Monthly Archives: December 2023

Elon Musk reinstates Alex Jones and Infowars on X platform following user poll

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Elon Musk has restored the X account of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and his media site Infowars. Jones and his Infowars X account were “permanently banned” from Twitter by his former management in 2018 for posting abusive content and violating the platform’s rules.

On December 9th, Musk ran a user survey on X asking whether it would be appropriate to bring Alex Jones back to the platform. Nearly 2 million people voted, and about 70% said Jones’ account should be restored. Hours after the poll closed, the company reactivated Jones’ account. Infowars accounts had also been restored at the time of publication.

After posting the poll, Musk agreed with users who argued that a permanent ban on his account would be “against free speech.” “It’s hard to agree with this,” Musk said.

When a user raised concerns about misinformation circulating on the platform as a result of restoring Jones’ account, Musk pointed to a community note that said parts of the program “need to be fixed.” We will respond promptly to AJ’s post.”

Jones is notorious for spreading conspiracies surrounding the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting, which killed 28 people. The conspiracy theorist was charged and had to appear in court claiming the shooting was staged.a court in connecticut ordered Jones pays $1.5 billion in damages last year.

Musk’s move comes as X struggles to retain the biggest advertisers on its platform. Prominent companies including Apple, Disney and IBM stopped advertising spending on social networks after Musk called anti-Semitic theories “actual truth.”

He later clarified and apologized for his comments, calling them “stupid.” But Tesla’s CEO wasn’t happy with people opting out of advertising on X. In a conversation with journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin at the DealBook conference, Tesla’s CEO told advertisers to “fuck off already.”

“If someone’s going to blackmail me with an ad, blackmail me with money? Fuck it,” Musk said. “Go. Shit. Yourself. Is it obvious?

He also mentioned Disney’s Bog Iger, who also spoke at the conference. In the same interview, Musk said the advertising boycott was going to “crush the company” and that those who conducted the boycott would be responsible for the company’s eventual demise.

Restoring Jones and Infowars’ accounts could raise further eyebrows and frustrate advertisers and others who monitor hate speech. In response to users, the owner of X acknowledged that while the repair could be financially detrimental to the platform, “principle is more important than money.”

After Musk took over X, he reinstated a number of controversial figures, including singer Kanye West, former US president Donald Trump, far-right influencer Andrew Tate, and right-wing scholar Jordan Peterson. I’ve let it happen.

Source: techcrunch.com

Three new young stars found in the central region of the Milky Way galaxy by astronomers

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According to some researchers, the oldest of these stars is 1.5 billion years old, while the youngest is only 100 million years old. paper Published in Astrophysics Journal Letter.

This infrared image from Hubble shows the Milky Way Core Cluster, the densest and most massive star cluster in our galaxy. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble Heritage Team / STScI / AURA / T. Do & A. Ghez, UCLA / V. Bajaj, STScI.

The center of our Milky Way galaxy is located about 27,000 light-years away in the constellation Sagittarius and is a crowded place.

This region is so dense that it’s equivalent to a million stars crammed into the space between the Sun and Alpha Centauri, 4.3 light-years away.

This nuclear cluster surrounds Sagittarius A*, a 4.3 million solar mass black hole at the center of the galaxy.

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In general, many nuclear star clusters coexist with supermassive black holes, which are found in more than 70% of galaxies with masses greater than 100 million to 10 billion solar masses.

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“In previous work, we hypothesized that these particular stars in the middle of the Milky Way may be unusually young,” said Lund University astronomer Rebecca Forsberg.

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“Now we can confirm this. Our study shows that three of these stars are relatively young, at least as far as astronomers are concerned, ranging in age from 100 million years to about 1 billion years. We were able to determine the age.”

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“This is equivalent to the age of the Sun, which is 4.6 billion years old.”

This panorama shows the central region of the Milky Way galaxy. It builds on previous surveys by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and other telescopes, and extends Chandra’s high-energy field of view further up and down the galactic plane than previous imaging campaigns. The X-rays from Chandra are orange, green, and violet, indicating different X-ray energies. Radio data from MeerKAT is gray. Image credits: NASA / CXC / UMass / QD Wang / NRF / SARAO / MeerKAT.

In this study, Dr. Forsberg and colleagues used high-resolution data from the Keck II telescope in Hawaii. This Keck II telescope is one of the largest telescopes in the world with a 10 meter diameter mirror.

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For further verification, they measured the amount of iron, a heavy element, in the stars

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This element is important in tracking the development of galaxies. This is because astronomers’ theories about star formation and galaxy development show that the formation of heavy elements increases over time in the Universe, so younger stars contain more heavy elements.

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To determine iron levels, astronomers looked at the star’s spectrum in infrared light. Infrared light is a part of the light spectrum that can more easily illuminate dust-dense parts of the Milky Way compared to optical light.

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Researchers say there is considerable variation in iron levels.

“The very wide spread in iron levels could indicate that the innermost parts of the galaxy are incredibly heterogeneous, or unmixed,” said Dr. Brian Thorsbro, an astronomer at Lund University. Stated.

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“This is something we didn’t expect, and it tells us something not only about what the center of a galaxy looks like, but also about what the early universe looked like.”

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“Personally, I think it’s very exciting that we can now study the galactic center itself at such a detailed level,” Dr. Forsberg said.

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“While these types of measurements have been standard for observations of our own galactic disk, they have been an unattainable goal in more remote and exotic parts of the galaxy.”

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“Studies like this can teach us a lot about how our home galaxy formed and developed.”

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B. Thorsbro other. 2023. The range of old metallicities of stars in nuclear clusters is wide. APJL 958, L18; doi: 10.3847/2041-8213/ad08b1

Source: www.sci.news

Climate Change’s Impact on Deep Sea Ecosystems

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New research reveals that fire ice, or frozen methane, trapped as a solid under the oceans is at risk of melting due to climate change, potentially releasing large amounts of methane into the atmosphere. I did. Using advanced seismic imaging, the research team found that dissociated methane can travel significant distances, overturning previous assumptions about its stability.

Research shows that ocean fire ice, or frozen methane, is more likely to melt due to climate change and poses a significant threat to methane emissions into the atmosphere.

An international research team led by the University of Newcastle has discovered that when frozen methane and ice melt, the powerful greenhouse gas methane is released and travels from the deepest parts of continental slopes to the edges of underwater shelves. They also found a pocket that had traveled 25 miles (40 kilometers).

Publication in magazine natural earth scienceresearchers say this means more methane could potentially become vulnerable and released into the atmosphere as a result of climate warming.

Methane hydrate: the hidden climate change threat

Methane hydrate, also known as fire ice, is an ice-like structure containing methane buried under the ocean. Huge amounts of methane are stored in the ocean as marine methane. As the ocean warms, it melts, releasing methane, known as dissociated methane, into the ocean and atmosphere, contributing to global warming.

The researchers used advanced three-dimensional seismic imaging techniques to examine sections of hydrate that have dissociated during climate warming off the coast of Mauritania in northwest Africa. They identified specific cases where dissociated methane traveled more than 40 kilometers and was released through underwater depressions known as pockmarks during warm periods in the past.

Researchers at Newcastle University have found that frozen methane trapped on the ocean floor is more likely to melt due to climate change and could be released into the ocean.Credit: Newcastle University

Discovery and its impact

Professor Richard Davies, lead author and Vice-Chancellor for Global and Sustainability at Newcastle University, said: . Our study shows that they formed as methane released from hydrates from the deepest parts of the continental slope spewed into the ocean. Scientists previously thought these hydrates would be less susceptible to climate warming, but it turns out some are more susceptible. ”

Researchers have previously studied how changes in seafloor temperatures near continental margins affect methane release from hydrates. However, these studies mainly focused on regions where only a small fraction of the earth’s methane hydrate exists. This is one of the few studies to investigate methane emissions from the bottom of hydrate stability zones deep underwater. The results show that the methane released from the hydrate stability zone migrated a significant distance towards land.

Broader research perspective and future plans

Professor Christian Berndt, Head of the Ocean Geodynamics Research Unit at GEOMAR in Kiel, Germany, added:

“This is an important finding. Previous research efforts have focused on the shallowest part of the hydrate stability zone, because we thought this was the only part that would be susceptible to climate change.

“New data clearly shows that far greater amounts of methane can be released from ocean hydrates, and a thorough understanding of this fact is needed to better understand the role of hydrates in the climate system. need to be clarified.”

Methane is the second most common anthropogenic greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide (CO2). Methane accounts for about 16% of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency figures.

The findings could play an important role in predicting and addressing methane’s impact on a changing climate.

The researchers plan to continue looking for evidence of methane vents along the margin and predict where large methane seeps may occur as the planet warms. Researchers are now planning a scientific expedition to examine the pockmarks more closely and see if they can be more closely linked to past climate warming events.

Reference: “Long-distance transport and emissions of methane from the base of the hydrate stability zone” Richard J. Davies, Jinxiu Yang, Mark T. Ireland, Christian Berndt, Miguel Ángel Morales Maqueda, Mads Huuse, December 6, 2023 , natural earth science.
DOI: 10.1038/s41561-023-01333-w

Source: scitechdaily.com

Potential Spread of Dengue Fever-Carrying Asian Tiger Mosquitoes to the UK Within Decades | Latest UK Updates

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The Asian tiger mosquito, which carries dengue fever, could be endemic in Britain by mid-century, government health experts say.

In recent years, insects have spread to most of Europe due to the warmer climate, tending to live in urban areas and feed during the day, putting people at greater risk.

They have striped bodies and are known for their ability to spread dengue fever, Zika virus, and chikungunya fever (diseases usually associated with tropical regions).

The UK Health and Safety Agency (UKHSA) fears dengue fever could be transmitted in London by 2060, and mosquitoes themselves could be widespread across the UK by the 2040s.

UKHSA entomologist Jolyon Medlock said surveillance at borders could help slow the spread of mosquitoes, and people should cover standing water and empty containers as the insects lay their eggs to keep mosquitoes away.

Professor Dame Jenny Harries, chief executive of the UKHSA, said: “What was called a tropical disease when I was trained many years ago will actually become a national household disease.”

Officials also said other food- and water-borne infections could become more common, increasing the risk of further pandemics.

The dangers of heatwaves will worsen, flooding will become more severe, and people’s mental health may be adversely affected.

Food prices could also become more volatile, as much of the food the UK imports comes from areas prone to climate impacts such as drought.

Wildfires that produce toxic smoke are also expected to occur more frequently during hotter, drier summers.

Young children, the elderly, and people with pre-existing conditions are most vulnerable to these threats.

Click to subscribe to Tom Heap’s ClimateCast wherever you get your podcasts

“In the summer of 2022, temperatures in the UK exceeded 40 degrees for the first time on record,” Dame Jenny said.

“Nearly 3,000 excess deaths were recorded during this prolonged heat wave, while many other countries have experienced extreme heat and prolonged heat waves in recent months.

“Using a high emissions scenario, health-related deaths in the UK are estimated to increase by more than 100% in the 2030s, more than 500% in the 2050s and more than 1,000% by 2070.”

read more:
What is dengue fever and how is it spread?
Doctors fear an outbreak could occur in the UK too – and here’s why

The Earth is already 1.2 degrees warmer than pre-industrial levels, and given the amount of carbon in the atmosphere, further warming is already locked in, even if emissions start to fall overnight.

This means some adaptation will be needed, alongside emissions reductions, housing improvements, flood protection and extreme heat warnings, UKHSA said.

Mrs Jenny added: ‘Climate change is an important threat to public health around the world, not only through increased mortality from extreme temperatures and weather impacts, but also through increased spread of infectious diseases and worsened earth system vulnerabilities.”

Source: news.sky.com

The origins of social behavior revealed in new research

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A new study from Cornell University reveals that the visual system, not just chemoreceptors, has a major influence on the social behavior of male fruit flies. The study found that enhanced visual input can override normal social inhibition, and suggests similar mechanisms in the human brain, particularly related to conditions such as autism and schizophrenia. It has meaning in understanding.

Drosophila males typically exhibit antisocial behavior toward other males and prefer to identify females through chemoreceptors. However, recent research by Cornell University biologists shows that the fruit fly visual system plays an important role in social interactions.

The findings provide new insights into the potential roots of a variety of human social behaviors, including those associated with conditions such as bipolar disorder and autism.

This paper recently current biology.

Visual system and social behavior

many seed Many animals use vision to regulate social behavior, but the underlying mechanisms remain largely unknown. In Drosophila, vision is thought to be used explicitly to detect and follow movement rather than to regulate social behavior, but researchers have found that this may not be the case. .

“In our study, hyperactivation of the visual system overcomes the inhibition produced by chemical signals emitted by male flies, telling other males, ‘Okay, I know, I’m another male, don’t interfere. ”’ said senior author Nirey Yapisi, assistant professor of neurobiology and behavior. “Surprisingly, visual enhancement in the brain somehow overrides chemosensory inhibition and attracts male flies to other males.”

Researchers found that changing GABARAP/GABA;a Receptor signaling in visual feedback neurons in the male brain influenced social inhibition in flies. When GABARAP is knocked down in the visual system, males unexpectedly exhibit increased courtship behavior towards other males.

Researchers discovered that genes similar to those in the human brain control visual neurons in fruit flies. Decreased GABA signaling in the human brain is associated with traits of social withdrawal in conditions such as autism and schizophrenia.

“Our results provide a promising avenue to investigate how these proteins regulate social behavior in the mammalian brain and their potential contribution to human mental state.” said lead author Dr. Yuta Mabuchi. ’23.

Reference: “Visual feedback neurons fine-tune Drosophila male courtship through GABA-mediated inhibition”, Yuta Mabuchi, Xinyue Cui, Lily Xie, Haein Kim, Tianxing Jiang, Nilay Yapici, September 2023 5 Day, current biology.

DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2023.08.034

Source: scitechdaily.com