Science & Technology

Animals are able to count and use zero. How far does their number sense go?

Jordana Cepelewicz
Quanta Magazine
Mon, 09 Aug 2021 14:36 UTC

Crows recently demonstrated an understanding of the concept of zero. It's only the latest evidence of animals' talents for numerical abstraction — which may still differ from our own grasp of numbers.

The intelligence of corvids like ravens and crows is well known. Recently, crows were even shown to have a numerical ability seen in few other species so far: a grasp of the concept of the empty set — the numerosity zero.

An understanding of numbers is often viewed as a distinctly human faculty — a hallmark of our intelligence that, along with language, sets us apart from all other animals.

But that couldn't be further from the truth. Honeybees count landmarks when navigating toward sources of nectar. Lionesses tally the number of roars they hear from an intruding pride before deciding whether to attack or retreat. Some ants keep track of their steps; some spiders keep track of how many prey are caught in their web. One species of frog bases its entire mating ritual on number: If a male calls out — a whining pew followed by a brief pulsing note called a chuck — his rival responds by placing two chucks at the end of his own call. The first frog then responds with three, the other with four, and so on up to around six, when they run out of breath.

Slightly increased risk of Asteroid Bennu hitting Earth in 2128 - NASA

Meghan Bartels
Scientific American
Thu, 12 Aug 2021 12:00 UTC

© NASA, Goddard and University of Arizona
An image of the asteroid Bennu produced by the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. Using data from the OSIRIS-REx mission, scientists calculated slightly increased (but still low) odds the space rock will collide with our planet in the 2100s

If the possibility of an asteroid called Bennu slamming into Earth a lifetime from now was keeping you up at night, NASA scientists think you can rest a little easier.

The agency's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft spent more than two years closely orbiting the space rock. And with that incredibly detailed view of the asteroid, experts studying potential space rock impacts with Earth have been able to fine-tune their existing models of Bennu's future.

As a result, scientists behind new research now say they're confident that the asteroid's total impact probability through 2300 is just 1 in 1,750. Estimates produced before OSIRIS-REx arrived at the space rock tallied the cumulative probability of a Bennu impact between the years 2175 and 2199 at 1 in 2,700, according to NASA. While a slightly higher risk than past estimates, it represents a minuscule change in an already minuscule risk, NASA said.

Comment: Whilst Bennu may not be the space rock that is of greatest to concern to our increasingly unstable global civilisation, judging by the rise in Fire In The Sky events, and using history as a guide, it seems increasingly likely, and space agencies appear to agree, that the threat of space rocks and other cosmic phenomena is very real and that we're totally unprepared:

Also check out SOTT radio's:

Researchers discover new electronic phenomenon

University of North Florida
Wed, 11 Aug 2021 21:55 UTC

Physics researchers at the University of North Florida's Atomic LEGO Lab discovered a new electronic phenomenon they call "asymmetric ferroelectricity". The research led by Dr. Maitri Warusawithana, UNF physics assistant professor, in collaboration with researchers at the University of Illinois and the Arizona State University, demonstrated this phenomenon for the first time in engineered two-dimensional crystals.

This discovery of asymmetric ferroelectricity in engineered crystals comes exactly 100 years following the discovery of ferroelectricity in certain naturally occurring crystals. Ferroelectric crystals - crystals that show two equal bistable polarization states - are now used in many high-tech applications including solid-state memory, RFID cards, sensors and precision actuators.

Contract approved to use toxic graphene oxide for water treatment in UK - same substance found in Covid-19 vaccines

Captaindaretofly
The Daily Expose
Tue, 03 Aug 2021 00:00 UTC

G2O Water Technologies, a UK technology business, has managed to get its first commercial contract approved for the enhancement of water filtration membranes with graphene oxide. This contract makes it the first commercially successful application of the recently developed material for water treatment.

Allegedly, the advantages of using graphene oxide for water treatment lies in the enhancement of membrane performance, as it mitigates the effects of "fouling." Fouling is apparently one of the biggest challenges operators of membrane-based water filtration systems face.

"Fouling" describes the presence or accumulation of unwanted material in water including scale, general dirt, and debris, dissolved metals, or biological matter, and bacteria. Fouled water can cause a variety of problems if left untreated.

In collaboration with Hydrasyst Limited, G2O technologies managed to coat membranes with graphene oxide which they state will improve operational efficiency, reduce energy consumption and decrease chemical usage.

Thousands of human and animal bones hoarded by hyenas in Saudi Arabian lava tube system

Heritage Daily
Sun, 08 Aug 2021 18:44 UTC

© Stewart et al. / Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, 2021
Images of Umm Jirsan. A Entrance to the western passage and surrounding area. B Entrance to the western passage. Note the team members on the right hand wall for scale. C The back chamber in which the excavation was carried out. D Plotted sampling square before surface collection and excavation. Location of the site shown in the inset.

Archaeologists conducting research in Arabia's longest lava tube system, has found thousands of bones deposited by hyenas.

The Umm Jirsan lava tube system is located in the Harrat Khaybar Lava Field, 130 km north of Medina in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Taphonomic studies of fossil bone accumulations as part of the 'Palaeodeserts Project' to track human and animal migration across the Arabian Peninsula, has identified hundreds of thousands of bone accumulations consisting of over 40 different species, including horses, asses, cattle, camels, rodents, caprids, and even humans.

Although the lava-tube was discovered in the mid-2000s, only recently did researchers venture deeper into the tube system, where the bone accumulations were found.

The little book that generated big waves — Nagel's 'Mind and Cosmos', nine years later

David Klinghoffer
Evolution News
Mon, 09 Aug 2021 17:51 UTC

Philosopher and atheist Thomas Nagel's little book, Mind and Cosmos, from 2012, continues to make big waves. He credited intelligent design proponents including Stephen Meyer and Michael Behe with helping to undermine (per the subtitle) "the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature." Writing for the journal Public Discourse, Matthew J. Franck calls it a book that "stuck" for him, meaning one that sticks around in his "thinking and writing in various ways," despite being outside Franck's academic discipline:

Comment: More on Thomas Nagel:

Brain connectivity can build better AI

McGill University
Mon, 09 Aug 2021 10:50 UTC

A new study shows that artificial intelligence networks based on human brain connectivity can perform cognitive tasks efficiently.

By examining MRI data from a large Open Science repository, researchers reconstructed a brain connectivity pattern, and applied it to an artificial neural network (ANN). An ANN is a computing system consisting of multiple input and output units, much like the biological brain. A team of researchers from The Neuro (Montreal Neurological Institute-Hospital) and the Quebec Artificial Intelligence Institute trained the ANN to perform a cognitive memory task and observed how it worked to complete the assignment.

This is a unique approach in two ways. Previous work on brain connectivity, also known as connectomics, focused on describing brain organization, without looking at how it actually performs computations and functions. Secondly, traditional ANNs have arbitrary structures that do not reflect how real brain networks are organized. By integrating brain connectomics into the construction of ANN architectures, researchers hoped to both learn how the wiring of the brain supports specific cognitive skills, and to derive novel design principles for artificial networks.

They found that ANNs with human brain connectivity, known as neuromorphic neural networks, performed cognitive memory tasks more flexibly and efficiently than other benchmark architectures. The neuromorphic neural networks were able to use the same underlying architecture to support a wide range of learning capacities across multiple contexts.

Comment: See also:

Rare recurrent nova outburst visible in constellation Ophiuchus

Space Weather
Tue, 10 Aug 2021 10:19 UTC

Recurrent nova RS Oph is in Outburst. The last large outburst of RS Oph occurred in Feb. 2006, when it reached visual mag 4.5.

RARE NAKED-EYE NOVA

Every 20 years or so, a thermonuclear explosion occurs on the surface of RS Oph, a white dwarf in the constellation Ophiuchus. This week it happened again. On Aug. 8th, the brightness of the tiny star increased 600-fold, from magnitude +12 to +5. Keith Geary of Ireland was the first to notice. Hours later, Italian astronomer Ernesto Guido and colleagues photographed the outburst using a remote-controlled telescope in Australia:

This is called a "recurrent nova," and it is rare. In the whole Milky Way galaxy, only 7 star systems are known to produce such explosions.

RS Oph is actually a binary star--a very lopsided one. On one side is a white dwarf, on the other is a red giant. There's very little distance between the two, so the gravity of the white dwarf is able to pull gaseous material off the larger star down onto itself. Every couple of decades, enough matter accumulates to trigger an explosion. The last time this happened was back in 2006.

Comment: Note that although this is expected to happen every 20 years or so, the time elapsed since the last outburst was just 15 years.

Comment: See also:

Massive, mysterious filament structure extending around the Milky Way's edge discovered

Brad Bergan
Interesting Engineering
Mon, 09 Aug 2021 12:00 UTC

It's never been seen before, and they don't know what it is.

If you're swimming in a large volume of water, it's difficult to judge the properties of distant floating objects with exacting precision, and the same goes for our star system, swirling around the galaxy.

This is perhaps why scientists have just discovered a new structure encompassing a long curl of gas so gigantic that no one can say whether or not this is a section of a galactic spiral arm we simply hadn't noticed until now, according to a recent study shared on a preprint server and accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Comment: See also:

And check out SOTT radio's:

Researchers find a 'fearsome dragon' that soared over Australian outback

The University of Queensland
Mon, 09 Aug 2021 20:45 UTC

Australia's largest flying reptile has been uncovered, a pterosaur with an estimated seven-metre wingspan that soared like a dragon above the ancient, vast inland sea once covering much of outback Queensland.

University of Queensland PhD candidate Tim Richards, from the Dinosaur Lab in UQ's School of Biological Sciences, led a research team that analysed a fossil of the creature's jaw, discovered on Wanamara Country, near Richmond in North West Queensland.

"It's the closest thing we have to a real-life dragon," Mr Richards said.

"The new pterosaur, which we named Thapunngaka shawi, would have been a fearsome beast, with a spear-like mouth and a wingspan around seven metres.

"It was essentially just a skull with a long neck, bolted on a pair of long wings.

"This thing would have been quite savage.

"It would have cast a great shadow over some quivering little dinosaurs who wouldn't have heard them coming until it was too late."

Mr Richards said the skull alone would have been just over one metre long, containing around 40 teeth, perfectly suited to grasping the large predatory fishes known to inhabit Queensland's no-longer-existent Eromanga Sea.

"Even though pterosaurs could fly, they were nothing like birds, or even bats," he said.

"Pterosaurs were a successful and diverse group of reptiles - the very first back-boned animals to take a stab at powered flight."

The new species belonged to a group of pterosaurs known as anhanguerians, which inhabited every continent during the latter part of the Age of Dinosaurs.

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Science & Technology

Animals are able to count and use zero. How far does their number sense go?

Slightly increased risk of Asteroid Bennu hitting Earth in 2128 - NASA

Researchers discover new electronic phenomenon

Contract approved to use toxic graphene oxide for water treatment in UK - same substance found in Covid-19 vaccines

Thousands of human and animal bones hoarded by hyenas in Saudi Arabian lava tube system

The little book that generated big waves — Nagel's 'Mind and Cosmos', nine years later

Brain connectivity can build better AI

Rare recurrent nova outburst visible in constellation Ophiuchus

Massive, mysterious filament structure extending around the Milky Way's edge discovered

Researchers find a 'fearsome dragon' that soared over Australian outback

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