science

Ugh. You know, some of us are just trying to enjoy the party that is life, and along comes Stephen Hawking to lets us know just how close we are from total extinction. 1,000 years? Come on, dude. We’re trying to party over here.

This is humanity, ok?

via YouTube

The Washington Post reports that during a hour-long speech at the Oxford University Union in England, Stephen Hawking ruined what was probably a really cool party by telling the audience that even if we make it through “the rise of artifial intelligence, the ravages of climate change, and the threat of nuclear terrorism in the next century,” we’ll still be facing mass extinction. Dude, you're harshing my mellow.

“I don’t think we will survive another 1,000 years without escaping beyond our fragile planet,” said Professor Stephen Hawking, author of A Brief History of Time and eternal party pooper. “We must also continue to go into space for the future of humanity.”

Look, we’re just trying to sit back, have a cold soda pop, and wear these rockin’ shades. Meanwhile, we didn’t expect Professor Hawking to come home so early and tell us all that “Earth’s dominant species will continue to eat through the planet’s resources at an alarming rate, leaving Earth battered and bruised and quickening its inevitable end,” according to The Daily Express. *record scratch* Yeesh. Who brought that guy?

Fine. You know what? We’re tired anyway. We’re going to sleep. We’ll clean up the party in the morning.

via GIPHY

Despite being promoted as a largely social experience that would get users up and out of their seats, Pokémon Go might be promoting antisocial tendencies. New studies are finding that the game is giving players “pavement rage,” meaning feelings of anger spike when they run into other players on the street. 

“Analysis showed players experience unconscious spikes in anger and frustration when they encounter other members of the public while hunting down the fictional characters in the game,” according to The Daily Mail. “The research also revealed just how immersive the game could be — with one participant in the study almost walking into the path of an oncoming truck.”

via Reddit

Basically, the study found that people think that they are being social and active when playing, but as neuroscience analyst Adam Simpson say, “On an unconscious level, they were so engrossed in the game they missed out on stuff that was going on in the real world around them.”

"When they encountered a large group of people in their way, for example, they showed a lot of frustration as members of public were disrupting their playing experience.”

Word to the wise: You can become the best Pokémon Master in the land, but remember, it’s lonely at the top.

“You better go before we leave because we’re not stopping.”

Sounds like a fair warning before a road trip, but it’s that kind of authoritarian driving that keeps people from discovering the oldest settlement in Australia. Sound crazy? It’s not.

ABC reports that an Australian man, Clifford Coulthard, looking for a bathroom stumbled across 49,000-year-old evidence of Australia's oldest human settlement. So next time someone tells you that they can’t stop because they’re “making great time,” remind them that there are ancient civilizations to be uncovered.

via Make a Gif

"A man getting out of the car to go to the toilet led to the discovery of one of the most important sites in Australian prehistory,” said Giles Hamm, an archaeologist and PhD student at La Trobe University.

“The site, known as Warratyi, shows Aboriginal Australians settled the arid interior of the country around 49,000 years ago,” says ABC. “Some 10,000 years earlier than previously thought.”

Coulthard and Hamm were surveying gorges in the area when they made the discovery, so it helps to kind of know what you’re looking for. Regardless, the excavations at the site have been successful, thus far. The crew has found 4,300 artifacts and 200 bone fragments dating back 46,000 to 49,000 years ago.

Road trip passengers, when nature calls, answer.

via Gif Sec

NASA has a special treat for us this Halloween: Narrowly escaping the destruction of the planet!

Well, sort of. Through the use of their new computer program called Scout, NASA has determined that a potentially-dangerous asteroid will be breezing past Earth by a mere 310,000 miles. Rejoice! We’re going to be ok!

via GIPHY

Scout is part of a new detection system that alerts us when a giant piece of space rock is on its way, hurdling towards Earth at thousands of miles per hour. Think of it like Domino's Pizza Tracker, but for things that could potentially destroy our entire planet and not just your body.

The new program seems to be working great. According to NPR, astronomer Paul Chodas said, “The NASA surveys are finding something like at least five Asteroids a night.”

“Objects can come close to the Earth shortly after discovery,” he continued. “The main goal of Scout is to speed up the confirmation process... Our goal right now is to find 90 percent of the 140-meter asteroids and larger.”

Now, what would we do if an asteroid were to hit Earth? Well, scientists are still working on that. In the meantime, here’s a clip from the Ben Affleck’s commentary track for the Criterion Collection DVD of Armageddon, in which mercilessly makes fun of the movie and its director, Michael Bay. More reason to not put “landing a spaceship on an asteroid, drilling a hole in it, and blowing it up” on the list of “Possible Solutions for Asteroid Hitting Earth.”

It's pretty safe to say this new addition is kind of a troll by NASA on believers in astrology. That doesn't mean this is a FAKE prank. NASA doesn't believe in astrology, they just pointed out a correction. 


via @NASA

For some people, it's a very confusing development! (Although some are still very secure in knowing their star sign)



via @dsweintraub_, @camerawhitt, @DanielleMNorman, @alishasaith, @PetitePasserine 

And here's a list of the new signs, if you want to have your world rocked. 


via @FantasyMinds

The Russians secretly detected sounds out of deep space on May 15, 2015 at the Russian Academy of Science-operated RATAN-600 radio telescope in Zelenchukskaya, Russia and ONLY NOW told the world about it.

The sounds--signal spikes--emitted from a 6.3-billion-year-old star in the constellation Hercules that is 95 light years away from Earth.


The Constellation Hercules

According to all the scientists, what's most notable about the sounds were how they fit the profile for being a PURPOSEFUL event sent by an extraterrestrial life in a civilization far more advanced than our own; like someone was specifically trying to reach out and talk to us.

The signal is so provocative that the Russian and at least two international teams of scientists at the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) are calling for permanent monitoring to be put on this target. The SETI Institute is using the Allen Telescope Array in northern California, while METI International is looking to the Boquete Optical SETI Observatory in Panama.

Space people, nerd out here.



The signal could also be radio interference or a gravitational event, but we're gonna be watching and hoping it's these little guys...



...and not THESE guys:

Ever wonder how your Grandpa would compare with an Olympian at their own sport?



Well, some scientists did, and they set up an experiment with seniors doing the same activities as Olympians and then measured the difference between the Olympian's record and the centenarian's. Specifically, Usain Bolt, who ran the 100-metre in 9.58 seconds...



...with, say, Donald Pellman, a competitor in the 100 to 104 age-group, who did the same event in 26.99 seconds, which was only a 64.5 percent decrease in performance compared with Bolt.

The centenarian athlete who showed the lowest percent decrease in performance between an Olympian and himself was Robert Marchand, a Frenchman, who holds the world record for his age group in 1-hour track cycling. He cycled only 50.6 percent slower than Bradly Wiggin's record.



After 40, our performance decreases by about 10 to 15 per cent per decade usually, so you'd better start running now if you want to catch these Grandpas.