Beetles battle to be the top poopmaster! (Science)

Druhim

Yes, female beetles of the species Onthophagus sagittarius have evolved horns so they can fight each other for valuable poop deposits.

Horns on bulls, antlers on stags and other guy weapons have preoccupied scientists who study evolution, Stankowich says. Darwin proposed that male weaponry arose from the struggle between rivals for access to females, and later work has found plenty of examples that fit that scenario.

Yet females of some species grow their own arsenals. Defense against predators probably drove the evolution of female horns in some bovine species, for example, according to work by Stankowich and Tim Caro of the University of California, Davis. In a smaller number of other bovines, such as the little antelopes called duikers, territorial battles probably favored female horns.

But the beetle horns are special, Stankowich says. Female duiker horns generally look like the males’, but female dung beetles grow another type of horn altogether.

The female beetles sprout a large central horn with a smaller stub in front of it, Watson says. The arrangement looks like a miniature version of a rhino’s arsenal. Males grow a pair of stubbier horns, more like a bull’s, that sprouts from a different place on the body.

Because male and female horns are so different, Watson and Simmons dismiss the possibility that the female horns grow simply as some kind of genetic spillover from male horns. Instead, Stankowich says, “it’s an independent evolutionary event from male horn evolution.”

Macera

DrIanMalcolm wrote: »

I agree with Fishman

here let's talk about how hard it was for dinosaurs to have sex

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcc3aX2gH08[url]

Wonder how stegosaurs did it

In a purely objective way, I mean

Dragonicity

Having such a large ice deposit on the moon makes that dude's lunar fueling station a step closer to reality, I think.

Dragonicity

Macera wrote: »

DrIanMalcolm wrote: »

I agree with Fishman

here let's talk about how hard it was for dinosaurs to have sex

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcc3aX2gH08[url]

Wonder how stegosaurs did it

In a purely objective way, I mean

Missionary

DrIanMalcolm

Macera wrote: »

DrIanMalcolm wrote: »

I agree with Fishman

here let's talk about how hard it was for dinosaurs to have sex

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcc3aX2gH08[url]

Wonder how stegosaurs did it

In a purely objective way, I mean

lying on their sides

Rankenphile

who

Niel DeGrasse Tyson

pfft

dude's a chump, I could out-brainwrestle him

always tryin to do shit like fuckin talk about science, explore shit and all that

where's the sweet bike tricks, Tyson?

Where's the pizazz?

Where's the rockin?

Rankenphile

I'm kidding of course

Tyson is a science pimp

Dragonicity

But he could do for a bit more in showmanship if he really wants to capture our hearts and not just our minds.

Spoiler:

or our science boners.

Macera

DrIanMalcolm wrote: »

lying on their sides

hmmm, having a hard time picturing them getting back up

Rankenphile

basically I wanna see a Juggy Blonde Foxy Boxing Match on the moon in my lifetime

or else science is total bullshit

DrIanMalcolm

In Ten Years a Box of Sand Could Power Your House

USA Today wrote:

Silicon Valley start-up Bloom Energy is unveiling a fuel-cell product Wednesday that can power a small office building. It expects to have home systems within a decade that are about the size of a loaf of bread, it says.
Bloom's technology gives users the ability to produce electricity — as opposed to buying it from utilities — and has the potential to extend electricity to parts of the world lacking traditional power systems and lines, Bloom says.

Bloom Energy, backed by Silicon Valley's leading venture capitalist, has been in stealth mode for eight years. Today, it's scheduled to announce that 20 companies, including Wal-Mart, Google, eBay, FedEx, Staples, Coca-Cola, Bank of America and Cox Enterprises, have bought Bloom's fuel-cell boxes. The commercial-scale boxes are about the size of a parking space and cost $700,000 to $800,000.

Bloom CEO KR Sridhar expects home models within 10 years that cost less than $3,000. He says consumers could see the so-called Bloom boxes powering apartment buildings and housing developments before that.

Sridhar, a professor of aerospace engineering who once led a team developing technology to sustain life on Mars for NASA, says utilities could buy the boxes, too, to power neighborhoods.

With Bloom's fuel cell, air and fuel — such as natural gas, ethanol or biogas — are fed into the cell. The oxygen ions react with the fuel to produce electricity. There's no burning, so the fuel cell is two-thirds cleaner than coal-fired plants, Bloom says.

Automakers have been working on fuel cells for vehicles for years. A few companies also sell commercial systems. The big challenge is cost.

FuelCell Energy, a 41-year-old Connecticut firm, shipped its first commercial system in 2003. It still loses money on every unit and has amassed losses of $600 million, says equity analyst Pavel Molchanov of Raymond James & Associates.

Sridhar says Bloom's technology is cheaper and more efficient than others because of proprietary technology that enables it to use low-cost materials — sand and ink — in 4-inch-by-4-inch fuel cells as thick as business cards. One cell powers a light bulb. Bloom stacks them together to produce more power.

Bloom's big breakthrough was reducing breakage by figuring out how to get the cells and the metal plates that go between them in the stacks to expand and shrink at the same rate at temperatures up to 800 degrees Celsius (1,472 degrees Fahrenheit). The high heat makes the fuel more reactive and the cell more efficient, Sridhar says. The heat also enables use of different fuels, making the tech easier and cheaper to deploy, he says.

EBay started using five Bloom boxes in July. They produce electricity to power space for 2,000 to 3,000 employees and shaved $100,000 off eBay's power bill, says Amy Skoczlas Cole, director of eBay's Green Team. EBay uses natural gas in the boxes but will switch to methane gas from an Oklahoma landfill this spring.

Bank of America plans to use Bloom boxes to power a California call center. Coca-Cola is deploying Bloom boxes at a plant in California. They're expected to provide 30% of the plant's power while reducing its carbon footprint by 35%, a Bloom press release says.

EBay's Cole expects Bloom boxes to pay for themselves within three years, given a 30% federal tax credit and a 20% subsidy from the state of California. "In a few years, we won't require subsidies to become the most affordable energy," Sridhar says.

Bloom's lead venture-capital backer, John Doerr, who also helped fund Netscape and Google, says Bloom's technology won't solve the USA's clean-energy needs. "It's not a silver bullet," he says, but a piece of an emerging clean-energy economy. "Everybody wants clean, reliable, affordable electricity," Doerr says.

Langly

For some reason this title made me think of big bad beatle borgs

Macera

Langly wrote: »

For some reason this title made me think of big bad beatle borgs

fuck yeah big bad beetle borgs

QuestionMarkMan

New gadget eliminates pain in dental injections

People of the world who hate hate HATE going to the dentist, rejoice: DentalVibe is a new device that completely eliminates the pain when they are sticking a stainless steel needle into your gums. All by cleverly fooling your brain.

Developed by Dr. Steven G. Goldberg DDS and Bresslergroup, DentalVibe vibrates at irregular intervals. While the brain ignores rapid rhythmical vibration, it notices pulses that are not regular. These vibrations are transmitted by A-beta nerve fibers, which are faster than the slower C fibers that transmit the sensation of pain caused by the needle penetrating your gums.

The result is that your brain will only notice the percussive vibration, but not the pain of the needle tearing apart the flesh of your gums until it hits the bone. Clever. Now they only have to solve the problem of the drilling, the tubes stretching your mouth, and the muzzak making you brain melt.

Metzger Meister

so, when do we get to make the moon an american state?

edit: capitol city of the moon is Armstrong in the ME universe, this owns.

MKR

If science were a dude, I would go gay for it.

Grey Ghost

I want to finally have a moon city called New New York

Druhim

DrIanMalcolm wrote: »

In Ten Years a Box of Sand Could Power Your House

USA Today wrote:

Silicon Valley start-up Bloom Energy is unveiling a fuel-cell product Wednesday that can power a small office building. It expects to have home systems within a decade that are about the size of a loaf of bread, it says.
Bloom's technology gives users the ability to produce electricity — as opposed to buying it from utilities — and has the potential to extend electricity to parts of the world lacking traditional power systems and lines, Bloom says.

Bloom Energy, backed by Silicon Valley's leading venture capitalist, has been in stealth mode for eight years. Today, it's scheduled to announce that 20 companies, including Wal-Mart, Google, eBay, FedEx, Staples, Coca-Cola, Bank of America and Cox Enterprises, have bought Bloom's fuel-cell boxes. The commercial-scale boxes are about the size of a parking space and cost $700,000 to $800,000.

Bloom CEO KR Sridhar expects home models within 10 years that cost less than $3,000. He says consumers could see the so-called Bloom boxes powering apartment buildings and housing developments before that.

Sridhar, a professor of aerospace engineering who once led a team developing technology to sustain life on Mars for NASA, says utilities could buy the boxes, too, to power neighborhoods.

With Bloom's fuel cell, air and fuel — such as natural gas, ethanol or biogas — are fed into the cell. The oxygen ions react with the fuel to produce electricity. There's no burning, so the fuel cell is two-thirds cleaner than coal-fired plants, Bloom says.

Automakers have been working on fuel cells for vehicles for years. A few companies also sell commercial systems. The big challenge is cost.

FuelCell Energy, a 41-year-old Connecticut firm, shipped its first commercial system in 2003. It still loses money on every unit and has amassed losses of $600 million, says equity analyst Pavel Molchanov of Raymond James & Associates.

Sridhar says Bloom's technology is cheaper and more efficient than others because of proprietary technology that enables it to use low-cost materials — sand and ink — in 4-inch-by-4-inch fuel cells as thick as business cards. One cell powers a light bulb. Bloom stacks them together to produce more power.

Bloom's big breakthrough was reducing breakage by figuring out how to get the cells and the metal plates that go between them in the stacks to expand and shrink at the same rate at temperatures up to 800 degrees Celsius (1,472 degrees Fahrenheit). The high heat makes the fuel more reactive and the cell more efficient, Sridhar says. The heat also enables use of different fuels, making the tech easier and cheaper to deploy, he says.

EBay started using five Bloom boxes in July. They produce electricity to power space for 2,000 to 3,000 employees and shaved $100,000 off eBay's power bill, says Amy Skoczlas Cole, director of eBay's Green Team. EBay uses natural gas in the boxes but will switch to methane gas from an Oklahoma landfill this spring.

Bank of America plans to use Bloom boxes to power a California call center. Coca-Cola is deploying Bloom boxes at a plant in California. They're expected to provide 30% of the plant's power while reducing its carbon footprint by 35%, a Bloom press release says.

EBay's Cole expects Bloom boxes to pay for themselves within three years, given a 30% federal tax credit and a 20% subsidy from the state of California. "In a few years, we won't require subsidies to become the most affordable energy," Sridhar says.

Bloom's lead venture-capital backer, John Doerr, who also helped fund Netscape and Google, says Bloom's technology won't solve the USA's clean-energy needs. "It's not a silver bullet," he says, but a piece of an emerging clean-energy economy. "Everybody wants clean, reliable, affordable electricity," Doerr says.

I like how they're using language most people aren't familiar with to pretend that they're not "burning" the fuel even though there's clearly exothermic oxidation taking place

so yeah, I'm still skeptical that this isn't mostly PR bullshit

Druhim

in other words, fuck this gay earth (in before pip)

Dragonicity

right in its gay butt

Shifty Fister

QuestionMarkMan wrote: »

New gadget eliminates pain in dental injections

People of the world who hate hate HATE going to the dentist, rejoice: DentalVibe is a new device that completely eliminates the pain when they are sticking a stainless steel needle into your gums. All by cleverly fooling your brain.

Developed by Dr. Steven G. Goldberg DDS and Bresslergroup, DentalVibe vibrates at irregular intervals. While the brain ignores rapid rhythmical vibration, it notices pulses that are not regular. These vibrations are transmitted by A-beta nerve fibers, which are faster than the slower C fibers that transmit the sensation of pain caused by the needle penetrating your gums.

The result is that your brain will only notice the percussive vibration, but not the pain of the needle tearing apart the flesh of your gums until it hits the bone. Clever. Now they only have to solve the problem of the drilling, the tubes stretching your mouth, and the muzzak making you brain melt.

wanna meet the duders who they tested this on while they were trying to make it work

vermiculture

Druhim wrote: »

DrIanMalcolm wrote: »

PR

I like how they're using language most people aren't familiar with to pretend that they're not "burning" the fuel even though there's clearly exothermic oxidation taking place

so yeah, I'm still skeptical that this isn't mostly PR bullshit

this is the time of the year when I have to help large companies write up how 'awesome' they are for all their environmental progress. I get really bitter and jaded. With that said, I read this and thought the exact same thing you just said.

#pipe

QuestionMarkMan wrote: »

New gadget eliminates pain in dental injections

People of the world who hate hate HATE going to the dentist, rejoice: DentalVibe is a new device that completely eliminates the pain when they are sticking a stainless steel needle into your gums. All by cleverly fooling your brain.

Developed by Dr. Steven G. Goldberg DDS and Bresslergroup, DentalVibe vibrates at irregular intervals. While the brain ignores rapid rhythmical vibration, it notices pulses that are not regular. These vibrations are transmitted by A-beta nerve fibers, which are faster than the slower C fibers that transmit the sensation of pain caused by the needle penetrating your gums.

The result is that your brain will only notice the percussive vibration, but not the pain of the needle tearing apart the flesh of your gums until it hits the bone. Clever. Now they only have to solve the problem of the drilling, the tubes stretching your mouth, and the muzzak making you brain melt.

how long before this is deployed

because I'm pretty sure I can wait

#pipe

Also The dental thing is a pretty spectacular demonstration of gate theory

Druhim

#pipe is a pretty spectacular demonstration of gay theory

blake

Macera wrote: »

Langly wrote: »

For some reason this title made me think of big bad beatle borgs

fuck yeah big bad beetle borgs

Spoiler:

http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/1384/beetleborgs.jpg

#pipe

Druhim wrote: »

#pipe is a pretty spectacular demonstration of gay theory

oh you bastard

Druhim

hey, so Spirit may not be permanently stationary after all

Antimatter

YES

Metzger Meister

THOSE LITTLE ROVERS FUCKING RULE.

Fishman

While not conclusive, it's still the best thing I've heard all day, by a long margin.

Now all I need is the All Whites [strike] win [/strike] [strike] draw [/strike] beat the spread against Mexico.

#pipe

Spirit will totally get out of the sand because it believes in the heart of the cards.

Metzger Meister

i am concerned about my weight. lately i've been getting really winded and i think it's having an effect on my personality.

i have no energy, i'm bummed out all the time, i've been having horrible nightmares... maybe i'm just depressed?

i dunno though, there are other days where i'm really, really hyper and bouncing off the walls and shit and full of piss and vinegar!

would losing weight even help or am i bound for the boobie hatch?

Usagi

If it's just started happening recently Metz, it might be SAD

#pipe

a more varied, balanced diet and increasing exercise are a very early part of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy treatment of depression.

It's not a cure, but it has certainly been shown to have a positive affect

#pipe

Am I alone in thinking Seasonal Affective Disorder seems like a crock of shit?

Druhim

Metzger Meister wrote: »

i am concerned about my weight. lately i've been getting really winded and i think it's having an effect on my personality.

i have no energy, i'm bummed out all the time, i've been having horrible nightmares... maybe i'm just depressed?

i dunno though, there are other days where i'm really, really hyper and bouncing off the walls and shit and full of piss and vinegar!

would losing weight even help or am i bound for the boobie hatch?

there's no way we can say with any certainty because we're not doctors and we can't examine you, but it is likely that exercising more would make you feel more energetic and improve your mood long term

but that doesn't eliminate the possibility that there's something else going on
so if you have medical insurance, you should talk to your doctor about it

Metzger Meister

Hm... the days where I'm hyper do seem to be pretty sunny and nice...


Alternatively, maybe I'm depressed because I'm realizing that I haaaaate college sooooooooo much and I can't quit because

a) shit's expensive
b) parents would shit
c) larlar

also, i dunno if it's SAD because i love the winter! i love the cold, iron-gray clouds in the sky and the crisp white snow on the ground and seeing tracks in it from the pre-dawn adventures of wee animals and such.

OH GOD WHAT IF I'M DYING AND MY BODY IS TRYING TO TELL MEEEE

Spoiler:

thanks for the help usagi, you're a peach.

edit: haha, medical insurance, listen to this guy! actually, as a full-time student i can be on my step-dad's work insurance, we just haven't gotten around to it. for some reason.

despite a rash made seemingly of horrible angry painful blemishes that covers the right side of my torso/upper thigh and probable cavities in mah teeth.

man i whinge a lot.

Faricazy

this is a thing that is neat!

Developed by Dr. Steven G. Goldberg DDS and Bresslergroup, DentalVibe vibrates at irregular intervals. While the brain ignores rapid rhythmical vibration, it notices pulses that are not regular. These vibrations are transmitted by A-beta nerve fibers, which are faster than the slower C fibers that transmit the sensation of pain caused by the needle penetrating your gums.

The result is that your brain will only notice the percussive vibration, but not the pain of the needle tearing apart the flesh of your gums until it hits the bone.

#pipe

Metz if you can manage it, I would thoroughly recommend doing what Dru said and going to your GP

maybe get a referral to talk to someone.

it helped me a whole bunch.

Blake T

Usagi are you familar with the acronym RAO in terms of naval design?

I have an awfully big report about a floating offshore platform and it keeps popping up.