Amusing Science

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Wed Nov 25, 2020 2:19 am

All about snowflakes: http://snowcrystals.com/. Worth a click.

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Wed Nov 25, 2020 11:21 pm

https://i.imgur.com/F7e3Tt4.jpg

robinson · Post by **robinson** » Fri Nov 27, 2020 5:43 pm

https://twitter.com/rainmaker1973/statu ... 09825?s=21

Anaxagoras · Post by **Anaxagoras** » Sat Nov 28, 2020 12:24 am

Methane bubbles frozen in a lake

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Sat Nov 28, 2020 12:40 am

The Louder the Monkey, the Smaller Its Balls, Study Finds

Howler monkeys can be well-endowed in the voice box or the family jewels, but not both.

https://i.imgur.com/EmhbbHu.jpg

Howler monkeys are the loudest land animals on Earth, capable of bellowing at volumes of 140 decibels, which is on the level of gunshots or firecrackers. Not surprisingly, male howlers frequently use this power to advertise their sexual fitness, catcalling females with their ear-splitting roars.

But in a beautiful twist of expectations, scientists have now found that the louder the monkey's calls, the smaller the monkey's balls. A team based out of Cambridge University came to this conclusion by comparing the size of dozens of monkeys' testes with the hyoid bones located in their voice boxes, which revealed a negative correlation between decibel levels and testicular endowment.

"We found that males with larger hyoids, who can make lower-pitch vocalizations, have smaller testes and live in single-male groups with a harem of a few females," anthropologist Leslie Knapp, a senior author of the study, said in a statement. "Males with smaller hyoids live in multimale groups and have larger testes."

According to the team, this is the first evidence that there is a trade-off between vocal investment and sperm production, and it helps to explain why howler monkeys develop contrasting social structures.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/kb7eew/ ... 1364663309

The paper (five years ago): https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fu ... 15)01109-4

Any similarity with gun wielding, monster truck driving anthropoids would be pure coincidence.

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Thu Dec 17, 2020 1:01 am

https://i.imgur.com/UCntr9s.jpg

robinson · Post by **robinson** » Thu Dec 17, 2020 6:06 am

That's both amazing, and fucked up at the same time

Fid · Post by **Fid** » Fri Dec 18, 2020 1:23 am

No fools they, the boys keep the testes as far away from danger as possible. They may be able to re-grow the "dick arm" though.

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Fri Dec 18, 2020 1:33 am

Fid wrote: ↑Fri Dec 18, 2020 1:23 am No fools they, the boys keep the testes as far away from danger as possible. They may be able to re-grow the "dick arm" though.

Pah! You've seen nothing:

Traumatic insemination

Traumatic insemination, also known as hypodermic insemination, is the mating practice in some species of invertebrates in which the male pierces the female's abdomen with his aedeagus and injects his sperm through the wound into her abdominal cavity (hemocoel).[1] The sperm diffuse through the female's hemolymph, reaching the ovaries and resulting in fertilization.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ ... _edit1.jpg
A male bed bug (Cimex lectularius) traumatically inseminates a female bed bug (top). The female's ventral exoskeleton is visibly cracked around the point of insemination.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traumatic_insemination (article full of other creepy examples)

Female Bugs Evolved To Prevent Rape

Water striders are tiny bugs that skate over water. And they regularly engage in what scientists call "coercive mating," or forced sex. But the females of one water strider species resisted - by evolving very unusual sets of genitals.

Scientists in Korea, studying the mating habits of water striders, noticed that a particular species in that family of insect had a unique mating habit: courtship. Ordinarily, among water striders, the male of the species mounts the female violently, effectively pins her to him by grabbing her by the waist (thorax), overcomes her "resistance" and forcibly penetrates her. But in the water strider species Gerris gracilicornis, the females took evolution to the next level, developing genitals that it was impossible for the males to penetrate without the females' permission.

https://io9.gizmodo.com/female-bugs-evo ... pe-5287491

Fid · Post by **Fid** » Fri Dec 18, 2020 1:49 am

Dang, and all those years I would listen to Beethoven's "Scene by the Brook" by the Chattahoochee I was actually seeing rape. Thanks you bastard.

Fid · Post by **Fid** » Fri Dec 18, 2020 2:27 am

Sorry if that came off harsh, I really must use those smiley things.

Now about those deep deep deep sea fish whose boys (plural) become organs of the Matriarchs body.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglerfish

Oh and yeah the above was a round about way of wishing LvB a happy 250th.

Anaxagoras · Post by **Anaxagoras** » Fri Dec 18, 2020 10:27 am

Witness wrote: ↑Thu Dec 17, 2020 1:01 am https://i.imgur.com/UCntr9s.jpg

Which way is forward for an octopus? Are they facing each other or away from each other?

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Fri Dec 18, 2020 11:48 pm

Forward is where the eyes are. Here you can see an octopus facing a threat (the diver), then fleeing backwards at the end, using its siphon as a rocket propulsor:

Fid · Post by **Fid** » Sun Dec 20, 2020 11:49 pm

Poor little guy wtf was he (yeah, all animals are assumed to be male) doing in such a naked fucking desert.
If he was in search of red-haired wimmins it would be understandable .

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Mon Dec 21, 2020 4:21 am

robinson2 · Post by **robinson2** » Mon Dec 21, 2020 10:14 pm

https://twitter.com/rainmaker1973/statu ... 97504?s=21

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Tue Dec 22, 2020 2:29 am

14th Century Bridge Construction - Prague GIF

Anaxagoras · Post by **Anaxagoras** » Mon Dec 28, 2020 10:39 pm

Makes it look easy.

shemp · Post by **shemp** » Mon Dec 28, 2020 10:46 pm

Aliens did it!

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Tue Dec 29, 2020 2:01 am

https://i.imgur.com/xuYRd9h.gifv

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Wed Dec 30, 2020 1:29 am

https://i.imgur.com/zvaFN96.gifv

Bruce · Post by **Bruce** » Wed Dec 30, 2020 4:58 am

Witness wrote: ↑Mon Dec 21, 2020 4:21 am

Eventually, they will all have their periods at the same time. :D

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Thu Dec 31, 2020 2:09 am

Bruce wrote: ↑Wed Dec 30, 2020 4:58 am Eventually, they will all have their periods at the same time. :D

You're referring to this myth, I presume: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menstrual_synchrony. :mrgreen:

Some points on phylogeny, the difficulties with microbes, and nice pics (skip the blather till 0:20 and after 9:20):

Anaxagoras · Post by **Anaxagoras** » Thu Dec 31, 2020 2:14 pm

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Thu Dec 31, 2020 10:54 pm

ed · Post by ed » Thu Dec 31, 2020 11:08 pm

[quote=Witness post_id=1049974 time=1609380554
[/quote]

I wondered about that. The methodology issue seems real. They did not seem to stratify on the basis of age or sexual activity or travel or a host of other things. All in all it the sloppy research that you would expect from a bunch of chicks.

Sad.

Anaxagoras · Post by **Anaxagoras** » Fri Jan 01, 2021 10:51 am

As you know, radar uses radio waves, which are much longer in wavelength than visible light. The advantage of this is that it works well at night and can see through clouds, which optical telescopes can't do. The disadvantage is lower resolution, but they have a lot of neat tricks to improve the effective resolution.

Anaxagoras · Post by **Anaxagoras** » Sun Jan 03, 2021 11:42 am

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Mon Jan 04, 2021 12:02 am

robinson · Post by **robinson** » Tue Jan 05, 2021 1:03 am

https://twitter.com/aaronjayjack/status ... 65987?s=20

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Tue Jan 05, 2021 1:31 am

https://i.imgur.com/0lpS9k3.gifv

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Tue Jan 05, 2021 10:39 pm

Nuke your favorite place (something for sparks :twisted: ): https://outrider.org/nuclear-weapons/in ... g=2.320582

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Thu Jan 07, 2021 11:02 pm

New Study: Militarizing the Police Doesn’t Reduce Crime

A federal program created by Congress more than 30 years ago transferred 80,000 rifles, 12,000 bayonets, 4,000 combat knives, nearly 500 ‘bomb detonator robots,’ 50 airplanes, ‘night-vision sniper scopes,’ and more to local police.

Most Americans are probably unaware that police departments across the country have access to grenade launchers, drones, armored vehicles, and other military-grade equipment. But they do, thanks to an obscure federal policy allowing the military to transfer surplus equipment to law enforcement.

New research casts doubt on the principal justification for this program: police safety and crime reduction. Meanwhile, critics say it makes police abuse more likely.

The policy itself is known as the “1033 Program.” First created by Congress more than 30 years ago, it allowed for the transfer of military equipment to the police for use in the War on Drugs. Eventually, lawmakers expanded the policy to encompass essentially all law enforcement purposes.

According to the Department of Defense, roughly 8,200 law enforcement agencies across the country participate in the program. In total, the military has transferred more than $7.4 billion worth of equipment to local police departments.

...

In sum, there’s no disputing the fact that our policies have militarized the police. The only debate is whether giving police officers, who undoubtedly have a dangerous job, military equipment actually improves public safety as proponents insist.

A new peer-reviewed study concludes this just isn’t so.

Researchers from Louisiana State University and Emory University examined data from the 1033 Program’s record and found no evidence that it reduced crime in any meaningful way. It debunks past studies that purported to show such an effect and explains why those data were faulty.

“The most important thing for policy makers and the public to know is that you can’t justify giving surplus military equipment to police departments on the grounds it will lead to a reduction in crime,” Emory Professor Tom Clark said. “There is no evidence for that.”

Not only is there ample evidence that this kind of equipment fails to protect public safety, there’s further proof that it fails to protect police officers. According to a study of 9,000 law enforcement agencies in the US, this equipment has had no bearing on the number of officers killed or harmed in the line of duty.

Most concerning of all, other evidence shows that the militarization of police has led to worsening relationships between citizens and officers. It has caused a change in the mentality of how police view the citizens they serve and led to an increased use of weapons of war against Americans.

https://fee.org/articles/new-study-mili ... uce-crime/

Anaxagoras · Post by **Anaxagoras** » Sat Jan 16, 2021 12:59 pm

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Sun Jan 17, 2021 1:24 am

https://i.imgur.com/AP7rkEV.jpg

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Mon Jan 18, 2021 1:42 am

https://i.imgur.com/Cgg3eL3.jpg

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Tue Jan 19, 2021 12:34 am

We Drink Basically The Same Wine Varietals As Ancient Romans, And That's Not So Great

https://i.imgur.com/a1CjID3.jpg

With wine, older can often mean better. "Vintage," our word for "classily aged," comes from the winemaking process. Wines from decades ago can fetch far higher prices than freshly made ones. Wine itself is woven throughout ancient history, from ancient Judeo-Christian rites (hello, Last Supper!) to Egyptian ceremonies to Roman orgies. And the grape varieties we like tend to have lengthy pasts: For instance, chardonnay grapes from France's Champagne region have been made into white wine since the Middle Ages.

But until now, nobody knew just how ancient the wine varietals we've been drinking are. According to a new study in Nature Plants published Monday, many of the most popular wine varietals sold today are extremely genetically similar to the wines that ancient Romans drank — and may have existed for thousands of years longer.

To determine the genetic lineages of the wines they studied, researchers collected 28 grape seeds from nine ancient archaeological sites in France. There's evidence the seeds date back 2,500 years. They then analyzed the grapes' genes and compared them with modern grape varieties — something that hadn't been done before and required a cross-disciplinary effort by ancient-DNA researchers, archaeologists and modern-grape geneticists.

Of the 28 ancient seeds that the researchers tested, all were genetically related to grapes grown today. Sixteen of the 28 were within one or two generations of modern varieties. And in at least one case, the researchers found evidence that consumers are drinking wine from the same grapes, or a direct relative, as medieval Frenchmen 900 years ago: the rare savagnin blanc (not to be confused with sauvignon), a light, floral white varietal with rigorous growing standards and a small range of cultivation in eastern France.

In other cases — for example, with pinot noir and syrah grapes — we are using grapes that are genetic relatives of those used to make wine during the Roman Empire.

https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/20 ... t-so-great for the rest (and the "not so great" part).

Pedantic note: savagnin is used to make Jura's famous vin jaune ("yellow wine") and has a very peculiar, and delicious, taste. But then I'm always astonished how diverse wines can be, it's just grape juice after all. :P

Rob Lister · Post by **Rob Lister** » Tue Jan 19, 2021 11:39 am

Witness wrote: ↑Tue Jan 19, 2021 12:34 am Pedantic note: savagnin is used to make Jura's famous vin jaune ("yellow wine") and has a very peculiar, and delicious, taste. But then I'm always astonished how diverse wines can be, it's just grape juice after all. :P

Contrary to the label, 'Murican wine that never even met a grape

https://i.imgur.com/fEuMotY.png

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Tue Jan 19, 2021 10:27 pm

Rob Lister wrote: ↑Tue Jan 19, 2021 11:39 am https://i.imgur.com/fEuMotY.png

https://i.imgur.com/mwRu0Hs.gif

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Tue Jan 19, 2021 10:28 pm

An unusual view:

https://i.imgur.com/Qw7TQJH.jpg