Do I truly need to save all of my text and photos? | In reality

Posted on July 29, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

a A few years ago, I encountered an unexpected problem: New York City had very few reliable phone repair shops, and even fewer that would repair a 2010 BlackBerry. No one seemed to understand my situation. Get your broken cell phone working again. It held text messages from my high school days. It was a significant part of my life.

For a brief moment, my BlackBerry actually turned on. I scrolled through my long-lost inbox, hoping to find some forgotten treasure: a written account of teenage heartbreak, memories of excitement, or moments shared with friends. However, my search yielded little. Most were emails about schoolwork.

I could never manage to get the device working again. This felt like a crisis, even if it was a personal and self-centered one. It felt tragic that all these materials — records of my feelings, communication, and my friends’ conversations during my teenage years — were stuck in a broken device.

Over time, the sadness faded, but my digital footprint continued to expand. Each day, I come across more content that I’ll want to revisit in the future: Numerous text messages. An average of 75 exchanges per day — Photos, videos, emails, social media likes, metadata from countless Google searches, group chat memes, “be there in 5 minutes” texts, my last message from my grandmother, and the complete story of a now-ended long-distance relationship.

I learned from my BlackBerry mishap. Instead of relying on a device destined to become outdated, I now invest in a cloud service that stores everything in a vast, overwhelming digital repository. For just $2.99 a month, I have over 200GB of digital storage, including 16,000 photos, eight years’ worth of Gmail, and 44GB of iMessages exchanged since I set my iPhone to “Don’t Delete” in 2017.

In the physical world, I lack the impulse to regularly discard old, irrelevant items without much consideration. However, I am sentimental and tend to engage in what experts label as “digital hoarding” — accumulating excessive digital content that leads to stress and anxiety.

Even with a more moderate approach, one’s digital footprint remains vast, dispersed, disorganized, and controlled by technology companies at their discretion. Experts reveal that each individual generates about 8MB to 2MB of data traveling online daily, a significant surge from 2MB ten years ago. The average American possesses about 500GB of storage, which includes social media usage, and this figure continues to grow amid escalating data demands. 328.77 million terabytes of new data are generated daily.

Our digital storage capacities are expanding, becoming more costly, and having a detrimental impact on the environment. The internet and digital industry’s annual emissions are equivalent to those of the aviation industry. Entering Cloud Storage Hell and facing storage limitations, there is a growing need for Data Storage Experts and financially struggling journalists to engage in Digital spring cleaning — eliminating duplicate photos as you would declutter old wardrobe items.

For many, including myself, the link between mobile phones and the cloud remains unclear and under-researched. Dr. Liz Silens, a psychology professor at Northumbria University and one of the few researchers to delve into this subject, discovered through Personal Digital Data Storage that most individuals don’t know where to begin with their data. “Is it genuinely mine? Is it stored in the cloud? Even if I delete content from my device, does it persist? Do I require additional backups if I can’t trust them? This exacerbates the data issue,” she remarked.

The topic of data makes me anxious as well because I’m not well-versed in technology and lack organizational skills. Data storage, like money, isn’t something I enjoy contemplating. If it’s accessible and usable, that suffices. Periodically, I attempt to transfer my data from the cloud in a casual, DIY manner, such as copying and pasting all my Facebook messages with my best friend at 16 into a Word document. I quickly become overwhelmed by technical terminology and multi-step processes recommended in various Reddit threads populated by individuals, like me, who fear losing themselves and remnants of their past. Digital Legacy of a Loved One.

One holiday season, my sister gifted me a subscription to iMazing, a service that backs up your iPhone and converts your iMessages into easily readable PDFs. However, after numerous failed attempts and frustration due to inadequate storage space on my 2017 MacBook, I abandoned the endeavor. For months, I manually removed photos from texts to address the memory shortage on my phone. Subsequently, rather than risking unintentional deletion from the cloud, I opted to purchase a new phone.

Archivist Margot Note highlighted a growing trend of private clients seeking to preserve caches of digital treasures, particularly text messages documenting “everyday history and significant moments.” Analogous to physical letters, they reveal the evolution of relationships over time, she mentioned.

The desire to safeguard such content stems from curiosity: What conversations did my best friend and I have in 2018, fresh out of college, full of vigor, and continents apart? How did my former partner indicate our relationship exceeded friendship? When did our bond begin to unravel?

The predominant emotion driving this preservation effort is anxiety. Losing these emails would mean forfeiting evidence of myself and my connections. It would signify losing one of the few constants after a loved one’s passing: their voice, its evolution over time, and their unique tone addressing me. Reflecting on her diary in Ongoingness, writer Sarah Manguso articulated the wish to shield “against awakening at the end of one’s life and realizing you’ve missed it.”

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“Just the thought of data triggers anxiety because of its enigmatic nature. It can be overwhelming,” Silens remarked. “Anxiety serves as a significant barrier to addressing the reorganization and management of one’s digital information.”

Engagement with social media introduces its own set of risks. In her book The End of Forgetting: Growing Up with Social Media, cultural and media scholar Kate Eichhorn contends that the internet’s ability to swiftly transport us back in time undermines our capacity to develop adult identities, evolve, and mature. “There’s a risk in the fact that anything can resurface in your life,” she noted. “We haven’t fully grasped the psychological repercussions of that yet.”

Whenever I delve into my 44GB repository of texts, I emerge feeling overwhelmed by information, nostalgic for the past, and acutely aware of the relentless march of time. Memory’s fallibility becomes apparent, as the records don’t always align with my idealized view of history. These texts aren’t my memories but fragments of experiences frozen in time. What’s the harm in forgetting? What do we truly gain from revisiting the past?

Both Eichhorn and Silens question the necessity of retaining such copious digital content. Eichhorn highlights the incessant accumulation of data. “Is this an archive? Or is it simply another form of clandestine, socially acceptable storage?” Silens proposes that tidying up the cloud could evolve into a routine, akin to filing taxes: “Review your day’s photos and only delete those you know won’t be needed in the future.”

I appreciate the notion of being more discerning. We can begin to be deliberate about our digital archives. We can organize and discard unnecessary items. Apps like “Second Brain App” serve as external memory for various content, from text to tasks. Note, the archivist, reassured me that my struggle to organize my digital repository isn’t foolish. There currently isn’t an optimal solution. While institutions possess robust preservation mechanisms, “it requires significant effort and resources,” she noted. “This hasn’t trickled down to personal digital archives yet. It’s likely to happen eventually, but the necessary solutions remain largely unknown to the public.”

Hence, I’ll likely procrastinate until my cloud storage reaches capacity before making a decision. At that point, I’ll likely purchase additional storage. My cloud storage operates quietly in the background, easy to delay, always present but forgotten. Similar to the old BlackBerry tucked away in a desk drawer, never to be used again but comforting in its mere existence.

Source: www.theguardian.com

A Virtual Assistant Revolutionizing Cancer Research Through Interactivity

Posted on July 29, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Imagine asking your virtual assistant, “Hey Google/Alexa, tell me the lyrics to ‘Beautiful People’ by Ed Sheeran.” Voice User Interface You could possibly receive the information you need within seconds. Cancer doctors and researchers face the challenge of exploring and interpreting cancer genomic data, which resembles a huge library with billions of pieces in different categories. What if you had an Alexa-like tool that could answer questions about the data within seconds?

Traditionally, researchers have used computer programming and interactive websites with point-and-click capabilities to analyze cancer genomic data. Researchers agree that these methods are not only time-consuming, but also often require advanced technical knowledge that not all clinicians and researchers possess. Scientists from Singapore and the United States have collaborated to develop a conversational virtual assistant to navigate the vast library of cancer genomes. They named this assistant Melvin. Their goal was to make relevant information quickly available to all users, regardless of technical expertise.

The scientists described Melvin as a software tool that allows users to interact with cancer genomic data through simple conversations with Amazon Alexa. It incorporates familiar Alexa features, such as the ability to understand and speak everyday English and the ability for researchers to initiate a conversation by saying the name “Alexa.” Additionally, the scientists incorporated a knowledge base containing genomic data for 33 types of cancer from a global cancer database. The Cancer Genome AtlasIt contains a variety of data, including gene expression data, mutations known to increase the risk of developing cancer, etc. It also incorporates secondary information from each database, such as the definition and location of human genes, protein information, and anti-cancer drug efficacy records, to help users effectively interpret the results.

The scientists collected nearly 24,000 pronunciation samples for cancer genes, cancer types, mutations, types of genomic data, and synonyms of all terms in these categories from nine cancer experts at the Cancer Science Institute of Singapore. These experts were from Singapore, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, the United States, and India, which was needed to increase the diversity of Melvin’s accents. The scientists said that due to the lengthy data collection time, the pronunciations did not cover all known cancer genes and traits.

The scientists explained that a voice user interface works well if it correctly hears and understands the user, including the context of the conversation. Because cancer terms differ from regular English vocabulary, the researchers trained Melvin to learn cancer vocabulary using a machine learning process that gives meaning to previously unknown words. Out-of-Vocabulary Mapper Service Design.

Additionally, the researchers developed a web portal where users can submit pronunciations of certain cancer features that Melvin may not initially recognize. This will allow Melvin to know what the user means when he hears those words. To address users’ potential security concerns about the recordings, the researchers noted that users can avoid data storage by deleting the recordings by following the instructions in their Amazon Alexa account. The researchers discussed opportunities to expand Melvin’s capabilities through crowdsourcing for pronunciation improvements. The researchers hope that these pronunciations will provide more data to match regional and national accents so that Melvin can understand and speak.

The scientists say Melvin will work with any device that supports Alexa and will be able to ” Gene Name” and “What percentage of lung cancer patients have a mutation in that gene?” Melvin reported that within seconds it processes these questions and returns responses in audio and visual form.

They also reported being able to ask follow-up questions based on previous conversations. They described the difficulty of getting valuable information from a single question and highlighted the value of Melvin’s ability to maintain context through incremental questioning. The scientists asserted that this design makes it easy for users to explore multiple relevant questions in a single conversation. They also demonstrated that Melvin performs advanced analytical tasks, such as comparing mutations of specific genes across different cancer types and analyzing how gene expression changes.

The scientists concluded that MELVIN can accelerate scientific discoveries in cancer research and help translate research results into solutions that clinicians can apply to patients. They acknowledged that while MELVIN’s framework is currently centered on cancer genes, it can be expanded to support more characteristics of cancer. The team plans to enhance MELVIN by adding more valuable datasets and features based on user feedback..

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Source: sciworthy.com

Windmills are surprisingly charming: Building Relationships, a dating simulation game for PC

Posted on July 29, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

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Navigating the challenges of modern dating can be overwhelming for single individuals. The uncertainties of how much you have in common with a stranger, whether you share similar values, and if you can open up to them loom large. Game developer Tanat Boozayaangool delves into these questions in Building Relationships, posing an additional intriguing query: What if you were a home?

The title of this dating adventure game is meant to be taken literally. In Building Relationships, players assume the role of the newest bachelorette residing on an island where love could blossom. The primary objective is to build relationships with other island dwellers, including a charismatic tent, a lackluster houseboat, and a flirtatious windmill named Millie. According to Boozayaangool, Millie tends to be a bit forward, catching some off guard.

Inspired by the eccentric pigeon dating sim “Hatoful Boyfriend” from 2011, “Building Relationships” promises a dating parody infused with personal narratives and surrealism. The game unfolds through various dates that lead to intertwined storylines on the island, where players ultimately decide whom to share a picnic with.

In addition to engaging with the island’s inhabitants through their unique personalities, players can freely explore the environment. Along the way, they encounter talking treasure chests that enhance mobility and fishing spots where they unearth humorous “carp” (referred to as cars in jest). Boozayaangool aimed to infuse the gameplay with a sense of playful exploration in a compact open-world setting, drawing inspiration from the emotive indie gem “A Short Hike”.

The gritty, low-poly art style of the island adventure pays tribute to the origins of Building Relationships as a college game jam creation. The scenery is adorned with cylindrical trees and jagged rocks cloaked in low-res textures, delivering a nostalgic visual style that complements the contemplative ambiance.

Despite the game’s uplifting visual appeal and its inclusion in June’s Wholesome Games Direct, a celebration of non-violent indie gaming, Boozayaangool refrains from labeling it solely as a feel-good experience. Reflecting on the personal themes embedded in the narrative, they acknowledge the underlying emotional challenges of building relationships: “For a seemingly lighthearted game, there’s unexpected depth waiting to be uncovered.”

Without divulging too much, Boozayaangool encourages players to brace themselves for the emotional complexities inherent in the dating journey depicted in the game: “Despite its whimsical facade, there’s a surprising amount of substance to explore.”

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Source: www.theguardian.com

Hollywood video game actors reach breaking point and go on strike in protest: Games

Posted on July 29, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Hollywood video game performers have voted to go on strike, bringing parts of the entertainment industry back into strike action after new contract negotiations with major game studios collapsed over protections for artificial intelligence.

The walkout, the second by video game voice and motion-capture performers affiliated with the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Entertainers (Sag-Aftra), is set to begin on Friday at 12:01 a.m. This move comes after almost two years of negotiations over a new interactive media contract with gaming giants like Activision, Warner Bros., and divisions of The Walt Disney Co.

SAG-AFTRA negotiators state that while video game contracts cover wages and job security, studios are not willing to agree to regulate generative AI. Without safeguards, game companies could train AI to mimic actors’ voices or create digital replicas of their likenesses without their consent or fair compensation, as per the union.

In a prepared statement, union president Fran Drescher mentioned that members will not accept contracts that permit companies to misuse AI.

Company representatives did not immediately respond to email requests for comment.

According to game market forecasters, the global video game industry generates over $100 billion in revenue annually. New Zoo Sag-Aftola emphasized that the individuals who design and bring these games to life are what drives their success.

“Eighteen months of negotiations have shown that our employers are not interested in fair and reasonable AI protections, but rather in exploitative behavior,” stated Sarah Elmaleh, chair of the Interactive Media Agreement Negotiating Committee.

Last month, a union negotiator informed The Associated Press that game studios had declined to provide the same level of protection from AI risks for all members, especially motion picture performers.

Last year, union members overwhelmingly voted to authorize leadership to strike. Fears about how studios might utilize AI in a strike were intensified by AI. Last year, labor unions staged a four-month strike in the film and television industry.

The final interactive contract, expiring in November 2022, did not include protections for AI but established a bonus compensation structure for voice actors and performance capture artists following an 11-month strike that commenced in October 2016. This strike marked SAG-AFTRA’s first significant labor dispute since the merger of Hollywood’s two major actors unions in 2012.

According to the union, the video game contract covers more than 2,500 “off-camera (voice-over) performers, on-camera (motion capture, stunt) performers, stunt coordinators, singers, dancers, puppeteers, and background performers.”

Amidst tense interactive negotiations, SAG-AFTRA entered into a separate deal in February aimed at indie and low-budget video game projects. The Tiered Budget Independent Interactive Media deal consists of some of the AI protections that have been rejected by larger companies in the video game industry.

Source: www.theguardian.com

Why Platform Games Receive the Most Criticism: A Personal Perspective | Games

Posted on July 29, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

TMy wife has only ever enjoyed two video games: Mario Kart, which she has happily followed closely behind her throughout her life as a family, and Crash Bandicoot, of which she was the best player in the world at one point.

She perfected every molecule of a ’90s Clash game, and I’d swear I saw her hit 105% in one of them, but this was the ’90s, so I classify that memory, along with Gary McAllister’s missed penalty kick at Wembley Stadium and the band’s menswear, as a “psychological hallucination.”

I’m not a perfectionist like her, for me platform games are the best video game genre I absolutely hate, like Manic Miner, Plumber, Hedgehog, Mega Man, Aladdin, Earthworm Jim, etc. There are too many frustrations and failures to be worth the reward.

In the late ’90s, I decided I was too old to cry over these games, so I skipped Ratchet & Clank, Jak & Daxter, and Banjo-Kazooie altogether. did I played Super Mario Sunshine in co-op with my daughter, who was 5 at the time. She beat the level and I beat the boss. It was an incredibly fun gaming experience for both of us. Ten years later, I was proud and impressed to watch her coach her younger brother through a killer level of Rayman Legends, where aliens chased her while hopping across platforms too tiny for her father’s naked eye. Clearly, a talent for platforming runs in the family. I just don’t have it.

Rayman Legends is terribly difficult. Photo: Ubisoft

But in 2020’s Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time (the best double entendre of a game title), my wife found her equal: She’s been trying to beat the game for three generations, and is currently just 48% complete after 68 hours of play.

So I thought I’d step in and show her how it’s done.

The game has a retro mode option that takes you back to the original era of gaming, with limited lives and returning you to the start of the level when you die. I chose modern instead. Why in the name of the devil in hell would I want to go back to a time when things were still fun. more difficult? Yes, this is authentically old-fashioned, but so are the mumps, the Global Hypercolor T-shirt and Margaret Thatcher, and I have no desire to resurrect them.

Age doesn’t matter. When I played games in my teens and twenties, they calmed me. When I played games in my thirties and forties, they pissed me off. But now that I’m in my fifties, I’m a total crank. My family won’t ride with me in my Honda Civic because I get so angry at traffic jams, other drivers, dirty roads, useless politicians, shrinkflation, and King Lear-like architecture. But I swear platform games are designed to turn even the happiest of people into obelisks of frustration.

The phasing levels were the most mind-blowing for me. You press a button and blocks appear and disappear. You have to jump into the ether and then press a button to make the next block appear below. Sometimes the block collapses and you have to jump again while remembering to phase in the next block. It feels like walking around with an orange peel in the front pocket of your jeans.

I yell, I scream, I curse, I curse some more, and I do combo curses where the curse words are stacked two or three times. My wife tells me to stop because the neighbors are peeking in from their yard, so I make up a whole new swear word slang, spewing curse words like hunzels, gabbabusts, and primal screams. I immediately hate myself for what I’ve become.

The early boss level, Stage Dive, nearly killed me. You have to jump over and under death-bringers, spin the bad guy around the boss three times, dash forward, climb fading blocks, and keep going until you can hit him. Repeat. Classic frustrating gameplay. But if you persevere, you magically enter an almost zen state of failing and trying again and again, but the early parts are almost soothing in their repetition. It’s like whittling wood. And when you finally beat him? The feeling of reward feels like the last day of school before the holidays.

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“It’s like walking around with an orange peel in your front jeans pocket” – Crash Bandicoot 4 Photo: Activision/Toys for Bob

Maybe that’s the lesson of platform games. teeth Difficult. Fail teeth It’s frustrating, but if you invest the time and keep failing, you will succeed, and the reward will be comforting for future challenges.

Soon I found myself faced with one of the most perfectly crafted levels I’d ever seen in a game. Hook, Line and Sinker features every imaginable platform move in a variety of pirate ships. It’s a reminder that imagination combined with execution is art. Unfortunately, it’s only a fleeting joy in a forest of failure. The game gets harder and harder. I get angrier and angrier.

My wife told me to stop. She thought I was going to have a heart attack. I told her we just had to get through the level. She sat me down and very patiently taught me a jump technique I’d never used on blocks I’d never seen before that unlocked the entire level. She coached me like she did with her kids. I was Luke and she was Yoda.

I completed the level, my wife breathed a sigh of relief and let me climb into my wheelchair and scream into the clouds.

Source: www.theguardian.com

Elon Musk under fire for sharing edited Kamala Harris video and accused of spreading misinformation

Posted on July 29, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Kamala Harris’ campaign has accused Tesla CEO Elon Musk of spreading “manipulated lies” after he shared a fake video of the vice president on his X account.

Musk reposted a video on Friday evening that had been doctored to show Harris saying, “I was selected because I’m the ultimate diversity hire,” along with other controversial statements. The video has garnered 128 million views on Musk’s account. He captioned it with “This is awesome” and a laughing emoji. Musk owns X, which he rebranded from Twitter last year.

Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar criticized Musk for violating platform guidelines on sharing manipulated media. Users are not allowed to share media that may mislead or harm others, although satire is permitted as long as it doesn’t create confusion about its authenticity.

Harris’ campaign responded by stating, “The American people want the real freedom, opportunity, and security that Vice President Harris is providing, not the false, manipulated lies of Elon Musk and Donald Trump.”

The original video was posted by the @MrReaganUSA account, associated with conservative YouTuber Chris Coles, who claimed it was a parody.

However, Musk, a supporter of Donald Trump, did not clarify that the video was satire.

California Governor Gavin Newsom stated that the manipulated video of Harris should be illegal and indicated plans to sign a bill banning such deceptive media, likely referring to a proposed ban on election deepfakes in California.

Musk defended his actions, stating that parody is legal in the USA, and shared the original @MrReaganUSA video.

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An expert on deepfakes commented on the video, highlighting the use of generative AI technology to create convincing fake audio and visuals.

Source: www.theguardian.com

Bitcoin reaches highest value in six weeks following President Trump’s endorsement of cryptocurrency

Posted on July 29, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

After Donald Trump’s statement this past weekend that he would stop targeting the cryptocurrency industry if re-elected, Bitcoin surged to its highest price in over six weeks.

On Monday, the price of the cryptocurrency increased by more than 3%, reaching a peak of around $69,745, marking its highest value since June 12 when it surpassed $69,800.

Trump made supportive remarks at the Bitcoin 2024 convention in Nashville, Tennessee, declaring his intention to make the United States a global leader in cryptocurrency and adopt a more pro-Bitcoin stance compared to his opponent, Sen. Kamala Harris.

The former president assured the Bitcoin community that if he takes office, the current anti-cryptocurrency initiatives by Joe Biden and Kamala Harris would come to an end. He emphasized the importance of embracing cryptocurrency technology to prevent other countries like China from dominating.

Trump also vowed to remove the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on his first day as president, specifically targeting Gary Gensler, who has been critical of cryptocurrencies despite past endorsements.

At the Bitcoin Conference, Trump proposed the creation of a Presidential Cryptocurrency Advisory Council and the establishment of a national Bitcoin reserve using confiscated cryptocurrency held by the U.S. government.

Echoing his support for Bitcoin, Trump advised against selling the cryptocurrency, promising to retain all Bitcoin owned or acquired by the U.S. government if elected.

According to the Financial Times, Harris’ advisors have been reaching out to major crypto companies to mend relations between the Democratic Party and the cryptocurrency industry, including Coinbase, Circle, and Ripple Labs.

Source: www.theguardian.com

New study claims that this diet can reverse biological age in just eight weeks

Posted on July 29, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Increasing plant-based food consumption is known to benefit both health and the environment, yet only a few individuals fully commit to a vegan diet.

However, a recent study suggests that following a vegan diet for just eight weeks could potentially reverse one’s biological age. Researchers discovered that participants who adhered to a vegan diet showed a reduction in their estimated biological age, as indicated by DNA methylation, an epigenetic marker.

Dr. Lucia Aronica, along with other co-authors from BBC Science Focus, explains, “DNA methylation and other epigenetic modifications regulate gene activity and expression.” These modifications change in specific ways as we age, allowing scientists to track and understand the aging process.

The study, as detailed in BMC Medicine, involved 21 adult identical twin pairs, where one twin followed a vegan diet while the other maintained an omnivorous diet for eight weeks. Blood samples were taken before and after the study to measure DNA methylation levels and assess the effects of each diet.

Results demonstrated that only the vegan group showed a slowing of the epigenetic aging clock, with some participants appearing almost one year younger by certain measures. A vegan diet was associated with reduced estimated ages of various organ systems, such as the heart, hormones, liver, and inflammatory and metabolic systems.

The average reduction in biological age for the vegan group was a remarkable 0.63 years. However, researchers caution that these findings should be interpreted carefully due to other factors like weight loss, as participants in the vegan group lost an average of 2 kilograms more than those in the omnivorous group.

Despite the promising outcomes, further research is necessary to understand the long-term effects of a vegan diet on aging and to differentiate between the effects of dietary composition and weight loss.

Experts like Dr. Hou Lifang suggest that additional studies are needed to validate these results, emphasizing the need for caution when drawing broad conclusions. While the study provides valuable insights, more research is required to fully comprehend the impact of a vegan diet on aging.

About our experts

Lucia Aronica focuses on epigenetics and gene-environment interactions in health outcomes. She is currently leading epigenetic analysis in the largest low-carb vs. low-fat diet study for weight loss. Aronica teaches nutritional genomics at Stanford University.

Varun Dwaraka is a bioinformatics researcher specializing in aging, epigenetics, and genetics. He has co-authored various publications on DNA methylation, tissue regeneration, and the epigenetic clock.

Hou Li-Fan, MD, MS, PhD, is a Professor of Preventive Medicine, integrating epidemiology with molecular technologies in disease studies focused on molecular markers and disease prevention.

Source: www.sciencefocus.com

What unfolded after scientists revived an ancient virus from suspended animation?

Posted on July 28, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Permafrost is ground that is always frozen, and the possibility of life existing there is believed to be low. However, in recent years, Scientists have discovered an abundance of microorganisms that are still alive despite being frozen in permafrost.

Various viruses, including one called Pandoravirus, have been found frozen. Researchers have been able to revive a frozen Pandoravirus that only infects amoebas from 30,000-year-old permafrost in Siberia.

More concerning viruses, such as strains of influenza that caused the 1918 pandemic, have also been discovered. The smallpox virus was found in a 300-year-old Siberian mummy, but the virus was no longer infectious as its genome was degraded.

Scientists have found these microorganisms frozen in the permafrost. – Image credit: Getty

Most viruses cannot survive long outside a host, reducing the likelihood of still-infectious human viruses in permafrost. Rather, the discovery of viruses infecting other microbes, like bacteria adapted to extreme environments, is more probable.

Some living bacteria found in permafrost over a million years old can still cause illness. The anthrax outbreak in Siberia in 2016 killed humans and animals, likely due to melting permafrost exposing the bacteria.

Bacillus anthracis is a type of bacteria that can form spores enabling survival in harsh environments. Climate change-induced permafrost melting may lead to ancient microbe outbreaks, but the emergence of new viruses causing global pandemics from permafrost is unlikely.

This article addresses the question of how a virus can survive in ice for many years, posed by Roy Meddings in an email.

If you have any questions, please email us below. For more information:

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For more amazing science, check out this page.

Source: www.sciencefocus.com

My latest iPhone symbolizes stagnation, not progress. Artificial intelligence faces a similar future | John Norton

Posted on July 27, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

I Recently, I bought an iPhone 15 to replace my 5-year-old iPhone 11. The phone has the new A17 Pro chip, a terabyte of data storage, and is accordingly eye-poppingly expensive. Of course, I have carefully considered my reasons for sparing money on such a scale. For example, I have always had a policy of only writing about devices I bought with my own money (no freebies from tech companies). The fancy A17 processor is necessary to run the new “AI” features that Apple promises to launch soon. The phone also has a significantly better camera than my old phone, which is important (to me).
My Substack Blog It comes out three times a week and I post new photos in each issue. Finally, a friend whose old iPhone is nearing the end of its lifespan might be happy to have an iPhone 11 in good condition.

But these are more rationalizations than evidence. In fact, my old iPhone was fine for what it did. Sure, it would eventually need a new battery, but otherwise it lasted for years. And if you look objectively at the evolution of the iPhone line, it’s just been a steady series of incremental improvements since the iPhone 4 in 2010. What was so special about that model? Mainly this.
Front cameraThe iPhone 11 opened up a world of selfies, video chat, social media, and all the other accoutrements of a networked world. But what followed was only incremental change and rising prices.

This doesn’t just apply to the iPhone, but to smartphones in general; manufacturers like Samsung, Huawei, and Google have all followed the same path. The advent of smartphones, which began with the release of the first iPhone in 2007, marked a major break in the evolution of mobile phone technology (just ask Nokia or BlackBerry if you doubt that). A decade of significant growth followed, but the technology (and market) matured and incremental changes became the norm.

Mathematicians have a name for this process: they call it a sigmoid function, and they depict it as an S-shaped curve. If you apply this to consumer electronics, the curve looks like a slightly flattened “S,” with slow progress on the bottom, then a steep upward curve, and finally a flat line on the top. And smartphones are on that part of the curve right now.

If we look at the history of the technology industry over the past 50 years or so, we see a pattern: first there’s a technological breakthrough: silicon chips, the Internet, the Web, mobile phones, cloud computing, smartphones. Each breakthrough is followed by a period of intense development (often accompanied by an investment bubble) that pushes the technology towards the middle of the “S”. Then, eventually, things settle down as the market becomes saturated and it becomes increasingly difficult to fundamentally improve the technology.

You can probably see where this is going.
So-called “AI” Early breakthroughs have already occurred: first, the emergence of “big data” generated by the web, social media and surveillance capitalism, then the rediscovery of powerful algorithms (neural networks), followed in 2017 by the invention of the “Transformer” deep learning architecture, followed by the development of large-scale language models (LLMs) and other generative AI, of which ChatGPT is a prime example.

Now that we’ve passed the period of frenzy of development and huge amounts of corporate investment (with unclear returns on that investment) that has pushed the technology up into the middle of the sigmoid curve, an interesting question arises: how far up the sigmoid curve has the industry climbed, and when will smartphone technology reach the plateau where it is currently stagnating?

In recent weeks, we are starting to see signs that this moment is approaching. The technology is becoming commoditized. AI companies are starting to release smaller and (allegedly) cheaper LLMs. Of course, they won’t admit this, but it’s because the energy costs of the technology are increasing.
Swelling Irrational promotion of the industry
It’s not much talked about among economists. Millions of people have tried ChatGPT and its ilk, but most of them never showed up.
Lasting Interest Nearly every large company on the planet has run an AI “pilot” project or two, but very few have made any real deployments.
Today’s Sensation Is it starting to get boring? In fact, it’s a bit like the latest shiny smartphone.

Source: www.theguardian.com

Here’s why people who stay up late tend to have better cognitive abilities than those who rise early

Posted on July 27, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Struggle to wake up in the morning? Feel more alert as the day goes on? Have more energy in the evenings? You might be an “evening” chronotype, meaning your body clock is most active later in the day.

Scientists have linked being a night owl to negative outcomes like higher chances of depression and displaying Dark Triad personality traits. However, a new British study shows that evening chronotypes may have superior cognitive function compared to morning types.

Respecting your natural body clock, managing light exposure, prioritizing sleep, and using naps wisely can help night owls thrive in a world that often favors early risers.

Honor your chronotype

It’s essential to honor your evening tendencies as they reflect your biological characteristics. Certain genetic factors and age play a role in determining your sleep preferences.

Exposure to light can change your body clock

Getting sunlight in the morning and avoiding it later in the day can help align your body clock. Blue light exposure should also be limited, especially at night, to support healthy sleep patterns.

Make sure you get enough sleep

Respecting your chronotype is crucial for overall health and well-being. Lack of sleep, stress, and a misaligned body clock can lead to various health problems in the long term.

Use naps wisely

Short naps taken in the late morning or early afternoon can improve performance later in the day. The coffee-nap trick, where you drink a cup of coffee before a short nap, can help you wake up feeling refreshed and alert.

By following these strategies, night owls can thrive in a world that often prioritizes morning routines and early risers.

About our experts

Professor Russell Foster is a Director at the Nuffield Institute of Ophthalmology and the Institute of Sleep and Circadian Neuroscience at the University of Oxford.

Professor Martha Mellow is a researcher in molecular chronobiology at the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich.

Source: www.sciencefocus.com

US Justice Department advises court to dismiss TikTok’s appeal

Posted on July 27, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

The Department of Justice has requested an appeals court to dismiss a lawsuit challenging a law that mandates China-based ByteDance to sell TikTok’s U.S. assets by January 19 or risk a ban.

TikTok, along with its parent company ByteDance and a group of TikTok creators, have filed lawsuits to oppose the legislation that could potentially ban the app used by 170 million Americans.

According to a senior Justice Department official, the government will provide classified documents to the court which will outline additional security concerns regarding ByteDance’s ownership of TikTok, along with statements from the FBI, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and the Justice Department’s national security division.

The department is expected to argue that Chinese-owned TikTok poses a significant national security risk to the United States due to its access to vast amounts of personal data on American citizens, enabling China to manipulate information used by Americans through the app covertly.

President Joe Biden signed the law on April 24, giving TikTok and ByteDance until January 19 to separate or face a ban. The White House’s stance is to end Chinese ownership for national security reasons without banning TikTok.

The department clarified that the law is aimed at addressing national security concerns rather than speech issues and intends to address China’s potential misuse of TikTok to access sensitive personal information of Americans. It denies all arguments put forth by TikTok, including claims that the law violates the free speech rights under the First Amendment of Americans using the video app.

The government plans to accuse TikTok of insufficiently safeguarding the data of its U.S. users.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit is set to hear oral arguments on September 16, placing TikTok’s fate in the midst of the final week of the 2024 presidential election.

Despite previously signing an executive order threatening to ban the app, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump stated in an interview in June that he would not support a ban. Additionally, US Vice President Kamala Harris, who is running for president, recently joined TikTok.

The law would prevent app stores like Apple and Google from offering TikTok and prohibit internet hosting services from supporting it unless it is divested by ByteDance.

The bill received strong support from the US Congress amid concerns expressed by lawmakers that China might exploit the app to gain access to Americans’ data for spying purposes.

Reuters

Source: www.theguardian.com

New Luddite movement protests AI as robots lose jobs and films are scrapped – Ed Newton Rex

Posted on July 27, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

pictureEarlier this month, the popular lifestyle magazine introduced its new “Fashion and Lifestyle Editor” to its massive social media following. “Ream”At first glance, Reem appeared to be a woman in her twenties who understood both fashion and lifestyle, and was proudly announced as an “AI-enhanced team member” — that is, a fake persona generated by artificial intelligence. Reem would be recommending products to SheerLuxe's followers — in other words, doing the job that SheerLuxe would normally pay a human to do. The reaction was entirely predictable. Indignation“The editorial team hastily issued an apology, saying, ‘I’m sorry, but I’m not sure what to do.'”

This is just the latest in a long line of withdrawals of “inspiring AI projects” that have drawn outrage from those they were meant to inspire. The Prince Charles Cinema in London's Soho cancel In June, it canceled a screening of a film written by AI after patrons loudly protested. Lego was under pressure The company demanded that it remove a series of AI-generated images it had published on its website. Doctor Who had begun experimenting with generative AI, It stopped immediately After a wave of complaints, companies have bought into the AI hype, thinking that adopting AI will help them promote themselves as innovative, completely failing to understand the growing anti-AI sentiment among many customers.

Behind the backlash are a number of concerns about AI. The most fundamental is its impact on human labor. The main impact of using AI in many situations is that it will deprive humans of the opportunity to do the same work. And AI systems will: Exploitation of works Artificial intelligence is training the people it is meant to replace in creative output without paying them. The technology has a tendency to sexualize women, is used to create deep fakes, and is causing tech companies to miss their climate targets, without understanding many of its risks well enough to mitigate them. Naturally, this has not met with universal praise. Hayao Miyazaki, director of world-famous animation studio Studio Ghibli, said: “I’m completely disgusted…” [AI] It is an affront to life itself.”

Members of the activist group Safe Streets Level place cones around a self-driving taxi in San Francisco, California, in July 2023. Photo: Josh Edelson/AFP/Getty Images

Some members of the anti-AI movement Reclaiming the name “Luddite”I come from a tech community where Luddite is considered an insult, but this new movement is proud of the moniker. As Brian Merchant, author of Blood in the Machine, points out, the first Luddites didn't rebel immediately. They called for dialogue and compromise. The new Luddites also want dialogue and compromise. Most recognize that AI is here to stay, and they want a more rational and fair approach to its adoption, not reversal. And it's easy to imagine that they might be more successful than their predecessors. 19th century counterpartThe legendary Ned Ludd had no social media. Downtrodden workers used to be easily ignored. The internet is the greatest organizing tool in history.

Anger toward AI companies is forging unlikely allies. When the Recording Industry Association of America recently sued two AI music-generation companies for “unimaginable copyright infringement,” musicians and fans took to the internet to show their support. “Wow, these AI companies make me want to root for the record companies,” one person wrote. One composer said:To address the new threat of AI, old arguments are being pushed aside: the enemy of my enemy is my friend, as the saying goes.

Some will believe that AI is all about opportunity, all about good, and that it is the next great technological revolution that will free humanity from the dark ages we live in. A speaker at the Tony Blair Institute's Britain's Future Summit a few weeks ago said: Overview Why empowering AI is “the only option for a forward-thinking UK government.” There is some truth to this. Of course, AI has a promise. That promise is largely a creed for now, with AI leaders promising technologies that are at best years away and at worst unrealistic. But there is reason to think that the more optimistic predictions about AI have some real potential. AI may truly change the world, as AI visionaries would have you believe.

But the backlash points out that we can’t ignore real harms today in order to make technological bets on the future. Nintendo They won’t use generative AI. A user on Stack Overflow, a Q&A site for software engineers, wrote: A group revolted After the platform struck a deal to allow OpenAI to remove content to train its models, users began deleting posts or editing them to make them nonsensical. Attacks on driverless taxis They shouted in the streets of San Francisco that they were putting people out of work.

Outside the OpenAI offices in San Francisco, there are frequent groups of protesters holding banners reading “Pause AI.” If AI is left unregulated, this sentiment will only grow. Countries may be tempted to treat AI development as an arms race and forge ahead regardless of the costs. But According to opinion polls, the public We think this is a bad idea, and AI developers and those regulating the emerging AI industry need to listen to the growing backlash against AI.

Ed Newton-Rex is the founder of Fairy Training, a nonprofit that certifies generative AI companies that respect the rights of creators, and co-founder of JukeDeck, an AI company that can compose and arrange music.

Source: www.theguardian.com

The enigmatic black hole “parsec problem” could potentially be resolved

Posted on July 27, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Just like a runner hitting the wall at the end of a race, supermassive black holes face a similar challenge as they approach each other, coming to a virtual standstill in the final parsec.

Recent research indicates that dark matter could be the key to overcoming this last obstacle.

This is because researchers have identified a crucial behavior of dark matter that has been previously overlooked – its ability to interact with itself.

“The assumption of dark matter particles interacting is an additional component not present in all dark matter models,” explained the co-authors of the study. Dr. Gonzalo Alonso Alvarez. “Our argument is that only a model with these features can address the final parsec problem.”

What is the final parsec problem?

The final parsec problem refers to the challenge that slows down the black holes before they merge.

This discovery follows a previous study that detected gravitational waves resulting from the merging of supermassive black holes, each a billion times the mass of the sun.

In the new study published in Physics Review Letter, researchers found that the black holes came to a halt at just one parsec away from each other.

The question remains: if black holes cannot merge, how are gravitational waves produced?

The answer may lie in a better understanding of dark matter behavior, which may facilitate the merger of supermassive black holes over the final parsec.

When two galaxies collide, their supermassive black holes begin to orbit each other. Gravity slows them down, bringing them close to merging before their orbits shrink too much to support the final collapse. Interaction with a halo of dark matter then absorbs the remaining orbital energy, allowing the black holes to eventually merge.

This new model is supported by the Pulsar Timing Array, which detects gravitational waves originating from supermassive black hole mergers predicted by Alonso Alvarez and his team.

“Our study offers a new perspective on understanding the nature of dark matter particles,” said Alonso-Alvarez. “Observations of supermassive black hole mergers can provide insights into these particles.”

Read more:

Source: www.sciencefocus.com

Land animals evolved in warm tidal nursery ponds 500 million years ago

Posted on July 27, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

The evolution of the first animals to appear on land 500 million years ago has been revealed. The ancestors of millipedes, called euticalcinids, evolved from larval arthropods in warm tidal pools. Individuals that reached sexual maturity early and survived the harsh tidal zone passed on their genes to the next generation, evolving into arthropods that could crawl onto land when the tidal pools dried up.

Reconstruction of the first land animal to live on the ancient tidal flats of Blackberry Hill, Wisconsin (500 million years ago). A washed-up jellyfish (1 meter wide), Euticarcinoidea. Mosineia (Lower left, 15cm long), Phyllocarididae crustacean Arenosicalis (bottom right, green) and a large, slug-like mollusk (70 cm long). Some euticalcinids live in tide pools before they dry up. Image courtesy of Todd Gass.

All life first evolved in the sea, and because carcasses decay more easily on land than in the sea, fossils of early land animals are very rare.

Arthropods — creepy-looking animals with segmented bodies, jointed limbs, and hard exoskeletons, like spiders, crabs, and insects — were the first animals to move onto land.

The oldest known fossils of land animals are those called millipedes. Pneumodesmus pneumanii It dates back to the Late Wenlockian Stage of the Silurian Period in Scotland, approximately 428 million years ago (Ma).

Millipedes, centipedes and their relatives are called myriapods, and there are about 12,000 species of them.

There's another type of fossil that can give us clues about when ancient animals first emerged from the sea: trace fossils.

They are Represent These are traces of biological activity, including animal tracks and burrows.

Trace fossils reveal a time-honoured snapshot of extinct animals' behaviours and interactions, allowing us to bring extinct animals to life.

Fossil burrows in Pennsylvania (445 million years ago) and fossil tracks in Cumbria, England (450 million years ago) suggest that myriapods lived on land 22 million years before the oldest body fossils.

The oldest known footprints on land were left in ancient coastal dunes in New York and Ontario by ancestors of myriapod animals called euticalcinids. Tidal flats (Quebec and Wisconsin) Approximately 500 million years ago.

It may have been one small step for insects, but one giant leap for life on Earth.

of Eutic carcinoid It had a body length of 4 to 15 cm (up to 30 cm, judging from fossilized footprints), and lived between 500 million and 225 million years ago. It resembled a pill bug (woodlouse), but had spines on its tail.

During the Cambrian Period, a group of marine arthropods called Fuchsianidae lived in shallow seas.

Euticarcinoids resemble larval fuchsiafiids, Precocious maturity (i.e. the retention of juvenile characteristics in descendant species) was involved in the evolution of these earliest land animals.

Euticalcinids spawned in warm tide pools, presumably to protect the eggs from marine predators and speed up larval development.

These harsh tidal conditions gradually selected for individuals in the population that reached sexual maturity earlier, survived, and were able to pass on their genes to the next generation – juvenile traits.

Cambrian euticalcinoids had barrel-shaped bodies, short legs, and six telson segments.

As they evolved, the number of tail segments gradually decreased, from six to five during the Silurian and Carboniferous periods, and in some later species to four segments. Also, the legs developed thin spines.

One group of euthycarcinoids, called the Sotticcercidae, has a long, multi-segmented body and legs of similar length, making it more myriapod-like.

Campecarids are a rare and extinct group of myriapods that may represent an evolutionary link between Sotticcercidae and myriapods, as they share a legless neck and tail segment.

The euticalcinids were soon followed by the sea scorpions (Eurypterids), the ancestors of scorpions, which led to widespread animal invasion of land.

Our own (vertebrate, i.e. backbone) ancestors, called tetrapods, first came onto land in a breathtaking adventure 130 million years after the eucaryotic vertebrates.

Walter Garstang eloquently states: “The facts are much the same: whatever the name, any yolk-bearing arthropod must have once had an aquatic ancestor that laid tiny eggs and hatched as tiny legless larvae. So the larvae that are the predecessors of our millipedes and spiders (and centipedes and insects) cannot be outsiders.”

this paper Appeared in New Jarlbuch in Geology and Palaeontology.

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Braddy, S.J. 2024. Euthycarcinoid ecology and evolution. New Jarlbuch in Geology and Palaeontology,doi:10.1127/njgpa/2024/1199

Source: www.sci.news

Wildfire smoke from Canadian and West Coast wildfires spreads throughout North America

Posted on July 27, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

summary

Smoke from the wildfires has spread across North America, threatening air quality in much of Canada, California, and the Pacific Northwest.
The fast-spreading fire caused widespread damage in the Canadian alpine resort town of Jasper.
Firefighters in Oregon, Idaho, and California are also battling blazes that are spreading quickly due to gusty winds and high temperatures.

Raging wildfires in western Canada have sent huge plumes of smoke spreading across North America in recent days, with pollution captured in images by NASA satellites, aircraft, and ground-based observatories.

An animation released by NASA on Friday showed smoke blanketing the Canadian provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and the Northwest Territories and drifting into other parts of the Midwest, including Montana, Colorado, Kansas, and Wisconsin.

This map uses data from NASA to show the concentration and movement of black carbon, a type of aerosol pollution released by wildfires, over North America from July 17 to July 24.

As of Friday afternoon, there were 948 fires burning in Canada, with 387 of them considered out of control. Canadian Joint Forest Fire Centre The fast-spreading fire caused widespread damage in the popular alpine resort city of Jasper in Alberta and forced the evacuation of 25,000 people.

Massive fires in the Pacific Northwest and California are also polluting the air nearby. Air quality alerts and watches have been issued in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Colorado, and Wyoming over the past week. Smoky skies have also been reported in North Dakota, South Dakota, and across the High Plains.

Oregon is experiencing the largest wildfire season in the US, fueled by lightning, high temperatures, and strong winds, with more than 35 out-of-control wildfires burning a combined total of nearly 1 million acres in the state.

In neighboring Idaho, fast-spreading fires forced the evacuation of the entire town of Juliaetta on Thursday, with more than 600 residents evacuated as the Gwen Fire and other wildfires burning in the area continued to grow.

Cities in Oregon, Montana, California, and Idaho topped the list of places with the worst air quality in the country on Friday. According to IQAir: For example, air pollution levels in Burns, Oregon, were listed as “hazardous,” while air quality in Stevensville, Montana, was listed as “very unhealthy,” according to a Swiss air quality monitoring company.

In California, the Park Fire has already burned more than 250 square miles in the Chico area since starting on Wednesday and remained uncontained as of Friday morning.

Firefighters are also battling the lightning-fought Gold Complex Fire in California’s Plumas National Forest, which has burned more than five square miles since July 22. As of Friday afternoon, the fire was only 11 percent contained, and winds are causing the blaze to spread quickly. According to the California Fire Department.

Smoke from wildfires that have spread eastward to New England and south to Mexico is having a variety of effects on human health.

In addition to black carbon, wildfires release carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, a variety of chemicals, and tiny particles called particulate matter into the air. Together, these substances can irritate the eyes, nose, throat, and lungs and worsen the conditions of diabetes, heart disease, COPD, and chronic kidney disease.

Young children, older adults, pregnant women, and people with asthma or other existing respiratory conditions are at greatest risk from wildfire smoke.

Thunderstorms have played a role in igniting many wildfires in Canada and the western United States, with gusty winds, high temperatures, and more thunderstorms fanning the flames.

Summer wildfires are common in western Canada and the United States, but scientists say climate change is making them more dangerous by creating more favorable conditions for fires to start and spread. Rising temperatures also drier vegetation, making it more flammable.

Source: www.nbcnews.com

Leak Indicates Israel Attempted to Prevent US Lawsuit Involving Pegasus Spyware | Israel

Posted on July 27, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

The Israeli government has blocked a costly U.S. lawsuit that could reveal secrets about a hacking tool called Pegasus. Documents suggest the Israeli authorities seized Pegasus spyware documentation from NSO Group to prevent the disclosure of sensitive information.

Pegasus is used to infect smartphones with hidden software that can extract data and spy on users. NSO Group’s customers include both authoritarian regimes and democracies, raising concerns about human rights abuses.

NSO has been fighting a lawsuit alleging WhatsApp vulnerabilities were exploited, compromising users in multiple countries. Israel’s close ties with NSO and the impact of the seizures on the legal battle have raised questions about the country’s involvement.

Media organizations are trying to uncover the details of the seizures and Israel’s interference in the case, shedding light on the complex relationship between NSO, Israel, and the legal system.

The documents obtained reveal the extent of Israel’s efforts to protect NSO from disclosing sensitive information demanded by the U.S. court, impacting the ongoing legal proceedings.

Israel’s covert actions have complicated WhatsApp’s attempts to obtain crucial information from NSO, highlighting the challenges faced in the legal battle.

The leaked files and emails provide insight into the behind-the-scenes activities and the attempts to prevent the exposure of sensitive information related to the Pegasus spyware.

“Strange Procedure”

Israel’s intervention in the lawsuit has raised concerns about the transparency of the legal process and the protection of national interests.

Do you have information about this story? Email stephanie.kirchgaessner@theguardian.com or send a message (from a non-work phone) using Signal or WhatsApp to +1 646 886 8761.

The legal battle between WhatsApp and NSO has revealed underlying complexities and challenges posed by the lawsuit, reflecting the broader implications of the case.

NSO’s actions and Israel’s involvement have significantly influenced the course of the lawsuit, raising questions about transparency and accountability in the legal process.

Additional reporting by Phineas Rueckert and Karine Pfenniger of Forbidden Stories.

Source: www.theguardian.com

SpaceX readies Starship for flight with innovative ‘chopstick’ landing technique

Posted on July 27, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Testing the Super Heavy booster for Starship's fifth test flight

SpaceX

SpaceX is making final preparations for its fifth and most ambitious Starship test flight yet. While the previous four flights all aimed to land on water in the ocean, this test will be the first to attempt a landing on a launch pad.

What is Starship?

This is the heaviest, most powerful rocket ever flown. SpaceX aims to develop it as a rapidly reusable launch vehicle that can carry a large payload into space, return to the launch pad, land, and be ready for the next mission within days or even hours. A series of test flights over the past two years has inched closer to that goal.

NASA has signed a contract with SpaceX to supply a variant of its Starship lunar lander to send astronauts to the moon's surface after late 2026. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk's ultimate ambition is to send humans to Mars using Starship.

What will SpaceX attempt on its fifth test flight?

The fifth flight will likely be the first attempt to catch Starship's Super Heavy booster (the rocket's first stage) on the launch pad. SpaceX's launch tower, called Mechazilla, will eventually Grab boosters at specific points You can secure it and lower it the remaining distance to the ground later.

During the fourth test flight, the booster performed a “virtual landing” over the ocean, slowing its descent over the water's surface to simulate what would be required to capture a real swordfish, before splashing down on the water. Musk posted on X “I think we should try catching the booster with Mechazilla's arms on our next flight.”

When is it expected to be released?

The official release date has not yet been decided, Full-time test burning The first stage of the rocket was launched on July 15th and is currently unhindered by any obstacles.

Musk himself X Post on July 6th The launch is expected to take place within “four weeks,” tentatively around August 3, though it's worth keeping in mind that Musk has a history of insisting on delivery dates that haven't been met.

What has happened in Starship launches so far?

During the first test flight on April 20, 2023, three of the first stage's 33 engines failed to ignite, after which several more failed during the flight, causing the rocket to spin out of control and self-destruct.

The second test flight on November 18 of the same year continued, reaching an altitude high enough for the first and second stages to separate as planned, but exploded as the first stage rotated to begin its deceleration and landing procedure. The second stage continued safely to an altitude of about 90 miles (149 km), passing the Kármán line, which marks the beginning of the universe, but was destroyed by a safety mechanism after it stopped transmitting data before completing an orbit or returning to Earth.

The third test flight, on March 14 this year, was at least partially successful, as it reached space, performed a fuel transfer test, and flew farther and faster than ever before, but lost attitude control during the flight and failed to make a planned soft landing.

The fourth test flight, on June 6 this year, was the most successful to date, with Starship reaching an orbital altitude of more than 200 km and traveling at a speed of more than 27,000 km/h. Both the booster and upper stage made a soft landing in the ocean. There was a dramatic scene when the intense heat of Starship's re-entry into Earth's orbit caused the skin of one of its control wings to burn off, but the company said this was resolved with a new heat-resistant tile design.

What would happen if this launch were to fail?

The chances of Starship completing its mission perfectly are slim, so it's likely that it will fail in some way. But failure will provide data and experience that can be used to improve the design and processes for the sixth launch. SpaceX has shown it can iterate quickly and make great strides with each launch.

Still, the company's bold strategy of catching the booster on the launch pad puts not just the spacecraft at risk but also the hardware on the ground, meaning the fifth test flight will likely be the riskiest yet.

topic:

Source: www.newscientist.com

British Military Targeted by North Korea-Backed Cyber Espionage Campaign

Posted on July 26, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

State-sponsored hackers from North Korea have initiated an operation to acquire sensitive information regarding nuclear materials, military drones, submarines, and shipbuilding from the United States and Britain. Intelligence agencies have raised alarm about a “global cyber espionage campaign” targeting critical sectors.

A joint notice from the US, UK, and South Korea highlighted that North Korea is utilizing state-sponsored actors to advance its military and nuclear objectives, with Japan and India also on their radar.

These hackers, part of a group known as Andariel, are focusing on military secrets and intellectual property in industries such as nuclear, defense, aerospace, and engineering. They are also attempting to obtain sensitive data from the medical and energy sectors.

Paul Chichester, operations director at the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), expressed concern over the extensive cyber espionage campaign orchestrated by North Korean forces in pursuit of their military and nuclear programs.

NCSC revealed that Andariel has successfully breached organizations worldwide and stolen sensitive technical and intellectual property data.

The NCSC believes Andariel is connected to North Korea’s Reconnaissance General Bureau (RGB) and poses a constant threat to critical infrastructure organizations globally.

According to intelligence agencies, Andariel funds its espionage operations through ransomware attacks on the US healthcare sector, using publicly available internet scanning tools to identify vulnerable systems.

Chichester emphasized the necessity for safeguarding sensitive information and intellectual property stored on systems to prevent theft or misuse, urging network defenders to follow the advisory guidelines to prevent malicious activities.

The advisory details how Andariel has transitioned from destructive hacks to conducting professional cyber espionage and ransomware attacks, sometimes targeting the same victims on the same day.

The US State Department has announced a reward for information on Lim Jeong-hyok, an alleged Andariel ally involved in ransomware attacks to fund operations against government agencies and defense companies.

North Korea’s cyber army has been linked to various cyber attacks, including the notorious WannaCry ransomworm in 2017. The attack aimed to obtain valuable information for North Korea and generate revenue for the state through illegal means.

Source: www.theguardian.com

OpenAI launches SearchGPT, a new search engine, in the midst of AI competition | Business

Posted on July 26, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

OpenAI is currently testing a new search engine that utilizes generative artificial intelligence to generate search results, potentially posing a challenge to Google’s dominance in the online search market. The company announced that SearchGPT will initially launch with limited users and publishers before expanding further. OpenAI plans to integrate search capabilities into ChatGPT and offer it as a standalone product in the future.

SearchGPT is described as a preliminary prototype that combines AI models (such as ChatGPT) with internet search abilities to provide search results in a conversational format with real-time information and relevant source links. This feature positions OpenAI as a direct competitor to major search engines like Google and Bing, owned by Microsoft, OpenAI’s largest investor.

Integrating generative AI into search engines has become a trend among technology companies, despite concerns about accuracy and copyright issues. OpenAI aims to make searching on the web quicker and easier by enhancing its models with real-time information from the internet.

There is a potential risk of backlash from publishers over how OpenAI uses their content in SearchGPT. Some news outlets have already filed lawsuits against the company for alleged copyright infringement, claiming that their published work was used without permission.

OpenAI denies these claims, stating that their use of copyrighted data falls under the “fair use” doctrine. Other companies have faced similar backlash from users and publishers for AI-generated search features.

OpenAI is collaborating with publishers to give them control over how their content appears in search results and promoting trusted sources of information. The company’s press release includes statements from industry leaders, endorsing AI-powered search as the future of the internet.

This development comes at a time when Google is facing an antitrust lawsuit alleging illegal monopolization of the internet search industry. The lawsuit claims that Google signed deals with major companies to make it the default browser on their devices, further solidifying its dominance.

Source: www.theguardian.com

A new type of Tyrannosaurus found in China

Posted on July 26, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Paleontologists have discovered the fossil of a deep-snouted tyrannosaur dinosaur. Asiatyrannus shui Southeast China.

Fossil remains Asiatyrannus shuiThe first deep-snouted tyrannosaur discovered in Ganzhou, southeastern China. Image courtesy of Zheng others., doi:10.1038/s41598-024-66278-5.

Asiatyrannus shui It lived on Earth during the Late Cretaceous period, about 69 million years ago.

This new species is TyrannosaurinaeIt is one of two extinct subfamilies. Tyrannosauridae — The most derived group of the superfamily Tyrannosauroidea.

“Tyrannosauroidea are the most distinctive, best known and most intensively studied group of dinosaurs, represented by around 30 species,” said Dr Wenjie Chen from the Zhejiang Museum of Natural History and colleagues.

“The oldest tyrannosaurs appeared in the Middle Jurassic period, about 165 million years ago.”

“They emerged as apex predators in their respective ecosystems in Asia and western North America during the last 20 million years of the Cretaceous period.”

“The large body size and deep snout are characteristic of ecologically dominant Late Cretaceous tyrannosaurids.”

Asiatyrannus shui It is a small to medium-sized tyrannosaurine dinosaur with a skull length of 47.5 cm (18.7 in) and an estimated total length of 3.5 to 4 m (11.5 to 13.1 ft).

“The new species, Kienzosaurus “Other large tyrannosaurine dinosaurs at similar developmental stages have been discovered,” the paleontologists noted.

In September 2017, a nearly complete skull and a partially detached postcranial skeleton of a new species of dinosaur were discovered at a construction site in the Nanxiong Formation in Shahe Town, Ganzhou City, Jiangxi Province, China.

“Asiatic Tyrannus and Kienzosaurus “Different skull proportions and body sizes suggest that they may have occupied different ecological niches,” the researchers say.

“In the Campano-Maastrichtian of East/Central Asia and Laramidia, the large carnivore guild was dominated by tyrannosaurids, and adult medium-sized predators were rare or absent.”

“The scientists interpreted that the ‘missing intermediate-sized’ niche in the theropod guilds of Laramidia and Asia during the Late Cretaceous may have been assimilated by juvenile and subadult tyrannosaurids.”

“In southeastern China, Kienzosaurus It undoubtedly held the position of apex predator, Asiatic Tyrannus May represent a niche for small to medium-sized theropods between large and small theropods. Kienzosaurus and a diversified set of small oviraptorosaurs.”

of Investigation result Published in this week’s journal Scientific Reports.

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W. Zheng others2024. The first deep-snouted tyrannosaur from the Late Cretaceous, discovered in Ganzhou, southeastern China. Scientific Reports 14, 16276; doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-66278-5

Source: www.sci.news

A cute frog that may revolutionize our understanding of animal empathy

Posted on July 26, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

In her laboratory, Jessica Nowicki can often be found pinching and plucking the legs of tiny female poison dart frogs, then returning the frog to its terrarium home with its male partner, waiting for signs that the male is sharing his pain — a grimace, a flinch, or a small leap toward his injured partner.

Nowicki, a neurobehavioral scientist at Stanford University, has yet to see such overt signs of anxiety, but she has found a similar phenomenon: When male frogs are reunited with a stressed mate, their stress hormones rise slightly, internally synchronizing with their partner’s emotional state.

This discovery, as per Nowicki’s new research in Royal Society Open Science, suggests that frogs possess the most primitive form of empathy. This finding challenges the conventional understanding of animal emotions, despite the inherent difficulties in their examination.

“The first step is to stop assuming empathy doesn’t exist,” Nowicki says, “and the second is to think more holistically about how we measure empathy.”

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It is extremely challenging for scientists to ascertain whether non-human animals feel empathy since animals do not communicate clearly and explicitly with humans, and they cannot self-report their emotions during tests.

Even among humans, it is not possible to definitively confirm that one person’s happiness matches another’s subjective experience of happiness.

“That does not mean emotions do not exist,” Nowicki explains, “it simply means they are empirically challenging to prove.” However, emotions also possess biological markers tied to specific chemicals in the bloodstream and distinct signals in the brain, which can be empirically tested.

Several studies have tried to identify indicators of empathy in animals. For instance, in 2016, scientists observed that prairie voles mirrored their partners’ stress hormones, providing more grooming and comfort when they perceived stress.

Birds matching their songs’ melodies to their partners’ stress cues or fish observing excitement in other group members are examples of potential indicators of empathy.

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However, few studies have investigated reptiles and amphibians in this context. Nowicki decided to examine poison dart frogs (Ranitomeya’s Copycat) due to their monogamous nature, where males and females support each other in raising offspring, which she believed might reveal emotional connections. She utilized a similar lab setup as in her 2016 prairie vole study.

Indeed, when her team stressed randomly selected female frogs and paired them with male frogs, nothing notable occurred. Yet, when they reunited stressed female frogs with female frogs, the male frogs’ corticosterone levels, a stress biomarker similar to cortisol, mirrored those of their female partners.

“I was amazed!” Nowicki remarks, interpreting this as evidence of frogs expressing emotional stress through empathy.

The fact that frogs only respond to their partners’ emotions, not others’, indicates that distress transmission is not mere automatic contagion. Dr. Inbal Ben Ami Bartal, who studies prosocial behavior in animals at Tel Aviv University, calls these findings “a good example of shared basic components of empathy across species.”

While the frogs did not exhibit the anticipated behavioral changes, the possibility of emotional contagion remains plausible. Amphibian responses may differ significantly from mammals, and maintaining an open mind when studying this question in amphibians is crucial, according to Dr. Ben-Ami Bartal.

Animal welfare researcher Dr. Helen Lambert concurs, noting that empathy, as a subjective experience, can manifest physically but remains unique to each individual.

These new findings “could indicate something more complex,” but further studies are needed to understand this in amphibians, asserts Lambert.

However, this investigative approach may not be the most suitable, per Jesse Adriane, a comparative psychologist at the University of Zurich, who authored the 2020 paper discussing the challenges of measuring empathy across the animal kingdom.

Adriane believes that the frog study did not precisely measure what it claims to, as pinching and prodding female frogs did not induce significant stress. While the male frogs had stable emotional states, a consistent emotional change would be required to prove empathy, she contends.

Additionally, the correlation in corticosterone levels between male and female frogs is not strong.

“We cannot confidently conclude emotional contagion in poison frogs,” Adriane concludes.

Yet, it remains essential to continue exploring these questions to understand whether empathy is unique to humans.

About our experts

Jessica Nowicki is a research scientist in the Stanford University Biological Laboratory, focusing on prosocial behavior in early vertebrates.

Her work has appeared in journals such as Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, and Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology.

Dr. Inbal Ben Ami Bartel is a researcher in the Departments of Psychology and Neuroscience at Tel Aviv University, studying social neuroscience, prosocial behavior, and empathy.

Her research has been featured in publications like E-Life, Frontiers of Psychology, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Dr. Helen Lambert is an animal welfare scientist and the head of an animal welfare consultancy.

Her work has been published in journals like Applied Animal Behavior Science, Animal Welfare, and Animal.

Read more:

Source: www.sciencefocus.com

‘Olympic Behind-the-Scenes Video Takes TikTok by Storm’

Posted on July 26, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

The Olympic finish line has evolved from just showcasing winning athletes with their medals to now involving every Olympian in the event by sharing videos of themselves unboxing sponsored gear.

These unboxing videos, a social media trend, are now being posted on TikTok by athletes gearing up for their events in Paris this summer.

Millions of viewers are eagerly tuning in to catch a glimpse of the gear set to be worn in the upcoming games.

Alika Schmidt, a 400m specialist from Germany, models an Adidas skirt and quarter-zip sweatshirt, while Australian hurdler Tayleigh Willis dons a yellow and green Asics uniform, showcasing their sponsored gear in TikTok videos.

The buzz around the Paris 2024 uniforms is palpable, with some calling it “the biggest Olympics in fashion history.” The LVMH-sponsored tournament has already sparked interest, with Mongolia’s intricately embroidered kit designed by Ulaanbaatar-based brand Michel & Amazonka gaining traction as a fan favorite.

Videos documenting athletes’ journeys from around the world to the Olympic Village are also gaining momentum on social media platforms. US tennis player Coco Gauff shares a peek into her in-flight meal before her nap, giving followers a taste of the behind-the-scenes action.

Exploring the Olympic Village, Danish handball team members showcase their decorated rooms with personal touches like photos and flags. The glimpse into the athletes’ living spaces, including Paris 2024’s unique cardboard beds, adds a layer of authenticity to the Olympic experience.

The human side of the Olympics is on full display, as athletes like Australian water polo player Tilly Kearns share touching cultural encounters and interactions from the Olympic Village, evoking emotional responses from viewers.

US rugby player Ilona Maher, known for her TikTok presence during the Tokyo Olympics, continues to entertain and engage her audience with content leading up to Paris 2024, showcasing the fun and creative side of the Games.

The Olympics have become a significant platform for athletes and brands alike to connect with diverse audiences through social media, opening up new opportunities for partnerships and content monetization.

As the world unites to celebrate the sporting spirit at the Olympics, the event remains a beacon of unity and a powerful platform for athletes to share their stories and engage with fans worldwide.

Source: www.theguardian.com

Witness a robot expertly peeling a pumpkin with remarkable finesse

Posted on July 26, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Robots that can peel vegetables as easily as humans can, demonstrating a level of dexterity that could be useful for moving delicate objects on production lines.

Prototype robots are often tasked with peeling vegetables to test their ability to carefully handle tricky objects, but these tasks are typically simplified, such as immobilizing the vegetable or testing only a single fruit or vegetable, like peeling a banana.

now, Pulkit Agrawal Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed a robotic system that can rotate different types of fruits and vegetables using the fingers of one hand and peel them with the other arm.

“This extra step of rotating is something that's very easy for humans to do and they don't even think about it,” Agrawal says, “but it makes it difficult for a robot.”

First, the robot was trained in a simulated environment, where the algorithm rewarded it for correct turns and punished it for turning in the wrong direction or not turning at all.

The robot was then tested in real-world conditions peeling fruits and vegetables, including pumpkins, radishes, and papayas, using feedback from touch sensors to rotate the vegetables with one hand while a human-operated robotic arm did the peeling.

The robot can grab and spin vegetables with one hand and peel them with the other.

Tao Chen, Eric Cousineau, Naveen Kuppuswamy, Pulkit Agrawal

Agrawal said the algorithm struggles with small, awkwardly shaped vegetables like ginger, but the team hopes to expand its capabilities.

Grasping and orienting an object is a difficult task for any robot, but the speed and firm grip of this robot are impressive, he said. Jonathan Aitken Researchers at the University of Sheffield in the UK say the technology could be useful in factories where objects need to be moved from machine to machine in the correct orientation.

But Aitken said it was unlikely to be used industrially to peel vegetables because other methods already exist, such as automated potato peelers.

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Source: www.newscientist.com

New study reveals that Oats have similar effects to Ozempic

Posted on July 26, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Interested in trying a water, oats, and lime juice smoothie? You may have come across the internet buzz about this mixture, likened to the effects of the weight-loss drug Ozempic. Dubbed “Oat Zempic” by some influencers, this concoction is gaining popularity.

Recent research published in the Nutrition Journal suggests that there is a similarity between a type of fiber found in oats and the biochemical pathway of Ozempic.

Ozempic, a medication widely used for type 2 diabetes treatment, has gained attention for its weight loss benefits, as well as its potential to reduce heart disease risk, prevent cognitive decline, and aid in smoking cessation.

Derived from semaglutide, Ozempic falls into the category of GLP-1 receptor agonists, which mimic a digestive hormone that helps regulate blood sugar and suppress appetite.

While oats have known benefits in promoting satiety and aiding in weight loss as part of a balanced diet, they do not match the potency of Ozempic in terms of GLP-1 agonist effects.

Nutrition experts caution against replacing meals with trendy drinks like Oat Zempic, emphasizing the importance of a well-rounded diet for long-term health and weight management.

Ultimately, incorporating high-fiber foods like oats into your diet can be beneficial, but there is no substitute for a healthy, balanced eating plan. Remember, sustainable weight loss requires a holistic approach.

About our experts

Emily Leeming: A Registered Dietitian and Research Fellow, Emily brings a wealth of knowledge on nutrition, gut health, and dietetics. Her background in science and culinary arts gives her a unique perspective on food and health.

To learn more about Emily and her work, check out her book The Genius Gut: The Life-Changing Science of Diet for Your Second Brain.

Source: www.sciencefocus.com

The former Moa refuge now shelters New Zealand’s surviving flightless birds.

Posted on July 26, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Human settlement of the Pacific islands triggered a wave of faunal extinctions that occurred so rapidly that their dynamics are difficult to reconstruct in space and time. These extinctions included a large wingless bird called the moa, endemic to New Zealand. In a new study, New Zealand scientists say University of Adelaide and others have reconstructed the distribution and extinction dynamics of six moa species across New Zealand. They find that the final populations of all moa species generally occur in the cold, mountainous areas that are the last remaining and least affected by humans. They also find that the final moa population refugia continue to function as isolated sanctuaries for New Zealand's flightless birds.

This is an artist's impression of the Upland Mower. Megarapteryx didinusby George Edward Lodge, 1907.

“Our study overcame previous logistical challenges, allowing us to track the population dynamics of six moa species at a resolution previously thought impossible,” said Dr Damian Fordham, from the University of Adelaide.

“We achieved this by combining advanced computational modelling with the vast fossil record, palaeoclimatic information and innovative reconstructions of human settlement and expansion across New Zealand.”

“Our study shows that despite significant differences in the ecology, demographics and timing of extinction of moa species, their distributions collapsed and converged to the same regions in the North and South Islands of New Zealand.”

Dr Fordham and his colleagues found that the last populations of any moa species lived in the same isolated, cold mountain regions that currently house many of the last populations of New Zealand's most endangered flightless birds, including Mount Aspiring in the South Island and the Ruahine Ranges in the North Island.

Hearst's Eagle (Hieraethus Moulay) attacking two moas. Image by John Megahan/PLoS Biology, doi:10.1371/journalplo.0030020.

“Moa populations were likely first to disappear from the highest quality lowland habitats favoured by Polynesian settlers, and the rate of population decline decreased with increasing elevation and distance moved inland,” said Dr Sean Tomlinson, also from the University of Adelaide.

“By identifying the last remaining populations of moa and comparing them with the distribution of flightless birds in New Zealand, we found that these last refuges also protect many of the surviving populations of takahe, weka and great spotted kiwi today.”

“Furthermore, these ancient refugia for the moa overlap with the last mainland populations of the critically endangered kakapo.”

“Although the drivers of the recent declines of New Zealand's endemic flightless birds are different to those that caused the ancient moa extinction, this study shows that their spatial dynamics are similar.”

Moas fed on trees and shrubs in the forest understory. Image by Heinrich Harder.

“The main commonality between past and present refuges is not that they are the best habitats for flightless birds, but that they remain the last refuges, the least affected by humans,” said Dr Jamie Wood, also from the University of Adelaide.

“As with previous waves of Polynesian expansion, European habitat conversion across New Zealand, and the spread of the animals they introduced, was directional, moving from the lowlands towards the colder, less hospitable mountain regions.”

Team result Published in a journal Natural Ecology and Evolution.

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S. Tomlinson othersThe ecological dynamics of the moa extinction revealed a convergent refugium where flightless birds live today. Nat Ecol EvolPublished online July 24, 2024, doi: 10.1038/s41559-024-02449-x

Source: www.sci.news

Fossil of Cambrian long-tailed chordate discovered in Utah

Posted on July 26, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

It has a torpedo-shaped body with no fins. Nuucichthys lyoncocephalus It was the first molluscan vertebrate discovered in the Great Basin of the United States.

Nuucichthys lyoncocephalus It was a pelagic organism with limited swimming ability. Image courtesy of Franz Anthony.

Nuucichthys lyoncocephalus It lived in the Cambrian oceans between 505 million and 500 million years ago.

This ancient animal had a finless, torpedo-shaped body with many of the characteristics characteristic of vertebrates.

It is one of only four species that document an early evolutionary stage in the vertebrate lineage.

“discovery Nuucichthys lyoncocephalus “This discovery is a valuable contribution to early vertebrate evolution and biodiversity, as few organisms of this type have been found in Cambrian fossil sites (such as southern China, the northeastern United States, and British Columbia),” said paleontologists Rudy Leroy Aubril and Javier Ortega Hernández of Harvard University.

“Early vertebrates began to have large eyes and a series of muscle blocks called myotomes, which are very recognizable in fossils.”

The subject of the study Nuucichthys lyoncocephalus It is a single partial fossil found in the Marjum Formation in the House Mountains of western Utah, USA.

“Nuucichthys lyoncocephalus “This is the first soft-bodied vertebrate to be discovered in the Marjum Formation of the American Great Basin,” the paleontologists said.

They also found that despite its overall similarity to larval fish (with primitive gill-like cavities), the new species lacked fins, limiting its swimming ability.

“But all these features clearly show similarities to vertebrates,” Dr. Lerosay-Aubril said.

“It's such an early stage in vertebrate evolution that we don't have any bones yet, which is why these fossils are so rare.”

The authors speculate: Nuucichthys lyoncocephalus It probably lived high in the ocean's water column.

Because of this, and because they lacked biomineralized parts like bones or shells, they tended to deteriorate and decay quickly after death, which explains why very little fossilization occurred.

“What's interesting about this new species is that without fossils it's hard to understand how the morphology evolved from an invertebrate to a vertebrate form, but this new fossil tells us a little bit about that,” Dr Ortega-Hernández said.

Discovery Nuucichthys lyoncocephalus It has been reported paper In the journal Royal Society Open Science.

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Rudy Lerozay Aubril & Javier Ortega Hernández. 2024. A long-headed Cambrian soft-bodied vertebrate from the Great Basin region of the United States. R. Soc. Open Science 11(7):240350; doi: 10.1098/rsos.240350

Source: www.sci.news

Efficient spread of avian influenza among cattle and other mammals uncovered in study

Posted on July 26, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

summary

A new study explains how bird flu spreads between dairy cows and from them to other mammals.
Experts are concerned that the virus may be developing new capabilities that help it evolve so it can spread from person to person, something that has not yet been observed.
A new study has found that cats and raccoons have died from a virus, possibly from drinking raw milk.

A new study of an ongoing avian flu outbreak on dairy farms provides an unprecedented look into how efficiently the virus spreads among cows and from them to other mammals, including cats and raccoons.

This suggests the virus is developing new capabilities that have bird flu experts concerned.

Bird flu is a concern in the United States due to various poultry populations. Over the past few years, scientists have feared the virus could become more transmissible from person to person and spark the next pandemic.

To the best of researchers' knowledge, there has not yet been any human-to-human transmission, but the number of cases of person-to-person transmission is continuing to increase, Colorado health officials confirmed. 3 new cases Fourteen new cases of bird flu were confirmed on Thursday, bringing the total in the country to 14.

All of the human cases have been farm workers who became infected after coming into contact with sick animals, and all but one was diagnosed within the past four months. Little is still known about the three most recent infections, but the remaining infections are mild.

New research shows that the virus is spreading from one mammal species to another, a relatively new phenomenon that could make it difficult for authorities to control.

The longer the virus goes uncontrolled, the greater the chance it will evolve and adapt, becoming a greater threat to people, say the authors of the new study. The study was published Tuesday in the journal Nature.

“This virus is not very effective at infecting or transmitting to humans, but that could change if the virus continues to circulate among dairy cows and then from there to other mammals,” said study author Diego Diehl, head of the virology lab at Cornell University's Animal Health Diagnostic Center. “This is cause for concern.”

The new study assessed the first outbreaks of avian influenza among cows on nine farms in Texas, New Mexico, Kansas and Ohio, taking animal samples and comparing the genetic similarities of the viruses between them.

Researchers found that the virus, a specific strain of avian flu known as H5N1, spread rapidly between farms. When infected cows were moved from Texas to another farm in Ohio, the virus was soon found in the Ohio cows. Genetic sequences also suggest that cats and raccoons have died from the virus, possibly after drinking raw milk.

Studies have shown that sick cows eat less feed, chew their cud less, produce less milk, and the color of their milk changes. On some infected farms, cows died at twice the normal rate.

Andrew Bowman, a professor of veterinary preventive medicine at Ohio State University who was not involved in the study, said the research reflects the experience of veterinarians on many U.S. farms.

“It's consistent with the clinical picture,” Bowman said. “This is exactly what we've been seeing on dairy farms. This is really just the first documentation that's been published.”

The study adds to the growing evidence that handling and drinking unpasteurized milk is dangerous.

Diehl said infected cows shed incredible amounts of the virus from their mammary glands, at concentrations higher than could easily be cultured in a lab.

“Drinking raw milk is extremely dangerous,” Diehl said.

Various studies have detected live H5N1 virus in raw milk. Pasteurization has been shown to inactivate virusesCommercially produced milk will be safe to drink.

Farmers must not send potentially contaminated milk to production.

“Milk from sick cows should not be used in the milk supply,” Bowman said.

As scientists continue to study the avian flu outbreak, Bowman said he's interested to know whether cows can shed the virus before they start showing signs of illness and whether the virus can continue to spread from mammals infected by cows.

This is only the third time a virus has spread fairly quickly between groups of mammals, said Anise Loewen, a virologist and professor at the Emory University School of Medicine, who was also not involved in the new study. Spreading on mink farms and Between sea lions and fur seals last summer.

Some mammals have severe cases, such as sea lions. sealamong other species.

Lowen said health officials should also consider the risk that people could be infected with H5N1 and seasonal influenza at the same time this winter: When people are infected with more than one influenza virus, the viruses can exchange genetic information, a process called “reassortment.”

This process could give the virus an evolutionary shortcut and change how the virus spreads.

“The viruses currently infecting cattle pose a relatively low risk to humans — that's what the CDC says, and they're right,” Loewen said. “But the risk I see is viral evolution. Viruses change as they adapt to new hosts. They change as they reassort and swap genes.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention declined to comment on the new study.

Source: www.nbcnews.com

Scientists may finally have discovered the cause of the largest space explosion in history

Posted on July 26, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Gamma-ray bursts occur when massive stars collapse or collide.

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center/ A. Simonett, Sonoma State University

The most powerful explosion astronomers have ever seen contains a mysterious signal they thought couldn't exist. The signal provides the first detailed look inside a gamma-ray burst and suggests it involves the annihilation of matter and antimatter.

Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are the most powerful outbursts of radiation in the universe, produced by cosmic explosions and collisions. Physicists believe that the most energetic GRBs are produced when a star collapses to form a black hole. The black hole produces a jet of material traveling close to the speed of light, penetrating the collapsing star and emitting an explosion of radiation that can be observed on Earth. However, we still don&#39t know how this radiation is produced or what is contained in the jet.

Much of this mystery arises from the spectrum of light we can see: while the light observed from other objects in the universe contains characteristic spikes that tell us about the specific atoms or other matter that produced this burst of energy, the spectrum of light from a gamma ray burst is always smooth and featureless.

In the 1990s, researchers became excited about the possibility that some GRBs might show distinct lines, but careful analysis showed that these were statistical errors and concluded that GRB spectra could not possibly be spike-like.

now, Maria Ravasio Researchers from Radboud University in the Netherlands and their colleagues have discovered that GRB221009A, discovered in 2022 and dubbed the most luminous explosion since the Big Bang, actually has an energy peak of about 10 megaelectronvolts.

“When I first saw the lines, I thought we&#39d done something wrong,” Ravasio says. But after detailed statistical analysis and ruling out any instrument problems, Fermi Gamma Ray Space Telescope Ravasio and his colleagues concluded that the spectral spike was real: “When I realized it wasn&#39t a false alarm, I got goosebumps because I realized something big had happened.”

Nearly all GRBs exhibit a similar energy distribution, so astronomers analyze new GRB detections using the data analysis method that best suits this pattern. But Ravasio and her team instead used a method that allows for peaks, and found that this fit the data better. “That part of the GRB spectrum has been the same for years, and no one had looked at it,” Ravasio says. [GRB221009A] We can now look at that part of the spectrum better.”

This peak points to a specific physical process behind GRBs that is missing from the best models of GRBs.

To zero in on what this could be, Ravasio and his colleagues worked under the assumption that because the jet&#39s energy was so high, there were no intact atoms in it. This left one plausible explanation: the annihilation of an electron and its antimatter counterpart, a positron. Such an annihilation produces gamma rays with a distinct peak at 511 kiloelectron volts. “This already tells us the composition of the jet, which is something we haven&#39t understood since the first GRB,” Ravasio says.

The higher 10 MeV peak that the researchers observed was due to a shift in the energy spectrum caused by the high-speed jet producing the radiation, similar to how the siren of an approaching ambulance sounds higher-pitched.

This difference allowed them to calculate the speed of the jet that produced the burst, which was traveling at 99.99 percent of the speed of light.

The discovery of GRBs with their distinctive lines is “one of the biggest surprises in our field in more than a decade,” he said. Eric Burns At Louisiana State University.

Barnes, who helped analyze the original data that led to the discovery of GRB221009A, was presenting his results at a conference with his colleagues when he heard about Ravasio&#39s findings. “Nobody thought the paper was right,” Barnes says. “We read the title and all thought, 'This is wrong. It can&#39t be right.'”

But the analysis conducted by Ravasio and his colleagues appears to be correct, he says. “It&#39s pretty surprising, because we were so sure that gamma-ray bursts don&#39t have lines, that we didn&#39t look for this, and so we missed this completely,” Burns says.

Other GRBs may have similar spectral peaks and be worth searching for, but the peak was only observed because it came from the most luminous GRB on record, Burns said.

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Source: www.newscientist.com

Specific brain cells elucidate the maternal soothing influence

Posted on July 26, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

The researchers studied mouse neurons in a part of the brain that is common to all mammals.

Klein & Hubert/naturepl.com

Scientists have identified neurons that become active when mouse pups interact with their mothers, seemingly reducing stress — and the same neurons may also be involved in the mother-child bond in humans.

The zona incerta, located in the center of the mammalian brain, is thought to be involved in integrating sensory information. As we develop, our roles change. In infants, neurons in the zona incerta send information to other brain regions, such as the cortex, promoting neural growth elsewhere.

Its role appears to be changing, Lee Yue Heon Researchers at the Yale School of Medicine and their colleagues suspected that this part of the brain may be involved in establishing a bond between mother and child.

To investigate, the researchers first assessed which neurons in the zona incerta become active when puppies, who are still dependent on milk, interact with their mothers. This involved surgically implanting fiber-optic probes in the brains of some of the puppies, allowing the researchers to detect light emitted when neurons became active.

The researchers found that activated neurons express a hormone called somatostatin, which regulates several bodily functions by inhibiting the release of other hormones, including the stress hormone corticosterone.

Free social interactions between mothers and infants activated these neurons, but contact with toys did not.

The researchers were also interested in how other social interactions might affect this brain region: They found that contact with lactating females who were not the pups' mothers, non-lactating females, siblings, or unrelated males also activated neurons, but not as much as contact with the pups' mothers.

“Our findings suggest that social interaction with the mother elicits the greatest response compared to other social stimuli, with a difference of about 1.5-fold in mean response levels,” the team said. Marcelo de Oliveira Dietrich, Even at Yale University.

In another part of the experiment, the team monitored the infants' brain activity while they were socially isolated: during these periods, which lasted between 10 minutes and 12 hours, no neurons were active, but this changed once the infants were reunited with their mothers.

Reunion also reduced the puppies' stress response, as measured by whether they made crying noises and released corticosterone.

Finally, the team wanted to see whether artificially activating neurons while the puppies were isolated could reduce stress in them: Activating the neurons using chemicals suppressed the puppies' crying and blunted their release of corticosterone.

The researchers believe that the zona incerta may be involved in early social relationships in mammals, as well as the development of other parts of the brain. “The distinct bond between infant and mother” is “a hallmark of mammals,” they write. The bond may be involved in the development of parts of the brain, with the zona incerta acting as “a nodal point that intertwines the elements that define mammalian biology.”

Robert Froemke A researcher from NYU Langone Health in New York says the study demonstrates that certain neurons “essentially serve to soothe infants,” but “it's still a bit unclear how infants sense their mothers — which aspects of smell, touch, or temperature are important,” he says.

“Another open question is how much contact is needed to send a safety signal, and how long that contact lasts? What promotes healthy development, as opposed to neglect?” In humans, “visual and auditory input — the sight and sound of the caregiver — is also likely to be important, or perhaps more important, than olfactory cues,” he says.

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Source: www.newscientist.com

Ancient life signs found in rocks by Mars rover

Posted on July 26, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

The leopard-spot-like features in the center of the image may be a sign of ancient life.

NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

NASA's Perseverance rover has discovered a rock speckled with what appear to be traces of ancient life. Named Cheyaba Falls after a famous waterfall in Arizona, the rock suggests that microbial life may have existed there billions of years ago, but there's currently no certainty that life ever existed there.

The rock, about 1 meter by 0.6 meters in size, is mostly reddish with thin veins of white calcium sulfate that were likely formed when water flowed through cracks in the rock, depositing minerals in the cracks. Water is one of the elements necessary for life, but water is not the only thing researchers found as they sifted through the Perseverance data.

They found that among the white stripes were strange light-colored spots just a few millimeters in diameter, surrounded by a dark material containing iron and phosphate. “These spots were a big surprise,” they said. David Flannery NASA's Queensland University of Technology in Australia press release“On Earth, these rock features are often associated with the fossil record of microorganisms living below the Earth's surface,” because the chemical reactions that produce these leopard-print patterns in Earth's rocks can also provide useful energy for microorganisms.

In the same area where the rocks are, Perseverance also detected certain organic compounds that are considered building blocks of life. Taken together, all of this could be considered a trace of past microbial life on Mars, but it's far from conclusive proof. “We should be cautiously enthusiastic, but realistically cautious,” Perseverance said. Pole Barn “Right now, this is a sign that wet rocks are (probably) causing chemical changes,” said John Doe, a researcher at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, who was not involved in the study.

As it turns out, there are ways to produce all these signatures without the involvement of any living organisms, and there are some indications that the region may have once been filled with hot magma, which may have made it impossible for life to survive there.

Unfortunately, it won't be clear anytime soon whether there are signs of life at Cheyaba Falls. “We've shone lasers and X-rays on the rocks, and literally photographed them day and night, from just about every angle you can imagine,” says Dr. Ken Farley “Scientifically, Perseverance has nothing more to offer,” Caltech said in a press release.

The rover is adding samples from Cheyaba Falls to its archives, and a future mission will bring them back to Earth, where researchers will be able to study them more closely with more advanced instruments. “There's a whole different way to analyze them than you would in a lab on Earth,” Byrne says.

But NASA's Mars sample-return mission, Perseverance, has suffered a series of setbacks over the past year, and it's still not clear when or if we'll be able to get an up-close look at the intriguing rocks.

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Source: www.newscientist.com

Traveling through space accelerates muscle aging greatly

Posted on July 26, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

The muscle cells briefly stayed with astronauts on the International Space Station

Shutterstock / Artsiom P

After a week in the microgravity of space, muscle cells age and their gene activity becomes similar to that of cells that have aged for years on Earth, a finding that may explain why muscle function is impaired during space travel.

We know that astronauts are at risk of losing bone density and muscle mass due to the extremely low gravity of space. Gun Fan Researchers from Stanford University in California and their colleagues analyzed the effects of microgravity on the genetics of muscle cells.

Source: www.newscientist.com

DeepMind AI achieves second place at International Mathematical Olympiad

Posted on July 26, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

DeepMind’s AlphaProof AI can tackle a wide range of math problems

Google DeepMind

Google DeepMind’s AI won a silver medal at this year’s International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO), the first time an AI has made it onto the podium.

The IMO is considered the world’s most prestigious competition for young mathematicians, and answering the exam questions correctly requires mathematical ability that AI systems typically lack.

In January, Google DeepMind showed off AlphaGeometry, an AI system that could answer IMO geometry problems as well as humans could, but it wasn’t in a real competition and couldn’t answer questions in other areas of math, such as number theory, algebra, or combinatorics, that are needed to win an IMO medal.

Google DeepMind has now released a new AI called AlphaProof that can solve a wider range of math problems, and an improved version of AlphaGeometry that can solve more geometry problems.

When the team tested both systems together on this year’s IMO problems, they got four out of six questions right, earning them 28 points out of 42 possible points – good enough for a silver medal, just one point short of this year’s gold medal threshold.

At the competition held in Bath, England, last week, 58 athletes won gold medals and 123 won silver medals.

“We all know that AI will eventually be better than humans at solving most mathematical problems, but the rate at which AI is improving is astounding,” he said. Gregor Doliner“It’s incredible to have missed out on gold at IMO 2024 by just one point just a few days ago,” said IMO Chairman Jonathan McClellan.

At a press conference, Timothy Gowers A University of Cambridge researcher who helped grade AlphaProof’s solutions said the AI’s performance was surprising, and that it seemed to have found the “magic keys” to solve the problems in a way that was similar to humans. “We thought that these magic keys would probably be a bit beyond the capabilities of an AI, so we were quite surprised in one or two cases where the program actually found them,” Gowers said.

AlphaProof works similarly to Google DeepMind’s previous AIs that can beat the best humans at chess and Go. All of these AIs rely on a trial-and-error approach called reinforcement learning, in which the system finds its own way of solving a problem by trying it again and again. However, this method requires a large number of problems written in a language that the AI can understand and verify, and IMO most such problems are written in English.

To avoid this, Thomas Hubert Using Google’s Gemini AI, a language model like the one that powers ChatGPT, the DeepMind researchers and his colleagues transformed these problems into a programming language called Lean, allowing the AI to learn how to solve them.

“You’ll start by solving maybe the simplest problems, and then you’ll be able to learn from solving those simple problems and then tackle the harder problems,” Hubert said at the press conference, and the answers will be generated in a lean language so they can be immediately verified for correctness.

Despite AlphaProof’s impressive performance, it was slow, taking three days to find a solution. That’s compared to 4.5 hours for the contestants, but AlphaProof failed to solve either of the two problems. The problems were about combinatorics, the study of counting and arranging numbers. “We’re still working on figuring out why that is, and if we can do that, that will help us improve the system,” AlphaProof says. Alex Davis At Google DeepMind.

It’s also not clear how AlphaProof arrives at its answers, or whether it uses the same mathematical intuition as humans, Gowers said. But he said Lean’s ability to translate proofs into English makes it easy to check whether they’re correct.

“The results are impressive and a significant milestone,” Jordy Williamson “There have been many attempts to apply reinforcement learning based on formal proofs, but none have been very successful,” say researchers at the University of Sydney in Australia.

Systems like AlphaProof may help working mathematicians develop proofs, but they obviously don’t help them identify the problems they need to solve and tackle, which takes up the majority of researchers’ time, he says. He Yanghui At the London Mathematical Institute.

Hubert said the team hopes that by reducing false responses, AlphaProof can help improve Google’s large-scale language models like Gemini.

Trading firm XTX Markets is offering a $5 million prize to any AI that can win a gold medal at the IMO (dubbed the AI Mathematics Olympiad), but AlphaProof is ineligible because it is not publicly available. “We hope that DeepMind’s progress will encourage more teams to apply for the AIMO prize, and of course we would welcome a public submission from DeepMind itself,” said Alex Gerko of XTX Markets.

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Source: www.newscientist.com

Research reveals new connection between Saharan dust and tropical cyclone precipitation

Posted on July 25, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Huge Saharan dust plumes carried across the Atlantic by trade winds could influence weather in North America by suppressing the development of hurricanes at sea, but the thick dust plumes could also bring heavy rainfall from storms coming onshore, according to a new study.

Vermilion othersThey found a nonlinear, boomerang-shaped relationship between Saharan dust and tropical cyclone rainfall. Image courtesy of Enrique.

“Surprisingly, the main driver of hurricane precipitation is not sea surface temperature or atmospheric moisture, as previously thought, but rather Saharan dust,” said Dr Yuan Wang of Stanford University.

Previous studies have found that human-induced climate change could dramatically reduce Saharan dust transport and increase hurricane rainfall in the coming decades.

But uncertainties remain about questions such as how climate change will affect dust runoff from the Sahara and how much more rainfall from future hurricanes is expected to occur.

“Hurricanes are among the most destructive weather phenomena on Earth,” Dr Wang said.

“Even relatively weak hurricanes can cause heavy rainfall and flooding hundreds of miles inland.”

“I think dust hasn't received enough attention right now in traditional weather forecasting, especially hurricane forecasting.”

Dust can have opposing effects on tropical cyclones, which are classified as hurricanes in the North Atlantic, central North Pacific, and eastern North Pacific when their maximum sustained winds reach 74 miles per hour or greater.

“The dust particles can make ice clouds more efficient in the centre of the hurricane, potentially resulting in more precipitation,” Dr Wang said.

“Dust can also block solar radiation, lowering sea surface temperatures near the center of a storm and weakening tropical cyclones.”

Dr. Wang and his colleagues set out to first develop a machine learning model that could predict hurricane rainfall, and then to identify the underlying mathematical and physical relationships.

They used 19 years of weather data and hourly satellite precipitation measurements to predict the amount of rainfall from individual hurricanes.

Their findings suggest that a key predictor of rainfall is measuring dust optical thickness, or the amount of light that penetrates the dust plume.

They found a boomerang-shaped relationship in which precipitation increases between dust optical thicknesses of 0.03 and 0.06, then decreases rapidly.

In other words, at higher concentrations, dust goes from enhancing to suppressing rainfall.

“Usually, when the dust loading is low, the microphysical enhancement effect is more pronounced,” Dr Wang said.

“If the dust loading is high, it can shade the ocean surface from sunlight more efficiently, and the so-called 'radiative suppression effect' will dominate.”

a paper A paper describing the findings was published in the journal. Scientific advances.

_____

Lyin Chew others2024. The primary role of Saharan dust on tropical cyclone rainfall in the Atlantic Basin. Scientific advances 10(30); doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adn6106

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

Source: www.sci.news

Google claims that AI has the potential to enhance nearly 66% of jobs in the UK

Posted on July 25, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Google states that nearly 66% of jobs in the UK could be “augmented” by AI, with only a small percentage of jobs at risk of complete elimination. The company emphasizes the importance of supporting workers to utilize AI technology to improve efficiency rather than fearing job loss.

Debbie Weinstein, managing director of Google UK, highlights the low adoption rate of AI tools in workplaces and emphasizes the need for people to feel confident and capable in using these technologies to unlock their full potential.

Research commissioned by Google from think tank Public First reveals that 61% of UK jobs will be significantly impacted by AI, with only 31% remaining unaffected by the technology. Certain industries like social care, transportation, and accommodation and food services, which involve complex physical labor, are less likely to be automated.

Public First estimates that only a few jobs will become obsolete due to AI, with the majority of jobs expected to be enhanced instead. Google has partnered with various organizations to introduce AI technologies in a way that enhances worker capabilities without replacing them.

The government is also supporting the adoption of AI across the economy to drive growth and provide new opportunities for workers. Minister for AI, Feriel Clarke MP, emphasizes the importance of AI skills training to help workers thrive in the changing job market.

Public First predicts that full adoption of AI over the next six years could bring significant economic benefits to the UK, with an annual growth rate of 2.6% driven by technology alone. Google claims that using generative AI could save the average UK worker 100 hours a year, marking the biggest improvement in productivity since the introduction of Google Search.

Despite some controversies surrounding AI tools like Gemini AI, Google continues to invest in AI products and features to enhance user experiences. The company aims to revamp Google search with AI Briefs, although this has faced criticism for potentially reducing traffic to publisher sites.

Source: www.theguardian.com

Building the moon base 3 meters underground to prevent radiation exposure.

Posted on July 25, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

A base below the surface of the moon may be needed to protect moon residents from radiation.

Shutterstock/Shiva Shankara

To protect astronauts on the Moon from harmful radiation, a long-term lunar base would need to be protected by 2-3 metres of regolith – the layer of rock and dust on the Moon’s surface.

Guo Jingnan and Mikhail Dbinde Researchers at the Hefei University of Science and Technology in China analyzed how the thickness of shielding for a lunar base would affect radiation doses for people living on the Moon. Their study included using lunar soil as shielding as well as additional artificial shielding.

According to Guo, there are two main types of radiation that are dangerous to astronauts: the ubiquitous background levels of galactic cosmic rays, which pose a long-term cancer risk, and solar energetic particles (SEPs) from sporadic solar activity. These SEPs can cause more serious symptoms of radiation exposure, such as skin damage and damage to bone marrow and lymphatic tissue, which are involved in the production of blood cells and platelets. In severe cases, exposure to SEPs can lead to death.

“The amount of radiation on the lunar surface is not constant,” Guo said. “For a short lunar stay that does not encounter a strong SEP, the radiation impact should be small.”

But if a solar explosion were to occur, the danger could be enormous. For example, at the end of the Apollo program, Apollo 16 landed astronauts on the Moon for a few days in April 1972. It was followed by Apollo 17 in December of the same year. During that time, there was a massive radiation storm.

“A very large SEP event could have occurred during September, potentially killing any unprotected astronauts on the lunar surface,” Guo said.

The study also found that too little regolith shielding could be worse than no shielding at all, because lunar soil scatters radiation and produces various types of secondary particles, including neutrons. This secondary radiation peaks about 50 centimetres deep on the lunar surface but drops off rapidly beyond that.

“Neutrons have a large biological impact because they interact efficiently with the human body and induce radiation effects in internal organs,” Guo said. “With about 50 centimeters of shielding, neutrons can account for more than 90 percent of the total effective radiation dose.”

The study found that a three-metre deep base could safely house the same crew for more than 20 years without exceeding lifetime and annual radiation limits set by the space agency.

NASA and the Russian Space Agency impose different occupational radiation dose limits for astronauts, at 600 millisieverts and 1000 mSv, respectively. Both agencies also impose annual radiation exposure limits. The annual natural radiation exposure on Earth is approximately 2.4 mSv..

Guo says two metres of shielding would be enough for a single crew member to stay on the moon for no more than a few months, and that crew members could return to Earth frequently enough to avoid exceeding lifetime and annual radiation health limits, she says.

The most practical way to reduce radiation exposure would be to give the base natural shielding, by building it in an existing cave or lava tube, or by constructing habitats below the surface, Guo said.

Better prediction of solar storms is also important to keep astronauts safe when they leave base and conduct surface activities, she said.

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Moon/
Space Exploration

Source: www.newscientist.com

Dressing up as a coral raises awareness of marine pollution

Posted on July 25, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Cosplay Corallation

Getting someone, anyone, to notice what they've discovered is a problem for almost every scientist (and also a problem for almost anyone who discovers almost anything).

Mark Patterson and his colleagues at Northeastern University in Massachusetts tried a theatrical approach to raising awareness about marine microplastics. They found success by cosplaying at San Diego Comic-Con (“Mindful Engagement”). Patterson dressed up as a giant coral and wielded a sword-like “microplastic harvesting device,” while another member of the team dressed up as Amphitrite, the Greek sea goddess, “with bracelets and hair made from plastic debris.”

“The novelty of our costumes and accessories, not a traditional collection of cosplay characters, proved to be an appealing way to engage convention-goers,” they say. “Participants ranged from 1-9 people at a time, and engagements lasted from 1-8 minutes.”

Reader's Latest Issue: Journal of Marine Education If you're sufficiently inspired by these inspiring photos of the adventure, read up on microplastics.

what's on your mind?

The feedback makes people who think professionally about thinking wonder if anyone really thinks that the thinker knows much about thinking.

Thinkers who think about thinking go by many names, including cognitive scientists, brain scientists, neuroscientists, neuroeconomists, philosophers, neurophilosophers, psychologists, neuropsychologists, psychiatrists, neuropsychologists, therapists, neurotherapists, theologians, neurotheologists, and historians of ideas.

Never mind that they don't always praise each other, but call each other by various names.

Experts are debating consciousness: in the past five years alone, nearly 2,000 academic papers have been published exploring the question, “What is consciousness?”

And they ruminate about rumination. For example, Christopher Martin Kowalski, Donald Saklowski, and Julie Aitken-Sharmer of the University of Western Ontario in Canada wrote in May:What are you ruminating about? Development and validation of a content-dependent measure of rumination.“These three people who ruminate say they believe that existing measures of rumination assess ruminative thinking, regardless of the content of the rumination.”

What is the content of these ruminators' own ruminations? They give us glimpses of it in some of their other papers.

Shermer said in 2023:A desire for loud cars with modified mufflers is predicted by being male and by higher scores on psychopathy and sadism.” “.

Kowalski and Saklofske:Fanatical misdeeds” “.

Saklofske also stated in print:Measuring Gerotphobia, Gerotophilia, and Catagelasticism” “.

Perhaps you, too, will turn to the dictionary and ponder over gelotophobia, gelotophilia, and katagelasticism.

Explosive Insights

Questions arising from underground explosions, buried embalmed bodies, toxic groundwater (Feedback, July 20) and more continue to provoke people’s thinking.

William Drennan, a law professor at Southern Illinois University, takes a pessimistic view of embalming practices. writing Dickinson Law Review “Attempts to make coffins airtight and waterproof have led to a phenomenon known as 'Exploding Coffin Syndrome.' Essentially, attempts to make coffins airtight and waterproof lead to the disturbing conclusion that as the body decays, heat, gases and liquids build up inside the coffin, eventually causing an explosion.”

Apart from the intrinsic value of tradition, “there seems to be no benefit to embalming it after it has been made public,” Drennan said.

Recognizing the intrinsic value of knowledge, Guo Wei and his colleagues at the People's Liberation Army Military University of Technology The results of their extensive investigation were published in the magazine Underground Space. On “Theory and Testing of Underground Explosions”.

They conducted “numerous field tests and numerical simulations” [that] It is being implemented both domestically and internationally.”

While not specifically mentioning exploded, buried, and embalmed bodies, the team warns: “Calculating the parameters of the ground shock caused by an underground explosion is a complex energy-coupling problem.”

Telling all

There are two additions to the collection from Feedback titled “The Title Tells You Everything You Need to Know.”

“Man pricks finger and smells foul for five years” Enlightened the reader Lancet In 1996,Dizziness in discus throwers is related to motion sickness caused during spinning“Notify subscribers Journal of Otolaryngology the year of 2000.

If you've come across a similarly offensive, rancid, or blindingly obvious example, please send it (along with citation details) to Telltale titles, c/o Feedback.

Marc Abrahams is the founder of the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony and co-founder of the journal Annals of Improbable Research. He previously worked on unusual uses of computers. His website is Impossible.

Do you have a story for feedback?

You can submit articles for Feedback by emailing feedback@newscientist.com. Please include your home address. This week's and past Feedback can be found on our website.

Source: www.newscientist.com

Review of Arranger: Role-Playing Puzzle Adventure – Surprising Twists and Turns | Games

Posted on July 25, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

debtFor Gemma, her life is a puzzle. Ever since she was left on a stranger's doorstep as a baby, she's never felt like she belonged, and she's desperate to know what the world is like outside the small town where no one ever leaves. What's more, when she moves, the whole world moves with her, like sliding tiles, a series of conveyor belts. It's the puzzle that gets her from point A to point B.

Each scene in Arranger: Role Puzzling Adventure is its own sliding block puzzle, where you need to think a couple steps ahead to move Gemma and the surrounding objects in the right direction. Some things don't move with Gemma, like purple static-covered rocks and robotic birds, but everything else does. So you'll need to carry a sword towards an intruding monster, a key towards a door, or a banana towards a shy orangutan. As long as Gemma's path isn't blocked, when she hits the end of a row or column, she'll reappear at the opposite end, adding another layer of spatial logic.

The game is hard to describe, but strangely enough, it's incredibly intuitive to play. I'm not sure exactly how I solved some of the rooms (I had been struggling for ages with a particularly tricky one with lasers and mannequins, and then suddenly it wasn't). My brain just figured out the rules. It made sense how Gemma moved along a tiled conveyor belt. The arrangers added surprising twists to these rules, introducing rafts to cross water, joysticks to control robots, grappling hooks, and more. I'd probably play it for 30 minutes to an hour before moving on to the next idea. It pushed the sliding block puzzle idea to its limits.

The cutesy fantasy-inspired art style and writing didn't do much to complement the puzzles for me; it's not without personality, but it felt mostly perfunctory. Arranger hints at a coming-of-age story for misfits, but doesn't really deliver on it. Instead, it's full of surreal vignettes, like shearing strange creatures for a painter who uses them as muses, or a teenager trying to sneak out of her parents' house to meet up with her long-distance boyfriend. The cartoon-inspired frames indicate the action and emotion that happens between puzzle scenes, but Arranger feels more cerebral than emotional.

Sure, it was brain-wracking at times; I briefly couldn't understand the logic of the puzzle's conveyor belt, not figuring out how to get three blocks to land on three separate switches at the same time, and just moving things around in circles. But mostly I felt trapped, racing through levels, placing them almost by instinct, and feeling like I was playing Tetris. I've reached the end of Jenna's adventure, so I'm definitely done with block puzzles for a while. But it's rare to play a game that explores one great idea so thoroughly.

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Source: www.theguardian.com

Microsoft IT outage causes $5.4 billion loss for US Fortune 500 companies following CrowdStrike global outage

Posted on July 25, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

According to insurers, a global technology outage caused by a faulty CrowdStrike update is estimated to cost Fortune 500 companies in the United States $5.4 billion. Cybersecurity companies have pledged to take measures to prevent such incidents in the future.

The projected economic losses do not factor in tech giant Microsoft, which experienced widespread system outages during the event.

Banking, healthcare, and major airlines are anticipated to bear the brunt of the impact, as reported by insurance company Parametric. Total insured losses for Fortune 500 companies, excluding Microsoft, are estimated to range between $540 million and $1.08 billion.

The CrowdStrike outage led to the disruption of thousands of flights, hospitals, and payment systems, marking it as the largest IT outage in history. Companies across industries are still struggling to recover from the damages. This incident exposed the fragility of modern technology systems, where a single faulty update can halt operations globally.

CrowdStrike, a Texas-based cybersecurity company worth billions, has seen a 22% drop in its shares since the outage. It has apologized for causing the tech crisis and has released a report detailing the issues with the update.

The root cause of the outage was an update pushed to CrowdStrike’s Falcon platform, a cloud-based service aimed at protecting businesses from cyber threats. The update contained a bug that resulted in 8.5 million Windows machines crashing simultaneously.

CrowdStrike has committed to conducting more thorough testing of its software before updates and implementing staged updates to prevent similar widespread outages in the future. It also plans to provide a more detailed report on the outage’s causes in the upcoming weeks.

As one of the largest cybersecurity companies globally, valued at around $83 billion prior to the outage, CrowdStrike serves many Fortune 1000 companies worldwide. The impact of the failed update was substantial due to its broad reach, underscoring how heavily reliant companies are on similar products for their operations.

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Several companies continue to face challenges in recovering from the outage, with Delta Air Lines still experiencing disruptions after canceling or rescheduling numerous flights. This situation has left frustrated passengers stranded. Panicked Parents Delta Air Lines has launched an investigation into reaching the affected children, and the U.S. Department of Transportation is investigating its handling of the matter.

Source: www.theguardian.com

Black Myth: Wukong – The Most Anticipated and Talked-About Video Game of the Summer | Games

Posted on July 25, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

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When Chinese developer Game Science announced its first console game, Black Myth: Wukong, last year, it immediately created a stir. Inspired by the great 16th-century Chinese novel Journey to the West, the action-packed film sees the titular mythical monkey Sun Wukong battling demons from Buddhist folklore and sword-wielding anthropomorphic foxes in beautifully rendered forests. Smartphone games are extraordinarily popular in China but console game developers remain scarce, so anticipation for Wukong was at an all-time high in Game Science’s home country. Within 24 hours, the trailer had garnered two million views on YouTube and more than 10 million on Chinese video-sharing site Bilibili, surprising and delighting its creators. One excited fan said:
Breaking into the developer’s office
eager for more information about the game.

After playing Wukong for an hour and a half in a London hotel suite, with a few Game Science folks nervously watching, I was convinced that, by some miracle, this masterful Dark Souls-infused take on Chinese mythology lived up to the promise of its splashy trailer, blending fluid combat with reflex-testing difficulty and the expensive cinematic sheen of God of War. Sprinting through Wukong’s jungles, ducking and dodging between hordes of terrifying flora and fauna, you’ll face everything from gi-clad toads to nightmarish giant-headed infants. Unlike many of its brutally difficult FromSoftware-esque brethren, Wukong’s difficulty feels judged by experts. My ape-man avatar met a gruesome end more times than I’d like to admit, but I persisted. Eventually I defeated enough foes to unlock new abilities. Soon I was perched on a staff mid-attack, gaining the upper hand against the savage monsters of myth. I can flit through the forest like a stealthy cicada, summon flames with my sword, and eventually take down a werewolf the size of a truck roaring atop a crumbling temple.

“We feel a lot of pressure,” recalls one of Game Science’s co-founders, Ted (who Game Science declined to reveal his full name), through an interpreter. “This is our first time working on PC and console games, and we’re a new studio, so we’re really grateful for the players’ and the market’s openness towards us. Their enthusiasm encourages us. But the Chinese mindset tends to be risk-oriented, so when faced with such great encouragement, the best we can do is to do our best to meet players’ expectations… and communicate with them in a very sincere way.”

Unfortunately, when I talk about this, I rarely get any honest communication.
Report from IGN
The email was about alleged sexist comments made by multiple developers and people in leadership positions at Game Science. I offered Ted the opportunity to speak about the alleged misogynistic posts and whether or not he thought they were representative of Game Science’s values. However, I received a hasty “no comment” from the UK PR representative, followed after a long wait by a longer statement, also “no comment”, relayed through Ted’s translator. I was then told that Game Science’s US PR agency would follow up with a prepared statement later, which read, “Game Science is focused on demos at this time and will only answer questions about gameplay.”

The same thing happened to an IGN reporter.
Demo in LA
It’s disappointing that Game Science chose to invite journalists to talk and play the game last month, but refuses to answer questions. Perhaps there’s nothing reassuring to say. A generous interpretation of the situation would be that the inexperienced studio is afraid to say the wrong thing. But by staying silent, Game Science is also failing to distance itself (and the game) from a number of crude, derogatory and misogynistic comments directed at its employees and management.

Journey to the West is, of course, no stranger to the world of video games; from Ninja Theory’s 2010 Xbox 360 adaptation Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, written by Alex Garland and starring Andy Serkis, to the late Akira Toriyama’s world-conquering Dragon Ball, its mythology and ape world are ripe for gaming. Black Myth: Wukong’s stunning visuals, cinematic beauty and exhilarating sense of speed make it the best playable adaptation of the fable to date, but the uninhibited excitement I would otherwise feel is trampled by the elephant in the room.

Source: www.theguardian.com