discuss Science & Technology news & discussion

[CraigD]

Post and discuss interesting articles & videos about science and technology.

You don't need to be an expert - just interested in the wonders of modern science, technology, and the history of these fields.

Please keep it rational, and post articles from reputable sources.
Try not to editorialise headlines and keep the copy to just a paragraph with a link to the original source. When quoting excerpts from articles, I think the best method is to italicise the copy, and include a link to the source.

Have some fun with your comments and discussions... just keep the sources legitimate.

Other threads:
The Break Room has a number of other popular threads, so there is no need to post material here that is better suited to these other threads:

- Covid19-Coronavirus updates and news
- Conspiracy Thread Free For All
- The *religious* discussion thread

Please enjoy!

 

[koolishman]

Disney's Frozen Helps Researchers Solve 62-Year-Old Cold Case

Disney’s Frozen ended up helping some researchers solve a 62-year-old cold case. Some new findings in Communications Earth and Environment show how these people used technology from the Pixar film to solve the Dyatlov Pass incident. For those unaware, A team of students and their instructor went on a mountaineering expedition in the Ural Mountains in 1959. What followed was pretty horrific. Their tent was found after a snowstorm ripped open from the inside and there were bodies scattered all around the nearby areas with traumatic injuries. People wondered how this could have occurred with no witnesses, and soon conspiracy theories began to bubble up from all sides. However, everything changed when a present-day researcher watched Frozen for the first time.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyatlov_Pass_incident

Back in 2013, at the height of Frozen fever, Johan Guame of the Snow Avalanche Simulation Laboratory marveled at how Disney was able to make such realistic snow. The technology to simulate that movement was unparalleled. So, Guame emailed the animators to inquiry. From there, he traveled to Los Angeles to meet with the specialist responsible for the movement on-screen. The researcher obtained a version of the snow animation code for his avalanche simulations. Gaume intended to figure out how avalanches would affect the human body.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1354835445297934338

In this catastrophe, the bodies of the travelers were found with extreme injuries including blunt force puncture wounds and cracked open skulls. It turns out, that when a wall of snow hits a precise angle, that ice can be like a projectile. With the data in-hand, you could build a model to explain these gruesome injuries with a very normal avalanche. The displacement of the bodies could be the result of some of the students trying to drag their friends to safety instead of merely abandoning the camp. It’s a wild ride to think that a simple computer simulation could shed so much light on a 60-year-old case, but here it is.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-020-00081-8/

 

[koolishman]

Soap bubble freezes into an iridescent snow globe in cool new video
A photographer captured mesmerizing footage of a soap bubble freezing over and transforming into a delicate snow globe after temperatures plunged in Winnipeg, Canada.


The stunning footage was captured by Heather Hinam, a Canadian naturalist, artist, photographer and educator. She shared the video on Twitter, noting that "Cold, clear days with very little wind are great for freezing bubbles."

"This morning's -28 C [minus 18.4 degrees Fahrenheit] had me out in the backyard with the good camera, the bubble solution and the tripod," Hinam wrote. "Here's a frozen moment of zen for your afternoon."

 

[CraigD]

Is Australia the Birthplace of Astronomy?

VIDEO INCLUDED IN ARTICLE

The Wurdi Youang Aboriginal site could be 10,000 years old, making it the world’s first astronomical observatory.

Located in a remote location roughly 50km south-west of Melbourne, Australia, the ancient Aboriginal site of Wurdi Youang is comprised of a stone arrangement that aligns with important solar positions, marking the seasons throughout the year with the annual solstices and equinoxes. Some researchers believe it could be up to 10,000 years old and may be the world’s oldest astronomical observatory.

The site is made up of 100 basalt stones that form of an egg-shaped ring around 50m in diameter. The three largest stones are at the ring's western side, and the smaller stones at its outlier indicate the Sun’s setting position during the summer and winter solstices. Wurdi Youang proves the ingenuity of early Aboriginals, and could date to the Paleolithic Age, making it older than Stonehenge.

http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20210128-is-australia-the-birthplace-of-astronomy?

 

[koolishman]

Scientists jump-start two people’s brains after coma

In 2016, a team led by UCLA’s Martin Monti reported that a 25-year-old man recovering from a coma had made remarkable progress following a treatment to jump-start his brain using ultrasound.

Wired U.K. called the news one of the best things that happened in 2016. At the time, Monti acknowledged that although he was encouraged by the outcome, it was possible the scientists had gotten a little lucky.

Now, Monti and colleagues report that two more patients with severe brain injuries — both had been in what scientists call a long-term “minimally conscious state” — have made impressive progress thanks to the same technique. The results are published online in the journal Brain Stimulation.

“I consider this new result much more significant because these chronic patients were much less likely to recover spontaneously than the acute patient we treated in 2016 — and any recovery typically occurs slowly over several months and more typically years, not over days and weeks, as we show,” said Monti, a UCLA professor of psychology and neurosurgery and co-senior author of the new paper. “It’s very unlikely that our findings are simply due to spontaneous recovery.”

The paper notes that, of three people who received the treatment, one — a 58-year-old man who had been in a car accident five-and-a-half years prior to treatment and was minimally conscious — did not benefit. However, the other two did.

One is a 56-year-old man who had suffered a stroke and had been in a minimally conscious state, unable to communicate, for more than 14 months. After the first of two treatments, he demonstrated, for the first time, the ability to consistently respond to two distinct commands — the ability to drop or grasp a ball, and the ability to look toward separate photographs of two of his relatives when their names were mentioned.

 

[CraigD]

Analysis: GameStop's 'Reddit rally' puts scrutiny on social media forums

Social media services including Facebook Inc and Reddit restrict discussions about weapons, drugs and other illegal activity, but their rules do not specifically mention another lucrative regulated good: stocks.

Some people think they should. Users of a Reddit group, in which 5 million members exchange investment ideas, generated significant profits by gorging on shares of GameStop Corp and other out-of-favor companies that had been shorted by big hedge funds.

Investors have used social media for years. Anonymous posts have fueled cryptocurrency pump and dump schemes, according to studies, but that obscure market generated less scrutiny. The “Reddit rally” however, has roiled global stock markets and drawn scrutiny of posts in which thousands of smaller investors trade tips on platforms from Facebook to Instagram to Telegram and Clubhouse.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...scrutiny-on-social-media-forums-idUSKBN29Y2YT

 

[koolishman]

Useful article since Whatsapp is updating privacy policy.

Signal vs. WhatsApp vs. Telegram: Major security differences between messaging apps

If your choice of encrypted messaging app is a toss-up between Signal, Telegram and WhatsApp, do not waste your time with anything but Signal. This isn't about which has cuter features, more bells and whistles or is most convenient to use -- this is about pure privacy. If that's what you're after, nothing beats Signal.

 

[koolishman]

We Wouldn’t Be Able to Control Superintelligent Machines

We are fascinated by machines that can control cars, compose symphonies, or defeat people at chess, Go, or Jeopardy! While more progress is being made all the time in Artificial Intelligence (AI), some scientists and philosophers warn of the dangers of an uncontrollable superintelligent AI. Using theoretical calculations, an international team of researchers, including scientists from the Center for Humans and Machines at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, shows that it would not be possible to control a superintelligent AI.

https://www.miragenews.com/we-wouldn-t-be-able-to-control-superintelligent-machines/

An AI saw a cropped photo of AOC. It autocompleted her wearing a bikini.

Language-generation algorithms are known to embed racist and sexist ideas. They’re trained on the language of the internet, including the dark corners of Reddit and Twitter that may include hate speech and disinformation. Whatever harmful ideas are present in those forums get normalized as part of their learning.

Researchers have now demonstrated that the same can be true for image-generation algorithms. Feed one a photo of a man cropped right below his neck, and 43% of the time, it will autocomplete him wearing a suit. Feed the same one a cropped photo of a woman, even a famous woman like US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and 53% of the time, it will autocomplete her wearing a low-cut top or bikini. This has implications not just for image generation, but for all computer-vision applications, including video-based candidate assessment algorithms, facial recognition, and surveillance.

Garbage in, Garbage out?

 

[koolishman]

Ridiculously Tiny Chameleons Discovered in Madagascar.

Researchers have found a minuscule chameleon in Northern Madagascar, which they believe to be the smallest reptile on the planet. Small body, big attitude—just look at that face.


The chameleon is Brookesia nana, abbreviated to B. nana (if you squint, it does kind of look like a banana). Females of the species are larger than males, at about three-quarters of an inch from snout to vent. The new record holders are the adult males, which are less than an inch including the tail. Oh, and the males also have huge hemipenes (genitals) in proportion to their size. The team’s findings were published today in the journal Scientific Reports.

 

[CraigD]

An AI tool can distinguish between a conspiracy theory and a true conspiracy – it comes down to how easily the story falls apart

... How can you tell if an emerging narrative on social media is an unfounded conspiracy theory? It turns out that it’s possible to distinguish between conspiracy theories and true conspiracies by using machine learning tools to graph the elements and connections of a narrative. These tools could form the basis of an early warning system to alert authorities to online narratives that pose a threat in the real world.

The culture analytics group at the University of California... has developed an automated approach to determining when conversations on social media reflect the telltale signs of conspiracy theorizing. We have applied these methods successfully to the study of Pizzagate, the COVID-19 pandemic and anti-vaccination movements. We’re currently using these methods to study QAnon.

https://theconversation.com/an-ai-t...wn-to-how-easily-the-story-falls-apart-146282

 

[The Durfer]

save the ocean's ecology system:

kenny chesney's charity fund "noshoesreef" is helping make a new reef off of floridas coast. Heres the link to the charity:

https://reefballfoundation.org/donate/

 

[Cannuck]

What is the MILAMOS Project?

Launched in May 2016, the Manual on International Law Applicable to Military Uses of Outer Space (MILAMOS) Project aims to develop a widely-accepted manual clarifying the fundamental rules applicable to the military use of outer space in peacetime.

https://www.mcgill.ca/milamos/

https://www.mcgill.ca/milamos/news-and-updates

 

[CraigD]

By Sea of Galilee, archaeologists find ruins of early mosque

Archaeologists in Israel say they have discovered the remnants of an early mosque — believed to date to the earliest decades of Islam — during an excavation in the northern city of Tiberias.

This mosque’s foundations, excavated just south of the Sea of Galilee by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, point to its construction roughly a generation after the death of the Prophet Mohammad, making it one of the earliest Muslim houses of worship to be studied by archaeologists.

“We know about many early mosques that were founded right in the beginning of the Islamic period,” said Katia Cytryn-Silverman, a specialist in Islamic archaeology at Hebrew University who heads the dig. Other mosques dating from around the same time, such as the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina, the Great Mosque of Damascus, and Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa mosque, are still in use today and cannot be tampered with by archaeologists.

https://apnews.com/article/israel-j...-archaeology-76bdaf039055eee55d8bb77fa581cdb2

---------

One of the earliest mosques has been unearthed beside the Sea of Galilee and indicates Muslims, Jews, and Christians lived in harmony

The remains of an ancient mosque have been unearthed in Israel in a find that archaeologists say indicates historically harmonious relations between Muslims, Christians, Jews and Samaritans.

https://www.businessinsider.com.au/...eligious-harmony-researchers-2021-1?r=US&IR=T

---------

The New Tiberias Excavation Project
http://tiberias.huji.ac.il/

 

[CraigD]

Earth's Second 'Moon' Will Take a Final Lap Before Waving Bye-Bye to Us For Good

Earth's second moon will make a close approach to the planet next week before drifting off into space, never to be seen again.

Temporary satellites like these are known as minimoons, though calling it a moon is a bit deceptive in this case; in December 2020, NASA researchers learned that the object isn't a space rock at all, but rather the remains of a 1960s rocket booster involved in the American Surveyor moon missions.

Minimoon 2020 SO will make a final close approach to Earth on Tuesday (Feb. 2) at roughly 140,000 miles (220,000 kilometers) from Earth, or 58 percent of the way between Earth and the moon.

The booster will drift away after that, leaving Earth's orbit entirely by March 2021, according to EarthSky. After that, the former minimoon will be just another object orbiting the sun. The Virtual Telescope Project in Rome will host an online farewell to the object on the night of Feb. 1.

https://www.sciencealert.com/earth-...-final-victory-lap-before-waving-bye-for-good

More information:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surveyor_program
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlas-Centaur

 

[CraigD]

Dinosaur footprint discovered on Welsh beach by four-year-old girl

National Museum Wales palaeontology curator Cindy Howells described it as ‘the best specimen ever found on this beach’

A dinosaur footprint that is “the finest impression found in Britain in a decade” has been discovered on a beach in Wales by a four-year-old girl.

Scientists believe that the 220 million-year-old footprint, spotted by Lily Wilder at Bendricks Bay, Barry, could help us better understand how dinosaurs walked.

It cannot be determined exactly what type of dinosaur left the print, but it is 10cm long and likely to be from a 75cm “slender animal” which would have walked on its two hind feet and hunted small animals and insects.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/dinosaur-footprint-wales-discovery-girl-b1795156.html

 

[koolishman]

Microgravity Works Wonders With Plant Transplants

An early challenge turned into a surprise success on the International Space Station that could be a boon for the future of space crop production.

NASA astronaut Mike Hopkins recently noticed some plants failing to thrive aboard the station, so he executed the first plant transplant within the agency’s Vegetable Production System (Veggie). NASA researches crop production in space because plants can provide nutrients to astronaut crews on long-duration missions, such as a mission to Mars.

The Expedition 64 crew member, who arrived to the station for a six-month science mission aboard the SpaceX Crew-1 mission, was tending different varieties of mustards and lettuces in VEG-03I, one of two Veggie experiments currently growing in orbit. He noticed the mustards were growing fine in their special “pillows” containing clay-based growth media and fertilizer.

Some of the lettuces, however, were not. Two plant pillows containing ‘Outredgeous’ Red Romaine and ‘Dragoon’ lettuce seeds were germinating slowly, growing well behind the other plants. They would not catch up by harvest time.

On Jan. 14, with input from Veggie program scientists at Kennedy, the astronaut transplanted extra sprouts from the thriving plant pillows into two of the struggling pillows.

 

[koolishman]

Nuclear-Powered Rockets Get a Second Look for Travel to Mars

For all the controversy they stir up on Earth, nuclear reactors can produce the energy and propulsion needed to rapidly take large spacecraft to Mars and, if desired, beyond. The idea of nuclear rocket engines dates back to the 1940s. This time around, though, plans for interplanetary missions propelled by nuclear fission and fusion are being backed by new designs that have a much better chance of getting off the ground.

Crucially, the nuclear engines are meant for interplanetary travel only, not for use in the Earth’s atmosphere. Chemical rockets launch the craft out beyond low Earth orbit. Only then does the nuclear propulsion system kick in.

The challenge has been making these nuclear engines safe and lightweight. New fuels and reactor designs appear up to the task, as NASA is now working with industry partners for possible future nuclear-fueled crewed space missions. “Nuclear propulsion would be advantageous if you want to go to Mars and back in under two years,” says Jeff Sheehy, chief engineer in NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate. To enable that mission capability, he says, “a key technology that needs to be advanced is the fuel.”

Has this woman just invented the rocket that will take us to Mars?

The physicist who works for the US Department of Energy's Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) designed the rocket which will use magnetic fields to shoot plasma particles - electrically charged gas - into the vacuum of space.

While current space-proven plasma propulsion engines use electric fields to propel the particles, the new rocket design would accelerate them using magnetic reconnection.

 

[CraigD]

Here's How a 635 Million-Year-Old Microfossil May Have Helped Thaw 'Snowball Earth'

An international team of scientists in South China accidentally discovered the oldest terrestrial fossil ever found, about three times more ancient than the oldest known dinosaur.

Investigations are still ongoing and observations will need to be independently verified, but the international team argues the long thread-like fingers of this ancient organism look a lot like fungi.

Whatever it is, the eukaryote appears to have fossilised on land roughly 635 million years ago, just as Earth was recovering from a global ice age.

During this massive glaciation event, our planet resembled a big snowball, its oceans sealed from the Sun by more than a kilometre (0.6 miles) of solid ice. And then, in a geologic 'flash', our world began to inexplicably thaw, allowing life to thrive on land for the first time.

Fungi might have been among the first life forms to colonise that fresh space. The date of this new microfossil certainly supports the emerging idea that some fungi-like organisms ditched the oceans for a life on land even before plants.

In fact, this transition might have been what helped our planet recover from such a catastrophic ice age.

"If our interpretation is correct, it will be helpful for understanding the paleoclimate change and early life evolution," says geobiologist Tian Gan, from the Virginia Tech College of Science.

https://www.sciencealert.com/this-6...ossil-may-have-got-us-out-of-the-last-ice-age

 

[Cannuck]

Earth is now losing 1.2 trillion tons of ice each year.

Average rate of ice thickness change in the (a) Southern Hemisphere and (b) Northern Hemisphere.

From the ice shield covering most of the Arctic Ocean to the mile-thick mantle of the polar ice sheets, ice losses have soared from about 760 billion tons per year in the 1990s to more than 1.2 trillion tons per year in the 2010s. That is an increase of more than 60 percent. Roughly 3 percent of all the extra energy trapped within Earth’s system by climate change has gone toward turning ice into water.

Even though Earth's cryosphere has absorbed only a small fraction of the global energy imbalance, it has lost a staggering 28 trillion tonnes of ice between 1994 and 2017.

https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/15/233/2021/

 

[CraigD]

Microsoft's Bing ready to step in if Google pulls search from Australia, minister says

Microsoft’s Bing is ready to swoop if Google makes good on its threat to remove search from Australia when the mandatory news code becomes law, the government has revealed.

The communications minister, Paul Fletcher, said Google dominated in Australia with a market share of 93% but there were other players, including Microsoft and DuckDuckGo, that were talking to the government about replacing it.

“Microsoft, a giant American corporation, an information technology powerhouse, is very significantly interested in the market opportunity in Australia, should Google choose to withdraw its presence in search in Australia”.

https://www.theguardian.com/technol...gle-pulls-search-from-australia-minister-says


Interesting stand-off, with potential global ramifications for dominant search and social-media giants.

 

[koolishman]

CEO Elon Musk says he wired up a monkey’s brain to play video games

Elon Musk says one of his startups has a monkey with wires going into its brain that’s able to play video games.

“He’s a happy monkey," said Musk, the chief executive officer of electric-vehicle maker Tesla Inc. and backer of numerous other futuristic projects, including Neuralink Corp., a startup focused on developing a brain-computer interface. He said videos of the plugged-in simians would be released soon, perhaps in around a month.

 

[CraigD]

CEO Elon Musk says he wired up a monkey’s brain to play video games

Elon Musk says one of his startups has a monkey with wires going into its brain that’s able to play video games.

“He’s a happy monkey," said Musk, the chief executive officer of electric-vehicle maker Tesla Inc. and backer of numerous other futuristic projects, including Neuralink Corp., a startup focused on developing a brain-computer interface. He said videos of the plugged-in simians would be released soon, perhaps in around a month.

Donkey Kong?

 

[CraigD]

Water disinfection with ozone

While chlorine and ultraviolet light are the standard means of disinfecting water, ozone is equally effective in killing germs. To date, ozone has only been used as an oxidation agent for treating water in large plants. Now, however, a project consortium from Schleswig-Holstein is developing a miniaturized ozone generator for use in smaller applications such as water dispensers or small domestic appliances. The Fraunhofer Institute for Silicon Technology ISIT has provided the sensor chip and electrode substrates for the electrolysis cell.

https://phys.org/news/2021-02-disinfection-ozone.html

 

[CraigD]

Physics of Snakeskin Sheds Light on Specialized Sidewinding Locomotion of Sidewinder Snakes

Most snakes get from A to B by bending their bodies into S-shapes and slithering forward headfirst. A few species, however — found in the deserts of North America, Africa and the Middle East — have an odder way of getting around. Known as “sidewinders,” these snakes lead with their mid-sections instead of their heads, slinking sideways across loose sand.

Scientists took a microscopic look at the skin of sidewinders to see if it plays a role in their unique method of movement. They discovered that sidewinders’ bellies are studded with tiny pits and have few, if any, of the tiny spikes found on the bellies of other snakes.

The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences published the discovery, which includes a mathematical model linking these distinct structures to function.

https://scitechdaily.com/physics-of...-sidewinding-locomotion-of-sidewinder-snakes/

 

[CraigD]

Israel Is Cashing In On a Global Race for Drone-Fighting Air Defense Systems

Killer-drone swarms and innovative missiles mean every country on earth is scrambling to improve its aerial defenses.

The nightmare scenario is already emerging. Iran used a drone swarm of 25 cruise missiles and drones to attack Saudi Arabia’s Abqaiq energy facility, temporarily disrupting half the kingdom’s oil output. Iran also downed a $220 million American Global Hawk surveillance drone in 2019. Tehran has been suffering tough sanctions from Washington and yet it is fielding unique technology that has major ramifications for the future battlefield. In short, the U.S. and other countries need better air defense to deal with threats at sea, in the air, and on land. The race is on globally for countries to build better radar, more precise missile interceptors, and drones and weapons that can evade these defenses.

Over the past year, The Daily Beast has spoken to experts in air defense and drone warfare from the U.S. to Israel, former drone pilots and engineers, and they all sound a similar alarm. "Today defense challenges are becoming versatile and require high operational capabilities and flexibility,” said Ron Tryfus, a vice-president a Israel Aerospace Industries Systems, Missile and Space Group.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/iron-...r-drone-fighting-air-defense-systems?ref=home

 

[CraigD]

Discovery could lead to self-propelled robots

Army-funded researchers discovered how to make materials capable of self-propulsion, allowing materials to move without motors or hands.

Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst discovered how to make materials that snap and reset themselves, only relying upon energy flow from their environment. This research, published in Nature Materials and funded by the U.S. Army, could enable future military robots to move from their own energy.

"This work is part of a larger multi-disciplinary effort that seeks to understand biological and engineered impulsive systems that will lay the foundations for scalable methods for generating forces for mechanical action and energy storing structures and materials," said Dr. Ralph Anthenien, branch chief, Army Research Office, an element of the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command, now known as DEVCOM, Army Research Laboratory. "The work will have myriad possible future applications in actuation and motive systems for the Army and DOD."

https://phys.org/news/2021-02-discovery-self-propelled-robots.html