Bats are seeking sanctuary in churches - but they're making an unholy mess
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy8vq5318dxo?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss
Bats at PG:
science
#OTD in 1818.
French physicist Augustin Fresnel signs his preliminary "Note on the Theory of Diffraction" (deposited on the following day). The document ends with what we now call the Fresnel integrals.
The Fresnel integrals have various applications in optics, such as in the calculation of the diffraction pattern produced by a single slit or a circular aperture, as well as in the study of the propagation of light through various optical systems.
#OTD in 1865.
Astronomer Angelo Secchi demonstrates the Secchi disk, which measures water clarity, aboard Pope Pius IX's yacht, the L'Immaculata Concezion.
It is a plain white, circular disk 30 cm in diameter used to measure water transparency or turbidity in bodies of water. The disc is mounted on a pole or line and lowered slowly down in the water. The depth at which the disk is no longer visible is taken as a measure of the transparency of the water (Secchi depth).
On Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2025, at 7 pm (PT), Dr. Steven Kahn (UC Berkeley) will give a free, illustrated, non-technical lecture entitled:
"The New Vera C. Rubin Observatory: Surveying the Universe"
in the Smithwick Theater at Foothill College, in Los Altos (see directions at the link below).
The talk is part of the Silicon Valley Astronomy Lecture Series, now in its 26th year.
Learn more: https://www.seti.org/events/the-new-vera-c-rubin-observatory-surveying-the-universe/
Born in 1750, Caroline Herschel worked as assistant to her astronomer brother William. But she also made her own discoveries of nebulae, stars & 8(!) comets.
In 1787, King George III employed Caroline as her brother's assistant, including a small salary that made her one of the first women paid for their contributions to #science.
Caroline submitted over 550 stars to the existing star catalog & received honorary membership in the Royal Society. https://www.space.com/17439-caroline-herschel.html #history
English electrical engineer and physicist John Ambrose Fleming died #OTD in 1945.
He is best known for his invention of the vacuum tube diode, which he patented in 1904. The vacuum tube diode, also known as the Fleming valve, was the first practical vacuum tube and allowed for the detection & amplification of electrical signals. It was a crucial component in early radio receivers and telecommunications systems, laying the foundation for the development of modern electronics.
Drugs like Ozempic are very effective at helping people lose weight. But will the weight come back after they stop taking them? Yes, for most people, it will. Science Alert looks into whether these medications are just another (expensive) form of yo-yo dieting. https://flip.it/.7L1q2
#Science #Health #Dieting #WeightLoss #Ozempic
An Ancient Greek Philosopher Was Exiled for Claiming the Moon Was a Rock, Not a God
2,500 years ago, Anaxagoras correctly determined that the rocky moon reflects light from the sun, allowing him to explain lunar phases and eclipses
By David Warmflash via @SmithsonianMag
Edited 1y ago
Died #OTD in 1989. Emilio Segrè was an Italian and naturalized-American physicist who discovered the elements technetium and astatine, & the antiproton, a subatomic antiparticle, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1959 along with Owen Chamberlain.
Together with Glenn T. Seaborg, he discovered technetium-99m—the first artificially produced element (1937). Tc99m is first element found to have no stable isotopes, filling a missing spot on the periodic table.
On this episode of SETI Live, planetary astronomer Dr. Franck Marchis hosts Dr. Martin Dominik of the University of St Andrews to examine what happens after the detection of life beyond Earth. Professor Dominik is a physicist and astronomer and a co-author of the recent white paper SETI Post-Detection: Future Directions for Technosignature Research and Readiness.
Learn more: https://www.seti.org/news/when-we-find-life-science-society-and-survival/
It’s #EarthDay & I’m giving a talk all about the global food system & its impact on the environment.
The agricultural sector is one of the most significant + immediately scalable places to have impact.
Since my talk isn’t public, here’s a great piece from @globalecoguy & the good folks at Project Drawdown. https://drawdown.org/news/insights/how-food-and-farming-will-determine-the-fate-of-planet-earth
#climatechange #science #food
Next #SETILive: Hidden Habitability on Ceres
Thursday, 2 October 2025, 2:30 pm PDT / 5:30 pm EDT
Join host Beth Johnson and guest Dr. Sam Courville, lead author of a new study on Ceres, as they dive into the possibility that the dwarf planet may have had the energy needed to support habitability for much longer than once believed. Could this small world in the asteroid belt have been more habitable than we ever imagined?
WATCH LIVE: https://www.youtube.com/live/AMxbk9foXcw
Swedish astronomer, physicist, and mathematician Anders Celsius died #OTD in 1744.
In 1742, Celsius introduced the temperature scale that bears his name. His original scale was actually the reverse of what we use today: it set the boiling point of water at 0 degrees & the freezing point at 100 degrees. However, shortly after his death, the scale was reversed by Carl Linnaeus, resulting in the 0 degrees for freezing & 100 degrees for boiling that we are familiar with.
!["Observationer om twänne beständiga grader på en thermometer" [Observations about two stable degrees on a thermometer]. Kungliga Svenska Vetenskapsakademiens Handlingar (Proceedings of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences) (in Swedish). 3: 171–180. 1742.](/proxy/post_attachment/179709/c3d14ab7b1.jpg "\"Observationer om twänne beständiga grader på en thermometer\" [Observations about two stable degrees on a thermometer]. Kungliga Svenska Vetenskapsakademiens Handlingar (Proceedings of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences) (in Swedish). 3: 171–180. 1742.")
Edited 1y ago
Mapping the Brazilian Amazon – The Roosevelt-Rondon Expedition of 1913-14
https://blogs.loc.gov/maps/2025/07/mapping-the-brazilian-amazon-the-roosevelt-rondon-expedition-of-1913-14/
"Through the Brazilian Wilderness" - Roosevelt's account of this expedition at PG
Spanish neuroscientist Santiago Ramón y Cajal was born #OTD in 1852.
His most significant contribution to science was his work on the structure of the nervous system. Through meticulous microscopic observations, he proposed that the nervous system is made up of "neurons". His drawings highlighted the complex arborizations of these cells, effectively mapping various parts of the brain & spinal cord, demonstrating the directional flow of nerve impulses in neurons.
A forest in Utah made of a single tree known as Pando has 47,000 stems and has amassed 6,000 metric tons of life in its thousands of years on Earth. It’s the largest living organism on the planet in terms of mass. Naturally, something that large and old has something to say, and recordings released this year let us “hear” it like never before. More from Science Alert: https://flip.it/PSwxIA
#Science #Biology #Trees #Horticulture #Utah #Forest
To keep us distracted from what’s really going on in the world, our rulers constantly provide more and more circuses — a new Marvel superhero movie, the latest celebrity scandal of the week, a huge sale at Amazon — because if everyone was paying attention to *genuine* reality, the whole capitalist charade might just collapse.
But guess what: Earth's climate and environment pay no heed to such circuses. Instead, they respond directly to real physical inputs, the continual burning of fossil fuels, the ever-increasing amounts of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere, the enormous heat being trapped and absorbed...
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March 2024 was the hottest on record and the tenth straight month of historic heat, with sea surface temperatures also hitting a "shocking" new high.
It is the latest red flag in a year already marked by climate extremes and rising greenhouse gas emissions, spurring fresh calls for more rapid action to limit global warming.
Every month since June 2023 has beaten its own "hottest ever" tag – and March 2024 was no exception.
The EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said that March globally was 1.68ºC hotter than an average March between the years 1850-1900, the reference period for the pre-industrial era.
Huge swathes of the planet endured above-average temperatures, from parts of Africa to Greenland, South America, and Antarctica.
March was not only the tenth consecutive month to break its own heat record, but capped the hottest 12-month period on the books – 1.58ºC above pre-industrial averages.
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#Science #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateEmergency
Edited 1y ago
Part of our mission is to study the wondrous diversity of life on this planet. On this week’s Big Picture Science, a portrait of that diversity in the Amazon, and the efforts to preserve this vital ecosystem. It’s “Amazing Amazonia.”
Listen here: https://bigpicturescience.org/episodes/amazing-amazonia
Euclid telescope: A scientist tells us of his quest to understand the nature of dark matter and dark energy.
On July 1st 2023, Euclid, a unique European space telescope was launched from Cape Canaveral. Euclid is the next big step forward in our quest to try to understand the Universe.
By Henk Hoekstra. via @FR_Conversation
Edited 1y ago
JSTOR now have a free account with an Independent Researcher category. You can access 100 documents per month. https://www.jstor.org/action/showLogin #research #education #science #history #economics 📚📘
Italian mathematician and physicist Vito Volterra was born #OTD in 1860.
One of Volterra's most famous contributions came in the field of mathematical biology with his work on population dynamics. He formulated the The Lotka–Volterra equations which are frequently used to describe the dynamics of biological systems in which two species interact, one as a predator and the other as prey.
Books by Vito Volterra at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/34164
A mind-blower for a Friday evening:
This deceptively simple-looking graph is a spectrum of *gravitational waves* ringing through the Milky Way.
The waves may be caused by a chorus of supermassive black holes colliding all across the universe. Whoa!
https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.16227 #science #space #physics #astronomy
That's why I write #SpeculativeFiction things are always right if I'm making everything up 😜😂
Also, did you know to create a fictional world from scratch you have to start with creating the #Multiverse? At least that's what I've been told... 😅
@bookstodon @books
@worldbuilding @humor @humor @humor@lemmy.world @aiop
#FantasyMemes #SciFiMemes #Fantasy #SciFi #Memes #Humor #Humour
#Low #High #Epic #Science #Opera #Hard #CottageCore #SolarPunk #Comedic #Whatever
#Book #Books #Bookstodon
#BoostingIsSharing
Born in 1894, physicist Marietta Blau’s research led to a way to capture the tracks of speeding subatomic particles.
In 1937, Blau & Hertha Wambacher made a discovery that launched the field of particle physics. But she was forced to pause her work in 1938 bc of the Nazis.
Blau was nominated several times for the Nobel Prize but never won. Cecil F. Powell later built on her work & earned the Nobel Prize in Physics. https://www.sciencehistory.org/stories/magazine/the-dark-stars-of-marietta-blau/ #history #science #historyremix
