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!

 

[J Sokol]

Soaring pollution has Delhi considering full weekend lockdown​

India’s capital, Delhi, and several surrounding states have shut schools, imposed work-from-home orders and a full weekend lockdown of the city is being contemplated in an attempt to tackle the deadly levels of pollution that have yet again enveloped the region.

Over the past weeks, in what has become a dreaded seasonal occurrence, Delhi has suffered pollution levels 20 times higher than the levels deemed healthy by the World Health Organization and a thick brown smog settled over the city.

The causes of the severe pollution that have made Delhi the most polluted capital in the world are a combination of factors including car exhaust fumes, stubble-burning by farmers in nearby states, industrial pollution, waste burning and construction work.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...n-has-delhi-considering-full-weekend-lockdown

 

[Cal2]

Elon Musk's $100-million Carbon Removal XPrize announces first winners​

The largest XPrize competition ever conducted has given out its first prize money, with 23 student teams receiving cash injections to further their carbon removal technologies. Among the winners are a mix of forward-thinking projects that take aim at the problem of mounting carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and several that look to solve more than one environmental problem at a time.

https://newatlas.com/environment/mu...ail&utm_term=0_65b67362bd-baaec82a10-90628689

 

[Sutruk]

Astronauts take shelter as debris passes dangerously close to space station​

https://www.nbcnews.com/science/spa...sses-dangerously-close-space-station-rcna5617

"Astronauts aboard the International Space Station were forced to take shelter in a pair of space capsules Monday morning after a cloud of space debris threatened to pass near the orbiting outpost.

Mission controllers are closely monitoring the debris and advised the astronauts to seek refuge in the event that a collision would force them to undock from the space station immediately and return to Earth.

NASA did not specify what caused the debris field, but the State Department confirmed Monday that a Russian weapons test that intentionally destroyed a Soviet-era satellite created more than 1,500 fragments of space junk in orbit."

 

[Sutruk]

In an Astonishing Feat, a New Drug Reversed Paralysis in Mice With Spinal Cord Injury​

https://www.sciencealert.com/new-drug-reversed-paralysis-in-mice-with-spinal-injuries

US scientists have developed a new form of drug that promotes the regeneration of cells and reversed paralysis in mice with spinal injuries, allowing them to walk again within four weeks of treatment.

The research was published in the journal Science on Thursday, and the team of Northwestern University scientists behind it hope to approach the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as early as next year to propose human trials.

Curing paralysis is a longstanding goal of medicine, and other cutting-edge research in the field includes experimental treatments using stem cells to make new neurons (nerve cells), gene therapy that tells the body to produce certain proteins to aid nerve repair, or injecting proteins.

Stupp's team, on the other hand, used nanofibers to mimic the architecture of the extracellular matrix – a naturally occurring network of molecules surrounding tissue that is responsible for supporting cells.

... The severed extensions of neurons called axons regenerated, and scar tissue that can act as a physical barrier to regeneration was significantly diminished.

What's more, an insulating layer of axons called myelin that is important in transmitting electric signals had reformed, blood vessels that deliver nutrients to injured cells had formed, and more motor neurons survived.

 

[Cal2]

Someone Right-Clicked Every NFT In The Heist Of The Century​

A unique performance art project shows just how useless NFTs can be​

Hours ago, a website appeared online with the express purpose of hosting a nearly 20TB torrent (that’s terabytes, folks, the big boys of digital data measurement) containing every NFT available through the Ethereum and Solana blockchains.

The NFT Bay, whose name and overall design riff on iconic torrent database The Pirate Bay, is the work of one Geoffrey Huntley, an Australian software and dev ops engineer. In a frequently asked questions document written up for annoying reporters like me, Huntley describes The NFT Bay as an “educational art project” designed to teach the public about what NFTs are and aren’t, in the hopes that fewer folks get swindled by the technology’s innumerable grifters.

https://kotaku.com/someone-right-cl...tter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2021-11-19

 

[Cal2]

FDA Authorizes Marketing of Virtual Reality System for Chronic Pain Reduction​

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today authorized marketing of EaseVRx, a prescription-use immersive virtual reality (VR) system that uses cognitive behavioral therapy and other behavioral methods to help with pain reduction in patients 18 years of age and older with diagnosed chronic lower back pain. .....

EaseVRx was granted Breakthrough Device designation. To qualify for such designation, a device must be intended to treat or diagnose a life-threatening or irreversibly debilitating disease or condition and meet one of the following criteria: the device must represent a breakthrough technology; there must be no approved or cleared alternatives; the device must offer significant advantages over existing approved or cleared alternatives; or the availability of the device is in the best interest of patients.

https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-authorizes-marketing-virtual-reality-system-chronic-pain-reduction?utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery&utm_source=STAT Newsletters&utm_campaign=ce170cd191-health_tech_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_8cab1d7961-ce170cd191-153135394

 

[Sutruk]

Warming Events Could Destabilize The Antarctic Ice Sheet Soon. Very Soon​

https://www.sciencealert.com/warmin...lize-the-antarctic-ice-sheet-in-just-10-years

"Here's another reminder of the precarious position that the world's climate and ecosystems are in: a new study estimates that global warming could push the Antarctic ice sheet past a tipping point in as little as 10 years.

In other words, the point of no return in terms of ice sheet loss is arriving earlier than previously thought, and we may well already be in the midst of it. That could have serious consequences when it comes to sea level rise globally, and the local habitats that animals in Antarctica rely on.

"Our study reveals that during times in the past when the ice sheet retreated, the periods of rapid mass loss 'switched on' very abruptly, within only a decade or two," says paleoclimatologist Zoë Thomas, from the University of New South Wales in Australia.

"If it just takes one decade to tip a system like this, that's actually quite scary because if the Antarctic Ice Sheet behaves in future like it did in the past, we must be experiencing the tipping right now", Thomas says."

 

[Cal2]

Most of the Tree of Life is a Complete Mystery​

“This is humbling,” says Jonathan Eisen from the University of California, Davis, “because holy **#$@#!, we know virtually nothing right now about the biology of most of the tree of life.”

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/04/the-tree-of-life-just-got-a-lot-weirder/477729/

 

[Cannuck]

Rare Einstein manuscript is 'most valuable' ever to come to auction​

A rare, 54-page manuscript co-written by Albert Einstein and his lifelong friend and engineer Michele Besso, in which the pair lay out the foundations of Einstein's famous theory of general relativity, will hit the auction block in Paris today.

According to the auction house, Einstein seldom kept drafts of his own writing and correspondences; Besso, on the other hand, preserved much of his work with Einstein for posterity. Thanks to Besso, this manuscript is one of only two surviving drafts showing the foundations of general relativity.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/entertain...t-valuable-ever-to-come-to-auction/ar-AAR19wS

 

[Cal2]

Future Buildings Could Be Made From 3D Printed Microbes​

New “living materials” could be used to make new objects ranging from small medical devices to skyscrapers.

The hype around 3D printing shows no signs of waning anytime soon, and for good reason: It’s a fast, inexpensive way to manufacture all kinds of different objects and structures, especially when conventional building materials are unavailable. A few scientists have a radical idea for what the next big leap in 3D printing could be: making things using living microbes.

Yes, it sounds weird as hell and not just a little creepy, but stay with us here. A group of researchers in the U.S. have just proved it's possible to create 3D printed structures using E. coli. These “living materials,” illustrated in a new Nature Communications paper, could pave a path for more sustainable construction of objects that could also be programmed to help improve people’s health or remove toxins from the environment.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/scien...e-used-to-construct-future-buildings?ref=home

 

[Cal2]

Future Buildings Could Be Made From 3D Printed Microbes​

New “living materials” could be used to make new objects ranging from small medical devices to skyscrapers.

The hype around 3D printing shows no signs of waning anytime soon, and for good reason: It’s a fast, inexpensive way to manufacture all kinds of different objects and structures, especially when conventional building materials are unavailable. A few scientists have a radical idea for what the next big leap in 3D printing could be: making things using living microbes.

Yes, it sounds weird as hell and not just a little creepy, but stay with us here. A group of researchers in the U.S. have just proved it's possible to create 3D printed structures using E. coli. These “living materials,” illustrated in a new Nature Communications paper, could pave a path for more sustainable construction of objects that could also be programmed to help improve people’s health or remove toxins from the environment.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/scien...e-used-to-construct-future-buildings?ref=home

When you tie this new way of building, healing, toxin removal, ....... - using 3d printed bacteria - to my previous post of 'Most of the Tree of Life is a Complete Mystery', it gets me wondering what might be possible in this direction, as 3d printing and our tree of life knowledge grows.

 

[Cal2]

In an email from a friend:

What is Web3?

Beyond being tech Twitter’s new obsession, the term refers to the next iteration of the internet.

But let’s back up first and define things a bit:

• Web 1.0 was about consuming content (think the internet of the ‘90s and early 2000s)
• Web 2.0 (today’s internet) features consumer-created content centralized in platforms like Facebook and Google
• Web3 is where the internet gets decentralized

What’s that mean?

It means that big tech companies are no longer the main guardians of the web’s data, but rather blockchain tech enables data to be controlled and hosted collectively by users.

In other words, apps built on the blockchain — like a social network, marketplace, or search engine — will enable users to participate, transact, and create without the need for an intermediary as in Web 2.0.

In some visions of Web3, the online experience will also be fundamentally different thanks to AI, which will make interactions between users and machines richer and faster.

The Web3 movement has gained traction amid the rise of crypto and other key Web3 concepts like NFTs, DAOs, and DeFi.

The proliferation of blockchain companies and flood of venture capital to the crypto/blockchain tech space haven't hurt either.

While still in the realm of the crypto enthusiasts and eager VCs, the Web3 vision is of a smarter, more open, and user-centric internet.

It’s worth studying what the nerds and freaks are talking about now as it will eventually become reality. Of course, there will be speculative and Ponzi-like excesses in the beginning when the grifters show up, but over the long term, bet on Web3

 

[J Sokol]

The classic prescription bottle just got a compostable redesign​

Prescription pill bottles—you know the ones, made out of see-through orange plastic with a white plastic locking cap—are ubiquitous. But they’re also ubiquitous in landfills, because they’re notoriously hard to recycle. Now, a team of designers has created a free alternative that can go into your compost bin when your prescription runs out.

Those orange medication bottles you’re familiar with are generally made out of plastic—polypropylene or #5 plastic, specifically. While technically recyclable, it’s actually very rare that it gets recycled. The sorters that recycling centers use to pick up recyclable objects, such as water bottles, often miss prescription bottles due to their small size. And #5 plastics aren’t accepted by all curbside recycling programs. Take Madison County, New York, which simply saysupfront that the prescription pill bottles you get at the pharmacy “are trash.” With 4.55 billion retail prescriptions filled in the U.S. in 2020, that’s a lot of pill bottles ending up in landfills.

https://www.fastcompany.com/90623241/the-classic-prescription-bottle-just-got-a-compostable-redesign

 

[Kenny]

Artificial Sun, Which Could Create Almost Limitless Clean Energy, Breaks Plasma Record​

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/tech...breaks-plasma-record/ar-AAR8lKQ?ocid=msedgntp

The aim of researchers to bring nuclear fusion—the process that powers the stars—down to Earth has been bolstered after the Korea Institute of Fusion Energy's Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research (KSTAR) reactor maintained super-hot plasma within a magnetic field for 30 seconds....

Peace,
Kenny

 

[Cal2]

Zeva's 160-mph electric UFO: An air taxi experience like no other​

Why design an aircraft like this? "Well, keep it simple," Tibbits smiles. "I think Elon Musk said recently that the best part is no part. I love it. The fewer moving parts, the more reliable it is. This particular design came out of a design session we had going into the Boeing-sponsored GoFly prize. One of the requirements was that the whole aircraft had to fit within an eight-and-a-half-foot (2.6-m) sphere, and we wanted to maximize our wing area within that space.

"But the result, I think, is an interesting product for things like first responder, search and rescue, hot extraction, resupply ... We've got civil applications and DOD applications, and people are getting pretty excited about it. So yeah, we're zigging where others are zagging, but my consideration is that where these things are needed, and where they can be used straight away, is not in the urban environment. That's the last place we'll put them, once we've got thousands of hours up.

"We're seeing extreme interest in rural areas, and especially in countries like Indonesia. They've got 17,000 islands, many of them without much infrastructure at all, and they love the idea of being able to move people around like this. Seventy-three percent of us commute solo, so it makes sense to us that our first vehicle will be designed for a single person – 160 miles an hour with a 50-mile range? That opens up a lot of possibilities."

So the Zeva will be very mechanically simple – more or less just an octacopter with smarter flight dynamics and a big cruise wing. Tibbits says it'll be easy to mass-manufacture, too: "we can essentially stamp out composite airframe parts with a big press," he says, and even before any economies of scale, his team estimates a price around US$250,000 per unit. That means air taxi services could buy 20 of these things for the price of one of the larger five or six seaters.

But perhaps its key advantage will be its size. "We can park six or seven of these in the same space you'd need to park a Joby in," says Tibbits. "First responders can park several in a garage, ready to fly. Rich guys can have them on their yachts as an efficient way of getting between ship and shore without having to keep a helicopter maintained. And we can land them in much smaller spaces. We can take off and land in a cul-de-sac, or other places where a 35-ft (10.6-m) wingspan is a handicap."

https://newatlas.com/aircraft/zeva-...ail&utm_term=0_65b67362bd-172ced4b29-90628689

 

[Cal2]

In an email from a friend:

What is Web3?

Beyond being tech Twitter’s new obsession, the term refers to the next iteration of the internet.

But let’s back up first and define things a bit:

• Web 1.0 was about consuming content (think the internet of the ‘90s and early 2000s)
• Web 2.0 (today’s internet) features consumer-created content centralized in platforms like Facebook and Google
• Web3 is where the internet gets decentralized

What’s that mean?

It means that big tech companies are no longer the main guardians of the web’s data, but rather blockchain tech enables data to be controlled and hosted collectively by users.

In other words, apps built on the blockchain — like a social network, marketplace, or search engine — will enable users to participate, transact, and create without the need for an intermediary as in Web 2.0.

In some visions of Web3, the online experience will also be fundamentally different thanks to AI, which will make interactions between users and machines richer and faster.

The Web3 movement has gained traction amid the rise of crypto and other key Web3 concepts like NFTs, DAOs, and DeFi.

The proliferation of blockchain companies and flood of venture capital to the crypto/blockchain tech space haven't hurt either.

While still in the realm of the crypto enthusiasts and eager VCs, the Web3 vision is of a smarter, more open, and user-centric internet.

It’s worth studying what the nerds and freaks are talking about now as it will eventually become reality. Of course, there will be speculative and Ponzi-like excesses in the beginning when the grifters show up, but over the long term, bet on Web3

The Father of Web3 Wants You to Trust Less
Gavin Wood, who coined the term Web3 in 2014, believes decentralized technologies are the only hope of preserving liberal democracy.

https://www.wired.com/story/web3-gavin-wood-interview/

 

[Cannuck]

First patient fitted with 3D-printed eye​

In a world first, Steve Verze had his traditional prosthetic eye replaced with a 3D-printed prosthetic eye.

Steve said: "I've needed a prosthetic since I was 20, and I've always felt self-conscious about it. When I leave my home I often take a second glance in the mirror, and I've not liked what I've seen. This new eye looks fantastic and, being based on 3D digital printing technology, it's only going to be better and better."

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-11-patient-3d-printed-eye.html

 

[J Sokol]

First patient fitted with 3D-printed eye

Amazing!

 

[Cannuck]

Amazing!

Next they'll be incorporating a wearable video cam into the optic nerve via nano fibers.

 

[Cal2]

‘This is going to be huge’

Prior to Covid-19, you may not have been familiar with mRNA vaccines, such as those made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna. Those work by telling your cells to create proteins that teach your immune system how to fight the coronavirus. But mRNA therapies could be used to treat other illnesses--and a new crop of entrepreneurs have set out to further the innovation. That’s the case for Tasuku Katada and Jacob Becraft, MIT PhD graduates and co-founders of Cambridge, Massachusetts-based mRNA company Strand Therapeutics. With a fresh infusion of $52 million, Strand aims to bring to market its method for using mRNA as a platform for developing drug cures for a range of diseases, from the rare to the neurological, starting with cancer. “This is going to be huge,” Becraft says, because the therapy has the potential to change how people think about drugs--one tiny piece of mRNA could solve a variety of problems. Check out the full story for how one company plans to ride the mRNA revolution.

 

[J Sokol]

‘Deluge of plastic waste’: US is world’s biggest plastic polluter​

The US is the world’s biggest culprit in generating plastic waste and the country urgently needs a new strategy to curb the vast amount of plastic that ends up in the oceans, a new report submitted to the federal government has found.

Plastic waste has increased sharply in the US since 1960, with the country now generating about 42m metric tons of plastic waste a year, amounting to about 130kg of waste for every person in America. This total is more than all European Union member countries combined. The overall amount of municipal waste created in the US is also two to eight times greater than comparable countries around the world, the report found.

https://www.theguardian.com/environ...c-waste-us-is-worlds-biggest-plastic-polluter

 

[Cannuck]

‘Deluge of plastic waste’: US is world’s biggest plastic polluter​

It's difficult to do in an economy as large as the US, but banning single-use plastics is a necessary measure that will help reduce the plastic waste. Canada proposed a single-use plastic ban to come nto effect by end of 2021, but that timeline has been extended.

Canada's ban on single-use plastic items delayed until 2022​

https://www.ctvnews.ca/climate-and-...se-plastic-items-delayed-until-2022-1.5687626

Likewise, only a limited number of products are on the list due to a lack of replacement.

COVERED

• Checkout bags
• Stir sticks
• Beverage six-pack rings
• Cutlery
• Straws
• Food packaging made from plastics that are difficult to recycle

NOT COVERED

• Garbage bags
• Milk bags
• Snack food wrappers
• Disposable personal care items and their packaging
• Beverage containers and lids
• Contact lenses and packaging
• Cigarette filters
• Items used in medical facilities
• Personal protective equipment

A proposed integrated management approach to plastic products: discussion paper​

https://www.canada.ca/en/environmen...sed-integrated-management-approach.html#toc12

 

[J Sokol]

Californian firm touts ‘mushroom leather’ as sustainability gamechanger​

Vegan alternatives to leather could save more than just animals. The scientists behind fashion’s new latest must-have – the “mushroom leather” handbag – believe that mycelium, a material grown from fungi which can be engineered to look and feel like calfskin or sheepskin, could help save the planet.

Speaking to the Guardian before a talk at the Business of Fashion Voices conference in Oxfordshire, Dr Matt Scullin, CEO of biomaterials company MycoWorks, forecast that mushroom leather could be a sustainability gamechanger, “unlocking a future of design which begins with the material, not with the object”.

https://www.theguardian.com/science...ushroom-leather-as-sustainability-gamechanger

Can't wait to get my first pair of mushroom shoes.

 

[Cal2]

“unlocking a future of design which begins with the material, not with the object”.

Another in the same direction, using 3d printing:

Italian Designers Turn Orange Peels Into Compostable Lamps​

“We wanted to create a special piece, beautiful and useful as well as sustainable, so everyone can have something unique in their home that not only decorates the room but tells a story of revolution,” says product designer Victoria R. Schön in an official campaign video.
That revolution is the circular economy idea gaining steam with companies all around the world, with the eventual aim of recycling and reusing all product waste.

https://dornob.com/italian-designers-turn-orange-peels-into-compostable-lamps/

 

[Cannuck]

Ameca Humanoid Robot AI Platform​

based on Mesmer technology