Nobody Cares! (Science & Tech Edition)

[Essence Lumin]

My new to me pixel 5a phone was ringing sometimes when on do not disturb. I was searching for a bug, then finally found out it was by design. There is a set of radio buttons hidden under the phone app. By default it is set to override do not disturb from any calls in my contact list. What kind of bs is that? Every other android phone I've had, do not disturb silences all calls. I don't want some random caller in my contact list ringing my phone when I am in a meeting or sleeping. Changed to None and all is well now but how dumb.

 

[Beebo Brink]

Just because you CAN do something, doesn't mean you SHOULD do something.

‘Unprecedented risk’ to life on Earth: Scientists call for halt on ‘mirror life’ microbe research | Science | The Guardian

 

[Beebo Brink]

Interesting series of posts on how our understanding of sex and gender has progressed through the decades.

ChristopherE (@christopher664023.bsky.social)

In 1890, the X and Y chromosomes were discovered. It was found that the men who were tested had 46 chromosomes, including an X and a Y, while women who were tested also had 46 chromosomes, including 2 X chromosomes. So obviously the conclusion was that the Y chromosome defined masculinity.

bsky.app

 

[Free]

Fear the bearded Mr. Spock.

Scientists Horrified by "Mirror Life" That Could Wipe Out Biology As We Know It

A group of scientists have called for an immediate halt on creating "mirror life" organisms, which defy biology as we know it.

futurism.com

A group of the world's leading biologists have called for an immediate halt on a technology you've probably never even heard of — but is so dangerous, they say, that it could upend the order life itself on this planet, if not wipe it out.

In a nearly three-hundred page technical report published this month, the scientists describe the horrifyingly existential risks posed by what's known as mirror life: synthetic organisms whose DNA structures are a mirror image to that of all known natural organisms.

Mirror lifeforms are probably a few decades away from being realized. But the risk they pose is unfathomably serious, according to the scientists.

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

I wish I knew enough about biology to know really understand the concerns there. I mean, I know enough to get them in the abstract, but clearly not enough for the problem to be like super intuitive to me. It makes me want to get a book and brush up a bit.

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

So this happened:


This trip to the South Pole to film the 24-hour Sun in timelapse was the result of an online challenge. These guys regularly post videos arguing against flat-earthers. Don't ask me why; like honestly I'd rather peel my fingernails. But anyways, a challenge was made - I'm not sure which side started it - but at some point a few flat-earthers agreed that if some hypothetical trip happened where both they and some normies got to stand at the south pole in the middle of local summer and watch the Sun circle the horizon without setting with their own eyes, they would be forced to admit the world really is a globe.

So the normies made the trip happen.

Now of course the whole reason the flat-earthers agreed initially is because they believed that they were speaking purely hypothetically, that there was no way such a trip could or would ever happen. So they were taken by surprise when they were taken up on it - and they wouldn't EVEN have to put any money where their mouth is, the travel and accomodations would be totally covered! Well, predictably, they started backing out...in droves. In fact only THREE flat-earthers had the guts to stand by their word and go on the trip.

Don't worry, all the other flat-earthers in the meantime have come up with reasons why the 24-hour Sun wouldn't prove anything actually, and have called the three who did go shills/traitors/apostates and all that jazz.

 

[Free]

Don't worry, all the other flat-earthers in the meantime have come up with reasons why the 24-hour Sun wouldn't prove anything actually, and have called the three who did go shills/traitors/apostates and all that jazz.

They've already been doing that for months, and long before plans for the trip were finalized. Any of the flat earthers who went along were also being denounced as turncoats, liars or "big science moles", even before any of them reported their experiences.

Thankfully, a few of the faithful are actually trying to use their brain. Which I guess is all we can ask. (I've also seen a few videos where people say their faith in at least the flat earth community has soured due to the denials and sudden changes in heart that a 24 hour Sun at the Antarctic would disprove anything they've claimed.)

 

[Free]

It should make it in the next edition of the Anarchist Cookbook.

The U.S. Government Just Declassified Cold War-Era Docs About DIY Nukes

During the 1960s, the feds asked fresh-out-of-school physicists to try to build a nuke with no prior knowledge.

gizmodo.com

 

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Science community growing on Bluesky

Bluesky's science takeover: 70% of Nature poll respondents use platform

 

[Free]

I'm on the fence for this one...

New Asteroid Tops NASA's Impact Risk Chart, 1.2% Chance of 2032 Collision

The asteroid, designated 2024 YR4, jumped to the top of NASA's risk chart, with a slim but measurable chance of striking Earth in just seven years.

gizmodo.com

2024 YR4 is a newly spotted asteroid with the potential to hit Earth—and its chances of smashing into our planet in 2032 is definitely more than zero.

I realize that “definitely more than zero” will cause some disquiet in the comments, so to be specific: There is a 1.2% chance the asteroid hits Earth based on very preliminary calculations. Which means—obviously—a 98.8% chance the rocky object misses us! But those odds are still upsettingly high, so let’s bear down on what we know about the recently discovered asteroid.

 

[Free]

Asteroid flying close to Earth turns out to be douchebag's car

 

[Argent Stonecutter]

Not sure why they wouldn't track and catalog artificial bodies on orbit.

 

[Casey Pelous]

Not sure why they wouldn't track and catalog artificial bodies on orbit.

They do. Here's a map of every known piece of space debris. Kessler Effect, here we come! It took them a while to identify the douchebag's car. Which, by the way, is how it should be officially designated for as long as it is sucking up orbital space.

 

[Argent Stonecutter]

I'm not talking about Earth orbit. I'm talking about deep space objects like Musk's car and the booster from the planetary probe. It said they took them out of the catalog.

 

[Casey Pelous]

I'm not talking about Earth orbit. I'm talking about deep space objects like Musk's car and the booster from the planetary probe. It said they took them out of the catalog.

Ah. I did not realize Douchebag's Car was in deep space.

Wish he was in it ....

 

[Argent Stonecutter]

Ah. I did not realize Douchebag's Car was in deep space.

He "sent it to Mars", at least to the distance of Mars orbit.

 

[Free]

New Asteroid Tops NASA's Impact Risk Chart, 1.2% Chance of 2032 Collision

The asteroid, designated 2024 YR4, jumped to the top of NASA's risk chart, with a slim but measurable chance of striking Earth in just seven years.

gizmodo.com

Moar.

An Asteroid Has a 1-in-63 Chance of Hitting Earth in 2032—Here’s What That Means

A dive into probabilities, asteroid impact modeling, and what sort of damage an approximately 180-foot asteroid could cause on Earth.

gizmodo.com

 

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

The government had been planning it for 7 years, beavers built the dam in two days and saved them $1 million

 

[Noodles]

I'm not talking about Earth orbit. I'm talking about deep space objects like Musk's car and the booster from the planetary probe. It said they took them out of the catalog.

I am really really disappointed Fast and the Furious went to space and they did not come up eith an excuse to drive the space Tesla.

Why am I even watching this over the top unrealsitic action bonanza if they are not going to do over the top unrealistic action shit?

 

[Beebo Brink]

Several Psychiatric Disorders Share The Same Root Cause, Study Reveals : ScienceAlert

In 2019 an international team of researchers identified 109 genes that were associated in different combinations with eight different psychiatric disorders, including autism, ADHD, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder, Tourette syndrome, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and anorexia.

This may explain why so many of these conditions present with similar symptoms or turn up together, like the link between autism and ADHD. Up to 70 percent of people who have one have the other too, and they often both show up in the same families.