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An Anonymous Coward writes:

https://www.realclearscience.com/articles/2022/05/21/why_are_catfish_in_sweden_living_as_long_as_humans_833078.html

Europe's Wels catfish has to be one of the most intriguing freshwater fish in the world. Individuals can grow to monstrous sizes, proven to measure as long as nine feet and weigh 400 pounds or more in rare circumstances. They've even been repeatedly seen beaching themselves to capture and consume pigeons dawdling on the shores of lakes and rivers. Now, a team of biologists based out of Linnaeus University in Sweden reports that catfish in the Nordic country are living 70 years or longer.

To determine the creatures' ages, the researchers captured, marked, and released 1,183 Wels catfish from lakes and rivers in southern Sweden between 2006 and 2020. Over that span, they recaptured 162 individuals, allowing them to estimate the catfish's growth rate. They then plugged this rate into an established statistical model specifically created to estimate length and age for fish.

"Our estimates suggest that individuals in [Sweden] with a length of around 100 cm were about 25 years old while a 150 cm long fish was about 40 years old, which is about four times older than in catfish from the core habitat in central Europe," they wrote.

upstart writes:

Scientists 'see' puzzling features deep in Earth's interior:

New research led by the University of Cambridge is the first to obtain a detailed 'image' of an unusual pocket of rock at the boundary layer with Earth's core, some three thousand kilometres beneath the surface.

The enigmatic area of rock, which is located almost directly beneath the Hawaiian Islands, is one of several ultra-low velocity zones – so-called because earthquake waves slow to a crawl as they pass through them.

[...] Earth's interior is layered like an onion: at the centre sits the iron-nickel core, surrounded by a thick layer known as the mantle, and on top of that a thin outer shell — the crust we live on. Although the mantle is solid rock, it is hot enough to flow extremely slowly. These internal convection currents feed heat to the surface, driving the movement of tectonic plates and fuelling volcanic eruptions.

[...] The researchers used the latest numerical modelling methods to reveal kilometre-scale structures at the core-mantle boundary. According to co-author Dr Kuangdai Leng, who developed the methods while at the University of Oxford, "We are really pushing the limits of modern high-performance computing for elastodynamic simulations, taking advantage of wave symmetries unnoticed or unused before."

An Anonymous Coward writes:

Do you miss having an original SoundBlaster card? Now you can build your own! Take a look at the Snark Barker on GitHub.

'The Snark Barker is a 100% compatible clone of the famed SB 1.0 "Killer Card" sound card from 1989. It implements all the features, including the digital sound playback and recording, Ad Lib compatible synthesis, the joystick/MIDI port, and the CMS chips (which are actually Philips SAA1099 synthesizer devices).'

Original Submission

hubie writes:

'I don't even remember what I read':

Sometimes when we are reading a good book, it's like we are transported into another world and we stop paying attention to what's around us.

Researchers at the University of Washington wondered if people enter a similar state of dissociation when surfing social media, and if that explains why users might feel out of control after spending so much time on their favorite app.

The team watched how participants interacted with a Twitter-like platform to show that some people are spacing out while they're scrolling. Researchers also designed intervention strategies that social media platforms could use to help people retain more control over their online experiences.

[...] The team designed and built an app called Chirp, which was connected to participants' Twitter accounts. Through Chirp, users' likes and tweets appear on the real social media platform, but researchers can control people's experience, adding new features or quick pop-up surveys.

[...] When internal interventions were activated, participants got a "you're all caught up!" message when they had seen all new tweets. People also had to organize the accounts they followed into lists.

upstart writes:

Biden administration lays out plan for four carbon-capture facilities:

On Thursday, the US Department of Energy (DOE) announced the latest program to come out of the bipartisan infrastructure funding package that was passed last year. In this case, the money is going to foster the development of a technology that we'll almost certainly need but is currently underdeveloped: capture of carbon dioxide from the air and its stable storage. The infrastructure law set aside $3.5 billion for direct air capture, and the DOE plans to use that to fund four facilities spread across the US.

Direct air capture has suffered from a bit of a catch-22. Most scenarios for limiting end-of-century warming assume we'll emit enough carbon dioxide in the next few decades to overshoot our climate goals and will therefore need to remove some from the atmosphere. That would necessitate the development of direct air capture technologies. But, at present, there's no way to fund the operation of a facility to do the capturing, so the technology remains immature and its economics poorly understood.

The DOE's funding has the potential to change some of that. It has a total of $3.5 billion to spend in the years 2022 through 2026. It plans to use that to fund four carbon-capture and storage centers spread across the US, each with the capability of permanently storing a million metric tons of carbon dioxide a year.

upstart writes:

Lockheed Martin, Filecoin Foundation plan demonstration of decentralized data storage in space - SpaceNews:

Lockheed Martin is working with the Filecoin Foundation to demonstrate a blockchain network in space, the organizations announced May 23 at the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland.

Joe Landon [...] said the goal of the project is to develop a mission to demonstrate the Interplanetary File System, or IPFS, in space.

IPFS is an open-source network that stores information that can be shared by users. The Filecoin Foundation is an independent organization that facilitates governance of the Filecoin network — a blockchain-based cryptocurrency and digital payment system that builds on top of the IPFS.

Landon said critical infrastructure is needed in space for accessing and sharing data. "We need to develop the technology to support a long-term presence in space without having to rely entirely on Earth-based communications and data storage," he said.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

DuckDuckGo browser allows Microsoft trackers due to search agreement:

The privacy-focused DuckDuckGo browser purposely allows Microsoft trackers on third-party sites due to an agreement in their syndicated search content contract between the two companies.

DuckDuckGo is a search engine that prides itself on its privacy by not tracking your searches or your behavior while performing searches. Furthermore, instead of building user profiles to display interest-based advertisements, DuckDuckGo will use contextual advertisements from partners, like Ads by Microsoft.

While DuckDuckGo does not store any personal identifiers with your search queries, Microsoft advertising may track your IP address and other information when clicking on an ad link for "accounting purposes."

DuckDuckGo also offers a privacy-centric web browser for iOS and Android that promotes many privacy features, including HTTPS-always encryption, third-party cookie blocking, and tracker blocking.

[...] However, while performing a security audit of the DuckDuckGo Privacy Browser, security researcher Zach Edwards discovered that while the browser blocks Google and Facebook trackers, it allowed Microsoft trackers to continue running.

[...] Further tests showed that DuckDuckGo allowed trackers related to the bing.com and linkedin.com domains while blocking all other trackers.

upstart writes:

A litany of security flaws allows forgeries that are easy, quick, and cheap:

In late 2019, the government of New South Wales in Australia rolled out digital driver's licenses. The new licenses allowed people to use their iPhone or Android device to show proof of identity and age during roadside police checks or at bars, stores, hotels, and other venues. ServiceNSW, as the government body is usually referred to, promised it would "provide additional levels of security and protection against identity fraud, compared to the plastic [driver's license]" citizens had used for decades.

Now, 30 months later, security researchers have shown that it's trivial for just about anyone to forge fake identities using the digital driver's licenses, or DDLs. [...]

DDLs require the use of an iOS or Android app to display the personal credentials. Security features that are built-in include things like a dynamic QR code and holograms and watermarks. The data used to generate these things are stored encrypted on the smart device. But there's one little problem:

The technique for overcoming these safeguards is surprisingly simple. The key is the ability to brute-force the PIN that encrypts the data. Since it's only four digits long, there are only 10,000 possible combinations. [...]

From there, it's a matter of using simple brute-force software and standard smartphone and computer functions to extract the file storing the credential, decrypting it, changing the text, re-encrypting it, and copying it back to the device.

With that, the ServiceNSW app will display the fake ID and present it as genuine.

upstart writes:

The sci-fi technology tackling malarial mosquitos:

While standard GM [genetic modification] introduces a new, lab-tweaked gene into a organism, gene drive technology goes one stage further. It introduces a gene drive - a lab-created gene that can also automatically replicate itself - that targets and removes a specific natural gene.

[...] Gene drives are created by adding something called Crispr, a programmable DNA sequence, to a gene. This tells it to target the natural version of itself in the DNA of the other parent in the new embryo. The gene drive also contains an enzyme that does the actual cutting.

[...] This process is more effective than standard DNA because as every single offspring has the introduced gene trait it spreads much faster and further.

Yet, campaigners like Liz O'Neill say that the risks of unforeseen consequences, such as the gene drive leading to harmful and unforeseen mutations and knock-on effects, are too high.

"Gene drives are GM on steroids supercharged," she says. "Every concern one would have about the use of any genetic modification is exponentially more worrying when talking about gene drives because of how far and wide they are designed to spread."

However, while the technology has not yet been authorised for use in the wild, there are no bans against continuing laboratory research into it. After serious debate in 2018, the United Nations Convention on Biodiversity ruled that this may continue.

DannyB writes:

Octopuses torture and eat themselves after mating and science finally knows why:

She even eats pieces of her own arms.

Many animal species die after they reproduce. But in octopus mothers, this decline is particularly alarming: In most species, as an octopus mother's eggs get close to hatching, she stops eating. She then leaves her protective huddle over her brood and becomes bent on self-destruction. She might beat herself against a rock, tear at her own skin, even eat pieces of her own arms.

Now, researchers have discovered the chemicals that seem to control this fatal frenzy. [....]

[....] No one knows the purpose of the behavior. Theories include the idea that the dramatic death displays draw predators away from eggs, or that the mother's body releases nutrients into the water that nurture the eggs. Most likely, Wang said, the die-off protects the babies from the older generation. Octopuses are cannibals, she said, and if older octopuses stuck around, they might end up eating all of each other's young.

[....] If the nerves to the optic gland were cut, Wodinsky found, the mother octopus would abandon her eggs, start eating again and live for another four to six months. That's an impressive life extension for creatures that live only about a year.

But no one knew what the optic gland was doing to control this cascade of self-injury.

Wouldn't it be more efficient if the parent octopuses could become nourishment for the young hatchlings?

See Also:
Scientists discover why female octopuses self-mutilate to death after laying eggs

Journal Reference:
Z. Yan Wang et al., Steroid hormones of the octopus self-destruct system, Curr Biol, 2022.
DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2022.04.043

Original Submission

upstart writes:

We have a glimpse now of NASA's latest vision for its first crewed Mars mission:

The agency released its top objectives for a 30-day, two-person Mars surface mission on Tuesday (May 17) and asked the public to provide feedback on how the planning is going. Submissions were initially due on May 31, but that deadline was recently extended to June 3.

NASA aims to launch astronauts to Mars by the late 2030s or early 2040s. Making that vision a reality will be challenging. Assuming the funding and technology come into play at the right time, for example, the round-trip travel time would still be about 500 days given the distance between Earth and Mars.

[...] "We want to maximize the science so we allow them to drive around before they become conditioned enough to get in the spacesuits, and walk and maximize that science in 30 days," Kurt Vogel, NASA director of space architectures, said in a 30-minute YouTube video accompanying the data release.

upstart writes:

Vangelis, composer of Chariots of Fire and Blade Runner soundtracks, dies aged 79:

Vangelis, the Greek composer and musician whose synth-driven work brought huge drama to film soundtracks including Blade Runner and Chariots of Fire, has died aged 79. His representatives said he died in hospital in France where he was being treated.

Born Evángelos Odysséas Papathanassíou in 1943, Vangelis won an Oscar for his 1981 Chariots of Fire soundtrack. Its uplifting piano motif became world-renowned, and reached No 1 in the US charts, as did the accompanying soundtrack album.

[...] Vangelis had continued his film score work throughout the 1970s, but it was in the 80s that this reached its commercial heights. Chariots of Fire became inextricable from Vangelis's timeless theme, and the music became synonymous with slow-motion sporting montages. "My music does not try to evoke emotions like joy, love, or pain from the audience. It just goes with the image, because I work in the moment," he later explained.

His score to Blade Runner is equally celebrated for its evocation of a sinister future version of Los Angeles, where "replicants" and humans live awkwardly alongside one another, through the use of long, malevolent synth notes; saxophones and lush ambient passages enhance the film's romantic and poignant moments. "It has turned out to be a very prophetic film – we're living in a kind of Blade Runner world now," he said in 2005.

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

Phys.org:

For over a decade, scientists have attempted to synthesize a new form of carbon called graphyne with limited success. That endeavor is now at an end, though, thanks to new research from the University of Colorado Boulder.

Graphyne has long been of interest to scientists because of its similarities to the "wonder material" graphene—another form of carbon that is highly valued by industry whose research was even awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2010. However, despite decades of work and theorizing, only a few fragments have ever been created before now.

Graphyne is thought to have "unique electron conducting, mechanical and optical properties." They can better explore those possibilities if they can find a way to reliably and affordably synthesize the material.

How long before humans start mining the atmosphere for carbon?

More information: Yiming Hu et al, Synthesis of γ-graphyne using dynamic covalent chemistry, Nature Synthesis (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s44160-022-00068-7

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Scientists Just Measured a Mechanical Quantum System Without Destroying It:

There's a key aspect of quantum computing you may not have thought about before. Called 'quantum non-​demolition measurements', they refer to observing certain quantum states without destroying them in the process.

If we want to put together a functioning quantum computer, not having it break down every second while calculations are made would obviously be helpful. Now, scientists have described a new technique for recording quantum non-demolition measurements that shows a lot of promise.

In this case, the research involved mechanical quantum systems – objects that are relatively large in quantum computing terms, but exceedingly tiny for us. They use mechanical motion (such as vibration) to handle the necessary quantum magic, and they can be combined with other quantum systems too.

[...] They describe it as similar to playing a theremin, the strange musical instrument that doesn't need to be touched to produce sound.

[...] A hybrid qubit-resonator device such as the one described in this study potentially offers the best of two different fields of research: the computational capabilities of superconducting qubits, and the stability of mechanical systems. Now scientists have shown information can be extracted from such a device in a non-destructive way.

Plenty more work needs to be done – once the task of measuring states has been refined and completed, these states then need to be exploited and manipulated to be of real use – but the huge potential of quantum computing systems may have just been brought another step closer.

The article also includes a video of someone playing a theremin.

Journal Reference:
von Lüpke, U., Yang, Y., Bild, M. et al. Parity measurement in the strong dispersive regime of circuit quantum acoustodynamics. Nat. Phys. (2022).
DOI: 10.1038/s41567-022-01591-2

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

SciTechDaily:

In a new study, the physicists studied discrete aurora, a light-in-the-sky phenomenon that occurs predominantly during the night in the red planet's southern hemisphere. While scientists have known about discrete aurora on Mars–which also occur on Earth—they were mystified as to how they formed. That's because Mars does not have a global magnetic field like Earth, which is a main trigger for aurora, also called the northern and southern lights on our planet.

Instead, the physicists report, discrete aurora on Mars are governed by the interaction between the solar wind—the constant jet of charged particles from the sun—and magnetic fields generated by the crust at southern latitudes on Mars. It's the nature of this localized interaction between the solar wind and the crustal magnetic fields that leads to discrete aurora, the scientists discovered.

The findings come from more than 200 observations of discrete aurora on Mars by the NASA-led Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) spacecraft.

Reference: "Discrete Aurora at Mars: Dependence on Upstream Solar Wind Conditions" by Z. Girazian, N. M. Schneider, Z. Milby, X. Fang, J. Halekas, T. Weber, S. K. Jain, J.-C. Gérard, L. Soret, J. Deighan and C. O. Lee, 27 March 2022, JGR: Space Physics. DOI: 10.1029/2021JA030238

Original Submission