19 Dec

Posted at 13:18h in Scoop.it

Described as ”living rocks”, giant land tortoises are lumbering beasts with a reputation for being sluggish in both speed and brainpower. But new research carried out by scientists from the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) suggests we have greatly underestimated the intelligence of these creatures, who can not only be trained but also have amazing powers of long-term recall.

 

Sourced through Scoop.it from: eurekalert.org

13 Dec

Posted at 12:38h in Scoop.it

There are a few fundamental facts about the Universe — its origin, its history, and what it is today — that are awfully hard to wrap your head around.

 

There are a few fundamental facts about the Universe — its origin, its history, and what it is today — that are awfully hard to wrap your head around. One of them is the Big Bang, or the idea that the Universe began a certain time ago: 13.8 billion years ago to be precise. That’s the first moment we can describe the Universe as we know it to be today: full of matter and radiation, and the ingredients that would eventually grow into stars, galaxies, planets and human beings. So how far away can we see? You might think, in a Universe limited by the speed of light, that would be 13.8 billion light years: the age of the Universe multiplied by the speed of light. But 13.8 billion light years is far too small to be the right answer. In actuality, we can see for 46 billion light years in all directions, for a total diameter of 92 billion light years.

Sourced through Scoop.it from: medium.com

13 Dec

Posted at 12:36h in Scoop.it

There are dozens of disciplines and subdisciplines within the broad ambit of climate science, studying everything from ancient geology to the spread of disease. But one discipline in particular is exposed to intense public scrutiny, the subject of long-running political and legal disputes: modeling.

As interesting as the details of climate science may be, what society most needs from it is an answer to a simple question: What the hell is going to happen? What are we in for? That’s the question models seek to answer.

Sourced through Scoop.it from: www.vox.com

13 Dec

Posted at 12:35h in Scoop.it

The first map showing the global geology of Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, has been completed and fully reveals a dynamic world of dunes, lakes, plains, craters and other terrains. Titan is the only planetary body in our solar system other than Earth known to have stable liquid on its surface. But instead of water raining down from clouds and filling lakes and seas as on Earth, on Titan what rains down is methane and ethane – hydrocarbons that we think of as gases but that behave as liquids in Titan’s frigid climate.

 

“Titan has an active methane-based hydrologic cycle that has shaped a complex geologic landscape, making its surface one of most geologically diverse in the solar system,” said Rosaly Lopes, a planetary geologist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, and lead author of new research used to develop the map.

 

 

Sourced through Scoop.it from: solarsystem.nasa.gov

13 Dec

Posted at 11:17h in Scoop.it

Humans are able to see from birth, so we often take it for granted. Trying to teach a machine to see from scratch, however, is a whole other ballpark. But first, what even is “seeing” in the first place?

 

Vision has three parts:

  1. Being able to physically “see” the object in front of you
  2. Understanding and recognizing what it is
  3. Being able to respond to it

 

In humans, this process corresponds to our eyes being able to see what is in front of us, then our brains recognizing what it is.

 

 

Sourced through Scoop.it from: medium.com