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taylorvich writes:

https://techxplore.com/news/2023-10-evaporate-enable-approaches-desalination.html

Evaporation is happening all around us all the time, from the sweat cooling our bodies to the dew burning off in the morning sun. But science's understanding of this ubiquitous process may have been missing a piece all this time.

In recent years, some researchers have been puzzled upon finding that water in their experiments, which was held in a sponge-like material known as a hydrogel, was evaporating at a higher rate than could be explained by the amount of heat, or thermal energy, that the water was receiving. The excess has been significant—a doubling, or even a tripling or more, of the theoretical maximum rate.

After carrying out a series of new experiments and simulations, and reexamining some of the results from various groups that claimed to have exceeded the thermal limit, a team of researchers at MIT has reached a startling conclusion: Under certain conditions, at the interface where water meets air, light can directly bring about evaporation without the need for heat, and it actually does so even more efficiently than heat. In these experiments, the water was held in a hydrogel material, but the researchers suggest that the phenomenon may occur under other conditions as well.

Journal Reference:
Yaodong Tu, Jiawei Zhou, Shaoting Lin, and Gang Chen, Plausible photomolecular effect leading to water evaporation exceeding the thermal limit, PNAS, 120 (45) e2312751120 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2312751120

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Freeman writes:

https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/10/a-wee-spider-needed-a-safe-place-to-molt-it-chose-a-womans-ear-canal/

While brain worms have made many horrifying headlines this year, the good folks at the New England Journal of Medicine offer some fresh nightmare fuel ahead of Halloween: an ear spider. And there's a video.

In a short clinical report published in this week's issue, doctors in Tainan City, Taiwan, detail the case of a 64-year-old woman who sought care at an otolaryngology (ENT) clinic. She came in complaining of having an incessant ruckus in her left ear for the previous four days. On the first day of symptoms, the woman said she was awoken by a feeling of a wee creature crawling in her ear canal. That feeling was then followed by days of clicking, beating, and rustling noises.
[...]
Video of the creepy crawler shows it darting around the canal, just in front of the eardrum. When it spots the medical probe nearing, the spider comes in for a closer look, facing the camera directly for a perfect view of its eyes.

The medical report doesn't identify the type of spider it is, and it's usually very difficult to identify spiders based on pictures. But Ars reached out to two spider experts who both said the spider is, without a doubt, in the family of jumping spiders (Salticidae). The giveaway is "the family-specific arrangement and size ratio of the eyes," Martin Nyffeler, an emeritus senior lecturer in zoology at the University of Basel, told Ars over email. Specifically, this family of spiders has large median front eyes, which can be seen in the ear spider when it looks directly into the camera.
[...]
The doctors treating the woman reported no damage to her eardrum. They sucked the spider and its exuvia out, and the woman's symptoms "immediately abated," they reported

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upstart writes:

48 Malicious npm Packages Found Deploying Reverse Shells on Developer Systems:

A new set of 48 malicious npm packages have been discovered in the npm repository with capabilities to deploy a reverse shell on compromised systems.

"These packages, deceptively named to appear legitimate, contained obfuscated JavaScript designed to initiate a reverse shell on package install," software supply chain security firm Phylum said.

[...] "In this particular case, the attacker published dozens of benign-sounding packages with several layers of obfuscation and deceptive tactics in an attempt to ultimately deploy a reverse shell on any machine that simply installs one of these packages," Phylum said.

The findings arrive close on the heels of revelations that two packages published to the Python Package Index (PyPI) under the garb of simplifying internationalization incorporated malicious code designed to siphon sensitive Telegram Desktop application data and system information.

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hubie writes:

A rare window into the early American monetary history — thanks to techniques from physics:

Benjamin Franklin may be best known as the creator of bifocals and the lightning rod, but a group of University of Notre Dame researchers suggest he should also be known for his innovative ways of making (literal) money.

During his career, Franklin printed nearly 2,500,000 money notes for the American Colonies using what the researchers have identified as highly original techniques, as reported in a study published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[...] "Benjamin Franklin saw that the Colonies' financial independence was necessary for their political independence. Most of the silver and gold coins brought to the British American colonies were rapidly drained away to pay for manufactured goods imported from abroad, leaving the Colonies without sufficient monetary supply to expand their economy," Manukyan said.

However, one major problem stood in the way of efforts to print paper money: counterfeiting. When Franklin opened his printing house in 1728, paper money was a relatively new concept. [...]

"To maintain the notes' dependability, Franklin had to stay a step ahead of counterfeiters," said Manukyan. "But the ledger where we know he recorded these printing decisions and methods has been lost to history. Using the techniques of physics, we have been able to restore, in part, some of what that record would have shown."

[...] One of the most distinctive features they found was in Franklin's pigments. Manukyan and his team determined the chemical elements used for each item in Notre Dame's collection of Colonial notes. The counterfeits, they found, have distinctive high quantities of calcium and phosphorus, but these elements are found only in traces in the genuine bills.

hubie writes:

Satisfaction with online dating app depends on what you're looking for:

With an estimated 75 million active users each month, Tinder is the most popular dating app in the world. But a new study by Stanford Medicine researchers and collaborators has found, surprisingly - though perhaps not to users of the app - that many users are not swiping for dates.

In a survey of more than a thousand Tinder users, half said they were not interested in meeting offline, and nearly two-thirds were already married or "in a relationship."

In fact, the psychological motivations behind people's use of the app varied widely and had a strong influence on their satisfaction with the app and the dates it led to, according to the study published June 23 in Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking. For many people, online dating has a similar appeal as social media - a source of entertainment, distraction and self-esteem - and may have similar pitfalls, said Elias Aboujaoude, MD, clinical professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and an author of the study.

[...] "The surprising part is that a big percentage, about half, were not going online to find dates," Aboujaoude said. "It becomes an interesting question as to why someone would spend all this time on a dating app if they're not interested in finding a date."

Besides looking for committed romantic partners or uncommitted sex partners, many people reported using the app for social connectedness, for entertainment and distraction, to increase positive emotions, and to cope with negative ones.

"We call them dating apps, but they're clearly serving other functions besides dating," Aboujaoude said.

[...] The results suggest that online dating is an ineffective coping mechanism for those facing mental health challenges, Aboujaoude said. As someone who has studied problematic internet use for 15 years, he drew parallels to social media use, which can exacerbate conditions like depression, anxiety and low self-esteem.

hubie writes:

Cross-selling can help retailers avoid lost revenue from returns:

It's become so darn easy to order stuff thanks to the miracles of online shopping. But it's not so simple on the retailer end, especially when more than 16 per cent of those sales are later sent back. In the U.S., that adds up to a staggering $816 billion in lost revenue.

Cross-selling can help, say a pair of researchers. Their experiments show that once we've chosen to buy something, we tend to consider that money as already spent or gone, also called "loss booking." If we decide we want to return the item, retailers can take advantage of that tendency by giving customers enticing options to spend their refund on something else, instead of getting their money back.

In a nutshell, "it hurts less to spend money refunded from a product return than other money, because you feel like you've already lost it," says researcher Chang-Yuan Lee, an assistant professor of marketing at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management.

[...] There's a catch though. The shopper has to psychologically mark the initial spend as lost, something that does not happen when they expect to ask for a refund at the time of purchase. Study participants who bought two pairs of shoes in different sizes, expecting to return the poorer-fitting pair, were not so likely to turn around and immediately apply the refund to something else offered.

[...] While consumers could be discouraged from making returns by being charged extra fees, that leaves a bad taste in their mouth and previous research has shown they may take their business elsewhere.

Do you typically want your money back, or do you find something else to spend it on?

Journal Reference:
Chang-Yuan Lee, Carey K. Morewedge, Mental accounting of product returns [open], Journal of Consumer Psychology, 2003. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/jcpy.1354

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Arm Acquires Minority Stake in Raspberry Pi

Arm Holdings plc today announced that it has made a strategic investment, a minority stake in Raspberry Pi Ltd — the arm of Raspberry Pi responsible for the new Raspberry Pi 5 and past Raspberry Pi products.

[...] "Arm technology has always been central to the platforms we create, and this investment is an important milestone in our longstanding partnership," said Eben Upton, CEO, Raspberry Pi.

[...] Arm's minority stake in Raspberry Pi Ltd also shows a firm commitment to the continuation of Arm CPUs in future Raspberry Pis. With the rise of RISC-V CPUs in devices ranging from $9 to hundreds of dollars it is clear to see that we will not be seeing a RISC-V based Raspberry Pi for the foreseeable future.

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

A NASA astronaut who was removed from the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission but helped bring its crew back home safely thanks to his problem-solving efforts from ground control has died at the age of 87.

Thomas K. "TK" Mattingly passed away on October 31, the space agency said in a statement Thursday.

His most dramatic role came when he was assigned as command module pilot for the Apollo 13 flight but was grounded 72 hours prior to launch due to exposure to rubella, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said.

After an explosion crippled the spacecraft on its way to the Moon, Mattingly, who did not in fact get sick, went to Mission Control and devised procedures to conserve power so the vehicle could successfully re-enter the atmosphere, ensuring astronauts James Lovell, Jack Swigert, and Fred Haise survived.

[...] Mattingly began his career as a US Navy pilot before being selected to the astronaut class of 1966. He later took on the role of command module pilot on the Apollo 16 mission and was the spacecraft commander in two Space Shuttle missions.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Sam Bankman-Fried found guilty in FTX crypto fraud case:

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried has been found guilty on all seven counts of fraud, conspiracy and money laundering following more than two weeks of testimony in one of the highest-profile financial crime cases in years.

The 31-year-old former cryptocurrency billionaire was convicted of two counts of wire fraud conspiracy, two counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, charges that each carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. He was also convicted of conspiracy to commit commodities fraud and conspiracy to commit securities fraud, which each carry a five-year maximum sentence.

"Sam Bankman-Fried perpetrated one of the biggest frauds in American history, a multibillion-dollar scheme designed to make him the king of crypto," Damian Williams, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a news briefing following the verdict. "Here's the thing: the cryptocurrency industry might be new. The players like Sam Bankman-Fried might be new. This kind of fraud, this kind of corruption, is as old as time, and we have no patience for it."

The MIT graduate steadfastly maintained his innocence since his arrest late last year after the startling implosion of FTX, the crypto exchange he co-founded, amid an $8 billion shortfall in funds and allegations he had used customer money to prop up his struggling hedge fund, Alameda Research.

[...] Defense attorneys sought to portray Bankman-Fried as a math nerd who made poor management decisions at FTX, but who had nothing criminal in mind while building his crypto empire.

In the end, it was perhaps the hubristic display during Bankman-Fried's own testimony that bore the most weight, and did the most damage. Under the prosecution's cross-examination, Bankman-Fried said "over 140 times" that he couldn't remember a document, conversation or other key details. The government said, again and again, that was because "he was lying."

DannyB writes:

FAA wraps up safety review of SpaceX's huge Starship rocket

[....] The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced today (Oct. 31) that it has wrapped up its Starship safety review, which assesses the risks that a launch might pose to public health and property.

However, there's still another regulatory box to check before SpaceX can get a license for the next Starship liftoff.

"The FAA is continuing to work on the environmental review," the agency wrote today in an emailed statement. "As part of its environmental review, the FAA is consulting with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) on an updated Biological Assessment under the Endangered Species Act. The FAA and the USFWS must complete this consultation before the environmental review portion of the license evaluation is completed."

[....] "SpaceX must implement all corrective actions that impact public safety and apply for and receive a license modification from the FAA that addresses all safety, environmental and other applicable regulatory requirements prior to the next Starship launch," the agency wrote at the time.

And, as today's FAA update notes, there's still work to do on the environmental side.

The ongoing review apparently centers on the potential impacts of a water deluge system, which SpaceX installed beneath Starbase's orbital launch mount after the April test flight.

The new system is designed to protect the mount from the destructive power of Super Heavy's 33 Raptor engines, which was on full display on April 20: The Raptors blasted out a big crater beneath the mount, sending chunks of concrete and other debris raining down on Starbase and the surrounding area.

Original Submission

hubie writes:

New study says relaxing paywall access does help increase subscriber counts long-term:

A new study has revealed that when news sites temporarily relax or suspend restrictions tied to paywall access, they eventually see an increase in subscribers. This reinforces the power and value of sampling as a marketing strategy. But there's more.

[...] The researchers found that when some news organizations temporarily suspended paywall restrictions on certain stories of public interest, such as the COVID-19 pandemic or U.S. presidential election, or when they provided free access up to a certain number of articles, those new visitors were more likely to become subscribers when the restrictions were reimposed.

"Our analyses revealed that the temporary paywall suspensions not only increased the amount of traffic during the suspension period, but also increased the likelihood that those visitors would become paid subscribers," says Chae. "We further found that the variety of content consumed during their period of 'free' access increased the likelihood that visitors would actually choose to subscribe."

[...] "One of the business concerns within news organizations is that relaxing the paywall for major events will cannibalize paid consumption," says Ha. "But this dynamic is effectively counteracted by an expansion where consumers who weren't willing to pay before have now gotten a taste of the content. That exposure lets them experience its value, relieving the consumer's uncertainty and helping to build a stronger relationship with that site visitor."

"One of the underlying factors that may also contribute to the positive effects of relaxed paywall subscription during certain times of important news is the public service aspect of the gesture, which helps to build trust with the public and the news consumer," adds Schweidel. "So, not only is the temporary suspension of paywall restrictions good business, but it also fulfills a societal obligation that news organizations have to keep the public informed."

Journal Reference:
Inyoung Chae, Jihyeon Ha, David A. Schweidel, Paywall Suspensions and Digital News Subscriptions, Marketing Science, 42, 4, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1287/mksc.2022.1400

Original Submission

canopic jug writes:

The Mozilla Corporation, known for applications like the Thunderbird e-mail client and the Firefox web browser, has issued a warning statement about some EU legislation sneaking its way through the back rooms. The text of the legislation is slated for approval in a non-public meeting in Brussels on November 8^th.

After years of legislative process, the near-final text of the eIDAS regulation has been agreed by trialogue negotiators¹ representing EU's key bodies and will be presented to the public and parliament for a rubber stamp before the end of the year. New legislative articles, introduced in recent closed-door meetings and not yet public, envision that all web browsers distributed in Europe will be required to trust the certificate authorities and cryptographic keys selected by EU governments.

These changes radically expand the capability of EU governments to surveil their citizens by ensuring cryptographic keys under government control can be used to intercept encrypted web traffic across the EU. Any EU member state has the ability to designate cryptographic keys for distribution in web browsers and browsers are forbidden from revoking trust in these keys without government permission.

This enables the government of any EU member state to issue website certificates for interception and surveillance which can be used against every EU citizen, even those not resident in or connected to the issuing member state. There is no independent check or balance on the decisions made by member states with respect to the keys they authorize and the use they put them to. This is particularly troubling given that adherence to the rule of law has not been uniform across all member states, with documented instances of coercion by secret police for political purposes.

The text goes on to ban browsers from applying security checks to these EU keys and certificates except those pre-approved by the EU's IT standards body - ETSI. This rigid structure would be problematic with any entity, but government-controlled standard bodies are especially susceptible to misaligned incentives in cryptography. ETSI in particular has both a concerning track record of producing compromised cryptographic standards and a working group dedicated entirely to developing interception technology.

The introduction of this text so late in the legislative process and behind closed doors is also deeply concerning for democratic norms in Europe. Although the deal itself was publicly announced in late June, the announcement doesn't even mention website certificates, let alone these new provisions. This has made it extremely difficult for civil society, academics and the general public to scrutinize or even be aware of the laws their representatives have signed off on in private meetings.

Romana JERKOVIĆ is responsible for the eIDAS file. It goes without saying that the race to the bottom affects both sides of the pond because each time damage is done, the other side quickly adapts the same policies for the sake of "harmonization". Everyone has a stake in this.

Original Submission

Freeman writes:

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/10/google-paid-26b-for-default-contracts-in-2021-google-exec-testified/

On Friday, Google started defending its search business during the Justice Department's monopoly trial. Among the first witnesses called was Google's senior vice president responsible for search, Prabhakar Raghavan, who testified that Google's default agreements with makers of popular mobile phones and web browsers were "the company's biggest cost" in 2021, Bloomberg Law reported.

Raghavan's testimony for the first time revealed that Google paid $26.3 billion in 2021 for default agreements, seemingly investing in default status for its search engine while raking in $146.4 billion in revenue from search advertising that year. Those numbers had increased "significantly" since 2014, Big Tech on Trial reported, when Google's search ad revenue was approximately 46 billion and traffic acquisition cost was approximately $7.1 billion.
[...]
Pichai will likely provide additional insights into how Google's smart investments are responsible for creating the search empire it maintains today, Reuters reported. But he will also likely face the DOJ's inquiries into why Google invests so much in default agreements if it's not a critical part of the tech giant's strategy to stay ahead of the competition.

The DOJ is not likely to back down from its case that default agreements unfairly secured Google's search market dominance. On Friday, Big Tech on Trial reporter Yosef Weitzman—who has been posting updates from the trial on X—suggested that things have gotten tense in the courtroom now that the "DOJ seems emboldened to push for more information to be public after Judge Mehta's comments yesterday that not all numbers need to remain redacted."

According to Weitzman, the DOJ today pushed to "make public the 20 search queries Google makes the most revenue off of, as well as Google's traffic acquisition costs related to search (the total amount of money Google paid to partners in search distribution revenue shares)."

Previously:
Google, DOJ Still Blocking Public Access to Monopoly Trial Docs, NYT Says 20231020
Microsoft CEO Warns of "Nightmare" Future for AI If Google's Search Dominance Continues 20231004

Original Submission

DannyB writes:

Can humans reproduce in space? Mouse breakthrough on ISS a promising sign

This is the first-ever study that shows mammals may be able to thrive in space.

Researchers have successfully grown mouse embryos aboard the International Space Station (ISS) for the first time.

This represents "the first-ever study that shows mammals may be able to thrive in space," the University of Yamanashi and National Research Institute Riken said in a joint statement on Saturday, adding that it is "the world's first experiment that cultured early-stage mammalian embryos under complete microgravity of ISS."

[ . . . . ] frozen mouse embryos were blasted to the ISS aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in August 2021. After arriving at the space station, the early-stage rodent embryos were thawed using a special instrument. Following this, astronauts cultured the embryos under microgravity for four days. The samples were then returned to Earth, where Wakayama and colleagues could study and compare them to mouse embryos grown in normal gravity here on terra firma.

And sure enough, according to a paper published in the journal iScience, the team reported that embryos cultured under microgravity conditions developed into blastocysts  —  a cluster of dividing cells made by a fertilized egg — with normal cell numbers. The researchers said in the paper that this "clearly demonstrated that gravity had no significant effect on the blastocyst formation and initial differentiation of mammalian embryos."

The team also found that, if allowed, the blastocysts would grow into mouse fetuses and placentas while showing no significant DNA alterations or changes in gene expression. The survival rate of the embryos grown on the ISS was lower, however, than those cultivated here on Earth.

Sending a frozen human embryo to the ISS would not be as fresh as an embryo created on orbit.

Original Submission

hubie writes:

Robots, AI programs may undermine credibility of religious groups, study finds:

As artificial intelligence expands across more professions, robot preachers and AI programs offer new means of sharing religious beliefs, but they may undermine credibility and reduce donations for religious groups that rely on them, according to research published by the American Psychological Association.

"It seems like robots take over more occupations every year, but I wouldn't be so sure that religious leaders will ever be fully automated because religious leaders need credibility, and robots aren't credible," said lead researcher Joshua Conrad Jackson, PhD, an assistant professor at the University of Chicago in the Booth School of Business.

[...] Jackson and his colleagues conducted an experiment with the Mindar humanoid robot at the Kodai-Ji Buddhist temple in Kyoto, Japan. The robot has a humanlike silicon face with moving lips and blinking eyes on a metal body. It delivers 25-minute Heart Sutra sermons on Buddhist principles with surround sound and multi-media projections.

Mindar, which was created in 2019 by a Japanese robotics team in partnership with the temple, cost almost $1 million to develop, but it might be reducing donations to the temple, according to the study.

The researchers surveyed 398 participants who were leaving the temple after hearing a sermon delivered either by Mindar or a human Buddhist priest. Participants viewed Mindar as less credible and gave smaller donations than those who heard a sermon from the human priest.

[...] "Robots and AI programs can't truly hold any religious beliefs so religious organizations may see declining commitment from their congregations if they rely more on technology than on human leaders who can demonstrate their faith," Jackson said.

Journal Reference:
Jackson, J. C., Yam, K. C., Tang, P. M., Liu, T., & Shariff, A. (2023). Exposure to robot preachers undermines religious commitment. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0001443

Original Submission