Science 2.0
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Updated: 43 min 22 sec ago
Trump Ending Carbon Capture Mandates Attached To Grants Could Spark A New Industrial Revolution
The U.S. Department of Energy’s decision to claw back US$3.7 billion in grants from industrial demonstration projects may create an unexpected opening for American manufacturing.
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The Largest Camera In The World Reveals Its First Image
The Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile has released the first image using the largest camera in the world. The 3200-megapixel resolution wide field of view Legacy Survey of Space and Time camera.
Its high-definition images use six different color filters can photograph 45 times the area of the full moon in the sky with each exposure. So wide it can capture the entire southern sky in just three nights of shooting.
Its high-definition images use six different color filters can photograph 45 times the area of the full moon in the sky with each exposure. So wide it can capture the entire southern sky in just three nights of shooting.
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Lottery Bottle Bill Could Improve Recycling
In the 1980s, there was a conflict raging about recycling. Governments were starting to do it while states that had a 'bottle bill' - a deposit on bottles you got refunded upon return - wanted to keep their success.
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Bubbles In Ice Could Be A Future Medium For Secret Codes
Scholars have developed a method to encode binary and Morse code messages in ice.
A 'message in a bubble' has limited practical utility, information storage in Antarctica and the Arctic is expensive but less challenging than storing message in ice, but they are more covert than paper documents and can easily be carried.
A 'message in a bubble' has limited practical utility, information storage in Antarctica and the Arctic is expensive but less challenging than storing message in ice, but they are more covert than paper documents and can easily be carried.
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Nearly Complete Harbin Skull From 146,000 Years Ago Belongs To The Denisovan Lineage
The discovery of the Denisovans 15 years ago set off a chain of evolutionary research into how they contributed to modern East Asians and Oceanians. A new study adds evidence. Researchers have confirmed that a nearly complete hominin skull from 146,000 years ago that was discovered near Harbin belongs to the Denisovan lineage even as it is a new species, Homo longi.
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Humans Have Always Adapted To Changing Climates - It's Why We Conquered The World
In the Cradles of Civilization, there are entire cities covered in sand that were once thriving places. The climate shifted and humans did with it. One of our greatest cultural achievements has been our ability to adapt to a natural world that is out to destroy and rebuild everything, including us.
A new study shows we were adapting to diverse areas and environmental changes long before the creation of agriculture and resulting civilizations. Even before worldwide migration, we were bending African forests and deserts. Failing to do so was why the probably earliest migration efforts seemed to have disappeared with barely a trace.
A new study shows we were adapting to diverse areas and environmental changes long before the creation of agriculture and resulting civilizations. Even before worldwide migration, we were bending African forests and deserts. Failing to do so was why the probably earliest migration efforts seemed to have disappeared with barely a trace.
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Golden Dome Missile Shield A 'No-Brainer', According To EMP Expert
Over 40 years ago, President Ronald Reagan, the most pro-science president of the 20th century, proposed a lot of bold initiatives. A Superconducting Super Collider was one goal, a big boost for government funding of basic research was another, and he also laid out a Strategic Defense Initiative. A missile defense system. That last one was dismissed by Democrats in Congress and media corporations as "Star Wars" fantasy.
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Social Media Addiction Behavior, Not Time, Is A Harbinger Of Young Mental Health
Screen time is a concern for parents and mental health advocates but looking at screen time may be treating the symptom rather than the disease. What is a true harbinger for risk of mental health problems is addictive behavior in young people.
National surveys have documented rising screen use but a new paper mapped longitudinal trajectories of addictive use specifically, rather generic limits on screen time.The data were social media use of nearly 4,300 children enrolled in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study, starting at age 8, and how use changed over the next four years.
National surveys have documented rising screen use but a new paper mapped longitudinal trajectories of addictive use specifically, rather generic limits on screen time.The data were social media use of nearly 4,300 children enrolled in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study, starting at age 8, and how use changed over the next four years.
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Social Media Savvy: Democrats Request Community Notes On Twitter Twice As Often?
Disinformation and misinformation are common tactics and in the 2008 they entered the social media realm. Senator Barack Obama came from behind to overtake Senator Hillary Clinton to secure the Democratic nomination and then used the 100% greater funding he got by reneging on his promise to limit himself to public financing, as his opponent Senator John McCain did, to pour money into social media and an easy victory.
That's all factually true but if enough people object to that framing and demand a Community Note and then the Community Note is clarified by people like them, I would be a data point showing that Clinton supporters are far more likely to engage in disinformation than Obama ones.
That's all factually true but if enough people object to that framing and demand a Community Note and then the Community Note is clarified by people like them, I would be a data point showing that Clinton supporters are far more likely to engage in disinformation than Obama ones.
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Isoprene: Plants Can Make Their Own Pesticide But The Environmental Cost Is High
As the developed world becomes more removed from science and health, it is easier to embrace beliefs that science and medicine are not needed at all, with some claiming that vaccines and pesticides are not really needed, the natural world can do it without modern tools.
Companies will cater to that also. If enough people mobilized by politicians and activists insist they don't want some harmless food coloring or BPA, companies will remove those and simply charge more. The products won't be healthier, just more costly. Yet sometimes mimicking the natural world can be beneficial, like with neonicotinoid seed treatments based on natural pesticide effects and have reduced mass spraying and off-target effects so well that bees have rebounded and now exist in record numbers.
Companies will cater to that also. If enough people mobilized by politicians and activists insist they don't want some harmless food coloring or BPA, companies will remove those and simply charge more. The products won't be healthier, just more costly. Yet sometimes mimicking the natural world can be beneficial, like with neonicotinoid seed treatments based on natural pesticide effects and have reduced mass spraying and off-target effects so well that bees have rebounded and now exist in record numbers.
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Marshall McLuhan Hated TV But He Might Like AI
Today’s large language models (LLMs) process information across disciplines at unprecedented speed and are challenging higher education to rethink teaching, learning and disciplinary structures.
As AI tools disrupt conventional subject boundaries, educators face a dilemma: some seek to ban these tools, while others are seeking ways to embrace them in the classroom.
Both approaches risk missing a deeper transformation that was predicted 60 years ago by Canadian communication theorist Marshall McLuhan.
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Yelling Fascism Is The Fashion, But The Left Is Actually Less Diverse
If you think you are in a totalitarian regime because the US President federalized National Guard troops, you may need to get a little more intellectual diversity. An experiment instead showed that those on the right are more likely to look into the facts and learn that federalizing the National Guard first happened in 1794. By order of President George Washington. Then it happened again in 1799, by order of President John Adams.
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Meta-Analysis: Flower Strips With Two Or More Species May Reduce Pesticides
A new paper has found that flower strips along fields and ditches may be more than just a gimmick that lets people feel like they are improving the environment or saving bees. They may attract pests that eat pests that eat crops.
If so, this could help Europe, which has declared it wants to reduce pesticides 50% by 2030 but found its efforts stymied when they had to engage in limited boycotts of its primary food exporter, Russia. Even though they exclude Organic™ pesticides from their goals, despite those being up to 600% more chemicals per calorie produced.(1)
If so, this could help Europe, which has declared it wants to reduce pesticides 50% by 2030 but found its efforts stymied when they had to engage in limited boycotts of its primary food exporter, Russia. Even though they exclude Organic™ pesticides from their goals, despite those being up to 600% more chemicals per calorie produced.(1)
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With New Acceptance Of Vaccines, The Left Needs To Rethink Pesticides Next
A few short years ago, the western left - America and Europe - had a holy trinity of things they opposed; medicine, food, and energy. There is no hope for energy, even 100% higher electricity rates in places like Germany and California won't get them to budge from insisting solar and wind are viable, but all it took for them to rethink vaccines was for one of their former chief evangelists, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., to become a member of the Trump administration.
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Nightshade: AI Scraping Arms Race Escalates
It's a good thing America is pivoting back to nuclear energy after a 30-year Clinton-induced hiatus because "AI" tools require a lot of energy, and a new tool to prevent scraping will make the cost for AI tools even higher.
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Editorial: This Week’s LA Non-riots
A Facebook friend opined that Los Angeles protesters could “turn LA into another Portland.” I expand for you my rejoinder to his post:
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The Lizard Poop Of Madagascar
Some 88 million years ago, Madagascar broke off from India.
Isolated from all other landmasses, plants and animals evolved in seclusion, creating a biodiversity hotspot unlike anywhere else on Earth. One way biodiversity spreads is by endozoochory, which is the process name for animals eating plant seeds and then pooping them out somewhere else, which may cause them to grow in the new location. Birds are an obvious mode of transport but a new study takes a look at the role lizard poop has played.
Isolated from all other landmasses, plants and animals evolved in seclusion, creating a biodiversity hotspot unlike anywhere else on Earth. One way biodiversity spreads is by endozoochory, which is the process name for animals eating plant seeds and then pooping them out somewhere else, which may cause them to grow in the new location. Birds are an obvious mode of transport but a new study takes a look at the role lizard poop has played.
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Chinese Researchers Are Rewiring Brains Using Interfaces
Human evolution and culture have been shaped by our increasing ability to communicate.
A new review from China believes that brain-computer interfaces mark the next leap: a direct connection between mind and machine. They note breakthroughs in neural signal decoding, AI, and bioengineering but what should really worry residents of a communist dictatorship is how they believe it will shape autonomy, identity, and mental privacy.
A new review from China believes that brain-computer interfaces mark the next leap: a direct connection between mind and machine. They note breakthroughs in neural signal decoding, AI, and bioengineering but what should really worry residents of a communist dictatorship is how they believe it will shape autonomy, identity, and mental privacy.
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Win A MSCA Post-Doctoral Fellowship!
Applications for MSCA Post-doctoral fellowships are on, and will be so until September 10 this year. What that means is that if you have less than 8 years of experience after your Ph.D., you can pair up with a research institute in Europe to present a research plan, and the European Commission may decide to fund it for two years (plus 6 months in industry in some cases).
In order for your application to have a chance to win funding, you need to:
In order for your application to have a chance to win funding, you need to:
- have a great research topic in mind,
- be ready to invest some time in writing a great application, and
- pair up with an outstanding supervisor at a renowned research institute.
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