Science News Thread (for articles that don't relate to ongoing discussions)

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

7 minutes ago, darthgently said:

Perhaps if I'd ordered it in a normal restaurant in Naw'lins instead of a posh restaurant up north I'd have faired better, lol

Never order fish when you cannot see or smell the ocean.

That's my rule.

 

[darthgently]

35 minutes ago, JoeSchmuckatelli said:

Never order fish when you cannot see or smell the ocean.

That's my rule.

 

It was on the Great Lakes, should have ordered walleye

[kerbiloid]

When you can see, touch, and even lick the mineralized fishes from the former ocean, stuck in the rocks, you may order stockfish.

[Vanamonde]

Anyway. Science news. 

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

 

[HebaruSan]

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2022/nov/18/earth-six-ronnagrams-new-prefixes-big-and-small

Quote

In a vote at the General Conference on Weights and Measures in Versailles on Friday, the International System of Units (SI) embraced four new prefixes with immediate effect, marking the first such changes in more than 30 years.

At the top end of the scale are the new prefixes ronna, which stands for a billion billion billion, and quetta, which is a thousand times larger still. At the bottom end is ronto, meaning a billionth of a billionth of a billionth, and quecto, which is a thousand times smaller than that.

The arrival of the new prefixes means the Earth can now be said to weigh six ronnagrams, and Jupiter about two quettagrams. An electron weighs about a rontogram, and a single bit of data stored on a mobile phone adds about 10 quectograms to its mass.

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

34 minutes ago, HebaruSan said:

adds about 10 quectograms to its mass

Well - my thumbs up just made your phone heavier! 

[kerbiloid]

1 hour ago, HebaruSan said:

  Quote

In a vote at the General Conference on Weights and Measures in Versailles on Friday, the International System of Units (SI) embraced four new prefixes with immediate effect, marking the first such changes in more than 30 years.

At the top end of the scale are the new prefixes ronna, which stands for a billion billion billion, and quetta, which is a thousand times larger still. At the bottom end is ronto, meaning a billionth of a billionth of a billionth, and quecto, which is a thousand times smaller than that.

The arrival of the new prefixes means the Earth can now be said to weigh six ronnagrams, and Jupiter about two quettagrams. An electron weighs about a rontogram, and a single bit of data stored on a mobile phone adds about 10 quectograms to its mass.

Just to stay up-to-date.

Spoiler

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

I saw a blurb on this the other day and was intrigued.  Unfortunately much of what I wanted to read was paywalled.  Then I stumbled on this:

People don't mate randomly – but the flawed assumption that they do is an essential part of many studies linking genes to diseases and traits (msn.com)

 

"Scientists use the findings from genetic correlation analyses to figure out the potential shared causes of [various]traits... Here, geneticists investigate whether the genes associated with a given trait are associated with other traits or diseases by statistically analyzing large samples of genetic data. Over the past decade, genetic correlation analysis has become the primary method for assessing potential pleiotropy across fields as diverse as internal medicine, social science and psychiatry.

However, just because a gene is correlated with two or more traits doesn’t necessarily mean it causes them.

 

Virtually all the statistical methods researchers commonly use to assess genetic correlations assume that mating is random. That is, they assume that potential mating partners decide who they will have children with based on a roll of the dice. In reality, many factors likely influence who mates with whom. The simplest example of this is geography – people living in different parts of the world are less likely to end up together than people living nearby.

We wanted to find out how much the assumption of random mating affects the accuracy of genetic correlation analyses. In particular, we focused on the potential confounding effects of assortative mating, or how people tend to mate with those who share similar characteristics with them. Assortative mating is a widely documented phenomenon seen across a broad array of traits, interests, measures and social factors, including height, education and psychiatric conditions."

...without accounting for cross-trait assortative mating, using genetic correlation estimates to study the biological pathways causing disease can be misleading. Genes that affect only one trait will appear to influence multiple different conditions. For example, a genetic test designed to assess the risk for one disease may incorrectly detect vulnerability for a broad number of unrelated conditions.

 

I've cut & pasted parts from the article somewhat out of order to give an idea of what the authors write.

 

If you are interested in genetics and heritability, this is a pretty good article!

Link to the study itself: Cross-trait assortative mating is widespread and inflates genetic correlation estimates | Science

 

Edited November 22, 2022 by JoeSchmuckatelli

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

Related: Smart males marry tall women.

The Genetic Correlation between Height and IQ: Shared Genes or Assortative Mating? | PLOS Genetics

Duh.

[kerbiloid]

1 hour ago, JoeSchmuckatelli said:

Smart males marry tall women.

The Genetic Correlation between Height and IQ: Shared Genes or Assortative Mating? | PLOS Genetics

1. At least somebody to look at from beneath,

2. Next study subject: "The correlation between the female partner height and male partner bald patch."

2 hours ago, JoeSchmuckatelli said:

. The simplest example of this is geography – people living in different parts of the world are less likely to end up together than people living nearby.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2013/04/18/new-app-helps-icelanders-avoid-accidental-incest/2093649/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sickle_cell_disease#Genetics

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_genetics_of_Jews

[Nuke]

On 11/21/2022 at 6:58 PM, JoeSchmuckatelli said:

Related: Smart males marry tall women.

The Genetic Correlation between Height and IQ: Shared Genes or Assortative Mating? | PLOS Genetics

Duh.

good thing i live in a town full of large viking women.

[kerbiloid]

So, every man can feel smart there. 

[Gargamel]

https://apnews.com/article/1fb77c59b64fad3590be4670c5142028
 

ESA names Paralympic athletes to their astronaut program.       The BBC had a better article with names, but it won’t give me a link right now.  

[kerbiloid]

Spoiler

"Too late!"

 

(Life, 2017)

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

This isn't a 'news article' per se - but rather an interesting dive into the current state of Fusion Research. 

The author focuses on three promising companies (he did a different video about a 4th MIT linked startup, linked in this video).  He also talks about the current investment picture and shows why a certain amount optimism may be warranted. 

One of the companies is doing a SX-analog of rapid iteration - where they are already working on the 7th and 8th generation while testing and learning from the 6th... A marked departure from the traditional 'one-step-at-a-time-report-request funding - repeat' cycle of past efforts. The others are also prototyping and taking some novel, non-tokamak approaches. 

Enjoy! 

Edited November 24, 2022 by JoeSchmuckatelli

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

See also:

 

 

[SunlitZelkova]

https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20221124_37/
 

This happened at the end of October/start of November but didn’t get reported widely at all apparently. ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array) was disabled in a cyberattack and will not resume operations until “before the end of the year”.

Why would anyone want to do this to a telescope facility? Hospitals and pipelines are understandable, they’ve got loads of money to extort, but are not science organizations some of the most “poor” public entities in the world?

[DDE]

Versatile coronavirus antibodies in cats

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.11.23.517619v1

And they don't even tell us.

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

4 hours ago, DDE said:

And they don't even tell us.

With cats, nothing is ever easy

[kerbiloid]

It's a test. Who loves cats, gets infected with antibodies.

Upd.
Got it.

When a cat is first licking your hand, then bites it, it vaccinates.

Edited November 26, 2022 by kerbiloid

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

Hawaii lights up.  First time since 1984.

 

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/worlds-largest-active-volcano-mauna-loa-erupts-hawaii-not-publish-pre-rcna54571

To be fair, it's been grumbling for a while now. 

Edited November 28, 2022 by JoeSchmuckatelli

[Gargamel]

15 minutes ago, JoeSchmuckatelli said:

1984

I recall having multiple eruptions, some somewhat severe and with property loss, Over the past decade?   

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

23 minutes ago, Gargamel said:

I recall having multiple eruptions, some somewhat severe and with property loss, Over the past decade?   

The other island (Oahu) - this is The Big Island (Hawaii) whoops! 

The other volcano on Hawaii.  Kilauea.  This is Mauna Loa. 

You are probably remembering 

https://www.usgs.gov/volcanoes/kilauea/recent-eruption

This was very exciting not long ago 

 

 

Edited November 28, 2022 by JoeSchmuckatelli

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

Let me clear up my own confusion.  Oahu is considered 'dead'. 

https://www.soest.hawaii.edu/GG/ASK/oahu-eruptions.html

The big island is the active volcano over the hot spot. There are 4 volcanoes on the island.  There is also an active volcano on Maui, and an active sea mount. 

https://www.usgs.gov/observatories/hvo/active-volcanoes-hawaii

 

 

 

Edited November 28, 2022 by JoeSchmuckatelli