SoylentNews

upstart writes:

Colour-changing magnifying glass gives clear view of infrared light:

Detecting light beyond the visible red range of our eyes is hard to do, because infrared light carries so little energy compared to ambient heat at room temperature. This obscures infrared light unless specialised detectors are chilled to very low temperatures, which is both expensive and energy-intensive.

Now researchers led by the University of Cambridge have demonstrated a new concept in detecting infrared light, showing how to convert it into visible light, which is easily detected.

In collaboration with colleagues from the UK, Spain and Belgium, the team used a single layer of molecules to absorb the mid-infrared light inside their vibrating chemical bonds. These shaking molecules can donate their energy to visible light that they encounter, ‘upconverting’ it to emissions closer to the blue end of the spectrum, which can then be detected by modern visible-light cameras.

The results, reported in the journal Science, open up new low-cost ways to sense contaminants, track cancers, check gas mixtures, and remotely sense the outer universe.

The challenge faced by the researchers was to make sure the quaking molecules met the visible light quickly enough. “This meant we had to trap light really tightly around the molecules, by squeezing it into crevices surrounded by gold,” said first author Angelos Xomalis from Cambridge’s Cavendish Laboratory.

upstart writes:

Nonverbal social interactions – even with unfriendly avatars – boost cooperation:

The study revealed that participants were more willing to cooperate with animated avatars than with static figures representing their negotiation partners. It also found -- somewhat surprisingly -- that people were more willing to accept unfair offers from unfriendly avatars than from friendly ones.

"This work is an extension of previous studies exploring how nonverbal cues influence people's perceptions of one another," said Matthew Moore, who led the research at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign with psychology professors Florin Dolcos and Sanda Dolcos. The new research was conducted at the U. of I.'s Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, where Moore was a postdoctoral fellow.

"Nonverbal interactions represent a huge part of human communication," Sanda Dolcos said. "We might not be aware of this, but much of the information that we take in is through these nonverbal channels."

Previous studies often used still photos or other static representations of people engaged in social interactions to study how people form opinions or make decisions, Florin Dolcos said.

"By animating the avatars, we're capturing interactions that are much closer to what happens in real-life situations," he said.

[...] "If we better understand the mechanisms involved, then we can better understand things like how to intervene," he said. "So, for example, if we have a goal of increasing cooperation or helping people make adaptive decisions, then we have clearer targets for our interventions."

Journal Reference:
Moore, Matthew, Katsumi, Yuta, Dolcos, Sanda, et al. Electrophysiological Correlates of Social Decision-making: An EEG Investigation of a Modified Ultimatum Game, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience (DOI: 10.1162/jocn_a_01782)

Original Submission

upstart writes:

The secret life of Tasmanian devils is hiding in their whiskers:

Scientists can peer at least nine months into a Tasmanian devil's past by studying its whiskers, a new study led by UNSW Sydney has found.

The long, wiry whiskers on these stocky marsupials hold chemical imprints from food they've eaten in the past – records that can help tell broader stories about their foraging habits, habitat use and how they respond to environmental change.

Researchers have now mapped this timescale for the first time, showing that devils' whiskers can capture seasonal dietary changes over at least nine months and potentially up to a year.

[...] Up until now, tracing a devil's culinary history with its whiskers has been a bit like using an out-of-order time machine: scientists could see the chemical records, but couldn't confirm if they were from a week, month, or year ago.

To get a clearer picture of the timeline, the UNSW-led research team fed tablets enriched in heavy stable isotopes – types of atoms that don't decay into other elements over time – to six captive devils at three-month intervals. These stable isotopes acted as timestamps, marking the whiskers with each season's passing.

When more than a year had passed, the team removed the longest whisker from each animal for analysis. They found the whiskers grew fast at first before slowing down, and that whiskers on different parts of their muzzle grew to different maximum lengths. On average, the longest whiskers held at least nine months of the animal's ecological history – but as whisker growth slows over time, the researchers suggest it's likely they can hold up to a year.

Journal Reference:
Marie R. G. Attard, Anna Lewis, Stephen Wroe, et al. Whisker growth in Tasmanian devils (Sarcophilus harrisii) and applications for stable isotope studies [open], Ecosphere (DOI: 10.1002/ecs2.3846)

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Really stupid "smart contract" bug let hackers steal $31 million in digital coin:

Blockchain startup MonoX Finance said on Wednesday that a hacker stole $31 million by exploiting a bug in software the service uses to draft smart contracts.

The company uses a decentralized finance protocol known as MonoX that lets users trade digital currency tokens without some of the requirements of traditional exchanges. "Project owners can list their tokens without the burden of capital requirements and focus on using funds for building the project instead of providing liquidity," MonoX company representatives say here. "It works by grouping deposited tokens into a virtual pair with vCASH, to offer a single token pool design."

An accounting error built into the company's software let an attacker inflate the price of the MONO token and to then use it to cash out all the other deposited tokens, MonoX Finance revealed in a post. The haul amounted to $31 million worth of tokens on the Ethereum or Polygon blockchains, both of which are supported by the MonoX protocol.

Specifically, the hack used the same token as both the tokenIn and tokenOut, which are methods for exchanging the value of one token for another. MonoX updates prices after each swap by calculating new prices for both tokens. When the swap is completed, the price of tokenIn—that is, the token sent by the user—decreases and the price of tokenOut—or the token received by the user—increases.

By using the same token for both tokenIn and tokenOut, the hacker greatly inflated the price of the MONO token because the updating of the tokenOut overwrote the price update of the tokenIn. The hacker then exchanged the token for $31 million worth of tokens on the Ethereum and Polygon blockchains.

Original Submission

Freeman writes:

Lawsuit: Google employees were fired for upholding “Don’t be evil” code:

Three former Google software engineers who sued the company yesterday claim they were fired for following Google's famous "Don't be evil" mantra.

"Google terminated each plaintiffs' employment with it for adhering to the directive 'Don't be evil' and calling out activity by Google that they each believed betrayed that directive," according to the complaint filed in Santa Clara County Superior Court by Rebecca Rivers, Sophie Waldman, and Paul Duke. The ex-employees say Google falsely blamed them for a data leak after they circulated an internal petition.

The lawsuit notes that the Google Code of Conduct "that each full-time Google employee is required to sign as a condition of employment" specifically instructs them not to be evil. The ex-employees say they tried to uphold the "Don't be evil" policy in August 2019 by circulating a petition "requesting that Google affirm that it would not collaborate with CBP [US Customs and Border Protection] or ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] with respect to enforcement of the Trump border control policies."

"[E]ach plaintiff protested Google's engagement in supporting BCP policies that resulted in separation of families and 'caging' of immigrants who were seeking asylum in the United States," the complaint said.

Google's firings of Rivers, Waldman, and Duke are also part of an ongoing case in which the National Labor Relations Board filed a complaint against Google.

Previously:
(2018-10-13) Google Leak: The Good Censor
(2018-09-14) "Senior Google Scientist" Resigns over Chinese Search Engine Censorship Project
(2018-05-19) "Don't be Evil" Disappearing From Google's Code of Conduct

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Omicron is now in the U.S., with first case found in California:

The first U.S. case of the omicron variant has been identified in California in a traveler who returned from South Africa on Nov. 22, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday.

The patient had mild symptoms that were improving and was in isolation, officials said.

Much remains unknown about the highly mutated variant, which scientists fear could be more transmissible and more resistant to vaccines. The new variant has been identified in more than 20 countries since it was first identified in southern Africa last week.

[...] Federal health officials are expanding a program that offers free coronavirus testing at key U.S. airports, part of strengthened efforts to monitor international arrivals amid growing concerns about the omicron variant.

Under the program, visitors from eight African nations, including those connecting through Europe, who arrive at New York’s John F. Kennedy International, Newark Liberty International, San Francisco International and Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International airports, will be given the option of taking a test when they arrive. Those who volunteer also will be given the option of an at-home test to take three to five days after arrival.

International arrivals already are required to show proof of a negative virus test before boarding U.S.-bound flights, but Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky said during a White House briefing this week that the screening program at four of the nation’s busiest airports will provide additional data that can aid in the agency’s monitoring efforts.

First case of omicron COVID variant identified in the US:

The first confirmed US case of the omicron variant of COVID-19 has been identified in California, Dr. Anthony Fauci said in a White House briefing Wednesday. The infected person arrived in the US from South Africa on Nov. 22 and tested positive on Nov. 29, Fauci said.

upstart writes:

“Exercise in a pill” could offer solution for at-risk people:

Researchers from The Australian National University (ANU) have identified unique molecular signals in the body that could hold the key to developing a supplement capable of administering the health benefits of exercise to patients incapable of physical activity.

The molecular messages are sent to our brain and potentially our eyes immediately after we exercise.

The ANU team is conducting research to better understand what impact these molecular messages have on retinal health, but also the central nervous system and eye diseases such as age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

Associate Professor Riccardo Natoli, Head of Clear Vision Research at ANU, says the molecules could potentially be hijacked, recoded and "bottled up" in a pill and taken like a vitamin.

"The beneficial messages being sent to the central nervous system during exercise are packaged up in what are known as lipid particles. We are essentially prescribing the molecular message of exercise to those who physically aren't able to," he said.

"We think that as you age, the ability to communicate between the muscles and the retina starts to be lost. Similar to taking supplements, maybe we can provide genetic or molecular supplementation that enables that natural biological process to continue as we age.

"Our goal is to figure out what these molecules are communicating to the body and how they're communicating."

Journal Reference:
Joshua A. Chu-Tan, Max Kirkby, Riccardo Natoli. Running to save sight: The effects of exercise on retinal health and function, Clinical & Experimental Ophthalmology (DOI: 10.1111/ceo.14023)

Original Submission

Freeman writes:

Judge blocks Biden vaccine rule, citing “liberty interests of the unvaccinated”

A federal judge yesterday blocked a Biden administration COVID-19 vaccine mandate for health care workers, granting a request for preliminary injunction filed by Republican attorneys general from 14 states.

US District Judge Terry Doughty ruled that the government lacks authority to implement the rule that "requires the staff of twenty-one types of Medicare and Medicaid healthcare providers to receive one vaccine by December 6, 2021, and to receive the second vaccine by January 4, 2022." Providers that don't comply face penalties, including "termination of the Medicare/Medicaid Provider Agreement."

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) mandate regulates over 10.3 million health care workers in the US, of which 2.4 million are unvaccinated. The Biden vaccine rule is being challenged by the attorneys general from Louisiana, Montana, Arizona, Alabama, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Utah, West Virginia, Kentucky, and Ohio. The Republican AGs' lawsuit was filed against CMS and the US Department of Health and Human Services.

The preliminary injunction they won applies nationwide except for 10 states that "are already under a preliminary injunction order dated November 29, 2021, issued by the Eastern District of Missouri," a court order said. Those states are Alaska, Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, New Hampshire, Nebraska, Wyoming, North Dakota, and South Dakota.

What states did not participate in this lawsuit and were not covered by the earlier preliminary injunction — i.e. got swept into this decision?

California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District Of Columbia, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Supersonic Projectile Exceeds Engineers Dreams: The Supersonic Trebuchet:

The trebuchet is a type of catapult that was popular for use as a siege engine before gunpowder became a thing. Trebuchets use a long arm to throw projectiles farther than traditional catapults. The focus has typically been on increasing throwing distance for the size of the projectile, or vice versa. But of course you're here to read about the other thing that trebuchets can be used for: speed.

How fast is fast? How about a whip-cracking, sonic-booming speed in excess of 450 meters [~1480 feet] per second! How'd he do it? Mostly wood and rubber [bands] with some metal bits thrown in for safety's sake. [David]'s video explains in full all of the engineering that went into his trebuchet, and it's a lot less than you'd think. There's a very satisfying montage of full power trebuchet launches that make it audibly clear that the projectile being thrown is going well past the speed of sound, with a report quite similar to that of a small rifle.

Link to 15m45s YouTube video with demo near the end.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Ubiquitous food additive alters human microbiota and intestinal environment:

Carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) is a synthetic member of a widely used class of food additives, termed emulsifiers, which are added to many processed foods to enhance texture and promote shelf life. CMC has not been extensively tested in humans but has been increasingly used in processed foods since the 1960s. It had long been assumed that CMC was safe to ingest because it is eliminated in the feces without being absorbed. However, increasing appreciation of the health benefits provided by bacteria that normally live in the colon, and thus would interact with non-absorbed additives, has led scientists to challenge this assumption. Experiments in mice found that CMC, and some other emulsifiers, altered gut bacteria resulting in more severe disease in a range of chronic inflammatory conditions, including colitis, metabolic syndrome and colon cancer. However, the extent to which such results are applicable to humans had not been previously investigated.

The team performed a randomized controlled-feeding study in healthy volunteers. Participants, housed at the study site, consumed an additive-free diet or an identical diet supplemented with carboxymethylcellulose (CMC). Because the diseases CMC promotes in mice take years to arise in humans, the researchers focused here on intestinal bacteria and metabolites. They found that CMC consumption changed the make-up of bacteria populating the colon, reducing select species. Furthermore, fecal samples from CMC-treated participants displayed a stark depletion of beneficial metabolites that are thought to normally maintain a healthy colon.

Lastly, the researchers performed colonoscopies on subjects at the beginning and end of the study and noticed that a subset of subjects consuming CMC displayed gut bacteria encroaching into the mucus, which has previously been observed to be a feature of inflammatory bowel diseases and type 2 diabetes. Thus, while CMC consumption did not result in any disease per se in this two week study, collectively the results support the conclusions of animal studies that long-term consumption of this additive might promote chronic inflammatory diseases. Therefore, further studies of this additive are warranted.

Journal Reference:
Benoit Chassaing, et. al. Randomized controlled-feeding study of dietary emulsifier carboxymethylcellulose reveals detrimental impacts on the gut microbiota and metabolome. Gastroenterology, 2021; (DOI: 10.1053/j.gastro.2021.11.006)

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

More funding will be provided to organisations focusing on mission development activities for current and existing space projects under Australia's Moon to Mars initiative.

More federal government grants for space technology initiatives are on the way, according to Minister for Science and Technology Melissa Price, who on Tuesday announced a second round of grants for the Demonstrator Program under the Moon to Mars initiative.

The Demonstrator Program provides funding to Australian industry and research institutions focusing on mission development activities for current and existing space projects. The objectives of the program are to support Australia's ambitions to join NASA's endeavour to go to the Moon and then Mars and accelerate the growth of Australia's space industry.

For this round of grants, organisations will be able to apply for "mission grants" of between AU$750,000 and AU$10 million from a total AU$41 million grant pool.

[...] Beyond the Demonstrator Program, the Moon to Mars initiative also recently launched its flagship Trailblazer program, which entails the Australian government working with NASA to create an Australian-built semi-autonomous rover that will be used in future missions to the moon and Mars.

The federal government said last month that the Trailblazer rover is expected to be capable of operating on the moon, provide lunar regolith to a NASA payload with a "high level of autonomy", and weigh 20kg or less. It also said at the time that the rover could be launched into space as early as 2026.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Synthetic tissue can repair hearts, muscles, and vocal cords:

"People recovering from heart damage often face a long and tricky journey. Healing is challenging because of the constant movement tissues must withstand as the heart beats. The same is true for vocal cords. Until now there was no injectable material strong enough for the job," says Guangyu Bao, a PhD candidate in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at McGill University.

The team, led by Professor Luc Mongeau and Assistant Professor Jianyu Li, developed a new injectable hydrogel for wound repair. The hydrogel is a type of biomaterial that provides room for cells to live and grow. Once injected into the body, the biomaterial forms a stable, porous structure allowing live cells to grow or pass through to repair the injured organs.

"The results are promising, and we hope that one day the new hydrogel will be used as an implant to restore the voice of people with damaged vocal cords, for example laryngeal cancer survivors," says Guangyu Bao.

The scientists tested the durability of their hydrogel in a machine they developed to simulate the extreme biomechanics of human vocal cords. Vibrating at 120 times a second for over 6 million cycles, the new biomaterial remained intact while other standard hydrogels fractured into pieces, unable to deal with the stress of the load.

Journal Reference:
Sareh Taheri, Guangyu Bao, Zixin He, et al. Injectable, Pore‐Forming, Perfusable Double‐Network Hydrogels Resilient to Extreme Biomechanical Stimulations [open], Advanced Science (DOI: 10.1002/advs.202102627)

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

An international team of astronomers has conducted radio observations of a bow shock in the X-ray binary Vela X-1 using MeerKAT telescope. The observational campaign resulted in the detection of radio emission from this source. The finding is detailed in a paper published November 19 on arXiv.org.

Vela X-1 is a runaway high-mass X-ray binary (HMXB) system, consisting of an accreting neutron star and the supergiant donor HD 77581 in a tight 9-day orbit. HD 77581 launches a strong stellar wind that causes a bow shock as it interacts with the interstellar medium. This makes Vela X-1 one of only two HMXBs known to experience a bow shock.

To date, the bow shock in Vela X-1 has been detected only by narrow-band hydrogen-alpha imaging and by infrared observations. However, now a group of astronomers led by Jacob van den Eijnden of University of Oxford, UK, reports the radio detection of this feature. The discovery was made as part of the ThunderKAT Large Survey Project with MeerKAT, which is aimed at performing radio observations of active, Southern X-ray binaries, cataclysmic variables, supernovae, and gamma-ray bursts.

Journal Reference:
Eijnden, J. van den, Heywood, I., Fender, R., et al. MeerKAT discovery of radio emission from the Vela X-1 bow shock, (DOI: https://arxiv.org/abs/2111.10159)

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Biomedical engineers find neural activity during rest is highly organized:

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — When mice rest, individual neurons fire in seconds-long, coordinated cascades, triggering activity across the brain, according to research from Penn State and the National Institutes of Health. Previously, this was thought to be a relatively random process — single neurons firing spontaneously at random times without external stimulations.

The finding, published Nov. 18 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, was made in rodents, but may have implications for better understanding neural activity in humans — especially in elucidating cognitive decline, according to first author Xiao Liu, assistant professor of biomedical engineering and faculty co-hire in the Institute of Computational and Data Sciences.

During rest, the brain appears to restore itself: the hippocampus consolidates memories, while cerebrospinal fluid washes through neural tissue, refreshing the mind. The mechanisms of the apparent tidying and cleaning are not well understood, however.

“Single neurons fire in a highly organized manner as seconds-long cascade events in the resting state,” Liu said. “It’s not random noise. We expected to find neurons firing with some organization during the resting state, but we didn’t expect such a highly organized pattern of activity with the involvement of so many neurons.”

The researchers analyzed a public dataset collected by the Allen Institute. Allen Institute scientists recorded neuronal “spikes” — electrical impulses to transmit information across the brain — of hundreds of neurons in resting and active rodents. They also measured pupil changes and body movements. Overall, Penn State researchers focused their analyses on the individual dynamics of about 10,000 neurons from 44 different brain regions in 14 rodents.

upstart writes:

Elon Musk confirms he's worried SpaceX could go bankrupt:

Elon Musk said Tuesday via Twitter that his spacecraft company, SpaceX, needs to produce a lot more of its next-generation Starship engines, and soon, to keep growing its Starlink broadband constellation and stay in business.

"If a severe global recession were to dry up capital availability / liquidity while SpaceX was losing billions on Starlink (and) Starship, then bankruptcy, while still unlikely, is not impossible," he tweeted.

The statement came in response to a leaked email that Musk reportedly sent to employees over the long Thanksgiving holiday in the US asking for "all hands on deck."

[...] "The consequences for SpaceX if we can not get enough reliable Raptors made is that we then can't fly Starship, which means we then can't fly Starlink Satellite V2. Satellite V1, by itself, is financially weak, while V2 is strong," reads the email, which was first obtained by SpaceExplored.

SpaceX and Musk didn't directly confirm the veracity of the leaked email to CNET, but when asked by a Twitter user on Tuesday morning "(how is) the Raptor thing going?" Musk responded briefly "It's getting fixed."