JoeSchmuckatelli

The article I read compared holocaust survivor children with related populations that managed to get out of Europe beforehand. It's googlable and has been expanded on, I think. The other component I did not write above is that the 'hard line' of random selection may have been an anti-religionist / reaction to religious criticism, rather than good science. There is some talk (in the article /related work) about the 'intent / plan / purpose' of the organism that offers fraught language for those leery of the 'intelligent design' folks... But I read it as 'the organism has some agency in its choice of environment or the resources it has available to exploit - and how well that serves the critter's purpose to survive and procreate may have some impact on the genes it passes to the next generation.

The article is interesting to me in that we see an open challenge by qualified individuals to a long standing 'hard line'. I'm the first to admit that I am not deeply read into the nuances of this. But my basic understanding was that the 'standard view' is that evolutionary pressure ignored events / experience within the lifetime of the organism and only worked in multi-generational, population-wide process completely dependent on seemingly random variations in the germ line. One infant would have a variation of a gene that would turn out to be beneficial and its offspring (that inherit) would have advantages that compound over generations. That hard-line rule conflicts with articles I started reading decades ago - such as the heritability of stress response in children of holocaust survivors. Other reading from the 20 years of war America played in suggesting that combat PTSD may be an indication of gene expression are in line with the above. I don't think the authors and proponents are suggesting that Finch beaks grew longer in the lifetime of a bird... Just that the line may be not so hard. One important thing is the bit about clones not developing in the same environment - that is interesting

This is quite possibly the only place likely to 'get' this Chuckling and groaning in equal measure!

I've already seen it go boom. Now I want to see it not go boom.

As I understand it, the Appalachian mountains are among the oldest on earth - 1.2 billion years old. Formed when Gondwanaland was a thing. Supposedly taller in their day than the Himalayan range of today. Results of proto continent collisions. We only see the weathered remains of the mountains. Coal, as I understand it, is the remnants of forests formed during the carboniferous period - the biological arms race had produced lignin in plants that fungi and bacteria had yet learned to digest. Over millions of years the trees died, laying undigested and forming peat bogs and covered by water and sediments (shallow seas/lakes) eventually, coal. The bands were generally horizontal until the separation of the NA continent building process folded up the land and coal bands. Here is the problem I'm having: the mountain building predates the carboniferous. And yet the coal bands are in the Appalachian range. How? Sources appreciated!

This one?

I'm hoping we can continue to interact here, but if not... Is there a good alternative Science and Spaceflight FORUM (not Discord - too old / no patience) that you might recommend? Would really enjoy being able to continue with you all should these forums implode!

It's been an honor, Folks. Fingers twisted that we get to keep going! Best community on the interwebz

One gallon of gasoline +oil kicked off by a quarter stick of TNT makes an impressive mushroom cloud. ...don't ask how I know this.

And of course the guy who finally makes it... Makes it look easy. Yep. Good analogy

Wine - Dinosaur link discovered https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/07/01/demise-of-dinosaurs-allowed-vines-to-thrive-find-scientists/

Irradiated mutant bacteria from spaaaace being brought back to Earth? What could go wrong? Panik https://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/ames/ames-science/ames-space-biosciences/multi-drug-resistant-bacteria-found-on-iss-mutating-to-become-functionally-distinct/

I enjoyed your story! I started reading a bunch of the work put out by a Canadian building scientist (can't remember name offhand) back 20 some odd years ago. Was fascinating to watch them try to figure out 'the perfect wall' and answer the insulation, vapor barrier and construction practices questions I was wrestling with. (At the time I was trying to help a client design and build a high efficiency addition using the latest practices) Looks like a. Cool field!

Monday afternoon, several videos had been removed from Chinese social media platforms. Eyewitness accounts shared on social media described hearing a loud explosion upon impact, with one witness telling CNN they saw the rocket fall with their own eyes. They described experiencing a pungent odour and hearing the sound of the explosion afterwards ~MSN article with absurdly long link ~

That is just... Not right. ... There was a Dinosaur show from about 10 years ago - one of the segments had these giant frogs That used to live back then - big enough to eat a small Dino in one bite. IIRC - one scene had a brontosaurus step on the frog If anyone remembers this - it's worth a look. Kinda horrible - but worth it

Well... Isn't that fancy. I can get into S&Sf. Thank you for the tip.

Just can't stop imagining the mutant frog that might need a Lilly Pad that big...

The bad gateway thing is apparently affecting everyone - not just those who have been shadow banned / Kraken banned from the S&Sf sub. What make me sad is that I had a working email login with my temp Alt... But when they merged the accounts they merged the working one into the non working aaaaaaand I'm banned again. ... I'm pretty adept at the backdoor workaround - but really wish the forum software did not hate me.

502 Bad Gateway all afternoon

observations from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft hint that the Kuiper Belt – the vast, distant outer zone of our solar system populated by hundreds of thousands of icy, rocky planetary building blocks – might stretch much farther out than we thought https://www.nasa.gov/missions/new-horizons/nasas-new-horizons-detects-dusty-hints-of-extended-kuiper-belt/ Also - mission could extend to the 2040s? New Horizons is expected to have sufficient propellant and power to operate through the 2040s, at distances beyond 100 AU from the Sun. That far out, mission scientists say, the SDC could potentially even record the spacecraft’s transition into a region where interstellar particles dominate the dust environment.

Like a deadbeat dad, sperm were thought to give eggs little more than the initial bang that gets things started. Possibly the most humorous start to a Science News article I've seen in a while Sperm Spills Its RNA Secret | Science | AAAS For context: Researchers have shown for the first time that sperm also carry RNA, some of which may provide important signals to the developing embryo. Wrong thread ... whatever - my access to this sub is so wonky I'm just glad it posted

A better read.

Possible but unlikely. Even if the trend remains upward over the next decade... It will still only be a trend.

Makes sense - we've been prepped by history and media to think that when scientists are doing things on the edge of the ethical - they have probably already crossed the line

Here are the 2020 predictions for reference https://spacenews.com/spacexs-2020-ambitions-tempered-by-2019-outcomes/