General Science Thread

Loss of mastodons aided domestication of pumpkins, squash

How the introduction of farming changed the human genome

No substantive evidence for 'pause' in global warming

Biologists induce flatworms to grow heads and brains of other species

Scientists create genetically modified malaria-blocking mosquitoes

Gut microbes signal to the brain when they're full

Stored fat fights against the body's attempts to lose weight

Algae could be a new green power source

Mars once had a moderately dense atmosphere

Volcanic rocks hold clues to Earth's interior

New fingerprint technique can reveal whether you’re male or female

You know, I have been wondering... Dark matter is invisible due to not interacting with light in any way that is currently detectable, right? But can we actually interact with it physically — as in, is it possible to "detect" it by accidentally colliding with it?

In theory I suppose. The stuff has mass, it interacts with normal matter gravitationally after all. But if it's anything like neutrinos those interactions may be few and far between.

Global growth in carbon dioxide emissions stagnates

Comet fragments best explanation of mysterious dimming star

Loneliness triggers cellular changes that can cause illness, study shows

Similar proteins protect the skin of humans, turtles

Words can deceive, but tone of voice cannot

Ancient viral molecules essential for human development

'Material universe' yields surprising new particle

New 'self-healing' gel makes electronics more flexible

Aging star's weight loss secret revealed

CERN collides heavy nuclei at new record high energy

Physicists set quantum record by using photons to carry messages from electrons almost 2 kilometers apart

Early Native Americans Raised Turkeys, But Not to Eat

edited 26th Nov '15 12:20:09 AM by rmctagg09

Global warming will be faster than expected

2015 likely to be warmest on record, 2011-2015 warmest five year period

Functional human liver cells grown in the lab

New test may improve diagnosis, treatment of pancreactic cancers

High-fat diet prompts immune cells to start eating connections between neurons

Blood from small children 'remembers' prenatal smoking exposure

New species of early anthropoid primate found amid Libyan strife

Missing link between dinosaur nests and bird nests

The tardigrade genome has been sequenced, and it has the most foreign DNA of any animal

Rapid plankton growth in ocean seen as sign of carbon dioxide loading

Scientists get first glimpse of black hole eating star, ejecting high-speed flare

Extinction is key to terrestrial vertebrate diversity, new research reveals

A new form of real gold, almost as light as air

Don't forget plankton in climate change models, says study

Sword and dagger arachnid fights may explain weapon evolution

Storing electricity in paper

Students build electric-powered personal flying machine

African wildlife: What it looked like 1000 years ago and why this is important

Interventions may temporarily raise kids' IQs, but there is fadeout over time

Sperm carries information about dad's weight

Event Horizon Telescope reveals magnetic fields at Milky Way's central black hole

Faintest galaxy from the early universe, 400 million years after the big bang

Accidental discovery of how to stay young for longer works in worms

The cosmic web: Seeing what makes up the universe

Physicists confirm thermodynamic irreversibility in a quantum system

Team finds detailed record of mysterious fast radio burst

Researchers find new phase of carbon, make diamond at room temperature

First direct evidence for synaptic plasticity in fruit fly brain

Genetically modified mice reveal the secret to a painless life

New Horizons returns first of the best images of Pluto

New way to make yeast hybrids may inspire new brews, biofuels

Researchers make thinnest plates that can be picked up by hand

VLA yields new insights on solar flares

Study undercuts idea that 'Medieval Warm Period' was global

Higher levels of Fukushima cesium detected offshore

Global human freshwater footprint surges

First finding of crossbreeding between dogs and golden jackal confirmed

Fossil of dog-sized horned dinosaur shows east-west divide in America

Mammal diversity exploded immediately after dinosaur extinction

Exceptionally strong and lightweight new metal

Crows caught on camera fashioning special hook tools

Blocking fat transport linked to longevity

Empathy with strangers can be learned

Mazes and brains: When preconception trumps logic

How the brain wakes you up

Giant comets could pose danger to life on Earth

Arms race between Ebola virus and bats, waged for millions of years

Wild bee decline threatens US crop production

Same growth rate shown for farming, non-farming prehistoric people

Social, telepresence robots revealed by scientists

Being anxious could be good for you in a crisis

'Pre-historic' animal shell found in Argentina

Study finds 'frictional heat' as a new trigger for explosive volcanic eruptions

The brain-computer duel: Do we have free will?

Astronomers find new way to measure the pull of gravity at the surface of distant stars

Social behavior in carpenter ants reprogrammed using epigenetic drugs

Scientists sequence first ancient Irish human genomes

Gene-editing technique successfully stops progression of Duchenne muscular dystrophy

Human-machine superintelligence can solve the world's most dire problems

Breakthrough Achieved in Ceramics 3D Printing Technology

edited 5th Jan '16 3:01:13 AM by rmctagg09

Neanderthal genes gave modern humans an immunity boost, allergies

Study links life's milestones to a non-circadian biological rhythm in teeth

Ancient gas cloud may be a relic from the death of first stars

Having more children slows down aging process

Pathogens found in Ice Man's stomach

New battery shuts down at high temperatures, restarts when it cools

Researchers' metallic glue may stick it to soldering and welding

Gravitation under human control?

Most distant massive galaxy cluster identified

The Anthropocene: Hard evidence for a human-driven Earth

Tweak in gene expression may have helped humans walk upright

In Arctic winter, marine creatures migrate by the light of the moon

Newly discovered type of sound wave allows for inhalable vaccines

Gradually reducing sugar in sweet drinks could prevent 1 million cases of obesity in the UK, study finds

Not sure if this is the appropriate thread to ask this, but how when comparing Person A's DNA to Person's B DNA to check for relation, how long does it normally take.

Normally you ask here, the "Random Questions" thread in Writer's Block.

But to answer your question, about a week. The biggest delay is simply that the labs always have so much else to do, so it takes a while to get to it.

New theory of secondary inflation expands options for avoiding an excess of dark matter

What is 10 miles across, but powers an explosion brighter than the Milky Way?

Genes may contribute to making some nations happier than others

'Bursting' cells gain the brain's attention for life-or-death decisions

First evidence for independent 'working memory' systems in animals

Researchers kill drug-resistant lung cancer with 50 times less chemo

Extreme turbulence roiling 'most luminous galaxy' in the universe

'Green pea' galaxy provides insights to early universe evolution

Scientists discover that our brain waves can be sent by electrical fields

Rare dinosaur from Appalachia identified

Stellar parenting: Making new stars by 'adopting' stray cosmic gases

Human impact has created a 'plastic planet'

Large-scale conspiracies would quickly reveal themselves, equations show

Animals with larger brains are best problem solvers, study shows

Honeybees, ants may provide clues to suicide in humans

Brain structure governing emotion is passed down from mother to daughter, says study

The Milky Way's clean and tidy galactic neighbor

US electricity could be powered mostly by the sun and wind by 2030: Rapid, affordable energy transformation possible

What a moth's nose knows

Males can drive creation of new species, new finding shows

The Doomsday Clock is now "far too close" to midnight

Cancer riddle, solved

New handheld, pen-sized microscope could ID cancer cells in doctor’s offices and operating rooms

Laboratory-bred corals reproduce in the wild

Male mice without any Y chromosome genes can father offspring after assisted reproduction

Increasing breastfeeding worldwide could prevent over 800,000 child deaths and 20,000 deaths from breast cancer every year

Ancient extinction of giant Australian bird points to humans

Moon was produced by a head-on collision between Earth and a forming planet

Synchronized brain waves in distant regions combine memories

Germs, humans and numbers: New estimate revises our microbiome numbers downwards

Scientists decode brain signals nearly at speed of perception

Bringing time and space together for universal symmetry

Designing a pop-up future

Monstrous cloud boomerangs back to our galaxy

Completely new kind of polymer could lead to artificial muscles, self-repairing materials

Graphene shown to safely interact with neurons in the brain

Snake-hunting secretary birds use the force of five times their body weight to stamp on and kill their prey

Proton beam cancer therapy 'effective with fewer side effects'

Gravitational waves proven to exist

edited 11th Feb '16 10:42:50 AM by PotatoesRock

Next item on the agenda: Proving the existence of gravitons as the gravitational waves' equivalent of electromagnetic waves' photons.

You cannot detect gravitons, even if they do exist.

There is a well reasoned study (based on memory) which concluded that it is not possible to build a physically feasible detector for gravitons.

Awwwww.

One possible implication of the existence of gravitons though is that gravity may not decay following the inverse square rule, because it would be a self-interacting force (gravitons carry momentum, thus they are subject to gravity themselves) and that would modify the mathematical expression of the distance relation.

... Inverse square rule? What's that?

And on another note, can someon explain the string and superstring theories to me in Layman's Terms? I'm having trouble wrapping my mind around the idea that subatomic components of matter are not "point particles" (i.e. effectively zero-dimensional), but rather one-dimensional "strings".

edited 11th Feb '16 3:54:14 PM by MarqFJA

Inverse square rule, a fundamental mathematical rule for how forces decay with distance in 3D space.

Unless...

• The exchange particle has rest mass, such as the W and Z bosons; then the faster decaying Yukawa potential decay formula applies.
• The exchange particle is subject to the same force that it interacts in, then the force may not decay at all with distance, as it happens with gluons.

... Interesting. Quantum physics is so full of exotic wonders. No wonder people like to treat as a scientific "justification" for the supernatural.

edited 11th Feb '16 4:03:45 PM by MarqFJA