Science & Technology News

[GordMay]

Energy-saving glass 'self-adapts' to heating and cooling demand

Scientists, from Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore, have developed a material that they hope will slash energy usage, due to the poor temperature-regulating ability of regular glass.

The researchers have stated that their material is a “first of its kind” glass, that can automatically detect changing temperatures, and create a heating or cooling effect in response.

Their study [1], published in Science, reported their energy-saving glass was made with nanoparticles, and a low-emissivity coating, that essentially hacks the electromagnetic spectrum.

All objects, even the human body, emit radiation, and each type of radiation, such as x-ray or ultraviolet, has a different range of wavelengths. Warmer objects emit shorter wavelengths, because the molecules are vibrating quickly, whereas colder objects emit longer wavelengths, because the molecules are moving more slowly.

The composition of the nanoparticles, in the researchers’ glass, creates a cooling effect, because it suppresses short-wave infrared radiation, which is heat emitted by the Sun, and helps prevent a room from warming up too much.

The nanoparticles also boost long-wave infrared radiation, which is the heat that is emitted from a surface that has been warmed up, and helps bring the temperature down. An example of long-wave radiation is a scorching seatbelt releasing heat onto your comparatively cooler hand, after the car had been left in the sunshine for several hours.

This newly developed glass was built without electrical components, and requires zero energy input to function.

"Most energy-saving windows today tackle the part of solar heat gain caused by visible and near infrared sunlight. However, researchers often overlook the radiative cooling in the long wavelength infrared. While innovations focusing on radiative cooling have been used on walls and roofs, this function becomes undesirable during winter,” stated Dr. Long Yi, principal investigator of the study, in a press release. [2]
“Our team has demonstrated for the first time a glass that can respond favourably to both wavelengths, meaning that it can continuously self-tune to react to a changing temperature across all seasons."

The research team stated that their glass performed well under several temperature scenarios, and that the structure and composition of the coating can be adjusted, to suit the needs of the market or region it will be used in.

A patent for this technology has been filed, in Singapore, and the next steps the team is taking is further enhancing the energy-saving performance of their innovation.

[1] “Scalable thermochromic smart windows with passive radiative cooling regulation” ~ by Shancheng Wang et al
➥ https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abg0291

[2] “Energy-saving glass 'self-adapts' to heating and cooling demand” ~ Nanyang Technological University
➥ https://www.sciencedaily.com/release...1216145012.htm

[2b Animation] “Glass that adapts to heating and cooling needs” ~ NTU
➥ https://www.ntu.edu.sg/

[GordMay]

“NOVA's top 5 science stories of 2021" ~ by Hanna Ali for PBS

Scientific advancements helped humans push through both the pandemic and the atmosphere this year, and a long-awaited visit from some underground insects set the country abuzz.
COVID-19 vaccine advancements and campaigns—for humans and animals, Space tourism and Mars exploration, Brood X cicadas, Climate change and extreme whether, and Bidding farewell to Hubble; saying hello to James Webb

More ➥ https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/articl...-stories-2021/



NOVA NEXT
NOVA Next is NOVA’s award-winning digital publication that provides answers from the cutting edge of science and technology.
Launched in 2012, Nova Next features in-depth articles and commentaries from some of the most respected journalists, scientists, and engineers. NOVA Next explores the ideas that are changing the future, from the frontiers of synthetic biology to the politics of personalized medicine.
➥ https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/brand/next/

[GordMay]

Webb telescope spends ’29 days on the edge’ as it comes to life in space

Heading to space was just the beginning for the James Webb Space Telescope.

Heralded as NASA’s premier space observatory of the next decade, the telescope launched on Christmas Day — and it still has a ways to go before it’s in orbit and observing the universe.

The agency refers to this process as “29 days on the edge” while the observatory unfolds its massive sunshield and reaches a special point in orbit that is a million miles away from Earth.

The Webb telescope will look at every phase of cosmic history, including the first glows after the Big Bang that created our universe and the formation of the galaxies, stars and planets that fill it today. Its capabilities will enable the observatory to peer inside the atmospheres of exoplanets and investigate faint signals from the first galaxies formed 13.5 billion years ago.

Much more ➥ https://kion546.com/news/national-wo...life-in-space/

[ImaginaryNumber]

Underestimating the Challenges of Avoiding a Ghastly Future

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcosc.2020.615419/full

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by ImaginaryNumber

Underestimating the Challenges of Avoiding a Ghastly Future

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles...20.615419/full

Interesting.

“Underestimating the Challenges of Avoiding a Ghastly Future” ~ by Corey J. A. Bradshaw et al

Abstract

We report three major and confronting environmental issues that have received little attention and require urgent action. First, we review the evidence that future environmental conditions will be far more dangerous than currently believed. The scale of the threats to the biosphere and all its lifeforms—including humanity—is in fact so great that it is difficult to grasp for even well-informed experts. Second, we ask what political or economic system, or leadership, is prepared to handle the predicted disasters, or even capable of such action. Third, this dire situation places an extraordinary responsibility on scientists to speak out candidly and accurately when engaging with government, business, and the public. We especially draw attention to the lack of appreciation of the enormous challenges to creating a sustainable future. The added stresses to human health, wealth, and well-being will perversely diminish our political capacity to mitigate the erosion of ecosystem services on which society depends. The science underlying these issues is strong, but awareness is weak. Without fully appreciating and broadcasting the scale of the problems and the enormity of the solutions required, society will fail to achieve even modest sustainability goals ...
...
Conclusions
We have summarized predictions of a ghastly future of mass extinction, declining health, and climate-disruption upheavals (including looming massive migrations) and resource conflicts this century. Yet, our goal is not to present a fatalist perspective, because there are many examples of successful interventions to prevent extinctions, restore ecosystems, and encourage more sustainable economic activity at both local and regional scales. Instead, we contend that only a realistic appreciation of the colossal challenges facing the international community might allow it to chart a less-ravaged future. While there have been more recent calls for the scientific community in particular to be more vocal about their warnings to humanity (Ripple et al., 2017; Cavicchioli et al., 2019; Gardner and Wordley, 2019), these have been insufficiently foreboding to match the scale of the crisis. Given the existence of a human “optimism bias” that triggers some to underestimate the severity of a crisis and ignore expert warnings, a good communication strategy must ideally undercut this bias without inducing disproportionate feelings of fear and despair (Pyke, 2017; Van Bavel et al., 2020). It is therefore incumbent on experts in any discipline that deals with the future of the biosphere and human well-being to eschew reticence, avoid sugar-coating the overwhelming challenges ahead and “tell it like it is.” Anything else is misleading at best, or negligent and potentially lethal for the human enterprise at worst.

Full Paper ➥ https://www.frontiersin.org/articles...20.615419/full

[goboatingnow]

Sadly , No ones is interested in a doom mongered future no matter how accurate it may transpire to be.

[GordMay]

The killer whale has unseated the great white shark as the ocean's most feared predator, study finds

It may be surreal to imagine that “Free Willy”, the friendly orca, could be a threat to “Bruce” from Jaws. However, a 2019 study [1] documenting the migration of great white sharks off the Farallon Island, located off the coast of San Francisco, has revealed just how much the whales terrify sharks.

The study[1] monitored the movements of 165 great white sharks near Farallon island, and documented four encounters, between visiting orcas and resident sharks. They found that, when confronted by orcas, white sharks will immediately [within minutes] vacate their preferred hunting ground, and will not return for up to a year, even though the orcas are only passing through. The fleeing sharks would be found “crowded together”, or at other elephant seal colonies, farther along the coast, or headed into deeper waters.

Not many people are aware of the contentious relationship between these two apex predators, but whale-watchers have witnessed orca attacks on white sharks in the wild. In 1997, witnesses watched an orca ramming into the side of great white shark, momentarily stunning it, before flipping it over and holding it in place for 15 minutes, to eat its prey. Similar incidents have also captured on film in Costa Rica, and Australia in 2014, and 2015.*

* Video “Orcas Attack Great White” ➥ https://youtu.be/WC8Wxfn5xFw

[1] “Killer whales redistribute white shark foraging pressure on seals” ~ by Salvador J. Jorgensen et al
➥ https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-39356-2



From August, 2020:
A man jumped onto a great white shark, and punched it, to save his wife. when it attacked her, at a beach in Australia.
➥ https://www.cruisersforum.com/forums...ml#post3547712

[newhaul]

Originally Posted by GordMay

The killer whale has unseated the great white shark as the ocean's most feared predator, study finds

It may be surreal to imagine that “Free Willy”, the friendly orca, could be a threat to “Bruce” from Jaws. However, a 2019 study [1] documenting the migration of great white sharks off the Farallon Island, located off the coast of San Francisco, has revealed just how much the whales terrify sharks.

The study[1] monitored the movements of 165 great white sharks near Farallon island, and documented four encounters, between visiting orcas and resident sharks. They found that, when confronted by orcas, white sharks will immediately [within minutes] vacate their preferred hunting ground, and will not return for up to a year, even though the orcas are only passing through. The fleeing sharks would be found “crowded together”, or at other elephant seal colonies, farther along the coast, or headed into deeper waters.

Not many people are aware of the contentious relationship between these two apex predators, but whale-watchers have witnessed orca attacks on white sharks in the wild. In 1997, witnesses watched an orca ramming into the side of great white shark, momentarily stunning it, before flipping it over and holding it in place for 15 minutes, to eat its prey. Similar incidents have also captured on film in Costa Rica, and Australia in 2014, and 2015.*

* Video “Orcas Attack Great White” ➥ https://youtu.be/WC8Wxfn5xFw

[1] “Killer whales redistribute white shark foraging pressure on seals” ~ by Salvador J. Jorgensen et al
➥ https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-39356-2



From August, 2020:
A man jumped onto a great white shark, and punched it, to save his wife. when it attacked her, at a beach in Australia.
➥ https://www.cruisersforum.com/forums...ml#post3547712

Yes but one problem with the authors. They'd only seem to know that the Orca is not a whale but rather the largest breed of dolphin. It is also well known that dolphins and sharks are not exactly friendly.

[GordMay]

Please do look up:
Here's what to look forward to in space for 2022

There will be missions to Mars, and the moon, a dance of planets, and eclipses to enjoy. And better yet, no giant comet, that threatens to destroy life as we know it on Earth.
Here are just some of 2022's space-related events to keep an eye on:

A January meteor shower [Quadrantids]
A return to the moon [Artemis]
Another visitor to Mars [ExoMars 2022]
Launch of SpaceX's spaceship [SN20]
Dance of the planets [Venus, Mars and Saturn]
Lunar and solar eclipses [Lunar May 15–16, & Nov. 8; Partial Solar April 30, & Oct. 25]
Two of the best meteor showers [Perseid July 14 - Sept. 1, & Geminids Nov. 19 to Dec. 24]

More ➥ https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/spac...2022-1.6300681

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by newhaul

Yes but one problem with the authors. They'd only seem to know that the Orca is not a whale but rather the largest breed of dolphin. It is also well known that dolphins and sharks are not exactly friendly.

The SCIENTISTS may have chosen to write in the vernacular, but seem [unsurprisingly] to be aware of the scientific terminology.
Excerpted from the cited paper:
"... Here we document and investigate interactions between two top ocean predators, white sharks (Carcharodon carcharias) and killer whales (Orcinus orca*) ..."
Even you seemed able to decipher their meaning.

* ➥ https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Orcinus_orca/


Q: What do you call a pretentious fish?
A: Super-fish-ial

In promulgating your esoteric cogitations, or articulating your superficial sentimentalities, and amicable philosophical, or psychological observations, beware of platitudinous ponderosa.
Let your conversational communications possess a compacted conciseness, a clarified comprehensibility, a coalescent cogency, and a concatenated consistency.
Eschew obfuscation, and all conglomerations of flatulent garrulity, jejune rabblement, and asinine affectations.
Let your extemporaneous descanting, and unpremeditated expatiations, have intelligibility, and voracious vivacity without rodomontade, or thrasonical bombast.
Sedulously avoid all polysyllabic profundity, pompous prolificacy, and vain vapid verbosity.

[GordMay]

Maggie tells me*, that calling someone condescending, and pretentious, is condescending and pretentious.

* As is, assuming that you might know, who the heck Maggie is [my wife].

[GordMay]

NASA-NOAA Tech Will Aid Marine Oil Spill Response

NASA and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scientists are teaming up to test remote sensing technology for use in oil spill response. The Marine Oil Spill Thickness [MOST 1]project is using natural oil seeps, just off the coast of Santa Barbara, to test technology [a radar instrument, called UAVSAR 2] that can detect the thickest oil in a slick, during an oil spill emergency.
More ➥ https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/nas...spill-response


[1] MOST: “The High Étendue Multiple Object Spectrographic Telescope”
➥ https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/sp...e_II/The_Most/

[2] UAVSAR ➥ https://uavsar.jpl.nasa.gov/

[newhaul]

Originally Posted by GordMay

The SCIENTISTS may have chosen to write in the vernacular, but seem [unsurprisingly] to be aware of the scientific terminology.
Excerpted from the cited paper:
"... Here we document and investigate interactions between two top ocean predators, white sharks (Carcharodon carcharias) and killer whales (Orcinus orca*) ..."
Even you seemed able to decipher their meaning.

* ➥ https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Orcinus_orca/


Q: What do you call a pretentious fish?
A: Super-fish-ial

In promulgating your esoteric cogitations, or articulating your superficial sentimentalities, and amicable philosophical, or psychological observations, beware of platitudinous ponderosa.
Let your conversational communications possess a compacted conciseness, a clarified comprehensibility, a coalescent cogency, and a concatenated consistency.
Eschew obfuscation, and all conglomerations of flatulent garrulity, jejune rabblement, and asinine affectations.
Let your extemporaneous descanting, and unpremeditated expatiations, have intelligibility, and voracious vivacity without rodomontade, or thrasonical bombast.
Sedulously avoid all polysyllabic profundity, pompous prolificacy, and vain vapid verbosity.

We have a resident pod in my home sailing waters .

https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/featu...-and-porpoises

2. Killer whales are part of the dolphin family. There are three main types of killer whales, or ecotypes, in the North Pacific: Resident, Transient, and Offshore.
In fact, they are the largest member of the Delphinidae, or dolphin family. Members of this family include all dolphin species, as well as other larger species such as long-finned pilot whales and false killer whales, whose common names also contain "whale" instead of "dolphin."

As to the rest of that post I say good use of a thesaurus.

Tell Maggie. I am not offended . No need for you to sleep on the couch

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by newhaul

... Killer whales are part of the dolphin family. There are three main types of killer whales, or ecotypes, in the North Pacific: Resident, Transient, and Offshore.
In fact, they are the largest member of the Delphinidae, or dolphin family. Members of this family include all dolphin species, as well as other larger species such as long-finned pilot whales and false killer whales, whose common names also contain "whale" instead of "dolphin." ...

Indeed.


Although the term "orca" is increasingly used, English-speaking scientists very often use the traditional name "killer whale".

Another common name for killer whales in Spanish is ballena asesina, which translates to "assassin whale".
The German common name is schwertwal, or "sword whale" — a reference to their large dorsal fin.
Native Americans call them by names including klasqo'kapix (Makah, Olympic Peninsula), ka-kow-wud (Quillayute, Olympic Peninsula), max'inux (Kwakiutl, northern Vancouver Island), qaqawun (Nootka, western Vancouver Island), and ska-ana (Haida, Queen Charlotte Islands).
Other common names include blackfish and orca.

All whales, dolphins, and porpoises fall under the order of Cetacea. Orcas [Orcinus orca] are classified as toothed whales, because of their suborder, but their specific family, under the Odontoceti suborder, is Delphinidae, or oceanic dolphins.

There are at least 10 different ecotypes of orcas in the world.
Orca are found in every ocean around the world with the greatest number of distinct ecotypes found in Antarctic waters. These genetically distinct ecotypes have evolved over millions of years because orcas will only breed with others from the same ecotype.
Three orca ecotypes live in the North Pacific: residents, Bigg’s*, and offshores. Each type is genetically distinct, and has its own unique language, culture, prey preferences and hunting strategies.
*North Pacific Bigg’s (transient) orcas are considered the most genetically distinct of all the world’s ecotypes.

Taxonomic Hierarchy - Scientific Classification:
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Cetacea [cetaceans, whales, dolphins, marine mammals, porpoises]
Suborder: Odontoceti [toothed whales]
Family: Delphinidae [includes 37 species including: bottlenose dolphins, killer whales, pilot whales, marine dolphins]
Genus: Orcinus
Species: Orcinus orca
Although currently only a single species of killer whale is accepted, multiple species or subspecies of killer whales may be recognized in the future. One recent genetic study suggests that the Antarctic type B and type C killer whales form a separate species and transient killer whales are also another killer whale species.
A biological review team of NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) Fisheries concluded that the resident, fish-eating killer whales of the North Pacific comprise a distinct (as yet un-named) subspecies.
The IUCN reported in 2008, "The taxonomy of this genus is clearly in need of review, and it is likely that O. orca will be split into a number of different species, or at least subspecies,


PS: No thesaurus used. I stole it [#3460] off the 'net, just as I posted it.

[GordMay]

Groundbreaking effort launched to decode whale language

Sperm whales communicate in clicks, which they make in rhythmic series, called codas.
In what may be the largest interspecies communication effort in history, scientists plan to use machine learning [AI] to try to decode what these animals say to one another.

The team includes experts in linguistics, robotics, machine learning, and camera engineering. They will lean heavily on advances in artificial intelligence, which can now translate one human language to another without help from a Rosetta Stone, or key.

The quest, dubbed Project CETI* [Cetacean Translation Initiative 1], is likely the largest interspecies communication effort in history.

CETI also has been designated a Ted Audacious Project [2], which has linked the effort with eight major philanthropic donors interested in tackling bold ideas.

Sperm whales have the animal kingdom’s biggest brains, six times larger than ours.
They live in female-dominated social networks, and exchange codas, in a type of staccato duet, especially when near the surface.
They segregate, into clans of hundreds or thousands, which identify themselves, using different click codas. In a sense, clans speak different dialects.
The whales also identify one another by specific click patterns, which they appear to use like names. And they learn their codas, much as humans learn language, by babbling clicks as juveniles, until they pick up their family’s repertoire.


* [1] Project CETI ➥ https://www.projectceti.org/

[2] Ted Audacious Project ➥ https://audaciousproject.org/ideas/2020/project-ceti

"The Secret Culture of Killer Whales:" Overheard at National Geographic
➥ https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcas...=1000516934402