Google was found to have created an illegal monopoly in online search and advertising by a federal court in a landmark antitrust lawsuit brought against it by the Department of Justice. This ruling will significantly impact Google’s operations and how people engage with the internet’s most popular websites.
The court specifically concluded that Google violated antitrust laws through exclusive agreements with device manufacturers like Apple and Samsung, paying them billions to ensure that Google products were the default search engine on their devices. These agreements allowed Google to establish a search monopoly and stifle competition unfairly.
The implications of this ruling will depend on what actions are taken next. It could lead to substantial changes in how Google conducts its business or potentially be weakened through the appeals process. The outcome will also have broader implications for how regulators address big tech companies and alleged monopolies.
Here’s what to expect following this decision.
Google may be compelled to alter its search practices
The U.S. v. Google ruling did not specify remedies for Google’s monopoly on internet search, and the Justice Department did not seek penalties in its lawsuit. A separate trial will determine the remedies the government may impose on Google, which could range from contractual adjustments to a potential breakup of the company.
Judge Mehta could rule that Google is prohibited from entering exclusive search agreements, allowing it to be the default search engine if chosen by device manufacturers without the need for costly payments. Apple and Samsung have yet to comment on the ruling. Mozilla, reliant on Google payments, could face significant financial impact.
Judge Mehta may also consider options like browser choice screens seen in Europe to enhance competition. A harsher ruling could mandate the separation of Google’s search service from the rest of its operations and impose fines on antitrust violations.
Google intends to appeal the decision
Google rejected the court’s ruling and plans to appeal, initiating a legal battle with the Justice Department that could delay any repercussions for the company. Throughout the trial, Google maintained its superior product argument.
Past legal precedent suggests that a large technology company like Google may challenge an antitrust ruling successfully. Microsoft, in a similar case, managed to overturn key aspects of an antitrust decision against it through appeals.
Google has not disclosed its appeal timeline or response strategy following the ruling.
New Antitrust Lawsuit Looms
In addition to the current case, Google faces a forthcoming antitrust lawsuit concerning its digital advertising practices, alleging monopolistic behavior and stifling competition in that area.
This second lawsuit targets Google’s dominant position in the digital advertising industry, threatening a substantial revenue stream for the company. Google refutes the allegations and views the legal action as an attempt to gain unfair advantages.
Doctors are calling for a ban on artificial stone, a popular material used for kitchen worktops, following the confirmation of eight cases of artificial stone silicosis in the UK for the first time.
Also known as engineered or reconstituted stone, artificial stone has gained popularity for its aesthetics and durability over the last two decades. However, a new report published in the British Journal of Construction highlights the serious health risks posed by its high silica content, which exceeds 90% compared to 3% in marble and 30% in granite.
“Silicosis is a progressive lung disease caused by inhaling crystalline silica dust,” said Dr. Patrick Howlett, a spokesperson for BBC Science Focus. “The risk of developing silicosis is significantly higher for workers in the artificial stone industry compared to those with chronic respiratory conditions.”
“Various industries expose individuals to silicosis, including mining, pottery, cement work, and now artificial stone fabrication. Prolonged exposure to low levels of silica dust can lead to the development of silicosis over time,” added Dr. Howlett.
All eight affected individuals were male, with an average age of 34, and most worked for small businesses with fewer than 10 employees. Poor safety practices, such as inadequate respiratory protection and ventilation systems, were reported by workers during cutting and grinding operations.
The report’s authors emphasized the need for national guidelines and better enforcement to protect workers from artificial stone silicosis. They highlighted the urgent need for early detection of cases and preventative measures to avoid a potential epidemic.
Since 2010, cases of artificial stone silicosis have been reported worldwide, but the UK confirmed its first cases in mid-2023. California has identified nearly 100 cases of silicosis among countertop workers, prompting the adoption of new regulations to safeguard workers.
Australia has already banned the use of artificial stone as of July 2024, aiming to eliminate the health risks associated with its production and installation.
In related editorials, Dr. Christopher Barber and researchers from Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust drew parallels between artificial stone silicosis and historical occupational health crises, urging stricter regulations and enforcement to protect workers.
Experts are currently reviewing exposure limits for crystalline silica dust in the UK, with a focus on mitigating the risks associated with artificial stone worktops. Silicosis remains a significant concern for clinicians and researchers in the occupational health field.
About our experts
Patrick Howlett: An MRC Clinical Research Fellow at the National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College London, focusing on silicosis and tuberculosis among small-scale miners in Tanzania.
Christopher Barber: A leading expert in occupational and environmental lung disease, serving as a medical advisor to the UK Health and Safety Executive and conducting extensive research in the field.
The Pyramid of Djoser, also known as the Step Pyramid, is believed to be the oldest of the seven great pyramids, built around 4,500 years ago.
Map of the Saqqara Plateau showing the waterway from the Gisr el-Mudir Dam (left) to the water treatment plant near the Pyramid of Djoser. The water is then routed to the pyramid's network of pipes to power the hydraulic elevators. Image courtesy of Landreau. others., doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0306690.
The Pyramid of Djoser, built around 2680 BC at Saqqara in Egypt, is considered a major milestone in monumental architecture.
This revealed for the first time two important innovations: the pyramidal shape of the pharaoh's tomb and the use of only perfectly finished stones in the masonry.
In fact, the ability to extract, lift and precisely stack millions of stones is also revolutionary.
Such were the complex and visible achievements of King Djoser that his architect, vizier and great priest of Ra, Imhotep, was deified during the New Kingdom.
In a new interdisciplinary analysis, Dr. Xavier Landreau of the CEA Palaeotechnical Institute and his colleagues have found that hydraulic lifts may have been used in the construction of the pyramid.
Based on their mapping of nearby watersheds, the authors found that one of Saqqara's large unexplained structures, the Gisr el-Mudir Enclosure, has the characteristics of a check dam intended to capture sediment and water.
Additionally, a series of compartments dug into the ground outside the pyramid may have acted as water treatment plants, allowing sediment to settle as water passed through each compartment.
This would have allowed the water to flow into the pyramid's columns themselves, and its upward force could have carried the building stones along.
More research is needed to understand how water flowed through the tunnels and how much water was present on the land at that point in Earth's history.
However, archaeologists suggest that while other building methods such as ramps may have been used to construct the pyramids, if there was enough water a hydraulic lift system may have been used to support the building process.
“The internal structure of the step pyramid is found to be consistent with a previously unreported mechanism for hydraulic build-up,” the researchers said.
“The ancient builders may have used sediment-free water from the south side of the dry moat to raise the stones from the center of the pyramid in a volcanic fashion.”
“The ancient Egyptians are famous for being pioneers and masters of hydraulics, including irrigation canals and barges for transporting megaliths.”
“This research opens up a new field of research into the use of water power to build the massive structures erected by the Pharaohs.”
of study Published online in the journal PLoS One.
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X. Landreau others2024. On the possibility of using hydropower to aid in the construction of the Step Pyramid at Saqqara. PLoS One 19 (8): e0306690; doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0306690
Two recently discovered small hominin species, Homo floresiensis and Homo luzonensisraises the question of why such extreme body size reduction occurred in extinct human species in island environments. Previous research at Mata Menge on the Indonesian island of Flores has shown that early Middle Pleistocene human ancestors Homo floresiensis The jaws and teeth were even smaller. Now, paleoanthropologists have discovered additional hominid fossils in the same deposits at Mata Menge. The adult humerus (the lower half of the upper arm bone) is estimated to be 9 to 16 percent shorter and thinner than the type specimen. Homo floresiensis It is estimated to be about 60,000 years old and is smaller than the humerus of an adult human from the Plio-Pleistocene epoch. Homo floresiensis The lineage probably evolved from early Asia. Homo erectus This was a lineage that had existed for a long time on Flores Island, with a remarkably small body size, for at least 700,000 years.
Reconstruction Homo floresiensisImage courtesy of Elisabeth Daynes.
Homo floresiensis This is a small hominin species from the Late Pleistocene discovered in a limestone cave in Liang Bua, western Flores.
Archaeological evidence suggests that this species lived in Liang Bua as recently as 50,000 years ago, around the time that our species first appeared. Homo sapienshas been established in southern Australia for a long time.
The origins of the mysterious humans from Flores have been much debated.
The first hypothesis was Homo floresiensis They were dwarf descendants of early Asians Homo erectus.
Another theory is that “Hobbits” are remnants of an earlier human race that originated in Africa around 1000 BC. Homo erectus If you are naturally short, some good candidates are: Homo habilis or Australopithecus afarensisThis species includes the famous “Lucy”.
Besides Liang Bua, hominin fossils have only been found at one other site on Flores, at the open-air site of Mata Menge, 75 km east of the cave.
Located in the sparsely populated tropical grasslands of the Soa Basin, the site has previously contained several other hominin fossils, including a jaw fragment and six teeth, unearthed in sandstone deposits near a stream some 700,000 years ago.
The Mata Menge fossils are 650,000 years older than the Liang Bua man and have been found to belong to at least three individuals, with jaws and teeth slightly smaller than those of the Liang Bua man. Homo floresiensisThis suggests that small body sizes evolved early in human history on Flores.
However, because no bones below the skull have been found in the fossil record from this site, it is not possible to confirm whether these Soar Basin hominins were at least as large, or even slightly smaller. Homo floresiensis.
Furthermore, due to a lack of diagnostic specimens, it was unclear to which species the Mata Menge fossils belonged.
However, some of the teeth are thought to be intermediate in morphology to earlier Asian teeth. Homo erectus and Homo floresiensis.
This is an artist's reproduction Homo erectusImage courtesy of Yale University.
in New paper Published in the journal Nature CommunicationsProfessor Yosuke Kaifu of the University of Tokyo and his colleagues report the discovery of three additional hominin fossils at the 700,000-year-old Mata Menge site after several on-site excavations at the site.
Most importantly, this new assemblage contains the first postcranial element, the distal shaft of the adult humerus.
The fossil limb bones discovered at the Mata Menge excavation site have been long awaited as they provide a wealth of evidence regarding the origins of our human ancestors. Homo floresiensis.
Digital microscopic examination of the microstructure revealed that the small humerus belonged to an adult individual.
Based on the estimated length of the bones, the team was able to calculate that the hominin was about 100 centimetres tall.
This is about 6cm shorter than the estimated height 60,000 years ago. Homo floresiensis Liang Bua skeleton (approximately 106cm based on femur length).
“This 700,000-year-old adult humerus is Homo floresiensis“This is the smallest humerus bone in the human fossil record anywhere in the world,” Professor Adam Blum, from Griffith University, said.
“This extremely rare specimen Homo floresiensis The body size was very small.”
“But the small size of these limb bones reveals that the hobbit's early ancestors were even smaller than we previously thought.”
Two additional hominid teeth from Mata Menge are also smaller in size, one of which is an early Homo erectus Java.
This similarity is Homo floresiensis It evolved from an older, more primitive type of hominin and has never been found anywhere else, not even in Indonesia, or anywhere else in Africa.
The Mata Menge skeleton now contains a total of 10 fossil specimens, representing at least four individuals, including two children.
They are all anatomically very similar to the Liang Bu. Homo floresiensis They are now considered to be an ancient variant of this human species.
However, this early form, although directly ancestral to the “hobbits”, had a less specialized dentition (more primitive teeth) than the descendants of Liang Bua.
Furthermore, the small arm bones indicate that extreme body size reduction occurred early in the history of Flores's population.
“The evolutionary history of humans on Flores is still largely unknown,” Professor Blum said.
“But the new fossils suggest that the story of The Hobbit Homo erectus “Maybe a million years ago, it somehow became isolated on this remote Indonesian island, and over time its body size dramatically decreased.”
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Hiroyuki Kaifu others2024. Early evolution of small body size Homo floresiensis. Nat Community 15, 6381; doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-50649-7
Göbekli Tepe, an archaeological site in southern Turkey, features several Neolithic temple-like enclosures decorated with many intricately carved symbols.
Göbekli Tepe (Turkish for “Pot-bellied Hill”) is one of the oldest known examples of an artificial megalithic structure constructed by prehistoric builders specifically for ritual purposes.
Its impressive monumental architecture was built by a group of hunter-gatherers during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic period between 9600 and 8200 BC.
Göbekli Tepe was discovered towards the end of the last century in a hillside overlooking the Harran Plain.
It lies between the upper reaches of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, about 12 km northeast of the modern city of Şanlıurfa, known as Ancient Urfa and said to be the birthplace of the biblical Abraham.
Excavations at Göbekli Tepe, which began in 1994, have uncovered four large, nearly circular enclosures and a number of smaller, generally rectangular, buildings.
Each circular enclosure consists of rough stone walls with T-shaped megalithic pillars inset around two centrally located tall T-shaped pillars, which are usually fixed within stone sockets.
Archaeologists initially thought that Göbekli Tepe was merely a religious center, but recent excavations have revealed that it also contained a settlement of rectangular buildings, now thought to be homes.
The large enclosures are still considered “special” buildings, although there is debate as to whether they had a specific religious purpose or were large homes for powerful families.
In the context of this debate, it is debated whether the largest pillars represent gods or even worshipped ancestors.
In any case, it is generally believed that these large enclosures were roofed, but hard evidence is elusive.
A round-elliptical monumental structure with a distinctive T-shaped monolithic pillar at Göbekli Tepe, Turkey. Image credit: Nico Becker, Göbekli Tepe Archive, German Archaeological Institute.
“The largest complete enclosure discovered so far, Enclosure D (30 metres, 98 feet wide), has the oldest radiocarbon date yet obtained from the site, dating to 9530 BC,” said archaeologist David Schneider of the University of Edinburgh. paper Published in the journal Time and Heart.
“This date corresponds roughly to the end of the Younger Dryas period, at the boundary between the Epipaleolithic and Neolithic, when the Northern Hemisphere climate suddenly warmed after a near-glacial Younger Dryas climate that lasted for more than 1,200 years.”
“However, the date of the earliest occupation of Göbekli Tepe is unknown,” he added.
“Ground penetrating radar scans indicate that there appear to be several other large structures near the center of the main trail, waiting to be discovered.”
“Since only a small portion of the site's surface has been excavated, and even less has been excavated down to bedrock, the origins of Göbekli Tepe may ultimately be dated back to a time closer to the beginning of the Younger Dryas period, around 10,800 BC.”
“In fact, scientists have suggested it may have originated in the Paleolithic period.”
In a new analysis of the V-shaped symbols carved into the pillars at Göbekli Tepe, Dr Sweatman found that each V likely represents a day.
This interpretation allowed researchers to count a 365-day solar calendar consisting of 12 lunar months and 11 extra days on one of the pillars.
The summer solstice was considered a special day, and a V was drawn around the neck of a bird-like beast, which was thought to represent the summer solstice constellation at the time.
Other statues believed to represent gods were found nearby, all with similar V-shaped markings around their necks.
As both lunar and solar cycles are depicted, the carving may represent the world's oldest known lunisolar calendar, based on the phases of the moon and the position of the sun, predating any other known calendar of this type by thousands of years.
Detail of the center section of Pillar 43 at Göbekli Tepe. Image courtesy of Martin B. Sweatman, doi: 10.1080/1751696X.2024.2373876.
“Ancient people may have created these carvings at Göbekli Tepe to record the date when a swarm of cometary fragments hit Earth about 13,000 years ago, i.e. in 10,850 BC,” the scientists said.
“The cometary impact is thought to have caused a mini-glacial period lasting more than 1,200 years and led to the extinction of many large animal species.”
“It may also have triggered changes in lifestyle and agriculture that are associated with the emergence of civilisations in the Fertile Crescent of Western Asia shortly thereafter.”
Another pillar at the site appears to depict the Taurid meteor shower, which emanated over a 27-day period from the direction of Aquarius and Pisces, and is thought to be the source of cometary debris.
The discovery also appears to confirm that ancient peoples were able to use precession — the wobble of the Earth's axis that affects the movement of the constellations in the sky — to record dates at least 10,000 years before it was recorded by the ancient Greek Hipparchus in 150 BC.
The carvings appear to have been important to the people of Göbekli Tepe for thousands of years, suggesting that the impact event may have sparked new cults and religions that influenced the development of the civilization.
The discovery also supports the theory that Earth's orbit crosses the path of orbiting cometary debris that we normally experience as meteor showers, increasing the chances that Earth will face cometary impacts.
“The inhabitants of Göbekli Tepe are likely to have been avid skywatchers, which is not surprising given that their world was devastated by a cometary impact,” Dr Sweatman said.
“This event may have marked the beginning of a new religion and may have sparked civilization by encouraging the development of agriculture to cope with the cold climate.”
“Perhaps their attempt to record what they saw was the first step towards the development of writing thousands of years later.”
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Martin B. Sweatman. The representations of calendar and time at Göbekli Tepe and Karahan Tepe support an astronomical interpretation of their symbols. Time and HeartPublished online July 24, 2024, doi: 10.1080/1751696X.2024.2373876
AI chatbots are being rapidly adopted for a wide range of functions
Andriy Onufrienko/Getty Images
Can we get artificial intelligence to tell the truth? Probably not, but developers of large language model (LLM) chatbots should be legally required to reduce the risk of error, say a team of ethicists.
“What we’re trying to do is create an incentive structure that makes companies place a higher premium on truth and accuracy when building their systems,” he said. Brent Mittelstadt At Oxford University.
LLM chatbots such as ChatGPT generate human-like responses to user questions based on statistical analysis of vast amounts of text. But while the answers usually seem convincing, they are prone to errors, a flaw known as “hallucinations.”
“We have really amazing generative AI systems, but they make mistakes very frequently, and there’s no fundamental way to fix them based on our understanding of how the systems fundamentally work,” Mittelstadt says.
This is a “huge problem” for the LLM system, he says, because it is deployed for use in a variety of situations, such as government decisions, where it is important to give factually correct, truthful answers and be honest about the limitations of your knowledge.
To address this issue, he and his colleagues have proposed a range of countermeasures: They say that large-scale language models should respond in a way that is similar to how humans do when asked factual questions.
That means being honest about what you know and what you don’t know. “It’s about taking the steps necessary to actually pay attention to what you’re claiming,” Mittelstadt says. “If I’m not sure about something, I’m not going to make something up to sound convincing. Rather, I’d say, ‘Hey, you know? I don’t know. Let me look into it. I’ll get back to you later.'”
While this seems like a laudable goal, Ehlke Boiten A professor at Britain’s De Montfort University questions whether the ethicists’ demands are technologically feasible. Companies have tried to get law students to tell the truth, but so far that has proven too labor-intensive and impractical. “I don’t understand why you would try to mandate by legal requirement something that you think is fundamentally technologically impossible,” he says.
Mittelstadt and his colleagues suggest a more direct way to make LLMs closer to the truth: He says models should link to sources of information, as many currently do to back up their claims, and that making extensive use of a technique called search expansion generation to derive answers might help limit the chance of hallucinations.
He also argues that LLMs deployed in high-risk areas, such as government decision-making, should be scaled back or limited in the sources they can use: “If you had a language model that you wanted to use only in medicine, you might limit it to searching only academic articles published in high-quality medical journals,” he says.
Changing perceptions is also important, Mittelstadt said. [LLMs] “Rather than expecting them to be good at answering factual questions, or at least to give you reliable answers to factual questions, it’s better to see them as people who can help you with the facts you present to them,” he says.
Catalina Goanta A researcher at Utrecht University in the Netherlands says researchers are too focused on technology and not enough on the longer-term problem of falsehoods in public discourse. “Vilifying only law graduates in this context gives the impression that humans are perfectly hardworking and would never make such mistakes,” she says. “Meet any judge in any jurisdiction and you’ll hear horror stories about lawyer negligence and vice versa. This is not a machine problem.”
The Environmental Protection Agency announced on Tuesday that an emergency order has been issued. This action is the first of its kind in almost four decades and aims to halt the use of pesticides that may harm unborn babies.
The herbicide in question, dimethyltetrachloroterephthalate (DCPA or Dacthal), is commonly used to control weeds in various crops like broccoli, onions, kale, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, and strawberries.
Exposure to this chemical during pregnancy can lead to changes in thyroid hormone levels in the fetus, which could result in long-term negative impacts such as low birth weight, impaired brain development, lower IQ, and diminished motor skills later in life, according to the EPA.
This risk prompted the EPA to take decisive action and suspend the use of the pesticide. Michal Friedhoff, deputy director of the Office for Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, stated, “DCPA is extremely dangerous and needs to be removed from the market immediately.” The agency emphasized this in a statement.
The emergency order is now in effect.
Friedhoff further emphasized the EPA’s role in safeguarding the public from hazardous chemicals, saying, “In this case, a pregnant woman who unknowingly encounters DCPA could give birth to a child with irreversible health issues.”
The DCPA has been banned in the European Union since 2009.
Miri Treviño Sauceda, executive director of the National Farmers Union, praised the EPA’s decision as “historic.”
The suspension follows years of dialogue between the EPA and AMVAC Chemical Corporation, the sole manufacturer of DCPA.
The company has not responded to requests for comment.
In 2013, the EPA requested data from AMVAC on the herbicide’s health effects, specifically requesting comprehensive studies on DCPA’s impact on thyroid development. Despite receiving multiple studies from AMVAC between 2013 and 2021, the EPA found the data inadequate and did not accept certain requests, including the thyroid study, until it was finally submitted in August 2022.
The EPA’s recent assessment of DCPA was part of a routine process to reassess registered pesticides. Inspections occur every 15 years to ensure there are no adverse health effects or environmental hazards.
The American Red Cross is currently dealing with a critical shortage of blood as the nation’s blood supply has decreased by more than 25% since July 1.
Extreme heat and temperatures adversely affected almost 100 blood drives last month in almost every state where the Red Cross collects blood. This weather either decreased attendance at events or led to cancellations.
Blood donations usually decrease during the summer due to travel and seasonal activities, but the Red Cross stated that the extreme heat worsened the situation, resulting in a shortfall of over 19,000 donations in July.
As a consequence, blood is being sent to hospitals faster than donations can be collected.
Donated blood is crucial for various life-saving medical procedures such as surgery, childbirth, and treatment for patients with pregnancy complications, trauma, cancer, and blood disorders, according to the Red Cross.
Nurse Melissa Destros, who works at a Detroit hospital, emphasized the importance of blood for patients in need, particularly new moms and babies. The Red Cross said in a statement that she has witnessed moms requiring massive blood transfusions after childbirth.
The Red Cross urgently requires donors of all blood types, especially type O blood, as it is always in short supply. O-positive is the most common blood type, and O-negative is crucial for emergency transfusions.
Dr. Barry Siegfried, the medical director for the Michigan Red Cross, highlighted the importance of type O blood for emergency care. He stated that donors of all blood types are essential to ensure hospitals have sufficient blood for patient care.
Similarly, Connecticut declared a statewide blood emergency last week due to supplies dropping to less than half of what is typically needed for hospital demand. The Connecticut Blood Center specifically needs emergency donations of type O negative and type O positive blood. NBC Connecticut reported.
Both the Red Cross and the Connecticut Blood Center can help individuals locate local blood drives and donation centers. Red Cross Blood Or call 1-800-RED-CROSS.
If you donate by Aug. 31, the Red Cross will give you a $20 Amazon gift card.
Dead Planets Society is a podcast that explores wild ideas for manipulating the universe and tests their impact on the laws of physics, from splitting the moon to triggering doomsday events with gravitational waves. apple, Spotify Or visit our podcast page.
The thrilling adventure begins: In the season finale of Dead Planets Society, hosts Chelsea Whyte and Leah Crane propel Earth on a cosmic journey through our solar system.
Of course, sending Earth into space without its home planet would result in a dark, frigid voyage that would extinguish all life on Earth. And without anyone to witness the wonders of the universe, the journey would be meaningless. That’s why we need to bring the Sun along. The other planets are just a bonus.
Naturally, relocating the Sun is a monumental task, especially in terms of maintaining the orbits of the planets around it. This is where astrophysicists Jay Farihi and researchers from University College London come to the rescue in the episode.
One proposed solution is to construct a colossal warp drive, a self-contained space-time bubble that moves by distorting the space ahead of it. However, these theoretical devices are known for potentially enabling faster-than-light travel, and the key to keeping all planets tethered to the Sun is moving at a slow pace. Unfortunately, we have yet to figure out how to build such a device.
Another idea involves placing a black hole just ahead of the Sun to give it a slight boost – the black hole would then need to move along with the Sun, or alternatively, a series of black holes could traverse the Solar System in a cosmic relay race.
While these notions may seem far-fetched, there are more plausible concepts – though still improbable – such as deploying giant solar sails or inserting an unbreakable tube into the Sun to release high-pressure plasma jets.
The universe offers countless destinations that our hosts would love to explore with our now navigable solar system, ranging from star clusters to nebulae to supermassive black holes – all it requires is a few technological breakthroughs to make it a reality.
Fragment of a humerus excavated at Mata Menge on the island of Flores, Indonesia
Yosuke Kaifu
700,000 years ago, humans lived on an island in Indonesia. Homo floresiensisThe so-called Hobbits lived on the same islands until much more recently, and while newly analyzed fossils may show their ancestors, the evolutionary story of these small-bodied hominins remains shrouded in mystery.
Fossil H. floresiensis Hobbit bones were first discovered in the Liang Bua cave on the island of Flores in 2003. The hobbit bones date back to between 90,000 and 50,000 years ago.
In 2016, Yosuke Kaifu Researchers from the University of Tokyo discovered hominin fossils at Mata Menge, an open-air archaeological site that was once a riverbed on the east side of Flores island. Approximately 700,000 years ago It includes part of a skull, part of a jawbone and six teeth, all of which are unusually small for a hominoid.
That the Mata Menge humans were the ancestors of hobbits was an obvious interpretation, but the fragmentary nature of the remains meant that no certainty was possible.
Kaifu and his colleagues described three new fossils from Mata Menge: two teeth and part of an important upper arm bone. This limb bone “finally allowed us to determine the body size,” Kaifu says.
Unfortunately, the humerus was not complete; it was broken along its shaft. To determine exactly where the bone broke, the team looked for key landmarks, such as grooves that support nerves and muscle attachment points. From these clues, the team determined that the bone broke about halfway through, and estimated its total length to be between 20.6 and 22.6 centimetres.
The bone microstructure shows characteristics that indicate it was from an adult. Using the humerus as a whole-body estimate, the team estimates that the Mata Menge hominin was between 93 and 121 cm tall, with the highest estimate being 100 cm. H. floresiensis The Liang Bua specimen is at least six centimetres tall, Kaifu said, making it the smallest adult hominin ever found.
This discovery H. floresiensis Kaifu says the species has long been suspected to be a descendant of a large species called a hominin. Homo erectus The Mata Menge teeth and the hominoids from the Mata Menge fossils are the first hominid species known to have lived outside of Africa, including on the Indonesian island of Java, about 1 million years ago. “I'm pretty sure they descended from those groups,” Kaifu says. This is based on the Mata Menge teeth and the hominoids from the Mata Menge fossils. Homo erectus From Java and because of the closeness of the date and location.
It has been suggested that a small number of Homo erectus They probably arrived on Flores by chance, where they lived in isolation, and then must have become smaller over the next 300,000 years, Kaifu says. “They were small early on, and they stayed small for a long time after that,” he says.
It's common for island animals to become smaller over the course of evolution because limited food resources and a lack of large predators mean there's no advantage to being large. Along these lines, Flores has been home to generations of dwarf elephants and other species.
Argus said Mata Menge's teeth were: H. floresiensis Liang Bua's molar. For example, Mata Menge's molar has five sharp “cusps” H. floresiensis They have four molars. “There's no clear indication that anyone evolved into anyone else,” she says, and it's not clear why the latter evolved. H. floresiensis It would have evolved a slightly larger body than its ancestors. Homo erectus From the island.”
For these reasons, Argue says we shouldn't assume that the Mata Menge hominins were the ancestors of hobbits: “I would consider an alternative hypothesis, that they are a new, previously unknown species.” If island life could have caused one group of humans to evolve smaller in size, she suggests, it could have happened twice.
In 2017, Argue and his colleagues H. floresiensis Compared to other hominins, the closest known relatives are Homo erectus instead It is called the old species Homo habilisThis is known only from Africa. Based on this, they proposed the following: H. floresiensis It actually evolved in Africa, HabilisSome of them then migrated east, ending up on the island of Flores. Argue says more fossils are probably needed to settle the question of the hobbit's origins.
Beyond eating floating food and introducing curious Earthlings to vacuum toilets, the crew of the International Space Station (ISS) have some serious work to do as their time on the ISS nears its end.
Since the space station opened, astronauts have conducted more than 3,000 experiments in the microgravity and high radiation of low Earth orbit. Experiments range from making sure fertility levels remain unchanged (in mice, not in the crew) to testing the feasibility of using lunar soil to make concrete that will help build a future lunar base. Here are four of the most impressive aspects of ISS research.
Artificial retina
Millions of people suffer from a degenerative disease that affects the retina (the layer of light-sensitive cells at the back of the eye), and there is no cure, only treatments that slow its progression. But implants that mimic the function of the retina could be a solution, and US-based company Lambda Vision has successfully produced them by depositing layer after layer of a light-activated protein called bacteriorhodopsin. On Earth, solutions of bacteriorhodopsin tended to clot and deposit poorly, but much better results were achieved earlier this decade. In microgravity on the International Space Station Lambda Vision is currently seeking to scale up manufacturing of its artificial retinas in space, claiming that these are among the first technologies with potential clinical use to be evaluated on the ISS.
Invisible Flame
When you light a match, the wood burns and reacts with oxygen to produce heat, light, and other substances such as carbon…
Excavation work began on a avocado orchard in Michoacan, Mexico as seen in drone footage captured by Reuters, revealing two bulldozers clearing the ground to build a reservoir without proper permits.
The increasing demand for avocados in the United States has put pressure on Mexican growers, leading to illegal activities and environmental damage. Illegal deforestation and water resource exploitation have become common practices in the region as the avocado industry expands.
To address these issues, a lawsuit has been filed against avocado importers in the U.S., accusing them of labeling Mexican avocados as “sustainable” or “responsibly sourced” when in fact they are contributing to environmental degradation and water scarcity.
While the avocado trade brings economic growth to the region, it has also attracted criminal gangs who engage in extortion and violence. The avocado industry, known as “green gold,” is causing social and environmental crises in Mexico.
Local communities are fighting back against illegal deforestation by destroying water pumps and orchards, while activists and organizations are working to hold importers and retailers accountable for their sourcing practices.
The lawsuit seeks to ensure that avocados in the U.S. market are not produced in illegally deforested areas and are sourced responsibly. It also calls attention to the impact of the avocado industry on water scarcity and biodiversity in the region.
Efforts are being made by Michoacan state authorities to curb illegal logging and ensure transparency in the avocado supply chain. A new online platform is being developed to certify avocados from orchards that are not involved in illegal deforestation.
Despite these efforts, the actual number of illegal orchards in Michoacan is believed to be much higher than reported, highlighting the challenges in controlling the environmental and social impacts of the booming avocado industry.
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We’re only halfway through the year, but Tactical Breach Wizards is already a contender for best video game title of 2024. Both ridiculously ridiculous and patently practical, the game’s name nicely reflects the intent of this magic-infused, turn-based tactics game. Commanding a SWAT team of wizards battling through puzzle-like scenarios with guns and spells, Tactical Breach Wizards blends decade-old jokes with a desire to solve the problems endemic to the genre that inspired it.
“This comes from playing a lot of XCOM, especially XCOM 2,” says Tom Francis, director of Suspicious Developments and creator of the acclaimed titles Gunpoint and Heat Signature. “I love the game in a lot of ways, but it’s also incredibly frustrating because so often you misunderstand or don’t understand the rules, and end up losing irreplaceable soldiers or suffering devastating losses.”
Francis wanted to create a tactical game that focused on encouraging experimentation rather than punishing players. His solution was to let players rewind their turns to try new approaches to each situation. But the game still lacked a theme to accompany the concept. So Francis recalled a conversation he had while working as a journalist at PC Gamer: “We were joking that it would be really interesting if there was a serious military game like Call of Duty. [where] The people were all in tactical gear, but some were just wearing robes and hats.”
Thus was born Tactical Breach Wizards, combining Francis’s rewinding ideas with a variety of characters who are more like magical police, from freelance storm witches to riot priests, each with their own unique abilities to experiment with in different ways. One example is the Naval Seer. Blessed with the ability to see one second into the future, the Seer can also throw time-boosting grenades that provide bonus actions to teammates. Another is the Necro Medic, a necromancer who heals characters and replenishes their “mana” by killing and resurrecting them. “She rewinds your body, your body goes back to how it was an hour ago,” Francis says. “When she resurrects you, you get your mana back.”
According to Francis, these characters first appeared as puns, but gradually became central to the game. In fact, Tactical Breach Wizards doesn’t have the free-form structure and base building of XCOM, but instead has a linear story that explores each character’s personality and motivations. “I wanted to know who these characters were,” Francis said. “They each feel like they have a story.” He likens the storytelling approach to Mass Effect 2’s loyalty missions, saying, “To me, that was the most interesting thing about the game.”
Additionally, the Tactical Breach Wizard storyline, according to Francis, ” [on] Unlike works like Tom Clancy or Call of Duty, the game also aims to subvert the authoritarian morality of such fiction. “I don’t like those stories, there’s not a lot of criticism or self-examination,” he says. In Tactical Breach Wizards, the characters you command aren’t state enforcers, but thugs and outcasts battling a coalition of elite organisations, including religious military dictatorships and private military companies. “I didn’t want them to just be soldiers in a national army,” he explains. “You need a compelling reason to commit acts of violence.”
Tactical Breach Wizards has been in development for six years, which is a big investment for a small team. Luckily, you don’t have to be a naval seer to notice the positive signs. The game is high on Steam’s “wishlist” charts, and Francis says the recently released demo has been met with positive reactions from players. “There are some people who laugh when you say ‘Tactical Breach Wizards,'” he says. “I knew those people existed, but I didn’t realize how many there were. I’m very happy.” [that] A lot of people understand that.”
IIn 2021, linguist Emily Bender and computer scientist Timnit Gebru Published a paper. The paper described language models, which were still in their infancy at the time, as a type of “probabilistic parrot.” A language model, they wrote, “is a system that haphazardly stitches together sequences of linguistic forms observed in large amounts of training data, based on probability information about how they combine, without any regard for meaning.”
The phrase stuck: AI can get better, even if it’s a probabilistic parrot; the more training data it has, the better it looks. But does something like ChatGPT actually exhibit anything resembling intelligence, reasoning, or thought? Or is it simply “haphazardly stringing together sequences of linguistic forms” as it scales?
In the AI world, such criticisms are often brushed aside. When I spoke to Sam Altman last year, he seemed almost surprised to hear such an outdated criticism. “Is that still a widely held view? I mean, it’s taken into consideration. Are there still a lot of people who take it seriously like that?” he asked.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Photo: Jason Redmond/AFP/Getty Images
“My understanding is that after GPT-4, most people stopped saying that and started saying, ‘OK, it works, but it’s too dangerous,'” he said, adding that GPT-4 did reason “to a certain extent.”
At times, this debate feels semantic: what does it matter whether an AI system is reasoning or simply parroting what we say, if it can tackle problems that were previously beyond the scope of computing? Of course, if we’re trying to create an autonomous moral agent, a general intelligence that can succeed humanity as the protagonist of the universe, we might want that agent to be able to think. But if we’re simply building a useful tool, even one that might well serve as a new general-purpose technology, does the distinction matter?
If a human knows the fact that “Valentina Tereshkova was the first woman in space,” then they can also correctly answer the question “Who was the first woman in space?” This seems trivial, since it’s a very basic form of generalization. However, autoregressive language models show that we cannot generalize in this way.
This is an example of an ordering effect that we call “the curse of inversions.”
Researchers have repeatedly found that they can “teach” large language models lots of false facts and then completely fail the basic task of inferring the opposite.But the problem doesn’t just exist in toy models or artificial situations.
When GPT-4 was tested on 1,000 celebrities and their parents with pairs of questions like “Who is Tom Cruise’s mother?” and “Who is Mary Lee Pfeiffer’s son?”, the model was able to answer the first question (” The first one was answered correctly, but the second was not, presumably because the pre-training data contained few examples of the parent coming before the celebrity (e.g., “Mary Lee Pfeiffer’s son is Tom Cruise”).
One way to explain this is that in a Master’s of Law you don’t learn the relationships between facts. tokena linguistic formalism explained by Bender. The token “Tom Cruise’s mother” is linked to the token “Mary Lee Pfeiffer”, but the reverse is not necessarily true. The model is not inferring, it is playing wordplay, and the fact that the words “Mary Lee Pfeiffer’s son” do not appear in the training data means that the model is useless.
But another way of explaining it is to understand that humans are similarly asymmetrical. inference It’s symmetrical. If you know that they are mother and son, you can discuss the relationship in both directions. However, Recall Not really. Remembering a fun fact about a celebrity is a lot easier than being given a barely recognizable snippet of information, without any context, and being asked to state precisely why you know it.
An extreme example makes this clear: Contrast being asked to list all 50 US states with being shown a list of the 50 states and asked to name the countries to which they belong. As a matter of reasoning, the facts are symmetric; as a matter of memory, the same is not true at all.
On Monday, a federal judge ruled that Google violated antitrust laws while establishing its dominant position in the internet search industry. This ruling could have significant ramifications for how people engage with the internet.
Judge Amit Mehta determined that Google had breached Section 2 of the Sherman Act, a US antitrust law, by monopolizing search services and advertising.
The ruling declared Google a monopoly that had used its dominance to maintain its grip on the market. It is a major antitrust ruling that comes after a case involving the Justice Department and one of the world’s largest companies.
The trial, which started in September last year, concluded without a jury after an extensive period of deliberation by Judge Mehta. The ruling highlighted the importance of the case for both Google and the general public.
Google’s international operations president, Kent Walker, announced plans to appeal the decision, emphasizing aspects of the ruling that praised Google’s search engine while denouncing its accessibility to competitors.
Judge Mehta described the trial as “remarkable” and commended the quality of the legal teams on both sides. The ruling was hailed as a historic victory for the American people by US Attorney General Merrick Garland.
The ruling highlighted Google’s distribution agreements with companies like Apple and Samsung to make it the default search engine on their devices, giving Google an unfair advantage over competitors. The ruling did not specify the penalties Google might face for violating antitrust laws.
Google’s defense argued that the company serves consumers better than its rivals like Microsoft’s Bing. The trial also raised concerns about Google’s record-retention policies and the deletion of internal communications.
New York Attorney General Letitia James celebrated the ruling as a victory against unchecked corporate power. The tech giant still faces another antitrust lawsuit later this year focusing on its advertising practices.
Google has not yet responded to requests for comment regarding the ruling.
Social events encompass a range of activities. Whether you are moving on the dance floor or sitting at a formal dinner table, you are likely to experience various sensory inputs. Your mind might be filled with thoughts about the event, your worries, or your intentions for the interaction.
While these activities can be physically and mentally draining, extroverts are believed to gain their energy from socializing, while introverts recharge when alone. However, everyone falls on a spectrum between introversion and extroversion.
There is a genetic aspect to extraversion and introversion, but how these traits influence our behavior in different situations can vary. At times, you may be outgoing and talkative, while at other times, you may prefer solitude.
Research suggests that introversion is linked to fatigue, but it does not mean that extroverts never tire of social interactions. Everyone has their limit when it comes to socializing.
Factors that contribute to social fatigue include the duration, intensity, and difficulty of conversations, as well as the effort put into making a good impression and meeting new people. Taking breaks, engaging in relaxed encounters, and expressing feelings can help reduce the exhaustion from social interactions.
It is important to acknowledge and express your emotions, as suppressing them can lead to emotional fatigue. Socializing can be exhausting for various reasons, but finding a balance and recognizing your limits can help manage social fatigue.
This article addresses the question, “Why is socializing so exhausting?” posed by Faye Chase via email.
If you have any inquiries, feel free to reach out to the email provided below. For more information, visit:Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram (remember to include your name and location).
Ultimate Fun FactsFor more amazing science, check out this page.
Paleontologists have announced the discovery of a new genus and species of troodontid theropod dinosaur based on fossils discovered in Japan.
Reconstructing your life Hypnovenator Pinus variegatusImage provided by: Masato Hattori.
Hypnovenator Pinus variegatus They roamed the Earth during the Early Cretaceous Period, between 112 million and 106 million years ago.
The new dinosaur TroodontidaeA group of bird-like theropods including species ranging in size from kiwi to rhea.
“The Troodontidae are a family of small, slender theropod dinosaurs,” Dr. Katsuhiro KubotaPaleontologists and colleagues from the University of Hyogo, the Museum of Nature and Human Sciences, and the Hokkaido University Museum.
“The phylogenetic position of Troodontidae has traditionally been considered to be a clade together with Dromaeosauridae that forms the Deinonychosauridae, but Troodontidae has also been considered as a sister clade to Avialidae.”
“Anchiornis from the Late Jurassic of China has questionable phylogeny and is classified as either a troodontid or aves.”
“These lively discussions will greatly improve our understanding of the phylogeny and osteology of non-avian theropods, with major implications for our understanding of early bird evolution.”
“Since the discovery of the first troodontids Troodon Troodontid fossils have been found in the Late Cretaceous of Canada, and in the Middle Jurassic and Late Cretaceous of Asia, Europe, and North America.
“However, articulated troodontid specimens are extremely rare.”
Articulated skull Hypnovenator Pinus variegatus It was discovered in deposits in the lower Mt. Oyama layer in Tanba Sasayama City, Hyogo Prefecture.
“In September 2010, during construction work on a park in Nishikosa, Tanba Sasayama City, rocks in the Lower Oyama Formation were crushed and a partial theropod skeleton, including forelimbs and knees, was discovered,” the paleontologists explained.
“The discovery was made by Kaoru Matsubara and Ryuji Oe of the amateur group 'Sasayama Group Research Association.'”
“In July 2011, an articulated theropod heel was discovered at the same site during an excavation carried out by the Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Nature and Human Sciences.”
These specimens are the only troodontid dinosaurs identified in Japan.
“Our position on phylogenetic analysis is Hypnovenator Pinus variegatus It is one of the oldest and most basal troodontids. Gobivenator mongoliensis” the researchers said.
“This discovery suggests that small maniraptorid dinosaurs in sleeping positions were common in fluvial systems as well as volcanic, aeolian and alluvial environments.”
“The geometric morphometric analysis of the claw phalanges shows that claw phalanges I and III are Hypnovenator Pinus variegatus They show considerable morphological variation but are functionally similar, reflecting a shift in manual action within troodontids that differs from that seen in non-troodontid troodontids.”
“Hypnovenator Pinus variegatus “The foot also displays a mosaic of running-related features,” the researchers added.
“This study reveals that asymmetric arc metatarsals appeared by the Albian, and morphological changes such as a shorter digit IV than digit III, a non-clawed phalange of digit III with a roller joint, and a weak gingival joint of digit IV occurred in the Early Late Cretaceous.”
This discovery paper In the journal Scientific Reports.
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Kenichi Kubota others2024. An Early Cretaceous troodontid (Dinosauria: Theropoda) from the Oyamashita Formation in Japan sheds light on the early evolution of Troodontidae. Scientific Reports 14, 16392; doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-66815-2
Foraging bees carry pollen from surrounding plants back to the hive
Eric Tourneret
If you’re lucky enough to find one, dip your fingers into a jar of honey from Pitcairn Island, a remote British Overseas Territory in the South Pacific. Honey is the island’s main export and highly prized among foodies. Pure and free of pesticides and pollutants, the honey infuses the delicious subtropical scents of Pitcairn Island plants, including passionflower, mango, guava and rose apple.
Honey contains much more information, if only we knew how to look for it. Breaking a container of honey opens a gateway to an entire ecosystem. Honey contains a detailed record of everything the bee encountered while foraging – not just the flowers that provided it with nectar and pollen, but also other plants, insects, fungi, viruses and larger animals in the environment.
He explains that honeybees are “passive bioaccumulators.” Parwinder Kaur As the bees go about their day, their fluffy bodies unwittingly collect samples of whatever they come into contact with, which then mix into the honey the bees produce, says researcher David Schneider of the University of Western Australia in Perth. “It’s got everything in it,” he says. Luca Fontanesi at the University of Bologna in Italy. “Well, almost everything.”
Scientists are now realizing that they have the potential to reach into that honey pot and garner sweet morsels of information that are currently hard to come by. Using advanced DNA tools, researchers are using honey to gather data on bee health, the general state of biodiversity in the bees’ foraging areas, and disease in the broader environment. They could identify possible culprits behind the mysterious Colony Collapse Disorder that is wiping out beehives, and…
On the keto diet, most of your calories come from fat.
Shutterstock/George Dolgic
The keto diet, which gets most of its calories from fat and few from carbohydrates, can certainly lead to fat loss, but it can also clog arteries and harm your gut flora.
Also known as the ketogenic diet, this diet forces your body to use a different type of fuel. Instead of relying on glucose from carbohydrates, you rely on ketones, a type of fuel your liver produces from your fat stores, which can lead to weight loss.
In previous studies, Comparing people who follow a ketogenic diet to those who don't suggests there are both advantages and disadvantages.
now, Javier Gonzalez Researchers at the University of Bath in the UK conducted the largest randomized controlled trial in medical evidence. They recruited 53 non-obese people with an average age of 34. They randomly assigned about one-third of them to a ketogenic diet, in which less than 8% of energy came from total carbohydrates and more than 70% came from fat.
The remaining third of participants were instructed to follow a low-carbohydrate diet, with 5 percent of their energy intake coming from 'free' sugars – a type of carbohydrate found in foods such as syrup, cakes and biscuits – and 45 percent and 35 percent from other carbohydrates and fat respectively.
The remaining third consumed diets with moderate amounts of free sugars, accounting for just under 20% of their energy intake, while carbohydrate and fat intakes without free sugars were around 30% and 35%, respectively. These participants acted as the control group. Protein intake was between 15-18% across all diets.
After one month, x-rays showed that participants on the ketogenic diet had lost an average of 1.6 kg of fat. The researchers verified that participants were following the diet by measuring ketone levels in their blood, urine, and breath. Food diaries also assessed adherence to the diet.
Meanwhile, those on low-carb diets lost an average of one kilogram of fat, while those on moderate diets lost nothing. By having participants intermittently wear activity monitors to estimate their energy intake, the team found that the fat loss was due to reduced calorie intake, not increased activity, something that hadn't been known before, Gonzalez says.
But despite greater fat loss, the ketogenic diet group had 16 percent higher levels of “bad” low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol than the control group, and 26 percent higher levels of apolipoprotein B, a protein that clogs arteries and increases the risk of heart-related events. In contrast, people on the low-carb diet had 10 percent lower LDL cholesterol levels than the control group, and no change in apolipoprotein B levels.
The researchers also found that people on a ketogenic diet had lower levels of a type of gut bacteria than those on a moderately low-carb diet. Bifidobacteriawhich Helps produce vitamin B and It has been shown to strengthen the immune systemThe same wasn't true for those on a low-carb diet, likely because those on the ketogenic diet consumed less fiber. Bifidobacteria Level, Gonzalez says.
However, it is unclear whether the ketogenic diet truly has a negative effect on the gut microbiome, because we do not fully know what the optimal diet is or what the full effects of the ketogenic diet are. Bifidobacteria says Natasha Scholer At Great Ormond Street Hospital in London.
Additionally, while elevated apolipoprotein B levels are a concern, the elevated cholesterol levels seen in the study aren't necessarily harmful unless they reach a dangerous threshold, Scholer said.
Longer-term studies are also needed to determine whether the weight-loss benefits of ketogenic diets outweigh potential concerns about cholesterol and gut health in obese people, Scholer said.
Ultimately, the main challenge for obese or overweight people to lose weight is following a diet, says Scholer: “Whether it's a normal carbohydrate diet, a low-calorie diet, or a calorie-for-calorie reduced-carb diet, if you stick to it, you will generally lose weight.”
Astronomers have discovered 10 new millisecond-plus stars in the globular cluster Terzan 5 using data from the MeerKAT radio telescope and NSF's Green Bank Telescope.
This Hubble Space Telescope image shows the star cluster Terzan 5. Image credit: F. Ferraro / NASA / ESA / ESO.
Star Cluster Terzan 5 It is a dense home to hundreds of thousands of different kinds of stars.
Also known as ESO 520-27 and 2MASX J17480455-2446441, it is located about 19,000 light-years away in the constellation Sagittarius.
“Terzan 5 is one of the most extensively studied globular clusters in history, and has produced remarkable results across multiple wavelengths,” said Scott Ransom, an astronomer at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, and his colleagues.
“It is located in the inner bulge of the Milky Way and is thought to be the remnant of a primitive structure essential for the formation of galaxies.”
“Terzan 5 is massive (1.09 million times the mass of the Sun) and has one of the highest stellar encounter rates in globular clusters.”
“This coincides with Terzan 5 holding the record for the largest number of ms-plus stars identified in a globular cluster (39 prior to this study), with over 50% of those in binary systems (20 prior to this study).”
The ten new pulsars were discovered as part of the MeerKAT (TRAPUM) Large-Scale Survey of Transients and Pulsars project.
“It's very unusual to find a new exotic pulsar,” Dr Ransom said.
“But what's really interesting is that these strange people exist in such a diverse range of forms within one group.”
Using data from the MeerKAT telescope, the authors were able to determine the approximate location of each pulsar by tracking and measuring its rotation rate.
Archived data from the Green Bank Telescope has revealed strange and unusual details about these stars.
“Without the Green Bank Telescope archives, we would never have been able to characterize these pulsars and understand their astrophysics,” Dr Ransom said.
“This data allowed us to pinpoint the pulsar's location in the sky, measure its specific motion, and see how its orbit has changed over time.”
Among their discoveries, astronomers found two binary star systems, likely neutron stars, pulled into each other's orbit.
Of the 3,600 known pulsars in the Milky Way Galaxy, only 20 have been confirmed as double neutron star binaries.
When pulsars pair up in a binary system, the gravitational attraction of one to the other can strip matter and energy away, causing one to spin even faster and become a millisecond pulsar.
The pair is a new candidate for the fastest spinning pulsar in a double neutron star system, and has the longest orbit of its kind, potentially breaking the record.
Currently, the record holder for the fastest spinning pulsar is already held by Terzan 5.
In addition to the five binary systems already known in the cluster, the researchers also observed three unusual new pulsar “spider” binary systems.
“The discovery of these strange pulsars provides a better understanding of globular clusters and neutron stars, further tests Einstein's theory of general relativity, and expands our knowledge of the pulsar category,” the researchers said.
Their work Published in a journal Astronomy and Astrophysics.
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PV Padmanab others2024. Discovery and Timing of Ten New Millisecond Pulsars in the Globular Cluster Terzan 5. A&A 686, A166; doi: 10.1051/0004-6361/202449303
In the new study, Dr David Hernández Uribe from the University of Illinois at Chicago used computer models to study the formation of magma, which is thought to hold clues to the origin of Earth's continents.
Hadean Earth. Image by Alec Brenner.
Magma is molten material that forms rocks and minerals as it cools.
Dr Hernández Uribe searched for magma that matched the compositional characteristics of rare mineral deposits called zircons, which date back to the Archean Era (2.5 to 4 billion years ago), when scientists believe the continents first formed.
In a recent study, researchers argued that Archean zircons could only have been formed by subduction, i.e. two crustal plates colliding under the ocean and pushing land up onto the surface.
This process still occurs today, causing earthquakes and volcanic eruptions and reshaping the coastlines of continents.
However, Dr. Hernández Uribe found that subduction was not necessary for the formation of Archean zircons.
Rather, he found that the minerals may have formed due to the high pressures and temperatures associated with the melting of Earth's thick primordial crust.
“Using my calculations and models, we can get the same characteristics in zircons and even a better match through partial melting at the base of the crust,” Dr Hernández Uribe said.
“So based on these results, we don't yet have enough evidence to say by what process the continents formed.”
The findings also create uncertainty about when plate tectonics began on Earth.
If Earth's first continents formed by subduction, then the continents would have started moving between 3.6 and 4 billion years ago, or just 500 million years after Earth existed.
But an alternative theory, that the first continents formed from melting crust, means that subduction and tectonic shifts may have started much later.
“As far as we know, Earth is the only planet in the solar system where plate tectonics is actively occurring,” Dr Hernández Uribe said.
“And this has implications for the origin of life, because how the first continents moved controlled the weather, controlled the chemistry of the oceans, and controlled everything related to life.”
of study Published in the journal on July 11, 2024 Nature Chemistry.
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Hernández-Uribe, D. Generation of Archean oxidized and wet magmas by mafic crustal overthickening. National GeographyPublished online July 11, 2024; doi: 10.1038/s41561-024-01489-z
This article is a version of a press release from the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Astronomers used the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope to capture this image of the barred spiral galaxy LEDA 857074.
This Hubble image shows the barred spiral galaxy LEDA 857074. The color image was created from observations in the near-infrared part of the spectrum with Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3). Four filters were used to sample different wavelengths. Color is produced by assigning a different hue to each monochromatic image associated with an individual filter. Image courtesy of NASA / ESA / Hubble / RJ Foley.
LEDA857074 It is a barred spiral galaxy located in the constellation Eridanus.
“Hubble has observed a wide range of celestial objects, from galaxies, nebulae and star clusters to planets in our solar system and beyond,” Hubble astronomers said in a statement.
“Observing programs typically aim to collect data that will enable astronomers to answer specific questions.”
“Naturally, this means that most of the planned observations will be directed at objects that astronomers have already studied.”
“Some are well-known, such as the Crab Nebula and the globular cluster Omega Centauri, while others, such as the Spider Galaxy and NGC 4753, are less well known to the public but have been featured in hundreds of scientific papers.”
“This galaxy is not like that: LEDA 857074 has been named in fewer than five papers, one of which is the Lyon-Meudon extragalactic database itself.”
“Apart from its location, virtually no data has been recorded about this object. It has never been studied since it was discovered. So why did it attract the attention of the legendary Hubble telescope?”
In 2022, an automated survey observed a supernova event in LEDA 857074 called SN 2022ADQZ.
“Although astronomers have catalogued millions of galaxies and tens of thousands of supernovae are detected annually today, the probability of discovery in any particular galaxy is low,” the researchers said.
“We don’t know how actively LEDA 857074 is forming stars, and therefore how frequently it will undergo supernova explosions.”
“The spotlight from this supernova made this galaxy an unexpected and lucky target for Hubble!”
“This object joins the ranks of many other well-known celestial objects thanks to its unique imaging by the Hubble Space Telescope.”
I
yeah How does democracy end?In his elegant book, The Restoration of Liberal Democracy, published after Trump’s 2016 election, David Runciman made a startling point: the liberal democracies we take for granted will not last forever, but they will not fail in the ways we’ve seen them in the past: without revolution, military coup, or breakdown of social order. Moving forward through failure In an unexpected way. The implication was that people who compare it to what happened in Germany in the 1930s are mistaken.
Until a few weeks ago, that seemed like wise advice. But then something changed: key sectors of Silicon Valley, a Democratic stronghold for decades, began to support Trump. In 2016, contrarian billionaire and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel was the only prominent Silicon Valley figure to endorse Trump, which merely confirmed the fact that he was a Silicon Valley legal outcast. But in recent weeks, many of Silicon Valley’s bigwigs (Elon Musk, Marc Andreessen, and David Sachs, to name just three) have revealed themselves as Trump supporters and donors. Musk has set up a pro-Republican political action committee (super PAC) and is donating to it. On June 6, venture capitalist Sachs hosted a $300,000-a-person fundraising dinner at Trump’s San Francisco mansion.
Why the sudden interest in politics? It’s probably a combination of several factors. First, Biden’s billionaire tax plan (and his administration’s antitrust litigation enthusiasm). Second, Trump’s newfound enthusiasm for cryptocurrency. Third, Biden has raised far more money for his campaign. And finally, and most importantly, Trump’s momentum was beginning to look unstoppable even before Biden dropped out.
The last two factors are reminiscent of the 1930s. In 1932, the Nazi Party was in serious financial trouble, and when Hitler became chancellor the following year, he personally appealed to business leaders for help. Funds were raised from 17 different business groups, with the largest donation coming from IG Farben and Deutsche Bank
At the time, these donations must have seemed like a shrewd gamble to the businessmen who donated them. But as historian Adam Tooze wrote in his landmark book on the period, it also meant that German businessmen “were willing to cooperate in the destruction of German political pluralism.” In return, according to Tooze, German business owners and managers were given unprecedented powers to control their employees, collective bargaining was abolished, and wages were frozen at relatively low levels. Corporate profits and business investment grew rapidly. Fascism had been good for business, but it wasn’t anymore.
I wonder if these thoughts were going through the minds of the tech titans enjoying a $300,000 dinner in San Francisco that June night. My guess is no, they’re not. Silicon Valley residents don’t care much about history because they’re in the business of creating the future, so there’s nothing to learn from the past.
That’s a pity, because history has some lessons for them. The German businessmen who decided to support Hitler in 1933 may not have known exactly what he was up to for Germany, and probably knew nothing about the plans for the “Final Solution.” But David Sachs’ dinner guests have no such excuse. Project 2025
President Trump’s second term plans are available online in a 900-page document.
It’s an interesting read. It has four core objectives: protecting children and families, dismantling the administrative state, defending borders, and restoring “God-given” individual liberties. But essentially, A huge expansion of presidential powers There are many hysterical proposals, including putting the Department of Justice under Presidential control, replacing nonpartisan civil servants with loyalist ones, rolling back environmental laws, mass deportations, and removing “sexual orientation and gender identity, diversity, equity and inclusion, gender, gender equality, gender equity, gender sensitivity, abortion, reproductive health and reproductive rights” from all federal rules, agency regulations, contracts, grants and laws.
The rationale for Project 2025 was a concern that Trump had no idea how to use his new powers when he came to power in 2016, and that he certainly will not do so next time. As public concern about the document has grown, he has tried to distance himself from it. This may be because he thinks he won’t need a plan if elected. Speaking recently at a Christian convention in Florida, he said: “Go out and vote, this time. You don’t have to vote anymore. Four more years and we’ll take care of it. We’ll all be sorted out. My beautiful Christian people, you don’t have to vote anymore.”
The lesson? Be careful what you wish for. Copycats, Silicon Valley.
Named Yuti YuanxiThe newly identified euarthropod species fills an important gap in our understanding of how the arthropod body type emerged and was successful in its time. Cambrian Explosion.
Anatomical Overview Yuti YuanxiImage courtesy of Smith others., doi:10.1038/s41586-024-07756-8.
Yuti Yuanxi They lived during the Cambrian period, more than 520 million years ago, when most of the major animal groups known today first evolved.
This species is ArthropodsThis includes modern insects, spiders, and crabs.
It is about the size of a poppy seed, Yuti Yuanxi The organs are well preserved and of excellent quality.
Durham University paleontologist Martin Smith and his colleagues used the advanced scanning technique of synchrotron X-ray tomography to find the Yuti YuanxiThey have found a tiny brain region, digestive glands, a primitive circulatory system, and even traces of the nerves that control the larva's simple legs and eyes.
“When I was daydreaming about the fossils I would most like to find, I always thought about arthropod larvae, because developmental data are so important to understanding their evolution,” Dr. Smith said.
“But because the larvae are so tiny and fragile, I thought the chances of finding a fossilized version were virtually zero.”
“I already knew this simple, worm-like fossil was something special, but when I saw the incredible structures preserved under the skin, my jaw just dropped. How could these complex features have survived decay and still be here after 500 million years?”
“It's always fascinating to see the inside of a sample using 3D imaging, but this incredibly tiny larva has achieved near-perfect preservation through natural fossilisation,” said Dr Katherine Dobson, a palaeontologist at the University of Strathclyde.
“Studying this ancient larva provides important clues about the evolutionary steps required to transform a simple worm-like organism into a sophisticated arthropod body form with specialized limbs, eyes and a brain.”
“For example, the fossil reveals an ancestral 'protocerebral' brain region that would later form the segmented and specialized arthropod head nucleus with its various appendages, including antennae, mouthparts and eyes.”
“This complex head enabled arthropods to adopt a wide range of lifestyles and become the dominant organisms in the Cambrian oceans.”
“These details also help us trace how modern arthropods acquired their incredible anatomical complexity and diversity, making them the most abundant animal group today.”
debtA few days after the assassination attempt, Donald Trump’s voice boomed over the loudspeakers in Montego Bay, Jamaica: “If you needed an assassin, call your bodyguard who’s going to kill four people at Sumfest in Montego Bay.” A reggae riddim played, and the crowd, expecting laughter, erupted in surprised laughter.
The Bodyguard crew are fresh off taking the stage at Sumfest Global Sound Clash, a musical combat contest where sound systems pit themselves against each other with exclusive (and often incendiary) recordings featuring creative mixes, bombastic MCs, star guests and inside jokes. But this Trump-like AI vocalist jolts a decades-old musical tradition in which authenticity and originality are paramount, and sound systems pay artists big fees for vocals for their clashes.
“AI will disrupt the industry,” says Fabian Andersson, a dub agent who works between artists and sound systems to secure exclusive tracks. Though he refuses to dabble in the technology, he knows studios that are, and even goes so far as to send clients videos of artists’ recording sessions to verify their legitimacy.
Jamaican music clashed in the 1950s, when music curators imported records from the United States and played them to crowds on customized mobile sound systems. “Jamaica became the loudest island on earth, and showcases drew bigger crowds than ever before,” Island Records founder Chris Blackwell wrote in his 2022 memoir. As more sound systems appeared on the scene, a battle ensued for the attention of the crowd: “Who could play the best tunes? Who could make the biggest, toughest sound?”
Dancers at Sumfest Global Sound Clash in Montego Bay. Photo: Essilom
In preparation for a clash, the sound system would collaborate with the artist to record an exclusive dubplate, which is often an aggressive dub-style cover with rewritten lyrics to suit a battle scenario. A famous example is the Fugees’ remake of Roberta Flack’s “Killing Me Softly,” which was originally written by the group. As a battle dub plate The lyric goes, “Kill the sound boy with that sound.” Anderson says it can cost anywhere from $150 to $800 to get an artist to appear on one of these tracks, with the most exclusive dubplates running into the thousands. Supercat and Shabba Ranks are among the most popular artists.
As the Sumfest crowd blared their vuvuzelas, German sound system Warrior Sound released an exclusive dub recorded by Jamaican up-and-comer Niggy Boy. The lyrics are: Viral hit Continent changed with a shout out to Warrior: “Sumfest / We’ll beat ’em / We’ll win the trophy.” Other artists heard on the clash include Bounty Killer, Damian Marley, Capleton, Beres Hammond and The Heptones.
Anderson says most selectors only use a few seconds of a dub “to get the point across.” Songs can’t be repeated, so dubplates need to be chock full to build momentum. It’s a costly process, and splicing has become common – people copy dubplates and remove the original soundsystem’s name to get a track on the cheap. With the advent of generative AI, the game is getting even dirtier. “The AI is even worse.” [than splicing]” says Anderson.
Veteran British reggae/dancehall vocalist Paul Scott Levy (aka General Levy) records dubs “almost every week,” and he believes that established sound systems enforce the rules of clashing. “It’s not just about using your voice. It’s about how you got that voice, the relationship, and how much you paid for it.”
Levy points to the recent rap battle between Kendrick Lamar and Drake as an example of a failed generative AI. When Drake released his Taylor Made freestyle, AI versions of Tupac and Snoop Dogg criticized Lamar, but “Drake got slammed for it. [AI] There is no value in being in a conflicting field.” Tupac’s estate threatened legal action against Drake, and the song was subsequently removed from all music platforms.
General Levy will perform in November. Photo: Vianney Le Caer/Shutterstock
Soundsystems don’t give away their secrets. Notorious hired a “top secret” artist to record a dub cover of Bob Marley’s “Buffalo Soldier” (with the lyrics changed to “Japanese Soldier”), but they stress they’ll never use AI to resurrect Marley or deepfake living artists. “It’s out of respect for the artists. If they want to do it, go ahead and do it. I’ll find them and I’ll scare them,” laughs Notorious selector Bad Gal Marie.
Dynamq, the same contender who was named Sumfest champion in 2023, has a more ambivalent view: “Splicing, AI – I [the crowd] “I don’t care, I don’t care,” he said. “If it sounds good, people will go along with it. I don’t stand for it. I’d rather lose with integrity than win.”
At Sumfest, Jamaican-Japanese sound system Notorious International had the loudest vuvuzela, winning the first prize of 1 million Jamaican dollars (about $6,300). The Bodyguard ultimately came in second after a fierce “Tune Fy Tune” battle with Notorious. Courtney Shinn, founder of Bodyguard and a sound clash veteran since the early ’90s, says there are limits to using AI outside of parody skits like Trump’s voiceover. “It’s really dangerous. I don’t know how it’s controlled,” he says. “There’s an unspoken code of ethics, but… 1722865933 “There’s a generation that just thinks about winning at all costs.”
Singh notes that a new generation of sound systems may have to rely on AI to break into the scene, because many of the artists tend to sell to wealthy sound systems in Japan and Europe. “In Jamaica, we pay in US dollars for dubplates. Artists are charging 10, 20 times what I was charging when I started, it’s almost exorbitant,” Singh says. “Artists are very much involved in their own decline.”
Perhaps inevitably, Levy disagrees. “AI will be used to invade the once pure genres of dancehall and reggae and rob them of their true atmosphere,” he says, defending the real human voice. “Our voices are our bread and butter.”
Tardigrades These eight-legged marvels of survival are tiny aquatic invertebrates, also known as tardigrades.UV rays,The vacuum of space,and,Shot by a gunThe scientists1400 species of tardigrades The creatures, which are collected from freshwater and marine habitats around the world, are seemingly indestructible and “The toughest animals on earth“But are they strong enough to survive on Mars?
Space agencies around the world are currently Sending humans to MarsBut life on Mars comes with its own environmental challenges: Researchers have shown that tardigrades can survive the radiation, extreme temperatures, dehydration and lack of oxygen that characterize the Red Planet.Studying Martian soil I realized it contained toxic salts. PerchloratePerchlorates dissolve rapidly in solution to form salt solutions or brineIt inhibits the cells' ability to retain moisture and produces reactive chemicals, such as hydrogen peroxide, which can damage cells. Oxidative stressScientists have found perchlorate concentrations in Martian soil as high as 0.6 percent, roughly 1,000 times higher than the highest concentrations found in Earth's desert soils.
Scientists have previously found that some soil bacteria can survive perchlorate using special enzymes that fight it and protect cells from oxidative stress. Unfortunately, animals lack these enzymes. Other researchers have found that tardigrades Paramacrobiotus experimentalis Can survive Short-term exposure Animals living on the Martian surface would be exposed to perchlorates for up to 24 hours, but animals living on the Martian surface would have to contend with these toxins indefinitely.
A team of Polish researchers recently tested whether tardigrades could perform this task. They Pam.Experimental The tardigrades were exposed to high concentrations of perchlorate, similar to those found in Martian soil, for eight weeks to see how long they would survive. The researchers reasoned that because this species of tardigrade can tolerate short-term exposure to perchlorate, it may be able to survive for longer periods of time.
The researchers: Pam.Experimental Tardigrades were collected from moss in Madagascar and fed a diet of earthworms and plankton. For each experiment, 24 newly hatched tardigrades were transferred to solutions containing 0.10%, 0.15%, 0.20%, or 0.25% magnesium perchlorate. As a control, another 24 were transferred to a solution without perchlorate. The tardigrades were kept in these solutions for 56 days in the dark, at 18 °C (approximately 64 °F) and 40% relative humidity. The solutions were changed every 7 days, and dead tardigrades were removed.
At the end of the experiment, the researchers Phase contrast microscopeThis type of microscope makes use of the fact that light waves change height and direction when they interact with an object. amplitudeand location, or stepThe human eye can see amplitude changes in brightness and color intensity, but not phase changes. Phase contrast microscopes convert invisible phase changes into visible brightness changes, allowing scientists to see fine details in transparent specimens like tardigrades.
The team counted live and dead tardigrades under a phase-contrast microscope and found that 83% survived on 0.10% magnesium perchlorate, compared with 87% in the control group. They also found that about 58% of the tardigrades survived on 0.15% perchlorate, 29% on 0.20% perchlorate, and 20% on 0.25% perchlorate. The team interpreted this trend as meaning that although more than 0.10% perchlorate is toxic to most tardigrades, some individuals can survive at about half the perchlorate concentration found on Mars.
The researchers also measured the body length of the surviving tardigrades, which were about two-thirds as long as those raised without perchlorate. The researchers suggested that tardigrades grow slower in the presence of perchlorate because the salt directly inhibits the tardigrades' growth or stops them from feeding.
These scientists demonstrated that tardigrades can survive Mars-like perchlorate levels for eight weeks, but did not reveal how they did this. They suggested that tardigrades must use a special technique to withstand the toxic perchlorate.Dry hibernation For example, when faced with high salinity or other extreme conditions. Damage suppressor proteins It protects them from radiation and helps them survive.
The team recommended that future researchers investigate whether tardigrades can survive and thrive when simultaneously exposed to perchlorate and other harsh conditions present on Mars. They also suggested that scientists study the biochemical pathways involved in tardigrades' perchlorate resistance to see if these pathways can be genetically engineered to confer perchlorate resistance to other animals that colonize Mars. One day, future humans may stroll under the Martian sky wearing tardigrade-reinforced skin.
aPatience may not always be easy to practice, especially during mundane and tedious moments. However, there can still be joy and peace found in the simplicity of everyday life. Optiillusion introduces a tongue-in-cheek patience simulator called While Waiting to capture this unique experience. Producer Dong Zhou explains, “While we’re waiting for things like buses, stuck in traffic, or standing in line, we often seek entertainment. Most people just resort to using their phones, but is that truly engaging? It’s time to turn waiting into a playful experience by turning mundane moments into a fun game where players can find ways to pass the time.”
While waiting. Photo: Optillusion Games
While Playing, players join Adam on his journey through mundane tasks like waiting for a bus, standing in line for a ride, or watching the rain from a window. Zhou states, “Waiting isn’t just a negative experience; it’s a part of life that comes with its own set of expectations and anxieties.” As Adam’s experiences evolve from simple pleasures to deep aspirations, the game becomes a story of personal growth. “In different waiting scenarios, Adam feels a range of emotions like happiness, relief, or sadness. However, he understands that waiting is the only option,” Zhou adds.
Through whimsical depictions of scenarios like elevator lobbies, doctor’s offices, and airport baggage claims, While Waiting presents a series of patience-testing challenges that resonate with common frustrations. While a sense of fatalism looms, the game incorporates profound reflections on life alongside playful anime humor. Zhou hopes players will not only find amusement but also ponder the deeper meanings interwoven within the game.
To ease the restlessness that waiting brings, While Waiting offers various mini-games to help pass the time, such as luggage stacking or filling out paperwork. Zhou explains, “These mini-games can range from arcade games to puzzles or action games, each level offering a unique experience. While players won’t win cash prizes, the games are designed to keep them entertained while waiting for time to pass. Whether you choose to act or not, the game’s theme revolves around the inevitability of waiting.”
Drawing inspiration from classic animated comedies like “Tom and Jerry,” While Waiting incorporates orchestral music that emphasizes the contemplative and whimsical aspects of this patient journey. The brass and string instrumentation offers a musical reprieve from the discomfort of inaction in daily life.
Despite its quirky and light-hearted nature, While Waiting delves into profound themes. As players approach the conclusion, they revisit earlier scenes and contemplate the cyclical nature of life with fresh insights and emotions. Zhou concludes, “Life is a mix of joy and sorrow, and I hope players will appreciate the value of each waiting moment they encounter.”
Artificial lighting at night can affect tree leaves
Shutterstock/Patrick Kosmider
Urban trees lit by streetlights tend to have tougher leaves and be less eaten by insects than those that spend the dark nights, a pattern the researchers say could disrupt the flow of energy up the food chain and have negative effects on urban biodiversity.
Zhang Shuang Zhang and his colleagues at the Chinese Academy of Sciences studied the Japanese five-story pagoda (Styphnolobium japonicum) and Green Ash (AshBeijing’s street trees appear to be relatively free of insect damage compared to other trees in the city.
The researchers collected around 5,500 leaves from 180 trees at 30 locations in Beijing, including near the distinctive orange glow of sodium streetlights and in dark areas at night, and measured the leaves’ size, firmness, moisture content, and nutrient levels. They also recorded any evidence of insect damage.
Leaves taken from under streetlights were stronger and less affected by insects: for Chinese sophora trees, 2.1% of leaves were damaged in the lit areas and 5.3% in the dark, while for ash trees, 2% of leaves were damaged near streetlights and 4.1% in the dark.
The researchers couldn’t answer that question, but they did say in their paper that with fewer leaves for insects to eat, less energy flows up the food chain to insects and birds, which could have a knock-on effect of further reducing biodiversity.
The researchers acknowledge that the mechanisms by which leaf damage is reduced are still unclear and require further investigation — for example, increased light could make insects more visible to predators, reducing their numbers and their impact on trees.
Owen Lewis The Oxford University researcher says the study is intriguing but doesn’t prove causation, and he suggests future studies should take plants from areas with and without street lighting, place them in a controlled environment, and observe the insects’ behavior to see whether they prefer trees that grow in dark conditions.
Lewis also notes that measuring herbivores is complicated. Heavy damage can mean leaves are less nutritious, forcing insects to eat more of them. Holes caused by insect damage can also get bigger as leaves get bigger, he says.
“My intuition is that this may be a fairly subtle effect,” he says. “In central Beijing, the impact of light pollution on insect feeding will be more pronounced as urbanization progresses.” [the area is]”It’s probably trivial how much pollution there is, how much semi-natural habitat there is, etc. It’s important, but it’s probably not the main threat to insect diversity and ecosystem function.”
When you search the hashtag “mental health” on TikTok, you’ll come across a plethora of videos discussing “shadow work.” These videos have collectively amassed over a billion views and contributed to the success of The Shadow Work Journal, written by former TikTok employee Kayla Shaheen.
Despite its peculiar nature, the shadow work trend is actually a modern interpretation of a concept introduced by Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung in the mid-20th century.
Jung, a colleague of Sigmund Freud, shared Freud’s belief in the significance of the unconscious mind in human psychology. One of Jung’s theories about the unconscious posits that everyone has a “shadow” self – a part of us comprised of characteristics we fear or dislike. He referred to it as the “shadow” to signify its dark and undesirable nature that we can’t escape.
Jung suggested that our shadow self is revealed when we speak or act thoughtlessly, and it can also manifest in our dreams.
The purpose of shadow work is to delve deeper into understanding your shadow self, learn from it, and integrate it into your being. By doing so, you can feel more authentic and whole as your shadow is a genuine part of who you are. Jung argued that the shadow possesses valuable attributes like raw power and insight, which can enhance creativity, personal understanding, and resilience when expressed.
Shadow work involves introspective exercises to connect with your shadow. For instance, Shaheen recommends spending time in a quiet, dimly lit space, listening to your inner voice, and reflecting on the words that come to mind.
Visualization exercises are also common in shadow work, such as imagining two doors leading to your ideal self and your shadow self, and envisioning the experience of walking through each door.
While some therapists appreciate the increased interest in self-reflection, others are concerned that the portrayal of shadow work on social media lacks depth and may not fully capture Jungian psychology. Additionally, for individuals with traumatic backgrounds, reflective practices may trigger distressing emotions best addressed in a therapeutic setting.
For skeptics, Jung’s theory, like Freud’s, lacks empirical evidence and may potentially harm individuals by attributing distressing thoughts to a supposed part of themselves.
This article explores the question “What is shadow work, and can embracing your shadow self enhance mental health?” posed by Lina McBride from Norwich.
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Experts often suggest that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to excel in any field. However, not everyone possesses the talent required to become an Olympian or Paralympian. While practice can enhance performance, genetic factors impacting both physical strength and mental aptitude likely make the distinction between “good” and “great” athletes.
Athletic success is also influenced by external factors beyond an individual’s control, such as their birthdate. For instance, in the 2010-11 UEFA Youth Football Tournament, 43% of players were born between January and March (early in the selection cycle). Only 9% of players were born between October and December.
According to many sports psychologists, older children starting school may have an advantage in sports due to factors like size, strength, and confidence. However, the birth month advantage may also be influenced by social factors such as teachers’ perceptions of a child’s abilities.
Therefore, the ideal approach to becoming an Olympian may involve exploring various interests as a child and then focusing on activities where natural talent and, most importantly, enjoyment are found.
IIt was a project that promised the Sun: researchers would use some of the most cutting-edge technology in the world to design machines capable of generating atomic fusion, the process that powers stars, to create a cheap, non-polluting source of electricity.
This was originally the purpose of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (Iter). Thirty-five countries, including European countries, China, Russia and the United States, agreed to build the reactor in Saint-Paul-lès-Durance in the south of France at an initial cost of $6 billion. Work began in 2010, with the promise of producing an energy-producing reaction by 2020.
Then reality set in: Cost overruns, the coronavirus, corrosion of key components, last-minute redesigns, and disputes with nuclear safety regulators have caused delays, and it was just announced that ITER won’t be ready for another decade. To make matters worse, the energy-producing fusion reaction won’t occur until 2039, adding another $5 billion to ITER’s already ballooning $20 billion budget.
Other estimates put the final cost much higher, the magazine said, potentially making ITER “the most delayed and costly scientific project in history.” Scientific American On the other hand, the journal Science It said only that ITER was currently facing “major problems”. Nature It noted that the project “has been plagued by a series of delays, cost overruns and management problems.”
Scientists warn that dozens of private companies are now threatening to develop fusion reactors on a shorter timeline, including Oxford-based Tokamak Energy and the US company Commonwealth Fusion Systems.
“The problem is that ITER has been going for so long and suffered so many delays that the rest of the world has moved on,” said Robbie Scott, a nuclear fusion expert at the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council. “A lot of new technology has come along since ITER was planned, and that has left the project with serious problems.”
The Iter plant, under construction in Saint-Paul-lès-Durance in the south of France, opened in June. Photo: EJF Riche/Iter Organization
Question marks now hang over the world’s most ambitious technological project, which seeks to understand the process that powers stars, in which two light atomic nuclei combine to form one heavy one, releasing a huge amount of energy – nuclear fusion, which only occurs at very high temperatures.
To generate this heat, doughnut-shaped reactors called tokamaks use magnetic fields to confine a plasma of hydrogen nuclei, then bombard it with particle beams and microwaves. When temperatures reach millions of degrees Celsius, a mixture of two hydrogen isotopes (deuterium and tritium) fuses to form helium, neutrons, and a huge amount of excess energy.
Containing plasma at such high temperatures is extremely difficult. “The original plan was to line the tokamak reactor with beryllium as a protective covering, but this proved extremely difficult and because beryllium is toxic, they ultimately decided to replace it with tungsten,” says David Armstrong, professor of materials science and engineering at the University of Oxford. “This was a major late design change.”
Then, after it was discovered that huge parts of the South Korean-made tokamak had not been fitted together properly, threatening to leak radioactive material, French nuclear regulators ordered construction of the plant halted. Further delays were announced as problems mounted.
Then came COVID-19. “The pandemic caused factories supplying components to close, resulting in related workforce cuts, backlogs in shipments and difficulties in carrying out quality-control inspections,” ITER Secretary General Pietro Barabaschi acknowledged.
So ITER has once again delayed completion until another decade. At the same time, researchers using other approaches to nuclear fusion are making breakthroughs. In 2022, the US National Ignition Facility in California announced that it had used a laser to superheat deuterium and tritium and fuse them to produce helium and surplus energy, which is ITER’s goal.
Other fusion projects also claim they too could soon achieve breakthroughs. “The past decade has seen a proliferation of private fusion companies promising to do things differently from ITER – faster, cheaper – and, to be fair, some of them have likely overpromised,” said Brian Aperbe, a research physicist at Imperial College London.
It remains to be seen whether ITER will weather these crises and whether backers will continue to fund it. Observer He argued that there was still promising work left to be done.
One example is research into how to produce tritium, a rare hydrogen isotope essential for fusion reactors. It can be made by bombarding lithium samples with neutrons produced in a fusion reactor, producing helium and tritium in the process. “That’s a worthwhile experiment in itself,” Aperbe said.
But it rejected claims ITER was “hugely problematic” and dismissed the notion it was a record-breaking science project in terms of cost overruns and delays – just look at the International Space Station or Britain’s HS2 rail link, a spokesman said.
Some have pointed out that fusion power’s limited carbon emissions could help the fight against climate change. “But fusion will be too slow to reduce carbon emissions in the short term,” says Aneeka Khan, a fusion researcher at the University of Manchester. “Only once fusion power plants are producing significant amounts of electricity later in the century will they help curb carbon emissions, which will be crucial in the fight against climate change.”
The education secretary of Northern Ireland has issued a sincere apology after the personal information of over 400 individuals who volunteered to assist with a review of special needs education was accidentally leaked.
The breach was discovered when the Department of Education mistakenly sent a spreadsheet to 174 individuals, containing the names, email addresses, and job titles of 407 people interested in participating in the review of special educational needs events in Northern Ireland.
The spreadsheet included comments from several individuals.
The department has requested the 174 recipients to delete the information they received and has confirmed that this has been done.
Many affected individuals have reported their concerns to authorities regarding the data breach.
Education Secretary Paul Givhan stated, “The Department of Education takes data protection seriously and deeply regrets this incident. We apologize to all those impacted and have informed them about the breach.”
Givan has ordered an internal audit department to conduct a thorough investigation into the data leak to prevent such incidents in the future.
An initial report has been submitted to the Information Commissioner’s Office, and updates will be provided as the investigation progresses.
This data breach is not the first in Northern Ireland, as a similar incident occurred last year involving the Police Service of Northern Ireland.
Around 5,000 officers and staff from PSNI took legal action after personal details of approximately 9,500 employees were mistakenly disclosed in response to a Freedom of Information request.
The leaked information included employee last names, initials, ranks, grades, workplaces, and departments, and was later discovered to have reached dissident republicans.
Cognitive decline is characterized by a decrease in memory, concentration, and thinking abilities. It is common for individuals to experience increased forgetfulness as they age, such as forgetting names or items they intended to purchase.
However, a more frequent occurrence of these symptoms could indicate cognitive impairment, where cognitive function declines faster than expected due to aging. This can be concerning for both the individual experiencing the symptoms and their loved ones.
Common signs of cognitive impairment include:
Forgetting important dates and events
Losing track of thoughts
Feeling overwhelmed by decision-making and planning
Difficulty navigating familiar places
Becoming impulsive
While cognitive abilities naturally decline with age, the extent and speed of decline vary among individuals and are influenced by genetics and family history. Therefore, two people with similar age-related brain changes may perform differently on cognitive tasks, and individuals with Alzheimer’s disease may exhibit similar cognitive abilities but different brain changes.
What can you do now to prevent cognitive decline?
Building cognitive reserve through experiences like education, occupation, and stimulating activities can help individuals cope with age-related changes. Lifestyle factors like diet, exercise, and social interactions also play a role in cognitive health.
Health conditions like high blood pressure, diabetes, depression, and vascular disease can worsen cognitive decline, but lifestyle changes can help manage or prevent these conditions.
Eat a balanced diet with plenty of leafy greens
Stay active
Limit alcohol consumption
Avoid tobacco products
Eating a nutritious, balanced diet, with plenty of leafy and dark green vegetables, can help keep you healthy both physically and mentally. – Image credit: Getty
Making positive changes in one area of your life can have ripple effects on other aspects of health. Unhealthy habits can create a chain reaction of negative health outcomes, while healthy choices can improve overall well-being.
Habits to avoid
A high-fat diet can increase the risk of obesity, diabetes, and cognitive impairment, while smoking can impact lung capacity and cognitive function. By adopting a low-fat diet and avoiding tobacco products, individuals can reduce their risk of cognitive decline.
While we may not be able to prevent cognitive decline entirely, adopting a healthy lifestyle can help build cognitive reserve and potentially slow the decline. Research is ongoing to uncover more about the factors influencing cognitive health.
Aim for an overall healthier lifestyle
In addition to diet and exercise, engaging in social and sexual activities can benefit cognitive health. Social interactions can stimulate the brain and slow cognitive decline, while maintaining romantic and intimate relationships may improve cognitive function.
Stimulating activities like reading, playing games, or learning new skills can also help prevent cognitive decline. Gender differences in cognitive lifestyle choices may influence cognitive outcomes, highlighting the importance of varied activities for cognitive health.
Get a good night’s sleep
Sleep plays a crucial role in cognitive function, with adequate rest linked to better cognitive outcomes. Napping and getting around eight hours of sleep nightly can help reduce the risk of cognitive decline.
Quality sleep is essential for focus, creativity, and decision-making, while sleep deprivation can negatively impact physical and cognitive health. Establishing good sleep habits is key to maintaining cognitive function as we age.
Regular dental checkups can help prevent cognitive decline
Research suggests that gum disease bacteria may be linked to Alzheimer’s and dementia development, emphasizing the importance of oral health for cognitive well-being. By practicing good oral hygiene and seeking regular dental care, individuals can potentially reduce their risk of cognitive decline.
While there is no miracle cure for cognitive decline, taking proactive steps to improve overall health can slow the rate of decline associated with aging. It’s crucial to address any concerns about cognitive function with a healthcare provider to explore potential treatment options.
The 1996 Dunblane massacre and the protests that followed were Textbook example of how an act of terrorism mobilized a nation to demand effective gun control.
The atrocity, in which 16 children and a teacher were killed, triggered a wave of nationwide backlash, and within weeks 750,000 people had signed a petition calling for legal reform. Within a year and a half, new laws were in place making it illegal to own handguns.
Nearly three decades after the horrific violence at a Southport dance studio, it has provoked a starkly different response. It shocked many in the UK this week, but experts on domestic extremism, particularly those who look at the intersection of violence and technology, say it’s all too common — and, in this new age of algorithmic rage, sadly inevitable.
“Radicalization has always happened, but before, leaders were the bridge-builders that brought people together,” said Maria Ressa, a Filipino journalist and sharp-tongued technology critic who won the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize. “That’s no longer possible, because what once radicalized extremists and terrorists now radicalizes the general public, because that’s how the information ecosystem is designed.”
For Ressa, all of the violence that erupted on the streets of Southport, and then in towns across the country, fuelled by wild rumours and anti-immigrant rhetoric on social media, felt all too familiar. “Propaganda has always been there, violence has always been there, it’s social media that has made violence mainstream. [The US Capitol attack on] January 6th is a perfect example. Without social media to bring people together, isolate them, and incite them even more, people would never have been able to find each other.”
The biggest difference between the Dunblane massacre in 1996 and today is that the way we communicate has fundamentally changed. In our instant information environment, informed by algorithms that spread the most shocking, outrageous or emotional comments, social media is designed to do the exact opposite of bringing unity: it has become an engine of polarization.
“It seemed like it was just a matter of time before something like this happened in the UK,” says Julia Ebner, head of the Violent Extremism Lab at the Oxford University Centre for Social Cohesion Research. “This alternative information ecosystem is fuelling these narratives. We saw that in the Chemnitz riots in Germany in 2018, which reminded me strongly of that. And [it] The January 6th riots occurred in the United States.
“You see this chain reaction with these alternative news channels. Misinformation can spread very quickly and mobilize people into the streets. And then, of course, people tend to turn to violence because it amplifies anger and deep emotions. And then it travels from these alternative media to X and mainstream social media platforms.”
This “alternative information ecosystem” includes platforms like Telegram, BitTortoise, Parler and Gab, and often operates unseen behind the scenes of mainstream and social media. It has proven to be a breeding ground for the far-right, conspiracy theories and extremist ideology that has collided this week and mobilized people into the streets.
“Politicians need to stop using the phrase ‘the real world’ instead of ‘the online world,'” Ressa said. “How many times do I have to say it? It’s the same old thing.”
A burnt-out car has been removed after a night of violent anti-immigration protests in Sunderland. Photo: Holly Adams/Reuters
For Jacob Davey, director of counter-hate policy and research at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue in London, it was a “catastrophe”: Recent mass protests in the UK have emboldened the far-right, with far-right figures like Tommy Robinson being “replatformed” on X, while measures to curb hate are being rolled back.
The problem is that even though academics, researchers and policymakers are increasingly understanding the issue, very little is being done to solve it.
“And every year that goes by without this issue being addressed and without real legislation on social media, it’s going to get significantly worse,” Ressa said. “And [Soviet leader] Yuri Andropov said: Design Information [disinformation] “It’s like cocaine. Once or twice it’s okay, but if you take it all the time it becomes addictive. It changes you as a person.”
However, while UK authorities are aware of these threats in theory, in 2021 MI5 Director Ken McCallumsaid far-right extremism was the biggest domestic terrorism threat facing the UK, but the underlying technical problems remain unresolved.
It’s seven years since the FBI and US Congress launched an investigation into the weaponisation of social media by the Russian government, and while much of the UK’s right-wing media has ignored or mocked the investigation, Daily Mail This week, a shocking headline was published about one suspicious account on X. The account may be based in Russia and may be spreading false information, but this may only be part of the picture.
And there is still little recognition that what we are witnessing is part of a global phenomenon — a rise in populism and authoritarianism underpinned by deeper structural changes in communication — or, according to Ebner, the extent to which the parallels with what is happening in other countries run deep.
“The rise of far-right politics is very similar across the world and in different countries. No other movement has been able to amplify their ideology in the same way. The far-right is tapping into really powerful emotions in terms of algorithmically powerful emotions: anger, indignation, fear, surprise.”
“And really what we’re seeing is a sense of collective learning within far-right communities in many different countries. And a lot of it has to do with building these alternative information ecosystems and using them to be able to react or respond to something immediately.”
The question is, what will Keir Starmer do? Ebner points out that this is no longer a problem in dark corners of the internet. Politicians are also part of the radicalised population. “They are now saying things they would not have said before, they are blowing dog whistles to the far right, they are playing with conspiracy theories that were once promoted by far-right extremists.”
And human rights groups such as Big Brother Watch fear that some of Starmer’s solutions – including a pledge to increase facial recognition systems – could lead to further harm from the technology.
Ravi Naik, of AWO, a law firm specialising in cases against technology companies, said there were a number of steps that could be taken, including the Information Commissioner’s Office enforcing data restrictions and police action against incitement to violence.
“But these actions are reactive,” Naik said. “The problem is too big to be addressed at the whim of a new prime minister. It is a deep-rooted issue of power, and it cannot be solved in the middle of a crisis or by impulsive reactions. We need a real adult conversation about digital technology and the future we all want.”
In his thought-provoking opinion piece “Robots Fired, Screenings Cancelled: The Rise of the Luddite Movement Against AI” on July 27th, Ed Newton-Rex overlooks a significant concern regarding artificial intelligence: surveillance. Governments have a history of spying on their citizens, and with technology, this surveillance capability is amplified.
George Orwell’s novel 1984 depicted a world where authorities used two-way telescreens to monitor individuals’ actions and conversations, similar to today’s digital control systems powered by electronic tracking devices and facial recognition technology. These systems allow for the collection of personal information, enabling prediction and control of behavior.
There is currently no effective method proposed to safeguard privacy against increasing state intrusion. Without this protection, the public sphere may diminish as individuals require a private space free from surveillance to think without fear of consequences.
• Regarding Ed Newton-Rex’s article on artificial intelligence, a key distinction lies between AI used for practical purposes like medical diagnosis and AI employed in cultural creation. While AI can enhance art and writing, issues arise when these systems produce subpar imitations of creativity at the behest of uninformed individuals.
There is a risk of downplaying human creativity and undermining the value of art and legitimate AI if AI is perceived as equal or superior in creativity.
• Newton-Rex highlights a crucial point, but the main threat posed by artificial intelligence is its potential to alleviate the need for critical thinking. Homo sapiens may evolve into passive consumers of entertainment, relinquishing the cognitive burden of thinking.
It’s been a tough week for the Grand St. Seven, a group of technology stocks that have played a leading role in the U.S. stock market, buoyed by investor excitement about breakthroughs in artificial intelligence.
Last year, Microsoft, Amazon, Apple, chipmaker Nvidia, Google parent Alphabet, Facebook owner Meta and Elon Musk’s Tesla accounted for half of the S&P 500’s gains. But doubts about returns on AI investments, mixed quarterly earnings, investor attention shifting elsewhere and weak U.S. economic data have hurt the group over the past month.
Things came to a head this week when the shares of the seven companies entered a correction, with their combined share prices now down more than 10% from their peak on July 10.
Here we answer some questions about Seven and the AI boom.
Why did AI stocks fall?
First, there are concerns that the huge investments being made by Microsoft, Google and others in AI will pay off. These have been growing in recent months. Goldman Sachs analysts The memo was published In June, the Wall Street bank released a report titled “Gen AI: Too Much Spending, Too Little Reward?” which asked whether $1 trillion in investment in AI over the next few years “will ever pay off,” while an analysis by Sequoia Capital, an early investor in ChatGPT developer OpenAI, estimated that tech companies would need $600 billion in rewards to recoup their AI investments.
Gino said “The Magnificent Seven” is also hit by these concerns.
“There are clearly concerns about the return on the AI investments that they’re making,” he said, adding that big tech companies have “done a good job explaining” their AI strategies, at least in their most recent financial results.
Another factor at play is investor hope that the Federal Reserve, the U.S. central bank, may cut interest rates as soon as next month. The prospect of lower borrowing costs has boosted investors’ support for companies that could benefit, such as small businesses, banks and real estate companies. This is an example of “sector rotation,” in which investors move money between different parts of the stock market.
Concerns about the Big 7 are affecting the S&P 500, given that a small number of tech stocks make up much of the index’s value.
“Given the growing concentration of this group within U.S. stocks, this will have broader implications,” said Henry Allen, macro strategist at Deutsche Bank AG.Concerns about a weakening U.S. economy also hit global stock markets on Friday.
What happened to tech stocks this week?
As of Friday morning, the seven stocks were down 11.8% from last month’s record highs, but had been dipping in and out of correction territory — a drop of 10% or more from a recent high — in recent weeks amid growing doubts.
Quarterly earnings this week were mixed. Microsoft’s cloud-computing division, which plays a key role in helping companies train and run AI models, reported weaker-than-expected growth. Amazon, the other cloud-computing giant, also disappointed, as growth in its cloud business was offset by increased spending on AI-related infrastructure like data centers and chips.
But shares of Meta, the owner of advertising-dependent Facebook and Instagram, rose on Thursday as the company’s strong revenue growth offset promises of heavy investment in AI. Apple’s sales also beat expectations on Thursday.
“Expectations for the so-called ‘great seven’ group have perhaps become too high,” Dan Coatsworth, an analyst at investment platform AJ Bell, said in a note this week. “These companies’ success puts them out of reach in the eyes of investors, and any shortfall in greatness leaves them open to harsh criticism.”
A general perception that tech stocks may be overvalued is also playing a role: “Valuations have reached 20-year highs and they needed to come down and take a pause to digest some of the gains of the past 18 months,” says Angelo Gino, a technology analyst at CFRA Research.
The Financial Times reported on Friday that hedge fund Elliott Management said in a note to investors that AI is “overvalued” and that Nvidia, which has been a big beneficiary of the AI boom, is in a “bubble.”
Can we expect to see further advances in AI over the next 12 months?
Further breakthroughs are almost certain, which may reassure investors. The biggest players in the field have a clear roadmap, with the next generation of frontier models already underway to train, and new records are being set almost every month. Last week, Alphabet Inc.’s Google DeepMind announced that its system had set a new record at the International Mathematical Olympiad, a high school-level math competition. The announcement has observers wondering whether the company will be able to tackle long-unsolved problems in the near future.
The question for labs is whether these breakthroughs will generate enough revenue to cover the rapidly growing costs of achieving them: The cost of training cutting-edge AI has increased tenfold every year since the AI boom really began, raising questions about how even well-funded companies such as OpenAI, the Microsoft-backed startup behind ChatGPT, will cover those costs in the long run.
Is generative AI already benefiting the companies that use it?
In many companies, the most successful uses of generative AI (the term for AI tools that can create plausible text, voice, and images from simple prompts) have come from the bottom up: people who have effectively used tools like Microsoft’s Copilot or Anthropic’s Claude to figure out how to work more efficiently, or even eliminate time-consuming tasks from their day entirely. But at the enterprise level, clear success stories are few and far between. Whereas Nvidia got rich selling shovels in the gold rush, the best story from an AI user is Klarna, the buy now, pay later company, which announced in February that its OpenAI-powered assistant can: Resolved two-thirds of customer service requests In the first month.
Dario Maisto, a senior analyst at Forrester, said a lack of economically beneficial uses for generative AI is hindering investment.
“The challenge remains to translate this technology into real, tangible economic benefits,” he said.
It’s a common belief that it requires 10,000 hours of practice to master a skill, but studies suggest that not everyone possesses the innate talent required to become an Olympian or Paralympian. While practice can enhance performance, genetic factors impacting both physical strength and cognitive abilities likely distinguish between “good” and “great” athletes.
The success in sports is also influenced by factors beyond one’s control, such as birth timing. For instance, in the 2010-11 UEFA Youth Football Tournament, 43% of players were born between January and March (earlier in the selection period). Only 9% of players were born between October and December.
Older children who start school may have a physical advantage over their younger peers in terms of size, strength, and confidence. However, many sports psychologists argue that any birth month advantage is also influenced by social factors, such as how teachers perceive a child’s abilities.
Therefore, the most effective approach to becoming an Olympian may involve exploring a range of interests as a child and then focusing on activities where natural talent and enjoyment are evident.
In 1999, the sports world experienced a significant change. On November 10, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) was founded with the goal of “protecting athletes, promoting clean sport values, and upholding the spirit of sports globally.”
WADA was established in response to various high-profile drug-related incidents, such as Ben Johnson’s steroid scandal in the 1988 Olympics and the 1998 “Festina Scandal” involving drugs found in a team car at the Tour de France. It was created out of concern for athlete safety and the potential backlash from audiences towards professional sports.
The WADA Code includes an annual publication of a Prohibited List, which outlines banned substances and methods for both in-competition and out-of-competition use. A substance or method is considered prohibited if it meets two out of three criteria – it may enhance performance, poses health risks to athletes, or goes against the spirit of sport.
This framework aims to create a safer environment for athletes but also presents a grey area where certain substances or methods could be legal but potentially illegal in the future.
As a result, there is ongoing investigation into legal methods and substances commonly used by professional athletes that may face bans in the future.
1. Carbon monoxide rebreathing
With more than 100 deaths annually in the UK due to carbon monoxide poisoning, the use of carbon monoxide rebreathing in sports science may raise eyebrows. However, this method is commonly used to measure hemoglobin levels in athletes.
Through carbon monoxide rebreathing, athletes inhale the gas to measure various blood parameters, particularly hemoglobin content, which impacts oxygen delivery to muscles. This process simulates the effects of training at high altitudes, where athletes produce more red blood cells to enhance performance.
Inhaling carbon monoxide can raise the carbon monoxide level in your blood to about 5 percent. – Photo credit: Getty Images
While this method has its benefits, prolonged exposure to carbon monoxide can have adverse effects on an athlete’s oxygen-carrying capacity, leading to concerns about its use.
2. Oxygen Tent
Similar to carbon monoxide rebreathing, oxygen tents are popular among athletes to simulate high-altitude environments and enhance red blood cell counts. These tents have been used by various sports teams and athletes to improve performance through altitude training.
Former footballer Graham Cooper trains wearing a training mask connected to an altitude generator for low-oxygen training. – Photo credit: Getty
Despite its benefits, the use of oxygen tents has stirred controversy in the past due to concerns about artificially elevated blood parameters and its impact on the spirit of sports. Regulations and bans have been enforced in some regions to address these issues.
3. High-tech trisuit
Alex Yee overtakes New Zealand’s Hayden Wilde in a dramatic finale of the Paris 2024 Olympic triathlon – Photo Credit: Getty
Modern trisuits, like the one worn by British triathlete Alex Yee at the Paris Olympics, incorporate cutting-edge technology to enhance performance. These suits are designed to optimize aerodynamics, improve speed, and potentially provide advantages in water sports.
With innovations in fabric technology and fit, these trisuits are custom-made to maximize performance while complying with sports regulations. The use of advanced materials and design elements can influence race outcomes significantly.
4. Ketone Drinks
Ketone drinks have gained popularity among athletes for their potential to boost energy levels without the need for starvation. These drinks can help conserve glycogen reserves during intense exercise, improve endurance, and enhance recovery between workouts.
Despite their benefits, the use of ketone drinks raises concerns about their long-term effects on health and athletic performance. Organizations like the Movement for Credible Cycling (MPCC) advocate against the use of ketones due to insufficient research and potential risks associated with their consumption.
5. Caffeine
Caffeine remains a popular dietary supplement among athletes due to its proven performance-enhancing effects. Studies have shown that caffeine can improve fat burning, speed, and endurance by stimulating neuronal activity in the brain and triggering the release of adrenaline.
While caffeine is legal and widely used, there are concerns about its safety when consumed in excessive amounts. Regulations on caffeine use have evolved over time, with bans being implemented and lifted based on scientific evidence and health considerations.
in New paper Published in Astrophysical JournalDr. Ravi Kopparapu of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and colleagues assessed the detectability of silicon solar panels on Earth-like exoplanets as potential technological signatures.
Conceptual illustration of an exoplanet with an advanced extraterrestrial civilization. The structure on the right is an orbiting solar panel array that collects light from the parent star, converts it into electricity and transmits it via microwaves to the surface. The exoplanet on the left shows other potential technological features: on the night side there are city lights (the glowing circular structures), and on the day side there are multi-colored clouds representing various forms of pollution, such as nitrogen dioxide gas from the burning of fossil fuels and chlorofluorocarbons used in refrigeration. Image credit: NASA/Jay Freidlander.
“The search for extraterrestrial life has primarily focused on detecting biosignatures – remote observations of atmospheric or ground-based spectral properties that indicate signs of life on exoplanets,” said Dr Kopparapu and his co-authors.
“Recently, there has been a rise in interest in technosignatures, which refer to observational signs of extraterrestrial technology that can be detected or inferred through astronomical surveys.”
“While the search for extraterrestrial intelligence through radio observations has been popular for decades, recent studies have proposed an alternative: searching for technological signatures in the ultraviolet to mid-infrared spectral range.”
Astronomers speculate that extraterrestrials might build solar panels out of silicon because it is relatively abundant compared to other elements used in solar power generation, such as germanium, gallium, and arsenic.
Silicon is also excellent at converting light emitted by stars like the Sun into electricity, and it is cost-effective to mine and manufacture into solar cells.
The researchers also assume that a hypothetical extraterrestrial civilization would rely solely on solar energy.
However, if other energy sources, such as nuclear fusion, were used, the technological signature of silicon would be diminished, making the civilization even more difficult to detect.
Furthermore, they assume that the population of the civilization will stabilize at some point, and if for some reason this does not happen, they may end up expanding the Eternal Father into deep space.
For the study, scientists used computer models and NASA satellite data to simulate Earth-like planets with different degrees of silicon solar panel coverage.
They then modeled an advanced telescope, like NASA’s proposed Habitable Worlds Observatory, to see if it could detect the solar panels of a planet about 30 light-years away, a relatively close galaxy that is more than 100,000 light-years across.
The researchers found that hundreds of hours of observation time would be required with this type of telescope to detect signals from solar panels covering about 23% of the land area of an Earth-like exoplanet.
However, the solar panel coverage needed to support 30 billion people with a high standard of living was only around 8.9%.
“We find that even if the current population of around 8 billion were to stabilise to a high standard of living of 30 billion and run solely on solar energy for power, it would still use far less energy than the total amount of sunlight illuminating the Earth,” Dr Kopparap said.
The research has implications on the Fermi Paradox, proposed by physicist Enrico Fermi, which asks why extraterrestrial civilizations have not spread across the galaxy by now, given that our own Milky Way galaxy is ancient and vast, making interstellar travel difficult but possible.
“This suggests that if a civilisation chooses a very high standard of living, it may not feel the need to expand across the galaxy because it can achieve sustainable population and energy use levels,” Dr Kopparap said.
“They may expand within their own star system, or neighboring star systems, but there may not be a galaxy-wide civilization.”
“Furthermore, our own technological expertise may not yet be able to predict what more advanced civilizations will be able to achieve.”
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Ravi Kopparap others2024. Detectability of Solar Panels as a Technology Signature. ApJ 967, 119; doi: 10.3847/1538-4357/ad43d7
This article is based on a press release provided by NASA.
Sergio Pitamitz/VW Pics/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
Uplifting the land beneath the Antarctic ice sheet could help slow ice loss and limit sea level rise over the coming centuries, but if emissions continue to rise, it could cause more sea levels to rise than the ice melt alone.
The findings come from models that simulate Earth’s mantle, the layer beneath the crust, in greater detail than ever before. When Antarctica loses its weight as ice melts, the elastic mantle beneath it bounces back, causing the land above it to rise. When ice melts and the continents lose their weight, Earth’s elastic mantle bounces back, causing the land above it to rise. The bounced back land can slow the flow of ice sheets where they meet the ocean. This “sea-level feedback” occurs primarily because the uplifted land changes the shape of the ocean floor, limiting the thickness of the ice sheet’s edges. Thinner ice there reduces the overall inflow of ice into the ocean.
Researchers have long suspected that this effect plays a role in slowing ice loss, but it was unclear when this effect begins or how it varies in different parts of the ice sheet.
Natalia Gomez Gomes and his colleagues at McGill University in Canada modeled the relationship between the melting ice and the rebounding land, and also simulated the mantle, capturing the different viscosities beneath the continents: East Antarctica sits on a more viscous mantle and thicker crust, while West Antarctica’s rapidly melting glaciers sit on a less viscous mantle and thinner crust. This more detailed picture of Earth’s interior is based on precise measurements of ice sheet elevation changes over decades, as well as data about the mantle beneath Antarctica from seismic waves generated by earthquakes. “This is hard-earned,” Gomes says.
The researchers found that under a very low emissions scenario, compared to a model that considered the ground beneath the ice solid, land uplift would reduce Antarctica’s contribution to global mean sea level rise by more than 50 centimeters by 2500. This effect was less pronounced under a moderate emissions scenario, but still led to a large reduction in sea level rise, with effects starting to be felt as early as 2100.
But in a very high emissions scenario, the team found that land uplift in Antarctica would raise sea levels by an additional 0.8 meters by 2500. This happened because the ice sheet retreated faster than land uplift, and the rising sea floor pushed more water into the rest of the ocean.
“From a modeling perspective, this is a huge step forward.” Alexander Bradley The British Antarctic Survey’s Bradley says it’s always been thought that land uplift would limit sea-level rise, but this high-resolution modeling shows that the effect depends on emissions. “The changes that occur in the 21st and 22nd centuries will depend very much on what we do now,” he says.
Alexander Lovell Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta call it a “very good simulation,” but the scenario in which land uplift drives sea level rise is based on worst-case assumptions about emissions and the rate at which ice sheets are retreating.
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