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She Blinded Me With [Science] Thread

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Posts

  • MadicanMadican No face Registered User regular
    bowen wrote: »
    Yeah extremophile in this instance doesn't mean we're extremely different, just the types of environments they survive in are not life friendly. You'll find places on earth like ocean vents and or acid pools, and even the vacuum of space.

    People live in Phoenix.

  • Metzger MeisterMetzger Meister It Gets Worse before it gets any better.Registered User regular
    Madican wrote: »
    bowen wrote: »
    Yeah extremophile in this instance doesn't mean we're extremely different, just the types of environments they survive in are not life friendly. You'll find places on earth like ocean vents and or acid pools, and even the vacuum of space.

    People live in Phoenix.

    It is a monument to man's hubris.

  • MayabirdMayabird Pecking at the keyboardRegistered User regular
    bowen wrote: »
    It might mean life on earth showed up from an asteroid, we've already discovered life-adjacent compounds in others. Panspermia from Mars? Maybe. Much more likely that life is plentiful in the solar system and universe as extremophiles. It's really too bad that we're much more likely to mine asteroids and kill these creatures than find them by studying.

    If there's any panspermia going about, it's been coming from Earth for the last 3.5-ish billion years. There were calculations done that many thousands of tons of rock were ejected out of Earth's atmosphere by Chicxulub, and that some of that, after flying around the solar system, could have reached escape velocity (though more would have landed on the rest of the solar system, and most of course fire-rained back down on Earth). The dino-killer was hardly the only asteroid strike of that size or greater during the time life has existed on Earth.

    Incidentally a rock leaving the solar system at escape velocity could cross the galactic radius in approximately 50 million years assuming my napkin math isn't stupidly off. The sun orbits the galactic core about every 250-ish million years, so it's completed maybe 13-14 circuits since life first started doing its thing here. Only gotta get lucky once to have two sources of life from there.

  • bowenbowen How you doin'? Registered User regular
    That would be crazy if earth seeded a few planets. I wonder if we'd even be able to tell at this point if we were to run across them.

    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
  • PinfeldorfPinfeldorf Yeah ZestRegistered User regular
    Madican wrote: »
    bowen wrote: »
    Yeah extremophile in this instance doesn't mean we're extremely different, just the types of environments they survive in are not life friendly. You'll find places on earth like ocean vents and or acid pools, and even the vacuum of space.

    People live in Phoenix.

    Phoenix has a really cool mall!

    End of good things I have to say about Phoenix.

  • PiptheFairPiptheFair Frequently not in boats. Registered User regular
    Madican wrote: »
    bowen wrote: »
    Yeah extremophile in this instance doesn't mean we're extremely different, just the types of environments they survive in are not life friendly. You'll find places on earth like ocean vents and or acid pools, and even the vacuum of space.

    People live in Phoenix.

    'live' is a strong word

  • 3cl1ps33cl1ps3 I will build a labyrinth to house the cheese Registered User regular
    Pinfeldorf wrote: »
    Madican wrote: »
    bowen wrote: »
    Yeah extremophile in this instance doesn't mean we're extremely different, just the types of environments they survive in are not life friendly. You'll find places on earth like ocean vents and or acid pools, and even the vacuum of space.

    People live in Phoenix.

    Phoenix has a really cool mall!

    End of good things I have to say about Phoenix.

    Old Scottsdale has an absolutely out of control bar scene, if that's your cup of tea.

  • ButlerButler 89 episodes or bust Registered User regular
    edited November 2019
    Zibblsnrt wrote: »
    So apparently a gaggle of researchers figured out a way to cut cystic fibrosis off at the knees for up to ninety percent of its current sufferers. Not quite a cure, but bringing people from effectively incapacitated to taking up running again. Not an "...in mice!" study either; the FDA approved its rollout.

    Modern medicine gets wacky more or less as a rule, but a medication that counteracts a range of genetic mutations by correctly reconfiguring the misfolded proteins those mutations generate is pretty wild.

    Yo I'm a medical researcher, I don't work on CF but I work with people who do. This is a huge deal.
    Sarah Carollo, 28, a special needs teacher in Lee’s Summit, Mo., started Trikafta through a clinical trial in late 2018. Carollo feared she was heading into yet another hospitalization and might have to step away from the classroom where she teaches children with nonverbal autism. She couldn’t walk down a hallway without stopping to rest and catch her breath.

    And now here she is after running a 5K (EDIT: Sarah's the one on the right)

    CYSJQB3T3RGQPD7KH46LBHZAMY.jpg

    Just, please. If you're not busy right now, if you have the time, stop and think for a minute about what this quote means.
    Patients who were unsure about whether they should bother attending college because they had always known they would die young are now being told they should think about planning for retirement.

    Butler on
  • PeasPeas Registered User regular
    edited November 2019
  • Brovid HasselsmofBrovid Hasselsmof [Growling historic on the fury road] Registered User regular
    I lived with a girl in uni for a while who had cystic fibrosis. She died while undergoing a lung transplant. Crazy to think if she had lived until now she could potentially have been cured, the illness was so limiting for her. That's amazing.

  • Rhesus PositiveRhesus Positive GNU Terry Pratchett Registered User regular
    I work with somebody with CF and she’s got a dark humour streak a mile wide

    Hers isn’t as limiting as it can be, but she will still talk about how her pension plan is probably going to pay out to her parents rather than her :(

    [Muffled sounds of gorilla violence]
  • Indie WinterIndie Winter die Krähe Rudi Hurzlmeier (German, b. 1952)Registered User regular
  • HobnailHobnail Registered User regular
    If I click on that is it going to turn out that this battery water is theoretical or has deadly super fumes or cant be made on earth or something

    Broke as fuck in the style of the times. Gratitude is all that can return on your generosity.

    https://www.paypal.me/hobnailtaylor
  • Librarian's ghostLibrarian's ghost Librarian, Ghostbuster, and TimSpork Registered User regular
    If I click on that is it going to turn out that this battery water is theoretical or has deadly super fumes or cant be made on earth or something

    It really tells you nothing about it so who knows!

    (Switch Friend Code) SW-4910-9735-6014(PSN) timspork (Steam) timspork (XBox) Timspork


  • HobnailHobnail Registered User regular
    Dope sounds like a CNN story

    Broke as fuck in the style of the times. Gratitude is all that can return on your generosity.

    https://www.paypal.me/hobnailtaylor
  • PolaritiePolaritie Sleepy Registered User regular
    So they're cutting the plants out of biofuel?

    Steam: Polaritie
    3DS: 0473-8507-2652
    Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
    PSN: AbEntropy
  • tynictynic PICNIC BADASS Registered User, ClubPA regular
    edited November 2019
    So I tracked down the research team's papers to see if I could learn more. Short version

    - they've developed a new molecule that when subjected to solar energy, transforms into a different isomer which can actually store that energy (instead of having it eg. react with the molecule, or just rapidly dissipate).
    - next tricky bit is releasing the energy on demand, and apparently they've found a catalyst which will do it.
    - after energy release, the original molecule is reusable! That's great, means much less waste.
    - catalyst is cobalt phthalocyanine which is a pretty common material in transistors, etc. So still dependent on mining - you never get something for absolutely nothing - but at least cobalt is not a mineral exclusively found in the third world, for example. Also generally speaking you need relatively low levels of catalyst in a reaction (I didn't dig deep enough to look at actual quantities) so could still be a significant improvement over even current solar cells, in terms of non-renewable resources.

    https://www.chalmers.se/en/departments/chem/news/Pages/Emissions-free-energy-system-saves-heat-from-the-summer-sun-for-winter-.aspx

    So IF they can get this out of the lab and into a prototype without discovering some terrible problem, this could actually be pretty revolutionary? Even in the short term it could at least make a big impact on coal and gas dependency for things like domestic heating.

    tynic on
  • tynictynic PICNIC BADASS Registered User, ClubPA regular
    tynic wrote: »
    I would have given a kidney to be at that entomological meeting. The audience must have been in stitches.

    Well, somebody's kidney, anyway.

    edit: worth noting that Emeritus is often synonymous with "elderly kook"

    OH MY GOD REMEMBER THIS

    Brolo wrote: »
    dvvvsbZl.png

    TEXT:
    As scientists scramble to determine whether there is life on Mars, Ohio University Professor Emeritus William Romoser’s research shows that we already have the evidence, courtesy of photographs from various Mars rovers.

    “There has been and still is life on Mars.” — Dr. William Romoser, Ohio University Professor Emeritus

    Dr. Romoser, who specializes in arbovirology and general/medical entomology, has spent several years studying photographs from the red planet that are available on the Internet. He found numerous examples of insect-like forms, structured similarly to bees, as well as reptile-like forms, both as fossils and living creatures. He presented his findings Tuesday, November 19, 2019, at the national meeting of the Entomological Society of America in St. Louis, Missouri.

    “There has been and still is life on Mars,” Romoser said, noting that the images appear to show both fossilized and living creatures. “There is apparent diversity among the Martian insect-like fauna which display many features similar to Terran insects that are interpreted as advanced groups – for example, the presence of wings, wing flexion, agile gliding/flight, and variously structured leg elements.”

    https://scitechdaily.com/photos-show-evidence-of-life-on-mars-insect-and-reptile-like-fossils-living-creatures/

    the photos are... not very convincing...

    my friend WAS at that meeting!
    She said the rest of the week was spent with everyone trying to pinpoint exactly when this guy went off the deep end and also why the fuck did the university put out a friggin' press release about it? Some saw it as a form of elder abuse.

  • BroloBrolo Broseidon Lord of the BroceanRegistered User regular
    yeah it's weird that you can skip from

    "Hey doesn't this smudge kinda look like a bug?"
    to
    "PROFESSOR CONFIRMS ALIEN LIFE ON MARS AT MAJOR NEWS CONFERENCE"

    without like, some one in the middle of that process reviewing your work

  • JedocJedoc In the scuppers with the staggers and jagsRegistered User regular
    If anyone at the university can stop you from doing anything at any time, there is literally no point to emeritus status.

    GDdCWMm.jpg
  • BaidolBaidol I will hold him off Escape while you canRegistered User regular
    If the cold fusion debacle taught us anything, its that publicity about science is more important than the science being right.

    Steam Overwatch: Baidol#1957
  • Captain InertiaCaptain Inertia Registered User regular
    Is that what we learned

  • DepressperadoDepressperado I just wanted to see you laughing in the pizza rainRegistered User regular
    When I was a kid, I read about cold fusion and was like "why don't they just do it in a freezer" and felt so smug that I had figured it out

    I also thought I figured out a perpetual motion machine

    I was a dumb kid

  • BroloBrolo Broseidon Lord of the BroceanRegistered User regular
    When I was a kid, I read about cold fusion and was like "why don't they just do it in a freezer" and felt so smug that I had figured it out

    I also thought I figured out a perpetual motion machine

    I was a dumb kid


    don't feel bad, you weren't the first

    ZzNZY0c.jpg

    TEXT:
    Jury process
    In its advertisement in The Economist, Steorn challenged scientists to form an independent jury to test their technology and publish the results.[24] Within 36 hours of the advertisement being published, 420 scientists contacted Steorn[25] and, on 1 December 2006, Steorn announced it had selected a jury.[6] It was headed by Ian MacDonald, emeritus professor of electrical engineering at the University of Alberta, and the process began in February 2007.[7]

    In June 2009 the jury announced its unanimous verdict that "Steorn's attempts to demonstrate the claim have not shown the production of energy. The jury is therefore ceasing work".[7] Dick Ahlstrom, writing in the Irish Times, concluded from this that Steorn's technology did not work.[7] Steorn responded by saying that because of difficulties in implementing the technology the focus of the process had been on providing the jury with test data on magnetic effects for study. Steorn also said that these difficulties had been resolved and disputed its jury's findings.[7]

    Demonstrations

    A notice at the Kinetica Museum announcing the cancellation of the public demonstration
    On 4 July 2007, the technology was to be displayed at the Kinetica Museum, Spitalfields Market, London. A unit constructed of clear plastic was prepared so that the arrangement of magnets could be seen and to demonstrate that the device operated without external power sources.[8][26] The public demonstration was delayed and then cancelled because of technical difficulties. Steorn initially said that the problems had been caused by excessive heat from the lighting.[8][27]

    A second demonstration ran between 15 December 2009 and February 2010 at the Waterways Visitor Centre in Dublin, and was streamed via Steorn's website.[28] The demonstration was of a device powered by a rechargeable battery. Steorn said that the device produced more energy than it consumed and recharged the battery.[9] No substantive details of the technology were revealed and no independent evidence of Steorn's claim was provided.[9]

    On 1 April 2010 Steorn opened an online development community, called the Steorn Knowledge Development Base (SKDB), which they said would explain their technology. Access was available only under licence on payment of a fee.[29]

    In May 2015, Steorn put an "Orbo PowerCube" on display behind the bar of a pub in Dublin. The PowerCube was a small box which the pub website claimed contained a "perpetual motion motor" which required no external power source. The cube was shown charging a mobile phone. Steorn claimed to be performing some "basic field trials" in undisclosed locations.[30]

    Orbo phone charger
    Beginning in December 2015, Steorn began accepting orders for two products, including a phone charger,[31][32] through email only. The announcement was posted only to a Facebook page titled "Orbo" and a Steorn YouTube channel.[33] In early December, McCarthy said that he was waiting for the first shipment of the two products, the Orbo Phone and the Orbo Cube, from a manufacturer in China.[34] Steorn described the Orbo Cube as a showcase for the technology rather than a mass-market product, with the Cube retailing at €1,200.[32]

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steorn


  • HobnailHobnail Registered User regular
    That reminds me of a Pratchett book with a Dwarf perpetual motion machine, it was a little unstoppably turning cube within a cube thingy

    Broke as fuck in the style of the times. Gratitude is all that can return on your generosity.

    https://www.paypal.me/hobnailtaylor
  • BroloBrolo Broseidon Lord of the BroceanRegistered User regular
    That reminds me of a Pratchett book with a Dwarf perpetual motion machine, it was a little unstoppably turning cube within a cube thingy

  • HobnailHobnail Registered User regular
    Hook some gears and pulleys and shit up to that and you are ready to go

    Broke as fuck in the style of the times. Gratitude is all that can return on your generosity.

    https://www.paypal.me/hobnailtaylor
  • SiliconStewSiliconStew Registered User regular
    If you hand a person that studies bugs all day, every day an ink blot, of course they're going to go straight to thinking it looks like a bug. We've seen these "Person in specialized field X thinks blob in fuzzy picture looks exactly like something in specialized field X" stories many times before. Usually next to an article for "Person in specialized field Y thinks [the same] blob in fuzzy picture looks exactly like something in specialized field Y". This case is worse though, because rather than some reporter asking some scientist's opinion on a picture and maybe taking the response out of context or out of proportion to get to the sensationalist "ALIENS!" headline, he's gone himself and taken a bunch of fuzzy pictures of rocks and has specifically set out trying to find any shapes in them that resembles a bug. It's a nice case study of confirmation bias, but poor research methodology.

    Just remember that half the people you meet are below average intelligence.
  • DepressperadoDepressperado I just wanted to see you laughing in the pizza rainRegistered User regular
    That reminds me of a Pratchett book with a Dwarf perpetual motion machine, it was a little unstoppably turning cube within a cube thingy

    there are a lot of those kinda things! The Dwarves find weird relics while they're mining, embedded in solid rock.

    a lot of their mines are powered by them, they use them to pull minecarts and shit.

  • JedocJedoc In the scuppers with the staggers and jagsRegistered User regular
    If you hand a person that studies bugs all day, every day an ink blot, of course they're going to go straight to thinking it looks like a bug. We've seen these "Person in specialized field X thinks blob in fuzzy picture looks exactly like something in specialized field X" stories many times before. Usually next to an article for "Person in specialized field Y thinks [the same] blob in fuzzy picture looks exactly like something in specialized field Y". This case is worse though, because rather than some reporter asking some scientist's opinion on a picture and maybe taking the response out of context or out of proportion to get to the sensationalist "ALIENS!" headline, he's gone himself and taken a bunch of fuzzy pictures of rocks and has specifically set out trying to find any shapes in them that resembles a bug. It's a nice case study of confirmation bias, but poor research methodology.

    That kind of reminds me of that Rorschach guy who drew all those pictures of my dad yelling at me.

    GDdCWMm.jpg
  • PeasPeas Registered User regular
    edited December 2019
    The Molecular Basis of Life20:09
    https://youtu.be/fpHaxzroYxg
    These animations show cellular biology on the molecular scale. The structure of chromatin, the processes of transcription, translation, DNA replication, and cell division are shown. All animations are scientifically accurate and derived from molecular biology and crystallography research. I have composed this video from multiple animations under fair use for non-profit, educational purposes. I do not claim copyright on this video or its contents, with the exception of the cell image. Most credit goes to Drew Berry and the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research (WEHI TV) for the animations. Full credits are at the end of the video.


    I am too dumb to ever fully understand or appreciate this but I thought the visuals and sounds were kinda amazing in a way

    Peas on
  • BahamutZEROBahamutZERO Registered User regular
    these processes are a lot more wiggly and floppy than I envisioned them

    the squishy splorpy sound effects are a bit hilarious

    BahamutZERO.gif
  • Brovid HasselsmofBrovid Hasselsmof [Growling historic on the fury road] Registered User regular
    that's what she said

  • MayabirdMayabird Pecking at the keyboardRegistered User regular
    bowen wrote: »
    That would be crazy if earth seeded a few planets. I wonder if we'd even be able to tell at this point if we were to run across them.

    A little followup but an astronomy calculated the number of very near-misses that could have happened during the time while Earth has life (very-near misses as in a comet or asteroid scrapes the atmosphere without actually colliding). This could have happened a few dozen times, and high-atmosphere bacteria (including the ones that help seed rain across the globe) are known to have very high radiation tolerances. If any of these asteroids or comets got ejected out of the solar system it could be another source of panspermia from here out into the rest of the galaxy.

  • Captain InertiaCaptain Inertia Registered User regular
    Skeet skeet skeet

  • TheStigTheStig Registered User regular
    Guys stop talking about panspermia. You're going to bring that one guy back.

    bnet: TheStig#1787 Steam: TheStig
  • PinfeldorfPinfeldorf Yeah ZestRegistered User regular
    That guy that keeps whacking off into the pans?

  • Captain InertiaCaptain Inertia Registered User regular
    ....there’s more than one?

  • ButlerButler 89 episodes or bust Registered User regular
    Pinfeldorf wrote: »
    That guy that keeps whacking off into the pans?

    Maybe he's just received some drastically bad advice about seasoning cast iron cookware.

  • Donovan PuppyfuckerDonovan Puppyfucker A dagger in the dark is worth a thousand swords in the morningRegistered User regular
    TheStig wrote: »
    Guys stop talking about panspermia. You're going to bring that one guy back.

    Foolproof? Eh, they mellowed right out, shared a bunch of cool shit about foraging for wild mushrooms for a while, and then disappeared.

This discussion has been closed.