Science! (2 Viewers)

[longtime lurker]

Planet-eating stars more common than previously thought, astrophysicists find | Australia news | The Guardian

New research from Australian scientists shows strong evidence even mid-life stable stars like our sun have engulfed entire planets

amp.theguardian.com

 

[bonnjer]

 

[Tapxe]

If anyone decides to go, lemme know. I got $100 to throw at BTC back in the 00's.

Astrophysicist says he's cracked the equation for time travel

After years of research, Professor Mallett claims to have finally developed the revolutionary equation for time travel.

www.earth.com

 

[Optimus Prime]

Alien life could be found in a tiny grain of ice, researchers have said.

The discovery suggests that upcoming telescopes might be able to spot extraterrestrial life relatively soon.

The oceans of some moons orbiting Saturn and Jupiter are key places for the search for alien life. Researchers believe that moons such as Enceladus and Europa – which have oceans underneath an icy crust – could serve as home for other living beings within our solar system.…..

Signs of alien life could be found in a single grain of ice, scientists say

Moons of other planets are spewing forth plumes that could contain extraterrestrial life

www.independent.co.uk

 

[Sailorsaint]

Sci catching up with sci fi?

Scientists Say There Could Be a ‘Mirror Universe’ Reflecting a Parallel Realm

Is this where dark matter is hiding in plain sight?

www.popularmechanics.com

 

[Optimus Prime]

Sci catching up with sci fi?

Scientists Say There Could Be a ‘Mirror Universe’ Reflecting a Parallel Realm

Is this where dark matter is hiding in plain sight?

www.popularmechanics.com

 

[longtime lurker]

Life might survive the sulfuric acid clouds of Venus, new experiments find

Venus may be a hellscape by our standards, but there’s a chance that some forms of life could evolve there. A new MIT study has now found that the building blocks of life are surprisingly stable in highly concentrated sulfuric acid – which Venus’ clouds happen to be made of.

newatlas.com

 

[Optimus Prime]

Two nights of broken sleep are enough to make people feel years older, according to researchers, who said consistent, restful slumber was a key factor in helping to stave off feeling one’s true age.

Psychologists in Sweden found that, on average, volunteers felt more than four years older when they were restricted to only four hours of sleep for two consecutive nights, with some claiming the sleepiness made them feel decades older.

The opposite was seen when people were allowed to stay in bed for nine hours, though the effect was more modest, with participants in the study claiming to feel on average three months younger than their real age after ample rest.


“Sleep has a major impact on how old you feel and it’s not only your long-term sleep patterns,” said Dr Leonie Balter, a psychoneuroimmunologist at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm and first author on the study. “Even when you only sleep less for two nights that has a real impact on how you feel.”…..

Two nights of broken sleep can make people feel years older, finds study

Beyond simply feeling decrepit, perception of being older can affect health by encouraging unhealthy eating and reducing exercise

www.theguardian.com

 

[Optimus Prime]

CNN) — One day in the next couple of years, everyone in the world will lose a second of their time. Exactly when that will happen is being influenced by humans, according to a new study, as melting polar ice alters the Earth’s rotation and changes time itself.

The hours and minutes that dictate our days are determined by Earth’s rotation. But that rotation is not constant; it can change ever so slightly, depending on what’s happening on Earth’s surface and in its molten core.

These nearly imperceptible changes occasionally mean the world’s clocks need to be adjusted by a “leap second,” which may sound tiny but can have a big impact on computing systems.

Plenty of seconds have been added over the years. But after a long trend of slowing, the Earth’s rotation is now speeding up because of changes in its core. For the first time ever, a second will need to be taken off.

“A negative leap second has never been added or tested, so the problems it could create are without precedent,” Patrizia Tavella, a member of the Time Department at the International Bureau of Weights and Measures in France, wrote in an article accompanying the study…..

https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/27/climate/timekeeping-polar-ice-melt-earth-rotation?cid=ios_app

 

[Sailorsaint]

CNN) — One day in the next couple of years, everyone in the world will lose a second of their time. Exactly when that will happen is being influenced by humans, according to a new study, as melting polar ice alters the Earth’s rotation and changes time itself.

The hours and minutes that dictate our days are determined by Earth’s rotation. But that rotation is not constant; it can change ever so slightly, depending on what’s happening on Earth’s surface and in its molten core.

These nearly imperceptible changes occasionally mean the world’s clocks need to be adjusted by a “leap second,” which may sound tiny but can have a big impact on computing systems.

Plenty of seconds have been added over the years. But after a long trend of slowing, the Earth’s rotation is now speeding up because of changes in its core. For the first time ever, a second will need to be taken off.

“A negative leap second has never been added or tested, so the problems it could create are without precedent,” Patrizia Tavella, a member of the Time Department at the International Bureau of Weights and Measures in France, wrote in an article accompanying the study…..

https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/27/climate/timekeeping-polar-ice-melt-earth-rotation?cid=ios_app

We lose or gain time all the time because of bad weather somewhere on the planet.

 

[fred8615]

This Tree Was Around When Ancient Egyptians Built The Pyramids Of Giza

It might even be the oldest living tree in the world.

www.iflscience.com

 

[Optimus Prime]

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Many dog owners believe their pets understand and respond not only to commands such as “sit” and “stay,” but also to words referring to their favorite objects. “Bring me your ball” will often result in exactly that.

But science has had trouble determining whether dogs and other animals genuinely activate a mental image in their minds when they hear the name of an object, something that would suggest a deeper grasp of language, similar to the kind that humans have.

A new study in Hungary has found that beyond being able to respond to commands like “roll over,” dogs can learn to associate words with specific objects — a relationship with language called referential understanding that had been unproven in dogs until now.

“When we are talking about objects, objects are external to the dogs, and dogs have to learn that words refer, they stand for something that is external to them,” said Marianna Boros, a cognitive neuroscientist and co-lead author of the study conducted by the Department of Ethology of the Eotvos Lorand University in Budapest.….

Does your dog understand when you say 'fetch the ball'? A new study in Hungary says yes

A new study in Hungary shows that dogs, beyond being able to respond to commands like “sit” and “stay,” can learn to associate words with specific objects.

apnews.com

 

[longtime lurker]

Aston University successfully sends data 4.5 million times faster than broadband - The Engineer

A research team led by Aston University has sent data at a speed that is 4.5 million times faster than the average home broadband.

www.theengineer.co.uk

 

[Eeyore]

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Many dog owners believe their pets understand and respond not only to commands such as “sit” and “stay,” but also to words referring to their favorite objects. “Bring me your ball” will often result in exactly that.

But science has had trouble determining whether dogs and other animals genuinely activate a mental image in their minds when they hear the name of an object, something that would suggest a deeper grasp of language, similar to the kind that humans have.

A new study in Hungary has found that beyond being able to respond to commands like “roll over,” dogs can learn to associate words with specific objects — a relationship with language called referential understanding that had been unproven in dogs until now.

“When we are talking about objects, objects are external to the dogs, and dogs have to learn that words refer, they stand for something that is external to them,” said Marianna Boros, a cognitive neuroscientist and co-lead author of the study conducted by the Department of Ethology of the Eotvos Lorand University in Budapest.….

Does your dog understand when you say 'fetch the ball'? A new study in Hungary says yes

A new study in Hungary shows that dogs, beyond being able to respond to commands like “sit” and “stay,” can learn to associate words with specific objects.

apnews.com

So, dogs have aphantasia? Me too.

 

[Optimus Prime]

While adults might be spending the weekend trying to remember where they have hidden a hoard of Easter eggs, the black-capped chickadee has no trouble recalling where its treats are stashed. Now researchers have discovered why: the diminutive birds create a barcode-like memory each time they stash food.

Black-capped chickadees are known for tucking food away during the warmer months – with someestimates suggesting a single bird can hide up to 500,000 food itemsa year. But more remarkable still is their reliability in finding the morsels again.

Now researchers say they have unpicked the mechanism behind the feat. Writing in the journal Cell scientists in the US report how they gave chickadees sporadic access to sunflower seeds within an arena featuring more than 120 locations where food could be stashed.


The behaviour of the birds and the activity at each cache site – be it the storage of food, retrieval of food or checks on a stash – were recorded on video.

The team used an implanted probe in the brain of each bird to record the activity of neurons in its hippocampus – a brain structure crucial for memory formation.

The results show that each time a bird stashed seeds, even if it was in the same location, a different combination of neurons fired in its hippocampus, resulting in a barcode-like pattern of activity.

The same “barcode” was observed when the morsel was retrieved as for when it was cached.

The barcodes were distinct from place cells – neurons in the hippocampus known to be involved in the formation of memories involving specific locations. “The two overlapped randomly so that neurons could be neither, either, or both,” said Dr Selmaan Chettih of Columbia University’s Zuckerman Institute, first author of the study.


Indeed while place cell activity occurred every time the bird visited a cache site, the barcodes only occurred when the bird was actually storing, or retrieving, a seed. Overall, the team suggest a different mechanism is at play when the birds are making memories of specific events, as opposed to when it is making a mental map of an area.

“These results suggest that the barcode represents a specific episodic experience, unique in place and time in the chickadee’s life,” the researchers report.…..

Birds create barcode-like memories to locate stored food, scientists find

Mechanism unpicked that allows black-capped chickadees to stash and relocate huge quantities of food

www.theguardian.com