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- www.space.com NASA's Perseverance Mars rover finds possible signs of ancient Red Planet life
"On Earth, these types of features in rocks are often associated with the fossilized record of microbes living in the subsurface."
- www.nature.com AI models fed AI-generated data quickly spew nonsense
Researchers gave successive versions of a large language model information produced by previous generations of the AI — and observed rapid collapse.
- science.nasa.gov NASA’s Fermi Finds New Feature in Brightest Gamma-Ray Burst Yet Seen - NASA Science
In October 2022, astronomers were stunned by what was quickly dubbed the BOAT — the brightest-of-all-time gamma-ray burst (GRB). Now an international science team reports that data from NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope reveals a feature never seen before. “A few minutes after the BOAT erupted,...
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Why Do Only Some Cohort Studies Find Health Benefits From Low-Volume Alcohol Use? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Study Characteristics That May Bias Mortality Risk Estimates
From the article:
>As predicted, studies with younger cohorts and separating former and occasional drinkers from abstainers estimated similar mortality risk for low-volume drinkers (RR = 0.98, 95% CI [0.87, 1.11]) as abstainers. Studies not meeting these quality criteria estimated significantly lower risk for low-volume drinkers (RR = 0.84, [0.79, 0.89]). In exploratory analyses, studies controlling for smoking and/or socioeconomic status had significantly reduced mortality risks for low-volume drinkers. However, mean RR estimates for low-volume drinkers in nonsmoking cohorts were above 1.0 (RR = 1.16, [0.91, 1.41]).
>Studies with life-time selection biases may create misleading positive health associations. These biases pervade the field of alcohol epidemiology and can confuse communications about health risks. Future research should investigate whether smoking status mediates, moderates, or confounds alcohol-mortality risk relationships.
- www.nature.com So you got a null result. Will anyone publish it?
Researchers have tried a bunch of strategies to get more negative results into the literature. Nature asks whether they are working.
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Biscuit Basin in Yellowstone closed after hydrothermal explosion
www.nbcmontana.com Geyser explosion at Yellowstone National Park stuns touristsBiscuit Basin in Yellowstone National Park has been closed following a massive hydrothermal explosion Tuesday morning, according to the National Park Service.
Videos:https://youtu.be/6-6BXZVRdkwhttps://inv.nadeko.net/watch?v=6-6BXZVRdkwVideos removed "due to copyright"
- www.nature.com Mystery oxygen source discovered on the sea floor — bewildering scientists
A chemical reaction could be producing oxygen by splitting water molecules, but its source of energy remains unknown.
- www.theguardian.com Botanists vote to remove racist reference from plants’ scientific names
Offensive term to be replaced as first step towards more changes in unprecedented reform of nomenclature rules
Offensive term to be replaced as first step towards more changes in unprecedented reform of nomenclature rules
Scientists have voted to eliminate the names of certain plants that are deemed to be racially offensive. The decision to remove a label that contains such a slur was taken last week after a gruelling six-day session attended by more than 100 researchers, as part of the International Botanical Congress, which officially opens on Sunday in Madrid.
The effect of the vote will be that all plants, fungi and algae names that contain the word caffra, which originates in insults made against Black people, will be replaced by the word affra to denote their African origins. More than 200 species will be affected, including the coast coral tree, which, from 2026, will be known as Erythrina affra instead of Erythrina caffra.
The scientists attending the nomenclature session also agreed to create a special committee which would rule on names given to newly discovered plants, fungi and algae. These are usually named by those who first describe them in the scientific literature. However, the names could now be overruled by the committee if they are deemed to be derogatory to a group or race.
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Watch Nuclear Fusion Happen in This 3D Tokamak Simulation
actu.epfl.ch 3D visualization brings nuclear fusion to lifeEPFL was selected by the EUROfusion consortium to develop an advanced visualization system for a preliminary process in nuclear fusion. The system is designed to turn reams of simulation and testing data into real-time graphics worthy of today’s advanced video games.
> At EPFL, the Laboratory for Experimental Museology (EM+) specializes in this technology and has developed a program that turns the terabytes of data generated from the tokamak simulations and testing carried out by EPFL’s Swiss Plasma Center (SPC) into an immersive 3D visualization experience. For the general public, the visualization is a journey into a ring of fireworks illustrating a possible future source of energy; for scientists, it’s a valuable tool that renders the complex phenomena of quantum physics tangible and helps them grasp the results of their calculations.
> The 3D visualization – a panorama measuring 4 meters high and 10 meters in diameter – is a faithful reproduction of the interior of EPFL’s variable-configuration tokamak (TCV), rendered in such stunning detail that it rivals even the best-quality gaming experience.
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Note: The 3D visualization is a physical display at their facility. I spent far too long parsing multiple articles trying to find a link to an online visualization. The article is still good, and there are images of the visualization.
- phys.org NASA's Curiosity rover discovers a surprise in a Martian rock
Scientists were stunned on May 30 when a rock that NASA's Curiosity Mars rover drove over cracked open to reveal something never seen before on the Red Planet: yellow sulfur crystals.
Scientists were stunned on May 30 when a rock that NASA's Curiosity Mars rover drove over cracked open to reveal something never seen before on the Red Planet: yellow sulfur crystals. Since October 2023, the rover has been exploring a region of Mars rich with sulfates, a kind of salt that contains sulfur and forms as water evaporates. But where past detections have been of sulfur-based minerals -- in other words, a mix of sulfur and other materials -- the rock Curiosity recently cracked open is made of elemental (pure) sulfur. It isn't clear what relationship, if any, the elemental sulfur has to other sulfur-based minerals in the area.
While people associate sulfur with the odor from rotten eggs (the result of hydrogen sulfide gas), elemental sulfur is odorless. It forms in only a narrow range of conditions that scientists haven't associated with the history of this location. And Curiosity found a lot of it -- an entire field of bright rocks that look similar to the one the rover crushed. "Finding a field of stones made of pure sulfur is like finding an oasis in the desert," said Curiosity's project scientist, Ashwin Vasavada of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. "It shouldn't be there, so now we have to explain it. Discovering strange and unexpected things is what makes planetary exploration so exciting."
- www.nytimes.com This Is Literally Your Brain on Drugs
A small new study shows reactions in the brain in people who were given psilocybin in a controlled setting.
The image, as it happens, comes from dozens of brain scans produced by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis who gave psilocybin, the compound in "magic mushrooms," to participants in a study before sending them into a functional M.R.I. scanner. The kaleidoscopic whirl of colors they recorded is essentially a heat map of brain changes, with the red, orange and yellow hues reflecting a significant departure from normal activity patterns. The blues and greens reflect normal brain activity that occurs in the so-called functional networks, the neural communication pathways that connect different regions of the brain.
The scans, published Wednesday in the journal Nature, offer a rare glimpse into the wild neural storm associated with mind-altering drugs. Researchers say they could provide a potential road map for understanding how psychedelic compounds like psilocybin, LSD and MDMA can lead to lasting relief from depression, anxiety and other mental health disorders. "Psilocybin, in contrast to any other drug we've tested, has this massive effect on the whole brain that was pretty unexpected," said Dr. Nico Dosenbach, a professor of neurology at Washington University and a senior author of the study. "It was quite shocking when we saw the effect size." Brian Mathur, a systems neuroscientist at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore, says these findings cannot show exactly what causes the therapeutic benefit of psilocybin, but "it's possible psilocybin is directly causing" the brain-network changes. That, or it is creating a psychedelic experience that in turn causes parts of the brain to behave differently.
The next step is to determine whether psilocybin's blood-flow changes in the brain or its direct effects on neurons, or both, are responsible for the brain-network disruptions. "The best part of this work is that it's going to provide a means forward for the field to develop further hypotheses that can and should be tested," Mathur says.
- www.nature.com Inhibition of IL-11 signalling extends mammalian healthspan and lifespan - Nature
IL-11 is identified as a key regulator of ERK–AMPK–mTORC1 signalling, metabolism, inflammation and age-related disease and lifespan in mouse and human.
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Hyperosmolal vaginal lubricants markedly reduce epithelial barrier properties in a three-dimensional vaginal epithelium model
Looking at any interesting effects of propylene glycol in vaginal lubricants I stumbled upon this study. Then I found it isn't the only one pointing to hyperosmolal lubes causing damage to the epithelium either.
- cbnumy.blogspot.com The most promising candidate for a blood substitute? The United States military is placing a substantial bet of $46 million on it.
In the 1800s, Theodore Gaillard Thomas gained a remarkable degree of renown as a gynecologist, largely due to his involvement in a peculia...
- www.space.com Can the James Webb Space Telescope see galaxies over the universe's horizon?
How can any telescope see a galaxy 33.8 billion light-years away in a universe that is only 13.8 billion years old?
hmm, light on answers but interesting questions
- www.popularmechanics.com All Life on Earth Comes From One Single Ancestor. And It's So Much Older Than We Thought.
Scientists have pushed back LUCA’s origin by hundreds of millions of years.
- www.theguardian.com Neolithic population collapse may have been caused by plague, researchers say
DNA studies suggest disease was central to devastating collapse of northern European population 5,000 years ago
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Bill Gates-backed startup makes ‘butter’ out of water and carbon dioxide
www.zmescience.com Bill Gates-backed startup makes 'butter' out of water and carbon dioxideTo make this alternative butter, you don't need land, livestock, or crops.
A California-based startup called Savor has figured out a unique way to make a butter alternative that doesn’t involve livestock, plants, or even displacing land. Their butter is produced from synthetic fat made using carbon dioxide and hydrogen, and the best part is —- it tastes just like regular butter.
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Do recent explanations solve the mysteries of aerodynamic lift?
www.scientificamerican.com No One Can Explain Why Planes Stay in the AirDo recent explanations solve the mysteries of aerodynamic lift?
- www.discovermagazine.com When Scientific Citations Go Rogue: Uncovering ‘Sneaked References’
Science is a process of collaboration that depends on accurate citations.
cross-posted from: https://midwest.social/post/14413106
> Reading and writing articles published in academic journals and presented at conferences is a central part of being a researcher. When researchers write a scholarly article, they must cite the work of peers to provide context, detail sources of inspiration and explain differences in approaches and results. A positive citation by other researchers is a key measure of visibility for a researcher’s own work. > > But what happens when this citation system is manipulated? A recent Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology articleby our team of academic sleuths – which includes information scientists, a computer scientist and a mathematician – has revealed an insidious method to artificially inflate citation counts through metadata manipulations: sneaked references. > >
- www.sciencealert.com New Alzheimer's Nasal Spray Clears Toxic Tangles in Human Neurons And Mice
Twisted and tangled proteins are found in the brains of many of those who die with Alzheimer's disease.
- www.theguardian.com Night owls’ cognitive function ‘superior’ to early risers, study suggests
Research on 26,000 people found those who stay up late scored better on intelligence, reasoning and memory tests
- www.psychologytoday.com The Healing Power of Hugs
Should therapists hug their patients? We may want to rethink the taboo.
hugs/touch psychologist discusses. I know I like hugs.
- www.technologynetworks.com Language Is a Tool for Communication, Not for Thought, MIT Researchers Argue
Drawing on evidence from neurobiology, cognitive science and corpus linguistics, MIT researchers make the case that language is a tool for communication, not for thought.
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Starfish Prime - The US oopsie so big that the world agreed no more detonation of nuclear weapons should be done in space.
m.youtube.com Witnessing the Starfish Prime nuclear test with Jim Burkhart(Episode 43) Have you ever wondered what it would be like to witness an above-ground nuclear weapons test? Shelly is joined by Jim Burkhart who was stationed...
For more on High Altitude Electromagnetic Pulse (HEMP) from nuclear detonation here is the Department of Homeland Security report on the estimated affects if a hostile use of a HEMP was detonated now.
- www.popularmechanics.com A Primeval Force Once Ruled the Universe—and Scientists Have Revived It
Mind-blowing experiments are bringing ancient cosmic conditions into modern labs.
- www.sciencealert.com Scientists May Have Figured Out How to Make Fat Cells Burn Calories
White could be the new beige when it comes to fat cells, following the discovery of a switch that maintains the functions of adipose tissue in mice, transforming it from a lipid-locker into a calorie-burner.
'may' is my most despised headline word. This article sounds like they may be onto something in mice trials anyway.
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Counting the dead in Gaza: difficult but essential
> Armed conflicts have indirect health implications beyond the direct harm from violence. Even if the conflict ends immediately, there will continue to be many indirect deaths in the coming months and years from causes such as reproductive, communicable, and non-communicable diseases. The total death toll is expected to be large given the intensity of this conflict; destroyed health-care infrastructure; severe shortages of food, water, and shelter; the population's inability to flee to safe places; and the loss of funding to UNRWA, one of the very few humanitarian organisations still active in the Gaza Strip.8
> In recent conflicts, such indirect deaths range from three to 15 times the number of direct deaths. Applying a conservative estimate of four indirect deaths per one direct death9 to the 37 396 deaths reported, it is not implausible to estimate that up to 186 000 or even more deaths could be attributable to the current conflict in Gaza. Using the 2022 Gaza Strip population estimate of 2 375 259, this would translate to 7·9% of the total population in the Gaza Strip.
- www.nature.com What causes migraines? Study of ‘brain blackout’ offers clues
The blinding headaches are poorly understood — a mouse study suggests that the content of spinal fluid is a trigger for pain.
- www.bps.org.uk Introverts use more concrete language than extraverts | BPS
The differences make sense in terms of what we know about social behaviour and the introvert-extravert personality dimension.
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... "quantum particle creation could play a role in the creation of matter in the universe after the end of an inflationary era" ...
The way i read it : Our theoretical framework, allowing matter creation (*) provides a possible origin for the universe (without the need of a Big Bang). Also this is quite timely in the actual context of new observations made by the James Webb space telescope that are in tention with classical models.
(*)(after an hypothetical inflatory period, [...or at any time as long as the universe expands...])
title of this post is taken from section : VII. SUMMARY Of : Cosmological Particle Production: A Review
Preprint : (2021 December 7 // @ arXiv…) https://arxiv.org/pdf/2112.02444.pdf
The article has been published in a peer reviewed journal paywall warning.
- www.livescience.com 51,000-year-old Indonesian cave painting may be the world's oldest storytelling art
A 51,000-year-old painting in the Sulawesi cave "art gallery" is the oldest evidence of narrative rock art ever discovered.
- www.livescience.com Scientists discovered the oldest termite mounds on Earth — and they're 34,000 years old
The world's oldest termite mounds have been collecting carbon from the atmosphere for thousands of years.
- www.space.com Forbidden black holes and ancient stars hide in these 'tiny red dots' (image)
"This is, without a doubt, the most peculiar and interesting set of objects I've seen in my career."
time for big bang revision
- theconversation.com Did inbreeding cause the woolly mammoth’s extinction? Our research suggests it was more sudden than that
Scientists have long wondered if the wooly mammoth went extinct due to high levels of inbreeding.