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Items tagged with: science
Today is the birthday of Rosalind Franklin, the chemist who helped discover the structure of DNA. Born July 25, 1920, her work was crucial to refining the double helix model, though she went uncredited for years.
Celebrate her life with DNA inspired knitting patterns like these from my science pattern post
intheloopknitting.com/science-…
Science Inspired Knitting Patterns - In the Loop Knitting
Knitting patterns inspired by astronomy, biology, geology, physics, chemistry, and other sciences.intheloopknitting.com
New 'demon' cavefish lineage discovered in Alabama cave
For decades, scientists have crawled through Bobcat Cave on Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, searching its dark pools and underground passages for rare life.Sara Falligant (Phys.org)
science.org/content/article/un…
#Science #Biology #CombJelly
"Southern Europe still battling wildfires as Spain declares national emergency in Madrid region"
#News #Politics #Europe #EU #Fire #USA #Economy #Climate #ClimateChange #Science #Spain #Disaster
euronews.com/my-europe/2026/07…
Southern Europe still battling wildfires as Spain declares national emergency in Madrid region
Spain has declared a national emergency as wildfires threaten the Madrid region, while France seeks EU help and Italy battles blazes across Sicily.Nathan Rennolds (Euronews)
🔋 MIT just published the most comprehensive EV emissions study yet, analyzing every US zip code with real driving data.
Battery EVs cut lifetime emissions 40-60% vs gas cars in most locations. Even on the dirtiest grid in the country, they still come out ahead. The study used DOE's GREET lifecycle model, which already includes battery manufacturing. So the "but what about making the batteries?" question is answered: building an EV produces 50-80% more CO2 upfront, but it pays that back over the vehicle's life.
Your driving habits matter as much as where you live. High mileage, city driving, and larger vehicles all boost the EV advantage. Cold weather cuts efficiency on a frigid night but barely dents annual savings.
The "who benefits from the doubt?" question has a paper trail. The API has run anti-EV messaging since 1967. Koch-funded groups planned $10M/year campaigns. AFPM dropped $10M+ on "Don't Ban Our Cars" ads in 2024 swing states.
news.mit.edu/2026/us-drivers-e…
For most US drivers, EVs offer emissions benefits and cost savings
In most U.S. zip codes, electric vehicles are cost-competitive with their gas-powered counterparts, according to a new study.MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Inhibiting a master regulator of aging regenerates joint cartilage in mice
Osteoarthritis due to aging or injury affects 20% of the U.S. population. A Stanford Medicine-led study found that blocking a ‘gerozyme’ reverses cartilage loss in mice and human tissue.News
🦠 A tapeworm that infects worker ants (Temnothorax nylanderi) reprograms them at the molecular level — turning their metabolism queen-like and extending their lifespan from 2 years to 20. Infected workers receive MORE social care than the actual queen. The parasite hijacks the ant's own longevity genes, not by mimicking them, but by tapping into existing biological programs. #science #biology #parasitology #ants #nature
phys.org/news/2026-07-tapeworm…
Tapeworm hijacks worker ants, giving them queen-like metabolism and longer lives
A tapeworm fundamentally changes the lives of ants: Workers of the species Temnothorax nylanderi infected with the tapeworm Anomotaenia brevis live several times longer than their uninfected nestmates.Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (Phys.org)
If you have been wondering about the effectiveness of the social media ban of under 15 year olds, this study got you :)
Spoiler: 92%+ of kids age 14-15 in #Australia still use it 🥳
Meanwhile IMO forced verification of users had a much better success rate 😉
Source:
nber.org/system/files/working_…
#Privacy #ageverification #IDverification #Study #Data #Science #Survey #Tech #SocialMedia #Technology #Internet #Censorship #Authoritarianism #MassSurveillance #Surveillance
RE: stefanbohacek.online/@voyagers…
The Voyager 1 interstellar probe, part of NASA's Voyager program launched in 1977, will reach one light-day distance from Earth
on November 18, 2026.
Follow along with @voyagers.
science.nasa.gov/mission/voyag…
#voyager #space #science #nasa
Voyagers (@voyagers@stefanbohacek.online)
Attached: 2 images Voyager 1 is 25.52 billion km/15.86 billion miles away from Earth and will reach 1 light-day from Earth in 119 days, 11 hours: https://eyes.nasa.gov/apps/solar-system/#/sc_voyager_1/distance?to=earth Voyager 2 is 21.Voyagers (Stefan's Personal Mastodon Server)
Multiple sclerosis: Triggers in the gut flora
Study of twins detects bacteria in the small intestine that play a role in the development of MS.www.lmu.de
🧪 A single molecule lets one naked mole rat queen control reproduction in her entire colony (up to 300 members).
The queen produces isopropyl myristate - the same compound in your moisturizer - and patrols her 3 km tunnel network daily to spread it. The scent raises prolactin in all other females, keeping them infertile.
When researchers removed a queen and just sprayed the chemical, no fights broke out and no one bred for 12 weeks. Remove the scent, and war broke out within days.
Source: nature.com/articles/s41586-026…
#biology #science #nakedmolerat #eusociality
A queen odour mediates reproductive suppression in a eusocial mammal - Nature
Naked mole-rat (Heterocephalus glaber) queens produce isopropyl myristate, a low-volatility ester that high-ranking animals detect and avoid, which alters prolactin and progesterone in other females to suppress reproduction and preserve eusocial hier…Nature
Geological Deep Time – new blog series available in English now!
It's about our relationship with Earth's deep time – illustrated with my own photographs from the Black Forest and the Vosges. The first 3 parts are now online.
Start here : silberspur.de/blogs/read/116
#DeepTime #BlackForest #Vosges #LandscapePhotography #Photography #Nature #EarthSciences #Science #Fotografie #Schwarzwald #Vogesen #Palynology #Science #ScienceCommunication #Geology #NaturePhotography #ScienceForEveryone #Time
The very first image from the surface of Mars, transmitted to Earth from NASA's Viking 1 lander, 50 years ago today.
nasa.gov/image-article/our-fir… #science #nature #history #tech
Our First View of the Surface of Mars - NASA
“Touchdown, we have touchdown!” At 5:12 a.m. PDT, July 20, 1976, mission controllers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory erupted in cheers as they learnedNASA
🕷 A newly discovered spider in Australia builds spring-loaded traps that launch ants faster than a bullet.
The ballista spider in Cape York rainforests weaves silk snares and waits. When a green tree ant bites the trigger, the trap launches them at 1,367 m/s - over 1.5x the speed of a rifle bullet.
Gram for gram, these tiny traps store more power than any known biological catapult. The spider may even coat them with pheromones that only attract its prey.
Published in Current Biology (July 2026): nationalgeographic.com/animals…
Watch this new spider species launch ants right into its web
The ballista spider builds sophisticated spring-loaded snares to catapult its prey.Annie Roth (National Geographic)
💁🏻♀️ ICYMI: 🌳🪨 A large-scale field #experiment in #Wales shows that adding crushed volcanic #basalt rock dust to #soil accelerates native woodland growth.
The #nature-based method boosted #carbon capture by up to 27% in the first four years, providing an urgent tool for global #climate restoration efforts.
👉 Learn more: seethis.tv/post/how-does-magic…
#biology #calcium #chemistry #climatechange #conservation #ecology #forest #iron #magnesium #minerals #plants #research #rocks #science #silica #solutions #trees #uk #womeninstem #tksst #video
How does ‘magic’ basalt dust help plants grow faster and lock up more carbon? | The Kid Should See This
In Llandovery, Wales, a large-scale nature research project is proving that there's a way to help trees grow faster and stronger, and store more carbon.Rion Nakaya (The Kid Should See This)
Trump administration allows killing of species threatened with extinction – The Washington Post
Trump administration allows killing of species threatened with extinction The Washington PostWhy Trump’s move to gut the Endangered Species…
#NewsBeep #News #US #USA #UnitedStates #UnitedStatesOfAmerica #Wildlife #Science
newsbeep.com/us/769467/
The state of the world summarized in two news headlines. 😔
#news #GlobalWarming #environment #ClimateChange #climate #ClimateCrisis #ClimateDiary #ClimateAction #pollution #future #nature #Earth #world #international #humanity #science
🐙 Scientists drilled 1.3 km into the Atlantic seafloor and found the hidden plumbing system powering the "Lost City" - a field of hydrothermal vents where life thrives without sunlight, fueled by chemical reactions between seawater and mantle rock.
Huge implications for finding life on ocean worlds like Europa.
🌿 A small Finnish daycare experiment found that changing a play yard's biodiversity can change children's microbial exposure and immune-regulation markers.
Researchers added forest floor, sod, plants, and peat blocks to parts of four urban daycare yards. After 28 days, 3- to 5-year-old children showed changes in skin and gut microbiota, along with shifts in IL-10, IL-17A, TGF-β1, and regulatory T-cell measures.
A later placebo-controlled study found similar immune-related changes after children played with microbially diverse soil. The evidence is promising, but it does not yet prove that dirt prevents allergies or autoimmune disease. Nor does it show that recycled-rubber playgrounds are poisoning children.
Primary studies:
doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aba2578
doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoenv.2022.…
🧪 The placebo-controlled trial wasn't invented by doctors. It was invented by medieval witch hunters.
In 1423, Jean Gerson proposed testing religious claims with consecrated vs unconsecrated objects that looked identical - the same logic behind modern placebo controls.
His method ended up in the Malleus Maleficarum (1486). In 1599, a French physician used it to prove a "possessed" girl wasn't really possessed - she reacted the same to real and fake holy water.
That trick-trial design reached Lavoisier and Franklin, who used it to debunk mesmerism in 1784 - the direct ancestor of every clinical trial.
Source: journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/…
A Deadly Ebola-Like Virus Is Spreading. Are We Ready?
BU virologist Nancy Sullivan says the Bundibugyo outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo underscores the need for broader outbreak preparedness.Vincent L (SciTechDaily)
I am happy to announce our latest paper! "Surprising cryptic cavefish diversity in a long-studied karst cave ecosystem of northern Alabama"
I absolutely love our name for it too, an entire new genus, not just species: Demogorgonichthys arcanus
Why did it take so long to find, in a highly monitored cave? Well just take a look at the mud with water channels and low ceilings, and we cannot typically even get into the water because of other protected and highly endangered species. So visual surveying is difficult, and limited. The paper is an excellent read even for not-biologists, and the images are *amazing*. So proud of our lab!
#cave #caves #biology #fish #nature #speleology #science #animals
🧬 A marine alga just rewrote biology's textbook rule
For decades, students learned only bacteria can fix nitrogen from the air. In 2024, scientists found a tiny ocean alga has a real organelle - the "nitroplast" - that does it too. Only the 4th organelle born from endosymbiosis in 4 billion years of life.
news.ucsc.edu/2024/04/nitrogen…
Scientists discover first nitrogen-fixing organelle - News
In two recent papers, an international team led by UC Santa Cruz scientists describe the first known nitrogen-fixing organelle within a eukaryotic cell.Erin Malsbury (News)
A global science project is asking volunteers to search Arctic satellite images for the animals, which are threatened by climate change.
yaleclimateconnections.org/202…
#Environment #Climate #Science #Yale #ClimateDiary #ClimateCrisis #Nature
Some guy collected whale poop in his freezer for years before a researcher was interested to study them
“Samples of whale feces collected by a man from South Australia have contributed to what is described as a “groundbreaking” study of diets and microbiomes of southern right whales, according to researchers.”
