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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!
 
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The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
New “Time Machine” Technique Unveiled to Measure Cells

Using a new single-cell technique, WEHI researchers have uncovered a way to understand the programming behind how stem cells make particular cell types.

The research uncovered 30 new genes that program stem cells to make the dendritic cells that kick-start the immune response.

By uncovering this process, the researchers hope they will be able to find new immunotherapy treatments for cancer, and plan to expand this technique in other areas such as discovering new drug targets in tumor initiation.

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At a glance
  • WEHI researchers have developed a new single cell method to understand the programming behind what causes stem cells to make particular cell types.
  • By testing daughters of a single stem cell in different parallel tests, researchers found 500 genes that predicted dendritic cell fate.
  • Using a CRISPR screen, they discovered 30 key genes amongst the 500 that program dendritic cell production.
  • Researchers intend to expand use of this technique to find the ‘big bang’ moment in cancer development to identify new drug targets to fight cancer.
 
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How Do Birds Breathe Better? Researchers’ Loopy Discovery

Birds breathe with greater efficiency than humans due to the structure of their lungs — looped airways that facilitate air flows that go in one direction — a team of researchers has found through a series of lab experiments and simulations.

The findings were published on March 19, 2021, in the journal Physical Review Letters.

The study, conducted by researchers at New York University and the New Jersey Institute of Technology, also points to smarter ways to pump fluids and control flows in applications such as respiratory ventilators.


“Unlike the air flows deep in the branches of our lungs, which oscillate back and forth as we breathe in and out, the flow moves in a single direction in bird lungs even as they inhale and exhale,” explains Leif Ristroph, an associate professor at NYU’s Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences and the senior author of the paper. “This allows them to perform the most difficult and energetically costly activity of any animal: they can fly, and they can do so across whole oceans and entire continents and at elevations as high as Mount Everest, where the oxygen is extremely thin.”

 
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Nuclear fallout is showing up in U.S. honey, decades after bomb tests

Fallout from nuclear bomb tests in the 1950s and ’60s is showing up in U.S. honey, according to a new study. Although the levels of radioactivity aren’t dangerous, they may have been much higher in the 1970s and ’80s, researchers say.

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“It’s really quite incredible,” says Daniel Richter, a soil scientist at Duke University not involved with the work. The study, he says, shows that the fallout “is still out there and disguising itself as a major nutrient.”

In the wake of World War II, the United States, the former Soviet Union, and other countries detonated hundreds of nuclear warheads in aboveground tests. The bombs ejected radiocesium—a radioactive form of the element cesium—into the upper atmosphere, and winds dispersed it around the world before it fell out of the skies in microscopic particles. The spread wasn’t uniform, however. For example, far more fallout dusted the U.S. east coast, thanks to regional wind and rainfall patterns.
 
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15% of the population have Left-Right Confusion

As much as 15 percent of the population may have difficulty distinguishing left from right according to a new study. Left-right confusion in otherwise healthy sapiens was explored using 3 experiments in The Netherlands.


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In one experiment (N = 404), Ineke van der Ham et al. asked participants to rate their own Left-Right Identification (LRI) skills on a ten-point scale. The 10-point scales ranged from 1 (very poor/slow) to 10 (perfect performance/fast). 59 out of 404 (14.6%) participants rated themselves as a 5 or lower for “how well they could identify left and right”.

While the majority of participants said they could instantly tell left and right because they “simply knew”, 42.9 % of the participants said they consulted their hands for help. Some used specialized strategies such as holding the thumb and index finger in a 90° angle to assess whether this forms the letter “L” (for left) or a mirror image of “L”.


In another experiment, the researchers measured how fast people (N = 229) could name the highlighted arm (left or right) in a human figure stimuli. Reaction times, which yielded an objective measure of LRI ability, was found to be greater when the human figure on the screen was spatially aligned to the participant. These alignment effects were strongest in people who used hand-related strategies.
 
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Omega-3 supplements do double duty in protecting against stress

A high daily dose of an omega-3 supplement may help slow the effects of aging by suppressing damage and boosting protection at the cellular level during and after a stressful event, new research suggests.


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Researchers at The Ohio State University found that daily supplements that contained 2.5 grams of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, the highest dose tested, were the best at helping the body resist the damaging effects of stress.

Compared to the placebo group, participants taking omega-3 supplements produced less of the stress hormone cortisol and lower levels of a pro-inflammatory protein during a stressful event in the lab. And while levels of protective compounds sharply declined in the placebo group after the stressor, there were no such decreases detected in people taking omega-3s.

 
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Never mind outrunning a T. rex — you could probably outwalk it

New simulations calculated T. rex walking speed from the motion of its swaying tail.

Could you run faster than a T. rex? According to new research, you might be able to outpace one by walking.


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In the movie "Jurassic Park" (Warner Bros, 1993), a carful of terrified people famously tries to escape a loping T. rex, but science quickly threw shade at the movie beast and demonstrated that the king of tyrannosaurs wouldn't have been fast enough to run down a jeep. Now, researchers have slowed down the big dinosaur even more.


New simulations based on tail movement showed that T. rex wasn't even a quick walker. In fact, its preferred walking speed clocked in at just under 3 mph (5 km/h), about half the speed of earlier estimates. To put that into perspective, that's about the average walking speed for a human, according to the British Heart Foundation.

 
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Safe’ Levels Of Carbon Monoxide May Still Be Dangerous

Data from 337 cities across 18 countries show that even slight increases in ambient carbon monoxide levels from automobiles and other sources are associated with increased mortality.

Researchers analyzed data, including a total of 40 million deaths from 1979 to 2016, and ran it through a statistical model.

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The research in The Lancet Planetary Health also shows that even short-term exposure to ambient carbon monoxide (CO)—at levels below the current air quality guidelines and considered safe—had an association with increased mortality.

Overall, a 1 mg/m³ increase in the average CO concentration of the previous day was associated with a 0.91% increase in daily total mortality, the study finds. This suggests reducing ambient CO concentrations through stricter control of traffic emissions and other measures could achieve considerable public health benefits.

Researchers also discovered that the exposure-response curve was steeper at daily CO levels lower than 1 mg/m³, indicating greater risk of mortality per increment in CO exposure, and this persisted at daily concentrations as low as 0.6 mg/m³ or less.

The findings reveal that there is no evidence for a threshold value below which exposure to ambient CO can be considered “safe.”
 
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New species of dinosaur unearthed in Chile's Atacama desert

Scientists have identified a new species of dinosaur from parts of a skeleton found in northern Chile.

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The creature's remains were unearthed in the Atacama desert - the world's driest - near the city of Copiapó.

Experts say the plant-eating titanosaur had a small head and long neck, and an unusually flat back.

Studies suggest the creature lived in what would then have been a lush landscape of flowering plants, ferns and palm trees.

A team led by Chilean geologist Carlos Arévalo unearthed the remains in the 1990s and carried out research in the 2000s. The findings, published in the journal Cretaceous Research, were made public on Monday.

The remains, according to the team, included parts of a humerus, a femur and the ischium, and vertebral elements of the neck and back. They represent a small sub-adult individual, with an estimated length of 6.3m (20ft).

 
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Genome editing in farm animals: Chickens and pigs with integrated genetic scissors

Researchers at the TUM have demonstrated a way to efficiently study molecular mechanisms of disease resistance or biomedical issues in farm animals. Researchers are now able to introduce specific gene mutations into a desired organ or even correct existing genes without creating new animal models for each target gene. This reduces the number of animals required for research..

Important resource for biomedical and agricultural research

Prof. Schnieke notes, "Our Cas9-expressing chickens and pigs represent an innovative resource for genome editing in the biomedical and agricultural sciences, but beyond that, these animals are also available to other research groups. Hence, efficient genome editing in living animals has the potential to significantly advance biomedical and agricultural research."


https://phys.org/news/2021-04-genome-farm-animals-chickens-pigs.html
 
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Genome editing in farm animals: Chickens and pigs with integrated genetic scissors

Researchers at the TUM have demonstrated a way to efficiently study molecular mechanisms of disease resistance or biomedical issues in farm animals. Researchers are now able to introduce specific gene mutations into a desired organ or even correct existing genes without creating new animal models for each target gene. This reduces the number of animals required for research..

Important resource for biomedical and agricultural research

Prof. Schnieke notes, "Our Cas9-expressing chickens and pigs represent an innovative resource for genome editing in the biomedical and agricultural sciences, but beyond that, these animals are also available to other research groups. Hence, efficient genome editing in living animals has the potential to significantly advance biomedical and agricultural research."


https://phys.org/news/2021-04-genome-farm-animals-chickens-pigs.html


Gene editing will be the big thing in this decade and ahead. Hope wiser heads prevail and some regulations kick in worldwide.
 
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Little Foot fossil shows early human ancestor clung closely to trees

A long-awaited, high-tech analysis of the upper body of famed fossil 'Little Foot' opens a window to a pivotal period when human ancestors diverged from apes, new USC research shows.

Little Foot's shoulder assembly proved key to interpreting an early branch of the human evolutionary tree. Scientists at the Keck School of Medicine of USC focused on its so-called pectoral girdle, which includes collarbones, shoulder blades and joints.


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Although other parts of Little Foot, especially its legs, show humanlike traits for upright walking, the shoulder components are clearly apelike, supporting arms surprisingly well suited for suspending from branches or shimmying up and down trees rather than throwing a projectile or dangling astride the torso like humans.

The Little Foot fossil provides the best evidence yet of how human ancestors used their arms more than 3 million years ago, said Kristian J. Carlson, lead author of the study and associate professor of clinical integrative anatomical sciences at the Keck School of Medicine.

"Little Foot is the Rosetta stone for early human ancestors," he said. "When we compare the shoulder assembly with living humans and apes, it shows that Little Foot's shoulder was probably a good model of the shoulder of the common ancestor of humans and other African apes like chimpanzees and gorillas."

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S004724842100035X?via=ihub
 
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First Video of NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter in Flight, Includes Takeoff and Landing from NASA

 
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First Video of NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter in Flight, Includes Takeoff and Landing from NASA


The Wright brothers first powered flight covered 120 feet (37 m) in 12 seconds.

NASA just surpassed one of those achievements ;)
 
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NASA is testing the Mobile Launch Platform for Artemis I launch

25.5 million pounds were applied to the crawlerway in a recent test to ready it for the massive weight of the Artemis SLS rocket stack, in preparation for the Artemis I launch later this year.


The crawler-transporters, formally known as the Missile Crawler Transporter Facilities, are a pair of tracked vehicles used to transport spacecraft from NASA's Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) along the Crawlerway to Launch Complex 39. They were originally used to transport the Saturn IB and Saturn V rockets during the Apollo, Skylab and Apollo–Soyuz programs.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crawler-transporter


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Reddit unveils its Clubhouse clone, Reddit Talk

On the heels of Clubhouse’s latest fundraise, Reddit today officially unveiled its Clubhouse rival Reddit Talk following a recent report from Mashable that revealed the company had been developing audio-based social networking features. Like many of the newly launched Clubhouse clones, Reddit’s voice chat experience hasn’t deviated much from Clubhouse’s overall design where speakers sit at the top of the screen in a stage area of sorts, and listeners appear below — all with rounded profile icons, plus tools to react or raise a hand to ask to speak.

In Reddit’s case, however, it’s repurposed this Clubhouse-style format for its own communities, known as subreddits. Initially, Reddit Talk will live within subreddits, which are individual forums focused on a given topic or theme. Those community’s moderators will be the only ones able to start a talk for the time being, as the audio feature is still being tested, Reddit says.

These moderators will be given tools that allow them to invite users to join, mute participants, and remove speakers during the live sessions. They can also ban unwanted users from the talk entirely and stop them from being able to rejoin.

https://techcrunch.com/2021/04/19/reddit-unveils-its-clubhouse-clone-reddit-talk/


Echo-chamber?
 
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Hankook's crazy transforming wheels inspired by origami waterbombs


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Hankook's R&D department has been working with biorobotics experts from Seoul National University and Harvard engineers on a weird transforming origami wheel project. These folding oddities can drastically alter their diameter and carry heavy loads.

It's taken nearly a decade to get to this point, but the team has got a fully functioning set of transforming wheels built and attached them to a couple of demonstration vehicles, demonstrating that the wheels can vary their diameter from 46 to 80 cm (18.1 to 31.5 in), while supporting enough weight to put a full-size vehicle on top.

The wheels are a three-layer construction based on a thick, flexible composite membrane designed to fold along similar lines to an origami waterbomb. To add structural strength and wear resistance, the non-folding panels are sandwiched with laser-cut aluminum facet panels, which hold most of the membrane rigid, with the exception of the fold lines.

Read on...

https://newatlas.com/automotive/hankook-transforming-origami-wheels/
 
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Our Planet Is Travelling Through The Debris of Ancient Supernovae

Radioactive dust deep beneath the ocean waves suggests that Earth is moving through a massive cloud left behind by an exploded star.

Continuously, for the last 33,000 years, space has been seeding Earth with a rare isotope of iron forged in supernovae.

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It's not the first time that the isotope, known as iron-60, has dusted our planet. But it does contribute to a growing body of evidence that such dusting is ongoing - we are still moving through an interstellar cloud of dust that could have originated from a supernova millions of years ago.

Iron-60 has been the focus of several studies over the years. It has a half-life of 2.6 million years, which means it completely decays after 15 million years - so any samples found here on Earth must have been deposited from elsewhere, since there's no way any iron-60 could have survived from the formation of the planet 4.6 billion years ago.

And deposits have been found. Nuclear physicist Anton Wallner of the Australian National University previously dated seabed deposits back to 2.6 million and 6 million years ago, suggesting that debris from supernovae had rained down on our planet at these times.

But there's more recent evidence of this stardust - much more recent.

It's been found in the Antarctic snow; according to the evidence, it had to have fallen in the last 20 years.

The research has been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
 
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Sex differences in the pelvis is not uniquely human

Wider hips in human females is a feature that has long been thought to have evolved to birth babies whose brains ballooned during the Pleistocene (about 2 million years ago). This phase in our evolutionary past, characterised by rapidly increasing brain-size is called encephalization.

Now, a study by Barbara Fischer et al. has found that sex differences in pelvis did not evolve during encephalization, but probably preceded it. The researchers compared the pelvic sex differences in humans with those in chimpanzees (whose lineage diverged from ours 4 million years ago). 44 anatomical 3D landmarks and 65 curve landmarks on each pelvis were used for the comparison. The sample comprised 34 adult chimpanzee pelves (20 female, 14 male) and 99 adult human pelves (53 female, 46 male).


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The researchers found that the two species share the same pattern of sex differences in pelvis shape even though the magnitude of sex differences was two times larger in humans than in chimpanzees (explained by the fact that humans are much bigger than chimpanzees). The researchers also compared the sex differences in pelvic inlet size, which determines the dimensions of the birth canal. The inlet size was found to be 11% larger in human females and 10% larger in chimpanzee females (compared with males), yielding, once again, identical patterns of sex-difference.

So, why should sex differences in two species that supposedly faced different selection pressures be identical? The researchers think that the most parsimonious explanation is that the sex difference in anatomy existed in the common ancestor of chimpanzees and humans. Developmentally, pelvic sex differences come about due to hormone-induced remodelling of bones during puberty. The researchers go on to propose that relevant aspects of the endocrine system (and underlying genetic machinery) remain conserved since the common ancestor of all primates. What did evolve separately in species, they say, is the duration and amount of hormones released during puberty, producing species-specific magnitudes of sex difference in pelvic size.
 
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Higher mushroom consumption is associated with a lower risk of cancer

Next time you make a salad, you might want to consider adding mushrooms to it. That’s because higher mushroom consumption is associated with a lower risk of cancer, according to a new Penn State study, published on March 16 in Advances in Nutrition.


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The systematic review and meta-analysis examined 17 cancer studies published from 1966 to 2020. Analyzing data from more than 19,500 cancer patients, researchers explored the relationship between mushroom consumption and cancer risk.

Mushrooms are rich in vitamins, nutrients and antioxidants. The team’s findings show that these super foods may also help guard against cancer. Even though shiitake, oyster, maitake and king oyster mushrooms have higher amounts of the amino acid ergothioneine than white button, cremini and portabello mushrooms, the researchers found that people who incorporated any variety of mushrooms into their daily diets had a lower risk of cancer. According to the findings, individuals who ate 18 grams of mushrooms daily had a 45% lower risk of cancer compared to those who did not eat mushrooms.

“Mushrooms are the highest dietary source of ergothioneine, which is a unique and potent antioxidant and cellular protector,” said Djibril M. Ba, a graduate student in epidemiology at Penn State College of Medicine. “Replenishing antioxidants in the body may help protect against oxidative stress and lower the risk of cancer.”
 
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‘Undruggable’ cancer protein becomes druggable, thanks to shrub

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A chemist from Purdue University has found a way to synthesize a compound to fight a previously “undruggable” cancer protein with benefits across a myriad of cancer types.

Inspired by a rare compound found in a shrub native to North America, Mingji Dai, professor of chemistry and a scientist at the Purdue University Center for Cancer Research, studied the compound and discovered a cost-effective and efficient way to synthesize it in the lab. The compound — curcusone D — has the potential to help combat a protein found in many cancers, including some forms of breast, brain, colorectal, prostate, lung and liver cancers, among others. The protein, dubbed BRAT1, had previously been deemed “undruggable” for its chemical properties. In collaboration with Alexander Adibekian’s group at the Scripps Research Institute, they linked curcusone D to BRAT1 and validated curcusone D as the first BRAT1 inhibitor.

Curcusones are compounds that come from a shrub named Jatropha curcas, also called the purging nut. Native to the Americas, it has spread to other continents, including Africa and Asia. The plant has long been used for medicinal properties — including the treatment of cancer — as well as being a proposed inexpensive source of biodiesel.


 
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Russian Geographical Society hopes to obtain genetic material from ancient Scythian burial

Society’s president Sergei Shoigu - Russian defence minister - even hinted at possibility of cloning during annual meeting.

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Very keen to find organic matter. I think you understand what might follow - if not for Dolly the sheep, it would be possible to make something out of it’, Sergey Shoigu, 66 said in a somewhat bizarre statement during 14 April’s board meeting.

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The interest to discover organic matter referred to the Tunnug burial mound in the Valley of the Kings, Republic of Tuva, where excavations started in summer 2018.

First season showed that the vast burial site of nomadic warriors, often laid to rest with with their horses is in fact the oldest of all discovered, dating to the IX century BC.

 
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Floating hotel concept creates its own electricity

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Floating hotels have been popping up all over the world in recent years, with destinations like Dubai and Qatar leading the way with increasingly innovative and outlandish structures.

But this new concept from Turkish design team Hayri Atak Architectural Design Studio (HAADS) may just blow all the others out of the water in terms of eco consciousness.

Not only does the luxury hotel design, which has 152 rooms, actually generate its own electricity, it also collects and reuses rainwater and food waste.

Adopting the motto "minimum energy loss and zero waste," the team at HAADS have worked with numerous experts, including ship construction engineers and architects, in order to devise the project, which has been in the works since March 2020.

If built, the floating structure will work in a similar way to a dynamo, utilizing the water current with wind turbines and tidal power as it rotates, converting the energy into electricity.
 
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Indonesian submarine goes missing north of Bali
An Indonesian navy submarine has gone missing with 53 people on board, military officials say.

The submarine was conducting a drill north of the island of Bali on Wednesday, but it failed to report back and contact was lost.

Indonesia's military chief said warships had been dispatched to find the KRI Nanggala-402 vessel.

Officials have called on Australia and Singapore to help in the search. The countries have not publicly commented.

The German-made submarine is thought to have disappeared in waters about 60 miles (100km) off the coast of Bali early on Wednesday morning.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-56829278
 
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A couple of articles that raise similar questions.


The Science Prize: Innovation or Stealth Advertising?
Rewards for Advancing Knowledge Have Blossomed Recently, but Some Say They Don't Help Solve Big Problems.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB124173078482897809



Are XPRIZEs the Future of Scientific Discovery and Exploration?
Competitions spur creativity and promise tangible results to address some of the world’s biggest problems
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/xprize-future-of-science-tech/





Yes, we should be sceptical about the motivations of organizations and foundations awarding prizes, but many great inventions and technologies that we take for granted were spurned on by the promise of fame and fortune with similar prizes.

Aviation for example was in its early days heavily promoted with competitions that pushed the development timeframe both before and after the Great war when government funded development was lacking.

The Power of Aerospace Prizes for Innovation
Almost with the birth of the airplane, wealthy businessmen or organizations interested in the development of aviation established prizes to help advance the technology of flight. And they did, a lot.

During the first third of the twentieth century, a host of cash awards encouraged designers and pilots to undertake great feats in the fledgling aeronautical industry—in spite of difficulties and risks. By 1929 over 50 major aeronautical prizes had been offered by government, businesses, and individuals.
https://launiusr.wordpress.com/2010/12/29/the-power-of-aerospace-prizes-for-innovation/


One of my favourite aviation prizes/competitions was the Schneider Trophy which dramatically pushed airframe and engine development. It was as popular as Formula 1 car racing is today, and set many world speed records. Some of the air-speed records set by these aircraft in the early 1930's still stand today!

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The Supermarine S.6B seaplane (circa 1931)
Top speed 407.5 mph (655.8 km/h, 354.1 kn) (World speed record).


Compare that to Britain's front-line fighter/interceptor introduced later that same year, the Hawker Fury biplane with a top speed just over 200 mph (321 kmh). If this design looks somewhat familiar to WW2 aviation buffs, it is because this model was later developed into a monoplane design that was named the Hawker Hurricane.
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The technological advances of the world-record holding Supermarine S6.B seaplane as described above, were later applied to the design and development of the Supermarine Spitfire prototype K5054, while the Roll-Royce R-series engine that was specially developed for the seaplane spurned on the development of the legendary Merlin V-12 engines.

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The gist of the 2 xprize projects my friend was involved in, that got him to label xprize 'phony':

1. He served as a resource/consultant to a potential xprize sponsor. In his words, "Everything was geared toward the sponsor. It felt like many other clever marketing, branding program, like patches on sports personality’s clothes etc. Job 1, build sponsor brand. Job 2, - by the way - we’ll find a problem to solve. Not the other way round."

2. He was also part of a team in an xprize challenge. In his words, "It became very bureaucratic & they just kept making it more & more difficult to continue(without laying out lots of $$$) We dropped out. As it happens, I’ve had lightweight independent contact with one of the winners after the fact. Having won the prize - & the sponsor getting the medallion - Zilch, no ongoing back up support for the winner to implement & scale."

If the xprize direction is the way of the future and one gets involved in a challenge, those are some things to watch out for.
 
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