Science & TechnologyS


Robot

Stealthy underwater sensor drone for nuclear submarines tested in Russia


RT
Sat, 17 Sep 2016 16:41 UTC
Underwater robotic vehicle
© Великая Россия / Twitter
A novel robotic vehicle that includes a floating buoy and an underwater glider is being tested by the Russian military. The watercraft is a sensor and communication platform, which the Navy may find handy for submarine patrol missions.

Dubbed Fugu, the vehicle is an unusual combination. It has a floating part that looks like a surfboard, and an underwater part which serves as an engine for both of them.

The underwater part is a glider. It is a vehicle that changes its buoyancy to go up and down and uses fins to translate this seesaw-like motion into propulsion.
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Heart

Memory of a heart attack is stored in our genes


Science Daily
Fri, 16 Sep 2016 16:28 UTC
dna picture
© DigitalGenetics / FotoliaDNA structure (stock image). We inherit our genes from our parents at birth. During our lifetime, chemical modifications of DNA that turn off or on our genes, so-called epigenetic changes, occur.
Both heredity and environmental factors influence our risk of cardiovascular disease. A new study, by researches at Uppsala University, shows now that the memory of a heart attack can be stored in our genes through epigenetic changes. The results have been published in the journal Human Molecular Genetics.

We inherit our genes from our parents at birth. During our lifetime, chemical modifications of DNA that turn off or on our genes, so-called epigenetic changes, occur. These changes can lead to the development of various diseases. In the current study, the researchers examined epigenetic changes in people who have had a previous heart attack.
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2 + 2 = 4

Tasty letters? Sensory connections spill over in synesthesia


Science Daily
Fri, 16 Sep 2016 16:20 UTC
letters
© letters ojele / FotoliaSynesthesia is a stable trait, and estimated to be present in 1 to 4 percent of people. It can be inherited, although the precise genes have not been identified. One of the most common forms of synesthesia is when people involuntarily see particular colors in connection with letters, numbers or sounds.
Neuroscientists at Emory University have found that people who experience a mixing of the senses, known as synesthesia, are more sensitive to associations everyone has between the sounds of words and visual shapes. The results are published in the European Journal of Neuroscience.

Synesthesia is a stable trait, and estimated to be present in 1 to 4 percent of people. It can be inherited, although the precise genes have not been identified. One of the most common forms of synesthesia is when people involuntarily see particular colors in connection with letters, numbers or sounds.

Comment: Synesthesia: When Tuesday is the color red

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Robot

Expert claims bioenhancements will lead to 'superhumans' in less than 100 years

Abigail Beall
Daily Mail
Fri, 16 Sep 2016 05:53 UTC
Kevin Warwick
Professor Kevin Warwick a/k/a "Captain Cyborg" - named so because a hundred electrode array was surgically implanted into the median nerve fibers of his left arm.
Imagine a person who can play tennis like Andy Murray, think like Professor Stephen Hawking and can live to 150 - all in a body that looks and feels like it belongs to a 40-year-old.

With human bioenhancements, this vision of a 'superhuman' could become a reality in fewer than a hundred years.

This is according to expert in the social and cultural impacts of technology, Professor Michael Bess, who told MailOnline exactly how he thinks technology will enhance humans in the future.

Human bioenhancement technologies fall into three main categories pharmaceuticals, bioelectronics, and genetics.

We are already using all three to some extent.

'Through the use of pharmaceuticals, we are learning how to control our moods, boost our physical and mental performance, increase our longevity and vitality, Professor Bess said.

Comment: "Re-designing the human platform"?? Western civilization has become so fascinated with technology and synthetic enhancement, that it continues to ignore the most basic ideas of what it means to be a human being.

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Seismograph

Moon's phase may correlate with big earthquakes

Alexandra Witze
Nature News
Mon, 12 Sep 2016 22:20 UTC
Pelluhue Chile 2010 tsunami
© Joe Raedle/Getty ImagesThe seaside town of Pelluhue, Chile, in 2010 after a magnitude 8.8 earthquake and the resulting tsunami.
Big earthquakes, such as the ones that devastated Chile in 2010 and Japan in 2011, are more likely to occur during full and new moons — the two times each month when tidal stresses are highest.

Earth's tides, which are caused by a gravitational tug-of-war involving the Moon and the Sun, put extra strain on geological faults. Seismologists have tried for decades to understand whether that stress could trigger quakes. They generally agree that the ocean's twice-daily high tides can affect tiny, slow-motion tremors in certain places, including California's San Andreas fault and the Cascadia region of the North American west coast.

Comment: tidal stress may be one factor contributing to the triggering of big earthquakes among many others. One additional factor could be the electromagnetic stress around those periods as well.

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Umbrella

What could go wrong? FAA sees possibility of millions of drones crowding U.S. skies

John Lowy
Phys.org
Fri, 16 Sep 2016 00:00 UTC
Drone
© Francois Lenoir / Reuters
So many people are registering drones and applying for drone pilot licenses that federal aviation officials said Friday they are contemplating the possibility of millions of unmanned aircraft crowding the nation's skies in the not-too-distant future.

In the nine months since the Federal Aviation Administration created a drone registration system, more than 550,000 unmanned aircraft have been registered with the agency, said Earl Lawrence, director of the FAA's drone office.

Speaking at the first meeting of a new government-industry drone advisory committee, Lawrence said new registrations are coming in at a rate of 2,000 a day. By comparison, the FAA says there are 260,165 manned aircraft registered in the U.S.
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Powertool

From crows to elephants, species utilise DIY tools in every day life

John Ingham
The Express (UK)
Fri, 16 Sep 2016 19:31 UTC
New Caledonian crows can fashion hooks out of wire to grab titbits
© GettyNew Caledonian crows can fashion hooks out of wire to grab titbits
Man always likes to think he's a cut above the rest of the natural world.

And one of the ways he likes to set himself apart is by his use of tools. Now, on that yardstick I'm barely human.

I am to DIY what the New York Yankees are to football. But the rest of humankind is far from alone in being a dab hand with tools.

This week an endangered crow from sun-soaked Hawaii became the latest species to be proclaimed a tool-user. Nature magazine said the Alala was observed by St Andrews University researchers winkling tasty grubs out of dead wood with a twig held in its beak.

It is following in the footsteps of New Caledonian crows, which can fashion hooks out of wire to grab titbits.

A fascinating new book by ecologist Carl Safina says tool use is widespread. Birds do it, elephants do it, even educated gorillas do it.
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Magnify

Corruption of science: Mass production of redundant, misleading, and conflicted systematic reviews and meta-analyses


Mad in America
Thu, 15 Sep 2016 17:57 UTC
John P.A. Ioannidis
John P.A. Ioannidis
Well known Stanford University researcher John Ioannidis published a new paper this week criticizing the use and production of systematic reviews and meta-analyses, often considered the highest forms of research evidence. In the paper, "The Mass Production of Redundant, Misleading, and Conflicted Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses," Ioannidis describes meta-analyses as being taken over by industry sponsors and concludes that an estimated 3% of all of these reviews may be useful.

In 1978, Hans Eysenck commented on the "mega-silliness" of using poorly designed research studies to study outcomes in psychotherapy. He quoted the well-known maxim from computer science - "garbage in-garbage out" to refer to the uncritical selection of disparate studies to produce reviews."A mass of reports - good, bad and indifferent - are fed into the computer in the hope that people will cease caring about the quality of the material on which the conclusions are based," wrote Eysenck.

The pitfalls of this practice are the subject of a new investigation by John Ioannidis, a Stanford University researcher well known for his critique of research methodologies summarized in his paper "Why Most Published Research Findings Are False." Focusing on biomedical research he writes, "Most topics addressed by meta- analyses of randomized trials have overlapping, redundant meta-analyses; same topic meta-analyses may exceed 20 sometimes. Some fields produce massive numbers of meta-analyses; for example, 185 meta-analyses of antidepressants for depression were published between 2007 and 2014. These meta-analyses are often produced either by industry employees or by authors with industry ties and results are aligned with sponsor interests."

Comment: More food for thought:

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Christmas Tree

The secret life of trees: Thinking, caring and using the 'wood-wide web' to communicate

Peter Wohlleben
Daily Mail
Thu, 15 Sep 2016 16:02 UTC
Trees in a forest
There's increasing evidence to show that trees are able to communicate with each other.
There's increasing evidence to show that trees are able to communicate with each other. More than that, trees can learn.

If that's true — and my experience as a forester convinces me it is — then they must be able to store and transmit information.

And scientists are beginning to ask: is it possible that trees possess intelligence, and memories, and emotions? So, to cut to the quick, do trees have brains?

It sounds incredible, but when you discover how trees talk to each other, feel pain, nurture each other, even care for their close relatives and organise themselves into communities, it's hard to be sceptical.

I didn't always feel this way. In fact, when I began as a civil servant with the German forestry commission in the Eighties, I knew next to nothing about the hidden life of trees.

Comment: See also:

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Rocket

China successfully deploys second space lab into low Earth orbit


RT
Fri, 16 Sep 2016 15:10 UTC
China's Tiangong 2 space lab
© China Out / AFP
China has successfully launched the Tiangong-2 space laboratory into low orbit in the latest step of the country's cosmic ambitions to build a permanent modular space station. It may become humankind's only space hub after the ISS retires next decade.

China's Tiangong-2 space lab blasted off on the back of a Long March-2F T2 two-stage launch rocket at 10:04 pm Beijing Time from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest Gobi desert.

Tiangong-2 separated from the rocket that used four strap-on boosters during its first stage to reach the orbit 575 seconds after blast-off, mission control said declaring the mission a success.
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