Interesting Science Stuff Thread

[Easy Bakes 253]

A new mineral found from a meteorite in Antarctica.

Fascinating. A Titanium Sulfide crystal with a new structure. The article was a little light on properties, but since they were using scanning electron microscopes we are perhaps a little premature to know more. Wonder if this stuff is formed in the sulfur-rich vents on the floor of the Pacific where the pressure is several hundreds atmospheres?

There are unmanned vehicles that have been down there, but I have no report on any mineral samples. I think they were more interested in the wild life.

Or it could have formed elswere were ever the meteorite originated.

or the impact could have formed it?

[blade2k5 1,523]

Wonder if this stuff is formed in the sulfur-rich vents on the floor of the Pacific where the pressure is several hundreds atmospheres?

Last time I checked, meteorites came from space, not the bottom of the Pacific.

[9988 428]

Wonder if this stuff is formed in the sulfur-rich vents on the floor of the Pacific where the pressure is several hundreds atmospheres?

Last time I checked, meteorites came from space, not the bottom of the Pacific.

Did you read Deception Point by Dan Brown? There it is well explained.

[astronelson 339]

Wonder if this stuff is formed in the sulfur-rich vents on the floor of the Pacific where the pressure is several hundreds atmospheres?

Last time I checked, meteorites came from space, not the bottom of the Pacific.

Did you read Deception Point by Dan Brown? There it is well explained.

In the book it wasn't a meteorite, and Dan Brown has a reputation for not doing quite as much research as he says he does.

Meteorites are, by definition, rocks that came from space that survived hitting the ground. I should know.

[Easy Bakes 253]

Wonder if this stuff is formed in the sulfur-rich vents on the floor of the Pacific where the pressure is several hundreds atmospheres?

Last time I checked, meteorites came from space, not the bottom of the Pacific.

Did you read Deception Point by Dan Brown? There it is well explained.

In the book it wasn't a meteorite, and Dan Brown has a reputation for not doing quite as much research as he says he does.

Meteorites are, by definition, rocks that came from space that survived hitting the ground. I should know.

So we still don't know if its a naturally occuring substance were the meteor started from or if the impact created it.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

My original conjecture had more to do with natural process rather than random acts of collection by the planet. I was postulating from things that have been found in volcanic vents on the sea floor.

[astronelson 339]

Well, the article said it was a meteorite so I just went with that. Seeing as it was on top of the ice sheet, it was unlikely to have formed at the bottom of the ocean. Chances are it's probably a meteorite.

There are various other features (fusion crust, iron-nickel content, etc.) that can be used to identify a meteorite, and these were most likely used.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Well, the article said it was a meteorite so I just went with that. Seeing as it was on top of the ice sheet, it was unlikely to have formed at the bottom of the ocean. Chances are it's probably a meteorite.

There are various other features (fusion crust, iron-nickel content, etc.) that can be used to identify a meteorite, and these were most likely used.

True, but the finding of life as we don't know it triggered me to open discussion of other similar forms that exist already on earth. Sulfur-based life is interesting, but there is not much sulfur around compared to silicon, which could be a cognate of carbon. Imagine, if you will, a DNA molecule where Silicon replaced all the Carbon, and other elements may be substituted as needed.

[astronelson 339]

At no point was any unknown life-form mentioned, and, as far as I can tell, the only discussion has been about a new sulphur-titanium mineral found in a meteorite, which could form without an organism's actions.

Silicon-based life is interesting, but there are a few major problems that carbon-based life doesn't have. If it breathes in oxygen it will have to breathe out SiO₂, and that's a solid. There's significantly more silicon (28% by mass) than carbon (<0.2% by mass) in the crust and we went with the latter, so there's probably quite a lot of arguments against silicon. By mass, the amount of sulphur is roughly the same as the amount of carbon.

[Easy Bakes 253]

AStar Trek gadget becomes reality.

The tricorder/ hand held imaging scanner made by GE

http://www.gereports.com/vscan-pocket-sized-ultra-smart-ultrasound-unveiled/

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

That is certainly a fine start. I don't recall Dr. McCoy's had an attached probe/transponder with a thick cable, but what the heck?. The ST tricorder could also identify pathogens, so they aren't there yet.

I hope they don't expect to charge an arm and a leg for this. Medical instruments are notoriously expensive and every ER exam room should have one, to say nothing of every cardiologist and obstetrician.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Sea grasses world wide in decline.

If this goes on, there will be considerable further loss of sea life, including some species dependent on these grasses for food.

It appears that other organisms can't survive in our garbage, either.

[Ocram's Razr 963]

Wow! Those are interesting (last one was sad). Due to Moor's law, mass production, and supply/demand, everything (including medical equipment) has/is/will miniaturize and get less expensive. The Puget Sound is very polluted, especially the Duwamish River but clean up and rehabilitation is under way. The Duwamish is a superfund site so it is getting money from Boeing, factories, Seattle, and King County in addition to Federal money so it will get cleaned up in my lifetime (probably) and Seattle puts a TON of money into Sewage and Runoff Water Treatment and into beach and shore rehabilitation (even going as far as planting native seagrass in areas no one is going to see (but is important to the sea life).

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

I think we are finding out that the global ecosystem is not only fragile but that the survival of man is dependent on it. John Donne was more than right. Every species death diminishes us all. All that garbage we have been dumping in the ocean for a couple of centuries is coming back to haunt us.

[Easy Bakes 253]

Ice On Mercury?

http://www.space.com/11263-nasa-mercury-photos-results-messenger.html

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Ice On Mercury?

http://www.space.com...-messenger.html

Snowballs in hell?

[astronelson 339]

Ice On Mercury?

http://www.space.com...-messenger.html

Snowballs in hell?

Venus, which is hotter than Mercury everywhere on its surface at all times, is the solar system's hell. Mercury's tenuous atmosphere lets it get quite chilly in the shade. Coupled with an axial tilt of about a thirtieth of a degree means for some craters near the poles, the bases have never seen the sun. It gets quite cold at the bottom of those - cold enough to even freeze a few of the noble gases. You could possibly have a snowball made of argon ice.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Any snowball I've ever seen was water ice. Noble gases don't count. At those temperatures (<83K), Argon is a solid. Argon is used as an International Standard at its triple point of 83.8K.

[archelon2001 2]

an asteroid almost killed us. came within 7,500 miles of earth

[Azkals 22]

Any snowball I've ever seen was water ice. Noble gases don't count. At those temperatures (<83K), Argon is a solid. Argon is used as an International Standard at its triple point of 83.8K.

Well, Mars has its poles made out of ice from Carbon Dioxide.

Anyways This Story about the most distant quasar

[blade2k5 1,523]

an asteroid almost killed us. came within 7,500 miles of earth

That asteroid wasn't big enough to 'kill us.' It was only a little larger than a school bus. In fact, they said it would have burned up before it ever hit the ground.

[MandelSoft 2,769]

You need an astroid 10 times as big before it can do some real damage. But to wipe us out, you need a astroid of at least a few kilometers/miles across. And the larger the astriod, the rarer it becomes. Fortunately, all the big ones have known locations and orbits, and they mostly will likely not hit us in the following decades or centuries.

The astroids smaller than these big ones are actually more dangerous. They can't wipe us out, but they can destroy a quite large city. And of these astriods, not all of them are known. The last time that one of these hit was in 1908 in Siberia (and that one didn't hit the ground, but exploded in mid-air).

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

This Story about the most distant quasar

Fascinating. Several apple carts are now scattered on the pavement. Cosmology is such fun as science. Theories are made to be disproved. These cosmic search lights prove black holes, but since nothing is really known about them, don't be surprised as knowledge changes. That's why we observe.

And speaking of observations, if an asteroid were to impact the earth, there would be a lot of trouble but it would have to be of the scale of the one off Yucatan to cause an extinction event. Don't be too sure we know where all of them are. What if it came in orthogonal to the plane of the ecliptic (a rogue). Is anyone looking in those directions?

  Edited June 30, 2011 by A Nonny Moose  

[Easy Bakes 253]

This Story about the most distant quasar

Fascinating. Several apple carts are now scattered on the pavement. Cosmology is such fun as science. Theories are made to be disproved. These cosmic search lights prove black holes, but since nothing is really known about them, don't be surprised as knowledge changes. That's why we observe.

And speaking of observations, if an asteroid were to impact the earth, there would be a lot of trouble but it would have to be of the scale of the one off Yucatan to cause an extinction event. Don't be too sure we know where all of them are. What if it came in orthogonal to the plane of the ecliptic (a rogue). Is anyone looking in those directions?

Quasars are fascinating 2 Billion solar masses?

Thats a whole galaxy of stars. they say its now known to be normal for

Galaxy's to have massive black holes in the center on them so i guess finding one this big

was not much of a surprise.

The thing about finding NEO's {near earth objects} is you sort of have to find them twice before

theres even the possibility of some scientist noticing the possibility of a collision

[Cobraroll 138]

You need an astroid 10 times as big before it can do some real damage. But to wipe us out, you need a astroid of at least a few kilometers/miles across. And the larger the astriod, the rarer it becomes. Fortunately, all the big ones have known locations and orbits, and they mostly will likely not hit us in the following decades or centuries.

The astroids smaller than these big ones are actually more dangerous. They can't wipe us out, but they can destroy a quite large city. And of these astriods, not all of them are known. The last time that one of these hit was in 1908 in Siberia (and that one didn't hit the ground, but exploded in mid-air).

As far as I can remember, there was an asteroid impact-ish event in the Mediterranean in 1998. A meteor exploded in the lower atmosphere, with a force comparable to a small nuclear bomb. Had it crashed half an hour later, it would have landed somewhere in India/Pakistan, in the midst of an ongoing war. At that point, both India and Pakistan had recently developed nuclear weapons, and they were both prepared to immediately answer to an enemy nuclear attack...

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Well, if it didn't trigger a world MAD response, it would have solved the current overpopulation of the Hind.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Colors offossil bird found by deep forensics. Seems this bird was brown. Now, there are some T-Rex skin around so one wonders what color they were.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

One potato, two potato.

This is a breakthrough in one of the most used staple crops in the west. GM potatoes can become faster growing and more nourishing (which isn't much, but they are filling).

[Easy Bakes 253]

One potato, two potato.

so they will be able to grow them pre slcied?

Frito Lay would pay well for that.

Giant CME filmed on Sun.

Corneal deposits

  Edited July 14, 2011 by Easy Bakes  

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Potatoes would have too much skin if they grew sliced. Square or rectangular, maybe, or maybe a regular spheroid.

The solar flare is quite a picture. I am as close to a fusion power generator as I ever want to be.