discuss Science & Technology news & discussion

[CraigD]

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

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

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

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

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

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

Please enjoy!

 

[koolishman]

​

Harvard scientists built a fish out of human stem cells.​

Biohybrid fish made from human cardiac cells swims like the heart beats​

Harvard University researchers, in collaboration with colleagues from Emory University, have developed the first fully autonomous biohybrid fish from human stem-cell derived cardiac muscle cells. The artificial fish swims by recreating the muscle contractions of a pumping heart, bringing researchers one step closer to developing a more complex artificial muscular pump and providing a platform to study heart disease like arrhythmia.

 

[Cal2]

The hottest new programming language: biology​

Amy Webb

You all know the story: In late 2020, a decades-in-the-making scientific breakthrough gave the pandemic-weary world a shot of hope. Less than a year after Covid-19 began sweeping the globe, Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech announced vaccines for the virus, powered by a technology called mRNA. These rapidly developed, highly effective, mRNA-based vaccines underscore the promise of synthetic biology, a fast-growing branch of biotechnology that aims to “program living, biological structures as though they were tiny computers,” according to a new book by the quantitative futurist Amy Webb and geneticist Andrew Hessel, called The Genesis Machine: Our Quest to Rewrite Life in the Age of Synthetic Biology. But, but, but...mRNA is just one example of a synthetic biology technology. As we speak, people around the world are bending biology to all sorts of precise, ambitious, and (at times) controversial ends. A quick list: resurrecting woolly mammoths, reversing disease, growing meat in a lab, editing genes, producing waste-free materials. Despite all of this activity, Webb and Hessel argue that the era of synthetic biology is just beginning. Money is starting to flow into the space, while key costs are falling. In 2021, synthetic biology startups raised a total of $18 billion—more than double the $8 billion raised in 2020, per SynBioBeta, an industry group. And, nowadays, a startup can sequence your genome for a couple hundred bucks—a far cry from the ~$2.7 billion and 13 years the Human Genome Project required. Big picture: “My thinking is that at some point in the future, synthetic biology—which is really an umbrella term for different technologies—will just be part of our lives,” Webb told Emerging Tech Brew. “Gene-editing, before babies are born, will no longer be scary. We won’t have to debate the ethics of whether or not to optimize embryos; it will just be something we do.” She added, “You know, the current debates over GMO foods and whether or not to eat them, or the labeling conventions we have for organic versus conventional—I think some of that goes away, because I think we’re going to need to edit the things that we eat in order for us to sustain ourselves. It will just be.” Click here to learn more about the future of the bioeconomy.—DM

 

[koolishman]

The Nearly Extinct Polio Virus Just Resurfaced in Africa​

The nearly extinct disease polio has made an unexpected and unwelcome reappearance in Africa. This week, health officials in the country of Malawi reported a case of wild polio in a young child—the first spotted in the continent in more than five years. World Health Organization officials are now monitoring the situation.

“As long as wild polio exists anywhere in the world all countries remain at risk of importation of the virus,” said Matshidiso Moeti, World Health Organization Regional Director for Africa, in a statement. “Following the detection of wild polio in Malawi, we’re taking urgent measures to forestall its potential spread. Thanks to a high level of polio surveillance in the continent and the capacity to quickly detect the virus, we can swiftly launch a rapid response and protect children from the debilitating impact of this disease.”

 

[J Sokol]

‘We are afraid’: Erin Brockovich pollutant linked to global electric car boom​

A Guardian investigation into nickel mining and the electric vehicle industry has found evidence that a source of drinking water close to one of Indonesia’s largest nickel mines is contaminated with unsafe levels of hexavalent chromium (Cr6), the cancer-causing chemical more widely known for its role in the Erin Brockovich story and film.

The investigation also found evidence suggesting elevated levels of lung infections among people living close to the mine.

https://www.theguardian.com/global-...-pollutant-linked-to-global-electric-car-boom

 

[koolishman]

NASA's Parker Solar Probe captures the first visible light images of Venus' surface​

 

[koolishman]

Signs of 'Significant' Brain Rewiring Have Been Found in Space Travelers ​

Researchers studying the brains of 12 cosmonauts found what they describe as "significant microstructural changes" in the white matter that manages communications within the brain, and to and from the rest of the body.

The data were obtained through diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI) scans taken just before and right after the time participants spent in space, which lasted an average of 172 days. Further scans were carried out seven months later, and while there was a reversal of some changes, a few of them were still visible.

Specifically, the team found changes in neural tracts related to sensory and motor functions, and speculate this could have something to do with the cosmonauts' adaptation to life in microgravity.



https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fncir.2022.815838/full

 

[koolishman]

Stanford University uses AI computing to cut DNA sequencing down to five hours​

A Stanford University-led research team has set a new Guinness World Record for the fastest DNA sequencing technique using AI computing to accelerate workflow speed.

The research, led by Dr Euan Ashley, professor of medicine, genetics and biomedical data science at Stanford School of Medicine, in collaboration with Nvidia, Oxford Nanopore Technologies, Google, Baylor College of Medicine, and the University of California, achieved sequencing in just five hours and two minutes.

The study, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, involved speeding up every step of genome sequencing workflow by relying on new technology. This included using nanopore sequencing on Oxford Nanopore's PromethION Flow Cells to generate more than 100 gigabases of data per hour, and Nvidia GPUs on Google Cloud to speed up the base calling and variant calling processes.

 

[koolishman]

Rwandan Genocide Chemically Modified the DNA of Victims and Victims’ Offspring ​

In a first of its kind study, Professors Monica Uddin and Derek Wildman of the College of Public Health looked at the entire genomes of Tutsi women who were pregnant and living in Rwanda at the time of the genocide and their offspring and compared their DNA to other Tutsi women pregnant at the same time and their offspring, who were living in other parts of the world.

In the study published in “Epigenomics,” they found that the terror of genocide was associated with chemically modifications to the DNA of genocide-exposed women and their offspring. Many of these modifications occurred in genes previously implicated in risk for mental disorders such as PTSD and depression. These findings suggest that, unlike gene mutations, these chemical “epigenetic” modifications can have a rapid response to trauma across generations.

 

[koolishman]

New method allows vaccines to be stored for months without refrigeration​

Most vaccines need to be kept within a temperature range of 2-8 °C (35-46 °F) in order to prevent degradation. Some vaccines, particularly new mRNA vaccines, need to be kept at even colder, sub-zero temperatures.

The new innovation uses a porous, dissolvable, crystalline material known as a metal-organic framework (MOF). The material coats the vaccine molecules, protecting them from heat degradation until the vaccine needs to be administered. At that point a solution is added to dissolve the MOF coatings and the vaccine is administered as usual.

 

[koolishman]

First-ever recording of dying human brain reveals dreaming-like activity ​

As such, the researchers managed to record 15 minutes of brain activity around the time of death. They focused in on the 30 seconds either side of when the heart stopped beating, and detected increased activity in types of brain waves known as gamma oscillations. These are involved in processes such as dreaming, meditation and memory retrieval, giving a glimpse into what a person may be experiencing during their final moments.

“Through generating oscillations involved in memory retrieval, the brain may be playing a last recall of important life events just before we die, similar to the ones reported in near-death experiences,” said Dr. Ajmal Zemmar, lead author of the study. “These findings challenge our understanding of when exactly life ends and generate important subsequent questions, such as those related to the timing of organ donation.”

 

[Cal2]

This Is the Exact Amount of Coffee You Should Drink, According to a Harvard Brain Expert

Scientists agree: Drinking coffee is good for you. That's good news if, like most Americans, you enjoy coffee and perhaps rely on it to help you wake up in the morning or stay alert during the day.

In the last couple of years, more detailed research on coffee has sought to zero in on just how much coffee you should drink every day for maximum health and brain benefits. They've found the answer--you should drink three cups. That advice comes from Uma Maidoo, MD, who's been described as a "triple threat"--a Harvard-trained psychiatrist, trained nutrition specialist, and trained chef. She's also the author of the bestseller This Is Your Brain on Food. In an article at CNBC.com, Maidoo explains how she herself uses coffee as part of her daily routine to boost her own brain function. (Maidoo's routine includes putting shots of espresso into golden milk, which sounds like a fantastic idea to me.)

Why three cups? Maidoo points to a study in which researchers tracked both the coffee consumption and cognitive health of 676 elderly men over ten years. They found that the coffee drinkers had less than half the cognitive decline as the non-coffee drinkers did. And those who drank three cups a day had the least decline of all. A larger Harvard study, with a total 208,501 participants, both men and women, examined the likelihood of death over more than 20 years. It found that participants who drank coffee were less likely to die than those who didn't, with the greatest longevity benefit going to those who drank between 3.1 and 5 cups a day.

If you want the maximum benefits from your coffee habit, make sure to follow these three rules:

https://www.inc.com/minda-zetlin/co...nefits-correct-amount-uma-maidoo-harvard.html

 

[koolishman]

Fish Might Really Be Self-Aware, New Study Finds​

The team first reported their findings about these wrasses in a 2019 study in PLOS Biology, which caused controversy in the field, and now they are back with a follow-up study in the same journal aimed at proving their point.

Kohda and his colleagues came to the conclusion that wrasse can achieve mirror self-recognition by subjecting them to a famous experiment known as the mark test, in which an artificial mark is placed on the body of an animal while it is anesthetized. If the animal inspects the mark on its body in a mirror, or tries to touch it or remove it, it suggests that it has identified itself in the reflection, rather than mistaking the mirror image for some other individual.

While some mammals and birds have passed the mark test, Kohda and his colleagues were the first to claim that a fish had achieved this cognitive milestone. The researchers selected the cleaner wrasse specifically because the fish eats parasites off the skin of other animals and so is already attuned to recognizing strange marks in its environment.

​

 

[koolishman]

Magpies have outwitted scientists by helping each other remove tracking devices​

Our goal was to learn more about the movement and social dynamics of these highly intelligent birds, and to test these new, durable and reusable devices. Instead, the birds outsmarted us.

As our new research paper explains, the magpies began showing evidence of cooperative "rescue" behaviour to help each other remove the tracker.

While we're familiar with magpies being intelligent and social creatures, this was the first instance we knew of that showed this type of seemingly altruistic behaviour: helping another member of the group without getting an immediate, tangible reward.

 

[Cal2]

Can our brains help prove the universe is conscious?​

As humans, we know we are conscious because we experience and feel things. But we are still unable to explain exactly what consciousness is or where it comes from.

"Consciousness — or better, conscious experience — is obviously a part of reality," Johannes Kleiner, a mathematician and theoretical physicist at the Munich Center For Mathematical Philosophy, Germany, shared in an interview. "We're all having it but without understanding how it relates to the known physics, our understanding of the universe is incomplete."

With that in mind, Kleiner is hoping math will enable him to precisely define consciousness. Working with colleague Sean Tull, a mathematician at the University of Oxford, U.K., the pair are being driven, to some degree, by a philosophical point of view called panpsychism.


Related: Physicist Stephen Wolfram thinks he's on to a theory of everything, and wants help simulating the universe

This claims consciousness is inherent in even the tiniest pieces of matter — an idea that suggests the fundamental building blocks of reality have conscious experience. Crucially, it implies consciousness could be found throughout the universe.

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/tech...s-conscious/ar-BB1g1WFs?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531

 

[J Sokol]

Scientists agree: Drinking coffee is good for you. That's good news if, like most Americans, you enjoy coffee and perhaps rely on it to help you wake up in the morning or stay alert during the day.

I always like research that supports my habits, and the mood-enhancing effect is an added benefit.

"At the same time, pay attention to whether coffee lightens your mood, which it might. One of the most intriguing findings from the Harvard study is that coffee drinkers were half as likely to commit suicide as non-coffee drinkers. According to the research, the explanation may be that coffee boosts brain chemicals that have an antidepressant effect."

 

[koolishman]

Scientists discover the Earth's inner core isn't solid or liquid. It's 'superionic.'​

The structure of Earth's core could be unlike any other state of matter, researchers have found.

Yu He, a physicist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and lead author of a study published this month in the journal Nature, said the calculations challenged what researchers once understood about the inner core.

He and his colleagues found the inner core creates a "superionic state" made up of hydrogen, oxygen and carbon. He said it's unlike any solid or liquid form.

"It is quite abnormal," He said in a statement to USA TODAY. "The solidification of iron at the inner core boundary does not change the mobility of these light elements, and the convection of light elements is continuous in the inner core."

 

[koolishman]

World 1st: Hope for paralyzed as Israeli lab spinal cords restore mice mobility​

Show attachment 209509


Israeli scientists have made paralyzed mice walk by giving them spinal cord implants, and say they are less than three years away from doing the same for humans in clinical trials.

The world-first experiment took place at Tel Aviv University, where a large team engineered spinal cord tissue from human cells, and implanted them into 15 mice with long-term paralysis. Twelve of the mice then walked normally, the scientists revealed on Monday in newly peer-reviewed research published in the journal Advanced Science.

A Spinal Cord Implant Allowed Paralyzed People to Walk in Just One Day​

Michel Roccati never thought he’d walk again, much less swim, cycle, or paddle a kayak. A terrifying motorcycle collision in 2017 damaged his spinal cord, leaving him completely paralyzed from the waist down.

Yet on a cold, snowy day last December in Lausanne, Switzerland, he took his first step outside—with the help of a walker—since his accident. His aid? A new spinal cord implant that bridges signals from the brain to his lower muscles, hopping over damaged portions to restore movement. All it took was one day of stimulation.

Michel is part of a larger trial of a new, personalized spinal cord implant. Invented by Dr. Gregoire Courtine and colleagues at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL), the implant is the first to specifically mimic electrical signals from the brain to control lower body movement.

 

[Cal2]

T H E C O G N I T I V E B I A S C O D E X

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipe...&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Revue newsletter

 

[Cal2]

When Steve Jobs Died At 56, His Brain Was Only 27​

Meditation does more than just calm you down; it literally reverse-ages your brain.​

In the past, I've written that Steve Jobs used Zen mindfulness to train his brain, and that neuroscientists recently validated Jobs's theory about the business benefits of meditation.
There was one thing, however, that Jobs didn't know, although he might have guessed it to be true. Meditation does more than just calm you down and make you a better manager. Meditation literally causes your brain to age backwards.

https://www.inc.com/geoffrey-james/when-steve-jobs-died-at-56-his-brain-was-only-27.html

 

[Cannuck]

The consequences of cheapness​

It has been said that Ikea’s real genius hasn’t been its Scandinavian chic or clever flat-pack designs. Its genius has been in making furniture disposable. Ikea’s ‘fast furniture’ business model is contributing to a throwaway culture which can only ultimately result in greater and greater pressure from consumers on the world’s forests.

Earthsight has discovered that Americans, for example, are throwing away 40 per cent more furniture per capita today than when Ikea arrived on their shores. Almost none of this is recycled.

IKEA Greenwashing

Earthsight’s investigation shows that aside from encouraging excessive consumption and waste, Ikea’s relentless pressure on prices has other consequences....https://www.earthsight.org.uk/flatpackedforests

 

[Cal2]

I always like research that supports my habits, and the mood-enhancing effect is an added benefit.

"At the same time, pay attention to whether coffee lightens your mood, which it might. One of the most intriguing findings from the Harvard study is that coffee drinkers were half as likely to commit suicide as non-coffee drinkers. According to the research, the explanation may be that coffee boosts brain chemicals that have an antidepressant effect."

This Is the Type of Coffee Most Closely Linked to Longevity, According to a Healthy Aging Expert​

A fact that many of us have been well-aware of for, well, a while: Coffee is an elixir of life. But according to Dan Buettner, an expert on longevity, National Geographic fellow, and author of The Blue Zones Challenge: A 4-Week Plan for a Longer, Better Life, coffee's benefits far transcend its potent caffeine content. .....

While all coffee has potent health benefits to offer, Buettner highlights one particular type of coffee that has an edge of others when it comes to longevity: Ikarian coffee, otherwise known as Greek coffee.

Ikarian coffee benefits for longevity​

“Ikarian coffee, or Greek coffee, is lightly roasted and finely ground,” Buettner explains. “The fine grind delivers more concentrated antioxidants, which is one key health benefit. Ikarian coffee is also boiled instead of getting brewed and filtered, which extracts more of the healthy compounds in the coffee. And finally, the resulting cup of coffee will contain less caffeine than a typical American cup of coffee." Less caffeine translates to less of the unpleasant and potentially dangerous side effects of caffeine overdose, such as anxiety, jitters, elevated blood pressure, headaches, muscle tremors, and insomnia. "It's also important to mention that Greek coffee is delicious,” Buettner adds.

How to make Ikarian coffee​

https://www.wellandgood.com/ikarian...utm_medium=newsletter&utm_source=morning_brew

 

[Cannuck]

Chernobyl: Russia seizing nuclear power plant could cause accident ‘that would spread radiation across Europe’​

Russia’s seizure of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant could cause an accident that would spread radiation across Europe, Ukrainian nuclear experts have warned.

The warning comes after the Ministry of Defence said workers at the plant had reportedly been taken hostage by Russian troops, and as radiation levels in the exclusion zone soared.

Radiation sensors showed levels of gamma rays increasing from 3,090 nSv/h at 8pm on 24 February to 65,000 nSv/h (234,000mSc/h) just two hours later.

https://inews.co.uk/news/world/chernobyl-russia-nuclear-power-plant-accident-spread-radiation-europe-ukraine

 

[koolishman]

World’s nations start to hammer out first global treaty on plastic pollution​

Each year, an estimated 11 million tons of plastic waste enter the ocean, equivalent to a cargo ship’s worth every day. The rising tide—in the oceans and beyond—is just a symptom of much wider problems: unsustainable product design, short-sighted consumption, and insufficient waste management, scientists say. To curb the flood, says Jenna Jambeck, an environmental engineer at the University of Georgia, “we need to take more action and it needs to be further upstream” in the production process.



That’s exactly what negotiators from 193 countries are setting out to do when they meet in Nairobi, Kenya, next week. Their ambitious goal: to create a negotiating committee that will try to hammer out, within 2 years, a new global treaty intended to curb plastic pollution.


An already released proposal, modeled on the United Nations’s climate treaty, would have nations adopt action plans, set binding waste reduction targets, and establish monitoring systems and a new global scientific advisory body. “It’s about time,” says Chelsea Rochman, an ecologist at the University of Toronto who has called on nations to tackle the issue.

 

[koolishman]

Sound waves convert stem cells into bone in regenerative breakthrough​

Stem cells have enormous medical potential in helping to regenerate various tissues in the body, but bone has proven particularly hard to work with. Bone originates from what are known as mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), which mostly reside in the bone marrow. Collecting these is a painful procedure, then converting them into bone cells is difficult to scale up to useful levels.

But researchers from RMIT have now found a faster and simpler way to induce MSCs to turn into bone cells. Previous studies have suggested that the vibrations from sound waves can induce cell differentiation, but it typically took over a week with mixed results. These experiments have been limited to low frequencies, and it was thought that higher frequencies would have little benefit. So for the new study, the RMIT team investigated these higher frequencies.

 

[koolishman]

This 5,300-year-old skull shows evidence of the earliest known ear surgery​

Show attachment 210901

Archaeologists have excavated a 5,300-year-old skull from a Spanish tomb and determined that seven cut marks near the left ear canal are strong evidence of a primitive surgical procedure to treat a middle ear infection. That makes this the earliest known example of ear surgery yet found, according to the authors of a recent paper published in the journal Scientific Reports. The Spanish team also identified a flint blade that may have been used as a cauterizing tool.

The excavation site is located in the Dolmen of El Pendón in Burgos, Spain, and consists of the remains of a megalithic monument dating back to the 4th century BCE, i.e., the late Neolithic period. The ruins include an ossuary holding the bones of nearly 100 people, and archaeologists have been excavating those remains since 2016.