Focus should shift away from seeking to exploit discoveries on other planets, researchers say

Humans boldly going into space should echo the guiding principle of Captain Kirk's Star Trek crew by resisting the urge to interfere, researchers have said, stressing a need to end a colonial approach to exploration.

Nasa has made no secret of its desire to mine the moon for metals, with China also keen to extract lunar resources – a situation that has been called a new space race.

Continue reading…

Researchers have developed and validated a deep learning-based method to detect Alzheimer's disease based on routinely collected clinical brain images.

The dusky tetraka is a small bird with a distinctive yellow throat that lives on the ground.

Nature Communications, Published online: 04 March 2023; doi:10.1038/s41467-023-36758-9

Salmonella typhimurium translocates numerous effectors via its type III secretion system. Here, Göser et al. present a characterisation of selected proteins and their dynamic interaction with Salmonella-containing vacuoles and – induced filaments.

Ved hjælp af dopplereffekten er det muligt at beregne satellitters bane, og det udnyttes i et kommende transitnavigationssystem med fire kunstige måner, skrev Ingeniørens Ugeblad i 1961.

Nature Communications, Published online: 04 March 2023; doi:10.1038/s41467-023-36932-z

Multiplexed analyses of near single   is currently challenging. Here the authors report the method MASEV, multiplexed analysis of EVs, to interrogate thousands of individual EVs during 5 cycles of multi-channel fluorescence staining for 15 EV biomarkers.

Nature Communications, Published online: 04 March 2023; doi:10.1038/s41467-023-36964-5

Cyanobacteria mutants with improved tolerance to combined high light and high temperature (HLHT) are rarely reported. Here, the authors use a hypermutation system for adaptive laboratory evolution and identify a mutant with improved HLHT tolerance by enhancing expression of shikimate kinase.

An artificial intelligence has learned to master an Atari skiing game in days of playing time rather than the decades it took a specialist DeepMind AI, simply by reading the instructions written for humans before it started

Obese fruit flies are the experimental subjects in a Nature Communications study of the causes of muscle function decline due to obesity. In humans, skeletal muscle plays a crucial role in metabolism, and muscle dysfunction due to human obesity can lead to insulin resistance and reduced energy levels.

Scores of disembowelled sharks have washed up on a South African beach putting the spotlight on a pair of shark-hunting killer whales whose behaviour has fascinated scientists and wildlife enthusiasts.

It is past midnight on a beach in southern Thailand and 12-year-old Prin Uthaisangchai is anxiously staring at a leatherback turtle nest, waiting for scores of the endangered hatchlings to scrabble out from the sand.

Obese fruit flies are the experimental subjects in a Nature Communications study of the causes of muscle function decline due to obesity. In humans, skeletal muscle plays a crucial role in metabolism, and muscle dysfunction due to human obesity can lead to insulin resistance and reduced energy levels.

PLUS. Utrolig trist, at politik nu er blevet en del af hverdagen, siger dansk Cern-forsker.

Nature Communications, Published online: 04 March 2023; doi:10.1038/s41467-023-36569-y

HIV maturation inhibitors such as bevirimat (BVM) interfering with Gag processing are emerging as alternative anti-retroviral drug candidates. Here, the authors report structures of assemblies of HIV-1 Gag fragments spanning the CA C-terminal domain and SP1 region bound to BVM.

UN countries appeared Friday to be nearing an agreement on a long-awaited treaty to protect the high seas, a fragile and vital treasure that covers nearly half the planet.

Scores of disembowelled sharks have washed up on a South African beach putting the spotlight on a pair of shark-hunting killer whales whose behaviour has fascinated scientists and wildlife enthusiasts.

It is past midnight on a beach in southern Thailand and 12-year-old Prin Uthaisangchai is anxiously staring at a leatherback turtle nest, waiting for scores of the endangered hatchlings to scrabble out from the sand.

At least four people have died and nearly 41,000 evacuated in Malaysia after floodwaters caused by "unusual" torrential rains lasting days swept through several states, officials said Saturday.

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Nature Communications, Published online: 04 March 2023; doi:10.1038/s41467-023-36939-6

Fast-growing bamboo still need advanced processing before being fabricated into sustainable structural materials. Here, the authors develop high-performance TiO2 reinforced densified bamboo via in situ hydrothermal synthesis and reveal the flexural failure mechanism of the composite.

Nature Communications, Published online: 04 March 2023; doi:10.1038/s41467-023-36968-1

 mutations contribute to multiple developmental diseases and tumorigenesis. Here the authors describe how a highly oncogenic RECQ4 mutation alters the control of DNA synthesis, leading to abnormal DNA content and cell growth.

Nature Communications, Published online: 04 March 2023; doi:10.1038/s41467-023-36895-1

Although the role of FGFs in   has attracted extensive attention, the potential role of   in pathological   remains unknown. Here, the authors show the cardioprotective effect of FGF18 is mediated by maintaining redox homeostasis through FYN/Nox4 signaling.

Nature Communications, Published online: 04 March 2023; doi:10.1038/s41467-023-36917-y

Reducing energy loss of sub-cells is critical for high performance tandem organic solar cells. Here, the authors design and synthesize an ultra-narrow bandgap acceptor through replacement of terminal thiophene by selenophene in the central fused ring, achieving efficiency of 19% for tandem cells.

Do you see what I see?

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And why it'll keep happening.

The country dismantled its precautionary measures as quickly as they sprang up — but not at the National People's Congress

The findings offer a new way to understand how some ants become total layabouts.

It's happened to anyone with a cell phone — dropped calls or dead air because suddenly there is no service available. Or worse, the location pin drops on the navigation app.   are looking at ways to improve cell phone connectivity and localization abilities by examining 'smart' surfaces that can bounce signals from a tower to customers to improve the link. A smart surface involves installing reflective elements on windows or panels on buildings in dense urban environments.

A new study finds that high school students identify more with math if they see their math teacher treating everyone in the class equitably, especially in racially diverse schools. While the relationship between teacher equity and math identity was evident across races, there was an interesting exception. Black students, in general, had strong math identities, regardless of their teacher's actions.  Learning about the factors that affect student math identity is important because a student's attitude towards the subject influences the courses that they take as well as their future career selections. This study suggests that teachers may have a larger role to play in helping students develop a positive math identity than previously recognized.

Neglected by government officials and medical professionals,   can lead to lifelong health consequences, according to a biological anthropologist.

It's happened to anyone with a cell phone — dropped calls or dead air because suddenly there is no service available. Or worse, the location pin drops on the navigation app.   are looking at ways to improve cell phone connectivity and localization abilities by examining 'smart' surfaces that can bounce signals from a tower to customers to improve the link. A smart surface involves installing reflective elements on windows or panels on buildings in dense urban environments.

More than 350 former NFL players were studied on average 29 years after their playing careers ended. Retirees who experienced concussion symptoms during their playing careers were found to perform worse on a battery of cognitive tests. When comparing the retired players to more than 5,000 men who did not play football, cognitive performance was generally worse for former players, with older players performing worse.

Moving parts in mechanical come into regular contact, leading to wear and tear. Now, researchers have developed a contact control system, driven by artificial intelligence, to greatly reduce contact between damaged parts.

Changes in our REM sleep patterns could potentially be used to diagnose the severity of epilepsy, a new study has suggested. Researchers showed that astrocytes — star-shaped glial cells that control the local ionic and metabotropic environment of the brain — exhibit an acid response with REM sleep in mice. They theorize that the acid response could be the underlying drive for specific information processing and generating plasticity during sleep.

A recent study has uncovered a distinct disorder-driven superconductor-insulator transition. This first electric control of superconductivity and quantum Hall effect in a candidate material for future low-energy electronics has promise to reduce the rising, unsustainable energy cost of computing.

Some cities only last a century or two, while others last for a thousand years or more. Often, there aren't clear records left behind to explain why. Instead, archaeologists piece together clues from the cities' remains to search for patterns that help account for why certain places retained their importance longer than others.

With the help of an underwater robot, known as Icefin, a U.S.- New Zealand research team has obtained an unprecedented look inside a crevasse at Kamb Ice Stream — revealing more than a century of geological processes beneath the Antarctic ice.

This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here.

Many critics of Donald Trump concluded long ago that Attorney General Merrick Garland was not equal to the challenge of holding the former president accountable. It might be time for them to reassess.

First, here are three new stories from The Atlantic:

• There's something odd about the dogs living at Chernobyl.
• The real reason eye cream is so expensive
• Why is Biden attacking democracy?

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Deliberate Aggression

No one would mistake Merrick Garland for a firebrand. When President Joe Biden nominated him to lead the Justice Department, the former federal judge cited Edward Levi, the attorney general who restored faith in the department after Watergate, as a role model. But Garland faced a potentially more complicated charge than Levi: Whereas Richard Nixon had resigned, been pardoned, and withdrawn from the national stage, Garland had to rebuild the DOJ while also delivering accountability for Trump, who remains unrepentant and is running to return to office.

As weeks turned to months and we passed the one-year mark of Biden's term, Garland's apparently slow pace on the second task rattled observers who worry that Trump will end up facing little punishment for attempting to steal the election and inciting an insurrection—and that he might even return to the White House. But deliberation is not the same as inaction. The first sign that Garland was not as disengaged as he might have seemed came when the FBI executed a warrant at Mar-a-Lago in August, seeking government records—some highly sensitive—that Trump had allegedly improperly taken. And the more we learn, the more aggressive Garland's approach looks.

This week, The Washington Post reported on how the surprise August search was the culmination of a running disagreement between the FBI and Justice Department prosecutors. (All of them ultimately report to Garland.) Some of the FBI officials were reluctant to push Trump too hard and wanted to ask him for permission or to slow-walk the process. My colleague Adam Serwer notes the irony that the bureau, which Trump and Republicans have portrayed as implacably politically opposed to him, was actually quite eager to protect him. But backed by Garland, who personally approved the search, the prosecutors ultimately won the day.

Separately, the Justice Department argued in a court filing yesterday that Trump can be liable for actions of the mob that stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021. A group of Capitol Police officers and members of the House of Representatives have sued the former president for physical and psychological damage from the riot. Trump's lawyers contend that he cannot be held liable for inciting the riot because he was acting as president at the time, which confers immunity. But the Justice Department disagreed.

"Speaking to the public on matters of public concern is a traditional function of the Presidency, and the outer perimeter of the President's Office includes a vast realm of such speech," government attorneys wrote in the filing. "But that traditional function is one of public communication. It does not include incitement of imminent private violence."

While all of this happens, the criminal investigations into Trump's actions around the 2020 election and the Mar-a-Lago documents are moving swiftly. After Trump announced his presidential campaign in November, Garland appointed Jack Smith, a former Justice Department lawyer, to oversee the probes, and Smith has demonstrated an aggressive streak. In the past month, he has subpoenaed Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner, and former Vice President Mike Pence. CNN also reports that Smith "is locked in at least eight secret court battles" related to the Trump investigations. (Garland also appointed a special counsel to look into classified documents found in one of Biden's houses and a former office space. He has said that the DOJ can handle an investigation into Hunter Biden, the president's son, internally.)

My colleague Franklin Foer saw all of this coming in an October profile of the attorney general. He wrote that Garland did not seem to relish the position in which he found himself, but that the very qualities that worried Garland's naysayers—his institutionalism, caution, and fastidiousness—were the ones that would likely lead him to indict Trump. "I've reached the conclusion that his devotion to procedure, his belief in the rule of law, and in particular his reverence for the duties, responsibilities, and traditions of the U.S. Department of Justice will cause him to make the most monumental decision an attorney general can make," Frank wrote.

What the attorney general has not managed to do so far is depoliticize public perceptions of the department. By all reports, he's returning a greater professionalism to the department after some of the lowlights of the Trump presidency, but the Mar-a-Lago search and other investigations have made the DOJ a subject of greater political strife. Despite his painstaking approach to the Trump investigations, Garland was grilled by Republicans during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing this week, and accused (unconvincingly) of conducting a witch hunt against conservatives. An indictment of Trump would only exaggerate complaints of bias from the right.

There is, to be fair, a big gap between investigating and indicting. Trump is clearly upset about how things are going. He issued an angry comment after the DOJ's filing yesterday, and last month released a long, unusual statement, replete with very un-Trumpian footnotes, that I wrote was a preview of the legal strategy he might use if charged with crimes connected to the insurrection. The strategy might work, either as a defense or at least as a deterrence to charges. And, as I reported in January, any case against Trump would also have to move fast, with the goal of concluding before January 20, 2025, when a Republican president could take office and shut it down.

But whatever ultimately happens to Donald Trump, what we've seen over the past month should be enough to put to rest the idea that Garland is letting the former president off easy. Perhaps the Trump years made us forget that the Justice Department can get things done without messy public drama.

Related:

• The FBI desperately wants to let Trump off the hook.
• A guide to the possible forthcoming indictments of Donald Trump

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Today's News

17. The former South Carolina lawyer Alex Murdaugh was convicted of murdering his wife and son, and was sentenced to life in prison.
18. Merrick Garland made an unannounced trip to Ukraine, according to a Justice Department official. It is his second trip to the country since Russia first invaded.
19. The storm system that damaged parts of the central U.S. this week is now headed toward New England.

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Dispatches

• Work in Progress: Derek Thompson asks: Why are we still arguing about masks?
• The Books Briefing: Elise Hannum reflects on the importance of the coming-of-age novel.

Explore all of our newsletters here.

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Evening Read

 

 

The Vindication of Ask Jeeves

By Charlie Warzel

It was a simpler time. A friend introduced us, pulling up a static yellow webpage using a shaky dial-up modem. A man stood forth, dressed in a dapper black pinstriped suit with a red-accented tie. He held one hand out, as if carrying an imaginary waiter's tray. He looked regal and confident and eminently at my service. "Have a Question?" he beckoned. "Just type it in and click Ask!" And ask, I did. Over and over.

With his steady hand, Jeeves helped me make sense of the tangled mess of the early, pre-Google internet. He wasn't perfect—plenty of context got lost between my inquiries and his responses. Still, my 11-year-old brain always delighted in the idea of a well-coiffed man chauffeuring me down the information superhighway. But things changed.

Read the full article.

More From The Atlantic

• What Isaac Asimov can teach us about AI
• The next big political scandal could be faked.
• Photos of the week: lava field, London fox, and more

Read. Go down the Judy Blume rabbit hole. Our senior editor Amy Weiss-Meyer, who recently wrote a profile of Blume, has a guide to get you started.

And these six memoirs are some of the finest of the form.

Watch. In theaters, Creed III makes an old franchise feel fresh.

And these 20 biopics are actually worth spending time with.

Listen. Jazz just lost Wayne Shorter, one of its all-time greats—and one of the greatest composers the United States has ever produced, David wrote yesterday. Spend some time with Shorter's music this weekend.

Play our daily crossword.

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P.S.

Reading news about the train derailment last month in East Palestine, Ohio, has gotten me thinking about disaster songs, one of my favorite niches in the folk-music tradition. Consider the engineer Casey Jones. The U.S. endured several huge wrecks in 1900, but the only one most people might have heard of is the single-fatality crash that claimed Jones's life—because a folk song about him provided him a sort of immortality. Singers have memorialized deadly railroad catastrophes, mining disasters, storms, and even the sinking of the Titanic, but if songs like this are being written today, the music industry as it has come to exist precludes any path for them to achieve the same permanence. East Palestine's misfortune is more likely to be recorded in documentary films, whose dominance my colleague Megan Garber described in her great recent cover story. Both media mix fact and fiction to grab an audience; perhaps we can call disaster songs the infotainment of their era.

— David

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Isabel Fattal contributed to this newsletter.

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Study identifies new stomach disease in seabirds caused by microplastics

A star younger than humanity.

Bot Bureaucrat

Both the rapidly increasing ubiquity and the power of AI can feel terrifying, but at least AIs aren't running the world yet, right?

Well, maybe not the world, but how about Romania? The country's prime minister Nicolae Ciuca has just announced an AI assistant called "Ion" as the government's "new honorary advisor."

"Hello. You gave me life. I am Ion. Now, my role is to represent you. Like a mirror," Ion said while introducing itself at a press conference, as quoted by The Washington Post.

PM @NicolaeCiuca: As of today, the Government of  Romania has the first government adviser running on AI, a good example of emerging technologies in public service.
Congratulations to the  researchers on this project that brings us closer to citizens! pic.twitter.com/yP5b5pOs5i

— GuvernulRomâniei (@GuvernulRo) March 1, 2023

 

Voice of the People

With a mirror-like, monolithic body and a somber, deep voice, you'd be forgiven for comparing Ion to HAL 9000 from the sci-fi classic "2001: A Space Odyssey." But instead of being in charge of a mere spaceship, Ion is responsible for gauging the sentiments of an entire country.

"Ion will do, through artificial intelligence, what no human can: listen to all Romanians and represent them before the government of Romania," Ciuca said.

And by listen, Ciuca really does mean listen. The AI will crawl social media to collect citizens' opinions and grievances, and then amalgamate and interpret these back to the government as policy ideas, who, at least in theory, will use the feedback to inform their decisions.

Concerned citizens can also interact with Ion directly by using a provided web portal if they're really eager to get their point across.

Call for Transparency

The process that Ion uses to pick out social media posts, categorize them, and then formulate policies is about as transparent as its steely, mirrored exterior — that is to say, not very transparent at all.

For critics, that's something to worry about. If Ion's workings aren't transparent, how can its citizens, whom it practically surveils, know it isn't being biased? Could it single those with dissenting opinions out and glean their real identities?

In short, it's a thorny, ethical nightmare waiting to unfold.

"Romanians should be informed and explained how this AI tool selects important posts, and on what criteria," demanded Kris Shrishak, an expert on AI regulation at the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, in an interview with the WaPo. "This should be explained to the public."

Besides, how good are AIs at gauging human opinions, wants, desires, and feelings? If Microsoft's Bing AI chatbot is any indicator, probably not very.

More on AI: Bank of America Obsessed With AI, Says It's the "New Electricity"

The post Prime Minister of European Country Names AI as Advisor appeared first on Futurism.

Following its arrival in Coventry, U.K., Dippy the Dinosaur drew over 10,000 visitors in its first week on display. The opening marked the beginning of Dippy's three-year stay at the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum. Dippy is a Diplodocus, or more specifically, a Diplodocus fossil. Diplodocuses were gigantic dinosaurs that lived in the Late Jurassic Period, about 161 to 145 million years ago. The behemoth fossil itself is over 85 feet long and likely weighed between 22,000 to 30,000 pounds when alive. Read More: Meet Ceratosaurus, The Great Horned Beast Of The Jurassic Period What is a Diplodocus? Diplodocuses were giant dinosaurs, like the brontosaurus, and were some of the largest creatures to exist at the time. While Dippy was just over 85 feet long, the Diplodocus could actually grow up to 92 feet in length, according to current fossil records. However, Dippy was near the peak of a Diplodocus' possible weight since the max weight of a Diplodocus was around 30,000 pounds. This is much lighter than other dinosaurs of a similar size. For example, an Apatosaurus of the same length would have weighed twice as much as a Diplodocus. Much like other large dinosaurs, the Diplodocus achieved its extreme size as an herbivore. It had pencil-like teeth that it used to strip the leaves off low-growing plants and with an extremely long neck, it had plenty of plants to choose from. Researchers have found nearly every Diplodocus fossil in the Morrison Formation in the western U.S. This suggests that Diplodocuses likely stuck to one area during their time on Earth. Additionally, Diplodocus fossils are often found in similar areas to both Allosaur and Stegosaurus fossils. A Famous Fossil The original fossil that Dippy the Dinosaur is based on was discovered in the state of Wyoming in 1899. Andrew Carnegie purchased the fossil to have as a centerpiece in his museum in Pittsburgh. The actual fossil of Dippy remains on display there today. In 1905, a cast of Dippy was gifted to the Natural History Museum in London and remained there for over 100 years before beginning a tour of the U.K. in 2017. While it may seem like Dippy is one complete cast, it is made up of the remains of five different Diplodocuses. There are 10 other fossil casts like Dippy around the world, including ones in Paris, Madrid, Berlin and even La Plata, Argentina.

The decision applies to 21 states whose attorneys general threatened   and other pharmacies with legal action if they dispensed the pill there.

You might be the laziest person on the planet, but your brain never rests. So what does it get up to when you're more or less checked out? In the 1930s, Hans Berger, a German psychiatrist who had recently invented the electroencephalogram (EEG), suggested that our brains are always active, even when we don't seem to be doing much with them. Few people took the idea seriously at the time (maybe because Berger had spent much of his career trying to prove telepathy, or perhaps because he was just ahead of his time). Some 40 years later, in the 1970s, researchers confirmed that blood flow to the brain, a useful proxy for brain activity, varies depending on what you're doing. Modern Brain Imaging Still, it was difficult to learn much about which regions of the brain are active during various activities until the advent of modern brain imaging technology, such as positron emission tomography (PET) scans and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). However, by the turn of the century, scientists were using these technologies to study the brain.  Read More: How Magnetic Brain Scans Could Reveal Brain Age Researchers noticed that when study subjects were resting in the scanner, not doing any particular task (perhaps they were in the control group or just waiting for the experiment to get underway), their brains showed interesting activity patterns. The researchers found that certain brain regions show lower activity levels when we're paying attention to some task but jump into action when we're not engaged in any specific mental task. Berger was right that the brain is always active; in fact, it turns out that it is very active indeed, even during those periods when it was previously thought to be resting. Default Mode Network In 2001, a team led by Marcus Raichle, a neuroscientist at Washington University, published the first of a series of papers describing the phenomenon and giving a name to this network of brain areas: the Default Mode Network (DMN). Read More: Why We Experience Self-Doubt And How to Curb Those Feelings The brain areas involved in the DMN seem to be mostly: the medial prefrontal cortex, the posterior cingulate cortex, part of the inferior parietal lobe, and sometimes, maybe, the middle temporal lobe. Maybe? Yes, scientists are still working to pinpoint which parts of the brain are involved in the DMN. In fact, it may be that there are several DMNs and different combinations of areas that network for different purposes. Brain DMN One thing all these brain areas have in common is that they play a role in the inner voice. The brain's DMN kicks in when we're daydreaming, reminiscing, or thinking about, say, that text your sister sent this morning, what you're having for dinner, noticing that it's getting kind of hot in the room, wondering what your cat is thinking when it looks at you like that, wondering what your sister meant by that text she sent this morning — you know, all those seemingly random thoughts that meander through your mind when you're not focused on anything else. Meanwhile, areas of the brain that are responsible for things like attention, working memory and decision-making take a breather. Why Is the DMN Important Since the DMN was discovered, scientists have been working to better understand what it is, what it does, and why it's important. Though it's early days in understanding or even completely defining the DMN, the concept has already spawned some fascinating research. Some are focused on the role the DMN — and changes to its patterns — plays in dementia. Other research looks at the DMN in autism and certain types of psychosis. Some researchers are examining how addiction changes the DMN. The role of the DMN in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is yet another area of research. Perhaps one of the most interesting ideas about the DMN is that it plays a role in the construction of the self. The brain regions involved in autobiographical memory and ideas about the self are part of the DMN. Many of the ideas that float around the mind during this "downtime" have to do with our personal lives and our sense of who we are. So it's possible that when your brain isn't doing anything that seems important, it's actually quite busy making all the connections that make you feel like you. Read More: Study Suggests Brain Processes Information like Ocean Waves

The use of melatonin supplements has spiked significantly in the U.S. in recent years, prompting calls for more research into the effects of long-term melatonin supplementation in humans. That's because relatively little research has been done concerning how taking melatonin pills on a regular basis affects overall health. Particularly in aging populations with Alzheimer's or  . Melatonin support has also been recommended for those who are blind and struggle with a regular sleep schedule. Synthetic versions of this hormone are frequently sold over the counter as a sleep aid, and research indicates that it likely impacts various aspects of health and wellness. The limited evidence available is also mixed on whether it benefits people who are struggling with sleep. A research letter published in JAMA last year drew attention to roughly a five-fold increase in people taking melatonin in the U.S. between 1999 and 2018. The findings by a team of researchers in Beijing and the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota cited data from a National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. They called for more research on this topic in the science community. Melatonin Melatonin is a natural hormone that our brains produce, generally increasing when we're exposed to the dark (at night) and decreasing during daylight. Thus, it plays a dynamic role in regulating sleep and circadian rhythms in humans and other mammals.  Melatonin and Sleep The physiological production of this hormone typically declines in someone as they age, which might impact sleep patterns. That's where oral supplements of melatonin offer potential promise and have been prescribed to populations with dementia and those struggling with sleep.  But the precise way that melatonin regulates sleep is not fully understood. For example, in its natural state, it doesn't have a sedating effect. In fact, in nocturnal animals, the natural chemical is active and associated with wakeful states rather than sleep.  Read More: The Importance of Sleep for Your Body Other Uses for Melatonin Beyond sleep, melatonin also has proven to be a potent immunomodulatory hormone and antioxidant, with properties that seem to reduce blood pressure, upregulate bone cell proliferation and inhibit bone resorption, according to a detailed review published early this year in Clinical Interventions in Aging. Is Melatonin Safe? Because of these many functions, and some adverse effects with melatonin in limited trials, that review suggested that "melatonin should thus be considered a medication, albeit a relatively safe one, rather than a harmless dietary supplement." The Mayo Clinic deems melatonin supplements as "generally safe" when treated as a sleeping pill and used under a doctor's supervision. But because the FDA defines the hormone as a dietary supplement, the product gets little oversight and regulation in the U.S., compared to over-the-counter medicine and prescription drugs.  Melatonin and Alzheimer's  Because both aging and dementia often impact the sleep cycle in aging populations, some have turned to melatonin to help treat symptoms of Alzheimer's and other fatal neurodegenerative diseases. In this arena, too, the results are mixed based on limited clinical trials. One of the major dilemmas is assessing the long-term effects and possible risks of taking supplemental melatonin with the potential immediate benefits of managing symptoms, such as insomnia. Read More: There's a New FDA-Approved Drug to Treat Alzheimer's Long Term Side Effects "Some studies have found neuroprotective effects of melatonin itself, but there are also concerns over the long-term health consequences of melatonin," says Yue Leng, an epidemiologist at the University of California San Francisco. Just this year, Leng published a study that compared the potential risk of dementia associated with various sleep medications based on the race of participants. Inadequate Evidence That work indicated that frequent use of sleep medications seems to be associated with an increased risk of dementia in white older adults. However, the scope of the research was unable to pinpoint any associations between dementia risk and melatonin specifically, due to the small sample of participants who reported using it.  "The effects of melatonin use on dementia risk is a controversial topic," Leng says. "More research is needed to examine both the short-term and long-term effects of melatonin on sleep and cognition in older adults." Read More: Understanding How Dementia Causes Death Does Melatonin Cause Dementia? Similarly, a 2016 Cochrane review identified a significant lack of evidence and research regarding sleep medication for people with dementia. Based on limited trials that have been done, the researchers in that review found no evidence that melatonin had a significant impact — adverse or beneficial — to those with dementia. They also found no significantly improved sleep in those who took melatonin. But this was based on limited data, with only four trials at the time involving 222 participants. Dementia and Sleep That same review found some evidence to support the use of a low dose of trazodone (prescription drug) to treat sleep issues in people with dementia, and no evidence for any effect of the sleeping pill ramelteon (prescription drug) on patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer's dementia. This was also based on limited evidence. The report ultimately concluded that much more research is needed in this field. "This is an area with a high need for pragmatic trials, particularly of those drugs that are in common clinical use for sleep problems in dementia," the researchers write. "Systematic assessment of adverse effects is essential." Read More: The 4 Main Types of Dementia

Grody Byproducts

There's nothing quite like ocean spray gently caressing your face as you take a beachside stroll. But unfortunately, your face may be getting battered with sewage bacteria in the process.

According to a new paper published in the journal Environmental Sciences & Technology, ocean spray samples from San Diego's Imperial Beach contained bacteria from sewage spillover — and those bacteria end up in the air people near the beach breathe, too.

There are real health risks associated with bacteria that come from sewage runoff as they are more likely to include pathogens such as E. Coli, salmonella, and the infamous, gastrointestinal issues-inducing norovirus.

It's still unclear, however, if bacteria found by the researchers are actually making people sick in the area.

"Are they potentially infectious? Some are pathogens and some are not," Prather told The Guardian. "That's something we're working on now."

Feel the Ocean

To put it plainly, this stuff is pretty gross — and it may be getting into the lungs of folks who live near coastal waters, especially those who swim in them.

"Once pollutants become airborne that just means so many more people can be exposed to those pollutants," explained Kim Prather, the principal investigator on the study out of UC San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography, in an interview with the city's Union-Tribune newspaper. "It extends well beyond just people going to the beach or getting in the water."

Tijuana Syndrome

In their research, the team was able to link the bacteria to the Tijuana River just over the border in Mexico using air and water samples in and around the river and beach respectively.

They made a shocking discovery: the river sewage runoff could account for up to a whopping 76 percent of the bacteria at Imperial Beach.

While there's already an established body of work about airborne oceanic bacteria in general, this study is the first of its kind to establish a link to a known sewage source, UC San Diego professor and paper co-author Robert Knight told the Union-Tribune.

"It was a complete shock to find how much of microbes in the air were traceable back to sewage," Knight told the newspaper. "We had no idea that effect would be so strong."

With this seemingly strong link established in their research, the UCSD team plans to take DNA samples of lifeguards and surfers to see if they can gauge if there's a measurable impact to respiratory health as well.

"Now that we know this is a real phenomenon," Knight added, "we need to find out what are the impacts to human health."

More on gross byproducts: Residents Blame Horrid Black Fungus on Whiskey Facility

The post The Refreshing Spray of the Ocean Is Loaded With Sewage Bacteria, Scientists Find appeared first on Futurism.

Cohesin mutations cause dysregulations in alternative splicing, contributing to   initiation and progression, a study finds. 

Arlington, Virginia, won a US-wide contest to host  's second headquarters. More than half of the giant project is now indefinitely delayed.

Studying the venom of bees, wasps and ants, he was stung hundreds of times and famously ranked the stings in a colorful pain scale index.

Give President Joe Biden democracy, self-rule, and statehood for Washington, D.C. But not yet.

Yesterday, Biden announced that he would not veto Congress's override of a new criminal code for D.C. passed by its city council. "I support D.C. Statehood and home-rule—but I don't support some of the changes D.C. Council put forward over the Mayor's objections—such as lowering penalties for carjackings," Biden tweeted. "If the Senate votes to overturn what D.C. Council did—I'll sign it."

If you support self-rule for jurisdictions only so long as they do not make choices you oppose, you do not actually support self-rule. The bill is meant to streamline and update D.C.'s criminal code; the city council passed it unanimously, despite Mayor Muriel Bowser's opposition. Bowser said she agreed with "95 percent" of the bill, excepting some of its lower maximum penalties for certain crimes and its expansion of jury trials to include misdemeanors, arguing that the latter would overburden the system.

[Anne Applebaum: A real place deserves real rights]

The changes to the city's criminal code are, as Slate's Mark Joseph Stern writes, much less dramatic than advertised. For example, the bill "lowers penalties for carjacking" in the sense that it changes the maximum sentence from a never-imposed 40 years to 24, which is still a very long time, and to which years can be added based on other potential offenses associated with the same crime. Some Senate Democrats are expected to vote to overturn the D.C. law, an indication of just how seriously they take their own rhetoric about democracy. One need not believe that the changes are a good idea to find this appalling. That's how democracy works: Sometimes the people make the wrong choice. The virtue of the system is that they make it, and it is not made for them.

Unfortunately, this is just the latest episode in a long history of the federal government's contempt for D.C.'s right to govern itself. In the 1870s, the city became a haven for the newly emancipated after the Civil War, and extended suffrage rights to all regardless of race. But as Reconstruction ended, the city became the fiefdom of outright white supremacists who plundered it for profit and exploited its Black residents. In 1890, the former Confederate general, plantation owner, and Democratic senator John Tyler Morgan of Alabama took to the Senate floor to explain why D.C. could not be allowed to govern its own affairs.  

Now, the historical fact is simply this, that the negroes came into this District from Virginia and Maryland and from other places; I know dozens of them here now who flocked in from Alabama … They came in here and they took possession of a certain part of the political power of this District. There was but one way to get out—so Congress thought, so this able committee thought—and that was to deny the right of suffrage entirely to every human being in the District and have every office here controlled by appointment instead of by election … in order to get rid of this load of negro suffrage that was flooded in upon them.

As the reporters Tom Sherwood and Harry Jaffe wrote in Dream City, their history of Washington, D.C., "It's impossible to dismiss the fact that raw discrimination against blacks was for years at the root of Congress's relationship with the District of Columbia."

Although the Constitution grants Congress power over the seat of government, the long-standing hostility toward the very idea of home rule in D.C. stems from the belief that Black people are incapable of governing themselves. In most cases, the rationales for denying representation to residents of the capital of a nation ostensibly founded on the idea that taxation without representation is tyranny have shifted to become more partisan than overtly racist, but some of them remain essentially Morganist. In 2009 Tucker Carlson said D.C. was not "ready for democracy," because it had elected Marion Barry as mayor. Barry was an extremely common American type—a corrupt ethnic-machine politician who was simultaneously an effective practitioner of patronage politics. But he was also Black; the alchemy of racism ensures that the flaws that transform Irish machine politicians into beloved and colorful characters turn Black machine politicians into proof of Black inferiority.

This argument, though, has persisted even as the city's Black majority has become a plurality: D.C. cannot be allowed to govern itself, because its voters might make decisions that its overlords do not like. In some states, legislators who could not count to 20 without taking off their shoes make a show of passing idiotic and cruel legislation that violates their constituents' most basic rights, but no one ever suggests that the voters who elected them be denied democratic self-determination as a result. The people of Washington, D.C., have no less a right to govern their own affairs than the people of Texas or Florida.

[Read: D.C. statehood is more urgent than ever]

Far from proving that D.C. cannot govern itself, Congress's interference with the city illustrates the necessity of D.C. statehood, even as it exposes the underlying reasons that the dream of statehood remains remote. Without real federal representation, there is no one to stand up for the city's interests in Congress, and those who make decisions about the District's affairs are accountable to constituents elsewhere, who have no reason to defend the city's interests or autonomy. The Republican commitment to "local control" is entirely superficial; I grew up in D.C. and live in Texas, and it is very clear to me that the principle applies only to GOP-run jurisdictions, which are mysteriously always deemed fit for self-governance.

The ease with which the Democratic supporters of D.C. statehood have been manipulated into parroting the arguments of pundits and politicians who support disenfranchisement is pathetic, but unsurprising: Because D.C. residents are disenfranchised, it costs Democrats nothing to look tough on crime by disregarding home rule. After all, what are DC residents going to do, send a Republican to the Senate?

D.C. deserves statehood because its residents, who outnumber those of Wyoming and Vermont, have their own political and cultural identity and have the same right as every other American to determine their own fate. The city's residents should be able to govern themselves without interference from politicians looking to burnish their reputations with their performative contempt for the people who actually live and work there.

To those who say that D.C. statehood is simply a matter of naked partisan interest (as if the opposition to it is not), I would say that is also the reason we have two Dakotas. It was only a month ago that the Biden administration put out a statement urging Congress to "respect the District of Columbia's autonomy to govern its own local affairs." Until D.C. has the shield of statehood and federal representation, neither party has any reason to listen.

A look into the past.

Tunnel Vision

Researchers have discovered a 30-feet-long unfinished corridor not far from the main entrance to the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt, Reuters reports — a breathtaking revelation, especially given the fact that we've been scanning the 4,500-year-old structure with infrared rays since 2015.

As detailed in a new article published in the journal Nature this week, the discovery made by the international research project Scan Pyramids could shed light on how the 479-foot-tall pyramid was constructed, and why the corridor is flanked by a massive limestone structure.

The corridor is only roughly 23 feet away from the pyramid's main entrance, which is crowded by tourists around the clock.

Most tantalizingly, we still don't know where the newly discovered tunnel even leads to.

"We're going to continue our scanning so we will see what we can do… to figure out what we can find out beneath it, or just by the end of this corridor," said Mostafa Waziri, head of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, as quoted by Reuters.

Pretty Stoned

Researchers believe the corridor may have been built to redistribute the pyramid's weight around the main entrance. It was discovered using a tiny endoscope, using cosmic-ray radiography.

Many questions remain about the corridor's purpose, though.

"There are two large limestones at the end chamber, and now the question is what's behind these stones and below the chamber," Christian Grosse, Professor of Non-destructive Testing at the Technical University of Munich, told NPR.

The news comes after a giant void almost 100 feet in length was discovered by Scan Pyramids researchers back in 2017, the largest to have been discovered in the ancient structure in over a century.

This latest discovery could potentially force us to reevaluate what we know about how the giant structure was constructed many thousands of years ago — something that scientists still don't fully agree on, and a fascinating puzzle given its immense size and the ancient technology its builders had to rely on.

READ MORE: Hidden corridor discovered in Great Pyramid of Giza [Reuters]

More on the pyramids: Scientists Discover Egyptian Secret to Making the Pyramids

The post Scientists Scan Great Pyramid, Discover Hidden Corridor appeared first on Futurism.

Forever After

As if we needed more shit to deal with.

Published in the American Chemical Society's journal Environmental Science & Technology this week is a new study suggesting that the toilet paper we use is full of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), toxic "forever" chemicals that don't break down in landfills and therefore, well, last forever.

In recent years, PFAS — which, along with TP, are also found in the coating of nonstick cookware, waterproof clothing, and in some cosmetic and cleaning products — have made headlines as scientists discover more about how harmful they can be for both humans and the environment.

As the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention note in an advisory, recent studies have linked high levels of PFAS consumption with increased cholesterol and blood pressure levels, increased risk of kidney or testicular cancer, decreased vaccine response in children, and more.

In fact, the Environmental Protection Agency is, per the Associated Press, considering issuing restrictions on them.

Toilet Paper USA

Bringing it back around to the TP of it all, this new study is adding more fuel to the anti-PFAS fire after researchers at the University of Florida found that a specific type of these forever chemicals, known as disubstituted polyfluoroalkyl phosphates (diPAPs), are uber-common in both wastewater and in toilet paper, strongly suggesting a link between the two.

In the US and Canada, the ACS journal paper notes, toilet paper appears to result in four percent of the diPAP contamination in wastewater sludge — and that number is even higher in Europe, where it contributes to 35 percent of the "forever" chemicals in Swedish wastewater and up to a whopping 89 percent in France.

While these findings are indeed troubling, the CDC and other regulatory bodies have warned that more research needs to be conducted to figure out both how serious PFAS contamination really is and how best to handle it.

Even the EPA's potential regulation will focus more on removing the chemicals from water than on banning their use completely — and that process alone, critics told the AP, could cost billions of dollars.

In the meantime, it's clear enough that these chemicals are bad news, and it's up to the industry to self-regulate while the government catches up — though as we've learned from Big Oil, that process can take even more time.

More on toxic chemicals: Locals Near Ohio Toxic Train Crash Say They're Experiencing Weird Symptoms

The post Scientists Discover That Toilet Paper Contains Toxic "Forever" Chemicals appeared first on Futurism.

On the precipice of his biggest year yet—with starring roles in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and Creed III—Majors is finally at peace.

Previous models of Earth's recent (100 million years) geomorphology have been patchy at best. For the first time a detailed continuous model of the Earth's landscape evolution is presented, with potential for understanding long-term climate and biological development.

Carbon dioxide emissions from wildfires, which have been gradually increasing since 2000, spiked drastically to a record high in 2021, according to an international team of researchers.

The grasslands of India and elsewhere do not need to have economic value to be worth studying and preserving

Intelligence reports supporting the lab-leak theory for COVID are not based in science

A strange blob has been seen rapidly circling our galaxy's central black hole. Now, astronomers have identified it as the exploded debris from two merging stars.

Livestock farming produces large quantities of greenhouse gases, especially methane, which is particularly harmful to the climate. Among other things, it escapes during the storage of animal excrement, the slurry. A study now shows that methane emissions can be reduced by 99 percent through simple and inexpensive means. The method could make an important contribution to the fight against climate change.

Nature, Published online: 03 March 2023; doi:10.1038/d41586-023-00548-6

The antiviral ensitrelvir, which is not approved in the United States, shortens symptoms in people with mild   and might reduce risk of long COVID — but more data are needed.

Nature, Published online: 03 March 2023; doi:10.1038/d41586-023-00629-6

Multi-year project in Ukraine aims to uncover the health effects of chronic radiation exposure.

 Popped

As if having the planet drown in a giant pile of plastic pollution wasn't enough.

The company behind Funko Pop collectibles, those small figurines that vaguely represent celebrities and fictional characters and which you likely ignore at your local GameStop, vastly over-estimated demand and is dumping $30 million worth of figurines in a landfill, Kotaku reports.

Funko had a disastrous earnings call earlier this week, causing its stock price to crater on Thursday, dropping by a stunning 25 percent in after-hours trading on Wednesday.

The company announced that it was sitting on a massive pile of unsold inventory, which increased 48 percent year over year.

"This includes inventory that the Company intends to eliminate in the first half of 2023 to reduce fulfillment costs by managing inventory levels to align with the operating capacity of our distribution center," a press release reads. "This is expected to result in a write down in the first half of 2023 of approximately $30 to $36 million."

In other words, considering each Funko Pop figurine averages around $8 to $11, they're dumping millions of figurines into the garbage.

PVC Pollution

The company was already facing financial turmoil last year, with its distribution center in Arizona overflowing with inventory to the point it had to rent shipping containers to store them all.

By November, the venture's stock had already cratered after it slashed its financial outlook for the rest of the year, Kotaku reports.

While some Funko Pop models have propped up a considerable speculators' market — two recent golden figurines sold for $100,000 in cash — the reality is that their value is unlikely to last forever, damning them to slowly decompose in landfills.

The figurines are made of polyvinyl chloride, better known as PVC, a petroleum-derived chemical that's made using vinyl chloride — a substance that may sound familiar, because it was all over the news last month following the disastrous train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, which released copious amounts of the stuff into the surrounding environment and waterways.

READ MORE: Over $30 Million Worth Of Funkos Are Headed To The Landfill [Kotaku]

More on plastic pollution: Chevron's Jet Fuel Made From Plastic Very Likely to Cause Cancer, EPA Documents Say

The post They're Dumping $30 Million of Funko Pops Directly Into a Landfill appeared first on Futurism.

Researchers have found evidence of horseback riding in skeletal remains of people who lived about 5,000 years ago, adding to a body of research on when people first started using horses to get around.

(Image credit: Alan Crowhurst/Getty Images)

In the spring of 1986, in their rush to flee the radioactive plume and booming fire that burned after the Chernobyl power plant exploded, many people left behind their dogs. Most of those former pets died as radiation ripped through the region and emergency workers culled the animals they feared would ferry toxic atoms about. Some, though, survived. Those dogs trekked into the camps of liquidators to beg for scraps; they nosed into empty buildings and found safe places to sleep. In the 1,600-square-mile exclusion zone around the power plant, they encountered each other, and began to reproduce. "Dogs were there immediately after the disaster," says Gabriella Spatola, a geneticist at the National Institutes of Health and the University of South Carolina. And they have been there ever since.

 

Spatola and her colleagues are now puzzling through the genomes of those survivors' modern descendants. In identifying the genetic scars that today's animals may have inherited, the researchers hope to understand how, and how well, Chernobyl's canine populations have thrived. The findings could both reveal the lasting tolls of radiation and hint at traits that have helped certain dogs avoid the disaster's worst health effects. The fates of dogs—bred and adapted to work, play, and lounge at our side—are tied to ours. And the canines we leave behind when crises strike could show us what it takes to survive the fallout of our gravest mistakes.

 

One of the key canine groups the team is focusing on is based at what's left of the power plant itself, and has likely weathered the highest levels of radiation of any dog population in the exclusion zone. The researchers are working to compare the genomes of those dogs with those of others living farther out, in Chernobyl City, a quasi-residential region about nine miles away that was evacuated after the blast, and in Slavutych, a less contaminated city roughly 30 miles out, where many power-plant workers settled after leaving their post.

 

The spatial differences are essential to the study's success. The region's landscape is "a patchwork of different radioactivity levels," says Timothy Mousseau, a biologist at the University of South Carolina who's been studying Chernobyl's wildlife for more than 20 years, and is co-advising Spatola's work. Which means that geographically distinct packs of dogs could, in theory, have distinct exposure histories, and distinct genetic legacies to show for it. The team's work is just beginning. But in the hundreds of blood samples that Spatola and her colleagues have analyzed from dogs in all three groups, they've already found evidence that the reactor-adjacent canines are different in at least some ways.

 

The animals that the team sampled in Chernobyl City and Slavutych, the researchers found, look a lot like dogs you'd find elsewhere. They've been born of mixtures of modern breeds: mastiffs, pinschers, schnauzers, boxers, terriers. But the power-plant population seems more stuck in the past. The dogs there are far more inbred, and still skew heavily German shepherd—a breed that has a long history in the region, a hint that the animals have largely kept to their ancestral roots, says Elaine Ostrander, a geneticist at the National Institutes of Health and another of Spatola's co-advisers. This pack might represent something like "a time capsule" from the disaster's worst days, says Elinor Karlsson, a genomics expert at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. Perhaps this lineage of dogs has been stewing in the plant's radiation for a dozen generations or more. Some may even have inherited mutations caused by the explosion itself.

 

The long-ranging consequences of their exposures, though, aren't yet clear. Repeated, heavy doses of radiation—which can mutate DNA, seed cancers, and irreparably damage the structural integrity of cells—can be, without question, "extremely detrimental to life," says Isain Zapata, a biomedical researcher at Rocky Vista University. And over the decades, a wealth of studies has revealed serious health effects among some local animals: Birds have been found with tumors and unusually small brains; bank voles have battled cataracts and produced wonky, underperforming sperm. Even bees seem to struggle to reproduce. Still, not all creatures are equally susceptible to radiation; many have also avoided the region's most saturated zones. And in some parts of the exclusion zone, some of them appear to be flourishing on terrain now largely devoid of humans and their polluting, disruptive ways. In this landscape of possibilities, it's hard to say where the dogs of Chernobyl might fall: Domestic canines depend heavily on us, and may suffer more than other animals when we leave. But that dependence also means that dogs are also less likely to chow down on wild, radiation-contaminated food, and may be well positioned to take advantage of the ruins we leave behind—and to mooch more when we start to creep back.

 

[Read: The creatures that remember Chernobyl]

 

What the team finds next will be telling. Scientists have already spent decades scrutinizing canine genomes; a reference book for what's "typical" already exists, which makes detecting "when something's unusual" much easier, Karlsson told me. The researchers might uncover mutations and sickness in the power-plant pack—a sign that the dogs' genomes have been walloped by years of radiation, as those of some other animals apparently have. But Karlsson also thinks the team could find the opposite: hints of genetic traits that have kept the dogs alive under harsh conditions, such as a higher resistance to cancer. That, in turn, could bode well for us. Canine and human genomes are quite similar, and "domestic dogs have been a model for human cancer for a very long time," says Shane Campbell-Staton, an evolutionary biologist at Princeton who studies Chernobyl's wolves. Perhaps these dogs did not bend under pressure, but instead thrived.

 

One of the trickiest parts of the project will be figuring out which differences among the studied dog groups are attributable to radiation, rather than the ways in which the Chernobyl disaster completely remodeled the region and its ecosystems. Populations of plants, insects, birds, and mammals ebbed and flowed, affecting the availability of resources and the presence of predators. Humans came and left, sometimes bringing food, medical care, or more dogs. Generations of animals replaced each other, and populations mingled and mixed. Olena Burdo, a radioecologist at the Kiev Institute for Nuclear Research, has worked for years to try to parse these many variables in her work with bank voles. In the wild, it's usually easy to tell that differences between populations exist, she told me. It's just not always possible to pinpoint why.

 

Without perfect record-keeping of individual canines, the team can't prove that the modern dogs they're sampling are directly descended from 1980s dogs, either. Burdo told me she suspects that at least some of the power-plant dogs may be more transient than the researchers think. If the three dog populations under study are loose, amorphous, and constantly turning over, the researchers will have a tough time determining the effects of higher- or lower-dose radiation exposure through generations. The power-plant dogs—the purported high-radiation cohort—may not really be a lineage born of the facility's buildings after all.

 

But Ostrander is fairly convinced that the power-plant population has largely kept to itself. Life among the abandoned buildings is actually quite plush. Workers toss the dogs leftovers; tourists cheerfully sneak them snacks. And in recent years, veterinarians have banded together to provide the dogs medical care, vaccinations, and spay-and-neuter services. Beyond that, the canines may not need much. The pack seems to have grown more aloof and self-sufficient over the years, Spatola told me, and may even be behaviorally reverting to some of its wilder, wolfish roots. Left to fend for themselves when the reactor blew, this population of dogs—which started out as pets—has been transformed, perhaps by radiation, perhaps by human fallibility, into something less familiar, more strange, and entirely its own.

 

It was a simpler time. A friend introduced us, pulling up a static yellow webpage using a shaky dial-up modem. A man stood forth, dressed in a dapper black pinstriped suit with a red-accented tie. He held one hand out, as if carrying an imaginary waiter's tray. He looked regal and confident and eminently at my service. "Have a Question?" he beckoned. "Just type it in and click Ask!" And ask, I did. Over and over.

 

With his steady hand, Jeeves helped me make sense of the tangled mess of the early, pre-Google internet. He wasn't perfect—plenty of context got lost between my inquiries and his responses. Still, my 11-year-old brain always delighted in the idea of a well-coiffed man chauffeuring me down the information superhighway. But things changed. Google arrived, with its clean design and almost magic ability to deliver exactly the answers I wanted. Jeeves and I grew apart. Eventually, in 2006, 

 disappeared from the internet altogether and was replaced with the more generic Ask.com.

 

Many years later, it seems I owe Jeeves an apology: He had the right idea all along. Thanks to advances in artificial intelligence and the stunning popularity of generative-text tools such as ChatGPT, today's search-engine giants are making huge bets on AI search chatbots. In February, Microsoft revealed its Bing Chatbot, which has thrilled and frightened early users for its ability to scour the internet and answer questions (not always correctly) with convincingly human-sounding language. The same week, Google demoed Bard, the company's forthcoming attempt at an AI-powered chat-search product. But for all the hype, when I stare at these new chatbots, I can't help but see the faint reflection of my former besuited internet manservant. In a sense, Bing and Bard are finishing what Ask Jeeves started. What people want when they ask a question is for an all-knowing, machine-powered guide to confidently present them with the right answer in plain language, just as a reliable friend would.

[Read: AI search is a disaster]

With this in mind, I decided to go back to the source. More than a decade after parting ways, I found myself on the phone with one of the men behind the machine, getting as close to Asking Jeeves as is humanly possible. These days, Garrett Gruener, Ask Jeeves's co-creator, is a venture capitalist in the Bay Area. He and his former business partner David Warthen eventually sold Ask Jeeves to Barry Diller and IAC for just under $2 billion. Still, I wondered if Gruener had been unsettled by Jeeves's demise. Did he, like me, see the new chatbots as the final form of his original idea? Did he feel vindicated or haunted by the fact that his creation may have simply been born far too early?

 

The original conception for Jeeves, Gruener told me, was remarkably similar to what Microsoft and Google are trying to build today. As a student at UC San Diego in the mid-1970s, Gruener—a sci-fi aficionado—got an early glimpse of ARPANET, the pre-browser predecessor to the commercial internet, and fell in love. Just over a decade later, as the web grew and the beginnings of the internet came into view, Gruener realized that people would need a way to find things in the morass of semiconnected servers and networks. "It became clear that the web needed search but that mere mortals without computer-science degrees needed something easy, even conversational," he said. Inspired by Eliza, the famous chatbot designed by MIT's Joseph Weizenbaum, Gruener dreamed of a search engine that could converse with people using natural-language processing. Unfortunately, the technology wasn't sophisticated enough for Gruener to create his ideal conversational search bot.

 

So Gruener and Warthen tried a work-around. Their code allowed a user to write a statement in English, which was then matched to a preprogrammed vector, which Gruener explained to me as "a canonical snapshot of answers to what the engine thought you were trying to say." Essentially, they taught the machine to recognize certain words and provide really broad categorical answers. "If you were looking for population stats for a country, the query would see all your words and associated variables and go, Well, this Boolean search seems close, so it's probably this." Jeeves would provide the answer, and then you could clarify whether it worked or not.

 

"We tried to discern what people were trying to say in search, but without actually doing the natural-recognition part of it," Gruener said. After some brainstorming, they realized that they were essentially building a butler. One of Gruener's friends mocked up a drawing of the friendly servant, and Jeeves was born.

 

Pre-Google, Ask Jeeves exploded in popularity, largely because it allowed people to talk with their search engine like a person. Within just two years, the site was handling more than 1 million queries a day. A massive Jeeves balloon floated down Central Park West during Macy's 1999 Thanksgiving parade. But not long after the butler achieved buoyancy, the site started to lose ground in the search wars. Google's web-crawling superiority led to hard times for Ask Jeeves. "None of us were very concerned about monetization in the beginning," Gruener told me. "Everyone in search early on realized, if you got this right, you'd essentially be in the position of being the oracle. If you could be the company to go to in order to ask questions online, you're going to be paid handsomely."

[Read: The open secret of Google Search]

Gruener isn't bitter about losing out to Google. "If anything, I'm really proud of our Jeeves," he told me. Listening to Gruener explain the history, it's not hard to see why. In the mid-2000s, Google began to pivot search away from offering only 10 blue links to images, news, maps, and shopping. Eventually, the company began to fulfill parts of the Jeeves promise of answering questions with answer boxes. One way to look at the evolution of big search engines in the 21st century is that all companies are trying their best to create their own intuitive search butlers. Gruener told me that Ask Jeeves's master plan had two phases, though the company was sold before it could tackle the second. Gruener had hoped that, eventually, Jeeves could act as a digital concierge for users. He'd hoped to employ the same vector technology to get people to ask questions and allow Jeeves to make educated guesses and help users complete all kinds of tasks. "If you look at Amazon's Alexa, they're essentially using the same approach we designed for Jeeves, just with voice," Gruener said. Yesterday's butler has been rebranded as today's virtual assistant, and the technology is ubiquitous in many of our home devices and phones. "We were right for the consumer back then, and maybe we'd be right now. But at some point the consumer evolved," he said.

 

I've been fixated on what might've been if Gruener's vision had come about now. We might all be Jeevesing about the internet for answers to our mundane questions. Perhaps our Jeevesmail inboxes would be overflowing and we'd be getting turn-by-turn directions from an Oxford-educated man with a stiff English accent. Perhaps we'd all be much better off.

 

Gruener told me about an encounter he'd had during the search wars with one of Google's founders at a TED conference (he wouldn't specify which of the two). "I told him that we're going to learn an enormous amount about the people who are using our platforms, especially as they become more conversational. And I said that it was a potentially dangerous position," he said. "But he didn't seem very receptive to my concerns."

 

Near the end of our call, I offered an apology for deserting Jeeves like everyone else did. Gruener just laughed. "I find this future fascinating and, if I'm honest, a little validating," he said. "It's like, ultimately, as the tech has come around, the big guys have come around to what we were trying to do."

 

 

 

In the spring of 1993, a 30-minute program called Bill Nye the Science Guy aired for the first time on KCTS-TV, a Seattle-based PBS affiliate. Within months, the show was being syndicated nationally, and what followed was life-changing for the show's titular host: six seasons, 100 episodes and substantial underwriting from the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy. Bill Nye was suddenly famous — broadcast into the homes and schools of millions of children, to explain science in entertaining terms they could understand. His program won 19 Emmy Awards, spawned a video game and made him a household name in television-based science programming for decades to come. But is Bill Nye a scientist? Or, as his classic PBS show suggests, is he just a "science guy?" Young Bill Nye Nye was born in Washington D.C., in 1955, to parents with incredible World War II military stories. His mother, Jacqueline Jenkins, was a Navy codebreaker. His father, Edwin Nye, was an airstrip contractor who spent four years in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp. Bill Nye's Education Fascinated simply by how things worked, Nye later attended Cornell University's Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering — graduating with a degree in mechanical engineering in 1977. He even took an astronomy course taught by Carl Sagan. After college, Nye was hired by Boeing and moved to the Seattle area. There, he invented a hydraulic resonance suppressor tube for the 747's horizontal stabilizer drive system. He also set his sights on the heavens, though unsuccessfully; he applied to NASA's astronaut program four times. Read More: 4 Things We Have Thanks to Carl Sagan When Did Bill Nye the Science Guy Start? Nye's path to being on television actually began with stand-up comedy, which he began doing after winning a Steve Martin look-alike contest in 1978. After splitting his days and nights between engineering and comedy for several years, Nye finally quit his job at Boeing to pursue comedy full-time in 1986. TV Persona He soon befriended comedians Ross Shafer and John Keister, who were both part of a new, half-hour sketch show on KING-TV called Almost Live. Nye became a writer and cast member for the show, where he worked until 1991. It's worth noting that he was also a volunteer "science explainer" at Seattle's Pacific Science Center during this time. It was on Almost Live that his "science guy" persona first graced the airwaves, with Nye doing classic science demonstrations while dressed in a lab coat and safety glasses. Audiences loved it — and he even won an Emmy from the Seattle chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. What Did Bill Nye Do? Though new episodes of the beloved PBS show quit airing in 1999, Nye has kept plenty busy as an ambassador for scientific learning. He's written eight children's books for elementary and middle school students, as well as three books for general audiences. He also publicly debated creationist Ken Ham in 2014, in a widely-publicized discussion of evolution versus creationism. On the air, Nye presented a season of The Eyes of Nye (a more adult science-based program) on KCTS in 2005, and three seasons of Netflix's Bill Nye Saves the World from 2016 to 2018. His latest program, Peacock's The End is Nye, focuses on human-made and natural calamities that could destroy civilization and how they can be mitigated. But even when a camera lens is absent, Nye has remained busy. Bill Nye the Scientist Nye helped develop the MarsDial — a sundial that was included on the Opportunity and Spirit Mars rovers. He was also vice president of the Planetary Society, the world's largest space interest group, from 2005 to 2010, and is currently its executive director. As for other organizations, Nye is a member of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, a non-profit that promotes scientific inquiry and critically reasoned investigation of claims, and an advisory council member of the National Center for Science Education. Additionally, Bill Nye holds patents as an inventor, including an improved toe shoe for ballerinas, a device to easily pick up a baseball, a water-based magnifier and a digital abacus that does math with only binary numbers. Read More: 5 Inventions That Were Discovered by Accident So, Is Bill Nye a Real Scientist? While Nye is absolutely an engineer, the Science Council defines a scientist as "someone who systematically gathers and uses research and evidence, to make hypotheses and test them, to gain and share understanding and knowledge." Systematic Approach They can be further defined, the council says, by how they get their information (i.e., statistics or data scientists), what they're trying to understand (i.e., an astronomer seeking to understand the stars) or where they apply their science (i.e., a food scientist working in the food industry). But all scientists, the Science Council concludes, are united by a "relentless curiosity and systematic approach to assuaging it." Though Nye may have spent more time on television than in formal lab settings, it would be hard to deny his legitimacy as a scientist — especially after taking into consideration all that he's accomplished and the profound influence he's had on a generation of younger scientists. Read More: The 10 Greatest Scientists of All Time

It was a familiar scene in my office, where I practice as a clinical psychiatrist. The well-dressed woman sat across from me with a worried furrow between her brows. "Doctor, my husband and children say I get too angry," she said. "I have trouble controlling my temper. Do you think I have bipolar disorder?"  After a thorough evaluation, I concluded that my patient's verbal outbursts and tendency to throw dishes didn't stem from a severe mood disorder, but from uncontrollable anxiety. My patient was surprised. Perhaps you are, too.  Read More: What is Anxiety and How Can Worries Overpower Us? Anxiety has soared since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, with at least 40 million U.S. adults currently affected by at least one anxiety disorder, according to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America. As such, it's more important than ever to recognize possible consequences of these issues, and the possible causes behind them. One of the most misunderstood relationships is between anxiety and angry outbursts.  Understanding Anxiety Disorders Anxiety disorders come in different shapes and sizes. Nonetheless, all of the examples below can produce enough fear and angst to interfere with the sufferer's daily quality of life. Social anxiety disorder, sometimes called SAD, refers to fear of negative evaluation by others in social or performance situations. Obsessive-compulsive disorder, or OCD, features debilitating thoughts "running in a loop" that lead to unwanted repetitive actions. Generalized anxiety disorder is the tendency to worry uncontrollably about usual and common life circumstances. Panic disorder is felt in the body with symptoms like shortness of breath and a fast heartbeat.  When Anxiety Leads to Anger It's tempting to think of anxiety and anger as the opposite ends of a spectrum — that is, people who are fearful are anything but aggressive. But having an anxiety problem can actually increase the likelihood of angry outbursts. Both anger and anxiety involve some sort of emotional dysregulation and a perceived threat, according to psychiatrist Franklin Schneier, co-director of the Anxiety Disorders Clinic at New York State Psychiatric Institute. That threat activates a part of the brain called the amygdala, which serves as a center that processes both fearful and threatening stimuli. The result? "It's the classic fight or flight dilemma," says Schneier.    Read More: OCD, PTSD, Generalized Anxiety Disorder and More: What's the Difference? It seems logical that those with anxiety disorders would choose "flight," or avoidance of the threatening situation. But this isn't always the case. The presence of a threat is just as likely to produce irritability — or aggression. In fact, the bond between anxiety and anger can be so tight that it feels fitting to call the combination "anxry," like the informal word "hangry" used for anger as a result of being hungry.  But while fear and anger can be closely related, they are not the same emotion. Although anger can sometimes lead to anxiety, our focus here is on the opposite, where fear is the underlying emotion and aggression is the behavior.   Why Anxiety Can Lead to Anger Research backs up the claim that anxiety can lead to anger. Jesse Cougle, a professor of psychology at Florida State University, and his team studied the frequency of aggression across several different anxiety disorders, according to research published in the journal Depression and Anxiety. The researchers found elevated anger levels across all anxiety disorders.  There are several possible reasons for this link. For one, the very experience of anxiety is a type of emotional arousal that can be distressing. In other words, people with anxiety might have a tendency to overreact in general. "When someone cuts them off in traffic or when there's a perceived slight or an inconvenience — these can lead to anger because they're already in a distressed and aroused state," says Cougle.      Another possible cause might include the temptation to push aside the anxious feelings.  "When you avoid feelings you don't deal with them so well. Just avoiding anxiety — not acknowledging it because it's too scary — can result in the anger building up until it's uncontrollable and it explodes," says Schneier.    Read More: If Humans Are Social Creatures, Why Did Social Anxiety Evolve?  Take social anxiety. Those with SAD tend to avoid conflict and might go out of their way to appease others. But they also expect others to act in a negative way towards them. Feelings of rejection can lead to irritability or behaviors that are aggressive — the exact opposite of the timidity that one might expect of someone with social anxiety. For example, if you put a socially anxious teen in a setting where they can't judge another's intentions — like a high school dance — and when the teen returns home she lashes out at her parents for forcing her to go.   Another overlooked link between anxiety and anger involves lack of sleep.  People with anxiety disorders have difficulty falling and staying asleep. Overtime, this pent up fatigue can lead to an irritable outburst.   How to Treat Anxiety and Anger A 2021 study from researchers at Florida State University showed that reducing anxiety can have a beneficial effect on anger reduction. But which types of treatments work best?  One first line of defense is to be aware of negative emotions. It's important for the "anxry" sufferer to be aware of their thoughts — particularly spiraling, catastrophic thoughts. This is where cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) comes in. The therapist can help the patient view thoughts differently and adjust their behavior. "CBT approaches are useful for self-monitoring of anxious and angry thoughts and impulses," says Schneier. "[It's about] using the anger as information to either address the underlying conflict or calm oneself so it doesn't get out of hand."     Read More: Anxiety and Depression Relief, No Therapist Required Because people with "anxry" are more likely to drop out of treatment than those with anxiety alone, in some cases treatment should target both halves of the equation.  "We have treatments that are not focused on a single diagnosis. […] They are trying to reduce things like 'negative affectivity,' a broad construct that both anger and anxiety have in common," adds Cougle. "Mindful emotional awareness" (or, simply, the practice of mindfulness) is one of these therapies. This refers to the ability to feel the first signs of anger or anxiety in our body, and accept those feelings without judgement.   Of course anger is associated with many other disorders including depression, bipolar disorder and borderline personality disorder, to name a few. Teasing out underlying anxiety can be difficult — both for the sufferer caught in the heat of the moment, and for their loved ones. The consequences of "anxry" are often frightening, so seeking professional diagnosis and treatment can bring much needed relief.   

Radioactive materials, also known as radionuclides, are chemicals in which the atom is unstable. As atoms try to restore balance, they break down and decay-causing the release of energy, known as radiation. Small amounts of radiation are all around us, including in everyday products such as microwaves and smoke detectors. Other uses include killing germs in food as well as helping diagnose and treat certain medical conditions. However, exposure to large amounts of radiation (by inhalation, absorption or ingestion) can be extremely harmful. Potentially dangerous radioactive material "goes missing" about 100 times a year worldwide. It might be lost or stolen. 1. Iridium-192: Michigan (2023) An inspection company in Ohio that does testing in the industrial and energy fields shipped Iridium-192 to a facility in Michigan. Almost 10 days later, the package had not yet arrived. While the material was radioactive, the inspection company assured the public that they used shipping safety precautions, that included secure and protective packaging. Someone would have needed to break open the container to access the radioactive material if found. A little over a week later, the package was located, and the public was assured it had always been within the carrier's control. 2. Dirty Bomb Material: Malaysia (2018) In 2018, the materials for a "dirty bomb" disappeared from the back of a pickup truck while being transported in Malaysia near Kuala Lumpur. The missing device was an industrial radiography unit used to locate cracks within metal. It was housed in a large metal tube that weighed 50 pounds. This was another case involving Iridium-192. In this situation, it was an undisclosed amount. Still, it was troubling, as the unknown amount of this radioactive isotope could cause harm within minutes to hours if handled. Iridium-192 could have fatal effects on someone within close exposure for hours to days. Unfortunately, the material was never found. 3. Soil Gauge: Alabama (2023) a Geotech engineering firm employee left behind or lost a device used to measure soil density and moisture. The Alabama Department of Public Health released a public statement asking for help locating the radioactive device and offered a reward.  The gauge was securely locked in a box, clearly labeled as radioactive materials, but the public was warned not to touch it. A member of the public found the device and returned it to its rightful owner. And neither the company nor the government disclosed the specific materials contained in the gauge. Read More: The Mysterious Radiation Bursts Threatening Aircrew 4. Plutonium and Cesium: Texas (2017) Two employees from Idaho's Department of Energy's National Lab picked up nuclear materials from a research lab in Texas. They brought radiation detectors and small amounts of plutonium and cesium to confirm they were retrieving the correct items. When the employees spent the night at a hotel along the way back, they (inexplicably) left the suitcases containing the sensors and the radioactive materials in their truck. The following day, they found the window smashed and the suitcases stolen. The event was not disclosed to the public by authorities. Nobody has been arrested for the theft, and the items have not been recovered. 5. Radioactive Capsule: Australia (2023) When a truck carrying a pea-sized radioactive capsule containing caesium-137 (cesium-137) arrived at a storage facility in Perth, Australia — the capsule was missing. The capsule was used for a density gauge in the mining industry. It's believed that the hardware holding the gauge together loosened during travel, and the capsule first fell out of the gauge — and then fell out of a space in the truck. The capsule was located by authorities who searched a stretch of highway almost 900 miles long. Found among pebbles about seven feet from the road, the capsule was verified using the serial number printed on it.

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More than 35 years after the world's worst nuclear accident, the dogs of Chernobyl roam among decaying, abandoned buildings in and around the closed plant—somehow still able to find food, breed and survive.

In the Middle Ages, the Roman alphabet and runes lived side by side. A new doctoral thesis challenges the notion that runes represent more of an oral and less of a learned form of written language.

Current technology does not allow all Large Hadron Collider (LHC) proton–proton collision data to be stored and analyzed. It is therefore necessary to filter out the data according to the scientific goals of each experiment. Physicists call this selection process the "trigger."

Researchers in South Africa are feeling the effects of the country's continuing power cuts and fear for the impact the electricity crisis is having on their research output.

Tree-ring analysis—so-called dendrochronological analysis—has been part of archaeology for many years and has made it possible for archaeologists to date old wooden objects with great precision. And in many cases, they have also been able to determine the provenance of the wood.

Modifying inflorescences with higher grain capacity is vital for crop grain production. One recurring target is to select inflorescences with more branches or floral structures. Prominent examples include genes affecting floral identity or meristem determinacy, for which natural or induced variants profoundly change floral primordium number. Yet for temperate cereal crops, such as wheat and barley, excessive floral structures can result in a degeneration penalty due to the indeterminate nature of meristems. On the other hand, the manifestation of this reproductive potential can be accentuated by environmental fluctuations such as light, temperature and nutrition. Increasing the fraction of surviving florets/spikelets may thus improve grain yield in cereals.

More than 35 years after the world's worst nuclear accident, the dogs of Chernobyl roam among decaying, abandoned buildings in and around the closed plant—somehow still able to find food, breed and survive.

Modifying inflorescences with higher grain capacity is vital for crop grain production. One recurring target is to select inflorescences with more branches or floral structures. Prominent examples include genes affecting floral identity or meristem determinacy, for which natural or induced variants profoundly change floral primordium number. Yet for temperate cereal crops, such as wheat and barley, excessive floral structures can result in a degeneration penalty due to the indeterminate nature of meristems. On the other hand, the manifestation of this reproductive potential can be accentuated by environmental fluctuations such as light, temperature and nutrition. Increasing the fraction of surviving florets/spikelets may thus improve grain yield in cereals.

Oil palm trees are the most productive oil crop and global demand is increasing. However, their productivity is due to conventional management practices including high fertilizer usage and herbicide application, resulting in severe environmental damage.

Oil palm trees are the most productive oil crop and global demand is increasing. However, their productivity is due to conventional management practices including high fertilizer usage and herbicide application, resulting in severe environmental damage.

The animal brain consists of tens of billions of neurons or nerve cells that perform complex tasks like processing emotions, learning, and making judgments by communicating with each other via neurotransmitters. These small signaling molecules diffuse—move from high to low concentration regions—between neurons, acting as chemical messengers.

Machine learning can be harnessed to synthesize artificial light-bearing enzymes that actually work in cells.

The remains of a missing person from Argentina were recently found inside the belly of a dead school shark. But experts say it is improbable that the shark killed him.

The world's first horseback riders swept across the steppe roughly 5,000 years ago, a new skeletal analysis of tombs across Europe and Asia reveals.

Archaeologists have found a handful of human skeletons with characteristics that have been linked to horseback riding and are a millennium older than early depictions of humans riding horses

Fires in North America and Eurasia spewed record-shattering amounts of CO₂ in 2021

The bones of nine men from graves in Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania show hallmarks of horse riding in the patterns of wear on their spines, legs and pelvises

Though wildlife trafficking has been effectively disrupted since the first World Wildlife Day — established 50 years ago today via the 1973 Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) of Wild Fauna and Flora — a newly published case study on one of the world's rarest tortoise species, the ploughshare tortoise, highlights how much room for improvement still exists.

Neurons perform numerous complex tasks by communicating with each other via small messenger molecules called neurotransmitters. Accurately detecting them is crucial to understanding the functioning of our brain. To this end, researchers have demonstrated that fluorescent nanoparticles imprinted with the molecular structure of a target neurotransmitter, immobilized on glass beads at a controlled surface density, can detect specific neurotransmitters based on their expansion during interaction with the target transmitters.

An international team of bee researchers has integrated a calcium sensor into honey bees to enable the study of neural information processing including response to odors. This also provides insights into how social behavior is located in the brain.

Archaeologists have found a handful of human skeletons with characteristics that have been linked to horseback riding and are a millennium older than early depictions of humans riding horses

Nature, Published online: 03 March 2023; doi:10.1038/d41586-023-00620-1

A rising number of images by the famed telescope include satellite trails — a trend that will ultimately affect its science.

Nature, Published online: 03 March 2023; doi:10.1038/d41586-023-00672-3

Vega C launch failure, tracked to a Ukraine-made part, could further delay a handful of missions.

How does the radioactive zone change animals?

A new study is the first step in an effort to understand how exposure to chronic, low-level radiation has affected the area's dogs.

The full scope of CNET's layoffs after its disastrous foray into AI-powered journalism is coming further into focus — and frankly, things don't look too good.

According to internal correspondence Futurism obtained, CNET — which has maintained that the job cuts have absolutely nothing to do with their misfired AI, actually — gutted 50 percent of its news and video staff in the most recent culling.

That's a striking number, especially in light of the fact that CNET's owner, Red Ventures, very much appears like it's planning to start up its mystery AI machine once again.

Remember, CNET's editor-in-chief Connie Guglielmo — who in a grim punchline is stepping down to become the company's VP of AI content strategy — defended the tech after a public outcry as a bid to free up journalists to do more interesting work.

"The goal: to see if the tech can help our busy staff of reporters and editors with their job to cover topics from a 360-degree perspective," she wrote in January. "Will this AI engine efficiently assist them in using publicly available facts to create the most helpful content so our audience can make better decisions? Will this enable them to create even more deeply researched stories, analyses, features, testing and advice work we're known for?"

That clearly didn't work out so well, with the site's news operation now cut off at the knees. In an email to Futurism, CNET neither confirmed nor denied the 50 percent figure.

"Out of respect of those leaving the CNET Group," a CNET spokesperson wrote in an email, "we will not be sharing specific details of yesterday's reorganization."

And according to a source familiar with the matter, CNET isn't the only Red Ventures publication to be hit with massive editorial layoffs. ZDNET, another Red Ventures-owned tech outlet, lost 35 percent of its editorial staff. And to that end, we wouldn't be surprised to learn that Red Ventures were rolling its editorial AI system out over at ZDNET, too.

"But those sections are shadows of what they once were, particularly home," said the staffer, per the report. "If you want to do that section the right way, you don't sell off your Smart Home, get rid of its video team and cripple your editorial staff."

And as for "making a large difference in the lives" of its audience, let's hope that the information that CNET is publishing is actually right this time — otherwise, while the difference that the company makes is still bound to be a big one, it's also bound to be a bad one.

At the end of the day, we understand that everyone's got a bottom line. But there's a difference between bottom lines and rock bottoms, and if you have to stoop this far to ensure that your bottom line is taken care of, it's worth wondering if the road taken was worth it.

More on CNET cuts: CNET Says It's a Total Coincidence It's Laying off Humans after Publishing AI-Generated Articles

The post CNET's Post-AI Layoffs Apparently Gutted 50 Percent of Its News and Video Staff appeared first on Futurism.

Members of Gen Z are entering the workforce with certain types of technological know-how, from navigating the depths of the internet and using apps to editing photos on their smartphones.

But when it comes to using a scanner or printer — or even a file system on a computer — things become a lot more challenging to a generation that has spent much of their lives online, The Guardian reports, a counterintuitive result of workplaces still relying on technologies that were around long before they were born.

"There is a myth that kids were born into an information age, and that this all comes intuitively to them," Sarah Dexter, an associate professor of education at the University of Virginia, told the newspaper. "But that is not realistic. How would they know how to scan something if they've never been taught how to do it?"

For instance, 25-year-old New Yorker Garrett Bemiller admitted to The Guardian that he was stumped by a photocopy machine at his office.

"It kept coming out as a blank page, and took me a couple times to realize that I had to place the paper upside-down in the machine for it to work," he said.

Educators have already found that the latest generation of students is struggling with wrapping their minds around the concept of file folders and directories. Even astrophysics students had a hard time with the concept, as The Verge reported back in 2021.

After all, why dig around for a while when you can just use your computer's search functions? A quick Google search can easily get you to the answer you are looking for in a fraction of a second.

It's become such a commonplace discussion these days that tech company HP went as far as to give the phenomenon a name: "tech shame."

HP found that young people are ten times more likely to feel "tech shame" as compared to older colleagues, according to a November survey, the result of a basic misjudgment.

"The assumption is that because Gen Z and even millennials spend a considerable amount of time on technology that they are technology savvy," Debbie Irish, HP's head of UK and Ireland human resources, told WorkLife last year. "This is a huge misconception. Sadly, neither watching TikTok videos nor playing Minecraft fulfills the technology brief."

There's plenty of evidence that 

 don't feel adequately prepared for office life. Last year, a LaSalle Network survey found recent graduates simply didn't possess the technical skills to successfully enter the workforce.

Then there's social media, which has set a high bar for accessibility.

"It takes five seconds to learn how to use TikTok," content creator Max Simon, who makes TikTok videos about corporate life, told The Guardian. "You don't need an instruction book, like you would with a printer."

"Content is so easy to access now that when you throw someone a simple curveball they'll swing and they miss," he added, "and that's why Gen Z can't schedule a meeting."

But for tech-savvy Gen Zers, the situation is quite different. They're still far more adaptable than their older colleagues and will frequently be tapped for help themselves.

That kind of trial and error and Google-assisted problem-solving has long gone over the heads of the older generations, which will only deepen the divide.

Besides, why are we still using scanners and printers in the year 2023? Perhaps employers should finally get with the times and say goodbye to that ancient tech.

READ MORE: 'Scanners are complicated': why Gen Z faces workplace 'tech shame' [The Guardian]

More on Gen Z: Gen Z Kids Apparently Don't Understand How File Systems Don't Work

The post Gen Z Is Apparently Baffled by Basic Technology appeared first on Futurism.

Researchers have discovered evidence of horse riding by studying the remains of human skeletons found in burial mounds called kurgans, which were between 4,500 and 5,000 years old. The earthen burial mounds belonged to the Yamnaya culture. The Yamnayans had migrated from the Pontic-Caspian steppes to find greener pastures in today´s countries of Romania and Bulgaria up to Hungary and Serbia.

Climate, tectonics and time combine to create powerful forces that craft the face of our planet. Add the gradual sculpting of the Earth's surface by rivers and what to us seems solid as rock is constantly changing.

As a social media user, you can be eager to share content. You can also try to judge whether it is true or not. But for many people it is difficult to prioritize both these things at once.

Livestock farming produces large quantities of greenhouse gases, especially methane, which is particularly harmful to the climate. Among other things, it escapes during the storage of animal excrement, the slurry. A study by the University of Bonn now shows that methane emissions can be reduced by 99% through simple and inexpensive means. The method could make an important contribution to the fight against climate change. The results have now been published in the journal Waste Management.

Livestock farming produces large quantities of greenhouse gases, especially methane, which is particularly harmful to the climate. Among other things, it escapes during the storage of animal excrement, the slurry. A study by the University of Bonn now shows that methane emissions can be reduced by 99% through simple and inexpensive means. The method could make an important contribution to the fight against climate change. The results have now been published in the journal Waste Management.

 

 

Laptop manufacturers have focused on making systems thinner over the years. A pair of DIY YouTubers became unhappy with that trend and decided to go in the opposite direction. Just for fun and to see what it would look like, they built a monstrous 43-inch gaming laptop from scratch. The finished product looks like you'd expect a gaming laptop to look with LED lighting and a huge display. However, it's not the most practical computer, weighing 100 pounds.

The heart of the laptop is a 43-inch TV that was screwed into a plywood frame via its VESA mount. That type of wood was also used for the computer's base and is what makes the thing so darn heavy. Aluminum "arms" along the edges connect to custom-made hinges to allow it to open and close. The notebook shell is two inches deep, which was the primary limitation on what hardware could power it. The display also needed a power source, so they outfitted it with three batteries: one runs the display, one powers the computer, and the third is for the LEDs.

With the shell constructed, they did a dry run to see if it would boot and offer enough power to run games. Surprisingly, the portable batteries worked fine, with the host saying the system consumes around 260W under full load. Powering the monstrosity is an 

 NUC 11, according to HotHardware. This mini PC features a quad-core Intel Core i7-1165G7 Tiger Lake processor and an RTX 2060 GPU. Despite being only 1.65 inches tall, the NUC still has a decent amount of power. Its CPU even has a maximum boost clock of 4.7GHz. Plus, it has a Turing GPU and can handle light ray tracing.

With everything running smoothly, it was just a matter of custom printing 3D brackets to hold the parts in place. Then they had to polish it up to make it aesthetically pleasing. Finishing it off is a massive keyboard of unknown providence. However, it's proportional to the rest of the notebook and fits right in. There's also a built-in trackpad and tiny windows on the deck to let them monitor the batteries tucked inside.

On the one hand, the project was a success, but it would be interesting to see if they could make it lighter by using more plastic instead of wood. However, that might not be rigid enough to keep the chassis from flexing. As the hosts note, you must put a pad on your legs to use it as a laptop. Also, its size requires two people to open the panel, so it's not practical.

The project is reminiscent of the world's biggest Xbox Series X. That was equally ridiculous as it was almost 7 feet tall and weighed over 250 pounds. Still, it was a legit Xbox and got certified by the Guinness Book of World Records. As far as we can tell, the 43-inch laptop has not been awarded any "world's largest" certifications. The couple says you can buy the "BFL laptop" for three easy payments of $999, although it's just a parody ad.

Now read:

• Lenovo's Yoga Book 9i Offers Dual OLED Screens in a 13.3-inch Laptop Chassis
• PC Display Ratios Other Than 16:9 Creep Toward the Mainstream
• Google Announces Chromebooks Built for Cloud Gaming

Until the world stops or slows our greenhouse gas emissions, we won't know just how severe climate change effects like sea level rise and extreme weather will be. A new framework could help communities when making often irreversible climate adaptation decisions under this uncertainty—so they're not spending so much that they're left servicing unnecessary debt, and not spending so little that they're left unprotected.

Based on a new study, the carbon sequestration of suppressed spruces recovered during the following growth season after a selection harvesting. This is great news from the perspective of climate change. The prerequisites for practicing continuous cover forestry in fertile drained peatland forests are also good from the perspective of tree growth, as the slow stem diameter growth period, sc. "release effect" proved to be relatively short.

Bones remain healthy thanks to the fact that they are continuously remodeling, a process dependent on the balance between the activity of osteoblasts—cells that create bone tissue—and the osteoclasts, which reabsorb it. An imbalance between these two can disrupt bone homeostasis and lead to diseases such as  , which is a loss of bone mass.

Based on a new study, the carbon sequestration of suppressed spruces recovered during the following growth season after a selection harvesting. This is great news from the perspective of climate change. The prerequisites for practicing continuous cover forestry in fertile drained peatland forests are also good from the perspective of tree growth, as the slow stem diameter growth period, sc. "release effect" proved to be relatively short.

Bones remain healthy thanks to the fact that they are continuously remodeling, a process dependent on the balance between the activity of osteoblasts—cells that create bone tissue—and the osteoclasts, which reabsorb it. An imbalance between these two can disrupt bone homeostasis and lead to diseases such as  , which is a loss of bone mass.

Researchers from Southwest University in China have constructed the entire chromosomal-scale genome assembly and complete spidroin gene set of the golden orb-weaving spider, Trichonephila clavata, known for its especially strong, golden-colored webs.

Many people choose to live with a cat for companionship. As a social species, companionship is something we often crave. But this cannot necessarily be said of our feline friends. Domestic cats evolved from a largely solitary species, defending their territory from other cats.

Biomass refers to biological organisms, including plants, that synthesize organic matter utilizing solar energy and animals that use these plants as food. Biomass also includes resources that can be converted into chemical energy. To achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, substantial efforts have been made worldwide to develop biorefinery technology that can replace fossil fuels with biofuels. However, the conventional biofuel production process involves the use of highly toxic solvents, which are mainly derived from petroleum causing environmental and economic concerns.

Researchers from Southwest University in China have constructed the entire chromosomal-scale genome assembly and complete spidroin gene set of the golden orb-weaving spider, Trichonephila clavata, known for its especially strong, golden-colored webs.

Elevated near-surface ozone pollutes many parts of the world, exerting consequential impacts on human health in ozone-prone regions, including southeastern China, the southeastern United States, and Europe. Key meteorological conditions, such as downward surface shortwave radiation, intensify ozone pollution, yet how these meteorological conditions or associated mechanisms respond to global warming remains unknown.

Biomass refers to biological organisms, including plants, that synthesize organic matter utilizing solar energy and animals that use these plants as food. Biomass also includes resources that can be converted into chemical energy. To achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, substantial efforts have been made worldwide to develop biorefinery technology that can replace fossil fuels with biofuels. However, the conventional biofuel production process involves the use of highly toxic solvents, which are mainly derived from petroleum causing environmental and economic concerns.

A sense of fairness has long been considered purely human — but animals also react with frustration when they are treated unequally by a person. In a study with long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis), researchers have now confirmed an alternative explanatory approach. A combination of social disappointment with the human experimenter and some degree of food competition best explains their behavior in an 'inequity aversion' experiment.

New research has confirmed that coastal water pollution transfers to the atmosphere in sea spray aerosol, which can reach people beyond just beachgoers, surfers, and swimmers.

Existing color systems, such as RGB and CYMK, are all text-based and require a large range of values to represent different colors, making them difficult to compute and time-consuming to convert. Recently, researchers made a breakthrough by inventing an innovative color system, called 'C235', based on prime numbers, enabling efficient encoding and effective color compression. It can unify existing color systems and has the potential to be applied in various applications, like designing an energy-saving LCD system and colorizing DNA codons.

By 2029, there will be 3.6 million computing jobs in the U.S., but there will only be enough college graduates with computing degrees to fill 24% of these jobs. For decades, the U.S. has poured resources into improving gender representation in the tech industry. However, the numbers are not improving proportionately. Instead, they have remained stagnant, and initiatives are failing.

People across the UK, from the Shetland Islands to Somerset and from Norfolk to Northern Ireland, have been treated to a stunning display of the aurora borealis or northern lights recently. But what causes this beautiful phenomena and why has it appeared so far south?

Many people choose to live with a cat for companionship. As a social species, companionship is something we often crave. But this cannot necessarily be said of our feline friends. Domestic cats evolved from a largely solitary species, defending their territory from other cats.

In the months leading up to his 2012 attack that killed 26 people in Newtown, Connecticut, a 20-year-old man exhibited a cascade of concerning behaviors. He experienced worsening anorexia, depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder. His relationships deteriorated, and he became fixated on mass murders.

Visible light is just one part of the electromagnetic spectrum that astronomers use to study the universe. The James Webb Space Telescope was built to see infrared light, other space telescopes capture X-ray images, and observatories like the Green Bank Telescope, the Very Large Array, the Atacama Large Millimeter Array and dozens of other observatories around the world work at radio wavelengths.

In an ordinary Chicago winter, ice fishermen would still be scampering out onto the frozen stretches of Lake Michigan, toting fishing rods, drills—even pop-up shelters.

California Chinook salmon populations have fallen to their lowest levels in years, according to new estimates released by state and federal scientists—a decline that could trigger a shutdown of the commercial and recreational fishing season along the coast.

Nature Communications, Published online: 03 March 2023; doi:10.1038/s41467-022-34915-0

Author Correction: Multiscale variations of the crustal stress field throughout North America

Nature Communications, Published online: 03 March 2023; doi:10.1038/s41467-022-35611-9

The trifluoromethyl anion rapidly decomposes into difluorocarbene (:CF2) and fluorine ion, limiting its applicability in synthesis. Here, the authors report a strategy to generate and use the short-lived CF3- intermediate from stable CF3H gas via fast biphasic mixing in precisely customized flow dissolvers.

The government cited noise pollution and climate concerns in its decision to restrict flights.

California Chinook salmon populations have fallen to their lowest levels in years, according to new estimates released by state and federal scientists—a decline that could trigger a shutdown of the commercial and recreational fishing season along the coast.

Though wildlife trafficking has been effectively disrupted since the first World Wildlife Day—established 50 years ago today via the 1973 Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) of Wild Fauna and Flora—a newly published case study on one of the world's rarest tortoise species, the ploughshare tortoise, highlights how much room for improvement still exists.

Though wildlife trafficking has been effectively disrupted since the first World Wildlife Day—established 50 years ago today via the 1973 Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) of Wild Fauna and Flora—a newly published case study on one of the world's rarest tortoise species, the ploughshare tortoise, highlights how much room for improvement still exists.

Nature, Published online: 03 March 2023; doi:10.1038/d41586-023-00635-8

Booming exploration and commercial activity could ruin the quiet environment of the lunar far side.

Forensic experts have developed a new approach to assist the comparison and interpretation of footwear mark evidence.

About one in three Canadian households have adopted a pet since the start of the pandemic. Around one-third of these are first-time pet owners. These "pandemic pets," along with their pre-pandemic counterparts, have brought a great deal of comfort during the lockdown, with owners reporting a deepening of their bonds with their pets.

We have long been fascinated with the idea of alien life. The earliest written record presenting the idea of "aliens" is seen in the satiric work of Assyrian writer Lucian of Samosata dated to 200 AD.

A large international team of scientists with various backgrounds has discovered that there were two domestication pathway events for grapes that led to their use in winemaking. In their paper published in the journal Science, the group describes conducting the largest-ever genome sequencing of grapevine varieties, mostly during pandemic lockdowns. Robin Allaby with the University of Warwick, has published a Perspectives piece in the same journal issue outlining the work done by the team.

A large international team of scientists with various backgrounds has discovered that there were two domestication pathway events for grapes that led to their use in winemaking. In their paper published in the journal Science, the group describes conducting the largest-ever genome sequencing of grapevine varieties, mostly during pandemic lockdowns. Robin Allaby with the University of Warwick, has published a Perspectives piece in the same journal issue outlining the work done by the team.

When you think about human evolution, there's a good chance you're imagining chimpanzees exploring ancient forests or early humans daubing wooly mammoths on to cave walls. But we humans, along with bears, lizards, hummingbirds and Tyrannosaurus rex, are actually lobe-finned fish.