Fascinating.

POSTED BY: Wishimay
UPDATED: Tuesday, September 11, 2018 09:08
VIEWED: 2333
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One of the most interesting science articles I've read in years. It's got oodles of info and a little cloak and dagger too.


https://www.wired.com/story/book-excerpt-science-of-ultra-pure-silicon/


If you know of any other interesting science articles, please post.

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Inside the Very Big, Very Controversial Business of Dog Cloning

www.vanityfair.com/style/2018/08/dog-cloning-animal-sooam-hwang

Barbra Streisand is not alone. At a South Korean laboratory, a once-disgraced doctor is replicating hundreds of deceased pets for the rich and famous. It’s made for more than a few questions of bioethics.
. . .

Hwang Woo-suk once dreamed of being the first scientist to clone a human embryo. He wanted it so much, in fact, that he tried to con the world into believing he had done it. Now, given the restrictions placed on his research, he’s unlikely to ever get a crack at creating the first human clone, even if he wanted to. So he bio-engineers pigs and cows to study disease, tinkers with resurrecting the woolly mammoth, and runs his lucrative cloning empire, delivering puppy #1109, and beyond. There will always, it seems, be another grief-stricken customer, desperate to replace a lost companion: another Barbra Streisand, visiting the grave of her beloved Sammie, with Miss Violet and Miss Scarlett perched next to her in their stroller—two identical puffs of white fur, gazing at the tombstone of the dog they are.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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I saw Pet Cemetery. This does not end well.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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The Nastiest Feud in Science

www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/09/dinosaur-extinction-debat
e/565769/

A Princeton geologist has endured decades of ridicule for arguing that the fifth extinction was caused not by an asteroid but by a series of colossal volcanic eruptions.

This dispute illuminates the messy way that science progresses, and how this idealized process, ostensibly guided by objective reason and the search for truth, is shaped by ego, power, and politics. That the dinosaur wars drew in scientists from multiple disciplines only added to the bad blood. Paleontologists resented arriviste physicists, like Alvarez, for ignoring their data; physicists figured the stamp collectors were just bitter because they hadn’t cracked the mystery themselves.

Though geologists had bickered for 60 years before reaching a consensus on continental drift, Alvarez declared the extinction debate over and done within two years. “That the asteroid hit, and that the impact triggered the extinction of much of the life of the sea … are no longer debatable points,” he said in a 1982 lecture. Science reporters cheered having a story that united dinosaurs and extraterrestrials and Cold War fever dreams—it needed only “some sex and the involvement of the Royal Family and the whole world would be paying attention,” one journalist wrote.

Geologist Gerta Keller didn’t buy any of it. “It’s like a fairy tale: ‘Big rock from sky hits the dinosaurs, and boom they go.’ And it has all the aspects of a really nice story,” she said. “It’s just not true.”

Understanding the cause of the mass extinction is not an esoteric academic endeavor. Dinosaurs are what paleontologists call “charismatic megafauna”: sexy, sympathetic beasts whose obliteration transfixes pretty much anyone with a pulse. The nature of their downfall, after 135 million years of good living, might offer clues for how we can prevent, or at least delay, our own end. “Without meaning to sound pessimistic,” the geophysicist Vincent Courtillot writes in his book Evolutionary Catastrophes, “I believe the ancient catastrophes whose traces geologists are now exhuming are worthy of our attention, not just for the sake of our culture or our understanding of the zigzaggy path that led to the emergence of our own species, but quite practically to understand how to keep from becoming extinct ourselves.”

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Quote:

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Originally posted by Wishimay:
One of the most interesting science articles I've read in years. It's got oodles of info and a little cloak and dagger too.


https://www.wired.com/story/book-excerpt-science-of-ultra-pure-silicon/


If you know of any other interesting science articles, please post.

---

Wow wishie, you really got the dirt on that sand.

T

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An earthquake prediction that ACTUALLY seems to be coming true!

I've seen a few articles on Zerohedge lately about a very noticeable increase in earthquakes lately, both large and small, as well as a worrying increase in magma movement under the Yellowstone Caldera. Here is the latest

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Seismic Shocker: The Number Of Global Earthquakes Over The Last 30 Days Is Over 50% Above Normal

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Yeah, I know ... Zerohedge. That's why I never brought them here. But then, one of the comments referenced THIS ...

Please note that this prediction isn't one of those useless after-the-fact "predictions" but an honest-to-god ahead-of-time prediction.

Quote:

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Earth's Rotation Is Mysteriously Slowing Down: Experts Predict Uptick In 2018 Earthquakes
Nov 2017

Scientists have found strong evidence that 2018 will see a big uptick in the number of large earthquakes globally. Earth's rotation, as with many things, is cyclical, slowing down by a few milliseconds per day then speeding up again.

You and I will never notice this very slight variation in the rotational speed of Earth. However, we will certainly notice the result, an increase in the number of severe earthquakes.

Geophysicists are able to measure the rotational speed of Earth extremely precisely, calculating slight variations on the order of milliseconds. Now, scientists believe a slowdown of the Earth's rotation is the link to an observed cyclical increase in earthquakes.

To start, the research team of geologists analyzed every earthquake to occur since 1900 at a magnitude above 7.0. They were looking for trends in the occurrence of large earthquakes. What they found is that roughly every 32 years there was an uptick in the number of significant earthquakes worldwide.

The team was puzzled as to the root cause of this cyclicity in earthquake rate. They compared it with a number of global historical datasets and found only one that showed a strong correlation with the uptick in earthquakes. That correlation was to the slowing down of Earth's rotation. Specifically, the team noted that around every 25-30 years Earth's rotation began to slow down and that slowdown happened just before the uptick in earthquakes. The slowing rotation historically has lasted for 5 years, with the last year triggering an increase in earthquakes.

To add an interesting twist to the story, 2017 was the 4th consecutive year that Earth's rotation has slowed. This is why the research team believes we can expect more earthquakes in 2018, it is the last of a 5-year slowdown in Earth's rotation.
MORE FROM FORBES

What Is Causing Earth's Rotation To Slow Down?

As with many new findings in science, this story began with the data that supports the cyclical slowdown then speed up of Earth's rotation. The research team is then tasked with the "why" to explain this phenomenon. While scientists aren't exactly sure the mechanisms that produce this variation, there are a few hypotheses.

One hypothesis involves Earth's outer core, a liquid metal layer of the planet that circulates underneath the solid lower mantle. The thought is that the outer core can at times "stick" to the mantle, causing a disruption in its flow. This would alter Earth's magnetic field and produce a temporary hiccup in Earth's rotation.

Currently, the data only notes a striking correlation, but no causation. Hence, scientists are still unsure whether this change in Earth's rotation is the cause of an uptick in earthquakes.

While there's no direct link between the two, the trend over the past century suggests that 2018 will be an unusually active year for earthquakes. Typically, there will be 15-20 large earthquakes (M 7.0 or greater). However, during the noted uptick in earthquakes aligning to the 5th year of Earth's rotation slowdown there are on average 25-30 large earthquakes.

Earthquakes remain the most difficult natural disaster to predict. They tend to occur with little to no forewa

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