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science

Announcement/Deleted Scene: Ardulum: First Don, by J.S. Fields

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Ardulum: First Don

J.S. Fields has a new FF sci fi romance out: Ardulum. The planet that vanishes. The planet that sleeps. Neek makes a living piloting the dilapidated tramp transport, Mercy’s Pledge, and smuggling questionable goods across systems blessed with peace and prosperity. She gets by—but only just. In her dreams, she is still haunted by thoughts of Ardulum, the traveling planet that, long ago, visited her homeworld. The Ardulans brought with them agriculture, art, interstellar technology…and then disappeared without a trace, leaving Neek’s people to worship them as gods. Neek does not believe—and has paid dearly for it with an exile … Read more

Science: De-Extincting the Wooly Mammoth

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Wooly Mammoth - pixabay

Did we learn nothing from “Jurassic Park?” A Harvard University scientist told The Guardian this week that his team is only two years from resurrecting some traits of the woolly mammoth, which went extinct during the last ice age. The goal is to create an embryo that’s a hybrid of the woolly mammoth and its closest living relative, the Asian elephant. “Our aim is to produce a hybrid elephant-mammoth embryo,” researcher George Church told The Guardian. “Actually, it would be more like an elephant with a number of mammoth traits.” Church explained to HuffPost last year that the process involves … Read more

When Did You Discover Time Travel?

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Time Travel - Pixabay

How old were you when you first encountered the concept of time travel? I used to believe it was when I first saw the George Pal version of The Time Machine which came out in 1960, and I didn’t see until 1962 or 1963 when I was ten or eleven. Memory is a highly unreliable resource, especially for dating. I vaguely remember that seeing the movie made me get the book from my school library the next day. What’s weird, is I don’t remember being blown away by the idea of a time machine at that time. And time travel … Read more

SCIENCE: 83 Genetic Mutations That Help Determine Your Height

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height pixabay

Ever wonder how much of your height you inherited from your parents? A large-scale genetic study published recently in the journal Nature is helping shed some light on the factors that determine whether a person grows to be 6-feet-1 or 5-feet-2. While scientists already had a good idea of the most common genetic factors that contribute to height, the new findings uncover a number of rare genetic alterations that can play a surprisingly major role in human growth. Using data from the Genetic Investigation of Anthropometric Traits consortium (a group also known as GIANT), scientists from the Broad Institute at … Read more

Science: New Glasses Correct Red-Green Color Blindness

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Red Green Color Blindness glasses

Many of us don’t think twice about the color of, say, trees. However, it’s an entirely different world to those who experience red-green colorblindness, a condition that affects as many as 8 percent of men and .5 percent of women of Northern European descent. And as the viral PlayGround + video above shows, it’s a world with a lot less vibrancy. Take, for example, this nature comparison outlined in the video. The left image above shows how people with red-green colorblindness might see a grass field, and the right picture shows what the patch really looked like. By Lindsay Holmes … Read more

SCIENCE: A Ball the Size of Texas

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wooden ball - pixabay

What would happen if a ball the size of Texas fell into the ocean? originally appeared on Quora – the knowledge sharing network where compelling questions are answered by people with unique insights. Answer by Dave Consiglio, Chemistry and Physics High School Teacher and Community College Professor, on Quora: What would happen if a ball the size of Texas fell into the ocean? There are lots of variables to consider here. First: Wood. So there’s lots of kinds of wood. Hardwood, softwood, etc. Let’s go with a density of around .7 g/cm^3 (which seems to be about average). Second: Speed. … Read more

SCIENCE: Shark Reproduces Asexually

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zebra_shark

Chalk it up to 2016. For the first known time, a shark has reproduced asexually after having previously produced offspring through mating. A zebra shark in an Australian aquarium has been reported to have made the switch in April of last year. The proud and apparently determined mother, Leonie, delivered three pups, Cleo, CC and Gemini, at the Reef HQ Aquarium in Townsville, Queensland. She had previously had a male partner from 2006 through 2012, birthing 20 pups, until aquarium staff had trouble keeping up with the number of young she was having. But she had apparently not let that separation cramp her … Read more

Science: We Might Get to See a Supernova!

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supernova - pixabay

It could be one of the biggest astronomical events in years ― a star explosion so intense it could literally change the night sky. Astronomers are predicting that binary star system KIC 9832227, located in the Cygnus constellation, will merge and explode in a “red nova” event in 2022. And if it happens as predicted, its brightness will increase by 10,000-fold, making it one of the brightest objects in the night sky and easily visible with the naked eye, according to a Calvin College news release. “It will be a very dramatic change in the sky, as anyone can see … Read more

Science: How Long Will the Zombie Apocalypse Last?

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zombie - pixabay

Life with zombies wouldn’t last long. A new study concludes that ravening zombie hordes would reduce Earth’s population to no more than 200 survivors within 100 days. The research, published in the University of Leicester’s peer-reviewed Journal of Physics Special Topics, is a tongue-in-cheek analysis by physics students of a mathematical model that predicts the spread of disease. But in the model, zombies serve a deadly serious function: to simulate how quickly a virus could wipe out the planet. The model divides the population into three categories: those susceptible to the infection, those infected, and those who have either died … Read more

SCIENCE: Ghost Shark With Retractable Head Penis Filmed

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ghost shark

Researchers filming off the coast of California captured a wondrous creature on video for the first time: the mysterious and elusive chimaera, or ‘ghost shark’. The Guardian reports: The team from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Center had sent a remote operated vehicle down to depths of 2,000 metres (6,700ft) when the creature appeared on their screens. Also known as chimaeras, the creatures are related to sharks and rays. But unlike their namesakes, ghost sharks have tooth plates instead of teeth and open channels on their heads and faces that give them the appearance of having been stitched together like … Read more