The SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY News Thread

[SummeryDreams]

Originally Posted by SaintessHeart

That is Mother Nature's way of population control.

Oh! Nice point, I'll accept that. It's better to have a war against mother nature and pathogens though, rather than people against people and gaining alliance with pathogens - purely horrible.

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by SummeryDreams

Oh! Nice point, I'll accept that. It's better to have a war against mother nature and pathogens though, rather than people against people and gaining alliance with pathogens - purely horrible.

Actually I am glad that Mother Nature always win. Realisation of mortality is a great way to wake selfish people up.

[Ledgem]

Originally Posted by SummeryDreams

I know this, but still we aren't sure if our very much updated knowledge still lies to this one. I mean, you know that new technologies and discoveries will just bump up of nowhere, so I was thinking of what if some really super devastating weapon that can wipe out our race, be it biological or nuclear. My curiousity lies into something like, why do they develop such devastating weapon then? I mean, why would they create something that will end our race? Right?

They develop devastating weapons in part to control others, and in part to ensure that others will not be able to control them. As for "ending the human race," I think you're downplaying just how difficult that would be. I can't speak for the nuclear aspect, but I'll restate again that it would be impossible for a biological agent to wipe out humanity entirely. And I do not normally use the word "impossible" with regard to scientific advances.

Originally Posted by SummeryDreams

Though we should consider as well that this not so lethal pathogens will not get immunized against our antipathogenic agents. If so, even the less lethal would be lethal. To start with, the less lethal variety were the ones that are kind of likely to survive longer.

Whether or not "less lethal" pathogens would get around immunization has nothing to do with their lethality and everything to do with their structure and/or mode of transmission, as it relates to what the vaccine or treatment is targeting. Saying that "less lethal would be lethal" makes no sense. Compare the infection rates and lethality of the Herpes Simplex Virus (both types) against something "scary" like the Marburg virus or the Ebola virus.

Originally Posted by SaintessHeart

That is Mother Nature's way of population control.

Not really, these are just organisms that are trying to survive or propagate. "Mother Nature's way of population control" has always been resource availability. There are clear ecological cases of population crashes due to lack of resource availability (particularly noted in cases where a predator is removed). Even then, the population does not disappear entirely. Its numbers dip below the previous stable population number, and it may experience further peaks and troughs. Note that pathogens do not come into play here.

[ganbaru]

Religions asking if test-tube burgers allow them to keep the faith
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/...9780V020130809

[SummeryDreams]

Originally Posted by ganbaru

Religions asking if test-tube burgers allow them to keep the faith
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/...9780V020130809

I don't know about those religions, but I don't see the problem in eating those. I guess they only have issues against pork meat, if I'm not mistaken.

[Anh_Minh]

The animals also have to be slaughtered in a certain way.

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by ganbaru

Religions asking if test-tube burgers allow them to keep the faith
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/...9780V020130809

In the army, jungle-warfare school instructors have discouraged conservative believers from taking up survival courses for one reason - everyone has to eat snakes and snails at some point of time.

Then again, I see Muslim and Buddhist candidates in Ranger and such courses; a couple of them told me that "the idea of not eating something" is simply respecting the food you eat - the animal sarcificed its life to feed you, the minimum you can do is to prepare it properly and don't waste food.

Since test-tube burgers don't really have a sentient life (screw the mitochondria debate, they aren't living), technically speaking, it should be obvious that it doesn't step on any faith issues.

[Skane]

I'm more excited about how this could possibly revolutionise wildlife conservation. It's bloody expensive now, but imagine in the future when it becomes mass consumer affordable. We won't need to worry about over-fishing because we can just grow the bloody things indoors. You want Shark-fin Soup? Lab-grow it. Seahorses? Lab-grow that too. Caviar? Whale-meat? Etc...

Also, with some modifications, it may also lead to lab-growing ivory.

People can continue to eat/wear whatever the heck they want, and we won't need to poach some animals to do it, because we can just grow it.

Cheers.

[JokerD]

Everything when scaled up will have an effect on resources. Need to take into account what goes the making of these meat.
It's like saying that we should go veg to save the earth, but forest will still need to be cleared to plant crops in the first place...

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by JokerD

Everything when scaled up will have an effect on resources. Need to take into account what goes the making of these meat.
It's like saying that we should go veg to save the earth, but forest will still need to be cleared to plant crops in the first place...

With the advent of the Internet and personal food processors, perishable-processing companies might be in for the grind. Things might become even more DIY in the future.

[AnimeFan188]

Use Loop To Animate The World:

"I'm really bad at drawing. Really really really bad. Like hand turkeys and stick
figures level. But Loop might be a way to bring me up a little bit. It's an iPad app for
making hand-drawn animations, but you can use it with guides like other drawings
or photos for tracing. Basically there are a bunch of different ways to get going,
which is what I need.

Loop has frame by frame drawing, onion skinning, frame duplication and punch of
drawing tools. You can animate in red, blue, and black, and the final versions are
320px x 180px GIFs. You can share the short animations through e-mail or Tumblr,
or show them off on the Loop Tumblr."

See:

http://gizmodo.com/use-loop-to-anima...rld-1102063169

[ganbaru]

Identical twin U.S. astronauts to serve as research subjects
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/...9780UP20130810

[EmagEvil]

Originally Posted by JokerD

Everything when scaled up will have an effect on resources. Need to take into account what goes the making of these meat.
It's like saying that we should go veg to save the earth, but forest will still need to be cleared to plant crops in the first place...

Who know? Maybe we can manufacture those with... Soil?

Originally Posted by Skane

I'm more excited about how this could possibly revolutionise wildlife conservation. It's bloody expensive now, but imagine in the future when it becomes mass consumer affordable. We won't need to worry about over-fishing because we can just grow the bloody things indoors. You want Shark-fin Soup? Lab-grow it. Seahorses? Lab-grow that too. Caviar? Whale-meat? Etc...
Also, with some modifications, it may also lead to lab-growing ivory.
People can continue to eat/wear whatever the heck they want, and we won't need to poach some animals to do it, because we can just grow it.
Cheers.

Yeah, no need to slaughter or inhuman farming to have what we want to eat! But it's their compositions which worry me...

[ganbaru]

California billionaire lifts lid on 'Hyperloop' futuristic transport
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/...97B0U320130812

[Shyni]

Scientists in Hawaii breed glow-in-the-dark bunny rabbits.

[whitecloud]

http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-57...glass-of-2029/

So......in 2029 we will be living in a ghost in the shell world? I guess i should learn some programming...would not want to be hacked by the level A hacker

[ganbaru]

China to probe IBM, Oracle, EMC for security concerns: paper
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/...97F02720130816

[Shyni]

New species of mammal discovered: the olinguito.

http://www.economist.com/news/scienc...83594-peekaboo

http://www.washingtonpost.com/nation...125_story.html

Well, according to the Washington Post article, not so much discovered as "confirmed as a separate species".

[TooPurePureBoy]

How does it taste?

[Xellos-_^]

Originally Posted by TooPurePureBoy

How does it taste?

like a raccoon