Science stories of the week

I don't doubt this at all. Accomplishing goals and refusing to give in to procrastination, provides such a rewarding feeling. In the moment, procrastination seems harmless, but as your unfinished tasks start piling up, you feel overwhelmed and anxious.. it's just a bad feeling, all around. Ask me how I know. :wink: Interestingly enough, as the article states, procrastinators are not lazy. We really aren't. We just work better under pressure and we're busy doing other things that we deem important, but aren't as urgent as what we should be doing.

I like the quote in the article ''we made a mistake and procrastinated...it's not the end of the world.''Behavioral scientist Fuschia Sirois, Durham University

That's right, it's not the end of the world. However, if done often enough, procrastination can hurt your health...it's a helpful warning that procrastination is more than just a behavioral ''mistake.'' It has consequences in the long run.

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/procrastination-harm-fix-resolution
 
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-right-words-are-crucial-to-solving-climate-change/

WORDS MATTER

To inspire people, we need to tell a story not of sacrifice and deprivation but of opportunity and improvement in our lives, our health and our well-being—a story of humans flourishing in a post-fossil-fuel age.

Some of the language problems we face in presenting this story are inadvertent and innocent, such as how scientists use jargon and think the facts speak for themselves. Others are intentional and insidious, such as the well-funded disinformation campaign led by the fossil-fuel industry that is meant to confuse, obfuscate and mislead.


It's important in my opinion, to speak directly and deliberately when it comes to climate change, but without tact and respect for your ''audience,'' no matter how valuable the message, it may fall on deaf ears. Although, people shouldn't have to be coddled and spoonfed when it comes to taking responsibility for their actions, and how those actions (or inactions) affect the planet. Do you agree that facts should speak for themselves, or do the methods by which we communicate those facts, play a significant part in climate change ''education''?


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Not a story, but ran across this website while reading about the recent tsunami in Tonga, and thought it was worth sharing. So, we could monitor this website and have enough warning if a tsunami was approaching different parts of the US?

https://www.tsunami.gov/
 
Watched Space-X launch biggest rocket built so far

Minutes after a successful launch and awaiting stage separation, it experienced a failure, what SpaceX livestream hosts described as a "rapid unscheduled disassembly."

The spacecraft on top would have eventually passed over the Atlantic before coming down near Hawaii. The flight was expected to last for just an hour and a half

Unfortunately flight lasted only 4 minutes before it rapid unscheduled disassembly.

Great turn of phrase

rapid unscheduled disassembly


;)
 
wegs said:
This has to be the coolest experience.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/nasa-virtual-mars-habitat-four-volunteers-start-mission-one-year/
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It's interesting an outsider looking in every now and then. Sort of like an extended reality TV show, except they don't have to vote somebody off the island every few days.

This reminds me of the Biosphere 2 experiment.

If we're going to send people to Mars for real, then it is important to do this kind of long-term study on the sorts of issues that might come up in a trip to Mars. Personally, though, I wouldn't want to give up a year of my life to live in a space about the size of an average house, with 3 of my work colleagues, no matter who they were.

On the other hand, I did spend quite a lot of time effectively shut up in my house in 2020-21, as a result of Covid-19 lockdowns, so this might not be very different.
 
James R said:
It's interesting an outsider looking in every now and then. Sort of like an extended reality TV show, except they don't have to vote somebody off the island every few days.

This reminds me of the Biosphere 2 experiment.

If we're going to send people to Mars for real, then it is important to do this kind of long-term study on the sorts of issues that might come up in a trip to Mars. Personally, though, I wouldn't want to give up a year of my life to live in a space about the size of an average house, with 3 of my work colleagues, no matter who they were.

On the other hand, I did spend quite a lot of time effectively shut up in my house in 2020-21, as a result of Covid-19 lockdowns, so this might not be very different.
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That’s so true, James. Thought that as well about being isolated for one year but if it’s as close as I could get to what living on Mars might feel like, it might be worth it.
 
wegs said:
https://time.com/6293097/solar-storm-northern-lights-us/

Sigh, except mine which obviously, I’m not surprised but it’s one more reason to relocate to the PNW.
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I've only seen them once and that wasn't in Seattle. That was in Spokane and the really impressive part only lasted for 10 minutes or so but I'm glad that I did get to see them.

I've been where there were total solar eclipses several times but it was cloudy all but once. That was when I was in NC as a teenager and that one was optimal, clear skies, I saw the corona at totality. Totally impressive.

I really like these unusual natural events. I was in a 7.4 earthquake in Costa Rica and one in Seattle that shook my house pretty good. I was in Spokane when Mt. St. Helen's erupted and covered Spokane with ask. I also fly over Mt. St. Helen's two days before it erupted.

It's supposed to be clear here on Thursday night so I'll try to see them but I'm not going to drive to dark skies but we'll see. Thanks for the heads up.
 
Seattle said:
I've only seen them once and that wasn't in Seattle. That was in Spokane and the really impressive part only lasted for 10 minutes or so but I'm glad that I did get to see them.

I've been where there were total solar eclipses several times but it was cloudy all but once. That was when I was in NC as a teenager and that once was optimal, clear skies, I saw the corona at totality. Totally impressive.

It's supposed to be clear here on Thursday night so I'll try to see them but I'm not going to drive to dark skies but we'll see. Thanks for the heads up.
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If you’re able to see them, take pics and post them here. :smile:
 
wegs said:
If you’re able to see them, take pics and post them here. :smile:
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I'll try and I'll post them if they turn out. My impression in Spokane was like that of shining light on crumpled aluminum foil and wiggling it.

You've got to reciprocate by taking a picture of your neighborhood alligator.
 
Seattle said:
I'll try and I'll post them if they turn out. My impression in Spokane was like that of shining light on crumpled aluminum foil and wiggling it.

You've got to reciprocate by taking a picture of your neighborhood alligator.
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lol Okay.
 
This looks fun!

Interesting commentary about gravity and the stress it places on the body, as compared say, to living on the moon. I wonder if we'd live well into the hundred's if gravity wasn't ''weighing us down'', so to speak. (all things being equal)

www.sciencenews.org

Forget moon walking. Scientists want to give moon running a try

Researchers took over an amusement park attraction to test out an idea for how astronauts might exercise on the moon.
www.sciencenews.org www.sciencenews.org
 
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wegs said:
Radar detects fresh lava flows on Venus, signaling that it may have much more volcanic activity that was previously thought - a breakthrough discovery.

www.earth.com

Venus may have far more volcanic activity than we thought

Recent analyses have revealed surprising volcanic activity on Venus, challenging prior assumptions about its geological state.
www.earth.com www.earth.com
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Interesting. But this story seems to be a year old: https://www.nasa.gov/missions/veritas/nasas-magellan-data-reveals-volcanic-activity-on-venus/

Though your link quotes work by an Italian group, rather than Americans. Perhaps the Italians have produced some new findings along the same lines and your link has now wised up to the subject. I'm off walking in the Downs in a few mins but if I have time later I'll try to dig up some stuff on the geophysics of Venus - whether it is thought to have active plate tectonics etc.
 
exchemist said:
Interesting. But this story seems to be a year old: https://www.nasa.gov/missions/veritas/nasas-magellan-data-reveals-volcanic-activity-on-venus/

Though your link quotes work by an Italian group, rather than Americans. Perhaps the Italians have produced some new findings along the same lines and your link has now wised up to the subject. I'm off walking in the Downs in a few mins but if I have time later I'll try to dig up some stuff on the geophysics of Venus - whether it is thought to have active plate tectonics etc.
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Yea, from what I can tell, this story seems to be building on the 2023 discovery.
 
wegs said:
Yea, from what I can tell, this story seems to be building on the 2023 discovery.
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It looks as if Venus is thought not to have an active tectonic plate system, but instead a surface formed of a mosaic of microplates that don't get subducted beneath one another, but only jostle against each other. I have not found a good explanation of why this should be the case. I read that Venus is thought not to have a mantle that flows plastically, i.e. there are no convective cells of the type that drive plate tectonics on Earth. However why there should be this difference between Earth and Venus is something I have not been able to track down.

There do however seem to be hot spots, I suppose similar to those we have in Iceland and Hawaii, which are responsible for the production of shield volcanoes, and also some evidence of flood basalts, like those seen in the Deccan traps and the Scottish Hebrides.
 
exchemist said:
It looks as if Venus is thought not to have an active tectonic plate system, but instead a surface formed of a mosaic of microplates that don't get subducted beneath one another, but only jostle against each other. I have not found a good explanation of why this should be the case. I read that Venus is thought not to have a mantle that flows plastically, i.e. there are no convective cells of the type that drive plate tectonics on Earth. However why there should be this difference between Earth and Venus is something I have not been able to track down.

There do however seem to be hot spots, I suppose similar to those we have in Iceland and Hawaii, which are responsible for the production of shield volcanoes, and also some evidence of flood basalts, like those seen in the Deccan traps and the Scottish Hebrides.
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More on this subject that you might find interesting.

www.brown.edu

Venus had Earth-like plate tectonics billions of years ago, study suggests

Simulations produced by a Brown-led research team offer evidence that Venus once had plate tectonics — a finding that opens the door for the possibility of early life on the planet and insights into its history.
www.brown.edu www.brown.edu
 
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