Science stories of the week: Feb. 10, 2017
Slide show:
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/science/s ... t3Y#page=4
Highlight:
Amazon rainforest is home to mysterious earthworks
Several ancient earthworks, known by archaeologists as geoglyphs (representative image), have been uncovered in the Amazon rainforest through flying drones over the last one year by scientists from the UK and Brazil. The enclosures, similar to those at Stonehenge, are in the Acre state of the western Brazilian Amazon.
Concealed by trees for centuries, about 450 of these earthworks have emerged due to deforestation. While the function of the structures is yet to be discovered, the findings show for the first time how prehistoric settlers in Brazil cleared wooded areas to build such enclosures. The discovery also challenges the assumption that the rainforest had previously been untouched by humans. The researchers reconstructed 6,000 years of vegetation and fire history around two of the sites and found that bamboo forests were heavily altered by humans for many years and temporary clearings were made for the geoglyphs.
Dr. Jennifer Watling, post-doctoral researcher at the Museum of Archaeology and Ethnography, University of São Paulo, who led the team, remarked, “Our evidence that Amazonian forests have been managed by indigenous peoples long before European contact should not be cited as justification for the destructive, unsustainable land-use practiced today. It should instead serve to highlight the ingenuity of past subsistence regimes that did not lead to forest degradation, and the importance of indigenous knowledge for finding more sustainable land-use alternatives.”
Articles of Interest in Science
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Science stories of the week ending Feb. 18, 2017
Slide show:
https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/science/ ... Cvu#page=1
Highlight:
PAL-V International B.V., a Dutch car manufacturer has put its roadable aircraft PAL-V ONE up for bookings, starting from Feb. 13.
The PAL-V, or Personal Air and Land Vehicle, is a three-wheeled gyrocopter which uses a foldable pusher propeller and free-spinning rotor to lift the vehicle off the ground. It takes about 10 minutes for the car to be converted into a copter.
The two-seater vehicle comes in two models – a $599,000 Pal-V Liberty Pioneer edition and a $399,000 PAL-V Liberty Sport edition.
While the Liberty Sport is the standard version of the car, the Pioneer edition will come with unique interior and exterior finishing and many personalized features reserved for Pioneer Edition owners only. The latter will be delivered sometime in 2018, followed by the Sport edition.
Slide show:
https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/science/ ... Cvu#page=1
Highlight:
PAL-V International B.V., a Dutch car manufacturer has put its roadable aircraft PAL-V ONE up for bookings, starting from Feb. 13.
The PAL-V, or Personal Air and Land Vehicle, is a three-wheeled gyrocopter which uses a foldable pusher propeller and free-spinning rotor to lift the vehicle off the ground. It takes about 10 minutes for the car to be converted into a copter.
The two-seater vehicle comes in two models – a $599,000 Pal-V Liberty Pioneer edition and a $399,000 PAL-V Liberty Sport edition.
While the Liberty Sport is the standard version of the car, the Pioneer edition will come with unique interior and exterior finishing and many personalized features reserved for Pioneer Edition owners only. The latter will be delivered sometime in 2018, followed by the Sport edition.
Science stories of the week ending Feb. 25, 2017
Slide show:
https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/world/sc ... x5#image=7
Highlight:
Study shows ferocious predators responsible for plants
A new study published in the journal Ecosphere from the University of Alberta has revealed that some of the world's most ferocious predators are also responsible for spreading and germinating plant seeds on the forest floor. The process is called Diploendozoochory.
Imagine when a bird eats a wild chokecherry, then gets killed and eaten by a fox. That fox will carry inside its belly, the bird and thus the contents of the bird's stomach. Eventually the seed is dropped in the forest in the form of fox scat, far from the tree it came from.
Researchers say the fact the seeds get some wear and tear inside the guts of various animals may actually make them better able to germinate and flourish. In fact, researchers suggested it's possible some plants may have evolved specifically to "take advantage of these predator-specific behaviours."
*****
Science stories of the week: March 3, 2017
Slide show:
https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/science/ ... iV7#page=2
Highlight:
A new study has found that wild African elephants sleep for the shortest duration when compared to other mammals. After tracking the natural sleep patterns of two female elephants in Botswana, scientists discovered that they rested for only about two hours, mainly during the night.
While their counterparts in zoos are known to sleep for six to seven hours per day, their resting period is much shorter in natural surroundings. Sometimes, the two matriarchs stayed awake for days on end, traveling long distances in an effort to stay away from lions and poachers.
Prof Paul Manger, of the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, remarked, “Elephants are the shortest sleeping mammal - that seems to be related to their large body size. It seems like elephants only dream every three to four days. Given the well-known memory of the elephant this calls into question theories associating REM sleep with memory consolidation.”
Slide show:
https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/world/sc ... x5#image=7
Highlight:
Study shows ferocious predators responsible for plants
A new study published in the journal Ecosphere from the University of Alberta has revealed that some of the world's most ferocious predators are also responsible for spreading and germinating plant seeds on the forest floor. The process is called Diploendozoochory.
Imagine when a bird eats a wild chokecherry, then gets killed and eaten by a fox. That fox will carry inside its belly, the bird and thus the contents of the bird's stomach. Eventually the seed is dropped in the forest in the form of fox scat, far from the tree it came from.
Researchers say the fact the seeds get some wear and tear inside the guts of various animals may actually make them better able to germinate and flourish. In fact, researchers suggested it's possible some plants may have evolved specifically to "take advantage of these predator-specific behaviours."
*****
Science stories of the week: March 3, 2017
Slide show:
https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/science/ ... iV7#page=2
Highlight:
A new study has found that wild African elephants sleep for the shortest duration when compared to other mammals. After tracking the natural sleep patterns of two female elephants in Botswana, scientists discovered that they rested for only about two hours, mainly during the night.
While their counterparts in zoos are known to sleep for six to seven hours per day, their resting period is much shorter in natural surroundings. Sometimes, the two matriarchs stayed awake for days on end, traveling long distances in an effort to stay away from lions and poachers.
Prof Paul Manger, of the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, remarked, “Elephants are the shortest sleeping mammal - that seems to be related to their large body size. It seems like elephants only dream every three to four days. Given the well-known memory of the elephant this calls into question theories associating REM sleep with memory consolidation.”
Subatomic opportunities
Quantum leaps
The strangeness of the quantum realm opens up exciting new technological possibilities
A BATHING cap that can watch individual neurons, allowing others to monitor the wearer’s mind. A sensor that can spot hidden nuclear submarines. A computer that can discover new drugs, revolutionise securities trading and design new materials. A global network of communication links whose security is underwritten by unbreakable physical laws. Such—and more—is the promise of quantum technology.
All this potential arises from improvements in scientists’ ability to trap, poke and prod single atoms and wispy particles of light called photons. Today’s computer chips get cheaper and faster as their features get smaller, but quantum mechanics says that at tiny enough scales, particles sail through solids, short-circuiting the chip’s innards. Quantum technologies come at the problem from the other direction. Rather than scale devices down, quantum technologies employ the unusual behaviours of single atoms and particles and scale them up. Like computerisation before it, this unlocks a world of possibilities, with applications in nearly every existing industry—and the potential to spark entirely new ones.
More...
http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/2 ... /9090233/n
*******
IBM has figured out how to store data on a single atom
Big things really can come in small packages.
IBM announced it has managed to successfully store data on a single atom for the first time. The research, carried out at the computing giant’s Almaden lab in Silicon Valley, was published in the scientific journal Nature March 8, and could have massive implications for the way we’ll store digital information in the future.
More...
https://qz.com/927923/ibm-has-figured-o ... ngle-atom/
*******
Scientists Identify First Sign Of Alzheimer's Disease
Memory loss and cognitive decline are commonly thought to be the earliest signs of the neurodegenerative disorder Alzheimer's, but a new study has found declines in glucose levels in the brain come even sooner — before the first symptoms appear. Even better? The same team also believes they have figured out a way to stop these levels from falling in the first place, a finding that could potentially prevent Alzheimer's.
Although doctors have long noted the association between declining glucose levels in the brain and the onset of Alzheimer’s disease, for the first time ever, a study now published online in the journal Translational Psychiatry has proved that these declining energy levels are a direct trigger for the cognitive impairments traditionally associated with the disease. According to a recent statement on the study, this may explain why diabetes, a condition in which glucose cannot enter the cells, is a known risk factor for dementia. According to the study, a protein known as p38 may be able to prevent this deprivation from occurring.
More...
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/health/medical ... ailsignout
Quantum leaps
The strangeness of the quantum realm opens up exciting new technological possibilities
A BATHING cap that can watch individual neurons, allowing others to monitor the wearer’s mind. A sensor that can spot hidden nuclear submarines. A computer that can discover new drugs, revolutionise securities trading and design new materials. A global network of communication links whose security is underwritten by unbreakable physical laws. Such—and more—is the promise of quantum technology.
All this potential arises from improvements in scientists’ ability to trap, poke and prod single atoms and wispy particles of light called photons. Today’s computer chips get cheaper and faster as their features get smaller, but quantum mechanics says that at tiny enough scales, particles sail through solids, short-circuiting the chip’s innards. Quantum technologies come at the problem from the other direction. Rather than scale devices down, quantum technologies employ the unusual behaviours of single atoms and particles and scale them up. Like computerisation before it, this unlocks a world of possibilities, with applications in nearly every existing industry—and the potential to spark entirely new ones.
More...
http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/2 ... /9090233/n
*******
IBM has figured out how to store data on a single atom
Big things really can come in small packages.
IBM announced it has managed to successfully store data on a single atom for the first time. The research, carried out at the computing giant’s Almaden lab in Silicon Valley, was published in the scientific journal Nature March 8, and could have massive implications for the way we’ll store digital information in the future.
More...
https://qz.com/927923/ibm-has-figured-o ... ngle-atom/
*******
Scientists Identify First Sign Of Alzheimer's Disease
Memory loss and cognitive decline are commonly thought to be the earliest signs of the neurodegenerative disorder Alzheimer's, but a new study has found declines in glucose levels in the brain come even sooner — before the first symptoms appear. Even better? The same team also believes they have figured out a way to stop these levels from falling in the first place, a finding that could potentially prevent Alzheimer's.
Although doctors have long noted the association between declining glucose levels in the brain and the onset of Alzheimer’s disease, for the first time ever, a study now published online in the journal Translational Psychiatry has proved that these declining energy levels are a direct trigger for the cognitive impairments traditionally associated with the disease. According to a recent statement on the study, this may explain why diabetes, a condition in which glucose cannot enter the cells, is a known risk factor for dementia. According to the study, a protein known as p38 may be able to prevent this deprivation from occurring.
More...
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/health/medical ... ailsignout
The findings of medical research are disseminated too slowly
That is about to change
ON JANUARY 1st the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation did something that may help to change the practice of science. It brought into force a policy, foreshadowed two years earlier, that research it supports (it is the world’s biggest source of charitable money for scientific endeavours, to the tune of some $4bn a year) must, when published, be freely available to all. On March 23rd it followed this up by announcing that it will pay the cost of putting such research in one particular repository of freely available papers.
To a layman, this may sound neither controversial nor ground-breaking. But the crucial word is “freely”. It means papers reporting Gates-sponsored research cannot be charged for. No pay walls. No journal subscriptions. That is not a new idea, but the foundation’s announcement gives it teeth. It means recipients of Gates’ largesse can no longer offer their wares to journals such as Nature, the New England Journal of Medicine or the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, since reading the contents of these publications costs money.
More...
http://www.economist.com/news/science-a ... /9217796/n[/i]
That is about to change
ON JANUARY 1st the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation did something that may help to change the practice of science. It brought into force a policy, foreshadowed two years earlier, that research it supports (it is the world’s biggest source of charitable money for scientific endeavours, to the tune of some $4bn a year) must, when published, be freely available to all. On March 23rd it followed this up by announcing that it will pay the cost of putting such research in one particular repository of freely available papers.
To a layman, this may sound neither controversial nor ground-breaking. But the crucial word is “freely”. It means papers reporting Gates-sponsored research cannot be charged for. No pay walls. No journal subscriptions. That is not a new idea, but the foundation’s announcement gives it teeth. It means recipients of Gates’ largesse can no longer offer their wares to journals such as Nature, the New England Journal of Medicine or the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, since reading the contents of these publications costs money.
More...
http://www.economist.com/news/science-a ... /9217796/n[/i]
Science stories of the week: March 24, 2017
Slide show:
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/science/s ... out#page=6
Highlight:
German scientists develop light system that can produce the power of 10,000 suns
Developed by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in the city of Cologne, the Synlight system has the power to generate energy equal to the radiation of 10,000 suns and focus it on a single spot.
Assembling an array of 149 xenon short-arc lamps, the impressive light system is hoped to be used to generate environmentally-friendly fuel. According to DLR director Bernhard Hoffschmidt, the honeycomb-shaped setup can easily create temperatures as high as 5,432 degrees Fahrenheit (3,000 degrees Celsius).
The huge system measures 45 feet (14 meters) in height by 52 feet (16 meters) in width. The researchers believe that the Synlight can be used to test new ways to force elements like hydrogen into existence. Since hydrogen fuel doesn’t produce carbon emission upon combustion, it won’t contribute to global warming.
Science stories of the week: March 10, 2017
Slide show:
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/science/s ... Nb9#page=2
Highlight
Robot lawyer app gives free legal advice to refugees
A chatbot app, DoNotPay, that helped people overturn traffic violation tickets, has been reprogrammed to help asylum seekers complete immigration applications to maximize their chances of getting accepted.
The lawyer bot was developed by 20-year-old Joshua Browder, a British student at Stanford University in California, U.S., and launched in March 2016. He expanded it with the help of lawyers from the U.S., UK and Canada.
The app can be accessed on Facebook Messenger through texts or vocal commands. As to how it works, Browder said, "Once it knows a user can claim asylum, it takes down hundreds of details and automatically fills in a completed immigration application. Crucially, all the questions that the bot asks are in plain English and artificial intelligence generated feedback appears during the conversation.”
Slide show:
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/science/s ... out#page=6
Highlight:
German scientists develop light system that can produce the power of 10,000 suns
Developed by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in the city of Cologne, the Synlight system has the power to generate energy equal to the radiation of 10,000 suns and focus it on a single spot.
Assembling an array of 149 xenon short-arc lamps, the impressive light system is hoped to be used to generate environmentally-friendly fuel. According to DLR director Bernhard Hoffschmidt, the honeycomb-shaped setup can easily create temperatures as high as 5,432 degrees Fahrenheit (3,000 degrees Celsius).
The huge system measures 45 feet (14 meters) in height by 52 feet (16 meters) in width. The researchers believe that the Synlight can be used to test new ways to force elements like hydrogen into existence. Since hydrogen fuel doesn’t produce carbon emission upon combustion, it won’t contribute to global warming.
Science stories of the week: March 10, 2017
Slide show:
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/science/s ... Nb9#page=2
Highlight
Robot lawyer app gives free legal advice to refugees
A chatbot app, DoNotPay, that helped people overturn traffic violation tickets, has been reprogrammed to help asylum seekers complete immigration applications to maximize their chances of getting accepted.
The lawyer bot was developed by 20-year-old Joshua Browder, a British student at Stanford University in California, U.S., and launched in March 2016. He expanded it with the help of lawyers from the U.S., UK and Canada.
The app can be accessed on Facebook Messenger through texts or vocal commands. As to how it works, Browder said, "Once it knows a user can claim asylum, it takes down hundreds of details and automatically fills in a completed immigration application. Crucially, all the questions that the bot asks are in plain English and artificial intelligence generated feedback appears during the conversation.”
Science stories of the week ending April 2, 2017
Slide show:
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/science/s ... Nb9#page=1
Highlight
The American aerospace company created history as they launched a used Falcon rocket Thursday.
SpaceX has changed the way space rockets are used. Generally, the rockets are meant for one time use only. After a satellite payload is released into orbit, the various parts of the vehicle are rejected as waste. However, SpaceX has made several launches in the past where they managed to safely bring the rocket back to Earth after the payload is released.
The spacecraft, named SES-10, carried an array of TV and telecom satellites owned by Luxembourg- based communication satellite operator Société Européenne des Satellites (SES).
The “first stage” of SES-10, which helps carry the satellites into space, was previously used in a launch 11 months ago to deliver cargo to the space station.
Martin Halliwell, the technical officer of SES, said, “This is not just an issue about money. Will re-usability lead to cheaper prices? I hope so, but for us it's also about having a route to space. We've been waiting for six months now to fly SES-10, and that's because there was no other alternative opportunity. If we can start getting the rocket companies looking toward re-usability and going down this path, we should have much more flexibility in being able to launch our various different missions.”
SES plans to put up 10 satellites in a year.
******
NASA's $1 billion Jupiter probe just sent back breathtaking new images of the gas giant
A probe the size of a basketball court has taken unprecedented new images of Jupiter.
NASA's $1 billion Juno spacecraft, launched in August 2011, took five years to reach and settle into orbit around the gas giant, which is more than 415 million miles from Earth.
The probe has so far photographed Jupiter's poles for the first time, detected bizarre cloud formations, recorded mysterious auroras, and scanned deep into the planet's thick cloud tops.
Juno repeatedly swings by Jupiter in a wide arc to minimize time inside the planet's intense radiation belts, which can damage sensitive electronics.
More...
http://uk.businessinsider.com/new-jupit ... uno-2017-3
Slide show:
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/science/s ... Nb9#page=1
Highlight
The American aerospace company created history as they launched a used Falcon rocket Thursday.
SpaceX has changed the way space rockets are used. Generally, the rockets are meant for one time use only. After a satellite payload is released into orbit, the various parts of the vehicle are rejected as waste. However, SpaceX has made several launches in the past where they managed to safely bring the rocket back to Earth after the payload is released.
The spacecraft, named SES-10, carried an array of TV and telecom satellites owned by Luxembourg- based communication satellite operator Société Européenne des Satellites (SES).
The “first stage” of SES-10, which helps carry the satellites into space, was previously used in a launch 11 months ago to deliver cargo to the space station.
Martin Halliwell, the technical officer of SES, said, “This is not just an issue about money. Will re-usability lead to cheaper prices? I hope so, but for us it's also about having a route to space. We've been waiting for six months now to fly SES-10, and that's because there was no other alternative opportunity. If we can start getting the rocket companies looking toward re-usability and going down this path, we should have much more flexibility in being able to launch our various different missions.”
SES plans to put up 10 satellites in a year.
******
NASA's $1 billion Jupiter probe just sent back breathtaking new images of the gas giant
A probe the size of a basketball court has taken unprecedented new images of Jupiter.
NASA's $1 billion Juno spacecraft, launched in August 2011, took five years to reach and settle into orbit around the gas giant, which is more than 415 million miles from Earth.
The probe has so far photographed Jupiter's poles for the first time, detected bizarre cloud formations, recorded mysterious auroras, and scanned deep into the planet's thick cloud tops.
Juno repeatedly swings by Jupiter in a wide arc to minimize time inside the planet's intense radiation belts, which can damage sensitive electronics.
More...
http://uk.businessinsider.com/new-jupit ... uno-2017-3
Science stories of the week: April 8, 2017
Slide show:
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/world/sci ... ehp#page=4
Highlights:
Doctor transplants ear grown from a patient’s forearm
A patient named Ji, who lost his ear in an accident received an artificial one in China. Plastic surgeon Dr. Guo Shuzhong grew the artificial ear on the patient’s arm using 3D-printing technology.
The ear was made using part of Ji's rib cartilage and connected to his forearm under a piece of expanded skin. It was then allowed to grow for months before doctors deemed it fit for transplant.
Dr. Shuzhong successfully initiated blood flow to the ear and attached it to Ji’s head during a seven-hour-long surgery.
Slide show:
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/world/sci ... ehp#page=4
Highlights:
Doctor transplants ear grown from a patient’s forearm
A patient named Ji, who lost his ear in an accident received an artificial one in China. Plastic surgeon Dr. Guo Shuzhong grew the artificial ear on the patient’s arm using 3D-printing technology.
The ear was made using part of Ji's rib cartilage and connected to his forearm under a piece of expanded skin. It was then allowed to grow for months before doctors deemed it fit for transplant.
Dr. Shuzhong successfully initiated blood flow to the ear and attached it to Ji’s head during a seven-hour-long surgery.
Opening a New Window into the Universe
New technology could bring new insights into the nature of black holes, dark matter, and extrasolar planets.
By Andrea Ghez
Earthbound telescopes see stars and other astronomical objects through a haze. The light waves they gather have traveled unimpeded through space for billions of years, only to be distorted in the last millisecond by the Earth’s turbulent atmosphere. That distortion is now even more important, because scientists are preparing to build the three largest telescopes on Earth, each with light-gathering surfaces of 20 to 40 meters across. In principle, the larger the telescope, the higher the resolution of astronomical images. In practice, the distorting veil of the atmosphere has always limited what can be achieved. Now, a rapidly evolving technology known as adaptive optics can strip away the veil and enable astronomers to take full advantage of current and future large telescopes. Indeed, adaptive optics is already making possible important discoveries and observations, including: the discovery of the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy, proving that such exotic objects exist; the first images and spectra of planetary systems around other stars; and high-resolution observations of galaxies forming in the early universe.
More..
http://alliance.nautil.us/article/199/o ... e-universe
*******
Video Games Help Model Brain’s Neurons
SEATTLE — Zoran Popović knows a thing or two about video games. A computer science professor at the University of Washington, Dr. Popović has worked on software algorithms that make computer-controlled characters move realistically in games like the science-fiction shooter “Destiny.”
But while those games are entertainment designed to grab players by their adrenal glands, Dr. Popović’s latest creation asks players to trace lines over fuzzy images with a computer mouse. It has a slow pace with dreamy music that sounds like the ambient soundtrack inside a New Age bookstore.
The point? To advance neuroscience.
Since November, thousands of people have played the game, “Mozak,” which uses common tricks of the medium — points, leveling up and leader boards that publicly rank the performance of players — to crowdsource the creation of three-dimensional models of neurons.
The Center for Game Science, a group at the University of Washington that Dr. Popović oversees, developed the game in collaboration with the Allen Institute for Brain Science, a nonprofit research organization founded by Paul Allen, the billionaire co-founder of Microsoft, that is seeking a better understanding of the brain. Dr. Popović had previously received wide attention in the scientific community for a puzzle game called “Foldit,” released nearly a decade ago, that harnesses the skills of players to solve riddles about the structure of proteins.
The Allen Institute’s goal of cataloging the structure of neurons, the cells that transmit information throughout the nervous system, could one day help researchers understand the roots of neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s and their treatment. Neurons come in devilishly complex shapes and staggering quantities — about 100 million and 87 billion in mouse and human brains, both of which players can work on in Mozak.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/24/scie ... &te=1&_r=0
********
Plastic waste: Moth-eaten
Scientists have discovered that the larvae of the greater wax moth, a well-known pest of beehives, are capable of eating through plastic bags. In a study published on Monday, they raise hopes that the caterpillars may be put to use as garbage-disposal agents to tackle the world’s surplus plastic. It is not yet clear if wax-moth larvae will really be able to save the planet. But if they are not the answer, some other animal out there might be
More...
http://www.economist.com/news/science-a ... lydispatch
New technology could bring new insights into the nature of black holes, dark matter, and extrasolar planets.
By Andrea Ghez
Earthbound telescopes see stars and other astronomical objects through a haze. The light waves they gather have traveled unimpeded through space for billions of years, only to be distorted in the last millisecond by the Earth’s turbulent atmosphere. That distortion is now even more important, because scientists are preparing to build the three largest telescopes on Earth, each with light-gathering surfaces of 20 to 40 meters across. In principle, the larger the telescope, the higher the resolution of astronomical images. In practice, the distorting veil of the atmosphere has always limited what can be achieved. Now, a rapidly evolving technology known as adaptive optics can strip away the veil and enable astronomers to take full advantage of current and future large telescopes. Indeed, adaptive optics is already making possible important discoveries and observations, including: the discovery of the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy, proving that such exotic objects exist; the first images and spectra of planetary systems around other stars; and high-resolution observations of galaxies forming in the early universe.
More..
http://alliance.nautil.us/article/199/o ... e-universe
*******
Video Games Help Model Brain’s Neurons
SEATTLE — Zoran Popović knows a thing or two about video games. A computer science professor at the University of Washington, Dr. Popović has worked on software algorithms that make computer-controlled characters move realistically in games like the science-fiction shooter “Destiny.”
But while those games are entertainment designed to grab players by their adrenal glands, Dr. Popović’s latest creation asks players to trace lines over fuzzy images with a computer mouse. It has a slow pace with dreamy music that sounds like the ambient soundtrack inside a New Age bookstore.
The point? To advance neuroscience.
Since November, thousands of people have played the game, “Mozak,” which uses common tricks of the medium — points, leveling up and leader boards that publicly rank the performance of players — to crowdsource the creation of three-dimensional models of neurons.
The Center for Game Science, a group at the University of Washington that Dr. Popović oversees, developed the game in collaboration with the Allen Institute for Brain Science, a nonprofit research organization founded by Paul Allen, the billionaire co-founder of Microsoft, that is seeking a better understanding of the brain. Dr. Popović had previously received wide attention in the scientific community for a puzzle game called “Foldit,” released nearly a decade ago, that harnesses the skills of players to solve riddles about the structure of proteins.
The Allen Institute’s goal of cataloging the structure of neurons, the cells that transmit information throughout the nervous system, could one day help researchers understand the roots of neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s and their treatment. Neurons come in devilishly complex shapes and staggering quantities — about 100 million and 87 billion in mouse and human brains, both of which players can work on in Mozak.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/24/scie ... &te=1&_r=0
********
Plastic waste: Moth-eaten
Scientists have discovered that the larvae of the greater wax moth, a well-known pest of beehives, are capable of eating through plastic bags. In a study published on Monday, they raise hopes that the caterpillars may be put to use as garbage-disposal agents to tackle the world’s surplus plastic. It is not yet clear if wax-moth larvae will really be able to save the planet. But if they are not the answer, some other animal out there might be
More...
http://www.economist.com/news/science-a ... lydispatch
Mesmerizing images of galaxies taken by Hubble Telescope
Launched into low Earth orbit in 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope has been diligently sending back pictures from space for the last 27 years. Here's a look some images of various galaxies taken by the iconic telescope. (Pictured) The Sombrero Galaxy, also known as Messier 104 (M104).
Slide show:
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/photos/me ... ut#image=1
Launched into low Earth orbit in 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope has been diligently sending back pictures from space for the last 27 years. Here's a look some images of various galaxies taken by the iconic telescope. (Pictured) The Sombrero Galaxy, also known as Messier 104 (M104).
Slide show:
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/photos/me ... ut#image=1
A Light for Science, and Cooperation, in the Middle East
In what they hope will be a spark of light in years of darkness, a group of scientists circulated a beam of electrons around a ring in Allan, Jordan, in January.
The group, called Sesame, is made up of physicists from several countries that rarely talk to one another — Cyprus, Egypt, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Turkey and Pakistan — and also from the Palestinian Authority, but whose scientists are determined to collaborate.
Chosen for its resonance in the region’s culture, the name Sesame now works as an acronym for Synchrotron-light for Experimental Science and Applications in the Middle East. The Sesame institute is set to open its doors on May 16, in a ceremony to be attended by King Abdullah II of Jordan.
The heart of the new institute will be a kind of particle accelerator known as a synchrotron, speeding electrons around. The goal is not to collide the electrons or anything else in search of new forces or particles of nature, as at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider where the famous, or infamous, Higgs boson was found five years ago. Rather, the goal is to make them dance and emit powerful beams of radiation — so-called synchrotron light — that can be used to study the properties of materials ranging from exotic semiconductors to viruses.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/08/scie ... dline&te=1
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Why Everything We Know About Salt May Be Wrong
The salt equation taught to doctors for more than 200 years is not hard to understand.
The body relies on this essential mineral for a variety of functions, including blood pressure and the transmission of nerve impulses. Sodium levels in the blood must be carefully maintained.
If you eat a lot of salt — sodium chloride — you will become thirsty and drink water, diluting your blood enough to maintain the proper concentration of sodium. Ultimately you will excrete much of the excess salt and water in urine.
The theory is intuitive and simple. And it may be completely wrong.
New studies of Russian cosmonauts, held in isolation to simulate space travel, show that eating more salt made them less thirsty but somehow hungrier. Subsequent experiments found that mice burned more calories when they got more salt, eating 25 percent more just to maintain their weight.
The research, published recently in two dense papers in The Journal of Clinical Investigation, contradicts much of the conventional wisdom about how the body handles salt and suggests that high levels may play a role in weight loss.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/08/heal ... &te=1&_r=0
******
CERN launches new accelerator to help boost data output
GENEVA - Scientists at the world's biggest atom smasher have inaugurated their newest particle accelerator, a key step toward churning out greater amounts of data that could help explain many lingering mysteries of the universe.
The European Organization for Nuclear Research, or CERN, announced Tuesday the completion of Linac 4, a 90-meter-long (295-foot-long) underground machine that took nearly a decade to build and will deliver proton beams for many experiments.
Linac 4 is CERN's largest accelerator developed since the 2008 startup of the Large Hadron Collider that helped confirm the Higgs boson particle five years ago.
More...
http://www.ctvnews.ca/mobile/sci-tech/c ... -1.3404870[/b]
In what they hope will be a spark of light in years of darkness, a group of scientists circulated a beam of electrons around a ring in Allan, Jordan, in January.
The group, called Sesame, is made up of physicists from several countries that rarely talk to one another — Cyprus, Egypt, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Turkey and Pakistan — and also from the Palestinian Authority, but whose scientists are determined to collaborate.
Chosen for its resonance in the region’s culture, the name Sesame now works as an acronym for Synchrotron-light for Experimental Science and Applications in the Middle East. The Sesame institute is set to open its doors on May 16, in a ceremony to be attended by King Abdullah II of Jordan.
The heart of the new institute will be a kind of particle accelerator known as a synchrotron, speeding electrons around. The goal is not to collide the electrons or anything else in search of new forces or particles of nature, as at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider where the famous, or infamous, Higgs boson was found five years ago. Rather, the goal is to make them dance and emit powerful beams of radiation — so-called synchrotron light — that can be used to study the properties of materials ranging from exotic semiconductors to viruses.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/08/scie ... dline&te=1
******
Why Everything We Know About Salt May Be Wrong
The salt equation taught to doctors for more than 200 years is not hard to understand.
The body relies on this essential mineral for a variety of functions, including blood pressure and the transmission of nerve impulses. Sodium levels in the blood must be carefully maintained.
If you eat a lot of salt — sodium chloride — you will become thirsty and drink water, diluting your blood enough to maintain the proper concentration of sodium. Ultimately you will excrete much of the excess salt and water in urine.
The theory is intuitive and simple. And it may be completely wrong.
New studies of Russian cosmonauts, held in isolation to simulate space travel, show that eating more salt made them less thirsty but somehow hungrier. Subsequent experiments found that mice burned more calories when they got more salt, eating 25 percent more just to maintain their weight.
The research, published recently in two dense papers in The Journal of Clinical Investigation, contradicts much of the conventional wisdom about how the body handles salt and suggests that high levels may play a role in weight loss.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/08/heal ... &te=1&_r=0
******
CERN launches new accelerator to help boost data output
GENEVA - Scientists at the world's biggest atom smasher have inaugurated their newest particle accelerator, a key step toward churning out greater amounts of data that could help explain many lingering mysteries of the universe.
The European Organization for Nuclear Research, or CERN, announced Tuesday the completion of Linac 4, a 90-meter-long (295-foot-long) underground machine that took nearly a decade to build and will deliver proton beams for many experiments.
Linac 4 is CERN's largest accelerator developed since the 2008 startup of the Large Hadron Collider that helped confirm the Higgs boson particle five years ago.
More...
http://www.ctvnews.ca/mobile/sci-tech/c ... -1.3404870[/b]
NASA telescope finds 10 more planets that could have life
WASHINGTON -- NASA's planet-hunting telescope has found 10 new planets outside our solar system that are likely the right size and temperature to potentially have life on them, broadly hinting that we are probably not alone.
After four years of searching, the Kepler telescope has detected a total of 49 planets in the Goldilocks zone. And it only looked in a tiny part of the galaxy, one quarter of one per cent of a galaxy that holds about 200 billion of stars.
Seven of the 10 newfound Earth-size planets circle stars that are just like ours, not cool dwarf ones that require a planet be quite close to its star for the right temperature. That doesn't mean the planets have life, but some of the most basic requirements that life needs are there, upping the chances for life.
"Are we alone? Maybe Kepler today has told us indirectly, although we need confirmation, that we are probably not alone," Kepler scientist Mario Perez said in a Monday news conference.
Outside scientists agreed that this is a boost in the hope for life elsewhere.
"It implies that Earth-size planets in the habitable zone around sun-like stars are not rare," Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb, who was not part of the work, said in an email.
The 10 Goldilocks planets are part of 219 new candidate planets that NASA announced Monday as part of the final batch of planets discovered in the main mission since the telescope was launched in 2009. It was designed to survey part of the galaxy to see how frequent planets are and how frequent Earth-size and potentially habitable planets are. Kepler's main mission ended in 2013 after the failure of two of its four wheels that control its orientation in space.
More...
http://www.ctvnews.ca/mobile/sci-tech/n ... -1.3466247
WASHINGTON -- NASA's planet-hunting telescope has found 10 new planets outside our solar system that are likely the right size and temperature to potentially have life on them, broadly hinting that we are probably not alone.
After four years of searching, the Kepler telescope has detected a total of 49 planets in the Goldilocks zone. And it only looked in a tiny part of the galaxy, one quarter of one per cent of a galaxy that holds about 200 billion of stars.
Seven of the 10 newfound Earth-size planets circle stars that are just like ours, not cool dwarf ones that require a planet be quite close to its star for the right temperature. That doesn't mean the planets have life, but some of the most basic requirements that life needs are there, upping the chances for life.
"Are we alone? Maybe Kepler today has told us indirectly, although we need confirmation, that we are probably not alone," Kepler scientist Mario Perez said in a Monday news conference.
Outside scientists agreed that this is a boost in the hope for life elsewhere.
"It implies that Earth-size planets in the habitable zone around sun-like stars are not rare," Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb, who was not part of the work, said in an email.
The 10 Goldilocks planets are part of 219 new candidate planets that NASA announced Monday as part of the final batch of planets discovered in the main mission since the telescope was launched in 2009. It was designed to survey part of the galaxy to see how frequent planets are and how frequent Earth-size and potentially habitable planets are. Kepler's main mission ended in 2013 after the failure of two of its four wheels that control its orientation in space.
More...
http://www.ctvnews.ca/mobile/sci-tech/n ... -1.3466247
Yearning for New Physics at CERN, in a Post-Higgs Way
Physicists monitoring the Large Hadron Collider are seeking clues to a theory that will answer deeper questions about the cosmos. But the silence from the frontier has been ominous.
MEYRIN, Switzerland — The world’s biggest and most expensive time machine is running again.
Underneath the fields and shopping centers on the French-Swiss border outside Geneva, in the Large Hadron Collider, the subatomic particles known as protons are zooming around a 17-mile electromagnetic racetrack and banging into one another at the speed of light, recreating conditions of the universe when it was only a trillionth of a second old.
Some 5,000 physicists are back at work here at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, watching their computers sift the debris from primordial collisions in search of new particles and forces of nature, and plan to keep at it for at least the next 20 years.
Science is knocking on heaven’s door, as the Harvard physicist Lisa Randall put it in the title of her recent book about particle physics.
But what if nobody answers? What if there is nothing new to discover? That prospect is now a cloud hanging over the physics community.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/19/scie ... dline&te=1
Physicists monitoring the Large Hadron Collider are seeking clues to a theory that will answer deeper questions about the cosmos. But the silence from the frontier has been ominous.
MEYRIN, Switzerland — The world’s biggest and most expensive time machine is running again.
Underneath the fields and shopping centers on the French-Swiss border outside Geneva, in the Large Hadron Collider, the subatomic particles known as protons are zooming around a 17-mile electromagnetic racetrack and banging into one another at the speed of light, recreating conditions of the universe when it was only a trillionth of a second old.
Some 5,000 physicists are back at work here at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, watching their computers sift the debris from primordial collisions in search of new particles and forces of nature, and plan to keep at it for at least the next 20 years.
Science is knocking on heaven’s door, as the Harvard physicist Lisa Randall put it in the title of her recent book about particle physics.
But what if nobody answers? What if there is nothing new to discover? That prospect is now a cloud hanging over the physics community.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/19/scie ... dline&te=1
Beam me up, Scotty! Scientists teleport photons 300 miles into space
Chinese scientists have teleported an object from Earth to a satellite orbiting 300 miles away in space, in a demonstration that has echoes of science fiction.
The feat sets a new record for quantum teleportation, an eerie phenomenon in which the complete properties of one particle are instantaneously transferred to another – in effect teleporting it to a distant location.
Scientists have hailed the advance as a significant step towards the goal of creating an unhackable quantum internet.
“Space-scale teleportation can be realised and is expected to play a key role in the future distributed quantum internet,” the authors, led by Professor Chao-Yang Lu from the University of Science and Technology of China, wrote in the paper.
More...
https://www.theguardian.com/science/201 ... into-space
Chinese scientists have teleported an object from Earth to a satellite orbiting 300 miles away in space, in a demonstration that has echoes of science fiction.
The feat sets a new record for quantum teleportation, an eerie phenomenon in which the complete properties of one particle are instantaneously transferred to another – in effect teleporting it to a distant location.
Scientists have hailed the advance as a significant step towards the goal of creating an unhackable quantum internet.
“Space-scale teleportation can be realised and is expected to play a key role in the future distributed quantum internet,” the authors, led by Professor Chao-Yang Lu from the University of Science and Technology of China, wrote in the paper.
More...
https://www.theguardian.com/science/201 ... into-space
Companies Rush to Develop ‘Utterly Transformative’ Gene Therapies
The approval of gene therapy for leukemia, expected in the next few months, will open the door to a radically new class of cancer treatments.
Companies and universities are racing to develop these new therapies, which re-engineer and turbocharge millions of a patient’s own immune cells, turning them into cancer killers that researchers call a “living drug.” One of the big goals now is to get them to work for many other cancers, including those of the breast, prostate, ovary, lung and pancreas.
“This has been utterly transformative in blood cancers,” said Dr. Stephan Grupp, director of the cancer immunotherapy program at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania and a leader of major studies. “If it can start to work in solid tumors, it will be utterly transformative for the whole field.”
But it will take time to find that out, he said, at least five years.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/23/heal ... d=71987722
The approval of gene therapy for leukemia, expected in the next few months, will open the door to a radically new class of cancer treatments.
Companies and universities are racing to develop these new therapies, which re-engineer and turbocharge millions of a patient’s own immune cells, turning them into cancer killers that researchers call a “living drug.” One of the big goals now is to get them to work for many other cancers, including those of the breast, prostate, ovary, lung and pancreas.
“This has been utterly transformative in blood cancers,” said Dr. Stephan Grupp, director of the cancer immunotherapy program at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania and a leader of major studies. “If it can start to work in solid tumors, it will be utterly transformative for the whole field.”
But it will take time to find that out, he said, at least five years.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/23/heal ... d=71987722
In Breakthrough, Scientists Edit a Dangerous Mutation From Genes in Human Embryos
Scientists for the first time have successfully edited genes in human embryos to repair a common and serious disease-causing mutation, producing apparently healthy embryos, according to a study published on Wednesday.
The research marks a major milestone and, while a long way from clinical use, it raises the prospect that gene editing may one day protect babies from a variety of hereditary conditions.
But the achievement is also an example of human genetic engineering, once feared and unthinkable, and is sure to renew ethical concerns that some might try to design babies with certain traits, like greater intelligence or athleticism.
Scientists have long feared the unforeseen medical consequences of making inherited changes to human DNA. The cultural implications may be just as disturbing: Some experts have warned that unregulated genetic engineering may lead to a new form of eugenics, in which people with means pay to have children with enhanced traits even as those with disabilities are devalued.
The study, published in the journal Nature, comes just months after a national scientific committee recommended new guidelines for modifying embryos, easing blanket proscriptions but urging the technique be used only for dire medical problems.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/02/scie ... d=45305309
******
Researchers get better at tweaking the genomes of human embryos
DNA and how to adjust it
IT IS risky to predict who and what will win a Nobel prize. But some discoveries are so big that their receipt of science’s glitziest gong seems only a matter of time. One such is CRISPR-Cas9, a powerful gene-editing technique that is making the fraught and fiddly business of altering the genetic material of living organisms much easier.
Biologists have taken to CRISPR-Cas9 with gusto, first with animal experiments and now with tests on humans. In March researchers in China made history when they reported its first successful application to a disease-causing genetic mutation in human embryos. But their results were mixed. Although they achieved 100% success in correcting the faulty gene behind a type of anaemia called favism, they tested the technique in only two affected embryos. Of four others, carrying a mutation that causes thalassaemia, another anaemia, only one was successfully edited.
Now, in a study just published in Nature, a group of researchers from America, China and South Korea have pulled off a similar trick, with striking consistency, among many more embryos, while avoiding or minimising several of the pitfalls of previous experiments. Their work suggests that, with a bit of tweaking and plenty of elbow grease, CRISPR-Cas9 stands a good chance of graduating, sooner or later, from the laboratory to the clinic.
More...
http://www.economist.com/news/science-a ... lydispatch
Scientists for the first time have successfully edited genes in human embryos to repair a common and serious disease-causing mutation, producing apparently healthy embryos, according to a study published on Wednesday.
The research marks a major milestone and, while a long way from clinical use, it raises the prospect that gene editing may one day protect babies from a variety of hereditary conditions.
But the achievement is also an example of human genetic engineering, once feared and unthinkable, and is sure to renew ethical concerns that some might try to design babies with certain traits, like greater intelligence or athleticism.
Scientists have long feared the unforeseen medical consequences of making inherited changes to human DNA. The cultural implications may be just as disturbing: Some experts have warned that unregulated genetic engineering may lead to a new form of eugenics, in which people with means pay to have children with enhanced traits even as those with disabilities are devalued.
The study, published in the journal Nature, comes just months after a national scientific committee recommended new guidelines for modifying embryos, easing blanket proscriptions but urging the technique be used only for dire medical problems.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/02/scie ... d=45305309
******
Researchers get better at tweaking the genomes of human embryos
DNA and how to adjust it
IT IS risky to predict who and what will win a Nobel prize. But some discoveries are so big that their receipt of science’s glitziest gong seems only a matter of time. One such is CRISPR-Cas9, a powerful gene-editing technique that is making the fraught and fiddly business of altering the genetic material of living organisms much easier.
Biologists have taken to CRISPR-Cas9 with gusto, first with animal experiments and now with tests on humans. In March researchers in China made history when they reported its first successful application to a disease-causing genetic mutation in human embryos. But their results were mixed. Although they achieved 100% success in correcting the faulty gene behind a type of anaemia called favism, they tested the technique in only two affected embryos. Of four others, carrying a mutation that causes thalassaemia, another anaemia, only one was successfully edited.
Now, in a study just published in Nature, a group of researchers from America, China and South Korea have pulled off a similar trick, with striking consistency, among many more embryos, while avoiding or minimising several of the pitfalls of previous experiments. Their work suggests that, with a bit of tweaking and plenty of elbow grease, CRISPR-Cas9 stands a good chance of graduating, sooner or later, from the laboratory to the clinic.
More...
http://www.economist.com/news/science-a ... lydispatch
Everything you need to know about solar eclipses
On Aug. 21, 2017, most of North America will witness one of nature’s greatest events – an eclipse of the sun. Anyone within the path of totality (from Lincoln Beach, Oregon, to Charleston, South Carolina) can see a total solar eclipse. Observers outside this path will still see a partial solar eclipse.
Slide show:
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/world/eve ... ut#image=1
On Aug. 21, 2017, most of North America will witness one of nature’s greatest events – an eclipse of the sun. Anyone within the path of totality (from Lincoln Beach, Oregon, to Charleston, South Carolina) can see a total solar eclipse. Observers outside this path will still see a partial solar eclipse.
Slide show:
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/world/eve ... ut#image=1
ECLIPSES MAKE GREAT YARDSTICKS
How to measure the Earth with shadows.
Excerpt:
In such a world of physical phenomena, Anaxagoras was the first, as far as we know, to understand that eclipses occur when one heavenly body blocks the light from another. This rejection of gods and dragons as the causes of eclipses was a revolutionary thought by itself, but Anaxagoras took it further: If solar eclipses happened only because the Earth had moved into the shadow of the moon, he reasoned, then the size of the shadow must tell us something about the size of the moon. Additionally, since the moon covered the sun, the sun must be farther away. Yet to appear nearly the same size, the sun must be larger than the moon. Herein lies the power of scientific thought: Measure the extent of the shadow sweeping across the Earth, and you know the moon must be at least as big as the shadow, and the sun larger still. Mysticism provided no such opportunity: If eclipses occur when a demon devours the sun, there is no reason to believe that any measurement we make here on Earth should reveal the demon’s size."
More...
http://nautil.us/issue/51/limits/eclips ... a-60760513
How to measure the Earth with shadows.
Excerpt:
In such a world of physical phenomena, Anaxagoras was the first, as far as we know, to understand that eclipses occur when one heavenly body blocks the light from another. This rejection of gods and dragons as the causes of eclipses was a revolutionary thought by itself, but Anaxagoras took it further: If solar eclipses happened only because the Earth had moved into the shadow of the moon, he reasoned, then the size of the shadow must tell us something about the size of the moon. Additionally, since the moon covered the sun, the sun must be farther away. Yet to appear nearly the same size, the sun must be larger than the moon. Herein lies the power of scientific thought: Measure the extent of the shadow sweeping across the Earth, and you know the moon must be at least as big as the shadow, and the sun larger still. Mysticism provided no such opportunity: If eclipses occur when a demon devours the sun, there is no reason to believe that any measurement we make here on Earth should reveal the demon’s size."
More...
http://nautil.us/issue/51/limits/eclips ... a-60760513
NASA's Images of the 2017 Eclipse
Slide show:
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/techandsc ... ailsignout
VIDEO
Here's what solar eclipse looked like from International Space Station
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/video/wonder/h ... ailsignout
******
Historic eclipse turns day into night across the US
VIDEO and more...
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/newseclip ... ailsignout
Slide show:
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/techandsc ... ailsignout
VIDEO
Here's what solar eclipse looked like from International Space Station
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/video/wonder/h ... ailsignout
******
Historic eclipse turns day into night across the US
VIDEO and more...
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/newseclip ... ailsignout
What are algorithms?
Though capable of great feats, they are simply lists of instructions
ALGORITHMS are everywhere. They play the stockmarket, decide whether you can have a mortgage and may one day drive your car for you. They search the internet when commanded, stick carefully chosen advertisements into the sites you visit and decide what prices to show you in online shops. As Uber and Waymo will tell you, they can be the subjects of legal arguments; they cause regulatory worries too (earlier this month a group of luminaries called for a ban on battlefield robots running algorithms designed to kill people). PageRank—the algorithm that powers Google’s search results—has made its inventors very rich indeed. Algorithmically curated “filter bubbles” may even affect the way a country votes. But what exactly are algorithms, and what makes them so powerful?
More...
https://www.economist.com/blogs/economi ... lydispatch
Though capable of great feats, they are simply lists of instructions
ALGORITHMS are everywhere. They play the stockmarket, decide whether you can have a mortgage and may one day drive your car for you. They search the internet when commanded, stick carefully chosen advertisements into the sites you visit and decide what prices to show you in online shops. As Uber and Waymo will tell you, they can be the subjects of legal arguments; they cause regulatory worries too (earlier this month a group of luminaries called for a ban on battlefield robots running algorithms designed to kill people). PageRank—the algorithm that powers Google’s search results—has made its inventors very rich indeed. Algorithmically curated “filter bubbles” may even affect the way a country votes. But what exactly are algorithms, and what makes them so powerful?
More...
https://www.economist.com/blogs/economi ... lydispatch
Cassini Flies Toward a Fiery Death on Saturn
The Cassini spacecraft that has orbited Saturn for the last 13 years would weigh 4,685 pounds on Earth and, at 22 feet high, is somewhat longer and wider than a small moving van tipped on its rear. Bristling with cameras, antennas and other sensors, it is one of the most complex and sophisticated spy robots ever set loose in interplanetary space.
On Friday morning, the whole world will hear it die.
At the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, the scientists of the Cassini mission will figuratively ride their creation down into oblivion in the clouds of Saturn. They will be collecting data on the makeup of the planet’s butterscotch clouds until the last bitter moment, when the spacecraft succumbs to the heat and pressure of atmospheric entry and becomes a meteor.
So will end a decades-long journey of discovery and wonder.
The Cassini-Huygens mission, as it is officially known, was hatched in the 1980s partly to strengthen ties between NASA and the European Space Agency and partly because, well, where else in the solar system would you want to go? With mysterious, mesmerizing rings and a panoply of strange moons (62 and counting), Saturn was the last outpost of the known planets before the discoveries of Uranus, Neptune and Pluto.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/08/scie ... dline&te=1
******
Five things we learned about Saturn from Cassini
CTVNews.ca Staff
With NASA’s Cassini spacecraft slated for a fiery end in the atmosphere over Saturn, York University astronomy professor Paul Delaney highlights the probe’s five greatest discoveries from its 13 years orbiting the planet.
“It’ll be sad to see it go, but going this way is for the best,” Delaney told CTV News Channel on Thursday.
Here are Delaney’s top picks from what we learned about Earth’s distant solar neighbour.
More...
http://www.ctvnews.ca/mobile/sci-tech/f ... -1.3589925
The Cassini spacecraft that has orbited Saturn for the last 13 years would weigh 4,685 pounds on Earth and, at 22 feet high, is somewhat longer and wider than a small moving van tipped on its rear. Bristling with cameras, antennas and other sensors, it is one of the most complex and sophisticated spy robots ever set loose in interplanetary space.
On Friday morning, the whole world will hear it die.
At the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, the scientists of the Cassini mission will figuratively ride their creation down into oblivion in the clouds of Saturn. They will be collecting data on the makeup of the planet’s butterscotch clouds until the last bitter moment, when the spacecraft succumbs to the heat and pressure of atmospheric entry and becomes a meteor.
So will end a decades-long journey of discovery and wonder.
The Cassini-Huygens mission, as it is officially known, was hatched in the 1980s partly to strengthen ties between NASA and the European Space Agency and partly because, well, where else in the solar system would you want to go? With mysterious, mesmerizing rings and a panoply of strange moons (62 and counting), Saturn was the last outpost of the known planets before the discoveries of Uranus, Neptune and Pluto.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/08/scie ... dline&te=1
******
Five things we learned about Saturn from Cassini
CTVNews.ca Staff
With NASA’s Cassini spacecraft slated for a fiery end in the atmosphere over Saturn, York University astronomy professor Paul Delaney highlights the probe’s five greatest discoveries from its 13 years orbiting the planet.
“It’ll be sad to see it go, but going this way is for the best,” Delaney told CTV News Channel on Thursday.
Here are Delaney’s top picks from what we learned about Earth’s distant solar neighbour.
More...
http://www.ctvnews.ca/mobile/sci-tech/f ... -1.3589925
Elon Musk unveils some new twists on his plan for Mars
SpaceX considers more ways to use its vast rockets
IN 2016 Elon Musk, the boss of SpaceX, a company which builds rockets and spacecraft, announced his plans for the colonisation of Mars. At the moment SpaceX’s business is launching satellites for private companies and America’s air force, as well as ferrying cargo to the International Space Station. But Mr Musk has said repeatedly that his ultimate aim—and his company’s—is to make humans into a “multi-planetary species”.
On September 29th, at a conference in Adelaide, Mr Musk offered an update on his plans. SpaceX is now doing serious design work, he said, on the successor to its current Falcon family of rockets, a craft called the BFR (for “Big Fucking Rocket”; presumably a temporary name). And the company is putting together plans for using these new rockets for more than Mars colonisation, thus providing a way for it to make the transition from what it does today for profit to what it hopes to do tomorrow for inspiration.
More...
https://www.economist.com/news/science- ... lydispatch
SpaceX considers more ways to use its vast rockets
IN 2016 Elon Musk, the boss of SpaceX, a company which builds rockets and spacecraft, announced his plans for the colonisation of Mars. At the moment SpaceX’s business is launching satellites for private companies and America’s air force, as well as ferrying cargo to the International Space Station. But Mr Musk has said repeatedly that his ultimate aim—and his company’s—is to make humans into a “multi-planetary species”.
On September 29th, at a conference in Adelaide, Mr Musk offered an update on his plans. SpaceX is now doing serious design work, he said, on the successor to its current Falcon family of rockets, a craft called the BFR (for “Big Fucking Rocket”; presumably a temporary name). And the company is putting together plans for using these new rockets for more than Mars colonisation, thus providing a way for it to make the transition from what it does today for profit to what it hopes to do tomorrow for inspiration.
More...
https://www.economist.com/news/science- ... lydispatch
Observing the cosmos
Gravitational-wave astronomy starts in earnest
A stellar collision glows bright and shakes the fabric of space
Gravitational waves: Collide-o-scope
Less than two weeks after the Nobel committee awarded this year’s physics prize “for decisive contributions to the LIGO detector and the observation of gravitational waves”, that detector has come up with its most interesting finding yet: a fifth such wave. The difference between this one and the other four is its origin. The others were the results of two black holes merging. This one was caused by two neutron stars colliding
More...
https://www.economist.com/news/science- ... lydispatch
Gravitational-wave astronomy starts in earnest
A stellar collision glows bright and shakes the fabric of space
Gravitational waves: Collide-o-scope
Less than two weeks after the Nobel committee awarded this year’s physics prize “for decisive contributions to the LIGO detector and the observation of gravitational waves”, that detector has come up with its most interesting finding yet: a fifth such wave. The difference between this one and the other four is its origin. The others were the results of two black holes merging. This one was caused by two neutron stars colliding
More...
https://www.economist.com/news/science- ... lydispatch
To Mend a Birth Defect, Surgeons Operate on the Patient Within the Patient
Excerpt:
Introducing prenatal surgery for spina bifida was a bold step. In the early days, doctors were so worried about risk that they operated only for conditions that would be fatal if left unrepaired; if the surgery did harm, it would be to a fetus that would have died anyway.
Spina bifida is generally not fatal, so the standard practice was to operate after birth. But the results of postnatal surgery were mixed: most children could not walk and had other problems.
Doctors began to suspect that outcomes might be better if they could fix the defect before birth. Some of the spinal damage is caused by amniotic fluid, which turns increasingly toxic to the exposed nerve tissue as the pregnancy progresses and the fetus passes more and more wastes into the fluid.
Surgeons thought that if the opening could be closed before birth, sealing out the fluid, some of the nerve damage might be averted. They began operating in the 1990s, but it was not clear the surgery was helping.
A landmark study published in 2011 found that — for carefully selected fetuses — prenatal surgery was better than operating after birth. The percentage of children who could walk independently rose to 40 percent from 20 percent, and the need for a shunt was cut in half, to 40 percent from 82 percent.
More..
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/23/heal ... d=45305309
Excerpt:
Introducing prenatal surgery for spina bifida was a bold step. In the early days, doctors were so worried about risk that they operated only for conditions that would be fatal if left unrepaired; if the surgery did harm, it would be to a fetus that would have died anyway.
Spina bifida is generally not fatal, so the standard practice was to operate after birth. But the results of postnatal surgery were mixed: most children could not walk and had other problems.
Doctors began to suspect that outcomes might be better if they could fix the defect before birth. Some of the spinal damage is caused by amniotic fluid, which turns increasingly toxic to the exposed nerve tissue as the pregnancy progresses and the fetus passes more and more wastes into the fluid.
Surgeons thought that if the opening could be closed before birth, sealing out the fluid, some of the nerve damage might be averted. They began operating in the 1990s, but it was not clear the surgery was helping.
A landmark study published in 2011 found that — for carefully selected fetuses — prenatal surgery was better than operating after birth. The percentage of children who could walk independently rose to 40 percent from 20 percent, and the need for a shunt was cut in half, to 40 percent from 82 percent.
More..
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/23/heal ... d=45305309
Neuroscience
The first data from a repository of living human brain cells
Waste not, want not
Excerpt:
The human brain is the most complex object in the known universe. Because it is more complicated than animal brains in ways that (say) human livers are not more complicated than animal livers, using animal brains as analogues of human ones is never going to be satisfactory. Dr Koch’s new database may therefore help explain what is special about human brains. That will assist understanding of brain diseases and disorders. It may also shed light on one of his particular interests, the nature of consciousness.
More...
https://www.economist.com/news/science- ... lydispatch
The first data from a repository of living human brain cells
Waste not, want not
Excerpt:
The human brain is the most complex object in the known universe. Because it is more complicated than animal brains in ways that (say) human livers are not more complicated than animal livers, using animal brains as analogues of human ones is never going to be satisfactory. Dr Koch’s new database may therefore help explain what is special about human brains. That will assist understanding of brain diseases and disorders. It may also shed light on one of his particular interests, the nature of consciousness.
More...
https://www.economist.com/news/science- ... lydispatch
How science transformed the world in 100 years
In an essay for the BBC, Nobel Prize-winner and Royal Society President Sir Venki Ramakrishnan contemplates the nature of scientific discovery - how it has transformed our worldview in a short space of time, and why we need to be just as watchful today about the uses of research as we've ever been.
If we could miraculously transport even the smartest people from around 1900 to today's world, they would be simply astonished at how we now understand things that had puzzled humans for centuries.
Just over a hundred years ago, people had no idea how we inherit and pass on traits or how a single cell could grow into an organism.
They didn't know that atoms themselves had structure - the word itself means indivisible. They didn't know that matter has very strange properties that defy common sense. Or why there is gravity. And they had no idea how things began, whether it was life on earth or the universe itself.
More...
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-41698375
In an essay for the BBC, Nobel Prize-winner and Royal Society President Sir Venki Ramakrishnan contemplates the nature of scientific discovery - how it has transformed our worldview in a short space of time, and why we need to be just as watchful today about the uses of research as we've ever been.
If we could miraculously transport even the smartest people from around 1900 to today's world, they would be simply astonished at how we now understand things that had puzzled humans for centuries.
Just over a hundred years ago, people had no idea how we inherit and pass on traits or how a single cell could grow into an organism.
They didn't know that atoms themselves had structure - the word itself means indivisible. They didn't know that matter has very strange properties that defy common sense. Or why there is gravity. And they had no idea how things began, whether it was life on earth or the universe itself.
More...
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-41698375
The Most Impactful Inventions of the Last 300 Years
Here are the some most popular inventions of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, from the cotton gin to the camera.
https://www.thoughtco.com/list-of-popul ... ns-1991680
Here are the some most popular inventions of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, from the cotton gin to the camera.
https://www.thoughtco.com/list-of-popul ... ns-1991680
UBC astrophysicist honoured for work on determining universe's age, composition
VANCOUVER — Astrophysicist Dr. Gary Hinshaw wasn’t sure what a satellite would find when it launched in 2001.
The data it discovered would lead his NASA team to create what Hinshaw describes as the universe’s baby picture.
It also set up the researchers for a prestigious science prize awarded by a group that includes the founder of Facebook.
“You build this instrument, you test it on the ground, you make sure it’s going to survive the rigours of a rocket launch and that it’s going to deploy it when you deploy it from the rocket, and if it doesn’t, you’ve just wasted 10 years of your life, because you don’t get a second chance,” said Hinshaw, now a researcher and professor at the University of British Columbia.
The satellite, called the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP), did survive and spent nearly a decade measuring heat radiation left over from the big bang. Hinshaw and his team then mapped that data, giving a visual picture of the early universe. They’ve also analyzed the findings to determine that the universe is 13.7 billion years old and only five per cent is made up of the chemical elements found in the periodic table.
Hinshaw and 26 other researchers were honoured for their work Sunday with the Breakthrough Prize in fundamental physics.
Since 2012, the award has been handed out for top achievements in physics, life sciences and mathematics. The Breakthrough Prize board includes Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Anne Wojcicki, the co-founder and CEO of the genetics company 23andme, and Yuri Milner, a Russian physicist, entrepreneur and venture capitalist.
More...
http://nationalpost.com/pmn/news-pmn/ca ... omposition
VANCOUVER — Astrophysicist Dr. Gary Hinshaw wasn’t sure what a satellite would find when it launched in 2001.
The data it discovered would lead his NASA team to create what Hinshaw describes as the universe’s baby picture.
It also set up the researchers for a prestigious science prize awarded by a group that includes the founder of Facebook.
“You build this instrument, you test it on the ground, you make sure it’s going to survive the rigours of a rocket launch and that it’s going to deploy it when you deploy it from the rocket, and if it doesn’t, you’ve just wasted 10 years of your life, because you don’t get a second chance,” said Hinshaw, now a researcher and professor at the University of British Columbia.
The satellite, called the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP), did survive and spent nearly a decade measuring heat radiation left over from the big bang. Hinshaw and his team then mapped that data, giving a visual picture of the early universe. They’ve also analyzed the findings to determine that the universe is 13.7 billion years old and only five per cent is made up of the chemical elements found in the periodic table.
Hinshaw and 26 other researchers were honoured for their work Sunday with the Breakthrough Prize in fundamental physics.
Since 2012, the award has been handed out for top achievements in physics, life sciences and mathematics. The Breakthrough Prize board includes Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Anne Wojcicki, the co-founder and CEO of the genetics company 23andme, and Yuri Milner, a Russian physicist, entrepreneur and venture capitalist.
More...
http://nationalpost.com/pmn/news-pmn/ca ... omposition
Scientists just found the oldest known black hole, and it's a monster
Eduardo Bañados had three nights to spot something that might not even exist: a supermassive black hole close to the beginning of time.
At the Las Campanas Observatory in Chile, perched high atop a mountain in the world's driest desert, he scanned for the signature of a massive, invisible sinkhole in the sky slurping up a whirlpool of brilliant, hot matter.
Just before sunrise on the third night, he found it. Way out at the very edge of the observable universe, there loomed a black hole 800 million times more massive than the sun. The signal had traveled more than 13 billion light-years across time and space to reach Bañados's telescope.
More...
https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/techands ... ailsignout
Eduardo Bañados had three nights to spot something that might not even exist: a supermassive black hole close to the beginning of time.
At the Las Campanas Observatory in Chile, perched high atop a mountain in the world's driest desert, he scanned for the signature of a massive, invisible sinkhole in the sky slurping up a whirlpool of brilliant, hot matter.
Just before sunrise on the third night, he found it. Way out at the very edge of the observable universe, there loomed a black hole 800 million times more massive than the sun. The signal had traveled more than 13 billion light-years across time and space to reach Bañados's telescope.
More...
https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/techands ... ailsignout