Science! (22 Viewers)

[Optimus Prime]

Scientists searching distant solar system for possible alien radio signals

Astronomers did not find signals of alien life – but study helped refine techniques that eventually could

www.independent.co.uk

 

[fred8615]

Tracking the Ghost and the Darkness: DNA Decodes Deadly Diets of Tsavo’s Legendary “Man-Eater” Lions

Researchers analyzed DNA from hairs in the teeth of the infamous Tsavo man-eating lions, revealing that they consumed a diverse range of animals including giraffes and humans. The analysis indicated that the lions were siblings with a genetic makeup typical of Kenyan or Tanzanian lions. The Terr

scitechdaily.com

 

[The Nomad]

Tracking the Ghost and the Darkness: DNA Decodes Deadly Diets of Tsavo’s Legendary “Man-Eater” Lions

Researchers analyzed DNA from hairs in the teeth of the infamous Tsavo man-eating lions, revealing that they consumed a diverse range of animals including giraffes and humans. The analysis indicated that the lions were siblings with a genetic makeup typical of Kenyan or Tanzanian lions. The Terr

scitechdaily.com

It's a pretty great movie.

 

[Sailorsaint]

It's a pretty great movie.

It was based on Maneaters of Tsavo by Patterson, decent book. I like the books by Capstick that cover safaris and he wrote one that covered Patterson and his exploits. Both of them decent reads.

 

[fred8615]

It's a pretty great movie.

If you mean The Ghost and The Darkness, I love that movie too, even though it's nowhere near historically accurate.

Or do you mean Bwana Hunter? That was a 3D movie (one of the very first 3D movies btw) made in the '50s about the incident.

 

[The Nomad]

If you mean The Ghost and The Darkness, I love that movie too, even though it's nowhere near historically accurate.

Or do you mean Bwana Hunter? That was a 3D movie (one of the very first 3D movies btw) made in the '50s about the incident.

Yes, The Ghost and the Darkness. It sent me down the rabbit hole for the whole story.

 

[Optimus Prime]

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A NASA spacecrafthas set sail for Jupiter and its moon Europa, one of the best bets for finding life beyond Earth.

Europa Clipper will peer beneath the moon’s icy crustwhere an ocean is thought to be sloshing fairly close to the surface. It won’t search for life, but rather determine whether conditions there could support it. Another mission would be needed to flush out any microorganisms lurking there.

“It’s a chance for us to explore not a world that might have been habitable billions of years ago, but a world that might be habitable today — right now,” said program scientist Curt Niebur.

Its massive solar panels make Clipper the biggest craft built by NASA to investigate another planet. It will take 5 1/2 years to reach Jupiter and will sneak within 16 miles (25 kilometers) of Europa’s surface — considerably closer than any other spacecraft.

Clipper lifted off Monday aboard SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Mission cost: $5.2 billion.……

NASA's Europa Clipper spacecraft will scour Jupiter moon for the ingredients for life

A massive NASA spacecraft has set sail for Jupiter and its moon Europa. The craft named Europa Clipper will peer beneath the moon's icy crust and determine whether conditions there could support life.

apnews.com

 

[Optimus Prime]

Next step, field testing with some parkour people
========


Scientists have developed a fluid that turns into a strong sticky fibre when shot out of a gadget to lift objects several times its weight – a breakthrough inspired by comic book superhero Spider-Man.

Researchers have long sought to create strong fibres that could be deployed as tethers, inspired by the silk secreted by moths, spidersand several other insects.

But developing such fibres with the stiffness, elasticity and adhesive properties of spider silk has been a challenge – until now, researchers at Tufts University say.

Fortified with the right additives, a silk moth protein, called fibroin, shot through a narrow needle can form a tough sticky fibre, according to a new “accidental breakthrough” described in Advanced Functional Materials. “I was working on a project making extremely strong adhesives using silk fibroin and while I was cleaning my glassware with acetone, I noticed a web-like material forming on the bottom of the glass,” study co-author Marco Lo Presti said.…….

Scientists have finally developed a real-life Spider-Man sticky-web gadget

Silk fibre shot through needle lifts steel bolt, scalpel and wooden block

www.independent.co.uk

 

[Eeyore]

Unexpected Link Between Menthol And Alzheimer's Discovered in Mice

A recent study found something strange: When mice with Alzheimer's disease inhale menthol, their cognitive abilities improve.

www.sciencealert.com

 

[Optimus Prime]

In 2006, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) voted on the definition of a planet. Famously, Pluto no longer met the criteria and was demoted to a dwarf planet. Things have been a bit of a mess since then — so is it time to redefine the planet?

To be fair, Pluto had it coming. The word "planet" never had an official definition, and astronomers had always played fast and loose with its use. To the ancient Greeks, a planet was any "wandering star," which included the sun and the moon. With the Copernican revolution, the definition changed: Earth was considered a planet in its own right, the moon was demoted to a satellite, and the sun got promoted.

This worked for over 200 years, until William Herschel discovered Uranus and Giuseppe Piazzi discovered Ceres, the largest object in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Initially, both Uranus and Ceres were classified as planets. But once more objects were found to share similar orbits with Ceres, astronomers had to rethink things — surely, planets lived alone, after all. Herschel proposed the term "asteroids" for the small objects between Mars and Jupiter, while Uranus remained a planet (a situation that certainly benefited Herschel's own legacy).

Astronomers were comfortable with those classifications even when Clyde Tombaugh discovered Pluto in 1930. But that new planet was a stretch — it had a really wonky orbit and was far smaller than the other planets, so it didn't take long for astronomers to start wondering if they should start reexamining how objects were classified.

Starting in the 1990s, astronomers began to find more objects that shared similar orbits with Pluto. But the real nail in the planetary coffin came in 2005, when astronomer Mike Brown discovered Eris, an object about the same size as Pluto orbiting beyond Neptune.

So, in 2006, when astronomers gathered at the IAU meeting in Prague, a large contingent moved to have that body define what a planet should be. There were two camps: the geophysicists who argued that planets should be defined by their appearance, and the dynamists who believed that planets should be defined by their properties.

In essence, the geophysicists argued that a planet should be anything that is large enough that its own self-gravity pulls it into a nearly spherical shape. The dynamists countered that a planet should be anything that can dominate and mostly clear its orbit of any debris. The first definition would allow Pluto, along with Ceres and all of Pluto's co-orbital friends, to become planets. The latter definition would exclude all of those smaller bodies.

In the end, the compromise included both definitions, which meant that effectively, the dynamists won. Pluto does not clear its orbit — it simply has too many neighbors — and thus was famously demoted............

The Pluto problem: Is it time to rethink our definition of a planet?​

 

[Sailorsaint]

 

[Optimus Prime]

The region of the universe we live in may be significantly bigger than we thought. A new study reveals that the intergalactic supercluster holding the Milky Way may be part of an even bigger "basin of attraction" that's up to 10 times larger than the one we currently call home.

The universe is full of basins of attraction (BOAs) — regions within which everything is being pulled inward by the gravity of a massive object. BOAs can stack inside one another like nesting dolls. For example, the moon circles Earth, which in turn orbits the sun along with the rest of the solar system, which is itself spiraling around the supermassive black hole at the heart of our galaxy.

But the story doesn't end there. The next layer of the BOA doll is the Local Group, which includes the Milky Way, the Andromeda Galaxy and the Triangulum Galaxy, along with their smaller satellite galaxies such as the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. After that, the next layers are the Virgo Cluster, which holds around 2,000 galaxies, and the larger Virgo Supercluster. The final known layer is Laniākea (meaning "immense heaven" in the Hawaiian language) — a supercluster first discovered in 2014, which holds around 100,000 galaxies and spans roughly 500 million light-years across.

But in the new study, published Sept. 27 in the journal Nature Astronomy, researchers analyzed the relative movements of more than 56,000 galaxies to create a 3D "probabilistic" map of all the BOAs surrounding the Milky Way. This revealed that there is a decent chance our home galaxy is part of an even larger BOA — the Shapley Concentration — that has a volume up to 10 times greater than Laniākea. (Scientists already knew the Shapley Concentration existed but did not previously believe it impacted the Milky Way.)...................

MSN

 

[Optimus Prime]

In recent decades, we've learned huge amounts about the universe and its history. The rapidly developing technology of telescopes—both on Earth and in space—has been a key part of this process, and those that are due to start operating over the next two decades should push the boundaries of our understanding of cosmology much further.

All observatories have a list of science objectives before they switch on, but it is their unexpected discoveries that can have the biggest impact. Many surprise advances in cosmology were driven by new technology, and the next telescopes have powerful capabilities.

Still, there are gaps, such as a lack of upcoming space telescopes for ultraviolet and visible light astronomy. Politics and national interests have slowed scientific progress. Financial belts are tightening at even the most famous observatories.

The biggest new telescopes are being built in the mountains of Chile. The Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) will house a mirror the size of four tennis courts, under a huge dome in the Atacama desert.

Reflecting telescopes like ELT work by using a primary mirror to collect light from the night sky, then reflecting it off other mirrors to a camera. Larger mirrors collect more light and see fainter objects.

Another ground-based telescope under construction in Chile is the Vera C. Rubin telescope. Rubin's camera is the largest ever built: the size of a small car and weighing about three tons. Its 3,200 megapixels will photograph the whole sky every three days to spot moving objects. Over the course of 10 years, these photographs will be combined to form a massive time-lapse video of the universe.

Astronomy used to be a physically demanding job, requiring travel to remote telescopes in dark sites–-but many astronomers began working from home long before COVID. In the late 20th century, major ground observatories started to put in place technology to allow astronomers to control telescopes for observations at night, even when they were not there in person. Remote observing is now commonplace, carried out via the internet...........

MSN

 

[Consigliere]

In recent decades, we've learned huge amounts about the universe and its history. The rapidly developing technology of telescopes—both on Earth and in space—has been a key part of this process, and those that are due to start operating over the next two decades should push the boundaries of our understanding of cosmology much further.

All observatories have a list of science objectives before they switch on, but it is their unexpected discoveries that can have the biggest impact. Many surprise advances in cosmology were driven by new technology, and the next telescopes have powerful capabilities.

Still, there are gaps, such as a lack of upcoming space telescopes for ultraviolet and visible light astronomy. Politics and national interests have slowed scientific progress. Financial belts are tightening at even the most famous observatories.

The biggest new telescopes are being built in the mountains of Chile. The Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) will house a mirror the size of four tennis courts, under a huge dome in the Atacama desert.

Reflecting telescopes like ELT work by using a primary mirror to collect light from the night sky, then reflecting it off other mirrors to a camera. Larger mirrors collect more light and see fainter objects.

Another ground-based telescope under construction in Chile is the Vera C. Rubin telescope. Rubin's camera is the largest ever built: the size of a small car and weighing about three tons. Its 3,200 megapixels will photograph the whole sky every three days to spot moving objects. Over the course of 10 years, these photographs will be combined to form a massive time-lapse video of the universe.

Astronomy used to be a physically demanding job, requiring travel to remote telescopes in dark sites–-but many astronomers began working from home long before COVID. In the late 20th century, major ground observatories started to put in place technology to allow astronomers to control telescopes for observations at night, even when they were not there in person. Remote observing is now commonplace, carried out via the internet...........

MSN

Thanks for posting stuff like this.

I read a recent "science book" that suggested a reason for the JWT indicating galaxies earlier than had been theorized: the act of humans observing them changed them (like electrons in the double-slit experiment). So I guess it was a pseudo-science book?