Science & Technology

Spiders found to use Earth's electrical field to 'balloon' hundreds of miles

Ed Yong
The Atlantic
Thu, 05 Jul 2018 13:45 UTC

Scientists are finally starting to understand the centuries-old mystery of "ballooning."

But Erica Morley and Daniel Robert have an explanation. The duo, who work at the University of Bristol, has shown that spiders can sense the Earth's electric field, and use it to launch themselves into the air.

Every day, around 40,000 thunderstorms crackle around the world, collectively turning Earth's atmosphere into a giant electrical circuit. The upper reaches of the atmosphere have a positive charge, and the planet's surface has a negative one. Even on sunny days with cloudless skies, the air carries a voltage of around 100 volts for every meter above the ground. In foggy or stormy conditions, that gradient might increase to tens of thousands of volts per meter.

Are noctilucent clouds increasing because of the cooling climate, and the rise of fireball and volcanic activity?

American Geophysical Union, Franz-Josef Lübken et al
Science Bulletin
Tue, 03 Jul 2018 12:00 UTC

Increased water vapor in Earth's atmosphere due to human activities is making shimmering high-altitude clouds more visible, a new study finds. The results suggest these strange but increasingly common clouds seen only on summer nights are an indicator of human-caused climate change, according to the study's authors.

Comment: This is more likely due to warming coming from below: Global warming... in the deeps: Tremendous geothermal heat source is melting Antarctic ice sheet from below

Noctilucent, or night-shining, clouds are the highest clouds in Earth's atmosphere. They form in the middle atmosphere, or mesosphere, roughly 80 kilometers (50 miles) above Earth's surface. The clouds form when water vapor freezes around specks of dust from incoming meteors. Watch a video about noctilucent clouds here.

Comment: As well as the ever increasing fireball activity: Michigan Meteor Event: Fireball Numbers Increased Again in 2017

Humans first observed noctilucent clouds in 1885, after the eruption of Krakatoa volcano in Indonesia spewed massive amounts of water vapor in the air. Sightings of the clouds became more common during the 20th century, and in the 1990s scientists began to wonder whether climate change was making them more visible.

Comment: Volcanic activity worldwide is on the increase, which may help explain this years dazzling NLC display.

Comment: As noted in Rare high-elevation tornado forms near Weston Pass Fire, Colorado:

Recently other climate scientists were saying hurricane Harvey "should serve as a warning", as they continue to push the man-made climate change/global warming lie. They are not considering the importance of atmospheric dust loading and the winning Electric Universe model in their research. Such information and much more, are explained in the book Earth Changes and the Human Cosmic Connection by Pierre Lescaudron and Laura Knight-Jadczyk.
The accumulation of cometary dust in the Earth's atmosphere plays an important role in the increase of tornadoes, cyclones, hurricanes and their associated rainfalls, snowfalls and lightning. To understand this mechanism we must first take into account the electric nature of hurricanes, tornadoes and cyclones, which are actually manifestations of the same electric phenomenon at different scales or levels of power.
Increasing cometaryand volcanic dust loading of the atmosphere (one indicator is the intensification of noctilucent clouds we are witnessing) is accentuating electric charge build-up, whereby we can expect to observe more extreme weather and planetary upheaval as well as awesome light shows and other related mysterious phenomena.

Also check out SOTT radio's:

Tiny version of this physics toy reveals quantum secrets

Emily Conover
ScienceNews
Thu, 28 Jun 2018 11:03 UTC

© SARAWUTH792
Metal spheres in a Newton’s cradle (shown) swing back and forth rhythmically. The toy has inspired a quantum experiment where atoms replace the balls.

A simple toy is helping scientists understand new details of a mysterious quantum process.

The rhythmic click-clacking of the metal balls in Newton's cradle has long entertained physics students. Now, scientists have re-created the toy on an atomic scale, using it to probe how quantum systems reach a balanced state known as thermal equilibrium.

Leave a mug of hot coffee on the counter, and it will gradually cool until it reaches thermal equilibrium, matching the temperature of the room. That process, called thermalization, is well understood on the scale of coffee cups. But at the quantum level, thermalization becomes murky.

"This is an area of physics that we fundamentally don't understand," says physicist Benjamin Lev of Stanford University, who presented the work June 26 at the Quantum Thermodynamics meeting at the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara. That lack of understanding of such a basic process means that "it behooves us scientists to investigate," Lev says. So he and colleagues studied how introducing chaos into a quantum Newton's cradle paves the way for thermalization.

Dinosaur tongues: What did they look like?

Brian Switek
Scientific American
Wed, 27 Jun 2018 00:00 UTC

Jurassic Park sticks with me for plenty of reasons. The dinosaurs, of course, were the major draw when I picked up the novel in advance of the screen adaptation's summer 1993 release. It was also the first "grown up book" I was allowed to read. And then there was the scene where the Tyrannosaurus wraps its prehensile tongue around Tim's head, a narcotic sleep being the only thing that saves the kid. As much as I adored dinosaurs, I didn't relish the image of being drawn, helpless, towards the jaws of one of my Mesozoic favorites.

A new paper on the anatomy of dinosaur tongues reminded me of that creepy scene. Chalk up another difference between the world of Jurassic Park and actual dinosaurs - T. rex actually had a very different tongue.

No one, as yet, has found a preserved non-avian dinosaur tongue or tongue impression. But that doesn't mean that the anatomical trail has run cold. There are bony correlates to tongue size and anatomy that paleontologists can look at for soft tissue clues. As part of a study on dinosaur tongues, paleontologists Zhiheng Li, Zhonghe Zhou, and Julia Clarke looked at one of these - the hyoid bone.

Solar activity and El Niño cycles began to match up in 1960's but scientists don't know why

Andy May
Watts Up With Thatt
Thu, 05 Jul 2018 12:00 UTC

Two solar physicists, Robert Leamon from NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, and Scott McIntosh from the High Altitude Observatory at Boulder, CO, have made an interesting observation that links changes in solar activity with changes in the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO).

As they reported at the AGU 2017 Fall Meeting, the termination of the solar magnetic activity bands at the solar equator that mark the end of the Hale cycle coincides since the 1960's with a shift from El Niño to La Niña conditions in the Pacific.

Predicting the La Niña of 2020-21: Termination of Solar Cycles and Correlated Variance in Solar and Atmospheric Variability

"We look at the particulate and radiative implications of these termination points, their temporal recurrence and signature, from the Sun to the Earth, and show the correlated signature of solar cycle termination events and major oceanic oscillations that extend back many decades. A combined one-two punch of reduced particulate forcing and increased radiative forcing that result from the termination of one solar cycle and rapid blossoming of another correlates strongly with a shift from El Niño to La Niña conditions in the Pacific Ocean."

Comment: The reason why is probably because global weather (and much more) is intricately linked with solar activity, and this is evident on our planet and the others in our solar system:

Also check out SOTT radio's: Behind the Headlines: Earth changes in an electric universe: Is climate change really man-made?

Traces of 'sonic boom' meteorites found in ocean off Washington State

Charles Q. Choi
Live Science
Thu, 05 Jul 2018 14:51 UTC

The first mission designed to hunt a meteorite that crashed into the ocean has now discovered what may be tiny fragments of the meteorite's crust, researchers say.

On March 7, three National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) weather stations detected the fall of a meteorite about 15.5 miles (25 kilometers) off the coast of Washington state. "The fall was widely seen around local areas and widely heard around local areas - it came with some loud sonic booms," Marc Fries, the cosmic dust curator for NASA, told Live Science.

Fries estimated this fall might yield about 4,400 lbs. (2,000 kilograms) of meteorites. He also calculated the largest meteorite might weigh about 9.7 lbs. (4.4 kg) and have a diameter of about 5 inches (12 centimeters).

"This is the largest meteorite fall I've seen in 20-plus years of radar data," Fries said.

Comment: See also: Meteor fireball reported in the sky over Western Washington - UPDATE

Something massive struck Uranus claims new paper

Ryan F. Mandelbaum
Gizmodo
Wed, 04 Jul 2018 03:19 UTC

You might be aware of one of Uranus' complexities: It spins on its side, and its moons orbit on that same rotated plane. New evidence strengthens the case that Uranus was smashed in a giant collision, resulting in its sideways orientation to its orbital plane and perhaps explaining some of the planet's other mysteries.

A new paper performs a series of simulations on Uranus early in its history, taking note of what an early impact may have done to its rotation rate, atmosphere and internal structure. The impact could have left a clear signature still visible inside the planet we see today.

Uranus really is strange. Not only does it rotate on an axis that sits at a 98-degree angle to its orbital plane, but, unlike the other giant planets, it doesn't appear to release more heat than it receives from the Sun. Its magnetic field, too, appears warped compared to the Earth's.

An impact could perhaps help explain some of these strange traits.

Scientists have been simulating giant impacts into Uranus since the early 1990s, according to the new paper published in the Astrophysical Journal.

Comet PANSTARRS (C/2017 S3) atmosphere bursts into green and continues to expand on its approach to the sun

Space Weather
Thu, 05 Jul 2018 20:05 UTC

C/2017 S3 Panstarrs RGBnew Taken by michael jäger on July 2, 2018 @ Weißenkirchen Austria

A comet that could become visible to the naked eye in August has just exploded in brightness. Amateur astronomer Michael Jäger‎ of Austria reports that Comet PANSTARRS (C/2017 S3) brightened 16-fold during the late hours of July 2nd, abruptly increasing in magnitude from +12 to +9. He took this picture of the comet's expanding green atmosphere shortly after the outburst: "The gas cloud around the comet's nucleus is about 4 arc minutes wide," says Jäger‎. That means the comet's atmosphere is 260,000 km in diameter, almost twice as wide as the planet Jupiter. These dimensions make it a relatively easy target for backyard telescopes.

Comet PanSTARRS is falling toward the sun from the Oort cloud, a vast reservoir of fresh comets in the distant outer solar system. It has never visited the inner planets before, and, as a result, no one can say what will happen when its fragile ices are exposed to solar heat as it approaches the sun in August. Previous estimates of the comet's brightness max out at magnitude +4--that is, barely visible to the unaided eye from dark-sky sites. Additional outbursts could boost its visibility even more.

Comment: Mainstream science does not fully understand the nature of comets, or their potential threat to our planet. For more, see:

Also check out SOTT radio's:

New study: As early as 3,200 years ago, Mongolians were adept at horse dentistry

Bruce Bower
ScienceNews
Mon, 02 Jul 2018 03:00 UTC

© DIMITRI STASZEWSKI
EXTRACTION ACTION A Mongolian herder removes a first premolar tooth from a young horse using a screwdriver. Mongolian herders invented a comparable procedure nearly 2,800 years ago so that horses could safely hold metal bits in their mouths while being ridden, a new report concludes.

Equine tooth extractions evolved to make way for a riding bit, making mounted warfare possible

Mongolian pastoralists were trying to remove troublesome teeth from horses' mouths almost 3,200 years ago, making those mobile herders the earliest known practitioners of horse dentistry, a new study finds.

Those initial, incomplete tooth removals led to procedures for extracting forward-positioned cheek teeth known as first premolars from young horses, say archaeologist William Taylor and his colleagues. That dental practice, which dates to as early as about 2,800 years ago, coincided with the appearance in Mongolia of metal bits that made it easier for riders to control horses, the researchers report the week of July 2 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Long-distance travel and mounted warfare with sedentary civilizations across Asia soon followed.

© W.T.T. TAYLOR ET AL/PNAS 2018
Tooth be gone
Evidence of first premolar extraction appeared in an empty tooth socket, right (black arrow), of a Mongolian horse from between around 2,300 and 2,700 years ago. A Mongolian horse from roughly 3,000 years ago, left, retains its first premolar (white arrow), indicating that the dental procedure was not yet in use.

NASA: Gigantic double-star system blasting cosmic radiation in Earth's direction

RT
Wed, 04 Jul 2018 13:50 UTC

A star system containing two gigantic suns is blasting cosmic rays into space and NASA scientists have found that the radiation is making its way towards Earth on intergalactic winds.

High-energy observations in the sprawling southern constellation of Carina had puzzled scientists for some time. But now a NASA orbital telescope has helped pin the energy source on Eta Carinae, a double-star system around 7,500 light years away from Earth.

It is already known that rays with energies greater than 1 billion electron volts are sprayed into our solar system. However, the erratic movement of the energy and sheer size of the great expanse previously made it difficult to locate some of the sources. Colliding stellar winds within Eta Carinae, which is surrounded by an hourglass dust nebula, have now been confirmed as a reason for the energy patterns in the region.

Comment: There is already evidence showing that a rise in cosmic rays reaching our atmosphere leads to increased cloud cover, resulting in a change in weather patterns, as well as more speculative theories regarding an influence on volcanoes, earthquakes and even human biology. And so with the decreasing strength of Earth's magnetic field during one of the lowest solar minimum's ever recorded, meaning more cosmic rays penetrating our planet, and likely the others in our solar system too, one wonders what this recent blast has in store for humanity?

The Federal requirement states you must be 21 years old to hold an Interstate Commercial Divers License. It used to be 25 and for good reason, the...

bj0311

Six weeks after 2nd Pfizer shot my father in law now has at least three pulmonary embolisms. dr assured no way it's jab related

sbc

My father in law now has at least 3clots in his lungs. Can't hardly breathe. Dr says no way vaccine related! my ass!

sbc

It's a numbers game. They stated that X percentage of the population needed to be vaccinated, for what ever reason and firstly set about their...

Winternights3

It's all for psychological reasons and not for health or "infection prevention" anyway, so she is basically correct ...

codis

Science & Technology

Spiders found to use Earth's electrical field to 'balloon' hundreds of miles

Are noctilucent clouds increasing because of the cooling climate, and the rise of fireball and volcanic activity?

Tiny version of this physics toy reveals quantum secrets

Dinosaur tongues: What did they look like?

Solar activity and El Niño cycles began to match up in 1960's but scientists don't know why

Traces of 'sonic boom' meteorites found in ocean off Washington State

Something massive struck Uranus claims new paper

Comet PANSTARRS (C/2017 S3) atmosphere bursts into green and continues to expand on its approach to the sun

New study: As early as 3,200 years ago, Mongolians were adept at horse dentistry

NASA: Gigantic double-star system blasting cosmic radiation in Earth's direction

Latest News

Picture of the Day

Quote of the Day

Recent Comments

Quantum Quirk

Contact Us