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!

 

[CraigD]

Moon by 2024 no more? NASA's Artemis deadline for crewed lunar landings likely to relax under Biden

2024 wasn't terribly realistic anyway.

NASA's quest to put boots back on the moon will likely get less urgent after President-elect Joe Biden takes office next month.

Through its Artemis program, the space agency has been working to land two astronauts, including the first-ever female moonwalker, near the lunar south pole by 2024. That ambitious deadline, which was announced by Vice President Mike Pence in 2019, will likely be relaxed under the Biden administration, experts say.

https://www.space.com/biden-nasa-artemis-moon-2024-landing-deadline-timeline


It was a a tight schedule to follow considering this years upheavals, but keep your eye on ArtemisProgram.com for the latest news about NASA's Artemis Program Moon missions.

 

[koolishman]

Thank you everyone, especially @koolishman, @Sutruk and @Cannuck

1000 posts in 75 days approx.

Not bad.

 

[koolishman]

Florida professor predicts Amazon rainforest collapse by 2064

The world's largest rainforest ecosystem, the Amazon, will collapse and largely become a dry, scrubby plain by 2064 because of climate change and deforestation, a University of Florida professor predicts.

That forecast, published online in the journal Environment, gives the most specific date yet for the general demise of the Brazilian ecosystem, according to scientists familiar with Amazonian research.

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00139157.2021.1842711

 

[Sutruk]

Thank you everyone, especially @koolishman, @Sutruk and @Cannuck

Thank you @CraigD for starting this interesting thread

 

[CraigD]

Chinese astronomers discover 591 high-velocity stars with LAMOST and Gaia

High-velocity stars are kind of fast-moving stars, and they can even escape from the Galaxy. "Though rare in the Milky Way, high-velocity stars, with unique kinematics, can provide deep insight into a wide range of Galactic science, from the central supermassive black hole to distant Galactic halo," said Prof. LU Youjun from NAOC, a co-author of this paper.

https://phys.org/news/2020-12-chinese-astronomers-high-velocity-stars-lamost.html

 

[Sutruk]

nRNA vaccines is the revolution that will change the era of vaccination against many viruses and diseases already known, and the new ones to come.
New mRNA vaccines will come for HIV, herpes, the Zika virus, rabies, and influenza.
Although the following article is about the vaccine Pioneers receiving covid-19 vaccine, it talks also about the new vaccines to come:

University of Pennsylvania mRNA Biology Pioneers Receive COVID-19 Vaccine Enabled by their Foundational Research

https://www.pennmedicine.org/news/n...accine-enabled-by-their-foundational-research

"Vaccines relying on mRNA are backed by years of research and safety data, and have several attributes, which are distinct from other historic approaches to vaccine technology. First, they do not contain live virus, so there is no risk of COVID-19 infection from taking the vaccination. Data also show the new vaccines are highly effective, with Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech clinical trials demonstrating efficacy of about 95 percent in all racial groups. In addition, mRNA vaccines are quicker and easier to produce than traditional vaccines. Other mRNA vaccines are now being studied in clinical trials for HIV, herpes, the Zika virus, rabies, and influenza."

 

[koolishman]

Eat my dust: Israeli scientist shows plants grab nutrients off dust in the wind

Researchers find some desert plants sprinkled with motes manage to absorb phosphorous on their leaves, and grow stronger; breakthrough could open door to reduced fertilizer usage.

sraeli scientists say they have discovered that plants native to desert regions can help themselves to food by catching dust on their leaves and extracting what they need, in a breakthrough that could help farmers to reduce the use of environmentally damaging chemical fertilizers.

Experiments show that native Israeli plants such as wheat and chickpeas grow more hairs on their leaves when they are short on phosphorus — a building block needed by all cells of living things. The hairs trap moisture, which makes them stickier and better able to catch dust particles from the air, and the leaves secrete acid that dissolves the phosphorus into a liquid form that the plant can absorb.

 

[Cal2]

Thank you everyone, especially @koolishman, @Sutruk and @Cannuck

Looking forward to lots of good reading when I have the time. Thanks, guys.

 

[CraigD]

Do You Love Me?

Happy New Year from Boston Dynamics.
www.BostonDynamics.com

This video sees Boston Dynamics entire lineup of robots — the humanoid Atlas, the dog-shaped Spot, and the box-juggling Handle come together in a bopping, coordinated dance routine set to The Contours’ “Do You Love Me.”

 

[CraigD]

A single gene 'invented' hemoglobin several times

Thanks to the marine worm Platynereis dumerilii, an animal whose genes have evolved very slowly, scientists from CNRS, Université de Paris and Sorbonne Université, in association with others at the University of Saint Petersburg and the University of Rio de Janeiro, have shown that while hemoglobin appeared independently in several species, it actually descends from a single gene transmitted to all by their last common ancestor. These findings were published on 29 December 2020 in BMC Evolutionary Biology.

https://phys.org/news/2020-12-gene-hemoglobin.html

 

[CraigD]

Eat my dust: Israeli scientist shows plants grab nutrients off dust in the wind

Researchers find some desert plants sprinkled with motes manage to absorb phosphorous on their leaves, and grow stronger; breakthrough could open door to reduced fertilizer usage.

sraeli scientists say they have discovered that plants native to desert regions can help themselves to food by catching dust on their leaves and extracting what they need, in a breakthrough that could help farmers to reduce the use of environmentally damaging chemical fertilizers.

Experiments show that native Israeli plants such as wheat and chickpeas grow more hairs on their leaves when they are short on phosphorus — a building block needed by all cells of living things. The hairs trap moisture, which makes them stickier and better able to catch dust particles from the air, and the leaves secrete acid that dissolves the phosphorus into a liquid form that the plant can absorb.

An amazing discovery, but it also raises the question - do we understand the consequences of genetically modifying crops?

When scientists modify plants for certain traits, they could also inhibit undiscovered processes like the one explained in this article.

 

[CraigD]

These Are 7 of The Strangest Experiments Humans Have Ever Done in Space

The way things behave in microgravity may seem obvious to us now, after humans have been venturing into space for over 50 years. But we haven't always been certain how space might affect certain things. Like fire. Or planarian worms. Or even plants. It's only by conducting experiments that we can learn the answers to these burning questions.

That has led to some pretty fascinating, sometimes upsetting, and sometimes downright wacky experiments conducted in space.

https://www.sciencealert.com/wild-space-experiments-conducted-by-humans

 

[CraigD]

nRNA vaccines is the revolution that will change the era of vaccination against many viruses and diseases already known, and the new ones to come.
New mRNA vaccines will come for HIV, herpes, the Zika virus, rabies, and influenza.
Although the following article is about the vaccine Pioneers receiving covid-19 vaccine, it talks also about the new vaccines to come:

University of Pennsylvania mRNA Biology Pioneers Receive COVID-19 Vaccine Enabled by their Foundational Research

https://www.pennmedicine.org/news/n...accine-enabled-by-their-foundational-research

"Vaccines relying on mRNA are backed by years of research and safety data, and have several attributes, which are distinct from other historic approaches to vaccine technology. First, they do not contain live virus, so there is no risk of COVID-19 infection from taking the vaccination. Data also show the new vaccines are highly effective, with Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech clinical trials demonstrating efficacy of about 95 percent in all racial groups. In addition, mRNA vaccines are quicker and easier to produce than traditional vaccines. Other mRNA vaccines are now being studied in clinical trials for HIV, herpes, the Zika virus, rabies, and influenza."

I certainly won't have an issue taking mRNA vaccines because as you have pointed out they are based on years of research.

Here are a few interesting articles that I have been reading concerning mRNA and also the mRNA vaccine technology:

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

Messenger RNA (mRNA)

Messenger RNA (mRNA) is a single-stranded RNA molecule that is complementary to one of the DNA strands of a gene. The mRNA is an RNA version of the gene that leaves the cell nucleus and moves to the cytoplasm where proteins are made. During protein synthesis, an organelle called a ribosome moves along the mRNA, reads its base sequence, and uses the genetic code to translate each three-base triplet, or codon, into its corresponding amino acid.

https://www.genome.gov/genetics-glossary/messenger-rna

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

Translation: DNA to mRNA to Protein

2008
How does the cell convert DNA into working proteins? The process of translation can be seen as the decoding of instructions for making proteins, involving mRNA in transcription as well as tRNA.

https://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/translation-dna-to-mrna-to-protein-393/

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

mRNA vaccines - a new era in vaccinology

12 January 2018
mRNA vaccines represent a promising alternative to conventional vaccine approaches because of their high potency, capacity for rapid development and potential for low-cost manufacture and safe administration. However, their application has until recently been restricted by the instability and inefficient in vivo delivery of mRNA. Recent technological advances have now largely overcome these issues, and multiple mRNA vaccine platforms against infectious diseases and several types of cancer have demonstrated encouraging results in both animal models and humans. This Review provides a detailed overview of mRNA vaccines and considers future directions and challenges in advancing this promising vaccine platform to widespread therapeutic use.

https://www.nature.com/articles/nrd.2017.243

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

How mRNA vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna work, why they’re a breakthrough and why they need to be kept so cold
November 19, 2020

By Sanjay Mishra - Project Coordinator & Staff Scientist, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Vanderbilt University

... a rush of interim analyses from pharmaceutical companies Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech have spurred optimism that a novel type of vaccine made from messenger RNA, known as mRNA, can offer high levels of protection by preventing COVID-19 among people who are vaccinated.

Although unpublished, these preliminary reports have exceeded the expectations of many vaccine experts, including mine. Until early this year, I worked on developing vaccine candidates against Zika and dengue. Now I am coordinating an international effort to collect reports on adult patients with current or previous cancers who have also been diagnosed with COVID-19.

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

 

[CraigD]

Experiment takes 'snapshots' of light, stops light, uses light to change properties of matter

Light travels at a speed of about 300,000,000 meters per second as light particles, photons, or equivalently as electromagnetic field waves. Experiments led by Hrvoje Petek, an R.K. Mellon professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy examined ideas surrounding the origins of light, taking snapshots of light, stopping light and using it to change properties of matter.

https://phys.org/news/2020-12-snapshots-properties.html

 

[Cannuck]

Years ago I decided to do an experiment on myself. I ritually walked a labyrinth every day for several months. I didn't know why I was compelled to do this experiment, but after awhile it just became habitual. Then a startling effect occurred...I levitated!!

Needless to say, I got freaked, lol, and when I suddenly became aware of it, I was back on the ground. I haven't walked a labyrinth since, but I know the experiment worked.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/7/140730-science-mazes-labyrinth-brain-neuroscience/

http://www.ancient-wisdom.com/labyrinths.htm

https://sciencevibe.com/2020/06/08/the-secret-lost-labyrinth-of-egypt-finally-found/

 

[Cannuck]

Another ritual I am familiar with is the Lakota Sun Dance. Much traditional wisdom and medicine has been replaced by new technology. It may not exactly be fitting in this thread, as it seem rather far-fetched to the modern, rational mind, but Shamanic practices have been used for a millennia.

https://www.wilderutopia.com/traditions/life-and-death-lakota-spiritual-practice/

 

[Cannuck]

Defining Lyfe in the Universe: From Three Privileged Functions to Four Pillars

"Motivated by the need to paint a more general picture of what life is—and could be—with respect to the rest of the phenomena of the universe, we propose a new vocabulary for astrobiological research. Lyfe is defined as any system that fulfills all four processes of the living state, namely: dissipation, autocatalysis, homeostasis, and learning. Life is defined as the instance of lyfe that we are familiar with on Earth, one that uses a specific organometallic molecular toolbox to record information about its environment and achieve dynamical order by dissipating certain planetary disequilibria."

They suggest four criteria for lyfe:

1. It draws on energy sources in its environment that keep it from becoming uniform and unchanging.
2. It grows exponentially (for example by replication).
3. It can regulate itself to stay stable in a changing environment.
4. It learns and remembers information about that environment. Darwinian evolution is an example of such learning over very long timescales: genes preserve useful adaptations to particular circumstances.

https://www.mdpi.com/life/life-10-00042/article_deploy/html/images/life-10-00042-g001-550.jpg

https://www.mdpi.com/life/life-10-00042/article_deploy/html/images/life-10-00042-g004-550.jpg

Bartlett, S.; Wong, M.L. Defining Lyfe in the Universe: From Three Privileged Functions to Four Pillars. Life 2020, 10, 42.

https://www.mdpi.com/2075-1729/10/4/42

 

[koolishman]

NASA is planning to deflect an asteroid from its orbit.

NASA's First Planetary Defense Mission Target Gets a New Name

Nearly two decades ago, a near-Earth asteroid was discovered to have a moon and the binary system was given the name “Didymos”—Greek for “twin,” a loose description of the larger main body and the smaller orbiting moon, which became unofficially known as Didymos B.

In 2022, that moon will be the target of NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), the first full-scale demonstration of an asteroid deflection technology for planetary defense. The DART spacecraft will execute a kinetic impact, deliberately crashing into the asteroid to change its motion in space. To mark this historic mission, Didymos B is getting an official name of its own: Dimorphos.

“Upon discovery, asteroids get a temporary name until we know their orbits well enough to know they won't be lost. Once the Didymos system was identified as the ideal target for the DART mission, we needed to formally distinguish between the main body and the satellite,” said Andy Rivkin, a research astronomer and DART investigation co-lead at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), which is building and managing the mission for NASA.


https://www.nasa.gov/planetarydefense

 

[koolishman]

Cogntive skills seen in cuttlefish.

Learned valuation during forage decision-making in cuttlefish

The present study examines whether decision-making by cuttlefish is dependent on relative values learned from previous experience. Cuttlefish preferred a larger quantity when making a choice between one or two shrimps (1 versus 2) during a two-alternative forced choice. However, after cuttlefish were primed under conditions where they were given a small reward for choosing one shrimp in a no shrimp versus one shrimp test (0 versus 1) six times in a row, they chose one shrimp significantly more frequently in the 1 versus 2 test. This reversed preference for a smaller quantity was not due to satiation at the time of decision-making, as cuttlefish fed a small shrimp six times without any choice test prior to the experiment still preferred two shrimps significantly more often in a subsequent 1 versus 2 test. This suggests that the preference of one shrimp in the quantity comparison test occurs via a process of learned valuation. Foraging preference in cuttlefish thus depends on the relative value of previous prey choices.

https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.201602

 

[CraigD]

Dark storm on Neptune changes direction, escapes deadly fate

Astronomers used the Hubble Space Telescope to observe unusual weather on the planet Neptune, not observed until now. They saw a large, dark storm on Neptune unexpectedly changing direction, thereby saving itself from looming destruction and possibly producing a smaller companion storm.

https://earthsky.org/upl/2020/12/Neptune-dark-spots-storms-Hubble.png

 

[Sutruk]

Cogntive skills seen in cuttlefish.

Learned valuation during forage decision-making in cuttlefish

The present study examines whether decision-making by cuttlefish is dependent on relative values learned from previous experience. Cuttlefish preferred a larger quantity when making a choice between one or two shrimps (1 versus 2) during a two-alternative forced choice. However, after cuttlefish were primed under conditions where they were given a small reward for choosing one shrimp in a no shrimp versus one shrimp test (0 versus 1) six times in a row, they chose one shrimp significantly more frequently in the 1 versus 2 test. This reversed preference for a smaller quantity was not due to satiation at the time of decision-making, as cuttlefish fed a small shrimp six times without any choice test prior to the experiment still preferred two shrimps significantly more often in a subsequent 1 versus 2 test. This suggests that the preference of one shrimp in the quantity comparison test occurs via a process of learned valuation. Foraging preference in cuttlefish thus depends on the relative value of previous prey choices.

https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.201602

Cuttlefish are also very intelligent animals like Octopus. They have an incredible array of color changes to communicate between them.

 

[Sutruk]

I certainly won't have an issue taking mRNA vaccines because as you have pointed out they are based on years of research.

Here are a few interesting articles that I have been reading concerning mRNA and also the mRNA vaccine technology:

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

Messenger RNA (mRNA)

Messenger RNA (mRNA) is a single-stranded RNA molecule that is complementary to one of the DNA strands of a gene. The mRNA is an RNA version of the gene that leaves the cell nucleus and moves to the cytoplasm where proteins are made. During protein synthesis, an organelle called a ribosome moves along the mRNA, reads its base sequence, and uses the genetic code to translate each three-base triplet, or codon, into its corresponding amino acid.

https://www.genome.gov/genetics-glossary/messenger-rna

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

Translation: DNA to mRNA to Protein

2008
How does the cell convert DNA into working proteins? The process of translation can be seen as the decoding of instructions for making proteins, involving mRNA in transcription as well as tRNA.

https://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/translation-dna-to-mrna-to-protein-393/

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

mRNA vaccines - a new era in vaccinology

12 January 2018
mRNA vaccines represent a promising alternative to conventional vaccine approaches because of their high potency, capacity for rapid development and potential for low-cost manufacture and safe administration. However, their application has until recently been restricted by the instability and inefficient in vivo delivery of mRNA. Recent technological advances have now largely overcome these issues, and multiple mRNA vaccine platforms against infectious diseases and several types of cancer have demonstrated encouraging results in both animal models and humans. This Review provides a detailed overview of mRNA vaccines and considers future directions and challenges in advancing this promising vaccine platform to widespread therapeutic use.

https://www.nature.com/articles/nrd.2017.243

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

How mRNA vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna work, why they’re a breakthrough and why they need to be kept so cold
November 19, 2020

By Sanjay Mishra - Project Coordinator & Staff Scientist, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Vanderbilt University

... a rush of interim analyses from pharmaceutical companies Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech have spurred optimism that a novel type of vaccine made from messenger RNA, known as mRNA, can offer high levels of protection by preventing COVID-19 among people who are vaccinated.

Although unpublished, these preliminary reports have exceeded the expectations of many vaccine experts, including mine. Until early this year, I worked on developing vaccine candidates against Zika and dengue. Now I am coordinating an international effort to collect reports on adult patients with current or previous cancers who have also been diagnosed with COVID-19.

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

Thanks. Yes, in fact I did read the most of those articles before you posted them, while I was searching for this new vaccine technology.

As one of them says "their high potency, capacity for rapid development and potential for low-cost manufacture and safe administration."

The key discovery in the development of this technology was in 2005:

https://www.businessinsider.com/mrna-vaccine-pfizer-moderna-coronavirus-2020-12

BioNTech scientist Katalin Karikó risked her career to develop mRNA vaccines.

• Scientist Katalin Karikó struggled for years to convince colleagues that messenger RNA could have disease-fighting applications in humans.
• In 2005, she found a way to configure mRNA so that it slipped past the body's natural defenses — a discovery that paved for the way for the world's first mRNA vaccines.
• The COVID-19 vaccines from both Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna rely on this technology.
• Pfizer's vaccine was authorized Friday for emergency use in the US.

"In a way, Karikó's entire career has been based on this kind of clever solution. In 2005, she discovered a way to configure messenger RNA — a molecule that kickstarts the production of proteins — so that it slipped past the body's natural defenses, unannounced."

"That paved the way for what has recently turned out to be one of modern science's greatest achievements: the world's first mRNA vaccines.

Karikó, now 65, oversees mRNA protein replacement at BioNTech, a German biotech firm that developed a coronavirus vaccine in partnership with US pharma giant Pfizer. That vaccine has now been authorized in the UK, Canada, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and the US. Karikó's work also inspired the founding of Moderna, the US biotech company developing a competing coronavirus shot."

 

[Sutruk]

AI-controlled vertical farms promise revolution in food production

https://techxplore.com/news/2020-12-ai-controlled-vertical-farms-revolution-food.html

"...A San Francisco agricultural-technical startup thinks it might just have an answer. Nate Storey, who co-founded the appropriately named Plenty, wants to reinvent farming.

To do so, he has constructed climate-controlled vertical farms that are so promising, they have drawn $400 million in funding from former Google Chairman Eric Schmidt, Amazon's Jeff Bezos and SoftBank.

These upright farms take up only 2 acres yet produce 720 acres worth of fruit and vegetables. Lighting, temperature and watering are controlled by AI-controlled robots. Sunlight is emulated by LED panels, so food is grown in optimal conditions 24/7. And water is recycled and evaporated water recaptured so there is virtually no waste."

 

[Cannuck]

Defining Lyfe in the Universe: From Three Privileged Functions to Four Pillars

They suggest four criteria for lyfe:

1. It draws on energy sources in its environment that keep it from becoming uniform and unchanging.
2. It grows exponentially (for example by replication).
3. It can regulate itself to stay stable in a changing environment.
4. It learns and remembers information about that environment. Darwinian evolution is an example of such learning over very long timescales: genes preserve useful adaptations to particular circumstances.

https://www.mdpi.com/2075-1729/10/4/42

In reference to the above:

The Astrobiology of Alien Worlds: Known and Unknown Forms of Life

Most definitions of life assume that, at a minimum, life is a physical form of matter distinct from its environment at a lower state of entropy than its surroundings, using energy from the environment for internal maintenance and activity, and capable of autonomous reproduction. These assumptions cover all of life as we know it, though more exotic entities can be envisioned, including organic forms with novel biochemistries, dynamic inorganic matter, and self-replicating machines. The probability that any particular form of life will be found on another planetary body depends on the nature and history of that alien world. So the biospheres would likely be very different on a rocky planet with an ice-covered global ocean, a barren planet devoid of surface liquid, a frigid world with abundant liquid hydrocarbons, on a rogue planet independent of a host star, on a tidally locked planet, on super-Earths, or in long-lived clouds in dense atmospheres. While life at least in microbial form is probably pervasive if rare throughout the Universe, and technologically advanced life is likely much rarer, the chance that an alternative form of life, though not intelligent life, could exist and be detected within our Solar System is a distinct possibility.

Irwin, L.N.; Schulze-Makuch, D. The Astrobiology of Alien Worlds: Known and Unknown Forms of Life. Universe 2020, 6, 130.

https://www.mdpi.com/2218-1997/6/9/130

 

[CraigD]

In reference to the above:

The Astrobiology of Alien Worlds: Known and Unknown Forms of Life

Most definitions of life assume that, at a minimum, life is a physical form of matter distinct from its environment at a lower state of entropy than its surroundings, using energy from the environment for internal maintenance and activity, and capable of autonomous reproduction. These assumptions cover all of life as we know it, though more exotic entities can be envisioned, including organic forms with novel biochemistries, dynamic inorganic matter, and self-replicating machines. The probability that any particular form of life will be found on another planetary body depends on the nature and history of that alien world. So the biospheres would likely be very different on a rocky planet with an ice-covered global ocean, a barren planet devoid of surface liquid, a frigid world with abundant liquid hydrocarbons, on a rogue planet independent of a host star, on a tidally locked planet, on super-Earths, or in long-lived clouds in dense atmospheres. While life at least in microbial form is probably pervasive if rare throughout the Universe, and technologically advanced life is likely much rarer, the chance that an alternative form of life, though not intelligent life, could exist and be detected within our Solar System is a distinct possibility.

Irwin, L.N.; Schulze-Makuch, D. The Astrobiology of Alien Worlds: Known and Unknown Forms of Life. Universe 2020, 6, 130.

https://www.mdpi.com/2218-1997/6/9/130

I suppose that birth, growth, reproduction and death constitute a timeline of events that something must progress through for us to define it as a living thing.