Everything posted by paulsutton
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UVC Resistant lichen
Thanks for the replies, certainly seems an interesting discovery and important for finding life on other planets and maybe how life developed here on Earth. If we factor this sort of discovery in, we may have to redefine what we mean by habitable or habitable zone in terms of radiation exposure.
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What ingredients automatically make a cosmetic bad?
I guess you also need to take into account how those substances react with the body, if they get absorbed and react with something else in the body, either natural or even just simple painkillers.
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UVC Resistant lichen
Hi I was reading an article on Science Daily about the discovery of a Lichen in the Mojave Desert, USA. This lichen has developed the ability to resist UVC radiation via a pigment. This got me thinking that I think most things biological can be traced back to genetics, so perhaps there is a genetic change that has taken place so this pigment develops. (probably not quite the right terminology there). in which case could it be possible to map the GENOME and indentify any dna / genes that are responsible for the pigment, then use CRISPR to spice these in to perhaps a plant that we can make polymers from (and make the polymer UVC resistant, or perhaps even some foods, so that these plants can be grown either on space vehicles or perhaps on the Moon or later Mars. Just asking as I am not sure if this sort of thing is possible Thanks Paul Reference ScienceDailyMojave lichen defies death rays—could life thrive on dist...Lichen from the Mojave Desert has stunned scientists by surviving months of lethal UVC radiation, suggesting life could exist on distant planets orbiting volatile stars. The secret? A microscopic “...
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Transmutation : Lead in to Gold
I sort of understand what has happened with the Experiment with turning Lead in to gold. https://www.symmetrymagazine.org/article/lhc-near-miss-collisions-turn-lead-into-gold So given the energy required to remove electrons is called Ionization energy and this is detailed as 1st 2nd, 3rd Expressed in Joules (or KiloJoules / mol / Electron Volts Periodic Table GuideIonization Energy Chart of all Elements (Full Chart Inside)Ionization energy chart of all the elements is given below.First ionization energy, second ionization energy as well as third ionization energy of the So what energy is required to strip all the electronic from heavier elements such as Lead, which as this has a mass of 82 then there would be 82 electronics. I know the LHC works at Mega and Giga electron volts, so if they are removing all or most of the electrons, is this a value that equates to all the different ionization energies added together. I am kinda guessing we don't need values for 4th,5th and higher values, as at least within Chemistry we deal with reactions that i think rely on the outer shell (valance) electrons. Furthermore, I probably don't quite understand some of this, but they must know how much energy is required for each element to lose all its electrons (if that is what happens) Thanks Paul
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Query on RFK Jr.
It doesn't, but Trump has made other appointments that have also left others confused.
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Trump administration is crippling science.
There is a discussion on Mastodon about this and related issues, there is currently a big attempt to try and archive as much information as possible for the future, so papers, website content etc. I know that NASA has had to remove references to black and female scientists as one example. This is part of the DEI crackdown. Really not a good situation at all.
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Entering cold water
Good point, apparently babies can do this as a response to entering water,
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Kinetic Sand
Hi I am involved with a local STEM café and discovery centre, in Torbay. We have a unit thing, that consists of a container to hold sand, this is connected to an upright and a xbox kinect, and a screen, the idea is that you fill the container with sand, and the kinect can scan the contours of the sand and display this on the screen. Rather than using play sand, the proprietor wants to use Kinetic sand, as this is expensive to buy as we need about 200kg (container is quite large) he would like to try and make some. I have looked up some instructions to make this, but many of the instructions seem to use perishable food products such as corn starch. We don't want to be buying more play sand down the line to make more due to the food based ingredients going mouldy or similar. Apparently it is possible to make with silicone oil (I assume in place of olive oil or similar) however I have tried and failed to find any instructions for this. I tried to do a search kinetic sand and silicone oil, and ended up with instruction using olive oil. Just wondered if anyone had any ideas please, or where I can perhaps find some actual instructions. I think silicone oil is some sort of lubricating oil, not sure. Thanks Paul Ps the same unit also has various games built in that can be projected on the surface, so when we just had various objects in the container, the projected sprites could move around but also sort of avoid the objects placed in the container, I think it needed more calibration but we were just testing it at that point. I am aware that normal bought kinetic sand is non-toxic and using the oil may not meet this, however children using this will be under supervision, so it should be safe to use in that respect.
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Anti matter transporation
Hence i was hoping to find a better source of info than a paper article, I agree with what you're saying,
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Anti matter transporation
Saw this on the Fediverse so also sharing here, sounds pretty good to me, and if this gives more institutions access to anti matter for research that is a good thing. The most dangerous delivery truck? How a lorry-load of antimatter will help solve secrets of universe https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/dec/08/cern-antimatter-secrets-universe-science Does anyone know where more information can be found about this, Or can they share if anything is found. Hope this is interesting anyway Paul
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Space station trajectory data
I am not too sure if this is the right forum category to share this. I happened upon this a few days ago and decided to share as it may be useful to anyone interested in the space station and developing projects to determine current location. This was posted to Phys.org Space station trajectory data now available https://phys.org/news/2024-12-space-station-trajectory.html Hopefully it is useful, I guess it will be useful for sites such as Heavens above ( https://www.heavens-above.com/ ), which does have details on when and where to look for the ISS Regards Paul
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Youtube channels on science?
The lessons are excellent, the nice thing about so many different channels is that there should be one that suits an individual learning style or even better more than one.
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How well do we all use References and Sources?
I if I understand things correctly, a reference list is a list of sources that are cited in your document / paper etc., so in LaTeX each time you use \cite{key} it will add the details of that key from your .bib file. However, I think there are also times when you may list what sources have been looked at even if you don't actually cite them. Maybe this goes in an appendix, as it can also help with further reading. I think it also depends very much on what is being written and the requirements of the institution you are studying at or the journal you are writing for.
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NASA supercomputer simulation of the Moon's formation
Very interesting, even though I can't help thinking I am watching blobs of liquid interacting, rather than 2 bodies of rock.
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Why Biden doesn't broadcast nuclear threats for Russians and for China?
Agreed, any regime change needs to come from within.
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Tidal disruption event - Black holes and stars
Thanks, interesting topic though, So will the upcoming space based gravitation wave telescope help with our understanding? https://lisa.nasa.gov/
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Tidal disruption event - Black holes and stars
Just reading an artcle about a black hole ripping a star apart due to its gravity. https://scitechdaily.com/black-hole-tears-star-to-shreds-unleashing-cosmic-shockwaves/ Seems interesting, however I just wondered if this is a similar phenomenon that is mentioned in the Brian Cox series recently on BBC one where he mentions asteroids around planets also being pulled apart and forming rings. As with the paper above, this new disk is also interacting with another star, I think Professor cox talks about Phobos is going to one day break up, some parts will burn up, however the rest will form a ring or rings around Mars. So something similar is also happening on Saturn, where a moon is causing gaps in the rings. Both do see similar, only clearly what happens with a black hole and star is on a massive scale by comparison. Just asking Paul
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Potential Ozone Depletion From Satellite Demise During Atmospheric Reentry
Thanks, I will make a note to include some more information next time. Paul
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Potential Ozone Depletion From Satellite Demise During Atmospheric Reentry
This was posted to the Fediverse recently and has created an interesting discussion, so I am posting the link to the research here too. Potential Ozone Depletion From Satellite Demise During Atmospheric Reentry in the Era of Mega-Constellations https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2024GL109280 Not quite sure what the solutions to this is really. Perhaps there are multiple ideas, I can see Elon Musk haling the rollout of Starlink.
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Are the negative effects of antibiotics on male fertility permanent?
I am not an expert in fertility, but I have read that there are other factors such as diet, even sitting for long periods or wearing certain types of clothing, heat etc. So antibiotics may be a small factor, if use is combined with other activity. In the US don't they use antibiotics in animals, do those animals also suffer lower fertility, ? Does this put those antibiotics in the food chain.?
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What are you reading?
Currently reading Research data visualization and scientific graphics, by Martins Zaumanis, which is the 2nd book in the peer recognized series, the first being How to write an impactful research paper. I finished reading this first. Nice series of books.
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Trying to build a small motor driven car, problems with motors and wheels
Update, I managed to get this working nicely using 2x AA batteries powering 2 motors at the front and the same for the other 2 motors at the back, bigger wheels also help. I am now looking to rebuild, motors will be glued on, with hot glue, rather than with sticky pads, gives a chance to do a quick re-design to make the wiring better. Thanks for the help / advice on this, really helpful. Paul
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Trying to build a small motor driven car, problems with motors and wheels
There is definitely a power issue. Using 2x cheap batteries and 2x Duracell makes a huge difference. I have wired up 2 motors, so that a battery pack can power 2 motors, then just need to do the same the other side. Paul
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Trying to build a small motor driven car, problems with motors and wheels
Hi Thanks for these suggestions, I will do as suggested. Paul
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Trying to build a small motor driven car, problems with motors and wheels
I am trying to build a small motor driven vehicle, this is toy size. I have a polycarbonate sheet and 4 motors, and 4 plastic wheels (but also have other wheel, so can interchange them. I have wired this up so far so that 2 of the wheels are wired up to a battery, the other 2 wheels are just attached to motors, my main issue regardless of how I do things, is that a motor plus wheel spins if held up, as soon as I put down on a flat surface, the motor + wheel stops turning. I am not an engineer, so not really sure what to do here. Thanks Paul