LGP Science Thread

by **columbia** on Tue Aug 23, 2011 10:15 pm

I'm fully ok with my choice to not pass on my genes.

by **bhaw** on Tue Aug 23, 2011 10:25 pm

columbia wrote:I'm fully ok with my choice to not pass on my genes.

As we all are! :fist:

by **columbia** on Tue Aug 23, 2011 10:28 pm

by **bhaw** on Tue Aug 23, 2011 10:30 pm

columbia wrote:ok

sorry, it was a bad joke. I will go back to my corner and sit by myself.

by **columbia** on Tue Aug 23, 2011 10:45 pm

Scientists find lager beer's missing link — in Patagonia

How did lager beer come to be? After pondering the question for decades, scientists have found that an elusive species of yeast isolated in the forests of Argentina was key to the invention of the crisp-tasting German beer 600 years ago.

It took a five-year search around the world before a scientific team discovered, identified and named the organism, a species of wild yeast called Saccharomyces eubayanus that lives on beech trees.

http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la- ... ?track=rss

by **columbia** on Tue Aug 23, 2011 11:22 pm

Does Religion Influence Epidemics?

With two Penn State colleagues, demographer Jenny Trinitapoli and Philip Jenkins, a historian of religion, Hughes read the historical literature and queried religious leaders and other experts about the world's epidemics and the way religions deal with disease. They found that between 800 B.C.E. and 200 B.C.E., cities flourished, deadly plagues arose capable of killing off up to two-thirds of a population, and several modern religions emerged. These religions all had a different take on disease, which affected how people responded to epidemics such as polio, measles, and smallpox, Hughes reported. The belief systems, for example, influenced whether people fled from disease or tried to help those who were sick.

http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2 ... tml?ref=hp

by **Point Breeze Penguins** on Wed Aug 24, 2011 7:25 am

Phillip Jenkins has some great books on the sociology of religion.

One of the things that distinguished Christianity in the Roman Empire was its willingness to care for the sick and dying, as well as caring for abandoned infants.

by **columbia** on Wed Aug 24, 2011 8:49 am

It's an interesting theory.....be nice -> get sick.

by **shmenguin** on Wed Aug 24, 2011 8:56 am

doublem wrote:Why we'll never have children.
People tell my wife and me that we'll change our minds. But I can't bear the idea of passing on my mental illness.

http://www.salon.com/life/feature/2011/ ... _have_kids

that's a really sad story. not because of the "no kids" thing. kids aren't for everyone. but it sounds like this guy is really lost. i assume he must have had some sort of therapy if he experienced a nervous breakdown, but it seems like he may have abandoned trying to help himself at this point.

by **tifosi77** on Thu Aug 25, 2011 12:49 am

Astronomers report seeing supermassive black hole swallowing star

The unprecedented sight was revealed in bursts of radiation from a constellation 4.5 billion light-years away, scientists say in the journal Nature.

For the first time, astronomers say they've borne witness to a supermassive black hole consuming a star.

Two papers released Wednesday by the journal Nature describe powerful blasts of radiation whose brightness and behavior can be explained only by a sun-sized star being torn apart by the gravitational forces of a black hole at the center of its galaxy, the authors say.

Scientists believe they have seen the aftermath of such stellar violence before, in the form of fading glows emanating from distant galaxies, in whose centers supermassive black holes usually reside. But they had never caught one in the act.

by **Kaizer** on Thu Aug 25, 2011 1:59 am

the best thing about that is, they "caught it in the act" 4.5 billion years later.

by **count2infinity** on Thu Aug 25, 2011 6:17 am

http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2 ... inside-out

very cool stuff.

by **columbia** on Thu Aug 25, 2011 7:23 am

Kaizer wrote:the best thing about that is, they "caught it in the act" 4.5 billion years later.

by **shmenguin** on Thu Aug 25, 2011 8:38 am

just watched the "sixth sense" episode of through the wormhole. pretty awesome. i'm fascinated with the idea of consciousness, so hearing the big brains talk about it was riveting. though i do wonder how much credence some of these experiments have. the thing with the random number fluctuations seems like it should be one of the biggest stories out there, but i've never heard of it. i imagine there are a bunch of caveats that the show wasn't telling us.

...that show is great, but it has 2 flaws:

- showing the awkward close ups of the scientists needs to stop. these people aren't meant to be in HD.
- the 30 second intro with some meaningless story from morgan freeman's childhood is pretty pointless. i wonder if they realize this, and kick themselves for ever including it in the first place

by **Kraftster** on Thu Aug 25, 2011 8:40 am

shmenguin wrote:just watched the "sixth sense" episode of through the wormhole. pretty awesome. i'm fascinated with the idea of consciousness, so hearing the big brains talk about it was riveting. though i do wonder how much credence some of these experiments have. the thing with the random number fluctuations seems like it should be one of the biggest stories out there, but i've never heard of it. i imagine there are a bunch of caveats that the show wasn't telling us.

...that show is great, but it has 2 flaws:

- showing the awkward close ups of the scientists needs to stop. these people aren't meant to be in HD.
- the 30 second intro with some meaningless story from morgan freeman's childhood is pretty pointless. i wonder if they realize this, and kick themselves for ever including it in the first place

What a post. Totally agree on the flaws.

I also was blown away by the numbers thing. Could not believe I hadn't heard about it before. Still not sure I totally understand it.

I did see some group pong playing thing on some other Science show that dealt with as similar concept of some external existence of consciousness.

Any good reads on consciousness? I too am fascinated by it. I'd recommend Equations of Eternity for a quick read with a wide range of topics but a good discussion of consciousness at the end if I recall.

by **AlexPKeaton** on Thu Aug 25, 2011 8:48 am

Damnit I missed it. I forgot the new season was on and never started recording it. What was the numbers thing you guys are talking about? I wonder if this episode is up online somewhere.

by **Kraftster** on Thu Aug 25, 2011 8:53 am

Some quantum event based random number generator. There are statistically significant occurrences in the numbers generated when certain major events have occurred in the world. Prior to them happening. Morning of 9/11 before plans struck there was some swath of numbers that was different from the normal random generation (statistically significant).

That's as specifically as I can recall it right now.

by **shmenguin** on Thu Aug 25, 2011 9:02 am

Kraftster wrote:Some quantum event based random number generator. There are statistically significant occurrences in the numbers generated when certain major events have occurred in the world. Prior to them happening. Morning of 9/11 before plans struck there was some swath of numbers that was different from the normal random generation (statistically significant).

That's as specifically as I can recall it right now.

yeah, i think it goes like this...a whole bunch of computers scattered all across the globe are constantly generating and storing random numbers. so eventually a stable pattern of data manifests itself and you can start statistically measuring fluctuations in the random patterns. the biggest changes seem to surround large, global, emotional events. they used the obama election and, more importantly, 9/11 as the 2 examples. they experienced these giant spikes in the fluctuations starting RIGHT BEFORE 9/11. as if our global consciousness somehow knew that a big event was about to happen.

i think the scientific basis of this deals with electromagnetism. in theory, since our thoughts/feelings/etc are simply electric events in our brains, then it's possible we are all connected to a single network by the common electromagnetic force that is created by the earth. that is an amazing theory.

by bh on Thu Aug 25, 2011 10:41 am

shmenguin wrote:
Kraftster wrote:Some quantum event based random number generator. There are statistically significant occurrences in the numbers generated when certain major events have occurred in the world. Prior to them happening. Morning of 9/11 before plans struck there was some swath of numbers that was different from the normal random generation (statistically significant).

That's as specifically as I can recall it right now.

yeah, i think it goes like this...a whole bunch of computers scattered all across the globe are constantly generating and storing random numbers. so eventually a stable pattern of data manifests itself and you can start statistically measuring fluctuations in the random patterns. the biggest changes seem to surround large, global, emotional events. they used the obama election and, more importantly, 9/11 as the 2 examples. they experienced these giant spikes in the fluctuations starting RIGHT BEFORE 9/11. as if our global consciousness somehow knew that a big event was about to happen.

i think the scientific basis of this deals with electromagnetism. in theory, since our thoughts/feelings/etc are simply electric events in our brains, then it's possible we are all connected to a single network by the common electromagnetic force that is created by the earth. that is an amazing theory.

that episode blew my mind as well. I think that the amazing thing was the spikes were seen BEFORE the event happened. That show is awesome. I'm also starting to love wonders of the universe. Awesome scenery.

by **columbia** on Thu Aug 25, 2011 10:48 am

shmenguin wrote:i think the scientific basis of this deals with electromagnetism. in theory, since our thoughts/feelings/etc are simply electric events in our brains, then it's possible we are all connected to a single network by the common electromagnetic force that is created by the earth. that is an amazing theory.