Science & TechnologyS


Better Earth

Cyclical mountain 'tsunamis' have been occurring in Chilean Patagonia for last 10,000 years

CENIEH
Phys.org
Wed, 03 Mar 2021 20:36 UTC
river chile
© CENIEHOutbursts from Lake Cachet 2 in 2009/DGA, Chile.
Catastrophic floods due to the emptying or rupture of glacial lakes in Chilean Patagonia have taken place cyclically since the last glacial maximum 10,000 years ago. Nevertheless, the magnitude of these mountain 'tsunamis' has declined over time, according to a paper published in the journal Quaternary Science Reviews in which scientists from the Centro Nacional de Investigación de La Evolución Humana (CENIEH), the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) and Royal Holloway University of London (RHUL) were among the participants.

By studying sediments and using hydrological models to calculate volumes, this work has shown that the amounts discharged by glacial lake outbursts declined by three orders of magnitude from the last glacial maximum to the recent events between 2008 and 2017.

Comment: A recent study revealed the correlation of melting ice bergs and the onset of ice ages: Melting icebergs key feature of an ice age, scientists find

See also:

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Eye 1

Moscow Metro to introduce 'Facepay' tech by end of 2021

Jonny Tickle
RT
Wed, 03 Mar 2021 14:42 UTC
Moscow mask subway
© Sputnik / Evgeny BiyatovFILE PHOTO: People wearing protective face masks are seen in a subway amid coronavirus pandemic, in Moscow, Russia.
The world's most beautiful subway system is set to become one of the planet's most high-tech, with Moscow Metro head of security revealing that passengers will soon be able to pay for rides with their faces before the end of 2021.

According to Andrey Kichigin, as reported by Interfax on Tuesday, the Russian capital will implement 'FacePay' technology later this year. Currently in testing, it will be available for use at both turnstiles and cash desks. Thus far, test participants have successfully passed through the barriers 2,000 times.

Facial recognition cameras were installed in many metro stations through Moscow last year and are located at payment gates. Although the public cannot yet use the system, it has already been used to catch more than 900 criminal suspects, with the technology also performing a second function of identifying those wanted by the police.


Comment: Similar trials went on in the UK, using technology developed in China, and the error rate was near 96%: Big brother Britain: Facial recognition cameras deployed in London, man fined for covering his face


Comment: Ultimately, the technology isn't necessarily the issue, it's a question of who is in control of it:

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Network

Google claims it won't adopt new tracking tech after phasing out cookies

Anthony Ha
TechCrunch
Wed, 03 Mar 2021 18:38 UTC
cookies browsers computer
© Erol Ahmed/Unsplash/Gizmodo
While we've written about attempts to build alternatives to cookies that track users across websites, Google says it won't be going down that route.

The search giant had already announced that it will be phasing out support for third-party cookies in its Chrome browser. Today it went further, with David Temkin (Google's director of product management for ads privacy and trust) writing in a blog post that "once third-party cookies are phased out, we will not build alternate identifiers to track individuals as they browse across the web, nor will we use them in our products."

"We realize this means other providers may offer a level of user identity for ad tracking across the web that we will not — like [personally identifiable information] graphs based on people's email addresses," Temkin continued. "We don't believe these solutions will meet rising consumer expectations for privacy, nor will they stand up to rapidly evolving regulatory restrictions, and therefore aren't a sustainable long term investment."
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Chart Bar

The Cambridge study testing asymptomatics is the gift that keeps on giving ....

Norman Fenton
probabilityandlaw.blogspot.com
Sat, 27 Feb 2021 20:27 UTC
cambridge covid study
This makes interesting reading for anybody who still believes the Government 'case' data and the claim that just because you don't have any COVID-19 symptoms it doesn't mean you aren't in danger ...

This data also means that if the Government claim that "1 in 3 people with the virus has no symptoms" is correct then the ONS estimated infection rate is massively inflated - the currently reported 'case' numbers must be at least 8 times greater than the true number of cases. On the other hand, if the Government estimates of case numbers are correct then at most 1 in 26 people with the virus has no symptoms. Here's an informal explanation why (formal proof is below):

Cambridge has a population of 129,000.

If the ONS infection estimates for Cambridge (0.71%) are accurate, then during an average week in this period about 916 people had the virus and 128,084 did not.

But if the "1 in 3" claim is correct about 305 people in Cambridge had the virus but no symptoms.

So at most 128,389 people in Cambridge had no symptoms and that means at least 305/128389 people with no symptoms had the virus. That is at least 0.24% (i.e. at least around 1 in 421).

But the study shows on average only 1 in 4867 (0.028%) with no symptoms had the virus. So there should only have been about 36.

That means the "1 in 3" claim and the ONS estimates cannot both be correct.
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Fish

Bioluminescence discovered in three species of deep sea sharks

Elle Hunt
The Guardian
Tue, 02 Mar 2021 05:41 UTC
kitefin
© Jérôme MallefetResearchers believe sharks probably glow for camouflage to protect from attack from beneath.
Scientists studying sharks off New Zealand have discovered that three deep-sea species glow in the dark - including one that is now the largest-known luminous vertebrate.

Bioluminescence - the production of visible light through a chemical reaction by living organisms - is a widespread phenomenon among marine life, but this is the first time it has been documented and analysed in the kitefin shark, the blackbelly lanternshark, and the southern lanternshark.

The sharks were collected during a fish survey of the Chatham Rise off the east coast of New Zealand in January 2020.

The kitefin shark, which can grow to 180cm, is now the largest-known luminous vertebrate: what researchers referred to as a "giant luminous shark".

Comment: See also: And check out SOTT radio's: The Truth Perspective: Are Cells the Intelligent Designers? Why Creationists and Darwinists Are Both Wrong

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Microscope 1

Study finds fitness of former COVID patients aged 45 is similar to 80-year-olds


Times of Israel
Mon, 01 Mar 2021 18:05 UTC
covid patient hospital
© REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson
A study of recovered COVID-19 patients, aged 45 on average, finds their physical fitness levels to be similar to 80-year-olds.

The research is conducted by the Beilinson Medical Center in central Israel, in its physiotherapy center, on 30 patients, three months after they were officially cleared of the disease.

In one test, the recovered patients were asked to walk for six minutes. They covered 450 meters in that time, compared to 700 meters on average for their age group. In the second test, they were asked to stand up and sit down repeatedly for 30 seconds. Most managed to do so 14 times in half a minute, compared to an average of 30 for healthy adults their age.

Researchers say the results are similar to the fitness levels of an 80-year-old.

It's not immediately clear how the trial participants were selected and what their condition was when they were ill with COVID-19.

Comment: RT adds:
While the cohort of 30 people is a relatively small sample for a study, the findings of the Israeli team echoed similar research undertaken in China.

That research, published in The Lancet medical journal in January, was based on data drawn from more than 1,700 people in Wuhan with an average age of 57.

The Chinese study subjects underwent physical trials half a year after their recovery from the infection, with 63 percent found still to be showing fatigue or muscle weakness.

As for the six-minute walking test, up to 29 percent of the participants were unable to hit even the lower limit of the normal range for their age group. Other complications encountered by those surveyed included sleeping difficulties, anxiety, and depression.
It's clear that while the virus has a nearly 99% recovery rate, there is a small sub-set of patients that do experience long-term effects from the infection:

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Info

Light-emitting OLED tattoo engineered for the first time


University College London
Fri, 26 Feb 2021 17:51 UTC
Scientists at UCL and the IIT -Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (Italian Institute of Technology) have created a temporary tattoo with light-emitting technology used in TV and smartphone screens, paving the way for a new type of "smart tattoo" with a range of potential uses.
OLED Tattoo
© Italian Institute of Technology
The technology, which uses organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), is applied in the same way as water transfer tattoos. That is, the OLEDs are fabricated on to temporary tattoo paper and transferred to a new surface by being pressed on to it and dabbed with water.

The researchers, who described the process in a new paper in the journal Advanced Electronic Materials, say it could be combined with other tattoo electronics to, for instance emit light when an athlete is dehydrated, or when we need to get out of the sun to avoid sunburn. OLEDs could be tattooed on packaging or fruit to signal when a product has passed its expiry date or will soon become inedible, or used for fashion in the form of glowing tattoos.

Professor Franco Cacialli (UCL Physics & Astronomy), senior author of the paper, said: "The tattooable OLEDs that we have demonstrated for the first time can be made at scale and very cheaply. They can be combined with other forms of tattoo electronics for a very wide range of possible uses. These could be for fashion - for instance, providing glowing tattoos and light-emitting fingernails. In sports, they could be combined with a sweat sensor to signal dehydration.
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Comet 2

New Comet C/2021 C4 (ATLAS)

Ernesto Guido
Remanzacco Blogspot
Mon, 01 Mar 2021 17:38 UTC
CBET 4937 & MPEC 2021-D113, issued on 2021, February 26, announce the discovery of an apparently asteroidal object (magnitude ~19) on CCD images taken on Feb. 12.6 UT with a 0.5-m f/2 Schmidt reflector at Haleakala, Hawaii, in the course of the "Asteroid Terrestrial-Impact Last Alert System" (ATLAS) search program. This object has been found to show cometary appearance by CCD astrometrists elsewhere after the object was posted on the Minor Planet Center's PCCP webpage due to its orbit. The new comet has been designated C/2021 C4 (ATLAS).

We performed follow-up measurements of this object while it was still on the PCCP webpage.

Stacking of 5 unfiltered exposures, 90 seconds each, obtained remotely on 2021, February 22.2 from X02 (Telescope Live, Chile) through a 0.6-m f/6.5 astrograph + CCD, shows that this object is a comet with a compact coma about 8" arcsecond in diameter. (Observers E. Guido, M. Rocchetto, E. Bryssinck, M. Fulle, G. Milani, C. Nassef, G. Savini, A. Valvasori).

Our confirmation image (click on it for a bigger version; made with TYCHO software by D. Parrott):
C/2021 C4 Atlas
© Remanzacco Blgospot
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Black Cat 2

Scientists have created programmable robots made of living tissue

Robert Wheeler
The Organic Prepper
Thu, 25 Feb 2021 00:00 UTC
Programmable Robots Made of LIVING TISSUE
Everyone knows that robots aren't living beings right? Well, we did. That is, until scientists and developers recently announced how they have bridged some of that gap between living and non-living beings.

This new development is a combination of artificial intelligence and biology. In fact, only this week, a research of roboticists and scientists published what is being referred to as a "recipe for making a new lifeform" called xenobots. The xenobots are made from stem cells and the term xeno comes from the frog cells (xenopus laevis) which are used to make them.

One of the researchers involved described the new creation as "neither a traditional robot nor a known species of animal" but instead it is a "new class of artifact: a living, programmable organism."

File this under "What Could Possibly Go Wrong?"
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Magic Wand

Bird believed extinct for 170 years spotted in Borneo - researchers were looking in the wrong place

Bob Yirka
Phys.org
Sat, 27 Feb 2021 21:03 UTC
babbler
© BirdingASIABlack-browed babbler
A team of researchers from Indonesia and Singapore has found evidence of the continued existence of a bird long thought extinct. In their paper published in the journal BirdingASIA, the team describes the history of the bird, why it was thought to be extinct and how it was found in Borneo.

Back sometime between 1843 and 1848 a bird now called the black-browed babbler was captured by naturalist Carl A.L.M. Schwaner. Records of the find are sketchy, but it appeared the bird had been captured on the island of Java. That finding was the one and only piece of evidence of the bird's existence — it is currently labeled as "data deficient" in ornithology texts. The bird was put into storage, and for the next 170 years, there were no further reports of its existence. Over time, the bird and its history became known as "the biggest enigma in Indonesian ornithology." Most in the field assumed it had gone extinct. Then, last year, a pair of researchers, Muhammad Rizky Fauzan and Muhammad Suranto captured a bird that they could not identify on the Indonesian part of the island of Borneo. They took pictures of it and sent them to colleagues, then released the bird.

Comment: It seems something has gone awry with science because the list of creatures and plants declared extinct, which then later reappear, is growing:

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