The intelligence that so many bird species have never ceases to amaze me. If you were to think about IQ per ounce of brain matter I bet birds would be #1. And with modern day birds being so smart it makes me giddy to think how cool and amazing dinosaurs may have been.
Where’s that damn time machine?!
There was some evidence some species of dinosaurs were chimp levels of intelligence or higher iirc.
While it’s obviously more obvious in retrospect, anybody who doubts birds are descended from dinosaurs has clearly never seen a large bird up close. An emu or even a large turkey? If you really look at them, they’re clearly fucking terrifying prehistoric alien monsters.
If you ever come across that specific article I’d love to read it.
The Smithsonian has an interesting-science-stories-of-2016 list up, which I enjoyed looking over. My favorites are the shipwrecks (#3) and CRISPR (#6).
This is both frightening and intriguing.
I love the idea of made-to-order organ replacements, but I’ve read way to much dystopian sci-fi to be comfortable with anything based on “human-* hybrid.”
Scientists may have created solid hydrogen finally.
I sure hope so, but we’ll see:
http://www.nature.com/news/physicists-doubt-bold-report-of-metallic-hydrogen-1.21379
It beats actually implanting pure pig parts into humans, which we’ve been doing for decades (Schwarzenegger himself had a heart valve replaced with a porcine one back in the 90s).
Plus, if we can get rid of the organ shortage, and for organ recipients to have to take immune suppressors the rest of theirs lives, that’s a double-win.
Solid Hydrogen is so fucking metal.
I guess this could have gone into the “Space” thread too:
Astronaut Scott Kelly has an identical twin (Mark) who is also an astronaut. Scott Kelly has spent over a calendar year in space while Mark Kelly has spent only(!) 54 days in space. NASA has begun doing some genetic testing on the two to see where their genes might have started to diverge. The idea is that since they are effectively clones and had very similar life-experiences and health, any divergence seen will likely be the result of their time spent in free-fall.
[quote]One of the differences was found in
the twin’s telomeres. If you picture a chromosome as an X-shaped unit of
DNA, telomeres are the caps on the end of each leg of the X. These act
as a buffer so that no important DNA is spilled from the chromosomes as
cells divide, though this causes the telomeres to shorten over time.
This process is linked to aging and much of the recent research around
telemores has focused on regulating their length as a way of slowing or
reversing our biological clocks, and even preventing cancer.
Studies into each of the brothers’ telomeres revealed that Scott’s grew to be
longer while he was in space, but returned to their normal length pretty
quickly once he returned to Earth. This is the opposite of what the
scientists expected to happen. They are now conducting separate research
into telomere length in ten other astronauts and hope that the results
may help them better understand this mysterious effect.[/quote]
Nature is inherently crazy. Zombie and mind control bugs are the best bugs.
There’s a bat robot!
Scale this up to carry 150 pounds ASAP, so I can both have a jetpack and be Batman simultaneously.
That thing is beautiful :)
Ah, the Robotic Flying Vampire Apocalypse is one step closer today than yesterday.
Elon Musk is going into business to link brains and computers.
[quote]At Recode’s conference last year, Elon Musk said he would love to see someone do something about linking human brains with computers. With no other human being volunteering, Mr. Musk – who founded PayPal and OpenAI, thought of Hyperloop, is working on a boring company, and runs SpaceX, TeslaX, SolarCity – is now working on it. From a report on WSJ:
Internal sources tell the WSJ that the company, called Neuralink, is developing “neural lace” technology that would allow people to communicate directly with machines without going through a physical interface. Neural lace involves implanting electrodes in the brain so people could upload or download their thoughts to or from a computer, according to the WSJ report. The product could allow humans to achieve higher levels of cognitive function.[/quote]
I hope he has William Gibson on board as a consultant.
I volunteer. I’ve said for about two decades now that as soon as they can put a jack in my head, sign me up. I’ve got a wife and three kids now and I’m still raising my hand. The only thing that could hold me back is how version 2.0 always works out the kinks for version 1.0, so maybe I’ll wait for that one.
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/04/14/523796745/researchers-find-a-new-way-to-make-water-from-thin-air
Just a prototype thus far, but looks promising for future moisture farmers. Can blue milk be far behind?
Birds as dinosaurs:
This may be the closest thing I’ve seen yet to the flying car we’ve all wanted since forever.
All electric is nice, no (direct) carbon emissions. They want to run these like Uber, just request it on your app and the thing flies over to pick you up and take you wherever. I’m cautiously optimistic!