Science & TechnologyS


Chalkboard

New way to solve quadratic equations

Peter Dockrill
Science Alert
Wed, 25 Dec 2019 20:05 UTC
Quadratic Equations
© The Great Courses Plus
If you studied algebra in high school (or you're learning it right now), there's a good chance you're familiar with the quadratic formula. If not, it's possible you repressed it.

By this point, billions of us have had to learn, memorise, and implement this unwieldy algorithm in order to solve quadratic equations, but according to mathematician Po-Shen Loh from Carnegie Mellon University, there's actually been an easier and better way all along, although it's remained almost entirely hidden for thousands of years.

In a new research paper, Loh celebrates the quadratic formula as a "remarkable triumph of early mathematicians" dating back to the beginnings of the Old Babylonian Period around 2000 BCE, but also freely acknowledges some of its ancient shortcomings.

"It is unfortunate that for billions of people worldwide, the quadratic formula is also their first (and perhaps only) experience of a rather complicated formula which they must memorise," Loh writes.

That arduous task - performed by approximately four millennia worth of maths students, no less - may not have been entirely necessary, as it happens. Of course, there have always been alternatives to the quadratic formula, such as factoring, completing the square, or even breaking out the graph paper.
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Info

'Ring of Fire' solar eclipse on Boxing Day 2019

Brian Lada
Accu Weather
Wed, 25 Dec 2019 05:08 UTC
Dec 2019 Eclipse
© Accu Weather
Saturday's solstice may have marked the shortest day of the year across Asia, but Thursday may be the darkest day of the year as a solar eclipse causes the day to turn dark.

Most of Asia will experience a partial solar eclipse on Thursday, as well as some parts of eastern Africa and northern Australia, but a small area will experience an annular solar eclipse, sometimes called a 'ring of fire' eclipse. This includes part of the Middle East, southern India, northern Sri Lanka, and part of the Philippines.

The best time to view the eclipse will be in the early morning in the Middle East, mid-morning in India and Sri Lanka, and early afternoon in Indonesia, but precise times will vary from location to location.

A solar eclipse happens when the moon passes directly between the Earth and the sun, but the type of eclipse that unfolds depends on how far away the moon is from the Earth.

When an eclipse happens when the moon is near perigee, the point in its orbit when it is closest to the Earth, the moon appears large enough to cover the entire face of the sun, resulting in a total solar eclipse.

But on Thursday, the moon will be near apogee, the point in its orbit when it is farthest away from the Earth. As a result, the moon will not quite be large enough to cover the entire sun, leaving behind a ring of light.

This ring of sunlight around the moon during the height of an annular solar eclipse is how it earned the nickname of a 'ring of fire' eclipse.
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Gold Seal

Intelligent design 3.0 and advancing the tipping point

David Klinghoffer
Evolution News
Mon, 23 Dec 2019 04:42 UTC
intelligent design
After the Discovery Institute staff Christmas lunch last week, Stephen Meyer sat down with me for a quick video discussion of an extensive research project that, until now, has been deliberately kept from public. It's Intelligent Design 3.0, an effort not to make the scientific case for ID directly but, instead, to use design insights to open up avenues for new scientific discoveries. It is being supported by the Center for Science & Culture, thanks to the generosity of our donors:


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Chalkboard

Russian astrophysicists claim there's NO DARK ENERGY in bold new theory


RT
Tue, 24 Dec 2019 17:26 UTC
dark energy
© Pixabay / Oleg Gamulinskiy
A pair of Russian astrophysicists have published a cosmological theory which they claim explains the expansion of the universe without the need for the mysterious "Dark Energy" proposed by so many of their peers.

Dark energy has served as a placeholder to explain away gaps in our current understanding of the universe for decades but now Professor Artyom Astashenok and undergraduate Aleksander Tepliakov from the Baltic Federal University think they have cracked the mystery. Their research was published in the International Journal of Modern Physics D.

According to their model of the universe, the ever-accelerating expansion of spacetime can be explained without the need for something as baffling and intangible as Dark energy by using the Casimir effect, which describes the pull between two metal plates placed in a vacuum.
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Cow

Organic crop practices affect long-term soil health


Science Daily
Fri, 20 Dec 2019 07:47 UTC
dirt
Prior organic farming practices and plantings can have lasting outcomes for future soil health, weeds and crop yields, according to new Cornell University research.

The study recently published in the journal Agriculture Systems also breaks down how specific components of soil health -- such as the abundance and activity of soil animals and soil stability -- affect crop productivity.

"With growing interest from farmers in being able to harness and exploit soil health, this research really helps us to get to the point of being more and more prescriptive about it," said Kyle Wickings, associate professor of entomology and co-author of the study.

Also, the study reinforced the understanding that soil animals, such as mites and other tiny critters living in soil, play critical roles in soil health and crop productivity.

Soil animals are known to break down crop litter while indirectly affecting microbial communities in the soil. The researchers' new findings suggest that measurements of soil invertebrates can inform assessments of soil health.

Comment: See also:

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Nuke

'Ring of 5' scientists tracked plume of unverified Russian nuclear accident to source

Aria Bendix
Business Insider
Sat, 21 Dec 2019 04:28 UTC
sign warning
© Katherine Jacobsen/AA sign warns people not to enter the town of Ozersk near the Mayak nuclear facility in Russia.
A group of scientists called the "Ring of Five" noticed something unusual in the atmosphere in late 2017: Air across Europe showed "unprecedented" levels of the radioactive isotope ruthenium-106.

The isotope is often made when reprocessing nuclear fuel.

Georg Steinhauser, a professor at the University of Hanover in Germany who is part of the group, told Business Insider in August:
"We were stunned. We did not have any anticipation that there might be some radioactivity in the air. We were just measuring air filters as we do on a weekly basis, 52 times a year, and suddenly there was an unexpected result."
The Ring of Five, which had been monitoring Europe's atmosphere for elevated levels of radiation since the mid-'80s, spent the next two years looking for the cause of the spike.

The culprit, they said in a study released in July, was an undisclosed nuclear accident at the Mayak nuclear facility in Russia, which was once the centre of the Soviet nuclear-weapons program. Mayak was also the site of the 1957 Kyshtym explosion, the third-worst nuclear accident; more than 10,000 nearby residents were forced to evacuate.

Russia has never acknowledged that any nuclear accident happened at the Mayak facility in 2017 and has not responded to any findings from the Ring of Five.

Comment: See also:
River of radiation: Life in the area of the world's 3rd-worst nuclear disaster

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Telescope

Astronomers discover exoplanets with the density of cotton candy

Chris Ciaccia
Fox News
Mon, 23 Dec 2019 18:51 UTC
exoplanet artist conception Kepler 51
© NASA/ESA/STScIAn artist's depiction of the Kepler 51 star system
Astronomers have discovered a number of "super-puff" exoplanets in the Kepler 51 star system that are as dense as cotton candy.

Utilizing data from the Hubble Space Telescope, researchers found fewer than 15 of the planets that are almost as big as Jupiter but have extremely low density, at less than 100 times the gas giant's mass or less than 0.1 grams per cubic centimeter of volume.

"They're very bizarre," said the study's lead author, Jessica Libby-Roberts, in a statement.

"This is an extreme example of what's so cool about exoplanets in general," said Zachory Berta-Thompson, one of the study's co-authors, said. "They give us an opportunity to study worlds that are very different than ours, but they also place the planets in our own solar system into a larger context."
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Snowflake

'Iron Snow' detected by soundwaves in Earth's Core


Texas Geosciences
Thu, 19 Dec 2019 12:00 UTC
inner Eart
A simplified graphic of the inner Earth as described by the new research. The white and black layers represent a slurry layer containing iron crystals. The iron crystals form in the slurry layer of the outer core (white). These crystals “snow” down to the inner core, where they accumulate and compact into a layer on top of it (black). The compacted layer is thicker on the western hemisphere of the inner core (W) than on the eastern hemisphere (E).
The Earth's inner core is hot, under immense pressure and snow-capped, according to new research that could help scientists better understand forces that affect the entire planet.

The snow is made of tiny particles of iron - much heavier than any snowflake on Earth's surface - that fall from the molten outer core and pile on top of the inner core, creating piles up to 200 miles thick that cover the inner core.

The image may sound like an alien winter wonderland. But the scientists who led the research said it is akin to how rocks form inside volcanoes.

Comment: See also:

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Info

Genetics a poor predictor of risk for most diseases, study suggests

Katie Willis
University of Alberta
Wed, 18 Dec 2019 20:45 UTC
Gene Testing
© Getty ImagesNew research shows that genetics account for only five to 10 per cent of risk for most human diseases, and that gene testing is a poor predictor of whether someone will develop diseases including diabetes, Alzheimer's and many types of cancer.
In most cases, your genes have less than five per cent to do with your risk of developing a particular disease, according to new research by University of Alberta scientists.

In the largest meta-analysis of its kind ever conducted, the researchers examined two decades of data from studies on the relationships between common gene mutations, also known as single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), and different diseases and conditions. The results show that the links between most human diseases and genetics are shaky at best.

"Simply put, DNA is not your destiny, and SNPs are duds for disease prediction," said U of A computational biologist David Wishart, who was a co-author on the study.

"The vast majority of diseases — including many cancers, diabetes and Alzheimer's disease — have a genetic contribution of five to 10 per cent at best."

The study also highlights some notable exceptions, including Crohn's disease, celiac disease and macular degeneration, which have a genetic contribution of about 40 to 50 per cent.

"Despite these rare exceptions, it is becoming increasingly clear that the risks for getting most diseases arise from your metabolism, your environment, your lifestyle or your exposure to various kinds of nutrients, chemicals, bacteria or viruses," explained Wishart.
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Galaxy

Betelgeuse is "fainting" but it's not about to go supernova - probably

Stephen Luntz
IFL Science
Mon, 09 Dec 2019 12:00 UTC
Betelgeuse
Betelgeuse can be seen at the top of the image
A ripple of excitement is passing through the community of astronomers, both amateur and professional, at reports that Betelgeuse has dimmed significantly over recent days. Those who study the star most closely are hosing down the idea the world is about to experience perhaps the greatest event in the history of astronomy, but that doesn't mean there isn't something interesting going on.

To understand the fuss it is necessary to know that Betelgeuse, the deep red star in Orion's shoulder is a red supergiant with a mass large enough that it will inevitably become a supernova one day. Moreover, given its development, that day will be soon, by astronomical standards.

When this occurs, it will be a truly awe-inspiring sight. Betelgeuse is conveniently placed, far enough away there will be no danger to Earth, but close enough that its brightness will be breathtaking, possibly outshining the full Moon.

Comment: This is particularly notable because scientists recently confirmed that 100 previously catalogued stars just vanished, and not long before that six galaxies were observed undergoing sudden, dramatic transitions into super-bright quasars.

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

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