Official "Science News" Thread

[davar55]

Originally Posted by kladner

I wonder if this particle is present in neutron star material?

Originally Posted by xilman

Given that neutron star material is believed to consist of a mix of neutrons and neutron-rich nuclei in varying proportions, I suspect the answer is similar to that of "Does (H₂O)₄ exist in liquid water?".

The possibility of nuclear particles composed only of neutrons
is consistent with the discussion of the nucleus and the nuclear
forces in my cosmology monograph, cosmo4.txt, found elsewhere
on this site.

[only_human]

Astronauts heard odd music on far side of moon.

Originally Posted by Xyzzy

http://news.discovery.com/space/hist...oon-160222.htm

Not only that, but Astronaut Ice Cream is a lie! I'm SHOCKED, shocked, I tell you.

(5 minute video (I know, five minutes, but we can't let those liers lie down like the dogs they are and fleece the public. Attica! Attica!))
http://youtu.be/zpkUjrC3-Ds

[ewmayer]

o Exoplanet Census Suggests Earth Is Special after All - Scientific American

It is perhaps fitting that 'uppsala' is a common German colloquialism for 'whoops!' But such modeling/extrapolation exercises always need to be taken with a huge gr. of NaCl.

o Evidence mounts for interbreeding bonanza in ancient human species | Nature News & Comment

"And there was much porking going on among and between and above and beneath the various peoples of the Earth... and Lord Darwin gazed upon it, and saw that it was good."

o The new mind control | Aeon

Late in 2012, I began to wonder whether highly ranked search results could be impacting more than consumer choices. Perhaps, I speculated, a top search result could have a small impact on people’s opinions about things. Early in 2013, with my associate Ronald E Robertson of the American Institute for Behavioral Research and Technology in Vista, California, I put this idea to a test by conducting an experiment in which 102 people from the San Diego area were randomly assigned to one of three groups. In one group, people saw search results that favoured one political candidate – that is, results that linked to web pages that made this candidate look better than his or her opponent. In a second group, people saw search rankings that favoured the opposing candidate, and in the third group – the control group – people saw a mix of rankings that favoured neither candidate. The same search results and web pages were used in each group; the only thing that differed for the three groups was the ordering of the search results.
...
We predicted that the opinions and voting preferences of 2 or 3 per cent of the people in the two bias groups – the groups in which people were seeing rankings favouring one candidate – would shift toward that candidate. What we actually found was astonishing. The proportion of people favouring the search engine’s top-ranked candidate increased by 48.4 per cent, and all five of our measures shifted toward that candidate. What’s more, 75 per cent of the people in the bias groups seemed to have been completely unaware that they were viewing biased search rankings. In the control group, opinions did not shift significantly.

Got DuckDuckGo?

[Dubslow]

Originally Posted by ewmayer

o Exoplanet Census Suggests Earth Is Special after All - Scientific American

In a powerful computer simulation, they first created their own mini universe containing models of the earliest galaxies. Then they unleashed the laws of physics—as close as scientists understand them—that describe how galaxies grow, how stars evolve and how planets come to be. Finally, they fast-forwarded through 13.8 billion years of cosmic history. Their results, published to the preprint server arXiv (pdf) and submitted to The Astrophysical Journal, provide a tantalizing trove of probable exoplanet statistics that helps astronomers understand our place in the universe.

That's got to be one of the shakiest grounds for publication I've heard in a while. We're nowhere near ready for full-universe simulations.

Additionally, the abstract makes significantly less grandiose claims and interpretations -- but I suppose that's par for the course with journalism, even relatively decent scientific journalism.

The study of cosmology, galaxy formation and exoplanetary systems has now advanced to a stage
where a cosmic inventory of terrestrial planets may be attempted. By coupling semi-analytic models
of galaxy formation to a recipe that relates the occurrence of planets to the mass and metallicity of
their host stars, we trace the population of terrestrial planets around both solar-mass (FGK type) and
lower-mass (M dwarf) stars throughout all of cosmic history. We find that the mean age of terrestrial
planets in the local Universe is 8 ± 1 Gyr and that the typical planet of this type is located in a
spheroid-dominated galaxy with total stellar mass about twice that of the Milky Way. We estimate
that hot Jupiters have depleted the population of terrestrial planets around FGK stars at redshift
z = 0 by no more than ≈ 10%, and predict that ≈ 1/3 of the terrestrial planets in the local Universe
are orbiting stars in a metallicity range for which such planets have yet to be been detected. When
looking at the inventory of planets throughout the whole observable Universe (i.e. in all galaxies on
our past light cone) we argue for a total of ≈ 2 × 1019 and ≈ 7 × 1020 terrestrial planets around FGK
and M stars, respectively. Due to the hierarchical formation of galaxies and lookback-time effects,
the average terrestrial planet on our past light cone has an age of just 1.7 ± 0.2 Gyr and is sitting
in a galaxy with a stellar mass a factor of ≈ 2 lower than that of the Milky Way. These results are
discussed in the context of cosmic habitability, the Copernican principle and the prospects of searches
for extraterrestrial intelligence at cosmological distances.

I seriously hope they've considered at least examining the analytic stability of the simulation -- that is, how much tweaking the various input parameters plays a role on the outcome (basically, they need to take some derivatives before examining the data itself).

[markr]

Originally Posted by ewmayer

o The new mind control | Aeon

Got DuckDuckGo?

I'm more worried about "social media" sites, where many people spend much more time, and how they select the links they show.

[LaurV]

Originally Posted by markr

I'm more worried about "social media" sites, where many people spend much more time, and how they select the links they show.

They lost me where they were talking about "the secret CocaCola recipe", and I closed the article. The "coca cola secret" doesn't cheat anybody anymore, there was never a "secret" with the recipe, any chemical lab can analyze the drink and reproduce it exactly. What stops the beverage companies to do so is not the "secret recipe", but the army of lawyers and international patents...

I remember an idiot who years ago called a guy at Pepsi and wanted to sell him the secret Coca Cola recipe for few thousand dollars or so (or viceversa?). Yes, he was Romanian, haha, working somewhere in western Europe in one of the beverage companies, for a month or so, he wanted to make "big" money, so he took the "secret recipe" (he was working with it!) and called the CEO of the other company, asking for few thousand dollars for it, they fixed a meeting, where the guy went, and the police was waiting for him. There was a big fun about the guy in Romanian newspapers for a while. The poor devil imagined that the story about the "secret recipe" is true, and the other company will make him rich for stealing it ... (or like the first company would let him handle "secret stuff" in just a month of working there, hehe).

[Mark Rose]

A new Alzheimer's treatment fully restores memory function in mice

[kladner]

Originally Posted by Mark Rose

A new Alzheimer's treatment fully restores memory function in mice

Wowee! Lithotripsy for the brain!

[Xyzzy]

http://arstechnica.com/the-multivers...e-if-for-free/

[ewmayer]

Originally Posted by kladner

Wowee! Lithotripsy for the brain!

Lends a new twist to the saying about people with "rocks in their head".

======================

Scientists pinpoint unbroken section of Nepal fault line and show why Himalayas keep growing | Oxford U.

When fault-finding turns kinky...upshot is that last year's quake may be only be a foretaste of bigger things to come in the not-very-distant-at-all future.

[rogue]

Library of Congress Puts Rosa Parks Archive Online

Robot Art Raises Questions about Human Creativity

NASA releases recording of 'outer-space type music' from far side of the moon

THIS MASK LETS YOU SMELL THE RAINBOW

Mirror mirror: Snail shells offer clue in unravelling common origins of body asymmetry

The Missing Link of Artificial Intelligence

Which Type of Exercise Is Best for the Brain?

Mind-controlled prosthetic arm moves individual 'fingers'

A living, breathing textile aims to enhance athletic performance

Punctuation in novels

How Meditation Changes the Brain and Body

Being Bilingual Changes the Architecture of Your Brain

Mammal brain frozen and thawed out perfectly for first time

Sneezing produces complex fluid cascade, not a simple spray

Study: A healthy heart leads to a healthy brain

Can Dementia Be Prevented? Education May Bolster Brain Against Risk

The Math Revolution

American Mensa on Balancing Freedom and Protection: Keeping Advanced & Gifted Kids Motivated

Gravitational Waves Exist: The Inside Story of How Scientists Finally Found Them