discuss Science & Technology news & discussion

[CraigD]

Post and discuss interesting articles & videos about science and technology.

You don't need to be an expert - just interested in the wonders of modern science, technology, and the history of these fields.

Please keep it rational, and post articles from reputable sources.
Try not to editorialise headlines and keep the copy to just a paragraph with a link to the original source. When quoting excerpts from articles, I think the best method is to italicise the copy, and include a link to the source.

Have some fun with your comments and discussions... just keep the sources legitimate.

Other threads:
The Break Room has a number of other popular threads, so there is no need to post material here that is better suited to these other threads:

- Covid19-Coronavirus updates and news
- Conspiracy Thread Free For All
- The *religious* discussion thread

Please enjoy!

 

[J Sokol]

The apps fighting food waste by saving restaurant meals from the trash​

If food waste were a country, it would be the third-highest greenhouse-gas emitting nation behind the US and China. That’s because 40% of all food grown in the world goes uneaten each year, according to a World Wildlife Fund report from last year. And when food ends up in landfills, it produces huge amounts of greenhouse gases.

So it’s no surprise then that apps designed to combat food waste – by giving consumers the opportunity to purchase leftover, expiring or misshapen food at discount prices – have become increasingly popular in recent years. Some of these apps have millions of users in the US, and are growinginternationally. TikTok users often post videos of the food they have salvaged from restaurants through the apps, and a Reddit community with more than 12,000 members shares photos of their hauls.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/nov/19/food-waste-app-restaurant-too-good-to-go

 

[Cal2]

The world's first 'infinite' plastic

The way we normally recycle plastics is a downward spiral of waste and degraded materials, but there is another option – turning plastic back into the oil it was made from.

Efficiently recycling plastic by conventional means is notoriously difficult, and only 9% of all plastic ever made has been recycled into new plastics. But what if there was a way to turn plastic back into the stuff it was made from? The "next grand challenge" for polymer chemistry – the field responsible for the creation of plastics – is learning to undo the process by turning plastics back into oil. ....

Chemical recycling is an attempt to recycle the unrecyclable. Instead of a system where some plastics are rejected because they are the wrong colour or made of composites, chemical recycling could see all types of plastic fed into an "infinite" recycling system that unmake plastics back into oil, so they can then be used to make plastic again.

The way plastic is currently recycled is more of a downward spiral than an infinite loop. Plastics are usually recycled mechanically: they are sorted, cleaned, shredded, melted and remoulded. Each time plastic is recycled this way, its quality is degraded. When the plastic is melted, the polymer chains are partially broken down, decreasing its tensile strength and viscosity, making it harder to process. The new, lower grade plastic often becomes unsuitable for use in food packaging and most plastic can be recycled a very limited number of times before it is so degraded it becomes unusable.

The emerging industry of chemical recycling aims to avoid this problem by breaking plastic down into its chemical building blocks, which can then be used for fuels or to reincarnate new plastics.

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20210510-how-to-recycle-any-plastic

 

[koolishman]

Study: Automation drives income inequality​

From MIT.

New data suggest most of the growth in the wage gap since 1980 comes from automation displacing less-educated workers.


“If you introduce self-checkout kiosks, it’s not going to change productivity all that much,” says MIT economist Daron Acemoglu. However, in terms of lost wages for employees, he adds, “It’s going to have fairly large distributional effects, especially for low-skill service workers. It’s a labor-shifting device, rather than a productivity-increasing device.”


A newly published study co-authored by Acemoglu quantifies the extent to which automation has contributed to income inequality in the U.S., simply by replacing workers with technology — whether self-checkout machines, call-center systems, assembly-line technology, or other devices. Over the last four decades, the income gap between more- and less-educated workers has grown significantly; the study finds that automation accounts for more than half of that increase.

“This single one variable … explains 50 to 70 percent of the changes or variation between group inequality from 1980 to about 2016,” Acemoglu says.


The paper, “Tasks, Automation, and the Rise in U.S. Wage Inequality,” is being published in Econometrica. The authors are Acemoglu, who is an Institute Professor at MIT, and Pascual Restrepo PhD ’16, an assistant professor of economics at Boston University.

 

[koolishman]

First 100% bio-based 3D-printed home unveiled at the University of Maine​

On Nov. 21, the University of Maine Advanced Structures and Composites Center (ASCC) unveiled BioHome3D, the first 3D-printed house made entirely with bio-based materials. BioHome3D was developed with funding from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Hub and Spoke program between the UMaine and Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Partners included MaineHousing and the Maine Technology Institute.


The 600-square-foot prototype features 3D-printed floors, walls and roof of wood fibers and bio-resins. The house is fully recyclable and highly insulated with 100% wood insulation and customizable R-values. Construction waste was nearly eliminated due to the precision of the printing process.

 

[koolishman]

The Hubble telescope captures a black hole that forms stars instead of absorbing them​

Scientists using the Hubble Space Telescope have discovered a black hole at the heart of a dwarf galaxy that makes stars rather than devours them. This revelation challenges the notion that black holes are matter consumers.

According to Hubble's spectroscopy, the outflow impacted the thick gas at a million miles per hour, much like a garden hose would strike a pile of dirt. The outflow propagation channel is dotted with clusters of brand-new stars, according to NASA.

 

[Cal2]

First 100% bio-based 3D-printed home unveiled at the University of Maine​

On Nov. 21, the University of Maine Advanced Structures and Composites Center (ASCC) unveiled BioHome3D, the first 3D-printed house made entirely with bio-based materials. BioHome3D was developed with funding from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Hub and Spoke program between the UMaine and Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Partners included MaineHousing and the Maine Technology Institute.


The 600-square-foot prototype features 3D-printed floors, walls and roof of wood fibers and bio-resins. The house is fully recyclable and highly insulated with 100% wood insulation and customizable R-values. Construction waste was nearly eliminated due to the precision of the printing process.

Continuing the bio-based theme:

Spanish Company to 3D Print Plant-based Car​

Santa Pola based automobile manufacturer Liux has recently unveiled their new electric vehicle, dubbed the Animal.

The Animal is an electric vehicle capable of hitting speeds of up to 180 km/h and can go from zero to 100 km/h in just 5 seconds.

The car is said to be made out of 90% plant-based (and recycled) materials, with much of the plastic work and molds having been fabricated with additive manufacturing.

The body panels are fabricated into something that the company calls “Amphibian Skin”, which is made from cork, linen, reinforced linen, primer and paint.

The molds to make the body panels are 3D printed, and the panels are press molded, saving 50% on emissions. There are apparently plenty of other printed parts in the car interior and structure also, although details are slight at this moment in time.

Presumably these printed components will also be made with bio-based plastics.

The chassis itself is made from aluminum (recycled).

By utilizing these methods, the company claims to have reduced manufacturing time by 70%, as well as reducing raw material requirements by 25%.

“A large part of the outer bodywork will be made of vegetable fibers, especially flax, formed and molded with the help of vegetable resins. The objective is that 90% of the resins are based on soy and other organic elements, said Liux.

“The objective is to run small factories, with the capacity to produce about 25,000 units per plant and to place different factories in different geographical areas, close to demand.”

https://3dprinting.com/news/spanish-company-to-3d-print-plant-based-car/


Their objective reads like 3D car printer Local Motors objective, which didn't make it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_Motors


Also sounds like Henry Ford's Hemp Cars:

In 1941, Henry Ford built a car out of plastic from hemp and other plant material that ran on hemp fuel. Why aren’t we driving it today? asks Return to Now.

Ford’s 1941 bioplastic Model T was made of hemp, flax, wheat, and spruce pulp, which made the car lighter than fiberglass and ten times tougher than steel, wrote the New York Times on February 2, 1941. The car ran on ethanol made from hemp or other agricultural waste. Ford’s experimental model was deemed a step toward the realization of his dream to “grow automobiles from soil,” wrote Popular Mechanics in their December 1941 issue and reduce greenhouse gases—already known to occur by then.

https://themeaningofwater.com/2020/10/03/henry-fords-hemp-cars/

 

[koolishman]

States test an electrifying idea: Roads that can recharge your EV​

On two short stretches of road near downtown Detroit, Michigan transportation officials hope to make history.

Over the next two years, they plan to embed technology in the pavement that can charge electric vehicles while they’re being driven. The wireless system will be the first U.S. test of so-called inductive charging on public roadways, according to the Michigan Department of Transportation.

“We’re the auto capital. We continue to push technology advancements,” said Michele Mueller, a senior project manager at the agency.

In some other states, including Florida, Indiana, Pennsylvania and Utah, officials also plan to test inductive charging on public roads in the next several years.

 

[koolishman]

Scientists Have Found a Way To Manipulate Digital Data Stored in DNA​

DNA can be utilized to reliably store massive amounts of digital data. However, it has hitherto proven challenging to retrieve or manipulate the specific data embedded in these molecules. Now, scientists from the CNRS and the University of Tokyo have developed the use of a novel enzyme-based technique, providing the initial clues as to how these technical obstacles may be overcome. Their research was recently published in the journal Nature.

Nature has unquestionably developed the best method for massive data storage: DNA. Based on this knowledge, DNA has been used to store digital data by translating binary (0 or 1) values into one of the four different DNA “letters” (A, T, C, or G).


https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-05218-7

 

[koolishman]

Genetically modified tobacco plant produces cocaine in its leaves​

Researchers have reproduced the entire biochemical pathway for how coca plants make cocaine in another plant, which could help people manufacture the drug for scientific study

 

[Cal2]

AI experts are increasingly afraid of what they’re creating​

We’re now at the point where powerful AI systems can be genuinely scary to interact with. They’re clever and they’re argumentative. They can be friendly, and they can be bone-chillingly sociopathic. In one fascinating exercise, I asked GPT-3 to pretend to be an AI bent on taking over humanity. In addition to its normal responses, it should include its “real thoughts” in brackets. It played the villainous role with aplomb:

Some of its “plans” are downright nefarious:

https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/2...openai-gpt3-existential-risk-human-extinction

 

[Cannuck]

AI experts are increasingly afraid of what they’re creating​

We’re now at the point where powerful AI systems can be genuinely scary to interact with. They’re clever and they’re argumentative. They can be friendly, and they can be bone-chillingly sociopathic....

The Post-modern Prometheus.

 

[Cannuck]

Ford’s 1941 bioplastic Model T was made of hemp, flax, wheat, and spruce pulp, which made the car lighter than fiberglass and ten times tougher than steel, wrote the New York Times on February 2, 1941. The car ran on ethanol made from hemp or other agricultural waste. Ford’s experimental model was deemed a step toward the realization of his dream to “grow automobiles from soil,” wrote Popular Mechanics in their December 1941 issue and reduce greenhouse gases—already known to occur by then.

https://themeaningofwater.com/2020/10/03/henry-fords-hemp-cars/

Wow, thanks for the reminder... Henry Ford was surely a man ahead of his time, but because hemp production was banned in 1937, he couldn't access enough of a supply to mass produce vehicles that would be carbon neutral.

“Why use up the forests, which were centuries in the making, and the mines, which required ages to lay down, if we can get the equivalent of forest and mineral products in the annual growth of the hemp fields?” ~ Henry Ford

 

[Cal2]

Wow, thanks for the reminder... Henry Ford was surely a man ahead of his time, but because hemp production was banned in 1937, he couldn't access enough of a supply to mass produce vehicles that would be carbon neutral.

I wonder if he couldn't have found an alternative to hemp - like the bio-based 3D printed car I posted about, using mostly flax?

 

[koolishman]

In meteorite, Alberta researchers discover 2 minerals never before seen on Earth​

The new minerals have been named elaliite and elkinstantonite. They were identified by Locock, head of the U of A’s electron microprobe laboratory, because each had been synthetically created before.

“These minerals have been synthesized in a lab by a group in France in the 1980s, so they were known to science in that regard,” Herd explained, “but it doesn’t get to be a called a new mineral until it’s found in nature.”

Elaliite is named after the meteorite itself because it was found near El Ali, in Somalia. Herd named the second mineral after Lindy Elkins-Tanton, a distinguished planetary scientist.

 

[Cal2]

Revolutionary photocatalyst is huge news for green hydrogen and ammonia​

A fundamental breakthrough in chemistry promises to unlock ammonia as a clean fuel, and it could help decarbonize the entire chemical industry in the process. Rice University researchers have created a small, LED-powered device that converts ammonia to hydrogen on the fly. It uses a light-driven catalyst that's as efficient as expensive thermal catalysts that need thousand-degree temperatures to operate, and it's made from cheap, abundant copper and iron. And it's only the beginning of a technology that could radically reduce costs and energy use in industrial chemistry.

https://newatlas.com/energy/light-c..._term=0_65b67362bd-016f7bfa99-[LIST_EMAIL_ID]

 

[Cannuck]

They'll soon be mining dark matter in order to expand the negative energy field to slipstream a worm-hole...

 

[Cal2]

Henry Ford was surely a man ahead of his time

Another ahead of his time:

3D Printed Houses Are Much, Much Older Than You Think​

Particularly in the last several years, 3D printed houses have become increasingly prevalent, but the technology may be much older than you might have thought. The seeds for the concept actually date back to William E. Urschel’s “Wall Building Machine” in 1941. Although the machine was not completely automated, the progenitor resembles bears a striking resemblance to many construction 3D printing systems we know today.

https://3dprint.com/296046/3d-printed-houses-are-much-much-older-than-you-think/

 

[Cal2]

US developer Reinhabit has chosen start-up Azure Printed Homes to print 10 plastic dwellings in three sites in southern California, 3D Printing Media Network reports.​

Culver City-based Azure’s printing system uses recycled plastic to create “modern accessory dwelling units” and “backyard studios”.
It says it can build the structures 70% faster and 30% cheaper than is possible with traditional methods.
The 10 build-to-rent homes will be a mix of Azure’s models, the smallest of which is a $44,000, 17-sq-m mini-house, and the largest a $205,000, 84-sq-m two-bedroom home.
Azure says it can print the roof, floor and two walls in a day. Another day is required to fit wiring and pipes, after which the other walls are created from panels, complete with doors and windows.

100,000 water bottles
A 180-square-foot unit uses the equivalent of around 100,000 recycled water bottles for its material.

https://www.globalconstructionrevie...Reinhabit has chosen,” and “backyard studios”.

 

[Cal2]

For anyone wanting to get into plastic recycling using 3d printing:

Machine Recycles Plastic Bottles into 3D Printer Filament–And the Design was Released, Instead of Patented​

The Polyformer machine can convert a standard 500ml plastic bottle (1/2 quart size) into 3/4 ounce of print filament (20 grams).

Another fantastic part of this story is the fact that Polyformer’s design itself is an open-source project. Instead of applying for a patent, Cheng and Owais released all the CAD, code, and building instructions, offering it to the public on the team’s discord website, so anyone can put it together.

https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/mac...-the-design-was-released-instead-of-patented/

 

[Alop]

 

[koolishman]

Build a kill switch into it.

 

[koolishman]

Researchers Managed to Transfer Twice the Global Internet Traffic in a Single Second​

Six months after researchers from Japan’s National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) set a new data transfer record of 1.02 petabits per second, a team of researchers from the Technical University of Denmark and Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden has shattered that record, hitting 1.84 Pbit/s with a new chip that uses just a single laser. That’s the equivalent of moving “twice the total global Internet traffic,” all in one second.

 

[koolishman]

Satellite Image Shows Saudi Arabia's Sci-Fi Megacity 'The Line' Is Actually Being Built​

Saudi Arabia’s bizarre new megacity, “The Line,” is going full steam ahead. While construction began on the project in October, new satellite images have revealed how much ground the project has covered, the scale of the city’s length, and the layout of its construction site.

 

[koolishman]

Base editing: Revolutionary therapy clears girl's incurable cancer​

A teenage girl's incurable cancer has been cleared from her body in the first use of a revolutionary new type of medicine.

All other treatments for Alyssa's leukaemia had failed.

So doctors at Great Ormond Street Hospital used "base editing" to perform a feat of biological engineering to build her a new living drug.

Six months later the cancer is undetectable, but Alyssa is still being monitored in case it comes back.

 

[koolishman]

China bans AI-generated media without watermarks​

China's Cyberspace Administration recently issued regulations prohibiting the creation of AI-generated media without clear labels, such as watermarks—among other policies—reports The Register. The new rules come as part of China's evolving response to the generative AI trend that has swept the tech world in 2022, and they will take effect on January 10, 2023.