The SRK Science Thread 2.0

Don_Barracuda · April 2, 2015, 1:46am

Vsauce did a time travel explanation vid

Spoiler

April fools

We have night vision! http://mic.com/articles/113740/a-team-of-biohackers-has-figured-out-how-to-inject-your-eyeballs-with-night-vision
**A Team of Biohackers Has Figured Out How to Inject Your Eyeballs With Night Vision **

Exodus_1 · April 2, 2015, 7:34pm

Good, were starting to make Fremen. Need to work on the hue but I’d say that’s a solid start.

People that identify themselves as a ‘biohacker’ have a 100% chance of being out of their minds. In a good way, but seriously I can’t imagine the risks that go into some of the shit they do to themselves.

MCP · April 2, 2015, 10:45pm

Cool, so initial trials for temporary night vision eye “drops” (more like injections) meets with success.

Sounds like they did a good science experiment.

Don_Barracuda · April 10, 2015, 1:22pm

**30 Year Old Russian To Become First Head Transplant Patient **
Read full article here - http://www.sciencealert.com/world-s-first-head-transplant-volunteer-could-experience-something-worse-than-death

World’s first head transplant volunteer could experience something "worse than death”

“I would not wish this on anyone,” says top surgeon.

This week, 30-year-old Russian man, Valery Spiridonov, announced that he will become the subject of the first human head transplant ever performed, saying he volunteers to have his head removed and installed on another person’s body.

If this sounds like some kind of sick joke, we’re right there with you, but unfortunately, this is all too real. Earlier this year, Italian surgeon Sergio Canavero outlined the transplant technique he intends to follow in the journal Surgical Neurology International, and said he planned to launch the project at the annual conference of the American Academy of Neurological and Orthopaedic Surgeons (AANOS) in the US in June, where he will invite other researchers to join him in his head transplant dream.

At first I was really intrigued then when they start talking about how Spiridonov might lose his mind it all sounds quite horrific.

hubcapsignstop · April 15, 2015, 2:48am

Gender equality in the workplace is the new political rally cry. Does it ring hollow? Scientists stand uniquely qualified to address this claim in their own field. Leveraging an empiricist training, nerdynerds at the Cornell Institute for Women in Science set out to confirm/refute the charge of sexism as an antagonist of gender equality in the sciences. Data supports strong sexist bias in favor of women.
Results published via PNAS.
hahaa

learis1 · April 15, 2015, 3:28am

so is anything happening with quantum computing? When will it be in my next macbook? How fast can I download porn with it?

Don_Barracuda · April 26, 2015, 11:13pm

Joe Rogan had Aubrey de Grey on his podcast talking about his progress in the field of life extension. Really interesting episode really worth listening too. Gandalf goes through all the different theories of life extension, then explains why he feels his route is the best chance (healing factor like mechanism).

StockyJam · May 1, 2015, 4:22pm

if you think about it, we already sorta have shit beyond Star Trek technology. our cell phones surpass their Enterprise communicators…so soon we’ll have an even better warp drive.
just my opinion.

MCP · May 2, 2015, 10:22pm

Lol, this was saved from before.

Quantum computers won’t have much to do with downloading porn faster.

Short answer is, not really. IBM made major advances, but don’t count on it for 10+ years in your personal computer.

Edit:
That “warp drive” is not a warp drive. It’s an experiment some dedicated NASA contractors are attempting to repeat and verify.
It’s not peer reviewed, it’s not up for publishing yet.

They’ve removed some variables recently by running it in a vacuum, but there are many other variables they need to remove before they confirm it’s not their experiment setup.

white_shadow · May 4, 2015, 1:55pm

When the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing

You may have heard about a study saying women’s hands have more types of bacteria than guys. But, as you’ll see in this ScienCentral video, that study shows other fascinating things: bacteria on your right hand differ from your left and, while hand-washing is effective in combating bacteria, bacteria levels come back quickly.

Man_and_Woman_hold_hands

Hands hold more than you think

Did you ever wonder how well hand washing works? A study led by the University of Colorado’s Noah Fierer is giving us all a good sense of what is living on the palms of our hands.

Using DNA sequencing to identify the types of bacterial communities living on people’s hands, Fierer says the researchers found that, “the average palm surface has about 150 species of bacteria.”

2026106ocfkkg

Good Bacteria/Bad Bacteria

For those whose palms get sweaty at the idea, Fierer offers some reassurance, noting, bacteria are all over your body and, “that’s nothing to be feared.” He agrees there are bad bacteria, but points out that a lot are not bad, adding, “In fact, they may protect you from getting diseases.”

While it is well known your body has bacteria– by some estimates 10 bacteria for every cell in your body– until recently it was not possible to identify those bacteria. Even to scientists looking through powerful microscopes, bacteria are hard to identify. The only certain way is through their DNA, and only recently has it been possible to sequence DNA quickly enough to be useful in studying bacteria.

Men Versus Women

In one study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in 2008, the researchers studied 51 graduate students.

The study showed a person typically has different bacteria on their right and left hands. Notes Fierer, “On average, only 17 percent of the communities on your left hand are shared by your right hand.”

The researchers also discuss how men and women’s hands differ, noting, “the palms of women were… found to harbor significantly greater bacterial diversity than those of men.”

Fierer jokes about the results, saying, “Essentially, we answered the age-old question, ‘Do girls have cooties?’” He adds, Girls are unlikely to have more cooties, i.e. bacteria, than men, but they have more types of bacteria”. In the report they speculate that the greater diversity of bacteria communities is the result of a natural difference in the acidity of men and women’s skin.

Why study hands? Fierer, whose usual source of research is bacteria and fungus in places like soil and on leaves, says this study was prompted by “pure curiosity.” However, he says once they saw the results they realized that, “the research has a lot of very applied implications.” He points out that for example, “If we want to know which communities make somebody more prone to getting a disease, we first need to know the background variability within a population.”

They also studied in detail the impact of hand washing. It’s well known that washing your hands helps stop bacteria and disease, but this study took a more in-depth view of the issue. Fierer says, “We found between two and four hours after hand washing, the community was back to quote/unquote normal.” He says that makes sense, because, “if you’re a bacteria that can’t survive hand washing you’re not going to stay on the hand very long.”

They also found out that your hand bacteria don’t change all that much as you go about touching things. He says it, “It suggests that each person has their own unique bacterial signature” but adds that additional study will be needed to see if that stays true over long periods or from season to season.

This research was published online November 3, 2008 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and was funded through a grant from the National Institutes of Health.

Quite a few scientists have been theorizing that animal and bacteria cell symbiosis are so closely linked that native bacteria should be treated as indistinguishable from normal cells in terms of function. Our gut bacteria is responsible for maintaining wellness in the brain and enhancing our immune response, so I don’t see this as such as grand leap.

StockyJam · May 27, 2015, 2:41pm

I knew my toaster was under attack.
no one believed me.

till now.

Don_Barracuda · May 27, 2015, 4:18pm

Still working on shit that folks at home should be worried about but they’re still failing at developing anything that effectively targets terrorists out in the desert.

ThePurpleBunny · May 27, 2015, 4:23pm

Toasters are the real terrorist. They obviously want to burn our buns, so we must stop them.

J-ride · May 27, 2015, 5:47pm

We’ve spent the last 10 years fighting in the desert, the A10 Warthog has been beasting all over Afganistan and Iraq and the US military decides to replace all of their planes (including the A10) with some overpriced piece of shit that is supposedly going to do ground support, dogfighting and bombing (F35). This is of course going to be a massive fucking failure. Airforce brass wants fancy new toys, they never want anything practical. Honestly updating the A10 should have been the first priority considering what our needs are.

StockyJam · June 8, 2015, 8:31am

you think that’s bad, I’ve got worse news.

samurai robots in the process of development.

the end is near folks.

StockyJam · June 8, 2015, 8:34am

I see no point in teaching robots how to swing katanas unless your objective is seeing the inevitable enslavement of mankind being brought about at an even faster pace.
smh.

white_shadow · July 15, 2015, 11:35pm

http://www.sciencealert.com/researchers-predict-the-existence-of-a-liquid-that-s-as-flat-as-graphene

Researchers predict the existence of a liquid that’s as flat as graphene
Two-dimensional liquid gold could exist.

http://www.sciencealert.com/images/articles/Graphene-web_320.jpg

Around 12 years ago, scientists thought that two-dimensional materials were impossible. Then a team in the UK discovered a lattice material known as graphene that was just one atom thick, and everything changed. But even though we’ve now accepted that 2D solids can exist, it’s generally thought that such thin membranes would never hold in a liquid state.

But now physicists have conducted a computer simulation that predicts a brand new phase of matter: one-atom-thick 2D liquid. And their research suggests that it could theoretically exist when liquid gold stretches across the tiny pores of graphene. Think of it like a soap film over a solid bubble blower.

“Here the role of graphene is similar to circular rings through which children blow soap bubbles,” lead researcher Pekka Koskinen from the University of Jyväskylä in Finland told the press. “The liquid state is possible when the edge of graphene pore stretches the metallic membrane and keeps it steady.”

So while the gold atoms flow and change places, the surrounding graphene “retains the planarity of the liquid membrane,” the press release explains.

It’s important to note that this flat liquid hasn’t been experimentally confirmed as yet, but the prediction pushes the boundaries of the different phases we think matter can exist in. And further testing could change the way we think about materials forever.

So how could such a flat liquid exist? First of all, the liquid material needs to spread out quickly enough to become 2D before fluctuations grow so large that the membrane ruptures.

But it also it requires a solid template that it bonds strongly with and that stays stable at high temperatures to hold it in place. The computer simulations predict that the combination of graphene and liquid gold stretched across its tiny hexagonal pores meet these criteria, and can in theory hold in place a two-dimensional liquid material.

Of course, this flat liquid only exists in a computer model for now, and to demonstrate that such a phase of matter could really exist, the team will now have to experimentally create the material. The results have been published in the journal Nanoscale.

“Unfortunately, simulations suggest that the flat liquid is volatile,” says Koskinen. “In experiments the liquid membrane might burst too early, like a soap bubble that bursts before one gets a proper look at it.”

“But again, even graphene was previously considered too unstable to exist,” she adds.

ThePurpleBunny · September 10, 2015, 6:54pm

http://news.yahoo.com/study-bones-south-african-cave-reveal-human-relative-085624827.html#

white_shadow · September 22, 2015, 4:09pm

[Size=12] The astonishing village where little girls turn into boys at 12 [\size]

In a remote village in the Dominican Republic girls become boys at puberty because of a rare genetic disorder

In every way, Johnny is physically and biologically male. But, astonishingly he did not grow a penis until he hit puberty.

He is one of many children who live in Salinas, an isolated village in the southwestern Dominican Republic, who are seemingly born female, only to become men in their teenage years.

Although Johnny’s story may seem extraordinary, cases of little girls turning into boys are so prevalent in the village that it is no longer considered abnormal. The children are simply referred to as the ‘guevedoces’ – which literally translates as ‘penis at 12’

Johnny, 24, was originally named Felecitia by his parents and brought up as a girl. He spoke to Dr Michael Mosley for the new BBC2 series “Countdown to Life – the extraordinary making of you"

“I remember I used to wear a little red dress,” he said. “I was born at home instead of in a hospital. They didn’t know what sex I was.

“I went to school and I used to wear my skirt. I never liked to dress as a girl. When they bought me girls toys I never bothered playing with them. All I wanted to do was play with the boys.”

Johnny, who was seemingly born as a girl but turned into a boy aged seven
Johnny, who was seemingly born as a girl but turned into a boy aged seven

The rare genetic disorder occurs because of a missing enzyme which prevents the production of a specific form of the male sex hormone - dihydro-testosterone - in the womb.

All babies in the womb, whether male or female, have internal glands known as gonads and a small bump between their legs called a tubercle. At around eight weeks, male babies who carry the Y chromosome start to produce dihydro-testosterone in large amounts, which turns the tubercle into a penis. For females, the tubercle becomes a clitoris.

But some male babies are missing the enzyme 5-α-reductase which triggers the hormone surge, so they appear to be born female with no testes and what appears to be a vagina. It is not until puberty, when another huge surge of testosterone is produced, that the male reproductive organs emerge. What should have happened in the womb happens around 12 years later. Their voices deepen and they finally grow a penis.

For Johnny it happened at the age of seven. He claimed that he had never felt like a little girl and was far happier after he fully became a boy.

“When I changed I was happy with my life,” he said.

A little girl named Carla is currently going through the same transformation, aged nine. Despite being brought up as a girl, his mother noticed that from the age of five he was more inclined towards the rough and tumble play of little boys. He has recently had his hair cut shirt after wearing plaits for years.

“I feel like a man now,” he said.

Many decide not to change from their female names, so some men in Salinas have names like Catherine.

The guevedoces were first discovered by a Cornell University endocrinologist Dr Julianne Imperato in the 1970s who travelled to Dominican Republic after hearing strange rumours about girls turning into boys.

Further cases have since been seen in the Sambian villages of Papua New Guinea although the Sambians view the children as flawed males and they are often shunned, unlike the Dominicans who welcome the transformation with widespread celebration.

Dr Mosley said: “I hated going through puberty; voice cracking, swinging moods, older brother laughing at me. But compared to Johnny, I had it easy.

“Guevedoces are also sometimes called “machihembras” meaning “first a woman, then a man”. When they’re born they look like girls with no testes and what appears to be a vagina. It is only when they near puberty that the penis grows and testicles descend.

“When Dr Imperato investigated the Guavadoces she discovered the reason they don’t have male genitalia at birth is because they are deficient in an enzyme called 5-α-reductase, which normally converts testosterone into dihydro-testosterone.

“By a quirk of chance Dr Imperato’s research was picked up by the American pharmaceutical giant, Merck. They used her discovery to create a drug called finasteride, which blocks the action of 5-α-reductase.

“It is now widely used to treat benign enlargement of the prostate and male pattern baldness. For which, I’m sure, many men are truly grateful.”

Around one in 90 children in Salinas are guevedoces and although they resemble sexually normal males, subtle differences do still exist in adulthood. Most have decreased amounts of facial hair and smaller prostate glands relative to the average male.

It is thought that the condition has persisted through generations because of the isolation of the villagers. Because the disorder is so widespread and accepted, the Dominican Republic now believes that there are three sexual categories, male, female, and pseudohermaphrodite.

“Countdown to Life – the extraordinary making of you “ on Monday 21st September, BBC2, 9pm.

Just when I thought I’ve heard it all, such a fascinating mutation. In 100 more generations they could easily become an evolutionary offshoot if left isolated.

ThePurpleBunny · September 27, 2015, 9:39am

The supermassive black hole at the heart of a recently discovered galaxy is much larger than it should be, and astronomers don’t know why.

The galaxy, known as SAGE0536AGN, lies about 2 billion light-years from Earth and contains roughly 25 billion times the mass of the sun. Galaxies of this size typically harbor central black holes with the equivalent of 12 million solar masses or so, but SAGE0536AGN’s is about 30 times that heavy, weighing in at 350 million solar masses, a new study reports.

“Galaxies have a vast mass, and so do the black holes in their cores,” lead author Jacco van Loon, an astrophysicist at Keele University in the United Kingdom, said in a statement. “This one, though, is really too big for its boots — it simply shouldn’t be possible for it to be so large.”

STOP EATING ALL THE GALAXY ALL AT ONCE AND YOU WOULDN’T BE SO GODDAMN FAT!