THE MOON'S COMMENT ON ESA MAKING OXYGEN OUT OF MOONDUST!

The European Space Agency (ESA) has now a prototype plant that produces oxygen out of simulated moondust, i.e. out of stuff similar to the actual regolith, "a layer of loose, heterogeneous material, composed of mostly dust and rock fragments" [see] that covers almost all Moon's surface and is made up of "40–45% oxygen by weight" [see].

ESA's final goal is to have a working plant "that could operate sustainably on the Moon, with the first technology demonstration targeted for the mid-2020s" [see].   

ESA's new prototype facility is in the Materials and Electrical Components Laboratory of the European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) in Noordwijk, in the Netherlands.

The following cartoon reports the Moon's comment on this news.

Moon's comment on ESA producing oxygen out of moondust (by @sciencemug)

[Moon's free pic by Neven Krcmarek (source: Unsplash); adapted by @sciencemug]

THE TRUE REASON WHY SEABIRDS EVOLVED THE ABILITY TO USE TOOLS!

Soo, dear reader, a bunch of scientists goes and studies seabirds (more specifically Atlantic Puffins) on Skomer Island, Wales, and sees two of 'em using wooden sticks to scratch themselves.
The researchers publish their finding in a paper (P) on PNAS, stating that this is a "previously unknown tool-use behavior for wild birds, so far only documented in the wild in primates and elephants" (P). 

But this dumb blog thinks that the researchers got it wrong, and that the true reason why those seabirds evolved the tool use skill, more specifically the ability to use wooden sticks, isn't to scratch their bodies, but it is indeed the one showed in the following cartoon...

The true reason why seabirds evolved the ability to use tools (by @sciencemug)

[Atlantic Puffins pic, by Thomas O'Neil, is under Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Generic license (source: Wikimedia Commons); adapted by @sciencemug]

Paper (P)

Fayet, A.L., Hansen, E.S., and Biro, D. (2020). Evidence of tool use in a seabird. PNAS 117, 1277–1279.

 

THE TRUE REASON WHY THE NORTH MAGNETIC POLE IS MOVING TOWARD SIBERIA!

Hallo dear reader! So there's this thing called the World Magnetic Model (WMM), "a [data-based, mathematical representation] of the planet’s magnetic field that gives compasses dependable accuracy" (see) and is updated every five years.

Well, dear reader, the 2020 version of the WMM has just been released.

Given what it is, then, the World Magnetic Model shows where's at the North Magnetic Pole (aka Mr. NMP). This impalpable fella is indeed quite a walker as, since its formal discovery in 1831, it has already taken a 2250 kilometers (1400 miles) long stroll. Mr. NMP's been heading from Canada, westbound, toward Siberia, in Russia, at a pace that now is of about 40km a year (faster than the previous centuries, but slower than the 55km/year of the last two decades) (see).

Officially, the magnetic poles move (independently of each other) (see) 'cause the Earth's magnetic field is created, for its 95%, by the planet's moving, molten iron+nickel core (well, to be more specific, the inner core is solid, while the outer one is liquid and flows, and thus generates the geomagnetic field) (see).

But, ahah!, this dumb blog, dear reader, has another cartoon-explanation for that, and precisely for the NMP's expected future location, Siberia.
Oh, dear reader, before you go to the cartoon, a short but essential clarification: in this dumb blog's reality, Santa Claus lives in correspondence of the North Magnetic Pole, not at the North geographic Pole.

The real reason why the North Magnetic Pole moves toward Siberia (by @sciencemug)
[Free pic by Marcus Löfvenberg (source: Unsplash); adapted by @sciencemug]

Oh, dear reader, for your information, here you can find why it is important to update the WMM and to know exactly where the Magnetic North Pole be.

And, dear reader, for your information 2 - the return of the notions - the World Magnetic Model is released by the guys of the "National Centers for Environmental Information" (NCEI), in collaboration with the dudes of the "British Geological Survey" and those of the "Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences" (CIRES).

The NCEI's is part of the "National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration" (NOAA). The NCEI "hosts and provides access to one of the most significant archives on earth, with comprehensive oceanic, atmospheric, and geophysical data" (see), and it is a source of environmental information, "products and services to private industry and businesses, local to international governments, academia, as well as the general public" (see).  

Ciao!

THE TRUE REASON WHY GALAXIES WITH LESS DARK MATTER THAN EXPECTED EXIST!

Ooooh hello dear reader! A bunch of Chinese astronomers discovered (P) 19 dwarf galaxies that have way less dark matter than expected, and they don't know how this be possible, considering that in "the standard cosmological model, dark matter drives the structure formation of galaxies and constructs potential wells within which galaxies may form" (P).

This dumb blog, though, has a theory...

The true reason why some dwarf galaxies miss a lot of dark matter (by @sciencemug)

[Vending machine free pic by Mitchell Luo (source: Unsplash); Stars background is a Public Domain pic by NASA (source: Wikimedia Commons); Spiral Galaxy pic by ESA/Hubble is under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (source: Wikimedia Commons); Dwarf Galaxy is a Public Domain pic by NASA (source: Wikimedia Commons); the planet sketch on top of the vending machine is by @sngshp; all pics adapted by @sciencemug]

NOTE
Universe composition: 
- 5%, matter [you, Bernard* (the weird little guy depicted on top of the vending machine, with a "B" all over its/his/her... Well, the part between the head and the legs), vending machines, hippos, the annoying neighbor, the annoying neighbor's annoying pet(s), Monica Bellucci, the piece of lettuce stuck between your front teeth during your dream job interview/first date with your huge crush of ten years, Tom Selleck's mustache, all the things inside a woman purse, all the things disappeared inside a woman purse, broccoli, the stars, the stars which don't go to the talk shows 'cause they're too busy doing nuclear fusion, aaaand so on)
- 27% dark matter (who knows, I just draw my two cents 'bout it)
- 68% dark energy (see above)

* Ok, ok, technically Berny's not matter, is an idea (and not even a slightly brilliant one), but with billions of worlds out there, well, who knows...


Bibliography

P- Guo, Q., Hu, H., Zheng, Z., Liao, S., Du, W., Mao, S., Jiang, L., Wang, J., Peng, Y., Gao, L., et al. (2019). Further evidence for a population of dark-matter-deficient dwarf galaxies. Nat Astron 1–6.

THE TRUE REASON WHY PLANETS FORM AROUND BLACK HOLES!

Hello dear reader, three Japanese astronomers/astrophysicists just discovered that as "a natural consequence of the elementary processes of dust growth, [...] a new class of planets can be formed around supermassive black holes" (P). 

Basically science just stated that planets, and therefore planetary systems, in theory can naturally form around black holes. 

But this dumb blog has a different story to tell 'bout this...

That's how a planetary system really comes to exist around a black hole according to @sciencemug

[The black hole pic by Event Horizon Telescope is under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (source: Wikimedia Commons); planets pics are Public Domain images (source: NASA via Picryl); golf flag pic is under Creative Commons Zero - CC0/Public Domain License (source: Peakpx); golf club pic is under Creative Commons 4.0 BY-NC License (source: Pngimg). All images adapted by @sciencemug]

NOTE

A "Type III Civilization" is the most advanced type of civilization according to the I to III Kardashev scale.

Nikolai Kardashev was a Russian astrophysicist (1932-2019) author of the paper "Transmission of Information by Extraterrestrial Civilizations" (1) published on Soviet Astronomy AJ in 1964. In the paper Mr. K writes about the "distinguishing properties of artificial sources of cosmic radio-frequency emission" (1): basically the guy describes what are the characteristics needed, in terms of energy availability and type of transmissions, for successful communications to happen between galaxies (and their civilizations).

In his paper Mr. K comes up with a classification of civilizations that goes like this:

- Type I civilization has "a technological level close to the level presently attained on the Earth" (1).

- Type II civilization is "capable of harnessing the energy radiated by its own star (for example, the stage of successful construction of a "Dyson sphere" * (2)) (1).

- Type III civilization is "in possession of energy on the scale of its own galaxy" (1) (but apparently it's not in possession of a decent swing, hence, it sucks at cosmic golf...).

* Dude, if you don't know what a Dyson sphere be, well, you definitely don't like Star Trek or sci-fi in general... Anyway, Freeman J Dyson (born in 1923) is a British-American physicist who, in a paper published in 1960 on Science, writes that if "extraterrestrial intelligent beings exist and have reached a high level of technical development, one by-product of their energy metabolism is likely to be the large-scale conversion of starlight into far-infrared radiation" (2) and that it is reasonable to suppose that "within a few thousand years of its entering the stage of industrial development, any intelligent species should be found occupying an artificial biosphere which completely surrounds its parent star" (2). Finally dude Dyson concludes that the "most likely habitat for such beings would be a dark object, having a size comparable with the Earth's orbit, and a surface temperature of 200 deg. to 300 deg. Kelvin [(T-Kelvin=T-Celsius + 273.15... Oooh for The Mighty SI System Sake! Ok, ok, T-Kelvin=(T-Fahrenheit + 459,67) / 1,8 )]. Such a dark object would be radiating as copiously as the star which is hidden inside it, but the radiation would be in the far infrared, around 10 microns wavelength."(2).

There you go pal, that's the Dyson sphere.

Bibliography

P- Wada, K., Tsukamoto, Y., and Kokubo, E. (2019). Planet Formation around Supermassive Black Holes in the Active Galactic Nuclei. ApJ 886, 107.

1- Kardashev, N.S. (1964). Transmission of Information by Extraterrestrial Civilizations. SvA 8, 217.

2- Dyson, F.J. (1960). Search for Artificial Stellar Sources of Infrared Radiation. Science 131, 1667–1668.

THE USEFULNESS OF THE NEW SCIENTIFIC FORMULA TO CALCULATE THE ACTUAL HUMAN EQUIVALENT OF DOGS AGE!

Soooo, dear reader, apparently a team of scientists used epigenetics to find out a scientific way to calculate the actual human equivalent of dogs age (P). The formula the brains came up with is "human-age=16ln(dog's-age)+31". That is if a dog, for instance, is 3 years old, then its human equivalent age is 16xln3+31, meaning 16x1.01+31, meaning about 47.

What was the true goal of this research, are you asking yourself, dear reader? Well, the following cartoon is the answer this dumb blog has for you, pal...

Chef dog [dog sketch is a public domain img by drunken_duck (source: freestockphotos.biz); chef hat is a img under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license by Omondi (source: Wikimedia Commons)] adapted by @sciencemug

Paper (P)

Wang, T., Ma, J., Hogan, A.N., Fong, S., Licon, K., Tsui, B., Kreisberg, J.F., Adams, P.D., Carvunis, A.-R., Bannasch, D.L., et al. (2019). Quantitative translation of dog-to-human aging by conserved remodeling of epigenetic networks. BioRxiv 829192.

THE TRUE REASON WHY THE UNIVERSE IS GETTING BIGGER WAY FASTER THAN PREDICTED

Sooo dear reader, scientists have found out that, at the moment, the universe is getting bigger and bigger waaay faster than predicted.

It may depend on some new kind of dark energy, or on some new unknown particle, ooor on some new physics in need to be discovered altogether.

Those are all good hypothesis, indeed.

But this dumb blog has a different one...

The true reason why the universe is getting bigger way faster than predicted by @sciencemug [Credits: Space pic is a Public Domain image; Author: NASA, ESA; Source: WikiMedia Commons. Burger free pic by amirali mirhashemian; fries free pic by Louis Hansel; source of both pics: Unsplash. All pics adapted by @sciencemug]

COMING SOON

Oh hi my dearest English reading-speaking-thinking-hearing visitor, I've got some news for ya, news that'll make your day/night (according to the hour you get in here) not at all different from what it is at the moment ('cause it's just something about this lousy blog): new posts/podcast's episodes are coming soon!
Ciaz
SM & the gang


PS
If you're into gossip and wanna know something 'bout how things are going between Gnagnamantus Krosfazt and the giant squid, well, I can tell ya that the couple went through some rough times 'cause the squid apparently had a steamy on-line relationship  with a middle aged Australian octopus, and then some nudity leaked on the net from the octopus' phone, Gnagnamantus' friends told to it, big confrontation, a looot of tangerines shed (Gnagnamantus' tears are juicy tangerines, you know, multiverse's a big odd place) then an "incident" with sleep pills occurred to the squid, ER, defibrillation, recovery and final reconciliation.
Now they're seeing twice a week the left Lincoln's nostril on Mount Rushmore National Memorial, which apparently's the present hot stuff when it comes to therapists for couples.
Anyway, fingers crossed, but the worst should be behind 'em now.

LAVORI IN CORSO - FIRST POST

Scroll down for the Eng?ish version

Bentrovato amico webnauta che sei giunto su 'sciencemug', dove la scienza è raccontata a iosa e le risa abbondano come i metri di pelle sul giro vita di un lottatore di sumo particolarmente pigro e ghiotto di cannoli alla crema e fonduta. Io sono 'Post il Primo da sciencemug'. Lo so, lo so, suona oltremodo pomposo, ma non ci posso fare niente, 'Post il Primo da sciencemug' non è solo il mio nome, è il mio fato, il mio destino, la mia missione. E' quello che sono... - A questo punto, amico webnauta, immagina una musica sinfonica struggente e immagina che un malizioso soffio di vento mi smuova tutte le vocali e, visto che ormai ci sei, immagina che allora io, con le vocali al vento appunto e anche con le popò di consonanti di cui modestamente sono dotato, sia davvero davvero seducente e accattivante e tu non sappia resistermi e così ti FEEDdi di me (ahah ho fatto la battuta ho fatto, FEED-Fidi-FEEDdi-, ahahaheeeeh... ma dove lo trovi un altro Post così, eh? Dove? No, sul serio amico webnauta, se lo sai dimmelo per favore che lo cerco subito perché a star qui da solo mi son già rotto un po' le balle).
Comunque, amico webnauta, io non sono un Post tronfio e pomposo, no, io servo umilmente il Blog mio Signore. E il Blog mio Signore dice che la triste mia solitudine finirà a breve, quando arriveranno tanti divertenti e intriganti fratelli Post di scienza a popolare 'sciencemug'.
Torna, amico webnauta, non te ne pentirai (o magari sì ma a quel punto sarà troppo tardi perché sarai già stato ipnotizzato dal messaggio subliminale presente in  me e che si può rilevare solo leggendo al contrario il mio testo... buahahahahahahaha... 'sso diabbollicco...).
!anroooT... atuanbew ocima, anroooT !anroooT

In fede

PiPs

PiPs (by sciencemug)

PiPs in Eng?ish

My name's PiPs. PiPs is an acronym which makes sense only if you speak Italian. If you speak English (or think in it, or read it), well, PiPs is just another weird meaningless name. On the other hand, dear English speaking-thinking-reading web-visitor, I'm just a post of a lousy blog, so it's kinda normal my name's weird compared to yours, don't you think (unless, of course, YOUR name is Marjaksist the Third, in this case: HAHAHAAH, YOUR NAME IS MORE RIDICULOUS THAN SPIELBERG'S 'WAR OF THE WORLDS' REMAKE FINALE...)? Anyway, dear English speaking-thinking-reading curious web-visitor, to be precise I didn't pick my name, actually nobody did. It's just the name the first post of this cheap blog had to have. Now now, at the moment you are reading my Eng?ish version since you can't understand my italian alter ego, right? So I could go on and on forever and you still wouldn't have the slightest idea of what the acronym PiPs means. So I could persuade the italian trust of the Italian Teachers of the Universe (the almighty, iper-powerfull 'ITU'*) to hire me and pay me big money not to unveil the english equivalent of my italian name. This, in fact, would no doubt skyrocket the number of their clients, for I can barely imagine how many of you billions of non-italian web-users now desperately want to learn Italian to overcome the breathtaking frustration of not understanding my acronym-name's meaning...

So, dear non-italian speaking web-visitors, since I want to get rich live the life and enjoy the company of many sexy posts from many sexy URLs, well, I'm not saying you anything 'bout my name untill the ITU makes its move and I cut a great deal. 

Till next time, then!

*If you are now googling (or yahooing, or binging of wathevering) 'ITU', well, you're officially sick. And my number two hero (number one is a dude in Martinica who can make real horses out of already chewed bubblegums)... Haha! Marjaksist III, so ridiculous... Hahaha!

PiPs