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Science (General/Chat)

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  • Vlad the Impaler - Feeding the Real Dracula - Pheasant with Cherry Sauce [23:47]

    11/28/2025 11:30:42 PM PST · by SunkenCiv · 6 replies
    YouTube ^ | October 28, 2025 | Tasting History with Max Miller
    Vlad the Impaler - Feeding the Real Dracula - Pheasant with Cherry Sauce | 23:47 Tasting History with Max Miller | 4.07M subscribers | 624,726 views | October 28, 2025
  • Baikonur Launchpad Damaged After Rocket Launch to ISS

    11/28/2025 5:35:20 PM PST · by Red Badger · 9 replies
    Russia’s Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan was damaged on Thursday following the launch of a manned Soyuz rocket to the International Space Station, the Roscosmos space agency said. The Soyuz MS-28, which was carrying Russian cosmonauts Sergei Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikayev, along with NASA astronaut Chris Williams, took off from Baikonur at 12:27 Moscow time and successfully docked with the ISS later in the day. “Damage to several elements of the launch pad was detected,” Roscosmos said hours after the crew arrived at the ISS. “An assessment of the condition of the launch complex is currently underway.” The space agency said...
  • What Cheese Mold Can Teach Us About Evolution

    11/28/2025 3:37:11 PM PST · by Diana in Wisconsin · 12 replies
    Nautilus ^ | November 28, 2025 | Devin Reese
    For some scientists, there’s no place more romantic than a cheese cave. When Tufts University biologist Benjamin Wolfe, then a biology postdoc, shepherded his colleague Rachel to a surprise rendezvous with her boyfriend in a Vermont cheese cave, a marriage proposal ensued. And, according to Wolfe and his colleagues’ new paper in Current Biology, so did a discovery about evolution. Some cheese varieties are ripened in caves where they attract microbes—yeast, bacteria, and fungi (molds)—which form a rind on the cheese surface. Molds like Penicillium (the same genus that produces the human antibiotic, but a different species) spur the ripening...
  • The Story of Cat Domestication Just Got a Major Twist

    11/28/2025 3:32:27 PM PST · by Diana in Wisconsin · 40 replies
    Nautilus ^ | November 28, 2025 | Molly Glick
    Despite oodles of data on dog domestication, the exact origins of our feline friends have long remained fuzzy. We do know that pet cats retained many of their wild cat ancestors’ characteristics. This—perhaps not surprising many cat caretakers—makes pet cats technically “semidomesticated.” But scientists have squabbled over precisely where and when such changes came about. The feline timeline is especially tricky to pinpoint due to scarce archeological findings, along with the fact that the bones of wild cats and domesticated ones look quite similar. So far, researchers have encountered tantalizing clues, including depictions of cats as beloved, jewelry-wearing family members...
  • Novo Nordisk Alzheimer’s Trial Fails: Semaglutide Shows No Cognitive Benefit

    11/28/2025 3:22:04 PM PST · by nickcarraway · 7 replies
    Euroweekly News ^ | 6 Nov 2025 | Tory Tustin
    Ozempic medicine prescription with shot sitting on top of the box and measuring tape wrapped around the box Novo Nordisk’s headquarters is in Bagsværd, Denmark, which is where the company announced the failed Alzheimer’s trial for semaglutide. Credit: mikeledray / Shutterstock Novo Nordisk, the Danish drugmaker behind weight‑loss and diabetes giants like Ozempic and Rybelsus, announced on November 24 that its much‑anticipated Alzheimer’s trials failed to slow cognitive decline – a major blow to hopes that its GLP‑1 drugs could break into neurodegenerative disease treatment. Two large trials, one disappointing outcome The EVOKE and EVOKE+ Phase III trials, which enrolled...
  • Astronomy Picture of the Day - NGC 6888: The Crescent Nebula

    11/28/2025 3:01:24 PM PST · by MtnClimber · 13 replies
    NASA ^ | 28 Nov, 2025 | Image Credit & Copyright: Greg Bass
    Explanation: NGC 6888, also known as the Crescent Nebula, is a about 25 light-years across, a cosmic bubble blown by winds from its central, massive star. This deep telescopic image includes narrowband image data, to isolate light from hydrogen and oxygen atoms. The oxygen atoms produce the blue-green hue that seems to enshroud the nebula's detailed folds and filaments. Visible within the nebula, NGC 6888's central star is classified as a Wolf-Rayet star (WR 136). The star is shedding its outer envelope in a strong stellar wind, ejecting the equivalent of the Sun's mass every 10,000 years. In fact, the...
  • The Lost Supervolcano: Was This the Biggest Eruption in Human History? - Full Documentary [52:52]

    11/28/2025 1:22:17 PM PST · by SunkenCiv · 26 replies
    YouTube ^ | April 25, 2025 | Easy Documentary Knowledge
    A volcano more powerful than Tambora... but no one knows where it is. Dive into a real-life scientific thriller to uncover the eruption that changed the world -- and vanished without a trace. The Lost Supervolcano: Was This the Biggest Eruption in Human History? - Full Documentary | 52:52 Easy Documentary Knowledge | 5.99K subscribers | 274,031 views | April 25, 2025
  • Astronomy Picture of the Day - The Images not Posted during the Government Shutdown - Lemmon Tree

    11/28/2025 1:17:11 PM PST · by MtnClimber · 7 replies
    NASA ^ | 13 Oct, 2025 | Image Credit & Copyright: Uroš Fink
    Explanation: The tree is not in danger. That's because the comet pictured just above it, Comet C/2025 A6 (Lemmon), is far in the distance, well away from the Earth. Comet Lemmon now continues to brighten as it arcs through the inner Solar System, even though it has passed its nearest to the Sun -- because it is now approaching the Earth. The comet will likely appear brightest when it is at its closest to the Earth next week, then closing to about half the Earth-Sun distance. Comet Lemmon may then be visible to the unaided eye, but it is more...
  • Scientists are baffled as a mysterious halo of red light appears over a small Italian town for the second time in 3 years

    11/28/2025 4:45:01 AM PST · by fruser1 · 17 replies
    UK Daily Mail ^ | 11/28/2025 | William Hunter
    An incredible image captures the bizarre UFO–like ring floating above Possagno, a tiny town in the foothills of the Italian Alps. The photograph was taken by photographer Valter Binotto, who watched as the glowing structure flashed in the sky at 10:45 local time on November 17. A photographer has captured a baffling image of a red UFO–like halo floating over the small Italian town of Possagno This ring is likely a structure known as an 'emission of light and very low–frequency perturbations due to electromagnetic pulse sources', or ELVEs for short. These are rings of red or green light created...
  • There’s more to cholesterol than simply “good” or “bad”: Standard health tests may miss those at most risk

    11/27/2025 4:14:18 PM PST · by SeekAndFind · 19 replies
    The Economist ^ | 11/27/2025
    Once upon a time, cholesterol was simple. This molecule, it was proclaimed, came in two varieties: an artery-clogging “bad” sort and an artery-clearing “good” one. The difference was not in the cholesterol molecules themselves, but rather in the way they are packaged up for transport in the bloodstream as nanoparticles called low-density lipoproteins (LDLs) and high-density lipoproteins (HDLs). The public-health message was clear: minimise the bad LDL-cholesterol by cutting down on fatty foods, red meat and dairy products. Increase the good HDL type by doing more exercise and eating more fruits and vegetables. Since a third of heart attacks and...
  • Astronomy Picture of the Day - Portrait of NGC 1055

    11/27/2025 12:37:53 PM PST · by MtnClimber · 7 replies
    NASA ^ | 27 Nov, 2025 | Image Credit & Copyright: John Hayes
    Explanation: Big, beautiful spiral galaxy NGC 1055 is a dominant member of a small galaxy group a mere 60 million light-years away toward the aquatically intimidating constellation Cetus. Seen edge-on, the island universe spans over 100,000 light-years, a little larger than our own Milky Way galaxy. The colorful, spiky stars decorating this cosmic portrait of NGC 1055 are in the foreground, well within the Milky Way. But telltale pinkish star forming regions and young blue star clusters are scattered through winding dust lanes along the distant galaxy's thin disk. With a smattering of even more distant background galaxies, the deep...
  • Astronomy Picture of the Day - The Images not Posted during the Government Shutdown - All the Water on Europa

    11/27/2025 10:43:07 AM PST · by MtnClimber · 10 replies
    NASA ^ | 12 Oct, 2025 | Illustration Credit & Copyright: Kevin Hand (JPL/Caltech), Jack Cook (Woods Hole Oceanographic Insti
    Explanation: How much of Jupiter's moon Europa is made of water? No one is sure, but probably a lot. Based on the Galileo probe data acquired during its exploration of the Jovian system from 1995 to 2003, Europa possesses a deep, global ocean of liquid water beneath a layer of surface ice. The subsurface ocean plus ice layer could descend over 100 kilometers in average depth. Adopting a high-end estimate of 100 kilometers depth, if all the water on Europa were gathered into a ball, it would have a radius of over 800 kilometers. To scale, this intriguing illustration compares...
  • Easter Island mystery is SOLVED: Scientists finally pinpoint who built the iconic stone heads 900 years ago

    11/27/2025 2:58:31 AM PST · by Moltke · 32 replies
    UK Daily Mail ^ | 26 November 2025 | William Hunter
    One of the biggest mysteries surrounding Easter Island may finally be solved - as scientists pinpoint who built the iconic stone heads over 900 years ago. In the past, researchers assumed that the 12 to 80-ton statues would have required the combined efforts of hundreds of labourers to build and move. However, new archaeological evidence shows that the statues, known as moai, were not carved by a single powerful chiefdom. Instead, each moai was carved by a small clan or by an individual family, with as few as four to six people working on a single statue. Using a new...
  • Shark kills woman and seriously wounds another swimmer at Australian beach

    11/27/2025 2:56:23 AM PST · by Libloather · 8 replies
    A shark killed a woman and seriously wounded a man taking an early morning swim with her at a national park beach on Australia’s east coast Thursday, police said. Experts say a shark rarely attacks more than one person. The attack occurred at Crowdy Bay National Park, which is known for beach camping, fishing spots and hiking tracks 224 miles north of Sydney. Beaches in the area and to the north of the attack were closed to swimmers indefinitely, Police Chief Insp. Timothy Bayly said. Emergency services were called to Kylies Beach following reports that two people in their mid-20s...
  • Astronomy Picture of the Day - Globular Cluster M15 Deep Field

    11/26/2025 1:06:40 PM PST · by MtnClimber · 10 replies
    NASA ^ | 26 Nov, 2025 | Image Credit & Copyright: Alvaro Ibanez Perez
    Explanation: Stars, like bees, swarm around the center of bright globular cluster M15. The central ball of over 100,000 stars is a relic from the early years of our Galaxy, and continues to orbit the Milky Way's center. M15, one of about 150 globular clusters remaining, is noted for being easily visible with only binoculars, having at its center one of the densest concentrations of stars known, and containing a high abundance of variable stars and pulsars. The featured image of M15 was taken by combining very long exposures -- 122 hours in all -- and so brings up faint...
  • Astronomy Picture of the Day - The Images not Posted during the Government Shutdown - Manicouagan Impact Crater from Space

    11/26/2025 10:22:47 AM PST · by MtnClimber · 6 replies
    NASA ^ | 11 Oct, 2025 | Image Credit: NASA, International Space Station Expedition 59
    Explanation: Orbiting 400 kilometers above Quebec, Canada, planet Earth, the International Space Station Expedition 59 crew captured this snapshot of the broad St. Lawrence River and curiously circular Lake Manicouagan on April 11, 2019. Right of center, the ring-shaped lake is a modern reservoir within the eroded remnant of an ancient 100 kilometer diameter impact crater. The ancient crater is very conspicuous from orbit, a visible reminder that Earth is vulnerable to rocks from space. Over 200 million years old, the Manicouagan crater was likely caused by the impact of a rocky body about 5 kilometers in diameter. Currently, there...
  • Ethiopian Volcano Erupts for First Time in 12,000 Years

    11/26/2025 7:09:27 AM PST · by Red Badger · 37 replies
    Breitbart ^ | November 25, 2025 | John Hayward
    The Hayli Gubbi volcano in Ethiopia, located about 500 miles from the capital city of Addis Ababa, erupted on Sunday for the first time in about 12,000 years. The eruption was not too devastating as such events go, but it did release an enormous plume of ash, which rode the subtropical jet stream and quickly expanded to cover parts of Yemen, Oman, India, and Pakistan. Air India announced it canceled at least 11 flights on Tuesday due to concerns over the cloud. “The affected altitude is between 8.5 kilometers (5.2 miles) and 15 kilometers above the sea level,” said Mrutyunjay...
  • Most modern dogs have wolf DNA from relatively recent interbreeding. Here's which breeds are the most and least 'wolfish.'

    11/26/2025 6:17:00 AM PST · by Diana in Wisconsin · 57 replies
    Live Science ^ | November 26, 2025 | Skyler Ware
    Most modern dog breeds have small amounts of wolf ancestry from long after dogs were domesticated, according to a new study. The wolf DNA isn't left over from when dogs and wolves diverged; instead, it most likely came from interbreeding in the past few thousand years. That wolfish influence may be linked to certain characteristics, such as size and personality traits, in different dog breeds, researchers reported Nov. 24 in the journal PNAS. "Dogs are our buddies, but apparently wolves have been a big part of shaping them into the companions we know and love today," study co-author Logan Kistler,...
  • We Found a NEW STONE Near Stonehenge... And It Makes No Sense [15:58] | 215K subscribers | 63,178 views |

    11/26/2025 6:04:13 AM PST · by SunkenCiv · 19 replies
    YouTube ^ | November 23, 2025 | Paul Whitewick
    Welcome to this weeks video. So we found a BlueStone. Completely out of place from its original quarried location. Does it relate to Stonehenge, what is it doing here? We Found a NEW STONE Near Stonehenge... And It Makes No Sense | 15:58 Paul Whitewick | 215K subscribers | 63,178 views | November 23, 2025 Cholderton Estate
  • 'Like a sudden bomb': See photos from space of Ethiopian volcano erupting for first time in 12,000 years

    11/26/2025 5:08:49 AM PST · by Twotone · 31 replies
    Live Science ^ | November 25, 2025 | Skyler Ware
    A volcano in Ethiopia erupted for the first time in at least 12,000 years on Sunday, sending a cloud of ash and smoke northeast across the Red Sea. Hayli Gubbi, a volcano in the Afar region of northern Ethiopia, erupted at around 8:30 a.m. UTC (3:30 a.m. EST) on Nov. 23. By 8 p.m. UTC (3 p.m. EST), the explosive phase of the eruption had stopped, according to the Toulouse Volcanic Ash Advisory Center (VAAC) in France. This is the first time Hayli Gubbi is known to have erupted in the Holocene — the present geological epoch that began at...