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Phoenix666 writes:

Scientists at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) demonstrated how particles, floating on top of a glycerin-water solution, synchronize in response to acoustic waves blasted from a computer speaker.

The study, published today (Monday, June 19) in the journal Nature Materials, could help address fundamental questions about energy dissipation and how it allows living and nonliving systems to adapt to their environment when they are out of thermodynamic equilibrium.

[...] "We show that individually 'dumb' particles can self-organize far from equilibrium by dissipating energy and emerge with a collective trait that is dynamically adaptive to and reflective of their environment," said study co-lead author Chad Ropp, a postdoctoral researcher in Zhang's group. "In this case, the particles followed the 'beat' of a sound wave generated from a computer speaker."

Notably, after the researchers intentionally broke up the particle party, the pieces would reassemble, showing a capacity to self-heal.

Ropp noted that this work could eventually lead to a wide variety of "smart" applications, such as adaptive camouflage that responds to sound and light waves, or blank-slate materials whose properties are written on demand by externally controlled drives.

[...] As the sound waves traveled at a frequency of 4 kilohertz, the scattering particles moved along at about 1 centimeter per minute. Within 10 minutes, the collective pattern of the particles emerged, where the distance between the particles was surprisingly non-uniform. The researchers found that the self-assembled particles exhibited a phononic bandgap -- a frequency range in which acoustic waves cannot pass -- whose edge was inextricably linked, or "enslaved," to the 4 kHz input.

Journal Reference:
Nicolas Bachelard, Chad Ropp, Marc Dubois, Rongkuo Zhao, Yuan Wang, Xiang Zhang. Emergence of an enslaved phononic bandgap in a non-equilibrium pseudo-crystal. Nature Materials, 2017; DOI: 10.1038/nmat4920

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martyb writes:

SpaceX has endeavored to make rocket launches commonplace with the ultimate goal of launching a rocket being similar to flying a jet plane; land, inspect, refuel, load, and go. They have made great strides in this area and in the next two weeks are impressively stepping up their cadence! According to Spaceflight Now their next three launches are scheduled as follows:

June 23 - Falcon 9 • BulgariaSat 1
Launch window: 1810-2010 GMT (2:10-4:10 p.m. EDT)
Launch site: LC-39A, Kennedy Space Center, Florida
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch the BulgariaSat 1 communications satellite. BulgariaSat 1 will provide direct-to-home television broadcast and data communications services over southeast Europe for Bulsatcom. The payload will be the first geostationary communications satellite owned by a Bulgarian company. The Falcon 9 rocket's first stage will be a re-flown booster. Delayed from June 15, June 17 and June 19. [June 18]

June 25 - Falcon 9 • Iridium Next 11-20
Launch time: 2024 GMT (4:24 p.m. EDT; 1:24 p.m. PDT)
Launch site: SLC-4E, Vandenberg Air Force Base, California
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch 10 satellites for the Iridium next mobile communications fleet. Delayed from October, December and April. Moved forward from June 29. [June 19]

July 1 - Falcon 9 • Intelsat 35e
Launch window: 2335-0035 GMT (7:35-8:35 p.m. EDT)
Launch site: LC-39A, Kennedy Space Center, Florida
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch the Intelsat 35e communications satellite. The high-throughput Intelsat 35e satellite is part of Intelsat's "Epic" fleet, providing broadband, video and mobile communications services over eastern North America, the Caribbean, South America, Europe and Africa. Delayed from April. [June 8]

See also: Space Flights News launch schedule.

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

Using advanced cell engineering technologies at Synthetic Genomics, the ExxonMobil-Synthetic Genomics research team modified an algae strain to enhance the algae's oil content from 20 percent to more than 40 percent. Results of the research were published today in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Biotechnology by lead authors Imad Ajjawi and Eric Moellering of Synthetic Genomics.

Researchers at Synthetic Genomics' laboratory in La Jolla discovered a new process for increasing oil production by identifying a genetic switch that could be fine-tuned to regulate the conversion of carbon to oil in the algae species, Nannochloropsis gaditana. The team established a proof-of-concept approach that resulted in the algae doubling its lipid fraction of cellular carbon compared to the parent – while sustaining growth.

[...] A key objective of the ExxonMobil-Synthetic Genomics collaboration has been to increase the lipid content of algae while decreasing the starch and protein components without inhibiting the algae's growth. Limiting availability of nutrients such as nitrogen is one way to increase oil production in algae, but it can also dramatically inhibit or even stop photosynthesis, stunting algae growth and ultimately the volume of oil produced.

The ability to sustain growth while increasing oil content is an important advance. Algae has other advantages over traditional biofuels because it can grow in salt water and thrive in harsh environmental conditions, therefore limiting stress on food and fresh water supplies.

Oil from algae can also potentially be processed in conventional refineries, producing fuels no different from convenient, energy-dense diesel. Oil produced from algae also holds promise as a potential feedstock for chemical manufacturing.

The Age of Oil ain't goin' down without a fight.

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-- OriginalOwner_ writes:

The Associated Press reports via KTAR-FM in Glendale, Arizona

At Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, American Airlines regional jets sit on the tarmac as American Airlines says seven regional flights have been delayed and 43 have been canceled because of a heat wave as temperatures climb to near-record highs Tuesday, June 20, 2017, in Phoenix.

[...] It's the air density.

Hotter air gets thin, making it harder to take off and land safely, mostly for smaller jets. That's what has kept some planes grounded in Phoenix this week where temperatures have been pushing 120 degrees. Airplanes take off and stay aloft because of lift, the force from the movement of air underneath the plane's wings that push it upward.

"As air warms up, it expands and there's fewer molecules to be under your wing", said Lou McNally , professor of applied meteorology at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. With less lift, "you need more of everything. You need more thrust to take off. You need more distance (on the runway) to take off. You need more distance to land. You need more speed to land. It gets to a point for some aircraft that it gets just too much", he said.

High heat also means a plane climbs at a lower rate, said pilot Patrick Smith, author of the book "Cockpit Confidential".

To compensate, planes have to generate more thrust or power and have larger wings. Smaller jets that generate less thrust, like Bombardier's CRJ regional jets, which have a 118-degree limit at Phoenix's elevation, are more likely to be stuck in the heat.

At Dubai International Airport and other Gulf airports, which are used to hot weather, many flights--but not all--arrive at night and early morning to get around the heat problem. Gulf carriers also tend to operate longer flights using larger planes that aren't as limited by high heat.

[...] Airlines can take other steps when the temperature climbs too high. They can lighten the plane's load by selling fewer seats--a tactic American Airlines is using in the Phoenix heat wave--or reducing cargo. They can take off with less than a full tank of fuel and then stop somewhere cooler to refuel.

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takyon writes:

Stephen Hawking wants humanity to pursue a Mars mission in the mid-2020s rather than the mid-2030s:

Prof Stephen Hawking has called for leading nations to send astronauts to the Moon by 2020. They should also aim to build a lunar base in 30 years' time and send people to Mars by 2025. Prof Hawking said that the goal would re-ignite the space programme, forge new alliances and give humanity a sense of purpose.

He was speaking at the Starmus Festival celebrating science and the arts, which is being held in Trondheim, Norway. "Spreading out into space will completely change the future of humanity," he said. "I hope it would unite competitive nations in a single goal, to face the common challenge for us all. "A new and ambitious space programme would excite (young people), and stimulate interest in other areas, such as astrophysics and cosmology".

Prof. Hawking also talked about interstellar travel:

[We'll] never know how hospitable Proxima b is unless we can get there. At current speeds, using chemical propulsion, it would take 3 million years to reach the exoplanet, Hawking said. Thus, space colonization requires a radical departure in our travel technology. "To go faster would require a much higher exhaust speed than chemical rockets can provide — that of light itself," Hawking said. "A powerful beam of light from the rear could drive the spaceship forward. Nuclear fusion could provide 1 percent of the spaceship's mass energy, which would accelerate it to a tenth of the speed of light."

NASA usually talks about planning for "Mars 2035". Who is trying to get there by 2025?

A Mars mission architecture SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk will unveil in September will call for a series of missions starting in 2018 leading up to the first crewed mission to the planet in 2024, Musk said June 1.

Related: Elon Musk's Plans for Mars and Beyond Revealed
Elon Musk Publishes Mars Colonization Plan

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takyon writes:

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-40326544

A European Parliament committee wants end-to-end encryption to be enforced on all forms of digital communication to protect European Union (EU) citizens. The draft legislation seeks to protect sensitive personal data from hacking and government surveillance. EU citizens are entitled to personal privacy and this extends to online communications, the committee argues. A ban on "backdoors" into encrypted messaging apps like WhatsApp and Telegram is also being considered.

[...] "The principle of confidentiality should apply to current and future means of communication, including calls, internet access, instant messaging applications, email, internet phone calls and personal messaging provided through social media," said a draft proposal from the European Parliament's Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice, and Home Affairs.

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martyb writes:

The New York Times reports:

Travis Kalanick stepped down Tuesday as chief executive of Uber, the ride-hailing service that he helped found in 2009 and built into a transportation colossus, after a shareholder revolt made it untenable for him to stay on at the company.

Mr. Kalanick's exit came under pressure after hours of drama involving Uber's investors, according to two people with knowledge of the situation, who asked to remain anonymous because the details were confidential.

Earlier on Tuesday, five of Uber's major investors demanded that the chief executive resign immediately. The investors included one of Uber's biggest shareholders, the venture capital firm Benchmark, which has one of its partners, Bill Gurley, on Uber's board. The investors made their demand for Mr. Kalanick to step down in a letter delivered to the chief executive while he was in Chicago, said the people with knowledge of the situation.

[...] Mr. Kalanick's troubles began earlier this year after a former Uber engineer detailed what she said was sexual harassment at the company, opening the floodgates for more complaints and spurring internal investigations. In addition, Uber has been dealing with an intellectual property lawsuit from Waymo, the self-driving car business that operates under Google's parent company, and a federal inquiry into a software tool that Uber used to sidestep some law enforcement.

Uber has been trying to move past its difficult history, which has grown inextricably tied to Mr. Kalanick. In recent months, Uber has fired more than 20 employees after an investigation into the company's culture, embarked on major changes to professionalize its workplace, and is searching for new executives including a chief operating officer.

Phoenix666 writes:

When I wrote about Tesla's rapid expansion of its supercharger network, I was equally surprised by the extent of its less publicly touted network of "destination chargers"—slower, "Level 2" chargers that it is distributing to hotels, malls, restaurants and other locations so folks can charge while they shop/eat/sleep, and thus relieve some pressure from the faster superchargers which folks use for longer distance road tripping.

It got me thinking about another network of charging infrastructure which folks often don't talk about: The Level 2 chargers which most of us electric vehicle drivers install in our homes and—sometimes—places of business. These chargers don't just enable our own electrified driving, but they also provide some peace of mind to any friends and relatives who may consider driving electric, and who can now be sure of a charge if they come for a visit.

In fact, I've noticed several private charging station owners—especially businesses—in my region are publicly listing their charging stations on the various apps that are available for locating charging spots. Interestingly, this isn't just limited to restaurants or shops offering charging as a perk for your business: We have real estate companies and industrial operations simply offering up their charge points as a free service to the electric vehicle community. (Often, they'll stipulate—quite reasonably—that their own vehicles get first dibs.)

Is a network of free- or metered Tier 2 charging stations the solution to EV range anxiety?

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takyon writes:

Google will step up efforts to censor terrorism-related content on YouTube and its other services. The company says it will take four steps to address violent extremism online:

We will now devote more engineering resources to apply our most advanced machine learning research to train new "content classifiers" to help us more quickly identify and remove extremist and terrorism-related content.

[...] [We] will greatly increase the number of independent experts in YouTube's Trusted Flagger programme. Machines can help identify problematic videos, but human experts still play a role in nuanced decisions about the line between violent propaganda and religious or newsworthy speech. While many user flags can be inaccurate, Trusted Flagger reports are accurate over 90 per cent of the time and help us scale our efforts and identify emerging areas of concern. We will expand this programme by adding 50 expert NGOs to the 63 organisations who are already part of the programme, and we will support them with operational grants.

[...] [We] will be taking a tougher stance on videos that do not clearly violate our policies — for example, videos that contain inflammatory religious or supremacist content. In future these will appear behind an interstitial warning and they will not be monetised, recommended or eligible for comments or user endorsements.

[...] Finally, YouTube will expand its role in counter-radicalisation efforts. Building on our successful Creators for Change programme promoting YouTube voices against hate and radicalisation, we are working with Jigsaw to implement the "Redirect Method" more broadly across Europe. This promising approach harnesses the power of targeted online advertising to reach potential Isis recruits, and redirects them towards anti-terrorist videos that can change their minds about joining. In previous deployments of this system, potential recruits have clicked through on the ads at an unusually high rate, and watched over half a million minutes of video content that debunks terrorist recruiting messages.

Human video flaggers are paid to skim and evaluate hours worth of content in mere minutes (seconds?). But paying NGOs to watch YouTube all day could improve the situation. I would like to remind any potential terrorists reading this summary to "bomb violence with mercy".

Reported at Bloomberg and NYT.

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Booga1 writes:

The first fatality involving Tesla's Autopilot feature led to questions over the safety of the semi-autonomous system last year, but a report published by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) concludes that Elon Musk's company was not at fault. While the cause of the crash has still not been determined, the 538-page report states that driver Joshua Brown had his hands off the wheel of the Tesla Model S "for the vast majority of the trip." This was despite receiving seven visual warnings, six of which also sounded a chime, to maintain control during the 37-minute journey.

GreenCar Reports states:

The truck driver involved in the crash also claimed Brown was watching a movie at the time of impact—an aftermarket DVD player was found among the wreckage.

On the other hand, Ars Technica reports otherwise:

In the latest regulatory documents on the incident, the National Traffic Safety Board disputed some accounts that Brown was watching a Harry Potter movie during the crash last year. The board said it found several electronic devices, but there was no evidence that they were being operated during the accident.

Ars elaborates on the amount of time that the driver had his hands on the wheel:

Tesla's autopilot mode allows a vehicle to maintain the speed of traffic, and an auto-steer function is designed to help keep the Tesla inside its lane. The board said the Tesla alerted the driver seven times with a visual of "Hands Required Not Detected." The authorities said the motorist, a former Navy Seal, had his hands on the wheel for 25 seconds during the 37 minutes of the trip when they should have been placed on the steering wheel. That's according to "system performance data" from Tesla, the government said.

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An Anonymous Coward writes:

The Electronic Frontiers Foundation (EFF) have published a breakdown of AI problems such as machine vision and game playing, with associated metrics and datapoints that compare against human-level performance. The code lives here and contributions are welcome. In addition to the usual suspects, they also have open problems in AI safety and security (e.g. resistance to adversarial examples) though with no associated metrics yet.

You can use this notebook to see how things are progressing in specific subfields or AI/ML as a whole, as a place to report new results you've obtained, as a place to look for problems that might benefit from having new datasets/metrics designed for them, or as a source to build on for data science projects.

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

Technische Universität Ilmenau and the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (the National Metrology Institute of Germany) are developing a balance which is required for measuring the redefined kilogram that will be introduced in 2018. Called the Planck balance, this highly precise electronic weighing balance is not based on weights, but refers to the fundamental physical constant called Planck's constant. The balance will be used worldwide for calibrating other scales or balances so that they correspond to the system with this new method. The new balance will also be used in industry for measuring weights.

In many sectors, there is a significant demand for highly precise balances, including pharmaceutical companies for precise dosing of medical products, in official metrology service labs for calibrating scales for food, and in police departments, for the proof of toxic substances and in ballistics.

The original kilogram, a 4 cm cylinder made from platinum and iridium and stored under three glass domes in a safe near Paris since 1889, is becoming lighter. Over 100 years, it has lost 50 millionths of a gram. As all scales worldwide refer indirectly to this unique kilogram, they all weigh incorrectly, even if by minimal and negligible amounts. Although the original kilogram is becoming lighter, structurally identical copies of the prototype are used worldwide – which means that these copies are slowly becoming heavier relative to the prototype. Therefore, a new standard is required that does not change and cannot be damaged or lost.

In 2018, the new kilogram will be adopted at the 26th General Conference on Weights and Measures. It is not defined by an object or a physical mass, but by Planck's constant. The highly precise, continuously measuring Planck balance, developed by the German university Technische Universität Ilmenau, operates on the principle of electromagnetic force compensation. Simply put, a weight on one side is to be balanced by electrical force on the other. This electrical force is inextricably linked with the Planck's constant and can be directly referred to the new kilogram definition. As this balance is the first self-calibrating instrument of its kind, masses determined as reference or standard masses for calibrating scales and balances are no longer required. Another advantage of the Planck balance is its wide measuring range, from milligrams to one kilogram. At the end of the year, the first prototype of the balance will be available and ready for use.

At last, a balanced article.

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

A Brunel University London student has been exploring how mushrooms can be used to grow robust zero-waste structures as an alternative to conventional building techniques.

In collaboration with environmentally-focused architecture firm Astudio, Aleksi Vesaluoma's Grown Structures, use mycelium (oyster mushroom spawn) mixed with cardboard. The material is then molded into 'mushroom sausages' by packing the mixture into a tubular cotton bandage.

The mushroom sausages are shaped over a mold of the preferred shape and grown over four weeks in a ventilated green house, resulting in a striking structure with potential use at festivals or other events that could be easily biodegraded afterward.

The large quantities of gourmet mushrooms which pop out from the structure can also be picked and eaten, creating a novel architectural surrounding which doubles as a food source. A pop-up restaurant grown from mushrooms, serving mushroom meals, is just one potential idea for the project's future, say the creators.

While a number of designers, artists and companies are also working with mycelium in a range of different ways, Aleksi's artistic and versatile new 'sausage' technique is new to the field and a launch-pad for further developments – enhancing the structure's strength, reshaping into different designs, or building on a smaller scale, for example.

Zero waste, carbon neutral buildings can also be built with clay, stone, or wood, but probably don't taste as good.

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Phoenix666 writes:

Powerful programs run daily by users of Linux and other flavors of Unix are riddled with holes that can be exploited by logged-in miscreants to gain root privileges, researchers at Qualys have warned.

Essentially, it's possible to pull off a "Stack Clash" attack in various tools and applications to hijack the whole system, a situation that should have been prevented long ago.

It's pretty simple: an application's stack – used to hold short-term data in memory – grows down into another memory area known as the heap – which is used to hold chunks of information, such as files being viewed or edited, and so on. If you can control what's in the heap, by feeding carefully crafted data to the program, you can end up overwriting parts of the stack and hijack the flow of execution within the application. Alternatively, you can extend the stack down into the heap, and tamper with important data structures.

When that happens, and if the program has root privileges, an attacker can commandeer the trusted app to take over the whole system as an administrator. These security shortcomings were picked up last month by Qualys, which held off warning of the flaws until patches were in the works.

[Update follows. --martyb]

The Qualys Blog contains some more details:

The Stack Clash is a vulnerability in the memory management of several operating systems. It affects Linux, OpenBSD, NetBSD, FreeBSD and Solaris, on i386 and amd64. It can be exploited by attackers to corrupt memory and execute arbitrary code.

Qualys researchers discovered this vulnerability and developed seven exploits and seven proofs of concept for this weakness, then worked closely with vendors to develop patches. As a result we are releasing this advisory today as a coordinated effort, and patches for all distributions are available June 19, 2017. We strongly recommend that users place a high priority on patching these vulnerabilities immediately.

[...] Our primary Stack Clash vulnerability is CVE-2017-1000364 and demonstrates that a stack guard-page of a few kilobytes is insufficient. But during our research we discovered more vulnerabilities: some are secondary and directly related to the primary Stack Clash vulnerability (for example, CVE-2017-1000365), and some are exploitable independently (for example, CVE-2017-1000367).

[...] If you are using Linux, OpenBSD, NetBSD, FreeBSD, or Solaris, on i386 or amd64, you are affected. Other operating systems and architectures may be vulnerable too, but we have not researched any of them yet: please refer to your vendor’s official statement about the Stack Clash for more information.

For full details, see the Qualys Security Advisory.

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

The global fleet of electric vehicles grew 60% last year, and while predictions vary, some people claim that we'll all be driving (or riding in) electric vehicles within just a few decades.

But in many cities, one major impediment could slow down adoption: Where the heck do you charge your car if you don't have a driveway or garage?

Hounslow Council in London has implemented an interesting—and aesthetically pleasing—solution to this problem. It has converted its streetlights to energy efficient LEDs and, in doing so, is integrating electric vehicle charging points in the base of those streetlamps. The charge points themselves come from German company Ubitricity, and they integrate with a custom charging cable—which is ordered by the EV owner/driver—that has an electricity meter built in.

So if you happen to live in Hounslow, you simply request a charging point from your council, they install three near your house (they are trying to avoid painting dedicated electric vehicle bays). You then order an Ubitricity cable, you plug in, and you start charging. Ubitricity then sends you a monthly bill, charged at a competitive rate of £0.13 per kWh. And that's it.

Who's liable when pedestrians trip on the charging cables?

[Ed note - As a side note, apparently the LED streetlamp replacement has some issues.] - Fnord666

Original Submission