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takyon writes:

Russians beat Tom Cruise as first to film a movie in space, despite docking drama

The International Space Station is now a film set, and it served as the stage for a little extra drama Tuesday morning.

Veteran Russian cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov, actor Yulia Peresild and film producer Klim Shipenko traveled to the International Space Station on Tuesday. Peresild and Shipenko will be filming segments for the movie "Challenge" -- the first feature film shot in space. The movie will tell the story of a surgeon who has to operate on a sick cosmonaut in space because his medical condition prevents him from returning to Earth to be treated.

The three space travelers blasted off on board a Soyuz MS-19 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 4:55 a.m. ET on Tuesday. The speedy Soyuz delivered them to the space station around 8:22 a.m. ET, despite unexpected communications issues that led to Shkaplerov taking manual control of the spacecraft to complete docking with the space station. This added about 10 minutes to the expected docking time.

The Challenge (2022 film).

Also at BBC.

Related: Filming an Action Movie on the Space Station?

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upstart writes:

Seahorses are terrible swimmers but great predators:

Seahorses are fish that possess unique properties such as male pregnancy, square tail vertebrae, and, of course, a unique eating system. For most of the day, seahorses are anchored with their tail to seaweeds or corals with their head tilted downward, close to their body. However, when they detect prey passing over them, they lift their head at incredible speed and catch it. According to Prof. Holzman, while preying, seahorses turn their body into a kind of spring: Using their back muscles, they stretch an elastic tendon, and use their neck bones as a "trigger," just like a crossbow. The result is faster than even the fastest muscle contraction found anywhere in the animal world.

However, until now, it was not clear how the spring-loaded mechanism enabled seahorses to eat. Just [ask] anyone who tries to remove a fly from a cup of tea knows, water is a viscous medium and the fish needs to open its mouth to create a flow that draws the prey in. But how do seahorses coordinate snagging in prey with their head movement?

[...] [The] researchers [...] [photographed] their attack at a speed of 4,000 images per second, and using a laser system for imaging water flows. This measurement showed that the 'crossbow' system serves two purposes: facilitating head movement and generating high velocity suction currents—10 times faster than those of similar-sized fish.

Journal Reference:
Avidan, Corrine, Holzman, Roi. Elastic energy storage in seahorses leads to a unique suction flow dynamics compared with other actinopterygians [open], Journal of Experimental Biology (DOI: 10.1242/jeb.236430)

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takyon writes:

Francis Collins to step down as NIH director

National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins plans to announce his resignation on Tuesday after nearly three decades at the agency, including 12 years at the helm, three sources tell POLITICO.

The 71-year-old physician-geneticist led the agency under three consecutive presidents — making him the first presidentially appointed NIH director to serve in more than one administration and the longest-serving NIH director.

His departure had been in the works for some time, one person familiar said. Officials from NIH, the Department of Health and Human Services and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Previously: NIH Won't Fund Human Germline Modification
Francis Collins Retains Position as Director of the National Institutes of Health
The Era of Biomedical Research on Chimpanzees in the United States is Effectively Over
2017: Gene Therapy's Milestone Year

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takyon writes:

Android 12 Now Available From The Android Open-Source Project

The Android 12 sources have been pushed out to AOSP in officially releasing this newest version of Android. Android 12 features a new user-interface with redesigned widgets and other graphical enhancements, more efficient system performance, more responsive notifications, faster machine learning performance, various privacy enhancements, AVIF image support, a variety of new developer APIs, and many other enhancements throughout the mobile stack.

Android Developers Blog and Ars Technica.

Also at Wccftech.

See also: Android 12 review: it's mostly about the looks

Original Submission

Researchers measure the breakup of a single chemical bond:

Using advanced microscopy techniques at Princeton University, researchers have recorded the breaking of a single chemical bond between a carbon atom and an iron atom on different molecules.

The team used a high-resolution atomic force microscope (AFM) operating in a controlled environment at Princeton's Imaging and Analysis Center. The AFM probe, whose tip ends in a single copper atom, was moved gradually closer to the iron-carbon bond until it was ruptured. The researchers measured the mechanical forces applied at the moment of breakage, which was visible in an image captured by the microscope. A team from Princeton University, the University of Texas-Austin and ExxonMobil reported the results in a paper published Sept. 24 in Nature Communications.

"It's an incredible image — being able to actually see a single small molecule on a surface with another one bonded to it is amazing," said coauthor Craig Arnold, the Susan Dod Brown Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and director of the Princeton Institute for the Science and Technology of Materials (PRISM).

upstart writes:

When blood pressure needs more control, what’s better: An additional drug or more of the same? Study in veterans shows importance of personalizing the approach to intensifying treatment in sustainable ways:

In a look back at data from nearly 179,000 veterans over age 65 who received treatment over two years at VA hospitals nationwide, researchers find that patients have a better chance of sticking to their medication regimen if their doctor maximizes the dosage of one of the drugs they're already taking. They also found that both strategies decrease blood pressure, but adding a new medication has a very slim advantage over increasing the dose of an existing medication, despite some of the patients being unable to stay on the new medication.

In the end, the researchers say, the new findings could add to discussions between physicians and patients whose blood pressure remains elevated despite starting medication treatment.

The findings [...] focus on patients whose initial systolic blood pressure was above 130 mm Hg.

By looking back at VA and Medicare data, the researchers were able to see patterns in treatment and blood pressure readings over time, in a kind of natural experiment. All the patients were taking at least one blood pressure medication at less than the maximum dose and had a treatment intensification at the start of the study period, indicating that their physicians thought they needed more intense treatment.

Because intensification of blood pressure treatment can come with risks -- whether a drug interaction if a new drug is added, or an electrolyte imbalance with high doses, or fainting and falling if a person's pressure gets too low -- such decisions must be carefully made.

Journal Reference:
Carole E. Aubert, Jeremy B. Sussman, Timothy P. Hofer, et al. Adding a New Medication Versus Maximizing Dose to Intensify Hypertension Treatment in Older Adults, Annals of Internal Medicine (DOI: 10.7326/M21-1456)

Original Submission

upstart writes:

One in 10 People Frequently Experience Abdominal Pain When They Eat Meals:

Around 11% of the global population (13% of women and 9% of men) frequently experience abdominal pain when they eat meals, according to a survey on over 50,000 people. The research is being presented for the first time today at UEG Week Virtual 2021.[1]

Pain associated with eating appears to be most common in young people aged 18 to 28, with 15% affected, the research found.

Those who experienced frequent abdominal meal-related pain were also more likely to suffer from bloating, a swollen tummy, feeling too full after eating or feeling full up too quickly, constipation and diarrhoea. The same group also had more severe psychological distress and somatic symptoms (that were not gastrointestinal).

A total of 36% of the people with frequent meal-related pain reported suffered from anxiety compared with 25% in the occasional symptoms group and 18 % in those who never experienced meal-related pain. Those with frequent attacks also reported higher rates of depression (35%) compared to 24% in the occasional symptom group and 17% in the group that never had meal-related pain.

Based on the Rome Foundation Global Epidemiology study, the findings were a result of surveying 54,127 people across 26 countries online.

AnonTechie writes:

David Julius, Ardem Patapoutian win 2021 Nobel Prize in Medicine for discoveries of receptors for temperature and touch:

David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian jointly won the 2021 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for their discoveries of receptors for temperature and touch. The first of the 2021 Nobel Prizes kicked off the week of announcements of the most coveted award.

"Our ability to sense heat, cold and touch is essential for survival and underpins our interaction with the world around us. In our daily lives we take these sensations for granted, but how are nerve impulses initiated so that temperature and pressure can be perceived? This question has been solved by this year's Nobel Prize laureates," the Nobel Assembly said.

David Julius of the University of California utilised capsaicin, a pungent compound from chili peppers that induces a burning sensation, to identify a sensor in the nerve endings of the skin that responds to heat. Ardem Patapoutian, who is with Howard Hughes Medical Institute at Scripps Research, used pressure-sensitive cells to discover a novel class of sensors that respond to mechanical stimuli in the skin and internal organs.

Also at: BBC News Services.

[Source]: The Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute

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takyon writes:

SpaceX snags launch contract from Arianespace after Vega rocket fails twice

In a rare victory for international launch competition, SpaceX has snagged a contract to launch an Italian Earth observation satellite from European launch monopoly and political heavyweight Arianespace.

After spending the better part of a decade with its head in the sand as SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket rapidly came to dominate the global launch market, Arianespace has become increasingly reliant on its ability to entice politicians into forcing European Union member states to launch any and all domestic satellites and spacecraft on its Ariane 5, Ariane 6, and Vega rockets. Save for a few halting, lethargic technology development programs that have yet to bear any actionable fruit, the company – heavily subsidized by European governments – has almost completely failed to approach head-on the threat posed by SpaceX by prioritizing the development of rockets that can actually compete with Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy on cost and performance.

[...] A recent development offers the best look yet at what many European space agencies likely suffer through as a consequence of their governments signing away access to an increasingly competitive launch industry – often seemingly in return for Arianespace selecting contractors or (re)locating development hubs or factories in certain countries. Notably, sometime in September 2021, the Italian Space Agency (ASI) confirmed signs that it was moving the launch of its COSMO SkyMed CSG-2 Earth observation satellite from a new Arianespace rocket to SpaceX's Falcon 9.

Facebook's new whistleblower is renewing scrutiny of the social media giant

takyon writes:

The leaker came forward:

Facebook Whistleblower Frances Haugen: The 60 Minutes Interview (13m36s video)

Facebook's new whistleblower is renewing scrutiny of the social media giant

A data scientist named Frances Haugen has revealed herself to be the whistleblower behind a massive exposure of the inner workings at Facebook.

Prior to appearing on 60 Minutes on Sunday, Haugen, a former employee at the social media giant, kept her identity a secret after sharing thousands of pages of internal Facebook documents to the media and federal law enforcement.

[...] Haugen's document dump, her testimony scheduled in front of Congress this week, and an ongoing investigative reporting series into the company are potentially pushing Facebook into its biggest crisis yet. The negative spotlight also comes as Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill are increasingly scrutinizing Facebook's actions.

The Facebook Files

takyon writes:

The Facebook Files

upstart writes:

What Happened to Facebook, Instagram, & WhatsApp?:

Facebook and its sister properties Instagram and WhatsApp are suffering from ongoing, global outages. We don't yet know why this happened, but the how is clear: Earlier this morning, something inside Facebook caused the company to revoke key digital records that tell computers and other Internet-enabled devices how to find these destinations online.

Doug Madory is director of internet analysis at Kentik, a San Francisco-based network monitoring company. Madory said at approximately 11:39 a.m. ET today (15:39 UTC), someone at Facebook caused an update to be made to the company's Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) records. BGP is a mechanism by which Internet service providers of the world share information about which providers are responsible for routing Internet traffic to which specific groups of Internet addresses.

In simpler terms, sometime this morning Facebook took away the map telling the world's computers how to find its various online properties. As a result, when one types Facebook.com into a web browser, the browser has no idea where to find Facebook.com, and so returns an error page.

In addition to stranding billions of users, the Facebook outage also has stranded its employees from communicating with one another using their internal Facebook tools. That's because Facebook's email and tools are all managed in house and via the same domains that are now stranded.

[...] This is a developing story and will likely be updated throughout the day.

Also at: C|Net and Ars Technica.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Google Lens is coming to desktop Chrome, will soon handle text+image search

Google Lens, Google's computer vision search engine, is coming to desktop Chrome. Google didn't exactly share a timeline, but a teaser tweet showed what the feature will look like.

On desktop Chrome, you'll soon be able to right-click an image and pick "Search with Google Lens," which will dim the page and bring up a clipping tool so you can throw a certain image to Google's photo AI. After a round-trip to the Internet, a sidebar will pop up showing several results.

While Google.com's image search just tries to find similar pictures, Lens can actually identify things in a picture, like people, text, math equations, animals, landmarks, products, and more. It can translate text through the camera and even copy text from the real world (with OCR) and paste it into an app. The feature has existed on Android and iOS for a while, first as a camera-driven search that brought up a live viewfinder, then in Google Photos, and more recently as a long-press option for web pictures in Chrome for Android.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Scientists Find Protein That Indicates Whether Emotional Memories Can Be Changed or Forgotten:

Researchers have discovered that a particular protein can be used as a brain marker to indicate whether emotional memories can be changed or forgotten. This is a study in animals, but the researchers hope that the findings will eventually allow people suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) to return to leading a more balanced life. This work is presented at the ECNP Conference in Lisbon.

Scientists know that long-term memories can broadly be divided into two types: fact-based memory, where we can recall such things as names, places, events, etc., and a sort of instinctive memory where we remember such things as emotions and skills. Scientists have come to believe that these emotional memories can be modified, so perhaps allowing the trauma underlying PTSD to be treated. In 2004 some ground-breaking work by scientists in New York[1] showed that if animals were treated with the beta-blocker propranolol, this allowed them to forget a learned trauma. However, the results have sometimes been difficult to reproduce, leading to doubts about whether the memories were modifiable at all.

Now scientists at Cambridge University have shown that the presence of a particular protein – the "shank" protein, which acts as a scaffold for the receptors that determine the strength of connections between neurons – determines whether the memories can be modified in animals treated with propranolol. If this protein is degraded, then memories become modifiable.[2] However, if this protein is found to be present, then this shows that the memories were not degradable, so explaining why propranolol does not always produce amnesia.

Journal Reference:
Synaptic Protein Degradation Underlies Destabilization of Retrieved Fear Memory, Science (DOI: 10.1126/science.1150541)

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Apple’s fortress of secrecy is crumbling from the inside:

Apple’s remote work struggle is emblematic of a deeper shift taking place inside the company. Since 1976, the tech giant has operated in largely the same way: executives make decisions about how the company will function, and employees either fall in line or leave. What choice do they have? Apple is currently worth $2 trillion, making it the most valuable company in the world, as well as one of the most powerful.

Over the past few months, however, that culture has started to erode. As workers across the tech industry advocate for more power, Apple’s top-down management seems more out of touch than ever before. Now, a growing number of employees are organizing internally for change and speaking out about working conditions on Twitter.

“There’s a shift in the balance of power going on here,” says Jason Snell, the former editor of Macworld, who’s been covering Apple since the 1990s. “Not everyone is afraid that their boss at Apple is going to fire them. They’re saying, ‘I’m going to say some bad things about Apple, and if you move against me, it’s going to look bad for you.’”

The shift is due in part to the fact that the tech giant is two years into a radical new experiment: using Slack. Where Apple employees previously worked in ultra-siloed teams with little opportunity to meet people outside their current project or department, they now have a way to communicate with anyone across the company. Employees have discovered that individual work grievances are shared by people in entirely different parts of Apple.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Amateur Astronomy Is Thriving on Social Media:

Schricker is one of many amateur astronomers to embrace the dazzling hobby in the past two years, as home-bound stargazers sought to put their free time to use peering deep into the universe. Access has gotten easier, as the cost of the (still quite expensive) equipment has become more reasonable, and the technology has made the complex process of capturing images of the stars easier.

[...] Schricker acknowledges that all these hours spent aiming his equipment at unfathomably large and distant clusters of stars has a way of making a person feel pretty small, even insignificant. He is not the first and won’t be the last astronomer to experience this sensation. But he embraces it. Deep space has a way of putting all our earthly problems—like, say, the global pandemic that pushed him toward this hobby in the first place—in perspective.

“I get a lot of people telling me they look at my pictures and it gives them like an existential crisis. But for me, it’s actually helpful to remember that I’m just not that important, that you’re just this blip on a speck of dust,” he says, channeling Carl Sagan, who famously called the Earth “a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.” He continues “We get so worried about all these things, that we have all these anxieties, and it’s like, you need to stop and remember that you’re really small, and really precious.”

Original Submission