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!

 

[CraigD]

Bioengineered ankyrin compounds show high in vitro activity against SARS-CoV-2 mutants

The ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has resisted successful containment by most non-pharmaceutical measures. Vaccination and natural immunity appear to be the only definitive methods to attain population immunity, and thus lead to a return to global normalcy. However, effective therapies continue to be sought after to reduce the high mortality rate from severe COVID-19 disease.

A new preprint on the bioRxiv* server describes the use of DARPin (designed ankyrin repeat proteins) therapeutic agents, each of which contains three different DARPin domains within the same molecule. Each domain engages the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2, thus neutralizing the virus by preventing viral entry into the host cell. This mechanism also prevents virus escape.

https://www.news-medical.net/news/2...itro-activity-against-SARS-CoV-2-mutants.aspx

 

[CraigD]

Oldest DNA from poop contains a Neanderthal’s microbiome

Biologist Marco Candela and his colleagues recently sequenced ancient microbial DNA from 50,000-year-old Neanderthal feces found at the El Salt archaeological site in Spain. The sequences included DNA from several of the microbes that still call our intestines home, as well as a few that have nearly vanished from today’s urban dwellers. According to Candela and his colleagues, their results suggest that the microscopic population of our guts may have been with us since at least 500,000 years ago, in the era of our species’ last common ancestor with Neanderthals.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/02/oldest-dna-from-poop-contains-a-neanderthals-microbiome/

 

[koolishman]

See a billion years of Earth plate tectonics movement in just 40 seconds

 

[koolishman]

Perfect time to exercise is afternoon

This Is the Perfect Time to Exercise Every Day, Says New Study (msn.com)

According to the study, published in December in the journal Physiological Reports, "exercise training in the afternoon leads to more pronounced metabolic adaptations compared to training in the morning in people who are metabolically compromised or have type-2 diabetes." What's more, the researchers conclude, "afternoon exercise triggered more profound benefits on improving exercise capacity and decreasing body fat content."

The study was conducted by scientists at the Maastricht University Medical Center in the Netherlands, who sought to establish a connection between exercise and diabetes, as well as the timing of that exercise. Ultimately, after comparing the effects of exercise on men who worked out in the morning (8 am to 10 am) to the afternoon (3 pm to 6 pm), the researchers concluded that the PM exercise had a greater effect.

Exercise training elicits superior metabolic effects when performed in the afternoon compared to morning in metabolically compromised humans - Mancilla - 2021 - Physiological Reports - Wiley Online Library

 

[koolishman]

The birth of a lightning bolt was caught on video

A new slow-motion video offers the best view yet of the split-second collision of electric currents that creates a flash of lightning.

The video captures a thread of electric current, or lightning leader, zipping down from a thundercloud to meet another leader reaching up from the ground. When the two touch, it triggers a much stronger current to surge between the cloud and ground, and lightning flashes.

 

[koolishman]

Denmark to build 'first energy island' in North Sea

A project to build a giant island providing enough energy for three million households has been given the green light by Denmark's politicians.

The world's first energy island will be as big as 18 football pitches (120,000sq m), but there are hopes to make it three times that size.

It will serve as a hub for 200 giant offshore wind turbines.

It is the biggest construction project in Danish history, costing an estimated 210bn kroner (£24bn; €28bn: $34bn).

Situated 80km (50 miles) out to sea, the artificial island would be at least half-owned by the state but partly by the private sector.

It will not just supply electricity for Danes but for other, neighbouring countries' electricity grids too. Although those countries have not yet been detailed, Prof Jacob Ostergaard of the Technical University of Denmark told the BBC that the UK could benefit, as well as Germany or the Netherlands. Green hydrogen would also be provided for use in shipping, aviation, industry and heavy transport.

 

[koolishman]

Deepfake Detectors can be Defeated, Computer Scientists Show for the First Time

Systems designed to detect deepfakes—videos that manipulate real-life footage via artificial intelligence—can be deceived, computer scientists showed for the first time at the WACV 2021 conference which took place online Jan. 5 to 9, 2021.

Researchers showed detectors can be defeated by inserting inputs called adversarial examples into every video frame. The adversarial examples are slightly manipulated inputs which cause artificial intelligence systems such as machine learning models to make a mistake. In addition, the team showed that the attack still works after videos are compressed.



"Our work shows that attacks on deepfake detectors could be a real-world threat," said Shehzeen Hussain, a UC San Diego computer engineering Ph.D. student and first co-author on the WACV paper. "More alarmingly, we demonstrate that it’s possible to craft robust adversarial deepfakes in even when an adversary may not be aware of the inner workings of the machine learning model used by the detector."

 

[koolishman]

3D analysis of cranium shape shows Founding population of Iceland included settlers from southern Britain, Scotland, Scandinavia and Ireland

Abstract
The settlement of Iceland in the Viking Age has been the focus of much research, but the composition of the founding population remains the subject of debate. Some lines of evidence suggest that almost all the founding population were Scandinavian, while others indicate a mix of Scandinavians and people of Scottish and Irish ancestry. To explore this issue further, we used three-dimensional techniques to compare the basicrania of skeletons from archaeological sites in Iceland, Scandinavia, and the British Isles. Our analyses yielded two main results. One was that the founding population likely consisted of roughly equal numbers of Scandinavians and people from the British Isles. The other was that the immigrants who originated from the British Isles included individuals of southern British ancestry as well as individuals of Scottish and Irish ancestry. The first of these findings is consistent with the results of recent analyses of modern and ancient DNA, while the second is novel. Our study, therefore, strengthens the idea that the founding population was a mix of Scandinavians and people from the British Isles, but also raises a new possibility regarding the regions from which the settlers originated.


The composition of the founding population of Iceland: A new perspective from 3D analyses of basicranial shape (plos.org)

 

[koolishman]

Study: Money does not always mean happiness.

Happy without money: Minimally monetized societies can exhibit high subjective well-being

Abstract
Economic growth is often assumed to improve happiness for people in low income countries, although the association between monetary income and subjective well-being has been a subject of debate. We test this assumption by comparing three different measures of subjective well-being in very low-income communities with different levels of monetization. Contrary to expectations, all three measures of subjective well-being were very high in the least-monetized sites and comparable to those found among citizens of wealthy nations. The reported drivers of happiness shifted with increasing monetization: from enjoying experiential activities in contact with nature at the less monetized sites, to social and economic factors at the more monetized sites. Our results suggest that high levels of subjective well-being can be achieved with minimal monetization, challenging the perception that economic growth will raise life satisfaction among low income populations.

 

[koolishman]

Someone tried to poison a Florida city by hacking into the water treatment system, sheriff says

A hacker gained access into the water treatment system of Oldsmar, Florida, on Friday and tried to increase the levels of sodium hydroxide -- commonly referred to as lye -- in the city's water, officials said, putting thousands at risk of being poisoned.

The incident took place Friday when an operator noticed the intrusion and watched the hacker access the system remotely. The hacker adjusted the level of sodium hydroxide to more than 100 times its normal levels, according to Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri.

 

[koolishman]

Story of human evolution gets another rewrite with DNA analysis of Chinese teeth

Experts hailed the discovery in 2015 as "stunning" -- 47 teeth found in a cave in southern China dated back to 80,0000 to 120,000 years ago, challenging widely accepted ideas about human evolution.

It suggested that Homo sapiens were in China at least 20,000 years earlier than early modern humans had been previously believed to have left Africa and spread around the world. It also tantalizingly hinted at the possibility that a different group of early humans could have evolved separately in Asia.

Not so fast, says the science in 2021. New research published Monday has suggested perhaps we shouldn't be so eager to rewrite the time line on human origins.

DNA analysis of two human teeth found in the same cave, called Fuyan, plus teeth and other fossilized remains from four other caves in the same region, suggested that it was unlikely early modern humans were in China so early.

 

[koolishman]

A 3D printed house is for sale in New York. Builders say it will cut housing construction costs

Now a company says it has listed the first 3D printed house in the United States for sale. The Riverhead, New York, home is listed online through Zillow with an asking price of $299,999.

"This is the future, there is no doubt about it," says Kirk Andersen, the director of operations at SQ4D Inc.

SQ4D uses automated building methods, or 3D printing, to build structures and homes.

 

[koolishman]

Scientists Find New Method To Make Wood Transparent

In a bid to make wood stronger and lighter than glass to move towards an energy-efficient future, a team of researchers at the University of Maryland has found a new way to make wood completely transparent which they believe to be better than the previous techniques.

The paper, published in the journal Science Advances, details the making of their transparent wood which was found to be 50 times stronger than the ones made using the conventional way.


While you might have heard of the concept, there is a reason why transparent wood is not commercially used. The conventional method -- which involves using chemicals to remove one of the most basic ingredients of wood, lignin -- used to make wood transparent has plenty of downsides, such as taking a lot of time and the production of excessive liquid waste. Moreover, since the process involves the removal of lignin, which bonds fibers in wood to give it strength, the resulting product is rather weak and brittle.


In contrast, this new technique, which makes wood transparent without having to remove the lignin, is much cheaper and so easy that it could be done in a backyard.

The researchers changed the lignin molecules rather than removing them by applying hydrogen peroxide to the wood's surface and then exposing it to UV light or natural sunlight.

 

[CraigD]

In the 1970s, Email Was Special

What was the internet like in the 1970s? It was an incredibly small community of university researchers, government employees, military contractors, and more than a few spies. But those people all built and tinkered with the earliest technologies to create something that would transform the lives of everyone reading this message today.

One of the most vital technologies to emerge from this period was electronic mail or “network mail” as it was known at the time — something we call email today. And while we may think of email as integral to our experience of the internet, it wasn’t always a given. Email had to be invented, but once it was, people loved it.

https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2021/02/in-the-1970s-email-was-special/

 

[CraigD]

UAE's Hope orbiting Mars

The United Arab Emirates is celebrating its first mission at Mars.

It has put a probe called Hope in orbit around the planet, making it only the fifth spacefaring entity to do so after the US, the Soviet Union, Europe and India.

The spacecraft, which left Earth seven months ago, had to make a braking manoeuvre to be sure of being captured by Mars' gravity.

UAE scientists can now look forward to studying the planet's atmosphere.

Their satellite carries three instruments that will observe, among other targets, how neutral atoms of hydrogen and oxygen - remnants from Mars' once abundant water - leak into space.

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-55998848

 

[koolishman]

Climate crisis pushing great white sharks into new waters

The climate crisis is pushing great white sharks into new waters where they are causing populations of endangered wildlife to plunge, research has shown.

Heating of the oceans, which reached a record level in 2020, has led young great white sharks to move 600km (373 miles) northwards off the coast of California since 2014, into waters that were previously too cold. Over that time there was a dramatic rise in sea otters killed by white sharks, with the number in Monterey Bay dropping by 86%.

 

[koolishman]

Warning: Sounds a bit like Theranos.

An End To Invasive Biopsies?

Hebrew University Researchers Advance Simple and Inexpensive Diagnostic Blood Test

A new blood test has the potential to diagnose a wide array of diseases including cancers, liver diseases, immune disorders and more. Extremely accurate, the test can report on the exact state and location of the disease without need for invasive and painful biopsies.

The test relies on a natural process whereby every day millions of cells in our body die and are replaced by new cells. When cells die, their DNA is fragmented and some of these DNA fragments reach the blood and can be detected by DNA sequencing methods. However, all our cells have the same DNA sequence, and thus simply sequencing the DNA cannot identify from which cells it originated. While the DNA sequence is identical between cells, the way the DNA is organized in the cell is substantially different. The DNA is packaged into nucleosomes, small repeating structures that contain specialized proteins called histones. On the histone proteins, the cells write a unique chemical code that can tell us the identity of the cell and even the biological and pathological processes that are going on within it. In recent years, numerous studies have successfully developed a process where this information can be identified and thus reveal abnormal cell activity.

A new approach advanced by Hebrew University researchers, Professor Friedman and Dr. Ronen Sadeh is able to precisely read this information from DNA in the blood and use it to determine the nature of the disease or tumor, exactly where in the body it’s found and even how far developed it is.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41587-020-00775-6

 

[koolishman]

The power of groupthink: Study shows why ideas spread in social networks

There’s a reason that ideas—even erroneous ones—catch fire on social media or in popular culture: groupthink.

In a series of experiments, published in the journal Nature Communications, Guilbeault and co-authors Damon Centola of the University of Pennsylvania and Andrea Baronchelli of City University London created an online game that asked numerous people to identify what they saw in Rorschach inkblots.

Bigger groups, fewer categories
“In small groups, there was a ton of variation in how people described the shapes,” says Guilbeault, who studies collective intelligence and creativity, categorization, and social media policy. “As you increase the size of the group, however, rather than creating unpredictability, you could actually increase your ability to predict the categories.”

It’s not that there was a lack of ideas in the large groups—in fact, the larger the group, the more categories for blots were initially proposed. However, some categories just seemed to appeal to more people than others. As more people communicated with each other, the slightly more popular categories won out. The large groups consistently settled on just a handful of categories, including “crab,” “bunny,” “frog,” and “couch”—even when the blots themselves varied.

The influence of bots
Interestingly, however, he and his colleagues were able to manipulate the choices people made by introducing “bots” with an agenda into the system. These automatic participants continually implanted the idea that the blots looked like a sumo wrestler, an otherwise unpopular category. Sure enough, when a critical mass of bots pushed the idea, human participants also started adopting it.

Once more than a third (37%) of participants advocated for sumo wrestler, they found, the group was likely to adopt it over other categories. What’s more, when researchers afterwards showed those participants the image that was most likely deemed a crab by other groups, they were much more likely now to call it sumo as well. “We showed people the crabbiest crab, and now people said it looked like a wrestler. No one described it as looking like a sumo wrestler, let alone like a person, in the large groups without bots,” Guilbeault says.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-20037-y

 

[koolishman]

Camera captures the Southern Pinwheel galaxy in glorious detail

Messier 83, or the Southern Pinwheel, is located in the southern constellation of Hydra and is an obvious target for a beautiful astronomical image. It is oriented so that it is almost entirely face-on as seen from Earth, meaning that we can observe its spiral structure in fantastic detail. The galaxy lies around 15 million light-years away, which makes it a neighbor in astronomical terms. It has a diameter of around 50,000 light-years, so it is a little diminutive in comparison to our own Milky Way, which has a diameter of 100,000–200,000 light-years. In other ways, however, the Southern Pinwheel probably gives a good approximation of how our Milky Way would look to a distant alien civilization.

 

[Cannuck]

NASA Is Awarding up To $500K if You Can Figure Out How To Feed Astronauts in Deep Space

"The Deep Space Food Challenge" is a collaboration between U.S. and Canadian agencies which could make missions Mars possible.

NASA, the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and the Privy Council Office (PCO) have recently collaborated on "The Deep Space Food Challenge," a competition that the agencies hope will provide "novel and game-changing food technologies or systems that require minimal inputs and maximize safe, nutritious, and palatable food outputs for long-duration space missions."

They even might have some fun while they're at it, lol

Growing Marijuana in Space: Microgravity’s Effect on Plants

Dr. Joe Chappell, who serves on the Space Tango Science Advisory team speaks from experience, having actually conducted microgravity research on plants aboard the ISS. “When plants are stressed, they pull from a genetic reservoir to produce compounds that allow them to adapt and survive,” he said in a press release. “Understanding how plants react in an environment where the traditional stress of gravity is removed can provide new insights into how adaptations come about and how researchers might take advantage of such changes for the discovery of new characteristics, traits, biomedical applications, and efficacy.”

Space Tango sends their boxes up to the International Space Station (ISS) along with the cannabis and hemp needed for the experiments. Scientists on the ISS will then grow and track the progress of the plants onboard.

https://thecbdtime.com/2021/02/06/growing-marijuana-in-space-microgravitys-effect-on-plants-2/

 

[koolishman]

Sailing the seas without sails.

Back in 1920s, a German Engineer Anton Flettner designed two rotating cylinders that will do the job of a ships sail. Spinning will create pressure difference on opposite sides which will propel the ship.

In 1926 an experimental ship crossed Atlantic.

A Sailing ship without sails

Renewed Interest in the principle

 

[CraigD]

All the coronavirus in the world could fit inside a Coke can, with plenty of room to spare

When I was asked to calculate the total volume of SARS-CoV-2 in the world for the BBC Radio 4 show More or Less, I will admit I had no idea what the answer would be. My wife suggested it would be the size of an Olympic swimming pool. “Either that or a teaspoon,” she said. “It’s usually one or the other with these sorts of questions.”

So how to set about calculating an approximation of what the total volume really is? Fortunately, I have some form with these sorts of large-scale back-of-the-envelope estimations, having carried out a number of them for my book The Maths of Life and Death. Before we embark on this particular numerical journey, though, I should be clear that this is an approximation based on the most reasonable assumptions, but I will happily admit there may be places where it can be improved.

https://theconversation.com/all-the...-coke-can-with-plenty-of-room-to-spare-154226

 

[koolishman]

Ozone layer 'rescued' from CFC damage

A steady decline in the levels of ozone-harming CFC chemicals in the atmosphere has resumed, scientists say.

This follows a recent, dangerous pause in that downward trajectory, which could have slowed the healing of Earth's protective ozone layer.

Atmospheric measurements published in 2018 pointed to illegal CFC production that was occurring in Eastern China.

Stopping that production appears to have set the ozone layer's healing process back on track.

Dr Western and his colleagues used data from air monitoring stations in South Korea and Japan.

Further detective work in China by the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) - and by environmental journalists - found that the chemical was being used in the majority of polyurethane insulation foam that was being produced by firms in the region.

 

[CraigD]

Life on Mars? Escaping water vapour offers new clues

Researchers detected water emanating high up in thin atmosphere of red planet while Tianwen-1 probe entered orbit on Wednesday

Researchers have observed water vapour escaping high up in the thin atmosphere of Mars, offering tantalising new clues as to whether the red planet could have once hosted life.

The traces of ancient valleys and river channels suggest liquid water once flowed across the surface of Mars. Today, the water is mostly locked up in the planet’s ice caps or buried underground.

But some of it is vaporising, in the form of hydrogen leaking from the atmosphere, according to the new research co-authored in the journal Science Advances by two scientists at Britain’s Open University.

They detected the vapour by analysing light passing through the Martian atmosphere using an instrument called the Nadir and Occultation for Mars Discovery.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/feb/10/mars-water-vapour-researchers-life

 

[CraigD]

Tiny Crustacean Redefines Ultra-Fast Movement

The world’s most technologically advanced robots would lose in a competition with a tiny crustacean.

Just the size of a sunflower seed, the amphipod Dulichiella cf. appendiculata has been found by Duke researchers to snap its giant claw shut 10,000 times faster than the blink of a human eye.

The claw, which only occurs on one side in males, is impressive, reaching 30% of an adult’s body mass. Its ultrafast closing makes an audible snap, creating water jets and sometimes producing small bubbles due to rapid changes in water pressure, a phenomenon known as cavitation.

Three things make this ultra-fast movement unique said Sarah Longo, who studied the amphipods as part of her postdoctoral studies at Duke: the amphipods’ really small size, the fact that they live in water, and the repeatability of their movements.

https://scienceblog.com/520960/tiny-crustacean-redefines-ultra-fast-movement/