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]

The world’s best solar power schemes now offer the “cheapest…electricity in history” with the technology cheaper than coal and gas in most major countries.

That is according to the International Energy Agency’s World Energy Outlook 2020. The 464-page outlook, published today by the IEA, also outlines the “extraordinarily turbulent” impact of coronavirus and the “highly uncertain” future of global energy use over the next two decades.

Reflecting this uncertainty, this year’s version of the highly influential annual outlook offers four “pathways” to 2040, all of which see a major rise in renewables. The IEA’s main scenario has 43% more solar output by 2040 than it expected in 2018, partly due to detailed new analysis showing that solar power is 20-50% cheaper than thought.

So, officially, solar energy is cheapest in history now.

 

[Sutruk]

NASA’s SOFIA Discovers Water on Sunlit Surface of Moon

https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-s-sofia-discovers-water-on-sunlit-surface-of-moon/

"NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) has confirmed, for the first time, water on the sunlit surface of the Moon. This discovery indicates that water may be distributed across the lunar surface, and not limited to cold, shadowed places.

SOFIA has detected water molecules (H2O) in Clavius Crater, one of the largest craters visible from Earth, located in the Moon’s southern hemisphere.

The results are published in the latest issue of Nature Astronomy.

Without a thick atmosphere, water on the sunlit lunar surface should just be lost to space,” said Honniball, who is now a postdoctoral fellow at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “Yet somehow we’re seeing it. Something is generating the water, and something must be trapping it there."

Molecular water detected on the sunlit Moon by SOFIA

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-020-01222-x

 

[CraigD]

I had one of those buggers living under my bed in Southern China. It was kinda freaky, I didn't know what kind of spider it was...they are super fast, but I finally got him

When I was a kid I had a MASSIVE huntsman in my bedroom that freaked me out. I threw a knife at him that took off a couple of his legs. A few months later he reappeared.
Those legs grow back!

Found this video:

 

[CraigD]

Thank you everyone, especially @koolishman, @Sutruk and @Cannuck

 

[Cal2]

Thank you everyone, especially @koolishman, @Sutruk and @Cannuck

Looking forward to lots of good reading when I have the time. Thanks, guys.

 

[CraigD]

This Epic Space Cloud Is Nicely Summing Up Our Farewell to 2020

Sometimes, the Universe provides just the perfect method for expressing our feelings.

A space cloud 7,500 light-years away has given us the most appropriate farewell we can think of for this whole dumpster fire of a year, 2020.

https://www.sciencealert.com/this-epic-space-cloud-is-nicely-summing-up-our-farewell-to-2020

 

[CraigD]

slip on a shirt
slop on some sunscreen
slap on a hat
and don't worry too much about Russian satellights.

Look outside Bucko... it's raining


My favourite image & map of Earth

The Blue Marble

The Blue Marble photograph (photographed by Apollo 17, Dec. 7, 1972).

Tabula Rogeriana

The Nuzhat al-mushtāq fī ikhtirāq al-āfāq (Arabic: نزهة المشتاق في اختراق الآفاق‎, lit. "The Excursion of One Who is Eager to Traverse the Regions of the World"), commonly known in the West as the Tabula Rogeriana (lit. "The Map of Roger" in Latin), is a description of the world and world map created by the Arab geographer Muhammad al-Idrisi in 1154. Al-Idrisi worked on the commentaries and illustrations of the map for fifteen years at the court of the Norman King Roger II of Sicily, who commissioned the work around 1138. The map was utilised by various explorers such as Christopher Columbus and Vasco Da Gama for their voyages in America and India.


Further Information

 

[Cal2]

However, little research has investigated the consequences of conspiracy belief, and to date, this research does not indicate that conspiracy belief fulfills people’s motivations. Instead, for many people, conspiracy belief may be more appealing than satisfying. Further research is needed to determine for whom, and under what conditions, conspiracy theories may satisfy key psychological motives.

I remember an author once saying that in his interviews with Canadian WW2 vets, a # of them said the main reason they signed up was because they were bored. It's how I consider many conspiracists when it comes to psychological motives - excitement junkies, who try to inject a constant flow of cheap and easy excitement into their lives using conspiracies; feeding each other's excitement addiction by embellishing and telling lies to one another. Kind of like little kids who make up stories to one another to create excitement and keep it going - but more grown up kids.

As for those who don't need conspiracy theories to feed an excitement addiction...we have our own problems.

 

[CraigD]

Melting icebergs key to sequence of an ice age, scientists find

Scientists claim to have found the 'missing link' in the process that leads to an ice age on Earth. Melting icebergs in the Antarctic are the key, say the team from Cardiff University, triggering a series of chain reactions that plunges Earth into a prolonged period of cold temperatures.

It has long been known that ice age cycles are paced by periodic changes to Earth's orbit of the sun, which subsequently changes the amount of solar radiation that reaches the Earth's surface.

However, up until now it has been a mystery as to how small variations in solar energy can trigger such dramatic shifts in the climate on Earth.

In their study, the team propose that when the orbit of Earth around the sun is just right, Antarctic icebergs begin to melt further and further away from Antarctica, shifting huge volumes of freshwater away from the Southern Ocean and into the Atlantic Ocean.

As the Southern Ocean gets saltier and the North Atlantic gets fresher, large-scale ocean circulation patterns begin to dramatically change, pulling CO2 out of the atmosphere and reducing the so-called greenhouse effect.

This in turn pushes the Earth into ice age conditions.

https://phys.org/news/2021-01-icebergs-key-sequence-ice-age.html

 

[koolishman]

Nuclear-Powered Rockets Get a Second Look for Travel to Mars

For all the controversy they stir up on Earth, nuclear reactors can produce the energy and propulsion needed to rapidly take large spacecraft to Mars and, if desired, beyond. The idea of nuclear rocket engines dates back to the 1940s. This time around, though, plans for interplanetary missions propelled by nuclear fission and fusion are being backed by new designs that have a much better chance of getting off the ground.

Crucially, the nuclear engines are meant for interplanetary travel only, not for use in the Earth’s atmosphere. Chemical rockets launch the craft out beyond low Earth orbit. Only then does the nuclear propulsion system kick in.

The challenge has been making these nuclear engines safe and lightweight. New fuels and reactor designs appear up to the task, as NASA is now working with industry partners for possible future nuclear-fueled crewed space missions. “Nuclear propulsion would be advantageous if you want to go to Mars and back in under two years,” says Jeff Sheehy, chief engineer in NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate. To enable that mission capability, he says, “a key technology that needs to be advanced is the fuel.”

Has this woman just invented the rocket that will take us to Mars?

The physicist who works for the US Department of Energy's Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) designed the rocket which will use magnetic fields to shoot plasma particles - electrically charged gas - into the vacuum of space.

While current space-proven plasma propulsion engines use electric fields to propel the particles, the new rocket design would accelerate them using magnetic reconnection.

 

[koolishman]

Listening to Nature Gives You a Real Rocky Mountain High

Sounds like birdsong and flowing water may alleviate stress, help lower blood pressure and lead to feelings of tranquility



To find out, Buxton and colleagues from six universities and the National Park Service did a statistical analysis of some three dozen past studies exploring the measurable health benefits of natural sound. Though the goals and methods of the analyzed studies varied widely, some common themes emerged—the various groups exposed to natural sound saw a 184 percent improvement in overall health outcomes. Buxton’s research, published in March in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, presents evidence that pleasant natural sounds can help lower blood pressure, improve cognitive performance and even reduce pain. “Typical natural sounds that we consider pleasant are having health benefits for us,” says Buxton, a professor at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. “I think that’s a really powerful message,”

To explore the possible health benefits of natural sound, the team analyzed more than a decade’s worth of studies, conducted around the world, with a wide range of methods. Some researchers had measured outcomes linked to human health like blood pressure, heart rate and the stress hormone cortisol. Other scientists had studied reactions to sound that may impact health for good or ill—including feelings of annoyance or tranquility, awareness, relaxation and cognitive function.

Each study investigated the impacts that certain natural sounds had on subjects, and the intriguing results varied widely. A Swedish group, for instance, found that humans in virtual nature environments, complete with sounds, recovered better from stress than those in the same surroundings without sound. A team of Iranian scientists found that ICU patients on ventilators reported less pain when they listened to natural sounds via headphones.

 

[Cannuck]

Sir David Attenborough's new doc: 'Humans are intruders'

Sir David Attenborough has urged people to remember their impact on the natural world, ahead of his new documentary on the impacts of lockdown on nature.

He spoke to the BBC's David Shukman about his hopes for the project, the upcoming global climate summit and his young fan base.

I believe 'intruder' is misleading, but Sir David defends his choice of words by saying, "that even those with the best intentions are intruders". It is somewhat of a betrayal to his life work and achievements IMHO. We are not trespassers, but rather a part of the natural world. Agreed en masse we have proven to be an invasive species (ie. as zebra mussels and lamprey eels have); humanity has tipped the scale beyond limits of natural sustainability through technological development and exploitation, and so, I understand how he may view it that way. But to say "Humans are invaders" is a confrontational perspective, and it is pessimistic to think that it will always be that way. Such a view does not allows for harmony to exist. Our collective impact on the environment is intrusive, nevertheless, we can still re-learn ways to adapt, evolve, nurture and maintain what is left of the natural world and embrace our responsibility to do so.

 

[Cannuck]

Think!: Before It's Too Late

"The world is full of problems and conflicts. So why can we not solve them? According to Edward de Bono, world thinking cannot solve world problems because world thinking is itself the problem."

https://www.amazon.com/Think-Before-Its-Too-Late-ebook/dp/B0031RDUTW

Interesting...there's an audio clip on that link, de Bono makes some very good points.

On viruses, I haven't followed this up, but

Does a sea of viruses inside our body help keep us healthy?

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/11/does-sea-viruses-inside-our-body-help-keep-us-healthy

No doubt the micro-biome (esp gut) has a huge influence on our health, vitality and immunity. Emotional roller coasters are often initiated by a lack of microbial activity that produces serotonin, dopamine, and other essential chemicals governing our mood, which may lead to or is a result of chemicals or substance abuse. Eat organic, farm fresh or wild...the more natural and closer to the source the better.

 

[CraigD]

NASA picks SpaceX to land next Americans on Moon

NASA has selected SpaceX to continue development of the first commercial human lander that will safely carry the next two American astronauts to the lunar surface. At least one of those astronauts will make history as the first woman on the Moon. Another goal of the Artemis Program includes landing the first person of color on the lunar surface.

Flying between lunar orbit and the surface of the Moon, SpaceX's Starship will carry crew and all of the supplies, equipment, and science payloads needed for extensive surface exploration.

Building off the safety and reliability of Dragon and Falcon, Starship will feature proven avionics, guidance and navigation systems, autonomous rendezvous, docking and precision landing capabilities, as well as thermal protection, and a spacious cabin with familiar displays and interfaces utilized on Dragon.

https://www.artemisprogram.com/


More:

https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/...-picks-spacex-to-land-next-americans-on-moon/

https://www.spacex.com/updates/starship-moon-announcement/index.html

 

[koolishman]

Scientists Develop New Blood Test That Could Diagnose Your Level of Depression


A newly developed system that monitors for blood biomarkers linked to mood disorders could lead to new ways to diagnose and treat depression and bipolar disorder, all beginning with a simple blood test.

In the new study, researchers have identified 26 biomarkers – measurable and naturally occurring indicators – in patients' blood variably linked to the incidence of mood disorders including depression, bipolar disorder, and mania.

 

[Cannuck]

Climate Has Shifted The Axis Of The Earth

Up to 20% of Crucial Groundwater Resources Are at Risk of Disappearing

The hidden crisis beneath our feet
In the grand scheme of things, climate change triggering polar movement isn’t too worrisome, given the other clear and present dangers like intense heat waves, ocean acidification, and the sixth mass extinction.

The role of groundwater depletion has the potential to impact billions of lives.

Groundwater provides drinking water for half the world, including constituting the sole source of drinking water for 2.5 billion people. It also provides nearly half of the water used for agricultural irrigation globally. But a new study, published in the journal Science on Thursday, shows that up to 20% of it is in jeopardy.

https://earther.gizmodo.com/up-to-20-of-crucial-groundwater-resources-are-at-risk-1846744205

Groundwater wells supply water to billions of people, but they can run dry when water tables decline. Here, we analyzed construction records for ~39 million globally distributed wells. We show that 6 to 20% of wells are no more than 5 meters deeper than the water table, implying that millions of wells are at risk of running dry if groundwater levels decline by only a few meters. Further, newer wells are not being constructed deeper than older wells in some of the places experiencing significant groundwater level declines, suggesting that newer wells are at least as likely to run dry as older wells if groundwater levels continue to decline. Poor water quality in deep aquifers and the high costs of well construction limit the effectiveness of tapping deep groundwater to stave off the loss of access to water as wells run dry.

Groundwater provides nearly half of the water used for agricultural irrigation and most of the drinking water for billions of people. It is essential, then, for this resource to remain secure.

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/372/6540/418?intcmp=trendmd-sci

 

[FolioTeam]

Having had contact with both species in the wild, I would definitely use the term "grolar" vs "pizzly

Grolars are those that have grizzlies as fathers while Pizzlies have polars as fathers.

PS: I also like the way Grolar sounds when compared to Pizzly

 

[koolishman]

Electric cars: What will happen to all the dead batteries?

While most EV components are much the same as those of conventional cars, the big difference is the battery. While traditional lead-acid batteries are widely recycled, the same can't be said for the lithium-ion versions used in electric cars.

EV batteries are larger and heavier than those in regular cars and are made up of several hundred individual lithium-ion cells, all of which need dismantling. They contain hazardous materials, and have an inconvenient tendency to explode if disassembled incorrectly.

"Currently, globally, it's very hard to get detailed figures for what percentage of lithium-ion batteries are recycled, but the value everyone quotes is about 5%," says Dr Anderson. "In some parts of the world it's considerably less."

Recent proposals from the European Union would see EV suppliers responsible for making sure that their products aren't simply dumped at the end of their life, and manufacturers are already starting to step up to the mark.

Nissan, for example, is now reusing old batteries from its Leaf cars in the automated guided vehicles that deliver parts to workers in its factories.

Volkswagen is doing the same, but has also recently opened its first recycling plant, in Salzgitter, Germany, and plans to recycle up to 3,600 battery systems per year during the pilot phase.

 

[NickB]

Cool thread @CraigD - going to have to spend some time reading through it

Did a search and the below did not show up.......

Wooden satellite due for launch by end of 2021

https://eandt.theiet.org/content/ar...ng-wooden-satellite-to-launch-by-end-of-2021/

At the bottom of the article there is a link to another story about a record breaking Haggis

https://eandt.theiet.org/content/ar...ars-edge-of-space-in-burns-night-celebration/

The site is pretty good - loads of information on new tech, science etc etc.......

 

[Sutruk]

We have been talking about the Gulf Stream previously here. And now it seems really close to collapse. This would have severe impacts on the global climate system.

A critical ocean system may be heading for collapse due to climate change, study finds

https://www.washingtonpost.com/clim...05/change-ocean-collapse-atlantic-meridional/

Human-caused warming has led to an “almost complete loss of stability” in the system that drives Atlantic Ocean currents, a new study has found — raising the worrying prospect that this critical aquatic “conveyor belt” could be close to collapse.

These indicators suggest that the AMOC is running out of steam, making it more susceptible to disruptions that might knock it out of equilibrium...

If the circulation shuts down, it could bring extreme cold to Europe and parts of North America, raise sea levels along the U.S. East Coast and disrupt seasonal monsoons that provide water to much of the world.

“This is an increase in understanding … of how close to a tipping point the AMOC might already be,” said Levke Caesar, a climate physicist at Maynooth University who was not involved in the study.

Boers’s analysis doesn’t suggest exactly when the switch might happen. But “the mere possibility that the AMOC tipping point is close should be motivation enough for us to take countermeasures,” Caesar said. “The consequences of a collapse would likely be far-reaching.”

-----------------------------------------------

And here is the Nature article:

Observation-based early-warning signals for a collapse of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-021-01097-4.epdf

"The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), a major ocean current system transporting warm surface waters toward the northern Atlantic, has been suggested to exhibit two distinct modes of operation. A collapse from the currently attained strong to the weak mode would have severe impacts on the global climate system and further multi-stable Earth system components. Observations and recently suggested fingerprints of AMOC variability indicate a gradual weakening during the last decades, but estimates of the critical transition point remain uncertain. Here, a robust and general early-warning indicator for forthcoming critical transitions is introduced. Significant early-warning signals are found in eight independent AMOC indices, based on observational sea-surface temperature and salinity data from across the Atlantic Ocean basin. These results reveal spatially consistent empirical evidence that, in the course of the last century, the AMOC may have evolved from relatively stable conditions to a point close to a critical transition."

 

[CraigD]

@CraigD This finding shocks music aficionados...

Legendary Stradivarius Loses to New Violins in Blind Tests

https://www.livescience.com/44651-new-violins-beat-stradivarius.html

YES!

It takes years to learn to appreciate the subtleties of sound - something most people (myself included) have difficulty discerning, and it really does come down to so many factors, including personal choice and experience.

You can watch similar acoustic guitar blind tests on Youtube, though it gets somewhat murky when solid-body electric guitar players swear about subtle wood and finish differences affecting tone, while playing through an amplifier

 

[Cannuck]

Western airplane maintenance providers rush to sign Chinese contracts

While well-maintained aircraft are more efficient, I don't see this curve bending...

Aviation accounts for around 2.5% of global CO2 emissions, but it’s overall contribution to climate change is higher. This is because air travel does not only emit CO2: it affects the climate in a number of more complex ways.

As well as emitting CO2 from burning fuel, planes affect the concentration of other gases and pollutants in the atmosphere. They result in a short-term increase, but long-term decrease in ozone (O3); a decrease in methane (CH4); emissions of water vapour; soot; sulfur aerosols; and water contrails. While some of these impacts result in warming, others induce a cooling effect. Overall, the warming effect is stronger.

Non-CO2 climate impacts mean aviation accounts for 3.5% of global warming

https://ourworldindata.org/co2-emis...n-aviation-accounts-for-3-5-of-global-warming

 

[Cannuck]

After a decade of research, scientists have concluded that we are leaving the Holocene Epoch and entering the Anthropocene Epoch - where human impact on earth is greater than all natural systems combined.

 

[Cannuck]

The ‘doomsday’ glacier is on the brink of collapse​

The Florida-sized Thwaites glacier in Antarctica, nicknamed the “doomsday glacier,” is already losing 50 billion tons of ice each year. That in itself accounts for around 4 percent of annual global sea level rise. But unpublished research shared at the American Geophysical Union fall meeting this week shows that the thinning ice shelf extending from Thwaites could shatter within the next three to five years. Behind Thwaites lies an even larger body of ice that, if the glacier melts, will be exposed to increasingly warm waters.

https://www.popsci.com/environment/thwaites-glacier-climate-change/

 

[Sutruk]

Astronomers Detect Up to 170 Rogue Planets Hurtling Aimlessly Through Space​

https://www.sciencealert.com/a-reco...ted-wandering-through-space-far-from-any-star

"Interstellar space is a graveyard of lost souls. Adrift far from any star, these planets float in the darkness like ghost ships in the night.

Catching sight of one requires patience, and a good eye. But a new approach based on tens of thousands of images collected by the European Southern Observatory's facilities has resulted in the identification of as many as 170 potential 'rogue' worlds in our corner of the galaxy.

"There could be several billions of these free-floating giant planets roaming freely in the Milky Way without a host star," says Hervé Bouy, an astronomer at the Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Bordeaux in France.

Rogue planets all start their existence in the same swirls of gas and dust that give rise to a typical solar system, but some of these clouds of matter may be too small to form the star part of the system.

How many are virgin births, created without a star in sight, and how many are kicked out of their nest is hard to say. We just don't have enough information.

Being planets, they don't glow with the ferocity of a star. Detached from a solar system, they don't follow an orbital path that might otherwise identify them as an exoplanet."