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Science

SCIENCE: There Are Zombie Deer?

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Zombie Deer

Deer in at least 22 U.S. states and parts of Canada have died from a neurological disease called “chronic wasting disease,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). But could this illness, which is sometimes dubbed “zombie deer disease,” spread to people, just as “mad cow disease” has done in the past? Chronic wasting disease can cause a number of symptoms in animals, including drastic weight loss, a lack of coordination, drooling, listlessness or a “blank” facial expression, and a lack of fear of people, according to the CDC. It infects members of the deer (cervid) family, … Read more

TECH: Thinnest Mirrors in the World Use Quantum ‘Excitons’ to Reflect Light

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Thin Mirror

Two separate teams of scientists have built the thinnest mirrors in the world: sheets of molybdenum diselenide (MoSe2), each just a single atom wide. The mirrors were developed at the same time at Harvard University and the Institute for Quantum Electronics in Zurich, and described in a pair of papers published Thursday (Jan. 18) in the journal Physical Review Letters. These engineering feats push the limits of what’s possible in this physical universe, the researchers said. Despite approaching the minimum thickness an object could possibly have and remain reflective under the laws of physics, the tiny mirrors reflected a great … Read more

TECH: Underwater Drones

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Underwater Drones

Aerial drones have buzzed their way into almost every aspect of the modern world, from photography and television news coverage, to environmental monitoring and archaeology. And many of the concepts developed for aerial drones are being adopted and adapted to work in a very different environment — underwater. Here’s a look at 23 of the many ways that drones are being used beneath the waves, by oceanographic scientists, archaeologists, militaries, commercial divers, photographers and undersea explorers. By Tom Metcalfe – Full Story at Live Science

SCIENCE: There Was a Rainbow Dinosaur

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Rainbow Dinosaur

Despite its fearsome, Velociraptor-like skull, a 161-million-year-old dinosaur the size of a duck would have been a shining, shimmering and splendid sight to behold — mostly because it sported gleaming, iridescent feathers that were rainbow-colored, a new study finds. Iridescent feathers glistened on the dinosaur’s head, wings and tail, according to an analysis of the shape and structure of the creature’s melanosomes, the parts of cells that contain pigment. “The preservation of this dinosaur is incredible — we were really excited when we realized the level of detail we were able to see on the feathers,” study co-researcher Chad Eliason, … Read more

Scientists Find “Mordor Under the Sea”

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Mordor under the sea

Today in news best suited for sneaky little Hobbitses and Shire-folk, scientists unveiled a map of a faraway volcanic realm that has a distinct look of Mordor about it. Unfortunately for any ring bearers, the molten landscape has probably been hidden underwater for millions of years. The “Tolkienesque” region of submarine volcanoes buried beneath the sea south of Australia was discovered by a team of researchers from the University of Adelaide in Australia, the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) in Australia. The team employed 3D seismic reflection, a geo-mapping technique that … Read more

U=(N/T)M*G: Switch

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The Y chromosome, which about half the planet’s population carries, is an interesting little thing. In humans, and most other species, it’s one of many traits to identify a male. Of course, this is not always the case. A lot of people put stock in that unique little Y. Its presence, and the corresponding genitalia, have dominated history and culture and power for most of humanity’s stint on our little mudball. While it may take another 4 million years, that little chromosome appears to be on the way out. The problem looming for Y is a common trait found in … Read more

SCIENCE: Great Barrier Reef Sea Turtles Almost All Female

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sea turtle - pixabay

A population of green sea turtles is turning almost entirely female due to changes in the environment, scientists have found. Temperature change in the Great Barrier Reef is causing the turtles to turn from male to female. The transformation has led scientists to be concerned about the species’ future – with just 0.2 per cent of the turtles being male in some areas. Environment temperatures play a key role in determining the sex of green sea turtles. The proportion of female hatchlings increases when nests are in warmer sands, while cooler temperatures is known to produce more male turtles. For more than … Read more

New Play Looks at All Male Society and Male Pregnancy

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Mankind

What if women were extinct? What if men evolved to bear children — and invented “Feminism” as a religion, devoted to making the world hospitable for the second coming of the bygone sex? Such is the dystopian setting of writer-director Robert O’Hara’s ambitious but stalled new play Mankind, which opened off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons last night. Though it’s more often men who are out of the picture, à la Wonder Woman’s Themyscira, single-sex societies are a familiar sci-fi trope. The question of men becoming pregnant is likewise well tread — Arnold Schwarzenegger tried it in Junior (1994), and scientists even … Read more

FOR WRITERS: Artificial Wombs

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test tubes and beakers - pixabay

FOR WRITERS Today’s writer topic comes from QSFer Alicia Nordwell: In honor of National Tech Day – artificial wombs: How would an artificial womb change the ‘humanity’ of the babies grown this way? What might genetic manipulation might lead to in terms of more than purifying the DNA for characteristics? What might be done with “abandoned” genetic materials that are used to create babies? Who would they belong to? What are their legal rights from conception or would they lack of human interaction during gestation make them more prone to be viewed as a product? Today we peer into the … Read more

PHOTO: Solar Halo or Portal Into Another Dimension?

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Sun Halo

Skiers in Sweden last month were treated to an otherworldly sun halo as they hit the slopes. APOD writes: “What’s happened to the Sun? Sometimes it looks like the Sun is being viewed through a giant lens. In the featured video, however, there are actually millions of tiny lenses: ice crystals. Water may freeze in the atmosphere into small, flat, six-sided, ice crystals. As these crystals flutter to the ground, much time is spent with their faces flat and parallel to the ground. An observer may find themselves in the same plane as many of the falling ice crystals near … Read more