TLW Science Thread

[Elite]

14 hours ago, Karl_b said:

After reading a bit about the potential of mapping the human genome in treating and understanding disease, for a few years I've thought it'd be cool to have mine done. I'd love to know how I'm put together (other than fucking awesomely) and to understand whether I was predisposed  to suffer from a chronic illness I have. This week I was asked to take part in a study in which they'll be doing exactly that; before the guy had finished explaining I'd agreed. When he finished explaining to me what they were hoping to find, how that information was going to be used and how they hope to use it to develop new treatments, how could I refuse? It's brilliant what these guys can do and to be a small part, by giving up some blood and a bit of my time, feels important. 

 

Science. Fucking A.

 

I was sat next to a right miserable woman whilst waiting. Moaning about the NHS, moaning that this researcher "wanted to know everything" about me, so I shouldn't do it. I'm sat there waiting for a hospital appointment, in an institution that knows all of my personal details, to discuss the fact that without medication I would shit blood and die, what more do they want to know?!

Don't superhero movies tend to start like this?

[Karl_b]

Just now, Elite said:

Don't superhero movies tend to start like this?

Over the last few years I've been told I have a very strong skeleton (despite way too many courses of corticosteroids) and high metabolism. I'm Wolverine waiting to happen, I just need that push.

[VladimirIlyich]

Extremely disappointed that the level of conversation in this thread is way above the merits and disadvantages of lighting farts.

[Jenson]

On 3/3/2019 at 8:06 AM, Karl_b said:

After reading a bit about the potential of mapping the human genome in treating and understanding disease, for a few years I've thought it'd be cool to have mine done. I'd love to know how I'm put together (other than fucking awesomely) and to understand whether I was predisposed  to suffer from a chronic illness I have. This week I was asked to take part in a study in which they'll be doing exactly that; before the guy had finished explaining I'd agreed. When he finished explaining to me what they were hoping to find, how that information was going to be used and how they hope to use it to develop new treatments, how could I refuse? It's brilliant what these guys can do and to be a small part, by giving up some blood and a bit of my time, feels important. 

 

Science. Fucking A.

 

I was sat next to a right miserable woman whilst waiting. Moaning about the NHS, moaning that this researcher "wanted to know everything" about me, so I shouldn't do it. I'm sat there waiting for a hospital appointment, in an institution that knows all of my personal details, to discuss the fact that without medication I would shit blood and die, what more do they want to know?!

 

Personalised medicine will be here in the next 50 years or so.

 

[Anubis]

On 3/3/2019 at 8:06 AM, Karl_b said:

After reading a bit about the potential of mapping the human genome in treating and understanding disease, for a few years I've thought it'd be cool to have mine done. I'd love to know how I'm put together (other than fucking awesomely) and to understand whether I was predisposed  to suffer from a chronic illness I have. This week I was asked to take part in a study in which they'll be doing exactly that; before the guy had finished explaining I'd agreed. When he finished explaining to me what they were hoping to find, how that information was going to be used and how they hope to use it to develop new treatments, how could I refuse? It's brilliant what these guys can do and to be a small part, by giving up some blood and a bit of my time, feels important. 

 

Science. Fucking A.

 

I was sat next to a right miserable woman whilst waiting. Moaning about the NHS, moaning that this researcher "wanted to know everything" about me, so I shouldn't do it. I'm sat there waiting for a hospital appointment, in an institution that knows all of my personal details, to discuss the fact that without medication I would shit blood and die, what more do they want to know?!

 

Was that the Personal Genome Project UK?

 

https://www.personalgenomes.org.uk/

[Karl_b]

45 minutes ago, Anubis said:

 

Was that the Personal Genome Project UK?

 

https://www.personalgenomes.org.uk/

No, it's more specific to my illness, although I imagine there's some overlap.

[AngryOfTuebrook]

On 3/1/2019 at 8:11 PM, AngryofTuebrook said:

I'm just going to fling out a few statements: hopefully someone who is cleverer than me can determine whether they are actually true and whether they add up to a cogent argument. 

 

1. Planets and their moons are more-or-less spherical because of the effect of gravity.

 

2. If the earth is flat, our understanding of gravity is basically fucked.

 

3. If our understanding of gravity is fucked, all our understanding of physics is fucked.

 

4. If our understanding of physics is fucked, all of our science and engineering wouldn’t work.

 

Therefore...

 

THE FUCKING EARTH IS ROUND!!!

And another thing...

 

A quick look at a map shows Monrovia (more or less) due south of Reykjavik and Caracas (more or less) due south of the east coast of Baffin Island.  If you travel due west from Reykjavik to Baffin Island, it's 2.266 km.  If you travel due West from Monrovia to Caracas, it's 6, 185km.

[AngryOfTuebrook]

On 3/2/2019 at 5:24 PM, Fowlers God said:

Have you seen the documentary? 

I'm 6 minutes in and listening to "science comes at us with Math and we say 'Hey, look, there's Seattle'.  That's why we're winning."

 

I'm swearing at my telly.  A lot.

[AngryOfTuebrook]

This is the Flat Earth world map.

 

Cunt in the film is claiming that he first realised this is the way the earth is when he realised that there are no ocean-crossing flights in the "Southern Hemisphere" because the distances are just too vast.  That's why literally nobody makes these flights.

 

Nobody.

 

https://www.google.com/flights?lite=0#flt=SYD.SCL.2019-04-26*SCL.SYD.2019-05-12;c:GBP;e:1;sd:1;t:f

 

Except Qantas, Emirates, LATAM, United...

 

 

[Anubis]

7 hours ago, AngryofTuebrook said:

This is the Flat Earth world map.

 

Cunt in the film is claiming that he first realised this is the way the earth is when he realised that there are no ocean-crossing flights in the "Southern Hemisphere" because the distances are just too vast.  That's why literally nobody makes these flights.

 

Nobody.

 

https://www.google.com/flights?lite=0#flt=SYD.SCL.2019-04-26*SCL.SYD.2019-05-12;c:GBP;e:1;sd:1;t:f

 

Except Qantas, Emirates, LATAM, United...

 

 

 

Metabunk has a thread on the Flat Earth forum that totally destroys this.

 

https://www.metabunk.org/flat-earth-theory-debunked-by-short-flights-qf27-qf28-from-australia-to-south-america.t6483/

 

And also this thread.

 

https://www.metabunk.org/a-flight-over-the-antarctic-sea-ice-from-chile-to-australia-qf28.t8235/

[Rico1304]

1. I read something the other day thats

called the potato equation.  There’s a mass  that an object reaches when its gravity changes its shape from a potato to a sphere. 

[AngryOfTuebrook]

In 1996/7 Børge Ousland crossed Antarctica from the Ronne Ice Shelf (south of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands) to the Ross Ice Shelf (south of New Zealand and Scott Island) on a kite-powered sled. It took him 34 days to cross almost half the circumference of the Flat Earth (or 1,864 miles of the real world).

 

There's some dispute among Flat-Earthers, but the circumference is estimated to be about 78,000 miles. This means that Ousland must have travelled, unsupported, about 500 miles a day. In a sled.

 

Santa struggles to match those speeds.

[Evelyn Tentions]

There was a funny pictures thread post wit the very apt slogan "Flat earthers. You have nothing to fear but sphere itself"

 And a twatter or face aids one about a flat eathers thing - we have members all over the globe.

Bunch of demented loonies.

[AngryOfTuebrook]

These are the days of miracle and wonder. 

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-47969367

 

[Bjornebye]

What are the disadvantages of lighting a fart then? 

[VladimirIlyich]

1 hour ago, Bjornebye said:

What are the disadvantages of lighting a fart then? 

Having a hairy bumhole?

[Red Phoenix]

On 07/03/2019 at 21:53, AngryofTuebrook said:

This is the Flat Earth world map.

 

 

Communists did that, they said it'd put us all on a level playing field.

[Red Phoenix]

 

[KMD7]

Bird that went extinct 136,000 years ago comes ‘back from the dead’ after evolving again

 

There is no other evidence of the phenomenon that has ever been so clear, scientists say

• Andrew Griffin
• 13 hours ago 
•  
• 14 comments

 

 

Click to follow
The Independent

A bird that previously went extinct rose from the dead after it evolved all over again, scientists have found.

The last surviving flightless species of bird in the Indian Ocean, a type of rail, has actually been around before, the research found. It came back through a process called "iterative evolution", which saw it emerge twice over, the researchers found.

It means that on two separate occasions – tens of thousands of years apart – a species of rail was able to colonise an atoll called Aldabra. In both cases it eventually became flightless, and those birds from the latter time can still be found on the island now.

 

Iterative evolution happens when the same or similar structures evolve out of the same common ancestor, but at different times – meaning that the animal actually comes about twice over, completely separately.

 

This is the first time it has been seen in rails, and one of the most significant ever seen in a bird of any kind.

Science news in pictures

Show all 20

 

White-throated rails are roughly the size of a chicken. They come from Madagascar, but repeatedly colonise other isolated islands, growing in number and then heading out of the island where they began.

Watch more

• 
  Bizarre night-hunting crab forces reassessment of species’ evolution

Many of those that left to go north or south either died or were eaten. But some of the ones that headed eastwards went to live on the other ocean islands in the area, which includes Aldabra.

Aldabra does not have predators, and so the rails gradually lost the ability to fly. But then the island completely disappeared when it was covered by the sea, and the rail was wiped out, along with everything else on the island.

But after that event, some 100,000 years ago, the sea levels fell again and the atoll was once again taken over by flightless rails. By comparing the bones of those after and the ones before, researchers found that the evolution happened twice over a few thousand years ago.

"These unique fossils provide irrefutable evidence that a member of the rail family colonised the atoll, most likely from Madagascar, and became flightless independently on each occasion," said lead researcher Dr Julian Hume, avian paleontologist and Research Associate at the Natural History Museum.

 

"Fossil evidence presented here is unique for rails, and epitomises the ability of these birds to successfully colonise isolated islands and evolve flightlessness on multiple occasions."

 

[Strontium]

 

[Dr Arthur De Sabre]

On 03/03/2019 at 19:06, Karl_b said:

After reading a bit about the potential of mapping the human genome in treating and understanding disease, for a few years I've thought it'd be cool to have mine done. I'd love to know how I'm put together (other than fucking awesomely) and to understand whether I was predisposed  to suffer from a chronic illness I have. This week I was asked to take part in a study in which they'll be doing exactly that; before the guy had finished explaining I'd agreed. When he finished explaining to me what they were hoping to find, how that information was going to be used and how they hope to use it to develop new treatments, how could I refuse? It's brilliant what these guys can do and to be a small part, by giving up some blood and a bit of my time, feels important. 

 

Science. Fucking A.

 

I was sat next to a right miserable woman whilst waiting. Moaning about the NHS, moaning that this researcher "wanted to know everything" about me, so I shouldn't do it. I'm sat there waiting for a hospital appointment, in an institution that knows all of my personal details, to discuss the fact that without medication I would shit blood and die, what more do they want to know?!

Genomics is boss, we had a brown bag talk in work from someone leading the field in Aus, when I worked for the Digital Health Agency. 
they just need to ensure

patient privacy, confidentiality and data integrity.

[Bjornebye]

On 10/01/2020 at 01:55, Strontium Dog™ said:

 

Thats superb. 

[Strontium]

1 hour ago, Colonel Kurtz said:

Catching up on my massive back log of new scientist magazines now that I’m starting to travel again. Read a great article about evolution today, one of the big mysteries is why there are no plant eating snakes ? An obvious niche with a huge source of food but no snakes have evolved to take advantage. Any ideas ? 

 

The simple and boring answer would be that they're not structured to consume plants. I suppose they could evolve the necessary teeth but a snake's digestive system is pretty basic isn't it? If you think about animals that eat plants they usually have a long gut, or multiple stomachs, or they eat their own shit. I think it would be difficult for something like a snake, which is basically just a tube, to evolve that way. Especially with no evolutionary pressure to do so.

 

Carnivores moving to a herbivorous diet has happened, panda bears are the example that springs to mind.

[Preston Red]

9 hours ago, Colonel Kurtz said:

Apparently panda bear stomachs haven’t really evolved to eat bamboo properly, it’s still a work in progress. You’d think a snake would have evolved to eat fallen fruit at least. I think there are reptiles that do.

What about snakes with tits? Have they not evolved to stop them from eating money yet?

[Jenson]

16 hours ago, Colonel Kurtz said:

Catching up on my massive back log of new scientist magazines now that I’m starting to travel again. Read a great article about evolution today, one of the big mysteries is why there are no plant eating snakes ? An obvious niche with a huge source of food but no snakes have evolved to take advantage. Any ideas ? 

If there's no evolutionary pressure to do so, it won't happen. There's obviously enough prey around for snakes to stay carnivorous.