Science News

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2022/jan/02/fossil-hunter-richard-leakey-who-showed-humans-evolved-in-africa-dies-at-77?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=facebook&fbclid=IwAR1PhZqET2nyh3CUhPbAvWs63MVs4l5o5mEP2j6bbH6iEqYIPvmCararT5w Sorry about the bad news. An excerpt of his book with Roger Lewin, Origins Reconsidered, is forever etched in my memory, where he paints a vivid picture of a young Homo erectus dying, and slowly, through more than a million years, becoming the fossil he and Alan Walker discovered at Lake Turkana, and forever after called the Turkana boy: This image of a wait-a-bit thorn springing from what once was a boy's head I find …

Sun Halo over Sweden https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap211228.html "Explanation: What's happened to the Sun? Sometimes it looks like the Sun is being viewed through a giant lens. In the featured video, however, there are actually millions of tiny lenses: ice crystals. Water may freeze in the atmosphere into small, flat, six-sided, ice crystals. As these crystals flutter to the ground, much time is spent with their faces flat and parallel to the ground. An observer may find themselves in the same plane as many of the falling ice crystals near sunrise or sunset. During this alignment, each crystal can act like a miniature lens, refracting sunlight into our view and cre…

Russian scientists have discovered a new mechanism for the formation of formaldehyde in space - a compound that plays a significant role in the synthesis of organic compounds necessary for the origin of life on Earth. According to the new results, organic molecules can appear in molecular clouds in the early stages of evolution, that is, much earlier than the formation of stars in them. Molecules of water carry out the transfer of protons from oxygen atoms to a carbon atom, which catalyzes the formaldehyde synthesis reaction without the need for a large amount of energy. Source: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.jpclett.1c02760

Oh, the headline writers ... Scientists Find A Hole In Earth’s Centre, Through A Secret Duct Under Panama (indiatimes.com)

https://apnews.com/article/edward-o-wilson-dead-biologist-bc3d64fceb5200dd88d67187ef2a5cee

Astronomers have found 70 wandering planets after having processed 20-years collected data. Wadnering planets are the planets that are located in interstellar space and are not gravitationally associated with a star or brown dwarf. Over the past 20 years, about two dozen such bodies have been discovered. The source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-021-01513-x

https://www.the-sun.com/tech/4330598/china-fires-up-artificial-sun/ HOT TO TROT China fires up ‘artificial sun’ 7 times warmer than the real sun to make unlimited energy – and wants to make it HOTTER CHINA has fired up a machine designed to make unlimited energy known as the "artificial sun" - and wants to make it even hotter than the real sun. Tests being run on the Experiential Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) trying to get a higher temperature and longer duration at the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science research centre. The device is already close to seven times warmer than the sun, but scientists are trying to upgrade the EAST…

Artificial intelligence in one of the district people's prosecutor's offices in Shanghai for the first time became the compiler of the text of the indictment, which will be presented to the criminal in court. This is reported by Economic News with reference to haggin.az According to the South China Morning Post newspaper, AI received prosecutorial skills after studying more than 17 thousand cases considered in the courts of Shanghai from 2015 to 2020. The "digital prosecutor" makes accusations with 97% accuracy, based on one thousand "characteristic features" that he identifies in court documents on specific criminal cases. "Artificial intelligence to a cer…

https://www.theweathernetwork.com/ca/news/article/fossil-of-baby-dinosaur-preserved-in-egg-astounds-science-community

"Strange chemical in clouds of Venus defies explanation. Could it be a sign of life?" https://www.space.com/venus-clouds-possible-life-chemical-discovery.html

I came across this short but brilliant, 4.5 minute talk from the BBC about the subject of misinterpretations. Answers here to refer to most of the fallacies we see all too regularly at SF. How to avoid falling for the ‘gambler’s fallacy’ - BBC Ideas

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/astronomers-discover-hidden-water-in-the-red-planets-grand-canyon-180979267/ A Martian orbiter located a large reserve of hydrogen in a mountainous area of the Red Planet Elizabeth Gamillo Daily Correspondent December 20, 2021 3:28 p.m. A region within Mars's Valles Marineris (pictured) called the Candor Chaos had a large amount of hydrogen about a meter below the surface. European Space Agency extract: "Using TGO's data from May 2018 to February 2021, the team found a large amount of hydrogen beneath the surface of Mars' versi…

https://phys.org/news/2021-12-black-holes-immediately-big.html Did black holes form immediately after the Big Bang? How did supermassive black holes form? What is dark matter? In an alternative model for how the universe came to be, as compared to the 'textbook' history of the universe, a team of astronomers propose that both of these cosmic mysteries could be explained by so-called "primordial black holes." Nico Cappelluti (University of Miami), Günther Hasinger (ESA Science Director) and Priyamvada Natarajan (Yale University), suggest that black holes existed since the beginning of the universe and that these primordial black holes could themselves …

https://phys.org/news/2021-12-nasa-friday-webb-space-telescope.html NASA confirms next Friday for Webb Space Telescope launch: In this April 13, 2017 photo provided by NASA, technicians lift the mirror of the James Webb Space Telescope using a crane at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. NASA announced Tuesday, Dec. 14, 2021, that next week's launch of its new space telescope is delayed for at least two days because of a communication problem between the observatory and the rocket. Liftoff of the James Webb Space Telescope is now targeted for no earlier than Dec. 24. Credit: Laura Betz/NASA via AP, File NASA is shooting for next Friday t…

Interesting, any thoughts on how to apply this into use? https://scitechdaily.com/physicists-discover-a-remarkable-new-type-of-sound-wave

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/936908 I Hope there won't be any problems while its exploitation. What do you think of it?

On the December, 8 Yusaku Maezawa and Yozo Hirano have docked to the ISS module “Search". They were from Baikonur Cosmodrome where Yuri Gagarin’s first ever flight to space had taken place in 1961. Also it’s known that they are going to make a first ever made painting using brushes in space. On the ISS, they will have access to both the Russian and American segments of the ISS. The return of the crew is scheduled for December 20. https://spaceadventures.com/ms-20/ https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/dec/08/dream-come-true-japanese-billionaire-blasts-off-for-iss

Claimed to be the hottest place on Earth https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/science-environment-59601560

For those of you who are interested in this. There’s been a flurry of papers on the subject over the past three years in particular, but it was very difficult to get the big picture. This is a nice, plain language summary. https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-most-famous-paradox-in-physics-nears-its-end-20201029/

Welcome! Here you will find up to date astronomy news from all over the galaxy 🌔 For today's moment we have such interesting news: 1. Galaxy that has got no dark matter has been discovered. Astronomers from the Netherlands in cooperation with colleagues from other countries, have discovered that the galaxy that does not contain traces of dark matter. It's called AGC 114905. 2. Space tourism recovery On the December, 8 Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa and Yozo Hirano are going to the ISS. They will fly to space on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft from Baikanur where the first person in space Yuri Gagarin was sent. Also it’s known that they are g…

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/scientists-unveiled-the-worlds-first-living-robots-last-year-now-they-can-now-reproduce-180979150/ Scientists Unveiled the World’s First Living Robots Last Year. Now, They Can Reproduce: By clustering free-floating stem cells together, ‘xenobots’ can assemble baby bots: Early last year, a team of researchers announced the world's first living machines—bundles of stem cells from African clawed frogs (Xenopus laevis) that could be programmed to accomplish certain tasks. The sand grain–sized cells could successfully move microscopic objects, whiz around Petri dishes and even self-heal, Katherine J. Wu reported for Smit…

https://phys.org/news/2021-12-astronomers-strangely-massive-black-hole.html Astronomers discover strangely massive black hole in Milky Way satellite galaxy: Astronomers at The University of Texas at Austin's McDonald Observatory have discovered an unusually massive black hole at the heart of one of the Milky Way's dwarf satellite galaxies, called Leo I. Almost as massive as the black hole in our own galaxy, the finding could redefine our understanding of how all galaxies—the building blocks of the universe—evolve. The work is published in a recent issue of The Astrophysical Journal. The team decided to study Leo I because of its peculiarity. Unlike most dwa…

https://phys.org/news/2021-12-astronomers-binary-star.html Astronomers observe a new type of binary star long predicted to exist: Researchers at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian have observed a new type of binary star that has long been theorized to exist. The discovery finally confirms how a rare type of star in the universe forms and evolves. The new class of stars, described in this month's issue of the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, was discovered by postdoctoral fellow Kareem El-Badry using the Shane Telescope at Lick Observatory in California and data from several astronomical surveys. "We have observed …

https://phys.org/news/2021-11-physicists-neutrinos-large-hadron-collider.html Physicists detect signs of neutrinos at Large Hadron Collider: The FASER particle detector that received CERN approval to be installed at the Large Hadron Collider in 2019 has recently been augmented with an instrument to detect neutrinos. The UCI-led FASER team used a smaller detector of the same type in 2018 to make the first observations of the elusive particles generated at a collider. The new instrument will be able to detect thousands of neutrino interactions over the next three years, the researchers say. Credit: CERN The international Forward Search Experiment…

https://phys.org/news/2021-11-social-scientists-replication-capable-beliefs.html Testing social scientists with replication studies shows them capable of changing their beliefs: A team of researchers from the University of Alabama, the University of Melbourne and the University of California has found that social scientists are able to change their beliefs regarding the outcome of an experiment when given the chance. In a paper published in the journal Nature Human Behavior, the group describes how they tested the ability of scientists to change their beliefs about a scientific idea when shown evidence of replicability. Michael Gordon and Thomas Pfeifer with Mas…