Cool Science thread

[Dantheman]

Earliest evidence for life on Earth may have just been pushed back a few hundred million years: http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-39117523

[iceman]

Earliest evidence for life on Earth may have just been pushed back a few hundred million years: http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-39117523

Life began in Canada?!?

[Viva]

Life began in Canada?!?

No one said "intelligent life".

[iceman]

Good point.

[Dantheman]

Trump's NASA budget cancels the Europa lander

http://www.theverge.com/2017/3/16/14...istration-cuts

[406]

^^^maybe congress will save it, sure would be a cool mission. The cuts in Earth Science are bad too and don't see congress helping that.

[Dantheman]

I hope so. It's the coolest probe mission they have in the pipeline that I'm aware of, especially now that it seems to be confirmed that water from the subsurface ocean is reaching the surface through plumes and fissures, and one of the coolest overall. I'd put it somewhere below James Webb but above the SLS.

[NoPostholio]

Cool article and graphics about measuring Sierra snowpack from the air. Def check out the nasa/jpl link.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/....app.html?_r=0

https://aso.jpl.nasa.gov/

[FLS]

^ Very cool.

[NoPostholio]

I remember a few books that played off the hanging cities in earth orbit, love the thinking of locking an asteroid to our gravity and hanging a building (city) from it. We need this and space elevators SOON!

https://www.forbes.com/sites/bridain.../#46bbd59c5194

[Norseman]

Hubble takes close-up portrait of Jupiter




The storms on the gas giant planets blow my mind.

[Dantheman]

We may have just directly imaged the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way:

https://phys.org/news/2017-04-astron...lack-hole.html
https://phys.org/news/2017-03-astron...vent.html#nRlv

~4,500 terabytes of data in total. The combined resolution of the 9-station "virtual telescope" is sufficient to image a golf ball on the moon.

[BmillsSkier]

Figure this can go here as well as anywhere:

Second parchment copy of Declaration of Independence found - in England

[Dantheman]

The inventor of the lithium-ion battery recently patented a new solid-state battery design that has triple the energy density of lithium-ion batteries. It's also lighter, safer, cheaper, easier to manufacture, has better charge/discharge rates, has a longer charge cycle lifespan, and works well in cold weather.

https://news.utexas.edu/2017/02/28/g...ery-technology
http://pubs.rsc.org/en/Content/Artic...H#!divAbstract

[Mazderati]

Sounds promising. Killer last name on that guy.

[FLS]

No love for Maria Braga? Sounds like a Goodenough/Braga collaboration strikes a nice balance.

[NoPostholio]

Hubble takes close-up portrait of Jupiter




The storms on the gas giant planets blow my mind.

One planet over, Cassini is starting the death dive today. Love the north pole hexagon storm.

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-...ive-180963054/

[iceman]

Killer last name on that guy.

Not bad, you might say.

Time will tell though, but we've heard of battery breakthroughs a number of times now. 94 years old though! There's hpe for us yet.

[NoPostholio]

The inventor of the lithium-ion battery recently patented a new solid-state battery design that has triple the energy density of lithium-ion batteries. It's also lighter, safer, cheaper, easier to manufacture, has better charge/discharge rates, has a longer charge cycle lifespan, and works well in cold weather.

https://news.utexas.edu/2017/02/28/g...ery-technology
http://pubs.rsc.org/en/Content/Artic...H#!divAbstract

awesome - sounds like no rare earth elements needed?

[brutah]

Game changer!!!!

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal...ture22065.html

This article breaks it down in better laymen's terms

http://www.nbcnews.com/science/scien...istory-n751406

Basically, they found a 130,000 year old Mastodon in So Cal that appears to have been broken up and used for tools by early humans. Humans or their relatives were not previously thought to show up in North America until 30000 years ago. Very interims and exciting stuff.

[BmillsSkier]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2...-donor-bodies/

[Dantheman]

awesome - sounds like no rare earth elements needed?

Yeah, sounds like it can use sodium. Hopefully it pans out. Pretty amazing that that guy is still doing cutting-edge research at 94.

Game changer!!!!

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal...ture22065.html

This article breaks it down in better laymen's terms

http://www.nbcnews.com/science/scien...istory-n751406

Basically, they found a 130,000 year old Mastodon in So Cal that appears to have been broken up and used for tools by early humans. Humans or their relatives were not previously thought to show up in North America until 30000 years ago. Very interims and exciting stuff.

Saw that yesterday. Their conclusions are very, very controversial and far from definitive. Most importantly, they are not supported by DNA evidence. DNA evidence does indicate pre-Clovis arrival in NA, but no earlier than ~30,000 years ago. It also does not indicate cross-breeding with a pre-existing population, as is well documented with Neanderthals after the arrival of Homo Sapiens in Europe. It would be very cool if it holds up, though.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2...-donor-bodies/

That is creepy as hell in general, and then there's this:

"...the team have since said the first trial is likely to be carried out on someone who is Chinese, because the chance of a Chinese donor body will be higher."

Nothing shady about that statement, nope, none at all.

[BmillsSkier]

Creepy as hell indeed.

But it'd be nice to see someone hit .400 for a season again.

Even if it is a reanimated Chinese corpse.

[brutah]

Saw that yesterday. Their conclusions are very, very controversial and far from definitive. Most importantly, they are not supported by DNA evidence. DNA evidence does indicate pre-Clovis arrival in NA, but no earlier than ~30,000 years ago. It also does not indicate cross-breeding with a pre-existing population, as is well documented with Neanderthals after the arrival of Homo Sapiens in Europe. It would be very cool if it holds up, though.

Ya its already very controversial. The authors are welcoming the scrutiny, one of them posted it in Reddit and basically asked people to criticize it because that's how science works.

The carbon dating is super legit, should be interesting to watch it play out. And maybe they find some remains that were missed at old archeological sites that now need to be revisited

[NoPostholio]

Times article about those potential first 'mericans.

California Today: Pondering Life in California 130,000 Years Ago https://nyti.ms/2ppgA0H