Science Megathread

[Ban my account ffs!]

http://www.startribune.com/business/215881221.html

While Keystone XL has become a thing in the national consciousness, the focus on that one pipeline has meant that other pipelines are being expanded under the radar with hardly a wimper from environmentalists.

The Enbridge "Alberta Clipper" pipeline that was laid down across northern Minnesota in the heart of the economic downturn (2009 to early 2010), brought a very much needed injection of cash as hundreds of workers around the country moved in.

Now they'll expand pumping stations to increase the capacity of the pipeline by 27%. 

Here's the one simple reason I support the pipeline:  It is so much safer than transporting the oil by rail.  Already because the pipelines from the Bakken oil patch are at capacity, the number of oil tanker cars riding the rails through Minnesota has mushroomed from 9500 in 2008 to 380,000 in 2012 and will likely reach 600,000 soon.

Already a derailment led to an oil spill in western Minnesota last fall.

Opposing the pipeline knowing that the alternative is moving the oil on rails is short sighted and potentially damaging to the environment.

The truth, unfortunate or not, is that this oil will continue to be used.  Let's be reasonable and make the process of transporting the oil as safe as possible.  And continue to fight for increased fuel efficiency standards, electricity standards, and an overall reduction in oil use even as the proportion of our oil coming from stable regions increases.

Better our oil than Iraq's or Saudi Arabia's.

The well-meaning environmental movement that is actually causing more damage to the environment by exporting pollution to nations with lax pollution standards should be discouraged.

[Ban my account ffs!]

We may not be the main guilty party in the mass extinction of Ice Age megafauna, it seems:

Ice core data supports ancient space impact idea

By Simon Redfern
Reporter, BBC News

A layer of platinum is seen in ice of the same age as a known abrupt climate transition, US scientists report.

The climate flip has previously been linked to the demise of the North American "Clovis" people.

The data seem to back the idea that an impact tipped the climate into a colder phase, a point of current debate.

Rapid climate change occurred 12,900 years ago, and it is proposed that this is associated with the extinction of large mammals - such as the mammoth, widespread wildfires and rapid changes in atmospheric and ocean circulation.

All of these have previously been linked to a cosmic impact but the theory has been hotly disputed because there was a lack of clear evidence.

I remember being contacted by this scientist in the UK about this very theory.  He had been poring over satellite pictures and was just sure that this impact had taken place over northern Minnesota in an area covered in vast peat bogs today.

It actually looks like something hit the earth north of Red Lake, leaving a distinct pattern that looks like an impact that hit at a glancing blow.

But alas, I posited that that had been caused by peat fires or some other terrestrial cause.

[Ban my account ffs!]

Researchers debunk myth of right-brain and left-brain personality traits

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Who'da thought it's all bunk?

Hahahaha....

Oh, Snowguy...

What?

We had a very *interesting* debate on this last night in the IRC.

I'm pretty sure the debate amounted to me saying "each side of your brain is fairly separate and performs different functions and also performs the same functions as the other side, but slightly differently"

There is plenty of scientific literature to back that up.

Your response was "all that left brain right brain stuff is bullsh**t" and then you told me you were sensitive about the subject.

This article says nothing against what I said.

[Ban my account ffs!]

Evidence of three and a half billion year old microbes found in western Australia's Dresser Formation. Fantastic find.

It would seem life was just itching to start once the earth cooled enough.  That's why space exploration is so important.  It is a distinct possibility that life could exist on other worlds in our solar system.

[Ban my account ffs!]

Be nice if we could stickie this thread somewhere.

I was just now cleaning out some old emails and found this: Dolphins likely have the longest and most expansive memory of any non-human species. They are like us in so many ways, yet they live in the water and communicate by clicks and tones. Which are thus far indecipherable. Like humans, their brains are very large and very complex when considering the size of their bodies. Freedom Species!

Here's a fascinating snippet:

You must be logged in to read this quote.

I'd like to know more about that. Did they understand that they were "tidying up" or would that concept be alien to them?

Evidence of three and a half billion year old microbes found in western Australia's Dresser Formation. Fantastic find.

It would seem life was just itching to start once the earth cooled enough.  That's why space exploration is so important.  It is a distinct possibility that life could exist on other worlds in our solar system.

I totally agree, and there is the possibility that that intelligent life will be like whales and never build a radio to talk back to us!

If we can figure out how to go into water and not get wet and go into space and not get whatever complex process that is... an intelligent marine species could easily evolve a way to communicate outside of water!

[Ban my account ffs!]

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2015/06/24/uk-met-fastest-decline-solar-activity-last-ice-age/

The UK Met Office has raised the likelihood that the sun will will be in Maunder minimum conditions by 2050 from 8% to 15-20% after they found the sun is undergoing it's most rapid decline in activity in the past 9300 years.

The sun from about 1930-2005 was in what was called the "Modern Solar Maximum", a grand maximum in solar activity the very opposite of the grand "Maunder minimum" that occurred from 1645-1715 at the heart of the Little Ice Age period.

That came to an end when solar activity fell to unprecedented (by modern instruments) levels and the current solar cycle maximum has been the weakest in at least a century.

Of course the UK Met assures us human induced warming will overwhelm any cooling caused by the most rapid decline in solar activity since the last ice age.  We will see!

[Ban my account ffs!]

Scientists move one step closer to turning water into hydrogen fuel, affordably:
Researchers reveal a new mechanism to create hydrogen fuel that could power environmentally clean cars.

By Eva Botkin-Kowacki, Staff writer
JANUARY 5, 2016

You must be logged in to read this quote.

That's great news.  It will already be nearly impossible to power our homes and businesses with renewables without adding electric cars to the mix.  If we can reasonably convert water to hydrogen for fuel cells.. it would potentially take a big burden off the grid.. at least for airplanes, trains, ships, and maybe trucks to start.

[Ban my account ffs!]

Can we please call these people Buttermilk People and the culture Buttermilk culture?