Science is Cool....

[Fish]

This is a repository for all cool scientific discussion and fascination. Scientific facts, theories, and overall cool scientific stuff that you'd like to share with others. Stuff that makes you smile and wonder at the amazing shit going on around us, that most people don't notice.

Post pictures, vidoes, stories, or links. Ask questions. Share science.

Why should I care?:

[Fish]

We now have probes so far away from Earth that star constellations are different... that''s crazy.....

NASA’s New Horizons Conducts the First Interstellar Parallax Experiment

For the first time, a spacecraft has sent back pictures of the sky from so far away that some stars appear to be in different positions than we'd see from Earth.

More than four billion miles from home and speeding toward interstellar space, NASA's New Horizons has traveled so far that it now has a unique view of the nearest stars. “It’s fair to say that New Horizons is looking at an alien sky, unlike what we see from Earth,” said Alan Stern, New Horizons principal investigator from Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in Boulder, Colorado. “And that has allowed us to do something that had never been accomplished before — to see the nearest stars visibly displaced on the sky from the positions we see them on Earth.”

On April 22-23, the spacecraft turned its long-range telescopic camera to a pair of the “closest” stars, Proxima Centauri and Wolf 359, showing just how they appear in different places than we see from Earth. Scientists have long used this “parallax effect” – how a star appears to shift against its background when seen from different locations -- to measure distances to stars.

An easy way to see parallax is to place one finger at arm’s length and watch it jump back and forth when you view it successively with each eye. Similarly, as Earth makes it way around the Sun, the stars shift their positions. But because even the nearest stars are hundreds of thousands of times farther away than the diameter of Earth’s orbit, the parallax shifts are tiny, and can only be measured with precise instrumentation.

“No human eye can detect these shifts,” Stern said.

But when New Horizons images are paired with pictures of the same stars taken on the same dates by telescopes on Earth, the parallax shift is instantly visible. The combination yields a 3D view of the stars “floating” in front of their background star fields.

“The New Horizons experiment provides the largest parallax baseline ever made -- over 4 billion miles -- and is the first demonstration of an easily observable stellar parallax,” said Tod Lauer, New Horizons science team member from the National Science Foundation's National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory who coordinated the parallax demonstration.

"The New Horizons spacecraft is truly a mission of firsts, and this demonstration of stellar parallax is no different" said Kenneth Hansen, New Horizons program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "The New Horizons spacecraft continues to speed away from Earth toward interstellar space and is continuing to return exciting new data for planetary science."

Working in Stereo

Lauer, New Horizons Deputy Project Scientist John Spencer, of SwRI, and science team collaborator, astrophysicist, Queen guitarist and stereo imaging enthusiast Brian May created the images that clearly show the effect of the vast distance between Earth and the two nearby stars.

“It could be argued that in astro-stereoscopy -- 3D images of astronomical objects – NASA’s New Horizons team already leads the field, having delivered astounding stereoscopic images of both Pluto and the remote Kuiper Belt object Arrokoth,” May said. “But the latest New Horizons stereoscopic experiment breaks all records. These photographs of Proxima Centauri and Wolf 359 – stars that are well-known to amateur astronomers and science fiction aficionados alike -- employ the largest distance between viewpoints ever achieved in 180 years of stereoscopy!”

The companion images of Proxima Centauri and Wolf 359 were provided by the Las Cumbres Observatory, operating a remote telescope at Siding Spring Observatory in Australia, and astronomers John Kielkopf, University of Louisville, and Karen Collins, Harvard and Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, operating a remote telescope at Mt. Lemmon Observatory in Arizona.

“The professional and amateur astronomy communities had been waiting to try this, and were very excited to make a little space exploration history,” said Lauer. “The images collected on Earth when New Horizons was observing Proxima Centauri and Wolf 359 really exceeded my expectations.”

Download the images (and learn more about creating and posting your own parallax perspectives) at http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/Learn/Parall...lax-Images.php

An Interstellar Navigation First

Throughout history, navigators have used measurements of the stars to establish their position on Earth. Interstellar navigators can do the same to establish their position in the galaxy, using a technique that New Horizons has demonstrated for the first time. While radio tracking by NASA’s Deep Space Network is far more accurate, its first use is a significant milestone in what may someday become human exploration of the galaxy.

At the time of the observations, New Horizons was more than 4.3 billion miles (about 7 billion kilometers) from Earth, where a radio signal, traveling at the speed of light, needed just under 6 hours and 30 minutes to reach home.

Launched in 2006, New Horizons is the first mission to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt. It explored Pluto and its moons in July 2015 -- completing the space-age reconnaissance of the planets that started 50 years earlier -- and continued on its unparalleled voyage of exploration with the close flyby of Kuiper Belt object Arrokoth in January 2019. New Horizons will eventually leave the solar system, joining the Voyagers and Pioneers on their paths to the stars.

The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, designed, built and operates the New Horizons spacecraft, and manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. The MSFC Planetary Management Office provides the NASA oversight for the New Horizons. Southwest Research Institute, based in San Antonio, directs the mission via Principal Investigator Stern, and leads the science team, payload operations and encounter science planning. New Horizons is part of the New Frontiers Program managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

[Fish]

CRISPR has now genetically cured 3 humans pre-birth. Pretty big deal....

Three people with inherited diseases successfully treated with CRISPR


Two people with beta thalassaemia and one with sickle cell disease no longer require blood transfusions, which are normally used to treat severe forms of these inherited diseases, after their bone marrow stem cells were gene-edited with CRISPR.

Result of the ongoing trial, which is the first to use CRISPR to treat inherited genetic disorders, were announced today at a virtual meeting of the European Hematology Association.

“The preliminary results… demonstrate, in essence, a functional cure for patients with beta thalassaemia and sickle cell disease,” team member Haydar Frangoul at Sarah Cannon Research Institute in Nashville, Tennessee, said in a statement.

Beta thalassaemia and sickle cell are diseases caused by mutations that affect haemoglobin, the protein that carries oxygen in red blood cells. Those with severe forms require regular blood transfusions.

However, a few people with the disease-causing mutations never show any symptoms, because they keep producing fetal haemoglobin in adulthood. Normally, fetal haemoglobin stops being produced soon after birth.



Read more: https://www.newscientist.com/article...#ixzz6PKBOV6Jy

[Fish]

Divers get “pinged” by a submarine’s active SONAR.

[Fish]

Archery + bullets = Science??

Nah, maybe not but entertaining..

[Fish]

Who's up for a one way ticket to deep space? This might be the start...

For the first time, humans have been placed in biostasis

Biostasis, or "suspended animation," is a hibernation-like technique that researchers and doctors believe could help save many lives in the future. Indeed, at present, there are already short or partial techniques that have an almost automatic and natural reversibility.

And now, scientists have been able to take a step further in this area: doctors have placed humans in biostasis for the first time, in a trial conducted in the United States and intended to allow the repair of traumatic lesions that otherwise would cause death.

Samuel Tisherman, of the University of Maryland's Faculty of Medicine, said his team of doctors had placed at least one suspended animation patient, calling this world premiere a "somewhat surreal" event. That is, Tisherman has not yet revealed the number of people who survived following the test.


The main goal is to prevent an impending death by ischemia
The technique used by the Tisherman team is officially called Emergency Preservation and Resuscitation (EPR). This is a medical procedure in which a patient is placed on biostasis for a period of time to prevent imminent death caused by ischemia, such as blood loss from a bullet or stab.

This technique is being tested on patients at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore. More specifically, in patients with acute trauma (as mentioned above, who, for example, have a gunshot or knife wound) and have suffered cardiac arrest.

Following the trauma, their heart will have stopped beating and they may have lost more than half of their total amount of blood. In this situation, there are only a few minutes of life for patients, with less than 5% chance of survival, at least in normal times ...


Biostasis: rapid cooling of the body by replacing blood
Biostasis involves rapidly cooling a person to about 10 to 15 ° C by replacing all his blood with a very cold saline solution. In doing so, the brain activity of the patient stops almost completely. He is then disconnected from the cooling system and the body (which would otherwise be classified as dead) is transferred to the operating room. From this point on, the surgical team has approximately 2 hours to repair the person's wounds before the person warms up again, and his / her heart starts up again.

Now, Tisherman hopes to be able to announce the full results of the test by the end of 2020.

It should be known that a so-called normal body temperature is about 37 ° C, and our cells need a constant supply of oxygen to produce energy and therefore survive. When our heart stops beating, the blood no longer transports oxygen to the cells, and without it our brain can only survive for about 5 minutes before irreversible damage occurs.

However, lowering body and brain temperature slows down or stops all chemical reactions in our cells, which therefore require less oxygen.

The test has been approved by the FDA (US Food and Drug Administration). In fact, the FDA has decided not to require patients' consent, as they believe the injuries of the patients may be fatal and that in any case there will be no alternative treatment.


Gives surgeons more time to save more lives
Tisherman's interest in trauma research began with an early incident in his career in which a young man was stabbed to the heart after an altercation.

"He was a healthy young man a few minutes ago, and suddenly he was dead. We could have saved him if we had enough time, "he says. This event led him to begin to look for ways in which cooling the body could give surgeons more time to do their jobs, and save lives.

Studies in animals have already shown very promising results: for example, pigs with acute trauma could be cooled for 3 hours, then treated, and then resuscitated.

" We felt it was time to apply this technology to our patients, " said Tisherman. " We are doing it now and we are learning a lot as we go through the trial. Once we have proven that it works (on human patients), we can expand the utility of this technique to help some patients in critical conditions to survive, which would otherwise be impossible, "he added. " I want to make it clear that we are not trying to send people to Saturn. We are just trying to save time to save lives, "he said.

At present, we do not know exactly how much time we have precisely when such a cooling of the body. And when a person's cells are warmed up later, they can be damaged and can cause a range of chemical reactions, potentially damaging them again. To sum up, the longer the cells stay without oxygen, the greater the damage will be.

According to Tisherman, it would be entirely possible to administer a cocktail of drugs to patients in order to minimize injuries and prolong the duration of the biostasis, "but we have not yet identified all the causes of the injuries due to reperfusion, "he says. It was last Monday, at a symposium at the New York Academy of Sciences, that Tisherman described the progress of the team.

[GloryDayz]

Originally Posted by Fish

Divers get “pinged” by a submarine’s active SONAR.

I hate it when that happens.

[Baby Lee]

None of this is particularly new, but it is concise and compelling and seems to build on the notions introduced clear back in OP. . .

[GloryDayz]

Originally Posted by Baby Lee

None of this is particularly new, but it is concise and compelling and seems to build on the notions introduced clear back in OP. . .

Awesome. Rep...

[Holladay]

That was cool, but I wonder what he was tripping on.

[Gadzooks]

What the **** is reality doing here in the first place?

[Baby Lee]

This reminds me of something I found out is streamed free on YT.

It's nearing 1/2 century old, but lays out the practicalities of the byzantine interconnectedness of modern life. How things became how they are and are so ingrained we've forgotten. . . .

It's several episodes, but the first one queues up the next and so on.

It's a little laconic in its progress, and a little . . . 70s . . . in it's presentation. But it's worth digesting. Kind of like a minor 'Cosmos' for everyday tech.



Also, an perhaps more importantly [time will tell] Netflix has a new pending series in the same vein . . . called, creatively, 'Connected' it explores the same type of stuff in a more modern journalistic manner. But it hasn't aired yet, so I have no input on it's worth or value.

[Fish]

How many muscles do humans have in their fingers and thumb?

Spoiler!

Answer….. 0



Fingers do not contain muscles (other than arrector pili). The muscles that move the finger joints are in the palm and forearm. The long tendons that deliver motion from the forearm muscles may be observed to move under the skin at the wrist and on the back of the hand.

In our bodies, tendons generally connect muscle to bone, and ligaments generally connect bone to bone. The tendons that control the bones in our helpful little protrusions are attached to 17 muscles in the palm of your hand and 18 in your forearm- none of which are in your fingers. The muscles that close your hand are known as flexors, and the ones that open your hand are known as extensors. Some are small and help control each individual finger.

The average grip strength for men ages 20-75 is 104.3 pounds for the right hand and 93.1 pounds for the left. Women averaged 62.8 pounds and 53.9 pounds respectively. Grip strength is the highest for both sexes between the ages of 25 and 39.

[Fish]

Elements in the Human Body and What They Do

Can you name the elements in the human body and what they do? Nearly 99% of the mass of your human body consists of just 6 chemical elements: oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, calcium, and phosphorus. Another 5 elements make up most of the last percentage point: potassium, sulfur, sodium, chlorine, and magnesium. Here’s a look at these elements in their pure form and their function in the human body. Note that the percentage are estimates. Hydration level (how much water you drink) makes a big impact on the amount of oxygen and hydrogen in your body and affects the relative composition of the rest of the elements in your body.



This periodic table shows the percent composition of the average human body. So, for example, oxygen accounts for 65% of the mass of the body, while nitrogen is 3% and so on. It’s worth noting most of the noble metals are not found in detectable quantities in the body. Neither are the noble gases. In both cases, the two sets of elements are fairly inert. The synthetic radioactive elements are missing, but a few natural radioactive elements, such as radium, thorium, and uranium are found in trace quantities.

Function of Elements in the Body

Oxygen (O) – 65% of body weight

Atomic Number: 8

Liquid oxygen is blue. (Warwick Hillier)
Oxygen is the most abundant element in the human body. It’s mainly found bound to hydrogen in the form of water. Water, in turn, makes up about 60% of the human body and participates in countless metabolic reactions. The element oxygen acts as an electron acceptor and oxidizing agent. It is found in all four of the major classes of organic molecules: protein, carbohydrates, lipids, and nucleic acids. Because it is a key element in aerobic cellular respiration, large amounts of oxygen are found in the lungs and in the bloodstream. Hemoglobin in blood bind the oxygen molecule, O2, from inhaled air. Oxygen is used by the mitochondria in cells to produce the energy molecule adenosine triphosphate or ATP. While it’s essential for human life, too much oxygen can be deadly, as it can lead to oxidative damage to cells and tissues.

Carbon (C) – 18% of body weight

Atomic Number: 6

Carbon Graphite (USGS)
Carbon is the second most abundant element in the human body and the element that is considered the basis of organic chemistry. Every single organic molecule in your body contains carbon. The element bonds to itself to form chains and ring structures that serve as the basis for all metabolic reactions in the body. Carbon in carbon dioxide is expelled as a waste product when you breathe.

Hydrogen (H) – 10% of body weight

Atomic Number: 1

Hydrogen Discharge Tube (Alchemist-hp)
Most of the hydrogen in the body is bound with oxygen to form water, H2O. Hydrogen, like carbon, is found in every single organic molecule in the body. Hydrogen also acts as a proton or positive ion in chemical reactions.

Nitrogen (N) – 3% of body weight

Atomic Number: 7

Liquid NItrogen (Cory Doctorow)
Because most of air consists of nitrogen, nitrogen gas is found in the lungs, but it is not absorbed into the body that way. Humans get nitrogen from food. The element is an important component of amino acids, which are used to build peptides and proteins. Nitrogen is also an essential component of the nucleic acids DNA and RNA and all of the other molecules derived from the nitrogenous bases.

Calcium (Ca) – 1.4% of body weight

Atomic Number: 20

Calcium Metal (Tomihahndorf)
About 99% of the body’s calcium is found in bones and teeth, where the element is used to build strong structural compounds, such as hydroxyapatite. Although most of the calcium is in bones and teeth, this is not the mineral’s most important function. Calcium is an important ion, used in muscle contraction and protein regulation. If any critical function has insufficient calcium, the body will actually pull it out of the bones and teeth. This can lead to osteoporosis and other problems, so it’s important to get enough dietary calcium.

Phosphorus (P) – 1% of body weight

Atomic Number: 15

Phosphorus Allotropes (Materialscientist)
Like calcium, the element and mineral phosphorus is found in the bones and teeth. The element is also found in nucleic acids and energy molecules, such as ATP (adenosine triphosphate).

Potassium (K) – 0.25%

Atomic Number: 19

Electrochemistry in the body depends on ions. Of these, the cation potassium is among the most important. Potassium is used in nerve conduction and regulating the heart beat. All cells in the body require potassium in order to function.

Sulfur (S) – 0.25%

Atomic Number: 16

Sulfur is found in several important amino acids, which are used to build proteins in the body. Sulfur is found in biotin, methionine, thiamine, and cysteine.

Sodium (Na) – 0.15%

Atomic Number: 11

Sodium, like potassium, is an essential cation. This element is important for nerve transmission and muscle function.

Chlorine (Cl) – 0.15%

Atomic Number: 17

Chlorine is an important anion. One of its functions involves the transport of the enzyme ATPase, which is used to supply energy for biochemical reactions. Chlorine is used to make hydrochloric acid, which is found in the stomach and digests food.

Magnesium (Mg) – 0.005%

Atomic Number: 12

Magnesium binds to ATP and nucleotides. Its cation is an important cofactor for enzymatic reactions. Magnesium is used to build healthy teeth and bones.

Trace elements include iron, fluorine, zinc, silicon, rubidium, strontium, bromine, lead, copper, and many more. Some trace elements are essential or have a beneficial effect on the body, while others have no known function or appear to be toxic.

[Fish]

The Science of Coke and Mentos



How Does This Work?
Why do Diet Coke & Mentos and Coke Zero & Mentos create such exciting geysers?

It’s mostly due to a process called nucleation, where the carbon dioxide in the soda is attracted to the Mentos (they are awfully cute). That creates so much pressure that the soda goes flying. We then built nozzles that make the opening smaller and that makes the geysers go even higher.

So what is nucleation about and why do Mentos release all this pressure so spectacularly? Read on…

Making Lots of Bubbles
After a lot of debate, scientists are now saying that the primary cause of Coke & Mentos geysers is a physical reaction, not a chemical reaction. Their explanation is this process called nucleation.

All the carbon dioxide in the soda – all that fizz – is squeezed into the liquid and looking for a way out. It’s drawn to any tiny bumps that it can grab onto. Those tiny bumps are called nucleation sites: places the gas can grab onto and start forming bubbles.

Nucleation sites can be scratches on a glass, the ridges of your finger, or even specks of dust – anywhere that there is a high surface area in a very small volume.

The surface of a Mentos is sprayed with over 40 microscopic layers of liquid sugar. That makes it not only sweet but also covered with lots and lots of nucleation sites.

In other words, there are so many microscopic nooks and crannies on the surface of a Mentos that an incredible number of bubbles will form around the Mentos when you drop it into a bottle of soda.

Since the Mentos are also heavy enough to sink, they react with the soda all the way to the bottom. The escaping bubbles quickly turn into a raging foam, and the pressure builds dramatically.

All that pressure has got to go somewhere, and before you know it, you've got a big geyser happening!

Try This at Home!
This is a great thing to try yourself – if you’re careful. Here’s how. Make sure you wear your goggles and lab coats, so that you are not only protected, you also look cool as you run away from the flying soda.

The Big Question
What happens if you drink soda and then eat Mentos? Well, a lot of the fizz goes away as you drink. Then when bubbles are released in your stomach, your stomach can expand a bit. And your stomach also has ways of, umm, releasing excess gas… The MythBusters showed that your stomach won’t explode, but it still wouldn’t be a lot of fun. Do not, repeat, do not be stupid and test the limits of your stomach. Don't even think about it.

What Else Works?
We've tested everything from Mountain Dew & Lifesavers to Moxie & M&M's. Shockingly enough, dropping just about anything into just about any kind of soda creates at least a little fizz. Even some pocket change made a bottle of root beer bubble up a bit. But the combination of Coke Zero & Mentos is particularly potent!

Does It Have to be Diet?
Diet Coke and Coke Zero tend to go a bit higher than regular soda, because they have a little more carbonation and the sweeteners help make the reaction a little bigger. Most importantly, Coke Zero and Diet Coke aren’t sugary and sticky. Every time we set off a big geyser display, we get soaked to the skin, so it’s nice not to get covered in sugary goo.

[Fish]