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The research, led by Geoffrey Ellis, a petroleum geochemist at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), has been published in the journal Science Advances. It suggests that tapping into just a fraction of this hydrogen could have far-reaching implications for the world's energy future.

"Just 2% of the hydrogen stocks found in the study, equivalent to 124 billion tons of gas, would supply all the hydrogen we need to get to net-zero [carbon] for a couple hundred years," Ellis told LiveScience. This amount of hydrogen contains roughly twice the energy stored in all known natural gas reserves on Earth.

Hydrogen, a clean energy carrier, has diverse applications, ranging from fueling vehicles to powering industrial processes and generating electricity. As global efforts to combat climate change intensify, hydrogen is projected to play an increasingly significant role, potentially accounting for up to 30% of future energy supply in some sectors.

The study's findings challenge long-held beliefs about hydrogen's behavior underground. "The paradigm throughout my entire career was that hydrogen's out there, it occurs, but it's a very small molecule, so it easily escapes through small pores and cracks and rocks," Ellis said. However, recent discoveries of substantial hydrogen caches in West Africa and an Albanian chromium mine have shifted this perspective.

To estimate the global hydrogen reserves, Ellis and his colleague Sarah Gelman developed a model accounting for various factors, including hydrogen production rates underground, the amount likely trapped in reservoirs, and losses through processes such as atmospheric leakage. The model revealed a wide range of possible hydrogen quantities, from 1 billion to 10 trillion tons, with 6.2 trillion tons being the most probable estimate.

While these figures are promising, Ellis cautions that much of this hydrogen may be inaccessible due to depth or offshore locations. Additionally, some reserves might be too small for economically viable extraction. Nevertheless, the sheer scale of the estimated reserves suggests that even with these limitations, there could be ample hydrogen available for exploitation.

upstart [soylentnews.org] writes:

Autism Prevalence Reaches 61.8 Million Globally, Study Shows:

[Editor's Note - See disclosure that several authors have ties the to pharmaceutical industry--JR]

The global prevalence and rank of nonfatal burden of autism spectrum disorder are high, according to a review published online Dec. 19 in The Lancet Psychiatry.

Damian Santomauro, Ph.D., from the University of Queensland in Archerfield, Australia, and colleagues conducted a systematic literature review to estimate the global prevalence and health burden of autism spectrum disorder.

The researchers found that in 2021, an estimated 61.8 million individuals were on the autism spectrum globally. The global age-standardized prevalence was 788.3 per 100,000 people, which was equivalent to 1,064.7 and 508.1 males and females with autism per 100,000 males and females, respectively.

Globally, autism spectrum disorder accounted for 11.5 million disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs), which was equivalent to 147.6 DALYs per 100,000 people. Age-standardized DALY rates varied from 126.5 to 204.1 per 100,000 people in Southeast Asia, East Asia, and Oceania and in the high-income super region, respectively. Across the lifespan, DALYs were evident, emerging for children younger than 5 years (169.2 DALYs per 100,000 people) and decreasing with age (163.4 and 137.7 DALYs per 100,00 people aged younger than 20 and aged 20 years or older, respectively). For people younger than 20 years, autism spectrum disorder was ranked within the top 10 causes of nonfatal health burden.

"We hope that this study provides a foundation for future research and policy interventions, so that key stakeholders work to ensure that the unique needs of all autistic people are met, contributing to a better, more inclusive, and more understanding future," the authors write.

Several authors disclosed ties to the pharmaceutical industry.

More information: Damian F Santomauro et al, The global epidemiology and health burden of the autism spectrum: findings from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021, The Lancet Psychiatry (2024). DOI: 10.1016/S2215-0366(24)00363-8

owl writes:

https://github.com/kokx/duco-analysis

My newly built house came with a promising feature: a DucoBox Energy Comfort D325 ventilation system with heat recovery. While the system efficiently preheats incoming air using outgoing air's heat, its control options were limited to four basic modes through a simple button interface. I wanted more - specifically, integration with Home Assistant. The official solution? A Duco Connectivity Board. But when I noticed it was just an ESP32 in disguise, I knew there had to be a better way.

The system operates in four general modes: one AUTO mode, which selects the mode automatically, and three manual modes that set airflow levels. By default, these modes are active for 15 minutes, but holding the button longer keeps the mode active until stopped.

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looorg writes:

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3rqlejlxg4o
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwy553j377do
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-cornwall-68911765

Hundreds of pieces of Lego lost at sea off a cargo ship 27 years ago have been found this year, including the first ever shark.

A freak wave swept 62 shipping containers of Lego off the Tokio Express cargo ship 20 miles (32km) off Land's End on 13 February 1997, one of which held 4,756,940 pieces, much of it sea-themed.

Since then, Lego parts have been found in south-west England, the Channel Islands, Wales, Ireland and as far away as the Netherlands and Norway.

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fliptop writes:

Chinese crime rings already dominate the illegal marijuana trade in the U.S. and launder cocaine and heroin profits. Now a federal task force is investigating their role in a burgeoning form of gift card fraud:

Federal authorities are investigating the involvement of Chinese organized crime rings in gift card fraud schemes that have stolen hundreds of millions of dollars or more from American consumers.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has launched a task force, whose existence has not previously been reported, to combat a scheme known as "card draining," in which thieves use stolen or altered card numbers to siphon off money before the owner can spend it. The initiative has been dubbed "Project Red Hook," for the perpetrators' ties to China and their exploitation of cards hung in store kiosks on "J-hooks."

This marks the first time that federal authorities have focused on the role of Chinese organized crime in gift card fraud and devoted resources to fighting it. Homeland Security Investigations, a DHS agency, began prioritizing gift card fraud late last year in response to a flurry of consumer complaints and arrests connected to card draining.

[...] Card draining is when criminals remove gift cards from a store display, open them in a separate location, and either record the card numbers and PINs or replace them with a new barcode. The crooks then repair the packaging, return to a store and place the cards back on a rack. When a customer unwittingly selects and loads money onto a tampered card, the criminal is able to access the card online and steal the balance.

[...] More broadly, almost 60% of retailers said they experienced an increase in gift card scams between 2022 and 2023. Between 2019 and 2023, Americans lost close to $1 billion to card draining and other gift card scams, according to the Federal Trade Commission.

Originally spotted on Schneier on Security.

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upstart writes:

A review of 3,000 studies indicates that these microscopic plastic particles in the air could be contributing to male and female infertility:

Tires and degrading garbage release tiny plastic particles into the air, contributing to air pollution that researchers at UC San Francisco believe may be linked to respiratory issues and other health problems.

A comprehensive review of approximately 3,000 studies highlights the potential dangers of these particles. They have been associated with serious health concerns such as male and female infertility, colon cancer, and impaired lung function. Additionally, these particles may trigger chronic pulmonary inflammation, which could elevate the risk of lung cancer.

"These microplastics are basically particulate matter air pollution, and we know this type of air pollution is harmful," said Tracey J. Woodruff, PhD, MPH, a professor of obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive sciences at UCSF.

[...] Microplastics are less than 5 millimeters – smaller than a grain of rice – and they are ubiquitous in the environment. Each year, companies around the world produce nearly 460 million metric tons of plastic. That is projected to reach 1.1 billion by 2050.

[...] "We urge regulatory agencies and policy leaders to consider the growing evidence of health harms from microplastics, including colon and lung cancer," said Nicholas Chartres, PhD.

Journal Reference: "Effects of Microplastic Exposure on Human Digestive, Reproductive, and Respiratory Health: A Rapid Systematic Review" by Nicholas Chartres, Courtney B. Cooper, Garret Bland, et al., 18 December 2024, Environmental Science & Technology. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.3c09524

Other microplastics stories on SN

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Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

Like other Chinese entities, TikTok owner ByteDance cannot buy the highest-performance Nvidia GPUs and install them into its data centers in China. However, the company has found that it can still use Nvidia GPUs that are physically located in cloud data centers in other countries. Next year, the company aims to expand its usage of such GPUs and spend as much as $7 billion on access to Nvidia GPUs, reports The Information, citing its own sources. ByteDance has denied the report. 

The report says ByteDance plans to invest over $20 billion in AI infrastructure, including $7 billion in accessing advanced Nvidia GPUs in the cloud, data centers, and even submarine cables. The U.S. prohibits ByteDance from purchasing Nvidia GPUs and using American cloud services. However, it cannot block ByteDance’s access to cloud services elsewhere, for example, in the Middle East or Asian countries. As a result, ByteDance can access American processors while technically adhering to U.S. sanctions against China’s AI and HPC sectors.

ByteDance has denied the report. However, if the report is correct and ByteDance invests $7 billion in cloud access to Nvidia GPUs, it will be one of the world’s largest consumers of AI hardware.

[...] Notably, ByteDance is also reportedly working with Broadcom to develop its own AI processors to reduce its reliance on Nvidia. It is rumored that the company will be working on two processors: one for training and another for inference. The chips are projected to be made by TSMC on its N4/N5 process technologies and will enter mass production in 2026. Although ByteDance will unlikely be able to make its GPUs significantly faster than Nvidia’s HGX H20 due to U.S. export control restrictions (which would prevent TSMC from shipping high-performance GPUs to Chinese entities), in-house processors will be considerably more cost-effective for the company.

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upstart writes:

U.S. Army Soldier Arrested in AT&T, Verizon Extortions:

Federal authorities have arrested and indicted a 20-year-old U.S. Army soldier on suspicion of being Kiberphant0m, a cybercriminal who has been selling and leaking sensitive customer call records stolen earlier this year from AT&T and Verizon. As first reported by KrebsOnSecurity last month, the accused is a communications specialist who was recently stationed in South Korea.

Cameron John Wagenius was arrested near the Army base in Fort Hood, Texas on Dec. 20, after being indicted on two criminal counts of unlawful transfer of confidential phone records.

The sparse, two-page indictment (PDF) doesn't reference specific victims or hacking activity, nor does it include any personal details about the accused. But a conversation with Wagenius' mother — Minnesota native Alicia Roen — filled in the gaps.

Roen said that prior to her son's arrest he'd acknowledged being associated with Connor Riley Moucka, a.k.a. "Judische," a prolific cybercriminal from Canada who was arrested in late October for stealing data from and extorting dozens of companies that stored data at the cloud service Snowflake.

In an interview with KrebsOnSecurity, Judische said he had no interest in selling the data he'd stolen from Snowflake customers and telecom providers, and that he preferred to outsource that to Kiberphant0m and others. Meanwhile, Kiberphant0m claimed in posts on Telegram that he was responsible for hacking into at least 15 telecommunications firms, including AT&T and Verizon.

On November 26, KrebsOnSecurity published a story that followed a trail of clues left behind by Kiberphantom indicating he was a U.S. Army soldier stationed in South Korea.

[...] The profile photo on Wagenius' Facebook page was deleted within hours of my Nov. 26 story identifying Kiberphant0m as a likely U.S. Army soldier. Still, many of his original profile photos remain, including several that show Wagenius in uniform while holding various Army-issued weapons.

canopic jug writes:

The videos are online from the 38^th Chaos Communication Congress (38C3). It took place in Hamburg, from Friday the 27^th through Monday the 30^th 2024. The conference is organized every year by the Chaos Computer Club e. V. (CCC) which is Europe's largest association of hackers. The CCC also organizes campaigns, events, lobbying, publications, anonymizing services, communication infrastructure and even hackerspaces.

The Congress is always interesting, so picking semi-randomly from the English subset of talks at the 38C3 highlights include:

• We've not been trained for this: life after the Newag DRM disclosure - a follow up to last year's presentation on DRM in passenger trains in Poland
• From Silicon to Sovereignty: How Advanced Chips are Redefining Global Dominance - chip manufacturing
• Breaking NATO Radio Encryption - a weakend ÆSderivative
• A fully free BIOS with GNU Boot - an overview

Previously:
(2017) 34th Chaos Communication Congress (34C3) Presentations Online
(2014) The Fall of Hacker Groups

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The suspect in the New Orleans attack that killed 15 people on New Year's Day did not act alone, US investigators believe.

Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a 42-year-old US citizen, is believed to have driven a pick-up truck into a crowd on a busy New Orleans street, before exiting the vehicle and firing a weapon. He was shot dead by police at the scene.

The FBI says an Islamic State (IS) group flag was found inside the vehicle he was driving, while two improvised explosive devices were found nearby.

FBI assistant special agent Alethea Duncan said the agency did not believe Jabbar was "solely responsible" and were investigating the incident as an "act of terrorism".

At least 15 killed, dozens hurt on Bourbon Street in New Orleans as driver intentionally slams truck into crowd

A man intentionally drove a pickup truck into a crowd of revelers on Bourbon Street in New Orleans' French Quarter early on New Year's Day, killing at least 15 people and injuring dozens of others, officials said. A black ISIS flag was flying from the truck's rear bumper, and the attack is being investigated as an act of terrorism, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said.

The man driving the vehicle has been identified as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, a U.S. citizen from Texas, the FBI said.

In televised remarks Wednesday evening, President Biden said the FBI has determined that just hours before the attack, Jabbar "posted videos to social media indicating that he was inspired by ISIS, expressing a desire to kill."

The vehicle was an electric Ford pickup truck that appears to have been rented, the FBI said. Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said on social media Jabbar rented the truck on Dec. 30, while living in the Houston area, before heading to New Orleans.

Authorities probe possible military link between suspects in New Orleans attack and Trump Tower Cybertruck blast

The potential link was just one thread being pulled by officials Thursday, a day after 15 people were killed when a man plowed a pickup truck flying an ISIS flag through New Year's Day revelers on Bourbon Street in New Orleans.

Authorities are investigating a possible military connection between the New Orleans car-ramming suspect and the person who died after a Tesla Cybertruck exploded outside Las Vegas' Trump International Hotel on New Year's Day, two law enforcement sources familiar with the cases told NBC News.

The potential link was just one thread being pulled by officials Thursday, who were also searching a site in Texas a day after a man drove a pick-up truck flying an ISIS flag into New Orleans' busy Bourbon Street in the early hours of New Year's Day, killing 15 people and injuring at least 30 others.

The FBI is investigating it as a terrorist act. Authorities are still looking into "people of interest," New Orleans Police Department Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick told NBC News' "TODAY" show Thursday.

upstart writes:

Crypto fugitive Do Kwon extradited to US over $40bn crash:

A South Korean man accused of being responsible for a cryptocurrency crisis which cost investors $40bn (£31.8bn) has finally been extradited to the United States.

Do Kwon was the boss of Terraform, which operated two cryptocurrencies - TerraUSD and Luna - both of which collapsed in 2022, sparking a wider sell-off in the crypto market.

The US says he was responsible for the coins' failure, accusing him of "orchestrating a multi-billion dollar crypto asset securities fraud".

Kwon fled South Korea after a warrant for his arrest was issued, eventually ending up in Montenegro where he has now been extradited from, following a lengthy legal battle.

He was previously found guilty of forging documents by a Montenegro court, having been arrested as he was attempting to board a plane to Dubai in March 2023.

[...] The Montenegrin Ministry of Justice approved the extradition earlier in December.

It claimed that Do Kwon had also agreed to it.

Kwon's firm Terraform Labs became widely known in 2021, when its coins Luna and TerraUSD exploded in popularity.

Fans of Luna became known as "Lunatics", with Kwon referred to as their "king".

But, despite a huge amount of money being poured into the coins, on 9 May 2022 Terraform Labs collapsed catastrophically, losing more than 99% of its value in 48 hours.

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Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

A report by The Financial Times has revealed Nvidia's plans to achieve this future. It highlights how Deepu Talla, Nvidia's VP of robotics, believes the robotics market has reached an inflection point where physical AI and robotics are about to take off in a big way.

"The ChatGPT moment for physical AI and robotics is just around the corner," Talla told the publication, adding that he believes the market has reached a "tipping point."

To capitalize on this, Nvidia wants to position itself as the go-to platform for robotics. The company already offers a full robotics stack. This includes the software for training foundational AI models on DGX systems, its Omniverse simulation platform, and the Jetson hardware.

However, things are set to accelerate next year, with Nvidia planning to launch its latest robot brain called Jetson Thor. This will be the newest addition to the company's Jetson platform, which is a line of compact computers designed for AI applications. Jetson Thor will be a model focused specifically on robotics, though.

Talla says that there are currently two key breakthroughs driving Nvidia's robotics optimism. First is the rise of powerful generative AI models. The second is the ability to train robots in these foundational models using simulated environments.

He stated that in the past year alone, this 'sim-to-real gap' has progressed enough to enable the combination of simulations with generative AI in powerful new ways that were not feasible two years ago.

[...] The robotics push comes as Nvidia faces increasing competition in AI chips from the likes of AMD. While AI still accounts for a massive 88% of Nvidia's $35 billion in quarterly revenue, the company is wise to explore new frontiers. After all, the robotics market is projected to soar from $78 billion currently to $165 billion by the end of 2029, per BCC Research.

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upstart writes:

A 9th telecoms firm has been hit by a massive Chinese espionage campaign, the White House says:

A ninth U.S. telecoms firm has been confirmed to have been hacked as part of a sprawling Chinese espionage campaign that gave officials in Beijing access to private texts and phone conversations of an unknown number of Americans, a top White House official said Friday.

Biden administration officials said this month that at least eight telecommunications companies, as well as dozens of nations, had been affected by the Chinese hacking blitz known as Salt Typhoon.

But deputy national security adviser Anne Neuberger told reporters Friday that a ninth victim had been identified after the administration released guidance to companies about how to hunt for Chinese culprits in their networks.

The update from Neuberger is the latest development in a massive hacking operation that has alarmed national security officials, exposed cybersecurity vulnerabilities in the private sector and laid bare China's hacking sophistication.

The hackers compromised the networks of telecommunications companies to obtain customer call records and gain access to the private communications of what officials have said is a a limited number of individuals. Though the FBI has not publicly identified any of the victims, officials believe senior U.S. government officials and prominent political figures are among those whose whose communications were accessed.

Neuberger said Friday that officials did not yet have a precise sense how many Americans overall were affected by Salt Typhoon, in part because the Chinese were careful about their techniques, but that a "large number" were in the Washington-Virginia area.

Officials believe the goal of the hackers was to identify who owned the phones and, if they were "government targets of interest," spy on their texts and phone calls, she said.

The FBI said most of the people targeted by the hackers are "primarily involved in government or political activity."

Neuberger said the episode highlighted the need for required cybersecurity practices in the telecommunications industry, something the Federal Communications Commission is to take up at a meeting next month. In addition, she said, the government was planning additional actions in coming weeks in response to the hacking campaign, though she did not say what they were.

"We know that voluntary cyber security practices are inadequate to protect against China, Russia and Iran hacking of our critical infrastructure," she said.

The Chinese government has denied responsibility for the hacking.

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upstart writes:

Hallucinogens approved for treating psychiatric disorders: What does the science say?:

Once sidelined in the 1970s, psychedelic substances—ranging from esketamine (a ketamine derivative) and psilocybin (the active ingredient in hallucinogenic mushrooms) to MDMA—are being reintroduced as potential therapies for severe psychiatric disorders.

Esketamine-based antidepressants have been approved in countries such as France and the United States, where dextromethorphan is also used. Australia has gone a step further, granting regulatory approval for MDMA and psilocybin to treat certain psychiatric conditions.

Yet, an analysis led by researchers at the University of Rennes suggests that the scientific evidence supporting these treatments is weak. These substances also carry significant risks, including misuse and vulnerabilities associated with the patient's mental state.

Hallucinogens are now being presented as a breakthrough in the treatment of severe psychiatric disorders, such as depression or post-traumatic stress disorder, sometimes in combination with psychotherapy.

Despite being presented as innovations, the therapeutic potential of psychedelics is not a new discovery. In the 1960s and 70s, these substances were explored for medical use but quickly fell out of favor due to regulatory restrictions.

Now, in 2024, the question remains: Are psychedelics genuinely effective for treating psychiatric disorders? An international panel of experts—two psychiatrists, one addiction specialist, and three psychologists, supported by researchers from the University of Rennes—reviewed clinical trials to provide insights.

Psychedelics such as MDMA and psilocybin have already gained approval in regions such as the U.S., Europe, and Australia. However, assessing their effectiveness presents unique challenges, particularly within the rigorous framework of double-blind trials.

In traditional drug testing, two groups of patients are compared: one receives the drug, while the other receives a placebo or standard treatment. To ensure unbiased results, neither the patients nor the clinicians know who is receiving which treatment.

With psychedelics, this method falters. Their unmistakable effects—hallucinations, altered perceptions, and dissociation—make it nearly impossible to maintain the "blindness" of the study groups, potentially skewing results.

China wants to restore the sea with high-tech marine ranches:

Developing nations have historically faced a trade-off between plundering marine resources for development and protecting ecosystems for future generations, says Cao Ling, a professor at Xiamen University in eastern China. When growing countries take more than natural ecosystems can replenish, measures like seasonal fishing bans have been the traditional way to allow fisheries to recover. Marine ranching offers an alternative to restricting fishing—a way to "really synergize environmental, economic, and social development goals," says Cao—by actively increasing the ocean's bounty.

It's now a "hot topic" in China, says Cao, who grew up on her family's fish farm before conducting research at the University of Michigan and Stanford. In fact, "marine ranching" has become such a buzzword that it can be hard to tell what it actually means, encompassing as it does flagship facilities like Genghai No. 1 (which merge scientific research with industrial-scale aquaculture pens, recreational fishing amenities, and offshore power) and a baffling array of structures including deep-sea floating wind farms with massive fish-farming cages and 100,000-ton "mobile marine ranches"—effectively fish-breeding aircraft carriers. There are even whole islands, like the butterfly-shaped Wuzhizhou on China's tropical south coast, that have been designated as ranching areas.

To understand what a marine ranch is, it's easiest to come back to the practice's roots. In the early 1970s, California, Oregon, Washington, and Alaska passed laws to allow construction of facilities aimed at repairing stocks of salmon after the rivers where they traditionally bred had been decimated by pollution and hydroelectric dams. The idea was essentially twofold: to breed fish in captivity and to introduce them into safe nurseries in the Pacific. Since 1974, when the first marine ranches in the US were built off the coast of California and Oregon, ranchers have constructed artificial habitats, usually concrete reef structures, that proponents hoped could provide nursery grounds where both valuable commercial stocks and endangered marine species could be restored.

Today, fish farming is a $200 billion industry that has had a catastrophic environmental impact, blighting coastal waters with streams of fish feces, pathogens, and parasites.

Marine ranching has rarely come close to fulfilling this potential. Eight of the 11 ranches that opened in the US in the 1970s were reportedly shuttered by 1990, their private investors having struggled to turn a profit. Meanwhile, European nations like Norway spent big on attempts to restock commercially valuable species like cod before abandoning the efforts because so few introduced fish survived in the wild. Japan, which has more ranches than any other country, made big profits with scallop ranching. But a long-term analysis of Japan's policies estimated that all other schemes involving restocking the ocean were unprofitable. Worse, it found, releasing docile, lab-bred fish into the wild could introduce genetically damaging traits into the original population.

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