[url]http://arstechnica.com/science/2016/08/one-year-until-a-stunning-solar-eclipse-darkens-middle-america/[/url]

[QUOTE=Xyzzy;440392][url]http://arstechnica.com/science/2016/08/one-year-until-a-stunning-solar-eclipse-darkens-middle-america/[/url][/QUOTE]

Next year I'm driving to Salem, Oregon, to hopefully see this eclipse.

Great White Nursery
 

[URL]http://motherboard.vice.com/read/newly-discovered-great-white-nursery-is-holy-grail-of-shark-research[/URL]
[QUOTE]For the first time, biologists have located a great white “nursery,” where mother sharks deliver pups, alive and fully formed. Researchers with [URL="http://www.ocearch.org/"]OCEARCH[/URL], an ocean research nonprofit, identified the site this week in waters off Montauk, Long Island.

This monumental finding is “probably the most significant discovery we’ve ever made on the ocean,” said Chris Fischer, the founding chairman of OCEARCH. In [URL="http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/ocearch-discovers-great-white-shark-birth-site-off-ny-coast/"]an interview with CBS News[/URL], Fischer noted that great white birthing sites are regarded as “the holy grail of research,” and are especially important in the Atlantic Ocean, where [URL="http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/3855/0"]the sharks are vulnerable[/URL] to bycatch and sport fishing.
[/QUOTE]

[url]https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/animalia/wp/2016/08/30/confirmed-your-dog-really-does-get-you/[/url]

[QUOTE=kladner;440979][URL]http://motherboard.vice.com/read/newly-discovered-great-white-nursery-is-holy-grail-of-shark-research[/URL][/QUOTE]
Very interesting that site where you can track the sharks in real time (link inside your link). Thanks for sharing it. So, they do not really adventure far away from home, or far from the shore (I guess, nothing to eat? Or they do, but they don't surface, in the mid-ocean?). I clicked on the two dots in the middle of the ocean, but one is a turtle close to Hawaii (so... not all of them are white sharks either!) and the other one is Betsy's lost accelerometer which the scientists are hoping to retrieve... (Now I wonder, because the shark is still tagged, and far away from the lost tag, what did they do? Did they put two tags from the first time - somehow cruel, how many tags they put for a single shark? 2? 3? 20?, or they caught the same shark a second time - very improbable!)

I found it fascinating.

[URL="http://www.airrecognition.com/index.php/archive-world-worldwide-news-air-force-aviation-aerospace-air-military-defence-industry/global-defense-security-news/global-news-2016/august/2887-china-reportedly-got-rights-to-locally-produce-an-225-strategic-cargo-aircraft.html"]China to build more An-225 aircraft[/URL]

[URL="http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/08/31/491941518/test-of-experimental-alzheimers-drug-finds-progress-against-brain-plaques"]Test Of Experimental Alzheimer's Drug Finds Progress Against Brain Plaques[/URL]

[URL="http://www.csmonitor.com/Technology/2016/0828/Scientists-progress-toward-3D-printed-items-that-remember-shape-over-time"]
Scientists progress toward 3D printed items that 'remember' shape over time[/URL]

[URL="http://www.nature.com/news/print-your-own-3d-lucy-to-work-out-how-the-famous-hominin-died-1.20500?WT.mc_id=TWT_NatureNews"]Print your own 3D Lucy to work out how the famous hominin died[/URL]

[URL="http://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2016/08/25/491261766/new-virus-breaks-the-rules-of-infection"]New Virus Breaks The Rules Of Infection[/URL]

[URL="http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/indie-crossword-puzzlers-are-shaking-up-a-very-square-world/"]Indie Crossword Puzzlers Are Shaking Up A Very Square World[/URL]

[URL="http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/la-ca-st-star-trek-scientist-20160817-snap-story.html"]'Star Trek' at 50: How the TV series inspired a boy to become a scientist[/URL]

[URL="https://aeon.co/ideas/the-great-mystery-of-mathematics-is-its-lack-of-mystery"]The great mystery of mathematics is its lack of mystery[/URL]

[URL="http://nymag.com/scienceofus/2016/07/why-do-so-many-artists-have-synesthesia.html?mid=facebook_scienceofus"]Why Do So Many Artists Have Synesthesia?[/URL]

[URL="https://medium.com/@americanmensa/this-here-universe-aint-big-enough-59f31f7d3727#.87r40z2x9"]This Here Universe Ain’t Big Enough…[/URL]

[URL="http://nymag.com/scienceofus/2016/08/to-improve-your-social-skills-read-better-books.html"]Another Reason to Be Smug About Your Superior Taste in Books[/URL]

[URL="http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2016/08/could-artificial-intelligence-improve-psychiatry/496964/"]How Artificial Intelligence Could Help Diagnose Mental Disorders[/URL]

[URL="http://exclusive.multibriefs.com/content/cognitive-offloading-help-or-hindrance/education"]Cognitive offloading: Help or hindrance?[/URL]

[URL="http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-earth-next-door/"]The Earth Next Door[/URL]

[URL="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/08/160825084945.htm"]The more we know, the easier we are to deceive[/URL]

[URL="http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/mind-aglow-scientists-watch-thoughts-form-in-the-brain/"]Mind Aglow: Scientists Watch Thoughts Form in the Brain[/URL]

[URL="https://www.technologyreview.com/s/602127/in-rehab-clinics-a-possible-new-role-for-brain-computer-interfaces/"]In Rehab Clinics, a Possible New Role for Brain-Computer Interfaces[/URL]

[URL="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/08/160817131930.htm"]Babies' spatial reasoning predicts later math skills[/URL]

[URL="https://medium.com/@americanmensa/over-the-counter-data-c98622f74c90#.e1idpspsu"]Over-the-Counter Data[/URL]

[URL="http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-37088877"]Simulated black hole experiment backs Hawking prediction[/URL]

[URL="http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/08/08/the-merits-of-reading-real-books-to-your-children/?_r=2"]The Merits of Reading Real Books to Your Children[/URL]

[URL="http://phys.org/news/2016-08-physicists-discovery-nature.html"]Physicists confirm possible discovery of fifth force of nature[/URL]

[URL="http://nautil.us/issue/39/sport/we-are-nowhere-close-to-the-limits-of-athletic-performance"]We Are Nowhere Close to the Limits of Athletic Performance[/URL]

[url]http://arstechnica.com/science/2016/09/confirmed-mysterious-ancient-maya-book-grolier-codex-is-genuine/[/url]

[QUOTE=Xyzzy;442320][URL]http://arstechnica.com/science/2016/09/confirmed-mysterious-ancient-maya-book-grolier-codex-is-genuine/[/URL][/QUOTE]
Wow! Thanks for sharing that. The Maya are a particular obsession of mine. Now I know there are at least three $35 books out there that I really want.

[url]http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-hawaiian-crow-tools-20160913-snap-story.html[/url]

[url]http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-oldest-indigo-dye-20160915-snap-story.html[/url]

[URL="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/25/opinion/sunday/am-i-introverted-or-just-rude.html?_r=0"]Am I Introverted, or Just Rude?[/URL]

[URL="https://www.fastcodesign.com/3058435/how-a-geologist-designed-the-perfect-app-for-the-window-seat"]How A Geologist Designed The Perfect App For The Window Seat[/URL]

[URL="https://www.technologyreview.com/s/602464/this-technology-is-about-to-revolutionize-beer-making/?utm_campaign=internal&utm_medium=homepage&utm_source=grid_1"]This Technology Is About to Revolutionize Beer-Making[/URL]

[URL="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/01/science/rosetta-spacecraft-to-end-mission-by-sinking-to-its-comet-companion.html"]Rosetta Mission Ends With Spacecraft’s Dive Into Comet[/URL]

[URL="http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/hacking-cryptography-and-the-countdown-to-quantum-computing?intcid=mod-latest"]HACKING, CRYPTOGRAPHY, AND THE COUNTDOWN TO QUANTUM COMPUTING[/URL]

[URL="https://www.brainpickings.org/2016/09/28/power-paradox-dachter-keltner/"]The Power Paradox: The Surprising and Sobering Science of How We Gain and Lose Influence[/URL]

[URL="http://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/09/humans-are-unusually-violent-mammals-but-averagely-violent-primates/501935/"]Humans: Unusually Murderous Mammals, Typically Murderous Primates[/URL]

[URL="http://www.newyorker.com/science/maria-konnikova/practice-doesnt-make-perfect"]
PRACTICE DOESN’T MAKE PERFECT[/URL]

[URL="http://www.slate.com/articles/business/moneybox/2016/09/how_big_data_made_applying_to_college_tougher_crueler_and_more_expensive.html"]How Big Data Transformed Applying to College[/URL]

[URL="http://www.vox.com/a/new-economy-future/cars-cities-technologies"]Cars take up way too much space in cities. New technology could change that.[/URL]

[URL="http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20160928-how-anxiety-warps-your-perception"]How anxiety warps your perception[/URL]

[URL="https://www.brainpickings.org/2014/06/05/van-gogh-and-mental-illness/"]Van Gogh and Mental Illness[/URL]

[URL="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/19/technology/artificial-intelligence-software-is-booming-but-why-now.html?ref=technology&_r=3"]Artificial Intelligence Software Is Booming. But Why Now?[/URL]

[URL="http://nautil.us/issue/40/learning/how-i-rewired-my-brain-to-become-fluent-in-math-rp"]How I Rewired My Brain to Become Fluent in Math[/URL]

[URL="http://gizmodo.com/monkeys-text-at-12-words-a-minute-using-their-thoughts-1786573592"]Monkeys Text at 12 Words a Minute Using Only Their Thoughts[/URL]

[URL="https://www.ucalgary.ca/utoday/issue/2016-09-20/beam-me-scotty-researchers-teleport-particle-light-six-kilometres"]Beam me up Scotty! Researchers teleport particle of light six kilometres[/URL]

[URL="http://www.inc.com/bill-murphy-jr/apple-google-tesla-and-uber-99-ways-self-driving-cars-will-totally-change-everyt.html"]Apple, Google, Tesla and Uber: 99 Ways Self-Driving Cars Will Totally Change Everything (Sooner Than You Think)[/URL]

[URL="http://www.ibtimes.com/robots-are-coming-your-job-new-report-predicts-86-million-us-workers-will-be-2416215"]Robots Are Coming For Your Job: New Report Predicts That 8.6 Million U.S. Workers Will Be Displaced By 2021[/URL]

[URL="https://www.technologyreview.com/s/602306/technologists-wont-give-up-on-the-dream-of-memory-augmentation/?set=602346"]Technologists Won’t Give Up on the Dream of Memory Augmentation[/URL]

[URL="http://www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2016/09/06/492779594/what-if-evolution-bred-reality-out-of-us"]What If Evolution Bred Reality Out Of Us?[/URL]

[URL="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/deep-swamps-archaeologists-fugitive-slaves-kept-freedom-180960122/?no-ist"]Deep in the Swamps, Archaeologists Are Finding How Fugitive Slaves Kept Their Freedom[/URL]

[URL="http://qz.com/779082/facebooks-censoring-of-the-iconic-napalm-girl-photo-showcases-its-disturbing-power-to-rewrite-history/"]Facebook has the disturbing power to rewrite our collective history[/URL]

[URL="https://www.quantamagazine.org/20160906-black-hole-ligo-astronomy/"]Colliding Black Holes Tell New Story of Stars[/URL]

[URL="http://exclusive.multibriefs.com/content/innovation-grinds-to-a-halt-in-mobile-phone-industry/education"]Game-changing innovation grinds to a halt in mobile phone industry[/URL]

This is a real treasure trove. The Great Dismal Swamp account alone is amazing.

[url]http://arstechnica.com/science/2016/10/japans-space-agency-just-released-a-trove-of-jaw-dropping-moon-photos/[/url]

[QUOTE=Xyzzy;444787][URL]http://arstechnica.com/science/2016/10/japans-space-agency-just-released-a-trove-of-jaw-dropping-moon-photos/[/URL][/QUOTE]
Many thanks for the link! Those are stunning photographs! :surprised:

[url]http://arstechnica.com/science/2016/10/why-naked-mole-rats-evolved-to-feel-no-pain/[/url]

[QUOTE]These rodents are one of only two mammals known to be eusocial like ants and bees—as mentioned earlier, they have one reproductive female per colony (the other eusocial mammal is also a mole rat).[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=Xyzzy;444818][URL]http://arstechnica.com/science/2016/10/why-naked-mole-rats-evolved-to-feel-no-pain/[/URL][/QUOTE]
They live for 30 years! That is amazing for a small animal, especially a rodent. Hamsters live about 3 years. I don't know how long city rats live, but I wish it was less. We fight them all the time where I live.

[QUOTE=Xyzzy;444787][url]http://arstechnica.com/science/2016/10/japans-space-agency-just-released-a-trove-of-jaw-dropping-moon-photos/[/url][/QUOTE]

What's the scale on those photos? The lack of one makes it hard to judge how big the craters are.

[QUOTE=0PolarBearsHere;444839]What's the scale on those photos? The lack of one makes it hard to judge how big the craters are.[/QUOTE]

Yes, I had the same thought after the caption in the first photo mentioned that the crater in the picture was 400 km deep.

[QUOTE=Dubslow;444843]Yes, I had the same thought after the caption in the first photo mentioned that the crater in the picture was 400 km deep.[/QUOTE]

It looks like it's been altered to 4km deep now, still doesn't help that much though.

[QUOTE=0PolarBearsHere;444892]It looks like it's been altered to 4km deep now, still doesn't help that much though.[/QUOTE]
That does make a whole lot more sense though. 400km confused the crap out of me.

[QUOTE=0PolarBearsHere;444839]What's the scale on those photos? The lack of one makes it hard to judge how big the craters are.[/QUOTE]
To me, from a photographer's point of view, the scale does not matter. The patterns and textures are amazing at any size. :smile:

[QUOTE=kladner;444901]To me, from a photographer's point of view, the scale does not matter. The patterns and textures are amazing at any size. :smile:[/QUOTE]

Sure. But are nipples in the middle of the craters the size of my car? house? property? city? state? country?
Some of those photos look like 1990s cgi (I'm not saying they are). I want to know if it's down to camera quality or just the fact that the features are so large, and images taken from so far away, that they just get turned into a grey smudge.

second picture drigalski crater : diameter of 149 km
[url]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drygalski_(crater[/url])

moretus and clavius
[url]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moretus_(crater[/url])
[url]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clavius_(crater[/url])

mare orientale (327 km)
[url]https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110312.html[/url]

copernicus crater (93 km)
[url]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copernicus_(lunar_crater[/url])

Marius hils : between 200 and 500 metter high (it say so)

etc

[url]http://arstechnica.com/science/2016/10/a-sense-of-scale-the-best-microscopy-of-2016/[/url]

[QUOTE=Xyzzy;445098][url]http://arstechnica.com/science/2016/10/a-sense-of-scale-the-best-microscopy-of-2016/[/url][/QUOTE]

Related: Some very cool microscopy photos at this site:
[url]http://photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=929115[/url]

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

[url=phys.org/news/2016-10-universe-rateor.html]The universe is expanding at an accelerating rate—or is it?[/url] | Phys.org

The strong law of small numbers, cosmology-style? Note also the description of the extreme model dependence of so much of ongoing work in the field, rather (and unfortunately) reminiscent of economics: "we observed what our model permitted us to observe."

[QUOTE=ewmayer;445711]Related: Some very cool microscopy photos at this site:
[url]http://photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=929115[/url]

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

[url=phys.org/news/2016-10-universe-rateor.html]The universe is expanding at an accelerating rate—or is it?[/url] | Phys.org

The strong law of small numbers, cosmology-style? Note also the description of the extreme model dependence of so much of ongoing work in the field, rather (and unfortunately) reminiscent of economics: "we observed what our model permitted us to observe."[/QUOTE]Another intriguing, but far from convincing, suggestion appears in one of the links from that page. There may be evidence that [URL="http://phys.org/news/2011-09-evidence-spacetime-cosmological-principle.html"]the universe may not be isotropic on the largest observable scales[/URL].

I'm far from convinced. A claim that the universe is rotating, made 30 years or so, seems to have been discredited as more data has been analyzed.

[url]http://phys.org/news/2016-10-explore-certainty-belief-statement-truth.html[/url]

Following the links from the prior posts I came upon the above paper.

For me, this is all reminiscent of what Shafarevitch said which was something along the lines of ..many people may look at the same thing but few see it.

The `Amazing Randi` had a few choice things to say about people believing what they see also.

Some of the most interesting papers are the driest reads imaginable. And that's where the real stuff usually exists, when you can use your imagination when it is rooted in solid logic.

[URL="https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-athletes-way/201610/groundbreaking-study-roots-out-signs-depression-in-brain"]Groundbreaking Study Roots Out Signs of Depression in Brain[/URL]

[URL="http://www.wnyc.org/story/how-google-fighting-online-hate-speech-through-ai/"]Google is Fighting Online Hate Speech With Artificial Intelligence[/URL]

[URL="https://aeon.co/videos/music-of-the-mind-a-stunning-string-quartet-created-through-brainwaves"]Music of the mind: a stunning string quartet created through brainwaves[/URL]

[URL="http://www.ottawacitizen.com/travel/halloween+treat+night+draculas+castle+transylvania/12289174/story.html"]Halloween treat: a night at Dracula's castle in Transylvania[/URL]

[URL="http://exclusive.multibriefs.com/content/has-elon-musk-gone-too-far-with-his-plan-to-colonize-mars/education"]Has Elon Musk gone too far with his plan to colonize Mars?[/URL]

[URL="https://www.statnews.com/2016/10/20/scientists-music-proteins/"]Could we one day use music to diagnose disease?[/URL]

[URL="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/10/17/the-remarkable-sweating-robot-researchers-cool-overheating-machines-in-human-style/"]The amazing sweating robot[/URL]

[URL="http://mentalfloss.com/article/87265/watch-fireworks-explode-underwater-120000-frames-second"]Watch Fireworks Explode Underwater at 120,000 Frames Per Second[/URL]

[URL="https://www.brainpickings.org/2014/12/10/ada-lovelace-walter-isaacson-innovators/"]How Ada Lovelace, Lord Byron’s Daughter, Became the World’s First Computer Programmer[/URL]

[URL="http://nymag.com/scienceofus/2016/10/what-do-babies-and-little-kids-dream-about-animals-mostly.html?mid=facebook_scienceofus"]Little Kids Use Their Dreams to Figure Out Real Life[/URL]

[URL="http://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2016/10/11/492999969/origin-of-pencil-lead"]Trace The Remarkable History Of The Humble Pencil[/URL]

[URL="http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/inside-the-new-york-public-librarys-last-secret-apartments"]Inside the New York Public Library's Last, Secret Apartments[/URL]

[URL="https://aeon.co/essays/it-s-time-for-science-to-abandon-the-term-statistically-significant"]The problem with p-values[/URL]

[URL="https://medium.com/@americanmensa/this-monster-will-not-die-e2843edd014#.pqnf134kp"]This Monster Will Not Die[/URL]

[URL="http://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2016/9/30/13077658/statcheck-psychology-replication"]A bot crawled thousands of studies looking for simple math errors. The results are concerning[/URL]

[URL="http://www.news-medical.net/news/20161003/Stanford-scientists-develop-novel-brain-sensing-technology-that-allows-typing-at-12-words-per-minute.aspx"]Stanford scientists develop novel brain-sensing technology that allows typing at 12 words per minute[/URL]

[URL="http://www.nj.com/education/2016/10/princeton_physics_professor_celebrates_nobel_prize.html"]Princeton prof celebrates Nobel Prize win by returning to the classroom[/URL]

[URL="http://geekandsundry.com/5-games-to-play-when-you-want-to-roll-solo/"]5 GAMES TO PLAY WHEN YOU WANT TO ROLL SOLO[/URL]

[URL="http://nymag.com/scienceofus/2016/10/teens-brains-are-better-at-learning-than-adults.html"]Teen Brains Are Primed for Learning From Life[/URL]

[URL="https://aeon.co/essays/how-collective-intelligence-overcomes-the-problem-of-groupthink"]Group smarts[/URL]

[URL]http://www.bbc.com/news/health-37849000[/URL][QUOTE]Smoking leaves an "archaeological record" of the hundreds of DNA mutations it causes, scientists have discovered.[/QUOTE]

[url]https://www.iarpa.gov/[/url]

..some interesting projects.

[url]http://arstechnica.com/science/2016/11/squirrels-may-not-be-as-harmless-as-they-appear/[/url]

[QUOTE=Xyzzy;446953][URL]http://arstechnica.com/science/2016/11/squirrels-may-not-be-as-harmless-as-they-appear/[/URL][/QUOTE]
Being from a place where grey squirrels became invasive, I have reason to dislike them. Not only are they aggressive, but they are destructive of plantings. They have also tended to displace the [URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fox_squirrel"]Fox Squirrels, [/URL]which are much more laid back.

[url]http://www.space.com/34710-how-to-photograph-the-supermoon-nasa-pro-shares-his-tips.html[/url]

:tu: Thanks! From that, we learned what a [B]saros[/B] is... We will change our name to saros :razz:, as we have special and non-subjective affinities/associations for/with the numbers 8, 11, and 18 (some people already know, for example, from the "happy birthday server" thread, that we are born on 08.18)
(edit: you have to click on the "supermoon" band that appears on the left, somewhere toward the end of the article)

[url]http://arstechnica.com/science/2016/11/a-special-supermoon-comes-but-what-causes-it/[/url]

[URL]http://www.capradio.org/news/npr/story?storyid=501443254[/URL][QUOTE]What's unique to some mantis shrimp is their ability to perceive yet another, much more rare, variety of polarized light. This "circular" polarized light moves not in a flat plane, but in a twisted one that spins through space like a helix.[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=Xyzzy;447245][URL]http://www.capradio.org/news/npr/story?storyid=501443254[/URL][/QUOTE]

Yeah, we love that little, aggressive guy. Our favorite animal for a long time. We were seriously thinking to buy one as a pet. As an "LCD specialist", we can show you easier way what the polarized light means, what she does, and if her parents know. [URL="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOYXmR7nUoA"]Here is a movie[/URL] with a polarizing film (the one mounted on top of any LCD monitor's glass, yours inclusive) placed on top of a monitor (so there are two foils, one on the monitor, that lets the "vertical" light pass, and one on my hand, that I can rotate). When the two directions are aligned, all light pass. When they are perpendicular, i.e. the one in my hand only lets the "horizontal" light pass, then there is no light passing, because there is no "horizontal" light there, remember, the foil from the monitor only lets the "vertical" light out.

Edit: in fact, here there are more polarization going on, coming also from the camera, so the colors you see in the movie are not exactly the colors seen in reality.

From your link with the shrimp and the cancer, [URL="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYzKQWz9xmU"]people are amazing too[/URL]...

[url]http://arstechnica.com/science/2016/11/pigs-and-humans-share-a-cognitive-bias/[/url][QUOTE]It turns out that pigs make arbitrary decisions for some of the same reasons humans do. They get moody and peevish, and they allow those feelings to dictate judgement.[/QUOTE]

[URL="http://arstechnica.com/science/2016/11/enzymes-from-nine-organisms-combined-to-create-new-pathway-to-use-co2/?hl=1&noRedirect=1"]Enzymes from nine organisms combined to create new pathway to use CO2[/URL]

[QUOTE]There's no question that humans are driving long-term changes in the amount of carbon in the atmosphere. But the human influence is taking place against a backdrop of natural carbon fluxes that are staggering in scale. Each year, for example, the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere cycles up and down by over a percent purely due to seasonal differences in plant growth.[/QUOTE]

...


[QUOTE]By the time the team was done, the system used 17 different enzymes from nine different organisms, including bacteria, archaea, plants, and humans. The final system was truly impressive, using carbon dioxide with an efficiency 20 times that of the system used in photosynthesis.[/QUOTE]

[URL="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/23/us/politics/a-new-era-of-internet-attacks-powered-by-everyday-devices.html?ref=technology&_r=2&mtrref=undefined&mtrref=www.nytimes.com"]A New Era of Internet Attacks Powered by Everyday Devices[/URL]

[URL="https://www.fastcompany.com/3064788/work-smart/this-is-what-sparks-and-sustains-a-genius"]This Is What Sparks And Sustains A Genius[/URL]

[URL="http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/crux/2016/10/21/brains-better-than-computers-why/#.WC5PQHeZNwp"]Why Our ‘Procrastinating’ Brains Still Outperform Computers[/URL]

[URL="https://www.sciencenews.org/article/time-crystal-created-lab"]‘Time crystal’ created in lab[/URL]

[URL="https://aeon.co/essays/are-book-collectors-real-readers-or-just-cultural-snobs"]Bookish fools[/URL]

[URL="http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2016/10/24/499162905/20-years-later-humans-still-no-match-for-computers-on-the-chessboard"]20 Years Later, Humans Still No Match For Computers On The Chessboard[/URL]

[URL="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/10/dinosaur-fossil-brain-tissue-paleontology-animals-science/"]First Known Dinosaur Brain Fossil Discovered[/URL]

[URL="http://arstechnica.com/science/2016/11/revisiting-why-incompetents-think-theyre-awesome/"]Revisiting why incompetents think they’re awesome[/URL]

[URL="http://sploid.gizmodo.com/could-we-turn-other-planets-and-moons-into-a-second-ear-1788427676"]Could We Turn Other Planets and Moons Into a Second Earth?[/URL]

[URL="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/curious-george-daring-escape-nazis-180960779/?no-ist"]When Curious George Made a Daring Escape From the Nazis[/URL]

[URL="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/09/opinion/return-to-the-teenage-brain.html?_r=1"]Return to the Teenage Brain[/URL]

[URL="https://aeon.co/ideas/some-people-really-are-wired-better-for-learning-languages"]Some people really are wired better for learning languages[/URL]

[URL="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/11/161103124427.htm"]Spiral growth: Feedback loop behind spiral patterns in plants uncovered?[/URL]

[URL="https://www.technologyreview.com/s/602807/deep-neural-network-learns-to-judge-books-by-their-covers/"]Deep Neural Network Learns to Judge Books by Their Covers[/URL]

[URL="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/30/arts/design/technology-invites-a-deep-dive-into-art.html?ref=technology&_r=3"]Technology Invites a Deep Dive Into Art[/URL]

[URL="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/11/161110152342.htm"]Why are we ticklish? Rats are surprisingly ticklish when their mood is right[/URL]

[URL="https://www.technologyreview.com/s/602810/brain-control-of-paralyzed-limb-lets-monkey-walk-again/"]Brain Control of Paralyzed Limb Lets Monkey Walk Again[/URL]

[URL="http://nymag.com/scienceofus/2016/11/does-the-sun-make-people-happy.html"]People Really Are Happier When the Sun Is Out Longer[/URL]

[QUOTE=rogue;447373]Revisiting why incompetents think they’re awesome[/QUOTE]

I'd mostly wonder why most people I've thought of as incompetent or family have thought of me as good for something.

[URL]http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-daylight-savings-koalas-20161122-story.html[/URL][QUOTE]According to their calculations, the number of koala deaths could fall by 8% on weekdays and 11% on weekends.[/QUOTE]

[url]http://arstechnica.com/science/2016/11/the-crumbling-cement-around-you-is-soaking-up-carbon-dioxide/[/url][QUOTE]As of 2013, the researchers estimate that about a quarter of a billion tons of CO2 was being absorbed by cement each year.[/QUOTE]

[url]http://arstechnica.com/science/2016/11/on-fiji-ants-have-learned-to-grow-plants-to-house-their-massive-colonies/[/url][QUOTE]They've brought in seeds from several species of a large, lumpy fruit from a plant known as [I]Squamellaria[/I] and carefully planted them in the nooks and crannies of the tree bark.[/QUOTE]

[url]http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-coconut-crab-pinch-20161123-story.html[/url][QUOTE]That makes the coconut crab among the strongest terrestrial animals — only alligators and a few other species have a stronger bite force.[/QUOTE]

[url]http://arstechnica.com/science/2016/11/covering-coasts-with-concrete-japan-looks-to-tetrapods-to-battle-elements/[/url][QUOTE]A stone’s throw off the coastline, dozens of gigantic, 10-ton concrete structures known as Tetrapods form a long row and look—if we’re being honest—as if a giant dumped a behemoth box of jacks into the sea. It is simultaneously majestic and odd.[/QUOTE]

[url]http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2016/1128/Speed-of-light-theory-tested-Was-Einstein-wrong[/url][QUOTE]In a new study, physicists from the Imperial College London and Canada’s Perimeter Institute argue that the speed of light could have been much faster in the immediate aftermath of the Big Bang.[/QUOTE]

From the University of Amsterdam (in English) comes: [SIZE=7]Big[/SIZE] History!

YouTube channel:
[URL]https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKiMgmxDNYqLLhXnPFUz46w[/URL]

Web page:
[URL]http://iis.uva.nl/en/interdisciplinary-education/big-history-mooc/big-history-mooc.html[/URL]

Trailer:
[YOUTUBE]gbiAeTAvNAE[/YOUTUBE]

[url]https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/11/29/pooping-in-deep-space-has-nasa-stumped-the-space-poop-challenge-is-your-way-to-help/[/url][QUOTE]How NASA solves this problem in part depends upon you.[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=Xyzzy;448036][url]https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/11/29/pooping-in-deep-space-has-nasa-stumped-the-space-poop-challenge-is-your-way-to-help/[/url][/QUOTE]

Catheters. Catheters up the wazoo (literally).

[QUOTE=Dubslow;448056]Catheters. Catheters up the wazoo (literally).[/QUOTE]
This could potentially work, but I think the risk of infection for the length of time required would be high. You need some kind of LIDAR guided probed that self aligns, expands once inserted, applies a vacuum on the other end… You'll need some kind of storage and compression sack but just plump the vacuum pump on a bag. Dyson has probably worked out the power specs.

If you suck out all the air and keep suit pressure at nominal, can you vent? Is clean-up on return a design criterion?

[QUOTE=flagrantflowers;448058]This could potentially work, but I think the risk of infection for the length of time required would be high. You need some kind of LIDAR guided probed that self aligns, expands once inserted, applies a vacuum on the other end… You'll need some kind of storage and compression sack but just plump the vacuum pump on a bag. Dyson has probably worked out the power specs.

If you suck out all the air and keep suit pressure at nominal, can you vent? Is clean-up on return a design criterion?[/QUOTE]
Certainly I was glossing over 90% of the details. I was just going for the easy play on words.

I wasn't thinking there would need to be an actively guided probe, it could just be seated as part of putting the suit on. But there would need to be sufficiently powerful airflow control, yes. The system all told could take up several kilograms of mass, maybe more.

[QUOTE=Dubslow;448062]Certainly I was glossing over 90% of the details. I was just going for the easy play on words.

I wasn't thinking there would need to be an actively guided probe, it could just be seated as part of putting the suit on. .[/QUOTE]

Just allow the astronaut to remove their arms from the arms of the suit, reach down inside the suit and insert it themselves.

[QUOTE=Xyzzy;448036][url]https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/11/29/pooping-in-deep-space-has-nasa-stumped-the-space-poop-challenge-is-your-way-to-help/[/url][/QUOTE]

Another spacey waste story:
[url]http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/28/science/space-junk-astroscale.html[/url]

Bad business this potty stuff...
[QUOTE]"There's a problem of separation," Roberts said. "Whatever comes out of you doesn't know it's supposed to come away from you." Each fecal collection bag came with a "finger cot" to allow the astronauts to manually move things along. Then they had to knead a germicide into their waste so that gas-expelling bacteria wouldn't flourish inside the sealed bag and cause it to explode.
The entire ordeal often took 45 minutes to an hour to complete in the Apollo spacecraft, Roberts said. To minimize their bowel movements, astronauts had a high-protein, low-residue diet — think steak and eggs and other foods that are don't make a lot of waste after they are absorbed by the body.
[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=LaurV;448117]Bad business this potty stuff...[/QUOTE]On the Voyager airplane flight around the world they used the same technology. There was a rough patch of air :wraithx: over Africa when Dick Rutan was about to go, while Jenna Yeager was flying. Because of his greater strength and piloting skill, he took the pilot seat. He wound up sticking the (empty, not yet used) bag to the ceiling and sitting in the pilot seat with his sweat pants around his ankles. :sick:

They also used a 'relief tube' system. They would extend it into the slipstream when in use, then retract it afterward, to reduce drag (and thus fuel consumption).

On one of the Apollo flights, an astronaut took so much of a particular medication, that he had to have manual help on the ground to :poop:

The new freezing point of water is above 100C
[url]http://newatlas.com/water-weird-freezing-mit/46665/[/url]

[url]http://www.techtimes.com/articles/187473/20161201/new-mdma-trials-moving-forward-test-ecstasy-treatment-ptsd.htm[/url][QUOTE]MDMA, the pure form of ecstasy, will be employed in treating patients who suffer from PTSD. The drug is also tested for its properties when it comes to treating terminally ill patients.[/QUOTE][url]https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/hallucinogenic-drugs-relieved-cancer-patients-of-existential-distress/2016/11/30/fed60968-b1ab-11e6-8616-52b15787add0_story.html[/url][QUOTE]A single dose of psilocybin, the long-banned active compound in “magic mushrooms,” significantly reduced anxiety, depression and the fear of death among cancer patients for months at a time, according to two studies published Thursday.[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=Uncwilly;448136]On the Voyager airplane flight around the world they used the same technology.[/QUOTE]

Key difference is that Rutan had a gravity assist. Due to the innumerable problems resulting from long-term exposure to 0g of a gravity-evolved species, I suggest killing multiple birds (bone loss, poop-tech, etc) with one stone and going with spinning-torus tech for deep space missions. You'd think more NASA geeks would have watched [i]2001: A Space Odyssey[/i] and treated is at more than mere fantasy. The 50s 'conquest of space' popular books by Von Braun and Willy Ley consider all this stuff and induced-gravity is fundamental there. Why go creating problems for yourself when a ready solution is at hand?

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

[url=www.sciencealert.com/we-just-got-the-first-real-evidence-of-a-strange-quantum-distortion-in-empty-space]We just got the first real evidence of a strange quantum distortion in empty space[/url] - ScienceAlert

Quantum vacuum birefringence (as evidenced by polarization of passing starlight) due to the colossally strong magnetic field around a nearby neutron star.

[QUOTE=Uncwilly;448153]The new freezing point of water is above 100C[/QUOTE]
Nothing new under the Holy Sun... some guys did it with methane long time ago. The point is to use CNG (NGV for some people here) to power cars. I am driving a Toyota CNG car for the last 6 years and I am extremely happy with it, except for the fact that you have to refill it every 2 days (I do about 100 km per day for job and daily stuff, occasional shopping, etc). The car uses also gasoline, and you can drive it as a "normal car" when you run out of methane, but that is 2-3 times more expensive to drive, and it was a time, before the oil prices went down last years, when it was 4-5 times (!!) more expensive to drive on gasoline. All in all, I said few times [URL="http://www.mersenneforum.org/showpost.php?p=411693&postcount=7"]here around[/URL], I believe the future of cars is not electric, as some say, but methane. Abundance, easiness in producing it, safety, etc., will play an important role. What is only missing, is a reliable way to store it on board. Therefore, people around the world invested millions in research to find a way to store it. The problem is that the methane molecule is not polarized, like the[URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemical_polarity"] water molecule[/URL], for example. In water, there are some forces between the two hydrogen atoms, but those atoms are really small comparing with the oxygen atom (not like in the figures, more like an apple and two peanuts), and they can not repel each-other so much, like in the carbon dioxide, for example, where the two oxygen atoms are comparable in size with the carbon atom, and they stay diameterally opposite (in the same link as above). Because of the two hydrogen atoms in the water molecule are not situated on perfect opposite sides, the water molecule is polarized, with the oxygen in one side and the hydrogen on the other side. When you put more molecules together, they align each-other as little magnets, causing attraction between opposite poles and repulsion between similar poles, which will cause "contraction" of the substance, the molecules stay together like good brothers. Therefore water is easy to liquefy at high temperatures (like the room temperature). Gasoline and LPG are quite the same. But for methane, the molecule is a tetrahedron with the carbon in the middle and the four hydrogens on the corners. The molecules are symmetric on all possible and impossible axes, and repelling each-other in all directions, like reputable enemies. Therefore, you can not liquefy it by compression (decrease the distance between molecules), unless you also cool it enough (decrease the agitation of those molecules). Otherwise, let by themselves, they will repel each-other and expand into gaseous state, as billions of little springs in a popup clown box.. This makes the methane very difficult to store efficiently. You need to create a very strong (therefore heavy) container to resist the tremendous pressure that develops inside of liquefied methane containers, or you need to invest energy in keep it cool to stay liquid. In the past you could see trucks transporting LNG, having an open-fire always burning on top of a little pipe coming from the gas cistern. That was because by natural evaporation, the temperature of the liquid decreases enough to keep the methane liquid, and to avoid the cistern boiling, you have to let it evaporate (or add a fridge to it, inefficient). But if you let it evaporate, you need to avoid building the pressure, and then you let it out. But letting it out is dangerous, somebody lights a cigarette on the side of the street and there it goes half of the city... So, you burn it. I remember some old trucks used to transport liquid methane, they didn't have a gasoline tank, and they run on methane they transported, and they must let the engine running continuously to burn the gas that evaporates... And if the engine stops, there is an automatic burner (like your cooking machine at home) that starts under your car, burning out the gas (and keeping the engine warm, as the methane as I said, only burns over a certain temperature - my car starts on gasoline and switches to CNG after one kilometer or so, when the motor gets hot).

In the nowadays cars, to avoid problems with LNG, they use it in gaseous form, as compressed gas, at a lower pressure, for safety, but this makes your car run only 200 km with a full tank. That is why you buy LPG and gasoline by liter (or gallon) but you buy CNG by kilogram. The gases do not have a proper volume, remember? The quantity per volume depends on compression, that is why you buy it in kilograms.

And your car does not have much autonomy on CNG itself, without the attached gasoline tank.

Therefore people invest huge amount of money trying to find solutions to store the natural gas efficiently. One such solution published some time ago, involved storing the gas in a stack of carbon sheets. Imagine millions of pingpong balls that repel each-other such as you can not put two of them closer than a meter each-other. You will need a city to store your pingpong balls. But if you put them into very small drawers, each drawer holding a single layer of molecules, you can then stack the drawers more efficiently, as the pingpong balls will not repel each-other through the drawers' walls. This method could store a huge amount of methane, it "freezes" the methane in layers and layers, drawers and drawers, it is sooo efficient... but then you have another problem: if something is too tight packed, you can not unpack it easily. That is, how to take the pingpong balls out of the drawers when you need them?... It turned out this is not easy and the method can not be used for cars. You can not do it by heating the carbon foam, or shaking it, whatever (which should be easy), you need to destroy the structure, etc., to recover the stored methane... But people still try, and we are optimists that their success will come. So that we can drive two thousand miles on a "baton" of carbon foam filled with methane...

That is why I say, find a method to do that, and you are billionaire next day... We tried too, but for whatever reason we stopped at the phase "reading wikipedia articles about the subject".

The method itself is not new either. Something similar is done with metal hydrides in the NiMH accumulators, for example. Hydrogen by itself, is a different fish, but still same difficult to compress and store, for other reasons: the hydrogen molecule is so small it can escape through the smallest cracks (like between the pistons and walls), it can combine with many oils used for greasing the pistons, it even can escape through metals, because no matter how tough is that metal, its atomic structure is just pingpong balls, separated by meters of empty space. Therefore hydrogen is difficult to compress, store, handle, whatever. And clever people came with clever solutions, they mix hydrogen with metal powders. Very small metallic particle will retain hydrogen, in fact, hydrogen "diffuses" inside the heap of the metal powder as the ink diffuses in water. But that is already a different story, and I have to go right now...

[url]http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-earth-longer-days-20161205-story.html[/url][QUOTE]The latest findings in Earth science are brought to you by ancient astronomers who observed the heavens as much as 2,700 years ago.[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=LaurV;448648]The problem is that the methane molecule is not polarized, like the[URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemical_polarity"] water molecule[/URL], for example.[/quote] That's completely true, however it is very far from being the complete story. Anyone interested in finding out why water and ammonia have extremely high melting points than, say, hydrogen chloride (which is also a very polar molecule and is much more typical could do worse than learn about [URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen_bond"]hydrogen bonding[/URL]. I well remember having to write an essay on the subject as an undergraduate chemist.

Dinosaur feathers in amber
 

[URL]https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/dec/08/dinosaur-tail-trapped-in-amber-offers-insights-into-feather-evolution[/URL]
[QUOTE]A length of fluffy plumage discovered within a piece of amber has been identified as part of a dinosaur tail, offering new insights into the evolution of feathers.

Around 3.7cm long, with chestnut-coloured feathers on the top and pale feathers underneath, the tail was found complete with fossilised bones as well as traces of muscles, ligaments and mummified-looking skin.

While researchers say it is not possible to determine the species to which the tail belonged, they say the dinosaur lived around 99 million years ago and was most likely a juvenile, non-avian theropod – a group of dinosaurs that includes velociraptors and tyrannosaurs.

“If you were to hold [an adult] in your hand it would have been about the size of a sparrow,” said Ryan McKellar, co-author of the research from the Royal Saskatchewan Museum, Canada.
[/QUOTE]

[URL]http://arstechnica.com/science/2016/12/how-the-ancient-maya-brought-sharks-to-the-jungle/[/URL][QUOTE]Inland Maya communities knew an awful lot about sharks without ever visiting the sea.[/QUOTE]

This man’s skull was ritualistically transformed 9,000 years ago in Jericho
 

[URL]http://arstechnica.com/science/2016/12/this-mans-skull-was-ritualistically-transformed-9000-years-ago-in-jericho/[/URL]
[QUOTE]To flesh out the features on the so-called Jericho Skull, archaeologists at the British Museum have worked for more than two years to reconstruct the face of a man whose skull had been reshaped by ritual throughout his long life. While he was an infant, his head had been bound tightly with cloth to change its shape. After he died at a ripe old age, his skull was then plastered, decorated, and put on display. This Jericho Skull gives us a glimpse of life in the Levant long before the rise of religions that describe [URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Jericho"]a great battle[/URL] at the city's walls.

Jericho, located today in Palestine, dates back more than 11,000 years and is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities on Earth. It's very likely that this man lived behind the earliest versions of Jericho's infamous walls, built more than 9,000 years ago, but that doesn't mean he lived a hardscrabble existence threatened by war. Recent archaeological investigation of Jericho's Neolithic walls shows that they were not used for defense. Based on layers of silt that collected around them, [URL="http://www.seeker.com/look-into-the-eyes-of-a-neolithic-man-in-this-reconstruction-2133935820.html"]researchers surmise[/URL] that Jericho's first walls were built to prevent the city from being flooded during the rainy season.[/QUOTE]

[url=http://www.nature.com/news/ligo-black-hole-echoes-hint-at-general-relativity-breakdown-1.21135]LIGO black hole echoes hint at general-relativity breakdown[/url] | Nature

This sort of first-hint needs to taken with a huge grain of salt. Remember the ‘discovery’ in the late 1990s based on a survey of distant Type 1a “standard candle” supernovae that the universe is expanding at an accelerating rate? The one that earned the researchers a Nobel prize 5 years ago? Cf. the 10/21 phys.org piece “The universe is expanding at an accelerating rate—or is it?” Or the “exotic new particle discovered at CERN” earlier this year? The one hat led to a tsunami of ~500 papes posted to arVix within weeks? Since debunked. In the present case, the ‘evidence’ appears even more tenuous. And it’s a well-known bias that when presented with data which are not instantly explainable by known physics, physicists tend to leap at the most exotic possible explanations. New physics is ‘sexy’, basically.

[QUOTE=ewmayer;449032]In the present case, the ‘evidence’ appears even more tenuous. And it’s a well-known bias that when presented with data which are not instantly explainable by known physics, physicists tend to leap at the most exotic possible explanations. New physics is ‘sexy’, basically.[/QUOTE]

Could Gravitational waves act as a trigger for systems that are on the cusp of transition? For example, a mass of gas at near fusion pressures has a strong gravitational wave pass through it. Could this, potentially, lead to triggering supernova for systems near collapse? What about staving off transition and providing energy to persist in the current state?

Does density of an arbitrary mass change with velocity to an observer that is travelling at the same velocity (no, I think)? A 'stationary' observer (possibly yes, I think)? Ramifications (I think these maybe ignorant questions)?

[QUOTE=flagrantflowers;449047]Could Gravitational waves act as a trigger for systems that are on the cusp of transition? For example, a mass of gas at near fusion pressures has a strong gravitational wave pass through it. Could this, potentially, lead to triggering supernova for systems near collapse? What about staving off transition and providing energy to persist in the current state?[/QUOTE]Undoubtedly so. A wave transfers energy to matter through which it passes. In particular it stretches alternately stretches space in one direction orthogonal to the direction of propagation and compresses it in the other. If the compression is great enough that could be enough to tip it over into gravitational collapse.

Another way to see it is that non-planar gravitational waves themselves contain energy in a localised region of space-time. If they are appropriately focussed the mass-energy density of the waves is enough to cause gravitational collapse, taking with it any matter that happens to be around. Note that this can't happen for plane waves.

[QUOTE=flagrantflowers;449047]Could Gravitational waves act as a trigger for systems that are on the cusp of transition? For example, a mass of gas at near fusion pressures has a strong gravitational wave pass through it. Could this, potentially, lead to triggering supernova for systems near collapse? What about staving off transition and providing energy to persist in the current state?[/QUOTE]

It's certainly possible, though given the weakness of gravity waves as opposed to hydrodynamic ones - the same reason it took so many decades to bring us LIGO - I would guess that more mundane hydrodynamics (such as a nearby supernova going off) and gravitational perturbations due to passing objects would be far more common triggers for collapse of gaseous nebulae. Triggering of supernovae sounds unlikely to me, since the dynamics in the various types of SN tend to involve very 'strong' physics, as opposed to small perturbations of metastable equilibria.

[QUOTE=ewmayer;449066]It's certainly possible, though given the weakness of gravity waves as opposed to hydrodynamic ones - the same reason it took so many decades to bring us LIGO - I would guess that more mundane hydrodynamics (such as a nearby supernova going off) and gravitational perturbations due to passing objects would be far more common triggers for collapse of gaseous nebulae. Triggering of supernovae sounds unlikely to me, since the dynamics in the various types of SN tend to involve very 'strong' physics, as opposed to small perturbations of metastable equilibria.[/QUOTE]

I asked a gravitational-wave physicist about this; the problem is that gravitational waves have an inverse-linear rather than inverse-square law to their propagation, and so even very near the source the amount of strain is so small that even the tenth-power dependency of temperature with density for fusion at the hearts of stars doesn't amplify it to anything significant.

(a strain of 100 microns per parsec at 400 megaparsecs is one kilometre per parsec at 40 parsecs, and one kilometre per parsec is five millimetres per astronomical unit)

For anyone wishing to explore (please click the link at the bottom of the page to go to the AEI site which is one of the best in the world):
[url]http://grtensor.phy.queensu.ca/[/url]
"Theory and experiment in gravitational physics." by Clifford Will.

The software I've used for years and the book dates from the early '80's with a revised
edition in the early 90's and both editions are a good introduction. Online, there is a good site at Caltech: [url]http://www.tapir.caltech.edu/~teviet/Waves/index.html[/url] which has a few "flashy thingies" for those interested in a more dynamic presentation.

[QUOTE=fivemack;449070]I asked a gravitational-wave physicist about this; the problem is that gravitational waves have an inverse-linear rather than inverse-square law to their propagation, and so even very near the source the amount of strain is so small that even the tenth-power dependency of temperature with density for fusion at the hearts of stars doesn't amplify it to anything significant.

(a strain of 100 microns per parsec at 400 megaparsecs is one kilometre per parsec at 40 parsecs, and one kilometre per parsec is five millimetres per astronomical unit)[/QUOTE]

Nice - thanks for providing some actual numbers to 'weak perturbation' argument.

[QUOTE=ewmayer;449032]Nature[/QUOTE]
Following your link, and a link inside. This is a nice/optimistic [URL="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v540/n7633/full/540339a.html"]pleading for the future[/URL]...

[URL="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-38329846"]The mind boggles[/URL] ...

Some US scientists are concerned that [URL="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-38322594"]future access to tax-payer funded data might be discontinued[/URL].

Sounds like a possibility for a (global) citizen response to store that data outside the reach of the US gummint.

Tempted to contact some people in the US and ask what I can do to help. If enough people offer enough gigabytes on their systems the panic would be averted.

[URL="http://arstechnica.com/science/2016/12/the-brain-has-more-than-one-multitasking-mode/"]The brain has more than one multitasking mode[/URL]

[URL="http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-two-friends-who-changed-how-we-think-about-how-we-think"]THE TWO FRIENDS WHO CHANGED HOW WE THINK ABOUT HOW WE THINK[/URL]

[URL="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/12/161206111715.htm"]Researchers uncover how hippocampus influences future thinking[/URL]

[URL="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/01/science/periodic-table-new-elements.html?smid=tw-nytimesscience&smtyp=cur&_r=1"]Four New Names Officially Added to the Periodic Table of Elements[/URL]

[URL="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/11/us-cia-maps-strategy-foreign-policy-display/"]See the Historic Maps Declassified by the CIA[/URL]

[URL="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/12/feathered-dinosaur-tail-amber-theropod-myanmar-burma-cretaceous/"]First Dinosaur Tail Found Preserved in Amber[/URL]

[URL="https://www.quantamagazine.org/20161129-verlinde-gravity-dark-matter/"]The Case Against Dark Matter[/URL]

[URL="https://www.quantamagazine.org/20161201-how-life-makes-light-bioluminescence/"]In the Deep, Clues to How Life Makes Light[/URL]

[URL="http://www.popsci.com/single-dose-magic-mushrooms-eases-depression-in-cancer-patients"]MAGIC MUSHROOMS HELP CANCER PATIENTS DEAL WITH DEPRESSION[/URL]

[URL="https://aeon.co/ideas/final-decision-why-the-brain-keeps-on-changing-its-mind"]Final decision? Why the brain keeps on changing its mind[/URL]

[URL="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/11/161130141049.htm"]What makes Bach sound like Bach? New dataset teaches algorithms classical music[/URL]

[URL="http://www.espn.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/18121761/the-true-story-nintendo-most-coveted-game"]How did a boring Nintendo game from 1987 become the most coveted cartridge ever? It's a bit of a mystery[/URL]

[URL="http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/catholics-built-secret-astronomical-features-into-churches-to-help-save-souls"]Why Catholics Built Secret Astronomical Features Into Churches to Help Save Souls[/URL]

[URL="http://gizmodo.com/researchers-just-created-the-most-amazing-lip-reading-s-1788748163"]Researchers Just Created the Most Amazing Lip-Reading Software[/URL]

[URL="https://www.technologyreview.com/s/602946/do-your-family-members-have-a-right-to-your-genetic-code/?utm_campaign=internal&utm_medium=homepage&utm_source=features_1"]Do Your Family Members Have a Right to Your Genetic Code?[/URL]

[URL="http://arstechnica.com/science/2016/11/with-every-splashdown-nasa-embraces-the-legacy-of-gus-grissom/"]Gus Grissom taught NASA a hard lesson: “You can hurt yourself in the ocean”[/URL]

[URL="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/strange-case-george-washingtons-disappearing-sash-180961105/"]The Strange Case of George Washington’s Disappearing Sash[/URL]

[URL="http://exclusive.multibriefs.com/content/the-relationship-between-physical-activity-and-brain-function/education"]The relationship between physical activity and brain function[/URL]

[url]http://www.nature.com/news/nature-s-10-1.21157[/url]

..I hope that the cure for global warming is not a nuclear winter...

[url]http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/12/behold-the-greatest-spirographs-in-the-world/[/url]

[QUOTE=Xyzzy;449866][URL]http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/12/behold-the-greatest-spirographs-in-the-world/[/URL][/QUOTE]
My first thought when I saw the lead picture in the article was that it was about the greatest crop circles in the world. Just a visual impression.

Red Nova predicted in Cygnus around 2022
 

[url]https://www.newscientist.com/article/2110005-double-star-may-light-up-the-sky-as-rare-red-nova-in-six-years/[/url]

As a result of a binary star merger, this could shine as as second magnitude star in Cygnus around the year 2022.2 +/- 0.6. At 1700 lightyears, this system is currently at 12th magnitude.

I knew Larry Molnar when he was a professor of astronomy when I was a graduate student at the University of Iowa.

I wonder if some serious amateurs will set up a network of equipment scattered around the planet, sort of a distributed recording project, such that there are scopes continuously monitoring that star whenever its not in the sun's glare. With enough scopes in enough different locations, there's bound to be one or more with clear skies at any given time. Tough to devote a bunch of equipment for years to one star, but you'd end up with a really complete light curve for this type of nova.

Norm

[QUOTE=Spherical Cow;450752]I wonder if some serious amateurs will set up a network of equipment scattered around the planet, sort of a distributed recording project, such that there are scopes continuously monitoring that star whenever its not in the sun's glare. With enough scopes in enough different locations, there's bound to be one or more with clear skies at any given time. Tough to devote a bunch of equipment for years to one star, but you'd end up with a really complete light curve for this type of nova.

Norm[/QUOTE]It's easy to see stars in broad daylight as long as you're prepared to live with a few restrictions, the principal of which is that you need to know where to look and that photometric precision is likely to be poor.

A good many years ago now Venus occulted sigma Sgr, which has a V magnitude of 2.1. The event took place mid-afternoon in Oxford; the objects were at fairly low altitude and quite invisible to the naked eye. Venus was easy to see in a 50mm finder and the star very easy indeed in a 20cm Mak-Cas telescope with a moderate power eyepiece. Unfortunately the occultation was itself occulted by clouds but the view shortly afterwards was quite impressive!

I suspect that a 20-50cm telescope fitted with a sky chopper and a phase sensitive detector (i.e. standard mid-IR technology) should easily see mag-6 objects and possibly fainter. A raw CCD with its IR sensitivity would probably help. Finding suitable comparison stars shouldn't be too impossible with a well aligned mount.

[QUOTE=Spherical Cow;450752]I wonder if some serious amateurs will set up a network of equipment scattered around the planet, sort of a distributed recording project,[/QUOTE]
A spec of a value based system, using off the shelf system components, with appropriate custom software would help to kick off the effort. (And maybe a crowdfunding page to raise funds for the prototyping and initial buy of some components.) This is well within the range of consumer scopes and detectors. Add a Raspberry Pi in to collect and monitor data (and kick out an alert to the world). Provide a pier, shelter, and power&data connection and go. The data gathered might be useful for other projects.
If there was a fund raiser for the project I would kick in some funds. Ideally, the system would find a complimentary project for the unused dark time and one to follow on after the nova.

This article contains a chart showing where the system is in Cygnus:

[url]http://www.skyandtelescope.com/uncategorized/stars-en-route-to-merger/[/url]

My telescope mount is low-tech, so I am hoping to find a finder chart soon. At 12th magnitude, a finder chart would have to be pretty detailed.

[QUOTE=Uncwilly;450759]If there was a fund raiser for the project I would kick in some funds. Ideally, the system would find a complimentary project for the unused dark time and one to follow on after the nova.[/QUOTE]

Yes, I would definitely kick in funds for this kind of project, and would volunteer to help maintain a nearby station. Lots of clear nights (and days) out here in the Arizona desert. Will have to start thinking about the minimum needs of a station, and how many/where stations would need to be to guarantee (almost) more than one station has clear skies at any given time. Like you say, start off-the-shelf, do proof of concept monitoring with a few prototype stations sending data to a server, nail down all the specs, then crowdfund a network of stations to be ready a year or two before the predicted nova. Could be downright fascinating to do.

Norm

[URL="https://www.wired.com/2016/12/national-geographics-classic-infographics-now-one-stunning-book"]NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC’S CLASSIC INFOGRAPHICS, NOW IN ONE STUNNING BOOK[/URL]

[URL="http://phys.org/news/2016-12-alpha-spectrum-antimatter.html"]ALPHA observes light spectrum of antimatter for first time[/URL]

[URL="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/29/science/pan-starrs-telescope-survey-map.html"]The Biggest Digital Map of the Cosmos Ever Made[/URL]

[URL="http://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/technology-trends-2017/"]5 tech trends that will change the world in 2017[/URL]

[URL="http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/01/surprising-brain-growth-may-reveal-why-we-get-better-recognizing-faces-we-age"]Surprising brain growth may reveal why we get better at recognizing faces as we age[/URL]

[URL="https://www.wired.com/2016/12/watch-brain-flicker-activity-rests"]Watch a Resting Brain Light Up With Activity[/URL]

[URL="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/01/170104103628.htm"]Lack of joy from music linked to brain disconnection[/URL]

[URL="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/21/science/youre-an-adult-your-brain-not-so-much.html?_r=0"]You’re an Adult. Your Brain, Not So Much[/URL]

[URL="https://aeon.co/essays/how-ai-is-revolutionising-the-role-of-the-literary-critic"]When robots read books[/URL]

[URL="https://www.technologyreview.com/s/603137/deep-learning-machine-listens-to-bach-then-writes-its-own-music-in-the-same-style/"]Deep-Learning Machine Listens to Bach, Then Writes Its Own Music in the Same Style[/URL]

[URL="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/12/161212134605.htm"]New robot has a human touch[/URL]

[URL="http://phys.org/news/2016-12-technology-virtually-recreate-concert-hall.html"]Researchers use technology to virtually recreate concert hall acoustics[/URL]

We are now one step closer to ManBearPig:
[url]http://www.bbc.com/news/health-38717930[/url]

[url=http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2017/01/a-breakthrough-in-high-pressure-physics/]Harvard scientists announce they’ve created metallic hydrogen, which has been just a theory[/url] | Harvard Gazette
[quote]Thomas D. Cabot Professor of the Natural Sciences Isaac Silvera and postdoctoral fellow Ranga Dias have long sought the material, called atomic metallic hydrogen. In addition to helping scientists answer some fundamental questions about the nature of matter, the material is theorized to have a wide range of applications, including as a room-temperature superconductor. Their research is described in a paper published today in Science.

“This is the Holy Grail of high-pressure physics,” Silvera said of the quest to find the material. “It’s the first-ever sample of metallic hydrogen on Earth, so when you’re looking at it, you’re looking at something that’s never existed before.”

In their experiments, Silvera and Dias squeezed a tiny hydrogen sample at 495 gigapascal (GPa), or more than 71.7 million pounds per square inch, which is greater than the pressure at the center of the Earth. At such extreme pressures, Silvera explained, solid molecular hydrogen, which consists of molecules on the lattice sites of the solid, breaks down, and the tightly bound molecules dissociate to transforms into atomic hydrogen, which is a metal.

While the work creates an important window into understanding the general properties of hydrogen, it also offers tantalizing hints at potentially revolutionary new materials.

“One prediction that’s very important is metallic hydrogen is predicted to be meta-stable,” Silvera said. “That means if you take the pressure off, it will stay metallic, similar to the way diamonds form from graphite under intense heat and pressure, but remain diamonds when that pressure and heat are removed.”[/quote]

[QUOTE=ewmayer;451872][QUOTE]“One prediction that’s very important is metallic hydrogen is predicted to be meta-stable,” Silvera said. “That means if you take the pressure off, it will stay metallic, similar to the way diamonds form from graphite under intense heat and pressure, but remain diamonds when that pressure and heat are removed.” [/QUOTE][/QUOTE]There has been a lot of controversy over the claim in general that they actually did what they said, but also the specific claim that I quoted above. If they really did make the stuff then they should release it from the anvil and test whether is does indeed remain metallic or not.

[QUOTE=retina;451875]There has been a lot of controversy over the claim in general that they actually did what they said, but also the specific claim that I quoted above. If they really did make the stuff then they should release it from the anvil and test whether is does indeed remain metallic or not.[/QUOTE]

I read one article that suggested they would but slowly because they don't want to break the anvil and the material they made it form usually breaks when pressure is released quickly.

[url=https://www.quantamagazine.org/20170207-bell-test-quantum-loophole/]Physicists Are Closing the Bell Test Loophole[/url] | Quanta Magazine
[quote]In the first of a planned series of “cosmic Bell test” experiments, the team sent pairs of photons from the roof of [Anton] Zeilinger’s lab in Vienna through the open windows of two other buildings and into optical modulators, tallying coincident detections as usual. But this time, they attempted to lower the chance that the modulator settings might somehow become correlated with the states of the photons in the moments before each measurement. They pointed a telescope out of each window, trained each telescope on a bright and conveniently located (but otherwise random) star, and, before each measurement, used the color of an incoming photon from each star to set the angle of the associated modulator. The colors of these photons were decided hundreds of years ago, when they left their stars, increasing the chance that they (and therefore the measurement settings) were independent of the states of the photons being measured.

And yet, the scientists found that the measurement outcomes still violated Bell’s upper limit, boosting their confidence that the polarized photons in the experiment exhibit spooky action at a distance after all.

Nature could still exploit the freedom-of-choice loophole, but the universe would have had to delete items from the menu of possible measurement settings at least 600 years before the measurements occurred (when the closer of the two stars sent its light toward Earth). “Now one needs the correlations to have been established even before Shakespeare wrote, ‘Until I know this sure uncertainty, I’ll entertain the offered fallacy,’” Hall said.

Next, the team plans to use light from increasingly distant quasars to control their measurement settings, probing further back in time and giving the universe an even smaller window to cook up correlations between future device settings and restrict freedoms. It’s also possible (though extremely unlikely) that the team will find a transition point where measurement settings become uncorrelated and violations of Bell’s limit disappear — which would prove that Einstein was right to doubt spooky action.

“For us it seems like kind of a win-win,” Friedman said. “Either we close the loophole more and more, and we’re more confident in quantum theory, or we see something that could point toward new physics.”

There’s a final possibility that many physicists abhor. It could be that the universe restricted freedom of choice from the very beginning — that every measurement was predetermined by correlations established at the Big Bang. “Superdeterminism,” as this is called, is “unknowable,” said Jan-Åke Larsson, a physicist at Linköping University in Sweden; the cosmic Bell test crew will never be able to rule out correlations that existed before there were stars, quasars or any other light in the sky. That means the freedom-of-choice loophole can never be completely shut.

But given the choice between quantum entanglement and superdeterminism, most scientists favor entanglement — and with it, freedom. “If the correlations are indeed set [at the Big Bang], everything is preordained,” Larsson said. “I find it a boring worldview. I cannot believe this would be true.”[/quote]

Somewhat related, also in [i]Quanta[/i]: [url=https://www.quantamagazine.org/20160517-pilot-wave-theory-gains-experimental-support/]Pilot-Wave Theory Gains Experimental Support[/url]

Big news today in the "Exploration of the Universe to Solve our Existential Crisis" category:

[URL="https://www.researchgate.net/blog/post/system-of-seven-earth-like-planets-could-support-life"]System of seven Earth-like planets around ultra cold dwarf star could support life[/URL]

40 ly away, all 7 planets at sub-Mercurial distance, strong gravitational interactions between them

NASA’s longshot bet on a revolutionary rocket may be about to pay off
 

[URL]https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/02/nasas-longshot-bet-on-a-revolutionary-rocket-may-be-about-to-pay-off/[/URL]
Former astronaut works the other side of the game.
[QUOTE]HOUSTON—Franklin Chang-Díaz bounds up a handful of stairs and peers through a porthole cut into the side of a silver, tanker-truck-sized vacuum chamber. Inside, a blueish-purple light shines, unchanging and constant, like a bright flashlight. “It looks kind of boring,” Chang-Díaz admits. “But that plume is 3.5 million degrees. If you stuck your hand in that, it would be very bad.”

Truth be told, the plume does not look impressive at all. And yet the engine firing within the vacuum chamber is potentially revolutionary for two simple reasons: first, unlike gas-guzzling conventional rocket engines, it requires little fuel. And second, this engine might one day push spacecraft to velocities sufficient enough to open the Solar System to human exploration.

This has long been the promise of Chang-Díaz’s plasma-based VASIMR rocket engine. From a theoretical physics standpoint, the rocket has always seemed a reasonable proposition: generate a plasma, excite it, and then push it out a nozzle at high speed. But what about the real-world engineering of actually building such an engine—managing the plasma and its thermal properties, then successfully firing it for a long period of time? That has proven challenging, and it has led many to doubt the engine’s practicality.
[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=kladner;453506][URL]https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/02/nasas-longshot-bet-on-a-revolutionary-rocket-may-be-about-to-pay-off/[/URL]
Former astronaut works the other side of the game.
[QUOTE]This has long been the promise of Chang-Díaz’s plasma-based VASIMR rocket engine.[/QUOTE][/QUOTE]I actually had a chance to speak with him about this in the early 1990's (if memory serves). He was at an event that I attended. I stayed after and spoke with him. He is was the second astronaut that I have seen in person (not counting 2 ant like creatures seen across a dry lake bed.) I have added a few more since and talked to Apollo era ones.

[URL="http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/a-computer-to-rival-the-brain"]A Computer to Rival the Brain[/URL]

[URL="https://www.wired.com/2017/02/programming-is-the-new-blue-collar-job/"]The Next Big Blue Collar Job is Coding[/URL]

[URL="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/these-smart-glasses-adjust-your-vision-automatically-180962078/"]These “Smart Glasses” Adjust To Your Vision Automatically[/URL]

[URL="http://www.nature.com/news/elusive-triangulene-created-by-moving-atoms-one-at-a-time-1.21462"]Elusive triangulene created by moving atoms one at a time[/URL]

[URL="http://www.futurity.org/dont-freak-out-about-earths-magnetic-field-flipping/"]Don’t freak out about Earth’s magnetic field flipping[/URL]

[URL="http://nautil.us/issue/45/power/this-man-is-about-to-blow-up-mathematics"]This Man Is About to Blow Up Mathematics[/URL]

[URL="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/nearby-star-hosts-7-earth-size-planets-video/"]Nearby Star Hosts 7 Earth-Size Planets[/URL]

[URL="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/02/170222145750.htm"]Tiny fibers open new windows into the brain[/URL]

[URL="http://exclusive.multibriefs.com/content/researchers-find-key-brain-differences-in-those-with-adhd/education"]Researchers find key brain differences in those with ADHD[/URL]

[URL="http://www.sciencealert.com/creative-people-could-just-have-better-connected-brains"]Creative People Have Better-Connected Brains, Scans Reveal[/URL]

[URL="http://www.houstonchronicle.com/entertainment/books/article/UH-grad-student-discovers-novel-by-Walt-Whitman-10945925.php?t=2da9b006a7438d9cbb"]A UH grad student's big find: An unknown novel by Walt Whitman[/URL]

[URL="https://www.us.mensa.org/read/bulletin/features/gay-coding-in-hitchcock-films/"]Gay Coding in Hitchcock Films[/URL]

[URL="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/feb/08/total-recall-the-people-who-never-forget"]Total recall: the people who never forget[/URL]

[URL="https://www.quantamagazine.org/20170209-the-fight-to-fix-symplectic-geometry/"]A Fight to Fix Geometry’s Foundations[/URL]

[URL="https://phys.org/news/2017-02-technology-long-distance-relationships.html"]Technology puts 'touch' into long-distance relationships[/URL]

[URL="https://www.wired.com/2017/02/scientists-trading-lab-mice-hundreds-mini-brains-chip/"]Scientists Are Trading In Lab Mice for Hundreds of Mini-Brains on a Chip[/URL]

[URL="https://www.quantamagazine.org/20170207-bell-test-quantum-loophole/"]Experiment Reaffirms Quantum Weirdnes[/URL]

Catalog of Free software available from NASA- sounds like some neat stuff in there.


[URL="https://www.engadget.com/2017/03/02/nasa-releases-a-treasure-trove-of-space-and-science-programs/"]https://www.engadget.com/2017/03/02/nasa-releases-a-treasure-trove-of-space-and-science-programs/[/URL]

Norm

That is amazing! The fruits of our taxes released to us!