Science & Technology

MindMatters: Meaning All the Way Down: The Wonders and Mysteries of Language with Juliana Barembuem

Elan Martin, Harrison Koehli, Adam Daniels
Sott.net
Mon, 06 Sep 2021 00:00 UTC

Language. We use it to speak, obtain information and enrich our minds. We're immersed in it every day and would find it nearly impossible to communicate and exist in the ways that we're used to without it. And yet the use of language - and all its varied and nuanced components - are very largely taken for granted by us until we take a step or two back to think about how language works, how incredibly complex it is, what many languages have in common, what makes language successful (or not), and what some research into the origins of language suggest about how little we truly know about them.

This week on MindMatters we are joined by Juliana Barembuem of Language with Chu, a polyglot and long-time student of language, who presents a number of 'outside of the box' perspectives on language; what do languages have in common with discoveries in biology? Is language a feature of intelligent design? How is the use of language abused and in service of ideas that actually confuse and misinform - to name just a few. One thing to realize is that the deeper we get into this discussion the more we see that these lines of inquiry are really just the beginning of this conversation.

Running Time: 01:43:02

Download: MP3 — 94.3 MB

Algorithm can predict Alzheimer's with 99% accuracy

Kaunas University of Technology
Fri, 03 Sep 2021 17:19 UTC

Researchers from Kaunas universities in Lithuania developed a deep learning-based method that can predict the possible onset of Alzheimer's disease from brain images with an accuracy of over 99 per cent. The method was developed while analysing functional MRI images obtained from 138 subjects and performed better in terms of accuracy, sensitivity and specificity than previously developed methods.

According to World Health Organisation, Alzheimer's disease is the most frequent cause of dementia, contributing to up to 70 per cent of dementia cases. Worldwide, approximately 24 million people are affected, and this number is expected to double every 20 years. Owing to societal ageing, the disease will become a costly public health burden in the years to come.

"Medical professionals all over the world attempt to raise awareness of an early Alzheimer's diagnosis, which provides the affected with a better chance of benefiting from treatment. This was one of the most important issues for choosing a topic for Modupe Odusami, a PhD student from Nigeria", says Rytis Maskeliūnas, a researcher at the Department of Multimedia Engineering, Faculty of Informatics, Kaunas University of Technology (KTU), Odusami's PhD supervisor.

Scientists watch bacteria fix broken DNA in real time to see exactly how it's done

Mike Mcrae
Science Alert
Sun, 05 Sep 2021 06:59 UTC

Fixing breaks in genes with speed and perfection can be a matter of life and death for most organisms. Even the simplest changes in a sequence risk catastrophe, especially if the altered code is responsible for a critical function.

Over the past half a century, biologists have studied the mechanisms involved to piece together most of the major steps involved in making faithful repairs in DNA. Yet, one part of the process has remained frustratingly unclear.

By marking key enzymes and DNA with fluorescent tags and watching the repair process unfold in real-time in an Escherichia coli model, researchers from Uppsala University in Sweden have filled in missing details on how bacteria find the templates they rely on to keep genetic repairs error-free.

One trick most living things use to keep their code in order is the process of homologous recombination, the biological equivalent of comparing two distinct versions of a script to make sure a copy hasn't mistakenly introduced any errors.

Supernova event triggered by collision with compact object, first time ever observed

Sci News
Sat, 04 Sep 2021 20:16 UTC

© Bill Saxton / NRAO / AUI / NSF
Fast-moving debris from a supernova explosion triggered by a stellar collision in the VT 1210+4956 system crashes into material thrown out earlier, and the shocks cause bright radio emission seen by the VLA.

Using data collected by the Very Large Array Sky Survey (VLASS), astronomers have found evidence that a compact object — a black hole or neutron star — spiraled its way into the core of a companion star in the VT 1210+4956 system and caused it to explode as a supernova.

"Theorists had predicted that this could happen, but this is the first time we've actually seen such an event," said Dillon Dong, a graduate student at Caltech.

Dong and colleagues first detected radio emission from VT 1210+4956 in VLASS data.

Comment: At least two other nova events have been reported recently:

Texas cold snap linked to 40 years of increasing snowfall in Arctic & disruptions in stratospheric polar vortex - increase in extreme cold events likely - study

Adam Vaughan
New Scientist
Thu, 02 Sep 2021 12:00 UTC

© Goddard Earth Observing System/NASA
Map showing the extreme cold associated with the Arctic air mass, with the darkest blue regions indicating surface temperatures of -35°C

The extreme cold snap that left millions of people in Texas without power last winter appears to have been made more likely by melting Arctic sea ice thousands of kilometres away, research suggests.

For the past decade, evidence has been building in support of the counterintuitive idea that some of the recent cold winter spells at mid-latitudes in North America and Eurasia are linked to the Arctic warming faster than the rest of the world due to climate change.

Comment: In 2019, snowfall in the Arctic reached record levels and then devastated wildlife because it failed to melt by summer, and in 2018 Arctic and Antarctic sea ice also reached record levels; this, and a wealth of other data, demonstrate that, overall, the Arctic is not 'warming'.

Comment: What is important to note is that scientists appear to be no longer able to ignore the global cooling occurring on our planet. As for what's causing it: The rise in polar vortex events - a term unknown to most people 20 years ago - appears to be related to the increasingly meandering jet stream, the stalling Gulf Stream, Earth's weakening magnetosphere, and all of this and more is thought to be connected to our quieting Sun:

For more on the shift occurring on our planet, check out SOTT radio's:

'Return of the God Hypothesis' explains why science can no longer ignore intelligent design

Granville Sewell
The Federalist
Thu, 02 Sep 2021 17:41 UTC

When the emperor Napoleon asked the great French mathematician Pierre-Simon Laplace why the Creator was never mentioned in his manuscript "A Treatise of Celestial Mechanics," Laplace is alleged to have replied, "I had no need of that hypothesis."

Philosopher of science Stephen Meyer's new book, Return of the God Hypothesis: Three Scientific Discoveries That Reveal the Mind Behind the Universe, documents the history of the fall of the God hypothesis in science during the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century. But the hypothesis is back, Meyer explains, detailing three scientific discoveries of the last 100 years that are fueling its "return."

The three are: 1) the discovery that the secret of life is the information contained in living things, 2) the discovery that the laws and constants of physics in our universe are extremely "fine-tuned" for life and 3) the discovery that the universe had a beginning.

While no one today claims it is needed to explain celestial mechanics, the "God hypothesis" was never truly replaced by plausible explanations for the origin and evolution of life. It was simply banished from science by arbitrary fiat, fueled by the successes of science in other areas.

Charles Darwin's extremely implausible explanation for the origin of species, which becomes more implausible with every new biological and biochemical discovery, remains popular in the scientific world today only because — no matter how implausible and how inconsistent with the evidence — it must be true because it is the only alternative anyone can imagine to the "unscientific" theory of intelligent design.

Genes can respond to coded information in light signals - or filter them out entirely

North Carolina State University
Science Daily
Tue, 31 Aug 2021 12:00 UTC

New research from North Carolina State University demonstrates that genes are capable of identifying and responding to coded information in light signals, as well as filtering out some signals entirely. The study shows how a single mechanism can trigger different behaviors from the same gene -- and has applications in the biotechnology sector.

"The fundamental idea here is that you can encode information in the dynamics of a signal that a gene is receiving," says Albert Keung, corresponding author of a paper on the work and an assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at NC State. "So, rather than a signal simply being present or absent, the way in which the signal is being presented matters."

For this study, researchers modified a yeast cell so that it has a gene that produces fluorescent proteins when the cell is exposed to blue light.

Comment: One wonders whether other stimuli, such as sound, could also be used to elicit controlled responses:

And check out SOTT radio's:

China may upgrade existing rockets to speed up plans for a human Moon mission

Eric Berger
Ars Technica
Thu, 02 Sep 2021 15:08 UTC

China appears to be accelerating its plans to land on the Moon by 2030 and would use a modified version of an existing rocket to do so.

The chief designer of the Long March family of rockets, Long Lehao, said China could use two modified Long March 5 rockets to accomplish a lunar landing in less than a decade, according to the Hong Kong-based online news site, HK01. He spoke earlier this week at the 35th National Youth Science and Technology Innovation Competition in China. The full video can be found here.

During Lehao's speech, he said one of these large rockets would launch a lunar lander into orbit around the Moon, and the second would send the crew to meet it. The crew would then transfer to the lander, go down to the Moon's surface, and spend about six hours walking on its surface. Then part of the lunar lander would ascend back to meet the spacecraft and return to Earth.

Comment: In their 2019 mission to the dark side of the moon, China has already demonstrated that its space capabilities are world class, and there's reason to believe they may even soon exceed that of the US, which, incidentally has been suffering a number of set backs lately:

Amazing Hubble telescope photo shows space 'sword' piercing huge celestial 'heart'

Mike Wall
Live Science
Wed, 01 Sep 2021 11:56 UTC

© ESA/Hubble & NASA, B. Nisini
This image by the Hubble Space Telescope’s Wide Field Camera 3 instrument, features the Herbig-Haro object HH111, which lies about 1,300 light-years from Earth. Herbig-Haro objects consist of young stars blasting superheated jets through surrounding clouds of dust and gas.

A flaming blue sword seems to pierce a giant cosmic heart in a gorgeous new photo captured by the Hubble Space Telescope.

The "sword" is composed of twin jets of superheated, ionized gas that are rocketing into space from opposite poles of a newborn star called IRAS 05491+0247. The "heart" is the cloud of leftover dust and gas surrounding the protostar, according to Hubble team members.

This dramatic interaction between jets and cloud creates an uncommon celestial sight known as a Herbig-Haro object. The one photographed here by Hubble is named HH111, and it lies about 1,300 light-years from Earth, in the constellation Orion.

Hubble captured the image using its Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) instrument, which observes in both optical and infrared (heat) wavelengths of light.

CDC also wants to take your guns, apparently the CDC is involved in Gun confiscation too now...But hey you can't become an Australia with an armed...

dean

Well, I didn't read the article, I read some comments though. And it occurred to me, "Holy shit, there's likely going to be yet more large...

sir_isO

And this is why you should just get a lockbox and bury it in your yard ;) Seriously. But also what the FBI is doing is totally despicable and they...

slbeaudry

LOL, this pope is so freakin ridiculous...The Vatican may as well just make Lord Rothschild pope and be done with it...

dean

I hope their lack of faith pisses off Yahweh

HashAttack2

Science & Technology

MindMatters: Meaning All the Way Down: The Wonders and Mysteries of Language with Juliana Barembuem

Algorithm can predict Alzheimer's with 99% accuracy

Scientists watch bacteria fix broken DNA in real time to see exactly how it's done

Supernova event triggered by collision with compact object, first time ever observed

Texas cold snap linked to 40 years of increasing snowfall in Arctic & disruptions in stratospheric polar vortex - increase in extreme cold events likely - study

'Return of the God Hypothesis' explains why science can no longer ignore intelligent design

Genes can respond to coded information in light signals - or filter them out entirely

More fantastic molecular machine videos from Wehi

China may upgrade existing rockets to speed up plans for a human Moon mission

Amazing Hubble telescope photo shows space 'sword' piercing huge celestial 'heart'

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