Science news of the day thread.

[JimC]

Sounds rather like contemporary rerendering of Gould's Wonderful Life.

And, given he's going back in time, Dawkin's "The Ancestor's Tale"

I'm going to ask my local library to get a copy...

[macdoc]

It's not so much the science I'm taken with ( I am learning a lot ) but the larger ecosystems and descriptive prose..ie instead of looking at the jaguar.....look at it within the Amazon ecology.......and the geology/geography and even the weather patterns.
Maybe holistic is a good term tho it's been hi-jacked by I'm just on the giant penguin ancestral species ....a dangerous beach

All these birds are members of the family of giant penguins, much larger than their more diminutive modern-day cousins. Some, such as Nordenskjöld’s penguin Anthropornis nordenskjoeldi, stand at on average 165 centimetres, about the height of an average human. In this mixed breeding ground, they are generally largest, although there are a few big females of Klekowski’s penguin that reach 2 metres in height, with a weight of nearly 120 kilograms – the proportions of a large rugby player. The spear-shaped beaks of these penguins are disproportionately long compared with modern penguins, and can be up to about 30 centimetres in length. Alongside these giants are seven other species of penguin, all larger than most modern penguins. For a single colony to exhibit such high species diversity, especially among those that are feeding in functionally the same way, is unusual. Ordinarily, species coexist only where their ecological niches are distinct enough that they are able to divide up the resources of the environment to avoid competition – so-called niche partitioning. Here, though, the bounty of the oceans is a big enough draw that, faced with the choice of living in a poorer site or competing for space in a crowded bird metropolis, the penguins have built a diverse society.[8]
They have already adapted to a marine life, with dense bones to overcome buoyancy, and a more waddling gait, although they still retain their inner toes, which later penguins will lose. Their wings are looser, more like a guillemot’s, not yet the rigid flippers for flying underwater that later penguins will adopt, and their feathers are less densely packed, not yet adapted to the extreme cold. Those that are not milling on the shingle are floating in the bay, readying themselves to head out to the fishing grounds. There they will hunt herring, wrasse and hake, marine catfish, and the whetted snouts of knifejaws, swordfish and cutlassfish. Nautiluses, shelled relatives of octopuses, squid and cuttlefish, bob in the shallows, a fairly rare sight in high latitudes. Above all, the waters are filled with relatives of cod. Plankton is plentiful, and the fish use this excellent source of food as a marine nursery, a schoolyard for sprats.[9]

[Brian Peacock]

‘Angry minion’ with no anus not related to humans after all, scientists conclude.

[macdoc]

[macdoc]

remastered Apollo photos - hard to think some of these are nearly 60 years back ....

https://www.theguardian.com/science/202 ... ource=digg

I'm old

[macdoc]

Nice shot for the new era...

A full moon is in view from Launch Complex 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on June 14. The Artemis I Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion spacecraft are scheduled to liftoff no earlier than 8:33 a.m. ET Monday morning, with a two-hour launch window. (NASA/Ben Smegelsky)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/artemis ... -1.6563482

https://www.space.com/artemis-1-moon-mi ... ur-preview

[macdoc]

Coming up in a couple of hours

[macdoc]

[Brian Peacock]

Those woke technicians have cancelled the launch. Damn them, and their namby-pamby obsession with health and safety.

[rasetsu]

Wrong thread.

[laklak]

Those woke technicians have cancelled the launch. Damn them, and their namby-pamby obsession with health and safety.

Back when men were men and sheep were nervous we said "Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!"

Kids these days.

[Brian Peacock]

Cannabis researchers say it’s high time to drop ‘lazy stoner’ stereotype.

Cannabis users are often depicted as lazy “stoners” whose life ambitions span little further than lying on the sofa eating crisps. But research from the University of Cambridge challenges this stereotype, showing that regular users appear no more likely to lack motivation compared with non-users.

The research also found no difference in motivation for rewards, pleasure taken from rewards, or the brain’s response when seeking rewards, compared with non-users.

“We’re so used to seeing ‘lazy stoners’ on our screens that we don’t stop to ask whether they’re an accurate representation,” said Martine Skumlien, a PhD student at the University of Cambridge and the research’s first author. “Our work implies that … people who use cannabis are no more likely to lack motivation or be lazier than people who don’t.”

Skumlien said smoking cannabis could be associated with other downsides, but that the stoner stereotype is “stigmatising” and could make messages around harm reduction less effective...

[JimC]

Whatever, dude...

[macdoc]

try again ..4 hours

[macdoc]

yow - 20,000 bee stings and he survived so far ..
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... gs-recover