Why this baby primate is a symbol of hope for all Western chimpanzees The world's rarest chimpanzee population just got an itty-bitty boost with the birth of a new baby boy. Chester Zoo in Upton-by-Chester, England, is introducing one of its newest residents to the public — a Western chimpanzee born on Dec. 9. The zoo operates on a principle of conservation. In addition to breeding the chimps in captivity, they also run conservation programs with the wild chimps in Nigeria and Gabon. Should conditions on the ground improve for Western chimpanzees, the zoo staff will work towards re-wilding their animals. Here he is with his mother.
As the global population rises and the land available for growing more food becomes more scarce, scientists around the world have begun looking for alternative sources. In two papers in Science, the authors all agree that insects could provide the answer. And bugs are good for you, very nutrient-rich. Making the case for using insects as food for both humans and livestock
Horse is supposed to taste much like beef... there was a big scandal a few years ago in ireland about horse flesh entering the foodchain sold as beef... the issue there being that because horses aren't bred for food they have growth hormones and drugs like phenylbutazone which are not approved for human consumption https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_horse_meat_scandal
Don't like the idea of eating friends of humans. Dogs, cats, horses, dolphins, perhaps others are what I would consider human friends. Back when the automobile came into use, I remember reading that horses were butchered en masse since they were no longer useful.
This is me. I cannot innately tell left from right. I can't do it without thinking. I have to imagine which hand I would write with and then I have the right side. Why some people can't tell left from right Left-right discrimination is actually quite a complex process, calling upon memory, language, visual and spatial processing, and mental rotation. In fact, researchers are only just beginning to get to the bottom of exactly what's going on in our brains when we do it – and why it's much easier for some people than others.
I am right left impaired. After hearing one of my dance students tell another, "No, Catriona's right" when I'd said right and turned left during a class, I stopped and pointed out the cardinal and quarter points in the studio. From then on instructions were not "turn left" but "turn southeast" or "face north." Much, much easier.
They just had to learn which wall was on the south side of the room, which on the west, etc. When we were at a performance, I'd just point out north and they were instantly oriented. It was really pretty handy in practice. Hollering, "Quarter turn to the left" was less efficient than "Southeast!" for example. Ah, happy memories.
SKAO - Square Kilometre Array Observatory - announces the construction of new telescopes - the largest radio telescope arrays in the world - located in Australia and South Africa, with headquarters in UK Supported by institutions around the globe, the SKA telescopes will transform our understanding of the Universe, tackling some of the most fundamental scientific questions of our time. Canada announces intention to become full member of international SKAO radio astronomy project
Let there be light Nuclear reactions in the Sun's core produce light and other types of radiation. As light photons leave the core, they run into electrons and atomic nuclei, scattering off each one. These interactions cause photons to take, on average, 200,000 years to move from the Sun's core to its surface. Spoiler: The path of photons
I first saw this a few months ago. I think there are other interactions involved, like absorption+emission: photon hits an atom, is absorbed entirely (excites the atom, electrons move to higher orbitals), then the atom reemits a photon as it decays back to ground state. Do we consider the emitted photon the same as the absorbed photon? Or does its birthday reset? I think the answer to that philosophical question goes a long way to determining the average lifespan of a photon being emitted from the surface of the sun. (I'm actually trained in nuclear physics once-upon-a-time, but moreso in a practical "don't-blow-the-reactor-up" way than a "we need 1.27% more efficiency" sort of way.)
Beauty can help to heal. University of Michigan psychologist Christopher Peterson and colleagues (2006) found that a high appreciation of beauty helps people recover from anxiety and depression. University of California, Berkeley psychologist Dacher Keltner and colleagues found that people who experience awe in response to nature’s beauty have significantly lower levels of inflammation, reducing the risk of depression, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and other illnesses. In fact, their research found that the more often we experience awe, the lower our inflammation levels (2015). When psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl was a prisoner in the Auschwitz death camp, he and other prisoners were sitting on the floor of their hut, exhausted from the day’s work. Then a fellow prisoner rushed in, urging them to come outside. Even in these horrific circumstances, the men stood in silent awe, deeply moved by a radiant sunset, experiencing this moment of beauty (Frankl, 1984). Research Reveals the Healing Power of Beauty and Awe
It's rated high. For the ninth straight year, UC Berkeley tops the list of the world’s best public universities and remains the fourth-best university overall in U.S. News & World Report’s 2023 global universities rankings. UC Berkeley remains the No. 1 public university in the world
Timothy Leary didn't start his hallucinogen research until he was at Harvard. How do you feel about Havahd?
I vaguely remember 71 from my childhood. The LSD comment was more about how divorced from reality they can be.
Paging Graham Hancock: "The discovery pushes the timeline of obsidian tool use back by an astonishing 500,000 years." https://www.vice.com/en/article/n7zx77/archaeologists-discover-12-million-year-old-workshop-in-mind-blowing-find
In the Joe Rogan clip I posted last night to the Drinks thread they discussed the theory that toolmaking etc has happened many times in our history and then been 'reset' due to something like a massive meteor or comet strike that set everything back to square one.
Amazing photo! Interesting, they were sleeping so soundly that they did not hear the noise of the propellers.
