Free Republic 1st Qtr 2026 Fundraising Target: $81,000 Receipts & Pledges to-date: $14,613
18%  
Woo hoo!! And now only $777 to reach 19%!! Thank you all very much!! God bless.

Science (General/Chat)

Brevity: Headers | « Text »
  • Astronomy Picture of the Day - NGC 55: A Galaxy of Nebulas

    01/26/2026 12:49:18 PM PST · by MtnClimber · 12 replies
    NASA ^ | 26 Jan, 2026 | Image Credit & Copyright: Wolfgang Promper; Text: Ogetay Kayali (MTU)
    Explanation: Can you see nebulas in other galaxies? Yes, some nebulas shine brightly enough -- if you know how to look. Clouds of hydrogen and oxygen emit light at very specific colors, and by isolating them, astronomers and astrophotographers can reveal structures that would otherwise be too faint to notice. This deep, 50-hour exposure highlights glowing hydrogen (red) and oxygen (blue) across galaxy NGC 55, viewed nearly edge-on. Also known as the String of Pearls Galaxy, NGC 55 is often compared to our Milky Way's satellite galaxy the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), although NGC 55 lies much farther away at...
  • Why is there 13,000 year old bones on the Channel Islands, West of the West ( Part 1) [6:10]

    01/25/2026 8:45:16 PM PST · by SunkenCiv · 18 replies
    YouTube ^ | June 27, 2022 | Tales from Califorina's Channel Islands [s/b California]
    Arlington Man -- In 1959, while looking for pygmy mammoth bones on Santa Rosa Island, Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History archeologist Phil Orr discovered a human femur sticking out of the canyon wall at Arlington Springs. He knew it was old, but scientific dating technology couldn’t tell him how old. Yet. So he put the bones away in the basement of the SBMNH where they were rediscovered by Don Morris and John Johnson in the 1990s. These two archeologists take us back to Arlington Springs while explaining how modern carbon dating confirmed the bones were over 13,000 years old......
  • Britain AD: The Shocking Truth Of The 5th Century [49:11]

    01/25/2026 8:39:47 PM PST · by SunkenCiv · 24 replies
    YouTube ^ | January 17, 2026 | Real History
    Discover the truth behind the "Dark Ages" of Britain and see how this period was more vibrant and connected than you've ever imagined. Britain AD: The Shocking Truth Of The 5th Century | 49:11 Real History | 490K subscribers | 2,293 views | January 17, 2026
  • China Deploys New ‘Hurricane 3000’ Microwave ‘Super Weapon’ for Operational Counter-Drone Warfare China’s Hurricane 3000 is a truck-mounted high-power microwave weapon aimed at defeating drones by frying onboard electronics rather than firing missiles.

    01/25/2026 7:16:29 PM PST · by daniel1212 · 16 replies
    19fortyfive.com ^ | 01-19-2026 | Jack Buckby
    It pairs radar and electro-optical sensors with intense microwave pulses to deliver a “hard kill,” potentially engaging small, low-altitude UAVs beyond three kilometers. Designed to slot into a broader air-defense network—alongside lasers and traditional guns—the system is pitched as a low-logistics answer to cheap swarmsChina’s defense industry has disclosed new technical details and outlined some enhanced capabilities for its truck-mounted Hurricane 3000 high-power microwave (HPM) weapon, a directed-energy system designed to counter unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and drone swarms. The details were published by the South China Morning Post.China Drone Aircraft Carrier. Image Credit: X Screenshot. The Hurricane 3000, developed...
  • China’s Massive Drone Swarm Mothership “Jiutian” Takes Flight

    01/25/2026 7:11:22 PM PST · by daniel1212 · 31 replies
    th eaviationist. ^ | December 11, 2025 | Parth Satam
    While reports have identified the Jiutian as a “general-purpose drone,” concepts have shown it releasing drone swarms with a range of surface and maritime strike munitions....Notably, the drone has a 6 ton payload capacity for either munitions, drone swarms and humanitarian relief material. A concept video on CCTV 14 from May 2025 shows a group of Jiutians releasing swarms of hundreds of smart quadcopter-like systems and other winged attack drones. These were then shown coordinating and overwhelming the U.S. Navy’s aircraft carriers and supporting battleships, clearing the way for anti-ship ballistic, cruise and surface strike missiles. Footage in the same...
  • China smashes drone display world record - nearly 16,000 drones take to the sky in incredible display 16,000 drones followed a precise RTK-guided path for real-time accuracy.

    01/25/2026 7:07:06 PM PST · by daniel1212 · 16 replies
    Future US, Inc ^ | November 1, 2025 | Efosa Udinmwen
    Nearly 16,000 drones formed the largest synchronized display ever recorded. The performance earned dual Guinness World Records for drone coordination achievements. China replaced fireworks’ chemical combustion with digitally programmed light choreography. Liuyang, often called the “fireworks capital of the world,” has added another milestone to its history. About two weeks ago, nearly 16,000 drones took to the sky in what is now the largest synchronized drone display ever recorded. The show involved 15,947 units, each following a programmed flight path to create towers, blossoms, and a glowing “Sky Tree.”.. Coordinating thousands of lithium-powered flying devices requires exact precision, and any...
  • Astronomy Picture of the Day - Phobos: Doomed Moon of Mars

    01/25/2026 11:32:59 AM PST · by MtnClimber · 11 replies
    NASA ^ | 25 Jan, 2026 | Image Credit: NASA, LPL (U. Arizona), MRO, HiRISE
    Explanation: This moon is doomed. Mars, the red planet named for the Roman god of war, has two tiny moons, Phobos and Deimos, whose names are derived from the Greek for Fear and Panic. These Martian moons may well be captured asteroids originating in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter or perhaps from even more distant reaches of our Solar System. The larger moon, Phobos, is indeed seen to be a cratered, asteroid-like object in this stunning color image from the robotic Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which can image objects as small as 10 meters. But Phobos orbits so...
  • How did the Greeks and Romans count Years? [7:52]

    01/25/2026 6:15:45 AM PST · by SunkenCiv · 36 replies
    YouTube ^ | December 31, 2021 | Garrett Ryan, Ph.D (as toldinstone)
    The AD/CE system we use to date the year was introduced - more or less by accident - during the Middle Ages. Before its invention, the classical world used a wide range of dating systems. How did the Greeks and Romans count Years? | 7:52 toldinstone | 615K subscribers | 435,313 views | December 31, 2021
  • Rockwell Retro Encabulator

    01/25/2026 5:32:27 AM PST · by Twotone · 18 replies
    YouTube.com ^ | 18 years ago | RL Carnes
    Latest technology by Rockwell Automation
  • Kīlauea volcano going off

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tk0tfYDxrUA
  • Astronomy Picture of the Day - Earthset from Orion

    01/24/2026 12:19:07 PM PST · by MtnClimber · 7 replies
    NASA ^ | 24 Jan, 2026 | Image Credit: NASA, Artemis 1
    Explanation: Eight billion people are about to disappear in this snapshot from space taken on 2022 November 21. On the sixth day of the Artemis I mission, their home world is setting behind the Moon's bright edge as viewed by an external camera on the outbound Orion spacecraft. Orion was headed for a powered flyby that took it to within 130 kilometers of the lunar surface. Velocity gained in the flyby maneuver was used to reach a distant retrograde orbit around the Moon. That orbit is considered distant because it's another 92,000 kilometers beyond the Moon, and retrograde because the...
  • Buried for 2,400 Years: The Dark Rituals of the Ancient Celts [49:50]

    01/24/2026 9:22:41 AM PST · by SunkenCiv · 17 replies
    YouTube ^ | January 10, 2026 | Autentic Documentary [misspelling in original]
    Who were the Celts really? Mythical druids of legend or feared warriors of antiquity? Deep inside the European Alps, sealed salt mines have preserved astonishing evidence of a powerful civilisation that flourished more than 3,000 years ago. These people were neither barbarians nor island dwellers -- they were the rulers of a vast Kingdom of Salt, enriched by one of the most valuable resources of the ancient world. Now, a remarkable discovery raises new questions. Inside a 2,400-year-old Celtic tomb, the remains of an aristocratic woman and two unusually large men are uncovered. Were they relatives, ritual sacrifices, or part...
  • Astronomy Picture of the Day - Planetary Nebula Abell 7

    01/23/2026 12:11:01 PM PST · by MtnClimber · 9 replies
    NASA ^ | 23 Jan, 2026 | Image Credit & Copyright: Martin Pugh
    Explanation: Very faint planetary nebula Abell 7 is about 1,800 light-years distant. It lies just south of Orion in planet Earth's skies toward the constellation Lepus, The Hare. Posing with scattered Milky Way stars, its generally simple spherical shape about 8 light-years in diameter is revealed in this deep telescopic image. The beautiful and complex shapes seen within the cosmic cloud are visually enhanced by the use of long exposures and narrowband filters that capture emission from hydrogen and oxygen atoms. Otherwise Abell 7 would be much too faint to be appreciated by eye. A planetary nebula represents a very...
  • Traces of Unusual Huts Offer Clues to Origins of Medieval Port Town

    01/22/2026 11:53:57 PM PST · by SunkenCiv · 3 replies
    Archaeology Magazine ^ | January 9, 2026 | editors / unattributed
    According to a Science in Poland report, traces of four unusual huts dated to the eleventh or twelfth century have been uncovered on an island in the Baltic Sea near the coast of Poland. Researchers were excavating an area once known as Srebrne Wzgórze on the northern edge of the medieval town, where there had been a market and craft workshops, when they unearthed the huts. “They are platforms made of clay and sand, surrounded by a ditch,” said Wojciech Filipowiak of the Polish Academy of Sciences. “Some have a hearth, some have an oven,” he added. Pottery, animal bones,...
  • Medieval Graves of Three Elite Warriors Excavated in Hungary

    01/22/2026 11:13:15 PM PST · by SunkenCiv · 12 replies
    Archaeology Magazine ^ | January 8, 2026 | editors / unattributed
    According to a Live Science report, the 1,100-year-old graves of three warriors have been excavated in southern Hungary by a team led by Wihelm Gábor of the Katona József Museum. A total of 81 coins were recovered from the three burials. Most of these coins were minted in northern Italy during the reign of Berengar, between A.D. 888 and 924. Gábor and his colleagues suggest that the three warriors may have participated in military campaigns in northern Italy and carried the coins home. The first man was 17 or 18 years old when he died. He was buried wearing a...
  • Astronomy Picture of the Day - LDN 1622: Dark Nebula in Orion

    01/22/2026 11:57:22 AM PST · by MtnClimber · 7 replies
    NASA ^ | 22 Jan, 2026 | Image Credit & Copyright: Chris Fellows
    Explanation: The silhouette of an intriguing dark nebula inhabits this cosmic scene. Lynds' Dark Nebula (LDN) 1622 appears against a faint background of glowing hydrogen gas only visible in long telescopic exposures of the region. In contrast, a brighter reflection nebula, vdB 62, is more easily seen just above the dusty dark nebula. LDN 1622 lies near the plane of our Milky Way Galaxy, close on the sky to Barnard's Loop, a large cloud surrounding the rich complex of emission nebulae found in the Belt and Sword of Orion. With swept-back outlines, the obscuring dust of LDN 1622 is thought...
  • A tool-using cow is challenging what we know about farm animal intelligence

    01/22/2026 8:23:41 AM PST · by Diana in Wisconsin · 72 replies
    Scientific American ^ | January 22, 2026 | Katie Wong
    A pet cow named Veronika uses a tool in a surprisingly sophisticated way—possibly because she has been allowed to live her best life. In news that is sure to delight fans of a certain Gary Larson cartoon turned meme about the limitations of bovine cognition, cow tools are real. Larson’s 1982 comic for his series The Far Side showed a cow standing behind a table bearing an array of oddly shaped objects. The text below the image read simply “cow tools.” Now a pet cow named Veronika has been documented not only using a tool but doing so in a...
  • For The Future Of EVs, What Policy Is "Stupid"?

    01/22/2026 5:35:47 AM PST · by MtnClimber · 36 replies
    Manhattan Contrarian ^ | 21 Jan, 2026 | Francis Menton
    Over the past couple of years, I have had several posts here expressing skepticism about whether electric vehicles (EVs) were really the wave of the future. Most recently, I had a post on December 17 noting the rapid decline of EV sales in the U.S. during the fourth quarter of 2025, following the expiration of certain tax credits on September 30. Overall, my take has been that the EV market has been propped up by government subsidies and benefits and, like all businesses dependent on government handouts, would likely shrink drastically (if not completely disappear) without them. For a different...
  • Physicists Accidentally Create Gold from Lead in Large Hadron Collider Experiment

    01/21/2026 1:43:49 PM PST · by yesthatjallen · 73 replies
    britfrief ^ | 01 20 2026 | Staff
    In a remarkable twist that bridges ancient ambition with cutting-edge science, physicists working at the Large Hadron Collider have achieved what medieval alchemists only dreamed of: turning lead into gold. While attempting to recreate conditions moments after the Big Bang, researchers on the ALICE experiment in Switzerland inadvertently produced minuscule quantities of the precious metal, marking an unexpected breakthrough in particle physics. The Accidental Discovery The extraordinary transformation occurred during experiments where beams of lead nuclei were fired at each other at velocities approaching the speed of light. While the primary goal was to study the primordial state of the...
  • Yosemite’s Rare “Firefall” Only Happens Once a Year—Here’s What to Know About This Thrilling Phenomenon

    01/21/2026 1:31:08 PM PST · by Diana in Wisconsin · 28 replies
    AFAR Magazine ^ | January 21, 2026 | AFAR Magazine Staff
    Every year from mid- to late February, the setting sun hits Yosemite’s Horsetail Fall along the eastern edge of the soaring El Capitan at just the right angle, creating the illusion that the 1,575-foot waterfall is on fire. This Yosemite National Park phenomenon, aka “firefall,” is ultra-popular, and this year is expected to be even more crowded. For the first time since 2021, park reservations are not required to visit Yosemite during firefall. The past 12 months have been tumultuous for the National Park Service, with a 43-day government shutdown, changing free-entry days, and price increases. Now, its rangers will...