SoylentNews

upstart writes in with an IRC submission:

There's a Curious Effect Urban Trees Might Have on Depression, Study Finds:

There's already a long list of reasons to like trees, we know. Warding off depression could be the latest entry on that list, based on a study of 9,751 residents in Leipzig, Germany.

For a more consistent measure, researchers used antidepressant prescriptions rather than self-reporting to gauge the mental health of communities, and then cross-referenced these statistics with the numbers of street trees in each area.

They reported that more local foliage within 100 metres (328 feet) of the home was associated with a reduced likelihood of being prescribed antidepressants – findings that could be very useful indeed for city planners, health professionals, and governments.

The reduction in antidepressant use linked to street trees was particularly prominent in socioeconomically disadvantaged groups. While it's important not to take such findings too far, the results do hint that urban trees could act as a simple and affordable way of boosting mental health and assist in closing health inequality gaps across society.

"Our finding suggests that street trees – a small scale, publicly accessible form of urban greenspace – can help close the gap in health inequalities between economically different social groups," says environmental psychologist Melissa Marselle from De Montfort University in the UK.

[...] While the study has its limitations – not all depressed people are on antidepressants, for example, and there might be other factors at play affecting mental health – the stats show enough of a relationship to suggest that simply having street trees around is enough to improve the mood of an area as people go about their daily lives.

Journal Reference:
Melissa R. Marselle, Diana E. Bowler, Jan Watzema, et al. Urban street tree biodiversity and antidepressant prescriptions [open], Scientific Reports (DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-79924-5)

Original Submission

MrPlow wrote in with a submission, via IRC, for c0lo.

200 light-years away from Earth, there’s a K-type main-sequence star named TOI (TESS Object of Interest) 178. When Adrian Leleu, an astrophysicist at the Center for Space and Habitability of the University of Bern, observed it, it appeared to have two planets orbiting it at roughly the same distance. But that turned out to be incorrect. In fact, six exoplanets orbit the smallish star.

And five of those six are locked into an unexpected orbital configuration.

Five of the planets are engaged in a rare rhythmic, dance around the star. In astronomical terms, they’re in an unusual orbital resonance, which means their orbits around their star display repeated patterns. That property makes them an intriguing object of study and one that could tell us a lot about how planets form and evolve.

Adrian Leleu leads a team of researchers who studied the unusual phenomenon. [...] In the team’s initial observations, it appeared there were only two planets, as five of them move in such a way as to deceive the eye. But further observations showed that something else was happening in the system. “Through further observations, we realized that there were not two planets orbiting the star at roughly the same distance from it, but rather multiple planets in a very special configuration,” said lead author Leleu.

[...] Systems like this are challenging to understand, but ultimately, they drive researchers to think harder and to observe more fully.

Source: https://www.universetoday.com/149834/exoplanetary-system-found-with-6-worlds-in-orbital-resonance/

Journal Reference:
A. Leleu, Y. Alibert, N. C. Hara, et al. Six transiting planets and a chain of Laplace resonances in TOI-178, Astronomy & Astrophysics (DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/202039767)

Original Submission

MrPlow wrote in with a submission, via IRC, for c0lo.

We may not know what dark matter is, but scientists now have a better idea of what to look for.

Based on quantum gravity, physicists have worked out new, much more stringent upper and lower mass limits of dark matter particles. And they have found that the mass range is way tighter than previously thought.

This means that the dark matter candidates that are either extremely light or heavy are unlikely to be the answer, based on our current understanding of the Universe.

"This is the first time that anyone has thought to use what we know about quantum gravity as a way to calculate the mass range for dark matter. We were surprised when we realised no-one had done it before - as were the fellow scientists reviewing our paper," said physicist and astronomer Xavier Calmet of the University of Sussex in the UK.

"What we've done shows that dark matter cannot be either 'ultra-light' or 'super-heavy' as some theorise - unless there is an as-yet unknown additional force acting on it. This piece of research helps physicists in two ways: it focuses the search area for dark matter, and it will potentially also help reveal whether or not there is a mysterious unknown additional force in the Universe."

Journal Reference:
Xavier Calmet, Folkert Kuipers. Theoretical bounds on dark matter masses [open], Physics Letters B (DOI: 10.1016/j.physletb.2021.136068)

Original Submission

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for c0lo

Seawater makes up about 96% of all water on earth, making it a tempting resource to meet the world’s growing need for clean drinking water and carbon-free energy. And scientists already have the technical ability to both desalinate seawater and split it to produce hydrogen, which is in demand as a source of clean energy.

But existing methods require multiple steps performed at high temperatures over a lengthy period of time in order to produce a catalyst with the needed efficiency. That requires substantial amounts of energy and drives up the cost.

Researchers from the University of Houston have reported an oxygen evolving catalyst that takes just minutes to grow at room temperature on commercially available nickel foam. Paired with a previously reported hydrogen evolution reaction catalyst, it can achieve industrially required current density for overall seawater splitting at low voltage. The work is described in a paper published in Energy & Environmental Science.

Zhifeng Ren, director of the Texas Center for Superconductivity at UH (TcSUH) and corresponding author for the paper, said speedy, low-cost production is critical to commercialization.

[...] Ren said one key to the researchers’ approach was the decision to use a chemical reaction to produce the desired material, rather than the energy-consuming traditional focus on a physical transformation.

“That led us to the right structure, the right composition for the oxygen evolving catalyst,” he said.

Source: https://scitechdaily.com/high-efficiency-at-low-cost-new-catalyst-moves-seawater-desalination-hydrogen-production-closer-to-commercialization/

Journal Reference:
Luo Yu, Libo Wu, Brian McElhenny, et al. Ultrafast room-temperature synthesis of porous S-doped Ni/Fe (oxy)hydroxide electrodes for oxygen evolution catalysis in seawater splitting, Energy & Environmental Science (DOI: 10.1039/D0EE00921K)

Original Submission

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for aristarchus:

Dissecting the Anatomy of Planetary Nebulae Using the Hubble Space Telescope:

Images of two iconic planetary nebulae taken by the Hubble Space Telescope are revealing new information about how they develop their dramatic features. Researchers from Rochester Institute of Technology and Green Bank Observatory presented new findings about the Butterfly Nebula (NGC 6302) and the Jewel Bug Nebula (NGC 7027) at the 237th meeting of the American Astronomical Society on Friday, January 15, 2021.

Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 observed the nebulae in 2019 and early 2020 using its full, panchromatic capabilities, and the astronomers involved in the project have been using emission line images from near-ultraviolet to near-infrared light to learn more about their properties. The studies were first-of-their-kind panchromatic imaging surveys designed to understand the formation process and test models of binary-star-driven planetary nebula shaping.

“We’re dissecting them,” said Joel Kastner, a professor in RIT’s Chester F. Carlson Center for Imaging Science and School of Physics and Astronomy. “We’re able to see the effect of the dying central star in how it’s shedding and shredding its ejected material. We’re now seeing where material that the central star has tossed away is being dominated by ionized gas, where it’s dominated by cooler dust, and even how the hot gas is being ionized, whether by the star’s UV or by collisions caused by its present, fast winds.”

Kastner said analysis of the new HST images of the Butterfly Nebula is confirming that the nebula was ejected only about 2,000 years ago—an eyeblink by the standards of astronomy – and established that the S-shaped iron emission that helps give it the “wings” of gas is even younger. Surprisingly, they found that while astronomers previously believed they had located the nebula’s central star, that previously-identified star is actually not associated with the nebula and is instead much closer to Earth than the Butterfly Nebula. Kastner said he hopes that future studies with the James Webb Space Telescope could help locate the real dying star at the heart of the nebula.

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) calls antibiotic resistance "one of the biggest public health challenges of our time." Each year, about 2.8 million people in the U.S. are infected with antibiotic-resistant bacteria or fungi. More than 35,000 of them die, among an estimated 700,000 deaths worldwide.

At USC, scientists are working to build new lines of defense against the rise of powerful bacteria and fungi. They've turned the university into an epicenter for research as they race to develop new strategies and tools to counteract the growing threat.

"Antibiotic resistance is a naturally occurring phenomenon—it's been happening before we humans walked the earth. We're just making it worse," says Adam Smith, an environmental engineer at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering who studies the presence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in our water supply. Microbes have gained such resilience through adaptation, he adds, that "we're quickly reaching a post-antibiotic world."

Used properly, antibiotics can knock out many bacterial infections, from strep throat to urinary tract infections. But the CDC estimates that at least 30% of antibiotic prescriptions in emergency rooms, hospitals and clinics are inappropriate. They're doled out for virus-caused health issues they can't fix, such as the flu or a common cold.

Says Nanda: "What's disappointing is why this has happened—the absence of a disciplined restriction around prescribing antibiotics."

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story by Virginia Tech:

When you think of fungi, what comes to mind may be a crucial ingredient in a recipe or their amazing ability to break down dead organic matter into vital nutrients. But new research by Shuhai Xiao, a professor of geosciences with the Virginia Tech College of Science, and Tian Gan, a visiting Ph.D. student in the Xiao lab, highlights yet another important role that fungi have played throughout the Earth's history: helping the planet recover from an ice age.

A team of scientists from Virginia Tech, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guizhou Education University, and University of Cincinnati has discovered the remains of a fungi-like microfossil that emerged at the end of an ice age some 635 million years ago. It is the oldest terrestrial fossil ever found. To put it into perspective, this microfossil predates the oldest dinosaurs about three times over.

Their findings were published in Nature Communications on Jan. 28.

The fossil was found in small cavities within well-studied sedimentary dolostone rocks of the lowermost Doushantuo Formation in South China. Although the Doushantuo Formation has provided a plethora of fossils to date, researchers did not expect to find any fossils toward the lower base of the dolostones.

But against all odds, Gan found a few long, thread-like filaments—one of the key characteristics of fungi.

[...] "The question used to be: 'Were there fungi in the terrestrial realm before the rise of terrestrial plants'," said Xiao, an affiliated faculty member of the Fralin Life Sciences Institute and the Global Change Center. "And I think our study suggests yes. Our fungus-like fossil is 240 million years older than the previous record. This is, thus far, the oldest record of terrestrial fungi."

[...] However, it can't be said for sure if this fossil is a definitive fungus. Although there is a fair amount of evidence behind it, the investigation into these microfossils is ongoing.

Wikipedia entry on fungus.

Journal Reference:
Tian Gan, Taiyi Luo, Ke Pang, et al. Cryptic terrestrial fungus-like fossils of the early Ediacaran Period [open], Nature Communications (DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-20975-1)

Original Submission

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for c0lo

As early as March, the Muon g-2 experiment at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) will report a new measurement of the magnetism of the muon, a heavier, short-lived cousin of the electron. The effort entails measuring a single frequency with exquisite precision. In tantalizing results dating back to 2001, g-2 found that the muon is slightly more magnetic than theory predicts. If confirmed, the excess would signal, for the first time in decades, the existence of novel massive particles that an atom smasher might be able to produce, says Aida El-Khadra, a theorist at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. "This would be a very clear sign of new physics, so it would be a huge deal."

The measures that g-2 experimenters are taking to ensure they don't fool themselves into claiming a false discovery are the stuff of spy novels, involving locked cabinets, sealed envelopes, and a second, secret frequency known to just two people, both outside the g-2 team. "My wife won't pick me for responsible jobs like this, so I don't know why an important experiment did," says Joseph Lykken, Fermilab's chief research officer, one of the keepers of the secret.

Source: https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/01/cloak-and-dagger-tale-behind-year-s-most-anticipated-result-particle-physics

Original Submission

upstart writes in with an IRC submission:

New biosensors quickly detect coronavirus proteins and antibodies:

Scientists have created a new way to detect the proteins that make up the pandemic coronavirus, as well as antibodies against it. They designed protein-based biosensors that glow when mixed with components of the virus or specific COVID-19 antibodies. This breakthrough could enable faster and more widespread testing in the near future. The research appears in Nature.

[...] In an effort to directly detect coronavirus in patient samples without the need for genetic amplification, a team of researchers led by David Baker, professor of biochemistry and director of the Institute for Protein Design at UW Medicine, used computers to design new biosensors. These protein-based devices recognize specific molecules on the surface of the virus, bind to them, then emit light through a biochemical reaction.

[...] "We have shown in the lab that these new sensors can readily detect virus proteins or antibodies in simulated nasal fluid or donated serum, said Baker. "Our next goal is to ensure they can be used reliably in a diagnostic setting. This work illustrates the power of de novo protein design to create molecular devices from scratch with new and useful functions."

Beyond COVID-19, the team also showed that similar biosensors could be designed to detect medically relevant human proteins such as Her2 (a biomarker and therapy target for some forms of breast cancer) and Bcl-2 (which has clinical significance in lymphoma and some other cancers), as well as a bacterial toxin and antibodies that target Hepatitis B virus.

Journal Reference:
Alfredo Quijano-Rubio, Hsien-Wei Yeh, Jooyoung Park, et al. De novo design of modular and tunable protein biosensors [open], Nature (DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-03258-z)

Original Submission

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for c0lo

A team of researchers led by chemists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory has identified new details of the reaction mechanism that takes place in batteries with lithium metal anodes.

The findings, published today in Nature Nanotechnology ("Identification of LiH and nanocrystalline LiF in the solid–electrolyte interphase of lithium metal anodes"), are a major step towards developing smaller, lighter, and less expensive batteries for electric vehicles.

Scientists have long recognized the advantages of lithium metal anodes; in fact, they were the first anode to be coupled with a cathode. But due to their lack of "reversibility," the ability to be recharged through a reversible electrochemical reaction, the battery community ultimately replaced lithium metal anodes with graphite anodes, creating lithium-ion batteries.

Now, with decades of progress made, researchers are confident they can make lithium metal anodes reversible, surpassing the limits of lithium-ion batteries. The key is the interphase, a solid material layer that forms on the battery's electrode during the electrochemical reaction.

Source: https://www.nanowerk.com/nanotechnology-news2/newsid=57158.php

Journal Reference:
Zulipiya Shadike, Hongkyung Lee, Oleg Borodin, et al. Identification of LiH and nanocrystalline LiF in the solid–electrolyte interphase of lithium metal anodes, Nature Nanotechnology (DOI: 10.1038/s41565-020-00845-5)

Original Submission

upstart writes in with an IRC submission:

Doomsday Clock will stay at 100 seconds away from 'midnight' apocalypse:

Last year, the Bulletin gave the clock a pessimistic push, moving it from two minutes to midnight to a mere 100 seconds to midnight. After a disastrous 2020, the clock remains at that position.

[...] The Bulletin livestreamed its 2021 announcement on Wednesday morning. Bulletin president and CEO Rachel Bronson called out an erosion of the belief in science and the globe's lack of preparedness for the coronavirus pandemic.

"The lethal and fear-inspiring COVID-19 pandemic serves as a historic 'wake-up call,' a vivid illustration that national governments and international organizations are unprepared to manage the truly civilization-ending threats of nuclear weapons and climate change," said Bronson in a statement.

[...] The clock has been mostly inching toward doom over the last decade, but it doesn't move in only one direction. When it was first revealed, in 1947, it was set at seven minutes to midnight. At its most optimistic setting, in 1991, the clock showed 17 minutes to midnight.

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

Favicons may be used to track users:[*]

The research paper Tales of F A V I C O N S and Caches: Persistent Tracking in Modern Browsers highlights that favicons may be used in conjunction with fingerprinting techniques to track users.

Favicons are used by site to display a small site icon, e.g. in the address bar of browsers that support it but also elsewhere, e.g. in the bookmarks or tabs. Favicons are cached by the browser, but are stored independently from other cached items such as HTML files or site images.

[...] In other words: favicons persist over browsing sessions even if the user clears the cache, and they are accessible even in private browsing or Incognito mode sessions.

A single favicon is not enough to identify users based on it, but the researchers discovered a way to plant multiple favicons in the favicon cache. The site does a series of redirects through several subdomains to save multiple different favicons in the cache. Each saved favicon creates its own entry in the cache, and all of them together can be used to identify users provided that enough favicons are saved using the methodology.

[...] The researchers tested the attack against the Chromium-based browsers Google Chrome, Brave, Safari and Microsoft Edge, and found them all vulnerable to the attack. They did try the attack on Firefox but found a bug that prevented the browser from reading cached favicon entries. Once fixed, Firefox would likely be vulnerable to the attack as well.

Journal Reference:
Konstantinos Solomos, John Kristoff, Chris Kanich, Jason Polakis. Tales of FAVICONS and Caches: Persistent Tracking in Modern Browsers [FREE]. Network and Distributed Systems Security (NDSS) Symposium 202121-24 February 2020, San Diego, CA (DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.14722/ndss.2021.24202)

[*] archived copy.

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

Periodical cicadas emerge from underground in the spring of their 13th or 17th year. Fifteen US states are about to see a whole lot of them.

[...] Periodical cicadas, as they're known, spend almost their whole lives a foot or two underground, living on sap from tree roots. Then, in the spring of their 13th or 17th year, mature cicada nymphs emerge for a short adult stage, synchronously and in huge numbers. Really huge numbers.

"They may amass ... in parks, woods, neighborhoods and can seemingly be everywhere," Michigan State University entomologist Gary Parsons explained in an MSU question and answer session on the phenomenon last year. "When they are this abundant, they fly, land and crawl everywhere, including occasionally landing on humans."

[...] This spring, it'll be time for members of one of the largest broods of 17-year cicadas, known as Brood X, to burrow out from their subterranean hideouts and show off their black bodies and bold red eyes. Fifteen states will hear the romantic serenades of males in trees, trying to attract females: Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia, as well as in Washington, DC.

The return of the cicadas typically starts around mid-May and runs through late June and is, needless to say, a wild spectacle.

[...] The bugs are harmless, Parsons stresses, and typically don't come indoors, though they do gather on outside walls.

Original Submission

kc99 wrote in with a story which inspired:

FreeBSD/i386 demoted to Tier 2 for FreeBSD 13.x:

FreeBSD is designating i386 as a Tier 2 architecture starting with FreeBSD 13.0. The Project will continue to provide release images, binary updates, and pre-built packages for the 13.x branch. However, i386-specific issues (including SAs) may not be addressed in 13.x. The i386 platform will remain Tier 1 on FreeBSD 11.x and 12.x.

[...] The i386 (32-bit x86) architecture has been a substantial part of the FreeBSD Project's history and success. FreeBSD began with i386 as the only supported architecture, and the ease of availability of i386 computers was key to FreeBSD's growth and adoption. However, the computer industry and the x86 architecture have evolved over time. For at least the past decade, 64-bit x86 has been the dominant FreeBSD architecture both in terms of users and active development. The FreeBSD/i386 user base has steadily declined and is now on par with other Tier 2 architectures. As a result, the i386 architecture will be demoted to a Tier 2 architecture starting with FreeBSD 13.0.

[...] For FreeBSD 13.x, the FreeBSD project commits to providing release images, binary updates, and pre-built packages for i386. [...] The userland ABI will continue to be preserved in 13.x similar to other Tier 1 platforms.

For branches beyond 13.x (e.g. 14.x), the FreeBSD Project reserves the right to reduce the amount of [i386] support provided.

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

Based on what we know so far, hackers didn't steal as much personal data in 2020 as they did in previous years, but that doesn't mean they weren't able to make plenty of money. According to a report released Thursday by the Identity Theft Resource Center, hackers and identity thieves used stolen passwords and personal information to profit in new ways from your information.

[...] These trends show that it's currently more lucrative for criminals to find new ways to make money off previously stolen data or to carry out ransomware attacks than it is to steal loads of consumer data and try to sell it on the black market, [said] Eva Velasquez, president and CEO of the Identity Theft Resource Center. "This is not the time for complacency," she added.

[...] There are some big caveats in the numbers, however. Breaches we haven't learned about yet may crop up if, for example, we learn the SolarWinds hacks that affected hundreds of companies and government agencies led to breaches of personal information. And 2020 was hardly a banner year for curbing cybercrime. Like many of us in the pandemic, criminals hunkered down and made the best of what they had on hand in 2020.

Original Submission