Science and Technology Thread

[Willie Kool]

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/fr ... e-of-earth

[count2infinity]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAa2O_8wBUQ

[dodint]

Enormous Red Sprites Seen From Space



http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/SearchPhotos/ph ... rame=45576

A gorgeous photo, captured from the International Space Station on the night of Aug. 10, 2015, shows an orbital view of thunderstorms over the city lights of southern Mexico as a recumbent Orion rises over Earth's limb. But wait, there's more: along the right edge of the picture a cluster of bright red and purple streamers can be seen rising above a blue-white flash of lightning: it's an enormous red sprite caught on camera! First photographed in 1989, red sprites are very brief flashes of optical activity that are associated with powerful lightning. So-called because of their elusive nature, sprites typically appear as branching red tendrils reaching up above the region of an exceptionally strong lightning flash. These electrical discharges can extend as high as 55 miles (90 kilometers) into the atmosphere, with the brightest region usually around altitudes of 40–45 miles (65–75 km). Sprites don't last very long — 3–10 milliseconds at most — and so to catch one (technically here it's a cluster of them) on camera is a real feat... or, in this case, a great surprise!
from http://science.slashdot.org/story/15/08 ... from-space

[shmenguin]

I have modest expectations of future technology. With that said, at some point in my life I want a live streaming 4k video of the earth, taken from satellites , projected onto a wall at my home.

[count2infinity]

Hard sciences and the results of experiments should certainly be questioned and tested... seems as though psychology should even more so:

http://www.vox.com/2015/8/27/9216383/ir ... y-research

[columbia]

The only college psychology experiment that I remember (maybe the rest involved LSD?) assessed how much LISP you could grok in two hours.

[Willie Kool]

DuPont 'poisoned the world'.

http://highline.huffingtonpost.com/arti ... rkersburg/

Then, in August 2000, Bilott came across a single paper that mentioned the presence of a little-known substance called perfluorooctanoic acid in Dry Run Creek. Bilott requested more information on the chemical, which is often called C8 and is found in thousands of household products, including carpeting, Teflon pans, waterproof clothes, dental floss, kitty litter and cosmetics. Unbeknownst to Bilott, his inquiry triggered a panic inside DuPont’s Delaware headquarters. "The **** is about to hit the fan in WV,” the company’s in-house counsel, Bernard J. Reilly, wrote in an email to his colleagues. “The lawyer for the farmer finally realizes the surfactant [C8] issue … **** him.”

[dodint]

The only college psychology experiment that I remember (maybe the rest involved LSD?) assessed how much LISP you could grok in two hours.

The Stanford Prison Experiment. An incredibly over-hyped, unprofessional 'experiment' that is, of course, getting a movie made based on it here shortly.

[blurryhaze312]

DuPont 'poisoned the world'.

http://highline.huffingtonpost.com/arti ... rkersburg/

Then, in August 2000, Bilott came across a single paper that mentioned the presence of a little-known substance called perfluorooctanoic acid in Dry Run Creek. Bilott requested more information on the chemical, which is often called C8 and is found in thousands of household products, including carpeting, Teflon pans, waterproof clothes, dental floss, kitty litter and cosmetics. Unbeknownst to Bilott, his inquiry triggered a panic inside DuPont’s Delaware headquarters. "The **** is about to hit the fan in WV,” the company’s in-house counsel, Bernard J. Reilly, wrote in an email to his colleagues. “The lawyer for the farmer finally realizes the surfactant [C8] issue … **** him.”

I just read through that whole story...it made me sick to my stomach.

[shmenguin]

I could look at Milky Way pictures all day. Gifs are even better.

http://i.imgur.com/xsGJKS1.gifv

[dodint]

DuPont 'poisoned the world'.

http://highline.huffingtonpost.com/arti ... rkersburg/

Then, in August 2000, Bilott came across a single paper that mentioned the presence of a little-known substance called perfluorooctanoic acid in Dry Run Creek. Bilott requested more information on the chemical, which is often called C8 and is found in thousands of household products, including carpeting, Teflon pans, waterproof clothes, dental floss, kitty litter and cosmetics. Unbeknownst to Bilott, his inquiry triggered a panic inside DuPont’s Delaware headquarters. "The **** is about to hit the fan in WV,” the company’s in-house counsel, Bernard J. Reilly, wrote in an email to his colleagues. “The lawyer for the farmer finally realizes the surfactant [C8] issue … **** him.”

I just read through that whole story...it made me sick to my stomach.

Yeah, thanks for posting this. Just read through it. More saddened than surprised. DuPont is awful, but so are the people that value their next paycheck more than their families and communities.

I wonder what it is about WV that enables this kind of thing. It's not the first story or documentary like this that takes place in WV.

[shmenguin]

#poorlivesmatter

^ THE biggest issue in our country. Bar none.

[Freddy Rumsen]

I wondered where to put this, but I found this pretty fascinating.

https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn ... -reappear/

The first Europeans to penetrate the Amazon rainforests reported cities, roads and fertile fields along the banks of its major rivers. “There was one town that stretched for 15 miles without any space from house to house, which was a marvellous thing to behold,” wrote Gaspar de Carvajal, chronicler of explorer and conquistador Francisco de Orellana in 1542. “The land is as fertile and as normal in appearance as our Spain.”

Such tales were long dismissed as fantasies, not least because teeming cities were never seen or talked about again. But it now seems the chroniclers were right all along. It is our modern vision of a pristine rainforest wilderness that turns out to be the dream.

What is today one of the largest tracts of rainforest in the world was, until little more than 500 years ago, a landscape dominated by human activity, according to a review of the evidence by Charles Clement of Brazil’s National Institute of Amazonian Research in Manaus, and his colleagues.

[dodint]

That is pretty neat.

Tangentially, I read something a while ago about how the National Park Service was really screwing up their protected areas by being overprotective and not letting nature run its course. Stuff like being overly aggressive about fighting forest fires and over-planting stuff they think *should* be there. From what I understand they've gotten much better at it over the last 20 years, shifting the focus from preservation to monitoring.

[shafnutz05]

I could look at Milky Way pictures all day. Gifs are even better.

When we went to Utah a few years ago, I was so disappointed that it was cloudy at night...we were in areas that have literally ZERO light pollution whatsoever. I have pretty decent night skies out here in Lancaster County (including a decent Milky Way glow), but nothing compares to some of the most distant parts of the country.

[count2infinity]

So I wasn't sure where to post this, but this is so funny to me:

It's essentially a somewhat famous youtuber watching a person's video who believes the Earth is flat. He's pretty much laughing the whole way through and his laugh is pretty infectious. (Some nsfw words)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-O3ASU7L4M


The guy actually took the time to respond and it's so bad that I can't tell if the guy is an ultimate troll, or really that dumb:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Q6NnFDPFvg

btw, the entirety of the first video is in the second video if you want to skip a step.

[PFiDC]

http://www.sciencealert.com/a-magnetic- ... first-time

Awesome.

[Sam's Drunk Dog]

NASA to announce major finding regarding Mars

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... lanet.html

[dodint]

Hopefully they figured out who made that face.

[columbia]

That was already explained (in a bad movie).

[tifosi77]

For real

NASA Confirms Evidence That Liquid Water Flows on Today's Mars

These downhill flows, known as recurring slope lineae (RSL), often have been described as possibly related to liquid water. The new findings of hydrated salts on the slopes point to what that relationship may be to these dark features. The hydrated salts would lower the freezing point of a liquid brine, just as salt on roads here on Earth causes ice and snow to melt more rapidly. Scientists say it's likely a shallow subsurface flow, with enough water wicking to the surface to explain the darkening.

This is kind of a big deal.

[columbia]

Mmmnm....Martian ice cream.

[Gabe]

Delirious Rover Hallucinates Water On Mars
http://www.theonion.com/article/delirio ... mars-34790

obvious satire, but timely.

[Shyster]

The last couple weeks have seen two Chinese rocket debuts. First, we had the first launch of the Long March 6. This is a light-lift liquid-fueled rocket capable of lifting relatively small satellites to low orbit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxox1WS7m8c

The first stage of the Long March 6 will also be used as a strap-on booster (in sets of four) for the Long March 5, which is its heavy-lift big brother. Each LM6 is powered by a single YF-100 rocket engine, which is a new engine burning LOX and kerosene. It's believed that the YF-100 is based in part on reverse-engineering the Russian RD-120 engine. The LM5 will use four YF-100s on the first stage, plus one on each of the four LM6 boosters.

The second new rocket is the Long March 11, which is a light-lift rocket using nothing but solid rocket motors (similar to the Minotaur rockets from Orbital Sciences). Alas, there's no video of its launch that I can find, even though by all accounts it was successful. The Chinese space program is unfortunately extremely secretive and opaque. Even though it hasn't been officially run by the People's Liberation Army since the 1990s (when it was spun off to the China National Space Administration), they still act like it is when it comes to public relations. That's too bad, because they're working on some very neat technology. In particular, they like to build modular components that can be mixed-and-matched for specific applications. You can see that in action from the fact that the LM6 first stage is also the LM5 strap-on booster.

[shmenguin]

Wouldn't water on Mars also make it possible that there are deep underwater creatures drawing energy from the heat of the planet's core?

There are such animals on earth.

Edit...and never mind. Just read about the nature of the water discovered.