General Science topics

[Draggendrop Veteran]

 

 

NASA Science Shows Human Impact of Clean Air Policies

 

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As local, federal, and international policies targeting the quality of the air we breathe continue to evolve, questions arise of how effective existing policies have been in improving human health. For example, how many lives have been saved by tough air pollution policies? How many illnesses have been caused by lax policies?

Annual mean levels of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) pollution declined in the United States between 1990 (left) and 2010 (right), leading to thousands of lives saved, according to researcher Jason West.
Credits: Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics

 

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NASA recently initiated two projects to provide some answers drawing on its scientific expertise and global observations of air pollution from spacecraft orbiting Earth. It is information air quality managers say they need to refine current policies and develop effective new ones.

One project demonstrated that improvements in air quality in the United States between 1990 and 2010 reduced deaths from air pollution by nearly half. The other project, taking a global view of asthma, found that high levels of air pollution caused millions of emergency room visits annually.

 

The study of asthma impacts caused by air pollution used data on several pollutants including ozone. Shown here are annual average ozone concentrations from 2015; red indicates high concentrations, blue indicates lower levels.

Credits: Environmental Health Perspectives

 

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Both projects are part of NASA’s ongoing efforts to help air quality managers and policymakers solve clean air problems using NASA data and products. These quick-turnaround, high-priority projects are funded by the agency’s Earth Science Division drawing on expertise in its Health and Air Quality Applied Sciences Team.

The project that focused on U.S. air quality improvements used a 21-year computer simulation to estimate air pollutant concentrations, combining that with county population and baseline mortality rates. The findings showed that pollution-related deaths from heart disease, pulmonary disease, lung cancer, and stroke declined as a result of air quality improvements.

more at the link...

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-science-shows-human-impact-of-clean-air-policies

 

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[Draggendrop Veteran]

 

 

 

 

[Draggendrop Veteran]

 

 

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back on this world...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[SteveL]

Anyone has ever heard about this startup? Any chance that their claims could be real?

 

Electriq Global

 

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Electriq-Global claims to have solved one of the major problems that have so far halted the diffusion of hydrogen: the difficulty of transport and storage.
Essentially there are four fundamental elements that constitute the foundation of this system: the fuel Electriq-Fuel, a catalyst released by a module called "Switch", a tank and a plant to recycle the hydrogen.

The fuel tank, which is about the same size as a normal tank, has a separate module called "Switch" which releases small amounts of a catalytic chemical fuel into the tank, in order to release hydrogen directly from the fuel. The liquid fuel then reacts with a catalyst to release hydrogen on demand.
Once the hydrogen is released, it is sent directly to a fuel cell to be converted into electrical energy, which is then used to power an electrical transmission. The whole system, starting from the fuel cell on, is currently standard and already in circulation in existing fuel cell vehicles.

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In the ecosystem created by Electriq Global, when you go to the filling station, a double operation is carried out in which the spent fuel is pumped out and replenished with fresh fuel.
The service station stores the spent fuel in a tank that an Electriq tanker will collect after discharging the fresh fuel, returning it to the production plant where it will be replenished with hydrogen.
Being a stable fuel at room temperature, the fuel can be transported to service stations by tanker, just like petrol, and drivers can fill up directly at the pump.

Translation via Google, full article on Italian news Repubblica here https://it.businessinsider.com/una-startup-e-riuscita-a-stabilizzare-lidrogeno-sara-il-carburante-del-futuro-meta-prezzo-doppia-autonomia-e-0-emissioni/

 

[Draggendrop Veteran]

15 hours ago, slear said:

Anyone has ever heard about this startup? Any chance that their claims could be real?

 

Electriq Global

 

Translation via Google, full article on Italian news Repubblica here https://it.businessinsider.com/una-startup-e-riuscita-a-stabilizzare-lidrogeno-sara-il-carburante-del-futuro-meta-prezzo-doppia-autonomia-e-0-emissioni/

 

Thanks for posting this. Anything towards green energy or pollutant reductions is a big deal in my book.

 

First off though...flags were set..although this may be legitimate. If one can't explain it simply in a few sentences, without avoidance tactics... there are issues. Questions that initially arose were...fuel cell, demand production, new process, damn it...spit it out...what is it..

 

Answers are avoided which bothers me to no end. It appears the "fuel" is a mixture of 60% water (issue in cold climates) and a special "compound" which allows a catalyst to generate hydrogen. This sounds like a metered consumption process derived from a tank of "special fuel" that one must purchase from the "new fuel overlords".

 

Quick summary....special fuel to be used in hydrogen fuel cell. We have a "plant process" involved, a distribution network requirement and a special "apparatus" required for the vehicle. This also fails the efficiency standards.

 

Nice idea and I hope they can refine this concept...but...I will state without hesitation, this is no match for batteries.....and recharging stations are well under way world wide.

 

The Sun is a massive nuclear engine throwing vast amounts of free energy in our face...we would be wise to use it in any process we pursue......and if we have a solar spill...we get a nice day.

 

Again..Thanks for posting this...If you find anything else as well or something neat that you like...please post it...hungry science pets await treats.

 

 

[Draggendrop Veteran]

 

 

 

 

 

[DocM]

Implosion Fabrication...I like the sound of that.

 

MIT...

 

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Team invents method to shrink objects to the nanoscale

Its not quite the Ant-Man suit, but the system produces 3-D structures one thousandth the size of the originals.

MIT researchers have invented a way to fabricate nanoscale 3-D objects of nearly any shape. They can also pattern the objects with a variety of useful materials, including metals, quantum dots, and DNA.

"It's a way of putting nearly any kind of material into a 3-D pattern with nanoscale precision," says Edward Boyden, the Y. Eva Tan Professor in Neurotechnology and an associate professor of biological engineering and of brain and cognitive sciences at MIT.

Using the new technique, the researchers can create any shape and structure they want by patterning a polymer scaffold with a laser. After attaching other useful materials to the scaffold, they shrink it, generating structures one thousandth the volume of the original.

These tiny structures could have applications in many fields, from optics to medicine to robotics, the researchers say. The technique uses equipment that many biology and materials science labs already have, making it widely accessible for researchers who want to try it.

Boyden, who is also a member of MIT's Media Lab, McGovern Institute for Brain Research, and Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, is one of the senior authors of the paper, which appears in the Dec. 13 issue of Science. The other senior author is Adam Marblestone, a Media Lab research affiliate, and the paper's lead authors are graduate students Daniel Oran and Samuel Rodriques.

 

Implosion Fabrication

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[Draggendrop Veteran]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[Draggendrop Veteran]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is a rarely seen image.

[Draggendrop Veteran]

 

 

 

 

This one is disturbing...we need scribes and documentation on this...so generations centuries to come, may interpret it.

 

 

 

[Draggendrop Veteran]

Another toy to play with....

 

 

 

leads to here...

 

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REMA

The Reference Elevation Model of Antarctica (REMA) is a high resolution, time-stamped Digital Surface Model (DSM) of Antarctica at 8-meter spatial resolution.

https://www.pgc.umn.edu/data/rema/

 

Purpose...

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The Reference Elevation Model of Antarctica (REMA) provides the first, high resolution (8-meter) terrain map of nearly the entire continent.

 

Since each REMA grid point has a timestamp, any past or future point observation of elevation provides a measurement of elevation change.

 

REMA may provide corrections for a wide range of remote sensing processing activities, such image orthorectification and interferometry, and provide constraints for geodynamic and ice flow modeling, mapping of grounding lines, and surface processes.

 

REMA also provides a powerful new resource for field logistics planning.

impressive work...

[Draggendrop Veteran]

 

 

 

and yes..Rocket Lab's Electron is there...

 

 

meanwhile..just "fueling around"...

 

 

 

....true.......

 

😎

[Draggendrop Veteran]

Just to cap things off for Xmas...humour me...I'm old....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Merry Xmas....

[DocM]

OneWeb has an interesting problem - Russia's FSB won't allow them to provide service even though much of the constellation is supposed to launch on Soyuz. 

 

The company has offered Russia a 12.5% share, but Russia wants full access to their technical documentation. This could create a potential security problem for all of OneWeb's other users, especially the US and the other Western governments.

 

https://venturebeat.com/2018/12/24/u-s-internet-satellite-service-oneweb-offers-to-sell-minority-stake-to-russia/

Edited December 25, 2018 by DocM

[Draggendrop Veteran]

Some of these old time remedies actually worked...they just did not know how at the time....

 

 

Bacteria found in ancient Irish soil halts growth of superbugs -- new hope for tackling antibiotic resistance

 

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Researchers analysing soil from Ireland long thought to have medicinal properties have discovered that it contains a previously unknown strain of bacteria which is effective against four of the top six superbugs that are resistant to antibiotics, including MRSA.

 

Antibiotic resistant superbugs could kill up to 1.3 million people in Europe by 2050, according to recent research.

 

The World Health Organisation (WHO) describes the problem as "one of the biggest threats to global health, food security, and development today".

 

The new strain of bacteria was discovered by a team based in Swansea University Medical School, made up of researchers from Wales, Brazil, Iraq and Northern Ireland.

 

They have named the new strain Streptomyces sp. myrophorea.

 

The soil they analysed originated from an area of Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, which is known as the Boho Highlands. It is an area of alkaline grassland and the soil is reputed to have healing properties.

 

The search for replacement antibiotics to combat multi-resistance has prompted researchers to explore new sources, including folk medicines: a field of study known as ethnopharmacology. They are also focusing on environments where well-known antibiotic producers like Streptomyces can be found.

 

One of the research team, Dr Gerry Quinn, a previous resident of Boho, County Fermanagh, had been aware of the healing traditions of the area for many years.

 

Traditionally a small amount of soil was wrapped up in cotton cloth and used to heal many ailments including toothache, throat and neck infections. Interestingly, this area was previously occupied by the Druids, around 1500 years ago, and Neolithic people 4000 years ago.

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Our results show that folklore and traditional medicines are worth investigating in the search for new antibiotics. Scientists, historians and archaeologists can all have something to contribute to this task. It seems that part of the answer to this very modern problem might lie in the wisdom of the past."

Dr Gerry Quinn from the research team said:

"The discovery of antimicrobial substances from Streptomyces sp.myrophorea will help in our search for new drugs to treat multi-resistant bacteria, the cause of many dangerous and lethal infections.

We will now concentrate on the purification and identification of these antibiotics. We have also discovered additional antibacterial organisms from the same soil cure which may cover a broader spectrum of multi-resistant pathogens."

The research was published in Frontiers in Microbiology.

more at the link...

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-12/su-bfi122718.php?utm_source=64&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=EurekAlert!-(@EurekAlert)&utm_term=EurekAlert&utm_content=AAAS

 

This above is more for you medical guys...Opinion with generalities follows...This era is of interest to me though...This was a time...approx 400 Ad where the Romans left Hadrians Wall and pulled out of Britain. The influx of( various origins) Saxon's at the time are of recent interest where it is believed they were actually "more barbaric", if you could use that term, since they wiped out major traces of Pictish origin in the area. The language is composed of a majority of Saxon derivatives in lieu of Pictish origins. When the "Viking" incursions approached around approx 450 years later, it ended with the (Saxon) English and "Northmen" establishing a "boundary line" between themselves. The northern part of Britain contains "Northman" linguistic attributes, but not to the extent of the Saxons in lower Britian. Interestingly enough, Ireland was left alone for awhile, for the most part till "Northmen" arrived and made there presence. This gave the Pict's "breathing room if you will.

 The entire area consisted of many more Tribal factions from pre-Roman to about 1200 AD but the Saxon and Norse really put a dent in local lifestyles...to put it mildly. Such a dangerous time for families and farmsteads.

end of mini dribble...

 

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This one made me laugh....and you cats...you're there too...

 

more recent...

 

 

[Draggendrop Veteran]

Few odds and ends...

 

 These large dish behemoths are hard to tell for size in close up images...this works great.

 

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I have not seen this image before...cool...

 

 

 

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This would be awesome to gaze at every night.....

 

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[DocM]

Oops...

 

https://advanced-television.com/2019/09/19/intelsat-alleges-fraud-at-oneweb-softbank/

 

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Intelsat alleges fraud at OneWeb/SoftBank

 

A potentially devastating dispute has broken out between two former “cooperation” joint-venture partners: Intelsat has filed a lawsuit against OneWeb and its financial backer Japan’s SoftBank.

The writ alleges that the OneWeb and SoftBank conspired together in stealing confidential information, because – the writ states – SoftBank no longer believed in the OneWeb project and was seeking to protect its previous investment in OneWeb,
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[DocM]

https://www.statnews.com/2020/09/24/crows-possess-higher-intelligence-long-thought-primarily-human/

 

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Brainiacs, not birdbrains: Crows possess higher intelligence long thought a primarily human attribute

 

Whether crows, ravens, and other “corvids” are making multipart tools like hooked sticks to reach grubs, solving geometry puzzles made famous by Aesop, or nudging a clueless hedgehog across a highway before it becomes roadkill, they have long impressed scientists with their intelligence and creativity.

Now the birds can add one more feather to their brainiac claims: Research unveiled on Thursday in Science finds that crows know what they know and can ponder the content of their own minds, a manifestation of higher intelligence and analytical thought long believed the sole province of humans and a few other higher mammals.
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“Together, the two papers show that intelligence/consciousness are grounded in connectivity and activity patterns of neurons” in the most neuron-dense part of the bird brain, called the pallium, neurobiologist Suzana Herculano-Houzel of Vanderbilt University, who wrote an analysis of the studies for Science, told STAT. “Brains can appear diverse, and at the same time share profound similarities. The extent to which similar properties present themselves might be simply a matter of scale: how many neurons are available to work.”
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[FloatingFatMan]

Amazing stuff...

 

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Muons: 'Strong' evidence found for a new force of nature

 

 

From sticking a magnet on a fridge door to throwing a ball into a basketball hoop, the forces of physics are at play in every moment of our lives.

 

All of the forces we experience every day can be reduced to just four categories: gravity, electromagnetism, the strong force and the weak force.

 

Now, physicists say they have found possible signs of a fifth fundamental force of nature.

 

The findings come from research carried out at a laboratory near Chicago.

 

The four fundamental forces govern how all the objects and particles in the Universe interact with each other.

 

For example, gravity makes objects fall to the ground, and heavy objects behave as if they are glued to the floor.

 

The UK's Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) said the result "provides strong evidence for the existence of an undiscovered sub-atomic particle or new force".

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/56643677

 

If this bears out, it's truly astonishing!

 

[xrobwx71]

On 17/12/2018 at 22:01, Draggendrop said:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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A piece of this plane is now on Mars!

 

http://www.collectspace.com/news/news-032821a-ingenuity-mars-helicopter-wright-flyer-fabric.html

 

 

 

[DocM]

60 Minutes story on Lithium Valley, California's Salton Sea area which is up to its armpits in lithium.

 

 

[DocM]

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Two gene therapies for sickle cell disease approved in US

Regulators on Friday approved two gene therapies for sickle cell disease that doctors hope can cure the painful, inherited blood disorder that afflicts mostly Black people in the U.S.

 

https://www.detroitnews.com/story/life/wellness/2023/12/08/sickle-cell-gene-therapy-approved-fda/71852401007/