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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!
 
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The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
A Single Cave in Germany Is One Possible Origin of Early Wolf Domestication

A cluster of ancient canine fossils from a single cave in southwestern Germany has shown astounding genetic diversity, encompassing nearly the entire breadth of dog domestication: from wild wolf to modern hound.

According to researchers, the age of these remarkable specimens, which include dogs, wolves and foxes, is older than nearly 60 other ancient canines that lived between 14,000 and 3,000 years ago in Europe.

What's more, a reconstruction of their mitochondrial genomes appears to match the collective variation of almost all ancient canines analysed from this region to date.

The small cave, known as Gnirshöhle, is at the heart of the Hegau Jura region, which is home to numerous caverns that were occupied by humans roughly 17,000 to 12,000 years ago. It is known as a "Magdalenian hotspot", referring to the ancient western European cultures of the time.

Studying the morphology, genetics and isotopes of several of these Gnirshöhle bones, researchers have pulled back the curtain on a potential stage for animal domestication - one of the most comprehensive collections of canine genomes in both time and space.

"Intriguingly, a recent study focusing on the analysis of nuclear genomes of various ancient dogs suggested a single origin of modern dogs, but it failed to provide a geographic location for such an event," the team writes in their new study.

"While we cannot address the question of the domestication event's singularity, our results support the hypothesis that the Hegau Jura was a potential center of early European wolf domestication."

Dogs are generally considered the oldest domesticated animal in human history, but the precise detail on where, when, and why this happened is still unknown. Some recent genetic studies suggest dogs were domesticated around the same time in both Europe and Asia, before mixing later on. Later genomic analyses disagree, pointing to a single origin in Europe.

The current research is unable to end this debate, but the genetic diversity discovered in southwestern Germany does suggest the early humans who live there tamed and reared animals from various wolf lineages.

Read on...


https://www.sciencealert.com/a-sing...-possible-center-for-early-wolf-domestication
 
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A manatee with ‘TRUMP’ scraped into its back was itself disturbing. But it reflects a deeper environmental problem

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Days after US rioters stormed Capitol Hill in January, a manatee was found in a Florida river with the word “TRUMP” scraped into its back. The aftermath of the disturbing incident revealed a pervasive left-right divide that has long plagued environmental debate.

Polarised views dominate discussion on critical issues such as climate crisis and biodiversity protection. Typically, the left calls for more environmental protections, and the right claims these protections threaten economic prosperity or individual rights.

The election of the Biden administration raised hopes of a new dawn in environmental protections. Our research, however, suggests entrenched left-right views will continue to stymie effective environmental action in the United States – just as they do in Australia.

That’s because focusing on localised protections or individual rights leaves intact a cultural blind spot that conceals systemic issues threatening nature. Tackling these issues requires confronting environmental damage to which we all contribute.

Read on...

https://theconversation.com/a-manat...eflects-a-deeper-environmental-problem-154189
 
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Analysing effects of birth order on intelligence, educational attainment, big five and risk aversion in an Indonesian sample


Abstract

Few studies have examined birth order effects on personality in countries that are not Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic (WEIRD).

However, theories have generally suggested that interculturally universal family dynamics are the mechanism behind birth order effects, and prominent theories such as resource dilution would predict even stronger linear effects in poorer countries. Here, we examine a subset of up to 11188 participants in the Indonesian Family Life Survey to investigate whether later-borns differ from earlier-borns in intelligence, educational attainment, Big Five, and risk aversion.

Analyses were performed using within-family designs in mixed-effects models. In model comparisons, we tested for linear and non-linear birth order effects as well as for possible interactions of birth order and sibship size. Our estimated effect sizes are consistent with the emerging account of birth order as having relatively little impact on intelligence, Big Five, and risk aversion. We found a non-linear pattern for educational attainment that was not robust to imputation of missing data and not aligned with trends in WEIRD countries. Overall, the small birth order effects reported in other studies appear to be culturally specific.


 
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Will this solve the mystery of the expansion of the universe?

The universe was created by a giant bang; the Big Bang 13.8 billion years ago, and then it started to expand. The expansion is ongoing: it is still being stretched out in all directions like a balloon being inflated.

Physicists agree on this much, but something is wrong. Measuring the expansion rate of the universe in different ways leads to different results.

So, is something wrong with the methods of measurement? Or is something going on in the universe that physicists have not yet discovered and therefore have not taken into account?

universe.jpg


It could very well be the latter, according to several physicists, including Martin S. Sloth, Professor of Cosmology at University of Southern Denmark (SDU).

In a new scientific article, he and his SDU colleague, postdoc Florian Niedermannn, propose the existence of a new type of dark energy in the universe. If you include it in the various calculations of the expansion of the universe, the results will be more alike.

"A new type of dark energy can solve the problem of the conflicting calculations," says Martin S. Sloth.

 
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Analysing effects of birth order on intelligence, educational attainment, big five and risk aversion in an Indonesian sample


Abstract

Few studies have examined birth order effects on personality in countries that are not Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic (WEIRD).

However, theories have generally suggested that interculturally universal family dynamics are the mechanism behind birth order effects, and prominent theories such as resource dilution would predict even stronger linear effects in poorer countries. Here, we examine a subset of up to 11188 participants in the Indonesian Family Life Survey to investigate whether later-borns differ from earlier-borns in intelligence, educational attainment, Big Five, and risk aversion.

Analyses were performed using within-family designs in mixed-effects models. In model comparisons, we tested for linear and non-linear birth order effects as well as for possible interactions of birth order and sibship size. Our estimated effect sizes are consistent with the emerging account of birth order as having relatively little impact on intelligence, Big Five, and risk aversion. We found a non-linear pattern for educational attainment that was not robust to imputation of missing data and not aligned with trends in WEIRD countries. Overall, the small birth order effects reported in other studies appear to be culturally specific.


This looks like a thorough investigation, but limited to a set of just over 11,000 people.

So basically, in this Indonesian sample, the only data that stood out was that higher birth order was related to higher educational attainment, if there was any association at all.

Do we interpret this as meaning that the first born are more likely to be offered the higher education because of their status in the family, or are they more highly educated because they are motivated by the expectations of the investment placed in them by the family?
 
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Will this solve the mystery of the expansion of the universe?

The universe was created by a giant bang; the Big Bang 13.8 billion years ago, and then it started to expand. The expansion is ongoing: it is still being stretched out in all directions like a balloon being inflated.

Physicists agree on this much, but something is wrong. Measuring the expansion rate of the universe in different ways leads to different results.

So, is something wrong with the methods of measurement? Or is something going on in the universe that physicists have not yet discovered and therefore have not taken into account?

universe.jpg


It could very well be the latter, according to several physicists, including Martin S. Sloth, Professor of Cosmology at University of Southern Denmark (SDU).

In a new scientific article, he and his SDU colleague, postdoc Florian Niedermannn, propose the existence of a new type of dark energy in the universe. If you include it in the various calculations of the expansion of the universe, the results will be more alike.

"A new type of dark energy can solve the problem of the conflicting calculations," says Martin S. Sloth.

I'm a believer in Occam's razor; the principle that, of two explanations that account for all the facts, the simpler one is more likely to be correct, so I think there is an issue with the way the data is collected before the calculations are made.

An article published last year discusses this:


Astronomers have repeatedly calculated the rate of the universe’s expansion—the Hubble constant—with two different techniques. These measurements have produced a seemingly intractable conflict.

One method, which involves measuring supernovae and stars in the relatively recent universe, arrives at one value. The other strategy, which uses light left over from shortly after the big bang, finds another.

Experimental problems could cause the discrepancy, but no one is sure what those problems would be. Another possibility is that the conflict points to undiscovered phenomena—“new physics.”

https://www.scientificamerican.com/...a-single-number-became-a-cosmological-crisis/
 
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A sea slug’s detached head can crawl around and grow a whole new body

Heads of young Elysia cf. marginata sea slugs can pull themselves free from their bodies and just keep crawling around while growing a new body, report ecologists at Nara Women’s University in Japan. Within a few hours, some separated heads start nibbling on algae again, Sayaka Mitoh and Yoichi Yusa report March 8 in Current Biology. And within about 20 days, a third of the young sea slugs they watched had grown their bodies back, heart and all.


That’s the first time anyone has reported such dramatic “whole-body” regeneration in any sea slug “as far as we know,” Yusa says.

Read on...

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/sea-slug-detached-head-crawl-regenerate-grow-new-body
 
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Expert warns the 'super giants' of the Internet control the world economy

An expert at app design and generating publicity is warning businesses not to rely on Facebook and Google as reliable tools to generate revenue, and to have a contingency plan to continue generating leads if or when big tech pulls the rug out from under businesses again.

With Facebook’s recent decision to shut down news organisations’ Facebook pages in retaliation against the Australian Government’s plan to force Facebook and Google to pay for media content, the true strength of the world’s internet giants has been shown to Australia and the world.

Of course, we have seen Twitter silence a recent controversial President of the US, in the land where free speech is supposedly guaranteed by its constitution, but doesn't seem to apply to private companies who can seemingly censor whatever and whoever they want, at will.

Now, while Anushka Bandara doesn't mention Twitter, it too is one of the big tech giants, with Bandara stating "Facebook and Google don’t just monopolise the internet, they literally control the world economy through it."

Read on...

https://www.itwire.com/business-it/...f-the-internet-control-the-world-economy.html



Domain names are more relevant now than ever before...
 
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Analysing effects of birth order on intelligence, educational attainment, big five and risk aversion in an Indonesian sample
Overall, the small birth order effects reported in other studies appear to be culturally specific.

I agree with the author re: being culturally specific. In non-western countries (ie. China) birth order and gender have a large influence. However, I might argue that attainment and achievement has more to do with career choice, intrinsic motivation and access to affordable, quality education. In Nordic countries where the education system is well-developed, free and the population demographic fairly evenly distributed, the influence of birth order is less predominant, WEIRD variables less socio-economically dependent and more likely stochastic.
 
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A snake that smiles right back at you ... three times

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(CNN) There are a few reptile fanatics that smile when they see snakes, but maybe only one snake that can smile right back at you ... three times.

Justin Kobylka, who has been breeding snakes for almost two decades, was actually trying to achieve this bright golden yellow and white color combination. But in addition to that, the snake has three markings that look like smiley faces.

Patterns like these come from recessive mutations that can occur naturally, but it's unlikely you would find a snake that looks like this in nature.

"One in every 20 animals can have a smiley face on it," said Kobylka, but in his 19 years of breeding snakes he has never seen another snake with three smiles.

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/03/08/us/smiley-snake-trnd/index.html
 
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Activity in Brain’s Risk Circuits Can Forecast Changes in Stock Prices

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Forecasting changes in stock prices may be possible with the help of brain activity in regions associated with how people feel before making investment choices. Scientists could accurately forecast market price changes based on the average brain activity among a group but failed when using only prior stock trends or people’s investment choices, according to new research published today (March 8, 2021) in JNeurosci.

Scientists have used the average brain activity among a group to predict which videos will go viral and which crowdfunding campaigns will receive funding. In a new study, Stallen et al. investigated if this relationship extends to a more complex and dynamic arena: the stock market.

Participants examined real stock price trends from 2015 as they decided if they wanted to buy or sell the displayed stocks. During the task, the researchers used fMRI to measure activity in the nucleus accumbens and anterior insula, areas involved in seeking reward and avoiding risk, respectively. Using the group’s average brain activity in these regions, the researchers could forecast how a stock would behave. Increased nucleus accumbens activity forecast when a stock’s price would increase the next day, while increased anterior insula activity forecast when it would flip or change direction. Prior stock market trends and the participants’ own investing choices could not forecast stock price dynamics.

Reference: “Brain Activity Foreshadows Stock Price Dynamics” 8 March 2021, Journal of Neuroscience.
DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1727-20.2021

https://scitechdaily.com/activity-in-brains-risk-circuits-can-forecast-changes-in-stock-prices/
 
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Radiative Cooling and Solar Heating From One System – No Electricity Needed

Study describes passive cooling system that aims to help impoverished communities, reduce cooling and heating costs, lower CO2 emissions.

Passive cooling, like the shade a tree provides, has been around forever.

Recently, researchers have been exploring how to turbo charge a passive cooling technique — known as radiative or sky cooling — with sun-blocking, nanomaterials that emit heat away from building rooftops. While progress has been made, this eco-friendly technology isn’t commonplace because researchers have struggled to maximize the materials’ cooling capabilities.

New research led by University at Buffalo engineers makes significant progress in this area.

A study published on February 8, 2021, in the journal Cell Reports Physical Science describes a uniquely designed radiative cooling system that:

  • Lowered the temperature inside a test system in an outdoor environment under direct sunlight by more than 12 degrees Celsius (22 degrees Fahrenheit).
  • Lowered the temperature of the test box in a laboratory, meant to simulate the night, by more than 14 degrees Celsius (25 degrees Fahrenheit).
  • Simultaneously captured enough solar power that can be used to heat water to about 60 degrees Celsius (140 degrees Fahrenheit).
While the system tested was only 70 centimeters (27.5 inches) squared, it could eventually be scaled up to cover rooftops, engineers say, with the goal of reducing society’s reliance on fossil fuels for cooling and heating. It also could aid communities with limited access to electricity.

“There is a great need for heating and cooling in our daily life, especially cooling in the warming world,” says the study’s lead author Qiaoqiang Gan, PhD, professor of electrical engineering in the UB School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

Read on...

https://scitechdaily.com/radiative-cooling-and-solar-heating-from-one-system-no-electricity-needed/
 
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Radiative Cooling and Solar Heating From One System – No Electricity Needed

Definitely in support of trees and passive cooling. (y)

This thermo-electric cooling device likely utilizes similar magnetocaloric properties with aerogels - the Peltier effect.
 
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What Did People Use for Wiping Before Toilet Paper?


There's plenty of snow around here...gives new meaning to snowballs :xf.laugh::ROFL::xf.laugh:
 
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What Did People Use for Wiping Before Toilet Paper?


There's plenty of snow around here...gives new meaning to snowballs :xf.laugh::ROFL::xf.laugh:

Taboo subject?

"For seaman, the common thing was to use old frayed anchor cables..."

I had to check the CC text to be sure that I heard that correctly ;)
 
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Taboo subject?

"For seaman, the common thing was to use old frayed anchor cables..."

I had to check the CC text to be sure that I heard that correctly ;)

Prior to the Water Closet it was called The Neccesity. Yup, hemp was common amongst toiling seafarers, lol.
 
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Prior to the Water Closet it was called The Neccesity. Yup, hemp was common amongst toiling seafarers, lol.

It was also called the Privy ;)
 
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Rare meteorite chunk traced by scientists to Gloucestershire driveway

‘Dream come true’ to locate first carbonaceous chondrite seen in UK, part of fireball that caused sonic boom.


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A lump of a rare meteorite that lit up the night sky over the UK and northern Europe last week has been recovered from a driveway in Gloucestershire.

The fragment, weighing nearly 300 grams, and other pieces of the space rock were located after scientists reconstructed the flight path of the fireball that unleashed a sonic boom as it tore across the sky shortly before 10pm UK time on Sunday 28 February.


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The black chunk of rock, a carbonaceous chondrite never seen before in the UK, thumped on to a driveway in the Cotswolds town of Winchcombe, scientists at the Natural History Museum in London said, adding that further fragments were retrieved nearby.

Ashley Green, a scientist at the museum, said it was “a dream come true” to be one of the first people to see and study a meteorite that had been recovered almost immediately after coming down.

Read on...

https://www.theguardian.com/science...ced-by-scientists-to-gloucestershire-driveway
 
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France has underestimated impact of nuclear tests in French Polynesia, research finds

Groundbreaking new analysis could allow more than 100,000 people to claim compensation

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France has consistently underestimated the devastating impact of its nuclear tests in French Polynesia in the 1960s and 70s, according to groundbreaking new research that could allow more than 100,000 people to claim compensation.

France conducted 193 nuclear tests from 1966 to 1996 at Moruroa and Fangataufa atolls in French Polynesia, including 41 atmospheric tests until 1974 that exposed the local population, site workers and French soldiers to high levels of radiation.

By crunching the data from 2,000 pages of recently declassified French defence ministry documents, analysing maps, photos and other records, and carrying out dozens of interviews in France and French Polynesia, researchers have meticulously reconstructed three key nuclear tests and their fallout.

The Mururoa Files, a collaboration between investigative journalism newsroom Disclose, Princeton university’s Program on Science & Global Security and an environmental justice research collective, Interprt, suggest the impact of the Aldébaran, Encelade and Centaure tests of 1966, 1971 and 1974 was far greater than officially acknowledged.

“The state has tried hard to bury the toxic heritage of these tests,” said Geoffrey Livolsi, Disclose’s editor-in-chief. “This is the first truly independent scientific attempt to measure the scale of the damage and to acknowledge the thousands of victims of France’s nuclear experiment in the Pacific.”

Read on...

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...lear-tests-in-french-polynesia-research-finds
 
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Long-distance space travel: addressing the radiation problem

A team of US and Netherlands-based scientists has published a review paper highlighting ways to protect astronauts from the negative cardiovascular health impacts associated with exposure to space radiation during long-distance space travel.

Cardiovascular impacts

Space radiation is currently regarded as the most limiting factor for long-distance space travel because exposure to it is associated with significant negative effects on the human body. However, data on these effects are currently only available for those members of the Apollo programme that travelled as far as the Moon – too small a number from which to draw any significant conclusions about the effects of the space environment on the human body. In addition, although exposure to space radiation, including galactic cosmic rays and solar “proton storms”, has previously been linked to the development of cancer and neurological problems, data on the consequences of space radiation exposure for the cardiovascular system are lacking.

In an effort to address these limitations, researchers based at the University Medical Center (UMC) Utrecht, Leiden University Medical Center, Radboud University and the Technical University Eindhoven in the Netherlands, as well as Stanford University School of Medicine and Rice University in the US, have carried out an exhaustive review of existing evidence to establish what we know about the cardiovascular risks of space radiation. They present their findings in the journal Frontiers in Cardiovascular Medicine.

Read on...

https://physicsworld.com/a/long-distance-space-travel-addressing-the-radiation-problem/
 
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Why slow-pouring coffee makes a tower of liquid in your cup

When a droplet of coffee hits the liquid surface in the cup, a characteristic tower of coffee forms for a very short time, sometimes even with a new droplet on top. In a paper that appeared in Physical Review Fluids today, a team of researchers from Amsterdam, Delft and Paris shed new light on this intricate effect.

The effect of jet formation is not particular to coffee: the same effect can be seen for example when a rain drop hits a pond. When instead of coffee, a droplet of milk is dropped on a coffee surface, another interesting effect is observed: the tower of liquid will be mostly white. That is, it is not the coffee that splashes upward, it is the milk that 'bounces back."

Cees van Rijn, lead author of the new publication, says: "A rough explanation for the jet forming effect has been known for a long time. When a droplet hits the liquid surface, the surface can obtain a temporary 'impact crater." Once the liquid has flown back to the center of this crater, it has nowhere to go but up, which is how the jet forms."

Read on...

https://phys.org/news/2021-03-slow-pouring-coffee-tower-liquid-cup.html
 
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4.6-billion-year-old meteorite is the oldest volcanic rock ever found


The oldest volcanic rock we have ever discovered may help us understand the building blocks of planets. The meteorite, which was discovered in the Sahara desert in 2020, dates from just 2 million years after the formation of the solar system – making it more than a million years older than the previous record-holder.

“I have been working on meteorites for more than 20 years now, and this is possibly the most fantastic new meteorite I have ever seen,” says Jean-Alix Barrat at the University of Western Brittany in France. When he and his colleagues analysed the meteorite, called Erg Chech 002 or EC 002, they found that it was unlike any other meteorite we have ever located.



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It is a type of rock called andesite that, on Earth, is found mostly in subduction zones – areas where tectonic plates have collided and one has been pushed beneath the other – and rarely in meteorites. Most of the meteorites discovered on Earth are made of another kind of volcanic rock called basalt. Analysis of the chemical make-up of the new meteorite showed that it was once molten, and solidified nearly 4.6 billion years ago.
 
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Rate of expansion of Universe estimated at 73.3 km/second/megaparsecond

Determining how rapidly the universe is expanding is key to understanding our cosmic fate, but with more precise data has come a conundrum: Estimates based on measurements within our local universe don't agree with extrapolations from the era shortly after the Big Bang 13.8 billion years ago.

A new estimate of the local expansion rate -- the Hubble constant, or H0 (H-naught) -- reinforces that discrepancy.

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Using a relatively new and potentially more precise technique for measuring cosmic distances, which employs the average stellar brightness within giant elliptical galaxies as a rung on the distance ladder, astronomers calculate a rate -- 73.3 kilometers per second per megaparsec, give or take 2.5 km/sec/Mpc -- that lies in the middle of three other good estimates, including the gold standard estimate from Type Ia supernovae. This means that for every megaparsec -- 3.3 million light years, or 3 billion trillion kilometers -- from Earth, the universe is expanding an extra 73.3 ±2.5 kilometers per second. The average from the three other techniques is 73.5 ±1.4 km/sec/Mpc.
 
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Northern Hemisphere summers may last nearly half the year by 2100

Without efforts to mitigate climate change, summers spanning nearly six months may become the new normal by 2100 in the Northern Hemisphere, according to a new study. The change would likely have far-reaching impacts on agriculture, human health and the environment, according to the study authors.

In the 1950s in the Northern Hemisphere, the four seasons arrived in a predictable and fairly even pattern. But climate change is now driving dramatic and irregular changes to the length and start dates of the seasons, which may become more extreme in the future under a business-as-usual climate scenario.



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The researchers used historical daily climate data from 1952 to 2011 to measure changes in the four seasons' length and onset in the Northern Hemisphere. They defined the start of summer as the onset of temperatures in the hottest 25% during that time period, while winter began with temperatures in the coldest 25%. Next, the team used established climate change models to predict how seasons will shift in the future.

The new study found that, on average, summer grew from 78 to 95 days between 1952 to 2011, while winter shrank from 76 to 73 days. Spring and autumn also contracted from 124 to 115 days, and 87 to 82 days, respectively. Accordingly, spring and summer began earlier, while autumn and winter started later. The Mediterranean region and the Tibetan Plateau experienced the greatest changes to their seasonal cycles.

If these trends continue without any effort to mitigate climate change, the researchers predict that by 2100, winter will last less than two months, and the transitional spring and autumn seasons will shrink further as well.
 
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Fastest Rocket Sled in the World: The U.S. Air Force Railroad

This demonstrates the launch supersonic testing and explains its development program. It set the land-speed record for a manned vehicle at Mach 2.5 (1,600 mph), unmanned maximum mach 8.


 
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