Dynadot

discuss Science & Technology news & discussion

NameSilo
Watch

CraigD

Top Member
Impact
11,689
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!
 
Last edited:
12
•••
The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
Blowing stuff up is a science, so here's a look back at how NOT to blow up a dead whale.


To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the infamous beached whale incident that took place in Florence, Oregon on November 12th 1970, the Oregon Historical Society arranged for a 4K transfer of the original raw film footage from their archive. KATU has re-edited the package from the new high resolution video. Enjoy!

:xf.grin:

I read about this when the main "culprit" passed and the obit contained this incident.
 
1
•••
:xf.grin:

I read about this when the main "culprit" passed and the obit contained this incident.

I've just added another video produced by the news crew reminiscing about this event. Likely one of those guys who passed?

I've also seen footage of people in the car park trying to shelter from the hail of blubber.

I'm really surprised that nobody was seriously injured.

;)
 
Last edited:
1
•••
EVOLUTION of WORLD'S TALLEST BUILDING: Size Comparison (1901-2022)

 
4
•••
Melting icebergs key to sequence of an ice age, scientists find

Scientists claim to have found the 'missing link' in the process that leads to an ice age on Earth. Melting icebergs in the Antarctic are the key, say the team from Cardiff University, triggering a series of chain reactions that plunges Earth into a prolonged period of cold temperatures.

It has long been known that ice age cycles are paced by periodic changes to Earth's orbit of the sun, which subsequently changes the amount of solar radiation that reaches the Earth's surface.

However, up until now it has been a mystery as to how small variations in solar energy can trigger such dramatic shifts in the climate on Earth.

In their study, the team propose that when the orbit of Earth around the sun is just right, Antarctic icebergs begin to melt further and further away from Antarctica, shifting huge volumes of freshwater away from the Southern Ocean and into the Atlantic Ocean.

As the Southern Ocean gets saltier and the North Atlantic gets fresher, large-scale ocean circulation patterns begin to dramatically change, pulling CO2 out of the atmosphere and reducing the so-called greenhouse effect.

This in turn pushes the Earth into ice age conditions.

https://phys.org/news/2021-01-icebergs-key-sequence-ice-age.html
 
6
•••
Climate change: US emissions in 2020 in biggest fall since WWII

US greenhouse gas emissions tumbled below their 1990 level for the first-time last year as a result of the response to the coronavirus pandemic.

A preliminary assessment from research group Rhodium says that overall emissions were down over 10%, the largest fall since World War II.

Transport suffered the biggest decline, with emissions down almost 15% over 2019.

Energy emissions also fell sharply, due to a decline in the use of coal.

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-55632050
 
4
•••
Joe the pigeon spared by Australia after leg tag found to be fake

A pigeon that was to be put down by authorities in Australia after reportedly crossing the Pacific Ocean has been saved after officials found he was "highly likely" to be a local bird.

_116520118_gettyimages-1228630080-2.jpg


Joe the pigeon made headlines around the world after he was found in a garden in Melbourne wearing what appeared to be a US identification.

The bird was to be killed for breaching Australia's quarantine rules.

But he was granted a reprieve amid doubts about the origin of his leg tag.

"Following an investigation, the department has concluded that Joe the Pigeon is highly likely to be Australian and does not present a biosecurity risk," Australia's Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment announced on Friday.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-55667045
 
Last edited:
3
•••
I've just added another video produced by the news crew reminiscing about this event. Likely one of those guys who passed?

I've also seen footage of people in the car park trying to shelter from the hail of blubber.

I'm really surprised that nobody was seriously injured.

;)


Oregon highway engineer George Thornton:xf.wink:
 
1
•••
SCIENTISTS SAY ALL MEN HAVE 'SELFISH SPERM'

Humans also compete with each other — like all animals, we are biologically driven to try and pass our genetic material on to the next generation, and for the males of the species, that means succeeding at mating and producing offspring, aka having kids. For men, this means passing their DNA down via sperm cells.

Scientists thought they had a pretty good handle on how this worked. But according to a new study published January 14 in Science, sperm are actually far more selfish than previously thought. The study was funded by the Massachusettes-based Ohana Biosciences.

Essentially, the new findings suggest natural selection starts on the sperm vs sperm level, long before conception. In other words: Men aren't just in competition with one another on the evolutionary level — individual sperm are, too. This has profound implications for how we understand genetic inheritance, and how genes influence behavior, development, and how genes influence behavior, development, and even disease.

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2021/01/13/science.abb1723





 
Last edited:
4
•••
A moment ago, in an interesting observation of the crows in my backyard, besides their regular squawk talk, a couple mates were communicating (or arguing with one another) in what seemed to be a sort of 'Morse code' of clicks - dots and dashes - while rustling their feathers, hopping from branch to branch. It appeared as though the female was complaining about something, while the male appeared to be saying, "stop your constant clicking!" lol. :xf.laugh::ROFL::xf.laugh:
 
5
•••
Melting icebergs key to sequence of an ice age, scientists find

Scientists claim to have found the 'missing link' in the process that leads to an ice age on Earth. Melting icebergs in the Antarctic are the key, say the team from Cardiff University, triggering a series of chain reactions that plunges Earth into a prolonged period of cold temperatures.

It has long been known that ice age cycles are paced by periodic changes to Earth's orbit of the sun, which subsequently changes the amount of solar radiation that reaches the Earth's surface.

However, up until now it has been a mystery as to how small variations in solar energy can trigger such dramatic shifts in the climate on Earth.

In their study, the team propose that when the orbit of Earth around the sun is just right, Antarctic icebergs begin to melt further and further away from Antarctica, shifting huge volumes of freshwater away from the Southern Ocean and into the Atlantic Ocean.

As the Southern Ocean gets saltier and the North Atlantic gets fresher, large-scale ocean circulation patterns begin to dramatically change, pulling CO2 out of the atmosphere and reducing the so-called greenhouse effect.

This in turn pushes the Earth into ice age conditions.

https://phys.org/news/2021-01-icebergs-key-sequence-ice-age.html

"Antarctic icebergs begin to melt further and further away from Antarctica, shifting huge volumes of freshwater away from the Southern Ocean and into the Atlantic Ocean.

As the Southern Ocean gets saltier and the North Atlantic gets fresher, large-scale ocean circulation patterns begin to dramatically change, pulling CO2 out of the atmosphere and reducing the so-called greenhouse effect.

This in turn pushes the Earth into ice age conditions."

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

And this is happening right now, on the Antarctic and on the Arctic. Last time a massive amount of fresh water poured to the North Atlantic sea, it caused a change in the ocean circulation pattern and a return to glacial conditions.
 
Last edited:
5
•••
This is what caused the last "short" ice age. It was due to a major drainage of fresh water to the Atlantic sea. Now Arctic and Antarctic are melting and draining also big amounts of fresh water into the Atlantic, that can end also disrupting the oceanic normal circulation... and ending in another "short" but quite cold ice age.

Lake Agassiz


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

Lake Agassiz's major drainage reorganization events were of such magnitudes that they had significant impact on climate, sea level and possibly early human civilization. The lake's enormous freshwater release into the Arctic Ocean has been postulated to have disrupted oceanic circulation and caused temporary cooling. The draining of 13,000 years ago may be the cause of the Younger Dryas stadial.[2][13][14] Although disputed,[15] the draining at 9,900–10,000 years ago may be the cause of the 8,200 yr climate event.

Younger Dryas

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

The Younger Dryas (around 12,900 to 11,700 years BP[2]) was a return to glacial conditions after the Late Glacial Interstadial, which temporarily reversed the gradual climatic warming after the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) started receding around 20,000 BP.

The Younger Dryas was the most recent and longest of several interruptions to the gradual warming of the Earth's climate since the severe LGM, about 27,000 to 24,000 years BP. The change was relatively sudden, taking place in decades, and it resulted in a decline of temperatures in Greenland by 4 to 10 °C (7.2 to 18 °F)[3] and advances of glaciers and drier conditions, over much of the temperate Northern Hemisphere. It is thought[4] to have been caused by a decline in the strength of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation, which transports warm water from the Equator towards the North Pole, in turn thought to have been caused by an influx of fresh, cold water from North America to the Atlantic.
 
Last edited:
4
•••
Japanese team develops cancer detector using mosquito's sense of smell

A Japanese research team has developed a small sensor to detect an odor substance found in the breath of cancer sufferers using mosquito olfactory receptors.

A paper about the development has been published in the U.S. journal Science Advances.

The team, led mainly by University of Tokyo Professor Shoji Takeuchi, aims to put the sensor, which can be created at low cost and is said to be highly accurate, to practical use within as little time as 10 years.

The antennae of a mosquito have about 100 kinds of odorant receptors, each designed to detect a specific odor substance. The receptors are located on the surface of olfactory cells.

When an odorant receptor connects with a specific odorant molecule, a hole opens up on the cellular membrane to let ions enter the cell, allowing the smell to be detected.

Takeuchi and other team members created an artificial cellular membrane embedded with a mosquito odorant receptor that detects octenol, a chemical that is found in human perspiration and can be used as a biomarker of liver cancer.


 
2
•••
A moment ago, in an interesting observation of the crows in my backyard, besides their regular squawk talk, a couple mates were communicating (or arguing with one another) in what seemed to be a sort of 'Morse code' of clicks - dots and dashes - while rustling their feathers, hopping from branch to branch. It appeared as though the female was complaining about something, while the male appeared to be saying, "stop your constant clicking!" lol. :xf.laugh::ROFL::xf.laugh:

I love crows - wouldn't it be amazing to understand their language?

Interesting article about their vocalisations:
https://corvidresearch.blog/2019/03/14/crow-vocalizations-part-ii-qa/

Repository of crow recordings at the Macaulay Library.
 
3
•••
This is what caused the last "short" ice age. It was due to a major drainage of fresh water to the Atlantic sea. Now Arctic and Antarctic are melting and draining also big amounts of fresh water into the Atlantic, that can end also disrupting the oceanic normal circulation... and ending in another "short" but quite cold ice age.

Lake Agassiz


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

Lake Agassiz's major drainage reorganization events were of such magnitudes that they had significant impact on climate, sea level and possibly early human civilization. The lake's enormous freshwater release into the Arctic Ocean has been postulated to have disrupted oceanic circulation and caused temporary cooling. The draining of 13,000 years ago may be the cause of the Younger Dryas stadial.[2][13][14] Although disputed,[15] the draining at 9,900–10,000 years ago may be the cause of the 8,200 yr climate event.

Younger Dryas

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

The Younger Dryas (around 12,900 to 11,700 years BP[2]) was a return to glacial conditions after the Late Glacial Interstadial, which temporarily reversed the gradual climatic warming after the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) started receding around 20,000 BP.

The Younger Dryas was the most recent and longest of several interruptions to the gradual warming of the Earth's climate since the severe LGM, about 27,000 to 24,000 years BP. The change was relatively sudden, taking place in decades, and it resulted in a decline of temperatures in Greenland by 4 to 10 °C (7.2 to 18 °F)[3] and advances of glaciers and drier conditions, over much of the temperate Northern Hemisphere. It is thought[4] to have been caused by a decline in the strength of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation, which transports warm water from the Equator towards the North Pole, in turn thought to have been caused by an influx of fresh, cold water from North America to the Atlantic.

I wrote an undergraduate thesis about Lake Agassiz/Lake Minong back in the 80's, little did I know I'd be revisiting it 40 years later. O_o Currently experiencing unseasonably calm, mild weather here in Central Canada as warm air pushes up from the US, while cold Arctic air from a split Polar Vortex will likely bring a chill to US and UK with powerful storms and high winds likely to last a few weeks around the end of January.


 
4
•••
Phage viruses can make superbugs susceptible to antibiotics again

Antibiotics were one of the most important medical breakthroughs of the 20th century, saving countless lives by clearing out infections that previously may have been lethal. Unfortunately, we’ve been locked in a biological arms race ever since, as bacteria develop better and better defenses against the drugs.

For the new study, researchers from Monash University set out to find a phage that would target and kill a superbug called Acinetobacter baumannii. This opportunistic bacteria, often acquired in hospitals, is currently priority target number one on the World Health Organization’s hit list.

The team identified a phage from wastewater that almost completely wiped out A. baumannii in lab culture tests. Unfortunately, the effect was short-lived, and it only took a few hours before the bacteria developed resistance to the phages. But there’s an intriguing upside to the story: in developing resistance to phages, the bacteria became vulnerable to antibiotics again.

"A. baumannii produces a capsule, a viscous and sticky outer layer that protects it and stops the entry of antibiotics," says Gordillo Altamirano, lead author of the study. "Our phages use that same capsule as their port of entry to infect the bacterial cell. In an effort to escape from the phages, A. baumannii stops producing its capsule; and that's when we can hit it with the antibiotics it used to resist."


www.nature.com/articles/s41564-020-00830-7
 
Last edited:
3
•••
U.S. Space Force Military

https://www.spaceforce.mil/

“There is one eye-watering constant across the Air and Space Forces: the universality that these are good people.
Secretary of the Air Force Barbara M. Barrett said in her remarks Jan. 14, 2021.

She and her team helped drive forward efforts to make the Air Force digitally connected to the joint force, known as Joint All-Domain Command and Control. As part of that effort, the Advance Battlement Management System, which uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to simultaneously connect warfighters in the air, land, sea, space and cyber domains.

https://www.aerotechnews.com/blog/2...-af-leaders-assesses-her-tenure-as-secretary/

https://www.thedailybeast.com/is-trumps-space-force-against-space-law

https://www.washingtonpost.com/busi...f290fc-19ce-11ea-826b-14ef38a0f45f_story.html
 
Last edited:
4
•••
Orion Ready to Fuel Up for Artemis I Mission

artemis_i_orion_on_transporter.jpg


The Orion spacecraft for NASA’s Artemis I mission is taking one more step closer to its flight to the Moon. On Jan. 14, the spacecraft was lifted out of the stand in the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida where engineers have meticulously outfitted it with thousands of components and tested its systems and subsystems to ensure it can accomplish its mission. With assembly complete, teams are moving it to its next facility for fueling and officially transferring the spacecraft to NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems (EGS) team responsible for processing Orion for its launch later this year.

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/orion-ready-to-fuel-up-for-artemis-i-mission


And 14-hrs to go before the SLS core stage fires up for its final test...
 
Last edited:
3
•••
NASA TV to Air Hot Fire Test of Rocket Core Stage for Artemis Moon Missions

ssc_photo_4603_large.jpg


NASA is targeting a two-hour test window that opens at 5 p.m. EST Saturday, Jan. 16, for the hot fire test of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket core stage at the agency’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. Live coverage will begin at 4:20 p.m. on NASA Television and the agency’s website, followed by a post-test briefing approximately two hours after the test concludes.

https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/...f-rocket-core-stage-for-artemis-moon-missions

Fingers crossed!



SLS: Nasa's 'megarocket' set to fire up engines in crucial test


_115098518_dsc_2860orig.jpg


The four main engines of Nasa's new "megarocket" are to be fired in unison for the first time, demonstrating the launcher's raw, explosive power.

"It's not a developmental or test article, it's the flight article that will power Artemis-1 around the Moon, so we're being very careful with it as we go."

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-54583588
 
Last edited:
3
•••
Eight-year periodicity of train millipede confirmed

A trio of researchers with the Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute and Shizuoka University, both in Japan, has confirmed the eight-year periodicity of the train millipede. In their paper published in the journal Royal Society Open Science, Keiko Niijima, Momoka Nii and Jin Yoshimura describe their multi-year study of the myriapod invertebrate Parafontaria laminata armigera Verhoeff, which is endemic to Japan, and what they learned about it.

Back in the early 20th century, Japanese engineers built train lines in remote mountain regions. In 1920, train operators working in a certain forested area were surprised to find teeming mounds of white millipedes covering the tracks so densely that trains could not pass. They persisted for a short amount of time before subsiding, allowing service to be restored. Then, less than a decade later, the millipedes returned once more, once again disrupting service. Thereafter, the millipedes (which became known as train millipedes) appeared periodically, leading some to believe that they had life-stage periodicity similar to that seen in cicadas (which are insects)—a behavior that had not been previously observed in an arthropod. In this new effort, the researchers set out to confirm the periodicity of the train millipede and its true cycle length.

https://phys.org/news/2021-01-eight-year-periodicity-millipede.html



Eight-year periodical outbreaks of the train millipede


Periodical cicadas are the only confirmed periodical animals with long life cycles. In Japan, however, 8-year periodicity had been suggested in a species of train millipedes that had frequently obstructed trains in the central mountainous region of Honshu, Japan. We finally confirmed the 8-year periodicity of this millipede using detailed surveys of life histories over 8 years. Seven broods were recognized, with almost no overlaps in their distributions. We also report the historical outbreaks and train obstructions of this millipede during 1920–2016. This is the first confirmed case of periodical non-insect arthropods.

https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.201399
 
Last edited:
3
•••
Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin aims to fly first passengers on its space tourism rocket as early as April

After years in development, Jeff Bezos’ private space company Blue Origin aims to carry its first passengers on a ride to the edge of space in a few months.

Blue Origin on Thursday completed the fourteenth test flight of its New Shepard rocket booster and capsule. Called NS-14, the successful test flight featured the debut of a new booster and an upgraded capsule.


Beyond the upgrades, CNBC has learned that NS-14 also marked one of the last remaining steps before Blue Origin flies its first crew to space.

The flight was the first of two “stable configuration” test flights, people familiar with Blue Origin’s plans told CNBC. Stable configuration means that the company plans to avoid making major changes between this flight and the next.

Additionally, those people said that Blue Origin aims to launch the second test flight within six weeks, or by late February, and the first crewed flight six weeks after that, or by early April.
 
Last edited:
3
•••
A moment ago, in an interesting observation of the crows in my backyard, besides their regular squawk talk, a couple mates were communicating (or arguing with one another) in what seemed to be a sort of 'Morse code' of clicks - dots and dashes - while rustling their feathers, hopping from branch to branch. It appeared as though the female was complaining about something, while the male appeared to be saying, "stop your constant clicking!" lol. :xf.laugh::ROFL::xf.laugh:


Crows don't migrate from extreme cold there?
 
0
•••
Physicists May Have Found Dark Matter: X-rays Surrounding “Magnificent 7” May Be Traces of Theorized Particle

Researchers say they may have found proof of theorized axions, and possibly dark matter, around a group of neutron stars.

A new study, led by a theoretical physicist at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), suggests that never-before-observed particles called axions may be the source of unexplained, high-energy X-ray emissions surrounding a group of neutron stars.

https://scitechdaily.com/physicists...ficent-7-may-be-traces-of-theorized-particle/
 
3
•••
6000 years of emu mysteries unveiled

The emu - an iconic Australian bird, but also something of an enigma.

"They're so widespread, but we really don't know much about them," says Western Sydney University PhD student Julia Ryeland.

"How do you know how they're going to be affected by anthropogenic change when we don't even know basic things like lifespan?"

Ms Ryeland and other researchers at Western Sydney University and the University of Tasmania are the authors of a new study that sheds light on the mysterious bird.

https://www.theislanderonline.com.au/story/7086825/6000-years-of-emu-mysteries-unveiled/


More Information:

The emu (Dromaius novaehollandiae) is the second-largest living bird by height, after its ratite relative, the ostrich. It is endemic to Australia where it is the largest native bird and the only extant member of the genus Dromaius. The emu's range covers most of mainland Australia...

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


 
Last edited:
3
•••
These Adorable Fish Robots Form Schools Like the Real Thing

Science_berlinger5HR.jpg


SEVEN LITTLE BLUEBOTS gently swim around a darkened tank in a Harvard University lab, spying on one another with great big eyes made of cameras. They’re on the lookout for the two glowing blue LEDs fixed to the backs and bellies of their comrades, allowing the machines to lock on to one another and form schools, a complex emergent behavior arising from surprisingly simple algorithms. With very little prodding from their human engineers, the seven robots eventually arrange themselves in a swirling tornado, a common defensive maneuver among real-life fish called milling.

https://www.wired.com/story/these-adorable-fish-robots-form-schools-like-the-real-thing/

Found a video about these little guys:

 
2
•••
600-year-old marine sponge holds centuries-old climate records

600yearoldma.jpg


Scientists used a 600-year-old marine sponge to reconstruct a record of ocean temperature in the North Atlantic revealing past volcanic activity as well as the current global warming trend from the release of carbon dioxide and other heat trapping gasses into Earth's atmosphere and absorbed by the oceans.

The University of Miami (UM) Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science-led research team used geochemical proxies to reconstruct a 600 year-long record of Atlantic Ocean temperatures from the skeleton of a sclerosponge (Ceratoporella nicholsoni).

The basketball-sized sclerosponge was collected via submersible more than 430 feet (133 meters) below the surface in Exuma Sound, The Bahamas by the study's senior author Peter Swart, a professor of marine geosciences at the UM Rosenstiel School. Sclerosponges are slow growing marine organisms with a soft outer body and hard limestone skeleton that record upper ocean temperature and climate conditions. Although individuals could be as old as 1000-2000 years their distribution is poorly documented because of the difficulty and expense of collection.

https://phys.org/news/2021-01-year-old-marine-sponge-centuries-old-climate.html
 
1
•••
Back