Traditionally, climate has been thought to be the cause of the emergence and extinction of human species. However, interspecific competition is known to play an important role in most vertebrates. A new study shows for the first time that competition has been the basis of speciation (the rate at which new species emerge) over five million years of human evolution.It also means that our speciation patterns homo The pedigree was different from most others.

a homo heidelbergensis, Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons. Image credit: SINC / Jose Antonio Peñas.

“We have ignored how competition between species has shaped our own evolutionary tree,” says Dr Laura van Holstein, an anthropologist at the University of Cambridge.

“The effects of climate on the human species are only part of the story.”

“In other vertebrates, species form to fill ecological niches. Darwin's finches, for example, have evolved large beaks for cracking nuts, while others have evolved large beaks for eating certain insects. Some have evolved small beaks to accommodate them. Once their respective resource niches are filled, competition ensues, no new finches emerge, and extinction takes over.”

Dr Van Holstein and Professor Robert Foley from the University of Cambridge used Bayesian modeling and phylogenetic analysis to show that, like other vertebrates, most species of humans formed when competition for resources and space was low. It was shown that

“The pattern seen in many early humans is similar to all other mammals,” van Holstein says.

“The speciation rate increases, then levels off, at which point the extinction rate begins to increase. This suggests that competition between species was a major evolutionary factor.”

However, when the authors analyzed our group, homothe findings were “bizarre.”

for homo The pattern of evolution of the lineage leading to modern humans suggests that interspecific competition actually led to the emergence of even newer species, a complete departure from trends seen in almost all other vertebrates. It's a reversal.

“The more types there are, the more homo The more there are, the higher the rate of speciation,” Dr. van Holstein said.

“So once those niches were filled, something caused more species to emerge. This is almost unprecedented in evolutionary science.”

The closest comparison she found was a species of beetle that lives on the island. On islands, confined ecosystems can produce unusual evolutionary trends.

“The evolutionary patterns we see across species are homo “The direct link to modern humans is more closely related to island beetles than to other primates or other mammals,” Dr van Holstein said.

www.sci.news

The top four discoveries from a significant new UN climate study

Posted on March 20, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has recently published a detailed report titled Current status of global climate in 2023, which synthesizes the latest scientific knowledge on climate change from the past year.

This report contains significant findings that shed light on the impact of human-induced climate change on the Earth. If you’re overwhelmed by the idea of reading through lengthy UN reports, fear not! We have highlighted some of the most fascinating and surprising discoveries for you.

1. Switzerland has lost 10 percent of its glaciers in the past two years

Glaciers are vital ecosystems formed when snow solidifies into ice in cold mountain regions. They flow slowly downhill, shaping the landscape as they move. Glaciers play a crucial role in the ecosystem by melting in the summer and nourishing rivers, providing essential water resources globally.

According to the WMO report, the unprecedented glacier loss in 2022-2023, primarily in North America and Europe, marks a record decline. Switzerland, in particular, has witnessed a distressing scenario with a 10 percent reduction in glacier volume over the past two years.

“The planet is warming, and the ice is melting, but seeing parts of the Alps lose 10 percent of their glacier volume in just two years is astonishing,” stated Professor Jonathan Bamber, Director of the Bristol Glaciology Center.

2. On any given day in 2023, a third of the oceans experienced a heatwave.

The record-breaking sea surface temperatures in Florida are just one example of ocean warming trends. The report highlights that a significant portion of the Earth’s stored energy since 1971 resides in the oceans, leading to increased heat content.

In 2023, ocean warming reached its highest level on record, with ocean heat content at a depth of 2,000 meters peaking. This trend is expected to persist for centuries, if not millennia.

As ocean temperatures rise, water expands and contributes to sea level rise. Ocean heatwaves are becoming more frequent, with marine heatwave coverage averaging 32 percent in 2023, compared to 23 percent in 2016.

3. The cost of inaction on climate change could be staggering.

Addressing climate change and adapting to its costs will require substantial investments. The WMO estimates that annual climate finance investments need to increase more than sixfold to limit temperature rise to 1.5°C, amounting to nearly $9 trillion by 2030 and an additional $10 trillion by 2050.

However, the report emphasizes that the cost of inaction would far exceed these figures. Failing to take action between 2025 and 2100 could incur a massive cost of $1,266 trillion.

The cost of inaction on climate change will exceed $1,000 trillion by 2100. – Image courtesy of Getty

Dr. David Lippin stressed the urgency of taking action, citing the report’s warning that inaction on climate change is more costly than proactive measures.

“The time to act is now, and the need for action is urgent,” emphasized Dr. Lippin, a professor at the School of Environmental Geography at York University.

4. Antarctic winter sea ice was 1 million km² below the previous record

The vulnerable polar regions experienced unprecedented changes in Antarctica this year. The report revealed that Antarctic sea ice extent hit a record low in February.

While Antarctic sea ice typically peaks around September, it reached a record low this year, falling up to 1 million km² below any previous level recorded – equivalent to the combined area of France and Spain.

Senior Researcher at the National Center for Atmospheric Science, Dr. Till Kuhlbrodt, described the findings as alarming, reflecting extreme climate and weather conditions unprecedented in modern records.

Despite these challenges, Professor Tina van de Flierdt, Head of Geosciences and Engineering at Imperial College London, emphasized the importance of immediate action to mitigate the loss of the West Antarctic ice sheet and reduce global emissions.

About our experts

Jonathan Bamber: A physicist specializing in Earth Observation data, particularly on the cryosphere. With over 200 peer-reviewed publications, he is recognized as a leading researcher in his field.

David Lippin: Senior Lecturer in Physical Geography at the University of York, focusing on glacier dynamics and ice sheet research using advanced techniques.

Till Kuhlbrodt: Senior Research Fellow at the University of Reading, leading models to support climate change mitigation efforts. His recent work on sea temperature extremes was published in the American Weather Society Bulletin.

Tina van de Flierdt: Dean of the School of Geosciences and Engineering at Imperial College London, with research interests in paleoceanography, paleoclimate, and Antarctic ice sheet dynamics.

Source: www.sciencefocus.com

The significant role of space dust in the origins of life on Earth

Posted on February 19, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

2023 Perseid meteor shower seen from California

NASA/Preston Deitches

Space dust may have brought elements essential for life to early Earth. Our planet is relatively poor in some of the elements necessary for the chemical reactions of life, but the dust that constantly drifts in from space contains many more, and when the Earth was young it was covered with glaciers. It is possible that they were gathered in

“It’s always been a shadow idea, but people were ignoring it for a number of reasons. The biggest one was that there weren’t enough ideas anywhere,” he said. say. craig walton at Cambridge University. Space dust tends to be rich in elements that are relatively difficult to obtain on Earth, such as phosphorus and sulfur, and it constantly falls in thin layers around the world.

Until now, researchers exploring the origins of such elements on Earth have focused primarily on larger objects that can deliver more elements at once, but such delivery mechanisms were They may have a hard time maintaining their pre-biological chemistry long enough to do so, Walton says. “Meteorites have long been thought to be a great source of these elements, but they release them randomly,” he says. “It’s like if I give you a big feast once, but you never eat again, you’re going to have a hard time living a happy life. You need a continuous source, and that’s what happens. It’s space dust.”

Up to 40,000 tons of space dust falls on Earth every year. Billions of years ago, that number may have been between 10 and 10,000 times higher, but that was still not enough to make individual locations particularly rich in elements important to life. Walton and his colleagues simulated how wind and water move dust and collect it in concentrations high enough to support life.

They found that glaciers are the most promising environment because they have the potential to trap large amounts of dust and are very less contaminated by dirt on land. When space dust falls on a glacier, it absorbs sunlight and heats up, melting and creating tiny holes in the ice. The hole then continues to trap more dust. Finally, the dust chamber flows into a pond at the edge of the glacier.

We can still see this process happening today, but if the Earth had been cold enough to have glaciers billions of years ago, the amount of dust would have increased and it would have been even more efficient. . “If you want to produce deposits that are really rich and have a lot of reactions that could lead to life, this is the best way to do it,” Walton says.

“We don’t know if glaciers were common on early Earth; we just don’t have good data for this period in general,” he says. ben pierce at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland. “But I think it’s worth investigating, especially if it has the potential to provide a mechanism for creating a rich primordial soup.”

The lack of data about conditions on Earth during this time makes it difficult to estimate how important cosmic dust was to the origin of life. “We’ve always had a hard time understanding what the bulk chemistry of early Earth was like,” he says. Matthew Pasek at the University of South Florida. “However, this could be an important source of extremely valuable material.”

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Source: www.newscientist.com

Is 23andMe’s DNA Trustworthy Without Significant Safeguards? | Data Protection

Posted on February 17, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

WIs hats next for 23andMe? Most people know this biotech company as a genetic testing service. The story of a woman who sends a cheek swab through the mail and discovers that the parents who raised her were not her biological parents has become something of a millennial horror genre. Of course, most 23andMe experiences aren’t that dramatic. The company says more than 14 million people have used the service to learn more about their ancestry.

But this month, 23andMe revealed it was facing major financial troubles, and more information emerged about the company’s devastating security breach last year. Now, customers may be wondering, “Can I trust his DNA on 23andMe?”

DNA “bait and switch”

Last week, 23andMe reported dismal third-quarter results, and the company’s stock price slumped.
CNBC reported. The company’s financial difficulties come down to longevity issues. The company’s most famous service, DNA ancestry testing, is a one-time transaction. After being tested, there is no reason for consumers to continue paying for his 23andMe, and it has reached a kind of plateau.

Nevertheless, the company’s CEO, Ann Wojcicki, said:
wired She remains “optimistic” about 23andMe’s future.

At-home DNA testing is so popular that you can even order one for your dog. 23andMe was the first company to offer this (human) service in 2007, and it now serves an estimated one in five American girlfriends.
I’ve tried Genetic testing that can be done at home. Some customers handed over personal data that Wojcicki and others used for purposes other than family reunions.

From 2018 to 2023, 23andMe partnered with pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline to use customers’ genetic information to help develop drug targets. (Drug targets are molecules involved in a disease. Researchers use them to develop treatments for specific diseases.) This year, the partnership became non-exclusive. This means 23andMe can sign deals with more drug companies and squeeze more money out of them. From the treasure trove of DNA.

“This is a real resource that different organizations can apply to their own drug discovery,” Wojcicki said, adding that 23andMe is interested in researching inflammatory immunology, particularly asthma.

23andMe already has two cancer drugs in clinical trials. These drugs are created from the user’s genetic data. But 23andMe users may not realize that the spit they gave the company months or years ago is being used to make more money.

As Health Reporter Kristen V. Brown
I have written For Bloomberg in 2021: “It’s strange that the 8.8 million 23andMe customers who once said, sure, use my data for whatever they want and didn’t check the box, now feel like they’ve been baited. Now they’re making the switch because their genes lay the foundation for potential cancer treatments. ” (Since 2021, the number of customers who have checked that box has grown to 10 million, according to Wired.)

Americans tend to believe that their health data is protected by Hipaa, the medical privacy law, and 23andMe, with its official-looking cheek swabs and far-flung labs, sure is too. However, 23andMe is not a healthcare provider.same rules
do not apply.

“There are no significant safeguards or regulations around the collection and sale of truly sensitive personal data,” said Suzanne Bernstein, a legal researcher at the Electronic Privacy Information Center. “A nefarious presence for 23andMe.” [data] A breach constitutes a security issue, but so does a company sharing your information with a third party you don’t know. Customers can technically consent to data sharing by agreeing to terms and conditions, but they are very long and many people don’t read them. ”

Ann Wojcicki, CEO of the company, 2015. Photo: Brad Barket/Getty Images for Fast Company

Some people may feel honored to have their genes used in cancer research. Some people may feel cheated because they paid about $229 for a DNA test kit and 23andMe is using their health data for free. Torin Klosowski, a security and privacy activist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said 23andMe could do more to help customers better understand the move before opting in.

“The fact that so many people are surprised by the amount of data being leaked elsewhere is a sign that 23andMe is not explaining things very clearly,” he said.

Klosowski added that users can opt out of 23andMe’s use of their data long after they have shipped their DNA swab, but that information may already have been used for research purposes. “You can ask 23andMe to stop using your information, but you cannot ask 23andMe to remove your sold data from its lists,” he said.

On the other hand, 23andMe
maintain Users are asked to select a survey at the time of purchase and all personal data is de-identified before being shipped for analysis. Your data will not be used without this consent, which you can withdraw. The company’s research department is also overseen by an “independent and impartial” review board. (23andMe did not respond to a request for comment.)

Data breaches lead to class action lawsuits

The 23andMe security breach is still on the minds of many customers. Approximately 7 million customer profiles were hacked last year. Over a five-month period, hackers compromised the personal information of up to 5.5 million people who opted in to one of 23andMe’s best-known features, including their career status reports. I was able to access my health records. Find relatives.

Customers of Chinese and Ashkenazi Jewish descent appear to have been targeted in the breach, and their information was sold on the dark web, the New York Times reported.
report. Some of these users recently filed a class action lawsuit against 23andMe, alleging the company failed to notify them of the exposure.

As The Guardian reported on Thursday, 23andMe in a letter to customers downplayed its responsibility for the hack and made claims about the health information that was accessed. “It cannot be used for the purpose of causing harm. The company also criticized customers for “carelessly recycling their passwords and not updating them,” a response one former customer called “morally and politically foolish.”

Wojcicki did not directly discuss the breach due to pending litigation, but told Wired that 23andMe introduced two-factor authentication and forced customers to reset their passwords. “Data privacy and security has always been a very high priority and continues to be a high priority for the company, and we intend to further invest in it,” she said.

Will 23andMe’s security problems spell the end for a company once hailed as a “corporate” by Time?
inventions of the year? Regardless of whether customer privacy concerns are well-founded, the company’s financial position is rapidly deteriorating, and CNN
report If the stock price does not rise, the company could be delisted from the Nasdaq.

Dominic Sellitto, a clinical assistant professor at the University at Buffalo who specializes in digital privacy, believes that if 23andMe survives this year, it will be thanks to data mining. “There is a lot of demand and funding for data, especially high-quality health data,” he said. “If 23andMe continues to monetize, it will be the golden ticket in 2024.”

Source: www.theguardian.com

Seabed trawling is a significant contributor to global CO2 emissions

Posted on January 18, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

In bottom trawling, a weighted net is dragged across the ocean floor.

NarisaFotoSS/Shutterstock

Bottom trawling releases about 340 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year, according to the first study to estimate these emissions. This represents almost 1% of the world's CO2 emissions, but is a major contribution that has been overlooked until now.

Trawling involves dragging a weighted net across the ocean floor to capture bottom-dwelling fish, crustaceans, and shellfish. Although this method of fishing is widely used around the world, it is controversial because the fishing gear damages undersea environments such as cold-water reefs. Some corals are thousands of years old.

“Trawling is a highly destructive fishing method as the nets and weights dragged along the bottom destroy marine habitat, which can take years to rebuild and recover.” he says. Micah Peck from the University of Sussex, UK, was not involved in the study.

It also stirs up sediment, releasing the oxygen needed by microorganisms to break down organic matter into carbon dioxide. Otherwise, these deposits could continue to accumulate for thousands of years, with the organic matter within them preserved by low-oxygen conditions. This means that carbon is effectively trapped.

In 2021, trisha atwood Researchers at Utah State University in Logan combined a study that looked at the amount of carbon dioxide released during trawling with data on the global scale of trawling. global fishing watch.The team concluded that released in large quantities into the seawater.

But the big unanswered question was how much of the CO2 released from the sediments would be emitted into the atmosphere.

“A lot of countries and different institutions started contacting us about that research,” Atwood says. “But they basically said, as long as it just stays in the ocean, we don't really care.”

So the team teamed up with researchers who had developed computer models of ocean circulation. According to these models, about 55 percent of the CO2 released into the water by trawling will be released into the atmosphere after nine years.

“I was surprised that more than half of them came out,” Atwood said. “And it shows up very quickly.”

According to the global carbon budget, the total amount of CO is₂ emissions from human activities Increased to 40.9 billion tons Therefore, if the team's estimates are correct, trawling accounts for about 0.8 percent of global emissions. Air and maritime transport: 2.8%.

Conservationists say the discovery strengthens the case for reducing trawling. “Many marine habitats are trawled at least once a year, resuspending sediment and releasing carbon into the atmosphere,” Peck said. “Banning destructive fishing practices is key to the future of healthy marine ecosystems and the marine ecosystems that depend on them.”

“Measures to reduce the carbon impact of trawling gear are urgently needed, but they must be done as part of a just transition,” said Gareth Cunningham. marine conservation association, is calling for a ban on trawling in so-called marine reserves around the UK. “There is no one-size-fits-all model and solutions will vary by location.”

However, not all researchers are satisfied with this number. “I'm very skeptical of their estimates,” he says. Jan Gerd Hiddink At Bangor University, UK.

Hiddink believes that much of the carbon that reaches the ocean floor is in forms that are difficult to decompose, such as bones, and that carbon is not released even when sediments are disturbed.Atwood's team is probably overestimate emissions Up to 1000x, he claims.

Atwood said this estimate is based on actual measurements. “We conducted a study to measure the amount of carbon dioxide emitted from the ocean floor in areas where trawling takes place,” she says.

She says that the amount of carbon dioxide emitted could be more or less than these studies suggest, although there is a lot of uncertainty because so few such studies have been done. says.

Mr Atwood says the government needs to start calculating the carbon footprint of trawling. “This allows us to decide whether emissions should be regulated,” she says.

What is clear is that Global Fishing Watch's trawling data is based on boats sending automatic signals to satellites, and many trawlers do not have such systems, so the extent of trawling remains under-studied. That means it's bigger than expected.

“We know that we underestimate the global scale and perhaps the intensity of trawling,” Atwood says.

The trawling industry also has an opportunity to sell carbon credits in exchange for reduced emissions, she says. “If you were to put a price on it in today's independent market, it's a $100 million market.”

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Source: www.newscientist.com

New Observations by Webb Show Significant Conflict in Beta Pictoris

Posted on January 11, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Dr. Christopher Stark and colleagues at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center present new coronagraphic images from Earth NIRCam (near infrared camera) and mm (Mid-Infrared Instrument) instruments aboard the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope reveal never-before-seen structures in the debris disk around the young star Beta Pictoris.

Pictoris Beta is a young planetary system located approximately 63 light-years from Earth.

Estimated to be only 20 million years old, it is known to be home to the gas giant Beta Pictoris b.

In the new study, Stark and co-authors used Webb's NIRCam and MIRI instruments to investigate the composition of Beta Pictoris' primary and secondary debris disks.

“Pictoris Beta is an all-inclusive debris disk. It has a very bright and close star that we can study well, a multicomponent disk, an exocomet, and two imaged “There is a complex circumstellar environment that includes exoplanets,” the Astrobiology Center said. astronomer Isabel Rebolido;

“There have been ground-based observations in this wavelength range before, but this feature was not detected because we did not have the sensitivity and spatial resolution of the current web.”

Even with Webb, peering into Beta Pictoris in the right wavelength range was crucial to detecting the never-before-seen dust trail, which resembles a cat's tail. This is because it only appeared in MIRI data.

Webb's mid-infrared data also revealed differences in temperature between Beta Pictoris' two disks. This is probably due to differences in composition.

“We didn't expect Webb to reveal that there are two different types of material surrounding Beta Pictoris, but MIRI clearly shows that the material in the secondary disk and cat's tail is hotter than the main disk. Dr. Stark said.

“The dust that forms its disk and tail must be so dark that it is not easily visible at visible wavelengths, but it glows in the mid-infrared.”

This artist's impression shows an exocomet orbiting the star Pictoris Beta. Image credit: L. Calçada / ESO.

To explain the higher temperatures, astronomers speculated that the dust could be a porous “organic refractory” similar to the material found on the surfaces of comets and asteroids in our solar system. .

For example, preliminary analysis of material collected from the asteroid Bennu by NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission revealed very dark, carbon-rich material similar to what MIRI detected on Beta Pictoris.

But big questions still remain. What explains the shape of the cat's tail, a uniquely curved feature unlike those seen in disks around other stars?

Researchers modeled various scenarios to mimic a cat's tail and uncover its origins.

Although more research and experiments are needed, the researchers offer a strong hypothesis that cat tails are the result of a dust-producing phenomenon that occurred just 100 years ago.

“Something happens, like a collision, and it creates a lot of dust,” says Dr. Marshall Perrin, an astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute.

“At first, the dust follows the same trajectory as its source, but then it starts to spread out.”

“Light from the star pushes the smallest, fluffiest dust particles away from the star faster, while larger particles move less, creating long dust tendrils.”

“The characteristics of a cat's tail are so unusual that it has been difficult to reproduce the curvature in mechanical models,” Dr. Stark said.

“Our model requires dust to be pushed out of the system very quickly, which also suggests it is made of organic refractory materials.”

“The model we have recommended explains the sharp angle of the tail away from the disk as a simple optical illusion.”

“Our perspective, combined with the curved shape of the tail, creates the observed tail angle, but in reality, the arc of material is only pointing away from the disk at a 5-degree inclination.”

“Considering the brightness of the tail, we estimate that the amount of dust in the cat's tail is equivalent to a large main-belt asteroid spanning 10 billion miles.”

Recent dust production events within Beta Pictoris' debris disk may also explain the newly observed asymmetric spreading of the tilted inner disk, shown in the MIRI data and only seen on the opposite side of the tail. there is.

“Our study suggests that Beta pictris may be even more active and chaotic than previously thought,” Dr. Stark said.

“The Webb continues to amaze us even when looking at the most well-studied celestial objects. We have a whole new window into these planetary systems.”

of result This week, it was announced in AAS243243rd Meeting of the American Astronomical Society, New Orleans, USA.

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christopher stark other. 2024. A new view of JWST's Beta Pictris suggests recent bursts of dust production from an eccentric, tilted secondary debris disk. AAS243Abstract #4036

Source: www.sci.news

The surface of Enceladus may have significant amounts of untouched organic material

Posted on December 25, 2023 by Igor Mitreski

Enceladus, Saturn’s sixth-largest moon, is an interesting place to look to our solar system in the search for evidence of extraterrestrial life, given its habitable oceans and plumes that deposit organic-containing marine material on its surface. It brings you the right opportunities. Organic marine material may be sampled by the Enceladus lander mission. Considering the UV and plasma environment, it is interesting to understand the amount of relatively pure and unaltered organic matter present on the surface.

Enceladus’ tiger stripes are known to be caused by the moon’s icy interior spewing ice into space, creating a cloud of fine ice particles above the moon’s south pole, forming Saturn’s mysterious E ring. It is being This evidence comes from his NASA Cassini spacecraft, which orbited Saturn from 2004 to 2017. Shown here is a high-resolution image of Enceladus taken from a nearby airfield. The tiger stripes appear in a false blue color. Image credit: NASA / ESA / JPL / SSI / Cassini Imaging Team.

“By sending a mission to the surface of Enceladus, we can learn a lot about the biological signatures that may exist in Enceladus’ oceans,” said Amanda Hendricks, a senior scientist at the Planetary Science Institute. .

“Previously, it was thought that sampling the freshest material from Enceladus’ ocean would require flying through the plume and measuring plume particles and gas.”

“But now we know that we can land on the surface, and we are confident that the instrument can measure plume organic matter from the ocean in its relatively natural state.”

“Thanks to measurements from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, we know that Enceladus’ ocean is habitable,” she added.

“We know that there is liquid water, energy, and chemicals such as carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, and sulfur, which are necessary for life as we know it. It is an ingredient.”

“Enceladus is an oceanic world. Beneath its icy surface is a liquid ocean.”

“There are at least some ocean worlds in our solar system, but Enceladus is special because it is spraying ocean material into space via plumes of water vapor and ice particles at its south pole. This means Cassini’s instruments were able to reveal its signature.” As the spacecraft flew through Enceladus’ plumes, the ocean was visible. ”

“Fortunately, this study found that even though some of the plume particles were ejected into the Saturn system, nearly 90% of the plume particles returned to the Moon’s surface. This is likely due to marine material containing organic matter. But it’s sitting right on the surface.”

Organic molecules found in Enceladus’ plumes include molecules such as methane and ethane, as well as more complex molecules.

Organic matter is processed or chemically transformed by charged particles such as the sun’s ultraviolet photons and electrons.

But if scientists want to know whether ocean-derived biosignatures are present in plume particles, they need these particles to be as pristine as possible and unexposed to ultraviolet light.

An artist’s impression of NASA’s Cassini spacecraft flying through a plume of smoke spewing from Enceladus’ south pole. These plumes are much like geysers, releasing a combination of water vapor, ice grains, salt, methane, and other organic molecules. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

In the new study, Dr. Hendricks and fellow Penn State researcher Christopher House use data from NASA/ESA’s Hubble Space Telescope and Cassini to show that ultraviolet photons can be detected on Enceladus’ plume-covered surface. We estimated how deep it could penetrate.

“What we found in this study is that there are places on the surface of Enceladus where a spacecraft can land and collect samples. If we do that, we could measure organic matter in a relatively natural state.” Dr. Hendricks said.

“That’s because the sun’s ultraviolet photons don’t penetrate very deeply into the ice surface.”

“These harmful solar UV photons only penetrate about 100 micrometers into the ice surface. That’s the width of several human hairs!”

“So the topmost surface is exposed to harmful UV photons, but only some of the organic matter is chemically changed, and soon that material is covered by fresher plume material. .”

“And the deeper particles do not undergo further deformation because the ultraviolet photons are prevented from interacting with the deeper material.”

“The newly deposited plume particles act as a shield for the material below. They act like a sunscreen!”

“Ideally, we would like to someday land on the surface of Enceladus and sample organic matter from the relatively pristine ocean.”

“This result is important because the penetration depth of these harmful ultraviolet photons is so shallow that it suggests that there is a lot of relatively primitive organic matter that can be sampled.”

“Slightly deeper particles are less exposed to UV light, meaning the organic matter has a lower age of exposure.”

“Ultraviolet light easily alters organic molecules, so the depth at which such light reaches the surface of the icy world is critical,” Dr House added.

“Because the penetration depth of ultraviolet light was found to be short, our findings confirm that there is sufficient organic material trapped and preserved within Enceladus’ ice that can be traced back to its oceans. Did.”

“It’s awe-inspiring to think that we can easily obtain so much organic matter from habitable extraterrestrial oceans using known techniques.”

of findings It was published in the magazine Communication Earth and Environment.

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AR Hendrix & CH House. 2023. The effective UV exposure age of organic matter on Enceladus’s surface is low. common global environment 4,485; doi: 10.1038/s43247-023-01130-8

Source: www.sci.news

ShareChat experiences significant decrease in valuation following new funding round

Posted on December 20, 2023 by Igor Mitreski

ShareChat is in the final stages of discussions to secure about $50 million in new funding that would bring the startup’s valuation below $1.5 billion, according to two people familiar with the matter.

Existing backers including Temasek and Tencent are among the investors in advanced stages of talks to invest in the new round, the sources said, asking not to be identified as the matter is private. Stated. ShareChat has been in talks with several potential new investors this year, and one of the potential investors the startup has engaged says that ShareChat is expected to receive a high valuation compared to its current low revenue. Many investors are hesitant to take this opportunity because of the current situation.

The terms of the negotiations are still ongoing and could change slightly, according to people familiar with the matter, but ShareChat’s current valuation is less than $1.5 billion, which is the same as when ShareChat raised funding early last year. This is a significant drop from its valuation of $4.9 billion.

The round could be completed as early as the end of the year. ShareChat did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday morning. Temasek declined to comment, citing its own policies.

The loss-making Bengaluru-headquartered startup, which operates a social network and counts X, Snap and Tiger Global among its backers, has raised more than $1.4 billion so far, according to venture intelligence platform Tracxn.

Amid the TikTok ban, ShareChat’s failed bet in India’s short video space forced it to raise capital and prompted a price cut. (TechCrunch exclusively reported earlier that in late 2020 and early 2021, X considered acquiring ShareChat in a $2 billion deal.)

Sensor Tower estimates daily active users of Google’s Android platform in India (shared with TC by industry executives). In an official statement, ShareChat claims to have over 300 million monthly active users.

ShareChat, which launched short video app Moj in mid-2020, doubled its position in the category by acquiring MXTakaTak, a video app in the Times Internet portfolio, for more than $600 million. But industry analysts say YouTube and Instagram have filled TikTok’s void as creators migrate to these much larger platforms.

Eight-year-old ShareChat is scrambling to find ways to grow revenue and cut expenses after its two co-founders left earlier this year to start a new startup. It has tried a series of initiatives, including a fantasy sports app and a live voice chat service. However, sales were still lower at the end of the fiscal year ending in March. $65 million. The company plans to cut another 15% to 20% of its workforce in the coming weeks, another person said.

Many investors around the world are devaluing their holdings in startups, as the prolonged economic slowdown has also reduced the valuations of nearly all publicly traded technology companies. Prosus recently lowered Byju’s valuation to less than $3 billion from $22 billion in early 2022. Byju’s has raised more than $5 billion through equity and debt.

Source: techcrunch.com

Harvard team makes significant strides in error correction technology

Posted on December 16, 2023 by Igor Mitreski

Quantum computing has advanced significantly with a new platform from Harvard University that is capable of dynamic reconfiguration and can demonstrate low error rates in two-qubit entangled gates. This breakthrough, highlighted in a recent Nature paper, represents a major advance in overcoming the challenges of quantum error correction and places Harvard’s technology alongside other leading quantum computing methods. Masu. This research, in collaboration with MIT and others, represents an important step toward scalable, error-correcting quantum computing. Credit: SciTechDaily.com

A method developed by a team at Harvard University to reduce errors addresses a critical hurdle in scaling up technology.

Quantum computing technology has the potential to achieve unprecedented speed and efficiency, vastly exceeding the capabilities of even the most advanced supercomputers currently available. However, this innovative technology has not been widely scaled or commercialized, primarily due to inherent limitations in error correction. Quantum computers, unlike classical computers, cannot correct errors by copying encoded data over and over again. Scientists had to find another way.

Now, a new paper Nature depicting Harvard University quantum computing A potential platform to solve a long-standing problem known as quantum error correction.

The Harvard team is led by quantum optics expert Mikhail Lukin, Joshua and Beth Friedman Professor of Physics and co-director of the Harvard Quantum Initiative. The research reported in Nature was a collaboration between Harvard University. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston-based QuEra Computing. George Busmer Leverett Professor of Physics and Marcus Greiner’s group also participated.

Unique Harvard Platform

The Harvard University platform, an effort over the past several years, is built on an array of very cold rubidium atoms captured by a laser.Each atom They act as bits (called “qubits” in the quantum world) that can perform extremely fast calculations.

The team’s main innovation is configuring a “neutral atomic array” so that the layout can be dynamically changed by moving and connecting atoms during calculations. This is called “entanglement” in physics terms. 2 Operations that entangle pairs of atoms called qubit logic gates are units of computing power.

Running complex algorithms on a quantum computer requires many gates. However, these gating operations are known to be error-prone, and the accumulation of errors renders the algorithm useless.

In a new paper, the team reports near-perfect performance of the two-qubit entanglement gate with extremely low error rates. For the first time, they demonstrated the ability to entangle atoms with an error rate of less than 0.5 percent. In terms of operational quality, this puts the performance of the company’s technology on par with other major types of quantum computing platforms, such as superconducting qubits and trapped ion qubits.

Benefits and future prospects

However, Harvard’s approach has significant advantages over these competitors due to its large system size, efficient qubit control, and the ability to dynamically reconfigure the atomic layout.

“We demonstrate that the physical errors of this platform are low enough that we can actually imagine large-scale error correction devices based on neutral atoms,” said lead author and Harvard University Griffin School of Arts and Sciences. student Simon Evered said. group. “Currently, our error rates are low enough that if we group atoms into logical qubits (information is stored non-locally between the constituent atoms), we can Errors can be even lower than individual atoms.”

The Harvard team’s progress was tracked by former Harvard graduate student and current princeton university, former Harvard University postdoctoral fellow Manuel Endres, now at the California Institute of Technology. Taken together, these advances lay the foundation for quantum error correction algorithms and large-scale quantum computing. All of this means that quantum computing on neutral atomic arrays is reaching its full potential.

“These contributions open the door to very special opportunities in scalable quantum computing, and truly exciting times ahead for the field as a whole,” Lukin said.

Reference: “High-fidelity parallel entanglement gates on neutral atom quantum computers” Simon J. Evered, Dolev Bluvstein, Marcin Kalinowski, Sepehr Ebadi, Tom Manovitz, Hengyun Zhou, Sophie H. Li, Alexandra A. Geim, Tout T Wang, Nishad Maskara, Harry Levine, Julia Semeghini, Markus Greiner, Vladan Vretić, Mikhail D. Lukin, October 11, 2023. Nature.
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-06481-y

This research was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Quantum Systems Accelerator Center. Ultracold Atom Center. National Science Foundation. Army Research Office Interdisciplinary University Research Initiative.And thatDARPAOptimization with a noisy intermediate-scale quantum device program.

Source: scitechdaily.com

23andMe reports that hackers gained access to ‘significant’ data concerning users’ genealogy

Posted on December 1, 2023 by Igor Mitreski

Genetic testing company 23andMe announced Friday that hackers gained access to approximately 14,000 customer accounts in its recent data breach.

In a new filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission The company announced Friday that based on an investigation into the incident, it determined that the hackers had accessed 0.1% of its customer base. According to the company’s latest annual earnings report.23andMe has “more than 14 million customers worldwide,” so 0.1% is about 14,000 people.

However, the company also said that by accessing these accounts, the hackers were able to access “substantial data, including profile information about other users’ ancestry, that other users choose to share when opting in to 23andMe’s DNA kinship feature.” He said he also had access to several files.

The company did not say what those “significant” files were or how many “other users” were affected.

23andMe did not immediately respond to a request for comment that included questions about these numbers.

In early October, 23andMe disclosed an incident in which hackers used a common technique known as “credential stuffing” to steal the data of some users. In this method, a cybercriminal hacks into a victim’s account using a known password, possibly compromised by another password data breach. service.

However, the damage was not limited to the customers whose accounts were accessed. 23andMe allows users to opt in to the following features: dna relatives. If you opt in to that feature, 23andMe will share some of your information with other users. This means that by accessing her single victim’s account, the hacker was also able to see the personal data of people related to that first victim.

23andMe said in its filing that for its first 14,000 users, the stolen data “generally includes ancestry information, and for a subset of those accounts health information based on users’ genetics.” It contained relevant information.” For some other users, 23andMe said only that the hackers stole “profile information” and posted “certain information” online that was unspecified.

TechCrunch analyzed the set of stolen data released by comparing it to known public genealogy records, including websites published by hobbyists and genealogists. Although the data set was in a different format, it contained some of the same unique user and genetic information that matched genealogy records published online many years ago.

The owner of a genealogy website whose relatives’ information was partially exposed in the 23andMe data breach told TechCrunch that there are about 5,000 relatives discovered through 23andMe, and our “correlation shows that That may be something to consider.”

data breach news surfaced online In October, hackers promoted suspected data on 1 million Ashkenazi Jewish users and 100,000 Chinese users on a popular hacking forum. About two weeks later, the same hacker who first advertised his stolen user data, he also advertised what was claimed to be a record of 4 million people. The hacker was trying to sell each victim’s data for anything from $1 to $10.

TechCrunch discovered that another hacker was promoting more allegedly stolen user data on a separate hacking forum two months before the ad first reported by news outlets in October. In the first ad, the hacker claimed he had stolen 300 terabytes of data from 23andMe users, and if he wanted to sell the entire database he would get $50 million, or for a subset of the data he would get $1,000. He asked for $10,000.

Following the data breach, 23andMe on October 10 forced users to reset and change their passwords and encouraged them to enable multi-factor authentication. And on Nov. 6, the company required all users to use two-step verification, according to a new filing.

After the 23andMe breach, other DNA testing companies Ancestry and MyHeritage began requiring two-factor authentication.

Source: techcrunch.com

Major Banks Foresee Significant Interest Rate Reductions – Stay Updated with Blockchain News, Expert Opinions, and Job Opportunities in the Financial Sector.

Posted on November 14, 2023 by Igor Mitreski

Strategists at UBS investment bank expect a significant interest rate cut by the US central bank, which is seen as bullish for Bitcoin. UBS said falling inflation could prompt the U.S. central bank (Federal Reserve) to start cutting interest rates as early as March. This development is perceived as very positive for Bitcoin, especially considering recent economic indicators.

US inflation slows significantly, eliminating bets on further Fed rate hikes

Recent data reveals slowing U.S. inflation, extinguishing hopes for further rate hikes from the Federal Reserve. The consumer price index stalled in October, with the core index rising 0.2%. Those numbers have led traders to push back when they expect the U.S. Federal Reserve to make its first move to cut interest rates.

This change in expectations is consistent with UBS’s prediction of a significant interest rate cut, creating a supportive backdrop for Bitcoin in the following ways:

Reduced opportunity cost: As traditional interest rates decline and expectations of further rate hikes fade, the opportunity cost of holding Bitcoin also decreases. This could make Bitcoin more attractive to investors looking for alternative assets.

Inflation hedge: As inflation slows, investors could turn to assets like Bitcoin, which some see as a hedge against inflation. The scarcity and decentralized nature of cryptocurrencies could make them an attractive store of value in an environment of reduced inflationary pressures.

Market speculation: Revisions to the Fed’s rate hike outlook could spark speculative activity in financial markets. Bitcoin’s higher return potential and its characteristic volatility may attract traders looking for opportunities in a changing interest rate landscape.

Macroeconomic uncertainty: Recent economic data, coupled with revised Fed rate hike expectations, may signal broader economic uncertainty. In times like these, Bitcoin’s role as a decentralized and non-traditional asset is likely to become more prominent as investors seek to escape market volatility.

This combination of factors, with the potential for increased demand and favorable market sentiment, is reinforcing Bitcoin’s positive outlook.

Source: the-blockchain.com

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A method developed by a team at Harvard University to reduce errors addresses a critical hurdle in scaling up technology.

Unique Harvard Platform

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A method developed by a team at Harvard University to reduce errors addresses a critical hurdle in scaling up technology.

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