Many of the technologies we once saw in science fiction are now becoming a reality.
In July 2017, social media users shared videos and images of burning trees and melting streetlights — the purported results of a record-breaking heatwave in…
An interesting article on how tsunamis caused by comets wiped out civilization in what is now the southeastern U.S. twice, in 539 and again in 1014. The bit about ammonia in the atmosphere also reminded me of the Norse prophecy about Thor wrestling with the Midgard Serpent, accompanied by poison in the air that kills many. I wonder how many strange things were witnessed by our ancestors for which they left us records that we are simply unable to understand.
Two massive comet or asteroid strikes in the past 1500 years altered Eastern North America’s history. The one in 539 AD devastated the South Atlantic Coast and permanently changed its geography. It left the South Atlantic Coastal Plain almost uninhabited. Hundreds of Uchee and Muskogean communities were wiped off the face of the earth. For obvious reasons, survivors headed north to the mountains.
Over a decade ago, I attended a conference in Macon, GA on the Swift Creek Culture. An anthropology professor matter-of-factly mentioned that all the Swift Creek Culture villages in the South Atlantic Coastal Plain were abandoned around 550 AD. About the same time, a large town with mounds on the Etowah River in Northwest Georgia began a rapid decline.
Think of DNA and chances are the double helix structure comes to mind, but that’s only one piece of the puzzle. Another major part is mitochondrial DNA, and in plants that’s even more important – and so complex that scientists haven’t yet been able to edit the genes in there. Now a team of Japanese researchers has managed to do just that, which could help improve the genetic diversity of crops.
Climate Facts
Posted in climatology
Taking the Climate for Granted
Posted in climatology, health
Dr Aubrey de Grey doesn’t just believe that aging, and the suffering that comes with it, can be slowed down — he believes it can be undone altogether.
What’s more, he thinks we are merely a few years away from making the scientific breakthroughs that will enable the medical field to put an end to death related to ageing — for good.
His independently funded non-profit, the SENS Foundation, is at the forefront of radical research that combines the problem solving approaches of technology with geriatric medicine.
In this conversation, he talks to Rob about his refusal to age gracefully, the biases of modern science, immortality, and why he won’t waste his time thinking about whether or not God exists.
NASA life support analyst Lucie Poulet explains how analog missions work and what they tell us about future crewed missions.
A trio of researchers affiliated with several institutions in the U.S. and Canada has found evidence that suggests nuclear material beneath the surface of neutron stars may be the strongest material in the universe. In their paper published in the journal Physical Review Letters, M. E. Caplan, A. Schneider, and C. J. Horowitz describe their neutron star simulation and what it showed.
Prior research has shown that when stars reach a certain age, they explode and collapse into a mass of neutrons; hence the name neutron star. And because they lose their neutrinos, neutron stars become extremely densely packed. Prior research has also found evidence that suggests the surface of such stars is so dense that the material would be incredibly strong. In this new effort, the researchers report evidence suggesting that the material just below the surface is even stronger.
Astrophysicists have theorized that as a neutron star settles into its new configuration, densely packed neutrons are pushed and pulled in different ways, resulting in formation of various shapes below the surface. Many of the theorized shapes take on the names of pasta, because of the similarities. Some have been named gnocchi, for example, others spaghetti or lasagna. Caplan, Schneider and Horowitz wondered about the density of these formations—would they be denser and thus stronger even than material on the crust? To find out, they created some computer simulations.