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Science (General/Chat)

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  • Astronomy Picture of the Day- Government shutdown so no APOD Today. I will dig up some of my favorites - Hubble Ultra Deep Field 2014

    10/02/2025 12:02:56 PM PDT · by MtnClimber · 19 replies
    NASA ^ | 5 Jun, 2014 | Image Credit: NASA, ESA, H.Teplitz and M.Rafelski (IPAC/Caltech), A. Koekemoer (STScI), R. Windhorst
    Explanation: Galaxies like colorful pieces of candy fill the Hubble Ultra Deep Field 2014. The dimmest galaxies are more than 10 billion times fainter than stars visible to the unaided eye and represent the Universe in the extreme past, a few 100 million years after the Big Bang. The image itself was made with the significant addition of ultraviolet data to the Hubble Ultra Deep Field, an update of Hubble's famous most distant gaze toward the southern constellation of Fornax. It now covers the entire range of wavelengths available to Hubble's cameras, from ultraviolet through visible to near-infrared. Ultraviolet data...
  • This Artifact Was Unknown Before Ötzi the Iceman [2:55]

    10/02/2025 8:37:14 AM PDT · by SunkenCiv · 52 replies
    YouTube ^ | September 25, 2025 | Dr. Smiti Nathan
    This Artifact Was Unknown Before Ötzi the Iceman | 2:55 Dr. Smiti Nathan | 22.6K subscribers | 83,388 views | September 25, 2025
  • New, highly transmissible COVID-19 strain fueling wave of infections across US

    10/02/2025 1:44:56 AM PDT · by Libloather · 65 replies
    NY Post ^ | 10/01/25 | Tracy Swartz
    Just in time for respiratory virus season, a highly transmissible COVID-19 strain is fueling a wave of infections across the US. The XFG variant, informally known as “Stratus,” has been driving up case numbers. Stratus’ ability to evade immune system defenses has propelled it past NB.1.8.1 (aka “Nimbus”) as the dominant Covid strain. The increased Covid activity comes as the US heads into fall respiratory illness season — which tends to bring a rise in cases of the common cold, flu and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) — and amid evolving guidance for Covid vaccines. The level of Covid viral activity...
  • Sinaloa cartel leader admits to CNN that Trump’s border crackdown is stiffling criminal operations

    10/02/2025 12:29:15 AM PDT · by Libloather · 7 replies
    NY Post ^ | 10/01/25 | Shane Galvin
    An alleged Sinaloa cartel leader admitted President Trump’s aggressive border policies have made the illegal work of the powerful Mexican drug gang more difficult in an interview with CNN. An anonymous member of El Chapo’s former gang explained that Trump’s immigration and drug policies have put a damper on their black-market tradecraft in a bizarre interview with the news station’s senior national correspondent, David Culver, in the back of an SUV. “From killing to coordinating smuggling operations, he says he’s done it all,” Culver said, referring to Trump. “Do you think what President Trump has been doing has been making...
  • Did Gary Larson Really Offend Jane Goodall With a Far Side Comic About Her?

    10/01/2025 8:22:15 PM PDT · by nickcarraway · 37 replies
    CBR ^ | Brian Cronin
    CBR senior staff writer Brian Cronin has been writing professionally about comic books for over fifteen years now at CBR (primarily with his “Comics Should Be Good” series of columns, including Comic Book Legends Revealed). He has written two books about comics for Penguin-Random House – Was Superman a Spy? And Other Comic Book Legends Revealed and Why Does Batman Carry Shark Repellent? And Other Amazing Comic Book Trivia! and one book, 100 Things X-Men Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die, from Triumph Books. His writing has been featured at ESPN.com, the Los Angeles Times, About.com, the Huffington...
  • NGC 6960: The Witch's Broom Nebula

    10/01/2025 12:35:08 PM PDT · by MtnClimber · 9 replies
    NASA ^ | 1 Oct, 2025 | Image Credit & Copyright: Brian Meyers
    Explanation: Ten thousand years ago, before the dawn of recorded human history, a new light would suddenly have appeared in the night sky and faded after a few weeks. Today we know this light was from a supernova, or exploding star, and record the expanding debris cloud as the Veil Nebula, a supernova remnant. This sharp telescopic view is centered on a western segment of the Veil Nebula cataloged as NGC 6960 but less formally known as the Witch's Broom Nebula. Blasted out in the cataclysmic explosion, an interstellar shock wave plows through space sweeping up and exciting interstellar material....
  • Million-Year-Old Skull Unearthed in China Challenges Timeline of Human Origins

    10/01/2025 9:44:54 AM PDT · by Red Badger · 29 replies
    The Debrief ^ | October 01, 2025 | Austin Burgess
    Image credit: Gary Todd / Public Domain) When researchers digitally reconstructed a crushed skull unearthed in China, they made a surprising discovery, revealing features that could potentially alter the story of our beginnings. Researchers believe the skull, known as Yunxian 2, is approximately one million years old. This finding suggests that the lineages leading to modern humans and their relatives may have existed at least half a million years earlier than previously believed. The “Muddle in the Middle” The stretch of time between one million and 300,000 years ago has presented challenges for scientists studying human evolution. Fossils from this...
  • Scientists Develop the World’s First Rechargeable Hydride Ion Battery

    10/01/2025 6:04:39 AM PDT · by Red Badger · 12 replies
    Scitech Daily ^ | October 01, 2025 | Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy Sciences
    Schematic diagram of the first room temperature all-solid-state hydride ion battery. Credit: DICP ============================================================ Scientists have built the first rechargeable hydride ion battery. Hydride ions (H⁻) have drawn interest as potential charge carriers for future electrochemical devices because of their extremely low mass and high redox potential. Yet, progress has been limited since no electrolyte has been able to provide the combination of rapid ion movement, thermal stability, and compatibility with electrodes that such systems require. A recent study in Nature reports a breakthrough from Prof. Ping Chen and his team at the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP), part...
  • Q ~ Trust Trump's Plan ~ 10/01/2025 Vol.512, Q Day 2896

    09/30/2025 9:00:00 PM PDT · by ransomnote · 492 replies
    Qalerts.net ^ | Oct 1, 2025 | FReeQs, FReepers, LurQers and Vanity
    Many come here to read dispatches from the War between Good and Evil, to red-pill and encourage.....and to pray and give thanks to the God who fights for us.Q has reminded us repeatedly that together, we are strong. As the false "narrative" is destroyed and the divisive machinery put in place by the Deep State fails, the fact that patriotism has no skin color or political party is exposed for all to see. 3038 Mar 12, 2019 2:55:14 PM EDTQ !!mG7VJxZNCI ID: 4fe510 No. 5643022>Decide for yourself (be free from outside opinion).>Decide for yourself (be objective in your conclusions).>Decide for...
  • Jenny McCarthy's Glutathione and Tylenol Claims: Medical Toxicologist Weighs In

    09/30/2025 6:30:54 PM PDT · by nickcarraway · 33 replies
    MEDPAGE TODAY ^ | September 30, 2025 | Rachael Robertson
    The known anti-vaxxer is misinterpreting and exaggerating the connection, expert saysWelcome to Culture Clinic, MedPage Today's collaboration with Northwell Health to offer a healthcare professional's take on the latest viral medical topics. Actress and longtime anti-vaccine activist Jenny McCarthy took to social media to weigh in on recent debates about acetaminophen (Tylenol), vaccines, and autism, sharing her concerns about glutathione depletion. While some of McCarthy's claims are rooted in truth, an expert told MedPage Today that McCarthy mischaracterized the relationship between acetaminophen and glutathione and manipulated information to fit an agenda. McCarthy, who describes herself as "pro-safe vaccine," said in...
  • 3,000-Year-Old Discovery Reveals Surprising Clues to What May Have Accidentally Sparked the Dawn of the Iron Age

    09/30/2025 6:09:07 PM PDT · by SunkenCiv · 46 replies
    The Debrief ^ | September 29, 2025 | Tim McMillan
    In a fascinating twist of ancient chemistry, copper-smelting artisans may have stumbled upon a technique that would eventually lead to the intentional extraction of iron from ore, a discovery that was both accidental and revolutionary.A fresh analysis of slag, ores, and furnace residues from the 3,000-year-old site of Kvemo Bolnisi, Georgia, is rewriting the story of how humankind first learned to make iron.A team of researchers from Cranfield University in England, reexamining old finds from Kvemo Bolnisi using modern techniques, suggests that what had once been labeled an early iron-smelting site was actually a copper workshop that utilized iron oxides...
  • Astronomy Picture of the Day - Comet Lemmon Brightens

    09/30/2025 12:05:55 PM PDT · by MtnClimber · 7 replies
    NASA ^ | 30 Sep, 2025 | Image Credit & Copyright: Victor Sabet & Julien De Winter
    Explanation: Comet Lemmon is brightening and moving into morning northern skies. Besides Comet SWAN25B and Comet ATLAS, Comet C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) is now the third comet currently visible with binoculars and on long camera exposures. Comet Lemmon was discovered early this year and is still headed into the inner Solar System. The comet will round the Sun on November 8, but first it will pass its nearest to the Earth -- at about half the Earth-Sun distance -- on October 21. Although the brightnesses of comets are notoriously hard to predict, optimistic estimates have Comet Lemmon then becoming visible to...
  • Scientists Making Plans to Nuke Asteroid Targeting Moon, Slated for 2032 Impact

    09/30/2025 8:36:05 AM PDT · by MtnClimber · 28 replies
    Legal Insurrection ^ | 29 Sep, 2025 | Leslie Eastman
    A lunar impact could generate debris that damages key satellites, the ISS…and potentially any lunar installations that had been constructed as part of the new space race. Asteroid 2024 YR4 is a near-Earth object approximately 53–67 meters wide that was discovered in December 2024. While initial models suggested a small chance of Earth impact, refined tracking now indicates that there is no risk to Earth, but about a 4% probability that it will strike the Moon on December 22, 2032. Earlier this year, asteroid 2024 YR4 drew global attention when its estimated chance of striking Earth in 2032 reached 3%....
  • Searching for Lost Cities: London on the Black Sea

    09/30/2025 6:43:27 AM PDT · by SunkenCiv · 6 replies
    Archaeology Magazine ^ | May/June 2024 | Eric A. Powell
    The fourteenth-century Icelandic Edwardsaga chronicles the life of Edward the Confessor, the last Anglo-Saxon king of England (reigned 1042–1066). It also describes how, in the years after the Norman Conquest in 1066 -- when William the Conqueror invaded England and was crowned king -- 350 ships carrying English warriors set out for Constantinople. There, the Byzantine emperor employed the Anglo-Saxons as members of the Varangian Guard, an elite unit of foreign soldiers that served as his personal army. Such was their loyalty, says the Edwardsaga, that the emperor deeded them land six days' sailing north of Constantinople. There, presumably on...
  • Place Your Bet On The Future Of Energy: U.S. Or China

    09/30/2025 6:36:00 AM PDT · by MtnClimber · 22 replies
    Manhattan Contrarian ^ | 28 Sep, 2025 | Francis Menton
    The first eight months of the second Trump administration have seen a sea change in energy policy. Previously, under Biden, the federal government had undertaken a blowout of hundreds of billions of dollars of subsidies and incentives for so-called “renewable” energy sources, while simultaneously implementing dozens of regulations and restrictions to suppress the production and use of fossil fuels. President Trump has now reversed all of that. However, please take note of an important distinction: although Trump and Congress have zeroed out nearly all subsidies and tax credits for wind and solar generation and for grid-scale batteries, they have not...
  • So What Should We Call This – a Grue Jay?

    09/30/2025 5:36:50 AM PDT · by Red Badger · 58 replies
    University of Texas Austin ^ | September 28, 2025 | Marc Airhart
    The rare hybrid offspring of a blue jay and a green jay is likely a result of weather-related shifts in the range of two species. A rare hybrid bird identified in a suburb of San Antonio, Texas (center panel, credit: Brian Stokes) is the result of mating between a male blue jay (left, credit: Travis Maher/Cornell Lab of Ornithology/Macaulay Library) and a female green jay (right, credit: Dan O’Brien/Cornell Lab of Ornithology/Macaulay Library). ================================================================== Biologists at The University of Texas at Austin, who have reported discovering a bird that’s the natural result of a green jay and a blue jay’s...
  • Toxoplasmosis: Owning cats turns women into raging leftists Video: 15 min

    09/30/2025 5:17:18 AM PDT · by Phoenix8 · 60 replies
    YouTube ^ | 9/30/2025 | professor Dutton
    None offered…video only
  • Was the “Wow! Signal” Emitted from 3I/ATLAS?

    09/30/2025 3:29:50 AM PDT · by RoosterRedux · 44 replies
    Medium ^ | Avi Loeb
    The “Wow! Signal” was detected on August 15, 1977 as a strong narrowband radio signal by Ohio State University’s Big Ear radio telescope. Its origin was inferred to be extraterrestrial. The latest natural explanation (accessible here) hypothesized that the “Wow! Signal” was caused by a sudden brightening of the hydrogen line emitted from an interstellar cloud, triggered by a strong transient radio source, such as a flare from a highly magnetized neutron star (magnetar). The “Wow! Signal” originated from the sky coordinates of Right Ascension (RA)=19h25m=291 degrees and Declination (Dec)=-27 degrees. On August 12, 1977, the interstellar object 3I/ATLAS was...
  • Why Tech Giants Rely on Foreign Workers

    09/29/2025 8:02:13 PM PDT · by SeekAndFind · 37 replies
    Middle America News ^ | 09/28/25 | Wyatt Porter
    Elon Musk wants H-1B visas because he says America needs more tech workers. The real reason for these visas is our schools aren’t teaching math well enough. By law, H-1B visas go to foreigners who do specialized jobs, mostly in tech. Every year, 65,000 regular visas are handed out, plus 20,000 for advanced degrees. A 2023 federal report showed 65% of H-1B jobs are computer-related, but less than 1% go to social sciences. America’s math problem is getting worse. In 2024, a staggering 72% of eighth-graders failed to score at the proficient level in math, which is up from 66%...
  • What is the autumnal equinox?

    09/29/2025 3:36:23 PM PDT · by kawhill · 16 replies
    Royal Museums Greenwich ^ | I can't find it. | They don't say
    The autumnal equinox occurs in September each year, and in the northern hemisphere the date marks the end of summer and beginning of autumn.