ريتشارد دوكنز's Blog, page 594
January 7, 2016
Stable Perovskite Solar Cells A Step Towards Solar Future
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A breakthrough for high efficiency solar cells could be particularly valuable where space is limited, such as on solar powered cars. Esteban De Armas/Shutterstock
Progress has been announced in the quest to overcome one of the biggest obstacles to cheap solar power. A tandem solar cell exceeding 25 percent efficiency has been proven possible, but the long-run potential is much higher.
Impact Of Hydroelectric Dams On Biodiversity Underestimated
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The Belo Monte hydroelectric dam in Brazil will be the third largest in the world when it is completed in 2016. Kirk Winemiller/Texas A&M
As a way to generate energy in remote parts of the world, hydroelectric dams are being proposed and built at a staggering pace. Within just the world’s three largest river basins – the Amazon, Congo, and Mekong – there are 450 dams either under construction or being planned.
Deep Space Missions Get Boost As Production Of Plutonium-238 Restarts
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Pioneer 11 needed plutonium-238 to explore the distant Solar System. NASA
For the first time in nearly 30 years, plutonium-238 has been produced in the U.S., returning a key capability to spacecraft. This isotope of plutonium is essential for powering missions into deep space, and with the world’s stockpile running low, proposals for future NASA missions had been left in the lurch.
Zimbabwe “Will Not Apologize” For Selling Wild Animals To China
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There are thought to be around 80,000 elephants left in Zimbabwe, such as these in Hwange National Park. paula french/Shutterstock
Last year it was reported that Zimbabwe had started to sell young elephants to China, apparently in a bid to raise some much-needed cash to help fund conservation programs in their national parks. This practice brought international outcry, especially when pictures emerged of the juvenile elephants showing signs of distress while being housed in holding pens.
Why Do Bumblebees Suddenly Overthrow Their Queen And Murder Each Other?
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Bumblebee colonies sometimes mysteriously collapse into violent disorder. Steven Ellingson/Shutterstock
When you think of the humble bumblebee, images of an orderly, organized, efficient bee colony are likely to come to mind. Although for the most part this picture of a perfect colony is accurate, there comes a time when the colony descends into a pandemonium of violence, deceit, and murder. A new study, published in the journal Royal Society Open Science, reveals for the first time why this happens: it’s all down to the changing chemistry of the beeswax.
STUPID ATHEIST QUESTIONS #2
1001 STUPID QUESTIONS ATHEISTS ASK CHRISTIANS #2… or maybe it’s more like questions an atheist would never ask a christian.
STUPID ATHEIST QUESTIONS (Part 1): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mURLskPvHc0
If you’re interested in more vids like this let me know in the comments!
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Thanks for watching this second video on stupid questions that christians think atheists ask. Atheist VS Christian viewpoints on how we think are obviously very different. Honestly this sounds like a list of stupid questions that doubting christians would ask other christians to figure things out. Atheists don’t care about god’s underwear or wonder about angels. Just ridiculous x’D
Human-carrying drone unveiled at CES
As might be expected, there are a lot of drones on display this week at CES. Almost all of them have one thing in common, however: people can’t ride in them. We say “almost all,” as there is one exception. Ehang’s 184 AAV (Autonomous Aerial Vehicle) is designed to carry a single human passenger, autonomously flying them from one location to another.
Ehang CEO Huazhi Hu began designing the one-seater electric drone a couple of years ago, after two of his pilot friends were killed in plane crashes. He decided that people needed a form of short-to-medium-distance personal air transport that didn’t require them to have a pilot’s license, and that took much of the danger out of low-altitude flight.
The idea behind the Chinese-built 184 is that users will simply get in, power it up, select their destination using a 12-inch touchscreen tablet display, then press the “take-off” button. The drone’s automated flight systems will take over from there, managing tasks such as communication with air traffic control and other aircraft, obstacle avoidance, and of course navigation – it will always choose the fastest yet safest route between its present location and its destination.
To continue reading the entire article, click the name of the source below.
January 6, 2016
Nuclear Confusion: The Data Suggest North Korea’s “H–Bomb” Isn’t
North Korea’s nuclear threats reached new heights when the country claimed to have successfully tested a hydrogen bomb underground on Tuesday night. Regional measurements confirmed a seismic event took place in North Korea, but the estimated size of the disruption cast doubt that the secretive nation had in fact detonated a thermonuclear weapon. Such a device would be hundreds of times more powerful than the bombs Pyongyang detonated during its previous three nuclear weapon tests. The estimated size of this disruption is about the same as those from previous tests, however.
Researchers can estimate the yield of a nuclear explosion based on the amplitude of the seismic waves it creates. Data collected at a Global Seismographic Network Station in Mudanjiang, China, however, suggest roughly a 3.4- to seven-kiloton blast, says Won-Young Kim, a senior research scientist at Columbia University’s Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory. (A kiloton is equal to 1,000 tons of TNT.) Kim calculated this yield based on the magnitude 5.1 body waves the detonation sent rippling through Earth. This was more powerful than North Korea’s previous nuclear test, a 2.2- to four-kiloton blast in 2013 that set off waves equivalent to a magnitude 4.5 to 4.7 earthquake, but not nearly enough to confirm the use of a thermonuclear bomb.
Researchers have difficulty quantifying the exact size of North Korea’s nuclear detonations because the depth of the explosive device, properties of the rock surrounding the explosion and other factors influence the seismic measurements produced, Kim says. North Korea does not publicize the depth of its tests, although the material at the test site in Punggye-ri is thought to be hard granite.
Nuclear weapons such as the bombs dropped by the U.S. on Japan to end World War II in 1945 rely on fission for their power. A thermonuclear weapon, or hydrogen bomb, uses a nuclear fission reaction to ignite a secondary hydrogen fusion reaction that makes greater use of the weapon’s atomic fuel, typically uranium or plutonium. To provide some perspective on the difference between the two: the U.S.’s first successful H–bomb test in 1952 produced an estimated yield equivalent to more than 10 megatons (10 million tons) of TNT, about 500 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Nagasaki just seven years earlier.
Even if North Korea’s latest test was at the high end of Kim’s estimates, 0.007 megatons of TNT is a far cry from thermonuclear.
Why Does This Dog Look Like This?
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Pig the Unusual Dog/Facebook
You might have come across some viral images on the Internet of dogs with extremely short backs. Far from being a photoshop prank, these dogs are actually displaying a rare condition known as “short-spine syndrome.”
Perhaps the most famous of all is “Pig,” who has almost 100,000 likes on his Facebook page. The Alabama-born, mixed-breed dog has regular updates posted on the page to his steadfast fans.
California Gas Leak Is Largest Contributor To Local Climate Change
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The site at Aliso Canyon that has been leaking gas continuously since October 23, 2015. EARTHWORKS/Flickr CC BY 2.0
The gas well leak near Los Angeles in southern California that started last year has continued to stream methane into the air at a rate of 1.7 million cubic meters (62 million cubic feet) per day. This has made the breach the single largest contributor to climate change in the state of California, and makes it the largest U.S.
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