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Science (General/Chat)

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  • DNA From 19th Century Toads Solve 115-Year-Old Mystery As 3 New Species Discovered

    11/06/2025 2:56:29 PM PST · by nickcarraway · 19 replies
    Study Finds ^ | Nov 06, 2025
    These species skip the tadpole stage entirely, an incredibly rare phenomenon among toads and frogs. In A Nutshell Scientists identified three new toad species in Tanzania that give birth to live babies instead of laying eggs, bringing the global total of live-bearing frogs and toads to just 20 species. DNA extracted from museum specimens collected in 1899 helped researchers solve a 115-year-old mystery about where these toads actually live, with genetic analysis showing populations previously thought to be one species are actually four distinct species separated by mountain ranges. The newly described species face serious conservation threats, with ranges as...
  • Researchers Examine Scythian Animal Artifacts

    11/06/2025 2:34:06 PM PST · by SunkenCiv · 3 replies
    Archaeology Magazine ^ | October 30, 2025 | editors / unattributed
    Phys.org reports that a new study of Scythian animal-style artifacts has been conducted by Timur Sadykov of the Russian Academy of Sciences and his colleagues. The artifacts they analyzed, which were recovered from a ninth-century b.c. burial mound known as Tunnug 1 in southern Siberia's Uyuk River Valley, feature representations of rams, felines, birds, and snakes made with bone and bronze. “Clearly, wild animals were very important as spirits inhabiting the natural world, and it's really interesting that we mostly see depictions of wild animals and barely any domesticated animals (the rams are probably wild argali sheep),” said team member...
  • Astronomy Picture of the Day- Government shutdown so no APOD Today. I will dig up some of my favorites - M1: The Crab Nebula from Hubble

    11/06/2025 2:07:57 PM PST · by MtnClimber · 5 replies
    NASA ^ | 16 Aug, 2015 | Image Credit: NASA, ESA, J. Hester, A. Loll (ASU)
    Explanation: This is the mess that is left when a star explodes. The Crab Nebula, the result of a supernova seen in 1054 AD, is filled with mysterious filaments. The filaments are not only tremendously complex, but appear to have less mass than expelled in the original supernova and a higher speed than expected from a free explosion. The featured image, taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, is presented in three colors chosen for scientific interest. The Crab Nebula spans about 10 light-years. In the nebula's very center lies a pulsar: a neutron star as massive as the Sun but...
  • World's biggest spiderweb discovered inside 'Sulfur Cave' with 111,000 arachnids living in pitch black

    11/06/2025 9:10:09 AM PST · by fidelis · 67 replies
    Live Science ^ | 4 November 2025 | Sascha Pare
    A giant colonial spiderweb in a sulfuric cave on the border between Greece and Albania may be the largest ever found — and it was built by spiders we didn't know liked the company of others.Researchers have discovered more than 111,000 spiders thriving in what appears to be the world's biggest spiderweb, deep inside a pitch-black cave on the Albanian-Greek border.The "extraordinary" colony consists of a colossal web in a permanently dark zone of the cavern, according to a study published Oct. 17 in the journal Subterranean Biology. The web stretches 1,140 square feet (106 square meters) along the wall...
  • Name of Maya Queen Identified

    11/06/2025 6:30:45 AM PST · by SunkenCiv · 19 replies
    Archaeology Magazine ^ | October 29, 2025 | editors / unattributed
    According to a Live Science report, the name of a previously unknown Maya queen has been deciphered from an inscription discovered last year on a staircase at Cobá, an urban center on Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula that was occupied from about 350 B.C. into the fourteenth century. Researchers from Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) named the staircase Foundation Rock. Although its 123 hieroglyphic panels have been damaged by erosion, David Stuart of the University of Texas at Austin and Octavio Esparza Olguín of the National Autonomous University of Mexico were able to match one of the Foundation Rock...
  • Stone-Wall Hunting Traps Identified in Chile

    11/06/2025 6:26:06 AM PST · by SunkenCiv · 2 replies
    Archaeology Magazine ^ | October 16, 2025 | editors / unattributed
    According to a statement released by the University of Exeter, traces of 76 stone chacus, or funnel-shaped traps, have been spotted in satellite images of northern Chile by Adrián Oyaneder of the University of Exeter. The dry-stone walls of the chacus stretch downhill for hundreds of yards, and end in pits surrounded by enclosures. Hunters would have driven vicuña into the traps and then collected them from the pits. Oyaneder noted that the trap builders sometimes employed natural features in the landscape as arms of their traps. He has also found evidence of settlements in satellite images of Chile's Western...
  • Massive Lost Prehistoric Stone Megastructures Discovered in Europe's Adriatic Hinterland

    11/06/2025 6:23:27 AM PST · by SunkenCiv · 8 replies
    The Debrief ^ | October 21, 2025 | Tim McMillan
    For thousands of years, the rugged limestone highlands of Slovenia's Karst Plateau have kept a stunning secret buried beneath forests and rocky sinkholes.Now, new research has revealed that this landscape once hosted massive, purpose-built stone megastructures that appear to have guided and trapped wild herds in one of Europe's earliest examples of large-scale communal hunting.This discovery not only sheds light on prehistoric hunting practices but also challenges our understanding of early European societies and their capabilities.The discovery, led by archaeologists from the University of Ljubljana, was recently published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). Using airborne laser...
  • This picture was taken on Mars yesterday.

    11/05/2025 5:46:53 PM PST · by E. Pluribus Unum · 77 replies
    X.com ^ | 10:15 AM · Nov 5, 2025 | DogeDesigner✓ @cb_doge (Elon Musk reposted)
    This picture was taken on Mars yesterday.
  • Kim Kardashian invited to join research team for 3I/ATLAS comet — which scientists fear could contain alien life

    11/05/2025 4:58:24 PM PST · by Libloather · 28 replies
    NY Post ^ | 11/05/25 | Patrick Reilly
    A Harvard astrophysicist who believes the Manhattan-sized comet hurtling towards Earth could possibly be fueled by alien technology has invited Kim Kardashian to join his research team — after she got a quick response from the federal government. Kardashian asked NASA’s acting administrator Sean Duffy on X last week to spill the “tea” on 3I/ATLAS, the mysterious interstellar comet that’s baffled scientists like Avi Loeb with its anomalous qualities. “Great question!” Duffy promptly responded to Kardashian’s query. “@NASA’s observations show that this is the third interstellar comet to pass through our solar system. No aliens. No threat to life here...
  • Astronomy Picture of the Day- Government shutdown so no APOD Today. I will dig up some of my favorites - HCG 87: A Small Group of Galaxies

    11/05/2025 12:31:14 PM PST · by MtnClimber · 6 replies
    NASA ^ | 9 Aug, 2015 | Image Credit: GMOS-S Commissioning Team, Gemini Observatory
    Explanation: Sometimes galaxies form groups. For example, our own Milky Way Galaxy is part of the Local Group of Galaxies. Small, compact groups, like Hickson Compact Group 87 (HCG 87) shown above, are interesting partly because they slowly self-destruct. Indeed, the galaxies of HCG 87 are gravitationally stretching each other during their 100-million year orbits around a common center. The pulling creates colliding gas that causes bright bursts of star formation and feeds matter into their active galaxy centers. HCG 87 is composed of a large edge-on spiral galaxy visible near the image center, an elliptical galaxy visible to its...
  • The Andromeda Paradox - When is "Now"? [11:09]

    11/04/2025 8:22:43 PM PST · by SunkenCiv · 5 replies
    YouTube ^ | August 7, 2020 | Kyle Hill
    Is every "now" the same? Does the past, present, and future all equally exist? Am I having a crisis? The Andromeda Paradox - When is "Now"? | 11:09 Kyle Hill | 2.64M subscribers | 1,021,227 views | August 7, 2020 Andromeda Paradox [YouTube search]
  • The Hole In Relativity Einstein Didn't Predict [27:39]

    11/04/2025 8:12:44 PM PST · by SunkenCiv · 26 replies
    YouTube ^ | April 14, 2025 | Veritasium
    Why does energy disappear in General Relativity? 0:00 What is symmetry? 4:25 Emmy Noether and Einstein 7:33 General Covariance 11:59 The Principle of Least Action 15:29 Noether's First Theorem 18:24 The Continuity Equation 23:20 Escape from Germany 24:49 The Standard Model - Higgs and Quarks The Hole In Relativity Einstein Didn't Predict | 27:39 Veritasium | 18.4M subscribers | 8,522,299 views | April 14, 2025 Emmy Noether [YouTube search]
  • England's forgotten first king deserves to be famous, says Æthelstan biographer as anniversaries approach

    11/04/2025 6:59:47 PM PST · by SunkenCiv · 16 replies
    EurekAlert! ^ | September 1, 2025 | University of Cambridge
    A groundbreaking new biography of Æthelstan marks 1,100 years since his coronation in 925AD, reasserts his right to be called the first king of England, explains why he isn't better known and highlights his many overlooked achievements. The book's author, Professor David Woodman, is campaigning for greater public recognition of Æthelstan's creation of England in 927AD.The Battle of Hastings in 1066 and the signing of Magna Carta in 1215 are two of the most famous years in English history. But very few people know what happened in 925 or 927AD. Professor David Woodman, the University of Cambridge-based author of The...
  • Projectiles Recovered at Scotland's Culloden Battlefield

    11/04/2025 6:50:56 PM PST · by SunkenCiv · 16 replies
    Archaeology Magazine ^ | October 31, 2025 | editors / unattributed
    BBC News reports that more than 100 projectiles were recovered during an investigation of an unstudied area of Scotland's Culloden Battlefield. Fought on April 16, 1746, the Battle of Culloden marked Britain's final defeat of the Jacobite army led by Charles Edward Stuart, who was also known as Bonnie Prince Charlie. Stuart had attempted to place his father, who was the son of the Roman Catholic James II, on the British throne. Yet James II had been deposed in 1688 and his line excluded from English succession under the Act of Settlement of 1701. At the time of the battle,...
  • Medieval Armor Unearthed in Georgia

    11/04/2025 6:48:40 PM PST · by SunkenCiv · 11 replies
    Archaeology Magazine ^ | October 29, 2025 | editors / unattributed
    According to a Georgia Today report, a chainmail shirt and a helmet dated to the ninth or tenth century a.d. have been unearthed at the site of a medieval palace within Rustavi Fortress. Located in southeastern Georgia, the fortress was constructed in the fourth or fifth century A.D., and destroyed during the invasion of the Mongols in the thirteenth century. The helmet is thought to be the only combat helmet from the period to be discovered in the South Caucasus. To read about another discovery from Georgia, go to "Around the World: Georgia."
  • Medieval building partially collapses in Rome [8:53]

    11/04/2025 2:57:42 PM PST · by SunkenCiv · 11 replies
    YouTube ^ | November 3, 2025 | CBS News
    The historic Torre dei Conti in Rome, Italy, partially collapsed twice on Monday during renovations, trapping at least one worker in the rubble and critically injuring another. These videos show the moment of the second collapse and its aftermath. Medieval building partially collapses in Rome | 8:53 CBS News | 6.82M subscribers | 46,740 views | November 3, 2025
  • Scientists and Chefs Team Up to Make Yogurt From Ants

    11/04/2025 1:57:59 PM PST · by nickcarraway · 32 replies
    Smithsonian Magazine ^ | October 6, 2025 | Ella Feldman
    In doing so, the team has revived an ancient Bulgarian fermentation methodThere was a not-so-secret ingredient in the ice cream sandwiches, creamy cheese and milk-wash cocktails being served at Alchemist, a two Michelin-star restaurant in Copenhagen, Denmark, in recent years: ants. The team's experiments began with an accidental discovery, reports CNN’s Amarachi Orie. They left milk with an ant in it inside their refrigerator, and noticed the milk soon started to curdle. From there, the restaurant, which aims to “transform and transcend the nature of food and dining,” recreated a nearly forgotten ancient Turkish and Bulgarian recipe for making yogurt...
  • Astronomy Picture of the Day- Government shutdown so no APOD Today. I will dig up some of my favorites - Ultraviolet Rings of M31

    11/04/2025 11:37:41 AM PST · by MtnClimber · 9 replies
    NASA ^ | 24 Jul, 2015 | Image Credit: GALEX, JPL-Caltech, NASA
    Explanation: A mere 2.5 million light-years away the Andromeda Galaxy, also known as M31, really is just next door as large galaxies go. So close and spanning some 260,000 light-years, it took 11 different image fields from the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) satellite's telescope to produce this gorgeous portrait of the spiral galaxy in ultraviolet light. While its spiral arms stand out in visible light images of Andromeda, the arms look more like rings in the GALEX ultraviolet view, a view dominated by the energetic light from hot, young, massive stars. As sites of intense star formation, the rings have...
  • What Happens if you Abuse a Robot? (I hit him with my truck)

    11/04/2025 9:02:25 AM PST · by Red Badger · 18 replies
    YouTube ^ | October 01, 2025 | WhistlinDiesel
    16:42 VIDEO OF WHAT TO EXPECT IN THE FUTURE OF ROBOTS..... The future is here. I bought an $80k humanoid robot and I'm going to be mistreating it until it turns on me, lets begin... #irobot How this content was made Auto-dubbed Audio tracks for some languages were automatically generated. Learn more GEORGE JETSON NEVER HAD THESE PROBLEMS! Hilarious!.............
  • £10,000 Says YOU Can't Prove This ROMAN EXPERT Wrong... [15:01]

    11/03/2025 9:04:56 PM PST · by SunkenCiv · 5 replies
    YouTube ^ | June 29, 2025 | Paul Whitewick
    Welcome to this weeks video in which we try and claim £10,000 from Mike at the Roman Road Research Association. Do Roman Fords in the UK actually exist? This was a question recently posed with a tongue in cheek reward. We set to find out and claim our prize! £10,000 Says YOU Can't Prove This ROMAN EXPERT Wrong... | 15:01 Paul Whitewick | 209K subscribers | 413,124 views | June 29, 2025 00:00 - The Rewards 01:56 - The Ford 03:16 - The Drawing Board 05:44 - Gargrave 07:22 - Iden Green 10:33 - Barnard Castle 13:39 - £10,000 Please