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She Blinded Me With [Science] Thread

12357113

Posts

  • MayabirdMayabird Pecking at the keyboardRegistered User regular
    Crossposting from D&D

    To the left is a wombat. To the right is dried wombat poop.

    71e06ffb-wombat-poop-social.jpg

    Wombats shit bricks. Instead of pooping like every other species that poops, where it's either rounded or amorphous (which effectively means it ends up being rounded) they make poops with corners. They produce about 100 cubes of feces a night.

    Here's a picture of fresher poop:
    wombat-poop.jpg

    Supposedly, why they do this is because they part their territory with their droppings and being cube means they won't roll away. Except that doesn't make sense to me because excrement isn't exactly known for being ambulatory. Rabbits make piles of small round poops and they just sit there. The only times they really roll away is when they get dung beetle assists. Basically, any question of why is just screaming into the void.

    But at least we know how it happens now. It's a combination of lack of moisture and irregular wombat intestinal structure that forms them into cubes via pressure differentials and grooves. The fresher picture above with a bit rounder poops probably comes from a zoo where water is plentiful, whereas the dried more discrete cubes are probably from the wild.

    So now you know too.

  • SiliconStewSiliconStew Registered User regular
    honovere wrote: »
    https://youtu.be/GBai8uDwxCs

    Silent and Simple Ion Engine Powers a Plane with No Moving Parts
    aerospace engineer Steven Barrett recently test-flew the first-ever airplane powered with ionic wind thrusters—electric engines that generate momentum by creating and firing off charged particles.

    The ion thruster is really the least interesting bit. You can build a tabletop demo ion thruster with toothpicks, some thin wire, and tin foil. I wanted to know how they were powering the thing and still keeping it light enough to fly, but they just skip over that bit with "he did something clever".

    Just remember that half the people you meet are below average intelligence.
  • Zilla360Zilla360 21st Century. |She/Her| Trans* Woman In Aviators Firing A Bazooka. ⚛️Registered User regular
    Speaking of poop:
    https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/11/it-takes-about-two-days-for-legos-to-pass-through-the-body-science/
    Each subject kept a "stool diary," recording their bowel movements before and after swallowing the LEGO heads. They evaluated the frequency and looseness of their stool based on the research team's Stool Hardness and Transit (SHAT) score. (Who says pediatricians don't have a sense of humor?) After swallowing the toy, they spent the next three days sifting through their own poo to determine when the LEGO head reappeared. The number of days it took to pass and retrieve it was dubbed the Found and Retrieved Time (FART) score.

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  • BrainleechBrainleech 機知に富んだコメントはここにあります Registered User regular
    honovere wrote: »
    https://youtu.be/GBai8uDwxCs

    Silent and Simple Ion Engine Powers a Plane with No Moving Parts
    aerospace engineer Steven Barrett recently test-flew the first-ever airplane powered with ionic wind thrusters—electric engines that generate momentum by creating and firing off charged particles.

    The ion thruster is really the least interesting bit. You can build a tabletop demo ion thruster with toothpicks, some thin wire, and tin foil. I wanted to know how they were powering the thing and still keeping it light enough to fly, but they just skip over that bit with "he did something clever".

    Well if you can put a glass sphere inside another with ion gas and somehow get the sphere inside to move you have an effecent ion engine

  • BucketmanBucketman Call me SkraggRegistered User regular
    So hey a scientist is China is claiming he used CRISPER to genetically modify some babies who were born last week, and more that will soon be born. Its a HUGE breach of ethics, and scientists are trying too get his research to see if hes telling the truth or full of it, but if he did...it will be the start of some huge and potentially world changing stuff.

    https://www.wired.com/story/he-jiankui-crispr-babies-bucked-own-ethics-policy/

  • Brovid HasselsmofBrovid Hasselsmof [Growling historic on the fury road] Registered User regular
    Reminds me of an article I read a couple of years ago - This is What Extinction Sounds Like.

    It's all so depressing.

  • 3cl1ps33cl1ps3 I will build a labyrinth to house the cheese Registered User regular
    edited November 2018
    Bucketman wrote: »
    So hey a scientist is China is claiming he used CRISPER to genetically modify some babies who were born last week, and more that will soon be born. Its a HUGE breach of ethics, and scientists are trying too get his research to see if hes telling the truth or full of it, but if he did...it will be the start of some huge and potentially world changing stuff.

    https://www.wired.com/story/he-jiankui-crispr-babies-bucked-own-ethics-policy/

    Few things to point out:

    1) The claims haven't been independently verified, so this could all be total bullshit.

    2) If the claims are true, it only partially worked (because duh, everyone who's ever even read about CRISPR could have told you that), and could have actually seriously fucked up one of the kids.

    3) If the claims are true, this is some Tuskegee Experiment level unethical shit and it's going to move the timetable on CRISPR therapeutics even further into the future as regulators around the world slam panic legislation through.

    3cl1ps3 on
  • TynnanTynnan seldom correct, never unsure Registered User regular
    edited November 2018
    3clipse wrote: »
    Bucketman wrote: »
    So hey a scientist is China is claiming he used CRISPER to genetically modify some babies who were born last week, and more that will soon be born. Its a HUGE breach of ethics, and scientists are trying too get his research to see if hes telling the truth or full of it, but if he did...it will be the start of some huge and potentially world changing stuff.

    https://www.wired.com/story/he-jiankui-crispr-babies-bucked-own-ethics-policy/

    Few things to point out:

    1) The claims haven't been independently verified, so this could all be total bullshit.

    2) If the claims are true, it only partially worked (because duh, everyone who's ever even read about CRISPR could have told you that), and could have actually seriously fucked up one of the kids.

    3) If the claims are true, this is some Tuskegee Experiment level unethical shit and it's going to move the timetable on CRISPR therapeutics even further into the future as regulators around the world slam panic legislation through.

    I found a cached copy of the "informed consent" form. Along with the transcript from a talk and Q&A he gave at a Hong Kong conference this week, it paints a pretty clear picture of how this guy views medical ethics.

    And there's plenty to talk about even without getting bogged down in the technical details (though a cursory look at his conference slides suggests the babies are mosaic at best). It doesn't matter whether or not it was a technical success, because of the way he bypassed ethical oversight, chose a target that was attention grabbing but medically unnecessary, and used the concept of informed consent and parental choice as a coercive instrument.

    Tynnan on
  • 3cl1ps33cl1ps3 I will build a labyrinth to house the cheese Registered User regular
    Tynnan wrote: »
    3clipse wrote: »
    Bucketman wrote: »
    So hey a scientist is China is claiming he used CRISPER to genetically modify some babies who were born last week, and more that will soon be born. Its a HUGE breach of ethics, and scientists are trying too get his research to see if hes telling the truth or full of it, but if he did...it will be the start of some huge and potentially world changing stuff.

    https://www.wired.com/story/he-jiankui-crispr-babies-bucked-own-ethics-policy/

    Few things to point out:

    1) The claims haven't been independently verified, so this could all be total bullshit.

    2) If the claims are true, it only partially worked (because duh, everyone who's ever even read about CRISPR could have told you that), and could have actually seriously fucked up one of the kids.

    3) If the claims are true, this is some Tuskegee Experiment level unethical shit and it's going to move the timetable on CRISPR therapeutics even further into the future as regulators around the world slam panic legislation through.

    I found a cached copy of the "informed consent" form. Along with the transcript from a talk and Q&A he gave at a Hong Kong conference this week, it paints a pretty clear picture of how this guy views medical ethics.

    Optional?

  • TynnanTynnan seldom correct, never unsure Registered User regular
    3clipse wrote: »
    Tynnan wrote: »
    3clipse wrote: »
    Bucketman wrote: »
    So hey a scientist is China is claiming he used CRISPER to genetically modify some babies who were born last week, and more that will soon be born. Its a HUGE breach of ethics, and scientists are trying too get his research to see if hes telling the truth or full of it, but if he did...it will be the start of some huge and potentially world changing stuff.

    https://www.wired.com/story/he-jiankui-crispr-babies-bucked-own-ethics-policy/

    Few things to point out:

    1) The claims haven't been independently verified, so this could all be total bullshit.

    2) If the claims are true, it only partially worked (because duh, everyone who's ever even read about CRISPR could have told you that), and could have actually seriously fucked up one of the kids.

    3) If the claims are true, this is some Tuskegee Experiment level unethical shit and it's going to move the timetable on CRISPR therapeutics even further into the future as regulators around the world slam panic legislation through.

    I found a cached copy of the "informed consent" form. Along with the transcript from a talk and Q&A he gave at a Hong Kong conference this week, it paints a pretty clear picture of how this guy views medical ethics.

    Optional?

    Highly. I edited the above comment with some more thoughts and I'll do a more detailed post on it in a few days when I can focus on it.

  • 3cl1ps33cl1ps3 I will build a labyrinth to house the cheese Registered User regular
    Tynnan wrote: »
    3clipse wrote: »
    Tynnan wrote: »
    3clipse wrote: »
    Bucketman wrote: »
    So hey a scientist is China is claiming he used CRISPER to genetically modify some babies who were born last week, and more that will soon be born. Its a HUGE breach of ethics, and scientists are trying too get his research to see if hes telling the truth or full of it, but if he did...it will be the start of some huge and potentially world changing stuff.

    https://www.wired.com/story/he-jiankui-crispr-babies-bucked-own-ethics-policy/

    Few things to point out:

    1) The claims haven't been independently verified, so this could all be total bullshit.

    2) If the claims are true, it only partially worked (because duh, everyone who's ever even read about CRISPR could have told you that), and could have actually seriously fucked up one of the kids.

    3) If the claims are true, this is some Tuskegee Experiment level unethical shit and it's going to move the timetable on CRISPR therapeutics even further into the future as regulators around the world slam panic legislation through.

    I found a cached copy of the "informed consent" form. Along with the transcript from a talk and Q&A he gave at a Hong Kong conference this week, it paints a pretty clear picture of how this guy views medical ethics.

    Optional?

    Highly. I edited the above comment with some more thoughts and I'll do a more detailed post on it in a few days when I can focus on it.

    Yeah. I genuinely think that real or not this dude has just singlehandedly set back the first attempts at clinical trials of CRISPR-based gene editing therapies by at least a decade. It was already going to take awhile to get the technology there but this is going to be the human cloning/eSCs 80's/90's freak-out all over again.

  • TynnanTynnan seldom correct, never unsure Registered User regular
    3clipse wrote: »
    Tynnan wrote: »
    3clipse wrote: »
    Tynnan wrote: »
    3clipse wrote: »
    Bucketman wrote: »
    So hey a scientist is China is claiming he used CRISPER to genetically modify some babies who were born last week, and more that will soon be born. Its a HUGE breach of ethics, and scientists are trying too get his research to see if hes telling the truth or full of it, but if he did...it will be the start of some huge and potentially world changing stuff.

    https://www.wired.com/story/he-jiankui-crispr-babies-bucked-own-ethics-policy/

    Few things to point out:

    1) The claims haven't been independently verified, so this could all be total bullshit.

    2) If the claims are true, it only partially worked (because duh, everyone who's ever even read about CRISPR could have told you that), and could have actually seriously fucked up one of the kids.

    3) If the claims are true, this is some Tuskegee Experiment level unethical shit and it's going to move the timetable on CRISPR therapeutics even further into the future as regulators around the world slam panic legislation through.

    I found a cached copy of the "informed consent" form. Along with the transcript from a talk and Q&A he gave at a Hong Kong conference this week, it paints a pretty clear picture of how this guy views medical ethics.

    Optional?

    Highly. I edited the above comment with some more thoughts and I'll do a more detailed post on it in a few days when I can focus on it.

    Yeah. I genuinely think that real or not this dude has just singlehandedly set back the first attempts at clinical trials of CRISPR-based gene editing therapies by at least a decade. It was already going to take awhile to get the technology there but this is going to be the human cloning/eSCs 80's/90's freak-out all over again.

    The only difference between this, and Jesse Gelsinger almost twenty years ago, is that Mr. Gelsinger died. The structural and ethical problems that caused his death are all present here.

  • GvzbgulGvzbgul Registered User regular
    I believe it like I believe the Raelians cloned a baby in 2002. If they actually did it baby Eve would now be 16 years old.

  • 3cl1ps33cl1ps3 I will build a labyrinth to house the cheese Registered User regular
    Gvzbgul wrote: »
    I believe it like I believe the Raelians cloned a baby in 2002. If they actually did it baby Eve would now be 16 years old.

    This is a lot more believable than human cloning. I'm not saying I believe it (although the fact that the data he presented all suggest that it didn't actually work correctly does make it more believable), but we do have the technology to do what he did, whereas cloning a human and bringing it to term is far more technically challenging.

  • DiarmuidDiarmuid Amazing Meatball Registered User regular
    Bucketman wrote: »
    So hey a scientist is China is claiming he used CRISPER to genetically modify some babies who were born last week, and more that will soon be born. Its a HUGE breach of ethics, and scientists are trying too get his research to see if hes telling the truth or full of it, but if he did...it will be the start of some huge and potentially world changing stuff.

    https://www.wired.com/story/he-jiankui-crispr-babies-bucked-own-ethics-policy/

    I dunno, maybe this is just me being old, but everything about this is terrifying.

  • 3cl1ps33cl1ps3 I will build a labyrinth to house the cheese Registered User regular
    Diarmuid wrote: »
    Bucketman wrote: »
    So hey a scientist is China is claiming he used CRISPER to genetically modify some babies who were born last week, and more that will soon be born. Its a HUGE breach of ethics, and scientists are trying too get his research to see if hes telling the truth or full of it, but if he did...it will be the start of some huge and potentially world changing stuff.

    https://www.wired.com/story/he-jiankui-crispr-babies-bucked-own-ethics-policy/

    I dunno, maybe this is just me being old, but everything about this is terrifying.

    Nah it's super fucked up.

  • TynnanTynnan seldom correct, never unsure Registered User regular
    Diarmuid wrote: »
    Bucketman wrote: »
    So hey a scientist is China is claiming he used CRISPER to genetically modify some babies who were born last week, and more that will soon be born. Its a HUGE breach of ethics, and scientists are trying too get his research to see if hes telling the truth or full of it, but if he did...it will be the start of some huge and potentially world changing stuff.

    https://www.wired.com/story/he-jiankui-crispr-babies-bucked-own-ethics-policy/

    I dunno, maybe this is just me being old, but everything about this is terrifying.

    You're right to feel that way.

    This isn't the sort of thing that you see in the Apocalypse Movie Intro Montage. Its scope is small and it's not going to advance our knowledge of gene editing to any degree. It is horrifying, though, because the investigator placed himself into the trust of his research subjects and then violated that trust in order to acquire fame. This sort of ethical breach is far too common, and in this case will greatly set back a field that, with the proper considerations to safety and necessity, could have served to help people. The best outcome we can hope for is that the subjects grow up healthy, and that we as a society develop better ways to express the relationship between researcher and subject without descending into coercion.

  • PinfeldorfPinfeldorf Yeah ZestRegistered User regular
    Honestly the worst thing about that isn't even the ethics violations, it's that there will be 10-15 more years of people being born with Huntington's and other serious congenital issues due to said ethical violations. That motherfucker probably caused thousands of people pretty severe quality of life issues.

  • tynictynic PICNIC BADASS Registered User, ClubPA regular
    this story has everything I love: robots, robots being stupid and uncooperative, spaceships, and Kraftwerk.

    https://gizmodo.com/in-video-debut-cimon-the-iss-robot-throws-an-unexpecte-1830768737
    during the debut demonstration of the International Space Station’s new AI-powered robot, CIMON, the free-floating device displayed some rather questionable behavior.

    ... Ok honestly I don't really care about the Kraftwerk.

  • BahamutZEROBahamutZERO Registered User regular
    that form factor makes me think of the little ball robot mascot from the gundams

    BahamutZERO.gif
  • PolaritiePolaritie Sleepy Registered User regular
    that form factor makes me think of the little ball robot mascot from the gundams

    The screen quickly corrects that notion.

    Steam: Polaritie
    3DS: 0473-8507-2652
    Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
    PSN: AbEntropy
  • BahamutZEROBahamutZERO Registered User regular
    I think the haros are also insufferable so it's not that far off

    BahamutZERO.gif
  • BrainleechBrainleech 機知に富んだコメントはここにあります Registered User regular
    tynic wrote: »
    this story has everything I love: robots, robots being stupid and uncooperative, spaceships, and Kraftwerk.

    https://gizmodo.com/in-video-debut-cimon-the-iss-robot-throws-an-unexpecte-1830768737
    during the debut demonstration of the International Space Station’s new AI-powered robot, CIMON, the free-floating device displayed some rather questionable behavior.

    ... Ok honestly I don't really care about the Kraftwerk.

    Well it is a German talking to a German made robot it knows Kraftwerk all to well

  • DiarmuidDiarmuid Amazing Meatball Registered User regular
    That video is just more evidence that we shouldn't let robots know about Kraftwerk.

  • FishmanFishman Put your goddamned hand in the goddamned Box of Pain. Registered User regular
    I'm likely the only one who even recalls this, but this is not my first exposure to a spherical robot on space station suffering from crippling emotional fragility.

    Man, that shit was so bad-ass when I was 7.

    X-Com LP Thread I, II, III, IV, V
    That's unbelievably cool. Your new name is cool guy. Let's have sex.
  • TheStigTheStig Registered User regular
    A good post on how shitty science articles are from major news sources

    https://imgur.com/gallery/FRDAoG3

    bnet: TheStig#1787 Steam: TheStig
  • furlionfurlion Riskbreaker Lea MondeRegistered User regular
    My son asked me some questions about the size of our sun, it's size relative to other stars, that kind of stuff. So I showed him a YouTube video of the scale of the universe and when it hit the red giants his jaw dropped. I understand the feeling.

    sig.gif Gamertag: KL Retribution
    PSN:Furlion
  • JedocJedoc In the scuppers with the staggers and jagsRegistered User regular
    Oh, no! I'm afraid that most of the music circuits in my brain are clogged up with a couple of decades of Dr. Demento. My alzheimer's is going to be just the weirdest trip.

    GDdCWMm.jpg
  • discriderdiscrider Registered User regular
    TheStig wrote: »
    A good post on how shitty science articles are from major news sources

    https://imgur.com/gallery/FRDAoG3

    Well..
    The article in question should have reported 'girls more likely to report feeling lonely than boys' by the looks of it.
    I'm not sure this highlights garbage science reporting really, rather than the pervasive nature of expectations of masculinity.

  • tynictynic PICNIC BADASS Registered User, ClubPA regular
    You might think that this discussing this article with a bunch of highly trained scientists would result in a fascinating exploration of the phenomenal possibilities of this technology

    http://news.mit.edu/2018/shrink-any-object-nanoscale-1213
    Using the new technique, the researchers can create any shape and structure they want by patterning a polymer scaffold with a laser. After attaching other useful materials to the scaffold, they shrink it, generating structures one thousandth the volume of the original.

    These tiny structures could have applications in many fields, from optics to medicine to robotics, the researchers say. The technique uses equipment that many biology and materials science labs already have, making it widely accessible for researchers who want to try it.

    What actually occurred was a wide-ranging and animated argument about how many sequels there were to Honey I Shrunk The Kids

    (but it's still a really fucking cool thing that people are doing).

  • SiliconStewSiliconStew Registered User regular
    "Implosion Fabricator" would sound awesome on a business card.

    Just remember that half the people you meet are below average intelligence.
  • PinfeldorfPinfeldorf Yeah ZestRegistered User regular
    Read that as Virgin Galactus and my brain immediately went to, "Guess that's what nigh-omnipotent incels get around to".

  • SolarSolar Registered User regular
    tynic wrote: »

    It's incredible the difference in that guy it makes. He's barely responsive, then music, then his face lights up, he can answer questions... Quite remarkable

  • KetBraKetBra Dressed Ridiculously Registered User regular


    Ah yes, seismonology...

    For context, this was the poster section name printed by the largest geophysics conference in the world, with I think over 25,000 people this year

    KGMvDLc.jpg?1
  • PlatyPlaty Registered User regular
    edited December 2018
    Evidence for branched feathers has been established in pterosaurs
    The statistically most likely result (Fig. 3 and Supplementary Table 3; highest log-likelihood value) shows that the avemetatarsalian ancestors of dinosaurs and pterosaurs possessed integumentary filaments, with the highest likelihood of possessing monofilaments; tufts of filaments (especially brush-type filaments) are less likely ancestral states.

    Platy on
This discussion has been closed.