Science News

A team of scientists has a new idea for how to save migrating blue whales from dangerous collisions with ships: shut up and listen. https://www.tectalk.co/scientists-suggest-teaching-ships-to-speak-whale-language/

Here is an extract from an excellent modern data source about symtoms of Covid 19 in the long term that may be of interest. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-54296223

https://www.livescience.com/aliens-spot-earth-exoplanets.html

Our skeptic hero, James Randi, has died, age 92. RIP https://web.randi.org/home/james-randi-has-died

...and all I can think of is more efficient drivers for my flashlights: https://www.sciencenews.org/article/physics-first-room-temperature-superconductor-discovery?utm_source=Reddit&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=r_science&fbclid=IwAR23F2iSASF7zy780H3PI3qVwNNM7ejoF7uWRmAza4j6FeASxnbNf7CDLJI

Superconductors, through which an electric current can pass without loss, have long been seen as offering great potential in such applications as transmission of electric power. The downside is that superconduction was initially found only at temperatures close to absolute zero. Years of experiment have led to demonstrations at substantially higher temperatures, but still well below room temperature - one of the goals of the research. Now the good news: reported in this Nature article, researchers have achieved superconduction in a carbonaceous sulphur hydride system at a temperature of 15o C. And the bad news: this occurs at pressures between 140 to 275 gigapas…

I would hate to be sitting on a bank watching this tide roll in https://www.msn.com/en-ca/weather/topstories/astronomers-capture-death-by-spaghettification-as-black-hole-shreds-a-star/ar-BB1a1COG?ocid=msedgntp One caveat ... "The idea of a black hole 'sucking in' a nearby star sounds like science fiction." and it is. BHs don't 'suck', they just gravitate.

https://www.quantamagazine.org/2020-nobel-prize-in-chemistry-awarded-for-crispr-to-charpentier-and-doudna-20201007/

I found this article. I don't know what it is worth. https://www.insidewalessport.co.uk/an-earlier-universe-existed-before-the-big-bang-and-can-be-observed-today/ Here is the reason and the deduction from this explanation: What is behind this singularity would then be that the much sought-after antimatter. So this thread has a strong potential to go into speculation... Sir Roger Penrose has recently published his theory of ‘Hawking Points’ (a crucial element in the discovery of a pre-exiting universe) in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society CREDIT: APA Picturedesk Gmbh/Shutterstock/APA Picturedesk Gmbh/Shutterstock Sir Roger Penrose: T…

Breaking news: https://nationalpost.com/pmn/health-pmn/penrose-genzel-and-ghez-win-2020-nobel-prize-for-physics Much focus on gravitation lately. Will this be the era of gravity? Would Hawking have won the Nobel Prize had he been living today?

https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-predict-how-long-humans-can-survive-radiation-on-the-moon

Can read more of the article here: https://astronomy.com/news/2020/09/rodents-in-space-keeping-bone-and-muscle-strong-on-the-iss Really happy about this as it will make moving between different levels of gravity easier and make living in lower gravity long term much more viable.

Apparently Dark Matter is 'darker' than previously thought. It seems that the gravitational lensing produced by Dark Matter distributions in certain galaxy clusters is up to 10x greater than expected from galactic rotations and orbits ( motions ). Indcating that not only are we in the 'dark' as to its make-up, but also distributions and/or properties. https://www.msn.com/en-ca/weather/topstories/astronomers-discover-a-surprise-twist-in-the-mystery-of-dark-matter/ar-BB18Wylr?ocid=msedgntp

https://scitechdaily.com/black-hole-plasma-conditions-created-on-earth-laser-briefly-uses-1000-times-the-electric-consumption-of-the-entire-globe/

Maybe not all that revealing, as it looks very much like the caustics of clusters and superclusters of galaxies, and these are supposed to have clustered around DM, but beautiful to look at nonetheless. https://sciencesprings.wordpress.com/2020/09/07/from-harvard-smithsonian-center-for-astrophysics-scientists-zoom-in-on-dark-matter-revealing-the-invisible-skeleton-of-the-universe/ The possibility of detecting radiation from collisions seems the most interesting claim:

Seems a massive ( record breaking 142 Ms ) Black Hole was created from the collision of a 66 Ms and 85 Ms BHs. https://www.theweathernetwork.com/ca/news/article/discovery-of-record-breaking-black-hole-collision-surprises-astronomers ( amazing what you find when you go check tomorrow's weather ) Published today from researchers at UBC. ( that's close to Mordred's stomping grounds ) edit I guess now muruep00 knows how supermassive BHs grow in galactic centers, without the need for negative energy, or time transformations.

A novel application of standard membrane technology similar to that used in sealed system hot water tanks to stabilise the oxygen supply from a concentrator in places where the electricity supply is unreliable. This is of particular use in developing countries where many many pneumonia sufferers are at risk and often children. Pneumonia (often called 'the old man's friend') is apparently the biggest cause of death in under 5's in the world. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/stories-53918830

https://astronomynow.com/2020/08/24/nearby-supernova-blasts-may-be-culprits-in-at-least-one-mass-extinction/

Location of Comet NEOWISE from July 27 to August 2, 2020. Facing west-northwest shortly after dusk, as seen from the U.S. See how the curve in the Big Dipper’s handle points to the bright star Arcturus? For a specific view – shortly after your local dusk – from your specific location on the globe, try Stellarium. Illustration by Eddie Irizarry using Stellarium. https://earthsky.org

According to a new paper Mars was not a water world in the deep past but an ice world. Rivers and alluvial fans were most likely made under a covering of ices says a paper in Nature Geoscience. https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamiecartereurope/2020/08/04/was-mars-once-the-white-planet-ice-sheets-not-rivers-created-martian-valleys-say-scientists

Talking of species, as we were in another thread, the idea that two species cannot inter-breed or hybridise is shown to be false in many examples. Here is an amazing example of a hybrid of two different species that are also from two different genera, and even different families: https://www.quantamagazine.org/extra-dna-may-make-unlikely-hybrid-fish-possible-20200805/

https://phys.org/news/2020-08-fastest-star.amp

T cell responses (especially T helper cells CD4) are an important element of the immune memory. A few studies have now found that convalescent folks with mild or no symptoms show detectable T cell responses, which is positive news. (Sekine et al. 2020 Cell (preproof); biorxiv: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.26.115832v1). A couple of other preliminary studies seem to suggest that even antibody responses may be present for longer than previously anticipated (e.g. https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.08.01.20166553v1, https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.08.11.20171843v2) . So we are seeing an increasing number of studie…

Here is a new study on quantum tunneling Physicists watch quantum particles tunnel through solid barriers. Here's what they found. https://www.livescience.com/quantum-tunneling-observed-and-measured.html

A newly discovered four-quark particle (illustrated) is the first to contain all heavy quarks, and more than two quarks of the same kind. CERN https://www.sciencenews.org/article/new-particle-cern-tetraquark-first-four-same-kind-quark