SoylentNews

upstart writes:

Tesla's secret team to suppress thousands of driving range complaints:

About a decade ago, Tesla rigged the dashboard readouts in its electric cars to provide "rosy" projections of how far owners can drive before needing to recharge, a source told Reuters. The automaker last year became so inundated with driving-range complaints that it created a special team to cancel owners' service appointments.

In March, Alexandre Ponsin set out on a family road trip from Colorado to California in his newly purchased Tesla, a used 2021 Model 3. He expected to get something close to the electric sport sedan's advertised driving range: 353 miles on a fully charged battery.

He soon realized he was sometimes getting less than half that much range, particularly in cold weather – such severe underperformance that he was convinced the car had a serious defect.

[...] Ponsin contacted Tesla and booked a service appointment in California. He later received two text messages, telling him that "remote diagnostics" had determined his battery was fine, and then: "We would like to cancel your visit."

What Ponsin didn't know was that Tesla employees had been instructed to thwart any customers complaining about poor driving range from bringing their vehicles in for service. Last summer, the company quietly created a "Diversion Team" in Las Vegas to cancel as many range-related appointments as possible.

evilcam writes:

Following a study published in October which claimed the discovery of a room-temperature superconductor, the academics that wrote and co-wrote the paper have been accused of falsifying their data, as well as attempting to cover up their deception.

From Nature:

A prominent journal has decided to retract a paper by Ranga Dias, a physicist at the University of Rochester in New York who has made controversial claims about discovering room-temperature superconductors — materials that would not require any cooling to conduct electricity with zero resistance. The forthcoming retraction, of a paper published by Physical Review Letters (PRL) in 2021, is significant because the Nature news team has learnt that it is the result of an investigation that found apparent data fabrication. PRL's decision follows allegations that Dias plagiarized substantial portions of his PhD thesis and a separate retraction of one of Dias's papers on room-temperature superconductivity by Nature last September. (Nature's news team is independent of its journals team.)

As part of the investigation, co-author Ashkan Salamat, a physicist at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and a long-time collaborator of Dias, supplied what he claimed was raw data used to create figures in the PRL paper. But all four investigators found that the data Salamat provided did not match the figures in the paper. Two of the referees wrote in their report that, the conclusions of their investigation "paint a very disturbing picture of apparent data fabrication followed by an attempt to hide or coverup [sic] the fact. We urge immediate retraction of the paper".

Note this is not related to an earlier Soylent story.

Original Submission

Two recent news items seem to be at cross purposes, just a little bit.<sarcasm>:

First the WaPo (and other outlets) report that 7 major car companies are joining to install 30,000 new fast battery electric car chargers (Tesla currently has 22,000), with both CCS and Tesla-style plugs, https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/07/26/ev-fast-charger-gm-hyundai-honda-kia-bmw-mercedes/ [or https://archive.is/C4Uih ]

Then going back a month or so, we see New York power grid strained by rapid electrification, this link to PBS, plenty of other outlets for this news as well, https://www.wamc.org/news/2023-06-15/nyiso-electrification-causing-surge-in-power-demand

"Power Trends 2023" notes that reliability margins are shrinking as electrification programs drive demand for electricity higher.

Plenty of other similar reports from electric utilities, including the big winter outage in Texas.

Got popcorn? If you have electric cooking, better pop it now to have something to munch when the power goes out...when too many HVAC units (cooling/summer and heating/winter) come online at the same time as the battery electric cars are charging. If you are literally cooking with gas, then you can have fresh popcorn!

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Bringing back extinct molecules to fight modern bacteria:

Medical scientists are in a race against time—increasingly, bacteria are developing resistance to modern therapies, leaving doctors with fewer options in treating patients with infections. In this new effort, the research team looked at the possibility of finding extinct molecules that might be able to kill bacteria alive today.

The idea behind this new research is that many organisms, including humans, produce peptides with antimicrobial properties. Those developed by humans are already used naturally by the body. But what about extinct human relatives such as Neanderthals and Denisovans? Perhaps they produced peptides that might be useful against modern bacteria.

[...] The team trained an AI app to spot sites on human proteins that are known to produce peptides. They used the app on data from modern humans, Neanderthals and Denisovans to find peptides from the latter two sources. They then compared the properties of the peptides they found with newer peptides to predict which of those in H. neanderthalensis and Denisovans might be bacteria killers.

Next, the team synthesized the molecules they identified and tested them against bacteria in a petri dish. Six of those that showed promise were then used to treat mice infected with Acinetobacter baumannii—a common bacteria found in hospital settings.

The team found that all six of the peptides slowed or stopped the growth of an infection but none actually killed the bacteria. They also found that five of the six did kill bacteria growing in skin abscesses, but that was only when doses were extremely high.

The researchers believe their approach shows promise. They suggest that more research using their approach might lead to more effective antibiotics.

Journal Reference:
Jacqueline R.M.A. Maasch et al, Molecular de-extinction of ancient antimicrobial peptides enabled by machine learning, Cell Host & Microbe (2023). DOI: 10.1016/j.chom.2023.07.001

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Eager scientists and a gleaming lab awaits:

A sample from the asteroid Bennu, which could be key to understanding the formation of the solar system and our own planet, is set to be analyzed at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston after it reaches Earth in late September.

The precious cargo is currently aboard OSIRIS-REx, a US space probe launched in 2016 to Bennu, which orbits the Sun at an average distance of about 105 million miles (168 million kilometers).

Scientists will separate pieces of the rock and dust for study now, while carefully storing away the rest for future generations equipped with better technology—a practice first started during the Apollo missions to the Moon.

"We don't expect there to be anything living but (rather) the building blocks of life," Nicole Lunning, lead OSIRIS-Rex sample curator, told AFP.

[...] The spacecraft is scheduled to land in the Utah desert on September 24, carrying an estimated 8.8 ounces, or 250 grams of material—just over a cupful.

[...] The first samples brought to Earth by asteroids were carried out by Japanese probes in 2010 and 2020, with the latter found to contain uracil, one of the building blocks of RNA.

The finding lent weight to a longstanding theory that life on Earth may have been seeded from outer space when asteroids crashed into our planet carrying fundamental elements.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

A team of researchers suggests the space observatory just spotted "dark stars"—theoretical stellar objects powered by dark matter:

Astronomers looking at ancient light seen by the Webb Space Telescope have found three pinpricks that they think could be "dark stars," theoretical objects powered by dark matter.

Dark matter makes up about 27% of the universe; its partner in ambiguity, dark energy, makes up about 68%. You can do the math: we know stunningly little of what makes up the universe and how it behaves. It's in that zone of cosmic uncertainty that Webb's latest targets pop up. The team's research was published last week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[...] The three objects date to when the universe was between 320 million and 400 million years old, making them quite young (in a cosmic sense). And while they could well be galaxies containing millions of stars, the recent research team posits that they are never-before-seen dark stars, which could be millions of times the mass of our Sun and would be powered by the collisions of dark matter particles, rather than nuclear fusion.

Dark matter is not literally dark, at least not necessarily. It is called dark matter because it is nearly impossible for humans to detect. We see dark matter in its gravitational effects; haloes of dark matter glom galaxies together, and astronomers see ancient light more clearly when dark matter bends and focuses the photons transiting its gravitational field.

owl writes:

https://medium.com/re-form/x-to-close-417936dfc0dc

X's are everywhere in user interface (UI) design. A powerful symbol, [x] is capable of closing windows and popups, toolbars and tabs and anything else that might otherwise be cluttering up your screen.

Clicking on [x] to close a feature has become an instinctual part of using a computer and a standard in web and software design. Although it may seem like the ubiquitous [x] has always been a part of Graphical User Interfaces (GUI), a quick jaunt through the history of GUIs reveals that this actually isn't the case.

So where and when did the [x] first enter into the UI lexicon?

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Thankfully the probe regularly phones home to fix this sort of mess:

NASA revealed on Friday that its venerable Voyager 2 probe is currently incommunicado, because the space agency pointed its antenna in the wrong direction.

By the time the news was released, the antenna on the spacecraft had been pointing two degrees away from the Earth for over a week.

This left it without the ability to receive commands or transmit data to antennae operated by the Deep Space Network (DSN).

NASA reckons the situation is temporary and will not end the probe's nearly 46-year stint in space as it is programmed to recalibrate its position a few times a year. October 15 is the next scheduled reset.

[...] But while old cars can be lovingly worked on by hand in real time, the Voyagers are over 20 light hours from Earth, and communication crawls along at a tedious 160 bits per second.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

As Twitter destroys its brand by renaming itself X, Mastodon user numbers are again soaring:

As Twitter ditches its iconic branding in favor of owner Elon Musk's favorite letter "X," its open source rival Mastodon is seeing usage numbers soar. According to a new post from Mastodon founder and CEO Eugen Rochko, the number of monthly active users for his Twitter alternative has been steadily climbing over the past couple of months to have now reached 2.1 million — or, as remarked Rochko, "not far off from our last peak."

Previously, Mastodon's monthly active user numbers had peaked at 2.5 million between the months of October and November, which was shortly after Elon Musk officially took ownership of Twitter. Before, Mastodon had been a much smaller network, with approximately 300,000 monthly active users, the founder had said.

The fate of Mastodon's growth seems often to be tied to Twitter's moves — or rather, its missteps. After Twitter's acquisition, for example, there was a bit of a Twitter exodus as longtime users rebelled against the changes that Musk soon enacted on their favorite microblogging site, ranging from widespread layoffs to erratic moves impacting Twitter's platform, policy and product strategies, which included a mishandled relaunch of Twitter's subscription, Twitter Blue, which devalued verification by opening it up to anyone with a credit card to pay for it. That decision is still negatively affecting the Twitter experience, as the company recently admitted to having a Verified spammer problem, requiring a change to Twitter DMs.

Twitter has officially changed its logo to 'X'

Original Submission

hubie writes:

A team of researchers from around the world is urging the international community to recognize the full environmental and health threat of plastics:

In a new Viewpoint published in Environmental Science & Technology the researchers argue categorizing plastics, including micro- and nano-sized particles as PBT pollutants would give governments the tools they need to better manage plastic production, use and recycling.

"We need to wake up the world and understand the risks of these pollutants," says University of British Columbia (UBC) ocean researcher Dr. Juan José Alava, lead author of the paper that includes researchers from Canada, the United States, Europe, South America and Asia.

[...] "We live in the age of plastic — the Plasticene," says Dr. Alava, principal investigator of the Ocean Pollution Research Unit at UBC's Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries. "There's plastic everywhere. It is in the ocean, coastal zones and terrestrial environment. It has been found in animals across the globe, human tissues and organs, and deep in the Mariana Trench — the deepest part of our ocean. They do not degrade easily, so they last for many, many years."

[...] Plastics are prone to accumulation in all organisms, with aquatic animals most at risk of exposure to micro- and nano-sized particle. These particles are toxic to marine animals — they can change gene and protein expression, produce inflammatory responses, affect brain development, and decrease growth and reproduction rates, while also preventing proper feeding and foraging behaviours.

"It's hugely important to remember that it's not just plastics," emphasizes Dr. Gunilla Öberg, coauthor from UBC's Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability, University of British Columbia. "Many plastic products contain chemicals that in themselves are known to be persistent, bioaccumulate and toxic."

hubie writes:

Five subtypes of heart failure that could potentially be used to predict future risk for individual patients have been identified:

Heart failure is an umbrella term for when the heart is unable to pump blood around the body properly. Current ways of classifying heart failure do not accurately predict how the disease is likely to progress.

[...] Using several machine learning methods, they identified five subtypes: early onset, late onset, atrial fibrillation related (atrial fibrillation is a condition causing an irregular heart rhythm), metabolic (linked to obesity but with a low rate of cardiovascular disease), and cardiometabolic (linked to obesity and cardiovascular disease).

The researchers found differences between the subtypes in patients' risk of dying in the year after diagnosis. The all-cause mortality risks at one year were: early onset (20%), late onset (46%), atrial fibrillation related (61%), metabolic (11%), and cardiometabolic (37%).

[...] "The next step is to see if this way of classifying heart failure can make a practical difference to patients – whether it improves predictions of risk and the quality of information clinicians provide, and whether it changes patients' treatment. We also need to know if it would be cost effective. The app we have designed needs to be evaluated in a clinical trial or further research, but could help in routine care."

[...] The subtypes were established on the basis of 87 (of a possible 635) factors including age, symptoms, the presence of other conditions, the medications the patient was taking, and the results of tests (e.g., of blood pressure) and assessments (e.g., of kidney function).

The team also looked at genetic data from 9,573 individuals with heart failure from the UK Biobank study. They found a link between particular subtypes of heart failure and higher polygenic risk scores (scores of overall risk due to genes as a whole) for conditions such as hypertension and atrial fibrillation.

Journal Reference:
Amitava Banerjee et al., Identifying subtypes of heart failure from three electronic health record sources with machine learning: an external, prognostic, and genetic validation study [open], Lancet Digital Health, 2023. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S2589-7500(23)00065-1

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Russia Sends Cybersecurity CEO to Jail for 14 Years:

The Russian government today handed down a treason conviction and 14-year prison sentence on Iyla Sachkov, the former founder and CEO of one of Russia's largest cybersecurity firms. Sachkov, 37, has been detained for nearly two years under charges that the Kremlin has kept classified and hidden from public view, and he joins a growing roster of former Russian cybercrime fighters who are now serving hard time for farcical treason convictions.

In 2003, Sachkov founded Group-IB, a cybersecurity and digital forensics company that quickly earned a reputation for exposing and disrupting large-scale cybercrime operations, including quite a few that were based in Russia and stealing from Russian companies and citizens.

In September 2021, the Kremlin issued treason charges against Sachkov, although it has refused to disclose any details about the allegations. Sachkov pleaded not guilty. After a three-week "trial" that was closed to the public, Sachkov was convicted of treason and sentenced to 14 years in prison. Prosecutors had asked for 18 years.

[...] In December 2021, Bloomberg reported that Sachkov was alleged to have given the United States information about the Russian "Fancy Bear" operation that sought to influence the 2016 U.S. election. Fancy Bear is one of several names (e.g., APT28) for an advanced Russian cyber espionage group that has been linked to the Russian military intelligence agency GRU.

Original Submission

Stanford University President, Dr. Marc Tessier-Lavigne, has resigned after a university investigation found that he had fostered an environment that led to "unusual frequency of manipulation of research data and/or substandard scientific practices" across labs at multiple institutions.

The review focused on five major papers for which he was listed as a principal author, finding evidence of manipulation of research data in four of them and a lack of scientific rigor in the fifth, a famous study that he said would "turn our current understanding of Alzheimer's on its head."

The Stanford investigation did not find that Dr. Tessier-Lavigne personally altered data or pasted pieces of experimental images together. Instead, it found that he had presided over a lab culture that "tended to reward the 'winners' (that is, postdocs who could generate favorable results) and marginalize or diminish the 'losers' (that is, postdocs who were unable or struggled to generate such data)."

A cynical Soylentil might see Dr. Tessier-Lavigne in much the same way as Al Capone who was only found guilty of tax evasion. Who benefited from falsification "across labs at multiple institutions"? It's well past time to put the scientists back in science and rethink the funding system that rewards the bullshitters.

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

Rapidus, a semiconductor consortium backed by the Japanese government and industrial conglomerates, plans to start high-volume production of chips on its 2nm fabrication process in 2027. In a bid to ensure that all of its production capacity is used, Rapidus wants to land orders from at least one global company, essentially competing with TSMC and other foundries. But at the same time, Rapidus does not plan to be like TSMC.

[...] In a bid to recoup production node R&D costs and fab costs, one needs to produce a boatload of chips on a leading-edge node and Japanese companies may not generate significant demand for such parts. Which is why Rapidus needs to land orders from a multinational like Apple or AWS.

"We are looking for a U.S. partner, and we have begun discussions with some GAFAM [Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft] corporations," said Atsuyoshi Koike, chief executive of Rapidus, in an interview with Nikkei. "Specifically, there is demand [for chips] from data centers [and] right now, TSMC is the only company that can make the semiconductors they envision. That is where Rapidus will enter."

[...] Interestingly, Rapidus is not looking forward serving dozens of companies, but only intends to serve five to 10 clients. 

[...] It remains to be seen whether 5 to 10 companies can generate enough demand to recoup tens of billions of dollars that Rapidus will need to invest to start 2nm production in 2027. Meanwhile, winning even five customers with significant 2nm orders in 2027 will be quite difficult, since the number of companies willing to invest in designs to be made on a leading-edge node is fairly limited.

Then again, from Japanese government point of view, Rapidus is meant to rejuvenate the leading-edge semiconductor supply chain in the country — so even if the company's 2nm node does not turn out to be a triumph, it will still pave the way for successors and open new doors to local chip designers. 

Original Submission

hubie writes:

Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden have shown that it can be cheaper to run heavy goods vehicles on electricity than on diesel:

The transition from a fossil-fuelled to an electric vehicle fleet has so far been most visible in lighter vehicles, such as private cars and delivery vans. In the case of heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) travelling long distances, the transition has been slow because the prevailing view is that such vehicles would need large batteries, which take up so much load capacity that electric operation is not profitable. But now researchers at Chalmers University of Technology have found that electricity can indeed be a cheaper alternative to diesel – even for heavy goods vehicles.

"We have looked at a scenario where heavy goods vehicles drive the 553 kilometres between Helsingborg and Stockholm in Sweden. We have compared two different battery sizes and two possible prices for fast charging. Our conclusion is that it seems possible to electrify this type of vehicle in a cost-effective way," says Johannes Karlsson.

In the study, the researchers created a model based on data from a real haulage company in the town of Helsingborg, which was chosen because it can be considered to have typical tasks and operating conditions for a haulage company in that part of Sweden covering long distances. The large battery did not need to be recharged on the road, only at the company's own depots, but it did take up more load capacity. The smaller battery needed quick charging on the road but did not restrict the load capacity as much. The results showed that running on electricity was profitable for the haulage company in the study.