Weekly Roundup | Science and Space: Top 20 stories of the week of Sept 30th - Oct 7th, 2016
Who are we? We find that we live on an insignificant planet of a humdrum star lost in a galaxy tucked away in some forgotten corner of a universe in which there are far more galaxies than people. - Carl Sagan
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1 +17y+ ago
Humans Won't Ever Live Far Beyond 115 Years
Medical advances might keep us healthier for longer, but biology could have limits that technology can't overcome.
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Submitted on October 5th 2016 by gladsdotter with 1 comments and with 2 Related Links:
1. Has The Human Life Span Hit The Ceiling? Added by gladsdotter on October 5th 2016.
2. 16 people who were verified to live beyond 115 years Added by spaceghoti on October 5th 2016.
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2 +17y+ ago
'Alien Megastructure' Star Keeps Getting Stranger
The more scientists learn about "Tabby's Star," the more mysterious the bizarre object gets. Newly analyzed observations by NASA's planet-hunting Kepler space telescope show that the star KIC 8462852 — whose occasional, dramatic dips in brightness still have astronomers scratching their heads — has also dimmed overall during the last few years. "The steady brightness change in KIC 8462852 is pretty astounding," study lead authorBen Montet, of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, said in a statement.
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Submitted on October 5th 2016 by drunkenninja with 4 comments and with 1 Related Links:
1. The most mysterious star in the universe | Tabetha Boyajian Added by Maternitus on October 7th 2016.
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3 +17y+ ago
Corporations running the world used to be science fiction – Now it's a reality
Imagine a world in which all of the main functions of society are run for-profit by private companies. Schools are run by multinationals. Private security firms have replaced police forces. And most big infrastructure lies in the hands of a tiny plutocratic elite. Justice, such as it is, is meted out by shady corporate tribunals only accessible to the rich, who can easily escape the reach of limited national judicial systems. The poor, on the other hand, have almost no recourse against the mighty will of the remote corporate elite as they are chased off their land and forced into further penury.
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Submitted on October 1st 2016 by bradd with 2 comments
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4 +17y+ ago
Bees trained by scientists can teach each other new skills
If you ask most people around the world their true desires, their answers will be the same: health, happiness, and to ride around in a chariot pulled by thousands of bees. Thankfully, scientists have brought us closer to that last desire this week — they've successfully taught a group of the tiny insects to pull on string in exchange for a reward. Even better, they don't need to train the bees individually, discovering that when allowed to observe their compatriots, bees from another group could pick up the skill without human input.
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Submitted on October 6th 2016 by geoleo
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5 +17y+ ago
Underwater Explosions at 120,000fps - The Slow Mo Guys
Published on Oct 6, 2016Gav and Dan usually blow stuff up in regular air, but did you know you can also blow stuff up in other places?
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Submitted on October 6th 2016 by b1ackbird
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6 +17y+ ago
FBI, DOJ And Their Forensic Scientists State They'll Continue Using Discredited Junk Science To Put People Behind Bars
For dozens of years, criminal prosecutions have relied on junk science. Not only are outside scientists locked out of examining evidence and forensic processes, but defense lawyers are as well.
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Submitted on September 30th 2016 by kxh with 1 comments
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9 +17y+ ago
Medicine Nobel for cell recycling work
The 2016 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine goes to Yoshinori Ohsumi of Japan for discoveries about the secrets of how cells can remain healthy by recycling waste. He located genes that regulate the cellular "self eating" process known as autophagy. Dr Ohsumi's work is important because it helps explain what goes wrong in a range of illnesses, from cancer to Parkinson's. Errors in these genes cause disease.
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Submitted on October 3rd 2016 by socialiguana
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10 +17y+ ago
A huge underground coal fire burning since 1962 has generated soil teeming with extraordinary antibiotic-laden microbes
An enormous blaze underneath a small town in Pennsylvania has been burning for more than 50 years. It may have an unexpected upside - selecting for heat-loving bacteria capable of spitting out brand new antibiotics.
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Submitted on October 6th 2016 by swift528491
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11 +17y+ ago
Sabotage speculation gathers around SpaceX explosion
The recovered first stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is transported to the SpaceX hangar at launch pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida May 14, 2016. Sabotage speculation gathers around SpaceX explosion. Rumors of potential sabotage are gathering around the investigation of the explosion during a recent SpaceX launch test. SpaceX has been investigating the early September failure of a Falcon 9 rocket that caught fire and exploded on a Cape Canaveral launch pad just days before it was scheduled to launch.
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Submitted on October 4th 2016 by aj0690
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12 +17y+ ago
How evolution has equipped our hands with five fingers
Have you ever wondered why our hands have exactly five fingers? Scientists have uncovered a part of this mystery, and their remarkable discovery is outlined in a new report.
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Submitted on October 6th 2016 by tiberius with 1 comments
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13 +17y+ ago
The Donald Trump Caterpillar and Nature's Masters of Disguise
They have some of the best caterpillars in Peru.
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Submitted on October 3rd 2016 by b1ackbird
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14 +17y+ ago
Boeing CEO Vows to Beat Musk to Mars
Boeing Co. once helped the U.S. beat the Soviet Union in the race to the moon. Now the company intends to go toe-to-toe with newcomers such as billionaire Elon Musk in the next era of space exploration and commerce. Boeing Chief Executive Officer Dennis Muilenburg sketched out a Jetsons-like future at a conference Tuesday, envisioning a commercial space-travel market with dozens of destinations orbiting the Earth and hypersonic aircraft shuttling travelers between continents in two hours or less. And Boeing intends to be a key player in the initial push to send humans to Mars, maybe even beating Musk to his long-time goal.
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Submitted on October 5th 2016 by jasont
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15 +17y+ ago
Researchers report advance in low-cost clean energy generation
Researchers at the University of Houston and Massachusetts Institute of Technology have reported a substantial advance in generating electricity through a combination of concentrating solar power and thermoelectric materials. By combining concentrating solar power – which converts light into heat that is then used to generate electricity – with segmented thermoelectric legs, made up of two different thermoelectric materials, each working at different temperature ranges, researchers said they have demonstrated a promising new alternative solar energy technology.
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Submitted on October 4th 2016 by aj0690
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16 +17y+ ago
Record-breaking extragalactic gamma-ray binary found – Astronomy Now
30 September 2016Astronomy Now
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Submitted on September 30th 2016 by NotWearingPants
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17 +17y+ ago
World's Largest Dinosaur Footprint Found In Mongolian Desert
A team of Japanese and Mongolian paleontologists have discovered the largest dinosaur footprint ever found in the Mongolian desert. The footprint is as big as a fully grown person, measuring 42 inches long and 30 inches wide. It belongs to the Titanosaur, a dinosaur who, as its name suggests, was very, very large. Titanosaurs roamed the Earth about 70 to 90 million years ago.
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Submitted on October 3rd 2016 by ubthejudge
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18 +17y+ ago
Protect dolphins, UK government urged
Campaigners are demanding better safeguards for the UK's marine mammals after the EU said it would take Britain to court over harbour porpoises. The European Commission announced the action because it says the UK is failing to protect the endangered animals properly. The government is yet to comment on the court action. But the Wildlife Trusts are urging ministers to declare many more Marine Conservation Zones (MCZs).
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Submitted on October 4th 2016 by socialiguana
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19 +17y+ ago
Tech billionaires convinced we live in the Matrix are secretly funding scientists to help break us out of it
Some of the world’s richest and most powerful people are convinced that we are living in a computer simulation. And now they’re trying to do something about it. At least two of Silicon Valley’s tech billionaires are pouring money into efforts to break humans out of the simulation that they believe that it is living in, according to a new report.
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Submitted on October 6th 2016 by kong88
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20 +17y+ ago
Psychologists fail to replicate well-known behaviour linked to learning
Physiologist Ivan Pavlov conditioned dogs to associate food with the sound of a buzzer, which left them salivating. Decades later, researchers discovered such training appears to block efforts to teach the animals to link other stimuli to the same reward. Dogs trained to expect food when a buzzer sounds can then be conditioned to salivate when they are exposed to the noise and a flash of light simultaneously. But light alone will not cue them to drool.
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Submitted on October 4th 2016 by everlost
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Here are this week's top five Science & Space tribes:
/t/science 125 posts, 79 comments, 644 votes.
/t/research 89 posts, 34 comments, 450 votes.
/t/futurism 37 posts, 28 comments, 217 votes.
/t/space 34 posts, 24 comments, 143 votes.
/t/neuroscience 34 posts, 12 comments, 176 votes.
Note: Tribes can only be featured once every four weeks. Validate your tribe to be included on this list!
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