Year: The word “aura” comes from Latin and Ancient Greek and originally meant a gentle breeze. Today it’s more commonly used to describe the subtle, pervasive quality that emanates from someone, which is exactly what we’re talking about here.
And Auramax? It’s new. It’s similar to looksmaxxing, but…
Hold on, what is looksmaxxing? For example, exercising or making cat noises will help you maximize your physical attractiveness…
Are you meowing like a cat? In practice, this means pushing the tongue up in the mouth to improve the jaw and facial structure.
What happens if I get tetanus? It’s a shame, but it’s worth it. Anyway, Auramax is the same kind of idea, but aimed at improving your energy and overall presence.
And where is this aura?Is amaxxing happening?Mainly TikTok, However, other platforms are available.
What should I do? You could also learn from 18-year-old Canadian content creator, Frankie Mekhi. Share your aura upgrade It has 250,000 followers.
It 250,001. Frankie’s number one rule is “Don’t try to emulate someone else’s aura. It has to come from within, it has to be authentic.”
[Takes notes: writes “within” and “authentic”]Second rule: No barking.
Don’t bark? Don’t talk too much!
[Zips mouth closed] Next, you need to find your purpose.
[Trying to talk with mouth closed] it is In capital letters? That’s correct. Also, people with auras have achieved great things in some way.
Hmm, that might be difficult. Maybe your aura score has dropped too quickly. Aura scores are interesting because they actually happen on TikTok, where users are giving and taking away aura points from other users.
How does scoring work? Well, doing something impressive like having other friends with auras might give you points, or it might cost you points…
Bark? Possibly, but Susanna Merrick says there is no such thing as a premium aura level.
Who is Susanna Merrick?? A New York-based aura stylist. “People don’t need to know who they are.” she told The Cut. “They need to discover who they are.”
I would like to know, is Auramax mainly for men? Mekhi said his audience is primarily young men, but The Cut reported that young women are also joining the conversation about Auramax, but in a different way.
What’s the difference? Instead of trying to exude presence, ask how many aura points you might lose because of how you acted during a difficult experience. Bullying or sorrow.
please tell me: “Or you can just be yourself and not worry about how much of a person you are or how other people perceive you.”
Do not say: “You either get it or you don’t. And if you try too hard to get it, you definitely won’t get it, brother.”
yesWhile the name might lead you to think of a game about herding sheep, it’s actually a lot stranger than that. teeth They’re sheep, but they’re fluffy flying sheep that float around after you as you ride on the back of a giant, colorful bird. Every now and then, they’re sheared and knitted into new jumpers or hats with pom-poms so the sheep look like naked, purple, aerial sausages with eyes. But the majority of your flock is actually made up of flying fish. Or are they fish? Some are curvy like eels, some moo like chickens, and some look like winged whales. Like we said, it’s pretty weird.
Your job in Flock is to find them in the wild, identify them from their short but varied and obvious written clues (“drooping proboscis,” “vertical stripes,” “often mistaken for a noisy radish”), and fill a field guide full of these big-eyed, flying-fish-like creatures. They all resemble sea creatures through a slightly surreal pop art filter, but are so well drawn that you can now tell the difference between a Cosmet and a Beul, a Thrips and a Rustic. Some camouflage among weeds and leaves, others flee when you approach, and others chirp at you while sunning themselves on rocks. You can find a piper to teach the birds to sing, and then collect them like a piper into a cloud of creatures that will follow you.
I’m still not very good at charming creatures. I can’t get the timing right and often end up frightening the birds with my off-key shrieks instead of leading them into the flock. But I morning It’s good at finding them. The flying is done for you. Birds fly around trees and mossy rocks automatically, so you’re free to observe your surroundings and listen for the chirps and twitters that announce the presence of undiscovered birds and fish. I navigated by sound as often as by sight. The nature-inspired soundscapes are one of Flock’s strongest features, along with the eye-catching art and cute, witty writing.
I enjoyed my few days with Flock, though I wish it were longer. There were some really interesting environmental puzzles that made me want to find other creatures hiding out on the plateau. Most creatures were easy to find, but a few required some fun deduction from a single sentence in the field guide. Once or twice, a creature in my entourage would tell me the location of another creature or help me find something, but most creatures just follow the player around and don’t do anything. I couldn’t help but imagine a more ambitious version of this game, one where the main creatures give you interesting abilities once you’ve filled out the field guide, and you can do things with your friends in races and challenges. But in under five hours, I’d done everything there was to do.
And yet I keep firing up Steam Deck just to fly around the swamps and moss forests for a few minutes – it’s so relaxing, so fun to look at, and so endearingly quirky that it stands out from the crowd.
Samsung’s first entry into Microsoft’s new Arm-powered Copilot+ PCs is the Galaxy Book 4 Edge, set to deliver impressive speed and battery life that can compete with Apple’s MacBook Air.
This sleek, ultra-thin laptop comes in 14-inch or 16-inch sizes and is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite chip, aiming to challenge Intel as the top PC laptop chip.
Prices start at £1,399 (€1,699/$999.99) for the base model, with the top-of-the-line 16-inch version priced at £1,700, positioning it as a premium competitor to products from Microsoft, Dell, and Apple.
The Galaxy Book features HDMI, USB-A, a microSD card slot, and a USB4 port, all in an incredibly thin and light 16-inch design. Photo: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian
The laptop boasts a familiar Samsung Galaxy Book design with premium aluminum construction, but lacks originality in its aesthetics.
The standout feature is the vibrant OLED touchscreen display, though it may attract fingerprints and could be brighter. The anti-reflective coating enhances usability under various lighting conditions.
While the keyboard is standard, the oversized trackpad feels somewhat redundant with its traditional mechanical design. The speakers are decent but can be obstructed when using the laptop on soft surfaces.
The 16-inch model includes a number pad on the right side, contributing to a slightly off-center keyboard and trackpad layout. Photo: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian
The laptop’s webcam offers AI effects but lacks facial recognition, requiring a fingerprint scan for unlocking.
Specifications
Screen: 14″ or 16″ 3K AMOLED 2880 x 1800 (120Hz)
Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite
RAM: 16 GB
Storage: 512GB or 1TB
Operating System: Windows 11 Home
Camera: 2 megapixels (1080p)
Connectivity: Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.3, 2 x USB4, headphones, HDMI2.1 (USB-A and microSD 16″ only)
Ultraluminous infrared galaxies are the rarest and most extreme star-forming systems and are found only in the distant universe.
Radiative distribution of stars, cold gas, and ionized gas in the unusual HyLIRG Einstein ring PJ0116-24. Image courtesy of Liu others., doi:10.1038/s41550-024-02296-7.
“Ultraluminous Infrared Galaxies (HyLIRGs) are incredibly luminous galaxies illuminated by extremely rapid star formation within their interiors,” said Dr Daizhong Liu from the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics and his colleagues.
“Previous studies had suggested that such extreme galaxies must have arisen through galactic mergers.”
“The collisions of these galaxies are thought to create regions of dense gas that trigger rapid star formation.”
“However, isolated galaxies could also become HyLIRGs through internal processes alone if star-forming gas flows rapidly toward the galaxy's center.”
In the new study, the astronomers focused on a gravitationally lensed HyLIRG galaxy known as PJ0116-24.
“PJ0116-24 is so distant that it took its light about 10 billion years to reach Earth,” the researchers said.
“By chance, the foreground galaxy acts as a gravitational lens, bending and magnifying the light from the background galaxy, PJ0116-24, and directing it towards the Einstein ring.”
“This precise configuration of space allows us to magnify very distant objects and see them with a level of detail that is very difficult to achieve any other way.
The researchers used ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT) and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) to study the motion of gas within PJ0116-24.
“ALMA tracks the cold gas which appears blue here, while the VLT with its new High Resolution Imaging Spectrograph (ERIS) tracks the warm gas which appears red,” the researchers say.
“Thanks to these detailed observations, we now know that the gas in this extreme galaxy rotates in an organized manner, rather than the chaotic state expected after a galaxy collision. A stunning result!”
“This convincingly shows that a merger is not necessarily required for a galaxy to become a HyLIRG.”
Team paper Published in the journal Natural Astronomy.
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D. Liu othersA detailed study of a rare, ultra-luminous rotating disk in a 10 billion year old Einstein ring. Nat AstronPublished online July 15, 2024; doi: 10.1038/s41550-024-02296-7
Saturn’s moon Titan was explored by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft between 2004 and 2017. Although Cassini revealed much about this Earth-like world, its radar observations provided limited information about Titan’s liquid hydrocarbon oceans: Kraken, Ligeia, and Punga Mare. New paper In the journal Nature CommunicationsCornell University researcher Valerio Poggiali and his colleagues reported the results of their analysis of data from the Cassini radar experiment on Titan’s polar oceans.
Artistic depiction of Kraken Mare, a giant ocean of liquid methane on Titan. Image courtesy of NASA John Glenn Research Center.
“The Cassini spacecraft explored Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, between 2004 and 2017, revealing an Earth-like world with a strange yet very familiar diversity of surface morphologies formed by a methane-based hydrological system operating in a dense nitrogen atmosphere,” said Dr Poggiali and his co-authors.
“Winds in the lower atmosphere move the sediments, forming the vast sand dunes that encircle Titan’s equator.”
“At mid-latitudes, flat, relatively featureless plains form the transition between the eolianite-dominated equator and the lacustrine-dominated poles.”
“In the polar regions, large oceans and small lakes of liquid hydrocarbons dominate the landscape.”
“The channels created by precipitation drain into the ocean, forming estuaries and sometimes deltas and other familiar coastal deposits.”
“Cassini has revealed much about Titan, but this discovery raises even more questions.”
For the study, scientists used data from four bistatic radar observations collected by Cassini during four flybys in 2014 (May 17, June 18, and October 24) and 2016 (November 14).
For each, surface reflections were observed when the probe was closest to Titan (approach) and when it was moving away (exit).
The authors analyzed data from outflow observations of Titan’s three large polar oceans: Kraken Mare, Ligeia Mare, and Punga Mare.
“In a bistatic radar experiment, a spacecraft directs a radio beam towards a target, in this case Titan, where the beam is reflected towards a receiving antenna on Earth,” the researchers explained.
“This surface reflection is polarized, which means it provides information gathered from two independent perspectives, as opposed to the perspective provided by monostatic radar data, where the reflected signal is sent back to the spacecraft.”
“The main difference is that the bistatic information is a more complete data set and is sensitive to both the composition of the reflective surface and its roughness.”
The team found that the composition of the ocean’s surface layers of hydrocarbons varies depending on latitude and location (for example, near rivers or estuaries).
Specifically, the southernmost parts of Kraken Mare exhibit the highest dielectric constant, a measure of a material’s ability to reflect radio signals.
For example, water on Earth is highly reflective and has a dielectric constant of about 80, while Titan’s ethane and methane oceans have a dielectric constant of about 1.7.
The researchers also determined that ocean conditions in all three areas were fairly calm during the flyby, with surface waves measuring less than 3.3 mm.
Slightly higher levels of roughness, up to 5.2 mm, were found in coastal areas, near estuaries and straits, which could be an indication of tidal currents.
“There are also indications that the rivers that feed the oceans are pure methane until they flow into the open ocean liquid, which is rich in ethane,” Dr Poggiali said.
“It’s the same as when freshwater rivers flow into the saltwater of the ocean on Earth and mix together.”
“This fits well with weather models of Titan, which predict that the ‘rain’ falling from Titan’s skies is almost pure methane, with traces of ethane and other hydrocarbons,” said Professor Philip Nicholson of Cornell University.
“Further studies of the data Cassini has collected during its 13-year exploration of Titan are already underway.”
“There’s still a mountain of data waiting to be fully analyzed in a way that will lead to further discoveries. This is just the first step.”
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V. Poggiali others2024. Surface characteristics of Titan’s ocean as revealed by the Cassini bistatic radar experiment. Nat Community 15, 5454; doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-49837-2
This article is a version of a press release provided by Cornell University.
A recent study reveals that climate change is fundamentally reshaping the Earth, impacting its core. The melting of polar ice caps and glaciers due to global warming is causing a redistribution of water towards the equator, resulting in a shift in the Earth’s rotation and leading to increased daylight hours. This phenomenon is supported by new evidence suggesting that changes in the Earth’s ice could potentially affect its axis. These alterations create feedback loops within the Earth’s molten core, as highlighted in studies published in Nature Geoscience and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
According to Benedict Soja, an assistant professor at ETH Zurich in Switzerland, human activities are significantly influencing the Earth’s rotation. Changes in the planet’s shape and mass distribution, influenced historically by forces like the moon’s gravitational pull and rebounding of crust after ice age glaciers disappeared, are now being accelerated by rapid ice melting caused by climate change. Soja warns that continued carbon emissions could make ice loss a more significant factor in Earth’s rotation than the moon.
In addition to external factors like gravity and ice loss, fluid movements in the Earth’s core also play a role in affecting the planet’s rotation. These movements can speed up or slow down the Earth’s rotation and are currently compensating for the slowdown caused by climate change. The new study suggests that climate change is leading to small variations in polar motion due to changes in mass distribution, estimated to be about one meter per decade.
An iceberg in Antarctica on February 8th. Şebnem Coşkun / Anadolu via Getty Images File
These changes in rotation are expected to have implications for space missions, navigation, and timekeeping. Understanding how Earth’s rotation and axis are affected by climate change will be crucial for accurate space exploration and maintaining global time standards. The research emphasizes the interconnectedness of surface processes with the Earth’s core, shedding light on the complex relationship between human activities and the planet’s inner workings.
2023 Perseid meteor shower observed in Chinese grasslands
Cynthia Lee/Alamy
The Perseid meteor shower is one of the best opportunities to see hundreds of shooting stars, and this year it will peak around August 12 and 13. The shower is expected to last from mid-July until the end of August, but the most meteors will be visible during the dawn hours near the peak.
What is the Perseid meteor shower?
Meteor showers occur when the Earth passes dust and debris drifting behind a comet. These tiny particles of debris slam into the atmosphere at incredible speeds, and friction with the atmospheric particles causes the dust to heat up and burn up, leaving only a flash of light in the air. This moving flash is called a shooting star or meteor.
The Perseid meteor shower is caused by the comet Swift-Tuttle, which orbits the Sun every 133 years. Once a year, Earth passes through its debris trail, lighting up the sky with meteors.
When should you view the Perseid meteors?
The best days to view the Perseid meteor shower are within a few days of its peak – outside of that period you may see some, but they won’t be as impressive.
Meteors can be seen at any time of the night, but a bright moon can make them harder to spot. This year, a half moon will be visible at the peak, so the best time to look for meteors is midnight after the moon has set. This is true for observers around the world, but the best views of the Perseid meteor shower will be in the Northern Hemisphere due to the orientation of the Earth relative to the comet’s debris trail.
How many meteors can we see this year?
Typically, the Perseids emit between 50 and 100 meteors per hour during the peak of the meteor shower. They can also produce fireballs, which are bright meteors that are created when a large chunk of a comet impacts Earth’s atmosphere. The number of meteors visible from a particular location depends on the level of light pollution, so getting away from city lights is essential if you want to see as many meteors as possible.
How do you observe the Perseid meteor shower?
The best way to observe the meteor shower is to be in as dark a place as possible with as much sky as possible visible. The Perseid meteors appear to streak towards the constellation Perseus, but they will appear all over the sky. It may take up to 30 minutes for your eyes to adjust to the darkness. Don’t be discouraged if you can’t see anything at first. To allow your eyes to adjust, look at the sky as much as possible without looking at street lights, cell phones or even the moon. When you see a tiny point of light streaking across the sky for a few seconds or less, that’s the Perseid meteor shower.
Amoebidium appalachenseViruses in protists closely related to animals weave remnants of ancient giant viruses into their genetic code, according to a new study led by Queen Mary, University of London. The discovery sheds light on how complex organisms acquire parts of their genes and highlights the dynamic interplay between viruses and their hosts.
Amoebidium appalachense A unique model for understanding the hybrid origin of eukaryotic DNA. Image courtesy of Alex de Mendoza.
In this study, Dr. Alex de Mendoza Soler and his colleagues Amoebidium appalachense A unicellular parasite first isolated from the epidermis of a freshwater arthropod.
They found a surprising amount of genetic material from giant viruses, some of the largest known to science.
The sequences of these viruses are highly methylated, a chemical tag that often silences genes.
“It's like a hidden Trojan horse. Amoebidium appalachense It’s the DNA of,” says Dr. de Mendoza Soler.
“These viral insertions are potentially harmful, but Amoebidium appalachense It seems like we are suppressing them by chemically silencing them.”
The researchers then investigated how widespread this phenomenon may be.
They are some Amoebidium appalachense Examination of the isolates revealed wide variation in viral content.
This suggests that the processes of viral integration and silencing are continuous and dynamic.
“These findings call into question our understanding of viruses and the relationship between them and their hosts,” said Dr de Mendoza Soler.
“Traditionally, viruses are thought of as invaders, but this study suggests a more complex story.”
“Viral insertions may have played a role in the evolution of complex organisms by contributing new genes.”
“And this can be done by chemically controlling the invader's DNA.”
moreover, Amoebidium appalachense It shows intriguing parallels to how our own genomes interact with viruses.
It's similar to Amoebidium appalachense Humans and other mammals carry remnants of ancient viruses called endogenous retroviruses built into their DNA.
These remnants were previously thought to be inactive junk DNA, but now it appears some may be beneficial.
but, Amoebidium appalachense Endogenous retroviruses are much smaller, while the human genome is significantly larger.
Future studies can explore these similarities and differences to understand the intricate interactions between viruses and complex life forms.
Luke A. Saleh others 2024. DNA methylation enables recurrent internalization of giant viruses in animal relatives. Scientific advances 10(28); Source: 10.1126/sciadv.ado6406
This article has been edited from an original release from Queen Mary, University of London.
Titan’s north polar region, imaged using Cassini’s radar signature, shows blue hydrocarbon oceans.
NASA / JPL-Caltech / Italian Space Agency / USGS
The most detailed look yet at Saturn’s moon Titan’s strange lakes has revealed a diverse marine landscape similar to Earth’s, with a mix of freshwater rivers and saltwater oceans.
Unlike Earth’s watery oceans, Titan’s lakes are composed of methane and ethane, which are liquid at the planet’s average surface temperature, about −179 °C (−290 °F).
Radar measurements from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, which orbited Saturn from 2004 to 2017, suggested differences in the lakes’ properties, including their composition and surface waves, but the signals didn’t contain enough information to distinguish between them.
now, Valerio Poggiali Poggiali and his colleagues at Cornell University in New York used a different radar technique to map the composition and surface of Titan’s oceans, revealing that the amount of ethane increases as you move south across the planet from the north pole. “The further north you go, the cleaner and purer the oceans become. They’re dominated by methane,” Poggiali says.
Previous radar measurements were made using signals sent and received at the same location on the Cassini spacecraft, which meant the reflected radio waves were polarized in one direction, or twisted.
The new study analyzed signals from Cassini’s radar that were reflected off the lake’s surface and picked up by NASA’s Deep Space Network, a radio antenna on Earth. The shallow angle of the reflected signal meant it contained two different polarized waves, giving Poggiali and his colleagues more information about the lake’s properties.
They found that many of the rivers and estuaries that feed the lake have rough surfaces caused by wind-driven waves, which could be a sign of active tides and currents feeding into the lake, Poggiali said. “Surface activity is very important if we want to plan future missions like a Titan submarine, but also to better understand Titan’s environment in terms of wind and atmospheric properties.”
Poggiali and his colleagues also found that the methane content was higher before the river flowed into the lake, which could help trace the methane and ethane cycle on Titan, Poggiali says. Ingo Muller-Wodarg “On Earth, when rivers flow into large, salty oceans, we find that the water becomes less saline near where the river flows in,” say researchers from Imperial College London. “Something similar is happening here, but it’s not the salinity that’s the problem, it’s the relative proportions of methane and ethane.”
If you’ve ever stumbled across a misogynistic video by an influencer online, you know how harmful this content can be, but did you know that more than two-thirds of boys ages 11 to 14 are exposed to this kind of harmful and damaging “manosphere” content? 70% of teachers have noticed an increase in sexist language Will it be used in classrooms in the 12 months leading up to February 2024?
The study was published earlier this year: The rise of aggroismIt depicts a boy’s gradual slide into a misogynistic mindset, which leaves him feeling lonely and sad, and negative towards his female teachers and even his own sister.
The film, produced by Vodafone and the charity Global Action Plan, depicts the impact that harmful AI-powered algorithms are having on pre-teen boys. It reflects growing concern among parents, with one in five noticing a gradual change in the language their sons use to talk about women and girls. Experts are now urging families to talk to their sons about what may be on their phones and how it’s reaching them.
Psychologist Dr Ellie Hanson says: “Social media is designed to keep you online as long as possible, so they target your emotions. They exploit emotions such as shock, fear, anxiety, paranoia, superiority, indignation and sexuality. These emotions have been found to be captivating.”
Worryingly, many boys come across this content while searching for something unrelated, such as fitness or gaming videos. Hanson says explaining how social media algorithms are designed is important because it invites kids and teens into the conversation, which is much more effective than telling them not to look.
Teenage boys often come across harmful content while searching for something else: photos with models posing. Photo: Carol Yepes/Getty Images
“Questioning things is a normal part of being a teenager,” she says, “so let’s use that tendency to encourage them to question the tools being used to manipulate them online.”
Hanson says that simply explaining that these platforms directly benefit from your engagement with their content is a strong first step. The content that attracts the most attention is often controversial and conspiratorial. This has resulted in a plethora of influencers who promote a distorted view of masculinity that is sexist, offensive and offensive. This leads to negative and disrespectful behavior towards women and girls, and also damages boys’ mental health and ability to form relationships. Two-thirds of boys They said seeing harmful and negative content online left them feeling anxious, sad and scared.
Kate Edwards, deputy director of online child safety at the NSPCC, says parents need to be aware of how quickly their children’s phones and tablets can become inundated with harmful content. “Social media is currently made up mainly of short form content – videos streamed quickly one after the other. Once you watch something in full, react to it, like or comment, the app will serve you more and more similar content. It can quickly pull you down a rabbit hole,” Edwards said.
“There are steps you can take to teach the algorithm that you don’t want to see it anymore. Look for a ‘hide’ button or a ‘I didn’t like that’ option. Explore the different settings in the app, by yourself and with your child.”
Vodafone co-designed Digital Parenting Toolkit We’ve teamed up with the NSPCC to help parents get ahead of potential risks. It’s full of conversation starters, activities and tips to help young people stay safe while using the internet, as well as advice on what to do if they come across something inappropriate.
Sir Peter Wanless (right): “This toolkit encourages families to have open conversations about their children’s mobile phone use.” Composition: Getty Images, Adrian James White
Sir Peter Wanless, chief executive of the NSPCC, says he is particularly proud of the partnership with Vodafone because it helps navigate an online world that can be overwhelming and confusing for parents as well as children. He says: “The toolkit encourages families to have open conversations about their children’s mobile use, for example discussing situations that might arise online. It also covers safety features available on phones and setting boundaries, such as enforcing screen time limits.”
But screen time rules and parental controls are only one piece of the puzzle: while parents can help stem the flow of harmful content, there is a growing belief that to break the cycle, tech companies themselves need to take action.
To appeal this, Global Action Plan has filed a petition It calls for regulators such as Ofcom to require platforms to take control away from AI-powered algorithms and enforce “safety by design”, which was a key element of the 2023 policy. Online Safety ActBut there are growing concerns that the app may get away with only having bare-bones functionality.
“Despite parents’ best efforts, children are still vulnerable to manipulative algorithms. We should do our best, but the most power lies with the tech companies and regulators,” Hanson said.
Find out more about Vodafone’s pledge to help four million people and businesses bridge the digital divide. here
Physicists have been intrigued by χc1(3872), also known as X(3872), since its discovery two decades ago. They have been exploring whether it is a conventional charmonium state composed of two quarks or an exotic particle made up of four quarks. The LHCb collaboration at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC) set out to find the answer.
Artist's impression of a tetraquark, made up of two charm quarks and an up and down antiquark. Image courtesy of CERN.
In the quark model of particle physics, there are heavy particles (composed of three quarks), mesons (consisting of quark-antiquark pairs), and exotic particles (comprising an unusual number of quarks).
To determine the composition of χc1(3872), physicists must measure properties like mass and quantum numbers.
According to theory, χc1(3872) could be a standard charmonium state made of a charm quark and an anticharm quark, or it could be an exotic particle consisting of four quarks.
These exotic particles could be tightly bound tetraquarks, molecular states, cc-gluon hybrid states, vector glueballs, or a combination of various possibilities.
Recent measurements by LHCb physicists revealed that its quantum number is 1++, and in 2020 they obtained precise data on the particle’s width (lifetime) and mass.
They also examined low-energy scattering parameters.
Their findings indicated that the mass of χc1(3872) is slightly less than the combined masses of the D0 and D*0 mesons.
These results have sparked debate within the theoretical community, with some proposing that χc1(3872) is a molecular state made up of spatially separated D0 and D*0 mesons.
However, this hypothesis faces challenges, as physicists anticipate molecular matter to be suppressed in hadron-hadron collisions, yet significant amounts of χc1(3872) are produced.
Other theorists suggest that the particle contains “compact” components, indicating a smaller size and potentially consisting of tightly bound charmonium or tetraquarks.
One method to uncover the composition of χc1(3872) is to calculate the branching ratio, which involves the probabilities of decay into different lighter particles.
By comparing the decay into a photon of the excited charmonium state, physicists can gain insights into the nature of the particle.
A key theoretical indicator is a non-zero ratio, suggesting the presence of compact components and countering a purely molecular model.
Using data from LHC Run 1 and Run 2, LHCb scientists found significant ratios beyond six standard deviations, ruling out a pure D0D*0 molecular hypothesis for χc1(3872).
Instead, the results support various predictions based on alternative hypotheses for the structure of χc1(3872, such as a mix of conventional (compact) charmonium, tetraquarks, light quarks, or molecules with a substantial compact core element.
Thus, the findings provide compelling evidence in favor of a χc1(3872) structure including a compact component.
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R. Aiji others (LHCb Collaboration). 2024. Probing the properties of the χc1(3872) state using radiative decay. arXiv: 2406.17006
This article is based on the original release from CERN.
Many of us rely on the Internet for various aspects of our daily lives. Whether it’s for work, entertainment, or staying connected, millions of people expect to have access to the Internet at all times. However, for those living in poverty, digital access is often a luxury that they cannot afford. This lack of access leads to isolation and exclusion from many essential parts of life. It is crucial to take thoughtful and conscientious action to help those struggling with digital poverty stay connected.
If you want to learn more, here are five common myths about digital poverty and the reality behind them:
Myth 1 – Everyone has access to the Internet now
According to the Digital Poverty Alliance, one in seven people in the UK (around 9.5 million people) are experiencing some form of digital poverty. Ofcom’s 2023 forecast, Online Nation, found that 7% of UK households lack internet access at home. Another million people are at risk due to the cost of living crisis. Digital poverty affects people from all walks of life, especially those who are already disadvantaged.
Vodafone is partnering with the Trussell Trust to provide free data and calls to people classified as digitally excluded who visit or call food banks. A helpline has been set up to assist people facing financial hardships.
Myth #2 – Internet access is a luxury, not a necessity
It may seem like a minor inconvenience, but the lack of internet access can severely impact a person’s life. Jobs, shopping, and accessing support services are all done online nowadays. Digital exclusion makes it harder for individuals to improve their situations and exacerbates existing difficulties.
Eniola Akinlabi, campaigns and communications manager at Tottenham Foodbank, notes the transformative impact of providing digital access to those in need.
Astronomers used the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope to obtain and analyze morning and evening transmission spectra of the hot Saturn exoplanet WASP-39b, which orbits a star about 700 light-years away in the constellation Virgo. The spectrum is best explained by a model in which the evening boundary is 177 K hotter than the morning boundary.
This diagram shows what WASP-39b might look like, based on our current understanding of planets. Image credit: NASA/ESA/CSA/Webb/J. Olmsted, STScI.
WASP-39b is a hot gas giant that orbits the G7 type star WASP-39 every 4.1 days.
First discovered in 2011, this alien world has roughly the same mass as Saturn, but is 50% larger.
The planet's extreme expansion is due in part to its high temperature (about 900 degrees Celsius or 1,652 degrees Fahrenheit).
“WASP-39b has become a kind of benchmark planet for the Webb mission's exoplanet atmospheric studies,” said Dr. Nestor Espinoza, an astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute.
“The planet has a bulging, puffy atmosphere, so the signal coming from the starlight passing through the planet's atmosphere is quite strong.”
Webb spectra of WASP-39b's atmosphere released so far have revealed the presence of carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, water vapor, and sodium, and show the entire day/night boundary, without any detailed attempt to distinguish one from the other.
Now, the new analysis constructs two different spectra from the terminator region, essentially splitting the day/night boundary into two semicircles: one from the evening and one from the morning.
According to Webb's data, evenings will be much hotter, reaching a scorching 800 degrees Celsius (1,450 degrees Fahrenheit), before easing into a cooler 600 degrees Celsius (1,150 degrees Fahrenheit) in the morning.
“It's really amazing that we were able to resolve this small difference, and this is thanks to Webb's sensitivity to near-infrared wavelengths and its extremely stable photometric sensor,” said Dr. Espinoza.
“Any movement of the instrument or the observatory while collecting data would severely limit our ability to make this detection. This has to be exceptionally precise, and Webb is just that precise.”
“We don't have a planet like this in our solar system, but most of the planets we observe orbiting distant stars have shorter orbits and are closer to us, like WASP-39b,” said Dr James Kirk, astronomer at Imperial College London.
“Now we can test theories about these planets and, for the first time, directly measure the morning and evening sides of an exoplanet across a wide range of wavelengths.”
This transmission spectrum, taken with Webb's NIRSpec (Near-Infrared Spectrometer) PRISM in Bright Object Time Series mode, shows the amount of different wavelengths (colors) of near-infrared stellar light blocked by WASP-39b's atmosphere. The spectrum shows clear evidence of water and carbon dioxide on the exoplanet, as well as morning and evening temperature variations. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / Webb / R. Crawford, STScI.
Extensive modeling of the resulting data will also allow researchers to investigate the structure of WASP-39b's atmosphere, its cloud cover, and why it's hotter in the evenings.
While the team plans to next investigate how cloud cover affects temperature, and vice versa, the astronomers confirmed that the main cause of WASP-39b's temperature difference is the circulation of gas around the planet.
For highly irradiated exoplanets that orbit relatively close to their stars, like WASP-39b, researchers typically expect gas to shift as the planet rotates around the star: a strong equatorial jet stream should move hotter gas on the dayside from the evening to the nightside.
Because the temperature difference is so large, the pressure difference is also large, resulting in faster wind speeds.
Using the General Circulation Model, a 3-D model similar to those used to predict weather patterns on Earth, the astronomers found that on WASP-39b, prevailing winds tend to move from the nightside across the morning boundary, around the dayside, across the evening boundary, and then back around the nightside.
As a result, the morning side of the boundary is cooler than the evening side.
In other words, the morning side is hit by winds of air cooled by the night side, and in the evening it is hit by winds of air heated by the day side.
The study suggests that wind speeds on WASP-39b could reach thousands of kilometers per hour.
“This analysis is particularly interesting because it provides previously unavailable 3D information about the planet,” Dr Espinoza said.
“The fact that it's hotter on the evening edge means that it's a bit bulging, which means that in theory there's a little swell at the boundary approaching the night side of the planet.”
We all have to deal with the uncomfortable topic of bowel movements, and the frequency at which we have them can vary greatly from person to person. Recent research suggests that the frequency of our bowel movements may have implications for our long-term health, revealing that there is an ideal amount of poop for a healthy individual.
A study conducted by scientists from the US Systems Biology Institute categorized individuals based on the frequency of their bowel movements:
Constipation (one or two bowel movements per week)
Low to normal (3-6 bowel movements per week)
High normal (1–3 bowel movements per day)
Diarrhea
Research indicates that the “Goldilocks Zone” for bowel movement frequency is having one to two bowel movements per day, which falls within the high normal range. This frequency is associated with the thriving of fiber-fermenting gut bacteria, suggesting that individuals in this zone may have similar gut microbiomes.
To achieve this ideal frequency, individuals are encouraged to adopt a high-fiber diet, ensure proper hydration, and engage in regular exercise. These habits are common among individuals in the Goldilocks Zone for bowel frequency.
The study, published in Cell Report Medicine, examined 1,400 healthy adults and explored the relationship between bowel movement frequency, age, sex, genetics, and gut microbiota. Results revealed that age, sex, and body mass index (BMI) significantly influence bowel movement frequency, with younger individuals, females, and those with lower BMI having more frequent bowel movements.
Irregular bowel movements can lead to issues as stool stagnates in the intestines, causing gut microbes to ferment proteins, potentially releasing harmful toxins into the bloodstream. This can contribute to organ damage and increase the risk of chronic diseases. Individuals with constipation were found to have higher levels of harmful by-products of protein fermentation, while those with diarrhea exhibited patterns indicative of liver damage.
Further research is being conducted to understand the connection between bowel movement frequency and mental health conditions like depression and anxiety. Dr. Sean Gibbons, the corresponding author of the study, emphasizes the importance of maintaining optimal bowel frequency for overall health and wellness.
Understanding the impact of bowel movements on various bodily systems can help identify early signs of organ damage and inform strategies to improve health and prevent chronic diseases in both healthy and at-risk populations. To learn more about this fascinating topic, visit Dr. Sean Gibbons’ profile.
Connectivity is crucial in today’s digital society, affecting our finances, social connections, job opportunities, education, and health.
However, a significant number of people in the UK lack internet access, leading to digital exclusion with serious consequences.
“Approximately two million UK households have no internet access, and many lack the digital skills needed to fully utilize technology. Equal access to connectivity, skills, and devices remains a challenge,” said Nicky Lyons, Vodafone UK’s chief corporate affairs and sustainability officer.
Regional disparities in the UK exacerbate digital poverty, with 5G “dark zones” impacting those without reliable indoor signals.
800,000 (pdf): The number of people in deprived rural areas who would benefit from 5G Standalone.
Nearly half (46%) of rural deprived areas lack 5G coverage compared to inner-city areas.
47% of small and medium-sized businesses in rural areas face connectivity issues.
5G technology can save GBP 8.6 billion, benefiting businesses with increased productivity.
Vodafone is taking steps to bridge the digital gap by providing devices, connectivity, and digital skills training to those in need.
“At Vodafone, we aim to ensure no one is left behind. We have already assisted 2.6 million individuals and businesses with free connectivity, devices, and training, with a goal of reaching 4 million by 2025,” said Vodafone’s Lyons.
Over 2.6 million people and businesses have benefited from Vodafone’s free connectivity, devices, and training.
1.3 million free SIM cards are provided by Vodafone to a national data bank in partnership with The Trussell Trust.
Learn more about Vodafone’s efforts to bridge the digital divide for four million people and businesses here
SOpa (Spanish for “soup”) is a game about a young boy who goes to get potatoes for his grandma and finds himself lost in a magical world at the back of the pantry. “It feels like the pantry is getting longer and longer,” explains creative director Juan Castañeda. “And as he tries to grab a bag of potatoes, he's drawn into another world of fantasy and magical realism. He goes on different adventures and meets different characters, but at the end of the day, he's just trying to get potatoes for grandma's soup.”
As video game quests go, this is surprisingly mundane — not unlike rescuing a princess trapped in a castle or saving a land in peril — but you soon discover there's more to it than just the lost potato. “There's another layer to the story, and that's what the game is really about,” says Castañeda. “Every time you return to the kitchen, things change in unexpected ways, and with each adventure you pick up hints about a mysterious traveler who passed these paths long ago.”
An ancient mystery lies behind your initial quest to find cooking ingredients, and as the game progresses, elements of magical realism come to the forefront, making it “a little hard to know what's fantasy and what's reality,” Castaneda said.
Sopa is being developed by StudioBando, a team of around a dozen developers working remotely across countries including Colombia, Mexico, Argentina and the US, who have previously worked on mobile titles. Super Best Ghost Game “Sopa will be the studio's first release for consoles and PC, but Castañeda hails from Colombia, the birthplace of magical realist author Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and he says that Marquez's novels, including One Hundred Years of Solitude, were a major influence on Sopa.
“He's a kind of national treasure, a national hero,” Castañeda said, noting that Márquez's presence can be seen throughout the country. “We grew up hearing his stories, we grew up reading his books. It's something that is deeply ingrained in the heart of every Colombian.”
Colombia also has deep roots in Sopa. Castañeda says the game is based on his grandmother's house in a rural Colombian town swallowed up by a growing city. “It was a traditional colonial house with a big garden,” he says, recalling the place always bustling thanks to his grandmother's 15 children. “Some of them had their own children, and the house was always bustling,” he recalls. “Every room was always full.”
Photography: StudioBanda
In contrast, Sopa offers a quieter experience, at least at first. The young protagonist, Miho, is bored hanging out watching TV at her grandmother's house and reluctantly gets up to help prepare soup. The show he's watching, The Voltage Templars, is a homage to the Power Rangers that Castañeda remembers as a child, just one of the many American and Japanese shows that flooded Colombian television.
“There wasn't much Colombian media at the time, other than radio,” he says. “As a kid, I wanted foreign frozen yogurt, I wanted to watch American shows, I wanted to read foreign books, and I ignored a lot of the really beautiful and special things around me.” Miho's reunion with her own culture forms the basis of Sopa, as she dives into a world steeped in Latin American traditions. “Through these adventures, you pick up the pieces of these traditions and learn to appreciate them.”
Sopa appears to be part of a trend, alongside games like 2023 award-winning Venba, about reconnecting with cultural traditions through cooking, and Indonesian hit A Space for the Unbound, as creators increasingly depict cultures outside the U.S., Europe, and Japan that have traditionally dominated video games. “Maybe people all over the world are feeling the same way I am, and telling personal stories about their place,” Castaneda says.
Photography: StudioBanda
Besides Garcia Marquez, Castañeda said The Little Prince, Alice in Wonderland, The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, Pinocchio, and especially the Pixar film Coco were major influences on Sopa. Though the idea was born about 10 years ago, the game's development has been ongoing for about five years, starting with studio co-founders Castañeda, Holt, and co-writer Nelson Guevara. “We all basically went back home to finish the game and keep costs down,” Castañeda said.
“It's not like we had a ton of money saved up from previous successes. It was a really humble start and quite tough. It was very hard to get support for a long time.” He pitched the game to publishers but was rejected one after the other, with companies unwilling to believe the team could realise their ambitions or doubting that there was a market for it.
Photography: StudioBanda
Meanwhile, Castañeda says he received plenty of support from his peers in the gaming industry. “For a long time, no one was willing to back the project and help us make it, but personally, I had a lot of supporters and people with beliefs in the gaming industry who helped us get the project out there.” The big breakthrough came at a meeting with Microsoft. “We pitched the game, but it wasn't even a video call, it was just audio, so I had no idea what they thought,” Castañeda recalls. “Then, a week later, in the middle of the night, I got an email saying they liked the project and wanted to back it.
“I remember calling my teammates in tears to tell them the news, because that day I had been talking to my advisors and I was like, 'Was I just stupid? The Earth is showing us that we shouldn't make this game. Nothing is happening to us.' And then that same night I got the news that they were going to help us out with an initial investment.”
That was last fall, in the midst of a tumultuous time in the games industry, with frequent layoffs and studio closures, “everything crashing and burning around us and just being scared,” Castaneda says. Perhaps Sopa is not just a game about reconnecting with Latin American traditions, but also a game about tenacity and, above all, hope.
To prevent a fate similar to the dinosaurs, The European Space Agency (ESA) has initiated work on a groundbreaking planetary defense mission known as the Rapid Apophis Mission for Space Security (RAMSES).
RAMSES is designed to rendezvous with 99942 Apophis, an asteroid the size of a cruise ship, and accompany it as it approaches Earth in April 2029.
Apophis, with a diameter of about 375 meters, will pass within 32,000 kilometers of Earth’s surface on April 13, 2029. This rare event will be visible to the naked eye in parts of Europe, Africa, and Asia, attracting global attention. An asteroid of this size only comes this close once every 5,000 to 10,000 years.
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Astronomers believe that Apophis is unlikely to collide with Earth in the next 100 years, but the 2029 flyby will provide scientists with a unique opportunity to observe a close encounter.
The ESA’s Ramses spacecraft is set to reach Apophis two months before the closest approach, allowing monitoring of any physical changes to the asteroid caused by Earth’s gravity.
Ramses is scheduled to launch in April 2028 and arrive at Apophis by February 2029. The mission aims to observe and study how Earth’s gravity affects Apophis, potential landslides, and any new material beneath the asteroid’s surface.
Patrick MichelGerry McClellan, CNRS Director of Research at the Observatory of the Côte d’Azur, emphasized the significance of the mission, stating: “There is much we still don’t know about asteroids, but now, nature is bringing one to us to conduct the experiment itself. All we need to do is watch as Apophis is stretched and compressed by powerful tidal forces.”
Ramses will utilize a variety of scientific instruments to comprehensively study Apophis, analyzing its shape, surface, orbit, rotation, and more.
The collected data will be closely examined by scientists to understand the asteroid’s composition, structure, and how to deflect potentially hazardous asteroids in the future.
Experts predict that Earth’s tidal forces could alter the asteroid’s rotation, potentially causing earthquakes and landslides. They hope that Ramses’ flyby will offer detailed observations of how Apophis is affected by the close encounter.
Additionally, NASA is redirecting its OSIRIS-REx spacecraft (now renamed OSIRIS-APEX) towards Apophis, set to arrive about a month after the 2029 flyby.
OSIRIS-REx was the first US mission to collect samples from an asteroid, returning material from Bennu to Earth in September 2023. After successfully delivering the sample, the spacecraft was renamed OSIRIS-APEX for its new mission to explore Apophis.
“Ramses will demonstrate humanity’s capability to deploy a reconnaissance mission to rendezvous with an approaching asteroid in just a few years,” said Richard Moisle, head of ESA’s Planetary Defence Division.
A decision on the full implementation of Ramses will be made at ESA’s Ministerial Council meeting in November 2025. If approved, Ramses will not only enhance knowledge of asteroid deflection but also provide valuable scientific insights into the solar system’s formation and evolution.
Sported video game releases are often low-key. New versions come out every year, but apart from character updates and gameplay tweaks, not much changes from edition to edition. Unlike Grand Theft Auto diehards, sports game fans don’t plan midnight release parties.
But EA Sports College Football 25, which launches worldwide on July 19, isn’t your typical game. It might just be the most anticipated sports video game ever in the U.S. To understand why, we need to go back to the beginning.
EA Sports has started making college football video games Released for the Sega Genesis in 1993Other studios dabbled in college football, but by the late 2000s, EA Sports’ franchise, NCAA Football, had established itself as the market leader. The games were well received critically and commercially, and the final version, NCAA 14, was released in 2013. It is reported that about 1.5 million units were sold..
But the NCAA Football franchise had a problem that had nothing to do with critics or consumers: the court. (The terminology surrounding the game can be confusing to those who aren’t fans of college sports. The NCAA is the primary governing body for college sports in the United States; the NCAA Football franchise takes its name from this organization.)
Franchises like Madden, NBA2K and EA Sports FC have negotiated rights with various athletic associations as well as professional leagues to allow their teams and athletes to feature in their games, but college students are not defined as professional athletes, and NCAA institutional policy in the 2010s prohibited players from receiving financial compensation for their abilities.
So while previous NCAA Football releases have included actual teams like the Ohio State Buckeyes and the Florida Gators, the athletes were simply known as QB #7 or RB #21 rather than by their real names.
But in NCAA Football 2009, for example, you didn’t have to be Hercule Poirot to realize that QB #15 had the same height, weight, hair color, and skill attributes as Tim Tebow, the actual quarterback for the Florida Gators.
Athletes have noticed too: In July 2009, former UCLA basketball star Ed O’Bannon led a class action lawsuit by college athletes alleging that NCAA organizations, EA Sports, and College Licensing Companies had illegally used their likenesses without compensation.
Until now. In February 2021, EA Sports released a tweet that stunned the college football world. The game is back.
The advent of name, image and likeness rights deals has allowed EA Sports to include real-life players in the new edition. Photo: EA Sports
By 2020, it had become clear to college sports industry leaders that the NCAA’s strict policy of forbidding athletes from monetizing their name, image and likeness rights would not stand up to political and legal scrutiny. In July 2021, the NCAA officially changed its policy, allowing athletes to earn revenue by appearing in commercials, promoting products on social media and, of course, appearing in video games. With a way for athletes to earn revenue from their participation, schools quickly agreed to participate in the revamped NCAA Football series. This year’s games will feature more than 11,000 athletes, real players.
These events are meant to build bridges between the various groups that make up the College Football 25 community, from new fans to those nearing 40-year-olds who remember previous editions of the franchise. If you ever wonder why a coworker booked a last-minute vacation or was slow to respond to Slack, maybe they have their eyes on leading North Texas to new heights. Dynasty ModeThere are closeted gamers and NCAA die-hard fans who haven’t picked up a controller since the game was discontinued in 2014. But the passion for the game remains, with more than 120,000 people Fictional National Championship Streaming on Twitch during the pandemic.
That deep love for the series extends to the people making the game: EA Sports production director Christian McLeod said in June that the entire development process “has been a labor of love for the whole team.”
The project is especially rewarding for McCloud, who took an unconventional career path. A self-described “super fan” of college video games since the early 1990s, McCloud originally worked as a chemical engineer and wrote about sports video games on the side. A developer discovered his work and eventually contacted him to join the NCAA football team as a designer. Other key players on the development and design side of the project also came from outside the games industry.
“I really believe that if you’re really passionate about something, especially in the games industry, you should bring that passion to your work,” MacLeod says. “We can teach you how to be a designer. We can teach you how to be a producer. But you can’t teach passion.”
That passion is what helped bring the game back to life. When the series was canceled, a group of fans started a mod called College Football Revamped to keep the PC version of the game updated. While other game studios would have tried to sue and kill the project, EA instead hired several people from the Revamped team to help create College Football 25.
The new edition isn’t just for fans in the US: for the first time, fans outside of North America can easily play the game without worry. About region-locked hardware.
College Football 25 will be the first in the series to be released worldwide. Photo: EA Sports
One such avid fan is Ben Parker from Bishop’s Stortford, England, who told me he first discovered American football through the Madden series.
“I’ve always been a big soccer fan, but Madden showed me that American football is so much more than I ever imagined. It’s like a human version of chess and I found it fascinating,” Parker said.
While following the NFL, Parker became aware of the college game. “I decided to buy a copy of the 2006 Rose Bowl on eBay. That year, Vince Young, Reggie Bush and Keith Jackson were the announcers and the Rose Bowl was perfectly staged. Even though it had been months since the game itself, it was so incredibly dramatic to watch and I thought, ‘I want to know more about this sport.'”
Parker picked up an imported version of NCAA 2006 on eBay and played it religiously, and he and many other Europeans and South Americans I spoke to believe the video game could be another avenue to grow college football’s international audience, especially given the difficulties of watching live broadcasts outside the U.S.
Industry analysts expect the Madden series to outsell NCAA College Football 25 due to the NFL’s popularity both domestically and internationally, but schools and licensing industry sources are confident this year’s collegiate release will do well commercially.
It means a new generation of fans will be exposed to the passion of not just video games, but college football itself. And it might have been worth the wait.
circlehat Intention How will AI affect jobs? After “Will AI destroy humanity?”, this is the most important question about technology and it remains one that is extremely difficult to pin down, even as the frontier moves from science fiction to reality.
At one extreme there is the somewhat optimistic assertion that new technologies will simply create new jobs. At the other extreme there are fears that companies will replace their entire workforce with AI tools. The debate is often about the speed of the transition rather than the end state. A cataclysmic change that is completed in a few years is devastating to those caught in the middle, whereas a cataclysmic change that takes 20 years may be survivable.
Even the parallels with the past are not as clear-cut as we would like: the internal combustion engine eventually put an end to horse labor, but the steam engine, on the other hand, had a much bigger impact. increase Number of draft animals employed in the UK. Why? The arrival of the railways increased freight traffic in the country, but deliveries could not be completed from warehouse to doorstep. Horses were needed to do the things that steam engines could not do.
Until it isn’t.
Steam power and the internal combustion engine are examples of general-purpose technologies, breakthrough technologies that revolutionize the entire structure of society. There are not many such technologies, even if you count from writing, or even before that, from fire itself. It is pure coincidence that the initial letters of the term “Generative Pretrained Transformer” are the same, which is why GPT looks like GPT.
That’s not a job, idiot
Humans are not horses, and AI tools are not humans.
Humans are not horses [citation needed]It seems hard to believe that AI technology will be able to do everything humans can do. Becoming HumanThis is an inconveniently circular argument, but an important one: horses still race, because if you replace horses with cars, it’s no longer a horse race. [citation needed]people will still provide the services they want for one reason or another, and as culture warps around the rise of AI, some of those services will teeth You might be surprised. For example, AI in healthcare is underrated because for many people, the “human touch” is bad The problem is the doctor who worries they are judging your drinking, or the therapist who lies to you because they want you to like them.
As a result, many people like to think in terms of “tasks” rather than jobs: take a job, define it in terms of the tasks it contains, and ask whether an AI can do them. In doing so, we can identify some jobs that are at risk of being completely cannibalized, some jobs that are perfectly safe, and a large intermediate group of jobs that will be “impacted” by AI.
It’s worth pointing out an obvious fact: this approach results in a higher number of jobs that are mechanically “influenced” and a lower number of jobs that are “destroyed.” (Even the jobs most influenced by AI are likely to have some tasks that the AI finds difficult.) That may be why the technique was pioneered by OpenAI, who in a 2023 paper wrote: The researchers in the lab:“80% of workers are in occupations where at least 10% of the work requires a law degree, and 19% of workers are in occupations where more than half of the work requires a law degree.”
The report claimed between 15 and 86 professions were “completely at risk”, including mathematicians, legal secretaries and journalists.
I’m still here. But a year on, the idea is trending again, thanks to a paper from the Tony Blair Institute (TBI). The giant think tank, powerful and influential even before Labour’s landslide victory two weeks ago, is now seen as one of the architects of Starmerite thought. And it believes the public sector is ripe for disruption through AI. According to the TBI paper: The potential impact of AI on the public sector workforce (pdf):
More than 40% of the tasks performed by public sector workers could potentially be partially automated through a combination of AI-based software, such as machine learning models and large-scale language models, and AI-enabled hardware, ranging from AI-enabled sensors to advanced robotics.
Governments will need to invest in AI technology, upgrade data systems, train employees to use the new tools and cover the redundancy costs of early retirement – costs that are estimated to amount to £4 billion under ambitious implementation plans.That averages $1 billion a year for the term of this Congress.
Over the past few weeks TechScape has been keeping a close eye on the new Government’s approach to AI. Tomorrow, the King’s Speech is expected to announce the AI Bill, and we will hear more. The TBI paper makes one takeaway worth watching: Will investment in transformation approach £4 billion a year? There is a lot that can be done for free, but much more could be done with more money. The institute estimates that spending would return more than nine times, but a £20 billion bill would be hard to get through Parliament without question.
AI Geek
Prime Minister Tony Blair spoke at the Tony Blair Institute’s Britain’s Future conference on 9 July. Photo: Yui Mok/PA
The report drew renewed attention over the weekend as critics took issue with its methodology. From 404 Media:
Breaking down work into tasks is already done by a huge database created by the US Department of Labor. But with 20,000 such tasks, describing which ones should be exposed to AI is a daunting task. In a similar paper from OpenAI, “the authors personally labeled a large sample of tasks and DWAs, and hired experienced human annotators who reviewed the output of GPT-3, GPT-3.5, and GPT-4 as part of OpenAI’s tuning efforts,” but they also had the then-new GPT-4 perform the same tasks and found a 60-80 percent match between robots and humans.
Many of us have a collection, known as the Shame drawer, tucked away in our homes. This dusty cavern is filled with old phones, tablets, dongles, and various knick-knacks that were once cherished but are now obsolete. While it may seem difficult to part with these items, the reality is that they are unlikely to serve any purpose in the future.
By letting go of our outdated devices, especially those with the latest iOS updates, we can give them a new lease on life. This could make a significant impact if they are passed on to individuals who can benefit from them.
Vodafone’s Great British Tech Appeal is an organization that accepts donations of used mobile phones, tablets, and laptops. Explore how these donated devices are helping to bridge the digital divide.
Reduce, reuse…reconsider?
The amount of electronic waste generated by the rapid cycle of mobile technology is staggering, especially in the UK, which is among the top producers of e-waste per capita globally. As a result, many individuals in the UK lack access to smartphones, tablets, and laptops, exacerbating the digital divide.
It’s essential to consider donating devices to extend their life and help those in need. Each device donation can make a meaningful difference to individuals who are currently on the wrong side of the digital divide.
left behind
A significant percentage of households in the UK cannot afford or choose not to subscribe to telecommunications services, preventing them from accessing the internet. This lack of connectivity impacts various demographics, including children and families in need of support.
The Great British Tech Appeal aims to address these gaps by repurposing old devices for those who require them the most, such as refugees, individuals at risk, and children in care.
Push forward
Barnardo’s is a recipient of the Great British Tech Appeal, which aims to repurpose unused devices for charitable causes. The campaign has already made a positive impact by donating thousands of devices to various organizations.
Despite the progress made, there is still a vast number of discarded devices in UK households. It’s crucial to encourage people to donate their old gadgets to support those in need and reduce electronic waste.
Clearing the Past
Recycling old tech can seem intimidating due to varying regulations and disposal methods. Initiatives like Vodafone’s Great British Tech Appeal aim to simplify the process by providing guidance on how to donate devices and ensure they are properly handled.
By following recommended steps, such as factory resetting phones and removing personal data, individuals can contribute to a sustainable recycling process that benefits those in need.
Old Phone, New Start
Vodafone’s efforts to bridge the digital divide have had a significant impact on communities in need. By donating devices and providing connectivity, the organization has supported vulnerable individuals, including refugees and children in care, during challenging times such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
These donations have facilitated vital communication between separated families and provided essential support to those facing adversity. By participating in the Great British Tech Appeal, individuals can contribute to transforming lives through technology.
Answering a call
Donating old devices to initiatives like the Great British Tech Appeal is not only rewarding but also impactful. By following a simple donation process, individuals can help close the digital divide and support those in need.
Vodafone’s commitment to providing free connectivity and devices to millions of people underscores the importance of ensuring that no one is left behind in the digital age. By donating and participating in such campaigns, individuals can make a significant difference in bridging the digital gap.
Learn more here about Vodafone’s pledge to help millions bridge the digital divide.
TThe best-selling PC game of 1997, Riven It now seems like a relic of a lost creative era. Set on a sunlit archipelago that would be swarming with Instagram influencers if it were real, the game combines computer-generated stills from postcards with live-action footage to create an elaborate island-scale escape room. Packed across five CDs, the game is a technical marvel, but its depths were only understood by those with the tenacity and tenacity to master lateral thinking. Few designers have come close to matching ingenuity or ability since. Riven– Similarities; the memory sank like a pebble in a still ocean.
After 30 years, this remake is back Riven The mysterious and enchanting world of Islands is recreated as a fully realized destination. To explore these islands, you walk over scorched cliffs and through stone-cold tunnels, rather than clicking through richly rendered still images (there’s also the option to play with a VR headset, for those ready and equipped for it). The basic beats and rhythms will be familiar to fans; you’ll still be playing with a mouse in one hand and a notebook in the other, cracking codes and figuring out how the world’s creaky underlying mechanisms fit together. But much has also changed, including the solutions to some of the puzzles. And there are new characters, including a star-studded appearance by real-life investigative journalist Ronan Farrow (who, along with his mother, actor Mia Farrow, is an avid fan of the islands). Riven And its predecessor mist).
The oppressive, murky pace won’t be to everyone’s tastes, and you’ll need a powerful machine to recreate the world as the author intended, but surprisingly, Riven‘s mystical powers have only grown stronger with each passing year. There’s nothing quite like it. As many of us count the days until summer vacation, it’s a destination without tourists, with lush scenery and tricky puzzles that, when solved, provide an invigorating, satisfying feeling.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Elon Musk has announced plans to donate $45 million per month from July onwards to support a super PAC working towards the election of Donald Trump.
Musk, a tech billionaire who recently endorsed Trump, has already made a substantial donation to America PAC. The exact amount of this donation will be revealed in election filings on July 15, as per Bloomberg.
Reports from both The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg are based on anonymous sources familiar with Musk’s plans. With an estimated net worth of $252 billion, Musk is considered one of the wealthiest individuals globally.
The potential donation from Musk is described as “tremendous” by The Wall Street Journal, highlighting that the largest known donation in the 2024 election cycle so far is $50 million. This amount was contributed by the great-grandson of banker Thomas Mellon to a pro-Trump super PAC.
As of June 30, there were no records of Musk donating to the super PAC, according to a review by The New York Times.
America PAC has garnered support from Musk’s tech industry associates, as reported by The New York Times. Joe Lonsdale, co-founder of Palantir with Peter Thiel, has also endorsed the PAC, along with the Winklevoss twins, crypto entrepreneurs critical of Biden’s policies.
America PAC, launched recently, aims to finance robust Republican voter mobilization initiatives in key states to counter Democratic efforts, according to The New York Times.
Contrary to earlier reports, Musk clarified in a tweet in March that he had not made any donations to U.S. presidential candidates.
US paleontologists have described a new genus and species of extinct crocodile relative based on a partially articulated skeleton found in the Middle Triassic Fossil Hill Formation of the Fabre Formation in Nevada, a pelagic region of the eastern Panthalasan Ocean rich in ammonites and giant ichthyosaurs.
Newly identified species Pseudobranchial reptiles It lived during the Middle Triassic period, between 247.2 million and 237 million years ago.
Named Bengwigiwishingasucus Elemical MinisThe animal probably reached a length of around 1.5-1.8 metres (5-6 feet).
It probably stayed fairly close to shore. Its limbs are well developed and well preserved, with no signs of aquatic life such as fins or changes in bone density.
“This intriguing new species provides evidence that pseudobranchs occupied coastal habitats worldwide during the Middle Triassic,” said Dr. Nate Smith, Gretchen Augustine Director and Curator of the Dinosaur Institute at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.
“The area containing the Fabre Formation, which captured fossil life from the Triassic Eastern Panthalassa Ocean, is known for the fossils of marine creatures such as ammonites, as well as marine reptiles such as giant ichthyosaurs. Cymbospondylus youngholm — Newly written Bengwigiwishingasucus Elemical Minis It was a bit of a shock.”
“Our first reaction was, ‘What is this?'” said Dr Nicole Klein, a paleontologist at the University of Bonn.
“We expected to find something like a marine reptile. We couldn’t understand how a land animal could be so far out in the ocean amongst ichthyosaurs and ammonites.”
“It wasn’t until I actually saw the almost perfectly prepared specimen that I was convinced it was indeed a land animal.”
Although pseudopterygian archosaurs have been unearthed from coastal fossil beds in the Tethys Ocean, this is the first to be found in the Panthalassa Ocean and along the coasts of the Western Hemisphere, revealing that close relatives of these crocodiles were present in coastal environments worldwide during the Middle Triassic.
Interestingly, these coastal species do not all belong to the same evolutionary group, suggesting that Pseudobranchia (and Archosaurs more broadly) were uniquely adapted to life along the coast.
“Essentially, it seems like a very different group of archosaurs came together in the Middle Triassic and decided to dip their toes in the water,” Dr Smith said.
“What’s interesting is that many of these ‘independent experiments’ don’t seem to have led to a wider spread of semi-aquatic groups.”
Archosaurs appeared in the Triassic Period and split into two groups, with two representative species surviving: birds, which were descendants of dinosaurs, and pseudo-crocodile archosaurs such as crocodiles (alligators, crocodiles, and gharials). Bengwigiwishingasucus Elemical Minis.
Today’s crocodiles are similar enough to mistake them for other reptiles, but ancient species of crocodiles differed greatly in size and lifestyle.
Evolutionary relationships Bengwigiwishingasucus Elemical Minis and its relatives suggest that pseudobranchs gained great diversity very rapidly after the end-Permian mass extinction, but the extent of this remains to be elucidated in the fossil record.
“The recent and growing number of discoveries of Middle Triassic pseudobranchs suggests that there was underappreciated morphological and ecological diversity and experimentation taking place early in the group’s history,” Dr Smith said.
“Much of the public interest in the Triassic has been focused on the origin of the dinosaurs, but it was the pseudobranchs at the beginning of the Mesozoic that were actually doing interesting things.”
Discovery Bengwigiwishingasucus Elemical Minis It has been reported paper In the journal Biology Letters.
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Nathan D. Smith others2024. A new pseudobranch discovered in Nevada’s Fabre Formation indicates that archosaurs inhabited coastal regions around the world during the Middle Triassic. violet 20(7); Source: http://www.doi.gov/doi/2020240136 Source: 10.1098/rsbl.2024.0136
This article is based on a press release from the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.
Astronomers using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have captured new infrared images of two interacting galaxies. Alp 142.
This Webb image shows two interacting galaxies known as Arp 142. On the left is NGC 2937, nicknamed “The Egg” because of its appearance, and on the right is NGC 2936, nicknamed “The Penguin” because of its appearance. Image courtesy of NASA/ESA/CSA/Webb/STScI.
The interacting pair, Arp 142, is located about 326 million light-years away in the southern constellation Hydra.
It contains the star-forming spiral galaxy NGC 2936 and its elliptical companion galaxy NGC 2937 at the lower left, which bears a striking resemblance to a penguin guarding its eggs.
The “penguin” part of the pair, NGC 2936, was probably once a relatively ordinary-looking spiral galaxy – flat like a pancake, with smoothly symmetrical spiral arms.
Because of the abundance of newly formed, hot stars, its shape is twisted and distorted by the gravitational forces of nearby stars.
The twin “egg,” NGC 2937, is a collection of much older stars and, in contrast, is largely featureless.
The absence of glowing red dust features indicates that it long ago lost its reservoir of gas and dust from which new stars could form.
“The two asteroids first came close to each other between 25 million and 75 million years ago, triggering 'fireworks' – the formation of new stars – in the constellation of Penguin,” astronomer Webb said in a statement.
“In the most extreme cases, galaxy mergers could result in the formation of thousands of new stars every year for millions of years.”
“In the case of penguins, studies have found that they form around 100-200 stars per year. By comparison, in our own Milky Way galaxy (which is not interacting with a galaxy of a similar size), around six to seven new stars form per year.”
“This gravitational rocking also changed the penguins' appearance,” they noted.
“The spiral arms uncoiled, pulling gas and dust in different directions like confetti.”
“When galaxies interact, it's rare for individual stars to collide (the universe is huge), but the intermingling of galaxies disrupts the orbits of stars.”
“Currently, the centre of the Penguin's galaxy looks like an eye inside its head, and the galaxy has a prominent star trail in the shape of a beak, spine and fanned-out tail. A faint but noticeable dust ribbon stretches from the beak to the tail.”
“Although the Penguin Galaxy appears much larger than the Egg Galaxy, the two galaxies have roughly the same mass,” the astronomers said.
“This is one of the reasons why the tiny looking egg hasn't merged with the penguin yet.”
“Because the elliptical egg is filled with old stars and contains very little gas or dust, it doesn't emit its own 'streams' or tidal tails, and instead maintains its compact elliptical shape.”
“If you look closely, the Egg has four noticeable diffraction spikes – it's glowing because of a high concentration of stars from the galaxy.”
“Now, find the bright, edge-on galaxy in the upper right. It may look like it's crashing the party, but it’s not close by.”
Cataloging No. 1237172It lies nearly 100 million light-years from Earth. It is relatively young and not covered by dust, making it virtually invisible in Webb's mid-infrared images.”
a New Researchpublished in the journal Geoscience Reviewhelps resolve one of the longest-running debates in paleoanthropology: when did early humans arrive in Europe?
Ancient humans. Image courtesy of Ninara / CC BY 2.0.
“chronology Homo “Migration out of Africa has expanded substantially over the past 40 years,” said paleoanthropologist Luis Hibbert of the University of Barcelona and his colleagues.
“In 1982, Homo The Asian volcano has been paleomagnetically dated to 900,000 years ago in Java and 700,000 years ago in Italy, Europe.
“Forty years later, the early Homo Outside of Africa, the South Caucasus dates back 1.8 million years, China 1.7-2.1 million years ago, and Java 1.5-1.3 million years ago.
“In Europe, several sites are found to have layers of paleomagnetic polarity reversal several metres deep, indicating that they are more than 770,000 years old.”
In the study, the authors used magnetostratigraphic dating, a method that uses the state of the Earth's magnetic field at the time the sediments were deposited, to date five paleontological localities in the Orce region of Spain.
“The technique is a relative dating method based on the study of the planet's magnetic pole reversals due to the dynamics of the Earth's interior,” they explained.
“These changes have no particular periodicity, but they are recorded in minerals and it is possible to establish periods from various magnetic events.”
“What's unique about these sites is that they are layered and sit within a very long sedimentary layer, over 80 metres long,” Dr Zibert said.
“Typically these sites are found in caves or within very short geological sequences, so it's not possible to develop long paleomagnetic sequences where you can find the different magnetic reversals.”
Global distribution of humans before 1 million years ago (orange) with major dated sites showing potential dispersal routes. The diagram shows Oldowan sites over 2 million years ago in Africa and over 1 million years ago in Eurasia (black dots). White dots indicate the earliest Acheulean sites in Africa (over 1.5 million years ago) and Eurasia (1 million to 800,000 years ago). The oldest Oldowan and Acheulean tools have been found in East Africa, over 2.5 million years ago and over 1.7 million years ago, respectively. In Asia, the oldest Oldowan and Acheulean tools have been found in the Caucasus (7) at 1.8 million years ago and in the Levantine Corridor (9) at 1.2 million years ago, respectively. In Europe, the oldest Oldowan and associated humans have been found in Spain (1, 2) and are debated to be between 1.6 and 900,000 years ago. Images/Photos Courtesy of: Gibert others., doi: 10.1016/j.earscirev.2024.104855.
The oldest remains at the Orce site, which have no evidence of human activity, date to 1.6 million and 1.35 million years ago, according to the study.
The top three sites containing evidence of early humans are dated 1.32 million years ago (Venta Misena), 1.28 million years ago (Barranco Leon 5), and 1.23 million years ago (Fuente Nueva 3).
These chronologies suggest that the Strait of Gibraltar acted as a filter bridge for African species such as hominins. Theropithecus Oswaldand the early Pleistocene hippopotamus.
“This new dating adds to other evidence and supports European colonization through the Strait of Gibraltar rather than the alternative route back to the Mediterranean via Asia,” the scientists said.
“We also support the hypothesis that they arrived from Gibraltar, as no older evidence has been found elsewhere along the alternative route.”
“Our results show a dating gap between the earliest occupation of Asia, 1.8 million years ago, and the earliest occupation of Europe, 1.3 million years ago. This means that African humans arrived in southwestern Europe more than 500,000 years after they first left Africa around 2 million years ago.”
“These differences in human expansion can be explained by the fact that Europe is isolated from Asia and Africa by difficult-to-surmount biogeographical barriers both to the east (the Bosphorus, the Dardanelles and the Sea of Marmara) and to the west (the Strait of Gibraltar),” Dr. Zibert said.
“When humans arrived in Europe, they had the technology necessary to cross the maritime barrier, just as happened a million years ago on the Indonesian island of Flores.”
“In this sense, the Gibraltar route currently requires crossing a sea channel of up to 14 kilometres, although in the past this distance could have been shorter at certain times due to the tectonically active nature of the region and sea-level changes favourable for migration.”
“We found that African animals were migrating through Gibraltar both 6.2 million years ago and 5.5 million years ago, when the Strait of Gibraltar was very narrow.”
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Lewis Guibert othersMagnetic strata dating of Europe's oldest human remains. Geoscience ReviewPublished online July 2, 2024; doi: 10.1016/j.earscirev.2024.104855
New species of early crocodile named Asiatosuchus oenotoriensis was discovered by a team of paleontologists from Spain’s National University of Distance Learning and the University of Salamanca.
Skull Asiatosuchus oenotoriensis Type specimen from the Middle Eocene site of Casaseca de Campean, Spain. Image credit: Narváez others., doi: 10.1002/ar.25422.
The newly identified crocodile lived on Earth during the Middle Eocene Epoch, between 48 and 41 million years ago.
Prehistoric animals Asiatosuchus An extinct genus of crocodilian crocodiles that lived in Europe and Asia during the Paleogene (66 to 23 million years ago).
“During the Palaeogene, a variety of crocodilians with common snouts (i.e. non-elongated snouts) inhabited Europe. The Middle Eocene is particularly notable for its relative abundance and diversity, but also includes fossils from the Late Paleocene and possibly the Early Oligocene and Late Neogene,” said lead author Dr Ivan Narváez and his colleagues.
“Many of the Eocene crocodile fossils are from the Asiatosuchus-like complex.”
“Genus Asiatosuchus was Established The species was defined in 1940 by paleontologist Charles Mook. Asiatosuchus grangeli It is based on an incomplete lower jaw and several skull fragments from the Middle Eocene of the Irdin Mankha Formation in Mongolia.”
“After the definition Asiatosuchus grangeli Several other eupteran forms, generally represented as isolated or rare fossils, have been described from the Paleocene to Oligocene of Europe, Asia and North America and have recently been Asiatosuchus It’s a complex like that.”
Two fossils Asiatosuchus oenotoriensis A similarly sized specimen was discovered at the La Laguna archaeological site in Spain in the 1980s.
The specimen includes a nearly complete skull and a nearly complete left lower jaw.
“The La Laguna fossil site is located in the Tierra del Vino region of the province of Zamora, Spain, approximately 20 kilometres south of the city of Zamora and approximately one kilometre north of the village of Casaseca de Campean,” the paleontologists said.
“The area forms part of the western part of the Duero Basin (Ciudad Rodrigo Basin).”
“The Duero Basin is the largest continental Cenozoic basin on the Iberian Peninsula.”
According to the authors: Asiatosuchus oenotoriensis Increase knowledge of diversity and distribution of Asiatosuchus Crocodile-like complex.
“Asiatosuchus oenotoriensis “This adds valuable information to our knowledge of the systematics of the relatively diverse crocodile fauna of the Duero Basin in Spain,” the researchers said.
Ivan Narvaez others A new crocodilian superfamily from the Middle Eocene of Zamora (Duero Basin, Spain). Anatomy record Published online March 5, 2024; doi: 10.1002/ar.25422
Caves on the moon have been identified by scientists not too far from where Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed 55 years ago. They speculate that there could be hundreds more caves that could be suitable for future astronauts to inhabit.
A team of researchers led by Italians reported on Monday that they have evidence of a large cavern accessible through the deepest hole on the moon’s surface. This cavern is situated in Mare Tranquility, just 250 miles (400 kilometers) from the Apollo 11 landing site.
The hole, like over 200 others found in that area, was created by the collapse of a lava tube.
The researchers examined radar measurements from NASA’s lunar rover and compared their findings to lava tubes on Earth. Their findings were published in the journal Nature Astronomy.
Scientists state that the radar data has only uncovered the initial section of the underground chamber, which they estimate to be at least 130 feet (40 meters) wide and potentially even longer.
Leonardo Carrell and Lorenzo Bruzzone from the University of Trento expressed their excitement in an email saying, “The lunar caves have remained a mystery for more than 50 years, so it’s exciting to finally be able to prove their existence.”
Most of the holes on the moon seem to be situated in the ancient lava plains, and there might also be caves at the moon’s south pole, where NASA intends to send astronauts in 10 years. A crater in perpetual shadow there is believed to contain frozen water that could be used for drinking or as rocket fuel.
NASA’s Apollo program successfully landed 12 astronauts on the moon, starting with Armstrong and Aldrin on July 20, 1969.
These findings suggest that the Moon could have numerous caves and lava tubes, providing natural shelter for astronauts and shielding them from cosmic rays, solar radiation, and micrometeorite impacts. Constructing habitats from scratch would be more time-consuming and challenging, even if cave walls need reinforcement to prevent collapse.
The rocks and other materials in these caves, unaffected by the harsh surface conditions for hundreds of millions of years, could also help scientists gain a better understanding of how the Moon evolved, especially in terms of its volcanic activity.
The annual Perseid meteor shower has begun, reaching its peak on the night of August 12th.
It's typically one of the most dramatic meteor showers of the year, producing a high rate of shooting stars per hour.
The Perseid meteor shower occurs when dust particles and debris from a comet known as 109P/Swift-Tuttle burn up in Earth's atmosphere.
One of the best meteor showers of the year is underway, giving you a chance to see shooting stars in the summer night sky.
The annual Perseid meteor shower began on Sunday and will run through late August. This year's meteor shower will peak on the night of August 12 and into the early morning of August 13.
The Perseid meteor shower is one of the most dramatic phenomena due to the high number of bright meteors that appear per hour. At the peak of the meteor shower, up to 100 meteors per hour can be seen from a dark location (weather permitting).
This is a popular event as meteor showers occur in the summer in the Northern Hemisphere, allowing people to enjoy stargazing in warm weather.
Meteors are often called “shooting stars,” but the celestial phenomenon occurs when tiny pieces of debris from outer space burn up in Earth's atmosphere.
The Perseid meteor shower occurs when Earth passes through a cloud of dust particles and debris from a comet known as 109P/Swift-Tuttle, which was discovered in 1862. The streaks of light are produced when pieces of debris impact the atmosphere and vaporize, leaving bright trails as they disintegrate.
The Perseid meteor shower gets its name from the fact that shooting stars appear to stream down from a certain point in the constellation Perseus. According to NASA:The constellation will rise in the northeast, but if conditions are right, meteors should be visible across the entire sky.
In the Northern Hemisphere, the best time to observe the Perseid meteor shower is from around midnight after the moon has set until dawn.
For the best viewing, observers should choose a dark, unobstructed location away from city lights and other light pollution.
We live in the age of black hole photography. In 2019, the first photograph of a black hole was published. Naturally, it was difficult to capture. In fact, it required a telescope almost as large as the Earth. But for researchers like Alex Lupsaski of Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, that wasn't enough. Lupsaski and his colleagues aim to capture a more detailed image, but to achieve that, they will need an even larger telescope.
The 2019 groundbreaking photo was taken by a network of radio observatories dotted around Earth, collectively known as the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT). Eight observatories worked together to produce an image as sharp as a single dish larger than anything we could actually build. Lupsaski is part of a team planning the launch of the Black Hole Explorer (BHEX) telescope, which will extend this network 20,000 kilometers from Earth into space, effectively creating a receiver larger than Earth. This, he says, will give researchers the precision they need to measure a mysterious part of a black hole called the photon ring. In this case, the photon ring is produced by the supermassive black hole M87* in a nearby galaxy that appeared in the first photo.
LupsaskaAs deputy project scientist for the BHEX mission, he's a theorist specializing in the physics of extreme environments like the heart of a black hole. He tells us why this is our best hope of beating Albert Einstein's theory of gravity, and why an ambitious space mission is the key to finally unlocking that theory.
Proposed underground geometry of the Mare Tranquillitatis on the Moon
Wagner and Robinson
A network of caves may be hidden just beneath the Moon's surface, and researchers may have finally discovered an access point. These caves have long been predicted, but until now it has been difficult to prove their existence or find a way to directly explore them with future missions.
The Moon's surface is dotted with holes, or so-called skylights, which are openings in the ceilings of caves that are thought to have been formed by the collapse of ancient lava tubes – tunnels formed when lava flows beneath the solid crust. Leonardo Carrell Researchers from the University of Trento in Italy have discovered that the deepest part of these formations, the “The Pit of the Sea of TranquilityThese images were taken by NASA's Lunar Rover in 2010.
By comparing their simulations with lava tubes on Earth, the researchers found that the Mare Tranquillitatis hole appears to open into a large cavern buried at least 400 feet (130 meters) underground. The cave appears to be about 150 feet (45 meters) wide and at least 100 feet (30 meters) long, but could be much larger.
Caves like these could offer a unique window into the evolution of the Moon, says Carell. “Analyzing rocks from lunar caves, which have not been altered by the harsh lunar environment, could provide important insights into key scientific questions, such as the timeline and duration of volcanic activity on the Moon and the actual composition of the Moon's mantle,” Carell says.
The same stone ceiling that protects the cave rocks from the intense radiation experienced on the surface could also provide valuable shielding for future human explorers on the Moon. “Unlike the surface of the Moon, where temperatures change dramatically between day and night, [the caves] “It has a stable internal temperature, and it's also a natural shield against radiation and impacts,” Carrell says.
The idea of using natural caves like these as lunar base camps has long been popular, and future astronauts may one day call the Sea of Tranquility home.
Activity within brain networks appears to differ between boys and girls
People Images/Getty Images
Artificial intelligence can now distinguish the brain patterns of 9- to 10-year-old boys and girls according to their sex and even gender, but not everyone is convinced of the accuracy of the results.
The prevalence of pain, headaches, heart disease, and other illnesses Varies by genderHowever, little is known about neurological variation in this regard or among sexes, particularly among children.
You can learn more and Elvisha Damara Researchers at the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research in New York analyzed thousands of sets of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data from more than 4,700 children, roughly equal in gender, all aged 9 to 10, who were participating in the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development Project.
Sex was defined based on “anatomical, physiological, genetic and hormonal structures at birth,” while gender was determined based on “an individual's attitudinal, emotional and behavioral characteristics.”
Parents weren't asked directly about their thoughts about their child's gender, but were assessed with a series of questions, such as how often their child imitates male or female characters on TV or in movies, whether they wanted to be a girl or a boy, whether they said they disliked their genitals, etc. All these questions were weighted equally and combined into a score.
A separate score was created from questions that asked the children themselves, such as whether they felt like a boy or a girl.
The researchers did not disclose the different genders the children identified as, or how many of the children had a gender that was different from their own gender. “We thought of gender as a continuum, not a binary,” Damala said. “We did not limit our analysis to gender categories, so we cannot comment on how many children had a gender that was different from their own gender.”
The researchers first looked at the relationship between brain networks and sex, and then looked at the relationship between these networks and sex for each assigned sex. They found that sex and gender differences were associated with distinct patterns of functional connectivity, a measure of communication between distant brain regions.
Gender was associated with connectivity between the visual cortex, which controls movement, and the limbic system, a group of deep brain structures involved in regulating emotion, behavior, motivation, and memory. These networks were “important in distinguishing participants based on their gender,” Damala said.
Gender-related networks were widespread throughout the cerebral cortex (the outer layer of the brain that is also associated with memory, movement, sensation and problem solving), both when using gender scores constructed from responses to parental questions and when using separate scores constructed by asking questions of the children themselves.
“In assigned females, sex mapped to networks involved in attention, emotion processing, motor control, and higher-order thinking,” Damala says. “In assigned males, the same relationships existed, but there were additional networks involved in higher-order thinking and visual processing. Although there was some overlap between sex- and gender-related brain networks, they were very distinct from each other.”
Once the researchers trained an AI model on some of the MRI data, it was able to identify a child's gender based on brain connectivity patterns in other datasets. It could also predict gender, but this was much less accurate and was based solely on the gender reported by parents, not the child themselves.
A better understanding of how brain activity patterns differ by sex could help scientists learn more about conditions that affect boys and girls at different rates, such as ADHD, Damala said.
The findings could also have implications for how human brain research is conducted, she says: “This shows that sex and gender need to be considered separately in biomedical research. This applies to how data is collected, how it is analyzed, and how results are interpreted and communicated,” Damala says.
but Ragini Verma The University of Pennsylvania researcher says the study tells us little about the neurological basis of gender. Because of the study's large sample size, the team was likely only able to find signals of different brain activity patterns between the sexes, but “any variability in gender predictions is based on low precision,” she says.
Astronomers have released a beautiful photo of the dwarf irregular galaxy NGC 5238 taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.
This Hubble Space Telescope image shows the dwarf irregular galaxy NGC 5238, 14.5 million light-years away in the constellation Canes Venatici. The color image is composed of observations in the near-infrared and visible portions of the spectrum by the Hubble Space Telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS). Two filters were used to sample different wavelengths. The colors are achieved by assigning a different hue to each monochromatic image associated with an individual filter. Image courtesy of NASA / ESA / Hubble / F. Annibali.
NGC 5238 It is located in the constellation Canes Venatici, about 14.5 million light years from Earth.
Also known as Mrk 1479 or UGC 8565, the galaxy resembles an outsized star cluster rather than a galaxy due to its unremarkable, blob-like appearance.
“NGC 5238 is theorized to have had a close encounter with another galaxy recently, within the last billion years,” Hubble astronomers said in a statement.
“The evidence for this is the tidal distortion of NGC 5238's shape, caused by the two galaxies interacting and tugging on each other.”
“Since there are no nearby galaxies that could have caused this disruption, it is hypothesized that the culprit is a small satellite galaxy that has been swallowed by NGC 5238.”
“By studying the stars of NGC 5238 closely, we may be able to find traces of an earlier galaxy. The Hubble Space Telescope gives astronomers the perfect tool for this purpose.”
“Two telltale signs are groups of stars with properties that seem out of place compared to most other stars in the galaxy, indicating that they originally formed in another galaxy; or stars that appear to have formed suddenly, almost simultaneously, occurring during the merger of galaxies.”
“Despite their small size and inconspicuous appearance, dwarf galaxies like NGC 5238 are not uncommon in advancing our understanding of galaxy formation and evolution,” the astronomers said.
“One of the leading theories about the evolution of galaxies is that they formed hierarchically, 'bottom-up'. Star clusters and small galaxies first formed from gas and dark matter, which then gradually gathered together through gravity into clusters and superclusters, explaining the shape of the largest structures in the Universe today.”
“The merger of a dwarf irregular galaxy like NGC 5238 with an even smaller companion galaxy is exactly the type of event that could have initiated the process of galaxy formation in the early universe.”
“This means that this tiny galaxy could help test some of the most fundamental predictions in astrophysics.”
Ever wondered if any moons in the solar system have a dense atmosphere like Earth? Currently, scientists believe that Saturn’s moon Titan is the only one with such an atmosphere. Despite being 2.5 times smaller than Earth, Titan has an atmospheric pressure 1.5 times greater than Earth’s. Studies of Titan’s atmosphere from outside the solar system have shown that it consists of around 94% nitrogen, 6% methane, 0.1% hydrogen, and small amounts of complex organic molecules. The Huygens mission data provides more insight into this.
Initially, scientists thought that Titan’s haze formed through the breakdown and recombination of nitrogen and methane by sunlight. However, this explanation couldn’t account for the presence of complex organic molecules which require high temperatures to form. Recent research suggests that these molecules may have originated during a meteorite impact event in Titan’s atmosphere, particularly due to the proximity of Titan to Saturn’s E ring which disperses organic material from moons like Enceladus.
To test this new theory, researchers at Princeton University created a model to predict the formation of molecules during meteorite impacts in Titan’s atmosphere. By combining data from observations of Saturn’s rings and Titan’s atmospheric chemistry from the Huygens probe, they estimated the types of organic molecules that could result from these impacts. They found that only meteorites larger than 0.02 grams could trigger such events in Titan’s atmosphere, with material mostly originating from atolls surrounding the solar system.
The team also identified a hot zone known as the “Cylindrical shock wave” around the falling meteorite, reaching temperatures of 10,000 K. This wave could facilitate the synthesis of complex organic molecules at lower temperatures in the region surrounding the impact. Meteorites falling from Enceladus are suggested to contribute significantly to Titan’s organic-rich haze layer, particularly at altitudes where shock waves are most efficient in synthesizing organic molecules.
The researchers proposed that observations from future missions, such as Dragonfly, could further validate their models by studying the frequency of medium-sized meteorite impacts on Titan. These observations could provide more insights into the formation of Titan’s unique atmosphere and iconic haze layer.
Rats in John Cryan's lab were withdrawn and anxious, behaving in ways that mirrored those who had been bullied at work and suspected they might encounter the bully again.
Believe it or not, the good news is that they fed some of these rodents a slurry of microbes extracted from their own feces. This may sound unpleasant, but it had a surprisingly positive effect on their behavior. “That was surprising,” says Cryan, a neurobiologist at University College Cork in Ireland. “We found that the behavioral changes that were induced by stress were normalized, and they started to behave like normal animals.”
Even more surprising, the mental changes weren't brought about by changes to gut bacteria, but by modifying another key aspect of the microbiome whose importance is only now being recognized: viruses.
After all, our bodies are full of these viruses – trillions of stowaways that do no harm to our health, but instead play a key role in nurturing a beneficial microbiome and making us healthier. Recent studies have found that the influence of this “virome” can be found throughout the body, from the blood to the brain. The hope is that tweaking it might lead to new ways of treating a variety of ailments, from inflammatory bowel disease and obesity to anxiety.
Microbiome Diversity
Over the past decade, there has been growing interest in the microbiome (all the tiny organisms that live on and in our bodies), but that interest has focused primarily on bacteria. Until recently, it was assumed that…
Las Vegas experienced its highest temperature on record on July 7, reaching 120 degrees Fahrenheit. The city surpassed a 2005 record of four consecutive days with temperatures above 115 degrees Fahrenheit on Wednesday, and then broke that record on Thursday, with Friday likely to follow suit. Extreme heat has been widespread across the Western U.S. this week, with around 42 million people under extreme heat warnings on Friday in the region, including the Rockies and southeast Texas. In at least six states, it is estimated that thirty-eight people have died from heatstroke.
“I’ve been a resident of southern Nevada in Las Vegas for 18 years, and this year has been exceptionally hot,” said Chrishell Hadsell, social services manager for Clark County, Nevada, encompassing Las Vegas, Boulder City, Henderson, and neighboring areas.
Hadsell is in charge of over 40 cooling centers currently in operation in Clark County, offering air-conditioned shelters in places like libraries, churches, and recreation centers for people to seek refuge during the hottest times of the day.
Record-breaking temperatures in Las Vegas are impacting people’s daily routines.
Henderson Fire Department Deputy Chief Scott Vivier mentioned that he and his wife now have to run errands and shop for groceries early in the morning to avoid the heat, as by 9:30 a.m., even being in the car can be intolerable.
“We’ve adapted to being active in the mornings and late evenings,” Vivier stated.
The extreme heat has led to multiple temporary closures at the Neon Museum near downtown Las Vegas this week.
“Due to the prolonged Extreme Heat Warning for the Las Vegas Valley, the Neon Museum will delay its opening until 8:30 p.m.,” officials announced on the museum’s website on Friday. The museum showcases some of Las Vegas’ most iconic and historic neon signs in its outdoor “curiosity yard.”
Despite the evening hours, visitors may still find it uncomfortable, as overnight temperatures this week have been in the 90s.
Similar extreme heat conditions prompted Henderson city officials to close the public pool early on both Thursday and Friday.
“Our inclement weather closure policy has been activated due to the extreme heat,” city officials noted in a Facebook post.
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Electric cars scares some people of the dark: their batteries produce much less carbon dioxide but require more power to run, prompting ominous warnings that Britain and other wealthy countries could plunge their citizens into darkness if they ban new petrol and diesel sales.
In recent months, UK net-zero skeptic newspapers have warned that a shift to EVs “risks overwhelming the grid and causing catastrophic blackouts” if intermittent solar and wind don't provide the needed power. Another article argued that “we don't need an enemy force to plunge us all into darkness – just some electricity customers doing their normal thing on a normal winter's night.”
But many who work in the electric vehicle industry believe these fears may be unfounded, arguing that the transition to electric vehicles is an exciting, potentially lucrative opportunity to build a smarter, greener energy system.
In the UK, polluting coal-fired power plants have been largely replaced by wind farms and solar panels. These renewable energies do not emit carbon dioxide, but they suffer from intermittency problems and cannot provide enough power on cloudy days or at night when there is no wind. Add in the prospect that all new cars will be electric by 2035 and it is not an exaggerated question how the power grid will keep supply and demand in balance.
Shifting demand
The transition to electric vehicles will undoubtedly require more electricity generation as electric vehicles, rather than land-based fossil fuels, become the primary source of energy for transportation, but smart technology can be used to shift demand away from peak times, such as 5pm in winter, when demand for electricity risks outstripping supply.
This isn't just a pipe dream: home charger company MyEnergy calculates that if balancing services were enabled across all installed compatible chargers, it could “provide over 1GW of demand-shifting flexibility to the grid, more than 98% of the UK's major fossil fuel power stations.”
Octopus Energy, which has quickly grown to become the UK's largest electricity supplier, says its Go electricity tariff manages the charging of the batteries of 150,000 electric vehicles. Charging them all at once would require 1GW of power, but smart chargers hold off charging until off-peak hours at night, shifting demand away from peaks. Electricity is also cheaper during off-peak hours, with clear benefits for consumers: Octopus says its customers save an average of about £600 a year.
In the UK, polluting coal-fired power stations have largely been replaced by wind farms and solar panels, which suffer from “intermittency issues”. Photo: Martin Meissner/AP
One gigawatt is the equivalent of a medium-sized power station, enough to power 600,000 homes. Electric vehicles on UK roads are already on the rise in the UK. Peak electricity demand in winter is 61.1GWAccording to the National Grid, delaying charging for just a few hours can help reduce energy consumption.
Jack Fielder, chief strategy officer at MyEnergy, said: “If every EV charger could provide a grid balancing service and every driver took part in a grid balancing program, we could collectively eliminate periods of strain on the grid.”
It could also be useful when power supply exceeds demand, such as on warm, windy nights, said Chris Pateman-Jones, chief executive of charging company Connected Curve.
“Instead of wasting renewable energy, I see EVs as a giant sponge,” he says. For consumers, there will be little change: Connected Curve data shows that most cars are already charged by midnight, leaving them idle for hours before they're needed.
Powered by car battery
It's not just the timing of when electrons flow into car batteries that will help the National Grid Electricity Supply Operator (NGESO), the company responsible for balancing the U.K. power grid: It calls demand shifting a “low-regret action that will help reduce the impact on peak demand and reduce renewable curtailment,” but it also wants electrons to flow in the other direction.
Vehicle-to-grid technology is an attractive prospect: instead of building power plants, hydroelectric storage, or stationary battery fleets, the idea is to harness the energy stored in car batteries. Cars could become portable power packs, providing backup for homes in the event of a blackout, and even allowing drivers to earn money by selling power back to the grid.
NGESO is Annual estimate It predicts what the UK electricity system will look like in 2035 and 2050. It sees a growing role for cars feeding power back into the grid, and in the most optimistic scenario, capacity could reach 39GW (equivalent to one-tenth of the vastly expanded generating capacity).
Toxic PFAS ‘forever chemicals’ used in lithium-ion batteries that are essential to the clean energy transition New research findings As the emerging industry expands, it will pose threats to the environment and human health.
The multifaceted, peer-reviewed study focused on a little-studied and unregulated subclass of PFAS called bis-FASIs, which are used in lithium-ion batteries.
Researchers have found alarming levels of chemicals in the environment near manufacturing plants and in remote locations around the world, found that they can be toxic to living organisms, and found that battery waste in landfills is a major source of contamination.
“The nation faces two important challenges — minimizing water pollution and increasing access to clean, sustainable energy — and both are worthwhile,” said Jennifer Gelfo, a researcher at Texas Tech University and co-author of the study.
“But there is a bit of a tug-of-war between the two, and this study highlights that there is now an opportunity to better incorporate environmental risk assessments as we expand our energy infrastructure,” she added.
PFAS are a group of about 16,000 man-made compounds that are most commonly used to make products that are resistant to water, stains, and heat. PFAS are known as “forever chemicals” because they do not break down naturally and are known to accumulate in the human body. PFAS have been linked to cancer, birth defects, liver disease, thyroid disease, a dramatic drop in sperm count, and a variety of other serious health problems.
As the transition unfolds, public health advocates have begun sounding the alarm about the need to find alternatives to toxic chemicals used in clean energy technologies like batteries and wind turbines.
The paper notes that few end-of-life standards exist for PFAS battery waste, and most ends up in municipal waste sites, where it can leach into waterways, accumulate locally or be transported long distances.
When historical leachate samples were examined for the presence of the chemical, no detections were found in samples taken before the mid-1990s, when the chemical was commercialized.
The study points out that while BisFASI can be reused, previous research has shown that only 5% of lithium batteries are recycled. Unless battery recycling is dramatically scaled up to keep up with demand, it is predicted that 8 million tonnes of battery waste will be generated by 2040.
“This shows we need to look more closely at this class of PFAS,” Guelfo said.
Little toxicity data exists on bis-FASI, so the study also looked at its effects on invertebrates and zebrafish. Effects were seen even at low levels of exposure, suggesting it may be as toxic as other PFAS compounds known to be dangerous.
Researchers also took water, soil and air samples around a 3M plant in Minnesota and other large facilities known to make the chemical. Guelfo said the levels in the soil and water are of concern, and that detection of the chemical in the snow suggests it could easily travel through the air.
This could help explain why the chemicals have been found in China’s seawater and other remote locations not close to production plants.
The most commonly used definition of PFAS worldwide includes bis-FASIs, but one division of the EPA considers them to not belong to a chemical class, and therefore they are not included in the list of compounds monitored in U.S. waters. The EPA’s narrow definition of PFAS has been criticized by public health advocacy groups for excluding some chemicals at the urging of industry.
But the new study, combined with previous evidence, shows that bisFASI, like most other PFAS, is persistent, mobile and toxic, said co-author Lee Ferguson, a researcher at Duke University.
“This classification, coupled with the massive increase in clean energy storage that we’re seeing, should at the very least sound alarm bells,” he said.
Located on a traffic island on the outskirts of Coventry, a small yet dynamic organizing team from the GMB union is challenging Amazon with homemade signs and orange bucket hats.
In a historic vote last week, over 3,000 Amazon workers were given the opportunity to participate in a vote that could potentially lead to the company recognizing a trade union in the U.K. for the first time. This is part of a series of battles worldwide over union recognition at the retail-to-cloud conglomerate founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994, now valued at over $2 trillion.
If successful, the GMB victory would grant workers the right to negotiate with Amazon on matters such as wages, hours, and holidays, something the famously anti-union company opposes. GMB also believes that recognition would give them an advantage in addressing health and safety concerns within the expansive Coventry warehouse, known as BHX4.
The ongoing campaign at BHX4 sheds light on the barriers unions face, despite promises from the new Labour government to bolster trade union influence.
Results of the vote, held after a month-long process, are expected on Monday. Workers have received support from local Labour Party MP Taiwo Owateme, who commended their efforts.
Kate Gorton, GMB member, union To raise awareness about voting, snacks, drinks and gifts were distributed to employees at the end of each shift. Photo: Fabio De Paola/Observer
At the approach to BHX4, a dedicated GMB team welcomes workers as they arrive for the night shift amidst the sounds of dhol drummers creating a festive atmosphere.
These workers are encouraged to vote “Yes!” and many show support by honking or signaling approval from their vehicles. The campaign aims to bring positive change to the work environment at BHX4.
Meanwhile, GMB activists at another entrance offer refreshments and free hats to workers, urging them to vote in favor of recognition.
Despite some workers bypassing the activists, many engage in conversation, accept hats and drinks, and express their support for GMB.
The GMB’s current push for full authorization is their second attempt after withdrawing the initial application last year, citing Amazon’s strategic hiring practices to influence the outcome.
As the vote results await, GMB and other trade unions remain hopeful for meaningful changes under Labour’s New Deal for Workers, advocating for stronger collective bargaining and workers’ rights.
Amidst Amazon’s resistance to unions globally, the Coventry activists persevere, optimistic that they can achieve historic recognition. The company maintains that employees have the choice to join a union and emphasizes its commitment to direct engagement with employees.
Have you ever considered what your doomsday plan would entail? If not, you’re not alone. While most people are more concerned with what’s for dinner tomorrow than surviving the apocalypse, billionaires have already thought ahead.
Instead of spending millions on extending their lifespans, reversing aging, or planning space trips, the ultra-rich are now investing in giant underground shelters to prepare for the end of the world. These luxurious bunkers offer comfortable living conditions below the surface, away from the chaos above.
While doomsday bunkers are not a new concept, recent trends show that billionaire bunkers are becoming increasingly extravagant. From zombie-proof fire moats to 10-car garages, these shelters cater to the highest levels of luxury. It seems fitting, considering they will likely be located underground.
But what exactly are the ultra-rich preparing for? And what do these apocalyptic shelters look like?
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What are they preparing for?
Once seen as odd and paranoid, those who invest in shelters now have valid concerns about the future. The rise of artificial intelligence, pandemics, and global warming has instilled fear in many, even among the wealthiest individuals.
According to Douglas Rushkoff, a billionaire and writer who focuses on doomsday scenarios, the ultra-rich are not driven by fear but by desire. They see isolation in space stations or underground shelters as a reward for their accomplishments. It’s about winning the game of life and building the best shelter, not merely preparing for worst-case scenarios.
What do these bunkers look like?
End-of-life shelters come in various sizes, luxury levels, and features. Some are as small as a single room, while others resemble small apartments with amenities like garages, gyms, and saunas. The top-tier bunkers designed for billionaires include added rooms, tanks, and other necessary items, driving up prices significantly.
For many wealthy individuals, owning an island with a grand mansion on the surface conceals a maze of rooms underground for emergency situations. These bunkers serve as highly secure vacation homes with additional features for survival.
Will we all soon have bunkers?
While shelters were once exclusive to the ultra-rich and paranoid, the trend is shifting. Newer firms offer shelter options for a broader demographic, making it more accessible to average individuals. Popular group bunkers reminiscent of games like Fallout are also on the rise, accommodating large groups at a fraction of the cost of individual bunkers.
Architect Dante Vicino describes these group bunkers as underground cruise ships, with private and communal spaces for residents to gather, eat, and relax together. While luxury shelters may offer comfort during doomsday scenarios, building connections with neighbors and forming a community may be a more realistic survival strategy.
About our experts
Douglas Rushkoff is a writer and documentarian who has researched billionaire behavior and attitudes regarding doomsday scenarios.
Dante Vicino is the project lead at Vivos, a doomsday shelter company specializing in affordable alternatives.
IBlocky World Chipotle Burrito BuilderIn Chipotle, players don the uniforms of the Tex-Mex restaurant chain and make burritos for virtual customers. Available toppings are taken from Chipotle’s real-world menu; shirts and caps feature the Chipotle logo. And when the game launched two years ago, the first 100,000 players earned “Burrito Bucks” to use in their burritos. Chipotle website.
after that Hyundai Mobility Adventure You can test drive models made by Korean manufacturers. Samsung Galaxy Station Here’s a mockup of the company’s latest smartphone designed to help travel to extraterrestrial worlds. Telefonica Town The challenge is to climb an assault course made from products featured in the telecommunications giant’s catalog. Vans World They just hand you a skateboard so you can do a few kickflips in a park plastered with shoe companies’ logos.
These are just a few of the corporate theme parks available. Robloxis one of the world’s most popular online video game platforms, with an average of 77 million players per day earlier this year, and is especially popular with children and younger players (58% of users self-reported as being under 16 years old). The end of last year), Roblox lets you explore fantastical virtual worlds, jumping over obstacles, finding hidden collectibles, and role-playing different tasks just like a kid would on the playground.
But the platform’s biggest selling point is its basic development tools, which allow anyone with little to no computer knowledge to create and share their own video games. Though this toolset is limited by design, it has attracted many people over the past few years, and not just aspiring game developers. This toolset has made Roblox a favorite playground for corporate advertisers, who use the development tools to create branded Roblox games to share with the game’s millions of players.
These advergames (advertisements presented in the form of video games) typically sprinkle corporate branding onto a set of game mechanics simple enough for Roblox’s younger player base. Broader suspicions Criticism that Roblox does not adequately protect children (which the company denies) has led to companies rushing to develop ad-supported games. Brands from Walmart to Wimbledon, McDonald’s to Gucci, Nike to the BBC have launched ad-supported games on the platform. Some have garnered hundreds of thousands of hits, others tens of millions. Seeking more brand involvement By promoting its large, young user base as a major attraction in a competitive advertising market.
An action shot from Vans World, where the company built a virtual skatepark in Roblox complete with footwear messaging. Photo: Vans / Roblox
“In the context of the attention economy, where consumers are exposed to hundreds, even thousands, of ads a day, capturing and maintaining attention is crucial,” says Yusuf Ochi, associate professor of marketing at Bayes Business School, City, University of London. “We are exposed to thousands of ads every day, many of which we don’t remember. Advagames circumvent these filters more effectively by integrating brand messaging into games.”
Öç’s own research has found that ads that utilize interactive features like touching, swiping, and tilting a phone screen can influence consumer preferences and purchase intent. Roblox allows brands to bring these interactive elements into a ready-made, engaging space.
“Roblox’s popularity with a younger demographic opens up new avenues for us to reach and engage the next generation of consumers in a sector where we’re already investing heavily,” said Robert Jan van Dormael, vice president of marketing for consumer audio at Samsung-owned Harman.
JBL, one of Harman’s hi-fi brands, released an official Roblox game in February, where players can collect audio snippets and arrange them into custom tracks, explore pastel-colored worlds and collect virtual currency to spend on cosmetic headphones and portable speakers, all accurately modeled after real-life JBL products. Since its release, it has attracted 1.4 million players, with average playtime over six minutes and engagement metrics orders of magnitude higher than other games. A few seconds A person typically spends an hour reading a social media post…
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