Science

[Godson]

I'm from the Show Me State. It's Intriguing, but I'll say it isn't alien life.

[LHutton]

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/heres-astronomers-saying-alien-space-180209741.html


We spoke with the astronomers who discovered the 'alien' megastructure to find out if it's hype or hoax

Right now, there are many options on the table, including a giant swarm of comets, left-over chunks from a broken-up planet, and last but certainly not least an alien-built megastructure. But we won't know for sure until more data is collected.

If it was an alien megastructure in space and we're looking at it many years ago, then damn, they must be way, way, way more advanced than us.

[overpowered]

Gravity! From the Big Bang to Black Holes, free online course:

https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/gravity

[Dicknose]

If it was an alien megastructure in space and we're looking at it many years ago, then damn, they must be way, way, way more advanced than us.

Many years, as in 1400 years.
But statistics would say it's extremely unlikely we would find a civilization that is close to us. We have been a "space tech" for about 100 years (use of radio transmissions, rockets). But our planet has been around for several billion. Advance life for 100s million.
What if the dinosaurs were wiped out 1 million year earlier?

Other civilizations would be running on a different time track. The 1400 years of distance is possibly insignificant to the head start they have.

And if people thought this was a good chance, they would have a SETI scan happening sooner than January.

[LHutton]

http://www.truthdig.com/avbooth/item/could_drones_put_out_forest_fires_with_this_sound_ wave_device_20150328


Could Drones Put Out Forest Fires With This Sound Wave Device?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPVQMZ4ikvM

[overpowered]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_OgGF92k_M

[overpowered]

Bacon Causes Cancer? Sort of. Not Really. Ish.

http://www.wired.com/2015/10/who-does-bacon-cause-cancer-sort-of-but-not-really/

[MR2 Fan]

I've had a bit of a scary thought lately....but since halloween is approaching...

we're seeing lots of breakthroughs in replacing limbs, hands, fingers with computers that read brain signals, etc.

What if someone started to do that with animals? Giving animals real hands with opposable thumbs.

Or what about giving humans more than 2 hands and arms...could that work also?

disturbing, no?

[Random]

Dr. Octopus! :hard:

[LHutton]

Bacon Causes Cancer? Sort of. Not Really. Ish.

http://www.wired.com/2015/10/who-does-bacon-cause-cancer-sort-of-but-not-really/
Yeah basically, it's the shit they add to cure and preserve it that causes cancer, but rather than having a quiet word with those people, they told everyone to panic instead.

[Rare White Ape]

Yeah basically, it's the shit they add to cure and preserve it that causes cancer, but rather than having a quiet word with those people, they told everyone to panic instead.

That's an even more simplistic view than what the sheeple media fed you.

[Godson]

Meh. If you freak out from finding out about this. You're an idiot.

[LHutton]

Doesn't bother me, these days it seems like pretty much everything gives you cancer. If you were to avoid all those things, you'd lead a crap life and die of starvation anyway.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Tstyqz2g7o

[Godson]

All things and no things lead to cancer.

[overpowered]

http://media.topito.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/machine.gif

[Rare White Ape]

I read this interesting thing and you should too.

https://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/you-cant-beat-the-common-cold-and-thats-a-fact/

[overpowered]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVaITA7eBZE

[thesameguy]

I read this interesting thing and you should too.

https://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/you-cant-beat-the-common-cold-and-thats-a-fact/

I did, and I did!

[Crazed_Insanity]

I read this interesting thing and you should too.

https://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/you-cant-beat-the-common-cold-and-thats-a-fact/

Just finish reading that... so basically science has shown that nothing really works other than prevention?

Article didn't address flu shots. I guess flu shots should work provided that the scientists predicted correctly which virus to protect us against...

[Rare White Ape]

That article refers largely to the common cold (rhinovirus, etc), not specifically the flu (influenza).

And Flu shots don't target just one virus, but a few different strains which are predicted to be the most common for the upcoming season, based on the goings-on in the opposite hemisphere's previous flu season. Influenza mutates much more slowly than rhinovirus does, so it's much easier to stop than rhinovirus is, which is why we have a flu shot and not a common cold shot.

[Freude am Fahren]

Seen this before plenty of times with simple images, like shapes and whatnot, but pretty cool with a full image.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3P8q_dCU3RI

[overpowered]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYv5GsXEf1o

[overpowered]

October 2015: Earth's Warmest Month on Record by a Huge Margin

http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/october-2015-earths-warmest-month-on-record-by-a-huge-margin

7 of the hottest months on record were this year.


NOAA's top ten warmest global monthly departures from the 20th Century average:
1) 0.98°C, Oct 2015
2) 0.91°C, Sep 2015
3) 0.89°C, Mar 2015
4) 0.88°C, Feb 2015
4) 0.88°C, Jan 2007
6) 0.87°C, Aug 2015
6) 0.87°C, Jun 2015
8) 0.86°C, Feb 1998
9) 0.85°C, May 2015
10) 0.85°C, Mar 2010

[LHutton]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ls-unv_z0B4

[overpowered]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zdD7lfB0Fs

[LHutton]

https://news.yahoo.com/video/neptune-sized-exoplanet-may-blue-133229940.html


Neptune-sized exoplanet may have blue skies

[overpowered]

A couple of brothers hunting in Canada find a bald eagle stuck in a hunting trap. I'm impressed that they knew to wrap its head with a hoodie to calm it down while they pried the trap open to let it go; but not before taking a selfie with it.

http://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/canadian-brothers-free-trapped-bald-eagle-take-selfie-win-internet

[Rare White Ape]

A couple of brothers hunting in Canada find a bald eagle stuck in a hunting trap. I'm impressed that they knew to wrap its head with a hoodie to calm it down while they pried the trap open to let it go; but not before taking a selfie with it.

http://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/canadian-brothers-free-trapped-bald-eagle-take-selfie-win-internet

What's so scientific about that?

Not a dig at you OP, but a dig at IFLS. That has to be one of the worst science websites on the internet. It's been verging on pure clickbait for almost two years now.

[Crazed_Insanity]

It's science because religious folks might've just killed it and offer it as a BBQ sacrifice to their gods!!! ;)

Anyway, back to topic, I used to think dark matter may just be planets or small asteroids that's not 'visible'... or perhaps very distant new stars who's light just hasn't reached earth yet..., but dark matter could be within the solar system? Wow.

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/earth-might-have-hairy-dark-matter

[Rare White Ape]

Anyway, back to topic, I used to think dark matter may just be planets or small asteroids that's not 'visible'... or perhaps very distant new stars who's light just hasn't reached earth yet...,

With sensitive enough technology, planets and asteroids will be visible in the infrared part of the spectrum.

In fact, anything warmer than absolute zero can be seen in radio light. It's just really hard to see tiny objects like planets and asteroids if they're a long way away. However if objects are grouped together in big clouds, like dust for instance, you can easily see it in infrared. Look at this cool image of dust within the Andromeda galaxy:

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/nsaHz1rvaGw/maxresdefault.jpg

What we can learn from this is the distribution of dust within a spiral galaxy like Andromeda (and by extension, our own) and that will tell us where we can likely find things like rocky planets and asteroids as well, since those things are made from dust grains and particles, which in turn are made from the products of stellar fusion and supernovae. If you compare the two infrared images to the visible light image, you can see where the dust in the infrared corresponds to the darker cloudy areas in the visible light. Essentially, dust will block visible light, but emit infrared light. They call this black-body illumination, you'll be able to see it if your eyes could detect that light.

In fact, if you could see infrared at different wavelengths, the sky would look like this:

http://sci.esa.int/science-e-media/img/48/AKARI_all-sky_images_in_four_wavebands_625.jpg
http://sci.esa.int/astrophysics/55873-akari-far-infrared-all-sky-data-released/

However, the dust that is visible in the Andromeda image above is far too diffuse to be able to account for the amount of missing mass that we observe, for which dark matter is an explanation.

So what am I trying to say here?

Basically, if dark matter was just 'darker than visible light' then we'd be able to see it in different wavelengths. But we don't 'see' any dark matter at all. This is because dark matter doesn't interact electromagnetically, so this makes it very hard for us to detect directly. This same force (electromagnetism) that allows us to see things using photons, also drives the interaction between objects when they come into contact with each other, so it would be impossible for us to even touch dark matter because it would pass right through our hands if we were to try and scoop it up.

But dark matter does interact gravitationally with massive objects, so one way we can 'see' dark matter is through the way it changes the behaviour of galaxies and galaxy clusters on larger scales. This can be seen beautifully in the Bullet Cluster of galaxies. A number of galactic clusters collided; the gas (which interacts) slowed down when it came in contact with other gas clouds and the dark matter (which doesn't interact, except gravitationally) passed right through the gas and other dark matter clouds without slowing down.


but dark matter could be within the solar system? Wow.

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/earth-might-have-hairy-dark-matter

Maybe. Dark matter can probably be found anywhere that massive objects are found. The leading candidate for now are WIMPs: weakly interacting massive particles. If we can build a big enough particle accelerator we could probably make our own dark matter. Check back in 50 years to see how the search is coming along, and who is up for the Nobel prize.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Anyway, I suspect dark matter(invisible matter that sucks) and dark energy(invisible energy that blows) are probably due to our incomplete understanding of gravity. Once we understand it better, then the mystery might be solved.

[Rare White Ape]

Neither effect is anything to do with gravity.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Huh?

Here's what you typed:



But dark matter does interact gravitationally with massive objects, so one way we can 'see' dark matter is through the way it changes the behaviour of galaxies and galaxy clusters on larger scales. This can be seen beautifully in the Bullet Cluster of galaxies. A number of galactic clusters collided; the gas (which interacts) slowed down when it came in contact with other gas clouds and the dark matter (which doesn't interact, except gravitationally) passed right through the gas and other dark matter clouds without slowing down.

What do you mean it has nothing to do with gravity?

Dark energy as well, based on what we currently know, we just have no clue why the universe is accelerating apart. Gravity should not cause universe to "accelerate" apart...

Our farthest probe Pioneer is also slightly off course based on known physical laws. I think it's being tugged back toward the sun slightly more than anticipated. Is that the effect of dark matter or perhaps theory of gravity needs to be revised?

If our understanding of gravitational force is absolute and complete, then there must be dark matter.

However, I'm saying that perhaps we don't have it all figured out yet. If that's the case, then dark matter is just a figment of our imagination. There's more to gravitational force than Newton's equation.

[Dicknose]

More to gravity than Einsteins equations.
Newton already fails at handling predictions of bodies in the solar system.

As for dark matter and dark energy, they are suspected due to gravity and maybe the equations of gravity are wrong. But they work so well in so many cases it does seem likely we are missing mass at the scale of galaxies (dark matter)
And dark energy is effectively negative mass. That is such a radical idea that it might end up with a change in equations.

But it's probably going to be the equations of gravity that remain and new forms of energy and matter that are found.

[Rare White Ape]

What meant was, our incomplete understanding of gravity is not an explanation of dark matter or dark energy.

Any explanation along those lines has already been pretty well disproven. Modified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND, go look it up) was postulated as a solution to the behaviour of spiral galaxy rotation which couldn't be fully explained by classical Newtonian gravity, but MOND can't explain so many other observed phenomena that dark matter can, so it's worthless.

For a theory to work, it has to be able to explain all observed phenomena as well as make predictions that stand up to rigorous scrutiny when tested. Perhaps the most famous example of this is general relativity, which made some crazy predictions and keeps being proven right again and again.

MOND can explain one thing, but that thing is also solved by dark matter, and dark matter solves problems for other observations while also fitting in perfectly with Newtonian gravity as well as Einsteinian gravity, without having to selectively modify either theory's behaviours. It's Occam's Razor in action.

Yes, our understanding of gravity is incomplete, but so is our understanding of how magnets work, or how proteins behave, or how the brain works, or how… plastic bags flip in the breeze. There's always more to be learned, and gravity needs to be explained fully at a quantum level, not necessarily at a macro level. That's where big leaps in understanding will take place, but dark matter is a different subject.

[Rare White Ape]

Our farthest probe Pioneer is also slightly off course based on known physical laws. I think it's being tugged back toward the sun slightly more than anticipated. Is that the effect of dark matter or perhaps theory of gravity needs to be revised?

Here's something that I wanted to reply to separately. Pay attention because you might learn something and hopefully make an adjustment on the way you see the world.

Ready?

The Pioneer Anomaly has already been figured out and the evidence is there to prove that it wasn't caused by gravity. A quick Google search will give you the details. It's caused by thermal radiation from its internal power source pushing harder on one side of the spacecraft than the other. That's it. Not gravity or dark matter.

Now you want to think that it's explanation A or B, but someone else has already worked it out, and continuing down that path of enquiry is a red herring and a waste of mental energy. Science is about explaining what the world tells you, not the other way around trying to fit the story you want into the world.

[Crazed_Insanity]

https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn13676-pioneer-spacecraft-mystery-may-be-laid-to-rest/

NASA stated that the thermal effect cannot explain the error fully.

If we develop a new theory that can better explain dark matter, dark energy and why pioneer got off course, then that theory should be able to revolutionize our understanding of the universe. Until then, we must continue to burn our mental energy, even if we went down the wrong path, at least eventually we'll figure out it's a dead end and can consequently chart a new course until we find the real truth. Nothing is 'wasted' in the pursue of science.

Okay, found another more recent article, that said that the anomaly is now fully explained by the thremal effects:
http://www.space.com/16648-pioneer-anomaly-spacecraft-mystery-solved.html

I'll take their word for it I guess. See, it's good that they continued to burn their mental energy at it! ;)

Now the draw back of this finding is that perhaps there are no dark matter in our solar system? Otherwise it would cause the pioneers to go slightly off course, right?

[mk]

It's not accelerating apart.
The distance is developing in between things.

A - B - C - D - E - F
B and D is expanding from C slower than A and E but none is moving.

[overpowered]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXxyCyDEaEg

[overpowered]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AmoNovE7_A

[LHutton]

Whilst what he's saying is correct, his arguments are terrible. E.g. at 0:25 - That's not really a good argument, because there are things further away in light years than the age of the universe even in current science fact.

[Freude am Fahren]

Yeah, but you can't see them.

[Dicknose]

Whilst what he's saying is correct, his arguments are terrible. E.g. at 0:25 - That's not really a good argument, because there are things further away in light years than the age of the universe even in current science fact.

Like what?
The most distant object we have observed is 13.2 billion light years.
Age of universe is 13.8 billion years.

Or are you using a different definition of distance - it's tricky concept when talking about a distance to an object, do you mean where it was when it emitted light we see, where it is now.

[overpowered]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4hlz5rxCjA

[MR2 Fan]

I recall a long time ago I posted on the forum asking if anyone knew of a fuzzy logic simulator where the computer makes random shapes in an attempt to move a certain distance.

After not finding it for a LONG time, it randomly popped up in my Youtube recommended videos list, and here it is, called the Evolution Simulator and is pretty awesome:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOFws_hhZs8

[LHutton]

http://www.industrytap.com/nasa-release-prototype-spacesuit-astronauts-will-wear-mars-2030/32875/


NASA Releases Prototype Z-2 Spacesuit That Astronauts Will Wear on Mars

NASA plans to send astronauts to Mars by the mid-2030s. The future astronauts will be wearing the next-generation spacesuits designed for walking on the surface of the Red Planet.

NASA has just unveiled the design of its futuristic spacesuit. The 3D-printed Z-2 spacesuit will help astronauts walk on the Martian surface for easy planetary exploration. The spacesuit won’t be used inside the space shuttle. The high-pressure Z-2 spacesuit could simply be attached to or dock to the side of a spacecraft without the need for an airlock.

The Z-2 offers maximum flexibility to astronauts. They will be able to get in and out of rovers more easily, walk around the rocky Martian surface, and collect samples with much ease.

The suit uses advanced materials to achieve light weight and flexibility. Despite its high flexibility, the suit is highly durable; it can withstand the harsh environment of Mars for a long time.

The Z-2 is still in the prototype stage, but NASA has more than a decade to finalize the suit before putting humans on Mars.

http://www.industrytap.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/1067x600xnasa-spacesuit.jpg.pagespeed.ic.aNl-HAk9tb.webp

[overpowered]

Gluten Sensitivity is Apparently Bullshit

http://kitchenette.jezebel.com/gluten-sensitivity-is-apparently-bullshit-1577905069

If you actually have celiac disease, then I feel for you. Otherwise, just eat the fucking pizza.

[Cam]

I get acid reflux from eating bread (wheat and other grains). I have determined this through careful observation of my diet. Don't try to tell me I'm imagining it.

[Godson]

I have acid reflux from drinking too much water, or water that has sat in the pipes too long.

It could be the age of the grains or a particular strand. I'd wager that you aren't allergic to all grains. Which is what most people claim.

[LHutton]

Like what?
The most distant object we have observed is 13.2 billion light years.
Age of universe is 13.8 billion years.

Or are you using a different definition of distance - it's tricky concept when talking about a distance to an object, do you mean where it was when it emitted light we see, where it is now.
Where it is now - 46 billion light years away. Time now, we'll be able to receive light from objects about 16 billion light years away in the future. And there's likely even more beyond that 46 billion light years. I see what you're saying though, it depends on the definition used. We can see things that are now 46bn light years away, but were only ~13bn light years away when they emitted the light.

[Dicknose]

Saying that it's "fact" that these things exist and are further away is a stretch.
We can't see them now. We can only guess they still exist and their distance.

Maybe they are closer, a closed universe where we can see them in multiple directions.

[LHutton]

Well anything is possible but current theory (probably more accurate than saying 'fact' given that it's prone to change) says they're further away because of expansion. It is entirely possible that the edge of the universe we see is the event horizon of a black whole, constantly looping back in time creating the universe.


Yeah, but you can't see them.
Well you can, just not as they are now.

[overpowered]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W55b4BcCPM4

I feel sorry for kids today who don't get to play with sparklers. I used to love those when I was a kid.

[Freude am Fahren]

That field they chose for the 'experiment' looks particularly flammable :lol:

[overpowered]

They're Russian and they don't give a fuck.

[Crazed_Insanity]

So what's is the cat's role in this scientific experiment? :p

[Random]

Supervision, as always.

[LHutton]

So what's is the cat's role in this scientific experiment? :p
Trying to master the art of opposable thumbs so they can take over the world.

[Rare White Ape]

I feel sorry for kids today who don't get to play with sparklers. I used to love those when I was a kid.

I don't know which country you're from, but in my great land of kangaroos and funny beer brewers, we can still buy these and make explosives with them.

[overpowered]

In Southern California, if it makes fire outdoors, it's probably illegal.

[Random]

In Southern California, if it makes fire outdoors, it's probably illegal.

Which is funny (both weird and haha), because the first place I ever played with legal fireworks as a kid was Fullerton. Go figure.

[overpowered]

That was a long time ago. The first place I remember playing with fireworks was in Riverside. I was maybe 5 years old.

I used to sell fireworks as a volunteer at a fireworks stand when I was in high school to raise money for my church youth group. Remember fireworks stands?

[Random]

Still have them up here. :)

[Cam]

It's funny to me what gets posted in here as "science" considering I'm married to a scientist.

[21Kid]

Do you get experimented on too? :(

[Rare White Ape]

It's funny to me what gets posted in here as "science" considering I'm married to a scientist.

Reminds me of this:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BnoEAbDIEAA79db.png

I'm guilty of it too, but I do yearn for a deeper knowledge of the tedious stuff. But nobody posts that in the usual science newsbloggy places. For that you need five+ years at uni, followed by 50+ years of constant inquiry.

Kinda makes the whole "I researched vaccines on Natural News" vibe sound like utter shite, doesn't it?

[TheBenior]

Do you get experimented on too? :(

:lol:

[Leon]

So what's is the cat's role in this scientific experiment? :p

Curiosity.

[LHutton]

:lol: Oh that's good.

[LHutton]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kf_bCOoXK24

[LHutton]

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/bizarre-looking-star-just-got-210900508.html


That bizarre-looking star just got a lot weirder — and yes, it could be aliens

[Rare White Ape]

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/bizarre-looking-star-just-got-210900508.html

SIIIIIIIGH

Here's the data.

http://www.agron.com.br/imagens/publicacoes/2015/10/17/topico_46154_www-agron-com-br_5719_estrela-de-luz-incomum-alimenta-teoria-alienigena.jpg

Do you see aliens there?

No.

It's just an unexplained fluctuation in a graph. Stupid mainstream news outlets misinterpreted a throwaway "we can't fully rule out aliens" to mean that "scientists say it could be aliens" and now everyone is stupider as a result.

[LHutton]

http://www.agron.com.br/imagens/publicacoes/2015/10/17/topico_46154_www-agron-com-br_5719_estrela-de-luz-incomum-alimenta-teoria-alienigena.jpg

Do you see aliens there?
Well they're certainly not humans. I name them 'The Graph People'.

[MR2 Fan]

so it isn't a death star? :(

[George]

Remember fireworks stands?

They're all over the place out here in late June and early July. The one nearest my house, every year, has an enormous tent in a grocery store parking lot.

I've never been in there, but from what I hear in Colorado you can buy everything from sparklers to AK-47s in those places.

They scare me most years due to the risk of fires. We had a very, very wet spring this past year but most July 4th evenings I'm nervously watching the neighbors make things explode and hoping the long, tall, dry prairie grass doesn't catch fire. I saw that happen once (not due to fireworks) and I couldn't believe how fast the fire traveled. People were out in their yards with hoses, soaking their lawns, trees, and homes before the fire fighters got there.

Of course, I don't have to tell you California guys about fires.

[LHutton]

so it isn't a death star? :(
That can't be confirmed yet but scientists are not saying that it is.

[overpowered]

Mythbusters tanker implosion on high speed camera.

http://www.discovery.com/tv-shows/mythbusters/videos/tanker-implosion-high-speed/

[Drachen596]

SIIIIIIIGH

Here's the data.
Do you see aliens there?

No.

It's just an unexplained fluctuation in a graph. Stupid mainstream news outlets misinterpreted a throwaway "we can't fully rule out aliens" to mean that "scientists say it could be aliens" and now everyone is stupider as a result.

isnt that what the media does with quotes like that all the time for everything from health scares to crime investigation?

[MR2 Fan]

isnt that what the media does with quotes like that all the time for everything from health scares to crime investigation?

pretty much.

It's like saying 1/4 people will contract ____ disease....sounds scary.

Saying 75% of people will be completely healthy and not contract ____ disease sounds less scary...even though it's the same stat.

[Rare White Ape]

isnt that what the media does with quotes like that all the time for everything from health scares to crime investigation?

Yes, but do you know what the scary thing is?

It's to the point nowadays where BuzzFeed News does it less than Fox News and its cousins.

Fucking scary.

[MR2 Fan]

So they're still discussing the Hyperloop and how it can be used for passengers, which is cool.

http://news.discovery.com/tech/gear-and-gadgets/hyperloop-gets-rolling-with-ginormous-tubes-160115.htm


What I'm wondering is why we aren't developing smaller versions of this for other things like merchandise, goods, etc. I would think a few large loops hitting the larger market areas would be great for fast distribution of several kinds of things.

Meanwhile, in other news, Amazon is ramping up their drone delivery idea it looks like.

https://www.yahoo.com/tech/exclusive-amazon-reveals-details-about-1343951725436982.html

I think that Amazon MUST be considering factoring in a loss rate of AT LEAST 10-20% for this stuff and these drones to start out.

[overpowered]

http://www.gizmag.com/nanobot-micromotors-deliver-nanoparticles-living-creature/35700/

[overpowered]

Physicist puts puts his life on the line to demonstrate the power of centripetal force.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZnKIPfIhAQ

[Leon]

That guy probably ended up with his nuts around his armpits!

[Rare White Ape]

He's a physicist. Why didn't he just use numbers like normal boffins?

[LHutton]

He's a physicist. Why didn't he just use numbers like normal boffins?
Because it would have been a very boring video.

[overpowered]

Futuristic 'De-Icing' Concrete Could Help Make Roads Safer In The Next Big Blizzard

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/de-icing-concrete-roads_us_56a64485e4b0d8cc109aaf7f?

[overpowered]

Same physicist.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzm_yyl13yo

[LHutton]

Unfortunately there is no 'opposite of science thread' so:

http://news.yahoo.com/people-are-saying-the-new-planet-9-is-going-to-102449567.html


People Are Saying The New ‘Planet 9’ Is Going To Kill Us All - Here’s Why

[MR2 Fan]

There isn't?

http://gtxforums.net/showthread.php?663-Religion

[Godson]

That's a zinger!

[LHutton]

I predicted someone would say that.:lol:

[Rare White Ape]

Unfortunately there is no 'opposite of science thread' so:

http://news.yahoo.com/people-are-saying-the-new-planet-9-is-going-to-102449567.html

Religious extremists and conspiracy nuts:

They won't trust good science.

But when scientists say there MAY be another planet, they react in a most peculiar (and almost predictable) way.

What the fuck, guys? What the fuck?

[Godson]

It is the traveler.

[overpowered]

A small pot is found in an archaeological dig in Wisconsin. It is determined to be about 800 years old. Inside they find seeds of an extinct species of squash. They try planting it. It grows. Species unextinct.

http://www.offgridquest.com/green/800yearoldseeds

[JoshInKC]

Neat. I wonder if they'll be selling seeds. It'd be cool to have some if I ever manage to do a three sisters (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Sisters_(agriculture)) planting again.

[overpowered]

Never heard of a "brinicle" before:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/15835017
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brinicle

If I'm understanding correctly, ice forming on the surface is shedding salt and the remaining liquid water is getting more saline as it takes on the salt from the frozen water. This brine is much colder than 0C/32F but doesn't freeze because of the high salinity. It leaks down into the sea below the ice. It freezes the less saline water around it to form the brinicle.

[Freude am Fahren]

BBC article isn't working for me, but is it this?


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyWn1XJ9kTE

[overpowered]

It's the same thing but with a different presentation.

[Cam]

Australia makes major cuts to climate research because climate has been researched enough, apparently. :|

http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/feb/04/csiro-confirms-300-job-cuts-with-climate-research-bearing-the-brunt

[overpowered]

Burlington, Vermont now gets 100% of its electricity from renewable sources (wind, solar, hydro-electric). Admittedly its population is only 42,000. It's not a big city but it's big enough that this is still impressive.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/vermont-city-come-rely-100-percent-renewable-energy/

It's not completely green. They burn wood for part of it.

[Rare White Ape]

Australia makes major cuts to climate research because climate has been researched enough, apparently. :|

http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/feb/04/csiro-confirms-300-job-cuts-with-climate-research-bearing-the-brunt

It's a great thing, that it has been researched enough. It means we've reached a consensus on climate change and we can finally put plans into action for changing the way we produce and consume energy to make real efforts towards limiting or stopping climate change.

Yes.

Totally.

Bueller?

[Rare White Ape]

Change to renewables would be easy were it not for economic factors.

You see, our government is addicted to coal, and coal is just so damn lucrative right now.
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/feb/04/adani-freezes-investment-in-carmichael-mine-until-world-coal-price-recovers

And there are so many jobs in it that it literally props up our economy.
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/feb/08/queensland-mining-industry-asks-for-taxpayer-support-to-keep-coal-jobs?CMP=soc_567

[Kchrpm]

Burlington, Vermont now gets 100% of its electricity from renewable sources (wind, solar, hydro-electric). Admittedly its population is only 42,000.
Don't forget about the coat factory.

[overpowered]

It seems life really does have a vital spark: quantum mechanics

http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2016-02-08/mcfadden-it-seems-life-really-does-have-a-vital-spark/7148448

[Dicknose]

Don't forget about the coat factory.

And the airport! It's got rocking chairs!!
Maybe they should rig them up to generators.

[overpowered]

Scientists Detect Gravitational Waves, Proving Einstein Right

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/12/science/ligo-gravitational-waves-black-holes-einstein.html

[tigeraid]

Kiiiiind of a big deal. Maybe even bigger than the Higgs Boson. Validates a lot of Hawking's work too.

[G'day Mate]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyDcTbR-kEA

[Rare White Ape]

I like how it takes:

-Millions of years for stars to form from a gaseous nebula, burn through their fuel, explode as supernovae, turn into black holes, encounter each other gravitationally, and slowly spiral in toward each other until they collide, and

- Billions of years for evidence of the event to reach earth as a g-wave.

But the gravitational signal only lasts for a few milliseconds.

And that few milliseconds is the greatest scientific development for decades - probably greater than the Higgs Boson. Someone will get a Nobel Prize. I love the universe when it does things like this!

[LHutton]

So weird seeing frequency on the Y-axis. It's amazing how it actually changed the distance between two points, if only by a fraction of the diameter of a neutron.

There's also something strangely revealing, yet not revealing much, about how shit burst into being from nowhere and then burst back out of being to nowhere. Is it the energy to mass ratio that determines which side of the plane it lies. It's almost like energy levels in electron layers. If it has enough energy relative to mass, it's in one layer of existence, it it doesn't it's elsewhere. Maybe it's to do with the energy levels at which the fundamental forces combine. Black holes are so weird. The wave is almost like an energy exchange, except it's a space time exchange, some of it just disappeared down a plug hole, so the wave is the adjustment??

[overpowered]

Neil deGrasse Tyson explains the real problem with climate skeptics

http://www.techinsider.io/neil-degrasse-tyson-climate-change-deniers-2016-2

[overpowered]

https://media.giphy.com/media/26FPuuFM8UlQIMymA/giphy.gif

[Rare White Ape]

Fuck is this science or memes?

[overpowered]

Because refraction isn't a scientific reality?

[LHutton]

But for a philosopher the question is whether it's half full or half empty. For an engineer, it's glass too big by half.

[overpowered]

No Big Bang? Quantum equation predicts universe has no beginning

http://phys.org/news/2015-02-big-quantum-equation-universe.html

[LHutton]

Well given current theory, the size of the universe is infinite but has a finite expansion rate. So if age is finite, it must have always been infinitely large. So either the universe burst into an infinitely large state from an unknown dimension, that we don't know of, or it is infinitely old. But the problem with the latter is that we can only receive light from things a finite distance away. So it really seems that it boils down to the former - the universe just arrived in an infinitely large state on day 1 from an unknown dimension.

[LHutton]

http://uk.ign.com/articles/2016/02/22/nasa-knows-how-to-land-people-on-mars-inside-a-month


NASA KNOWS HOW TO LAND PEOPLE ON MARS INSIDE A MONTH

[MR2 Fan]

IGN KNOWS HOW TO CLICK-BAIT

[LHutton]

I still say the TARDIS represents the only feasible method of seeking out other inhabitable planets. Anything else just takes too long because of the speed of light limitation. 4 damn years even to get to the next nearest star.

[Godson]

With our findings on gravity waves being real, the speed of light limitation isn't really a limit anymore...


So to speak.

[overpowered]

I must have missed that part in my reading. The stuff I read said that gravity waves travel at the speed of light.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Warp engines will likely generate gravity waves..., we can now detect alien civilizations with warp technology before the Federation makes the first contact here on earth! ;)

[overpowered]

I did read some stuff about them thinking that they could use gravity waves to detect super nova and point telescopes at them while they're still in full nova. That's not gravity travelling faster than light. That's a super nova being a process that takes time and the gravity wave getting generated at the start of it.

[Rare White Ape]

http://uk.ign.com/articles/2016/02/22/nasa-knows-how-to-land-people-on-mars-inside-a-month

Nope, nope, nope and fucking nope.

Not a single person involved with publishing that video on the channel called NASA 360 is employed by NASA. It's not an official NASA channel.

"NASA engineers" has become an ignorant catchphrase for "Some sciencey tech headline that we can use to attract eyeballs to our ads"

Be very skeptical when you see it.

[Rare White Ape]

I did read some stuff about them thinking that they could use gravity waves to detect super nova and point telescopes at them while they're still in full nova. That's not gravity travelling faster than light. That's a super nova being a process that takes time and the gravity wave getting generated at the start of it.

Currently the best option is to look for the neutrinos that are generated in the supernova; they can arrive a few minutes before the light gets to us because neutrinos interact so weakly and they're able to leave the core and pass through the outer layers of an exploding star a lot easier. The hard part is actually detecting the neutrinos, since they react so weakly with everything, including the detectors. Neutrino astronomy is a growing field, there's Neutrino detectors buried in the ice at Antarctic observatories which give us important insights into the universe... during the summer time when they're operational. Not so much in winter!

Now that we have a bead on gravitational waves, then yes, that will definitely be able to compliment our current techniques. It probably won't help us point a telescope much better than neutrinos already do, but it'll be nice to get a gravitational insight into a lot of cosmic events. One of the most fascinating will be seeing what happens when a star collapses into a black hole, and seeing what it's gravitational effect will be at that precise moment. Another one will be seeing how dark matter interacts with... maybe... a direct gravitational detection (oh bless my heart if that comes off within our lifetime!) or even seeing if g-waves always travel at the speed of light, or if there's some unknown thing that causes graivty to slow down in different materials, similar to how light slows down if it has to pass through a gas or a liquid.

[LHutton]

I did read some stuff about them thinking that they could use gravity waves to detect super nova and point telescopes at them while they're still in full nova. That's not gravity travelling faster than light. That's a super nova being a process that takes time and the gravity wave getting generated at the start of it.
But gravity must propagate faster than light for a black hole to form surely?

[LHutton]

Warp engines will likely generate gravity waves..., we can now detect alien civilizations with warp technology before the Federation makes the first contact here on earth! ;)
You need to discover or produce negative mass for a warp engine to work though.

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

[Dicknose]

But gravity must propagate faster than light for a black hole to form surely?

Why?
Do you mean to form, or to exist and stop light from escaping?

[LHutton]

Either really. To pull space towards it faster than light can propagate. And there are exchange particles involved, allegedly. The gravity of the hole is able to affect space in front of the light ray, from its centre, before the light ray can reach it, even though it's starting from a point much closer. It's also able to pull the objects emitting the light towards it, faster than light because of its affect on the space. I guess I don't think the speed of light is quite as hard and fast as currently claimed because there's a lot that doesn't add up with current science and it breaks down entirely at singularities. In fact we have two points, singularities and the very start of the universe, where science breaks down. Perhaps the two are even related.

[Godson]

The thing about Black holes that interests me so much, is the fact light 'cannot' outrun it. With the discovery to support Einstein's gravity waves, we are closer to understanding black holes. In theory, like WAY WAY WAY deep and grasping at strings, this could allow us to use the gravitational waves to bend gravity around it, which in turn allow us to "outrun" light. Pretty cool.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Never thought of that.... If gravity waves travels at speed of light and if light cannot escape black holes... How was gravity waves able to escape?

Or it's just the space time outside of event horizon that's disturbed and able to ripple a crossed the universe perhaps...

[Rare White Ape]

'Science' breaks down, yes, but nature doesn't. This limit is only a limitation in general relativity, which is a man-made instrument used to describe space and time at the macro-level. We will be closer to an understanding once we have a quantum theory of gravity.

[Kchrpm]

Gravity waves are ripples of the gravitational force that is drawing the light into the black hole. They expand outward from their source, just like water ripples away from whatever disturbs it.

[Rare White Ape]

Never thought of that.... If gravity waves travels at speed of light and if light cannot escape black holes... How was gravity waves able to escape?

The speed of light is finite (and this is an extremely well established speed) but the strength of gravity has no apparent limit. It is an accumulative force which can result in the infinite curvature of spacetime if there is too much mass in a specific region. Once spacetime is infinitely curved, you require infinite energy to escape. If you add energy, you're just adding to the mass of the system and all you end up doing is pushing yourself faster into the infinitely curved region of spacetime.

This is what overwhelms light. It has little to do with how fast a gravitational effect travels across the universe.

[Kchrpm]

I have just devised a theory that our universe is continually expanding because of the gravitational waves reaching the "edge" and, finding no barrier that can absorb or reflect them, are absorbed by expanding the volume of our space-time pool.

[MR2 Fan]

I have just devised a theory that our universe is continually expanding because of the gravitational waves reaching the "edge" and, finding no barrier that can absorb or reflect them, are absorbed by expanding the volume of our space-time pool.

You mean a hypothesis

:P

[Kchrpm]

Yes, hypothesis, sorry :(

[Dicknose]

Either really. To pull space towards it faster than light can propagate. And there are exchange particles involved, allegedly. The gravity of the hole is able to affect space in front of the light ray, from its centre, before the light ray can reach it, even though it's starting from a point much closer. It's also able to pull the objects emitting the light towards it, faster than light because of its affect on the space.

It's not pulling space faster than light.
The space is already pulled, it's not a conveyor belt sucking in space, it's stretched it when it formed.
It sucks in material, but not the space around it (it bends it, not consumes it)
As for the particle model, the gravity particles might have to come from further away but they have a head start, they have been happening since the black hole formed.

I think what you are describing is, when does the event horizon move compared to extra mass entering it.
That probably can only happen at the speed of light.

[LHutton]

It's not pulling space faster than light.
The space is already pulled, it's not a conveyor belt sucking in space, it's stretched it when it formed.
It sucks in material, but not the space around it (it bends it, not consumes it)
As for the particle model, the gravity particles might have to come from further away but they have a head start, they have been happening since the black hole formed.

I think what you are describing is, when does the event horizon move compared to extra mass entering it.
That probably can only happen at the speed of light.
But surely the objects beyond the event horizon are moving towards the centre faster than the light rays from them are able to go in the opposite direction are in whatever warped space they're in. At the event horizon, their speed is exactly matched to that of light, hence why they appear to stand still, frozen in time.

Can the action of a force have an influence faster than the exchange particles from it? Are we attracted to where the sun is now, or where it was 508s ago?

[LHutton]

I have just devised a theory that our universe is continually expanding because of the gravitational waves reaching the "edge" and, finding no barrier that can absorb or reflect them, are absorbed by expanding the volume of our space-time pool.
But the edge isn't really the edge, it's just what we physically perceive as the edge. The calculated size of space, based on best current measurements is infinite. And gravitational waves would be crossing the edge in the opposite direction too, from other regions of space.

It's honestly mind-bending because there are so many possible explanations. Is the edge we see based on the age of the universe, or the curvature of the universe? Maybe, just as black holes prevent light escaping the event horizon, the curvature of space has created a space-time horizon. Hell, maybe the edge of the universe is the event horizon of a black hole. Shit gets recycled and spat back out via relativistic jets - don't ask me how the fuck jets containing mass exit a black hole, but we know they do.

[Rare White Ape]

But surely the objects beyond the event horizon are moving towards the centre faster than the light rays from them are able to go in the opposite direction are in whatever warped space they're in. At the event horizon, their speed is exactly matched to that of light, hence why they appear to stand still, frozen in time.

Black holes are weird. Technically they don't contain anything, except events.

They do not suck anything in, either. This is one of the many misconceptions about black holes.

When something moves toward a black hole, from an outside observer it appears to slow down until it stops, and never even crosses into the black hole. Even if we waited an infinite amount of time, we would never see the object continue into the black hole. It doesn't stop because it speed matches that of light. It's due to gravitational time dilation.

That final event we see, of the object appearing to stop, and the final event of any other object that approaches the black hole, is collectively called the event horizon. Inside the event horizon is all of the events that occur, or ever will occur inside that black hole, to which we can assign a 'where' but not a 'when'.

The reason things (including light) can't escape is because the geometry of space inside the black hole doesn't allow for 'up' or 'away' or 'out' to be a thing. Inside the black hole all of everywhere, in every direction, is just more black hole. If you were to fall into it and just hit reverse in your spaceship, you'll be reversing into more black hole. Your front window and your rear view mirror is full of nothing but black hole.

The speed of light for objects inside has no bearing on whether they can get out. It's space itself which does not allow this.


Can the action of a force have an influence faster than the exchange particles from it? Are we attracted to where the sun is now, or where it was 508s ago?

Nope. If the sun was to magically disappear we would still orbit it for as long as it took for the effect of its disappearance to propagate out into the universe, which is no faster than the speed of light.

[LHutton]

But that's just an illusion caused by the speed of light limitation, the damn object does cross the event horizon, no way it can't.

Not according to LITG.

[Rare White Ape]

If something crosses into a black hole, and we can't see it happen, then when can we say it crossed?

If we can't say when, it's not that it didn't happen; it happens for the objects that say they've fallen into the black hole! We just can't account for the temporal dimension in the space-time scenario. You know: space-time.

Any further events for that object are IN the black hole, and not part the outside universe. It is the accumulated collection of events that we say didn't happen, so therefore, the black hole contains all of the events that have happened, or will ever happen within that event horizon.

In the most strict terms, we cannot say what is inside any black hole. We can know that they can be formed through a stellar collapse, and we can see things like gas/dust clouds or other stars falling towards them, but we absolutely cannot observe anything crossing beyond the event horizon. It simply doesn't happen in our world view.

If we were presented with a black hole that we know nothing about other than that it is a black hole, we can't say anything about how it is formed and what it's made up of. It's just a black hole. Any information contained within the black hole doesn't exist any more. Any Hawking radiation that the black hole emits is purely random, apart from having a specific temperature that is linked to its mass at the time.

Furthermore, the idea of a singularity inside a black hole is only a result of the limits of general relativity. Nothing can account for 'infinitely curved spacetime' because infinity is just a mathematical abstract. If a theory of quantum gravity were to be developed, this may go some way towards fixing this limitation, and might well replace the GR singularity with a more correct description of what's actually inside a black hole.

[Rare White Ape]

So yeah, if a black hole can't tell us anything about itself, only the event horizon and what's outside of it means anything to us.

[LHutton]

If something crosses into a black hole, and we can't see it happen, then when can we say it crossed?

If we can't say when, it's not that it didn't happen; it happens for the objects that say they've fallen into the black hole! We just can't account for the temporal dimension in the space-time scenario. You know: space-time.

Any further events for that object are IN the black hole, and not part the outside universe. It is the accumulated collection of events that we say didn't happen, so therefore, the black hole contains all of the events that have happened, or will ever happen within that event horizon.

In the most strict terms, we cannot say what is inside any black hole. We can know that they can be formed through a stellar collapse, and we can see things like gas/dust clouds or other stars falling towards them, but we absolutely cannot observe anything crossing beyond the event horizon. It simply doesn't happen in our world view.

If we were presented with a black hole that we know nothing about other than that it is a black hole, we can't say anything about how it is formed and what it's made up of. It's just a black hole. Any information contained within the black hole doesn't exist any more. Any Hawking radiation that the black hole emits is purely random, apart from having a specific temperature that is linked to its mass at the time.

Furthermore, the idea of a singularity inside a black hole is only a result of the limits of general relativity. Nothing can account for 'infinitely curved spacetime' because infinity is just a mathematical abstract. If a theory of quantum gravity were to be developed, this may go some way towards fixing this limitation, and might well replace the GR singularity with a more correct description of what's actually inside a black hole.
No dice for me on that argument. We know the black hole is there and contains mass because of its gravity. We can't simply say it doesn't exist because we don't see what goes on in there, which is another verification of why it seems gravity acts faster than light. It can influence us, but we can't receive any information from it that is conveyed by light.

The universe as a whole can't be constrained by the space-time envelope, otherwise it could never have logically begun and it could never expand. This is where space-time causality breaks down. If space-time didn't exist, in causality nothing could have caused the universe to exist, therefore we're not here having this conversation because nothing can't cause something. Causality is limited by the rate at which light can propagate, so because it breaks down, we know that there is something not bound by speed of light causality. Either there is another dimension we can't see or some kind of looped CTC.

Well that seems self-contradictory. If they're formed from stellar collapse, then they must contain by-products of collapsed stars. Furthermore we have an idea about the contents of the relativistic jets they unleash along their poles, which is again stuff it's communicating with us in direct disobedience to the speed of light principle.



If we were presented with a black hole that we know nothing about other than that it is a black hole, we can't say anything about how it is formed and what it's made up of. It's just a black hole. Any information contained within the black hole doesn't exist any more. Any Hawking radiation that the black hole emits is purely random, apart from having a specific temperature that is linked to its mass at the time.

Furthermore, the idea of a singularity inside a black hole is only a result of the limits of general relativity. Nothing can account for 'infinitely curved spacetime' because infinity is just a mathematical abstract. If a theory of quantum gravity were to be developed, this may go some way towards fixing this limitation, and might well replace the GR singularity with a more correct description of what's actually inside a black hole.

So yeah, if a black hole can't tell us anything about itself, only the event horizon and what's outside of it means anything to us.
A black hole can tell us something about itself though. Everyday, the one at the centre of the Milky Way, tells us that's it's large, contains a lot of mass and has immense gravity.

For everyday life infinity may be a mathematical abstract in most cases, except for the number of decimal places in Pi, however in Cosmology it's everywhere. E.g. an expanding infinite universe.

There are actually also several mathematical models that account for infinitely curved spacetime, e.g. an Einstein Rosen Bridge, or a Lorentzian Manifold.

It may indeed be because of black holes that the universe is expanding. If you have 2 black holes, one at point A and one at point B, the space in between must surely get stretched, like two trucks pulling a bungi cord.

[Rare White Ape]

It's hard for me to reply all at once to your word salad, so I won't. Instead, I'll supply a few points for you to consider:

- Any info we have on a particular black hole is through measuring things on this side of the event horizon, not from the black hole itself.

- Nobody knows if the universe is infinite or not, so be careful about this one.

- Gravity is a cumulative force that is strong at short distances but very weak at long distances.

- The expansion of the universe is being driven by things other than gravity, and if black holes were tugging at each other over billions of light years, wouldn't they be coming closer together, instead of moving further apart?

[LHutton]

But AFAIK it's undisputed that measurements this side of the event horizon are caused by mass the other side of it.

True but based on current measurements it is to the best accuracy that can be measured.

Everything is relative wrt distance. A plug hole only lets out the water next to it, but over a period of time it empties the whole bath.

Depends on whether other black holes are pulling them in the opposite direction and the fundamental geometry of space. But as you say, gravity is a short range force, so it can affect the space next to it, which then affects the space next to that space etc. But it has little affect on another mass several billion light years away. Besides that, often one mass will orbit another. Maybe black holes have outties too as well as innies. Who knows, at the moment we just call it dark energy, which is another name for 'dunno'.

[LHutton]

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/02/29/nasa-unveils-supersonic-airliner-future/81132346/


NASA unveils supersonic airliner of the future

The jet NASA calls QueSST would fly at speeds of Mach 1.4, or roughly 1,100 mph. Today’s commercial jetliners poke along at 600 mph, while the Concorde, which made scheduled passenger flights from 1976 to 2003, achieved the blistering pace of more than 1,300 mph.

Shock waves normally roll off many different features of a supersonic vehicle and combine into the classic “Boom! Boom!” signature. But QueSST would be designed to dissipate the many small shock waves so they can’t meld together.

[LHutton]

Higgs particle not the biggest, maybe.

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2078975-bigger-than-the-higgs-bigger-even-than-gravitational-waves/


The hopes spring from two “bumps” that have appeared independently, in the same place, in the latest data from the LHC’s two big detectors, ATLAS and CMS. They point to the existence of a particle that dwarfs even the Higgs boson, the giver-of-mass particle discovered at CERN in July 2012.

[LHutton]

http://www.space.com/32147-why-is-gravity-so-hard-to-understand.html


Why Can't Quantum Mechanics Explain Gravity?

[Rare White Ape]

A neat video on penny-sized black holes in your pocket:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nHBGFKLHZQ

[overpowered]

Tardis sighting.

[overpowered]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDRWQUUUCF0

[LHutton]

http://i.imgur.com/arp8AfZ.jpg

[LHutton]

Hey Billi, science has proved that hell exists.

http://nypost.com/2016/03/31/heres-a-first-look-at-an-alien-planet/

[Crazed_Insanity]

Yeah, earth is truly a paradise compared to that planet!

[overpowered]

2 days late but


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bft7Wd8QElw

[overpowered]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ao8L-0nSYzg

[Freude am Fahren]

So if I have friends, I can do drugs and not get addicted? Sweet!

[LHutton]

Cave painting in France oldest in the world.

http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1113413579/french-cave-paintings-oldest-041216/


From their analysis, the researchers discovered a totally new timeline for the cave. According to their results, humans left their first marks inside the Chauvet-Pont d’Arc Cave from 37,000 to 33,500 years ago, and then occupied the cave again from 31,000 to 28,000 years ago. Analysis of the animal bones, meanwhile, show that cave bears also liked to prowl the cave up until about 33,000 years ago—although the researchers don’t think humans and bears tried to live in the cave at the same time. (It definitely was not Paddington.)

[overpowered]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckSoDW2-wrc

[Crazed_Insanity]

So if I have friends, I can do drugs and not get addicted? Sweet!

No, if you have great company, you should have no need for drugs.
If you have a healthy romantic relationship, you should feel no need for porn!

We have 'evolved' to crave connection with others... this is scientific speak.

But what is 'connection'? Can scientists detect and measure the strength of our 'connections' with others? Further, is it really impossible to become addicted when we have great relationships? Our friends could have their own lives... and even our loving spouses may be temporarily separated from us due to work or whatever... so loneliness could always creep into our lives at any given moment.

Hate to bring the Garden of Eden story into a science thread, but that story illustrated perfectly regarding what happens when 'disconnection' occurs. Disconnection with God begins when Eve doubted what God said and do what God doesn't want her to do... and she had Adam eating it too... afterwards, they began to hide from one another, covering themselves up and hide from God. Maybe God just didn't create enough 'friends' for Eve as a support group... and thus gave serpent the opportunity. But then again, if God created multiple women in the garden, I wonder how Adam would've reacted with so many naked boobs bouncing around in the Eden. ;)

[Kchrpm]

No, if you have great company, you should have no need for drugs.

Many would argue that drugs are better enjoyed with friends, and vice versa.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Ideally, if you and your friends are in human heaven, there's really no need for drugs.

Only when you and your friends are stuck in human hell, then perhaps the group would enjoy getting high together.

Anyway, it's easy to recognize when we are drinking to the celebratory campaign or drinking to numb our pain.

The real champs would hop back into the race car to win next weekend. The addicts would continue to drink with 'friends' in a bar while watching others race... or perhaps don't even have the energy to watch anything...

[Kchrpm]

It's not about "needing" it, no one ever needs pizza, but pizza makes things better.

[Rare White Ape]

Pizza always makes things better.

Heaven sounds boring.

And I wouldn't be taking notice of anyone trying to discuss drugs if they hadn't tried them at all.

[LHutton]

Cannabis never did anything for me but I was shit-faced on the 3 occasions I tried it. LSD was interesting the one time I tried it in the mid-90s but never again.

Pizza doesn't really have side-effects, unless you eat way too much or you're gluten intolerant.

[FaultyMario]

Is space a fluid? or how do gravity waves propagate?

[Random]

how do gravity waves propagate?

If you figure it out, you'll probably get a Nobel prize.

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

[LHutton]

Why does it need to be a fluid for a wave to propagate? Never stopped EM waves.

[Rare White Ape]

Space is not a fluid, and gravity waves propagate radially.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Yeah, space and time are not fluidic nor tangible in any way... however it is stretchy!

Expansion of the universe stretches space/time on a macro level.

Masses(of planets, stars, blackholes) can also warp/distort space/time locally.

We can 'feel' earth's distortion of space/time, thru gravity pulls.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAqSCuHA0j8

If earth gradually loses its mass, the space/time distortion would gradually be restored.

If earth suddenly blows up or disappears..., then this distortion might bounce a bit and cause some 'waves' in space/time... or the so called gravity waves.

Star Trek's warp engines are conceptually based on warping space time so that we can travel beyond light speed! :D

Besides space/distance, remember time can also be stretched.

I've debated with DN in religious threads that according to a Jewish Physicist, if our universe isn't an expanding universe, time duration from existence of 1st quark(first matter) til now would only be around literally 6 days. But because of the expansion of universe, stretching of space/time, it feels like 14 billion years instead.

[Rare White Ape]

I've debated with DN in religious threads that according to a Jewish Physicist, if our universe isn't an expanding universe, time duration from existence of 1st quark(first matter) til now would only be around literally 6 days. But because of the expansion of universe, stretching of space/time, it feels like 14 billion years instead.

Okay den.

What were you doing a week ago?

[LHutton]

I really can't think of a reply to that quote. When something is wrong a billion ways, sometimes not replying saves a lot of time.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Okay den.

What were you doing a week ago?

If the universe isn't expanding, it wouldn't exist a week ago.

Because it is expanding and because we're in it, it feels like 14 billion years have passed.

We know the rate of universe expansion and based on general relativity, you can calculate how the expansion can effect time.

Time isn't absolute and doesn't even exist outside of this space-time continuum.

[Godson]

Cue the comment about 7 days of creation in 3..2..

[Crazed_Insanity]

6 days to be exact. Your Dad rested on the 7th day remember? :p

Anyway, let's try to stick with science in this thread! :)

[overpowered]

http://www.sherv.net/cm/emoticons/hand-gestures/forehead-slap-smiley-emoticon.gif

[Rare White Ape]

If the universe isn't expanding, it wouldn't exist a week ago.

Because it is expanding and because we're in it, it feels like 14 billion years have passed.

We know the rate of universe expansion and based on general relativity, you can calculate how the expansion can effect time.

Time isn't absolute and doesn't even exist outside of this space-time continuum.

I'm glad that you're not an astrophysicist.

[LHutton]

So Cold Fusion 2.0. Seems like crap to me.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/energy/a20454/in-cold-fusion-20-whos-scamming-whom/?click=my6sense

[LHutton]

Oxygen was on Mars.

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2085604-first-direct-evidence-of-ancient-marss-oxygen-rich-atmosphere

[Dicknose]

And the red colour wasn't a hint?

[Godson]

And the red colour wasn't a hint?

Fucking fantastic. :lol:

[LHutton]

I always thought that was splattered Martian guts.

[Drachen596]

It does seem to me that from time to time the Media makes a giant headline out of some scientific discovery that the general reaction to is duh.. could have told you that without spending millions on that study.

Either that or I just paid attention in High School science classes and a huge number of people didn't.

[Rare White Ape]

Eh. It's progress. Incremental like most progress.

The significant thing is that there's now solid evidence to support the hypothesis that Mars had an oxygenated atmosphere in the past. This is an important step towards proving that Mars could support life in the past.

If we don't treat this "duh" moment as an important discovery then we end up on the dangerous slippery slope of lowering the standards we apply to every observation, and start going off assumptions that may be incorrect. Maintaining the quality of the scientific method is the most important part of figuring out the universe and making sure we're not fooling ourselves.

[Dicknose]

Not saying this stuff shouldn't happen, and I guess they got some good info out of it.
But it is hardly headline news, it's more proof of something we were pretty sure about.

[Drachen596]

I thought they figured out the Oxygen thing way back when with the Viking lands though. Hence the duh moment.

[overpowered]

Gorillas

http://www.sciencealert.com/young-gorillas-seen-dismantling-poachers-traps-for-the-first-time

[LHutton]

https://sp.yimg.com/xj/th?id=OIP.M63849d639c348bd03d277116825a1bcdo2&pid=15.1&P=0&w=263&h=176

[LHutton]

Speed of gravity.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/startswithabang/2016/04/28/why-does-gravity-move-at-the-speed-of-light/#194b4447b6a9

[LHutton]

Being ginger makes you look younger.*

https://us.yahoo.com/news/secret-of-eternal-youth-found-in-the-ginger-110214192.html






*But you still have no soul.

[LHutton]

https://us.yahoo.com/news/hints-particle-could-completely-change-212000274.html


Hints of a New Particle Could Completely Change Physics as We Know It

The data blip could be a sign of a graviton — a long-theorized particle of gravity, Beacham said. Other experts have said it might be hints of a new, undiscovered dimension.

[Kchrpm]

It is quite possible that ghosts as we know them are just 4 dimensional beings. #Interstellar

[overpowered]

Denmark Just Produced 140% of its Electricity Needs with Renewable Wind Power

http://www.ewao.com/a/1-denmark-just-produced-140-of-its-electricity-needs-with-renewable-wind-power/

[Drachen596]

delightfully misleading.

[Rare White Ape]

Lego is funding a wind farm! It's being financed as part of the diversification portfolio of its parent company, KIRKBI. The goal is to supply 100% of Lego's electricity demands by 2020.

[LHutton]

delightfully misleading.
Unless they can store it, not all that useful. My house is currently generating 500% more than I'm using.

[Drachen596]

the 140% was vs current requirements.... at 3am.

[FaultyMario]

Is 3 am some sort of standard for idle time (versus peak hour) or something?

[Drachen596]

Peak hours for electricity are typically during the day, here where I am they say that is between 7 am and 9 pm.

Basically when everyone is awake and doing things. Not much going on at 3 am.

[LHutton]

Heat pumps tend to come on at 3am according to the grid trials I've been involved with.

[MR2 Fan]

Hyperloop test today:

http://gizmodo.com/watch-the-first-full-scale-demo-of-the-hyperloop-1776048315

[LHutton]

Monorail! Monorail!

[overpowered]

New kind of anti-viral could attack all sorts of viruses and viral mutation doesn't seem to affect it:

http://secondnexus.com/technology-and-innovation/molecule-could-destroy-all-viruses/

[Crazed_Insanity]

Sound too good to be true..., fingers crossed.

[LHutton]

Printed radars.

http://defense-update.com/20151217_printed-radars.html

[LHutton]

Copenhagen View or Bohmian Mechanics?

http://www.wired.com/2016/05/new-support-alternative-quantum-view/



Nearly a quarter-century later, a group of scientists has carried out an experiment in a Toronto laboratory that aims to test this idea. And if their results, first reported earlier this year, hold up to scrutiny, the Bohmian view of quantum mechanics—less fuzzy but in some ways more strange than the traditional view—may be poised for a comeback.

I have to say, I like the Bohmian Mechanics theory better. I don't like things only having a position when you look at them, that's like ghosts and shit.

[overpowered]

http://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/prehistoric-cave-still-holds-some-worlds-weirdest-creatures

https://media0.giphy.com/media/IL1sMUfQVRNFC/200_s.gif

[LHutton]

5th force?

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/has-a-hungarian-physics-lab-found-a-fifth-force-of-nature/


A laboratory experiment in Hungary has spotted an anomaly in radioactive decay that could be the signature of a previously unknown fifth fundamental force of nature, physicists say—if the finding holds up.

[MR2 Fan]

http://65.media.tumblr.com/76b17afcf1ec258b3119a6db4f5d448c/tumblr_n9mtrgaGg91tbk9nfo1_400.jpg

[MR2 Fan]

Basic telepresence robot with off-the-shelf components


https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=3GuZiNdeueI

I love the potential of this technology, and can think of several uses for it...some of them MARVELous...like bigger or smaller representations and size of your movements, not quite ant-man, but something where you can do telepresence repairs of small areas, or larger, more robust things in dangerous or toxic places.

Even telepresence to different countries from the comfort of your own home!

[overpowered]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptkzzNaZb7U

[LHutton]

http://65.media.tumblr.com/76b17afcf1ec258b3119a6db4f5d448c/tumblr_n9mtrgaGg91tbk9nfo1_400.jpg
:lol:

[Freude am Fahren]

How dogs drink?


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxQR0zyldYc

http://1.media.dorkly.cvcdn.com/50/27/0d41808f60af8871fa122b3b0f37ab1b.gif

[LHutton]

So I thought the universe was infinite? Is it, isn't it?

http://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2016/06/03/5-facts-about-outer-space-that-hardly-anyone-knows/#721d30dd639c

[Rare White Ape]

Don't know. But it could be.

[Dicknose]

It might be "closed"
The first statement that its flat is misleading. It is very flat, but might be just curved enough to loop on itself and be finite.
If it was flat it would be infinite.

[LHutton]

Yes, that's how I understand it. To the best measurable accuracy, it's flat, but without infinite precision it's impossible to guarantee that it's infinite.

[overpowered]

Sleep issues?

http://www.vox.com/2016/3/28/11306124/chronotype-night-owl-discrimination

[Drachen596]

I've had this theory that not every single person on the planet is genetically hard wired to the up at day sleep at night sleep cycle.
This little idea of mine presents itself as those who were predisposed to be up at night were the ones who probably guarded against animal attacks or made sure the fire stayed lit back in caveman days.

Is it true? Who knows and I don't think there's any good way to prove it.

[LHutton]

Could become a security guard or night-shift cop.

[LHutton]

http://www.refinery29.com/2016/06/113569/aliens-once-lived


Scientists Break Down Why Aliens Definitely Exist, Using Math

[overpowered]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H901KdXgHs4

[overpowered]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OR574qhPSDY

[LHutton]

http://www.popsci.com/ai-pilot-beats-air-combat-expert-in-dogfight?src=SOC&dom=fb

A.I. DOWNS EXPERT HUMAN FIGHTER PILOT IN DOGFIGHT SIMULATION


SUPERHUMAN REFLEXES

By Coby McDonald ('http://www.popsci.com/authors/coby-mcdonald') Posted Yesterday at 8:37pm
http://www.popsci.com/sites/popsci.com/files/styles/large_1x_/public/images/2016/06/118509_web.jpg?itok=70CZqtvL&fc=50,50
Image by Lisa Ventre, University of Cincinnati

Retired United States Air Force Colonel Gene Lee in simulated air combat versus an A.I.

In the military world, fighter pilots have long been described as the best of the best. As Tom Wolfe famously wrote, only those with the "right stuff" can handle the job. Now, it seems, the right stuff may no longer be the sole purview of human pilots.

A pilot A.I. developed by a doctoral graduate from the University of Cincinnati has shown that it can not only beat other A.I.s, but also a professional fighter pilot with decades of experience. In a series of flight combat simulations, the A.I. successfully evaded retired U.S. Air Force Colonel Gene "Geno" Lee, and shot him down every time. In a statement ('http://magazine.uc.edu/editors_picks/recent_features/alpha.html'), Lee called it "the most aggressive, responsive, dynamic and credible A.I. I've seen to date."

And "Geno" is no slouch. He's a former Air Force Battle Manager and adversary tactics instructor. He's controlled or flown in thousands of air-to-air intercepts as mission commander or pilot. In short, the guy knows what he's doing. Plus he's been fighting A.I. opponents in flight simulators for decades.

But he says this one is different. "I was surprised at how aware and reactive it was. It seemed to be aware of my intentions and reacting instantly to my changes in flight and my missile deployment. It knew how to defeat the shot I was taking. It moved instantly between defensive and offensive actions as needed."

The A.I., dubbed ALPHA, was developed by Psibernetix, a company founded by University of Cincinnati doctoral graduate Nick Ernest, in collaboration with the Air Force Research Laboratory. According to the developers, ALPHA was specifically designed for research purposes in simulated air-combat missions.

The secret to ALPHA's superhuman flying skills is a decision-making system called a genetic fuzzy tree, a subtype of fuzzy logic algorithms. The system approaches complex problems much like a human would, says Ernest, breaking the larger task into smaller subtasks, which include high-level tactics, firing, evasion, and defensiveness. By considering only the most relevant variables, it can make complex decisions with extreme speed. As a result, the A.I. can calculate the best maneuvers in a complex, dynamic environment, over 250 times faster than its human opponent can blink.

After hour-long combat missions against ALPHA, Lee says,"I go home feeling washed out. I'm tired, drained and mentally exhausted. This may be artificial intelligence, but it represents a real challenge."

The results ('http://www.omicsgroup.org/journals/genetic-fuzzy-based-artificial-intelligence-for-unmanned-combat-aerialvehicle-control-in-simulated-air-combat-missions-2167-0374-1000144.pdf') of the dogfight simulations are published in the Journal of Defense Management.

[LHutton]

http://phys.org/news/2015-12-major-majorana-particle.html


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjjKKeJqdYY

[G'day Mate]

I just stumbled across the AI pilot thing too. Impressed, but kinda surprised this hasn't been a reality for at least a decade already.

[LHutton]

I'm guessing something like the F-35's EODAS was needed to make it possible, otherwise the computer wouldn't know where the opponent is at all times. There are probably some complicated decisions based on current altitude, speed and aircraft capability vs opponent altitude, speed and aircraft capability. But not having blood is a plus. Sadly dogfights are looking to be a think of the past now.

[Drachen596]

i think the AI Pilot headline is misleading..

doesn't seem like they actually flew a sim head to head against it but did a RTS game type simulation. Either that or the article itself is unclear.

Wasn't exactly a 1 v 1 dogfight in identical planes.



Edit- dogfights being a thing of the past was the same thinking the US military had heading into the air combat over Vietnam. Got proved wrong pretty quickly.

[LHutton]

Edit- dogfights being a thing of the past was the same thinking the US military had heading into the air combat over Vietnam. Got proved wrong pretty quickly.
1. Check when the first microprocessor came out and get back to me.

2. Missile testing is far more rigorous now.

3. Even in being proved wrong about the need for guns, they still won on kill ratio.

4. Helmet-Mounted-Cuing-System and Lock-On-After-Launch.

5. All-aspect dual waveband IIR missiles that can hit closing planes head on BVR.

[Drachen596]

As missiles become more developed so do the countermeasures.

Kill ratio only turned in favor of the US AFTER they implemented stronger dog fighting training and added guns.

Electronics fail, missiles can be fooled or avoided. there's no reason to simply state 'dog fights are a thing of the past'

[LHutton]

As missiles become more developed so do the countermeasures.

Kill ratio only turned in favor of the US AFTER they implemented stronger dog fighting training and added guns.

Electronics fail, missiles can be fooled or avoided. there's no reason to simply state 'dog fights are a thing of the past'
Show me a countermeasure to a multi-band IIR/UV AAM with amplitude filtering. Even if radar-homing missiles fail, IIR missiles are a dead cert. Modern missiles are also heavily tested against countermeasures.
http://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/defense/2012-07-08/theres-no-escaping-mbdas-meteor-missile

Actually no, it was always in their favour. Turned out 6-1 for navy F-4 pilots.

https://web.archive.org/web/20121031043534/http:/www.militaryphotos.net/forums/showthread.php?180731-Modern-fighter-combat-records

with some 140 kills attributable to missiles overall.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIM-7_Sparrow
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIM-9_Sidewinder

Only 3 of 29 F-15 kills in Desert Storm were dog-fights, and they were only due to RoE.

[G'day Mate]

The ozone layer is healing (http://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2016/06/29/science.aae0061) :)

[LHutton]

And more importantly, we can use aerosols as flamethrowers.

[overpowered]

How a photo finish camera works.

http://velonews.competitor.com/2016/07/bikes-and-tech/technical-faq-how-a-photo-finish-camera-works_415180

[Freude am Fahren]

That's really cool. It's interesting to think that while it's a 2 dimensional photo, the two dimensions are not x&y, but y and time.

Looking left to right, every pixel is the same exact point on the x, just sometimes there's something in front of the background.

[overpowered]

14th consecutive month with record breaking heat.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2016-07-19/summer-on-steroids-kicks-off-with-record-global-temperatures

[LHutton]

We had 36degC in the shade earlier this week. Sucks though, because even the tap water is warm now.

[LHutton]

WTF?

http://ancientexplorers.com/blog/250-million-year-old-microchip-discovered-in-russia/


250 MILLION YEAR OLD MICROCHIP DISCOVERED IN RUSSIA!?

[overpowered]

We had 36degC in the shade earlier this week. Sucks though, because even the tap water is warm now.Last 3 days here have been that.

[Godson]

We had 36degC in the shade earlier this week. Sucks though, because even the tap water is warm now.

That's all? We have been consistently in mid to high 90's all week. A few clipped the 100 barrier.

[Alan P]

The difference is that 39'C (102F) is really, really hot for the UK. And it's very rare for the temperature to stay that high for more than 2-3 days. Some years we won't even get that high. And because of that there are very few houses with air conditioning.

[overpowered]

It used to be unusual in San Diego. We're near the coast. Lots of places here don't have air conditioning.

It seems like we have heat like that every year now -- often for many days at a time -- sometimes for weeks at a time.

Of course, we also don't have the U.K.'s cold. We're used to having 75-80% of days in the 70's.

[Freude am Fahren]

It only occasionally gets above mid 90's in south Florida, but when that's matched with mid 90's humidity, it's a bit unbearable.

[Rare White Ape]

WTF?

http://ancientexplorers.com/blog/250-million-year-old-microchip-discovered-in-russia/

Your link posting kung-fu is amazing.

Are all the other shit links you post from hoax spreading websites too?

[LHutton]

http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/the-worlds-best-aircraft-killer-missile-now-service-its-not-17100


The World's Best Aircraft-Killer Missile is Now in Service (And Its Not American)

[Alan P]

http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/the-worlds-best-aircraft-killer-missile-now-service-its-not-17100

The U.S. Rarely gets the best for its money. It gets whatever gets most jobs, longest & most expensive service plans and whichever one the paid off senators and congressmen want. If that's the most expensive or doesn't perform as well as it could, well that's a shame.