Science & TechnologyS


Sherlock

Gigantic dinosaur footprints are found on the roof of a cave


Nature
Thu, 02 Apr 2020 12:00 UTC
Castelbouc
© Jean-David Moreau et al./J. Vertebr. Paleontol.A scientist on a caving trip happened to spot dinosaur tracks in the ceiling of Castelbouc Cave in France.
Prints show the tracks of three 'titanosaurs' that took a seaside stroll more than 165 million years ago. A scientist exploring deep inside a cave in France has discovered huge dinosaur footprints, measuring up to 1.25 metres long, made by some of the largest creatures ever to walk the Earth.

According to Jean-David Moreau at the University of Burgundy-Franche-Comté in France and his colleagues, the footprints probably belong to an unknown species of titanosaur, a category of long-necked herbivorous dinosaur that includes the heaviest and longest land animals in the planet's history. The tracks were made 166 million to 168 million years ago, when three dinosaurs traversed the shoreline of a sea. The site was then at the planet's surface, but geological processes have buried and tilted the sediments, and the prints are now on the cave's roof, 500 metres underground.

Comment: See also:

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Microscope 1

3D model of the SARS-CoV-2 virus at atomic resolution


Technology Networks
Thu, 14 May 2020 00:01 UTC
sars-cov-2 coronavirus model
© Visual Science3D Model of the SARS-CoV-2 Virus at Atomic Resolution
Biomedical visualization studio Visual Science has created the most detailed and scientifically accurate 3D model of the SARS-CoV-2 virus at atomic resolution. The model is based on the latest scientific research into the structure of coronaviruses, as well as input from expert virologists involved in the research. This is the most accurate model of the SARS-CoV-2 viral particle currently available. To produce it, Visual Science employed the same techniques of structural bioinformatics used in basic research and drug development.

The SARS-CoV-2 virus model is a part of Visual Science's non-commercial Viral Park project. Viral Park's past successes include models of HIV, influenza A/H1N1, Ebola, papilloma, and Zika virions.

We use the same color scheme throughout the whole Viral Park project. Bright colors show the proteins encoded by the viral genome. Shades of gray correspond to the structures taken by viruses from the host cell. Thus we emphasize the parasitic and non-autonomous nature of the viruses.
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SOTT Logo Radio

SOTT Focus: MindMatters: The Lighter Side of Space Rocks - The Holy Grail, Directed Panspermia and the Origin of Life

Corey Schink, Harrison Koehli, Elan Martin
Sott.net
Thu, 14 May 2020 00:00 UTC
panspermia
If you think of asteroids, meteors and comets as potentially destructive and life-threatening forces, you're correct. After all, the arrivals of these celestial bodies are typically associated with catastrophic impacts on earth, profound environmental changes, impact winters, plagues and famines. But that's not all. Over the last century, a number of scientists have speculated that they might also bring life to the barren outreaches of the galaxy, such as our solar system. Not only that, they may even have positive evolutionary effects on existing flora and fauna.

This week on MindMatters we continue our discussion of near-earth objects as symbolized and alluded to in the Grail legends. Further to this warning from the past - that has been encoded for understanding by future generations - we'll be examining such ideas as directed panspermia, or the "creative" dimension of space rocks. Biological material and other life-seeding elements are the surprise feature of these death-dealing amalgamations.


Running Time: 01:12:07

Download: MP3 — 66 MB

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Sun

Solar system's oldest molecular fluids could hold the key to early life

Royal Ontario Museum
Phys.org
Wed, 13 May 2020 16:27 UTC
Framboidal
© Chi MaFramboidal (raspberry-like) magnetite grains in the Tagish Lake meteorite, magnetically aligned following formation in water.
The oldest molecular fluids in the solar system could have supported the rapid formation and evolution of the building blocks of life, new research in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reveals.

An international group of scientists, led by researchers from the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) and co-authors from McMaster University and York University, used state-of-the-art techniques to map individual atoms in minerals formed in fluids on an asteroid over 4.5 billion years ago.

Studying the ROM's iconic Tagish Lake meteorite, scientists used atom-probe tomography, a technique capable of imaging atoms in 3-D, to target molecules along boundaries and pores between magnetite grains that likely formed on the asteroid's crust. There, they discovered water precipitates left in the grain boundaries on which they conducted their ground-breaking research.

Comment: See also: And check out SOTT radio's:

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Info

New evidence reveals that giant meteorite impacts formed parts of the Moon's crust


Royal Ontario Museum
Mon, 11 May 2020 19:50 UTC
Moon Impact
© Daniel D. Durda/FIAAAAn artist’s impression of how the early Moon was reshaped by an intense period of bombardment. A new study reveals that large impacts could have produced the range of lunar rocks sampled by the Apollo missions over 4.3 billion years ago.
Toronto, Canada - New research published today in the journal Nature Astronomy reveals a type of destructive event most often associated with disaster movies and dinosaur extinction may have also contributed to the formation of the Moon's surface.

A group of international scientists led by the Royal Ontario Museum has discovered that the formation of ancient rocks on the Moon may be directly linked to large-scale meteorite impacts.

The scientists conducted new research of a unique rock collected by NASA astronauts during the 1972 Apollo 17 mission to the Moon. They found it contains mineralogical evidence that it formed at incredibly high temperatures (in excess of 2300 °C/ 4300 °F) that can only be achieved by the melting of the outer layer of a planet in a large impact event. In the rock, the researchers discovered the former presence of cubic zirconia, a mineral phase often used as a substitute for diamond in jewellery.

The phase would only form in rocks heated to above 2300 °C, and though it has since reverted to a more stable phase (the mineral known as baddeleyite), the crystal retains distinctive evidence of a high-temperature structure. An interactive image of the complex crystal used in the study can be seen here using the .
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Cassiopaea

Two new supernovae spotted this month

Bob King
Sky & Telescope
Tue, 12 May 2020 19:33 UTC
Two new supernovae for amateur telescopes are keeping things lively this month!
Supernova 2020jfo
© Gianluca MasiThe Zwicky Transient Facility discovered supernova 2020jfo in the bright galaxy M61 in Virgo on May 6, 2020 — the 8th supernova recorded in this galaxy since 1926. North is up.
My gosh, the sky is so busy with comets right now, do we really need a bunch of distracting supernovae?

Yes! Good fortune has delivered two exploding stars to the evening sky, one a faint supernova in a bright galaxy and the other a bright supernova in a faint galaxy.
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Bad Guys

SOTT Focus: Planet of the Humans: Documentary by Michael Moore and Jeff Gibbs


Sott.net
Mon, 11 May 2020 20:07 UTC
windfarms
Planet of the Humans, the new documentary produced by Michael Moore and narrated/directed by Jeff Gibbs, exposes the corporate takeover the 'green movement' and lays bare the exponentially WORSE environmental destruction the 'green solutions' have wreaked on both people and planet. Published for free on YouTube, it has generated over 7 million views since late April, and been panned by arch-ideologues like The Guardian's George Monbiot, who described it as "oxygen for climate deniers."

The narrator - and presumably Moore by proxy - are something like 'original greenies': they once really believed that 'if we just mandate X', then 'something could be done' to 'make the world a better place'. But as Gibbs takes us through his 'identity crisis' as a greenie, he shows how that 'revolutionary dream' was coopted by bad actors whose vision of 'greening the economy' was actualized as a flood of greenbacks into their corporate bank accounts.

The peak insanity of the whole scam - which is not even fully realized by Gibbs because he continues to believe in other false axioms like 'oil bad' and 'humans control climate' - is that it's founded on the unproven 19th century theory that fossil fuels like oil are 'really old, partly decomposed trees'. And because combusting them for energy produces the side-effect of emitting CO2, it must be that CO2 which is being observed to increase in the atmosphere. And so it must be that which is causing global temperatures to rise. And so it must be that which is causing the increase in extreme weather phenomena and seismic upheaval.
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Info

New immune system discovery could end chronic organ rejection


University of Pittsburgh
Fri, 08 May 2020 19:36 UTC
Mouse Kidney Tissue
© Image adapted from Dai H et al., Science (2020)Image of transplanted mouse kidney tissues showing recipient immune cells (blue) in normal (left) but not genetically modified mice (right).
PITTSBURGH - Chronic rejection of transplanted organs is the leading cause of transplant failure, and one that the field of organ transplantation has not overcome in almost six decades since the advent of immunosuppressive drugs enabled the field to flourish.

Now, a new discovery led by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and Houston Methodist Hospital suggesting the innate immune system can specifically remember foreign cells could pave the way to drugs that lengthen long-term survival of transplanted organs. The findings, based on results in a mouse model, are published today in the journal Science.

The rate of acute rejection within one year after a transplant has decreased significantly, but many people who get an organ transplant are likely to need a second one in their lifetime due to chronic rejection," said Fadi Lakkis, M.D., who holds the Frank & Athena Sarris Chair in Transplantation Biology and is scientific director of Pitt's Thomas E. Starzl Transplantation Institute. "The missing link in the field of organ transplantation is a specific way to prevent rejection, and this finding moves us one step closer to that goal."

The immune system is composed of innate and adaptive branches. The innate immune cells are the first to detect foreign organisms in the body and are required to activate the adaptive immune system. Immunological "memory" — which allows our bodies to remember foreign invaders so they can fight them off quicker in the future — was thought to be unique to the adaptive immune system. Vaccines, for example, take advantage of this feature to provide long-term protection against bacteria or viruses. Unfortunately, this very critical function of the immune system is also why transplanted organs are eventually rejected, even in the presence of immune-suppressing drugs.
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Blue Planet

Scaly-foot gastropods: the iron-armored snails of the Indian Ocean

Alexandru Micu
ZME Science
Thu, 27 Aug 2015 19:03 UTC
iron snail deep sea vents
© hs.fiChrysomallon squamiferum, the iron snail. It even has a "mail skirt" covering its foot.
The Iron Snail lives on volcanic vents, two miles under the sea, all thanks to its spectacular armor

It's hard to believe anything can be alive thousands of feet below the Indian Ocean where thermal vents effectively boil the water. Yet even in the most inhospitable conditions, life has a way of creeping in. Such is the case of chrysomallon squamiferum, a snail-like creature which may very well sport the best armor in the animal kingdom.

Better known as the scaly-foot gastropod, the C. squamiferum is a species of deep-sea, hydrothermal-vent snail. It only lives in the deep-sea hydrothermal vents of Indian Ocean, from around 2,400 metres (1.5 mi) to 2,800 metres (1.7 mi) deep. The first scaly-foot gastropods were found at the Kairei hydrothermal vent field on the Central Indian Ridge in 2001, living on the bases of black smokers. These are places on the bottom of the sea where tectonic plates move apart from each other, allowing magma to heat and cause water to boil, that have risen to form a chimney-like structure.

Subsequent specimens were found just north of the Rodrigues Triple Point, in Solitaire field off the coast of Mauritius in the Central Indian Ridge and Longqi (aka. Dragon) field, southwest of the Indian Ridge.
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Ladybug

In biology, incredible Intelligent Designs that amaze, amuse, and entertain


Evolution News
Mon, 11 May 2020 05:24 UTC
A flea beetle
© Beatriz Moisset / CC BY-SA.A flea beetle
A parade of amazing designs from the living world has passed through these pages over the years, and it shows no sign of stopping. Here are some entertaining examples from recent news.

Jump Like a Flea, Beetle

Flea beetles, or Alticini, are high-jump champions among the coleopterans (beetles) in the insect world. There are some 9,900 species of flea beetles, a "hyper-diverse group" that inhabits environments from deserts to rainforests all over the world. The Pensoft blog shows a picture of one, saying, "Exceptional catapulting jump mechanism in a tiny beetle could be applied in robotic limbs."
The fascinating and highly efficient jumping mechanism in flea beetles is described in a new research article in the open-access journal Zookeys. Despite having been known since 1929, the explosive jump — which is also the reason behind the colloquial name of this group of leaf beetles — has so far not been fully understood. [Emphasis added.]

Comment: And we're somehow meant to believe (by the neo-Darwinsists) that all these ingenious and higly advanced biological-technological designs found in nature somehow formed as a result of "random mutation" or happy accidents that came of a need to fulfill an ability?! What a load of huey!

If scientists are doing so much work in just trying to understand and replicate the mechanisms listed in the above article, wouldn't it then make sense that some higher form of intelligence had a hand in creating the 'blueprint' for these abilities - and somehow introducing these forms and capabilities into the environment? The probablity being literally astronomical that what we're seeing just formed "on its own".

Watch this entertaining scientist explain the probabilty involved:



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