discuss Science & Technology news & discussion

CraigD said:

AMAZING INVENTIONS THAT ARE NEXT LEVEL!
September 2020

What's your favourite new invention in this video?

Click to expand...

Some nifty inventions...I like the old school parking wheel @ 4:30, I wonder why that never caught on? Also, the rotary sail is pretty cool too

koolishman said:

I posted this in Covid thread, last month, but interesting enough to post here too.

Pandemic practice: Horror fans and morbidly curious individuals are more psychologically resilient during the COVID-19 pandemic


While the COVID-19 pandemic has affected nearly everyone in one way or another, certain people seem to be handling the psychological effects better than others. We tested the idea that experience with particular kinds of fiction, namely, horror and pandemic fiction, would be associated with better preparedness for and psychological resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our findings support the idea that fiction can be a useful simulation of both specific scenarios – in the case of pandemic films – and generally fearful scenarios – in the case of horror films. Experience with these simulations may benefit the user through preparation and practice of both specific skills relevant to particular situations and more general skills associated with emotion regulation. We also found that morbid curiosity, a personality trait that has been previously associated with interest in horror (Scrivner, in press), was associated with greater positive resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic. Importantly, these effects were significant even when controlling for age, sex, income, and general factors of personality. In sum, the current study provides evidence that individual differences in both media preferences and personality are associated with resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Click to expand...

That's a very interesting study.

Personally I had seen a few docos by Bill Gates and some pandemic films like Contagion (2011) beforehand, so my interest and dread was instantly piqued when the initial reports of the mystery virus came out of Wuhan.

I can't say that I've handled it any better however - if anything it made me more hypervigilant knowing how very quickly things could go very bad. I feel somewhat vindicated with my early fears, but that doesn't make me feel better.

EDIT: and I'm not a horror fan

CraigD said:

AMAZING INVENTIONS THAT ARE NEXT LEVEL!
September 2020

What's your favourite new invention in this video?

Click to expand...

Cannuck said:

Some nifty inventions...I like the old school parking wheel @ 4:30, I wonder why that never caught on? Also, the rotary sail is pretty cool too

Click to expand...

I liked the Mercedes E-ACTIVE BODY CONTROL feature (@ 2:30) that lifts the car prior to a side-collision to protect passengers.

The Largest Star in the Universe - Size Comparison

Human Population Through Time

It took 200,000 years for our human population to reach 1 billion—and only 200 years to reach 7 billion. But growth has begun slowing, as women have fewer babies on average. When will our global population peak? And how can we minimize our impact on Earth’s resources, even as we approach 11 billion?

World's Lightest Solid - Aerogels

Aerogels are the world's lightest (least dense) solids. They are also excellent thermal insulators and have been used in numerous Mars missions and the Stardust comet particle-return mission. The focus of this video is silica aerogels, though graphene aerogels are now technically the lightest.

Large tides may have driven evolution of fish towards life on land

Life on land had gradually begun to get established. But the vertebrates, then consisting only of various kinds of fish, were still to be found only in the oceans. Then, during the Devonian, immense diversification of fish took place. One group to emerge was the bony fish, which make up more than 95 per cent of all fish today but were also the ancestors of terrestrial vertebrates. The earliest bony fish were the first animals to evolve lungs.

What set off the evolution of bony fish, and how some of them started to adapt to a life on land, has not been clarified. One theory is that it happened in tidal environments where, in some periods, fish had been isolated in pools as a result of particularly large tides. This challenging habitat may have driven the evolution of lungs and, later on, the transformation of fins into front and hind legs.

To test this tidal theory, researchers at Uppsala University, in collaboration with colleagues from the Universities of Oxford and (in Wales) Bangor, used an established mathematical model of the tidal system for the first time to simulate, in detail, the tides in the Late Silurian and Early Devonian. Data on the positions of the continents, the distance of the Moon, the duration of Earth’s day, our planet’s gravity and the physical properties of seawater were fed into the model.

CraigD said:

Human Population Through Time

It took 200,000 years for our human population to reach 1 billion—and only 200 years to reach 7 billion. But growth has begun slowing, as women have fewer babies on average. When will our global population peak? And how can we minimize our impact on Earth’s resources, even as we approach 11 billion?

Click to expand...

Populations will peak and even out eventually as we eat out food sources. I know the exact article without needing to click and yes another jinx tuned in 30+ years. Now we are living in the fastest growing city on planet faster than Bangladesh percentage wise.
https://www.abc.net.au/tv/populationpuzzle/

CraigD said:

Russia suspected of Cold War-style microwave attack on CIA agents in Australia

Two agents from the United States' Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) fear they were attacked with a sophisticated microwave weapon while visiting Australia late last year, as part of a global campaign by Russia targeting US officials.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-10...cked-with-microwave-ray-in-australia/12800086

Click to expand...

Russia issues extraordinary statement over reports CIA agents were attacked in Australia

CIA investigators reportedly used mobile phone data to prove that suspected agents from the FSB, the Russian security service, were in close proximity to the CIA officers at the time they were attacked in Australia, Poland, Georgia and Taiwan.''

... in several incidents across the world agents had been targeted with a microwave device that could be used to cause brain damage similar to that of a severe concussion.

The Russian embassy in Australia did not respond to detailed questions from Guardian Australia, instead referring in their response to the 1949 death of US secretary of defence James Forrestal.

https://www.theguardian.com/austral...reports-cia-agents-were-attacked-in-australia

Is this a political stunt?

Do such weapons exist?

CraigD said:

Russia issues extraordinary statement over reports CIA agents were attacked in Australia

CIA investigators reportedly used mobile phone data to prove that suspected agents from the FSB, the Russian security service, were in close proximity to the CIA officers at the time they were attacked in Australia, Poland, Georgia and Taiwan.''

... in several incidents across the world agents had been targeted with a microwave device that could be used to cause brain damage similar to that of a severe concussion.

The Russian embassy in Australia did not respond to detailed questions from Guardian Australia, instead referring in their response to the 1949 death of US secretary of defence James Forrestal.

https://www.theguardian.com/austral...reports-cia-agents-were-attacked-in-australia

Is this a political stunt?

Do such weapons exist?

Click to expand...

I laughed my ass off and thought welcome to Australia mate get a hat and sunscreen. Can honestly get burnt in 5-10 minutes if not careful. An hour is enough for sunstroke on those melting hot days. I am very fair for an Aussie and i know you also roast not as bad as me but never take long to burn.

CraigD said:

Russia issues extraordinary statement over reports CIA agents were attacked in Australia

CIA investigators reportedly used mobile phone data to prove that suspected agents from the FSB, the Russian security service, were in close proximity to the CIA officers at the time they were attacked in Australia, Poland, Georgia and Taiwan.''

... in several incidents across the world agents had been targeted with a microwave device that could be used to cause brain damage similar to that of a severe concussion.

The Russian embassy in Australia did not respond to detailed questions from Guardian Australia, instead referring in their response to the 1949 death of US secretary of defence James Forrestal.

https://www.theguardian.com/austral...reports-cia-agents-were-attacked-in-australia

Is this a political stunt?

Do such weapons exist?

Click to expand...

Very much. In research labs for spies.

U.S was hinting long ago of Russian involvement, right?

koolishman said:

Very much. In research labs for spies.

U.S was hinting long ago of Russian involvement, right?

Click to expand...

They believed their quick sun burn was a laser microwave but honestly there are plenty of days like it here where you will be roasted with sunscreen on.

lock said:

They believed their quick sun burn was a laser microwave but honestly there are plenty of days like it here where you will be roasted with sunscreen on.

Click to expand...

Not just sunburn, but they suffered brain damage.

koolishman said:

Not just sunburn, but they suffered brain damage.

Click to expand...

Sunstroke will do that honestly what month of the year did it occur as people have no idea how fing hot it gets.

Sutruk said:

Human brain is not in the same league as building an electric car.
He can start playing with brains and electrodes, but at least current technology cannot really "merge" computers with human brains... to ‘improve memory or give humans added artificial intelligence’.

Click to expand...

Not related. But interesting development I came across today.


Motor neuroprosthesis implanted with neurointerventional surgery improves capacity for activities of daily living tasks in severe paralysis: first in-human experience

Completion of IADL tasks including text messaging, online shopping and managing finances independently was demonstrated in both participants.

Wow!

NASA Discovers a Rare Metal Asteroid That’s Worth $10,000,000,000,000,000,000

https://observer.com/2020/10/nasa-discover-asteroid-pysche-metal-10-quadrillion/amp/

How Earth Moves

An in-depth look at how Earth moves through space, the seasons and how our calendar works, etc. Some great graphics.

Quite literally, it is the ride of your life!

CraigD said:

How Earth Moves

An in-depth look at how Earth moves through space, the seasons and how our calendar works, etc. Some great graphics.

Quite literally, it is the ride of your life!

Click to expand...

Very good video of the Earth rotation and revolution movements around the Sun!
But the video could show also the movement of our Solar System, located on the Orion Arm of the Milky Way Galaxy, around the big Black Hole located on the center of our galaxy. That's the galaxy spin movement.
And also, the movement of the Milky Way Galaxy through the Universe, going to collide with Andromeda Galaxy in 4.5 billion years, that will be the Big Party! lol

Star's motion around Milky Way's monster black hole proves Einstein right yet again

https://www.space.com/milky-way-supermassive-black-hole-star-dance-einstein-test.html

"Star's motion around Milky Way's monster black hole proves Einstein right yet again. Einstein's theory of general relativity just passed a dramatic black-hole test with flying colors."

Super Spirals Spin Super Fast

https://hubblesite.org/contents/news-releases/2019/news-2019-54.html

"The Milky Way, an average spiral galaxy, spins at a speed of 130 miles per second (210 km/sec) in our Sun's neighborhood. New research has found that the most massive spiral galaxies spin faster than expected."

Orion Arm

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

"The Orion Arm is a minor spiral arm of the Milky Way Galaxy that is 3,500 light-years (1,100 parsecs) across and approximately 10,000 light-years (3,100 parsecs) in length,[2] containing the Solar System, including Earth."

Andromeda–Milky Way collision

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andromeda–Milky_Way_collision

"The Andromeda–Milky Way collision is a galactic collision predicted to occur in about 4.5 billion years between the two largest galaxies in the Local Group—the Milky Way (which contains the Solar System and Earth) and the Andromeda Galaxy.[1][2][3][4][5] The stars involved are sufficiently far apart that it is improbable that any of them will individually collide.[6] Some stars will be ejected from the resulting galaxy, nicknamed Milkomeda or Milkdromeda."

Here you can see a video from nasa.gov showing the future collision of the Milky Way with Andromeda:

Crash of the Titans: Milky Way & Andromeda Collision

https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/30955

"The three largest galaxies in our Local Group of Galaxies are our Milky Way along with the Andromeda (also known as Messier 31) and Triangulum (also known as Messier 33) galaxies. This scientific visualization of a computer simulation depicts their joint evolution over the next several billion years and features the inevitable massive collision between the Milky Way and Andromeda.

Hubble Space Telescope observations indicate that the two galaxies, pulled together by their mutual gravity, will crash together in a head-on collision about 4 billion years from now. The thin disk shapes of these spiral galaxies are strongly distorted and irrevocably transformed by the encounter. Around 6 billion years from now, the two galaxies will merge to form a single elliptical galaxy. The Triangulum galaxy continues to orbit the merged pair through the end of this computer simulation, though other computer models show it becoming part of the collision.
The visualization covers 8.2 billion years into the future at 105 million years per second."

Sutruk said:

Here you can see a video from nasa.gov showing the future collision of the Milky Way with Andromeda:

Crash of the Titans: Milky Way & Andromeda Collision

https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/30955

"The three largest galaxies in our Local Group of Galaxies are our Milky Way along with the Andromeda (also known as Messier 31) and Triangulum (also known as Messier 33) galaxies. This scientific visualization of a computer simulation depicts their joint evolution over the next several billion years and features the inevitable massive collision between the Milky Way and Andromeda.

Hubble Space Telescope observations indicate that the two galaxies, pulled together by their mutual gravity, will crash together in a head-on collision about 4 billion years from now. The thin disk shapes of these spiral galaxies are strongly distorted and irrevocably transformed by the encounter. Around 6 billion years from now, the two galaxies will merge to form a single elliptical galaxy. The Triangulum galaxy continues to orbit the merged pair through the end of this computer simulation, though other computer models show it becoming part of the collision.
The visualization covers 8.2 billion years into the future at 105 million years per second."

Click to expand...

I don't have to watch any of this. Thank God for that!

As Climate Disasters Pile Up, a Radical Proposal Gains Traction

As the effects of climate change become more devastating, prominent research institutions and government agencies are focusing new money and attention on an idea once dismissed as science fiction: Artificially cooling the planet, in the hopes of buying humanity more time to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

That strategy, called solar climate intervention or solar geoengineering, entails reflecting more of the sun’s energy back into space — abruptly reducing global temperatures in a way that mimics the effects of ash clouds spewed by volcanic eruptions. The idea has been derided as a dangerous and illusory fix, one that would encourage people to keep burning fossil fuels while exposing the planet to unexpected and potentially menacing side effects.

Some good news on climate front.

Climate change: China's forest carbon uptake 'underestimated'

China's aggressive policy of planting trees is likely playing a significant role in tempering its climate impacts.

An international team has identified two areas in the country where the scale of carbon dioxide absorption by new forests has been underestimated.

Taken together, these areas account for a little over 35% of China's entire land carbon "sink", the group says.

The researchers' analysis, based on ground and satellite observations, is reported in Nature journal.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2849-9

Could Solar Storms Destroy Civilization? Solar Flares & Coronal Mass Ejections

The sun. Smooth and round and peaceful. Except when it suddenly vomits radiation and plasma in random directions. These solar flares and coronal mass ejections, or CMEs can hit earth and have serious consequences for humanity. How exactly do they work, how bad could they be and can we prepare for them?

CraigD said:

Could Solar Storms Destroy Civilization? Solar Flares & Coronal Mass Ejections

The sun. Smooth and round and peaceful. Except when it suddenly vomits radiation and plasma in random directions. These solar flares and coronal mass ejections, or CMEs can hit earth and have serious consequences for humanity. How exactly do they work, how bad could they be and can we prepare for them?

Click to expand...

Airforce one is engineered to fly without electronics also, right? Like in case of an EMP.

koolishman said:

Airforce one is engineered to fly without electronics also, right?

Click to expand...

Airforce One and modern military aircraft are hardened against electromagnetic interference, but still require electronics and electrical systems to fly.

'Modern' jets definitely require power for electrical systems - I'd hate to be flying on a commercial airliner if a huge solar storm struck earth.

Even vintage piston powered aircraft like those from the 20's and 30's still require electrical systems for the engine, switches, navigation aids etc.

Anything that uses an electrical system is prone to damage from a solar storm or similar EMP.

Electromagnetic pulse (EMP)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_pulse

Edited.

--------

Solar Storms information

The 2003 Solar Storm caused a fair bit of expensive damage to communications systems, satellites and power grids around the world.

I think the Carrington Event was the worst recorded, but being in 1859, there wasn't much electrical infrastructure to be damaged.

The 1967 Solar Storm almost triggered World War 3.

List of other Solar Storms

Solar Storm and Space Weather - FAQ
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunearth/spaceweather/index.html

NASA solar shield
https://www.space.com/9484-nasa-solar-shield-protect-power-grids-sun-storms.html

This Multi-Trillion Dollar Disaster Is Coming, And Solar Astronomy Is Our Prime Defense
https://www.forbes.com/sites/starts...ing-and-solar-astronomy-is-our-prime-defense/


Edited