Most Viewed Science Blogs (319)

spirituality. Not being trained formally in physics (astro-, particle-, modern-, quantum-, etc.), just merely a wannabee dilletante, I still know which end of a telescope to look through. On a dark clear crisp night, new moon, here in the north east of the USA, with a small quality refractor, adjusting by hand for the earth's movement, sure, the solar system beckons. But all sorts of galaxies are easily resolved as well, right from the back deck of our home. Pass the Gluehwein. Galaxies! We are told that each such galaxy contains a billion stars. Billion! And that even though we can hardly see them all, even with the deep field studies, best guestimates are that there are at least a billion galaxies, of various types, ages and sizes. Billion! Light millennia apart from each other and us. Closest star to us is some two light years distant. Light years! (light, in vacuum, travels around 300,000 Canadian miles in a second.) Second! Our fastest methods of propulsion would take a ship hundreds of years to get there. Hundreds! Now think how big and powerful just ONE star is. Our little sun, for example, is just quite ordinary in size, etc. And we now believe that with so many stars, at least some (we'll never reach them), perhaps millions, have planets that could support life as we know it. Millions! It boggles the mind. Aa.

But, if you want to see shooting stars (i.e. to wish upon),
you may want to look to the north eastern sky tonight.
It is the peak night for the Perseid Meteor Shower viewing, as long as it is not cloudy where you are.
The best viewing time is 2 am until dawn, when you may see up to
100 shooting 'stars' or more per hour.
Even if you can't be awake that early in the morning, you can probably see a few
after midnight, or even a couple after 10 pm.

The Perseid Meteor Shower is the remnants of the Comet Swift-Tuttle.
This comet is the biggest thing that the earth comes close to.
But, it orbits the sun only once every 134 years. The next time will be the year 2126.
However, earth passes through the debris trail every year.
This year should be extra good viewing, because the moon will mostly be dark
(mostly in it's 'new' moon phase) as we pass through the debris trail.

If you don't want to stay up late to see it live and in person, you can see a time lapse filming of 2016's show below;

Get your many wishes ready;

Handel's quantum 1/f noise and quantum blinking.
You know the theory, how the reason everything inn the Universe flickers and creates wave function instability and electronic noise is because nothing is real anyway, so the illusion of reality is held together mostly by inertia. Well I wrote a math equation which seems to show that (yes, I may submit it for a peer review) and was gonna talk about it here too, but then I realized most here would have zero idea what I am writing about. So instead of doing that, I will resume watching a grade C horror flick on Torrent. "Ouija Craft" It is a great movie if you are having trouble sleeping or just like horrible movies. LoL It is about these high school witches who use a magical ouija board to bring back one of them after she mixes and drinks 2 magical potions that should never be mixed and just explodes. They use the board in a cemetery to resurrect her, but of course the spirit inhabiting the recreated corpse isn't as friendly as the person they used to know. Should we blame their inexperience, the Board, the cemetery or the script writer? I dunno. It was making me sleepy so I came here, but this place is as dead as that movie tonight.

"Darwin's Doubt"


& "The Return Of The God Hypothesis"

Webster Redefined "Vaccine" To Accommodate The mRNA Covid Treatment Jabs ...

She won't be comin round again til 2061, many of us gonna be ten toes up by then,

Toilet-invading iguanas among invasive species now banned in Florida

Distraught pet owners can get permits for creatures including pythons and lizards but state wants trade and breeding to stop



Florida is known as a state with a fondness for the exotic, from its long history of accommodating religious cults to the Bubble Room restaurant where every day is Christmas Day. But now time is running out for one type of eccentric Floridian: those who own or breed exotic and invasive reptiles and other non-native animals.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has ruled that within the next few weeks the breeding and dealing of 16 of the most ecologically-damaging non-native species must be brought to a halt. The ban will apply to several types of python that have proliferated to crisis point in the Everglades, as well as all types of tegu lizards, anacondas, Nile monitor lizards and green iguanas.

When the commission debated the rules last month it was inundated with comments, many from exotic pet owners and breeders pleading for the ban not to go ahead. As the Washington Post reported, one woman burst into tears over the idea of losing her pet iguanas and pythons.

“If you take them away, I would be really messed up,” she wailed.

But the spread of invasive species through sensitive ecosystems such as the Everglades is happening at such speed that the state felt duty bound to act. The reptiles are also causing havoc in urban areas.

Green iguanas have multiplied in Florida to such a degree since they were first spotted there in 1960 that they are regarded as an environmental hazard. They puncture seawalls, tear up sidewalks and carry salmonella.

An animal once prized as an exotic curiosity is now widely decried as a pest. The iguanas hang out on roofs, dig under houses and to the horror of home owners can crawl into sewers only to emerge, thrashing around, in the toilet bowl.

The state conservation commission now encourages Floridians to humanely kill the lizards, which can grow up to 5ft and 17lbs, on their own property. No hunting licenses are required.

To soften the blow to besotted pet owners, a concession has been tucked into the new regulations. Anyone who cannot contemplate the thought of being parted from their iguana or tegu can apply for a free permit.

But the reprieve will last only for the life of the animal. Once the critter is gone, it cannot be replaced by a new pet from the list of banned species.

Nice sunny weather, almost warm. You just ache to get out.

Birdies chirpeth. Insects buzzeth. Wabbits mateth. Pollen spreadeth.

I have all signs of a cold: fever, headache, running nose, increased appetit…

Lovely, lovely spring!

Scientists Have Observed Epigenetic Memories Being Passed Down For 14 Generations

SIGNE DEAN27 APRIL 2018

"The most important set of genetic instructions we all get comes from our DNA, passed down through generations. But the environment we live in can make genetic changes, too.

Last year, researchers discovered that these kinds of environmental genetic changes can be passed down for a whopping 14 generations in an animal – the largest span ever observed in a creature, in this case being a dynasty of C. elegans nematodes (roundworms).


To study how long the environment can leave a mark on genetic expression, a team led by scientists from the European Molecular Biology Organisation (EMBO) in Spain took genetically engineered nematode worms that carry a transgene for a fluorescent protein. When activated, this gene made the worms glow under ultraviolet light.

Then, they switched things up for the nematodes by changing the temperature of their containers. When the team kept nematodes at 20° Celsius (68° F), they measured low activity of the transgene - which meant the worms hardly glowed at all.

But by moving the worms to a warmer climate of 25° C (77° F), they suddenly lit up like little wormy Christmas trees, which meant the fluorescence gene had become much more active.

Their tropical vacation didn't last long, however. The worms were moved back to cooler temperatures to see what would happen to the activity of the fluorescence gene.

Surprisingly, they continued to glow brightly, suggesting they were retaining an 'environmental memory' of the warmer climate – and that the transgene was still highly active.

Furthermore, that memory was passed onto their offspring for seven brightly-glowing generations, none of whom had experienced the warmer temperatures. The baby worms inherited this epigenetic change through both eggs and sperm."

(due to the character limitation in CS blogs - the remainder of the article can be found at the following link)