Drunkscience4u - Drunk Science

Hey guys, we made a flyer that you can print out and post in your places of choice! http://ift.tt/2jNXMm3

If Saturn was close to earth

VLT image of the cometary globule CG4

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Passing out some nifty Drunk Science bookmarks at #acen for @picstar120 and his YouTube meetup!!! http://ift.tt/2rCZ6MK

Quick screenshot of episode 2, dropping on Saturday morning at 10:30!! Whew! #drunk #science #funny #jokes #experiments #blerd #rockets #aerodynamics http://ift.tt/2nK23sn

This, and other precious gems, available via the link in the bio. #science #bloopers #funny #stem #blerd http://ift.tt/2oQXTmH

The First Galaxies: What We Know And What We Still Need To Learn

“As we look farther back in time, we find that younger galaxies formed stars at faster rates than galaxies do today. We can measure the star-formation rate, and find that at earlier and earlier times, it was more intense. But then we find it hits a peak when the Universe is about two billion years old. Go younger than that, and the rate goes down again.”

We’ve come incredibly far in our quest to learn how the Universe came to be the way it is today. We can see out in space for tens of billions of light years, to galaxies as they were when the Universe was only a few percent of its present age. We can see how galaxies evolve, merge and the stars inside change. And we can see to even before that, when no stars or galaxies existed at all. But how did we get from there to here? There are still plenty of gaps in the story. We’ve never seen the first stars or galaxies; we’ve never witnessed the start of cosmic reionization; we’ve never seen the star formation rate jump from zero to a real, finite number. Yet with James Webb and WFIRST on the horizon, these gaps in our knowledge may – if we’re lucky – all disappear.

Come get the story on what we know about the first galaxies, and what we hope and have left to still learn!

Primitive plants survive almost two years in outer space

Searing temperatures, radiation and lack of air didn't kill algae kept outside the International Space Station – so maybe life from space could colonise worlds

Primitive plants are the latest forms of Earth life to show they can survive in the harshness of space, and for many months. Cold-loving algae from the Arctic Circle have joined the space-travelling club, alongside bacteria, lichens and even simple animals called tardigrades.

Preliminary studies of the algae after their return to Earth from the International Space Station lend some weight to the “panspermia” theory, that comets and meteorites could potentially deliver life to otherwise sterile planets. The results also provide insights into the potential for human colonies on distant planets to grow crops brought from Earth.

The algae were of the Sphaerocystis species, codenamed CCCryo 101-99, and were returned to Earth in June last year after spending 530 days on a panel outside the ISS. While space-borne, they withstood the vacuum, temperatures ranging from -20 °C at night to 47.2 °C during the day, plus perpetual ultraviolet radiation of a strength that would destroy most life on Earth if not filtered out by the atmosphere.

“I’m sure that plants of many kinds have been on the ISS before, but on the inside, not the outside,” says Thomas Leya of the Fraunhofer Institute for Cell Therapy and Immunology in Potsdam, Germany, who organised the algae experiment. “As far as I know, this is the first report of plants exposed on the surface of the space station.”

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