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]

Tesla opens its EV connector design to other automakers​

Tesla is sharing its EV charging connector design in an effort to encourage network operators and automakers to adopt the technology and help make it the new standard in North America.

Tesla said in a blog post Friday that its design and specification files are available for download. The company said it is “actively working with relevant standards bodies to codify Tesla’s charging connector as a public standard.”

The charging connector in all Tesla vehicles offers AC charging and up to 1 MW DC charging. Its compact design and performance is considered superior to the Combined Charging System (CCS) connectors used by most EVs in North America.

 

[koolishman]

Google’s newest AI generator creates HD video from text prompts​

Today, Google announced the development of Imagen Video, a text-to-video AI mode capable of producing 1280×768 videos at 24 frames per second from a written prompt. Currently, it's in a research phase, but its appearance five months after Google Imagen points to the rapid development of video synthesis models.


Interesting times we live in!

 

[koolishman]

COP27: Israel harnessing DNA of bygone wild crops to enhance food supply​

Scientists in Israel are creating a gene bank from the seeds of local wild crops, some that have survived for thousands of years since the birth of agriculture and that may help farmers deal with a harsher climate in the coming decades.

In a eucalyptus grove nestled between an industrial zone and a new railroad under construction, botanist Alon Singer collected seeds from a number of plants recently spotted, including a variety of water mint, that will be frozen and stored at the Israel Plant Gene Bank at the Volcani Institute, the national agricultural R&D center.

 

[Cannuck]

Scientists in Israel are creating a [COLOR=hsl(1, 59%, 45%)]gene bank from the seeds of local wild crops, some that have survived for thousands of years since the birth of agriculture [/COLOR]and that may help farmers deal with a harsher climate in the coming decades.

Interesting you should mention that... Today I sat down with a visiting Shaman, and we discussed a similar topic. Some of the ideas he put forth kinda burst the bubble of my own limited understanding of the historical record (w.r.t scientific data), but as he is a keeper of traditional knowledge, I respected his words. Then, after I sat down for a meal of moose and potatoes, followed by popcorn, a show on Netflix called "Ancient Apocolypse", tangentially confirmed some of the ideas I had heard earlier... now this is a third similar proposal in one day. Is it merely a coincidence, or more like deja vu? I suppose I would call it synchronicity.

 

[koolishman]

Interesting you should mention that... Today I sat down with a visiting Shaman, and we discussed a similar topic. Some of the ideas he put forth kinda burst the bubble of my own limited understanding of the historical record (w.r.t scientific data), but as he is a keeper of traditional knowledge, I respected his words. Then, after I sat down for a meal of moose and potatoes, followed by popcorn, a show on Netflix called "Ancient Apocolypse", tangentially confirmed some of the ideas I had heard earlier... now this is a third similar proposal in one day. Is it merely a coincidence, or more like deja vu? I suppose I would call it synchronicity.

We need more minds to think about future of food supplies.

Scientists Resurrect Mysterious Judean Date Palms From Biblical Era

Methuselah the tree was grown from a 2,000-year-old seed found at Masada. Now more have been grown and genetic analysis finds a twist in the origin story of the ‘Judean date’.

Reincarnating an extinct species by using cloned DNA extraction from corpses or miraculously preserved ancient seeds has not happened yet. But now science has announced the resurrection of the “extinct population” of Judean date palms using all-but-miraculously preserved seeds from around 2,000 years ago.

They didn’t resurrect an extinct species, mark you. There is only one species of date and it’s not extinct.

This whole line of research began by wondering what the dates of Judea, extolled in ancient literature, were like. Now we know, because the team also carried out genetic analysis of this resurrected vegetation, Muriel Gros-Balthazard, Khaled Hazzouri, Sylvie Ferrand and Jonathan Flowers of the New York University outlet in Abu Dhabi, Frederique Aberlenc of the University of Montpellier, Sarah Sallon of the Hadassah Medical Organization and Michael Purugganan of NYU New York reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on Monday.

“The Judean date palms are, as of now, an overarching term that refers to date palms grown in the region during Classical times. What is unclear is if they represent a distinct variety,” Prof. Purugganan explains.

Hybrid rice could put the carbon in our carbs​

Show attachment 226673


A new breed of rice that is a hybrid of an annual Asian rice and a perennial African rice could be a more sustainable option, according to Australian and international research. The researchers say perennial rice, which can last multiple harvest seasons, is more cost effective and accumulates more organic carbon and nitrogen, improving soil quality compared to annual rice. The researchers say the hybrid rice was able to produce grain for eight consecutive harvests over four years at a yield comparable to the standard annual Asian rice, with much lower costs and labour.

From a single planting, irrigated perennial rice produced grain for eight consecutive harvests over four years, averaging 6.8 Mg ha−1 harvest−1 versus the 6.7 Mg of replanted annual rice, which required additional labour and seed.


https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-022-00997-3

 

[koolishman]

Long COVID study suggests lost connections between neurons may explain cognitive symptoms​

In a recent study, we created brain organoids a little bigger than a pinhead and infected them with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.


In these organoids, we found that an excessive number of synapses (the connections between brain cells) were eliminated – more than you would expect to see in a normal brain

The exaggerated elimination of synapses we saw in the COVID-infected models could explain why some people have cognitive symptoms as part of long COVID.

 

[koolishman]

Evolution of Tree Roots Triggered Series of Devonian Mass Extinctions, Study Suggests​

The Devonian period, which occurred 419 to 358 million years ago, prior to the evolution of life on land, is known for a series of catastrophic mass extinction events, during which it’s estimated nearly 70% of all life on Earth went extinct. New research shows that the evolution of tree roots likely flooded past oceans with excess nutrients, causing massive algae growth; these destructive algae blooms would have depleted most of the oceans’ oxygen, triggering mass extinctions.

EDIT: Early in landscape development, P in the mineral phase is the primary source for biologic uptake. Because plants cannot directly access mineral-bound P, they liberate P through the acidification of root pore spaces via degradation of organic matter and the release of organic exudates from roots. Phosphorus is lost in large amounts from the mineral phase during initial landscape development, particularly in young volcanic landscapes

 

[koolishman]

Duke researchers have captured the first real-time footage of viruses on the move, right before they hijack a cell.

 

[Cannuck]

Evolution of Tree Roots Triggered Series of Devonian Mass Extinctions, Study Suggests​

EDIT: Early in landscape development, P in the mineral phase is the primary source for biologic uptake. Because plants cannot directly access mineral-bound P, they liberate P through the acidification of root pore spaces via degradation of organic matter and the release of organic exudates from roots. Phosphorus is lost in large amounts from the mineral phase during initial landscape development, particularly in young volcanic landscapes

Eutrophication is often associated with indiscrimate use or overuse of fertilizers, particularly w.r.t. phosperous and nitrogen entering adjacent water bodies.

Following EPA standards for nutrient criteria is must read for anyone involved in the agricultural sector:

https://www.epa.gov/nutrient-policy-data/nutrient-criteria-development-documents

EPA and Environment Canada have a collborative partnership, in particular with Great Lakes region and boundary water protection programs:

https://www.epa.gov/international-cooperation/epa-collaboration-canada

However, I sometimes question the International Joint Commission's wisdom, in particular, who owns the water? With increasing demand, pressure from US agricultural lobbyists for Great Lakes water to be diverted southward, especially from Lake Michigan into the Mississipi River (to the tune of 50 billion gallons/day) has reduced the water levels upstream (i.e. Lake Superior and Lake Huron). This will continue to be a point of contention going forward as Climate Change forces continue to impact traditional water sources such as aquifers and used for fracking and bottled water. This was a major point of disagreement between the two countries during Free Trade talks (USMCA/CUSMA), one in which Trump said Canada had long been taking advantage of the US. In fact, quite the opposite, since water flows downhill.

Protection of waterways, oceans and lakes is one of my main priorities.

 

[Cannuck]

@koolishman, have you heard of Kangaroo grass? A native Australian grass great for making flour & bread.

Something to look into... https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-08/kangaroo-grass-quest-as-the-next-super-crop

 

[Cal2]

WASP 3D Printed Home Aims to Be Entirely Self-Sufficient​

WASP is a very different kind of 3D printing company. The Italian firm is very idealistic and was literally founded to change the world—after all, the company name is an acronym for “World Advanced Saving Project.” WASP wishes to build things in a new, more sustainable way via 3D printing. Now, the firm has announced that it will be putting this into practice for housing. The company has bought land in Bologna where it is beginning work on a new, self-sufficient 3D printed housing community it calls Itaca.

Each Itaca home is meant to be completely self-sufficient when it comes to providing heat, water, and food for four people. What’s more, Itaca is an experiment where learning and designs will be shared so that others can adopt them. Over the next 12 months, the homes will be built using the giant WASP Crane 3D printer, already used to 3D print a home from locally sourced, earthen materials. WASP calls it a “training project, an open-source laboratory,” which is exactly the right approach to trying to improve housing and living for all. This is a giant project and an immense idea, but every revolution has an inception point and WASP is making this happen in Bologna.

WASP specifically wants to be able to construct these homes in austere environments with few resources. Away from industry, the modern world and all its conveniences, it would be possible to build homes that provide all the resources needed to live well. What is astounding about this is that the team wants to do all of this inside of a structure that measures 33 meters in diameter. Within this space, they aim to create a self sufficient ¨circular micro-economy¨ in harmony with nature.

The team wants to build more of these homes and share their findings as the project unfolds. This ¨collective research and development model¨ could aid others in building Itaca homes in other parts of the world. One could also use WASP’s learnings to produce their own home in a more sustainable way.

https://3dprint.com/295691/wasp-3d-printed-home-aims-to-be-entirely-self-sufficient/

 

[Cal2]

Fleet of 3D Printers Begin Building Housing Community in Texas with Construction Giant Lennar Corp and ICON​

As 2022 comes to an end, additive construction (AC) companies all over the world are announcing a flurry of upcoming projects. The most recent of these is also one of the most ambitious: in collaboration with Lennar Corporation, among the US’s largest construction firms, Austin-based ICON will build a community of 100 homes in Texas.

In a press release announcing Lennar’s collaboration with ICON and BIG, the housing conglomerate’s executive chairman, Stuart Miller, commented, “Given the housing shortage that persists across the country, it has never been more important to innovate in order to find new methods of construction that will enable greater design flexibility and greater production at affordable prices.” ICON’s co-founder and CEO, Jason Ballard, proclaimed, “In the future, I believe robots and drones will build entire neighborhoods, towns, and cities, and we’ll look back at Lennar’s Wolf Ranch community as the place where robotic construction at scale began. We still have a long way to go, but I believe this marks a very exciting and hopeful turn in the way we address housing issues in the world.”

https://3dprint.com/295708/fleet-of...with-construction-giant-lennar-corp-and-icon/

 

[koolishman]

International team of leading Israeli universities finds oldest evidence of the controlled use of fire to cook food ​

The remains of a huge carp fish (2 meters/6.5 feet length), analyzed by the Hebrew University, Bar-Ilan University Tel Aviv University, in collaboration with Oranim Academic College, the Israel Oceanographic and Limnological Research institution, the Natural History Museum in London, and the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, mark the earliest signs of cooking by prehistoric human to 780,000 years ago, predating the available data by some 600,000 years.

In the study, the researchers focused on pharyngeal teeth (used to grind up hard food such as shells) belonging to fish from the carp family. These teeth were found in large quantities at different archaeological strata at the site. By studying the structure of the crystals that form the teeth enamel (whose size increases through exposure to heat), the researchers were able to prove that the fish caught at the ancient Hula Lake, adjacent to the site, were exposed to temperatures suitable for cooking, and were not simply burned by a spontaneous fire.

​

 

[Cannuck]

World population reaches 8 billion on 15 November 2022​

The global population is projected to reach 8 billion on 15 November 2022, and India is projected to surpass China as the world’s most populous country in 2023, according to World Population Prospects 2022, released today on World Population Day.

“This year’s World Population Day falls during a milestone year, when we anticipate the birth of the Earth’s eight billionth inhabitant. This is an occasion to celebrate our diversity, recognize our common humanity, and marvel at advancements in health that have extended lifespans and dramatically reduced maternal and child mortality rates,” said UN Secretary-General António Guterres. “At the same time, it is a reminder of our shared responsibility to care for our planet and a moment to reflect on where we still fall short of our commitments to one another,” he added.

More than half of the projected increase in the global population up to 2050 will be concentrated in eight countries: the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines and the United Republic of Tanzania. Countries of sub-Saharan Africa are expected to contribute more than half of the increase anticipated through 2050.

https://www.un.org/en/desa/world-population-reach-8-billion-15-november-2022


World Population Prospects 2022 is the twenty-seventh edition of the official United Nations population estimates and projections. The 2022 revision also presents population projections to the year 2100 that reflect a range of plausible outcomes at the global, regional and national levels.

https://www.un.org/development/desa/pd/content/World-Population-Prospects-2022

 

[Digital Nomad]

This is a LIVE YouTube stream about the mission to the moon. Launch is in about 2 and a half hours from now.​

NASA is set to launch the Orion spacecraft to a distant retrograde lunar orbit atop the Space Launch System (SLS) for its maiden launch known as Artemis 1. Launching from Launch Complex 39B, at the Kennedy Space Center, in Florida, the Artemis I mission will certify both Orion and the SLS Block 1 rocket for crewed spaceflight; its next mission–aptly named Artemis II–will be crewed, and bring a yet-announced crew to lunar orbit (but will not land on the lunar surface) #artemis1​

 

[Cannuck]

Simple is good...

More on thermal batteries...

 

[koolishman]

A clam presumed extinct for 40,000 years has been found alive​

Known as Cymatioa cooki, the clam had only ever been found as a fossil, and scientists presumed that the species had been extinct for more than 40,000 years. Then, while scouring tide pools for sea slugs off the coast of California in 2018, marine ecologist Jeff Goddard spotted something unfamiliar: a white, translucent bivalve roughly 11 millimeters in length.

 

[koolishman]

A super-pressurized, 290-mile-long river is running under the ice sheet. That could be bad news for sea-level rise.

Researchers just found that, at the base of Antarctica’s ice, an area the size of Germany and France combined is feeding meltwater into a super-pressurized, 290-mile-long river running to the sea. “Thirty years ago, we thought the whole of the ice pretty much was frozen to the bed,” says Imperial College London glaciologist Martin Siegert, coauthor of a new paper in Nature Geoscience describing the finding. “Now we're in a position that we've just never been in before, to understand the whole of the Antarctic ice sheet.”

 

[koolishman]

Rats have a sense of rhythm and they bop to Queen and Lady Gaga​

The researchers played the rats a few songs in this bpm range (Born This Way by Lady Gaga, Another One Bites the Dust by Queen, Beat It by Michael Jackson, and Sugar by Maroon 5). They also played one-minute excerpts from Mozart’s Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major, K. 448, at four different tempos: 75%, 100%, 200% and 400% of the original speed. Human participants also underwent a similar experiment.

“Rats displayed innate—that is, without any training or prior exposure to music—beat synchronization most distinctly within 120-140 bpm,” explained Associate Professor Hirokazu Takahashi from the Graduate School of Information Science and Technology. “To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on innate beat synchronization in animals that was not achieved through training or musical exposure,” he added.

 

[koolishman]

FDA approves lab-grown meat for the first time​

The FDA "evaluated the information submitted to the agency and has no further questions at this time about the firm's safety conclusion," the agency stated.

"This is a watershed moment in the history of food," Uma Valeti, CEO and founder of the Berkeley, California-based company, said in a statement. "U.S. consumers will soon have the chance to eat delicious meat that's grown directly from animal cells."

The cells from a single chicken allow for the cultivation of the same amount of poultry that now comes from hundreds of thousands of farmed birds, according to his company.

Although the agency found Upside Foods' chicken safe to eat, the product is not approved to be sold. Upside's remaining hurdles before it can take its product to the market involve the U.S. Department of Agriculture and its Food Safety and Inspection Service.

 

[koolishman]

Intel Introduces Real-Time Deepfake Detector​

As part of Intel's Responsible AI work, the company has productized FakeCatcher, a technology that can detect fake videos with a 96% accuracy rate. Intel’s deepfake detection platform is the world’s first real-time deepfake detector that returns results in milliseconds.

 

[koolishman]

Physics study shows that sheep flocks alternate their leader and achieve collective intelligence​

Luis Gómez-Nava, Richard Bon and Fernando Peruani, three researchers at Université Côte d'Azur, Université de Toulouse, and CY Cergy Paris Université have recently used physics theory to examine the collective behavior of small flocks of sheep. Their findings, published in Nature Physics, show that by alternating between the role of leader and follower, the flock ultimately achieves some form of "collective intelligence."

"In most gregarious animal systems, collective motion is not a continuous process, but occurs in episodes: collective motion phases are interrupted, for instance, to rest or feed," Peruani told Phys.org. "Nevertheless, most collective motion studies, including experimental and theoretical ones, consider groups that remain, from the beginning till the end, on the move. Furthermore, it is often assumed that flocking behavior requires individuals to continuously negotiate on the direction of travel."

 

[koolishman]

World population reaches 8 billion on 15 November 2022​

The global population is projected to reach 8 billion on 15 November 2022, and India is projected to surpass China as the world’s most populous country in 2023, according to World Population Prospects 2022, released today on World Population Day.

“This year’s World Population Day falls during a milestone year, when we anticipate the birth of the Earth’s eight billionth inhabitant. This is an occasion to celebrate our diversity, recognize our common humanity, and marvel at advancements in health that have extended lifespans and dramatically reduced maternal and child mortality rates,” said UN Secretary-General António Guterres. “At the same time, it is a reminder of our shared responsibility to care for our planet and a moment to reflect on where we still fall short of our commitments to one another,” he added.

More than half of the projected increase in the global population up to 2050 will be concentrated in eight countries: the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines and the United Republic of Tanzania. Countries of sub-Saharan Africa are expected to contribute more than half of the increase anticipated through 2050.

https://www.un.org/en/desa/world-population-reach-8-billion-15-november-2022


World Population Prospects 2022 is the twenty-seventh edition of the official United Nations population estimates and projections. The 2022 revision also presents population projections to the year 2100 that reflect a range of plausible outcomes at the global, regional and national levels.

https://www.un.org/development/desa/pd/content/World-Population-Prospects-2022

The other side of this issue.

The world’s baby shortfall is so bad that the labor shortage will last for years, major employment firms predict​

Now two major employment websites, Indeed and Glassdoor, are looking forward to 2023’s workforce (and well beyond that) to predict whether the “demographic shifts” of the last few years will continue. In short, yes—and it means the labor shortage is here to stay for a while.


Using World Bank projections and analyzing employment trends across several countries, economists for both job sites found the number of people of working age (15 to 65) is set to decline in the coming years. That means hiring will be more difficult and workers will have more leverage over employers.


The decline in people of working age will partly stem from an aging population, the number of deaths exceeding births, and reduced immigration. For example, the U.S. and U.K.’s population growth will be driven solely by net migration. And in the U.K., deaths are projected to exceed births by 2025.


https://www.glassdoor.com/research/workplace-trends-2023/

Also,

‘I’m afraid to have children’: fear of an older future in Japan and South Korea


The population of the world’s third-biggest economy, where adult incontinence pads outsell babies’ nappies, has been in decline for several years and suffered a record fall of 644,000 in 2020-21, according to government data. It is expected to plummet from its current 125 million to an estimated 88 million in 2065 – a 30% decline in 45 years.

 

[Cannuck]

Physics study shows that sheep flocks alternate their leader and achieve collective intelligence​

I am reminded of the Lessons of the Geese:

 

[Cal2]

I am reminded of the Lessons of the Geese: