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Phoenix666 writes:

The U.S. House on Wednesday unanimously approved a sweeping proposal to speed the deployment of self-driving cars without human controls by putting federal regulators in the driver's seat and barring states from blocking autonomous vehicles.

The House measure, the first significant federal legislation aimed at speeding self-driving cars to market, would allow automakers to obtain exemptions to deploy up to 25,000 vehicles without meeting existing auto safety standards in the first year. The cap would rise over three years to 100,000 vehicles annually.

How will the young impress each other with their mad driving skillz now?

Original Submission

bradley13 writes:

Research into the obvious, but someone has finally done it: Three women researchers have studied the behavior of undergraduates in STEM fields, and concluded that there basically is no problem. From the abstract:

"The results show that high school academic preparation, faculty gender composition, and major returns have little effect on major switching behaviors, and that women and men are equally likely to change their major in response to poor grades in major-related courses. Moreover, women in male-dominated majors do not exhibit different patterns of switching behaviors relative to their male colleagues."

Furthermore current recruitment efforts to attract more women tend to be counterproductive. In an interview, the primary author says:

"Society keeps telling us that STEM fields are masculine fields, that we need to increase the participation of women in STEM fields, but that kind of sends a signal that it's not a field for women, and it kind of works against keeping women in these fields."

One of our female students told me that the women are interviewed endlessly, for one project or another: "tell us about your experience", "are you doing ok", "have you experienced sexism", and on, and on. That alone is enough to make them question their career choice.

Original Submission

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for Bytram

A new study carried out by the Department of Psychology at Barnard College in the U.S. used a sniff test to evaluate the ability of dogs to recognize themselves. The results have been published in the journal Behavioural Processes.

The experiment confirms the hypothesis of dog self-cognition proposed last year by Prof. Roberto Cazzolla Gatti of the Biological Institute of the Tomsk State University, Russia. Dr. Alexandra Horowitz, the lead researcher, wrote, "While domestic dogs, Canis familiaris, have been found to be skillful at social cognitive tasks and even some meta-cognitive tasks, they have not passed the test of mirror self-recognition (MSR)."

Prof. Horowitz borrowed the "Sniff test of self-recognition (STSR)" proposed by Prof. Cazzolla Gatti in 2016 to shed light on methods of testing for self-recognition, and applied it to 36 domestic dogs accompanied by their owners.

This study confirmed the previous evidence proposed with the STSR by Dr. Cazzolla Gatti showing that "dogs distinguish between the olfactory 'image' of themselves when modified: Investigating their own odour for longer when it had an additional odour accompanying it than when it did not. Such behaviour implies a recognition of the odour as being of or from 'themselves.'"

Prof. Cazzolla Gatti firstly suggested the hypothesis of self-cognition in dogs in a 2016 pioneering paper entitled after the novel by Lewis Carroll "Self-consciousness: beyond the looking-glass and what dogs found there."

As the Associate Professor of the Tomsk State University anticipated: "this sniff-test could change the way some experiments on animal behaviour are validated." Soon, the study of Dr. Horowitz followed.

"I believe that dogs and other animals, being much less sensitive to visual stimuli than humans and many apes, cannot pass the mirror test because of the sensory modality chosen by the investigator to test self-awareness. This in[sic] not necessarily due to the absence of this cognitive ability in some animal species," says Cazzolla Gatti.

Source: https://phys.org/news/2017-09-stsr-dogs-self-awareness.html

More information: Alexandra Horowitz, Smelling themselves: Dogs investigate their own odours longer when modified in an "olfactory mirror" test, Behavioural Processes (2017). DOI: 10.1016/j.beproc.2017.08.001

Original Submission

Two different submitters wrote in to tell us about a new advance in qubit design for quantum computers.

Roo_Boy writes:

Engineers at the University of NSW have apparently come up with a new concept for quantum computing by proposing a different type of qubit that flips the spin of both the electron and the nucleus.

Engineers at Australia's University of New South Wales have invented a radical new architecture for quantum computing, based on novel 'flip-flop qubits', that promises to make the large-scale manufacture of quantum chips dramatically cheaper – and easier – than thought possible.

The new chip design, detailed in the journal Nature Communications, allows for a silicon quantum processor that can be scaled up without the precise placement of atoms required in other approaches. Importantly, it allows quantum bits (or 'qubits') – the basic unit of information in a quantum computer – to be placed hundreds of nanometres apart and still remain coupled.

The design was conceived by a team led by Andrea Morello, Program Manager in UNSW-based ARC Centre of Excellence for Quantum Computation and Communication Technology (CQC2T), who said fabrication of the new design should be easily within reach of today's technology.

UNSW News Room

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1937

While the EPA is often portrayed as a massive bureaucracy, about half of its budget goes directly to other organizations through grants. While many of these are focused on cleanups and reducing environmental risks, the agency also funds scientific research into various health and environmental risks. The money for these research grants has historically been allocated based on a combination of scientific merit and environmental concerns.

All that started to change in August. That's when the EPA issued a new policy dictating that all grant programs must be run past a political appointee from the EPA's public affairs office. Now, a new report indicates that this PR specialist is cancelling individual grants.

The appointee is named John Konkus. He occupies the position of Deputy Associate Administrator for Public Affairs, which is a public relations position. Konkus has a bachelor's degree in government and politics, and he appears to have no scientific background—the closest is having worked for former Congressman Sherwood Boehlert (R-N.Y.) back when Boehlert chaired the House Science Committee. Since then, Konkus worked for then-Lieutenant Governor Rick Scott in Florida, spent time at a political consulting firm, and then got involved with the Trump campaign.

Despite the complete lack of scientific qualifications, however, the EPA decided to put him in charge of grants. In August, E&E News obtained a policy document stating that any proposals for grant programs need to be run through the Office of Public Affairs, specifically John Konkus. No funding program is allowed to go forward if Konkus does not approve it. This can include scientific funding, as well as grants for educational or environmental programs.

Now, The Washington Post is reporting that Konkus isn't only reviewing future grant programs; he has cancelled millions of dollars in grants that had already been through the review process and deemed worthy of funding. Some of these grants went to universities and so were likely involved in funding basic research. In addition, the report notes that the EPA briefly suspended funding for grants to Alaska at a time when the Trump administration was feuding with one of its senators.

According to the Post, "Konkus has told staff that he is on the lookout for 'the double C-word'—climate change—and repeatedly has instructed grant officers to eliminate references to the subject in solicitations."

Source: https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/09/epa-runs-all-grants-past-a-political-appointee-in-its-pr-office/

Original Submission

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard

As you likely know, for most of the past nine months, we've been dealing with a defamation lawsuit from Shiva Ayyadurai, who claims to have invented email. This is a claim that we have disputed at great length and in great detail, showing how email existed long before Ayyadurai wrote his program. We pointed to the well documented public history of email, and how basically all of the components that Ayyadurai now claims credit for preceded his own work. We discussed how his arguments were, at best, misleading, such as arguing that the copyright on his program proved that he was the "inventor of email" -- since patents and copyrights are very different, and just because Microsoft has a copyright on "Windows" it does not mean it "invented" the concept of a windowed graphical user interface (because it did not). As I have said, a case like this is extremely draining -- especially on an emotional level -- and can create massive chilling effects on free speech.

A few hours ago, the judge ruled and we prevailed. The case has been dismissed and the judge rejected Ayyadurai's request to file an amended complaint. We are certainly pleased with the decision and his analysis, which notes over and over again that everything that we stated was clearly protected speech, and the defamation (and other claims) had no merit. This is, clearly, a big win for the First Amendment and free speech -- especially the right to call out and criticize a public figure such as Shiva Ayyadurai, who is now running for the US Senate in Massachusetts. We're further happy to see the judge affirm that CDA Section 230 protects us from being sued over comments made on the blog, which cannot be attributed to us under the law. We talk a lot about the importance of CDA 230, in part because it protects sites like our own from these kinds of lawsuits. This is just one more reason we're so concerned about the latest attempt in Congress to undermine CDA 230. While those supporting the bill may claim that it only targets sites like Backpage, such changes to CDA 230 could have a much bigger impact on smaller sites like our own.

Source: https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20170906/13431338159/case-dismissed-judge-throws-out-shiva-ayyadurais-defamation-lawsuit-against-techdirt.shtml

Original Submission

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1937

Hacks are often caused by our own stupidity, but you can blame tech companies for a new vulnerability. Researchers from China's Zheijiang University found a way to attack Siri, Alexa and other voice assistants by feeding them commands in ultrasonic frequencies. Those are too high for humans to hear, but they're perfectly audible to the microphones on your devices. With the technique, researchers could get the AI assistants to open malicious websites and even your door if you had a smart lock connected.

The relatively simple technique is called DolphinAttack. Researchers first translated human voice commands into ultrasonic frequencies (over 20,000 hz). They then simply played them back from a regular smartphone equipped with an amplifier, ultrasonic transducer and battery -- less than $3 worth of parts.

What makes the attack scary is the fact that it works on just about anything: Siri, Google Assistant, Samsung S Voice and Alexa, on devices like smartphones, iPads, MacBooks, Amazon Echo and even an Audi Q3 -- 16 devices and seven system in total. What's worse, "the inaudible voice commands can be correctly interpreted by the SR (speech recognition) systems on all the tested hardware." Suffice to say, it works even if the attacker has no device access and the owner has taken the necessary security precautions.

Source: https://www.engadget.com/2017/09/06/alexa-and-siri-are-vulnerable-to-silent-nefarious-commands/

Original Submission

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1937

Continuing its breakneck launch pace, SpaceX is preparing to fly its 13th Falcon 9 rocket in the 2017 calendar year. The booster is scheduled to loft one of the U.S. Air Force's two reusable robotic X-37B spaceplanes. However, the fifth Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV-5) mission might be facing a delay brought about by the powerful Hurricane Irma.

*Update: According to Florida Today's Emre Kelly, SpaceX confirmed the company was targeting a 5 hour, 5 minute launch window that opens at 9:50 a.m. EDT (13:50 GMT) Sept. 7, 2017.

According to the 45th Weather Squadron on Sept. 5, 2017, the weather for this attempt is anticipated to have a 50 percent chance of unacceptable conditions. The primary concerns are thick and cumulus clouds.

Should a delay of 24 hours occur, conditions are expected to worsen as Hurricane Irma approaches. This will create low-level winds that will strengthen throughout the day. As such, concerns for a Friday liftoff are thick and cumulus clouds in addition to strong winds at launch time. The probability of a weather-related scrub is 60 percent.

In preparation for liftoff, on Aug. 31, 2017, SpaceX rolled its Falcon 9 rocket – sans the payload – up the ramp at Launch Complex 39A to perform its customary pre-flight static fire test. This involved firing up the first stage's nine Merlin 1D engines at 4:30 p.m. EDT (20:30 GMT) for several seconds to throttle up to 1.7 million pounds-force (7,560 kilonewtons) of thrust to verify all was well with the rocket.

Ground teams then lowered the rocket and rolled it back into the nearby horizontal integration facility to attach the payload fairing with the X-37B inside.

SpaceX is streaming the launch on YouTube.

Source: http://www.spaceflightinsider.com/organizations/space-exploration-technologies/x-37b-set-for-first-launch-atop-spacex-falcon-9/

Previously: https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=17/06/09/2236228

Original Submission

takyon writes:

A larger intermediate mass black hole may have been discovered in the Milky Way galaxy:

Astronomers have found the best evidence yet for the existence of a midsized black hole—long-rumored objects bigger than the small black holes formed from a single star, yet far smaller than the the giant ones lurking at the centers of galaxies—and it's hiding out in our own Milky Way. If the discovery is confirmed, it could indicate that our galaxy has grown by cannibalizing its smaller neighbors.

"It's a very careful paper and they have gorgeous data. It's the most promising evidence so far" for an intermediate mass black hole, says astronomer Kevin Schawinski of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich.

[...] Last year, a team led by Tomoharu Oka of Keio University in Yokohama, Japan, reported finding a peculiar cloud of molecular gas, called CO-0.40-0.22, near the center of our Milky Way. Gas in the cloud, detected with the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan's 45-meter Nobeyama radio telescope, was moving with a very wide range of velocities, some of it so fast that the team suspected something very massive was hiding there. Simulations of the gas movements suggested it harbored a black hole of 100,000 solar masses.

CoolHand writes:

GreenTechMedia.com covers why we need Thermal energy progress and adoption, and the barriers to said adoption..

A vital technology for securing deep greenhouse gas reductions exists and works well, but still hasn't achieved widespread deployment.

[...] Thermal storage has been around longer than advanced battery storage, but it has never broken out of a niche segment. Only a handful of companies install this in the U.S., compared to the dozens now chasing the battery storage market.

Cultural predilections play a role here, Ice Energy's Hopkins said. Battery storage only became popular in the last few years, in large part thanks to Elon Musk's knack for capturing the public imagination. That newfound awareness could be transferable.

"Because they know about lithium, when you talk about other forms of storage, it's not so foreign," he said.

Phoenix666 writes:

Around the world, support is growing for electric cars. Automakers are delivering more electric models with longer range and lower prices, such as the Chevrolet Bolt and the Tesla Model 3. China has set aggressive targets for electric vehicle sales to curb pollution; some European countries aim to be all-electric by 2040 or sooner.

Those lofty ambitions face numerous challenges, including one practical consideration for consumers: If they buy electric cars, where will they charge them?

[...] Mr. Romano says there's no exact ratio of the number of chargers needed per car. But he says workplaces should have around 2.5 chargers for every employee and retail stores need one for every 20 electric cars. Highways need one every 50 to 75 miles, he says. That suggests a lot of gaps still need to be filled.

Automakers and governments are pushing to fill them. The number of publicly available, global charging spots grew 72 percent to more than 322,000 last year, the International Energy Agency said. Navigant Research expects that to grow to more than 2.2 million by 2026; more than one-third of those will be in China.

Tesla Inc. – which figured out years ago that people wouldn't buy its cars without roadside charging – is doubling its global network of Supercharger stations to 10,000 this year. BMW, Daimler, Volkswagen, and Ford are building 400 fast-charging stations in Europe. Volkswagen is building hundreds of stations across the United States as part of its settlement for selling polluting diesel engines. Even oil-rich Dubai, which just got its first Tesla showroom, has more than 50 locations to charge electric cars.

If range anxiety and the availability of charging stations remain a barrier to EV adoption, then for Tesla it seems like it's nearly a solved problem. Will a reliable supply of batteries or the self-driving features piggy-backing on EV platforms like the Teslas or the Nissan Leaf prove the real differentiators in the market?

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

Dr. Lowe, from In the Pipeline, writes about a recent study using Zika as an oncolytic virus to kill brain cancer cells:

Oncology drives you to some pretty strange ideas about therapy. But that’s understandable – in what other field are you trying aggressively to kill off parts of the patient’s own body? That’s why chemotherapy started off with the study of people who had been exposed to mustard gas (during the Bari bombing raid), where it was noticed that systemic exposure to such brutally reactive compounds killed off fast-dividing cells before (just before) they killed off the rest.

[...] So, you’re looking for something that can reach in and kill off brain cells – not all of them, of course, just some of them – so what might you have seen recently that seems to go in and attack certain brain cell populations? Got it – how about Zika virus?

[...] The terrible effects of Zika infection on a developing fetus are due to its effects on neuronal precursor cells, and it appears that the virus can attack the stem-cell-like population that’s such a problem with glioblastoma. One reason that this isn’t quite as crazy as it might sound is that glioblastoma tends to stay put – it’s very rarely metastatic, and after surgery (when that’s possible) it tends to recur in situ, from residual cells that can’t all be removed. So you don’t need to infect a patient’s whole body – just a localized shot of (attenuated) virus might do the trick.

[...] The paper tries several patient-derived cell glioblastoma cell cultures and several strains of Zika virus, and it does seem to infect them readily, as opposed to differentiated glial cells, which are almost untouched. Experiments on tissue removed during glioblastoma surgical procedures (and control brain tissue removed during epilepsy surgery) confirmed these results. Related flaviviruses (like West Nile) don’t show this kind of selectivity. The authors went as far as mouse glioma models (and a mouse-adapted form of Zika) and demonstrated growth inhibition of the tumors, although this is arguably getting a bit far afield as compared to the results in human tissue.

http://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2017/09/06/repurposing-zika
http://jem.rupress.org/content/early/2017/09/05/jem.20171093
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oncolytic_virus

Past Stories:
FDA Fast Tracks Cancer Treatment Using Modified Polio Virus - https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=16/05/17/0127235
Massive Dose of Measles Virus Wiped Out Cancer - https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=14/05/16/1958226

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

Nissan has launched a longer-range version of its best-selling Leaf electric vehicle, as it fights growing competition in the electric car market.

The new Leaf can travel about 50% further on a single charge than its predecessor, according to the firm.

But it still falls short of the ranges offered by other recent electric cars from Tesla and General Motors.

Other updates include a new one-pedal driving system, auto-parking tech and a more modern design.

More than 283,000 Leaf cars have been sold since the Japanese firm launched the brand in 2010, making it the world's most purchased electric car.

[...] The new Leaf, on sale in Japan from October and elsewhere early next year, has a longer range thanks to a bigger 40 kilowatt hour (kWh) battery.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

North Korea's nuclear test site at risk of imploding, Chinese scientist says

The single mountain under which North Korea most likely conducted its five most recent nuclear bomb tests, including the latest and most powerful on Sunday, could be at risk of collapsing, a Chinese scientist said.

By measuring and analyzing the shock waves caused by the blasts, and picked up by quake stations in China and neighboring countries, researchers at the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei, Anhui province, said they were confident that they were all carried out from under the same mountain at the Punggye-ri test site.

[...] Another test might cause the whole mountain to cave in on itself, leaving only a hole from which radiation could escape and drift across the region, including China, he said. "We call it 'taking the roof off'. If the mountain collapses and the hole is exposed, it will let out many bad things."

[...] Based on the fact that North Korea has a limited land area and bearing in mind the sensitivity of its nuclear program, it most likely does not have too many suitable peaks to choose from. How long the mountain would continue to stand would also depend on where the North Koreans placed the bombs, Wang said. "If the bombs were planted at the bottom of vertically drilled tunnels, the explosion would do less damage," he said.

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

Solar panels are to be installed in 800,000 low-income homes across England and Wales over the next five years, as part of a new government scheme.

The Dutch firm, Maas Capital, is investing £160m in the project.

The panels, which will be free to tenants, are expected to cut hundreds of pounds from energy bills, according to the UK firm Solarplicity.

The first people to benefit from the scheme include residents of a sheltered retirement home in Ealing, west London.

Speaking at the site, International Trade minister Greg Hands said: "This initial £160m capital expenditure programme will deliver massive benefits to some of the UK's poorest households.

"As well as creating 1,000 jobs and delivering cheaper energy bills for up to 800,000 homes, it shows yet another vote of confidence in the UK as a place to invest and do business."

The firm providing the panels, Solarplicity, will work with more than 40 social landlords, including local authorities across England and Wales.

It will profit from the payments received under the feed-in tariff scheme and payments for energy from social housing customers.

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

Are carbs the new fat? For much of the second half of the 20th century, doctors constantly suggested we avoid high-fat foods, but more recently a new target for our dietary scorn has emerged: carbohydrates. Two new companion studies are suggesting a ketogenic diet – high fat, low protein, and low carbohydrates – could enhance memory, improve physical strength and extend lifespan.

Whether you want to call it the Atkin's Diet, Paleo or simply "Keto," there have been plenty of variations on this way of eating. While some diets suggest no carbohydrates or sugars, many are underwritten by the same theory. The idea is that by severely restricting the body's intake of carbohydrates, a state known as ketosis is entered into. This forces the body to burn stored fats as fuel instead of carbohydrates.

Has a ketogenic diet worked for you?

Original Submission