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Fascinating scientific stuff

Anti-Matter Belt Discovered Around Earth

A thin band of antimatter particles called antiprotons enveloping the Earth has been spotted for the first time.

The find, described in Astrophysical Journal Letters, confirms theoretical work that predicted the Earth's magnetic field could trap antimatter.

The team says a small number of antiprotons lie between the Van Allen belts of trapped "normal" matter.

The researchers say there may be enough to implement a scheme using antimatter to fuel future spacecraft.
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beer good said:
Here's a list of arguments supposedly proving that the Earth is flat:

One Hundred Proofs That the Earth Is Not a Globe (1885)

Have fun.
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:rofl:

As I understand it, the majority of members of the Flat Earth Society don't actually believe the Earth is flat, they just really enjoy exercising their debate skills on the wrong side of an issue.

That being said, most of those arguments go away with a basic understanding of Newtonian physics.
 
Oh come on, you just need to keep an open mind.

Speaking of which, I also found this essay by Isaac Asimov, which is well worth a read:

The Relativity of Wrong by Isaac Asimov

...when people thought the Earth was flat, they were wrong. When people thought the Earth was spherical, they were wrong. But if you think that thinking the Earth is spherical is just as wrong as thinking the Earth is flat, then your view is wronger than both of them put together.

The basic trouble, you see, is that people think that "right" and "wrong" are absolute; that everything that isn't perfectly and completely right is totally and equally wrong.

However, I don't think that's so. It seems to me that right and wrong are fuzzy concepts, and I will devote this essay to an explanation of why I think so.
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sparkchaser said:
Cosimah2o will find this interesting:
Mystery Fossils Link Fungi to Ancient Mass Extinction
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Yes really interesting !! In fact, there are things that we should comment :whistling:

One source of significant mystery has been the nature of the organic microfossils that are common in rocks dated to the time of the extinction worldwide.
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I know a fungus called Lichen . A micro-bacterium that nowadays affect even at the morphology of some rocks ( loss in minerals, for example : Gneiss ) even in the highest mountains with coldest temperatures, this small fungus survives and defies .

A paper published this month shows that the microfossils are almost identical morphologically to a group of pathogenic soil fungi that can infect trees. If its authors have identified these correctly, it fits in well with an overall picture showing loss of forests and topsoil. The demise of tree species is clear in pollen studies, and there is a lot of evidence for greatly accelerated soil erosion, including increased sediment deposition in deltas with lots of soil-derived organic debris.
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One week ago, I was reading about Paleoclimatology ( Palynology ) but I never thought that a same microfossil could be the cause of extintion in 2 habitats so differents as the ocean and soil . Although, I am trying to visualize a fungus and an algae in this process. Maybe these trees lived near of a salty wetland :confused:

Connecting a fungus to a global mass extinction may seem tenuous, but the authors point out that processes down in the world of the very small are often overlooked in any extinction discussions ( ... ) The aggressiveness of soil-borne pathogenic fungi must have been an integral factor involved in Late Permian forest decline worldwide.
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It reminds me the short story about 1000 ants and an elephant . I want to say, this hypothesis would be valid next to others as the theory of Milankovitch, the Asteroid or the volcanoes or the Geomagnetic reversal ( This is my favourite :) - polar reversal )
 
So if it is the remnants of a long dead star wouldn't it be called a stellar core fragment? Jean Luc says it is a stellar core fragment.
 
beer good said:
The downside of sex with Neanderthals | Science | guardian.co.uk

Apparently, cross-breeding with neanderthals messed up our autoimmune systems, an effect that's still being felt.

Huh.
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By the way, the last question of this link is very interesting ! :)
How else might immune genes inherited from Neanderthals and Denisovans affect the health of modern humans?
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I was reading a study about the mitochondrial DNA from the Neanderthals and modern humans, a study named the molecular clock . I remember that a group of biologists had found among these genes "unique features" , that is, multiple genes whose mutations have been associated with diseases affecting cognitive abilities in humans today . Mutations in one of them (the gene DYRKIA) would be related to cognitive impairments associated with trisomy 21.
Other genes was identified, whose mutations play a role in Autism and Schizophrenia diseases .
 
Wouldn't it really just be an elephant-mammoth hybrid? Kinda cool but I want a real 100% wooly mammoth.
 
I saw that. I wonder how many of them have planets. Brown dwarfs with planetary systems are touched upon in The Killing Star.
 
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