youpaper science alert issue 3 - mars, great barrier reef, dead arm puching
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The Great Barrier Reef is even more important than we ever thought. Here are some AMAZING insights...TRANSCRIPT
Youpaper Science Alert – ISSUE 3 – 27. November 2015
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Welcome to the 3rd ISSUE of Youpaper Science Alert!
Will Mars Lose One of its Moons?
Two young earth scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, USA,
made a discovery that could fundamentally change our view on Mars.
Image by Tushar Mittal using Celestia 2001-2010, Celestia Development Team
Mars' largest moon, Phobos, is slowly falling toward the planet. But, it is not
the way you might think. According to UC Berkeley postdoctoral fellow
Benjamin Black and graduate student Tushar Mittal, the moon will rather
burst into millions of pieces and form a ring around the planet, like Jupiter,
Saturn, Uranus or Neptune has. Both researchers believe this phenomenon
might occur in about 20-40 million years. In a paper that appeared in
Nature Geoscience, both scientists conclude that the cohesiveness of
Phobos is not sufficient enough to resist the tidal force and that’s why lets
the moon come closer and closer to Mars. As Phobos comes closer to the
surface of Mars, its tidal force pulls even stronger on it, so that at some
point it will just shatter into millions of pieces and form a ring around the
planet made of debris. The image above shows how Mars could possibly
look like. It is still not clear whether we from earth could see the rings or
not. Most likely, Mars will only appear a little brighter than normal at the
evening sky.
Why The Great Barrier Reef Is Even More
Important Than We Ever Thought
As newest research shows, the world-famous Great Barrier Reef in Australia is
more then just a formation held together by calcium carbonate structures.
The world-famous Australian reef is furthermore providing an effective barrier
against landslide-induced tsunamis.
The Great Barrier Reef
is the world's largest
coral reef stretching
over an area of
approximately
344,400 square
kilometres. A large
part of the reef is
protected by the
Great Barrier Reef
Marine Park, unfortunately the other part is currently endangered by oil
companies, who suspect a large amount of oil being hidden under the Great
Barrier Reef’s surface.
An international team of researchers published this week an article in Marine
Geology about a landslide and tsunami that happened around 20,000-14,000
years ago at the coast of Maryland. At that time, it caused a 2-3m wave that
would later hit the coast of Australia. The wave could have killed thousands of
Aborigines. But, as the research team states: "However, if one did occur, our
findings suggest that the Great Barrier Reef is doing us a great service because
of its ability to absorb some of that potential wave energy."
Consequently, destroying the Great Barrier Reef would have far-reaching
consequences for Australia’s population today, including less protection in case
of landslides and approaching tsunamis.
Dead Arm Punching
Ever wondered why our fist is shaped like it is? Probably not. The following article
will make you overthink why you read Youpaper Science Alert. But, don’t worry,
it is not as bad as you think.
"The idea that aggressive
behavior played a role in the
evolution of the human hand is
controversial," says biology
professor David Carrier, senior
author of a study that discusses
why our fist is shaped the way It
is. "Many skeptics suggest that the human fist is simply a coincidence of natural
selection for improved manual dexterity. That may be true, but if it is a
coincidence, it is unfortunate”, he states in an interview. And, believe it or not,
he actually has a valid point on that matter. He suggests that the hand
proportions that allow the formation of a fist may tell us something important
about our evolutionary history and who we are as a species. Carrier and his
collaborators not only argue that our hands evolved partly for punching but that
the faces of human ancestors evolved to resist punching. What they did now will
not just shock you but also shocked some fellow researchers in the scientific
community; They took the arms of people who shortly passed away. The
experiment's cadaver arms were placed in a pendulum-like apparatus in order
to punch a force-detecting dumbbell with either a buttressed or clenched fist.
The image on the top right side shows from bird’s eye perspective how the
cadaver arms were placed in the pendulum-like device in order punch the
padded dumbbell weight.
In the end, most bones could resist a force of more then 200 pounds. The
experiment showed in detail that the hand is able to withstand enormous force
in a matter of milliseconds, which leads to the assumption that the human hand
has once been shaped for not only manual dexterity but also raw fighting.
Dead Arm Punching [Modell]: Andre Mossman, University of Utah