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Employees at the New England office of the Environmental Protection Agency began receiving furlough notices Monday in a rollout that some called chaotic and confusing.
science
People with genetic variants for red hair may have special cells that can convert an excess amino acid into pigment, researchers in Spain have found. Read more from @ScienceAlert:
40% of New England EPA employees furloughed amid government shutdown, union says
The SETI Institute invites nominations for the 2026 Jill Tarter Award for Innovation in the Search for Life Beyond Earth, an international honor recognizing individuals whose ideas, work, or leadership have meaningfully advanced humanity’s efforts to understand life and intelligence in the Universe. Artists, journalists, media, scientists, educators, law & ethics, philosophers, and more – all disciplines are welcome.
DEADLINE APPROACHING: It's that time of year! The SETI Institute, a non-profit private scientific research institution located in California’s Silicon Valley, invites you to apply for a summer Research Experience for Undergraduates program for highly motivated students who are interested in research related to astronomy, astrobiology, and planetary science.
Hey my new paper covering our recent dark matter search just got published
https://journals.aps.org/prd/abstract/10.1103/2ydp-2gz9
*psst* it's also available for free on arxiv.org just google the title of the paper
Yelp, don't consider an AI service such as ChatGPT to be a store of important content. Always keep a backup you control (which is in general good advice when working with cloud-based services)
> When I contacted OpenAI’s support, the first responses came from an AI agent. Only after repeated enquiries did a human employee respond
Err, yes, that is to be expected? We'll see this much more in the future. Expectations will shift.
PRESS RELEASE
Although the path of totality for the August 12 #solareclipse is thousands of miles away from California, Bay Area audiences can experience the event in a truly unique manner: set to a live musical performance by the International Space Orchestra (ISO), the world's first orchestra composed of astronauts, scientists, engineers, and researchers.
Learn more details: https://www.seti.org/news/celebrate-the-total-solar-eclipse-at-the-california-academy-of-sciences-with-science-music-and-the-international-space-orchestra/
A new #Science review of 34,000 world-class performers shows a surprising pattern: most top scientists, athletes, musicians, and chess players were not child prodigies. About 90% of elite adults were different people than the early “stars.”
📄 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adt7790
Future champions often developed slower, explored multiple disciplines, and avoided early specialization. Early over-training may help kids win, but it rarely creates world leaders. 🤔
Neanderthals could be brought back within 20 years — but is it a good idea? Via @live_science #Science 🔭🔬🧪🥼🧑🔬 #paleontology
Neanderthals could be brought ...
Trump Administration Orders USDA Employees to Investigate Foreign Researchers They Work With
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The new directive asks workers to check the backgrounds of foreign nationals collaborating with the department’s scientists for evidence of “subversive or criminal activity.” Their names are being sent to national security experts at the agency.
https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-usda-foreign-scientists?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mastodon-post
'Bag of Bones' preserves rare three-tier prehistoric meal in Outback Queensland https://phys.org/news/2026-07-bag-bones-rare-tier-prehistoric.html 🐬 #FossilFriday #Prehistoric #MarineLife #MarineBiology #Science
Why Are So Many Millennials Getting Cancer?
https://studyfinds.org/why-are-so-many-millennials-getting-cancer/
PBS News Hour - Segments https://flex2.acast.com/s/pbs-newshour-segments/u/d3i6fh83elv35t.cloudfront.net/static/2025/10/braindrain.mp3
US scientists appear to be giving serious consideration to fleeing to other places as #science remains under serious threat there.
Lifting Mt. Everest
Do I have this correct?
1 joule can lift ~102 grams 1 meter against Earth's gravity
Let's call 102 g an EMU
Given e = mc², 1 kg of rest mass represents ~10¹⁷ J of energy
Mt. Everest's mass is estimated to be ~1.75 × 10¹⁴ kg = 1.75 × 10¹⁷ g = 1.75 × 10¹⁷ ÷ 102 g = ~1.7157 × 10¹⁵ EMU
therefore,
Applying 10¹⁷ joules to lifting ~1.7157 × 10¹⁵ EMU means Mt. Everest could be lifted 10¹⁷ ÷ 1.7157 × 10¹⁵ = 58 metres with the energy of 1 kg rest mass
Edited 122d ago
Astronomers sure do conjure up a lot of spooky images when they look out into deep space. A short Halloween thread:
Let's start with the Cosmic Bat Nebula (LDN 43).
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap241027.html #space #science #art #halloween
#NewSpecies!
New springtail from the #caucasus just sprang in:
Ceratophysella dobrolyubovae
Treatment: https://treatment.plazi.org/id/038187EB-FFD6-603A-FF03-FE9AD588FC72
Publication: https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5725.3.4
#Zootaxa #CeratophysellaDobrolyubovae
#FAIRdata
#science #OA #openaccess #biology #taxonomy #ecology #biodiversity #nature #wildlife #conservation #animals #invertebrates #collembola #springtails
A research group looked at results for over 97,000,000 people, and found
COVID-19 was associated with a 49% increased risk of new-onset autoimmune-related diseases
and flat out:
SARS-CoV-2 infection increases the risk of autoimmune diseases, particularly those affecting vascular and connective tissue. Risk is amplified by severe infection and attenuated by vaccination
and it's hard to imagine a stronger proof - most countries don't have 97 million people in them!
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41452424/
(via AJ Leonardi quoting Hannah Davis)
Edited 244d ago
Glad UC Riverside still has a scientific glassblower. Fewer and fewer US campuses do.
https://ucnet.universityofcalifornia.edu/employee-news/uc-people-stephen-lepore-scientific-glassblower/ #Chemistry #Biology #Science #Glassblowing #Craft
Dogs In Chornobyl are Mysteriously Turning Blue, But Radiation Is Not to Blame. Via @discover.magazine #Science 🔭🔬🧪🥼🧑🔬
Dogs In Chornobyl are Mysterio...
Great white sharks are perhaps the most feared predators in the ocean. But what might they fear? Probably orcas. In the Gulf of California, the killer whales have been spotted hunting young great whites by flipping them over before eating their energy-filled liver. Blech. It’s wild out there. @CBSNews has the story:
Three Chinese astronauts who have been living on China's Tiangong space station since April 24 were set to return to Earth Wednesday when a piece of suspected “space junk” struck their return capsule — just hours ahead of departure. Looks like they’re going to be there for a while. Read more from @LiveScience:
1) Why do you love plants and how do you interact with plants in your life (intentionally/background)?
2) What makes learning about plants/ecology accessible/inaccessible to you (ie compare with birding)?
3) Do you prefer a formal or informal teaching environment, and why?
4) What are some subtopics relating to native plants that are of interest to you?
5) Would you prefer to learn to ID plants with or without phone apps?
6) How many plants would you be comfortable learning to ID in a 1 hour session?
#Plants #Ecology #Education #Gardening #AskFedi #Conservation #Teaching #Environment #Science
Rotational symmetry in physics.
- from Guido Tonelli's 'Genesis: the Story of How Everything Began'
Edited 169d ago