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NIST and the Nobel



Other NIST Connections to the Nobel Prize

This is creepy.

US schools gave kids laptops during the pandemic. Then they spied on them

When the pandemic started last year, countless forms of inequality were exposed – including the millions of American families who don’t have access to laptops or broadband internet. After some delays, schools across the country jumped into action and distributed technology to allow students to learn remotely. The catch? They ended up spying on students. “For their own good”, of course.

The problem is, a lot of those electronics were being used to monitor students, even combing through private chats, emails and documents all in the name of protecting them. More than 80% of surveyed teachers and 77% of surveyed high school students told the CDT that their schools use surveillance software on those devices, and the more reliant students are on those electronics, unable to afford supplementary phones or tablets, the more they are subjected to scrutiny.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/oct/11/us-students-digital-surveillance-schools

Feral hogs spotted in Canada national park for first time

Feral hogs have been spotted in a Canadian national park for the first time, raising fears that the wild pigs – which in recent years have rampaged across North America – will cause damage to sensitive ecosystems.

Parks Canada has confirmed that wild pigs – a hybrid of domestic pigs and European wild boar – have been spotted in Alberta’s Elk Island national park.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/oct/13/feral-hogs-canada-elk-island-national-park

Nunavut government to fly 80,000 litres of water to Iqaluit to address city-wide crisis

With public health authorities saying the tap water wasn't safe to consume — and that pregnant women and infants should not even bathe in it — many of the city's nearly 8,000 residents were looking to find water somewhere else.

Bottled water, which can cost nearly $9 for a litre in Iqaluit, flew off the shelves Wednesday.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/nunavut-iqaluit-water-fuel-emergency-1.6209200

Been there, done that. Boil water advisory etc.

It's ironic that, in a remote location where some of the most pristine water in the world is located, people must buy bottled water (due to long line-ups at the river and difficult access). The problem: With melting permafrost, the arctic utilidors and older facilities are not suited to climate change, likely causing petroleum leaks.

Global energy use projected to increase by 50% by 2050

"Global energy consumption has been projected to increase by nearly 50% over the next 30 years, led by a growth in renewables" according to the Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) ‘International Energy Outlook 2021’, which suggests while petroleum and other liquid fuels will remain the world’s largest energy source in 2050, renewable energy sources that include solar and wind will grow to nearly the same level.

We project that in non-OECD countries, electricity will account for more than half of the energy used in households by 2050, compared with 33% in 2020. In non-OECD commercial buildings, we project that electricity will make up an even larger share of energy consumption in 2050, at 64%.”

https://www.energylivenews.com/2021/10/08/global-energy-use-projected-to-increase-by-50-by-2050/

Meteorite crashes through roof of Canada woman’s home and on to bed

A woman in Canada awoke in shock earlier this week when a rock crashed through the ceiling of her home and landed on her bed, narrowly missing her but spraying grit and other debris on her face, as her dog barked frantically.

Police were called and the culprit was initially suspected to be a construction site nearby, where work must have sent the fist-sized projectile onto the woman’s pillow. But when the construction workers said they had not set any blasts – but had just seen an explosion in the sky – the consensus quickly became that the rock was a meteorite, the Canadian Press reported.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/oct/14/canada-meteorite-crashes-through-roof-bed

Isn’t it good, Swedish plywood: the miraculous eco-town with a 20-storey wooden skyscraper

As you come in to land at Skellefteå airport in the far north of Sweden, you are greeted by a wooden air traffic control tower poking up from an endless forest of pine and spruce. After boarding a biogas bus into town, you glide past wooden apartment blocks and wooden schools, cross a wooden road bridge and pass a wooden multistorey car park, before finally reaching the centre, now home to one of the tallest new wooden buildings in the world.

“We are not the wood Taliban,” says Bo Wikström, from Skellefteå’s tourism agency, as he leads a group of visitors on a “wood safari” of its buildings. “Other materials are allowed.” But why build in anything else – when you’re surrounded by 480,000 hectares of forest?

https://www.theguardian.com/artandd...wn-20-storey-wooden-skyscraper-worlds-tallest

Ships backed up outside US ports pumping out pollutants as they idle

Dozens of behemoth cargo ships adorned with tall stacks of brightly colored containers still dot the coastline off southern California. Part of a shipping bottleneck plaguing US ports, the ships – their diesel-fueled engines always ablaze – are also pumping out pollutants as they idle, anchored off-shore.

The clogged supply chain has been described as an economic calamity as the delayed cargo caused shortages in common goods and drove consumer prices higher. But environmentalists and public health advocates are concerned it’s also turning into a climate catastrophe.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/oct/15/us-california-ports-ships-supply-chain-pollution

How AI Will Go Out Of Control According To 52 Experts

'Summoning the demon.' 'The new tools of our oppression.' 'Children playing with a bomb.' These are just a few ways the world's top researchers and industry leaders have described the threat that artificial intelligence poses to mankind. Will AI enhance our lives or completely upend them?

https://www.cbinsights.com/research/ai-threatens-humanity-expert-quotes/

Anti-aging drug acts as a "smart bomb" to take out dysfunctional cells

Back in 2015 we saw a new class of drugs emerge with huge potential when it comes to the aging process and how it might be slowed. Scientists working to improve the potency and safety of these so-called senolytic drugs have made a significant discovery, pioneering an antibody treatment that closes in on the target cells with a new level of precision, while leaving healthy cells unharmed.

The massive potential of senolytics lies in their ability to take aim at what are known as senescent cells. These are cells that have lost their ability to divide and instead accumulate in the body and accelerate the aging process. While this is a natural part of growing older, scientists have made some exciting inroads around how these cells can be cleared from the body with purpose-made drugs.

https://newatlas.com/medical/anti-a...ail&utm_term=0_65b67362bd-3b9a08b229-90628689

Cal2 said:

Anti-aging drug acts as a "smart bomb" to take out dysfunctional cells

Click to expand...

The billionaires will love this. They plan to live forever -- either here, in their bunkers, or in space.

J Sokol said:

The billionaires will love this. They plan to live forever -- either here, in their bunkers, or in space.

Click to expand...

Reminds me of Google's Calico, which has been chasing a cure for death for years.

https://www.google.com/search?q=goo...450l8.446522676j0j15&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

Cal2 said:

Reminds me of Google's Calico, which has been chasing a cure for death for years.

Click to expand...

I guess that's why they're so intent on moving to space -- there won't be enough room on earth to contain a population that never dies.

This ingenious wall could harness enough wind power to cover your electric bill

Harnessing wind power could soon become a breeze. Today, most of our wind power comes from large-scale wind farms set upon rolling hills and windswept coastlines. Floating wind farms are also cropping up in deeper waters, where the winds are stronger. But what if we could build wind turbines in our cities, right here in our own backyards? Not the tall and bulky poles with the huge spinning blades, but a new kind of wind turbine—one that could hide in plain sight and easily be mistaken for a wall?

American designer and entrepreneur Joe Doucet has created such a concept, and it looks like a kinetic art installation. His wind turbine wall consists of a grid of square panes spinning simultaneously along 25 axes. The exact size and format aren’t set in stone, so variations of that wall could be used anywhere with a decent span, like on the side of a highway or the fence around a building. In other words, it could make wind farms even more pervasive—not just in the ocean but also on land.

https://www.fastcompany.com/9068736...ass&utm_campaign=eem524:524:s00:10/19/2021_fc

How will our solar system end? A distant planet offers hints

https://www.nbcnews.com/science/space/will-solar-system-end-distant-planet-offers-hints-rcna3187

"A darkened planet circling the feeble remnant of a burned-out star about 6,000 light-years from Earth shows what our own solar system will look like at the end of its existence, astronomers say.

The distant survivor, described in a study published last week in the journal Nature, seems to be a gas giant similar to Jupiter. It provides a snapshot of a planetary system around a dying star, the study’s authors said.

The star is a “white dwarf” — a glimmering stellar remnant left over from the “red giant” phase of its demise, when it expanded tens of thousands of times after having used up the hydrogen fuel for its nuclear fusion reactions and then collapsed a few hundred million years later.

Any planets closer to the star are likely to have been destroyed — and the same fate is likely to befall our own world when the sun burns up all of its hydrogen in 5 billion years or so."

Cal2 said:

Anti-aging drug acts as a "smart bomb" to take out dysfunctional cells

Back in 2015 we saw a new class of drugs emerge with huge potential when it comes to the aging process and how it might be slowed. Scientists working to improve the potency and safety of these so-called senolytic drugs have made a significant discovery, pioneering an antibody treatment that closes in on the target cells with a new level of precision, while leaving healthy cells unharmed.

The massive potential of senolytics lies in their ability to take aim at what are known as senescent cells. These are cells that have lost their ability to divide and instead accumulate in the body and accelerate the aging process. While this is a natural part of growing older, scientists have made some exciting inroads around how these cells can be cleared from the body with purpose-made drugs.

https://newatlas.com/medical/anti-a...ail&utm_term=0_65b67362bd-3b9a08b229-90628689

Click to expand...

For those who don't read the article through, note that these are 2nd generation senolytic drugs they're talking about, meant to work around 1st gen issues:

"The international team of scientists behind this latest study have taken aim at what they see as a shortcoming in the current generation of senolytic drugs. In their view, these drugs take something of a scattergun approach in need of refining.

“Senolytics are a new class of drugs with great potential to ameliorate aging," says the University of Leicester's Dr Salvador Macip, study author. “However, the ones we have found so far are quite unspecific and thus may have strong side effects. That is why there is much interest in a second generation of drugs, the targeted senolytics, which should eliminate senescent cells without affecting the rest."

J Sokol said:

The billionaires will love this. They plan to live forever -- either here, in their bunkers, or in space.

Click to expand...

Cal2 said:

Reminds me of Google's Calico, which has been chasing a cure for death for years.

https://www.google.com/search?q=goo...450l8.446522676j0j15&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

Click to expand...

When talking about immortality, it comes to my mind a few sci-fi movies that who knows in future if they will become reality.
One of them presents a quite "easy" but totally awesome mechanism to do so. They just made a memory copy. If you think about it, it would be incredible easy to be immortal, just make a copy of your memories and copy them into a younger body. The moment the humanity can do that, will be the moment of real immortality.

Cal2 said:

How AI Will Go Out Of Control According To 52 Experts

'Summoning the demon.' 'The new tools of our oppression.' 'Children playing with a bomb.' These are just a few ways the world's top researchers and industry leaders have described the threat that artificial intelligence poses to mankind. Will AI enhance our lives or completely upend them?

https://www.cbinsights.com/research/ai-threatens-humanity-expert-quotes/

Click to expand...

A future robot dictator perhaps? "Follow the yellow brick road..."

"AI doesn't have to be evil to destroy humanity — if AI has a goal and humanity just happens in the way, it will destroy humanity as a matter of course without even thinking about it, no hard feelings, t's just like if we're building a road and an anthill happens to be in the way, we don't hate ants, we're just building a road, and so goodbye anthill." - Elon Musk

https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-says-ai-could-lead-to-robot-dictator-2018-4

J Sokol said:

I guess that's why they're so intent on moving to space -- there won't be enough room on earth to contain a population that never dies.

Click to expand...

Reminds me of that Star Trek episode: Mark of Gideon

Sutruk said:

One of them presents a quite "easy" but totally awesome mechanism to do so. They just made a memory copy. If you think about it, it would be incredible easy to be immortal, just make a copy of your memories and copy them into a younger body. The moment the humanity can do that, will be the moment of real immortality.

Click to expand...

It would be incredible and probably not too-distant. Clones and copies. Will that not cheapen the value of life? The most common thing in the world is money and our time here is not unlimited.

Think big on climate: the transformation of society in months has been done before

Fatalism creeps across our movements like rust. In conversations with scientists and activists, I hear the same words, over and again: “We’re screwed.” Government plans are too little, too late. They are unlikely to prevent the Earth’s systems from flipping into new states hostile to humans and many other species.

Let’s set aside the obvious lessons of the pandemic, when the magic money tree miraculously burst into leaf, governments discovered they could govern (albeit with varying degrees of competence) and people were prepared radically to change their behaviour. There’s a bigger and more powerful example. It’s what happened when the US joined the second world war.

https://www.theguardian.com/comment...ing-1941-climate-emergency-earth-pearl-harbor

J Sokol said:

Think big on climate: the transformation of society in months has been done before

Fatalism creeps across our movements like rust. In conversations with scientists and activists, I hear the same words, over and again: “We’re screwed.” Government plans are too little, too late. They are unlikely to prevent the Earth’s systems from flipping into new states hostile to humans and many other species.

Let’s set aside the obvious lessons of the pandemic, when the magic money tree miraculously burst into leaf, governments discovered they could govern (albeit with varying degrees of competence) and people were prepared radically to change their behaviour. There’s a bigger and more powerful example. It’s what happened when the US joined the second world war.

https://www.theguardian.com/comment...ing-1941-climate-emergency-earth-pearl-harbor

Click to expand...

With all my respect to the journalist, really, it's not fatalism, it's realism. Scientists know what they are talking.
If the journalist thinks that you can compare climate change with a pandemic or what happened at world war, he is very wrong.
It is very simple. The world would have to do a 180 degree swift in order to stop climate change "in months". It should be a so strong change that it won't happen.
A pandemic comes, a world war comes, and you can work for change it.
When climate change comes, it won't disapear "in months", no matter how much you do.
And at this point Climate Change is already here, and too many factories around the world should close "in months" in order to stop it.
No "big change" will be done in the World, until Climate Change starts hitting hard the Earth. And when that happens, it won't be stopped "in months" as when a pandemic or a war comes.

Sutruk said:

It is very simple. The world would have to do a 180 degree swift in order to stop climate change "in months". It should be a so strong change that it won't happen.

Click to expand...

I don't think Monbiot is denying that climate change is already here. He's saying that having a sense of futility won't do us any good. If you read through all the dramatic changes implemented by the War effort, you will see that it's possible for massive technological and cultural change to occur in a short period of time. Since we're in such dire circumstances with regard to the climate, we might be at a point where people are willing to take action and to force their elected officials to do the same. We can't reverse all the damage that's already been done, but it might be possible to prevent continuing damage.

I understand your point, but just wanted to present another perspective.

Giant 'mystery creature' filmed by scientists exploring Red Sea shipwreck.

Great article Here.

Enjoy!

Sutruk said:

With all my respect to the journalist, really, it's not fatalism, it's realism. Scientists know what they are talking...
No "big change" will be done in the World, until Climate Change starts hitting hard the Earth. And when that happens, it won't be stopped "in months" as when a pandemic or a war comes.

Click to expand...

Follow the money...

Climate Change:Analysis of Reported Federal Funding

According to Office of Management and Budget reports, federal climate change funding was $13.2 billion across 19 agencies in 2017. In the 6 agencies we reviewed, we found that 94% of their reported climate change funding went to programs that touch on, but aren’t dedicated to climate change, such as nuclear energy research.

https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-18-223


DOD Releases Fiscal Year 2021 Budget Proposal

On February 10, 2020, President Donald J. Trump sent Congress a proposed Fiscal Year (FY) 2021 budget request of $740.5 billion for national security, $705.4 billion of which is for the Department of Defense (DoD).

In the Space Domain ($18.0 billion), investments include:

• U.S. Space Force - $15.4 billion which includes:

- 3 National Security Space Launch (aka EELV) - $1.6 billion
- 2 Global Positioning System III and Projects - $1.8 billion
- Space Based Overhead Persistent Infrared Systems - $2.5 billion

• U.S. Space Command - $249 million
• Space Development Agency - $337 million

https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/2079489/dod-releases-fiscal-year-2021-budget-proposal/

This Ultra-White Paint May Someday Replace Air Conditioning

Using statistical modeling, the researchers estimated that their ultra-white paint could reduce air conditioning use by up to 70 percent in hot cities like Reno, Nevada, and Phoenix, Arizona. In a rather extreme model, they also found that covering 0.5 to 1 percent of the Earth’s surface—buildings, roads, unused land, just about everything—with the ultra-white paint would be enough to stop the global warming trend.

“It’s a lot of area, but if one day we need to use this approach to help reverse the warming trend, it’s still affordable—the paint is not expensive,” Ruan says.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/inno...y-someday-replace-air-conditioning-180977560/

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope


https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/13952