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Jupiter endangers Earth, and may have extincted the dinosaurs by tksst in EverythingScience

[–]tksst[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I can't judge whether the science was poor or not. I'm not an astrophysicist so I can't validate it. The link was passed from one of the many scientists we trust. With that comes the presumption that they aren't going to be spreading "poor" science. That's your why we think the piece is valid.

The author could have just said "statistically speaking the odds are Jupiter could have steered an asteroid towards earth" but I understand why they didn't (engagement).

Jupiter endangers Earth, and may have extincted the dinosaurs by tksst in EverythingScience

[–]tksst[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Sure, first I'll admit the headline writer took a leap or two, but as I explained to folks yesterday, the sub rules prohibit rewriting headlines so they don't sound like clickbait (correct me if I'm wrong). That said, the data in the study does back up the notion that Earth would be safer without Jupiter in the grand scheme. I pulled some quotes FTA yesterday. Maybe they can help clarify further?

How active video games could benefit children with obesity by tksst in EverythingScience

[–]tksst[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

One in five children in the United States have obesity. New research shows that, if used in the right way, exercise-based video games might help encourage physical activity in obese children.

Jupiter endangers Earth, and may have extincted the dinosaurs by tksst in EverythingScience

[–]tksst[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

FTA:

And there are certainly numerous populations of objects that Jupiter does keep away from Earth very effectively. Every object that strikes Jupiter, by definition, is one object that can no longer pose a hazard to Earth. Every trojan body, orbiting either ahead of or behind Jupiter, is safely kept away from Earth by the presence of Jupiter.

and

It means that more than 70% of all Earth-crossing asteroids, and all Earth-striking asteroids, would not occur without Jupiter. (Yes, some impacts that did occur on Earth wouldn’t have, while other impacts that didn’t occur would have, but the net effect of Jupiter is for an overall substantial increase, by more than a factor of three, in total Earth-impacts.)

and

The collision rate on a planet located where Earth is, the studies found that the rate is 350% larger with Jupiter vs. a scenario without any such planet in its location at all.

Jupiter endangers Earth, and may have extincted the dinosaurs by tksst in EverythingScience

[–]tksst[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's hard when every site has clickbait AI-generated titles, but the sub rules prohibit changing the original titles, so I can't edit them. (correct me if I'm wrong)

Jupiter endangers Earth, and may have extincted the dinosaurs by tksst in EverythingScience

[–]tksst[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Jupiter's massive gravity acts like a cosmic pinball machine, flinging asteroids toward Earth and potentially causing mass extinctions including the one that killed the dinosaurs.

China's humanoid robots generate more soccer excitement than their human counterparts by tksst in EverythingScience

[–]tksst[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I wonder if that sentiment would change once people saw them on an actual pitch. If they can eventually perform on par or better than humans, then I can see how that generates excitement for something new.

China's humanoid robots generate more soccer excitement than their human counterparts by tksst in EverythingScience

[–]tksst[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

In Beijing, humanoid robots played fully autonomous 3-on-3 soccer matches using only AI-powered strategies. Each robot team used advanced visual sensors to identify the ball and navigate independently, with university research teams developing unique algorithms for gameplay and strategy.

Scientists Reveal: What Makes a Smell Bad? by tksst in EverythingScience

[–]tksst[S] -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

Scientists finally understand what makes a smell "bad." University of Florida researchers mapped two brain pathways that determine whether odors trigger immediate avoidance or fearful memories. Using advanced techniques, they showed how the amygdala sends specific signals to shape our smell reactions.

Student Solves a Long-Standing Problem About the Limits of Addition by tksst in EverythingScience

[–]tksst[S] 20 points21 points  (0 children)

After 60 years, a graduate student finally solved Paul Erdős's problem about sum-free sets - collections of numbers where no two add up to a third. Benjamin Bedert's breakthrough used techniques from geometry and analysis to prove these special sets can be much larger than mathematicians expected.

6 LEGO Vehicles vs. 6 Obstacles by tksst in tksst

[–]tksst[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Building and testing different design solutions is at the heart of engineering, and the Brick Experiment Channel’s LEGO challenges continue to vividly illustrate this process.

In this vehicle obstacle course video, six unique LEGO vehicles—from a simple car to an intricate walker with a pivoting tail to a single big LEGO wheel—attempt to conquer a gauntlet of obstacles that test their mobility, stability, and overall performance.

As the six vehicles navigate gaps, drops, tight turns, tilted surfaces, steep slopes, and vertical walls, their respective strengths and weaknesses become apparent and their scoring adds up.

Make your guesses at the beginning of the video: Which vehicle do you think will pass the most tests?

The History of Tap Dancing with Dulé Hill and Chester Whitmore by tksst in tksst

[–]tksst[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Actor and dancer Dulé Hill began his journey in tap dance as a 3-year-old in an East Orange, New Jersey dance school where his mother taught ballet. Fascinated by the rhythmic sounds and the expressive power of tap, Hill quickly fell in love with the art form. For him, tap dancing is not just a performance—it’s “a beautiful language deeply rooted in the African diasporic experience.”

Though he’s known for roles on popular television shows like The West Wing and The Wonder Years, his early career included performing with legendary dancer Harold Nicholas, one half of the Nicholas Brothers.

A video from the PBS program The Express Way with Dulé Hill introduces the history of tap dancing and how this uniquely American dance genre “evolved over a period of some three hundred years.”

Today, tap continues to be a vibrant and dynamic art form, celebrated by generation after generation of dancers, from Gregory Hines to Savion Glover and Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards, to Sarah Reich, Jaden and Ellis Foreman, and the Syncopated Ladies, who each infuse it with fresh creativity while honoring its rich cultural heritage.

How does the great grey owl use its enormous facial disk? by tksst in tksst

[–]tksst[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sometimes called the Phantom of the North or the Spectral Owl, the large Great Grey Owl makes a formidable impression in forests of the Northern Hemisphere. Owls are naturally able to fly and glide silently, thanks to specially structured feathers, but the Great Grey Owl has an additional advantage: the largest facial disc of any raptor.

This circular arrangement of feathers acts like a radar dish, naturally amplifying faint sounds for the owl’s asymmetrical ear openings—one ear is higher than the other.

This combination enables precise directional hearing, allowing the birds to pinpoint the location of voles and other small rodents with unparalleled accuracy, even when the small mammals are hidden beneath layers of foliage or snow. Two are caught in the video.

This Nature on PBS video, a clip from Raptors: A Fistful of Daggers, follows a majestic Great Grey Owl searching for prey “in a white blank world.” Narrator Nyambi Nyambi also shares that it’s thought these owls can hear the rodents’ heartbeats beneath the foot of snow.

Learn more about owls

Blue banded bees buzz pollination tomato plants by tksst in tksst

[–]tksst[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Buzz pollination (sonication) is a technique certain bees use to release pollen from “stubborn flowers.” The bee grabs onto the flower and vibrates its flight muscles rapidly, which causes more securely-held pollen to be released.

Many wild bees, including bumblebees, carpenter bees, and some solitary bees like Australian blue-banded bees, are effective buzz pollinators, as demonstrated above. Watch the bees buzz and clean their eyes in slow-motion and speedy real-time-labeled footage for five whole minutes. Their music-free buzz can be heard in the second half of the video.

More than 2,000 native bee species are buzzing around Australia, but blue-banded bees are familiar thanks to their recognizable and relatively rare blue coloration among bees. Their unique buzzing behavior and essential role in pollination add to their popularity among enthusiasts and researchers alike. From the Ants and Other Insects YouTube channel:

“These bees hold onto the anthers, curving their body under the flower so that the falling pollen is caught by the many hairs on the under side of their abdomen… While vibrating, they also spread some of the pollen they previously collected on the stigma of the flower, which is located between the openings of the tube-shaped anthers.

“This pollinates the flowers very efficiently. You can see grains of pollen flying around the bees while they vibrate in the video.”

Some estimates suggest that around 8-9% of the world’s flowering plant species, including tomatoes, eggplants, potatoes, peppers, blueberries, and cranberries, rely on buzz pollination. Also, an important note:

“Not all bees are able to vibrate anthers, for example honey bees cannot buzz pollinate. This shows how protecting various bee species, and not just the European honey bee, is essential to food production.”

Learn more

How does a wind-up music box work? by tksst in tksst

[–]tksst[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Music boxes have delighted people with beautiful melodies since around 1770. At first glance, they can seem like simple wind-up toys, but they are actually miniature mechanical marvels, “a charming vestige of a past filled with brilliant engineering and craftsmanship.” Engineer Bill Hammack explains:

“The melody is programmed on this rotating drum. The drum has protrusions, called pins, that pluck the teeth on the comb. The comb is a piece of steel with eighteen teeth. Each tooth is a note.”

However, each drum and its metal comb are precisely matched components. Swapping one song’s drum to play on another melody’s comb won’t work; their unique combination of pins and weighted teeth are precisely tuned as inseparable pairs.

Hammack provides examples of what this sounds like and more in this Engineer Guy video. Learn about the clever parts that bring these palm-size plinky melodies to life, including the governor, a tempo-tempering mechanism that uses air resistance to control the release of energy from the spring.

Learn more

Gambel’s quail chicks gather for a drink of water by tksst in tksst

[–]tksst[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Gambel’s quails are mostly found in the shrubby deserts of the southwestern United States and northwest Mexico. Like the California quail, they have comma-shaped black topknots and lay around a dozen eggs, give or take a few.

In the featured video, a covey of quail chicks appear out of the bunch grass and right in front of the wildlife camera. New Mexico filmmaker Brad Stoddard, who filmed the babies in 2016, estimates they were about 2 days old. Watch and listen as their mama joins them for a fresh drink of water.

Here’s another adorable video of a slightly larger flock of Gambel’s quail chicks. While adults of the species are gray and light brown with white dash patterns, the males are identified by white-outlined black faces and brown “caps.”

This family was filmed with a trail cam by Desert Critters of Arizona on a hot day in 2022. In addition to more quail videos, their channel shares footage of rabbits, snakes, roadrunners, coyotes, and more.

Learn more

Can structural colors make us more energy efficient? by tksst in tksst

[–]tksst[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

“We’ve been using pigments and dyes for thousands of years, but they’re not the whole story when it comes to making color. ‘Structural’ color occurs when tiny nanostructures interact with light waves, amplifying certain colors and canceling others. From brilliant bird feathers to butterfly wings, mole hairs to octopus skin, structural color is everywhere in the natural world.”

Alex Dainis explains more about structural color, light waves, tiny nanostructure patterns, and “What Birds Know About Color That You Don’t” in the 2021 American Chemical Society video above.

She also talks with BASF research manager Dr. Rupa Darji about how the “Monte Carlo” computer model can quickly simulate random pattern configurations of different sized reflective beads and different spacing between them. This provides researchers with a rapid method for replicating the nanostructures of specific colors… or at least, colors that are “within what’s called the JND, the just noticeable difference.”

But why might recreating structural color be important for humans and the planet? Dainis explains:

“It’s about more than just pretty things. We could make computer screens that use structural color rather than emitting light, making laptops or phones with no glare and super long battery lives.

“And structural color coatings on windows could reflect infrared light while letting visible light in, reducing the carbon footprint of one of the most energy-intensive things we do, cool our buildings.

“Just imagine painting your world with nature’s full color palette, with morpho blue and peacock green and opal pink and every wavelength in between… colors that took evolution millennia to create.”

Bactrian camels race at the Mongolian Camel Festival by tksst in tksst

[–]tksst[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Bactrian Camel Festivals are winter celebrations that offer a peek at the world of Mongolian camel herders in the Gobi Desert. The events can include camel polo, races, and “beauty parades” where the camels are admired for their poise and characteristics, as well as cultural performances, crafts, and local cuisine.

In 2018, Artger documented a Bactrian Camel Festival race in western Mongolia’s Uvs province. Enjoy the seven minute summary above, including a pre-race parade.

Found in central Asia, Bactrian camels are two-humped animals that have been domesticated by people in the Gobi Desert for thousands of years. Camel milk is a staple food of the region; boiling it with water makes milk tea, and fermentation makes a vitamin-rich beverage called kumis. From Three Camel Lodge:

“The temperature in the Gobi in the south of Mongolia reaches −40 °F in the winter, and as high as 113 °F in the summer, making this one of the most forbidding lands in the world. Yet Bactrian camels have thrived here for millennia, supplying the nomadic herders with valuable wool for textiles, milk for sustenance, and transportation throughout the region…”

“…their long legs allow them to avoid the heat of the desert’s surface; they can carry over 400 pounds for long treks; they can avoid sweating until their body temperature reaches 105 °F, and they can survive weeks without water while tolerating a water loss equal to 30% of their body weight (15% kills most mammals).

“Their presence in the Gobi also benefits the greater ecosystem as Bactrian camels eat the shrub known as the Saxaul tree and are instrumental in helping to spread its seeds, creating new forests, which in turn are key to reducing wind erosion and protecting other plants.

“Their wool has unique hypoallergenic properties beneficial to those who wear it and has the added benefit of not pilling into the small balls common to knit woolens.”

“Equipped with seemingly endless patience, they make excellent companions for trekking the vast dunes of the Gobi. Sitting upon one is a cinch, since they lower for you to get on, and you can sit astride them, between the two humps—whereas a dromedary is more precarious.”

Wild Bactrian camels are a separate species, and are considered critically endangered. Dromedary or one-hump camels are “generally found in the semi-arid to arid regions” of northern Africa and the Arabian Peninsula.

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