Technology, Science and the Environment.

[Trav Le Bleu]

Some good news.

 

First wild Siberian tiger in China has record five cubs - CBBC Newsround

 

https://share.google/x9ZBoSNoDwlA4Sa3K

 

[DJW1]

16 hours ago, dsr-burnley said:

There is certainly a benefit to the tiny number of pets whose owners get out of bed at the same time every day, Monday to Sunday. But would you really change the nation's time zone for the sake of three dogs and a guinea pig?

 

Next discussion point: should the Euro be abolished because half a dozen people have a ten franc piece left over from 1999?  

I don't expect any change to occur in the EU as there are so many opinions, time zones etc. It won't happen in the UK because many people will see it as a "European" thing and will reject It.

My pet comment was light hearted. Although, I remember reading that a majority of British people prefer their pets to their children, so it might sway their opinion😃

[MC Prussian]

James Cameron was only off by about three years:

https://www.topgear.com/car-news/tech/xpeng-will-start-mass-producing-its-human-iron-robot-2026

[leicsmac]

15 minutes ago, MC Prussian said:

James Cameron was only off by about three years:

https://www.topgear.com/car-news/tech/xpeng-will-start-mass-producing-its-human-iron-robot-2026

I wonder what Asimov would have to say?

[blabyboy]

15 hours ago, leicsmac said:

I wonder what Asimov would have to say?

"I hope you have the three laws encoded in your first release" ?

[leicsmac]

52 minutes ago, blabyboy said:

"I hope you have the three laws encoded in your first release" ?

To say nothing of the Zeroth Law, too. Very important.

[Trav Le Bleu]

3 minutes ago, leicsmac said:

To say nothing of the Zeroth Law, too. Very important.

All hail the mighty Zeroth, Lord of Darkness, Harbinger of Chaos and Champion of Insanity!

 

That Zeroth?

[Zear0]

6 minutes ago, Trav Le Bleu said:

All hail the mighty Zeroth, Lord of Darkness, Harbinger of Chaos and Champion of Insanity!

 

That Zeroth?

Means me mate

[leicsmac]

41 minutes ago, Trav Le Bleu said:

All hail the mighty Zeroth, Lord of Darkness, Harbinger of Chaos and Champion of Insanity!

 

That Zeroth?

Excellent lore drop but no, not that, and not Zero Dawn either. Quoting Asimov:

 

"A robot may not harm humanity, or, by inaction, allow humanity to come to harm.”

 

He knew the Three Laws were flawed, and creating a Zeroth Law that supercedes them was the entire premise. 

[Trav Le Bleu]

1 hour ago, Zear0 said:

Means me mate

Isn't that what I said?

[Trav Le Bleu]

43 minutes ago, leicsmac said:

Excellent lore drop but no, not that, and not Zero Dawn either. Quoting Asimov:

 

"A robot may not harm humanity, or, by inaction, allow humanity to come to harm.”

 

He knew the Three Laws were flawed, and creating a Zeroth Law that supercedes them was the entire premise. 

A simple law we should all live by.

[leicsmac]

Remember, guys. In a universe at least 150 billion light years across, you are here:

 

Edited 31 December 2025 by leicsmac

[The Bear]

Just now, leicsmac said:

Remember, guys. In a universe at least 150 billion light years across, you are here:

 

And there's a chance we could be the only truly intelligent life in it. 

[leicsmac]

1 minute ago, The Bear said:

And there's a chance we could be the only truly intelligent life in it. 

It could be so. The Great Filter may have claimed all others. 

 

So let's get out there before it claims us, too. 

[broughtonblue]

On 31/12/2025 at 19:51, The Bear said:

And there's a chance we could be the only truly intelligent life in it. 

Although I agree with your comment, it's quite frightening that the 'leader' of the only truly intelligent life is Donald Trump 😳

[SpacedX]

Roll out of the SLS/Artemis 2 could be as early as next Saturday with the first potential launch date as early as Feb. 6 with subsequent opportunities falling on Feb. 7, 8, 10 and 11. The next launch window would give options on March 6, 7, 8, 9 and 11. The last of the planned launch windows announced so far has options to fly on April 1, 3, 4, 5 and 6. Hopefully they will have plugged the inevitable hydrogen leaks on the core stage by then. 

[leicsmac]

20 hours ago, SpacedX said:

Roll out of the SLS/Artemis 2 could be as early as next Saturday with the first potential launch date as early as Feb. 6 with subsequent opportunities falling on Feb. 7, 8, 10 and 11. The next launch window would give options on March 6, 7, 8, 9 and 11. The last of the planned launch windows announced so far has options to fly on April 1, 3, 4, 5 and 6. Hopefully they will have plugged the inevitable hydrogen leaks on the core stage by then. 

Hopefully sooner rather than later!

[leicsmac]

In other good news:

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c62r56zzzq4o

 

The first leukaemia patient to receive a breakthrough treatment since it was made available on the NHS has said it was "fantastic" and "very sci-fi".

Oscar Murphy, 28, who has an aggressive form of the blood cancer, was given the "living drug", called CAR-T therapy, at Manchester Royal Infirmary.

BBC News was present on 2 January when Oscar received the first of two infusions of his own immune cells, which had been genetically modified to recognise and target his cancer.

NHS England has agreed to fund the immunotherapy at several centres across the country. About 50 NHS patients a year are likely to benefit from it.

 

We're getting better and better at matching treatments to specific cancers. One day soon, we might even be able to say that we're defeating it more times than it defeats us. 

[Grebfromgrebland]

It's a great story as long as we keep the NHS.

 

 

[dsr-burnley]

2 hours ago, Grebfromgrebland said:

It's a great story as long as we keep the NHS.

 

 

I suspect the person who survives because of the treatment would still think it a great story - even if the health service was provided partly by insurance.

[dsr-burnley]

On 31/12/2025 at 19:49, leicsmac said:

Remember, guys. In a universe at least 150 billion light years across, you are here:

 

If the universe is 14 billion years old, how can it be 150 billion light years across? And how could we possibly know if it was, bearing in mind that for us to see anything 75 billion light years away, the light would have had to start its journey before the universe existed? (Genuine question, not being snarky.)

[danny.]

2 minutes ago, dsr-burnley said:

If the universe is 14 billion years old, how can it be 150 billion light years across? And how could we possibly know if it was, bearing in mind that for us to see anything 75 billion light years away, the light would have had to start its journey before the universe existed? (Genuine question, not being snarky.)

The universe is so large we will never see most of it, as you say it's 150bn light years across, and it's expanding so the light from most of it will never reach us.

[Grebfromgrebland]

21 minutes ago, dsr-burnley said:

I suspect the person who survives because of the treatment would still think it a great story - even if the health service was provided partly by insurance.

I'm guessing you don't deal with insurance providers and claims that much. It's grim.

[leicsmac]

6 minutes ago, dsr-burnley said:

If the universe is 14 billion years old, how can it be 150 billion light years across? And how could we possibly know if it was, bearing in mind that for us to see anything 75 billion light years away, the light would have had to start its journey before the universe existed? (Genuine question, not being snarky.)

 

3 minutes ago, danny. said:

The universe is so large we will never see most of it, as you say it's 150bn light years across, and it's expanding so the light from most of it will never reach us.

It's a serious question, and one I had myself once upon a time.

 

To expand on the salient point made above, at the moment of universal expansion ("big bang"), the speed of expansion of matter was faster than light, which means the universe as we know it now has a larger area than light can travel in the time of its existence. 

 

Also and because of that, there is matter heading away from us (and other matter) at relative speeds beyond the speed of light, which means, as Danny said above, we'll never see them because the light from their matter will never reach us. 

 

The reason we theorise such an area has to exist is because the speed of expansion of the "visible" universe (driven by gravity) is much, much faster than can be explained by the amount of matter in that "visible" universe alone. Running that speed of expansion through a few formulas, and assuming that the rest of the universe has similar matter density to what we can see in the visible one, we come up with a number in the region of 150 million light years in diameter at the time. 

 

The above all being said, when you are dealing with distances so vast that general relativity becomes a factor and time doesn't function in the same way as it does here in Earth, things do get very confusing and counterintuitive. 

[dsr-burnley]

25 minutes ago, leicsmac said:

 

It's a serious question, and one I had myself once upon a time.

 

To expand on the salient point made above, at the moment of universal expansion ("big bang"), the speed of expansion of matter was faster than light, which means the universe as we know it now has a larger area than light can travel in the time of its existence. 

 

Also and because of that, there is matter heading away from us (and other matter) at relative speeds beyond the speed of light, which means, as Danny said above, we'll never see them because the light from their matter will never reach us. 

 

The reason we theorise such an area has to exist is because the speed of expansion of the "visible" universe (driven by gravity) is much, much faster than can be explained by the amount of matter in that "visible" universe alone. Running that speed of expansion through a few formulas, and assuming that the rest of the universe has similar matter density to what we can see in the visible one, we come up with a number in the region of 150 million light years in diameter at the time. 

 

The above all being said, when you are dealing with distances so vast that general relativity becomes a factor and time doesn't function in the same way as it does here in Earth, things do get very confusing and counterintuitive. 

Thanks.

 

My mind doesn't do counterintuitive very well, I don't think. Science that can be observed, I can follow (mostly!) but not theories built on theories that can never be seen. Fortunately the size of the universe is something that interests me but doesn't matter to me, so it can be as big as it wants!