Fascinating scientific stuff

[Will]

That's really interesting, especially if you get to the point where you're able to breakdown a decision making process in logical steps as it happens.

Could be scary when the marketing folks get hold of that technology:

"So Hal, given this advertising brochure of soft drinks, why did you choose SuperBrandX Cola vs. RegularBrandX Cola?"

 

[Cosimah2o]

An amazing Siren fossil ( as know as d’hydropithèques ) in France !!
It seems a joke, but the person who discovered this fossil is a geologist. Anyway, do you believe Siren is real, once existed or just a myth ? :lol:


‪Incroyable fossile de Sirène "Musée-Promenade" Haute Provence-France‬‏ - YouTube

 

[beer good]

It seems a joke, but the person who discovered this fossil is a geologist.

Not a paleontologist, then?

I have no idea what it says in the clip since I don't speak French, but I'd need more than a shaky handcam that looks like what may be bones imbedded in rock to believe fairytale monsters are real. Has anyone actually qualified looked at it?

 

[Cosimah2o]

Not a paleontologist, then?

Well, Geologists are also interested in fossils !! In fact, due to the study of fossils that appeared in mountains in XVIII and XIX century, made possible to design the first geologic maps ! For example, Charles Lory studied fossils in the French Alps and for this reason, he did his geologic map of this region.

Has anyone actually qualified looked at it?

Yes, your friend Paulo Coelho :lol: I think, you and Sparkchaser should visit this place !!

 

[beer good]

Being interested in something doesn't make you a qualified authority on it. If this thing is sitting exposed on a rock wall at a tourist site and not one museum has sent out anyone to study it, it makes me think it's not only a hoax but a very obvious one too. Possibly related to the upcoming grand opening of a nearby shopping mall.

 

[Cosimah2o]

I didn't explain me correctly. I'm Sorry . I wanted to say that geologists also study a branch of paleontology during his/her career ... It depends then, what type of elective subjects want to choose during their vocational training ..

Possibly related to the upcoming grand opening of a nearby shopping mall.

wow a great episode ! i have to admit that i would visit this place :lol:

 

[beer good]

Not quite news, but some more light shed:

Neanderthals Mated With Humans Outside of Africa | Wired Science | Wired.com

 

[beer good]

Physicists Confirm Existence of New Particle | Wired Science | Wired.com

So if they're converting energy to matter, does that make them gods?

 

[Will]

Physicists Confirm Existence of New Particle | Wired Science | Wired.com

So if they're converting energy to matter, does that make them gods?

haha. This ones not going to be dropped is it.

 

[beer good]

Wooo!

We're going to see a black hole!!! : Starts With A Bang

VERY well worth reading through.

But if we wanted to image this black hole directly -- in other words, to see with resolution so good that we could resolve the event horizon of the black hole -- we'd need a much bigger interferometer than the Earth can give us.

How could we make that happen?

You send a giant radio telescope out into space. As long as you can send an atomic clock with it and synch it up with telescopes on the ground, you can use this same technique. Only, instead of thousands of kilometers, you can make the interferometer distance hundreds of thousands of kilometers!

Well, guess what launched on Monday?

 

[sparkchaser]

OK, that is pretty damn cool.

I cannot wait to see pics of this.

 

[Cosimah2o]

TITAN is a fascinating world, said Robert Pappalardo and I agree

Scientists agree that Titan shows evidence of having lakes of liquid methane and ethane, and valleys carved by these exotic liquids, as well as impact craters . Some scientists theorize Ice volcanoes exist and suggest energy from an internal heat source may have caused ice to rise and release methane vapors as it reached Titan's surface .
In December 2010, a group of Cassini scientists presented new topographic data on an area of Titan called Sotra Facula, which they think makes the best case yet for a possible volcanic mountain that once erupted Ice on Titan .

Saturn's moon Titan shaped by weather, not ice volcanoes?

 

[sparkchaser]

The good news is that the first Earth Trojan has been discovered.

The bad news is that it is not another Earth-like planet. That would have been cool.

 

[sparkchaser]

Archaeopteryx Knocked From Roost as Original Bird

The jury is still out but FWIW I have always thought of Archaeopteryx as a bird-like dinosaur, and not a dinosaur-like bird.

 

[Cosimah2o]

I have always thought of Archaeopteryx as a bird-like dinosaur, and not a dinosaur-like bird.

Interesting. I have looked up a book called, Guide Critique de L'évolution . In this book the Archaeopteryx Lithographica belongs to Théoropodos group, therefore they classify as dinosaur and they don't consider a direct ancestor of birds group because studying the position of its elongated claws-fingers (near wing) these appears like own in its evolution as species .

 

[sparkchaser]

Weird. I was always taught that some therapods diverged into birds.

 

[sparkchaser]

Scientists recreate the "end of time" in the lab.

So what happens at the end of time? Smolyaninov says that the electromagnetic field simply diverges, which is something of an anticlimax in an experiment so pregnant with sci-fi potential.

But interesting stuff nevertheless.

Article is an interesting, albeit way too short, look into metamaterials.

 

[Cosimah2o]

I have found a visual explication although it's wrtten in French .. I belong to this forum too ( Géoforum.fr ) There was a debate regard to this topic .. There are many great & wise brains !! ..

 

[Cosimah2o]

Weird. I was always taught that some therapods diverged into birds.

I am trying to tell, according to my books and other opinions the Archaeopteryx Lithographica isn't the direct ancestor of birds for many reasons. But i don't know if you remember the Dromaeosaure Microraptor Gui . A Théoropode that would be the direct ancestor of the birds and however, it appears under a diffuse light regard to this topic .

 

[Cosimah2o]

Alpine Newt - Triturus alpestris, Magnetic compass mediates nocturnal homing orientation .

Newts were tested at night in an outdoor circular arena that provided an unimpeded view of celestial cues, in one of four symmetrical alignments of an earth-strength magnetic field . We investigated whether the presence of the moon contributed to the scatter in the distribution of magnetic bearings . When the moon was visible, the distribution of magnetic bearings was more scattered than when the moon was obscured by clouds . Moreover, when the moon was visible, newts oriented along a bimodal axis perpendicular to the moon Azimuth, suggesting that the presence of the moon may have affected the newts behavior . In the absence of celestial compass cues, the distribution of magnetic bearings exhibited highly significant orientation in the homeward direction . These findings indicate that newts are able to orient in the homeward direction at night using the magnetic compass as the sole source of directional information.

Innate preference for magnetic compass direction in the Alpine newt, Triturus alpestris (Salamandridae, Urodela)
SpringerLink - Journal of Ethology, Volume 25, Number 2