SoylentNews

upstart writes:

Concerned about SpaceX, France to accelerate reusable rocket plans:

On Monday French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire announced a plan for Europe to compete more effectively with SpaceX by developing a reusable rocket on a more rapid timeline.

"For the first time Europe ... will have access to a reusable launcher," Le Maire said, according to Reuters. "In other words, we will have our SpaceX, we will have our Falcon 9. We will make up for a bad strategic choice made 10 years ago."

The new plan calls for the large, France-based rocket firm ArianeGroup to develop a new small-lift rocket called Maïa by the year 2026. This is four years ahead of a timeline previously set by the European Space Agency for the development of a significantly larger, reusable rocket.

Although the technical details are sparse, Maïa will not be Europe's "Falcon 9." It will have a lift capacity of up to 1 metric ton to low Earth orbit and be powered by a reusable Prometheus rocket engine, which is fueled by methane and liquid oxygen. This engine, which remains in the preliminary stages of development, has a thrust comparable to a single Merlin 1D rocket engine, which powers SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket. But since there are nine engines on the SpaceX rocket, it can lift more than 15 times as much as the proposed Maïa in fully reusable mode.

A day late and a dollar short.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Gene discoveries give new hope to people who stutter:

There is no known cure, and existing treatments are often minimally effective. Yet for those with persistent, developmental stuttering, there is new hope, thanks to groundbreaking research led by scientists at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee, and Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan.

In two papers published this week, Jennifer "Piper" Below, PhD, and Shelly Jo Kraft, PhD, describe a "genetic architecture" for developmental stuttering and report the discovery of new genetic variations associated with the condition.

The researchers said that these findings, which were published in The American Journal of Human Genetics and Human Genetics and Genomics Advances, and studies like them have the potential to identify therapeutic directions that could improve outcomes for people who stutter.

"It's clear that in populations, stuttering is polygenic, meaning that there are multiple different genetic factors contributing to and protecting people from risk," said Below, associate professor of Medicine at VUMC. "That was something that had not been clearly shown before these studies."

[...] "It's a piece of themselves that they can then understand," she said, "instead of living a lifetime of experiencing this difference in their speech and never knowing why."

Journal Reference:
Douglas M. Shaw, Hannah P. Polikowsky, Dillon G. Pruett, et al. Phenome risk classification enables phenotypic imputation and gene discovery in developmental stuttering. The American Journal of Human Genetics, 2021; 108 (12): 2271 DOI: 10.1016/j.ajhg.2021.11.004

Original Submission

upstart writes:

New type of earthquake discovered:

To date, researchers have explained the occurrence of earthquakes in the hydraulic-fracturing process with two processes. The first says that the fluid pumped into the rock generates a pressure increase substantial enough to generate a new network of fractures in the subsurface rocks near the well. As a result, the pressure increase can be large enough to unclamp existing faults and trigger an earthquake. According to the second process, the fluid pressure increase from injection in the subsurface also exerts elastic stress changes on the surrounding rocks that can be transmitted over longer distances. If the stress changes occur in rocks where faults exist, it can also lead to changes that cause the fault to slip and cause an earthquake.

Recently, numerical models and lab analyses have predicted a process on faults near injection wells that has been observed elsewhere on tectonic faults. The process, termed aseismic slip, starts out as slow slip that does not release any seismic energy. The slow slip can also cause a stress change on nearby faults that causes them slip rapidly and lead to an earthquake. The lack of seismic energy from aseismic slip and the size of the faults involved make it difficult to observe in nature. Researchers have therefore not yet been able to document aseismic slip broadly with any association to induced earthquakes. The work of the current study, provides indirect evidence of aseismic loading, and a transition from aseismic to seismic slip.

The German-Canadian research team interpret the recently discovered slow earthquakes as an intermediate form of conventional earthquake and aseismic slip - and thus as indirect evidence that aseismic slip can also occur in the vicinity of wells. The researchers therefore dubbed the events hybrid-frequency waveform earthquakes (EHW).

Journal Reference:
Hongyu Yu, Rebecca M. Harrington, Honn Kao , et al. Fluid-injection-induced earthquakes characterized by hybrid-frequency waveforms manifest the transition from aseismic to seismic slip [open], Nature Communications (DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-26961-x)

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Imagination introduces Catapult RISC-V CPU cores

As expected, Imagination Technologies is giving another try to the CPU IP market with the Catapult RISC-V CPU cores following their previous unsuccessful attempt with the MIPS architecture, notably the Aptiv family.

Catapult RISC-V CPUs are/will be available in four distinct families for dynamic microcontrollers, real-time embedded CPUs, high-performance application CPUs, and functionally safe automotive CPUs.

The new 32-/64-bit RISC-V cores will be scalable to up to eight asymmetric coherent cores-per cluster, offer a "plethora of customer configurable options", and support optional custom accelerators. What you won't see today are block diagrams and detailed technical information about the cores because apparently, all that information is confidential even though some Catapult RISC-V cores are already shipping "in high-performance Imagination automotive GPUs". The only way to get more details today is to sign an NDA.

Also at AnandTech and Phoronix.

Previously: Imagination Announces B-Series GPU IP: Scaling up with Multi-GPU
Imagination Technologies Plans to Design RISC-V Cores

Related: Innosilicon Graphics Cards Based on "Fantasy One" GPU Feature Up to 32GB GDDR6X Memory

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Iron integral to the development of life on Earth and the possibility of life on other planets:

Iron is an essential nutrient that almost all life requires to grow and thrive. Iron's importance goes all the way back to the formation of the planet Earth, where the amount of iron in the Earth's rocky mantle was 'set' by the conditions under which the planet formed and went on to have major ramifications for how life developed. .

[...] "The initial amount of iron in Earth's rocks is 'set' by the conditions of planetary accretion, during which the Earth's metallic core segregated from its rocky mantle," says co-author Jon Wade, Associate Professor of Planetary Materials at the Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford. "Too little iron in the rocky portion of the planet, like the planet Mercury, and life is unlikely. Too much, like Mars, and water may be difficult to keep on the surface for times relevant to the evolution of complex life."

Initially, iron conditions on Earth would have been optimal to ensure surface retention of water. Iron would have also been soluble in sea water, making it easily available to give simple life forms a jumpstart in development. However, oxygen levels on Earth began to rise approximately 2.4 billion years ago (referred to as the "Great Oxygenation Event'). An increase in oxygen created a reaction with iron, which led to it becoming insoluble. Gigatons of iron dropped out of sea water, where it was much less available to developing life forms.

upstart writes:

World's second tallest building tops out in Malaysia:

The spire of a soaring 118-story skyscraper has topped out at over 2,227 feet above Malaysia's capital, Kuala Lumpur.

Set to become the world's second tallest building upon its completion next year, Merdeka 118 now stands higher than China's 2,073-foot Shanghai Tower and is dwarfed only by the Burj Khalifa[*] in Dubai.

"This is not only a great achievement in the field of engineering," he told reporters . "But it also further strengthens Malaysia's position as a modern and developed country."

Comprising 3.1 million square feet of floor space, more than half of which will be offered as offices, the tower will also house a mall, a mosque, a Park Hyatt hotel and Southeast Asia's highest observation deck. The wider four-acre site will also contain public spaces and a park at ground level.

Set in a historic part of Kuala Lumpur, the skyscraper overlooks the Stadium Merdeka, where former leader Tunku Abdul Rahman declared Malaysian independence in 1957.

[...] The Australian architecture practice behind the project, Fender Katsalidis, said the triangular glass planes on the building's facade were inspired by patterns found in Malaysian arts and crafts. The design also "symbolically (represents) the rich cultural mix that defines the people of the country," the firm said in a press release.

In a statement, one of the company's founding partners, Karl Fender, added that the building was designed to enrich "the social energy and cultural fabric of the city."

[*] Burj Khalifa on Wikipedia:

The Burj Khalifa [...] is a skyscraper in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. With a total height of 829.8 m (2,722 ft, just over half a mile) and a roof height (excluding antenna, but including a 244 m spire) of 828 m (2,717 ft), the Burj Khalifa has been the tallest structure and building in the world since its topping out in 2009, supplanting Taipei 101, the previous holder of that status.

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

American diplomats' iPhones reportedly compromised by NSO Group intrusion software:

The Apple iPhones of at least nine US State Department officials were compromised by an unidentified entity using NSO Group's Pegasus spyware, according to a report published Friday by Reuters.

NSO Group in an email to The Register said it has blocked an unnamed customers' access to its system upon receiving an inquiry about the incident but has yet to confirm whether its software was involved.

"Once the inquiry was received, and before any investigation under our compliance policy, we have decided to immediately terminate relevant customers' access to the system, due to the severity of the allegations," an NSO spokesperson told The Register in an email. "To this point, we haven't received any information nor the phone numbers, nor any indication that NSO's tools were used in this case."

[...] The Israel-based company, recently sanctioned by the US for allegedly offering its intrusion software to repressive regimes and sued by both Apple and Meta's (Facebook's) WhatsApp for allegedly supporting the hacking their customers, says that it will cooperate with any relevant government authority and pass on what it learns from its investigation of the incident.

[...] The spyware company insisted it is unaware of the targets designated by customers using its software.

upstart writes:

Another reason why batteries can't charge in minutes:

Lithium-ion batteries contain both a positively charged cathode and a negatively charged anode, which are separated by a material called an electrolyte that moves lithium ions between them. The anode in these batteries is typically made out of graphite -- the same material found in many pencils. In lithium-ion batteries, however, the graphite is assembled out of small particles. Inside these particles, the lithium ions can insert themselves in a process called intercalation. When intercalation happens properly, the battery can successfully charge and discharge.

When a battery is charged too quickly, however, intercalation becomes a trickier business. Instead of smoothly getting into the graphite, the lithium ions tend to aggregate on top of the anode's surface, resulting in a "plating" effect that can cause terminal damage -- no pun intended -- to a battery.

"Plating is one of the main causes of impaired battery performance during fast charging," said Argonne battery scientist Daniel Abraham, an author of the study. "As we charged the battery quickly, we found that in addition to the plating on the anode surface there was a build up of reaction products inside the electrode pores." As a result, the anode itself undergoes some degree of irreversible expansion, impairing battery performance.

upstart writes:

Thousands of AT&T customers in the US infected by new data-stealing malware:

Thousands of networking devices belonging to AT&T Internet subscribers in the US have been infected with newly discovered malware that allows the devices to be used in denial-of-service attacks and attacks on internal networks, researchers said on Tuesday.

The device model under attack is the EdgeMarc Enterprise Session Border Controller, an appliance used by small- to medium-sized enterprises to secure and manage phone calls, video conferencing, and similar real-time communications. As the bridge between enterprises and their ISPs, session border controllers have access to ample amounts of bandwidth and can access potentially sensitive information, making them ideal for distributed denial of service attacks and for harvesting data.

Researchers from Qihoo 360 in China said they recently spotted a previously unknown botnet and managed to infiltrate one of its command-and-control servers during a three-hour span before they lost access.

upstart writes:

Probiotics improve nausea and vomiting in pregnancy: Findings also provide clues to why some people experience more stomach upset during pregnancy:

Probiotics are thought to support the community of different microbes, often referred to as the "gut microbiome," found in the gastrointestinal tract.

During pregnancy, hormones like estrogen and progesterone increase, bringing about many physical changes. These increases can also change the gut microbiome, which likely affects the digestive system functions and causes unwanted symptoms like nausea, vomiting and constipation.

[...] Participants kept 17 daily observations of their symptoms during the duration of the study, for a total of 535 observations for the researchers to statistically assess.

What the researchers found was that taking the probiotic significantly reduced nausea and vomiting. Nausea hours (the number of hours participants felt nauseous) were reduced by 16%, and the number of times they vomited was reduced by 33%. Probiotic intake also significantly improved symptoms related to quality of life, such as fatigue, poor appetite and difficulty maintaining normal social activities, as scored by questionnaires.

[...] Participants also contributed fecal specimens before and during the study. The samples were analyzed to identify the type and number of microbes and the different byproducts of digestion.

upstart writes:

3D fault information improves alert accuracy for earthquake early warning:

The benefits of 3D fault models vary depending on the fault style (a strike slip versus a reverse fault, for instance), whether the event is a subduction or crustal earthquake, and the level of shaking that triggers the alert, according to Jessica Murray and colleagues at the U.S. Geological Survey.

They suggest 3D models would be an improvement over 2D models for an alert threshold of MMI 4.5, meaning that the alert would be triggered for shaking exceeding the "light" intensity category, where most people indoors would feel some shaking. In their study, 3D models also substantially improved alert accuracy for all subduction zone earthquakes at MMI 4.5 and MMI 2.5 (weak motion felt only by a few people) thresholds.

The study's findings could be useful for earthquake early warning systems like the U.S. West Coast's ShakeAlert, the researchers note in the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America.

For now, ShakeAlert's algorithms use seismic data to characterize an earthquake source as a point or line. But researchers are already looking at ways to incorporate 3D source information, gleaned from fault displacement data collected by Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), into ShakeAlert.

"The expectation has been that such information would improve alerting because it would offer a better characterization of large earthquake sources compared to a point source," Murray explained. "This assumption has not been explored in terms of how a more realistic source characterization would translate to ground motion estimates, so that is one thing we set out to do."

Journal Reference:
Jessica R. Murray, Eric M. Thompson, Annemarie S. Baltay, et al. The Impact of 3D Finite‐Fault Information on Ground‐Motion Forecasting for Earthquake Early Warning, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (DOI: 10.1785/0120210162)

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Trees are biggest methane 'vents' in wetland areas – even when they're dry:

In a study published in the Royal Society journal, Philosophical Transactions A, the researchers have found evidence that far more methane is emitted by trees growing on floodplains in the Amazon basin than by soil or surface water and this occurs in both wet and dry conditions.

Methane is the second most important greenhouse gas and much of our atmospheric methane comes from wetlands. A great deal of research is being carried on into exactly how much methane is emitted via this route, but models typically assume that the gas is only produced when the ground is completely flooded and underwater.

In wetland areas where there are no trees, methane would typically be consumed by the soil on its way to the surface, but in forested wetland areas, the researchers say the tree roots could be acting as a transport system for the gas, up to the surface where it vents into the atmosphere from the tree trunks.

Methane is able to escape via this route even when it is produced in soil and water that is several meters below ground level.

This would mean that existing models could be significantly underestimating the likely extent of methane emissions in wetland areas such as the Amazon basin.

Journal Reference:
Vincent Gauci, Viviane Figueiredo, Nicola Gedney, et al. Non-flooded riparian Amazon trees are a regionally significant methane source, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A (DOI: 10.1098/rsta.2020.0446)

Original Submission

upstart writes:

China lunar rover to check out cube-shaped 'mystery house' object on far side of the moon:

The Yutu-2 rover is on a roll. It's been exploring the far side of the moon since early 2019 as part of China's Chang'e-4 lunar lander mission. It now has its eyes set on a strange-looking cube-shaped object it spotted in the distance. The nickname for the cube-shaped object translates to "mystery house."

The rover team is planning to drive over and get a closer look at the object.

As with Yutu-2's intriguing discovery of a "gel-like" substance inside a crater in 2019, don't get too excited for aliens. That substance turned out to be glassy-looking rock. And as far as I know, Stanley Kubrick never planted a monolith on the real moon, and those metal sculptures that were once all the rage on Earth haven't made the trek across space.

[...] According China Daily, Yutu-2 has already traveled 2,756 feet (840 meters) across the moon. Its next jaunt should shed some light on the "mystery house."

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Newly unearthed dinosaur evolved 'large tail weapon' unlike any other:

In a southern and sparsely populated region of Chile, scientists excavated the skeletal remains of a naturally armored dinosaur that lived over 70 million years ago, during the late Cretaceous period. Much to the team's surprise, they found it possessed a rather bizarre feature: a knife-like artillery in place of a tail.

[...] "It was an animal with a proportionally large head and a narrow snout with a beak," Sergio Soto Acuña, lead author of the study and a doctoral student at the University of Chile said. "However, the most notable feature is the caudal weapon: the posterior half of the tail is enclosed in a structure made up of fused bony plates that give the tail a very strange appearance."

The team dubbed the 2-meter (about 6-foot-6-inch) long species Stegouros elengassen due to the rest of its body resembling the Stegosaurus genus -- aka Spike from The Land Before Time. Later, extensive DNA analysis and cranial examination revealed the animal to be more closely related to a dinosaur group called Ankylosaurs, but the team decided to keep the initial name.

[...] Presumably, the dangerous appendage was used to defend against predators. But either way, Acuña adds, "This shows us that the fossil record of the Gondwanan continents can still have unexpected surprises for us."

Also at Reuters (with pictured).

Journal Reference:
Sergio Soto-Acuña, Alexander O. Vargas, Jonatan Kaluza, et al. Bizarre tail weaponry in a transitional ankylosaur from subantarctic Chile, Nature (DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-04147-1)

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Brain drain: Scientists explain why neurons consume so much fuel even when at rest:

Dr. Ryan and his laboratory have shown in recent years that neurons' synaptic terminals, bud-like growths from which they fire neurotransmitters, are major consumers of energy when active, and are very sensitive to any disruption of their fuel supply. In the new study they examined fuel use in synaptic terminals when inactive, and found that it is still high.

This high resting fuel consumption, they discovered, is accounted for largely by the pool of vesicles at synaptic terminals. During synaptic inactivity, vesicles are fully loaded with thousands of neurotransmitters each, and are ready to launch these signal-carrying payloads across synapses to partner neurons.

Why would a synaptic vesicle consume energy even when fully loaded? The researchers discovered that there is essentially a leakage of energy from the vesicle membrane, a "proton efflux," such that a special "proton pump" enzyme in the vesicle has to keep working, and consuming fuel as it does so, even when the vesicle is already full of neurotransmitter molecules.

The experiments pointed to proteins called transporters as the likely sources of this proton leakage. Transporters normally bring neurotransmitters into vesicles, changing shape to carry the neurotransmitter in, but allowing at the same time for a proton to escape -- as they do so. Dr. Ryan speculates that the energy threshold for this transporter shape-shift was set low by evolution to enable faster neurotransmitter reloading during synaptic activity, and thus faster thinking and action.

"The downside of a faster loading capability would be that even random thermal fluctuations could trigger the transporter shape-shift, causing this continual energy drain even when no neurotransmitter is being loaded," he said.

Journal Reference:
Camila Pulido and Timothy A. Ryan. Synaptic vesicle pools are a major hidden resting metabolic burden of nerve terminals, Science Advances (DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abi9027)

Original Submission