Try to say "Coronal Hole" with a straight face...

[TCinVA]

http://www.foxnews.com/science/2013/07/29/spacecraft-sees-giant-hole-in-sun/

1671

About 400,000 miles across.

My favorite line so far:

"I am the Great Coronalholio! I need hydrogen for my sunhole!"

[LOKNLOD]

That looks like the kind of hole that a bunch of demons in flaming chariots and/or aliens in space cruisers comes flying out of to enslave our solar system.

[BaiHu]

That looks like the kind of hole that a bunch of demons in flaming chariots and/or aliens in space cruisers comes flying out of to enslave our solar system.

Holy Crap! You mean that's where Obama's hidden outer space lair/fortress of solitude resides?? :p

[NickA]

Pffft... Chris Cornell knew about this back in '94 :cool:

[Tamara]

Coincidence (http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100402161913/lotr/images/f/f5/Eye_of_sauron.jpg)? I think not!

[Nephrology]

I have a very good friend of mine who is a physics graduate student. Talking with him about his research is, at best, deeply unsettling. At worst, totally, mindbendingly, full-house-Lovecraftian terror.

[LOKNLOD]

I have a very good friend of mine who is a physics graduate student. Talking with him about his research is, at best, deeply unsettling. At worst, totally, mindbendingly, full-house-Lovecraftian terror.

I don't think it's fair to toss out a statement such as that with out expounding on it a bit :cool:

[Tamara]

I don't think it's fair to toss out a statement such as that with out expounding on it a bit :cool:

In the ancient accelerator tunnels under sunken R'lyeh, dread Schroedinger's cat lies sleeping... Or not.

[Ben B.]

So is it safe to say that this will finally lead to the global social collapse and near-extinction for mankind I've been so patiently awaiting (and banking) on?

Fap.. the apocalypse is taking WAY longer than my credit card's introductory APR.

[LOKNLOD]

the apocalypse is taking WAY longer than my credit card's introductory APR.

I hate it when that happens.

[Bigguy]

In the ancient accelerator tunnels under sunken R'lyeh, dread Schroedinger's cat lies sleeping... Or not.

OK, I can sell my computer now, cause I'll never run across a better line than that.

[Chuck Haggard]

Coincidence (http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100402161913/lotr/images/f/f5/Eye_of_sauron.jpg)? I think not!

First thing I thought of also, then I thought "Stop staring at me..."

[Nephrology]

I don't think it's fair to toss out a statement such as that with out expounding on it a bit :cool:

Well, okay, so it's hard to explain fully, but I'll put it this way. I think anyone who's taken college level organic chemistry/biochemistry/cell and molecular biology type coursework understands that our understanding of who we are as individuals is a little odd. For example, every cell in our body contains a mitochondria (or two). These guys are often compared to the "power station" of the cell, and most available evidence points towards the fact that mitochondria were (are?) symbiotic organisms that crawled inside another organism many many millions of years ago and just stuck around. In us, they reproduce separately from the rest of the cell, have their own, distinct DNA, and retain many of the features of the original bacterium that spawned them.

Another similar fact is that our genetic material is littered with the broken remains of viruses from many thousands of years of our ancestors getting infected with the suckers. Viruses work by inserting themselves into your DNA and then using the machinery of your cells to make more of them. We have some pretty great repair mechanisms, however, and so we often partially "break up" the genetic residue left behind by these viruses. But still, it's a little creepy to think about the idea that your DNA isn't really yours.

A third similar factoid is that in the average human the number of bacteria cells outnumbers the number of human cells by a 10:1 ratio. Okay, pretty weird. Fortunately they're a lot smaller than human cells or I'd have a hell of a time getting a date....

Anyway all of that stuff is kind of weird and pulls on the ol' existential strings a little bit but nothing I can't handle.

What I am NOT comfortable with is pondering giant masses of dark matter that we cannot see or perceive but that occupy massive, MASSIVE percentages of the universe. Or "dark energy" for that matter, a mathematical requisite for dark matter but a concept that I understand even less. The idea that this stuff is so massive that it can actually bend light that is we see here on earth, but that we do not interact with in any meaningful way, really creeps me out.

His interests specifically are in neutrinos, which are weak subatomic particles that do not interact with basically anything. They are, however, ridiculously abundant. Wikipedia says, "About 65 billion (6.5×10^10) solar neutrinos per second pass through every square centimeter perpendicular to the direction of the Sun in the region of the Earth." So take a look at the pad of your index finger. It's probably a few Cm^2. So you have on the order of a couple hundred billion neutrinos passing through your index finger every second. We know they are there. but we have absolutely no means as human beings of detecting them without ridiculously expensive equipment.

I recommend you watch this video with Patricia Burchat from TED talks. She explains it in a way that makes it seem warm and fuzzy and cool. I think my friend's explanations thereof weird me out more because he's mildly depressed. Most grad students are, I guess....

http://www.ted.com/talks/patricia_burchat_leads_a_search_for_dark_energy.ht ml

[Tamara]

Don't get me started on continuity of consciousness...

"I feel like a new person today!"

[Nephrology]

Don't get me started on continuity of consciousness...

"I feel like a new person today!"

I'm not even comfortable with the notion of personhood these days.

Don't go into the sciences, there's a reason that the 'mad scientist' has been a trope for so long... The chemists are the most grounded of the big three natural sciences, a lot less existential threat is posed by redox reactions...

[ToddG]

An atheist physicist and devout Christian are walking down the street together. One believes in an undefinable invisible power that cannot be explained or proven but which he says touches and influences every single thing in the universe.

The other goes to church on Sundays.

[Nephrology]

An atheist physicist and devout Christian are walking down the street together. One alternatively believes/doesn't believe/has panic attacks about how he'll get the funding to continue researching an undefinable invisible power that cannot be explained or proven but which he says touches and influences every single thing in the universe.

The other goes to church on Sundays.

Fixed it for you

[TCinVA]

Anyway all of that stuff is kind of weird and pulls on the ol' existential strings a little bit but nothing I can't handle.


Truth is not just stranger than we know, but stranger than we can know.

I knew mitochondrial DNA was different than nuclear DNA, but I didn't know why. So I learned something today. It's not my mitochondrial DNA...it's the mitochondrial DNA that just happens to be found inside my cells. At least the ones that are actually my cells and not one of the untold billions of bacterial life forms floating around making my existence possible.

[ToddG]

Fixed it for you

Yeah, like Jiffy Lube fixed TCinVA's Dodge...
(inside joke)

[TCinVA]

Yeah, like Jiffy Lube fixed TCinVA's Dodge...
(inside joke)

I would never let those cretins touch my car.

I let a different set of cretins with more impressive credentials touch my car. End result was about the same, though.

[Nephrology]

Truth is not just stranger than we know, but stranger than we can know.

I knew mitochondrial DNA was different than nuclear DNA, but I didn't know why. So I learned something today. It's not my mitochondrial DNA...it's the mitochondrial DNA that just happens to be found inside my cells. At least the ones that are actually my cells and not one of the untold billions of bacterial life forms floating around making my existence possible.

Yup. What's really interesting is the microbiome (or the fancy term for the bacterial community) of your gut is actually a really hot topic in research right now. They're looking into its role in all kinds of diseases, including diabetes, crohn's, Celiac's, and a few more. They also produce a number of vitamins that you would be very unhappy without, including B12 and a couple others that are escaping me at the moment.

Here's a cool read but it's a little, er, sciency...

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3298082/

Also, this kind of shocked me:

"Linear regression of total caloric intake over time shows that the average number of kcal consumed per day increased markedly over this 30-year period (R2=0.911, P<10−15). This is consistent with estimates from the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), which indicate that adult men and women increased their daily calorie intake by 6.9% and 21.7%, respectively, during the same period."

What's the deal, ladies?

[TCinVA]

Dr. Layne Norton (PHD) in one of his videos on metabolic adaptation/metabolic damage (which everybody should watch) actually cited a number of studies that show during an extended period of caloric restriction the bacterial fauna of the gut changes to become more efficient. In other words, the bacterial content changes favoring a population that helps exact every last bit of nutrition and energy possible from every morsel of food that is consumed.

...and suddenly the weight loss plateau is no longer a mystery.

[CMG]

I thought that picture is what is sent up into the Internet to have Byron come into a thread and throw down some logic on someone.

[TCinVA]

I thought that picture is what is sent up into the Internet to have Byron come into a thread and throw down some logic on someone.

No...but I'm now convinced that we need a Byron signal graphic. For justice. Maybe the outline of a man with a handgun crouched low enough to shoot people in the genitals.