Dynadot

discuss Science & Technology news & discussion

Spaceship Spaceship
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.
The Lost Forest - Nobel Peace Prize Shorts

A mission in Mozambique to reach a forest that no human has set foot. The team of climate change experts aims to collect and compare data from the primeval forest to help in our understanding of the human impact on climate change.

 
3
•••
‘It’s like the embers in a barbecue pit.’ Nuclear reactions are smoldering again at Chernobyl

Thirty-five years after the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine exploded in the world’s worst nuclear accident, fission reactions are smoldering again in uranium fuel masses buried deep inside a mangled reactor hall. “It’s like the embers in a barbecue pit,” says Neil Hyatt, a nuclear materials chemist at the University of Sheffield. Now, Ukrainian scientists are scrambling to determine whether the reactions will wink out on their own—or require extraordinary interventions to avert another accident.


ca_NID_Cherenobyl_New_Safe_Confinement_online.jpg


Sensors are tracking a rising number of neutrons, a signal of fission, streaming from one inaccessible room, Anatolii Doroshenko of the Institute for Safety Problems of Nuclear Power Plants (ISPNPP) in Kyiv, Ukraine, reported last week during discussions about dismantling the reactor. “There are many uncertainties,” says ISPNPP’s Maxim Saveliev. “But we can’t rule out the possibility of [an] accident.” The neutron counts are rising slowly, Saveliev says, suggesting managers still have a few years to figure out how to stifle the threat. Any remedy he and his colleagues come up with will be of keen interest to Japan, which is coping with the aftermath of its own nuclear disaster 10 years ago at Fukushima, Hyatt notes. “It’s a similar magnitude of hazard.”

If it was me, I'd be pouring a weak concrete mix into the whole lot, burying it under a huge mountain of more concrete, and surrounding it in stone blocks bearing carved warning messages.

In five to ten thousand years time, some bright spark academic will decide that there is treasure down there and dig it all up.
 
Last edited:
1
•••
Finally... Starship SN15 flew and stuck the landing.

 
Last edited:
1
•••
History of the Computer Keyboard


Typewriter Fever


Types in Japanese, Chinese + English. Toshiba Typewriter Model BW-2112



Commercial for IBM's Selectric Typewriter 1960's

 
Last edited:
1
•••
Rapid blood test detects cancerous mutations in tumor DNA

An experimental test successfully detected cancerous mutations in tumor cells by analyzing their DNA that is free-floating in blood, employing a strip test that displays results within 10 minutes.

In a paper published April 12 in Analytica Chimica Acta, the researchers said their liquid biopsy test is less invasive than standard tissue sampling and could be expanded to detect other cancerous genes.

blood_test_05TVgJX.jpg



Like many healthy cells, cells from cancerous tumors can release fragments of their DNA into the bloodstream when they die. The genetic code of these cells contains mutations that promote cancerous growth, and the blood-borne DNA fragments — called circulating tumor DNA — have become a popular research subject for new cancer diagnosis, treatment and prognosis.

Tissue biopsy, the removal and testing of a tissue sample for the presence of tumors or other diseases, is the "gold standard" for cancer diagnosis, according to a 2016 review paper in Oncotarget, although it has some limitations that include "unsatisfactory" detection of early-stage tumors or residual lesions.

The review said that drawing and analyzing blood, the most common form of liquid biopsy, stand to be a promising alternative because of the highly sensitive and specific results of screening for circulating tumor DNA, although the technique still needs further testing for regular clinical use.

 
2
•••
Ikea-Like Pasta Is The Earth-Friendly Food Of The Future


WHAT’S NEW — This is not the first time this team of researchers has attempted to design a more streamlined and flatter pasta. But they write in the new study that their previous approach had fallen short on demonstrating exactly how to reliably recreate a morphing pasta noodle. In this newest rendition, they were looking to set this record straight.

“Surface grooves [were] introduced [in our previous work] for morphing flour-based food, since this works with a single material and simple manufacturing method,” write the authors. “However, the previous study did not explain the underlining morphing mechanism and relied heavily on experimental trial and error for the morphing design.”

0c4825cf-1bc2-47e4-92b1-253e217d4b76-tao4hr-pastashapes.jpg



In other words, while the team determined in their previous study that stamping grooves on flat pasta could coax it into taking on 3D shape in the water, they didn’t yet know exactly why this was happening — at least in terms of a master equation to describe the action.

Using a mix of physical experiments (on both hydrogel “pasta” and the real deal) and simulations, the team was now able to reliably recreate this morphology to develop and predict the formation of different pasta shapes.

ac4fd594-b807-47c2-b21d-9cdb22356d22-tao3hr.jpg

 
2
•••
Supersonic Planes are Coming Back (And This Time, They Might Work)

 
Last edited:
2
•••
Supersonic Planes are Coming Back (And This Time, They Might Work)


Wish I had flown on Concorde. I saw her fly a few times.

Concorde's supersonic engine was actually developed for the BAC TSR-2, one of the most beautiful and advanced aircraft ever developed, that never went into full scale production.

avtsr2_2.jpg


The British Aircraft Corporation TSR-2 (Tactical Strike and Reconnaissance, Mach 2) was developed for the RAF in the late 1950s, and was designed to penetrate a well-defended forward battle area at extremely low altitudes - as low as sea-level - at mach speeds using the most advanced ground-hugging radar and mapping systems ever designed, and deliver a special weapon. It was decades ahead of it's time, but was cancelled after production had begun due to politics.

The British government had forced the established aviation companies into amalgamation to work on this one design, and the subsequent cancellation of the program damaged Britain's military aviation industry.

http://www.airvectors.net/avtsr2.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BAC_TSR-2
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolls-Royce_Olympus

Here's a very good documentary on the TSR-2 program, with interviews of Roland Beamont who was the test pilot, and other leading figures at the time.

 
Last edited:
2
•••
High-speed rail lines have already been implemented around the world with massive success; could this be Canada's next great infrastructure project?

As Canada's highways become increasingly congested, travelling by train has become more enticing than ever. A Canadian company called HyperCan has put forward a proposal that could turn the 5 and a half hour trip between Montreal and Toronto into a 39-minute journey.

 
Last edited:
3
•••
Playing with Sharks: Australian documentary shines light on Valerie Taylor, deep sea diver who swam with sharks

13128898-16x9-xlarge.jpg

Valerie Taylor (seen here, wearing a chainmail sleeve) and her husband Ron were the first people to film sharks without using an underwater cage. She filmed the real sharks for Jaws and famously wore a chainmail suit, using herself as shark bait, changing our scientific understanding of sharks forever. (Copyright: Ron & Valerie Taylor)

She is renowned amongst her peers for her gutsy, pioneering environmentalism over the last 50 years, but it is only now that Valerie Taylor's legacy is being celebrated on screen.

Famously providing 'real sharks' for Hollywood with husband Ron, the deep-sea diver's remarkable life is explored through breathtaking archive in the new Australian documentary Playing With Sharks...

The couple — the 'Jacques Cousteaus' of the Asia-Pacific, if you will (albeit without the Frenchman's public purse) — shot thousands of hours of underwater footage.

You may have seen their images in the pages of National Geographic.

You've almost certainly seen their live shark footage in Spielberg's Jaws.


https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-07/playing-with-sharks-valerie-taylor-australian-documentary-diver/13116984



Nat Geo Documentary Films Acquires ‘Playing With Sharks’

Sundance 2021: Doc chronicles the life of Australian icon, conservationist and filmmaker Valerie Taylor.

https://www.thewrap.com/nat-geo-documentary-films-acquires-playing-with-sharks/



The film has been snapped up by National Geographic Documentary Films for an undisclosed sum following its virtual premiere at the Sundance Festival, and will air at cinemas later this year.

Be sure to keep your eye out when the trailers begin hitting social-media later this year.

I met my first Australian sea lion 57 years ago. Today I fear for this delightful animal
- Valerie Taylor

1116.jpg


Eared sea lions, or, as most Australians call them, seals, must be about the sweetest, and most loveable of all sea creatures.

Man is their great enemy. Another is that incredible predator the great white shark, or white pointer, but whereas the white shark normally attacks only sick, old, or very slow sea lions, man in his usual fashion is generally not so discriminating.

I met my first Australian sea lion on Dangerous Reef, out front Port Lincoln, South Australia. It was also on Dangerous Reef that I saw them butchered, probably for shark burley (bait). One minute they were watching with wide-eyed curiosity and the next they were being shot falling next to their startled pups. Man had once again triumphed ever the innocent and helpless. That happened about 57 years ago and has no doubt been happening ever since.

On 15 January 1975 the Australian sea lions on Dangerous Reef numbered about 60 or 80 animals. Six years before at the same time there had been 200 or more. I know because I counted them myself.

Using Ron’s footage and TV interviews I had successfully had the killing of all seal lions in Australian waters banned. I know many eared seals fall prey to different natural causes but the introduction of man the hunter, the polluter, the uncaring has been the main cause of their decline.

Unless the government proclaims larger marine sanctuary areas around the remaining sea lion colonies I fear this delightful animal will become like the Tasmanian Tiger, only an image in a picture book.


Read on...

https://www.theguardian.com/comment...s-ago-today-i-fear-for-this-delightful-animal

863.jpg
 
Last edited:
1
•••
How might you improve on this even further:

High Hopes claims stratospheric breakthrough in direct air CO2 capture


"Battalions of carbon dioxide-grabbing stratospheric balloons operating higher than airliners are far and away the cheapest path to direct air carbon capture, according to Israel's High Hopes"

https://newatlas.com/environment/high-hopes-carbon-capture-balloons/
 
2
•••
1
•••
Sharks use Earth's magnetic fields to guide them like a map

Sea turtles are known for relying on magnetic signatures to find their way across thousands of miles to the very beaches where they hatched. Now, researchers reporting in the journal Current Biology on May 6 have some of the first solid evidence that sharks also rely on magnetic fields for their long-distance forays across the sea.

"It had been unresolved how sharks managed to successfully navigate during migration to targeted locations," said Save Our Seas Foundation project leader Bryan Keller, also of Florida State University Coastal and Marine Laboratory. "This research supports the theory that they use the earth's magnetic field to help them find their way; it's nature's GPS."

Read on...

https://phys.org/news/2021-05-sharks-earth-magnetic-fields.html
 
0
•••
High-speed rail lines have already been implemented around the world with massive success; could this be Canada's next great infrastructure project?

As Canada's highways become increasingly congested, travelling by train has become more enticing than ever. A Canadian company called HyperCan has put forward a proposal that could turn the 5 and a half hour trip between Montreal and Toronto into a 39-minute journey.


LOL, from the preview graphic on that video, I was half expecting to see a missile based transport system!
 
2
•••
How we discovered the oldest human burial in Africa – and what it tells us about our ancestors

file-20210505-13-un9bz4.jpeg


How did human uniqueness first evolve among our ancestors, setting us apart from other animals? That is a question many archaeologists are grappling with by investigating early records of art, language, food preparation, ornaments and symbols. How our ancestors treated and mourned the dead can also offer crucial clues, helping to reveal when we first developed the abstract thinking needed to fully grasp the concept of death.

Now we have discovered a 78,000-year-old human burial at a cave in the tropical coast of eastern Africa, which provides tantalising evidence about our ancestors’ treatment of the dead. Our new study, published in Nature, describes the burial of a 2½ to 3-year-old child, nicknamed “Mtoto” (Swahili for “child”), at the Panga ya Saidi archaeological site in Kenya. It is the earliest known Homo sapiens burial in Africa.

The excavations began in 2010. So far, they have revealed a record of human occupation from 78,000 to 500 years ago, covering the Middle Stone Age and Later Stone Age periods of African archaeology. Mtoto’s burial lay towards the base of the excavation site and was first recognised because it contained sediment of a different colour from the surroundings.

Read on...

https://theconversation.com/how-we-...d-what-it-tells-us-about-our-ancestors-160122
 
1
•••
Good research begins long before papers get written

Nature.com EDITORIAL

Publishers are redoubling their commitment to transparency and reproducibility — but they can’t bring about change alone.

In 2013, Nature began asking the authors of life-sciences papers to provide extra information in a bid to tackle the pressing problem of poor reproducibility in research. According to one survey of Nature authors conducted in 2016–17, 86% of respondents considered poor reproducibility to be a growing challenge in the life sciences.

Researchers in these fields are now asked to use a structured reporting summary for their manuscript submissions. Among other things, the checklist requires authors to state whether their experimental findings have been replicated; how they determined an appropriate sample size; whether they randomized samples; and whether data have been assessed by researchers who did not know which group they were assessing.

Such a checklist, which is provided to peer reviewers and published with each life-sciences paper, has helped to improve transparency in the reporting of research1,2. But editors from many journals and researchers recognize that there is still work to be done.

Read on...

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-01167-9
 
2
•••
1
•••
China rocket falling to earth live tracking .

 
2
•••
Last edited:
0
•••
Fell in Indian ocean near Maldives, per China statement.
 
2
•••
If we want to save the planet, the future of food is insects

My first attempts at feeding insects to friends and family did not go down well. “What the hell is wrong with you?” asked my wife when I revealed that the tomato and oregano-flavoured cracker bites we had been munching with our G&Ts were made from crickets. “Hang on, I’m vegetarian!” cried our friend – which prompted a slightly testy discussion on whether insects count as meat, how many thousand arthropods equate to one mammal and considering almost all industrial agriculture involves the mass slaughter of insects, what’s the difference?

https://www.theguardian.com/food/20...save-the-planet-the-future-of-food-is-insects

I'm thinking this will be an acquired taste.
 
2
•••
2
•••
I'm sure these kind of bugs can be ironed out.. perhaps a seasoned approach could bring a palatable solution.

:-D

If you haven't clicked on the link, take a look at the photo ... it's delectable.
 
2
•••
Hi-tech bridge failure...

A tourist was left clinging for life after a glass-panelled sky bridge suspended 91 metres in the air in China was wrecked by 145km/h winds.

The walkway, located in the Piyan Mountain in the city of Longjing, reportedly saw its glass panels shattered by the extreme weather conditions.

 
Last edited:
1
•••
Scientists Discover New Auroral Phenomenon Hidden in 19-Year-Old Video Footage

Not all auroras slither through the sky like snakes. Some – called diffuse aurora – are more like an even glow dispersed throughout the sky.

Scientists know a fair bit about these diffuse auroras, but an old video from 2002 revealing what seems to be an undocumented auroral phenomenon shows we definitely don't know everything.



"We found these events in a movie taken the night of March 15, 2002 in Churchill, [Manitoba], Canada," the researchers write in a summary of their research.

"They appear as a section of diffuse aurora that rapidly brightens, then disappears and also erases the background aurora. Then, over the course of several tens of seconds, the diffuse aurora recovers to its original brightness."

Read on...

https://www.sciencealert.com/scient...f-auroral-phenomenon-from-a-20-year-old-video
 
Last edited:
0
•••
Back