discuss Science & Technology news & discussion

[CraigD]

Post and discuss interesting articles & videos about science and technology.

You don't need to be an expert - just interested in the wonders of modern science, technology, and the history of these fields.

Please keep it rational, and post articles from reputable sources.
Try not to editorialise headlines and keep the copy to just a paragraph with a link to the original source. When quoting excerpts from articles, I think the best method is to italicise the copy, and include a link to the source.

Have some fun with your comments and discussions... just keep the sources legitimate.

Other threads:
The Break Room has a number of other popular threads, so there is no need to post material here that is better suited to these other threads:

- Covid19-Coronavirus updates and news
- Conspiracy Thread Free For All
- The *religious* discussion thread

Please enjoy!

 

[koolishman]

The Mystery of The Platypus Deepens With The Discovery of Its Biofluorescent Fur

Scientists are seeing the Australian platypus in a whole new light. Under an ultraviolet lamp, this bizarre-looking creature appears even more peculiar than normal, glowing a soft, greenish-blue hue instead of the typical brown we're used to seeing.

"Biofluorescence has now been observed in placental New World flying squirrels, marsupial New World opossums, and the monotreme platypus of Australia and Tasmania," the authors write.

https://www.degruyter.com/view/jour...0-0027/article-10.1515-mammalia-2020-0027.xml

 

[CraigD]

The Mystery of The Platypus Deepens With The Discovery of Its Biofluorescent Fur

Scientists are seeing the Australian platypus in a whole new light. Under an ultraviolet lamp, this bizarre-looking creature appears even more peculiar than normal, glowing a soft, greenish-blue hue instead of the typical brown we're used to seeing.

"Biofluorescence has now been observed in placental New World flying squirrels, marsupial New World opossums, and the monotreme platypus of Australia and Tasmania," the authors write.

https://www.degruyter.com/view/jour...0-0027/article-10.1515-mammalia-2020-0027.xml

Great article!

In regards to the degruyter.com study link:
I was initially a bit shocked that they corroborated this study on a platypus specimen that is 111 years old, when I could find a live specimen in my local creek, but I suppose that this is actually good science.

In order to verify the results we obtained from the specimens housed at the FMNH, we examined a platypus specimen collected from a different locality and date that is housed in a different repository. We viewed a male platypus (UNSM 30375) collected in New South Wales, Australia, in 1909, curated at the University of Nebraska State Museum (UNSM), Lincoln, Nebraska, USA, under visible and UV light. The pelage of this specimen, which was uniformly brown under visible light, also biofluoresced green under UV light.

Edited

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/p/platypus/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platypus

 

[CraigD]

Platypus Parts | National Geographic

The platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus) is a semiaquatic egg-laying mammal endemic to eastern Australia, including Tasmania. The platypus is the sole living representative of its family (Ornithorhynchidae) and genus (Ornithorhynchus), though a number of related species appear in the fossil record.

Together with the four species of echidna, it is one of the five extant species of monotremes, the only mammals that lay eggs instead of giving birth to live young. Like other monotremes, it senses prey through electrolocation. It is one of the few species of venomous mammals, as the male platypus has a spur on the hind foot that delivers a venom capable of causing severe pain to humans.

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platypus

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/p/platypus/

Monotreme - mammals that lay eggs

Monotremes (from Greek μονός, monos ('single') and τρῆμα, trema ('hole'), referring to the cloaca) are one of the three main groups of living mammals, along with placentals (Eutheria) and marsupials (Metatheria).

The monotremes are typified by structural differences in their brains, jaws, digestive tract, reproductive tract, and other body parts compared to the more common mammalian types. In addition, they lay eggs rather than bearing live young, but like all mammals, the female monotremes nurse their young with milk.

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monotreme

 

[koolishman]

Female big-game hunters may have been surprisingly common in the ancient Americas

A woman buried with spearpoints and other hunting tools roughly 9,000 years ago in Peru’s Andes Mountains has reemerged to claim the title of the oldest known female big-game hunter in the Americas. Her discovery led researchers to conclude that, among ancient Americans, nearly as many females as males hunted large animals — a finding that is challenging long-standing ideas about ancient gender roles

“It is time to stop thinking of [ancient] female large-game hunters as outliers,” says archaeologist Ashley Smallwood of the University of Louisville in Kentucky. Gender roles in modern hunter-gatherer groups can’t be assumed to apply to those that lived long ago, Smallwood says.

https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/6/45/eabd0310

 

[CraigD]

An amazing look at what might have been, and what may still come to pass.

The idea of nuclear pulse propulsion powered space-flight was put forward by Freeman Dyson, and was seriously considered before the Test Ban Treaty in 1963 put an end to the General Atomics project.

The Secret History of Project Orion: To Mars by A-Bomb

The true story of how, in the dark aftermath of WW2, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, a group of brilliant scientists hoped to travel to Mars and beyond in a huge spaceship propelled by small, controlled nuclear explosions. BBC4 (2002).

There's an interesting interview with Arthur C Clarke (33:44) where he talks about the validity of Freeman Dyson's Project Orion and how it was almost incorporated into his film 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968).

I think the most interesting part of this documentary begins at 40:00 where the tests are discussed, and we see some amazing footage of these secret USAF funded demonstration tests.



More information:

The Orion Spacecraft – key components

A design for the Orion propulsion module

A design for a pulse unit (to be fired out of an ejector hole in the baseplate of the Orion spacecraft before it was detonated).



General Atomics (GA) was founded on July 18, 1955, in California, by Frederic de Hoffmann with assistance from notable physicists Edward Teller and Freeman Dyson. Originally the company was part of the General Atomic division of General Dynamics "for harnessing the power of nuclear technologies for the benefit of mankind".

General Atomics's initial projects were the TRIGA nuclear research reactor and Project Orion.


Project Orion is still covered by various official secrets acts due to the miniature atomic-bomb technology developed for the project, however from what is publicly available, we know that many design studies were put forward by the General Atomics team.


I think the most interesting and practical design was the "Momentum Limited" Orion:

Ship diameter (meters) = 100
Mass of empty ship (tonnes) = 100,000 t (incl. 50,000 t structure+payload)
+Number of bombs = total bomb mass (each 1 Mt bomb weighs 1 tonne) = 300,000
=Departure mass (tonnes) = 400,000 t
Maximum velocity (kilometers per second) = 10,000 km/s (=3.3% of the speed of light)
Mean acceleration (Earth gravities) = 1 g (accelerate for 10 days)
Time to Alpha Centauri (one way, no slow down) = 133 years
Estimated cost = 0.1 year of U.S. GNP $0.367 Trillion



More information:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Orion_(nuclear_propulsion)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_pulse_propulsion
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeman_Dyson

 

[CraigD]

How Sony's Betamax lost to JVC's VHS Cassette Recorder

In 1976 Sony introduced the Betamax video cassette recorder. It catalyzed the "on demand" of today by allowing users to record television shows, and the machine ignited the first "new media" intellectual property battles. In only a decade this revolutionary machine disappeared, beaten by JVS's version of the cassette recorder. This video tells the story of why Betamax failed.

Please be kind, and rewind!

More information:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VHS
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betamax
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Videocassette_recorder
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_tape_recorder

Betamax case (1984)
Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios, Inc., 464 U.S. 417 (1984)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_Corp._of_America_v._Universal_City_Studios,_Inc.

 

[CraigD]

The Computer from the Saturn V Rocket

 

[CraigD]

Why the Dvorak keyboard didn't take over the world

Perhaps no technological failure is better known than that of the Dvorak keyboard. Since the early 1870s nearly every typewriter used a keyboard with a QWERTY layout, yet most studies show the Dvorak arrangement of keys to be faster. This videos probes the underlying reasons that this arrangement failed to make headway in the marketplace. This video tells the story of why the Dvorak keyboard failed.

More information:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dvorak_keyboard_layout
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QWERTY

 

[Cannuck]

The Mystery of The Platypus Deepens With The Discovery of Its Biofluorescent Fur

Scientists are seeing the Australian platypus in a whole new light. Under an ultraviolet lamp, this bizarre-looking creature appears even more peculiar than normal, glowing a soft, greenish-blue hue instead of the typical brown we're used to seeing.

"Biofluorescence has now been observed in placental New World flying squirrels, marsupial New World opossums, and the monotreme platypus of Australia and Tasmania," the authors write.

It makes me wonder how they came across the fluorescence in platypus' in the first place, just experimenting?

I used to have a pet chameleon back when black lights were a thing. I exposed him to the blacklight in hopes he would glow...I named him Pink Floyd, 'cuz he shined like a crazy diamond!

In the animal world, different species see differently, even some snakes evolved differently - like rattlesnakes whose pit organs allow them to have infra-red thermal vision, makes sense in hot environments.

https://www.osa-opn.org/home/newsroom/2020/october/illuminating_the_infrared_vision_of_snakes/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infrared_sensing_in_snakes

 

[koolishman]

Fusion Power Explained – Future or Failure

How does Fusion Energy work and is it a good idea?

A Huge Fusion Experiment in The UK Just Achieved The Much Anticipated 'First Plasma'

After a long, seven-year development, an experimental fusion reactor in the UK has been successfully powered on for the time, achieving 'first plasma': confirmation that all its components can work together to heat hydrogen gas into the plasma phase of matter.

This transition – achieved last week by a machine called MAST Upgrade in Culham, Oxfordshire – is the fundamental ingredient of a working nuclear fusion reactor, a dream scientists have been trying to realise for decades.

 

[Cannuck]

An amazing look at what might have been, and what may still come to pass.
The Secret History of Project Orion: To Mars by A-Bomb

I think the most interesting and practical design was the "Momentum Limited" Orion:

Interesting how at the end, his son built kayaks to explore the islands in NWT. In fact, it was the native birchbark canoe that allowed early explorers access to the interior waterways and provided them access to trade routes during the westward expansion of Canada and parts of northern USA.

 

[CraigD]

Interesting how at the end, his son built kayaks to explore the islands in NWT. In fact, it was the native birchbark canoe that allowed early explorers access to the interior waterways and provided them access to trade routes during the westward expansion of Canada and parts of northern USA.

I found that quite poignant. As a child, George was so hurt that his famous father would not allow him to travel with him around the solar system in his atomic rocket, that as a young adult he went off on his own journey and built canoes.

I found this short (8-minute) TED talk by George Dyson in which he talks a bit about his canoeing adventure, and elaborates on Project Orion's current classified status. The audience appear to take it as a big joke. Truth is sometimes stranger than fiction.

Author George Dyson spins the story of Project Orion, a massive, nuclear-powered spacecraft that could have taken us to Saturn in five years. His insider’s perspective and a secret cache of documents bring an Atomic Age dream to life.

This talk was presented at an official TED conference, and was featured by our editors on the home page.
https://www.ted.com/talks/george_dyson_the_story_of_project_orion/details

 

[koolishman]

Looking for Another Earth? Here Are 300 Million, Maybe

After crunching Kepler’s data for two years, a team of 44 astronomers led by Steve Bryson of NASA Ames has landed on what they say is the definitive answer, at least for now. Their paper has been accepted for publication in the Astronomical Journal.

Kepler’s formal goal was to measure a number called eta-Earth: the fraction of sunlike stars that have an Earth-size object orbiting them in the “goldilocks” or habitable zone, where it is warm enough for the surface to retain liquid water.

The team calculated that at least one-third, and perhaps as many as 90 percent, of stars similar in mass and brightness to our sun have rocks like Earth in their habitable zones, with the range reflecting the researchers’ confidence in their various methods and assumptions. That is no small bonanza, however you look at it.

According to NASA estimates there are at least 100 billion stars in the Milky Way, of which about 4 billion are sunlike. If only 7 percent of those stars have habitable planets — a seriously conservative estimate — there could be as many as 300 million potentially habitable Earths out there in the whole Milky Way alone.

https://arxiv.org/pdf/2010.14812.pdf

We are not alone guys! Time to send a probe to meet long-lost cousins!

 

[koolishman]

Arctic time capsule from 2018 washes up in Ireland as polar ice melts

When the crew and passengers of the nuclear-powered icebreaker ship 50 Years of Victory reached the north pole in 2018, they placed a time capsule in the ice floe.

The metal cylinder contained letters, poems, photographs, badges, beer mats, a menu, wine corks – ephemera from the early 21st century for whomever might discover it in the future.

The future came pretty swiftly. The cylinder was found this week on the north-western tip of Ireland after floating an estimated 2,300 miles from the Arctic Circle, where global heating is melting a record amount of ice.

 

[Cannuck]

Ocean Worlds - Water in the Solar System and Beyond

Water on Earth is very abundant— about 71 percent of Earth’s surface is covered by water, approximately the same content as our bodies.

There are more than 326 million trillion gallons of water on Earth. Earth’s oceans contain about 96.5 percent of all the planet’s water.

Less than 3 percent of all water on Earth is freshwater (usable for drinking).

More than two-thirds of Earth’s freshwater is locked up in ice caps and glaciers.

Frozen water on the lunar surface has recently been detected by NASA Sofia Observatory.

What other potential sources of H2O are in our Solar System and beyond?

https://www.nasa.gov/specials/ocean-worlds/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_water

 

[CraigD]

Ocean Worlds - Water in the Solar System and Beyond

Water on Earth is very abundant— about 71 percent of Earth’s surface is covered by water, approximately the same content as our bodies.

There are more than 326 million trillion gallons of water on Earth. Earth’s oceans contain about 96.5 percent of all the planet’s water.

Less than 3 percent of all water on Earth is freshwater (usable for drinking).

More than two-thirds of Earth’s freshwater is locked up in ice caps and glaciers.

Frozen water on the lunar surface has recently been detected by NASA Sofia Observatory.

What other potential sources of H2O are in our Solar System and beyond?

https://www.nasa.gov/specials/ocean-worlds/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_water

There is an abundance of Hydrogen and Oxygen in the galaxy.
The key is finding the two as a compound (H2O) and in a liquid state.

 

[koolishman]

There is an abundance of Hydrogen and Oxygen in the galaxy.
The key is finding the two as a compound (H2O) and in a liquid state.

And enough gravity to keep it there.

 

[CraigD]

Hydrogen is the most common element in the universe, followed by Helium.

The remaining elements make up only about 2% of the remaining matter in the universe, and were produced by supernovae or stars. Of these, Oxygen is the 3rd most common element.

Because of the abundance of Hydrogen and Oxygen, water is the most common compound in the universe.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abundance_of_the_chemical_elements

--------------------------

We Are Star Stuff

Stars are our stellar alchemists. They spend their entire lifespan creating and molding elements. In their final moments, a supernova spreads these elements out into the universe, providing the building blocks for new stars, planets, and even us!

 

[CraigD]

It makes me wonder how they came across the fluorescence in platypus' in the first place, just experimenting?

I used to have a pet chameleon back when black lights were a thing. I exposed him to the blacklight in hopes he would glow...I named him Pink Floyd, 'cuz he shined like a crazy diamond!

In the animal world, different species see differently, even some snakes evolved differently - like rattlesnakes whose pit organs allow them to have infra-red thermal vision, makes sense in hot environments.

https://www.osa-opn.org/home/newsroom/2020/october/illuminating_the_infrared_vision_of_snakes/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infrared_sensing_in_snakes

Platypuses are mostly nocturnal.
Some zoos have indoor platypus houses, so I'm guessing that UV or blacklights are used in these environments. Perhaps zoo keepers have been aware of the fluorescence in platypuses for some time?

 

[CraigD]

An illuminating TED talk from NASA astronaut Chris Hadfield:

What I learned from going blind in space | Chris Hadfield

There's an astronaut saying: In space, "there is no problem so bad that you can't make it worse." So how do you deal with the complexity, the sheer pressure, of dealing with dangerous and scary situations? Retired colonel Chris Hadfield paints a vivid portrait of how to be prepared for the worst in space (and life) -- and it starts with walking into a spider's web. Watch for a special space-y performance.

 

[CraigD]

Why The Vertical Takeoff Airliner Failed: The Rotodyne Story

In the late 1950’s, intercity air travel was on the rise. But while a trip from New York to Boston by airplane might only take about an hour, you’d still need to get to and from the airport. And in many congested cities, that was already taking longer than the flight itself... The Rotodyne was going to change all that. Taking off from downtown rooftops and heliports, but flying faster, further, and more economically than any helicopter, the Rotodyne would be the quickest way to move from one city centre to the next.

More information:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairey_Rotodyne
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairey_Jet_Gyrodyne
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairey_Aviation_Company

 

[koolishman]

Circular warships of the Russian navy.

Novgorod (Russian: Новгород) was a monitor built for the Imperial Russian Navy in the 1870s. She was one of the most unusual warships ever constructed, and still survives in popular naval myth as one of the worst warships ever built. A more balanced assessment shows that she was relatively effective in her designed role as a coast-defence ship. The hull was circular to reduce draught while allowing the ship to carry much more armour and a heavier armament than other ships of the same size. Novgorod played a minor role in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78 and was reclassified as a coast-defence ironclad in 1892. The ship was decommissioned in 1903 and used as a storeship until she was sold for scrap in 1911.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_monitor_Novgorod

 

[CraigD]

Sea sponge helps scientists unravel 700-million-year-old mystery of evolution

Australian scientists have found that humans, and most likely the entire animal kingdom, share important genetic mechanisms with a jelly-like sea sponge that comes from the Great Barrier Reef.

https://phys.org/news/2020-11-sea-sponge-scientists-unravel-million-year-old.html

 

[CraigD]

Playing detective on a galactic scale: Huge new dataset will solve multiple Milky Way mysteries

How do stars destroy lithium? Was a drastic change in the shape of the Milky Way caused by the sudden arrival of millions of stellar stowaways? These are just a couple of the astronomical questions likely to be answered following the release today of 'GALAH DR3', the largest set of stellar chemical data ever compiled.

https://phys.org/news/2020-11-galactic-scale-huge-dataset-multiple.html

 

[CraigD]

What Is The Resolution Of The Eye?