SoylentNews

An Anonymous Coward writes:

FDA Bans Pure Bulk Caffeine Products, Citing "significant Public Health Concern"

Companies can no longer sell bulk packages of liquid or powdered caffeine directly to consumers, the Food and Drug Administration announced Friday. The policy will take immediate effect "given the significant public health concern," according to the agency's statement released Friday. "Highly concentrated and pure caffeine, often sold in bulk packages, have been linked to at least two deaths in otherwise healthy individuals," the agency stated.

[...] In small doses, if you're otherwise healthy, caffeine shouldn't kill you. But part of the issue is that highly concentrated caffeine looks nothing like the kinds of caffeinated products we're used to seeing. Instead, it can look like water if it's in a liquid form or sugar if it's powdered. "The consequences of a consumer mistakenly confusing one of these products could be toxic or even lethal," the agency stated.

[...] Between 10 and 14 grams of caffeine is considered life-threatening, according to the FDA's guidelines, though people can have an irregular or rapid heart rate and seizures after taking just a gram. The amount of concentrated caffeine that's considered safe at a time—200 milligrams—is very, very small.

Also at Bloomberg.

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

Researchers link sedentary behavior to thinning in brain region critical for memory

Sitting too much is linked to changes in a section of the brain that is critical for memory, according to a preliminary study by UCLA researchers of middle-aged and older adults.

Studies show that, like smoking, too much sitting increases the risk of heart disease, diabetes and premature death. Researchers at UCLA wanted to see how sedentary behavior influences brain health, especially regions of the brain that are critical to memory formation.

UCLA researchers recruited 35 people ages 45 to 75 — 25 women and 10 men — and asked about their physical activity levels and the average number of hours per day they spent sitting over the previous week. Each person had a high-resolution MRI scan, which provides a detailed look at the medial temporal lobe, a brain region involved in the formation of new memories.

The researchers found that sedentary behavior is a significant predictor of thinning of the medial temporal lobe and that physical activity, even at high levels, is insufficient to offset the harmful effects of sitting for extended periods. This study does not prove that too much sitting causes thinner brain structures, but instead that more hours spent sitting are associated with thinner regions, researchers said.

Also at Bustle.

Sedentary behavior associated with reduced medial temporal lobe thickness in middle-aged and older adults (open, DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0195549) (DX)

Original Submission

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow3941

[....] Nicole Eagan, CEO of cybersecurity company Darktrace, revealed Thursday that a casino fell victim to hackers thanks to a smart thermometer it was using to monitor the water of an aquarium they had installed in the lobby, Business Insider reported. The hackers managed to find and steal information from the casino's high-roller database through the thermometer.

"The attackers used that to get a foothold in the network," Eagan said at a Wall Street Journal panel. "They then found the high-roller database and then pulled that back across the network, out the thermostat, and up to the cloud."

That database may have included information about some of the unnamed casino's biggest spenders along with other private details, and hackers got a hold of it thanks to the internet of things.

Source: Hackers exploit casino's smart thermometer to steal database info

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Mutant ferrets offer clues to human brain size

By inactivating a gene linked to abnormally small brain size in humans, researchers have created the first ferret with a neurological mutation. Although the original impetus of the work was to study human brain disease and development, says Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Investigator Christopher Walsh, the results also shed light on how the human brain expanded during the course of evolution.

[...] Walsh, Bae, and their colleagues discovered that their ferrets model human microcephaly much more accurately than do mice. The ferrets displayed severely shrunken brains, with up to 40 percent reduced brain weight. And, as in humans with the condition, cortical thickness and cell organization were preserved.

What's more, the ferrets reveal a possible mechanism for how human brains have grown over evolutionary time. Over the last seven million years, human brain size has tripled. Most of this expansion has occurred within the cerebral cortex. Indeed, in the mutant ferrets, researchers traced the cerebral cortex deficits to a type of stem cell called outer radial glial cells (ORGs). ORGs are created by stem cells capable of making all sorts of different cells in the cortex. Walsh's team found that Aspm [a gene linked to microcephaly in humans] regulates the timing of the transition between these stem cells and ORGs. This affects the ratio of ORGs to other types of cells. Thus, tweaking Aspm can actually dial up or down the number of nerve cells in the brain, Walsh says, without having to change many genes all at once.

Aspm knockout ferret reveals an evolutionary mechanism governing cerebral cortical size (DOI: 10.1038/s41586-018-0035-0) (DX)

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Circumbinary castaways: Short-period binary systems can eject orbiting worlds

When eclipsing binaries orbit each other closely, within about 10 days or less, Fleming and co-authors wondered, do tides — the gravitational forces each exerts on the other — have "dynamical consequences" to the star system?

"That's actually what we found" using computer simulations, Fleming said. "Tidal forces transport angular momentum [3m18s video] from the stellar rotations to the orbits. They slow down the stellar rotations, expanding the orbital period."

[...] The expanding stellar orbit "engulfs planets that were originally safe, and then they are no longer safe — and they get thrown out of the system," said Rory Barnes, UW assistant professor of astronomy and a co-author on the paper. And the ejection of one planet in this way can perturb the orbits of other orbiting worlds in a sort of cascading effect, ultimately sending them out of the system as well.

Making things even more difficult for circumbinary planets is what astronomers call a "region of instability" created by the competing gravitational pulls of the two stars.

"There's a region that you just can't cross — if you go in there, you get ejected from the system," Fleming said. "We've confirmed this in simulations, and many others have studied the region as well."

This is called the "dynamical stability limit." It moves outward as the stellar orbit increases, enveloping planets and making their orbits unstable, and ultimately tossing them from the system.

On The Lack of Circumbinary Planets Orbiting Isolated Binary Stars (arXiv:1804.03676)

Original Submission

takyon writes:

A new class of antibiotics to combat drug resistance

Called odilorhabdins, or ODLs, the antibiotics are produced by symbiotic bacteria found in soil-dwelling nematode worms that colonize insects for food. The bacteria help to kill the insect and, importantly, secrete the antibiotic to keep competing bacteria away. Until now, these nematode-associated bacteria and the antibiotics they make have been largely understudied.

[...] UIC's Alexander Mankin and Yury Polikanov are corresponding authors on the study and led the research on the antibiotic's mechanism of action. They found that ODLs act on the ribosome — the molecular machine of individual cells that makes the proteins it needs to function — of bacterial cells. "Like many clinically useful antibiotics, ODLs work by targeting the ribosome," said Polikanov, assistant professor of biological sciences in the UIC College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, "but ODLs are unique because they bind to a place on the ribosome that has never been used by other known antibiotics."

Odilorhabdins, Antibacterial Agents that Cause Miscoding by Binding at a New Ribosomal Site (DOI: 10.1016/j.molcel.2018.03.001) (DX)

Meanwhile, an IBM research team has designed a polymer that can target at least five types of drug-resistant bacteria:

Earlier versions of synthetic polymers created problems because they essentially exploded the bacteria, releasing dangerous toxins into the bloodstream. While other scientists are researching different approaches to avoid resistance, most involve finding new molecules or proteins. IBM's synthetic molecule employs a completely different strategy.

It carries a negative electrical charge, so is drawn — like a magnet — to the positively charged surfaces of infectious cells. Then it binds to the cell, pierces the membrane, enters it and turns the inner liquid contents into solids. The new ninja polymer kills bacteria so quickly, they don't have time to mutate.

The eventual goal, said Hedrick, is to create an entirely new class of therapeutics that could treat a spectrum of infectious diseases with a single mechanism — without the onset of resistance.

Also at IBM.

A macromolecular approach to eradicate multidrug resistant bacterial infections while mitigating drug resistance onset (open, DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-03325-6) (DX)

Original Submission

-- OriginalOwner_ writes:

Common Dreams reports

Colorado's teachers' union expects more than 400 teachers at a rally that's planned for Monday at the state's Capitol in Denver.

[...] Englewood School District, outside the capital city, announced on Sunday that schools would be closed the following day as 70 percent of its teachers had indicated they wouldn't be working Monday. It was unclear on Sunday whether more school districts would be closing.

"We are calling Monday, April 16th a day of action", Kerrie Dallman, president of the Colorado Education Association (CEA), told KDVR in Denver.

[...] According to[1] KMGH in Denver, "The CEA estimates that teachers spend on average $656 of their own money for school supplies for students." The state's teacher salaries rank 46th out of 50, with educators making an average of $46,000 per year.

Public schools are underfunded by $828 million this year, Dallman told the Post, and lawmakers have said they could inject at least $100 million more into schools--but they have yet to do so.

[...] The planned protest follows a trend that was seen in West Virginia and Kentucky before moving west this month to Oklahoma and Arizona as well as Colorado. In all the states where teachers have walked out and rallied at their Capitols, teachers have reported paying for school supplies out of pocket, working second and third jobs to make ends meet, and coping with funding shortages while their legislators hand out tax cuts to corporations.

[1] For a laugh (or perhaps a deep sigh), check out all the whitespace in the source code of the page.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

A University of Michigan researcher has created a coating that could be used to repel water, oil, and other substances:

In an advance that could grime-proof phone screens, countertops, camera lenses and countless other everyday items, a materials science researcher at the University of Michigan has demonstrated a smooth, durable, clear coating that swiftly sheds water, oils, alcohols and, yes, peanut butter.

Called "omniphobic" in materials science parlance, the new coating repels just about every known liquid. It's the latest in a series of breakthrough coatings from the lab of Anish Tuteja, U-M associate professor of materials science and engineering. The team's earlier efforts produced durable coatings that repelled ice and water, and a more fragile omniphobic coating. The new omniphobic coating is the first that's durable and clear. Easily applied to virtually any surface, it's detailed in a paper published in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces.

Tuteja envisions the new coating as a way to prevent surfaces from getting grimy, both in home and industry. It could work on computer displays, tables, floors and walls, for example.

[...] Ultimately, the team discovered that a mix of fluorinated polyurethane and a specialized fluid-repellent molecule called F-POSS would do the job. Their recipe forms a mixture that can be sprayed, brushed, dipped or spin-coated onto a wide variety of surfaces, where it binds tightly. While the surface can be scratched by a sharp object, it's durable in everyday use. And its extremely precise level of phase separation makes it optically clear.

Just what I needed for my keyboard, VR headset, countertop, toilet bowl, 1 gallon mayonnaise jar, t-shirts, patio deck, sailing ship, the inside of all of my body's cells, and synthetic killer bacteria.

Smooth, All-Solid, Low-Hysteresis, Omniphobic Surfaces with Enhanced Mechanical Durability (DOI: 10.1021/acsami.8b00521) (DX)

Related: Nissan Testing 'Super-Hydrophobic' and 'Oleophobic' Paint
LiquiGlide Slippery Coating Coming Inside Norwegian Mayo Bottles
Spray-on "Repellent" Could Make Freezers Frost Free

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Are we getting closer to a complete brain mapping? New devices explore more regions safely

Researchers at the University of Southern California Viterbi School of Engineering have developed thin, flexible polymer-based materials for use in microelectrode arrays that record activity more deeply in the brain and with more specific placement than ever before. What's more is that each microelectrode array is made up of eight "tines," each with eight microelectrodes which can record from a total 64 subregions of the brain at once.

In addition, the polymer-based material, called Parylene C, is less invasive and damaging to surrounding cells and tissue than previous microelectrode arrays comprised of silicon or microwires. However, the long and thin probes can easily buckle upon insertion, making it necessary to add a self-dissolving brace made up of polyethylene glycol (PEG) that shortens the array and prevents it from bending.

Professor Ellis Meng of the USC Viterbi Department of Biomedical Engineering and Michelson Center for Convergent Bioscience said that the performance of the new polymer-based material is on par with microwires in terms of recording fidelity and sensitivity. "The information that we can get out is equivalent, but the damage is much less," Meng said. "Polymers are gentler on the brain, and because of that, these devices get recordings of neuronal communication over long periods of time."

Acute in vivo testing of a conformal polymer microelectrode array for multi-region hippocampal recordings (DOI: 10.1088/1741-2552/aa9451) (DX)

Original Submission

realDonaldTrump writes:

Why You Should Buy Facebook While It's In Crisis (archive)

In spite of the headlines, the hearings, and the hashtags, it does not look like many users are leaving Facebook. A survey conducted by Deutsche Bank concluded that "just 1% of respondents were deactivating or deleting their accounts." If the survey is representative of Facebook's 2 billion users, then 20 million users might leave. This may seem like a big loss, but it means 99% of users are staying.

Doug Clinton, the managing partner of Loup Ventures, estimates that each active user generates about $21 in profits for Facebook each year. The loss of 20 million users would therefore reduce Facebook's earnings by roughly $420 million. Facebook's pretax income last year was $20.5 billion. Does a 2% drop in pretax income justify a 9% loss of market value? I don't think so.

Original Submission

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for fyngyrz

Euthanasia advocate displays 'Sarco', a pod that fills with nitrogen, which he hopes will one day be available as a 3D-printable device

[...]

Called the "Sarco", short for sarcophagus, the 3D-printed machine invented by Australian euthanasia activist Philip Nitschke and Dutch designer Alexander Bannink comes with a detachable coffin, mounted on a stand that contains a nitrogen canister.

"The person who wants to die presses the button and the capsule is filled with nitrogen. He or she will feel a bit dizzy but will then rapidly lose consciousness and die," said Nitschke. The Sarco was a device "to provide people with a death when they wish to die," Nitschke said.

Source:
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/apr/15/nitschke-suicide-machine-amsterdam-euthanasia-funeral-fair

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

https://phys.org/news/2018-04-atoms-combined-dipolar-molecule.html

Harvard Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology Kang-Kuen Ni and colleagues have combined two atoms for the first time into what researchers call a dipolar molecule. The work is described in a new paper published in Science.

Researchers say the discovery holds great promise for the future of quantum computing, as the dipolar molecule constitutes a new type of qubit, the smallest unit of quantum information, which could lead to more-efficient devices.

[...] "It's true that for every reaction," Ni said, "atoms and molecules combine individually at the microscopic level. What we have done differently is to create more control over it. We grab two different species of individual atoms with optical tweezers and shine a pulse of laser to bind them. The whole process is happening in an ultra-high vacuum, with very low air density."

Though short-lived, the reaction proved that a molecule could form by using the laser stimulus, rather than additional atoms, as the catalyst.

DOI: 10.1126/science.aar7797

Original Submission

chromas writes:

From Engadget:

Throughout discussions about Cambridge Analytica, parent company Strategic Communication Laboratories (SCL) and how they came to obtain information on some 87 million Facebook users, you've probably also heard the name AggregateIQ. The Canada-based data firm has now been connected to Cambridge Analytica operations as well as US election campaigns and the Brexit referendum. Now, cybersecurity firm UpGuard has discovered a large code repository that AggregateIQ left exposed online, and through that we're getting a better look at the company, what it does and how it does it.

From the first of Upguard's multipart series:

On the night of March 20th, 2018, UpGuard Director of Cyber Risk Research Chris Vickery discovered a large data warehouse hosted on a subdomain of AIQ and using a custom version of popular code repository Gitlab, located at the web address gitlab.aggregateiq.com. Entering the URL, Gitlab prompts the user to register to see the contents - a free process which simply requires supplying an email address. Once registered, contents of the dozens of separate code repositories operated on the AggregateIQ Gitlab subdomain are entirely downloadable. Within these repositories appear to be nothing less than mechanisms capable of organizing vast quantities of data about individuals, measuring how they are being influenced or reached by advertising, and even tracking their internet browsing behavior.

Original Submission

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for Sulla

From heavy.com:

Art Bell, the radio host, is dead. How did he die? The cause of death is not yet known.

From The Washington Post:

Long before fake news became a political topic, Mr. Bell made a good living encouraging Americans to accept the most fantastic and unlikely tales, to believe that we are not alone, to accept that in a world where the pace of life seemed to quicken with every passing year, there were forces from beyond that were trying to tell us something.

Sources:
https://heavy.com/news/2018/04/art-bell-dead-cause-of-death-dies-how/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/art-bell-mysterious-narrator-of-the-american-nightscape-is-dead-at-72/2018/04/14/b6f2b278-4015-11e8-974f-aacd97698cef_story.html?utm_term=.7a7db7da9686

Original Submission

takyon writes:

A bridge linking the Kennedy Space Center to the mainland needs replacement:

In fast-track fashion, traffic engineers hope to finish design work on a future replacement State Road 405 bridge across the Indian River by January 2021.

The aging bridge serves as a critical corridor linking the mainland with Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station — and the bridge must shoulder heavyweight spacecraft payloads and similar freight.

But by 2021, the drawbridge could prove unsafe for spacecraft and other heavy cargo, a NASA engineering study determined. Bridge replacement could cost $140 million — and no construction funding has been earmarked yet, said Bob Kamm, Space Coast Transportation Planning Organization executive director.

Traffic in and around the Kennedy Space Center has increased massively in recent years.

Congressmen want more money to upgrade the facilities at Kennedy Space Center, as well as to provide for the Space Launch System and Orion projects:

A letter sent last month by U.S. Rep. Bill Posey, the Rockledge Republican who sits on the House Space Subcommittee, and co-signed by 10 other members of Florida's delegation, urges $557 million for the exploration ground systems improvements in the 2019 federal budget, and another $17 million for other construction. It also calls for $150 million in 2019 to build a new mobile launcher that could support the SLS rocket for 40 years, a recent NASA policy direction change from plans now seen as problematic to retrofit the current mobile launcher. The letter also calls for another $2.15 billion for the SLS rocket development, and $1.35 billion for the final Orion crew vehicle development.

Original Submission