discuss Science & Technology news & discussion

[CraigD]

Post and discuss interesting articles & videos about science and technology.

You don't need to be an expert - just interested in the wonders of modern science, technology, and the history of these fields.

Please keep it rational, and post articles from reputable sources.
Try not to editorialise headlines and keep the copy to just a paragraph with a link to the original source. When quoting excerpts from articles, I think the best method is to italicise the copy, and include a link to the source.

Have some fun with your comments and discussions... just keep the sources legitimate.

Other threads:
The Break Room has a number of other popular threads, so there is no need to post material here that is better suited to these other threads:

- Covid19-Coronavirus updates and news
- Conspiracy Thread Free For All
- The *religious* discussion thread

Please enjoy!

 

[koolishman]

'Virgin birth' recorded in crocodile for 1st time ever​

The American crocodile (Crocodylus acutus) was taken into captivity in 2002 when she was 2 years old and placed in an enclosure at Parque Reptilandia in Costa Rica. She remained alone for the next 16 years. But in January 2018, a clutch of 14 eggs was found in the enclosure.

Virgin births, also known as facultative parthenogenesis (FP), is a type of asexual reproduction in species that would normally reproduce sexually. Scientists have documented it in birds, sharks, lizards and snakes in captivity, among other species. Until now, it had never been recorded among Crocodilia — the order that includes crocodiles, alligators, caimans and gharials.

 

[koolishman]

Mysterious species buried their dead and carved symbols 100,000 years before humans​

Researchers have uncovered evidence that members of a mysterious archaic human species buried their dead and carved symbols on cave walls long before the earliest evidence of burials by modern humans.

The brains belonging to the extinct species, known as Homo naledi, were around one-third the size of a modern human brain.

The revelations could change the understanding of human evolution, because until now such behaviors only have been associated with larger-brained Homo sapiens and Neanderthals.

 

[J Sokol]

‘My life and my home’: young people start to testify at historic US climate trial​

The US’s first-ever trial in a constitutional climate lawsuit kicked off on Monday morning in a packed courtroom in Helena, Montana.

The case, Held v Montana, was brought in 2020 by 16 plaintiffs between the ages of five and 22 from around the state who allege state officials violated their constitutional right to a healthy environment by enacting pro-fossil fuel policies.

In opening statements, Roger Sullivan, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, explained that climate change is fueling drought, wildfires, extreme heat and other environmental disasters throughout Montana, taking a major toll on the young plaintiffs’ health and wellbeing. There is a “scientific consensus”, he noted, that these changes can be traced back to the burning of fossil fuels.

https://www.namepros.com/threads/science-technology-news-discussion.1212824/page-176#posts

 

[Samer]

https://www.fox5ny.com/news/new-york-could-experience-a-damaging-earthquake

This article is dated from December 2020.

125th Street is the most famous NYC fault line.

 

[koolishman]

Synthetic human embryos created in groundbreaking advance​

Scientists have created synthetic human embryos using stem cells, in a groundbreaking advance that sidesteps the need for eggs or sperm.

Scientists say these model embryos, which resemble those in the earliest stages of human development, could provide a crucial window on the impact of genetic disorders and the biological causes of recurrent miscarriage.

However, the work also raises serious ethical and legal issues as the lab-grown entities fall outside current legislation in the UK and most other countries.

The structures do not have a beating heart or the beginnings of a brain, but include cells that would typically go on to form the placenta, yolk sac and the embryo itself.

 

[koolishman]

Key building block of life found on ocean world orbiting Saturn​

A key chemical building block of life has been found on Saturn’s moon Enceladus.

Phosphorus was detected in salty ice grains that were released into space by plumes that erupt between the cracks of the moon’s ice shell.

An ocean exists beneath the thick, icy surface of Enceladus, and plumes of material regularly release from geysers at the moon’s south pole.

That material becomes incorporated into Saturn’s outermost E ring.

 

[Samer]

Synthetic human embryos created in groundbreaking advance​

Scientists have created synthetic human embryos using stem cells, in a groundbreaking advance that sidesteps the need for eggs or sperm.

Scientists say these model embryos, which resemble those in the earliest stages of human development, could provide a crucial window on the impact of genetic disorders and the biological causes of recurrent miscarriage.


Show attachment 240507

However, the work also raises serious ethical and legal issues as the lab-grown entities fall outside current legislation in the UK and most other countries.

The structures do not have a beating heart or the beginnings of a brain, but include cells that would typically go on to form the placenta, yolk sac and the embryo itself.

Love stem cells. If i lose finger, a limb, arm even a leg; i should he able to grow a new 1 using stem cells.

 

[koolishman]

Love stem cells. If i lose finger, a limb, arm even a leg; i should he able to grow a new 1 using stem cells.

In humans, this seems far off at present, from what I read.

But yes, it will progress.

 

[J Sokol]

Canada is on fire, and big oil is the arsonist​

Canada is on fire from coast to coast to coast. Thousands have been evacuated, millions exposed to air pollution, New York a doom orange and even the titans of Wall Street choking.

Catastrophic flooding in Pakistan, back-to-back cyclones in the Pacific islands and droughts in Africa haven’t been enough to create a tipping point for action. Now that climate impacts have hit the economic capital of western power, will it spur governments in the global north to get serious?

A lack of scientific knowledge about climate change is not the barrier. Nor is a lack of cleaner, safer, cheaper energy alternatives. The IPCC said as much last year – the barrier is vested fossil fuel interests putting their profit above our safety.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jun/20/canada-wildfires-big-oil

 

[Cal2]

I don't recall if I posted in the past something on these 3d printers - hangprinters:

They're interesting in that they use existing structures as frameworks to help print with. It's a design I'm thinking to try and incorporate into some custom construction 3D printers we're building, but line collisions could be an issue for tall wider prints. I've got one possible partial solution with a custom pump system, to deliver the building material to the printer head differently. If anyone has any other thoughts.......

 

[koolishman]

Is this your hobby? Wow!

There should be some online forum for 3D printer pros, where they can help you.

 

[Cal2]

Is this your hobby? Wow!

There should be some online forum for 3D printer pros, where they can help you.

It's more a project for an innovation initiative I've had in the works for awhile.

Good thought on the printer pros. I've gotten some input from the originator of the hangprinter design, and I could tap into him and his hangprinter network for a time. But I could see looking outside that particular printer mindset as well, to see what others might have for 'outside the box' solution ideas. (One reason I'm asking about this on this thread - fresh minds with a science and tech interest.)

Might take something like some of my favourite thinking guru's innovation thinking tools to find what's needed. I'll throw some of that at it, as well. See if something comes of it.

 

[Cal2]

Meet the 33-year-old Canadian chemist and the renowned MIT professor who are building the 'electric vehicle of cement making' (msn.com)

Cement powder is conventionally made by crushing raw materials, including limestone and clay, mixing with ingredients such as iron and fly ash, and putting it all into a kiln that heats the ingredients up to about 2,700 degrees Fahrenheit. That process of making cement generates approximately 8% of global carbon dioxide emissions, which are a leading cause of global warming. .......

Ellis likes to describe what they're doing as developing the "electric vehicle of cement making." An electric vehicle replaces a combustion engine with an electric motor, and that's what Sublime Systems does in the cement-making process.

"I think for the layperson, it's easiest for them to understand how we take that high-temperature, fossil-driven process and replace it with something that is powered by electrons. And we're using electrons to push these chemical reactions," Ellis told CNBC by phone Wednesday. "That happens at an ambient temperature below the boiling point of water," she said, and that is a critical differentiator.


If they could ever efficiently 'mini-mill' the process so it could be done using smaller batch plants, that might be able to be closer to jobsite areas being developed..... . I'm wondering if, because of the slower concrete material requirements of construction 3D printing, that could be made feasible......

 

[Samer]

Turkey is the worst country when it comes to Earthquakes, building codes, and earthquake detection. Turkey has a lot to learn from Japan; Japan has the world’s best earthquake warning system; ingenious.

https://progearthplanetsci.springer....1186/s40645-018-0221-6.pdf?pdf=button sticky

 

[NameInbox]

Turkey is the worst country when it comes to Earthquakes, building codes, and earthquake detection. Turkey has a lot to learn from Japan; Japan has the world’s best earthquake warning system; ingenious.

https://progearthplanetsci.springeropen.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s40645-018-0221-6.pdf?pdf=button sticky

Yep, and now Turkey will have a Black Sea(North part) full of poison(for now from dead fish, polution from sewerage...hope not radiation soon) after Kakhovka hydroelectric station destroyed by russia.

Environmentalists are sounding the alarm. In a few days, dirty flows from the Kakhovka HPP could reach the shores of Romania and Bulgaria​

https://fakty.com.ua/en/svit/202306...hut-distatysya-beregiv-rumuniyi-ta-bolgariyi/

 

[Cal2]

A bit fun to watch:

Animal-inspired robot transforms to roll, crawl, walk and fly across terrain

A robot inspired by animals can transform its wheels into propellers and hands, which allows it to crawl, roll, and even fly. It could be used to help deliver packages in remote locations and potentially revolutionise space exploration. The Multi-Modal Mobility Morphobot, or M4 for short, has four appendages that can turn into wheels, thrusters, legs and hands.

 

[J Sokol]

OpenAI, maker of ChatGPT, hit with proposed class action lawsuit alleging it stole people’s data​

OpenAI, the company behind the viral ChatGPT tool, has been hit with a lawsuit alleging the company stole and misappropriated vast swaths of peoples’ data from the internet to train its AI tools.

The proposed class action lawsuit, filed Wednesday in a California federal court, claims that OpenAI secretly scraped “massive amounts of personal data from the internet,” according to the complaint. The nearly 160-page complaint alleges that this personal data, including “essentially every piece of data exchanged on the internet it could take,” was also seized by the company without notice, consent or “just compensation.”

Moreover, this data scraping occurred at an “unprecedented scale,” the suit claims.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/28/tech/openai-chatgpt-microsoft-data-sued/index.html

 

[J Sokol]

A flying car prototype just got an airworthiness certificate from the FAA​

New YorkCNN —
The Federal Aviation Administration has certified for testing a vehicle that a California startup describes as a flying car — the first fully electric vehicle that can both fly and travel on roads to receive US government approval.

Alef Automotive said that its vehicle/aircraft, dubbed the “Model A,” is the first flying vehicle that is drivable on public roads and able to park like a normal car. It also has vertical takeoff and landing capabilities. It apparently will be able to carry one or two occupants and will have a road-range of 200 miles and a flying range of 110 miles.

The company expects to sell the vehicle for $300,000 each with the first delivery by projected for the end of 2025.

Alef Aeronautics' flying Car unveiling on October 19, 2022.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/03/tech/flying-car-faa/index.html

 

[Cal2]

Outrageously ambitious VTOL flying car is FAA-approved for takeoff​

The four-seat Aska A5 is the size of an SUV, but at the touch of a button it extends an array of electric propellers and converts to a cruise-capable eVTOL aircraft with an impressive hybrid range. The FAA has cleared it for flight testing.

https://newatlas.com/aircraft/aska-..._term=0_65b67362bd-d3361ec9b0-[LIST_EMAIL_ID]

 

[koolishman]

Catastrophic climate 'doom loops' could start in just 15 years, new study warns​

A new study of climate "tipping points," such as the loss of the Amazon rainforest or the collapse of the Greenland ice sheet, could come within a human lifetime, scientists have said.

According to the research, more than a fifth of the world's potentially catastrophic tipping points — such as the melting of the Arctic permafrost, the collapse of the Greenland ice sheet and the sudden transformation of the Amazon rainforest into savanna — could occur as soon as 2038.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-023-01157-x

 

[koolishman]

Astronomers observe time dilation in early universe​

Events appear to unfold five times slower when universe was a tenth of its present age, in effect predicted by Einstein.

Astronomers have watched the distant universe running in slow motion, marking the first time that the weird effect predicted by Einstein more than a century ago has been observed in the early cosmos.

The scientists found that events appeared to unfold five times slower when the universe was a mere 1bn years old, or about a tenth of its present age, because of the way the expansion of the universe stretches time.

“We see things changing about five times slower than today,” said Geraint Lewis, a professor of astrophysics and lead author of the study at the University of Sydney. “It’s like watching a movie with the speed turned down.”

 

[Cal2]

Sawdust, Seaweed, and Coffee? Marvel Labs’ Biomass 3D Printer Can Print it All​

Marvel Labs, an innovative technology company founded in 2023, has pioneered an environmentally conscious application of 3D printing technology. Coming out of stealth mode in June, the company aims to redefine manufacturing by turning biomass waste streams into valuable resources.

“We’re using bio-based binders to jet onto the material to glue the particles together. And we’re using upcycling waste materials that would otherwise be landfilled,” Jeffery explained during a recent interview with 3DPrint.com.

The company’s breakthrough product can print with virtually any biomass, offering unparalleled flexibility. Materials successfully tested include sawdust, coffee grounds, and seaweed.

Jeffery highlighted the transformative potential of these often discarded materials, stating, “If the seaweed washing up on the beaches in Mexico ends up in a landfill, that’s just CO2 that goes into the atmosphere. So, being able to use them in products, everything we make will have a kind of CO2 sequestering number that customers can be aware of.”

https://3dprint.com/301429/sawdust-...vel-labs-biomass-3d-printer-can-print-it-all/

 

[koolishman]

The planet saw its hottest day ever this week. The record will be broken again and again​

On Monday, the average global temperature reached 17.01 degrees Celsius (62.62 Fahrenheit), the highest in the US National Centers for Environmental Prediction’s data, which goes back to 1979. On Tuesday, it climbed even further, reaching 17.18 degrees Celsius. The previous record of 16.92 degrees Celsius was set in August 2016.

 

[koolishman]

Deep space experts prove Elon Musk's Starlink is interfering in scientific work​

In a study, published in the Astronomy & Astrophysics journal, scientists used a powerful telescope in the Netherlands to observe 68 of SpaceX's satellites and detected emissions from satellites are drifting out of their allocated band, up in space.

Federico Di Vruno, co-director of the International Astronomical Union Centre for the Protection of the Dark and Quiet Sky and one of the authors of the study, says the finding is significant given the growing numbers of satellites orbiting in the sky.

"Why this matters is because of the number," Dr Di Vruno said.

"Suppose that there is a satellite in space that radiates this kind of signal, there is a very, very small chance that this satellite will be in the beam, in the main site, of your telescope.

 

[koolishman]

A 46,000-year-old worm found in Siberian permafrost was brought back to life, and started having babies​

Scientists discovered a female microscopic roundworm that has been stuck deep in Siberian permafrost for 46,000 years, the Washington Post reported. When they revived it, the worm started having babies via a process called parthenogenesis, which doesn't require a mate.

According to a press release, the worm spent thousands of years in a type of dormancy called cryptobiosis. In that state, which can last almost indefinitely, all metabolic processes pause, including "reproduction, development, and repair," per the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.
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