Category: Technology
For Science on Wed.
Some sloths among animals unable to adapt to rapid climate change
A new study warns that sloths living in high-altitude rainforests of South and Central America could face extinction if temperatures there continue to rise according to climatic predictions.
The research, published in PeerJ Life & Environment, suggests that some sloths’ restricted ability to migrate to cooler regions and limited metabolic flexibility make them particularly vulnerable to climate change.
“Sloths are inherently limited by their slow metabolism and unique inability to regulate body temperature effectively, unlike most mammals,” says Dr Rebecca Cliffe, lead researcher of the study from Swansea University and The Sloth Conservation Foundation in the UK.
“Our research shows that sloths, particularly in high-altitude regions, may not be able to survive the significant increases in temperature forecast for 2100.” (snip-MORE)
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Structure of important male contraceptive target finally solved
A team at Monash University in Victoria developing a hormone-free, reversible male contraceptive has now figured out the 3D structure of one of their primary therapeutic targets – the P2X1-purinergic receptor (P2X1).
According to Dr Sab Ventura from the Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences (MIPS), this has been the main stumbling block that has so far hindered the team from progressing the drug discovery program to the next stage.
“Our primary goal is to develop a male contraceptive pill that is not only hormone-free but also bypasses side effects such as long-term irreversible impacts on fertility, making it suitable for young men seeking contraceptive options,” says Ventura.
In previous research in mice, the team showed that simultaneous inactivation of P2X1 and a second protein, α1A-adrenergic receptor, resulted in male infertility.
“Now we know what our therapeutic target looks like, we can generate drugs that can bind to it appropriately, which totally changes the game,” says Ventura. (snip-MORE)
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River piracy pushing Mount Everest upwards
Mount Everest is tall. In other news, the sky is blue.
But Everest (also called Chomolungma and Sagarmāthā) is taller than it logically should be – towering 238m above the world’s next highest peak, K2, and more than 250m higher than any of its counterparts in the relatively uniform Himalaya range.
Plus, it’s growing at about 2mm a year, faster than the expected rate for the range.
A team of Chinese and UK scientists have now suggested why this is the case.
The researchers think the culprit is a nearby river which “captured” another river 89,000 years ago, causing erosion that made Everest more buoyant.
They’ve published their findings in Nature Geoscience.
The Himalayan peaks get their extraordinary height from the collision of the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates, causing the Earth’s crust to thicken and the mountain range to push upwards.
“An interesting river system exists in the Everest region,” says co-author Dr Jin-Gen Dai, from China University of Geosciences.
The team used numerical modelling to see how the river changed over time. They found that, about 89,000 years ago, the Arun river “captured” another nearby river.
This event, referred to as “river piracy”, happens when a river diverts its course and takes up the discharge of another river or stream.
“Our research shows that as the nearby river system cuts deeper, the loss of material is causing the mountain to spring further upwards,” says co-author Adam Smith, a PhD student at University College London, UK.
The team estimates that the river piracy has made Everest between 15 and 50m higher than it would otherwise be.
It’s also made neighbouring peaks, Lhotse and Makalu, unusually tall. These are the 4th and 5th highest mountains in the world, respectively. (snip-MORE)
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Science fiction health technology a step closer
It’s not the famous Star Trek tricorder but it’s close: researchers have developed a hand-held scanner that can generate highly detailed 3D images of body parts in almost real time.
The technology can accurately image blood vessels up to 15mm deep in human tissue, which the researchers say could help to diagnose conditions such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, and arthritis.
“We’ve come a long way with photoacoustic imaging in recent years, but there were still barriers to using it in the clinic,” says Paul Beard of University College London (UCL), UK, corresponding author of the new Nature Biomedical Engineering paper.
“The breakthrough in this study is the acceleration in the time it takes to acquire images, which is between 100 and 1,000 times faster than previous scanners.
“This speed avoids motion-induced blurring, providing highly detailed images of a quality that no other scanner can provide. It also means that rather than taking 5 minutes or longer, images can be acquired in real time, making it possible to visualise dynamic physiological events.
“These technical advances make the system suitable for clinical use for the first time, allowing us to look at aspects of human biology and disease that we haven’t been able to before.” (snip-MORE)
2 For Science, on Monday
Each of these struck my fancy, so I’m sharing.
Could we hit the “pause button” on human embryo development?
September 27, 2024 Imma Perfetto
The mechanisms that allow some mammals to pause the development of their young inside the womb also seem work in human cells, according to a fascinating new study published in the journal Cell.
Biologists discovered they could induce a dormant state in human cells by decreasing the activity of the mTOR signaling pathway, which they previously showed is a major regulator of this process in mice.
They triggered this dormant state not in human embryos, but in human pluripotent stem cells and stem-cell based models known as blastoids, which mimic the blastocyst stage of embryonic development at about 5 days post-fertilisation. (snip)
Until now it was unclear whether diapause could be triggered in humans.
“The mTOR pathway is a major regulator of growth and developmental progression in mouse embryos,” says co-senior author Aydan Bulut-Karslioglu of the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics in Germany.
“When we treated human stem cells and blastoids with an mTOR inhibitor we observed a developmental delay, which means that human cells can deploy the molecular machinery to elicit a diapause-like response.”
Cells in this dormant state show reduced cell division, slower development and a decreased ability to attach to the uterine lining. The ability to enter this dormant stage seems to be restricted to the blastocyst stage of development. (snip-MORE)
Explosive energy-dense material made from air (with plasma)
September 29, 2024 Ellen Phiddian
Chemists have made an extremely energy-dense, environmentally friendly fuel out of nitrogen.
They’ve done it by employing one of chemistry’s favourite hobbies, bullying nitrogen n (N2) into weird structures. An explosion occurred, but it was a small one.
The Chinese team has successfully made the element adopt a diamond-like structure, called cubic gauche nitrogen (cg-N) and importantly made it without extremely high pressures. In fact, they managed it at standard atmospheric pressure.
They’ve published their triumph in Science Advances.
Pure nitrogen-based molecules have drawn interest from chemists because they can release a tremendous amount of energy when they decompose. (snip-MORE)
Neo-Nazi Telegram Users Panic Amid Crackdown and Arrest of Alleged Leaders of Online Extremist Group
An analysis by ProPublica and FRONTLINE shows a surge in activity on Telegram channels aligned with the Terrorgram Collective, as allies tried to rally support for their comrades in custody and sought to oust users they believed to be federal agents.
It’s a worthy read. Also, if you prefer to listen, click through to listen.
Snippets:
The recent crackdown on the social media platform Telegram has triggered waves of panic among the neo-Nazis who have made the app their headquarters for posting hate and planning violence.
“Shut It Down,” one person posted in a white supremacist chat on Tuesday, hours after Telegram founder Pavel Durov announced he would begin sharing some users’ identifying information with law enforcement.
With over 900 million users around the globe, Telegram has been both revered and reviled for its hands-off approach to moderating posted content. The platform made headlines this summer when French authorities arrested Durov, seeking to hold him responsible for illegal activity that has been conducted or facilitated on the platform — including organized drug trafficking, child pornography and fraud.
Durov has called the charges “misguided.” But he acknowledged that criminals have abused the platform and promised in a Telegram post to “significantly improve things in this regard.” Durov’s announcement marked a considerable policy shift: He said Telegram will now share the IP addresses and phone numbers of users who violate the platform’s rules with authorities “in response to valid legal requests.”
This was the second time in weeks that extremists had called on their brethren to abandon Telegram. The first flurry of panic followed indictments by the Justice Department of two alleged leaders of the Terrorgram Collective, a group of white supremacists accused of inciting others on the platform to commit racist killings. (snip)
An analysis by ProPublica and FRONTLINE, however, shows that despite the wave of early panic, users didn’t initially leave the platform. Instead there was a surge in activity on Terrorgram-aligned channels and chats, as allies of the group tried to rally support for their comrades in custody, railed against the government’s actions and sought to oust users they believed to be federal agents.
Federal prosecutors in the U.S. have charged Dallas Humber and Matthew Allison, two alleged leaders of the Terrorgram Collective, with a slew of felonies including soliciting the murder of government officials on Telegram.
Humber has pleaded (sic) not guilty. She made a brief appearance in federal court in Sacramento, California, on Sept. 13, during which she was denied bail. Humber, shackled and clad in orange-and-white jail garb, said nothing. Allison, who has not yet entered a plea, was arrested in Idaho but will face trial in California.
Attorneys for Humber and Allison did not respond to separate requests for comment.
The two are alleged Accelerationists, a subset of white supremacists intent on accelerating the collapse of today’s liberal democracies and replacing them with all-white ethno-states, according to the indictment.
Through a constellation of linked Telegram channels, the collective distributes books, audio recordings, videos, posters and calendars celebrating white supremacist mass murderers, such as Brenton Tarrant, who in early 2019 stormed two mosques in New Zealand and shot to death 51 Muslim worshippers.
The group explicitly aims to inspire similar attacks, offering would-be terrorists tips and tools for carrying out spectacular acts of violence and sabotage. A now-defunct channel allegedly run by Humber, for example, featured instructions on how to make a vast array of potent explosives. After their arrests, channels allegedly run by Humber and Allison went silent.
But within days of the indictments, an anonymous Telegram user had set up a new channel “dedicated to updates about their situation.” (snip)
Matthew Kriner, managing director of the Accelerationism Research Consortium, said the Terrorgram Collective had already been badly weakened by a string of arrests in the U.S., Europe and Canada over the past two years. “Overall, the arrests of Humber and Allison are likely the final blow to the Terrorgram Collective,” Kriner said.
In the U.S., federal agents this year have arrested at least two individuals who were allegedly inspired by the group. The first was Alexander Lightner, a 26-year-old construction worker who was apprehended in January during a raid on his Florida home. In a series of Telegram posts, Lightner said he planned to commit a racially or ethnically motivated mass killing, according to prosecutors. Court records show that agents found a manual produced by the Terrorgram Collective and a copy of “Mein Kampf” in Lightner’s home.
Lightner has pleaded (sic) not guilty to charges of making online threats and possessing an illegal handgun silencer. His attorney declined to comment. (snip)
In extremist circles, there was more discussion about fleeing Telegram after Durov’s announcement this week. “Time is running out on this sinking ship,” wrote one user. “So we’re ditching Telegram?” asked another.
“Every time we have a success against one of them, they learn, they adapt, they modify,” said Don Robinson, who as an FBI agent conducted infiltration operations against white supremacists. “Extremists can simply pick up and move to a new platform once they are de-platformed for content abuses. This leaves law enforcement and intelligence agencies playing an endless game of Whac-a-Mole to identify where the next threat may be coming from.”
Quick update.
To steal a line from a song, “I feel good”! Emotional I am not just in a good enough spot, I really feel good. Ron and I have been spending a lot of time together. Like this morning I got out of the shower and got dressed and came out to the kitchen to find Ron doing dishes. So I picked up a towel and started to dry them. He hugged me and told me I did not have to, but I wanted to just to spend time together. After drying the dishes we hugged and kissed, like we were 20 years younger. He is trying to be supportive of me knowing how not going to the MS site is making me feel so guilty. He wants to give me as many good feelings as possible.
I got all my parts needed, all my stuff is backed up, I rearranged my office space making my USB hubs more available and neater, which is important to me. I feel ready to take the Inspiron to the kitchen counter, put in the one of the new SSD hard drives, put it back on the desk, hook it up, initialize the new hard drive. Then repeat for the second new hard drive. I will then wipe both computers and reinstall a very old USB Windows install from Microsoft, and then spend hours doing updates and reinstalling all my mail and other programs. I am going to lose stuff sadly but I need to do this.
So this is the plan. I am going to rush through the comments. Everyone can help by holding your comments for a couple of days. I won’t be posting during this time. I shouldn’t have posted this morning but the news items were too important. Once I get the comments replied to I start this exercise. If I am gone for a few days no one worry. I am in a good spot, emotionally and physically. Loves and hugs for everyone who enjoys them, and Best Wishes for those would prefer them. Scottie
This is great-
It’s a WaPo piece, free (I know because I got to read it all with no nagging, and it’s not a guest link according to MPS,) and really full of info concerning a place where our tax dollars work well for we the people. This is a thing at which the US excels as a public entity. More people should know about it, so we make sure it stays public, rather than outsourced to a for-profit. Also, there is plenty of general science, and it’s noticeable how many women have great positions and have done superlative work. Thanks!
The Internet Archive Lost Their Latest Appeal
I don’t know how many remember the Internet Archive; we heard more about them during the pandemic, but also when books began to be banned and removed from libraries that were accessible to young people. Meanwhile, Big Profit was fighting the Archive even during the pandemic, but now there is some sad news.
My computer woes 9 21 2024
My really bad day trying to fix up my computers. I am very tired and worked all day on my computers to try to speed them up, and it failed badly. Hugs. Scottie
My day today so everyone can understand.
I love the current well feeling I have right now. After the weekend intervention that helped me decide to leave the MS site, every day moving forward has felt better and clearer to me. I did not realize how I was being dragged down in an endless spiral I was in. My nature and how I trained myself to care for others against my adoptive family’s childhood training. Maybe that was why I never fit in with them, they sought and took advantage of everyone, I try to help or establish a bond with everyone. Is it genetic or learned behavior, I guess I won’t ever know.
Today started as I like it. I got up at a bit late for me, and after taking care of the cats and stuff, I reached out to an online friend. I wish I had more online friends that want to voice chat like my new friend does. See I always and still do have contact with all my online friends except on via email or blog comments. When this friend suggested voice talk I was not at ease with it. But once I got use to it I find I enjoy it. I was worried it would trigger my intense fear of talking on the phone. But like on Skype I found it doesn’t trigger me. I would like to find others to do that with but that is a topic for another day.
So after that I moved on to other things on the computers, videos and news, gathering memes for my Friday meme post. But soon I went back to bed for an hour before we get up to walk. But after a vivid dream, I woke up well after sun up. I woke Ron and asked him if he wanted to walk, he said not today. So I went back to sleep for a bit. I woke up, got up, medicated and fed cats, then settled in to blog.
The point of my post is I am feeling good for once in days, and when Ron got up we spent more time together. We worked on projects together and talked about other things.
This is a question I have for the IT people that come here, my XPS has 2133 MHz ram. It can be increased from the 16 I have to 64 which is with in my budget. The faster / the newest computer is Inspiron with 2400 memory but is topped out at 16 GB ram which it has. It normally runs over 50% ram usage to 65% usage. Ron wants me to boost the XPS to 64 GB of ram and switch to using it to blog on. I simply don’t know how to move forward with the upgrades, but even though the memory is not expensive I don’t want to sink money into computers that might be aging out.
The whole post is about how I am feeling good for the first time in a long time. I was doing dishes while Ron was out and my back was giving out, I was bent so low over the sink when he came in he thought I was going to nose dive into the sink. My back had given out but I was struggling to finish. But when he came in, he took over right away. He finished the dishes while I went to the bedroom to fold the laundry. See it is the standing in one place I can not do, my back gives out when I try. It is why I hate going grocery shopping with Ron as he stops and compares everything. So then he came down and helped me finish the laundry. Then he made me a grand salad and after I eat I am going to bed. I had a wonderful, fulfilling day. Hugs, Scottie
Van Gogh painting mirrors real atmospheric physics
September 18, 2024 Ellen Phiddian
(One of the teachers with whom I worked had a beautiful tattoo of this painting on her inner wrist. She said it gave her strength. I need to send this to her, as she tutors STEAM aside from classroom work, and this is her top favorite painting.)
Scientists have peered at Vincent van Gogh’s The Starry Night painting and discovered it displays a startling resemblance to real atmospheric turbulence.
To see stars, one needs clear skies. But just because we can’t see it, doesn’t mean there aren’t intricate patterns of air movement above us on a clear night.
A paper published in Physics of Fluids, suggests that van Gogh had an “intuitive” understanding of this while making his famous painting in 1889.
A Chinese and French team analysed the brush strokes in The Starry Night, aiming to see how similar they were to real atmospheric movements.
The masterpiece has been the subject of several atmospheric studies before, with contradictory conclusions, but the researchers say they’re the first to look at all of the painting’s whirls and eddies.
They looked at the 14 main swirls in the painting, and compared these with theories on energy and turbulent flows in the atmosphere.
“The scale of the paint strokes played a crucial role,” says author Associate Professor Yongxiang Huang, a researcher in fluid dynamics at Xiamen University, China.
“With a high-resolution digital picture, we were able to measure precisely the typical size of the brushstrokes and compare these to the scales expected from turbulence theories.”
As well as brush stroke size, the researchers also examined the “relative luminance” of paint colours used in the painting’s swirls.
They found that the picture aligned with a theory of turbulence called Kolmogorov’s Law, which predicts atmospheric movement based on measured inertia.
The changes in brightness reflect a process called Batchelor’s scaling, which describes how fluids diffuse at smaller scales.
“It reveals a deep and intuitive understanding of natural phenomena,” says Huang.
“Van Gogh’s precise representation of turbulence might be from studying the movement of clouds and the atmosphere or an innate sense of how to capture the dynamism of the sky.”
https://cosmosmagazine.com/science/physics/van-gogh-starry-night-atmosphere/
Scottie's Playtime 