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https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/03/world/tonga-eruption-water-climate-stratosphere-scn/index.html

Buncha new water in the atmosphere. 

Quote

They estimate that the eruption delivered 146 teragrams of water to the stratosphere. One teragram is the equivalent of a trillion grams, and in this case, it was equal to 10% of the water already present in the stratosphere.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

https://slate.com/technology/2022/08/nasa-uranus-probe-orbiter-lol-sorry.html

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"... it’s not so much of a challenge to segue into something like ‘did you know Uranus smells of farts?’ (which it does), which will make people laugh, but now you’re talking about atmospheric composition.”

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Not sure if this is science - or just someone having fun with technology in the sciences... 

Basically, here are a bunch of photos of parts of our galaxy and other astronomical phenomena where the image is translated into music (well sound).  Note: not set to music... The image data is converted to sound. 

...except that they also try to make the images even more musical, which feels 'artistic'. 

I find all this both compelling... And a little odd... 

 

There is a whole site:

https://chandra.si.edu/sound/index.html#crab

Edited by JoeSchmuckatelli
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Not to be outdone:

Doppelganger epigenetics explains differences in unrelated people who share genes. 

https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/25/health/doppelganger-dna-study-wellness/index.html

 

 

20220825-09-dna-study-melissa-thorkilsen

 

These women are not related

20220825-01-dna-study-pierre-rondou-cami

Neither are these men 

 

"... scientists think they can explain what it is that makes them look so similar -- and could explain why each of us may have doppelgänger.
People who resemble each other, but are not directly related, still seem to have genetic similarities, according to a new study.
Among those who had these genetic similarities, many also had similar weights, similar lifestyle factors, and similar behavioral traits like smoking and education levels. That could mean that genetic variation is related to physical appearance and also, potentially may influence some habits and behavior."
Edited by JoeSchmuckatelli
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In a boon to those of us who enjoy reading science articles:

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critics of paywalls argue that they obstruct the free flow of information, have enabled price gouging by some publishers, and force U.S. taxpayers to “pay twice”—once to fund the research and again to see the results. Since the late 1990s, the critics have lobbied Congress and the White House to require free and immediate “open access” to government-funded research.

...

The new policy reflects the profound changes that have rocked academic publishing since the U.S. public access debate began in earnest more than 25 years ago. Then, subscription-based print journals were the primary means of disseminating research results, and publishers fiercely resisted any policy change that threatened an often highly profitable business model. But pressure from university libraries tired of paying rising subscription fees, and patient groups angry about having to pay to read taxpayer-funded biomedical studies, helped catalyze serious discussion of policy change. At the same time, the rise of the internet fueled publishing experiments, such as open-access journals and the posting of freely accessible “preprints” that have not been peer reviewed.

 

 

White House requires immediate public access to all U.S.-funded research papers by 2025 | Science | AAAS

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13 minutes ago, JoeSchmuckatelli said:

...but that would mean siding with Elbakyan. Which is probably going to go as swimmingly as the Saule Omarova confirmation hearings.

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19 minutes ago, DDE said:

...but that would mean siding with Elbakyan. Which is probably going to go as swimmingly as the Saule Omarova confirmation hearings.

Interesting - I did not know the back story of that site until seeing the wiki.

(There's been some creative writing there, btw: I would not compare her to Snowden.  Perhaps Sean Parker would be more apt.  Snowden should be compared to people like Yurchenko.)

Edited by JoeSchmuckatelli
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14 hours ago, DDE said:

Siberian amphibians produce significant quantities of ethanol as a cryoprotector.

https://www.sbras.info/articles/nauka-dlya-obschestva/biologi-raskryvayut-sekrety-amfibiy

Et tu?

Life in cold and dark climates seems to cause lifeforms to produce significant quantities of ethanol in general. There's a joke out in the countryside here that if you want to buy moonshine, look for the house of the local priest. That'd be the only place you wouldn't be able to buy moonshine.

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6 hours ago, Codraroll said:

Life in cold and dark climates seems to cause lifeforms to produce significant quantities of ethanol in general. There's a joke out in the countryside here that if you want to buy moonshine, look for the house of the local priest. That'd be the only place you wouldn't be able to buy moonshine.

Man yeast convert sugar into ethanol and get energy from it, its best done without or at least limited access to air because then the more efficient bacteria who simply convert sugar and oxygen into co2 takes over. Stone age biotech. 

However using ethanol as an antifreeze in an animal. You get an animal who is dead drunk all the time, dead as in enough alcohol in the blood to prevent freezing just an degree will kill you. 
Still ethanol has an low toxicity because you can drink it so its probably easy to evolve to have lots of it. 

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1 hour ago, DDE said:

Oldest deliberate amputation, oldest deliberate burial

Absolutely fascinating. Adding this to the list of things that I had never considered concerning prehistoric societies but that must have been an important development in those societies.

What that individual must have gone through...

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6 hours ago, DDE said:

Oldest deliberate amputation, oldest deliberate burial

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-05160-8

My architecture thesis included a survey of death rites from mesopotamia to precolonial hawaii to the Reformation to modern Japan. I remember reading about anthropological evidence that Neanderthals had been laid in the backs of caves under deep beds of collected wildflowers. Whether this constitutes “deliberate burial” in the field I couldn’t say. 
 

Edit: yeah, these kind of sites date between 40 and 70 thousand years ago:

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/new-neanderthal-remains-associated-with-the-flower-burial-at-shanidar-cave/E7E94F650FF5488680829048FA72E32A

Edited by Pthigrivi
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2 hours ago, Pthigrivi said:

laid in the backs of caves under deep beds of collected wildflowers. Whether this constitutes “deliberate burial

How many wildflowers bloom in the back of caves? 

 

This field is so full of people leery of admitting Neanderthals were human. 

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