Menu

Blog

Archive for the ‘existential risks’ category: Page 77

Jan 22, 2020

North Korea’s Nuclear Bomb Is Much Bigger than Previously Thought

Posted by in categories: existential risks, military, nuclear weapons

A new look at 2017 test data reveals an explosion 16 times as powerful than the one that leveled Hiroshima.

Scientists looking anew at a 2017 North Korean nuclear test discovered that the explosion was likely about two-thirds more powerful than U.S. officials previously thought.

Earlier data put the yield somewhere between 30 and 300 kilotons; the U.S. intelligence community said 140 kilotons. That was already the most powerful device tested by North Korea, topping a 2016 test by about an order of magnitude. But a new look at seismological data suggests that the blast was between 148 and 328 kilotons, and probably around 250 kilotons.

Jan 22, 2020

Nuclear Annihilation Simulation Predicts 90 Million Deaths in First ‘Few Hours’

Posted by in category: existential risks

Welp o.o if we got a global emp we could disable all nukes.


This nuclear war simulator predicts what would happen in the first few hours of a major conflict between Russia and the U.S.

Jan 22, 2020

The Air Force Is Developing An ‘EMP Missile’ To Fry North Korea’s Nukes

Posted by in categories: existential risks, military

Circa 2017


One of the options that the United States is looking at to counter North Korea’s nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles is an experimental weapon called CHAMP.

Jan 13, 2020

7 Billion-Year-Old Stardust Is Oldest Material Found on Earth

Posted by in categories: asteroid/comet impacts, existential risks, space travel

Scientists recently identified the oldest material on Earth: stardust that’s 7 billion years old, tucked away in a massive, rocky meteorite that struck our planet half a century ago.

This ancient interstellar dust, made of presolar grains (dust grains that predate our sun), was belched into the universe by dying stars during the final stages of their lives. Some of that dust eventually hitched a ride to Earth on an asteroid that produced the Murchison meteorite, a massive, 220-lb. (100 kilograms) rock that fell on Sept. 28, 1969, near Murchison, Victoria, in Australia.

Dec 31, 2019

The Orion Cube: An extraterrestrial device hidden by the US

Posted by in categories: alien life, existential risks, government, military

Fun topic, real or not.


Dan Burisch, a doctorate in microbiology and former worker of the secret military forces of the United States, details great puzzling information about extraterrestrials, the Orion Cube, time machines, secret government plans and human extinction.

Continue reading “The Orion Cube: An extraterrestrial device hidden by the US” »

Dec 30, 2019

Apocalypse Then: When Y2K Didn’t Lead To The End Of Civilization

Posted by in categories: computing, existential risks, government, internet

For a time 20 years ago, millions of people, including corporate chiefs and government leaders, feared that the internet was going to crash and shatter on New Year’s Eve and bring much of civilization crumbling down with it. This was all because computers around the world weren’t equipped to deal with the fact of the year 2000. Their software thought of years as two digits. When the year 99 gave way to the year 00, data would behave as if it were about the year 1900, a century before, and system upon system in an almost infinite chain of dominoes would fail. Billions were spent trying to prepare for what seemed almost inevitable.


Twenty years ago, the world feared that a technological doomsday was nigh. It wasn’t, but Y2K had a lot of prescient things to say about how we interact with tech.

Dec 26, 2019

Study reveals the Great Pyramid of Giza can focus electromagnetic energy

Posted by in categories: existential risks, nanotechnology, physics, solar power, sustainability

An international research group has applied methods of theoretical physics to investigate the electromagnetic response of the Great Pyramid to radio waves. Scientists predicted that under resonance conditions, the pyramid can concentrate electromagnetic energy in its internal chambers and under the base. The research group plans to use these theoretical results to design nanoparticles capable of reproducing similar effects in the optical range. Such nanoparticles may be used, for example, to develop sensors and highly efficient solar cells. The study was published in the Journal of Applied Physics.

While Egyptian are surrounded by many myths and legends, researchers have little scientifically reliable information about their physical properties. Physicists recently took an interest in how the Great Pyramid would interact with electromagnetic waves of a resonant length. Calculations showed that in the resonant state, the pyramid can concentrate in the its internal chambers as well as under its base, where the third unfinished chamber is located.

These conclusions were derived on the basis of numerical modeling and analytical methods of physics. The researchers first estimated that resonances in the pyramid can be induced by radio waves with a length ranging from 200 to 600 meters. Then they made a model of the electromagnetic response of the pyramid and calculated the extinction cross section. This value helps to estimate which part of the incident wave energy can be scattered or absorbed by the pyramid under resonant conditions. Finally, for the same conditions, the scientists obtained the electromagnetic field distribution inside the pyramid.

Dec 22, 2019

Aliens Could Have Explored The Galaxy And Visited Earth Already, Scientists Say

Posted by in categories: alien life, existential risks

The Milky Way could be teeming with interstellar alien civilizations, according to a new study. We just don’t know about it because they haven’t paid us a visit in 10 million years.

The study, published last month in The Astronomical Journal, posits that intelligent extraterrestrial life could be taking its time to explore the galaxy, harnessing star systems’ movement to make star-hopping easier.

The work is a new response to a question known as the Fermi Paradox, which asks why we haven’t detected signs of extraterrestrial intelligence.

Dec 13, 2019

Successful egg harvest breaks new ground in saving the northern white rhinoceros

Posted by in category: existential risks

There are only two northern white rhinos left worldwide, both of them female. Saving this representative of megafauna from extinction seems impossible under these circumstances, yet an international consortium of scientists and conservationists just completed a procedure that could enable assisted reproduction techniques to do just that. On August 22, 2019, a team of veterinarians successfully harvested eggs from the two females who live in Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya — a procedure that has never been attempted in northern white rhinos before. The eggs will now be artificially inseminated with frozen sperm from a northern white rhino bull, and in the near future the embryo will be transferred to a southern white rhino surrogate mother. The successful procedure was a joint effort by the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (Leibniz-IZW) Berlin, Avantea, Dvur Kralove Zoo, Ol Pejeta Conservancy and the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS).

With neither Najin and Fatu, the two northern white rhino females, able to carry a pregnancy, the future of the northern white rhino now rests solely on pioneering artificial reproduction techniques. The successful harvesting of their eggs means that scientists are one step closer to being able to save the northern white rhino from complete extinction.

The procedure was the result of years of research, development, adjustments and practice. “Both the technique and the equipment had to be developed entirely from scratch,” says Prof. Thomas Hildebrandt from Leibniz-IZW and Dr. David Ndeereh from the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), who headed the procedure. “We were able to harvest a total of 10 oocytes — 5 from Najin and 5 from Fatu — showing that both females can still provide eggs and thus help to save these magnificent creatures.”

Dec 12, 2019

Geoscientists Rethink The Calamity That Killed The Dinosaurs

Posted by in category: existential risks

Antarctic mollusk fossils shed new light on the extinction event that killed the dinosaurs.

Page 77 of 150First7475767778798081Last