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Science

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

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Elon Musk talked about something interesting recently, which is not surprising at any given time. Musk’s ideas border on hard science fiction more often than not. But in this instance, he was stating a mere fact. Eventually, humanity is going to end up more machine than man. Me personally, I think it will be pretty damned cool. Sort of like Scott Westerfeld’s Uglies books without the over-emphasized idea of beauty or terrorists that started that entire world-building scenario off. I could download a complete manuscript from my brain onto the Net without the whole hassle of publishers, editors, and artists … 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

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

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Something pretty awesome happened a couple of weeks ago. Well, it started with something very bad, and led to awesome. And I never thought I’d see the day. Donald Trump gagged scientists working for the government. I don’t mean he put a hold on any official statements from departments that did scientific research until he could get a handle on what was going on n those areas. I mean he gagged the individual scientists. That’s the bad part. Ordering scientists to without information, especially when it’s taxpayer funded data, is unprecedented in this country to my knowledge. But a few … 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: Shark Reproduces Asexually

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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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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

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

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A rather alarming, but interesting development has occurred in the realms of environmental science and policy. One of humanity’s greatest fellow travelers has earned its place on the endangered species list. Meet the Bombus Affinis, better know as the rusty patched bumblebee. Despite the fact that bee stings are so fatal to my mom, I love bees. They’re strong, organized, focused and peaceful. Bees are yet another necessary part of existence continuing on this planet. And they are dying. Without bees, the world, humanity not the least of it, would be in dire straights. Our little fellow terrestrials are the … Read more

Future Talk: Robot Marriage, Coming Soon?

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robot - pixabay

Experts are predicting that humans will be able to marry robots by 2050. David Levy, author of a book on human-robot love, made the prediction at a ‘Love and Sex with Robots’ conference. It’s claimed that because society used to look at same-sex marriage as unthinkable, which is now legal in some countries, the prospect of robot marriages is now on the cards. The University of London event predicted that the human-robot marriages will be legal by 2050. Though it may seem far flung, robots that humans can have sex with have long been in the pipeline. Now those in … Read more