Menu

Blog

Page 5258

Nov 24, 2021

Peeking Into a Chrysalis, Incredible Videos Capture Butterfly Wings Forming During Metamorphosis

Posted by in category: materials

The findings could inform the design of new materials such as iridescent windows or waterproof textiles.

If you brush against the wings of a butterfly, you will likely come away with a fine sprinkling of powder. This lepidopteran dust is made up of tiny microscopic scales, hundreds of thousands of which paper a butterfly’s wings like shingles on a wafer-thin roof. The structure and arrangement of these scales give a butterfly its color and shimmer, and help shield the insect from the elements.

Now, MIT

Nov 24, 2021

Does the expansion of the Universe break the speed of light?

Posted by in categories: cosmology, futurism

When we talk about the distance to an object in the expanding Universe, we’re always taking a cosmic snapshot — a sort of “God’s eye view” — of how things are at this particular instant in time: when the light from these distant objects arrives. We know that we’re seeing these objects as they were in the distant past, not as they are today — some 13.8 billion years after the Big Bang — but rather as they were when they emitted the light that arrives today.

But when we talk about, “how far away is this object,” we’re not asking how far away it was from us when it emitted the light we’re now seeing, and we aren’t asking how long the light has been in transit. Instead, we’re asking how far away the object, if we could somehow “freeze” the expansion of the Universe right now, is located from us at this very instant. The farthest observed galaxy GN-z11, emitted its now-arriving light 13.4 billion years ago, and is located some 32 billion light-years away. If we could see all the way back to the instant of the Big Bang, we’d be seeing 46.1 billion light-years away, and if we wanted to know the most distant object whose light hasn’t yet reached us, but will someday, that’s presently a distance of ~61 billion light-years away: the future visibility limit.

Nov 24, 2021

Natural selection has been acting on hundreds of human genes in the last 3,000 years

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, neuroscience

Natural selection, the evolutionary process that guides which traits become more common in a population, has been acting on us for the past 3,000 years, right up to the modern day, new research suggests.

And it seems to be acting in surprising ways on complex traits encoded by multiple genes, such as those tied to intelligence, mental illness and even cancer.

Nov 24, 2021

Gravity, Gizmos, and a Grand Theory of Interstellar Travel

Posted by in category: space travel

For decades, Jim Woodward dreamed of a propellantless engine to take humans to the stars. Now he thinks he’s got it. But is it revolutionary—or illusory?

Nov 24, 2021

KSTAR fusion reactor sets record with 30-second plasma confinement

Posted by in category: nuclear energy

Scientists are exploring nuclear fusion technology through various experimental devices, and a popular design for this pursuit of clean, practically inexhaustible energy is known as the tokamak. An exciting example of these donut-shaped reactors can be found at the Korea Institute of Fusion Energy, where scientists have reportedly set a new record by maintaining super-hot plasma for 30 seconds.

The idea behind fusion power is to recreate the processes that take place inside the Sun. Huge gravitational forces combine with intense heat and pressure to produce a plasma, in which nuclei smash into each other at high velocity to form helium and release energy.

Tokamaks are designed to recreate this process here on Earth with a series of coils placed around a torus-shaped reactor, magnetically confining plasma heated to millions of degrees for long enough for the fusion of nuclei to occur. Many of these experimental devices are in operation around the world, and the Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research (KSTAR) reactor is one making some promising strides.

Nov 24, 2021

Math may have caught up with Google’s quantum-supremacy claims

Posted by in categories: computing, mathematics, quantum physics

But, given the rapidly evolving quantum computing landscape, that may not matter.

Nov 24, 2021

Coal Is Dead. The True Cost Of Coal Will Shock You!!

Posted by in category: energy

Coal is cheap and we need energy, quick.

This is what ‘they’ claim, but they are lies.

Continue reading “Coal Is Dead. The True Cost Of Coal Will Shock You!!” »

Nov 24, 2021

How Many Steps Per Day Is Associated With Reduced Risk Of Death For All Causes?

Posted by in category: futurism

Join us on Patreon!
https://www.patreon.com/MichaelLustgartenPhD

Paper referenced in the video:
How many steps a day to reduce the risk of all-cause mortality? A dose–response meta-analysis.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34808011/

Nov 24, 2021

TSMC To Receive $3.47 Billion In Subsidies From Japan Government For $7 Billion Chip Factory It Will Set Up In Kumamoto

Posted by in categories: computing, government

TSMC getting half their factory paid for by the Japan government shows how concerned governments are getting about the fact that we are down to 3 companies in the world that can make high-end chips. Sony is also contributing $500 million to this factory in addition to the Japan government money.


Japan will provide 600 billion yen ($5.2 billion) as part of its fiscal 2021 supplementary budget to support advanced semiconductor manufacturers.

Nov 24, 2021

NASA’s first ‘planetary defence’ mission is set for launch this week

Posted by in category: space

NASA’s box-shaped space probe will launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on Tuesday, November 23 from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. Less than a year later it will hit its target.