JCC Go science?

I see.

Looks like “Immortality, but exclusively for the super wealthy.” Remains unmarked on my “ways in which I am currently living in a distopia.” Bingo card.

 

@Lord Vivec -- thoughts? Too anti-science and pro-philosophy?

 

So, as an atheist, I believe that when I die my experience of anything and everything vanishes: meaning that during the destruction phase....I end. Whoever emerges in the new zone may be physically me and have my memories, but from my point of view, I stopped experiencing things and that person started. The rematerialized person is no different than of you were to copy my brain in a new body: sure, that might be me, but I, from my point of view, won't experience a thing they do. So you bet that the dying part is a major concern for me.

 

That blog post is coming from a weird, one might go so far as to say myopic, angle and assuming that arguments contending a teleporter will kill you are grounded only in the idea that there's a soul, but it's really more just what you think about the nature of consciousness and that cuts across the theist/atheist divide anyway. It's too generous to say it risks being "too anti-science and pro-philosophy" when the author clearly isn't familiar with the philosophical debates on the matter.

There's an interesting, and I think approachable, article on the numerous problems of teleportation as a thought experiment, plus recommendations for further reading - absolutely no soul required! - over at Aeon.

 

Arvin Ash's videos on the quantum world are so well-animated and well-explained in such a short amount of time! This one is on Quantum Chromodynamics (Gluons, Quarks, and the Strong Nuclear Force)

 

UNLIMITED POWAH!

Oh, I mean, Brownian motion in graphene induces AC.

 

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news...amazing-science-space-discoveries/3922477001/

The coronavirus vaccine wasn't the only amazing discovery: A look at all the ways science thrived in 2020

In 2020, incredible scientific discoveries didn't stop because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

First and foremost was the phenomenal work done by scientists to study the disease and develop vaccines in record time to put the brakes on the global pandemic. It was a truly Herculean effort by literally thousands of scientists around the world.

Otherwise, while nothing can compare to the vaccine effort for impact, we discovered there could be water on the sunlit surface of the moon, potentially life on Venus, "Marsquakes" on Mars, and the chance that dozens of intelligent civilizations could be scattered across our Milky Way galaxy.

Closer to home, we uncovered prehistoric evidence of a ferocious tyrannosaur in Canada, a car-sized turtle in South America, and the oldest bird fossil ever found, dubbed the "wonderchicken."

And as for us humans, we listened to a mummy speak after 3,000 years, found Africa's oldest human footprints, and even realized that Neanderthals were skilled fishermen.

Here are just a few of the amazing science stories of 2020:

We heard the voice of an ancient mummy
In January, scientists re-created the voice of an ancient, 3,000-year-old Egyptian mummy using 3D printing, medical scanners and an electronic larynx, a study said. They were able to reproduce a single vowel sound, which sounds like something between the vowels in the words "bed" and "bad." Listen for yourself below.

detailed photos of the sun ever taken. One of the images showed a pattern of turbulent "boiling" plasma that covers the entire sun. The cell-like structures – each about the size of Texas – are the signature of violent motions that carry heat from the inside of the sun to its surface.


Scientists discovered the fossil of a giant turtle
In February, paleontologists discovered what they called the "reaper of death," a fearsome new species of dinosaur that was the "oldest occurrence of a large tyrannosaur in Canada."

Also in February, scientists announced the discovery of a huge turtle fossil in South America. It's "one of the largest, if not the largest, turtle that ever existed," scientists said, noting that the colossal, long-extinct beast lived 5 million to 10 million years ago and measured 9½ feet, roughly the size and shape of a midsized car.


NASA's robot detected hundreds of 'marsquakes'
And that month we also heard about "marsquakes," and the fact that our red neighbor planet had hundreds of quakes over the past year. The marsquakes were recorded by NASA's InSight, a robot spacecraft that landed on Mars in November 2018. "We've finally, for the first time, established that Mars is a seismically active planet," said NASA's Bruce Banerdt.


'Wonderchicken' becomes oldest bird fossil ever

In March, our attention turned to a creature dubbed the "wonderchicken," a seagull-size shorebird with features of ducks, chickens and turkeys. The nearly complete skull was hidden inside nondescript pieces of rock, and it dates to more than 66 million years ago – which makes it the oldest bird fossil ever discovered. (That's less than 1 million years before the asteroid impact that killed off all the large dinosaurs.)

"The moment I first saw what was beneath the rock was the most exciting moment of my scientific career," said study lead author Daniel Field.

We also learned about an ancient wormlike creature that's the ancestor of all animals. The tiny thing, about the size of a grain of rice, lived about 555 million years ago.

We learned Neanderthals were actually skilled fishermen
Also in March, the reputation of Neanderthals got a boost when we found out that they weren't just the club-wielding brutes of popular legend, hunting and eating only woolly mammoths in frozen northern climates.

A study, for the first time, suggested that they were skilled fishermen and that seafood was a key ingredient in their diets.

A comet from outside our solar system paid a visit
In April, we tracked an unusual visitor from outer space: Comet 2I/Borisov, which astronomers described as a "snowman from a dark and cold place," because “comets are leftover building blocks from the time of planet formation."

“This is the first time we’ve ever looked inside a comet from outside our solar system,” said NASA astrochemist Martin Cordiner.


Bizarre mammal called 'crazy beast' fossil discovered in Madagascar
Also in April, we learned about the fossil of a bizarre mammal, called "crazy beast," which was discovered in Madagascar. The skeleton is the most complete for any Mesozoic mammal yet discovered in the Southern Hemisphere.

The 66-million-year-old opossum-size fossil represented a new species, which the study authors have named "Adalatherium hui," from a Malagasy word meaning “crazy” and the Greek word for “beast.”


Scientists spot 'incredibly rare' Super-Earth
Meanwhile, in May, scientists announced the discovery of an incredibly rare "Super-Earth," which they said was a "one in a million" find. Also calling it "incredibly rare," New Zealand astronomers say the planet "is one of only a handful that have been discovered with both size and orbit comparable to that of Earth."

Africa's largest group of human fossil footprints, which were discovered in Tanzania. Thousands of years ago, a group of 17 people took a walk through the mud in eastern Africa. Amazingly, their footprints are still there today, and were recently identified by archaeologists.


We learned there could be 'dozens' of intelligent civilizations in our galaxy
In June, we got the news that we're probably not alone in our galaxy: There could be "dozens" of intelligent civilizations scattered throughout the Milky Way.

“There should be at least a few dozen active civilizations in our galaxy under the assumption that it takes 5 billion years for intelligent life to form on other planets, as on Earth,” University of Nottingham astrophysicist Christopher Conselice said.

This estimate assumes that intelligent life forms on other planets in a similar way as it does on Earth.


An asteroid impact, not volcanoes, killed off dinosaurs
Also in June we learned for sure that an asteroid impact – not volcanic eruptions – killed off the dinosaurs. The asteroid strike would have released particles and gases high into the atmosphere, blocking out the sun for years and causing permanent winters, a study said.

"Our study confirms, for the first time quantitatively, that the only plausible explanation for the extinction is the impact winter that eradicated dinosaur habitats worldwide," said study lead author Alessandro Chiarenza of Imperial College London.

Scientists confirmed the universe is 13.8 billion years old
The discoveries continued in the second half of the year: Scientists confirmed in July that the universe is 13.8 billion years old. While this estimate had been known, in recent years other scientific measurements had suggested instead the universe may be hundreds of millions of years younger than that. The scientists studied an image of the oldest light in the universe to confirm its age of 13.8 billion years.


Comet Neowise made a rare appearance
Also in July, folks got a rare chance to spot another interstellar interloper: Comet Neowise. “Discovered on March 27, 2020, by NASA’s Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE) mission, Comet Neowise is putting on a dazzling display for skywatchers before it disappears, not to be seen again for another 6,800 years,” NASA said in July.


Greenland's melting ice sheet passed the point of no return
Also in August, in unsettling news, scientists said Greenland's melting ice sheet had passed the point of no return. In fact, glaciers on the island have shrunk so much that even if global warming were to stop today, the ice sheet would continue shrinking, a study suggested.

"Glacier retreat has knocked the dynamics of the whole ice sheet into a constant state of loss," said study co-author Ian Howat, an earth scientist from Ohio State University.


Astronomers see hint of life on Venus
Scientists in September announced the discovery of a possible sign of life high in the clouds of Venus. Using telescopes based in Chile and Hawaii, astronomers spotted in Venus' clouds the chemical signature of phosphine, a noxious gas that on Earth is associated only with life. Based on the many scenarios the astronomers considered, the team concluded there is no explanation for the phosphine in Venus’ clouds other than the presence of life.

water had been discovered on the sunlit surface of the moon for the first time. NASA said this was an important revelation that indicates water may be distributed across the lunar surface – and not just limited to its cold, shadowed places such as the poles. This is good news for astronauts at future lunar bases who could tap into those resources for drinking and rocket fuel production.

“We had indications that H2O – the familiar water we know – might be present on the sunlit side of the moon,” said Paul Hertz, director of the astrophysics division in the science mission directorate at NASA headquarters in Washington. “Now we know it is there. This discovery challenges our understanding of the lunar surface and raises intriguing questions about resources relevant for deep space exploration.”

There's a metal asteroid out there worth $10,000 quadrillion
This isn't your typical space rock. Also in October, we found out that the asteroid 16 Psyche – one of the most massive objects in the main asteroid belt orbiting between Mars and Jupiter – could be made entirely of metal, according to a study.

Even more intriguing, the asteroid's metal is worth an estimated $10,000 quadrillion (that's 15 more zeroes), more than the entire economy of Earth.


Radio bursts were detected from within our Milky Way for first time
For the first time, astronomers in November discovered a "fast radio burst" that came from within our own Milky Way galaxy.

They also believe they have found a source of one of the bursts, which are extremely bright flashes of energy that last for a fraction of a second, during which they can blast out more than 100 million times more power than our sun.

It appears the radio pulses were produced by a magnetar – a type of neutron star with a hugely powerful magnetic field.


A 50-year-old science problem was solved
And in December, we learned about the arcane field of "protein folding." A new discovery about the field could unlock a world of possibilities into the understanding of everything from diseases to drugs, researchers say. The breakthrough sent ripples of excitement through the science and medical communities because it deals with the shapes tiny proteins in our bodies – essential to all life – fold into.

The "protein-folding problem" has puzzled scientists for five decades, and the discovery from the London-based artificial intelligence lab DeepMind was heralded as a major milestone.

"This computational work represents a stunning advance on the protein-folding problem, a 50-year old grand challenge in biology," said Venki Ramakrishnan, president of the U.K.'s Royal Society.


We learned mass extinctions of Earth's land animals follow a cycle
Also in December, we found out that mass extinctions of life on Earth appear to follow a regular pattern, according to a study. In fact, widespread die-offs of land-dwelling animals – which include amphibians, reptiles, mammals and birds – follow a cycle of about 27 million years, the study reports. The study also said these mass extinctions coincide with major asteroid impacts and devastating volcanic outpourings of lava.

"The global mass extinctions were apparently caused by the largest cataclysmic impacts and massive volcanism, perhaps sometimes working in concert," said study lead author Michael Rampino of New York University.

 

I didn't know there was a protein folding problem until it was announced they solved it.

 

I forgot this was here. It was shot down Here

The other notable result is that biomarkers of cellular senescence also saw a ~35% fall in the same T cell population. Again, the problem with interpreting these results as rejuvenation or age reversal is that T cells are a poor choice of cell type to use for this kind of thing due to their highly dynamic nature. Unfortunately, they are a popular cell type to use in these sorts of studies, due to the ease of collection from the bloodstream.

These particular immune cells can have large variance in their telomere length based on the demand for cellular replication at that particular time. T cell populations replicate rapidly in the face of pathogens, and with each replication, the telomeres shorten, meaning that telomere lengths can vary in these cell populations from day to day. Infection and other environmental factors can play a key role in the status of T cell telomeres, and this is why they are not overly useful as aging biomarkers.

--------

But I wanted to post This today

There were many building blocks to choose from mathematically, but we sought one that had the features of both the particle and wave – concentrated like the particle but also spread out over space and time like the wave. The answer was a building block that looks like a concentration of energy – kind of like a star – having energy that is highest at the center and that gets smaller farther away from the center.

For the precession-of-Mercury problem, we modeled the Sun as an enormous stationary fragment of energy and Mercury as a smaller but still enormous slow-moving fragment of energy. For the bending-of-light problem, the Sun was modeled the same way, but the photon was modeled as a minuscule fragment of energy moving at the speed of light. In both problems, we calculated the trajectories of the moving fragments and got the same answers as those predicted by the theory of general relativity. We were stunned.

Our initial work demonstrated how a new building block is capable of accurately modeling bodies from the enormous to the minuscule. Where particles and waves break down, the fragment of energy building block held strong. The fragment could be a single potentially universal building block from which to model reality mathematically – and update the way people think about the building blocks of the universe.

 

"It sure would be cool if this led to purely discretized techniques being used for high-end physics applications, in my unbiased opinion," he said, hastily hiding his giant "Discrete Math is the Only Math Worth Caring About" poster and the copies of his autobiography, Never Met a Continuous Function I Liked: A Story of Hope.

 

... as much as I would like to see something new here (and I'm about 15 years removed from the subject), I'm going to have to go with 'extreme skepticism' here.

Here's a link to the actual paper itself, for those inclined.

 

Oh it's in PE? Extreme skepticism might be generous.

Edit: Equational reference citations to Wikipedia, you love to see it.

Unless they're spamming the list serve with claims they've solved the P vs NP problem. Then it's not as funny.

Edit 2: There sure is a lot of restating super basic mathematical axioms (i.e. "this is what a vector is") in a way that smacks more of drowning the reader in equations than providing any substantive results (this is a common tactic in so-called "crank papers," amateur efforts that are enthusiastic but don't prove anything useful). The issue recurs throughout so I'm skeptical if there's much of anything worth engaging with, the meat of which seems to hinge almost entirely on that Mercury recursion despite how much chaff is in this thing. Big suspiciously intoned "if" there's anything good in here, they'd do well to bring in an author from the actual field and work with a journal that would actually edit.

 

The Oumuamua saga continues!

https://www.hmhbooks.com/shop/books/Extraterrestrial/9780358274551

"Harvard’s top astronomer lays out his controversial theory that our solar system was recently visited by advanced alien technology from a distant star."

Have we been probed? People have said we're due for a good probing. What people? Top. Top people.

 

Dinosaur fossil preserved with genital orifice hints at how they mated

https://www.newscientist.com/articl...eserved-genital-orifice-hints-how-they-mated/

 

Oh jeez, Avi Loeb at it again

 

A hospital in every body

“You might have nanomachines made from organic compounds which circulate in your blood, accumulate at disease sites, such as cancer, and treat it. Or a nanomachine will capture chemical information from a disease site and bring it to an implanted chip, where analysis is carried out, and this information is transmitted to doctors outside the body.”

I originally heard of this sort of thing as The vasculoid personal appliance.

 

Programmable biology

Engineering and medical researchers use a process created by Ohio State called tissue nanotransfection (TNT) to introduce genetic material into cells. This allows them to reprogram skin cells to become something different—in this case vascular cells—to help fix damaged brain tissue.

Study findings published online today in the journal Science Advances.

In this mouse study, cells were 'pre-conditioned' with specific genes and injected into the stroke-affected brains, where they promoted the formation of new blood vessels via reprogramming and the repair of damaged brain tissue.

"We can rewrite the genetic code of skin cells so that they can become blood vessel cells," said Daniel Gallego-Perez, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering and surgery at Ohio State who is leading the research. "When they're deployed into the brain, they're able to grow new, healthy vascular tissue to restore normal blood supply and aid in the repair of damaged brain tissue."

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/56643677

So.... there may be a 5th force that currently mostly specializes in muon wobbling.

@Lord Vivec this is smaller than my normal fare so discuss

 

Fusion

There are two colloquial terms for what fusion net energy requires: “hot enough” and “long enough” to end up fruitfully producing energy. TAE says Norman has been running over 600 experiments each month, which is 20 tests each day or about 30 each weekday—reaching the plasma “ignition,” or self sustaining for energy, temperature each time.

This means 6 years after TAE began to reach “long enough,” Norman has finally reached “hot enough” frequently enough that it can begin to scale up for commercial power plants. And this is why the company says it feels it can build that kind of power plant by the end of the decade in 2030.

 

Jurassic 'Monkeydactyl' has the oldest pair of thumbs on Earth
By Brandon Specktor - Senior Writer




It apparently swung from trees like a monkey too.

 

I loved reading this article. Not a discovery, just science.

The 21 Basic Mammal Groups

#1
Aardvarks (Order Tubulidentata)

#2
Armadillos, Sloths, and Anteaters (Order Xenarthra)

#3
Bats (Order Chiroptera)

#4
Carnivores (Order Carnivora) -- Feliforms include house cats, great cats, hyenas, civets, mongooses - Caniforms include dogs, wolves, racoons, foxes, bears, seals, sea lions, walruses

#5
Colugos (Order Dermoptera)

#6
Dugongs and Manatees (Order Sirenia)

#7
Elephants (Order Proboscidea)

#8
Elephant Shrews (Order Macroscelidae)

#9
Even-Toed Hoofed Mammals (Order Artiodactyla) -- cattle, goats, deer, sheep, antelope, camels, llamas, pigs, hippopotamuses

#10
Golden Moles and Tenrecs (Order Afrosoricida)

#11
Hares, Rabbits, and Pikas (Order Lagomorpha)

#12
Hedgehogs, Solenodons, Moonrats, Desmans, Moles, Shrew-like Moles, True Shrews(Order Eulipotyphia)

#13
Hyraxes (Order Hyracoidea)

#14
Marsupials (Order Marsupialia) -- kangaroos, koalas, wombats, possums, etc.

#15
Monotremes (Order Monotremata) -- platypus, echidnas

#16
Odd-Toed Hoofed Mammals (Order Perissodactyla) -- horses, zebras, rhinoceroses, tapirs

#17
Pangolins (Order Pholidota)

#18
Primates (Order Primates) - new world monkeys, old world monkey, lemurs, tarsiers, lorises, gibbons, orangutans, gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos, humans

#19
Rodents (Order Rodentia) -- squirrels, mice, rats, gerbils, beavers, gophers, porcupines, guinea pigs, chipmunks, etc.

#20
Tree Shrews (Order Scandentia)

#21
Whales, Dolphins, and Porpoises (Order Cetacea)







01
of 21
Aardvarks (Order Tubulidentata)

Gary Parker/Getty Images

The aardvark is the only living species in order Tubulidentata. This mammal is characterized by its long snout, arched back, and coarse fur. Its diet consists primarily of ants and termites, which it procures by tearing open insect nests with its long claws. Aardvarks live in the savannas, woodlands, and grasslands of sub-Saharan Africa. Their range extends from southern Egypt to the Cape of Good Hope, on the southernmost tip of the continent. The closest living relatives of the aardvark are even-toed hoofed mammals and (somewhat surprisingly) whales.


02
of 21
Armadillos, Sloths, and Anteaters (Order Xenarthra)

Robert L. Potts/Design Pics/Getty Images

Originating in South America about 60 million years ago, only five million years after the dinosaurs went extinct, xenarthrans are characterized by their oddly-shaped vertebrae (hence their name, which is Greek for "strange joint"). The sloths, armadillos, and anteaters that belong to this order also have the most sluggish metabolisms of any extant mammals. The males have internal testicles. Today, xenarthrans lurk on the fringes of the mammalian mainstream, but during the Cenozoic Era, they were some of the largest animals on Earth. The five-ton prehistoric sloth Megatherium, as well as Glyptodon, the two-ton prehistoric armadillo, both lived during this time.


03
of 21
Bats (Order Chiroptera)

Ewen Charlton/Getty Images

The only mammals capable of powered flight, bats are represented by about a thousand species divided into two main families: megabats and microbats. Also known as flying foxes, megabats are about the size of squirrels and eat only fruit. Microbats are much smaller and enjoy more varied diets that range from the blood of grazing animals to insects to nectar. Most microbats, but very few megabats, have the ability to echolocate. This ability allows bats to bounce high-frequency sound waves off their surroundings to navigate dark caves and tunnels.


04
of 21
Carnivores (Order Carnivora)

Ltshears - Trisha M Shears/Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain

The order of mammals without which no TV nature documentary would be complete, carnivores are divided into two broad categories: feliforms and caniforms. Feliforms include not only obvious felines (like lions, tigers, cheetahs, and house cats), but also hyenas, civets, and mongooses. Caniforms extend beyond dogs and wolves to include bears, foxes, raccoons, and numerous other hungry critters, including the classic pinnipeds (seals, sea lions, and walruses). As you may already have surmised, carnivores are characterized by their sharp teeth and claws. They're also equipped with at least four toes on each foot.

05
of 21
Colugos (Order Dermoptera)

Didasteph/Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain

Never heard of colugos? Well, there's a good reason: there are only two living colugo species in the world today, both residing in the dense jungles of southeast Asia. Colugos are characterized by the wide flaps of skin extending from their forelimbs, which enable them to glide 200 feet from tree to tree in a single journey. This is far beyond the capabilities of similarly-equipped flying squirrels, which are only distantly related to colugos. Oddly enough, while molecular analysis has demonstrated that colugos are the closest living relatives of our own mammalian order, the primates, their child-rearing behavior most closely resembles that of marsupials.

06
of 21
Dugongs and Manatees (Order Sirenia)

Galen Rathbun/Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain

The semi-marine mammals known as pinnipeds (including seals, sea lions, and walruses) are lumped in the order Carnivora (see slide #5), but not dugongs and manatees, which belong to their own order, Sirenia. The name of this order derives from the mythical siren. Apparently, starving Greek sailors sometimes mistook dugongs for mermaids! Sirenians are characterized by their paddle-like tails, near-vestigial hind limbs, and muscular front limbs used to steer through the water. Modern dugongs and manatees are modestly sized, but a recently extinct sirenian, Steller's sea cow, may have weighed as much as 10 tons.

07
of 21
Elephants (Order Proboscidea)

Charles J. Sharp/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY 3.0

You might be surprised to learn that all of the world's elephants, order Proboscidea, belong to only two (or possibly three) species. They are the African elephant (Loxodonta africana), the Asian elephant (Elephas maximus), and, according to some experts, the African forest elephant (L. cyclotis). As rare as they are now, elephants have a rich evolutionary history that includes not only the familiar mammoths and mastodons of the Ice Age but distant ancestors like Gomphotherium and Deinotherium. Elephants are characterized by their large size, floppy ears, and long, prehensile trunks.

08
of 21
Elephant Shrews (Order Macroscelidae)

Alexander Plunze/EyeEm/Getty Images

Elephant shrews (order Macroscelidea) are small, long-nosed, insect-eating mammals native to Africa. There are about 20 named species of elephant shrew alive today, including the golden-rumped elephant shrew, the checkered elephant shrew, the four-toed elephant shrew, the short-eared elephant shrew, and the dusky elephant shrew. The classification of these small mammals has been a matter of debate. In the past, they've been classified as close relatives of hoofed mammals, hares and rabbits, insectivores, and tree shrews. The latest molecular evidence points to kinship with, appropriately enough, elephants!

09
of 21
Even-Toed Hoofed Mammals (Order Artiodactyla)

3dman_eu/Pixabay

Even-toed hoofed mammals, order Artiodactyla, also known as cloven-hoofed mammals or artiodactyls, possess feet structured so that the animal's weight is carried by its third and fourth toes. Artiodactyls include familiar animals such as cattle, goats, deer, sheep, antelope, camels, llamas, pigs, and hippopotamuses, amounting to about 200 species worldwide. Virtually all artiodactyls are herbivores. The exceptions are omnivorous pigs and peccaries. Some, like cows, goats, and sheep, are ruminants (cud-chewing mammals equipped with extra stomachs), and none of them are particularly bright.

10
of 21
Golden Moles and Tenrecs (Order Afrosoricida)

Killer18/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY 3.0

What used to be the mammalian order known as Insectivora ("insect-eaters") has undergone a big change recently, splitting into two new orders, Eulipotyphia (Greek for "truly fat and blind") and Afrosoricida ("looking like African shrews"). In the latter category are two very obscure creatures: the golden moles of southern Africa and the tenrecs of Africa and Madagascar. Just to show how complicated the business of taxonomy can be, various species of tenrecs, via the process of convergent evolution, closely resemble shrews, mice, possums, and hedgehogs, while golden moles are, appropriately enough, reminiscent of true moles.

11
of 21
Hares, Rabbits, and Pikas (Order Lagomorpha)

skeeze/Pixabay

Even after centuries of study, naturalists still aren't sure what to make of hares, rabbits, and pikas, the only members of the order Lagomorpha. These small mammals are similar to rodents, with some important differences: lagomorphs have four, rather than two, incisor teeth in their upper jaws. They're also strict vegetarians, whereas mice, rats, and other rodents tend to be omnivorous. In general, lagomorphs can be distinguished by their short tails, their long ears, the slit-like nostrils on the sides of their snouts that they can shut tight, and (in some species) a pronounced inclination to hop and jump.

12
of 21
Hedgehogs, Solenodons, and More (Order Eulipotyphia)

amayaeguizabal/Pixabay

As mentioned in slide #11, the too-broad order once known as Insectivora has since been cleaved in two by naturalists availing themselves of the latest DNA technology. The order Afrosoricida includes golden moles and tenrecs, while the order Eulipotyphia includes hedgehogs, gymnures (also known as moonrats or hairy hedgehogs), solenodons (venomous shrew-like mammals), and the strange creatures known as desmans, as well as moles, shrew-like moles, and true shrews. Confused yet? Suffice it to say that all Eulipotyphians (and most Afrosoricidans, for that matter) are wee, narrow-snouted, insect-eating balls of fur, and leave it at that.

13
of 21
Hyraxes (Order Hyracoidea)

AndreasGoellner/Pixabay

Not the most familiar order of mammals, hyraxes are thick, stubby-legged, plant-eating mammals that look a bit like a cross between a house cat and a rabbit. There are only four species (the yellow-spotted hyrax, the rock hyrax, the western tree hyrax, and the southern tree hyrax), all of them native to Africa and the Middle East. One of the strangest things about hyraxes is their relative lack of internal temperature regulation. They're technically warm-blooded, like all mammals, but spend an inordinate amount of time huddling together in the cold or basking in the sun during the heat of midday.

14
of 21
Marsupials (Order Marsupialia)

Dellex/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY 3.0, 2.5, 2.0, 1.0

Unlike the placental mammals featured elsewhere on this list — which gestate their fetuses in the womb, nourished by placentas — marsupials incubate their young in specialized pouches after an extremely short interval of internal gestation. Everyone is familiar with the kangaroos, koala bears, and wombats of Australia, but the possums of North America are also marsupials, and for millions of years the largest marsupials on Earth could be found in South America. In Australia, marsupials managed to displace placental mammals for most of the Cenozoic Era, the only exceptions being the "hopping mice" that made their way from southeast Asia, and the dogs, cats, and livestock introduced by European settlers.

15
of 21
Monotremes (Order Monotremata)

Gunjan Pandey/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY 4.0

Hands-down the most bizarre mammals on the face of the earth, monotremes —consisting of one species of platypus and four species of echidna — lay soft-shelled eggs, rather than giving birth to live young. And that's not the end of the monotreme weirdness: these mammals are also equipped with cloacas (a single orifice for urinating, defecating, and reproducing), they're completely toothless as adults, and they have a talent for electroreception (sensing faint electrical currents from a distance). According to current thinking, monotremes evolved from a Mesozoic ancestor that predated the split between placental and marsupial mammals, hence their extreme weirdness.

16
of 21
Odd-Toed Hoofed Mammals (Order Perissodactyla)

JamesDeMers/Pixabay

Compared to their even-toed artiodactyl cousins (see slide #10), odd-toed perissodactyls are a sparse lot, consisting entirely of horses, zebras, rhinoceroses, and tapirs — only about 20 species in all. Besides the unique structure of their feet, perissodactyls are characterized by a pouch called a "caecum" that extends from their large intestines. It contains specialized bacteria that aids in the digestion of tough plant matter. According to molecular analysis, odd-toed mammals may be more closely related to carnivores (order Carnivora) than they are to even-toed mammals (order Artiodactyla).

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Pangolins (Order Pholidota)

Joanne Hedger/Getty Images

Also known as scaly anteaters, pangolins are characterized by the large, plate-like scales (made of keratin, the same protein found in human hair) covering their bodies. When these creatures are threatened by predators, they curl up into tight balls with sharp-edged scales pointing outward. For good measure, they can also expel a smelly, skunk-like excretion from a specialized gland near the anus. All that said, you may be relieved to learn that pangolins are native to Africa and Asia, and are practically never seen in the western hemisphere (except in zoos).

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Primates (Order Primates)

Free-Photos/Pixabay

Comprising prosimians, monkeys, apes, and human beings — about 400 species in all — primates in many ways can be considered the most "advanced" mammals on the planet, especially as pertains to their larger-than-average brains. Non-human primates often form complex social units and are capable of rudimentary tool use. Some species are equipped with dexterous hands and prehensile tails. There's no single trait that defines all primates as a group, but these mammals do share some general features, such as eye sockets encircled by bone and binocular vision (an excellent adaptation for spotting prey, and predators, from a long way off).

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Rodents (Order Rodentia)

Alexas_Fotos/Pixabay

The most diverse mammal group, consisting of over 2000 species, order Rodentia includes squirrels, dormice, mice, rats, gerbils, beavers, gophers, kangaroo rats, porcupines, pocket mice, springhares, and many others. What all of these tiny, furry critters have in common are their teeth: one pair of incisors in the upper and lower jaw and a large gap (called a diastema) located between the incisors and the molars. The "buck-toothed" incisors of rodents grow continuously and are maintained by constant use. The grinding and gnawing of rodents ensure that their incisors always remain sharp and stay at the correct length.

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Tree Shrews (Order Scandentia)

Anthony Cramp/Flickr/CC BY 2.0

If you made it through the Afrosoricida (slide #11) and the Eulipotyphia (slide #13), you know that classifying small, insect-eating mammals can be a wearisome affair. Once lumped in the now-discarded order Insectivora, tree shrews aren't true shrews, and not all of them live in trees. The 20 or so extant species are native to the tropical forests of southeast Asia. Members of the order Scandentia are omnivorous, feasting on everything from insects to small animals to the "corpse flower" Rafflesia. Oddly enough, they have the highest brain-to-body-size ratio of any living mammal (including humans).

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Whales, Dolphins, and Porpoises (Order Cetacea)


Comprising close to a hundred species, cetaceans are divided into two main groups: toothed whales (which includes sperm whales, beaked whales, and killer whales, as well as dolphins and porpoises), and baleen whales, which includes right whales, bowhead whales, and the biggest cetacean of them all, the 200-ton blue whale. These mammals are characterized by their flipper-like forelimbs, reduced back limbs, nearly hairless bodies, and the single blowhole on top of their heads. The blood of cetaceans is unusually rich in hemoglobin, an adaptation that allows them to stay underwater for long periods of time.

 

https://www.nbcnews.com/science/sci...st-land-mammals-ever-are-found-china-rcna1213

New fossils of giant rhinos — the largest land mammals ever — are found in China
The discovery recalls an important phase of scientific history, and hints at the landscape of Asia millions of years ago.





https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-black-hole-information-paradox-comes-to-an-end-20201029/

The Most Famous Paradox in Physics Nears Its End
In a landmark series of calculations, physicists have proved that black holes can shed information, which seems impossible by definition. The work appears to resolve a paradox that Stephen Hawking first described five decades ago.

 

The proposed "perissodactyls and carnivorans" clade has not been very successful:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odd-toed_ungulate

Molecular genetic findings suggest that the cloven Artiodactyla (containing the cetaceans as a deeply nested subclade) are the sister taxon of the Perissodactyla; together, the two groups form the Euungulata.[8] More distant are the bats (Chiroptera) and Ferae (a common taxon of carnivorans, Carnivora, and pangolins, Pholidota).[9] In a discredited alternative scenario, a close relationship exists between perissodactyls, carnivores, and bats, this assembly comprising the Pegasoferae.[10]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pegasoferae

Some subsequent molecular studies published shortly afterwards have failed to support it.[2][3][4] In particular, two recent studies, each combining genome-wide analyses of multiple taxa with testing of competing alternative phylogenetic hypotheses, concluded that Pegasoferae is not a natural grouping.[5][6]