The lonely science post thread
- Thread starter farmerbarleymow
- Start date
farmerbarleymow
I'm Petee's spirit animal
A load of old wank
www.theguardian.com
Origins of masturbation traced back to primates 40m years ago
Behaviour predates humans by tens of millions of years but evolutionary purpose is less clear, scientists say
T & P
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I was rather surprised to come across an article recently that claimed that even though mankind has had the required know-how to design and build heavier than air flying machines for more than a century, we still don’t know how planes stay in the air. Apparently we have two theories about it, and they both contradict each other in certain aspects whilst being right in others
www.scientificamerican.com
No One Can Explain Why Planes Stay in the Air
Do recent explanations solve the mysteries of aerodynamic lift?
petee
no gods, no malarkey
National Geographic, the iconic yellow framed magazine that has chronicled the natural world for more than 100 years, laid off its last remaining staff writers this week, multiple departing staffers said.
It was unclear how many staffers were cut during the latest round of layoffs at the magazine, but the move comes as parent company Walt Disney Co. has slashed thousands of staffers across its divisions this year.
farmerbarleymow
I'm Petee's spirit animal
Yes, read that earlier - seems a shame. I guess they're also going to digital only publication.
petee
no gods, no malarkey
( i added a pull quote since)
farmerbarleymow
I'm Petee's spirit animal
This looks like it'll return some interesting results, so hope the launch goes OK tomorrow.
www.theguardian.com
Euclid telescope prepares for voyage to create largest 3D map of the cosmos
European Space Agency’s €1bn probe will travel 1m miles from Earth to shed light on dark universe
gosub
~#
Blue Origin's BE-4 rocket engine exploded during June 30 test: report
The company says it has already nailed down the proximate cause.
www.space.com
T & P
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Calling 2hats or any other science boffins. Ignoring for a moment the monumental technological challenges, if we managed one day to build a spacecraft or probe that used nuclear explosions as a way to boost its speed, has anyone worked out the likely rate of acceleration/ speed achieved after each detonation?
Say a probe equipped with five 150 kt warheads for the sake of the argument. Once it’s on its way by standard means doing 40,000 kph, it deploys a shield and detonates a nuke behind it to be pushed to a greater speed by the shockwave. Then again and again, until it’s used all five warheads. Any rough guesses as to the final speed achieved?
Say a probe equipped with five 150 kt warheads for the sake of the argument. Once it’s on its way by standard means doing 40,000 kph, it deploys a shield and detonates a nuke behind it to be pushed to a greater speed by the shockwave. Then again and again, until it’s used all five warheads. Any rough guesses as to the final speed achieved?
2hats
Dust.
You are (essentially) describing the nuclear pulse propulsion starship of Project Orion.
en.wikipedia.org
Could perhaps achieve 10% of the speed of light (0.1c) in some design configurations (1g acceleration over some 10 days, detonating 3e5 devices).
Project Orion (nuclear propulsion) - Wikipedia
Chz
Stark Raving Sane
300,000 nuclear bombs? Christ, I'd heard of the concept many times before but I hadn't realised it was that outlandish. And double that if you want to slow down once you get where you're going, presumably.You are (essentially) describing the nuclear pulse propulsion starship of Project Orion.
Could perhaps achieve 10% of the speed of light (0.1c) in some design configurations (1g acceleration over some 10 days, detonating 3e5 devices).Project Orion (nuclear propulsion) - Wikipedia
farmerbarleymow
I'm Petee's spirit animal
This is interesting - a two-faced white dwarf
www.theguardian.com
Two-faced star with helium and hydrogen sides baffles astronomers
White dwarf nicknamed Janus could be in transition from one element dominating at its surface to the other
T & P
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I’ve been recently wondering about the speed of evolutionary changes in species, in particular when something is not critical to their survival. Given how relatively long (at least from the point of view of our individual concept of time) it seems to take for any significant evolutionary changes to take place in most species, how long is it going to bloody take for humans to, say, lose their appendix or their toenails, neither of which have served any useful purpose to our species for countless millennia, and only cause us pain, discomfort, and sometimes serious illness and death?
Not that any of us will be around to see it, but I’d like to think humans will be born without an appendix before long. Can’t imagine any practical use for toenails either, though at least they are far less likely to cause anyone death through bacterial infection.
Not that any of us will be around to see it, but I’d like to think humans will be born without an appendix before long. Can’t imagine any practical use for toenails either, though at least they are far less likely to cause anyone death through bacterial infection.
What if humans didn't have an appendix?
That organ may not be a useless artifact of evolution after all.
Being born without wisdom teeth is becoming more common though.
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farmerbarleymow
I'm Petee's spirit animal
Interesting article. I've still got my appendix along with my tonsils and never get ill.What if humans didn't have an appendix?
That organ may not be a useless artifact of evolution after all.www.livescience.com
Being born without wisdom teeth is becoming more common though.
Would be interesting if there's studies on illness rates between people with and without such organs.
WouldBe
Dislicksick
Chz
Stark Raving Sane
It doesn't just have to be useless, there has to be a solid advantage to breeding and reproduction without it. Toenails just aren't energy intensive enough, nor dangerous enough to go away via evolution unless the gene to lose them becomes dominant. Even that alone wouldn't eliminate them, but it could make them rare enough that people with toenails are seen as freaks and have a disadvantage in reproduction.
petee
no gods, no malarkey
when i were a lad it was almost a fashion to get your tonsils removed. i never did and i can't say i've suffered for it.
8ball
Decolonise colons!
i put ?meteor shower" into Google and for a moment my screen darkened and a few meteors showered across
I just tried “£9 billion in my bank account”.
Not so much luck.
Signal 11
also programmed for conversational english
Yo Dawg, I heard you like space debris.
www.bloomberg.com
Target of European Space Debris Removal Mission Is Itself Hit by Space Debris
A piece of space debris being monitored by the European Space Agency as part of a mission to remove trash from space was hit by another piece of debris, splintering the object into more pieces.
www.bloomberg.com
8ball
Decolonise colons!
farmerbarleymow
I'm Petee's spirit animal
Nice pic. You can see the sunlight glinting off the glass domes too.
T & P
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Fuck, I miss that poster...
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