Science! (2 Viewers)

[fred8615]

Archaeologists Say They've Just Solved The 400-Year-Old Mystery Of The Lost Colony Of Roanoke

This study is the first time physical evidence has been found to support the theory that the settlers moved on to Hatteras Island.

allthatsinteresting.com

 

[fred8615]

This 25,000-Year-Old Structure Is Made Of Mammoth Bones — And Experts Are Baffled

This isn’t the first “mammoth house” found at the Russian excavation site — but it is the oldest and largest.

allthatsinteresting.com

 

[fred8615]

Collision Between Milky Way and Andromeda Far From Inevitable, Study Shows

There's a 50% chance that the predicted head-on collision will end in a galactic merger, according to a new study.

gizmodo.com

 

[Optimus Prime]

Cancer rates in men are expected to skyrocket in the next few decades, a new study reveals.

Cancer rates in men are projected to jump by 84 percent from 2022 to 2050, while cancer deaths are expected to increase by 93.2 percent over the same time frame, according to the peer-reviewed study.

The findings were published on Monday in the American Cancer Society’s research journal, CANCER.


This gender disparity is in part because men are exposed more often to risk factors, such as smoking and drinking alcohol, according to the study. Men are also exposed to more cancer-causing workplace hazards, such as harmful chemicals, radiation and asbestos, than women, according to the study.……

Cancer rates in men will increase by a whopping 84% by 2050, researchers say

The research team’s recommendations included improving early detection programs for testicular and prostate cancers

www.independent.co.uk

 

[Zztop]

What a bioluminescent petunia had to teach me

I bought a glowing plant. It led me down a rabbit hole of radiant mushrooms, 19th century experiments and a modern rivalry between scientists in Russia and the Americas.

knowablemagazine.org

 

[fred8615]

Unusual rotation of a nearby star has never been seen before

A new study reveals that the rotation of a nearby star, V889 Herculis, is markedly different from that of our Sun.

www.earth.com

 

[Optimus Prime]

When Voyager 1 launched in 1977, it began an indefinite journey into space, serving as an envoy for humankind. Today, it's the farthest human-made object from Earth, traveling over 15 billion miles from the sun in interstellar space.

If you were out there, where everything we know is so far away and life itself is foreign, would you even be within the influence of our sun? From such a distance, could you actually see anything out there, or is it all eternal blackness?

A user on the forum Reddit asked that very question: If we were somehow able to stand next to Voyager 1 in space, would we be able to see it?

We asked Michael Zemcov, an experimental astrophysicist and professor at Rochester Institute of Technology, to explain it, so you don't have to dust off your calculator to do the math yourself.

"Oh, gosh, that's, so this is a really interesting question," Zemcov told Insider.

To start, he said even though both Voyager 1 and 2 are way out in space, beyond all major planets, it's still pretty bright.

He took us through the math for Voyager 1.

First, you must compare Voyager's distance to the distance between Earth and the sun. Then, you use that distance to calculate what the light intensity would be that far away from the sun.

This leaves you with an estimate of about 25,000 times fainter than the brightness during the day on Earth. That's still about 15 times brighter than the light Earth gets during a full moon on a clear night, Zemcov said.

In that much light, you would definitely be able to see the side of the probe facing the sun in detail, though you might not be able to see all of its colors, he said.

Further, you'd probably be able to read a book out there.

MSN

 

[Optimus Prime]

Scientists may have finally found where the object that wiped out the dinosaurs came from.

The mass extinction event that occurred 66 million years ago – the most recent on Earth – came about when a rare kind of asteroidcollided with Earth, researchers say.

In that incident, about 60 per cent of the Earth’s species including all of its non-avian dinosaurs were wiped out. Researchers believe that it led to a horrific period in the planet’s history, during which its planets were lit on fire, the Earth was covered in ash and the climate would have turned deadly.

And it all began in the distant outer solar system, beyond Jupiter. There, a C-type asteroid formed that would give rise to what scientists call the Chicxulub impactor, which crashed into Earth and left the vast crater after which it is named.

Scientists say the discovery should help solve long arguments about the history of the Earth, as well as the objects that have collided with it from elsewhere in space.

They came to those conclusions after looking at samples taken from around the same period in which the mass extinction event happened, between the Cretaceous and Paleogene eras. They also looked at samples from five other asteroid impacts taken in the last 541 million years, as well as ancient remnants from impacts billions of years ago.

Layers of the Earth from around the same period tend to be rich in platinum group elements, or PGEs, such as iridium, ruthenium, osmium, rhodium, platinum, and palladium. Those elements are generally rare on Earth, but common in meteorites, though they appear to have spread widely during the collision because they are found right across the Earth.…….

Scientists finally find where the object that wiped out the dinosaurs came from

‘Chicxulub’ object seems to have come from out beyond Jupiter

www.independent.co.uk

 

[Optimus Prime]

When Voyager 1 launched in 1977, it began an indefinite journey into space, serving as an envoy for humankind. Today, it's the farthest human-made object from Earth, traveling over 15 billion miles from the sun in interstellar space.

If you were out there, where everything we know is so far away and life itself is foreign, would you even be within the influence of our sun? From such a distance, could you actually see anything out there, or is it all eternal blackness?

A user on the forum Reddit asked that very question: If we were somehow able to stand next to Voyager 1 in space, would we be able to see it?

We asked Michael Zemcov, an experimental astrophysicist and professor at Rochester Institute of Technology, to explain it, so you don't have to dust off your calculator to do the math yourself.

"Oh, gosh, that's, so this is a really interesting question," Zemcov told Insider.

To start, he said even though both Voyager 1 and 2 are way out in space, beyond all major planets, it's still pretty bright.

He took us through the math for Voyager 1.

First, you must compare Voyager's distance to the distance between Earth and the sun. Then, you use that distance to calculate what the light intensity would be that far away from the sun.

This leaves you with an estimate of about 25,000 times fainter than the brightness during the day on Earth. That's still about 15 times brighter than the light Earth gets during a full moon on a clear night, Zemcov said.

In that much light, you would definitely be able to see the side of the probe facing the sun in detail, though you might not be able to see all of its colors, he said.

Further, you'd probably be able to read a book out there.

MSN

This article doesn't say but now I'm curious how far out you'd have to be for it to be super dark in space

 

[SWJJ]

This article doesn't say but now I'm curious how far out you'd have to be for it to be super dark in space

I dont think it would ever be super dark anywhere in space. If they still have that much light intensity past the heliosphere (compared to 15 times more the amount of light earth sees on a full moon night) and Alpha Centauri only being about 4 light years away and that Rigil Kentaurus (also known as Alpha Centauri A) is 50% bigger and Brighter than our own sun, I think you would have light from neighboring star systems before you get far enough away to lose light from the sun (or your closest star)

Now, as you begin to enter voids that have mass and matter free floating, like gas clouds and nebulas, it may become completely dark, but that's not because you are so far away from the light source but because you are being surrounded by light absorbing/blocking matter.

 

[Tapxe]

 

[Tapxe]

 

[Optimus Prime]

Trees are believed to have originated hundreds of millions of years ago. Ever since, evidence of these ancient plant sentinels has been in short supply.

Now, a new discovery of uniquely 3D tree fossils has opened a window into what the world was like when the planet’s early forests were beginning to evolve, expanding our understanding of the architecture of trees throughout Earth’s history.

Five tree fossils buried alive by an earthquake 350 million years ago were found in a quarry in the Canadian province of New Brunswick, according to a study published Friday in the journal Current Biology. The authors said these new and unusual fossil trees not only bear a surprising shape reminiscent of a Dr. Seuss illustration, they reveal clues about a period of life on Earth of which we know little.

“They are time capsules,” said Robert Gastaldo, a paleontologist and sedimentologist who led the study, “literally little windows into deep-time landscapes and ecosystems.”

Coauthors Olivia King and Matthew Stimson unearthed the first of the ancient trees in 2017 while doing fieldwork in a rock quarry in New Brunswick. One of the specimens they discovered is among a handful of cases in the entire plant fossil record — spanning more than 400 million years — in which a tree’s branches and crown leaves are still attached to its trunk.

Few tree fossils that date back to Earth’s earliest forests have ever been found, according to Gastaldo. Their discovery helps fill in some missing pieces of an incomplete fossil record.

“There are only five or six trees that we can document, at least in the Paleozoic, that were preserved with its crown intact,” said Gastaldo, a professor of geology at Colby College in Waterville, Maine.

Most ancient tree specimens are relatively small, he noted, and often discovered in the form of a fossilized trunk with a stump or root system attached. For his colleagues to find a preserved tree that could have been 15 feet tall in its maturity with an 18-foot diameter crown left the paleontologist “gobsmacked.”..........

https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/02/world/sanfordiacaulis-ancient-tree-fossils-discovery-scn/index.html#:~:text=The%20unique%20preservation%20of%20the,exposed%20in%20New%20Brunswick%2C%20Canada.

 

[fred8615]

Spider exploits firefly's flashing signals to lure more prey

Fireflies rely on flashing signals to communicate to other fireflies using light-emitting lanterns on their abdomens. In fireflies of the species Abscondita terminalis, males make multi-pulse flashes with two lanterns to attract females, while females make single-pulse flashes with their one...

phys.org

 

[Optimus Prime]

NEW YORK (AP) — A U.S. government report expected to stir debate concluded that fluoride in drinking water at twice the recommended limit is linked with lower IQ in children.

The report, based on an analysis of previously published research, marks the first time a federal agency has determined — “with moderate confidence” — that there is a link between higher levels of fluoride exposure and lower IQ in kids. While the report was not designed to evaluate the health effects of fluoride in drinking water alone, it is a striking acknowledgment of a potential neurological risk from high levels of fluoride.

Fluoride strengthens teeth and reduces cavities by replacing minerals lost during normal wear and tear, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The addition of low levels of fluoride to drinking water has long been considered one of the greatest public health achievements of the last century.

“I think this (report) is crucial in our understanding” of this risk, said Ashley Malin, a University of Florida researcher who has studied the effect of higher fluoride levels in pregnant women on their children. She called it the most rigorously conducted report of its kind.

The long-awaited report released Wednesday comes from the National Toxicology Program, part of the Department of Health and Human Services. It summarizes a review of studies, conducted in Canada, China, India, Iran, Pakistan, and Mexico, that concludes that drinking water containing more than 1.5 milligrams of fluoride per liter is consistently associated with lower IQs in kids.

The report did not try to quantify exactly how many IQ points might be lost at different levels of fluoride exposure. But some of the studies reviewed in the report suggested IQ was 2 to 5 points lower in children who'd had higher exposures.

Since 2015, federal health officials have recommended a fluoridation level of 0.7 milligrams per liter of water, and for five decades before the recommended upper range was 1.2. The World Health Organization has set a safe limit for fluoride in drinking water of 1.5.

The report said that about 0.6% of the U.S. population — about 1.9 million people — are on water systems with naturally occurring fluoride levels of 1.5 milligrams or higher.

“The findings from this report raise the questions about how these people can be protected and what makes the most sense,” Malin said.

The 324-page report did not reach a conclusion about the risks of lower levels of fluoride, saying more study is needed. It also did not answer what high levels of fluoride might do to adults.............

US government report says fluoride at twice the recommended limit is linked to lower IQ in kids

A U.S. government report concludes that fluoride in drinking water at twice the recommended limit is linked with lower IQ in children.

apnews.com