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ravi_iitian
Community Member

News & Science Thread

If humans are going to send tiny probes across the vast distances of space, the designs of their sails will need to strike a delicate balance of mass, strength, and reflectivity. Now engineers have invented a nanomaterial that might just do the trick, helping us push space probes closer to light speed. 

 

https://www.sciencealert.com/new-nanomaterial-silica-silicon-solar-sail-technology

 

"Certa bonum certamen"
127 REPLIES 127
ravi_iitian
Community Member

“If you look at the Moon through a telescope, you might see something curious on the surface. The bright, undulating patterns are called lunar swirls, and their origins have been an ongoing mystery - not least because they are associated with powerful, localised magnetic fields.”

 

https://www.sciencealert.com/lunar-swirls-moon-magnetic-anomalies-subsurface-lava-tubes

 

"Certa bonum certamen"

So, it's not swiss cheese after all?

Oh, now look what you did! That's so sad.

 

sad_swiss.jpg

ravi_iitian
Community Member

"We have created another pseudo-disease."

 

https://www.sciencealert.com/the-largest-ever-clinical-study-on-vitamin-d-shows-we-re-wrong-about-it...

 

"Certa bonum certamen"
ravi_iitian
Community Member
ravi_iitian
Community Member

“As the robot moves with the water through a pipe, its ‘hands’ touch the pipe and feel the suction forces caused by leaks, Wu told Business Insider.”

 

https://www.sciencealert.com/mit-graduate-developed-leak-detecting-robot-to-save-drinking-water

 

"Certa bonum certamen"
ravi_iitian
Community Member

“We still don't really know how anaesthetic works.”

 

https://www.sciencealert.com/plants-respond-anaesthetics-weird-movement

 

"Certa bonum certamen"

We really don't know how most chemicals used in medication work.

I am also convinced that airplanes fly pretty much by magic. You cannot persuade me that anything that heavy can leave the ground for hours at a time. In fact, when I am in an airplane it is probably nothing outside of the power of my individual concentration that is keeping the entire group of crew and passengers aloft and safe between takeoff and landing.


@Janean L wrote:

I am also convinced that airplanes fly pretty much by magic. You cannot convince me that anything that heavy can leave the ground for hours at a time. In fact, when I am in an airplane it is probably nothing outside of the power of my individual concentration that is keeping the entire group of crew and passengers aloft and safe from takeoff to landing.


________________________

 

Never look out of an airplane window - contrary to popular belief, Earth is flat. 
 

I know (but do not know the chemical names) that in my family, some of us have a bad - fighting - reaction to some anaesthetics, but others (anaesthetics) are OK.  

 

Hardly surprising. Standard doses of lidocaine do nothing for me, and even running an orthopedist's office out of the drug didn't work. Marcaine works, but the only difference appears to be a tighter bond to the nerve roots, extending the length of its effect but not known to influence ts effectiveness.

 

Despite millenia of experience and experimentation, we still know less about most medications than we do about Nicola's basil plants.

ravi_iitian
Community Member

“But new research shows an amazing, unprecedented effect of these efforts: solar and wind farms could actually bring rainfall and greenery back to the desert.”

 

https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-incredible-plan-make-rain-sahara-desert-solar-wind-energy-gr...

 

"Certa bonum certamen"

Sahara plan will work if energy storage and transmission issues are solved. By the way, do you know the Arabic word for desert? Sahara. Accent on the Sa.

 

It has also been discovered recently that in the midwestern U.S. vast fields of crops have reversed local atmospheric warming. I'm starting a project to improve portability of stored solar-generated energy. Batteries are nice, but try powering a 20,000-TEU container ship with them. Flywheels are probably the best solution available, but weight is a problem and the best ones still don't get much over 0.1Kwh/kg. Refamiliarizing myself with ideal gas law, Boyle's law, adiabatic compression and nanostructured ceramics to start on compressed-air solution.

ravi_iitian
Community Member

“A new study of the binary asteroid Patroclus-Menoetius has revealed some clues about the chaotic and turbulent beginnings of our Solar System – primarily when Uranus and Neptune were bullied away from the Sun by Jupiter and Saturn.”

 

https://www.sciencealert.com/asteroid-binary-pair-show-jupiter-and-saturn-wrecked-solar-system-early

 

"Certa bonum certamen"
ravi_iitian
Community Member

“On video, the newly discovered snailfish appeared to be long and gelatinous, with translucent skin and an ethereal movement, as they fed on bait lowered with the trap. The fish also seemed far larger than other organisms captured on camera near the bait”

 

https://www.sciencealert.com/new-snail-fish-liparidae-discovered-deep-down-atacama-trench

 

"Certa bonum certamen"
ravi_iitian
Community Member

“During an archaeological dig last week, historians discovered a broken soapstone amphora - a kind of stone urn - at the bottom of the Cressoni Theatre in Como, northern Italy.”

 

https://www.sciencealert.com/a-pot-of-5th-century-gold-coins-have-been-found-under-an-italian-theatr...

 

"Certa bonum certamen"

Wait till the ELF gets home.....

ravi_iitian
Community Member

“Right now, it's known simply as G0775. But this simple code could represent a whole new battery of drugs that just might buy us the time we need to deal with the growing superbug problem.”

 

https://www.sciencealert.com/arylomycin-analogue-gram-negative-antibiotic-first-in-50-years

 

"Certa bonum certamen"
ravi_iitian
Community Member

“The Northern Hemisphere is facing an onslaught of hurricanes and typhoons, seemingly overnight. With three storms spinning in the North Atlantic - Hurricane Florence one of them - the tropics have exploded to life at the peak of the annual season.

 

“At the same time, in the tropical Pacific, Super Typhoon Mangkhut is the most intense tropical cyclone in the world, packing 170 miles per hour (273 kilometres per hour) winds.”

 

https://www.sciencealert.com/super-typhoon-mangkhut-north-atlantic-hurricane-florence-helene-isaac-s...

 

"Certa bonum certamen"

Statistically, September 9 is the peak of hurricane season.  This is the time of year that they start spinning off of Africa (as well as developing more locally).  Another month and it will be better.  Interestingly, one of storms is headed straight for the British Isles and thankfully, nothing is headed my way.

Mary, glad to hear nothing is headed your way.  IMO from stories you've shared with us you've been through more than enough challenging weather events!

ravi_iitian
Community Member

“Denver Zoo in the US has just welcomed a new resident: a teeny tiny member of one of the most elusive lemur families in the world, the aye-aye. The new arrival, born on 8 August to mum Bellatrix and dad Smeagol, has been named Tonks, a name just as adorable as she is.”

 

https://www.sciencealert.com/baby-aye-aye-tonks-endangered-lemur-born-denver-zoo-daubentonia-madagas...

 

"Certa bonum certamen"
ravi_iitian
Community Member

“Last year the world took a turn for the worst. A global survey of human emotions has ranked 2017 as the gloomiest and most miserable year in more than a decade.”

 

https://www.sciencealert.com/2017-was-the-gloomiest-year-in-more-than-a-decade-global-survey-finds

 

"Certa bonum certamen"
ravi_iitian
Community Member

“When plants are under attack - say, for instance, by an insect making a tasty leaf meal - their defence systems are raised in other parts. How do they know to do that?”

 

https://www.sciencealert.com/plant-damage-response-defence-calcium-ions-glutamate-fluorescent

 

"Certa bonum certamen"
ravi_iitian
Community Member

“Something is amiss in the state of New Mexico, and the chain of mysterious events has all the hallmarks of a sci-fi plot.”

 

https://www.sciencealert.com/a-solar-observatory-in-new-mexico-was-mysteriously-shut-down-and-nobody...

 

"Certa bonum certamen"
ravi_iitian
Community Member

“Although scientific evidence shows storms are stronger and wetter because of climate change, no one has ever really been able to pin down how much human-caused warming contributes to these damaging forecasts ahead of a storm's arrival.

 

“But for the first time, a group of academic research scientists has calculated roughly how much of Hurricane Florence's predicted rainfall is our fault.

 

“The team estimates that forecasted rain totals are more than 50 percent higher than they might have been if humans hadn't warmed up the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels.”

 

https://www.sciencealert.com/50-percent-more-precipitation-for-hurricane-florence-forecast-due-to-cl...

 

"Certa bonum certamen"
ravi_iitian
Community Member

“Jupiter's magnetic field is profoundly different from that of all other known planets — it essentially has two magnetic south poles instead of just one, a new Nature study finds.”

 

https://www.popsci.com/jupiter-magnetic-field-wacky

 

"Certa bonum certamen"
ravi_iitian
Community Member

“When it comes to the growth of the private aerospace sector (aka. NewSpace), one of the more ambitious and exciting elements is the prospect of space tourism. Between SpaceX, Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin, proposals include flying customers to suborbital altitudes, flying them to the Moon, or even as far as Mars. And beyond the three NewSpace giants, several smaller companies are looking for a piece of the pie.”

 

https://www.universetoday.com/139947/japanese-startup-is-working-on-a-reusable-rocketplane-to-carry-...

 

"Certa bonum certamen"
ravi_iitian
Community Member

“So you have a nice, normal spiral galaxy, right, just out there doing its thing, when BAM! A smaller galaxy careens right through the middle of it like a bullet! Chaos, fireworks, explosions everywhere! And then, after the second galaxy leaves, the first one starts changing shape, transforming, into a big ring, and then stars start dying, and now there’s this huge ring a gazillion miles across that’s just littered with black holes and other weird objects sucking down matter and spewing out death rays!”

 

https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/wham-bullseye-galactic-collision-creates-a-ring-of-black-holes-and-neu...

 

"Certa bonum certamen"

“A Chinese remote sensing satellite has captured stunning footage of a suborbital rocket launch taking place at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in the Gobi Desert.”

 

https://gbtimes.com/amazing-footage-of-chinese-rocket-launch-captured-by-orbiting-chinese-video-sate...

 

"Certa bonum certamen"

Don't buy any of the new iPhones until you've downloaded iOS 12 to your current device

 

“Holding onto your device is a good thing, generally speaking. Of course, owning the new, shiny gadget is always fun and exciting, but getting more mileage from your current iOS device means you're saving yourself money and helping the environment.”

 

https://www.sciencealert.com/new-apple-iphone-downloaded-ios-12

 

"Certa bonum certamen"

For the first time, physicists have used antimatter in one of the most famous physics experiments

 

“The experiment - an antimatter version of the famous double-slit setup - was carried out by researchers from Switzerland and Italy in order to lay the groundwork for a novel line of super-sensitive experiments that might help solve a mystery concerning the Universe's two domains of matter.”

 

https://www.sciencealert.com/first-time-double-slit-experiment-using-antimatter-positrons

 

"Certa bonum certamen"

NASA study provides new hope that life could survive on Proxima b, our closest known exoplanet

 

“In of August of 2016, astronomers from the European Southern Observatory (ESO) confirmed the existence of an Earth-like planet around Proxima Centauri – the closest star to our Solar System.”

 

https://www.sciencealert.com/new-nasa-led-study-says-proxima-b-might-still-have-an-ocean-despite-fla...

 

"Certa bonum certamen"

The personalised medicine revolution is finally happening and it'll change the way we think about cancer

 

“But thanks to genetic advances, doctors are now changing the way they think about cancer, and are looking at your cancer's genes, rather than where it's located, to figure out the best treatment plan.”

 

https://www.sciencealert.com/the-personalised-medicine-revolution-is-finally-happening-and-it-ll-cha...

 

"Certa bonum certamen"

People are electrically zapping their brains with devices bought online, to "boost creativity"

 

“There's a gadget that some say can help alleviate depression and enhance creativity. All you have to do is place a pair of electrodes on your scalp and the device will deliver an electrical current to your brain.”

 

https://www.sciencealert.com/people-electrically-shocking-their-own-brains-to-boost-creativity

 

"Certa bonum certamen"

Your age might affect how you see this classic optical illusion, study says

 

mywifeandmotherinlawillusion-bi_1024.jpg

 

“My Wife and My Mother-in-Law is one of the most well-known optical illusions in the world.

 

“It hinges on facial perception: You can either see a young woman turning away or the profile of an older woman staring solemnly towards the left side of the drawing.”

 

https://www.sciencealert.com/you-re-age-probably-affects-what-you-see-in-this-classic-optical-illusi...

 

"Certa bonum certamen"

There's a vicious cycle behind Alzheimer's that could explain why so many treatments have failed

  

“The discovery of an aggressive feedback loop between the build-up of protein and nerve damage could be the key to explaining why so many trials of promising new treatments for Alzheimer's disease end in failure.”

 

https://www.sciencealert.com/feedback-loop-beta-amyloid-protein-cell-damage-alzheimers

 

"Certa bonum certamen"


@Ravindra B wrote:

Your age might affect how you see this classic optical illusion, study says

 

mywifeandmotherinlawillusion-bi_1024.jpg

 

“My Wife and My Mother-in-Law is one of the most well-known optical illusions in the world.

 

“It hinges on facial perception: You can either see a young woman turning away or the profile of an older woman staring solemnly towards the left side of the drawing.”

 

https://www.sciencealert.com/you-re-age-probably-affects-what-you-see-in-this-classic-optical-illusi...

 

The researchers may be right; I can see the young woman by using averted vision - a trick I learned in my youth to see dim stars.  


 

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