech,” Fox News analyst Andrew P. Napolitano, a former judge of the Superior Court of New Jersey, charged that “when the feds get into the business of monitoring speech . . . it is a nightmare. [Truthy] is part of the Obama administration’s persistent efforts to monitor communication and scrutinize the expressions of opinions it hates and fears.
It seems that nobody told them that 'truthy' actually doesn't have a database ...

(If I hadn't grabbed the links straight from 'Physics Today', I would wonder wether the Onion made this up to fuck with 'truthers' ... ;))
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: ReindeerFlotilla on 29 Oct 2014, 17:18
What just happened?
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: GarandMarine on 31 Oct 2014, 18:31
Not the best week for Space Flight.

SpaceShip Two broke up in flight today. Pilots ejected. One fatality, one in serious condition. Thoughts and prayers for those who were lost and those who remain.

"If we die we want people to accept it. We are in a risky business, and we hope that if anything happens to us, it will not delay the program. The conquest of space is worth the risk of life. Our God-given curiosity will force us to go there ourselves because in the final analysis, only man can fully evaluate (the moon) in terms understandable to other men."
- Gus Grissom, Gemini/Apollo Astronaut. Killed in a pad fire aboard Apollo 1.

http://www.theverge.com/2014/10/31/7139527/virgin-galactics-spaceshiptwo-suffers-anomaly-in-flight
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: ev4n on 03 Nov 2014, 10:14
Someone posted a sarcastic facebook comment this weekend, something about "is someone who has been to space really a hero?"

I felt like this week of all weeks was the wrong time to ask that question.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Akima on 03 Nov 2014, 17:56
This week has proved just why rocket-science is a byword for something difficult. Unlike many things, rocket-science is rocket-science.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Pilchard123 on 04 Nov 2014, 00:13
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Metope on 04 Nov 2014, 01:06
Also yes, I'd say people who go to space are heroes. The amount of research they've done that has ended up doing great things for humankind is vast, and everyone who goes there goes for a purpose. Getting to space is an enormous feat. Even for people who think space tourism is a new silly thing for rich kids, the fact that someone are actually creating a space program so people who aren't working with it can travel to space too is a great step in the right direction, we have to remember that regular flights was a luxury saved for the richest once too. It's called progress, and someone just died making progress for everyone. So yeah, that comment is disrespectful and ignorant at best.

Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: J on 10 Nov 2014, 01:38
if this doesn't make somebody smile, i don't want to be their friend:

Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: J on 12 Nov 2014, 09:26
SUCCESS!

Harpoons didn't fire, but its there



"The solar system is mankind's. This mission is the first step to take it. It's ours." Jim Green, NASA
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: hedgie on 14 Nov 2014, 13:35
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-30050349

C'mon, Philae, yours is the drill that will pierce the comet!
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Pilchard123 on 14 Nov 2014, 14:35
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-V1oD1h6hvk
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: mustang6172 on 15 Nov 2014, 21:16
Strong winds are coming from your Uranus.  :claireface:

http://news.yahoo.com/extreme-storms-uranus-puzzle-astronomers-125045482.html
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: LTK on 16 Nov 2014, 04:36
This is cool: Pavlovian conditioning using smells can affect people's smoking habits. (http://www.neuroscientistnews.com/clinical-updates/behavioral-changes-seen-after-sleep-learning)
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: LeeC on 18 Nov 2014, 14:55
Comet landing: Organic molecules detected
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-30097648 (http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-30097648)
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: LTK on 23 Nov 2014, 15:35
The science of why we don't believe in science (https://medium.com/mother-jones/the-science-of-why-we-dont-believe-science-adfa0d026a7e), a great article that provides a summary and explanation of a lot of relevant research into people's beliefs and convictions, and the reasons why they are so hard to change.

One result that's especially surprising - and worrying - to me is the effect that education has on the strength of one's beliefs. Being a Republican or a Democrat is a strong predictor of whether one accepts the science on climate change, but college-educated Republicans and Democrats are more likely to deny or accept the science, respectively, than their non-college-educated counterparts. Having a higher education just makes you stronger in your own beliefs.

Apparently I've been wrong, not Everybody Loves Science. Maybe I should rename the thread Everybody Loves Confirmation Bias.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: mustang6172 on 23 Nov 2014, 18:38
Being a Republican or a Democrat is a strong predictor of whether one accepts the science on climate change,

That doesn't sound like much of a predictor.

Quote from: Article
The disciples even went so far as to remove brassieres and rip zippers out of their trousers—the metal, they believed, would pose a danger on the spacecraft.

Strange.  Why not switch to button fly?
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: LTK on 24 Nov 2014, 03:51
Being a Republican or a Democrat is a strong predictor of whether one accepts the science on climate change,

That doesn't sound like much of a predictor.
What do you mean by that?
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: mustang6172 on 24 Nov 2014, 20:01
What if political party doesn't predict a stance on climate change; rather, a stance on climate change predicts someone's political party?

(http://www.science20.com/files/images/chicken-egg1.jpg)
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: explicit on 24 Nov 2014, 20:27
I know plenty of my friends are conservative and agree with climate change. Though, they technically are registered as independant...
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: mustang6172 on 25 Nov 2014, 20:45
The internet hath provided us with another article on why people don't believe in climate change.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/heres-why-people-dont-believe-225156991.html

I was very amused at the line "I hunt a lot, and last winter I froze my butt off."  The United States, the one country not sold on climate change, had a colder than normal year, whereas everywhere else on the planet saw above average temperatures.  You're doing a heck of a job there, Irony.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: explicit on 25 Nov 2014, 21:08
IT SNOWED, THEREFORE GLOBAL WARMING IS FAKE. I roll my eyes so hard that I also roll my head, it's a whole thing.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: GarandMarine on 25 Nov 2014, 23:59
I find it's all phrasing. Lots of people are sold on climate change, less people are sold on global warming, fewer still are sold that it's something we need to panic about.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Masterpiece on 26 Nov 2014, 00:38
The correct word to use is "global climate destabilization"
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: explicit on 26 Nov 2014, 00:42
Wording of the question causes people have differing opinions, too. Just like asking "Do you approve of the job Barack Obama is doing?" versus "Do you approve of the job Barack Hussien Obama is doing?

A lot of people believe in climate change (that it's getting worse), but that we have an insignificant factor in causing in. Which I always found odd because we knew that were causing the destruction of the Ozone with cfc's and we know CO2, CO and the like can trap heat and that we give off a significant amount - much more than the earth would produce naturally, while somehow not believing we're causing it.

If people do think there's a problem, it usually goes to overpopulation, which in the "taxing our resources" department isn't that big of deal considering the developed world is at replacement level reproduction and the places that are makin' lots o' babies use about 5% of the resources as the average American. AGGHH I have a lot more I want to put down than just those 2 short snippets, but it'll get boring real fast...



New post! Ahem. I like that phrase a lot Master, I usually go with global weirding, but it sounds silly and most people probably don't get it anyway. I think I'll use your phrase.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Masterpiece on 26 Nov 2014, 01:30
Please don't call me Master, if you're gonna shorten my name, use "MP", but I don't feel very comfortable being called Master.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: J on 26 Nov 2014, 01:55
you could go by Missy
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: explicit on 26 Nov 2014, 02:03
Please don't call me Master, if you're gonna shorten my name, use "MP", but I don't feel very comfortable being called Master.

So if I call you Master Piece instead of MasterPiece would I still be very very wrong? I don't know why I think I'm funny sometimes... that jokes was lame... I'm sorry.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Masterpiece on 26 Nov 2014, 05:28
If you want to go and spare me that trouble, I would be very glad indeed.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: ev4n on 26 Nov 2014, 05:34
Being a Republican or a Democrat is a strong predictor of whether one accepts the science on climate change,

That doesn't sound like much of a predictor.
What do you mean by that?

If I ever voted Democrat or Republican they'd throw me in jail.

It's too bad they tried to do some science but limited themselves to one narrow political culture.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: explicit on 26 Nov 2014, 05:48
Both parties just use "science" to push for any agenda they already believed in anyway. Science is about finding truths, something that neither political party really cares about.

Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: LeeC on 11 Dec 2014, 12:38
Welcome to the Anthropocene (unofficially)
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: GarandMarine on 31 Dec 2014, 01:22
Mars confirmed for water.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: LTK on 11 Feb 2015, 06:00
A 2012 study (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3306667/) showed that higher social class individuals show more unethical behaviour (lying, stealing, cheating) than lower class individuals. Now a follow-up study (http://psycnet.apa.org/?&fa=main.doiLanding&doi=10.1037/pspi0000008) has been published that indicates it's not unethical behaviour itself that differs, but selfish unethical behaviour: the high and low class were cheating equally, but the low class cheated more to benefit someone else while the high class cheated to benefit themselves.

Getting people to lie in a lab setting is really tricky, though. You always have to have a way to check whether someone lies or tells the truth, and if someone knows you can check, they're less likely to lie. You can't tell people "oh you know, if you want to lie that's okay" cause that tells them the experiment is about lying, which is gonna affect their answers. They seem to have it worked out in these experiments, usually it's a case of reporting what a computer said to the experimenter.

Ars Technica article (http://arstechnica.com/science/2015/02/the-powerful-cheat-for-themselves-the-powerless-cheat-for-others/)
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: downtowneddie on 17 Feb 2015, 08:45
I'm watching live, on NASA TV, the docking of a Russian Progress cargo ship to the International Space Station and it amazes me how engineers have figured out orbital mechanics so precisely that a rocket can be launched from the ground, catch up with a moving target (going 17,500 mph, mind you!) some 250 miles up, do a little orbital ballet, and then dock.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: LTK on 17 Feb 2015, 09:34
It's only rocket science. You can do that yourself on your very own computer (https://kerbalspaceprogram.com/)!
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: mustang6172 on 17 Feb 2015, 18:43
I'm watching live, on NASA TV, the docking of a Russian Progress cargo ship to the International Space Station and it amazes me how engineers have figured out orbital mechanics so precisely that a rocket can be launched from the ground, catch up with a moving target (going 17,500 mph, mind you!) some 250 miles up, do a little orbital ballet, and then dock.

What's more amazing is that they figured this out 50 years ago.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Carl-E on 22 Feb 2015, 13:53
With slide rules...
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Pilchard123 on 22 Feb 2015, 15:18
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THNPmhBl-8I
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: LeeC on 26 Feb 2015, 10:23
2 luminous spots on the dwarf planet Ceres
(http://media.npr.org/assets/img/2015/02/26/ceres-bright-spots_wide-ced037cc65b31a3520e594e65bc30eb2b37fcb7f-s500-c85.jpg)

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2015/02/26/389245969/nasa-sees-bright-spots-on-dwarf-planet-in-our-solar-system (http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2015/02/26/389245969/nasa-sees-bright-spots-on-dwarf-planet-in-our-solar-system)
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Carl-E on 26 Feb 2015, 15:02
Hurry up and land, already - he's getting tired of holding those two flashlights. 
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Akima on 27 Feb 2015, 14:08
I'm watching live, on NASA TV, the docking of a Russian Progress cargo ship
Progress (well, the whole Soyuz family really) is the DC-3 of space.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: mustang6172 on 27 Feb 2015, 21:08
Plans for a nuclear reactor that runs on nuclear waste.

http://news.yahoo.com/nuclear-waste-could-offer-carbon-free-energy-scientists-133004675.html
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: pwhodges on 03 Mar 2015, 09:31
Capturing the dual nature of light (wave/particle) in a single photo. (http://actu.epfl.ch/news/the-first-ever-photograph-of-light-as-both-a-parti/)
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Active Madness on 17 Mar 2015, 03:04
Using Slime Molds to model Roman road networks. (http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2015/03/hungry-slime-molds-reconstruct-ancient-road-networks/)

Apparently, slime molds like oatmeal and can be used to model road networks when you use clusters of oats as a food source.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Masterpiece on 22 Mar 2015, 03:43
(http://33.media.tumblr.com/7160535724c3bd932b6ebbc2ffe7e22a/tumblr_nljmzlCHSj1qb5gkjo8_400.gif)
(http://38.media.tumblr.com/b47072f3972572dda98d531a4cf0a169/tumblr_nljmzlCHSj1qb5gkjo2_400.gif)
(http://33.media.tumblr.com/5fe871c1a766983914225c9072c35d81/tumblr_nljmzlCHSj1qb5gkjo5_400.gif)
(http://38.media.tumblr.com/4f790854202846c7ded652f918ddae1e/tumblr_nljmzlCHSj1qb5gkjo7_400.gif)
(http://31.media.tumblr.com/aafec1aa5fa223f587d232bbfa5f0353/tumblr_nljmzlCHSj1qb5gkjo6_400.gif)
(http://38.media.tumblr.com/950f968e58ae4c07ede2a989ce390603/tumblr_nljmzlCHSj1qb5gkjo3_400.gif)
(http://38.media.tumblr.com/1063f2692325cae24e210a24827d90e3/tumblr_nljmzlCHSj1qb5gkjo4_400.gif)
(http://38.media.tumblr.com/2d0c5528531512c9ef9b183c831d6878/tumblr_nljmzlCHSj1qb5gkjo1_400.gif)
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Pilchard123 on 22 Mar 2015, 06:28
Sauce?
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Masterpiece on 22 Mar 2015, 07:30
Something I only found in IRaffIRuse, couldn't find a source.

edit: Nevermind, looks like this one here:
Enchroma.com (http://enchroma.com/)
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: LTK on 22 Mar 2015, 07:39
There's at least five things wrong with the claims made there, but then again, a video converted to a series of GIFs is pretty low on the scale of trustworthy sources. There's a NYTimes.com article (http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/08/15/glasses-that-solve-colorblindness-for-a-big-price-tag/) article about those things as well, but it's from 2013. I also recall watching a video where a colorblind person tried those glasses with a critical eye, and he said that they won't cure colorblindness (obviously) but instead they amplify the vividness of colors that you perceive weakly, so the difference between normal vision and colorblind vision is mitigated somewhat. But if you truly have no receptors for specific colors, there's nothing that any kind of glasses can do for you. Sadly, I haven't been able to find the video in question, but I'll keep an eye out.

Edit for Masterpiece's edit: turns out the glasses in the article are also from Enchroma, so that puts it into perspective.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: LeeC on 27 Apr 2015, 17:29
NASA accidentalys a warp field?  :?

http://sputniknews.com/us/20150425/1021360503.html#ixzz3YWZ8s9dE (http://sputniknews.com/us/20150425/1021360503.html#ixzz3YWZ8s9dE)
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: mustang6172 on 27 Apr 2015, 19:06
That all sounds rather sensationalized.  Remember about 3 1/2 years ago when CERN thought they broke the light barrier and it turned out to be an instrument failure?
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: cesium133 on 27 Apr 2015, 19:09
Didn't anyone ever tell you you should always make sure your optics are clean fiber couplers are tightened.  :roll:
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: ankhtahr on 27 Apr 2015, 19:16
Yeah, I read about the emDrive about a year ago already. Don't exactly know why everybody is yelling about it currently. Anyway, yeah, I'd be very careful with that. Might easily be something like the Rossi Energy Catalyzer.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: LeeC on 16 Jun 2015, 05:48
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: mustang6172 on 16 Jun 2015, 21:34
I find it somewhat disturbing when someone says "this bad weather proves global warming."  It's too much like "this snowy weather disproves global warming."

I'm somewhat curious if filling dry lake beds with sea water pumped in via aqueducts would slow desertification in the south west, but that's kind of an expensive science project.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: LTK on 19 Jun 2015, 04:08
I find it somewhat disturbing when someone says "this bad weather proves global warming."  It's too much like "this snowy weather disproves global warming."
Boiling down the entire video to "this bad weather proves global warming" is more than a bit disingenuous, methinks.
Quote
I'm somewhat curious if filling dry lake beds with sea water pumped in via aqueducts would slow desertification in the south west, but that's kind of an expensive science project.
Land plants and animals can't live on seawater. So, my guess is no.

Hallucinations by Google's image recognition algorithm. (http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jun/18/google-image-recognition-neural-network-androids-dream-electric-sheep)

Detecting animal features in a painting:
(http://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2015/6/18/1434625863988/6e8d3c57-f283-4f63-94cd-9299a160f80d-620x372.jpeg?w=620&q=85&auto=format&sharp=10&s=05e03d5a79db2dbcf86944ea3882d9dd)

Detecting building features in random noise:
(http://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2015/6/18/1434625573255/c5fe2bba-8035-4174-98da-ff896075b8c5-1020x680.jpeg?w=860&q=85&auto=format&sharp=10&s=11280f634bceae6c1b93a3288c4bdc31)

Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: The Seldom Killer on 19 Jun 2015, 04:15
I'm somewhat curious if filling dry lake beds with sea water pumped in via aqueducts would slow desertification in the south west, but that's kind of an expensive science project.
Land plants and animals can't live on seawater. So, my guess is no.

Your guess would be wrong.

It's feasible by creating a system of artificial salt marshes. You'd need to be a lot of other things at the same time but yeah, completely doable from a simplistic perspective. The big risk is that geo-engineering can throw up unexpected results.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Active Madness on 19 Jun 2015, 05:18
Holy salinification, batman!
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: mustang6172 on 10 Sep 2015, 18:56
http://news.yahoo.com/fossil-first-ancient-human-relative-may-buried-dead-105613147.html

New hominid was discovered.  That allows me to post this gem.

Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: cesium133 on 24 Sep 2015, 12:57
Do you wanna see a Pluto?
(warning: very large image)
http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/crop_p_color2_enhanced_release.png
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: mustang6172 on 20 Jan 2016, 18:31
The hunt is back on for Planet X.  Seems like it should be called Planet IX now.  :claireface:

https://www.yahoo.com/tech/planet-nine-evidence-grows-for-1347529463955510.html

Not a valid vimeo URL
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: mustang6172 on 11 Feb 2016, 18:21
Gravitaional waves: (https://news.yahoo.com/einsteins-gravitational-waves-detected-scientific-milestone-153535473.html#)  they exist!
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: SubaruStephen on 11 Feb 2016, 21:06
(http://www.ragingpencils.com/misc/2013/einstein-told-ya.jpg)
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: pwhodges on 18 Feb 2016, 10:38
Long-term data storage (http://futurism.com/memory-that-lasts-forever-new-quartz-coin-can-store-360tb-of-data-for-14-billion-years/)
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: mustang6172 on 18 Feb 2016, 19:14
Next year comes a smaller version that holds twice the data.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Akima on 12 Mar 2016, 01:06
(http://sirarthurevans.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/images/high/4_4_Image1.jpg)
This is a sample of Linear A. It has survived for thousands of years. Nobody can read it.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: pwhodges on 12 Mar 2016, 02:04
See?  It's not just digital storage that has problems in that regard!

When the recording of Nelson Mandela's speech to the court after he was jailed were found, the only remaining machine that could play it was already in the Science Museum in London.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Akima on 12 Mar 2016, 03:43
Exactly my point. An everlasting recording medium is not useful without a similarly long-lived ability to read it. Which is not just a matter of hardware, but software, including that running in human brains. All of that assumes the sort of cultural continuity that allows Oracle Bone Script (the oldest examples dating back to about 1400BCE) to be read where Linear A cannot.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: mustang6172 on 12 Mar 2016, 18:18
Will anyone decipher this gobbledygook?

(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-VtmVwZqjq5Q/Th7BYIkwUBI/AAAAAAAAIX4/CgLF31e9pQc/s1600/Voyager+Golden+Record.jpg)
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: SubaruStephen on 16 Mar 2016, 16:08
I hope not, that one on the left has our address.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: J on 30 Mar 2016, 14:25
well, by the time anyone finds it we'll have probably moved somewhere bigger. it's the next tenant's problem.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: mustang6172 on 19 Apr 2016, 18:00
I've always wondered what would happen if it were discovered by aliens that live at a very different atmospheric pressure than our own.  Would they realize how much that changes the sound quality?

Sarah Palin says we should listen to her because she's as much of a scientist as Bill Nye.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2016/04/18/fact-check-sarah-palin-scientist-bill-nye/83206808/?utm_source=feedblitz&utm_medium=FeedBlitzRss&utm_campaign=usatoday-newstopstories

I remember my sixth grade science teacher telling us that anyone, whom employs the scientific method, can rightly be called a scientist.  It is unclear if Sarah Palin has ever used the scientific method.  8-)
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: LTK on 29 Apr 2016, 16:05
It's crazy enough how drastic the effect of the gut microbiome is on the human body (and mind!) and now they're saying that even having intestinal worms could protect you from disease (http://arstechnica.com/science/2016/04/intestinal-worms-may-be-our-frenemies-they-cultivate-bacteria-to-block-diseases/)!
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: cesium133 on 29 Apr 2016, 16:12
What do you think makes the special sauce so special?
(http://images5.fanpop.com/image/quiz/918000/918505_1345752440962_400_300.jpg)
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: pwhodges on 14 May 2016, 16:05
Ah to be young again!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-trending-36259047 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-trending-36259047)

Alternatively:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-trending-36276864 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-trending-36276864)
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: LTK on 07 Jun 2016, 06:10
Electric eels seen leaping out of water to attack land predators (https://www.newscientist.com/article/2092541-electric-eels-seen-leaping-out-of-water-to-attack-land-predators/)

I still have a hard time believing that electric eels are real and didn't come straight out of Pokémon.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: LTK on 08 Nov 2016, 15:31
A theoretical physicist from the University of Amsterdam published a paper that presents evidence that dark matter may in fact not exist, and that the discrepancy in gravitational force can be explained by an additional force called dark gravity. I actually haven't got a clue how, the abstract alone is almost completely indistiguishable from sci-fi technobabble. I'll paste it so you can share in the experience of having something fly so far over your head that it classifies as an astronomical event. It all sounds really cool though!

Quote
Recent theoretical progress indicates that spacetime and gravity emerge
together from the entanglement structure of an underlying microscopic theory.
These ideas are best understood in Anti-de Sitter space, where they rely on the
area law for entanglement entropy. The extension to de Sitter space requires
taking into account the entropy and temperature associated with the cosmological
horizon. Using insights from string theory, black hole physics and quantum
information theory we argue that the positive dark energy leads to a thermal
volume law contribution to the entropy that overtakes the area law precisely at
the cosmological horizon. Due to the competition between area and volume law
entanglement the microscopic de Sitter states do not thermalise at sub-Hubble
scales: they exhibit memory effects in the form of an entropy displacement caused
by matter. The emergent laws of gravity contain an additional ‘dark’ gravitational
force describing the ‘elastic’ response due to the entropy displacement. We
derive an estimate of the strength of this extra force in terms of the baryonic
mass, Newton’s constant and the Hubble acceleration scale a0 = cH0, and provide
evidence for the fact that this additional ‘dark gravity force’ explains the
observed phenomena in galaxies and clusters currently attributed to dark matter.

Here's the paper. (https://arxiv.org/pdf/1611.02269.pdf)
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: ChaoSera on 15 Nov 2016, 02:00
Randall Munroe has this to say about that topic:
(http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/astrophysics.png)
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Case on 21 May 2017, 08:30
"When scientists saw the mouse heads glowing, they knew the discovery was big" (https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/when-scientists-saw-the-mouse-heads-glowing-they-knew-the-discovery-was-big/2017/05/19/f33cc574-246a-11e7-a1b3-faff0034e2de_story.html?utm_term=.116111049a4f)

Quote
Kari Alitalo had studied lymphatic vessels for more than two decades. So he knew that this network, which carries immune cells throughout the body and removes waste and toxins, didn’t extend into the brain: This had been accepted wisdom for more than 300 years. “Nobody questioned that it stopped at the brain,” says Alitalo, a scientist at the University of Helsinki in Finland.

Turns out the brain has two lymphatic networks ...  :-o

Quote
This was surprising, to say the least: In the 21st century, major findings involving basic human anatomy are rare. “These days, you don’t make discoveries like this,” Alitalo says. “But every once in a while in science, you stumble on something really unexpected. You open a new door, to a whole new world.”

And it may help a lot of people:
Quote
The discovery is much more than a historical footnote. It has major implications for a wide variety of brain diseases, including Alzheimer’s, multiple sclerosis, stroke and traumatic brain injury.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: LeeC on 24 May 2017, 11:20

 :psyduck:
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Case on 01 Jun 2017, 13:55
"You Look Familiar. Now Scientists Know Why." (https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/01/science/facial-recognition-brain-neurons.html?mtrref=www.nytimes.com&mtrref=www.nytimes.com&gwh=30695D7CB7F8BA69D8B34024C7AEE3C0&gwt=pay)

Quote
The brain has an amazing capacity for recognizing faces. It can identify a face in a few thousandths of a second, form a first impression of its owner and retain the memory for decades. Central to these abilities is a longstanding puzzle: how the image of a face is encoded by the brain. Two Caltech biologists, Le Chang and Doris Y. Tsao, reported in Thursday’s issue of Cell that they have deciphered the code of how faces are recognized.

Quote
Advances in machine learning have been made by training a computerized mimic of a neural network on a given task. Though the networks are successful, they are also a black box because it is hard to reconstruct how they achieve their result.

“This has given neuroscience a sense of pessimism that the brain is similarly a black box,” she said. “Our paper provides a counterexample. We’re recording from neurons at the highest stage of the visual system and can see that there’s no black box. My bet is that that will be true throughout the brain.”
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: LTK on 22 Aug 2017, 12:57
To answer the question of why there are so many heavy elements in the universe, astrophysicists have proposed an interesting scenario: what if a black hole collided with a neutron star? (https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/08/hypothetical-black-holes-could-be-eating-neutron-stars/)

They say the neutron star won't simply be absorbed in one big gulp, because black holes can only consume matter bit by bit. So what'll happen is that the black hole will actually end up inside the neutron star, wearing it like a shell while devouring it from within. A side effect of this is that the neutron star shell - which already tend to rotate thousand of times per second - will accelerate its rotation, eventually spinning so fast that the surface on its equator will break apart and the material gets flung into space, eventually forming conventional matter by gathering protons and electrons.

So to clarify, a black hole - the gravitational pull of which is literally impossible to escape - collided with a neutron star - which is merely pratically impossible to escape from - results in an object with enough energy to launch matter out of both its gravitational wells!

Fucking metal.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: LeeC on 29 Nov 2017, 08:01
The Yeti, or abominable Snowman (which is itself a mistranslation of "that thing there") may have been figured out.  After hundreds of reports of yeti sightings, footprints, and remains found, the mystery appears to have been solved.  After extensive mDNA testing it appears the Yeti is the Himalayan brown bear and the the Himalayan black bear and in some cases a hybrid of both.  The bear species are critically endangered and can be rare to find.

http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/11/so-much-abominable-snowman-study-finds-yeti-dna-belongs-bears (http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/11/so-much-abominable-snowman-study-finds-yeti-dna-belongs-bears)

http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/28/health/yeti-scientific-proof-study/index.html (http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/28/health/yeti-scientific-proof-study/index.html)
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: LTK on 22 Jan 2018, 15:20
The Myopia Boom (Nature, 2015) (https://www.nature.com/news/the-myopia-boom-1.17120). The prevalence of myopia has skyrocketed in China, and it's hypothesised that this increase is because children who spend all their time indoors receive too little light for their eyes to develop properly. While children's eyes are developing, they should be spending significant time in illumination of at least 10,000 lux, which is the brightness of an overcast day. Not coincidentally, this is also the strength of illumination used to treat Seasonal Affective Disorder. Light can be pretty essential for good health.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Akima on 22 Jan 2018, 17:07
Yes, this is a thing. Chinese school-children typically have a "nap-time" at lunch, rather than going out to play in the playground. Various reasons/excuses have been offered for this (the terrible air-pollution in most Chinese cities, for example), but I suspect that it is simply easier for the teachers.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: pwhodges on 23 Jan 2018, 00:57
In parts of my childhood I had an enforced post-lunch "rest".  That that didn't prevent me having ample time outside as well.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Case on 10 Feb 2018, 10:54
"Shared molecular neuropathology across major psychiatric disorders parallels polygenic overlap" (http://science.sciencemag.org/content/359/6376/693)

Quote
Genes overlap across psychiatric disease

Many genome-wide studies have examined genes associated with a range of neuropsychiatric disorders. However, the degree to which the genetic underpinnings of these diseases differ or overlap is unknown. Gandal et al. performed meta-analyses of transcriptomic studies covering five major psychiatric disorders and compared cases and controls to identify coexpressed gene modules. From this, they found that some psychiatric disorders share global gene expression patterns. This overlap in polygenic traits in neuropsychiatric disorders may allow for better diagnosis and treatment.

Would be great if this lead to advancements in the diagnostic process. Everybody with mental health trouble can relate to the feeling of wanting to "finally know what is wrong with me, already!" and wanting to have a diagnosis that is reliable, not another addition to a series of 'horrible words' that people with medical degrees have attached to them over the years (*).
 Counter to what many people may expect prior to a consulting a mental health professional, a diagnosis doesn't have to feel like a condemnation to a life of medically confirmed deviancy and in-validity, but can rather feel like finally getting an answer to questions that has haunted them for long stretches of their lives. The first step of the four-steps method for dealing with OCD is derived from just such a moment of joy: "It's not me! It's (my) OCD" (to a young Case, OCD felt "like watching yourself go crazy, in full possession of all my mental faculties", so I can definitely relate to the feeling of relief: No, you're not crazy, it's just a part of your brain having a hiccup again).

But mental health diagnostic is rarely simple and clear-cut, it is hard to exclude subjective elements, and it requires a lot of experience.

As far as I can see, this may open the promise of giving psychiatrists another powerful tool.



(*) My last therapist could go on for quite a while about her young trainees' tendency of diagnosing a positively stunning number of female clients with Borderline Personality Disorder. In her opinion, such a diagnosis should not be given earlier than after half a year of weekly consultations, and not to clients younger than 25
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Morituri on 10 Feb 2018, 14:46
I don't know what's actually correct.  But to me, Dark Matter and Dark Energy are both profoundly unsatisfying ideas.  These forces, this matter, are completely undetectable EXCEPT for the sole phenomenon which we interpret as evidence for it, and to me that seems like a warning that something is wrong with our thinking.

To me it seems that's more a matter of precisely describing the phenomena we need a theory to explain, than it is like formulating any kind of testable theory. 

And I can't help thinking that the evidence we've got for them is no more evidence than we started with; we observe phenomena that do not match up with our model, and we're handling it by simply adding things that behave sort of but not really like things in  our model, the way the Greeks added epicycles to the orbits of the planets even though, in violation of their own laws of the spheres as they understood them, these epicycles were ill-formed because there was nothing to anchor their centers.

Without any hint as to what's the actual reality, I just can't escape the feeling that these ideas, these things that "don't interact with matter" except by the *only* phenomena we need them to give us explanations for, are things that may be only imagined, the way perfectly sober and serious physicists of an earlier day believed in phlogiston and luminiferous ether.  I think maybe they don't reveal things in our model that we can't otherwise detect; our need to invent them to make our model fit, may reveal that our model is itself flawed.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: LTK on 10 Feb 2018, 15:00
Wow Case, I didn't know you were into neurogenetics. This is pretty heavy stuff, I think I got the gist of it, but I'm not entirely surprised that mental disorders are genetically linked this way. It's pretty well known that mental disorders are strongly comorbid: statistically, having one puts you at much higher risk of having more. Autistic people are more likely to be schizophrenic, people with OCD are more likely to be depressed, you name it. That disregulated activity of many of the same genes are behind all of them makes perfect sense.

Even knowing that didn't make it any easier to treat them, though. As with this result, I'm not sure what powerful tools you envision coming from this. It might open up more avenues for drug development, knowing which genes are involved and what resulting neurochemical imbalances require addressing, but that's just step one in a series of many, many steps towards a workable intervention. Theoretically you could devise a treatment that targets the disregulated genes and modifies their activity, but I don't know whether anything like that even exists, and if it does, it's probably highly invasive.

I'd still call it a very promising result and a win for science, but not a reason to throw a parade just yet.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Case on 10 Feb 2018, 16:48
Wow Case, I didn't know you were into neurogenetics.

Neither did I. Is it dangerous? Does it come off in the wash?  :oops:

(I followed a link from a German-language article in a "science-mag" called Quanta. Linking the popsci-article on an English-speaking board seemed pointless, so I linked the actual paper)

Even knowing that didn't make it any easier to treat them, though. As with this result, I'm not sure what powerful tools you envision coming from this.

They should be very manly and powerful, but not too manly to make me a coffee.

Jokes aside: I thought this might lead (at some point in the future) to procedures, tools ... wackamaguffins that make diagnosis easier and more reliable, by giving additional quantifiable & measurable results. I probably added a good dose of cheerful mal-comprehension to my cheerful ignorance.



P.S.: On top of that, I'm finalizing a paper right now ... seems the lingo ('rich new physics', 'promising avenues' - you know the drill) has started bleeding into my regular blurbing.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: LTK on 11 Feb 2018, 03:18
Quote
Jokes aside: I thought this might lead (at some point in the future) to procedures, tools ... wackamaguffins that make diagnosis easier and more reliable, by giving additional quantifiable & measurable results. I probably added a good dose of cheerful mal-comprehension to my cheerful ignorance.

We can only hope. If I'm not mistaken, the data they gathered to do this research mainly came from cutting up post-mortem brain samples. So a direct diagnosis of disregulated gene expression would be... rather terminal.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: LTK on 05 Mar 2018, 14:37
In what is undoubtedly both the most fascinating and annoying demonstration of everyday fluid physics, my tea always manages to defy gravity and pool onto my desk while I leave the mug to cool. It happened a few times before I figured it out: it leaks out because the tea bag string is acting as a siphon. The string gets wet and sticks to the side of the mug, giving gravity a pull on the tea that lets it dribble out via the path of least resistance. Leaving me with a puddle to clean up. I hate it, but it's so cool!
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: JoeCovenant on 06 Mar 2018, 02:26
In what is undoubtedly both the most fascinating and annoying demonstration of everyday fluid physics, my tea always manages to defy gravity and pool onto my desk while I leave the mug to cool. It happened a few times before I figured it out: it leaks out because the tea bag string is acting as a siphon. The string gets wet and sticks to the side of the mug, giving gravity a pull on the tea that lets it dribble out via the path of least resistance. Leaving me with a puddle to clean up. I hate it, but it's so cool!

I know someone who's house got flooded because of the same thing...

They had a dripping tap, which was fine.
And they went on holiday for two weeks, which was fine.
Except for the fact that they had a towel hanging over the edge of the bath, the end of which was under the dripping tap...

Replacement bathroom floors all round!
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Cornelius on 06 Mar 2018, 05:55
I actually use that to water my office plant while I'm on holiday. A bottle of water, and some string, works a treat.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: LeeC on 19 Apr 2018, 19:20
Jupiter's tidal like effect on the asteroids in the asteroid belt.

(https://i.imgur.com/LXR0Ulq.gif)
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: LTK on 12 May 2018, 12:20
Speaking of:

Jupiter's Great Red Spot could disappear in our lifetime (https://www.space.com/39764-jupiter-great-red-spot-could-disappear.html)
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Morituri on 12 May 2018, 22:01
Sometimes I look around and I think, here we stand on the verge of becoming an interplanetary civilization - with no good reason why we can't go on to be interstellar, or even galactic - and most of us have no idea how lucky we are. 


We got the Theia impactor to give us a huge moon with tidal effects, and Jupiter to keep our area swept reasonably clear of asteroids, at least since the Late Heavy Bombardment.   We got abiogenesis within 700 million years of the crust of the planet cooling, when our g2 yellow dwarf still had five billion years left on the odometer before it definitely will cook the place.   

But we weren't given that five billion years at the outset.  The sun was getting warmer, and would have cooked the place in just two to two-and-a-half billion years if we hadn't reset the clock.

It was a last-minute save that reconfigured the planet.  We breathed out oxygen which broke down the powerful greenhouse gas methane.  If we hadn't, the warming sun would have cooked the place.  But we did, so we got the Huronian Glaciation instead.  Volcanos finally broke us out of that with CO2 greenhouse effects, meanwhile destroying the atmospheric oxygen.  The albedo rose as the ice melted, and the planet would have cooked with the runaway feedback loop, except we started breathing again and took the CO2 out of the atmosphere. 

So .... we'd have cooked except that we breathed out enough poison to destroy our warming effect plunging us into eternal winter.  And we'd have frozen, except that volcanos restored a weaker kind of warming effect while removing the poison.  And we'd have cooked again, except that we destroyed the weaker kind of warming effect while restoring the poison.  And we'd have died of poisoning except that in the nick of time we got saved by the coincidental appearance of a completely unprecedented kind of freak that actually breathed the poison.  And the new version of the planet had another few billion years before the warming sun will cook it, and the new oxygen-breathing life could get more energy from what was otherwise the same food.

That was all sheer luck.  There is no reason why the timing of these things had to line up as perfectly as it did.

Now, as a side benefit, Oxygen in the upper atmosphere gave us ozone.  That shielded the land from ultraviolet, and made it possible to survive outside the water.  Which, admittedly, wasn't very important at the time, but it mattered later.

Next on the list of bizarre inexplicable strokes of luck, you have eukaryotes.  Life up to that point had been prokaryotes.  Prokaryotes are small and simple.  Eukaryotes are incredibly complicated by comparison.  They are huge cells thousands of times larger than a prokaryote, with hundreds of different organelles having specialized functions, nuclei containing DNA and specialized machinery for keeping the DNA checked and repaired, cell walls that form vacuoles, and a million other structures that prokaryotes had no precedent for.  And most of them make no sense without most of the others already in place.  But, bam, half a billion years after the Oxygen Crisis, there we are.  With about 2.8 billion years left on the clock. 

2.8 billion years is a pretty aggressive schedule for a eukaryote to build a launch vehicle, but here we are just 1.8 billion years later, so we're doing all right.  We'd never have made it if we hadn't found a few more ways to hurry the schedule along though.  And about 600 million years after that, we hit the evolutionary motherlode.  This is the discovery whose anniversary we still celebrate every year with our annual Big Bang party:  The invention of sex.  We got there with about 2.2 billion years left before the clock runs out.

Sex allows macroorganisms to exist and evolve, which is to say plants and animals.  It's really hard for one-celled organisms to develop a space program.  And allowing for a way for macroorganisms to blend and exchange genetic information  is essential for them to evolve.  It allows mutations that took place in separate lineages to both or all appear in a common descendant.  Sex sped up the evolutionary process by dozens of orders of magnitude, at least.  Without it, we'd never have made this launch date.

Now, these aren't the only points where we got lucky.  I could go on for days about stuff that's weird and quirky and bizarre that had to happen for us to survive this long and for us to get this advanced this fast.  Earth is like a hothouse where conditions and blind luck have lined up so perfectly it's utterly crazy! 

And yes, I'm aware of the Anthropic principle; we can't observe all the possible universes that didn't produce us, so we can't know how likely we were.  But, gentle people, I direct your attention outward.  To the great silence, where we have been diligently searching for any evidence of any civilization like us, or only a century or two more advanced than us, and we have not seen it.  All those hundred billion stars in this galaxy that could have produced something like us, as far as we can tell, did not.  All the quadrillion stars in the thousand galaxies close enough for our observations to be meaningful, as far as we can tell, did not.   The Anthropic principle means we can't tell by our own existence anything about the likelihood of the events that created us, but The Great Silence means we can tell that there are a quadrillion stars where those events didn't happen and only one we know about where they did.

And the Anthropic principle cuts both ways.  Time after time, life on Earth has survived.  Disaster after disaster, hasn't happened.  There is no ordered mechanism that keeps our climate stable in the long run; there is only a chaotic process, and chaotic processes sometimes crash.  Ours hasn't crashed in the last three billion years, but we can't know whether that's because it was unlikely or because we were incredibly lucky.  We only think there is an ordered mechanism because we have never seen it crash.  And nothing prevents us from destroying ourselves. Obviously, we wouldn't be here to think about it if we had.  We are not dwellers in a safe universe.  We are Mister Magoo, the blind man who escapes death every twenty seconds and doesn't even realize he was ever in danger. 

It is by sheer luck that we have not, so far, joined the Great Silence.  And symbolic intelligences, like humans, are so far the rarest known survival strategy. We only have about a billion years left on the clock so humans are probably our last shot at this.

Don't blow it now.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: LeeC on 21 May 2018, 18:40
(https://i.imgur.com/mPjgvnS.jpg)
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: LeeC on 07 Dec 2018, 06:52
The Science of Flint's Water Crisis:

Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Morituri on 07 Dec 2018, 20:05
Noam Chomsky on climate change and the US efforts to accelerate it. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdAOgNTxxt0

Chomsky is widely regarded as a way-out-there liberal, but as far as I know he has never made a scientific claim not backed by actual science. 

Science is not a liberal conspiracy.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: dutchrvl on 17 Dec 2018, 09:02
Noam Chomsky on climate change and the US efforts to accelerate it. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdAOgNTxxt0

Chomsky is widely regarded as a way-out-there liberal, but as far as I know he has never made a scientific claim not backed by actual science. 

Science is not a liberal conspiracy.

In many parts of the USA, they will vehemently argue it is....Just like in similar parts, it has come to the point where going to college is almost considered treasonous....(unless it's for business of course)

Bolding is mine.

Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: LeeC on 18 Mar 2019, 09:24
Artificial Intelligence Expert Critiques Sci Fi Movies

Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: LeeC on 10 Apr 2019, 06:38
Picture of a black hole:

(https://i.imgur.com/wJ239C6.jpg)

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-47873592 (https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-47873592)
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: TheEvilDog on 10 Apr 2019, 17:02
Picture of a black hole:

(https://i.imgur.com/wJ239C6.jpg)


My god, the black hole has swallowed the image!
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: LeeC on 25 Sep 2019, 07:16
At first I was like "Ah okay its just doing the shitty robot movements trying to be human, and then it became an Olympic gymnast."  :-o

Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: LeeC on 08 Jan 2020, 06:30
The Radcliffe Wave, a new thing discovered in our galaxy. It sounds pretty cool!

https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2020/01/largest-gaseous-structure-ever-seen-in-our-galaxy-is-discovered/ (https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2020/01/largest-gaseous-structure-ever-seen-in-our-galaxy-is-discovered/)

The yellow spot is our sun, the red dots are the wave

(https://news.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Wave-Use-this-one.jpg?w=1600&h=900&crop=1)
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Case on 01 Mar 2020, 00:26
Cataline Sky Survey team informs the species it is no longer appropriate to refer to the moon:

https://twitter.com/WierzchosKacper/status/1232460436634656769?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Welcome, mini-moon!
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: cybersmurf on 01 Mar 2020, 23:45
Cataline Sky Survey team informs the species it is no longer appropriate to refer to the moon:

https://twitter.com/WierzchosKacper/status/1232460436634656769?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Welcome, mini-moon!

It still is the moon. We just have more than one... for now.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: sitnspin on 02 Mar 2020, 00:09
I would argue that we have another natural satellite. Whether that constitutes a "moon" is a different matter.
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: hedgie on 02 Mar 2020, 07:03
Just because someone has to say it:  "That's no moon".
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: Akima on 18 Mar 2020, 04:43
As long as it isn't a space-station...
Title: Re: Everybody Loves Science!
Post by: TorporChambre on 19 Mar 2020, 19:14
The point is that math is so freaking specialized that, unless you're one of the two or three people in the world working directly on a particular problem, you're going to have a rough time understanding any of it! 
There seems to be hidden in this statement an essence that is true, but the statement is not exact. The true essense is that most Mathematicians
can walk into the library, pull out a mathematical journal, flip to the table of contents, and have absolutely no idea what 95% of it is about!"
But there is a certain quality, a temperament or even lifestyle, or maybe merely a set of principles regarding how one conducts one's intellectual affairs, which is conducive to working well in Mathematics, that has, mainly, to do with how one approaches the Unknown. It is precisely how one approaches the Unknown which is important, for Mathematics is, foremost, an enterprise dealing with the Unknown, in such a way that moves each part of what was the Unknown that it had touched quickly into the Known. (Affirmators abound, of things of the Known.) Some are not so able to send it to the Known, so they send it as near to the Known as they can, whence lesser avanteurs send it nearer to the Known; eventually, it is sufficiently near the Known that nonavanteous intellects may take it whither they need it. Don't worry much about not understanding something, you can always pause to ponder; some fun courses:
(F. Wiliam Lawvere (https://ncatlab.org/nlab/show/William%20Lawvere), Stephen H. Schanuel (https://proofwiki.org/wiki/Schanuel%27s_Conjecture)) Conceptual Mathematics (http://libtips.org/main/F409D02928F7530D42E85A0903491549); (Donald Knuth (https://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/iaq.html)) Concrete Mathematics (http://libtips.org/main/607319CCCDCAE91564F4C7AB633FDD7F);
(Étienne Ghys (http://perso.ens-lyon.fr/ghys/links/)) Dimentions (http://www.dimensions-math.org/Dim_download2_E.htm), Chaos (https://www.chaos-math.org/en/film.html); (Brit Cruise (http://youtube.com/user/ArtOfTheProblem)) Informatics (https://www.khanacademy.org/computing/computer-science/informationtheory), Cryptography (https://www.khanacademy.org/computing/computer-science/cryptography);