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An Anonymous Coward writes:

Let's encrypt, the free SSL CA has achieved a significant milestone. From their press release:

This is hopefully a good step in the direction of an encrypted web!

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"gewg_" writes:

Richard Chirgwin at El Reg wrote a really good article.

With national action on a science, technology, engineering, and maths (STEM) curriculum moving slowly, the Australian State of New South Wales (NSW) is taking the plunge by suggesting STEM-targeted extensions in its High School Certificate.

Proposals have been put forward that would see physics, chemistry, and biology offered at the advanced "three-unit" level*. At the time of writing, all are only offered at the lesser "two-unit" level.

After more than a year reviewing the state's senior curriculum, the NSW Board of Studies has also proposed a pan-science topic for students who aren't seeking a scientific speciality.

The proposed Senior Science topic wants to help students "in becoming scientifically literate citizens with the means to investigate personally relevant local and global scientific issues," the brief for the proposal explains.

That would plug a gap in science education in NSW: at the moment, students have to choose a specialty (physics, chemistry, or biology) to study science at HSC-level [high school completion], which looks like a wasted effort for anyone intending to pursue the humanities at university.

That course option would also be handy for NSW if the federal government goes ahead with an idea floated by former education minister Chris Pyne that senior science should be made compulsory.

The proposals also include revisions to high-level maths topics, history, and English.

The NSW Board of Studies proposals for all subjects are here, and are open for comment until 29 November.

Bootnote: For readers beyond NSW: senior high school students in the State have to accumulate at least ten units of study; a three-unit physics course, for example, would be a significant chunk of a student's exit score, as well as helping them survive first-year university studies.

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takyon writes:

The UK's NHS Blood and Transplant has announced plans to set up a "stem cell factory" in Liverpool in order to treat diabetes patients with experimental therapy:

NHS Blood and Transplant wants to make and give the experimental therapy to patients at high risk of developing diabetes-related kidney problems. It is hoped the injections will slow down or stop tissue damage, removing the need for dialysis or transplants. Diabetes is the most common cause of end stage kidney disease, which kills around 40,000 people a year in the UK.

The 48 patients taking part in the study will be treated at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust and Belfast Health and Social Care Trust or at another trial site in Italy. The injection of cells they will receive are called stromal cells and they are grown from donated human bone marrow.

[...] In animal studies, stromal cell injections have provided measurable improvements in kidney function and it is hoped they will do the same in people. Only some of the patients in the study will get the real jab (at different doses). The others will get a dummy injection. This will let the investigators check whether the treatment really works and if it has any side effects.

From the announcement:

The first training runs for stem cell production in Liverpool are due to start this month, October. The first treatments are due in 2016. [...] The research project, called NEPHSTROM, is led by the National University of Ireland, Galway, and Orbsen Therapeutics, an NUI Galway spin out company. The project has been funded with six million Euros from the European Union Horizon 2020 programme.

[...] Professor Giuseppe Remuzzi, from the Istituto Di Ricerche Farmacologiche Mario Negri in Italy will lead the clinical trial across the four centres. He said: "The clinical experience with stromal cells is still in its infancy, mainly focused on developing novel therapeutic solutions for patients with bone marrow or organ transplantation as well as for those with a small number of autoimmune diseases. NEPHSTROM is a small but intensively studied clinical trial which will allow determination of the effective dose, and how they might function to protect the diabetic kidney."

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Back to the Future Reminder (October 21)

takyon writes:

26 years ago, Marty McFly and Doc Brown climbed into their time-traveling flying DeLorean and set the controls to the distant future — October 21, 2015 — which happens to be this week.

This is a fun post about the predictions that Back to the Future got right, the predictions they got wrong, and the amazing technologies we have today that they just completely left out.

Meanwhile, in New York:

Ride-hailing service Lyft is offering free DeLorean rides Wednesday, October 21st in New York City to celebrate Back to the Future Day, when Marty McFly and Doc Brown traveled to the future in the (let's face it) middling sequel to the 1985 original blockbuster. The company is partnering with Universal and Verizon for the promotion, which will be offered to users from 11AM to 5PM via a "McFly Mode" toggle on the app.

Rides will be free, but the ability to travel either forward or back through the timestream is dependent on reaching 88 mph, and the speed limit in the Big Apple was just lowered to 25 mph, so don't get your hopes up.

Star Wars Ticket Demand Crashes Cinema Websites

Huge demand for tickets to the first screenings of Star Wars: The Force Awakens has put a strain on cinema websites.

Odeon and Picturehouse said their sites were affected, with Picturehouse saying it had seen "unprecedented" demand. However a Vue spokesman said it had sold 10,000 tickets in 90 minutes, adding "our customers continue to purchase online with ease".

The new film, which hits cinema screens on 17 December, is one of the most anticipated titles of the year. It reunites stars from the original trilogy of films including Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher. Advance tickets went on sale this morning, but the volume of people trying to buy them was too high for website servers to cope.

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Phoenix666 writes:

The flu season arrives so predictably, and affects so many of us, that it's hard to believe that scientists have had very little idea why cold weather helps germs to spread.
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the answer may have been lying invisible in the air that we breathe. Thanks to the laws of thermodynamics, cold air can carry less water vapour before it reaches the "dew point" and falls as rain. So while the weather outside may seem wetter, the air itself is drier as it loses the moisture. And a steady stream of research over the past few years has shown that these dry conditions seem to offer the perfect environment for the flu virus to flourish.
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That's counter-intuitive – we normally think that the damp makes us ill, rather than protects us from disease. But to understand why, you need to grasp the peculiar dynamics of our coughs and sneezes. Any time we splutter with a cold, we expel a mist of particles from our nose and mouths. In moist air, these particles may remain relatively large, and drop to the floor. But in dry air, they break up into smaller pieces – eventually becoming so small that they can stay aloft for hours or days. (It's a bit like the mist you get when you turn a hose pipe to its finest spray.) The result is that in winter, you are breathing a cocktail of dead cells, mucus and viruses from anyone and everyone who has visited the room recently.

What's more, water vapour in the air seems to be toxic to the virus itself. Perhaps by changing the acidity or salt concentration in the packet of mucus, moist air may deform the virus's surface, meaning that it loses the weaponry that normally allows us to attack our cells. In contrast, viruses in drier air can float around and stay active for hours – until it is inhaled or ingested, and can lodge in the cells in your throat.

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Hairyfeet writes:

Proving that the more complex the OS, the easier it is to hack, and how root really isn't required to attack a device a malicious app bypassed Ubuntu Phone security checks to give the attacker full control over the phone.

Luckily only 15 people are known to have downloaded the app but one has to wonder if Ubuntu Phone is already being targeted so successfully in its infancy what does that bode when its a more juicy target?

An educated guess for the unreleased sales statistics can be found on Riccardo Padovani's blog.

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Phoenix666 writes:

a team of chemists, lead by Dr Justin Chalker at Flinders University in South Australia, has developed a new material to permanently remove mercury from soil and water.

It's called Sulfur-Limonene Polysulfide, or SLP for short.

"SLP is a polymer that looks like red rubber, and is made quite cheaply from industrial by-products," said Dr Chalker. "We can make it into any shape we want."

As its full name suggests, SLP is manufactured from sulfur – a by-product of the crude oil industry – and limonene, which is found in orange peel and an unused waste material from the citrus industry. Both components are readily and cheaply available, making SLP a highly sustainable product.

"To make the SLP polymer, we melt the sulfur, and add limonene to it and then can coat devices or make it into any shape we like," said Dr Chalker.

By lining storage containers with SLP, Dr Chalker and his colleagues have successfully removed mercury from river and pond water, and soil.

The material can transform water from toxic to nearly drinkable, with concentrations of mercury reduced a thousand fold, from several parts per million down to only several parts per billion.

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Who the hell still uses AOL? Apparently, CIA boss John Brenner. The New York Post had several phone conversations with an individual who claimed that he gained access to Brenner's email and phone accounts, downloaded a number of classified documents and posted them on Twitter. The hacker identified himself as a high school student, and part of a group called "Crackaz With Attitude".

The FBI and other federal agencies are now investigating the hacker, with one source saying criminal charges are possible, law enforcement sources said.

"I think they'll want to make an example out of him to deter people from doing this in the future," said a source who described the situation as "just wild" and "crazy."

"I can't believe he did this to the head of the CIA,'' the source added. "[The] problem with these older-generation guys is that they don't know anything about cybersecurity, and as you can see, it can be problematic."

Government officials say that the FBI and Secret Service are investigating the matter, but deny that any classified materials were compromised.

The cracker remains at large, for now. He also talked to Wired, providing some detailed information on how he pulled it off.

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takyon writes:

The U.S. Department of Transportation is set to announce plans to require registration for every drone sold:

Have a drone? You're going to have to register it with the U.S. Department of Transportation, according to NBC News.

The federal government will announce a plan within days that will require anyone who buys a drone to register it with the Department of Transportation, NBC reported Friday evening.

A Department of Transportation spokesperson told MarketWatch that U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx and Administrator Michael Huerta of the Federal Aviation Administration will release more details on Monday at 12:30 p.m. Eastern time.

"The hobbyist drone community has self-regulated itself for decades," said Lisa Ellman, co-chair of the unmanned aircraft systems practice at Hogan Lovells, a New York–based law firm. "But with the technology getting so cheap and improving so much, we have more and more drones."

FAA official Rich Swayze said last month that the agency expects that a million drones could be sold this holiday season.

"A lot of people are buying them and thinking they are toys," Ellman said. "They are not toys."

Florida lawyer Jonathan Rupprecht, author of a book on drone law, said he believes any plan centered around drone registration is a necessary first step toward regulating drones but is curious how the regulation will play out and whether the rule will apply to hobbyists with small drones.

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martyb writes:

Hello fellow Soylentils!

[Update:] We survived all three days of reboots without major issues. Many thanks to all who prepped the systems, prodded things along, and were on standby to deal with any unforeseen issues!

We were informed by Linode (our hosting provider) that they needed to perform some maintenance on their servers. This forces a reboot of our virtual servers which may cause the site (and other services) to be temporarily unavailable.

Here is the three-day reboot schedule along with what runs on each server:

We apologize in advance for any inconvenience and appreciate your understanding as we try and get things up and running following each reboot.

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NotSanguine writes:

The American Institute of Physics is reporting on new research into a Bose-Enstein Condensate-like state in biological proteins. This state, first predicted in 1968 by physicist Herbert Frohlich, and dubbed a Frohlich condensate has been achieved.

From the article:

The researchers made the condensate by aiming terahertz radiation at a crystallized protein extracted from the white of a chicken egg. They report their results in the journal Structural Dynamics, from AIP Publishing and the American Crystallographic Association.

"Observing Fröhlich condensation opens the door to a much wider-ranging study of what terahertz radiation does to proteins," said Gergely Katona, a senior scientist at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden. Terahertz radiation occupies the space in the electromagnetic spectrum between microwaves and infrared light. It has been proposed as a useful tool in applications ranging from airport security to cancer screening, but its effects on biological systems remains murky.

Katona said he is interested in studying how terahertz-induced Fröhlich condensation could change the rates of reactions catalyzed by biological enzymes or shift chemical equilibria. Such knowledge could lead to medical applications or new ways to control chemical reactions in industry, but Katona cautioned that the research is still at a fundamental stage.

More after the break.

Arthur T Knackerbracket and Phoenix666 writes:

CNet reports:

Seven US companies have been attacked by government-associated Chinese hackers in the three weeks since the US and China announced a pact that banned government spying on companies, a US security firm said Monday.

The hacks by "actors we have affiliated with the Chinese government" targeted five technology companies and two pharmaceutical companies, US security company CrowdStrike said in a blog post. The first of these occurred the day after the two countries struck a landmark pact in which they agreed not to spy on one another to steal business secrets. They "are continuing to this day", the company said.

Computer world reports:

Facebook will now warn people if it has a strong suspicion an account is being targeted by a nation-state.

The social networking service already takes steps to secure accounts that may have been compromised but has decided to directly alert users of the type of attack that's under way, wrote Alex Stamos, Facebook's chief security officer.

Since state-sponsored attacks can be more sophisticated "having an account compromised in this manner may indicate that your computer or mobile device has been infected with malware," he wrote.

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frojack writes:

The story is being carried by USA Today and just about every major news outlet. There were some economic takes on the election as well.

takyon: Results at CBC and BBC. DeSmog Canada has an analysis focusing on potential shifts in environmental and science policies:

The Liberal party has taken a strong stance on the war on science in Canada, promising to free scientists to speak publicly about their work. Trudeau has also promised to instate a Parliamentary Science Officer to ensure transparency, expertise and independence of federal scientists. This position will mirror that of the Parliamentary Budget Officer.

In addition to unmuzzling scientists, the party also wants to work collaboratively with the provinces, First Nations and other stakeholders when it comes to ocean management. This is significant in light of the Conservative government's de-funding of numerous marine science programs, including the only research being conducted into the effects of industrial pollutants on marine mammals. The Liberal party has promised to reinstate $40 million of funding for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

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"gewg_" writes:

There were several good headlines on this.

Channelnomics entitled their coverage Walmart disrupts "Hotel California effect" in cloud

The Eagles' classic Hotel California concludes with the line: "You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave".

That's how some users of cloud services feel about their providers. Cloud computing allows businesses to offload data, applications, and workloads into hosted environments, decreasing their capital costs and providing management flexibility. But moving assets between clouds is extremely challenging, especially when it could disrupt mission-critical workloads.

SiliconANGLE lead with Walmart open-sources its internal PaaS to stick it to Amazon

The competition between the world's two largest retailers leaked into the public cloud this week after the announcement that Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is releasing the source code for the proprietary platform-as-a-service stack powering its e-commerce operations under a free license. The move should make quite a few providers stir in their seats, but it's only targeting one in particular.

Now we have to wait to see how open "open" is.

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Yog-Yogguth writes:

Italian newspaper L'Espresso requested documents from the UK and Sweden using Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) mechanisms and while they didn't get anything from the UK Crown Prosecution Service they did get 226 pages from the Swedish Prosecution Authority, enough to cast some light on what went on behind the scene.

From their English version (original in Italian):

Much more in the L'Espresso news articles including some of the documents. There's also coverage (so far) by 9news in australia ("Details in new UK documents stun Assange") and RT out of Russia ("UK resisted Swedish efforts to interview Julian Assange").

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Phoenix666 writes:

UCLA professor Yang Yang, member of the California NanoSystems Institute, is a world-renowned innovator of solar cell technology whose team in recent years has developed next-generation solar cells constructed of perovskite, which has remarkable efficiency converting sunlight to electricity.

Despite this success, the delicate nature of perovskite—a very light, flexible, organic-inorganic hybrid material—stalled further development toward its commercialized use. When exposed to air, perovskite cells broke down and disintegrated within a few hours to few days. The cells deteriorated even faster when also exposed to moisture, mainly due to the hydroscopic nature of the perovskite.

Now Yang's team has conquered the primary difficulty of perovskite by protecting it between two layers of metal oxide. This is a significant advance toward stabilizing perovskite solar cells. Their new cell construction extends the cell's effective life in air by more than 10 times, with only a marginal loss of efficiency converting sunlight to electricity.

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Phoenix666 writes:

We agree there is more to the mind than the synaptic connections between neurons. The exact molecular and electrochemical features of the brain that underlie the conscious mind remain far from completely explored. However, available evidence lends support to the possibility that brain features that encode memories and determine behavior can be preserved during and after cryopreservation.

Cryopreservation is already used in laboratories all over the world to maintain animal cells, human embryos, and some organized tissues for periods as long as three decades. When a biological sample is cryopreserved, cryoprotective chemicals such as DMSO or propylene glycol are added and the temperature of the tissue is lowered to below the glass transition temperature (typically about -120 ^oC). At these temperatures, molecular activities are slowed by more than 13 orders of magnitude, effectively stopping biological time.
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Direct evidence that memories can survive cryopreservation comes from the roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans, the very animal model discussed in Hendricks's response. For decades C. elegans have commonly been cryopreserved at liquid nitrogen temperatures and later revived. This year, using an assay for memories of long-term odorant imprinting associations, one of us published findings that C. elegans retain learned behaviors acquired before cryopreservation. Similarly, it has been shown that long-term potentiation of neurons, a mechanism of memory, remains intact in rabbit brain tissue following cryopreservation.

Going to sleep and waking up in a time when the world will finally have flying cars is appealing, but would you really enjoy life as a walking anachronism?

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