SoylentNews

owl writes:

https://retrorepairsandrefurbs.com/2022/04/29/1974-sinclair-scientific-calculator-repair-restoration/

I recently acquired a Sinclair Scientific calculator from 1974, alongside a large bundle of vintage computers – this was an unexpected (but very welcome) surprise and is in fact my first vintage calculator, though it is basically a pocket computer, so it is certainly in keeping with the rest of my collection. The calculator was in good condition and came with its original box, user manual, and carry case, however it was bought sold-as-seen and had several corroded and damaged battery contacts.

Original Submission

looorg writes:

Lab-grown meat and insects 'good for planet and health':

Dining on the likes of lab-grown meat or ground-up insects could lead to big savings in carbon emissions and water, as well as freeing up land for nature.

That's the finding of a study calculating the environmental benefits of "greener" foods hitting our plates.

Scientists say pressures on the planet could fall by more than 80% with such foods, compared with the typical European diet.

But it's not yet clear if consumers will want to shift their eating habits.

Yet another article about how lab-grown meat is good for you and good for the planet so you really should eat it. But yet somehow nobody appears to be wanting to eat it. Do the people that write these papers eat it? More then for testing? There is the usual yuck factor involved considering that some of the yummy foods suggested are ground-up flies and crickets. Then various forms of lab-grown cells (chickens, eggs, milk, meat and berries (cause apparently berries are no longer from plants?)). The usual seafood stuff like various forms of seaweed and algae, which people already eat so I don't even know why this is included.

Will people get over the yuck by pricing? I doubt this will take off until the time when this stuff becomes so ridiculously cheap they more or less are giving it away. Cause there is no way I'm paying meat prices for fake-meat. When will you start to eat lab-food-stuffs?

upstart writes:

Building 'nanofactories' to help make medicines and more:

Thanks to a lesser-known feature of microbiology, Michigan State University researchers have helped open a door that could lead to medicines, vitamins and more being made at lower costs and with improved efficiency.

The international research team, led by Henning Kirst and Cheryl Kerfeld in the College of Natural Science, have repurposed what are known as bacterial microcompartments and programmed them to produce valuable chemicals from inexpensive starting ingredients.

[...] "The microcompartments, they're like nanoreactors or nanofactories," said Kirst, a senior research associate in Kerfeld's lab, which operates at both MSU and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Kirst, Kerfeld and their teammates saw the microcompartments as an opportunity to take important chemical reactions to the next level. Over the past few decades, researchers have harnessed the power of enzymes found in bacteria to create valuable chemical products including biofuels and medicines.

In those industrial applications, though, chemists often rely on the entire microorganism to produce the desired compound, which Kirst said can lead to complications and inefficiencies.

upstart writes:

Researchers build a portable desalination unit that generates clear, clean drinking water without the need for filters or high-pressure pumps:

MIT researchers have developed a portable desalination unit, weighing less than 10 kilograms, that can remove particles and salts to generate drinking water.

[...] Commercially available portable desalination units typically require high-pressure pumps to push water through filters, which are very difficult to miniaturize without compromising the energy-efficiency of the device, explains Yoon.

Instead, their unit relies on a technique called ion concentration polarization (ICP), which was pioneered by Han's group more than 10 years ago. Rather than filtering water, the ICP process applies an electrical field to membranes placed above and below a channel of water. The membranes repel positively or negatively charged particles — including salt molecules, bacteria, and viruses — as they flow past. The charged particles are funneled into a second stream of water that is eventually discharged.

[...] But ICP does not always remove all the salts floating in the middle of the channel. So the researchers incorporated a second process, known as electrodialysis, to remove remaining salt ions.

Yoon and Kang used machine learning to find the ideal combination of ICP and electrodialysis modules. The optimal setup includes a two-stage ICP process, with water flowing through six modules in the first stage then through three in the second stage, followed by a single electrodialysis process. This minimized energy usage while ensuring the process remains self-cleaning.

upstart writes:

Fast-acting enzyme breaks down plastics in as little as 24 hours:

The idea of deploying enzymes to break down plastic waste is gaining momentum through a string of breakthroughs demonstrating how they can do so with increasing efficiency, and even reduce the material to simple molecules. A new study marks yet another step forward, with scientists leveraging machine learning to engineer an enzyme that degrades some forms of plastic in just 24 hours, with a stability that makes it well-suited to large-scale adoption.

[...] A team at the University of Texas set out to address some of the shortcomings of these enzymes so far. According to the scientists, the application of the technology has been held back by an inability to function well at low temperatures and different pH ranges, lack of effectiveness directly tackling untreated plastic waste, and slow reaction rates.

To resolve these problems, the team developed a machine learning model that could predict which mutations in a PETase enzyme would afford it these capabilities. This involved closely studying a range of PET plastic products, including containers, water bottles and fabrics, and then using the model to design and engineer a new and improved enzyme dubbed FAST-PETase (functional, active, stable and tolerant PETase).

hubie writes:

Scientists with NASA's MMS Mission Crack 60-Year Mystery of Fast Magnetic Explosions

In just minutes, a flare on the Sun can release enough energy to power the whole world for 20,000 years. An explosive process called magnetic reconnection triggers these solar flares and scientists have spent the last half-century trying to understand how the process happens.

It's not just a scientific curiosity: A fuller understanding of magnetic reconnection could enable insights into nuclear fusion and provide better predictions of particle storms from the Sun that can affect Earth-orbiting technology.

Now, scientists with NASA's Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission, or MMS, think they've figured it out. The scientists have developed a theory that explains how the most explosive type of magnetic reconnection – called fast reconnection – occurs and why it happens at a consistent speed. The new theory uses a common magnetic effect that's used in household devices, such as sensors that time vehicle anti-lock braking systems and know when a cell phone flip cover is closed.

upstart writes:

Scientists Discover New Electrical Function Performed by Nearly Half of Brain Cells:

Researchers at Tufts University School of Medicine have discovered a previously unknown function performed by astrocytes, a type of cell that comprises nearly half of all cells in the brain.

According to the researchers, the discovery in mice of a novel function by cells known as astrocytes opens up a whole new avenue for neuroscience study that could lead to treatments for a variety of conditions ranging from epilepsy to Alzheimer's to traumatic brain injury.

It all boils down to how astrocytes interact with neurons, which are fundamental cells of the brain and nervous system that receive input from the outside world. Through a complex set of electrical and chemical signaling, neurons transmit information between different areas of the brain and between the brain and the rest of the nervous system.

The American Automobile Assn. (AAA) took a look at the performance of automatic lane keeping systems. They found that in simulated moderate to heavy rain, cars that employed ALKS veered from their lanes 69% of the time. Even worse, in testing at moderate speed (56 kph/~40 mph), about a third of the cars struck a static vehicle target (note, these targets look like a car, but are lightweight, fly apart on impact, and are quickly re-assembled).

Trade magazine article here:
https://www.ukimediaevents.com/publication/9db0dd6b/32
(Warning, it's an annoying "online magazine" format--but can be downloaded to pdf for reading offline.)

If you have a car with one of these systems, what has been your experience?

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket writes:

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

Hubble Space Telescope captured GAMA 526784, an ultra-diffuse galaxy that appears as a tenuous patch of light in this image. This wispy object resides in the constellation Hydra, roughly four billion light-years from Earth. Ultra-diffuse galaxies such as GAMA 526784 have a number of peculiarities. Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, R. van der Burg, Acknowledgment: L. Shatz

[...] Ultra-diffuse galaxies such as GAMA 526784 have a number of peculiarities. For example, their dark matter abundance can be either extremely low or extremely high — ultra-diffuse galaxies have been observed with an almost complete lack of dark matter, whereas others are comprised of almost nothing but dark matter. Another peculiarity of this class of galaxies is their unusual abundance of bright globular clusters, something not observed in other types of galaxies.

Hubble captured GAMA 526784 with the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS), which was installed in 2002 by astronauts during Hubble Servicing Mission 3B. Since then, the instrument has played a pivotal role in some of Hubble’s most impressive scientific results, including capturing the Hubble Ultra Deep Field. The ACS has also photographed Pluto in advance of the New Horizon mission, observed gargantuan gravitational lenses, and found fully formed galaxies in the early Universe.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

NASA awards millions to SpaceX and Amazon's Project Kuiper for satellite communications:

Six satellite ventures — including SpaceX's Starlink network and Amazon's Project Kuiper — are due to receive a total of $278.5 million in NASA funding to demonstrate next-generation space communication services in Earth orbit.

The Communications Services Project is intended to smooth the transition from NASA's constellation of dedicated communication satellites, known as Tracking and Data Relay Satellites or TDRS, to a commercially operated network that draws upon multiple providers.

NASA has turned to similar public-private models for space services including cargo resupply and crew transportation to the International Space Station, as well as the future delivery of scientific experiments and astronauts to the lunar surface.

"By using funded Space Act Agreements, we're able to stimulate industry to demonstrate end-to-end capability leading to operational service," Eli Naffah, project manager for the Communications Services Project at NASA's Glenn Research Center, said today in a news release. "The flight demonstrations are risk reduction activities that will develop multiple capabilities and will provide operational concepts, performance validation and acquisition models needed to plan the future acquisition of commercial services for each class of NASA missions."

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Big Telecom Convinces Missouri Lawmakers To Block Funding For Broadband Competition:

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) set aside $42.5 billion to be spent by the states on expanding access to affordable broadband. But state by state, telecom lobbyists are working hard to ensure that this money only goes toward "unserved" locations, and can't be used to potentially create competition in markets they already serve.

Last month we noted how states like Illinois, at the direct demand of companies like AT&T, have been passing restrictions on who can or can't access these funds. That includes blocking some cooperatives or local governments from building broadband networks. Since that's expressly forbidden by the IIJA, these states are risking all broadband funding

In other instances it's a bit more subtle than that. Missouri, for example, just passed a bill (once again directly demanded by AT&T) stating that "no federal funds received by the state, political subdivision, city, town, or village shall be expended for the construction of retail broadband internet infrastructure unless the project to be constructed is located in an unserved area or underserved area."

On its face it doesn't seem controversial. But if you know how the U.S. telecom sector and policy actually works, its intention becomes more clear. The bill doesn't just block funding for areas that are already served, it blocks access to projects in areas incumbent ISPs claim they might serve someday:

the current version of the bill would allow incumbent ISPs to block federal funding to competitors if they vaguely indicate they have eventual interest in upgrading an area. Historically, state and federal regulators in fealty to regional monopolies aren't consistent about following up on fiber deployment promises, potentially perpetuating longstanding Internet access coverage gaps.

Original Submission

chris writes:

From https://ancient-archeology.com/face-of-stone-age-woman-reconstructed-with-4000-year-old-skull-found-in-sweden/

A Stone Age woman who lived 4,000 years ago is leaning on her walking stick and looking ahead as a spirited young boy bursts into a run, in a stunning life-size reconstruction now on display in Sweden.

Although her likeness is new — it debuted last month in an exhibit about ancient people at Västernorrlands Museum — researchers have known about this woman's existence for nearly a century.

During the construction of a road in the hamlet of Lagmansören in 1923, workers found her skeletal remains buried next to the remains of a child, likely a 7-year-old boy.

"With our eyes and perhaps in all times, you tend to think that this is a mother and son," said Oscar Nilsson, the Sweden-based forensic artist who spent 350 hours creating the lifelike model. "They could be. Or they could be siblings: sister and brother.

They could be relatives, or they could just be tribe friends. We don't know, because the DNA was not that well preserved to establish this relationship."

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Intel CEO expects chip shortage to last until at least 2024:

Intel chief Pat Gelsinger has predicted that the global chip shortage will remain a challenge for the industry until at least 2024, particularly in areas such as foundry capacity and tool availability.

[...] During the call, Gelsinger pointed out that ongoing COVID-19 lockdowns in Shanghai and the Russian invasion in Ukraine have demonstrated the need to promote "more resilient and more geographically balanced semiconductor manufacturing", particularly as he believes that semiconductors will be the "the fuel of innovation and transformation".

"I continue to believe we are just at the beginning of a long-term growth cycle across semiconductors," he said.

"We continue to see some matched-set limitations in areas like ethernet, some softening in low-end consumer PC, and some inventory adjustments as we discussed on our last call, but overall, the demand signals from customers continue to be robust in areas like enterprise, cloud, AI, graphics, and networking."

He noted, however, the company's pace in which it achieves its expansion plans will also be dependent on the passing of the CHIPS (Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors) Act. If passed, it would unlock an eye-watering $52 billion funding boost to US production of semiconductors.

[...] "I recently testified before the Senate to highlight the critical need for the US to fund the CHIPS Act. I continue to encourage Congress to fund this critical legislation and enable us to move faster toward making a balanced semiconductor supply chain a reality," Gelsinger said.

Original Submission

looorg writes:

Turns out that virtual meetings are more or less just like real meetings. A lot of people arrive late. Most people don't say or do anything, they are just there. The more people that are invited to the meeting the worse it apparently is. Bad meetings are bad meetings no matter if they are live or not.

For meetings with seven or more people, some of the findings include:

        50% of participants arrive late
        40% have below average or poor engagement
        22% of participants don't say a single word
        11% don't have video or audio on

Overall, one in five video conference calls had a below average meeting score, and 31% of meetings start late.

Source: https://www.geekwire.com/2022/virtual-meeting-study-50-of-participants-arrive-late-22-dont-say-anything/

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Fireball spotted over southern Mississippi, NASA confirms:

More than 30 people in Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi reported seeing the exceptionally bright meteor in the sky around 8 a.m. Wednesday after hearing loud booms in Claiborne County, Mississippi, and surrounding areas, NASA reported. It was first spotted 54 miles (87 kilometers) above the Mississippi River, near Alcorn, Mississippi, officials said.

"This is one of the nicer events I have seen in the GLM (Geostationary Lightning Mappers) data," said Bill Cooke, lead of NASA's Meteoroid Environments Office at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

The object, which scientists called a bolide, moved southwest at a speed of 55,000 miles per hour (88,500 kilometers per hour), breaking into pieces as it descended deeper into Earth's atmosphere. It disintegrated about 34 miles (55 kilometers) above a swampy area north of the unincorporated Concordia Parish community of Minorca in Louisiana.

[...] At its peak, the fireball was more than 10 times brighter than a full moon, NASA said. "What struck me as unusual was how few eyewitness reports we had given the skies were so clear," said Cooke. "More people heard it than saw it."

Citation: Fireball spotted over southern Mississippi, NASA confirms (2022, April 29) retrieved 29 April 2022 from https://phys.org/news/2022-04-fireball-southern-mississippi-nasa.html

Original Submission