The Science Thread

[Redglyph]

First Room-Temperature Ambient-Pressure Superconductor Achieved, Claim Scientists

Someone with a lab please try to reproduce these results so we know if we should pop the champagne.

www.iflscience.com

"If the claim is verified, this will change the world"

pibbuR who finally may get that MRI machine.

Weren't Fleischmann and Pons part the team?

 

[Alrik Fassbauer]

The rising of modern agriculture science : Introducing Mr. Jethro Tull. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jethro_Tull_(agriculturist)

 

[JDR13]

The rising of modern agriculture science : Introducing Mr. Jethro Tull. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jethro_Tull_(agriculturist)

That confused me for a brief moment while I tried to imagine the connection between Jethro Tull and agriculture. At least now I know where the band got their name.

 

[Alrik Fassbauer]

You're welcome !

 

[Alrik Fassbauer]

History : Climate Change : The Dust Bowl : https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dust_Bowl

I get the feeling as if the beginning of the "Wizard Of Oz" movie shows an artistic version of such a "dust storm".

Also historic : "The 1936 heat wave" : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1936_North_American_heat_wave

 

[pibbuR]

First Room-Temperature Ambient-Pressure Superconductor Achieved, Claim Scientists

Someone with a lab please try to reproduce these results so we know if we should pop the champagne.

www.iflscience.com

"If the claim is verified, this will change the world"

pibbuR who finally may get that MRI machine.

When something seems too good to be true... It probably is:

LK-99 slammed as 'not a superconductor at all'

It may actually be the anti-superconductor, quips one research team

www.theregister.com

pibbuR who at the moment is not superconducting.

 

[pibbuR]

I would have thought it was obvious, but actually there are conflicting data.

"Some studies have shown that texting pedestrians are more likely to walk into oncoming traffic, while other studies suggest that young adults have mastered the art of multitasking and are able to text accurately while navigating obstacles."

Now we know:

Texting while walking makes college students more likely to fall

When it comes to college-aged adults who are glued to their smartphones, experts argue over whether texting while walking increases the risk of an accident. Some studies have shown that texting pedestrians are more likely to walk into oncoming traffic, while other studies suggest that young...

www.sciencedaily.com

pibbuR who just got an idea for an app.

 

[Redglyph]

We'll soon have regulations that forbid texting while walking in the street.

Well, they did an experiment in China, I think, by opening 'phone' lanes.

 

[Hurls]

Yes and the colloquial term for the phone lanes was “zombie lanes”

 

[Alrik Fassbauer]

Well, while I'm not a "texter" at all, I did train myself to be able to (un)consciously notice what's around me. Or, in other words : I widened my tunnel vision.

I believe that one can train oneself to be more aware of things, even in the unconsciousness. For example, I've trained myself to wake up at the station where I must get out of the tram when I fell asleep after work (which often happens).

I also noticed that having glasses on "encourages" some kind of tunnel vision which ends at the borders of the glasses. But, that is also a thing I've trained myself to overcome.

So, in my personal opinion, yes it is possible to become more multitasking.

 

[Couchpotato]

A few months old but interesting. Should we be worried?

Earth’s inner core is slowing down its spin. Should we be worried?

The planet’s solid iron inner core has stopped spinning faster than the surface, a new study suggests.

www.sciencefocus.com

 

[pibbuR]

tl;dr: Very long this one about P, NP and hundreds of complexity classes. (I have yet to read it all, but I will)

Complexity Theory’s 50-Year Journey to the Limits of Knowledge | Quanta Magazine

How hard is it to prove that problems are hard to solve? Meta-complexity theorists have been asking questions like this for decades. A string of recent results has started to deliver answers.

www.quantamagazine.org

pibbuR who unlike Chuck Norris doesn't know if P=NP.

 

[Couchpotato]

Scientists Are Getting Kinda Anxious About a Pothole in Space

But we're probably going to be fine. Probably.

www.popularmechanics.com

 

[Alrik Fassbauer]

The switching of the magnetic poles is looooooooooooooooooooooong overdue, as far as i learned it during my university time (Geology). The switching of the poles actually happened several times in earth's history, and these switches were kinda stored in heamatit and similar magnetic minerals.

More on Wikipedia : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geomagnetic_reversal

 

[JDR13]

India just became the 4th country to land a spacecraft on the moon.

India becomes fourth country to land on the moon, first on the south pole, with Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft

The feat makes India the fourth country – after Russia, the U.S. and China – to land on the moon, and the first to land on one of the moon's lunar poles.

www.google.com

I was somewhat surprised by the headline because I thought more countries had done that by now.

 

[Couchpotato]

Was this mentioned yet?

US scientists achieve net energy gain for second time in a fusion reaction

The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s National Ignition Facility achieved the feat using lasers to fuse two atoms

www.theguardian.com

 

[pibbuR]

We could start a settlement on Mars with just 22 people, scientists say

Using computer simulations, scientists also determined the personality types best suited for stays of up to 28 years on the Red Planet.

www.space.com

The study examines the optimal personalities for the 22.

pibbuR who fears that, despite being allowed by the wife, his Mars expedition is in danger, since the personality isn't among the preferred ones. Neither are his skills, probably - a doctor has-been can't compete with an extant individual of said profession.

 

[pibbuR]

India just became the 4th country to land a spacecraft on the moon.

India becomes fourth country to land on the moon, first on the south pole, with Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft

The feat makes India the fourth country – after Russia, the U.S. and China – to land on the moon, and the first to land on one of the moon's lunar poles.

www.google.com

I was somewhat surprised by the headline because I thought more countries had done that by now.

Israel attempted a moon landing in 2019, but it crashed. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beresheet). Among the payload was a couple of tardigrades, so when I posted about it back then, I claimed that now there was life on the moon, since tardigrades can survive almost anything. However, embedded in epoxy, they were probably dead from the start. And if they weren't, even tardigrades aren't expected to survive explosions.

pibbuR who in his younger days, as a male teenager, to some degree acted like he would survive anything.

 

[JDR13]

Israel attempted a moon landing in 2019, but it crashed. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beresheet). Among the payload was a couple of tardigrades, so when I posted about it back then, I claimed that now there was life on the moon, since tardigrades can survive almost anything. However, embedded in epoxy, they were probably dead from the start. And if they weren't, even tardigrades aren't expected to survive explosions.

Japan also had a failed attempt recently.

Japanese ispace moon landing attempt falls short at 'very end,' CEO says

Japanese company ispace aimed to be the first private enterprise to land on the moon, but lost communication and is investigating the attempt's result.

www.cnbc.com

It's puzzling that we were landing things on the Moon 50 years ago, and yet still only 4 countries have successfully done it.

 

[Couchpotato]

Politics and lack of funding is what killed the space race that started 50 years ago. NASA became an afterthought and now with private companies funding travel its easier.

On the political side China and Russia are stepping up their space programs so the US had to as well. Funny all it takes is the US being left behind to kick start the program again.