An international team of scientists recently surveyed almost 12,000 climate science research publications to gauge the consensus on manmade global warming among people who know lots about climate science. They did this because some people still like to pretend like there’s plenty of skepticism…
Well done good sir
The star at the heart of our solar system has released three X-class solar flares (the most powerful class of flares) and their associated waves of charged particles in the past 24 hours. Luckily for us, they have been pointed away from Earth, as seen in the upper left of the video above from NASA.
NASA’s SDO and SOHO satellites captured the explosive magnetic arcs and bursts of plasma in stunning form in the video, which is full-screen worthy. By viewing the sun through different wavelength filters (the colored angstrom filters you see above) we can zoom in on activity happening at different temperatures and involving different ionized elements from hydrogen to iron.
This happens as the sun ramps up for its predicted 11-year solar maximum later in 2013. Wear your sun(plasma)block!
Don’t you wish there was sound in space so you could hear these things? Sigh.
That is terrifying. If a CME from one of these hit us we’d be screwed, say goodbye electronics/power lines/satellites, say hello fires and mass hysteria.
Galaxy Collisions: Simulation vs Observation
An amazing video which shows both simulations of what the collision of two spiral galaxies should look like according to modern physics, and images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope of actual galaxy collisions.
Source: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
Col. Chris Hadfield returns to Earth tomorrow after nearly five months in command of the International Space Station. Here are his touching personal reflections on the mission.
His stay on the ISS has captured the imagination and the curiosity of millions of people on Earth, thanks to this wonderfully interconnected world we call social media. Not only do we have the technology to send men to space for months at a time, but they can share that experience so richly with all of us.
I am truly grateful for his hard work, the hard work of people like his son Evan (who managed his dad’s Tumblr and much of his other social media) and the hard work of those who continue to support the mission. He went to space so we could ALL go to space.
Celebrate with the ten best videos from Commander Hadfield’s time aboard the ISS. I know what my favorite was (also in GIF form).
By and large, we accept the use of animals as objects and tools. Sixty-two percent of Americans surveyed in a Gallup poll, for example, deemed it “morally acceptable” to use animals for medical research, and despite the growth of the animal rights movement, there aren’t many vegetarians. And what does a T-bone steak represent if not a reduction of an animal to parts, to its instrumental value? There are issues with farming, of course, especially the industrial-scale factory farming that is the norm today. But whatever our objection to the system itself, the truth is that most of us accept the idea that we can use an animal’s body to nourish out own.
For most of us, then, the real ethical question surrounding [genetically engineered] pharm animals comes down to the genetic engineering itself. Is there something about editing DNA and remixing biological material that is just inherently wrong? …critics of biotechnology worry that breaching species barriers violates the rules of God or nature or both.
…These interspecies combinations can raise unfortunate existential questions, threatening our sense of uniqueness. If we can make our cells spring to life in a sheep or make a piece of our biological code work in a beady-eyed little rodent, what is it, exactly, that separates man from beast?
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Emily Anthes, pondering several questions about what really bothers people about genetic engineering. We live in a world where we can make goats that can produce antimicrobial milk, clone farm animals and pets, buy aquarium fish that are part jellyfish, and raise genetically-mutated mice to model our own medicine.
If you’re interested in the technology, ethics or future questions and answers surrounding genetically engineering animals, I highly recommend checking out Emily’s new book, Frankenstein’s Cat.
(via jtotheizzoe)
— Commander Chris Hadfield
Eucalyptus and orange trees are bloomin’
In that dream there’s no darkness a loomin’
In that dream moving slow through the morning-time
Craziest supercell photograph I’ve ever seen.
Source: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1305/thundercell_heavey_864.jpg
When I was with some family and friends the other day, I brought my own Boca burgers to grill while they planned hot dogs and hamburgers. Well, they lost the hamburgers (no idea how), but they did grill the hot dogs. Most of them were making fun of me for switching my diets so often (which is not…
Based on my similar experiences, I feel it has more to do with a need to fit in/group mentality than it does with insecurities about diet. When someone enters a large group and has a dissenting opinion on an important topic, they tend to be shunned by the group. I think the same thing would happen if someone with an unhealthy diet entered a group of healthy people.
This is a sobering photograph. Every single one of those dots you see is a galaxy filled with billions of stars. Every… Single… One…
Source: http://www.space.com/12501-herschel-space-telescope-photos-astronomy.html?cmpid=514630
A Blend of Thoughts and Things
