Drinking alcohol is bad for you, but it is often a social activity.
Violeta Stoymenova/Getty Images
Rigorous research suggests that drinking even small amounts of alcohol can shorten your lifespan, and that only people with serious health problems would benefit from moderate drinking. That's the conclusion of a review of 107 studies that looked at how drinking alcohol at specific ages affects the risk of dying from all causes.
“People need to be skeptical of the claims that the industry has been peddling for years.” Tim Stockwell “They clearly have a strong interest in promoting their products as not cancer-causing but as life-prolonging,” said researchers from the University of Victoria in Canada.
Stockwell says people should be told that while the risks of moderate drinking are small, it's not beneficial. “It may not be as dangerous as a lot of other things, but it's important that consumers are aware,” he says. “I also think it's important that manufacturers inform consumers of the risks through warning labels.”
The best way to assess the effects of alcohol would be to randomly select people who drink and who don't drink as children, and then monitor their health and drinking for the rest of their lives. Because such studies are not possible, researchers instead have to ask people about their drinking habits and follow them over a much shorter period of time.
By the 2000s, a number of studies of this kind had been done, suggesting that the relationship between alcohol consumption and risk of death at a given age follows a J-shaped curve: drinking a little alcohol slightly reduces your risk of dying from any cause compared with a non-drinker, but as you drink more alcohol, your risk increases sharply.
Stockwell says he was convinced the science was well-established at the time, but he and other researchers have since Such studies have serious flaws.
The main problem is that they often don't compare people who have never drunk alcohol to people who have. Many studies instead compare people who no longer drink to people who still drink. People who stop drinking, especially later in life, often have health problems, so moderate drinkers seem healthy in comparison, Stockwell says.
Although some studies claim to compare current drinkers with “never drinkers,” the definition of the latter group often actually includes occasional drinkers, Stockwell says. For example, one study defined people who had up to 11 drinks a year as lifetime abstainers.
“In our opinion, the majority of research has not addressed this potential source of bias,” Stockwell says, “To be clear, people have tried to address this, but we don't think they've done so adequately.”
In fact, his team found that of 107 studies they reviewed, only six adequately addressed these sources of bias, and none of those six found any risk reduction with moderate drinking.
” [high-quality] “The research suggests a linear relationship,” Stockwell says, “the more you drink, the higher your risk of heart disease. Our study looks at total mortality, and it's clear that heart disease is the main issue.”
The review says that it is very clear that lower quality studies are more likely to suggest a beneficial effect. Duane Mellor At the British Dietetic Association.
But he points out that this doesn't take into account the social aspects of moderate drinking. “While it's healthier to socialize without drinking alcohol, the benefits of spending time with other people are likely to outweigh the risks of consuming one or two units of alcohol,” he says. “Perhaps the challenge is to limit alcohol intake in this way.”
IIt’s not often that I get excited about the announcement of a new podcast, but in the past few weeks, that’s happened not once but twice. The first was the podcast debut of Gracie Nuttall, sister of the late cancer activist Laura Nuttall. Dead Siblings Association
She’s teamed up with the founder of Sibling Support Charity to take an intimate look at what it’s like to lose a brother or sister. Room to grieve
The show was created by two mothers who met after losing their children to cancer to help others cope with grief, and what it lacks in production value it more than makes up for with its altruism, courage, and honesty in its treatment of themes like getting through difficult anniversaries and how the experience of loss changes over time.
This week we also have a less inspiring historical analysis of toilets, which, alongside a quirky topical satire from the makers of Have I Got News for You and an immersive attempt to bring birdwatching to hipsters, is one of those films that’s more likely to leave you snorting with laughter than dampening your handkerchief.
Alexi Duggins Deputy TV Editor
This week’s picks
Sissy Spacek co-stars with Owen Wilson and Schuyler Fisk in the film Tom Slick: Mystery Hunter. Photo: Rebecca Cabbage/InVision/AP
Starring Owen Wilson, Sissy Spacek, and Schuyler Fisk, the story is about “the most interesting man you’ve never heard of.” Wilson relishes playing Slick, a legendary scientist, intrepid explorer, and sometime spy who recounts his many adventures. His granddaughter Liv (Fisk) and her mother Claire (Spacek) hunt for the Yeti and find hidden tapes detailing Slick’s exploits facing off against notorious bank robber Machine Gun Kelly. Hannah Verdier
A sponge on a stick, thunderbolts in the bum and a devil in the toilet bowl: delving deep into history’s U-curves can reveal fascinating facts. Dr. David Musgrove teams up with a team of historians to explore Roman, Medieval, Tudor, and Victorian toilet habits in a four-part series that reveals a lot about the past. HV
Is Donald Trump’s running mate interesting? And that Is there ever a photo more destined for history than Ed Miliband eating a bacon sandwich? Created by the team behind Have I Got News for You to fill the gap between the TV series, this show is predictably stimulating and full of jokes. Alexi Duggins
In this immersive birdwatching series, hipster amateur ornithologist Matt Spracklen goes on weekly walks with bird experts. The first episode of Season 2 is a relaxed and fun listen as he visits Sherwood Forest with Springwatch wildlife experts. The bottom line? A common way to identify a bird is by its “sem” (the overall impression you get of the bird’s shape, movement, etc.). advertisement
Elizabeth Day knows a thing or two about writing a bestselling novel, but in this insightful how-to series she takes a backseat and hands the reins over to literary powerhouses novelist Sarah Collins, agent Nell Andrew, and publisher Charmaine Lovegrove. First, how to know if your idea is worth pursuing. Holly Richardson
There is a podcast
Poseidon is one of the gods featured in “Let’s Talk About Myths, Baby!” Photo: Cristiano Fronteddu/Alamy
this week, Charlie Lindler 5 best podcasts Ancient HistoryFrom comedic takes on the stories they don’t teach you in school from the star of Horrible Histories, to timeless, myth-busting adventures.
It is widely known that excess body fat can lead to health issues like heart disease and diabetes. However, recent research has found a correlation between fat distribution in the arms and abdomen and the risk of developing dementia.
Dementia, a group of neurodegenerative disorders that includes Alzheimer’s disease, is on the rise globally. By 2050, it is projected that 139 million people worldwide will be affected. In the UK, it is estimated that one in three people born currently may develop dementia.
The causes of dementia are complex and not fully understood. However, a study published in the Journal of Neurology suggests that having high levels of body fat in the arms and abdomen can significantly increase the likelihood of developing neurodegenerative diseases like dementia.
The study involved over 400,000 participants, of whom a subset developed neurodegenerative diseases. After considering other factors like high blood pressure, smoking, and diabetes, the researchers found that individuals with higher levels of abdominal and arm fat had an increased risk of developing these conditions.
The researchers also found that greater muscle strength was associated with a lower risk of disease. They suggest that targeted interventions to reduce abdominal and arm fat may be more effective in preventing neurodegeneration than general weight management.
Further research is needed to fully understand how body composition affects overall health outcomes. The team plans to investigate the impact of body composition on other health issues like heart failure in the future.
About our experts
Xu Shishi Dr. Xu is a clinical physician specializing in endocrinology and metabolism at West China Hospital of Sichuan University, China. With a background in epidemiology and evidence-based research, his research interests include metabolic diseases and large-scale population cohort data analysis.
Astronomers Webb’s MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) The image was taken of Epsilon Indi Ab, a gas giant several times the mass of Jupiter, located about 12 light years from Earth.
This image of Epsilon Indi Ab was taken with a coronagraph on Webb’s MIRI instrument. Image courtesy NASA / ESA / CSA / Webb / STScI / E. Matthews, Max Planck Institute for Astronomy.
Of the 25 planets that have been directly imaged to date, all are less than 500 million years old, and all but six are less than 100 million years old.
The newly imaged planet orbits Epsilon Indi A (HD 209100, HIP 108870), a K5V type star that is roughly the age of the Sun (3.7 to 5.7 billion years).
“Previous observations of this system have been more indirect measurements of the star, which gave us advance knowledge that there is likely to be a giant planet in the system tugging at the star,” said Dr Caroline Morley, an astronomer at the University of Texas at Austin.
“That’s why our team chose this system as our first observational system at Webb.”
“This discovery is fascinating because the planet is very similar to Jupiter – it’s a little warmer and more massive, but it’s more similar to Jupiter than any other planet imaged so far,” said Dr Elizabeth Matthews, astronomer at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy.
“The cold planet is very dark and most of its radiation is in the mid-infrared. Webb is ideal for mid-infrared imaging, but it’s very difficult to do from the ground.”
“We also needed good spatial resolution to distinguish planets from stars in the images, and the large Webb mirror helps a lot in this regard.”
Epsilon Indi Ab is one of the coolest exoplanets ever directly detected, with an estimated temperature of 2 degrees Celsius (35 degrees Fahrenheit). This makes it the coolest planet ever imaged outside the solar system, and cooler than all but one free-floating brown dwarf.
The planet is only about 100 degrees Celsius (180 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than the gas giants in our solar system.
This provides astronomers with a rare opportunity to study the atmospheric composition of a true solar system analogue.
“Astronomers have imagined there could be planets in this system for decades, and fictional planets orbiting Epsilon Indi have been the setting for Star Trek episodes, novels and video games such as Halo,” Dr Morley said.
“It’s exciting to actually see the planet out there and start measuring its properties.”
Epsilon Indi Ab is the 12th closest exoplanet currently known to Earth and the closest planet with a mass greater than Jupiter.
Astronomers chose to study Epsilon Indi A because the system suggested the possibility of planets, using a technique called radial velocity, which measures the back and forth wobble of the host star along the line of sight.
“We expected there to be a planet in this system because the radial velocity suggested its presence, but the planet we found was different to what we expected,” Dr Matthews said.
“It’s about twice as massive, it’s a little farther from its star, and its orbit is different from what we would expect. We don’t yet know what causes this discrepancy.”
“The planet’s atmosphere also seems to differ slightly from what the models predict.”
“So far, only a few atmospheric photometry measurements have been made, making it difficult to draw any conclusions, but the planet is fainter than expected at shorter wavelengths.”
“This could mean that there is a lot of methane, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide in the planet’s atmosphere, absorbing shorter wavelengths of light. It could also suggest a very cloudy atmosphere.”
a paper The findings were published in the journal. Nature.
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E.C. Matthews othersA temperate superjupiter photographed in mid-infrared by JWST. NaturePublished online July 24, 2024, doi: 10.1038/s41586-024-07837-8
This article has been edited based on the original NASA release.
Komodo dragon (Komodo dragon coatiThe Komodo dragon is the largest living predatory lizard, and its serrated, curved, blade-like teeth provide valuable analogues for studying tooth structure and function and for comparison with extinct species such as theropod dinosaurs. The Komodo dragon's teeth only have a thin layer of enamel, but they are still capable of meeting the piercing and pulling feeding demands. A new study reveals that the Komodo dragon's teeth have unique adaptations to maintain their sharpness, with serrations and an orange layer of iron-rich material at the tips of the teeth.
The pigmented cutting edge of a Komodo dragon tooth. Image courtesy of LeBlanc others., doi:10.1038/s41559-024-02477-7.
Native to Indonesia, the Komodo dragon is the largest extant monitor lizard.
These creatures can grow up to 3 metres (10 feet) in length and run at speeds of up to 20 kilometres (12 miles) per hour.
They have sharp, curved teeth similar to those of many carnivorous theropod dinosaurs.
They eat almost any type of meat, from small reptiles and birds to deer, horses and buffalo, tearing and tearing at the flesh of their prey.
“The Komodo dragon, the world's largest lizard, is indisputably an impressive animal,” said Dr Benjamin Tapley, curator of reptiles and amphibians at the Zoological Society of London.
“Having worked with them at London Zoo for 12 years, I continue to be fascinated by them and this latest discovery only further highlights how incredible they are.”
“Komodo dragons are sadly endangered and this discovery not only improves our understanding of how this iconic dinosaur lived, but also helps us to better appreciate this magnificent reptile as we work towards conservation.”
To understand the chemical and structural makeup of Komodo dragon teeth, Dr Tapley, researcher Aaron LeBlanc of King's College London and their colleagues scoured museums for Komodo dragon skulls and teeth.
They also studied the teeth of Ganas, a 15-year-old Komodo dragon who lived at London Zoo.
Using advanced imaging and chemical analysis, the researchers were able to observe that the iron in Komodo dragon enamel is concentrated in a thin coating on the serrations and tips of the teeth.
This protective layer keeps the serrated edges of the teeth sharp and ready to use.
“Komodo dragons, like carnivorous dinosaurs, have curved, serrated teeth for tearing apart their prey,” Dr LeBlanc said.
“We hope to use these similarities to learn more about how carnivorous dinosaurs ate and whether they used iron in their teeth, like the Komodo dragon.”
“Unfortunately, with current technology we can't tell you whether fossil dinosaur teeth had a lot of iron or not.”
“We suspect that chemical changes that occur during fossilization may obscure how much iron was originally present.”
“But what we found is that large carnivorous dinosaurs like Tyrannosaurus had changed the structure of the enamel on the cutting edges of their teeth.”
“So while the Komodo dragon changed the chemical composition of its teeth, some dinosaurs changed the structure of their tooth enamel to maintain a sharp cutting edge.”
“Further analysis of Komodo's teeth may reveal other markers within the iron coating that were not altered during fossilization.”
“With these markers, we can know for sure whether dinosaurs also had iron-plated teeth, giving us a better understanding of these ferocious predators.”
ARH LeBlanc othersKomodo dragon teeth encrusted with iron and intricate dental enamel of carnivorous reptiles. Nat Ecol EvolPublished online July 24, 2024, doi: 10.1038/s41559-024-02477-7
Monday marked the hottest day ever recorded on Earth, surpassing the previous record.
The global average temperature soared to 17.15 degrees Celsius (62.87 degrees Fahrenheit) on Monday, reported by the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.
Climate change and the El Niño phenomenon contributed to the extreme heat experienced this summer.
Sunday’s record as the hottest day ever recorded on Earth lasted only one day.
This week saw two consecutive days with the highest temperatures ever recorded on Earth.
Copernicus attributed the record-high global temperatures to an unusually warm winter in Antarctica.
Despite the record-breaking temperatures, climate scientists anticipate further warming in the future due to human-induced climate change.
On Monday, people braved scorching heat in Tehran, Iran; China; France; Florida; Athens, Greece; and Tokyo. Reuters, AP, Getty
Bob Henson, a meteorologist and climate writer at Yale University’s Climate Connections, expressed concern over the recent temperature spikes, emphasizing the urgent need to address climate change.
Extreme heat conditions have led to triple-digit temperatures in various regions, including California, raising wildfire concerns.
Furthermore, the El Niño weather pattern has exacerbated the summer heat, contributing to higher global temperatures.
Henson predicts a cooling La Niña event later this year, which may help lower average temperatures.
Despite potential fluctuations, the long-term trend indicates a continuous rise in global temperatures if climate change remains unchecked.
Copernicus analyzes global temperature trends using climate reanalysis data dating back to 1940, monitoring temperature changes worldwide.
While Monday’s record could be surpassed, experts suggest a slight decrease in temperatures in the near future.
“The phenomenon is ongoing, and temperature patterns may shift, but early data indicates a potential cooling trend in the coming days,” mentioned Carlo Buontempo, director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service.
As you prepare to settle in to watch the latest generation of Olympians and Paralympians display their incredible athletic abilities, the irony is unlikely to escape many, especially if you're watching with your kids.
In May, the World Health Organisation reaffirmed that the majority of young people around the world do not get enough exercise, with children in England and Wales being the most physically inactive in the world. As with so many other issues, screens are often the ones to blame here, but as some of our special issue on physical activity highlights (see 'How much exercise do kids really need, and what kind?'), the reality is more complex.
It's true that time spent in front of TVs, iPads, and other devices competes with opportunities for physical activity, and we know that spending time outdoors, in nature, and interacting with others has many benefits that kids who are glued to their screens miss out on. But there are plenty of other reasons why kids are inactive, and often these are easy problems to fix.
Earlier this year we reported that school uniforms may be contributing to the problem by being too restrictive, but this could be easily fixed by simply changing uniform policies. Meanwhile, the emphasis on competitive and elite sport in schools takes the fun out of physical activity and causes many children to lose interest.
This is especially true for girls, whose gender gap in physical activity emerges early in life and widens dramatically in the later grades. The fun gap These include issues with periods, embarrassment about performing in front of boys, etc. Providing separate sports sessions for boys and girls, with an emphasis on activity and play rather than competition, can be a big help.
So while events like the Olympics and Paralympics are inspiring, our conversation should focus less on competitive sport and exercise and more on fun, accessible activities that are easy to incorporate into everyday life for everyone.
Lunar samples collected by NASA's Apollo missions continue to enable new discoveries.
NASA/ESA
The Moon's largest crater is thought to have formed 4.338 billion years ago when a huge rock struck the lunar surface, leaving behind a swirling pool of magma, suggesting that Earth was experiencing extreme cosmic upheaval at the same time.
Chemical analysis of tiny zircon crystals found in lunar samples revealed that many of them solidified from magma about 4.3 billion years ago, but without measuring whether they all formed at precisely the same time, there was no way to know for sure whether many small impacts or one giant one melted the lunar crust into magma.
Melanie Balboni Balboni and her colleagues at Arizona State University solved this problem by measuring with extreme precision the ages of 10 zircon crystals that were brought back to Earth as part of NASA's Apollo missions. “To do this kind of dating, you have to melt the zircon,” Balboni says. “The lunar material is so precious, and there are so few reliable labs in the world that can do that, so no one has dared to do it. When I first did it, I was so scared.”
The researchers found that the crystals all formed at the same time, 4.338 billion years ago, which indicates that they likely formed in one giant impact. The same impact that created these crystals probably also formed the South Pole-Aitken Basin, the largest crater on the Moon, unless that impact crater was subsequently obscured by shifting sand or other impactors, Balboni says.
Not only is this a pivotal event in the history of the Moon, but it also tells us something about the space environment on Earth at that time. “The Moon is a very small object compared to Earth, so it was very likely that something very big struck Earth at that time,” Balboni said. “That big rock could have left behind cosmic gifts, like water, that might have helped the birth of life.”
Illustration of the Deinotherium genus, an animal that became extinct after the evolution of humans
Heinrich Harder/Florilegius/Alamy
An AI-powered analysis of thousands of fossils suggests that human hunting was the main factor behind the extinction of dozens of elephant-like species over the past two million years.
The study found that the extinction rate of these animals increased five-fold when early humans evolved about 1.8 million years ago, and then increased again when modern humans emerged. Today, only three species of elephants from this group remain.
“If early humans had never appeared, the number of species would probably still be increasing.” Torsten Hauffe At the University of Fribourg in Switzerland.
Hauffe said the number of species of elephant-like animals known as proboscideans, from the Latin word for “nose,” increased millions of years before humans arrived, probably due to the evolution of stronger teeth for eating grass.
By 1.8 million years ago, when the area began to overlap with early human habitats, there were about 30 species of organisms living in Africa. Deinotherium bozaciIt had downward-pointing, backward-facing fangs growing from its lower jaw. D. Bozaci It became extinct about 1 million years ago.
By the time modern humans began to spread across the world about 130,000 years ago, only 15 species of proboscideans remained. Most of these species had gone extinct, leaving only the Asian elephant, the African bush elephant, and the African forest elephant.
To find out why, Hauffe and his colleagues developed a statistical model that uses fossil finds to estimate how rates of extinction and speciation have changed over time, and the possible reasons for these changes.
Previous models of this kind have been limited to looking at only the impact of one factor, such as climate, but by using AI, the team’s model can estimate the relative contributions of many factors, Hauffe says. “We put it all together in one analysis.”
The study concluded that overlap with humans was the most important factor contributing to extinction, followed by geographical distribution and tooth and tusk shape. For example, species restricted to islands, such as the dwarf Sicilian elephant, Palaeoloxodon falconeri, They were much more likely to become extinct.
Climate change, which some believe is the primary cause of extinction, came in fourth after these other factors, so the findings support the overhunting hypothesis, which suggests that human hunting was the primary culprit, Hauffe said.
A computer modelling study of woolly rhinos carried out earlier this year found that Low levels of hunting can drive slow-breeding animals to extinction,To tell Stephen Chan The researcher, from the University of Helsinki in Finland, was not involved in the proboscidean study but helped compile some of the fossil data that was analyzed.
but, 2021 analysis of this data Zhang and his team concluded that while an early human impact with Earth was possible, the underlying cause was climatic.
What's clear, says Zhang, is that early humans didn’t suddenly wipe out proboscideans: “In fact, some of the most fascinating extinct elephant species emerged during this period, including the giant elephants.” Palaeoloxodon These include the giant mammoths of Eurasia, which stood 4 metres at the shoulder and weighed 25 tons, and the familiar woolly mammoths.
Where early humans slaughtered mammoths Palaeoloxodon The species dates back more than a million years, says Chang, “and both lineages have survived for the past 25,000 years alongside prehistoric humans with much more advanced cognitive and technological capabilities.”
A newly identified brain pathway in mice may explain why placebos, or interventions that should have no therapeutic effect, can relieve pain, and the development of drugs that target this pathway could lead to safer alternatives to painkillers such as opioids.
If someone unknowingly takes a sugar pill instead of a painkiller, they still feel better. The placebo effect is a well-known phenomenon in which people's expectations reduce symptoms even in the absence of an effective treatment. “Our brain can solve the pain problem on its own, based on the expectation that a drug or treatment might work,” says Dr. Gregory Scherer At the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
To understand how the brain does this, Scherer and his colleagues recreated the placebo effect in 10 mice using a cage with two chambers: one with a blazingly hot floor and the other with no floor. After three days, the mice learned to associate the second chamber with pain relief.
The researchers then injected molecules into the animals' brains that caused active neurons to light up when viewed under a microscope, and then returned the animals to their cages, but this time they heated both floors.
Although the two chambers were now equally hot, the mice still preferred the second chamber and showed less symptoms of pain, such as licking their paws, while they were there. They also showed more neuronal activity in the cingulate cortex, a brain region involved in processing pain, compared with nine mice that had not been conditioned to associate the second chamber with pain relief.
Further experiments revealed pathways connecting these pain-processing neurons to cells in the pontine nuclei and cerebellum, two brain regions not previously known to play a role in pain relief.
To confirm that this circuit relieved pain, the researchers used a technique called optogenetics, which switches cells on and off with light. This allowed them to activate the newly discovered neural pathway in another group of mice that were placed on a hot floor. On average, these mice took three times longer to lick their paws than mice that didn't have the circuit activated, indicating that they felt less pain.
If this neural pathway explains the placebo effect, “it could open up new strategies for drug development,” he said. Luana Colocca “If we had a drug that could activate the placebo effect, it would be an excellent strategy for pain management,” said University of Maryland researcher David L. Schneider, who was not involved in the study.
“An obvious caveat is that the placebo experience in humans is clearly much more complex. [than in animals]”The pain pathways are very similar to ours,” Scherer said, but because rodents and humans have very similar pain pathways, he believes these findings also apply to humans.
BThis month in design news, tinkering and hobby crafts get the respect they deserve. Read our articles to see where these wonderful activities are being treated as art. We also cover the history of Casio watches and the emerging future of the Apple Watch. Sign up for the Design Review newsletter to receive more articles like this on architecture, sustainability, and crafts every month.
Origami created by origami artist Darryl Bedford (London) Photo: Darryl Bedford
Oscar Wilde once said, “If you want to have fun in life, you have to take something seriously.” So he must have been impressed by the diverse works and collections on display in the new Art Angel exhibition, “Come As You Really Are,” which just opened in Croydon, UK. In January, British-Gujarati artist and filmmaker Hetan Patel put out a call for all passionate people — collectors, crafters, weekend painters — to send in photos and stories about their hobbies. From 1,500 responses, Patel has put together a stunning exhibition featuring everything from handmade banjos and origami to Warhammer figurines and My Little Pony collections. The artist is a huge Spider-Man fan, and the exhibition includes his own Spider-Man-inspired works. “Come As You Really Are” is currently on display at Grantsville in Croydon, but will be touring the UK for the next 18 months.
Patel said: “Sharing something so personal carries with it a vulnerability that often comes in private spaces with the responsibilities of everyday life. But there is great power in collective sharing, and that is at the heart of this project. We hope you will join us in celebrating the unstoppable nature of self-expression that hobby can represent.”
For more information on “Come As You Really Are” and tour locations, Art Angel Website
TinyPod models available in various sizes Photo: TinyPod
If the memory of the iPod still brings back nostalgia, the TinyPod might be just what you need. The new gadget is a strap-less Apple Watch in a case with the familiar old iPod click wheel, which you can use as a limited-function smartphone. You can make calls, send texts, and listen to music, but you can’t easily access social media or play videos. The Tinypod’s selling point is that it’s a “phone away from the phone,” and if you want to limit your screen time without reverting to a dumb phone, this could be the middle ground.
Sure, the TinyPod requires you to have an old Apple Watch gathering dust in a drawer, requires you to turn off wrist detection, and doesn’t count steps, but finding new uses for excess tech always seems like a good idea.
Approximately one in five Londoners is of South Asian descent, and the community has an impact across London’s streets and neighborhoods, and this rich history is celebrated in Blue Crow Media’s latest city guide map.
The publisher has earned a reputation for producing beautiful maps that combine hidden history with outstanding graphics. Previous titles include Brutalist London and Black History London. This latest map was created by urban planner and author Krish Nathaniel and Bushra Mohammed, director of Msoma Architects. It features 50 London locations, including Neasden Abbey, Drummond Street, the Statue of Noor Inayat Khan, and the Koh-i-Noor Diamond.
“In the UK, there’s often a comfortable assumption that our multi-ethnic history started in the 1950s. For South Asians, the story is much longer than many people know. We wanted to make that history visible and visitable,” says Nathaniel. “We want to show the intertwined stories that span every country and faith across the South Asian subcontinent and its diaspora. Anyone from the South Asian community can find themselves in this map, whether they’re 16 or 60.”
The South Asia History London Map is available at: Blue Crow Media and various independent bookstores.
A refurbished coastal pot by architect and leatherworker Martha Summers. Photo: Martha Summers
If you’re wondering whether to repair or replace your belongings, check out Architecture of Repair on Instagram before your next move. The feed explores the possibilities of repair and showcases the work of the Beyond Repair collective. Everyday objects like IKEA lamps, broken bottles, and moth-eaten rugs are restored to beautiful, usable condition by collective members like Phineas Harper, CEO of education charity Open City, architect Sanjukta Jitendar, and Smith Modak, CEO of the UK Green Building Council.
Some of these incredible pieces are also currently on display at the Rotterdam Architecture Biennale in the Netherlands, so be sure to check them out if you want to take a closer look.
“Around 62% of the 222 million tonnes of waste the UK produces each year comes from construction and building,” Harper said. “The UN estimates that e-waste alone is growing five times faster than recycling rates. The transition to a fair and green economy must be focused on restoring a culture of repair, care, maintenance, and restoration.”
Let’s take another look at the IKEA lamp.
“Beyond Repair” is on display at the Rotterdam Architecture Biennale until October 13th. Instagram: @architectureofrepair
It’s hard to believe Casio watches are still 50 years old, but this year the Japanese electronics manufacturer is celebrating the milestone. Everyone’s favorite brand of affordable keyboards and calculators is showcasing some of their vintage classic watches, with a focus on classics from the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s.
If you grew up proudly wearing a G-Shock or adored an old-fashioned calculator watch, prepare to feel a tsunami of nostalgia.
Casio’s first digital watch was the Casiotron, introduced in 1974. It was the world’s first watch with an automatic calendar function. When Casio released a limited special edition of this watch earlier this year, it sold out in the UK within five minutes, with more due to be released later this year.
For more information on the Vintage Series, please visit Casio’s Website.
a A man in a strange, animalistic mask sits slumped in an armchair in a dingy motel room and watches you click a hand-held tally counter. He offers you $14,000 if you keep clicking until the number resets to 10,000, so you do. Occasionally he makes polite but suggestive requests: go faster, go slower, stop and try again, but he remains motionless, except for the occasional flexion of his hand.
Clicking the left mouse button, you wander around the room, admiring the paintings on the walls, the out-of-sync TV, the thermostat, etc. But as you approach the final scene, the man slowly begins to reveal bits and pieces of his life, and the atmosphere of an already dark world grows darker by the minute. This is what the game is all about.
Clickolding has been getting a lot of attention since its release on July 17th, receiving widespread coverage in the gaming press and nearly 500 reviews on PC game store Steam, most of which have been very positive. But what is it about this strange piece of interactive art that’s only 40 minutes long that has captured the hearts of critics and players alike?
That’s partly because Clickolding is a pretty obvious allegory about voyeurism and the sex trade. The man in the chair indirectly enjoys someone else’s use of his precious counter, which he describes as a lover he can no longer satisfy (“We’ve been together a long time, but I just can’t click like you do.”). The relationship between the two people in the room is deliberately left ambiguous, but we know this is no hostage situation; players are free to leave the room when they want, and opening the hotel room door ends the game. And yet, the threat hangs over the room, like a bad smell.
The player character must perform certain physical acts that clearly arouse the seated man, though not overtly explicit (“You’re clicking steadily. That’s good.”). But there’s also emotional labor, as the man reveals aspects of his tattered private life. Power dynamics shift subtly: at various times you’re a servant, a caretaker, a partner, a stranger, all with barely any dialogue.
One of Strange Scaffold’s other creations, an alien airport now run by dogs. Photo: Strange scaffolding
The game also captures a universal aspect of the experience of being confined to a hotel room for an extended period of time. While you’re there, it becomes a strange temporary home. It feels intimate (you undress there, you sleep there) yet alien and oddly fascinating. Who picked that floral wallpaper, that kitschy bedside lamp, that particular painting and why? How does the thermostat work? What’s outside the window? Visually, the room feels natural and detailed; it feels like a room from the latest Resident Evil or Call of Duty.
The clicker was born as an exploration of design principles: At this year’s San Francisco Game Developers Conference, members of studio Aggro Crab bought a clicker at a nearby thrift store, sat down with industry peers in a hotel lobby, and built a game to play with it. One of those peers was Xalavier Nelson Jr, creative director at the experimental indie studio. Strange Scaffoldingis responsible for such unique titles as Space Warlord Organ Trading Simulator and An Airport for Aliens Now Run By Dogs. An evening of oral history at WiredNelson was intrigued by the clicker’s hyper-repetitive appeal and began thinking about how he could use it in a new gaming project.
Clickolding continues the tradition of parody games like Cow Clicker and Cookie Clicker, which were designed to critique first-generation social media games like FarmVille, in which players perform endlessly repetitive tasks to accumulate resources and level up their characters. But by adopting mainstream game design elements—realistic visuals and a first-person camera—Clickolding extends the parody to all games driven by fast clicking, such as shooters and real-time strategy simulations. Here, the man in the chair becomes a metaphor for compelling game mechanics, enticing the player to get faster, better, and more accurate.
As you approach 10,000 clicks it starts to get boring, but you feel compelled, even obligated, to carry on while the man in the chair gives you a glimpse into his fractured life. It’s strange and mundane, uncomfortable and oddly comforting all at the same time. Perhaps the reason this game has attracted so much attention is that the monotony of clicking buttons in a boring motel allows your own thoughts, feelings and experiences to creep into your and the masked man’s room. Rarely have games given you so much room to be scared.
What to Play
Arranger: A role-solving puzzle adventure. Photo: Furniture and mattresses
in Arranger: Role Playing Puzzle Adventureis a cutesy RPG-like game in which you play a young social misfit setting out on his first journey outside the town he grew up in. Except the entire world is a grid of sliding tiles, and as you move, rows of tiles move with you. This turns combat into a sliding-block puzzle where you have to carry your sword to monsters to defeat them, and turns the regular towns, forests, and graveyards into giant game boards. It took me a while to get to grips with it, but the unique mix of story and puzzles is far more interesting than a match-3 puzzle. You may recognize the artist from his groundbreaking 2010 indie game Braid.
Available on: Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4/5 Estimated play time: 6 hr
I I am a person who believes in laughter. I work in the live arts. My primary medium is performance. In my art making I respect the heritage of border crossers, rebellious sexuality, witches and scoundrels. I am known as a sex clown and I am proud to make people laugh.
The best laughter comes from the absurd. It explodes and it spreads. It rumbles and it mutters. It invades rigid, rational, top-down thinking. It mysteriously appears even when you think you shouldn’t. My grandmother Betty used to tell my brother and me, “You’re laughing now, and soon you’ll be crying!” We need tears and hope. I wouldn’t laugh so much if it weren’t for something so serious.
1. Solid Gold Dancer Workout
I grew up watching my mom teach aerobics classes; it’s in my blood. As part of my artistic endeavors, I teach “Grumble Boogie,” a mentally stimulating dance class with a very nerdy ethos. I’ve even taught a 24-hour boogie.
I love this Solid Gold Dancer workout and I encourage you to give it a try, adapt it to your body, and move it. Just look at those outfits and those faces! (I’m obsessed with Darcel.) Dance and laugh, laugh and dance. Today is a healthy day. Thank you, body.
2. Linda Gibson, Judith Lucey, Denise Scott
In this flashback to the 2000 Melbourne International Comedy Festival, three legendary women in comedy show us how they prepare before taking to the stage: Judith Lucey, Denise Scott and the late Linda Gibson (my beloved auntie).
When I was about 15, my mom asked me, “What do you want to do when you grow up?” I said, “I want to act.” She said, “Whatever you do, have fun doing it.”“ Linda performs here despite having ovarian cancer. She’s funny, strong, defiant, and authentic. A golden gibbo.
3. Flutterby catches fire
A classic. I had this device as a kid too. It’s so pure to see your parent scream “Oh noooo” at the end. We must return to the cleansing fire one day. Fairies are real.
4. Take full control
Lockdown has taken hold of us. During the pandemic, I was living in the legendary Queer House in a stationary caravan in my backyard. In one of the windows where we could gather, a group I was part of called Working Bitches,I made the track with my gay uncle Paul Mac and Johnny Seymour (aka Stereogamus), and it’s so much fun to see the scenes in the music video of my friends, mentors and fellow artists dancing in my backyard.
5. Sacred David
This is the perfect video to refresh your mind. I’ve been lucky enough to see David Hoyle live on stage a few times in London. I love their stream of consciousness. Their charm. Their simmering, intense and welcoming intelligence. You can binge watch their other videos too. Please do! It’s just divine.
I’ve been very careful with my use of social media because I know it can feel like gambling. I feel how it changes my brain. But there are some things like Recess Therapy that give me real hope. Kids get it. Kids are having a great impact on my brain.
7. Dog in the water
You know who else gets it? Dogs. Dogs in wigs, dancing dogs, tricky dogs, laughing dogs – picking just one dog video was hard. I don’t anthropomorphize dogs, in fact, they bring me back to who I am and I’m grateful for that. Dog memes are constantly being passed around among my closest friends. Dogs are gods.
8. Young people dancing to Vogue
Just like the aerobics class, you can imitate their movements, invent your own movements, and enjoy the dramatic developments. Ecstatic dance helps us. The gaze in this girl’s eyes gives me energy.
9. Sammy Obeid
Some of the best laughter I’ve experienced has been produced by people who have overcome some of the most difficult times in their lives. Joy in the face of oppression is a powerful antidote to the pain of domination. Laughter can be a weapon. It can build solidarity and dismantle power.
Cruxatodon kiltlingtonensisA small mammal from the Jurassic period
Maiya Carrara
During the Middle Jurassic, small mammals lived much longer than modern ones and received parental care for years rather than weeks, suggesting that at some point there was a major change in the growth rates of small mammals, although the exact cause is unknown.
The discovery is based on two fossil skeletons of extinct mouse-sized creatures. Cruxatodon kiltlingtonensis, It lived on the Isle of Skye in Scotland about 166 million years ago, and its fossils were unearthed decades apart, the first in the 1970s and the second in 2016.
The unusual discovery of two fossils of the same species, one adult and one juvenile, allowed the team to compare the specimens to study how the animals grew and developed. “That meant we could ask questions we never dreamed of with just one specimen,” he says. Elsa Panciroli At the National Museum of Scotland.
First, the scientists used X-ray images to count the growth rings on the specimens' teeth, which are similar to growth rings on tree trunks and can be used to estimate age. They found that the adult specimens were about 7 years old, and the juvenile specimens were between 7 months and 2 years old.
Panciroli said he expected the fossil to be much younger, since the pup still had its baby teeth. “This was quite surprising, as this animal is about the size of a squirrel or a shrew,” Panciroli said. “We would have expected its teeth to grow back within a few weeks or months, so we could see straight away that it must have been developing quite differently. [than modern species].”
This discovery K. Quiltrington Mice took up to two years to wean from their mothers, a big jump from the few weeks most small mammals require today. Analysis of the length and size of the fossil bones reveals that the animals “grew throughout their lives,” Panchiroli says. Today, small mammals like mice grow rapidly when they're young but then stop growing as adults.
It's unclear exactly when and why small mammals evolved this way, but Panchiroli said it could be linked to environmental changes or it could be the result of mammals having warmer blood and a faster metabolism.
Panciroli and her team return to Skye every year, and are optimistic that they will be able to better understand these changes: “Hopefully in the coming years we'll find more fossils and new ways to ask these questions,” she says.
Occasionally, you may have the opportunity to witness the Northern Lights from your home in the UK or US. Tonight (Wednesday, July 24) presents a moderate chance of seeing these mesmerizing lights.
Typically, the Northern Lights are only visible in countries like Canada, Russia, and Sweden, but they have been spotted from as far as Penzance in Cornwall earlier this year.
While it’s rare for the lights to reach Cornwall, seeing the Northern Lights from the UK is not uncommon, although it requires a severe geomagnetic storm, which is a rare occurrence.
When can I see the Aurora tonight?
The Space Weather Forecast suggests that a solar storm may hit the Earth this week, potentially making the Northern Lights visible in parts of the UK on Wednesday, July 24.
Unfortunately, the Northern Lights can only be seen in certain parts of the UK, such as the north of England and Northern Ireland.
In the United States, it may be visible across several northern and upper Midwestern states from New York to Idaho.
However, due to the season, the window for viewing the Northern Lights is limited.
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How to increase your chances of seeing the Aurora
To enhance your chances of witnessing the Northern Lights, it is advisable to move away from urban areas with clear skies and minimal light pollution.
Locate a north-facing shoreline for the best viewing experience with fewer obstructions and less light pollution.
What Causes the Northern Lights?
The Aurora Borealis occurs when high-energy particles from the Sun collide with lower-energy particles in the Earth’s atmosphere.
Geomagnetic storms can push the Aurora further south, making them visible in regions where they are not usually seen.
These storms are more likely to occur during the waning stages of a solar cycle, when coronal holes generate high-speed solar wind that disrupts Earth’s magnetic field.
Why do the auroras have different colors?
The color of the Northern Lights can vary based on the atoms in Earth’s atmosphere reacting with the Sun’s energy.
Green auroras are produced by high-altitude oxygen atoms, while blue, yellow, or red auroras indicate lower-altitude oxygen or nitrogen atoms colliding with solar particles.
What does “Aurora” mean?
The term “Aurora Borealis” roughly translates to “North Wind Dawn” and is a nickname for the Northern Lights. Boreas is the god of the north wind in ancient Greek mythology.
The Southern Lights are also known as “Aurora Australis”, translating to “southern wind dawn”. These lights can be influenced by geomagnetic storms and have been seen in locations like New Zealand and Australia.
Meta has announced that its new artificial intelligence model is the first open-source system that can compete with major players like OpenAI and Anthropic.
The company revealed in a blog post that its latest model, named “Llama 3.1 405B,” is able to perform well in various tasks compared to its competitors. This advancement could potentially make one of the most powerful AI models accessible without any intermediaries controlling access or usage.
Meta stated, “Developers have the freedom to customize the models according to their requirements, train them on new data sets, and fine-tune them further. This empowers developers worldwide to harness the capabilities of generative AI without sharing any data with Meta, and run their applications in any environment.”
Users of Llama on Meta’s app in the US will benefit from an additional layer of security, as the system is open-source and cannot be mandated for use by other companies.
Meta co-founder Mark Zuckerberg emphasized the importance of open source for the future of AI, highlighting its potential to enhance productivity, creativity, and quality of life while ensuring technology is deployed safely and evenly across society.
While Meta’s model matches the size of competing systems, its true effectiveness will be determined through fair testing against other models like GPT-4o.
Currently, Llama 3.1 405B is only accessible to users in 22 countries, excluding the EU. However, it is expected that the open-source system will expand to other regions soon.
A spot robot equipped with a burner for weed removal
Song, Deok-jin et al. (2024)
Robot dogs equipped with burners could be used to prevent weeds from growing on farms, offering a potential alternative to harmful herbicides.
Even highly targeted herbicides can cause environmental problems and affect local wildlife, and “superweeds” are rapidly evolving resistance to the most common herbicides like glyphosate.
Looking for alternative solutions Song Deokjin Researchers at Texas A&M University have developed a weed control system that uses short bursts of heat from a propane gas torch controlled by a robotic arm attached to a Boston Dynamics Spot Robot.
Rather than incinerating weeds, the robot is designed to identify and heat the core of the plant, which can stop weed growth for weeks, Song said. “It doesn’t kill the weeds, it just inhibits their growth, giving the crop a chance to fight them.”
Song and his team first tested the flame nozzle to see if it could accurately target the center of the weeds, then deployed the robot in a cotton field that was also planted with weeds, including sunflowers, which are native to Texas.Sun Flower) and giant ragweed (Ambrosia trifidaFive tests showed the robot could find weeds and focus an average of 95 percent of its flames on them to burn them down.
Song said a major limitation of the Spot robot is its battery life — in this setup it can only operate for about 40 minutes before needing to be recharged — but the team is working on upgrading to a longer-lasting device. They’re also considering equipping the robot dog with an electric shock device that can deliver more than 10,000 volts of current, which would stop weeds from growing for longer.
“With other machines, people use a fairly broad, inaccurate flame to kill weeds. That’s been around for a while, but I’ve never seen anything as precise as this.” Simon Pearson A researcher at the University of Lincoln in the UK said the robot’s success will depend on how precisely it can deliver the flames without damaging valuable crops.
Article updated on July 24, 2024
The article has been revised to more accurately describe battery life for burning tools and robots.
Komodo dragons, some of the most ferocious reptiles on Earth, strengthen their teeth with iron caps, and researchers believe some dinosaurs may have had this adaptation as well.
Komodo dragon (Komodo dragon coati) is endemic to several Indonesian islands and preys on larger animals such as deer, pigs, and buffalo; it can grow to three meters in length and weigh up to 150 kilograms.
When I noticed that the animal had orange serrations on its teeth, Aaron LeBlanc The researcher, from King's College London, says he initially dismissed it as staining: “It wasn't until I visited the museum collection and saw all the teeth along the skulls of many Komodo dragon specimens that I became convinced I was looking at a new adaptation for this iconic reptile,” he says.
LeBlanc and his colleagues used high-powered x-rays at a synchrotron facility to examine the surfaces of Komodo dragon teeth and identify the different elements found along the teeth.
“When we mapped the cross-sections of Komodo dragon teeth, we quickly saw that iron was concentrated at the cutting edge and tip of the tooth, but not anywhere else in the tooth,” LeBlanc says, “and this matches up exactly with the orange stains we see on the teeth under a microscope.”
Komodo dragon tooth with orange steel cap
Dr Aaron LeBlanc, King's College London
Komodo dragon enamel is incredibly thin compared to human teeth, LeBlanc said: At the serrated edge, the enamel is just 20 micrometers thick, about a quarter of the thickness of a human hair. Human tooth enamel is about 100 times thicker.
The iron coating on Komodo dragon teeth is coated on top of this extremely thin layer of enamel, which the team believes gives the enamel extra strength, protects the serrations as the dragon eats its prey, or acts as a barrier against acidic digestive juices.
Iron is readily available in the environment, especially for large carnivores, and it's thought that the cells that make enamel change their behavior towards the final layer, producing an iron-rich finish.
Crocodiles and alligators can also concentrate iron in their enamel, but their teeth do not have iron-rich crowns.
The researchers also looked for iron coatings on the dinosaur fossil teeth. They haven't found evidence yet, but the researchers think that could be because the iron signal was destroyed by fossilization. “We need to look at better preserved dinosaur teeth to be sure,” LeBlanc said.
Leblanc says his fellow dentists are intrigued by the potential of these natural materials: “It's still a long way off, but I can imagine a time when we develop new enamel coatings inspired by nature, perhaps even the Komodo dragon,” he says.
A researcher plucks the feathers of a bird as part of an experiment to investigate Neanderthal cooking techniques.
Mariana Navaiz
To learn more about Neanderthal culinary talents, archaeologists cooked five wild birds using only fire, their hands, and stone tools. The experiment shows that our ancient relatives needed significant manual skill to use a flint blade to butcher an animal without injuring themselves.
Neanderthals lived in Europe and Asia until about 40,000 years ago. Hearths have been found at many of their sites, and there is evidence that they hunted large animals such as elephants and cave lions.
Mariana Navaiz Researchers at the Catalan Institute of Human Palaeoecology and Social Evolution in Tarragona, Spain, say that by recreating ancient activities such as cooking and butchering using tools available at the time, scientists can gain insight into how prehistoric humans lived.
She and her colleagues wanted to better understand archaeological bird remains associated with Neanderthals that date back about 90,000 years ago and were found in deposits in Portugal.
The team selected five birds that had died at a wildlife rehabilitation center in Portugal and were similar in size and species to those found at the archaeological site.Crow), Turtledove(Columba Palumbus) and two European collared doves (Streptopelia decaoctoThe tools used in the experiment were pieces of flint prepared by students of stone tool technology.
All five birds were plucked by hand. The crow and pigeon were butchered raw, while the remaining three were roasted over charcoal. The cooked birds were easily butchered without stone tools, but the raw birds required considerable effort using a flint blade.
“Paleolithic knives were certainly very sharp and required careful handling,” Navais says. “The precision and effort required to use these tools without injuring oneself highlights the practical challenges Neanderthals would have faced in their everyday food processing activities.”
Once the dissection was complete, the researchers prepared the bones and analyzed them for distinctive marks caused by stone tools and fire, as well as identifying wear marks from flint tools.
The burn marks and tool marks were then compared to Neanderthal food remains found at the archaeological sites of Fighiera Brava and Oliveira in Portugal, where bird bones with burn marks and cut marks matched the team’s reconstruction, Navaís said.
“Our experimental studies demonstrate that flaked raw birds display characteristic cut marks, especially around tendons and joints, while roasted birds display burn marks and increased brittleness leading to fractures,” she says. “These findings help distinguish between human-induced modifications and those caused by natural processes or other animals, such as trampling or the activity of rodents, raptors and carnivores.”
Neanderthals were skilled enough to capture and prepare small, fast-moving animals like birds, Navais said. “This study highlights the cognitive capabilities of Neanderthals and demonstrates their ability to capture and prepare small, fast-moving prey like birds, challenging previous ideas that they were incapable of such complex tasks.”
Sam Lin Researchers at the University of Wollongong in Australia say experimental archaeology is like reverse engineering, comparing what happens in modern samples with archaeological material to try to interpret what happened in the past.
In this case, one of the main findings is that cooked birds don’t require tools to prepare them for eating, which means some bones may not necessarily bear tool marks. “They learned that you just need to tear apart a cooked wild bird, just like we do when we eat barbecued chicken,” Lin said.
This is the first documented collision between a boat and a basking shark, indicating that such incidents may be more common than previously thought. Further monitoring is needed to quantify the issue and enforce a code of conduct for boats to protect the sharks.
Alexandra McInturff Researchers at Oregon State University have discovered a 7-meter long female basking shark (Setohinus Maximus) on April 24 using a device that records movement in three axes: depth, position, and video.
McInturff mentioned that due to the limited availability and duration of sensors for tagging sharks, capturing a collision incident could shed light on its frequency.
The video footage shows the shark feeding at the surface, then abruptly changing direction to collide with the boat. The shark appears to panic and rapidly dives back into the water before coming to a stop at the ocean floor.
A camera attached to a basking shark captures images before, during and after a ship collision
Oregon State University’s Big Fish Lab.
The researchers observed that the tag on the shark came off about seven hours after the impact, leading to changes in behavior. The video footage revealed visible damage on the shark’s skin, but the extent of recovery remains uncertain.
The basking shark species is globally endangered but thrives off the coast of Ireland. To protect them, efforts like the recent designation of Ireland’s first National Marine Park are crucial. McInturff advocates for a mandatory code of conduct for boats interacting with basking sharks to address the issue effectively.
“We’ve seen evidence of boat strikes on sharks before, indicating a potentially widespread problem,” McInturff explained. “Implementing enforceable rules for boat conduct is essential to safeguard these animals.”
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has denied reports that surfaced last week that he plans to donate $45 million a month to a super PAC working to elect President Donald Trump.
Musk appeared on Jordan Peterson’s show on Tuesday and said the allegations were “simply not true.” “I’m not giving $45 million a month to Donald Trump,” he said.
“What I’ve done is I’ve created a pack, or a super pack, or whatever you want to call it,” he said. “It’s called the America Pack.”
Super PACs (short for political action committees) are independent political organizations that allow donors to give unlimited amounts, but there are contribution limits on individuals and organizations other than super PACs.
After his interview with Peterson, Musk Reply “Yeah right,” he commented on a clip of X’s interview, as well as another tweet addressing the reports. To tell“Yeah, that’s ridiculous. I donate some money to America PAC, but at a much lower level. The PAC’s core values are supporting meritocracy and individual liberty. Republicans are largely, but not entirely, on the side of meritocracy and liberty.”
The denial came days after Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, who has enough delegates to win the Democratic nomination in August.
Also on Tuesday, The New York Times report The super PAC employed former staffers from Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign. “The super PAC has created an air of mystery around Trump, with other outside groups knowing almost nothing about its plans,” the Times reported.
But aides to DeSantis’ initial campaign manager, Genera Peck, and Phil Cox, former chairman of the Republican Governors Association, said the campaign was seeking to become one of the major groups supporting Trump, which could help increase its legitimacy within the Republican establishment.
“It’s about promoting the principles that made America great in the first place,” Musk said on Peterson’s show. “I wouldn’t say I’m, like, a MAGA,” he added, referring to Trump’s catchphrase. “I think America is great. I’m more of a MAG, someone who makes America greater.”
Musk did not disclose how much he plans to donate to the PAC.
AmericaPac already has the backing of Musk’s friends and allies in the tech industry, the Times reported. reportJoe Lonsdale, who co-founded the software company Palantir with Peter Thiel, Major Political Donors President Trump’s new running mate is Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio.
The Winklevoss twins, crypto entrepreneurs who have accused Joe Biden of waging a war on cryptocurrencies through regulation, have also contributed to the effort, The Wall Street Journal reports. reportIn June, they praised Trump as a “pro-Bitcoin, pro-crypto and pro-business.”
Scientists have made a groundbreaking discovery in the Pacific Ocean that challenges our understanding of Earth’s history and the origin of life. They have found evidence of oxygen production in the deep, lightless depths of the ocean.
The results of this study published in Nature Chemistry challenge the traditional belief that oxygen on Earth is solely produced through photosynthesis.
Lead by Professor Andrew Sweetman, researchers from the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS) made this discovery while exploring the depths of the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, between Hawaii and Mexico.
Named “dark oxygen,” this mysterious phenomenon occurs at depths where light cannot penetrate. The researchers discovered the potential source of this oxygen production while studying polymetallic nodules on the ocean floor, rich in precious metals used in electronics.
These nodules may have the ability to split seawater into hydrogen and oxygen through seawater electrolysis. This finding has significant implications for deep-sea mining activities and the protection of marine habitats.
Director of SAMS, Professor Nicholas Owens, described this discovery as one of the most exciting in marine science, prompting a reevaluation of the evolution of complex life on Earth.
This alternative source of oxygen production challenges the conventional view that cyanobacteria were the first oxygen producers on Earth. It calls for a reconsideration of how complex life evolved and the importance of protecting deep-sea habitats.
To learn more about the experts involved in this research, visit the About the Experts section below.
About the Experts
Andrew Sweetman: Research Group Leader for Benthic Ecology and Biogeochemistry at the Scottish Institute for Marine Science, with extensive experience in deep-sea ecology research.
Nicholas Owens: A marine scientist and Council Member of the Scottish Association for Marine Science, involved in environmental science research and education.
For more information, continue exploring this fascinating discovery and its implications for Earth’s history and marine ecosystems.
According to a recent study conducted by researchers from Bond University, University of Helsinki, and Helsinki University Hospital, increasing fluid intake can help reduce the occurrence of urinary tract infections (UTIs) compared to no treatment. However, consuming cranberry juice has shown even better clinical outcomes in terms of decreased UTIs and antibiotic usage, suggesting that it should be considered as a management option for UTIs.
Cranberry juice drinkers are 54% less likely to develop a urinary tract infection. Image courtesy of The Loves of Eirlys.
“Urinary tract infections are one of the most common bacterial infections,” stated lead author Christian Moro, PhD, along with his colleagues.
“Over 50% of women and more than 20% of men will experience UTIs at least once in their lifetime, making it the most prevalent bacterial infection in children.”
“While antibiotics have traditionally been effective for UTI treatment, the growing resistance of bacteria to these drugs poses a challenge.”
“Studies have shown that over 90% of UTIs contain drug-resistant bacteria, many of which are resistant to multiple antibiotics.”
“Given the rise in microbial resistance to antibiotics, it is essential to explore evidence-based non-drug interventions for UTI prevention and treatment.”
“Reducing antibiotic usage will not only alleviate the financial and clinical burden of prescriptions but also address the increasing issue of antibiotic resistance.”
“Encouraging patients to increase fluid intake and incorporating cranberry juice or tablets have been proposed as beneficial strategies.”
“However, the existing literature on this topic is extensive, with conflicting findings regarding the effectiveness of cranberries.”
The authors utilized a novel research approach known as network meta-analysis, enabling simultaneous comparisons of multiple interventions across various studies.
A total of 20 trials involving 3,091 individuals were analyzed, with 18 of these studies revealing that cranberry juice consumption was linked to a 54% lower UTI incidence compared to no treatment and a 27% lower incidence than placebo liquids.
“These results have the potential to reduce the reliance on antibiotics for UTI treatment,” commented Dr. Moro.
“More than half of women will experience a UTI, often resulting in antibiotic prescriptions.”
“Given the escalating antibiotic resistance, identifying effective non-pharmaceutical interventions is critical.”
“Cranberry juice presents a straightforward and effective intervention that should be considered in managing UTIs.”
Furthermore, the study found that cranberry juice led to a 59% reduction in antibiotic requirements and significantly alleviated symptoms in individuals with active UTIs.
“Simple measures like increasing water intake or taking cranberry tablets also showed benefits, albeit not as pronounced as consuming cranberries in liquid form such as juice,” the researchers noted.
Read their paper published in the journal European Urology Focus.
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Christian Moro others Cranberry juice, cranberry tablets, or liquid therapy for urinary tract infections: a systematic review and network meta-analysis. Yurol Focus Published online on July 18, 2024; doi: 10.1016/j.euf.2024.07.002
This article is based on a press release provided by Bond University.
In celebration of our 25th anniversary NASA’s Chandra X-ray ObservatoryThe Chandra team has released 25 new images of cosmic objects and phenomena.
This collection of images was released to celebrate Chandra’s 25th anniversary. Image credit: NASA/CXC/SAO.
On July 23, 1999, the Space Shuttle Columbia launched into orbit carrying Chandra, the heaviest payload carried by the shuttle at the time.
Under the command of Commander Eileen Collins, the astronauts aboard Columbia successfully placed Chandra into a highly elliptical orbit roughly equivalent to one-third the distance to the Moon.
“For a quarter century, Chandra has made one amazing discovery after another,” said Dr. Pat Slane, director of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory’s Chandra X-ray Center.
“Astronomers have used Chandra to explore mysteries that were unknown when the telescope was built, including exoplanets and dark energy.”
“Chandra is a great success story for humanity and its pursuit of knowledge,” said Dr. Andrew Schnell, acting Chandra project manager at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.
“The telescope’s incredible achievements have been made possible through the hard work and dedication of the team.”
The new series of images is a sample of the roughly 25,000 observations Chandra has taken during its quarter-century in space.
In 1976, Riccardo Giacconi and Harvey Tananbaum first proposed the mission that would become Chandra to NASA.
Eventually, Chandra was selected as one of NASA’s great observatories, along with the Hubble Space Telescope, the now-retired Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, and the Spitzer Space Telescope, each observing a different kind of light.
In 2002, Giacconi was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for his pioneering contributions to astrophysics that led to the discovery of cosmic X-ray sources and laid the foundation for the development and launch of Chandra.
Today, astronomers continue to use Chandra data in conjunction with other powerful telescopes, including the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope and NASA’s Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE).
“On behalf of the STS-93 crew, we are incredibly proud of the Chandra X-ray Observatory and the talented team that built and launched this astronomical gem,” said Eileen Collins, commander of Space Shuttle Columbia, which launched Chandra into space in 1999.
“Chandra’s discoveries have continued to amaze and inspire us for the past 25 years.”
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This article is a version of a press release provided by NASA.
East Africa contains the world’s most complete record of human evolution, yet scientists know little about how long-term biogeographic dynamics in the region have influenced human diversity and distribution.
An artist’s depiction of early human habitation in Tanzania 1.8 million years ago. Image courtesy of M. Lopez-Herrera / Enrique Baquedano / Olduvai Paleoanthropology and Paleoecology Project.
In the new study, Dr. Ignacio Razaga-Baster from the National Center for Research on Human Evolution (CENIEH) and his colleagues focused on the mammal fossil record of the East African Rift Valley.
“The Late Cenozoic fossil beds of the East African Rift Valley provide the world’s richest, longest and most continuous record of human evolution and its environmental context,” the authors explained.
“As such, the human and faunal records of East Africa have been central to understanding the factors that shaped human evolutionary history.”
“Our study provides a new perspective on how climatic and environmental changes over the past six million years have influenced mammal and human evolution,” Dr Razaghabastar said.
“This study particularly highlights how biotic homogenization – the process by which the faunas of different regions become more similar in composition – has been an important factor in the evolution of ecosystems and the species that live in them.”
“Beta diversity analysis, which shows the relationships between regional and local biodiversity, allows us to trace how changes in vegetation and climate have driven patterns of dispersal and extinction over time.”
The team found that faunas from the Late Miocene and Pliocene (approximately 3 million to 6 million years ago) were primarily made up of endemic species.
The shift towards biotic homogenization, or faunal homogenization, began around 3 million years ago with the loss of endemic species within functional groups and an increase in the number of grazing species shared between regions.
This important biogeographic transition coincides closely with the regional expansion of ecosystems dominated by grasses and C4 grasslands that thrive better in warmer, drier climates.
These environmental changes directly affected the feeding and migration patterns of humans and animals that shared the habitat.
“We are certain that hominoids, like other East African mammals, were influenced by many factors. This study offers a new perspective on the link between environmental and human evolutionary change and, through an integrated approach, provides a framework for future research and to test the hypothesis that hominoids adapted to their environment,” Dr Razaghabastar said.
of study Published in the journal on July 15, 2024 Natural Ecology and Evolution.
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J. Rowan othersLong-term biotic homogenization in the East African Rift Valley during the past 6 million years of human evolution. Nat Ecol EvolPublished online July 15, 2024; doi: 10.1038/s41559-024-02462-0
According to the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service, Sunday was the hottest day on record.
The global average temperature reached 17.09 degrees Celsius (62.76 degrees Fahrenheit), breaking the previous record set in July last year.
Last month was the hottest June on record worldwide.
Sunday is The hottest day on record According to data from the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service, on Earth:
The global average temperature reached 17.09 degrees Celsius (about 62.76 degrees Fahrenheit), slightly surpassing the previous record of 17.08 degrees Celsius recorded on July 6, 2023.
“We are now in truly uncharted territory and there is no doubt that new records will be broken in the coming months and years as the climate continues to warm,” Carlo Buontempo, director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service, said in a statement.
So far, both July this year and July 2023 have been much warmer than the 1991 to 2020 average, according to Copernicus data. Before last year, the hottest day on record was August 12, 2016, when the average temperature reached 16.8 degrees.
Last week, a heatwave that hit southern and central Europe reportedly sparked wildfires in southern Italy, forcing the Greek Ministry of Culture to close the Acropolis for several hours. Associated Press.
In the United States, High temperature warning Six states, including Arizona, California and Montana, enacted special heat stroke laws on Tuesday. Officials believe more than 300 people have died from heat stroke in Maricopa County, Arizona, so far this year.
Last month was the hottest June on record globally, breaking records for the 13th consecutive month of record high temperatures. Copernicus Service Monitoring.
“As it gets hotter, we're going to have to significantly recalibrate how we live our lives,” said Bharat Venkat, director of the UCLA Thermal Lab, which studies the effects of rising temperatures.
As a more personal example, Venkat said he took his dog for a walk at a local mall this summer because the sidewalk was “really hot and I was worried his paws would get burned.”
He stressed that at a larger, more severe level, “many of these adverse effects overlap with existing social inequalities.”
People with underlying medical conditions are more susceptible to heatstroke. People who work outdoors, like delivery people or farmers, face a bigger problem. Certain structures, like prisons and food trucks, retain more heat, making them especially hot for people inside.
Global average temperatures typically peak between late June and early August because this is the hottest time of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, which contains most of the world's land mass and population.
In the Southern Hemisphere, average temperatures are also rising due to melting Antarctic sea ice, the Copernicus Service reported.
This year has been particularly warm because of an El Niño weather pattern, said Bob Henson, a meteorologist and climate writer at Yale University's Climate Connections.
La Niña is Estimated Arrival There should be a moderate cooling effect over the next few months.
But overall temperatures will continue to rise and records will continue to be broken, Henson said.
Jacqueline Gates of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory isolating livermorium atoms.
Marilyn Sargent/Berkeley Lab 2024 Regents of the University of California
The third heaviest element in the universe has been created in a way that points the way to synthesizing the elusive element 120, the heaviest element in the periodic table.
“We were very shocked, very surprised and very relieved that we had not made the wrong choice in installing the equipment,” he said. Jacqueline Gates At the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), California.
She and her colleagues created the element, livermorium, by bombarding pieces of plutonium with beams of charged titanium atoms. Titanium has never been used in such experiments before because it’s hard to turn into a well-controlled beam and it takes millions or trillions of collisions to create just a few new atoms. But physicists think that the titanium beam is essential to making a hypothetical element 120, also known as unbinylium, which has 120 protons in its nucleus.
The researchers first evaporated a rare isotope of titanium in a special oven at 1,650°C (about 3,000°F). They then used microwaves to turn the hot titanium vapor into a charged beam, which they sent into a particle accelerator. When the beam reached about 10% of the speed of light and smashed into a plutonium target, a fragment of it hit a detector, where it detected a trace of two livermorium atoms.
As expected, each atom rapidly decayed into other elements. The stability of an atomic nucleus decreases as an atom’s mass increases. But the measurements were so precise that there’s only about a one in a trillion chance that the discovery was a statistical fluke, Gates says. The researchers announced their findings on July 23. Nuclear Structure 2024 Meeting at Argonne National Laboratory, Illinois.
Michael Thornessen The Michigan State University researcher says the experiment supports the feasibility of creating element 120. “We have to do the basic research and we have to go in the dark, so this is a really important and necessary experiment in that sense,” he says.
Toennesen says the creation of unbinylium will have profound implications for our understanding of the strong force, which determines whether heavy elements are stable. Studying unbinylium may also help us understand how exotic elements formed in the early universe.
The heaviest artificial element to date, element 118 (also known as oganesson), has two more protons than livermorium and was first synthesized in 2002. Since then, researchers have struggled to make atoms even heavier, because that requires colliding already-heavy elements with each other, which themselves tend to be unstable. “It’s really, really difficult work,” Thornesen says.
But the new experiment has LBNL researchers feeling optimistic: They plan to launch experiments aimed at creating element 120 in 2025 after replacing the plutonium target with the heavier element californium.
“I think we’re pretty close to knowing what to do,” Gates says, “and we have an opportunity to add new elements to the periodic table.” [is exciting]”…Very few people get that opportunity.”
A hydrothermal explosion occurred just north of Old Faithful geyser on Tuesday, spewing rocks and steam into the air and forcing visitors to flee to safety, Yellowstone National Park officials said.
According to the National Park Service, the explosion happened around 10:19 a.m. in Biscuit Basin, about two miles northwest of Old Faithful, and no one was injured and the extent of damage is unknown. It said in a statement.
The type of explosion that occurred on Tuesday was hot water related, “rapidly ejecting boiling water, steam, mud and rock debris,” the statement said. According to the U.S. Geological Survey.
Eruption video People, including children, were seen running as columns of black and grey matter and steam spewed into the air.
Yellowstone is famous for its hot springs and thermal pools.
According to the USGS, a hydrothermal explosion occurs when underground water at or near boiling point is rapidly transformed into a stream of water due to a drop in pressure.
Outbursts like Tuesday’s are “relatively common in Yellowstone,” the USGS said. It said in a statement Following the incident, Norris Geyser Basin reported a small explosion in April, and Biscuit Basin reported an explosion in 2009.
Photos posted by Yellowstone National Park showed a nearby trail covered in dirt, rocks and debris.
The National Park Service said the trails and parking lots are closed until further notice due to safety concerns, and noted the explosion is not related to any volcanic activity.
Park staff and USGS personnel are monitoring the situation and will determine when the area can be reopened, officials said.
Dead Planets Society is a podcast that takes some crazy ideas for how to tinker with the universe and tests their effects against the laws of physics, from snapping the moon in half to causing doomsday events with gravitational waves. apple, Spotify Or check out our podcast page.
Uranus and Neptune are so similar that we don't need both. That's the idea behind this episode of Dead Planets Society, in which hosts Chelsea Whyte and Leah Crane decide to light Uranus on fire.
There's a scientific justification for this, of course. For one thing, burning material and examining the light from it, a process called spectroscopy, is one of the best ways to determine its chemical composition. And because the depths of ice giants remain murky and mysterious, burning up the outer layers could reveal what's underneath.
Before you reach for the matches, let's talk about our special guest, planetary scientist Pole Barn That could be tricky, says a researcher at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri: Uranus' outer layers lack the oxygen needed for combustion, he explains, so pumping in more oxygen than is contained in the entire solar system might not be helpful.
But the interior of Uranus isn't just shrouded in mystery – it may also be full of iceberg-like diamond chunks. This quickly changes the host's focus: this is no longer a fireworks mission, but a heist.
While the planet's outer layers would still need to be removed, the most efficient way would probably be to collide it with another planet. Viewed from Earth, this would be seen as a flash of light, a glowing cloud of steam, and perhaps a bright tail forming behind Uranus. The impact would need to be carefully planned so as not to shatter the planet and its diamonds.
But a suitable collision could accomplish both the new goal of obtaining Uranus' diamonds and the original goal of exposing and studying its depths. It could also destroy the entire solar system, but when has the Society of Dead Planets ever worried about that?
Paleontologists have described a new species of snake that lived during the Early Oligocene of Wyoming, based on four nearly complete, articulated specimens found curled together in a burrow.
Hibernophis Brighthaupti It lived 38 million years ago in what is now western Wyoming. Image courtesy of Jasmine Croghan.
Hibernophis Brighthaupti It lived in North America 38 million years ago (Early Oligocene Epoch).
The fossil has unique anatomical features, in part because the specimen is articulated, meaning that it was found all together with its bones in the proper order, which is unusual for a fossil snake.
Hibernophis Brighthaupti Probably an early member Boideia A group that includes modern boas and pythons.
“Modern boas are widespread across the Americas, but their early evolution is poorly understood,” said researchers from the University of Alberta. Professor Michael Caldwell And my colleagues.
“These new and extremely complete fossils add important new information, especially about the evolution of the small burrowing boas known as rubber boas.”
“Traditionally, there has been a lot of discussion about the evolution of small burrowing bores.”
“Hibernophis Brighthaupti This suggests that northern and central North America may have been an important base for their development.”
According to the team: Hibernophis Brighthaupti Thanks to its location, the specimen has been remarkably well preserved for tens of millions of years.
“38 million years ago, these particular Hibernophis Brighthaupti “At the time the snakes lived, the Southern Basin-Range volcanic system was incredibly active, emitting huge amounts of volcanic ash,” said Professor Caldwell, lead author of the study.
“The ash settled and helped preserve the remains of the organisms found within the fine sandy mudstone matrix typical of the White River Formation.”
Paleontologists speculate that the animals may have fallen victim to a small flood.
“Geologically speaking, they were preserved in very unusual conditions,” Professor Caldwell said.
“Fossilization is a brutal process. You need exactly the right conditions to preserve something.”
Four discoveries Hibernophis Brighthaupti The curled-up sleeping arrangement also suggests that this may be the oldest evidence of communal hibernation, a behaviour we know today.
“Modern garter snakes are notorious for congregating in the thousands and hibernating together in burrows and holes,” Professor Caldwell said.
“They do this to take advantage of the ball effect created by hibernating animals to conserve heat.”
“It's fascinating to see evidence of this social behavior and hibernation going back 34 million years.”
of study Published in Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society.
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Jasmine A. Croghan othersMorphology and taxonomy of a new fossil snake from the early Rupelian (Oligocene) White River Formation, Wyoming. Zoological Journal of the Linnean SocietyPublished online June 19, 2024; doi: 10.1093/zoolinnean/zlae073
Robot dogs equipped with flame throwers could be used to prevent weeds from growing on farms, offering a potential alternative to harmful herbicides.
Even highly targeted herbicides can cause environmental problems and affect local wildlife, and “superweeds” are rapidly evolving resistance to the most common herbicides like glyphosate.
Looking for alternative solutions Song Deokjin Researchers at Texas A&M University have developed a weed control system that emits short bursts of heat from a propane-powered flame thrower controlled by a robotic arm attached to a Boston Dynamics Spot Robot.
Rather than incinerating weeds, the robot is designed to identify and heat the core of the plant, which can stop weed growth for weeks, Song said. “It doesn't kill the weeds, it just inhibits their growth, giving the crop a chance to fight them.”
Song and his team first tested the flame nozzle to see if it could accurately target the center of the weeds, then deployed the robot in a cotton field that was also planted with weeds, including sunflowers, which are native to Texas.Sun Flower) and giant ragweed (Ambrosia trifidaFive tests showed the robot could find weeds and focus an average of 95 percent of its flames on them to burn them down.
Song said the Spot robot's biggest limitation is its battery life — it can only operate for about 40 minutes before needing to be recharged — but the team is working on upgrading it to a longer-lasting device. They're also considering equipping the robot dog with an electric shock device that can deliver more than 10,000 volts of current, which would stop weeds from growing for longer.
“With other machines, people use a fairly broad, inaccurate flame to kill weeds. That's been around for a while, but I've never seen anything as precise as this.” Simon Pearson A researcher at the University of Lincoln in the UK said the robot's success will depend on how precisely it can deliver the flames without damaging valuable crops.
Arizona public health officials are cautioning about the hantavirus, a disease that spreads from rodents to humans and has led to an increase in a deadly pulmonary syndrome. The Arizona Department of Health Services has reported seven confirmed cases and three deaths in the past six months. For more information, check out the recent health alerts.
Most hantavirus cases are seen in the Western and Southwestern U.S., with most states reporting one to four cases per year. Two cases have been reported in California this year. Unfortunately, there is no specific treatment or vaccine for hantavirus.
In Arizona from 2016 to 2022, there have been 11 reported cases of hantavirus, with four cases in 2016, two in 2017, four in 2020, and one in 2022.
Dr. Aaron Glatt, chief of infectious diseases at Mount Sinai South Nassau Hospital, warns that hantaviruses can cause severe and potentially fatal respiratory infections, especially transmitted by rodents like deer mice.
San Diego County and the California Department of Public Health have also noted increased hantavirus activity this year.
Changes in rodent populations affected by season and weather conditions could be contributing to the increase in hantavirus cases in Arizona. People are more likely to come into contact with rodents during the summer when they are more active.
Climate change and extreme weather events may also play a role in the spread of hantavirus.
Dr. Camilo Mora, a professor at the University of Hawaii, warns that climate change could impact the spread of disease-carrier species, leading to potential outbreaks.
Experts emphasize the need for careful handling of rodent excrement and avoidance of contact with rodents to prevent hantavirus infections.
Hantavirus Symptoms
Hantavirus particles are released into the air when disturbed, leading to Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome (HPS).
HPS symptoms may appear 1 to 8 weeks after contact with an infected rodent and can progress to serious lung infections if left untreated.
fever
malaise
muscle pain
nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain
Approximately 38% of people with pulmonary symptoms from hantavirus may die from the disease.
How to Prevent Hantavirus
Cleaning up rodent excrement and avoiding contact with rodents are key prevention measures according to experts.
Spring cleaning activities like opening and cleaning closed spaces could increase the risk of rodent infestation and hantavirus exposure.
Proper precautions should be taken when entering closed and unoccupied spaces that may have rodents present.
aAt the end of Metal Gear Solid 4, right after Snake crushes Liquid Ocelot, there’s a never-ending series of cut scenes. Well, that’s not strictly true. do end – 71 minutes later – I just haven’t seen that much of it. I understand that the game’s director, Hideo Kojima, is an avid film fan and took a lot of inspiration from movies, but I don’t care. Those are minutes of your life that you can never get back.
I also don’t like the 20-minute cinematic scenes that pepper Xenoblade Chronicles and Final Fantasy, or the hundreds of non-interactive scenes that detail every plot point in an Assassin’s Creed adventure. Taking away the player’s freedom and forcing their attention for extended periods of time is unnecessarily aggressive, and I think it’s time to abolish the practice altogether.
The origins of cutscenes in video games were both technical and situational. Games in the ’90s couldn’t render scenes in real time, and a lot of the narrative talent in games came from film, using tools they knew. This interestingly mirrors the evolution of film. In the 1920s and early 1930s, narrative film was heavily influenced by theater. This makes sense, because the early film industry drew most of its talent from theater — actors, directors, screenwriters, technical staff — and these people brought technology with them.
From stage to screen…Greta Garbo starred in the 1930 film adaptation of Eugene O’Neill’s play “Anna Christie.”
Photo: Mgm/Sportsphoto/Allstar
The camera tended to stay still with long takes between cuts, observing the action like an audience member. Filming took place on purpose-built sets, not on location. Acting was somewhat staged and theatrical, as performers were accustomed to exaggerating their movements and emotions to be seen by an audience 18 rows back. Early film audiences were also familiar with the conventions of the stage, which helped them ease into the cinematic experience.
But as film evolved into a medium in its own right, new and intimate ways of telling stories emerged. With the invention of the dolly and crane, the camera transformed from a spectator to a moving observer in the world. Actors discovered that small gestures and facial expressions could communicate. From German Expressionism to the French New Wave to the American Auteur films of the 1970s, new storytelling techniques emerged, along with many of the lighting, direction, design, and special effects conventions that are unique to cinema. The medium came into its own.
This process is happening in games too. We see it in increasingly sophisticated fields like environmental storytelling, UX/UI, and narrative design. But despite being a medium where interactivity and immersion are everything, we’re stuck with cutscenes. Look at some of the biggest, most moving narrative games of the last five years — The Last of Us, God of War, Marvel’s Spider-Man — and most of the emotional moments happen in non-interactive, cinematic sequences that take control away from us. Like children, we’re not entrusted with participation; we’re expected to just sit back and watch the show.
No time to talk… Half-Life.
Photo: Valve
The argument is that sometimes, we need to craft the emotional development of a scene at exactly the right time to deliver the emotional element of that scene. In that case, we’re making the wrong kind of scene. If a mature interactive medium can only tell an emotional story through non-interactive sequences, something is wrong. This is frustrating, because Valve made great strides on this issue 25 years ago. The narrative sci-fi shooter Half-Life contained no cutscenes or cinematic sequences at all. Characters (scientists and guards at the Black Mesa facility) gave in-game exposition as the player explored, while at the same time the increasingly unstable environment told a tale of destruction and suspense. Valve did it again a decade later with the Portal games, combining amusingly chatty robot antagonists with a world where signs, symbols, and voice announcements conveyed all the rules and background details the player needed to know to be intellectually and emotionally immersed.
Game designer Fumito Ueda largely avoided cutscenes in his classic adventure games Ico and Shadow of the Colossus, instead immersing us in vague, mysterious worlds where the player creates their own mythology with so little information. Indie studio thatgamecompany’s 2012 masterpiece Journey featured silent characters in a desert wasteland but still moved thousands of players to tears. Campo Santo’s game Firewatch forged a rich mystery out of the Wyoming wilderness and disembodied voices heard over walkie-talkies.
In an age where in-game realism is near-photographic, relying on cutscenes for dramatic, cathartic effect feels even more incongruous and alienating. We get to explore and exist in incredibly vivid worlds, surrounded by characters capable of expressing a wide range of emotions thanks to a combination of performance capture, cutting-edge AI and physics. And that’s all it takes. These are dynamic, immersive worlds. As a player, you only need control of weapons, vehicles and a highly sophisticated progression system to take part in the story.
A voice from the wilderness…Firewatch.
Photo: Campo Santo
Or the story can simply exist in the background, as something we experience or experience second-hand. It’s an interactive version of direct cinema. From Software’s works are great examples of this. There are cutscenes, but they’re short and usually used to introduce a new enemy or show the player a moment of reaction from the world. Otherwise the story is evoked simply by moving through these bleak, gothic landscapes. Author and historian Holly Nielsen says: Expressed with X
Recently, “I’ve spent about 300 hours on Elden Ring. I can’t really tell you anything about the world, characters, or story other than a vague sense of atmosphere.”
A few years ago I interviewed Bethesda Game Studios head Todd Howard and asked him what the most important part of telling a story in a video game was. “You have to find the tone,” he said, after a long silence. “We look a lot at old John Ford films and the way he captures space. Ford’s shots make you feel a certain way. There’s a thing called tone. As a designer, you have to know how you want the player to feel. Find something outside of the game that has that tone and just stare at it.” Yes, this is another example from a film, but Howard isn’t talking about The Searchers or the Rio Grande story, he’s talking about the feel of the space that Ford created.
Tone. Atmosphere. Feel. These are different words for the same concept, arguably the basis of post-cinematic theory of mainstream game narrative. In an immersive environment, the story isn’t something the player sees but something the player enters, a space of discovery rather than performance, a playground rather than a theater. Stories should be open to broad and bold interpretation, and may even be entirely optional or subliminal. If they do happen to take control away from the player, it should be in radical moments employed sparingly, like turning the camera away or darkening the stage.
Cinematic cut scenes are tyrannical fakes. It’s time to eliminate them.
“Where did CrowdStrike go wrong?” is, if anything, a slightly overly generalized question.
You can also think about it the other way around: if you push an update to every computer on your network at the same time, by the time you find a problem, it’s too late to contain the impact. Alternatively, with a phased rollout, the update is pushed to users in small groups, usually accelerating over time. If you start updating 50 systems at once and then they all immediately lose connection, you hope you notice the problem before you update the next 50 million systems.
If you don’t do a staged rollout, you need to test the update before pushing it to users. The extent of pre-release testing is usually up for debate; there are countless configurations of hardware, software, and user requirements, and your testing regime must narrow down what’s important, and hope that nothing is overlooked. Thankfully, if 100% of computers with the update installed experience crashes and become inoperable until you manually apply a tedious fix, it’s easy to conclude that you didn’t test enough.
If you’re not doing a staged rollout and testing the update before it ships, you need to make sure that: Not broken.
Broken
Many flights at Orlando, Florida’s airport were canceled or delayed amid the CrowdStrike crisis. Photo: Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo/Getty Images
In CrowdStrike’s defense, I can understand why this happened. The company offers a service called “endpoint protection,” which if you’ve been in the Windows ecosystem for a few years, might be easiest to think of as antivirus. It’s built for the enterprise market, not the consumer market, and not just protects against common malware, but also tries to prevent individual computers used by companies from gaining a foothold on the corporate network.
This applies not only to PCs used by large corporations that need to provide every employee with a keyboard and mouse, but also to any other business with large amounts of cheap, flexible machines. If you left your house on Friday, you know what that means: advertising displays, point-of-sale terminals, and self-service kiosks were all affected.
The comparison is relevant because CrowdStrike is in a space where speed is crucial. The worst-case scenario, at least until last week, is a ransom worm like WannaCry or NotPetya, malware that not only does significant damage to infected machines but also spreads automatically in and out of corporate networks. So its first line of defense operates quickly: Rather than waiting for a weekly or monthly release schedule for software updates, the company pushes out files daily to address the latest threats to the systems it protects.
Though limited, even a phased rollout could cause real damage. WannaCry destroyed many NHS computers during the few hours it spread unchecked, before being accidentally halted by British security researcher Marcus Hutchins while trying to figure out how it worked. In this scenario, a phased rollout could result in loss of life. Delays in testing could be even more costly.
That means updates shouldn’t cause this kind of problem: rather than new code that runs on each machine, updates are more like dictionary updates that tell already-installed CrowdStrike software what new threats to look out for and how to recognize them.
At the loosest level, you can think of it as something like this article: You’re probably reading it through some application, like a web browser, an email client, or the Guardian app. (If you’ve arranged for someone to print this and deliver it to you with your morning coffee, congratulations!) We haven’t done a staged rollout or full testing of the article, because nothing would happen there.
Unfortunately, the update pushed out on Friday actually did something. High-level technical details remain unclear, and until CrowdStrike reveals the full details, we’ll just take their word for it. The update, which was meant to teach the system how to detect a specific type of cyberattack that had already been seen in the wild, actually “introduced a logic error, causing the operating system to crash.”
I’ve been covering this sort of thing for over a decade now, and my guess is that this “logic error” boils down to one of two things: Either an almost incomprehensible failure condition occurs in one of the most complex systems mankind has ever built, causing a catastrophic event through an almost unthinkable combination of bad luck, or someone does something incredibly stupid.
Sometimes there are no classes
Consumer self-service kiosks operated by Britain’s South Western Railway were also affected. Photo: Anadolu/Getty Images
There have been a lot of comments over the past few days.
This is an inevitable evil that results from the concentration of power in the technology sector in just a few companies.
This is an inevitable consequence of the EU prohibiting Microsoft from restricting antivirus companies’ ability to tamper with basic levels of Windows.
This is the inevitable harm of cybersecurity regulation that focuses more on checking boxes than on actual security.
This wasn’t a security issue because no one was hacked – it was just a bug.
None of it worked. CrowdStrike, despite the disruption it caused, doesn’t wield much power. It’s one of the big players in the space, but it’s installed on only about 1% of PCs. Microsoft says: They claim that the failure happened only because of regulations.Meanwhile, in the alternative where third-party security companies can’t operate on Windows, with Microsoft setting itself up as the only line of defense, it looks like we’ll be in a world where the first big failure actually affects 100% of PCs.
Cybersecurity regulations have actually benefited companies that have adopted CrowdStrike, making complicated certification processes into a simple checkbox check, and maybe that’s a good thing: “Buy a product to be safe” is the only reasonable request for the vast majority of companies, and CrowdStrike has delivered, except for that one unfortunate time.
But unfortunate or not, it was definitely a security issue. The golden triangle of information security has three goals: confidentiality (are the secrets kept secret?), integrity (is the data correct?), and availability (can the system be used?). CrowdStrike could not maintain availability, which meant they could not protect their customers’ information security.
In the end, the only lesson I can take comfort in is that this is going to happen more. We’ve managed so well with so many of our society’s failures that the ones that hit us from now on will be more unexpected, more severe, and less prepared for. Just as a driver can become so confident in their cruise control that they lose control right before an accident, we’ve managed to make catastrophic IT failures so rare that recovering from them is a marathon effort.
Yay?
The Wider TechScape
Social media automatically distributes problematic content to young men with little oversight. Illustration: Nash Weerasekera/The Guardian
“A complete river of rubbish”: Josh Taylor of The Guardian Australia Facebook and Instagram Algorithms The blank account fueled sexism and misogyny.
Is the world’s largest search engine broken? Tom Faber asks Google It is losing momentum.
Is this the end? The Story of Craig Wright? Post The Court’s Full Decision Post on your Twitter feed that you feel like the last decade of your career is final.
Parents have even more reason to worry, as AI technology overwhelms capture efforts. Child Abuser.
and Roblox Back in the spotlight Child sexual abuse failureCritics say the company’s privacy stance makes things worse.
Cybersecurity company Wizz has turned down a $23bn (£18bn) takeover offer from Google’s parent Alphabet, making it the largest takeover bid ever for a tech company, and has opted for a stock market listing instead.
Alphabet had been in discussions with Wizz, a company established by graduates of Israel’s cyber-intelligence program, in an effort to catch up with competitors Microsoft and Amazon in the competitive cloud-services market.
Wiz provides a service that scans data on cloud storage platforms like Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure for potential security threats.
The New York-based startup, which is financially backed by investors such as Sequoia Capital and Thrive Capital, was last valued at $12 billion.
In an internal email to employees, the company expressed gratitude for the offer but decided to remain committed to its mission of building Wiz. CEO Assaf Rapaport outlined the company’s objectives of reaching $1 billion in annual recurring revenue and going public.
Despite the tempting offer, the company’s trust in its skilled team reaffirmed their decision. The positive response from the market further reinforced their aim to create a platform that is loved by both security and development teams.
As of Tuesday morning, neither Wizz nor Google have released an official statement regarding the end of the acquisition negotiations.
There are concerns that the deal may face regulatory challenges as authorities seek to tighten their control over acquisitions involving major tech companies.
Last month, the US Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission agreed to investigate leading players in the AI market, including Microsoft, OpenAI, and Nvidia.
Established in 2020, Wizz was valued at $12 billion in a funding round in May, attracting investments from Andreessen Horowitz, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Thrive.
Wiz claims to have 40% of the Fortune 100 as clients and boasts an annual recurring revenue of $350 million.
The U.S. has seen a significant decrease in greenhouse gas emissions due to the growth of clean energy, but it falls short of the targets set in the Paris climate agreement, according to a recent analysis by Rhodium. Rhodium is a research firm that monitors U.S. progress in meeting climate change objectives.
In the Paris agreement, 194 nations pledged to limit the global average temperature increase to below 2 degrees Celsius. The U.S. has set a goal to reduce emissions by at least 50% by 2030 compared to 2005 levels. However, Rhodium’s report projects that U.S. greenhouse gas emissions will only be 32 to 43 percent below this benchmark by 2030, and 38 to 56 percent below it five years later.
The report indicates that clean energy investments are rapidly increasing, economic growth is no longer reliant on fossil fuels, and President Joe Biden’s climate change initiatives are speeding up electrification efforts.
Despite these positive developments, there are obstacles to overcome. Data centers consuming large amounts of power are driving up electricity demand, recent Supreme Court rulings have weakened federal regulatory powers, and there is a divide between Democrats and Republicans on climate policies as an election approaches.
The U.S. achieved record-breaking numbers last year in adding solar power and clean energy storage to the grid. Ben King, associate director of energy and climate at Rhodium Group, believes these years will be remembered as a pivotal moment in climate policy.
However, the transition to clean energy needs to accelerate further to meet U.S. emissions targets without additional policy actions. Clean energy capacity must increase significantly to achieve Rhodium’s high-end emissions reduction projections.
Challenges such as building transmission lines, sourcing materials for wind power projects, and obtaining licenses for new facilities need to be addressed to speed up the energy transition, according to King.
The report predicts a substantial increase in electricity demand by 2035, driven by the electrification of vehicles and appliances, as well as the usage of data centers for various energy-intensive activities.
Investments in clean energy, transportation, and technology are on the rise, with companies pouring $71 billion into these sectors in the first quarter of 2024, a significant increase from the previous year.
The future of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions will be influenced by the upcoming election, with potential policy changes depending on the outcome. Rhodium anticipates environmental policy challenges following recent Supreme Court decisions, and the next administration will need to strategize to address these challenges.
Researchers from the Scottish Institute for Marine Science have discovered that the deep ocean floor of the Pacific Ocean, covered with polymetallic nodules, produces so-called “dark oxygen.”
Polymetallic nodules recovered from the ocean floor in a Northwestern University lab. Image courtesy of Camille Bridgewater/Northwestern University.
Polymetallic nodules – naturally occurring mineral deposits that form on the seafloor – are commonly found in the sediment-covered abyssal plains of oceans around the world.
These consist primarily of iron and manganese oxides, but also contain metals such as cobalt and rare earth elements, which are essential components of many advanced, low-carbon energy technologies.
For the new study, Dr Andrew Sweetman from the Scottish Institute for Marine Science and his colleagues carried out experiments using chambers placed on the seafloor at a depth of around 4,200 metres to measure oxygen levels at multiple sites more than 4,000 kilometres apart in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone in the central Pacific Ocean, where polymetallic nodules are found.
Nearly every experiment showed a steady increase in oxygen levels over the two days.
The researchers conducted additional laboratory analysis and claim that the source of the detected oxygen release is polymetallic nodules.
Based on numerical simulations, they hypothesize that the electrical properties of the nodes are responsible for oxygen production.
While the researchers note that it is difficult to estimate how much oxygen polymetallic nodules produce over a wide area, they suggest that this source of oxygen may support ecosystems on the deep seafloor, which could be affected if these nodules are mined.
“We understand that oxygen was needed for aerobic life to begin on Earth, and Earth's oxygen supply began with photosynthetic organisms,” Dr Sweetman said.
“But we now know that oxygen is produced even in the deep ocean, where there is no light.”
“So I think we need to rethink questions like where did aerobic life begin.”
of result Published in a journal Nature Chemistry.
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A.K. Sweetman othersEvidence for dark oxygen production on the deep seafloor. National GeographyPublished online July 22, 2024, doi: 10.1038/s41561-024-01480-8
This article is based on a press release provided by Springer Nature and Northwestern University.
Palaeontologists have discovered the fossil of a previously unknown species of lizard in mid-Cretaceous amber unearthed in northern Myanmar.
Reconstructing your life Electrosincus Zeddyparts of the lizard not represented in available sources have been blurred. Image courtesy of Stephanie Abramowicz.
The newly discovered species was a small lizard, estimated to be about 3 centimetres (1.2 inches) long from snout to anus.
Named Electrosincus ZeddyIt lived during the mid-Cretaceous period, about 99 million years ago.
Unlike other squamate animals (lizards and snakes) that lived during the Mesozoic era, they have a layered and complex structure. Cortical bone They are arranged alternately around the body, supporting its classification as a lizard. Gerbils.
“The family Pectiniidae is a highly diverse lineage of squamate animals that is now nearly universally distributed in temperate and tropical regions around the world,” said Dr. Juan Daza of Sam Houston State University and colleagues.
“This comprises more than 1,745 described extant species, about 15 percent of all extant lizards.”
“Typically, lizards have cylindrical bodies and relatively short limbs, and evolution towards shortening or loss of limbs has occurred in more than 50 lizard lineages.”
“Among the living syncoids (Xanthus, Gerphosauridae, Cordylidae, and Syncoidae), syncoid species have the greatest range in body length, ranging from tiny species just a few centimetres in length to extinct species. Tiliqua FrangensIt may have reached a height of more than 50 centimetres.”
“Skinks also vary greatly in the number of presacral vertebrae, ranging from 26 to 108, which, together with round scales and compound bone plates, may have facilitated the repeated evolution of depressed and limbless morphologies.”
“Most lizards have smooth, circular scales beneath which extend compound osteoderms, which are bony plates within the dermis made up of multiple articulating dermal fragments per scale.”
Electrosincus ZeddyVentral (a) and dorsal (b) views of the fossil. Detail of the right foot (c, e) and bone plate (d). X-ray of the entire specimen, showing skeletal remains and some articulated and scattered bone plates (f). Image courtesy of Daza. others., doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-66451-w.
One Burmese Amber (Burmit) Preservation Electrosincus Zeddy It was discovered in a Mid-Cretaceous outcrop about 100 km west of Myitkyina Township, Myitkyina District, Kachin State in northern Myanmar.
The specimen contains two separate parts of a lizard, including scales and mainly appendicular bones, but is clearly part of a single individual.
“To date, more than 100 squamate specimens have been discovered in Burmite,” the paleontologists said.
“Within this large sample, the new fossil is the only one that preserves this cortical bone morphology, which makes it diagnosable as a Snecidae and distinguishes it from all known fossil squamates from the Cretaceous.”
“Although the specimen is incomplete, it preserves both postcranial skeletal elements and integumentary structures, which, although less than ideal, provides a basis for comparison with putative synthid specimens that may be discovered in the future.”
“This specimen has a combination of compound bony plates and overlapping circular scales that are only seen in lizards.”
“We suggest that this type of osteoderm evolved as a response to increased scale overlap and reduced stiffness of the skin armour,” the researchers concluded.
Their paper Published in the journal Scientific Reports.
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JD Daza others2024. A compound osteoderm preserved in amber identifies it as the oldest known lizard. Scientific Reports 14, 15662; doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-66451-w
When chimpanzees socialize, they exchange gestures at a rate similar to how humans converse.
The researchers surveyed five wild chimpanzees.Pan troglodytesThe researchers studied 8,559 gestures made by 252 chimpanzees across chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) communities in East Africa — one of the largest studies of its kind. They recorded face-to-face interactions between the apes, recording the timing of one chimpanzee's gestures relative to those of the other.
An analysis of the ape “conversations” found that chimpanzees' signaling intervals are remarkably similar to human interactions, and even a little faster: “On average, it takes 120 milliseconds between the end of one gesture and the start of the next,” the researchers say. Gal Badig “In humans, the average is about 200 milliseconds, so this is very close,” said researchers at the University of St Andrews in the UK.
All chimpanzee groups responded quickly, but the exact timing varied from group to group: for example, chimpanzees from Sonso, Uganda, took a few milliseconds longer to return the gesture than the other chimpanzee groups studied.
Such differences in timing exist in human languages too. For example, Japanese speakers generally Faster turn changes Japanese people have a different conversational style than Danish speakers. “We don't know exactly why,” says Vadig. “As with humans, we don't know if it's a cultural difference, something we've learned over time, or a reaction to our environment.”
Chimpanzees interacting in the Budongo Forest in Uganda
Adrian Soldati
Only 14 percent of the interactions the researchers observed between chimpanzees involved any kind of interaction. Most consisted of a single gesture, such as “go away” or “follow me,” in which the other person ran away or followed. But interactions were more frequent when the chimpanzees were negotiating over food or grooming.
“What's really exciting about this study is that it shows that communication is a cooperative, socially engaged process in non-human animals,” Budig says, “and that the processes involved in human language may have actually evolved much earlier than we thought.”
Nodules taken from the ocean floor being examined in a laboratory
Camille Bridgewater (2024)
Metallic nodules scattered across the floor of the Indian and Pacific Oceans provide a source of oxygen for nearby marine life, a discovery that could upend our understanding of the deep ocean.
In some areas, the abyssal plains are dotted with potato-sized nodules rich in valuable cobalt, manganese and nickel that are targets for deep-sea mining activities.
Andrew Sweetman Researchers from the Scottish Institute for Marine Science in Oban, UK, were conducting research in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone of the Pacific Ocean (a region rich in nodules) in 2013 when they first noticed something odd about these waters.
Sweetman and his colleagues sent a machine to the ocean floor, sealed off a 22-square-centimeter section of the seafloor, and measured the flow of oxygen. Far from decreasing, the data suggested that oxygen content was actually increasing in the monitored areas.
But in the absence of any noticeable vegetation, Sweetman says, that didn’t make sense. “I was taught from an early age that oxygen-rich ecosystems were only possible through photosynthesis,” he says. He came to the conclusion that the machine he was using was flawed. “I literally ignored the data,” he says.
Then, in 2021, Sweetman went on another research cruise in the Pacific Ocean, and the machine made the same discovery: elevated oxygen levels at the ocean floor, even using a different measurement method.
“We were seeing the same oxygen production in these two different data sets,” Sweetman says, “and suddenly we realized that we’d been ignoring this incredibly innovative process for the last eight or nine years.”
He and his colleagues speculated that the metal nodules must play a role in boosting oxygen levels in the deep ocean, and laboratory tests of contaminating sediments and nodules ruled out the presence of oxygen-producing microorganisms.
Instead, Sweetman says the material in the nodules acts as a “geo-battery,” generating an electrical current that splits seawater into hydrogen and oxygen. “The reason these nodules are mined is because they contain everything you need to make electric car batteries,” he says. “What if the nodules themselves were acting as natural geo-batteries?”
When the team examined the rocks, they found that each nodule generated an electrical potential of up to 1 volt — when they combined together they could generate enough voltage to electrolyze seawater into hydrogen and oxygen, explaining why oxygen levels rise.
“We may have discovered a new natural source of oxygen,” Sweetman said, “We don’t know how widespread it is in time and space, but it’s very intriguing.”
Many questions remain unanswered. For example, the source of energy that creates the current remains a mystery. It’s also unclear whether the reaction occurs continuously, under what conditions, or how this oxygen contributes to maintaining the surrounding ecosystem. “We don’t have all the information yet, but we know it’s happening,” Sweetman says.
In deep-sea environments without sunlight or vegetation, some life forms get their energy from chemicals spewing from hydrothermal vents on the ocean floor. Some scientists believe life on Earth first emerged at these vents, but these early organisms would have needed a source of oxygen to make food from inorganic compounds. The new discovery suggests that the nodules could have been the oxygen source that helped life begin, Sweetman said.
That interpretation may be unreasonable, Donald Canfield The University of Southern Denmark researcher points out that oxygen is needed to produce the manganese oxides found in nodules. “Oxygenic photosynthesis is a prerequisite for the formation of nodules,” he says. “Therefore, oxygen production by nodules is not an alternative oxygen production equivalent to oxygenic photosynthesis. It is highly unlikely that nodules played a role in oxygenating the Earth.”
but, Ruth Blake The Yale researchers say the idea of producing oxygen in the deep sea remains “exciting” and that further study is needed into the phenomenon and its potential impact on deep-sea ecosystems.
Sweetman’s research was funded in part by The Metals Company (TMC), a deep-sea mining company that is targeting metal nodules in the Clarion-Clipperton field. Patrick Downs TMC’s Downs said he had “serious concerns” about the findings, adding that his company’s analysis suggested Sweetman’s results were due to outside oxygen contamination. “We intend to write a rebuttal,” Downs said in a statement. New Scientist.
But the findings are likely to strengthen calls for a ban on deep-sea mining, backed by many oceanographers who say their understanding of these regions is still evolving. Paul Dando Researchers from the British Marine Biological Society said the paper reinforced the view among deep-sea scientists that “we shouldn’t mine these nodules until we understand their ecology”.
Sweetman said the discovery isn’t necessarily a “say-tale” move for deep-sea mining, but it could limit mining in places where oxygen production is low, and more research is needed to explore how sediments disturbed by the mining process affect oxygen production, he said.
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