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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

For decades, conservationists have considered blue-winged warblers to be a threat to golden-winged warblers, a species being considered for federal Endangered Species protection. Blue-winged warbler populations have declined 66 percent since 1968, according to the North American Breeding Bird Survey. The two species are known to frequently interbreed where they co-occur, and scientists have been concerned that the more numerous blue-winged warblers would genetically swamp the rarer golden-wing gene pool.

New research from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's Fuller Evolutionary Biology Program shows that, genetically speaking, blue-winged and golden-winged warblers are almost identical. Scientists behind the research say the main differences between the two species are in feather color and pattern, in some cases just a simple matter of dominant or recessive pairings of gene variants, or alleles.

[...] The team investigated the genetic architecture behind the differences between the two warblers by analyzing the genomes of 10 golden-winged and 10 blue-winged warblers from New York, with birds sampled from the Sterling Forest along the New Jersey border to the St. Lawrence River Valley. Across their analysis of the entire genomes of both species, they found only six regions (or less than .03 percent) that showed strong differences. In other words, blue-winged and golden-winged warblers are 99.97 percent alike genetically. One of the differentiating regions has a gene that likely controls yellow/white versus black throat coloration; the black throat of the golden-winged warbler is a Mendellian recessive trait, occurring only in birds that have a pair of recessive alleles of this genetic variant. Another region likely controls body color; the yellow body of blue-winged warblers is likely an incompletely recessive trait.

When blue-winged and golden-winged warblers interbreed, they produce various hybrids, including two forms called the Brewster's Warbler (with a light body and no black throat) and Lawrence's Warbler (with a yellow body and black throat). The new research shows the Brewster's form of golden- and blue-winged warbler hybrids seems to be an expression of dominant traits for throat and body color, whereas the Lawrence's form of hybrid exhibits recessive trait expression for both.

Plumage Genes and Little Else Distinguish the Genomes of Hybridizing Warblers (DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2016.06.034) (DX)

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martyb writes in with this story:

One of the common descriptions of black holes is that their gravitational pull is so strong, not even light can escape it. Stephen Hawking is famous for (among other things) showing that this isn't actually true. The Hawking radiation that bears his name allows matter to escape from the grip of a black hole. In fact, Hawking's work suggests that an isolated black hole would slowly evaporate away and cease to exist.

But his work remains entirely theoretical. Hawking radiation is expected to be so diffuse that we could only detect it if we could somehow find or create a black hole isolated from all other matter. But Jeff Steinhauer of Israel's Technion has been on a sometimes single-handed quest to develop a system that can accurately model a black hole's behavior. And, in a recent paper in Nature Physics, Dr. Steinhauer describes how his model system generates what appears to be Hawking radiation.

[...] The implications are significant, and Steinhauer puts them succinctly: "The measurement reported here verifies Hawking's calculation, which is viewed as a milestone in the quest for quantum gravity. The observation of Hawking radiation and its entanglement confirms important elements in the discussion of information loss in a real black hole."

Observation of quantum Hawking radiation and its entanglement in an analogue black hole (DOI: 10.1038/nphys3863) (DX)

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takyon writes:

Win Kobe Bryant's money:

The retired NBA star will unveil on Monday his venture-capital fund, a $100 million vehicle for investing in technology, media and data companies. Bryant, who turns 38 on Tuesday, isn't going it alone: He is partnering with 43-year-old Jeff Stibel, a longtime entrepreneur and investor who was introduced to Bryant by a mutual friend. They have named their firm Bryant Stibel and will be based in the Los Angeles area.

The two have been invested in 15 companies since 2013, but only after Bryant's retirement from basketball have they decided to formalize their relationship and fund. Current investments include sports media website The Players Tribune, videogame designer Scopely, legal-services company LegalZoom, a telemarketing-software firm called RingDNA and a home-juicing company called Juicero.

Expanded WSJ coverage.

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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

For older adults, having more or closer family members in one's social network decreases his or her likelihood of death, but having a larger or closer group of friends does not, finds a new study that will be presented at the 111th Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association (ASA).

"We found that older individuals who had more family in their network, as well as older people who were closer with their family were less likely to die," said James Iveniuk, the lead author of the study and a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Toronto's Dalla Lana School of Public Health. "No such associations were observed for number of or closeness to friends."

[...] In the first wave, these older adults were asked to list up to five of their closest confidants, describe in detail the nature of each relationship, and indicate how close they felt to each person. Excluding spouses, the average number of close confidants named was 2.91, and most older adults perceived high levels of support from their social contacts. Additionally, most respondents were married, in good physical health, and reported not being very lonely.

Iveniuk and co-author L. Philip Schumm, a senior biostatistician at the University of Chicago, found that older adults who reported feeling "extremely close" on average to the non-spousal family members they listed as among their closest confidants had about a six percent risk of mortality within the next five years, compared to approximately a 14 percent risk of mortality among those who reported feeling "not very close" to the family members they listed.

Furthermore, the study found that respondents who listed more non-spousal family members in their network—irrespective of closeness—had lower odds of death compared to those who listed fewer family members. "Regardless of the emotional content of a connection, simply having a social relationship with another person may have benefits for longevity," Iveniuk said.

Iveniuk said he was surprised that feeling closer to one's family members and having more relatives as confidants decreased the risk of death for older adults, but that the same was not true of relationships with friends.

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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Republican Governor Charlie Baker signed the nickel fee into law this month as part of a sweeping package of regulations for the industry.

Ride services are not enthusiastic about the fee. "I don't think we should be in the business of subsidizing potential competitors," said Kirill Evdakov, the chief executive of Fasten, a ride service that launched in Boston last year and also operates in Austin, Texas.

Some taxi owners wanted the law to go further, perhaps banning the start-up competitors unless they meet the requirements taxis do, such as regular vehicle inspection by the police.

"They've been breaking the laws that are on the books, that we've been following for many years," said Larry Meister, manager of the Boston area's Independent Taxi Operator's Association.

The law levies a 20-cent fee in all, with 5 cents for taxis, 10 cents going to cities and towns and the final 5 cents designated for a state transportation fund.

The fee may raise millions of dollars a year because Lyft and Uber alone have a combined 2.5 million rides per month in Massachusetts.

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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

On Monday, legendary tech shop Tekserve shuttered after a 29-year-run. Many have mourned the end of what was considered the precursor to the Apple Store — including a number of new media artists who reminisced about how the store helped them realize their projects. On August 23, though, you can bid to own a piece of Tekserve history, with nearly 500 objects that filled all rooms of the store going to auction, from old typewriters to bulky vintage cameras. Held on-site, it is organized by Roland Auctions, which has also published an online catalogue.

As expected, there's a lot of offerings for computer aficionados and collectors of gizmos. Tekserve, for instance, is searching for a good home for its famous "Mac Museum," which comprises 35 computers that represent the development of Apple from 1984 to 2004. One of them is even signed by Steve Wozniak. Jan Albert, who is married to co-founder Dick Demenus, told Hyperallergic she would like a design museum or engineering museum to purchase it to continue inspiring artists and technicians to "Think different." Much of Tekserve's collection was amassed by Demenus, and his collection of vintage radios and microphones that lined the walls by Tekserve's entrance is also entirely up for sale. Demenus is even selling his worktable, a mid-century-modern Jens Risom executive desk.

And [sic] addition to the contraptions, there's a number of artworks for sale that initially arrived from customers or were owned by David Lerner, Tekserve's other founding partner. Available, for instance, is a signed Robert Rauschenberg exhibition poster, an abstract painting by one E. Victor Gotthelf, and this random plaster bust of Benjamin Franklin. Besides dealing with technology, Tekserve actually hosted a number of exhibitions over its lifetime, including a show of discarded laptops engraved by Michael Dinges; a display of Ken Brown's films and animations shown on the store's monitors; and a show of photographer Chester Higgins Jr.'s portraits from Africa.

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takyon writes:

A Yale researcher has published a study that suggests that because the presumed "self-regulating mechanism" for planetary internal temperature does not exist, the distance at which an exoplanet orbits its star might not matter as much as random factors such as giant impacts during the formation of the planet:

A new study, appearing in the journal Science Advances on Aug. 19, suggests that simply being in the habitable zone isn't sufficient to support life. A planet also must start with an internal temperature that is just right.

"If you assemble all kinds of scientific data on how Earth has evolved in the past few billion years and try to make sense out of them, you eventually realize that mantle convection is rather indifferent to the internal temperature," said Jun Korenaga, author of the study and professor of geology and geophysics at Yale. Korenaga presents a general theoretical framework that explains the degree of self-regulation expected for mantle convection and suggests that self-regulation is unlikely for Earth-like planets.

"The lack of the self-regulating mechanism has enormous implications for planetary habitability," Korenaga said. "Studies on planetary formation suggest that planets like Earth form by multiple giant impacts, and the outcome of this highly random process is known to be very diverse." Such diversity of size and internal temperature would not hamper planetary evolution if there was self-regulating mantle convection, Korenaga said. "What we take for granted on this planet, such as oceans and continents, would not exist if the internal temperature of Earth had not been in a certain range, and this means that the beginning of Earth's history cannot be too hot or too cold."

Can mantle convection be self-regulated? (open, DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.1601168)

[More..]

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following malware:

WikiLeaks is hosting 324 confirmed instances of malware among its caches of dumped emails, a top Bulgarian anti-malware veteran says. Random checks of reported malware hashes find the trojans are flagged as malware by Virus Total's static analysis checks.

Much of the malware appear to be attachments emailed by black hats in a bid to compromise the various parties affected in the WikiLeaks dumps.

Dr Vesselin Bontchev (@bontchev) says the instances of malware are only those confirmed and found in an initial search effort. [...] "The list is by no means exhaustive; I am just starting with the analysis," Bontchev says.

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n1 writes:

A former US Navy Seal who wrote a bestseller about his role in the raid that killed Osama Bin Laden is to pay nearly $7m (£5m) to the government for violating non-disclosure agreements.

Matt Bissonette failed to get clearance from the Pentagon before the book No Easy Day was published in 2012.

He has agreed to forfeit all profits and royalties, as well as film rights and speaking fees.

In exchange, the government will dismiss other liability claims.

Source: BBC News

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takyon writes:

NASA may sell/lease parts of the International Space Station in the next decade:

NASA has signalled its intention to offload the International Space Station (ISS) some time in the 2020s. News of the sale appeared in the video below, at about the 14:15 mark [YouTube] when Bill Hill, NASA's deputy associate administrator for exploration systems development, ponders the ISS' role in future missions.

"Ultimately our desire is to hand the space station to either a commercial entity or some other commercial capability so that research can continue in low-Earth orbit. We figure that will be around the mid-20s."

Hill and the other speakers in the video explain how NASA is preparing for a crewed Mars mission and outline how the agency is now well and truly in the market for ideas about how to get it done.

Also at SpaceFlight Insider and TechCrunch.

Related:
Russia to Build New Space Station with NASA after ISS
Russia Investigates Downsizing Space Station Crew From Three to Two

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jdavidb writes:

Nikita Bush's career as a public school teacher came to an end when she faced the decision of how to educate her own children. Having been told for years that American public schools would eventually get better for black children, the number of African-American homeschooling parents like Ms. Bush has doubled in little over a decade.

As Patrick Jonsson of the Christian Science monitor reports, studies show all kinds of public school problems disproportionately affect black children, and many parents have decided to take matters into their own hands. Even single parents are forming co-ops to make it possible to educate their children together outside of the public school system.

What do you do when you feel the system is failing your child and their education?

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quietus writes:

The European Space Agency has about 2,000 staff and spends €365m a year on human spaceflight. Commercial spaceflight company SpaceX employs more than 4,000 staff and raised about $1bn in funding in January 2015. Common wisdom has it that this is the kind of organization, and money resources, you need to get humans into space.

Now a rag-tag team of about 50 volunteer physicists, engineers, mathematicians, software developers, sysadmins, pyrotechnicians and even a deep-sea rescue diver attempts to challenge that wisdom, by sending a manned capsule 100km above sea level, past the Karman line dividing Earth's atmosphere from outer space.

Their materials: anything they can salvage, off-the-shelf equipment, a 300 sq metre hangar at a closed shipyard near Copenhagen [Denmark] and a launchpad in the Baltic Sea. Their timeline: 5 to 10 years from now. Their budget: about €175,000 annually.

Of course it is ridiculous to presume Copenhagen Suborbitals, the name of this collective, will ever succeed. When hell freezes over, turkey and apple pie will fly directly into my mouth, manna drops from heaven etcetera -- these guys are delusional.

Yet Copenhagen Suborbitals has already managed five rocket launches, more than a hundred engine tests and four versions of its space capsule since 2008. Maybe, just maybe, the right methodology matters more than the available budget. So, what if, against all the odds, this bunch of nerds manage to launch a human into space using open source software and off-the-shelf hardware, on a shoestring budget?

Original Submission

quietus writes:

Alma Thomas was born during the horse and buggy days of the end of the 19th century, and raised under Jim Crow laws. By the end of her life, in 1978, she had been the first black woman to be given a solo show at the Whitney Museum of American Art, with works inspired by the possibilities of space travel.

If you look at our current time and technologies, after a little thought, what makes you feel amazed about, and hopeful, curious for, the future?

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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Following a seven-year journey to Saturn, the NASA/ESA/ASI Cassini orbiter delivered Europe's Huygens probe to the surface of Saturn's mysterious moon Titan in January 2005, just a few months after becoming the first spacecraft to enter orbit around the giant gas planet.

Since then, Cassini and Huygens have returned a wealth of information on the Saturnian system to the global scientific community, helping us understand the massive planet, its multiple moons and its hauntingly beautiful system of rings.

Starting later this year, the mission will begin its final phase (see Cassini's Grand Finale ) and ESA's superbly sensitive deep-space tracking stations will be called in to help gather crucial radio science data.

[...] "We had to upgrade some software at ESOC, as we discovered that one file used for pointing the antenna did not have enough digits to encode the full distance to Cassini, but the test worked and demonstrated we can catch Cassini's transmissions."

[...] Starting in December and running into July 2017, Cassini will conduct a daring series of orbits in which the spacecraft will repeatedly climb high above Saturn's poles, initially passing just outside its narrow F ring, and then later diving between the uppermost atmosphere and the innermost ring.

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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Researchers at the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology have discovered a new method of observing changes in the retina which can be seen in Parkinson's before changes in the brain occur and the first symptoms become evident.

Using ophthalmic instruments that are routinely used in[sic] optometrists and eye clinics, the scientists were able to use the new imaging technique to observe these retinal changes at an early stage. This method, published in Acta Neuropathologica Communications, would allow earlier diagnosis of Parkinson's and also could be used to monitor how patients respond to treatment. The technique has already been tested in humans for glaucoma and trials are due to start soon for Alzheimer's.

"This is potentially a revolutionary breakthrough in the early diagnosis and treatment of one of the world's most debilitating diseases," said Professor Francesca Cordeiro, UCL Professor of Glaucoma & Retinal Neurodegeneration Studies, who led the research. "These tests mean we might be able to intervene much earlier and more effectively treat people with this devastating condition."

Parkinson's disease affects 1 in 500 people and is the second most common neurodegenerative disease worldwide. Symptoms typically become apparent only once over 70 percent of the brain's dopamine-producing cells have been destroyed. The condition results in muscle stiffness, slowness of movement, tremors and a reduced quality of life.

Original Submission