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]

Scientists Figured Out How All-Female Termite Colonies Came to Exist​

Discovered in 2018, the drywood termites clone themselves and don’t require males for reproduction.​

An international team of scientists says all-female termite colonies from Japan are the result of accidental hybridization, and that their highly robust nature makes them an ecological threat.

A new paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences explains the surprising presence of all-female termite colonies in Japan. These colonies—the only all-female termites known to exist—likely came into existence last century, the result of one lineage interbreeding with another, according to the study, led by entomologist Nathan Lo from the University of Sydney in Australia. These termites are potentially bad news, as they could out-muscle native populations and spread to other parts of the world.

 

[koolishman]

How many people can Earth handle?

Towards the end of 2022, the human population on Earth is expected to reach eight billion. To mark the occasion, BBC Future takes a look at one of the most controversial issues of our time. Are there too many of us? Or is this the wrong question?

One 2014 study found that, even in the event of a major global tragedy such as a deadly pandemic or catastrophic world-war, or draconian one-child policy implemented in every country on the planet – none of which anyone is hoping for, of course – our population will still grow to up to 10 billion people by 2100. Even a disaster on such a scale that it leaves two billion people dead within a five-year-period in the middle of the century would still see the population grow 8.5 billion people by 2100. Whatever happens, the authors conclude, there are likely to be many, many people around until at least the next century.


With humanity set to become even more dominant in the years to come, finding a way to live together and protect the environment could be our species' greatest challenge yet.

 

[koolishman]

The first fully hydrogen-powered passenger train service is now running in Germany​

The first fully hydrogen-powered passenger train service is now up and running. Coradia iLint trains built by Alstom are running on the line in Lower Saxony, Germany. The only emissions are steam and condensed water, and Alstom notes that the train operates with a low level of noise.

 

[Centauri]

How many people can Earth handle?

Towards the end of 2022, the human population on Earth is expected to reach eight billion. To mark the occasion, BBC Future takes a look at one of the most controversial issues of our time. Are there too many of us? Or is this the wrong question?

Show attachment 222507

One 2014 study found that, even in the event of a major global tragedy such as a deadly pandemic or catastrophic world-war, or draconian one-child policy implemented in every country on the planet – none of which anyone is hoping for, of course – our population will still grow to up to 10 billion people by 2100. Even a disaster on such a scale that it leaves two billion people dead within a five-year-period in the middle of the century would still see the population grow 8.5 billion people by 2100. Whatever happens, the authors conclude, there are likely to be many, many people around until at least the next century.


With humanity set to become even more dominant in the years to come, finding a way to live together and protect the environment could be our species' greatest challenge yet.

Not as much as we will get...

 

[J Sokol]

Las Vegas isn't betting on Mother Nature to solve its water problems. Here's how it intends to win​

Las Vegas (CNN)For a city in the desert, water conservation must be a way of life. But amid a prolonged megadrought that has depleted water resources across the Southwest, the need to save every drop has intensified in Southern Nevada.

Las Vegas knows the stakes are high, and it isn't gambling on Mother Nature to solve its water problems.

Instead, the city is betting on extreme water-saving measures to keep the taps flowing. Here's how it intends to win.

Las Vegas has long been a symbol of excess. But it's getting smart on conserving water.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/05/us/las-vegas-water-conservation-climate/index.html

 

[koolishman]

Interacting brains sync without physical presence​

A study conducted at the University of Helsinki investigated brainwave synchronization while pairs of subjects played a game in which they controlled a racing car together. The subjects were physically separated in two soundproof rooms. The study investigated the connection of synchronization with interaction and performance in the game.

Based on the findings, inter-brain synchronization occurs during cooperative online gaming, and increased synchrony in the alpha and gamma frequency bands is connected with better performance. The connection between performance and gamma synchronization could be observed continuously over time.

“We were able to show that inter-brain phase synchronization can occur without the presence of the other person. This opens up a possibility to investigate the role of this social brain mechanism in online interaction,” says Doctoral Researcher Valtteri Wikström.

 

[koolishman]

What Will Earth Look Like When These 6 Tipping Points Hit?​

The IPCC recently identified 15 potential climate-related tipping points that scientists have grown increasingly worried we are getting close to crossing due to global warming. In this episode of Weathered, we look at 6 of the major candidates, how they are all interconnected and influence each other, and what it would mean if they were triggered. These tipping points or tipping elements are the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, the Amazon rainforest, global monsoons, the AMOC (Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation) and the earth’s permafrost and coral reefs.

 

[koolishman]

A shrew-like creature that lived 225 million years ago is the oldest mammal ever identified​

The world’s oldest mammal has been identified using fossil dental records – predating the previously confirmed earliest mammal by about 20 million years – in a new discovery hailed as “very significant” by researchers.


Brasilodon quadrangularis was a small shrew-like creature, around 20 centimeters (8 inches) long, that walked the earth 225 million years ago at the same time as some of the oldest dinosaurs and sheds light on the evolution of modern mammals, according to a team of Brazilian and British scientists.

 

[koolishman]

Robot manicure shakes up multibillion dollar nail industry​

Clockwork’s manicure robot is the first of its kind.

The machine uses AI and 3D technology to figure out the size and shape of the user’s nails, and paints them in under 10 minutes.

And Target is far from the only retailer interested in Clockwork’s AI-enabled robots. Clockwork CEO Renuka Apte told Yahoo Finance that demand for the machine is ‘very strong’ and requests for the robot are coming from all over the world.

 

[koolishman]

Chimps show off their 'signature' drum beats​

Wild chimpanzees have their own "signature drumming style" according to scientists.

Researchers who followed and studied chimps in the Ugandan rainforest found that the animals drum out messages to one another on tree roots.

The scientists say that the signature rhythms allow them to send information over long distances, revealing who is where, and what they are doing.

 

[koolishman]

Two atomic clocks have been quantum entangled for the first time​

Researchers have entangled atomic clocks, allowing them to be synchronised more accurately. Such entangled clocks could be used to study dark matter and gravity more precisely

 

[koolishman]

31,000-year-old skeleton missing lower left leg is earliest known evidence of surgery, experts say​

An expedition team led by Australian and Indonesian archaeologists stumbled upon the skeletal remains while excavating a limestone cave in East Kalimantan, Borneo looking for ancient rock art in 2020.


The finding turned out to be evidence of the earliest known surgical amputation, pre-dating other discoveries of complex medical procedures across Eurasia by tens of thousands of years.

 

[koolishman]

The Supply Chain to Beat Climate Change Is Already Being Built​

A better guide to the future is to look not at the current prices of volatile commodities, but the direction of investment. Such spending is a forecast made flesh: a bet on the direction of future demand, taking the physical form of property, plant, and equipment.

Looked at through that lens, 2022 has been a blockbuster year for energy transition — and nowhere is spending racing ahead more dramatically than in solar. Installations will rise at the fastest pace in nearly a decade to hit 250 gigawatts this year, Shanghai-based JinkoSolar Holding Co., the second-biggest module producer, told investors last month, and then jump as much as 30% next year.

 

[koolishman]

Researchers have identified antibodies that may make coronavirus vaccines unnecessary​

​

A scientific breakthrough by Tel Aviv University: A team of researchers from the university has demonstrated that antibodies isolated from the immune system of recovered COVID-19 patients are effective in neutralizing all known strains of the virus, including the Delta and the Omicron variants. According to the researchers, this discovery may eliminate the need for repeated booster vaccinations and strengthen the immune system of populations at risk.

 

[koolishman]

NASA Experiment Suggests Need to Dig Deep for Evidence of Life on Mars​

According to a new NASA laboratory experiment, rovers may have to dig about 6.6 feet (two meters) or more under the Martian surface to find signs of ancient life because ionizing radiation from space degrades small molecules such as amino acids relatively quickly.

“Our results suggest that amino acids are destroyed by cosmic rays in the Martian surface rocks and regolith at much faster rates than previously thought,” said Alexander Pavlov of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “Current Mars rover missions drill down to about two inches (around five centimeters). At those depths, it would take only 20 million years to destroy amino acids completely. The addition of perchlorates and water increases the rate of amino acid destruction even further.” 20 million years is a relatively brief amount of time because scientists are looking for evidence of ancient life on the surface which would have been present billions of years ago when Mars was more like Earth.

 

[koolishman]

Meta dissolves team responsible for discovering ‘potential harms to society’ in its own products​

Some members of the “Responsible Innovation” team are moving to other groups at the company.

Meta’s “Responsible Innovation Team,” a group meant to address “potential harms to society” caused by Facebook’s products, is no more. The Wall Street Journal reports that the team was recently “disbanded” though “most” members will stay on with other teams at the company. A Meta spokesperson told The Wall Street Journal the company was “committed to the team’s goals,” but didn’t provide a reason for the change in strategy.

 

[koolishman]

Air pollution cancer breakthrough will rewrite the rules​

The team at the Francis Crick Institute in London showed that rather than causing damage, air pollution was waking up old damaged cells.

One of the world's leading experts, Prof Charles Swanton, said the breakthrough marked a "new era".

 

[koolishman]

MIT engineers develop stickers that can see inside the body​

In a paper appearing today in Science, the engineers present the design for a new ultrasound sticker — a stamp-sized device that sticks to skin and can provide continuous ultrasound imaging of internal organs for 48 hours.

The researchers applied the stickers to volunteers and showed the devices produced live, high-resolution images of major blood vessels and deeper organs such as the heart, lungs, and stomach. The stickers maintained a strong adhesion and captured changes in underlying organs as volunteers performed various activities, including sitting, standing, jogging, and biking

 

[koolishman]

Navy Says All UFO Videos Classified, Releasing Them ‘Will Harm National Security’​

In a Freedom of Information Act request response, the Navy told government transparency site The Black Vault that any public dissemination of new UFO videos “will harm national security as it may provide adversaries valuable information regarding Department of Defense/Navy operations, vulnerabilities, and/or capabilities. No portions of the videos can be segregated for release.”

 

[J Sokol]

‘Transformational’: could America’s new green bank be a climate gamechanger?

“This is, I think, one of the most exciting and transformational investments and programs in this new law,” said Sam Ricketts, co-founder of the climate group Evergreen Action. “The importance of a national clean energy accelerator is that it’s a national entity, with a national mandate to finance these projects in every state.”

The creation of the national green bank reflects years of work from climate experts and their allies on Capitol Hill. A green bank proposal was included in the Waxman-Markey climate bill of 2009, which never made it through the Senate. The idea has been tossed around ever since but never realized – until last month, when Joe Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act, the Democrats’ huge spending package, into law.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/sep/11/green-bank-clean-energy-climate-change

 

[koolishman]

Remarkably Detailed Images of the Sun Mark 'New Era of Solar Physics'​

It's official. The next-generation Inouye Solar Telescope in Hawaii is off and running. The telescope got an inauguration celebration at the end of August, and the National Solar Observatory research institute celebrated the occasion by releasing two spectacular Inouye views of our host star this week.

NSO calls Inouye the world's most powerful solar telescope, and it's able to observe the sun at an extreme level of detail. "A new era of solar physics is beginning," said Matt Mountain, president of the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) in a statement.

 

[koolishman]

Maglev car technology tested on highway in east China​

A maglev vehicle technology test saw a 2.8-tonne car float 35 millimeters above the road and run on a highway in east China's Jiangsu Province.

 

[Cannuck]

How did I not know about this? Gamechanger...

 

[J Sokol]

How did I not know about this? Gamechanger...

I hadn't heard of it either. Another ingenious product by Elon Musk. I wish all the billionaires would follow his lead to reduce their impact on the planet.

 

[J Sokol]

Cloud labs and remote research aren’t the future of science – they’re here​

It’s 1am on the west coast of America, but the Emerald Cloud Lab, just south of San Francisco, is still busy. Here, more than 100 items of high-end bioscience equipment whirr away on workbenches largely unmanned, 24 hours a day and seven days a week, performing experiments for researchers from around the world. I’m “visiting” via the camera on a chest-high telepresence robot, being driven round the 1,400 sq metre (15,000 sq ft) lab by Emerald’s CEO, Brian Frezza, who is also sitting at home. There are no actual scientists anywhere, just a few staff in blue coats quietly following instructions from screens on their trolleys, ensuring the instruments are loaded with reagents and samples.

https://www.theguardian.com/science...earch-arent-the-future-of-science-theyre-here