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upstart writes in with an IRC submission for RandomFactor:

Discovery enables adult skin to regenerate like a newborn’s:

In a study, published in the journal eLife on Sept. 29, the researchers identified a factor that acts like a molecular switch in the skin of baby mice that controls the formation of hair follicles as they develop during the first week of life. The switch is mostly turned off after skin forms and remains off in adult tissue. When it was activated in specialized cells in adult mice, their skin was able to heal wounds without scarring. The reformed skin even included fur and could make goose bumps, an ability that is lost in adult human scars.

“We were able to take the innate ability of young, neonatal skin to regenerate and transfer that ability to old skin,” said Ryan Driskell, an assistant professor in WSU’s School of Molecular Biosciences. “We have shown in principle that this kind of regeneration is possible.”

[...] Driskell’s team used a new technique called single cell RNA sequencing to compare genes and cells in developing and adult skin. [...] The factor the researchers identified, called Lef1, was associated with papillary fibroblasts which are developing cells in the papillary dermis, a layer of skin just below the surface that gives skin its tension and youthful appearance.

A lot of work still needs to be done before this latest discovery in mice can be applied to human skin, Driskell said, but this is a foundational advance.

Journal Reference:
Quan M Phan, Gracelyn M Fine, Lucia Salz, et al. Lef1 expression in fibroblasts maintains developmental potential in adult skin to regenerate wounds, (DOI: 10.7554/eLife.60066)

See also: skinregeneration.org.

Original Submission

DECbot writes:

First spotted over at XDA Developers, the US Antitrust Subcommittee has finally released its long awaited report. To the astute, it lists the blatant obvious conclusions.

The [US Antitrust] Subcommittee just released their conclusion and report on this investigation, and it contains scathing remarks on how these companies have indulged in anticompetitive, monopolistic, and dominating behavior. While the complete report runs into a good 450 pages, we strongly recommend reading at least the Chairs' Foreword (pages 6-9) and the Executive Summary (pages 9-21) for an overview.

In its report, the Subcommittee notes that even though Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google are different companies that operate across different segments, their business practices have some common problems:

• Each platform serves as a gatekeeper over a key channel of distribution.
  • By controlling access to markets, the giants can pick winners and losers throughout the US economy.
  • They not only wield tremendous power as a gatekeeper, they also abuse the position by:
       - Charging exorbitant fees
       - Imposing oppressive contract terms
       - Extracting valuable data from people and businesses that rely on them.
     
• Each platform uses its gatekeeper position to maintain its market power.
  • The companies control infrastructure and use this control for surveilling other businesses to identify potential rivals.
  • These rivals are then either bought out, copied, or have their competitive threat cut off.
     
• Each platform has abused its role as an intermediary to further entrench and expand its dominance. This can take the form of self-preferencing, predatory pricing, or exclusionary conduct. The end result is that dominant platforms have exploited their power to become even more dominant.

Drone truck startup Einride unveils new driverless vehicles for autonomous freight hauling:

Einride, the Swedish autonomous trucking startup, unveiled a new vehicle type that the company hopes to have on the road delivering freight starting in 2021. The vehicles, dubbed Autonomous Electric Transport (AET), came in four different variations. And much like Einride’s previous prototypes, they come without steering wheels, pedals, windshields, and, in general, no cab at all.

Einride has been in the business of releasing interesting, eye-catching prototype vehicles since it was founded in 2016. There was the cab-less T-Pod, released in 2017, four of which are operating on public roads hauling freight for Oatly, the Swedish food producer. A year later, the company unveiled the T-Log, built to be more powerful than its predecessor for the job of (you guessed it) hauling tons of giant tree logs. Now it has a next-generation vehicle that it hopes it can put into production.

Einride’s also been engaged with the less glamorous part of the job, which is testing, validating, and seeking regulatory approval for its vehicles, all of which are electric and can be controlled remotely by a human operator, in addition to operating autonomously without human intervention. The company has yet to reveal its plans for production and manufacturing.

Design-wise, the AET vehicles look almost identical to Einride’s Pod (previously T-Pod) prototype: sleek, white, cab-less pods with smooth lines and an otherworldly feel. Einride CEO Robert Falck said the AET is more aerodynamic than previous iterations, which will help when the company starts to scale up its manufacturing. “When you nail a design the first time, why reinvent the wheel?” Falck said.

The new AET vehicles come in four levels. The first two — AET 1 and AET 2 — have top speeds of 30 km/h (18 mph), weigh 26 tons, have payloads of 16 tons, and a battery range of 130-180 km (80-110 miles). AET 3 and AET 4 have similar weight and payload capacity, with top speeds of 45 km/h and 85 km/h, respectively.

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Original Submission

Ice-cream in Space! ISS gets a fridge.

looorg writes:

The ISS is getting a new fridge. So they can keep their Tang chilled or possibly just get something that is more yummy than freeze-dried nutrients sucked thru a straw.

No rotating parts, radiation resistance and it can't blow heat out the back like a normal fridge but instead it is going to be hooked up to the existing ISS liquid cooling system.

https://www.colorado.edu/aerospace/2020/04/23/new-fridge-could-bring-real-ice-cream-space:

Officially called the Freezer Refrigerator Incubator Device for Galley and Experimentation, or FRIDGE, it is a far cry from the Amana or Frigidaire in your kitchen. Standard electronics don't fare well in space for a litany of reasons, with the fierce vibrations of launch and the higher radiation levels experienced once in orbit being primary culprits, so BioServe is designing specialized units.

[...] Compared to a regular refrigerator, FRIDGE is much smaller, roughly the size of a microwave oven, a requirement so it can fit into the pre-existing connections and rack housings aboard the space station.

[...] NASA has ordered eight FRIDGE units. Two will be used for astronaut food, and the remaining six will serve as home for active experiments that are temperature sensitive, or as storage for experiments either right before or after rocket transport to and from the ISS or aboard the station while awaiting active research.

Also covered at: engadget.

NASA's New $23 Million Space Toilet Arrives on ISS, Astronaut Shows How It Works in Video

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for guy_:

Five bar and cafe owners arrested in France for running no-log WiFi networks:

In one of the weirdest arrests of the year, at least five bar and cafe managers from the French city of Grenoble were taken into custody last week for running open WiFi networks at their establishments and not keeping logs of past connected users.

The bar and cafe owners were arrested for allegedly breaking a 14-year-old French law that dictates that all internet service providers must keep logs on all their users for at least one year.

According to local media reports, the bar and cafe owners claimed they were not aware that such a law even existed, let alone that it applied to them as they had not received notifications from their union, which usually sends alerts of industry-wide legal requirements.

[...] The bar and cafe owners were eventually released after questioning.

Original Submission

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for aristarchus:

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope passes crucial launch-simulation tests:

NASA's next big space telescope just took another step toward its highly anticipated 2021 launch.

The $9.8 billion James Webb Space Telescope has passed "environmental testing," a series of trials designed to simulate the considerable rigors of launch, NASA officials announced today (Oct. 6).

"The successful completion of our observatory environmental tests represent[s] a monumental milestone in the march to launch," Webb project manager Bill Ochs, of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, said today in a statement. "Environmental testing demonstrates Webb's ability to survive the rocket ride to space, which is the most violent portion of its trip to orbit approximately a million miles from Earth."

Original Submission

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for guy_:

'Do Not Track' Is Back, and This Time It Might Work:

What do you call a privacy law that only works if users individually opt out of every site or app they want to stop sharing their data? A piece of paper.

Or you could call it the California Consumer Privacy Act. In theory, the law gives California residents the right to opt out of any business selling their data. In practice, it hasn't seen much use. Most people don't go to the trouble of opting out of every website, one at a time. One analysis, by DataGrail, a privacy compliance company, found that there were only 82 "do not sell" requests for every million consumer records over the first six months of the year. A study published last week by Consumer Reports helps explain why: Opting out of everything is a complicated pain in the ass.

Change could be coming, however. The CCPA includes a mechanism for solving the one-by-one problem. The regulations interpreting the law specify that businesses must respect a "global privacy control" sent by a browser or device. The idea is that instead of having to change privacy settings every time you visit a new site or use a new app, you could set your preference once, on your phone or in a browser extension, and be done with it.

Announcing Global Privacy Control in Privacy Badger:

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for guy_:

OxyContin maker said to be brokering plea deal in criminal probe:

Purdue Pharma LP, the OxyContin maker controlled by members of the wealthy Sackler family, is nearing an agreement to plead guilty to criminal charges as part of a broader deal to resolve United States Justice Department probes into its alleged role in fuelling the nation's opioid crisis, six people familiar with the matter said.

Purdue lawyers and federal prosecutors are brokering a plea deal that could be unveiled as quickly as within the next two weeks and include billions of dollars of financial penalties, four of the people said. They stressed that talks are fluid and that some of the terms could change as discussions continue.

In addition to the criminal case, US prosecutors are negotiating a settlement of civil claims also carrying a financial penalty that allege unlawful conduct in Purdue's handling of prescription painkillers, they said.

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for guy_:

Coronavirus can survive on skin for 9 hours:

The new coronavirus can linger on human skin much longer than flu viruses can, according to a new study from researchers in Japan.

SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, remained viable on samples of human skin for about 9 hours, according to the study. In contrast, a strain of the influenza A virus (IAV) remained viable on human skin for about 2 hours.

Fortunately, both viruses on skin were rapidly inactivated with hand sanitizer.

The findings underscore the importance of washing your hands or using sanitizer to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

"This study shows that SARS-CoV-2 may have a higher risk of contact transmission [i.e. transmission from direct contact] than IAV because the first is much more stable on human skin [than the latter]" the authors wrote in their paper, which was published online Oct. 3 in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases. "These findings support the hypothesis that proper hand hygiene is important for the prevention of the spread of SARS-CoV-2."

[...] However, both viruses were inactivated on skin 15 seconds after using hand sanitizer that was 80% ethanol.

Journal Reference:
Ryohei Hirose, Hiroshi Ikegaya, Yuji Naito, et al. Survival of SARS-CoV-2 and influenza virus on the human skin: Importance of hand hygiene in COVID-19, Clinical Infectious Diseases (DOI: 10.1093/cid/ciaa1517)

Original Submission

Freeman writes:

The wreck of the WWII steamship Karlsruhe may hold lost Russian treasure:

A World War II shipwreck recently located off the coast of Poland may hold the dismantled pieces of the Amber Room[*], a Russian treasure looted by the Nazis and lost since 1945.

The wreck of the German steamship Karlsruhe lies 88 meters (290 feet) below the surface of the Baltic Sea and a few dozen kilometers north of the resort town of Ustka, Poland. It's in excellent shape after 75 years on the bottom, according to the team of 10 divers from Baltictech who located the wreck in June and announced the find in early October.

[...] "We don't want to get too excited, but if the Germans were to take [the Amber Room] across the Baltic Sea, then Karlsruhe steamer was their last chance," Baltictech wrote in a recent Facebook post announcing the find.

[*] Wikipedia entries for amber and Amber Room.

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

Russia successfully tests new hypersonic Tsirkon missile:

Russia says it has successfully tested a new hypersonic anti-ship cruise missile in a move hailed by President Vladimir Putin as a "great event" for the country.

The military said on Wednesday that the Tsirkon missile was fired from the Admiral Gorshkov frigate in the White Sea on Tuesday morning in the Russian Arctic and successfully hit its target.

Valery Gerasimov, chief of the Russian military's General Staff, told Putin – who turned 68 on Wednesday – that it was the first time the missile had successfully struck a target at sea.

"The tasks of the launch were carried out. The test-fire was successful," he told Putin. Gerasimov said the missile hit its target 450 kilometres (280 miles) away in the Barents Sea and reached a speed of Mach 8 – eight times the speed of sound.

China and America have also been developing hypersonic missiles.

Previously:
US Hails New Milestone in Development of Hypersonic Weapons
Russia Takes Lead by Deploying Hypersonic Nuclear Warheads First
Air-Breathing Engine Precooler Achieves Record-Breaking Mach 5 Performance
Putin Hails Successful Test Of Russia's New Hypersonic Missile
China Tests Hypersonic Aircraft "Starry Sky-2"
General: U.S. Has No Defense Against "Hypersonic Weapons"
Hypersonic Cruise Missile Scores USD$175m DARPA Cash

Original Submission

upstart writes in with an IRC submission:

Hurricane Delta Becomes A Category 4 Storm As Winds Reach 140 MPH:

Hurricane Delta Becomes A Category 4 Storm As Winds Reach 140 MPH

Delta has grown at an extraordinary rate since early Monday morning, when its maximum sustained winds were only 40 mph. It quickly became a Category 4 on Tuesday, one day before it's expected to cross over part of Mexico's coast.

The hurricane center had previously predicted the storm could develop intensely strong winds late Tuesday and early Wednesday, but after a NOAA Hurricane Hunter aircraft measured maximum winds near 130 mph with higher gusts, the center put out a special update before noon.

As a Category 4 storm, Delta will likely cause "catastrophic damage," according to the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale.

[...] The storm is predicted to take a slightly more westward path than forecasters had been predicting on Monday. But it's then seen curling toward the north and northeast, and its potential landfall remains on the Louisiana coast – raising concern in a region that has already seen flooding and power outages from storms over the summer.

"This storm will affect Louisiana and everyone needs to prepare accordingly," Gov. John Bel Edwards said on Tuesday.

[...] "The 2020 Atlantic hurricane season is currently tied with the 1916 Atlantic hurricane season," meteorologist Philip Klotzbach says via Twitter, "for most continental US named storm landfalls in a season on record (9 landfalls)."

Original Submission

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for guy_:

Stunning Bronze Age statuette with a tattooed face and a bone mask found in Siberia:

'Given that the discovery is 5,000 years old, you can imagine how important it is to understand the beliefs of the ancient people populating Siberia', said Vyacheslav Molodin.

The discovery was made this summer inside the mass burial of people from Odinov culture in Vengerovsky district of Novosibirsk region, Western Siberia.

The small - about a palm size - statuette found in situ by the team of Novosibirsk Institute of Archeology and Ethnography had a mask depicting a bear made of a horse vertebrae.

'This is without a doubt the find of the season, the find that any world museum from the Hermitage to the Louvre museum would love to exhibit', said professor Vyacheslav Molodin, head of the Ust-Tartas 2 expedition.

'We've never come across anything like this, despite our extensive knowledge of the Odinov culture's burial rites.

'The woman must have been an unusual person to have such a figurine 'escoring'[sic] her to the afterlife', he said.

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

A September full of suffering for space fans now seems to be bleeding over into October as a long series of launch delays continues with Monday's scrub of a planned SpaceX Starlink mission[*].

This marks the fifth time the launch has been pushed back in the past three weeks, and it comes just three days after SpaceX had to stand down once again from launching a GPS satellite for the US Space Force on Friday. That mission has also been postponed now a total of four times in the past week.

The delays aren't only affecting SpaceX. A United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket was set to lift a new US spy satellite into orbit Aug. 27 and has been delayed no less than six times since, most recently on Sept. 30.

[*] SpaceX was able to successfully launch the Starlink satellites on Tuesday.

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Terahertz light pulses change gene expression in stem cells, report researchers from Kyoto University's Institute for Integrated Cell-Material Sciences (iCeMS) and Tokai University in Japan in the journal Optics Letters. The findings come thanks to a new tool, with implications for stem cell research and regenerative therapy development.

[...] iCeMS microengineer Ken-ichiro Kamei and physicist Hideki Hirori worked with colleagues to develop a better tool for investigating what happens when terahertz pulses are shone on human cells. The apparatus overcomes issues with previous techniques by placing cells in tiny microwells that have the same area as the terahertz light.

[...] For example, they found the pulses activated genes involved in motor neuron survival and mitochondrial function. They also deactivated genes involved in cell differentiation, the process in which stem cells change into specialized body cells.

Further investigation found that these genes were influenced by zinc-dependent transcription factors. The scientists believe the terahertz pulses generate an electric field that causes zinc ions to move inside cells, impacting the function of transcription factors, which in turn activate or deactivate the genes they are responsible for.

Hirori says the findings could aid efforts to develop a technology that can manipulate iPSC differentiation into specific cells by turning off specific genes while keeping others on, paving the way for regenerative therapies for a wide range of diseases.

Journal Reference:
Takehiro Tachizaki, Reiko Sakaguchi, Shiho Terada, et al. Terahertz pulse-altered gene networks in human induced pluripotent stem cells, Optics Letters (DOI: 10.1364/OL.402815)

Original Submission