Science is Cool....

[Fish]

This is a repository for all cool scientific discussion and fascination. Scientific facts, theories, and overall cool scientific stuff that you'd like to share with others. Stuff that makes you smile and wonder at the amazing shit going on around us, that most people don't notice.

Post pictures, vidoes, stories, or links. Ask questions. Share science.

This is in support of the Penny 4 NASA project. If you enjoy anything you learned from this thread, consider making a donation and signing the petition.

http://www.penny4nasa.org/

Why should I care?:

[Cornstock]

Originally Posted by aturnis

They say if you wrap your house in like a 1/4 or 1/8 inch of this stuff, you could heat your home with a candle.

Is this stuff easily manufactured? Or is it basically like saying if everyone had windows made of diamonds we'd never have to worry about those kids across the street breaking them with their baseball.

[ChiefsNow]

I found this to be very interesting.
Makes me want to do this.

[aturnis]

Originally Posted by Cornstock

Is this stuff easily manufactured? Or is it basically like saying if everyone had windows made of diamonds we'd never have to worry about those kids across the street breaking them with their baseball.

It is currently manufactured I believe, just incredibly expensive. Might be awhile before the price comes down.

[Baby Lee]

Originally Posted by Braincase

Water & Sound

Originally Posted by Dave Lane

Thats pretty frikken cool

Looks to me that the tone is resonating the tube, which 'flings' the water into that pattern.

This didn't happen in MID AIR!!

[Fish]

[listopencil]

Originally Posted by ChiefsNow

I found this to be very interesting.
Makes me want to do this.

Jeez. And here I was all proud of myself for hooking up the vent on my electric clothes dryer with a box filter, and using the exhaust to add supplemental household heating.

[Dave Lane]

[Dave Lane]

[Dave Lane]

[Dave Lane]

A new paper has found bat-eating spiders exist on every continent except Antarctica, with bats falling prey more often than expected.

Though bats are typically preyed on by vertebrates (with hawks, snakes and owls their most common predators), there are some invertebrate species quite partial to the taste of bat. We've previously written about the giant Venezuelan centipede Scolopendra gigantea, which hangs from cave ceilings and snatches bats as they pass (http://on.fb.me/ZYIdcT). However, spiders eating bats was thought to be quite rare.

When two recent studies both reported spiders having bat for dinner, researchers wondered if this behaviour was more common than suspected. After analysis of over 100 years worth of reports, together with interviews from bat and spider researchers, they found over 50 cases worldwide of spider attacks on bats.

90% of these attacks happened in habitats around the equator and 40% occurred in the neotropics (South America and tropical regions of North America). Interestingly it wasn't just web-spinning spiders - 12% of attacks were by spiders such as huntsmen and tarantulas, which forage rather than make webs. In one case, a fishing spider was seen attempting to kill an immature bat (though it was scared off by photographers).

The authors point out that bat captures are likely still rare. It's probable bats can detect webs using their echolocation abilities and even if a bat does fly into a web, only the strongest webs can take the impact without breaking. Unsurprisingly smaller bats are more vulnerable to spider web entanglement (and in some cases, it was exhaustion and dehydration resulting from this entanglement that killed bats rather than direct spider attacks).

To read the paper: http://bit.ly/13Z3QwT

Photo: A small bat entangled in the web of a Nephila pilipes spider in Australia. The spider appeared to be feeding on the dead bat. Credit to Carmen Fabro.
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[Lprechaun]

Originally Posted by Dave Lane

I have these at my shop, they can actually break tanks

[Fish]

[Fish]

[Cephalic Trauma]

Originally Posted by Fish

Some people may find this to be really cool, but to me, it's extremely depressing, because it's likely we will never see someone forego wealth to that extent for the good of millions.

Damn.

[TrebMaxx]

Originally Posted by Dave Lane

Float like a Butterfly, sting like a Mantis Shrimp...