1958, New York City Parks Commissioner Robert Moses.
Getty Images
We always forget the truth about power. Every generation has learned that it is not the individual, not the office, but power that ultimately irreparably corrupts and distorts even the best characters with the best intentions. I need to be reminded of this again.
I thought about this a lot when writing the novel. future. I've always been interested in writing about power. Most of my books are about how power systems change us and how we change power systems. future It is by far the most powerful individuals on the planet today: those of us who operate, for the most part, without tax or government constraints, without term limits, and who are the “citizens” of their online spheres. We're talking about tech billionaires who operate without having to answer to anything. How did they get there? Why is it so difficult to live outside the infrastructure they have created? And how has it turned them into such centers of power?
There was one book that made a big difference in my way of thinking.
In 1974, Robert Caro published a unique and extraordinary book. power broker. This lifted the lid on Robert Moses, the great builder of New York City's infrastructure (roads, bridges, parks, tunnels, public buildings). Those who knew him personally knew him to be a tyrant and a bully. His plans had long since ceased to make sense except as a means to gain more power.
power broker The book is 1100 pages long, but it is so engaging and engaging that I wish it had a few hundred more pages. This work shows that Moses started out as an idealist. At the start of his career, this is a man who aspired to build diaper changing stations in New York parks, but was so changed by his powers that he ended up suppressing major infrastructure projects became. He cannot be in charge of them. At the back of my copy are questions most readers probably asked themselves as they read on. What did it take? ” Behind that lies another question. How can we detect this early and take immediate action?
Veterans saw improvement in combat-related brain injury after taking psychedelic drugs
Shutterstock / Ground Photography
The psychedelic substance ibogaine has the potential to treat chronic disorders caused by traumatic brain injury (TBI). A single dose of this drug resulted in sustained improvements in physical and social function, cognition and mood in veterans with combat-related traumatic brain injury.
“This is the first time someone has actually been able to show that there is a neurorehabilitation effect with psychedelic drugs and that there are fairly deep signs of improvement,” he says. nolan williams at Stanford University in California.
He and his colleagues recruited 30 male veterans with traumatic brain injuries to attend a treatment facility in Mexico for five days. They were each given ibogaine, a hallucinogenic substance extracted from the iboga plant, which is native to Africa. Everyone met with a therapist before and after taking ibogaine to discuss preparation for the psychedelic experience. Participants can also participate in activities such as yoga, massage, and meditation on-site.
Participants took 12 milligrams of ibogaine per kilogram of body weight and received an intravenous infusion of magnesium to prevent heart problems associated with the drug. The researchers measured participants' disability before and after treatment on a scale of 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating greater disability. At the beginning of the study, participants' average score was 30, meaning mild to moderate disability. After 4-5 days of treatment, this score dropped below 20, and after 1 month it was around 5, indicating no disability.
At least 83 percent of participants no longer met criteria for depression, anxiety, or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) one month after treatment. They also saw significant improvements in processing speed, problem solving, and working memory.
However, it is unclear whether this effect is solely due to hallucinogens. “The big problem is [that] Without a control group, it will be nearly impossible to say for sure what's going on here. ” Albert Garcia Lomu at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland. He says talking to a therapist, participating in wellness activities, and even traveling may have contributed to these improvements.
But many of these variables have previously been studied as treatments for neurological diseases with little success, Williams said. He believes a series of mechanisms could explain how ibogaine can treat traumatic brain injury. For example, he says, the drug is known to increase neuroplasticity, or the brain's ability to rewire.
Voyager 2's original photo of Neptune (left) and the new study's reprocessed image (right)
Patrick Irwin
Neptune's true color is a pale greenish-blue similar to that of Uranus, contrary to popular belief that it is a much deeper blue.
NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft passed by the outer planet in the 1980s and sent back photos showing the strikingly different colors of Uranus and Neptune.
This is puzzling given their similar size, mass, and chemical composition. Models of the planet's atmosphere can explain some of the fluctuations, such as Uranus' thicker “haze layer” that reflects more white light and makes the planet appear brighter, but these may explain why the planet is It doesn't fully explain why you should have something like that. different shades.
now, Patrick Irwin Researchers at the University of Oxford have processed images from Voyager 2 to show what the planet looks like to the human eye.
The original photo of Neptune taken by Voyager 2 had an enhanced contrast ratio to highlight hard-to-see atmospheric features. In addition to how they balanced the colors to create the final composite image, this also made the planet appear bluer.
Scientists at the time knew this and included these changes in photo captions, but over time the captions became detached from the images and Neptune's deep blue hue became a fact in the public consciousness. According to Irwin, the shrine is now enshrined inside.
Images of Uranus (left) and Neptune (right) created in previous and new research
Patrick Irwin
He and his team developed a model that uses shots taken by the Hubble Space Telescope to convert raw image data into true-color images. This image contains more complete information about the light. This produced similar hues on both planets. “The way the eye works makes true-color images much more boring and bland,” Irwin says.
The researchers also used Hubble images and images from the Lowell Observatory in Arizona to build a model to predict how Uranus' color would change during its long 84-year orbit around the sun. Due to the rotation of the planet, more of the equator is visible at the vernal equinox, and more of the poles are visible at the summer solstice. At the equator, there is more methane and red light is absorbed. The planet also has a hood of reflective, brightening ice particles that forms at its sun-facing poles during the equinoxes, increasing the reflectance of red and green wavelengths.
This helps explain the long-standing mystery of why Uranus appears slightly green on the summer solstice. “We knew there was a hood, we knew there was less methane in the polar regions, but no one had put it all together to be able to explain what was really going on seasonally. “It was,” Irwin said.
It has fins on the sides of its body, a unique head with long antennae, a huge jaw structure in its mouth, and can grow to over 30 cm (11.8 inches) in length. Timole Bestia Copley It was one of the largest animals in the ocean during the early Cambrian period.
reconstruction of Timole Bestia Copley Among the pelagic ecosystems preserved in Sirius Passet. Other species shown in the foreground are key salt kia, silicalis, Kerygmacella, Paulo end point, Kleptosurand Isoxis; There are also two radioactive substances in the background. Tamisiocharis And Unplected Belid. Image credit: Robert Nicholls/BobNichollsArt.
Timole Bestia Copley They lived in the early Cambrian oceans over 518 million years ago.
“We previously knew that the main predators of the Cambrian were primitive arthropods, including the bizarre-looking anomalocariids,” said Dr Jacob Binther, a palaeontologist at the University of Bristol.
“but, Timole Bestia Copley is a distant but close relative of a living caterpillar; or Chetognath. These are much smaller marine predators today, feeding on small zooplankton. ”
“Our study shows that these ancient marine ecosystems were fairly complex and had food chains that tolerated multiple layers of predators.”
“Timole Bestia They were the giants of their time and would have been near the top of the food chain. As such, they are as important as major carnivores in the modern ocean, such as Cambrian sharks and seals. ”
Inside a fossilized digestive system Timole Bestia CopleyDr. Vinther et al. Isoxis.
“We can see that these arthropods were a food source for many other animals,” says palaeontologist Dr Morten Lunde Nielsen of the Korean Polar Research Institute, the University of Bristol and the British Geological Survey.
“They were very common in Sirius Passet and had long protective spines pointing both forward and backward.”
“But it is clear that they could not completely avoid that fate. Timole Bestia I munched on them in large quantities. ”
holotype of Timole Bestia Copley.Image credit: Park other., doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adi6678.
“Arrowworms are one of the oldest animal fossils from the Cambrian period. Arthropods appear in the fossil record about 521 to 529 million years ago, but arrowworms appear in the fossil record at least 500 million years ago. It can be traced back to 38 million years ago,” Dr. Vinter said.
“Both arrowworms and more primitive arrowworms, Timole Bestia, was a swimming predator. Therefore, we can infer that they were likely predators that dominated the oceans before arthropods took off. ”
“They probably had a dynasty for about 10 to 15 million years before being replaced by other more successful groups.”
“Timole Bestia “This is a hugely important discovery for understanding where these jawed predators came from,” said Dr Luke Parry from the University of Oxford.
“Today, the caterpillar has formidable setae on the outside of its head to catch prey, but Timole Bestia There is a jaw in the head. ”
“This is the bearded bug that we can see under a microscope today, and it is an organism that shared an ancestor with the bearded bug more than 500 million years ago.”
“Timole Bestia And other fossils like it provide a link between closely related organisms that look very different today. ”
“Our discovery confirms how the beetles evolved,” said Dr. Taeyoon Park, a paleontologist at the Korea Polar Research Institute.
“The abdomen of living arrowworms has a unique nerve center called the ventral ganglion. It is completely unique to these animals.”
“I found this saved. Timole Bestia and another fossil called Amiskwia”
“People are, Amiskwia As part of the evolutionary stem lineage, it was closely related to the caterpillar. ”
“The preservation of these unique ventral ganglia gives us even more confidence in this hypothesis.”
team's work It was published in the magazine scientific progress.
_____
Taeyoon S. Park other. 2024. Chaetognus in the giant stem group. scientific progress 10(1); doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adi6678
Can you imagine putting a device on your head before bed that allows you to control your dreams? This futuristic headband, currently under development by American technology startup Prophetic, promises to do just that.
Set to be released in 2025, Halo is designed to make dreams more lucid, meaning dreams in which you are aware that you are dreaming. These dreams can be controlled in some cases, potentially providing practical benefits in waking life, such as problem-solving, virtual travel, or skill practice.
While lucid dreams can happen spontaneously, about half of the population can expect to have at least one in their lifetime. The Halo headband aims to leverage these experiences for real-life benefits using the latest technology.
The Halo team collected brain data from volunteers having lucid dreams using EEG and fMRI technology. This information is then used to develop a mechanism for inducing, maintaining, and influencing lucid dreaming using transcranial focused ultrasound (TUS) technology, which is transmitted through the headband. TUS uses high-frequency sound rather than magnetic fields or electric current, offering improved anatomical precision and the ability to reach deep areas of the brain.
Research shows that electrical or sound stimulation can increase brain activity, particularly during sleep, resulting in more frequent lucid dreams. Professor Mark Blagrove, a sleep scientist, states that sound stimulation may induce high-frequency brain activity linked to dream clarity.
Despite the potential benefits, there are some concerns about the long-term effects and interference with the purpose of dreaming. The Halo headband is expected to cost up to £1,575 ($2,000) and may not be suitable for everyone. There are other techniques for inducing lucid dreams, such as sound pairing and self-awareness training, that do not require advanced technology like the Halo headband.
About our experts
Professor Mark Blagrove is a sleep and dream researcher based at the Swansea University Sleep Research Institute. He is involved in various sleep and dream research work and is a co-author of the book Science of Art and Dreams as well as having contributed to several psychology and dream publications.
Scarred great white shark sails through Australian waters
Philip Thurston/Getty Images
Great white sharks avoid areas where they are captured, so this could be a way to deter them from hunting near swimmers.
They say it's a flight response. paul butcher In the New South Wales Department of Primary Industries, Australia. “It's the same with almost any animal, and it's the same with sharks.” The animals then “resume normal locomotor behavior as if nothing happened,” he says.
Butcher and his colleagues use smart (Real Time Shark Management Alerts) Drumlines: Baited hooks attached to buoys 500 meters off the coast in approximately 20 popular areas of New South Wales. Each of the 305 drumlines in total is equipped with a system to notify local response teams, which she aims to reach by boat within 30 minutes of a hooked shark feeding. Lines are set up fresh each morning and collected the same day, so they are never left overnight.
The team records the shark's size and health and tags it. Sharks considered to be more of a threat to swimmers, such as great whites, tiger sharks and bull sharks, are then moved 500 meters offshore and released. Other species, such as hammerhead sharks and gray nurse sharks, are released where they are captured.
Butcher and his colleagues monitored 36 great white sharks (carcharodon carcharius) had a satellite-linked radio-transmitting tag attached to its dorsal fin after being captured in five locations in 2016. During the first 3 days after release, all sharks moved away from the shoreline where they were captured and mostly stayed there. offshore.
“Ten days after release, sharks gradually moved closer to shore, but 77% of sharks remained more than 1.9 kilometers from shore, with an average of 5 kilometers from their tagged location,” the study said. they wrote in their paper.
Additionally, sharks are still being detected by tracking devices an average of nearly 600 days after release, indicating that the program is not increasing the risk of shark mortality.
Since 2015, more than 1,100 great white sharks, with an average length of about 7 feet, have been captured on SMART drumlines and more than 400 capture events have taken place, Butcher said.
The drumline is part of a larger effort in New South Wales to find non-lethal ways to keep great white, tiger and bull sharks away from people in the water. Drones are currently flying over up to 50 beaches to monitor for sharks and other potential threats during the school holidays, with the department using tagged sharks to detect when they pass nearby. It operates 37 listening station buoys. This information is transmitted to the public via: SharkSmart app.
This suite of tools could mean one day the controversial beach nets that captured 228 animals in New South Wales alone during the 2022/23 reporting period can be removed. Of these 228 animals, only 85 were released alive, and more than 200 were non-target species such as turtles, dolphins and seals.
david booth Researchers at the University of Technology Sydney say the findings are very good news. “And being able to see the captured and released animals again after so many years is very moving and certainly better than slaughtering them,” he says.
The team's graphene device grown on a silicon carbide substrate chip
Georgia Tech
A functioning, scalable semiconductor has been created from graphene for the first time, potentially paving the way for new types of computers that are faster and more efficient than today's silicon chips.
Graphene is a material made from a single layer of carbon atoms that is stronger than an equivalent thickness of steel. It is an excellent conductor of electricity and has excellent resistance to heat and acids. But despite its benefits, practical graphene semiconductors that can be controlled to conduct or insulate electricity at will have eluded scientists. Such semiconductors are key to creating the logic chips that power computers.
The problem is the lack of something known as a bandgap. Semiconductors have higher and lower energy bands and points at which excited electrons can hop from one to the other, or band gaps. This effectively turns the flow of current on and off, making it conductive or non-conducting, creating the binary number system of zeros and ones used in digital computers.
Previous research has shown that graphene can be made to behave like a semiconductor on small scales, but it has never been scaled up to a size that could be used in computer chips. Previous research has shown that wrinkles, domes, and holes in graphene sheets can have unusual effects on the flow of electricity, and that creating the right conditions for defects could lead to the creation of logical chips. It is shown. But so far nothing has scaled up.
now, Walter de Heer His colleagues at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta created graphene with a bandgap and demonstrated its operation as a transistor, an on/off switch that prevents or allows current to flow. Their process relies on technology similar to that used to create silicon chips, which should make it even more useful for scaling up.
De Heer's group used heated silicon carbide wafers to force the silicon to evaporate before the carbon, effectively leaving a layer of graphene on top. At the time of writing, Mr. de Heer was not available for an interview. said in a statement The electrical properties of graphene semiconductors were much better than those of silicon chips. “It's like driving on a gravel road versus driving on a highway,” he said.
Silicon chips are cheap to manufacture and supported by huge manufacturing infrastructures around the world, but we are reaching the limits of what these chips can do. Moore's Law states that the number of transistors in a circuit doubles approximately every two years, but the rate of miniaturization has slowed in recent years as circuit densities have been reached where engineers cannot reliably control the electrons. are doing. Graphene circuits have the potential to reignite progress, but hurdles remain.
“The fact that we're using wafers is important because it's really scalable,” he says. david carey At the University of Surrey, UK. “We can scale up this process using all the technologies that the entire semiconductor industry is familiar with.”
But Carey is skeptical that this development means the world will soon move from silicon to graphene chips. That's because new research requires many improvements in transistor size, quality, and manufacturing technology, and silicon has a huge head start.
“Most people who work in silicon research are exposed every day to new amazing materials that are trying to replace silicon, and nothing like this has ever happened before,” he says. . “If you're a silicon enthusiast, you'll be sitting pretty happily on top of the mountain. The idea of replacing your laptop with graphene isn't quite there yet.”
Researchers had seven people make and eat Bulgarian-style yogurt. Lactobacillus delbrueckiiSubspecies bulgaricus and thermophilus. At the time, the seven were members of a “team of analog astronauts participating in a two-week analog mission in a closed Mars-like environment at the Mars Desert Research Station in the Utah desert, USA.”
Most of these astronauts who stayed on Earth were not simply yogurt eaters. The study found that “five out of seven crew members had previously consumed yogurt in some form.”
The experiment extends a research tradition in which Bulgarian yogurt was ingested during the space flight of the second Bulgarian astronaut to date, as well as the crew of a 150-day voyage to Antarctica, and 56 of the Bulgarian Air Force. Also eaten by pilots and similar people. Number of volunteers in “simulated shipwreck situation”.
Scientists ahead of the Mars mission reported success, saying: “Bulgarian yogurt has proven to be a valuable food product for colonization of Mars due to its long shelf life and probiotic properties.” Reporting. This “underlines the versatility of Bulgarian yogurt,” they say. They outline the hope that further research will provide insight into changes in gut microbiome diversity and “flatulence frequency.”
in the name of science
Taken together, the scientific names of living organisms are a hodgepodge. Richard Wakeford warns of feedback on attempts. Proceedings of the Royal Society Bto enjoy the diversity.
AI researchers predict apocalyptic outcome unlikely
Steven Taylor/Alamy Stock Photo
Although many artificial intelligence researchers see the possibility of future development of superhuman AI as having a considerable chance of causing the extinction of humanity, there is disagreement and uncertainty about such risks. are also widely available.
Those findings can be found below Survey of 2,700 AI researchers They recently presented their research at six major AI conferences. This is the largest study of its kind to date. The survey asked participants to share their thoughts on possible timelines for future AI technology milestones and the positive or negative social impact those achievements would have. Almost 58% of researchers said they believe there is a 5% chance of human extinction or other very bad AI-related outcomes.
“This is an important sign that most AI researchers do not think it is highly implausible that advanced AI will destroy humanity,” he says. Katya Grace Author of the paper, affiliated with the Machine Intelligence Institute, California. “I think the general idea that the risk is not trivial says much more than the exact percentage of risk.”
But he says there's no need to panic just yet. Emil Torres At Case Western Reserve University in Ohio. Such research by AI experts “doesn't have a good track record” of predicting future AI developments, they say. A 2012 study showed that over the long term, AI experts' predictions are no more accurate than non-expert public opinion. The authors of the new study also noted that AI researchers are not experts in predicting AI's future trajectory.
When compared to responses from the same survey in 2022, many AI researchers predicted that AI would reach certain milestones sooner than previously predicted. This coincides with his November 2022 debut of ChatGPT and Silicon Valley's rush to broadly deploy similar AI chatbot services based on large-scale language models.
The researchers surveyed found that within the next 10 years, AI systems will be able to perform most of the 39 sample tasks, such as creating a new song indistinguishable from a Taylor Swift banger or coding an entire payment processing site from scratch. He predicted a 50 percent chance of success. Other tasks, such as physically installing electrical wiring in a new home and solving age-old math puzzles, are expected to take even longer.
There is a 50 percent chance of developing AI that can outperform humans at any task by 2047, while there is a 50 percent chance of all human jobs being fully automated by 2116. It is said that this will happen with a probability of . These estimates are 13 years earlier, 48 years earlier than last year's survey.
However, Torres says the rising expectations for AI development could also be disappointed. “Many of these breakthroughs are completely unpredictable, and it's quite possible that the AI field will experience another winter,” he says. I mentioned that funding and corporate interest in has dried up.
Even without the risk of superhuman AI, there are also more pressing concerns. The majority of AI researchers (over 70%) say that scenarios using AI, including deepfakes, public opinion manipulation, engineered weapons, authoritarian population control, and worsening economic inequality, are of serious or extreme concern. It states that there is. Torres also highlighted the danger that AI could contribute to disinformation around existential issues such as climate change and the deterioration of democratic governance.
“We already have technologies that can seriously harm society, right here, right now. [the US] It’s a democracy,” Torres said. “Let's see what happens in the 2024 election.”
Hypnosis may involve a therapist bringing a patient into a deeply relaxed state to treat symptoms or change habits.
Voisin/Fanny/Science Photo Library
Sending electrical pulses to certain parts of the brain can make people more susceptible to hypnosis. Although the research is still in its early stages, it could eventually lead to more widespread use of hypnotherapy for conditions such as chronic pain.
“There are a lot of different ways to treat different disorders and symptoms, both in psychology and psychiatry,” he says. Afik Furman at Stanford University in California. “Hypnosis is one psychological technique that has been proven to be effective for anxiety, depression, and especially pain.”
Faerman and colleagues focused on the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, located at the front of the brain, and administered transcranial magnetic stimulation to 40 people with the chronic pain condition fibromyalgia. This was administered as 800 pulses to the scalp via a paddle, and the procedure lasted just over 1.5 minutes. This method uses a magnetic field to stimulate nerve cells in the target tissue.
Another 40 people with the same symptoms were given the sham treatment. At the start of the study, none of the participants were thought to be susceptible to hypnosis.
Hypnotherapy is generally defined as the use of hypnosis to treat symptoms or change habits. Susceptibility to hypnosis was assessed by the “hypnoinduction profile,” a standard method for measuring hypnotic efficacy.
After just one session, the group that received electrical brain stimulation had increased hypnotic susceptibility for up to an hour, while the other groups showed no change.
The researchers did not measure whether fibromyalgia symptoms improved in either group. “Our main goal was to figure out whether it was possible to alter the hypnotic state, so we were really excited to be able to do that,” say team members. nolan williams at Stanford University.
Researchers now hope to repeat the study with more people with more diverse symptoms. They also want to see whether fine-tuning the length or number of electrical stimulation pulses a person receives affects hypnotic susceptibility.
Despite showing some promise as a medical use, hypnotherapy is not routinely covered by health insurance companies in the United States or the National Health Service in the United Kingdom.
Dozens of African raptor species are in sharp decline, and many are now considered at risk of extinction, according to an analysis of data from across Africa.
Populations of nearly all 42 species studied have declined due to the spread of agriculture, pesticide use, poisoning by poachers, and infrastructure such as power lines that are deadly to the birds.
These include the secretary bird (sagittarius the serpent), decreased by 85 percent over three generations. Marshall Eagles (Polemaetus bellicosus), reduced by 90% on the same basis.Teratopius Exaudatus), decreased by 87 percent.
Secretary birds decline by 85% in 3 generations
Darcy Ogada
A study has found that some birds that were previously thought not to be in danger of extinction are now on the verge of extinction. For example, the African goshawk (Aquila Spirogaster) is now listed as 'least concern' by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and is estimated to have declined by 91 percent.
Some have called for the list of such species to be moved higher in the conservation rankings to reflect this change. “We definitely expect this paper to put pressure on the rest of the papers to pull it up.” [of the surveyed species now facing threats]sooner or later,” say the study authors. Darcy Ogada from the Peregrine Fund, a US-based organization.
Data was collected from more than 53,000 sightings of 42 species on approximately 100,000 kilometers of surveyed roads in Burkina Faso, Niger, Mali, Cameroon, Botswana and Kenya between 1969 and 2020.
Additional data came from the latest South African Bird Atlas project, a citizen science-led survey.
The researchers found that population declines for 42 species were more than twice as severe in unprotected areas than in protected areas, and that well-managed national parks and reserves have long-term implications for bird species. shown to be important to aid survival.
Further research is needed to understand the fate of these birds. “There is an urgent need to increase research that estimates raptor population trends based on loss of habitat for endangered species, such as forests, wetlands, and grasslands, or modeling loss and mismanagement of protected areas.” Mr. Ogata says.
Burning buildings, collapsing tunnels, sinking ships… wherever you're trapped and in danger, there's a robot designed to come to your rescue. Here are nine of the best.
trail blazers
Firefighting robot, Anshan Hengye Special Vehicle Manufacturing Co.
Photo credit: Getty
Firefighters are testing a fire extinguishing robot here at Bajiao Fire Station in Yantai, northeast China. The Chinese government has been promoting the technology for several years, allowing human firefighters to control robotic fire extinguishers while remaining safely outside fire danger zones.
Back in 2020, the city of Tongliao in northern China announced a firefighting mechanical unit. This 10-strong unit of his, known as the “Blade Formation”, includes robots, drones, and transport units. In other regions, ground-based robotic firefighters are being employed to fight fires in chemical plants and subways.
One of the big advantages of this approach is fire resistance. The robot can operate at temperatures of 1,000°C (1,800°F) for more than 30 minutes. Sensors can also be used to detect heat sources, difficult terrain, and flammable gases.
In the future, it may be possible to replace residential fire alarms and fire extinguishers. In 2022, Chinese researchers published the following paper: Compact and lightweight “home firefighting robot”.
go underground
Team Explorer, Carnegie Mellon University, Oregon State University
Photo courtesy of Carnegie Mellon University
Searching for people trapped in dark underground tunnels and cave complexes isn't fun for most people, but in 2017 the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) turned it into a game. There may not have been any survivors, but there was a huge underground space.
Players are tasked with developing and using an autonomous robot system to search for mannequins and other objects to earn points. DARPA designed this competition to foster innovation in autonomous subsurface mapping and navigation. This could benefit rescue workers working after mine collapses or in cave rescue operations.
Are hearing aids really worth the investment? Recent research suggests that they may be more beneficial than previously thought. In fact, a new study indicates that using hearing aids can decrease the risk of premature death by about 25%. Despite this, a large portion of adults with hearing loss in the US and UK do not use hearing aids, even though they could greatly benefit from them.
Researchers at the University of South Carolina conducted the study and are hoping that their findings will encourage more people with hearing loss to utilize hearing aids. Dr. Janet Choi, the study’s principal investigator, stated that the results are particularly interesting as they point to the possibility that hearing aids can contribute to overall health and longevity.
The study, which was published in the Lancet Health and Longevity journal and involved 10,000 participants, found that regular users of hearing aids had a considerably lower risk of death compared to non-users. The research also suggested that consistent use of hearing aids, rather than occasional use, was key to reaping the benefits for longevity.
This research indicates that hearing aids can lead to improved mental health and cognitive function, ultimately contributing to a longer and healthier life. Interestingly, the study found that factors such as degree of hearing loss, age, ethnicity, and income did not impact the benefits of hearing aids on lifespan.
These findings suggest that the benefits of using hearing aids go beyond improved hearing and may actually play a crucial role in promoting overall health and well-being.
Oldest known evidence of photosynthetic structures identified in a collection of mysterious cylindrical microfossils Nabyfusa magensis It was discovered in the 1.75 billion year old McDermott Formation in Australia.
Nabyfusa magensis Microfossil: (a) Nabyfusa magensis From the McDermott Formation of the Tawala Supergroup, northern Australia. (b) Nabyfusa magensis From the Grassy Bay Formation of the Shaler Supergroup in the Canadian Arctic. (c) Nabyfusa magensis From the Mbujimai supergroup BIIc6 formation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Scale bar – 50 μm. Image credit: Demoulin other., doi: 10.1038/s41586-023-06896-7.
Oxygenic photosynthesis, in which sunlight catalyzes the conversion of water and carbon dioxide to glucose and oxygen, is unique to cyanobacteria and related organelles within eukaryotes.
Cyanobacteria played an important role in the evolution of early life and were active before the B.C. big oxidation event Approximately 2.4 billion years ago, the timing of the origin of oxygenic photosynthesis is debated due to limited evidence.
“Today, oxygenic photosynthesis is unique to cyanobacteria and their plastid relatives within eukaryotes,” said the paleontologist at the University of Liege. Catherine Dumoulin And her colleagues.
“Although its origins before the Great Oxidation Event are still debated, the accumulation of oxygen profoundly altered Earth's redox chemistry and the evolution of the biosphere, which contains complex life.”
“Understanding the diversification of cyanobacteria is therefore critical to understanding the coevolution of our planet and life, but their early fossil record remains equivocal.”
In their research, Demoulin and his co-authors discovered fossilized photosynthetic structures. Nabyfusa magensis Microfossil.
The microstructure is thylakoid. A membrane-bound structure found inside the chloroplasts of plants and some modern cyanobacteria.
Researchers identified them from fossils taken from three different locations, the oldest of which is from Australia's McDermott Formation and dates to 1.75 billion years ago (Paleoproterozoic era).
Nabyfusa magensis It is thought to be a cyanobacterium. The discovery of thylakoids in specimens from this period suggests that photosynthesis may have evolved at some point 1.75 billion years ago.
However, the mystery of whether photosynthesis evolved before or after the Great Oxidation Event remains unsolved.
Similar ultrastructural analyzes of older microfossils could help answer this question and determine whether the evolution of thylakoids contributed to elevated oxygen levels during the Great Oxidation Event.
“This discovery extends the thylakoid fossil record by at least 1.2 billion years and establishes a minimum age for the divergence of thylakoid cyanobacteria to be about 1.75 billion years ago,” the authors said. .
“This allows for the unambiguous identification of early oxygenic photosynthetic substances and new redox substances for investigating early Earth ecosystems, and for deciphering the paleontology and early evolution of fossil cells. This highlights the importance of examining the ultrastructure of cells.”
team's paper Published in today's magazine Nature.
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CF Dumoulin other. The oldest known fossil cells, thylakoids, provide direct evidence of oxygenic photosynthesis. Nature, published online on January 3, 2024. doi: 10.1038/s41586-023-06896-7
Tyrannosaurus is one of the most intensively studied and best known dinosaurs. Nevertheless, their relationship and system are highly controversial. The ongoing discussion is Nanotyrannus lansensisinterpreted as either a separate genus of small-bodied tyrannosaurs, or a juvenile tyrannosaurus. tyrannosaurus rex. In a new study, paleontologists from the University of Bath and the University of Chicago examined multiple lines of evidence that Nanotyrannus lansensis as a separate species.
Nanotyrannus attack a boy tyrannosaurus. Image credit: Raul Martin.
first skull Nanotyrannus It was discovered in Montana in 1942, but paleontologists have debated for decades whether it was a separate species or just a juvenile of a much larger species. tyrannosaurus.
In the new study, paleontologist Nick Longlich of the University of Bath and paleontologist Evan Saitta of the University of Chicago reanalyzed the fossil and looked at its growth rings and body structure. Nanotyrannusand hitherto unrecognized fossils of youth tyrannosaurus.
Measuring tree rings Nanotyrannus They found that the bone was more densely packed toward the outside, indicating that bone growth was slowing down. That suggests these animals were nearly life-sized. It is not a young body that grows quickly.
Fossil growth modeling shows that the animal could have weighed between 900 and 1,500 kg and reached a maximum length of 5 meters, about 15% of the size of a giant. . tyrannosaurus8,000 kg and grew to over 9 m.
“I was quite surprised when I saw these results. I didn't expect to see such conclusive results,” said Dr. Longlich.
“If they were young tyrannosaurus They're supposed to grow like crazy and gain hundreds of pounds a year, but we don't see it that way. ”
“We tried modeling the data in different ways, but still got low growth rates. This seems to put an end to the hypothesis that these animals are young.” tyrannosaurus”
Researchers found no fossil evidence that combined both traits to support the existence of different species Nanotyrannus and tyrannosaurus —If one turns into the other, it will exist.
Every fossil they examined could be confidently identified as one or the other species.
The growth patterns of other tyrannosaurs were also inconsistent with the hypothesis that these tyrannosaurs were young. tyrannosaurus.
“If you look at other juvenile tyrannosaurs, you'll see a lot of characteristics that are typical of adults. Very young. tarbosaurus — next of kin of tyrannosaurus — exhibiting unique characteristics of adults,” Dr. Longrich said.
“Just as kittens look like cats and puppies look like dogs, the various juvenile tyrannosaurs are also unique. And Nanotyrannus nothing similar tyrannosaurus”
“It may have grown in a completely different way than other tyrannosaurs or other dinosaurs, but it's more likely that it simply wasn't a dinosaur. tyrannosaurus”
But it poses a mystery. Nanotyrannus not a boy tyrannosaurusSo why didn't anyone find the young man? tyrannosaurus?
“That was always one of the big questions. Well, it turns out we actually found it,” Dr. Longrich said.
“However, this fossil was collected many years ago, put away in a box of unidentified bones in a museum drawer, and then forgotten.”
Nanotyrannus They were lighter in build and had longer limbs than their stouter relatives. It also had larger arms, unlike those known for their short arms. tyrannosaurus.
“Actually, my arms are longer than people's.” tyrannosaurus.Even the biggest one tyrannosaurushave shorter arms and smaller claws than these smaller animals. Nanotyrannus. This was an animal whose arms were actually pretty scary weapons. It's actually a completely different animal, smaller, faster and more agile,” Dr. Longrich said.
“tyrannosaurus While animals relied on size and strength, this animal relied on speed. ”
“The long arms and other features suggest it was only a distant relative.” tyrannosaurus — and may have been sitting outside the family TyrannosauridaeWhich tyrannosaurus Part of the predatory dinosaur family. ”
a paper The survey results were published in a magazine fossil research.
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Nicholas R. Longrich and Evan T. Saitta. 2024. Taxonomic status of Nanotyrannus lansensis (Dinosaur: Tyrannosauridae) – A different taxon of small tyrannosaurs. Phos.stud 2 (1): 1-65; doi: 10.3390/fossils2010001
The vast majority of the world's industrial fishing vessels are not publicly tracked. Three-quarters of the world's large fishing vessels and one-quarter of transport and energy vessels are “dark vessels” that do not share their location publicly. The discovery comes from analyzing satellite imagery using artificial intelligence, an approach that could help better track human activities that impact the ocean.
“We had this idea that we were missing a large part of the activity that was happening in the ocean, but we didn't know how much we were missing,” he says. Fernando Paolo At Global Fishing Watch, a nonprofit organization based in Washington, DC. “And it turned out to be so much more than we had imagined.”
Paolo et al. used satellite images taken between 2017 and 2021 covering coastal areas where large-scale fishing and other industrial activities occur most often, revealing objects regardless of clouds or darkness. (including radar images that can be used). The researchers trained several AIs to detect and classify boats and marine structures in this dataset.
Researchers compared the ship's global map with a database of ships that publicly broadcast their locations and found that the vast majority did not have automatic identification systems turned on. Such identification is not always required, but if it is not used, it may indicate illegal fishing or other activity.
An AI learned to distinguish fishing boats from other types of boats based on their movement patterns and location. It found that 42 to 49 percent of approximately 63,000 ships fell into this category.
Other AI has identified 28,000 offshore structures related to wind power and oil production, with rapidly growing swarms of offshore wind turbines outnumbering oil infrastructure such as oil rigs. Although such activities other than offshore development and fishing boats are expanding, fishing activity is almost “at its limit,” he said. david kurzma At Global Fishing Watch.
“We have to plan for all non-fishing activities because we are encroaching on fishing grounds,” Krusma said. “The ocean is becoming increasingly crowded, so we need to consider how everything fits together.”
Publicly available satellite images do not have the resolution to detect small fishing boats less than 20 meters in length. Konstantin Kremer with microsoft Esther Rolfe at Harvard University Nature Articles commenting on research. But they said such efforts could improve monitoring of human activity near protected areas and unregulated parts of the ocean.
Microscopic image of a modern cyanobacterium called Oscillatoria
Shutterstock / Ekki Ilham
Researchers have identified photosynthetic structures inside a 1.75 billion-year-old cyanobacteria fossil. This discovery is the oldest evidence yet of these structures and provides clues to how photosynthesis evolved.
Emmanuel Javeau Researchers from the University of Liège in Belgium analyzed fossils collected from rocks at three locations. The oldest site is the approximately 1.75 billion-year-old McDermott Formation in Australia, the other two are the billion-year-old Grassy Bay Formation in Canada and the Bllc6 Formation in the Democratic Republic of Congo. was.
From these rocks, the researchers extracted fossilized cyanobacteria that produce energy through photosynthesis. “They're so small, less than a millimeter, that you can't see them with the eye,” Java says. She and her colleagues placed the fossils in resin, sliced them into sections 60 to 70 nanometers thick using a diamond-bladed knife, and analyzed their internal structures using an electron microscope.
They discovered that cyanobacteria in Australia and Canada contain thylakoids, membrane-enclosed sacs in which photosynthesis occurs. “These are the oldest fossilized thylakoids that we know of today,” Java says. Previously, the oldest thylakoid fossils were around 550 million years old. “So we delayed the fossil record by 1.2 billion years,” she says.
This is important because not all cyanobacteria have thylakoids and it is unclear when these structures, which make photosynthesis more efficient, first evolved, they said. Kevin Boyce at Stanford University in California. The origins of this diversification can now be traced back at least 1.75 billion years, he says. The oldest fossils of cyanobacteria are about 2 billion years old, but other evidence, such as geochemical signatures, indicate that photosynthesis has been around even longer than that.
It is widely believed that cyanobacteria helped build up oxygen in Earth's atmosphere 2.4 billion years ago. “The idea is that perhaps during this time they invented thylakoids, which increased the amount of oxygen on Earth,” Java says. “Now that we have discovered very old thylakoids and found them preserved in very old rocks, we think we might be able to test this hypothesis even further back in time,” she says. .
Chinese researchers have mapped the entire genome. chiridotaheheva a type of sea cucumber collected at a depth of 2,428 m during a submarine trip to a hydrothermal vent.
Chirodotaheheba In the Gulf of Mexico. Image credit: Aquapix and Expedition to the Deep Slope 2007.
The sea cucumber is echinoderm and as such are related to sea urchins and starfish, a group of animals with a very unusual body design.
They are found on the ocean floor around the world, where they devour detritus and use their tentacles to explore sediments.
Although other high-quality sea cucumber genomes are available, this study provides the first genome of a sea cucumber specimen. chiridotaheheva — collected at a hydrothermal vent.
beginning explained In 2004, chiridotaheheva It is known from the deep waters of the Western Atlantic Ocean, but has an international distribution.
It is one of the few echinoderms. occupy All three types of chemosynthetic ecosystems are included: hydrothermal vents, cold seeps, and organic fallouts. This suggests that this species is well adapted to the reducing environment of the deep sea.
Unlike most species that live in cold or hydrothermal vents; chiridotaheheva It does not host chemosynthetic bacteria.
It obtains nutrients from a variety of sources and extracts organic components from sediment debris, suspended solids, and wood debris when available.
“The organisms found in hydrothermal vents are among the most unique life forms on Earth, having evolved special adaptations to survive and reproduce in these harsh conditions,” said the lead author. Dr. Eugene Pu by Sanya Institute of Deep Sea Science and Technology and colleagues.
“For example, many microorganisms employ special metabolic functions to cope with the abundance of sulfur and iron and to withstand the enormous heat near the vent.”
“In addition to microorganisms, there are also multicellular and higher-order organisms that have adapted to the conditions of hydrothermal vents, such as various types of nematodes, snails, crabs, and shrimp.”
In the study, the authors sequenced the genome of an individual. chiridotaheheva collected from the ocean floor of the Indian Ocean Kairei Bent Field (2,428 meters deep).
“The water around the Kailey vent is particularly rich in dissolved iron, compounded by the harsh conditions of high hydrostatic pressure, darkness, and temperature fluctuations,” the researchers said.
“Initial comparative genomic analyzes showed that several gene families are expanded in this sea cucumber, meaning that this species has a higher repertoire of certain gene sets than closely related species. To do.”
“These expanded and unique genes are involved in DNA repair and iron metabolism, among other processes. It shows for the first time that it is reflected.”
“The genomic data will provide a valuable resource for further research on both sea cucumbers and unique spout animals.”
Y Pooh other. 2023. High-quality chromosome genome assembly of sea cucumber chiridotaheheva and its hydrothermal adaptation. Giga Science, in press. doi: 10.1093/gigascience/giad107
Iceland is one of the most boring countries in the world. That’s a compliment, not an insult. The island nation is dotted with thousands of boreholes dug deep into the bedrock to extract geothermal energy. You’ll soon be joined by another team, but it’s never boring. “We are planning to drill into the magma chamber,” says Hjalti Pár Ingolsson from Reykjavík’s Geothermal Research Cluster (GEORG). “This is our first trip to the center of the Earth,” says his colleague Björn Sor Gudmundsson.
Well, not in the center. Some magma chambers (underground reservoirs of molten rock) lie just a few kilometers below the earth’s surface and are within reach of modern excavators. Sometimes magma leaks to the surface and erupts as lava. At the time this story went to press, that’s exactly what was beginning to have spectacular and devastating effects around the town of Grindavik in southern Iceland. The problem is that we usually don’t know where the magma chamber is. “No geophysical method has yet been proven to satisfactorily locate magma chambers,” he says. John Eichelberger At the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
But now Ingolfsson and his colleagues are in luck. They accidentally discover a magma chamber and are planning to do the unthinkable: to intentionally drill into it. This project is nothing short of making scientific history by providing the first direct opportunity to study the hidden liquid rock that Earth used to build its continents. On the way, it could also be…
Quadrantid meteor shower “Fireball” in Tres Piedras, New Mexico, January 2020
Mike Lewinsky CC BY 2.0 DEED
The first major meteor shower of the year will begin tonight and tomorrow, peaking in the early morning hours of January 4th, Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). This meteor shower, known as the “Subungid meteor shower,'' is one of the most active meteor showers of the year.
At its peak, up to 110 meteors can be observed per hour, and the phenomenon is often associated with particularly bright meteors called bolides.
This year's waxing moon means you might be able to see as many as 110 meteors due to the moonlight getting in the way, but if the skies are clear, it's still worth seeing.
When is the Quadrant Meteor Shower?
The current Shibungid meteor shower began on December 28th, but was visible to some people on January 3rd and peaked just before 1 a.m. Japan time on January 4th, making this phenomenon a small phenomenon. It is expected to last 6 hours.
Where can I observe the Squirrel meteor shower?
The Quadriids meteor shower is best viewed from the Northern Hemisphere. If the sky is clear, try to go outside after midnight to avoid light pollution.
From the Southern Hemisphere, you are less likely to see the Quadriids meteor shower. Because its peak occurs after sunrise. But lucky viewers might be able to spot some photos in the hours before sunrise on January 4th.
How to observe the Shibungid meteor shower
You don't need any special equipment to view the meteor shower. Be sure to pack something to keep yourself warm, lie down, look at the sky, and wait for the meteors to appear.
Like all meteor showers, the Cybungid meteor shower is named after the constellation from which the meteors appear to come from the sky. In this case, it is an old constellation called “Quadrans Muralis” in his 1800s, when the shower was discovered. Now, this part of the sky is part of the constellation Boes.
You don't need to be able to find the constellation Boes to see the meteor shower, but if you want to know where it is, you can find it at its brightest star called Arcturus. First, find the Plow or Big Dipper and look at the row of stars that form its handle.
Continuing along the arc of this curve, you will reach a bright star visible near the eastern horizon around midnight. Remember this technique by thinking of “Ark to Arcturus”.
What is a meteor shower?
Meteors are flashes of light that move quickly across the night sky, sometimes with a trail behind them. They are produced when pieces of dust and debris enter the Earth's atmosphere and burn up.
Although this happens all the time, meteor showers are the peak in the number of visible meteors. They occur when Earth's orbit brings it into large chunks of debris left behind by comets and asteroids. In particular, the origin of the quadrant basin is 2003 Asteroid called EH1.
Illustration of Nanotyrannus fighting a young Tyrannosaurus Rex
raul martin
tyrannosaurus rex After all, it may not have been the only large carnivore that ruled North America during the Late Cretaceous. Reinterpretation of some fossils of small dinosaurs sometimes classified as young dinosaurs tyrannosaurus This adds weight to the controversial idea that it is a separate small species called . Nanotyrannus lansensislived with the dinosaur king.
“This is the most famous fossil animal in the world,” he says Nicholas Longrich At the University of Bath, UK. “A lot of people are watching. And we can't agree.”
This debate has divided paleontologists for decades. A paper from the 1960s revealed that a skull excavated 20 years earlier in the Hell Creek Formation in Montana was tyrannosaurus that died before reaching full maturity. However, in the 1980s, others argued that the differences between the skull and known skulls were: tyrannosaurus The specimen showed that this fossil was actually an adult of another species, and they named it Nanotyrannus lansensis.
Recent studies based on additional fossils dispute this, arguing that the differences between miniature and full-sized fossils are: tyrannosaurus The fossils were not of different species, but of different times. This discussion has implications for understanding the ecology and diversity of dinosaurs in the period just before their extinction.
Now, with Longrich Evan Saitta Researchers at the University of Chicago have compiled six pieces of evidence that support identifying the smaller fossils as: Nanotyrannus. This includes cataloging more than 150 individual features that differ between the fossil in question and the known fossils. tyrannosaurus Fossils include things like a narrower snout and smoother teeth. They argue that all this cannot change between boys and adults. tyrannosaurus.
The researchers also analyzed the patterns of bone growth rings, which form when bones stop growing each year. As the animal grows slower, the distance between the growth rings decreases. Researchers say they found these rings to be tightened, suggesting that the smaller fossils represent young adults. Nanotyrannus Rather than a boy tyrannosaurus They rate these adults Nanotyrannus Their weight would be between 1,000 kg and 2,000 kg, equivalent to a quarter of an adult. tyrannosaurus 8000 kg. “No matter how you graph the data, you can’t turn it into an animal. tyrannosaurus” Longrich says.
The latest evidence is a fossilized frontal bone (located between the eye and skull) that Longrich unearthed from the archives of the University of California Museum of Paleontology, which researchers interpret as a juvenile fossil. tyrannosaurus Because it is definitely different from the hypothesis, Nanotyrannus fossil. “It's an animal smaller than a human.” Nanotyrannus But it is tyrannosaurus Morphology,” Longrich says.
Some outside researchers say they remain unsure that the tiny fossil is actually a separate species. “No problem Nanotyrannus If science proves it, it’s real.” holly woodward At Oklahoma State University written Juvenile species were identified in a tree ring survey conducted in 2020. tyrannosaurus explanation. “We’re not convinced that their interpretation is any more accurate than ours,” she said, adding that the fully grown animal specimens were “unusual.” Nanotyrannus It will be necessary to resolve different interpretations.
thomas carr A professor at Carthage College in Wisconsin has long argued that the fossil is a juvenile. tyrannosaurus, adding that the front bone found at Berkeley was too incomplete to sway him. “I don’t take this seriously at all,” he says.
scott parsons Professors at the College of Charleston in South Carolina are more welcoming of what he says is a new perspective on a long-stalled rift among paleontologists. “This new paper doesn’t settle this debate, but I’m optimistic that it will be a game-changer,” he says.
Infected wounds pose a significant mortality risk to animals. Injuries are common in Matabeleari (Megaponera analis), raiding warlike prey. New research shows that these predatory ants can tell when a wound has become infected and treat it accordingly. Workers apply various antimicrobial compounds and proteins secreted from the retropleura to infected wounds, reducing mortality rates in infected individuals by 90%.
Matabeleari (Megaponera analis) He cares for the wound of a fellow ant whose leg was bitten off during a fight with termites. Image credit: Erik Frank / University of Würzburg.
Infectious diseases are a major mortality risk for animals, and animals that live in groups are particularly at risk of contracting life-threatening contagious pathogens.
This has led to a series of pathogen-induced changes in social interactions, including social distancing, disease signaling, and medical care.
Injured people are an easy entry point for life-threatening infections because their primary barrier to infection, the epidermis, or epidermis, is damaged.
Recently, some mammals have been shown to lick wounds to apply antiseptic saliva. However, the effectiveness of these actions remains largely unknown and occurs regardless of wound status.
In social insects, interactions to combat pathogens range from preventive measures such as nest disinfection and conspecific grooming, to dying individuals leaving the nest and dying in isolation, to destructive disinfection of infected mates. It's wide-ranging.
However, whether and how social insect colonies care for injured individuals exposed to pathogens is still poorly understood.
Predatory Matabele ant workers have been known to treat injuries to their nestmates, a common occurrence since the ants only feed on belligerent termites. As many as 22% of collectors engaged in termite raids lose one or two of their legs.
Injured workers are carried to the nest, and for the first three hours after injury, other workers treat the wound by licking and grooming the wound.
If the wounds of injured workers are not treated by nestmates, 90% of the injured workers die within 24 hours after injury, but the mechanisms of these treatments are unknown.
“The aim of our study was to identify the causes of death in injured individuals and the potential mechanisms involved in the detection and treatment of injuries,” said first author Eric, a researcher at the University of Lausanne and the University of Würzburg.・Dr. Frank said. , and his colleagues.
they discovered gram-negative bacteria Pseudomonas aeruginosa It caused a fatal infection in injured Matabele ant workers.
They showed that wound infections were associated with specific changes in the epidermal hydrocarbon profile, allowing nestmates to diagnose the infected status of the injured and apply appropriate antimicrobial treatment. .
They also identified 112 chemical compounds and 41 proteins in secretions from the ants' posterior thymus, half of which were found to have antibacterial or wound-healing properties.
“Chemical analysis showed that the hydrocarbon profile of the ant's epidermis changes as a result of wound infection,” Dr. Frank said.
“It is precisely this change that allows the ants to recognize and diagnose the infection status of injured nestmates.”
“For treatment, they apply antibacterial compounds and proteins to the infected wound. They ingest these antibiotics through the retropleura, which is located on the side of the thorax.”
“The secretion contains 112 components, half of which have antibacterial and wound healing effects.”
“And this treatment is highly effective, reducing the mortality rate of infected people by 90%.”
“Aside from humans, I don't know of any other creature capable of such sophisticated wound healing.”
“These findings have medical implications because the main pathogens in ant wounds are Pseudomonas aeruginosait is also a major cause of human infections, and some strains are resistant to antibiotics,” said the study's senior author, Dr. Laurent Keller from the University of Lausanne.
of result appear in the diary nature communications.
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ET Frank other. 2023. Targeted treatment of injured nestmates with antimicrobial compounds in an ant community. Nat Commune 14, 8446; doi: 10.1038/s41467-023-43885-w
Paleontologists have described a new genus and species of small polycotyledonous plesiosaur from two specimens discovered in the US states of Wyoming and South Dakota.
rebuilding the life of Untahira Specta The proposed habitat is a sunlit body of water just below the earth's surface, and the eyes are covered by bulges above the orbits.Image credit: Clark other., doi: 10.1016/j.cretres.2023.105812.
Untahira Specta lived in the waters of Western Inland Sea Route Late Cretaceous period, approximately 80.5 million years ago.
This marine reptile is polycotyledonous plantsa family of plesiosaurs that evolved in the Early Cretaceous and radiated into multiple genera in the Late Cretaceous.
“Polycotyledons were a marine herpeta superfamily of the Cretaceous period. plesiosaurinae” said the lead author. Dr. Robert Clark and colleagues at Marshall University.
“The earliest polysperms are known from the Aptians of Australia, but they reached North America by the Albians and achieved an international distribution before dying out along with the rest of the polysperms. plesiosaur At the end of the Maastrichtian. ”
“Polysosaurs had short tails, limbs transformed into large paddles, and plesiosaur-like bowplans of broad, hydrodynamic bodies with extended pectoral and pelvic girdle, but short It also had a derivative condition: a large head with a neck and an elongated snout.”
“It has converged, but Pliosauridae In these traits, the small clefts and teeth of most polycots indicate that they occupied different ecological niches. ”
holotype of Untahira Specta.Image credit: Clark other., doi: 10.1016/j.cretres.2023.105812.
Two fossilized skulls (holotype and paratype) Untahira Specta Recovered from the Baculites obtusus zone of the Sharon Springs Formation in the United States.
“The holotype is a skull and mandible with an almost complete cervical, sacral, caudal series, partial dorsal series, ribs, part of the pelvic and pectoral girdle, both iliac bones, both anterior paddles, both It has a rear paddle,” the paleontologists said. Said.
“The paratype is a complete cranium, a three-part lower jaw, and five small, fragmentary, unidentified postcranial elements.”
Untahira Specta It was a small polycotyledonous plant, 2.3–2.6 m (7.5–8.5 ft) long, with a broad skull and distinctive paddle.
The large eyes had flat protuberances that probably blocked sunlight. It is possible that they were visually chasing prey just below the water surface.
“Comparisons with extant quadrupeds suggest several characteristics of quadrupeds. Untahira Specta “This may be an adaptation to predation by visual tracking in sunny environments, an interpretation with ecological implications for other aquatic reptiles,” the researchers said.
their findings It was published in the magazine Cretaceous research.
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Robert O. Clark other.Elucidation of a new genus of small polycotyledonous plesiosaurs that lived in the Upper Cretaceous of the Western Interior Seaway and its genus doricorinchops. Cretaceous research, published online on December 24, 2023. doi: 10.1016/j.cretres.2023.105812
A giant naked figure called Sarn Giant It was carved into the Dorset hillside not in prehistory or early modern times, as many think, but in the early Middle Ages, particularly in the 9th or 10th century, when there was much interest in the classical hero Hercules. It is said that it was at the beginning.to new paper in diary Speculum. He was probably created to mark the meeting place for West Saxon military meetings on the lands of the chieftains of the western provinces. By the mid-11th century, he was repurposed by monasteries founded or re-founded at his feet. St. Eadwolda convenient way to erase Hercules and declare the monastery's rights to the saint's relics.
Sarn Abbas Giant, Sarn Abbas, Dorset, England. Image credit: Ray Gaffney.
The Sarne Giant is a gigantic statue of a naked man carved into chalk rock on a hillside above the village of Sarne Abbas in Dorset, England.
He is approximately 55 meters (180 feet) tall, wielding a club in his right hand and extending his left arm.
The feet are turned to the right as if walking. His bald head is teardrop shaped with his eyes, eyebrows, nose, and mouth.
His naked torso shows an erect penis, nipples, ribs, belt, and belly button. The latter appears to have been incorporated into his phallus in 1908, and is now more prominent than originally.
When the Cerne Giant was first carved has been debated for centuries.
Dr Helen Gittos, a researcher at the University of Oxford, said: “It turns out that the Sarne Giant is just the most prominent of a whole group of early medieval features in the landscape.”
“While Hercules was well known in the Middle Ages as a flawed hero who was both admired and criticized, interest in Hercules in particular increased in the 9th century.”
“By at least the 10th century, Cern was in the hands of the elders of the western provinces, the leading lords of the kings of the south-west.”
“The Tern Giant's topographical location, on a spur projecting from a ridge, makes it a unique type of Anglo-Saxon meeting place in that it has spectacular views and is close to major highways.”
“Nearby Viking attacks, access to abundant fresh water, and local land supplies made this an ideal location to muster a West Saxon army against the backdrop of Hercules.”
In the 11th century, the monks worshiping at the monastery at the foot of Giant Hill reimagined the Giant of Sarne as a statue of their saint Eadwald, implicit in the lessons they read on that feast day. I mentioned this person.
This is one of the many ways the Cologne giants have been reinterpreted over the centuries, from Hercules to the Hermit.
“The identity of the Cern giant was already open to reinterpretation,” said Dr. Tom Morkom, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oslo.
“The monks of Cern would not have depicted their patron saint as a naked saint if they had carved their patron saint from scratch, but they gladly adopted him as a statue of Eadwald for their own purposes. .”
“Giant has long been loved and cherished, and that rediscovery continues today.”
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Thomas Morcombe and Helen Gittos. 2024. Giant of Cologne in the early Middle Ages. Speculum 99 (1): 1-38; doi: 10.1086/727992
The Great Lakes, known for ice fishing and winter's frozen waves, rang out a nearly bare New Year's bell.
Less than 0.4% of ice covered the Great Lakes on New Year's Day, according to the Great Lakes Environmental Research Institute, which uses satellite data to measure ice concentrations.
“There's basically nothing,” said James Kessler, a physical scientist at the institute, part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “We have about 50 years of data. Today's average for January 1st is about 9%.”
Kessler said that although ice coverage is well below normal, it is not unheard of for ice concentrations to fall below 1% on January 1, still early in the season.
The amount of ice on the Great Lakes (Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, Lake Huron, Lake Erie, and Lake Ontario) determines when and how raw materials and cargo are shipped from ports in the Midwest. Fish species such as whitefish are covered in ice to protect their eggs for reproduction. Lower ice levels could increase erosion and contribute to changes in weather patterns in the region.
Kessler said temperatures have been unseasonably high this season, making it difficult for ice to form on the lake's surface. According to his research, the Great Lakes' annual ice area varies greatly from year to year, but tends to decline at a rate of about 5% every decade.
“This is certainly a sign of climate change,” he says.
Ice typically reaches its maximum extent from mid-February to early March. In a typical year, about 40% of the Great Lakes are covered in ice at peak times.
Last year, ice coverage reached about 23% and by mid-February the ice had diminished. just covered 7% of the lake.
In 2023, Earth experienced its hottest year on record, largely due to human-induced climate change. Researchers expect temperatures to rise further this year due to El Niño, a natural climate pattern that releases ocean heat into the atmosphere.El Niño winter Warmer trends across the Great Lakes region.
This image of Io was taken by the Juno spacecraft.
NASA/SwRI/MSSS
Thanks to NASA's Juno spacecraft, which passed the moon on December 30, we had the closest look at Jupiter's volcanic moon Io in decades.
Juno, which has been orbiting Jupiter since 2016, has increasingly taken images of Io's vicinity in recent months as its orbit around Jupiter changes.
This latest image was taken just 1500 kilometers above the moon's surface. In it, you can see some of Io's hundreds of towering mountains, some of which can exceed 10 kilometers in height, and their long, sharp shadows.
Io is thought to be the most volcanically active body in the solar system, with hundreds of active volcanoes. These volcanoes tend to be smaller than the largest mountains, averaging only 1 to 2 kilometers in height, and are difficult to see in images.
But by comparing the data with images from Juno's previous 56 lunar passes, astronomers are starting to understand how these volcanoes have changed over time and why they are so active. You can know.
Juno has also been exploring Jupiter's other moons, including Europa and Ganymede, collecting data and taking the closest images. NASA's Galileo spacecraft In February, Juno will again fly very close, about 1,500 kilometers above Io's surface.
Juno will fly close to Io seven more times before leaving orbit for Jupiter at the end of 2025, but that won't be the end of learning about Jupiter's moons. NASA's Europa Clipper spacecraft, scheduled to launch in October this year, is designed to fly just 25 kilometers above the surface of Europa, considered one of the most promising sites for life on Earth. This will provide important information about the mysterious inland sea. Solar system. The spacecraft is scheduled to arrive at Europa in 2030.
The classical understanding of brain organization is that the brain's perceptual areas represent the world 'as it is', and the brain's visual cortex represents the external world 'retinolocally', based on how light hits the retina. That's what it means. In contrast, the brain's memory areas are thought to represent information in an abstract form, stripped of details about physical properties. Now, a team of neuroscientists from Dartmouth College and the University of Edinburgh have identified the neural coding mechanisms that allow information to move back and forth between the brain's sensory and memory regions.
Traditional views of brain organization suggest that regions at the top of the cortical hierarchy process internally directed information using abstract, amodal neural codes. Nevertheless, recent reports have described the presence of retinotopic coding at cortical vertices, including the default mode network.What is the functional role of retinal local coding at the apex of the cortical hierarchy? Steel other. We report that retinotopic coding structures interactions between internally oriented (memory) and externally oriented (perception) brain regions. Image credit: Gerd Altmann.
“We now know that brain regions associated with memory encode the world, like a 'photo negative' of the universe,” said Dr. Adam Steele, a researcher at Dartmouth College.
“And that 'negativity' is part of the mechanism that moves information in and out of memory, and between perceptual and memory systems.”
In a series of experiments, participants were tested on perception and memory while their brain activity was recorded using a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanner.
Dr. Steele and his colleagues identified a contralateral push-pull-like coding mechanism that governs the interaction between perceptual and memory areas in the brain.
The results showed that when light hits the retina, the brain's visual cortex responds by increasing activity that represents the pattern of light.
Memory areas of the brain also respond to visual stimuli, but unlike visual areas, processing the same visual pattern reduces neural activity.
“There are three unusual findings in this study,” the researchers said.
“The first is the discovery that visual coding principles are stored in the memory system.”
“The second thing is that this visual code is upside down in our memory system.”
“When you see something in your visual field, neurons in your visual cortex become active and neurons in your memory system quiet down.”
“Third, this relationship is reversed during memory recall.”
“If you close your eyes and recall that visual stimulus in the same space, the relationship is reversed. Your memory system kicks in and suppresses the neurons in your sensory area.”
Dr Ed Shilson, a neuroscientist at the University of Edinburgh, said: “Our findings demonstrate how shared visual information is used by the memory system to bring recalled memories into and out of focus. “This provides a clear example of how this can be done.”
of study Published in today's magazine natural neuroscience.
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A. Steel other. Retinotopic codes structure interactions between perceptual and memory systems. nut neurosi, published online on January 2, 2024. doi: 10.1038/s41593-023-01512-3
The blue and pink areas indicate vast habitable areas that were once connected to northwestern Australia, but are now underwater.
Kasi Norman
As many as 500,000 people may have once lived on land in what is now northern Australia, which was submerged by rising sea levels at the end of the last ice age.
Kasi Norman Professors at Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia, have reconstructed the topography of the approximately 400,000 square kilometers of land currently covered by the Indian Ocean, known as the North-West Shelf. The researchers say this is not an uninhabitable place as previously thought, but rather a place where people have thrived for tens of thousands of years.
The study revealed features such as inland seas as large as the Sea of Marmara in Turkey and vast freshwater lakes with gorges, rivers and cliffs, such as those currently found in Kakadu National Park in Australia's Northern Territory. became.
Mr Norman said this large area of flooded land had long been known from oil and gas exploration, but the Australian Institute of Geosciences recently released detailed sonar data with pixels down to 30 x 30 metres. It is said that he did. “This is high enough resolution to tell us about landscape features that are important to people,” she says.
Research has revealed that the inland sea existed in a stable form from 27,000 to 17,000 years ago. A nearby 2,000 square kilometer freshwater lake remained stable from 30,000 to 14,000 years ago. The lake is thought to have been an important refuge for people fleeing south from the arid Australian continent during the Ice Age.
By modeling these geographic features, the researchers estimate that the area could have supported a population of 50,000 to 500,000 people.
“This vast landscape that no longer exists would have been very different from what we see in Australia today,” Norman said. “It's incredible to have a freshwater lake of this size next to an inland sea, and people would have lived on the other side of that lake. This is a lost landscape that people were using. is.”
However, at the end of the last ice age, sea levels began to rise dramatically. Initially, sea levels rose at about 1 meter per 100 years, Norman said, but from 14,500 to 14,100 years ago, the rate increased to 400 to 500 meters per 100 years.
If things had continued, people would have seen sea levels rise and be forced to move inland to escape flooding.
He said the region had never before modeled how many people it supported. peter bess The research, from the University of Western Australia, was made possible thanks to new detailed paleogeographical data available to the team.
Alastair Reynolds and Esmee Zikiemi-Pearson are two authors who set their novels in space in January this year.
alamy stock photo
There won’t be a lot of new science fiction this January, but there are some gems to look forward to, including a new release from science fiction guru Alastair Reynolds, who wrote our masterpiece. new scientist This year’s Christmas short story is Lottie and the river. I’m also really looking forward to Esmee Zikiemi-Pearson’s debut feature, a space opera with epic ambitions, and Alice McIlroy’s creepy psychological thriller. glass woman, a scientist is implanted with technology that results in him losing his memory. If I have the courage, I will read Toro Toro Tsamase’s book. City of wombs. If this isn’t enough and you’re looking for more tips for the year ahead, be sure to check out science fiction columnist Sally Addy’s tips for reading in 2024.
machine vendetta Written by Alastair Reynolds. I’ll take a new Alastair Reynolds any day. This latest information is in him Governor Dreyfus The series sees Dreyfus investigate the death of Invar Tench, a police officer who worked to maintain democracy in the 10,000 city-states orbiting the planet Yellowstone.
principle of the moment Written by Esme Jikiemi Pearson. This space opera is Zikiemi-Pearson’s first novel and follows Obi, who time-travels from the planet Garrahan in 6066, where humans are indentured laborers for the Emperor’s war machine, to London in 1812, where he meets a young girl. , sounds great. From the British Museum at another time. It’s said to be for fans of Becky Chambers, VE Schwab, and NK Jemisin, but all are must-reads for me. Seems like the perfect antidote to the January blues.
glass woman Written by Alice McIlroy.This is a psychological thriller like “BThere’s no mirror meet before going to bed as Severance pay: The story follows Iris, a scientist who volunteers to become a test subject for an experimental treatment that inserts technology into her brain. However, she no longer has her memory and wonders why she volunteered for the treatment in the first place. I don’t know if I did it or even what it is. It’s eerily awesome, and I’m sure I’ll be spending my commute and nights in January with it.
In Alice McIlroy’s The Glass Girl, strange technology is implanted in the brain of a scientist.
Shutterstock / MDV Edwards
city of womb Written by Toro Toro Tsamaase.The Handmaid’s Tale meet Get out? That’s quite a tall order, but this African-futuristic horror novel looks like it’ll be both fun and scary.? A cruel surveillance regime is in place, with Nella trapped in her loveless marriage, her every move monitored by microchip by her police officer husband. When she buries the body of a car accident, the ghosts of the victims begin to haunt her loved ones. Our science fiction columnist Sally Addy suggests this as something to be aware of.
13 Ways to Defeat Lulabel Rock Written by Maud Wolfe. This looks like a lot of fun. Set in the near future, celebrities can create clones of themselves (known as “portraits”) to take on various tasks. We are following 13 stories.th A copy of the actor Lurabel Rock, who is trying to eliminate his predecessor.
Ava Anna Ada Written by Ali Miller. This novel is set in the hot near future and depicts the events of a week in which Anna and Eva become trapped in their own world and reconsider who they really are. Ian Rankin explains it this way:[Philip K.] Dick’s They are This novel depicts the disintegration of a family in the near future and features early Ian Banks and Ian McEwan. The novel is “both frightening and fascinating” in every way.
clover Written by Karen Langston. Ten years after the death of her partner Neve, Ink finds that he has no concept of her past and can only think of her in the present tense. He seems to be in a new “crisis of memory loss”. But is this due to a broken code in Klova, an artificial language that allows anyone to think and speak?
necropolis alpha Written by Chris M. Arnone. This piece of cyberpunk science fiction is a sequel to Arnone’s novel. hermes protocol and follows a cybernetically enhanced “Intel operative” as he attempts to steal data from an evangelical preacher’s office.
Hera will soon head to the asteroid Dimorphos with CubeSats
ESA/Science Directorate
The European Space Agency (ESA) is sending a mission to find out what happened to an asteroid that NASA collided with in 2022. The Hera mission, scheduled to launch in October, will head to the asteroid Dimorphos, which NASA collided with during the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART). Mission.
The purpose of DART was to see if crashing a spacecraft into an asteroid would be a good way to protect Earth if one were to come our way.we know the impact Change the trajectory of Dimorphos The collisions around parent asteroid Didymos shorten each orbit by about 33 minutes, but details are not known about exactly how the collisions affected the asteroid or what happened next. do not have.
“To determine whether the impact left a crater or completely changed the shape of the asteroid, another spacecraft will need to return to the crime scene, because with the current data, either scenario is possible. That's why,” says Hera Mission Director. patrick michel At the Côte d'Azur Observatory in France. “Hera is a detective who will thoroughly investigate the effects.”
The mission consists of a main spacecraft that will fly up to 1 kilometer to Dimorphos, and two smaller cube-shaped satellites that are intended to land on the surface and see it up close. This research will not only be crucial for simulating potentially dangerous asteroids and how to deflect them in the future, but will also provide important scientific insights.
“Collisions have played an important role in the entire history of the solar system. We started the growth of planets through collisions, and all solid surfaces are full of impact craters,” Michel says. “If we're going to build a complete model of the solar system's collision history, we need to understand how these collisions work.” And it helps clarify how those conflicts work for us.
New infrared images taken with wide field camera 3 (WFC3) onboard the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows dozens of galaxies in the constellation Cetus, including SDSS J020941.27+001558.4, SDSS J020941.23+001600.7, and HerS J020941.1+001557. Masu.
This Hubble image shows a variety of distant galaxies in the constellation Cetus. Most galaxies are very small, but there are also some larger galaxies and some stars that can be seen in detail. At its center is an elliptical galaxy with a bright nucleus and a wide disk. A reddish, distorted ring of light surrounds its center, thicker on one side. Small galaxies intersect the rings as bright spots. Image credits: NASA / ESA / Hubble / H. Nayyeri / L. Marchetti / J. Lowenthal.
“What are we looking at when we study this image?” Hubble astronomers said in a statement.
“A distant galaxy 19.5 billion light-years away from Earth? Or a much closer (relatively) tiny glowing red galaxy 2.7 billion light-years away? Or a third galaxy that appears to be much closer to the second galaxy? Is not it?”
“The answer, perhaps confusingly, is that we are considering all three.”
“More precisely, we see light emitted from all of these galaxies, even though the farthest galaxy from Earth is directly behind the first.”
“In fact, it's that very alignment that makes the particular visuals of this image possible.”
“The bright spot in the center of this image is one of our closest galaxies, known by a long (but informative) name. SDSS J020941.27+001558.4,” they said.
“Another bright spot above it appears to be intersected by a curved crescent of light, SDSS J020941.23+001600.7, is the second closest galaxy. ”
“And finally, that curved crescent of light itself is 'lensed' light from a very distant galaxy. Girlfriend J020941.1+001557”
Her J020941.1+001557 light was bent by the gravity of the foreground galaxy and expanded into a circular shape called an Einstein ring.
“Einstein rings occur when light from a very distant object bends around a large intermediate object,” the astronomers said.
“This is possible because the fabric of the universe itself, spacetime, is bent by mass, and so is light traveling through spacetime.”
“This is too subtle to observe at a local level, but when dealing with the curvature of light on large astronomical scales, for example when light emitted from a galaxy bends around another galaxy or galaxy cluster, , may become clearly observable.”
“When the lensed object and the lensed object are aligned in such a way, the result is a unique Einstein ring shape, with a complete or partial ring around the lensed object, depending on the precision of the alignment. A circle of light appears.
“This partial Einstein ring is of particular interest because it was identified thanks to a citizen science project. space warp — means that the public made the discovery of this object possible. ”
The August drought in Villanueva, Spain was one of the most common extreme weather events in 2023.
Ander Girenea/AFP via Getty Images
Last year was the hottest year on record, but 2023 is unlikely to retain that dubious honor for long. In addition to warming caused by greenhouse gases, 2024 is expected to be even hotter due to the El Niño phenomenon in the Pacific Ocean. “We've never had an El Niño of this magnitude against a backdrop of global warming,” he says. adam scaife At the UK National Met Office…
As we end 2023, what does 2024 have in store for us? As a wise person new scientist As our readers know, the division of time into years is fairly arbitrary, and only tells us that the Earth has gone around the sun once (yes, I get it. 0.256363004 days is fine. (No, please pipe up in the back). So many of this year's big topics, such as the rise of artificial intelligence and the growing dangers of climate change, will remain big topics next year.
But we can't help but give new meaning to the new year.
If 2023 is any indication, 2024 is poised to be a year of breakthroughs across all areas of science. From cutting-edge advances in artificial intelligence to revolutionary discoveries in health and space exploration, here’s a look at what to expect in science in 2024.
Things are looking up: Space in 2024
If all goes well, humans will return to the moon for the first time in 50 years in 2024. NASA’s Artemis II mission is scheduled to launch in late 2024 and will carry a crew of four, including the first woman and person of color to participate in a moon mission.
Additionally, NASA’s Plankton, Aerosols, Clouds, and Ocean Ecosystems (PACE) satellite mission is scheduled to launch early this year. It aims to collect data that will help scientists measure the health of Earth’s oceans.
The long-delayed debut of ESA’s Ariane 6 heavy-lift rocket is scheduled for mid-2024. And in October, NASA’s Europa Clipper will begin a journey to one of Jupiter’s icy moons to investigate the possibility of life.
Prior to that, the Jupiter Ice Moons Explorer (JUICE) spacecraft, launched by ESA in 2023 on a similar mission, is scheduled to perform its first Moon-Earth flyby a few months earlier, in August of this year.
Meanwhile, for those of us stuck on Earth, a total solar eclipse will hit Mexico, Canada, and the United States on April 8th, making it the last one to hit the continental United States until 2044.
This year also marks the bisection of Halley’s Comet’s 76-year orbit. This means that Halley’s Comet will reach its furthest point from Earth before beginning its return journey.
Artemis II (LR) Crew member and pilot of American astronaut Victor Glover. Reed Wiseman, Commander. Christina Hammock Koch, Mission Specialist. Canadian astronaut and mission specialist Jeremy Hansen (rear) poses with the Artemis II crew module. – Photo credit: Getty
New frontiers in health and medicine
Following the attention given to the weight-loss drug semaglutide in 2023, a phase 3 trial of a similar anti-diabetic drug, tirzepatide (Mounjaro), is expected to yield results towards the end of 2024.
Advances in CRISPR therapy are also expected after the gene editing tool was approved in the UK in November 2023 for the treatment of sickle cell disease and the blood disease beta-thalassemia. It is then expected to be approved in the United States by March 2024.
Transplant medicine also appears to be reaching new heights. In fact, biotech company EGenesis suggested earlier this year that gene-edited pig organs could be donated to human babies in need of transplants.
We also need to see how artificial intelligence (AI) can improve cancer diagnosis, test the effectiveness of new cancer treatments and drug combinations, and see the results of clinical trials of vaccines against HIV and malaria. be.
technology outlook
There has been a lot of speculation about OpenAI’s next project, and although nothing has been officially announced, an update to its Generative Pre-trained Transformer (ChatGPT) model is expected.
Generative AI will continue to find new applications in research and everyday life. The future technology for VR and gaming is shaping up to be interesting as tech giants pour resources into mixed reality.
This year, advances in fundamental areas of human life, from medicine to infrastructure, will be matched and enhanced by breakthroughs in robotics, smart materials, and eco-materials.
We expect more advanced robots that can perform microscopic operations inside the body, buildings that react to changing weather conditions, improved solar cells, and more. Some of these may be created with his 4D printer, which uses smart materials to create objects that can change shape.
Science in 2024: Culture
science fiction glasses
Movies in 2024 will be dominated by book adaptations, reboots, and sequels. alien to Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire. But what really caught our eye is the sequel.
inside out 2 We are committed to tackling the mental health of teenagers, and our first work explored the minds of children. We also return to your question about extraterrestrial terraforming. Dune: Part 2.
Inside Head 2: Fear, Sadness, Anger, Joy, Disgust, Anxiety take on new challenges. – Photo credit: Alamy
game changer
AI will greatly enhance camera operations at the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics. Facial recognition is prohibited, but AI surveillance can help detect abandoned items and suspicious activity in large groups.
artificial politics
In 2023, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman warned the U.S. Congress about the risks AI poses to politics, but amid a rise in political deepfakes, there are growing concerns about generative AI’s ability to mislead. Concerns are growing. Still, several important elections are scheduled to take place in 2024, including the US presidential election.
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