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[Science] A thread of good guesses, bad guesses and telling the difference.

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Posts

  • davidsdurionsdavidsdurions Your Trusty Meatshield Panhandle NebraskaRegistered User regular
    Here, some "pale blue dot" perspective, from the pale red dot:

  • AbsoluteZeroAbsoluteZero The new film by Quentin Koopantino Registered User regular
    I assume that's close to what you'd see with a good backyard 'scope from the surface of Mars.

    cs6f034fsffl.jpg
  • davidsdurionsdavidsdurions Your Trusty Meatshield Panhandle NebraskaRegistered User regular
    I assume that's close to what you'd see with a good backyard 'scope from the surface of Mars.

    The text description:
    NASA wrote:
    Your Home Planet, as Seen From Mars! From the most powerful telescope orbiting Mars comes a new view of Earth and its moon, showing continent-size detail on the planet and the relative size of the moon. The image combines two separate exposures taken on Nov. 20, 2016, by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on our Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The images were taken to calibrate HiRISE data, since the reflectance of the moon's Earth-facing side is well known. For presentation, the exposures were processed separately to optimize detail visible on both Earth and the moon. The moon is much darker than Earth and would barely be visible if shown at the same brightness scale as Earth.

  • HonkHonk Honk is this poster. Registered User, __BANNED USERS regular
    If you put Science Experiment in your acronym that's how I know you made the acronym first and then struggled to find words for what it meant.

    PSN: Honkalot
  • ElvenshaeElvenshae Registered User regular
    Honk wrote: »
    If you put Science Experiment in your acronym that's how I know you made the acronym first and then struggled to find words for what it meant.

    AKA every government acronym, ever

  • HevachHevach Registered User regular
    edited January 2017
    "What does SHIELD stand for?"
    "Strategic Homeland Intervention Enforcement and Logistics Division."
    "And what does that tell you?"
    "That somebody really wanted our initials to spell SHIELD."


    When NASA doesn't play this game, we end up with stuff like HiDyRS-X.

    Hevach on
  • McFodderMcFodder Registered User regular
    Hail HiDyRS-X just doesn't have the same ring to it.

    Switch Friend Code: SW-3944-9431-0318
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  • Emissary42Emissary42 Registered User regular
    SpaceX has been cleared for its return to flight, and once the weather clears in California it will launch Iridium-1 out of Vandenberg. As a part of mitigating future accidents from excessively cold helium near super-cooled oxygen, SpaceX has added at least one helium tank to the upper stage to permit the use of higher temperature helium.

  • ElvenshaeElvenshae Registered User regular
    Hevach wrote: »
    "What does SHIELD stand for?"
    "Strategic Homeland Intervention Enforcement and Logistics Division."
    "And what does that tell you?"
    "That somebody really wanted our initials to spell SHIELD."
    Literally the moment when AoS won me over.

  • That_GuyThat_Guy I don't wanna be that guy Registered User regular
    It looks like dental fillings might be a thing of the past. A drug currently used to treat alzheimer's (Tideglusib) will stimulate new growth in teeth. A small biodegradable sponge is treated this this substance and inserted into a tooth cavity. You own dentine grows to fill the cavity as the sponge degrades.

    http://www.nature.com/articles/srep39654

  • DedwrekkaDedwrekka Metal Hell adjacentRegistered User regular
    Yes, but can I use this to grow extra teeth? Just in case.

  • bowenbowen How you doin'? Registered User regular
    Dedwrekka wrote: »
    Yes, but can I use this to grow extra teeth? Just in case.

    probably on the horizon if that goes as planned

    not a doctor, not a lawyer, examples I use may not be fully researched so don't take out of context plz, don't @ me
  • SiliconStewSiliconStew Registered User regular
    Not sure I'd be too keen on having a cavity drilled out and then waiting 6 weeks for it to fill back in.

    Just remember that half the people you meet are below average intelligence.
  • GarthorGarthor Registered User regular
    Not sure I'd be too keen on having a cavity drilled out and then waiting 6 weeks for it to fill back in.

    Well they'd cap it off in the meantime.

  • DedwrekkaDedwrekka Metal Hell adjacentRegistered User regular
    Not sure I'd be too keen on having a cavity drilled out and then waiting 6 weeks for it to fill back in.

    They capped it with dental cement.

  • HamHamJHamHamJ Registered User regular
    How long untilasting something like that makes it from testing to actual use?

    While racing light mechs, your Urbanmech comes in second place, but only because it ran out of ammo.
  • HonkHonk Honk is this poster. Registered User, __BANNED USERS regular
    When I was in third grade I tripped in the cafeteria line and fell mouth agape with one of my top row front teeth right into my now oldest friend's forehead. He bled heavily it was like being hit with a sharp hammer. My tooth was that hammer, it split off a splinter which I like to imagine is still embedded in my friend. And the tooth has since then been slowly dying I am told, nerve receding etc.

    I don't know I hadn't thought about it for a long while but this tooth stuff reminded me.

    PSN: Honkalot
  • That_GuyThat_Guy I don't wanna be that guy Registered User regular
    edited January 2017
    HamHamJ wrote: »
    How long untilasting something like that makes it from testing to actual use?

    The cool thing is that it COULD start happening as soon as manufacturing facilities can be set up. The medication is already approved by the FDA. Off label prescription is at the physician's discretion. In reality there will probably be 10 years worth of bullshit getting in the way of this coming to market, the least of which being the patent being held by a Spanish biotech firm.

    Who knows, if the stars align and Noscira wants to play ball, I might be able to have my shoddy fillings replaced in a few years.

    Looking into it, the stuff's pretty expensive, but not more than you would expect for medical shit. I imagine the procedure won't be that much more than a traditional filling.

    That_Guy on
  • BurtletoyBurtletoy Registered User regular
    That_Guy wrote: »
    HamHamJ wrote: »
    How long untilasting something like that makes it from testing to actual use?

    The cool thing is that it COULD start happening as soon as manufacturing facilities can be set up. The medication is already approved by the FDA. Off label prescription is at the physician's discretion. In reality there will probably be 10 years worth of bullshit getting in the way of this coming to market, the least of which being the patent being held by a Spanish biotech firm.

    Who knows, if the stars align and Noscira wants to play ball, I might be able to have my shoddy fillings replaced in a few years.

    Looking into it, the stuff's pretty expensive, but not more than you would expect for medical shit. I imagine the procedure won't be that much more than a traditional filling.


    Wikipedia says it is in phase 2 trials. And some site called Alzforum.org has it listed as
    U.S. FDA Status: Alzheimer's Disease (Discontinued), Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (Discontinued)

    So I don't think it could be used for dental repair without going through clinicals to show efficacy. Again, going off that Alzforum site, which appears to have the most information on it, it looks like it was not harmful to patients, but didn't reach primary endpoints for the study.

    And that Noscira company appears to be under liquidation.
    According to Zeltia, with a 73.32% stake in Noscira, the liquidation is necessary given the unsatisfactory results during a Alzheimer's Research in GSK-3 modulation (ARGO) Phase IIb trial of its Tideglusib drug for the treatment of mild-to-moderate Alzheimer's disease (AD), and the investment which that study had involved.

  • That_GuyThat_Guy I don't wanna be that guy Registered User regular
    Nice follow up. That's great info. Maybe this study will be enough to save the company from total liquidation.

  • VishNubVishNub Registered User regular
    edited January 2017
    They'd likely still liquidate. The staff needed to pursue an alzheimers application vs a dental one are very different. It would be easier to sell the IP, even if it's just to themselves as a new company, I think.

    That compound is, according to the patent, a one or two step sequence from very cheap materials. So that's certainly not limiting in this case.

    [0091] Sulfuryl chloride is added dropwise with stirring, under nitrogen atmosphere, at 5.degree. C. to a solution of benzyl isothiocyanate and the isocyanate indicated in each case, in hexane, ether or THF. When the addition is finished, the mixture is stirred for 20 hours at room temperature. After this time, the resulting product is isolated by suction filtration or by solvent evaporation and then, the purification is performed by recristallization or silica gel column chromatography using the appropriate eluent. More details can be found in Slomczynska, U.; Barany, G., "Efficient Synthesis of 1,2,4-Dithiazolidine-3,5-diones (Dithiasuccinoyl-amines) and observations on formation of 1,2,4-Thiadiazolidine-3,5-dione by related Chemistry", J. Heterocyclic Chem., 1984, 21, 241-246.


    I would imagine that dental stuff still falls under USDA purview, so they'd still have to pass a phase three trial.

    edit: I wish I had a one step compound make it to phase two trials. Mine were like ten steps, and didn't even get that far...

    VishNub on
  • SanderJKSanderJK Crocodylus Pontifex Sinterklasicus Madrid, 3000 ADRegistered User regular
    One of my initials thoughts when I read it was that it will probably only become affordable when the patent runs out.
    But then I read the article and they tested a few chemicals because they suspected a certain enzyme to be the break on this regeneration, and that if they inhibited the enzyme the tooth would repair itself. And that's what they propose in the article, you inhibit this enzyme and the tooth repairs itself.
    And testing for enzyme inhibitors is pretty cheap, and yeah that chemicals production cost look like it's in the single dollars per gram range.
    So there's not much there for patents, because if the cost is too high people will search for an alternative.
    And while it is medication it's not entering your internal systems, so testing is probably a lot cheaper and less complicated.

    As someone who has to advice low income people on dental work..... my guess is that this doesn't work when problems get bad though. If teeth get bad enough that the root is damaged this doesn't seem to address that at all, so root canals will probably still happen.
    And that's one of the problems with dentristy: People with good finances in general pay much less because they do the checkups and the cleanings, people with problems dodge those bills for years at a time and then suddenly get screwed.

    Steam: SanderJK Origin: SanderJK
  • Jealous DevaJealous Deva Registered User regular
    edited January 2017
    You still would need a vital pulp for any dentin regrowth to happen, and you still would want a coating to replace the enamel, like a composite or porcelain filling. As far as I know there is no way to regrow enamel physiologically, once the tooth erupts the enamel producing tissue, which is around the top of the tooth during development, is destroyed. The thing that would be advantageous is that it would reduce the chances of later having a complication like losing a filling or new decay cause tooth loss or the need for a root canal.

    TLDR So ultimately this is probably going to be something that is marketed as a liner to go underneath a filling and will not make a noticable difference to the patient immediately as far as their experience getting a filling, but may save them some future headaches down the road.

    Jealous Deva on
  • That_GuyThat_Guy I don't wanna be that guy Registered User regular
    You still would need a vital pulp for any dentin regrowth to happen, and you still would want a coating to replace the enamel, like a composite or porcelain filling. As far as I know there is no way to regrow enamel physiologically, once the tooth erupts the enamel producing tissue, which is around the top of the tooth during development, is destroyed. The thing that would be advantageous is that it would reduce the chances of later having a complication like losing a filling or new decay cause tooth loss or the need for a root canal.

    TLDR So ultimately this is probably going to be something that is marketed as a liner to go underneath a filling and will not make a noticeable difference to the patient immediately as far as their experience getting a filling, but may save them some future headaches down the road.

    And that's exactly why I am so excited for this to come to market. A couple of shitty fillings I got when I didn't have insurance frequently bother me causing headaches. I've still got plenty of pulp left so It would be perfect for me.

  • LanzLanz ...Za?Registered User regular
    Cross posting with the SE++ thread:

    https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/darpa-rsquo-s-biotech-chief-says-2017-will-ldquo-blow-our-minds-rdquo/
    The Pentagon’s research and development division, DARPA—the creative force behind the internet and GPS—retooled itself three years ago to create a new office dedicated to unraveling biology’s engineering secrets. The new Biological Technologies Office (BTO) has a mission to “harness the power of biological systems” and design new defense technology. Over the past year, with a budget of about $296 million, it has been exploring challenges including memory improvement, human–machine symbiosis and speeding up disease detection and response.

    DARPA, or the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, is hoping for some big returns. The director of its BTO, neuroprosthetic researcher Justin Sanchez, recently spoke with Scientific American about what to expect from his office in 2017, including work on neural implants to aid healthy people in their everyday lives and other advances that he says will “change the game” in medicine.

    waNkm4k.jpg?1
  • MayabirdMayabird Pecking at the keyboardRegistered User regular
    Something useful and relevant for much of the world: a cheap, hand-pumped centrifuge for blood tests. They cost 20 cents each, do not need electricity, can be made of paper or plastic and are easily mass produced, and have been shown to be effective for diagnosing malaria. Get the instructions around the world and people can start producing and using them even at the most basic, distant clinics. Even if/when the US blows itself up.

  • ShivahnShivahn Unaware of her barrel shifter privilege Western coastal temptressRegistered User, Moderator mod
    Lanz wrote: »
    Cross posting with the SE++ thread:

    https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/darpa-rsquo-s-biotech-chief-says-2017-will-ldquo-blow-our-minds-rdquo/
    The Pentagon’s research and development division, DARPA—the creative force behind the internet and GPS—retooled itself three years ago to create a new office dedicated to unraveling biology’s engineering secrets. The new Biological Technologies Office (BTO) has a mission to “harness the power of biological systems” and design new defense technology. Over the past year, with a budget of about $296 million, it has been exploring challenges including memory improvement, human–machine symbiosis and speeding up disease detection and response.

    DARPA, or the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, is hoping for some big returns. The director of its BTO, neuroprosthetic researcher Justin Sanchez, recently spoke with Scientific American about what to expect from his office in 2017, including work on neural implants to aid healthy people in their everyday lives and other advances that he says will “change the game” in medicine.

    Hmm yes this is me in two years

  • DanHibikiDanHibiki Registered User regular
    Mayabird wrote: »
    Something useful and relevant for much of the world: a cheap, hand-pumped centrifuge for blood tests. They cost 20 cents each, do not need electricity, can be made of paper or plastic and are easily mass produced, and have been shown to be effective for diagnosing malaria. Get the instructions around the world and people can start producing and using them even at the most basic, distant clinics. Even if/when the US blows itself up.

    so, how safe would this be in practice? Like will it just spray ebola infected blood everywhere?

  • furlionfurlion Riskbreaker Lea MondeRegistered User regular
    edited January 2017
    DanHibiki wrote: »
    Mayabird wrote: »
    Something useful and relevant for much of the world: a cheap, hand-pumped centrifuge for blood tests. They cost 20 cents each, do not need electricity, can be made of paper or plastic and are easily mass produced, and have been shown to be effective for diagnosing malaria. Get the instructions around the world and people can start producing and using them even at the most basic, distant clinics. Even if/when the US blows itself up.

    so, how safe would this be in practice? Like will it just spray ebola infected blood everywhere?

    Assuming the blood is in a container that is capable of handling the force exerted by the centrifuge it should be perfectly safe.

    furlion on
    sig.gif Gamertag: KL Retribution
    PSN:Furlion
  • DevoutlyApatheticDevoutlyApathetic Registered User regular
    DanHibiki wrote: »
    Mayabird wrote: »
    Something useful and relevant for much of the world: a cheap, hand-pumped centrifuge for blood tests. They cost 20 cents each, do not need electricity, can be made of paper or plastic and are easily mass produced, and have been shown to be effective for diagnosing malaria. Get the instructions around the world and people can start producing and using them even at the most basic, distant clinics. Even if/when the US blows itself up.

    so, how safe would this be in practice? Like will it just spray ebola infected blood everywhere?

    Not really what it is intended for. The people treating ebola who aren't suicidal are using a whole lot of resources to avoid committing suicide by ebola. It really isn't the same area that this is aimed at which is the aid worker visiting a village hours away from the nearest electricity source trying to figure out if this patient will actually benefit from their very limited stock of antimalarial agents.

    Either way, slap the thing in a garbage bag and wash your hands you'll be fine. Well that or you already exposed yourself taking the sample.

    Nod. Get treat. PSN: Quippish
  • HevachHevach Registered User regular
    This is not a tool you use on an ebola patient.
    wrong_tool_for_the_job_by_raresdk-d35viqj.jpg

  • MayabirdMayabird Pecking at the keyboardRegistered User regular
    This is also kinda science, but mostly a PSA, especially to Americans.

    You know how, if your parents weren't idiots/crazy, you got immunizations such as the MMR? The shot at age 12-ish was supposed to provide lifetime immunity. Turns out, it often doesn't; I myself found out recently that one M and an R had worn off over the decades and I received a booster shot. Most doctors didn't realize this until recently because herd immunity had been good enough, but now parents aren't getting their kids immunized and there are outbreaks all the time; there's currently a mumps outbreak across half of Iowa, for instance. And since the coming president is an antivaxxer and is meeting with antivaxxers, that is not a situation likely to improve.

    So what I'm saying is, if you can, see if you can get an MMR booster ASAP. Also if you are behind on other shots, maybe missed out on a few, get those as well. Protect yourself and people around you. A lot of things could go very badly very quickly, so at least make sure you don't have to worry about mumps.

  • DanHibikiDanHibiki Registered User regular
    DanHibiki wrote: »
    Mayabird wrote: »
    Something useful and relevant for much of the world: a cheap, hand-pumped centrifuge for blood tests. They cost 20 cents each, do not need electricity, can be made of paper or plastic and are easily mass produced, and have been shown to be effective for diagnosing malaria. Get the instructions around the world and people can start producing and using them even at the most basic, distant clinics. Even if/when the US blows itself up.

    so, how safe would this be in practice? Like will it just spray ebola infected blood everywhere?

    Not really what it is intended for. The people treating ebola who aren't suicidal are using a whole lot of resources to avoid committing suicide by ebola. It really isn't the same area that this is aimed at which is the aid worker visiting a village hours away from the nearest electricity source trying to figure out if this patient will actually benefit from their very limited stock of antimalarial agents.

    Either way, slap the thing in a garbage bag and wash your hands you'll be fine. Well that or you already exposed yourself taking the sample.

    yeah but you can't always be sure that the patient you test doesn't have Ebola or Aids or any number of diseases you don't know about when you do the test. You don't get to pick only clean samples especially in the regions that they are proposing this be used in.

  • VishNubVishNub Registered User regular
    Why is blood flying everywhere? It's in a capped plastic tube...

    The normal issues of aerosols forming when opening said tubes apply, and are not insignificant, but that has nothing do with means used to spin them,

  • DevoutlyApatheticDevoutlyApathetic Registered User regular
    edited January 2017
    DanHibiki wrote: »
    DanHibiki wrote: »
    Mayabird wrote: »
    Something useful and relevant for much of the world: a cheap, hand-pumped centrifuge for blood tests. They cost 20 cents each, do not need electricity, can be made of paper or plastic and are easily mass produced, and have been shown to be effective for diagnosing malaria. Get the instructions around the world and people can start producing and using them even at the most basic, distant clinics. Even if/when the US blows itself up.

    so, how safe would this be in practice? Like will it just spray ebola infected blood everywhere?

    Not really what it is intended for. The people treating ebola who aren't suicidal are using a whole lot of resources to avoid committing suicide by ebola. It really isn't the same area that this is aimed at which is the aid worker visiting a village hours away from the nearest electricity source trying to figure out if this patient will actually benefit from their very limited stock of antimalarial agents.

    Either way, slap the thing in a garbage bag and wash your hands you'll be fine. Well that or you already exposed yourself taking the sample.

    yeah but you can't always be sure that the patient you test doesn't have Ebola or Aids or any number of diseases you don't know about when you do the test. You don't get to pick only clean samples especially in the regions that they are proposing this be used in.

    First off, don't compare the transmissibility of AIDS and Ebola. That is a massive disservice to folks with AIDS that makes them seem like walking vectors of death when really there is very little chance of transmission even in medical care until you do things like direct needle sticks. Quick google shows that the transmission rate is under 0.4% with a direct needle stick from an AIDS patient (and I'm unsure that includes the retroviral treatments that are now standard for such sticks). Also reports a 0% infected blood to healthy skin transmission rate. Comparing that in any way to Ebola is incredible unfair and demonstrates a near complete ignorance of the actual issues of the topic.

    Second, if you are the person who is in a position to identify a previously unknown Ebola outbreak you are a patient, not a caregiver. That changed the instant you walked in the room with an Ebola infection.

    DevoutlyApathetic on
    Nod. Get treat. PSN: Quippish
  • Emissary42Emissary42 Registered User regular
  • bowenbowen How you doin'? Registered User regular
    like fucking bees swarming almost

    not a doctor, not a lawyer, examples I use may not be fully researched so don't take out of context plz, don't @ me
  • davidsdurionsdavidsdurions Your Trusty Meatshield Panhandle NebraskaRegistered User regular
    Looks like giving orders to units and groups in Command & Conquer: Red Alert (last one I really played) to me.

  • ElvenshaeElvenshae Registered User regular
    It's pretty neat how they got actual damned souls to scream for their muderswarm.

  • DedwrekkaDedwrekka Metal Hell adjacentRegistered User regular
    This gritty Batman villain reboot has gone too far. The Toyman isn't supposed to be that scary!

This discussion has been closed.