Official "Science News" Thread

[rogue]

Illuminating Mechanism at Play in Learning

Why the Brain-Body Connection Is More Important Than We Think

Physicists Find a Way to See the ‘Grin’ of Quantum Gravity

When You Give a Tree an Email Address

A primer on the primal origins of humans on Earth

Diamonds reveal sign of the deepest water known inside Earth

[ewmayer]

Originally Posted by rogue

Physicists Find a Way to See the ‘Grin’ of Quantum Gravity

Nice article, thanks!

New evidence for plume beneath Yellowstone National Park | Phys.org

[kladner]

Mantle plumes are of considerable interest to me. I read a lot about volcanology and track volcano news. I had not thought that plumes are a disputed concept, but the article seems to put that to rest, anyway.

My readings make it seem fairly widely accepted that Iceland not only sits on the Mid-Atlantic rift, but also on a hotspot related to a plume. It is theorized that the Laki eruption in 1783 may have been set off by a pulse in the plume. Note the descriptions of the climate effects of Laki, including words by Benjamin Franklin. Among other things, the Mississippi reportedly froze at New Orleans, and there were reports of ice floes in the Gulf of Mexico.
Europe, and Iceland were devastated by the HF and sulfur gases.

The outpouring of gases, including an estimated 8 million tons of hydrogen fluoride and an estimated 120 million tons of sulfur dioxide, gave rise to what has since become known as the "Laki haze" across Europe.[9]

My understanding is that the Yellowstone hotspot, while in the same general location, appears more to the East from the surface. IIRC, this is due to the tectonic plate moving Westward. There is debate as to whether the supposed plume can have the same effects as at Yellowstone, as the plate drift brings the North American Craton over it.

Thanks to the mantle plume story, I happened on this delight:

https://phys.org/news/2018-03-radar-...ath-texas.html

Radar images show large swath of Texas oil patch is heaving and sinking at alarming rates

Two giant sinkholes near Wink, Texas, may just be the tip of the iceberg, according to a new study that found alarming rates of new ground movement extending far beyond the infamous sinkholes.

Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2018-03-radar-...texas.html#jCp

Two giant sinkholes near Wink, Texas, may just be the tip of the iceberg, according to a new study that found alarming rates of new ground movement extending far beyond the infamous sinkholes.

That's the finding of a geophysical team from Southern Methodist University, Dallas that previously reported the rapid rate at which the sinkholes are expanding and new ones forming.

Now the team has discovered that various locations in large portions of four Texas counties are also sinking and uplifting.

Radar satellite images show significant movement of the ground across a 4000-square-mile area—in one place as much as 40 inches over the past two-and-a-half years, say the geophysicists.

"The ground movement we're seeing is not normal.** The ground doesn't typically do this without some cause," said geophysicist Zhong Lu, a professor in the Roy M. Huffington Department of Earth Sciences at SMU and a global expert in satellite radar imagery analysis.

**Well duh!

[VictordeHolland]

Originally Posted by rogue

When You Give a Tree an Email Address

This reminds me of what ESA did with social media for the comet mission with Rosetta and Philae. Conversations between the two on Twitter with #CometLanding and cute art made two robots come 'alive'.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33zw4yYNGAs

[chalsall]

Originally Posted by VictordeHolland

This reminds me of what ESA did with social media for the comet mission with Rosetta and Philae

I agree.

Ambition, The Film, was seriously good fun.

Seven minutes of terror got somewhat correct the technical with regards to the details of getting to Mars.

May we live in interesting times.

[Dr Sardonicus]

Originally Posted by kladner

Thanks to the mantle plume story, I happened on this delight:

https://phys.org/news/2018-03-radar-...ath-texas.html

Radar images show large swath of Texas oil patch is heaving and sinking at alarming rates

Two giant sinkholes near Wink, Texas, may just be the tip of the iceberg, according to a new study that found alarming rates of new ground movement extending far beyond the infamous sinkholes.

Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2018-03-radar-...texas.html#jCp

**Well duh!

In fact, they give a possible cause:

Ground movement associated with oil activity

The SMU researchers found a significant relationship between ground movement and oil activities that include pressurized fluid injection into the region's geologically unstable rock formations.

BTW, I didn't see any difference between those two pages...

[kladner]

Sorry. Apparently, I mis-pasted.

It is not just injection wells. It is the preceding decades of drilling, lubricated and flushed by drilling mud. It is water seeping into uncapped, abandoned wells, and dissolving the salt domes which trapped the petroleum, lowering the ground.
It is CO² injection to squeeze near-exhausted reservoirs, raising the ground.

[ewmayer]

Researchers find a new material for quantum computing | TechCrunch

[kladner]

I think I indicated Kick 'em Jenny correctly, West of Grenada. I'm sure chalsall will let me know.

[rogue]

Hear JFK's voice deliver the Dallas speech he never gave in 1963

How video games help rehabilitate stroke survivors

How brain stimulation can boost memory if paired with learning

The Brain Learns Completely Differently than We’ve Assumed Since the 20th Century

IBM Built a Computer the Size of a Grain of Salt. Here's What It's For

Robert Langlands, Mathematical Visionary, Wins the Abel Prize

Why Do Some People ‘Hear’ Silent Flashes?

You Can Have Emotions You Don’t Feel

[ewmayer]

New Human ‘Organ’ Was Hiding in Plain Sight | National Geographic

There would seem to be much overlap with the meridians of traditional Chinese medicine.