James Somers, in a long essay: I should have loved biology but I found it to be a lifeless recitation of names: the Golgi apparatus and the Krebs cycle; mitosis, meiosis; DNA, RNA, mRNA, tRNA. In the textbooks, astonishing facts were presented without astonishment. Someone probably told me that every cell in my body has the same DNA. But no one…
Tag: gradient
Voyager Spacecraft Detect An Increase In the Density of Space Outside the Solar System
As Voyager 2 moves farther and farther from the Sun, the density of space is increasing. “It’s not the first time this density increase has been detected,” notes SciencAlert. “Voyager 1, which entered interstellar space in 2012, detected a similar density gradient at a separate location.” From the report: Voyager 2’s new data show that not only was Voyager 1’s detection…
Saharan-fed sunsets in the US
A massive Saharan dust plume is moving into the southeast US, bringing technicolor sunsets and suppressing tropical storms. Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/saharan-dust-cloud-us-sunsets-june2020…
MIT’s Tiny Artificial Brain Chip Could Bring Supercomputer Smarts To Mobile Devices
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Researchers at MIT have published a new paper that describes a new type of artificial brain synapse that offers performance improvements versus other existing versions, and which can be combined in volumes of tens of thousands on a chip that’s smaller physically than a single piece of confetti. The results could help create…
Why Glass Frogs Have See-Through Skin Becomes Clear In Study
The mystery of why glass frogs have see-through skin has been solved, scientists say: the unusual feature is a type of camouflage. The Guardian reports: Glass frogs are found in tropical Central and South America, and get their name from their skin. However, the frogs are not truly transparent but translucent, with the skin on their backs typically a vivid green…
Safety zone saves giant moons from fatal plunge
Numerical simulations show that the temperature gradient in the gas disk around a young gas giant planet could play a critical role in the development of a satellite system dominated by a single large moon, similar to Titan in the Saturn system. Researchers found that dust in the circumplanetary disk can create a “safety zone” that keeps the moon from falling…
2 Satellites Will Narrowly Avoid Colliding Over Pittsburgh On Wednesday
Two defunct satellites traveling at 32,800 mph will narrowly miss colliding with one another over Pittsburgh on Wednesday evening. “If the two satellites were to collide, the debris could endanger spacecraft around the planet,” reports Space.com. From the report: It will be a near miss: LeoLabs, the satellite-tracking company that made the prediction, said they should pass between 50 feet and…
Why Nile hasn’t changed course in 30 million years
Scientists say they’ve solved the geologic mystery of the Nile River’s unchanging path, and also discovered the river is about 30 million years old – 6 times older than previously believed. Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/why-nile-river-hasnt-changed-course-age…