New findings suggest that the key to stress tolerance lies in the microbiome

Posted on November 8, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Recent studies have revealed the significant role of the gut microbiome, a vast community of microorganisms residing in the digestive tract, in influencing the body’s response to stress.

A new investigation published in Cell Metabolism proposes that gut microbes greatly impact the body’s circadian rhythm, particularly in managing stress levels throughout the day.

The research indicates that the activity and composition of gut microbes naturally vary, affecting the release of stress-regulating hormones like adrenaline and cortisol.

This breakthrough has sparked hopes among researchers of utilizing microbes as potential remedies for mental health conditions. According to Professor Paul Ross, Director of APC Microbiome Ireland, this study represents a significant advancement in comprehending the microbiome’s impact on mental well-being.

A disturbance in the microbiome balance can disrupt the body’s circadian rhythm, leading to sleep disturbances, immune system issues, and metabolic changes, affecting stress hormone release.

One particular microorganism, Lactobacillus, is believed to play a crucial role in regulating stress hormones.

The study’s lead author, Dr. Gabriel Tofani, emphasized the gut microbiota’s role in sustaining the body’s natural stress regulation processes.

To demonstrate the connection, researchers administered antibiotics to mice to reduce their microbiome, observing alterations in the release rhythm of the stress hormone corticosterone.

This research lays the groundwork for potential treatments targeting mental health conditions by understanding the intricate relationship between the gut and the brain and its impact on the body’s stress response.

Professor Ross highlighted the potential of microbiome-based interventions in enhancing mental health, noting that this study brings us closer to achieving that objective.

Read More:

About the Experts:

Dr. Gabriel Tofani: A researcher at Cork University in Ireland, focusing on circadian rhythms, stress, and gut microbiota.

Professor Paul Ross: Director of APC Microbiome Ireland, conducting research on the human microbiome, bacterial competition, physiology, and genetics.

Source: www.sciencefocus.com

New DNA evidence from Pompeii challenges prior beliefs about ash-covered victims

Posted on November 8, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

After centuries, it has been discovered that long-standing beliefs about some of the inhabitants of Pompeii were not as accurate as previously thought.

Recent DNA analysis of human remains from the ancient Roman town destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD has shown that some victims were misidentified, challenging modern assumptions. This has shed light on how historical data is viewed in the past.

The authors of the study published in the journal Science on Thursday wrote, “We have found that traditional interpretations regarding an individual’s gender and familial connections do not align with the new evidence.” They also added, “It is not always reliable to apply modern gender norms when interpreting historical information.”

Archaeologists in Pompeii famously immortalized the victims by using plaster to recreate their bodies, leading to various stories being told about them. For example, it was believed for a long time that two women died embracing each other and a mother was found holding her child.

However, the new DNA analysis revealed that the individual thought to be the child’s mother was actually an unrelated man. Additionally, at least one of the individuals believed to be sisters or mother and daughter were actually both men.

Professor David Reich, one of the authors of the study, warned about the dangers of inventing stories about gender and family relationships in ancient societies based on present-day expectations.

The study involved researchers from the University of Florence in Italy and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. They used preserved genetic material to determine the gender, ancestry, and genetic relationships of the victims by examining 14 casts that had been preserved for about 2000 years.

Their findings also showed that the residents of Pompeii were diverse, with ancestral roots primarily traced back to immigrants from the Eastern Mediterranean. This underscores the multicultural nature of the city and its inhabitants.

Mount Vesuvius had been mostly inactive before the catastrophic eruption that lasted over 24 hours with devastating power. The eruption buried Pompeii, home to an estimated 20,000 people, under layers of ash, pumice, and mud, preserving the city for centuries.

Pompeii remained buried and forgotten until its rediscovery in 1748. In the 19th century, archaeologists used a technique to create casts of the victims by pouring plaster into the voids left by decomposed bodies, resulting in lifelike molds that captured the victims’ final moments.

Ongoing research on Pompeii continues to unveil new insights into the ancient city and its inhabitants. Recent discoveries, such as using artificial intelligence to decipher a charred scroll and the unveiling of a luxurious home, highlight the constant exploration of Pompeii’s history.

Source: www.nbcnews.com

Review of the new Apple MacBook Pro M4: Improved speed, performance, and affordability.

Posted on November 8, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Apple’s 2024 upgraded MacBook Pro ended the year on a high, with a significant power boost from the M4 chip, twice the memory than standard, longer battery life, and a lower price.

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Prices for the long-running laptop range start from £1,599 (€1,899/$1,599/AU$2,499), which is around £100 cheaper than last year’s M3 model. While it’s still an expensive, premium laptop, it does come with at least 16GB of RAM instead of the 8GB on previous models, which is worth paying extra for an upgrade.

The appearance has not changed from its predecessor. The body is still a solid, premium-looking aluminum shell that looks great in either gray or black. Although it’s not ultra-thin, its 14.2-inch size means it won’t feel cramped in your bag, making it perfect for working on the go.

This laptop has a premium look, feel, and feel for the price, and is available in black or gray aluminum. Photo: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian

The screen is still the star of the show. Super bright and crisp mini LED display with 120Hz refresh rate to keep things running smoothly. It’s noticeably brighter than many rivals for general tasks, and truly shines with HDR content. Apple is currently selling a special nano-textured display option for an additional £150, which significantly reduces glare when working in bright light or outdoors, if needed.

The on-screen webcam saw a very welcome upgrade to a 12MP Stage Center camera, similar to the one used on most iPads from 2021 onwards. It automatically pans and scans to stay in the frame. This is a killer feature for anyone who lives their life online. Work video calls. There’s a novel.”desk view” option uses an ultra-wide lens to view the space in front of your laptop and allows you to demonstrate it remotely. Although the built-in camera doesn’t provide a very clear view, it’s easier to use your iPhone as a secondary camera with various accessories.

The camera doesn’t yet support Apple’s Face ID system for iPhones and iPads. That’s a shame, even though the Touch ID fingerprint sensor in the power button works well.

Specifications

Screen: 14.2 inch Mini LED (3024×1964; 254 ppi) ProMotion (120Hz)
Processor: Apple M4, Pro, or Max
Ram: 16, 24, 32, or up to 128GB
Storage: 512GB, 1, 2, 4, or 8TB SSD
Operating System: macOS 15.1 Sequoia
Camera: 12MP center stage
Connectivity: Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3, 3x Thunderbolt 4/USB 4, HDMI 2.1, SD card, headphones
Size: 221.2×312.6×15.5mm
Weight: 1.55kg

All 14-inch MacBook Pro models have three USB-C ports that allow you to connect to two external monitors at the same time. Photo: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian

The big upgrade under the hood is the addition of Apple’s latest M4 series chip, first seen in the iPad Pro M4 earlier this year. The base 14-inch MacBook Pro comes with a 10-core version of the M4 chip and 16 GB of RAM (double the previous model), which is a welcome upgrade.

The M4 chip is up to 25% faster across the board than the traditional M3 chip, and up to 1.8x faster than the original M1 chip, making it extremely fast indeed. It feels very fast in everyday use, launching apps and processing data noticeably faster than a MacBook Pro with a 2021 or newer M1 Pro chip.

This laptop has best-in-class battery life, lasting around 21 hours of light browsing and regular usage with many tabs open in Chrome, a word processor, and various small utilities, note-taking and messaging apps can manage approximately 18 hours of work. light photo editing affinity photo. It also has a long battery life on standby, draining only about 1% overnight when closed.

For many use cases, the M4 chip is sufficient. However, if you’re looking to render 3D objects, crunch numbers, or write code, the M4 Pro and M4 Max chips are available, which add more high-performance processing and graphics cores. thunderbolt 5 Connectivity.

The base model M4 laptop has an additional Thunderbolt 4/USB 4 port compared to the previous model, allowing you to drive two external monitors and a laptop display simultaneously.

Sustainability

The Space Black color looks just as great as the high-end version of its predecessor and is now available on all MacBook Pro M4 models. Photo: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian

MacBook Pro is made with 35% recycled materials, including aluminum, copper, gold, plastic, rare earth elements, steel, and tin. In its report, Apple provides a detailed analysis of the impact computers have on the environment.

The laptop is generally repairable, and Apple makes its repair manual available. The battery life is as follows: Over 1,000 full charge cycles and can Apple will replace it for £245. The company offers trade-in and free recycling programs, including for non-Apple products.

macOS Sequoia and the First Apple Intelligence

MacOS 15.1 now enables iPhone Mirroring, Siri input, AI Cleanup for Photos, and several other Apple Intelligence features. Composition: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian

MacBook Pro runs the latest version of macOS Sequoia 15.1, which comes with a variety of new Messages and other features that are compatible with iOS 18.1. It features a very useful new window tiling system that snaps windows to the side or full screen when you drag them to the edge of your display, similar to the feature in Windows 11.

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It has iPhone mirroring allows you to wirelessly view a virtual representation of your iPhone on your Mac and control it with your mouse and keyboard, including using apps. A selection of notifications from your phone will appear in your Mac’s Notification Center. This is useful for certain services that only have a phone app.

But the new features that are getting the most attention are the first few features of Apple Intelligence. These include the same AI writing tools you’d find on your iPhone or iPad that can proofread, rewrite, and summarize text. Since they are built directly into the operating system, they are easier and faster to use than third-party options, but I have only found them useful a few times.

You can now type and talk with the new Siri. This works very well on Mac. Double-tapping the command button brings up a text box, which is more socially acceptable in an office or coffee shop than asking a question aloud. However, Siri’s capabilities are still far behind rivals such as Google’s Gemini.

Other small AI tools are scattered around various apps. The Photos app now has natural language search and a new AI cleanup tool to remove unwanted objects. Mail and Messages apps have AI smart replies and conversation summaries that stack and summarize notifications from all your apps for quick analysis.

I don’t think any of these tools are killer features for your Mac, but some of them can be useful in a pinch, and when they’re not, they usually don’t get in the way.

Price

Prices for the 14-inch MacBook Pro M4 start at £1,599 (€1,899/$1,599/AU$2,499). The M4 Pro model is priced from £1,999 (€2,399/$1,999/AU$3,299), while the M4 Max starts at £3,199 (€3,799/$3,199/AU$4,999).

For comparison, the MacBook Air M3 starts at £1,099, the iPad Pro M4 costs £999, the comparable Dell XPS 14 costs around £1,400, the Razer Blade 14 costs £2,150, and Microsoft’s Surface Laptop Studio 2 is priced at £1,090. £2,069.

Verdict

The MacBook Pro M4 shows that small improvements across the board can slowly add up to bigger results. It may not look all that different from last year’s M3 model, but it has significant speed and battery life upgrades that make a big difference in day-to-day operation when compared to a machine that’s just three years old.

14-inch laptops are still the best in terms of screen size and portability, thanks to Apple’s best-in-class keyboard, trackpad, and great display.

Finally having a good Center Stage camera on the MacBook Pro is a very welcome upgrade, even without Face ID. An additional USB-C port, double the boot memory, and the faster M4 chip also make this boot model even more appealing.

It’s still an expensive laptop, but it’s on par as a premium workstation that can be used at full speed away from a power socket and has a very long battery life, unless you specifically need Windows 11. There is no.

Strong Points: The M4 chip is faster, has more power options, a minimum of 16 GB RAM, very long battery life, a great miniLED ProMotion screen, a great center stage camera, plenty of ports and SD card slots, great speakers, It has Touch ID, a great keyboard and trackpad.

Cons: No Face ID, no USB-A, RAM or SSD cannot be upgraded after purchase, is expensive, and not a big upgrade on the M3 model.

Touch ID on the power button is a great feature, but it’s Apple’s best-in-class keyboard and trackpad that make working with your MacBook Pro a joy. Photo: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian

Source: www.theguardian.com

Ancient Shoreline Uncovered in Utopia Region of Mars

Posted on November 8, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Sedimentary mineral deposits discovered on the surface of Mars may be the remains of ancient oceans from 3.5 billion years ago. New results from China's Tianwen-1/Zhulong mission suggest the existence of landforms consistent with the coastline of the southern Utopian Plains, providing further evidence for the existence of a short-lived ocean early in the planet's history.

Shoryu landing site. Image credit: Wu others., doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-75507-w.

“The hypothesis of a Martian ocean in the northern lowlands remains an interesting unanswered question about the early stages of Mars' evolution,” said Bo Wu of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and colleagues.

“The presence of an ocean had a major impact on early Mars' climate and atmosphere and may have left a geological record of its existence.”

“China's Mars probe Zhulong, aboard Tianwen-1, successfully landed in the southern part of Mars' Utopia Plain in May 2021.”

“This area has long been hypothesized to be part of an ancient ocean that once covered the northern lowlands.”

In this study, Dr. Wu and his co-authors analyzed data from the Tianwen 1 orbiter and the Zhoulong rover to provide estimates of the surface age and mineral composition of materials found in the southern Utopia Plains. .

They identified distinct geomorphological features, such as valleys and sedimentary channels, consistent with near-shore zones, suggesting a possible formation event involving a flood about 3.68 billion years ago.

In this scenario, a short period of frozen ocean formed the coastline, and the sea surface may have froze and disappeared about 3.42 billion years ago.

“Different types of water-related geomorphological features were separated by specific topographic contours, suggesting different types of marine environments,” the researchers said.

“The area was subdivided into a foreshore highland-to-lowland transition unit, a shallow marine unit, and a deepwater unit.”

“In situ observations of sedimentary rocks, water-related lamination features, and subsurface sedimentary layers also indicate past water activity.”

“The results suggested an evolutionary scenario for the southern Utopian coastal zone: (i) the Late Noachian Utopian Plains flood reached the foreshore approximately 3.65 to 3.68 billion years ago; (ii) The formation of post-Flood shallow and deep marine units occurred during the early Hesperian, approximately 3.5 and 3.4 billion years ago, respectively. completed by 10 million years ago. (iii) Subsurface volatiles gradually disappeared during the Amazonian period.

of study appear in the diary scientific report.

_____

B. Wu others. 2024. Observations at the Turon landing site reveal an ancient coastal zone believed to be located in the southern part of Mars' utopia. science officer 14, 24389;doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-75507-w

Source: www.sci.news

Researchers examine how tides impact the interiors of planets and moons

Posted on November 8, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

A team of scientists from the University of Arizona, Delft University of Technology, and the California Institute of Technology's Lunar and Planetary Institute has developed a new method to calculate how tides affect the interiors of the solar system's planets and moons. Importantly, they investigated the effects of internal tides on objects that do not have perfectly spherical internal structures.

Europa's surface stands out in this newly reprocessed color view. Image scale is 1.6 km per pixel. North of Europe is on the right. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SETI Institute.

Celestial tides refer to the deformations that celestial bodies experience when they interact with other bodies due to gravity.

Consider how Jupiter's powerful gravity pulls on its icy moon Europa.

Because Europa's orbit is not circular, the overwhelming gravitational pressure on Jupiter's moons changes as it moves along Jupiter's orbit.

When Europa is closest to Jupiter, the planet's gravity is most felt.

The energy of this deformation heats Europa's interior, allowing an ocean of liquid water to exist beneath the moon's icy surface.

“The same is true for Saturn's moon Enceladus,” says Dr. Alexander Byrne, a researcher at the California Institute of Technology.

“Enceladus has an ice shell that is expected to have much more aspherical symmetry than Europa.”

The body tides experienced by celestial bodies influence how the world evolves over time and, in cases like Europa and Enceladus, its potential habitability for life as we know it. may give.

“The tidal response of spherically symmetric objects has the same wavelength as the tidal forces. Lateral inhomogeneities generate additional tidal responses with spectra that depend on the spatial pattern of such fluctuations.” the researchers said.

“For Mercury, the Moon, and Io, the amplitude of this signal is as much as 1-10% of the dominant tidal response to long-wavelength shear modulus fluctuations, which exceed about 10% of the mean shear modulus.”

“For Europa, Ganymede, and Enceladus, a shell thickness variation of 50% of the average shell thickness could result in an additional signal of about 1% and about 10% for Jupiter's moons and Enceladus, respectively.”

The authors also discussed how their results can help scientists interpret observations made by missions to a variety of different worlds, from Mercury to the moon to the outer planets of our solar system. .

“Future missions such as BepiColombo and JUICE have the potential to measure these signals,” they said.

“Lateral changes in viscosity affect the distribution of tidal heating.”

“This may promote the thermal evolution of tidal bodies and influence the distribution of active areas.”

of findings will appear in Planetary Science Journal.

_____

Mark Rovira-Navarro others. 2024. A spectral method for calculating the tides of laterally inhomogeneous objects. planet. Science. J 5, 129; doi: 10.3847/PSJ/ad381f

This article is a version of a press release provided by NASA.

Source: www.sci.news

Increasing fire risk due to drought in Northeastern areas.

Posted on November 8, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

overview

Much of the Northeast is in drought after an unusually dry and warm start to autumn.
Nationally, October was one of the driest months on record.
Fires are burning in New Jersey and Connecticut, and the fire danger remains high.

The dryness and unseasonably warm weather in the Northeast has pushed much of the region into drought, sparking wildfires in New Jersey, Connecticut and Massachusetts.

October ended as one of the driest months on record in the United States, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Precipitation was particularly low in the northeast.

Cities such as Philadelphia. Newark, New Jersey. Wilmington, Delaware. And Norfolk, Virginia, recorded no rain at all in October. Southeast Regional Climate Center collects precipitation data from more than 1,400 weather stations across the country. Several cities, including Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., set new records for consecutive days without any measurable precipitation in October.

Firefighters and wildfire in Evesham, New Jersey, Wednesday, November 6, 2024
New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (via AP)

“This is an area that is not typically associated with drought,” said Benjamin Cook, a part-time researcher at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in Palisades, New York. “It's not very common for really severe drought conditions to last this long.”

The drought continues into the first week of November, leaving much of the region in a “severe” drought. US Drought Monitor tracks the national situation and publishes weekly color-coded maps showing the extent and intensity of the drought.

The Drought Monitor's latest maps released Thursday showed drought conditions extending from Virginia, Pennsylvania and New York to Massachusetts and Maine. Dry conditions have intensified in some states, with parts of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Maryland currently in “extreme” drought.

“Extreme drought is basically a once-in-25-year type of drought,” says Brian, a climatologist at the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and one of the mapmakers for the U.S. Drought Monitor.・Mr. Fuchs says. .

Drought watches and warnings have been issued in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, asking people to voluntarily reduce their water use.

Part of the region's dry and warmer-than-usual weather is due to a strong high-pressure system that has remained over much of the country for several weeks. In the Northeast, Great Lakes, and South, temperatures were 15 to 30 degrees Fahrenheit above normal for late October and early November.

More than half of the continental United States is experiencing some degree of drought. That includes 56% of the Northeast, according to the Drought Monitor.

Source: www.nbcnews.com

Pompeii Burials Reveal New Insights Through DNA Analysis

Posted on November 8, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Plaster statues of those who died at Pompeii. DNA testing revealed that the adult on the right was a man unrelated to the young child in his lap.

Pompeii Archaeological Park

Genetic testing has revealed that a plaster cast in Pompeii was not the person it was assumed to be, highlighting how idealized narratives can be projected onto archaeological evidence.

The analysis also revealed that Pompeii's demographics were also much more complex and diverse than previously thought.

When Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD, several Roman towns were buried, including Pompeii. Many of Pompeii's inhabitants were completely suffocated by the compressed ash during the eruption, and as their bodies decomposed, cavities formed, perfectly preserving their positions in their final moments.

in 19 years^th In the century, archaeologists developed a method of pouring plaster into cavities to create lifelike castings. Since then, more than 100 of these castings have been made, preserving the victims' shapes and bones that have remained undecomposed for centuries.

But it says it has long been known that many of the plaster statues were worked into different poses, sometimes placed together, to add drama to the story of Pompeii. Valeria Amoretti At the Archaeological Park of Pompeii in Naples, Italy.

To learn more about who these people were, Amoretti and colleagues examined 14 plaster casts and extracted DNA from the bones of five of them.

What they discovered completely changed the established interpretation of who they were. It was long believed that an adult wearing a gold bracelet and carrying a child on her lap was the child's mother. DNA analysis revealed that they were actually adult males and were not biologically related to the child. A nearby person previously interpreted to be the father was also unrelated to the child, who was assumed to be the mother.

Another pair, believed to be sisters or mother and daughter who died in an embrace, also included at least one genetic male, making them unlikely to be related.

Genetic analysis further revealed that the people of Pompeii had a diverse ancestry, including elements related to modern-day Jewish populations in the eastern Mediterranean, the Levant, and North Africa.

Amoretti says it's no surprise that the Roman world was multicultural and that the Mediterranean Sea and its ports brought people together.

“But discovering the extent of this melting pot, even in an average provincial city like Pompeii, and getting scientific evidence of it from ancient DNA is very interesting,” she says.

Alyssa Mitnik Researchers at Harvard University say the study highlights the importance of applying science before interpreting archeology at face value.

“Ultimately, it reminds us that the most intuitive, dramatic, sensational explanations aren't always the truth, and encourages us to recognize and question our preconceptions,” she says. .

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Source: www.newscientist.com

Chinese spacecraft discovers more evidence of ancient ocean on Mars

Posted on November 8, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Topographic map of Mars showing Utopian plains that may have once been an ocean

United States Geological Survey

Possible ancient coastlines have been discovered in a region of Mars explored by China’s Zhurong rover, adding further evidence that vast lowlands in Mars’ northern hemisphere may once have been covered by ocean. The evidence has been obtained.

The rover landed in the southern part of Utopia Plain in May 2021 and remained active for almost a year. Researchers studying data from the rover have found hints that there was an ancient ocean or liquid water 400,000 years ago.

now, Bo Woo Researchers from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and their colleagues conducted a comprehensive analysis of the topographical features of the landing area by combining remote sensing data from satellites and observations from the spacecraft.

They say they found features consistent with the presence of a southern Utopian coastline, including valleys and sediment channels. They also determined the dating and composition of surface sediments in the area. Based on this, the research team believes that the ocean existed 3.68 billion years ago, but froze and disappeared about 260 million years later.

“This discovery not only provides further evidence in support of the Martian ocean theory, but also perhaps presents for the first time a discussion of its evolutionary scenario,” Wu said.

This area can be divided into a shallow area to the south and a deep area to the north. Wu said shallower parts of the ocean may have been up to 600 meters deep, but there isn’t enough data to estimate the ocean’s maximum depth.

“Water is an important element for life, and the presence of oceans on Mars in the past raises the possibility that Mars may once have harbored early microbial life,” he says.

Mathieu Rapport Researchers at Stanford University in California say whether early Mars had an ocean is a highly debated question with significant implications for the planet’s past habitability. He said future missions will need to test the new findings.

“Utopia Plains may constitute a valuable record of early Martian near-shore and coastal environments,” Rapport says.

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Source: www.newscientist.com

Private jet carbon emissions have skyrocketed in recent years

Posted on November 8, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Elon Musk will board a private jet in Beijing in 2023

Jade Gao/AFP via Getty Images

Researchers say private jet flights should be subject to a carbon tax to curb runaway carbon emissions from the sector.

Emissions from civil aviation increased by 46% between 2019 and 2023, according to an analysis of 18.7 million flights by nearly 26,000 aircraft.

Flights were mainly for leisure purposes, with 1,846 commercial flights alone leading up to the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. Other popular destinations included the Cannes Film Festival, the Super Bowl, the COP28 climate change conference in Dubai and the World Economic Forum in Davos. Travel to the south of France, Ibiza and other Spanish destinations peaked during the summer months as people jetted in for long weekends in the sun.

“A fairly small group of very wealthy individuals are driving up emissions pretty quickly because of their lifestyles and investments,” he says. stephen gosling At Linnaeus University, Sweden.

Together with his colleagues, Goessling used flight tracking data from millions of flights to build a picture of civil aviation usage around the world.

Flying in a private jet is the most polluting form of travel, emitting an average of 3.6 tonnes of CO2 per flight. Equivalent to the annual carbon footprint of a person living in Sweden.

The analysis found that most private jet flights are short, with nearly half of all flights flying less than 500 kilometers. Most were within the United States and Europe.

Total emissions from private jets in 2023 will be 15.6 megatons of carbon dioxide, equivalent to the annual emissions of Tanzania. This is up from 10.7 million tonnes in 2019.

Growth rates were distorted by the coronavirus pandemic. Unlike civil aviation, which had significant restrictions in 2020 and 2021, civil aviation saw only a small drop in flight numbers and emissions in 2020, before returning to growth the following year.

According to the data, many of the most widely used private jets are owned by billionaires such as Tesla CEO Elon Musk, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, pop star Jay-Z and TV personality Kim Kardashian. It is said to be owned by a celebrity. Compiled by the website “Celebrity Jet”.

“This is about inequality in greenhouse gas production,” he says. mark maslin At University College London. “It's not even the 1 percent. It's the richest 0.1 percent of people in the world who snap their fingers and take private jets.”

Goessling says the high personal emissions of the ultra-wealthy run the risk of undermining the public's desire to reduce personal emissions. “If the very rich don't need to reduce their emissions, there's no reason for anyone else to reduce their emissions, because everyone else is reducing their emissions,” he says.

Mr Goessling would like to see a carbon tax applied to the use of private jets. “We can put a price tag on every ton [of carbon] “It's being emitted, and I think everyone agrees that it's fair for the wealthy to pay for the damage they're causing,” he says.

Some hope the government goes further. Sean Curry Campaign group Stay Grounded is calling for a total ban on the use of private jets. “About half of these flights are short-haul flights,” he says. “If we ban private jets and invest in real infrastructure, they could easily be replaced by trains.”

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Source: www.newscientist.com

Why VAR Is Infuriating Soccer Fans and What Can Be Done About It

Posted on November 8, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Liverpool fans crowd to watch the on-field VAR screen at Anfield Stadium

Alex Dodd – CameraSport via Getty Images

If you’ve watched any football, or even soccer, in the past few years, you know that the game has been embroiled in controversy surrounding new officiating technology. The Video Assistant Referee (VAR) system was introduced in the English Premier League in 2019 to reduce referee errors and get more correct calls. Instead, it created a new kind of uncertainty and undermined our understanding of basic rules such as offside and handball. It has also infuriated fans, who can often be heard shouting “this isn’t football anymore” after lengthy VAR checks.

It’s safe to say that soccer fans love to get furious, especially when a referee’s decision goes against their team. But as I argue in my new book, I can’t stop thinking about VAR, there’s more to this than meets the eye. As someone involved in developing new ways to measure educational attainment, I’ve thought long and hard about why VAR is so frustrating. I think the problem has to do with the challenge of pinpointing objective reality, the difficulty of accurate measurement, and human nature’s aversion to uncertainty.

But what I realized is that VAR exemplifies the limits of rationality in many fields far beyond the field of football. So let’s briefly explore the broader history of measurement, from attempts to determine the boiling point of water in the 18th century to the struggle to accurately assess boiling point.

Source: www.newscientist.com

Ultra-smooth method achieves 99.9% pure separation of oil and water

Posted on November 7, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Difficult to separate oil and water without leaving behind impurities

Abaka Press/Alamy

A mixture of oil and water can be efficiently separated by pumping it through narrow channels between semipermeable membranes, paving the way for a cheaper and cleaner way to treat industrial waste. Experimental prototypes successfully recovered both oil and water with purity greater than 99.9 percent.

Various methods already exist for dividing such mixtures into their constituent parts, including spinning the mixture in a centrifuge, mechanically removing oil from the surface, and allowing some substances to pass through but These include dividing mixtures using chemicals, electrical charges, or semipermeable membranes that do not allow other substances to pass through. Membranes are the simplest method, but are currently incomplete and leave behind a stubborn mixture of oily water or watery oil.

now, Yang Haochen researchers from China's Zhejiang University have developed a more efficient method that uses two membranes – a hydrophobic layer to allow oil to pass through and a hydrophilic layer to allow water to pass through – to cleanly separate both. .

Yang said the idea has been tried before, but with less than impressive results. This is because when oil and water are removed from the mixture, the concentration of the components changes and the efficiency of the membrane decreases.

To overcome this, the research team injected the mixture into a narrow channel between the two layers. In this confined space, oil droplets are more likely to collide and accumulate. This means that oil droplets can be removed more efficiently by the hydrophobic membrane. This increases the proportion of water in the mixture, creating a beneficial feedback loop that ensures both clean oil and water are continuously removed.

“When you apply a membrane, [close] When you put them together, they influence each other and the process continues,” says Yang. “There is feedback between the two processes.”

In their tests, researchers found that as the channel width narrowed from 125 millimeters to 4 millimeters, total oil recovery increased from just 5% to 97%, and water recovery increased from 19% to 75%. I discovered it. The purity of the recovered oil and water is more than 99.9%, and only a small amount of waste remains, Yang said.

The team is in talks with industry, and Yang believes the process is so simple that it could be easily scaled up to a suitable level within a few years.

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Source: www.newscientist.com

Antibodies for avian flu discovered in dairy farm workers in Michigan and Colorado

Posted on November 7, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Farm workers exposed to infected dairy cows found to have avian influenza antibodies

Helen King/Getty Images

There may be more human cases of avian influenza in the United States than previously thought. Health officials in the two states conducted blood tests on workers at dairy farms known to have received infected cattle and found that about 7% of them had antibodies to the disease. This included people who had never experienced any flu symptoms.

Since March, an avian influenza virus known as H5N1 has been circulating among dairy cows across the United States. so far, 446 cows People have tested positive for the virus in 15 states in the United States. From April, 44 people In the United States, people have tested positive for H5, the influenza subtype that includes H5N1. All but one of these cases occurred in poultry or dairy farm workers infected with H5N1.

To better understand how many farmworkers may have been infected with the virus. U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) collaborates with state health departments Blood samples were taken from 115 people working on dairy farms raising H5N1-infected cows in Colorado and Michigan. All samples were taken between 15 and 19 days after a cow on the farm tested positive for the virus.

Nirav Shah The CDC and his colleagues then removed seasonal influenza antibodies from the samples before testing them for the presence of H5N1 antibodies. H5N1 antibodies were detected in eight of the samples, or about 7%, suggesting that eight of the workers may have been unknowingly infected with the virus. Furthermore, four of the employees did not remember having symptoms.

“This is very important because by this point, [H5N1] “Testing is primarily focused on symptomatic workers.” Megan Davis at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland. “If workers are unaware that they are infected, they may inadvertently expose others in the community to infection.”

H5N1 is poorly adapted to infecting humans and is not known to be transmitted between humans. Still, more than that, 900 people worldwide People have been reported to have been infected with the virus since 2003, and about half of them have died from the virus. Each of these infections gives the virus a chance to mutate, potentially making it more dangerous to people.

“Those of us in public health need to cast a wider net in who we provide testing to,” Shah said at a press conference today. “Going forward, CDC plans to expand testing recommendations to include infected workers.” [to H5N1] And there are no symptoms. ”

The agency also recommends providing antiviral drugs to asymptomatic workers who are at high risk of infection, such as dairy farm workers who may get raw milk on their faces. That way, even if you do get infected with the virus, the amount of virus circulating in your body will be reduced and the risk of spreading the virus to others will be lower. “The less room we give this virus to spread, the less chance it has of changing,” Shah said.

The data also highlights that many H5N1 infections remain undetected, a concern public health officials have long suspected to be true. But until more data is available, “we can't estimate how many unconfirmed cases there are,” Shah said.

The CDC is currently analyzing an additional 150 blood samples taken from veterinarians who work with cattle. Once these results are available, Shah said it should give a clearer picture of how many cases are slipping through the cracks.

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Source: www.newscientist.com

Study suggests that victims of Pompeii disaster may not be accurately identified

Posted on November 7, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

New DNA analysis has shed light on the victims of the Pompeii disaster, challenging previous assumptions.

Researchers from the United States and Italy conducted a recent study that uncovered remains believed to be of family members, suggesting that the gender of some individuals may have been misidentified. Source

The study’s scientists argue that gender roles may have influenced the misconceptions about the victims of Pompeii.

“This study highlights the unreliability of narratives based on limited evidence, often reflecting the biases of researchers at the time,” explained Dr. David Carameli, co-author of the study and researcher at the University of Florence.

When Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD, over 2,000 people perished, and Pompeii was buried under 3 meters of volcanic material. The city was preserved until its rediscovery in 1599.

Using plaster casts created by archaeologist Giuseppe Fiorelli in the 19th century, researchers could analyze bone fragments mixed with plaster to extract DNA information about the victims’ gender, genetic relationships, and ancestry.

It is believed that, in the absence of DNA evidence, past researchers made assumptions based purely on the physical appearance of the casts.

For instance, a family discovered in the House of the Golden Bracelet in Pompeii was re-examined. Initial assumptions about their relationships were proven wrong through DNA evidence.

Notably, experts previously misidentified a pair as sisters or mother and daughter, while genetic testing revealed one of them to be male.

The study, which examined 14 victims and was reported in the journal current biology, hopes to improve the understanding of archaeological data and ancient societies in Pompeii and beyond.

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Source: www.sciencefocus.com

League of Legends finals: A showcase of unmatched talent and pure joy captured in a button push

Posted on November 7, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

GGiven the influx of bad news from the gaming industry over the past 10 months, it’s no surprise that this weekend, sitting in a crowd of 20,000 happy and passionate fans, the biggest event on the esports calendar, The League Being able to watch the Of Legends World Championship was somewhat reassuring. Finals. The event, held at London’s O2 Arena, was the culmination of a five-week global competition to discover the world’s best teams. Having never been to one before, I had no idea what to expect, mainly because the finals are usually held in Asia, where the best players usually gather. Can we track what’s going on? Would you care? The answers to these questions were “fairly well” and “well, yeah.”

For the uninitiated, League of Legends is a multiplayer online battle arena game (Moba for short) in which two teams of five players choose a warrior from a pool of 170 warriors to destroy their opponent’s home base. Fight to control the fantasy-themed map. . The arena is divided into three lanes, with an area known as the jungle in the middle, and similar to traditional team sports, each team member patrols their own specific section. Adding to the complexity is the fact that every champion character has unique skills, weapons, and magical attacks, and throughout the game you must defeat monsters and dragons to earn experience points that make you more powerful. Masu. It’s both a deep strategy game and a tremendous riot of stomping warriors, galloping horsemen, and hovering wizards.

This year’s final was between experienced Korean team T1 and Chinese newcomer team Bilibili Gaming (abbreviated as BLG). The latter had gained momentum by defeating local rival Weibo Gaming in the semi-finals, but T1 was the firm favorite to win the tournament having already won four times. They were almost eliminated from the competition early on, but they seem to have a habit of getting back into it the moment everyone quits. At the arena, I managed to get a seat next to James Lynch of the esports news site dexerto volunteer to tell me about the action. He describes T1 as the League of Legends equivalent of the 1974 Netherlands World Cup team. Free-spirited, unconventional, and full of neurotic genius. Lee “Faker” Sang-hyuk is widely considered to be the greatest player in league history, and at the center of it all is the master Johan Cruyff. “His movements are very strange and unpredictable,” Lynch says. “It’s very difficult to kill him.”

South Korea’s T1 team celebrates their victory over China’s Bilibili Gaming in the League of Legends world finals. Photo: Benjamin Kremer/AFP/Getty Images

Before the finals begin, there will be a 10-minute mini-concert featuring American rappers Ashnikko and Linkin Park, complete with fireworks, giant LED displays and incredible art direction from dozens of dancers. The whole thing has the feel of a major sporting event mixed with live K-Pop, a riot of color, passion, and performing arts. In the hours leading up to the finals, fans flocked to the venue to purchase original merchandise, meet friends from the community and, of course, dress up as their favorite League of Legends characters.

It turns out I was extremely lucky that this was my debut watching League of Legends. It’s an exciting encounter. Once the showdown begins, the best-of-five format is pushed to its limits, with the two teams taking turns killing each other for the first four games. Throughout the finals, Faker is a formidable playmaker, continually jumping into skirmishes, taking out opponents, and managing to escape with only a millimeter of health left. In the arena, 10 young players can be seen competing on a giant screen suspended above the stage. These displays draw us in rather than taking us out of the game. The crowd of mostly 20 fans loudly applauds the smart move and chants as their team gains the upper hand.

The showdown was a deliberate affair, with warriors gingerly roaming the map, poking and prodding at each other. Eventually, the whole thing explodes into a massive clash, making the battle between the Bastards look like a mini-brawl outside a kebab shop.

During the battle between Bilibili Gaming and T1. Photo: Benjamin Kremer/AFP/Getty Images

T1 was victorious, but it was also a victory for the entire concept of esports. The scene has struggled to live up to its 2010s hype, at least financially. At the time, the team’s overestimated global value attracted large investors and sponsors, which led to a bloated team organization and soaring salaries for star players. Last year saw many organizations, events, and tournaments shut down, including Activision Blizzard’s much-hyped Overwatch League. But this weekend’s event drew a peak audience of 6.94 million viewers, most of whom watched from home on streaming platforms like Twitch and YouTube, setting a new record for esports.

It’s easy to think of video games as an industry rather than a culture that brings joy to people. Sometimes it’s more than just sales or viewership, it’s about sitting in an arena with 20,000 adoring fans. Outside the O2 Megaplex, I spoke to Morgan, an attendee perfectly dressed as Aphelios (or, more accurately, in his Heartsteel costume). He explained the appeal as follows: But he’s very friendly. Also, there are so many different communities in the league, and it’s great to see them come together and bond over something they have in common and one thing they’re really passionate about. That’s what’s really beautiful about this work.

Source: www.theguardian.com

At 36, I’ve rekindled my love for Pokemon cards – but this time on my phone | Pokemon

Posted on November 7, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

aEvery New York Millennial — and any parent — will be familiar with Pokemon cards, a mainstay of newsagent hustling since the turn of the century. The shiny metallic plastic packaging contains trading cards decorated with creatures of varying rarity, from the humble Squirtle to the special edition illustrated Snorlax. There have been several attempts to bring these expensive illustrated cards (and the fighting games you can play with them) to smartphones, but until now all was poorly received. The Pokémon trading card game Pocket, released last week, is the best game yet. That really hooked me.

Here, for the first time since the release of the Pokémon Trading Card Game on the Game Boy Color in 1998, we have a decent virtual version of the incredibly popular card game. This is good news because it's very funny, but it's also bad news Because it's alarmingly convincing. I've been playing for at least a few hours every day this week, but I'm starting to run out of things to do. I probably won't let my kids play with it. Because if I was left this helpless by the appearance of a glowing Charizard, the children would definitely have no hope.

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/2rNXBt4go_g?wmode=opaque&feature=oembed" title="Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket is Available Now!" height="480" width="854" allowfullscreen="

Just like real cards, the appeal of this game revolves around the slim chance that a particular pack might contain an ultra-rare card. Tapping on a booster pack decorated with Mewtwo, Pikachu, or Charizard will reveal a shiny, shiny packet in a glittering carousel that you can select and open with a swipe of your finger. The virtual cards are beautifully rendered. The good news is that if you flip the pack before opening it, the cards will appear from the back to the front, prolonging that brief moment of suspense until you find out what the cards are. When you tilt the screen, rare items will sparkle. As I discovered this morning, when you get a really rare card, you get an entire mini-movie animation of the scene depicted on that card.

The game gives you one free booster pack every 12 hours. The £7.99 per month subscription gets you another daily pack, allowing you to play battles and earn more for money, but only up to a certain point. The Pokemon trading card game Pocket is not evil. It doesn't force you to pay for your time. A limit on the number of packs that can be opened each day is an effective brake on the randomized reward aspect of the game's dopamine mining.

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The illustrated cards are the most beautiful and most coveted versions of each creature. Photo provided by: Pokemon Co., Ltd.

On the other hand, if you want to deploy cards in battle, you can do it as many times as you like for free. This is not a simulation of collecting real Pokemon cards, but rather a simulation of fighting Pokemon cards, which surprisingly few children actually collect. The rules for these battles are exactly the same as in real card games, but simplified. Build a deck of 20 cards of different Pokémon and useful item cards, such as potions to heal damage or Poke Balls to collect creatures from your deck. Every turn, you can generate energy and attach it to your Pokemon to increase their attack power. A good deck consists of one or two very powerful Pokémon and a small phalanx of other creatures and cards that complement their abilities. The important thing is that do not have It's about who has the rarest and flashiest Pokemon cards. If you think carefully, you can make great strategic decks from relatively common cards.

After a few fights, I quickly felt how my deck worked and made small adjustments between each match. While not as good (or deep) as the actual card game, this quickfire version is much better suited to play on your phone. It's still engaging and moderately challenging, especially when playing against other human players, but it's also intuitive. what? do not have All the different currencies and items you can earn in these battles are intuitive. I spent more time figuring out what they would be used for than worrying about deck composition. Every time you reach a small collection or combat milestone, you are always rewarded with gold, sparkling dust, tickets, and hourglasses.

This is the worst thing about the free-to-play Pokemon trading card game Pocket. But overall it doesn't feel overly manipulative, and certainly no more manipulative than the actual cards. everytime It costs money. I dread to think how much my family has spent on them over the years. The amount of things you can do without opening your wallet isn't as generous as Pokémon Go, but for me monetization doesn't get in the way of fun. Despite this, it looks like he's already earned a pretty impressive $24 million.

The 226 cards currently on offer are cleverly oriented towards the peak of early 2000s Pokémon millennial nostalgia. The trading card game Pocket has a lot of appeal for those of us who are part of the first generation of Pokémaniacs. Similar to Pokémon Go, the options expand over time, so I think you'll eventually get tired of it. For now, I'm enjoying this luxury every day.

Source: www.theguardian.com

Facebook requests U.S. Supreme Court to drop fraud lawsuit regarding Cambridge Analytica scandal

Posted on November 7, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

The U.S. Supreme Court discussed Meta’s Facebook’s attempt to dismiss a federal securities fraud lawsuit brought by shareholders. The lawsuit accuses the social media platform of deceiving users about its misuse of user data.

The Supreme Court heard arguments in Facebook’s appeal against a lower court’s decision allowing a 2018 class action lawsuit by Amalgamated Bank to move forward. The lawsuit aims to recover lost value of investors’ Facebook stock. Another lawsuit filed this month involves Nvidia, where litigants accuse the company of securities fraud, potentially making accountability more challenging.

The key issue is whether Facebook broke the law by not disclosing previous data breaches in its risk disclosures, portraying the risks as hypothetical.

Facebook argued in its brief to the Supreme Court that reasonable investors would see risk disclosures as forward-looking statements, eliminating the need to disclose previous risks that materialized.

Justice Elena Kagan and Justice Samuel Alito raised questions during the hearing, asserting that risk assessment is always forward-looking.

The plaintiffs accused Facebook of violating the Securities Exchange Act by misleading investors about a 2015 data breach involving Cambridge Analytica. The case was initially dismissed, but the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated it.

The Cambridge Analytica scandal led to various investigations and legal actions against Facebook. The Supreme Court is expected to reach a decision by June.

Despite the conservative majority on the Supreme Court, there are differing views on how investors interpret forward-looking risk disclosures.

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Facebook’s stock price dropped after reports in 2018 regarding the misuse of user data by Cambridge Analytica in connection with President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign.

Source: www.theguardian.com

Tom Rosenthal engages in conversation with unfamiliar individuals on a park bench | Podcast

Posted on November 7, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Nobody wants to hear about men making comebacks right now, especially when it doesn’t involve Frank Skinner.

Skinner left Absolute Radio’s breakfast show in March after 15 years, stating, “I’m not going to pretend I got it.” Despite Absolute’s initial plans for more podcast series, they never materialized.

Skinner recently launched a twice-weekly podcast with Dean and Novelly, achieving the number two spot on Apple’s comedy podcast chart. He’s also relaunching his poetry podcasts, sans “Absolute,” showcasing podcasting’s embrace of diverse voices.

On a different scale, “Strangers on a Bench” offers lo-fi conversations with random individuals on public benches, covering various intriguing stories.

Alexi Duggins
TV Deputy Editor-in-Chief

This week’s picks

Unfit for Service explores what it means to be gay and in the U.S. military. Photo: dts News Agency Germany/REX/Shutterstock

Check out these podcast picks for a variety of engaging content this week.

sunshine place
Listen to Valerie’s harrowing experience in a drug rehabilitation program in the ’80s, along with other compelling stories.

unfit for service
Discover the struggles of Randy Taylor, a gay man serving in the U.S. military during the ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ era.

bunny trap
Explore the dark reality behind the glamour of a ‘Playboy photographer’ in this eye-opening series.

cotton club murder case
Dive into the dramatic mystery surrounding a Hollywood murder case in this gripping podcast.

strangers on the bench
Experience raw and honest conversations with strangers in this captivating series.

There’s a podcast for that

Courtney Love is unsurprisingly outspoken about her “60 Songs That Describe the ’90s.” Photo: Mick Hutson/Redferns

Explore the best ’90s podcasts and delve into the nostalgia of the decade through music and football.

60 songs that describe the 90s
Discover iconic ’90s songs and interviews with music legends in this engaging podcast.

Hurry up Kevin.
Delve into ’90s football nostalgia with insightful discussions on the game and its cultural impact.

Popular: 1990s
Explore the fashion and style of the ’90s through discussions with industry insiders and iconic figures.

Head on: Surviving Y2K
Learn about the Y2K hysteria and its impact on society in this riveting podcast series.

Why not try it…

screen rotComedians break down the weirdest aspects of social media in this entertaining show.
Explore the multi-billion-dollar cocaine industry in The Times’ investigative podcast; cocaine company.

shrink boxJoin TV characters in psychotherapy sessions in this unique podcast.

Source: www.theguardian.com

Most fast radio bursts come from galaxies with high star formation rates

Posted on November 7, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are millisecond-long events detected from beyond the Milky Way. The radiative properties of FRBs favor magnetars as their source, as evidenced by FRB-like outbursts from the Milky Way's magnetars and the star-forming nature of FRB host galaxies. However, the process that generates the FRB source remains unknown. FRBs are more likely to occur in massive star-forming galaxies, according to a new study. The study also suggests that magnetars, whose magnetic fields are 100 trillion times stronger than Earth's, are often formed when two stars merge and later explode in a supernova.

This photo montage shows the Deep Synoptic Array-110 antenna used to locate and determine the location of Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs). Above the antenna are several images of the FRB's host galaxy appearing in the sky. These galaxies are very large and challenging models to describe FRB sources. Image credit: Annie Mejia/California Institute of Technology.

“Magnetars' immense power output makes them one of the most fascinating and extreme objects in the universe,” said lead author Kriti Sharma, a graduate student at Caltech.

“Little is known about what causes magnetars to form during the extinction of massive stars. Our work helps answer this question.”

To search for FRBs, Sharma and his colleagues used Deep Synoptic Array-110 (DSA-110) at the Owens Valley Radio Astronomical Observatory near Bishop, California.

To date, this sprawling radio array has detected 70 FRBs and located their specific source galaxies (only 23 other FRBs have been located by other telescopes). is).

In the current study, the researchers analyzed 30 of these local FRBs.

“DSA-110 more than doubles the number of FRBs containing known host galaxies, which is what we built the array for,” said Dr. Vikram Ravi of the California Institute of Technology.

FRBs are known to occur in galaxies that are actively forming stars, but the authors were surprised to find that FRBs are more frequent in massive star-forming galaxies than in low-mass star-forming galaxies. I've found that this tends to happen.

This alone was interesting because astronomers had previously thought that all types of active galaxies generate FRBs.

Armed with this new information, they began pondering what the results revealed about the Fed.

Metals in our universe (elements manufactured by stars) take time to accumulate over the course of the universe's history, so large galaxies tend to be rich in metals.

The fact that FRBs are more common in these metal-rich galaxies means that the magnetars from which they originate are also more common in these types of galaxies.

Stars rich in metals (astronomical terminology for elements heavier than hydrogen or helium) tend to be larger than other stars.

“Over time, as the galaxy grows, successive generations of stars evolve and die, enriching the galaxy with metals,” Dr. Ravi said.

Additionally, massive stars that can go supernova and become magnetars are more commonly found in pairs.

In fact, 84% of massive stars are binaries. So when one massive star in a binary swells with extra metal content, that extra material is pulled into its partner, which facilitates the eventual merger of the two stars.

These merging stars will have a combined magnetic field that is larger than the magnetic field of a single star.

“Stars with more metallic content swell, promoting mass transfer and eventually reaching mergers, resulting in even more massive stars with a total magnetic field greater than what any individual star would have.” is formed,” Sharma said.

In summary, since FRBs are preferentially observed in massive, metal-rich star-forming galaxies, magnetars (which are thought to cause FRBs) are also probably located in metal-rich environments that promote the merger of two stars. It is thought that it is formed by.

Therefore, this result suggests that magnetars in the universe originate from the remains of stellar mergers.

In the future, the team plans to use the DSA-110 and eventually the DSA-2000, an even larger wireless array to be built in the Nevada desert and expected to be completed in 2028, to connect more FRBs and their We would like to track the location of the occurrence.

“This result is a milestone for the entire DSA team. Many of the authors of this paper helped build DSA-110,” said Dr. Ravi.

“And the fact that DSA-110 is so good at localizing FRBs bodes well for the success of DSA-2000.”

of findings Published in today's magazine nature.

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K. Sharma others. 2024. Preferential occurrence of fast radio bursts in massive star-forming galaxies. nature 635, 61-66; doi: 10.1038/s41586-024-08074-9

Source: www.sci.news

Unearthed: Laser Technology Discovers Hidden Mayan City with Stone Pyramids in Mexico

Posted on November 7, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Archaeologists used a laser-based detection system to discover more than 6,500 Pre-Hispanic structures in Campeche, Mexico, including a previously unknown Mayan city named Valeriana.

Details of the main ruins of Valeriana in Campeche, Mexico. Image credit: Auld-Thomas others., doi: 10.15184/aqy.2024.148.

“Our analysis not only revealed a complete picture of densely populated areas, but also revealed a lot of variation,” said Tulane University doctoral student and Northern Arizona University professor. Lecturer Luke Old-Thomas said.

“What we found was not only rural areas and small settlements, but also a town where people had long been actively farming amidst the ruins, right next to the only main road in the area. We also found a large city with pyramids.”

“The government knew nothing about it. The scientific community knew nothing about it.”

“This is an exclamation point after the statement that, no, we haven't discovered everything. Yes, there's still a lot to discover.”

lidar technology It uses laser pulses to measure distance and create a 3D model of a specific area.

This allows scientists to scan vast tracts of land from the comfort of their computer labs, discovering anomalies in the landscape that turn out to be pyramids, family homes, and other examples of Mayan infrastructure. It's done.

“With LIDAR, we can map large areas very quickly and with very high accuracy and level of detail, so we can say, “Wow, there are so many buildings that we don't know about, and they must have a large population.'' ‘It's huge,’ said Old Thomas.

“The counterargument was that lidar surveys were still too constrained to known large sites like Tikal, thus creating a distorted picture of the Maya lowlands.”

“What if the rest of the Maya region is much more rural and what we've mapped so far is the exception rather than the rule?”

The team's results provide compelling evidence of a Maya landscape that was more complex and diverse than previously thought.

“Rider teaches us that, like many other ancient civilizations, the Lowland Maya built a diverse tapestry of towns and communities on a tropical landscape,” said Marcello Canuto, a professor at Tulane University. “I'm grateful for that,” he said.

“Some areas have vast expanses of farmland and are densely populated, while others have only small communities.”

“Nevertheless, we can now see how much the ancient Maya modified their environment to support a long-lasting and complex society.”

a paper The findings were published in the journal October 29, 2024. ancient.

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luke old-thomas others. 2024. Running out of space: Environmental riders and the crowded ancient landscape of Campeche, Mexico. ancient 98 (401): 1340-1358;doi: 10.15184/aqy.2024.148

Source: www.sci.news

Archaeologists claim Eswatini’s Lion Cave is the oldest ocher mine in the world

Posted on November 6, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Archaeologists say they have discovered the world’s oldest known evidence of intensive loess mining at least 48,000 years ago at Lion Cave in Ngwenya, in the landlocked southern African nation of Eswatini. .

Selected hand specimens of samples from sources included in the study: Ngwenya High Grade (AC), Ngwenya Low Grade (DF), Kubuta (G), Bulembu (HJ), Ruhorodum (K,L), Munyongane (M , N), Maroma (O). Scale bar – 1 cm. Image credit: McDonald’s others., doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-53050-6.

Ocher is widely recognized as a red, yellow, or purple pigmented earth mineral, often confused with manganese oxide (black ocher), and its importance throughout human history has been debatable. there is no.

Records remain from ancient times, where it was extracted through intensive mining operations, transported over long distances, used in symbols and funerary expressions, and processed to enhance its properties and performance in complex paint mixtures. Masu.

It continues to hold widespread cultural significance in many descendant communities today.

However, the differences between ocher colors are not always obvious, and pigments that appear the same in color and texture often have different physicochemical properties.

“Ocher can be said to be the earliest pigment used by humans to depict the world,” said archaeologist Dr. Gregor Bader of the Senckenberg Center for Human Evolution and Paleoenvironment at the University of Tübingen.

“We humans and other humans have been using red, yellow, and sometimes purple earth minerals for at least 500,000 years, and probably much longer.”

In the most comprehensive study to date of ocher use in Africa, Dr Bader and his colleagues investigated how this mineral was used south of the Sahara.

Based on 173 samples from 15 Stone Age sites, the researchers reconstructed the regional network of mineral selection, extraction, transport and use of ocher.

“We were interested in the entire processing chain of loess: from the selection of minerals from different geological formations, their extraction, and the mixing of other substances such as milk, fat, blood, and vegetable resins as binders to the loess. It’s an archaeological site,” Dr. Bader said.

“How was the knowledge of ocher extraction transmitted? Was there interaction between different hunter-gatherer groups? And are there regional or temporal differences?

This study shows that there was both a regional strategy for sourcing ocher and long-distance transport of important minerals through a network of different mineral deposits.

Archaeological investigations at 15 sites suggest the existence of long-term cultural continuity in the intergenerational transmission of knowledge regarding ocher extraction and use, including geological conditions and desirable physicochemical properties of mineral pigments. I’m doing it.

These communities of practice did not develop in isolation but were part of a broader system of relations influenced and mediated by social interactions such as technical learning, seasonal migration, exchange of material culture, and symbolic expression. It was a club.

“Our data support the hypothesis that hunter-gatherers in Stone Age Eswatini were highly mobile, sometimes traveling long distances to transport ocher pigments,” Bader said. said.

“It is noteworthy that such traditions continue to this day in Eswatini. For example, it is ethnographic that plant healers travel to collect mineral earth pigments for painting and healing ceremonies. known from research.

“Ocher is also considered an important part of the wedding ceremony. On the morning of the wedding, the bride is painted in red ocher and animal fat to signify her new status within the community.”

“Our current research shows that Eswatini researchers are in a leading position in the study of Stone Age loess resources, and provides an impressive demonstration that this country holds vast wealth of this important pigment. It shows.”

“In addition to elucidating the chain of loess exchange, we also used optically stimulated luminescence dating to show that Ngwenya’s Lion Cave is the oldest concentrated loess site in the world, dating back approximately 48,000 years. We have confirmed that this is known evidence of mining.”

“Furthermore, here we see some of the earliest evidence that humans were actively reshaping the environment.”

of findings Published in a magazine nature communications.

_____

BL McDonald’s others. 2024. Ocher communities of practice in Stone Age Eswatini. Nat Commune 15, 9201; doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-53050-6

Source: www.sci.news

Scientists explore the mechanisms of DNA methylation in plants

Posted on November 6, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

DNA methylation is one of several epigenetic mechanisms important for controlling gene expression in eukaryotes.

Arabidopsis. Image credit: Carl Davies, CSIRO/CC BY 3.0.

DNA methylation is a normal biological process in living cells in which small chemical groups called methyl groups are added to DNA.

This activity controls which genes are turned on or off, which affects a variety of characteristics, including how the organism responds to its environment.

Part of this job involves silencing, or turning off, certain pieces of DNA moving around in an organism’s genome.

These so-called jumping genes, or transposons, can cause damage if left unregulated.

This entire process is controlled by enzymes, but mammals and plants have developed different enzymes to add methyl groups.

“Mammals only have two major enzymes that add methyl groups in one DNA context, whereas plants actually have multiple enzymes that do it in three DNA contexts.” said researcher Professor Xuehua Zhong. Washington University in St. Louis.

“This is the focus of our research. The question is: why do plants need extra methyltransferases?”

“A particular gene or combination of genes contributes to a particular characteristic or trait.”

“If we know exactly how they are regulated, we can find ways to innovate techniques for crop improvement.”

Professor Zhong and his colleagues focused on two enzymes specifically found in plants: CMT3 and CMT2.

Both enzymes are responsible for adding methyl groups to DNA, but CMT3 specializes in one part of DNA called CHG sequences, and CMT2 specializes in another part called CHH sequences.

Despite their functional differences, both enzymes are part of the same chromomethylase (CMT) family and have evolved through duplication events that provide plants with additional copies of genetic information.

We use a common model plant called Thale cress (Arabidopsis), the study authors investigated how these duplicated enzymes evolved different functions over time.

They found that somewhere along the evolutionary timeline, CMT2 lost the ability to methylate CHG sequences. This is because it lacks an important amino acid called arginine.

“Arginine is special because it has an electric charge,” says Jia Gwee, a graduate student at Washington University in St. Louis.

“Because it is positively charged inside cells, it can form hydrogen bonds and other chemical interactions with negatively charged DNA, for example.”

“However, CMT2 contains a different amino acid, valine. Valine is uncharged and therefore cannot recognize CHG contexts like CMT3. We think that is the reason for the difference between the two enzymes. Masu.”

To confirm this evolutionary change, the researchers used a mutation to move arginine back into CMT2.

As expected, CMT2 was able to methylate both CHG and CHH. This suggests that CMT2 is originally a duplicate of CMT3, a backup system to offload as DNA becomes more complex.

“But instead of just copying the original functionality, we developed something new,” Professor Zhong said.

This study also provided insight into the unique structure of CMT2.

This enzyme has a long, flexible N-terminus that controls the stability of its protein.

“This is one of the ways plants have evolved to increase genome stability and combat environmental stress,” Professor Zhong said.

“This feature may explain why CMT2 has evolved in plants growing in very diverse conditions around the world.”

of result Published in today’s diary scientific progress.

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Gwee Others. 2024. scientific progressin press. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adr2222

Source: www.sci.news

Can Catastrophe be Prevented if an Asteroid is Approaching Earth?

Posted on November 6, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Hidden somewhere in the dark of space, there is a giant asteroid on a collision course with Earth. If we don’t spot it and somehow stop its arrival, it will hurtle through Earth’s atmosphere at 60,000 kilometers per hour and slam into the ground, vaporizing everything it touches.

With millions of asteroids hurtling through the inner solar system, the threat is inevitable. A conflict will occur sooner or later. But that doesn’t mean the Earth has to be a sitting duck. The global community is obsessed with planetary defense, carefully planning how to repel extraterrestrial invaders should they appear, or at least minimize carnage.

Among other things, this research includes scanning the sky for threats and testing missions to throw asteroids off course. But it also includes a surprising amount of role-playing, with scenarios in which teams impact asteroids in a war game. “Exercises like this are necessary because in the real world, we have not yet reached this point where we need to actually design and build a mission,” NASA said. Paul Chodas do a lot of role-playing. “It makes you think about details that you wouldn’t otherwise think about.”

In the coming paragraphs, you’ll be in the hot seat for a choose-your-own-adventure version of one of these role-playing games. You decide how to react when an asteroid comes towards us. Whether you want to crash your spaceship, use sunlight-absorbing paint to change its course, or just blow it to pieces, you’ll realize we have even more options…

Source: www.newscientist.com

What can preparing for an asteroid impact teach us about climate change?

Posted on November 6, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

When it comes to natural disasters, it is often impossible to predict them more than a few months or even days in advance. We cannot say, “Let's prepare because an earthquake will occur within two years.'' But one of the few things we can really prepare for is an asteroid impact.

Although no one has yet discovered a large asteroid on a collision course with Earth, scientists, engineers, and policymakers are working on plans to defend the planet in the event it does. Techniques to avoid disaster are already being tested, such as impacting asteroids to change their orbits, as NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test Mission did successfully in 2022.

One of the most surprisingly useful planetary defense tools is running a role-playing game. This reveals roadblocks that can derail even the best-laid plans. Paul Chodas of NASA, who runs some of these exercises, says they reveal problems that would never have been considered otherwise. In our special feature, “If an asteroid is heading towards Earth, can we avoid disaster?”you can try such games yourself.

Compared to other existential threats, the risk from asteroids is relatively small

It goes without saying that factors such as the size of rocks coming from space and how quickly they are discovered have a major impact on whether disasters can be successfully avoided. So is the ability to communicate effectively. different options. These are important lessons that go beyond just protecting yourself from asteroids.

Compared to other existential threats, the risk of an asteroid coming our way is relatively small. Climate change is already happening. Pandemics have occurred regularly throughout human history, and global warming has made them even more likely. We know that these involve technical challenges, such as the development and deployment of green technologies, but the social challenges are equally important.

Only with effective global cooperation and communication can humanity tackle its greatest challenges. That's as true in the Asteroid Roleplaying Game as it is in real life.

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Source: www.newscientist.com

Scientists discover 16 different types of neurons responsible for human sense of touch

Posted on November 6, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

A new study led by scientists from the University of Pennsylvania, Karolinska Institutet, and Linköping University has revealed a landscape view of the human sense of touch.

Somatosensory diversity arises from heterogeneous dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons. However, the cell body transcriptome, a key piece of information for deciphering the function of individual human (h)DRG neurons, is lacking due to technical difficulties. In a new study, Yu others. They isolated somatic cells from individual hDRG neurons and performed deep RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) to detect an average of more than 9,000 unique genes per neuron, identifying 16 types of neurons.

Humans perceive touch, temperature, and pain through the somatosensory system.

The general understanding is that there are specific types of neurons for each type of emotion, such as pain, pleasant touch, or coldness.

But new research casts doubt on that notion and shows that bodily sensations are probably much more complex than that.

“Much of the knowledge we have today about how the nervous system works comes from studies of animals,” said Dr. Wenqing Luo of the University of Pennsylvania and colleagues.

“But how similar are mice and humans, for example?”

“Many discoveries made in animal studies have not been confirmed in human studies.”

“One reason for this may be a lack of understanding of how it works in the human body.”

“We wanted to create a detailed atlas of the different types of neurons involved in somatosensation in humans and compare it with neurons in mice and the primate macaque.”

The study involved a detailed analysis of the genes used by individual neurons, so-called deep RNA sequencing.

Neurons with similar gene expression profiles were grouped as one sensory neuron type.

In this way, the researchers identified 16 unique human neuron types.

This study is the first to link gene expression and actual function in different types of neurons.

To investigate the function of neurons, the scientists used microneurography techniques to listen to the signals of one neuron at a time.

Using this technique, skin neurons in awake participants are exposed to temperature, touch, or certain chemicals, and individual neurons are “listened in” to determine how those particular neurons respond and send signals to the brain. You can find out if it is.

During these experiments, the authors made discoveries that would not have been possible if mapping the cellular machinery of different types of neurons had not given them new ideas for experiments.

One such discovery concerns a type of neuron that responds to pleasant touch.

The researchers discovered that this cell type unexpectedly responded to heat and also to capsaicin, the chemical that gives chili peppers their heat.

Scientists were surprised that the touch-sensing neurons responded to such stimuli, since their response to capsaicin is typical of pain-sensing neurons.

Additionally, this type of neuron also responded to cooling, even though it does not produce the only protein known to date that signals the perception of cold.

This finding cannot be explained by what is known about cellular mechanisms and suggests that there are other mechanisms for detecting colds that have yet to be discovered.

The authors speculate that these neurons form an integrated sensory pathway that produces pleasurable sensations.

“We have been listening to the neural signals from these neurons for 10 years, but we knew nothing about their molecular characteristics,” said Dr. Håkan Ólausson from Linköping University.

“This study shows us what kinds of proteins these neurons express and what kinds of stimuli they can respond to, and we can now make connections between them. Moving forward.”

Another example is a type of pain-sensing neuron that conducts very rapidly and has been shown to respond to non-painful cooling and menthol.

“There is a common understanding that neurons are very specialized: one type of neuron detects cold, another type detects specific vibrational frequencies, a third type responds to pressure, and so on.” said Dr. Saad Nagy, also from Linköping University.

“That's how people often talk about it. But it turns out it's much more complicated than that.”

So how do mice, macaques, and humans compare? How similar are we? Many of the 16 types of neurons the researchers identified in their study are largely similar across species.

The biggest difference they found was that conduction in pain-sensing neurons was much faster in response to stimuli that could cause injury.

Compared to mice, humans have more pain neurons, a type of neuron that sends pain signals to the brain at high speeds.

“Our study doesn't answer why this is the case, but we have a theory,” Dr. Ólausson said.

“The fact that pain signals are emitted at a much faster rate in humans compared to mice is probably just a reflection of their body size.”

“Mice don't need such rapid neural signaling. But in humans, the distances are longer and the signals need to be sent to the brain more quickly, before reacting and withdrawing.” You will be injured.”

Regarding this research, paper in diary natural neuroscience.

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H. Yu others. Utilizing deep sequencing of single cell somatic RNA to explore the neural basis of human somatosensation. nut neurosipublished online on November 4, 2024. doi: 10.1038/s41593-024-01794-1

Source: www.sci.news

AI Chatbot is Launched in UK Government to Assist Business Users – Results Are Mixed

Posted on November 6, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Even though he knows a bit of Welsh and building regulations, he refrains from comparing Rishi Sunak to Keir Starmer or delving into the complexities of the UK corporation tax system. The UK government is introducing an artificial intelligence chatbot to assist businesses in navigating through a maze of 700,000 pages on the UK government website. Users can expect a range of outcomes from this new tool.

This experimental system will be initially tested with up to 15,000 business users and is expected to be widely available next year. However, users are cautioned about the limitations of AI tools like this one, which can sometimes provide false information with confidence. It is advised to cross-check the website link provided with each answer, which will be delivered within approximately 7 seconds. In a trial run in February, Paul Willmott, director of the Government’s Central Digital Data Agency, told reporters that there was a need for improvements to address hallucinations that may arise.

During a test run with reporters, it was observed that the chatbot, powered by OpenAI’s GPT-4o technology, displayed discrepancies in responses, including jumbled web links and short answers. The chatbot provided information on regulations for cannabis farmers but refrained from making predictions on cannabis legalization in the UK. It answered queries on building cladding regulations post-Grenfell Tower fire but steered clear of discussing the public inquiry findings on government failures.

On one occasion, the chatbot responded briefly in Welsh and avoided answering questions about the corporate tax system. However, it did offer information on incentives for installing solar panels. The chatbot’s training currently lacks coverage of all UK government documents, like ministerial speeches and press releases.

To ensure safe interactions, “guardrails” have been implemented to prevent the chatbot from providing illegal answers, divulging sensitive financial details, or taking political stances. Despite efforts to safeguard against hackers manipulating the chatbot, there remains a residual risk that cannot be completely eliminated.

Peter Kyle, Secretary of State for Science and Technology, expressed the government’s commitment to leveraging AI for enhancing public services in a secure manner. The aim is for the UK government to set an example in driving innovation and efficiency in public sector operations.

He emphasized the importance of streamlining government processes to save people time, noting that the average UK adult spends significant time dealing with public sector bureaucracy annually. Through initiatives like the UK Government Chat, the government is exploring innovative technologies to simplify interactions and improve efficiency.

Source: www.theguardian.com

Elon Musk files lawsuit over $1 per day election donation | Elon Musk

Posted on November 6, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Elon Musk is facing a proposed class action lawsuit from registered voters who participated in a sweepstakes by signing a constitutional petition, hoping to win a month’s worth of donations each day. However, the lawsuit now alleges fraud.

According to a complaint filed by Arizona resident Jacqueline McCafferty in federal court, Musk and his organization, America Pac, allegedly misled voters into signing petitions under the pretense of a random selection process, when in fact, winners were chosen by members of the pack. Musk’s lawyer admitted that the sweepstakes results were not random, with the winner being pre-selected.

During a court hearing in Pennsylvania, Musk’s attorney Chris Gober stated, “The recipient of the $1 million was not chosen by chance. We know exactly who will be announced today and tomorrow as the recipients of $1 million.” Musk also mentioned at a campaign rally that the winners would be randomly selected.

McCafferty further claimed that the defendants used Musk’s social media platform “X” to gather personal information such as names, addresses, and phone numbers for potential profit. Representatives for Musk and McCafferty did not immediately respond to the allegations in the complaint.

The lawsuit was filed after a Philadelphia judge denied a request to stop the giveaway, which was deemed an illegal lottery by District Attorney Larry Krasner. The ruling was largely symbolic, as Musk had no plans for additional funding post the U.S. presidential election.

Musk, the world’s richest man, distributed gifts to voters in seven battleground states who supported free speech and gun rights through signed petitions. The lawsuit filed on Tuesday seeks at least $5 million in damages for all petition signatories.

During his presidential campaign against Kamala Harris, Musk backed Donald Trump and donated over $100 million through America Pac.

Read more of the Guardian’s 2024 US election coverage

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Source: www.theguardian.com

Bitcoin reaches all-time high of $75,000 as investors speculate on Trump’s win | Bitcoin

Posted on November 6, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Bitcoin has reached record highs amidst speculation on Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential election, with many viewing him as a candidate supportive of cryptocurrencies.

The digital currency hit $75,005.08 on Wednesday morning, surpassing its previous peak of $73,797.98 achieved in March.

“Bitcoin’s price seems to be closely tied to President Trump’s standing in the polls and betting markets,” commented AJ Bell analyst Russ Mould ahead of the U.S. presidential election.

Investors believe that a Republican win could lead to increased demand for digital currencies,” he added.

Although Trump previously criticized cryptocurrencies as scams during his tenure, he has since shifted his position and even introduced his own platform for the currency.

Nigel Green from DeVere also stated before the election that “President Trump’s victory could propel the world’s first and largest cryptocurrency to new heights.”

Green added, “If re-elected, there would likely be a focus on deregulation, tax breaks, and economic policies favoring investments like Bitcoin.”

President Trump has vowed to make the United States the “Bitcoin and cryptocurrency capital of the world” and appoint Elon Musk to oversee a comprehensive audit of government spending.

Trump’s corporate tax cuts during his previous term boosted market liquidity and encouraged investment in high-growth assets such as cryptocurrencies.

In September, Trump announced the launch of a digital currency platform named World Liberty Financial with his son and other entrepreneurs, although initial sales were sluggish.

World Liberty Financial provides a lending and borrowing service for cryptocurrencies, akin to platforms like Aave.

Since their inception, cryptocurrencies have made headlines for extreme volatility and the collapse of major industry players, notably the FTX exchange platform.

Leading up to the election, Trump made a purchase at a New York restaurant, touting it as a “historic transaction” and possibly becoming the first former president to use Bitcoin for a transaction.

“Who wants a hamburger?” Trump exclaimed to his followers in September, shortly after the platform’s launch.

Read more of the Guardian’s 2024 US election coverage

Source: www.theguardian.com

Dark Wolf Nebula reveals new imagery through VST capture

Posted on November 6, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Astronomers using the VLT survey telescope at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile 283 million pixel image of the Dark Wolf Nebula.

This image was taken by ESO’s VLT survey telescope and shows the Dark Wolf Nebula. Image credit: ESO / VPHAS+ Team.

The Dark Wolf Nebula is located approximately 5,300 light-years away in the constellation Scorpius.

“Dark nebulae are cold clouds of cosmic dust so dense that they obscure the light of stars and other celestial bodies behind them,” ESO astronomers said in a statement.

“As its name suggests, it does not emit visible light, unlike other nebulae.”

“The dust grains within it absorb visible light and only allow longer wavelength radiation, such as infrared radiation, to pass through.”

“Astronomers study these frozen dust clouds because they often contain new stars that are being born.”

New images of the Dark Wolf Nebula VLT surveying telescope (VST) Chile’s Atacama Desert.

“This image occupies an area of the sky equivalent to four full moons, but it is actually part of a much larger nebula called . gum 55” said the astronomers.

“If you look closely, the wolf may even be a werewolf, and its hands are trying to grab unsuspecting bystanders.”

“Of course, tracking the ghostly presence of a wolf in the sky is only possible because of its contrast with the bright background.”

“This image shows in stunning detail how the dark wolf stands out among the glowing clouds that form the stars behind it.”

“The colorful clouds are composed primarily of hydrogen gas, which glows with a reddish hue when excited by intense ultraviolet light from newborn stars.”

This image was taken as part of the VST Photometric Hα Survey of the Southern Galactic Plane and Bulge (VPHAS+), which is studying about 500 million objects in the Milky Way.

“Studies like this help scientists better understand the life cycles of stars in our home galaxy,” the researchers said.

Source: www.sci.news

Newly discovered species reveals secrets of tardigrade radiation resistance

Posted on November 6, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Newly discovered tardigrade species using genome, transcriptome and proteome analysis Hypsibius henanensis scientists investigated the molecular basis that contributes to radioresistance in these small invertebrates.

Schematic diagram of the mechanism conferring radiation resistance Hypsibius henanensis. Image credit: Li others., doi: 10.1126/science.adl0799.

Tardigrades, also known as tardigrades or moss piglets, are a diverse group of microscopic invertebrates famous for their ability to withstand extreme conditions.

First discovered in 1773, these organisms can live for up to 60 years, grow up to 0.5 mm in size, and are best seen under a microscope.

They can survive in temperatures as low as -272 degrees Celsius (-457 degrees Fahrenheit) or as hot as 150 degrees Celsius (302 degrees Fahrenheit), and temperatures as low as -20 degrees Celsius for several minutes, and for up to 30 years without food or water. Masu. Minus 4 degrees Celsius (minus 4 degrees Fahrenheit) continues for decades.

It can withstand pressures from virtually 0 atmospheres in outer space to 1,200 atmospheres at the bottom of the Mariana Trench.

They also exhibit excellent resistance to ionizing radiation, withstanding doses of gamma rays as high as 3,000 to 5,000 grays (Gy), approximately 1,000 times the lethal dose for humans.

The mechanism of radioresistance in tardigrades remains largely unknown.

Previous studies investigating how they do this have shown that tardigrades have powerful DNA repair abilities.

They also express tardigrade-specific proteins called damage suppressors (Dsup), when expressed in human cells, protects DNA from radiation damage.

In a new study, Lei Li and colleagues at Qingdao University describe a new species of tardigrade. Hypsibius henanensis.

Through detailed morphological and molecular analyses, they also investigated the basis of radioresistance in this species.

The researchers evaluated how exposure to heavy ion beams changes the molecular profiles of animals. They found that 285 stress-related genes were upregulated.

They further uncovered three molecular mechanisms that contribute to radioresistance in organisms.

First, the horizontally transferred bacterial gene DOPA dioxygenase 1 (Doda 1) enhanced radiation resistance by producing betalains (pigments with powerful free radical scavenging properties commonly found in plants, fungi, and bacteria).

Second, proteins unique to tardigrades, TDP1promotes DNA double-strand break repair.

Finally, mitochondrial chaperone genes BCS1Proliferated during the evolution of tardigrades, it is uniquely upregulated in response to radiation and protects cells from radiation-induced mitochondrial damage.

“The extreme environmental tolerance of extremophiles such as tardigrades provides a treasure trove of unexplored molecular mechanisms of stress tolerance,” the authors write.

“Functional studies of these radioresistance mechanisms may further expand our understanding of cell survival under extreme conditions and provide inspiration for promoting human health and fighting disease.”

of result Published in the Journal on October 25, 2024 science.

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Ray Lee others. 2024. The multi-omic landscape of tardigrades and the molecular basis of radioresistance. science 386 (6720);doi: 10.1126/science.adl0799

Source: www.sci.news

China Unveils New Species of Oviraptorosaurus

Posted on November 6, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

A new genus and species of early-diverging oviraptorosaurs have been identified from two specimens discovered in Inner Mongolia, China.

rebuilding the life of Yuanyang Long Bai Nian. Image credit: Sci.News / Ddinodan.

“Oviraptorosauridae Dr. Xin Shu, a paleontologist at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Center for Vertebrate Evolutionary Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, has discovered that Penaraptor is a special species known primarily from the rich Cretaceous fossil record of Asia and North America. Said to be a group of order theropods. Yunnan University and colleagues.

“In recent years, a series of new discoveries have deepened our knowledge of their diversity, behavior, ontogeny, and reproductive biology.”

“More than 40 genera have been named, and Oviraptorosaurus undoubtedly includes some of the earliest divergent species. Inchesibosaurus Caudipterygidae and highly specialized edentulous species from northeastern China; Abimimus Oviraptoridae are from East Asia, Caenagnathidae are from Asia and North America, and the best known species date from the Late Cretaceous. ”

The new oviraptorosaur lived in what is now China during the early Cretaceous period, about 110 million years ago.

named Yuanyang Long Bai Nianit exhibits a unique combination of morphological features that distinguishes it from all oviraptorosaurs known to date.

“Yuanyang Long Bai Nian Identified as an oviraptorosaurian based on a short, deep skull and several pelvic features (i.e., triangular obturator process located in the center of the ischium and a long pubic bone oriented approximately ventrally) “We can,” the paleontologists said.

“However, some oviraptorosaurs, Yuanyang Long Bai Nian exhibits a unique combination of features not found in any previously known clade, such as a hook-shaped posterior process of the pubic boot that is longer than a rounded anterior process. ”

two jointed skeleton Yuanyang Long Bai NianThese bones, including part of the skull and part of the posterior skull, were collected in the summer of 2021 from the Maortu area of the Miaogou Formation in Chilantai City, western Inner Mongolia, China.

This discovery provides the first record of an Early Cretaceous oviraptorosaur near the Gobi Desert and provides further insight into the biology and ecology of early-divergent oviraptorosaurs.

“This new species is intermediate in morphology between the earliest and later divergent oviraptorosaurids, and our phylogenetic analysis suggests that this new species was formed by the Abymimididae and Caenagasoididae. “This finding supports the fact that it is a sister taxon to the clade that has been studied,” the researchers said.

“Remarkably, this new early-diverging oviraptorosaur has an extremely short postacetabular ilium and a hindlimb with a proportionally long and fused lower limb. The combination is not known in other oviraptorosaurs, but is common in wading birds, suggesting a potential ecology with wading birds.

“Preserved bezoars are Codypteryx Our new species suggests that it has a gastric mill function, and our preliminary observations suggest that the digestive mode of early-divergent and late-divergent oviraptorosaurs is indicates a potential mismatch. ”

of the team findings Published in a magazine Cretaceous research.

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Mingze Hao others. A new species of oviraptorosaur discovered from the Lower Cretaceous Miaogou Formation in western Inner Mongolia, China. Cretaceous researchpublished online October 24, 2024. doi: 10.1016/j.cretres.2024.106023

Source: www.sci.news

Global cancer-related deaths projected to nearly double by 2050

Posted on November 5, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Breast cancer cells metastasized to the liver

Connect images / Alamy

Global cancer deaths are expected to nearly double by 2050, primarily in low- and middle-income countries.

Habtum Bisaifu The professor and his team from Australia’s University of Queensland made the discovery by looking at recent morbidity and mortality figures for 36 types of cancer in 185 countries from the World Cancer Observatory’s database. These rates were then applied to the United Nations Development Programme’s 2050 population projections to predict future cases and deaths.

Researchers predict that the total number of cancer cases worldwide is expected to increase by nearly 77% between 2022 and 2050, representing 20 million cases in 2022 and an additional 15.3 million cases in 2050. It means that the number of people will increase. The number of deaths from cancer worldwide also increased by almost 90% during this period, with 9.7 million people dying from the disease in 2022, and 8.8 million people expected to die from the disease in 2050. It will be.

The biggest increases are expected to occur in countries that rank low or middle on the United Nations’ Human Development Index, which is based on life expectancy, education levels, and per capita income. In countries with low scores, such as Niger and Afghanistan, cancer incidence and deaths are expected to nearly triple on average by 2050. Meanwhile, countries with very high scores, such as Norway, are projected to see an average increase in infections and deaths of more than 42% and 56%, respectively.

This corroborates other evidence that: The number of cancer cases is on the risesay Andrew Chan at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, and he was not involved in the study. Multiple factors are likely driving this, he says, including people living longer and increasing their risk of cancer. However, this study did not take into account the emergence of new or more effective treatments.

Chan says the least developed countries will probably experience the largest increase due to “the so-called Westernization of the population.” “Some of the habits traditionally considered to be associated with higher cancer risk, such as rising obesity rates and poor diet, are becoming trends in low- and middle-income countries.”

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Source: www.newscientist.com

Exploration of Cylinder Sealing and its Influence on the Development of Writing in Ancient Southwest Asia

Posted on November 5, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Administrative innovations in Southwest Asia in the fourth millennium BC, such as cylindrical seals wrapped around the earliest clay tablets, laid the foundation for one of the first writing systems, Protocuneiform. Although seals were rich in iconography, few studies have focused on the potential influence of specific motifs on the development of sign-based proto-cuneiform. in new researchpublished today in the journal ancient, scholars identified a basic proto-cuneiform symbolic precursor in seal motifs that described ships and textile transport, highlighting the synergy of an early system of clay-based communication.

Cylinder seal and seal impression: royal priest and his acolytes feeding the sacred flock. Uruk period, approximately 3200 BC. Image credit: Marie-Lan Nguyen.

The origins of writing in Southwest Asia are often traced to accounting systems developed during the 4th millennium BC. This accounting system physically documented transactions using tokens, tags, banknotes, numerical tablets, and seals.

Proto-cuneiform was first attested on clay tablets from the city of Uruk in southern Iraq around 3350-3000 BC. The script is a complex accounting system with hundreds of iconographic symbols, many of which remain difficult to interpret.

The elaboration of tokens, long used throughout Southwest Asia, may have stimulated the development of proto-cuneiform and served as a model for some symbols, but apart from numerical notation, the Comparisons can hardly be proven, and the forms that emerge from the multimedia environment of the origins of symbols can be diverse.

“The conceptual leap from pre-writing symbolism to writing is an important development in human cognitive skills,” said Professor Silvia Ferrara of the University of Bologna.

“The invention of writing marks a transition between prehistory and history, and the findings of this study demonstrate how some of the later prehistoric images are one of the earliest invented writing systems. We bridge this gap by showing how

“Although the close relationship between ancient seals and the invention of writing in Southwest Asia has long been recognized, the relationship between specific seal images and symbol shapes has remained largely unexplored,” she added. Ta.

“This was our starting question: Did seal images contribute significantly to the invention of symbols during the first writings in this region?”

To find the answer, Professor Ferrara and colleagues compared the design of the columns with proto-cuneiform, looking for correlations that might reveal a direct relationship, both in graphic form and meaning.

“We focused on images of seals, which arose before the invention of writing and continued to develop into the proto-writing era,” said Kathryn Kelly and Mattia Caltrano, researchers at the University of Bologna. Ta.

“This approach allowed us to identify a series of designs associated with the transport of textiles and pottery, which later evolved into corresponding proto-cuneiform scripts.”

This discovery reveals a direct link between the cylinder seal system and the invention of writing and provides a new perspective to study the evolution of symbolic and writing systems.

“Our findings show that the designs inscribed on the cylinder seals are directly related to the development of proto-cuneiform in southern Iraq,” Professor Ferrara said.

“These designs also show how the meanings originally associated with these designs were integrated into the writing system.”

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kathryn kelly others. Seals and symbols: Tracing the origins of writing in ancient Southwest Asia. ancientpublished online on November 5, 2024. doi: 10.15184/aqy.2024.165

Source: www.sci.news

Using sunscreen particles to spray rice during heatwaves enhances growth

Posted on November 5, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Sunrise over rice terraces in Bali, Indonesia

Aliaksandr Mazurkevich / Alamy

Zinc nanoparticles, a common sunscreen ingredient, could help protect rice from heat-related stress, an increasingly common problem under climate change.

Zinc is known to play an important role in plant metabolism. Minerals in the form of salts are often added to the soil as fertilizer or sprayed on the leaves, but this is not very efficient. Another approach is to deliver zinc as particles smaller than 100 nanometers, which can pass through microscopic pores in leaves and accumulate within the plant.

Researchers have been studying such nanoparticles as a way to deliver more nutrients to plants and maintain crop yields while reducing the environmental damage caused by excessive fertilizer use. now Hu Hong Researchers from China's Nankai University tested how zinc oxide nanoparticles affected crop performance under heat wave conditions.

They grew flowering rice in a greenhouse under normal conditions and a simulated heat wave in which temperatures exceeded 37 degrees Celsius for six consecutive days. Some plants were sprayed with nanoparticles, while others were not treated at all.

When harvested, the average grain yield of plants treated with zinc nanoparticles was 22.1% higher than non-sprayed plants, and the rice also contained higher levels of nutrients. Zinc was also beneficial under heat wave conditions. In fact, in these cases, the difference in yield between treated and untreated plants was even greater.

Based on detailed measurements of nutrients in leaves, the researchers found that zinc boosts yields by fortifying enzymes involved in photosynthesis and antioxidants that protect plants from harmful molecules known as reactive oxygen species. concluded.

“Nanoscale micronutrients have great potential to increase climate resilience of crops through a number of unique mechanisms related to reactive oxygen species,” he says. jason white At the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station.

The researchers also found that rice plants treated with zinc nanoparticles maintained a greater diversity of microorganisms living on the leaves (called the phyllosphere), which may contribute to improved growth. I also discovered that.

Tests of zinc oxide nanoparticles on plants such as pumpkin and alfalfa have also shown increased yields. But Hu says more research is needed to verify that this could benefit other crops, such as wheat.

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Source: www.newscientist.com

New study shows digital technology can enhance children’s development opportunities

Posted on November 5, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

There has been a debated stance that children below the age of three should have no screen time, but research indicates that digital technology can offer valuable opportunities for the development of young children.

The study, titled Toddlers, technology and talk, was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council and conducted by researchers from Manchester Metropolitan University, Lancaster University, Queen’s Belfast University, Strathclyde University, and Swansea University. It explored children’s interactions with various technologies in diverse communities, specifically focusing on the impact of technology on language and literacy skills of children aged 0 to 3 in the UK.

The research delved into how children engage with technology, whether with their parents or independently, through activities like taking photos, playing games using educational apps, listening to music, discussing favorite characters, and video calling.

Studies have shown that children start using smart devices and technology at a young age, and this can be beneficial for their language development and other skills.

The report highlights that young children’s digital activities involve various forms of sensory exploration which contribute to their cognitive development.

Parents acknowledge the advantages of technology for their children’s development, but they are also concerned about potential negative impacts from excessive technology usage.

The report also discusses how video calls provide valuable opportunities for children in multilingual families to learn different languages and cultures from their overseas relatives.

The study involved surveys with 1,400 UK parents, 40 home case studies, interviews with 20 education experts, and analysis of families’ TV viewing habits. It revealed that children could learn words and phrases from watching TV shows that they were passionate about.

Furthermore, shared TV viewing and music listening create bonding experiences for parents and children, nurturing emotional connections over time.

Even in homes where the TV is on throughout the day, children engage in various play and learning activities and may not pay much attention to the TV.

Some parents reported that their children under the age of 3 were learning sign language online, showcasing how young children adapt to interacting with smart devices.

The report emphasizes the need for better protection of children’s privacy and security in the digital age and hopes to guide policy and practices based on its findings.

Professor Rosie Flewitt from MMU acknowledges the challenges of balancing the benefits of digital communication, play, and learning for children with concerns about potential risks of overuse.

Source: www.theguardian.com

Tajikistan Unearthed: A Paleolithic Rock Cave Called Soy Havzak

Posted on November 5, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

The Soy Habzak trenches in Tajikistan's Zeravshan Valley are the remains of several Paleolithic occupation phases rich in stone tools, fauna, and charcoal remains.

The Soi Habzak Caves are one of the few multi-layered Paleolithic ruins in Central Asia. Image credit: Yossi Zaidner & Sharof Kurbanov, doi: 10.15184/aqy.2024.149.

Soy Habzak is a small tributary of the Zeravshan River approximately 10 km north of Panjikent in northern Tajikistan.

The Soi Havzak ruins are rock shelters/overhangs carved into the cliff face approximately 40 meters above the river.

Professor Yossi Zeidner of the Hebrew University, Dr. Sharov Kurbanov of the National Academy of Sciences of Tajikistan and colleagues excavated three areas of the site, revealing layers of human activity.

Archaeologists have discovered a wealth of Paleolithic stone tools, animal bones, and plants.

The finds date back to various periods between 150,000 and 20,000 years ago.

These provide important evidence that Central Asia played an important role in early human migration and development.

“It turns out that the Zeravshan Valley, which in the Middle Ages was primarily known as the route of the Silk Road, was an important route for human expansion long before that, from 20,000 to 150,000 years ago,” said Zeidner. the professor said.

“This region may have served as a migratory route for several human species that may have coexisted in this region, including modern Homo sapiens, Neanderthals, and Denisovans, and our The aim of the study is to determine who the humans were who lived in this region and the nature of their interactions.

Paleolithic stone tools discovered in the Soi Habzak cave complex in Tajikistan. Image credit: Yossi Zaidner & Sharof Kurbanov, doi: 10.15184/aqy.2024.149.

The well-preserved finds at Soi Habzak not only provide valuable clues about the ancient climate and environment, but also the possibility of discovering hominin artifacts that could identify the species of humans that lived in the area. also brings.

“The state of preservation of not only the bones but also the organic matter, such as the remains of burnt wood, is amazing,” said Professor Zeidner.

“This allows us to reconstruct the region's ancient climate and provides hope that further excavations may reveal clues about the region's human biology.”

“This is critical to understanding the development of human population and behavior in Central Asia.”

This research has broader implications for the study of human evolution and migration, particularly for understanding how ancient human populations interacted.

The Soi Habzak site in the mountain corridor of Central Asia may have served as an important transition point for human populations, allowing early humans to spread across vast areas.

“We hope that ongoing research at this site will provide new insights into how different human groups, including modern humans, Neanderthals, and Denisovans, interacted in this region. '' said Professor Zeidner.

“This discovery is an important step towards understanding the history of ancient humans in Central Asia and demonstrates important collaboration between international scientific teams.”

a paper A description of the discovery was published in a magazine ancient.

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Yossi Zeidner & Sharov Kurbanov. Soii Havzak: A new Paleolithic site in the Zeravshan Valley in central Tajikistan. ancientpublished online on November 4, 2024. doi: 10.15184/aqy.2024.149

Source: www.sci.news

Elon Musk Shapes TechScape: X into its Ultimate Form

Posted on November 5, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Hello. Welcome to TechScape. I’m Blake Montgomery, technology news editor at Guardian US. In today’s newsletter, we discuss the final form of X, learnings from a jam-packed week of earnings, and niche online Halloween costumes. Thank you for your participation.

The US election culminates the transformation of X into Elon Musk’s weapon. He has managed to bend social networks to his will.

Last week, Musk tweeted and linked to a forum within X called the Election Integrity Community, encouraging his followers to report “potential voting fraud or fraud.” Experts told my colleague Johana Bhuiyan that the community, which has more than 50,000 members, has a swamp of conspiratorial overtones and uncorrected misinformation that will make it a face in 2020. It is said that it is similar to the book “Stop the Steal” group.

Users posting to the self-contained feed quickly began pointing out what appeared to be evidence of fraud and election interference.

Tweets showing everything from torn ballots to ABC News to system tests to postal workers doing their jobs and dropping mail-in ballots were all presented as evidence that the presidential election was compromised. Some of the tweets include attempts to record personal information and identify people who users have falsely accused of stuffing ballots and interfering with voting by Trump supporters. Before anyone can decide whether the allegation is true or false, users occupy the post and assume the unsuspecting person they see is guilty.

Mr. Musk has weaponized the ability of X. He is trying to bend the posts of others to his own political will and frame the discussion into an alternate reality. He gives preferential treatment to some posts and hides others. The Washington Post reported last week that of the top 100 tweeting accounts in Congress, only Republicans are spreading the word. When he first acquired Twitter, Musk deployed Twitter’s internal documents to rebuild its public image. twitter file. He then criticized his own account for supporting Donald Trump. He bombarded his followers with pro-Trump messages and flawed Trump interviews on the Twitter space.

We have never seen a transformation like X. Billionaires are not afraid of campaigning or naked partisanship, bending the connected networks of tens of millions of people to their own vision of reality. The October surprise was Elon Musk.

With no economic success with forced purchases, Musk turned to politics to make his $44 billion bet pay off. My colleague Dan Milmo says: “Company X’s continued influence as a news source and its role as a vehicle for broadcasting its owner’s right-wing views to over 200 million followers requires measuring the benefit to the world’s richest people. That means no ‘financial benchmarks alone.” Think of the restoration of Trump’s account and all of Musk’s pro-Trump tweets as an in-kind donation that Musk will cash in on during Trump’s presidency.

Will it ever end once the election is over? – The value of X decreases. It will become less important for the world’s richest man to make noise about voter fraud conspiracies. As with any media that has seen an increase in interest in political battles and the associated craters, X’s traffic will likely decline. We will see the effects of Mr. Musk’s weaponization in the light.

Lessons learned from profits

The floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Photo: Spencer Pratt/Getty Images

Five of the Magnificent Seven (Google, Microsoft, Meta, Amazon, and Apple) announced their quarterly results last week. Not all stocks rose, but all beat Wall Street’s earnings expectations. Several lessons can be learned from their impressive performance.

1. Advertising remains the lifeblood of the internet economy
Google’s revenue, Meta’s revenue, and even Amazon’s revenue show that digital advertising can still maintain an empire.

2. Investments in AI, especially in cloud businesses, are paying off.
Bully Google, Microsoft, and Amazon! Like Meta, these companies have increased their capital spending by tens of billions of dollars to pay for their artificial intelligence products, but investors think it’s worth it. It seems so. Each company reported strong growth in its cloud business. Meta’s investments in open source AI likewise led to Meta AI being deployed at Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram, and claiming the title of most used AI. Investors loved it.

3. Both of these outcomes benefit one company in particular
Last week, Reddit became the first publicly traded company to report a profit, posting a massive 68% increase in revenue compared to the same period last year. The company makes most of its revenue from advertising, so a strong market means Reddit makes more money, even if it’s a smaller player than Google or Meta. Reddit’s ad revenue increased by 56%.

Reddit chief Steve Huffman also attributed the company’s better-than-expected results to a new revenue stream: deals with AI companies. Anyone who wants to build a large-scale language model that generates English text uses Reddit to train their AI. That social network is a huge, well-organized collection of human-written texts. Reddit licenses its datasets to Google, OpenAI, and others for tens of millions of dollars. That funding source may not last forever, but it’s not going away anytime soon.

Reddit is also benefiting from AI. The social network’s monthly user count increased by half to 97 million in the past quarter alone. Huffman attributes the dramatic increase to the social network’s new translation feature, which uses AI to transliterate English posts into French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and German. The company plans to expand this feature in the coming months.

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new york magazine John Herman points out on Reddit:As a repository of human-written material, it is also useful for people who want to be sure that what they are reading was not written by an AI. As a result, Reddit has become “Google’s favorite website” and a throne with the Sword of Damocles, Herman writes. Huffman said Reddit became the sixth most searched word on Google. Many digital media reach similar heights only to be brought down by a crash.

This week on iPhone

Halloween costumers made headlines on Twitter and Instagram this week. Photo: Sonia Bonnet/Alamy

Niche Halloween costumes have received meme treatment with a proliferation of jokes starting with “I hate gay Halloween…” on Instagram with X. This meme seems to point to something bigger. Online culture has gotten to the point where we’re not just debating the appeal of individual specific references. NeNe Leaks and the white refrigeratorFor example, we discuss the value of taking internet inside jokes seriously. Is it worth wearing a bulky cardboard box all night screaming, “This is from an early season of ‘The Real Housewives’!” It’s a little self-loathing to start a tweet about your costume with “I hate it.” We expect to see more witches and cats next year.

Although perhaps not. a Rebuttal from X In the Name of Joy: “I love everyone’s niche Halloween costumes!! “I love the specificity of it. I love the creativity. Putting so much time and effort into something literally just to make yourself laugh And I really love having things explained to me when I don’t understand.

As for me, I dressed up as a skeleton for the third year in a row.

Wider Techscape

Keeping up with tons of messages in group chats can be a pain. Photo: Weare/Getty Images

Source: www.theguardian.com

The use of natural fibers in wet wipes can have damaging effects on soil and wildlife

Posted on November 5, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Fibers from wet wipes can get mixed into fertilizer if flushed down the toilet.

Linda Kennedy/Alamy

The natural fibers increasingly used in wet wipes can actually have a more negative impact on the environment than the synthetic fibers they are designed to replace.

Viscose and lyocell, made from wood cellulose, are often used in wet wipes and clothing as an alternative to fibers such as polyester, which are primarily byproducts of fossil fuels.

“These are in high street stores, so you can get them in the ethically conscious consumer sections of fast fashion stores,” he says. winnie courten jones At Bangor University, UK.

However, there is uncertainty as to whether they are truly better than alternative materials. “There's been a bit of a knee-jerk reaction to move away from traditional fossil fuel-based plastics and replace them with alternatives, and there hasn't been much testing of those other materials,” Corton says. Jones says.

To learn more, she and her colleagues tested the effects of viscose, lyocell, and polyester on the soil and some of the animals that live there. Wet wipes often end up in sewage treatment plants along with microfibers that fall off clothes in washing machines. These are accidentally spread into the soil through sludge from these plants, which is used as fertilizer.

The research team is a type of earthworm (Eisenia fetida) changes the concentration of viscose, lyocell, and polyester in the soil. Approximately 30 percent of people exposed to high concentrations of polyester died after 72 hours. In contrast, almost 60 percent of those exposed to lyocell and 80 percent of those exposed to viscose died.

When researchers tested it at lower concentrations that are more commonly encountered in the real world, they found that worms exposed to viscose or lyocell reproduced less than worms exposed to polyester. Ta. It is unclear why this occurs, but fibrous material, regardless of its composition, can be toxic to earthworms.

“Bio-based fibers are [be] “It's not fossil fuel-based, so it's great when it's produced, but we don&#39t have a clear vision of whether it's great when it&#39s broken down.” caroline goshott lindsay at the University of Glasgow, UK. “They still have a place because we still need to replace the fossil fuel industry. But it's important to know that the message is not that if they go into the environment it will be better.”

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Source: www.newscientist.com

30 years later, the Sega Saturn remains a groundbreaking console ready to be rediscovered in retro gaming enthusiasts.

Posted on November 5, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

IIt’s one of the biggest injustices in video game history that the Sega Saturn is widely considered to be a failure. The console was released in Japan on November 22, 1994, almost two weeks earlier than the PlayStation, but has always been compared disparagingly to its rival. We hear that while Sony built high-end machine lasers intended to produce high-speed 3D graphics, Sega engineers had to add extra graphics chips to the Saturn at the last minute. I read that Sony’s Ken Kutaragi has provided creators with an even easier to use development system. We know that Sony used its power as a consumer electronics giant to take a financial hit and drive down the prices of Sega’s machines. That’s all true, but what’s always left unmentioned is the huge success of Japan’s Saturn launch and the extraordinary legacy left by Sega’s 32-bit machines.

What I remember is this. The Edge magazine reported from Akihabara, Tokyo, that its Japanese correspondent joined a line outside a major Laox computer game center to pick up one of the thousands of machines that fans had not yet reserved. I was trying to get it. Two and a half hours later, the author showed up with my purchase. Among them was a copy of Virtua Fighter, the best arcade fighting game of the year. It was a lucky purchase. Shelves around town were quickly emptying. Sega shipped an unprecedented 200,000 units that day.

The Saturn brought the feel of arcade titles like Daytona USA into your home. Photo: Justin Layton/Alamy

The following September, I joined Edge as a writer and stayed there for two years, coinciding with the creative peak of Saturn’s short life. What was clear to me at the time, and what still rings true today, is that Sega’s first-party output on this machine was one of the best of the decade. Arcade megahits “Sega Rally” and “Daytona USA” set the challenge for a new era of stylish 3D racers, while “Virtua Fighter 2,” “Fighting Vipers,” and “The Last Bronx” challenge the 1-on-1 brings complexity and depth to fighting games. Sega’s platform-exclusive titles were similarly vibrant and groundbreaking. Panzer Dragoon, Night Into Dreams, and Burning Ranger reinvented stalwart genres for a new generation with imaginative and rich visuals. But I also loved wacky experiments. There’s the toy-like platformer Clockwork Knight, the weird and frenetic puzzler Bakubaku Animal, and the self-consciously stupid Virtua Fighter Kids.

It’s often said that what Saturn lacked was support from third-party developers, but that wasn’t the case in Japan. Veteran shooter creator Treasure developed two of their best titles for this machine, Radiant Silvergun and Guardian Heroes. If you still want to play classic 2D shooter games, the Saturn is the way to go. Batsugan, Battle Garegga, and Darius Gaiden are all considered staples of the genre.

X-Men vs Street Fighter: Sega Saturn was the beginning of Capcom and Marvel’s relationship. Photo: ArcadeImages/Alamy

Atlus adapted the arcade hit Donpachi and created the underrated role-playing adventures Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner and Princess Crown. For horror fans, there’s Warp’s survival thriller Enemy Zero, and Capcom created a Saturn port of Resident Evil that included exclusive mini-games and new enemies and costumes. Capcom also produced many of the best fighting games of the time, including X-Men: Children of the Atom (originally a home exclusive), X-Men vs. Street Fighter, and Darkstalkers 3. I put it into Saturn.

Sega also had decent developer support in Europe, with programmers who grew up on home computers having experience programming in the assembly language supported by the Saturn (the PlayStation had a much rarer development environment based on C). Core Design originally targeted Tomb Raider for machines (and also made the unfairly forgotten action-adventure Swagman for consoles). WipeOut brought Psygnosis. Gremlins loaded top-down brawler for both consoles. And Knutsford-based Traveler’s Tales, who would go on to create the Lego series, co-created the underrated racer Sonic R with Sonic Team. This was a great technology showcase for Saturn, with smooth frame rates and gorgeous transparency effects.

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https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/ewtuOzSbZAU?wmode=opaque&feature=oembed" title="Sonic R 3D Trailer 1997" height="480" width="640" allowfullscreen="

The Saturn was innovative in other ways as well. Saturn Bomberman remains arguably the best title in Hudson’s explosive series, especially considering its support for chaotic 10-player matches with two multi-taps. The Saturn was the first major console to offer online gaming via a Net Link modem, and in 1997 it allowed players to participate in direct sessions of Sega Rally Championship and Virtual-On over the Internet. A party title that supported this technology was Shadows of the Tusk, a deck-building strategy role-playing game (years before the genre became mainstream) that came with its own physical card pack. Additionally, Sega’s 3D Control Pad, an analog controller designed specifically for Nights Into Dreams, outperformed the Nintendo 64’s pad by several weeks by market launch.

There was a period, perhaps for a year or two, when Saturn’s disappearance was inevitable. It held its own and rivaled everything that Sony and its lead development partner Namco could offer. Daytona vs. Ridge Racer, Virtua Fighter vs. Tekken, Virtua Cop vs. Time Crisis. And this rivalry has been an absolute boon for gamers, driving 3D game design and creating the technical expertise needed for the next generation of open-world 3D console titles. There’s a reason why refurbished and modified Saturns are still being sold on eBay and retro gaming sites 30 years after its release. They are often region-free and come with a switch to toggle between European 50Hz or NTSC 60Hz TV options. And that’s because the games I’ve mentioned here are still worth playing in their original form, their original home. Although the Saturn never really caught on as a mass market device, it was successful in many ways. When we think about the history of video games, we need to talk more about it.

Source: www.theguardian.com

This Is How Astronauts Vote in Space (and It’s Super Weird)

Posted on November 5, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

The first cosmonaut to cast a vote from space was actually a cosmonaut (individuals trained by the Russian Space Agency for space travel) who flew from the Salyut-1 space station to the 24th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1971. I voted.

Subsequently, three more cosmonauts voted in the 1989 Soviet parliamentary elections from the Mir space station, which operated in low Earth orbit from 1986 to 2001. Their votes were not confidential, and they communicated their choices to ground controllers instead of using regular communications. This public vote could have been great publicity for those seeking support from space.

However, when it came to democratic voting with secure ballots, there was a challenge. In November 1996, during the United States presidential election featuring candidates Bill Clinton, Bob Dole, and Ross Perot, astronaut John Blaha, a U.S. citizen residing in Texas, wanted to vote. As he was on the Mir space station, NASA facilitated secure communications for his voting process. Yet, the Texas Secretary of State intervened due to the lack of provisions in Texas election law for electronic voting, preventing Mr. Blaha from casting his vote.

This situation led to the signing of a new bill in 1997 by Governor George W. Bush, explicitly allowing voting from space. Astronaut David Wolfe’s first vote took place in a local election in Texas.

Since then, astronauts have been able to vote from space, with most opting to do so. The majority of astronauts relocated to Texas for training, enabling them to vote legally under the new law. There are also provisions for residents of other states to vote through collaboration with NASA.

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So, how do astronauts actually vote from space? Before their launch, all military personnel overseas must register for a federal postcard application. When it’s time to vote, NASA’s Johnson Space Center sends test ballots provided by the relevant county clerk to the astronauts. The astronauts use a training computer to complete the ballot, ensuring it is correctly received on Earth. The authentic ballot, along with credentials from the county clerk, is securely transmitted to the astronaut’s computer for electronic completion, then sent to NASA.

The ballot transmission occurs through NASA’s Tracking Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) to the White Sands Complex in New Mexico, and then via landline to Mission Control at Johnson Space Center. The completed ballot is emailed as a password-protected secure file to the county clerk for formalization.

STS-86 crew member David Wolfe, first American to vote in space – Photo credit: NASA

With the upcoming US presidential election in November 2024, stranded astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore may still be in space, necessitating the need for them to vote from space. Originally scheduled to return in June 2024, delays have extended their stay, with their planned return now set for February 2025 by SpaceX.

The crucial question remains: did they submit the federal postcard application for voting prior to launch? Failure to do so may still prevent them from voting.

Check out our ultimate fun facts More amazing science pages.

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Source: www.sciencefocus.com

Clues to the Origins of Writing Found in Ancient Mesopotamian Clay Seals

Posted on November 5, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Cylinder seal and its design engraved in clay

The origins of the world’s oldest known writing system may be traced back to painted decorated cylinders used for indicating ownership. Some symbols found on these cylindrical seals match those used in Protocuneiform, a form of protowriting utilized in Mesopotamia.

This finding suggests that the development of writing in Mesopotamia was a decentralized process, with numerous people from different regions contributing to the collection of symbols used.

“There have been various reconstructions over the years regarding the emergence of writing in Mesopotamia, but this is likely the earliest instance of writing invention in the world,” mentions Silvia Ferrara from the University of Bologna, Italy. “We are following a more vibrant and less constrained trajectory.”

The oldest confirmed writing system, cuneiform, was developed in Mesopotamia around 3200 BC. This was preceded by the introduction of a simpler writing system known as Protocuneiform, which was in use from 3350 to 3000 BC.

Proto-cuneiform texts lack grammatical rules, making them incapable of conveying complex meanings, as highlighted by Amy Richardson from the University of Reading, UK, who was not part of the research. For example, while proto-cuneiform can label something as “7 bushels of wheat”, only a sophisticated script like cuneiform can express “7 bushels of wheat are being delivered to you.”

The inception of proto-cuneiform is often associated with clay tokens, which were tokenized in various shapes like disks and spheres, engraved with patterns, and pressed into wet clay to create symbols. Some token symbols bear resemblance to those found in proto-cuneiform, as noted by Dennis Schmandt-Becker in a publication at the University of Texas at Austin in 1992 (before writing).

There is evidence supporting the role of tokens in the genesis of proto-cuneiform, according to Ferrara. However, as she mentions, not all signs can be explained by tokens.

Ferrara, along with her colleagues Kathryn Kelly and Mattia Caltrano, researchers at the University of Bologna, took a different approach by investigating another source of symbols: cylinder seals. These cylindrical artifacts, inscribed with patterns and images, when rolled over wet clay, imprint a set of rectangular symbols, often signifying the goods being transported or the individuals involved in the transaction, as described by Caltrano.

Both sides of the original cuneiform dial

CDLI

The researchers analyzed cylinder seals from the period between 4400 BC and 3400 BC across a vast region of southwest Asia, including Mesopotamia, and identified several symbols corresponding to those in proto-cuneiform.

“One prominent example we encountered was the depiction of fringed cloth and containers inside netting,” mentioned Caltrano. These symbols hold well-defined meanings related to goods transportation and are common in both cylindrical seals and proto-cuneiform tablets.

The concept that symbols on cylinder seals influenced those in proto-cuneiform had been previously proposed by scholars like Holly Pittman in a 1994 book chapter at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, with further developments in subsequent publications (link to publication). Pittman expressed satisfaction with the increasing recognition of her ideas among newer scholars with expertise in cuneiform.

“There seems to be a compelling correlation in the specific examples described in this article,” remarked Richardson. She cited her own research findings on the use of cylinder seals in recording interactions between cities.

This does not undermine the potential role of tokens. Richardson noted that there are still valid arguments suggesting the foundational importance of tokens, particularly in the development of counting systems.

If proto-cuneiform indeed originated from a mix of sources like tokens and cylinder seals, it sheds light on the diverse origins of this writing system. Ferrara pointed out that the evidence supports the argument that writing invention in Mesopotamia was more widespread and decentralized than previously thought. While the elites in the metropolis of Uruk played a crucial role, other administrators, as well as merchants scattered throughout the region, might have also contributed. “There is a growing body of evidence suggesting a broader and diversified impetus for the development of writing,” she added.

Initially, writing served administrative purposes rather than narrative ones. Richardson commented, “Early written records were primarily focused on organizing materials, goods, people, and things, aiming to establish social systems.”

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Source: www.newscientist.com