SCIENCE and things like that

[Daehawk]

[Jaymann]

Amazing that Higgs held on long enough to see the discovery of his brain child. Great video. I was afraid it would be more of the Joe Rogan: OMG WHAT'S REALLY HAPPENING AT CERN AND IT'S TERRIFYING!!! garbage. They did a great job of demonstrating the minuscule scale of the particles.

[Isgrimnur]

RIP Superconducting Super Collider

[disarm]

There are a lot of really great things in that LHC video, but I think the section 'Why Does This Matter?' at 11:30 is probably my favorite part. The way she explains why proving and understanding theoretical research are important is perfectly stated and something I wish everyone who looks down on theoretical sciences could understand.

We may not understand the importance of everything we're learning now, but you also never know what discovery might change the world forever.

[Blackhawk]

Primate observed administering medicine

When a wild orangutan in Indonesia suffered a painful wound to his cheek, he did something that stunned researchers: He chewed plant leaves known to have pain-relieving and healing properties, rubbed the juice on the open wound — and then used the leaves as a poultice to cover his injury.

"This case represents the first known case of active wound treatment in a wild animal with a medical plant," biologist Isabelle Laumer, the first author of a paper about the revelation, told NPR.

[Kraken]

Primate observed administering medicine

When a wild orangutan in Indonesia suffered a painful wound to his cheek, he did something that stunned researchers: He chewed plant leaves known to have pain-relieving and healing properties, rubbed the juice on the open wound — and then used the leaves as a poultice to cover his injury.

"This case represents the first known case of active wound treatment in a wild animal with a medical plant," biologist Isabelle Laumer, the first author of a paper about the revelation, told NPR.

Unfortunately its insurance plan denied coverage.

[Daehawk]

Thats a bad wound. Feels sorry for him. Not sure why people didn't help. I guess being a wild animal they have to let it be.

[Blackhawk]

Thats a bad wound. Feels sorry for him. Not sure why people didn't help. I guess being a wild animal they have to let it be.

Broadly speaking, you don't interfere.

[Daehawk]

Fascinating new info on how fireflies light their lantern.

How do fireflies get their glow? We finally have some answers.

[Daehawk]

[Isgrimnur]

Physicists Puzzle Over Emergence of Strange Electron Aggregates

Researchers at the University of Washington reported in August 2023 that in a stack of two atomically thin crystalline sheets offset from each other at a slight angle, electrons behaved like quasiparticles with fractional amounts of charge, such as −⅔ and −⅗. A few months later, a team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology reported the same effect in another material. It was the first time that electrons had formed fractional quasiparticles without the enabling influence of a magnetic field.

While predictions about the possibility of this particular effect date back to 2011, theorists are still puzzling over the new discovery. It’s not clear how the underlying mechanism works in the MIT group’s material; calculations from several groups neither fully explain the fractional states nor agree. Other, even odder quantum phases of matter may also be present.

The new discovery isn’t incidental, or specific to a material. Rather, it’s universal and fundamental — the result of the quantum nature of the electron, albeit a behavior that has until now stayed hidden. While condensed matter physicists want to understand the breadth of electron behaviors for their own sake, there’s always the chance of uncovering the basis of a world-changing technology. In this case, the newfound effect may carry the seeds of long-sought quasiparticles with stable memories that could underpin a new and powerful approach to quantum computing.

[Jaymann]

Yes, the title is serious (Gravity is a Social Construct). Her videos take some swipes at male dominance of the scientific community, and the colonial nature of humanity, but it doesn't come off as shrill or hysterical. Plus speaking of gender, she is definitely in the running for most gorgeous astrophysicist around.

[Daehawk]

[Unagi]

Way more my style of girl:
I Angela Collier

[Kraken]

Way more my style of girl:
I Angela Collier

Brainy is beautiful. Although if I ever met her IRL, I'd be frustrated that I can't speed her up to 1.5x.

[Daehawk]

Smart girls are always hotter than dumb.

[Holman]

As someone who works with a lot of women scientists... Dudes, please don't.

[Kraken]

In case you read a double entendre that isn't there, I just meant that I watch her videos at 1.5x speed and it's jarring when I drop out of warp.

[Holman]

All OK.

It's just that I work with women in STEM and I hear stories about "science culture."

[Isgrimnur]

You mean like Picture a Scientist?

PICTURE A SCIENTIST chronicles the groundswell of researchers who are writing a new chapter for women scientists. Biologist Nancy Hopkins, chemist Raychelle Burks, and geologist Jane Willenbring lead viewers on a journey deep into their own experiences in the sciences, ranging from brutal harassment to years of subtle slights. Along the way, from cramped laboratories to spectacular field stations, we encounter scientific luminaries - including social scientists, neuroscientists, and psychologists - who provide new perspectives on how to make science itself more diverse, equitable, and open to all.

[The Meal]

All OK.

It's just that I work with women in STEM and I hear stories about "science culture."

One of Angela Collier’s earliest uploads touches on this topic very effectively.

[stessier]

Ok - this is very cool - not so much for the science but because of the cooperation. How we keep areas screwworm free...

[Isgrimnur]

We kink-shaming the worms now?

The name screwworm refers to the maggots' (larvae) feeding behavior as they burrow (screw) into the wound, feeding as they go like a screw being driven into wood.

[Isgrimnur]

Record-breaking ‘rogue wave’ in Pacific Ocean : Largest ever measured by scientists

The mammoth wave, now known as the Ucluelet wave, was captured by a solitary buoy near Vancouver Island. Its extraordinary height, equivalent to a four-story building, was nearly three times the size of surrounding waves. This remarkable disproportion is what truly sets the Ucluelet wave apart from its predecessors.
...

[Kraken]

This is pretty neat: Skeleton of “Well-man” linked to 800-year-old Norse saga”.

Researchers have connected the identity of skeletal remains found in a well at Norway’s Sverresborg castle to a passage in a centuries-old Norse text.

The 800-year-old Sverris saga, which follows the story of the real-life King Sverre Sigurdsson, includes the tossing of the body of a dead man — later known as “Well-man” — down a well during a military raid in central Norway in 1197.

It’s likely, according to the text, that raiders lobbed the body into the well to poison the main water source for locals, but little else is said about the man or who he was in the saga.

Researchers initially uncovered the bones in the castle’s well in 1938, but they were only able to carry out a visual analysis at the time. Now, scientists have an array of analytical techniques at their disposal, including genetic sequencing and radiocarbon dating.

A new study on the remains, published Friday in the Cell Press journal iScience, reveals unprecedented insights into Well-man’s appearance based on in-depth research on samples of his teeth.

“This is the first time that a person described in these historical texts has actually been found,” said study coauthor Michael D. Martin, a professor in the department of natural history at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology’s University Museum in Trondheim, in a statement.

There's a bunch of sciencey stuff in the rest of the story.

[Daehawk]

Holy shit thats fascinating! I love this stuff. Actual proof that a old writing of an account is actually factual. And the guys bones to prove it@ Astounding. Love it!

[Max Peck]

Pando, Earth’s Largest Living Organism, Could be 80,000 Years Old

A collection of over 40,000 trees in rural Utah is the world’s largest single organism, having all descended from a single seedling. But that’s not all: According to a team of researchers, the grove—collectively known as Pando—may also be the world’s oldest living organism.

Though it consists of over 40,000 individual trees, Pando is a single organism that originated from a single seed. Exactly when that seed sprouted, though, remains up in the air. According to a team that recently estimated the organism’s age, Pando is between 16,000 to 80,000 years old. In other words, sometime between the glaciers receding from Manhattan and the last time the Tsuchinshan-ATLAS comet passed through Earth’s skies, a seedling in what would become Utah began to form Pando. The team’s research on Pando is not yet peer reviewed and is hosted on the preprint server bioRxiv.

The grove that constitutes Pando is the largest, most dense organism yet known, clocking in at nearly 13 million pounds (5.9 million kilograms) and covering 106 acres (43 hectares), according to the U.S. Forest Service. Based on the recent research, Pando may have already been 40,000 years old when Neanderthals disappeared from the fossil record about 40,000 years ago.

[Daehawk]

So a tree grew from a seed then its seeds made more trees around it and in the area and those trees made even more and it went on and on until we got what we have today? So they can genetically trace all of that forest back to a single tree that started it all? Thats fascinating!

[Max Peck]

No, it's all one tree with a single connected root mass, all of which started from a single seed.

Pando (from Latin pando 'I spread'), is the world's largest tree, a quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) located in Sevier County, Utah, United States, in the Fishlake National Forest. A male clonal organism, Pando has an estimated 47,000 stems (ramets) that appear to be individual trees, but are connected by a root system that spans 42.8 ha (106 acres). Pando is the largest tree by weight and landmass and the largest known aspen clone. Pando was identified as a single living organism because each of its stems possesses identical genetic markers. The massive interconnected root system coordinates energy production, defense and regeneration across the tree's landmass. Pando spans 1.08 km × 0.72 km (0.67 mi × 0.45 mi) at its widest expanse along of the southwestern edge of the Fishlake Basin and lies 0.69 km (0.43 mi) to the west of Fish Lake, the largest natural mountain freshwater lake in Utah. Pando's landmass spreads from 2,700 m (8,900 ft) above sea level to approximately 2,773 m (9,098 ft) above sea level along the western side of a steep basin wall. Pando is estimated to weigh collectively 6,000 tonnes (6,000,000 kg),[6] or 13.2 million pounds, making it the heaviest known organism. The Pando Tree's 43-hectare (106-acre) expanse also makes Pando the largest tree by landmass.

[Daehawk]

Thats wild.

[The Meal]

Pando is more massive but the humongous fungus is larger by area. Cool photos (and other comparisons) available here:

https://blog.walkingmountains.org/curio ... i-colorado

[Unagi]

Pando is more massive but the humongous fungus is larger by area. Cool photos (and other comparisons) available here:

https://blog.walkingmountains.org/curio ... i-colorado

Not sure how much digging I would need to do, but I didn't see any cool photos on your link - just a picture of the mushrooms and a picture of an aspen tree.

[Kraken]

Those Neanderthals knew their fire, yo. 65,000-year-old hearth in Gibraltar may have been a Neanderthal 'glue factory'

Archaeologists in the Iberian Peninsula have discovered a 65,000-year-old tar-making "factory" engineered by Neanderthals — a feat pulled off 20,000 years before modern humans (Homo sapiens) set foot in the region, a new study finds.

The sticky tar helped Neanderthals produce glue to make weapons and tools. The so-called factory — a carefully designed hearth — enabled the Neanderthals to precisely control the fire and manage the temperature of the flame that produced their gooey creations.

Archaeologists already knew that Neanderthals made glue, including tar and resin as well as sticky substances from ochre, a reddish mineral often used for rock art. Neanderthals used these sticky materials to haft, or attach, stone blades or points to wooden handles, in combination with sinew or plant fiber wrappings.

But the newfound hearth, seemingly dug into the floor of a cave in what is now Gibraltar, shows that Neanderthals were skilled engineers who had fine-tuned the glue-making process.

[The Meal]

Pando is more massive but the humongous fungus is larger by area. Cool photos (and other comparisons) available here:

https://blog.walkingmountains.org/curio ... i-colorado

Not sure how much digging I would need to do, but I didn't see any cool photos on your link - just a picture of the mushrooms and a picture of an aspen tree.

Ack, you're right. I should've spent more time at that link before making broad declarations. Sorry for sending you down a rabbit hole.

[Max Peck]

The truly cool thing about Pando is the underlying concept of an entire forest being one single ancient life form. Visually, it just looks like a bunch of trees. If you do want to see a bunch of photos of a bunch trees, just look it up on Google Maps.