Browsing Category:
Climate Change, Politics, Science & Technology
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Climate Change: Study Shows Mediterranean Sea 3.6°F Hotter During Roman Empire
by Shifra on July 26, 2020Someone please alert AOC about this new study. Wait, on second thought, don’t. She would probably call for a boycott/shutdown of Scientific Reports. Because, science… or something. Via Breitbart. The Mediterranean Sea was considerably warmer during the period of the Roman Empire 2000 years ago than it is today, according to a new study published in Scientific Reports. The period of the Roman Empire, which ran from 27 BC to 476 AD, coincided with warmest period of the last 2,000 years in the Mediterranean, found the 8-member international team of researchers led by Giulia Margaritelli. Employing ratios of magnesium to calcite taken from skeletonized amoebas in marine sediments, an indicator of sea water temperatures, the researchers determined that the Roman...
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Antibody That Blocks Coronavirus From Infecting Cells Discovered
by Tammy on May 4, 2020There are new discoveries every day. Some end up not delivering, others will work. This offers some hope. Today, Israel announced a breakthrough: an antibody that can neutralize COVID-19 has been developed. Via Jerusalem Post. The Israel Institute for Biological Research (IIBR) has completed the development phase of COVID-19 antibody or passive vaccine, according to a statement by the Defense Ministry. Defense Minister Naftali Bennett visited the Ness Ziona-based lab on Monday and was briefed by the research team, who revealed a breakthrough antibody that attacks the virus and neutralizes it in the body…. A second Israeli research team, MigVax, has also reported that it is close to completing the first phase of development of a coronavirus vaccine. Last week,...
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FDA Authorizes First At-Home Coronavirus Sample Collection Kit
by Tammy on April 21, 2020This is excellent news. It has been amazing to watch how quickly we’ve made advances when it comes to testing, not just availability but portability and speed with results. It’s horrible what we’ve been through but extraordinary to see just how impressive our scientific community really is. Via Politico. The FDA has given emergency authorization to the first coronavirus test that allows people to collect their own samples at home, using a nasal swab, before mailing them off to a lab for analysis. The test, made by LabCorp, could help cut down on the amount of personal protective equipment health providers are using while collecting patient samples for testing. The company said its at-home collection kits will initially be used...
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Using DNA Tests, Best Friends For 60 Years Discover They Are Brothers
by Tammy on December 26, 2017Wow. Via KTLA. Two Hawaii men have shared a lot over the 60 years they’ve been best friends. But this year, they were shocked to discover they have the same mother after using DNA genealogy kits, according to KHON in Honolulu. Alan Robinson was adopted and Walter Macfarlane had questions about his biological father. The half-brothers first met in the sixth grade and quickly bonded. But despite years of sharing the same interests, finishing each other’s sentences and being told they look alike, the two say they had no idea. “I had a younger brother that I lost when he was 19, so I never had nieces or nephews,” Robinson, who is about a year and a half younger than...
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Man Plans To Fly Homemade Rocket To Prove Earth Is Flat
by Tammy on November 24, 2017If this actually happens I think the only thing he’ll prove is how much we need the Darwin Awards. Via KPCC. The countdown to launch creeps closer and there’s still plenty for self-taught rocket scientist “Mad” Mike Hughes to do: Last-second modifications to his vessel. Pick up his flight suit. Leave enough food for his four cats — just in case anything happens. Hughes is a 61-year-old limo driver who’s spent the last few years building a steam-powered rocket out of salvaged parts in his garage. His project has cost him $20,000, which includes Rust-Oleum paint to fancy it up and a motor home he bought on Craigslist that he converted into a ramp. His first test of the rocket...
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Heads Up: A Total Solar Eclipse Is Coming In August
by Tammy on May 13, 2017Neat! Via LA Times. This summer, darkness will fall across the face of America. Birds will stop singing. Temperatures will drop. Stars will become visible in the daytime sky. In about 100 days, a total solar eclipse will sweep across the continental United States for the first time since 1918. Astronomers are calling it the Great American Eclipse. For the amateur sky-watcher, a total eclipse presents a rare opportunity to witness a cosmic hiccup in our day-night cycle. For solar astronomers, however, the eclipse offers something else: three minutes (give or take) to collect as much data as possible about the sun’s usually hidden outer atmosphere. Researchers have been anticipating the event for years… “It’s a really unique feeling, standing...
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(Video) Scientists Find Purple Blob Underwater, And It Might Be A New Species
by Shifra on July 31, 2016If it is a new species, yes, blobus purpilis would be a perfect name.
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Drinking Champagne Every Day Could Help Prevent Dementia and Alzheimer’s
by Tammy on June 18, 2016I love science and medicine! Via Cosmopolitan. In news that both offers hope and baffles, scientists have found that drinking three glasses of champagne every day can help to prevent the onset of dementia and Alzheimer’s. A compound found in pinot noir and pinot meunier, the black grapes used to make a bottle of the fizzy stuff, can ward off brain diseases and increase spatial memory. Professor Jeremy Spencer—one of the academics who carried out the experiment involving rats at Reading University—told the Mail on Sunday “the results were dramatic”. He continued: “This research is exciting because it illustrates for the first time that moderate consumption of champagne has the potential to influence cognitive functioning such as memory.” Those who...
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Lock of Thomas Jefferson’s Hair Auctioned for $6,875
by Tammy on May 15, 2016Well, I love history and this is amazing, but you know the first thing that popped into my mind: they better not try to clone him!! Via AP: A lock of hair from Thomas Jefferson has sold at auction in Texas for $6,875, nearly 190 years after the former president died. Heritage Auctions in Dallas said Saturday’s sale involved 14 strands that were snipped by Jefferson’s personal physician at the time of the statesman’s death on July 4, 1826. A Heritage Auctions statement says the pre-auction estimate for the hair was $3,000. Company spokesman Eric Bradley says the buyer wished to remain anonymous. The seller was collector William F. Northrop, who purchased the lock in the early 1980s from an...
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Self-Driving Taxis May Hit the Road Within a Year
by Tammy on May 6, 2016Hmm. On one hand I like this because it removes the necessity of getting in a car with a stranger. On the the other hand I like the”sharing” economy and how it allows so many to be their own boss. Thoughts everyone? Via Scientific American. The world could get a glimpse of a futuristic transportation system in which people get around in self-driving electric taxis as soon as next year. General Motors Co. and Lyft Inc. will start testing self-driving taxis with real customers within a year in a pilot program that could include electric vehicles, a Lyft executive told The Wall Street Journal. Those looking to cut carbon emissions from transportation have called the combination a “best case scenario”...
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Pregnant T. rex Found, May Contain DNA
by Tammy on April 29, 2016Gah! You know some mad scientist out there is going to want to clone it. That would be bad. Via Discovery. A pregnant Tyrannosaurus rex has been found, shedding light on the evolution of egg-laying as well as on gender differences in the dinosaur. The remains also could contain the holy grail of all dinosaur fossils: DNA. “Yes, it’s possible,” Lindsay Zanno told Discovery News, referring to genetic material that may be present in this as well as similar dinosaur finds. “We have some evidence that fragments of DNA may be preserved in dinosaur fossils, but this remains to be tested further.” What has been confirmed so far is that the T. rex, which was found in Montana and dates...
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$7 Billion Large Hadron Collider Shut Down by Weasel
by Tammy on April 29, 2016Not a human jerk, an actual weasel. The weasel didn’t make it (may he rest in peace, the little fella), but the LHC is down, too. Via NPR. A small mammal has sabotaged the world’s most powerful scientific instrument. The Large Hadron Collider, a 17-mile superconducting machine designed to smash protons together at close to the speed of light, went offline overnight. Engineers investigating the mishap found the charred remains of a furry creature near a gnawed-through power cable. “We had electrical problems, and we are pretty sure this was caused by a small animal,” says Arnaud Marsollier, head of press for CERN, the organization that runs the $7 billion particle collider in Switzerland. Although they had not conducted a...
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Help Find Sam the Toy Mascot Dog! He Got to Space, Now Missing On Earth
by Tammy on April 10, 2016He landed in England somewhere, now the search is on! Via the Independent. A group of schoolchildren are searching for a toy dog which went missing after they launched it into space. As part of a science project, the pupils from Morecambe Bay Community Primary School used a giant helium balloon to see if they could send Sam the Dog, a cuddly toy mascot, to the edge of space. With the aid of SentIntoSpace, a British company which specialises in such projects, they strapped Sam onto his spacecraft, along with a GPS tracker and a GoPro camera to capture the action. The ‘launch’, which took place on 5 April at a hotel in the town, proved successful. Sam rose at...
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Scientists Hatch a Plan to Protect Humanity from Hostile Aliens
by Tammy on March 31, 2016I like that they’re thinking ahead, but we better hatch a plan to deal with hostile and savage humans that are roaming the Earth first. Just saying. Via Discovery. Earth is a bountiful planet rich in resources. And, if you believe Stephen Hawking, that might cause our demise. Such alien alarmists compare first contact to the devastation Europeans brought to North America. “We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn’t want to meet,” Hawking said back in 2010. “I imagine they might exist in massive ships … having used up all the resources from their home planet. Such advanced aliens would perhaps become nomads, looking to conquer and colonize whatever...
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Tycoons Plan Base On Moon By 2026
by Tammy on March 27, 2016Good. we’ll have a place where we can send all the politicians where they can ruin their own lives for a change. Via Sunday Times. [Partially behind a paywall] Humans could be living on the moon within a decade for a total cost of just £6.5bn, a fraction of what it cost to get there originally, say a group of Silicon Valley billionaires and Nasa scientists. They have pinpointed the most desirable area on the moon, which receives the maximum amount of sunlight. This means that the site, beside Peary crater at the lunar north pole, is ideal for generating the solar power vital for any such base. The scientists are planning a base holding up to 10 people who...