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]

First Evidence of Animal and Human DNA Collection From Air

In a proof-of-concept study, scientists from Queen Mary University of London have collected and sequenced animal DNA from the air. Their research is published in the journal PeerJ.

The ability to collect and sequence DNA that has been shed into the environment – known as environmental DNA, or "eDNA" – is a fairly novel concept that is emerging as a useful tool for the study of ecosystems and biosurveillance. It can be collected from samples such as soil, sediment and water, and "has many uses," says Dr Elizabeth Clare, molecular ecologist at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL). "The most common research is to collect eDNA to study aquatic populations like fish," she adds.

The study analyzed air from a dedicated animal housing room that had been home to naked mole-rats (Heterocephalus glaber) for a year. The room had been accessed by researchers that were caring for the animals.

"We collected samples 'paired' from within the main room with the filter pointing away from the colony and then with the filter inside one artificial burrow, 'Colony Omega' which contained 29 individuals within a system of acrylic boxes (3.6m3) with tubing 4.4m in length and 45mm in internal diameter," the authors write in the publication.

Following a protocol by Crauaud et al., Clare and colleagues extracted the DNA before amplifying it using PCR and conducting high-throughput sequencing.2 Mole-rat DNA was recovered from both the burrows and regular air samples, which demonstrates that airDNA is able to move beyond the burrow system of the mole-rats.

Unexpectedly, human DNA was also detected in all samples, including the controls. Clare recalls feeling a mixture of frustration followed by intrigue at this point in the study: "At first we were just thinking of it as a contamination. Now we are thinking of this as a new avenue of research."

 

[koolishman]

BRAIN STUDY PINPOINTS WHY MUSIC CAN LITERALLY GIVE YOU THE CHILLS

This new study is based EEG readings, which measure electrical activity. The idea was to see if there were changes in the brain's electrical activity that could also underpin a relationship between music and pleasure.

Eighteen people were evaluated, eight of whom were amateur musicians. The participants picked five songs ahead of time that they knew often gave them the chills. The scientists also provided the team with three neutral songs to listen to. Then, the listeners sat back, closed their eyes, and listened to the music through wireless headphones while scientists monitored their brain activity.

As they listened, participants got the chills an average of 16.9 times each. Each chilling moment lasted for 8.75 seconds.

When the participants listened to songs that gave them the chills, the team found an increase in theta waves (a wave of brain activity that follows regular oscillations) in the orbitofrontal cortex. This area of the brain is associated with emotional processing.

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnins.2020.565815/full

Study: Music triggers the same reward centre in brain as alcohol and cocaine.

Abstract
Music's ability to induce feelings of pleasure has been the subject of intense neuroscientific research lately. Prior neuroimaging studies have shown that music-induced pleasure engages cortico-striatal circuits related to the anticipation and receipt of biologically relevant rewards/incentives, but these reports are necessarily correlational. Here, we studied both the causal role of this circuitry and its temporal dynamics by applying Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex combined with functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) in 17 male and female participants. Behaviorally, we found that, in accord with previous findings, excitation of fronto-striatal pathways enhanced subjective reports of music-induced pleasure and motivation; whereas inhibition of the same circuitry led to the reduction of both. fMRI activity patterns indicated that these behavioral changes were driven by bidirectional TMS-induced alteration of fronto-striatal function. Specifically, changes in activity in the nucleus accumbens (NAcc) predicted modulation of both hedonic and motivational responses, with a dissociation between pre-experiential vs. experiential components of musical reward. In addition, TMS-induced changes in the fMRI functional connectivity between the NAcc and frontal and auditory cortices predicted the degree of modulation of hedonic responses. These results indicate that the engagement of cortico-striatal pathways and the NAcc, in particular, is indispensable to experience rewarding feelings from music.

https://www.jneurosci.org/content/early/2021/03/19/JNEUROSCI.0727-20.2020

 

[CraigD]

Scientists show technology can save people from shark bites

With shark bites increasing in countries like Australia—scientists say the use of personal electronic deterrents is an effective way to prevent future deaths and injuries which could save the lives of up to 1063 Australians along the coastline over the next 50 years.

The research, published in scientific journal Royal Society Open Science, shows that while shark bites are rare events, strategies to reduce shark-bite risk are also valuable because they can severely affect victims and their support groups—with one third of victims experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder.

The researchers analyzed per-capita shark bites around Australia from 1900 to 2020 and developed models to estimate the preventative impact of electronic deterrents if they were worn by water users, to predict how many shark bites could be avoided.

With the incidence of bites increasing worldwide, researchers used the Australian Shark Attack File curated by Taronga Conservation Society Australia to develop the models of incidents, and then projected these shark bites to 2066 when the population is expected to rise to 49 million.

There were 985 incidents reported in the Australian Shark Attack File from 1900 to 2020 from 20 different species.

Lead author Professor Corey Bradshaw of Flinders University says efforts to reduce the risk of shark bites, even if they are extremely rare, are valuable with electronic deterrents capable of reducing the likelihood of a bite by about 60%, potentially saving hundreds of lives over the next 50 years.

Read on...

https://phys.org/news/2021-03-scientists-technology-people-shark.html


Incidentally, I once met a guy who had a massive chunk missing from the rear of his thigh from a white-pointer shark attack. The skin had been grafted back over the missing muscle many years previously, but you could still see the teeth marks on the muscle underneath.
* Shudder.

 

[koolishman]

Data scientists are predicting sports injuries with an algorithm

Machine learning can tell athletes when to train and when to stop.

Sport is gradually entering a new era, in which artificial intelligence might act as an assistant coach. Algorithms could enable a teenager to train smarter and avoid a career-ending injury, or help a professional athlete to compete for a few years longer. But the technology’s success depends, in part, on the ability of data scientists to convince coaches to include data in their decision process.


The teams that McHugh has worked with have seen a reduction in injuries of between 5% and 40%, he says. Yet, not every coach is happy to join forces with AI. “Coaches sometimes don’t feel good, because it seems like trying to substitute the human element,” Rossi says. But in reality, data is only a tool. “The interpretation of the results, the change of the training load, is done by coaches,” he says.

 

[CraigD]

Machine learning reads Arnhem Land rock art

What can machine learning tell us about the rock art in Arnhem Land?

South Australian researchers, led by Daryl Wesley of Flinders University, working with the Mimal and Marrku Traditional Owners of the Wilton River area in the Northern Territory, took a close look at the rock art in Arnhem Land to examine how the art transformed stylistically over time.

The team used machine learning to analyse images of different styles and subjects, to see how similar they were at a minute level, and what the chronology of art evolution was.

The team first taught the computer how to recognise different images by using an existing dataset of 14 million photos of animals and objects. This model was then applied to the rock art images. The results are published in Australian Archaeology.

“In total the computer saw more than 1000 different types of objects and learned to tell the difference between them just by looking at photos of them,” Dr Wesley explains.

“The important skill this computer developed was a mathematical model that has the ability to tell how similar two different images are to one another.”

This approach, called ‘transfer learning’, could remove possible bias in human evaluation, especially when tiny details are easily missed. It might also be a useful tool for future archaeological studies.

https://cosmosmagazine.com/history/archaeology/machine-learning-reads-arnhem-land-rock-art/


The Archaeology of Rock Art in Western Arnhem Land, Australia

An in-depth look at Australian rock art.

https://press-files.anu.edu.au/downloads/press/n3991/html/cover.xhtml

 

[CraigD]

First Evidence of Animal and Human DNA Collection From Air

In a proof-of-concept study, scientists from Queen Mary University of London have collected and sequenced animal DNA from the air. Their research is published in the journal PeerJ.

The ability to collect and sequence DNA that has been shed into the environment – known as environmental DNA, or "eDNA" – is a fairly novel concept that is emerging as a useful tool for the study of ecosystems and biosurveillance. It can be collected from samples such as soil, sediment and water, and "has many uses," says Dr Elizabeth Clare, molecular ecologist at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL). "The most common research is to collect eDNA to study aquatic populations like fish," she adds.

The study analyzed air from a dedicated animal housing room that had been home to naked mole-rats (Heterocephalus glaber) for a year. The room had been accessed by researchers that were caring for the animals.

"We collected samples 'paired' from within the main room with the filter pointing away from the colony and then with the filter inside one artificial burrow, 'Colony Omega' which contained 29 individuals within a system of acrylic boxes (3.6m3) with tubing 4.4m in length and 45mm in internal diameter," the authors write in the publication.

Following a protocol by Crauaud et al., Clare and colleagues extracted the DNA before amplifying it using PCR and conducting high-throughput sequencing.2 Mole-rat DNA was recovered from both the burrows and regular air samples, which demonstrates that airDNA is able to move beyond the burrow system of the mole-rats.

Unexpectedly, human DNA was also detected in all samples, including the controls. Clare recalls feeling a mixture of frustration followed by intrigue at this point in the study: "At first we were just thinking of it as a contamination. Now we are thinking of this as a new avenue of research."

Forensic scientists will soon be able to place someone at a crime scene no matter how careful they are.

 

[koolishman]

Forensic scientists will soon be able to place someone at a crime scene no matter how careful they are.

DNA transfer also implicates the innocent sometimes.

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

 

[CraigD]

DNA transfer also implicates the innocent sometimes.

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

I'll rephrase that to "Forensic scientists will soon be able to place many unwitting innocent people at a crime scene, even if they weren't actually there."

 

[koolishman]

Ancient Crater Lake Bolsters Idea Of Ice On Early Mars

Researchers have discovered a previously unknown type of ancient crater lake on Mars.

It could reveal clues about the planet’s early climate.

In the study, the researchers describe an as-yet unnamed crater with some puzzling characteristics. The crater’s floor has unmistakable geologic evidence of ancient stream beds and ponds, yet there’s no evidence of inlet channels where water could have entered the crater from outside, and no evidence of groundwater activity where it could have bubbled up from below.

So where did the water come from?

The researchers conclude that runoff from a long-lost Martian glacier likely fed the system. Water flowed into the crater atop the glacier, which meant it didn’t leave behind a valley as it would have had it flowed directly on the ground. The water eventually emptied into the low-lying crater floor, where it left its geological mark on the bare Martian soil.

 

[J Sokol]

Elite minority of frequent flyers 'cause most of aviation's climate damage'

An “elite minority” of frequent flyers cause most of the climate damage resulting from aviation’s emissions, according to an environmental charity.

The report, which collates data from the countries with the highest aviation emissions, shows a worldwide pattern of a small group taking a large proportion of flights, while many people do not fly at all.

In the US, 12% of people took 66% of all flights, while in France 2% of people took half of the flights, the report says. In China 5% of households took 40% of flights and in India just 1% of households took 45% of all the flights.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...aviation-climate-damage-flights-environmental

 

[CraigD]

Living robots made from frog skin cells can sense their environment

A microscopic, living robot that can heal and power itself has been created out of frog skin cells.

Xenobots, named after the frog species Xenopus laevis that the cells come from, were first described last year. Now the team behind the robots has improved their design and demonstrated new capabilities.

To create the spherical xenobots, Michael Levin at Tufts University in Massachusetts and his colleagues extracted tissue from 24-hour-old frog embryos which formed into spheroid structures after minimal physical manipulation.

The xenobots, which are between a quarter and half a millimetre in size, operate in robot swarms, meaning that a group of individual xenobots can work together to complete a task.

Read more: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2273516-living-robots-made-from-frog-skin-cells-can-sense-their-environment/


Meet the Xenobot, the World’s First-Ever "Living" Robot
Feb 2020

 

[J Sokol]

In Hotter Climate, 'Zombie' Urchins Are Winning And Kelp Forests Are Losing

They're purple, spiky and voracious, and just off the West Coast, there are more of them than you can count.

Purple sea urchins have exploded in recent years off California, covering the ocean floor in what divers describe as a "purple carpet." And they devour kelp: the once-lush forests of seaweed that hugged the coastline are disappearing. Since 2014, 95 percent of the kelp have vanished across a large part of Northern California, most of it bull kelp.

Kelp forests provide a crucial ecosystem for a broad range of other marine life and animals, so their demise threatens the ecology across the entire stretch of California coast. The kelp's abrupt decline is being driven by warming waters, and it's a case of how climate change is helping push already-stressed ecosystems over the edge.

https://www.npr.org/2021/03/31/9758...chins-are-winning-and-kelp-forests-are-losing

Urchin ranching anyone?

 

[CraigD]

SPACEX STARSHIP SN11 LAUNCH LIVE: ELON MUSK SAYS MARS-BOUND ROCKET 10KM TEST ATTEMPT TODAY

SpaceX will once again attempt to launch and land a Starship rocket, three weeks after the last test ended in a fiery explosion.

Starship SN11 is already on the launchpad at SpaceX’s Boca Chica facility in Texas and has performed all necessary static fire tests required to fly.

A previous launch attempt was scrubbed on Friday due to adverse weather conditions but SpaceX boss Elon Musk said to a expect a “possible Starship flight” on Monday.

https://www.independent.co.uk/life-...ch-live-starship-sn11-elon-musk-b1823788.html

Starship SN11 finally launched a couple of days ago, but no one witnessed the flight as it was shrouded in fog.

The only worthwhile footage was released today... a flyover of the crash site.

 

[CraigD]

In Hotter Climate, 'Zombie' Urchins Are Winning And Kelp Forests Are Losing

They're purple, spiky and voracious, and just off the West Coast, there are more of them than you can count.

Purple sea urchins have exploded in recent years off California, covering the ocean floor in what divers describe as a "purple carpet." And they devour kelp: the once-lush forests of seaweed that hugged the coastline are disappearing. Since 2014, 95 percent of the kelp have vanished across a large part of Northern California, most of it bull kelp.

Kelp forests provide a crucial ecosystem for a broad range of other marine life and animals, so their demise threatens the ecology across the entire stretch of California coast. The kelp's abrupt decline is being driven by warming waters, and it's a case of how climate change is helping push already-stressed ecosystems over the edge.

https://www.npr.org/2021/03/31/9758...chins-are-winning-and-kelp-forests-are-losing

Urchin ranching anyone?

Quite a sobering photograph in that article!

I was quite surprised to learn that "California's kelp forests are not unlike redwood forests on land. The towering seaweed reaches 30 to 60 feet tall. At its peak, kelp grows up to two feet per day in the West Coast's cold, rough waters, which are rich in nutrients."

 

[CraigD]

In Hotter Climate, 'Zombie' Urchins Are Winning And Kelp Forests Are Losing

They're purple, spiky and voracious, and just off the West Coast, there are more of them than you can count.

Purple sea urchins have exploded in recent years off California, covering the ocean floor in what divers describe as a "purple carpet." And they devour kelp: the once-lush forests of seaweed that hugged the coastline are disappearing. Since 2014, 95 percent of the kelp have vanished across a large part of Northern California, most of it bull kelp.

Kelp forests provide a crucial ecosystem for a broad range of other marine life and animals, so their demise threatens the ecology across the entire stretch of California coast. The kelp's abrupt decline is being driven by warming waters, and it's a case of how climate change is helping push already-stressed ecosystems over the edge.

https://www.npr.org/2021/03/31/9758...chins-are-winning-and-kelp-forests-are-losing

Urchin ranching anyone?

Here's an idea:

Using AUVs to control the outbreak of crown-of-thorns starfish in Australia's Great Barrier Reef

Researchers at Deakin University and Murdoch University in Australia, as well as Azad University of Khoemeinishar in Iran, have recently investigated the possibility of managing the propagation of COTS [Crown-of-Thorns Starfish] around coral reefs using autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). In a paper pre-published on arXiv, they presented an approach that allows multiple AUVs to cooperate on the task of monitoring and controlling the presence of COTS around the Great Barrier Reef to prevent further damage to it.

"This paper presents a cooperative dynamic task assignment framework for a certain class of AUVs employed to control the outbreak of COTS in Australia's Great Barrier Reef," the researchers wrote in their paper.

Read the article:

https://techxplore.com/news/2021-01-auvs-outbreak-crown-of-thorns-starfish-australia.html

 

[koolishman]

We've Found Deep Parts of The Sea Where The Last Ice Age Never Actually Ended

Some of the deepest parts of the Black Sea are still responding to climate changes prompted by the last ice age, scientists have discovered – a period which officially ended almost 12,000 years ago.

An analysis of gas hydrate deposits – in this case methane trapped by water molecules, in a solid substance that looks like ice – has revealed the lagging response in a northwestern area of the Black Sea known as the Danube fan.

Together with temperature measurements and other data, the drill cores of the gas hydrate deposits reveal something rather surprising: Levels of free methane gas under the seafloor have not yet adapted to the warmer conditions that have already prevailed on the surface for thousands of years.

"This shows that the gas hydrate system in the Danube deep sea fan is still responding to climate changes initiated at the end of the last glacial maximum," write the researchers in their paper.

 

[koolishman]

One of the world’s most secretive mammals photographed in WildCRU’s Togo survey

This small African antelope has hitherto been secretive to the point of invisibility. The WildCRU study, published today in African Journal of Ecology, was led in Togo by local mammologist, Délagnon Assou, with the base team led by Dr Neil D’Cruze, and shows a stunning picture of an animal which has never been photographed alive in the wild before.

This startling first image of a Walter’s duiker in the wild was part of an even wider first: the first comprehensive remote camera trapping survey for mammalian mega fauna ever undertaken in Togo (West Africa) spanning over 9,000 days of monitoring.

 

[koolishman]

450-million-year-old sea creatures had a leg up on breathing

A new study has found the first evidence of sophisticated breathing organs in 450-million-year-old sea creatures. Contrary to previous thought, trilobites were leg breathers, with structures resembling gills hanging off their thighs.

Trilobites were a group of marine animals with half-moon-like heads that resembled horseshoe crabs, and they were wildly successful in terms of evolution. Though they are now extinct, they survived for more than 250 million years—longer than the dinosaurs.

Thanks to new technologies and an extremely rare set of fossils, scientists from UC Riverside can now show that trilobites breathed oxygen and explain how they did so. Published in the journal Science Advances, these findings help piece together the puzzle of early animal evolution.

 

[koolishman]

Microsoft to build $22 billion worth of AR headsets for the US Army

Microsoft has won a 10-year contract to build advanced augmented reality systems for the US Army. A new production contract for the Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS) will net the company up to US$21.88 billion over 10 years.

This project follows on from a US$480 million prototyping phase starting in 2018, in which Microsoft AR engineers worked in the field with soldiers to develop and test AR headsets designed to give armed forces members next-level situational awareness, as well as extraordinary team command and training capabilities that will make tomorrow's battlefields even more like a lethal video game than ever before.

 

[koolishman]

First X-rays from Uranus Discovered

Astronomers have detected X-rays from Uranus for the first time, using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. This result may help scientists learn more about this enigmatic ice giant planet in our solar system.

Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun and has two sets of rings around its equator. The planet, which has four times the diameter of Earth, rotates on its side, making it different from all other planets in the solar system. Since Voyager 2 was the only spacecraft to ever fly by Uranus, astronomers currently rely on telescopes much closer to Earth, like Chandra and the Hubble Space Telescope, to learn about this distant and cold planet that is made up almost entirely of hydrogen and helium.

In the new study, researchers used Chandra observations taken in Uranus in 2002 and then again in 2017. They saw a clear detection of X-rays from the first observation, just analyzed recently, and a possible flare of X-rays in those obtained fifteen years later. The main graphic shows a Chandra X-ray image of Uranus from 2002 (in pink) superimposed on an optical image from the Keck-I Telescope obtained in a separate study in 2004. The latter shows the planet at approximately the same orientation as it was during the 2002 Chandra observations.

What could cause Uranus to emit X-rays? The answer: mainly the Sun. Astronomers have observed that both Jupiter and Saturn scatter X-ray light given off by the Sun, similar to how Earth’s atmosphere scatters the Sun’s light. While the authors of the new Uranus study initially expected that most of the X-rays detected would also be from scattering, there are tantalizing hints that at least one other source of X-rays is present. If further observations confirm this, it could have intriguing implications for understanding Uranus.

 

[koolishman]

New discoveries fundamentally change the picture of human evolution in Africa

Archeologists had assumed that many of the innovations and skills that make Homo sapiens unique evolved in groups living by the coast before spreading inland. Predictable marine resources like shell fish and a more forgiving climate may have allowed more early humans in these areas to thrive. Plus a diet rich in sea food, which contains omega-3 fatty acids that are important for brain growth, may also have played a role in the evolution of the brain and human behavior.

However, new discoveries 600 kilometers (about 370 miles) inland in the southern Kalahari Desert contradict that view, and a new study suggests that early modern humans living in this region did not lag behind their counterparts living on the coast.

 

[CraigD]

New study sows doubt about the composition of 70 percent of our universe

Until now, researchers have believed that dark energy accounted for nearly 70 percent of the ever-accelerating, expanding universe.

For many years, this mechanism has been associated with the so-called cosmological constant, developed by Einstein in 1917, that refers to an unknown repellant cosmic power.

But because the cosmological constant—known as dark energy—cannot be measured directly, numerous researchers, including Einstein, have doubted its existence—without being able to suggest a viable alternative.

Until now. In a new study by researchers at the University of Copenhagen, a model was tested that replaces dark energy with a dark matter in the form of magnetic forces.

"If what we discovered is accurate, it would upend our belief that what we thought made up 70 percent of the universe does not actually exist. We have removed dark energy from the equation and added in a few more properties for dark matter. This appears to have the same effect upon the universe's expansion as dark energy," explains Steen Harle Hansen, an associate professor at the Niels Bohr Institute's DARK Cosmology Centre.

https://phys.org/news/2021-03-composition-percent-universe.html

------------

It's great to see scientists getting back to using logic instead of introducing magical forces to explain the unknown.

 

[koolishman]

Particles of a Meteor Explosion From 430,000 Years Ago Found Hidden in Antarctic Ice

Approximately 430,000 years ago, a meteorite exploded over Antarctica.

The only reason we know about it now is because scientists have just found tiny, once-molten particles of space rock that have been hidden away in the ice ever since.

Based on an analysis of those particles, the event was an unusual one - not quite powerful enough to produce an impact crater, but nor was it a lightweight. The jet of melted and vaporized material that blasted from the mid-air explosion would have been more hazardous than the Tunguska event that flattened a Siberian forest in 1908.

 

[CraigD]

We Just Got Closer to Truly Determining Who Were The World's First Animals

The tree of animal life had to begin somewhere. Finding that original branch amongst such a tangled canopy is harder than it sounds, though.

A new analysis of genomic data suggests that one phylum in the running for the oldest branch has been deceiving us all along.

Since the 19th century, many scientists have presented the sponge - one of the simplest creatures in existence - as the world's first animal.

Modern genomic studies, however, have pitted this muscle-less, nerve-less and organ-less blob against a far more complex creature.

Comb jellies comprise a small phylum known as Ctenophora, but unlike Porifera - the phylum sponges belong to - these orb-like creatures show much more advanced traits, including neurons and muscle cells to detect and eat prey, as well as a gut for digestion.

If these jellies actually came first, it means many of their traits were subsequently lost among Porifera, only to evolve again later on. While this might sound downright illogical, it's not entirely out of the question, although it does threaten to change our understanding of early animal evolution and the development of the nervous system itself.

Read on...

https://www.sciencealert.com/sponge...le-as-the-oldest-branch-in-the-animal-kingdom

 

[CraigD]

Google is trialling its first alternative to tracking cookies

Google has begun to test a new alternative to third-party cookies, which it hopes will provide users with a greater level of privacy without destroying the underlying economics of the web.

Federated Learning of Cohorts (FLoC) is a new web technology housed within Google’s Privacy Sandbox project, which was launched in 2019 with the intention of tackling issues surrounding online privacy.

To ensure users aren’t targeted on the basis of sensitive browsing activity (e.g. visits to medical websites), Google says it has built in a mechanism for discarding certain cohorts, without monitoring the content the users had accessed.

Further, FLoC operates within the browser itself, on the user’s device, and so is able to assign cohorts without transmitting browsing history to Google or any other party.

The technology remains under development, but has now rolled out as a “developer origin trial” in Google Chrome. The company says it expects FLoC to evolve in line with feedback from this initial period of testing.

Read on...

https://www.techradar.com/news/google-is-trialling-its-first-alternative-to-tracking-cookies