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takyon writes:

Interested in responsible gene editing? Join the (new) club

A group of European scientists has founded an international association to discuss and provide guidance on the ethical use of genome editing, a technique with the potential to transform everything from food production and human health to science itself. Organizers launched the new Association for Responsible Research and Innovation in Genome Editing (ARRIGE) at a kick-off meeting in Paris this past Friday.

The high hopes and fears around gene editing—which has the potential to lead to new crops and the elimination of diseases, but also to "designer babies" or insects running amok—have been the topic of dozens of meetings and reports, including a high-profile "summit" in Washington, D.C., in 2015. National science academies and councils, the Council of Europe, and several professional societies have weighed in.

But some researchers worry that the debate isn't broad enough, or lacks the kind of dialogue needed to reach a societal consensus on the introduction of such a pathbreaking new technology. At the Washington, D.C., summit, for instance, "discussion split into two camps: scientific experts explored technical issues, whereas scholars who study science and society addressed questions about the possible disruption to social norms," Sheila Jasanoff of Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government and Benjamin Hurlbut of Arizona State University in Tempe wrote last week in a commentary in Nature. "The two camps did not inform each other."

Where's the club for irresponsible gene editing (and encryption)?

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canopic jug writes:

Microsoft, which purchased Skype in 2011, will soon increase its monitoring of Skype and other services. Starting May 1^st they will further examine ostensibly private communicatiosn for 'offensive language' and 'inappropriate content' for the purpose of blocking. The changes are rolled out as part of a new terms of service advisory for the company's many services.

Microsoft will ban 'offensive language' and 'inappropriate content' from Skype, Xbox, Office and other services on May 1, claiming it has the right to go through your private data to 'investigate.'

From IDG's CSO : Microsoft to ban 'offensive language' from Skype, Xbox, Office and other services.

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takyon writes:

NASA chief explains why agency won't buy a bunch of Falcon Heavy rockets

Since the launch of the Falcon Heavy rocket in February, NASA has faced some uncomfortable questions about the affordability of its own Space Launch System rocket. By some estimates, NASA could afford 17 to 27 Falcon Heavy launches a year for what it is paying annually to develop the SLS rocket, which won't fly before 2020. Even President Trump has mused about the high costs of NASA's rocket. On Monday, during a committee meeting of NASA's Advisory Council, former Space Shuttle Program Manager Wayne Hale raised this issue. Following a presentation by Bill Gerstenmaier, chief of human spaceflight for NASA, Hale asked whether the space agency wouldn't be better off going with the cheaper commercial rocket.

[...] In response, Gerstenmaier pointed Hale and other members of the advisory committee—composed of external aerospace experts who provide non-binding advice to the space agency—to a chart he had shown earlier in the presentation. This chart showed the payload capacity of the Space Launch System in various configurations in terms of mass sent to the Moon. "It's a lot smaller than any of those," Gerstenmaier said, referring to the Falcon Heavy's payload capacity to TLI, or "trans-lunar injection," which effectively means the amount of mass that can be broken out of low-Earth orbit and sent into a lunar trajectory. In the chart, the SLS Block 1 rocket has a TLI capacity of 26 metric tons. (The chart also contains the more advanced Block 2 version of the SLS, with a capacity of 45 tons. However, this rocket is at least a decade away, and it will require billions of dollars more to design and develop.)

SpaceX's Falcon Heavy TLI capacity is unknown, but estimated to be somewhere between 18 and 22 tons (between the known payloads of 16.8 tons to Mars and 26.7 tons to geostationary orbit).

Does the SLS need to launch more than 18 tons to TLI? No. All of the currently planned components of the Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway (formerly the Deep Space Gateway) have a mass of 10 tons or less due to flying alongside a crewed Orion capsule rather than by themselves. Only by 2027's Exploration Mission 6 would NASA launch more massive payloads, by which time SpaceX's BFR could take 150 tons to TLI or even Mars when using in-orbit refueling.

Related: NASA Eyeing Mini Space Station in Lunar Orbit as Stepping Stone to Mars
NASA and Roscosmos Sign Joint Statement on the Development of a Lunar Space Station
President Trump Signs Space Policy Directive 1
Russia Assembles Engineering Group for Lunar Activities and the Deep Space Gateway
After the Falcon Heavy Launch, Time to Defund the Space Launch System?
President Trump Praises Falcon Heavy, Diminishes NASA's SLS Effort

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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Initiating an opioid analgesic reduced the use of antipsychotics and benzodiazepines in persons with Alzheimer's disease, a recent study from the University of Eastern Finland shows. These drugs are frequently prescribed to treat behavioural and psychiatric symptoms of dementia, which can be worsened by other symptoms, such as pain. The results were published in International Psychogeriatrics.

The researchers analysed the use of antipsychotics and benzodiazepines six months before and six months after persons with Alzheimer's disease begun using an opioid. These results were then compared to persons with Alzheimer's disease who did not initiate opioid use. After the initiation of an opioid, the researchers found a downward trend in the prevalence of both antipsychotics and benzodiazepines, with the prevalence of antipsychotics reducing more.

The use of antipsychotics and benzodiazepines is very frequent in persons with Alzheimer's disease, but it carries a risk for severe adverse effects, and long-term treatment is generally not recommended. Previous studies have found a decrease in behavioural and psychiatric symptoms of dementia when patients are treated for pain, but this new study now shows, for the first time, a decrease in symptomatic drug use.

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Oracle v. Google: Appeals Court Rules That Google Violated Oracle's Copyrights

takyon writes:

A federal appeals court has ruled against Google in the Oracle v. Google legal war over the use of Java in Android. However, the case could move to the Supreme Court, a full panel of the appeals court judges, or to a third trial in district court:

An appeals court said on Tuesday that Google violated copyright laws when it used Oracle's open-source Java software to build the Android platform in 2009.

Tuesday's ruling is the latest development in a topsy-turvy eight-year battle between Google (GOOG) and Oracle (ORCL).

Oracle first brought its case against Google in 2010, claiming that Android infringes two patents that Oracle holds on its Java software, a ubiquitous programming language powering everything from phones to websites.

In 2012, a jury determined that Java does not deserve protection under copyright law. Two years later, an appeals court overturned the ruling, raising the question of whether Google's use of Oracle's API violated copyright law.

A jury determined in 2016 that Google's use of Oracle's APIs was legal under the copyright law's fair use doctrine, which allows the free use of copyrighted material under specific circumstances. Oracle appealed the decision, and a judge took its side on Tuesday.

Also at Bloomberg and The Verge.

Federal Circuit Sends Oracle v. Google Back for Third Trial

canopic jug writes:

A while back Oracle sued Google various aspects of their clean-room Java reimplementation and Google initially won that back in 2012. However, appeals have dragged the case out. At issue now is whether APIs can be restricted under copyright.

The Federal Circuit has ruled for a second time in Oracle v. Google, the software copyright lawsuit over Google's Android platform. The new decision reverses the district court yet again and sends the case back for a third trial to determine damages for Oracle. In the last trial, Oracle sought almost $9 billion in damages.

The litigation has been dragging on for about eight years now, bouncing up and down through appeals and two whole jury trials. [...]

Obviously, whether APIs can soon be restricted by copyright would defeat the purpose of an API as well as have severe repercussions for all software development occuring in the US.

From The Verge : Federal Circuit sends Oracle v. Google back for third trial.

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takyon writes:

North Korea's supreme leader Kim Jong-un has visited Beijing for his first known trip outside of North Korea since he took power in 2011:

North Korea's enigmatic young leader, Kim Jong-un, made an unannounced visit to Beijing, meeting with President Xi Jinping weeks before planned summit meetings with American and South Korean leaders, Chinese and North Korean state news media reported on Wednesday.

[...] Mr. Kim made the trip to China at the invitation of Mr. Xi, North Korea's state-run Korean Central Television reported soon after the announcement in China. Mr. Kim was accompanied by his wife, Ri Sol-ju, as well as by his senior advisers, it said.

Mr. Kim told the Chinese leader that he was open to dialogue with the United States, including a potential summit meeting with President Trump, and was committed to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, according to an account published by China's news agency Xinhua.

"If South Korea and the United States respond with good will to our efforts and create an atmosphere of peace and stability, and take phased, synchronized measures to achieve peace, the issue of the denuclearization of the peninsula can reach resolution," Mr. Kim said, according to Xinhua's summary of his meeting with Mr. Xi.

Experts remain cynical:

Yang Xiyu, one of China's leading experts on North Korea, said that Mr. Kim was clearly trying to repair the North's deeply strained relations with Beijing, its traditional ally and benefactor, while opening new ties with its enemy South Korea. Even so, Mr. Yang said, that did not signal that Mr. Kim was willing to give up his nuclear arsenal, though he has told South Korean envoys that he was prepared to discuss the possibility. "He is starting a new game where he could make concessions on denuclearization," Mr. Yang said. "At most, he will cut the grass, but he will not pull out the roots."

Also at Reuters and Bloomberg.

See also: How does Kim tell North Korea he's giving up nuclear weapons?

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takyon writes:

Chris Sevier, a man who once tried to marry his laptop to make a point against same-sex marriage, has been promoting legislation that would require ISPs to block "sexual content and/or patently offensive material." The block could only be lifted if a user makes a request in writing to the ISP and pays a one-time fee of $20. An "Internet digital blocking" bill will be heard by the Rhode Island Senate on the 27th. According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, two dozen similar bills have been introduced in 18 state legislatures this year.

Sevier refers to the legislation on his website and elsewhere with names such as the "Understanding the Human Trafficking And Child Exploitation Prevention Act", "Human Trafficking Prevention Act" (HTPA), "Children's Online Filtering Act", or "Elizabeth Smart Law". Elizabeth Smart was kidnapped in 2002 and raped repeatedly during a span of nine months. While she has since become an activist on behalf of legislation related to human trafficking and child sexual abuse, Smart has sent Sevier a cease-and-desist letter related to the use of her name to promote the porn blocking legislation.

takyon writes:

According to researchers, the human body's largest organ has been hiding in plain sight:

The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research researcher Petros Constantinos Benias, MD, and collaborators have identified that layers of the body long thought to be dense, connective tissues are actually interconnected, fluid-filled compartments, categorizing this part of the body as an organ. This discovery, published today in Scientific Reports, could lead to better understanding and improved treatments for cancer and other inflammatory conditions.

For years we have known that more than half the fluid in the body is within cells, and approximately a seventh of the fluid is inside the heart, blood vessels, lymph nodes, and lymph vessels – the remaining fluid is "interstitial." The interstitium, or connective tissue, up to now, has been thought mostly to exist between cells defined historically as a "third space", but this does not account for the massive amount of fluid stored within the human body outside of the vascular system. Occasionally the concept that there is a larger interstitial space has been generally referred to, though its anatomic or histologic features have never been described. The Scientific Reports paper is the first to define the interstitium as an organ and as one of the largest in the body. The interstitium is a series of spaces, supported by a meshwork of strong and flexible connective tissue proteins found below the skin's surface, lining the digestive tract, lungs and urinary systems, and surrounding arteries, veins, and the fascia between muscles. In the digestive tract, for example, the entire submucosal space or layer of the stomach lining has been redefined by this work as a complex interstitium that communicates with the lymphatic system. This space moves fluid throughout the body and is the source of lymph, a fluid in the body that aids immune cells that generate inflammation. Researchers involved in this study believe this could explain why cancer that invades this interstitial space becomes much more likely to spread. The researchers also found that the cells in the interstitium change with age, which may contribute to the wrinkling of skin, the stiffening of limbs, and the progression of fibrotic, sclerotic and inflammatory diseases.

Techniques in processing tissue from surgery and biopsies failed to identify this space because it was artificially collapsed during the fixation process, or when tissue is prepared to view under a microscope. As a result, scientists often interpreted the appearance of the submucosal space and this interstitium as a dense network of collagen or protein found in connective tissue, when in fact it was quite the opposite.

Also at EurekAlert, Scientific American, National Geographic, and CNN.

Structure and Distribution of an Unrecognized Interstitium in Human Tissues (open, DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-23062-6) (DX)

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takyon writes:

In a letter to nearly 1,000 patients, University Hospitals in Ohio says that a tank's remote alarm system, meant to alert an employee to temperature swings, was disabled for an unknown length of time. That led to the destruction of around 4,000 frozen eggs and embryos, double the original estimate:

Hospital officials say they doesn't know who turned the remote alarm off or how long it was disabled. They also said they were aware the tank in question needed preventative maintenance. Some of the eggs and embryos had been stored there since the 1980s. The hospital's investigation is ongoing.

"Right now we do not know whether it's mechanical or human or [a] combination," said James Liu, chairman of the department of obstetrics and gynecology at University Hospitals.

He says he doesn't think anyone intentionally disengaged the alarm. "Because it is a computer, we think it's unlikely that there was any kind of external force that was working to hack the computer or anything like that. We think it's unlikely," Liu said.

Previously:
Freezer Malfunction May Have Damaged Up to 2,000 Frozen Eggs and Embryos
Two Fertility Clinic Freezer Failures Occurred in a Single Day

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takyon writes:

Congress has given NASA $350 million for a second mobile launcher for the Space Launch System:

The problem stems from the fact that NASA's current mobile launch platform wasn't actually built for the SLS. NASA has been modifying a platform that was originally built for a rocket that never saw the light of day — the Ares 1, a vehicle that was meant to send humans back to the Moon as part of the now-canceled Constellation program. When the Constellation program was replaced with the SLS program in 2011, NASA decided to simply upgrade the mobile launch platform the agency had already built for Ares 1 to support the Space Launch System. The SLS is a much bigger and heavier vehicle than the Ares 1 was going to be, so NASA has had to reinforce the base of the platform, as well as expand it to accommodate the larger size of the rocket and its engines.

[...] Now, Congress is telling NASA to build a second platform, likely due to safety concerns. Building the new platform could potentially move the second flight of SLS up to 2022 instead of 2023. Otherwise, having such a huge gap between the first and second flight of the rocket could cause engineers to forget the valuable experience they gained from flying the rocket the first time. "When that happens, you have all the people — in your ground systems and in mission control — you have them sitting around for months at a time with nothing to do," Casey Dreier, director of space policy at the Planetary Society, tells The Verge. "And in the absence of real rocket launches, you might lose good people."

But another unofficial motivation could be optics. Further delays would be a bad look for the perennially delayed SLS program. The first flight of the SLS has been consistently pushed back — from 2018, to 2019, and then to 2020. And even when the first two flights of the vehicle are done, the rocket will probably only launch once a year.

Contrary to a Trump administration NASA budget proposal, the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) has received additional funding:

Lawmakers provided $150 million for the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope, or WFIRST, which the Trump administration proposed canceling last month. Set for launch in the mid-2020s, WFIRST would be next in NASA's line of big observatories in space after Hubble and the James Webb Space Telescope. It was the top priority for NASA's astrophysics program in a National Academy of Sciences decadal survey released in 2010. The agency's policy is to follow cues from the science community encapsulated in the decadal survey reports.

Agency managers last year were wary that WFIRST could exceed its $3.2 billion cost cap, and Thomas Zurbuchen, head of NASA's science directorate, in October ordered a team at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland — home of the WFIRST project office — to study how the mission could be modified to fit under the budget limit.

Officials drafting NASA's budget request for fiscal 2019 decided WFIRST was too expensive, but the mission has enjoyed strong support from Congress. In an apparent reference to WFIRST's proposed termination, lawmakers wrote that they "reject the cancellation of scientific priorities recommended by the National Academy of Sciences decadal survey process."

Previously: Trump Administration Budget Proposal Would Cancel WFIRST
Leaning Tower of NASA

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takyon writes:

Scientists have developed an optical disc technology that they say can store at least 10 terabytes per disc with a lifetime of over 600-650 years:

"While optical technology can expand capacity, the most advanced optical discs developed so far have only 50-year lifespans," explained lead investigator Min Gu, a professor at RMIT and senior author of an open-access paper published in Nature Communications. "Our technique can create an optical disc with the largest capacity of any optical technology developed to date and our tests have shown it will last over half a millennium and is suitable for mass production of optical discs."

[...] The new nano-optical long-data memory technology is based on a novel gold nanoplasmonic hybrid glass matrix, unlike the materials used in current optical discs. The technique relies on a sol-gel process, which uses chemical precursors to produce ceramics and glass with higher purity and homogeneity than conventional processes. Glass is a highly durable material that can last up to 1000 years and can be used to hold data, but has limited native storage capacity because of its inflexibility. So the team combined glass with an organic material, halving its lifespan (to 600 years) but radically increasing its capacity.

Also at RMIT University.

High-capacity optical long data memory based on enhanced Young's modulus in nanoplasmonic hybrid glass composites (open, DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-03589-y) (DX)

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takyon writes:

It's a girl: first IVF bison calf joins Northern Colorado herd

And then there were... 44. Eight bison — four calves and their mothers — were released in mid-March on public lands in northern Colorado, bringing the total number of animals in the Laramie Foothills Bison Conservation Herd to 44.

A 10-month-old calf known as IVF 1 was among the newcomers. She is the first bison calf conceived using in vitro fertilization, or IVF, at Colorado State University. IVF 1 is also the first bison calf in the world to be conceived using reproductive material from animals removed from Yellowstone National Park.

This type of technology could provide a solution for conservationists seeking to protect animals facing extinction, like the Northern white rhinoceros in Africa.

[...] [Jennifer Barfield, a reproductive physiologist with the CSU Animal Reproduction and Biotechnology Laboratory,] said the team will transfer more IVF embryos later this year. She and the project partners hope to one day have 100 bison in the Laramie Foothills Bison Conservation Herd. [...] The use of this reproductive technology in American bison also opens up another avenue for conservation efforts. Barfield's lab at CSU has approximately 1,500 frozen embryos that could be used in a year, or even in a hundred years. "That gives us the opportunity to access these Yellowstone genetics for a very long time," she said.

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takyon writes:

The launch of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has been delayed yet again, due to damage to the spacecraft's thrusters, sunshield, and tension cables:

The slip is not exactly surprising, even though construction and testing of Webb's primary mirror and scientific instruments—its riskiest, most expensive elements—is already complete. These components were delivered in early February to Webb's prime contractor, the aerospace company Northrop Grumman, for further testing and integration with the rest of the telescope. But later that month a report from the Government Accountability Office warned that the company had fallen behind schedule on the supposedly easier parts of the observatory. Valves on the spacecraft's thrusters had sprung leaks after being improperly cleaned, and replacing them had taken the better part of a year. Webb's tennis-court-sized, five-layered folding "sunshield" had also been torn during a test as it unfurled, requiring time-consuming failure analyses and repairs.

canopic jug writes:

Former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont was tracked by Spain through fitting his group's car with a surveillance device as well as following the mobile phones of his companions. He was eventually captured in Germany on his way to Belgium from Finland.

Spanish intelligence agents had been tracking the movements of the former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont using the geolocation service on his friend's mobile phone before he was detained in Germany at the weekend, according to reports.

Puigdemont was detained under a European arrest warrant in the northern German province of Schleswig-Holstein on Sunday morning as he journeyed by car from Helsinki to Brussels, where he has been living in self-imposed exile since Catalonia's unilateral declaration of independence last October.

From The Guardian: Spanish spies 'tracked Carles Puigdemont via friend's phone'

An international warrant for Puigdemont's arrest had been rescinded back in December but was revived for this occasion. Already back in September, the Internet Society issued a statement about the Spanish government's great efforts to outright censor online activities promoting or discussing the bid for Catalonian independence.

See also earlier SN stories:
Spain Moves Forward With Plan to Suspend Catalonia's Autonomy
Police and Voters Clash During Catalan Independence Referendum
Spain Trying to Stop Catalonia Independence Referendum

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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Lockheed Martin has quietly obtained a patent associated with its design for a potentially revolutionary compact fusion reactor, or CFR. If this project has been progressing on schedule, the company could debut a prototype system that size of shipping container, but capable of powering a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier or 80,000 homes, sometime in the next year or so.

The patent, for a portion of the confinement system, or embodiment, is dated Feb. 15, 2018. The Maryland-headquartered defense contractor had filed a provisional claim on April 3, 2013 and a formal application nearly a year later. Our good friend Stephen Trimble, chief of Flightglobal's Americas Bureau, subsequently spotted it and Tweeted out its basic details.

In 2014, the company also made a splash by announcing they were working on the device at all and that it was the responsibility of its Skunk Works advanced projects office in Palmdale, California. At the time, Dr. Thomas McGuire, head of the Skunk Works’ Compact Fusion Project, said the goal was to have a working reactor in five years and production worthy design within 10.

[...] Considering the five year timeline Dr. McGuire put out in 2014 for achieving a workable prototype, maybe we’re due for another big announcement from Lockheed Martin in the near future.

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takyon writes:

Waymo and Jaguar will build up to 20,000 self-driving electric SUVs

Waymo and Jaguar Land Rover have inked a deal that will add tens of thousands of all-electric I-Pace SUVs to the Alphabet unit's growing lineup of self-driving taxis. The I-Pace, which made its global debut earlier this month, is not as much of a people-mover as Waymo's Chrysler Pacifica minivans, but it will serve as a more high-end ride for those willing to pay a premium for their driverless transportation.

The first prototype I-Pace with Waymo's self-driving technology will hit the road for public testing at the end of 2018, and officially become part of Waymo's commercial ride-hailing service starting in 2020. Waymo and Jaguar Land Rover's engineers will work in tandem to build these cars to be self-driving from the start, rather than retrofitting them after they come off the assembly line. Long-term, the companies say they plan to build up to 20,000 vehicles in the first two years of production, with the goal of serving a potential 1 million trips a day. It's unclear how much money would be trading hands under the deal.

They're coming for Tesla!

Related: Waymo Orders Thousands More Chrysler Pacifica Minivans for Driverless Fleet
Google/Waymo Announces Testing of Self-Driving Trucks in Atlanta, Georgia

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