ريتشارد دوكنز's Blog, page 533
March 20, 2016
This Week in Science (March 14 – 20)
This is a collection of the 10 best and most popular stories from science and technology over the past 7 days. Scroll down and click the individual images below to read the stories and follow the This Week in Science on Wakelet (here) to get these weekly updates straight to your inbox every Sunday.
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Forests In China Are Coming Back
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Support for panda habitats has made a contribution to the revival of China's forests. Volt collection/Shutterstock
Rumors of one of the world's great environmental success stories have been confirmed. China has turned around centuries of deforestation to expand the area covered by forests, lending hope that others can do the same thing.
New “Super Spiral” Galaxies Discovered
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An example of a super spiral is presented here in an image taken by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. SDSS
A new class of "super spiral" galaxies has been found hiding in plain sight. While the new spiral galaxies appear to be nearby, they are actually quite far away, and went unnoticed for many years until now.
Astronomers from the California Institute of Technology discovered this new galactic type in archived data. They call them "superluminous spiral galaxies," as they can have up to 10 times the mass of the Milky Way and eight to 14 times the brightness of our own galaxy.
Discovery Of Sperm “Booster Switch” Could Lead To New Unisex Contraceptive
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Nailed it! A sperm power kicks itself towards the egg. Kateryna Kon/Shutterstock
Sperm cells, as it turns out, can become “hyperactive.” A new study published in the journal Science has revealed that a particular enzyme on their tails responds to the female sex hormone progesterone, activating a “power kick” that boosts their swimming speed.
Planet Formation Seen In Unprecedented Detail
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Shown is an image of the young system around HL Tauri. Carrasco-Gonzalez et al. / Bill Saxton / NRAO/AUI/NSF.
Planetary systems form from the same cosmic clouds that give birth to stars, but the exact mode of formation is still a matter of debate. In 2014, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile snapped a spectacular image of a planetary system forming around the star HL Tauri, which showed rings of material orbiting a star. Now, it's been seen in even better detail.
This Computer Algorithm Can Spot Drunk Tweets
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Ganna Martysheva/Shutterstock
Typing out semi-illegible tweets while you stumble around trying to find your Uber is the go-to end to a late night out in 2016. However, those sloshed tweets could actually be used for some good, thanks to this machine learning-based algorithm.
A group of computer scientists from the University of Rochester has developed a machine-learning algorithm that they've trained to detect inebriated tweets. Their study was recently published in the journal arXiv.
How Nightmares Can Trigger Suicidal Thoughts
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Nightmares have previously been associated with suicidality, but the link between the two has never been fully explored. Photographee.eu/Shutterstock
A new study has illuminated a possible pathway by which recurring nightmares may lead to the development of suicidal tendencies. Though previous research had identified a positive correlation between nightmares and a propensity for suicidal thoughts, the intermediary psychological processes linking these two phenomena has remained murky.
Massive Green Meteor Spotted Over U.K. On St Patrick’s Day
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Dashcam footage of the meteor in Battersea, London. @PaulGilbertDj/Twitter
In the early morning of March 17, hours before the Saint Patrick’s Day festivities began, the skies of Britain were lit up by a bright blue-green meteor.
The fireball was spotted at around 3.16 a.m. local time across England in parts of the east coast, Stafford, Hampshire, and Battersea in south west London.
Possible Hidden Chamber In Tutankhamun’s Tomb Could Be Nefertiti’s Resting Place
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Queen Nefertiti is thought to have possibly been King Tutankhamen's real mother. Vladimir Wrangel/Shutterstock
When Howard Carter broke through into the undisturbed tomb of Tutankhamun in 1922, it was an international sensation. The 3,000-year-old burial chamber was the most complete ever discovered, and is generally regarded as the most significant archaeological find of that century. But now scientists might be on the brink of another incredible find, as more evidence is found to support the idea that there might be a second burial chamber hidden behind the one that held Tutankhamun’s remains.
17 Foot Long Anaconda Caught On Camera
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BBC/YouTube
Footage below shows members of an Ecuadorian tribe, along with presenter Gordon Buchanan, catching and releasing a 5-meter-long (17-foot-long) green anaconda in the Amazonian rainforest. This creature, found in forest environments across South America, is the heaviest and one of the longest known species of snake.
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