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MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for AndyTheAbsurd

Mazda Motor Corp said it would become the world's first automaker to commercialize a much more efficient petrol engine using technology that deep-pocketed rivals have been trying to engineer for decades, a twist in an industry increasingly going electric.

The new compression ignition engine is 20 percent to 30 percent more fuel efficient than the Japanese automaker's current engines and uses a technology that has eluded the likes of Daimler AG and General Motors Co.

Mazda, with a research and development (R&D) budget a fraction of those of major peers, said it plans to sell cars with the new engine from 2019.

"It's a major breakthrough," said Ryoji Miyashita, chairman of automotive engineering company AEMSS Inc.

[...] A homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) engine ignites petrol through compression, eliminating spark plugs. Its fuel economy potentially matches that of a diesel engine without high emissions of nitrogen oxides or sooty particulates.

[...] AEMSS' Miyashita said a key issue would be how smooth and responsive the engine is.

"Is it jerky? If so, that would pose a big question when it comes to commercializing this technology." he said. "Hopefully Mazda has an answer to that question."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mazda-strategy-idUSKBN1AO0E7

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takyon writes:

Intel has announced a new ruler-shaped form factor for SSDs that it says will enable 1,000 terabytes in a 1U-sized server rack. Other upcoming products include dual port SSDs and SATA SSDs:

Intel plans to release both 3D NAND SSDs and Optane SSDs in the Ruler form factor "in the near future".

Dual Port Intel Optane SSDs and Intel 3D NAND SSDs are designed to replace SAS SSDs and HDDs and, with new storage technologies, deliver more IOPS, more bandwidth and lower latency than SAS SSDs. Dual port Intel SSD DC D4500, D4502 and D4600 Series are due for release in Q3 this year.

Finally Intel is introducing the SSD DC S4500 and S4600 Series for data centres. These combine "a new Intel-developed SATA controller, innovative SATA firmware and the industry's highest density 32-layer 3D NAND". Intel reckons these will be attractive products to those intending to preserve legacy infrastructure.

Also at Techgage.

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takyon writes:

2014 MU₆₉, which New Horizons will fly by on January 1, 2019, appears to have an elongated shape or may be comprised of two objects:

Based on the occultation data, 2014 MU69 definitely appears to have an odd shape. In a press release, NASA officials said that it's either football shaped or a type of object called a contact binary. The size of MU69 or its components also can be determined from these data. It appears to be no more than 20 miles (30 km) long, or, if a binary, each about 9-12 miles (15-20 km) in diameter.

By comparison, Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko consists of a large lobe measuring about 4.1 × 3.3 × 1.8 km and a small lobe of about 2.6 × 2.3 × 1.8 km.

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janrinok writes:

An abnormal season of intense glacial melt in 2002 triggered multiple distinct changes in the physical and biological characteristics of Antarctica's McMurdo Dry Valleys over the ensuing decade.

The findings suggest that even abrupt, short-lived climate events can cause long-term alterations in polar regions that unfold over the span of several years and subsequently change the overall trajectory of an ecosystem.

The new research appears in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution.

The McMurdo Dry Valleys (MDV) are the largest ice-free region of Antarctica and are considered a polar desert environment due to their low humidity and scarce precipitation. Now in its 25th year, the National Science Foundation's McMurdo Dry Valleys Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) has provided a continuous multi-decade record of atmospheric and ecological data at the MDV research site.

Between 1987 and 2000, the MDV region experienced a period of cooling, during which mean summer temperatures steadily declined while solar radiation gradually increased. The trend resulted in expected changes to most biological variables, including decreased streamflow and increased thickness of permanent ice covers on lakes.

In 2002, however, the MDV experienced an abnormally warm and sunny summer season, triggering the greatest amount of glacial meltwater since 1969. The abrupt event prompted numerous changes in the lakes, streams and soils of the MDV over the following decade.

Journal Reference:
Michael N. Gooseff, et. al., Decadal ecosystem response to an anomalous melt season in a polar desert in Antarctica. Nature Ecology & Evolution, 2017; DOI: 10.1038/s41559-017-0253-0

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An Anonymous Coward writes:

From Consumer Reports last week, August 03, 2017:
https://www.consumerreports.org/2017-chevrolet-bolt/chevrolet-bolt-sets-electric-vehicle-range-record/

The Bolt is estimated to reach 238 miles by the Environmental Protection Agency. In our testing, electric vehicles tend to fall short of their EPA-estimated range, including the:

    o 2016 Tesla Model S 75D, 235 miles achieved vs. 259-mile EPA estimate.
    o 2016 Tesla Model X 90D, 230 miles achieved vs. 257-mile EPA estimate.

In our electric-vehicle range test, we put the Bolt head to head against our 2016 Tesla Model S 75D. The Tesla ran out of juice at 235 miles, while the Bolt motored on for another 15 miles. ( https://www.consumerreports.org/cars-how-consumer-reports-tests-cars/ Learn how Consumer Reports tests cars.)

Tesla has upgraded the Model X 90D to a longer-range 100D. A new Tesla Model S or X 100D would probably beat the Bolt's range, but you'd have to pay $100,000 or more for one of those cars. CR has not yet tested the range on those versions.

CR's electric-vehicle range test involves some mixed driving, but much of it is done by driving a constant 65 mph on a highway. If you were to meander on country roads at 45 mph, you might get even more range. To ensure repeatability, the CR tests are done with the air conditioning and heater off. Hard acceleration and running the HVAC system can cut the range significantly, as can driving in very cold temperatures.

I'm not surprised that Chevy's "factory rating" was conservative, under these conditions. GM has everything to gain by satisfied customers and word of mouth advertising...since they have chosen to not run a big advert blitz with the Bolt. Is it surprising that Tesla doesn't meet their published range numbers?

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MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for Bytram

Around the world, there's a growing movement to decriminalize sex work. Last year, Amnesty International, the largest human rights group in the world, came out with a recommendation that governments should decriminalize consensual sex work and develop laws that ensure workers are "protected from harm, exploitation and coercion." A United Nations commission has also come out in support of legalizing prostitution.

But the idea is a divisive one, stirring impassioned debates and concerns about the ways varying approaches could harm sex workers. Amnesty's recent policy drew strong support from public health advocates and intense backlash from those aiming to end prostitution completely.

takyon writes:

Pilotless commercial airliners are about to be tested, but potential passengers are wary:

How comfortable would you feel getting on a pilotless plane? That is the question millions of people may have to ask themselves in the future if they want to jet off on holiday around the world.

As we move closer to a world of driverless cars, which have already been on the road in some US cities and have also been tested in London, remotely controlled planes may be the next automated mode of transport. Plane manufacturer Boeing plans to test them in 2018.

A survey by financial services firm UBS suggests that pilotless aircraft not be too popular, however, with 54% of the 8,000 people questioned saying they would be unlikely to take a pilotless flight. The older age groups were the most resistant with more than half of people aged 45 and above shunning the idea.

Only 17% of those questioned said they would board such a plane, with more young people willing to give them a try and the 25 to 34 age group the most likely to step on board.

[...] Steve Landells, the British Airline Pilots Association's (Balpa) flight safety specialist, said: "We have concerns that in the excitement of this futuristic idea, some may be forgetting the reality of pilotless air travel. Automation in the cockpit is not a new thing - it already supports operations. However, every single day pilots have to intervene when the automatics don't do what they're supposed to. Computers can fail, and often do, and someone is still going to be needed to work that computer."

Fnord666: So how about it soylentils? Would you fly on a pilotless plane?

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takyon writes:

Back in September, it was reported that spindle nuclear transfer was used to successfully transfer mitochondrial DNA into an egg in order to prevent a child from inheriting a mitochondrial disorder. The procedure was carried out in Mexico due to U.S. laws against it. Now, the FDA has warned the doctor behind this milestone to stop using the achievement in marketing materials for his fertility clinic:

The US Food and Drug Administration has told a New York fertility doctor to stop marketing a controversial three-parent fertility treatment, which makes it possible for babies to be made from two women and a man.

The health watchdog published a letter to Dr. John Zhang, founder of the New Hope Fertility Center in New York City, whose "spindle nuclear transfer" technique was used to conceive a boy born in Mexico in April 2016.

Zhang detailed the procedure in the journal Fertility and Sterility [open, DOI: 10.1016/j.fertnstert.2016.08.004] [DX] last year and is now marketing the technique, but the letter reminds Zhang the FDA has not authorized his use of the procedure in humans.

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janrinok writes:

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

There aren't many astronomy jobs that pay very well – but the Chinese authorities are offering just that for the director of scientific operation for its new Five-hundred-metre Aperture Spherical Telescope.

At 500m (1,640ft) across, FAST became the world's largest filled-aperture radio telescope when construction finished last year.

While the initial building is complete and nearly 10,000 people have been moved away from the instrument to cut down on polluting it with electromagnetic signals, the telescope still needs to be calibrated and fine-tuned.

[...] Unfortunately, finding a director with the necessary skills to do the job of managing and running the instrument has proven problematic. So a foreigner is now being sought to bring their experience to bear on the project.

"The post is currently open to scientists working outside China only," a human resources official at the Chinese Academy of Sciences told the South China Morning Post. "Candidates can be of any nationality, any race."

[...] It's a tough job, managing a facility that complex and handling the competing claims for time on the 'scope from scientists. The Academy of Sciences is asking for a professor with at least 20 years' experience in radio astronomy, as well as management training.

"These requirements are very high. It puts most astronomers out of the race. I may be able to count those qualified with my fingers," said Wang Tinggui, professor of astrophysics at the University of Science and Technology of China. "It is not a job for a scientist. It's for a superhero."

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takyon writes:

Researchers at Ohio State University have developed Tissue Nanotransfection (TNT), a type of regenerative medicine technology. It uses a pad of "nanochips" and an electric current to send DNA into skin cells of a living being, reprogramming them into becoming other types of cells. The researchers believe that the cells can also be harvested and injected elsewhere in the body, such as the brain. What they have accomplished is the healing of mice and pig legs by reprogramming skin cells to become vascular cells:

Researchers studied mice and pigs in these experiments. In the study, researchers were able to reprogram skin cells to become vascular cells in badly injured legs that lacked blood flow. Within one week, active blood vessels appeared in the injured leg, and by the second week, the leg was saved. In lab tests, this technology was also shown to reprogram skin cells in the live body into nerve cells that were injected into brain-injured mice to help them recover from stroke.

"This is difficult to imagine, but it is achievable, successfully working about 98 percent of the time. With this technology, we can convert skin cells into elements of any organ with just one touch. This process only takes less than a second and is non-invasive, and then you're off. The chip does not stay with you, and the reprogramming of the cell starts. Our technology keeps the cells in the body under immune surveillance, so immune suppression is not necessary," said Sen, who also is executive director of Ohio State's Comprehensive Wound Center.

TNT technology has two major components: First is a nanotechnology-based chip designed to deliver cargo to adult cells in the live body. Second is the design of specific biological cargo for cell conversion. This cargo, when delivered using the chip, converts an adult cell from one type to another, said first author Daniel Gallego-Perez, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering and general surgery who also was a postdoctoral researcher in both Sen's and Lee's laboratories.

TNT doesn't require any laboratory-based procedures and may be implemented at the point of care. The procedure is also non-invasive. The cargo is delivered by zapping the device with a small electrical charge that's barely felt by the patient.

Also at The Engineer.

Topical tissue nano-transfection mediates non-viral stroma reprogramming and rescue (DOI: 10.1038/nnano.2017.134) (DX)

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takyon writes:

The Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics has released an app for the upcoming August 21st solar eclipse:

With solar safety glasses available at every counter and an expected 2–7 million Americans traveling to the path of totality — the nearly 3,000-mile-long arc from the coast near Salem, Ore., to Charleston, S.C., in which a view of the total eclipse is possible — it is clear that eclipse fever has swept the country. Seeing an opportunity to educate and inspire a new wave of astronomers, the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) has released a smartphone app, [Smithsonian] Eclipse 2017, available on iOS and Android.

"We haven't had an eclipse cross the United States like this in nearly 100 years," says CfA spokesperson Tyler Jump. "Because it's such a rare and exciting event, we wanted to create an interactive guide that everyone could enjoy. Even if you're not in the path of totality, our app allows you to calculate exactly how much of an eclipse you'll be able to see and get a preview with our eclipse simulation. It's also a great opportunity to highlight some of Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory's (SAO) solar research. SAO was founded in large part to study the sun, and we've been doing so now for more than a century."

The free app comes with a host of resources for the amateur astronomer. A comprehensive viewing guide offers a crash course in the science behind eclipses and instructions on how to safely observe the celestial phenomenon. Videos from the Solar Dynamics Observatory show the sun in different wavelengths, revealing the many layers of solar activity. Users can also access an interactive eclipse map, which gives lunar transit times and simulated views for any location in the United States.

Many libraries are giving out free eclipse-viewing glasses. You can also buy them from "reputable vendors" (they should meet the ISO 12312-2 safety standard).

Various science experiments will take place during the eclipse.

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MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for Bytram

In the 160 or so years since the first skyscrapers were built, technological innovations of many kinds have allowed us to build them to reach astonishing heights. Today there is a 1,000-meter (167-story) building under construction in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Even taller buildings are possible with today's structural technology.

But people still don't really live in skyscrapers the way futurists had envisioned, for one reason: Elevators go only up and down. In the "Harry Potter" movies, "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and others, we see cableless boxes that can travel not just vertically but horizontally and even diagonally. Today, that future might be closer than ever. A new system invented and being tested by German elevator producer ThyssenKrupp would get rid of cables altogether and build elevators more like magnetic levitation trains, which are common in Japan and China.

Source: https://phys.org/news/2017-08-reengineering-elevators-21st-century-cities.html

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takyon writes:

Hackers that recently targeted HBO have posted another Game of Thrones script and private emails from one of the company's executives. HBO has denied that its "e-mail system as a whole has been compromised":

The hacker or hackers behind the HBO data breach have posted online a publicly accessible link to a cache of internal documents, including a script summary of an upcoming Game of Thrones episode and a month's worth of emails from the inbox of one of the company's executives.

The materials, which mark the first evidence that some HBO private emails are in the hands of hackers, came Monday in an email message to The Hollywood Reporter that also contained nine files with such labels as "Confidential" and "Script GOT7." The hackers also delivered a video letter to HBO CEO Richard Plepler that says, "We successfully breached into your huge network. ... HBO was one of our difficult targets to deal with but we succeeded (it took about 6 months)."

The hackers also demanded around $6 million in Bitcoins.

Also at the Washington Post and Wired.

Previously: HBO Hacked, Leak of Game of Thrones s07e04 Unrelated

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

In the race for safer ciphers, China just quantum-leap frogged the rest of the world.

[...] Now, China aims to escape that contest entirely with the creation of a communication network not secured by math, but guaranteed by the fundamental rules of nature. A team has demonstrated mastery over the secret sauce behind such a "quantum internet" with their satellite Micius, which recently smashed the distance record for creating a bizarre link between light particles known as entanglement.

"They are years ahead of everyone else in this technology," says Vadim Makarov, head of a quantum hacking lab at the University of Waterloo in Canada, who was not involved. "It's absolutely awesome."

Launched August 2016, the Micius satellite successfully entangled photons between two Chinese towns almost 750 miles apart. The experiment bested former fiber-optics setups by a factor of 10, a feat chief architect Jian-Wei Pan says others dismissed as "a crazy idea" when he first proposed it back in 2003. The accomplishment proves possible the ultimate aim of cryptography: an invincible code system theoretically capable of instantly connecting any two (or more) points on Earth.

No Man-In-The-Middle for you!

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SemperOSS writes:

I must have banged my head and woken up in an alternate universe as something apparently reasonable seems to have emerged from inside the British government. It has issued a guidance on cyber security for "intelligent" vehicles:

[...]
Smart vehicles are increasingly becoming the norm on British roads – allowing drivers to access maps, travel information and new digital radio services from the driving seat.

But while smart cars and vans offer new services for drivers, it is feared would-be hackers could target them to access personal data, steal cars that use keyless entry, or even take control of technology for malicious reasons.

Now new government guidance will ensure engineers developing smart vehicles will have to toughen up cyber protections and help design out hacking. The government is also looking at a broader programme of work announced in this year's Queen's speech under the landmark Autonomous and Electric Vehicles Bill that aims to create a new framework for self-driving vehicle insurance.
[...]

The guidance contains eight key principles:

1. Organisational security is owned, governed and promoted at board level
2. Security risks are assessed and managed appropriately and proportionately, including those specific to the supply chain
3. Organisations need product aftercare and incident response to ensure systems are secure over their lifetime
4. All organisations, including sub-contractors, suppliers and potential 3rd parties, work together to enhance the security of the system
5. Systems are designed using a defence-in-depth approach
6. The security of all software is managed throughout its lifetime
7. The storage and transmission of data is secure and can be controlled
8. The system is designed to be resilient to attacks and respond appropriately when its defences or sensors fail

Each principle is fleshed out in slightly more detail and they also point out that the list is not intended to be exhaustive.

Now, dear Soylentils, what would you add to the list to come closer to completeness?

Original Submission