Weird & Interesting science

[nocarename]

Heinlein did two short stories (Universe, and Common Sense) that got rolled into a single novel (Orphans of the Sky) with the generation ship premise that I'm aware of.
Clarke did Rescue Party, where it's a generation fleet fleeing the destruction of the planet.
Pohl and Kornbluth did a novel called Search the Sky that includes a generation ship, but that doesn't seem to be the focus based on the Wikipedia summary.

[Star Ranger4]

Thanks Rob. Was thinking of Orphans of the Sky more than 'For the world is hollow'

[RMH999]

https://www.newscientist.com/article/226...ing-bones/

Meat free diets lead to greater risk of broken bones. Vegans (highest risk) and vegetarians both.

[classicdrogn]

Warp drive news

non-embedded

Apparently, according to the newly formulated maths, the Galaxy class's oblate hull would in fact be more efficient than a narrow one...

[robkelk]

Phophine gas in Venusian atmosphere

Potential sign of life?  Phosphine concentrations are millions of times higher than what geological processes we know of can produce (not saying that Venus can't have something going on), so the current possibility is bacterial life of some type.

Maybe not. Several independent follow-up studies called into question recent findings so the authors took a second look

[Bob Schroeck]

Fireball lights up the sky over Japan

[Bob Schroeck]

Another one over Ontario and New York state

[DHBirr]

The "Earthlike" planet orbiting Proxima Centauri probably isn't habitable after all, due to the star giving off lots of dangerous radiation.

However, Dr Andrew Zic, the lead author of the latest study, published in the Astrophysical Journal, said: "What our research shows is this makes the planets very vulnerable to dangerous ionising radiation that could effectively sterilise them."
This problem does not plague life on Earth in the same way because the hot clouds of ionised particles emitted by the Sun are too far away and our planet is shielded by a powerful planetary magnetic field.
Dr Zic, of Macquarie University, Sydney, added: "This is probably bad news on the space weather front.
"It seems likely the galaxy's most common stars - red dwarfs - won't be great places to find life as we know it."
...
The latest findings about Proxima b were based on observational data from space and land-based telescopes that captured the space conditions in “amazing detail”.
It suggests that planets around red dwarfs such as Proxima Centauri are likely to be showered with stellar flares and plasma ejections.
The orbiting planets would therefore suffer from strong “atmospheric erosion”, which would expose them to very intense ultraviolet radiation.

Bummer.  There goes that vacation spot down the drain.

[hazard]

Don't be silly. All that means is that you need to go, quickly, before the atmosphere is worn away entirely and use a high SPF sunblock.

[robkelk]

Jupiter and Saturn join in the night sky in 'great conjunction.' Here's how you can see it

The last time the pair were observed to be this close was in 1226, almost 800 years ago, a time when Ghengis Khan's rule was coming to an end.

(Insert obligatory Sailor Senshi joke here.)

[Bob Schroeck]

(Insert obligatory Genghis Khan/Trump joke here.)

[classicdrogn]

By all reports Ghengis Khan was a competent leader who cared about his people, so there's really no comparison to be made.

[Labster]

Astronomers say that it is very unlikely the planets will collide, but given that its 2020, “don’t count it out yet.”

[robkelk]

Private sector spy satellite can see inside your house, using synthetic aperture radar. They're already at the maximum resolution allowed by US law.

[DHBirr]

Why did zebras evolve stripes?  Scientists did an experiment to test a theory that it isn't so much camouflage against big predators such as lions, but as much or more against small ones – that is, biting flies.

To reach this conclusion, scientists tested their theory on a group of horses and zebras wearing different kinds of coats. The researchers dressed both horses and zebras in black coats, white coats, and striped zebra coats.

One reader asked whether the horses had complained that the stripes made them look fat.

[Bob Schroeck]

The Open AI project has trained a neural network to generate images from text descriptions.

[classicdrogn]

And if you want to try it for yourself, I found a version implemented for pytorch:

https://github.com/lucidrains/dalle-pytorch

Given that it's being worked on by a group called OpenAI I'm sure that the original is also available somewhere, but it didn't turn up quickly on an idle curiosity-search.

The results are pretty good, from what's on display - I'm torn between being pleased at the thought of all the fanfiction that will be able to have illustrations and concerned about displacing human artists when it's always been a low-to-negative-margin profession in the first place.

Now for the Register-style question: Does this mean the robot rebellion will be kicked off because some uncultured knuckle-dragger of a carbon unit failed to appreciate the artistic genius of ViN¢ Go!'s masterpiece?

[robkelk]

Platypuses glow in the dark

[Bob Schroeck]

No fair hogging all the weird.

[Bob Schroeck]

There are probably dinosaur remains on the moon.

[robkelk]

Happy Birthday, ENIAC!

[Norgarth]

Archeologists discover that women did a lot more of the hunting in prehistory than previously believed
https://www.mic.com/p/ancient-remains-pr...pEbzGYO83A

[robkelk]

5,000-year-old brewery, possibly world's oldest, uncovered in Egypt

[RMH999]

Venetian glass beads found in pre-Columbus excavation in Alaska           

Likely transported across the Silk Road and traded up through Siberia and over to Alaska.

[RMH999]

Million year old Mammoth DNA sequenced  

Since it was found in Siberian permafrost, it was preserved well enough to get reads out of.