Science can’t be sexist, we hear you cry, it’s methodical, rational. And yet science is carried out by humans who are often a product of the time and place they operate in, struggling to overcome intrinsic biases and outside influence.Host Katy Evans is joined by zoologist and presenter Lucy Cooke, author of Bitch: A Revolutionary Guide to Sex, Evolution and the Female Animal, to discuss how these biases have affected – and sometimes prevented – what we know about animal biology in some truly eye-opening ways, and hopefully debunk some myths along the way.You can listen to this episode and subscribe to the podcast on all your favorite podcast apps: Apple Podcast, Spotify, Podbean, Amazon Music, and more. A transcript of the conversation is available here.

The Moon is believed to have become pretty solid pretty quickly after it formed 4.4 billion years ago. But that doesn’t mean that volcanism and magmatic events stopped there. By looking at rocks collected during the Apollo missions, researchers believe they have found evidence of a major magmatic event taking place about 100 million years after the Moon formed. The cause might have been the collision that created the largest known impact crater in the Solar System.The team dated over 500 zircons from lunar samples and reported a peak in their age distribution at around 4.33 billion years. Zircons are formed from lunar magma solidifying and dating them provides insights into the chronology of the Moon. The high number of zircons from a time after the Moon should have solidified suggests that this might have been from an event.More specific dating of some of these zircons suggests the event lasted about 4 million years, plus or minus half a million. It is possible that it was the final hurrah of the solidifying Moon – or maybe it was a period of intense asteroid strike. However, the team believes that the strongest evidence supports the idea that this event was caused by the impact that caused the South Pole-Aitken Basin.Our findings also have interesting implications for the state of the early Solar System over 4.3 billion years ago.Dr Melanie Barboni“In our study, we found intriguing evidence for a major, potentially global magmatic event on the Moon 4.338 billion years ago. By precisely dating lunar zircon crystals from the Apollo missions, we discovered a striking concentration of zircon ages tightly clustered around 4.338 billion years,” co-lead author Dr Melanie Barboni, from Arizona State University, told IFLScience.“Such a massive impact would have excavated lunar mantle material from great depths. We suggest the zircons we dated likely crystallized within the impact melt sheet as it cooled and differentiated. Subsequent impacts could have then distributed these zircons across the lunar surface.”The zircons eventually made their way to the sites of Apollo 14, 15, and 17, even though the South Pole-Aitken Basin is on the far side of the Moon and far removed from where humans have visited so far. The crater is an area of massive interest for our understanding of the Moon's past.The impact might have caused such a major magmatic event and the object that caused it might have simply sunk and now remains buried underneath this region. There is a massive structure under it. If the zircons are confirmed to truly come from the South Pole-Aitken impact, they would allow us to precisely date the impact, with consequences for our understanding of the Moon and the whole Solar System.“An impact of this scale would have also significantly influenced the development of the lunar crust and mantle. Our findings also have interesting implications for the state of the early Solar System over 4.3 billion years ago. An impact of this size hints at a still dynamic Solar System at this time, with large objects continuing to collide with planets and moons,” Dr Barboni explained.If the Moon was getting hit by such objects, the Earth might not have been spared either. And while craters from that period have been erased by the eons of plate tectonics, having these insights might explain some of the properties of the Earth that remain today. Confirmation of this research might come sooner rather than later.“Our research is particularly timely given the recent return of the first samples from the South Pole-Aitken basin by China's Chang'e 6 mission. The combination of these new samples and our zircon age data could significantly advance our understanding of this major impact basin's history and the broader impact history of the early Solar System,” Dr Barboni told IFLScience.There is a lot of hope that Chang’e 6 might have found rocks from the actual lunar mantle. Such a find would be revolutionary, but even more, zircon would provide evidence for or against this work with all the important consequences listed here.A paper describing the results is published in the journal Science Advances.

It's important that we use accurate terminology when discussing how AI chatbots make up information

“I happen to be a big fan of Western civilization; I think it beats the hell out of tyranny and starvation.” – Jordan Peterson The post The Editors’ Quote of the Day: appeared first on SurvivalBlog.com.

SurvivalBlog presents another edition of The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods. This column is a collection of news bits and pieces that are relevant to the modern survivalist and prepper from JWR. Our goal is to educate our readers, to help them to recognize emerging threats, and to be better prepared for both disasters and negative societal trends. You can’t mitigate a risk if you haven’t first identified a risk. In today’s column, another look at computer security and cyber warfare threats. Can Prepping Be Used Against You in Court? Reader Tim J. suggested this video from the Armed Attorneys: Can … The post The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods appeared first on SurvivalBlog.com.

Editor’s Introductory Note: This article is an After-Action Report (AAR).  At more than 6,400 words, it was long enough to serialize into three parts. But because it is in narrative form, I thought it was best to present it all in one piece. — In late 2019 into early 2020 I experienced a several month unexpected period of homelessness. This was during the incipient stages of the COVID-19 pandemic situation where there was significant “fog of war.” The severity of the situation was unclear. This was an exceptional learning opportunity that yielded significant operating experience that I am sharing here. … The post Unexpected Homelessness: An AAR, by A Grateful Mechanic appeared first on SurvivalBlog.com.

On July  25, 1850, Gold was discovered in Oregon, on the Rogue River. — On this day in 1797, Horatio Nelson lost more than 300 men and his right arm during the failed conquest attempt of Tenerife (Spain). — SurvivalBlog Writing Contest Today we present another entry for Round 113 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include: First Prize: The photovoltaic power specialists at Quantum Harvest LLC  are providing a store-wide 10% off coupon. Depending on the model chosen, this could be worth more than $2,000. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate. This can … The post Preparedness Notes for Thursday — July 25, 2024 appeared first on SurvivalBlog.com.

On The Angry Prepper, we are going to talk about how Something Really Wrong Is Going On but no one is really noticing. This trend is picking up & it could get interesting. This should have some attention on it.

It’s difficult to open a newspaper or news website these days without finding an article promoting the joys of death. Euthanasia (aka “doctor-assisted suicide”) is as fashionable today as prettily patterned face […]

by Leo Hohmann, Leo’s Newsletter: Some of federal government’s potentially most sensitive national security-related files are now in the hands of an unknown entity likely to put them up for sale. It’s being reported by Bloomberg and others today that one of the largest IT service providers to the U.S. military-industrial complex has experienced a […]