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Cool Science-y Tidbits
#1
Cool Science-y Tidbits
No, it isn't a quiz or a trivia game.

Lately, I've increased my reading of popular science books, and have been struck by some of the odd quirks in the history of science, such as Newton's Principia being the result of a dinner wager and Darwin's fascination with earthworms.  I thought I'd start a thread where people could post any science oddities they've come across.  Might be a bit of a giggle.  Here's one I especially like:

Christiaan Huygens is generally regarded as one of the premier scientific minds of all time. He discovered Titan with a vastly improved telescope of his own design, propagated the wave theory of light, invented the pendulum clock, and (with help from Pascal) more or less invented probability theory. 

Clever lad, and no mistake. But in his posthumously published Cosmotheoros, he produced a rather bizarre 'proof' for the existence of hemp plantations on Jupiter.  It runs like this:

1.  Earth's moon serves as a navigational aide for mariners.

2.  Jupiter has four moons [all that were known in Huygens' time], so there must be whopping great number of mariners on Jupiter.

3.  Mariners imply ships.

4.  Ships imply sails.

5.  Sails imply rope.

6.  Ropes imply hemp.

7.  With at least four times as many mariners on Jupiter as on Earth, hemp must be a large industry, requiring extensive plantations.

We all make mistakes...

Boru
‘But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods or no gods. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.’ - Thomas Jefferson
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#2
RE: Cool Science-y Tidbits
Darwin employed pangenesis to explain the mechanics of natural selection and also thought that acquired characteristics might be inheritable.  Both are, ofc, not just wrong..but wildly wrong, and we knew as much even in darwins time.

He was a bit of a crank, but that's not how we choose to remember him, lol.
I am the Infantry. I am my country’s strength in war, her deterrent in peace. I am the heart of the fight… wherever, whenever. I carry America’s faith and honor against her enemies. I am the Queen of Battle. I am what my country expects me to be, the best trained Soldier in the world. In the race for victory, I am swift, determined, and courageous, armed with a fierce will to win. Never will I fail my country’s trust. Always I fight on…through the foe, to the objective, to triumph overall. If necessary, I will fight to my death. By my steadfast courage, I have won more than 200 years of freedom. I yield not to weakness, to hunger, to cowardice, to fatigue, to superior odds, For I am mentally tough, physically strong, and morally straight. I forsake not, my country, my mission, my comrades, my sacred duty. I am relentless. I am always there, now and forever. I AM THE INFANTRY! FOLLOW ME!
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#3
RE: Cool Science-y Tidbits
(May 22, 2019 at 2:23 pm)BrianSoddingBoru4 Wrote: No, it isn't a quiz or a trivia game.

Lately, I've increased my reading of popular science books, and have been struck by some of the odd quirks in the history of science, such as Newton's Principia being the result of a dinner wager and Darwin's fascination with earthworms.  I thought I'd start a thread where people could post any science oddities they've come across.  Might be a bit of a giggle.  Here's one I especially like:

Christiaan Huygens is generally regarded as one of the premier scientific minds of all time. He discovered Titan with a vastly improved telescope of his own design, propagated the wave theory of light, invented the pendulum clock, and (with help from Pascal) more or less invented probability theory. 

Clever lad, and no mistake. But in his posthumously published Cosmotheoros, he produced a rather bizarre 'proof' for the existence of hemp plantations on Jupiter.  It runs like this:

1.  Earth's moon serves as a navigational aide for mariners.

2.  Jupiter has four moons [all that were known in Huygens' time], so there must be whopping great number of mariners on Jupiter.

3.  Mariners imply ships.

4.  Ships imply sails.

5.  Sails imply rope.

6.  Ropes imply hemp.

7.  With at least four times as many mariners on Jupiter as on Earth, hemp must be a large industry, requiring extensive plantations.

We all make mistakes...

Boru

Cool

That is why those ships kept sinking. Mariners were smoking the ropes!
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#4
RE: Cool Science-y Tidbits
(May 22, 2019 at 2:57 pm)LastPoet Wrote:
(May 22, 2019 at 2:23 pm)BrianSoddingBoru4 Wrote: No, it isn't a quiz or a trivia game.

Lately, I've increased my reading of popular science books, and have been struck by some of the odd quirks in the history of science, such as Newton's Principia being the result of a dinner wager and Darwin's fascination with earthworms.  I thought I'd start a thread where people could post any science oddities they've come across.  Might be a bit of a giggle.  Here's one I especially like:

Christiaan Huygens is generally regarded as one of the premier scientific minds of all time. He discovered Titan with a vastly improved telescope of his own design, propagated the wave theory of light, invented the pendulum clock, and (with help from Pascal) more or less invented probability theory. 

Clever lad, and no mistake. But in his posthumously published Cosmotheoros, he produced a rather bizarre 'proof' for the existence of hemp plantations on Jupiter.  It runs like this:

1.  Earth's moon serves as a navigational aide for mariners.

2.  Jupiter has four moons [all that were known in Huygens' time], so there must be whopping great number of mariners on Jupiter.

3.  Mariners imply ships.

4.  Ships imply sails.

5.  Sails imply rope.

6.  Ropes imply hemp.

7.  With at least four times as many mariners on Jupiter as on Earth, hemp must be a large industry, requiring extensive plantations.

We all make mistakes...

Boru

Cool

That is why those ships kept sinking. Mariners were smoking the ropes!

When I first read it, I though Huygens was the one smoking something.

Boru
‘But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods or no gods. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.’ - Thomas Jefferson
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#5
RE: Cool Science-y Tidbits
Something a little more recent.  Trying to set up a single son isn't unique to doting human mothers.

Quote:They found that while both bonobo and chimpanzee mothers would advocate for their sons in male-on-male conflicts, bonobo moms went the extra mile to aid their sons' copulation efforts. This involved protecting their sons' mating attempts from other males and intervening in other male's mating attempts.
The bonobo mothers were also able to use their rank in the bonobo's matriarchal society to give their sons access to popular spots within social groups in the community and help them achieve higher male status -- and therefore, better mating opportunities. The authors note that these interactions were rare in chimpanzee societies and did not have an effect on male fertility; in chimpanzees males hold dominant positions over females, making the actions of chimp mothers less influential than those of bonobo mothers.
Interestingly, bonobo moms did not extend similar help to their daughters, nor were there any observations of daughters receiving assistance in rearing their offspring. "In bonobo social systems, the daughters disperse from the native community and the sons stay," Surbeck says. "And for the few daughters that stay in the community, which we don't have many examples of, we don't see them receiving much help from their mothers."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20...171625.htm
I am the Infantry. I am my country’s strength in war, her deterrent in peace. I am the heart of the fight… wherever, whenever. I carry America’s faith and honor against her enemies. I am the Queen of Battle. I am what my country expects me to be, the best trained Soldier in the world. In the race for victory, I am swift, determined, and courageous, armed with a fierce will to win. Never will I fail my country’s trust. Always I fight on…through the foe, to the objective, to triumph overall. If necessary, I will fight to my death. By my steadfast courage, I have won more than 200 years of freedom. I yield not to weakness, to hunger, to cowardice, to fatigue, to superior odds, For I am mentally tough, physically strong, and morally straight. I forsake not, my country, my mission, my comrades, my sacred duty. I am relentless. I am always there, now and forever. I AM THE INFANTRY! FOLLOW ME!
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#6
RE: Cool Science-y Tidbits
(May 22, 2019 at 3:02 pm)Gae Bolga Wrote: Something a little more recent.  Trying to set up a single son isn't unique to doting human mothers.

Quote:They found that while both bonobo and chimpanzee mothers would advocate for their sons in male-on-male conflicts, bonobo moms went the extra mile to aid their sons' copulation efforts. This involved protecting their sons' mating attempts from other males and intervening in other male's mating attempts.
The bonobo mothers were also able to use their rank in the bonobo's matriarchal society to give their sons access to popular spots within social groups in the community and help them achieve higher male status -- and therefore, better mating opportunities. The authors note that these interactions were rare in chimpanzee societies and did not have an effect on male fertility; in chimpanzees males hold dominant positions over females, making the actions of chimp mothers less influential than those of bonobo mothers.
Interestingly, bonobo moms did not extend similar help to their daughters, nor were there any observations of daughters receiving assistance in rearing their offspring. "In bonobo social systems, the daughters disperse from the native community and the sons stay," Surbeck says. "And for the few daughters that stay in the community, which we don't have many examples of, we don't see them receiving much help from their mothers."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20...171625.htm

Jaysus.  The next thing you know, bonobo mums will be paying millions to get their kids into good schools.

Boru
‘But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods or no gods. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.’ - Thomas Jefferson
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#7
RE: Cool Science-y Tidbits
More likely trading sexual favors...dirty monkeys.
I am the Infantry. I am my country’s strength in war, her deterrent in peace. I am the heart of the fight… wherever, whenever. I carry America’s faith and honor against her enemies. I am the Queen of Battle. I am what my country expects me to be, the best trained Soldier in the world. In the race for victory, I am swift, determined, and courageous, armed with a fierce will to win. Never will I fail my country’s trust. Always I fight on…through the foe, to the objective, to triumph overall. If necessary, I will fight to my death. By my steadfast courage, I have won more than 200 years of freedom. I yield not to weakness, to hunger, to cowardice, to fatigue, to superior odds, For I am mentally tough, physically strong, and morally straight. I forsake not, my country, my mission, my comrades, my sacred duty. I am relentless. I am always there, now and forever. I AM THE INFANTRY! FOLLOW ME!
Reply
#8
RE: Cool Science-y Tidbits
I'm more than willing to do sexual 'favours'. at no return charge. Yeah, I'm a whore.
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#9
RE: Cool Science-y Tidbits
Thomas Midgely, Jr was a complete shite.

Trained as an engineer, his discovered that tetraethyl lead would, when added to gasoline, reduce 'engine knock'.  Thanks to him and the Ethyl Corporation lying about the health effects of TEL (loss of coordination, hallucinations, insomnia, kidney failure, hearing loss, cancer), you now have about 600 times as much lead in your body as would have had in 1920, the year before the compound was introduced.

As if that weren't enough, Midgely is also the inventor of chlorofluorocarbons, which found their way into everything from aerosol sprays to household refrigerators to automobile air conditioners.  Given the damage this class of chemical is still doing to the ozone, it has been claimed with some justification that CFCs might just be the worst invention of the 20th century.

On a more positive note, Midgely became crippled with polio later in life. He designed an elaborate pulley system to raise and turn him in bed.  In 1944, he became entangled in the cables of the machine and was strangled.  He was 55, so he snuffed it before he could do any more damage.

Boru
‘But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods or no gods. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.’ - Thomas Jefferson
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#10
RE: Cool Science-y Tidbits
Hell, the guy invented a way to kill himself with pulleys O.O

Lead is a very poisonous material, because it can mimmick neurotransmitters, but locks in the receivers. Saturnism is the acute desease from that. Such are the problems of heavy metals, and I don't mean Iron Maiden.

And CFC's.... Yay, skin cancer.
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