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!

 

[Cal2]

Physicists Got a Quantum Computer to Work by Blasting It With the Fibonacci Sequence​

An experiment involving a Fibonacci pattern of laser pulses apparently yielded a new state of matter.​

A team of physicists say they managed to create a new phase of matter by shooting laser pulses reading out the Fibonacci sequence to a quantum computer in Colorado. The matter phase relies on a quirk of the Fibonacci sequence to remain in a quantum state for longer.

Just as ordinary matter can be in a solid, liquid, gas, or superheated plasmic phase (or state), quantum materials also have phases. The phase refers to how the matter is structured on an atomic level—the arrangement of its atoms or its electrons, for example. Several years ago, physicists discovered a quantum supersolid, and last year, a team confirmed the existence of quantum spin liquids, a long-suspected phase of quantum matter, in a simulator. The recent team thinks they’ve discovered another new phase. .....

In the recent research, pulsing a laser periodically at the 10 ytterbium qubits kept them in a quantum state—meaning entangled—for 1.5 seconds. But when the researchers pulsed the lasers in the pattern of the Fibonacci sequence, they found that the qubits on the edge of the system remained in a quantum state for about 5.5 seconds, the entire length of the experiment (the qubits could have remained in a quantum state for longer, but the team ended the experiment at the 5.5-second mark). ......

More robust, longer-lived quantum systems are a vital need for the future of quantum computing. If it takes shooting qubits with a very specific mathematical rhythm of laser pulses to keep a quantum computer in an entangled state, then physicists had better start blasting.

https://gizmodo.com/physicists-got-...tter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2022-10-19

 

[koolishman]

Our brains use quantum computation​

Dr Christian Kerskens, lead physicist at the Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience (TCIN), is the co-author of the research article that has just been published in the Journal of Physics Communications. He said:


“We adapted an idea, developed for experiments to prove the existence of quantum gravity, whereby you take known quantum systems, which interact with an unknown system. If the known systems entangle, then the unknown must be a quantum system, too. It circumvents the difficulties to find measuring devices for something we know nothing about.

“For our experiments we used proton spins of ‘brain water’ as the known system. ‘Brain water’ builds up naturally as fluid in our brains and the proton spins can be measured using MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging). Then, by using a specific MRI design to seek entangled spins, we found MRI signals that resemble heartbeat evoked potentials, a form of EEG signals. EEGs measure electrical brain currents, which some people may recognise from personal experience or simply from watching hospital dramas on TV.”


Electrophysiological potentials like the heartbeat evoked potentials are normally not detectable with MRI and the scientists believe they could only observe them because the nuclear proton spins in the brain were entangled.


https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/2399-6528/ac94be

This paper is not yet peer reviewed.

 

[koolishman]

Primary school kids to be fed insects as an eco-friendly ‘alternative protein’​

While most children expect to eat the likes of lasagne and fish and chips while at school, pupils at four Welsh primary schools will soon be given the chance to sample bugs and insects as part of a new environmental study.

Researchers hope to feed the pupils a product called VeXo, a combination of insect and plant-based protein said to resemble ‘conventional’ mince.


The children will also take part in workshops organised by scientists and teachers to inform them about the benefits of eating ‘alternative protein’ like bugs.

 

[koolishman]

The Pacific Ocean Is Shrinking and Will Form a New Supercontinent, Scientists Say​

The Pacific Ocean is shrinking. Every year, it gets about an inch smaller as the tectonic plates that the Americas sit on are pushed westward. Now, thanks to calculations by a supercomputer, scientists say that a new “supercontinent” will eventually emerge due to this process: Amasia.

To shed light on this mystery, researchers led by Chuan Huang, a geophysicist at Curtin University in Australia, simulated the future of Earth with a supercomputer. The results suggest that a new supercontinent, Amasia, will form when the Pacific Ocean shrinks into nothingness some 200 million years from now, causing North America to slam into Asia, according to a recent study published in National Science Review.

 

[Cannuck]

Primary school kids to be fed insects as an eco-friendly ‘alternative protein’​

While most children expect to eat the likes of lasagne and fish and chips while at school, pupils at four Welsh primary schools will soon be given the chance to sample bugs and insects as part of a new environmental study.

I can tell in advance that this will be a point of contention for some, particularly those in Western countries who have never munched on Thai fried grasshoppers (Malang tod) and others. From experience, once you get over the sight of and psychological aversion to critters, they're generally very tasty (apart from the hind legs, lol). That said, feeding the world's population in the next century IMO will require alternate protein sources, and camouflaged protein is still protein. One only need visit an industrial abbatoir to appreciate alternative food sources. Bon appetit kiddos

 

[HotKey]

An inch per year, over 200 million years, culminating to a slam. Or more of a nudge..

 

[Cannuck]

The Moon Is Rusting, and Researchers Want to Know Why​

Mars has long been known for its rust. Iron on its surface, combined with water and oxygen from the ancient past, give the Red Planet its hue. But scientists were recently surprised to find evidence that our airless Moon has rust on it as well.

Interestingly, the village where I live is named after that red rock called, Blood of the . Some explanation has been passed down through legend, but the caldera left and surrounding hematite would indicate an asteroid/meteor impact many thousands of years ago. I would suggest this is a source of its presence on the moon.

 

[koolishman]

Black Death etched a mark on our genetics, warping immune responses, study finds​

When the Black Death massacred up to 50 percent of the European population in the mid-14th century, it appears to have etched an enduring mark on human genetics, altering the frequency of genes that shape our immune systems—which may or may not be a good thing for modern humans.


That's according to a study out Wednesday in Nature from an international team of researchers led by anthropologists and geneticists at McMaster University in Canada and the University of Chicago.

The team dug deep into genetic data from over 200 people who died prior to the Black Death, during the deadly pandemic, and afterward in London and Denmark. Their findings suggest that the pandemic was a selective evolutionary pressure on humans, shifting the diversity of gene variants for at least four immune system-related genes. Subsequent petri-dish experiments with immune cells suggested that variants of the four genes were protective against the plague bacteria—Yersinia pestis—as well as other pathogens. But the authors also note that some of the genes have been associated with an increased risk of autoimmune diseases, such as Crohn's disease, rheumatoid arthritis, and lupus.

 

[koolishman]

NASA’s Webb Takes Star-Filled Portrait of Pillars of Creation​

 

[koolishman]

NASA Telescope Takes 12-Year Time-Lapse Movie of Entire Sky ​

 

[koolishman]

Are you a mosquito magnet? It’s because of how you smell.​

Some people are magnets for mosquitoes, emitting a tantalizing combination of chemicals that invites the pesky insects to dine on them.

Researchers at Rockefeller University in New York found people who have higher levels of certain acids on their skin are 100 times more attractive to the female Aedes aegypti, the type of mosquito responsible for spreading diseases such as dengue, chikungunya, yellow fever and Zika.

 

[Cannuck]

Are you a mosquito magnet? It’s because of how you smell.​

Some people are magnets for mosquitoes, emitting a tantalizing combination of chemicals that invites the pesky insects to dine on them.

I've always been under the impression that it also had something to do with body heat and/or infra-red signature, but arguably that's because when one sweats, out come odours. I've also developed one of the world's best secret defenses against the critters, but if I told you, I'd have to kill you, lol.

 

[Cannuck]

Gamma-ray burst may represent the most powerful cosmic explosion ever recorded​

The incredible blast, officially dubbed GRB 221009A, was first spotted by gamma-ray and X-ray telescopes, including NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope and the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, on Oct 9. The initial detection sent teams of astronomers around the world scrambling to observe the aftermath of the cosmic explosion, resulting in several additional detections over the following days. Astronomers have since given the burst the affectionate nickname "the B.O.A.T" — standing for the brightest of all time. GRB 221009A is thought to be brighter than other highly energetic GRBs by a factor of at least 10.

https://www.livescience.com/gamma-ray-brightest-of-all-time

 

[HotKey]

I've always been under the impression that it also had something to do with body heat and/or infra-red signature, but arguably that's because when one sweats, out come odours. I've also developed one of the world's best secret defenses against the critters, but if I told you, I'd have to kill you, lol.

That's ok, I'll die happy then. Please share.

The best defense I ever used was becoming one with nature, and not fighting it. Letting all the sweat of the body and grit of the mire and forest meld together, after about 12 hours the buzzing bastards just think you're a rotten stump and ignore you.

 

[koolishman]

I've always been under the impression that it also had something to do with body heat and/or infra-red signature, but arguably that's because when one sweats, out come odours. I've also developed one of the world's best secret defenses against the critters, but if I told you, I'd have to kill you, lol.

I was the mozzie magnet. They pick me out of a crowd and hover over my head, giving me mosquito halo.

 

[Cannuck]

The best defense I ever used was becoming one with nature, and not fighting it. Letting all the sweat of the body and grit of the mire and forest meld together, after about 12 hours the buzzing bastards just think you're a rotten stump and ignore you.

Some of my best friends are lumberjacks, lol...

 

[Cannuck]

I was the mozzie magnet.

I recommend eating/drink garlic as a first measure, they don't seem to like the taste (in blood and c02).

That's ok... Please share.

Don't worry, I was just joking... Canadians, so polite, how can I not share?

An all-purpose cleaner/shampoo base made from berries found in Himalayas, widely used before chemical cleaners, a natural surfactant, astringent, anti-bacterial disinfectant. I add a couple ingredients to boost efficacy, and as far as I know, I'm the only one who has developed the recipe (took several years). I've sold a ton.

 

[koolishman]

World's Oldest Known Map of Stars Found Hiding in Medieval Manuscript​

Multispectral imaging of an ancient Greek palimpsest reveals fragments of astronomer Hipparchus' fabled treatise on the night sky.



Hipparchus, who's also known as the father of trigonometry, is often considered the greatest astronomer of ancient Greece. Parts of his star map appear to have shown up in the Codex Climaci Rescriptus, a book of Syriac texts written in the 10th or 11th centuries whose parchment pages were erased so they could be reused (a common recycling practice at the time), but still bear visible traces of their earlier form. This particular palimpsest came from the Greek Orthodox Saint Catherine's Monastery on Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, though the Museum of the Bible in Washington, DC, now owns most of the Codex's folios.

 

[koolishman]

Record-breaking chip can transmit entire internet's traffic per second ​

The speed record for data transmission using a single light source and optical chip has been shattered once again. Engineers have transmitted data at a blistering rate of 1.84 petabits per second (Pbit/s), almost twice the global internet traffic per second.

It’s hard to overstate just how fast 1.84 Pbit/s really is. Your home internet is probably getting a few hundred megabits per second, or if you’re really lucky, you might be on a 1-gigabit or even 10-gigabit connection – but 1 petabit is a million gigabits. It’s more than 20 times faster than ESnet6, the upcoming upgrade to the scientific network used by the likes of NASA.

 

[koolishman]

Myth, busted: Formation of Namibia’s fairy circles isn’t due to termites​

So-called "fairy circles" are bare, reddish-hued circular patches notably found in the Namibian grasslands and northwestern Australia. Scientists have long debated whether these unusual patterns are due to termites or to an ecological version of a self-organizing Turing mechanism. A few years ago, Stephan Getzin of the University of Göttingen found strong evidence for the latter hypothesis in Australia. And now his team has found similar evidence in Namibia, according to a new paper published in the journal Perspectives in Plant Ecology, Evolution and Systematics.

 

[koolishman]

Rats with backpacks could help rescue earthquake survivors ​

The project, conceived of by Belgian non-profit APOPO, is kitting out rodents with tiny, high-tech backpacks to help first responders search for survivors among rubble in disaster zones.

“Rats are typically quite curious and like to explore – and that is key for search and rescue,” says Donna Kean, a behavioral research scientist and leader of the project.


In addition to their adventurous spirit, their small size and excellent sense of smell make rats perfect for locating things in tight spaces, says Kean.

 

[koolishman]

During sleep, one brain region teaches another, converting novel data into enduring memories ​

In research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, they show that as the brain cycles through slow-wave and rapid-eye movement (REM) sleep, which happens about five times a night, the hippocampus teaches the neocortex what it learned, transforming novel, fleeting information into enduring memory.

“This is not just a model of learning in local circuits in the brain. It’s how one brain region can teach another brain region during sleep, a time when there is no guidance from the external world,” says Schapiro, an assistant professor in Penn’s Department of Psychology. “It’s also a proposal for how we learn gracefully over time as our environment changes.”

 

[koolishman]

New Technique For Decoding People's Thoughts Can Now Be Done From a Distance​

For the new study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, the team scanned the brains of one woman and two men in their 20s and 30s. Each participant listened to 16 total hours of different podcasts and radio shows over several sessions in the scanner.

The team then fed these scans to a computer algorithm that they called a "decoder," which compared patterns in the audio to patterns in the recorded brain activity.

The algorithm could then take an fMRI recording and generate a story based on its content, and that story would match the original plot of the podcast or radio show "pretty well," Huth told The Scientist.

In other words, the decoder could infer what story each participant had heard based on their brain activity.

 

[koolishman]

I recommend eating/drink garlic as a first measure, they don't seem to like the taste (in blood and c02).



Don't worry, I was just joking... Canadians, so polite, how can I not share?

An all-purpose cleaner/shampoo base made from berries found in Himalayas, widely used before chemical cleaners, a natural surfactant, astringent, anti-bacterial disinfectant. I add a couple ingredients to boost efficacy, and as far as I know, I'm the only one who has developed the recipe (took several years). I've sold a ton.

Wow!

So, you have to use it while bathing? How many hours does the effect last?

You still sell this? Mind sharing the formula?

 

[koolishman]

NASA announces its unidentified aerial phenomena research team to examine mysterious sightings​

A 16-person team — including an astronaut, a space-treaty drafter, a boxer, and several astrobiologists — will soon begin its review of unexplained aerial phenomena (UAP) for NASA.

The space agency announced Friday the members of the team, who will labor over the course of nine months starting on Monday to analyze unclassified data on UAPs, peculiar sightings of objects behaving unlike anything we’re familiar with. But until the full report is released to the public in mid-2023, NASA says everything will be kept a secret.

The space agency says officials are excited to see what the team uncovers. “NASA is going in with an open mind,” the space agency writes in a Frequently Asked Questions webpage devoted to UAPs. “And we expect to find that explanations will apply to some events and different explanations will apply to others. We will not underestimate what the natural world contains, and we believe there is a lot to learn.