Ongoing important Science news thread

[photon]

I thought the image looked kind of grainy for a high res hubble shot, but those aren't grains.. they're stars! Wow.

[troutman]

Oh my God! — it's full of stars! - David Bowman

[Knut]

http://www.healthline.com/health-new...ssion-010715#2

Possible MS Treatment using Chemotherapy and a Stem-Cell Immune system Reboot.

Crazy side-effects but it shows some promise.

[pylon]

Originally Posted by troutman

Hi-res image of Andromeda Galaxy:

http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/arc.../image/a/warn/

These images should be downloaded, not viewed with a browser. Even though the file sizes may be small, the number of pixels these images contain can be problematic for a browser. The image may not appear, it may cause your Web browser to lock up, or it may crash your computer. Some Web browsers will display a "broken image" icon in response to your attempt to view the picture.

Nice try NSA......

[T@T]

Originally Posted by photon

I thought the image looked kind of grainy for a high res hubble shot, but those aren't grains.. they're stars! Wow.

And the real Wow factor is each star is seperated in distance measured in light years. And it's over twice the size of our milky way with over a trillion stars!.

[Vulcan]

Neil deGrasse Tyson is getting his own late-night talk show

Neil deGrasse Tyson is taking his popular “StarTalk Radio” podcast to late-night television! The famed astrophysicist, director of the Hayden Planetarium, host of “Cosmos” and spontaneous movie critic has landed a spot on National Geographic Channel.

http://www.salon.com/2015/01/08/neil...ght_talk_show/

[Caged Great]

A new treatment for MS seems to work rather well.

24 patients were in the trial, and of those 21 have no symptoms, and one of the three has had the progression stop entirely.

Basically the person is given Chemo to destroy their immune system and stem cells are put back to rebuild it.

http://www.healthline.com/health-new...mission-010715

[Old Yeller]

*Insert Peter Griffin "Why are we not funding this!?!?!" image here*

I know there's a lot of clinical trials and studies ongoing, but most of the negative effects from stem cell treatments don't seem to be with the actual stem cells themselves, but the additional treatment drugs associated with them.

With the advances in stem cell production and all the beneficial treatments associated with it, is it just all due to politics and religion?

[troutman]

Fake Stuff Out At Discovery Channel, Promises New Chief Rich Ross

http://deadline.com/2015/01/discover...ca-1201344279/

“Do you haves plans to repair relationships with scientists and educators who felt those shows betrayed a mission and gave false information?” one critic asked eagerly.

Ross explained patiently he’d made a very strong statement this morning as to the direction in which he’s taking Discovery Channel, naming HBO veteran John Hoffman as Executive Vice President of Documentaries and Specials. “This was not just a signal, it was a message that it’s very important to us, and to me, that when people are telling stories and they’re delivering information that it is true and can be entertaining as well, which is mandatory.”

[Knut]

Originally Posted by Old Yeller

*Insert Peter Griffin "Why are we not funding this!?!?!" image here*

I know there's a lot of clinical trials and studies ongoing, but most of the negative effects from stem cell treatments don't seem to be with the actual stem cells themselves, but the additional treatment drugs associated with them.

With the advances in stem cell production and all the beneficial treatments associated with it, is it just all due to politics and religion?

There is not really many actual clinical applications to stem cells at the moment. A big issue is that there are clinics all over offering "stem cell therapy" that amounts to nothing more than a scam.

The research is slow and tedious but there are numerous therapies in phase II trials right now.

[Flash Walken]

Originally Posted by troutman

Fake Stuff Out At Discovery Channel, Promises New Chief Rich Ross

http://deadline.com/2015/01/discover...ca-1201344279/

“Do you haves plans to repair relationships with scientists and educators who felt those shows betrayed a mission and gave false information?” one critic asked eagerly.

Ross explained patiently he’d made a very strong statement this morning as to the direction in which he’s taking Discovery Channel, naming HBO veteran John Hoffman as Executive Vice President of Documentaries and Specials. “This was not just a signal, it was a message that it’s very important to us, and to me, that when people are telling stories and they’re delivering information that it is true and can be entertaining as well, which is mandatory.”

This is really awesome news.

Hopefully it has a ripple effect through media.

Need more high quality documentaries, regardless of subject matter.

[Muta]

US Navy develops a new Electromagnetic Railgun:

http://www.cnn.com/videos/tech/2015/...on-orig-mg.cnn

First the laser, and now this!

[Muta]

University of Rochester's cloaking device:

http://www.cnn.com/videos/tech/2015/...ginal-content/

[T@T]

Originally Posted by Caged Great

A new treatment for MS seems to work rather well.

24 patients were in the trial, and of those 21 have no symptoms, and one of the three has had the progression stop entirely.

Basically the person is given Chemo to destroy their immune system and stem cells are put back to rebuild it.

http://www.healthline.com/health-new...mission-010715

Too late for a good friend but to stop MS would be like the day the polio vaccine came out.

[photon]

Might be a rough few years at least for science in the US. When the chair of the United States Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works denying AGW because "God is still up there" and trying to lead a "truth squad" to a client change conference... when instead of that being a side show, it's SOP, I can't help but cringe.

http://arstechnica.com/science/2015/...is-everywhere/

[dammage79]

Originally Posted by Muta

US Navy develops a new Electromagnetic Railgun:

http://www.cnn.com/videos/tech/2015/...on-orig-mg.cnn

First the laser, and now this!

Awesome. I have to ask if this technology can be used in space propulsion. I mean if you can hit 7 times the speed of sound here how fast can you get a shuttle bound for say Titan?

Only way I can see this not working is the gun not being anchored to anything in space. Possible answer is to build it on the moon and use that as a launch pad. then build them at every stop along the way.

[keratosis]

Originally Posted by dammage79

Awesome. I have to ask if this technology can be used in space propulsion. I mean if you can hit 7 times the speed of sound here how fast can you get a shuttle bound for say Titan?

Only way I can see this not working is the gun not being anchored to anything in space. Possible answer is to build it on the moon and use that as a launch pad. then build them at every stop along the way.

Wouldn't work. If I understand railgun tech right, you would either be squashed flat or turned to a plasma. I could be wrong though.

[Regulator75]

http://www.ctvnews.ca/sci-tech/repti...cher-1.2187307

A Nova Scotia researcher says a fossil found by a boy on Prince Edward Island more than a decade ago is that of a new species of reptile that lived about 300 million years ago.

Sean Modesto, a professor of biology at Cape Breton University, said it's one of the most complete reptile fossils of the Carboniferous era.

"This specimen is really rare," said Modesto, who was the principal investigator of the project. "It's the only specimen we know of from this particular part of the Carboniferous and it's the only reptile from that slice of time."

[dammage79]

Originally Posted by keratosis

Wouldn't work. If I understand railgun tech right, you would either be squashed flat or turned to a plasma. I could be wrong though.

Talking about inertia right? Someone should understand what I am getting at when I ask this: In a zero G environment what is the speed at which you can get to before the inertia gets too strong for the human body to withstand it?

Liquid stasis could solve this issue as well I think.

[Itse]

http://www.popsci.com/have-we-found-alien-life

Not the greatest headline, but still interesting stuff.

Life, Nealson is explaining, all comes down to energy. From the mightiest blue whale to the most humble microbe, every organism depends on moving and manipulating electrons; it’s the fuel that living matter uses to survive, grow, and reproduce. The bacteria at USC depend on energy, too, but they obtain it in a fundamentally different fashion. They don’t breathe in the sense that you and I do. In the most extreme cases, they don’t consume any conventional food, either. Instead, they power themselves in the most elemental way: by eating and breathing electricity. Nealson gestures at his lab. That’s what they are doing right there, right now.

“All the textbooks say it shouldn’t be possible,” he says, “but by golly, those things just keep growing on the electrode, and there’s no other source of energy there.” Growing on the electrode. It sounds incredible. Nealson pivots on his chair to face me and gives a mischievous grin. “It is kind of like science fiction,” he says. To a biologist, finding life that chugs along without a molecular energy source such as carbohydrates is about as unlikely as seeing passengers flying through the air without an airplane.