Imagine the view!

Quantum computers can currently only run small programs but a trick for reducing a quantum program's size could boost their power for running AI algorithms

Nature, Published online: 21 February 2023; doi:10.1038/d41586-023-00479-2

But the risks associated with the procedure mean it is unlikely to be widely used in its current form.

Hon är på jakt efter ett bra vaccin mot malaria och forskar om parasiten som orsakar sjukdomen. Forskning kan även ge bättre läkemedel mot fästingparasiten Babesia.

PepsiCo and Coca-Cola enter hard soda markets, causing concerns among regulators and researchers.

Wild animals eat the strangest things. That can be a problem, for them and for us.

Evidence of massive paleotsunamis, or tsunamis that predate written records, is being uncovered across the globe, revealing that coastal communities could be in more danger from the giant waves than they realize. A small group of researchers is working to pinpoint locations prone to future disasters.

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Director Marion Neumann not only pays tribute to the magic of mushrooms but claims they could save humanity from the coming climate apocalypse

At once earthy and magical, fungi not only link us to the origins of life itself but also open doors to alternate realms of consciousness. In Marion Neumann’s loose-limbed documentary, just the latest in a string of films that opine on its enigma, the mushroom can even save the world.

Compared with the surreal time-lapse photography of Louie Schwartzberg’s Fantastic Fungi (2019) or the rustic charm of Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw’s The Truffle Hunters (2020), Neumann’s approach is more free-wheeling and eccentric. Interviews with a wide host of fungi lovers – who include scientists, culinary specialists and devoted enthusiasts – delve into the generative power of mushrooms with vigour and optimism. Considering that the cultivation of fungal cultures has allowed us to ease our physical ailments as well as repair damaged ecosystems, the film posits that, beyond a transactional relationship, humans can also model our behaviours after the virtues of the mushroom. Mycelium, the word that describes the thread-like structure of fungal colonies, is often brought up, suggesting that humanity should aspire to such interconnectedness in the face of increasing ecological disasters.

Continue reading…

On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a "bump" for our ask. This week features "What were climate scientists predicting in the 1970s?". More will follow in the upcoming weeks. Please follow the Further Reading link at the bottom to read the full rebuttal and to join the discussion in the omment thread there.

At a glance

If you are aged 60 or over, you may remember this particular myth first-hand. For a brief time in the early to mid-1970s, certain sections of the popular media ran articles describing how we were heading for a renewed ice-age. Such silliness endures to the present day, just with a different gloss: as an example, for the UK tabloid the Daily Express, October just wouldn't be October without it publishing at least one made-up account of the impending 100-day snow-apocalypse.

There were even books written on the subject, such as Nigel Calder's mischievously-entitled The Weather Machine, published in 1974 by the BBC and accompanying a “documentary” of the same name, which was nothing of the sort. A shame, because the same author's previous effort, The Restless Earth, about plate tectonics, was very good indeed.

Thomas Peterson and colleagues did a very neat job of obliterating all of this nonsense. In a 2008 paper titled The myth of the 1970s global cooling scientific consensus, they dared do what the popular press dared not to. They had a look at what was actually going on. Obtaining copies of the peer-reviewed papers on climate, archived in the collections of Nature, JSTOR and the American Meteorological Society and published between 1965 and 1979, they examined and rated them. Would there be a consensus on global cooling? Alas! – no.

Results showed that despite the media claims, just ten per cent of papers predicted a cooling trend. On the other hand, 62% predicted global warming and 28% made no comment either way. The take-home from this one? It's the old media adage, “Never let the truth get in the way of a good story”

Please use this form to provide feedback about this new "at a glance" section. Read a more technical version via the link below!

---

Click for Further details

In case you'd like to explore more of our recently updated rebuttals, here are the links to all of them:

Myths with link to rebuttal	Short URLs
Ice age predicted in the 1970s	sks.to/1970s
It hasn't warmed since 1998	sks.to/1998
Antarctica is gaining ice	sks.to/antarctica
CRU emails suggest conspiracy	sks.to/climategate
What evidence is there for the hockey stick	sks.to/hockey
CO2 lags temperature	sks.to/lag
Climate's changed before	sks.to/past
It's the sun	sks.to/sun
Temperature records are unreliable	sks.to/temp
The greenhouse effect and the 2nd law of thermodynamics	sks.to/thermo

Surprise!

PLUS. Gennem et halvt år skal brændstof fragtes op til månelanderen Starship, mens den kredser om Jorden. Genoptankning er fremtiden, lyder det fra dansk professor.

Ian Sample speaks to Guardian science correspondent Nicola Davis about the news that Wegovy, an appetite suppressant popular with celebrities in the US, will soon be sold at UK pharmacies. It’s a prescription drug aimed at helping people with 

 lose weight, but some argue it doesn’t tackle the root cause

Clips: BBC, abc7NY

Continue reading…

It's been well worn.

Ian Sample speaks to Guardian science correspondent Nicola Davis about the news that Wegovy, an appetite suppressant popular with celebrities in the US, will soon be sold at UK pharmacies. It’s a prescription drug aimed at helping people with   lose weight, but some argue it doesn’t tackle the root cause. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/sciencepod

Some questions answered.

PLUS. Flygtige stoffer fra kølegasser, renseanlæg og lossepladser forvandler sig til PFAS-forbindelser i atmosfæren.

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False confidence can be deadly.

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The government must protect domestic food supply, the National Farmers' Union warns.

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Sixty-one organizations in the U.K. committed to a 20% reduction in working hours for all staff, with no fall in wages, for a six-month period starting in June 2022. The vast majority of companies also retained full-time productivity targets.

Here's what you need to know.

It’s been impossible to miss the latest collision of AI and mainstream culture.

The cycle started in earnest last year with the release of OpenAI’s DALL-E 2, a machine learning algorithm that concocts photorealistic images from text prompts. The hype ramped up even further with the company’s release of ChatGPT in November. But things really went off the rails last week, when Microsoft—a big investor in OpenAI with nearly unfettered access to its algorithms—blended a specialized version of ChatGPT into its Bing search engine in the form of a chatbot.

While the capability of these algorithms is undoubtedly advancing quickly, it seems recent leaps have been as much about what they can do as the fact average people can now access them.

Now, another AI is getting a mainstream release: Sony just announced its superhuman AI driver, GT Sophy, is officially joining Gran Turismo.

As of today, any player who downloads the latest update can race GT Sophy in the new “Gran Turismo Sophy Race Together” mode. The mode, which Sony says is a special event, will be available through the end of March. Players can compete with Sophy over four races, each more difficult than the last, or go head-to-head with the same car and settings to see how fast the AI can go.

GT Sophy first made headlines last year when the team published a paper in Nature outlining how the algorithm beat top Gran Turismo players. By pushing the envelope right to its physical limits and also observing etiquette—reckless drivers are penalized—the algorithm outpaced human players by seconds in a competition usually decided by milliseconds.

The plan was always to incorporate GT Sophy into the game. But the latest announcement should be viewed as a first step. Much like other recent AI deployments, Sony will seek feedback from players to improve the AI further.

While the recent round of AI releases has been in the category of generative AI—models trained to produce text or images after poring over billions of examples scraped from the internet—GT Sophy was trained a little differently.

Like other game-playing algorithms, it uses deep reinforcement learning, where the algorithm is fed the rules of the game and conditions of its environment, then plays millions of rounds, scoring its own performance and making iterative improvements. At least 10 times a second, GT Sophy takes stock of its position relative to other cars on the track and the various forces acting on the car and makes split-second decisions based on the data.

The approach has yielded algorithms that beat humans at games like Go, Starcraft, Stratego, and Diplomacy.

One way these algorithms beat humans is by developing surprising strategies. DeepMind’s AlphaGo famously outfoxed world champion Go player Lee Sedol with a move no human would make. At first dubbed a mistake, it later proved a turning point in the match.

Kazunori Yamauchi, the creator and CEO of Gran Turismo, said last year that GT Sophy gains a speed advantage thanks, in part, to an aggressive strategy driving through curves. Whereas drivers often brake into a curve and accelerate out of it, GT Sophy brakes during the curve, shifting the load from two to three tires. “We notice that, actually, top drivers such as [Formula One champions] Lewis Hamilton or Max Verstappen actually are doing that, using three tires, going fast in and fast out, all these things that we thought were unique to GT Sophy,” he said.

By racing the AI, Sony hopes players can improve. The top players in chess, for example, aren’t computer or human alone, but the two playing together.

“From the beginning, Gran Turismo Sophy was always about more than just being superhuman; we aspired to create an AI agent that would enhance the experience of players of all levels, and to make this experience available to everyone,” said Michael Spranger, Chief Operating Officer, Sony AI.

Algorithms like GT Sophy may eventually have real-world applications in robotics and self-driving cars. But for now, it’ll be more about the fun of getting schooled by an AI driver.

Image Credit: Sony

A new interactive Antarctic map promises to assist voyage planning and enhance climate research in the sea-ice zone, by bringing together Southern Ocean data from the past four decades.

Closed loop hydroponics, where nutrient solution drainage is captured and reapplied to the crop, offers advantages over flow-through or single pass systems by way of water and nutrient resource use efficiency. Increasing resource use efficiency reduces production costs and ultimately prevents environmental impacts associated with nutrient discharge to receiving water bodies.

Closed loop hydroponics, where nutrient solution drainage is captured and reapplied to the crop, offers advantages over flow-through or single pass systems by way of water and nutrient resource use efficiency. Increasing resource use efficiency reduces production costs and ultimately prevents environmental impacts associated with nutrient discharge to receiving water bodies.

Researchers created a new catalyst that transforms hydrocarbons into chemicals and materials that are higher value, easier to recycle, and biodegrade in the environment. This catalyst transforms materials such as motor oil, plastics in single-use grocery bags, water or milk bottles, and their caps, and even natural gas. It was developed by a team of scientists led by Aaron Sadow, a scientist at Ames National Laboratory, director of the Institute for Cooperative Upcycling of Plastic (iCOUP), and professor of chemistry at Iowa State University.

Archaeologists working in a seafront cave in Portugal have discovered the remains of various shellfish, including numerous brown crabs, where Neanderthals lived around 90,000 years ago. The finding suggests that Neanderthals were cooking and eating crab and shellfish meat. More specifically, according to the new study published in Frontiers in Environmental Archaeology, the Neanderthals living on the Iberian Peninsula hunted and ate mostly larger adult crabs. This suggests Neanderthals knew larger crabs provided more sustenance. Did Neanderthals Eat Seafood? Along with the brown crab remains, researchers found remnants of the various shellfish Neanderthals ate, including limpets, mussels and clams. The seafront cave is known as Gruta da Figueira Brava and sits about 20 miles south of Lisbon, Portugal, just off the coast of the Atlantic Ocean. Given the proximity to the sea, researchers suggested Neanderthals resorted to hunting in the shallow waters, rather than moving inland. Findings in Gruta da Figueira Brava demonstrate that Neanderthals cooked the shellfish and crab over coals and then broke them open to eat the meat that was inside. Read More: Which Animals Did Early Humans Mainly Hunt? How Do We Know Neanderthals Ate Shellfish? Researchers could deduce that Neanderthals were responsible for the shellfish remains due to the type of damage observed on the shells. According to the study, the crack marks on the shells are similar to when a person eats a crab today. Additionally, the patterns of damage on the shells don’t reflect damage that a bird or another animal would create. “Our results add an extra nail to the coffin of the obsolete notion that Neanderthals were primitive cave dwellers who could barely scrape a living off scavenged big-game carcasses,” says study author Mariana Nabais in a press release. Read More: Ancient Predators: A Guide to the Neanderthal Hunt Other Neanderthal Diets and Habits Researchers are learning more about the Neanderthal diet and the recent findings in Gruta da Figueira Brava helps shed new light. Other studies over the last few years have also uncovered that Neanderthals adapted to various environments and hunted different kinds of animals. A study published in February 2022, found that Neanderthals could hunt and take down adult straight-tusked elephants, which could weigh up to 13 tons. Neanderthals were likely able to feed hundreds of people with these carcasses. And a November 2022 study revealed that Neanderthals cooked meals that included plants such as lentils, which still exist in our diets today. Whether Neanderthals were munching on crab, or cooking elephant meat, new research surrounding their diets always gives us a closer glimpse into what life was like for this ancient species. Read More: Neanderthals Hunted and Ate Straight-Tusked Elephants

A South Korean research team at the Center for Axion and Precision Physics Research (CAPP) within the Institute for Basic Science (IBS) recently announced the most advanced experimental setup to search for  . The group has successfully taken its first step toward the search for Dine-Fischler-Srednicki-Zhitnitsky (DFSZ) axion dark matter originating from the Grand Unification Theory (GUT). Not only that, the IBS-CAPP experimental setup allows for far greater search speed compared to any other axion search experiments in the world.

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Exploring inside of our planet like we explore the solar system is a frontier that may be reached. The intense pressure and temperature in the Earth makes it nearly impossible to even conceive of how we could explore much of our planet with our own eyes. That doesn't mean we don't know a lot about the inner workings of Earth, but it takes some circumstantial evidence to pull it off. If we were to travel from the surface of the Earth to the very middle, we'd travel nearly 4,000 miles. Although that is the same distance as Boston to Helsinki, it is infinitely harder to traverse. In fact, if "straight down" is the direction you want to go, humans have only made it ~7.5 miles — or a paltry 0.2% of the trek. The hole drilled to that depth was the famous Kola Borehole in northwestern Russia (back when it was the Soviet Union). Even then, that hole was no wider than a pie plate. The very idea of exploring the interior of the Earth directly feels about a feasible as traveling faster than light. So, instead we have to use other clues and data to get an idea of what sits under our feet, then fit those to models that we've developed for the interior of a planet. Probably the most important data we can collect about Earth's interior is how quickly seismic waves generated by earthquakes pass through the planet. Depending on the layers they intersect, the waves will move at different speeds. That's because the composition and the state of the layer will alter those velocities. In general, cold and solid materials mean faster waves, warm and partially melted materials mean slower waves. This is a gross simplification, but it works in a broad sense. The Core is Slowing Down? Two recent studies in Nature Geosciences used seismic wave data to reveal some new, fascinating information about the interior of the planet. The headlines that popped up about these studies made it seem like our planet might be coming off the rails, but really they are just helping us understand the dynamic nature of the mantle and the core of Earth. The first study to catch the media's attention was one that was sold as "Earth's core stopped spinning!" Now, that does sound dramatic … except that it really isn't. That study, by Yang and Song, used repeated seismic wave travel paths to deduce the motion of the Earth's inner core. The Earth's metallic core is divided into two layers: the liquid outer core and solid inner core. The inner core is slowly growing as the outer core crystallizes and it is spinning … but it is spinning independent of the rotation of the Earth. That's because of that liquid outer core. However, there does appear to be connections between all of Earth's layers thanks to electromagnetism, gravity and momentum. What they found looking at these data is that the inner core rotation likely slowed to a stop and even change direction over the past 30 years. This appears to be part of a ~70 year cycle for the rotation of the inner core — in a sense, the core is oscillating rather than spinning. This change is manifested in slight (we're talking fractions of fractions of fractions of seconds) changes in the length of the day (Earth's rotation). Now, it might sound dramatic that the inner core may have stopped spinning or even went in reverse, but the authors think this is perfectly normal behaviour for the inner core. It likely have very little impact on surface — or even deep Earth — processes. Yet, these seismic data let us know something new about how the core works. The Mantle is Molten? The second study by Hua and others used seismic data to examine the state of the Earth's mantle. Underneath the Earth's crust (which is only up to ~45 miles thick) is the mantle, a layer that extends over 1,700 miles down. The mantle is, importantly, not a layer of molten rock. It is a top layer called the lithosphere that is solid, brittle rock (our tectonic plates are made of crust and lithosphere). The next layer is the asthenosphere, which is also solid but ductile — it can bend and flow. The mantle will convect as hot rock rises from deep in the Earth to the surface. Some of that hot rock melts under mid-ocean ridges and other tectonic boundaries. In places where molten rock (magma) is present, seismic waves tend to slow down as they pass through the "liquid". Hua and others found that there is a zone about 90-100 miles beneath our feet that seems to be a globally-present lower velocity layer. They interpret this as an area of partial melt of the mantle that is embedded in the asthenosphere. Now, the headlines used phrases like "molten rock layer" or "hidden molten layer lurking". That isn't entirely the case. The layer suggested in this study is partial melt. That means that it is likely mostly solid, but with some significant portion of magma interspersed. They don't say how much, but it could be 20% of the rock layer is liquid rock. That's far from a vast layer of magma. What was most interesting in the study is that the layer was observed globally. We know that there are areas of partial melt in the mantle in places where rock is actively melting, like mid-ocean ridges, subduction zones (like the Andes) and hotspots (like Hawai'i). A global zone means that conditions to, at the very least, melt the mantle exist widely at that depth. So, rest assured, none of these new studies imply that the Earth is doing something new and hazardous. Instead, we are using seismic wave data to reveal more about the final frontier that is the interior of the Earth. We may never get there, but at least we can catch a glimpse of what might be happening.

Businesses can close gender pay gaps, reward high performance and improve their compensation strategy by identifying the true source of pay inequity and fairly allocating raises to the most underpaid women, according to new research published in Production and Operations Management.

Plenty of homework, small classroom sizes and a long school day are often seen as the mark of a successful school—but research shows the number one factor that impacts learning is engaging teaching.

Once thought incapable of encoding proteins due to their simple monotonous repetitions of DNA, tiny telomeres at the tips of our chromosomes seem to hold a potent biological function that's potentially relevant to our understanding of cancer and aging.

Ponds are important part of urban green-blue infrastructure. They provide city dwellers with many ecosystem services, such as recreation and supporting biodiversity. Recreation, however, may conflict with supporting biodiversity. For example, fish introduced for recreational purposes can reduce the diversity of aquatic invertebrates, which in turn may limit the value of urban ponds for aquatic biodiversity conservation.

The discovery of antibiotics is one of the greatest advances in medicine, as it has enabled the effective treatment of infections caused by pathogenic bacteria. However, these compounds have been losing effectiveness due to the spread of genes that confer resistance to antibiotics among bacterial cells. Bacteria present various mechanisms to cope with antibiotic exposure, which they frequently acquire through lateral transfer of resistance genes by means of mobile genetic elements, such as plasmids.

Ny teknologi kan ikke alene løse landbrugets klimaproblem. Der skal færre husdyr til, lyder det fra Klimarådet.

In a study led by Leiden alumnus Jan Dekker, based on his research master's thesis, he applied Mass Spectrometry Imaging to archaeological human teeth. The research shows that there are large differences in the intensity of proteins across the teeth, opening new avenues of investigation.

Once thought incapable of encoding proteins due to their simple monotonous repetitions of DNA, tiny telomeres at the tips of our chromosomes seem to hold a potent biological function that's potentially relevant to our understanding of cancer and aging.

When buildings burn, the burning materials generate highly toxic carbon monoxide (CO) and hydrogen cyanide (HCN) gases, which can be fatal upon ingestion. Once inhaled, these gases bind strongly to hemoglobin, cytochromes, and iron containing compounds known as hemes, and block normal aerobic respiration. It is believed that once an individual is exposed to these life-threatening toxins, it is impossible to effectively remove them from the body. In fact, at present, there is no therapeutic approach available to overcome simultaneous CO and HCN poisoning. This poses a significant challenge in saving lives of people exposed to toxic gases in building fires.

The red streaks crisscrossing the surface of Europa, one of Jupiter's moons, are striking. Scientists suspect it is a frozen mixture of water and salts, but its chemical signature is mysterious because it matches no known substance on Earth.

Ponds are important part of urban green-blue infrastructure. They provide city dwellers with many ecosystem services, such as recreation and supporting biodiversity. Recreation, however, may conflict with supporting biodiversity. For example, fish introduced for recreational purposes can reduce the diversity of aquatic invertebrates, which in turn may limit the value of urban ponds for aquatic biodiversity conservation.

The discovery of antibiotics is one of the greatest advances in medicine, as it has enabled the effective treatment of infections caused by pathogenic bacteria. However, these compounds have been losing effectiveness due to the spread of genes that confer resistance to antibiotics among bacterial cells. Bacteria present various mechanisms to cope with antibiotic exposure, which they frequently acquire through lateral transfer of resistance genes by means of mobile genetic elements, such as plasmids.

Solving a mystery on the Solar System's icy moons.

When buildings burn, the burning materials generate highly toxic carbon monoxide (CO) and hydrogen cyanide (HCN) gases, which can be fatal upon ingestion. Once inhaled, these gases bind strongly to hemoglobin, cytochromes, and iron containing compounds known as hemes, and block normal aerobic respiration. It is believed that once an individual is exposed to these life-threatening toxins, it is impossible to effectively remove them from the body. In fact, at present, there is no therapeutic approach available to overcome simultaneous CO and HCN poisoning. This poses a significant challenge in saving lives of people exposed to toxic gases in building fires.

Older adults living with food insecurity are more likely to experience malnutrition, depression, and physical limitations that affect how they live, a new study shows.

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is the largest federally funded nutrition-assistance program in the United States, and research has shown that SNAP reduces hunger and food insecurity in the general population.

Little evidence is available, however, on how SNAP may affect brain aging in older adults. To bridge this knowledge gap, researchers investigated the relationship between food insecurity, SNAP, and cognitive decline. They found that food sufficiency and participation in SNAP may help protect against accelerated cognitive decline in older adults.

The researchers analyzed a representative sample of 4,578 older adults in the United States using data from the National Health and Aging Trends Study, 2012-20. Participants reported their experiences with food insecurity and were classified as food sufficient or food insufficient.

The SNAP status was defined as SNAP participants, SNAP-eligible nonparticipants, and SNAP-ineligible nonparticipants. The researchers found that food insecure adults experienced cognitive declines more rapidly than their food secure peers.

The researchers identified different trajectories of cognitive decline using food insufficiency status or SNAP status. Rates of cognitive decline were similar in SNAP participants and SNAP-ineligible nonparticipants, both of which were slower than the rate of SNAP-eligible nonparticipants.

The greater cognitive decline rate observed in the food insecure group was equivalent to being 3.8 years older, whereas the greater cognitive decline rate observed in the SNAP-eligible nonparticipant group was equivalent to being 4.5 years older.

“For an aging population, roughly four years of brain aging can be very significant,” says Muzi Na, assistant professor of nutritional sciences at Penn State, and lead author of the study in the Journal of Nutrition.

“These results really point to the importance of food security for people as they age and the value that SNAP can have in improving people’s cognitive health as they age. We need to make sure that people have access to—and encourage them to use—the SNAP program as they age.”

Future studies are warranted to investigate the impact of addressing food insecurity and promoting SNAP participation on cognitive health in older adults, Na says.

Additional coauthors are from Brown University, the University of South Carolina, the University of North Carolina Wilmington, the University of Maryland School of Medicine, and Penn State.

The Broadhurst Career Development Professorship for the Study of Health Promotion and Disease Prevention and the National Institute of Mental Health supported the work.

Source: Penn State

The post Food insecurity can speed older adults’ cognitive decline appeared first on Futurity.

Mass developments of cyanobacteria, so-called blue-green algae blooms, repeatedly threaten the quality of water bodies and drinking water resources worldwide. Cyanobacteria are considered to be heat-loving, and massive algal blooms are reported mainly in summer, when monitoring is particularly close.

Mass developments of cyanobacteria, so-called blue-green algae blooms, repeatedly threaten the quality of water bodies and drinking water resources worldwide. Cyanobacteria are considered to be heat-loving, and massive algal blooms are reported mainly in summer, when monitoring is particularly close.

Scientists are a step closer to creating a new generation of light-activated   treatments. These new treatments would be highly targeted and more effective than current state-of-the-art cancer immunotherapies.

Some parents may not be properly measuring or responding to elevated temperatures in children, a new national poll suggests.

Urban agriculture is rapidly growing in cities across the global north, but without data on its environmental impact, it's all but impossible to craft policies for sustainable urban food production.

A new study from the University of Santiago de Compostela utilizes the IPBES (Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services) to identify how international policy can increase the sustainability of the global cephalopod food system.

Video and photography have revealed tantalizing glimpses into the lives of Antarctic blue whales and spurred the development of automated ways to detect these critically endangered ocean giants.

According to Professor Kjetil Fallan, design is an inevitable part of the environmental problem, but also part of the solution. He believes that design history provides important insight on how to fight the environmental crisis.

Urban agriculture is rapidly growing in cities across the global north, but without data on its environmental impact, it's all but impossible to craft policies for sustainable urban food production.

A new study from the University of Santiago de Compostela utilizes the IPBES (Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services) to identify how international policy can increase the sustainability of the global cephalopod food system.

A research team led by Prof. Sun Xiaobing from the Anhui Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Hefei Institutes of Physical Science (HFIPS), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), has proposed an optimal inversion algorithm based on combined utilization of multi-band intensity and polarization information. This algorithm can meet the requirements of single-angle and multi-band polarization aerosol detection.

In lithium-ion batteries commonly used in electric vehicles, incombustible additives are added to the electrolyte in preparation for the possibility of ignition. ETRI researchers succeeded in developing a fluorosulfate-based flame retardant additive for the first time in the world. This is expected to be of great help in realizing high-safety lithium-ion batteries and overcoming the fire risk of electric vehicles.

Video and photography have revealed tantalizing glimpses into the lives of Antarctic blue whales and spurred the development of automated ways to detect these critically endangered ocean giants.

In 1936, when the influential American political scientist Harold Laswell published his seminal work Politics: Who Gets What, When, How, he couldn't have foreseen that the book's title would soon become a standard, lay definition of politics, one that endures to this day.

Ancient tools, buried for millions of years in Kenya, may be the oldest example yet of our ancestors’ technological prowess. The tools, recently discvered on the Homa Peninsula in Lake Victoria, are now the earliest known examples of Oldowan technology — stretching its known start date back by as many as 400,000 years. The Oldowan Toolkit “[Oldowan] is a real benchmark of our technology,” says paleontologist Rick Potts, the director of the Human Origins Program at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., and a co-author of the new study published in Science. The “Oldowan toolkit” is a term anthropologists use to describe the distinct technology that lasted for millions of years before Homo sapiens ever walked the Earth. These tools usually involved very controlled rock-flaking. By hitting one stone against another, ancient hominins chipped off sharp, thin slivers, leaving a sharp-edged stone behind that would have been good for chopping or scraping. The slivers could also have been used as sewing materials and other things. The technology’s name comes from the Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, where archaeologists discovered ancient hominin bones and tools during several digs beginning in the 1910s. Some of these bones date back to about 2.1 million years ago. Since then, tools that fall into this categorization have been found widely across Africa and even into Europe and East Asia. Digging in Nyayanga The Nyayanga excavation site where the stone tools were found is a lush, tropical place with deep gullies. As these gullies erode, extremely old layers of dirt and sediment — and sometimes ancient fossils and tools — are exposed. Potts, who has been exploring the area since 1985, says “it’s a ripe area to be making major discoveries.” More recently, he and his study co-authors found that the 330 stone tools they unearthed at Nyayanga date between 2.58 million and 3 million years ago. That’s hundreds of thousands of years older than the previously oldest known set of Oldowan tools, which were found in Ethiopia. “We are seeing a real sea change in terms of our understanding,” Potts says. The site has also revealed 1,776 animal fossils, including those of at least three hippos and antelopes. The bones of two of the hippos show signs of butchery marks, including a cut on the ribs and four parallel marks on a shin bone; some of the antelope bones indicate scraping. A separate analysis the researchers conducted on stone flakes found in the area shows they were likely used for scraping, cutting and pounding animals and plants. “The surprising find is that that ancient technology was used not just for cutting up animals,” Potts says. It remains unclear, however, whether these ancient tool-users killed the animals themselves before the butchering, or whether humans simply scavenged cadavers. Whose Tools Are They? Similarly, the question of who made these tools in the first place isn’t entirely obvious — though there are a few suspects. Researchers have long assumed tool use to be limited to the Homo genus. The oldest known fossil depicting this is a 2.8-million-year-old jawbone, known as LD 350-1, found in Ethiopia. That timeline lines up pretty well with the range of tools at Nyayanga. Read More: When Did Homo Sapiens First Appear? But perhaps even more compelling is the evidence found at Nyayanga itself, in the form of two molars the team has identified as belonging to Paranthropus. This genus is a close relative of the Homo genus, but some researchers have speculated that, due to their powerful jaws, Paranthropus wouldn’t have needed tools to help break down their food. “It was basically a chewing machine all by itself,” Potts says of theirjaws, though he believes that discussion is ripe to be revisited based on these latest findings. Finally, a third possible hominin found roughly around this time is Australopithecus. The best known of these, Lucy, died in Ethiopia and dates roughly to 3.2 million years ago, while the most recent Australopithecus specimensdate to about 2.9 million years ago. Read More: Lucy’s Demise: What Killed the Most Famous Fossil Any of these three hominins could have used the stone tools found in Nyayanga. But until more bones are unearthed, it’s difficult to say definitively.

Asking patients to take a short survey on a tablet before their appointments may help mental health providers identify young people at risk of psychosis. A study found that when patients took a 21-question pre-visit survey, more than twice as many were identified at risk of psychosis compared to those who did not complete the survey. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, psychosis often begins when a person is in his or her late teens to mid-twenties. About 100,000 new cases of psychosis are diagnosed each year in the U.S.

Scientists develop testing model to enhance understanding of a condition known as 'third window syndrome.'

Researchers used the drug fasudil to restore neurons and improve methamphetamine-induced cognitive dysfunction in a mouse model of schizophrenia.

Up to now, the use of models to research the barrier that separates the circulatory from the nervous system has proven to be either limited or extremely complicated. Researchers have now developed a more realistic model that can also be used to better explore new treatments for brain tumors.

Male whales along Australia's eastern seaboard are giving up singing to attract a mate, switching instead to fighting their male competition.

A new technique provides fresh insight into the process by which the materials that formed Earth's core descended into the depths of our planet, leaving behind geochemical traces that have long mystified scientists.

Professor of mathematical biology to succeed Sir Patrick Vallance after advising MoD and working with Sage during pandemic

Dame Angela McLean has been appointed as the UK’s chief scientific adviser – the first woman to hold the post.

McLean will take over the role of providing independent scientific advice to the prime minister and members of the cabinet on 1 April, after the end of Sir Patrick Vallance’s five-year term. She will also advise on aspects of science and technology policy, and work to improve the quality and use of scientific evidence and advice in government.

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Cooperating with your neighbors, especially if they are distant relatives, can be an effective evolutionary strategy, new research has found.

Marine ecologists from UNSW Sydney working to regrow kelp seaweed are calling on the public to participate in a global challenge to restore a million hectares of lost underwater forest by 2040.

Cooperating with your neighbors, especially if they are distant relatives, can be an effective evolutionary strategy, new research has found.

Marine ecologists from UNSW Sydney working to regrow kelp seaweed are calling on the public to participate in a global challenge to restore a million hectares of lost underwater forest by 2040.

Asking young people to take a short survey on a tablet before an appointment may help mental health providers identify those at risk of psychosis, according to new research.

The researchers found that when patients took a 21-question pre-visit survey, more than twice as many were identified at risk of psychosis compared to those who did not complete the survey.

But despite the improvement in detecting people at risk, the technology-based screening did not reduce the time between the participants’ first psychotic symptoms and when they received treatment.

Previous studies have shown that the longer the time between the first psychotic incident—such as hallucinations or delusions—and receiving treatment, the more severe the course of the disease.

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, psychosis often begins when a person is in his or her late teens to mid-twenties. About 100,000 new cases of psychosis are diagnosed each year in the US.

“The addition of a brief screener at the initial evaluation can make a dramatic difference in clinical decision-making, helping you to realize that an individual needs specialized care,” says Tara A. Niendam, a professor and executive director of the Health Early Psychosis Programs at the University of California, Davis, and first author of the study in JAMA Psychiatry.

Delayed mental health access in US

The researchers used data from 10 community clinics and four school sites in California. Sites were divided by those that used tablets for screening (“active screening”) and those that screened using clinical judgment (“treatment as usual”).

For the sites with active screening, individuals between the ages of 12 and 30 completed a questionnaire on a tablet before their visit with a mental health care provider.

Known as the PQ-B (Prodromal Questionnaire, Brief Version), questions included “Do familiar surroundings sometimes seem strange, confusing, threatening, or unreal to you?” and “Have you seen things that other people can’t see or don’t seem to see?”

If the questionnaire score was 20 or above, the participant was offered a referral to an early psychosis clinic for further evaluation.

If you or a loved one think you may be experiencing psychosis symptoms, UC Davis Health offers a free online screening survey.

Sites not using active screening relied on clinical judgment for further evaluation and referrals to early psychosis clinics.

The researchers evaluated data from 2,432 individuals at the active-screening sites and 2,455 at the treatment-as-usual sites.

Active-screening sites reported a significantly higher detection rate of psychosis spectrum disorders, with 136 cases (5.6%), compared to 65 (2.6%) in the sites that did not use the tablet screening.

The active-screening sites also referred 13 individuals with first-episode psychosis compared to four in the sites that did not use active screening.

But despite the early detection, the data showed no statistically significant difference in the duration of untreated psychosis. The mean for the active screening group was 239 days. The mean was 262.3 for the treatment-as-usual group.

The researchers note this was likely due to multiple factors leading to delayed access to the mental health system in the US.

“On average, our participants experienced untreated psychosis for approximately six months before presenting at one of our participating clinic sites,” says coauthor Mark Savill, assistant professor in the psychiatry and behavioral sciences department.

“A multifaceted approach that focuses on supporting individuals to seek help quicker and improving the pathway to appropriate services once they present for care may be necessary to achieve meaningful reductions in the duration of untreated psychosis.”

Benefits of psychosis screening

Twenty-four sites agreed to participate. However, only 10 community clinics and four school sites were able to fully implement the screening. Some study sites, such as primary care clinics, faced challenges implementing the screenings and reporting feedback; schools struggled with staffing issues and parent engagement.

The setbacks highlight some of the challenges that might be faced scaling up programs that offer the active screening. But the results highlight how many young people at risk of psychosis are not being identified with the current system.

“Population-based screening for psychosis has not been addressed systematically in the US prior to this study,” says senior author Cameron S. Carter, a professor of psychiatry and psychology and director of the UC Davis Health Imaging Research Center and the Behavioral Health Center for Excellence.

“Our increased identification of cases using the PQ-B questionnaire is an important finding. More people in this active group are getting into care,” Carter says. “That’s important because we know from previous research that individuals who are identified and receive treatment at the very early stages in their illness are likely to have the best outcomes.”

Additional coauthors are from the University of California, San Francisco; the University of Maryland, Baltimore; and UC Davis.

The National Institute of Mental Health funded the work.

Source: UC Davis

The post Tablet-based screening may help ID psychosis risk in youth appeared first on Futurity.

A spectacular trio of merging galaxies in the constellation Boötes takes center stage in this image from the NASA/ESA  . These three galaxies are set on a collision course and will eventually merge into a single larger galaxy, distorting one another's spiral structure through mutual gravitational interaction in the process. An unrelated foreground galaxy appears to float serenely near this scene, and the smudged shapes of much more distant galaxies are visible in the background.

University of Florida wildlife scientists are scouting for Burmese pythons in the Everglades by using previously captured pythons to lure, locate and learn how the invasive species is thriving in the Everglades.

University of Florida wildlife scientists are scouting for Burmese pythons in the Everglades by using previously captured pythons to lure, locate and learn how the invasive species is thriving in the Everglades.

Scientists have identified a volatile pheromone emitted by the tsetse fly, a blood-sucking insect that spreads diseases in both humans and animals across much of sub-Saharan Africa. The discovery offers new insights into how the flies communicate with one another and could yield new methods for controlling their populations and the harmful diseases they carry.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports the prevalence of   in the U.S. was 42.4% in 2018, with current estimates indicating the global prevalence of overweight and obesity may exceed 57% by 2030.

Prof Dame Angela McLean is to replace Sir Patrick Vallance as the government chief scientific adviser.

With recent reports suggesting there has been an increase in fatal dog attacks in the UK, it's clear the status quo isn't working. Records indicate that in an average year there would be three dog fatalities. But in 2022 there were nine.

South Korea is preparing a domestic rocket development program as part of an ambitious drive to carve out a larger slice of the global space economy following the implosion of its partnership with Russia.

California's largest and most expensive environmental cleanup has failed to properly remove lead pollution from some homes and neighborhoods near a notorious battery recycler in southeast Los Angeles County, leaving residents at continued risk, a Los Angeles Times investigation shows.

With recent reports suggesting there has been an increase in fatal dog attacks in the UK, it's clear the status quo isn't working. Records indicate that in an average year there would be three dog fatalities. But in 2022 there were nine.

As gloomy predictions foretell the end of homework, education institutions are hastily revising their policies and curricula to address the challenges posed by AI chatbots. It is true that the emergence of chatbots does raise ethical and philosophical questions. Yet, through their interactions with AI, people will inevitably enhance skills that are crucial in our day and age: language awareness and critical thinking.

Publishing houses have set the cat among the pigeons. They have introduced "sensitivity readers." Some authors are claiming this amounts to censorship. But what is the truth of this relatively new practice?

Elise, a nursing student at an elite U.S. university in the Northeast, found herself back home and sleeping on the floor of her parents' one-bedroom apartment after the COVID-19 pandemic was declared in March 2020.

Telomeres are sections of DNA that are found at the ends of chromosomes and seem to play a role in aging.

Scientists from The Ohio State University have a new theory about how the building blocks of life—the many proteins, carbohydrates, lipids and nucleic acids that compose every organism on Earth—may have evolved to favor a certain kind of molecular structure.

If one imagines the genome as an instruction manual for the functioning of a cell, every page of this manual is covered with annotations, highlights, and bookmarks. The role of some of these marks remains mysterious—do they actively direct the reader to the right place at the right time, or do they merely indicate the pages the reader has already visited?

Scientists from The Ohio State University have a new theory about how the building blocks of life—the many proteins, carbohydrates, lipids and nucleic acids that compose every organism on Earth—may have evolved to favor a certain kind of molecular structure.

If one imagines the genome as an instruction manual for the functioning of a cell, every page of this manual is covered with annotations, highlights, and bookmarks. The role of some of these marks remains mysterious—do they actively direct the reader to the right place at the right time, or do they merely indicate the pages the reader has already visited?

An American AWACS began patrolling the skies west of Ukraine last night; Kyiv was locked down this morning. Motorcades crisscrossed the city and rumors began to spread. But although it was clear someone important was about to arrive, the first photographs of President Joe Biden—with President Volodymyr Zelensky, with air-raid sirens blaring, with St. Michael’s Square in the background—had exactly the impact they were intended to have: surprise, amazement, respect. He’s the American president. He made an unprecedented trip to a war zone, one where there are no U.S. troops to protect him. And, yes, he’s old. But he went anyway.

Biden’s visit took place on the eve of the first anniversary of the outbreak of the war, and on the eve of a major speech to be delivered by Russian President Vladimir Putin. But the visit was not just a blaze of one-upmanship, nor should it be understood as the beginning of some kind of mano-a-mano public-relations battle between the two presidents. The White House says the planning began months ago, and the visit is actually part of a package, a group of statements designed to send a single message. The first part came in Vice President Kamala Harris’s speech at the Munich Security Conference last weekend, when she declared that “the United States has formally determined that Russia has committed crimes against humanity” and that Russia will be held accountable for war crimes in Ukraine. The next will be delivered in Warsaw, tomorrow: America will continue to stand by Poland and the rest of the NATO alliance, and no NATO territory will be left undefended.  

[Read: Biden just destroyed Putin’s last hope]

The message today is about Ukraine itself: Despite a year of brutal war, Kyiv remains a free city; Ukraine remains a sovereign country—and this will not change. Jake Sullivan, the national-security adviser, put it like this during a press-conference call from Kyiv: “The visit today was an effort to show, and not just tell, that we will continue to stand strong.”

These messages matter because Ukraine is now engaged in a war of attrition on several fronts. In the eastern part of the country, Ukraine and Russia are fighting an old-fashioned artillery battle. Russia sends waves of conscripts and convicts at the Ukrainian defenses, suffering huge losses and appearing not to care. The Ukrainians use up huge quantities of equipment and ammunition—one Ukrainian politician in Munich reminded me that they need a bullet for every Russian soldier—and, of course, take losses themselves.

But alongside that ground combat, a psychological war of attrition is unfolding as well. Putin thinks that he will win not through technological superiority, and not through better tactics or better-trained soldiers, but simply by outlasting a Western alliance that he still believes to be weak, divided, and easily undermined. He reckons that he has more people, more ammunition, and above all more time: that Russians can endure an infinite number of casualties, that Russians can survive an infinite amount of economic pain. Just in case they cannot, he will personally demonstrate his capacity for cruelty by locking down his society in extraordinary ways. In the city of Krasnodar, police recently arrested and handcuffed a couple in a restaurant, after an eavesdropper overheard them complaining about the war. The Sakharov Center, Moscow’s last remaining institution devoted to human rights, has just announced that it is being evicted from its state-owned buildings. Paranoia, suspicion, and fear have risen to new levels. Many expect a new mobilization, even an imminent closure of the borders.

[Read: Time is on Ukraine’s side, not Russia’s]

This psychological war plays out elsewhere too. Some Europeans, and indeed some Americans, have not yet adjusted their thinking to this Russian strategy. In Munich last weekend, it was clear that many haven’t yet accepted that the continent is really at war. The Estonian prime minister, Kaja Kallas, told me she fears her colleagues secretly hope “that this problem will disappear by itself,” that the war will end before any deep changes have to be made, before their defense industries have to be altered. “Russia,” she said in a speech at the conference, “is hoping for just that, that we will get tired of our own initiatives, and in Russia, meanwhile, there is a lot of human resources, and enterprises there work in three shifts.” Consciously or unconsciously, many still speak as if everything will soon return to normal, as if things will go back to the way they were. Defense industries have not yet switched to a different tempo. Defense industries have not yet raised their production to meet the new demands.

Biden’s visit to Kyiv is intended to offer a bracing contrast, and a different message: If the U.S. president is willing to take this personal risk, if the U.S. government is willing to invest this effort, then time is not on Russia’s side after all. He is putting everyone on notice, including the defense ministries and the defense industries, that the paradigm has shifted and the story has changed. The old “normal” is not coming back.

 

Chilean Barbara Hernandez, who became the first person recorded to have swum 2.5 kilometers (1.5 miles) in the near-freezing Antarctic Ocean, says fear—not other people—is her rival.

World War II-style rationing could be an effective way to reduce carbon emissions, according to new research.

Geckos can use their tongue to differentiate their own odor from that of other members of their species, as researchers have shown in a new experimental study. The findings show that geckos are able to communicate socially, meaning that they are more intelligent than was previously assumed.

The memory of a “blind” artificial intelligence that has been crossing a room contains information that can help another AI reach a destination faster. This memory transference could improve the navigation of robots

New astronomical measurements in the infrared range have led to the identification of a heretofore unknown class of asteroids. An international research team including geoscientists from Heidelberg University has succeeded in characterizing these small planets using infrared spectroscopy.

Mauritius canceled flights and closed its stock exchange Monday as an intense tropical cyclone approached the Indian Ocean island nation, bringing rainfall and gusty winds with it.

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A cyclone which is intensifying as it approaches the southeastern African coast has been labeled as "dangerous" by the United Nation's weather agency on Monday as nations brace for landfall.

Wildfires pose a large and growing threat to communities across California, where fires are becoming more frequent and destructive.

A new framework for studying the intersection of climate anomalies and social conflicts finds a strong link between temperature fluctuations and aggregated global conflicts, in a paper co-written by a University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign analytics expert.

Some 93% of major metropolitan areas in Europe "shrank" or lost population as a result of the impact of COVID-19, with nearly two thirds of all European cities experiencing the same effect during the pandemic, according to new research published in Cities.

The answers to today’s word and number puzzles

Earlier today I set you these four lexical-numerical puzzles, inspired by Tom Lehrer’s song That’s Mathematics. Here they are again with solutions. You will also discover the highly-anticipated winning entry to the competition for most brilliant self-referential fraction.

1. Pair and share

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PLUS. Elektroakustisk ingeniør Brian Johansen har testet lyd på alt fra fly og biler til køleskabe, satellitopsendelser og Appleprodukter.

No matter where you live, apex predators and large carnivores inspire awe as well as instill fear.

Sandia scientists have developed computer tools to study inadvertent marine cloud brightening. To understand how these ship tracks move and dissipate, the scientists created a mathematical model of ship tracks and how long they last, which they shared in a paper recently published in Environmental Data Science.

Unusually hot weather in India and Pakistan at the end of March; a long, warmer-than-average summer in central Europe; extreme December temperatures in northern Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay: 2022 was definitely a year of heat waves. And there is currently a broad consensus among climate researchers that such extreme events will occur much more frequently in the future than they do today.

Daglig lågintensiv träning minskar risken för muskelförtvining hos äldre. Och det räcker att öka tiden för rörelse med tio minuter för att få en positiv effekt.

Inlägget Tio minuter extra träning stärker äldres muskler dök först upp på forskning.se.

The internet is awash with information on the best diets to follow — and navigating this maelstrom of tips and tricks can be daunting. One that frequently crops up in this space is the Mediterranean diet. Inspired by the foods of sun-soaked and olive-rich countries such as Spain, Greece and Italy, this traditional diet has a reputation for being both delicious and healthy. What is in the Mediterranean Diet Though the exact approach and recipes may vary, it generally consists of a lot of fruits, vegetables and legumes, whole grains, herbs and spices, olive oil, poultry and fish. Red wine is also commonly drunk with food — in moderation. According to UNESCO, the diet entails much more than just food intake: “[It] involves a set of skills, knowledge, rituals, symbols and traditions concerning crops, harvesting, fishing, animal husbandry, conservation, processing, cooking, and particularly the sharing and consumption of food.” Read More: TikTok Responsible For Mediterranean Diet Misinformation, New Study Suggests Is the Mediterranean Diet Healthy These cultural aspects of the diet – centered around traditional consumption of food and socialization – likely play a role in its health benefits in countries where it originated. Exercise is also a factor. Simon Poole, a Mediterranean diet expert and author of The Real Mediterranean Diet, says it’s also possible to separate these aspects. One doesn’t necessarily need to change an entire lifestyle to derive benefits from the diet. Evidence shows that following these eating habits can have a real impact in a variety of ways, he says. “You can look at the individual ingredients and run through all those vegetables, fruits, legumes, herbs, spices, nuts, olive oil, fish, and pinpoint health benefits," Poole says. Taken together, they provide “excellent quality carbohydrates, fats, and proteins and high levels of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and more,” he adds. Also, consider common food ingredients that are being avoided in this diet: red meat, highly processed foods and added sugars. In a nutshell, yes, the Mediterranean diet is healthy! Read More: 4 Ways Science Can Explain Weight Loss Apps How to Start a Mediterranean Diet As the Harvard School of Public Health notes, this diet can help decrease the risks of several chronic illnesses, such as heart disease and diabetes. Other studies state it can be beneficial for weight-loss, general wellbeing and mental health. As such, health professionals often prescribe the diet to patients. Read More: Best Times of the Day to Eat, According to Science Switching to a diet of this kind may appear “revolutionary” for some at first, says Poole. But following it doesn’t have to be complicated and can always be done in steps. “The first challenge is to really ramp up the colored vegetables in people's diets,” he says. Next, try kicking processed foods from the menu and increasing the use of herbs, spices and extra virgin olive oil in meals. Reducing red meat and dairy consumption could follow. Thankfully, you can now find many easy-to-follow recipes online and in cookbooks. Costs can be another potential barrier that put people off. But Poole says it doesn’t have to come with a high price tag: “I think the key message is that it's not all expensive foods such as pistachios and pomegranates. It really is all about vegetables and cooking from scratch.” Now that you know how healthy a Mediterranean diet is and how to start one, you may already be considering ways to manage a healthier lifestyle! Read More: 4 Science-Backed Diets to Improve Your Health

Australia and New Zealand have both faced a series of devastating floods triggered by climate change and the return of the La Niña weather pattern. So it makes sense that Australia has now sent disaster crews to help with the aftermath of Cyclone Gabrielle.

No matter where you live, apex predators and large carnivores inspire awe as well as instill fear.

A substance typically extracted from a rare Chinese plant may offer an effective and environmentally friendly way to control rats on a large scale, according to a new study.

And because the product impedes the ability of rats to reproduce instead of killing them, it is humane.

Rats thrive wherever there are humans. They have colonized every continent except Antarctica. Destruction and disease comes in their wake. Yet our fight against them has proven both ineffective—partly due to resistance—and dangerous to ecosystems.

“I joke a bit about this being a ‘woke’ product. It is sustainable, ethical to animals, and even strong on gender equality, as male rats are also targeted by this contraception. They become infertile for about a month after consuming it, which causes rat populations to drop dramatically,” says Johan Andersen-Ranberg of the plant and environmental sciences department at the University of Copenhagen and a founder of TripBIO, a spinout company involved in the substance’s development.

Rats are lured to a sweet and sticky liquid from a feeder developed by SenesTech, an American company. Among the sweet rat treat’s active ingredients is triptolide, a substance that makes the liquid a kind of contraceptive stew for male and female rats alike.

The substance is derived from Tripterygium wilfordii, also known as Thunder god vine, a rare Chinese vine plant that is harvested in the mountains by local gatherers. According to Andersen-Ranberg, in addition to being difficult to find and unstable in delivery, the plant also produces very little of the active substance. So little, that its value by weight is fifteen times more than gold.

As reported in Nature Communications, the researchers have found the enzymes and genes in the plant responsible for the substance, decoded the relevant DNA, and encoded it in the genetic material of a yeast. By doing so, they can ferment and produce the substance in a much faster, more stable, and, not least, cheaper way.

Dangerous rats, dangerous remedies

Extremely potent poisons are now used for rat control. But rats are cunning critters. If a poison encountered by a rat is not strong enough to kill it, the rodent will quickly find out how to avoid human traps. Furthermore, in Denmark among other places, many rats have developed resistance to milder poison variants.

The powerful poisons damage ecosystems and degrade very slowly, often taking a year before their effect is halved. During this time, birds and any scavengers that eat the rats can also receive lethal doses and carry the poison with them into the wild.

The authorities are aware of these “extremely toxic” current remedies, as the Danish Environmental Protection Agency refers to them, but allow them for a lack of alternatives and because the danger posed by rats is considered to be greater.

While nearly seven hundred years have passed since the Black Death here in Europe, as carriers of disease, rats are still considered a threat to public health. Elsewhere in the world, the problem is much greater. They are also responsible for significant economic damage. Their burrowing can damage sewer lines and even cause a home’s foundation to shift, making them a source of expensive to repair damages.

Environmental, ethical solution

The yeast developed by the researchers can be scaled to produce enough triptolide that even a problem as global and pervasive as rat control can realistically be solved with TriptoBIO as a supplier of this valuable substance.

“With our research and the yeast, we’ve now developed, we can ensure supply and get the price of triptolide down to a level where it is realistic for this environmentally friendly and ethical alternative to existing rat control to be widely used, Andersen-Ranberg says. “We are starting in the US, but are optimistic about getting the rest of the world on board.

“Initially, we will probably only make a few kilos of the substance. But when rat control using our substance grows as large as demand leaves us to believe that it will, we will be producing it by the ton. And we’ll be ready. On top of that, there are plenty of other perspectives for this substance. A number of other projects are also under development in which triptolide is a necessary ingredient. Fortunately, we can easily scale up.”

Source: Kristian Bjørn-Hansen for University of Copenhagen

The post Contraception may be a secret weapon for rat control appeared first on Futurity.

Researchers say they have found a way to help survivors regain control of their arms and hands

When Heather Rendulic experienced a series of strokes in 2012 at the age of 22, she lost functional use of her left hand. A decade later, she is once more able to use a fork and knife, thanks to electrodes implanted in her neck.

About one in four people globally will experience a stroke in their lifetime – a condition in which the blood supply to part of the brain is cut off.

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To feed the world's growing population, farmers need to grow a lot of crops. Crops need water to grow and thrive, and the water used to irrigate crops makes up an estimated 70% of global freshwater use. But many areas across the world are plagued by water shortages. That can make it challenging for farmers to get enough water to grow crops. Researchers are exploring alternative water sources that can sustainably meet current and future irrigation needs.

There is a new push for private schools to open their grounds and facilities to the broader community. North Sydney mayor Zoe Baker, wants to ask top private schools in her area to share their green spaces and other facilities.

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Lizzie: Do they call it a bar crawl because by the end of it you’ll be crawling? Or is it because if you attend one in February, you’ll be crawling out of your apartment wondering why the host, generally understood to be a party genius, decided to throw a bar crawl in the East Village on the coldest weekend of the year?

Our friend Andrew (the brain behind last year’s Watergate party) was hosting this bar crawl. It was Jeopardy-themed, meaning that the required attire was “If you were a contestant on Jeopardy, what would you wear?” and each crawl venue would be revealed to us in the form of an answer to a trivia question. The invite provided the clue for the first bar: “This bar was named after an American gambler best known for his role in the events leading up to the gunfight at the O.K. Corral.”  

Later, we were provided with additional attire instructions sourced by Andrew from Reddit:

Wardrobe: please be dressed and “camera ready” when you arrive at the studio. Also, bring with you two changes of clothing for a total of three outfits. Please avoid solid white (unless under a jacket) or anything with pinstripes, busy patterns or prints, including ties. Your outfits should be seasonally appropriate for the air dates. Dressy casual. Suit, sport coat, sweater, shirt and tie. Dress, skirt & blouse, blazer, pantsuit. Any of these looks are fine. If in doubt, bring something extra to see what looks best on camera.

Because temps had been hovering in the single digits, dressing for Jeopardy took a backseat to dressing for warmth, but I tried to stay on theme. I put on all the HeatTech I own, leather pants, a turtleneck, and a sweater, even though turtlenecks tend to make me feel like the hand of God is slowly tightening its grip around my neck all night, waiting for the light to drain from my eyes.

Kaitlyn: A game of Jeopardy … more like our lives are in jeopardy! Right?

Whenever I complain about the cold, people remind me that I’m from Rochester. Thanks. They’re like, “Isn’t there snow up there?” Sure, but you drive past it in a car. Then you go inside a building probably less than 20 feet from wherever you parked your car. Also, I shouldn’t get into this again, but people who live in New York City have some kind of unexplained psychological need to believe that all of western New York is Buffalo and that Buffalo is basically the North Pole. Listen, I’ve had plenty of green Christmases, and I hurt just like the rest of you when it’s 10 degrees and winds are gusting. I’m human too!

As Lizzie mentioned, it was hard to dress for Jeopardy under these conditions. I wanted to go full business casual so as to be on theme, but those fabrics simply aren’t hardy enough. Instead, I wore gym leggings under a pair of black pants, which I paired with a black turtleneck, a black jacket, black boots, and a second black jacket. Yes, Lizzie and I looked nearly identical. For good luck, I added a beaded bracelet I’d made that says Pete Alonso.

We were pretty confident that the first location we were headed to was Doc Holliday’s, on Avenue A. “What happens if we get the bar wrong?” I texted Andrew while I was getting ready. “You lose!” he said.

Lizzie: Around 6 p.m., I sauntered (waddled) over to Kaitlyn’s for a pre-bar-crawl cocktail and some pizza. Stephanie was there, having just brought over some freshly baked cookies. Nathan made me a boulevardier, and Kaitlyn said, “We got you garlic knots.” Imagine leaving a place like this, at a time like this—heading back out into the dark and frigid unknowns of the night. I’d be lying if I said it didn’t take some willpower not to let the object at rest (my body) remain at rest (on the couch). We watched Survivor for 20 minutes, until it was time to leave.

Kaitlyn: Yes! Nathan and I have become real Survivor people recently—Lizzie and Matt got us hooked. The show’s appeal is obvious, but it has a little extra intrigue for me because my mom didn’t like us to watch it. She thought it would be bad for our moral development if we spent too much time seeing people betray one another for money. Now I’m wolfing it down, even though it infuriates me. The men they cast on this show are obsessed with referring to women as “cancer,” and I can never tell when anybody is lying.

It was so hard to bundle up and head out. Nathan was wearing a Carhartt hat, and I was like, “You better take that off. They don’t let you wear logos on TV.” But he couldn’t take it off, because who knows, his ears might have come off along with it.

 

 

Lizzie: The first thing you notice when you get to Doc Holliday’s, if you’re there specifically for a bar crawl, is all the signs taped to the front door that say No Bar Crawls. Assuming they really meant something along the lines of “No SantaCon Attendees,” and not “No Jeopardy-Themed Bar Crawls Beginning at This Location,” we went inside anyway.

The second thing you notice at Doc Holliday’s is that they really do love a sign, in general. There were signs everywhere; it was like being at an Airbnb where the host has stuck Post-it notes over everything you’re not allowed to touch. Garbage disposal is broken. Keep heat at 63 degrees. Here it was: No lemons, no limes, Cash is king. Sometimes the signs had conflicting messages: Get the fuck off your Millennial machine and Tag us on Instagram. I ordered some kind of disgusting pilsner, taking care not to look at my phone or request a piece of citrus, and sat down with Kaitlyn and Nathan at the table that Andrew and Allegra had secured.

Kaitlyn: The signs were so mean! There was also one that said Please take your sense of entitlement elsewhere. It made me wonder if ordering a beer was an expression of feeling entitled. But we let it roll off our backs. I bought Stellas for me and Nathan (with cash) without incident.

It was easy to pick Andrew out of the crowd, because he was wearing a bright-orange sweater with a rotisserie chicken on it. (Would they let him wear that on Jeopardy?) We hadn’t been sure what to expect from the Jeopardy crawl, because it seems like the kind of thing that could easily devolve into just staying in one place. But Andrew is usually pretty serious about his parties, and this time was no different. As soon as we’d finished our beers, he put a clue down on the table and then left us to figure it out. We would meet him at the next place—or maybe, if our knowledge of the East Village’s many bars failed us, we wouldn’t.

Luckily, the clue was “This bar honors a filmmaker, with notable works Ed Wood and Planet of the Apes.” Of course, Lizzie and I knew instantly that this referred to the Tim Burton–themed bar Beetle House, which we wrote about the month it opened in 2016. It’s a weird and objectively ugly place, but it’s important to us. We talk about it all the time. I can’t say why.

Lizzie: I was excited to go to Beetle House, not only because of its place in our friendship history, but because I honestly thought it would be empty. Who would go to a Beetlejuice-themed bar on a Saturday night? I thought, as we walked towards the Beetlejuice-themed bar. The answer turned out to be actually a lot of people, because Beetle House apparently hosts a popular karaoke night on Saturdays. We didn’t even make it inside.

Our next location was “the oldest Irish bar in New York.” What is … McSorley’s? Upon our arrival there, we were greeted by a group of men singing “American Pie.” A Don McLean chorus is never a good sign, but I thought optimistically that perhaps we had just walked onto a film set—some movie where prep-school kids finally learn about the power of good ol’ rock and roll from their history teacher, who, goddamn, can’t help but care a little too much.

We agreed that drinking at McSorley’s felt like drinking at Disney World. Two-mice-operating-a-railroad-handcar vibes, if you know what I mean. The table next to us was composed of 10 silent men, one of whom was wearing a light-up headband and staring at his Lyft app for almost the entire time we were there.

In the bathroom, a girl pointed at the floor and asked me, “Is this sawdust?” because there was sawdust all over the floor. Then she pointed at her coat, which had been on the bathroom floor, and asked me, “Is this sawdust?” “I guess so,” I said. She was acting like I was a wood scientist whose only purpose in the bathroom was to take samples of the stuff on the floor. If it’s not a Jeopardy clue, I don’t have the answer.

 

 

Kaitlyn: Prior to this bar crawl, I had only ever been to McSorley’s once. I went with my parents during daylight hours, which was a strange experience because it’s loosely a cop bar and we accidentally went there on the 20th anniversary of 9/11.

Anyway, the whole thing at this bar is that they serve only two kinds of beer: “light” and “dark.” And when you order one beer, they give it to you in two small glasses. I guess being really old means the place can get away with pointless affectations like this. I bought a light beer and gave one half of it (one of two glasses) to Lizzie. Because the theme of the night was trivia, I then read aloud whatever tidbits I could find on the McSorley’s Wikipedia page. Turns out it was “one of the last of the ‘Men Only’ pubs,” and started allowing women in only “after legally being forced to do so in 1970.” This explains its former motto, “Good Ale, Raw Onions and No Ladies.”

The place was packed, so Lizzie, Nathan, and I volunteered to shove our way out and go ahead to the next location. Answer: “Press A to jump in this coin-operated bar.” Question: “What is the Barcade on St. Mark’s Place?” (Oh my God.) Well. We did walk around the corner and take a peek in the window. Then we turned around and headed back to McSorley’s and asked Andrew for a different answer and a different question. It’s great that he’s such a gracious host and that he likes having us around even when we’re behaving like this.

New answer: “This fort-looking bar is named after a bodily function—but don’t do it too loud here.” Question: “What is Burp Castle?”

Lizzie: Obviously for the Jeopardy theme to work, the bars that Andrew chose needed to have some characteristic that could be used as a clue in a trivia scenario. In practice, this meant that many of the bars on our crawl had some kind of a novelty vibe, whether it was “angry dive bar,” “sawdust frat lab,” or “silent beer temple.”

I had heard of Burp Castle before. You can’t talk above a whisper, is what I’d heard. This is what Burp Castle sounds like when you walk in: Pssssstpssstpssst ppsssst psst psst. Just unintelligible whispering noises, like everyone there is an extra in a community-theater play and they’re gossiping over the latest talk of the town. Every now and then, as the noise level climbed, a patrolmen-type group would shush us all.

At one point, a guy wearing Patagonia came up to me, Kait, and Nathan, and asked in a definite non-whisper, “Are you guys here for the Craigslist meetup?” We must have looked confused, so he explained that he was kidding—he was actually here for an event coordinated on Meetup.com, which he seemed to view as a website in higher social standing than Craigslist.

Kaitlyn: Psych! He got us!

I thought he was great. He was like, “It’s so funny to have to whisper,” and I was like, “But you’re not whispering.” He was like, “Haha, I know!” Then someone shushed him.

We learned a lot about this guy. Or mostly just that he works at a law firm. “Any cases of yours we might have heard of?” Liz asked, probably not expecting much of an answer. Actually, his firm had just represented Elon Musk—successfully—in a lawsuit filed against him by Tesla shareholders. This was the firm’s second time winning on Musk’s behalf; the first was when he was sued for libel after calling someone a “pedo guy.” Mr. Meetup didn’t know how they’d pulled that one off, he told us. When he’d looked at the case himself, his reaction had been “Bro, this shit is straight defamation.” Shush!

He seemed embarrassed by all of this and said he wished that he could be like us—clean of conscience. “Oh, my conscience isn’t clean,” Lizzie said. I wondered if she was alluding to the fact that we were definitely going to write down what this guy told us about his job in our email newsletter. I stared silently at a mural of a monk being eaten by a shark. Then it was time to get out of there.

Lizzie: On the ride home, I did an impression of Bane from The Dark Knight Rises where he talks about being born in the dark. I think he sounds like a haunted doll, but Kaitlyn and Nathan agreed my impression was, like, six octaves too high. I’ve never seen the movie, but as you might know from my ongoing “bit” doing Joaquin Phoenix in Joker (“All I have are dark thoughts”), I’m obsessed with the comedy of a man in a costume tortured by darkness.

Who would’ve thought we’d find the light at a place called Burp Castle?

Kaitlyn: I love Lizzie’s impressions, and she has a great repertoire—the Jimmy Stewart she did in the car was pretty good, as was her Jacob Marley—but the Bane is just not there yet. I think it would benefit, probably, from Lizzie watching the movie he’s in at least one time.

Anyway, when we hugged Andrew goodbye, I noticed that he was wearing a recording device on his lapel. I mentioned this to Liz and Nathan in the car, but I can’t remember if we were concerned about it. I loved Burp Castle, and I’m happy we went. There should be way more bars where the idea is not to yell. I have one more thing to say about it, which is that traditionally it has been known as a bar where the bartenders dress like monks. The bartender we saw was just wearing a brownish hoodie with the hood up, but I think the overall effect was still convincing. On my way [airplane emoji] to write a glowing Yelp review!

After we left, the rest of the crew went on to two more bars: “What you say to someone who you tell a secret to,” and “This bar shares the name with a sitcom star. The show first aired in 1951.”

Lizzie: Andrew said his next bar crawl will be cross-borough, but thankfully he’s saving that one for summer.

The long-range missiles matter. So do the super-accurate artillery shells, the surface-to-air missiles, and the winter weather gear; the training in the English countryside or the muddy Grafenwöhr maneuver grounds; and the intelligence provided from the eyes in space and the ears on airplanes that circle outside the battle zone.

President Joe Biden’s visit to Kyiv matters just as much as any of these.

Other heads of government preceded him, earning deserved credit. But it is an altogether different thing when the president of the United States—who is, indeed, the leader of the Free World—shows up. His words mattered. He pledged “our unwavering and unflagging commitment to Ukraine’s democracy, sovereignty, and territorial integrity.” And even more important, that the United States will stand with Ukraine “as long as it takes.”

Symbols matter: a Kennedy or a Reagan at the Berlin Wall, a Churchill with a cigar and a bowler, for that matter a green-clad Zelensky growling, “I need ammunition, not a ride.” Simply by taking the hazardous trip to Kyiv, Biden made a strategic move of cardinal importance.

While the president clearly intended to bolster the confidence of Ukraine, and the commitment of ambivalent Europeans and neo-isolationist Americans, his real audiences lay elsewhere, as his remarks about Western strength indicated. Russia has cycled through a series of theories of victory in Ukraine—that Kyiv’s leaders would flee, that Ukraine’s population would not fight, that its army would be crumpled up by a sudden blitz or by grinding assaults. It has been reduced to one last hope: that Vladimir Putin’s will is stronger than Joe Biden’s. And Biden just said, by deed as well as word, “Oh no it’s not.”

This is a gut punch to Russia’s leader. The Russians received word of the trip, we are informed—and presumably the threat, stated or implied, that they would get a violent and overwhelming response if they attempted to interfere with it. For a leader obsessed with strength, like Putin, that is a blow. His own people will quietly or openly ask, “Why could we not prevent this?” And the answer, unstated, will have to be, “Because we were afraid.”

The visual contrast between an American president with his signature aviator sunglasses walking in sunny downtown Kyiv with the pugnacious and eloquent president of Ukraine and a Russian president who has yet to visit the war zone is also striking. Not to mention the difference between an American president who mingles with others, shaking hands, hugging and slapping backs, and a Russian president who keeps his subordinates at a physical distance, and who has to be surrounded by flunkies and actors when he supposedly meets with normal people. No belligerent words from the Kremlin will change those visual images, which will be seen in Russia as well as around the world.

[Read: Time is on Ukraine’s side, not Russia’s]

This was not a stunt, but rather an act of statesmanship. Biden’s visit comes at a moment when much hangs in the balance. The Chinese have begun making noises about arming Russia, according to the United States government, which would be a very great change in this war. The Western allies, including the democracies of Asia, have begun mobilizing their military industries. The Russian offensives that were supposed to produce large gains timed to the anniversary of the invasion have instead carpeted the Donbas with the bodies of thousands of men who learned too late that, as one French World War I general put it, “fire kills.” And meanwhile, Ukraine is building up a force to use in its own counteroffensive.

The Russia-Ukraine war is not merely a humanitarian calamity, a monstrous collection of crimes against humanity, a gross violation of solemn agreements and international law. It is also a watershed, in which much will be determined about the future of the international system. It could lead to a very dark place, not different in kind from that of the 1930s and 1940s, if the dictators get their way. But if the liberal democracies unite and display the resolve, enterprise, and military capacity that they have shown before, that outcome can still be avoided.

[Read: Incompetence and torture in occupied Ukraine]

To that end, nothing matters more than American leadership, the recovery of the prestige and weight that have been wasted or diffused over the past few decades. We are not near the conclusion of this war, and there is much of a tangible nature that needs to be done to bring the conflict closer to its end. Words and gestures are critical, but only when accompanied by deeds. But for now, by taking a bold step, President Biden has made the future for Ukraine, for Europe, and for the cause of freedom under the law a great deal brighter.

Skrupellösa chefer anlitar papperslösa migranter 12 timmar om dagen, 6 dagar i veckan. Villkoren är usla, inte sällan livsfarliga. Den svarta jobbsektorn växer i Sverige och det är viktigt att förstå varför, menar forskaren Shrezod Eraliev.

Inlägget Riskfyllt liv i det svenska skuggsamhället dök först upp på forskning.se.

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