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]

More trees do not always create a cooler planet, geographer finds

New research by Christopher A. Williams, an environmental scientist and professor in Clark University's Graduate School of Geography, reveals that deforestation in the U.S. does not always cause planetary warming, as is commonly assumed; instead, in some places, it actually cools the planet. A peer-reviewed study by Williams and his team, "Climate Impacts of U.S. Forest Loss Span Net Warming to Net Cooling," published today (Feb. 12) in Science Advances. The team's discovery has important implications for policy and management efforts that are turning to forests to mitigate climate change.

Forests also tend to be darker than other surfaces, said Professor Williams, causing them to absorb more sunlight and retain heat, a process known as "the albedo effect."

"We found that in some parts of the country like the Intermountain West, more forest actually leads to a hotter planet when we consider the full climate impacts from both carbon and albedo effects," said Professor Williams. It is important to consider the albedo effect of forests alongside their well-known carbon storage when aiming to cool the planet, he adds.

 

[koolishman]

United Arab Emirates publishes first photo from Mars probe

 

[CraigD]

On the Origin of Our Species: Untangling Ancestry in the Evolution of Homo sapiens

Experts from the Natural History Museum, The Francis Crick Institute, and the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History Jena have joined together to untangle the different meanings of ancestry in the evolution of our species Homo sapiens.

Most of us are fascinated by our ancestry, and by extension the ancestry of the human species. We regularly see headlines like ‘New human ancestor discovered’ or ‘New fossil changes everything we thought about our ancestry’, and yet the meanings of words like ancestor and ancestry are rarely discussed in detail. In the new paper, published in Nature, experts review our current understanding of how modern human ancestry around the globe can be traced into the distant past, and which ancestors it passes through during our journey back in time.

https://scitechdaily.com/on-the-ori...ng-ancestry-in-the-evolution-of-homo-sapiens/

 

[CraigD]

A curious observer’s guide to quantum mechanics, Pt. 6: Two quantum spooks

Proof that the world can be much stranger than we expect

Throughout our quantum adventures to date, we’ve seen a bunch of interesting quantum effects. So for our last major excursion, let’s venture into a particularly creepy corner of the quantum wood: today, we’re going to see entanglement and measurement order.

Together, these two concepts create some of the most counterintuitive effects in quantum mechanics. They are so counterintuitive that this is probably a good time to re-emphasize that nothing in this series is speculative—everything we’ve seen is backed by hundreds of observations. Sometimes the world is much stranger than we expect it to be.

https://arstechnica.com/science/202...to-quantum-mechanics-pt-6-two-quantum-spooks/


About this article series:
One of the quietest revolutions of our current century has been the entry of quantum mechanics into our everyday technology. It used to be that quantum effects were confined to physics laboratories and delicate experiments. But modern technology increasingly relies on quantum mechanics for its basic operation, and the importance of quantum effects will only grow in the decades to come. As such, physicist Miguel F. Morales has taken on the herculean task of explaining quantum mechanics to laypeople in this seven-part series (no math, we promise). [This] is the sixth story in the series, but you can always find the starting story plus a landing page for the entire series thus far on site.

 

[CraigD]

Egypt unearths 'world's oldest' mass-production brewery

A high-production brewery believed to be more than 5,000 years old has been uncovered by a team of archaeologists at a funerary site in southern Egypt, the tourism ministry said Saturday.

The site containing several "units" consisting of about 40 earthenware pots arranged in two rows was uncovered at North Abydos, Sohag, by a joint Egyptian-American team, the ministry said in a statement on its Facebook page.

The brewery likely dates back to the era of King Narmer, it quoted the secretary general of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, Mostafa Waziry, as saying, adding it believed the find to "be the oldest high-production brewery in the world."

https://phys.org/news/2021-02-egypt-archaeologists-unearth-ancient-beer.html

 

[CraigD]

Discovery of ancient Bogong moth remains at Cloggs Cave gives insight into Indigenous food practices

Researchers from Monash University collaborated with traditional owners from the Gunaikurnai Land and Waters Corporation (GLaWAC), to excavate the cave for the first time in 50 years, and found microscopic remains of Bogong moth on a small grinding stone tool believed to be up to 2,000 years old.

It is the first conclusive archaeological evidence of insect food remains found on a stone artefact anywhere in the world.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02...ndigenous-food-practices-cloggs-cave/13139704

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bogong_moth

 

[CraigD]

Bill Gates: ‘Carbon neutrality in a decade is a fairytale. Why peddle fantasies?’

After putting $100m into Covid research, the billionaire is taking on the climate crisis. And first he has some bones to pick with his fellow campaigners...

https://www.theguardian.com/technol...-a-decade-is-a-fairytale-why-peddle-fantasies

 

[koolishman]

Strange creatures accidentally discovered beneath Antarctica's ice shelves

Far underneath the ice shelves of the Antarctic, there's more life than expected, finds a recent study in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science.

During an exploratory survey, researchers drilled through 900 meters of ice in the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf, situated on the south eastern Weddell Sea. At a distance of 260km away from the open ocean, under complete darkness and with temperatures of -2.2°C, very few animals have ever been observed in these conditions.

But this study is the first to discover the existence of stationary animals—similar to sponges and potentially several previously unknown species—attached to a boulder on the sea floor.

Given the water currents in the region, the researchers calculate that this community may be as much as 1,500km upstream from the closest source of photosynthesis. Other organisms are also known to collect nutrients from glacial melts or chemicals from methane seeps, but the researchers won't know more about these organisms until they have the tools to collect samples of these organisms—a significant challenge in itself.

 

[koolishman]

China's Yutu 2 rover finds 'milestone' on far side of the moon

This weird elongated rock shard could have been displaced by a meteor impact.

 

[CraigD]

SolarWinds hack was the work of thousands, says Microsoft

Security experts say cyberattack on SolarWinds was clearly well coordinated.

The SolarWinds hack that affected hundreds of public and private networks across the globe may have been the work of thousands of cyberattackers.

Microsoft president Brad Smith told US news program 60 Minutes that an internal analysis of the attack found that “certainly more than 1,000” software engineers had been involved.

It remains unclear who these threat actors are or who coordinated their efforts, but most experts believe the SolarWinds attack was sponsored by the Russian state. Smith added his backing to this claim by highlighting that the Russian Government previously employed a mass supply chain disruption tactic in Ukraine.

https://www.techradar.com/au/news/solarwinds-hack-was-the-work-of-thousands-says-microsoft

 

[CraigD]

CO2 dip may have helped dinosaurs walk from South America to Greenland

A new paper refines estimates of when herbivorous dinosaurs must have traversed North America on a northerly trek to reach Greenland, and points out an intriguing climatic phenomenon that may have helped them along the journey.

The study, published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is authored by Dennis Kent, adjunct research scientist at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, and Lars Clemmensen from the University of Copenhagen.

Previous estimates suggested that sauropodomorphs—a group of long-necked, herbivorous dinosaurs that eventually included Brontosaurus and Brachiosaurus—arrived in Greenland sometime between 225 and 205 million years ago. But by painstakingly matching up ancient magnetism patterns in rock layers at fossil sites across South America, Arizona, New Jersey, Europe and Greenland, the new study offers a more precise estimate: It suggests that sauropodomorphs showed up in what is now Greenland around 214 million years ago. At the time, the continents were all joined together, forming the supercontinent Pangea.

https://phys.org/news/2021-02-co2-dip-dinosaurs-south-america.html

 

[CraigD]

Study: All monogamous mammals are not 'wired for love' in the same way

Humans aren't the only mammals that form long-term bonds with a single, special mate -- some bats, wolves, beavers, foxes and other animals do, too. But new research suggests the brain circuitry that makes love last in some species may not be the same in others.

The study, appearing Feb. 12 in the journal Scientific Reports, compares monogamous and promiscuous species within a closely related group of lemurs, distant primate cousins of humans from the island Madagascar.

To biologists, monogamy is somewhat a mystery. That's in part because in many animal groups it's rare. While around 90% of bird species practice some form of fidelity to one partner, only 3% to 5% of mammals do. The vast majority of the roughly 6,500 known species of mammals have open relationships, so to speak.

Which raises a question: what makes some species biologically inclined to pair up for the long haul while others play the field?

https://www.news-medical.net/news/2...s-are-not-wired-for-love-in-the-same-way.aspx

 

[koolishman]

Planet Nine Might Be a Giant Illusion, Scientists Say, And Here's Why

A hypothetical mystery planet thought to be responsible for strange orbits in the outer Solar System just got dealt one of its biggest blows yet.

According to a comprehensive analysis of extremely distant objects, led by physicist Kevin Napier of the University of Michigan, Planet Nine may not exist - because the evidence for its existence doesn't exist. Rather, what astronomers took to be the influence of a planet's gravity is instead selection bias in the observations.

 

[koolishman]

Neanderthals used stone tool tech once considered exclusive to Homo sapiens
A child's molar from an Israeli cave links Neanderthals to the cave's stone tools.

The entangled history of Homo sapiens and Neanderthals in the Levant (the area around the eastern end of the Mediterranean) just got even more complicated. Paleoanthropologists recently identified a tooth from Shukbah Cave, 28km (17.5 miles) northwest of Jerusalem, as a Neanderthal molar. That makes Shukbah the southernmost trace of Neanderthals ever found, and it also links our extinct cousins to a stone tool technology previously considered an exclusive trademark of Homo sapiens.

Blinkhorn and his colleagues used computed tomography (CT) scans to measure the internal and external shape and structure of the tooth. They compared those shapes and measurements to other Neanderthal and Homo sapiens molars from southwest Asian sites. In the end, the tooth clearly belonged in a category with the Neanderthal molars.

 

[koolishman]

Astronomers: A comet fragment, not an asteroid, killed off the dinosaurs
Jupiter's gravity pushed comet toward Sun; comet was ripped apart by tidal forces.

However, in a new paper published in Scientific Reports, Harvard astronomers offer an alternative: a special kind of comet—originating from a field of debris at the edge of our solar system known as the Oort cloud—that was thrown off course by Jupiter's gravity toward the Sun. The Sun's powerful tidal forces then ripped pieces off the comet, and one of the larger fragments of this "cometary shrapnel" eventually collided with Earth.

The most widely accepted explanation for what triggered that catastrophic mass extinction is known as the "Alvarez hypothesis," after the late physicist Luis Alvarez and his geologist son, Walter. In 1980, they proposed that the extinction event may have been caused by a massive asteroid or comet hitting the Earth. They based this conclusion on their analysis of sedimentary layers at the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary (the K-Pg boundary, formerly known as the K-T boundary) found all over the world, which included unusually high concentrations of iridium—a metal more commonly found in asteroids than on Earth. (That same year, Dutch geophysicist Jan Smit independently arrived at a similar conclusion.)


Since then, scientists have identified a likely impact site: a large crater in Chicxulub, Mexico, in the Yucatan Peninsula, first discovered by geophysicists in the late 1970s. The impactor that created it was sufficiently large (between 11 and 81 kilometers, or 7 to 50 miles) to melt, shock, and eject granite from deep inside the Earth, probably causing a megatsunami and ejecting vaporized rock and sulfates into the atmosphere. This in turn had a devastating effect on global climate, leading to mass extinction.

 

[koolishman]

The science of siestas

How often a person takes daytime naps, if at all, is partly regulated by their genes, according to new research led by investigators at Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and published in Nature Communications.

In this study, the largest of its kind ever conducted, the MGH team collaborated with colleagues at the University of Murcia in Spain and several other institutions to identify dozens of gene regions that govern the tendency to take naps during the day. They also uncovered preliminary evidence linking napping habits to cardiometabolic health.


Digging deeper into the data, the team identified at least three potential mechanisms that promote napping:

• Sleep propensity: Some people need more shut-eye than others.
• Disrupted sleep: A daytime nap can help make up for poor quality slumber the night before.
• Early morning awakening: People who rise early may “catch up” on sleep with a nap.

“This tells us that daytime napping is biologically driven and not just an environmental or behavioral choice,” says Dashti.

 

[koolishman]

Longitudinal study links energy drink consumption to depression, anxiety and stress

Energy drinks are potent mixtures of ingredients like caffeine, guarana, sugar, ginseng, and aspartame. They are intended (and marketed) to improve mood, alertness and productivity—but may have long-term secondary effects that are decidedly less beneficial.

A variety of cross-sectional studies has already examined the relationship between energy drink consumption and mental health problems like anxiety, depression, and increased feelings of stress. Few to date, however, have done so longitudinally, meaning that causal relationships have been difficult to determine or demonstrTo remedy this, the present study looked at data from 897 individuals who have been followed from birth in the context of the previously published Raine study. Questionnaires were given at age 20 and again at age 22 regarding, among others, energy drink consumption and mood.

After controlling for parental mental health, illicit drug use, dietary patterns, family income, parental alcohol consumption and cigarette use, BMI, physical activity and other factors, the researchers found that changes in energy drink consumption were positively associated with increased stress scores and, in young adult males, depression and anxiety.

 

[CraigD]

Planet Nine Might Be a Giant Illusion, Scientists Say, And Here's Why

A hypothetical mystery planet thought to be responsible for strange orbits in the outer Solar System just got dealt one of its biggest blows yet.

According to a comprehensive analysis of extremely distant objects, led by physicist Kevin Napier of the University of Michigan, Planet Nine may not exist - because the evidence for its existence doesn't exist. Rather, what astronomers took to be the influence of a planet's gravity is instead selection bias in the observations.

Looking for ghosts - this argument has been ongoing for over 120-years.

When I was a kid it was called Planet X (roman numerals for 10) before Pluto got demoted leaving only 8 known planets. The term 'Planet X' was a great headline grabber back in the day for an undiscovered mystery planet, but I've noticed there is less hype surrounding the hypothetical planet since it was demoted to 'Planet 9'.

 

[koolishman]

prolonged Keto diet is bad for health.

Ketogenic diets inhibit mitochondrial biogenesis and induce cardiac fibrosis

Abstract
In addition to their use in relieving the symptoms of various diseases, ketogenic diets (KDs) have also been adopted by healthy individuals to prevent being overweight. Herein, we reported that prolonged KD exposure induced cardiac fibrosis. In rats, KD or frequent deep fasting decreased mitochondrial biogenesis, reduced cell respiration, and increased cardiomyocyte apoptosis and cardiac fibrosis. Mechanistically, increased levels of the ketone body β-hydroxybutyrate (β-OHB), an HDAC2 inhibitor, promoted histone acetylation of the Sirt7 promoter and activated Sirt7 transcription. This in turn inhibited the transcription of mitochondrial ribosome-encoding genes and mitochondrial biogenesis, leading to cardiomyocyte apoptosis and cardiac fibrosis. Exogenous β-OHB administration mimicked the effects of a KD in rats. Notably, increased β-OHB levels and SIRT7 expression, decreased mitochondrial biogenesis, and increased cardiac fibrosis were detected in human atrial fibrillation heart tissues. Our results highlighted the unknown detrimental effects of KDs and provided insights into strategies for preventing cardiac fibrosis in patients for whom KDs are medically necessary.

 

[CraigD]

Biotech fit for the Red Planet: New method for growing cyanobacteria under Mars-like conditions

NASA, in collaboration with other leading space agencies, aims to send its first human missions to Mars in the early 2030s, while companies like SpaceX may do so even earlier. Astronauts on Mars will need oxygen, water, food, and other consumables. These will need to be sourced from Mars, because importing them from Earth would be impractical in the long term. In Frontiers in Microbiology, scientists show for the first time that Anabaena cyanobacteria can be grown with only local gases, water, and other nutrients and at low pressure. This makes it much easier to develop sustainable biological life support systems.

"Here we show that cyanobacteria can use gases available in the Martian atmosphere, at a low total pressure, as their source of carbon and nitrogen. Under these conditions, cyanobacteria kept their ability to grow in water containing only Mars-like dust and could still be used for feeding other microbes. This could help make long-term missions to Mars sustainable," says lead author Dr. Cyprien Verseux, an astrobiologist who heads the Laboratory of Applied Space Microbiology at the Center of Applied Space Technology and Microgravity (ZARM) of the University of Bremen, Germany.

https://phys.org/news/2021-02-biotech-red-planet-method-cyanobacteria.html

 

[koolishman]

Scientists discover backward star, spinning in the opposite direction to its planets

In planetary systems, it's generally expected planets and their stars rotate in the same direction. Take our own solar system, for example.

Our sun spins in almost the exact same direction as Earth and the rest of the planets orbits, with a small six degree tilt. It was once assumed that all systems work in a similar way, but research has shown that isn't necessarily the case.

There have been a few stars discovered that spin differently to a planet that orbits them, but a recent study has found one star rotating in the opposite direction to not one, but two planets in its system.

The K2-290 system contains a total of three stars, with two planets orbiting its main star, K2-290 A. The interesting part? K2-290 A is rotating at a 124 degree tilt compared to the two planets that orbit it. Meaning it's rotating in the opposite direction.

 

[koolishman]

Weatherwatch: how typhoons in Korea made California wildfires worse

Last year California suffered its worst series of wildfires, including five of the most destructive six fires on record, all driven by unseasonal winds. New research suggests that the driving winds originated from an unexpected source: typhoons in Korea. The study highlights how events in one region can create a domino effect felt thousands of miles away.

A paper by South Korean and American scientists in Geophysical Letters points the finger at three massive storms that hit the Korean peninsula in quick succession over August and September. The researchers say a single typhoon would have little effect, but the unusual combination of three of them over just 12 days was sufficient to perturb the jet stream. This resulted in an effect known as an atmospheric wave train, which crossed the Pacific and changed the pattern of air flow over North America.

 

[koolishman]

International research team begins uncovering Arctic mystery

Something lurks beneath the Arctic Ocean. While it’s not a monster, it has largely remained a mystery.

According to 25 international researchers who collaborated on a first-of-its-kind study, frozen land beneath rising sea levels currently traps 60 billion tons of methane and 560 billion tons of organic carbon. Little is known about the frozen sediment and soil — called submarine permafrost — even as it slowly thaws and releases methane and carbon that could have significant impacts on climate.

To put into perspective the amount of greenhouse gases in submarine permafrost, humans have released about 500 billion tons of carbon into the atmosphere since the Industrial Revolution, said Sandia National Laboratories geosciences engineer Jennifer Frederick, one of the authors on the study published in IOP Publishing journal Environmental Research Letters.

 

[Sutruk]

Russian scientists probe prehistoric viruses dug from permafrost

https://phys.org/news/2021-02-russian-scientists-probe-prehistoric-viruses.html

"Russian state laboratory Vektor on Tuesday announced it was launching research into prehistoric viruses by analysing the remains of animals recovered from melted permafrost.

The Siberia-based lab said in a statement that the aim of the project was to identify paleoviruses and conduct advanced research into virus evolution.

The research in collaboration with the University of Yakutsk began with analysis of tissues extracted from a prehistoric horse believed to be at least 4,500 years old."

 

[Sutruk]

Supercomputer turns back cosmic clock

https://phys.org/news/2021-02-supercomputer-cosmic-clock.html

"Astronomers have tested a method for reconstructing the state of the early universe by applying it to 4000 simulated universes using the ATERUI II supercomputer at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ). They found that together with new observations, the method can set better constraints on inflation, one of the most enigmatic events in the history of the universe. The method can shorten the observation time required to distinguish between various inflation theories."