Robots that can grow around trees and rocks like vines could be used to construct buildings or measure pollution in hard-to-reach natural environments.
Vine-like robots are not new, but they are often designed to rely only on a single sense, such as heat or light, to grow upwards, making them less effective than others in certain environments. It doesn't work well.
Emanuela del Dottore The Italian Institute of Technology and colleagues have developed a new version called FiloBot that can use light, shadow, or gravity as a guide. It grows by wrapping a plastic filament into a cylindrical shape, adding a new layer to the body just behind the head that contains the sensor.
“Our robot has a built-in microcontroller that can process multiple stimuli and direct growth at a precise location, namely at the tip, ensuring that the structure of the body is preserved.” she says.
According to Dottore, having such fine control over the direction of the tip means the robot can easily navigate unfamiliar terrain by wrapping around trees and using shadowed areas of leaves as guideposts. This means that it can be moved.
FiloBot grows at approximately 7 millimeters per minute. Although slower than many traditional robots, this gentler progress could mean less disruption to sensitive natural environments, she says.
The researchers don't know exactly what the robot will be used for at this point, but they hope it can be deployed to collect data in areas that are difficult for humans to reach, such as the tops of trees.
MArc Zuckerberg hired Sheryl Sandberg as Facebook’s chief operating officer in 2008 as the social network grew rapidly and sought to attract investment. Zuckerberg was just 23 when he founded Facebook in his Harvard dorm room, but Sandberg, 38, was considered the “adult in the room.”
The former head of sales at Google and chief of staff at the U.S. Treasury has become one of the most influential people in global technology and one of the few women at the top of the industry. She also made a lot of money – which she is now worth after selling most of her stake in Meta, her Facebook parent company that also owns Instagram and her WhatsApp. Nearly $2bn (£1.6bn).
Mr. Sandberg, now 54, stepped down from his role a year and a half ago, and announced Wednesday night that he would also step away from Meta’s board. “We feel now is the right time to exit,” she wrote in a Facebook post, noting that Mehta is “well positioned for the future.”
“Sheryl, thank you for your extraordinary contributions to our company and our community over the years,” said Zuckerberg, the world’s sixth-richest man with an estimated personal fortune of $133 billion. “Your dedication and guidance have contributed to our success, and I appreciate your unwavering dedication to me and Meta over the years.”
…
Mr. Sandberg was one of six executive officers. Name as it appears in the prospectus When Facebook filed for an initial public offering in 2012. With her resignation, Zuckerberg is the only one left among the six. She was considered so important to the company’s success that she was named, along with the founder, as one of the key people who posed a potential risk to investors’ funds in the event of their departure.
The first members of our species to reach China may have entered this region from the north
Esteban de Armas / Alamy
Modern humans lived in what is now China by 45,000 years ago. This discovery means our species arrived in this region thousands of years earlier than commonly thought, probably via a northern route through present-day Siberia and Mongolia.
A team co-led by Francesco d'Errico Researchers from the University of Bordeaux in France reexamined an archaeological site in northern China called Shiyu. Originally, he was excavated in 1963 during the turbulent period of China's Cultural Revolution. “It couldn't have been a better time to find such an important site,” D'Errico says.
Shiyu is an outdoor site located in a river gorge. There, 30 meters deep, sand and other sediments were deposited, which the first excavators divided into four horizontal layers, from the bottom of which the second layer contained human It was found that there was evidence of residence in
Excavators discovered more than 15,000 stone artifacts and thousands of animal bones. There was also part of a hominin skull, which anthropologist Wu Lukang identified as a modern human.homo sapiens).
Some of the artifacts were later transferred to the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing. However, those left behind at the local facility were lost, including the hominin bones. “We own maybe 10 percent of the stone tools,” D'Errico says.
D'Errico and his colleagues re-excavated Shiyu to determine its age. They dated 15 sediment samples using a technique called photostimulated luminescence and carbon-dated 10 animal bones and teeth. The hominid layer is approximately 44,600 years old.
D'Errico believes the excavator was “knowledgeable” and correctly identified the skull.
The Shuyu tribe is probably homo sapienssay Alina Katzenovic from the Institute of Archeology and Ethnology in Novosibirsk, Russia, was not involved in the study.
The new study therefore suggests that modern humans arrived in northern China about 45,000 years ago. This would postpone the arrival of our species to China by about 5,000 years.Derico claims to be the next oldest homo sapiens China's site Tengen Cave 40,000 years ago.
Some researchers argue that our species may have arrived earlier than that, up to 260,000 years ago. However, D'Errico points out that researchers: criticized much of the evidence As for the presence of such early humans in this region.
Humans probably entered Asia from Africa and spread through multiple routes, Katzenovich said. They not only explored the tropical southern regions of Asia, but also headed further north. Katzenovich says there are signs of modern human presence in the area. Obi Rakhmat Cave Uzbekistan 48,800 years ago. Perhaps our species reached Shiyu and then China via this route. north route.
When modern humans reached new areas, they encountered hominids that were already living there, such as Neanderthals and Denisovans further east. Genetic evidence shows that we interbred with them. There may also have been cultural exchanges, and the Shiyu artifacts also include what appear to be more ancient human tools.
There is also evidence of long-distance contact. The Shiyu team identified four fragments of obsidian, a volcanic glass. They were able to track them as far as 800 and 1000 kilometers northeast of Shiyu. D'Errico said it was unlikely that the residents traveled this distance themselves, so they were probably part of the group's network. In line with this, Kazenovich said some of Shiyu's artifacts resemble items found as far east as Korea.
Google’s CEO told employees to expect additional layoffs this year following recent layoffs that affected 1,000 employees.
In a memo to staff on Wednesday, Sundar Pichai said departments within the tech company continue to make changes and “some roles may be affected.”
Pichai’s memo acknowledged further layoffs reported last week, with the Alphabet Union, which represents workers within Google and its parent company Alphabet, announcing that 1,000 employees were affected.
“We have ambitious goals and will invest in big priorities,” he said in a memo reported by technology news website The Verge. “The reality is that we have to make hard choices to create this investment capacity.”
Pichai said the difficult choices so far include job losses at Google’s divisions, which include search, ad sales and the YouTube platform.
He noted that Alphabet cut 12,000 jobs across Alphabet in January last year, and said the job cuts would not reach that level. The company employed 182,000 people as of September 30 last year, according to its latest quarterly results.
“These role reductions are not at the scale of last year’s reductions and will not affect all teams,” Pichai wrote. “But I know it’s very difficult to see your colleagues and teams affected.”
Pichai announced the layoffs last year, saying Alphabet experienced a hiring boom as demand for tech companies surged during the coronavirus pandemic. He acknowledged that the company had overexpanded and wrote that it “hired for a different economic reality” than the one Alphabet faces now.
Pichai’s Wednesday memo was not on par with 12 months ago, when Microsoft, Salesforce, Amazon and Meta made tens of thousands of layoffs to adapt to the post-lockdown economy, sent to employees against the background of technical layoffs elsewhere. In December, Spotify announced it would cut 17% of its global workforce, while Amazon cut hundreds of employees in its Prime Video and Studio divisions, as well as about 500 employees at live streaming platform Twitch announced that he would be fired.
According to a website that tracks job losses in the technology industry. layoff.fyi, the sector has made 7,785 job cuts globally so far this year. By the same time last year, tech companies had laid off even more employees, about 38,000.
Pichai said Wednesday that the latest job cuts are focused on “reducing tiers to simplify execution and increase speed in some areas,” with more role cuts to come. Stated.
“While many of these changes have already been announced, we want to say upfront that some teams will continue to make specific resource allocation decisions throughout the year as needed and some roles will be affected. “There is a possibility that we will be subject to this,” he added.
In an attempt to ignite fading consumer interest, Samsung is heavily emphasizing AI technology for its latest premium S24 Android phone. This includes instant phone translation, new Google search, and advanced image and video editing features.
The Galaxy S24 series was announced at an event in California and is led by the largest and most expensive titanium-clad Ultra. It features the latest Qualcomm chip, brightest screen and most powerful camera. However, in a change for the dominant Korean company, hardware updates are taking a backseat to flashy features that leverage the new Galaxy AI branding.
Many of its additions, including the use of the Android maker’s Gemini AI model, keep it competitive with products such as Google’s Pixel series. Samsung’s new Live Translate feature enables real-time two-way phone, voice, and text conversations between 13 different languages, similar to what Google Translate offers, and its “Chat Assist” allows for simple spelling. Additionally, it helps ensure message tone and grammar are appropriate.
Display with a variety of Samsung smartphones with AI-powered features. Photo: Jennifer Dudley Nicholson/AAP
The phone’s video and photo editing features are packed with generative AI technology, including regular object, background removal, and image retouching. The AI can create instant slow-motion videos from regular videos by generating additional frames that slow down the action. Samsung’s image editor will add watermarks and metadata to AI-altered content, a move widely welcomed by analysts.
Ben Wood, principal analyst at CCS Insight, said: “The Galaxy S24 series of devices, along with Google’s Pixel series, mark the dawn of the consumerization of AI in smartphones. This means that all smartphone manufacturers, including Apple, are adding AI-powered features to their new devices.”
Google has partnered with Samsung to bring new ways for Google to: Search by circle, which will launch on January 31st on select Android devices including the S24 and Pixel 8 series. Users simply press the home button or gesture bar, circle what they want to search for on the screen, and Google’s AI does the rest.
Samsung has also partnered with Google to provide seven years of software support to help users use their new phone for longer and more safely. The S24’s construction includes a wider variety of designs to soften its impact on the environment, using tons of recycled materials.
Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra. Photo: Jennifer Dudley Nicholson/AAP
Samsung is aiming to boost mobile phone sales through its AI efforts, as it recently lost its top spot in the mobile phone market to Apple for the first time in 12 years. Analysts believe Samsung’s sales growth will depend largely on its ability to effectively market its mobile phone to raise awareness and break consumer apathy.
Samsung has a nine-month window to regain leadership in the premium segment, especially in its biggest markets, the US and China, before the expected launch of Apple’s next-generation iPhone in September.
The image on the right is the latest and best image of a black hole.
EHT collaboration
Thanks to an update to the world’s first black hole image taken a year later, we now have the most detailed observation of a black hole to date.
In 2019, researchers released an image of the supermassive black hole known as M87*, located 55 million light-years away at the center of galaxy M87. The image, the world’s first glimpse of a black hole, was taken during the first observations in 2017 by a network of radio astronomical observatories around the world called the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT).
Now, the EHT collaboration has released tracking images of M87* taken during 2018 observations using additional telescopes in Greenland.
As the name suggests, these objects do not emit light, so the light in the image does not come out of the black hole. What we see instead is the silhouette of a black hole at the center of a mass of hot material, pulled inward by its powerful gravity.
“This image tells us that the black hole’s shadow is permanent and still exists,” says the EHT scientist. Eduardo Ross. “You can see that the ring is a beautiful circle. It’s very circular, not an oval or anything. We also see an enhancement on the south side in this ring, which is what we expected.”
This enhancement, visible as a slightly bright glow under the slightly displaced shadow of M87*, is due to the distortion of space-time associated with the black hole’s rotation (as explained by Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity). This is due to
The additional telescopes have slightly increased the resolution of the images, greatly increasing the amount of data that can be cross-referenced with observations from other telescopes. However, less than ideal weather made viewing conditions difficult. This means the resolution is not as high as theoretically expected, Ross says.
IIt’s hard to believe that The Last of Us Part II was first released almost four years ago, right in the middle of the coronavirus lockdown period. There was a haunting irony in the idea of people stuck at home due to a global pandemic playing an apocalyptic video game about a global pandemic. Well, the coronavirus never went away, and neither did The Last of Us. In 2021, a free upgrade will allow new PS5 owners to play a tweaked version of the PS4 original, followed by the arrival of the critically acclaimed TV drama series and new You’ve got an audience. A desperate story of Ellie and Joel.
The Last of Us Part II Remastered is now available, an overhauled version of this great game. This adds a new fidelity mode that offers his 4K resolution at 30 frames per second, and a performance mode at 1440p, 60 fps. You’ll need a decent display to notice the difference from older PS5 upgrades, but the difference is there. Movement is smoother, the lighting is brighter, and the details of the scenery, especially the foliage, are brought to life, further increasing the immersion in this muddy, desolate world. What struck me most were the game’s epic battle scenes, which now feel completely fluid and intense, and the emotional cinematic moments that the game already achieved so well.
“Emotional movie moment”…The Last of Us Part II Remastered.
More importantly, the controls change with the complete implementation of the Dual Sense controller. Detailed haptic feedback and adaptive triggers make the differences in the feel of various weapons obvious, increasing the sheer physicality of combat. The addition of a guitar mode, where you can use the touchpad to strum Joel’s old acoustic, is a peripheral but very fun feature.
What really makes the game exciting is the abundance of bonus content. The new mode, named No Return, is a roguelike survival game where you aim to survive as long as possible through waves of multiple enemy attacks. You can choose a path through a series of procedurally generated stages. Each stage is based on an area from the main game. If you die, it’s game over. Once you reach the end, a huge boss battle awaits you.
This kind of “horde mode” isn’t new, but Naughty Dog has done a great job of transferring the main game’s narrative tension into these enclosed gunfights. Instead of just standing in the shadows and blowing up anything that moves, you’ll have to sneak through abandoned stores and backyards, listening for signs of enemies. Also, there are stages where you are dealing with infected people, and there are stages where human soldiers appear, and the tactics change accordingly. You get a fascinating mix of stealth and all-out action, and you can upgrade your weapons and items at the end of each stage. It’s also fun to play as different characters for the first time, such as Dina or Tommy, as each trait affects gameplay differently. Unfortunately, there’s no multiplayer co-op here. It would have been fun to share the experience with friends, The Last of Us’ problems online are well knownThat’s not surprising.
Stay alive as long as possible… No Return Mode in The Last of Us Part II Remastered.
However, my favorite addition is the Lost Levels, which are a selection of three playable stages cut from the game. There’s additional build-up to the Jackson party where Dina and Ellie kiss, an extended section of the Seattle sewers, and finally a final scene where Ellie hunts a boar. These short sequences are unfinished and understandably rough at times, but they offer a truly fascinating glimpse into the development process. This kind of content is rarely shared with players (or journalists, for that matter).
Every scene also has audio commentary from the lead designer, who explains how much detail goes into every little section of the game, from how the designer establishes the emotional context of a scene to determining the exact length of a fire escape ladder. Gain insight into how much thought and planning goes into it. , thereby emphasizing the player’s sense of security and escape.What I remember from Lost Level great story At the GameCity festival a few years ago, Uncharted lead designer Richard Lemarchand talked about the development of Uncharted 3. Game design students should jump at this learning opportunity.
The Last of Us Part II Remastered feels like the video game equivalent of a Criterion Collection Blu-ray, hand-picked to celebrate a groundbreaking release. Reliving this brutal adventure in a visually and haptically enhanced format was just as exhausting, moving, and exhilarating as my first playthrough. It’s nice to see a video game treated this way, but it’s also a reminder of how few studios and releases see this kind of respectful repackaging.i love that kind of thing Limited run game That will be the case with the physical release, but imagine if all the remasters and reboots show deleted scenes and developer insights. There’s so much nonsense about the game development process on forums and social media, and so many assumptions that are completely wrong. Improved access to the process will benefit everyone.
For those who have never played the game or experienced it on PS5, this is a must-have experience. This is the cutting edge of mainstream narrative gaming, lovingly reincarnated.
I
If you listened to Stephen Fry's recent podcast, you may have been confused. The recording of MS Singh's The Missing Lines was cut off after just 2 minutes and 48 seconds and his next 9 chapters were left silent. However, this was not a mistake. It was a trick to raise awareness of the people who go missing every 90 seconds.
This isn't the first time a podcast has been used as a stunt. Joe Lycett recently announced Turdcast. This is a podcast where celebrities talk about their poop, including Gary Lineker and his amazing 1990 World Cup pitching poop. However, this footage was never made public. Lycett used this as an opportunity to highlight the government's response to the sewage leak crisis.
“For you, it probably means something like frustration,” Frye said of his “Broken” podcast. Sure, it might be a slightly annoying realization that makes you feel a little silly after hooking up on a walk, but it's definitely an effective way to get your message across.
The five podcasts are absolutely This week's picks include a fascinating series about Eunice Carter, the first black woman to serve as a prosecutor in the United States. Keep reading to find out the best podcasts that ended right away.
Holly Richardson TV Deputy Editor-in-Chief
This week's picks
Oona Chaplin, host of Hollywood Exiles. Photo: Antonio Olmos
Nicole Perkins' new podcast is set in 1936 New York, where gangster Lucky Luciano is on trial, but there's a much more interesting story behind it: that of lawyer Eunice Carter. It's about time Carter, who has been described as “the spark that started the fire” as America's first black female prosecutor, gets props. Perkins portrays an outspoken lawyer who brought Luciano to court, but was sidelined and kept out of the spotlight by the rules of the day. Hannah Verdier
In this exasperating mini-series that brings the housing crisis to a close, one housing association reveals that when low-income people apply for affordable housing, they can be forced to wait eight to 10 years on a waiting list along with 800 others. It says that there is a sex. Jeevan Basagar speaks to people who rely on public housing and those who work in the system, showing them exactly how bad the situation is. Holly Richardson
Oona Chaplin from Game of Thrones hosts this podcast and talks about how her grandfather Charlie was forced out of Hollywood during the anti-communist movement. From her life in a workhouse in Lambeth to owning a Hollywood studio, Chaplin achieved her American dream until she was investigated by the FBI. HV
There has been an uproar after 19-year-old Belgian cyclist Femke van den Driesche was found to have a motor installed on her bike. But was she a scammer, or was she a victim? Kris Marshall Bell tells this very strange story with passion, chronicling death threats, unbelievable allegations about doped pigeons, and anger from his competitors. HV
Revealed: The Ashley Madison Hack Widely available, all episodes released on Wednesdays When no-strings-attached dating site Ashley Madison was hacked, scammers were horrified as their personal information and desires were exposed. The series tells elaborate hacking stories with subtlety and a touch of romance, while explaining the connections users have made and the fear they've felt in the face of moral judgment. HV
There's a podcast for that
Phoebe Robinson (left) and Jessica Williams in 2019. Photo: Michael Loccisano/Getty Images for HBO
this week, Hannah Verdier Choose the 5 best podcasts it ended too soonfrom Starry Cain's weird and wonderful investigations to Phoebe Robinson and Jessica Williams' comedy masterpieces.
mystery show Starry Cain's offbeat investigation was the perfect antidote to the true crime reign of 2015 in the podcast world. Cain's storytelling is impeccable, but her podcast ended after her six sweet episodes due to what Gimlet mysteriously described as “business reasons.” During that season, a big question was asked: “How tall is Jake Gyllenhaal?” More complicated questions, like why Britney Spears was photographed holding an obscure self-help book by Andrea Siegel. There is also a search for a treasured belt buckle, a missing video store, and a lunch box.
It’s been about two years since Sheryl Sandberg stepped down from the board of Facebook’s parent company, Meta.
As Chief Operating Officer of Meta, Mr. Sandberg was the lead architect of Facebook’s digital advertising-driven business model.
The 54-year-old announced he would step down from his role in June 2022 and step down from the Meta board after his term ends in May.
“The Meta business is strong and well-positioned for the future, so we feel now is the right time to exit,” Sandberg said in a Facebook post, adding that he has asked the company’s advisors to He added that he will take office.
Sandberg joined Facebook from Google in 2008 and will step down as head of operations at Meta in 2022, a position he held for 14 years.
In response to Sandberg, Meta CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg said he looked forward to “a new chapter together.”
Sandberg, once Zuckerberg’s second-in-command, was one of the company’s most visible executives.
While serving as chief operating officer of Mr. Zuckerberg’s social media empire, she covered the Cambridge Analytica scandal, the use of the Facebook platform in organizing the 2021 Capitol riot, and Facebook’s massive success. faced a number of controversies, including continued concerns about mining user data to power its advertising business.
Prior to joining Facebook, Mr. Sandberg was vice president of global online sales and operations at Google and served as chief of staff at the U.S. Treasury under former President Bill Clinton.
Sandberg, a Harvard graduate, is the author of several books, including the 2013 feminist manifesto “Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead.”
The distribution of ions at the air-water interface plays a decisive role in many natural processes. Some studies suggest that large ions tend to exhibit interfacial activity, suggesting that the ions sit above the water surface, thereby inducing an electric field that determines the interfacial water structure. But new research by chemists at the University of Cambridge and the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research casts doubt on this view. Their results show that ions in typical electrolyte solutions are actually located in subsurface regions and that such interfaces stratify into two characteristic aqueous layers.
Littman other. They show that the ions and water molecules at the surface of most aqueous salt solutions, known as electrolyte solutions, are organized in a completely different way than previously understood.Image credit: Littmann other., doi: 10.1038/s41557-023-01416-6.
Many important reactions related to climate and environmental processes occur where water molecules come into contact with air.
For example, ocean water evaporation plays an important role in atmospheric chemistry and climate science.
Understanding these responses is critical to efforts to reduce human impact on the planet.
The distribution of ions at the air-water interface can influence atmospheric processes. However, accurately understanding the microscopic reactions at these important interfaces has been hotly debated.
Dr. Yair Littman of the University of Cambridge and his colleagues set out to study how water molecules are affected by the distribution of ions at the very point where air and water meet.
Traditionally, this has been done with a technique called oscillatory sum frequency generation (VSFG).
Using this laser irradiation technique, it is possible to directly measure molecular vibrations at these key interfaces.
However, while the strength of the signal can be measured, this technique does not measure whether the signal is positive or negative, which has previously made the results difficult to interpret. Furthermore, using only experimental data can lead to ambiguous results.
The authors overcame these challenges by utilizing a more sophisticated form of VSFG, called heterodyne detection (HD)-VSFG, to study different electrolyte solutions.
We then developed sophisticated computer models to simulate the interface in various scenarios.
The combined results showed that both positively charged ions, called cations, and negatively charged ions, called anions, are depleted from the water-air interface.
The cations and anions of simple electrolytes orient water molecules both upward and downward.
This is a reversal of the textbook model that teaches that ions form an electric double layer, orienting water molecules in only one direction.
“Our study shows that the surface of a simple electrolyte solution has a different ion distribution than previously thought, and that the ion-rich subsurface determines the composition of the interface. .At the top you have a few layers of pure water, then you have the ions, the “dense layer,'' and finally the bulk salt solution,'' Dr. Littman said.
“Our paper shows that combining high-level HD-VSFG with simulation is a valuable tool that contributes to the molecular-level understanding of liquid interfaces,” said Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research researchers said Dr. Kuo-Yang Chiang. .
“These kinds of interfaces exist everywhere on Earth, and studying them not only helps our fundamental understanding, but can also lead to the development of better devices and technologies.” said Professor Misha Bonn, also of the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research.
“We are applying these same methods to study solid/liquid interfaces, which could have applications in batteries and energy storage.”
of study It was published in the magazine natural chemistry.
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Y. Littman other. Surface stratification determines the structure of interfacial water in simple electrolyte solutions. nut.chemistry, published online on January 15, 2024. doi: 10.1038/s41557-023-01416-6
In bottom trawling, a weighted net is dragged across the ocean floor.
NarisaFotoSS/Shutterstock
Bottom trawling releases about 340 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year, according to the first study to estimate these emissions. This represents almost 1% of the world's CO2 emissions, but is a major contribution that has been overlooked until now.
Trawling involves dragging a weighted net across the ocean floor to capture bottom-dwelling fish, crustaceans, and shellfish. Although this method of fishing is widely used around the world, it is controversial because the fishing gear damages undersea environments such as cold-water reefs. Some corals are thousands of years old.
“Trawling is a highly destructive fishing method as the nets and weights dragged along the bottom destroy marine habitat, which can take years to rebuild and recover.” he says. Micah Peck from the University of Sussex, UK, was not involved in the study.
It also stirs up sediment, releasing the oxygen needed by microorganisms to break down organic matter into carbon dioxide. Otherwise, these deposits could continue to accumulate for thousands of years, with the organic matter within them preserved by low-oxygen conditions. This means that carbon is effectively trapped.
In 2021, trisha atwood Researchers at Utah State University in Logan combined a study that looked at the amount of carbon dioxide released during trawling with data on the global scale of trawling. global fishing watch.The team concluded that released in large quantities into the seawater.
But the big unanswered question was how much of the CO2 released from the sediments would be emitted into the atmosphere.
“A lot of countries and different institutions started contacting us about that research,” Atwood says. “But they basically said, as long as it just stays in the ocean, we don't really care.”
So the team teamed up with researchers who had developed computer models of ocean circulation. According to these models, about 55 percent of the CO2 released into the water by trawling will be released into the atmosphere after nine years.
“I was surprised that more than half of them came out,” Atwood said. “And it shows up very quickly.”
According to the global carbon budget, the total amount of CO is2 emissions from human activities Increased to 40.9 billion tons Therefore, if the team's estimates are correct, trawling accounts for about 0.8 percent of global emissions. Air and maritime transport: 2.8%.
Conservationists say the discovery strengthens the case for reducing trawling. “Many marine habitats are trawled at least once a year, resuspending sediment and releasing carbon into the atmosphere,” Peck said. “Banning destructive fishing practices is key to the future of healthy marine ecosystems and the marine ecosystems that depend on them.”
“Measures to reduce the carbon impact of trawling gear are urgently needed, but they must be done as part of a just transition,” said Gareth Cunningham. marine conservation association, is calling for a ban on trawling in so-called marine reserves around the UK. “There is no one-size-fits-all model and solutions will vary by location.”
However, not all researchers are satisfied with this number. “I'm very skeptical of their estimates,” he says. Jan Gerd Hiddink At Bangor University, UK.
Hiddink believes that much of the carbon that reaches the ocean floor is in forms that are difficult to decompose, such as bones, and that carbon is not released even when sediments are disturbed.Atwood's team is probably overestimate emissions Up to 1000x, he claims.
Atwood said this estimate is based on actual measurements. “We conducted a study to measure the amount of carbon dioxide emitted from the ocean floor in areas where trawling takes place,” she says.
She says that the amount of carbon dioxide emitted could be more or less than these studies suggest, although there is a lot of uncertainty because so few such studies have been done. says.
Mr Atwood says the government needs to start calculating the carbon footprint of trawling. “This allows us to decide whether emissions should be regulated,” she says.
What is clear is that Global Fishing Watch's trawling data is based on boats sending automatic signals to satellites, and many trawlers do not have such systems, so the extent of trawling remains under-studied. That means it's bigger than expected.
“We know that we underestimate the global scale and perhaps the intensity of trawling,” Atwood says.
The trawling industry also has an opportunity to sell carbon credits in exchange for reduced emissions, she says. “If you were to put a price on it in today's independent market, it's a $100 million market.”
used by astronomers CSIRO's Australian Telescope Compact Array captured the most detailed radio images ever seen of the 47-member Tukanae star cluster, the second brightest globular cluster in the night sky.
paduano other. identified new radio sources (white squares) at the center of 47 Tucanae (red circles).Image credit: Paduano other., doi: 10.3847/1538-4357/ad0e68.
Tucanae 47, also known as NGC 104, is a massive ancient globular cluster located approximately 15,300 light-years south of the constellation Tucanae.
At about 120 light-years in diameter, this cluster is so large that despite its distance, it appears to be about the same size as the full moon.
Home to millions of stars, 47 Tucanae is one of the brightest and most massive globular clusters known and is visible to the naked eye.
“Globular clusters are very old, gigantic balls of stars found around the Milky Way. They are incredibly dense, with tens to millions of stars packed together inside the ball.” said Dr. Arash Bahramian, astronomer at the Curtin University Node of the International Center for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR).
“Our images are of 47 Tucanae, one of the most massive globular clusters in the galaxy. It has more than a million stars and a very bright, very dense core.”
The ultra-high-sensitivity radio images of 47 species of Tucanidae were created from more than 450 hours of observations with CSIRO's Australian Telescope Compact Array (ATCA).
“The 47 Tukanae are visible to the naked eye and were first cataloged in the 1700s,” Dr. Bahramian said.
“By imaging in great detail, we were able to discover an incredibly faint radio signal at the center of the cluster that was previously undetectable.”
“The detection of the signal is an exciting discovery and can be attributed to one of two possibilities,” said Dr. Alessandro Paduano, also from ICRAR's Curtin University Node.
“First, the 47 Tukanae may contain black holes with masses between the supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies and the stellar black holes created by collapsing stars. .”
“Intermediate-mass black holes are thought to exist within globular clusters, but they have not yet been clearly detected.”
“If this signal turns out to be a black hole, it would be a very important discovery and the first radio detection of a black hole in a star cluster.”
The second possible source is a pulsar. This is a rotating neutron star that emits radio waves.
“This is an interesting discovery scientifically, as a pulsar so close to the center of a cluster could be used to search for as yet undetected central black holes,” Paduano said.
NASA’s Stardust mission returned rocky material from the coma of comet 81P/Wild 2 (pronounced “Wild-2”) to Earth on January 15, 2006. Comet Wild 2 contains volatile ice, which may have accreted beyond Neptune’s orbit. The Wild 2 sample was expected to be rich in primordial molecular cloud material, i.e., interstellar and circumstellar particles. Instead, it turns out that Wild 2’s interstellar component is very small, and nearly all of the returned particles formed in a wide and diverse region of the solar nebula. Although some features of the Wild 2 material resemble primitive chondrite meteorites, the diversity of its composition attests to a very different origin and evolutionary history from asteroids. Wild 2 has very little impact debris from asteroids, and may have accreted dust from the outer and inner Solar System before the solar nebula dispersed.
Comet 81P/Wild 2. Image courtesy of NASA.
wild 2 is a small comet in the shape of a flat sphere, approximately 1.65 x 2 x 2.75 km (1.03 x 1.24 x 1.71 miles).
Discovered by Paul Wilde on January 6, 1978, this comet has an orbital period of 6.2 years.
Wild 2 is known as a fresh periodic comet. It orbits the Sun between Mars and Jupiter, but it did not always follow this orbit.
Originally, this comet’s orbit was between the orbits of Uranus and Jupiter. On September 9, 1974, a gravitational interaction between Wild 2 and Jupiter changed its orbital period from her 43 years to her 6.2 years.
“Eighteen years after NASA’s Stardust mission returned the first known sample from a comet to Earth, the true nature of the icy object is coming into focus,” says the new study. said author Ryan Oriol, a researcher at Washington University in St. Louis.
“When Stardust launched in 1999, many scientists predicted that the comet’s rocky material would be dominated by the primordial dust that built our solar system, the ‘stardust’ from which the mission takes its name. I was there.”
“But the actual samples told a different story: Wild 2 contained a potpourri of dust formed from various early events in the solar system’s history.”
For Dr. Oriole, the discovery that Wild 2 contained records of “local” events was exciting.
“This comet was a witness to the events that shaped the solar system into what we see today,” he said.
“Because the comet was kept in a cold storage in space for almost its entire life, it avoided the heat and water alterations seen in asteroid samples.”
“Comet Wild 2 contains things never seen before in a meteorite, including rare carbon and iron assemblages and precursors to the igneous globules that make up the most common type of meteorite. . And all of these objects are beautifully preserved within Wild 2.”
“Almost 20 years later, scientists have had enough time to analyze the tiny amounts of material returned from the Stardust mission, less than a milligram (think a grain of sand). You might see it.”
“But this material is dispersed into thousands of tiny particles on a collector the size of a pizza.”
“Almost every Wild 2 particle is unique and has a different story to tell. Extracting and analyzing these grains is a time-consuming process. But the scientific benefits are huge. .”
“Most of the Wild 2 particles have not yet been studied and certainly hold many more surprises. Over time, we will be able to study the samples using new techniques that did not exist at the start of the mission.” Masu.”
“Stardust samples, microscopic particles taken from celestial bodies less than two miles wide, contain a deep record of the past that spans billions of miles. After 18 years of studying this comet, we have We now have a better understanding of the dynamic formative period.”
study Published in Journal November 2023 issue geochemistry.
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Ryan C. Oriol. 2023. Comet 81P/Wild 2: A record of the solar system’s wild youth. geochemistry 83 (4): 126046; doi: 10.1016/j.chemer.2023.126046
Paleontologists from the CSIC National Museum of Natural History have identified a new genus and species of medium-sized cat from a partial jaw found in the urban area of Madrid, Spain.
Mandible, skull, masticatory muscles, and life-like reconstruction Mageliferis Pegnai. Image credit: Jesus Gamarra.
A new breed of cat, its name is Mageliferis Pegnai lived in what is now Spain about 15.5 million years ago (mid Miocene).
belonged to felineThey have a bony hyoid bone, which allows them to purr, but not to roar.
Fossilized remains are Mageliferis Pegnai They were discovered in 2007 at Principe Pio-2, a recently discovered fossil locality located in the urban limits of the city of Madrid, Spain.
The specimen is very well preserved, showing a complete hemimandible and all teeth except the incisors.
It is very complete and in very good preservation, providing very interesting information for making paleoecological inferences about this new feline.
“We recovered a nearly complete jaw with almost all teeth preserved in exceptional condition,” Dr. Siliceo said.
“What was most surprising was that underneath it was a small second molar, a tooth that does not exist in all modern and fossil cats. pro airlus”
“Compared to modern cats, the half-jaw of cats is Mageliferis Pegnai Principe's Pío-2 is felis sylvestrisindicates a similar size. caracal caracal, Reptile Lus Servaland Lynx'' said the paleontologists.
“Nevertheless, if we show the mandibles of these species with the same mandibular length for ease of comparison, the dentition of the new species is clearly smaller than that of the latter species, giving the specimen a more robust appearance; Has a relatively robust appearance; high mandibular body very similar to larger mandibular body Lynx”
According to the authors, Mageliferis Pegnai It is thought that they were able to generate a powerful bite force when hunting, which allowed them to kill relatively large prey.
“The Principe pio-2 feline may have preyed on relatively larger prey than other extant felines of similar size,” the researchers said.
their paper this month, Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.
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Manuel J. Salesa other. Unraveling the diversity of early cats: A new genus of cats (Carnivora, Felidae) from the mid-Miocene of Madrid (Spain). Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, published online on January 9, 2024. doi: 10.1080/02724634.2023.2288924
According to a new study, Greenland’s ice sheet has lost approximately 1,965 square miles to glacier retreat since 1985, which is about the same area as the state of Delaware. The study utilized satellite images to track the retreat and discovered that iceberg collapse is accelerating in Greenland, with previous analyses potentially underestimating its impact. The authors of the study noted that the current estimates of ice sheet mass balance may underestimate recent mass loss from Greenland by up to 20%. In recent decades, nearly all of Greenland’s glaciers have thinned or retreated.
The study, published in the journal Nature, is another indication that Greenland’s ice is melting at a rapid rate. There is growing concern among scientists that global warming could trigger a major ice sheet tipping point. If Greenland’s ice completely melts, sea levels could rise by almost 7 feet and change ocean circulation patterns. Additionally, the study suggests that the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change may be underestimating how much ice is being lost in Greenland.
Several studies published last year highlighted Greenland’s rapid changes, including one that found the rate of glacier retreat in the 21st century to be twice as fast as the 20th century. Another study showed that floating ice shelves in northern Greenland have lost over 35% of their total volume and are weakening, which could threaten ice sheet stability.
In November, a report by 60 leading snow and ice scientists raised concerns about the fate of the world’s ice sheets, warning that if global average temperatures rise to about 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial baselines, the planet could see sea level rise of more than 40 feet in the coming centuries. The report also indicates that by 2 degrees Celsius, most of Greenland, most of West Antarctica, and vulnerable parts of East Antarctica will have a very long-term chance of warming, leading to relentless sea level rise and decline.
Do not panic! Disease X doesn’t exist yet, but it might someday. Disease The term, coined in 2017, can be used to mean a newly discovered pathogen or a known pathogen with newly acquired pandemic potential. According to the latter definition, covid-19 was the first disease X. However, in the future another disease may appear.
Why are people talking about it now?
The World Health Organization is warning world leaders about the risks of future pandemics at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, this week. “Some people say this could cause panic,” says WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “No. It’s happened so many times in our history that it’s better to anticipate what might happen and be prepared for it.”
What will be the next disease, X?
We don’t know – that’s why it’s called Disease X. Coronaviruses, a large group of viruses, have long been seen as prime candidates for causing new pandemics, even before the COVID-19 outbreak. That’s because the new coronavirus was not the first dangerous pathogen in this group. In 2002, another coronavirus began to spread in China. It caused a type of pneumonia called SARS, which killed about one in 10 people who contracted it, before being stopped by strict infection control measures. Another more deadly coronavirus, called MERS, occasionally occurs and causes pneumonia that kills one in three people infected. However, recent research suggests that it will be more difficult for SARS and MERS to cause new pandemics. That’s because almost everyone in the world now has antibodies to the virus that causes COVID-19, and these appear to offer partial protection against most other pathogens in the coronavirus family. It is.
Are there any other candidates with pandemic potential?
Many diseases, some well-known and some less well-known, can pose a global threat. Influenza strains have caused several global pandemics in the past, including the 1918 “Spanish Flu,” one of the deadliest diseases in history. A highly virulent avian influenza virus is currently sweeping the world, and birds can sometimes infect mammals. causing mass deaths. Just this week, he was named as the culprit behind the deaths of 17,000 baby elephant seals in Argentina last October. There are other sources of infection, including Ebola, which causes severe bleeding, and Zika, a virus transmitted by mosquitoes that can cause babies to have smaller heads if infected during pregnancy. WHO updated its report List of pathogens with the highest pandemic potential In 2022.
What can be done to stop disease X?
There’s some good news. The COVID-19 pandemic may have made it easier to stop future Disease X outbreaks. COVID-19 has spurred the development of new vaccine designs, including those that can be quickly repurposed to target new pathogens. For example, this has led to the emergence of mRNA-based vaccines. The formula contains a short piece of genetic material that causes the body’s immune cells to produce the coronavirus’s “spike” protein, but can be updated to allow the cells to mass-produce a different protein by simply rewriting the mRNA sequence. there is a possibility.
Is there anything else I can do to fight disease X?
Mr Tedros said countries needed better early warning systems for emerging diseases and health services needed to be more resilient to unexpected spikes in demand. “When hospitals exceed capacity, [with covid], we lost a lot of people because we couldn’t manage them. There wasn’t enough space and there wasn’t enough oxygen. ” Tedros said health services must be able to scale up response capacity on demand to avoid the same thing happening when Disease X occurs. Fortunately, they can make such preparations without knowing exactly what disease X will be. “Disease X is a placeholder,” he says. “You can prepare for any illness.”
The pursuit of profits from artificial intelligence by big technology companies is reckless. Urgent action is necessary to mitigate the risks from this rapidly growing sector, the UN chief has warned.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres issued a scathing attack on technology multinationals during the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos. He stated that each advance in generative AI has heightened the threat of unintended consequences.
Guterres connected the risks related to AI to those posed by the climate crisis, highlighting that the international community lacks a strategy to address either issue.
During the WEF in Switzerland, the UN Secretary-General appealed to technology industry representatives in the audience to collaborate with governments in establishing guardrails for AI.
He referred to a warning in an IMF report, saying, “This technology has great potential for sustainable development, but it is very likely to exacerbate inequality.”
Guterres argued that influential technology companies are prioritizing profits without regard for human rights, personal privacy, and social impact.
While tech companies claim to have preventive measures in place to stop AI from being used for crime or other nefarious purposes, Guterres insisted that more action is necessary, urging governments and international organizations such as the United Nations to play a role in ensuring that AI is a force for good.
He emphasized the need for governments to work with technology companies to develop a risk management framework for current AI developments and to monitor and mitigate future damage, as well as to increase access to AI to bridge the digital divide.
Sam Altman, an executive at OpenAichief, highlighted the requirement for energy breakthroughs to meet the future demands of AI. He underlined the need for climate-friendly energy sources such as nuclear fusion, cheap solar power, and storage.
Guterres also criticized fossil fuel companies for impeding progress on climate change and stressed the importance of phasing out fossil fuels for a just and equitable transition to renewable energy.
In summary, Guterres highlighted the need for a significant global strategy to address the threats posed by climate change and uncontrolled AI.
Robot dodecahedron mounted on a submersible (circled area)
brennan phillips
The robotic dodecahedron can capture fragile deep-sea animals, collect tissue samples, and build three-dimensional scans of the creatures, potentially speeding up the cataloging of deep-sea life. Up to 66% of marine species are still unknown to science.
brennan phillips RAD2 Sampler and colleagues at the University of Rhode Island have developed the RAD2 Sampler, which is designed to be mounted on any submersible to collect fresh tissue samples in situ from living animals. They hope this will reveal more about the creature than existing techniques, which are typically exposed to stress when pulled up from the depths.
RAD2 is a dodecahedron with an internal volume large enough to hold a basketball. It can be folded and unfolded on command to temporarily capture organisms for detailed examination and take small tissue samples that are stored directly on board the submarine for later genetic analysis. It is designed to.
The ultimate goal is to take a small biopsy and release the animal relatively unscathed, but RAD2's current technique (called tissue cutting) is “a little more crude,” Phillips said.
RAD2 has already been tested on two expeditions, collecting up to 14 tissue samples a day at a depth of around 1200 meters. “We could get small pieces of tissue, and sometimes we could get whole animals,” he says. “It depended on how big it was. So I can't say we've been able to release the animal unharmed after that, but we're moving towards that.”
The robot sampler is also equipped with a 4K resolution video camera to capture high-quality footage of the animal in motion, and a virtual model of the animal is constructed by various 3D scanning devices. In the future, Phillips said, he might be able to put sensors on each of his 12 sides of the dodecahedron and take different measurements of living things at once.
Phillips called other sampling methods “outdated” and said they essentially require people to manually put things into jars for later analysis, or use submersibles to do the same thing. Masu.
Preservation at the point of collection using RAD2 improves the quality of tissue samples and also allows researchers to detect which genes are expressed, further informing animal behavior and physiology. Phillips said it could shed some light. “This is a luxury item,” he says. “This is the best you can get with this animal, better than anyone we’ve ever had.”
eva stewart Researchers at the University of Southampton in the UK say that while digital data on deep-sea life can be a useful tool for research, there is no substitute for capturing and preserving entire samples.
“There are thousands of type specimens here. [at the university]” says Stewart.Some of them were collected by Swedish scientists carl linnaeusShe died in 1778 and says: Once you have the specimen, you are done. Even as our science changes, we can keep coming back to it. ”
But Stewart said underwater scans are useful for gelatinous and other delicate animals that are difficult to collect intact, and for how the creatures behave in their natural environment, rather than after being hoisted onto the deck of a boat. I agree that it may be helpful to understand.
“We've been conducting research to examine gene expression in sea cucumbers because we want to understand how sea cucumbers behave when they're stressed or affected by things like climate change,” says Stewart. he says. “But when you collect them and bring them to the surface, it's stressful. So being able to harvest tissue from them in a more natural way means you know what their natural baseline is, so they can It means we may be able to see more clearly what happens when placed in different environments.”
You can learn more about david atance del olmo Researchers from the University of Alcalá in Spain analyzed mortality data from 194 countries from 1990 to 2010. These countries can generally be classified into five groups according to longevity trends.
The group with the highest life expectancy consisted of countries with the highest incomes, including Australia, Japan, the United States, the United Kingdom, and the rest of Western Europe. Rwanda and Uganda were the only groups with the lowest life expectancy.
Comparing the average life expectancy of men and women in these countries, men in Rwanda and Uganda experienced the largest increase in life expectancy, from just 30.85 years in 1990 to 45.22 years, an increase of 14.37 years in 2010. became. Life expectancy for women in these countries increased by just 0.94 years from 50.37 years to 51.31 years during this period.
Among the group with the longest life expectancy, the average life expectancy in 1990 was 4.84 years, favoring women. This decreased slightly to 4.77 years for her in 2010, but researchers predict that the gap will narrow further, reaching 3.4 years for him by 2030.
The researchers observed the same trends for three other groups of countries.
Although the researchers only looked at data through 2010, they expect similar trends to continue into the present. However, they acknowledge that COVID-19 may have had an impact on human life expectancy, particularly for men.
In recent decades, both men and women have benefited from medical advances and increased awareness of diseases such as AIDS, Del Olmo said. Smoking and alcohol-related deaths, which particularly affect men, were also down, which may have contributed to narrowing the gap in life expectancy between men and women, he said.
“This study is consistent with epidemiological trends that suggest global life expectancy is increasing and gender disparities are narrowing over time,” he says. Brandon Yang at the University of California, San Francisco.
Tardigrade observed using a fluorescence microscope.Some organs are highlighted with fluorescent markers
Smythers et al/PLoS ONE (CC-BY 4.0)
Tardigrades are known for their ability to withstand extreme environments, and we now know how they do this. Small molecular sensors inside cells can detect when harmful molecules called free radicals are produced in excess, causing a state of dormancy.
Tardigrades, also known as tardigrades, are eight-legged microscopic invertebrates found throughout the world. Under adverse conditions such as sub-zero temperatures and strong radiation, the creatures shrink into a dry ball called a tongue and enter a deep hibernation state.
“Tardigrades do not breed under extreme conditions, but they can overwinter.” Derrick Colling At Marshall University in West Virginia. “We wanted to understand how they could step in there.”
To study, Kolling and colleagues exposed tardigrades to high levels of hydrogen peroxide, sugar, salt, or temperatures of -80°C (-112°F) to induce Tun. As a result of these stresses, tardigrades produce harmful, highly reactive molecules called oxygen free radicals.
The free radicals then go on to react with other molecules, team members say. leslie hix At the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Importantly, the research team discovered that free radicals oxidize an amino acid called cysteine, which is one of the building blocks of proteins in the body. These reactions change protein structure and function and signal the onset of quiescence.
In experiments where cysteine oxidation was prevented, tardigrades were unable to enter the tun state. “Cysteine acts like a kind of regulatory sensor,” Hicks says. “This allows the tardigrade to sense its environment and respond to stress.”
When conditions improved, the researchers discovered that the cysteine was no longer oxidized and instructed the tardigrades to wake up from the tongue.
“Whether this is a universally conserved protection mechanism and whether this is conserved across tardigrade species is a really important question,” Hicks says. Her answers, she says, could help us better understand the aging process and how to make long-term space travel a reality.
Apple overtook Samsung as the world’s top smartphone seller, ending the South Korean tech company’s 12-year reign as the industry leader.
According to statistics from International Data Corporation (IDC), iPhone sold 234.6 million units in 2023, overtaking Samsung’s 226.6 million units.
IDC said Apple’s laurels with the launch of the iPhone 15 in September were due to trends such as the growing popularity of high-end devices, which now account for more than 20% of the market.
“The last time a company other than Samsung topped the smartphone market was in 2010, and in 2023, it is now Apple,” IDC said. “A sort of change in power at the top in the largest consumer electronics market was propelled by Apple’s record market share, putting it on top for the first time.”
The $2.8 trillion (£2.2 trillion) US tech company had a 20.1% market share, ahead of Samsung’s 19.4%, according to IDC. Apple has established itself as the largest smartphone maker in terms of sales and profits, but this is the first time it has led the market in terms of unit sales.
The sales data was released ahead of the launch of Samsung’s latest models on Wednesday, with the South Korean conglomerate expected to launch the Galaxy S24, S24 Plus and S24 Ultra with features powered by artificial intelligence.
Ben Wood, principal analyst at research firm CCS Insight, said the IDC data was a “mental” blow to Samsung, but he expected the competition to remain close this year.
“While I think it will remain a close race throughout 2024, there is little doubt that Apple is on a strong trajectory, and the loyalty that consumers have for Apple devices will continue to grow once they are acquired,” he said. This means that they rarely switch to something else.”
Wood said this data further emphasizes the importance of Samsung’s new product announcements on Wednesday.
“This means Samsung needs to do everything it can to not only attract new customers for its devices, but also to retain existing users.”
IDC also pointed to the increasing fragmentation of the smartphone market running on the Android operating system, citing low-end Samsung rivals such as Transsion, Xiaomi, Honor and Google.
IDC said the success of Huawei products, which were well-received in China, also contributed to Samsung’s sales decline. The data provider added that Huawei remains a competitive threat to Apple in China, the US company’s biggest market.
Global smartphone shipments fell 3.2% to 1.17 billion units in 2023, according to IDC, but the group said the industry is recovering after a downturn.
IDC added: “Growth in the second half of this year solidified the recovery expected in 2024.”
Last week, Apple was overtaken by Microsoft as the world’s most valuable company at $2.9 trillion.
Two weeks before the pandemic lockdown in March 2020, I flew to Tucson, Arizona, and knocked on the door of a suburban ranch-style home. I was there to visit Stuart Hameroff. He is an anesthesiologist and co-inventor with Nobel Prize-winning physicist Roger Penrose of a radical proposal for how conscious experience arises: that the origins of conscious experience lie in quantum phenomena in the brain.
Such ideas, in one form or another, have existed on the fringes of mainstream consciousness research for decades. There is no solid experimental evidence that quantum effects occur in the brain, as critics claim, and aside from a clear idea of how quantum effects produce consciousness, they come in from the cold. Not that it was. “It was very popular to bash us,” Hameroff told me.
But after a week of questioning him about the concept, I realized that at least his version of quantum consciousness is widely misunderstood. Partly, I think it’s Hameroff’s fault. He gives the impression of a single package. In fact, his ideas are a series of independent proposals, each forcing us to confront important questions about the relationship between fundamental physics, biology, and the indescribable thing called consciousness.
Furthermore, during my visit I saw several experiments that Hameroff had proposed come to fruition, and it became clear that his ideas could be applied to experimental research. Researchers have now provided preliminary evidence suggesting that fragile quantum states can persist in the brain and that anesthetics can influence those states.
Google made a promise in July 2022 to remove location data of users who visited abortion clinics. However, little progress has been made in fulfilling this promise. This move would make it more difficult for law enforcement to use this information to investigate and prosecute people seeking abortions in states where abortion is banned or restricted. Recent research shows that Google still retains location history data in 50% of cases.
Google originally made this promise shortly after the Supreme Court’s decision to end federal abortion protections. The company stated it would remove entries for locations considered “private” or sensitive, including “health care facilities such as counseling centers, domestic violence shelters, and abortion clinics.” However, as of now, there has been no implementation of this policy. A study conducted by tech advocacy group Accountable Tech found that Google does not mask location data in all cases, even after claiming to prioritize user privacy and implement changes to its location retention policy “as promised” in early 2022.
Accountable Tech’s latest study revealed that while Google’s location retention rates had improved slightly, the company was still not deleting location history in all cases as promised. Google Maps’ Director of Products, Marlo McGriff, disputed this finding and stated that any claims of non-compliance are false.
Researchers used her latest Android device to guide her to an abortion clinic and tested what location data it stored about her trip in the latest study. The study also found that Google still holds data on the location search queries and other criminal data as well, from emails to Google search data. Law enforcement’s use of reverse search warrants and geofence location warrants have raised new concerns about user data privacy.
Recently, Google announced plans to change the way it stores location history data for all its users. This change includes storing location data on users’ devices by default and encrypting and deleting all location data backed up to Google’s cloud storage after three months. However, Accountable Tech remains skeptical of Google’s promises to protect location data, based on its history of unfulfilled commitments.
The Guardian has revealed that social media companies relying on artificial intelligence software to manage their platforms are producing unworkable reports on child sexual abuse cases, leaving U.S. police unable to uncover potential leads, which is delaying the investigation into suspected looters.
By law, U.S.-based social media companies are required to report child sexual abuse content detected on their platforms to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), which serves as a national clearinghouse for child abuse information and forwards information to relevant law enforcement agencies in the United States and around the world. The company said it received more than 32 million reports of suspected child sexual exploitation and approximately 88 million images, videos, and other files from businesses and the general public in 2022.
Meta is the largest reporter of this information, with over 27 million (84%) generated by Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp platforms in 2022. NCMEC is partially funded by the Department of Justice and also receives private sources of corporate donations.
Social media companies, including Meta, use AI to detect and report suspicious content on their sites and employ human moderators to send some flagged content to law enforcement. However, U.S. law enforcement agencies can only disclose AI-generated child sexual abuse material (CSAM) by serving a search warrant on a company that has filed a report, which can add days or even weeks to the investigation process.
“If a company reports a file to NCMEC and does not indicate that it viewed the file before reporting, we will not be able to open the file,” said Staka Shehan, vice president of analytical services at NCMEC.
To protect your privacy under the Fourth Amendment, neither law enforcement officials nor the federally funded NCMEC will issue a search warrant unless the contents of the report are clear and first reviewed by a social media company representative.
NCMEC staff and law enforcement agencies cannot legally see the content of AI-generated content that is not seen by humans, which can stall investigations into suspected predators for several weeks, resulting in the loss of evidence that may be possible to connect.
“Any delay [in viewing the evidence] “The longer criminals go undetected, the more detrimental it is to ensuring community safety,” said an assistant U.S. attorney in California, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “They are dangerous to all children.”
In December, the New Mexico Attorney General’s Office filed a lawsuit against Meta, alleging that its social network has become a marketplace for child predators and that Meta has repeatedly failed to report illegal activity on its platform. woke up. In response, Meta said its priority was to combat child sexual abuse content.
The state attorney general laid the blame for the fight to send actionable information at the feet of Meta. “Reports showing the inefficiency of the company’s AI-generated cyber information systems prove what we said in the complaint,” Raul Torrez said in a statement to the Guardian.
To ensure the safety of children, keep parents informed, and enable law enforcement to effectively investigate and prosecute online sex crimes against children, the company is reforming, staffing levels, and policies. , it’s long past time to implement algorithmic changes,” Torrez added.
Despite legal limitations on moderation AI, social media companies are likely to increase its use in the near future. In 2023, OpenAI, developer of ChatGPT, announced they claimed that large-scale language models can do the job of human content moderators and have roughly the same accuracy.
However, child safety experts say that the AI software used by social media companies to moderate content already knows the digital fingerprints of images, known as hashes, and that the AI software used by social media companies to moderate content cannot be used to detect known cases of child sexual abuse. It claims to be effective only when identifying images of Lawyers interviewed said AI would be ineffective when newly created images or when known images or videos are altered.
“There is always concern about cases involving newly identified victims, and because they are new, the materials do not have a hash value,” said the director of the Zero Abuse Project, a nonprofit organization focused on combating child abuse.
said senior lawyer Kristina Korobov. . “If humans were doing the work, there would be more discoveries of newly discovered victims.”
Geometric problems involve proving facts about angles and lines in complex shapes
Google Deep Mind
Google DeepMind's AI can solve some International Mathematics Olympiad (IMO) problems in geometry almost as well as the best human contestants.
“AlphaGeometry's results are surprising and breathtaking,” says IMO Chairman Gregor Driner. “It looks like AI will be winning his IMO gold medal much sooner than was thought a few months ago.”
IMO is one of the most difficult math competitions in the world for middle school students. Answering questions correctly requires mathematical creativity, something AI systems have long struggled with. For example, GPT-4, who has shown remarkable reasoning ability in other areas, gets his 0% score on IMO geometry problems, and even a specialized AI can answer them just as well as an average contestant. I'm having a hard time.
This is partly due to the difficulty of the problem, but also due to the lack of training data. This contest has been held annually since 1959, and each round consists of only six questions. However, some of the most successful AI systems require millions or even billions of data points. In particular, geometry problems, which account for one or two out of six questions and require proving facts about angles or lines in complex shapes, are particularly difficult to convert into a computer-friendly format.
Thanh Luong Google's DeepMind and his colleagues got around this problem by creating a tool that can generate hundreds of millions of machine-readable geometric proofs. Using this data he trained an AI called AlphaGeometry and when he tested it on 30 of his IMO geometry questions, the IMO gold medalist's estimated score based on his score in the contest was 25.9, whereas the AI answered 25 of them correctly.
“our [current] AI systems still struggle with capabilities such as deep reasoning. There you have to plan many steps in advance and understand the big picture. That's why mathematics is such an important benchmark and test set in our explorations. to artificial general intelligence,” Luong said at a press conference.
AlphaGeometry is made up of two parts, which Luong likens to different thinking systems in the brain. One system is fast and intuitive, the other is slower and more analytical. The first intuitive part is a language model called GPT-f, similar to the technology behind ChatGPT. It is trained on millions of generated proofs and suggests which theorems and arguments to try next for your problem. Once the next step is proposed, a slower but more careful “symbolic reasoning” engine uses logical and mathematical rules to fully construct the argument proposed by GPT-f. The two systems then work together and switch between each other until the problem is resolved.
While this method has been very successful in solving IMO geometry problems, Luong says the answers it constructs tend to be longer and less “pretty” than human proofs. However, it can also find things that humans overlook. For example, a better and more general solution was discovered for the question from his IMO in 2004 than the one listed in the official answer.
I think it's great that you can solve IMO geometry problems in this way. Yang Hui He However, IMO problems must be solvable using theorems taught at undergraduate level and below, so this system inherently limits the mathematics that can be used. Expanding the amount of mathematical knowledge that AlphaGeometry can access could improve the system and even help make new mathematical discoveries, he says.
It's also interesting to see how AlphaGeometry deals with situations where you don't know what you need to prove, since mathematical insight often comes from exploring theorems that have no fixed proof. Yes, he says. “If I don't know what an endpoint is, can I find it in all sets?” [mathematical] Are there any new and interesting theorems? ”
Last year, algorithmic trading firm XTX Markets Total prize money: $10 million For AI math models, the first publicly shared AI model to earn an IMO gold medal will receive a $5 million grand prize, with small progress awards for major milestones.
“Solving the IMO geometry problem is one of the planned advancement awards supported by the $10 million AIMO Challenge Fund,” said Alex Gerko of XTX Markets. “Even before we announce all the details of this Progress Award, we are excited to see the progress we are making towards this goal, including making our models and data openly available and , which involves solving real geometry problems during a live IMO contest.”
DeepMind declined to say whether it plans to use AlphaGeometry in live IMO contests or extend the system to solve other IMO problems that are not based on geometry. However, DeepMind previously entered a public protein folding prediction competition to test the AlphaFold system.
The year was 1974. While newspaper columnists were busy talking about the development of in vitro fertilization and the possibility of “test tube babies,” the surprising discovery about male fertility completely escaped their notice.
Two doctors, Iowa State CM Kinloch Nelson and Raymond Bunge, compared semen samples from that time with historical data. Dramatic changes in a man’s sperm count Over the past 20 years. In 1951, one milliliter of semen contained 107 million sperm. By the 1970s, that number had fallen by more than 50% to just 48 million people. The average volume of semen per ejaculation also decreased.
By the 1990s, the problem began to receive considerable scientific attention, although some researchers remained skeptical. They blamed differences in technology or the fact that most of the research involved men already undergoing treatment for infertility. Those doubts are now diminishing. “There is a tremendous amount of scientific evidence showing this decline,” he says. Albert Salas-Huetos at the University of Rovira y Virgili, Spain.
For researchers like Salas-Huetos, the big question is no longer whether this so-called “Spermageddon” is really happening, but why and what to do about it. Research is beginning to uncover environmental toxins that may be the culprit, as well as other lifestyle factors that contribute to the problem. With a better idea of the prime suspects, we may finally be able to put the brakes on this trend, or even reverse it.
TikTok’s tarot card reader looks at me through the screen and draws a card.
“If you’re watching this, this is made for you,” she said. And in a way, she’s right. But it wasn’t fate that brought me here, it was an algorithm.
spirituality and mysticism, Found a home online for a long timeBut with the rise of generative AI and personalized content recommendation systems, it’s easier than ever to project a sense of magic into technology.
As Arthur C. Clarke said, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” Anyone who has been offered content that feels eerily tailored to them will appreciate the mysticism of algorithms. You may have wondered about omnipotence. And while there is nothing inherently wrong with experiencing a sense of wonder in the face of technological advances, or using digital technology to enhance spiritual practices, it is important to note that there is nothing inherently wrong with experiencing a sense of wonder in the face of technological advances, or using digital technology to enhance spiritual practices, but when magic and technology collapse Doing so can be dangerous.
Many religious and spiritual spin-off chatbots have emerged leveraging OpenAI’s large-scale language model GPT-4. Get BibleGPT to write personalized Christian verses, use the Jesus AI to have “meaningful conversations with Jesus Christ,” as the website claims, or talk to him about paganism. You can chat with WitchGPT.
“Welcome to the Void” invites the latest chatbot feature from popular astrology app CoStar, encouraging users to seek generated guidance for a fee of about $1 per question. Choose from a list of suggested prompts to “Ask the Stars” if they have a secret fan. “no,”That tells me (rude).
In true CoStar fashion (the app is notoriously cheeky), it scolds you for even asking the question in the first place and suggests that you should instead find gratitude for what you already have.
These examples are a little silly at best, and probably harmless. At worst, it exposes scammers who exploit the human tendency to anthropomorphize technology or gamify social media engagement algorithms to make money by fabricating a sense of insight and enlightenment.
However, there are also people among the chavs who form genuine spiritual communities and engage in witchcraft, etc. sacred traditions online. Like many subcultures, social media can be both a blessing and a curse. Group to connectHowever, it can also lead to the reduction and impurity of cultural practices.
Feminist anthropologist Dr. Emma Quilty, whose forthcoming book on magic and technology, describes a “neoliberal spirituality” that aligns with its collective focus and hyper-individualistic ideas of self-improvement. It distinguishes between things that promote
This is uncomfortably close to commercialized self-care. severed from its black radical feminist roots and was redirected to Capitalist health choices. Kirti believes that trends promoted by social media are resulting in customs becoming disconnected from the (usually Eastern) religious traditions and cultures from which they are imported, and in some cases creating an unsustainable market for products such as crystals and quartz. It emphasizes that this could lead to increased demand. white sage smudging stick.
This is not to say that it is impossible to develop meaningful spiritual communities and practices online, or that it is impossible to have deep experiences using digital tools.
I’m not interested in denying where and how people derive meaning. However, it’s important to remember that technologies such as large-scale language models and personalized recommender systems are ultimately designed to generate value from users.
Deep experience from these tools comes from us humans, not the tools. Mr Quilty said: “Sometimes something can be positive, helpful, or empowering on an individual level, but it can still be harmful at a broader societal level due to the underlying interests and obligations of those who build and implement the technology.” There is a possibility.”
In fact, mistakenly attributing magic to technology can quickly lead us into dangerous waters. It surprises us with its glossy user interface and smooth convenience, and makes us want to peek from behind the curtain at the grumpy old man holding things together with bombastic marketing language and the usual profit-driven old data extractions. It falls directly into the hands of companies that do not.
Magical thinking about technology can be dangerous when it extends to the level of policymaking. Governments and businesses alike are often quick to turn to technology as a silver bullet to complex social problems. And when the true limits and consequences of technology are ignored, e.g. Automation could worsen social inequalityor how ChatGPT did not work without stealing copyrighted material. Automated content moderation relies on exploited invisible workers – that we adopt policies that fail to cure technology’s worst woes, relegating more complex but necessary policy interventions to the background, and all eclipsed by the magical allure of technology; It will be.
Technology is not a panacea to solve social problems and, like magic, can cause great harm when misused for personal gain.
Researchers created tornado-like vortices in superfluid helium
Yoshigin/Shutterstock
Giant quantum vortices could allow researchers to study black holes. This vortex is a special form of liquid helium vortex that exhibits quantum effects. The result has some properties similar to a black hole and acts as a kind of simulator.
In the region around a black hole, the laws of gravity and quantum mechanics interact, producing effects that cannot be observed elsewhere in the universe. This makes these regions particularly important to study. “There are interesting physics happening around black holes, but many of them are out of our reach,” he says. Silke Weinfurtner at the University of Nottingham, UK. “Thus, we can use these quantum simulators to investigate phenomena that occur around black holes.”
To build the quantum simulator, Weinfurtner and his colleagues used superfluid helium, which flows at a very low viscosity, 500 times lower than water. Because it moves without friction, this form of helium exhibits unusual quantum effects and is known as a quantum fluid. The researchers filled a tank with helium with a rotating propeller at the bottom. As the propeller rotated, a tornado-like vortex was generated in the fluid.
“Similar vortices have been created in physical systems other than superfluid helium, but their strength is generally at least several orders of magnitude weaker,” he says. Patrick Svanchara, is also enrolled at the University of Nottingham and is part of the team. The strength and size of the vortex are critical to producing an interaction significant enough to observe between the vortex and the remaining fluid in the tank.
The vortices in this work were a few millimeters in diameter, much larger than other stable vortices created to date. quantum fluid In the past. In quantum liquids, rotation only occurs in tiny “packets” called quanta, which are essentially tiny vortices, so creating such large vortices is difficult. Many of them tend to become unstable when clustered, but the experimental setup here allows the researchers to combine about 40,000 rotating quanta to form what is called a giant quantum vortex. It's done.
“This is an experimental masterpiece,” he says Jeff Steinhauer He received his PhD from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, a pioneer in laboratory simulations of black holes. “They took a very well-established, old, classic technology called superfluid helium and did something really new with it, significantly increasing their technical capabilities compared to what had been done in the past. .”
The researchers observed how small waves in the fluid interacted with vortices. This process mimics the way the universe's cosmic field interacts with a rotating black hole. They discovered hints of a black hole phenomenon called ringdown mode. This phenomenon occurs after two black holes combine and the resulting single black hole is shaken by the residual energy of the combination.
Now that it has been established that this type of vortex exhibits behavior similar to that seen in black holes, researchers plan to use quantum vortices to study more elusive phenomena. “This is an excellent starting point for investigating some black hole physics processes, seeking new insights and potentially discovering hidden treasures along the way,” Weinfurtner says. .
I
He grew up in an era when preadolescent friendships were formed by huddled around a desktop computer and watching YouTube video after YouTube video. unicorn charlie (It was more interesting than I remembered) and harry potter puppet friends (It was less funny than I remember) It was considered the height of comedy. Other than the occasional 6pm viewing of ‘Australia’s Funniest Home Videos’, my comedy diet was limited to his 240p internet videos, passed around like schoolyard contraband.
I have to admit that not much has changed. I still spend a lot of time on the internet, and my friends and I constantly quote obscure pop culture references that have become memes. Sometimes I worry that this has rotted my brain. For now, I will carefully select videos that I found interesting.
1. Would you like to be a guest?
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I love musical theater! I love the thrill of secondary embarrassment! I literally gasped every time I watched this video. Performers, Tay Martinwas involved in 24 hoursbeauty and the beastThe Musical – Casting, direction, costumes and memorization were all done in one day. result? unstable.
2. Shawn Mendes' anxiety failure
This clip of Shawn Mendes 2019 interview It shouldn’t be this funny, but it is. It’s in his choice of words, the way he speaks, and the interviewer’s half-second silence.
3. Homosexuals, straight people, and people in between.
Almost every clip of Tyra Banks feels like a fever dream to me. Making viewers wear slogan T-shirts on national television that color-coded their sexuality? The ’00s were wild. As someone who doesn’t like being in the middle, I appreciate your half-hearted support.
4. Tour of Myra Magdalen's room
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OK, this video is simply iconic. I think about that (and Jimmy Neutron’s father) a lot. For those who don’t know, Myra Magdalene is a TikTok creator and designer who is known for posing in chaotic handmade outfits in front of a wall of keyboards. Here, she takes us on a tour of her bedroom. This is no ordinary bedroom vlog and she is no ordinary girl. You’ll find out soon.
5. I really appreciate it.
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Who among us has not burst into tears or muttered to ourselves at the dinner table? As a water sign, this is relatable, nay, ambitious. Gratitude Diary is afraid of this boy.
6. How to become the #1 fake restaurant on TripAdvisor
If there’s one thing our modern society lacks, it’s a good prank. We need more pranks! Author and filmmaker Uber Butler spent eight months creating a fake restaurant in a bid to steal the number one spot for London’s restaurant on TripAdvisor. This mini-documentary about him is both silly and wise.
Interestingly, the gamma-ray signal detected by NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has a similar orientation to another unexplained feature produced by some of the most energetic cosmic particles ever detected. and are found to be approximately the same size.
This artist's concept shows the entire sky in gamma rays, with a magenta circle indicating the uncertainty in the direction in which more high-energy gamma rays appear to be arriving than average. In this view, the plane of the Milky Way crosses the center of the map. The circle encloses the region that contains these gamma ray sources with a probability of 68% (inside) and 95%. Image credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.
“It was a completely serendipitous discovery. We found a much stronger signal in a different part of the sky than what we were looking for,” said the University of Maryland and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Space. said academic Dr. Alexander Kashlinsky.
Dr. Kasilinsky and his colleagues were looking for gamma-ray signatures associated with the cosmic microwave background (CMB), the oldest light in the universe.
This light occurred when the hot, expanding universe cooled enough to form the first atoms, and this event released a burst of light that could penetrate the universe for the first time.
Stretched out by the subsequent expansion of the universe over the past 13 billion years, this light was first detected in 1965 in the form of faint microwave waves across the sky.
In the 1970s, astronomers noticed that the CMB had a so-called dipole structure, which was later measured with high precision by NASA's COBE mission.
The CMB has more microwaves than average in the direction toward Leo and is about 0.12% hotter, and in the opposite direction it is cooler by the same amount with fewer microwaves than average.
To study small temperature changes within the CMB, this signal must be removed.
Astronomers generally believe that this pattern is the result of our solar system's motion relative to the CMB at about 370 km per second (230 miles per second).
This movement causes a dipole signal in the light coming from astrophysical sources, but so far only the CMB has been accurately measured.
By looking for patterns in other forms of light, astronomers can confirm or refute the idea that the dipole is entirely due to the motion of the solar system.
“Such measurements are important because the discrepancy in the size and orientation of the CMB dipole allows us to extend the possibility of going back to the very beginning of the universe, when the universe was less than a trillionth of a second old. “Because we can get a glimpse of certain physical processes,” said Professor Fernando Atrio Barrandera from the University of Salamanca.
Astronomers reasoned this by summing up years of data from Fermi's Large Area Telescope (LAT).
Due to the effects of relativity, gamma-ray dipoles should be amplified five times more than currently detected CMBs.
The authors integrated 13 years of Fermi LAT observations of gamma rays above about 3 billion electron volts (GeV). For comparison, visible light has an energy of about 2 to 3 electron volts.
They removed all resolved and identified sources and removed the central plane of the Milky Way to analyze the extragalactic gamma-ray background.
“We have discovered a gamma-ray dipole, but its peak is located in the southern sky, far from the CMB, and its magnitude is 10 times larger than expected from our motion.” said astrophysicist Dr. Chris Schroeder. Catholic University of America.
“Although this is not what we were looking for, we think it may be related to similar features reported for the highest-energy cosmic rays.”
Cosmic rays are accelerated charged particles, primarily protons and atomic nuclei. The rarest and most energetic particles, called UHECRs (Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays), carry more than a billion times the energy of 3 GeV gamma rays, and their origin remains one of the greatest mysteries in astrophysics.
Since 2017, the Pierre Auger Observatory in Argentina has report Dipole in the direction of arrival of UHECR.
Because cosmic rays are electrically charged, they are deflected by galaxies' magnetic fields by different amounts depending on their energy, but the peak of the UHECR dipole is at a position in the sky similar to that found by researchers with gamma rays.
And both have surprisingly similar sizes. About 7% more gamma rays or particles than average come from one direction, and correspondingly less gamma rays or particles come from the opposite direction.
“The two phenomena are probably related, and an as-yet-unidentified source may be producing both gamma rays and very high-energy particles,” the scientists said.
“To solve this cosmic puzzle, we must either locate these mysterious sources or propose alternative explanations for both features.”
of findings Published in Astrophysics Journal Letter.
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A. Kashirinsky other. 2024. Exploration of dipoles in the diffuse gamma-ray background. APJL 961, L1; doi: 10.3847/2041-8213/acfedd
BIt's easy to feel a kinship with pop star Selena Gomez, considering her 430 million Instagram followers, reported net worth of $800 million, and close relationship with Taylor Swift. rare. However, 11 days have passed since the new year started, heading “Selena Gomez returns to Instagram, 18 hours after announcing social media hiatus.''
I feel extra conscious of my bad habits – probably due to my depressed body evidence suggests We usually give up on our New Year's resolutions by mid-January.
Info about Selena Gomez
It's not even noon yet and I've spent 45 minutes on Instagram today. She drank two cups of coffee, but I can't rule out the possibility of a third one. My mild headache is a solemn reminder that I ended up having three drinks last night after a sudden hinge date ruined my plans for a quiet evening. And I just took a small swig from her nearly empty vape, which I had vowed to buy one last time.
At least I'm not eating sugar yet.
As you can see, I'm ambivalent about what I consider to be my vices, and I'm more or less attached to them. Most of the time I can ignore them as reliable pleasures in life and they are reasonably tolerable.But peer pressure to be better is always insidious and becomes especially acute at the beginning of a new year..
My newsfeed is full of stories about financial goal setting, improving fitness, non-alcoholic drinks, and sugar substitutes.Friends are pledging to spend the month of dry January taking 10,000 steps a day and cutting out junk food. On the other hand, I think I may be missing out on the tricks of the trade by missing out on the opportunity for a fresh start.
“hand“At this time of year, the focus is on what to start doing and what to stop doing,” says the counselor. georgina starmer. She links it to the excesses of the just-past Christmas season: What do you change? ”
But the flip side of this focus on self-improvement is the need for self-monitoring. We become more aware of our supposed flaws and shortcomings, which may not be particularly harmful and may even bring us joy.
PIf you're of a certain age, there's no doubt that you have fond memories of the paper instruction manuals that once came with every video game. Dan Marshall, author of The Swindle and Lair of the Clockwork God, certainly does. He remembers the ritual of poring over a new game's manual on the bus ride home from the store, trying to absorb all of the information in preparation for playing the game itself.
He vividly remembers receiving Bullfrog's 1993 game Syndicate by mail order early one morning and waiting for hours until his younger brother woke up to play it on the PC in his room. “And during that quality time, I did nothing but read the manual over and over and over again,” Marshall says.
Although Marshall has now gotten rid of most of his old DVDs, games and magazines, he still maintains a shelf of treasured physical items that remind him of a time in his life. It's the book he used when he first learned to code, 1989's Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles LCD Handheld, a strange game box he couldn't part with. “They’re nice to walk past and they bring a smile to your face,” he says. “And a well-made manual or a well-made box is fun in that sense.”
A box of fun…early video games came with a set of instruction manuals
Photo: Stephen Cooper/Alamy
In the early days of home video games, manuals were essential. Every byte of memory is valuable, and even adding a simple command like “press A to jump” takes up memory that could be better allocated elsewhere. Information about how to play the game can instead be moved to a manual, which also provides an opportunity to provide a story or background to accompany simple on-screen sprites. There may be other interesting things in the game box. Memorably, Revolution's 1994 adventure game Beneath a Steel Sky It came with a comic by Dave Gibbons of 2000AD., described several events leading up to the start of the game. His pioneering 1984 BBC micro-title, Elite, came with an entire novel called The Dark Wheel, which provided insight into the world of Elite.
However, as consoles and computers became more powerful throughout the 1990s, it became increasingly possible to include instructions on how to play within the game itself. In-game tutorials quickly became mandatory, allowing players to jump right into new games without having to stop to read the manual first. Then, in the 2000s, digital downloads started to become popular. Initially, publishers often offered him PDF versions of game manuals, but eventually even this tradition fell out of fashion. The instruction manual was redundant and dead.
However, several developers have been working hard to revive this lost part of gaming tradition. His 2021 strategy title HighFleet: Deus in Nobis by Konstantin Koshutin has arrived with his lovingly crafted 92-page PDF manual. Downloaded from Steam. The game was published by the newly reformed Microprose, a company that has historically specialized in simulation and strategy games such as F-15 Strike His Eagle and Civilization. All of them came with correspondingly large manuals (his Civilization manual was well over 100 pages long).
And earlier this year, Media Molecule released Tren for the Dreams gaming platform. The game is based on his Brio-style wooden railway tracks, and the company Beautifully crafted digital manual I'm going to talk about the fictional toy “Tren Modular Play System” manufactured by a company called BeechCorp. Best of all, the manual even features realistic-looking tear tracks and children's doodles.
We've seen some developers venture into physical manuals as well. In July, The Banished Vault from Lunar Division added an in-game manual. This manual is printed on demand and can also be ordered in paper form for £4.99. The developers were surprised at how many players did just that. Approximately 10% of those who purchased a digital game also purchased a paper manual. “We've found that people never get tired of beautiful game manuals.” Mike Bissell said. Head of publisher Bithell Games, on X/Twitter. This is perhaps part of a broader trend at the moment, where physical objects are revered by a generation that has seen movies, music and video games disappear into the digital realm. Check out the unexpected love for records among the younger generation.
Tunic's manual is authentic in another way, in that you actually need it to progress through the game. Otherwise, little guidance is provided on how to progress through the game. Manual pages are scattered throughout the in-game world, and each page contains important information. Perhaps providing a map, revealing a plot, or even revealing a special move. Each page is written in indecipherable runes, except for the odd intriguing English word here and there, playing imported games and deciphering Japanese manuals for hints on what to do. It reminds me of the days when I tried.
Shouldice worked hard to make the in-game manual look really beat up. “I made a physical booklet, damaged it, tore parts off, spilled stuff on it, then put a little bit in the tumble dryer and messed it up,” he says. “We then scanned every page.” The text was added digitally later to make it easier to translate the manual into different languages. It's certainly a beautiful thing, and Fangamer physical version It's available for purchase by players.
Beautiful things…Fangamer's printed tunic manual.
Photo: Fangamer/ISOMETRICORP Games Ltd./FINJI
Banished Vault also requires players to read the manual carefully. This turn-based title involves leading a gigantic space monastery as it flees from solar system to solar system, harvesting resources from planets, closely monitoring fuel levels, and attempting to escape. malicious phenomenon. Nick Tringali, the game's director, is not nostalgic for manuals. He became interested in games because they were becoming obsolete. Instead, he was inspired by his board game and his table talk role-playing game (TTRPG). “In his modern TTRPG, this book is very well designed to teach you the system and help you navigate this experience smoothly,” Tringali says. His idea was to use the same technique for a complex strategy video game.
“[In-game] “The tutorial is very complex and very likely to break if the interface or design changes,” Tringali said, noting that it may eventually have to be completely reworked later in development. Did. “So I looked at all of this and thought, okay, it's going to be less effort to actually make the book.”
Developers and players may still have a soft spot for game manuals, but it's hard to imagine manuals making a comeback outside of a few niche games. Dan Marshall thinks that's a shame. “I want to make games that come with a physical manual, so make sure you read it,” he says. “There's no tutorial, no explanation of what the buttons do…Imagine releasing a game where you can do things like: only I have a physical copy. Yes, it would be an economic disaster, but a very small number of people our age would be very happy.
WWhen the weather is nice, Buxton Boarding School moves lunch outside. Students, faculty, staff, and guests grab food from the kitchen and eat together under a white tent overlooking the Berkshire Mountains of western Massachusetts.
As the end of the school year approached last June, conversation turned to final assignments (English class was finishing Moby Dick) and year-end fun (a trip to the local lake was planned). Ta. It was, in most ways, a typical teenage afternoon. However, no one was using a cell phone.
Buxton was completing the first year of a simple but novel experiment: banning cell phone use on campus. Or rather, a smartphone.
Instead, the school will require everyone on campus, including staff, to light phone, that is, a “dumb” phone with limited functionality. The device can make calls and send texts (slowly), but it cannot load modern applications. Instead, it comes with intentionally cumbersome versions of the Music and Maps apps. They are about the size of a deck of playing cards and have black and white screens.
One student said: “It's like the devil's baby of the iPad and Kindle.”
But most people agree that schools are better off with these infernal devices. (Yes, that includes students.) There are fewer interruptions during classes, more meaningful interactions on campus, and less time spent on screens.
“We've found a pretty good way to deal with this problem,” said Scott Hunter, who teaches English and music, about smartphones. Buxton senior Bea Sass added: “I think people are a lot more social.”
FFor many teachers, students' cell phone use is frustrating. “That's every class, every time period,” said Mark McLaughlin, a math teacher at Near Car Knee High School in Oregon. “The worst part of my job is being the cellphone police.”
Educators across the country report fighting a near-constant battle with their phones.school districts in virginia The survey found that about a third of teachers asked students to put away their phones five to 10 times during class, and 14.7% did so more than 20 times during class. .
When I was in junior high school in Canada investigated According to staff, 75% of respondents believe that mobile phones have a negative impact on students' physical and mental health. Nearly two-thirds believed the device was also having a negative impact on their academic performance.
“This is a big problem,” said Arnold Glass, a psychology professor at Rutgers University. Researched the impact of mobile phones on student grades. “If they are allowed to look at their cell phones during class, they will drop half to the entire grade.”
Ian Tomonblak, a career guidance counselor at Lamoille Union High School in northern Vermont, is also faced with the proliferation of cell phones at his school. “There are kids who get Snapchats or text messages during the day and it just ruins their whole day,” he says. Another problem he sees is students using their cell phones to coordinate trips to collective restrooms in order to hang out during class. “I feel like it distracts me from learning on an academic level.”
Lunch time at Buxton School.
When I told Tromblak about Buxton's experiment, he was intrigued. He noted that one of the things this would address is the argument from students that they need a phone to contact their parents. And teenagers often adapt to new parameters relatively quickly, he said. He remembers learning at the last minute on a field trip with his students that not everyone was allowed to use cell phones. At first, the news was apocalyptic.
“They were very upset. They didn't know how to handle themselves. It was really tense,” Tromblak said, recalling the drama. However, during the trip, the kids almost forgot about their cell phones, and at one point they took it upon themselves to police a girl who secretly tried to call the source of the rope.
“At the end of the first day, we were sitting around the campfire and they were saying, 'I haven't thought about my phone all day,'” Tomblak said. “It was really cool.”
TTo some extent, Buxton experienced a similar progression through stages of panic, grief, and ultimately some acceptance. “When it was announced, I was almost sick,” then-senior Max Weeks said. And while he's still not happy about the switch to Litephone, saying it was a “unilateral” decision, he said overall it was “not as bad as I expected.”
It's an open secret that students still sneak cell phones into their rooms on campus, and some are testing the limits more than others. “People get pretty temperamental and get caught,” said Yamaira Marks, also a senior at Buxton. But smartphones are generally difficult to find on campus.
That includes staff. The school's principal, Peter Beck, said he ditched his iPhone for a Litephone and installed his old GPS system in his car for when he needed to go out into the world. He is thrilled with how his first year went.
Because Buxton uses a narrative evaluation system, it is difficult to determine how the new phone policy is impacting academic performance. But culturally, Beck says, the movement has often led to changes in small but cumulatively meaningful ways.
“People are crazy about the lounge. They stay after class and chat,” says Beck, who estimates they are now having more conversations than ever before at school. “The frequency of all these face-to-face interactions is orders of magnitude higher.”
Tesla CEO Elon Musk stated that in order to help Tesla become a leader in artificial intelligence and robotics, he would require at least 25% of voting power, which is almost double his current holdings. He mentioned facing resistance in achieving this goal.
On a social media platform, Musk mentioned that it is not impossible to achieve this goal. Tesla aims to have its products manufactured outside of electric car manufacturers.
Musk has been promoting Tesla’s partially automated “fully self-driving” software and prototype humanoid robots. However, the majority of Tesla’s revenue comes from its auto business.
According to Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas, some analysts have highlighted the significance of technology such as Tesla’s Dojo supercomputer, used to train its AI models, in the valuation of the EV maker. He mentioned that “Dojo could add nearly $600 billion to the company’s market value.”
Following Musk’s comments, Tesla shares dipped about 2% in premarket trading on Tuesday.
As the world’s wealthiest individual, Musk currently owns approximately 13% of Tesla shares. He had sold billions of dollars in stock in 2022 to finance his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter.
In another post, Musk mentioned, “A crazy meta multi-class stock structure that gives control to the next 20+ generations of the Zuckerberg family is fine before the IPO, but even a rational dual class is not allowed after the IPO. That’s strange,” referencing Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook’s parent company.
A dual-class structure in a company involves two or more classes of stock with different voting rights, typically giving more voting rights to the founders and early investors than to other shareholders.
Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Musk is currently facing a lawsuit over his compensation package. In 2018, Tesla shareholder Richard Tornetta sued Musk and the board, alleging that Musk had used his advantage over Tesla’s board to secure excessive compensation without being required to work full-time at the EV maker. They are aiming to demonstrate that he has earned the package.
With regards to Company X, Musk stated that there was no “dispute” with the board over the new compensation package, and mentioned that the pending verdict was affecting discussions.
If men were encouraged to play outside as children, they may have better navigation skills than women
Colin Hawkins/Getty Images/Image Source
In fact, men tend to have a better sense of direction than women, but this is probably due to differences in upbringing rather than improved navigational skills being an evolutionary trait.
In previous research, Men slightly outperform women on spatial navigation tasks. Some researchers believe this is due to evolution, since in prehistoric times it was common for men to travel long distances to hunt, while women often stayed close to home. It suggests that it is. This may have resulted in selection pressure on men to develop advanced navigation skills.
But if that were the case, she says, those genes would be passed on to female offspring, as long as they're not on the Y chromosome. Justin Rose At the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. “The really obvious alternative is culture,” he says. “It plays a huge role in what men and women experience.”
For example, boys may be encouraged to play outside more than girls, which may help hone their navigation skills, he says.
To investigate this idea, Rose and his colleagues collected data from 21 species of animals, including humans. This data includes information about their spatial navigation skills and how far they travel on average from home.
If natural selection were at work, we would expect males and females that traveled farther from home to have better navigational abilities, and this is consistent across species.
Instead, the researchers found that males of all species are slightly better at navigating than females, although in some species, such as the rusty crayfish (Faxonius rusticus) and the little devil poison dart frog (Uofaga Silvatica), females had a wider home range.
This finding suggests that differences in navigation between men and women may be cultural. It could also be a side effect of biological differences between males and females, as well as between male and female animals. For example, hormonal differences “can affect all kinds of traits,” Rose says. As long as those traits don't prevent reproduction, “evolution doesn't matter,” he says.
“The authors show in a very comprehensive way that sex differences in spatial ability are likely acquired, for example through culture.” Antoine Cutolo At the French National Center for Scientific Research. “Spatial skills are much like other cognitive skills: the more you use them, the better you become at them.”
Ibex can be at risk from wolves if they move around at night
robert andrighetto
Alpine ibex have become increasingly nocturnal to escape rising daytime temperatures, despite the increased risk of encountering predators.
Animals living in cold regions are expected to be greatly affected by rising global temperatures due to climate change. Alpine Ibex (capra ibex), usually seen grazing during the day in the European Alps, is one such animal.
To see what the impact was, Stefano Grignorio Researchers from the University of Ferrara in Italy tracked 47 individuals in Italy's Gran Paradiso National Park or Swiss National Park from May to October between 2006 and 2019. The animals were fitted with collars equipped with movement sensors.
Researchers found that warmer daytime temperatures made ibex more active at night. Grignolio said the discovery was surprising because doing so increases the chances of encountering wolves, one of their main natural enemies.
“Global warming seems to be driving their behavior changes dramatically,” he says. “Predation is just a variable.”
The ibex, a climate-sensitive animal, has probably shifted to a more nocturnal schedule to avoid the heat. Warmer daytime temperatures mean your body needs to expend more energy to cool itself compared to the energy needed to stay warm at night, Grignolio says.
However, while this response may help ibex cope with warmer climates, it may not be a viable long-term solution for ibex. “[They] may not be able to meet their demands [dietary] If they become too nocturnal or have increased predation, their requirements will not be met.” Niels Martin Schmidt At Aarhus University, Denmark.
“This study successfully quantifies some of the more subtle and often overlooked responses to climate change,” Schimdt says.
Many of us have felt some amount of stress over the past few years. Exhibit A for me is my teeth. A recent trip to the dentist confirmed that I had been clenching my jaw for months due to the pandemic. This was the result of the normal stress of deadlines, compounded by the demands of two young children, four of whom had broken bones.
A broken tooth is a small fry. Last year, the American Psychological Association Two-thirds of people in the US report feeling more stressed due to the pandemic, found, and predicted “a mental health crisis that could have serious health and social consequences for years to come.” Increased risks of diabetes, depression, and cardiovascular disease are all associated with high stress levels. Just thinking about it makes me feel stressed.
But maybe we just need to think about stress differently. At least, that's the surprising conclusion of researchers studying the mind-body relationship. They say there are natural benefits to feeling stressed, and if we change the way we “think about stress,” we can turn things around and make stress have a positive impact on our lives. maybe. Fortunately, there are some simple hacks that can help you do this, and you can expect to see improved physical health, clarity of thought, increased mental strength, and increased productivity. Masu.
There's no denying that too much stress can have a negative impact on your body and mind. In the West, it has been linked to all six major causes of death: cancer, heart disease, liver disease, accidents, lung disease, and suicide. Your immune system may be weakened, making you more susceptible to infections and less infectious.
NASA/JPL-California Institute of Technology/Stephane Le Mouelik, Virginia Pasek
Saturn’s moon Titan is home to strange “magical islands” that appear and disappear over hours to weeks. These so-called islands are actually porous, sponge-like masses of snow that can slowly fill with liquid before sinking.
Titan’s thick atmosphere is filled with complex organic molecules that can clump together and fall to the moon’s surface like snow. Sintin Yu Researchers at the University of Texas at San Antonio thought that snow could be the cause of the magical islands. To test their idea, they took advantage of what we know about these atmospheric compounds and how they are expected to interact with Titan’s oceans.
Titan’s liquid is methane, not water, so any solids on the surface of these oceans would normally be expected to sink quickly. Water molecules tend to stick together and displace other substances, but methane easily sticks to other molecules, so the surface tension of a pool of liquid methane is very low.
“Water molecules just love themselves by excluding certain molecules,” he says. michael marasca from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California was not involved in the study. “But if you put methane on the same surface, it’ll start crawling all over the place.” That means Titan’s methane oceans and lakes should immediately swallow up any solids that are expected to float. It means that.
But that clearly won’t happen on the magical island, which appeared as a temporary bright spot in observations from the Cassini spacecraft. “For us to see magical islands, they cannot float briefly and then immediately sink,” Yu said in the paper. statement. “You have to stay afloat for a while, but not forever.” Researchers have found a solution to this problem. When large amounts of snow accumulate on the coast, they can form sponge-like, porous ice. Once these porous “icebergs” separated from the land, they could float in Titan’s oceans for long enough to rival Cassini’s observations. The researchers calculated that this would work if the sponge-like structure contained enough free space (at least about 25 to 50 percent, depending on the exact composition of the ice).
However, this does not mean that these mysterious islands are definitely porous icebergs. “We’re narrowing down different scenarios for the magical island, but we don’t know the answer yet,” Malasca says. Other possible explanations include nitrogen gas bubbles, waves caused by wind or solid ocean deposits. However, this provides evidence that Titan’s temporary islands may actually be suspended matter from this strange world’s atmosphere.
A female octopus lays her eggs near a small rock outcrop, informally known as El Dorado Hill.
ROV Subastian/Schmidt Ocean Institute
Four new species of deep-sea octopus have been discovered in an underwater mountain range about two miles downstream in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Costa Rica, according to the Schmidt Institute of Oceanography.
During expeditions in June and December 2023, researchers on the US nonprofit research vessel Falkor also used a remote-controlled vehicle to explore two low-temperature hydrothermal springs, two octopuses, and more. found a nursery, and one skate nursery. Subastian.
Previous research has found areas where octopuses live near low-temperature springs, but these environments have been difficult to find.
Typical 350°C hot hydrothermal vents are easy to spot thanks to smoke rising from the ocean floor. However, the cold spring's water temperature is only about 10 degrees Celsius higher than the average 2 degrees Celsius at the ocean floor, and is only visible through slight diffraction of light.
“It looks like it’s sparkling,” says expedition co-leader. Beth Orcutt at the Bigelow Marine Science Institute, another nonprofit in Maine.
Finding this subtle sign in the dark required multiple dives in different locations. “It's like walking through a forest you've never been in before with a flashlight looking for hot springs,” Orcutt said. “We were kind of making a bet.”
The four new species have not yet been officially described, but one has been named the dorado octopus, after the rock where it was discovered, known as El Dorado Hill.some kind of Muusocopsfemales gather to incubate eggs in warm water.
Orcutt said researchers believe the other species are new based on their appearance. They appear to be solitary, which is common among deep-sea octopuses. “They don't like having their neighbors close,” she says.
These insights into Costa Rica's unique biodiversity could inform regional conservation policy. “It is difficult [protect deep-sea wildlife] That’s when you don’t know it’s underground,” Orcutt says.
Undersea octopus farm
ROV Subastian/Schmidt Ocean Institute
These missions also help inspire and develop local scientific talent through training for early career researchers on how to lead deep-sea explorations, she says. The 310 specimens collected, which also include starfish, spider stars and sea cucumbers, will be kept at the Zoological Museum at the University of Costa Rica, rather than in the United States, where they are not easily accessible to local researchers.
More exploration is needed because the deep sea faces many threats, including mining, Orcutt said. “We're just scratching the surface.”
'Groundbreaking': Carrie-Anne Moss and Keanu Reeves in The Matrix
alamy stock photo
I Professor of Physics at St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia He is also the author of 18 popular science books. Although my training was in theoretical physics, particularly the discovery and interpretation of unusual solutions to Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity, I remained a lifelong admirer of his science fiction and fascinated by the phenomena of physics in culture. I'm here. In my latest book, The charm of the multiverse, I apply my experience and interests to the study of scientific debates and popular beliefs surrounding the concepts of parallel worlds and separate parts of reality. Here's a chronological list of my 10 favorite movies on the subject. Each one has been chosen to be thought-provoking and interesting.
It's a wonderful life (1946)
Beyond the key aspects of this issue Christmas classic There are lies worth chewing through, including the question of what the world would be like if we didn't exist. In theoretical physics, the hypothetical anthropic principle cuts off from all reality the realm of possibility that ultimately leads to the conscious observer. Sadly, unlike the film's protagonist George Bailey, we don't have guardian angels to tell us what the universe would be like without humanity. But maybe, in George's spirit, we recognize the fact that we exist as sentient beings on a fragile planet and take that responsibility seriously.
back to the future (1985)
Children dream of changing their parents. Thanks to the mysterious powers of the time-traveling DeLorean, Marty McFly inadvertently does just that. In physics, the feasibility of backward time travel is debatable. Could it be that the paradoxes caused by voyages into the past, such as acts that prevent the creation of time travelers, make them impossible? Marty's Voyage to 1955 He almost prevents his parents from falling in love until he finds a way to convince them. He returns to his 1985 present and finds himself in a parallel reality. His parents are much cooler there. Such a multiverse avoids paradox and gives hope to teenagers.
marmot day (1993)
In quantum physics, reality is a mixture of different particle histories. It's as if the inhabitants of a subatomic world need to try every possibility to make things right. Eastern philosophy similarly emphasizes that reincarnation ultimately leads to perfection. Similarly, funny movies, weatherman Phil Connors seems doomed to repeat the same terrible day over and over again until he sheds his self-centered attitude and becomes more sensitive to others. Along the way, he not only found love, but experienced enough time to master French, ice sculpting, and piano. Thanks to a kind of repeating multiverse, he contains a large number of things.
“Contains a large number of people”: Bill Murray in Groundhog Day
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12 Monkees (1995)
Partly inspired by great things, La Jetée, 12 Monkees It offers plotlines like twisted knots of wire. But does it constitute a single coherent chain, or does it contain loose parts?The protagonist, James Cole, travels back in time from his imaginary 21st century to his 1990s. and tries to gather clues about the origins of a devastatingly deadly pandemic. Although his superiors stress that the past cannot be changed, he sometimes appears to be influencing reality, but only in the face of reality's resilience. His hopes that he can prevent the catastrophe eventually fade, but there are hints of an alternative even in the final scene.
“A surprising juxtaposition of fate”: Gwyneth Paltrow's “Sliding Doors”
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sliding door (1998)
Have you ever missed a train by just a few seconds and cursed the time you lost? But if that delay resulted in an accident being avoided, it would seem more like a blessing. Brilliantly, through the magic of cinema, we see both parts of the many worlds in which the main character, Helen, misses and misses the subway. In the former case, the girlfriend was unable to witness her boyfriend cheating on her and continues to pretend that she didn't know. In the latter, she witnessed the incident and immediately met Mr. Right. However, both elements have something in common that ultimately points the way to a surprising juxtaposition of fate.
Run, Laura, run (1998)
If two versions of reality aren't enough, try three.in This seminal German film, fate gave Laura three chances to save her boyfriend, who had lost a huge amount of cash and needed it to carry out the mission of a crime boss. Each time, she somehow obtains her booty and takes 20 minutes to run across the city with it to her frenetic lover. Reflecting the butterfly effect of chaos theory, small discrepancies can lead to vastly different results. Her first two attempts prove fatal, but the third is the charm. This film shows that our passion for the multiverse reflects our desire for multiple opportunities in life.
matrix (1999)
Movies allow us to imagine entirely new worlds. Artificial intelligence strengthens that illusion. Imagine if an incredibly powerful and malicious electronic entity exploited our ability to be fooled and created a false world for us to experience life. All the while, it sucked energy from our bodies for its own evil purposes.of The film's groundbreaking sci-fi plot And special effects remain relevant to today's debates about AI capabilities and threats. Some thinkers speculate that the observable universe is a simulation. If that were the case, screenwriters elsewhere in the multiverse would win Academy Awards for the most original screenplays.
“The Haunting”: Jake Gyllenhaal, Jena Malone, Donnie Darko
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donnie darko (2001)
One of the most profound mysteries in theoretical physics is the concept of wormholes. A wormhole is a hypothetical connection between disparate sectors of the universe. Theorists have derived a wormhole solution to Einstein's general theory of relativity and demonstrated how it could potentially be used as a time machine. In reality, no one knows how to assemble the extraordinary amount of mass needed to create such an object, including a special negative mass component called “exotic matter.” Nevertheless, they serve as effective plot devices. this unforgettable movie The story of a troubled teenager who
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