Science & TechnologyS

Newspaper

From The Atlantic on teaching human evolution, a bit of rare honesty in reporting

David Klinghoffer
Evolution News
Thu, 19 Sep 2019 16:48 UTC
evolution graphic
© Gerd Altmann via Pixabay.
If you've read enough articles from mainstream journalists about how evolution is taught in public schools, and about Discovery Institute's position on that, you're bound to have low expectations of a new article that just came out from The Atlantic. "I Was Never Taught Where Humans Came From," laments staff writer Olga Khazan about her Texas upbringing. She feels that as a ninth grade biology student, she was shortchanged in not learning "the monkey part. That is, our shared ancestry with other primates."

Usually these articles obediently quote Glenn Branch of the National Center for Science Education, swallowing everything he says, and fail to interview anyone from Discovery Institute. I have seen this so many times. But you know what? This piece by Ms. Khazan is a cut above. She quotes Discovery Institute's John West and Sarah Chaffee, accurately. This could be because they conducted the interview by email. (See below for the full text.)

And while she naturally also talked with Glenn Branch, she notes that she is a "little skeptical" of something he says (about how not learning about human evolution "might make it harder for, say, doctors to understand superbugs, or for farmers to understand the nuances of agriculture," as she paraphrases him).

Whoa, that caught that my attention. She's "skeptical" of some lame talking point from the NCSE? How about that? Good job, Olga Khazan!
Read More...
Microscope 1

China's lunar rover scopes out weird substance on far side of the moon (PHOTOS)

Andrew Jones
space.com
Thu, 19 Sep 2019 17:03 UTC
china moon images
© CNSA/CLEPChina's Yutu-2 moon rover captured this image from the edge of the small crater where it found a mysterious, gel-like material.
China's lunar exploration program has released images that give us a glimpse of the mysterious material discovered on the far side of the moon.

Yutu-2, the lunar rover for China's Chang'e-4 mission, grabbed attention last month after its drive team spotted something unusual while roving close to a small crater. The Chinese-language science outreach publication Our Space, which announced the findings on Aug. 17, used the term "่ƒถ็Šถ็‰ฉ" (jiao zhuang wu), which can be translated as "gel-like." This notion sparked wide interest and speculation among lunar scientists.

Scientists have now gotten a look at that curious material, thanks to a post (Chinese) released over the weekend by Our Space via its WeChat social media account. Along with new images of the stuff on the moon, the post details how the Yutu-2 team carefully approached the crater in order to analyze the specimen, despite risks.
Read More...
Snowflake

New mineral discovered inside diamond mined in South Africa

Katie Willis
Phys.org
Thu, 19 Sep 2019 12:00 UTC
goldschmidtite
© Nicole MeyerA tiny sample of goldschmidtite found inside a diamond by U of A PhD student Nicole Meyer. The newly discovered mineral has high concentrations of elements seldom found in Earth's mantle, suggesting it formed under extreme conditions.
A Ph.D. student at the University of Alberta has discovered a new and curious mineral inside a diamond unearthed from a mine in South Africa.

The mineral โ€” named goldschmidtite in honor of Victor Moritz Goldschmidt, the founder of modern geochemistry โ€” has an unusual chemical signature for a mineral from Earth's mantle, explained Nicole Meyer, a graduate student in the Diamond Exploration Research and Training School.

"Goldschmidtite has high concentrations of niobium, potassium and the rare earth elements lanthanum and cerium, whereas the rest of the mantle is dominated by other elements, such as magnesium and iron," said Meyer.

"For potassium and niobium to constitute a major proportion of this mineral, it must have formed under exceptional processes that concentrated these unusual elements."

Comment: See also:

Read More...
Satellite

'Insurance policy for planet Earth': Space agencies to smash spacecraft into asteroid at over 14,000 mph


RT
Thu, 19 Sep 2019 17:48 UTC
asteroid impact
© ESAArtist's impression of the impact.
NASA and the ESA are finally set to test the Earth's planetary defenses to see whether we can successfully defend ourselves from the apparent scourge of space rocks. But the scientists are not sure what's going to happen.

The target they have chosen is the asteroid Didymos B, roughly 160 meters in diameter, one half of a binary asteroid system. Didymos B orbits the larger asteroid Didymos A every 11.92 hours and this will help determine the ultimate success (or failure) of the mission.

The Didymos system is classified as a Near-Earth Object (NEO), meaning it's close but not too close that it might hit us, making it the perfect test subject to flex our anti-meteor might.

The joint asteroid impact and deflection assessment (AIDA) project launched by the ESA and NASA in 2015, and Earth's champion selected for the mission will be NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft.

"Today, we're the first humans in history to have the technology to potentially deflect an asteroid from impacting the Earth," astronomer Ian Carnelli of the ESA told Technology Review.
Read More...
Jupiter

NASA's Juno probe reveals stunning eclipse on Jupiter


RT
Wed, 18 Sep 2019 13:08 UTC
Eclipse on Jupiter
© NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Kevin M. GillSolar eclipse on Jupiter
NASA's Juno spacecraft captured a truly awe-inspiring shot of a partial solar eclipse on Jupiter, capping off its 22nd close flyby of the enormous planet in sensational style.

Io, the closest of Jupiter's four moons, casts a surprisingly sharp shadow across the surface of the gas giant in the amazing photos. The images come to us courtesy of NASA software engineer and citizen scientist, Kevin Gill, who shared his rendering of the craft's image on his Twitter feed.


Note: Click on directional circle to bring up the image.
Read More...
Display

Smart TVs Caught Sending Sensitive User Data To Facebook And Netflix

Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge
Wed, 18 Sep 2019 19:20 UTC
smart TV spying, samsung
A study by researchers from Northeastern University and Imperial College London found that many popular smart TV models, including models by Samsung and LG, as well as streaming dongles Roku and Amazon FireTV, are leaking sensitive user data to advertisers.

The models listed above would share data like location and IP address with Netflix, Facebook and third-party advertisers, according to the FT.

Just when social media companies were starting to modify their data collection practices to better respect user privacy, the next threat is coming from the Internet of Things (IoT). Smart TVs are becoming increasingly popular in the US.
Read More...
Galaxy

Astronomers discover most massive neutron star ever recorded


RT
Tue, 17 Sep 2019 11:07 UTC
Neutron star
© AFP / National Science Foundation / A. Simonnet
Astronomers have detected a neutron star which beggars belief, being so big it challenges our understanding of extreme objects in the universe.

The pulsar, with the catchy name J0740+6620, is the first neutron star humans have detected measuring over two solar masses.

Using the timing of its pulses, astronomers have calculated its mass to be roughly 2.14 times that of our sun, packed into an area just 30km across (the Sun is 1.391 million km across, so it's a tight squeeze).

The object is close to the theoretical upper limit of 2.3 solar masses for a rotating neutron star, based on cutting-edge gravitational wave astronomy calculations from just last year.

Neutron stars form after the immensely explosive and violent deaths of stars in a series of thermonuclear explosions that fuse every last bit of material remaining in their cores.

After this truly awe-inspiring death rattle, the remaining iron core collapses, packing whatever neutrons are left into an almost inconceivably small space, producing an object roughly as dense as an atomic nucleus.
Read More...
Biohazard

Genetically-modified mosquito apocalypse plan backfires spectacularly in Brazil


RT
Tue, 17 Sep 2019 09:53 UTC
mosquito
© Pexels
An experimental trial to reduce the mosquito population in Brazil through the deliberate release of 450,000 genetically modified mosquitoes has failed miserably and may have even created a genetic hybrid super species.

British biotech company Oxitec conducted a 27-month long experiment in 2013 Jacobina, Brazil, aimed at reducing the local mosquito population by 90 percent while preserving the genetic integrity of the local insect population.

The overall goal was to curb the spread of mosquito-borne diseases, such as yellow fever, dengue, chikungunya, and Zika, by releasing half a million OX513A mosquitoes. The insects are a genetically-modified version of the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which combined a breed from Mexico with a breed from Cuba.

Comment: See also:

Read More...
Clock

Physics explains why time passes faster as we age

Ephrat Livni
Quartz
Tue, 08 Jan 2019 00:00 UTC
watch face
© Reuters/Sergei KarpukhinMind cannot be measured on a watch.
Mind time and clock time are two totally different things. They flow at varying rates.

The chronological passage of the hours, days, and years on clocks and calendars is a steady, measurable phenomenon. Yet our perception of time shifts constantly, depending on the activities we're engaged in, our age, and even how much rest we get. An upcoming paper in the journal European Review by Duke University mechanical engineering professor Adrian Bejan, explains the physics behind changing senses of time and reveals why the years seem to fly by the older we get.

Bejan is obsessed with flow and, basically, believes physics principles can explain everything. He has written extensively about how the principles of flow in physics dictate and explain the movement of abstract concepts, like economics. Last year, he won the Franklin Institute's Benjamin Franklin Medal for "his pioneering interdisciplinary contributions...and for constructal theory, which predicts natural design and its evolution in engineering, scientific, and social systems."

In his latest paper, he examines the mechanics of the human mind and how these relate to our understanding of time, providing a physical explanation for our changing mental perception as we age.
Read More...
HAL9000

'Unpredictable and dangerous': US Navy says it's trying to avoid 'Terminator' scenario as experts warn of AI battlefield technology development

Elias Marat
The Mind Unleashed
Mon, 16 Sep 2019 18:49 UTC
The Terminator
According to a U.S. Navy official, the nightmare scenario of wars entrusted to machines could become a reality.

It's long been an image restricted to popular culture: unstoppable robot killers firing their high-powered rifles at clusters of helpless human soldiers with no choice but to flee the battlefield or risk sustaining tremendous losses.

The scenario of military robots and the artificial intelligence (AI) network "Skynet" spinning free from human control forms the basis of the Terminator series starring Arnold Schwarzenegger that has captivated moviegoers around the world. But now, according to a U.S. Navy official, the science fiction nightmare of wars entrusted to machines that "can't be reasoned with [and] doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear," โ€” as one character in the original film says โ€” could become a reality.


Comment: And if all that isn't bad enough: US military experts say that 'America needs' AI to control its nuclear missiles

Read More...