What exactly is wrong with loving mountain goats?
3 Likes
You gotta turn ‘em around to kiss ‘em.
2 Likes
The goats don’t like it.
1 Like
Astronomers are predicting an “avalanche of discoveries” after the first major release of observations from the European Space Agency’s Euclid mission, which is designed to explore two of the biggest mysteries in modern physics: dark matter and dark energy. Together, they make up about 95% of the universe. We can’t see them directly – but we can see what they do.
Euclid captures extraordinarily detailed images of deep space, allowing astronomers to spot how dark matter bends and distorts light in a phenomenon called gravitational lensing. In its early observations alone, the telescope revealed millions of galaxies and over 500 lensing events, where the gravity of a foreground galaxy warps the light from one behind it into glowing arcs.
These arcs aren’t just beautiful. They help scientists “weigh” the dark matter surrounding galaxies and map how it clumps together across space. That clumpiness could unlock key insights into what dark matter is made of, how cold or warm it is, and whether it behaves like particles or something stranger.
Some galaxies captured by Euclid are merging. Others are wrapped in vast halos of invisible dark matter. Each image is a snapshot of a universe in motion, some stretching back 10 billion years.
And this is only the beginning. Over its six-year mission, Euclid will catalog more than a billion galaxies, offering the clearest map yet of how cosmic structures have evolved. It will also help measure how dark energy – the force pushing the universe apart – is driving cosmic expansion.
Scientists believe this flood of data will reveal objects we’ve never seen before and challenge long-held assumptions about space and time.
2 Likes
After a decade of hunting, the infamous “ghost particle” likely doesn’t exist.
For years, physicists suspected a mysterious “sterile neutrino” might exist — a fourth kind of neutrino that could help explain strange experimental results and point the way to new physics beyond the Standard Model.
Now, after 10 years of analysis, the most sensitive test yet has delivered a twist: no sign of the particle. Researchers used the MicroBooNE experiment at Fermilab to track neutrinos from two powerful beams, searching for the telltale signal of a sterile neutrino.
The result? Nothing. With 95% certainty, they’ve ruled it out.
“This result will spark innovative ideas across neutrino research,” said Dr. Andrew Mastbaum, a physicist at Rutgers and part of the leadership team. “We can rule out a great suspect, but that doesn’t quite solve the mystery.”
Neutrinos are famously elusive. They pass through planets like ghosts, barely interacting with anything. The Standard Model predicts three kinds (electron, muon, tau), and they can “oscillate” or shift between types. But some past experiments suggested weird behavior — something the sterile neutrino might have explained.
Now, that explanation is off the table.
It’s a rare kind of breakthrough: a negative result that still advances science. Ruling out a major idea helps researchers narrow their focus, sharpen their tools, and refine the questions that matter.
And even without the ghost particle, the hunt for the universe’s missing pieces — dark matter, gravity, and what lies beyond the Standard Model — continues.
Read the study:
“Search for light sterile neutrinos with two neutrino beams at MicroBooNE.” Nature, 2025.
1 Like
In a groundbreaking advance, scientists at MIT have discovered a new form of magnetism that could radically transform data storage.
Named p-wave magnetism, this phenomenon blends the traits of ferromagnetic materials (where atoms align their spins in the same direction) and antiferromagnetic materials (where opposing spins cancel out magnetism).
Using a specially synthesized material, nickel iodide (NiI₂), researchers observed a unique spiral spin arrangement in the atoms. When a small voltage was applied, the spiral direction—and the associated electron spins—could be flipped, switching the material’s magnetic state without requiring large magnetic fields. This creates a controllable magnet without visible magnetization.
This discovery is a major leap for the field of spintronics, where information is stored in an electron’s spin rather than its charge. That allows for memory chips that are faster, far more compact, and longer-lasting than today’s devices. By introducing a voltage-controlled, high-speed switching mechanism in antiferromagnets—previously thought too “silent” to be useful—scientists have opened the door to next-generation memory systems.
The results mark the first observation of a voltage-switchable, nontraditional magnet, and may pave the way for ultrafast, energy-efficient data storage technologies beyond anything currently achievable.
RESEARCH PAPER 
Qian Song et al, “Electrical switching of a p-wave magnet”, Nature (2025)
spintronics. I love EDM.
1 Like
what is the healing power?
Diet LSD.
3 Likes
Would it still have the potential to be used to hypnotize people a la MKUltra?
If so, boy, this could also be used for the purposes of evil too. Toss that shit in the water supply.
Speaking from personal experience with multiple types of hallucinogens I would say that there is great empowerment to be yourself and not to give a ■■■■ what anybody else thinks. No guilt from all the usual sources, knowing that we all make mistakes and it’s OK. March to the beat of your own drum. Read “Self Reliance” by Emerson, learn how to lean on yourself. If someone doesn’t like or approve of you, don’t let them steal your energy. I’ve said it many times on here that we’re not all suppose to be alike and that’s not a guess. I cringe when I hear people say, “You complete me.” If you’re not already complete there will be a huge problem if that completeness ever ends. Have fun, I mean it HAVE FUN. People are too ■■■■■■■ serious, loosen up, be the guy who say’s, “Hold my beer”. You got one shot here, make it count.
2 Likes
Agree on the positive benefits of perceiving reality a different way with LSD. Not sure how you separate those benefits from hallucinations. It’s those “hallucinations”–that you’re a small speck on a universe-sized biome, that your little problems aren’t really a big deal, that “it’s all interconnected man”–that create the positive improvements in mental health. Not sure what you’re left with without them. A nice body buzz?
Well drinking improves the game.
I think a similar hunt will eventually find out that “dark matter” likely doesn’t exist.
2 Likes
I dropped acid 5 times in my early 20s and while every moment of that wasn’t “fun”, I learned so much about myself in that process. It opened up paths and possibilities for me in a beneficial way. Having said that, I have no desire to enter that cyclone again. I don’t want to tamper any more with what’s between my ears.
1 Like
I did aunt Syd about a half a dozen times myself in my early to mid 20s. Most were good experiences, but the last one was a bad trip. Never wanted to do it again and never have. Would like to get my hands on some mushrooms though, with a side of P magnets.
You ever want to feel small.
This is a 1:2,000,000 scale model of the solar system
The sun is at Cape Canveral.
Edge of the solar system is Hawaii.
Earth would be only be about 5 feet wide!
1 Like
I know I said this on this forum multiple times but probably not in the last 3 or 4 years. This book or essay as it actually is, is one of the five best things I’ve ever read and probably three best. At one point I read that damn thing over and over and over during some dark in transitional times and stuff like that just takes root….and you don’t really understand that it’s bearing fruit immediately or even consciously, but you look back over the span of time and you can see the road taken was certainly different than the road you were on. Stuff like that and James Allen’s As a man Thinketh and Napoleon Hills Think and Grow Rich and Norman Vincent Peale’s Power of Positive Thinking…Dale Carneigie, Og Mandino, and the volume of a similar or associated couple hundred other titles like that was the engine
1 Like
Colossians 3:23… You don”t have to be a Christian to reap the rewards of working with all your heart. The “reward” could be about the “inheritance” or it could be about the strength you gain as an individual. There are “wins” out there in life if you know how to find them. Self reliance is a huge win and work is an important part of that. I’m a “work and play” guy, there are indeed rewards. Taking a woman to dialysis this morning and my job is to lessen the anxiety. I know how to make simple talk and I also know when no talk is best. My reward is knowing that I made their day a little better and if I didn’t my reward is to know that I failed and what I might do differently. There are 16 drivers where I work and I might be the only one who looks forward to going to work because I want the wins. It’s how you look at life that matters, it really is that simple.
1 Like