Two hominin species lived together in Kenya 1.5 million years ago

Posted on November 29, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Paleoanthropologists have discovered 1.5 million-year-old footprints of two very different species of humans. homo erectus and Paranthropus boisei — at the same location near Lake Turkana in Kenya.

A 3D computerized model of the surface of an area near Lake Turkana in Kenya shows fossil footprints. Paranthropus boisei (vertical footprint) separate footprint homo erectus Form a vertical path. Image credit: Kevin Hatala / Chatham University.

Hominin is a term that describes a subdivision of the larger category known as Hominidae.

The hominid family includes all extinct and living organisms that are thought to belong to the human lineage that emerged after we separated from our great ape ancestors. This is thought to have happened about 6 to 7 million years ago.

Paleoanthropologists have long hypothesized that: homo erectus and Paranthropus boisei They coexisted.

According to the fossil record, homo erectus It lasted another million years.

Paranthropus boiseiHowever, they became extinct within a few hundred thousand years. Scientists don’t know why.

Both species had an upright posture and bipedal gait, and were very agile. We still know little about how these coexisting species interacted culturally and reproductively.

“Footprints are important because they fall into the category of trace fossils, which includes footprints, nests, and burrows,” said Craig Feibel, a professor at Rutgers University.

“Trace fossils are not parts of living things, but they provide evidence of behavior. Fossil body parts, such as bones and teeth, are evidence of past life, but they are easily displaced by water and predators. ”

This is a reconstruction by the artist homo erectus. Image credit: Yale University.

Professor Feibel and his colleagues discovered footprints from 1.5 million years ago. homo erectus and Paranthropus boisei Near Lake Turkana in Kenya.

“By being on the same surface and forming closely together over time, these two species are located at the edge of the lake and use the same habitat,” Professor Feibel said.

“Skeletal fossils have long provided the primary evidence for studying human evolution, but new data from fossil footprints reveals fascinating details about the evolution of human anatomy and locomotion. , giving further clues about ancient human behavior and the environment,” said Dr. Kevin Hatala. , a researcher at Chatham University.

“Fossil footprints are interesting because they provide a vivid snapshot of our fossil relatives coming to life.”

“These types of data can help us understand how living individuals millions of years ago moved through their environments, interacted with each other, and potentially interacted with other animals. Masu.”

“That's something you can never get from bones or stone tools.”

Paranthropus boisei. Image credit: © Roman Yevseyev.

The authors used a new method they recently developed that allows them to perform 3D analysis to distinguish one footprint from another.

“Biological anthropology is always interested in finding new ways to extract behavior from the fossil record, and this is a great example,” said Dr. Rebecca Ferrell, program director at the National Science Foundation.

“The team used state-of-the-art 3D imaging technology to create a completely new way to observe footprints, which will help us understand human evolution and the role of cooperation and competition in shaping our evolutionary journey. It will help.”

of findings Published in today's diary science.

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Kevin G. Hatala others. 2024. Footprint evidence of locomotor diversity and common habitats in early Pleistocene hominids. science 386 (6725): 1004-1010;doi: 10.1126/science.ado5275

Source: www.sci.news

New review highlights the numerous health benefits of staying well-hydrated

Posted on November 29, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Drinking enough water can help with weight loss and prevent kidney stones as well as migraines, urinary tract infections, and low blood pressure, according to a new systematic review of 18 randomized clinical trials.

A systematic review of 18 randomized clinical trials found that interventions that increased water intake (or decreased intake in some studies) were associated with statistically significant increases in weight loss and reductions in kidney stone events. A single study suggested benefits related to migraine prevention, urinary tract infections, diabetes management, and lower blood pressure, but did not reach statistical significance. Image credit: Günther.

Water is a major component of the human body and is considered an essential nutrient that cannot be produced in sufficient quantities through metabolism.

The National Academy of Medicine recommends a daily fluid intake of approximately 13 8-ounce cups for men and 9 cups for women.

A common public health recommendation is to drink 8 cups of water per day, but the evidence supporting this is not clear.

Determining a single optimal daily water intake is a difficult concept, given the wide variation in body weight, activity levels, and health status at the population level, and the numerous mechanisms that regulate water balance.

Because of the known negative effects of dehydration, behavioral factors and hydration status have been widely studied in relation to health conditions.

Professor Benjamin Breyer of the University of California, San Francisco, and colleagues aimed to summarize the evidence from randomized clinical trials on the effects of increasing daily water intake on health-related outcomes.

“We wanted to take a closer look at such a ubiquitous and simple intervention, as the evidence is not clear and the benefits are not well established,” Professor Breyer said.

“Although the amount of rigorous research turned out to be limited, there were statistically significant benefits in some specific areas.”

“To our knowledge, this is the first study to broadly evaluate the benefits of water intake on clinical outcomes.”

Researchers have found the most evidence supporting drinking water to prevent kidney stones and lose weight.

Drinking 8 cups of water a day significantly reduced the chance of kidney stones recurring.

Some studies have found that drinking about 6 glasses of water a day can help adults lose weight.

However, a study of adolescents found that drinking just over 8 cups of water a day had no effect.

Still, encouraging people to drink water before meals is a simple and inexpensive intervention that could have significant benefits, given the rise in obesity.

Other studies have shown that water can help prevent migraines, manage diabetes and low blood pressure, and prevent urinary tract infections.

Adults with recurring headaches felt better after drinking more water for three months.

Drinking about 4 more cups of water a day helped diabetics with elevated blood sugar levels.

Drinking an additional 6 cups of water per day also helped women with recurrent urinary tract infections. The number of infected people has decreased and the time between infections has increased.

And drinking more water helped young people with low blood pressure.

“Dehydration has been shown to be particularly harmful for people with a history of kidney stones or urinary tract infections,” says Professor Breyer.

“On the other hand, people who sometimes suffer from frequent urination may benefit from drinking less alcohol. There is no one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to water consumption.”

of the team paper Published in a magazine JAMA network open.

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Nizar Hakam others. 2024. Results of randomized clinical trials testing changes in daily fluid intake: a systematic review. JAMA Net Open 7 (11): e2447621;doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.47621

Source: www.sci.news

Astronomers find scorching-hot Neptune close to TOI-3261

Posted on November 29, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Orbit of newly discovered exoplanet TOI-3261 (also known as TIC 358070912) is an inactive main sequence star located 300 parsecs (978.5 light years) away in the constellation Hydra.

Artist's concept of the super-hot Neptunian exoplanet TOI-3261b. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/K. Miller, Caltech & IPAC.

The radius of this newly discovered exoplanet, named TOI-3261b (TIC 358070912b), is 3.82 Earth's radius.

Its mass is 30.3 times that of Earth, more than twice the median mass of Neptune-sized planets in longer orbits.

To determine these properties, astronomer Emma Nabby from the University of Southern Queensland and her colleagues used data from NASA's Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), the Las Cumbres Observatory's Global Telescope, and the ESPRESSO and HARPS instruments. I used

“In our measurements, TOI-3261b is exactly hot neptune desert “The planets are so rare that their rarity evokes images of desolate landscapes,” the astronomers said in a statement.

“This type of exoplanet is similar in size and composition to our own Neptune, but it orbits very close to its star.”

The planet orbits its parent star, TOI-3261, every 21 hours.

Such a narrow orbit has so far allowed the planet to belong to the same group as only three other ultrashort-period, high-temperature Neptunes: LTT-9779b, TOI-849b, and TOI-332b.

“TOI-3261b has proven to be an ideal candidate for testing new computer models of planet formation,” the researchers said.

“One reason hot Neptunes are so rare is that it's difficult to maintain a thick gaseous atmosphere in the immediate vicinity of the star.”

“Because stars are massive, they exert a large gravitational force on surrounding objects and can strip away layers of gas surrounding nearby planets.”

“It also releases a lot of energy and blows away the gas layer.”

“Both of these factors mean that a hot Neptune like TOI-3261b may have started out as a much larger Jupiter-sized planet and then lost most of its mass.”

The TOI-3261 system is about 6.5 billion years old, and the planet began as a much larger gas giant, the researchers said.

“But it likely lost mass in two ways: by photoevaporation, where energy from the star causes gas particles to dissipate, and by gravity from the star, which strips layers of gas from the planet. tidal separation,” the scientists said.

“It's also possible that the planet formed further away from the star, where both of these effects would be less strong and it would be able to maintain an atmosphere.”

“The planet's remaining atmosphere is one of its most interesting features and will likely invite further atmospheric analysis, perhaps helping to elucidate the formation history of this hot Neptunian desert dweller.”

“TOI-3261b's density is about twice that of Neptune, indicating that the lighter parts of the atmosphere have been removed over time, leaving only the heavier components,” the researchers added.

“This suggests that the planet must have started out with a variety of elements in its atmosphere, but at this stage it's difficult to know exactly what they are.”

This finding is reported in the following article: paper Published in astronomy magazine.

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Emma Naby others. 2024. Survival in the Hot Neptunian Desert: Discovery of the ultrahot Neptune TOI-3261b. A.J. 168, 132; doi: 10.3847/1538-3881/ad60be

Source: www.sci.news

Ancient Footprints Reveal Two Human Relative Species Coexisted Together

Posted on November 29, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

overview

Ancient footprints discovered in Kenya belong to two different species of human relatives who walked on the same ground at the same time, a study has found.
This coat of arms is thought to belong to the species Homo erectus and Paranthropus boisei.
This discovery raised questions about what kind of relationship and interaction the two species had.

A newly discovered set of footprints in Kenya provides the first evidence that two different species of ancient human relatives walked on the same ground at the same time 1.5 million years ago.

Researchers involved in the discovery say the footprints belong to the species Homo erectus and Paranthropus boisei, and were left within hours to days of each other, meaning that when the two crossed paths, reveals new mysteries about what happened.

According to research on this discovery, Published in Science on Thursdaythe footprints were buried in dry mud near a lake in northern Kenya, and were buried in deposits of prominent fossil sites. By analyzing the print shapes and strike patterns, the researchers found that the two sets were different. They concluded that the best explanation was that two different species left the footprints.

This research advances anthropologists and paleontologists’ understanding that ancient human relatives likely interacted and coexisted. This also raises the question of what kind of relationship these species had.

“We think these individuals, the two species that were there, were probably aware that there were members of another species nearby. They saw each other and thought each other was a member of another species. “This raises the question of what that interaction was,” said Kevin Hatala, an associate professor of biology at Chatham University and lead author of the study. “Were they competitors? Were they totally okay with each other there?”

Previously discovered fossil skeletons of Homo erectus and Paranthropus boisei indicated that both species lived in the area at some point, but the new discovery provides evidence of a direct duplication.

Research team members excavate to reveal footprints.
Neil T. Roach / Harvard University

It also shows that the two species walked on two legs in very different ways.

Although both Homo erectus and Paranthropus boisei are related to humans, they have very different characteristics and their fates in the human evolutionary tree took very different paths.

Homo erectus had an anatomy similar to humans from the neck down. This species may have used stone tools and cooked over fire. Its members probably had a varied diet that included meat.
The species eventually spread to Asia, Indonesia, and other regions, and survived for more than a million years after the newly discovered footprints were made.It last appeared in the fossil record just over 100,000 years ago..

“Many have considered themselves to be as good candidates as our direct ancestors,” Hatala said. “They seem to be a very successful species.”

Paranthropus boisei, on the other hand, featured a smaller brain, huge masticatory muscles, and large molar teeth. William Harcourt Smith, an associate professor of anthropology at Lehman College who was not involved in the study, said the species eats difficult-to-eat foods like hard nuts or grinds hard, poor-quality foods like shrubs. It is highly likely that they evolved in this way.

This species did not persist on Earth as long as Homo erectus.

“They probably went extinct not very long after that, within the next few hundred thousand years,” Hatala said, referring to the time of the footprints. He added that no one knows exactly what happened, but it’s possible that environmental changes may have restricted the animal’s specialized diet.

The footprints were first discovered in 2021 at a site called Koobi Fora while researchers were excavating other fossils. This location has become a fossil hotspot. The uplifted rocks expose older sedimentary layers on the surface, giving researchers access to the bones of ancient humans and other animals.

The following year, researchers unearthed about a dozen footprints that appeared to be walking in a line, and later discovered other footprints running at right angles.

“We think these footprints were created in the mud of this lakeshore environment. Something happened that brought sediment on top of it. It could have been deposited by a small flood or by rising water levels. “It’s possible that something was brought in and the footprints were formed and quickly buried,” Hatala said.

The muddy footprints were not trampled by other animals and showed no signs of cracking before being buried in the sand. Researchers said that means they were separated from each other within hours or days.

“The sediment protected them, prevented them from cracking, and allowed them to remain in the geological record,” Hatala said.

He and his co-authors believe that the two species may have been able to coexist in this region because their diets were very different. It is possible that they competed for resources and were in a hostile relationship. This species appears to have lived in the same area for hundreds of thousands of years.

Harcourt Smith, a research paleontologist at the American Museum of Natural History, said the researchers’ analysis was sound and the site was unique.

“I want to emphasize how unusual it is that a site like this exists, how special it is, and the great opportunity we have to find out more,” he said.

Broadly speaking, over the past seven million years of evolution, it has become increasingly clear that different ancient human species interacted in different habitats, Harcourt-Smith added. The evolutionary path to modern humans is full of side branches and species, such as Paranthropus boisei, which represent evolutionary dead ends.

“Human evolution is complex and messy, and there are many experiments being done. It’s not a straight line,” he said.

Over the past few decades, scientists have developed genetic and archaeological evidence showing that: Humans, Denisovans, and Neanderthals overlapped and sometimes interbred. Although the new study does not mention interbreeding, it does provide a clearer picture that even older species overlapped and had more interactions than previously understood.

The researchers completed their work at the Koobi Fora site, photographing and recording the footprints in a variety of ways before concealing them for future generations, said Craig, another author of the research paper.・Mr. Feibel said.

“The footprints need to be carefully refilled with non-damaging sediment to prevent erosion,” he says.

Source: www.nbcnews.com

Ancient footprints reveal how early human species lived together

Posted on November 28, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Footprints thought to have been left by an individual of Paranthropus boisei

Neil T. Roach

Preserved footprints in Kenya appear to record two different species of ancient humans walking along the same muddy lake shore, perhaps within days of each other. This is one of the most dramatic pieces of evidence ever discovered that multiple human species once coexisted in the world.

“It's really unusual to find evidence of two different species walking on that surface,” he says. Kevin Hatala at Chatham University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

footprints Discovered in 2021 Kobi Fora, Kenya, near the eastern shore of Lake Turkana. They were first discovered by team member Richard Loki. Turkana Basin Research Institute“Originally, there was a team of Kenyans working there,” Hatala says.

The researchers discovered a track consisting of 12 footprints preserved in a layer of dry sand and silt (see image above). This was apparently left behind by one person walking in a straight line. Near the main group were also three isolated prints that appeared to have been made by three different individuals. The lack of mud cracks or signs of overprinting with other tracks indicates that these prints were all made at about the same time. “These sites are probably capturing times ranging from minutes to days,” Hatala says.

This deposit was determined to be approximately 1.52 million years old. Isolated footprints are similar to footprints left by modern humans. Your heel touches the ground first, then your foot rolls forward and you push off with the sole of your foot. Hatala and his colleagues suggest that these may have been fabricated. homo erectusis known to have lived in this area.

In contrast, continuous trajectories were created by flatter-footed hominins. Hatala and his colleagues suggest that this could be Paranthropus boiseianother type of hominin that lived in this area.

The footprint fossil on the left, with its deeper heel marks, is thought to have been made by Homo erectus, and the more flat-footed fossil on the right is thought to have been made by Paranthropus boisei.

Kevin Hatala/Chatham

“With footprints, you can never be 100% sure who made them,” he says. Ashley Wiseman from University College London was not involved in the study but, H. erectus and P.Boisei. They are the only humans whose remains have been found preserved in this area, “so we can make an informed guess that it is these two individuals.”

If the track was really made by humans, P.Boisei Wiseman said the specimen appears to have been walking on two legs. The bones of the skull, arms, and legs are paranthropus“We've never found a skull associated with the rest of the skeleton,” she says, meaning little is known about their bodies beyond their heads, and the way they walk remains a mystery. The trajectory will be changed, saying, “This is clear evidence that it was walking on two legs.''

These two species were very different. H. erectus It was one of the earliest members of our genus, homo. They had larger brains than early humans and were the first clade to travel outside of Africa. in contrast, P.Boisey They had large teeth and jaws, small brains, and were apparently adapted to eating chewy foods like grasses and sedges.

Hatala and his team then looked at other known footprints found in the same area and at the same time and found that they appeared to match either species. “Similar patterns have been seen at other sites, which may span more than 100,000 years,” he says. “These two species appear to have coexisted with each other in this same familiar landscape for a very long time.”

“If they were able to coexist for more than 100,000 years, we speculate that there was probably a low to neutral level of competition,” Hatala says. Previous research suggests that the two people were eating different foods. Unlike P.Boisei, H. erectus It is thought that they had a varied diet, including hunting large animals.

“Both could carve out their own existence within this shared landscape,” Hatala says. Subsequent changes in the environment may have had an effect. P.Boisei Potentially extinct, yet more adaptable H. erectus Survived.

topic:

evolution/
evolution of humanity

Source: www.newscientist.com

The bonding power of Cheerios leads to creation of innovative robot

Posted on November 28, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

A Cheerios-inspired robot that emits alcoholic fuel using fluorescent dye.

Jackson K. Wilt et al. 2024

The same phenomenon as beetles floating on a pond and Cheerios growing in clusters. You can combine them inside a cereal bowl to make a small floating robot.

One such effect, the Marangoni effect, occurs when a fluid with a low surface tension spreads rapidly across the surface of a fluid with a high surface tension. To take advantage of this effect, stenus There are beetles that have evolved to fly around ponds by secreting a substance called stenusin, and toy boats that run on soap.

To explore how engineers can use this, jackson wilt Harvard University and his colleagues 3D printed round plastic pucks about 1 centimeter in diameter. Each had an air chamber for buoyancy and a small fuel tank containing 10 to 50 percent alcohol, which has a lower surface tension than water. The alcohol gradually leaks out of the pack and the pack moves across the surface of the water.

The researchers used alcohol, which evaporates, as fuel, unlike soap, which ends up contaminating the water and ruining the Marangoni effect. It turns out that the stronger the alcohol, the better the results. “The beer would be pretty bad,” Wilt says. “Vodka is probably the best thing you can use. Absinthe…that's a lot of propulsion.” At top speed, the robot moves at 6 centimeters per second, and some experiments propelled the puck for as long as 500 seconds. It has been confirmed that

By printing pucks with multiple fuel outlets and gluing them together, researchers can also create larger devices that can make wide curves or rotate in place. Using multiple packs also allows researchers to study the “Cheerios effect,” where cereals and other similar floating objects cluster together. This occurs because they form a meniscus, or curved surface, in the fluid, and these surfaces are attracted to each other.

Wilt said 3D printed devices could be useful in education to help students intuitively understand concepts related to surface tension, but could also be carefully designed to produce more complex and elegant behavior. If this technology is developed, it can be expected to be applied to environmental and industrial processes.

For example, if there is a substance that needs to be dispersed throughout the environment and also acts as a suitable fuel, the robot can automatically disperse it around it. “Say you have a body of water that needs to release a chemical and you want it to be distributed more evenly, or say you have a chemical process that needs to deposit material over time,” Wilt says. . “I feel like there's some really interesting behavior here.”

topic:

Source: www.newscientist.com

Lessons from history: Strategies for defeating a wild emu

Posted on November 28, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

COP load of this

As COP29, the latest round of international climate negotiations, struggles in Azerbaijan, Feedback watches bemused from afar. We have previously covered several COPs and are still on most of the relevant mailing lists. So, as I write this on November 18th, we know that the Climate Action Network's Fossil of the Day is South Korea. That's because South Korea single-handedly blocked a deal by high-income countries to end oil and gas subsidies. Yes, that's enough.

Holding a conference dedicated to reducing greenhouse gas emissions in a country as heavily dependent on fossil fuel exports as Azerbaijan was always likely to backfire. Feedback believed that diplomacy was about understanding other people's motives, but apparently no one could reconcile what the Azerbaijani government wanted. Soon, President Ilham Aliyev announced that oil and gas “gift from god'', the country's chief negotiator was photographed saying in his opening speech. Apparently they are arranging it A meeting to discuss fossil fuel trading.

Then the conference actually started – or rather, it didn’t really start. On the first day, work stalled within the first hour as several countries objected to the rest of the meeting's agenda. This is how I spent my first day Renegotiating the agendawhile the delegates sat around with nothing to do. Still, climate change is not an urgent problem.

Feedback would like to think things are only uphill from here, but the experience of the past decade suggests otherwise. And I still get shivers when I think about the last night of one of the COPs we attended. It was well past the evening, so the agreement was signed and the party was supposed to start. But then we see young diplomats carrying stacks of take-out pizza boxes into the negotiating room, and we realize that even in the best case scenario, we'll be there until the early hours of the morning. I noticed. Feedback does not endorse this experience or any cases of caffeine addiction associated with it.

Find your inner villain

News Editorial Assistant Alexandra Thompson calls our attention to a brilliantly titled paper about the psychology research repository PsyArXiv.What it means to be a true badass: An experimental investigation of a commonplace concept.”. Its authors, Briana Nguyen and Michael Prinzing, set out to explain what we mean when we say someone is a “bad person.” It's not clear, since both Genghis Khan and Malala Yousafzai could be called villains, but “they are about as different as you can imagine,” they say. Well, quite a bit.

Researchers used a series of online surveys to find out what kinds of people were counted as bad guys and what kinds of people were not. From this, it became clear that “badass'' is a two-layered concept. It has a superficial meaning of being physically strong or having a “fearsome presence.” But there's also a deeper inner meaning about “moral resilience and courage.”

According to the author, Yousafzai embodies this inner evil, while Khan embodies more of the external evil. Feedback is less certain. We read a biography of Khan by John Mann, and he showed remarkable courage in a difficult situation. Still, the distinction between inner and outer badasses sounds plausible.

Feedback sometimes enjoys this kind of research, which delves into the subtle meanings of everyday terms, in quiet moments. A classic example is Harry Frankfurt's book About bullshit. Frankfurt was a philosopher who distinguished between lying (telling a falsehood with the purpose of clearly misleading someone) and bullshit (telling a lie, regardless of its truth or falsity, in order to serve one's own purpose).

About bullshit is useful to read because it explicitly states what we all implicitly understand. Once the concept is clear, it's easier to find examples, which is why June's paper was frankly titled.ChatGPT is bullshit“It's also great to have a term that is accurate and allows for the overused swear words. We think Frankfurt was the worst.

emu in flight

On November 15th, CBS News published twowild and untrainedAn emu (are there other types?) has escaped in South Carolina. They had apparently escaped three months earlier, but their escape didn't garner any attention until 43 monkeys escaped from a medical research facility in the same state. As of November 18th, Six of the monkeys remained at large.. Faced with hordes of marauding monkeys on the run, journalists began looking for similar stories and found (or rather, didn't find) rogue emus.

Feedback doesn't get any lower than at your local police department.Not EMU-SED“However, we would like to reiterate the following point. matthew downhour About Blue Sky: “Okay, if you didn't want them to get out of control and be irresponsible, why did you name them like that?“?That's a good question because the emus' names are Thelma and Louise.

If US authorities are unable to recapture the bird, they may take notes from the Australians. fought a famous short war against wild emus in 1932. surely, The emu decisively won the conflict.But failure is the best teacher.

Have a story for feedback?

You can email your article to Feedback at feedback@newscientist.com. Please enter your home address. This week's and past feedback can be found on our website.

Source: www.newscientist.com

Reddit surpasses X as the most popular social media platform in UK

Posted on November 28, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

According to the communications watchdog, Reddit, the US online discussion platform, has surpassed X to become the fifth most popular social media platform in the UK. In May of this year, 22.9 million UK adults visited Reddit, compared to 22.1 million on X, as reported by Ofcom.

Reddit, known for its topic-based communities where users engage in discussion threads, experienced a 47% growth in the UK compared to the same period in 2023, making it the fastest-growing large-scale social media platform. This growth led Reddit to overtake LinkedIn and X, claiming the fifth spot in the UK social media platform ranking, with YouTube surpassing Facebook as the top platform with over 44 million adult users.

The increase in organic search traffic on Reddit was attributed to Google’s latest algorithm updates in the first half of 2024, according to Farhad Divecha, managing director of Acuracast. Ofcom suggested that the rise in Reddit’s popularity may also be due to changes in third-party apps accessing content, prompting users to visit the Reddit site. However, Ofcom also raised concerns about Reddit’s promotion of stock market surfacing.

X, on the other hand, has seen a decline in popularity, with an 8% decrease in reach since May last year. Criticisms of X’s content moderation standards have been ongoing since Elon Musk acquired the platform in 2022. The introduction of a rival platform by Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta and competition from Threads have added pressure on X.

Ofcom’s annual report on digital habits highlighted the prevalence of misinformation and deepfakes online, with four in 10 UK adults encountering such content. One-third of UK adults lack confidence in distinguishing AI-generated images, audio, or videos.

Source: www.theguardian.com

Failure of UK government to include AI usage on mandatory register | AI

Posted on November 28, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

No department in Whitehall has registered the use of artificial intelligence systems since the government announced that it will be made compulsory, sparking warnings that the public sector is “acting blind” to the deployment of algorithmic technologies that will affect millions of lives. AI is already being used by governments to inform decisions on everything from benefit payments to immigration enforcement, and records show public agencies have awarded dozens of contracts for AI and algorithmic services. A contract for facial recognition software worth up to £20 million was put up for sale by the Home Office-set up police procurement agency last week, reigniting concerns about “massive biometric surveillance”.

However, details of only nine algorithmic systems have been submitted so far to the public register. There is no increase in AI programs being used in the welfare system by the Home Office or the police. The lack of information comes despite the government announcing in February this year that the use of AI registers would be a requirement for all government departments.

An expert warned of the potential harms of deploying AI systems uncritically, citing high-profile examples of IT systems not working as intended, like the Post Office’s Horizon software. The use of AI within Whitehall ranges from Microsoft’s Copilot system to automated fraud and error checking in benefits systems. The lack of transparency in the government’s use of algorithms has raised concerns among privacy rights campaigners and experts in the field.

Since the end of 2022, only three algorithms have been recorded in the national registry. These include systems used by the Cabinet Office and AI-powered cameras analyzing pedestrian crossings in Cambridge. A system that analyzes patient reviews of NHS services is also included. Despite the slow progress in registering AI systems, public agencies have signed 164 contracts referencing AI since February. Technology companies like Microsoft and Meta are actively promoting their AI systems to government agencies.

The Department for Work and Pensions and the Home Office are already leveraging AI for various purposes, from fraud detection to decision-making processes. Police forces are using AI-powered facial recognition software to track criminal suspects, while NHS England has signed a deal with Palantir to build a new data platform. In addition, AI chatbots are being trialed to assist people in navigating government websites and assist civil servants in accessing secure government documents quickly.

Source: www.theguardian.com

Could fossilized excrement unlock the secrets of dinosaur dominance on Earth?

Posted on November 28, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

We now know that dinosaurs were giant reptiles that dominated the Earth, but scientists have long wondered why it took them 30 million years to reach their peak. New research on their fossilized poop and vomit may have found the answer suggests that there was food in their waste.

Carnivorous dinosaurs like tyrannosaurus may have their herbivore ancestors to thank for their enormous size. The researchers propose that if these plant-eating animals hadn’t ingested so many plants, dinosaurs might not have evolved into the giant creatures we know today.

The fossilized poop and vomit, known as bromalite or copralite, dates back to around 230 to 200 million years ago, a time long before the reign of the tyrannosaurus and the Chicxulub asteroid impact that led to the extinction of dinosaurs.

Scientists reconstructed a “food web” from the undigested meals of early dinosaurs, revealing the intricate relationships between different species during the Triassic period. By scanning over 500 fossils, they found evidence of various organisms, including beetles, bones, and partially digested fish.

Combining this information with climate data and other fossils provided insights into the diverse flora and fauna coexisting with dinosaurs on Earth.

“Sometimes seemingly ordinary fossils contain remarkable information that cannot be found anywhere else,” said Dr. Martin Kvarnström, a study co-author from Uppsala University in Sweden, as reported by BBC Science Focus.

Dr. Grzegorz Niedzwicki, another co-author from Uppsala University, added, “Understanding the diet of early dinosaurs may help us grasp why this group thrived. The evolution of life on Earth hinges on predator-prey dynamics and feeding habits.”

A study published in Nature analyzed digestive samples from south-central Poland during the Late Triassic period when the region was part of the Pangea supercontinent.

According to experts, increased volcanic activity and humidity favored the growth of moisture-loving plants during this time, potentially influencing the evolution of dinosaurs.

The study utilized advanced scanning techniques to reveal detailed information from the fossils, highlighting changes in vertebrate populations leading up to the dominance of dinosaurs.

The researchers aim to apply this model to study ancient species in other regions and emphasize the importance of fossilized waste in reconstructing ancient food webs.

“Everyone is focused on finding fossilized skeletons, but it’s the waste that offers valuable insights into events from millions of years ago,” remarked Niedzwicki.

About our experts:

Dr. Martin Kvarnström is a researcher at Uppsala University in Sweden, focusing on using fossils to understand reptile diets, including dinosaurs.

Dr. Grzegorz Niedzwicki, also from Uppsala University, specializes in the early evolution of dinosaurs and other quadrupeds.

Read more

Source: www.sciencefocus.com

Analysis of fossilized stomach contents provides insight into the origins of dinosaurs

Posted on November 28, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Swedish and Polish paleontologists are using hundreds of fossilized fecal and vomit samples from the Polish Basin in central Europe to reconstruct the rise of dinosaurs to play a dominant role in Earth’s ancient ecosystems. I investigated.

Bone-crushing archosaur fecal fossil smoke, smoke In the background is reconstruction. Image credit: Grzegorz Niedzwiedzki.

The fossil record shows that dinosaurs evolved during the mid-Triassic period (247 to 237 million years ago).

However, the dominance of dinosaurs in terrestrial ecosystems was not seen until the early Jurassic period, about 30 million years later.

Although many non-dinosaur tetrapods (four-limbed vertebrates) were expelled during this period, questions remain as to why dinosaurs came to dominate the ecosystem.

“The real detective work is piecing together ‘who ate who’ in the past,” said Martin Kvarnström, a paleontologist at Uppsala University.

“Being able to examine what animals ate and how they interacted with their environment helps us understand what enabled dinosaurs to be so successful.”

Dr. Kvarnström and his colleagues reconstructed the food web using more than 500 fossilized remains of digestive material (such as feces and vomit), known as bromalite, collected from the Polish Basin, which spans the Late Triassic to Early Jurassic period. We investigated this transition by constructing a.

“The research material was collected over a period of 25 years,” said Dr. Grzegorz Niedrzywicki, a paleontologist at Uppsala University and the Polish Geological Institute.

“It took years to piece everything together and paint a coherent picture.”

“Our study is innovative because we chose to understand the ecology of early dinosaurs based on their dietary preferences.”

“There were a lot of surprising discoveries along the way.”

Analysis of these remains (including 3D imaging of internal structures to reveal undigested food content) is compared to the existing fossil record, along with climate and botanical data, to determine the size and presence of vertebrates during this period. We estimated the change in quantity.

These data indicate that non-dinosaur tetrapods replaced omnivorous ancestors of early dinosaurs that evolved into the first carnivorous and herbivorous dinosaurs towards the end of the Triassic.

Researchers now believe that environmental changes associated with increased volcanic activity may have led to a greater variety of plant prey, which in turn led to the emergence of larger and more diverse herbivore species. Suggests.

This led to the evolution of even larger carnivorous dinosaurs by the beginning of the Jurassic period, completing the transition to dinosaur dominance within the ecosystem.

This analysis sheds light on the emergence of dinosaur dominance within the Polish Basin ecosystem.

“Our findings support the idea that stochastic processes and competitive advantage enabled dinosaurs’ great evolutionary success,” the authors said.

“Dinosaurs gradually achieved supremacy over 30 million years of evolution.”

“The processes illustrated by the Polish data may explain global patterns and shed new light on the emergence of environmentally dominated dinosaur dominance and gigantism that persisted until the mass extinction at the end of the Cretaceous.” We suggest that there is a

team’s paper Published in a magazine nature.

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M. Kvarnström others. Digestive content and food webs record the advent of dinosaur supremacy. naturepublished online on November 27, 2024. doi: 10.1038/s41586-024-08265-4

Source: www.sci.news

Embrace Your Authentic Self and Share: A Whimsical Evening at the Australian TikTok Awards

Posted on November 28, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

BOf them, the Australian online personality who took to the stage at the annual TikTok Awards on Wednesday has more than 100 million followers. But if you're over 30, you've probably never heard of them.

This year's TikTok Awards received approximately 3.4 million public votes and recognized top creators in categories such as beauty, fitness, food, comedy, and music. Almost everyone who attended the invite-only event achieved fame in a particular field. Among the online stars in attendance were:
quartet of brothers People who perform highly choreographed dances in public (160,000 followers);
gay couple A woman who constantly redecorates her home (3.4 million followers) and a woman who is growing her following.
About having very long hair (Australian Rapunzel, 1.3 million followers). Another woman posted a video that garnered 1.5 million followers.
Ask a stranger if they're on their period. These are people who are regularly stopped on the street by fans and have large enough followings that they can make a living doing business with brands.

American singer JoJo Siwa greeted fans outside the TikTok Awards on Wednesday. Photo: Don Arnold/WireImage

The ceremony, held at Sydney's Hordern Pavilion, was a safe space for hyper-online people. The brand activation encouraged guests to pose in elaborate photo settings. Creators in the audience brought portable ring lights and live-streamed TikTok from their seats throughout the night. That meant crowds were often uncomfortably quiet during awards ceremonies, as it was difficult to clap and hold a cell phone at the same time. It was impossible to use the bathroom without accidentally crashing a TikTok being filmed in the mirror.

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“The main advice I have to give is to stay true to yourself and hit the posts,” TikToker Leah Hulton said at the venue while accepting the award for 12-second video of the year. .
lip sync video It has been viewed 939 million times. “I don't know where they're taking me.”

Throughout the night, entertainment ranged from the flamboyant to the absurd. american pop star
jojo siwaperformed her song “Karma” and presented her with the Music Artist of the Year award (which went to Loyle Otis, who was absent). Beatmaker Cyril Riley has tapped Australian Idol runner-up Shannon Knoll for a song. Host Robert Irwin brought out a live snake. Branded T-shirts were airgunned into the crowd. The night's skincare sponsors had performers dressed as bottles of their products dance to a jagged electronic track while a DJ delivered unspecific spoken word sound bites like “dermatologist recommended.” did. On stage, there were references to memes that have become popular on TikTok this year, such as the Four Seasons Orlando Baby.

But the audience wasn't entirely Internet native. In attendance was 76-year-old TV chef Ian “Huey” Hewitson, who was nominated in the food category, and was awkwardly seated at the same table as fellow nominees in their 20s and 30s. (Finally,
michael finchformer beauty vlogger turned viral chef). Also in attendance was Dr. Karl Krzelnicki, who won the High Quality Content Creator category for his research on topics such as:
Why does drinking coffee make you poop?.

Source: www.theguardian.com

Archaeologists Find North Americans Made Needles from Bones of Canids, Cats, and Hares

Posted on November 28, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

A 12,900-year-old bone needle discovered at the La Preure site in Wyoming, USA, was made from fox bone. rabbit. This could include felines such as bobcats, pumas, lynx, and even the now extinct American cheetah. New research from the University of Wyoming shows that the bones of these animals are sized to make bone needles, remain attached to fur sewn into intricate clothing, and are readily available within campgrounds. It is said to have been used by early Paleoindian gatherers at La Prele.

La Prele Bone Needle and Needle Preform Reconstruction and Comparison Micro-CT Scan of Animal Specimens. Image credit: Pelton others., doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0313610.

la prele Early Paleoindian mammoth trapping site and campground on a tributary of the North Platte River near Douglas, Wyoming.

Ten seasons of excavation in four major blocks yielded tens of thousands of artifacts related to a single occupation.

Among the wide variety of artifacts recovered from the site so far are fragments of 32 bone needles.

“Our study identifies for the first time the species and possible elements from which Paleoindian people produced bone needles with eyes,” said Wyoming State Archaeologist Spencer Pelton and colleagues.

“Our results provide strong evidence that tailored clothing is produced using bone needles and fur from fur-bearing animals.”

“These garments partially enabled the dispersal of modern humans into northern latitudes and, ultimately, the colonization of the Americas.”

In their study, Dr. Pelton and his colleagues examined bone needle fragments taken from the La Prele site.

The researchers used peptides (short chains of amino acids) obtained from these artifacts to identify animals known to have existed during the Paleoindigenous period, which refers to the prehistoric period of North America between 13,500 and 12,000 years ago. peptide.

As a result of the comparison, it was concluded that the bones of the red fox are bones. Bobcat, puma, lynx, or American cheetah. At La Preure, hares and rabbits were used to make needles.

“Despite the importance of bone needles in explaining the global dispersal of modern humans, archaeologists have not identified the materials used to make bone needles, making this important cultural innovation “This limits our understanding of the

Previous research has shown that to cope with the cold temperatures of northern latitudes, humans likely created tailored clothing with tightly sewn seams that provided a barrier against the elements.

There is little direct evidence of such clothing, but there is indirect evidence in the form of bone needles and the bones of fur owners whose fur was used for clothing.

“Wearing such clothing allowed modern humans to extend their range into areas that were previously inaccessible due to the threat of hypothermia and death from exposure. '' said the scientists.

“How did the people of La Prele Ruins obtain fur-bearing animals?

“It was probably a trap, not necessarily looking for food.”

“Our results are a reminder that foragers used animal foods for a wide range of non-subsistence purposes, and that the mere presence of animal bones at an archaeological site need not indicate a diet. ”

“Combined with a review of comparable evidence from other North American Paleoindian sites, our results suggest that early Paleoindians of North America had direct access to fur-bearing predators, probably by traps, and that It represents some of the most detailed evidence ever discovered regarding Indian clothing.

of findings Published in a magazine PLoS ONE.

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SR Pelton others. 2024. Early Paleoindians used canids, felines, and hares to produce bone needles at the La Prele site in Wyoming, USA. PLoS ONE 19 (11): e0313610;doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0313610

Source: www.sci.news

Astronomers witness Jupiter’s ephemeral dark polar ellipse in ultraviolet light

Posted on November 28, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Earth-sized ovals at Jupiter's north and south poles, visible only at ultraviolet (UV) wavelengths, appear and disappear at seemingly random intervals, according to a study led by astronomers at the University of California, Berkeley.

False-color ultraviolet image of the entire planet showing a hood or cap of hydrocarbon fog covering the south pole. The edge of the arctic hood is visible at the top. Image credit: Troy Tsubota and Michael Wong, University of California, Berkeley.

Jupiter's dark ultraviolet ellipses are mostly located directly beneath bright auroral bands at each pole, similar to Earth's northern and southern lights.

This spot absorbs more ultraviolet light than the surrounding area, so it appears darker in images from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.

In annual images of the planet taken by Hubble between 2015 and 2022, dark ultraviolet ellipses appear 75% of the time at the south pole, but only in one in eight images taken at the north pole. A dark oval will appear.

The dark ultraviolet ellipses suggest that unusual processes are occurring in Jupiter's strong magnetic field. This magnetic field propagates all the way to the poles and deep into the atmosphere, much deeper than the magnetic processes that produce auroras on Earth.

The dark ultraviolet ellipse was first detected in the 1990s by Hubble at the North and South poles, and later also at the North Pole by NASA's Cassini spacecraft, which flew close to Jupiter in 2000, but received little attention.

In a new analysis of Hubble images, University of California, Berkeley undergraduate student Troy Tsubota and his colleagues found that the oval shape is a common feature of Antarctica. They counted eight Southern Ultraviolet Dark Ovals (SUDOs) between 1994 and 2022.

In all 25 Hubble Earth maps showing Jupiter's north pole, only two northern ultraviolet dark ellipses (NUDOs) were found.

Most of the Hubble images were taken as part of the Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy (OPAL).

“In the first two months, we realized that these OPAL images were kind of a gold mine. We quickly built this analysis pipeline and asked what we could get by sending all the images. We were able to confirm that,” says Tsubota.

“That's when we realized we could actually do good science and real data analysis and have conversations with our collaborators about why these things appear.”

The authors also aimed to determine the cause of these areas of dense fog.

They theorized that the dark ellipse was likely being stirred up from above by a vortex created when the planet's magnetic field lines rub at two very far apart locations. One is the friction in the ionosphere and the Earth's sheet, the rotational motion of which has previously been detected using ground-based telescopes. Hot ionized plasma around the planet emitted by the volcanic moon Io.

The vortex rotates fastest within the ionosphere and gradually weakens as it reaches deeper layers.

Like a tornado landing on dusty ground, the deepest parts of the vortex stir up the hazy atmosphere, creating the dense patches observed by astronomers.

It is unclear whether the mixing will dredge more haze from below or create additional haze.

Based on their observations, researchers believe that the oval shape may form over about a month and disappear within a few weeks.

Astronomer Dr Shih Zhang said: “The dark elliptical haze is 50 times thicker than typical concentrations. This is because this haze is due to the dynamics of the vortex, rather than a chemical reaction caused by high-energy particles from the upper atmosphere. This suggests that it is likely to have been formed by At the University of California, Santa Cruz.

“Our observations show that the timing and location of these high-energy particles do not correlate with the appearance of the dark ellipses.”

This discovery, which the OPAL project was designed to discover, will reveal how the atmospheric dynamics of the solar system's giant planets differ from what we know on Earth. .

“Studying the connections between different atmospheric layers is extremely important for all planets, whether exoplanets, Jupiter, or Earth,” said Dr. Michael Wong, an astronomer at the University of California, Berkeley.

“We see evidence of processes connecting everything throughout the Jovian system, from internal dynamos to satellites, plasma torii, ionospheres, and stratospheric haze.”

“Finding these examples helps us understand the entire planet.”

of study Published in a magazine natural astronomy.

_____

TK Tsubota others. Jupiter's ultraviolet to dark polar ellipse shows the connection between the magnetosphere and atmosphere. Nat Astronpublished online on November 26, 2024. doi: 10.1038/s41550-024-02419-0

This article is adapted from the original release by the University of California, Berkeley.

Source: www.sci.news

NASA astronaut Suni Williams reveals her Thanksgiving plans from space

Posted on November 28, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Astronauts aboard the International Space Station are ready to break Thanksgiving bread in orbit.

NASA astronaut Suni Williams said she and her fellow crew members will be taking the day off to celebrate.

“I’m packing a lot of Thanksgiving-y food,” Williams said Wednesday in an interview with NBC News. “Smoked turkey, cranberries, apple cobbler, green beans and mushrooms, and mashed potatoes.”

She added that she plans to attend the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade before dining with American and Russian colleagues.

Williams has been living and working on the International Space Station for almost six months. She and fellow NASA astronaut Butch Wilmore arrived at the orbiting outpost in early June as test pilots for the first manned flight of Boeing’s Starliner space capsule.

The two were scheduled to stay on the ISS for only about a week, then return to Earth on the Starliner. However, problems with the spacecraft kept them in orbit for months longer than expected. Wilmore and Williams are scheduled to return home in February in a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule.

Starliner’s difficult mission was a dramatic, months-long story for NASA and Boeing. But Williams said she doesn’t feel like she’s “stranded” in space.

“Our control team and management always had the option of us returning home,” she said. “Yes, we came here on the Starliner. We’re coming back on the Dragon, but there was always a plan for how we were going to get home.”

In the last few weeks, NASA dodged the rumors Williams reportedly suffered from health problems while in space. Although some news articles suggested that the astronauts had lost significant weight, the agency’s medical director said on Nov. 14 that the health of Williams and others on board the space station was He said the condition was good.

Williams told NBC News that he is enjoying his time in orbit and is in good spirits.

“We feel good, we exercise and we eat properly,” she said. “We’re having a lot of fun here, too. So people are worried about us. Really, don’t worry about us.”

June 5, Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore of Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Chris O’Meara / AP File

Despite problems that occurred during Starliner’s voyage (mainly thruster and helium leaks), the capsule returned to Earth without a crew on September 7th. Williams said he wished he had been able to see Starliner’s mission to completion.

She added that Boeing and NASA would not hesitate to send Starliner into space again if they ironed out the problems that arose during the test flight.

“It might not be tomorrow because we need to incorporate some of the lessons we learned,” she said. “But once we knew we were on the right path, we fixed some of the issues we had — absolutely.”

Source: www.nbcnews.com

Parts of the US may be able to see the Northern lights this Thanksgiving

Posted on November 28, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Thanksgiving might bring cool and rainy weather to many parts of the country, but a solar storm could offer some Americans a chance to witness the beauty of the Northern Lights.

Thanks to a filament eruption on Monday, a mild to moderate geomagnetic storm is expected on Thursday and Friday, as the sun releases a cloud of high-energy plasma towards Earth, as reported by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

This eruption has the potential to illuminate the night sky in the U.S. with shades of green, red, and purple over the Thanksgiving holiday.

The brightness of the aurora and how long it will be visible depends on the strength of the solar storm and whether it reaches G1 or G2 conditions, according to NOAA meteorologist Mike Betwi.

Residents in states like Washington, Montana, Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Maine are in prime locations to witness the Northern Lights this weekend, with those in northern parts of Idaho, Wyoming, New York, Vermont, and New Hampshire also having a chance, based on NOAA’s predictions.

NOAA experts anticipate that the Northern Lights will likely be visible from Thursday evening until early Friday morning, but it’s uncertain when and where the sky will light up during the geomagnetic storm. You can monitor the latest activity and forecasts using NOAA’s Aurora Dashboard and experimental tools.

Optimal viewing conditions will be in areas with clear skies, although cloudy weather in the Northeast, much of New England, and near the Great Lakes could obstruct the view.

Unlike a previous strong solar storm earlier this year, experts do not anticipate major disruptions to communication systems in the U.S. unless the storm intensifies unexpectedly, according to Betwi.

The aurora borealis is typically visible at high altitudes, but a significant solar storm can cause it to be visible in areas much farther south than usual.

These solar storms occur when coronal mass ejections from the Sun send large plasma clouds into space, which when directed towards Earth, interact with the planet’s magnetic field and upper atmosphere, resulting in the glowing auroras.

NOAA is gearing up for the expected peak in solar activity next July, which is why the aurora has been visible further south multiple times this year.

Source: www.nbcnews.com

The detrimental effects of banning frightening concepts may outweigh the sense of security it provides

Posted on November 28, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Yuichiro Chino/Getty Images

In 1818, Mary Shelley invented a technology that has been used for both good and bad in the centuries since. It's called science fiction.

Although you might not think that literary genres count as technology, science fiction has long been a tool for predicting and critiquing science. Shelley’s Frankenstein Considered by many to be the first serious science fiction novel, it was so powerful that South Africa banned it in 1955. This story set the formula with a story that still serves today as a warning against unintended consequences.

As far as we know, the exact science that the eponymous Victor Frankenstein used to create is impossible. But today researchers can restore dead human brains to something resembling life. Experiments are underway to restart cell activity (but importantly not consciousness) after death to test its effectiveness in treating conditions such as Alzheimer's disease (see “Fundamental treatments that bring people back from the brink of death”).

It reminds me of many science fiction stories that feature similar scenarios and I can’t help but imagine what will happen next. The same is true for the study reported in “1000 people’s AI simulation accurately reproduces their behavior.” In this study, researchers used the technology behind ChatGPT to recreate the thoughts and actions of specific individuals with surprising success.

The team behind this work blurs the lines between fact, fiction, and what it means to be human.

In both cases, the teams behind this research are blurring the lines between fact, fiction, and what it means to be human, and their research is being conducted under strong ethical oversight. We are deeply aware that there are ethical concerns in the details. It was announced early on. But now that the technology is proven, there is nothing to stop more violent groups from attempting the same thing without oversight, potentially causing significant damage.

Does that mean the research should be banned for fear of it falling into the wrong hands, as Shelley’s book was? Far from it. Concerns about technology are best addressed through appropriate evidence-based regulation and swift punishment of violators. When regulators go too far, they miss out on not only the technology but also the opportunity to criticize and debate it.

topic:

Source: www.newscientist.com

Deep sea affected by ocean acidification

Posted on November 27, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Deep sea coral reefs are at risk of acidification

Howard Chu/Alamy Stock Photo

Ocean acidification is penetrating to depths of 1,500 meters, posing new threats to creatures such as sea butterflies, sea snails and cold-water corals.

The ocean is the largest natural sink of carbon dioxide, absorbing about a quarter of our annual emissions. The uptake of CO2 makes the ocean surface more acidic, which affects sensitive ecosystems such as coral reefs. But until now, researchers didn’t know how far acidification was reaching the deep ocean.

jens daniel müller Researchers at the Federal Institute of Technology Zurich in Switzerland have developed a 3D reconstruction of how CO2 moves through the ocean, based on global measurements of ocean currents and other circulation patterns. They used this model to estimate how the carbon dioxide absorbed by the ocean has affected deep-sea acidity since 1800, around the beginning of the industrial revolution.

They found clear acidification signals down to 1,000 meters deep in most of the ocean. In some regions, such as the North Atlantic, where the powerful Atlantic Meridional Overturning Current (AMOC) transports carbon from the surface to the deep ocean, acidification was observed down to 1500 meters. Some pockets of deep water, which are more acidic in nature, showed even more acidification than the surface. Their high natural acidity reduces their ability to absorb added CO2, Mueller says.

This is more or less what researchers expected would happen as the oceans absorbed more carbon dioxide. Wang Hongjie at the University of Rhode Island. “But it’s another thing to actually see the data coming in that affirms this.”

Remarkably, about half of all acidification since 1800 has occurred since 1994, as CO2 emissions have increased exponentially. “We’re seeing this progress be quite rapid,” Muller says.

The scale of acidification is sufficient to threaten the survival of a wide range of life in the oceans. Chiropods such as sea snails and sea butterflies are particularly at risk because their shells are made of calcium, which dissolves when water becomes too acidic. Increasing acidification has doubled the number of areas where it is difficult for cold-water corals to survive.

And ocean acidification will continue as seawater absorbs more carbon dioxide. “Even if we were able to stop carbon dioxide emissions immediately, we would still see ocean acidification processes inland for hundreds of years,” Muller said.

topic:

Source: www.newscientist.com

Ancient Mars: Evidence of Hydrothermal Activity Uncovered by Meteorite

Posted on November 27, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Scientists from Curtin University and the University of Adelaide analyzed 4.45 billion-year-old zircon particles from a famous Martian meteorite called North West Africa 7034 (NWA 7034) to determine the geochemistry of the water-rich fluid. They found a “fingerprint.”

Northwest Africa 7034. Image credit: NASA.

NWA 7034 weighs approximately 320 grams and is a regolith breccia from Mars.

This meteorite, better known as Black Beauty, was discovered in Morocco's Sahara desert in 2011.

NWA 7034 contains the oldest Martian igneous material ever discovered (approximately 4.45 billion years old).

Dr Aaron Cavosy from Curtin University said: “This discovery opens new avenues for understanding not only the past habitability of Mars, but also the ancient Martian hydrothermal systems associated with magmatic activity.” Ta.

“We used nanoscale geochemistry to detect elemental evidence of Martian hydrothermal waters 4.45 billion years ago.”

“Hydrothermal systems are essential for the development of life on Earth, and our findings show that Mars also had water, a key component of a habitable environment, during its early history of crustal formation.” It suggests that.

“Through nanoscale imaging and spectroscopy, the research team identified the elemental pattern of this unique zircon, including iron, aluminum, yttrium, and sodium.”

“These elements were added when zircon formed 4.45 billion years ago, suggesting that water was present during early magmatic activity on Mars.”

The authors show that water was present in the early pre-Noachian period before about 4.1 billion years ago, even though the Martian crust withstood massive meteorite impacts that caused large-scale surface deformation. showed.

“A 2022 Curtin study on the same zircon particle found that it had been 'shocked' by a meteorite impact, making it the first and only known shocked zircon from Mars. “It turns out,” Dr. Kavosie said.

“This new study identifies telltale signatures of water-rich fluids when the particles formed and provides geochemical markers of water in the oldest known Martian crust. This brings us one step closer to understanding early Mars.”

of findings appear in the diary scientific progress.

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Jack Gillespie others. 2024. Zircon trace element evidence of early hydrothermal activity on Mars. scientific progress 10(47);doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adq3694

Source: www.sci.news

Equipment deployed by NASA’s European Clipper spacecraft

Posted on November 27, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

NASA’s European Clipper, the largest spacecraft the agency has ever developed for a planetary mission, is already 20 million kilometers (13 million miles) from Earth.

An artist’s concept for NASA’s Europa Clipper shows the spacecraft silhouetted on the surface of Jupiter’s icy moon Europa, with the magnetometer boom fully deployed on top and the antenna for the radar instrument pointing out from the solar array. It’s growing. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

Europa Clipper launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on October 14, 2024.

The spacecraft is hurtling toward the Sun at 35 kilometers per second (22 miles per second).

Europa Clipper will travel 2.9 billion kilometers (1.8 billion miles) to reach Jupiter in 2030 and begin a series of 49 flybys in 2031, collecting data using an array of instruments. , will tell scientists whether the icy moon and its interior ocean influenced the icy moons. Conditions necessary for life to exist.

For now, the information mission teams are receiving from the spacecraft is strictly engineering data, telling them how the hardware is working.

Immediately after launch, Europa Clipper deployed a giant solar array extending the length of a basketball court.

Next on the list was the magnetometer boom, which unwound from a canister attached to the spacecraft body and stretched 8.5 meters (28 feet) in length.

To ensure that all boom deployments went well, the team used data from three magnetometer sensors.

Once the spacecraft reaches Jupiter, these sensors will measure Europa’s surrounding magnetic field, confirming the existence of an ocean believed to lie beneath the moon’s icy crust, and telling scientists about its depth and salinity. I’ll let you know.

After the magnetometer, the spacecraft deployed several antennas for radar instruments.

Four high-frequency antennas extend laterally from the solar array, forming what appear to be two long poles, each 17.6 m (57.7 ft) long.

Eight rectangular very high frequency antennas, each 2.76 m (9 ft) long, were also deployed, two on each of the two solar arrays.

“This is an exciting time for the spacecraft to complete these important deployments,” said Jordan Evans, a researcher at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and project manager for Europa Clipper.

“Most of what the team is focused on right now is understanding the small, interesting things in the data that help us understand the behavior of the spacecraft on a deeper level. It’s really good to see that. That’s it.”

The remaining seven devices will be powered on and off throughout December and January so engineers can check their health.

Some instruments, including visible imagers and gas and dust mass spectrometers, will remain under protective covers for the next three years or so to prevent potential damage from the Sun while Europa Clipper was in the inner solar system. I plan to make it.

Once all equipment and engineering subsystems are checked out, the mission team will shift its focus to Mars.

On March 1, 2025, Europa Clipper will reach Mars’ orbit and begin orbiting Mars, using Mars’ gravity to gain speed.

The mission navigator has already completed one course correction maneuver to keep the spacecraft on the correct course as planned.

On Mars, as a test run, the rover’s thermal imager will be turned on to take multicolor images of Mars.

They also plan to collect data on the radar equipment so engineers can verify that it is working as expected.

The spacecraft is scheduled to perform another gravity assist in December 2026 and swoop down to Earth before making the remainder of its long journey to the Jupiter system.

At that time, the magnetometer measures the Earth’s magnetic field and calibrates the instrument.

Source: www.sci.news

The Rise of Dinosaurs Told through Fossilized Feces

Posted on November 27, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

A plant-eating sauropod dinosaur that evolved in a humid environment during the early Jurassic period.

Marcin Ambrozik

The contents of feces and vomit from 200 million years ago are helping to show how dinosaurs conquered the world at the beginning of the Jurassic period.

Whole insects embedded in various shapes and sizes of well-preserved plants, bones, fish parts, and even ancient animal feces show that dinosaurs varied in comparison to other groups of animals. This suggests that dinosaurs were able to survive in the ecosystem thanks to their wide-ranging diet. This led to their further growth and eventually led to the establishment of a “land dynasty.” Martin Kvarnström At Uppsala University, Sweden.

Fossil evidence shows that the first dinosaurs had prominent hip joints that placed their legs underneath their bodies like mammals, rather than sprawling sideways like lizards. More than 230 million years ago During the Triassic. For tens of millions of years, these early dinosaurs blended into a landscape filled with many other types of reptiles. But by about 200 million years ago, dinosaurs had essentially taken over the Earth, around the time most other reptiles disappeared during the end-Triassic extinction.

What led to this dominance remains somewhat of a mystery. Kvarnström and his colleagues suspected that important clues might be hidden in the bromalites (fossilized feces and vomit) of dinosaurs and other animals. So they Polish Geological Institute collected by a prior research group from eight locations in Poland between 1996 and 2017.

The research team estimated the age of each bromalite based on the layer of sediment in which it was found, and determined its size, which ranges from a few millimeters to a “fairly large fecal mass,” and the animals that may have produced it. A suitable shape was used. The researchers then 3D scanned the fossil to examine its contents. “We noticed that it was clogged with food debris,” Kvarnström says.

Coprolites, or fossilized feces, of herbivorous dinosaurs containing plant remains

Grzegorz Niedzwicki

Combining the known fossil record and past climate information, researchers determined that the emergence of dinosaurs occurred in several different stages. First, the omnivorous ancestors of early dinosaurs began to outnumber non-dinosaurs. They then evolved into the first carnivorous and plant-eating dinosaurs.

At that point, increased volcanic eruptions and movement of tectonic plates caused flooding and waterway development. The resulting humidity and related changes in climate likely led to a wider range of plants and the evolution of larger and more diverse herbivorous dinosaurs. On the other hand, animals other than dinosaurs (such as dicynodonts, which eat plants weighing up to 1 ton) Lisowisia, Their feces contained mainly coniferous debris and they were less able to adapt to changes in vegetation.

As herbivorous dinosaurs grew larger, so did their predators. By the beginning of the Jurassic period, about 30 million years after the first dinosaurs appeared, the transition to a dinosaur-dominated world was complete, Kvarnström says.

“This study shows how climate primarily affected dominant plants, which created opportunities for new herbivores at certain points in time,” he says. michael benton from the University of Bristol, UK, was not involved in the study.

Although it's difficult to be sure that the researchers matched the scat to the right animal, the discovery nonetheless suggests that the dinosaur species had already expanded significantly in South America before major climate change. This confirms earlier research, he says. “But it took the end-Triassic mass extinction for the final stage of the takeover to begin.”

for emma dunn The study, conducted at Germany's Friedrich-Alexander University, helps answer long-standing questions about the emergence of dinosaurs. “It's not every day that a fossil poop is published in such an influential journal,” said Dunn, who was not involved in the study. “This is obviously interesting, but it's also very useful for understanding prehistoric environments. So if you think of the evolution of early dinosaurs like a jigsaw puzzle with pieces missing, there are new It’s just a lot of pieces thrown in.”

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Source: www.newscientist.com

Reclaiming the Handheld Gaming Market: Strategies for Sony to Compete with Nintendo and Smartphones

Posted on November 27, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

a Report from Bloomberg Suggest this week Sony is working on a new portable PlayStation device. As someone who can't bear to leave my PlayStation Vita in the attic and still has it sitting in my desk drawer, this is a very exciting prospect. It's been almost 13 years since Sony released its last portable console, the Vita, and with its crisp big screen and skinny little stick, it's a real wonder. I wish more people would have made games. Papercraft adventure Tearaway and dizzying platform puzzle game Gravity Rush remain underrated.

In fact, aside from the beautiful and very niche Playdate, no one has bothered to release a dedicated handheld game console in over a decade. Both the Nintendo Switch and Valve's Steam Deck are hybrids that can be played handheld or connected to a big screen.

There's a reason for this. First, smartphones have taken over almost the entire portable gaming market, offering an endless supply of free and cheap games on the devices everyone already owns. And secondly, it's handheld and In the past, commercially available home game consoles divided development resources. Only Nintendo has had enough success selling handheld devices to overcome generations of talent split between DS and Wii, or 3DS and Wii U, games. That made the Switch a candidate for the smartest business decision in the company's history. .

Sony, on the other hand, has always struggled to make enough games for the PlayStation Portable (PSP) and Vita, alongside the home PlayStation, to make the handheld console an attractive buy. The PSP, which sold 75 million units, was a highly profitable console, even though it was in direct competition with the Nintendo DS, which sold 150 million units (12 million was sold by the PSP before moving to a competing platform). (Thanks in part to Capcom's Monster Hunter series, which sold more than just books.) But when the Vita launched in 2011, it was obsessed with the smartphone world and only sold an estimated 15 million units.

It’s underrated…. Platform puzzle game “Gravity Rush”. Photo: Sony

The difference this time is that the machine Sony is reportedly developing can play it. existing PlayStation 5 game. The idea seems to be to have a portable and home version of the same console that can play the same games. Bloomberg suggests that Microsoft is also working on portable console prototypes, but none of these may ever make it to market.

Another difference is that cloud gaming has become mainstream. I know a lot of people who used the Vita primarily as a not-so-legal emulator that allowed them to play a ton of retro games, as it was sadly easy to crack. But now, with a PlayStation Plus subscription and fully legal access to Sony's treasure trove of back catalogue, I'm happy to have a handheld gaming console that lets me play most of PlayStation's history without having to buy a game. How many people would pay for it?I'm sure there are many.

Sony did it some There has been experimentation with portable hardware ever since the Vita was discontinued. Late last year, the company released a strange little device called the PlayStation Portal. It's essentially a screen attached to the center of a PlayStation 5 controller, allowing you to stream games from the PS5 and play them in your hands. This has limited practicality, but it's great and I love it Sony's hardware design – so I really hope we see a new PlayStation Portable in the next few years, even if it doesn't come loaded with the bite-sized, bespoke games that older handsets enjoyed .

However, as Steam Deck proved, mobile devices can be a game-changer for busy people, as they simply give you more time and opportunities to play, even if you don't have your own dedicated games. For example, the only way to beat Persona 4 was to play it on the vita on the train. With the next portable PlayStation, you could probably manage the last 10 hours of Persona 5.

what to play

Memories… LocoRoco.

When you think about the history of the old portable PlayStation, a few games come to mind. There is LocoLocoa game about a singing blob that's back with this year's Atom Bonus Level. And I spent more than 100 hours with my index finger oddly curled over the PSP's directional button, my hand forming the shape known as Monster Hunter's claw.

And there it is tear awayMedia Molecule's intimate and brilliant Vita platformer is set in a world made of paper. This is the easiest to try as there is a slightly less capable PS4 version. unfolded tear duct Available from the PlayStation Store. It's included with PlayStation Plus, so I just downloaded it to play with my kids this afternoon.

Available: PS4/5
Estimated play time: 8 hours

what to read

Is there a new one on the way? … Bloodborne: The Old Hunters. Photo: Public Relations

If you stick to Sony news, PlayStation 30th anniversary next month. to celebrate, released by Sony There are tons of game soundtracks, timelines, quizzes, and of course some things you can buy.
Shuhei YoshidaThe former head of PlayStation Studios and current head of the company's indie developer initiative will retire from the company in January after 31 years. I last interviewed him last year. He remains one of the friendliest people in the entire gaming industry and one of its most seasoned advocates.
And Sony clearly intends to buy Kadokawa, From Software's parent companyManufacturer of Elden Ring, Dark Souls, and Armored Core. Will we finally get a new Bloodborne?
New version of Microsoft flight simulator have It started in a small state. If you're considering buying one, it's probably best to wait a few months.

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question block

Under discussion… Elden Ring: Shadow of the Eld Tree. Photo: unknown/Bandai Namco Europe

leader benjamin This week's question:

“You said your latest Pushing Buttons cost money.” Shadow of the Eld Tree forgame of It's the annual award, but I'm curious. to hear your thoughts First of all, it is a downloadable extension and not a game itself. Wouldn't it set a strange precedent if something that wasn't playable as a standalone could end up being the best game of the year?”

Gaming awards categories such as the Baftas, Game Awards and Golden Joysticks are struggling to keep up with the speed at which video games are evolving. A few years ago, most of them introduced some version of the “games in progress” category to account for games that have been running for years and change frequently, such as Fortnite, No Man's Sky, and Minecraft. did. But now it has become difficult in itself. Does the game have to change in that year to qualify? How about something like Cyberpunk 2077? Although this is not a multiplayer game with continuously new content; did Will it be significantly changed and improved after release? How about a remaster? Should we also consider downloadable expansions? And where should we place games that fit into more than one genre? Every year there are many releases that challenge the definition of categories.

I might end up saying things like this forever. My feeling is that anything released that year, if it's good enough, should be eligible for an award, whether it's an add-on or expansion to an earlier game. Shadow of the Erdtree was over 30 hours long and could very well have been a standalone sequel. That's 10 times longer than some indie games nominated in other categories. Personally, I think it's hard to justify disqualifying this game for technical reasons, but of course I think I'd judge it on its own merits, not the basic game's merits.

If you have any questions for the questions block or anything else you'd like to say about the newsletter, please reply or email us at pushbuttons@theguardian.com.

Source: www.theguardian.com

TikTok Implements Restrictions on Beauty Filters for Teens Due to Mental Health Concerns

Posted on November 27, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Teenagers are facing new restrictions on beauty filters on TikTok that are aimed at addressing concerns about increasing anxiety and decreasing self-esteem.

In the near future, users under 18 will not be able to use filters that artificially alter features like enlarging eyes, plumping lips, or changing skin color.

Filters such as “Bold Glamor” that significantly alter a user’s appearance will be affected, while simple comic filters like bunny ears or dog noses will remain available. The changes were announced by TikTok during a safety forum at its European headquarters in Dublin.

Despite these restrictions, the effectiveness depends on users accurately providing their age on the platform.

Beauty filters on TikTok, whether provided by the platform or created by users, are a source of concern as they pressure teenagers, especially girls, to conform to unrealistic beauty standards and can lead to negative emotional impacts. Some young users have reported feeling insecure about their real appearance after using filters.

TikTok will also enhance its systems to prevent users under 13 from accessing the platform, potentially resulting in the removal of thousands of underage British users. An automated age detection system using machine learning will be piloted by the end of the year.

These actions come in response to stricter regulations on minors’ social media use under the Online Safety Act in the UK. TikTok already deletes millions of underage accounts globally each quarter.

Chloe Setter, head of public policy for child safety at TikTok, stated that they aim for faster detection and removal of underage users, understanding that this might be inconvenient for some young people.

Ofcom’s report from last December highlighted TikTok’s removal of underage users and raised concerns about the effectiveness of age verification enforcement. TikTok plans to implement a strict age limit of 13+ for social media users next summer.

Social media platforms will introduce new rules regarding beauty filters and age verification, anticipating stricter regulations on online safety in the future. These adjustments are part of broader efforts to enhance online safety.

Other platforms like Roblox and Instagram are also implementing measures to enhance child safety, reflecting a growing concern about the impact of social media on young users.

Andy Burrows, CEO of the Molly Rose Foundation, emphasized the importance of transparent age verification measures and the need to address harmful content promoted on social media platforms.

The NSPCC welcomed measures to protect underage users but stressed the need for comprehensive solutions to ensure age-appropriate experiences for all users.

Source: www.theguardian.com

Diamond storage breaks records by holding data for millions of years

Posted on November 27, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Diamond can store data stably for a long time

University of Science and Technology of China

The famous marketing slogan that diamonds are forever may be just a slight exaggeration for diamond-based systems that can store information for millions of years. Now, researchers have developed a system with a record-breaking storage density of 1.85 terabytes per cubic centimeter.

Previous technology used laser pulses to encode data onto diamond, but due to its higher storage density, a diamond optical disc with the same capacity as a standard Blu-ray could hold approximately 100 terabytes of data (Blu-ray). (equivalent to approximately 2,000 rays). It lasts much longer than the typical Blu-ray lifespan of just a few decades.

“Once the internal data storage structure is stabilized using our technology, diamond can achieve an extraordinary lifetime of millions of years of data retention at room temperature without requiring maintenance,” he says. Wang Ya at the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei.

Wang and his colleagues conducted their research using tiny pieces of diamond, just a few millimeters long, but say future versions of the system could use rapidly spinning diamond discs. Their method used ultrafast laser pulses to knock some of diamond’s carbon atoms out of place, leaving single-atom-sized empty spaces, each exhibiting a stable brightness level.

By controlling the laser’s energy, the researchers were able to create multiple empty spaces at specific locations within the diamond, and the density of those spaces influenced the overall brightness of each site. . “The number of free spaces can be determined by looking at the brightness, so the stored information can be read,” Wang says.

The team then saved the images, including a colorful painting by artist Henri Matisse. cat with red fish And a series of photographs taken by Eadweard Muybridge in 1878, showing a rider on a galloping horse, maps the brightness of each pixel to the brightness level of a specific region within a diamond. The system stored this data with over 99% accuracy and completeness.

This preservation method is not yet commercially viable because it requires expensive lasers, high-speed fluorescence imaging cameras, and other devices, Wang said. But he and his colleagues hope that the diamond-based system can eventually be miniaturized to fit in a space the size of a microwave oven.

“In the short term, government agencies, research institutes, and libraries with a focus on archives and data preservation may be eager to adopt this technology,” he says.

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Source: www.newscientist.com

When will Democrats come to the realization that big tech does not support their agenda?

Posted on November 27, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

a■ As Democrats consider how to counter the Trump administration, they need to accept a very simple lesson from the past eight years. Big tech and corporations are part of the opposition forces working on behalf of Donald Trump, not allies of the Democratic Party working against Trump and Trumpism.

One would think there is no need to point out what appears to be an obvious fact. Still, some Democrats are trying to get closer to big tech companies and downplaying the importance of antitrust policy regarding authoritarian risks. For example, a few days ago, the largest Democratic superpack, Priorities USA, held a large resistance strategy session sponsored by “friends of google“.

As another example, Adam Jentleson, political writer and former chief of staff to U.S. Sen. John Fetterman, writes: recent works The New York Times particularly criticized the fight against monopolies as a “niche issue.” He argued that there was a dichotomy between table issues and challenging corporate power, and that the focus should be on the former.

The belief that big technology, and big business more broadly, serves the Democratic Party has already been tested and turned out to be untrue.

When Trump was elected in 2016, one of the central pillars of Democratic resistance was to use big tech platforms as a counterbalance. If you remember, Google’s CEO also Participated in anti-Trump demonstration. Google, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and pre-Elon Musk’s Twitter have been reprimanded for using technology that enables extremism, but Democrats are pushing for changes to regulation of algorithm design, liability rules, or Instead of moving aggressively to split, it focused on encouraging platforms on editorial policy.

The assumption was that they would be able to defeat Trump and Maga-ism and corral them into a set of “correct” editorial practices that would help limit the scope of his rhetoric in the short term. This is the context in which the “misinformation and disinformation” framework arose.

We use this phrase all the time, but it’s worth thinking about how strange it is. Misinformation can refer to inadvertent lies and disinformation can refer to intentional lies, but the term can also encompass information that is factually correct but misleading, such as information about Barack Obama. there is. claimed In 2022, “suppression of true information” will occur if such suppression is carried out for purposes such as “political gain” or “targeting people you don’t like.”

These new categories not only infuriated those caught up in broad and vague definitions, but also diverted Democratic attention away from issues of power. The misinformation/disinformation framework is partially compatible with partnering with big tech companies as an anti-fascist alliance. We, the science-based Democratic Party, will succeed in working with the world’s largest technology companies to protect America.

Eight years later, Democrats lost the White House, the House of Representatives, and the Senate. Major tech platforms are full of extremist content. Big tech companies should no longer look like allies. Not only is Mr. Musk fully entrenched at the top of the power table, right next to Mr. Trump, but the CEOs of Meta, Alphabet, Apple, and Amazon all reached out to Mr. Trump before the election. He probably took it seriously. his threat Mark Zuckerberg would go to jail if he opposed it, but he’s probably just recognizing that Trump is the titan of deregulation.

musk He is said to have participated in Recent phone conversation between President Trump and Google CEO. It is expected that dozens of such meetings at the highest level will occur and strong relationships will emerge. And instead of repeatedly claiming that the tech giants have too much power, we have spent eight years arming them with language they can use to suppress dissent.

repetition vote It turns out that voters actually hate corporate monopolies, and that antitrust politics is very popular. I don’t want to overstate this point – for 30 years, from 1980 to 2020, antitrust politics disappeared in America. It’s fair to argue that we can do more experimentation with how we talk about anti-monopoly policy, especially towards big tech companies. that. But we should be very concerned about its content.

Facebook, Google, and Amazon have destroyed local journalism, a real bulwark against authoritarian leaders, while coddling real dictatorships. They currently dominate the digital advertising industry. According to a recent study, if news organizations were paid the profits they made by acting as intermediaries between readers and writers, Expected to be delivered between $12 billion and $14 billion One year. The very journalists and news organizations we rely on for fact-checking and fact-checking fear being shadowbanned. Jeff Bezos’ fear of President Trump shows how it affects editorial content.

Thankfully, thanks to the work of the Department of Justice under Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Cantor, Google has been officially recognized by the courts as an illegal monopoly, and other antitrust cases involving Facebook and Amazon have The case is pending in court. But even if Google is forced to sell Chrome, which seems possible, it now seems grotesque that Democrats in power can’t bring serious tech-disruption legislation to a vote. He didn’t seem to be trying to stop the emerging power couple of Trump and tech.

As experts try to sort out the lessons of how Kamala Harris lost an election she looked like she could win, we look back further and remember the real lessons of 2016. That would be good. The idea is that to align with the big tech oligarchy is to align with the state. Democratic Party and the Destruction of Democracy.

Zephyr Teachout is a professor at Fordham Law School and author of Break ‘Em Up: Recovering Our Freedom from Big Ag, Big Tech, and Big Money.

Source: www.theguardian.com

NASA to investigate subterranean ocean of Uranus’ moon

Posted on November 27, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Some of the icy moons in the Jupiter and Saturn systems appear to have oceans of liquid water inside them. Although our knowledge of Uranus' moons is more limited, future tours of the Uranian system may be able to detect subsurface oceans. To plan for this, we need to understand how the internal structure of satellites, with and without oceans, relates to observable quantities. New research from the University of Texas Geophysical Institute and the University of California, Santa Cruz shows it may be possible to diagnose the presence or absence of liquid water oceans inside some of Uranus' moons, including Miranda and Ariel. There is, Umbriel, and it is thought that this, combined with measurements of the gravitational field, may provide comprehensive constraints on the internal structure and history of Uranus' moons.

Uranus' four major moons, Ariel, Umbriel, Titania, and Oberon, may have oceanic layers. Salty seas, or salty seas, are found beneath the ice and above water-rich and dry rock layers. Miranda is too small to retain enough heat in the ocean layer. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

When NASA's Voyager 2 flew by Uranus in 1986, it took grainy photos of the large icy moon.

Now, NASA plans to send another spacecraft to Uranus, this time equipped to see if those icy moons hide oceans of liquid water.

The mission is still in the early planning stages, but planetary researchers are preparing by building a new computer model that can be used to detect oceans beneath the ice using only the rover's cameras.

Their computer model works by analyzing the moon's tiny vibrations, or wobbles, as it orbits its parent planet.

From there, you can calculate how much water, ice, and rock is inside. A small wobble means the moon is mostly solid, while a large wobble means its icy surface is floating in an ocean of liquid water.

When combined with gravity data, the model calculates the depth of the ocean and the thickness of the overlying ice.

Dr. Doug Hemingway, a planetary scientist at the University of Texas Geophysical Institute, said: “If we find that Uranus' moons have an inland ocean, it means there are a huge number of potentially habitable worlds across the galaxy. It may mean,” he said.

“The discovery of oceans of liquid water on Uranus' moons will change our thinking about the range of possibilities for life.”

All large moons of the solar system, including the moons of Uranus, are tidally locked.

This means that the same side always faces the parent planet while orbiting, as the gravity matches their rotation.

However, this does not mean that the satellite's rotation is completely fixed; all tidally locked satellites will oscillate back and forth during their orbit.

Determining the extent of the wobble is key to learning whether Uranus' moons have oceans, and if so, how large.

A satellite with an ocean of liquid water splashing inside will wobble more than one that is entirely solid. However, even the largest oceans experience only small wobbles. The moon's rotation can shift by just a few hundred feet as it passes through its orbit.

This is still enough for a passing spacecraft to detect it. In fact, this technique was previously used to confirm that Saturn's moon Enceladus has an internal ocean.

To find out whether the same technique would work on Uranus, Dr. Hemingway and his colleague Dr. Francis Nimmo of the University of California, Santa Cruz performed theoretical calculations on Uranus's five moons, using a variety of the most I came up with a plausible scenario.

Detecting smaller oceans means the spacecraft will need to get closer or carry more powerful cameras.

“The next step is to extend the model to include measurements from other instruments and see how this improves the interior of the satellite,” Dr. Hemingway said.

of the team work Published in a magazine Geophysical Research Letters.

_____

DJ Hemingway and F. Nemo. 2024. Search for the underground ocean inside Uranus's moon using balance and gravity. Geophysical Research Letters 51 (18): e2024GL110409;doi: 10.1029/2024GL110409

This article is a version of a press release provided by the University of Texas.

Source: www.sci.news

UNESCO Warns that Online Influencers Require Immediate Fact-Checking Training on Social Media

Posted on November 27, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

UNESCO has issued a warning that social media influencers urgently need help in fact-checking before sharing information with their followers to prevent the spread of misinformation online.

A report by UNESCO revealed that two-thirds of content creators fail to verify the accuracy of their material, leaving both them and their followers susceptible to misinformation.

The report emphasized the importance of media and literacy education to assist influencers in shaping their work based on accurate information.

Creators’ susceptibility to misinformation due to low fact-checking practices can have significant implications for public discourse and trust in the media, according to UNESCO.

While many creators do not verify information before sharing it, they often rely on personal experiences, research, and conversations with knowledgeable individuals as their primary sources.

UNESCO’s study revealed that the popularity of online sources, measured by likes and views, plays a significant role in creators’ trust, highlighting the need for improved media literacy skills.

To address this issue, UNESCO is collaborating with the Knight Center for Journalism of the Americas to offer an online course on becoming a trusted voice online, focusing on fact-checking and creating content during elections or crises.

Media literacy expert Adeline Hulin noted that many influencers do not perceive their work as journalism, highlighting the need for a deeper understanding of journalistic practices and their impact.

Additionally, UNESCO’s findings indicated a lack of awareness among creators regarding legal regulations, with only half of them disclosing sponsors and funding sources to their audience, as required in some countries.

The survey, involving 500 content creators from various countries, revealed that most influencers are nano-influencers under 35 years old, primarily using Instagram and Facebook, with up to 100,000 followers.

Source: www.theguardian.com

Archaeologists Uncover Possible 2,100-Year-Old Temple in Egypt

Posted on November 27, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Archaeologists have uncovered an entrance to a large stone temple in an ancient Egyptian town, Athribis, near the modern city of Sohag.

The south tower of the Athribis pylon and the hill behind it. It is believed that there is a sanctuary here. Image credit. Marcus Müller, Athribis Project.

“The entrance to the temple in the rock appears to lie beneath a still-untouched pile of rubble behind it,” said archaeologists Professor Christian Reitz and Dr Markus Müller from the University of Tübingen.

“Since 2022, we have been working with Mohamed Abdelbadia of the Egyptian Antiquities Authority and the Egyptian team at Asribis to excavate the large stone temple.”

“Excavations have been underway since 2012 to reveal an ancient temple district built between 144 BC and 138 AD.”

“The width of the complex was a total of 51 meters, and the monumental temple entrance towers were each 18 meters high.”

“Today there is only about five meters left. The rest was sacrificed to quarrying,” they added.

“Thanks to the fallen coins, the removal of this stone may have taken place in 752 or shortly thereafter.”

Archaeologists also discovered a relief of a king offering a sacrifice to the lion-headed goddess Lepit and her son Kolantes.

A newly discovered hieroglyphic inscription reveals for the first time which king was responsible for the decoration of the pylon, and perhaps also for its construction: Ptolemy VIII in the 2nd century BC.

“We unexpectedly encountered a previously unknown chamber in the northern tower,” the researchers said.

“We used air cushions, wooden scaffolding and rollers to remove ceiling blocks weighing approximately 20 tonnes.”

“We found a chamber about 6 meters long and 3 meters wide.”

“It was a storage room for temple utensils and was later used to store amphora.”

“A corridor led to the room through a pylon, allowing access from outside.''

“This entrance is also decorated with reliefs and hieroglyphs,” they added.

“Once again we see the goddess Lepit, but on the opposite door frame the fertility god Min is depicted, along with two very rarely depicted beings, the falcon-headed decan (who can measure the hours of the night) It is accompanied by a star.

“Unique in Egyptian temple architecture is the second door in the façade of the pylon, which opens onto a previously unknown staircase that led to the upper floors on at least four floors. It has now been destroyed and further storage rooms may be rebuilt there.”

“Finely smoothed limestone blocks in vertically cut rock facades may belong to rock sanctuaries,” says Professor Wrights.

“The finds over 3 meters high and the typical decorations at the top of the temple, such as the cobra frieze, indicate that there may have been a door behind the temple.”

Source: www.sci.news

Astronomers reveal new main-belt comet mistaken for active asteroid

Posted on November 26, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

456P/Panstars, an active main-belt asteroid first discovered in 2021, is repeatedly active, and its activity is linked to volatile ice formations, according to new observations from the Magellan-Baade and Lowell Discovery telescopes. It is likely that this is caused by sublimation.

456P/PanSTARS image taken on October 3, 2024 with the Magellan Baade Telescope in Chile and with the Lowell Discovery Telescope in Arizona on October 26, 2024. At the center of each image is the comet’s head or nucleus, the tail extends to the right. Image credits: Scott S. Sheppard / Carnegie Institution for Science / Audrey Thirouin, Lowell Observatory / Henry H. Hsieh, Planetary Science Institute.

“Main-belt comets are icy objects found in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, rather than outside the cold solar system, where icy objects would normally be expected,” said Henry Hsieh, senior scientist at the Planetary Science Institute.

“They have comet-like features, such as tails that extend away from the sun and fuzzy clouds as the sun’s heat evaporates the ice.”

These objects were first discovered in 2006 at the University of Hawaii by Dr. Hsieh and his then-doctoral supervisor, Professor David Jewitt.

“Main-belt comets belong to a larger group of Solar System objects known as active asteroids, which look like comets but have asteroid-like orbits in the warm inner Solar System,” the astronomers said.

“This large group includes not only objects that emit dust from evaporated ice, but also objects that have clouds or tails of ejected dust from collisions or rapid rotation.”

“Both main-belt comets and active asteroids in general are still relatively rare, but scientists are discovering them.”

456P/PANSTARRS was discovered as P/2021 L4 (PANSTARRS) through observations by Pan-STARRS1 on June 9 and 14, 2021, and observations by Canada, France, and Hawaii telescopes on June 14, 2021.

Dr. Hsieh and his co-authors observed the object twice in October 2024 using the Magellan-Baade Telescope and the Lowell Discovery Telescope, establishing its status as a main-belt comet.

“This object is not just an asteroid that experienced a one-off event, but is essentially an active icy object, like other comets in the outer solar system,” Hsieh said.

If 456P/PANSTARRS’s activity is due to something other than ice evaporation, its tail would be expected to appear only once, randomly, and not repeatedly as it approaches the Sun.

On the other hand, icy objects heat up every time they approach the sun, and the evaporated ice is carried away with the dust.

As the object moves away from the sun and cools, it ceases to be active.

Observations of repeated dust ejection activity during their approach to the Sun are currently considered the best and most reliable method of identifying main-belt comets.

“Confirmed main-belt comets are still largely unknown,” Dr. Xie said.

“We want to grow the population so we can understand more clearly what its broader characteristics are, such as its size, active period, and distribution within the asteroid belt. We will be able to better utilize them to track ice within the asteroid belt and across the solar system.”

of findings Published in American Astronomical Society Research Notes.

_____

Henry H. Shea others. 2024. Recurrence activity of main belt comet 456P/Panstars (P/2021 L4) confirmed. Resolution memo AAS 8,283;doi: 10.3847/2515-5172/ad90a6

This article is a reprint of a press release provided by the Planetary Science Institute.

Source: www.sci.news

TechScape: The US Government’s Push to Make Google Sell Chrome | Technology

Posted on November 26, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Google is facing challenges. According to my colleague Dan Milmo, the U.S. Department of Justice is looking into Google’s structure and business practices, including the potential sale of its Chrome browser to break its monopoly on Internet search. This comes after a court ruling finding Google in violation of antitrust laws for monopolizing search services. The Justice Department’s proposal is straightforward: Google should sell Chrome. As for Android, two options have been proposed: sell it or agree to government oversight.

Both demands present a significant challenge to Google’s advertising business, and could have severe consequences for the company.

In a blog post, Kent Walker, Google’s chief legal officer, criticized the Justice Department’s proposal, calling it “staggering,” “extreme,” and “unprecedented government overreach.” Google plans to submit its own proposal and appeal the court ruling. However, Walker’s response was somewhat exaggerated, referring to the requirement for two selection screens to access Google Search on Pixel smartphones as comically histrionic.

The Justice Department aims to increase competition by exposing Google to competition, denying the benefits of any legal violation, and preventing Google from dominating markets in the future.

Google’s advertising business relies heavily on its search service, with Chrome being a key component as the most popular browser globally. Losing Chrome would have a significant impact on Google’s advertising revenue. The debate also touches on U.S. leadership in the tech industry, with Google arguing that selling Chrome could undermine it.

There’s also talk of potentially selling Android, which plays a crucial role in data collection for advertising. The government could impose surveillance on Android, impacting Google’s business operations. The potential changes raise questions about the future aesthetic and control of smartphone operating systems.

Without Chrome, Google would lose a vital market, particularly in the education sector where Chromebooks are widely used in schools. Chrome OS is designed for web-based tasks, influencing user preferences towards Google products in the future.

If Google manages to retain Chrome, it may still need to reconsider its search engine default agreements, including the $20 billion contract with Apple. The company could be forced to adjust or terminate these contracts as part of the proposed remedies.

Review

Elon “First Buddy” Musk and his Sidekick Debut, Doge

Elon Musk and Donald Trump in October. Photo: Alex Brandon/AP

A recent development saw Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy appointed as heads of the Ministry of Government Efficiency, known as Doge, although it’s not an official government department. Musk has given it a governmental status on Twitter. They are advisors to President Trump and plan to use executive actions to reform non-governmental government agencies. Their approach focuses on efficiency but lacks detailed plans.

Musk and Ramaswamy target cost-cutting, aiming to eliminate programs that lack congressional approval. However, their approach faces criticism for potential repercussions such as cutting medical care for military veterans. Despite their intentions, the implementation of their ideas remains uncertain.

Source: www.theguardian.com

The Far Right in Europe is Utilizing AI-Generated Content as a Weapon

Posted on November 26, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

FThe fake images, created using generative artificial intelligence techniques, aim to stoke fears of a migrant “invasion” among leaders like Emmanuel Macron and far-right parties in Western Europe. This political weaponization is a growing concern.

Experts point to this year’s European Parliament elections as the starting point for the far right in Europe to deploy AI-based electoral campaigns, which have since continued to expand.

Recently, anti-immigrant content on Facebook came under scrutiny by Mark Zuckerberg’s independent oversight board as it launched an investigation. German accounts featuring AI-generated images with anti-immigration rhetoric will be examined by the supervisory board.

AI-generated right-wing content is on the rise on social media platforms in Europe. Posts from extremist groups depict disturbing images, like women and children eating insects, perpetuating conspiracy theories about “global elites.”

The consistent use of AI-generated images with no identifying marks by far-right parties and movements across the EU and UK suggests a coordinated effort in spreading their message.

According to Salvatore Romano, head of research at AI Forensics, the AI content being shared publicly is just the beginning, with more concerning material circulating in private and official channels.

William Alcorn, a senior research fellow, notes that the accessibility of AI models appeals to fringe political groups seeking to exploit new technologies for their agendas.

Some of the AI-generated images posted on X by the L’Europe Sans Eux account. Illustration: @LEuropeSansEux

AI technology makes content creation accessible without coding skills, which has normalized far-right views. Mainstream parties remain cautious about using AI in campaigning, while extremists exploit it without ethical concerns.

Germany

Supporters of Germany’s far-right party AfD use AI image generators to promote anti-immigration messages. Meta’s content moderation committee reviewed an image showing anti-immigrant sentiments against a blonde, blue-eyed woman.

AI-powered campaign ads by AfD’s Brandenburg branch contrast an idealized Germany with scenes of veiled women and LGBTQ+ flags. Reality Defender, a deepfake detection firm, highlighted the speed at which such images can be generated.

Source: www.theguardian.com

The impact of artificially stopping your period on your body

Posted on November 26, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

People with a uterus experience menstruation about once every 28 days for approximately 40 years of their lives.

Menstruation goes beyond just blood. It’s common for 84% of women to experience menstrual pain regularly. Severe menstrual pain can lead women to miss numerous days of education or work each month. Additionally, periods are costly, with an estimated lifetime cost of around 4,800 pounds (approximately $6,100).

Given these challenges, it’s only natural to want to stop menstruation. While periods may naturally cease during pregnancy, breastfeeding, or menopause, many women in the UK opt to stop their menstrual cycles using hormonal contraception.

Contraceptive pills, implants, and hormonal coils work by releasing hormones that prevent ovulation. Without an egg being released or the lining of the uterus thickening for pregnancy, menstruation, which occurs due to shedding of this lining, typically stops when it ceases to grow.

“There’s nothing harmful about not having a menstrual cycle,” affirms Dr. Nicola Tempest, a researcher and gynecologist at Liverpool Women’s Hospital. “Taking hormones doesn’t detract from your body’s wellbeing.”

But are there any drawbacks to not having periods?

For individuals with regular menstrual cycles (not taking hormonal contraceptives), the sudden absence of periods may signify underlying health issues.

While the occasional missed period isn’t typically worrisome, a prolonged absence of periods after having regular cycles could indicate potential problems such as early menopause or polycystic ovarian syndrome.

Tempest notes that individuals with such conditions may require hormone medication as part of their treatment, which could help in diagnosing these conditions along with other associated symptoms, even if periods have ceased due to birth control pills.

There may be certain side effects associated with hormonal contraceptives, such as a slight increase in the risk of breast, liver, and cervical cancer with long-term use. However, Tempest emphasizes that prolonged use of birth control also reduces the risk of endometrial and ovarian cancer.

In her view, menstruation is not an indispensable aspect of a person’s health. “If you wish to forego menstruation, you have that choice,” she states.

This article addresses the question “Can I stop my period?” posed by Veronica Nielson via email.

If you have any queries, please reach out to us via email: questions@sciencefocus.comor connect with us on Facebook, ×or Instagram (please include your name and location).

Explore more interesting fun facts Discover more fascinating science insights.

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Meet our experts:

Dr. Nicola Tempest I am a clinical researcher and gynecologist at Liverpool Women’s Hospital. Her research includes chronic pelvic pain, exercise and reproduction, and endometriosis.

Source: www.sciencefocus.com

Hubble Space Telescope Spots Spiral of Condensation in NGC 2090

Posted on November 26, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have taken surprising new photos of spiral galaxy NGC 2090.

This Hubble image shows NGC 2090, a spiral galaxy located south of the constellation Columba, about 40 million light-years away. Color images were created from separate exposures taken in the ultraviolet, visible, and near-infrared regions of the spectrum using Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3). This is based on data obtained through six filters. Color is obtained by assigning different hues to each monochromatic image associated with an individual filter. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / D. Tilker.

NGC2090 It is a spiral galaxy located south of the constellation Columba.

Also known as ESO 363-23, IRAS 05452-3416, LEDA 17819. discovered It was announced by Scottish astronomer James Dunlop on October 29, 1826.

“NGC 2090 is notable as part of a group of galaxies being studied. Hubble's Extragalactic Distance Scale Key Project“This study aimed to determine a new, state-of-the-art value for the Hubble constant, one of the main scientific goals of the then-new telescope,” Hubble astronomers said in a statement.

“NGC 2090's contribution was to calibrate the Tully-Fisher (TF) distance method by observing Cepheid variable stars in the galaxy.”

“Cepheid-based measurements from a 1998 study estimated the distance of NGC 2090 to be 37 million light-years.”

“Latest measurements in 2020 using the TF method place NGC 2090 slightly further away, at 40 million light-years.”

Before and after that project, NGC 2090 has been well studied as a very prominent nearby example of star formation.

It has been described as a cotton-like spiral, meaning a spiral galaxy with a speckled, dusty disk and flaky or no visible arms.

“This Hubble image gives a good indication of why NGC 2090 received such a description, with its spiral arms looking like lanes of light winding through the dust,” the astronomers said. said.

“NGC 2090 remains an active galaxy, with clusters of star formation in various stages of evolution spread throughout the disk.”

“Investigating star formation and the movement of matter within galaxies was the motivation for these Hubble observations taken in October of this year.”

“Likewise, Hubble's partner in space astronomy, NASA/ESA/CSA's James Webb Space Telescope, also scouted this galaxy to add infrared data to the picture of galaxy evolution.”

Source: www.sci.news

Nanopasta: The World’s Thinnest Spaghetti Emerges

Posted on November 26, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

The world's thinnest spaghetti is only 372 nm wide, which is about 1/200th the width of a human hair.

Britton others. Using a scanning electron microscope, they scanned the mat with a focused beam of electrons and created images based on the patterns of electrons that were deflected, or bounced away. The individual strands are too thin to be clearly captured by any form of visible light camera or microscope. Image credit: Beatrice Britton/Adam Clancy.

Beatrice Britton, a researcher at University College London, and her colleagues said: “This novel nanopasta is not intended as a new food product, but rather that strands of ultra-thin material called nanofibers have a wide range of uses in medicine and industry. It was made with usage in mind.”

“Nanofibers made from starch are particularly promising and could be used in dressings to aid wound healing and as scaffolds for bone regeneration and drug delivery.”

“But they rely on starches that are extracted and purified from plant cells, a process that requires a lot of energy and water.”

“A more environmentally friendly method is to create nanofibers directly from starch-rich raw materials, such as the flour that pasta is made from.”

To create the spaghetti, which is just 372 nm in diameter, the authors used a technique called electrospinning. In this technique, a thread of flour and liquid is pulled through the tip of a needle by an electric charge.

“To make spaghetti, you push a mixture of water and flour through metal holes,” says Adam Clancy, a researcher at University College London.

“In our study, we did the same thing, except we charged the flour mixture and forced it through. It's literally spaghetti, but much smaller.”

The new nanopasta forms a mat of nanofibers about 2 cm in diameter that is visible to the eye, but the individual strands are too thin to be clearly captured by any form of visible light camera or microscope. Therefore, its width was measured using a scanning electron microscope.

Professor Gareth Williams, from University College London, said: “Nanofibers, such as those made from starch, are highly porous and therefore show potential for use in wound dressings.”

“Additionally, nanofibers are also being investigated for use as scaffolds for tissue regrowth because they mimic the extracellular matrix (the network of proteins and other molecules that cells build to support themselves). .”

“Starch is a promising material to use because it is abundant and renewable. Starch is the second largest source of biomass on Earth after cellulose, and it is biodegradable, so it can be broken down in the body,” Clancy said. the doctor said.

“However, refining starch requires a lot of processing. We have shown that a simple method of making nanofibers using wheat flour is possible.”

“The next step is to investigate the properties of this product.”

“We want to know, for example, how quickly it breaks down, how it interacts with cells, and whether we can produce it at scale.”

In electrospinning, the needle containing the mixture and the metal plate on which the mixture is deposited form the two ends of the battery.

When a charge is applied, the mixture flows out of the needle and onto the metal plate, completing the circuit.

Electrospinning with starch-rich raw materials, such as refined flour, is more difficult than with pure starch because impurities (proteins and cellulose) increase the viscosity of the mixture, making it impossible to form fibers.

The researchers used flour and formic acid instead of water. This is because formic acid breaks down the giant helical stacks that make up starch.

This is because the layers of helices stuck together are too large to be the building blocks of nanofibers.

When the noodles fly through the air and reach the metal plate, the formic acid evaporates.

The scientists also had to carefully warm the mixture for several hours and then slowly cool it to the right consistency.

“As the newly developed material is composed of fibers formed by extruding and drying flour, it could be defined as pasta, breaking the previous record for the thinnest pasta runga by about 1,000 the researchers concluded.

their paper appear in the diary Nanoscale advances.

_____

Beatrice Britton others. Nanopasta: Electrospinning white flour nanofibers. nanoscale advancepublished online October 30, 2024. doi: 10.1039/D4NA00601A

Source: www.sci.news

How can we solve the planet’s plastic pollution crisis?

Posted on November 26, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

plastic waste in indonesia

PA Image/Alamy

The world currently generates more than 50 million tonnes of “mismanaged” plastic waste each year, and some researchers predict that this flood of plastic pollution will double by mid-century. But he also said that if countries could agree to adopt four key policies during this period. This number could be reduced by 90 per cent if this week's global plastics deal is negotiated.

Plastic pollution ultimately chokes land and sea ecosystems. “This affects every level of the food chain, from phytoplankton cells to humans,” he says. Sarah-Jeanne Royer at the University of California, San Diego. Plastics also account for about 5% of greenhouse gas emissions.

That's why most of the world's countries are meeting this week in Busan, South Korea, to hammer out the final details of a global treaty to end plastic pollution. By 2022, 175 countries have already agreed to adopt a legally binding treaty For the past two years, we have been debating what exactly we should require, with particular disagreements over setting limits on production of new plastics.

To make the discussion more clear, douglas mcquarley The researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara, used an artificial intelligence model trained on economic data to test how the policies they were considering would affect global plastic pollution. “I wasn't sure that [eliminating plastic pollution] It was actually possible,” McCauley said. “But it turns out we can get pretty close.”

They predict that under current conditions, plastic pollution is expected to almost double by 2050, reaching between 100 million and 139 million tonnes. However, all four policy combinations are still on the bill. Current draft treatywas sufficient to reduce this by over 90%.

The most influential of these was the mandate that plastic products contain at least 40% recycled material. This rule alone will cut plastic pollution in half by mid-century. Mr McCauley said this effect was significant because it would reduce demand for newly made or “virgin” plastics, while also stimulating demand for recycled materials. “Suddenly, there was a huge global recycling market.”

But recycling alone wasn't enough. “If our goal is to eliminate plastic pollution, we need to address it throughout its lifecycle,” he says. Further reductions would have required limiting virgin plastic production to 2020 levels. According to the model, this production cap would have reduced plastic pollution by about 60 million tons per year by mid-century. This change also had the biggest impact on greenhouse gas emissions from plastic production, as the extraction of fossil fuels and conversion into virgin plastics involves processes with large emissions.

A third policy would spend $50 billion on waste management, roughly equal to the production cap, especially if these funds go to low-income countries with poor infrastructure and where plastic pollution is most severe. reduced pollution. “When we start talking about global finance, [the amount of money needed] It’s not that big,” McCauley said. “Building a sanitary landfill is different from building a port.”

Plastic waste is increasing, and while some is recycled or destroyed, the majority is “mismanaged” and piles up as plastic pollution.

A. Samuel Pottinger et al.

Finally, a small tax on plastic packaging has reduced pollution by tens of millions of tons. The researchers based this estimate on case studies of how people reduced their plastic use in response to similar taxes. 5 cents fee Regarding disposable plastic bags in Washington DC. Funds raised through such taxes could also be used to pay for other changes, such as building waste management infrastructure or improving recycling systems.

Royer, who was not involved in the study, said he thinks all of these policies will help. Reducing the use of single-use plastics, such as shopping bags and plastic forks, through taxes or bans could also make a difference, she says. “If you look at plastic pollution in general, 40% of the plastic produced is single-use.”

However, she points out that local rules alone will never solve the problem. California, for example, banned some single-use plastic bags a decade ago and this year banned all such bags. But most of the plastic pollution that washes up on our shores comes from outside the state, with California's plastic waste typically washing ashore from Asia across the Pacific or being left behind by fishing. “There are no borders,” Royer says.

This is where the World Treaty comes into play. Researchers explore how different policies around the world can reduce three things: the amount of poorly managed plastic waste, the production of new plastics, and plastic-related greenhouse gas emissions. I showed you. By combining the four key policies seen in the graph below, all three measures reduced, specifically mismanaged waste, by 91%.

Researchers estimated the impact of different policies to reduce plastic

Source: www.newscientist.com

Posted in Science | Tagged crisis, planets, plastic, pollution, solve | Leave a reply

Webb Reveals a Fresh Perspective on the Sombrero Galaxy

Posted on November 26, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

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**sharp resolution Web’s mid-infrared device (MIRI) focuses on details of the outer ring of the Sombrero Galaxy, providing insight into how dust is distributed.**

This web image shows the Sombrero Galaxy. Image credit: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI.

The Sombrero Galaxy is located approximately 28 million light-years away in the constellation Virgo.

This spiral galaxy, also known as Messier 104, M104, or NGC 4594, was discovered by French astronomer Pierre Méchain on May 11, 1781.

It is about 49,000 light-years in diameter, about one-third the size of our Milky Way galaxy.

The Sombrero galaxy has a very large central bulge and a supermassive black hole.

We are looking directly at the galaxy, at an angle of 6 degrees south of its face. Its dark dusty path dominates the view.

“The clumpy nature of the dust, in which MIRI detects carbon-containing molecules called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, may indicate the presence of young star-forming regions,” Webb astronomers said in a statement.

“But unlike some of the galaxies studied with Webb, such as Messier 82, which has 10 times as many stars as the Milky Way, the Sombrero galaxy is not a special hotbed of star formation.”

“The Sombrero ring produces less than 1 solar mass per year of stars, compared to about 2 solar masses per year for the Milky Way.”

“The supermassive black hole at the center of the Sombrero galaxy, also known as an active galactic nucleus (AGN), is fairly docile, even at a massive 9 billion solar masses,” the researchers noted.

“Classified as a low-luminosity AGN, it slowly chews up material falling from the galaxy while emitting bright and relatively small jets.”

“Also, there are about 2,000 globular clusters within the Sombrero galaxy, which are collections of hundreds of thousands of old stars held together by gravity,” the researchers said.

“This type of system acts as a pseudo-laboratory for astronomers to study stars. There are thousands of stars in one system of the same age but with different masses and other properties, making it difficult to compare It’s an interesting opportunity for research.”

“In the MIRI images, galaxies of different shapes and colors are scattered across the cosmic background.”

“The different colors of these background galaxies can tell astronomers about their properties, such as their distance.”

Source: www.sci.news

Posted in Science | Tagged fresh, galaxy, perspective, reveals, Sombrero, Webb | Leave a reply

Japanese researchers discover a new species of pterosaur

Posted on November 26, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

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**Paleontologists have announced the discovery of a new species of Quetzalcotorin azhdarchopterosaur. *Nippotherus mifunensis* from the Late Cretaceous of Japan.**

Restoration of life in the giant azhdarchid group, *Quetzalcoatlus nothropi* foraging in the Cretaceous fern steppe. Image credit: Mark Witton / Darren Naish.

Pterosaurs were highly successful flying reptiles (not dinosaurs, as is commonly misunderstood) that lived between 210 and 65 million years ago.

They were the first flying vertebrates on Earth, with birds and bats appearing much later.

Some pterosaurs, like the giant azhdarchids, were the largest flying animals in history, with wingspans exceeding 9 meters (30 feet) and a standing height comparable to modern giraffes.

“Pterosaurs, the earliest vertebrate group to achieve powered flight, exhibit remarkable morphological diversity, with a fossil record that spans from the Late Triassic to the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary. '' said Dr. Naoki Ikegami of the Mifune Dinosaur Museum and Dr. Naoki Ikegami of the University of São Paulo. Rodrigo Pegas and his friends.

“The pterosaur skeleton's fragile air bones make its fossil record particularly irregular and uneven.”

“Most well-preserved, relatively complete archaeological sites are confined to a few Lagerstätten around the world. In contrast, most other deposits that yield pterosaurs are typically fragments. generate a typical sample.

“For one thing, there are very few records of pterosaurs in Japan, so every artifact has special significance.”

“The first pterosaur specimen discovered in Japan came from the Ezo Group in Hokkaido, and is representative of an indeterminate pterosaur species consisting of a femur, metatarsals, foot phalanges, and part of the caudal vertebrae. It is.”

6th cervical vertebra *Nippoterus mifunensis*. Image credit: Zhou *others*., doi: 10.1016/j.cretres.2024.106046.

The newly identified species is Quetzalcoatrinae a subfamily of the pterosaur family Azhdarchidae.

“Azhdarchids represent a very special clade of pterosaurs, particularly notorious for containing some of the largest flying creatures in history, with wingspans of 10 to 11 meters (33 to 36 feet).” *Quetzalcoatlus nothropi*, *aramburgiania philadelphia* and *Hatzegopteryx tanbema*'' said the paleontologists.

“The azhdarchid clade, most prominently characterized by elongated cervical vertebrae with reduced neural spines, is widely distributed in Turonian to Maastrichtian pterosaur communities around the world.”

“They represent the most diverse and widespread group of pterosaurs during the Late Cretaceous.”

named *Nippoterus mifunensis* the new species lived in what is now Japan about 90 million years ago (late Cretaceous period).

“*Nippoterus mifunensis* “This is the first nominally Japanese pterosaur species,” the researchers said.

“This new species exhibits many Quetzalcoat line characteristics and bears a striking resemblance to the unnamed Burcant azhdarchid of Mongolia's Turonian-Coniacian.”

Part of the 6th cervical vertebra *Nippotherus mifunensis* It was produced from an outcrop of the Mifune Group near Amagi Dam in Mifune Town, Kumamoto Prefecture, Kyushu.

“The specimen was found in a 30-centimeter (12-inch) thick layer of coarse lenticular sandstone, nestled between two tuff layers, in the middle of the upper formation of the Mifune Group,” the scientists said. said.

their paper Published in this month's magazine *Cretaceous research*.

_____

Zhou Xuanyu *others*. Re-evaluation of azhdarchoid pterosaur specimens from the Mifune Group, Late Cretaceous of Japan. *Cretaceous research*published online on November 16, 2024. doi: 10.1016/j.cretres.2024.106046

Source: www.sci.news

Posted in Science | Tagged discover, japanese, pterosaur, researchers, species | Leave a reply

Maximizing Efficiency: Design Tips from Side Job Experts for Success

Posted on November 25, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

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In today’s world, side jobs have become a central part of many people’s lives. Nearly 50% of British individuals are engaging in side hustles. Nine out of 10 individuals under the age of 34 who have a side hustle plan to turn it into a full-time business. Balancing a side hustle along with a full-time job can be challenging, even for the most skilled multitaskers. Here are some tips for managing multiple gigs without disrupting your work environment.

**Separate and Support Each Other**
View your day job as a source of motivation and insight rather than a hindrance to your side hustle. This approach can make your life more coherent and less draining.

Surprisingly, finding inspiration in both roles can help you focus better on each gig.

Reshmi Bennett, an award-winning chef from Surrey, runs a bakery called Anges de Sucre alongside publishing a recipe book for children to promote creativity in the kitchen. Bennett’s bakery has been thriving since its establishment in 2011, and she successfully manages both ventures, especially during the pandemic. Bennett shared, “During the lockdown, I had some free time, so I started writing a novel and selling it on Amazon.”

“Balancing the two roles can be challenging, so I try to organize my schedule as efficiently as possible. When I’m at my day job, I focus on fulfilling bakery orders and meeting customer needs. I pour all my energy into this. I also try to apply the skills and experiences I gain at the bakery, like recipe testing, to my side hustle. This way, I can continue managing both roles at a realistic pace.”

**Work Smarter**
Emma Thomson, hailing from Romford, Essex, founded a jewelry business while working as a medical secretary for the NHS. Thomson juggled both roles during her lunch breaks for six years before transitioning to full-time entrepreneurship. She shared, “I unintentionally started this business. It began as a coping mechanism for my anxiety and depression, and gradually, people started asking where they could purchase my jewelry.”

jeweler emma thomson

Her top advice? “Optimize the time you spend in your main job as much as possible. I worked 10 hours a day for 3 days straight at my NHS job instead of the standard 8-hour day. Although it was long, I had four full days to focus on my business and take a day off if needed. This significantly reduced fatigue and stress. Additionally, scheduling and automating social media content proved to be beneficial, as I didn’t have to personally oversee much of my social media presence.”

**Enhance Your Visual Identity**
Develop a strong visual identity for both your day job and side hustle. Whether presenting internally to your team or creating social media content for your side gig, leveraging your design skills and adaptability can strengthen your personal brand. Improved design skills can benefit you in both roles and help you excel at both. Consider using apps like Adobe Express for creating high-quality content effortlessly.

Candace Mason runs an herbal tea business for women.

**Outsource Whenever Possible**
Successfully managing a family bus and coach company alongside a women’s herbal tea business requires a diverse set of skills. Candace Mason from Tring, Hertfordshire, emphasizes the importance of good organization. She runs two very distinct and separate businesses, managing her life effectively using online tools like Trello for project management. Having a streamlined calendar and booking system is crucial for efficient operation. Mason acknowledges the value of outsourcing tasks like bookkeeping, recognizing the importance of accepting that one person cannot do everything.

**Stick to Your Schedule Strictly**
Leanne Alston of Bradford, West Yorkshire, owns a private hotel while working full-time as a mental health team manager in the NHS. Alston attributes her success to strict scheduling in all areas of her life. “I create a weekly schedule, detailing my 9-to-5 job requirements and sleep routine. I then allocate time for meeting private clients, organizing social media, exercising, socializing, and personal projects. Some days require specific planning, while others are more relaxed, but having a written schedule eliminates mental clutter and provides visual clarity. Prioritizing health is crucial; neither your day job nor side hustle can thrive if your well-being is neglected.”

Psychotherapist Leanne Alston

“I meticulously plan my week to accommodate my 9-to-5 responsibilities, sleep, and personal activities, including meetings with clients, social media management, exercise, and socializing. Some days require specific planning, while others are more relaxed. Having everything written down eliminates mental clutter and provides visual clarity, making it easier to follow through on tasks. One important suggestion is to prioritize your health, as neither your day job nor side project will thrive if your well-being is neglected.”

**Stay True to Yourself**
We often hear about bringing our “authentic selves” to work. While the wisdom of this approach is debatable, aligning your personal and professional personas can simplify your life, especially if you have a side hustle. This consistency reduces the energy spent on adapting between roles and opens up opportunities for cross-pollination.

Charlotte Walsh started a reusable straw business

**Try Time Chunking**
Charlotte Walsh, an engineer from North Yorkshire, founded a silicone straw company to address the challenge of finding high-quality, reusable straws for her children. Walsh shared, “I launched the business in 2019 and now work full-time, handling everything from order dispatch to securing compliance for high street retail partners. By segmenting tasks into chunks through time chunking, you can prioritize urgent tasks and make significant daily progress without distractions from emails or new requests.”

**Be Punctual**
Lastly, never compromise on punctuality, even if you’re working late nights. Losing your professionalism can lead to a loss of trust, which may require even more time and effort to regain.

**Click here to learn more about Adobe Express.**

Source: www.theguardian.com

Posted in Technology | Tagged design, efficiency, elevate, experts, job, Maximizing, side, strong, success, Tips, work | Leave a reply

Disputed COP29 deal highlights deteriorating climate cooperation

Posted on November 25, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

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When COP29 President Mukhtar Babayev stepped up to the podium on Sunday morning at the closing session of the Baku Climate Summit, he had two speeches ready. According to sources who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity, one speech was prepared in anticipation of a much-anticipated deal, while the other was prepared in case of a deadlock after the summit collapsed. It was seen as a contingency plan.

An official from the COP29 Presidency revealed that negotiations were tough until the last minute to secure the Baku breakthrough, but they were still preparing for various outcomes. The final speech was being crafted to address different possibilities.

Ultimately, without giving his detractors a chance to react, Babayev succeeded in pushing through a $300 billion funding plan to assist developing countries in handling the escalating costs of global warming over the next decade, earning praise for his efforts.

He lauded the agreement as a significant achievement and criticized skeptics, labeling them as “wrong,” along with many individuals targeted by the climate deal accused of being grossly inadequate.

The audience was already aware that Babayev was preparing for a mixed outcome at the divisive Baku summit, signaling that negotiations were unlikely to proceed smoothly.

Concerns about the imminent withdrawal of the United States from global climate cooperation, geopolitical tensions, and the surge of isolationist politics that have sidelined climate change in many nations’ priorities had lowered expectations for the deal.

An activist holds up a globe balloon during a protest at the United Nations Climate Change Conference COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, on November 21.
Maxim Shemetov/Reuters

Potential obstacles loomed large over Baku. The coming months will continue to cast a shadow over global efforts to address climate change as Brazil gears up to host a major conference next year in the Amazon rainforest city of Belem. The world will then embark on a multi-year plan for deeper emissions cuts and building climate resilience.

Trump Effect

One major factor clouding the negotiations in Baku was the impending return of Donald Trump as the President of the United States, the world’s largest economy, historically the largest emitter of greenhouse gases, and a significant producer of oil and gas, who has been a climate change skeptic.

President Trump, due to take office again in January, had vowed to withdraw the US from the global Paris climate accord, repeating his stance from his previous term and dismissing climate change as a hoax.

Negotiators at the Baku conference noted that while the US delegation contributed to developing a climate finance agreement, the country was unable to play the high-profile leadership role seen in previous climate summits. Doubts persisted about the administration’s commitment to honoring the agreement.

“As far as the United States is concerned, the voters have spoken, and that’s where we stand. We are unsure of their intentions,” stated South Africa’s Environment Minister Dion George.

US officials attending COP29 tried to assure global partners that even if President Trump withdraws from the international process, market forces, federal subsidies, and state mandates will continue driving the deployment of renewable energy.

Furthermore, conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East diverted global attention towards security and energy availability, compelling many governments to tighten their budgets, making it challenging to secure larger climate finance amounts, noted observers.

“Given the current political climate, maintaining climate finance at its current level is an uphill battle,” remarked Joe Thwaites, a senior adviser at the Natural Resources Defense Council.

The pledged $300 billion annually by 2035 would theoretically triple the previous commitments of rich countries to provide $100 billion by 2020. Rich countries’ reluctance to offer further funding and the pressure to reach agreements amidst political turmoil disappointed least developed countries and small island states left out of negotiations at the Baku conference.

At one point during the summit’s final stages, the negotiating bloc representing these nations staged a walkout in protest, leading to a delay in reaching an agreement.

Representatives from Marshall Islands and India voiced their dissatisfaction with the climate finance deal, highlighting the reluctance of developed countries to fulfill their responsibilities, setting the stage for challenges at COP30 in Brazil.

“This could prove contentious in Belém. Brazil must find a way to rebuild trust,” remarked Oscar Soria, head of the Common Initiative focused on global financial reform.

Source: www.nbcnews.com

Posted in Science | Tagged climate, cooperation, COP29, Deal, deteriorating, disputed, highlights | Leave a reply

The complexity of Viking expansion into the North Atlantic was underestimated.

Posted on November 25, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

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Vikings played a prominent role among the peoples of the North Atlantic, and the populations founded by them might be expected to be genetically similar and homogeneous. New research suggests that the Icelandic and Faroese people had distinctly different founding fathers. This result is consistent with a scenario in which the male population of the Faroe Islands was formed by a more diverse population from the more diverse Scandinavian population than from neighboring Icelanders. Furthermore, this study conclusively shows that there is no evidence of post-founder admixture between the Faroese and Icelandic gene pools.

The Faroe Islands consist of an archipelago of 18 small islands located in the North Atlantic Ocean between southern Norway, Iceland, and Scotland. As a result of their demographic history and relative geographical isolation, the Faroe Islands, like other North Atlantic island populations, are genetically homogeneous compared to mainland populations. Historical and archaeological sources report that the Faroe Islands were settled around 800 AD by Vikings, primarily from western Norway. However, increasing evidence suggests that these islands were settled earlier, perhaps by Celtic monks or other people from the British Isles. Carbon dating of peat moss and barley grain supports two pre-Viking periods of settlement, approximately 300-500 AD and 500-700 AD. More recently, scientists detected sheep DNA in archaeological deposits from 500 AD, and based on modern whole-genome data, the original founding of the Faroe Islands occurred between 50 and 300 AD. estimated that it may have been two to three centuries earlier than previously thought. Based solely on archaeological findings. Image credit: Oscar CR

From the 8th century to about 1050 AD, Vikings roamed the Atlantic in longships all the way to Newfoundland, Labrador, and Greenland, as well as exploring the Mediterranean and Eurasia.

Among the places they are known to have settled are the Faroe Islands, an archipelago of 18 islands in the North Atlantic Ocean.

They probably weren’t the first. Archaeologists have found evidence that these islands have been inhabited since about 300 AD, perhaps by Celtic monks or other people from the British Isles.

However, according to *Fairinga Saga*written around 1200, a Viking chieftain called Grimur Kamban settled in the Faroe Islands between about 872 and 930 AD. But where in Scandinavia did Grimur and his followers come from?

“We have strong evidence here that the Faroe Islands were colonized by a diverse group of male settlers from multiple Scandinavian populations,” said University of Louisville researcher Dr. Christopher Tillquist. .

In this study, Dr. Tillquist and his colleagues genotyped 12 “short tandem repeat” (STR) loci on the Y chromosome of 139 men from the Faroese islands of Bordoloi, Streymoy, and Suzloj.

They assigned each man to the most likely haplogroup. Each haplogroup has a different known distribution across Europe today.

They compared the genotype distribution to that found in 412 men from Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, and Ireland.

This allowed the team to reconstruct the source population of the founders of the Viking population.

Advanced analysis showed that the Faroe Islands sample range was similar to the broader Scandinavian genotype range, whereas the Icelandic genotypes were different.

The authors also developed a powerful and innovative genetic method called “variational distance from modal haplotype” to analyze SNP (single nucleotide polymorphism) variation within STRs.

This has led to the “founder effect” (vestiges of random loss of diversity during historical colonization by a small number of people) that remains in the genetic composition of male populations in the Faroe Islands and Iceland today. was able to clarify.

“Scientists have long thought that the Faroe Islands and Iceland were settled by similar Nordic peoples,” Dr Tillquist says.

“However, our new analysis showed that these islands were founded by people belonging to different gene pools within Scandinavia.”

“One group of diverse Scandinavian origins settled in the Faroe Islands, while a more genetically distinct group of Vikings colonized Iceland. They had separate genetic characteristics that continue to this day. Masu.”

“Despite their geographic proximity, there appears to have been no subsequent interbreeding between these two populations.”

“Our findings show that Viking expansion into the North Atlantic was more complex than previously thought.”

“Each longship that sailed to these distant islands carried a different genetic heritage, and not just Vikings.”

“We can now trace the separate journeys of conquest and settlement, revealing a more nuanced story of Viking exploration than is told in history books.”

of findings appear in the diary *frontiers of genetics*.

_____

Alison E. Mann *others*. 2024. Genetic evidence points to distinct patrilineal colonization of the Faroe Islands and Iceland. *front. Genet* 15;doi: 10.3389/fgene.2024.1462736

Source: www.sci.news

Posted in Science | Tagged atlantic, complexity, Expansion, north, underestimated, viking | Leave a reply

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