Free Republic

A genetic mutation may have helped modern humans adapt to smoke exposure from fires and perhaps sparked an evolutionary advantage over their archaic competitors, including Neanderthals, according to a team of researchers.

Do neutron stars contain exotic matter in the form of dense deconfined quark matter? Scientists performed the first accurate determination of the thermodynamic properties of dense quark matter under violent conditions that occur during neutron star mergers, and suggest a step towards distinguishing between neutron and quark matter cores in neutron stars. The recent detection of gravitational waves emitted by two merging black holes by the LIGO and Virgo collaborations has opened up a new observational window into the cosmos. Future observations of similar mergers between two neutron stars or a neutron star and a black hole may revolutionize what...

I have done a fresh install of Win 7 OS but I can't get the windows updates. It's been a few days and I am getting nothing from MS - I've tried several "fixes" suggested on different OS forums, but still nothing. Anyone have any suggestions? Thanks

A team of researchers recently published a study that proposes a new model on how violent human behavior may be impacted by a warmer climate. The paper, published in the journal, "Behavioral and Brain Sciences" by faculty at The Ohio State University and Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam, introduced a model of Climate, Aggression and Self-control in Humans (CLASH) that seeks to understand "differences within and between countries in aggression and violence in terms of differences in climate." "We believe our model can help explain the impact of climate on rates of violence in different parts of the world," Paul van...

An Olympic athlete and his accompanying cameraman have been robbed of their luggage at a Rio hotel during a carefully designed theft which started with them being vomited on. Chinese hurdler Shi Donpeng had just arrived at his hotel in Brazil ahead of the start of the Olympics on Friday and was exhausted after the long journey from China.

A Hawaiian volcano was ready for its close-up. A smiley face was spotted in the Kilauea volcano's crater during an eruption.

The optics advancement may solve an approaching data bottleneck by helping to boost computing power and information transfer rates tenfold BUFFALO, N.Y. — Like a whirlpool, a new light-based communication tool carries data in a swift, circular motion. Described in a study published today (July 28, 2016) by the journal Science, the optics advancement could become a central component of next generation computers designed to handle society’s growing demand for information sharing. It may also be a salve to those fretting over the predicted end of Moore’s Law, the idea that researchers will find new ways to continue making computers...

Paging Bruce Willis! NASA is planning to launch a probe to study an asteroid that could one day pulverize the Earth. The asteroid, named Bennu, crosses Earth’s orbit once every six years and has gotten ever closer since it was discovered in 1999, astronomers told the Sunday Times of London (paywall). In 2135, Bennu will fly between the moon and Earth — a hair’s breadth in space terms, the Times reported. That’s so close that gravity from the Earth could effect Bennu’s orbit, “potentially putting it on course for the Earth later that century,” said Dante Lauretta, a professor of...

Last year marked the 200th anniversary of the publication of what many consider the greatest geologic image ever produced: William Smith’s epic map, entitled “A Delineation of the Strata of England and Wales with Part of Scotland.” In striking color, scale and detail, the 1815 map laid bare the region’s bedrock — from tilted layers of slate and fossil-rich marls and sandstones to Carboniferous coal seams and granite plugs — as none had before. The bicentennial of the map’s publication was commemorated in several sessions and displays at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America (GSA) in Baltimore...

2K 6 Forbidden planets: Understanding alien worlds once thought impossible By Daniel CleryJul. 28, 2016 , 2:00 PM When astronomers discovered the first exoplanet around a normal star 2 decades ago, there was joy—and bewilderment. The planet, 51 Pegasi b, was half as massive as Jupiter, but its 4-day orbit was impossibly close to the star, far smaller than the 88-day orbit of Mercury. Theorists who study planet formation could see no way for a planet that big to grow in such tight confines around a newborn star. It could have been a freak, but soon, more “hot Jupiters” turned...

(Reuters) - A major earthquake of magnitude 7.7. struck in the eastern Pacific Ocean on Friday, close to the Northern Mariana Islands, but was not expected to trigger a tsunami, .. The epicenter of the quake, initially reported as a magnitude 7.6, was located 31 miles north of the island of Pagan, part of the sparsely populated Northern Mariana Islands volcanic archipelago. The quake was fairly deep at 132 miles (212 km) below the seabed, dampening its effect.

This November, the National Geographic Channel will take audiences into outer space in a way we haven't seen before. From producers Ron Howard and Brian Grazer comes Mars, a six-part TV miniseries that blends documentary and science fiction to dramatize humankind's first trip to Mars in 2033--and io9 is proud to exclusively debut the first trailer.

A NASA spacesuit — also known as an Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) — is decked out with various gadgets that provide life support and technical assistance to astronauts during missions where they have to leave their spacecraft. Even without those gadgets, the suit's 14 layers of protective material alone make it pretty heavy and difficult to maneuver when walking around in a low-gravity environment like the moon. Most astronauts fall because spacesuits limit their ability to both see and feel the terrain around them, according to the MIT researchers who created the new boots. If an astronaut trips, they risk...

"Have a look at that dark purple blob on the left, there." With those words, scientists aboard the Exploration Vessel Nautilus uncovered a marine mystery: a small purple orb tucked halfway under a rock off the coast of California. Researchers are so far stumped as to what the colorful, bumpy little ball might be. Their best guess is that it might be a gastropod (a mollusk such as a snail or slug that belongs to the class Gastropoda) called a pleurobranch — and possibly a new species.

The first wave of genetically modified mosquitoes were released Wednesday in the Cayman Islands as part of a new effort to control the insect that spreads Zika and other viruses, officials in the British Island territory said. Genetically altered male mosquitoes, which don’t bite but are expected to mate with females to produce offspring that die before reaching adulthood, were released in the West Bay area of Grand Cayman Island, according to a joint statement from the Cayman Islands Mosquito Research and Control Unit and British biotech firm Oxitec. …

For most of 2016, astronomers have been viewing a ball of hot gas billions of light years away that is radiating the energy of hundreds of billions of suns. At its heart is an object a little larger than 10 miles across. And astronomers are not entirely sure what it is. If, as they suspect, the gas ball is the result of a supernova, then it’s the most powerful supernova ever seen. Most astronomers today believe that one of the plausible reasons we have yet to detect intelligent life in the universe is due to the deadly effects of local...

Building a house by robot. Image: Supplied. ========================================================================================================================= Fastbrick Robotics, an ASX-listed company based in Perth, has created a robot brick layer, a form of 3D printing which can create the shell of a house without being touched by human hands. The Hadrian 105 robot, named after the Roman emperor who built a wall in ancient Britain, has hit a bricklaying speed of 225 standard brick equivalents per hour, or about half a day’s work for a top human bricklayer. To prove it, the company released a time lapse video, showing the robot at work. Here’s the robot, doing everything...

Antibiotic made by nose microbes kills MRSA, say researchers, amid hopes that more weapons in the fight against drug resistance might be found in the body Nose-dwelling microbes produce an antibiotic which kills the hospital superbug MRSA, scientists have discovered. The finding suggests that the human body might harbour a rich variety of bacteria that could be harnessed in the fight against antibiotic resistance. Antibiotic resistance is a growing cause for concern, with experts warning of an impending “apocalyptic” situation in which patients die following routine surgery because of infections that can no longer be treated. Among the superbugs of...

Olympic athletes competing in the waters off Rio’s shore dodge human feces, the invisible rotavirus, and dead bodies in pursuit of gold. This game ranks not as an official Olympic sport but as a necessity for athletes competing on the open waters during the August event in Rio.

In situ transmission electron microscopy at EMSL was used to study structural changes in the team’s new anode system. Real-time measurements show silicon nanoparticles inside carbon shells before (left) and after (right) lithiation. + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + -+ - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + -+ - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + -+ - + - + - + - + - + - + - + -...