Menu
What's new
Troll Kingdom

This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

Gems from Science

5635.imgcache.jpeg
 
[YOUTUBE]Mjv8Zj1ABAc[/YOUTUBE]

Paul Stamets: he has a hat made of mushrooms and he single-handedly saved his mother from cancer.
 
[YOUTUBE]sQtC_b93dGQ[/YOUTUBE]

He has the best grandpa voice. I wish he was my science teacher... OH and he teaches you how to watch the transit of Venus safely.
 
the mushroom applications for controlling insects was fascinating....but also really exciting is the enhancement of natural killer cells.....the story about his mom was so moving.
 
yep, that's what I've been following....I can't locate my bloody binoculars and I'm not making a freaking pinhole whatsis so Hawaii it is! Sill coolness.
 
You can make a safe pinhole with your fingers, but it's probably better to watch the feed if you don't have an actual telescope.
 
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/...veal-sexual-depravity-penguins_n_1583227.html

'Sexual Depravity' Of Penguins Detailed In Historical Documents

Historical documents deemed too shocking for their time have been unearthed, detailing the "astonishing depravity" of penguins.

According to The Guardian, Dr. George Murray Levick, a surgeon and medical officer on the 1910-1913 British Antarctic Expedition, Terra Nova, found himself appalled by the behavior of penguins at the colony of Adelies at Cape Adare. The Terra Nova was led by Captain Robert Scott.

Levick carefully documented his journey, but his four-page pamphlet, written in 1915, on the perversions of penguins was considered so shocking it wasn't published with the other Terra Nova expedition reports.

Now, thanks to Douglas Russell, curator of birds at the Natural History Museum in London, Levick's report, entitled "Sex Habits of the Adelie Penguin," has been discovered and reveals his total disgust for these animals and their ways.

In a press release, Russell states that Levick's time spent in Cape Adare makes him the only scientist to this day to have studied an entire breeding cycle. Levick was horrified by the actions of "hooligan males" and "observed and commented on the their sexual activity, autoerotic behavior, the behaviour of young unpaired males and females including necrophilia, sexual coercion, the sexual and physical abuse of chicks, non-procreative sex and homosexual behavior."

Witnessing what he believed to be males penguins having sex with dead females was too much for Levick, who wrote down his observations in Greek, fearing the reactions it might produce if read back in England. "There seems to be no crime too low for these penguins," Levick wrote.

Russell and his team of researchers have reinterpreted Levick's observations and published the study in the Cambridge University Press journal Polar Record.

"Levick's notes were decades ahead of their time and possibly the first ever attempt to reveal the more challenging aspects of bird behavioural strategies to the academic world,' said Russell in a press release from the Natural History Museum.

Nearly a century later, researchers aren't quite so prudish when it comes to the study of natural history. In the last 50 years, researchers have become more open to objectively interpreting sexual behaviors in animals, and same-sex behaviors have been documented frequently in many animals and other birds, explained Russell.

Also, modern researchers understand that many of the acts Levick thought he witnessed, such as necrophilia, could be reinterpreted when cast to the bird species. Research shows that, when mating, female penguins will adopt a receptive postion -- lying on their front with their feathers close to their body and eyes nearly closed -- and may appear as though they are dead. Penguins are chemically wired to respond to a seemingly compliant female of breeding age, rather than being sexually aroused.

"Levick tended to anthropomorphise the birds, but they are not little people and we have to interpret their behaviour in the context of zoology," Russell explained to The Telegraph.
Click to expand...

PERVERTS!!
 
http://news.discovery.com/space/asteroid-viewing-earth-120614.html

Huge Asteroid to Fly by Earth Thursday
The chunk of rock and ice is the size of a city block and you can watch it pass by.

An asteroid the size of a city block is set to fly by Earth Thursday (June 14), and you may be able to watch it happen live.

The near-Earth asteroid 2012 LZ1, which astronomers think is about 1,650 feet (500 meters) wide, will come within 14 lunar distances of Earth Thursday evening. While there's no danger of an impact on this pass, the huge space rock may come close enough to be caught on camera.

PHOTOS: Top 10 Ways to Stop an Asteroid

That's what the team running the Slooh Space Camera thinks, anyway. The online skywatching service will train a telescope on the Canary Islands on 2012 LZ1 and stream the footage live, beginning at 8:00 p.m. EDT Thursday (0000 GMT Friday).

You can watch the asteroid flyby on Slooh's website, found here: http://events.slooh.com/

2012 LZ1 just popped onto astronomers' radar this week. It was discovered on the night of June 10-11 by Rob McNaught and his colleagues, who were peering through the Uppsala Schmidt telescope at Siding Spring Observatory in Australia.

Researchers estimate that the space rock is between 1,000 and 2,300 feet wide (300-700 m). On Thursday evening, it will come within about 3.35 million miles (5.4 million kilometers) of our planet, or roughly 14 times the distance between Earth and the moon.

NEWS: Incoming: How Sunlight Nudges an Asteroid's Path

Because of its size and proximity to Earth, 2012 LZ1 qualifies as a potentially hazardous asteroid. Near-Earth asteroids generally have to be at least 500 feet (150 m) wide and come within 4.65 million miles (7.5 million km) of our planet to be classified as potentially hazardous.

2012 LZ1 is roughly the same size as asteroid 2005 YU55, which made a much-anticipated flyby of Earth last November. But 2005 YU55 gave our planet a much closer shave, coming within 202,000 miles (325,000 km) of us on the evening of Nov. 8. A space rock as big as 2005 YU55 hadn't come so close to Earth since 1976, researchers said.

Astronomers have identified nearly 9,000 near-Earth asteroids, but they think many more are out there, waiting to be discovered.
Click to expand...

WE'RE DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMED.
 
Although 14 times the distance to the moon is a long way off and it's a relatively small one, it is pretty concerning that it was only discovered a few days ago. Hopefully anything much bigger is more apparent.

Will watch the live feed if I'm up.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top