Science Llama

Science, Astronomy, Technology, Art and general Awesomeness

[the-science-llama]

Last Week In Science

1. Strimvelis gene-therapy cure treated its’ first patient, only costed ~$650k

2. Each of your neurons are genetically different (which may be the answer to treating certain psychiatric diseases)

3. Emerging field of “Electricroceuticals” may help treat inflammatory diseases (also prepare yourself for the coming wave of electro-quackery)

4. Cassini dove between Saturn and its’ rings and didn’t get pummeled by rocks

5. The structure of the Perseus galaxy cluster was formed by other massive clusters passing by

6. We found out that this algae lives INSIDE salamander cells (kind of like the mitochondria symbiosis theory)

7. The new GOP healthcare removed protections from having genetic predispositions to diseases (good thing CRISPR will save the day, right?)

8. Put these two fungal species in a dish together and they'll make a powerful new antibiotic

9. European politics continues to lag behind as advancing GM crops save the rest of the planet

10. Watch this crazy lightning storm from space

11. Anti-vaxxers in Minnesota resurrect disease in largest measles outbreak in 30 years

Vaccinate yourselves from garbage science by understanding good and bad studies

12. Avocados became popular through a combination of lifting import-bans and marketing as the “low-fat diet” era slowly died

13. A short film about ‘Tree Lobsters’ escaping extinction by clinging to life in one bush on a baron sea-stack 

14. If you want to keep your sense of taste in your 60′s, don’t burn your tongue as much

15. People, please stop juicing, it isn’t healthy (and definitely don’t buy a fucking $400 diabetesjuice machine that has wifi)

16. More awesome slow-mo Triboluminescence

17. For your weekly dose of Pseudoscience; Be wary of Trash Journal Scams (the sheer number of them is amazing)

[fuckyeahfluiddynamics]

You’d be forgiven for thinking that the star-nosed mole looks funny. Its distinctive star-shaped nose is a highly-sensitive organ, but the mole doesn’t just use it for finding its way through the underground tunnels it lives in. These moles can actually sniff underwater. By exhaling a bubble and then re-inspiring it, the moles collect scent particles that they can use to locate food. In experiments, both star-nosed moles and water shrews could use this technique to successfully follow a scent trail, demonstrating exploring and pausing behaviors similar to terrestrial sniffing as they did. To learn more about this impressive mammal, listen to the latest episode of Science Friday, where research Ken Catania describes his work with them. (Image credits: K. Catania; via Science Friday)

[the-science-llama]

Last Week In Science

1. The new Bill Nye show was, DARE I SAY IT... a little cringey

2. Mothernaturefucker Trump wants to let oil companies drill in national parks and expand off-shore drilling to marine monuments in the name of job creation 

3. Scientists are perfecting these artificial wombs to help premature babies

4. Wikipedia co-founder hopes his Wikitribune will cure the fake news plague

5. We just found an Earth-massed iceball 13,000 light years away using microlensing

6. Europe and China planning on a Moon base by 2020′s, (in other news, Trump craps his bed as he hears China will mine lunar fuel and hopefully starts a bigly space race)

7. Prepare yourself for a smartphone app that uses light to control engineered-cells and regulate blood sugar continuously

8. Your gut bacteria control your cravings

9. Aspirin may actually help prevent some cancers from forming and it may even prevent cancers from spreading

10. The Wax Worm can digest plastic bags

11. Lady Dragonflies play dead when they don’t want to bone anymore

12. How to study dolphins’ curvy vaginas with a CT scanner

12.1 Animal penis tangent: True Facts about the Duck

13. Flashlight fish remind you how cool evolution is

14. For your weekly dose of pseudoscience bull-shit: Here is Justin Trudeau, the apparent scientific savior from the north, endorsing “Cupping”

15. BONUS PSEUDOSCIENCE-SMACKDOWN!!!: The FDA’s sent out warning letters to 14 companies for selling BS cancer-cures

[stephanievenerande-deactivated2]

paragon of the aurora borealis

[sofiabiologista-deactivated2018]

Incredible Hercules beetle pupa  🎥 Hirofumi Kawano

[the-science-llama]

Last Week In Science

1. New browser plug-in lets you access millions of scientific papers for free and legally!

2. After millions of years, Earth passed the 410ppm CO2 threshold again

2.1 At the same time, entire rivers disappear because of retreating glaciers

3. We marched for SCIENCE!! (here’s my face and a dumb sign I made)

4. Another asteroid flew by at about 1 million miles away

4.1 In similar news: The Lyrid meteor shower peaked over the weekend

5. We just keep finding more and more potentially habitable exoplanets

6. The LHC found some shiny new particles, maybe

7. We find out that aliens are probably not trying to communicate with lasers

8. Pigeons, among a few other species, build knowledge across generations

9. Spider feet up close are kind of cute

10. Human umbilical cord proteins revitalize aged brains in mice

11. Here’s what will happen to Earth and the Universe in the next 100,000,000,000,000,000,000 years

12. This 5-foot-long ship worm has a stinky story of evolution

13. Unpublished, 40-year-old study shows that Saturated Fats are not evil (also shows the importance of publishing undesired results because that’s how science works, and is how this myth was perpetuated in the first place. /rant)

14. This bone-protein could treat Diabesity

15. Behold! Triboluminescence (because breaking chemical bonds with a blender is fun)

16. For your weekly dose of pseudoscience bull-shit: Crazy antivaxers are saying vaccines cause dog-autism

[the-science-llama]

This is a fantasyscape(?) from Windy Point/Mt Lemmon. In the distance is Mt Wrightson ~40miles away. This is a 3 exposure blend, 1 for the sunset/foreground, 1 to capture the city lights and the last one for the stars. Each photo was about 30 minutes apart, so I suppose this is more of a timelapse condensed in to a still frame. I used a polarizer filter to maximize the color from the sunset, a sturdy tripod and a bowl of soup while I waited of course.

[nevver]

Kosmos

[designinbiology]

The relationship between a squid and its live-in bacteria

without this symbiosis, the squid’s light organ never reaches its mature form..

(Illustration by Paul Jackman)

by NATURE, NEWS FEATURE

brought to you by Graphic Services for Science and Graphic Biology

[the-science-llama]

Last Week In Science

1. Scientists just used super-computers to predict and design two new types of magnetic materials

2. Replacing traditional antibiotics with a CRISPR-pill is the future for hospitals and nursing facilities

3. Hydrothermal vents with hydrogen on Saturn’s moon could hold life (those vents are basically where life began here on Earth)

4. Self-taught AI is slightly better at predicting heart attacks than your doctor

5. Your shoe-laces actually come undone in one or two strides (rather than slowly throughout the day)

6. This device can pull nearly 3 Liters of water from dry air in 12 hours

7. The March for Science is on the 22nd, many are concerned the march will fail to be non-partisan enough

The Science March’s twitter backtracking on some identity politics

8. Also NASA is putting the Earth up for adoption for Earth Day

9. A black hole simulation in 1978 looks just like the supercomputer simulation used in the movie Interstellar

10. Behold the horrifying mess that is your adult teeth ramming their way through your skull

11. Finding the one true caveman diet is ridiculous because humans lived essentially in all climates and food sources evolved throughout history

12. Archer fish are actually just nature’s bidet for insects

13. More evidence that shows high-energy events like lightning strikes or meteor impacts can create building-blocks for life

14. Here’s what an earthquake looks like under water

15. Scientists design a special drone to study volcanoes

16. For your weekly dose of pseudoscience bull-shit: Naturopath kills patient with IV Turmeric

[the-science-llama]

I made a trip out to Picacho Peak recently during the full moon. Surprisingly, this was my first time going to this park considering the countless times I’ve driven by it. My buddy and I were just exploring the park at night until we came across this saguaro which lined up with the mountains, it was too good to pass up. We only had to wait a few minutes for the moon and the saguaro to line up as well, so it was pretty good timing to stumble across this spot. The moon was already giving some ambient light but we decided to light-paint from the side to get more dramatic features on the saguaro. In order to get the moon-spikes I needed to use a higher f-stop, ~f/9 seemed to work and also let enough light in for the rest of the image. This is one exposure. While editing my intention was to keep it dark, to capture the mood, yet retain detail at the same time. Looking forward to more nights like this.

[the-science-llama]

Last Week In Science

1. Two thirds of the Great Barrier Reef is now bleached; recovery is possible but very unlikely

2. Inventor of the internet gets the Nobel prize of computing decades later as we are now using quantum computers in search algorithms for the first time

3. Graphene-oxide sieve filters sea water and can hopefully be scale-able 

4. NASA’s new plan for getting humans to Mars: Phase 1 (a lunar space station) will resupply and refuel Phase 2 (a deep space transport)

5. Crowd-sourcing helped narrow down the search for Planet 9 

6. Here’s a nice video showing how Cassini will crash in to Saturn this year 

7. 23andMe, gene testing company, wins back the right to tell you your risk factors for certain diseases rather than just your heritage (likely leading to wild misinterpretation by most consumers)

8. More evidence supporting how early exposure to antibiotics affects gut microbiota and behavior

9. Low-Calorie sweeteners possibly promote fat accumulation by up-regulating receptors in fat tissue (caution: very small study)

10. Scientists drive sperm to deliver cancer-fighting drugs

11. New supercomputer model of the TRAPPIST-1 system estimate that only one of the planets is likely habitable

12. Alan Alda hopes to make jargon-spewing scientists better communicators

13. Look at this crazy photo of Blue Jet Lightning

14. Republicans continue to ignore basic science in favor or re-election and risk causing measles outbreaks

15. The Kingfisher is so fucking cool, here it is in slow-mo breaching the waters with a live fish in it’s throat

16. Octopus and squid evolve differently than most organisms

“Unlike most animal species, whose genomes are riddled with millions of years of mutations that have helped them adapt to a volatile world, cephalopod adaption appears to have been more a result of RNA editing. Heavy reliance on RNA editing, however it first evolved, practically would have guaranteed the need for cephalopod DNA to remain fairly stable over millennia.”

17. Just create an antibody for the bacterial-toxin associated with acne and blamo, acne vaccine...maybe

18. The ESO just discovered this firework display created by stars colliding

19. And for your weekly dose of pseudoscience bullshit, here is a sheep placenta face-mask

[the-science-llama]

I’ve been testing out some exposure blending and different editing styles lately, I think this one turned out pretty well. I blended 3 different exposures in this image. This was my campsite at the Agua Fria National Monument before going up to Sedona for the weekend, I was lucky to have such a beautiful sunrise that morning. I wasn’t planning on shooting anything in the morning, just heading to work, so I was scrambling to find a decent composition before this amazing light disappeared. I was hoping to get some star-scapes in Sedona the next night, however the clouds rolled in. Milky Way season is back now so I’m hoping to get some more pictures and some much needed stargazing. 

[politico]

Spicer: Trump donating first-quarter salary to National Park Service

The press secretary hands over a $78,333 check to the interior secretary and the superintendent of Harpers Ferry National Historical Park.

By AIDAN QUIGLEY

President Donald Trump is donating his salary from his first quarter in the White House to the National Park Service, press secretary Sean Spicer said on Monday.

At the start of the daily White House press briefing, Spicer handed a check for $78,333.32 to Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke and Tyrone Brandyburg, the superintendent of Harpers Ferry National Historical Park in West Virginia. Spicer said it was Trump’s full salary from his inauguration to March 31, the end of the first quarter.

“The Park Service has cared for our parks since 1916, and the president is personally proud to contribute the first quarter of his salary to the important mission of the Park Service,” Spicer said.

Trump promised during the campaign to give away his full-year presidential salary of $400,000 if he was elected president. But he ran into trouble with other donation pledges. In January 2016, Trump promised to donate money raised at a veterans event, but it took the campaign months to actually hand out the money under prodding from the media, particularly The Washington Post.

Last month, Spicer said Trump would donate his salary at the end of the year and said the administration wanted reporters to decide where the money would go.

On Monday, Spicer said the White House counsel’s office gave Trump a list of government organizations to which he could donate his salary.

Read more here

[realcleverscience]

wow, how generous.

drumpf’s completely fucking up the environment and trying to cut BILLIONS of dollars away from the EPA and other important environmental programs (not to mention that he’s making money off some of those moves, like his personal investment in DAPL).

But yeah, $80k makes everything ok. thanks a lot.

[the-science-llama]

Last Week In Science

1. SpaceX makes history and lands the first used rocket

1.1 We are at the beginning of a space-race between the billionaire private space industries and now Russia

1.2 Tesla’s stock value surpassed Ford’s

2. FDA approved the first drug to treat aggressive MS

3. Remember how starving yourself can make monkeys live a little longer? Yea, there’s a drug for that

4. There’s a new comet you can see with binoculars!

5. Fly through the known universe in this fantastic animation

6. The interesting path to the invention of the telescope

7. The burps of super-massive black holes literally create new stars

8. Trumpian-EPA reverses course and allows toxic pesticide on market

9. The House Alt-Science Committee perpetuates the delusional climate change debate

9.1 As the Arctic warms twice as fast as the global average, climate data continues to be silenced

9.2 Here’s some new evidence showing how human greenhouse gas release causes extreme weather

10. This small study showed that 82% of marathon runners developed acute kidney injury

11. How to give a turtle a C-Section

12. These fanged-fish have opioid venom and (counter to most venomous animals) evolved the venom after the sweet fangs

13. Scientists grafted an eyeball on to this tadpole's tale and it can see from it

14. This robotic octopus arm is really good at gripping smooth surfaces

15. A molecule found in sunscreen could be the warmest superconductor

16. An interesting story on how NASA employees are being bribed to fund bullshit theologian research, it will be interesting to see how this plays out

[the-science-llama]

Last Week In Science

1. A type of Bumblebee is officially enlisted as endangered

Here are some things you can do to help

2. The Large Hadron Collider found some new particles

3. This deep-sea fisherman is actually on an alien world

4. When Betelgeuse goes supernova (relatively) soon, it could be as bright as the full moon

5. Computers are getting pretty good at reading minds

“...[the researcher] carried speakers into hospital rooms and played the same segment of a Pink Floyd song for about a dozen brain surgery patients...”

6. A chemical color guide for the light they emit

7. A company 3D-printed a house in 3 weeks

8. All of the spiders in the world eat ~800 million tons of bugs per year (so just let them chill in the corner and save you from a bug apocalypse)

9. We tested out the worlds largest artificial sun (I’m pretty sure this thing will soon kill more bugs than the spiders will)

10. The Kea Parrot’s ‘laugh’ spontaneously makes other Kea playful

11. Mount Etna erupts for the second times this month (and this photographer took a sweet long exposure of it)

And you can see it from space

12. Trump signs bill for slightly decreased NASA funding and space exploration focus, yet still completely denies climate change by removing funding for Earth science

As ice sheets disappear and the great barrier reef dies due to climate change

13. Founder of NextGen Climate proves that there’s at least one billionaire trying to save the planet

14. Here’s an interactive map of all the hazardous waste sites in the US which the EPA cleans up

15. The Diphylleia flower becomes transparent when it rains

16. Scientists find that adding this protein to old stem cells makes them produce more white blood cells (just like younger stem cells do, so of course they spin it as the fountain of youth, *skeptical sighing*)

17. The NIH is launching a $3 million study to see if Vitamin C infusion really does help with sepsis

18. Fly over Mars in this 3D animation from NASA HiRISE data

19. These scientists are trying to repair heart tissue with spinach leaves

20. Simple fix stops bottles from dripping when you pour, just add a groove bellow the lip

21. This time-lapse of a tadpole embryo dividing almost looks animated

[tabletopwhale-deactivated201910]

Landmarks on Venus are named after famous women or goddesses. I made a map introducing the woman behind each name. You can find the full-size map here.