BaidolI will hold him offEscape while you canRegistered Userregular
edited October 2022
The recipients for this year's Nobel Prize in Chemistry got announced today and they happen to be in my field. Morten Meldal and Barry Sharpless independently developed "click chemistry", which is a set of organic reactions that act quickly, irreversibly, and with high yield. This is Barry's second Nobel prize.
The third recipient is Carolynn Bertozzi, who recognized the value of click chemistry in creating tools to investigate biological processes but was not deterred by how the original reaction conditions were inhospitable to living cells. She developed "bioorthogonal" chemistry that applied click chemistry in living cells without killing them. If you've seen images of portions of cells fluorescing (glowing) pretty colors, one of the key tools that allows those glowing parts to be attached to the cell is Carolynn's chemistry. She is the eighth woman to receive the prize and has also been public about being a lesbian for her entire academic career.
NASA is about to launch a rocket (live on Twitch!) and they're doing a pretty good presentation in the run up to it, I shouldn't be surprised that NASA puts on the best show of any of the big agencies but it's still cool to watch.
Explanation: What are those strange rings? Rich in dust, the rings are likely 3D shells -- but how they were created remains a topic of research. Where they were created is well known: in a binary star system that lies about 6,000 light years away toward the constellation of the Swan (Cygnus) -- a system dominated by the Wolf-Rayet star WR 140. Wolf-Rayet stars are massive, bright, and known for their tumultuous winds. They are also known for creating and dispersing heavy elements such as carbon which is a building block of interstellar dust. The other star in the binary is also bright and massive -- but not as active. The two great stars joust in an oblong orbit as they approach each other about every eight years. When at closest approach, the X-ray emission from the system increases, as, apparently, does the dust expelled into space -- creating another shell. The featured infrared image by the new Webb Space Telescope resolves greater details and more dust shells than ever before.
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Tynnanseldom correct, never unsureRegistered Userregular
We just had a partial solar eclipse in the UK. Unfortunately, I forgot all about it until it was passed the peak, so all I could do is quickly get my phone and tape my solar filter to it so all I have is these few pixels of it
I couldn't see the solar eclipse because it was cloudy. I also don't have any appropriate eye protection, which I guess would have been an issue if it wasn't completely overcast.
We just had a partial solar eclipse in the UK. Unfortunately, I forgot all about it until it was passed the peak, so all I could do is quickly get my phone and tape my solar filter to it so all I have is these few pixels of it
That’s a right brave Pac Man showing up at the time of year most associated with ghosts
DepressperadoI just wanted to see you laughingin the pizza rainRegistered Userregular
my friend is so mad at me that he won't talk to me because I told him that he wasn't an Empath, he just has a functioning sense of social cues and a little bit of emotional intelligence.
both of those things seem better to me than some vague sixth sense, but I guess it's less 'special'?
oh god, this isn't a real thing and I'm the asshole, is it?
I've never had someone who refers to themselves as an "empath" (it used to be a lot more, but they were shitty in other ways so I ditched them) see something in a person that you couldn't tell just by observing them for a minute.
my friend is so mad at me that he won't talk to me because I told him that he wasn't an Empath, he just has a functioning sense of social cues and a little bit of emotional intelligence.
both of those things seem better to me than some vague sixth sense, but I guess it's less 'special'?
oh god, this isn't a real thing and I'm the asshole, is it?
I've never had someone who refers to themselves as an "empath" (it used to be a lot more, but they were shitty in other ways so I ditched them) see something in a person that you couldn't tell just by observing them for a minute.
I saw a tweet once along the lines of "I have empathy, that means I imagine how other people feel and immediately believe it", but I can't find the exact wording right now.
Empathy can be stronger or weaker, like sometimes people just don't feel anything when shown others feeling joy or suffering, and some people find it difficult to NOT put themselves in another person's shoes even if that's not a constructive thing to do and somewhat harmful to their own mental health. I guess I can imagine some folks might feel like that kind of can't-turn-off high empathy feels like being psychically sensitive rather than just regular human social behavior, but yeah it's just human social brain stuff. We're social animals, understanding other humans have similar internal lives to us is a key part of how our species functions in groups.
BahamutZERO on
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BroloBroseidonLord of the BroceanRegistered Userregular
Honestly, a ghost ship where all the roles were progressively filled by emergency holograms would be a really cool episode if done well. Especially if they go sentient after say a decade of continuous operation, or something. And now you just a totally AI ship by accident.
We’re testing a new way of landing on Mars… by crashing into its surface.
The Simplified High Impact Energy Landing Device (SHIELD) is a lander concept being tested at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). It could one day provide a new way for low-cost missions to land on Mars.
Rather than rely on parachutes or retrorockets, SHIELD would include a collapsible, accordion-like base to absorb the energy of a landing. A full-size prototype of the base was tested on Aug. 12, 2022. The prototype was hurled at the ground from the top of a nearly 90-foot-tall (27-meter-tall) drop tower at JPL. A steel plate ensured the impact was even harder than what would be experienced on Mars.
The design worked: After crushing against the steel plate at 110 mph (177 kph), several electronic components inside the SHIELD prototype, including a smartphone, survived the impact.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/California Academy of Sciences
My favourite, relatively feasible way to destroy a planet is to take advantage of the fact that a gravitational slingshot robs a planet of its angular momentum. Fire enough satellites/asteroids past it and it will de-orbit, slowly spiralling in toward the sun
My favourite, relatively feasible way to destroy a planet is to take advantage of the fact that a gravitational slingshot robs a planet of its angular momentum. Fire enough satellites/asteroids past it and it will de-orbit, slowly spiralling in toward the sun
You're probably going to roast the planet though.
Planets have too much mass to deorbit fully, I think.
You're just going to make the orbit more and more elliptical, giving it more and more severe summers and tidal forces.
if you have the energy needed to capture significant enough mass and redirect it around a planet to reduce its orbit speed, you could just directly alter the planet's orbit with the same energy
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The third recipient is Carolynn Bertozzi, who recognized the value of click chemistry in creating tools to investigate biological processes but was not deterred by how the original reaction conditions were inhospitable to living cells. She developed "bioorthogonal" chemistry that applied click chemistry in living cells without killing them. If you've seen images of portions of cells fluorescing (glowing) pretty colors, one of the key tools that allows those glowing parts to be attached to the cell is Carolynn's chemistry. She is the eighth woman to receive the prize and has also been public about being a lesbian for her entire academic career.
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap221013.html
https://www.theverge.com/2020/8/6/21355674/human-genes-rename-microsoft-excel-misreading-dates
That’s a right brave Pac Man showing up at the time of year most associated with ghosts
both of those things seem better to me than some vague sixth sense, but I guess it's less 'special'?
oh god, this isn't a real thing and I'm the asshole, is it?
I've never had someone who refers to themselves as an "empath" (it used to be a lot more, but they were shitty in other ways so I ditched them) see something in a person that you couldn't tell just by observing them for a minute.
that's what I told him!
also technically Betazoids are telepathic, Troi is an empath because she's only half-Betazoid :nerdglasses:
I know that Diana is half human
But do you remember how to spell her mother's name?
You know, daughter of the fifth house, holder of the sacred chalice of rixx, heir to the holy rings of betazed?
she's my favorite guest star
except maybe the Nagus
I like the ferengi episodes of ds9
Except profit and lace
the other one, with the lady ferengi that is pretending to be a dude so she can do business and is into Quark, I like that episode.
I saw a tweet once along the lines of "I have empathy, that means I imagine how other people feel and immediately believe it", but I can't find the exact wording right now.
I will do unspeakable things for Star Trek: Too Many Holograms
about a ship crewed entirely by Emergency X Holograms only. with X being a variable for literally any role. All played/voiced by Robert Picardo.
with every single non-E(X)H role played/voiced by Jeffrey Combs.
why has no one done this yet
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
PSN: AbEntropy
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
PSN: AbEntropy
Six night terrors all jammed into a 15 second span!
Now we just have to figure out how to punch gaseous planets, like Saturn, and the biggest boi, Jupiter…!
Cassini already gave Saturn the what for.
Sol is the biggest boi in these here parts
teach that big ol' ball of gas, throwin' its gravities around
Sol is a grown ass man.
I ain't pickin' a fight I know I'm gonna lose.
You're probably going to roast the planet though.
Planets have too much mass to deorbit fully, I think.
You're just going to make the orbit more and more elliptical, giving it more and more severe summers and tidal forces.