Science! (4 Viewers)

[faceman]

A group of scientists has concluded that ancient Europeans drank milk for millennia despite the digestive problems it may have caused, casting doubt on theories on how humans evolved to tolerate it.

Scientists have long speculated that an enzyme needed to avoid any gastrointestinal discomfort developed rapidly in populations where domesticating dairy animals was prevalent.


People who could tolerate milk, that theory goes, gained a new source of calories and protein and passed on their genes to more healthy offspring than those without the genetic trait — known as lactase persistence — that allows them to digest the sugar in milk into adulthood.

But a new study has offered a radically different theory, arguing that side effects such as gas, bloating and intestinal cramps weren’t enough on their own to move the evolutionary needle on the genetic mutation.

“Prehistoric people in Europe may have started consuming milk from domesticated animals thousands of years before they evolved the gene to digest it,” the study’s authors said.

The study, published in the journal Nature, was produced in collaboration with more than 100 scientists across a range of fields including genetics, archaeology and epidemiology. The scientists mapped out estimated milk consumption in Europe from approximately 9,000 years ago to 500 years ago.

By analyzing animal fat residues in pottery from hundreds of archaeological sites, alongside DNA samples harvested from ancient skeletons, the researchers concluded that lactase persistence was not common until around 1,000 B.C., nearly 4,000 years after it was first detected.......

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/07/28/lactose-intolerant-europe-study-milk/?utm_campaign=wp_post_most&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_most&carta-url=https%3A%2F%2Fs2.washingtonpost.com%2Fcar-ln-tr%2F377eb83%2F62e2b0c7cfe8a216010acd91%2F59813061ae7e8a6816fb1940%2F48%2F72%2F62e2b0c7cfe8a216010acd91&wp_cu=f59d95843d1b8569d5feb9225743f8ec%7C42E730F6C5F01223E0530100007F1ADF

Milk is better for hydration thane plain water.

Hydrates Better Than Water | GonnaNeedMilk

Learn how the nutrients in milk make it one of the best beverages for rehydration.

gonnaneedmilk.com

 

[bonnjer]

‘The entire protein universe’: AI predicts shape of nearly every known protein

DeepMind’s AlphaFold tool has determined the structures of around 200 million proteins, from almost every known organism on Earth.

www.nature.com

 

[Optimus Prime]

As the British research vessel RRS Shackleton steamed toward Antarctica in 1971, scientist James Lovelock was a familiar presence on deck along with his invention: an ultrasensitive instrument that could detect virtually any trace of pollutants and other environmental toxins.


Even in the most remote reaches of the South Atlantic, Dr. Lovelock’s device found that the air carried chlorofluorocarbons then used in aerosols, refrigerants and other commercial applications.

It was a moment where the major threads of Dr. Lovelock’s groundbreaking work and theories began to braid into one. He was already exploring his hypothesis that Earth itself is a fully interwoven ecosystem — “like a gigantic living thing” — that can self-regulate to sustain life.


The readings from the ship brought a sharper edge to his Gaia theory, named after the Greek goddess who personified the Earth.

It showed no place on the planet was untouched by man-made threats to the environment, findings that helped launch Dr. Lovelock’s reputation as a planetary caretaker with an ailing patient.


“The biosphere and I are both in the last 1% or our lives,” Dr. Lovelock told the Guardian in 2020.

It was an environmental warning repeated in many variations during a more than 80-year career of remarkable scientific range and originality — winning widespread praise as a visionary and scorn as a doomsday fatalist……

https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/07/28/lovelock-gaia-earth-dies/

 

[Eeyore]

Wow! If you could predict quakes 48 hours in advance, that would save countless lives. Of course, you would still get a few, "I'll ride it out" people, but most that could, would leave.

We thought that people would take a vaccine to prevent a deadly virus too

 

[Crzycjunx76]

As the British research vessel RRS Shackleton steamed toward Antarctica in 1971, scientist James Lovelock was a familiar presence on deck along with his invention: an ultrasensitive instrument that could detect virtually any trace of pollutants and other environmental toxins.


Even in the most remote reaches of the South Atlantic, Dr. Lovelock’s device found that the air carried chlorofluorocarbons then used in aerosols, refrigerants and other commercial applications.

It was a moment where the major threads of Dr. Lovelock’s groundbreaking work and theories began to braid into one. He was already exploring his hypothesis that Earth itself is a fully interwoven ecosystem — “like a gigantic living thing” — that can self-regulate to sustain life.


The readings from the ship brought a sharper edge to his Gaia theory, named after the Greek goddess who personified the Earth.

It showed no place on the planet was untouched by man-made threats to the environment, findings that helped launch Dr. Lovelock’s reputation as a planetary caretaker with an ailing patient.


“The biosphere and I are both in the last 1% or our lives,” Dr. Lovelock told the Guardian in 2020.

It was an environmental warning repeated in many variations during a more than 80-year career of remarkable scientific range and originality — winning widespread praise as a visionary and scorn as a doomsday fatalist……

https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/07/28/lovelock-gaia-earth-dies/

Does this mans toombstone read "I told you so" ? Because if it does not, it should.

 

[Optimus Prime]

Researchers have used deceased spiders’ legs as mechanical grippers in a macabre experiment.

Rice University mechanical engineers have been developing ‘necrobotics’ based on existing research of using non-traditional materials like hydrogels and elastomers that can reach to chemicals or light – in this instance using a spider that they killed and experimented on.

“This area of soft robotics is a lot of fun because we get to use previously untapped types of actuation and materials,” Daniel Preston of Rice’s George R. Brown School of Engineeringsaid

“The spider falls into this line of inquiry. It’s something that hasn’t been used before but has a lot of potential.”

Spiders use hydraulics to move their limbs, rather than muscles. A chamber near their head contracks to send blood to the limbs, and when it expands the legs extend and release……

Scientists kill spiders and turn them into clawed ‘necrobots’

Using an air pump the scientists could make the spider expand and contract its legs

www.independent.co.uk

 

[Booker]

Researchers have used deceased spiders’ legs as mechanical grippers in a macabre experiment.

Rice University mechanical engineers have been developing ‘necrobotics’ based on existing research of using non-traditional materials like hydrogels and elastomers that can reach to chemicals or light – in this instance using a spider that they killed and experimented on.

“This area of soft robotics is a lot of fun because we get to use previously untapped types of actuation and materials,” Daniel Preston of Rice’s George R. Brown School of Engineeringsaid

“The spider falls into this line of inquiry. It’s something that hasn’t been used before but has a lot of potential.”

Spiders use hydraulics to move their limbs, rather than muscles. A chamber near their head contracks to send blood to the limbs, and when it expands the legs extend and release……

Scientists kill spiders and turn them into clawed ‘necrobots’

Using an air pump the scientists could make the spider expand and contract its legs

www.independent.co.uk

Well we know where this is going…

 

[DaveXA]

Researchers have used deceased spiders’ legs as mechanical grippers in a macabre experiment.

Rice University mechanical engineers have been developing ‘necrobotics’ based on existing research of using non-traditional materials like hydrogels and elastomers that can reach to chemicals or light – in this instance using a spider that they killed and experimented on.

“This area of soft robotics is a lot of fun because we get to use previously untapped types of actuation and materials,” Daniel Preston of Rice’s George R. Brown School of Engineeringsaid

“The spider falls into this line of inquiry. It’s something that hasn’t been used before but has a lot of potential.”

Spiders use hydraulics to move their limbs, rather than muscles. A chamber near their head contracks to send blood to the limbs, and when it expands the legs extend and release……

Scientists kill spiders and turn them into clawed ‘necrobots’

Using an air pump the scientists could make the spider expand and contract its legs

www.independent.co.uk

https://i.gifer.com/RKv.gif

 

[Eeyore]

Researchers have used deceased spiders’ legs as mechanical grippers in a macabre experiment.

Rice University mechanical engineers have been developing ‘necrobotics’ based on existing research of using non-traditional materials like hydrogels and elastomers that can reach to chemicals or light – in this instance using a spider that they killed and experimented on.

“This area of soft robotics is a lot of fun because we get to use previously untapped types of actuation and materials,” Daniel Preston of Rice’s George R. Brown School of Engineeringsaid

“The spider falls into this line of inquiry. It’s something that hasn’t been used before but has a lot of potential.”

Spiders use hydraulics to move their limbs, rather than muscles. A chamber near their head contracks to send blood to the limbs, and when it expands the legs extend and release……

Scientists kill spiders and turn them into clawed ‘necrobots’

Using an air pump the scientists could make the spider expand and contract its legs

www.independent.co.uk

A bit disrespectful to the spiders

 

[CoolBrees]

I for one welcome our undead arachnid overlords

 

[Optimus Prime]

I'm sure this will be just like the square bunker on the moon
=======================================

NASA’s Perseverance rover captured an unusual image of something lying in the red sand of Mars: a bundle of string.

The rover’s front left hazard avoidance camera took a photo of the light-colored object on July 12 that some people likened to spaghetti.

Officials at the space agency confirmed that they believe the object to be a string left over from Perseverance’s landing.

The string could be from the rover or its descent stage, a component similar to a rocket-powered jet pack used to safely lower the rover to the planet’s surface, according to a spokesperson for the Perseverance mission at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

Perseverance had not previously been in the area where the string was found, so it’s likely the wind blew it there, the spokesperson said...........

MSN

 

[CoolBrees]

Damn we haven’t even gotten humans to Mars yet and we are already leaving garbage behind.

Next I bet you they find one of those flossers. Those effing things are everywhere

 

[Sailorsaint]

I'm sure this will be just like the square bunker on the moon
=======================================

NASA’s Perseverance rover captured an unusual image of something lying in the red sand of Mars: a bundle of string.

The rover’s front left hazard avoidance camera took a photo of the light-colored object on July 12 that some people likened to spaghetti.

Officials at the space agency confirmed that they believe the object to be a string left over from Perseverance’s landing.

The string could be from the rover or its descent stage, a component similar to a rocket-powered jet pack used to safely lower the rover to the planet’s surface, according to a spokesperson for the Perseverance mission at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

Perseverance had not previously been in the area where the string was found, so it’s likely the wind blew it there, the spokesperson said...........

MSN

A baby overlord...

 

[Optimus Prime]

Nearly every sea turtle born on the beaches of Florida in the past four years has been female, according to scientists.

The spike in female baby turtles comes as a result of intense heatwaves triggered by a growing climate crisis that is significantly warming up the sands on some beaches, as CNN reported this week.

According to the National Ocean Service, if a turtle’s eggs incubate below 27C (82F), the turtle hatchlings will be male. If the eggs incubate above 31C (89F), the hatchlings will be female. Temperatures that waver between the two extremes will result in a mix of male and female baby turtles……

Global heating means almost every sea turtle in Florida now born female

Rising temperatures have made beach sand so warm that eggs incubate above 31C and are overwhelmingly born female, experts say

www.theguardian.com

 

[Zztop]

NASA develops ingenious solution to fix its troubled ‘Lucy’ asteroid explorer | Engadget

Last year, NASA launched the Lucy spacecraft designed to explore the Trojan asteroids trapped near Jupiter's Lagrange points -- but there was a problem..

www.engadget.com

Since there's no camera aimed at the solar arrays, the team had to figure out another way to find the problem. To that end, they fired the spacecraft's thrusters to measure any anomalous vibrations, and created a detailed model of the array's motor assembly to determine the array's rigidness. They finally figured out that a lanyard designed to pull the array open was probably snagged on its spool.