Science & TechnologyS


Alarm Clock

Invasion of the 'frankenbees': The latest developments in genetically modified pollinators

Bernhard Warner
theguardian.com
Tue, 16 Oct 2018 16:22 UTC
bees

Beekeepers are sounding the alarm about the latest developments in genetically modified pollinators.

The spring of 2008 was brutal for Europe's honeybees. In late April and early May, during the corn-planting season, dismayed beekeepers in Germany's upper Rhine valley looked on as whole colonies perished. Millions of bees died. France, the Netherlands and Italy reported big losses, but in Germany the incident took on the urgency of a national crisis. "It was a disaster," recalled Walter Haefeker, German president of the European Professional Beekeepers Association. "The government had to set up containers along the autobahn where beekeepers could dump their hives."

An investigation in July of that year concluded that the bees in Germany died of mass poisoning by the pesticide clothianidin, which can be 10,000 times more potent than DDT. In the months leading up to the bee crisis, clothianidin, developed by Bayer Crop Science from a class of insecticides called neonicotinoids, had been used up and down the Rhine following an outbreak of corn rootworm. The pesticide is designed to attack the nervous system of crop-munching pests, but studies have shown it can be harmful to insects such as the European honeybee. It muddles the bees' super-acute sense of direction and upsets their feeding habits, while it can also alter the queen's reproductive anatomy and sterilize males. As contaminated beehives piled up, Bayer paid €2m (£1.76m) into a compensation fund for beekeepers in the affected area, but offered no admission of guilt.
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Cow Skull

Are gene edited cows or humans worth the risks involved?

F. William Engdahl
New Eastern Outlook
Sat, 17 Aug 2019 00:00 UTC
gene editing
Scientists using the "second generation" of genetic manipulation technology have used gene-editing to alter the DNA of breed of cattle so that they supposedly do not grow horns. At around the same time another group of scientists claim to have injected human cells into monkeys to create chimeras, as in the ancient Greek myths of beings part lion, part snake. Earlier this year a group of Chinese researchers claimed to have deliberately gene-edited monkey clones with a mental disturbance. What few realize is that all this is taking place almost entirely without any serious health and safety regulation. Is this what mankind really needs at this juncture?

Gene-edited hornless cows

Scientists at the biotech company Recombinetics have filed a patent on cattle it has genetically engineered to not grow horns using gene-editing methods. They claimed the process to be safe and effective. However tests by scientists at the US Food and Drug Administration revealed that the CRISPR gene-editing process resulted in "unexpected alterations" of the genome, including "complex genomic rearrangements at or near the target site in 34 mammalian genome editing experiments."

The FDA researchers found gene-editing errors in the genome of the animals that were being overlooked. They identified major unintended effects. The gene scissors used, known as TALENs, are often described as highly precise. However, the FDA research showed that apart from the desired gene sequences being inserted into the genome, DNA originating from genetically engineered bacteria used in the process was also inserted. Specifically, they found presence of unintended antibiotic resistance genes in the gene-edited cattle. Recombinetics reports that it is also developing a precision gene-editing breeding method to eliminate the need to castrate pigs. Unintended effects?

Comment: The Pandora's Box of gene editing, AI, and about half a dozen other technologies - is wide open. In the pursuit of vast sums of money, much of the world will likely be made to suffer from "unintended consequences" because we are wielding scientific discoveries irresponsibly.

Then, one day in the not-too-distant-future, we'll be faced with some manner of disaster and ask ourselves a very impotent question that will likely be too late to learn from: "How in the hell did we allow this to happen?!"

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Satellite

It's a wrap: Russian satellites to become invisible from Earth


RT
Sat, 17 Aug 2019 07:58 UTC
Cloaked satellites
© screenshotDo you see them? Are they there? How would you know?
Russia's space agency claims to have found an unconventional way of equipping its satellites with stealth features, effectively making them hard to spot from Earth. A special wrap may be the solution, they say.

Roscosmos has invented top-notch technology which involves covering satellites with a unique air-bubble wrap that scatters light, Russian media reported. The method is said to reduce the satellite's visibility by 10 times or more when observed by telescopes from Earth.

The agency says the technology - which seems to be of dual use - could be employed to 'hide' satellites traveling at 10,000km to 20,000km above Earth's surface.

Russia, the first country to have sent a satellite into orbit, recently unveiled new technology involving the unmanned spacecraft. Just this month, Roscosmos presented a solution to the growing problem of space debris - a satellite that would destroy itself at the end of its lifetime.

The new type of satellite would feature materials that sublimate, meaning they transition directly from solid to gas without becoming liquid.
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Car Black

UPS has secretly used self-driving freight trucks for months

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Sat, 17 Aug 2019 18:05 UTC
Self-driving truck
© tusimple
For the last few months, UPS has been using autonomous trucks to haul loads on a 115-mile route between Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona.

The company announced that its venture capital arm had made a minority investment in San Diego-based autonomous software company TuSimple, as confirmed with the company by Gizmodo. Their system uses nine cameras and two LIDAR sensors.

TuSimple claims it can cut the average cost of shipping in a tractor-trailer by 30 percent. In an announcement about the new partnership, UPS Ventures managing partner, Todd Lewis, said the venture arm "collaborates with startups to explore new technologies and tailor them to help meet our specific needs." -Gizmodo

And according to Verge, TuSimple has implemented its autonomous technology in Navistar vehicles.

While the current system requires a backup human driver and an engineer, TuSimple has been working with UPS to achieve full, "Level 4" human-less autonomy.

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Comet 2

Jupiter's puzzling core suggests it was smacked head-on by massive newborn planet

Mike Williams
Phys.org
Sat, 17 Aug 2019 20:38 UTC
Jupiter
© Shang-Fei Liu/Sun Yat-sen UniversityA rendering shows the effect of a major impact on the core of a young Jupiter, as suggested by scientists at Rice and Sun Yat-sen universities. They say the collision about 4.5 billion years ago could explain surprising readings from NASA's Juno spacecraft.
A colossal, head-on collision between Jupiter and a still-forming planet in the early solar system, about 4.5 billion years ago, could explain surprising readings from NASA's Juno spacecraft, according to a study this week in the journal Nature.

Astronomers from Rice University and China's Sun Yat-sen University say their head-on impact scenario can explain Juno's previously puzzling gravitational readings, which suggest that Jupiter's core is less dense and more extended that expected.

"This is puzzling," said Rice astronomer and study co-author Andrea Isella. "It suggests that something happened that stirred up the core, and that's where the giant impact comes into play."

Comment: In related news, you can see footage of the asteroid that struck Jupiter just 2 weeks ago.

See also: NASA's Juno mission spots dramatic volcano eruption on Jupiter moon Io

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Satellite

NASA flying lab captures image of rare 'fire cloud'

David Freeman
NBC News
Sat, 17 Aug 2019 19:13 UTC
fire cloud
© NASAA fire cloud over eastern Washington state as seen by scientists aboard NASA's flying laboratory jet. The flight was part of a joint NOAA and NASA field campaign called FIREX-AQ.
You've seen billowy cumulus clouds and wispy cirrus clouds, but odds are you're not too familiar with fire clouds. Even scientists know less than what they'd like to about so-called pyrocumulonimbus (pyroCb) clouds, which form when wildfires and agricultural fires unleash enough heat and moisture into the atmosphere to produce storms.

That changed on Aug. 8, when NASA's airliner-turned-flying laboratory took to the skies over Washington state and flew a team of scientists straight into a pyrocumulonimbus cloud that had formed high over a wildfire in the eastern part of the state.
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Comet 2

Another doomed comet just fell into the Sun

Chelsea Gohd
Space.com
Fri, 16 Aug 2019 18:52 UTC
soho comet sundiver august 2019
© NASA/ESO/SOHOThe Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) observed a comet dive directly into the sun on Aug. 15, 2019.
Comet's death dive Into Sun snapped by SOHO spacecraft

Yesterday (Aug. 15), the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) watched a comet meet its demise as the dirty snowball dove directly into the sun, according to Space Weather astronomer Tony Phillips.

In the video captured by SOHO, you can see a number of objects zooming around the sun, which is blocked by an opaque disk to reduce glare. Seemingly right on top of the sun is Venus, which is bright and easy to spot. Left of center and not quite as bright as Venus, you can also see Mars. Just about 10 seconds into the video, the sun-bound comet suddenly becomes obvious and easy to detect.
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Info

New state of matter discovered by scientist


New York University
Wed, 14 Aug 2019 19:07 UTC
New State of Matter
© sakkmesterke/Getty Images
Breakthrough Offers Promise for Enhanced Storage and Computation Capabilities

A team of physicists has uncovered a new state of matter — a breakthrough that offers promise for increasing storage capabilities in electronic devices and enhancing quantum computing.

"Our research has succeeded in revealing experimental evidence for a new state of matter — topological superconductivity," says Javad Shabani, an assistant professor of physics at New York University. "This new topological state can be manipulated in ways that could both speed calculation in quantum computing and boost storage."

The discovery, reported in a paper on arXiv, was conducted with Igor Zutic at the University of Buffalo and Alex Matos-Abiague at Wayne State University.

The work centers on quantum computing — a method that can make calculations at significantly faster rates than can conventional computing. This is because conventional computers process digital bits in the form of 0s and 1s while quantum computers deploy quantum bits (qubits) to tabulate any value between 0 and 1, exponentially lifting the capacity and speed of data processing.
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Einstein

Erik Verlinde: A radical theory of gravity

Paul Ratner
Big Think
Wed, 14 Aug 2019 00:00 UTC
Erik Verlinde
© phys.orgErik Verlinde
Erik Verlinde has been compared to Einstein for completely rethinking the nature of gravity.
  • The Dutch physicist Erik Verlinde's hypothesis describes gravity as an "emergent" force not fundamental.
  • The scientist thinks his ideas describe the universe better than existing models, without resorting to "dark matter".
  • While some question his previous papers, Verlinde is reworking his ideas as a full-fledged theory.
The Dutch theoretical physicist Erik Verlinde is no stranger to big ideas. His 2009 hypothesis about gravity earned him comparisons to Einstein for its complete rethinking of what gravity could be. Verlinde proposed that gravity was not a fundamental force of nature but rather emerged out of the interactions of information that fills the universe. He also didn't think there was such a thing as "dark matter" - a useful construct which is supposedly taking up 27% of the known universe (but is yet to be observed). Now, in a new interview, Verlinde reveals he is taking steps towards conceptualizing his groundbreaking ideas in a full-fledged theory.


Comment:


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Galaxy

LIGO and Virgo likely spotted the first black hole swallowing up a neutron star

Emily Conover
ScienceNews
Thu, 15 Aug 2019 06:06 UTC
Black hole/neutron star
© Dana Berry/NASAGravitational waves may have revealed a black hole in the process of swallowing up a neutron star (illustrated). If confirmed, the event would be the first of its kind ever seen.
Shudders in the cosmos have revealed what's likely the sad end of a neutron star — getting swallowed by a black hole.

If confirmed, it would be the first solid detection of this source of gravitational waves, revealing a type of cataclysm never before spotted. Researchers from the LIGO and Virgo gravitational wave observatories reported the candidate event, which was detected August 14, in a public database used by astronomers.

Scientists are still analyzing the data to verify what created the gravitational waves, which are tiny vibrations in spacetime caused by massive, accelerating objects. But one thing seems fairly certain: "Something has occurred out there in the sky," says physicist Daniel Holz of the University of Chicago, a member of LIGO. "So far, it doesn't obviously look like anything we've detected with high confidence before."
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