Cool Science thread

[Tippster]

Let's create a repository for cool science stories we run across.

Here's one from yesterday's NYT: Prehistoric Skeleton in Mexico Is Said to Link Modern Indians to Earliest Americans

Disclaimer: my Brother-in-Law is one of the lead Archaeologists on the project: Douglas Kennett.

[neck beard]

edit: on second thoughts, that thread was already way too NSFW to be linked in this thread.

[iceman]

Science isn't cool you nerd!!!

j/k, nothing's jumping out at me from the past 24 hours though.

[sb]

sciency stuff

http://spaceweather.com/

and appropriate theme muzak

[Tippster]

Let's create a repository for cool science stories we run across.

Here's one from yesterday's NYT: Prehistoric Skeleton in Mexico Is Said to Link Modern Indians to Earliest Americans

Disclaimer: my Brother-in-Law is one of the lead Archaeologists on the project: Douglas Kennett.

Better write-up in Smithsonian Magazine about this: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/scienc...antopic&no-ist

[iceman]

Have we been reading about this? I had not until this typically good New Yorker article: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2...khatchadourian

tags: energy freedom, forever, boondoggle, extinction, italians in charge, whoa

[M_R]

My 10 year old daughter found this inspiring, surprised it took a kid to figure it out this technology:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/go...ight-1.1866106

[hutash]

For those who missed it, look on the innertubes for "Your Inner Fish." It was a three part series on PBS and was an excellent series on evolution and anatomy. It had some cool CGI of ancient critters.

[PB]

My 10 year old daughter found this inspiring, surprised it took a kid to figure it out this technology:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/go...ight-1.1866106

RLY; the ITR could have just built a ginormous hollow flashlight with that $29billion budget.

... and I'd like to personally discuss her hypothesis, in greater detail with liberal amounts of alcohol ... if Dad agrees, of course.

[Tippster]

Have we been reading about this? I had not until this typically good New Yorker article: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2...khatchadourian

tags: energy freedom, forever, boondoggle, extinction, italians in charge, whoa

My brain is full now. Thanks, I think.

[Dantheman]

The Science section of Google News has amazing stuff on pretty much a daily basis. Just today:

UK discovery 'starts race' to turn light into matter
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-27470034

Great white shark tagged in Cape Cod found 3,685 miles away in Florida
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/05/19...south-florida/

Titanosaur, largest dinosaur ever, is discovered in Argentina
http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_2...urce=inthenews

Kepler spacecraft sails on solar wind after steering jams
http://www.sfgate.com/science/articl...er-5487997.php

[riser4]

You haz meth recipe?

Edited to add: Bitch.

[MontuckyFried]

The Neuroscientist Who Wants To Upload Humanity To A Computer:
http://www.popsci.com/article/scienc...-to-a-computer

This crap is kind of eery to me. Especially after reading the Battle Angel Alita series. If any of you have read that, you understand what the "Secret of Tiphares" is, and how if this "mad scientist" has his way, it could certainly lead to that, or possibly Arthur C. Clarke's "City and the Stars". Lots of other sci-fi that has to do with this topic, as well.

Fascinating science, but I'm not exactly down with this. The article's a pretty amazing read nevertheless.

[iceman]

Probably lead to "I have no mouth and I must scream".

[Smoova]

^ That was great.

[Viva]

My buddy Johnny developed the i-STAR antibody discovery platform, and Dennis Burton was one of my bitches...errr...PIs when I was at Scripps. With new epitopes and new antibodies discovered from the IAVI Protocol G study, a cure is most definitely possible.

HIV is going down, bitches!

http://www.cell.com/immunity/abstrac...613(14)00123-X

[Tippster]

My buddy Johnny developed the i-STAR antibody discovery platform, and Dennis Burton was one of my bitches...errr...PIs when I was at Scripps. With new epitopes and new antibodies discovered from the IAVI Protocol G study, a cure is most definitely possible (But not for Magic, that fucking cunt).

HIV is going down, bitches!

http://www.cell.com/immunity/abstrac...613(14)00123-X

Kick ass.

Here's another cool discovery from this week: http://www.scienceworldreport.com/ar...a-biofilms.htm

[Viva]

Here's another cool discovery from this week: http://www.scienceworldreport.com/ar...a-biofilms.htm

Biofilms are pretty fucking fascinating. When a bunch of bugs are growing happily, and at a low density, no problemo, amigo, then reach a certain density and suddenly they start signaling each other, a phenomenon called "quorum sensing". Basically, the little fuckers are saying to each other "Let's take this party into overdrive!" Then they become virulent. Not good. Another one of my professors at Scripps developed antibodies against the four most important quorum sensing molecules, for potential use in patients with sepsis, etc. That technology didn't go anywhere while I was there, however.

[IVplay]

Have we been reading about this? I had not until this typically good New Yorker article: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2...khatchadourian

tags: energy freedom, forever, boondoggle, extinction, italians in charge, whoa

Thanks for posting this. Read it a while ago but forgot about it, intensely interesting.

edit: I hope to god they have security around this, couldn't imagine what would happen if someone tampered with it.

[abraham]

A few more to add.

Magnetic symmetry in superconducting materials.
http://m.phys.org/news/2014-05-scien...onductors.html

Questions about the evolution of nervous systems
http://m.phys.org/news/2014-05-alien...evolution.html

And kind of an out there one, about dark matter and collisions of gas clouds and galaxies.
http://m.phys.org/news/2014-05-dwarf...collision.html

[Meathelmet]

Leucochloridium paradoxum

So, for the TLDR crowd it is a parasite that..umm...

Well. The parasite is in the birdpoop, snail eats it, it turns the snails tentacles to throbbing larvae looking thingies that the birds think are..well..larvae...and aptly
eats the tentacles which gives the parasites pathway to the intestines of the bird, where the parasites can multiply and go out the shitter and start the cycle again.

Come on. What kind of evolutionary cycle has the larvae to go through in the earliest periods to evolve to the present form?
I can understand that X = is more resilent than Y= which is faster than Z etc...
But to a parasite to evolve so much that it can make the hosts tentacle to mimic a worm, so that the birds think it is a maggot, so it can get faster
back to the host...oh man.

Or my todays favourite, the Hagfish, with its slime.
Like, that thing has so much bukkake in it that Angry Whelk would approve that.
And I spent about half an hour trying to thing where you could actually use the slime for... I went through the bloodclotblock/first aid to the
non lethal arrest systems to using it as a substitute to that vile soy based japanese food called natto.

[abraham]

The videos of sharks trying to eat hagfish are pretty funny. One bite then they are choking on slime, let go of the fish and possibly die.

[Mott the Hoople]

Scientists to drop research drones into hurricanes
http://news.yahoo.com/scientists-dro...RTV2IA_VjQtDMD

MIAMI (AP) — The point where the roiling ocean meets the fury of a hurricane's winds may hold the key to improving storm intensity forecasts — but it's nearly impossible for scientists to see.

That may change this summer, thanks to post-Hurricane Sandy federal funding and a handful of winged drones that can spend hours spiraling in a hurricane's dark places. The drones will be transmitting data that could help forecasters understand what makes some storms fizzle while others strengthen into monsters.

Researchers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration plan to test five or six drones in the peak of hurricane season. The $1.25 million project is among a slew of other NOAA hurricane research funded by last year's Sandy supplemental bill that authorized $60 billion for disaster relief agencies.

[sb]

insect fungus

[Viva]

This oughta be fun:

http://particlefever.com/