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They were loved by Charles Darwin, they build brilliantly bad nests and they even produce a kind of “milk”. Surely, these facts are more than enough to foster a love for the urban pigeon

Rather than getting its water from impacts, our planet may have drawn in water vapour after the sun boiled it off early icy asteroids

In today’s Jesus and Mo strip, called “sperm2” (!), Mo adopts the common fundamentalist view that scripture (whether Jewish, Christian, or Muslim) really did anticipate the findings of modern science. Here Mo defends the Qur’anic position that the first humans came from “a spurting fluid), but one that comes from the wrong place.

If you want to see a really detailed defense of this position, with various Islamic interpretations, it’s a hoot to read the Sapience Institute’s piece “Does the Qur’ān make a mistake on where semen or sperm is produced?”  Of course the answer is “no,” for the Sapience Institute’s vision is of “a world convinced of Islam.”  

Here’s the original Qur’anic story:

Let people then consider what they were created from!
˹They were˺ created from a spurting fluid,
Stemming from between the backbone and the ribcage.

The unusual properties of gallium have helped scientists to create delicate moulds that can be used to grow cultures of human cells resembling tiny blood vessels

Hope for a much-needed treatment for the common pregnancy complication pre-eclampsia has been raised by a successful test of an mRNA therapy in mice

From the first private moon landing to the first civilian spacewalk, Elon Musk’s SpaceX helped drive a big year for private space flight

I tend to view skeptically science reporting that leans heavily on simplistic concepts and flashy titles. However, “skeptical” does not mean “dismissive”. Mainstream reporting may focus on click-bait terms but that does not necessarily mean anything about the underlying science. I have seen lots of recent headlines about the benefits of being a “weekend warrior” and decided to look at the primary […]

The post Health Benefits of the Weekend Warrior first appeared on Science-Based Medicine.

Rats of the sky? Pigeons are often the target of human ire, but there's a lot to cherish – or at least appreciate – in these scrappy survivors

Dog harnesses are sometimes claimed to reduce pulling forces on the leash, but an experiment found they have the opposite effect

People in multiple US states tested positive for bird flu this year, raising concerns about the pandemic potential of the virus

Normal service will be resumed tomorrow, when PCC(E) is back in action and recovered from his trip.

Meanwhile, in Dobrzyn, Hili suspects she is being short changed over her meal:

A: What are you deliberating about?
Hili: I have the impression that there is ham in the fridge.

Ja: Nad czym się zastanawiasz?
Hili: Mam wrażenie, że w lodówce jest szynka.

The electricity required to support AI could contribute to approximately 600,000 asthma cases and create a $20 billion public health burden by 2030

The orbits of the planets around the Sun have been the source for many a scientific debate. Their current orbital properties are well understood but the planetary orbits have evolved and changed since the formation of the Solar System. Planetary migrations have been the most prominent idea of recent decades suggesting that planetary interactions caused the young planets to migrate inwards or outwards from their original positions. Now a new theory suggests 2-50 Jupiter mass object passing through the Solar System could be the cause. 

The evolution of the orbits of the planets is a complex process. Initially the planets formed out of a rotating disk of gas and dust around the young hot Sun. The phenomenon of the conservation of angular momentum caused the material to form a plane leading to orbits that were circular and in the same plane. 

The latest view of Saturn from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope captures exquisite details of the ring system — which looks like a phonograph record with grooves that represent detailed structure within the rings — and atmospheric details that once could only be captured by spacecraft visiting the distant world. Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 observed Saturn on June 20, 2019, as the planet made its closest approach to Earth, at about 845 million miles away. This image is the second in a yearly series of snapshots taken as part of the Outer Planets Atmospheres Legacy (OPAL) project. OPAL is helping scientists understand the atmospheric dynamics and evolution of our solar system’s gas giant planets. In Saturn’s case, astronomers will be able to track shifting weather patterns and other changes to identify trends. Credits: NASA, ESA, A. Simon (GSFC), M.H. Wong (University of California, Berkeley) and the OPAL Team

As the planets grew, interactions within the protoplanetary disk led to orbital migrations with planets moving inwards or outwards. There were gravitational interactions too that led to significant changes in the eccentricity and inclination, sometimes causing protoplanets to be ejected out of the solar system. Tidal forces from the Sun could also have altered the orbits. 

While protoplanet ejections are thought to have been fairly common as the Solar System was forming, on occasions celestial objects visited us. These objects seem to have been rare and provide a valuable insight into distant planetary systems. Oumuamua, was discovered in 2017 and was the first confirmed interstellar visitor. It exhibited an elongated shape and unusual acceleration, probably caused by outgassing or other non-gravitational forces. A paper recently published has suggested such an interstellar visitor could have driven changes in the orbits of our planetary cousins. 

An artist’s depiction of the interstellar comet ‘Oumuamua, as it warmed up in its approach to the sun and outgassed hydrogen (white mist), which slightly altered its orbit. The comet, which is most likely pancake-shaped, is the first known object other than dust grains to visit our solar system from another star. (Image credit: NASA, ESA and Joseph Olmsted and Frank Summers of STScI)

The paper was authored by a team of scientists led by Garett Brown University of Toronto. They explore the nature of the eccentricity of the gas giants suggesting it is unlikely the current theories can explain observations. Instead they demonstrate that an object with between 2 to 50 times the mass of Jupiter passing through the Solar System was a more likely cause. Their paper explains that an object passing through with a perihelion distance (closest distance from Sun) of less than 20 astronomical units and a hyperbolic excess velocity less than 6km/s-1 could explain observations.  

Their calculations suggest there is a 1 in 100 chance that an interstellar visitor could produce the orbits we see today, chances that are far better than other theories. Using simulations and approximate values for the properties of the visitor, the team conclude that the theory is the most plausible to date. 

Source : A substellar flyby that shaped the orbits of the giant planets

The post An Interstellar Visitor Helped Shape the Orbits of the Planets. appeared first on Universe Today.

Researchers developed a system that converts AI explanations into narrative text that can be more easily understood by users. This system could help people determine when to trust a model's predictions.

Researchers discovered that three-layer graphene can naturally self-organize into specific stacking patterns (ABA/ABC domains) during growth on silicon carbide, eliminating the need for manual manipulation. This breakthrough could enable scalable production of quantum devices.

Researchers discovered that three-layer graphene can naturally self-organize into specific stacking patterns (ABA/ABC domains) during growth on silicon carbide, eliminating the need for manual manipulation. This breakthrough could enable scalable production of quantum devices.

For the first time, scientists have observed a collection of particles, also known as a quasiparticle, that's massless when moving one direction but has mass in the other direction. The quasiparticle, called a semi-Dirac fermion, was first theorized 16 years ago, but was only recently spotted inside a crystal of semi-metal material called ZrSiS. The observation of the quasiparticle opens the door to future advances in a range of emerging technologies from batteries to sensors, according to the researchers.

Using a new calculation method, researchers found in an international comparative study that investors value corporate environmental performance more than mere information disclosure. In some developed countries, beyond sustainability efforts, companies can improve environmental efficiency to enhance economic performance.

A team of scientists has solved a long-standing problem in thermal imaging, making it possible to capture clear images of objects through hot windows.

As the demand for lithium-ion batteries escalates with the proliferation of mobile phone, electric vehicles and even pacemakers, key components in these powerhouses, like cobalt, face significant ethical and environmental concerns related to their extraction. Now, scientists have pioneered a safer, more sustainable solution to separate cobalt from ores or recycled materials via precipitate.