Neatorama |
- Final Exam Video Project
- Removing Snow with a Flamethrower
- The Cat's Favorite Movie
- 15 New Year's Food Traditions from Around the World
- The Forgotten Life of Einstein's First Wife
- Jingle Throats
- A New Snake Species Has Been Discovered
- Meet The Newly-Discovered ‘Prehistoric Sea Dragon’
- How Do Genes Influence Our Preferences?
- Meet The Guy Who Wraps Celebrities’ Luxury Cars
- A Family With No Fingerprints
- What Did We Get Stuck in Our Orifices in 2020?
- Should You Pet Your Dog Before Leaving The House?
- Long Distance Quantum Teleportation Has Been Achieved!
- The Goat Problem, Now Solved
| Posted: 27 Dec 2020 01:38 PM PST
 |
| Removing Snow with a Flamethrower Posted: 27 Dec 2020 01:38 PM PST
While dressed as the impulse control-impaired character Eddie Johnson from National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, Timothy Browning of Ashland, Kentucky celebrated Christmas morning the traditional way. He got out his flamethrower and blasted the snow off of his driveway. He is thus the model to all men about how we should conduct ourselves during this yuletide season. Let us do likewise--assuming that we can construct a functional flamethrower in our workshops. -via Dave Barry |
| Posted: 27 Dec 2020 12:53 PM PST
|
| 15 New Year's Food Traditions from Around the World Posted: 27 Dec 2020 12:51 PM PST
Read about more New Year food traditions at Food52. -via The Week |
| The Forgotten Life of Einstein's First Wife Posted: 27 Dec 2020 12:26 PM PST
Mileva Marić Einstein was a brilliant physicist who is little known today, mainly because she was a woman born in 1875. The reason she is known at all is because she was married to Albert Einstein from 1903 to 1919. Their collaboration in both science and life started in 1896 when both were at the Polytechnic Institute in Zurich. In what appeared to be a pattern set for their entire time together, Mileva dragged Albert through his classes.
Mileva had better grades than Albert, but the professor giving the final oral exam gave her such low marks that she did not graduate. Her four male classmates did. Albert and Mileva went on to collaborate on groundbreaking physics research, but Mileva's name rarely appeared in published papers, possibly because she knew from experience that her participation could diminish those papers and therefore Albert's job prospects. What she felt would advance their future together ended up costing her everything. Read the story of Mileva Einstein at Scientific American. -via Damn Interesting |
| Posted: 27 Dec 2020 12:26 PM PST
You don't like Christmas music? Shove it down people throats! Fun by Khöömïï, Tuvan, Sygyt throat singers. |
| A New Snake Species Has Been Discovered Posted: 27 Dec 2020 10:17 AM PST
It was hiding in plain sight, too. A graduate research assistant at the University of Kansas has discovered not one, but three new species of snakes preserved in the university's Biodiversity Institute's biodiversity collection. The snake specimens were overlooked until Jeff Weinell discovered that they were actually new species, and now these specimens are the only known members of a new snake genus called Levitonius: The newly identified Levitonius mirus, also known as Waray dwarf burrowing snake, is native to the islands of Samar and Leyte in the Philippines, an exceptionally biodiverse archipelago that includes at least 112 land snake species, according to the study. The snake has among the fewest number of vertebrae of any snake species in the world, according to the study, and has a long and narrow skull relative to its size, Weinell explained in a conversation with CNN. Its scales are highly iridescent, and it is likely that its diet is based on earthworms. Weinell emphasized the importance of collaboration between US-based scientists and scientists in the Philippines, furthering the understanding of biodiversity in the region. Image via CNN |
| Meet The Newly-Discovered ‘Prehistoric Sea Dragon’ Posted: 27 Dec 2020 10:17 AM PST
It's smaller than we would imagine a 'sea dragon' to be. The Thalassodraco etchesi or Etches sea dragon is a small marine reptile from 150 million years ago. The species, whose remains have been discovered in a marine deposit in Dorset, England, may have been able to dive to extreme depths, and are also described as "streamlined marine predators from the Late Jurassic period." IGN has more details: "This ichthyosaur has several differences that makes it unique enough to be its own genus and species," paleontologist Megan L. Jacobs said. "New Late Jurassic ichthyosaurs in the United Kingdom are extremely rare, as these creatures have been studied for 200 years. We knew it was new almost instantly, but it took about a year to make thorough comparisons with all other Late Jurassic ichthyosaurs to make certain our instincts were correct. It was very exciting to not be able to find a match." This specific specimen was discovered in 2009 and was estimated to have been about 6 feet long. It was discovered by fossil collector Steve Etches MBE after a "cliff crumbled along the seaside." It appears to have some similarities to sperm whales with its "extremely deep rib cage" that may have allowed for larger lungs and space so internal organs weren't crushed under the pressure. It also had large eyes, which meant it could have been able to see well in low light. Its hundreds of tiny teeth seem to indicate a diet that may have consisted of squid and small fish, and "the teeth are unique by being completely smooth." Image via IGN |
| How Do Genes Influence Our Preferences? Posted: 27 Dec 2020 10:17 AM PST
While we may insist that our environment influences our preferences, new research reveals that our genes also have influence over our preferences. Our genes control how much of our behavior might have a biological predisposition. This means that we might have been born to have a particular behavior or characteristic, as the Next Web details: Research has shown genes may predispose not only our height, eye colour or weight, but also our vulnerability to mental ill-health, longevity, intelligence and impulsivity. Such traits are, to varying degrees, written into our genes — sometimes thousands of genes working in concert. Most of these genes instruct how our brain circuitry is laid down in the womb, and how it functions. We can now view a baby's brain as it is built, even 20 weeks before birth. Circuitry changes exist in their brains that strongly correlate with genes that predispose for autism spectrum disorder and attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). They even predispose for conditions that might not emerge for decades: bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder and schizophrenia. Increasingly we are faced with the prospect that predispositions to more complex behaviors are similarly wired into our brains. These include which religion we choose, how we form our political ideologies, and even how we create our friendship groups. Image via The Next Web |
| Meet The Guy Who Wraps Celebrities’ Luxury Cars Posted: 27 Dec 2020 10:17 AM PST
Okay, "wraps" doesn't mean Yianni Charalambous puts wrapping paper around luxury cars as gifts, no. Charalambous specializes in customizing rare and expensive cars for celebrities. If a celebrity isn't satisfied by how their Ferrari, Aston Martin, Porsche, McLaren, Bentley, or Rolls Royce look, they can hire Charalmbous' services to customize their beloved cars. Check out the delicate and intricate process on how he changes the look of celebrities' expensive automobiles. |
| Posted: 27 Dec 2020 10:16 AM PST
It seems that not all people get a unique set of swirls on their fingertips. This unique condition, which manifested in Apu Sarker's family, is a rare genetic mutation. The condition, called Adermatoglyphia, renders people affected with it to have no fingerprints and a reduced amount of sweat glands on their hands, as BBC details: Apu, who is 22, lives with his family in a village in the northern district of Rajshahi. He was working as a medical assistant until recently. His father and his grandfather were farmers. The men in Apu's family appear to share a genetic mutation so rare it is thought to affect only a small handful of families in the world: they have no fingerprints. Back in the day of Apu's grandfather, having no fingerprints was no big deal. "I don't think he ever thought of it as a problem," Apu said. But over the decades, the tiny grooves that swirl around our fingertips - known properly as dermatoglyphs - have become the world's most collected biometric data. We use them for everything from passing through airports to voting and opening our smartphones. [...] A dermatologist in Bangladesh has diagnosed the family's condition as congenital palmoplantar keratoderma, which Prof Itin believes developed into secondary Adermatoglyphia - a version of the disease which can also cause dry skin and reduced sweating on palms and feet - symptoms reported by the Sarkers. More testing would be needed to confirm that the family has some form of Adermatoglyphia. Professor Sprecher said his team would be "very glad" to assist the family with genetic testing. The results of those tests might bring the Sarkers some certainly, but no relief from the day to day struggles of navigating the world without fingerprints. Image via BBC |
| What Did We Get Stuck in Our Orifices in 2020? Posted: 27 Dec 2020 10:16 AM PST
It's time for Barry Petchesky's annual list of things people had to go to emergency rooms to have removed from various bodily orifices in the preceding year. That includes the ears, nose, throat, penis, vagina, and rectum.
Most of the list is just the object and its size, but there are some quotes from the reports. The reports of earbuds stuck in ears are quite believable, and the things pulled from noses appear to be mostly children, but you can almost hear the skepticism in the quotes about how objects became stuck in rectums -as reported by the patients. See the list at Defector. |
| Should You Pet Your Dog Before Leaving The House? Posted: 27 Dec 2020 10:16 AM PST
I pet my dog every chance I get. Do you (if you have one, that is) have to pet your furry companion before you leave? Researchers recommend you do. Giving pups a little pat before we head out actually keeps them calm while we're away. According to a study published in the Journal of Veterinary Behavior, gently petting a dog before leaving home has a positive effect on the animal's stress response: The researchers monitored the dogs' behaviors while the owners were gone, measured the dogs' heart rates before and after the separation, and noted the animals' salivary cortisol after their owners left (excess drooling can be a sign of stress). The experimenters noticed that though none of the dogs were highly stressed, the animals from both groups spent almost half the time looking for their missing owners. However, the key difference between the groups was that dogs who were pet before their owners left exhibited more calm behaviors when their owners were missing and had a lower heart rate after the reunion compared to dogs in the neutral condition. The researchers conclude that this topic needs further study, though they write that the findings suggest "that petting a dog before a brief separation from the owner may have a positive effect, making the dog calmer during the separation itself." Image via First For Women |
| Long Distance Quantum Teleportation Has Been Achieved! Posted: 27 Dec 2020 10:16 AM PST
That's one step closer to our dreams of saying 'beam me up!' anytime we go to other locations! Researchers are not able to teleport actual human beings yet, sorry. However, the team of scientists have successfully teleported qubits (basic units of quantum info) across almost 14 miles of fiber optic cables with 90 percent precision. This might be a stepping stone to not only human teleportation, but towards the quantum internet (possibly a much more powerful Internet connection). When quantum internet is finally a thing, it will make Wifi look obsolete and dial-up even more ancient than it already is. "We achieved sustained, high-fidelity quantum teleportation utilizing time-bin (time-of-arrival_ qubits of light, at the telecommunication wavelength of 1.5 microns, over fiber optic cables," Panagiotis Spentzouris, Head of Quantum Science at the Fermilab Quantum Institute, told SYFY WIRE. "This type of qubit is compatible with several devices that are required for the deployment of quantum networks." What you might recognize is the fiber optic cables used in the experiment, since they are everywhere in telecommunication tech today. Lasers, electronics and optical equipment which were also used for the experiments at Caltech (CQNET) and Fermilab (FQNET) that could someday evolve into the next iteration of internet. Though this is equipment you probably also recognize, what it did for these experiments was enable them to go off without a glitch. Information traveled across the cables at warp speed with the help of semi-autonomous systems that monitored it while while managing control and synchronization of the entangled particles. The system could run for up to a week without human intervention. Image via Syfy |
| Posted: 27 Dec 2020 10:16 AM PST
I had no idea this existed. But this infamous goat problem is more difficult than the 'how many milk bottles' will one have after a certain number of conditions. This one has baffled mathematicians for quite some time. The problem is this: 'for a goat to be able to eat grass in a circle with an area of exactly one half acre, how much rope does it need?' Now this may look simple, but the answer actually has only been approximations for centuries, as Popular Mechanics detailed: The goat problem is a living example of what it means to round off your answer. Steve Nadis at Quanta explains the distinction: "To illustrate the difference, consider the equation x2 − 2 = 0. One could derive an approximate numerical answer, x = 1.4142, but that's not as accurate or satisfying as the exact solution, x = √2." With a few moments of thought, the goat problem quickly turns into an exercise in many intersecting approximations. This is why every answer offered since the 1700s has been an approximation as well. And now, finally, there's an exact solution for the first time. Mathematician Ingo Ullisch took a cue from the previous researchers who made progress on the problem. He introduced complex analysis, which is kind of like algebra with an optional imaginary-number add-on. Check Popular Mechanics' full piece on the solution to the problem here. Image via Popular Mechanics |
| You are subscribed to email updates from Neatorama. To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States | |
No comments:
Post a Comment
Keep a civil tongue.