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cmdrklarg writes:

https://www.sciencealert.com/nasas-parker-probe-flew-through-a-massive-solar-eruption-and-caught-it-all-on-camera

NASA's Parker Solar Probe flew right through a massive solar eruption and caught the whole thing on camera. It's the first up-close footage ever captured of a solar explosion like this.

The video, released by scientists at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, features an especially powerful coronal mass ejection that took place last year.

CMEs are large explosions of super-hot plasma that erupt from the Sun's atmosphere. They consist of charged particles that can trigger radio blackouts and cause other mayhem if they strike Earth.

NASA said that the CME that struck the Parker Solar Probe was "one of the most powerful coronal mass ejections ever recorded."

Lucky for those scientists currently studying the sun, NASA's Parker Solar Probe flew right through the CME and survived it, capturing the event on camera. (The eruption starts at around the 14-second mark in the clip below.)

[...] Also read that the CME was around the same size as the 1859 "Carrington Event". The Carrington Event was the most intense geomagnetic storm in recorded history, peaking from 1 to 2 September 1859 during solar cycle 10. [...] The geomagnetic storm was most likely the result of a coronal mass ejection (CME) from the Sun colliding with Earth's magnetosphere.

Woof!!

Original Submission

Significance:
A consistent and comprehensive quantitative framework of the cells in the human body could benefit many areas of biology. We compile data to estimate cell mass, size range, and cell count for some 1,200 cell groups, from the smallest red blood cells to the largest muscle fibers, across 60 tissues in a representative male, female, and 10-y-old child. We find large-scale patterns revealing that both cellular biomass in any given logarithmic cell-size class and the coefficient of cell-size variation are both approximately independent of cell size. These patterns are suggestive of a whole-organism trade-off between cell size and count and imply the existence of cell-size homeostasis across cell types.

Abstract:
Cell size and cell count are adaptively regulated and intimately linked to growth and function. Yet, despite their widespread relevance, the relation between cell size and count has never been formally examined over the whole human body. Here, we compile a comprehensive dataset of cell size and count over all major cell types, with data drawn from >1,500 published sources. We consider the body of a representative male (70 kg), which allows further estimates of a female (60 kg) and 10-y-old child (32 kg). We build a hierarchical interface for the cellular organization of the body, giving easy access to data, methods, and sources (https://humancelltreemap.mis.mpg.de/). In total, we estimate total body counts of ≈36 trillion cells in the male, ≈28 trillion in the female, and ≈17 trillion in the child. These data reveal a surprising inverse relation between cell size and count, implying a trade-off between these variables, such that all cells within a given logarithmic size class contribute an equal fraction to the body's total cellular biomass. We also find that the coefficient of variation is approximately independent of mean cell size, implying the existence of cell-size regulation across cell types. Our data serve to establish a holistic quantitative framework for the cells of the human body, and highlight large-scale patterns in cell biology.

NotSanguine writes:

The University of Michigan issued a press release concerning new research on the growth (or lack thereof) of large-scale structures in the universe.

From the press release:

As the universe evolves, scientists expect large cosmic structures to grow at a certain rate: dense regions such as galaxy clusters would grow denser, while the void of space would grow emptier.

But University of Michigan researchers have discovered that the rate at which these large structures grow is slower than predicted by Einstein's Theory of General Relativity.

They also showed that as dark energy accelerates the universe's global expansion, the suppression of the cosmic structure growth that the researchers see in their data is even more prominent than what the theory predicts. Their results are published in Physical Review Letters.

Galaxies are threaded throughout our universe like a giant cosmic spider web. Their distribution is not random. Instead, they tend to cluster together. In fact, the whole cosmic web started out as tiny clumps of matter in the early universe, which gradually grew into individual galaxies, and eventually galaxy clusters and filaments.

AnonTechie writes:

Phys.org

Stressors like climate trauma, corporate deceit and political incompetence signal the threat of societal collapse, a new book asserts.

This claim lays the foundation for exploring arguments of "collapsology" in a new book by Robert R. Janes Ph.D., "Museums and Societal Collapse: The Museum as Lifeboat." The book also contends with the unique role that can be played by museums during a mounting climate crisis.

"Social ecology is an integral and moral dimension of the collapse and the crisis we face—that social and environmental issues are intertwined, and both must be considered simultaneously," Dr. Janes, a Visiting Research Fellow at the School of Museum Studies at the University of Leicester, explains.

"Our collective failure to honor this relationship lies at the core of our failure as species. It befits all museums, irrespective of their disciplinary focus and loyalties, to bridge the divide between nature and culture in all that they do."

[ABSTRACT]: The Museum as Lifeboat

More information: Robert R. Janes, Museums and Societal Collapse (2023). DOI: 10.4324/9781003344070

Are we there yet ? or, is this a case of crying wolf ?

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

AMD has introduced its EPYC 8004-series processors codenamed Siena. The new CPUs come in an all-new SP6 form-factor, pack up to 64 Zen 4c cores, and feature a six-channel DDR5 memory subsystem. AMD's EPYC 'Siena' processors are designed for edge and communications servers that rely on one processor and require advanced I/O and power efficiency more than raw performance.

"The new EPYC 8004 Series processors extend AMD leadership in single socket platforms by offering excellent CPU energy efficiency in a package tuned to meet the needs of space and power-constrained infrastructure," said Dan McNamara, senior vice president and general manager, Server Business, AMD.

AMD's EPYC 8004-series 'Siena' processors for intelligent edge applications use an all-new SP6 platform, but re-use core components of Bergamo CPUs for high-density servers, such four 16-core Zen 4c general-purpose chiplets as well as I/O die used by the these CPUs. The processor feature from eight to 64 cores clocked at 2.0 – 3.10 GHz and a TDP ranging from 80W to 200W. Meanwhile, it is possible to configure these processors for an up to 225W TDP or reduce their power consumption to 70W.

While AMD's Zen 4c are smaller and less power hungry than full-blown Zen 4 cores, they support the same feature set as their larger counterparts and can therefore run applications that rely on instructions like AVX-512. Although AMD's EPYC 9004-series processors deliver higher performance, AMD's EPYC 8004-series CPUs promise a lower total cost of ownership and higher power efficiency. AMD claims that Siena offers an up to 2x better performance per watt compared to competitors (Xeon Platinum 8490H, Xeon Platinum 8471N ) in SPECpower_ssj 2008. Specifically, the EPYC 8324P showcases up to 1.16x better performance per core in video encoding tasks (than Intel's 32-core Xeon 6421N), according to benchmark results conducted by AMD. In IoT Edge gateway workloads, an eight-core EPYC 8024P offers nearly 1.8x the total SPECrate 2017_int_base throughput performance per 8kW rack against an eight-core competitor (Intel's Xeon Platinum 8471N).

The new AMD EPYC 8004-series processors feature a six-channel DDR5-4800 subsystem that supports up to 1.152 TB of memory. Intelligent edge servers are a relatively new type of application. Some of these machines can take advantage of traditional CPUs, whereas the other pack special-purpose accelerators. That said, modern I/O capabilities is a must for such machines. Therefore, AMD's Siena also support 96 PCIe 5.0 lanes with 48 of them supporting the CXL 1.1+ protocol on top for advanced modern accelerators (for AI inference or other applications) and/or memory expanders.

AMD says that its EPYC 8004 'Siena' processors are now available inside new edge servers from Dell (PowerEdge C6615), Lenovo (ThinkEdge SE455 V3), and Supermicro (H13 generation of WIO Servers). The new CPUs are also endorsed by Ericsson and Microsoft Azure.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Gene required for root hair growth, nitrate foraging found in grasses:

September 19, 2023

Gene required for root hair growth, nitrate foraging found in grasses

Scientists have found a plant gene that drives the growth of root hairs, the tiny structures that help plants find water and nutrients in the soil.

Identified by a team led by Washington State University researcher Karen Sanguinet, the gene, dubbed "BUZZ," causes faster-growing, denser webs of roots and may also determine how plants find and use nitrates, a prime source of nitrogen essential to plant growth. Nitrates are also used in fertilizers that can pollute the environment as runoff, and this genetic discovery could ultimately help plant scientists find ways to grow crops more sustainably.

"Nitrate runoff and nitrogen use efficiency are some of the preeminent issues facing agriculture," said Sanguinet, associate professor in WSU's Department of Crop and Soil Sciences. "If you can understand the genetic mechanisms that control nitrate uptake and signaling, as well as how plants can better use nitrate, it's advantageous for agriculture, soil, water, fertilizer application and the entire nitrogen cycle."

The study, published in the journal New Phytologist, found that the BUZZ gene adjusts root growth—both the rate and lateral root initiation—in response to the nitrate concentration in nearby soil.

"Expression of the BUZZ gene is turned up in response to nitrate, urea, and ammonia presumably so that roots can find nitrogen in the soil," Sanguinet said. "Loss of the gene shows a foraging root phenotype even when the nitrate supply is plentiful."

The gene is expressed at very low levels and had never been described before, which made finding it more challenging.

Journal Reference:
(1) (DOI: https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/nph.19079)
(2) (DOI: 10.1111/nph.19079)

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Powerful Nerf Blaster Aims To Fire 100 Darts Per Second:

Nerf has made plenty of fully-automatic blasters over the years, but their toys typically lack punch, precision, and fire rate. [3DprintedLife] set about building a blaster to rectify that last shortcoming, aiming for design that could fire 100 darts per second.

The design uses half length darts which tend to fly a little nicer from high-powered blasters. It fires them using belts driven by powerful motors, similar to wheel blasters. The darts themselves are loaded into a drum magazine which has sliders to push the darts into the wheels as the drum rotates by.

It all sounds straightforward enough, but getting it all working in harmony is a challenge—particularly at a fire rate of 100 darts per second. The build video explains the trials and tribulations involved in getting near that fire rate, with darts getting shredded and magazines throwing out parts along the way. A good helping of iterative design helps get everything playing nice, with the darts neatly leaving the magazine and flying downrange at great speed. The slow-motion videos of darts flying out of the blaster in rapid succession are a special treat.

I found the embedded YouTube video to be amazing! Just the right match between exposition of the various steps in designing and debugging the gun!

Update:

Upon further reflection: how long does it take to reload? Hmm?

Original Submission

Meeting Announcement: The next meeting of the SoylentNews governance committee is scheduled for Friday, September 22nd, 2023 at 20:30 UTC (1:30pm PDT, 4:30pm EDT) in #governance on SoylentNews IRC. Logs of the meeting will be available afterwards for review, and minutes will be published when available.

The agenda for the upcoming meeting will also be published when available. Minutes and agenda, and other governance committee information are to be found on the SoylentNews Wiki at: https://wiki.staging.soylentnews.org/wiki/Governance

You, the community, are always welcome to observe and participate, and you're invited to the meeting.

Freeman writes:

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/09/most-notorious-illegal-shadow-library-sued-by-textbook-publishers/

Yesterday, some of the biggest textbook publishers sued Library Genesis, an illegal shadow library that publishers are accusing of "extensive violations of federal copyright law."

Publishers suing include Cengage Learning, Macmillan Learning, McGraw Hill, and Pearson Education. They claim that Library Genesis (aka Libgen) is operated by unknown individuals based outside the United States, who know that the shadow library is "one of the largest, most notorious, and far-reaching infringement operations in the world" and intentionally violate copyright laws with "absolutely no legal justification for what they do."

[...] Publishers hope their lawsuit will finally end years of Libgen's alleged mass copyright infringement, but shadow libraries like Libgen have proven resilient through multiple attacks from the highest levels of US law enforcement. Even when the US government arrested operators of another shadow library called Z-Library last year, Z-Library returned a few months later and found a way to continue operating after the US seized its login domain.

Ars could not immediately reach publishers' lawyers or Libgen for comment. [Update: Publishers' lawyer Matthew Oppenheim told Ars that Libgen is a "thieves' den" of illegal books, and "there is no question" that Libgen's conduct is "massively illegal." Oppenheim said that "really, the only question is why it's been allowed to exist this long." He also said that it's possible that US companies may not realize that they are aiding Libgen's infringement, but publishers hope that when they "are confronted" with the fact "that this library is massively illegal, that hopefully they will voluntarily do the right thing" and cut off Libgen.]

Original Submission

owl writes:

https://nicole.express/2023/have-you-read-atari-today.html

From Pitfall II to the Channel F to the NES cartridge port, a spectre has lurked in the background of Nicole Express: the spectre of the Atari 2600. The best-selling console of the second generation, an icon, and yet to date, I have not covered it, or even owned one. That all changes today, and we'll find out what the deal is with this strange artifact from the past. Plus, we'll get some S-Video.

[...] Those three chips are right in the center:

• The MOS Technology 6507 CPU. This is a 6502 die, with some pins not hooked up. The implications of this are important. The fact that this particular 6507 is made by Taiwan-based UMC probably isn't.
• The MOS Technology 6532 RIOT. This does exactly what the name implies: it contains 128 bytes of RAM (twice the Channel F!), provides two 8-bit I/O ports, and a programmable Timer. It's also made by UMC.
• The Atari Television Interface Adapter (TIA). The only real custom chip onboard, the TIA is what made the 2600 the 2600. It generates a video signal using various internal registers, as well as handling paddles, sound, and some other functions. Someone wrote on this one.

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

The results of a Phase III trial published this week could soon lead to a new era for the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder. The study found that a combination of MDMA and psychotherapy was effective at relieving PTSD symptoms when compared to standard therapy. The nonprofit organization funding this research now plans to seek formal approval of MDMA-assisted therapy from the Food and Drug Administration before the end of the year.

MDMA is short for 3,4-methylenedioxy-methamphetamine. It’s a synthetic drug with both stimulant and psychedelic effects. It’s been used historically as a recreational drug, going under the nicknames of Molly or Ecstasy. And it’s been classified as an illegal controlled substance by the U.S. federal government since the 1980s. But for decades, some psychologists and researchers have experimented with using MDMA as a way to boost the potency of talk therapy, particularly for PTSD.

This once-nascent movement has picked up a lot of steam in the past few years, thanks to promising, if small-scale, research and changing societal attitudes around the legalization of many illicit drugs. Much of this research has been funded and organized by the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), a nonprofit advocacy group. More recently, MAPS has successfully petitioned the FDA to consider the approval of MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD. FDA approval of a new use for a drug is typically contingent on positive data from at least two larger Phase III studies—data that now appears to be here for MDMA-assisted therapy.

Sometime back I posted about Motor Trend (and prior hot rod magazines) converting their long time '57 Chevy project car to electric power. Now they have a followup article with lessons learned at https://www.motortrend.com/features/ev-conversion-classic-cars/ (had some trouble loading that page, found a copy at, https://archive.ph/l1o6H ).

Their title is,

The Case for Not EV-Converting Your Classic Car - What we learned from EV-swapping Project X, and things to keep in mind if you entertain this questionable idea.

It turned out there were a lot of details that they found out along the way and the result was a lot of work and not all that satisfying. Their summary is below, in case you want to read the story from the top.

*SPOILER* (click to show) *SPOILER* (click to hide)

So, was converting Project X worth it? Yeah, I would say it was, since we learned a ton about EV systems, swaps, and how it all works, or doesn't work, in our classic cars, trucks, and hot rods. Now, it was a fun exercise with someone else's wallet, but the new Chevrolet Performance ZZ632 big-block we installed is more fun, sounds great, and will allow us to roll on next year's HOT ROD Power Tour without towing a diesel generator behind us. Most of all, Project X sounds loud and mean like a hot rod should sound.

And, with the EV box checked, they've already moved on to the next power train for Project X -- https://www.motortrend.com/how-to/zz632-big-block-engine-install-1957-chevy-project-x?slide=27

Original Submission

DannyB writes:

Intelligence Community Feels It Might Be Time To Start Stuffing Surveillance Gear Into People's Pants

Who among us has not considered shoving a camera into our underwear... but for the greater good... on the public's dime? No need to raise your hands. We already know where they are.

The only thing better than lots of surveillance is even more surveillance. That's the unofficial tagline of the Intelligence Community, [ . . . . ]

The US intelligence community has invested $22 million in a project called SMART ePants, which aims to produce underwear and other garments that help the wearer conduct surveillance operations. Though fully washable, each garment is expected to contain audio, video, and geolocation recording devices.

Yes, they actually called it "SMART ePANTS." And that's not the only acronym in play here. [ . . . . ]

The Smart Electrically Powered and Networked Textile Systems (SMART ePANTS) program represents the largest single investment to develop Active Smart Textiles (AST) that feel, move, and function like any garment. Resulting innovations stand to provide the Intelligence Community (IC), Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, and other agencies with durable, ready-to-wear clothing that can record audio, video, and geolocation data. This eTextile technology could also assist personnel and first responders in dangerous, high-stress environments, such as crime scenes and arms control inspections without impeding their ability to swiftly and safely operate.

[...] it may be useful for agencies to track employees during their interactions in "dangerous, high-stress environments," it seems far more useful for these agencies to have always-on surveillance gear that doesn't make it immediately apparent to the surveillance targets that they're being surveilled.

[...] let's stop pretending this is about "first responders, [...] It's not like these people have been crying out for more passive surveillance options, much less wearable tracking devices with cameras attached. The addition of the phrase "first responders" is supposed to soften the harder edges of the proposed $22 million, always-literally-on surveillance gear [...]

On the bright side, this has important secondary applications such as sending you alerts that you should change your underwear in a few days.

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

Europe's particle accelerator at CERN spews out around a petabyte of data daily, which means monitoring the computing infrastructure that processes the data is crucial.

CERN's main activities are based on the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), which propels sub-atomic particles around a 27km circuit, 100 meters underground, then smashes them into each other under the guise of eight distinct experiments. Among them is the CMS experiment, which aims to spot the particles responsible for dark matter, among other things.

Like other experiments, CMS shut down for a period of upgrades from 2018 to 2022, and restarted in July last year for the three-year Run 3 period in which scientists will increase the beam energy and sample physics data at a higher rate.

In preparation, four big LHC experiments performed major upgrades to their data readout and selection systems, with new detector systems and computing infrastructure. The changes will allow them to collect significantly larger data samples of higher quality than previous runs.

But Brij Kishor Jashal, a scientist in the CMS collaboration, told The Register that his team were currently aggregating 30 terabytes over a 30-day period to monitor their computing infrastructure performance.

"Entering the new era for our Run 3 operation, we will see more and more scaling of the storage as well as the data. One of our main jobs is to ensure that we are able to meet all this demand and cater to the requirements of users and manage the storage," he said.

upstart writes:

Novel electrical therapy rebuilds muscles lost through natural aging:

Sarcopenia affects up to 16% of the world's aging population and is one of the leading factors in the loss of independence. Marked by a loss of both muscle mass and function or strength, it's behind many age-related falls, poor mobility and functional decline. What's more, to date there's no 'cure' or treatments to halt its progression, let alone reverse it, and most intervention is based on slowing the loss of muscle mass with lifestyle and diet changes.

Now, scientists at Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science & Technology (DGIST) in South Korea have developed a novel bioelectric therapy that restored muscle cells in aging mice, and they're confident of its promise to have a similar effect in human models.

"The number of patients with sarcopenia has exploded recently due to restrictions on social activities owing to the COVID-19 pandemic and aging of the world's population," said lead author Minseok Kim, a professor in DGIST's Department of New Biology. "This research is significant because it confirms, for the first time, the potential of applying bioelectric medicine to treat sarcopenia, a disease for which there currently is no cure. We also identified the optimal electrical stimulation conditions for muscle recovery as a function of age, which may lead to a paradigm shift in the development of personalized electrotherapy treatments."

The team developed a biochip-based electrostimulation (ES) screening platform for aging human muscle cells. Using this, they were able to pinpoint the optimal ES conditions that coaxed aging muscle cells to regenerate. While ES has the potential to damage muscles, at the optimal level the researchers found it has a positive interaction with calcium signaling, senescence and metabolism. A restoration of calcium signaling in aged skeletal muscles can induce hypertrophy, or an increase in muscle mass.