Science & TechnologyS


Beaker

The COVID-19 virus may have been in humans for years, study suggests


Science Alert
Mon, 30 Mar 2020 01:57 UTC
Covid-19
As COVID-19 has hitchhiked around the globe, causing lockdowns, pneumonia and fear, scientists have been racing to determine where the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus has come from.

While we don't have all the answers yet - including whether it came from an animal reservoir - a new analysis has definitively put to rest the conspiracies that claim it's a lab-made disease.

The study raises some interesting possibilities regarding the origin of the new coronavirus. One of the scenarios suggests the virus may have been circulating harmlessly in human populations for quite a while before it became the pandemic that's now stopped the world in its tracks.
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Galaxy

Top five mysteries of Mercury that BepiColombo mission will solve


ESA
Thu, 09 Apr 2020 12:00 UTC
Mercury
To the human eye, Mercury may resemble a dull, grey orb but this enhanced-colour image from NASA’s Messenger probe, tells a completely different story. Swathes of iridescent blue, sandy-coloured plains and delicate strands of greyish white, create an ethereal and colourful view of our Solar System’s innermost planet.
The European-Japanese BepiColombo mission - launched in 2018 and due to arrive at the sun's innermost planet, Mercury, in December 2025 - successfully performed its first and only flyby of Earth last night. It used Earth's gravity to alter its course slightly, boosting it toward the innermost regions of the solar system. Before BepiColombo, the only spacecraft to have visited Mercury are NASA's Mariner 10 and MESSENGER missions. Those missions revealed much more to the sun's smallest and innermost planet than meets the eye. Despite temperatures on its surface rising up to 450 degrees Celsius (850 degrees Fahrenheit), there seems to be water ice on Mercury. The planet also appears to have a much too large inner core for its size and a surprising chemical composition.

Comment: We may be able to shed some light on the above questions by looking at other planets in our solar system, such as Venus; Pierre Lescaudron in Volcanoes, Earthquakes And The 3,600 Year Comet Cycle writes:
In this sense, the fundamental difference between a comet and planet is not a matter of composition but a matter of electrical activity (which is related, among other factors, to the eccentricity of the orbit).

Thus, a comet is simply a glowing planet and a planet is a non-glowing comet. Thus the very same body can, successively, be a comet, then an planet, then a comet, etc., depending on variation in the ambient electric field it is subjected to.
See also:

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Fireball 2

Asteroids to skim past Earth this Easter weekend in a series of four close fly-bys


Strange Sounds
Fri, 10 Apr 2020 20:41 UTC

Comment: Still they keep coming...


asteroid 2004 FG11 close pass april 2020
Asteroid 2004 FG11 is the largest of the four April fly-bys
Never knew the 4 horsemen rode asteroids now!

The space rocks are traveling up to 57,000mph and the largest of the bunch is as tall as the Empire State Building.

NASA has classed the asteroids as "near-Earth objects" (NEOs) and is keeping them under constant supervision.

Tens of thousands of NEOs are tracked by scientists to ensure they don't collide with our planet. One small change to their trajectories could spell disaster for our planet.


Comment: Yeah, NASA's gonna save us!


Comment: It appears things are getting more lively overhead every month. One might argue that it it improved detection techniques finding what was already there. But more and more "moons" are also being found around the gas giant planets. Would it not be more logical to conclude the solar system is entering a 'dustier', more densely populated, and therefore more dangerous region of space?

A sample from the last 12 months:

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Butterfly

Scientists shocked to find lizard that can both lay eggs and give birth, speculate it's undergoing an evolutionary shift


The Science Times
Tue, 07 Apr 2020 10:48 UTC
Saiphos equalis
Scientists from the University of Sydney observed the three-toed skink giving live birth and laying eggs at the same time, something no one has ever documented before
An Australian lizard shocked scientists with its unique ability to both give birth and lay eggs. There have been studies of animals being able to evolve, not only in appearance, but also with their way of life. Animals that used to lay eggs could eventually be able to give birth. Scientists believe this lizard could be caught somewhere in between.

The Three-toed Skink

If you didn't know before, a skink is a type of lizard. The three-toed skink, scientifically known as Saiphos equalis, is found in eastern Australia. It is also known as the yellow-bellied skink.

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

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Sun

Mysterious strands of boiling plasma revealed in highest resolution images of the Sun


Inverse
Sat, 11 Apr 2020 18:12 UTC
sun magnetic filaments
© University of Central LancashireAs the Sun burns through some 5 million tons of hydrogen fuel every second, it emits powerful radiation into outer space.
These swirling, slim threads are 1million degrees Fahrenheit.

We are all pretty familiar with the host star that sustains life on Earth, but the Sun's boiling hot atmosphere still contains many mysteries.

Now, the highest resolution images of the Sun ever taken reveal previously unknown details of the star's roiling outer layer. And they are truly incredible.

The images were captured by the space-based NASA High-Resolution Coronal Imager telescope (Hi-C), and then analyzed by a team of scientists from both NASA and the University of Central Lancashire in the United Kingdom.

The stunning images reveal the outermost layer of the Sun's atmosphere, previously believed to be somewhat bare, is actually teeming with snake-like, thin, magnetic threads, filled with boiling hot plasma. The plasma, which is essentially hot, electrified gas, reaches millions of degrees Fahrenheit.
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Gear

Flashback ID2020 and partners launch program to provide digital ID with vaccines

Chris Burt
biometricupdate.com
Fri, 20 Sep 2019 00:00 UTC
biometrics
The ID2020 Alliance has launched a new digital identity program at its annual summit in New York, in collaboration with the Government of Bangladesh, vaccine alliance Gavi, and new partners in government, academia, and humanitarian relief.

The program to leverage immunization as an opportunity to establish digital identity was unveiled by ID2020 in partnership with the Bangladesh Government's Access to Information (a2i) Program, the Directorate General of Health Services, and Gavi, according to the announcement.

Digital identity is a computerized record of who a person is, stored in a registry. It is used, in this case, to keep track of who has received vaccination.

"We are implementing a forward-looking approach to digital identity that gives individuals control over their own personal information, while still building off existing systems and programs," says Anir Chowdhury, policy advisor at a2i. "The Government of Bangladesh recognizes that the design of digital identity systems carries far-reaching implications for individuals' access to services and livelihoods, and we are eager to pioneer this approach."

Comment: One supposes that a website on biometrics that informs the public on these sorts of developments feels the need to qualify their information by putting out a disclaimer (such as at the end of the above article). Its as if to say: "oh, and by the way, none if this has been created for ultimately evil purposes". Everything about this technology - just like vaccines, mass surveillance, etc, - is presented with a shiny humanitarian gloss by people who only want to help address "societal problems".

We think a little differently: While we're focused on Coronavirus 'pandemic', the real danger is 'Agenda ID2020'

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Info

Diet can change the way sugar tastes


University of Sydney
Thu, 09 Apr 2020 19:20 UTC
Different form of Sugars
© PixabayWe know humans also experience changes in taste perception in response to diet.
The food animals eat can change how they perceive future food. This response uses the same machinery that the brain uses to learn, new research has found.

Researchers at the University of Sydney have discovered the basic science of how sweet taste perception is fine-tuned in response to different diets. While it has long been known that food can taste different based on previous experience, until now we didn't know the molecular pathways that controlled this effect.

Professor Greg Neely at the Charles Perkins Centre and School of Life and Environmental Sciences with Professor Qiaoping Wang (formerly at the Charles Perkins Centre and now based at Sun Yat-Sen University, China) used fruit flies to study sweet taste. They learned that taste is highly subjective based on previous experience.

Professor Neely said they learned four important things:
  1. The food animals eat can change how they perceive future food.
  2. This response uses the same machinery that the brain uses to learn.
  3. Pathways that can extend lifespan were also involved in enhancing taste perception, and diets in fruit flies that promote long life were also found to enhance taste perception.
  4. Lifespan, learning and sensory perception are linked in ways we are just starting to understand.
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Solar Flares

Map shows where US power grid most vulnerable to solar storms


Spaceweather.com
Fri, 10 Apr 2020 01:32 UTC
Sprawling power lines act like
Sprawling power lines act like "solar storm antennas," picking up currents and spreading the problem over a wide area.
A solar superstorm can make your lights go out. New maps released by the USGS show where the power is most likely to fail: The Denver metropolitan area, the Pacific northwest, the Atlantic seaboard, and a cluster of Midwestern states near the US-Canadian Border. Bright yellow and orange trace the trouble spots across the contiguous USA:

US power grid voltage map

Comment: Study: Solar storm damage to electrical networks dependant on regional geology

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Galaxy

New observations contradict widely held theory about the expanding universe


Inverse
Wed, 08 Apr 2020 16:38 UTC
expanding universe theory
© NASA/CXC/Univ. of Bonn/K. Migkas et al.Different galaxy clusters reveal different properties across the universe.
New NASA data presents a challenge to a fundamental principle of cosmology.

Less than a second after the Big Bang, the universe suddenly blew up from nothing to a hot, dense sea of neutrons and electrons stretching across trillions of lightyears.

And, 13.8 billion years later, the universe is still expanding, albeit at a much slower rate.

The prevailing theory, known as the isotropy hypothesis, argues that the universe is not only expanding but doing so at the same rate in all directions. But a new study suggests that may not be the case at all.

In a study published Wednesday in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics, astronomers challenge this cornerstone theory of cosmology. The results suggest that while the universe is expanding, it is not expanding at the same rate in all directions.
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Battery

3D-printed corals could improve bioenergy and help coral reefs

University of Cambridge
Science Daily
Thu, 09 Apr 2020 00:00 UTC
corals and algae
Researchers from Cambridge University and University of California San Diego have 3D printed coral-inspired structures that are capable of growing dense populations of microscopic algae. Their results, reported in the journal Nature Communications, open the door to new bio-inspired materials and their applications for coral conservation.

In the ocean, corals and algae have an intricate symbiotic relationship. The coral provides a host for the algae, while the algae produce sugars to the coral through photosynthesis. This relationship is responsible for one of the most diverse and productive ecosystems on Earth, the coral reef.

"Corals are highly efficient at collecting and using light," said first author Dr Daniel Wangpraseurt, a Marie Curie Fellow from Cambridge's Department of Chemistry. "In our lab, we're looking for methods to copy and mimic these strategies from nature for commercial applications."

Wangpraseurt and his colleagues 3D printed coral structures and used them as incubators for algae growth. They tested various types of microalgae and found growth rates were 100x higher than in standard liquid growth mediums.
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