New
#331
Wow, you wouldn't think it could survive an environment like that.
Hacking mother nature: scientists are turning moths into drones
SourceScientists are working on a method for controlling moths electronically. Yeah — moths. By attaching electrodes to the back of a moth, scientists hope to control its flight. Though the immediate use-case that comes to mind might be “trolling cats”, it seems there is much more sound reasoning for wanting an army of moth drones.
A Guy
August 26, 2014:
Once every 50 years, more or less, a massive star explodes somewhere in the Milky Way. The resulting blast is terrifyingly powerful, pumping out more energy in a split second than the sun emits in a million years. At its peak, a supernova can outshine the entire Milky Way. It seems obvious that you wouldn't want a supernova exploding near Earth. Yet there is growing evidence that one did—actually, more than one. About 10 million years ago, a nearby cluster of supernovas went off like popcorn. We know because the explosions blew an enormous bubble in the interstellar medium, and we're inside it.....
..... Astronomers call it "the Local Bubble." It is peanut-shaped, about 300 light years long, and filled with almost nothing. Gas inside the bubble is very thin (0.001 atoms per cubic centimeter) and very hot (roughly a million degrees)—a sharp departure from ordinary interstellar material.
The Local Bubble was discovered gradually in the 1970s and 1980s. Optical and radio astronomers looked carefully for interstellar gas in our part of the galaxy, but couldn't find much in Earth's neighborhood. Meanwhile, x-ray astronomers were getting their first look at the sky using sounding rockets and orbiting satellites, which revealed a million-degree x-ray glow coming from all directions. It all added up to Earth being inside a bubble of hot gas blown by exploding stars.
However, not all researchers agreed........
Source: Evidence for Supernovas Near Earth - NASA Science
I wonder what our solar system, and Earth, would be like if we weren't in this empty, hot bubble?
I believe the Earth would have danced with the devil in the pale moonlight.
Meaning the development of Earth's Local Bubble would have been more chaotic without the supernova's pressure waves clearing the way, our species may not have even developed or developed differently.
Hominidae - Had already had a 10Ma foothold on Earth.
This may have been what set off the cluster of supernovas: Massive Black Hole Smashed Into Milky Way 10 Million Years Ago | MIT Technology Review
Here is the page from the group at Cornell:
Can a Satellite Galaxy Merger Explain the Active Past of the Galactic Center?
And the direct download if you would like to read more about it. The same link is the PDF download in the upper right corner of the above link from Cornell:
http://arxiv.org/pdf/1107.2923v1
Yes it is. Its about the prettiest art depiction I have ever found of it.
Much as I love the whole Tucker story/mystique/legend, I wouldn't call Preston a great engineer, he was more the consummate huckster or salesman. He did surround himself with excellent designers and engineers. Like Alex Tremulis, who was responsible for much of the Tucker's look.