Science News

I was just browsing around on YouTube and I found this excellent video about the scientific method that I wanted to share with you all. I haven't really heard of this model before, and I was wondering if any of you have? What do you think of the model? <link removed by mod>

I just watched a 1.50 minute youtube video, Introducing Amazon Go and the worlds most shopping technology. As you walk into a store with this technology, you swipe your card in a reader, go into the store picking up the things you want, and walk out, without having to stop at a register to check out. The system watches you while you shop, and automatically adds things to your virtual cart as you pick them off shelves. No more checkout lines, and many jobs will be lost as the technology spreads from store to store.

I thought some of us might find this interesting, not exactly cold fusion but it could have been what was being detected 27 years ago! https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/its-not-cold-fusion-but-its-something/

There is currently a clinical trial taking place in Europe and Canada in which they test the ASO strategy in patients with Huntingtons disease. When the genetic sequence of a particular gene is known to be causative of a particular disease, it is possible to synthesize a strand of nucleic acid (DNA, RNA or a chemical analogue) that will bind to the messenger RNA (mRNA) produced by that gene and inactivate it, effectively turning that gene "off". (gene silencing) This synthesized nucleic acid is termed an "anti-sense" oligonucleotide.(ASO) Antisense oligonucleotides have been researched as potential drugs for diseases such as cancers, diabetes, Amyotrophic late…

Surgeons in Oxford have used a robot to operate inside the eye - in a world first. A team at Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital used the device, controlled via a joystick, to remove a membrane one hundredth of a millimetre thick. Patient Bill Beaver, 70, said it was "a fairytale". Surgeons hope the procedure will pave the way for more complex eye surgery than is currently possible with the human hand.

Recently scientists have been performing experiments on people to test whether the heart plays a role in human thinking and cognition http://us.blastingnews.com/world/2016/12/we-could-be-knowing-by-heart-scientists-say-001305773.html

That's the conclusion reported in this article in the Grauniad I find it hard to believe they can reach this conclusion from ancient measurements, but I haven't read the original article.

Estimating deaths from climate change is a complex process, and bound to be controversial. However, it's being done. Previously the UN estimated 100M deaths by 2030, a new report suggests the number will be much smaller, perhaps 9M. During WWII Nazis killed about 6M Jews, including 1.5M children. The Nuremberg trials convicted a number of Nazis for this genocide. Should there be similar trials for people who are responsible for perpetuating climate change?

Recently there's a lot of hype about the NASA's impossible EM drive thruster that supposedly "breaks" Newtons 3rd law. There's this peer reviewed paper that explains how it works. I lack the propulsion/physics background to judge whats going on here, is there someone competent who can explain what is the deal?

The solar panels are useless during the rainy days. Some researchers of Quingdao, China has developed a new type of solar panel that will generate electricity from rain drop. They have layered a single atom thick coat of graphene. We all know that graphane is a great conductor. The rain water will generate free electrons due to Lewis acids and bases reaction. As a result, the overall efficiency of the system increases manifold.

I haven't read the book. Is this news or undue alarm? I know a few scientists believe we have already gone past the point of no return on climate change, but this book may be more encompassing than climate change.

This type of processing component will power deep learning servers, increase their computing power, and accelerate the use of strong AI. This Toshiba part is similar to a previous component, but uses 1/6 the power.

As the title suggests, researchers have found a fossil parrot much further north than any previously discovered. Fans of Monty Python may be curious to know if it is a Norwegian Blue. (Lovely plumage.) http://rsbl.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/12/10/20160717 Abstract Modern parrots (crown Psittaciformes) are a species-rich group of mostly tropical and subtropical birds with a very limited fossil record. A partial tarsometatarsus from the late Early Miocene of Siberia (Baikal Lake) is the first pre-Quaternary find of crown Psittaciformes in Asia (and Siberia in particular) and is also the northern-most find of this bird order worldwide. This find documents a …

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRqSkR4ENAg Sadly in order for it to be popular it has too look good.

http://www.itechpost.com/articles/47939/20161029/google-ais-encryption-better-human.htm

Mysterious pulsing stars could be signals from various civilizations talking to each other! Recently over 200 sun like stars have been seen pulsing in an unusual manner than might indicate intelligent life. http://www.space.com/34541-alien-life-search-possible-seti-signals.html?utm_source=sp-newsletter A study published in October 2016 reported the detection of odd light pulses coming from 234 of 2.5 million stars observed by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey's 2.5-meter telescope in New Mexico (pictured here). These pulses are consistent with signals that intelligent aliens might produce, the study authors claimed. Credit: SDSS/Fermilab Visual Media Services/NAS…

According to this National Geographic article, Cambridge researchers have recently uncovered "mineralized networks of blood vessels" and "ripples" tracing the "wrinkled outer layer of the cortex" of an Iguanodon-like dinosaurs in rocks initially found in 2004 on a beach in Sussex, England. The article also describes how a "pickling" process (e.g., bodies found in bog) might have led to this improbable and unique discovery. Enjoy!

I have read 2 articles on when humanity will end and they both said that humanity will end in the year 2100 .

A nonsensical paper generated by iOS autocomplete has been accepted by an international conference on atomic and nuclear physics in Atlanta, Georgia.They must have considered gobbledegook to be as impressive as their other entries. Grauniad newspaper

Elon musk recently revealed his plan to colonize mars. Personally I really want his plan to be possible and to be completely started by the time I get to my mid thirties. What are your thoughts on his plan? Do you think it could work, do you think it will be soon, and do you think anyone would want to go?

This youtube SciShow, Could Life be Older than Earth, gives a tiny bit of evidence that the panspermia seeded life on Earth. Alexi Sharov and Richard Gordon wrote Life Before Earth that is the basis of this youtube video. The paper abstract from arXiv.org (Cornell University Library) follows: Prior to hearing this evidence for panspermia, I thought it to be unlikely, but now it seems most probable. Is it possible the Mars sized body that hit Earth and created the Moon is the rogue planet that originally spawned life, or is a more complex chain of events more likely. Will we ever be able to simulate the chain of events to find the/a Mother planet of life that may…

The Nobel Prize in Physics 2016 David J. Thouless, F. Duncan M. Haldane, J. Michael Kosterlitz Share this: 0 English English (pdf) Swedish Swedish (pdf) The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Nobel Prize in Physics 2016 with one half toDavid J. Thouless University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA and the other half to F. Duncan M. Haldane Princeton University, NJ, USA and J. Michael Kosterlitz Brown University, Providence, RI, USA "for theoretical discoveries of topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter” https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2016/press.html Shame abou…

Mr. Yoshinori Ohsumi will receive the Nobel Prize in Medical Science 2016 for his great achievement of discovering and understanding the process of autophagy. Autophagy is the body's internal recycling process by which scrap cell parts are captured and the useful parts are utilized to generate energy. Ohsumi has been successful in explaining in detail how this process works. He reported that he was a bit shocked when he got the phone call from the Noble Prize Committee. Further reading : www.theguardian.com/science/2016/oct/03/yoshinori-ohsumi-wins-nobel-prize-in-medicine

Prior to the fire ant invasion, we had other kinds of ants, including carpenter ants, which ate holes in the house. Since the fire ants arrived, I've not seen any carpenter ants in more than a decade, and few others species of ant as well. Anyone else notice changes from fire ants that may be beneficial? While the lack of carpenter ants prevents damage to my house, the decay rate of fallen trees and branches is slower, I suspect, which may slow CO2 being released into the atmosphere and lessen global warming.

Interesting sudy... "Potential voters who see the nation as being in dire economic straits view a presidential candidate as more “presidential” when he or she uses high-intensity, emotional language, a new study suggests" http://neurosciencenews.com/political-language-psychology-4925/ Incidently, this is exactly how the parliament & presidential campains were ran by the right wing party in Poland earlier this year. They were able to convince many of the voters that the nation is in terrible condition and built their entire campain of emotional, high intensity language on that notion. They won both the parliamnet and the presidential elections by quite a mar…