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upstart writes:

A singular focus on high-tech will dilute the vibrancy of our cities and limit their potential:

The term "smart cities" originated as a marketing strategy for large IT vendors. It has now become synonymous with urban uses of technology, particularly advanced and emerging technologies. But cities are more than 5G, big data, driverless vehicles, and AI. They are crucial drivers of opportunity, prosperity, and progress. [...]

A focus on building "smart cities" risks turning cities into technology projects. We talk about "users" rather than people. Monthly and "daily active" numbers instead of residents. Stakeholders and subscribers instead of citizens. This also risks a transactional—and limiting—approach to city improvement, focusing on immediate returns on investment or achievements that can be distilled into KPIs.

Truly smart cities recognize the ambiguity of lives and livelihoods, and they are driven by outcomes beyond the implementation of "solutions." They are defined by their residents' talents, relationships, and sense of ownership—not by the technology that is deployed there.

[...] Where technology can play a role, it must be applied thoughtfully and holistically—taking into account the needs, realities, and aspirations of city residents. Guatemala City, in collaboration with our country office team at the UN Development Programme, is using this approach to improve how city infrastructure—including parks and lighting—is managed. The city is standardizing materials and designs to reduce costs and labor,  and streamlining approval and allocation processes to increase the speed and quality of repairs and maintenance. Everything is driven by the needs of its citizens. Elsewhere in Latin America, cities are going beyond quantitative variables to take into account well-being and other nuanced outcomes.

[...] Coordinating and implementing the complex efforts required to reach these goals is far more difficult than deploying the latest app or installing another piece of smart street furniture. But we must move beyond the sales pitches and explore how our cities can be true platforms—not just technological ones—for inclusive and sustainable development. The well-being of the billions who call the world's cities home depends on it.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Third and fourth robotic arms feel like a part of the user's own body:

A research team with members from the University of Tokyo, Keio University and Toyohashi University of Technology have developed supernumerary robotic arms operated by the user's foot movements in a virtual environment. It has shown that users can feel the supernumerary robotic arms as a part of their own body (embodiment). [...]

Doctoral student Ken Arai and Professor Masahiko Inami from the University of Tokyo, in collaboration with researchers from Keio University and Toyohashi University of Technology, have developed supernumerary robotic arms that works in conjunction with user's foot movements in a virtual reality (VR) environment, and have shown that users consider the supernumerary robotic arms as a part of their own body (embodiment). [...]

Humans do many things in our daily lives by skillfully manipulating the own bodies. Then, they use tools to do things that are difficult to do with their bodies alone. [...] The goal of supernumerary robotic arms is to extend the body's functions by adding extra limbs using appropriate human-computer interaction systems. It is expected that the supernumerary robotic arms will move as intended naturally, just like the user's own arms and legs. [...]

[...] The results of the experiment showed that after learning to use the supernumerary robotic system, subjective evaluation scores indicated the supernumerary robotic arms were embodied, and the perceptual change in visual-haptic integration around the supernumerary arm (peripersonal space) correlated with the subjective evaluation score that felt the number of arms increased (supernumerary-limb sensation).

Journal Reference:
Ken Arai, Hiroto Saito, Masaaki Fukuoka, Sachiyo Ueda, Maki Sugimoto, Michiteru Kitazaki, Masahiko Inami (2022). Embodiment of supernumerary robotic limbs in virtual reality, Scientific Reports. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-13981-w

Original Submission

upstart writes:

4-Billion-Year-Old Crystals Offer Clues to When Plate Tectonics Began, Setting Stage for Life on Earth:

Scientists have long known that plate tectonics, the movement of distinct, rigid plates that make up the Earth's crust, formed continents and mountains and was crucial to the evolution of the planet's surface from one of molten lava and rock to an environment hospitable to life.

What's been less apparent is when it began.

A team of Harvard University-led scientists has analyzed some very rare, ancient, and nearly indestructible crystals the size of small grains of sand called zircons for chemical clues about the onset of plate tectonics. The research study, published in recently in the journal AGU Advances, suggests that 3.8 billion years ago there was a major transition in the geochemistry of these zircons that make them look much more like the zircons that are formed today in the red-hot environments where plate tectonics happen.

"Prior to 3.8 billion years ago, the planet doesn't seem to be as dynamic," said Nadja Drabon, a Harvard assistant professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences and the paper's first author. "Today, there's lots of crust that gets constantly destroyed in what are called subduction zones, and new crust is created. Many [previous] zircons showed that back then once the early crust formed, it lived for a really long time —about 600 million years in this case. While there was some internal reworking, we never created new granitic crust.... Then 3.8 billion years ago, everything changes."

Think of Zircons as tiny time capsules that retain chemical clues of the Earth's first 500 million years. Some were formed in the magma of the planet more than 4 billion years ago when the Earth, geologically speaking, was still in its infancy. It makes them the oldest known materials on Earth. Their secrets can be understood by zapping them with lasers, which is what the researchers did for their analysis.

[...] Today, the Earth's outer shell consists of about 15 shifting blocks of crust, which hold the planet's continents and oceans. The process was key to the evolution of life and the development of the planet because the process exposed new rocks to the atmosphere, which led to chemical reactions that stabilized Earth's surface temperature over billions of years.

hubie writes:

Researchers say people with Developmental Dyslexia have specific strengths relating to exploring the unknown that have contributed to the successful adaptation and survival of our species:

Cambridge researchers studying cognition, behaviour and the brain have concluded that people with dyslexia are specialised to explore the unknown. This is likely to play a fundamental role in human adaptation to changing environments.

They think this 'explorative bias' has an evolutionary basis and plays a crucial role in our survival.

Based on these findings − which were apparent across multiple domains from visual processing to memory and at all levels of analysis − the researchers argue that we need to change our perspective of dyslexia as a neurological disorder.

[...] "The deficit-centred view of dyslexia isn't telling the whole story," said Taylor. "This research proposes a new framework to help us better understand the cognitive strengths of people with dyslexia."

She added: "We believe that the areas of difficulty experienced by people with dyslexia result from a cognitive trade-off between exploration of new information and exploitation of existing knowledge, with the upside being an explorative bias that could explain enhanced abilities observed in certain realms like discovery, invention and creativity."

[...] The new findings are explained in the context of 'Complementary Cognition', a theory proposing that our ancestors evolved to specialise in different, but complementary, ways of thinking, which enhances human's ability to adapt through collaboration.

These cognitive specialisations are rooted in a well-known trade-off between exploration of new information and exploitation of existing knowledge. For example, if you eat all the food you have, you risk starvation when it's all gone. But if you spend all your time exploring for food, you're wasting energy you don't need to waste. As in any complex system, we must ensure we balance our need to exploit known resources and explore new resources to survive.

"Striking the balance between exploring for new opportunities and exploiting the benefits of a particular choice is key to adaptation and survival and underpins many of the decisions we make in our daily lives," said Taylor.

Journal Reference:
Taylor, H. and Vestergaard M. D: Developmental Dyslexia: Disorder or Specialization in Exploration? [open] Frontiers in Psychology (June 2022). DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.889245

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Nasa makes history with first commercial rocket launch containing 'mini Hubble' tech from Australia spaceport:

In a historic move, Nasa has successfully launched a rocket from Australia's remote Northern Territory, making it the agency's first commercial launch outside the US.

After a delay due to rain and wind, the sub-orbital rocket carrying technology likened to a "mini Hubble" telescope, blasted off from the Arnhem Space Centre on the Dhupuma plateau at half-past midnight on Monday.

The blast off was the space agency's first launch from a commercial spaceport outside the US and is reportedly aimed to help scientists conduct studies that can only be undertaken in the southern hemisphere. Monday's launch was also the first for Australia in nearly 27 years.

The rocket, carrying an X-ray quantum calorimeter, is expected to travel over 186 miles into space to observe the Alpha Centauri A and B constellations. The quantum calorimeter will enable University of Michigan scientists to measure interstellar X-rays with precision and provide new data on the impact of a star's light on the habitability of planets.

Nearly 75 Nasa personnel were present at the newly constructed launch site and nearly 100 scientists, politicians and Indigenous leaders were shuttled to watch the launch.

"It was in the blink of an eye, but to me, it was like it was in slow motion because the whole area just lit up," Yirrkala School co-principal Merrkiyawuy Ganambarr-Stubbs told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Prostate Cancer Hijacks Tumor Cells' Circadian Rhythm To Evade Hormone Therapy:

Hormone treatment is successful at controlling metastatic prostate cancer, but the tumor cells eventually develop resistance to it. An unexpected potential solution has now emerged in medicines that are not designed to fight cancer, but rather to target proteins that regulate a cell's circadian rhythm.

[...] Prostate cancer is a form of tumor that develops under the influence of hormones, primarily testosterone. Patients with metastatic prostate cancer are frequently treated with anti-hormonal therapy, which inhibits the signal sent out by testosterone that stimulates tumor growth.

Anti-hormonal therapy can keep prostate cancer under control for a time, but eventually, the cancer manages to progress despite ongoing treatment. The tumor cells have become resistant. This means that the greatest challenge in treating metastatic prostate cancer isn't to find drugs that inhibit tumor growth itself, but to find drugs that can prevent resistance to hormonal therapy. The exact process of how tumor cells become resistant to hormone therapy, however, has been a mystery — until now.

An international team of researchers led by scientists from the Netherlands Cancer Institute and Oncode Institute has made a surprising discovery using tissue from patients with prostate cancer who had been treated with testosterone-inhibiting drugs. They found that an unexpected class of proteins, namely proteins that normally regulate the circadian clock, dampens the effects of the anti-hormonal therapy. "Prostate cancer cells no longer have a circadian rhythm," says Wilbert Zwart, one of the research leaders. "But these 'circadian clock' proteins acquire an entirely new function in the tumor cells upon hormonal therapy: they keep these cancer cells alive, despite treatment. This has never been seen before."'Drug repurposing could save a decade or research'

Now that they have discovered the tumor's escape route, the researchers will next work together with Oncode towards the development of novel strategies to block this process, and ultimately increase the efficacy of anti-hormonal therapy against prostate cancer even further.

Reference: 27 June 2022, Cancer Discovery.
DOI: 10.1158/2159-8290.CD-21-0576

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Remote working vs back to the office: Benefits are clear, but there could be trouble ahead for some:

It's clear that remote working has become a pretty popular option for many people, and some new research shows just how widespread that's become.

The latest edition of McKinsey's American Opportunity Survey queried 25,000 Americans in spring 2022 and it found that over half - 58 percent – had the option of working from home at least one day a week.

One in three said that, if they wanted, they could work from home five days a week. And when workers are given the option of remote working, 87 percent of them will take it.

"This dynamic is widespread across demographics, occupations, and geographies. The flexible working world was born of a frenzied reaction to a sudden crisis but has remained as a desirable job feature for millions. This represents a tectonic shift in where, when, and how Americans want to work and are working," the researchers said.

Unsurprisingly according to McKinsey, the "vast majority" of employed people in computer and mathematical occupations report having remote-work options, and 77 percent report being willing to work fully remotely.

The researchers noted that even those industries with lower overall work-from-home patterns "may find that the technologists they employ demand it". And once one part of the workforce is allowed to work remotely it becomes harder to say 'no' to the rest.

Still, it's not all positive news about hybrid working. After all, for most workers it's still a new model and has plenty of issues to be resolved. McKinsey's research found that those working in a flexible model were most likely to report multiple obstacles to getting things done - followed by those working fully remotely. Those working in the office were least likely to report problems.

Still, it's also clear that new ways of working aren't limited just to the US.

A new CIPD survey of 1,000 UK employers also suggests that the experience of working through the pandemic has led to a shift in attitudes.

upstart writes:

Single Brain Scan Can Diagnose Alzheimer's Disease Quickly and Accurately:

A new machine learning algorithm can diagnose Alzheimer's disease from a single MRI brain scan, using a standard MRI machine available in most hospitals.

New research breakthrough uses machine learning technology to look at structural features within the brain, including in regions not previously associated with Alzheimer's. The advantage of the technique is its simplicity and the fact that it can identify the disease at an early stage when it can be very difficult to diagnose.

Although there is no cure for Alzheimer's disease, getting a diagnosis quickly at an early stage helps patients. It allows them to access help and support, get treatment to manage their symptoms and plan for the future. Being able to accurately identify patients at an early stage of the disease will also help researchers to understand the brain changes that trigger the disease, and support development and trials of new treatments.

[...] The researchers adapted an algorithm developed for use in classifying cancer tumors and applied it to the brain. They divided the brain into 115 regions and allocated 660 different features, such as size, shape, and texture, to assess each region. They then trained the algorithm to identify where changes to these features could accurately predict the existence of Alzheimer's disease.

[...] They found that in 98 percent of cases, the MRI-based machine learning system alone could accurately predict whether the patient had Alzheimer's disease or not. It was also able to distinguish between early and late-stage Alzheimer's with fairly high accuracy, in 79 percent of patients.

takyon writes:

G7 aims to raise $600 billion to counter China's Belt and Road

Group of Seven leaders on Sunday pledged to raise $600 billion in private and public funds over five years to finance needed infrastructure in developing countries and counter China's older, multitrillion-dollar Belt and Road project.

U.S. President Joe Biden and other G7 leaders relaunched the newly renamed "Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment," at their annual gathering being held this year at Schloss Elmau in southern Germany.

Biden said the United States would mobilize $200 billion in grants, federal funds and private investment over five years to support projects in low- and middle-income countries that help tackle climate change as well as improve global health, gender equity and digital infrastructure.

The Belt and Road Initiative, formerly known as One Belt One Road or OBOR for short, is a global infrastructure development strategy adopted by the Chinese government in 2013 to invest in nearly 70 countries and international organizations.

Previously:
China Plans $503 Billion Investment in High-Speed Rail by 2020
Chinese President Xi Jinping Pledges $124 Billion for One Belt, One Road Initiative

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Groundbreaking New Research Upends Understanding of How Blood Is Formed:

'Barcoding' studies discovered two independent sources for blood cells in mice. If confirmed in humans, our understanding of blood cancers, bone marrow transplants, and the aging immune system will change.

The origins of our blood may not be quite what we thought. Using cellular "barcoding" in mice, groundbreaking research finds that blood cells originate not from one type of mother cell, but two, with potential implications for blood cancers, bone marrow transplant, and immunology. Fernando Camargo, PhD, of the Stem Cell Program at Boston Children's Hospital led the study, published in the journal Nature on June 15, 2022.

"Historically, people have believed that most of our blood comes from a very small number of cells that eventually become blood stem cells, also known as hematopoietic stem cells," says Camargo, who is also a member of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute and a professor at Harvard University. "We were surprised to find another group of progenitor cells that do not come from stem cells. They make most of the blood in fetal life until young adulthood, and then gradually start decreasing."

The researchers are now following up to see if the findings also apply to humans. If so, these cells, known as embryonic multipotent progenitor cells (eMPPs), could potentially inform new treatments for boosting aging people's immune systems. They could also shed new light on blood cancers, especially those in children, and help make bone marrow transplants more effective.

Journal Reference:
Patel, Sachin H., Christodoulou, Constantina, Weinreb, Caleb, et al. Lifelong multilineage contribution by embryonic-born blood progenitors, Nature (DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-04804-z)

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Instagram is testing out a trial in which it scans users' faces for proof they are over 18 years old:

The company announced the trial, which began on 23 June and is currently only being rolled out in the US, in a blog post. The trial is focused on users who try to change their age on the app from under 18 to over 18. Those users have three ways to verify their age: upload a photo of their ID, ask three mutual friends verify their age, or record a video selfie.

If a user selects the video selfie method, Instagram passes the videos to a London-based identity-verification startup, Yoti. Yoti will scan the user's facial features in the videos to confirm their ages, the company said.

Both Yoti and Instagram will delete the data once they've verified the user's age, per the announcement. The London startup's algorithm only verifies the user's age and not their identity, Instagram wrote, quoting a whitepaper from Yoti.

[...] If a user chooses to submit a photo of their ID to confirm their age, the image will be deleted after 30 days, the company said.

You can try the Yoti Demo yourself (the company pinky-swears they delete any data you share with them).

See also: Instagram is testing an AI tool that verifies your age by scanning your face

Original Submission

upstart writes:

'Deepest shipwreck': US WWII ship found off Philippines:

A US navy destroyer sunk during World War II has been found nearly 7,000 meters (23,000 feet) below sea level off the Philippines, making it the world's deepest shipwreck ever located, an American exploration team said.

The USS Samuel B Roberts went down during a battle off the central island of Samar on October 25, 1944 as US forces fought to liberate the Philippines—then a US colony—from Japanese occupation.

A crewed submersible filmed, photographed and surveyed the battered hull of the "Sammy B" during a series of dives over eight days this month, Texas-based undersea technology company Caladan Oceanic said.

Images showed the ship's three-tube torpedo launcher and gun mount. "Resting at 6,895 meters, it is now the deepest shipwreck ever located and surveyed," tweeted Caladan Oceanic founder Victor Vescovo, who piloted the submersible. "This small ship took on the finest of the Japanese Navy, fighting them to the end," he said.

According to US Navy records, Sammy B's crew "floated for nearly three days awaiting rescue, with many survivors perishing from wounds and shark attacks". Of the 224 crew, 89 died.

[...] In the latest search, the team also looked for the USS Gambier Bay at more than 7,000 meters below sea level, but was unable to locate it. It did not search for the USS Hoel due to the lack of reliable data showing where it may have gone down.

The wreck of the Titanic lies in about 4,000 meters of water.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Tapping the ocean as a source of natural products:

Despite this significant role, research into the diversity of microorganisms found in the ocean has thus far been only rudimentary. So, a group of researchers led by Shinichi Sunagawa, Professor of Microbiome Research, is working closely with Jörn Piel's group to investigate this diversity. Both groups are at the Institute of Microbiology at ETH Zurich.

To detect new natural products made by bacteria, Sunagawa and his team examined publicly available DNA data from 1,000 water samples collected at different depths from every ocean region in the world. The data came from such sources as ocean expeditions and observation platforms positioned out at sea.

Thanks to modern technologies like environmental DNA (eDNA) analysis, it has become easier to search for new species and discover which known organisms can be found where. But what is hardly known at all is what special effects the marine microorganisms offer -- in other words, what chemical compounds they make that are important for interactions between organisms. In the best-case scenario, such compounds would benefit humans as well. Underpinning the research is the assumption that the ocean microbiome harbours great potential for natural products that could prove beneficial, for instance for their antibiotic properties.

The extracted eDNA present in the samples was sequenced by the original researchers of the various expeditions. By reconstructing entire genomes on the computer, the scientists succeeded in decrypting the encoded information -- the blueprints for proteins. Finally, they consolidated this new data together with the existing 8,500 genome data sets for marine microorganisms in a single database.

This gave them 35,000 genomes to draw on when searching for new microbial species and, in particular, for promising biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs). A BGC is a group of genes that provide the synthetic pathway for a natural product.

upstart writes:

A Massive Sunspot That Could Unleash Significant Solar Flares Is Pointed Right at Us:

Sunspots can throw off powerful solar flares that disrupt radio communications on Earth and sometimes impact the power grid. Space weather watchers are keeping a close eye on a dark and volatile spot on the sun that's grown dramatically this week.

Between Sunday and Monday, Sunspot AR3038 more than doubled in size, making it several times wider than Earth's diameter, and it's continued to expand in the past 48 hours, according to NASA heliophysicist C. Alex Young, writing at EarthSky.

Sunspots are darkened, cooler areas on the sun's surface with unstable magnetic fields, and they can produce solar flares and coronal mass ejections of charged particles and plasma. These flares and ejections occasionally cause chaos for electrical and radio communications systems here on Earth.

Over the last day, the mega-sunspot has let off a pair of minor, C-class solar flares while pointing straight at Earth, but Astronomer Tony Phillips reports at Spaceweather.com that "Sunspot AR3038 has a 'beta-gamma' magnetic field that harbors energy for (medium strength) M-class solar flares."

upstart writes:

Using a locust's brain and antennae to detect mouth cancer:

Prior research has shown that some animals, such as dogs, can smell the changes in chemicals that are emitted when humans perspire or breathe out. Dogs were tested for use in detecting COVID-19 in people, for example. But raising, training and keeping dogs for such work involves a lot of time and effort. In this new effort, the researchers wondered if such work could be done more efficiently using a different creature known to have a keen sense of smell—the locust.

Locusts are a type of grasshopper typically found in the tropics. In addition to their long bodies and jumping legs, they have large antennae they use for detecting chemical changes in the air around them. The researchers in this new effort took advantage of that ability. They surgically implanted probes into the brains of several live specimens to allow them to record brain wave patterns as the bugs were introduced to gases coming off cancer specimens grown in a jar.

More specifically, they were exposed to gases emitted from three types of mouth cancer growing in human tissue. As the gases were introduced to the antennae, the brain waves of the locusts were recorded. After many rounds of testing, the researchers found that they were able to detect and recognize different brain wave patterns as the locusts were exposed to the different kinds of cancer—and a control group of mouth cells that were non-cancerous. The researchers note that their effort is the first to use a living insect brain to detect cancer.

Journal Reference:
Alexander Farnum, Michael Parnas, Ehsanul Hoque Apu, et al. Harnessing insect olfactory neural circuits for noninvasive detection of human cancer [$], bioRxiv (DOI: 10.1101/2022.05.24.493311)

Original Submission