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upstart writes:

The enormous glacier is in trouble:

The Thwaites Glacier, an ice formation the size of Florida, can change the world. And the latest research shows that some of its most vulnerable spots are in greater danger than previously thought.

Thwaites holds a colossal amount of ice, enough to gradually raise sea levels by over two feet(Opens in a new tab), though its collapse in a heating climate could unleash many more feet from neighboring glaciers. The Antarctic glacier has destabilized, retreating back nearly nine miles since the 1990s. If much of it progressively melts in the coming decades and centuries, large swathes of coastal cities and populated areas around the globe could become submerged, and easily thrashed by storms. For this reason, scientists are now intensely researching where Thwaites is melting, and how fast it might melt. These are monumental questions for Earth's future denizens.

[...] "Thwaites is the one spot in Antarctica that has the potential to dump an enormous amount of water into the ocean over the next decades," Sridhar Anandakrishnan, a professor of glaciology at Penn State University, told Mashable in 2021.

That's why, for better or worse, Thwaites has earned the moniker "Doomsday Glacier." But, crucially, civilization is not inherently doomed, climate scientists emphasize. We are not hapless; we have energy choices that can limit the worst consequences of climate change.

The latest 2023 research, straight from the West Antarctic source, further shows how the glacier is melting. The critical point is beneath Thwaites' ice shelf, which is the end of the glacier that reaches over the ocean. Crucially, ice shelves ground themselves to the ocean floor, acting somewhat like "a cork in a bottle" to hold back the rest of colossal glaciers from flowing unimpeded into the sea. So if the ice shelf eventually goes, so can the glacier (though this process progresses from over many decades to centuries).

An Anonymous Coward writes:

Nokia G22 has removable back and standard screws allowing battery swap in less than five minutes at home

Nokia has announced one of the first budget Android smartphones designed to be repaired at home allowing users to swap out the battery in under five minutes in partnership with iFixit.

Launched before Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on Saturday, the Nokia G22 has a removable back and internal design that allows components to be easily unscrewed and swapped out including the battery, screen and charging port.

Nokia phones manufacturer HMD Global will make "quick fix" repair guides and genuine parts available for five years via specialists iFixit, in addition to affordable professional repair options.

[...] HMD Global hopes to ride the wave of increasing consumer desire for longer-lasting and more repairable devices. It follows in the footsteps of pioneers such as the Dutch manufacturer Fairphone, but at more affordable prices and with far simpler processes than Apple's recent DIY repair programmes.

The Nokia G22 will cost from £149.99 shipping on 8 March with replacement parts costing £18.99 for a charging port, £22.99 for a battery and £44.99 for a screen.

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upstart writes:

Scientists make stunning discovery, find new protein activity in telomeres:

Once thought incapable of encoding proteins due to their simple monotonous repetitions of DNA, tiny telomeres at the tips of our chromosomes seem to hold a potent biological function that's potentially relevant to our understanding of cancer and aging.

Reporting in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, UNC School of Medicine researchers Taghreed Al-Turki, Ph.D., and Jack Griffith, Ph.D., made the stunning discovery that telomeres contain genetic information to produce two small proteins, one of which they found is elevated in some human cancer cells, as well as cells from patients suffering from telomere-related defects.

"Based on our research, we think simple blood tests for these proteins could provide a valuable screen for certain cancers and other human diseases," said Griffith, the Kenan Distinguished Professor of Microbiology and Immunology and member of the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center. "These tests also could provide a measure of 'telomere health,' because we know telomeres shorten with age."

Telomeres contain a unique DNA sequence consisting of endless repeats of TTAGGG bases that somehow inhibit chromosomes from sticking to each other. Two decades ago, the Griffith laboratory showed that the end of a telomere's DNA loops back on itself to form a tiny circle, thus hiding the end and blocking chromosome-to-chromosome fusions. When cells divide, telomeres shorten, eventually becoming so short that the cell can no longer divide properly, leading to cell death.

[...] "Many questions remain to be answered, but our biggest priority now is developing a simple blood test for these proteins. This could inform us of our biological age and also provide warnings of issues, such as cancer or inflammation."

See also:
    Scientists Unlock Secrets of 'Immortal Jellyfish'
    Is Ageing a Disease?

Journal information: Al-Turki, Taghreed M. et al, Mammalian telomeric RNA (TERRA) can be translated to produce valine–arginine and glycine–leucine dipeptide repeat proteins, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2023). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2221529120

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upstart writes:

European Space Agency Launches 12-Month Lunar Farming Study:

The European Space Agency (ESA) announced Wednesday that it's launched a new project that will help determine the feasibility of farming on the moon. The project, "Enabling Lunar In-Situ Agriculture by Producing Fertilizer from Beneficiated Regolith," will study various ways of extracting minerals from lunar soil for hydroponic farming.

[...] Lunar topsoil, otherwise known as regolith, is nutrient-dense—but that doesn't make it a suitable substrate for produce. Regolith lacks the nitrogen compounds necessary for steady plant growth; it's also hydrophobic and compacts in the presence of water, making it difficult for seedlings to establish healthy root systems. (This is likely why the University of Florida's regolith growth experiments were underwhelming last year.)

Hydroponics bypass the need for soil. Rather than hoping plants will establish roots in regolith or other substrates, hydroponics allows those roots to grow directly into nutrient-rich water. In order to ensure the water used for lunar hydroponics is nutritious, however, Solsys and the ESA will have to create a system that extracts nutrients from regolith.

[...] "This work is essential for future long-term lunar exploration," said ESA materials and processes engineer Malgorzata Holynska. "Achieving a sustainable presence on the Moon will involve using local resources and gaining access to nutrients present in lunar regolith with the potential to help cultivate plants."

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upstart writes:

And how Chinese companies came to dominate battery manufacturing:

Among the many factors at play, China's control of refined materials for battery cells and its advanced battery-making technologies are particularly important. So important that Western automakers who want to transition out of gas cars won't be able to do it without turning to Chinese-made batteries. That's why Ford has been planning for a long time to build a battery plant with Chinese battery giant CATL, the world's largest manufacturer of lithium batteries.

[...] But why does Ford feel it's necessary to work with CATL to make EV batteries in the first place? The simple answer is that Chinese companies have managed to make good-quality batteries in large quantities and at a low cost. It will be commercially unviable to avoid using Chinese batteries, and it will take a long time for domestic battery companies to rival the size and efficiency of CATL.

As my colleague Casey Crownhart explained last week, Ford's new plant will focus on making LFP batteries, which use iron rather than the cobalt and nickel used in the other main type of lithium battery, known as NMC. Compared with NMC batteries, which are widely used to make EVs in the US and Europe, LFP batteries cost less, have a longer life cycle, and are safer when it comes to the possibility of catching fire.

But just a few years ago, LFP batteries were considered an obsolete technology that would never rival NMC batteries in energy density. It was Chinese companies, particularly CATL, that changed this consensus through advanced research. "That's purely down to the innovation within Chinese cell makers," Max Reid, senior research analyst in EV and battery supply chain services at the global research firm Wood Mackenzie, tells me. "And that has brought Chinese EV battery [companies] to the front line, the tier-one companies."

AnonTechie writes:

The magical demos displayed the capability. Now the platform wars begin.

The chatbots did their job. They inspired awe, mockery, and even some fear. Most importantly, they drew attention. Front-page headlines, cover stories, and word of mouth caused millions to try them, leading businesses and developers to ask how they could put the technology to use.

The APIs, of course, were always the point. ChatGPT and Bing's chatbot were never the end product. They were demos meant to sell other companies on tools they could use to build their own. And it worked. Now, the war to build the leading generative AI platform is underway.

"For OpenAI, the vast majority of the money they will ever make will come from developers," Ben Parr, president of Octane AI, told me via phone Thursday. "ChatGPT is just the entry road into everything else."

[...] The APIs, amid the commotion, are what matter. They're why Microsoft was willing to release an unproven chatbot into Bing, even when it knew it was a bit crazy. And why the company didn't seem to mind when the bot's flaws exploded into public view. It was never about Bing or ChatGPT, but about the potential future they previewed. And now, given the demos' success, the race to enable that future is underway.

Big Technology

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upstart writes:

The James Webb telescope found six galaxies that may be too hefty for their age:

[...] Six galaxies that formed in the universe's first 700 million years seem to be up to 100 times more massive than standard cosmological theories predict, astronomer Ivo Labbé and colleagues report February 22 in Nature. "Adding up the stars in those galaxies, it would exceed the total amount of mass available in the universe at that time," says Labbé, of the Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, Australia. "So you know that something is afoot."

[...] Measuring the amount of light each object emits in various wavelengths can give astronomers an idea of how far away each galaxy is, and how many stars it must have to emit all that light. Six of the objects that Nelson, Labbé and colleagues identified look like their light comes from no later than about 700 million years after the Big Bang. Those galaxies appear to hold up to 10 billion times the mass of our sun in stars. One of them might contain the mass of 100 billion suns.

"You shouldn't have had time to make things that have as many stars as the Milky Way that fast," Nelson says. Our galaxy contains about 60 billion suns' worth of stars — and it's had more than 13 billion years to grow them. "It's just crazy that these things seem to exist."

In the standard theories of cosmology, matter in the universe clumped together slowly, with small structures gradually merging to form larger ones. "If there are all these massive galaxies at early times, that's just not happening," Nelson says.

One possible explanation is that there's another, unknown way to form galaxies, Labbé says. "It seems like there's a channel that's a fast track, and the fast track creates monsters."

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upstart writes:

China's Mars rover appears to have stopped roving:

China's Zhurong rover landed on Mars to great local fanfare in May 2021 before it set about exploring the dusty surface.

But recent images from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) have shown that Zhurong has not moved for at least the last five months. And China has so far said nothing on the matter.

[...] We do know that the vehicle had been put in a state of hibernation four months earlier so that it could sleep through the harsh winter conditions in Mars' Utopia Planitia region. After that, it was expected that the rover would continue with its explorations toward the end of 2022, when the improved conditions would have allowed for the efficient powering of the rover's onboard battery.

But rather than offer an update on the condition of its rover, the Chinese space authorities have thus far failed to offer any meaningful news about Zhurong, and whether it's expected to start working again.

Speaking to the South China Morning Post on condition of anonymity, a source said last month it seemed that "most likely the sandstorms have seriously weakened Zhurong's capacity to use its solar panels to generate power."

[...] Mars is famous for its harsh sandstorms, indeed, it's this very same issue that finally prevented power generation on NASA's InSight lander, forcing the mission to end in December.

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upstart writes:

Uber has not branded the cuts as "layoffs":

Uber is reportedly pursuing an unorthodox approach to performance reviews at the ride-share company. While Uber says it has no plans for broad layoffs, so to speak, it does have plans for upcoming performance reviews to include potential cuts to the company's workforce.

As detailed by Insider, the cuts are not layoffs, and Uber is echoing CEO Dara Khosrowshahi's comments at Davos 2023 where he claimed that the company had no plans for layoffs. An Uber spokesperson told Gizmodo that those comments are still true, as upcoming cuts to Uber's workforce will be a part of performance reviews, and that the company plans to backfill any positions that are left empty after the reviews.

"This year, we've taken an even more rigorous approach to our performance review process to ensure our talent bar remains very high," an Uber spokesperson said to Gizmodo in an email. "We plan to backfill these positions and will continue to invest in attracting and retaining top talent at Uber."

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NY Times reports on long delays when solar or wind energy projects apply to connect to the grid. While they look at only a few of the US regional grids, several year delays appear common. The permitting process for grid tie-in was scaled to deal with a few big natural gas (etc) power stations every year and is overloaded by the requests of thousands of smaller, distributed energy sources.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/23/climate/renewable-energy-us-electrical-grid.html
or https://archive.is/AngvN

Plans to install 3,000 acres of solar panels in Kentucky and Virginia are delayed for years. Wind farms in Minnesota and North Dakota have been abruptly canceled. And programs to encourage Massachusetts and Maine residents to adopt solar power are faltering.

The energy transition poised for takeoff in the United States amid record investment in wind, solar and other low-carbon technologies is facing a serious obstacle: The volume of projects has overwhelmed the nation's antiquated systems to connect new sources of electricity to homes and businesses.
So many projects are trying to squeeze through the approval process that delays can drag on for years, leaving some developers to throw up their hands and walk away.

More than 8,100 energy projects — the vast majority of them wind, solar and batteries — were waiting for permission to connect to electric grids at the end of 2021, up from 5,600 the year before, jamming the system known as interconnection.

Much more detail and additional problems described in tfl. For example, as currently arranged, if you want to tie in a big solar farm, you may need to pay for grid upgrades...which are then available for free (if I read correctly) to additional solar projects. Thus, many projects will wait to see who jumps first. And these upgrades may not even be in your local area, the grid upgrade may be needed elsewhere.

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upstart writes:

Scientists Engineer Wood to Become Stronger, Capture CO2:

When it comes to battling climate change, carbon dioxide is the biggest enemy of all. A widespread desire to mitigate carbon emissions has pushed scientists, students, and startups alike to build technologies that capture this greenhouse gas, like a carbon-trapping car and an ocean-assisted carbon removal plant. But what if one such technology could capture carbon and improve new infrastructure by strengthening buildings and making them more sustainable to produce?

Scientists at Rice University have developed a method of engineering wood that makes the material stronger and enables it to absorb carbon dioxide. The engineered wood rivals conventionally tougher building materials in strength but emits far less carbon during production. It also traps carbon from its environment, making it an attractive and affordable material for new buildings.

[...] Rahman and his colleagues argue that this engineered wood presents a viable alternative to materials that emit many greenhouse gasses during production, like steel and cement. Not only does the team's process emit far less carbon, but wood is biodegradable, making it a more sustainable material throughout a building's lifetime. Passively capturing carbon throughout the construction process is another bonus. Before the engineered wood can be used in the real world, however, the team will need to test the material for long-term performance and study its commercial viability.

Journal Reference:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xcrp.2023.101269

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owl writes:

https://bigthink.com/pessimists-archive/twitter-telegrams/

Telegrams were the first instant messages, allowing people to send short notes rapidly over long distances. Telegraphy was developed in the 19th century and tweets were created about 150 years later, but despite the vast time difference, they were received and critiqued in strikingly similar ways.

Some early reactions to telegrams included one 1858 commentary in The New York Times calling them "superficial, sudden, unsifted" and likely to "render the popular mind too fast for the truth." The exact same criticisms have been leveled at social media today. In both cases, the short, character-constrained nature of the messages was seen as a problem, leading to a lack of depth and context.

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upstart writes:

Bows and arrows were used in Europe much earlier than we thought:

Metz is part of a team that has been excavating a rock shelter called Grotte Mandrin in southern France. This shelter was used first by Neanderthals more than 80,000 years ago, and then by modern humans from about 45,000 years ago – around the time that modern humans displaced Neanderthals all across Europe.

But, last year, the team reported that, for a 40-year period around 54,000 years ago, Grotte Mandrin was used as a hunting camp by a small group of modern humans. The clinching evidence came from a baby tooth that isn't Neanderthal.

[...] Before now, the earliest unambiguous evidence for bows and arrows in Europe came from finds in Stellmoor, Germany, dating to around 10,000 years ago, says Metz. However, it was considered likely that the modern humans who displaced Neanderthals around 45,000 years ago had bows and arrows.

[...] Bows and arrows were first developed in Africa at least 70,000 years ago. Lombard and others have found stone and bone arrowheads at several sites in southern Africa dating back as far as this. The modern humans who moved out of Africa may have spread the technology around the world.

Despite presumably seeing bows in action, Neanderthals never developed them, says Metz. They kept using large, stone-tipped spears that were either thrust directly or thrown by hand, and so required close contact with their prey.

Journal Reference:
Laure Metz, Jason E. Lewi, and Ludovic Slimak, Bow-and-arrow, technology of the first modern humans in Europe 54,000 years ago at Mandrin, France, Sci Adv, 9, 2023. (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.add4675)

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Freeman writes:

DOTA is Defence of the Ancients for any non-gamers (like me!) in our community. It is often used as a word.

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2023/02/valve-used-secret-memory-access-honeypot-to-detect-40k-dota-2-cheaters/

The cat-and-mouse battle between game makers and cheat makers has seen plenty of inventive twists and turns over the years. Even amid that backdrop, though, Dota 2 stands out for a recently revealed "honeypot" trap hidden inside the game's memory buffer.

In a blog post this week, Valve revealed the existence of this trap, which was released as part of an earlier update to the game. Valve says that update included "a section of data inside the game client that would never be read during normal gameplay." But that memory could be read by third-party cheat tools that used exploits to sniff out (and share) internal data normally invisible to players.

To activate its honeypot trap, all Valve had to do was watch for any accounts that tried to read from that "secret" memory area, an event that would lead to "extremely high confidence that every ban was well-deserved," according to Valve.

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takyon writes:

Soylent acquired by Starco Brands as nutrition company shifts into its 'natural next stage'

Soylent Nutrition is joining public company Starco Brands as part of an acquisition that will keep the plant-based food technology company operating as a separate unit under its current CEO Demir Vangelov.

As part of the transaction, Vangelov told TechCrunch that he will join Starco's board and is getting shares in the new company, while himself and Soylent's shareholders will become the largest single voting block in Starco. Other financial details were not disclosed.

Bloomberg first reported last May that Soylent was exploring a possible sale, which isn't unusual, but financially speaking, the company was doing well: Vangelov said Soylent was profitable and had been growing over the past few years, including nearly achieving its projected goal of $100 million in run rate for 2022. Getting to profitability, however, was a complicated journey.

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