105647484
submission
brindafella writes:
Land Iguanas (Conolophus subcristatus) have returned to Galápagos' Satiago Island after feral cats, dogs, rats, pigs, goats, and donkeys, were eliminated. The iguanas were noted by Charles Darwin in his 1835 voyage in HMS Beagle, but ferals out-competed the iguanas in around 1840. Now, they have been returned.
105645774
submission
brindafella writes:
Kevin Bird is a tinkerer. He has built the world's largest wooden pendulum clock, 6m high, as a passtime. Building it has taken 15 years, using local hardwoods. His town of Nannup, Western Australia, around 250km south of the state capital, Perth, will now get a clocktower and museum to this engineering marvel.
105645452
submission
brindafella writes:
An Australian snake catcher has helped a wild Carpet Python (Morelia spilota) infested with over 500 paralysis ticks (Ixodes holocyclus). The snake went into a backyard swimming pool in an attempt to drown the ticks. It was removed to the local Currumbin Wildlife Hospital where vets removed 511 adult ticks; immature ticks still under the snake's scales will be treated with medicines.
105614420
submission
brindafella writes:
Science has revealed the story of one Black Hole, that devoured a star in a "tidal disruption event" and left just enough star outside for a close-orbiting White Dwarf star to get very excited. The dwarf star circles the black hole every 131 seconds just outside the event horizon, near the innermost stable circular orbit (ISCO). It is causing a bright X-ray flash as it screams through the trail of the devoured star; and that shows the black hole is spinning at 50% the speed of light.
105613930
submission
brindafella writes:
The jaw bone of a woman who died around 1000-1200AD has specks of precious lapis lazuli (mineral) in the plaque of her teeth. This indicates that this woman would have licked the brush used in preparing precious illuminated manuscripts at the women's monastery in Dalheim in western Germany. The study by researchers from German-based Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History and Britain's University of York showed that women, as well as men, were part of the production of the valuable manuscripts.
104253216
submission
brindafella writes:
Veterinary scientists from Viena have shown that Goffin's cockatoos can do an excellent job of remaking cardboard into tools to get rewards. This follows on from earlier experiments with the New Caledonian crow, that can select tools for its purposes. So, birds are definitely not "bird-brained".
103639860
submission
brindafella writes:
Earthquakes are telling scientists more about the core of the Earth, specifically that it is squishier than previously thought (by about 2.5%.) Associate Professor Hrvoje Tkali & Thanh-Son Phm of the Australian National University have made sense of data collected by seismographs around the world, to put new numbers on the density and pressure of the core. In Science magazine, they show that the pressure is 167.4 ± 1.6 GPa in Earth’s center. For reference, standard atmospheric pressure us 101,325Pa so the centre of the Earth is around 61million times this pressure, but still 2.5% lower than expected.
102850828
submission
brindafella writes:
Imagine being able to remember things that happened in your second week of life. For people with
"highly superior autobiographical memory" (H-SAM), remembering (almost) everything you have seen, heard, felt, and most importantly how you felt about that, can bring fond and foul memories. 28-year-old Rebecca Sharrock has such a memory.
She also lives with autism and obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), as do many people with H-SAM. So, Sharrock has memorized all the Harry Potter books, because readng them to herself at bedtime would mean keeping her eyes open to read; it's easier to just remember them as she goes to sleep.
Sharrock has volunteered to have her memory abilities studied by scientists.
102030402
submission
brindafella writes:
Airport security in Australia's second largest city, Melbourne, has been called into question after reports that fellow travellers have been taking items (notably, women's handbags) off the pickup area; the owners have been stopped for extra attention because a medical device has tripped the alarm. The report lists: knee and hip replacements, a pacemaker, and an insulin pump. Meanwhile, staff assume that the person taking the item is its owner.
A thief needs both temptation and opportunity.
There are also calls for private screening / pat-down areas for older passengers, where their baggage can be taken with them.
101934288
submission
brindafella writes:
The Fields Medal for mathematics has been awarded at the 2018 International Congress of Mathematicians held by the International Mathematical Union. The winners are: Akshay Venkatesh (Australia), Alessio Figalli (Italy), Caucher Birkar (Iran), and Peter Scholze (Germany). The Fields Medal is awarded at the ICM held every four years, to up to 4 mathematicians who are under 40 years old. All four winners are professors.
101425672
submission
brindafella writes:
A Chinese businessman has fallen to his death while holidaying with family in southern France during a work trip. The chairman of China's HNA Group, Wang Jian, was in Bonnieux, a hill town in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France, and fell 15m from a wall while having his picture taken by members of his family. His injuries led to his death. The Chinese government shut down the story on internal media sources.
98709899
submission
brindafella writes:
Dianne McGrath is one of 100 people shortlisted to go on the one-way Mars One mission. She will find out later in 2018, after another gruelling selection process, whether she will be in the final 40. Mars One will blast off as early as 2031. They won't come back. Dianne doesn't see it conceptually as being any different from going to live in another country, except that a long-distance relationship will be permanent. She recalls the conversation on a first date going something like, "Ahem, there's this random thing. I'm shortlisted for Mars One. It's a space program." The reply was refreshingly unconcerned. "Oh that's really interesting, but who do you barrack for in the [football]?" Dianne was born in 1969, the day before Neil Armstrong set foot on the Moon.
94600485
submission
brindafella writes:
I may be the only attendee, but I'm raising a frosty glass to /. tonight. (I organised the 10th anniversary event, and have my 'attendance card' from that event. I carry it in my wallet, so I'm a "card carrying Slash dotter".)
92952987
submission
brindafella writes:
The landmark finding about vitamin B3, made by the Victor Chang Institute in Sydney, Australia, has been described as "the most important discovery for pregnant women since folate". The report has been published in the New England Journal of Medicine. "This historic discovery, which is believed to be among Australia’s greatest ever medical breakthroughs, is expected to forever change the way pregnant women are cared for around the globe. Every year 7.9 million babies are born with a birth defect worldwide and one in four pregnant women suffer a miscarriage in Australia. In the vast majority of cases the cause of these problems has remained a mystery. Until now. This breakthrough, led by Professor Sally Dunwoodie from the Victor Chang Institute, has identified a major cause of miscarriages as well as heart, spinal, kidney and cleft palate problems in newborn babies"
92502265
submission
brindafella writes:
The oldest recorded site showing when humans were in Australia has been dated to at least 65,000 years ago — up to 18,000 years earlier than archaeologists previously thought. The findings of archaeological research over the last five years are published in Nature. The researchers uncovered a wealth of artefacts, including the world's oldest-known ground-edge axe head — one made by grinding rather than flaking. The ages of the finds were determined using optically stimulated luminescence, a technique applied to single grains of sand to determine when they last saw daylight. Excavations were done under an agreement between the Gundjeihmi Aboriginal Corporation representing the traditional owners, the local Mirarr People, and the researchers. The site is adjacent to the Jabiluka uranium mine in the Northern Territory.
