The Science Thread

[Tigger]

It's one of the most controversial points in science right now, but that study by Shakun has already had a healthy dose of skepticism, one person even went to the trouble of showing all of the global temperature proxies alongside the rise of CO2 going back to 25k BCE, it's troubling because it shows the proxies are a bit all over the map but it also shows that warming likely preceded the rise of CO2.



Something that seems to be entirely missing from Shakuns work is consideration for CO2 contribution from increased volcanism during deglaciation. In the conclusion of Huybers/Langmuir 2009 Harvard paper "Feedback between deglaciation, volcanism and atmospheric CO2" the authors cite an estimated rise of between 20 and 80 ppm during a period of about 5 thousand years. Of course the problem there is that warming had to take effect to melt the ice before that cycle began.

To me, the cause of the end of the last ice age ( actually the 'interglacial', we're still in that ice age ) is still roughly pointing at increased levels of solar radiation.

[Tigger]

For any that care here's a link to Shakun's paper...

http://sciences.blogs.liberation.fr/files/shakun-et-al.pdf

[hockeyfan1]

Shakun does point out that "CO2 was not the cause of initial warming".  And that "the overall correlation and phasing of global temperature and Co2 Are consistent with Co2 being an important driverfg of global warming during the deglaciation, with the centennial-scale lag of temperature behind Co2 being consistent with the thermal inertia of the climate system owing to ocean heat uptake and ice melting".

Earlier, he had said that "the role of Co2 in glacial cycles, however, remains unclear...proxy data have variously interpreted to suggest that Co2 was the primary driver of the ice ages, a more modest feedback on warming, or perhaps, largely a consequence rather than cause of past global change".

One can conclude that there were a number of factors that led to deglaciation/oceanic temperature changes, et al, with Co2 being either a culprit or initiator of conseqental climactic changes. 

[hockeyfan1]

How's this for getting oneself off of not paying a traffic ticket...(maybe we should all become physicists)...

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/blogs/motoramic/physicist-claims-victory-over-traffic-ticket-physics-paper-151808710.html

http://www.physicscentral.com/buzz/blog/index.cfm?postid=4656335810518469535

[hockeyfan1]

Of quarks and matter....

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2012/04/27/subatomic-particle-discovered.html

European researchers say they have discovered a new subatomic particle that helps confirm our knowledge about how quarks bind – one of the basic forces in the shaping of matter.

The European Organization for Nuclear Research, or CERN, said Friday the particle was discovered at one of CERN's two main experiments involving thousands of researchers, in collaboration with the University of Zurich.

Joe Incandela, the physicist in charge of the experiment involved with the discovery, told The Associated Press the particle was predicted long ago but finding it was "really kind of a classic tour de force of experimental work."

[Tigger]

Ugh, still haven't done the Derinkuyu post but this was pretty interesting, oldest known musical instruments...

The flutes, made from bird bone and mammoth ivory, come from a cave in southern Germany which contains early evidence for the occupation of Europe by modern humans - Homo sapiens.

Scientists used carbon dating to show that the flutes were between 42,000 and 43,000 years old.

I've seen a replica of one being played that was dated around 35,000 bce, it had a complete pentatonic scale and the fellow played the Star Spangled Banner melody on it. ( from the movie 'Cave of Forgotten Dreams' by Werner Herzog )

[Madferret]

Ugh, still haven't done the Derinkuyu post but this was pretty interesting, oldest known musical instruments...

The flutes, made from bird bone and mammoth ivory, come from a cave in southern Germany which contains early evidence for the occupation of Europe by modern humans - Homo sapiens.

Scientists used carbon dating to show that the flutes were between 42,000 and 43,000 years old.

I've seen a replica of one being played that was dated around 35,000 bce, it had a complete pentatonic scale and the fellow played the Star Spangled Banner melody on it. ( from the movie 'Cave of Forgotten Dreams' by Werner Herzog )

All flutes have 5 holes!

[Tigger]

Fun photo along the 'as above, so below' vein.

[Tigger]

Cappadocia is a historical region in one of Turkey's provinces, it is has a popular tourist trade due to many unique geological, cultural and historic features, not the least of which is a vast collection of underground cities. The one I've been reading about the most is located below the town and district of Derinkuyu, though it is connected to other underground cities as well, 36 of which have been located and many more are suspected to exist.

Derinkuyu, discovered in 1963, is a massive ancient marvel. So far 11 levels have been discovered though estimates of future excavation indicate that they may have only uncovered roughly 15% of the structure. 8 of the levels are open to the public.

I've read different estimates of the capacity of Derinkuyu, the one that seems the most likely so far is that it could house 20 - 30,000 people with enough food storage to survive 8 months but that number has been speculated to be much higher given the estimate of the potential size of the city.

There is a cruciform church, chapels, stables, wine/oil press, even a suspected brewery aside from domestic accommodations. So far the deepest people have gone is to the bottom of an 85 meter ventilation shaft. The city had an independent water supply as well as plenty of fresh air from dozens of deep ventilation shafts.

There is a tunnel connecting the city to another underground site 9km away at Kaymakli and it's suspected to connect with many others as well, perhaps all of them. So far, of the 36 known cities only 3 have been explored to a reasonable degree.

The age of the structure is up for debate, some linking it to the Hittites around 1400 bce which seems to be the most commonly accepted theory but it could be much older.

The city didn't have one entrance but rather many and it was discovered quite by accident. A resident broke through a wall at the back of his house and discovered a room he'd never seen before, then another and so on.

Below is an entrance to the city, you can see the large round rock that could be put in place to close it in case of unwanted visitors, every entrance has one.



A view of another entrance showing the refined work of the levels below.



Intricate support structures and clean, navigable corridors.



Precisely cut blocks in one of the kitchens.



One of the stables.



One of many ventilation shafts.



A truly remarkable place with a story that's yet to be fully understood.

[Tigger]

Turkey continues to be a hotbed of archaeology...

Dated to 7500 BC, the obsidian bracelet studied by the researchers is unique. It is the earliest evidence of obsidian working, which only reached its peak in the seventh and sixth millennia BC with the production of all kinds of ornamental objects, including mirrors and vessels.

...

This process has revealed that the bracelet was made using highly specialized manufacturing techniques. The analyses carried out showed that the bracelet was almost perfectly regular. The symmetry of the central annular ridge is extremely precise, to the nearest degree and nearest hundred micrometers. This suggests that the artisans of the time used models to control its shape when it was being made. The surface finish of the bracelet (which is very regular, resembling a mirror) required the use of complex polishing techniques capable of obtaining a nanometer-scale surface quality worthy of today's telescope lenses.

[hockeyfan1]

Wow!  Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) filmed by a Swedish photographer as it happened....

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/video/northern-lights-display-captured-film-180019407.html

[Tigger]

Evidence of cosmic impact supporting the Younger Dryas Boundary theory

An 18-member international team of researchers that includes James Kennett, professor of earth science at UC Santa Barbara, has discovered melt-glass material in a thin layer of sedimentary rock in Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Syria. According to the researchers, the material -- which dates back nearly 13,000 years -- was formed at temperatures of 1,700 to 2,200 degrees Celsius (3,100 to 3,600 degrees Fahrenheit), and is the result of a cosmic body impacting Earth.

These new data are the latest to strongly support the controversial Younger Dryas Boundary (YDB) hypothesis, which proposes that a cosmic impact occurred 12,900 years ago at the onset of an unusual cold climatic period called the Younger Dryas. This episode occurred at or close to the time of major extinction of the North American megafauna, including mammoths and giant ground sloths; and the disappearance of the prehistoric and widely distributed Clovis culture. The researchers' findings appear June 11 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"These scientists have identified three contemporaneous levels more than 12,000 years ago, on two continents yielding siliceous scoria-like objects (SLO's)," said H. Richard Lane, program director of National Science Foundation's Division of Earth Sciences, which funded the research. "SLO's are indicative of high-energy cosmic airbursts/impacts, bolstering the contention that these events induced the beginning of the Younger Dryas. That time was a major departure in biotic, human and climate history."

Morphological and geochemical evidence of the melt-glass confirms that the material is not cosmic, volcanic, or of human-made origin. "The very high temperature melt-glass appears identical to that produced in known cosmic impact events such as Meteor Crater in Arizona, and the Australasian tektite field," said Kennett.
"The melt material also matches melt-glass produced by the Trinity nuclear airburst of 1945 in Socorro, New Mexico," he continued. "The extreme temperatures required are equal to those of an atomic bomb blast, high enough to make sand melt and boil."

To me this is fairly significant given the time frame of both the Younger Drays itself ( a sudden deep freeze that dropped temperatures 15 C at higher latitudes and evidence of a mean annual of 5 C in the UK, thought to have occurred between roughly 12,800 and 11,500 years BP and lasted for roughly 1200 years ) and the period of it's onset and decline. If that period was much shorter than thought, say a week instead of a decade, that would be one heck of a ride in terms of changes in global weather and geological conditions.

The outside number of that date roughly coincides with carbon dating found at Gobekli Tepe.

Before this new evidence ( presuming it withstands scrutiny ) I thought it was still a pretty nasty turn of events here on Earth even if it only took a decade to fall into a thousand year freeze, we're pretty tough creatures.

[WhatIfGodWasALeaf]

So it appears that they have found the Higgs Boson particle at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN.

[Potvin29]

So it appears that they have found the Higgs Boson particle at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN.

Yet Burke can't find a #1 goalie LOL AMIRITE

[Tigger]

So it appears that they have found the Higgs Boson particle at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN.

That's just bananas. Discovering this particle is one of the main reasons the collider was built in the first place, what a huge moment.

The official announcement is tomorrow morning.