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Originally posted by ZoneSeek:
CSI-type ballistics question: Can they match shot to a specific shotgun?

*builds a fort out of books, hides*

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I hope this isn't remedial to anyone. The barrel and choke of shotguns are unique; Even those machined in the same factory. Through ballistic study,you could trace the impact and compression(pattern), and trajectory of the shot, to the choke and firing patterns of a specific brand of shotgun and then by isolating those particular shotguns.

As far as brands go, Remington will use a ever so slightly different load of powder than Federal wiil, thus changing the ballistic, impact and compression of the shot as it leaves the barrel and impacts target. Shells , if they haven't been picked up by the shooter, are a huge telltale to what shotgun has been fired. Shotgun shells are very durable and can be reloaded and reused several times. Most empty shotgun shells are usually comprised of plastic case, stamped with the shot type, a brass head stamped with the manufacturer's name, and a primer in the center of the brass head. The primer on any fired shell will have a unique impact mark on it. This impact mark on the primer can be traced to a specific shotgun as well as the expansion at the end of the case.

Short answer: Yes, absolutely.

Sorry for the ramble.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Mr. Chadtastic,

What if it was a shotgun shell made of frozen syphillus?

would this be frozen syphilis floating in a solution, cause you would need one hell of a lot of virii packed together to form a shotgun shell, actually would that be cohesive even if frozen?

Syphilis is a bacterial disease and, if the bacteria are anything like E. coli, pack pretty well after centrifugation and frozen at -80 degrees. Although, I'd imagine any pellets made from them would splatter on impact.

*giggle* jeppers shows how much i know!

***Warning contains ever so slight SPOILERS of new Battlestar Galatica series.***



A friend of mine recorded the first few episodes of this show for me. In the episode "Water" the battlestar spaceship loses a lot of water though ruptures in it's hull. With that water lost they have to search for water on nearby planets.
My question is what happened to the water that was flushed into space? Would it freeze? If that were the case it seems that the water would be retrievable. Does it turn into a gas? That might explain why the water would be lost.
What do you think?

Great question, Lan. I'd say....it depends on the surrounding space (how's that for vague and unhelpful?). In the show I assumed it spread out, mixed with space dust & junk, and eventually froze into chunks, drops, and tiny particles. Not the easiest thing in the world to salvage. The main thing, though, is the dissipation, and the fact that their ships were probably moving, so the water was probably streaming out into clouds behind them.

But I dunno.

Some information.

Water pouring out into space would probably flash-freeze instantly into a crystal lattice formation.

Heh.

This was actually a major plot device in Startide Rising by David Brin ... not that they ran out of water, but rather the whole issue of what happens to the water when it's released into space (they did it on purpose in this case).

- Cho

Huh!

Is Galactica still having to jump into hyperspace every 33 minutes? If so, they'd have to leave the lost iceberg behind anyway ...

If not ... how do you get a big trail of ice back into the ship? Melt it? It'll keep refreezing in space. Ice-mine it in deep space, awaiting "the Cylons might attack at anytime" ?

That water is LOST, by the Lords of Kobol, LOST!

In the middle of the lost water, an island; on the island: aircrash survivors and polar bears ... and a kid named Walt with a vintage Battlestar Galactica comic book from the 1970's ...

theres was this programme i watched recently where this german doctor bisected bit by bit the dead corpes of a human who was frozen so that it made it easier and wasnt too gory...

the people they worked on looked young which was scary, and when they bisected a dead woman who was(were)ten weeks pregnant and hoping to find the remains of the un born baby, that was all i could take!!!!!

hahahaha programme was called "Bisecting of the Human body for beginners"

so if your looking to go around chooping people up i suggest you watch that imformative show first....

How far off are viruses from life? What's the leap from constructing RNA sequences in a lab to DNA? Just how long have we got as dominant species?


- Soul

*startled*

we're the dominant species?

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Originally posted by Soulslack:
How far off are viruses from life? What's the leap from constructing RNA sequences in a lab to DNA? Just how long have we got as dominant species?

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1) As far as I know, viruses don't have actual metabolisms, which makes them not life. Pretty much, a virus is just nucleic acid and some type of protein coat. Maybe some lipids as well. They do reproduce and they do evolve, though.

2) In most organisms, RNA sequences are constructed from DNA through transcription. An enzyme reads the DNA and makes a complementary RNA. Often RNA viruses carry an enzyme called Reverse Transcriptase that can make DNA from RNA. The DNA is then copied and transcribed again into messenger RNA and then translated into viral protein by the host cell.

3) Are we the dominant species? I'm not sure we can really say that. Before antibiotics were discovered we were at the mercy of certain bacteria. Even now, many evolve quickly enough to develop resistance to our medicines. Many insects have developed resistance to insecticides. I don't know if the planet has a dominant species.

aren't roaches supposed to outlive everything?
they dominate my kitchen anyway...

wow... i just stepped into the science thread...
::takes some interesting pictures of the fossil collectons::

Just for the hell of it i'm going to disagree with Cancerdusk

1) Viruses don't fit into MRS GREN (which is something i can only vagely remember from school). But i would define life as something that could reproduce and evolve, not the traditional definition to be sure. But i admire viruses, we aren't sure how they came about, it could be a case that they were a more complex organism that removed all the extranious abilities in order to function more effeciently, nobody knows right now.

3) As for this, that we are the dominant species today is debatetable, it depends what your criteria for dominance are? As to how long we've got, that will depend mostly on chance i guess.

As for Roaches *shivers* the reason they are supposed to "outlive" everything is more due to the fact that insects make up ~80% of the life on earth, there is a huge amount of variation both physically and genetically, you could argue that they are the most successful life on the planet, therefore when something happens to change the enivironment (climate change, nuclear winter, asteroid impact) they have the advantage in that due to these variations some of them may be successful in the new environment. That and the damn bastards are pretty hard to kill.

Random thing about syphillis: malaria appears to cure end-stage symptoms. They used to give people malaria to cure syphilis...

Um, yeah. Things you learn doing Indian Literature 210.

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Oringinally posted by The Dark Handsome Strangler:
PS Geothermal bugs? You mean things can *live* in water that hot and alkaline..

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Bwahahahahaha

I've tricked someone into asking about extremophiles...

Thats organisms that can live in extreme environments. This includes geothermal areas, deep sea vents, up to 3.5km into the earths crust, in 'toxic' environments.

Ok where do i start...

There are only one known 'higher order' organism that lives at high temperature and thats those funky worms that live by geothermal vents on the sea floor, i think they can survive and live at very high temperatures but there is some debate as to how high as certain parts of the organism may be protected from the heat.

Anyway, thats not what i play with, I've been looking at the archea and bacteria (both single celled micro-organisms) in geothermal springs, i've only been looking at alkaline or near neutral springs, but they also live in acidic waters. there are different communities of species that live at different temperature levels and which are usually distinctive colours, for example yellow is 45-55 degrees celcius, pink 55-70....etc. They can live up to around boiling point, and can survive being splashed by higher temperature water.

Some of the environments these micro-organisms can live in are astonishing, archea has been found living in the rocks around 3.5 km depth in the crust, Some even feed off nuclear matter. gees i really could go on and on, but i won't and i shall stop now.

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Originally posted by CancerDusk:

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Originally posted by Soulslack:
How far off are viruses from life? What's the leap from constructing RNA sequences in a lab to DNA? Just how long have we got as dominant species?

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2) In most organisms, RNA sequences are constructed from DNA through transcription. An enzyme reads the DNA and makes a complementary RNA. Often RNA viruses carry an enzyme called Reverse Transcriptase that can make DNA from RNA. The DNA is then copied and transcribed again into messenger RNA and then translated into viral protein by the host cell.

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I couldn't actually fathom an answer out of that CancerDusk... what's the leap in constructing DNA sequences? Since we can already make the simplest RNA viruses under lab conditions, how long do you think we have before we can make an artificial lifeform?


- Soul