Science stories of the week

DaveC426913 said:
WTH Pinball1970 ?!? Maybe could you give us a little more forewarning to duck and cover than 0.000001 seconds?!
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I reported myself for an edit.

I was at work and had very little time sue me Dave, sue me.

I'm so embarrassed.

Ashamed.

If there is a vote for me to leave the site I will take it on the chin and be extremely British about it.
 
LIVE SCIENCE (2022): "Humans are arguably the most bizarre creatures in the animal kingdom. The proof is in the many gross, unnecessary, contradictory and simply inexplicable things we do." --Humans: The Strangest Species
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Are dogs the new children? How is dog ownership connected to declining birth rates?
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1078087

INTRO: In some countries, the number of dogs has increased so much that it now exceeds the number of children. While the emotional significance of dogs is clearly rising worldwide, it remains uncertain whether people are choosing to keep dogs instead of having children or whether other factors are driving this trend.

Professor Enikő Kubinyi, head of the Department of Ethology at Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE), has proposed a groundbreaking theory in one of the world's leading psychology journals. According to her, there is indeed a connection between dog ownership and declining birth rates — but not in the way we might think.

Many people consider their dogs to be family members, and some even place them above human relationships. While the number of dogs increases, human fertility rates are declining. "Even among parents, some value their dog more than any other person."

Nineteen percent of childless individuals and ten percent of parents valued their dog at least partially more than any human in a recent Hungarian survey. What could be the reason for this? Kubinyi’s theory, published in Current Directions in Psychological Science, aims to explain this surprising phenomenon... (MORE - details, no ads)
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C C said:
LIVE SCIENCE (2022): "Humans are arguably the most bizarre creatures in the animal kingdom. The proof is in the many gross, unnecessary, contradictory and simply inexplicable things we do." --Humans: The Strangest Species
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Are dogs the new children? How is dog ownership connected to declining birth rates?
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1078087

INTRO: In some countries, the number of dogs has increased so much that it now exceeds the number of children. While the emotional significance of dogs is clearly rising worldwide, it remains uncertain whether people are choosing to keep dogs instead of having children or whether other factors are driving this trend.

Professor Enikő Kubinyi, head of the Department of Ethology at Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE), has proposed a groundbreaking theory in one of the world's leading psychology journals. According to her, there is indeed a connection between dog ownership and declining birth rates — but not in the way we might think.

Many people consider their dogs to be family members, and some even place them above human relationships. While the number of dogs increases, human fertility rates are declining. "Even among parents, some value their dog more than any other person."

Nineteen percent of childless individuals and ten percent of parents valued their dog at least partially more than any human in a recent Hungarian survey. What could be the reason for this? Kubinyi’s theory, published in Current Directions in Psychological Science, aims to explain this surprising phenomenon... (MORE - details, no ads)
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That is quite interesting. There has certainly been an increase in dog ownership, and pets in general, as a result of Covid. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-56362987. People sometimes speak of “lockdown dogs”. So maybe indeed it is social atomisation that is behind it.

But has the study also made the case that this atomisation depresses the birthrate? That seems less clear.
 
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exchemist said:
That is quite interesting. There has certainly been an increase in dog ownership, and pets in general, as a result of Covid. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-56362987. People sometimes speak of “lockdown dogs”. So maybe indeed it is social atomisation that is behind it.

But has the study also made the case that this atomisation depresses the birthrate? That seems less clear.
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Are dogs effective vectors for COVID?
 
exchemist said:
That is quite interesting. There has certainly been an increase in dog ownership, and pets in general, as a result of Covid. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-56362987. People sometimes speak of “lockdown dogs”. So maybe indeed it is social atomisation that is behind it.

But has the study also made the case that this atomisation depresses the birthrate? That seems less clear.
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At best, the increase would surely only be a somewhat new or added factor responsible the reproduction decline. Or just another side-effect of the latter, that spiked due to Covid. Though I guess that could feed back, as a realization among Gen-Z that pets could substitute for more than they initially believed.
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Pinball1970 said:
Gaia is to retire.
phys.org

Space telescope Gaia sent into 'retirement' but legacy endures

Europe's Gaia space telescope was powered down and sent into "retirement" on Thursday after a decade revealing the secrets of the Milky Way, but its observations will fuel discoveries for decades to come.
phys.org phys.org
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Gaia has been peering into the universe from a stable orbit 1.5 million kilometers (930,000 miles) from Earth called the second Lagrange point. But the neighborhood has been getting more crowded with the recent arrivals of the powerful James Webb and Euclid space telescopes. To avoid causing any problems for the new kids on the block, the ESA's team on the ground ordered Gaia's engines to give a final push on Thursday that will take the spacecraft into a distant orbit around the sun.
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Thank goodness that practice was instituted in the past. Get them out of there when their mission is done.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_objects_at_Lagrange_points#Sun–Earth_Lagrange_points

EXCERPT: L2 is the Lagrange point located approximately 1.5 million kilometers from Earth in the direction opposite the Sun. Spacecraft at the Sun–Earth L2 point are in a Lissajous orbit until decommissioned, when they are sent into a heliocentric graveyard orbit.

Past probes

2001 – 2010: NASA's Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP)[8] observed the cosmic microwave background. It was moved to a heliocentric orbit to avoid posing a hazard to future missions.

2003 – 2004: NASA's WIND. The spacecraft then went to Earth orbit, before heading to L1.

2009 – 2013: The ESA Herschel Space Observatory exhausted its supply of liquid helium and was moved from the Lagrangian point in June 2013.

2009 – 2013: At the end of its mission ESA's Planck spacecraft was put into a heliocentric orbit and passivated to prevent it from endangering any future missions.

2011 – 2012: CNSA's Chang'e 2. Chang'e 2 was then placed onto a heliocentric orbit that took it past the near-Earth asteroid 4179 Toutatis.
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Pinball1970 said:
An article in "The Conversation" on DESI. It gives an ok summary, not too heavy and a nice 3D animation of the data.
https://phys.org/news/2025-04-dark-energy-constant-discovery-undermine.html
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DESI researchers [...] have been able to suggest that dark energy ... is not constant throughout the history of the universe. ... Other phases in cosmic history have had a beginning and an end: inflation, the radiation-dominated era, the matter-dominated era, and so on. The present dominance of dark energy may therefore decline over cosmic time, meaning it would not be a cosmological constant. The new paradigm would imply that the current expansion of the universe could eventually reverse into a "Big Crunch."
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BC refuses to be slain for good. Despite future astrophysics and cosmology retracting some items, progress is surely taking place. Just in a two steps forward, one step back vein.
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