NASA's Dark Matter Announcment...

[M.D. Holloway]

Sump'n big is about to be shared...

Antimatter Hunter: Q&A with Nobel Laureate Sam Ting | Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer | Endeavour Shuttle Launch STS-134 | Space.com

[genrex]

Thanks for the heads-up, Mike.

The International Space Station has confirmed an abundance of positrons in local interstellar space. Positrons indicate the presence of dark matter, and scientists are largely in agreement that dark matter gives shape to our physical universe.

This is a big scientific discovery, so big that it's hard to grasp.

Seriously, this is not an April Fools joke...

_

[M.D. Holloway]

This and the Higgs particle mean that we are gaining a much better understanding of our physical reality...

[sjf911]

Originally Posted by LubeMaster77

This and the Higgs particle mean that we are gaining a much better understanding of our physical reality...

But, but, but, it's all just guesses!

[M.D. Holloway]

but good guesses!

[Hawkeye's-911T]

& in a similar vein
BBC News - LHC upgrade to open up 'new realm of particle physics'

Cheers
JB

[M.D. Holloway]

The Higgs and 16 others...times sure do a change!

[gacook]

So...how long till we throw all these heretics in solitary for going against the bible's teachings? (Veeerrrrryyyy Old-skool humor about times changing...)

[Zeke]

If it would bring about a cure for cancer and other diseases, I'd be more interested. Personally, I don't think we have any business in space. We can't take care of what we have.

[Jim Richards]

We're already in space, orbiting the Sun which in turn orbits a supermassive black hole (Sagittarius A?) at the center of the Milky Way galaxy.

[gacook]

But we don't have any business there. Maybe we need to set up some toll booths for all the UFOs or something. Or stop dumping our waste in the oceans and develop a way to start dumping it in space. Then we'd have business there.

[RWebb]

Originally Posted by Zeke

If it would bring about a cure for cancer and other diseases, I'd be more interested. Personally, I don't think we have any business in space. We can't take care of what we have.

I bet there will never be "a" cure for cancer...

As a biologist, I'm cool with physics...

[sammyg2]

Originally Posted by gacook

So...how long till we throw all these heretics in solitary for going against the bible's teachings? (Veeerrrrryyyy Old-skool humor about times changing...)

Or we could throw all the posters who can't grasp the concept of PARF to ban Island.

[gacook]

So, humor is now PARF-only territory? My sincerest apologies

[gacook]

Originally Posted by RWebb

I bet there will never be "a" cure for cancer...

As a biologist, I'm cool with physics...

As a biologist (you, not me), I'm curious about why you quoted "a." I intitially skimmed it thinking you had quoted "cure," and took that to mean maybe we'd have more advanced treatments but never a full cure. After catching my reading error, I'd appreciate an explanation on your thought process. Seriously; no sarcasm or anything from my end.

[RWebb]

A, meaning one

I'm not a molecular geneticist and instead cover the range from "whole-organism" physiology to population ecology -- one thing 'we' learned long ago is that natural selection has created a multitude of repair systems for genetic error correction

since cancer can be pretty well understood as a large number of errors to (developmental) programs in regulatory genes, it seems likely we will need many cures for cancer - add the error correction stuff above and you are multiplying some fairly large numbers, so the number of cures has to go up -- a lot

[RWebb]

oh, and don't mind spammy - he continually PARFs up threads in OT

[Tervuren]

I think the more we learn about the universe, the more we'll find out we don't know.

But its good to keep trying anyway.

I laugh when anyone I meet thinks science already has all the answers. I know how many times its been revised, and its gonna keep getting revised for as long as it exists.

I wish there were some option on taxes to give money directly to NASA without it going through congressional pork spending on useless outdated tech. I'd give without a grudge. If others did so, they'd have one heck of a budget and without the BS politic objectives.

[Wilhelm]

Originally Posted by sammyg2

Or we could throw all the posters who can't grasp the concept of PARF to ban Island.

Sammyg2; Nice to see you out of PARF for a little while. I have been wondering, just what is "the concept of PARF" anyway?

[gacook]

Originally Posted by RWebb

A, meaning one

I'm not a molecular geneticist and instead cover the range from "whole-organism" physiology to population ecology -- one thing 'we' learned long ago is that natural selection has created a multitude of repair systems for genetic error correction

since cancer can be pretty well understood as a large number of errors to (developmental) programs in regulatory genes, it seems likely we will need many cures for cancer - add the error correction stuff above and you are multiplying some fairly large numbers, so the number of cures has to go up -- a lot

Makes sense. I've always wondered about cancer, and why it affects some people but not everyone. For instance, my grandma who lived to 102, and smoked her entire life. Never an issue; but then my other grandma who never smoked and developed cancer. I've often wondered if there's a recessive gene that some of us carry that makes us more prone to the outside influences that act as a trigger.

I've lost several family members to cancer: couple aunts, a grandma (before I was born), an uncle, my dad's had an ongoing battle with minor skin cancer...and aside from my dad, the rest of them were "healthy" people (non-smokers, non-drinkers). My dad owned a roofing company and has spent his life in the Arizona sun, so how he developed skin cancer isn't exactly a puzzle...But I've always wondered about the others.

When I was a kid taking a Marine Biology course, I had to write a paper on sharks. In my research, I found that sharks are immune to cancer. I'd not be surprised if someday, our "cures" come from them...but again, I'm no biologist, so have no clue what has been researched in that department, or what could possibly come of it.

Thanks for your answer, Rwebb.