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MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for Runaway1956

Antioxidants, once touted as a cancer preventive, may actually spur the disease's spread. Now scientists have figured out how.

Whether taken as a dietary supplement or produced by the body, antioxidants appear to help lung cancer cells invade tissues beyond the chest cavity, two studies report online June 27 in Cell. Experiments in mice and human tissue revealed that antioxidants both safeguard tumors against cell-damaging molecules and prompt the accumulation of the protein Bach1. As Bach1 piles up, tumors burn through glucose at higher rates, thus fueling the cancer cells' migration to new organs (SN: 1/9/16, p. 13).

"The results provide a new mechanism for how lung cancer cells can spread and may lead to new possibilities for treatment," says Martin Bergö, a molecular biologist at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm who led one of the new studies.

[...] Bergö and his colleagues had previously found that supplement doses of antioxidants accelerate primary tumor growth in mice, and clinical trials have unearthed similar results in humans. Now knowing how antioxidants exacerbate cancer, scientists may be able to undermine the mechanism with drugs that inhibit Ho1, block Bach1 production or prevent glycolysis, the glucose-guzzling process that fuels tumors. Ho1 inhibitors are already U.S. Food and Drug Administration–approved to treat inherited disorders called porphyrias, and could potentially be repurposed to fight cancer.

"Understanding why some cancers metastasize and some don't is one of the biggest problems in lung cancer right now," says Roy Herbst, a medical oncologist at Yale Cancer Center.

Recognizing this newfound pathway as a "potent promoter of metastasis" could help doctors develop new treatments, identify which tumors to treat aggressively and better advise patients about taking vitamin supplements, Herbst says. "This pathway could be explored in other tumor types — this will definitely have some impact on the field."

Source: https://www.sciencenews.org/article/antioxidants-lung-cancer-spread-prevent

Original Submission

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for AndyTheAbsurd

Transport for London has been warned that proposals put forward for a safety feature to make electric buses more audible risk confusing vulnerable road users.

TfL has commissioned Aecom to come up with a recognisable noise that will help alert pedestrians and cyclists to the presence of vehicles that can be dangerously quiet.

The first electric London buses are due to be fitted with the sound in the autumn and it is hoped other parts of the country will follow.

But the possible options, including a bubbling noise and intermittent bleeps, have been greeted with scepticism by experts and campaigners.

John Welsman, from the policy team at Guide Dogs UK, who attended a TfL presentation last month, described the sounds as “all very spaceshippy” and said he would prefer electric buses to be fitted with a canned recording of the old Routemaster bus.

Welsman added: “They did play us a sound like someone blowing bubbles through a pipe. That just wouldn’t work. And there was an intermittent bleeping sound like an email alert that would increase or decrease in rapidity depending on the the speed of the vehicle. It was very irritating.”

“As a blind person I could spot the old Routemaster a mile off, because it was so distinctive, but that’s not what they are suggesting.”

He said most of the other six samplers sounded like futuristic vehicles from sci-fi films.

[...] From 1 July, under an EU regulation, all new models for electric vehicles seeking approval will have to emit a noise, known as an acoustic vehicle alerting system (Avas). Existing electric vehicles will need to be retrofitted with the sound from July 2021.

[...] TfL said its bus sound would comply with the regulation but maintained it did not have to mimic an engine noise. A spokesman said: “The regulation references a continuous sound that will increase as the vehicle accelerates, but there is no mention in the regulation that the noise needs to simulate that of an internal combustion engine.”

Spaceship buses seems like a good idea to me.

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jul/01/futuristic-sounds-to-make-electric-buses-safer-hit-wrong-note

Original Submission

RandomFactor writes:

[Ed. note: This article was recently published (July 6, 2019) on the Science Alert web site. As a footnote on the Science Alert story notes: "This article was originally published at Aeon and has been republished under Creative Commons." Viewing the source HTML at Aeon, I discovered it was originally published 02-Feb-2018. Though the material is somewhat dated, it was the first I'd heard of this and thought it sufficiently interesting to share with the SoylentNews community. --martyb]

Entanglement of particles, i.e. quantum nonlocality, is routinely demonstrated in particles separated by space.

But space and time are related, leading to a team of physicists demonstrating that quantum entanglement can occur across time with particles that shared no concurrent existence.

Just when you thought quantum mechanics couldn't get any weirder, a team of physicists at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem reported in 2013 that they had successfully entangled photons that never coexisted.

Previous experiments involving a technique called 'entanglement swapping' had already showed quantum correlations across time, by delaying the measurement of one of the coexisting entangled particles; but Eli Megidish and his collaborators were the first to show entanglement between photons whose lifespans did not overlap at all.

One might be curious how a measurement done on one particle might be instantly reflected on another that doesn't exist yet, so here is how this was accomplished:

First, they created an entangled pair of photons, '1-2' (step I in the diagram below). Soon after, they measured the polarisation of photon 1 (a property describing the direction of light's oscillation) – thus 'killing' it (step II).

Photon 2 was sent on a wild goose chase while a new entangled pair, '3-4', was created (step III). Photon 3 was then measured along with the itinerant photon 2 in such a way that the entanglement relation was 'swapped' from the old pairs ('1-2' and '3-4') onto the new '2-3' combo (step IV).

Some time later (step V), the polarisation of the lone survivor, photon 4, is measured, and the results are compared with those of the long-dead photon 1 (back at step II).

The upshot? The data revealed the existence of quantum correlations between 'temporally nonlocal' photons 1 and 4. That is, entanglement can occur across two quantum systems that never coexisted.

The physicist's speculation on what this means is somewhat reminiscent of a cat in a box:

An Anonymous Coward writes:

Counting cars in parking lots turns out to be a good way to predict how well a big box retailer is doing--and trade their stock just before quarterly reports come out. Similarly for satellite photos of field crops and activity in other industries. Quartz has the story, https://qz.com/1652293/how-to-make-money-with-rs-metrics-and-orbital-insight-space-data/

Satellite speculators have reportedly used techniques like car-counting, tracking oil inventories or watching corn fields to make profitable forecasts of equity and commodity markets. Now, research from finance professors at UC Berkeley and the University of Kentucky provides the first independent evidence that these trading strategies work—and that they’re likely being used to the detriment of small-time investors.

The space datasets in question, created by firms RS Metrics and Orbital Insight, allow sophisticated investors to gain near-realtime understanding of same-store sales growth, an important metric for understanding the business of physical retailers like Walmart, Target or Costco. Investors can then make bets on or against companies just before they disclose quarterly financial results.

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

It all started with a random tweet that compares Chuck E. Cheese tokens and Bitcoin. The mouse-in-chief (or whoever controls its account) decided to join the fray with a bitter tweet that eventually went semi-viral.

[...] Multiple arguments went into play — from the BTC price that recently breached $10,000 once again to coin's 24/7 availability (Chuck E. Cheese cannot relate).

[...] It's not exactly clear what Chuck E. Cheese was trying to achieve with this tweet, but it definitely got what it desperately needed — media attention.

Multiple outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, have already covered what can be considered one of the strangest Bitcoin debates you will ever see on Twitter.

https://u.today/chuck-e-cheese-mouse-gets-roasted-by-cryptocurrency-enthusiasts

The tweet that started it all:

Ryan Hoover
@rrhoover
Chuck E Cheese tokens are cool and all but I'd rather earn Bitcoin

Original Submission

RandomFactor writes:

Using both the Hubble and Spitzer telescopes, scientists have, for the first time, determined the spectroscopic signature of a planet orbiting another star.

scientists successfully measured changes in the spectral signature of the host star's light as the planet passed across. By observing which wavelengths were absorbed as the planet made its transits, scientists confirmed the dominance of hydrogen and helium in the exoplanet's atmosphere.

The planet did not meet expectations. The atmosphere of the exoplanet Gliese 3470 b, which is considered a mini-Neptune at ~12.6 Earth masses, was anticipated to be rich in heavier elements such as oxygen and carbon forming water vapor and methane gas similar to Neptune. Instead, according to Björn Benneke, a researcher at the University of Montreal in Canada,

we found an atmosphere that is so poor in heavy elements that its composition resembles the hydrogen/helium-rich composition of the sun.

Researchers theorize that Gliese 3470 b formed close to its star rather than forming further out and migrating inward and gathered hydrogen from the protoplanetary disk before it dispersed.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

NASA won't launch a mission to hunt deadly asteroids:

NASA says it can't afford to build a space telescope considered the fastest way to identify asteroids that might impact the Earth with terrible consequences.

A 2015 law gave the space agency five years to identify 90% of near-Earth objects larger than 140 meters in diameter, which could devastate cities, regions and even civilization itself if they were to impact the planet. NASA isn't going to meet that deadline, and scientists believe they have so far only identified about a third of the asteroids considered a threat.

Researchers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, led by principal investigator Amy Mainzer, developed a proposal for a space telescope called NEOCam that would use infrared sensors to find and measure near-Earth objects. The National Academy of Sciences issued a report this spring concluding that NEOCam was the fastest way to meet the asteroid-hunting mandate. But NASA will not approve the project to begin development. "The Planetary Defense Program at NASA does not currently have sufficient funding to approve development of a full space-based NEO survey mission as was proposed by the NEOCam project," a NASA spokesperson told Quartz this week.

The agency said it was prioritizing funding for ground-based telescopes looking for asteroids, though the NAS report concluded that they would not fulfill its mandate. The agency is also funding the Double Asteroid Redirection Test mission (DART), which will pilot the technologies needed to do something about any threatening near-Earth objects. Still, the agency said the infrared telescope proposed for NEOCam "could be ready for any future flight mission development effort."

Near-Earth Object Camera (NEOCam).

See also: Poll: Americans Want NASA To Focus More On Asteroid Impacts, Less On Getting To Mars

Related: Nathan Myhrvold Challenges NASA's NEOWISE Asteroid Results With Peer-Reviewed Paper
SpaceX Drops Protest of "Lucy" Contract, Gets Double Asteroid Redirection Test Contract
Americans Polled on Attitudes Toward the Space Program

Original Submission

RandomFactor writes:

Updated information on the Mars InSight Lander's Mole probe.

NASA has now announced that the plan to investigate the cause of the mole's depthless digging was implemented successfully and they have the results

As was previously reported the Mars InSight Lander's heat probe was only able to reach a depth of 13cm in its attempts to drill to a final depth of five meters. Earlier this month NASA announced their plan to move the lander's support structure out of the way so it could view the hole and determine the problem.

Initially, the InSight team thought that the mole had hit a rock and was blocked. But after analysis and experimentation with a mock-up lander at test-bed facilities, they came up with another explanation: a cavity in the soil.

They couldn't be sure without seeing into the hole, which lead to the June effort to move aside the lander support structure.

Now that the mole's support structure has been moved aside, camera's[sic] on the lander's instrument arm are able to see into the hole. And they've confirmed what the InSight team suspected. A small pit has formed around the mole, depriving it of the necessary friction to penetrate deeper.

"The images coming back from Mars confirm what we've seen in our testing here on Earth," said HP3 Project Scientist Mattias Grott of DLR. "Our calculations were correct: This cohesive soil is compacting into walls as the mole hammers."

This is important because the mole works differently from your garden variety post hole digger and

relies on friction with the [soil] surrounding it to hammer its way into the ground [...]. Without that friction, the mole will just recoil from the hammering action, and bounce around in the hole, rather than penetrate.

This was actually the hoped for result as a large blocking rock would have effectively been game over. NASA will next put into action its plan to attempt to remedy the situation

The robotic instrument arm has a small scoop on the end, and they intend to use that scoop to pat on the hole and compress the soil, hopefully eliminating the cavity.

There is a NASA Q&A page on the mole's situation available as well.

Original Submission

martyb writes:

Update: Second, larger quake shakes Southern California, also near Ridgecrest

A magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck Southern California Friday night, the second major temblor in less than two days and one that rocked buildings across Southern California, adding more jitters to an already nervous region.

The quake was centered near Ridgecrest, the location of the July 4th 6.2 magnitude temblor that was the largest in nearly 20 years.

There were reports of Friday night's quake causing some fires and other damage in Ridgecrest, said emergency officials on the scene.

[...] When Thursday's quake hit, scientists had warned that it could lead to an even larger quake. Ridgecrest has been rattled by more than 17 magnitude 4 quakes and at least 1,200 aftershocks since Thursday. A magnitude 5.4 aftershock occurred earlier this morning— strong enough to awaken some residents of Los Angeles about 125 miles away.

takyon writes:

AMD cuts Radeon 5700 GPU prices just two days before their release

When AMD announced its next-gen Navi-based Radeon RX 5700 and 5700 XT graphics cards last month, the news was just slightly underwhelming because the prices didn't necessarily make them the obvious alternative to Nvidia's rival chips.

But just two days before their July 7th launch date, AMD has taken the drastic step of dropping the prices on these new GPUs.

The Radeon 5700 XT, previously listed at $450, will now cost $400, and the Radeon 5700, previously $380, will be priced at $350. (There's also a $500 Radeon RX 5700 XT 50th Anniversary Edition that'll retail for $450.)

That's just super.

Also at Tom's Hardware.

Previously: AMD and Intel at Computex 2019: First Ryzen 3000-Series CPUs and Navi GPU Announced
AMD Details Three Navi GPUs and First Mainstream 16-Core CPU
Nvidia Refreshes RTX 2000-Series GPUs With "Super" Branding

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow4463

CBP reportedly suspends surveillance tech company after cyberattack

The US Customs and Border Protection has reportedly suspended a subcontractor following a "malicious cyberattack" in May that caused it to lose photos of travelers into and out of the country. Perceptics, which makes license plate scanners and other surveillance equipment for CBP, has been suspended from contracting with the federal government, The Washington Post reported Tuesday.

On June 12, CBP had confirmed that in violation of its policies, a subcontractor had "transferred copies of license plate images and traveler images collected by CBP to the subcontractor's company network." The subcontractor's network was then compromised by a cyberattack that affected under 100,000 people who entered and exited the US in a vehicle through several specific lanes at one land border during a 1.5-month period.

Federal records showed CBP officials citing "evidence of conduct indicating a lack of business honesty or integrity," Washington Post reported.

Passports and travel document photos weren't taken in the cyberattack, but it was reported later in June that the hackers stole sensitive CBP data from Perceptics, including government agency contracts, budget spreadsheets and even Powerpoint presentations.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Submitted via IRC for Carny

Multiple Chinese Groups Share the Same RTF Weaponizer

During an investigation into a possibly shared RTF[*] weaponizer by Indian and Chinese APT[**] groups, researchers have discovered that multiple Chinese groups have updated the weaponizer to exploit the Microsoft Equation Editor (EE) vulnerability CVE-2018-0798. The same weaponizer had previously delivered exploits for EE vulnerabilities CVE-2017-11882 and CVE-2018-0802.

Researchers at Anomali believe that the earlier weaponizer was favored because the two vulnerabilities initially employed are easier to exploit than that used with the latter weaponizer. The CVE-2018-0798 vulnerability, however, has the advantage of affecting all versions of EE. The earliest sample of an RTF file with this vulnerability exploited in the wild dates back to October 2018.

Weaponizers are scripts used to inject a malicious RTF object into a pre-crafted RTF phishing document. Anomali has been investigating whether multiple groups are using the same supply chain for their weaponizer. A weaponizer can be recognized through shared object dimensions across weaponized exploits within the delivered RTF files. The actor can be recognized through different post-exploitation behaviors.

Anomali has detected numerous Chinese actors sharing the same new RTF weaponizer, which they all updated at around the same time. These include Goblin Panda (aka Conimes), KeyBoy (aka APT 23), Emissary Panda (aka APT27), Rancor Group, and Temp.Trident (aka Icefog).

[...] The conclusions from Anomali's research confirm that there is a strong sharing culture among Chinese groups. The first weaponizer was used exclusively by Chinese state actors for about a year before it began to be used by cybercriminals. The second weaponizer was used by the state actors for around six months before it too began to be used by cybercriminals. It's not clear whether a state actor developed the weaponizer and shared it with other groups, or whether it was developed by a third-party and supplied to the actors.

[*] RTF(Rich Text Format) is usually a safer document format. Not anymore. Maybe we should all switch to Markdown.

[**] APT: Advanced Persistent Threat

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow4463

House lawmakers officially ask Facebook to put Libra cryptocurrency project on hold

House Democrats are requesting Facebook halt development of its proposed cryptocurrency project Libra, as well as its digital wallet Calibra, until Congress and regulators have time to investigate the possible risks it poses to the global financial system.

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), the chairwoman of the House Financial Services Committee, hinted at a move like this last month shortly after the project was announced. Waters's letter today, sent to Facebook's CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg, and Calibra CEO David Marcus, formalizes that request from a few weeks ago. Aside from Waters, the letter is signed by House Finance's subcommittee leaders.

"If products and services like these are left improperly regulated and without sufficient oversight, they could pose systemic risks that endanger U.S. and global financial stability," Water writes. "These vulnerabilities could be exploited and obscured by bad actors, as other cryptocurrencies, exchanges, and wallets have been in the past."

"[Libra] could pose systemic risks that endanger US and global financial stability."

[...] "We look forward to working with lawmakers as this process moves forward, including answering their questions at the upcoming House Financial Services Committee hearing," a Facebook spokesperson told The Verge Tuesday.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

LightSail 2 Sends Back 1st Signals from Its Solar-Surfing Test Flight

The space advocacy organization The Planetary Society recently confirmed that its LightSail 2 spacecraft has sent its first signals home from space.

The roughly 11-lb. (5 kilograms) cubesat is designed to prove that solar sailing is a feasible way of keeping satellites moving. Fuel is a costly and heavy commodity, and if LightSail 2 can prove that the solar-powered technique works well, perhaps future missions into the deep reaches of the solar system and beyond can be propelled by the charged particles released by the sun.

The project launched into space last week (June 25) from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy megarocket. On Tuesday (July 2), the bread-loaf-size LightSail 2 experiment left Prox-1, its carrier vehicle. LightSail 2 will ultimately open up its ultrathin four-panel sail to achieve a surface area about the size of a boxing ring.

[...] Once the cubesat deploys its solar sail early next week, the rays from the sun will give LightSail 2 a gentle push. The goal is to observe LightSail 2 over the course of a month to see if it shifts in its orbit by a measurable amount, according to The Planetary Society officials. That will help demonstrate that solar sailing is an effective satellite-propulsion technique.

In other news, 'Oumuamua is not an alien light sail, probably.

See also: What's the Difference between LightSail 1 and LightSail 2?
First Contact! LightSail 2 Phones Home to Mission Control
See the Latest Data from LightSail 2 on Our New Mission Control Dashboard (here)

Previously: Planetary Society's "LightSail" Solar Sail Test Launch on May 20
Lightsail Update: Back in Communication
Planetary Society's LightSail Has Finally Deployed After Multiple Setbacks
One Legacy of Carl Sagan May Take Flight Next Week—a Working Solar Sail
Falcon Heavy to Launch STP-2; 4-Hour Window Opens @ 2019-06-25 2:30am EDT (2019-06-25 0630 UTC)

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Submitted via IRC for Bytram

Streaming is secretly fixing your mainstream taste in garbage music

The world's most-streamed artists are a parade of major-label household names: Ariana Grande, Post Malone, Billie Eilish. But hidden below the top rankings, independent artists and labels are taking over a greater share of the music channeling into your headphones.

Why? Music-streaming services like Spotify, Apple Music and Pandora -- and the quirks of how they funnel music you may never have heard otherwise -- are helping fuel an indie golden age just below the surface.

"If there's one thing that streaming has done for sure, it's created a new independent music industry," said Jorge Brea, founder and CEO of Symphonic Distribution, an independent music company in Tampa, Florida, that's distributed music by Waka Flocka Flame and Deadmau5 in his early days.

The meteoric popularity of streaming has lifted fortunes across the recording industry. But streaming also has been quietly shoring up the indie sector that exists outside the big three major labels. By nudging people to listen to a wider variety of artists, the services are helping more listeners stumble on music outside the mainstream. And by reconceptualizing how we pay for music, the services are helping indie artists and labels bask in streaming's glow.