Interesting Science Stuff Thread

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

^ Lift with your knees, not your back.

[Terring 6,473]

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Japanese rocket make heavy use of A.I.

 

The success of this venture is one of the first instances of massive replacement of personnel by a computer.  The Japanese are well ahead of us in the A.I. and Robotics fields.  Now why do you suppose that is?

[AkemiAzula 280]

Bout time we started heading for singularity. I think it is safe to say that spending an hour watering by hand in a greenhouse is ridiculous when it takes a minute or so via an automated system to achieve the same soakage.

 

Also imagine weed pulling by robots. 

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Telling a robot how to recognize a weed might be quite tricky.  We don't be having any Asimov advanced robots anytime soon unless the Japanese do it.  Wouldn't be the first time they read an American book and made it happen.  They believed Phil Crosby long before the Americans realized that Quality Assurance was more than a few guys at the end of the assembly line.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

A real beer belly.

 

And before anyone asks, other types of alcoholic beverages require other ingredients than starches and/or distillation.

[AkemiAzula 280]

Blimey. That is a strange case. Then again brewing is just fermentation of yeasts so it makes sense. Ethanol exists naturally I think

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Why do you think God put the yeast spores on ripe grapes?  Ever seen a drunken bear in a vineyard?  Hilarious.

 

But seriously, beer is a fermentation product that has been with us for as long as recorded history.  Ancient Egyptian workers were paid in beer.  Since you have to boil the water to make beer and has alcohol in it, it is a lot safer to drink than the water of the Nile, eh?  The Ancients even had a festival to appease the goddess Mut where even the Pharaoh presiding got drunk as a skunk on beer and participated in the orgy.

 

So maybe the occasional (annual) drunken orgy is good for political relations.  Aldous Huxley points this out in Brave New World, to say nothing of the orgy scene in Samson and Delilah by Saint-saens.

 

Maybe all this uptight Puritanism of the western civilization is a big mistake.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Ballerinas don't get dizzy.

 

Wonder if this also applies to figure skaters?

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Makes more than guns.

 

They will probably need something better than Styrofoam and bubble wrap to get it there, but this is a very good application for 3D printing.  That and a design data base is all that's needed.

 

Wonder if a 3D printer could print a 3D printer?  Self reproduction would make it very interesting.

 

Also, on the geologic front:

 

This is also a big bang theory, but quite a bit smaller than the original.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

2013 Nobel Prize in medicine/physiology.

 

This is a huge advance in Histology.  Cellular mechanisms are starting to reveal their operations.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

2013 Nobel Prize in Physics.

 

For the Higgs Boson.  Much ado about something very tiny.

[timmie 988]

2013 Nobel Prize in Physics.

 

For the Higgs Boson.  Much ado about something very tiny.

 

The ULB - Free University of Brussels will probably see a big improvement in its rankings next year, thanks to the Nobel Prize for Englert. Oh those rankings...

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

2013 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

 

Computer programmers of the world unite!  I hope people see how important simulations can be.  Without the computers doing this kind of work, we would still be messing around on lab benches.

[Haljackey 17,272]

Not sure how accurate this is but interesting nonetheless

 

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

If the partial pressure of oxygen in the atmosphere doubled most things including people would spontaneously combust.

[blade2k5 1,523]

Here's something that's a little more interesting than whether our third rock from the sun lost it's oxygen.  It's something about 'diamond rain.'  

 

http://www.space.com/23135-diamond-rain-jupiter-saturn.html

[Ocram's Razr 963]

Between platinum asteroids and diamond rain, NASA could seriously bring on the bling!

--Ocram

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Here's something that's a little more interesting than whether our third rock from the sun lost it's oxygen.  It's something about 'diamond rain.'  

 

http://www.space.com/23135-diamond-rain-jupiter-saturn.html

Definitely interesting speculation.  However, what if Jupiter developed enough pressure (gravity) to ignite a fusion sequence?  A lot of carbon would be a problem.

[astronelson 339]

 

Here's something that's a little more interesting than whether our third rock from the sun lost it's oxygen.  It's something about 'diamond rain.'  

 

http://www.space.com/23135-diamond-rain-jupiter-saturn.html

Definitely interesting speculation.  However, what if Jupiter developed enough pressure (gravity) to ignite a fusion sequence?  A lot of carbon would be a problem.

 

 

Depends what you mean by a problem. A significant quantity of carbon would make the CNO cycle the major producer of energy.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

How long before the CNO cycle evolves into producing Fe?  Pretty far along in the fusion sequence I suspect.

[dazza262 133]

If you have ever wanted to see a levitating super conductor on a Mobius strip, then this is just for you.

 

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Metal fabrication via 3D printing.

 

Being done by a European consortium.

[Easy Bakes 253]

national geographic turns 125 this month

 

 

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/125/

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

^ A very popular journal of nexialism.  Now if someone could integrate all that knowledge ...

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

I recently heard somewhere that hairs from a Himalayan Yeti (supposed) had analyzed as identical to Polar Bear hair.  Anyone else see this?  Do you have a reference?

 

As far as I know, Polar Bears are Brown Bears (Grizzlies) that have adapted to the Arctic.  Probably took several generations.

 

There have been several successful (in captivity) Polar Bear-Grizzly crosses.  They are called Grolar Bears.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Exo-planet count now exceeds 1000.

 

Only a few are in the Goldilocks zone.  We've only begun looking for these planets, and it will be interesting if they find one that is detectably inhabited.  Believe me, it will be life as we don't know it.

[astronelson 339]

Australia: where money grows on trees.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Gold is not money/  It is specie, the root of money.

 

If you look at today's markets you'll find gold is a trading commodity.

[astronelson 339]

Gold is not money/  It is specie, the root of money.

Does that make it the fourth root of all evil?

 

And yes, I am aware it is a commodity rather than actual money, but that makes for a less interesting title.