SoylentNews

NotSanguine writes:

The New York Times is reporting [archive link] on a new study charting historical human milk use and the mutations that allow (some) adult humans to digest lactose.

The study [abstract], published on 27 July 2022 in the journal Nature utilizes archaeological and genetic evidence to characterize milk use among (pre-)historic humans. From the NYT article:

In many ways, humans are weird mammals. And our relationship with milk is especially weird.

In every mammalian species, females produce milk to feed their young. The nursing babies digest the milk with the help of an enzyme called lactase, which cuts milk sugar into easily absorbed fragments. When the young mammals are weaned, they stop making lactase. After all, why waste energy making an enzyme you no longer need?

But it is common for our species to keep consuming milk into adulthood. What's more, about one-third of people carry genetic mutations that allow them to produce lactase throughout their lives, making it easier to digest milk.[...]

But a new study of ancient human DNA and milk-drenched pottery shards suggests that the traditional story does not hold up. "Something was not quite right with the received wisdom," said Richard Evershed, a biogeochemist at the University of Bristol in England, and an author of the study.

Dr. Evershed and his colleagues found that Europeans were consuming milk without lactase for thousands of years, despite the misery from gas and cramping it might have caused. The scientists argue that the lactase mutation only became important to survival when Europeans began enduring epidemics and famines: During those periods, their poor health would have exacerbated gastric distress, leading to life-threatening diarrhea.

I, for one, welcome our (not so) new dairy overlords. MMMM...dairy!

Journal Reference:
Evershed, R.P., Davey Smith, G., Roffet-Salque, M. et al. Dairying, diseases and the evolution of lactase persistence in Europe. Nature (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-05010-7

Original Submission

upstart writes:

A new origins-based system for classifying minerals reveals the huge geochemical imprint that life has left on Earth:

Earth's geology on life is easy to see, with organisms adapting to environments as different as deserts, mountains, forests, and oceans. The full impact of life on geology, however, can be easy to miss.

A comprehensive new survey of our planet's minerals now corrects that omission. Among its findings is evidence that about half of all mineral diversity is the direct or indirect result of living things and their byproducts. It's a discovery that could provide valuable insights to scientists piecing together Earth's complex geological history—and also to those searching for evidence of life beyond this world.

[...] Their new taxonomy, based on an algorithmic analysis of thousands of scientific papers, recognizes more than 10,500 different types of minerals. That's almost twice as many as the roughly 5,800 mineral "species" in the classic taxonomy of the International Mineralogical Association, which focuses strictly on a mineral's crystalline structure and chemical makeup.

[...] Take, for example, pyrite crystals (commonly known as fool's gold). "Pyrite forms in 21 fundamentally different ways," Hazen said. Some pyrite crystals form when chloride-rich iron deposits heat up deep underground over millions of years. Others form in cold ocean sediments as a byproduct of bacteria that break down organic matter on the seafloor. Still others are associated with volcanic activity, groundwater seepage, or coal mines.

"Each one of those kinds of pyrite is telling us something different about our planet, its origin, about life, and how it's changed through time," said Hazen.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

Upgrading to more efficient cellular radio towers could save enough electricity to power cities such as Phoenix, New Orleans or Seattle, according to a new study produced by US research firm J. Gold Associates.

Annually, US cell sites use a total of almost 21 million megawatt hours (MWh) of power. That’s the equivalent of the average power used by almost two million households.

“Cellular services have become a critical infrastructure component of modern life. It’s hard to imagine not being able to communicate on the go with our mobile devices, or increasingly through a wireless home gateway enabling Internet services to both residential and business customers,” the report said. “But not often discussed is the burden that the numerous cell sites places on the electricity supplies required to keep them powered and the costs associated with the power supplied.”

Each 10% reduction in total cell site power results in enough electricity saved to power the equivalent of 195,000 households. And a 40% reduction provides enough electricity to power the equivalent of almost 782,000 households, according to the study, “US Cell Sites- a Sustainability Analysis."

By upgrading both the radio hardware and the management software, each cell site could save as much as 40% of its electricity needs, the report states.

AnonTechie writes:

The Conversation

Russia is building a new ground-based laser facility for interfering with satellites orbiting overhead, according to a recent report in The Space Review. The basic idea would be to dazzle the optical sensors of other nations' spy satellites by flooding them with laser light.

Laser technology has evolved to the point where this type of anti-satellite defense is plausible, though there is limited evidence of any nation successfully testing such a laser.

If the Russian government is able to build the laser, it would be capable of shielding a large part of the country from the view of satellites with optical sensors. The technology also sets the stage for the more ominous possibility of laser weapons that can permanently disable satellites.

[...] The reputed new Russian laser facility is called Kalina. It is intended to dazzle, and therefore temporarily blind, the optical sensors of satellites that are collecting intelligence overhead. As with the U.S. LAIRCM, dazzling involves saturating the sensors with enough light to prevent them from functioning. Achieving this goal requires accurately delivering a sufficient amount of light into the satellite sensor. This is no easy feat given the very large distances involved and the fact that the laser beam must first pass through the Earth's atmosphere.

[...] In addition, space-based lasers could be used to target any satellite by aiming lasers at propellant tanks and power systems, which, if damaged, would completely disable the spacecraft.

As technology advances continue, the use of laser weapons in space becomes more likely. The question then becomes: What are the consequences?

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Does the sun rotate?:

The sun's permanent position in the sky, plus the fact that Earth and the other planets revolve around it, may give the impression that it is static and does not move or rotate.

Yet we have been aware that the sun rotates since the 17th century. Like the majority of the solar system's planets, this rotation is counter-clockwise, but as well as being significantly slower than Earth's rotation, the sun's rotation is much more complex.

The discovery that the sun rotates dates back to the time of Galileo Galilei, according to The British Library (opens in new tab). Along with several of his contemporary earlier astronomers, Galileo had observed dark spots of the sun that we now call sunspots and understand to be important parts of the solar cycle.

Galileo noticed something else too. He found these dark spots appeared to move, vanishing and returning as he observed the sun with his telescope.

In 1612, the early scientist wrote: "It is also manifest that their rotation is about the sun... to me, it seems more probable that the movement is of the solar globe than of its surroundings," according to the book 'Discoveries and Opinions of Galileo'.

AnonTechie writes:

Memory and data storage producer Micron have begun production and shipment of the world's first 232-layer NAND in Singapore, which marks the first time a NAND manufacturer has surpassed 200 layers. This opens the door for the world's first 200TB SSDs. For comparison, even the flashiest personal computers usually stop at 2TB of storage, and the current largest SSD in the world is Nimbus Data's 100TB ExaDrive.

Prior to the innovation, the company's NAND topped out at 176-layers. The new NAND is also 50% faster than Micron's 176-layer offering, at a top speed of 2.4 gigabytes per second, while featuring 100% higher write bandwidth and 75% higher read bandwidth. The company also says that the 232-layer NAND has 1 terabyte per die, the highest areal density in the industry, and has heightened capacity and energy efficiency over previous Micron NANDs.

[...] Micron says that the new NAND is in production at the company's Singapore factory, and will ship to customers in "component form." But in case you think this means you're going to upgrade your gaming PC's capacity by about 100 fold, think again. That 100TB SSD we mentioned earlier currently costs $40,000, and a 200TB one is going to be more expensive.

GIZMODO

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

Aircraft are indispensable in the modern age for transporting people, delivering goods, and performing military operations, but the petroleum-based fuels that power them are in short supply. Scientists have now discovered a way to generate an alternative jet fuel by harvesting an unusual carbon molecule produced by the metabolic process of bacteria that are commonly found in soil. The research, by scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley Lab, was published recently in the journal Joule.

[...] Keasling wanted to recreate a molecule called Jawsamycin, which is named after the movie “Jaws” because of its bite-like indentations. It is generated by the common bacteria streptomyces, an organism that Cruz-Morales had worked with in the past.

“The recipe already exists in nature,” says Cruz-Morales. The jagged molecule is produced by native metabolism of the bacteria as they munch away on glucose. “As they eat sugar or amino acids, they break them down and convert them into building blocks for carbon-to-carbon bonds,” he says. “You make fat in your body in the same way, with the same chemistry, but this bacterial process has some very interesting twists.”

Freeman writes:

https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/07/new-hypothesis-emerges-to-explain-mysterious-hepatitis-cases-in-kids/

Researchers in the United Kingdom have come up with the most detailed, complex hypothesis yet to explain the burst of mysterious cases of liver inflammation—aka hepatitis—in young children, which has troubled medical experts worldwide for several months.
[...]
In two new reports, UK researchers offer a fresh hypothesis that may be the clearest but most complex explanation. Their data suggests that the cases may arise from a co-infection of two different viruses—one of which could be an adenovirus and the other a hitchhiking virus—in children who also happen to have a specific genetic predisposition to hepatitis.

In one of the new studies, looking at nine early cases in Scotland, researchers found that all nine children were infected with adeno-associated virus 2 (AAV2). This is a small, non-enveloped DNA virus in the Dependoparvovirus genus. It can only replicate in the presence of another virus, often an adenovirus but also some herpesviruses. As such, it tends to travel with adenovirus infections, which spiked in Scotland when the puzzling hepatitis cases arose.

Previously:
Sixth Child in US Dies of Unexplained Hepatitis as Global Cases Top 600 - May 24th 2022
CDC Raises Alarm of Mysterious Hepatitis Cases in Kids; 2 States Report Cases - April 22nd 2022

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

Way up in the snowy Alps, the border between Switzerland and Italy has shifted due to a melting glacier, putting the location of an Italian mountain lodge in dispute.

The borderline runs along a drainage divide—the point at which meltwater will run down either side of the mountain towards one country or the other.

But the Theodul Glacier's retreat means the watershed has crept towards the Rifugio Guide del Cervino, a refuge for visitors near the 3,480-meter (11,417-foot) Testa Grigia peak—and it is gradually sweeping underneath the building.

[...] When the refuge was built on a rocky outcrop in 1984, its 40 beds and long wooden tables were entirely in Italian territory.

But now two-thirds of the lodge, including most of the beds and the restaurant, is technically perched in southern Switzerland.

The issue has come to the fore because the area, which relies on tourism, is located at the top of one of the world's largest ski resorts, with a major new development including a cable car station being constructed a few meters away.

An agreement was hammered out in Florence in November 2021 but the outcome will only be revealed once it is rubber-stamped by the Swiss government—which will not happen before 2023.

Google's Finally Ready to Give Us Google Glass 2, but is the World Ready?

upstart writes:

Google Glass is making a comeback:

Seven years after discontinuing the Google Glass prototype and pivoting towards business-exclusive applications, it appears that the Californian tech giant is finally ready to give consumer-focused AR tech another chance.

In an official blog post, Google announced that it would soon start publicly testing prototypes for its upcoming Google AR devices, which will focus on live translation and navigation features.

Rumors that Google is developing new AR glasses have been swirling for a while, and in one low-key swoop, it has officially confirmed they were true all along. While lacking a lot of the excitement we would have expected for such an announcement, this is a smart tactical move for Google.

[...] Even if Google is testing a single unified prototype it could face the return of an old enemy – public fear. While Google promises that its latest AR devices are restricted on how they can use their cameras and microphones, that likely won't assuage people's concerns.

[...] We'll have to wait and see how the general public reacts though, not only next month when testers start walking around with the prototypes but also when they officially launch. Another big fault of the original Google Glass was its tough-to-swallow $1,500 price tag. Given the current economic hardships many people are facing right now, a similarly expensive product could once again be doomed to fail.

Ready or Not, the Glassholes are Coming Back

upstart writes:

Is the world finally prepared for hands-free cameras?:

Every major tech company is working on computer glasses. None of them really want to go first.

They all remember how Google Glass, and the "Glassholes" who wore them in public, became the laughingstock of the world. So they've been waiting, biding their time, refining their prototypes, and every so often making sure investors know that, no, they're not going to let the first potentially iPhone-sized opportunity since the iPhone slip by.

[...] If you hate this idea, there's probably nothing I can say to convince you otherwise, nor would I necessarily want to; I'm not going to pretend to know whether such a gadget should exist in the world. I just think you should realize that if Google's test doesn't end in utter disgust, it won't be long before Apple, Microsoft, and others throw their long-awaited glasses into the ring as well.

And in 2022, I wouldn't actually bet on disgust, mainly because we've had a decade of pointing phones at things in public, documenting every element of our lives, to prepare us for what's to come.

[...] Sure, that could change if a future pair of glasses proves to be more intrusive than our existing phones and drones. There are definitely going to be serious questions about data collection and privacy, particularly given the track record of some of the companies building them.

But in 2022, I think the bigger challenge facing Apple, Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Snap is figuring out how to build AR experiences we'd actually pay for — experiences more compelling or convenient than what phones already offer.

Original Submission #1  Original Submission #2 

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

The city of Mayapán was the largest Mayan city from approximately 1200 to 1450 AD. It was an important political, economic and religious center, and the capital of a large state that controlled much of northwestern Yucatan in present day Mexico.

When the Spanish arrived in the early 1500s, Mayapán was fondly remembered and Mayans proudly claimed descent from its former citizens. But inherent instability meant that it was doomed to fail.

Or so the story went. This narrative has influenced views of this important city, and this period of Mayan civilization more broadly, for some time.

In a new study, my collaborators and I show that warfare, collapse and abandonment at Mayapán were not inevitable. Instead, they were exacerbated by drought.

[...] Researchers have long suspected that Mayapán collapsed violently, based on early colonial documents. These records describe a revolt led by the noble Xiu family that resulted in the massacre of the ruling Cocom family.

[...] To find out when this conflict occurred, and how it related to changes in climate, required a large number of high-precision radiocarbon dates and paleoclimate data from the vicinity of Mayapán.

Freeman writes:

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2022/07/russia-is-quietly-ramping-up-its-internet-censorship-machine/

Since 2019, Vladimir Putin has supercharged his plan to separate Russia from the global Internet. The country's sovereign Internet law, which came into force that November, gives officials the power to block access to websites for millions of Russians. The law was used to hit Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter with blocks and followed Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February.

Since then, Russian officials have continuously dripped out new policies and measures to further control the Internet, boosting the state's censorship and surveillance powers. Each small move continues to push Russia toward a more isolated, authoritarian version of the web—restricting the rights of those inside its border and damaging the foundational ideas of an open web.

[...] Lokot says that as more nations look to regulate the Internet and do so with their national security in mind, the Internet itself is put at risk. "When the conversation changes from 'the Internet as a public good' to the 'Internet, and Internet access, as a matter of national security,' the questions change," Lokot says. "We will potentially see some really problematic choices made by states—and not just by authoritarian states, but also by democratic states."

Original Submission

hubie writes:

What Harry Potter can (and can't) teach us about economics:

A new paper in Oxford Open Economics, published by Oxford University Press, explores "Potterian economics"—the economics of the world of J.K. Rawling's Harry Potter series. Comparing such economics with professional economic models indicates that while some aspects of this economy are in line with economic models, many other aspects are distorted, contradicting professional economists' views.

Evidence suggests that the public's economic literacy is low and that it acquires much of the knowledge about economics through books, newspapers, etc. There is also evidence that literature affects readers, shaping their views. It is, therefore, possible that the 7-book series may exert influence and reflect on the public's economic perspectives and sentiments. A conservative estimate suggests that more than 7.3% of the world's population has read the Potter books and millions more have seen their movie versions. Given such extraordinary popularity of the books, their effect on the economic sentiments of the public might be considerable.

[...] "A naïve reader of Harry Potter would get a distorted view of economics," said Daniel Levy, one of the paper's authors. "Consider some of the lessons we learn from Potterian economics: markets are not fair for transactions are zero sum; the political process is not transparent; markets encourage crony capitalism; capitalists want to enslave the proletariat; businessmen are deceptive and devious; wealthy people are mean and unethical; no interest is paid on deposits; there is a monopoly on information; power is concentrated; ignorance about foreigners is the norm; domestic producers are protected from foreign competition even if they are inefficient; paper checks are non-existent; creative thinking is rare; human capital does not accumulate; public employees have life-time job-security irrespective of their efficiency; the public sector is the default employer; downward social mobility is the norm; there is a constant class struggle. This is only a partial list."

"The shortcomings listed above characterize many real economies," Levy continued. "This perhaps explains why the Potterian economic model resonates with people. Despite its inaccuracies, it is consistent with folk economics, which while perhaps problematic for human flourishing in a Smithian sense, captures and reflects popular views on many economic and social issues."

Journal Reference:
  Daniel Levy and Avichai Snir, Potterian economics [open], Oxford Open Economics, 1, 2022. DOI: 10.1093/ooec/odac004

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

Google, Microsoft, Meta and Amazon launched a public effort Monday to scrap the leap second, an occasional extra tick that keeps clocks in sync with the Earth's actual rotation. US and French timekeeping authorities concur.

Since 1972, the world's timekeeping authorities have added a leap second 27 times to the global clock known as the International Atomic Time (TAI). Instead of 23:59:59 changing to 0:0:0 at midnight, an extra 23:59:60 is tucked in. That causes a lot of indigestion for computers, which rely on a network of precise timekeeping servers to schedule events and to record the exact sequence of activities like adding data to a database.

The temporal tweak causes more problems -- like internet outages -- than benefits, they say. And dealing with leap seconds ultimately is futile, the group argues, since the Earth's rotational speed hasn't actually changed much historically.

"We are predicting that if we just stick to the TAI without leap second observation, we should be good for at least 2,000 years," research scientist Ahmad Byagowi of Facebook parent company Meta said via email. "Perhaps at that point we might need to consider a correction."

takyon and Freeman write:

Russia Says It Will Quit the International Space Station After 2024

The new head of Russia's space agency announced on Tuesday that Russia will leave the International Space Station after its current commitment expires at the end of 2024.

"The decision to leave the station after 2024 has been made," said Yuri Borisov, who was appointed this month to run Roscosmos, a state-controlled corporation in charge of the country's space program.

The pronouncement came during a meeting between Mr. Borisov and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. Mr. Borisov told Mr. Putin that Russia would fulfill its commitments through 2024. "I think that by this time we will begin to form the Russian orbital station," he said.

Mr. Putin's response: "Good."

However:

Russian Space Station to Replace ISS Will Be Built No Earlier Than 2028:

"We propose to build it in two stages. If the decision on its construction is made before the end of the year, then the first stage will begin in 2028 with the launch of the Science Power Module by the Angara-A5M launch vehicle," Solovyov said in an interview with the Russian Space magazine.After that, the node and gateway modules will be launched on the same rocket. The first will be similar to the module that is already part of the International Space Station. The second will be used for spacewalks.