Random Science Facts Thread!

[kerbiloid]

On 09.03.2018 at 5:01 PM, p1t1o said:

FunFact^TM: Barring any kind of weird infection, hands are by far more dirty than genitals. If just going #1 its far more hygienic to wash hands before going, washing them after makes little difference as your hands come away cleaner.

So, that's why people wash only hands before meals?

Spoiler

Different microbes prefer different places, so "hands are more dirty" would not be considered literally.
They can be more dirty with trivial Echerichia coli, but other places can be inhabited by much more pushy little friends, though not so numerous.

 

Edited March 10, 2018 by kerbiloid

[p1t1o]

2 hours ago, kerbiloid said:

So, that's why people wash only hands before meals?

  Hide contents

Different microbes prefer different places, so "hands are more dirty" would not be considered literally.
They can be more dirty with trivial Echerichia coli, but other places can be inhabited by much more pushy little friends, though not so numerous.

 

Now we start getting into the definition of "what is clean?" which as it happens, is a field of science my father is involved in.

For most of recent history, "sterile" has been the epitome of "clean", but science (or probably more accurately and frustratingly, "public opinion") is starting to catch on the the fact that we live in symbiosis with a huge crowd of microbes and a sterile environment and sterile body surface is far from ideal, even to the point where it can make you unwell.

Indeed, different area of the body have their own unique environments and are not directly comparable merely based on microbe count, however hands are SO dirty (because these are our instruments for interacting with our environment, their flora are affected more by outside bug) that I still think it is a valid comparison, to say that hands are one of the "dirtiest" parts of your body, taken not on pure microbe count but the sheer unknown nature of the colonies - because it is affected by whatever you touch (and whatever has touched what you are touching etc.) not just by the natural body flora.

And because we dont touch our genitals much (lol lol yeah I know, I mean in the grand scheme of things) they tend to be fairly clean, in terms of bugs from outside.

On the "definition of cleanliness" front - the cutting edge may soon include cleaning products which actually contain colonies of bacteria, "infecting" surfaces with "beneficial" clades of bug.

Edited March 10, 2018 by p1t1o

[kerbiloid]

So beautiful...

[Green Baron]

15 hours ago, kerbiloid said:

So beautiful...

F

:-)

--------

If somebody is interested, here is an addition to the case of behavioural modernity in our ancestors:

http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/03/signs-symbolic-behavior-emerged-dawn-our-species-africa

tl,dr: Pigment use (possible symbolic behaviour), long distance raw material transport and African MSA stone tools 20ky earlier than before (320,000bp). It is reasonable to connect it to early modern humans, as oldest fossil evidence unitl now dates to 300,000bp. But fossils are missing in this context.

This cannot be compared to the dating of cave art reported upthread, it is by far not as sophisticated and the evidence as well as the implications are weaker.

Yeah, not exactly world moving, but still a nice random fact, somehow :-)

Edited March 16, 2018 by Green Baron

[Green Baron]

A sad thing:

https://www.ipbes.net/sites/default/files/downloads/20180322_ipbes6_media_release_regional_assessments_en.pdf

tl, dr: The global decline in biodiversity could endanger human existence through catastrophic effects of climate change, threats to food production, destruction of grounds and soils, etc. despite all efforts to preserve and protect.

The study lasted more than ten years, 550 scientists and experts contributed, worldwide discussions and sources refined it.

 

Related: Earth overshoot day last year fell on the 2. of August.

Edited March 23, 2018 by Green Baron

[PB666]

Whoopsie, its just a little comet bender.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2018/03/23/an-alien-star-sideswiped-our-solar-system-and-sent-comets-reeling-scientists-say/?utm_term=.9e9436f898e6

 

[kerbiloid]

@roboslacker has posted a great link to read. (About a meganuke in Mariana trench).

 

[tonates]

I'm now doing research and studying the conservation of energy problems. Recently I came across interesting information that the discovery of the law of conservation of energy had an impact not only on the development of physical sciences, but also on the philosophy of the XIX century. With the name of Robert Mayer (the German physician, who first realized and formulated the universality of the law of conservation of energy) is associated with the emergence of the so-called natural-science energy - a worldview that reduces everything existing and occurring to energy, its movement and interconversion. In particular, matter and spirit in this view are forms of manifestation of energy. The main representative of this direction of energy is the German chemist Wilhelm Ostwald, whose highest imperative philosophy was the slogan "Do not waste any energy, use it!"

[p1t1o]

14 minutes ago, tonates said:

The main representative of this direction of energy is the German chemist Wilhelm Ostwald, whose highest imperative philosophy was the slogan "Do not waste any energy, use it!"

Are you saying that the reason that Germans are stereotyped as efficient and no-nonsense is down to the conservation of energy?

Thats so meta!

[Nikolai]

1 hour ago, p1t1o said:

Are you saying that the reason that Germans are stereotyped as efficient and no-nonsense is down to the conservation of energy?

Thats so meta!

You want meta?

One of the big innovations in Western communications was the creation of cheap paper.  Prior to that, books tended to be made of long-lasting materials like scrubbed lambskin.  With cheap paper, though, you could literally print vast amounts of material that was meant to be read one day and thrown away the next.  This leads to broader dissemination of information via newspaper, which also leads to things like people insisting that there ought to be freedom of the press.  Some of this freedom (and cheaper materials) are used to print and distribute escapist fantasy like pulp science fiction.  Keep that in mind for a minute.

Right around the same time (very roughly speaking), deforestation was getting to be a problem in parts of Europe that were too cold during some parts of the year for humans to live comfortably.  People started looking for alternative fuels.  Something that was readily available in some parts of the world was coal, especially if some of it happened to be lying close to the surface.  As a few centuries went by and people needed more coal, however, more elaborate mining systems needed to be devised.  Getting further underground raised the problem of keeping the mines dry.  A symbiotic relationship developed, whereby coals kept pumps running, and the pumps kept the coal mines operating.  Some of the best coal mines were in Scotland.  More than a few Scots got pretty good at servicing the machines that operated the pumps.  The idea that Scotsmen were good engineers became something of a stereotype.

Which means that if you're writing a far-flung science fiction opera about a starship flitting between star systems (a genre people will be more or less familiar with now that paper's been cheap for a while) into a cultural background where all this has been allowed to soak for a long time, and there's an engineer keeping the starship running, and you want people to understand that he's pretty good right off the bat, you might want to employ a little bit of shorthand and make him Scottish.

[p1t1o]

@Nikolai That is excellent.

[magnemoe]

4 hours ago, Nikolai said:

You want meta?

One of the big innovations in Western communications was the creation of cheap paper.  Prior to that, books tended to be made of long-lasting materials like scrubbed lambskin.  With cheap paper, though, you could literally print vast amounts of material that was meant to be read one day and thrown away the next.  This leads to broader dissemination of information via newspaper, which also leads to things like people insisting that there ought to be freedom of the press.  Some of this freedom (and cheaper materials) are used to print and distribute escapist fantasy like pulp science fiction.  Keep that in mind for a minute.

Right around the same time (very roughly speaking), deforestation was getting to be a problem in parts of Europe that were too cold during some parts of the year for humans to live comfortably.  People started looking for alternative fuels.  Something that was readily available in some parts of the world was coal, especially if some of it happened to be lying close to the surface.  As a few centuries went by and people needed more coal, however, more elaborate mining systems needed to be devised.  Getting further underground raised the problem of keeping the mines dry.  A symbiotic relationship developed, whereby coals kept pumps running, and the pumps kept the coal mines operating.  Some of the best coal mines were in Scotland.  More than a few Scots got pretty good at servicing the machines that operated the pumps.  The idea that Scotsmen were good engineers became something of a stereotype.

Which means that if you're writing a far-flung science fiction opera about a starship flitting between star systems (a genre people will be more or less familiar with now that paper's been cheap for a while) into a cultural background where all this has been allowed to soak for a long time, and there's an engineer keeping the starship running, and you want people to understand that he's pretty good right off the bat, you might want to employ a little bit of shorthand and make him Scottish.

Paper had been known for an good time but it contained lots of scrap fabric. 
The real key was the printing press (yet another boring singularity:) )

Deforestation is an serious issue many places, too many people and not enough firewood or other fuel sources. 
Its an way to spot failed states, compare Haiti or North Korea to neighbors and look at forests, you don't have to wait until dark to find something is wrong. 
Europe 1700 was in this situation. 
Brown coal was an major environmental benefit then they stated to use it
And yes the firs steam engines was so inefficient you could not use them outside of coal mines there fuel was cheap. 
An decent steam engine was yet another boring singularity, end result was not reconcilable from the ones before the event. 

 

[Nikolai]

On 4/6/2018 at 2:20 PM, magnemoe said:

Paper had been known for an good time but it contained lots of scrap fabric.

Right, hence my use of wording like "cheap paper" and "materials like scrubbed lambskin".  The barrier to ubiquitous printed goods was the cost more than the precise composition of the stuff in question.

On 4/6/2018 at 2:20 PM, magnemoe said:

The real key was the printing press (yet another boring singularity:) )

The invention of the printing press was indispensable -- it immediately reduced the labor necessary for generating the printed word -- but printed material remained expensive for a while after its invention simply because of the cost of materials.

On 4/6/2018 at 2:20 PM, magnemoe said:

An decent steam engine was yet another boring singularity, end result was not reconcilable from the ones before the event.

That's true of quite a few technologies.    In fact, I've often heard it stated that that's how you know a technology has matured -- people innovate new ways to accomplish the goal of the thing, such that the end result doesn't really resemble the original design very well.

[magnemoe]

28 minutes ago, Nikolai said:

Right, hence my use of wording like "cheap paper" and "materials like scrubbed lambskin".  The barrier to ubiquitous printed goods was the cost more than the precise composition of the stuff in question.

The invention of the printing press was indispensable -- it immediately reduced the labor necessary for generating the printed word -- but printed material remained expensive for a while after its invention simply because of the cost of materials.

That's true of quite a few technologies.    In fact, I've often heard it stated that that's how you know a technology has matured -- people innovate new ways to accomplish the goal of the thing, such that the end result doesn't really resemble the original design very well.

Paper was however just an fraction of the cost of of hand writing an book, number of books exploded after we got the printing press. 
The Gutenberg printing press was also pretty labor expensive you would probably use 1-2 minutes making an page. Then the rotating printing press came printing become real cheap and you could make newspapers and pulp novels. 

 

 

[Nikolai]

1 hour ago, magnemoe said:

Paper was however just an fraction of the cost of of hand writing an book

I don't mean to deny this at all.  Lots of real innovations require the confluence of several different parts to hit their full stride, and you're absolutely right that the printing press and innovations to it were an indispensable part of bringing down the cost of printing substantially.

[wumpus]

On 4/6/2018 at 2:20 PM, magnemoe said:

Paper had been known for an good time but it contained lots of scrap fabric. 
The real key was the printing press (yet another boring singularity:) )

The printing press may be the first invention that was a complex system and not simply "one simple change" creates something new (well, for post-classical Europe.  I'm sure some Roman and Chinese stuff qualifies, and I suspect the Korean inventor of the thing knew that).  You didn't have a working printing press without:

Moving type:  This is the proper name for the thing (printing presses with non-movable type were old and not terribly good for anything but printing indulgences).  That Guetenburg was a goldsmith and could presumably made these on his own is one of the few reasons he is still believed to have made it that quickly.
Paper:  Not sure if a printing press can print on sheepskin (probably can, see indulgences) but it costs more for the material than the scribe.
ink: actually the ink is pretty close to the classical scribe ink recipe, but it did require a change
The press itself.  They weren't exactly common before moveable type and paper, I suspect that you needed to buy/build a grape press.

And about 10 other things I've forgotten since college.

[StrandedonEarth]

The thing that really helped the use of steel-belted radial-ply tires become widespread was when Francois Michelin figured out a way to bond rubber to steel. The stiffness of the steel allowed wider radial tires to have a flat tread across the crown, instead of rounded

[StrandedonEarth]

We were born scientists...

[magnemoe]

2 hours ago, StrandedonEarth said:

We were born scientists...

This, note that theory crafting in games, everything from WOW to KSP work the this way. 
Rules does not work like in real world but you can make theories and make tests who can be reproduced. 
On the other hand you have people believing they can make money on lotteries.

On the other hand this also show that babies are not very smart, You would let the girl taste first

[p1t1o]

@StrandedonEarth

Tch. Baby didnt conduct a risk assessment, no PPE, no documentation... Is it amateur hour?

[kerbiloid]

Moon rover RIP.

https://www.theverge.com/2018/4/27/17287154/nasa-lunar-surface-robotic-mission-resource-prospector-moon

[kerbiloid]

Possible shaping of Saturn moonlets.

Spoiler

 

 

[The Minmus Derp]

I discovered a mun of Saturn that is on the inner edge of the A ring.

[Green Baron]

A "sieve" that lets large particles pass, holds back small ones:

http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/4/8/eaat3276

or better "allows macroscopic access" but "serving as particle barrier".

 

[Green Baron]

The giant iceberg A68 that broke off from the Larsen iceshelf in Antarctica last year, is preliminary finally drifting free.

It cleared a part of seafloor that has been cut of from sunlight since ~120.000 years, the last interglacial. The part is assumed to have life conditions like in the deep ocean. It will be interesting to find out if, when and how life gets back, now that nutrients and sunlight have free access.

Edited September 6, 2018 by Green Baron