General science thread

June 12th, 2018 at 3:25:28 PM permalink
petroglyph
Member since: Aug 3, 2014
Threads: 25
Posts: 6227
Quote: Fleastiff
Forget the temperature; its like wet cement. If you or your vehicle get caught in it, its all over. Doesn't matter if the tires melt or not, they ain't goin' anywhere.
One eleven here @ 3:30
The last official act of any government is to loot the treasury. GW
June 12th, 2018 at 4:08:49 PM permalink
Fleastiff
Member since: Oct 27, 2012
Threads: 62
Posts: 7831
Valley of the Sun not Valley of the Shade.
June 12th, 2018 at 7:03:46 PM permalink
Pacomartin
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 1068
Posts: 12569
Quote: Evenbob
It became a custom, you never ever ate with your left hand.


No I don't question the custom, I just can't believe that left handed people couldn't just follow the norm. It's not that difficult to scoop food out of a bowl without using your dominant hand.
June 24th, 2018 at 3:04:31 PM permalink
Evenbob
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 146
Posts: 25010
I get a kick out of this video. 20 million
views, 4000 comments. It's entertaining
reading the comments on how people
think this works. The Vatican would have
banned this 300 years ago and jailed
the inventor.

If you take a risk, you may lose. If you never take a risk, you will always lose.
September 22nd, 2018 at 4:44:49 PM permalink
rxwine
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 188
Posts: 18633
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/centuries-old-shipwreck-found-in-portugal/ar-AAAufJr?ocid=spartanntp

It would be cool to have a historical google earth where discoveries are documented at time and place they are expected to have happeed as you move the timeline.

For instance this sinking would show up between 1575 and 1625 on the map.
You believe in an invisible god, and dismiss people who say they are trans? Really?
October 5th, 2018 at 4:23:39 AM permalink
odiousgambit
Member since: Oct 28, 2012
Threads: 154
Posts: 5055
Here's a good quote, 

"The Three Stages of Scientific Discovery"
Quote: Alexander von Humboldt , in Bryson's book pg 421
first, people deny that it is true; then they deny that it is important; finally they credit the wrong person


I'm really realizing this is really true after reading two books recently, Uncle Tungsten by Oliver Sacks, and A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson. Sacks is a really good, interesting science historian, especially on chemistry and physics, while Bryson, admitting to knowing zip going in, wrote a great book, broader in scope, on the subject too. Both books confirm the above. 

Bryson in particular likes to skewer the scientists who resisted the new discoveries and theories. Generally, these are academics and such who get hidebound with their own views, and usually find the new things to be a threat to their own standing. 

So what fields were prone to this? Absolutely every one of them. Those resisting the new ideas that later become consensus wind up looking incredibly bad. Some things are amazing, like German scientists not accepting Dalton's Atomic Theory for quite some time after consensus otherwise formed; the Plate Tectonics science only finally being accepted in the 1960s [geology was barely scientific at all for about forever] ; astronomers sometimes had access to great telescopes but seem otherwise unscientifically inclined to us today ... Percival Lovell and his canals on Mars, for example. 


I could go on.
I'm Still Standing, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah [it's an old guy chant for me]
October 5th, 2018 at 5:07:50 AM permalink
Pacomartin
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 1068
Posts: 12569
Quote: odiousgambit
Here's a good quote,  "The Three Stages of Scientific Discovery"


October 5th, 2018 at 5:27:26 AM permalink
Fleastiff
Member since: Oct 27, 2012
Threads: 62
Posts: 7831
We always learn a censored history.

It took decades for the Royal Navy to issue lime juice infused rum to prevent scurvy.

It took years to convince doctors to wash their hands or change bed linens in hospitals more often than once a week.

Pasteur was not trying to improve the shelf life of milk, he was trying to preserve beer.
October 5th, 2018 at 11:42:15 AM permalink
Evenbob
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 146
Posts: 25010
Quote: odiousgambit
So what fields were prone to this? Absolutely every one of them


My fave of this is the doctor in the
19th century discovered patients
had a better recovery rate if the
doctor simply washed his hands
between surgeries.

Hospital docs all but lynched the
guy, said he was insane. He gradually
proved it, took decades. Never
underestimate the willingness of
people to remain ignorant and stuck
in their ways.
If you take a risk, you may lose. If you never take a risk, you will always lose.
March 28th, 2019 at 12:33:29 PM permalink
rxwine
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 188
Posts: 18633
Rare genetic mutation accounts for anxiety and pain free life

Quote:
“We’ve never come across a patient like this,” said John Wood, the head of the Molecular Nociception Group at University College London.


https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/health-news/at-71-shes-never-felt-pain-or-anxiety-now-scientists-know-why/ar-BBVlpnB?ocid=spartanntp
You believe in an invisible god, and dismiss people who say they are trans? Really?