Science & TechnologyS


Fire

The world is running out of phosphorus

Petr Kilian
The Conversation
Wed, 09 Jan 2019 17:07 UTC
match fire
© Petro GuliaievOld flame.
It's time to buy a lot of candles. And if we light them with matches, it will only be possible because of the anniversary in question. It's happy 350th birthday to the discovery of phosphorus, an element that is essential for life as we know it.

The story of how the 15th element on the periodic table was discovered stands as one of the great accidents of human endeavour - the chemist's equivalent, perhaps, of Columbus setting out for India only to find the Americas by mistake. In the case of phosphorus, the explorer was Hennig Brand, a 17th-century alchemist and merchant from Hamburg, Germany.

Brand had been trying to achieve one of the great goals of alchemy, to make the philosopher's stone. Alchemists thought this was the elixir of life, capable of transforming lead into gold. But where to find this legendary substance?

Brand was convinced that the answer was human urine, for two good reasons. First, gold and urine were a similar colour. Second, urine came from the human body, which was regarded by alchemists as a work of perfection.

Comment: A lot can happen in 40 years so it's possible a solution will be found, whether civilization as we know it will make it that far is another consideration. But the idea of recycling human waste, as long as it really is beneficial and optimal just makes sense, and some cities have been exploring ideas from fertilization to power. It would also be helpful to the cause if the West and it's lackeys stopped using white phosphorous to commit war crimes: US coalition strikes Syrian town using banned white phosphorus (again)

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Nebula

Large, rotating black holes could be used as portals for hyperspace travel

Gaurav Khanna
The Conversation
Wed, 09 Jan 2019 11:45 UTC
Astronaut
© Sadovski/ShutterstockFeel like traveling to another dimension? Better choose your black hole wisely. Vadim
One of the most cherished science fiction scenarios is using a black hole as a portal to another dimension or time or universe. That fantasy may be closer to reality than previously imagined.

Black holes are perhaps the most mysterious objects in the universe. They are the consequence of gravity crushing a dying star without limit, leading to the formation of a true singularity - which happens when an entire star gets compressed down to a single point yielding an object with infinite density. This dense and hot singularity punches a hole in the fabric of spacetime itself, possibly opening up an opportunity for hyperspace travel. That is, a short cut through spacetime allowing for travel over cosmic scale distances in a short period.

Researchers previously thought that any spacecraft attempting to use a black hole as a portal of this type would have to reckon with nature at its worst. The hot and dense singularity would cause the spacecraft to endure a sequence of increasingly uncomfortable tidal stretching and squeezing before being completely vaporized.

Comment: Interesting idea, but maybe the first step would be to confirm their existence by direct observation since no astronomer has ever seen a black hole.

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Info

Machine breaks normal rules of light

Rafi Letzter
Live Science
Mon, 14 Jan 2019 11:45 UTC
Light
© CC0 Public Domain
Physicists have built a ring in which pulses of light whip circles around each other and the normal rules that govern light's behavior no longer apply.

Under normal circumstances, light displays certain kids of physical symmetry. First, if you were to play a tape of light's behavior forward and then backward, you would see it behave in the same way moving in both directions in time. This is called time-reversal symmetry. And second, light, which can move through the world as a wave, has what is called polarization: how it oscillates relative to the motion of the wave. That polarization usually stays the same, providing another type of symmetry.

But inside this ring-shaped device, light both loses its time-reversal symmetry and changes its polarization. Inside the ring, light waves turn circles and resonate with one another, producing effects that don't normally exist in the outside world.
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Fish

200 million yr old dolphin-like 'sea monster' skull revealed in 3D

Helen Briggs
BBC News
Mon, 07 Jan 2019 00:00 UTC
ichthyosaur skull
© Nigel LarkinThe skull is nearly a metre long
Some 200 million years ago in what is now Warwickshire, a dolphin-like reptile died and sank to the bottom of the sea.

The creature's burial preserved its skull in stunning detail - enabling scientists to digitally reconstruct it.

The fossil, unveiled in the journal PeerJ, gives a unique insight into the life of an ichthyosaur.

The ferocious creature would have fed upon fish, squid and likely others of its kind.

Its bones were found in a farmer's field more than 60 years ago, but their significance has only just come to light.
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Microscope 2

Royal Society's "New Trends in Biological Evolution" - A bloodless revolution

Perry Marshall
Evolution 2.0
Thu, 01 Dec 2016 01:13 UTC
royal society panel
"Evolution is too important to leave to evolutionary biologists." -Ray Noble MD

"I don't consider my ideas controversial. I consider them right." -Lynn Margulis

In London from 7-9 November 2016 I witnessed a groundbreaking summit at the British Royal Society. 300 scientists from around the world gathered to evaluate a sea change in evolutionary theory.

When recalled at the end of the 21st century, this gathering may prove as pivotal as the US election that occurred at the same time.

No one can say for sure until December 31, 2099 whether this meeting was that influential. But in a few minutes I'll explain why I predict it was.

Comment: The stranglehold Neo-Darwinism has held over science for the last centuries seems to be finally losing its grip. The weight of the evidence, as well as the sheer number of instances for which the theory cannot account, are making bigger and bigger cracks in the foundation. Hopefully, true scientists will continue to ask the difficult questions and not ignore the evidence staring them in the face, and humanity will be able to progress with a more fully formed picture of how life actually works.

See also:

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Comet 2

Newly discovered asteroid 2019 AS5 just had a close flyby with Earth


The Watchers
Wed, 09 Jan 2019 20:38 UTC
Asteroid 2019 AS5
A newly discovered asteroid designated 2019 AS5 flew past Earth at a very close distance of 0.04 LD / 0.00010 AU (14 959 km / 9 295 miles) on January 8, 2019. This is the 1st known asteroid to flyby Earth within 1 lunar distance this year and the closest since February 24, 2018.

This is a small asteroid, first observed at Mt. Lemmon Survey 9 hours after it flew past us.

It belongs to the Apollo group of asteroids and has an estimated diameter between 0.94 and 2.1 m (3.1 - 6.8 feet).

The asteroid flew past Earth at a speed (relative to the Earth) of 12.52 km/s at 00:37 UTC on January 8.
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Crusader

Scientists find links between brain damage and religious fundamentalism

Bobby Azarian
Raw Story
Tue, 08 Jan 2019 00:00 UTC
religious fundamentalism
A study published in the journal Neuropsychologia has shown that religious fundamentalism is, in part, the result of a functional impairment in a brain region known as the prefrontal cortex. The findings suggest that damage to particular areas of the prefrontal cortex indirectly promotes religious fundamentalism by diminishing cognitive flexibility and openness - a psychology term that describes a personality trait which involves dimensions like curiosity, creativity, and open-mindedness.

Religious beliefs can be thought of as socially transmitted mental representations that consist of supernatural events and entities assumed to be real. Religious beliefs differ from empirical beliefs, which are based on how the world appears to be and are updated as new evidence accumulates or when new theories with better predictive power emerge. On the other hand, religious beliefs are not usually updated in response to new evidence or scientific explanations, and are therefore strongly associated with conservatism. They are fixed and rigid, which helps promote predictability and coherence to the rules of society among individuals within the group.

Comment: Though there seem to be several variables involved, and this research still appears to be in its infancy, the data suggesting that rigid thinking on religious and cultural values is reflected (or shaped by) the physical state of the brain is compelling and makes a certain amount of sense. Whether because inculcated fundamentalist beliefs form a healthy brain - or vice versa, or the two states are reinforcing of one another - we can conclude that some amount of open-mindedness and ability to question religious dogma is one hallmark of a relatively healthier mind.

Note: by 'religious fundamentalism', we presume the authors have in mind something akin to literalist interpretations of holy books. Considerate, analytical, and comparative study of religious texts in the light of textual criticism proving that they are not be taken as literal histories and literal 'words of God' can surely only broaden a mind.

See also: Religious fundamentalism could soon be treated as mental illness

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Book 2

ID proponent Behe's new book, "Darwin Devolves" — stunning and absolutely convincing

Wolf-Ekkehard Lönnig
Evolution News
Fri, 11 Jan 2019 18:44 UTC
red-legged honeycreeper
© DickDaniels (carolinabirds.org) [CC BY-SA 3.0 or GFDL] Wikimedia Commons.A red-legged honeycreeper (Cyanerpes cyaneus)
I recently had a lively conversation with a former colleague at the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research in Cologne. We have been on good terms for more than thirty years now and continue to be so. The subject turned to intelligent design and he stated emphatically: "There is no irreducible complexity," and "There are no orphan genes." To which I responded, "Yes, and there is no [my interlocutor's name], either."

I thought of this exchange in considering Michael Behe's forthcoming book. Will it perhaps help our Darwinian friends to somewhat refine their assessments of ID?

ID critics appear to suspect something terrible is about to befall them when Behe's book, Darwin Devolves: The New Science About DNA That Challenges Evolution, is published on February 26. Some well-known and also lesser-known commentators were already more or less outraged months before publication. See here, here, here, and here for several examples.

What's the Fuss About?

In his new work Behe has extended his studies on intelligent design to several fields of biology. Instead of regretting and repenting his former arguments - dismissed by Darwinists as "totally wrong," "completely wrong," "dead wrong" - he now confirms them yet again: "The firm conclusion I've drawn over the past decades is this: despite occasional questions and bumps along the road, the greater the progress of science, the more deeply into life design can be seen to extend." And "[A]lthough chance affects superficial aspects of biology, the newest evidence confirms that life is the intended work of a mind and that that work extends much more deeply into life than could previously be seen." He even dares to substantiate his claims by clear and powerful scientific evidence. Outrageous indeed!
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Brain

Not so vegan after all: Yukon's snowshoe hares are cannibalistic carnivores

Adam Popescu
National Geographic
Fri, 11 Jan 2019 00:05 UTC
snowshoe hare
Your fluffy pet bunny's cousin is actually a carnivore-and a cannibal, new photographs reveal for the first time.

Snowshoe hares in Canada's Yukon Territory eat meat to supplement their diets during long winters in one of the coldest places on Earth.

During summer months, the mammals feed on vegetation, but when snow blankets the landscape and temperatures plunge to 30 below, hungry hares scavenge other hare carcasses, as well as several species of birds. (See "Friends For Dinner: Why Some Animals Become Cannibals.")

And, in an ironic twist on natural selection, hares also dine on dead Canada lynx-their main predator, says Michael Peers, a Ph.D. candidate in ecology at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, who led a new study on the phenomenon in Bio One Complete.

"It was shocking to see the first time," says Peers, who believes the hares are boosting their protein intake during harsh times. "I had no idea they actually scavenge."

Comment: Lots of 'herbivores' have a hankering for meat apparently:



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Cloud Lightning

Laser triggers electrical activity in thunderstorm for first time

Optical Society of America
Phys.org
Thu, 10 Jan 2019 17:28 UTC
lightning
© CC0 Public Domain
A team of European scientists has deliberately triggered electrical activity in thunderclouds for the first time, according to a new paper in the latest issue of Optics Express, the Optical Society's (OSA) open-access journal. They did this by aiming high-power pulses of laser light into a thunderstorm.

At the top of South Baldy Peak in New Mexico during two passing thunderstorms, the researchers used laser pulses to create plasma filaments that could conduct electricity akin to Benjamin Franklin's silk kite string. No air-to-ground lightning was triggered because the filaments were too short-lived, but the laser pulses generated discharges in the thunderclouds themselves.

"This was an important first step toward triggering lightning strikes with laser beams," says Jérôme Kasparian of the University of Lyon in France. "It was the first time we generated lighting precursors in a thundercloud." The next step of generating full-blown lightning strikes may come, he adds, after the team reprograms their lasers to use more sophisticated pulse sequences that will make longer-lived filaments to further conduct the lightning during storms.

Comment: The potential applications of the technology could be profound. And so let's hope they know what they're messing with. Also check out SOTT radio's:

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