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Eye 1

Iris scan may render passports and other forms of identification obsolete


Arizona State University
Tue, 16 Mar 2021 18:07 UTC
Iris Scanner
© iStock/Getty Images.
It's been said that the eyes are the window into the soul. And sometime in the very near future, they may possibly be the window into your personal identification.

The Dubai International Airport is in the process of installing a new iris recognition system that will ultimately render passports and other forms of identification obsolete. The process literally takes seconds: passengers walk through an "intelligence gate" that reads and identifies their iris codes. The hope is to achieve better accuracy and reduce long and sluggish waits through security lines.

While the science-fiction sounding advancement has made worldwide headlines, this is not news to Subbarao Kambhampati, a computer scientist at Arizona State University.

"In many ways the future is already here, but we just don't know it," said Kambhampati, a professor in ASU's School of Computing, Informatics, and Decision Systems Engineering and the former president of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence. He also studies fundamental problems in planning and decision-making, motivated in particular by the challenges of human-aware AI systems.

ASU News spoke to Kambhampati about these emerging technologies, how they are used in the United States, and how they might impact the rest of the world.
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Cloud Grey

Octopus sleep cycles and the similarities with humans revealed in new study

Will Dunham
Reuters
Thu, 25 Mar 2021 11:49 UTC
maldive octopus

Maldive octopus
The octopus is an extraordinary creature - and not only because of its eight limbs, three hearts, blue blood, ink squirting, camouflage capacity and the tragic fact that it dies after mating.

A study by researchers in Brazil published on Thursday shows that this animal, already considered perhaps the smartest invertebrate, experiences two major alternating sleep states eerily similar to those in humans - and it even might dream.

The findings, the researchers said, provide fresh evidence that the octopus possesses a complex and sophisticated neurobiology that underlies an equally sophisticated behavioral repertoire, while also offering broader insight into the evolution of sleep, a crucial biological function.

Comment: See also:

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Info

New research identifies a protein in teeth that senses the cold

Ellen Phiddian
Cosmos Magazine
Sat, 27 Mar 2021 18:06 UTC
Teeth Xray
© L. Bernal et al./Science Advances 2021
Odontoblasts containing the ion channel TRPC5 (green) tightly pack the area between the pulp and the dentin in a mouse's molar. The cells' long-haired extensions fill the thin canals in dentin that extend towards the enamel.
Cold teeth can be painful, particularly if they're decayed. In a new paper, published in Science Advances, scientists reveal that they've located a protein that lets teeth sense cold temperatures.

The protein, TRPC5, is an ion channel: a molecular tube that can open and shut, letting ions through that trigger electrical impulses. It appears in several parts of the body - in fact, when researchers from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) in the US began to examine it 15 years ago, they looked at its effect in skin.

The researchers were able to show that the protein itself was highly sensitive to cold, but it didn't seem to trigger any physical responses. In a paper they published in 2011, mice without the protein in their skin weren't any more sensitive to the cold.

"We hit a dead end," says team member Katharina Zimmermann, now an electrophysiologist at the Friedrich-Alexander University in Germany. But she continued to mull the problem over with David Clapham, a neurobiologist at HHMI, and their fellow researchers.
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Nuke

Decades of radiation-based scientific theory disproven by Ben-Gurion University US-based study


EurekAlert!
Wed, 24 Mar 2021 00:01 UTC
background radiation


Surprisingly, exposure to a high background radiation might actually lead to clear beneficial health effects in humans, according to Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and Nuclear Research Center Negev (NRCN) scientists. This is the first large-scale study which examines the two major sources of background radiation (terrestrial radiation and cosmic radiation), covering the entire U.S. population.

The study's findings were recently published in Biogerontology.

Background radiation is an ionizing radiation that exists in the environment because of natural sources. In their study, BGU researchers show that life expectancy is approximately 2.5 years longer among people living in areas with a relatively high vs. low background radiation.

Comment: See also:

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Comet 2

New Comet C/2020 F7 (Lemmon)

Ernesto Guido
Remanzacco Blogspot
Fri, 26 Mar 2021 18:16 UTC
CBET 4949 & MPEC 2021-F110, issued on 2021, March 25, announce that an apparently asteroidal object (magnitude ~21.0) discovered on CCD images obtained with the Mt. Lemmon Survey's 1.5-m reflector on 2020 Mar. 22 and designated A/2020 F7 (cf. MPEC 2020-G78) has been found to show cometary appearance by numerous other CCD observers over the past half year. The new comet has been designated C/2020 F7 (Lemmon).

Stacking of 19 unfiltered exposures, 120 seconds each, obtained remotely on 2021, March 23.9 from Z08 (Telescope Live, Oria) through a 0.7 m f/8 Ritchey Chretien + CCD, shows that this object is a comet with a compact coma about 15" in diameter elongated toward PA 50. (Observers E. Guido, M. Rocchetto, E. Bryssinck, M. Fulle, G. Milani, C. Nassef, G. Savini).

Our confirmation image (click on it for a bigger version; made with TYCHO software by D. Parrott)
C/2020 F7
© Remanzacco Blogspot
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Sun

X-rays as a neuromodulation technology and therapy

DOE/Argonne National Laboratory
Science Direct
Wed, 24 Mar 2021 21:26 UTC
neuronas

Scientists report a novel noninvasive treatment for brain disorders based on breakthroughs in both optics and genetics. It involves stimulation of neurons by means of radioluminescent nanoparticles injected into the brain and exposed to X-rays.
Scientists make pivotal discovery of method for wireless modulation of neurons with X-rays that could improve the lives of patients with brain disorders. The X-ray source only requires a machine like that found in a dentist's office.

Many people worldwide suffer from movement-related brain disorders. Epilepsy accounts for more than 50 million; essential tremor, 40 million; and Parkinson's disease, 10 million.

Relief for some brain disorder sufferers may one day be on the way in the form of a new treatment invented by researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory and four universities. The treatment is based on breakthroughs in both optics and genetics. It would be applicable to not only movement-related brain disorders, but also chronic depression and pain.

Comment: See also: And check out SOTT radio's: The Health & Wellness Show: Seeing the Light with Dr. Alexander Wunsch

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Galaxy

Something invisible is tearing apart the nearest star cluster to Earth

Michelle Starr
Science Alert
Thu, 25 Mar 2021 08:05 UTC
Hyades with tidal tails
© ESA/Gaia/DPAC
Hyades with tidal tails.
Strange things are afoot in the Milky Way.

According to a new analysis of Gaia satellite data, the closest star cluster to our Solar System is currently being torn apart - disrupted not just by normal processes, but also by the gravitational pull of something massive we can't see.

This disruption, astronomers say, could be a hint that an invisible clump of dark matter is nearby, wreaking gravitational havoc on anything within its reach.

Actually, star clusters being pulled apart by gravitational forces is inevitable. A star cluster is, as the name suggests, a tight, dense concentration of stars. Even internally, the gravitational interactions can get pretty rowdy.

Between those internal interactions and external galactic tidal forces - the gravity exerted by the galaxy itself - star clusters can end up pulled apart into rivers of stars: what is known as a tidal stream.
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Info

Controllable 'Neutrobots' created that breach the blood-brain barrier

Ross Pomeroy
Real Clear Science
Thu, 25 Mar 2021 17:02 UTC
Neutrobots in Brain
© Kellie Holoski / Science Robotics
Illustration of a future scenario of adopting dual-responsive neutrobots for targeted drug therapy in the treatment of malignant gliomas.
In one microscale step for machine, but a potentially significant leap for the treatment of brain cancer, researchers at the Harbin Institute of Technology in China have created controllable microrobots that can breach the blood-brain barrier and deliver cancer drugs to tumors in the brains of mice.

They detailed their efforts in the journal Science Robotics.

The blood-brain barrier is a layer of cells that prevents circulating blood and any potential pathogens in it from entering brain tissues. Though thin, it's nearly impenetrable. Normally, that's a good thing, but when the brain is afflicted with a malignant tumor, it's not. Just as the blood-brain barrier blocks pathogens from passing, so, too it locks out cancer drugs. That leaves surgery and radiation therapy as the two primary treatments for brain cancer.

Early-stage attempts have been made to temporarily disrupt the barrier, allowing treatments to pass, as well as to design nanoparticles so small that they can sneak through. These methods are progressing.
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Document

'Frodosome': Brand new organelle discovered in human cells

Yasemin Saplakoglu
Live Science
Thu, 25 Mar 2021 11:21 UTC
frodosome
© Image rendering by Mark Esposito and Gary Laevsky
Human breast cancer bone metastasis showing the newly discovered organelle (magenta) in cancer cells (cyan).
Unofficially dubbed the "frodosome" or "wise" organelle, after the hobbit hero in "Lord of the Rings," this membrane-less structure may play a role in driving bone metastasis, or the spread of cancer from other parts of the body to bones, according to a new study.

The frodosome, however, is likely not all bad. It governs very important chit-chat within and between cells, and thus likely plays an important — but still unknown — role in cell functioning, the scientists said.

Organelles are to eukaryotic cells as organs are to organisms, as they each perform a specific set of functions to keep their bigger machines running. It's rare to discover a brand-new organelle, and only a couple dozen organelles are already known to exist in cells including the mitochondria and the maze-like Golgi apparatus, said senior author Yibin Kang, a professor of molecular biology at Princeton University in New Jersey.

Comment: See also:

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Radar

Singapore tests 'distancing dongles' to track & prevent extended meetings


Reuters
Wed, 24 Mar 2021 12:12 UTC
singapore track dongle
A Singapore business gathering is using movement dongles to make sure participants keep their distance, as the region's business hub prepares to start hosting big events safely as the world looks to move on from the coronavirus pandemic.

The pocket-sized dongle, which utilises Bluetooth technology, tracks users' information such as location, distance and interaction time between attendees at a two-day tech conference that started on Wednesday.

The data collected will be uploaded to a system intermittently and organisers can check if anyone is breaching the government's social distancing rules and intervene if necessary.


Comment: It probably won't be too long before these dongles will be obligatory and be fitted with microphones and other supposedly useful accessories.


Comment: Under guise of coronavirus concerns, lockdowns have enabled those in authority to overtly surveil, control and modify the behaviour of citizens in a way that would not have been imaginable just over a year ago. And it would appear that some countries are more eager than others to get to work on their people:


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