Cool Science thread

[Norseman]

Antarctic cosmic ray study ANITA finds high energy particles coming out of earth, perhaps being the first observations of particles not belonging to the Standard Model.

https://www.livescience.com/63692-st...w-physics.html

[Dantheman]

Holy shit, that's incredible! Like, Nobel Prize-level incredible.

[Timberridge]

Antarctic cosmic ray study ANITA finds high energy particles coming out of earth, perhaps being the first observations of particles not belonging to the Standard Model.

https://www.livescience.com/63692-st...w-physics.html

Antarctica looks like Burning Man

[booner]

I've worked in engineering/science/tech for long time and seen lots of cool shit

I was at SpaceX last week. Unfuckingreal.

I thought I was on the set of a Spielberg movie for a second

[The Suit]

In search of clean energy, investments in nuclear-fusion startups are heating up

SPARC

[Dantheman]

^^^Fingers crossed. Viable fusion power would be a game-changer for humanity.

How one of America's worst invasive species was made: https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/scie...htmare-1918129

[The Suit]

^^^Fingers crossed. Viable fusion power would be a game-changer for humanity.

Mrs. Suit & I had dinner with the SPARC team a couple weeks ago in Cambridge. They seem confident. Their fundamental premise is that the latest high-temperature superconductors will allow them to double any previously achieved magnetic field strength, and that the increased magnetic field is a game-changer. Their enthusiasm is pretty infectious.

[Dantheman]

Mrs. Suit & I had dinner with the SPARC team a couple weeks ago in Cambridge. They seem confident.

Well there's something you don't hear every day. If I run into the ITER team at Molly Greens this winter I'll be sure to get the inside scoop

[grskier]

Antarctica looks like Burning Man

My first thought...


This is a great reminder that despite our great circle of knowledge.. we still can't get it all to marry up.

[PNWbrit]

Dwarf planet 'The Goblin' discovery redefining solar system

Massively elongated orbit suggests object is influenced by theoretical giant Planet Nine in Oort Cloud region

The newly discovered icy world, estimated to be just 300km across, is in an extremely elongated orbit. At its closest, it gets about two and a half times as far from the sun as Pluto. Then it heads off to the outermost fringes of the solar system, to almost 60 times further out than Pluto, taking an astounding 40,000 years to loop once around the sun. For 99% of its orbit, it would be too faint to see.

[reckless toboggan]

Emissions-Free Energy System Saves Heat from the Summer Sun for Winter



https://www.labmanager.com/news/2018...sun-for-winter

Around a year ago, the research team presented a molecule that was capable of storing solar energy. The molecule, made from carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen, has the unique property that when it is hit by sunlight, it is transformed into an energy-rich isomer—a molecule that consists of the same atoms, but bound together in a different way.
This isomer can then be stored for use when that energy is later needed—for example, at night or in winter. It is in a liquid form and is adapted for use in a solar energy system, which the researchers have named MOST (Molecular Solar Thermal Energy Storage). In just the last year, the research team has made great advances in the development of MOST.
"The energy in this isomer can now be stored for up to 18 years. And when we come to extract the energy and use it, we get a warmth increase which is greater than we dared hope for," says the leader of the research team, Kasper Moth-Poulsen, professor at the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering.
The research group has developed a catalyst for controlling the release of the stored energy. The catalyst acts as a filter, through which the liquid flows, creating a reaction that warms the liquid by 63 degrees Celsius. If the liquid has a temperature of 20C when it pumps through the filter, it comes out the other side at 83C. At the same time, it returns the molecule to its original form, so that it can be then reused in the warming system.
During the same period, the researchers also learned to improve the design of the molecule to increase its storage abilities so that the isomer can store energy for up to 18 years. This was a crucial improvement, as the focus of the project is primarily chemical energy storage.
Furthermore, the system was previously reliant on the liquid being partly composed of the flammable chemical toluene. But now the researchers have found a way to remove the potentially dangerous toluene and instead use just the energy storing molecule.
Taken together, the advances mean that the energy system MOST now works in a circular manner. First, the liquid captures energy from sunlight, in a solar thermal collector on the roof of a building. Then it is stored at room temperature, leading to minimal energy losses. When the energy is needed, it can be drawn through the catalyst so that the liquid heats up. It is envisioned that this warmth can then be utilized in, for example, domestic heating systems, after which the liquid can be sent back up to the roof to collect more energy—all completely free of emissions, and without damaging the molecule.

...

The group is satisfied with the storage capabilities, but more energy could be extracted, Kasper believes. He hopes that the research group will shortly achieve a temperature increase of at least 110 degrees Celsius and thinks the technology could be in commercial use within 10 years.

[Dantheman]

Dwarf planet 'The Goblin' discovery redefining solar system

Massively elongated orbit suggests object is influenced by theoretical giant Planet Nine in Oort Cloud region

The newly discovered icy world, estimated to be just 300km across, is in an extremely elongated orbit. At its closest, it gets about two and a half times as far from the sun as Pluto. Then it heads off to the outermost fringes of the solar system, to almost 60 times further out than Pluto, taking an astounding 40,000 years to loop once around the sun. For 99% of its orbit, it would be too faint to see.

Full article also says that this is actually the third recently discovered dwarf planet with a huge orbit that is improbable if Planet Nine doesn't exist. It's out there, kids. Going to be so cool when it's found.

MOST thing sounds pretty rad since energy storage is the only thing holding renewables back now.

[Viva]

Not real science, but (fake) social science- the authors wrote this to show how certain journals would accept any submission, so long as the narrative fit that publication's particular agenda (vide infra).

"For the past year scholars James Lindsay, Helen Pluckrose, and Peter Boghossian have sent fake papers to various academic journals which they describe as specialising in activism or “grievance studies.” Their stated mission has been to expose how easy it is to get “absurdities and morally fashionable political ideas published as legitimate academic research.”

To date, their project has been successful: seven papers have passed through peer review and have been published, including a 3000 word excerpt of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf, rewritten in the language of Intersectionality theory and published in the Gender Studies journal Affilia."

Anywho, this is a great fucking read. I had tears and coughing fits, as I was laughing so hard at times.

https://www.skeptic.com/downloads/co...17.1330439.pdf

[LostCosmonaut]

More evidence for Planet Nine found; https://www.space.com/41995-dwarf-pl...anet-nine.html

[frorider]

Speaking of Neil: https://www.instagram.com/p/BodTN4sh...=1y1vdtthfgdfg

[Sluff]

Yellowstone super volcano containment plan. Interesting, but seems difficult to defeat Mother Nature.

A supervolcano that could destroy humanity is ready to erupt — and NASA is trying to figure out how to contain it - Business Insiderhttps://apple.news/AeWGI_22GRe2p6HdUY-aMDw

[wyeaster]

Yellowstone super volcano containment plan. Interesting, but seems difficult to defeat Mother Nature.

A supervolcano that could destroy humanity is ready to erupt — and NASA is trying to figure out how to contain it - Business Insiderhttps://apple.news/AeWGI_22GRe2p6HdUY-aMDw

encase all of yellowstone in a heat proof bubble with a tube out to space

[Dantheman]

DARPA wants deploy hordes of virus-bearing insects. Their stated intentions are good, but this still sounds terrifying.

https://amp.livescience.com/63765-da...al-weapon.html

Hints of the multiverse
https://www.express.co.uk/news/scien...ang-theory/amp

[reckless toboggan]

I read about the DARPA insect thing the other day. Fucking terrifying (as are all the projects that DARPA works on).

[PNWbrit]

Jagged ice spikes cover Jupiter’s moon Europa, study suggests

Penitentes are named after an Easter religious festival, practiced by some Spanish-speaking Christians, in which monks wear pointed white hats (the “penitent,” hence, penitentes). Charles Darwin, who made some of the first scientific observations of penitentes in the 1830s, imagined the wind created the ice spikes

[iceman]

Somebody smarter than me read this and tell me what you think: https://joshmitteldorf.scienceblog.c...or-alzheimers/

Dan?

[Dantheman]

Hard to say much without a lot more research. Certainly sounds more promising than the BAP-reducing drugs/research conducted to date, which have generally been total failures. In general, it seems that some people are just genetically fucked and are going to get AD no matter what. For everyone else, avoiding AD is the same as avoiding CVD, cancer, etc.--eat healthy, exercise, get lots of sleep, etc.

[Meathelmet]

Somebody smarter than me read this and tell me what you think: https://joshmitteldorf.scienceblog.c...or-alzheimers/

Dan?

I could almost bet on eating a (medium sized) hat full of shit if that geezer would turn out to be legit.
All that googling reveals are spam links and Dr.Bots, could not find any proper peer-reviewed stuff.

https://www.skeptic.com/reading_room...-false-claims/

Dr. Dale Bredesen proclaims ... a report of ten patients,4 with three case studies and a summary table that merely lists the other seven patients. Only half of them were diagnosed with Alzheimer’s; the others had mild cognitive impairment or subjective cognitive impairment. The case studies describe a complicated individual regimen. For example, one case was treated with fasting, a limited, mostly vegetarian diet, probiotics, coconut oil, strenuous exercise (swimming, cycling, running), melatonin, numerous herbs and vitamins, DHA and EPA. Nine patients had “subjective or objective improvement;” the tenth had advanced Alzheimer’s and failed to improve. He now claims to have treated 100 patients. The treatments are based loosely on his hypotheses about causation, with no clear rationale for the combination of interventions.

[splittin]

The only real science is alchemy.

[Dantheman]

Oldest evidence for animal life found: https://phys.org/news/2018-10-oldest...e-animals.html

Molecular archeology is some cool shit.