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Science (General/Chat)

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  • New map of Beringia 'opens your imagination' to what landscape looked like 18,000 years ago

    02/11/2019 8:04:08 PM PST · by SunkenCiv · 27 replies
    CBC News ^ | January 31, 2019, Last Updated: February 1 | Karen McColl
    The Bering land bridge was exposed at various times over an almost three million year period, when wide scale glaciation lowered sea levels by as much as 150 metres. The land bridge was part of "Beringia," which refers to the stretch of land between present day Siberia and Yukon Territory. It's been home to woolly mammoths, steppe bison and humans. Jeff Bond, a geologist with Yukon Geological Survey in Whitehorse, has produced a map showing what Beringia looked like 18,000 years ago. At that time, much of the earth was glaciated, but Beringia remained predominantly ice-free due to its arid...
  • "X-ray gun" helps researchers pinpoint the origins of pottery found on ancient shipwreck

    02/11/2019 7:54:37 PM PST · by SunkenCiv · 20 replies
    The Field Museum ^ | February 8, 2019 | press release
    About eight hundred years ago, a ship sank in the Java Sea off the coast of the islands of Java and Sumatra in Indonesia. There are no written records saying where the ship was going or where it came from -- the only clues are the mostly-disintegrated structure of the vessel and its cargo, which was discovered on the seabed in the 1980s. Since the wreck's recovery in the 1990s, researchers have been piecing together the world that the Java Sea Shipwreck was part of. In a new study in the Journal of Archaeological Science, archaeologists have demonstrated a new...
  • First direct view of an electron's short, speedy trip across a border

    02/11/2019 3:12:17 PM PST · by ETL · 24 replies
    Phys.org ^ | February 11, 2019 | Glennda Chui, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
    Electrons flowing across the boundary between two materials are the foundation of many key technologies, from flash memories to batteries and solar cells. Now researchers have directly observed and clocked these tiny cross-border movements for the first time, watching as electrons raced seven-tenths of a nanometer – about the width of seven hydrogen atoms – in 100 millionths of a billionth of a second. Led by scientists at the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University, the team made these observations by measuring tiny bursts of electromagnetic waves given off by the traveling electrons – a phenomenon...
  • Strange spiral cloud baffles experts

    02/11/2019 12:17:57 PM PST · by ETL · 54 replies
    FoxNews.com/Science ^ | Feb 11, 2019 | James Rogers | Fox News
    The cloud, which resembles a jet’s vapor trail or a rocket launch, was photographed last week on Salisbury Plain in Southern England. SWNS reports that neither U.K. defense officials nor university weather experts have been unable to explain the cloud. The image was taken near a Ministry of Defense testing range. However, the U.K’s Defense Infrastructure Organization is not aware of any exercises that could have caused the cloud.
  • Taking UFOs Seriously

    02/11/2019 10:02:05 AM PST · by BenLurkin · 121 replies
    Psychology Today ^ | Feb 05, 2019 | Glenn C. Altschuler Ph.D.
    In American Cosmic, D.W. Pasulka, a professor of religious studies at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington, draws on a six-year ethnographic study and the work of Carl Jung (Flying Saucers) and Jacques Vallee (Passport to Magonia and The Invisible College) to explain the widespread belief in aliens. Pasulka identifies three aspects of UFO inquiry: physical evidence (crash sites and artifacts); testimonials made by experiencers; and the persistence of belief whether or not there is verifiable evidence to support it. Pasulka also challenges the view that UFO believers are uneducated, fringe members of society. Some very well-regarded scientists, she indicates,...
  • Cosmic dust survives obliteration in massive red supernova, NASA shows in stunning visual

    02/11/2019 8:25:46 AM PST · by ETL · 41 replies
    FoxNews.com/Science ^ | Feb 11, 2019 | Christopher Carbone | Fox News
    When dying red giant stars throw off material, dust particles form; those particles are later destroyed by supernova blast waves, which move through space at more than 6,000 miles per second, according to NASA. Supernova explosions are among the most powerful events in the universe and can produce a brightness equivalent to the light from billions of individual stars, NASA reports, adding that the blast wave from these explosions will destroy almost everything in its path.Observations from SOFIA — a Boeing747SP jetliner that's been modified to carry a 106-inch diameter telescope — tell a more mysterious story and show more...
  • Mysterious dark-toned Martian terrain

    02/11/2019 8:15:22 AM PST · by Red Badger · 34 replies
    behindtheblack.com ^ | February 8, 2019 at 12:37 pm | Robert Zimmerman
    Cool image time! The picture on the right, cropped and reduced to post here, was part of the January image release from the high resolution camera of Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). It shows an area in the Martian southern highlands where the surface suddenly gets darker, for no obvious reason. The uncaptioned release image is titled “Dark-Toned Ridge at Junction with Dark-Toned Plain.” From the image itself it is hard to understand this title. In the full image the darkest terrain is a strip in the center, with slightly lighter dark terrain on either side, and the lightest terrain to...
  • The question of sea level rise: It has been constant for centuries — and remains so today.

    02/11/2019 7:34:18 AM PST · by SeekAndFind · 22 replies
    American Thinker ^ | 02/11/2019 | S. Fred Singer
    Sea level has risen about 400 feet since the last glacial maximum of ~18,000 years ago (see fig. below). Currently, sea level is rising at the rate of 1-2mm per year — and has been rising at that rate for the past several centuries. At that rate, S.L. will be about six inches higher by 2100 — a long way from Al Gore's 2006 estimate of a 20-foot rise. By choosing a short interval, 1910–1942, of certified warming, I can show the lack of any acceleration (see below).  SLR does not depend on ocean temperature — or CO2. Every one of the...
  • A taste for fat may have made us human, says study

    02/11/2019 6:51:30 AM PST · by Openurmind · 59 replies
    Popular Archaeology ^ | 2/6/19 | Staff
    YALE UNIVERSITY—Long before human ancestors began hunting large mammals for meat, a fatty diet provided them with the nutrition to develop bigger brains, posits a new paper* in Current Anthropology. The paper argues that our early ancestors acquired a taste for fat by eating marrow scavenged from the skeletal remains of large animals that had been killed and eaten by other predators. The argument challenges the widely held view among anthropologists that eating meat was the critical factor in setting the stage for the evolution of humans. Our ancestors likely began acquiring a taste for fat 4 million years ago,...
  • Scientists Have Reduced the Forecast of Sea Level Rise Seven Times Due to Melting of the Antarctic

    02/10/2019 3:07:18 PM PST · by Textide · 34 replies
    The Maritime Herald ^ | February 8, 2019 | SVILEN PETROV
    The destruction of the Antarctic ice sheet may not lead to such a catastrophic rise in the level of the oceans, as previously thought. In a new study, the authors calculated that instead of growing by a meter or more by 2100, a growth of 14-15 cm is likely, writes N + 1. At the same time, the melting of the ice of Greenland and Antarctica is not fully taken into account in modern climate models, as it will lead to even more destabilization of the regional climate. Both studies on this are published in the journal Nature. The melting...
  • Tom Brady...superstitious wife ["good witch"] Gisele, 'protection stones'

    02/10/2019 2:29:54 PM PST · by daniel1212 · 44 replies
    WCVB ^ | Feb 7, 2019 | WCVB
    BOSTON —Six-time Super Bowl winner Tom Brady spoke about how his wife Gisele Bundchen has used some unusual ways to keep luck on her husband's side.... "I've learned a lot from my wife over the years," Brady said while laying down in a barber's chair. "She's about the power of intention, believing that things are really going to happen." Brady said Bundchen put together a little altar for him that he could bring with pictures of his kids.... I have these little special stones, healing stones, protection stones and she has me wear a necklace, take these drops she makes,...
  • Why don't we build homes using interlocking cement blocks?

    No need for software if you can learn from nature, at least that's what my ancestors did. Take the ancient Temple of Borobudur for example. Borobudur - Wikipedia If this colossal structure were to be build today the amount of computation and simulation required to complete it would be very great. But because there were no computers in the 9th century what my ancestors did to complete this beautiful edifice was quite interesting in it self. The learn from observation and harnessing everything that nature has given them in order to complete this temple. Borobudur is located on the South...
  • Our Hawaii Vacation

    02/09/2019 5:15:32 PM PST · by blueunicorn6 · 61 replies
    A Wandering Star | Saturday | blueunicorn6
    We decided (by “We” I mean my wife) that we should celebrate our Son’s big achievement. He got out of bed before noon. No. He graduated. I know. We were all kind of surprised. We needed an appropriate reward, but Miss Oregon was already taken, so we thought a trip would be nice. Yeah. A good trip. A trip to the big luau. That’s right. Seattle. Turns out the whole city was booked up. They were having a coffee stirrers convention or something. You know, I applied for one of those, what do they call them, bannisters, job. You know....stirring...
  • How Old Is Earth?

    02/09/2019 12:13:39 PM PST · by ETL · 67 replies
    Space.com ^ | February 7, 2019 | Nola Taylor Redd, Space.com Contributor
    Planet Earth doesn't have a birth certificate to record its formation, which means scientists spent hundreds of years struggling to determine the age of the planet. By dating the rocks in Earth's ever-changing crust, as well as the rocks in Earth's neighbors, such as the moon and visiting meteorites, scientists have calculated that Earth is 4.54 billion years old, with an error range of 50 million years. How old are your rocks? Scientists have made several attempts to date the planet over the past 400 years. They've attempted to predict the age based on changing sea levels, the time it...
  • The 10,958 Problem - Numberphile

    02/09/2019 11:48:37 AM PST · by SunkenCiv · 16 replies
    YouTube ^ | April 18, 2017 | Numberphile Featuring Matt Parker
    The 10,958 Problem, based on work by Brazilian mathematician Inder J. Taneja. The 10,958 Problem | Numberphile | Featuring Matt Parker | YouTube | Published on Apr 18, 2017 | Video by Brady Haran
  • Something Is Not Quite Right In the Universe, Ultraprecise New Measurement Reveals

    02/09/2019 9:49:05 AM PST · by ETL · 82 replies
    Space.com ^ | February 9, 2019 | Mara Johnson-Groh, Live Science Contributor
    Something isn't quite right in the universe. At least based on everything physicists know so far. Stars, galaxies, black holes and all the other celestial objects are hurtling away from each other ever faster over time. Past measurements in our local neighborhood of the universe find that the universe is exploding outward faster than it was in the beginning. That shouldn't be the case, based on scientists' best descriptor of the universe. If their measurements of a value known as the Hubble Constant are correct, it means that the current model is missing crucial new physics, such as unaccounted-for fundamental...
  • Scientists Are Investigating Building a Space Station Inside a Giant Asteroid

    02/09/2019 7:20:47 AM PST · by BenLurkin · 15 replies
    Science Alert ^ | 9 FEB 2019 | DAVID NIELD
    Why would we attempt such a bizarre feat of astro-engineering? Because the spin of the asteroid would create enough gravity for mining equipment to be effectively used, giving us a way to tap into the rich minerals and deposits inside these celestial rocks. In addition, researchers suggest the asteroid's rocky hull could also help keep the mining station safe from the dangers of being out in space – cosmic ray radiation and all. This crazy idea might just be possible, according to a new study from astrophysicists at the University of Vienna in Austria, who applied some advanced gravity models...
  • MJ-Really no linkage to violence, mental illness and other drugs?

    02/09/2019 5:35:34 AM PST · by Manly Warrior · 60 replies
    Okay, we all have heard the argument that MJ is not a bad drug, it is not a gateway and is not a violence-producing mechanism, all to the tune of how the WOD is a waste of resources and effort etc. Here is a short article that discusses some of the issues and presents some interesting facts. Let's not let our opinions get in the way too much.... https://imprimis.hillsdale.edu/marijuana-mental-illness-violence/
  • Two more rings discovered around Uranus

    12/22/2005 11:55:15 AM PST · by iPod Shuffle · 75 replies · 1,357+ views
    MSNBC/AP ^ | Dec. 22nd
    Two more rings discovered around Uranus First additions to planet's ring system in nearly 20 years Updated: 2:03 p.m. ET Dec. 22, 2005 Astronomers aided by the Hubble Space Telescope have spied two more rings encircling Uranus, the first additions to the planet’s ring system in nearly two decades. The faint, dusty rings orbit outside of Uranus’ previously known rings, but within the orbits of its large moons, said Mark Showalter, an astronomer at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, Calif., who made the discovery. Details will appear on the journal Science's Web site, in advance of print publication. The...
  • Robots Are Writing the News and Nobody’s Talking About It

    02/08/2019 10:20:47 PM PST · by Windflier · 53 replies
    Activist Post ^ | Elias Marat
    As journalists face increased layoffs despite the growing appetite for up-to-the-minute, timely news, a new trend has quietly been disrupting the news industry. Enter the automated reporter. News organizations are increasingly turning toward artificial intelligence (AI) for production, using a variety of new automated systems to pump out content with minimal need for direct human input. According to a report by The New York Times, Bloomberg News relies on a system called Cyborg to produce about a third of its articles. Most of Cyborg’s output takes the form of company earnings reports that are rife with percentages, charts, and other...