Scientists used fitness tracker WHOOP to monitor heart rate during pregnancy
Oops
Wearing a wrist-strap heart rate tracker during pregnancy may help doctors predict who is at risk for premature birth.
In previous research, shon rowan Researchers at West Virginia University recruited 18 women to wear heart-tracking wrist straps from the brand WHOOP throughout their pregnancies.
They were all born at term, and tracking data showed that heart rate variability (the variation in the time interval between heartbeats) decreased clearly during the first 33 weeks of pregnancy, and then steadily increased until birth. It became clear.
Rowan was curious to see if the same pattern occurred in people who give birth prematurely. Emily Capodilupo A larger study is being conducted at WHOOP in Boston, Massachusetts. They and colleagues analyzed tracker data provided by 241 pregnant women between the ages of 23 and 47 in the United States and 15 other countries. It is unclear whether this data includes data for transgender men.
All participants were pregnant with one child born between March 2021 and October 2022. In total, more than 24,000 heart rate variability records were provided.
Similar to the previous study, those who gave birth at term showed an obvious switch in heart rate variability around 33 weeks of gestation, or an average of seven weeks before delivery.
However, the 8.7% who were born prematurely had much less consistent patterns of heart rate variability, Rowan said. This change from decrease to increase in variability occurred at different times during pregnancy, but similar to those born at term, the change occurred on average about 7 weeks before birth, although the birth was premature. It seemed like there was.
In the future, the device could identify pregnancies that require closer monitoring or benefit from administering drugs such as steroids to help the fetus' lungs develop, Rowan said.
You can also plan to stay near hospitals that provide specialized care, which can be especially helpful for people who live in remote areas, he says.
“Once we are able to remotely monitor some of their health using things like the WHOOP tracker, and we start to see changes in that. [in heart rate variability]Then you might be able to be a little more proactive,” says Rowan.
SAN FRANCISCO — The number of western monarch butterflies wintering in California declined by 30% last year, likely due to the high humidity, researchers announced Tuesday.
Volunteers visiting sites in California and Arizona around Thanksgiving removed 230,000 butterflies from 330,000 butterflies by 2022, according to the Xerses Society, an environmental nonprofit focused on invertebrate conservation. It is said that more than one fish was caught.
Populations of the orange and black insects have rebounded to hundreds of thousands in recent years. In 2020, the number of butterflies plummeted to just 2,000., the lowest on record. But even though the butterflies have recovered, their numbers are still far below what they were in the 1980s, when monarchs numbered in the millions.
Scientists say butterfly populations are critically low in western states because housing construction and increased use of pesticides and herbicides are destroying milkweed habitat along migratory routes. Says.
Climate change is also one of the main factors in the monarch butterfly's extinction, preventing the butterflies from migrating 3,000 miles (4,828 km) each year to coincide with spring and wildflower blooms.
“Climate change is creating challenges for many wildlife species, and the monarch butterfly is no exception,” said Emma Pelton, monarch butterfly conservation biologist at the Xerces Society. “We know that the severe storms we saw in California last winter, atmospheric rivers flowing back to back, are on some level connected to climate change.”
Western monarch butterflies migrate south from the Pacific Northwest to California each winter, returning to the same places and even the same trees, where they huddle together and stay warm. They breed multiple generations along the route until they arrive in California, usually in early November. When warm weather arrives in March, it spreads east of California.
East of the Rocky Mountains, another population of monarch butterflies migrates from southern Canada and the northeastern United States into central Mexico. Scientists estimate that monarch butterfly populations in the eastern United States have declined by about 80% since the mid-1990s, but the decline in the western United States is even steeper.
Microsoft on Tuesday beat analysts’ expectations as its big bet on artificial intelligence paid off, particularly in its Azure cloud computing unit.
The software giant reported revenue of $62 billion, up 18% from a year ago, beating expected profits of $61.1 billion. The Net income increased 33% year over year to $21.9 billion.
CEO Satya Nadella said: “We have moved from talking about AI to applying AI at scale. By bringing AI to every layer of our technology stack, we are gaining new customers and unlocking new benefits in all areas. and boost productivity.”
Microsoft Cloud revenue grew 24% year over year. According to the earnings report, Xbox Content and Services segment revenue increased 61% due to the acquisition of Activision Blizzard. Activision increased the company’s overall revenue by 4%.
Microsoft, which recently overtook Apple to become the world’s most valuable company, last week became the second company in history to have a stock market valuation of $3 trillion.
Microsoft is considered a leading player in the AI space, both through its own efforts and its close relationship with ChatGPT maker OpenAI, of which it is the largest shareholder. In November, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella played a key role in Sam Altman’s return as CEO of OpenAI after Altman’s shocking firing. Microsoft occupies an observer seat on his OpenAI board.
Jeremy Goldman, Senior Director of Insider Intelligence/eMarketer Briefing, said: “The company’s recent financial performance, which showed an impressive 18% revenue growth in today’s earnings call, is driven by innovation and strategy. “It shows a powerful combination of foresight.” “While peers such as Alphabet and Meta lead the way in his AI industry, Microsoft is solidifying its position as the frontrunner in his AI race.”
Microsoft’s influence over AI development is rapidly expanding, drawing increased scrutiny from regulators and those outside the technology industry. Investors brushed off concerns that the stock would face stronger headwinds as the stock rose 10% over the past month.
The Federal Trade Commission announced last week that it had opened an investigation into the company’s $10 billion investment in OpenAI, as well as its dealings with Google, Amazon, and AI startup Anthropic. Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority is also investigating the deal. European Union regulators said they may launch a similar investigation. The New York Times sued OpenAI and Microsoft in early December, alleging copyright infringement by ChatGPT.
The quarter also marked the first time Microsoft reported revenue with Activision Blizzard, the premier game studio behind hits like Call of Duty and World of Warcraft. Microsoft completed its $69 billion acquisition of the video game maker in October after lengthy back-and-forth with regulators.
Citing job cuts within both companies, Microsoft last week laid off 1,900 employees across its gaming division, including Activision employees and those working on Xbox consoles.
In a cave beneath a medieval German castle, researchers have discovered a bone pit that is said to reveal the secrets of early humans.
The remains, buried in layers of soil in a collapsed cave, contained genetic material from cave bears and hyenas, as well as the bones of 13 early humans who died about 45,000 years ago.
The discovery, described in three papers published Thursday in the journals Nature and Nature Ecology & Evolution, suggests that early humans may have traveled further north earlier than scientists realized. It shows that they went on an adventure, they were able to make spear-shaped tools, and then humans were able to make spear-shaped tools. A means to thrive in temperatures much colder than today’s climate.
These discoveries, perhaps made through the development of new DNA techniques, are reshaping the way scientists understand the time when humans and Neanderthals roamed the European continent.
Fragments of human bones excavated from a cave in Ranis, Germany. From Tim Schuler, Springer Nature
The discovery could bring scientists closer to understanding why Neanderthals ultimately became extinct and what role humans played in their demise.
John Hawkes, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who studies ancient human relatives but was not involved in the study, said the study shows that as Neanderthals neared their demise, different human cultures He said this helps solidify the theory that these spots were developing.
“These groups are doing research. They’re going to go to new places. They live there for a while. They have different lifestyles,” he said of early humans. “They feel comfortable moving into areas where Neanderthals were.”
These discoveries were only possible because previous researchers left no stone unturned. Archaeologists in the 1920s and 1930s previously excavated the Ilsenhöhle Cave beneath Ranis Castle in the Thuringia region of Germany. The castle was built over the cave long before any excavations took place.
That’s when scientists were unable to drill into critical layers of the cave, which collapsed after hitting rock more than five feet thick.
In 2016, researchers returned with updated drilling techniques and new forms of analysis. About 24 feet below the surface, they discovered a layer containing leaf tips (like the tip of a spear) and human bone fragments.
The discovery of human bone fragments led researchers to dig deep into material excavated nearly 90 years ago, where they discovered additional skeletal fragments.
In a court filing on Tuesday, a Delaware judge ruled in favor of investors who contested Elon Musk’s $56 billion pay package from Tesla, stating that it was excessive. The judge concluded that the compensation had been improperly established by Tesla’s board of directors and revoked it. If the decision is upheld in a potential appeal, Tesla’s board would need to create a new compensation plan for Musk.
Elon Musk responded on Twitter/X, saying, “Never incorporate a company in Delaware.”
Five years ago, Tesla shareholder Richard Tornetta filed a lawsuit accusing the company’s CEO, Elon Musk, of improperly directing negotiations on compensation packages and the board of directors lacking independence. The court’s decision directed Tornetta to cooperate with Musk’s legal team regarding the judge’s order, which can be appealed to the Delaware Supreme Court.
Musk’s compensation trial in November 2022 revealed that the money would be used to fund interplanetary travel. He testified, “This is how we’re going to get humans to Mars, so Tesla can help potentially achieve that.”
Tesla’s board argued that the package was necessary to keep Elon Musk committed to the electric car maker. The judge disagreed, noting that the defense failed to prove the need for such an unprecedented compensation plan. She instructed the parties to work on the final order implementing her decision.
The plaintiffs’ legal team also argued that the board had a duty to either reduce Musk’s salary or find another CEO and ensure that he worked full-time at Tesla instead of focusing on other projects.
Amit Batish of executive compensation research firm Equilar estimated in 2022 that Musk’s package was about six times the combined compensation of the 200 highest-paid executives in 2021.
In July, Tesla directors agreed to return $735 million to the company to settle shareholder claims that the company had overpaid in a separate lawsuit.
India’s first snow leopard survey estimates that there are 718 big cats living in six mountainous regions of the country.
They make up about 10 to 15 percent of the world’s population, and conservationists believe they number between 3,000 and 5,400 people.
snow leopard (panthera uncia) inhabit vast areas of remote mountainous regions, making them one of the most difficult predators to study.
The study, led by Wildlife Trust of India, was conducted from 2019 to 2023 and involved setting up 1,971 camera traps covering 120,000 square kilometers of habitat.
This represents over 70 per cent of the snow leopard’s potential habitat across the trans-Himalayan region of Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh. Approximately 34 percent of this area is under legal protection.
While 241 cats were photographed, evidence of leopard feces, fur, and body marks was found in the survey area, which covers approximately 100,000 square kilometers.
Snow leopards live in 12 countries in Asia, but primarily in the rugged Himalayas of China and India. The species was listed as endangered in 1972 and reclassified as endangered in 2017, but is still considered to be in decline.
“Snow leopards are beautiful, mysterious, ghostly animals, but they’re so much more than that,” says biologist George Schaller, who first photographed a snow leopard in Pakistan in 1971. “Snow leopards tend to symbolize the region and people of the time.” We begin to focus on the region as a whole, not just the snow leopard. Protecting it therefore protects the area for the benefit of all wildlife and local communities. ”
India’s goal is to use this baseline for long-term population surveys to improve monitoring, said Bhupender Yadav, India’s Cabinet Secretary for Environment, Forests and Climate Change. This is what the agency did in his 1970s with Project Tiger, creating conservation measures to increase the tiger population.
“These periodic assessments provide valuable insights to identify challenges, address threats, and develop effective conservation strategies,” says Yadav.
But some local figures fear the announcement could backfire. “This is one of the rarest animals, and this number may change the way we look at it,” said wildlife photographer Morap Namgair. snow leopard tour In Ladakh. “People might think 718 is an exaggeration, so it might change the psychology of conservation.”
Namgeir believes local people must take the lead in conservation efforts. “As locals, we share the mountain, so we have a responsibility to keep its numbers at the same level, if not increase,” he says. “They are the world’s most difficult animals to study, and we may never know how many there are. But we are committed to our efforts because protecting them protects us all.” Have to.”
heroes of mavia, The groundbreaking Web3 AAA mobile-based builder strategy game is now available on iOS and Android app stores. This release heralds a new era in gaming, blending the thrill of strategic gameplay with the innovative aspects of Web3 technology.
After a successful three-month private beta period that attracted more than 350,000 waitlist enthusiasts and impressive engagement statistics of 12,000 daily and 45,000 monthly active users, Heroes of Mavia is now available worldwide. will attract the gaming community. The game boasts an average daily play time of 24 minutes and an impressive 42% 7-day retention rate, demonstrating its engaging gameplay and engaging content.
Coinciding with this highly anticipated launch, Heroes of Mavia is introducing the “Mavia Pioneer Airdrop Program – Turbocharged.” This unique program offers an early adopter who downloaded the game before the $MAVIA token launch on February 6th the opportunity to participate in the $MAVIA airdrop, thereby immersing him in the world of Web3 gaming benefits. I can.
The Heroes of Mavia community is growing rapidly, with Twitter and Discord channels gaining 45,000 new followers and members in just two weeks, highlighting the game's growing popularity.
Heroes of Mavia strives to bridge the gap between traditional games (Web2) and new age Web3 games. Each player is equipped with an on-chain, non-custodial wallet that facilitates minting, purchasing, and trading unique in-game items (NFTs). This feature not only improves your gaming experience, but also opens the door to the dynamic world of Web3.
The game's recent partnership with Kick.com solidifies Heroes of Mavia's place in the world of Web2 streaming, expanding its appeal and influence within the gaming community.
Uniquely, Heroes of Mavia's innovative Web3 model is built for sustainable growth, avoiding the hyperinflation issues common to many play-to-earn projects. This approach promises a balanced and fulfilling experience for all players, whether they are long-time Web3 enthusiasts or newcomers to this exciting field.
About Heroes of Mavia
Heroes of Mavia is a AAA mobile Web3 strategy game available in iOS and Android app stores worldwide. The game is backed by prominent investors including Binance Labs, Genblock Capital, Delphi Digital, Mechanism Capital, Bitkraft, and Animoca Brands. Heroes of Mavia's native token $MAVIA is scheduled to be launched on February 6, 2024.
Early European humans may have hunted mammoths in frozen landscapes
Dorling Kindersley/Getty Images
When modern humans first began to settle in Europe, they headed straight to the cold north. Challenging excavations in Germany have revealed that our species was in the region at least 45,000 years ago, confirming earlier claims that our ancestors were in Britain shortly thereafter.
“They came into a very hostile environment,” he says Jean-Jacques Hublin
At the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. “It felt like northern Finland.” [today]”
Modern people(homo sapiens) were the most recent humans to permanently settle in Europe about 45,000 years ago. Previously, this continent was dominated for hundreds of thousands of years by Neanderthals, who disappeared from the fossil record about 40,000 years ago.Modern humans and Neanderthals may have overlapped in France and Spain Between 1400 and 2900.
“All the ancient humans, homo sapiens“This phenomenon occurred across Eurasia between 50,000 and 40,000 years ago,” Hublin said. This was a critical time, as multiple human species coexisted for millions of years, but only one survives today.
“This is the beginning of species invading every habitable crevice on Earth,” Hublin said. “I know it happened…but I don't know why or how it happened.”
of transitional period
is a mystery. There are several types of stone structures from the period that may have been made by Neanderthals or modern humans. One is found at several archaeological sites in northern Europe. Rincombians, Lanissians, Gerzmanovicians (LRJ) – Features a long leaf-shaped tip that may have been attached to a spear. These have never been found in association with confidently identified hominin bones. “I had no idea who made it,” Hublin said.
To find out, Hublin and his colleagues visited several locations where LRJ artifacts were obtained. Unfortunately, earlier archaeologists destroyed the ruins with shoddy excavation methods. The only exception was a cave called Ilsenhöhle near Ranis, Germany. Having collapsed several thousand years ago, initial excavations in the 1930s were difficult and some of the ruins were left in place. Havlin's team re-excavated and dug deep shafts into the relevant sediment layers.
So-called LRJ stone tools discovered in Germany's Ilsenhöhle Cave
Josephine Schubert, Burg Lanis Museum, (CC-BY-ND 4.0)
The excavation was said to have been “extremely difficult”. Marie Solessi from Leiden University in the Netherlands was not involved in the study.
Havlin's team found many bone fragments buried in the sediment. They also reexamined similar fragments from the original excavations. Analysis of bone collagen proteins revealed that 13 species belong to the hominin family. To identify them more precisely, the research team extracted mitochondrial DNA, which humans inherit only from their mothers, from her 11 fragments. “they are homo sapiens” says Hublin.
The technology used was “first-class,” Solessi said. She also wants to see nuclear DNA. This is because these individuals may be hybrids with their Neanderthal fathers. Because it's not shown in mitochondrial DNA. However, she says this is “very unlikely”.
timing of homo sapiens The occupation of Ilsenhöhle is consistent with existing evidence. Havlin's team previously showed that modern humans lived in the Bacho Kilo cave in Bulgaria about 45,000 years ago. However, Ilsenhöhle is further north.
In the second study, Hublin's colleagues used chemical evidence obtained from preserved horse teeth to determine whether this region of Germany existed at the time, specifically between 45,000 and 43,000 years ago. It showed that the climate was cold. Again, this is consistent with previous evidence. In 2014, Hublin's team showed that modern humans lived in a cold steppe-like environment in Willendorf, Austria, north of the Alps. 43,500 years ago.
A third study examined animal bones collected at Ilsenhelle and revealed that the cave was primarily inhabited by cave bears and hyenas. This means that modern humans only existed intermittently.
This indicates “rapid occupation by a small group of 'pioneers',” Solessi said.
Similar claims have been made for France's Mandolin Cave, which may have been briefly inhabited by modern humans 54,000 years ago, before Neanderthals reclaimed the site.
Since the Ilsenhöhle LRJ tool is associated with modern humans, it is reasonable to assume that other LRJ artifacts were also created by modern humans. homo sapienssays Hublin. This means that modern humans arrived in Britain at an early date. A partial jawbone found in Kents Cave in Devon, England, has been tentatively identified and dated to a modern human. Approximately 43,000 years ago – and was discovered along with the LRJ artifact.
Vacuum chamber that cools four-atom molecules to near absolute zero
Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics
The four-atom molecule is the largest uncooled molecule to just 100 billionths of a degree below absolute zero.
Techniques researchers use to cool individual atoms, such as applying lasers or magnetic forces to them, have little effect on molecules. This is especially true for molecules made up of many atoms. Because to be very cold, the molecules must be very still. The more moving parts a molecule has, the more opportunities it has to move and heat up.
“There's a joke that we study molecules not because they're easy, but because they're difficult,” he says. Luo Xinyu at the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics in Germany. He and his colleagues were able to make a four-atom molecule even cooler than before.
They started with thousands of molecules made up of one sodium atom and one potassium atom, trapped them in an airless chamber, and cooled them, or made them very still, with magnetic forces and bursts of light.of lowest possible temperature 0 Kelvin, or absolute zero; these molecules were only 97 billionths of a billionth of a degree Kelvin.
To turn these diatomic molecules into tetraatomic molecules, the researchers needed to combine them in pairs without warming them up. They used microwave fields to “glue” the molecules together, based on the following theoretical calculations. Tao Xi and Suey Chinese Academy of Sciences. “I didn't really know if I could put these molecules together, but Tao's team did the calculations and he said to me, 'This is possible, give it a try.'” says Luo.
Their attempt was successful. The researchers created about 1,100 molecules, each containing two potassium atoms and two sodium atoms, at a temperature of 134 billionths of a billionth of a kelvin. This is the largest molecule ever to reach this cryogenic temperature.
“One of the reasons we make molecules ultracold in the first place is so we can have more control over them, and this is a big step forward in that sense,” he says. john bourne At the University of Colorado Boulder. This new experiment is important not only because the molecules are at unprecedented temperatures, but also because at the coldest temperatures molecules can enter known quantum states and be forced into other states or processes. accuratelyhe says.
Luo says the atoms in these molecules are not “glued” to each other as strongly as the atoms in molecules at room temperature. But making them is a necessary step in studying complex chemical reactions, which are easier to observe when they are very cold and slow.
Next question is Is there something else, perhaps an even larger molecule? Using similar microwave technology, it could be made from similarly frigid materials at extremely low temperatures, he said. sebastian will At Columbia University in New York. “I think we are looking at exciting new opportunities in quantum chemistry!” he says.
This hat looks normal, but you can sense it when the traffic light changes color
Wang Zhihun
Flexible, wear-resistant strands of conductive fibers are used to make smart clothing with embedded computers and sensors, such as hats that can sense changes in signals.
Previous efforts to create fibers with wear-resistant coatings and conductive cores have encountered problems. When materials cool and shrink at different rates during manufacturing, or are twisted and cleaned once in the final product, small stress cracks can develop and often cause smart devices to stop working.
now, Rayway Researchers at Singapore's Nanyang Technological University have discovered a conductive material that shrinks on cooling and does not develop stress cracks, similar to the aluminosilicate glass used in smartphone screens. The material borrows techniques from fiber-optic cable manufacturing, and the process is cheap and “industry-ready,” Wei said.
The technique involves placing a semiconductor wire made of silicon or germanium into molten glass at a temperature of about 1000 degrees Celsius and drawing it into thin strands. The glass is later etched away with hydrofluoric acid and replaced with a polymer coating that allows for a more flexible material. Fibers can stretch up to 10 kilometers.
A small amount of this fiber is then woven into fabric using a standard loom and regular cotton. Wei says the new material alone feels like “fishing line” on the skin, so cotton is needed to make the clothes comfortable.
The researchers used the fibers to create several prototypes, including electronic sensors and chips that communicate through conductive materials, such as a hat that detects changes in the color of traffic lights.It then passes that information to a smartphone app, a jumper that can receive and decode images sent by pulses of light rather than radio waves, and a watch strap that measures the wearer's heart rate.
In a six-month test where the garment was worn, washed and dried, the fibers were durable and continued to conduct electricity.
However, there are still weaknesses. The link between the flexible material and the rigid circuit board that holds computer chips and other components tends to fail after a few months, causing smart features to stop working.
“The only part that consistently leads to test failures is the connection between the fiber and the external circuitry,” Wei says. “The challenge now is to find a stable connection method.”
This week, the long-awaited Bitcoin L2 solution Merlin Chain went live on testnet, with mainnet expected to launch within a month.
Bitcoin network congestion dilemma and scaling solutions
The evolution of Ordinals over the past year has brought renewed attention to the Bitcoin ecosystem after a long period of time. While increasing the excitement in the Bitcoin ecosystem, it is also increasing the depletion of network resources. Increasingly high transaction costs, combined with the rising price of Bitcoin itself, are further congesting the network and discouraging new users from getting interested in Bitcoin.
(Bitcoin daily average transaction fee $: YCharts)
The idea of developing an EVM-compatible L2 network has been recognized as the first to yield results because the implementation path is simple.
Merlin Chain is also one of the EVM-compatible L2 chains and is developed by Bitmap Tech (formerly Recursiverse), the team that built the BRC-420 protocol and Bitmap.game, and is highly sought after by the community due to the team's past success. It is highly rated.
BRC-420
The BRC-420 protocol supports arbitrary file format combinations/recursion to form more complex inscriptions. Character images, game scripts, virtual machines, AI models, and more can all become Bitcoin assets.
Its core asset, Blue Box, has risen from a registration cost of $0.15 to an ATH floor price of $26,000, while other assets such as Minerals and Dis Song About NFT are the most actively traded on the OKX market. It's one of our assets. Today, we have over 1000 developers and 600+ collections, and our prices are only going up, not down, and we've been performing great even in bear markets.
bitmap games
Bitmap.Game is a fully on-chain, fully decentralized, and fair-launched Metaverse project. It is based on the digital matter theory underlying Bitcoin and is open sourced to be run or verified by any client, reflecting the concept of “client agnosticism” in a fully on-chain game.
During this time, Bitmap's market cap rose from $3 million to an ATH of $290 million. With over 30,000 owners, Bitmap has surpassed Sandbox as the metaverse asset with the most owners across all blockchains.
Unleash Bitcoin's potential with innovative magic
Merlin Chain believes that L2 for Bitcoin means more than just cheap transfers or the availability of DApps, it also means further innovation that unlocks Bitcoin's potential through native assets, users, and protocols. I think it should be something.
For example, how to create games based on bitmaps so that bitmap users can participate in different metauniverses at low cost, since bitmaps are fully decentralized assets. Or for DeFi protocols based on BRC-420, how to authorize NFTs and FTs in both directions. For Inscription Minting, we will discuss how to mint his L1 assets on L2 in a more cost-effective and flexible manner. Rather than replicating how Ethereum works, only these “Bitcoin-native” innovations can continue to power the ecosystem.
So far, Merlin Chain has built a strong DApp ecosystem, effectively addressed liquidity concerns, and plans further expansion.
Efficient and secure scaling with ZK-Rollup
Diverse ecosystems and assets also mean higher throughput requirements and some safety risks. To solve this problem, Merlin Chain adopted ZK-Rollup. This allows you to compress large numbers of transaction proofs into simple checksums, improving transaction efficiency and scalability.
Merlin Chain's sequencer nodes are responsible for collecting and batching transactions, generating compressed transaction data, ZK state roots, and proofs via zkEVM. Compressed transaction data and ZK proofs are uploaded to Bitcoin L1’s Taproot via the decentralized Oracle network and made available across the network, ensuring transparency and security.
Decentralized Oracle network nodes are required to stake $BTC to prevent inappropriate activity. Users can start challenging her ZK rollup based on compressed data, ZK state roots, and ZK proofs. If the challenge is successful, it will be rolled back to the last verified state and the Oracle node will lose its locked $BTC, ensuring the security and reliability of the system.
Through the integration of these technologies, Marlin Chain has demonstrated superior technical capabilities and is on track to build an efficient and secure native Bitcoin L2 solution.
Compared to other Bitcoin L2 attempts currently being attempted, one of the key features of Merlin Chain is that it is “Bitcoin native.”
Merlin Chain, which has been a strong believer in Bitcoin for many years, is very passionate about the development of the Bitcoin ecosystem, and rather than providing services to other ecosystems in the name of Bitcoin, Through my work, I aim to bring more users and assets to Bitcoin. Therefore, Merlin Chain appreciates the native nature of Bitcoin in its ecosystem of projects and users.
Additionally, Merlin Chain supports most of the major Bitcoin L1 protocols, including BRC-20, Bitmap, BRC-420, Atomicals, SRC20, and Pipe. All inscriptions on L1 will be automatically whitelisted by Merlin Chain, allowing users to trade safely and affordably.
In line with its pursuit of “Bitcoin Native”, Merlin Chain plans to adopt BRC-20 as its governance token. This makes much more sense than the other Bitcoin L2, which currently uses the Ethereum standard token as its governance token. Tokens will be released through a fair launch, with a 48-month release period that does not start within two years, with the exception of a portion that will be distributed to VCs and teams, to prove the interests of teams and investors. Trust in Marlin Chain.
Bridging the Gap – Simplifying Bitcoin Adoption and Accelerating Growth
Another tricky issue for Bitcoin ecosystem builders is the lack of new users and new capital. Ordinals continues to do well, but the number of active addresses has not increased significantly. It's the same group of people involved in different projects. The fundamental reason for this is Bitcoin's complexity. Not only does it require downloading a Bitcoin wallet, writing is also not very easy, the user has to spend at least 2 blocks of time writing, while for confirmation he has to spend 3 blocks of time , which is complex and complex. it takes time.
(Daily active Bitcoin address: Glassnode)
Marlin Chain solves this problem. Currently, Marlin Chain is connected to 40 Ethereum chains, so even users who are not familiar with Bitcoin can use familiar wallets such as Metamask and familiar assets such as stablecoins, $ETH, and $BNB. Masu. . Interact with Marlin Chain. A user doesn't need to know the principles behind Bitcoin, or even what BRC-20 or Atomic is, before he can experience Bitcoin the way it was meant to be in a familiar way.
To this end, Merlin Chain plans to integrate the first multi-chain writing DApp. This will allow users to write assets to other layers, including Bitcoin L1 on Merlin Chain. Only one block of time is required to wait. At the same time, the Launchpad is also available on the Marlin chain, with a mechanism that every inscription fired on it is rated at 100,000 FDV, and more users will be able to use the BRC-20/ BRC-420 You will be able to easily purchase assets such as /. Atomic/Runes at a very low price. Additionally, as part of its decentralization efforts, Merlin Chain plans to release most of its governance tokens to the community.
Users should stay tuned for the upcoming mainnet launch. The future of Bitcoin is about to unfold with Merlin Chain at the helm.
About Marlin Chain
Marlin Chain is a Bitcoin Layer2 that integrates the ZK-Rollup network, a decentralized oracle network, and an on-chain BTC anti-fraud module. Marlin Chain is committed to powering Bitcoin's native assets, protocols, and products on Layer 1 through the Layer 2 network to make Bitcoin fun again. Marlin Chain is a subsidiary product line of Bitmap Tech, his OG team of top-notch players with a combined market capitalization of over $500 million. The BRC-420 “Blue Box” collection under Bitmap Tech has become one of Ordinals’ most popular assets.
Users can start following Marlin Chain twitter For further updates.
IIt's been nearly 30 years since the original Tekken hit arcades, facing off against Sega's Virtua Fighter and starting a decade-long battle for 3D fighting supremacy. The game's smooth, detailed 3D visuals, engaging characters, and easy-to-access four-button control system brought a new generation of fans to the fighting game genre when it debuted on PlayStation. Subsequent installments in the series have built on that solid track record, although they haven't always had the same impact. . Tekken 7 was a subtle step forward that rewarded dedicated players, but Tekken 8 feels like the first version in a while that truly ups the ante and appeals to newcomers. The result is a thrilling and vibrant video game.
For the uninitiated, Tekken 8 is the latest in a series of fighting games from arcade legends Namco. In this game, a group of brilliantly flashy warriors compete to win the King of Iron Fist tournament in his one-on-one battles in a closed arena. Players fight against increasingly powerful computer-controlled enemies in arcade and story modes, and against each other in local and online competitive matches.
Unlike 2D fighting games such as Street Fighter, characters can not only move on a 2D plane, but also pivot around each other, which adds a sense of depth. The combat system is also very different. In Tekken he uses four buttons, each controlling a different limb, so his basic move set is his two kicks and his two punches, and pressing two at the same time gives you access to a throw. Masu. You can chain button presses into sequences to access more powerful combinations (combos), and pressing both the short and long sides of the D-pad analog stick adds even more force. Tactics range from attacking the opponent with quick jabs and kicks to drain their defenses, to juggling the opponent in the air like a deranged circus performer.
“A love letter to arcade culture”…Tekken 8. Photo provided by: Bandai Namco Entertainment
Each fighter has a unique style that combines real martial arts and quasi-magical attacks. There's a ridiculous backstory about the Mishima family during the war, and they're like the Roy family from Succession, but with more wrestling and throwing each other into volcanoes. One of his characters in the game is a giant panda. That's pretty much all you need to know.
If it sounds like a relic from a bygone era, it is and it is not. Tekken 8 is a graphic and technical marvel, and his 32 characters are exquisitely detailed, exquisitely animated, and packed with personality and dignity. In addition to veteran fighters such as the rogue American street fighter Paul Phoenix and the psychic wildlife warden Jun Kazama (returning after a long hiatus), there are also three newcomers: Victor, Reina, and nervous coffee genie Azucena. . Nina Williams in a purple dress with tassels, Sergei Dragunov in high-heeled biker boots, giant cyborg Jack-8 showing off his crushing telescopic fists, all looking incredible That's the feeling.
With so many characters, the characters might feel the same, but there's real diversity here, so whether you're flying through the skies as Alisa Bosconovitch, a beautiful jet-powered android, or Zafina's You can also crawl with creepy tarantulas. The combo gives her a stunning light show of flames and pulsating energy waves. The sound effects that accompany every movement, such as bone-crushing impacts and whiplash sounds, are also fun. The sheer nuclear force of a king suplex or a kick to Li Chaolan's jaw reverberates through the speakers like a crazy Shaw Brothers fight scene at maximum volume.
Lots of beans… Azucena from “Tekken 8”. Photo provided by: Bandai Namco Entertainment
Critical to Tekken 8's success are two new features: Heat and Arcade Quest. Heat His system, accessed via the right shoulder button, supercharges the fighter for a short period of time, giving them devastating smash moves and ensuring regular attacks do damage even when an opponent is blocking. However, the Heat only have access to him once per game, so timing is everything. Do you activate it early to get a head start, or do you save it as a sort of “get out of nowhere” card for when you’re pushed into a corner?
In the latter situation, Tekken 8 also uses a new interpretation of the Rage system introduced in Tekken 6, which adds extra power to your moves when your health drops below a certain point. In this game, you can also use the character Rage's art. This is an epic super move that will destroy your opponent. My favorite so far is Brian Fury's absolutely crushing storm of mega-punch, culminating in a laser-guided haymaker capable of knocking the moon out of orbit. While Rage doesn't quite match the fighting sim Mario Kart Blue Shell, it does imbue you with a never-say-die attitude that lets you see matches thrillingly turned upside down on the brink of death. .
Then there's Arcade Quest, a sort of narrative role-playing tutorial mode. Create your avatar and travel through the coin-op palace, training key moves and combos while battling non-player characters who offer hints and encouragement. As you win matches and win certain challenges, you unlock new items and rewards, making this a really fun and highly effective way to learn.
It's also a great preview of the online multiplayer mode, which takes your avatar into a vibrant hub world known as the Fight Lounge (which seems like a lot of clubs I've been to), and where you can play with others. You can meet players and challenge them to a duel. There's also a chat system and a place to customize your character and play a light-hearted game of Tekken Ball, your answer to volleyball. I love the attempt to remind me of the arcade atmosphere of the 1980s and 1990s and emphasize friendly competition and camaraderie. Indeed, Tekken 8 producer Michael Murray said, called it “A love letter to arcade culture.”
As someone who has been playing Tekken since 1995, once smashing a PlayStation controller into pieces trying to beat Kazuya Mishima in Tekken 2, and as a young games journalist, I found myself writing for the official PlayStation Magazine. As someone who used to take countless screenshots of Yoshimitsu's helicopter in the game room, Stomp, Tekken 8 is a lot of fun. It's both familiar and new, quirky and intuitive, and accomplishes what all good fighting games do. It feels incredible when you pull off a series of elusive movements with almost ballet-like effect. Tekken was once looked down upon by Street Fighter and Virtua Fighter veterans as a flashy poser, with its combos seen as too automated and unexpressive. But subsequent Tekken titles have added subtle complications, and now in Tekken 8, everyone wants to see how it works.
The King of Iron Fist Tournament is being called. Once again, it's time to answer.
George Osborne has been hired by Coinbase, a U.S. cryptocurrency exchange operator that is facing an intense legal battle with U.S. regulators.
The San Francisco-based company announced Wednesday that it has appointed the former British Prime Minister to its advisory board and will “lean on his insight and experience as we grow Coinbase around the world.”
Mr. Osborne’s appointment will be to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). suing coinbase, accused it of acting as an intermediary in cryptocurrency transactions while circumventing disclosure requirements meant to protect investors. The company disputes this claim and is fighting it in court.
This is the latest in a series of high-paying jobs Mr Osborne has held since leaving government in 2016. At one point, Mr Osborne had nine jobs, ranging from newspaper editing and financial management to providing guidance and advice to the government on leveling the North of England.
Osborne left some of his work behind when he joined boutique investment banking advisor Robbie Warshaw as a partner in 2021. Mr Osborne last year collected part of his £28m remuneration for his work at the company. His salary at Coinbase has not been disclosed.
“There is a tremendous amount of exciting innovation happening in the financial industry right now,” Osborn said of his appointment to Coinbase. “Blockchain is transforming financial markets and online transactions. Coinbase is at the forefront of these developments. I look forward to working with the team as we build a new future for financial services.”
Faryar Shirzad, Chief Policy Officer at Coinbase, said: “We are delighted to welcome George to our Board at an exciting time for us both in the UK and globally.”
“George has extensive experience in business, journalism, and government. We look forward to relying on his insight and experience as we grow Coinbase around the world.”
Osborne’s other current jobs include: Chairman of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership. Chair of the British Museum. “Distinguished Visiting Scholar” at the Hoover Institution. He is a visiting professor at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business, where he teaches a course on decision making. He is chairman of Lingotto Investment Management, the $3 billion investment fund of Italy’s billionaire Agnelli family’s Exor Group, which owns large stakes in Juventus FC, The Economist and Ferrari.
Alphabet shares experienced a more than 5% drop in after-hours trading on Tuesday due to the tech giant’s shortfall in key advertising sectors, despite narrowly surpassing overall revenue estimates for the fourth quarter of 2023.
Google’s parent company disclosed that advertising revenue fell short of forecasts at $65.52 billion compared to $65.8 billion, but the overall revenue exceeded expectations at $86.31 billion versus $85.36 billion. This marked a 13% increase from the previous year.
The chief financial officer of Alphabet described the company’s results as “very strong,” emphasizing the surpassing of overall revenue expectations. “We remain committed to permanently restructuring our cost base while making investments to support growth opportunities,” she stated.
The response to the report was subdued after Google’s parent company laid off 1,000 employees in January. CEO Sundar Pichai announced at the end of the month that the company will refocus on “investing in key priorities,” particularly in the artificial intelligence elements integrated into Google’s flagship products, in 2024, and hinted at further job cuts.
Investors expressed encouragement Analysts believe that the recent job cuts may reflect prudent cost-cutting efforts amidst rising interest rates. However, the impact of the layoffs is evident, with Porat stating that severance pay in the first quarter of 2024 is expected to be $700 million. Alphabet recorded $2.1 billion in severance-related expenses and $1.8 billion in severance-related expenses in 2023, freeing up office space.
Despite the overall advertising downturn, Alphabet announced that YouTube ad revenue reached $9.2 billion, exceeding analysts’ predicted $9.16 billion and a significant increase from the same period in 2022.
CEO Sundar Pichai, in a statement accompanying the earnings call, expressed Alphabet’s pleasure with “the growing contribution from YouTube.” He also highlighted the company’s digital subscription services, including YouTube and cloud storage service Google One, achieving $15 billion annually.
“The significant growth in our subscription revenue over the past few years demonstrates the ability of our team to deliver high value-added services and provides a strong foundation on which to build,” he stated. Ta.
Like many other companies in the technology industry, Alphabet is aiming to take advantage of the AI boom, with the mention of the word “AI” occurring more than 70 times in Tuesday’s earnings call. Pichai outlined the company’s plans to integrate its new AI model Gemini across various products, including search, advertising, and cloud.
Alphabet’s emphasis on AI comes as the company seeks to diversify its revenue streams. Its core search advertising business has stalled, and it faces growing antitrust litigation threats. The US Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against Google, alleging a monopoly on digital advertising technology. A judge’s ruling in January confirmed that the company will be forced to stand trial for charges brought by multiple states regarding advertising market dominance. The company also faced an antitrust case last year related to its dealings with other technology companies, including payments to Apple of about $18 billion annually to keep Safari’s default search engine.
“Google could have its toughest year yet as antitrust threats loom and the death knell sounds for third-party cookies,” stated Evelyn Mitchell Wolf, a senior analyst at Insider Intelligence. “We need to prepare ourselves for the possibility that something may happen.”
Cayman Islands, Cayman Islands, January 31, 2024, Chainwire
QRDO Foundation, dedicated to the growth and development of the QRDO ecosystem, announced a strategic partnership with EQ LAB, a leading blockchain development lab, to launch Warden Protocol. This effort will accelerate the upcoming launch of Warden Protocol, an intent-based interoperability protocol built on Cosmos and based on Fusionchain primitives.
Introducing the Warden Protocol
of warden protocol is a modular intent-centric blockchain built on Cosmos-SDK. At the most basic level, it allows users to create spaces and wallets on various blockchains and manage their activities through on-chain intents. Complex multi-leg transactions can be constructed, and cross-chain activity is protected by complex intents, all enforced on-chain by the Warden protocol.
For builders in this space, Warden enables the deployment of smart contracts into Cosmos using Solidity and WebAssembly, facilitating a modular marketplace of leading management solutions ranging from HSM solutions to multiparty computing providers.
QRDO Foundation representatives said: “The Warden protocol is the next evolution in intent and interoperability primitives. Joining forces with the EQ LAB team will help us achieve this ambitious vision, and QRDO token ownership “This will ensure that people can truly experience fulfillment.” A decentralized, open, intent-centric interoperability and key management protocol. ”
A variety of applications have committed to support deployment on Warden, including:
EQ.FinanceCosmos' liquid staking hub that powers existing liquid staking tokens.
WARDD is a decentralized stablecoin pegged to the US dollar that provides Warden users with instant access to dollar liquidity.
slightly, a pluggable protocol for decentralized capital pools that enables margin trading on any spot DEX.and
SpaceWard is a SAFE-like platform for wallet management and governance.
EQ LAB forms the core contributor team for Warden Protocol and brings an extensive team of 15 core developers to Warden Protocol.
EQ LAB Founder Alex Melikhov said: “We are very happy to contribute to the establishment of the Warden Protocol as a core contributor.As an experienced team of qualified blockchain developers, I We see a bright future in the Cosmos ecosystem and look forward to unlocking incredible value for both the existing QRDO community and the community of Q token holders.”
word token
Warden Protocol plans to introduce the WARD token through a fair initiation mechanism. The launch will take place without any pre-mining or investor allocation, and will initially extend eligibility for both airdrops and incentivized WARD swaps to existing QRDO holders. As a tribute to the public good performed by various other Cosmos chains, not only TIA and ATOM stakers are eligible, but also builders and users of other free protocols and chains. Further details will be announced soon.
The Alfama testnet will go live in the coming weeks, and details about the incentivized testnet will be published soon.
contact address
warden protocol
Warden Protocol is a new modular, intent-based blockchain based on CosmosSDK that enables users and builders to explore and build cross-chains securely.
EQ LAB is an experienced software engineering house specializing in permissionless applications and protocols, serving as a technology partner for numerous projects on Cosmos, Ethereum, Arbitrum, Polkadot, and other blockchain platforms.
The QRDO Foundation was created to focus on accelerating the adoption of open custody, security, and interoperability protocols and fostering the value of the QRDO ecosystem.
a400 employees of GSC Game World, the creator of the hit video game “Stalker,” gathered in its Kiev office in January 2022, most of them in front of a strange bus parked around the corner. I didn't even notice it. As tensions with our neighbors across the border rise, those heading to their offices covered in frost feel like this: largely usually. routine. Or so they told themselves. As whispers of war spread throughout the country, constant reassurances from business partners and President Zelenskiy made it seem foolish to worry. They were told that life would continue as usual.
After a few weeks, their fears were no longer so foolish. On February 24, 2022, at 4 a.m. local time, Russian forces crossed the border and invaded Ukraine from the north, east, and south, shelling more than a dozen cities and killing 40 Ukrainian soldiers in 24 hours. . The bombs fell hard and fast, destroying a building less than a mile from the GSC offices. Fortunately, those eerie blackout buses had sprung into action a week earlier, taking more than 200 GSC employees and their families to the Ukrainian border town of Uzhgorod.
“We were preparing for the next [the war] About a month and a half,” says Evgeny Grigorovich, game director and CEO of GSC Game World. “The drivers were sitting there 24 hours a day, every day, and no one noticed.”
“This game can reach a lot of people and show that Ukraine makes world-leading products.”…Stalker 2: In the Heart of Chernobyl. Photo: GSC Game World
Although he still received assurances that Russia would not invade, Grigorovich's guts were screaming at him to flee. “One day, we had a big meeting and told the teams that we believed there was a very good chance that war would break out, and that they and their families could go. [across the border] If they want. It's hard to make this decision when almost everyone says it's okay. do not worry. 'But we didn't want to put our team at risk. We weren't worried about business or what was going on in the game. They had to save as many people as possible. ”
For the past 13 years, GSC has been hard at work developing the globally anticipated direct sequel to the 2007 cult classic Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl, which sold 4 million copies. The game is an apocalyptic survival game set in the aftermath of his second Chernobyl disaster in war-torn Ukraine. This is an alternate history, but one that is distressingly close to reality for Ukrainians. In March 2022, Russian forces captured the still-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, raising very real concerns about a nuclear disaster related to the fighting. GSC's fiction was beginning to blur with reality.
“It's better to be there than at home”…GSC Game World's new office in Prague. Photo: GSC Game World
GSC is relocating around 700 people, including their families, and the final paperwork was completed just one day before Russian forces entered the ground. He was only allowed one suitcase per family, and it only took him three hours to get important technology out of the office, so he had little time to figure out what was going on. One of her members on the human resources team gave birth during the active phase of the invasion, and other staff members were already grieving loved ones who had died before reaching their destination. “Fortunately, we had the opportunity to start moving before the war started. But we didn't expect everything to be so cruel and so tough.”
It is estimated that more than 500,000 people have been killed or injured since the war began. The bloody conflict shows no signs of abating, with 170 GSC employees remaining in Ukraine.
“Some people were in the position of joining the army and standing on the front lines when the war started. And that's what they did. They immediately began defending our country. We pay them because they are still our employees and their military salary is not enough to cover everything. We are still helping them as much as we can. ”
One of the first to go to the forefront was Volodymyr Yezhov, the series' long-time designer. Yezhov, who was serving as a volunteer in the UVO company, was killed in action on December 22, 2022, during a battle near Bakhmut.
“It's impossible to imagine,” says Grigorovich, shaking his head. “Your friends say they will stay in your country to fight the war, but some of their friends died there. This war should not exist.”
Like many Ukrainians, GSC workers are forced to accept this pain as part of their daily lives. Some developers replaced their keyboards with Kalashnikovs, while others continued to work on his Stalker 2 remotely from GSC's Kiev office or from all over Ukraine. For those still in Kiev, offices have become a haven.
“It's really difficult to make games during a war,” said a member of the GSC team in Prague. Photo: GSC Game World
“We made this a shelter and tried to look as beautiful as possible so that people felt as safe as possible,” Grigorovich said. “They play music, they have guitars, and we have books in there. We have one big floor for a motion capture studio, and we turned it into a kids area. We have mocap equipment. It's so full and so soft that it's now a place to bring toys.
“This winter there was heavy shelling and fighting, and there were frequent power outages. So we built a large generator. Also, the office always has electricity and hot water, so everyone can bring their relatives. We also created a corner, so it’s better to be there than at home.”
It may be hard to understand why these developers continue to code video games in conflict zones, but for many, Stalker 2 is their life's work. After leaving Uzhgorod and taking temporary refuge in Budapest, the departed GSC staff settled in Prague in March 2022. Like many creative companies, the Kiev office had become a second home for many of its employees. Care was therefore taken to ensure that the new Prague headquarters wore a familiar brand and feel, to provide an atmosphere of peace and respite from the horrors of war.
A symbol of resistance…Stalker 2. Photo: GSC Game World
“At this point, this is more than just a game,” agrees Grigorovich. “It's very important to our people, our nation, our culture. It's good for your country to be known simply because someone attacked you, not for your cool art, technology, or engineering.” No. This game can reach a lot of people and let them know that Ukraine makes world-leading products. I think that's the biggest impact we can have. For artists, It is not always wise to go to the front line with a gun without combat experience. But they can still help in other ways – and we are trying to help our Method. “
To date, Stalker 2's most popular gameplay trailer has been viewed over 2.5 million times. With this visibility, Grigorovich sees an opportunity to help prevent further Russian aggression. “Many of us are dying. Keeping people informed could save us all. Ukraine is actually the largest country in Europe, and this is not a small conflict, it's all It's going to impact people. Yes, we're making games, but it's also our job to bring people back to reality. I see the elephant in the room. There's no elephant. I can't say that because the elephant will just destroy everything there and then it will come to you. You would be foolish to think it will stop.
The physics of proton gravitational form factors and their understanding in quantum chromodynamics have advanced significantly over the past two decades through both theory and experiment.a new paper inside modern physics review We provide an overview of this progress, highlighting the physical insights revealed by studies of the gravitational form factor and reviewing its interpretation in terms of the mechanical properties of protons.
A 2D representation of the quark contribution to the force distribution within the proton as a function of distance from the proton center. Light gray shading and long arrows indicate areas of stronger force, while dark gray shading and short arrows indicate areas of weaker force. Left panel: Normal force as a function of distance from center. The arrows change size and always point radially outward. Right panel: tangential force as a function of distance from center. The force changes direction and magnitude as indicated by the direction and length of the arrow. The sign of the force changes around 0.4 fm from the proton center. Image credit: Burkert other., doi: 10.1103/RevModPhys.95.041002.
“This measurement reveals insight into the environment experienced by the proton's components,” said Volker Burkert, principal investigator at the Jefferson Institute.
“A proton is made up of three quarks held together by a strong force.”
“At its peak, this amounts to more than four tons of force that would have to be applied to the quark to pull it out of the proton.”
“Of course, it is not possible in nature to separate just one quark from a proton because quarks have a property called color.”
“Protons have three colors mixed with quarks, and appear colorless from the outside. This is a requirement for them to exist in the universe.”
“When you try to extract a colored quark from a proton, the energy you invested in separating the quarks is used to create a meson, a pair of colorless quark and antiquark, leaving behind a colorless proton (or neutron).”
“In other words, the number four tons represents the strength of the force inherent in protons.”
The result is only the second of the mechanical properties of the protons to be measured.
Mechanical properties of protons include internal pressure (measured in 2018), mass distribution (physical size), angular momentum, and shear stress (shown here).
This result was made possible by predictions from half a century ago and data from 20 years ago.
In the mid-1960s, nuclear physicists realized that if they could observe how gravity interacted with subatomic particles like protons, such experiments could directly reveal the mechanical properties of protons. It was theorized that
“But at the time, we had no choice. For example, if you compare gravity to electromagnetic forces, there's a difference of 39 orders of magnitude. So it's pretty hopeless, right?” said Latifa El-Adhriri, a staff scientist at the Jefferson Institute. .
This data comes from experiments conducted at the Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility (CEBAF) at the Jefferson Research Institute.
A typical CEBAF experiment involves a high-energy electron interacting with another particle by exchanging a packet of energy and a unit of angular momentum called a virtual photon with the particle. The energy of an electron determines which particles it interacts with in this way and how it reacts.
In the experiment, a high-energy beam of electrons interacting with protons inside a target of liquefied hydrogen gas exerted a much greater force on the protons than the four tons needed to pull out the quark/antiquark pair.
“We have developed a program to study deep virtual Compton scattering,” said Dr. El-Adrili.
“This is where electrons exchange virtual photons with protons.”
“And in the final state, the proton stays the same but recoils, and you actually produce one very high-energy photon, and you also get a scattered electron.”
“At the time we acquired the data, we did not know that beyond the intended 3D imaging with these data, we were also collecting the data needed to access the mechanical properties of the protons.”
“It turns out that this particular process, the highly virtual Compton scattering, may be related to how gravity interacts with matter.”
“A general version of this relationship is stated in Einstein's 1973 textbook on general relativity.gravityWritten by Charles W. Meisner, Kip S. Thorne, and John Archibald Wheeler. ”
“In it, they say, “A massless spin 2 field would give rise to a force indistinguishable from gravity, because a massless spin 2 field would couple with a stress-energy tensor in the same way as a gravitational interaction.'' It is written as 'It is from.'.'.
“Thirty years later, theorist Maxim Polyakov continued this idea and established a theoretical foundation linking deep virtual Compton scattering processes and gravitational interactions.”
“This theoretical breakthrough establishes a relationship between measurements of deep virtual Compton scattering and the gravitational shape factor.”
“And we were able to take advantage of that for the first time and bring out the pressure that we gave during the game.” Nature A paper was published in 2018 and now normal and shear forces are being studied,” Dr. Burkert said.
“A more detailed explanation of the relationship between deep virtual Compton scattering processes and gravitational interactions is provided in a new paper describing the first results obtained from this study.”
arabica coffee tree derived from interbreeding between modern ancestors Coffea genus and another closely related coffee species, coffee tree.
As a result of this hybridization, arabica coffee treeflavor and its large and complex genome pose challenges to breeding and genetic research.
Some partial genome assemblies arabica coffee tree is currently available, but the mechanisms that generate its genetic diversity are unknown.
Researchers Michele Morgante and Gabriele Di Gaspero and their colleagues at the Istituto di Genomica Appplicata used the latest sequencing technology to generate a more complete genome assembly. arabica coffee treeallowing detailed analysis of its chromosomal structure.
Analysis of the genome, including previously inaccessible regions such as around centromeres, revealed differences in genome structure, function, and evolution contributed by the two ancestral species, particularly in genes involved in caffeine biosynthesis. found.
For this study, they also analyzed the genomes of 174 samples collected from different species within Earth. coffee genus and found a very low level of genetic diversity within it. arabica coffee tree.
Diversity found to be increasing in some regions arabica coffee tree Varieties of specific genomic regions due to two different sources of variation: chromosomal abnormalities and gene segments provided by so-called Timor hybrids. Arabica coffee x Canephora coffee tree A hybrid from East Timor.
This hybrid is the parent line for many modern varieties that combine disease resistance traits. Coffea genus And its unique flavor is arabica coffee tree.
The authors argue that genetic diversity arabica coffee tree Essential for commercial success, this discovery could help develop new coffee varieties with desirable traits, such as disease resistance or different flavor profiles.
“Resequence data from large accession sets reveal low intraspecific diversity at the center of species origin. arabica coffee tree” the authors write in their paper.
“Across a limited number of genomic regions, the diversity of some cultivated genotypes has increased to levels similar to that observed in one of the ancestral species. Coffea genusThis is probably the result of introgression derived from Timor hybrids. ”
“We also found that in addition to very few early exchanges between homologous chromosomes, there are many recent chromosomal abnormalities such as aneuploidies, deletions, duplications, and exchanges.”
“These phenomena are still polymorphic in the germplasm and may be the root cause of genetic variation in such low-variability species.”
of paper Published in this week's magazine nature communications.
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S. Scalabrine other. 2024.Chromosome-scale assembly reveals chromosomal abnormalities and exchanges that generate genetic diversity arabica coffee tree germ plasm. Nat Commune 15,463; doi: 10.1038/s41467-023-44449-8
When you look in the mirror, you may notice slight imbalances in your facial features, such as your nose crooked to the left, a wrinkle that only appears under one eye, or your ears slightly higher than the other. .
For centuries, this lack of perfect balance has been thought to detract from our beauty, and there are a number of services aimed at “fixing” it, from photo filters to cosmetic surgery. But asymmetry is built into the human body and brain, and for good reason. Moreover, new research suggests that it has little effect on your appeal to others.
First, lopsided arrangement of our internal organs. For most people, the heart, stomach, and spleen are all on the left side of the spinal cord, and the liver and gallbladder are on the right side. This makes more efficient use of thoracic and abdominal space compared to a structure that aligns all organs to the spine.
Why is the human brain asymmetrical?
What about your brain? Although her two hemispheres may appear to be reflective of each other, corresponding areas on each side have different responsibilities. You will notice the effect this has on your movements. If you're right-handed, it's because the left hemisphere of your brain, which is connected to the right side of your body, is slightly more specialized in controlling the fine muscles of your fingers, increasing your manual dexterity. .
You may be surprised to find that this “lateralization” is seen in many fields…
MThe most memorable examples of the internet are the piracy from LimeWire and Kazaa. It felt so cool to download Guido Hatzis albums and Adam Sandler CD rips. some shitty car But I wanted more. A friend warned me that LimeWire has some crazy porn and that I should be careful because I could get into a lot of trouble if I downloaded it stupidly. I hated being patronized. I still do. That’s why I decided the next day to stake my claim and fearlessly pirate a TV show just to brag to my friends.
I snuck into my family computer, opened LimeWire, and searched for a random sitcom starring Ryan Reynolds, Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place. By then I had become an Internet pro, so I only typed the first half of the title. two men and one woman. I clicked on download. Long story short, my friends were right.
The internet is cool, funny, and scary. Here’s a list of other cool, funny, and scary things:
1. K’s Cooking
I’ve never seen anyone cook so badly. Every video is a work of art as well as a treasure trove of comedy. Either Kay is blissfully unaware that she’s a bad cook, or she’s an Andy Kaufman-level comedic genius. It’s another thing to have rice that’s too dry or too sticky, but Kei managed to burn the risotto black. Finally, she lets her son Lee judge her own food, and the way he munches on this risotto makes me chuckle every time.
2. He looks like Bella Ramsey
The more I look at the photo this tweet refers to, the more I laugh. Doesn’t add anything to the social commentary the original image is clearly trying to encourage, but at the same time makes a bit of an impact? In a diagonal sense? i dunno. Let’s not dissect this frog. I think she looks like Bella Ramsey.
3. Graham Barrett
Graham Barrett is a very good character comedian. You can tell he’s spent hundreds of hours with people like the ones he painted. I also love how much effort he puts into these sketches. I have nothing against low-effort, uproarious comedy. I have a lot of friends who have made careers out of it. Please do what you have to do. On the other hand, it’s always great when you come across an account like Barrett’s that is a little bit more exciting, whatever that means.
4. Beebo
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Vivo always makes me laugh. Firstly, he’s a British food influencer and that’s already hilarious. Also, he basically eats the same thing. He’s British, so his meals almost always come with chips. Another thing I like is his catchphrase. He keeps saying, “Make your ______ bigger.” He tries to give props about the country of origin of the food, but is either too broad or just wrong.
For example, he eats any dish with rice and says, “Good luck Asians.” Or you might say “Good luck Asians” while eating Nando’s. My favorite of his catchphrases is, “You know the rules. If you don’t, make sure you know them.” The genius is that Beavo never states the rules, so it’s fun to watch the comments and watch people try to guess the rules. Something like:
Rule 1: Don’t bite. Swallow food quickly.
Rule 2:Ketchup on everything.
Rule 3:No matter what you’re eating, hot chips should be part of your diet.
Rule 4: Make everything bigger.
Anyway, cheer up Beavo and cheer up Asians.
5. Redfern Electrical
John Cruikshank and Luke Smith are at it again. Their mockumentary Redfern Electrical depicts a semi-fictional version of Cruickshank, a stand-up comedian turned electrician. He’s a little thin, but he has a genius plan to make money. Cruikshank has an entertaining and enviable comedic brain and I can’t wait for the next episode.
Emperor penguins are the largest species of penguin, often weighing around 90 pounds. However, they also have one of the most precarious breeding methods on the planet.
To ensure their chicks leave the nest in the summer, they breed during the coldest months of the year, when temperatures are close to -50 degrees Fahrenheit and Antarctic winds can gust at 190 miles per hour. Male penguins keep their chicks warm by balancing eggs on their feet, and colonies of up to 5,000 penguins huddle together to stay warm, each with their own body temperature. They are said to be walking around with a limp so that they can take turns.
But these animals do all of their breeding on Antarctic sea ice, and last year’s sea ice reached its lowest peak since scientists started measuring it in 1979. Some scientists fear that the decline is now so extreme that it has become an inevitable snowball effect.
If the ice sheet breaks before the emperor penguin colony leaves its chicks, the chicks will fall into the water and die, Fretwell said. That has happened over the past two years, particularly in 2022, with another study by Fretwell published last year showing “complete breeding failure” in all but one of the five known breeding sites.
The new colonies identified by Fretwell are mostly small. They said in a paper published in the journal Antarctic Science that at least some penguins appear to have migrated because of unstable sea ice conditions.
“If the colonies fail, they will move to other areas,” Fretwell told NBC News.
“We spend all this time monitoring these animals and seeing if they can adapt to climate change, but the truth is that penguins ultimately need to adapt. Not us,” Fretwell added. “We need to end our dependence on fossil fuels, not just for penguins, but for all species and ourselves.”
Within 72 hours of the presale starting on January 17th, Bitbot raised an incredible $300,000.
Bitbot aims to lead the Telegram trading bot market, a fast-growing segment of the trading app market with lifetime trading volume worth $7 billion.
Telegram trading bot allows traders to manage their cryptocurrency trading portfolio within the Telegram app. In practice, this means that an investor who uses Telegram frequently (a significant number of the 800 million active Telegram users) straddles his two applications, the exchange and the Telegram app, to manage his trades. This means that you no longer need to operate with Additionally, the Telegram trading bot offers all the automated trading features found in exchange apps, bringing together the best of two worlds in one seamless package.
Andrew Jacobs, Technical Product Advisor at Bitbot commented: Our mission is to provide individual traders with powerful, institutional-grade tools in a simple and intuitive trading interface backed by robust security. We have a great team and we look forward to driving the evolution of the product and meeting the Bitbot community at his regular AMAs, which will be published on our social channels during the pre-sale period. ”
The Bitbot team aims to move quickly with a relatively small fundraising goal of $4.3 million, and is predicting a rapid pre-sale with prices closing between $0.0100 and $0.0200, with an initial investment before the project is listed. You may be offered 100% return on your home. An additional incentive is the attractive offer that the Bitbot token holder will receive his 50% of the company's profits, distributed as a percentage of his holdings, after its launch this year.
Telegram trading bot increases convenience by allowing users to perform the entire trading process within Telegram, the preferred messaging platform for cryptocurrencies, avoiding the often complex user experience associated with exchanges.
While Telegram trading bot trading volumes are impressive, it is clear that there is still a majority share of the pie that is currently dominated by traditional crypto exchanges. Even Bitspay consistently ranks in the top 70 exchanges. CMC, whose volume is similar to all Telegram trading bots combined. The magnitude of the opportunity is clear in terms of potential market share, and it is this kind of potential that is driving the product and development team and Bitbot to deliver a product suitable for mass adoption. .
This is probably one of the problems with Bitbot's competitors. Telegram trading bots can be quite complex and much of their operation relies on user commands. Moreover, many security issues have plagued even the biggest players in the market, which is a sour point for some but could be a very positive advantage for the Bitbot brand.
bitbot tackles both of these issues head-on. First, it eliminates the need for complex commands by providing an intuitive in-app interface that exchange users can instantly recognize.
Second, it offers non-custodial trading. This means a user can integrate her Bitbot with a cold wallet and eliminate the unpleasant need to part with private keys to initiate the bot's powerful automated trading features. This is supported by the brand's partnership with Safe Storage. This is a so far unprecedented product in the Telegram trading bot market and a truly unique and innovative approach focused on institutional level asset security.
This bot offers a myriad of advanced features, from copy trading to automatic sniping, that will appeal to both beginners and advanced traders.
Tokenomics and presale roadmap
As per the project white paperBitbot's pre-sale will run until Q1, with project listings on exchanges appearing in Q2 (which is possible given the current trajectory, unless the pre-sale sells out early).
Allocation details include: 30% reserved for presale, 20% for development team, 14% for marketing, 3% for liquidity, and 2.3% available to community (rewards and (consisting of airdrops), and 10% will be allocated to the Treasury.
The 20% designated to the development team will have a one-year vesting period to ensure long-term commitment from the team.
Bitbot’s impressive journey in the crypto market
Competing trading bots Unibot and Banana Gun quickly rose to prominence, and Unibot’s token price fell $230 Just 3 months after its release. According to a recent study, investors who participated in Unibot's pre-sale reportedly received returns of approximately 200x. CoinDesk article.
Bitbot hopes to follow in their footsteps, and its impressive fundraising was supported by a rapidly growing community. 90,000 followers of X We have over 5,100 members the telegram Within one week of pre-sale announcement. The project is currently already in stage 2, with a token price of $0.011, and only 9,200,000 tokens left before stage 3, when the price increases by 5%.
Bitbot hopes to attract pre-sale investors following the recent acceptance of Bitcoin ETFs and increased trading activity in the crypto market. This has garnered significant social support and has already been featured by prominent crypto publications like his Invezz, which has listed Bitbot in an article. Top cryptocurrencies of 2024.
Bitbot is a new Telegram trading bot that aims to put institutional trading tools into the hands of retail users, allowing them to trade using a variety of advanced features, including sniping and copy trading.
Audited by Solid Proof, Bitbot focuses on security and follows the motto “Your keys to your assets.” To achieve this objective, the project partnered with Knightsafe to deliver the world's first non-custodial Telegram trading bot to reduce risk for trading partners, and enhanced it with anti-MEV and anti-lag technology.
To learn more about Bitbot (BITBOT) users and to purchase, please visit the Bitbot site. Website.
eBay, an online retailer, has announced that it will cut around 1,000 roles, which is an estimated 9% of its current workforce. eBay CEO Jamie Iannone stated in a letter to employees, “While we are making progress in line with our strategy, our overall headcount and expenses are outpacing business growth.” He added, “To address this, we are implementing organizational changes to align and integrate certain teams to improve the end-to-end experience and better meet the needs of our customers around the world.”
In addition to the job cuts, the company plans to reduce the number of “in-term” contracts. Iannone added, “alternative workforce.” He also stated that company administrators would notify employees whose roles were “eliminated” and asked all eBay staff to work from home on Wednesday “to ensure space and privacy for conversations.” He added, “We recognize that these actions are not something we take lightly and they impact all eBayers. We must say goodbye to people who have made many important contributions to the eBay community and culture, and this is not an easy task.” Last February, eBay laid off 500 employees, 4% of its workforce worldwide, citing a slowdown in consumer spending for the boom in e-commerce spending during the pandemic.
The number of layoffs within Silicon Valley has accelerated recently, with some of the world’s most prominent technology companies instituting large-scale layoff programs in recent months. A memo sent by Google CEO Sundar Pichai earlier this month warned staff that more job cuts could occur this year as the company looks to increase investment in artificial intelligence. The company will cut its workforce by 12,000 in early 2023. This comes after Mark Zuckerberg’s “meta” revealed in March last year that the company plans to cut 10,000 jobs from a peak of 87,000 employees in 2022. This month, language learning app Duolingo also lost about 10% of its contract employees as part of the company’s move to increase its reliance on AI.
Amazon cut hundreds of jobs across its streaming platform Twitch and its film and TV studio division in the second week of January. In December, music streaming service Spotify announced plans to cut 17% of its workforce, which equates to about 1,500 fewer employees.
According to data, more than 13,000 people have been laid off at 72 companies so far this year, according to layoffs.fyi, which tracks job losses in the tech industry.
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Earlier this year, a patient came to physical therapist Teresa Marco complaining of neck pain. Marco, who is based in New York City, began the interview as usual, asking a series of questions about lifestyle, habits, and attitude. Soon, a person believed to be the culprit appeared. It was a woman’s cell phone.
Marco, who declined to give her name for privacy reasons, said the woman typically used her phone or tablet with her head down on her lap. “She’s going to be very, very bent over, so it’s going to put a lot of strain on her neck,” Marco said.
Marco says he often talks to his patients about how to use their phones. “I don’t think people end up coming to physical therapy because they realize they have a problem with their cell phone,” Marco says. But as she solves problems, it often becomes a focus.
While the negative effects on mental health associated with smartphone use are often discussed, the physical effects can also be significant.serious consequences like Selfie-related injuries and deathscan occur, but chronic problems are much more common, especially in the upper body. This year is research
Using hospital data, they estimated that between 2011 and 2019, hand and wrist injuries caused by cell phone use nearly doubled, reaching about 7,300 cases per year.
“Like [phone] Carolyn Somerich, director of the Human Factors/Ergonomics/Safety Engineering Laboratory at The Ohio State University, said: These sentiments are not new, but according to a Gallup poll, Number of people who reported using a smartphone
“Too much” increased from 39% in 2015 to 58% in 2022. He was 84% most likely to feel this way.
People wait in line to get vaccinated at a COVID-19 vaccination site in Orlando, Florida, United States.
SOPA Image/LightRocket (via Gett)
People in the United States are watching with increasing caution. aging progresses Among Washington, DC's elected leaders, the two current leading candidates for the 2024 presidential election are currently 81 and 77 years old. But the longevity of the leadership stands in sharp contrast to the reality in other parts of the country. Americans are literally dying of disease.
Ten years ago, I led a study. National Academy of Sciences (NAS) This paper is the first to document that the United States has a disadvantage in health and survival among high-income countries.our report The United States has the lowest life expectancy of any country and has been shown to have high rates of morbidity and mortality from dozens of causes. This health and survival deficit has been growing for more than 40 years, affecting men and women, young and old, rich and poor, and of all races and ethnicities.
Average life
Meanwhile, other the study This trend has been confirmed as the life and death situation worsens. Life expectancy in the U.S., after plateauing for several years, had declined for three consecutive years before the global pandemic hit. What followed was devastating. COVID-19 has killed more than 1 million people in the United States and cut life expectancy by an additional two years, twice as much for Hispanics, Blacks, and Native Americans. This was the steepest decline in life expectancy since then. Second World War and nothing comparable happened other wealthy countries.
During the pandemic, Eight Among the 10 main causes of death, the following also increased: maternal and children and youth death. Given these harsh realities, the pressing question is why are Americans so unwell?in new scientist Ten years ago, I realized the reason was simple, yet deceptively complex. That's pretty much it.
Even a casual look at life in America today reveals an incredible situation.The country is entering its third decade of national deaths. opioid epidemic – unleashed by pharmaceutical industry – 110,000 lives were claimed in 2022 alone. And along with drugs, there are also bullets. In 2020 and 2021, Guns killed more American children It is more common among people between the ages of 1 and 17 to die from any other cause.
Circumstances that cause poor health, such as high economic levels inequality and instabilityalong with limited safety net Institutions and social support systems are found in every aspect of life. children and youth In the United States. For over 10 years now, Cross-border comparison The well-being of children and adolescents in wealthy countries shows that children in the United States are worse off than other children in virtually every area measured.
Health insurance
Given the poor health status of Americans, this country needs a reliable health care system. However, the United States is well known for being one of the most complex and fragmented nations. expensive medical system world.largely 30 million the american people No health insuranceAnd for millions of others, quality, affordable, and accessible health care is simply out of reach or effectively not available.
The final feature of the U.S. situation is one of its most important factors: systemic racism and the injustices that accompany it. In 2021, Average life For Asian Americans it was 84 years, for Hispanic Americans it was 78 years, for white Americans it was 77 years, for black Americans it was 72 years, and for Native Americans it was 67 years. native community They have long experienced some of the most severe health inequalities in this country, a direct reflection of the cumulative violence, trauma, and injustice inflicted on them over generations. . It is difficult to overstate the impact of racism in the United States today.
If health is wealth, then the United States is far from being the rich and powerful country many imagine.other countries will do well too do not have They will follow the Americans down this deadly path. And the United States should consider the many ways other industrialized democracies are achieving far better and more equitable health outcomes at far lower costs.
○On Sunday, January 22, 1984, the Los Angeles Raiders defeated the Washington Redskins 38-9 in Super Bowl XVIII. With the exception of a few older Raiders fans, we all remember him that night 40 years ago with one ad that set the tone for the techno-optimism that would dominate the 21st century. did.
Advertisement showed an auditorium full of zombie-like figures watching a projection of an elderly leader resembling the Emperor from 1980's The Empire Strikes Back. A young, athletic woman wearing red and white (the colors of the flag of Poland, which waged a massive labor uprising against the Soviet-controlled communist state) spins a hammer and frames the face of her leader. He threw it across the screen. As armored police rush in to stop her.
The ad explicitly referenced George Orwell's dystopian novel 1984. Meanwhile, then-President Ronald Reagan began his re-election campaign with the audacity to confront the threat of the totalitarian Soviet Union, increasing the risk of global nuclear annihilation.
That same month, Apple began selling personal computers. This will change the way we think about computing technology in our lives and will lead to many of the ideological changes that will drive the 21st century. In many ways, the long 21st century began 40 years ago this week for him.
From a garage-based startup in Cupertino, California, we have steadily grown to where we are today. The most valuable company in the history of the world, Apple has changed the way we experience culture and each other. While not the only force to do so, if you look at other ruling forces that left their mark in 1984, such as Reagan, Apple is a key player in how we view and govern ourselves over the next 40 years. It was part of a larger change. Years later, it still impacts daily life in ways few could have imagined at the time.
Before the Macintosh debuted, Apple created high-quality computers like the Apple II (1979) that ran programs using the standard operating system at the time, the Apple Disc Operating System (which was similar to the Apple Disc Operating System). was highly regarded among computer enthusiasts for producing innovative desktop computers. MS-DOS was provided by a small then-starting company called Microsoft and could be programmed in languages such as Basic.
Companies like Texas Instruments and Atari had brought user-friendly computers to homes before the Macintosh, and IBM and Commodore had made desktop computers for businesses, but the Macintosh was something different. I was promised something.
The Macintosh created a mass market for usable computers that looked more like magic than machines. The Macintosh is a sealed box that hides the board and cables and presents a sleekly designed box, similar to the MacBook and the iPhone, which was released in 2007 and was the most influential and profitable of Apple's products. We have established design standards for what will become.
The iPhone represents much of what's appealing and loathsome about 21st century life. This is a device that does things that no other device or technology can do. It just provides all of that in its own controlled environment that masks all of the actual technology and the human agency that created it. There may be a little elf in there.
Billions of people now use such equipment, but few people ever look inside or think about the people who mined the metals and assembled the parts in dangerous conditions. plug. There are now cars and appliances designed to feel like an iPhone, all glass, metal, curves, and icons. None of them provide any clues for humans to build or maintain them. Everything seems like magic.
The shift to magic by design has blinded us to the real situation of most people working and living in the world. Gated devices are similar to gated communities. What's more, the sealed boxes are equipped with ubiquitous cameras and location devices, and when connected through invisible radio signals, serve as a global surveillance system that Soviet dictators never dreamed of. . We have also entered a world of soft control beyond Orwell's imagination.
Gated communities began to grow in popularity in the United States during the Reagan administration. It was to provide the illusion of safety against imagined but undefined invaders. They also resembled private states, with exclusive membership and strict rules of etiquette.
Reagan won reelection in a landslide in the November 1984 election. His Reagan victory established a nearly unwavering commitment to market fundamentalism and technological optimism that was largely adopted by Reagan's critics and even his successors like Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. . Outside the United States, ostensibly left-wing 20th century leaders such as Greece's Andreas Papandreou, France's François Mitterrand, and Britain's Tony Blair limited the vision of change that the growing neoliberal consensus allowed. was.
By the beginning of this century, questioning the techno-optimism imposed by Apple and the faith in neoliberalism secured by Reagan's hold on the world's political imagination seems like a fit of sulking or sulking. Probably. Does anyone doubt the democratizing and liberating potential of computer technology and free markets?
Now, a quarter of the way through this century, it's clear that the only promises kept were to Apple's shareholders and the descendants of Reagan's politicians. Democracy is in tatters around the world. Networked computers rob relationships, communities, and society of the joy and humanity. The economy is more stratified than ever before. Politics excludes any positive vision of a better future.
Of course, you can't blame Apple or Reagan. They simply distilled, harnessed, and sold back to us what we longed for: a simple story of inevitable progress and liberation. If we had heeded the warnings in Orwell's book instead of Apple's ads, we might have learned that simple stories never have happy endings.
According to a whistleblower, Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta Inc. has not done enough to protect children following Molly Russell’s death. The whistleblower claimed that the social media company already poses a risk to teenagers and that Zuckerberg had put in place infrastructure to protect against such content.
Arturo Bejar, the owner of Instagram and Facebook, voiced his concern that the company had not learned from Molly’s death and could have provided a safer experience for young users. Bejar’s survey of Instagram users revealed that 8.4% of 13- to 15-year-olds had seen someone harm themselves or threaten to harm themselves within the past week.
Bejar stressed that if the company had taken the right steps after Molly Russell’s death, the number of people encountering self-harm content would have been significantly lower. Russell, who committed suicide after viewing harmful content related to suicide, self-harm, depression, and anxiety on Instagram and Pinterest, sparked the whistleblower’s concerns. Bejar believes that the company could have made Instagram safer for teens but chose not to make necessary changes.
Former Meta employees have also asked the company to set goals for reducing harmful content and creating sustainable incentives to work on these issues. Meanwhile, Béjart has met with British politicians, regulators, and activists, including Ian Russell, Molly’s father.
Bejar has suggested a series of changes for Meta, including making it easier for users to flag unwanted content, surveying users’ experiences regularly, and facilitating the reporting of negative experiences with Meta’s services.
The ‘fountain of youth’ isn’t locked away in a philosopher’s stone or a mythical body of water, according to new research. In fact, US scientists say the key to slowing aging is hidden within our bodies.
It was announced in new research that: The secret to anti-aging lies in white blood cells known as T cells. The researchers behind the study discovered that these cells can be reprogrammed into senescent cell-killing machines known as CAR (chimeric antigen receptor) T cells.
When they tested this treatment on mice, they lost weight, improved their metabolism and glucose tolerance, increased physical activity, and led healthier lives. Moreover, there is no tissue damage or toxicity.
“If you give this to old mice, it rejuvenates them. If you give this to young mice, it slows down the aging process. There are currently no other treatments that can do this.” Corina Amor Vegas is an assistant professor at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) in the United States and one of the authors of the paper.
Researchers call this treatment a “living drug.” That’s because when CAR T cells are genetically modified, they become more aggressive in attacking a group of cells known as senescent cells.
Senescent cells are responsible for many of the conditions and diseases that develop as we age, such as obesity and diabetes. As the years go by, we accumulate more and more of them, and this causes a buildup of harmful inflammation. However, CAR T cells may be able to eliminate them and slow the effects of aging.
This treatment is already approved in the United States to treat blood cancers. But this is the first time scientists have shown that CAR T cells can slow or even reduce the effects of aging.
There are already drugs that can eliminate senescent cells, but these must be taken repeatedly. The effects of CAR T cells, on the other hand, are long-lasting. If he takes one dose when he is young, he will be protected for life.
“With CAR T cells, you could potentially get away with just one treatment. For chronic diseases, this is a big advantage. Think about the patients who need treatment,” said Amor Vegas. If administered intravenously, it will be fine for several years. ”
Scientists will then investigate whether the cells not only make you healthier for the rest of your life, but also help you live longer.
In April 2019, the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration resolved the central black hole of the giant elliptical galaxy Messier 87 (M 87), known as M87*, the first-ever event horizon-scale black hole. I reported the image. . In a new paper, astronomers present new images of M87* from data collected by the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA), the Greenland Telescope, and several other instruments within the EHT. doing. These new images show the shadow of his M87* as predicted by general relativity. Interestingly, the peak brightness of the ring is shifted by about 30 degrees compared to the first image. This is consistent with the theoretical understanding of fluctuations due to turbulent matter around a black hole.
The Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration has released new images of M87* from observations taken in April 2018, one year after the first observations in April 2017. The new observations reveal a familiar bright luminescent ring, the same size as the one originally observed. The brightest part of the ring has moved about 30 degrees to the 5 o'clock position compared to the 2017 image. Image credit: EHT Collaboration.
“A fundamental requirement of science is to be able to reproduce results,” says Dr. Keiichi Asada, an astronomer at the Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Academia Sinica.
“The confirmation of the ring in a completely new data set is a major milestone for our collaboration and a strong indication that we are observing the shadow of a black hole and the matter orbiting around it. .”
An image of M87* taken in 2018 is strikingly similar to what astronomers saw in 2017.
They see bright rings of the same size, with a dark central area and one side of the ring brighter than the other.
Because M87*'s mass and distance do not increase appreciably over a human lifetime, general relativity predicts that the diameter of the ring will remain the same from year to year.
The diameter stability measured in the 2017-2018 images strongly supports the conclusion that M87* is well described by general relativity.
“One of the remarkable properties of a black hole is that its radius strongly depends on only one quantity: its mass,” said Dr. Nitika Yadrapalli-Yurku, a postdoctoral fellow at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
“M87* is not a material that gains mass rapidly, so according to general relativity, its radius will change little throughout human history. We see our data confirm this prediction. That's very interesting.”
Although the size of the black hole's shadow did not change between 2017 and 2018, the location of the brightest region around the ring changed significantly.
The bright area rotated about 30 degrees counterclockwise and settled in the lower right part of the ring, at about the 5 o'clock position.
Historical observations of M87* with less sensitive arrays and a small number of telescopes also show that the shadow structure changes from year to year, but with low precision.
Although the 2018 EHT array cannot yet observe jets emerging from M87*, the black hole's axis of rotation predicted from the location of the brightest region around the ring is more consistent with the axis of jets seen at other wavelengths. Masu.
“The biggest change is that the brightness peak has moved around the ring, which is actually the first time in 2019 that “This is what we predicted when we announced the results.”
“According to general relativity, the size of the ring should remain approximately constant, but radiation from the turbulent and messy accretion disk around the black hole causes the brightest parts of the ring to move toward a common center. It wobbles around you.”
“The amount of wobble observed over time can be used to test theories about the magnetic field and plasma environment around the black hole.”
of new results appear in the diary astronomy and astrophysics.
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Collaboration with Event Horizon Telescope. 2024. The persistent shadow of M 87's supermassive black hole. I. Observation, Calibration, Imaging, and Analysis. A&A 681, A79; doi: 10.1051/0004-6361/202347932
A new study led by scientists at the University of Göttingen has provided evidence that the first multicellular streptococci probably existed about a billion years ago.
bierenbrodspot other. We sequenced 24 new transcriptomes of Klebsormidiophyceae and combined them with 14 previously published genome and transcriptome datasets. Image credit: Bierenbroodspot other., doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2023.12.070.
streptococcus is best known as a clade of plants that contains a rich diversity of embryophytes (land plants).
However, next to the embryophytes there is a series of freshwater and terrestrial algae that are responsible for important information on the emergence of key traits in land plants.
this house, Klebsolmidioalgae stand out. Klebsolmydiophytes thrive in diverse environments, from the mundane (ubiquitous on tree bark and rocks) to extreme environments (from the Atacama Desert to Antarctica), display filamentous body surfaces, and can be found on land. They can show remarkable resilience as habitat colonizers.
Currently, the lack of a strong phylogenetic framework for Klebsolmydiophyceae hinders our understanding of the evolutionary history of these important traits.
Dr Tatyana Dariyenko, co-lead author of the study, said: “These small, hardy little creatures have a very high diversity in their morphology and are very good at living in sometimes very harsh environments. “It's really interesting that we're adapting.”
“Our comprehensive sampling aimed to map the global distribution of Klebsolmydiophyceae and highlight its adaptability, ecological importance and hidden diversity.”
“We analyzed the molecular clock based on genetic data calibrated using fossils.”
When delving into the complex evolutionary history of Klebsolmydiophyceae, Dr. Darienko and colleagues faced the challenge of disentangling phylogenetic relationships using traditional markers.
To overcome this, they utilized hundreds of genes obtained from the transcriptomes of 24 isolates from different continents and habitats.
“Our approach, known as phylogenomics, was to reconstruct the evolutionary history by considering whole genomes or large parts of genomes,” said Iker Irisarri, Ph.D., co-senior author of the study. Ta.
“This very powerful method allows us to reconstruct evolutionary relationships with very high precision.”
Researchers have uncovered a new phylogenetic tree for the family Klebsormydiophyceae, revealing that it can be divided into three orders.
“A deep dive into phylogenetic frameworks and our molecular clocks has revealed the ancient ancestor of Klebsormydiophyceae, a multicellular entity that flourished millions of years ago. Its descendants began to diverge into three distinct branches more than 800 million years ago,” said co-lead author Maaike Bierenbroodspot.
Scientists are investigating the evolutionary history of multicellularity within streptococci.
They discovered that the ancient common ancestor of land plants, other chain algae, and Klebsormydiophyceae was already multicellular.
“This discovery reveals the genetic potential of multicellularity among streptococci and shows that the origins of this important trait date back almost a billion years,” said co-author Jan de Vries. the professor said.
of study It was published in the magazine current biology.
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Maike J. Bielenbrodspot other. Phylogenomic insights into the first multicellular streptococci. current biology, published online on January 19, 2024. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2023.12.070
People with type 2 diabetes who lose weight while participating in clinical trials appear to be significantly more likely to have their symptoms reversed than those who lose weight outside of such studies.
Treatments such as insulin injections can help people with type 2 diabetes maintain healthy blood sugar levels. However, if you are overweight or obese, your symptoms may improve when you lose weight.
In fact, less than 10 percent of people with type 2 diabetes who lose weight outside of these trials actually lose weight, even when followed for several years. Wu Hongjian At the Chinese University of Hong Kong. In exams, this number can be closer to 90%.
These discrepancies may be due to sometimes different definitions of what it means to reverse type 2 diabetes, as well as the support and different interventions that often accompany participation in clinical trials. he says.
To better understand this, Dr. Wu and colleagues looked at more than 37,000 people in Hong Kong aged 18 to 75 who were diagnosed with type 2 diabetes between 2000 and 2017, about half of whom were women. ) was studied.
Each participant was followed for an average of just under eight years, and the researchers looked at how their weight changed in the year after diagnosis and whether their symptoms improved during the study period.
The researchers measured glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) levels, which reflect the participants’ blood sugar status over several months. To reverse type 2 diabetes, also called remission, Generally defined as an HbA1c of less than 6.5 percent. When measured at least 3 months after stopping treatment. The researchers were investigating whether these levels occurred during her two consecutive tests conducted six months apart.
The research team only measured the participants’ weight one year after diagnosis, at which point 2% were in remission and half had gained weight, Wu said.
By the end of the study, 6% were in remission at some point, Wu said. About two-thirds of these people needed diabetes medication to get their symptoms back under control within three years.
However, by simply recording participants’ weight one year after diagnosis, the researchers were not able to determine whether the participants continued to gain weight or whether other factors, such as gaining weight at a particular time, could account for some of the weight. We do not know whether it brought participants out of remission. Fat that accumulates around the waist and certain internal organs.
In contrast, one small clinical trial found that up to 86% of type 2 diabetics who lost at least 15 kg went into remission within 1 year. People participating in such studies often benefit from professional dietary management, physical exercise programs, moral support, regular monitoring, feedback, reminders and encouragement, Wu says.
But even people who participate in the control groups of some clinical trials and don’t undergo intensive weight loss programs have higher remission rates than what was seen in Wu’s team’s study.
That may be because, outside of clinical trials, doctors are often reluctant to advise patients with type 2 diabetes to stop treatment, he says. This likely also has to do with differences in how remission is defined, Wu said, since trials often require only one HbA1c measurement in a healthy patient.
Use of Mid-infrared measuring instrument With (MIRI) aboard the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have captured stunning images of N79, a region of interstellar ionized hydrogen in the Large Magellanic Cloud.
This Hubble image shows star-forming region N79 located 163,000 light-years away in the constellation Sera. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / Webb / M. Meixner.
N79 is a massive star-forming complex spanning about 1,630 light-years in the generally unexplored southwestern region of the Large Magellanic Cloud, a neighboring dwarf galaxy about 163,000 light-years from us.
This region is usually considered a younger version of the 30 Doradus, also known as the Tarantula Nebula.
N79 has a star formation efficiency more than twice that of Doradas 30 over the past 500,000 years.
This particular image centers on one of three giant molecular cloud complexes called N79 South (S1 for short).
The distinctive “starburst” pattern surrounding this bright object is a series of diffraction spikes.
“All telescopes that use mirrors to collect light, like Webb, have this form of artifact resulting from the design of the telescope,” Webb astronomers said.
“For Webb, the six largest starburst spikes appear due to the hexagonal symmetry of Webb's 18 primary mirror segments.”
“Such patterns are only noticeable around very bright and compact objects, where all the light comes from the same place.”
“Most galaxies appear very small to our eyes, but we don't see this pattern because they are dimmer and more spread out than a single star.”
“At the longer wavelengths of light captured by MIRI, Webb's view of N79 shows glowing gas and dust in the region.”
“This is because mid-infrared light can reveal what's going on deep within the cloud (whereas shorter wavelength light is absorbed or scattered by dust particles within the nebula). Still embedded Some protostars also appear in this region.”
Star-forming regions such as N79 are of interest to astronomers because their chemical composition is similar to that of giant star-forming regions observed in the early universe.
“The star-forming regions of our Milky Way galaxy are not producing stars at the same ferocious rate as N79 and have a different chemical composition,” the astronomers said.
“Webb now offers us the opportunity to compare and contrast observations of star formation in N79 with deep telescopic observations of distant galaxies in the early universe.”
“These observations of N79 are part of the Webb program to study the evolution of circumstellar disks and envelopes of forming stars over a wide range of masses and at different evolutionary stages.”
“Webb's sensitivity allows us to detect for the first time disks of planet-forming dust around stars of the same mass as the Sun at distances in the Large Magellanic Cloud.”
Elon Musk, who has faced criticism for endorsing anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and allowing anti-Semitic messages on X (formerly Twitter), paid a visit to the Nazi Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp on Monday.
Musk’s visit to this infamous site of Holocaust atrocities preceded his planned attendance at a conference on anti-Semitism organized by the European Jewish Association in the nearby Polish city of Krakow later that day.
Musk was photographed at the Birkenau location alongside Daily Wire podcaster Ben Shapiro, who was also set to participate in the EJA conference. Birkenau, a village near Oświęcim in southern Poland, is enclosed by barbed wire, and contains wooden barracks and the remains of gas chambers as a testament to the Nazi crimes committed there, as well as a monument to the victims. Annual international ceremonies are held at this site.
“Before attending the European Jewish Association conference, Elon Musk visited Auschwitz-Birkenau with EJA President Rabbi Menachem Margolin, Ben Shapiro, Holocaust survivor Gidon Lev John, and others. Mr. Musk laid a wreath at the Wall of Death and participated in a brief memorial and service next to the Birkenau Monument,” the EJA said in an email.
Mr. Musk was slated to engage in a discussion on online anti-Semitism with Mr. Shapiro at a conference in Krakow ahead of International Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27.
After acquiring the platform formerly known as Twitter in 2022, Musk has been accused of allowing anti-Semitic messages on the platform and has faced criticism from the Anti-Defamation League and others. His actions sparked protests from the White House and elsewhere in November, when he posted “You told the truth” at X to a user who accused Jews of hating white people and professing indifference to anti-Semitism. He later apologized for the comment, calling it the most “stupid” post he had ever made.
Last year, several major brands, including Disney and IBM, took action after liberal advocacy group Media Matters found that their ads were running alongside pro-Nazi content and white supremacist posts on the platform. Advertising on the platform was suspended, and Company X subsequently sued Media Matters, alleging that the Washington-based nonprofit created the report in an effort to “drive advertisers off the platform and destroy Company X.”
During World War II, over 1.1 million people, including Jews, Poles, Roma, Soviet prisoners of war, and homosexuals, were murdered at Auschwitz by the Nazis and their collaborators. In total, around 6 million European Jews lost their lives in the Holocaust, with approximately 7,000 survivors found when the Soviets liberated the camp.
Most animals see the world differently than humans, and now it's a little easier to see through their eyes. Using two cameras and some software, the system can create videos that show people what a scene looks like to different species.
“We went outside to photograph birds in the trees, and only then did the brightness of the ultraviolet-colored sky sink in,” he says. Bella Vasas at Queen Mary University of London. “The color of the sky for most animals is different from the color of the sky for us.”
Vasas and colleagues used two commercial cameras housed in 3D-printed cases to record video in both visible and ultraviolet light. They then ran that footage through the software they developed to estimate the wavelengths of light that a particular animal sees with the naked eye. The program processes video frames to reflect the perspective of a particular animal.
The results include a colorful video showing a bee watching a caterpillar reveal hidden body parts to fight off predators, and a close-up of a jumping spider. The camera system works best within 2 meters (6 feet) of the animal, which is not moving so fast that the camera loses focus. Daniel Hanley Co-authored by researchers at George Mason University in Virginia. He says the method works on many insects, spiders, lizards, turtles, birds and mammals.
The “gold standard” for this type of research, he said, is hyperspectral imaging, a technique that can capture uniform wavelengths of light across the visible and ultraviolet spectrum. Jolyon Troscianko at the University of Exeter, UK. But while such equipment costs him more than $20,000, a new camera system costs only a few thousand dollars. This could allow it to be used more widely for photographing moving, life-like animal exhibits. “Imagine a bird of paradise that shows color instantly,” he says.
WASHINGTON – Atomic scientists on Tuesday pushed the “Doomsday Clock” closer to midnight than ever before, warning Russia's nuclear weapons actions amid the invasion of Ukraine, nuclear-armed Israel's war in Gaza, and worsening climate change on a global scale. cited as a factor causing the crisis. A disaster.
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, as it did last year, set the clock to 90 seconds to midnight, the theoretical extinction point. Scientists set the clock based on “existential” risks to the planet and its people, such as nuclear threats, climate change, and disruptive technologies such as artificial intelligence and new biotechnologies.
“Conflict hotspots around the world threaten nuclear escalation, climate change is already causing death and destruction,” Rachel Bronson, the magazine's president and CEO, told Reuters. “Disruptive technologies such as AI and biological research are advancing faster than safeguards.” He added that the fact that there is no change from the previous year “does not indicate that the world is stable.”
A staff member shows the position of the minute hand of the “Doomsday Clock” in Washington, DC, on January 23, 2024. Jacqueline Martin/Associated Press
The Chicago-based nonprofit created the clock in 1947 to warn the public of how close humanity was to global destruction.
Russian massive invasion of Ukraine is set to celebrate its second anniversary next month, and tensions with the West have escalated to the most dangerous levels since the Cold War.
“A permanent end to Russia’s war in Ukraine seems far away, and the possibility that Russia will use nuclear weapons in that conflict remains serious. Over the past year, Russia has sent a number of alarming nuclear signals. '' Bronson said.
Bronson quoted the Russians President Vladimir Putin To be determined in February 2023 Suspend Russia's participation In the New START Treaty with the United States, which limits both countries' strategic nuclear weapons. The United States and Russia possess nearly 90% of the world's nuclear warheads, enough to destroy the Earth multiple times.
Bronson also referenced President Putin's March 2023 announcement regarding Russia's weapons deployment. tactical nuclear weapons Belarusian and Russian parliaments pass laws in October 2023 withdraw ratification A global treaty banning nuclear weapons testing. Russian analyst Sergei Karaganov also spoke last year about the need to threaten nuclear strikes in Europe to intimidate and “calm down” Moscow's enemies.
Israel has so far at war with Hamas According to an Israeli tally, about 1,200 people have been killed since the Gaza-based Palestinian Islamic extremist group launched attacks in southern Israel in October 2023. More than 25,000 people have been killed in the Israeli military offensive, according to Gaza health authorities.
“As a nuclear-armed state, Israel's actions are clearly relevant to the Doomsday debate. Of particular concern is the possibility of a broader escalation of conflict in the region, leading to larger conventional wars and more “It could draw in nuclear or near-nuclear states,” Bronson said.
When watches were first made, the greatest danger came from nuclear weapons. climate change It was first considered as a factor in 2007.
“The world in 2023 has been hit by a major disaster and has entered uncharted territory. hottest year on record And global greenhouse gas emissions continued to rise,” Bronson said. “Global and North Atlantic sea surface temperatures both broke records, and Antarctic sea ice reached its lowest daily area since the advent of satellite data.”
Bronson said 2023 was also a record year for clean energy, with $1.7 trillion in new investment. But this was offset by nearly $1 trillion in fossil fuel investments, Bronson added.
“This shows that current efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, while promising, are far from sufficient to avoid the dangerous human and economic impacts of climate change, and that Changes disproportionately affect the world's poorest people,” Bronson said.
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists was founded in 1945 by scientists such as Albert Einstein and J. Robert Oppenheimer. It relies on a panel of experts in nuclear technology and climate science to set the clock each year. This watch was first introduced during the Cold War tensions following World War II.
Few life milestones are less glamorous and ritualistic than the arrival of middle age. Our skin becomes visibly looser, we get more gray hair, and of course our clothes usually start to feel a little tighter, especially around the waist.
The last one is known as the midlife spread, and it's a commonly accepted idea that as we get older, we start to gain weight around our abdomen. This extra weight is said to be easier to gain and less stable than when we were younger, and it is thought that our active metabolism may slow down as we age. You can no longer get away with consuming this much, and your efforts to get rid of your stomach through diet and exercise will become a losing battle.
So far so miserable. However, in July last year, A study of more than 6,000 people around the world quickly debunked this idea.. It showed that our metabolism remains remarkably stable as we age, at least until our 60s. “From age 20 to age 60, the amount of calories you burn per day is about the same,” says Herman Pontzer of Duke University in North Carolina. “It turns out we have a much lower ability to control our metabolism than we thought.” This will be welcome news for those approaching the age of 45 (usually defined as those between 45 and 65) and facing a frightening epidemic. But that leaves a burning question: If metabolism isn't to blame, what is? And what can you do?
There are TikTok hashtags with millions of followers, endless columns about celebrity waistlines, and a flurry of media coverage when test results come out. It is rare for a new drug to receive so much attention. However, it is even more rare for approved drugs to cause safe and rapid weight loss with minimal effort.
A year ago, most people had never heard of semaglutide. Semaglutide is a drug developed about 10 years ago under the brand name Ozempic to treat type 2 diabetes. It was later approved as a weight loss aid in the US in 2021 under the name Wegovy. With this drug, people can lose a whopping 15% of their body weight.
The impact of this new class of medicines could be unprecedented and could end the world's growing obesity epidemic. “I don’t think it’s fully sunk in yet,” he says. Jonathan Campbell At Duke University in North Carolina, he studies how these drugs affect the body.
First, Wegovy was just the beginning. The next generation of these drugs is in development and will be cheaper, easier to use, and, importantly, even more powerful. Additionally, new evidence suggests that Wegovy and its similar products are more effective when given at a younger age, so doctors are considering their use in teenagers and young children. This increases the possibility of switching from obesity treatment to prevention. “Over the past 40 years, we have seen the obesity landscape change dramatically,” Campbell says. “Now we may be at a tipping point where that goes backwards.”
Why is obesity on the rise?
The rise in obesity has been occurring since the 1970s…
The HyperVerse cryptocurrency scheme targeted investors in developing countries in Asia, Africa, and the Pacific until it eventually collapsed, leaving many people unable to access their funds.
One investor said that in Nepal, some people who took out bank loans to buy Hyperverse packages felt suicidal when they could not withdraw their money, and in some cases even committed self-harm. .
The promoter of UK-based HyperVerse, which toured five African countries in 2022, told a Ghanaian radio station that millions of people around the world are trying to understand blockchain technology “without really understanding it.” He said he has benefited from it.
HyperVerse, which was linked to a previous scheme known as HyperFund, was founded by Australian blockchain entrepreneur Sam Lee and his business partner Ryan Hsu, two of the founders of bankrupt Australian company Blockchain Global. ) was launched by.
Despite one overseas regulator warning that they could be a “scam” and another calling HyperVerse a “suspected pyramid scheme”, a Guardian Australia investigation found , revealed widespread losses from a scheme that escaped regulator warnings in Australia.
This push to expand the system, which encourages existing member states to reap financial rewards for bringing in new members, has resulted in the system spreading to hitherto untapped markets, including developing countries. It seems so.
In January 2022, the Central Bank of Nepal issued a public warning naming Hyperfund and several other unrelated schemes, encouraging people to participate in such cryptocurrency products with the promise of “high returns in a short period of time.” He said he was tempted to do so.
In a February 2023 Zoom meeting between Nepali Hyper members and Lee, the members said people were angry because they could not withdraw funds from the platform.
One member told Mr Lee that he was “sad and grumpy” and was fielding requests from people who didn’t have access to the funds he brought into the scheme.
“We really need to do something fast, you may be somewhere far away and you may not be under direct pressure, but people like us, we don’t live in the neighborhood. And our relationship has deteriorated, and whenever we do something, it’s people like us. We wake up in the morning and there’s people at the door.”
Q&A
How did the HyperVerse investment scheme work?
show
Investors were offered “membership” to HyperVerse, a “blockchain community” where members could “explore the HyperVerse ecosystem.”
The minimum membership amount is USD 300, which will be converted into Hyperunits after investment.
This scheme offers a minimum return of 0.5% per day, with a return of 300% in 600 days.
Members were encouraged to “reinvest” their earnings and were provided with more Hyper Units if they did not withdraw after funds became available.
Members were also paid hyper units for recruiting new members, and were paid a referral fee on a sliding scale based on the number of people recruited. Additional commissions were paid based on the number of people these recruits subsequently recruited up to the 20th level.
Hyperunits are linked to various crypto tokens and, once matured, can be withdrawn and converted into other cryptocurrencies.
While early investors were able to make profits and withdraw money, this system has left many investors unable to access their funds.
A Nepalese man living in the UK told Lee that some people in his home country try to commit suicide by taking out bank loans to buy the Hyperverse package, and one of his acquaintances has committed self-harm. That's what he said.
“There have also been instances where people have lent money to buy this company's packages because they were presented in such a favorable way. We know it's wrong, we urge them to do so. But…the benefits outweighed the risks, so people took out some loans from banks and packaged this project. I bought it,” said a Nepali man.
“I don’t want to name names, but there was a case of self-harm in my hometown. [in Nepal]. We have received several SOS calls. With people in this situation, it is better to take a suicidal step than to wait for this company to come up with a repayment plan. ”
In response, Mr Lee said on a Zoom call that he hoped vulnerable people would be prioritized in recovering their initial investment, but denied he was responsible.
“I don't want to say anything about these individual incidents because I'm not in a position to empathize with them. But, you know, we just have to recognize…others Many industries have been misunderstood, and this is just the newest industry to be misunderstood,” Lee said.
“And the way to prevent something like this from happening again is that we need to increase everyone's literacy about technology and how these opportunities work.”
Sam Lee, one of the founders of the failed blockchain global cryptocurrency exchange. Photo: Blockchain Global/Facebook
Lee blamed the situation on the “corporate” team behind HyperVerse.
Despite speaking at HyperVerse's official launch, he denied any involvement in HyperVerse, saying he was only involved in the fund management side through his role at HyperTech Group, of which he is chairman.
Another person who attended the February 2023 meeting challenged Mr. Lee on this claim.
“Community leaders have always projected you as a Midas-esque figure – HyperTech, HyperVerse, HyperFund, whatever, it’s Sam Lee, it’s Sam Lee, it’s Sam Lee, that’s what we do every day. Everything you’ve been told every day,” they said. Said.
In response, Lee said, “If you don't get involved, you can't completely disappear from HyperVerse.”
“The company put out misleading information, which of course management used to drive sales, so ultimately the company loses out. But I am 100% “It's not free, because if things were misunderstood, they could have always issued a press release or a statement to clarify,” he said.
The Government has approved a donation of £6 million from Sir James Dyson to fund the expansion of a local state primary school, Malmesbury Anglican Primary School in Wiltshire, near Dyson’s research and development campus, despite concerns about the potential impact on nearby schools.
Education Secretary Gillian Keegan announced the approval on Monday, revealing that the donation will fund a ‘first class’ Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics (STEM) center, additional classrooms, and space for 210 more pupils, with an opening date in September 2027, subject to planning permission by Wiltshire Council, bringing the total capacity to 630 students.
The James Dyson Foundation, which is responsible for the donation, has not officially welcomed the approval and is considering the details of the decision carefully.
In a letter to the Times last year, Mr Dyson expressed his disappointment with his charity’s donations being blocked and described the difficulty of getting things done in the UK.
This claim was denied by Downing Street, but local opposition from Laura Mays, Wiltshire Council’s cabinet member for children’s services, suggested that there is already enough space in three local schools to meet demand.
Reports indicate that many employees at Dyson’s UK headquarters in Malmesbury would like to send their children to the school, but the current size does not accommodate this.
Education Secretary Gillian Keegan expressed her appreciation for the generous donation from the Dyson Foundation, emphasizing the support it will provide for local students and the development of future scientists and engineers.
Malmesbury Primary School’s headteacher, Steve Heal, expressed gratitude for the foundation’s support, highlighting the long journey to reach this point and the innovative curriculum created in collaboration with Dyson.
Laura Mays, following the government’s announcement, emphasized the importance of providing opportunities for all students and assured that the council will work with all parties involved to ensure the best outcome for all students.
Former education secretary Kenneth Baker supported Dyson’s efforts and questioned the government’s decision to reject the proposal, suggesting that it could discourage other industries and entrepreneurs from investing in technical education in schools.
A 61-year-old man is suing Macy’s and Sunglass Hut’s parent company, alleging that the store’s use of a facial recognition system misidentified him as the perpetrator of an armed robbery, leading to his false arrest. While in prison, he was beaten and raped, according to the complaint.
Harvey Eugene Murphy Jr. was arrested and charged with robbing a Houston-area Sunglass Hut of thousands of dollars worth of merchandise in January 2022, but his lawyers say he was living in California at the time of the robbery. According to his lawyer, he was arrested on October 20, 2023.
According to Murphy’s complaint, employees at Essilor Luxottica, Sunglass Hut’s parent company, worked with retail partner Macy’s to use facial recognition software to identify Murphy as the robber. The images sent through the facial recognition system came from a low-quality camera, according to the complaint. Houston police were investigating an armed robbery when an EssilorLuxottica employee called police and determined that one of the two robbers was using the technology, so the investigation could be discontinued. I told him. The employee also said the system indicated that Murphy had committed two other robberies, according to the complaint.
When Murphy returned to Texas from California, he went to the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to renew his license. Murphy told the Guardian that within minutes of identifying himself as a DMV employee, he was contacted by a police officer and informed that there was a warrant out for his arrest on suspicion of aggravated robbery. He said Murphy was not given any details about the crime he allegedly committed other than the day the robbery occurred. He found himself more than a thousand miles away in Sacramento, California, at the time of the robbery.
“I almost thought it was a joke,” Murphy said.
Still heHe was arrested and taken to the local county jail, where he was held for 10 days before being transported to the Harris County Jail for processing.
After several days in Harris County, the alibi was confirmed by both a public defender and a prosecutor, and the charges were ultimately dropped, according to the complaint.
Murphy has never been convicted of a crime. Nevertheless, he says the detention left deep scars. He claimed that he was brutally beaten and gang-raped by three other men inside the prison hours before his release. Murphy said he was threatened with death when he tried to call prison staff. After the alleged attack, Murphy remained in the same cell as them until his release.
“It was kind of scary,” Murphy said. “My anxiety is so high, I’m shaking all the time. And I just stood up in my bunk and faced the wall, just praying that something would happen and get me out of the tank.”
“This attack left him with permanent scars that he will have to live with for the rest of his life,” the complaint states. “All of this happened to Murphy because the defendants relied on facial recognition technology that is known to be error-prone and flawed.”
Murphy didn’t realize that facial recognition technology could be used as evidence against her until two weeks ago, when she began working with her attorney, Daniel Dutko.
Datko said he discovered in police documents that Sunglass Hut employees shared camera footage with Macy’s that was used to identify Murphy. Datko said Macy’s and Sunglass Hut then contacted police together. Although Macy’s has retail partnerships with eyewear brands at multiple stores, Macy’s was not involved in the robbery because Sunglass Hut is an independent store, he said.
“We’re very comfortable saying that facial recognition software is the only possible explanation and that’s the only reason. [Sunglass Hut] I was going to Macy’s to identify him,” Datko said.
Mr. Murphy’s case marks the seventh known case of false arrest using facial recognition in the United States, further highlighting flaws in the technology, which is already widely used in police departments and retail stores. However, all of the publicly known cases of false arrests using facial recognition to date have involved black victims. Murphy’s case marks the first known case in which a failure of this technique resulted in the wrongful arrest of a white man. Just last month, Rite Aid settled with the Federal Trade Commission over its use of a facial recognition system that previously misidentified Black, Latino, and Asian customers as “likely to be involved” in shoplifting. As part of the settlement, the pharmacy chain was banned from using facial recognition in its stores for five years. Then, in the summer of 2023, a woman named Portia Woodruff was arrested on suspicion of carjacking using a facial recognition system to authenticate her identity.
Macy’s has previously sued Regarding the use of facial recognition technology. In a 2020 lawsuit, a Chicago woman accused the company of violating Illinois’ biometric privacy law by collaborating with facial recognition provider Clearview AI without her or other customers’ consent.
Nathan Fried Wessler, deputy director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, said this is another example of the “extreme dangers of facial recognition technology.”
“We have seen case after case where police reflexively relied on unreliable facial recognition results, allowing the technology to make false matches and corrupting witness identification procedures,” Wessler said in a statement. “As the facts alleged in this case demonstrate, the consequences of wrongful arrest are dire. Lawmakers need to stop law enforcement and companies from dangerously relying on facial recognition results to put people behind bars. There must be.”
Murphy is seeking $10 million in damages.
Macy’s said it does not comment on pending litigation.EssilorLuxottica did not immediately respond to the Guardian’s request for comment.
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