Science News

[Gawdzilla Sama]

This is Sagittarius A**.

[Deesse23]

The flash released photons carrying a record 18 teraelectronvolts of energy—that's 18 with 12 zeros behind it—and it has impacted long wave radio communications in Earth's ionosphere.

For reference, the Large Hadron Collider has a maximum power of 13 TEV. Happily, this thing is a long way. If it was close enough to have any significant luminosity we'd all be on fire right now. Still probably not a good time to be in space. Or even on a high altitude flight.

For the not so scientific minded: 1ev is the energy of a single electron (at 1V). It's in the range of 10^-19 joule.
18tev is equivalent to a single electron having the energy of some micro-joules. That is 10^-6 joule, but consider this: a SINGLE FUCKING ELECTRON!!!!!!

[Kim]

Let me take you down, cause I'm going to Strawberry Fields - NOTHING IS REAL - and nothing to get hung about.
Strawberry Fields, forever.

Congratulations to physicists: John Clauser, Alain Aspect and Anton Zeilinger.  They equally split the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics for ... "experiments with entangled photons, establishing the violation of Bell inequalities and pioneering quantum information science.".  


Yep - another thing The Beatles were probably right about.

I feel like this article belongs here. It could easily make anyone a girlyfan of particle physics.  


(it's a tell-all that really doesn't say anything)

[Cavebear]

At one time you could directly observe a black hole here on Earth.

In Calcutta.

Ah yes, the infamous Black Hole Of Calcutta.  Good one.  

BTW, I deleted the "empty" space in your post.  I probably shouldn't have, but I was worried readers wouldn't get down to my reply.  It is not something I would normally do.  Apologies and acknowledgement of that in advance.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

No harm, no foul.

[Cavebear]

No harm, no foul.

Thank you. It disturbed me afterwards that I changed a quote in the least degree.

[Bucky Ball]

The unfrozen flu ... pretty scary.
https://theintercept.com/2022/11/01/pand...biosafety/

[Thumpalumpacus]

Federal scientists have reportedly made a breakthrough in the potential for nuclear fusion as a carbon-free power source.

Multiple news outlets on Sunday and Monday reported that scientists with the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory produced more energy than they consumed in a fusion reaction for the first time.

Nuclear fusion refers to fusing atoms together to produce energy. The type of nuclear energy that is commonly used today does the opposite, deriving energy from splitting atoms apart.

For decades, scientists have sought to advance nuclear fusion as a carbon-free source of energy that also doesn’t produce the radioactive waste that occurs when atoms are split apart.

Breanna Bishop, a spokesperson for the national lab, declined to confirm the reports or provide details on what the lab has achieved.

“Our analysis is still ongoing, so we’re unable to provide details or confirmation at this time. We look forward to sharing more tomorrow when that process is complete,” she said in an email.

https://thehill.com/policy/energy-enviro...h-reports/

[GenesisNemesis]

Federal scientists have reportedly made a breakthrough in the potential for nuclear fusion as a carbon-free power source.

Multiple news outlets on Sunday and Monday reported that scientists with the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory produced more energy than they consumed in a fusion reaction for the first time.

Nuclear fusion refers to fusing atoms together to produce energy. The type of nuclear energy that is commonly used today does the opposite, deriving energy from splitting atoms apart.

For decades, scientists have sought to advance nuclear fusion as a carbon-free source of energy that also doesn’t produce the radioactive waste that occurs when atoms are split apart.

Breanna Bishop, a spokesperson for the national lab, declined to confirm the reports or provide details on what the lab has achieved.

“Our analysis is still ongoing, so we’re unable to provide details or confirmation at this time. We look forward to sharing more tomorrow when that process is complete,” she said in an email.

https://thehill.com/policy/energy-enviro...h-reports/

[airportkid]

... Our analysis is still ongoing, so we’re unable to provide details or confirmation at this time ...

Achieving net-positive fusion has proved so elusive over the last decades one has to wonder if R&D into a Dysan structure would have been more cost efficient.  There's a pretty nice fusion engine about 12,000 earth diameters away (a nice safe distance) which right now radiates virtually its entire energy output uselessly into empty space.  A Dysan structure would capture most of that energy so it could be used to power an energy hungry civilization.  It'd be sufficient to power net-negative small fusion plants whose function would be creating an abundance of useful rare elements, a benefit of fusion far more promising than just making terawatts of electricity.

It'd require a humanity-cooperative endeavor that would drastically cut into the time and resources currently invested in developing ever-more imaginative ways to kill each other.  Imagine that.

[Thumpalumpacus]

... Our analysis is still ongoing, so we’re unable to provide details or confirmation at this time ...

Achieving net-positive fusion has proved so elusive over the last decades one has to wonder if R&D into a Dysan structure would have been more cost efficient.  There's a pretty nice fusion engine about 12,000 earth diameters away (a nice safe distance) which right now radiates virtually its entire energy output uselessly into empty space.  A Dysan structure would capture most of that energy so it could be used to power an energy hungry civilization.  It'd be sufficient to power net-negative small fusion plants whose function would be creating an abundance of useful rare elements, a benefit of fusion far more promising than just making terawatts of electricity.

It'd require a humanity-cooperative endeavor that would drastically cut into the time and resources currently invested in developing ever-more imaginative ways to kill each other.  Imagine that.

Right, but if you'll pardon the pun, the expenses for that would be astronomical.

[Dānu]

Achieving net-positive fusion has proved so elusive over the last decades one has to wonder if R&D into a Dysan structure would have been more cost efficient.  There's a pretty nice fusion engine about 12,000 earth diameters away (a nice safe distance) which right now radiates virtually its entire energy output uselessly into empty space.  A Dysan structure would capture most of that energy so it could be used to power an energy hungry civilization.  It'd be sufficient to power net-negative small fusion plants whose function would be creating an abundance of useful rare elements, a benefit of fusion far more promising than just making terawatts of electricity.

It'd require a humanity-cooperative endeavor that would drastically cut into the time and resources currently invested in developing ever-more imaginative ways to kill each other.  Imagine that.

Break even points would be an issue there as well.
Right, but if you'll pardon the pun, the expenses for that would be astronomical.

[Bucky Ball]

The most very very bigly science news we were reminded of today,
is that Italian space lasers were able to discriminate the names on ballots
and L'il Jimmy Jordan's election on the very same ballot was correctly recorded,
yet Big Donny's was not. Them are some god damn fucking accurate lasers.
https://abovethelaw.com/2021/06/rep-jim-...ion-fraud/

Fourteenth Amendment, Section 3:​
"No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof."

[Cavebear]

... Our analysis is still ongoing, so we’re unable to provide details or confirmation at this time ...

Achieving net-positive fusion has proved so elusive over the last decades one has to wonder if R&D into a Dysan structure would have been more cost efficient.  There's a pretty nice fusion engine about 12,000 earth diameters away (a nice safe distance) which right now radiates virtually its entire energy output uselessly into empty space.  A Dysan structure would capture most of that energy so it could be used to power an energy hungry civilization.  It'd be sufficient to power net-negative small fusion plants whose function would be creating an abundance of useful rare elements, a benefit of fusion far more promising than just making terawatts of electricity.

It'd require a humanity-cooperative endeavor that would drastically cut into the time and resources currently invested in developing ever-more imaginative ways to kill each other.  Imagine that.

Fusion energy is a step toward a Ring World and then maybe to a Dyson Sphere.

Baby steps...  

[Cavebear]

Impressive as the achievement is (net gain in energy) they don't mention equipment costs. I know, I know; equipment gets cheaper. But I don't think any of us here will live to see it. I'm still waiting for my Jetson's flying car.

But our descendants will.

If we don't fission ourselves first.

[Inkubus]

The big step and it is a 'BIG' step, how to sustain the reaction?

[Cavebear]

The big step and it is a 'BIG' step, how to sustain the reaction?

We have many (to include pre-historical) historical examples of hard starts and final successes.  I would start with the first try at seeing a broken stone was sharp and then trying to do that again deliberately.  It probably wasn't easy.  I wonder who first tried (poorly) to deliberately grow a plant.  And what was that the first attempt of weaving cloth like?  Who tried and failed many times to actually "cook" clay into the shape of a bowl?  It had to fail a 100 times before they figured it out.

Someone got the idea that bird guano cased crops to grow better.  What idiot would even try that?  Speaking of fertilizer, what nutso had the idea of putting a fish in a hole to grow corn on?  And who would cook tree sap and come up with "rubber"?  

One time naptha was considered a dangerous waste problem.  Now it drives gasoline engines.  I don't know what comes from today's fusion experiments.  But we know if we "try stuff", something good often comes from it.

I have to thank the crazy people of society for so much of the good things we have.

I read once that Henry Ford (or some industrialist) was guiding a fellow businessman around the HQ and his guest saw a guy just staring out the window.  "I would fire that guy", he said.  Ford (or whoever) replied "That guy came up with an idea that saved me a million $$ a year.  I'm waiting for the next idea".  Or something like that.

Yeah, maybe.  But we humans are dreamers with wild ideas.  And enough of them work to make it worth keep searching for the next one.  And maybe fusion power will never quite work out.  But heat pumps, solar panels and wind turbines did and those were consider whacko once, so let's keep going...  

[polymath257]

The unfrozen flu ... pretty scary.
https://theintercept.com/2022/11/01/pand...biosafety/

And don't forget that there are two labs that still have samples of the smallpox virus: CDC in Atlanta, and IVP in Moscow. It that gets out, it would be far worse than the 1918 flu.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

How many people are NOT vaccinated against smallpox?

[Inkubus]

How many people are NOT vaccinated against smallpox?

What?

[Bucky Ball]

The unfrozen flu ... pretty scary.
https://theintercept.com/2022/11/01/pand...biosafety/

And don't forget that there are two labs that still have samples of the smallpox virus: CDC in Atlanta, and IVP in Moscow. It that gets out, it would be far worse than the 1918 flu.

More than likely it also still exists in nature, somewhere or other.
At some point it will arise in an area where very few are vaccinated, just like polio.

As long as there are complete idiots like the Governor of Florida,
who held an anti-vax conference yesterday, and made threats to those who gave Covid vaccine,
the human race is not safe.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

How many people are NOT vaccinated against smallpox?

What?

The unvaccinated people are the ones at risk.

[polymath257]

How many people are NOT vaccinated against smallpox?

Most younger people today are NOT vaccinated against smallpox.

Just look for arm scars.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Hmmmm.

[Cavebear]

How many people are NOT vaccinated against smallpox?

A lot of younger people. I am, of course vaccinated. But I'm not positive how long the vaccine lasts. I expect that if smallpox escaped lab control in the US or Russia labs where it is still being studied, or if a more virulent version was deliberately released, millions of people born after the late 70s would die.

NIH says that currently, there is no evidence of naturally occurring smallpox transmission anywhere in the world. I keep in mind though, that it came into existence once through mutations, and could again. FDA says there is no current vaccine program since the virus is "extinct" in nature.

The "last vaccination" date seems oddly hard to find, though the vaccine is still produced in case of accident or bioterrorism.