The Science Thread

wayneL said:

The jab was never any good at stopping transmission of anything, original or not.

It never worked. That was all camel dung.

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It did work. I certainly don't believe U can change your mind though.

Also, I would point out that Trump and all the mainstays of Fox news took the jab. Think about what that means. They were willing to lead you into danger while not doing it themselves. The death rate for male 60 year olds to the early version of the virus was nearly 2%.

They treated the viewers like a wooly animal just so they could get them to behave in a certain way.

Knobby22 said:

It did work. I certainly don't believe U can change your mind though.

Also, I would point out that Trump and all the mainstays of Fox news took the jab. Think about what that means. They were willing to lead you into danger while not doing it themselves. The death rate for male 60 year olds to the early version of the virus was nearly 2%.

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In those early days, the vaxes were not even developed, much less distributed and jabbed.
The question is, how many of these were vaxed or non vaxed, and how many of the general population were vaxed/non vaxed.

Knobby22 said:

They treated the viewers like a wooly animal just so they could get them to behave in a certain way.

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I think that has been a consistent theme of the authorities the world over.
Mick

Something you have always wondered about ...
Why does the US Government have a huge warehouse which stores and sells almost everything.

For example a jay of peanut butter for around $1000 ?
Another great science story from Veritassium

When you thought you couldn't be surpised...

The Murky Details Of Octlantis, A City Built And Run By Octopuses
Red octopus against black background
Sko/Getty Images
By Cynthia Griffith/Dec. 19, 2022 2:34 pm EST

Regardless of where you reside, city life is something most people can picture. Characterized by looming skyscrapers, streetside cafes, and bumper-to-bumper traffic jams, cities are a huge part of modern culture. They serve as backdrops in movies, sure, but in real life, their purpose is larger still. According to the World Bank, cities house approximately 56% of the global population and are highly regarded as centers of trade, commerce, and innovation.

When you close your eyes and picture a city, you're probably imagining narrow streets and busy intersections, corporate employees standing in subways, and the smell of local street food wafting through the air. But what do you think a city would look like if it was built and run by a different species — say, for example, octopuses? Yes, octopuses: those clever, tentacle-clad sea creatures with massive roving eyes and bulbous heads.

Oddly enough, you don't have to imagine that. One such city does already exist beyond the realm of imagination, and according to Science Alert, it bares a somewhat haunting resemblance to cities built and run by humans. Here's a deep dive into the fully submerged, octopus-inhabited metropolis.

Read More: https://www.grunge.com/1142778/the-murky-details-of-octlantis-a-city-built-and-run-by-octopuses/

basilio said:

When you thought you couldn't be surpised...

The Murky Details Of Octlantis, A City Built And Run By Octopuses
Red octopus against black background
Sko/Getty Images
By Cynthia Griffith/Dec. 19, 2022 2:34 pm EST

Regardless of where you reside, city life is something most people can picture. Characterized by looming skyscrapers, streetside cafes, and bumper-to-bumper traffic jams, cities are a huge part of modern culture. They serve as backdrops in movies, sure, but in real life, their purpose is larger still. According to the World Bank, cities house approximately 56% of the global population and are highly regarded as centers of trade, commerce, and innovation.

When you close your eyes and picture a city, you're probably imagining narrow streets and busy intersections, corporate employees standing in subways, and the smell of local street food wafting through the air. But what do you think a city would look like if it was built and run by a different species — say, for example, octopuses? Yes, octopuses: those clever, tentacle-clad sea creatures with massive roving eyes and bulbous heads.

Oddly enough, you don't have to imagine that. One such city does already exist beyond the realm of imagination, and according to Science Alert, it bares a somewhat haunting resemblance to cities built and run by humans. Here's a deep dive into the fully submerged, octopus-inhabited metropolis.

Read More: https://www.grunge.com/1142778/the-murky-details-of-octlantis-a-city-built-and-run-by-octopuses/

Click to expand...

I always have a bit of laugh when people, be they scientists or otherwise, compare the behaviour of non human organisms with the behaviour of humans.
The assumption underlying it all is the assumption that humans are the preeminent species on the planet. So if another species behaves in a human like manner (including communicating with each other0, then that species must be more intelligent than the other species who demonstrate no such behaviours.
I wonder if it has ever occurred to these writers that octopi regard themselves as the pre eminent species, and that humans showing behaviour similar to their own makes humans a little more intelligent than other species? Could it be that we are regraded by them as merely another predator that is put on earth by the Great Creator Octopus(TM) to test them? Does the GCO regret creating humans?
You could swap octopi for any other species and it would be equally valid.
We are a vain lot.
Mick

mullokintyre said:

I always have a bit of laugh when people, be they scientists or otherwise, compare the behaviour of non human organisms with the behaviour of humans.
The assumption underlying it all is the assumption that humans are the preeminent species on the planet. So if another species behaves in a human like manner (including communicating with each other0, then that species must be more intelligent than the other species who demonstrate no such behaviours.
I wonder if it has ever occurred to these writers that octopi regard themselves as the pre eminent species, and that humans showing behaviour similar to their own makes humans a little more intelligent than other species? Could it be that we are regraded by them as merely another predator that is put on earth by the Great Creator Octopus(TM) to test them? Does the GCO regret creating humans?
You could swap octopi for any other species and it would be equally valid.
We are a vain lot.
Mick

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Indeed !! Octopus are very, very intelligent. There are some fascinating clips on You Tube showing how clever the are.

As far as interaction with people My Octopus Teacher was an amazing story of how a diver and a common ocean octopus developed a close bond. Well worth checking out.

basilio said:

Indeed !! Octopus are very, very intelligent. There are some fascinating clips on You Tube showing how clever the are.

As far as interaction with people My Octopus Teacher was an amazing story of how a diver and a common ocean octopus developed a close bond. Well worth checking out.

My Octopus Teacher - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Watch My Octopus Teacher | Netflix Official Site

A filmmaker forges an unusual friendship with an octopus living in a South African kelp forest, learning as the animal shares the mysteries of her world.

www.netflix.com

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Have you ever thought their education system, might be better than ours? ?

Back to Veritasium. I always learn something new and intrinsically fascinating with his presentations.
IMV this is a beauty.

How the GAIA satellite is mapping the galaxy.

How the internet encrypts data, and how super computers could break it.

Before ABC Radio's " Nightlife " podcast with physicist Brian Greene disappears , have a listen to it , space cadets. He was in the country last week for the World Science Festival up in Brisbane.

Better still, read his fabulous 2020 book " Until The End Of Time ".

One of the best science books , I've ever read.

Heads up science troopers !
National treasure, Dr. Karl is back ( from Antarctica of all places )
Hear him out on Triple J's podcast for last Wednesday , 12 th April.

A novel way of displaying the effects of gravity.

Mick

Who were our ancestors 500,000 years ago ? Did mankind actually go back that far ?

basilio said:

Who were our ancestors 500,000 years ago ? Did mankind actually go back that far?

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Yes. (we're not Denisovians, btw)

Homo Sapiens Revisited (2022) is worth a read. The growth of knowledge through technological interpretation and data analytics means that even 5 year old information has been eclipsed.

This kinda blew my mind

A long read. This story about a young cosmologist exploring the nature of the Universe is spine tingling.
IMV well worth putting aside the time to read it. Much to learn.

The long read

The dark universe: can a scientist battling long Covid unlock the mysteries of the cosmos?​

Since being laid low with the virus more than a year ago, Catherine Heymans can only operate in half-hour bursts. But her work could still change the way we understand the universe
by Alex Blasdel

Tue 2 May 2023 01.00 EDTLast modified on Thu 18 May 2023 06.53 EDT


Last September, Catherine Heymans, one of the world’s leading cosmologists, was supposed to board a ferry for the northernmost island in the Orkney archipelago. The island, North Ronaldsay, is among the darkest inhabited places on earth. On a clear winter’s night, it is easy to be awed by the thousands upon thousands of stars visible to the naked eye, which spill their unpolluted light upon the Earth. Heymans, who is the first woman appointed astronomer royal for Scotland, was planning to explain to the island’s 60 or so residents that those stars, and the rest of the perceptible universe, represent a mere fraction of the stuff that makes up our cosmos. What she studies is everything we cannot see: the darkness.

Over the past two decades, Heymans, who is 45, has advanced our understanding of a vast, invisible cosmos that scientists are only beginning to comprehend. That “dark universe” is thought to constitute more than 95% of everything that exists. It is made up of entities more mysterious than the ordinary matter and energy – the light, atoms, molecules, lifeforms, stars, galaxies – that have been the subject of scientific inquiry throughout history. In the past 10 years, Heymans has learned that the dark universe shapes the visible cosmos in unexpected ways, and may not follow all the standard rules of physics. Her discoveries are unsettling a broad consensus on how our world works on its grandest scales. “I believe that, to truly understand the dark universe, we will need to invoke some new physics that will for ever change our cosmic view,” she has written.

Heymans is not alone in that belief. During the 20th century, scientists developed an extraordinarily precise account of almost 14bn years of the universe’s history. But an increasing number of scientists suspect that model may be profoundly limited, or even broken. Some leading astrophysicists have recently declared that we have entered an era of cosmological crisis, one that might lead to anything from the discovery of new fundamental particles to a new theory of gravity. “The proliferation of ideas is like nothing I’ve ever seen,” the Nobel prize winner Adam Riess, another key figure in cosmology’s current upheaval, recently told me.

Found a good website on Science news. This story caught my eye.

Scientists discover never-before-seen brain wave after reading octopuses' minds​

News
By Ben Turner
published 28 days ago
By surgically attaching electrodes to octopuses, researchers have been able to peer inside the cephalopods’ minds for the very first time.

How water works, long but fascinating

A new insight into the auto immune disease that could be responsible for a number of schizophrenic illnesses.