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Author Topic: Science Megathread  (Read 88986 times)
Frodo
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« Reply #300 on: December 24, 2019, 01:50:31 PM »
« edited: April 26, 2020, 07:12:02 PM by Grand Mufti of Northern Virginia »

One other factor not mentioned in the article is the absence of any predators large enough to seriously threaten them once they grow to become full behemoths.  The (definite) extinction of the Megalodon (Discovery Channel mocumentaries aside) allowed whales the space to grow as large as their food-sources would allow them to.  Not even the Great White Shark or the Orca have (yet) filled that predator vacuum left by the extinction of that giant shark:

How Whales Got So Large -- And Why They Aren’t Even Bigger
The bigger the whale, the tougher it is to find a decent meal.

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ricardotor
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« Reply #301 on: December 27, 2019, 01:22:45 PM »

Interestingly, NASA appears to be seriously investigating the possibilities of faster than light travel. I guess the big improvement is that they've figured out a way to need less power than previously thought to fuel the thing. Previously, they thought they needed to generate the power put out by Jupiter. which is LOL, no.
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PSOL
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« Reply #302 on: January 08, 2020, 01:45:17 PM »

'Like sending bees to war': the deadly truth behind your almond-milk obsession
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Farmlands
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« Reply #303 on: January 10, 2020, 10:51:55 AM »

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2020/01/chinese-paddlefish-one-of-largest-fish-extinct/

The Holocene Extinction event continues with the Chinese paddlefish, one of the world's largest fish, officially being declared extinct. Extinction rates are predicted to continue rising until about the 2060s. Until it ends, millions of years of natural history and evolution, will be gone just like that.
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dead0man
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« Reply #304 on: January 11, 2020, 07:46:05 AM »

while it's true that people that eat a lot of California almonds, the farmers of them and the politicians that cover for them are all just flat horrible people, the bee dying off issue is overblown.  Commercial bee keepers have had 1/3rd to 1/2 (38.7% avg) of their colonies die off every year since they've started moving them around the country, but the numbers of bees has remained steady.
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Frodo
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« Reply #305 on: January 20, 2020, 03:21:39 AM »
« Edited: January 20, 2020, 03:27:32 AM by Grand Mufti of Northern Virginia »

Apparently those Amazon women warriors mentioned in Homer's Iliad were real after all, and not just a figment of Greek mythology:

Ancient Amazon warrior women discovered in Russia
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Frodo
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« Reply #306 on: January 21, 2020, 11:14:55 PM »

Not only can asteroids cause mass extinctions if they are large enough -they can even change our global climate:

World’s Oldest Known Impact Crater Confirmed in Australia

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A 70-kilometer-wide (43-mile) impact structure in the Australian Outback has been dated to 2.2 billion years old, making it the oldest known asteroid crater on Earth. Fascinatingly, this asteroid likely plunged into a massive ice sheet, triggering a global-scale warming period.

New research published today in Nature Communications confirms the Yarrabubba crater in western Australia as the oldest accepted impact crater on Earth. At an estimated 2.229 billion years old, it’s nearly 210 million years older than the 200-kilometer-wide (120-mile) Vredefort Dome in South Africa and 380 million years older than the 180-kilometer-wide (112-mile) Sudbury impact structure in Ontario, Canada.

The first author of the new study, Timmons Erickson from NASA Johnson Space Center and Curtin University in Australia, along with his colleagues, also presented evidence suggesting the 7-kilometer-wide asteroid that formed the Yarrabubba crater hit a massive ice sheet, sending tremendous amounts of water vapor into the atmosphere and potentially warming the climate around the globe.

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Meclazine for Israel
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« Reply #307 on: January 22, 2020, 05:46:22 AM »
« Edited: January 22, 2020, 05:58:11 AM by Meclazine »

This crater is 'supposedly' next to Meekatharra. I will reserve judgement at this stage.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2020-01-22/wa-crater-yarrabubba-meteorite-impact-worlds-oldest/11881786

It has a real outback country town feel of impoverished despair. It's a gold town.

I worked near their maybe once or twice. When I was shopping in the supermarket on the main street, i was getting groceries for our exploration program, and I grabbed some food and the like, and in particular, I placed an iced coffee and a newpaper in the top of the trolley where small things go.

But before I reached the checkout (cash register), they were stolen.
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Meclazine for Israel
Meclazine
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« Reply #308 on: January 22, 2020, 05:54:49 AM »
« Edited: January 22, 2020, 06:06:36 AM by Meclazine »

Interestingly, NASA appears to be seriously investigating the possibilities of faster than light travel. I guess the big improvement is that they've figured out a way to need less power than previously thought to fuel the thing. Previously, they thought they needed to generate the power put out by Jupiter. which is LOL, no.

You do realise that once you go faster than the speed of light, Einstein predicted that you would travel back in time.

And the reason why it is impossible to travel faster than the speed of light is actually quite simple.

I came up with this idea in theoretical physics in my honours year.

Let's say that in the year 2491, someone manages to travel faster than the speed of light and therefore has the ability to travel back in time. They build their device and throw it in the back of a Delorian for arguments sake.

Well, given the lack of people claiming to be from the year 2491 in 2020 (or any future year for that matter) and the lack of a technologically advanced space ship commensurate with the year 2491, it is therefore proven that you cannot travel back in time.

Apart from one member of Space Force, we have no spacey looking travellers claiming to be from the future. It's clearly not possible in 2020 or in the future.



And further, it follows that you cannot go faster than the speed of light and survive.

Your protons and electrons would disassociate from their respective neutrons, and you would disintegrate into a subatomic mush.

It is much more possible however to travel forward in time given Einsteins theories of relativity.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v32VypWeF0I

In 1987, William "Buck" Rogers was teleported into 2491 where he met the lovely Wilma:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNC8fBSvYOc

I want to go back to the 70's so bad. But I need a time machine to go back 42 years.
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True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)
Ernest
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« Reply #309 on: January 22, 2020, 11:03:53 AM »

Apparently you've never heard of either Niven's law of time travel or of the Temporal Prime Directive, since you naively believe that our lack of knowledge of people travelling back in time is proof it cannot be done.
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Frodo
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« Reply #310 on: February 01, 2020, 05:49:51 PM »
« Edited: February 01, 2020, 05:53:40 PM by Grand Mufti of Northern Virginia »

Skulls from ancient North Americans hint at multiple migration waves

But genetic data tells a very different story.

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The earliest humans in North America were far more diverse than previously realized, according to a new study of human remains found within one of the world's most extensive underwater cave systems.

The remains, discovered in the caverns of the Mexican state of Quintana Roo, represent just four of the earliest North Americans, all of whom lived between 9,000 and 13,000 years ago. They're important because North American remains from the first millennia of human habitation in the Americas are rare, said study leader Mark Hubbe, an anthropologist at The Ohio State University. Fewer than two dozen individuals have been discovered, he added.

What makes the four individuals from Mexico interesting is that none of them are quite alike. One resembles peoples from the Arctic, another has European features and one looks much like early South American skulls, while the last doesn't share features with any one population.

"The differences we see among these Mexican skulls are on the same magnitude as the most different populations [globally] nowadays," Hubbe told Live Science.
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Meclazine for Israel
Meclazine
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« Reply #311 on: February 02, 2020, 10:18:04 AM »

Apparently you've never heard of either Niven's law of time travel or of the Temporal Prime Directive, since you naively believe that our lack of knowledge of people travelling back in time is proof it cannot be done.

My apologies Ernest.

Turns out you were right after all.

https://m.facebook.com/drphilshow/videos/951674141940487
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Frodo
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« Reply #312 on: February 11, 2020, 01:12:57 PM »

Dark Emulator: AI Predicts the Structure of the Universe to Help Solve Mysteries of Dark Matter and Dark Energy

The origin of how the Universe created its voids and filaments can now be studied within seconds after researchers developed an artificial intelligence tool called Dark Emulator.

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Advancements in telescopes have enabled researchers to study the Universe with greater detail, and to establish a standard cosmological model that explains various observational facts simultaneously. But there are many things researchers still do not understand. Remarkably, the majority of the Universe is made up of dark matter and dark energy, of which no one has been able to identify their nature. A promising avenue to solve these mysteries is the structure of the Universe. Today’s Universe is made up of filaments where galaxies cluster together and look like threads from far away, and voids where there appears to be nothing (image 1). The discovery of the cosmic microwave background has given researchers a snapshot of what the Universe looked like close to its beginning, and understanding how its structure evolved to what it is today would reveal valuable characteristics about what dark matter and dark energy is.

A team of researchers, including Kyoto University Yukawa Institute for Theoretical Physics Project Associate Professor Takahiro Nishimichi, and Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (Kavli IPMU) Principal Investigator Masahiro Takada, used the world’s fastest astrophysical simulation supercomputers ATERUI and ATERUI II to develop the Dark Emulator. Using the emulator on data recorded by several of the world’s largest observational surveys allows researchers to study possibilities concerning the origin of cosmic structures, and how dark matter distribution could have changed over time.
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Frodo
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« Reply #313 on: February 14, 2020, 11:34:48 PM »
« Edited: April 26, 2020, 07:09:57 PM by Grand Mufti of Northern Virginia »

From New York University's Abu Dhabi campus:

NYUAD researchers find new method to allow corals to rapidly respond to climate change
Reef-building corals transmit epigenetic adaptations to their offspring that can combat the effects of global warming

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Frodo
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« Reply #314 on: February 22, 2020, 04:43:25 PM »

New study (this one is based on canine teeth) confirms dog domestication during the Pleistocene:

New Study Results Consistent With Dog Domestication During Ice Age

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Frodo
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« Reply #315 on: April 04, 2020, 04:47:01 PM »

A Rainforest Flourished in Antarctica 90 Million Years Ago, Study Suggests
A remarkably well-preserved soil sample leads researchers to believe the frozen continent was once home to a swampy ecosystem.

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Hidden beneath Antarctic ice lies evidence of an ancient swampy rainforest that sprawled far before humans roamed the Earth. Researchers were unaware an ecosystem of this nature ever existed on the frozen continent — that is, until one team got a closer look at the decayed plant matter dug out from under ice and hoisted aboard an expedition ship.

Dating back 83 million to 92 million years, the prehistoric soil is strangely well preserved. “If you were to go to a forest close to your house and dig a hole several feet in the ground, it would look like this sample,” says Johann Klages, a geologist with the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Germany who helped author a recent paper on the findings.

The soil reveals a range of plant life that flourished in what researchers think was a waterlogged and humid ecosystem. Published this week in Nature, the findings suggest that during the hottest period in the last 140 million years, Earth wasn’t just too warm to support ice at the South Pole. Instead, the planet boasted a rainforest similar to those in New Zealand today.
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Frodo
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« Reply #316 on: April 04, 2020, 05:54:32 PM »

Discovery of life in solid rock deep beneath sea may inspire new search for life on Mars

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Newly discovered single-celled creatures living deep beneath the seafloor have given researchers clues about how they might find life on Mars. These bacteria were discovered living in tiny cracks inside volcanic rocks after researchers persisted over a decade of trial-and-error to find a new way to examine the rocks.

Researchers estimate that the rock cracks are home to a community of bacteria as dense as that of the human gut, about 10 billion bacterial cells per cubic centimeter (0.06 cubic inch). In contrast, the average density of bacteria living in mud sediment on the seafloor is estimated to be 100 cells per cubic centimeter.

"I am now almost over-expecting that I can find life on Mars. If not, it must be that life relies on some other process that Mars does not have, like plate tectonics," said Associate Professor Yohey Suzuki from the University of Tokyo, referring to the movement of land masses around Earth most notable for causing earthquakes. Suzuki is first author of the research paper announcing the discovery, published in Communications Biology.
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Frodo
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« Reply #317 on: April 04, 2020, 05:58:43 PM »

From King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia:

Landmark study concludes marine life can be rebuilt by 2050

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An international study recently published in the journal Nature, led by KAUST Professors Carlos Duarte and Susana Agustí, lays out the essential roadmap of actions required for the planet's marine life to recover to full abundance by 2050.

The project brings together the world's leading marine scientists working across four continents, in 10 countries and from 16 universities, including KAUST, Aarhus University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Colorado State University, Boston University, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, Sorbonne Universite, James Cook University, The University of Queensland, Dalhousie University and the University of York.

"We are at a point where we can choose between a legacy of a resilient and vibrant ocean or an irreversibly disrupted ocean," said Carlos Duarte, KAUST professor of marine science and the Tarek Ahmed Juffali research chair in Red Sea ecology.

"Our study documents recovery of marine populations, habitats and ecosystems following past conservation interventions. It provides specific, evidence-based recommendations to scale proven solutions globally," Duarte added.
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Frodo
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« Reply #318 on: April 22, 2020, 10:18:22 PM »

Dr. Albert Einstein was right!

Very Large Telescope sees star dance around supermassive black hole, proves Einstein right



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Observations made with ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT) have revealed for the first time that a star orbiting the supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way moves just as predicted by Einstein's general theory of relativity. Its orbit is shaped like a rosette and not like an ellipse as predicted by Newton's theory of gravity. This long-sought-after result was made possible by increasingly precise measurements over nearly 30 years, which have enabled scientists to unlock the mysteries of the behemoth lurking at the heart of our galaxy.

"Einstein's General Relativity predicts that bound orbits of one object around another are not closed, as in Newtonian Gravity, but precess forwards in the plane of motion. This famous effect—first seen in the orbit of the planet Mercury around the Sun—was the first evidence in favour of General Relativity. One hundred years later we have now detected the same effect in the motion of a star orbiting the compact radio source Sagittarius A* at the centre of the Milky Way. This observational breakthrough strengthens the evidence that Sagittarius A* must be a supermassive black hole of 4 million times the mass of the Sun," says Reinhard Genzel, Director at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE) in Garching, Germany and the architect of the 30-year-long programme that led to this result.
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Frodo
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« Reply #319 on: April 25, 2020, 10:29:59 PM »
« Edited: April 25, 2020, 10:34:39 PM by Grand Mufti of Northern Virginia »

Expect the Northwest Passage (having just opened a decade ago) to become a regularly traveled route as this century progresses:

North Pole soon to be ice free in summer

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The Arctic Ocean in summer will very likely be ice free before 2050, at least temporarily. The efficacy of climate-protection measures will determine how often and for how long. These are the results of a new research study involving 21 research institutes from around the world, coordinated by Dirk Notz from the University of Hamburg, Germany.

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Frodo
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« Reply #320 on: April 26, 2020, 12:30:34 PM »
« Edited: April 26, 2020, 12:35:31 PM by Grand Mufti of Northern Virginia »

Rice genetically engineered to resist heat waves can also produce up to 20% more grain



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As plants convert sunlight into sugar, their cells are playing with fire. Photosynthesis generates chemical byproducts that can damage the light-converting machinery itself—and the hotter the weather, the more likely the process is to run amok as some chemical reactions accelerate and others slow. Now, a team of geneticists has engineered plants so they can better repair heat damage, an advance that could help preserve crop yields as global warming makes heat waves more common. And in a surprise, the change made plants more productive at normal temperatures.

“This is exciting news,” says Maria Ermakova of Australian National University, who works on improving photosynthesis. The genetic modification worked in three kinds of plants—a mustard that is the most common plant model, tobacco, and rice, suggesting any crop plant could be helped. The work bucked conventional wisdom among photosynthesis scientists, and some plant biologists wonder exactly how the added gene produces the benefits. Still, Peter Nixon, a plant biochemist at Imperial College London, predicts the study will “attract considerable attention.”
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Frodo
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« Reply #321 on: April 30, 2020, 06:08:50 PM »

Digging Up Regolith: Why Mining the Moon Seems More Possible Than Ever
For decades, the idea of mining the moon was pure science fiction for most and a wild concept for even the most ardent believers. Now technical advances and rare political support are making it an actual possibility.



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Human beings set foot on the moon 50 years ago, but since then, no one has really figured out how best to utilize Earth's closest celestial neighbor. Earlier this month, with an executive order allowing U.S. companies to mine the moon, the Trump administration opened the door to a possible commercial future on the lunar surface.

It was a moment many proponents of lunar commercialization never thought they’d see.

“You have direct interest from the White House in making this happen right now, which is sort of remarkable,” George Sowers, a space mining researcher and professor of engineering at the Colorado School of Mines, tells Popular Mechanics. “From that standpoint I think the future's pretty rosy.”

This executive order put an exclamation point on the debate over the U.S’s attitude toward The Outer Space Treaty of 1967. Signed during the Cold War, the treaty banned national sovereignty over off-world bodies but didn’t forbid their commercialization.
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DINGO Joe
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« Reply #322 on: May 04, 2020, 09:57:26 PM »

Experts Doubt the Sun Is Actually Burning Coal
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DINGO Joe
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« Reply #323 on: May 04, 2020, 10:03:09 PM »

1st known swimming dinosaur just discovered. And it was magnificent.

Total badass
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True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)
Ernest
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« Reply #324 on: May 05, 2020, 07:08:45 PM »


Oddly enuff, astronomers already knew back then about carbon stars, of which the sun is not one.
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