Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Science/2023 April 7

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April 7

Harry the Lizard

I've asked a question about a lizard at the entertainment desk, here: Harry the Lizard.

I don't want to actually cross-post the question, but it occurred to me to add a link here because people who know about the biology of lizards might more likely be hanging around this reference desk. Suggest any replies go there rather than here too. AndyJones (talk) 13:06, 7 April 2023 (UTC)

Neuroscience and lack of inner monologues

Is there any neuroscience research on how people who report not having an inner monologue differ from those with?
Are there really differences in the brain? 2A02:908:424:9D60:714D:C368:7B6A:3F63 (talk) 17:35, 7 April 2023 (UTC)

The lack of an inner monologue is possibly^[1] one form of aphantasia,^[2] This is somewhat of an emergent area of study, and results so far are considered inconclusive.^[3] 136.56.52.157 (talk) 22:41, 7 April 2023 (UTC)

Alan Shepard's Earth photo

According to Smithsonian magazine, German Titov became the first astronaut to photograph the Earth (excluding previous automatic photos) because neither Alan Shepard nor Gus Grissom had a camera on their flights, but according to NASA Shepard did photograph the Earth on May 5, 1961. Why is that contradiction in sources? Brandmeister^talk 22:55, 7 April 2023 (UTC)

Well, Shepard was the first astronaut to photgraph Earth from space; Titov was a cosmonaut. 136.56.52.157 (talk) 23:59, 7 April 2023 (UTC)

Shepard's first flight was a 15 minute suborbital hop. My best guess is that the photo was taken automatically by a camera installed in the Mercury capsule. Titov was in orbit for about 24 hours, so he had much more time for things like taking photos. The NASA website does not say that Shepard took that photo. Cullen328 (talk) 00:06, 8 April 2023 (UTC)

The linked image doesn't explicitly identify Shepard as the photographer; the caption just says "...astronaut Alan B. Shepard, Jr. had a view of Earth that no American had seen before...".

The image of Earth from Freedom 7 (Mercury-Redstone 3) was captured by an automatic 70 mm Maurer 220G camera (with a General Scientific 75 mm f/2.8 Finitar lens). TenOfAllTrades(talk) 01:05, 8 April 2023 (UTC)

Great find, TenOfAllTrades. I had to cook dinner. Cullen328 (talk) 04:03, 8 April 2023 (UTC)

Thanks, on second thought I started to suspect it was taken automatically. Brandmeister^talk 07:30, 8 April 2023 (UTC)